Statement from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on Capture of Rafael Caro-Quintero

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland today released the following statement on the capture of Rafael Caro-Quintero, one of the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Caro-Quintero was wanted for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent Enrique Kiki Camarena in 1985.

There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures, and murders American law enforcement. We are deeply grateful to Mexican authorities for their capture and arrest of Rafael Caro-Quintero. Todays arrest is the culmination of tireless work by DEA and their Mexican partners to bring Caro-Quintero to justice for his alleged crimes, including the torture and execution of DEA Special Agent Enrique Kiki Camarena. We will be seeking his immediate extradition to the United States so he can be tried for these crimes in the very justice system Special Agent Camarena died defending.

We join in mourning the 14 Mexican servicemembers who gave their lives in service to their country and extend our condolences to the loved ones they left behind.

This story has been published on: 2022-07-19. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
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A severe thunderstorm swept across northern Valley County Monday evening, generating a tornado and high winds that ripped apart buildings, farm equipment, powerlines, trees and crops in and around the small Hi-Line farming community of Glentana.

Winds reached as high as 120 mph, and some buildings in Glentana were torn completely apart while others were left without roofs or sections of walls, according to witnesses and the National Weather Service in Glasgow. The tornado was officially classified as an EF-2 tornado, the fourth most severe of six classifications.

The tornado touched down 5 1/2 miles southwest of Glentana at 5:47 p.m., Glasgow National Weather Service reported in a PSA Tuesday night. It moved northeast and blew through Glentana at 5:53 p.m., traveling northeast 2.4 miles past Glentana before lifting at 5:56 p.m.

As of Tuesday evening, no injuries or deaths related to the tornado have been reported.

Sean Heavey, a storm-chaser and professional photographer based in Glasgow, said he was following the storm since 3 p.m. as it was developing in Montana's remote northeast corner.

As the weather worsened, he saw a wall of tumbleweeds flying across the road around four feet in the air. Rain pounded onto his car faster than his windshield wipers could clear off, and his cars door was nearly ripped from its hinges when he stepped out to get a photo of the clouds sweeping the prairie.

Later, Heavey said he talked to people at the heart of the damage while he captured the scenes. He heard about a woman whose roof was torn from her house as she ran down the stairs. A man allegedly took cover beneath a truck before it began to roll, and he had to run to a combine harvester to hide instead.

Some farmers reported parts of their equipment flung half a mile from their homes. Pictures of the destruction show farmhouses and buildings torn to pieces.

Heavey said he feels for the farmers, especially as they approach harvest season and the coming winter. However, he said he has no doubt theyll bounce back. Some locals were already holding a potluck dinner at a nearby Catholic church, running on generators as long as the power is out, he said. Others are offering places to stay for those who lost their homes, he added of the close-knit community.

The tenacity of the people who live in that part of the state is insane, Heavey said.

While an official report has been released, Glasgow National Weather Service said it is still investigating the storm, and further details may be announced in the near future.
CALDWELL COUNTY  Three men were arrested Wednesday after police say they trafficked methamphetamine in Caldwell and Burke counties.

The Caldwell County Sheriffs Office said the three men arrested and charged are:

Eric Dale Jones, 36, of 1251 Dellwood Drive, Lenoir, was charged with two counts of trafficking in methamphetamine and conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine. He was placed in the Caldwell Detention Center under a $500,000 secured bond.

Dylan Wayne McBryar, 29, of 403 Dogwood Drive, Hickory (Burke County), was charged with conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine. He was placed in the Caldwell Detention Center under a $750,000 secured bond.

Roy Sheldon Morris, 43, of 2627 Fairwood Drive, Hudson, was charged with possession of methamphetamine. He was placed in the Caldwell Detention Center under a $10,000 secured bond.

A release from the Caldwell County Sheriffs Office said that around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Caldwell County narcotic agents and deputies stopped Eric Jones and Roy Morris vehicle as it traveled through the town of Sawmills. The two were stopped after being observed by agents at a known methamphetamine dealers residence in Burke County. The two were then arrested, the release said.

Shortly after the arrest of Jones and Morris, Caldwell County narcotics agents obtained a search warrant for Dylan McBryars home, located at 403 Dogwood Drive in Burke County. The Burke County SWAT Team and Burke County narcotics investigators executed the search warrant and located McBryar at his home, the release said.

Officers seized more than 600 grams of meth, more than $12,000 in cash and five firearms, according to the release.

Through the investigation, agents and officers seized a total of more than 7.5 pounds of meth, five firearms, ammunition and more than $26,000 in cash. The release said the drugs seized during the investigation have a total street value of $516,150 according to North Carolina State Drug Guidelines.

This was a significant hit on the local meth trade, said Caldwell County Sheriff Alan C. Jones. Great job by all agencies pulling resources together to put yet another meth dealer out of business.

Jones thanked the other law enforcement agencies involved with the investigation, which included the A.T.F., North Carolina S.B.I., Lenoir Police Department and Burke County Sheriffs Office, the release said.
CONNELLY SPRINGS  Investigators still are searching for a man who has been missing about a month from Connelly Springs.

Philip Donald Carter, 30, was last seen June 22 walking on Hubert Lane near Will Hudson Road, according to a previous release from the Burke County Sheriffs Office. Hes described as a Black man who stands 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighs about 180 pounds.

Originally from Maryland, Philip has only lived in the area for about a year.

His girlfriend, Angelique Sincell, told The News Herald on Tuesday theyd had an argument and she went to a friends house. She said Philip had been trying to make things right, and had been trying to encourage her to move back to Maryland with him, but she didnt want to and had pushed him away.

Im sorry that the last time I seen him we were fighting or we were arguing, Sincell said. If I could do anything to change that (I would) if he would just come home.

She said she reached out to him that night after not hearing from him all day, and she knew something was wrong.

The situation was similar for Ruth Carter, Philips mother, who said she heard from her son daily.

If I called him and he missed my call, he would text me right away and say, Mom, Im sorry I missed your call, Ruth said. He knew that he needed to let me know he was OK. Hes always done that. He knew not to worry me.

She had reservations about Philip moving from his hometown to North Carolina, and said shed told him to remember he wouldnt know anyone here and that his whole life was in Maryland. But still, he was old enough to make his own decisions, and when he decided to move here, Ruth said she wasnt angry with her son for making the move.

Ruth said he had been talking to her before his disappearance about coming back home, but then he went missing.

Now, shes hoping someone with information on his whereabouts will come forward and tell detectives what they know.

Somebody knows where he is, Ruth said. Somebody knows what happened to him  Im not sure why it hasnt been revealed right now. I believe in the power of prayer, I believe that there is a supreme maker that sees everything, and everything happens in its due time.

Shes been in North Carolina for the last month, hoping each day will bring answers about what happened to her son.

I think the more people look into it, maybe something new will come out, Ruth said. Its kind of like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. You think youre stuck and you walk away, and you come back and its like, Oh, I didnt even see that.

She thanked the detectives assigned to the case, including BCSO Detective Hollar, Detective Ball and Lt. Norman, for the efforts trying to find Philip. She said Hollar even took time out of his family vacation to return her call when a lead popped up in the case.

The sheriffs department in Burke County has been really, really great, Ruth said. And to me, they have bent over backwards. They even took time to meet with the rest of my family. My brothers came up and they sat with them, Philips dad and his brother came up, and they took so much time.

Sheriff Steve Whisenant said detectives said investigators have conducted interviews and searches, but Philip still is missing.

Ruth said if Philip were to read this story, she hoped he would know how much his family and friends love him. She said everyones praying for him, and he could come home and have a fresh start.

I know if he came back to Maryland hed be starting all over again, but hes a strong person, Ruth said. Hes a great person. Hes a hard worker. And we can get him started again back in Maryland where people truly love him. Im here right now. If he just showed up, Id take him home. He wouldnt need to get his clothes, hed just come on home and well make it work from there. Weve done it before, well do it again.

I love you, Philip.

The case is active and the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriffs office at 828-438-5500 or Morganton/Burke Crimestoppers at 828-437-3333. All Crimestoppers tips are anonymous.
ARCHIVED - New rates for self-employed in Spain provisionally agreed



Lower earners in Spain will benefit from reduced social security payments

After nine long months of negotiations, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has finally signed an agreement with representatives of the self-employed to makes changes to monthly autonomo payments that will see lower earners charged less and higher incomes pay more.

The agreement is expected to be officially approved on Wednesday July 20 and will divide the self-employed into 15 categories according to their monthly net income. Essentially, business owners whose net income is less that 1,300 euros per month will be on a reduced rate while social security payments will increase for those earning more than 1,700 euros.

The new system will come into play in 2023 and the social security payments will gradually increase for everyone over the next three years.

New social security payment system

1. The four categories who earn the least (between 670 euros and 1,300 euros net per month) will see their autonomo fee reduced by between three and 64 euros per month the first year, increasing to 94 euros by year three.

The biggest difference will be noticed by self-employed people who bring in less than 670 euros each month, with a saving of 1,127 euros from 2025. Likewise, those earning less than 900 will see a saving of 647 euros per year and people with a net income not exceeding 1,166 euros will have an annual reduction of 407 euros.

2. The fees for the self-employed who earn a net income of between 1,300 and 1,700 wont change all that much as they will continue to pay 295 euros each month.

3. On the other hand, payments will increase for those bringing home more than 1,700 euros.

The new monthly fee will stand at 310 euros (16 more than it is now) for those earning up to 1,850 euros and will increase to 315 euros (21 more) for those between 1,850 and 2,030 euros.

This category of earners is broken down into numerous sections but at the top of the scale, people who earn between 4,050 and 6,000 euros net will have to pay an additional 126 euros per month, while anyone exceeding 6,000 euros will see their payments hiked up to 590 euros by 2025.

The agreement "is very important because it will improve the quality of life of the self-employed, their social protection" and will also "positively" affect the country from an economic point of view, Maria Jose Landaburu, general secretary of UATAE, one of the self-employed unions, concluded.

According to a spokesperson from the UPTA union, the proposal "meets the expectations set" and will lead to savings in fees for 2.3 million self-employed.

Image: Fotopik

Image: UPTA
CARTHAGE, Ill.  The Illinois State Police has reported that a Muscatine man was shot and killed by Hancock County Sheriffs deputies after holding a deputy at gunpoint and taking his vehicle, then leading deputies on a chase.

The state patrol says Timothy Ostrander, 31, of Muscatine, was killed during a confrontation with deputies on July 13. The investigation remains ongoing.

Preliminary information from the Illinois State Police says at about 2 p.m. July 13, Hancock County deputies responded to reports of a suspicious subject. During the interaction, Ostrander reportedly entered the patrol car of the first deputy on scene and held the deputy at gunpoint. The deputy exited the vehicle and shots were reportedly fired at the vehicle. Ostrander reportedly fled the scene in the vehicle. A second responding deputy picked up the first responding deputy. A short pursuit reportedly ended with an exchange of gunfire between Ostrander and the deputies near Route 136 and Hancock County Road 2500E. Ostrander was pronounced deceased at an area hospital a short time later.

The Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation Zone 4 was contacted by the Hancock County Sheriffs office to investigate the incident.

Court documents show Ostrander had been cited for several traffic violations. His record shows one felony arrest in 2009, when he spent 45 days in jail for contempt of court. Charges of third degree burglary and possession of burglary tools were dismissed. The day before the incident he was cited in Cedar County by the Iowa State Patrol for failure to provide proof of financial liability.
Disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty to fatally shooting his wife and son. His defense lawyers agreed on Wednesday to ask the judge to deny him bond, saying he cant afford to post it anyway. The defense and prosecutors also have agreed to keep the evidence secret amid widespread news media attention. Murdaugh's lawyers say he wants a speedy trial because he believes the killer or killers are still at loose. The prosecution rejected that claim, saying all all evidence points to his guilt in the shootings.
South African residents average mobile data usage has increased significantly over the past five years, with Vodacom reporting an increase of 206% since the 2017/18 financial year (FY).

MTN only reported data usage figures in its 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22 annual reports, but its data shows a 128% increase in average data usage per user per month.

Vodacoms average data use per smartphone per month on its network sat at 784MB a month for the 2017/18 FY and increased to 2.4GB per smartphone per month as of 31 March 2022.

The mobile network operators most significant monthly data usage increase per customer was observed during the 2019/20 FY, where usage increased by 56% from 966MB to 1.5GB.

While the average monthly data usage per customer has continued to increase, the rate appears to be slowing, with Vodacom reporting an increase of 39% and 14% during the 2020/21 and 2021/22 FYs, respectively.

Based on its reports, MTNs customers use a fair deal more data than Vodacoms do on average.

The mobile operator reported an average monthly data usage figure of 1.9GB per user during the 2018/19 financial year. It increased by 46% to 2.8GB per user per month the following year.

The most significant increase in average monthly data usage per customer on MTNs network was observed during the 2020/21 FY, when it increased by 60% to 4.4GB.

Data usage on MTNs network also saw a significant increase of 53% during the 2021/22 FY. According to the mobile operators report, the average data usage per customer per month during the year was 6.4GB.

The chart below depicts the increase in mobile data usage per customer on MTNs and Vodacoms networks over the past five years. MTN did not report a figure for the 2017/18 FY.

The growth in mobile data usage per customer is likely due to declining prices over the last five years.

Vodacom announced that it was dropping prepaid data prices by up to 14% in April 2021, saying that the decision was in line with its commitment to reduce the cost to communicate and connect more people to the digital economy.

MTN cut its prepaid data prices around a month later.

Lower entry points to access the Internet are critical in the modern age, allowing even low-income households a means of connectivity. The recently-concluded spectrum auction could help to reduce prices further.

The Independent Communication Authority of South Africas (Icasa) long-awaited spectrum auction concluded in March 2022.

Before that, President Cyril Ramaphosa said South African residents could expect reduced mobile data prices and improved cellular network quality due to the auction.

However, Rains CEO Brandon Leigh explained that prices are unlikely to fall soon as mobile network operators will have to invest heavily in expanding their networks.

Leigh said it would be a while before the industry realises price decreases.

MyBroadband spoke to Vodacom and MTN about what they expect from their newly-acquired spectrum, of which Vodacom got 110MHz in the 700MHz, 2,600MHz, and 3,500MHz bands.

MTN acquired 100Mhz in the 800MHz, 2,600MHz, and 3,500MHz bands.

Vodacom said its new spectrum would allow it to provide better speeds in addition to new product and pricing options.

However, MTNs executive for corporate affairs, Jacqui OSullivan, explained that the radio frequencies the mobile operator acquired are in the same bands as its temporary spectrum.

As a result, MTN doesnt expect any impact on its network performance.

Now read: Uncapped mobile data prices in South Africa compared
In addition to the vendors offering a wonderful selection of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, we also have several purveyors of ready-to-go fare at the St. Helena Farmers Market.

Who can resist the beautiful smile of Yolanda every week from Mi Fiesta Catering Company? Yolanda prepares authentic Mexican dishes such as tamales, enchiladas, and chile rellenos with your choice of chicken, pork, or cheese and all kinds of wonderful salsas and guacamole.

If you are thinking of Italian food for dinner, Joshua at Tango with Chef sells fresh hand-cut pappardelle, tomato and bolognese sauces, and wagyu meatballs.

Mohammed at The Hummus Guy sells delicious Mediterranean appetizers, hummus, dips and salsas. Pick up a package of baked pita bread chips and your choice of meze three-layer dip, tzatziki, or fig and honey kefir for a refreshing treat.

All of our shoppers are happy to have Rachel and Ray Rays Tacos back at the Market. Enjoy a breakfast taco while walking through the market, or pick up a taco kit (adobo roasted pulled chicken or cremini mushroom) that provides you with everything you need to make a great taco meal at home. Their guacamole and salsas are also very tasty.

David at Cocina Milonga sells a variety of freshly baked Argentinian empanadas with fillings that include beef, chicken, chorizo, and sweet potato.

Finally, Malik at Roti offers authentic Pakistani vegan cuisine using family recipes, regional spices, and local ingredients to create naan, chutneys, curry and pickles for healthy inspired meals.

This Friday we will have a lecture on Native Bees of the Napa Valley at 10:30 a.m. presented by Erin Arnsteen, co-founder of the Western Monarch Society of Napa County, an organization with the goal of building native plant habitats for native insects. Erin is passionate about insect conservation and is excited to share her knowledge of Napa Valley native bees with our community.

Our Market Classroom will have fun projects for the kids based on our July theme of Sun and Summer Survival. Be sure to pick up a free Kids Take Home Activity that includes materials and instructions for making an all-natural Gazing Bottle.

Please join us every Friday morning from 7:30 until noon in Crane Park. For the most up-to-date information, please visit us at sthelenafarmersmkt.org, sign up for the markets weekly online newsletter, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and NextDoor.
The Napa Communities Firewise Foundation, together with the Spring Mountain and St. Helena Fire Safe Councils, on Sunday announced the completion of a wildfire safety project on the west side of St. Helena.

Dead trees, overhanging tree limbs, brush, debris and overgrown vegetation have been cleared on both sides of Spring Street adjacent to the Sylvaner subdivision to create a firebreak and provide safer evacuation for hundreds of area residents, including those on White Sulphur Springs Road.

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Those communities were threatened by the Glass Fire in 2020 when it crossed over St. Helena from the east side of Napa Valley into the Mayacama Mountains. This roadside hazardous fuel mitigation project increases evacuation safety for residents fleeing future wildfires in the western hills, while providing better access for firefighters to prevent a wildfire from progressing down the hills and engulfing homes in the Sylvaner subdivision and properties along the west side of St. Helena.

The Spring Street roadside vegetation treatment project is one of 26 wildfire mitigation projects being put in place across 17 Fire Safe Councils throughout Napa County, funded by private donations to state Sen. Bill Dodds Annual Charity Fundraiser in December 2021, which raised nearly $1.4 million for the benefit of Napa Firewise. The projects are designed and proposed by the all-volunteer Fire Safe Councils in accordance with their professional Wildfire Risk Assessment and associated Community Wildfire Protection Plans, in partnership with Napa Firewise as fiscal sponsor, and in consultation with Napa County Fire and local officials.

Christopher Thompson, NCFF president and board chair, said: This is just one of the wildfire prevention projects that were supporting throughout the valley in collaboration with Cal Fire, our local fire departments, emergency responders and local Fire Safe councils. Thanks to the support of Senator Dodd and his donors, we are making swift progress on reducing wildfire risk in key locations throughout Napa County in close partnership with the community. But we will need a multi-year, multi-million-dollar effort to get all our projects funded, approved and implemented.

Shari Gardner, Spring Mountain Fire Safe Council co-lead, said: This is a great example of neighbors getting together to define local projects that will help protect lives and livelihoods in their community. A collaboration between two Fire Safe Councils, St. Helena Public Works, and neighbors, and generously donated funds made this work possible. We are grateful to the residents and property owners on Spring Street and in the Sylvaner subdivision, as well as to our leaders in St. Helena, for identifying this essential local wildfire protection project. A big thank-you to the city of St. Helena for providing traffic control. This project is a model for taking action to protect our communities. This is just the start  more to come! Join your local Fire Safe council, and lets get to work.

Napa Communities Firewise Foundation is a countywide nonprofit with a mission to reduce the risks and impacts of wildfires through fire fuel reduction and community education in Napa County. For more information on Community Wildfire Protection Plan projects, neighborhood Fire Safe councils, or how to support the ongoing work with a donation of any size, go to napafirewise.org.
Scholz says Sweden and Finland's NATO accession process goes according to plan

Expert: Biden is not preparing Americans for what is to come

Armenian Prosecutor General's Office: Representatives of management and employees of Surmalu will be interrogated

Mourning declared in Armenia

Latvia will not extend residence permits previously issued to Russian citizens

NEWS.am BREAKING on Yerevan market explosion: 16 people killed

First Lady of US gets COVID-19

Aghvan Hovsepyan undergoes surgery

Investigative Committee: More than 20 people questioned in case of Surmalu explosion in Yerevan

Head of Armenian HM visits victims of explosion on territory of Surmalu in Yerevan

Deputy PM of Singapore: US and China may slide into conflict

Director of Surmalu shopping center is in heavy psychological state and does not comment

Identity of another victim of Surmalu shopping center in Yerevan established

Two Armenian startups advance to EWC Global Finals (PHOTOS)

Patriarch Kirill expresses condolences in connection with Surmalu shopping mall explosion

Russia announces supply of second S-400 regiment to Turkey

Dollar, euro lose value in Armenia

Republican Party of Armenia calls for naming leader of united opposition

Yerevan market explosion death toll is 16 as of 3:30pm, Armenia emergency ministry says

Putin calls Pelosi's trip to Taiwan gamble

Russia embassy: Russian citizen considered missing in Yerevan market blast is alive and well

Gazprom: European gas price will exceed $4,000 per thousand cubic meters in winter

Yerevan subway operations resume

Yerevan market explosion: 6 people still considered missing

Former head of NSC: Bomb alerts have never been so systematic and periodic before

Armenia truckers temporarily block Goris-Sisian motorway

Georgia PM: Our thoughts and prayers are with families of those killed in Yerevan

Yerevan market blast: 14 of 16 casualties identified, official says

Georgia President: I stand with the people of Armenia

Bloomberg: Jump in gas prices sent European electricity prices to a new record

Armenia official: Pointless to say that Surmalu market was deliberately blown up

Japan embassy expresses condolences over Yerevan market explosion

No bombs found at 4 Yerevan subway stations, international airport

Armenia, Russia defense ministers hold talks

Shoigu says there is no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine

Bomb threat at Yerevan international airport

Putin: Russia will ensure its national interests, protection of allies

US lifts F-35 flight ban

Armenian Red Cross Society: 140 people asked for psychological service, 110 othersfor first aid, in 3 days

14 of Yerevan market blast casualties are identified

Trump says after leaving Afghanistan, US left Taliban weapons worth $ 85 billion

India blocks Azerbaijan's participation in upcoming BRICS summit as a guest

Baku is concerned about safety of its diplomatic mission in London

Yerevan explosion: 13 of 16 dead are identified, emergency ministry spokesperson says

Iran responds to EU nuclear deal proposals

Yerevan market explosion: 17 people considered missing, Armenia official says

Yerevan explosion: 7 injured continue to receive hospital treatment

Day of mourning to be declared in Armenia

Newspaper: Unpunished crime gives birth to new, more catastrophic crime in Yerevan

Bomb threat made at Yerevan subway

Newspaper: Who is No. 1 accountable for Yerevan market tragedy?

Yerevan market explosion: Fire extinguishing no longer being carried out, emergency minister says

Yerevan market explosion death toll reaches 16

Armenia emergency minister: Rescuers removed young child, pregnant womans bodies from under rubble

Yerevan explosion death toll climbs to 15

Yerevan market explosion death toll reaches 10

Yerevan explosion: 5 of 6 assumed missing Iranians are in Georgia, Armenia emergency ministry spokesman says

Musk plans to build at least 1,000 starships to send groups of pioneers to Mars

Russian DM: Ukraine is preparing large-scale provocations near Zaporizhzhia NPP

Rescuers find another body from rubble of Surmalu shopping center

Deputy Minister: Tomorrow it will be known when we can finish rescue work near Surmalu shopping center

FBI and DHS say threat grows after search of Donald Trump's residence

Armenian Emergency Ministry updates list of citizens missing in Surmalu explosion: Six Iranian and one Russian citizen

Modi says they must transform India into developed country in next 25 years

Ministry of Emergency Situations denies information about pregnant woman and her son found

Myanmar Military Court hands down second sentence to Aung San Suu Kyi

Head of Emergency Ministry unable to confirm another survivor has been pulled out of rubble

German Chancellor: Visa ban for Russians must be discussed

Rescuers hear sounds under rubble of Surmalu shopping center

Emergencies Ministry: 22 people missing in Surmalu shopping center

Bloomberg: Recession risk in eurozone has reached highest level since November 2020

Investigation into explosion in Surmalu shopping center continues

Georgia's tourism revenues have exceeded pre-pandemic levels

French Embassy expresses condolences to families of Surmalu explosion victims

CSTO Secretary General sends condolences to Armenian Prime Minister over Surmalu trade center explosion

Hungary and Turkey plan to launch joint drone production

Russian-Armenian Humanitarian Response Center joins work to eliminate consequences of explosion in Surmalu

Tesla has produced more than 3 million cars since company was founded

Rescuers find another body under rubble of Surmalu shopping center

Ministry of Emergencies presents new list: 21 people are missing from Surmalu shopping center
Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, who is in Poland on an official visit, had a meeting with Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland Elzbieta Witek, the press service of Armenia MFA reported.

Ararat Mirzoyan and Elzbieta Witek commended the dynamics of the development of friendly relations between Armenia and Poland based on historical commonalities between the two peoples.

The sides highly valued the close partnership ties and effective cooperation established between the legislative bodies, emphasizing in this regard the role of friendship groups operating in the Parliaments of the two countries, the continuation of high-level mutual visits, and regular contacts between the Parliamentarians.

The interlocutors also referred to the prospects of Armenian-Polish economic cooperation.

During the meeting, Ararat Mirzoyan presented the efforts of the Armenian side in promoting the processes of establishing security and stability in the South Caucasus.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia also referred to the humanitarian situation resulting from the Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, in particular, the repatriation of prisoners of war and civilians held in Azerbaijan, the clarification of the fates of the forcibly disappeared persons, the preservation of the Armenian cultural and religious heritage in the territories fallen under Azerbaijani control, the issues of deliberately creating a humanitarian crisis by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, the statement reads.
Portugal has reported more than 1,000 deaths due to the current heat wave, with the health chief warning on Tuesday that the country must gear up to cope with the effects of climate change as temperatures continue to rise, Reuters reported.

"Portugal ... is among one of the areas of the globe that could be [more] affected by extreme heat," Graca Freitas, head of health authority DGS, told Reuters. "We have to be more and more prepared for periods of high temperatures."

Temperatures across the drought-stricken country surpassed 40 degrees Celsius last week. Although they have dropped in the last few days, Freitas said they remained above normal levels for this time of the year.

Freitas added that the number of fatalities in Portugal has now increased to 1,063 for the period up to Monday
YEREVAN.  Zhoghovurd newspaper of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: There is confusion again in the judicial system of Armenia. According to the information received by Zhoghovurd daily, many judges have decided to boycott and not go to the judges meeting to be held on July 27.

And what has upset the third branch of Armenias power, the judiciary?

According to the information we have received, the results of the elections of the [new] judges to the anticorruption chamber of the RA Court of Cassation as well as the [new] judges to the Court of Cassation by the National Assembly have greatly upset the latter. In addition, many judges were angered by the way of working by the judges who upheld the arrest of [film] producer Armen Grigoryan, when they sat quietly and watched how the man sealed his death in the courtroom. Moreover, some of the judges stated that they are on vacation and will not be present at the [aforesaid] meeting.

The meeting called for July 27 will probably not take place due to the lack of a quorum.

Let us note that () the purpose of the meeting is to elect new members to the [several] vacant seats of the SJC [(Supreme Judicial Council)] members.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday released the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report the US Embassy in Yerevan informs Armenian News-NEWS.am

For the second year in a row, Armenia is on Tier 2, in recognition of its overall increasing efforts towards the elimination of trafficking as compared with the previous reporting period. These efforts included prosecuting more traffickers and identifying more victims. Courts convicted a labor trafficker for the first time since 2014. The government adopted screening indicators for use by social workers, amended procedures to standardize data collection and information sharing, and provided comprehensive training to relevant staff.

The report also notes that Armenia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and suggests areas for future improvement, particularly in victim identification and labor trafficking. The United States is committed to partnering with Armenia to advance its anti-trafficking efforts.

The report is accessible here.
Indonesia's constitutional court has rejected a review of the country's drug law that would have paved the way for the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, Reuters reported.

Three women whose children have cerebral palsy, backed by civil society organizations in 2020, sued to revise the country's strict drug law, arguing that medical marijuana is used to treat symptoms.

Judges said there was insufficient research to justify a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, but urged the government to "immediately" investigate the therapeutic use of the drug.

Decriminalizing marijuana would be a dramatic shift for a Southeast Asian country that has one of the strictest drug laws in the world, with penalties including life in prison and the death penalty.

The plaintiffs argued that banning drug use for medical reasons was a constitutional violation of citizens' rights to receive medical services and benefit from advances in science and technology.
YEREVAN.  Foreign minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, who is in Poland on an official visit, on Tuesday had a meeting with the Marshal of the Senate of Poland, Tomasz Grodzki, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The interlocutors agreed that close cooperation in the parliamentary format has an important role in enriching the agenda of Armenian-Polish interstate relations and further deepening the friendly ties. In this regard, the significance of maintaining the dynamics of active mutual visits and contacts at different levels was emphasized.

Mirzoyan presented the reforms carried out by the Government of Armenia aimed at strengthening democracy, protecting human rights and ensuring the rule of law. Grodzki emphasized their full support to Armenia on the path of democratic progress.

During the meeting, the Foreign Minister presented to the interlocutor the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict zone, as well as the position of the Armenian side regarding the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the normalization of relations with Azerbaijan. Ararat Mirzoyan emphasized that the expansionist rhetoric of Azerbaijan undermines the efforts aimed at establishing regional stability and peace.

Referring to the humanitarian issues resulting from the 44-day Artsakh war in the fall of 2020, Foreign Minister Mirzoyan emphasized the necessity of the immediate release and repatriation of Armenian PoWs and civilians illegally held in Azerbaijan, as well as the need to protect the Armenian historical-cultural and religious heritage in the territories that have fallen under Azerbaijani control.

It was emphasized that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should find its peaceful settlementand around the negotiating table.

Tomasz Grodzki expressed readiness to assist the efforts of reaching peace.
Syria announced Wednesday that it was severing ties with Ukraine in support of its close ally Russia, saying the move was a response to a similar move by Kyiv, AFP reported.

"The Syrian Arab Republic has decided to break diplomatic relations with Ukraine in conformity with the principle of reciprocity and in response to the decision of the Ukrainian government," a foreign ministry official, who was not identified, told the Syrian state news agency SANA.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had already announced he was severing ties with Syria late last month after Syria recognized the Russian-backed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

Syria was the first country apart from Russia to recognize their independence.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had already recognized two other Russian-sponsored breakaway republics in 2018. Abkhazia and South Ossetia are internationally seen as part of Georgia, but Russia and a handful of other countries recognize their independence.
A lot can be done in the Iranian direction in the context of resolving infrastructure issues in the South Caucasus. This was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin after his meetings in Tehran with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts.

"We have good, prospective directions of cooperation [with Iran]; moreover, in the most various domains. For example, one of them is infrastructure development. You know, under the leadership of one of the deputy prime ministers of the Russian government, we have a group that deals with building relations in the Transcaucasia, developing infrastructure, resolving infrastructure issues in the South Caucasus. It is Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia. A lot can be done in this Iranian direction.

Now, as you know, the first test train has already passed through the North-South route. It is a short route, then access toward the southern ports of Iran, and here is the Persian Gulf and India road," said the Russian President.
Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, held a meeting with visiting Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar in Tehran on Tuesday to discuss matters of mutual interest, Mehr reported.

In the meeting, the two sides emphasized military, training, and security cooperation between the two countries' armed forces.

The fields of defense cooperation, interacting and exchanging views on the most important issues in the region, including fighting terrorism were the main issues in the meeting.

Attempts to reduce tension in Syria and examine how to establish lasting security in the region were other topics discussed in the meeting.

The last time the two top military officials met in Tehran was in 2017.
The United States and its allies are beginning to consider training Ukrainian pilots as part of a long-term effort to potentially help Kiev build a future Ukrainian air force, Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles "CQ" Brown told Reuters.

Ukraine wants to buy U.S. fighter jets and train its pilots. The Ukrainian Air Force has publicly stated its hopes for F-15s and F-16s.

Brown acknowledged that discussions within the U.S. military and its allies on the issue are ongoing.

"You want to build a long-term plan on how do you build their air force and the air force that they're going to need for the future," said Brown, a pilot himself, without confirming any decisions on the way forward.

Brown's comments came days after lawmakers in the House put forward a measure that, if it passes other hurdles, would provide $100 million to train Ukrainian pilots and technicians on American combat aircraft.

Brown declined to comment on the bill. He also declined to talk about timelines or which Western aircraft are best suited for Ukraine.

But he noted that the future training of Ukrainian pilots is a complex issue that must take into account the state of war and Kiev's ability to take pilots off the battlefield for lengthy briefings.

When asked how long it would take a Ukrainian pilot to switch to an American fighter jet, Brown noted that an American pilot could be trained on the new type of aircraft within two to four months. He said the transition from the Soviet system would be "a little harder."

Brown said Ukraine could look to NATO allies with experience in transitioning from Soviet-era aircraft to Western systems. "I feel pretty confident there are some of our NATO partners who have done that, can actually have lessons that they learned that can be helpful to the Ukrainians to help them figure out how to best make that transition," Brown said.
YEREVAN.  Speaker Alen Simonyan of the Republic of Armenia National Assembly (RA NA) on Wednesday received the delegation led by the Vice President Katrin Goring-Eckardt of the German Bundestag. The sides greatly highlighted the stable development of Armenia-Germany friendly relations and the deepening of inter-parliamentary cooperation, the NA informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

During the talk the necessity of parliamentary multi-layer cooperation, joint projects between the NA and the Bundestag was in the centre of attention and stressed. Germany is the biggest trade-economic partner of Armenia among the EU countries. We also highly appreciate the assistance of Germany to the democratic agenda of Armenia, Alen Simonyan noted.

At the meeting issues regarding the post-war situation, establishing lasting peace in the region were discussed. The NA President noted that Armenia has an agenda of opening an era of peace in the region and makes efforts in unblocking the regional infrastructures and transport communications, delimitation and border security. He emphasized that Armenia has no regional demands towards its neighbors.

The German colleague informed that they watchfully observe the events going on in the region and expressed conviction that the peaceful negotiations are considered to be the effective way for the solution of the conflicts.

During the meeting, the organization of the well-known Christian Prayer Breakfast being part of the rich parliamentary tradition of Germany, as well as practical issues relating to the renewable energy were discussed.
Iran has signed a long-term strategic power supply contract with Iraq to provide its Arab neighbor with sustainable energy supplies, Iranian Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian said, Press TV reported.

The Islamic Republic is already a key energy supplier to Iraq, which faces chronic power shortages despite having the world's fourth-largest oil reserves.

Given that we are facing a surplus of electricity production in the country at many times of the year, we pursue the development of energy diplomacy centered on electricity with neighbors in order to both solve their problems and create a stable flow of income and use the maximum capacity of our electricity network, Iranian media on Wednesday quoted Mehrabian as saying.

He added that knowledge-intensive private sector companies in Iran are also building 1,700 megawatts of power plants in Iraq.

According to the minister, entering into long-term strategic contracts in the electricity sector has been one of the central elements of the Iranian government's dynamic regional diplomacy which has brought brilliant results for the country. In this regard, we prepared the ground for the first long-term cooperation in the electricity sector with Iraq, and signed an important and strategic contract with the country, he added.

The agreement comes amid unilateral U.S. sanctions re-imposed on Iran since 2018, which prohibit countries from buying Iranian energy.
YEREVAN.  Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, who is in Poland on an official visit, on Tuesday had a meeting with Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The interlocutors commended the development and existing dynamic of the interstate relations for 30 years since the establishment of the diplomatic relations.

Foreign Minister of Armenia underscored that Poland is one of the important European partners of Armenia.

Mirzoyan and Sasin discussed the prospects for the development of economic cooperation between the two countries, expressing readiness to make efforts towards the full realization of trade and economic potential, creation of investment opportunities and activation of business to business contacts.

Minister Mirzoyan noted that since 2018, the anti-corruption campaign as well as reforms towards improving the business environment have been widely implemented in Armenia, which creates good opportunities for the investors.

The sides emphasized the implementation of the agreement on the acquisition of about 65 percent of the shares of the Armenian Stock Exchange by the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which will create new opportunities for cooperation in the capital market between Armenia and Poland.

The role of the Armenian-Polish Intergovernmental Commission of Economic Cooperation as an effective platform for discussing joint programs and outlining practical steps was highlighted. In this context, the interlocutors also emphasized mutual visits of business delegations and the holding of conferences.

At the meeting, Foreign Minister Mirzoyan also presented the position of the Armenian side regarding the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict and the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Hungarian lawmakers have passed a resolution calling for a reduction in the powers of the European Parliament, arguing that it has led European democracy into a "dead end."

Passed by members of Hungary's Fidesz party, which is led by Viktor Orban, the resolution wants to give the country's parliament the ability to torpedo a bill proposed at the EU level. This would reduce the European Parliament's ability to pass laws affecting Hungary and undermine the EU's authority as a whole, Euronews reported.

"European democracy must be led out of the dead end into which the European Parliament has steered it,'' the resolution reads. "The European Union must change, because it is unprepared for the challenges of our times."

It notes that current EU treaties are not an adequate basis for cooperation in times of crisis.

The resolution suggests that the EU should also recognize Europe's "Christian roots and culture" the goal of more European-style integration of members should be removed from EU treaties, and the European Christian context should be codified in the treaties as the basis for European integration.

This move by the Hungarian parliament follows the EU's decision to withhold billions in reconstruction funds and credit from Hungary because of disagreements between Brussels and Budapest over the rule of law.
A telephone conversation was held Wednesday between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Jeyhun Bayramov, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Azerbaijani foreign ministry told APA.

They discussed current matters of the bilateral cooperation agenda between Azerbaijan and Turkey, as well as the current regional situation.

The parties exchanged views also on cooperation within the framework of international organizations, as well as trilateral formats with the participation of Azerbaijan and Turkey.

During the phone conversation, several other matters of mutual interest were discussed as well.
Spain has signed a partnership agreement with China's Envision Group, an eco-energy company, to launch four projects, including a plant to produce batteries for electric cars, with a total investment of 3.8 billion euros, partly financed by European Union aid, Reuters reported.

Jose Dominguez, head of Envision Spain said the projects will be developed with Spain's Acciona Energia, a renewable energy company, but did not elaborate on its role.

The battery "giga-factory" in Navalmoral de la Mata in the central-western region of Extremadura, will require 2.5 billion euros in investment and could create as many as 3,000 jobs, the statement said.

Extremadura is one of Spain's poorest regions, which also has large lithium reserves.

This would be the second project to produce batteries for electric cars in Spain, Europe's second-largest car manufacturer.

German automaker Volkswagen AG said it and its partners will invest 10 billion euros ($10.6 billion) in electric car and battery production in Spain.

Volkswagen intends to begin building a 40 gigawatt-hour (GWh) plant in Sagunto near Valencia, which will require a 3 billion euro investment, in the first quarter of 2023, with mass production to begin by 2026.

Envision's partnership agreement also includes a renewable hydrogen plant worth up to 900 million euros, which will power a zero-emission project, as well as a wind energy park with a turbine assembly plant.

These will be built in the small towns of Alcazar de San Juan and Navas del Marques in central Spain.

There are also plans to build a 300 million euro digital product development center.

Spain will help finance these investments from European Union pandemic funds, the government said, noting that this will not only facilitate the energy transition but also support small municipalities suffering from depopulation.
Egypt and Serbia on Wednesday agreed to expand political, economic and other cooperation as the two countries seek ways to deal with the global consequences of the situation around Ukraine, AP reported.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi was in Serbia for a three-day visit this week. This is the first visit by an Egyptian president in more than three decades. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, said the visit was "historic."

The two leaders signed a declaration on partnership, Vucic awarded El Sisi a state award and announced plans to sign a free trade agreement by the end of the year. A business forum was held at which officials signed a number of deals focusing on areas of cooperation.

Vucic said Serbia will export grain, mostly wheat, to Egypt, which has been hit hard by rising prices caused by the conflict in Ukraine. Egypt is one of the world's largest importers of wheat, much of which comes from blockaded Ukrainian ports.

Serbia, a candidate country for European Union membership, has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia and has maintained friendly relations with Moscow despite the situation.

El-Sisi and Vucic at their press conference also recalled the decades-long ties between Belgrade and Cairo as founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement, which brought together countries that were not part of opposing blocs during the split of the Cold War.
Turkey expects the UN plan on the grain issue to start being implemented in the coming days, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

A memorandum on grain could be signed this week at a meeting of delegations from Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations, Erdogan said. He also said the grain export process would be controlled from a center in Istanbul, RIA Novosti reported.

"At last week's technical meeting in Istanbul, an agreement was reached on the main lines of the process within the UN plan. This week we want to tie this memorandum into a written text," the Turkish president told reporters on his plane on his return from Iran.

"The process will be conducted from a coordination center to be established in Istanbul. In addition to our country, there will be officials from Russia, Ukraine and the UN," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Earlier, a source told RIA Novosti that the provisional date for a new meeting of the delegations of Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the UN on grain issues is 20-21 July, and only technical details need to be agreed upon.

The meeting of the delegations of Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN on the grain issue on 13 July resulted in determining safe routes in the Black Sea, through which vessels would take out grain until Ukrainian ports are cleared, a source of the agency also said.

At that time, ahead of the negotiations, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the Ukrainian side was "two steps away" from an agreement with Russia on grain exports, Kommersant reported.
Ishkhan Saghatelyan, ARF Dashnaktsutyun Supreme Body representative, MP representing "Armenia" bloc, head of Armenia-Syria Friendship Group, met with Syrian Ambassador to Armenia Nora Arisyan on Wednesday.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed the current political situation in Syria and Armenia, the economic and demographic challenges facing the Syrian-Armenian community, as well as issues concerning facilitation of Syrian-Armenian visits to Armenia, and other issues, the ARF press service informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Saghatelyan referred to the historical friendship between the two countries and the presence of external threats against the interests of Armenia and Syria represented by Turkey in the context of current geopolitical developments.

At the end of the meeting, the two sides agreed to continue their cooperation.
Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Jeyhun Bayramov of Russia and Azerbaijan had a phone conversation today during which they discussed the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

"The ministers noted the progressive development of bilateral cooperation in the context of the Declaration on allied cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan signed on 22 February this year at the highest level.

There was a detailed exchange of views on a number of regional and international issues, including the process of normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The sides highlighted the need to continue relevant work in strict accordance with the provisions of the trilateral agreements at the highest level of 9 November 2020, 11 January and 26 November 2021," the statement said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan commented on the Zangezur corridor project supported by Azerbaijan and Russia's position on the issue, Anadolu news agency reported.

"Mr. Putin, if I am not mistaken, spoke to President Ilham Aliyev the other day. In his conversation with me, the Russian leader said he had brought greetings from Aliyev, whom he had previously told about an early meeting with me," he said.

According to the Turkish president, he himself recently had a conversation with the Azerbaijani president.

"Ilham Aliyev reported the positive direction of the processes. Earlier, as you know, a trilateral meeting of the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and the EU was held. This meeting, according to Aliyev, also took place in a positive way. According to the information I have, everything is progressing as planned. The new airport will be opened soon in that area," Erdogan said.
US report on human trafficking in Hong Kong 'biased'

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken launches the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report. File photo: AFP

The government on Wednesday objected to a United States report on human trafficking, describing it as biased and unfair.



In the 2022 Trafficking Persons Report, the US State Department said the Hong Kong government does not meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and gave the SAR its second-worst Tier 2 Watch List rating.



It said authorities here did not prosecute or convict any labour traffickers, and sentenced criminals convicted for crimes related to sex trafficking to inadequate penalties.



The report added that despite the screening of thousands of vulnerable people for trafficking indicators, it identified only one victim.



In response, the government said in a statement that "trafficking in persons is never a prevalent problem in Hong Kong and there has never been any sign that Hong Kong is being actively used by syndicates as a destination or transit point for trafficking in persons.



Authorities said they have been making proactive and multi-pronged efforts in the fight against human trafficking, and injected an enormous amount of resources to combat trafficking and to enhance the protection and well-being of foreign domestic helpers here.



The statement said that authorities here had maintained its anti-trafficking efforts despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years. It went on to point out that coverage of the initial screening of victims has been extended since the end of 2019 to cover all cases involving people vulnerable to trafficking risks, including illegal immigrants, sex workers, illegal workers, foreign domestic helpers and imported workers.



"Facts speak louder than words. Despite the intensified screening efforts, only a handful of trafficking-in-persons victims were identified. The very small number and percentage of victims identified thus far has once again reinforced our observation that trafficking in persons is never a prevalent problem in Hong Kong, the government said.



It is baseless and unfair to cast doubt on the quality of our screenings and discredit our screening procedure merely because of the low number of victims so identified, it added.
According to the information, the Anti-Narcotics Cell received secret information that some women sell drugs at the Indira market near Anaj Mandi, Najafgarh. After which police laid down a trap to catch the suspicious women peddlers, later they were apprehended by the team.

During the search, large quantities of illicit cannabis were recovered from their possession. During the initial interrogation, they disclosed their identity as Neelam (35), Sunita (35), Neeta (34) and Savitri (34). All are residents of the Najafgarh area of Delhi.

A case has been registered at PS Baba Haridas Nagar, New Delhi, under the relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Further investigation is under process to nab the main supplier. (ANI)
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday said there is no Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on the alleged Rs 35,000 crore mining scam. The chief minister, however, said it was mentioned in the 'Shah Commission' report. "According to Supreme Court directions and as per Chartered accountants report, we are recovering the money. We have sent letters to recover Rs 131 crore, out of which we have recovered Rs 80 crore," Sawant said, adding the recovery process is on. Before the assembly election in February 2022, Girish Chodankar, former chief of Congress unit in Goa, had claimed that citing the PAC report, former (late) chief minister Manohar Parrikar had misled the people on the alleged Rs 35,000 crore mining scam, "which had never happened". He had then challenged the BJP government to make the PAC report available in public domain. "BJP had used this non-existent report to defame Congress and win elections," Chodankar had said. "After making allegations against Congress over the mining scam, BJP usurped the power twice. But it failed to investigate and recover the money. Now it is clear why it did not investigate the matter and recovered the money," Chodankar had said. On Tuesday, Congress MLA Yuri Alemao asked the similar question to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant whether the PAC report existed, to which the latter replied in negative. "Will the Chief Minister tell whether PAC report on mining really exists and was it a ploy to create sensation to defeat Congress in 2012 and defame mining lease holders," Alemao questioned. In a written reply to Alemao, Chief Minister Sawant, who also holds Mining portfolio, has said "there is no Public Accounts Committee Report on Mining as the draft report was not adopted by the committee and hence was not presented to the House as per records of legislative Secretariat". Meanwhile, Congress Media Cell Chairman Amarnath Panjikar has demanded apology from BJP to the people and more particularly to the 'mining dependents' for snatching away their daily bread and butter by stopping the mining activity in Goa, referring to the non-existing Rs 35,000 crore mining scam. --IANS sanjay/pgh ( 367 Words) 2022-07-19-22:46:03 (IANS)
On July 19, the Chinese PLA medical train arrives at Boten, a town in northern Laos along the border with China. (Photo by Kai Qiao)

VIENTIANE, July 20 -- The Chinese military medical train to participate in the "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue exercise in Laos left the Mohan Railway Station, an important border station on the China-Laos Railway in southwest China's Yunnan province, on July 19 and arrived in Laos after passing through the Friendship Tunnelthe cross-border rail tunnel linking China and Laos. This marked the medical trains first cross-border trip since the China-Laos Railway connecting Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan province with the Laotian capital, Vientiane, began operations on December 3, 2021.

Representatives of the Ministry of National Defence of Laos and the General Logistics Department of the Lao People's Armed Forces (LPAF), the Chinese military medical experts to assist Laos and working staff of the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. (LCRC) attended the welcome ceremony at the Vientiane Railway Station.

It is learnt that the Chinese and Lao militaries will hold "Peace Train-2022" joint humanitarian medical rescue exercise and medical service activities in Laos in late July. The Chinese military sent for the joint exercise a 149-member medical team, a medical train, and various vehicle-mounted medical instruments and equipment. After the joint exercise, the two militaries will hold medical service activities in Vientiane.
The government think tank NITI Aayog will release the third edition of the India Innovation Index on Thursday. The index has been compiled after evaluating the innovation performance of all the states and Union territories in India. "The states and the union territories have been divided into 17 'Major States', 10 'North-East and Hill States', and 9 'Union Territories and City States', for effectively comparing their performance," NITI Aayog said in a statement on Wednesday. The India Innovation Index 2021 will be released by the Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog, Suman Bery, in the presence of V K Saraswat, Member, and Parameswaran Iyer, Chief Executive Officer, the statement said. The release of the third edition of the index - the first and second editions were launched in October 2019 and January 2021, respectively - corroborates the government's continuous commitment to transforming the nation into an innovation-driven economy. "The India Innovation Index 2021 is set against the backdrop of the pandemic, which has disrupted the global demographic landscape. Resilience and crisis-driven innovation have helped India bounce back, in these trying times," it added. A special section has also been introduced in the latest edition for showcasing the detailed analysis of the drivers of innovation, by evaluating the improvement in the indicators. The states can assess their position and the factors that led to a change in their ranking vis-a-vis that in the previous edition. "With the India Innovation Index, NITI Aayog has commenced a journey to develop a coherent tool for benchmarking the innovation ecosystem of the country's states and union territories, thereby fostering both competitive and cooperative federalism amongst them," the statement further said. (ANI)
New Delhi [India] July 20 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Lemon Yellow LLP, a new-age global design agency with a presence in India and the USA is coming to the FinTech Festival India 2022, hosted in Delhi's Pragati Maidan, as exclusive design partner and one of the key sponsors. The event will start on July 20 and will extend till July 22. Lemon Yellow has been designing digital happiness for the last 5 years, and they have worked with some of the key players in the fintech industry such as ICICI Direct, Experian, Mahindra Finance, Dhan, Fino Finance, to name a few. Their wide variety of portfolios also includes works for industries like OTT, Healthcare, E-commerce, Edutech, etc. Lemon Yellow has been an integral part in contributing to the design of many brands like Tata Neu, SonyLIV, Voot, Netflix, Clicbrics, Bridgestone, Tata CLiQ, among many others. Though their focus is on creating user-centric websites and applications, they also provide 360-degree design solutions. Based out of Thane, Maharashtra, they have earned quite a reputation in the design sector and were recognised among the Top Design agencies for 2022 by Clutch. Sameer Bhambere, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Lemon Yellow says, "Fintech is an industry that has been rapidly transforming in India. Its evolution is almost revolutionary - the pace is unprecedented. Lemon Yellow has been a proud contributor in adding to this growth with its work in the recent year, and FinTech Festival is another attempt in spreading this revolution deeper and wider." After completing ten micro experiences in different cities and hosting a mega digital event in March, FinTech Festival India is ready to host the offline edition of the mega event. It will be one of the biggest fintech festivals aiming toward creating an ecosystem to support and grow the fintech community in the country. The event will consist of conferences, exhibitions, and productive engagements to foster networking. Priyanka Baya, Co-founder and Head of Business and Finance at Lemon Yellow puts it simply, "Digital is the new future - everyone understands it and is onboard the journey. What it takes to make this transition to digital successful - with sustainable financial strategies - is the real question. The FinTech Festival aims to provide an answer to it and a lot more. Being a design agency who has had experience in making these transitions successful, our goal is to add value to these efforts." The Indian fintech industry is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. About 67 per cent of the fintech companies operating in India were established in the last 5 years. The World has witnessed the digitisation wave in India, especially since COVID. There is no doubt that it is the future and a more hassle-free way of dealing with transactions, but creating a system and having an idea doesn't necessarily help to achieve the goals. Amit Bhambere, Co-founder and Head of Design at LY, has coined and introduced a new term - FinteD. "Fintech as an industry is incomplete without design - something the industry has realised in recent years. The digital banking experience can only be elevated and made valuable when you add design to the mix. We have been adding design to fintech with all our work, and FinTech Festival has provided just the platform to make this change as wide and deep-rooted as possible." A good design that transcends the user experience and solves their needs is the gap that needs to be bridged. Lemon Yellow as an agency is all cards in with creative and path-breaking ideas to provide customised solutions to brands and help them turn their vision into reality. The event will witness participation from key fintech players in the country along with other promoters and exhibitors who will make the event a giant oasis of ideas and visions for the future. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)
New Delhi [India], July 20 (ANI/PNN): Atul Goel, MD, Goel Ganga Group, a renowned real estate developer in Pune, has published a book, "Real Rich". It is the first book on the real estate industry to equip readers with the knowledge they need to make informed real estate decisions. Atul Goel's latest book, Real Rich, is delivered as a voice experience, reporting from the ground on everything you need to know about how to approach real estate if you want to make it work for you. Real Rich is a quick, compelling book that can change how people understand, engage with, and benefit from real estate. It combines the author's deep experience and the storytelling artistry of Leena Saldanha. "This book is for everyone interested in building true, long-term, sustainable wealth for themselves and their families. It will prompt you to rethink some fundamental beliefs and stereotypes, but most importantly, it will assist you in developing a workable roadmap for your future. The real estate industry is more of a service industry than anything else. When a real estate developer works on a piece of land and creates usable functionalities, they are creating a future way of life that everyone associated with that development will enjoy. Creating futures is a service beyond concrete and square feet, which is why Real Rich - is the book. So that anyone who reads it has access to the tools to make the right decision for their future." said Atul Goel, MD, Goel Ganga Group. "It is a must-read for all those who want to get Real Rich; this is one book that should have been written a couple of decades ago. But we can only be grateful that it got written at all," added Goel. Atul Goel was born on June 22, 1975, and is the Managing Director of Goel Ganga Group. Goel is also the author of the book "The Real Rich." He is widely recognized for his contributions to the real estate industry of India. Atul Goel is one of the founders of NAREDCO (National Real Estate Development Council), Managing Committee Member of CREDAI PUNE METRO in 2011 and Jt. Secretary in CREDAI PUNE MAHARASHTRA, from the year 2011-16. Atul Goel is a Managing Director of Goel Ganga Group Pune, established 35 years back and has a track record of constructing quality homes. The group is one of the leading private sector companies with dominance in the Construction of Residential, Commercial and Hotel projects in PUNE, MUMBAI, NAGPUR and BANGALORE. Goel Ganga Group has completed more than 100 projects successfully. 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 20 (ANI/PRNewswire): Azure Power (NYSE: AZRE), a leading sustainable energy solutions provider and renewable power producer in India, announced that its 90 MW solar power project in Assam, the largest solar power project in the state, was inaugurated by Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chief Minister of Assam in presence of Nandita Gorlosa, Minister of Power; Cooperation, Mines & Minerals; Indigenous & Tribal and Culture Department, Chandra Mohan Patowary, Minister, Environment & Forest, Act East Policy Affairs, Welfare of Minorities Deptt. & Guardian Minister of Kamrup, and other key dignitaries. Chief Minister inaugurated the project at a special ceremony, jointly hosted by Azure Power and Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) at a two day event in Udalguri and Boko districts of the state. The power generated by the plant will be supplied to Assam Power Distribution Company Limited under a long term 25-year PPA. The project spread across four districts - Udalguri, Boko, Nagaon, and Cachar, was commissioned in phases. Commenting on the inauguration, Harsh Shah, CEO, Azure Power said - "The commissioning of our 90 MW solar power plant, the largest in Assam, is an indication of our strong project development and execution skills. The project also demonstrates the state's commitment towards sustainable development by promoting clean, accessible, affordable, and equitable solar energy availability. In addition to meeting the state's sustainability targets, our project will help in creating a self-sustaining ecosystem by providing jobs, skill development, and revenue opportunities for local population," "Our sincere gratitude to the Honorable Chief Minister of Assam, APDCL, and all local stakeholders for their cooperation and support," added Harsh. Rakesh Kumar - IAS, MD, Assam Power Distribution Company Limited said, "Participation of Azure Power in Assam's journey towards clean and green energy is appreciable. APDCL is committed for supplying uninterrupted, reliable, affordable, safe, and quality power to all its valued customers. These projects strengthen the resolve to reduce carbon emissions in the state, in line with declaration of Prime Minister at Glasgow. Such endeavours will pave the way for making Assam one of the top states of the country as envisioned by Hon'ble Chief Minister." Azure Power is a leading independent sustainable energy solutions provider, and power producer in India on a mission to create value for all stakeholders through high-performance Renewable Energy assets. We developed India's first utility scale solar project in 2009 and since then, Azure Power has grown rapidly to become a leader in developing and operating large utility-scale renewable energy projects in the country. We also partner with commercial and industrial customers in their decarbonization journey by providing comprehensive solutions for their clean energy needs. For more information about us, visit: www.azurepower.com This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)
New Delhi [India], July 20 (ANI/GPRC): Din-The Day, is the most expensive Bangladeshi film to date. It features Ananta Jalil and Barsha Khadiza in lead roles and was released on July 10, 2022. The film has reportedly opened in more than 100 cinema halls across the country. It is an action film directed by Morteza Atashzamzam. The film was shot on an 8K camera. The production team used Dolby Atmos 7.1 surround sound technology. It has been shoot in Bangladesh, Iran,Turkey and Afghanistan. The film is a Bangladeshi-Iranian jointly-produced venture. Ananta Jalil is a Bangladeshi businessman, actor, director and producer. He started his professional career as a businessman in 1999. Nonetheless, Barsha Khadiza is an excellent and virtuous actress. She started her career as a model and made her debut in Iftakar Chowdhury's feature film Khoj: The Search, released in 2010 with Ananta Jalil. It was the debut film for both Ananta and Barsha. Ananta married model-turned-actress Barsha Khadiza on 23 September 2011. The couple is featured together in Hridoy Bhanga Dheu, Most Welcome, Nishwartha Bhalobasa, Most Welcome 2, The Spy: Agrojatrar Mohanayok and Netri - The Leader. Barsha Khadiza had been nominated for the best actress thrice and won best actress awards for Hridoy Bhanga Dhew and Most Welcome. Ananta is also awarded as best actor twice for Nishwartha Bhalobasa and Most Welcome. The duo had also received the best couple from Bioscope Borsho-sera in 2013. The Ananta Jalil and Barsha Khadiza duo has done it before though no wonder this could be another great masterpiece of this beautiful couple. The film stars Ananta as a SWAT Member assigned to destroy a chain of International Drug Mafia. Barsha Khadizais playing the role of the wife of his co-actor. The shooting of the film started on 27 February 2019. Ananta had been injured, while shooting at Herat, in March, and the shooting had been suspended. The film had late for release in December 2019. Later, the owner of Monsoon Films planned to release the film in 2021, Eid-ul-Azha. It had scheduled to be released in 80 countries. The date of the film was later fixed for December 24, 2021, but it had postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 5 June 2022, the film got a censor certificate in Bangladesh. This story is provided by GPRC. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/GPRC)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 20 (ANI/NewsVoir): Tackling emissions from the thermal power sector in India is an important priority for achieving India's energy transition goals. Towards this, flue gas desulphurization (FGD) technology is expected to play a significant role. In a move towards creating a sustainable impact, Chemical Process Piping (CPP), a sixty-year-old and India's premiere industrial piping solutions company that pioneers in manufacturing GRP and FRP-based pipes has announced the implementation of FRP stack in the FGD plant set up by BIFPCL - Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Ltd, which is a joint venture of 50:50 sharing by India state-owned National Thermal Power Corp and Bangladesh Power Development Board. With the ongoing domestic and international projects, CPP is eyeing to reach Rs 300 crores annual turnover by 2024 which is first in the FRP sector for a pureplay FRP Piping company. CPP has successfully completed phase I of this Maitree Super Thermal Power Plant project with BHEL and Simplex in Bangladesh. CPP becomes the first mover in the segment to achieve this feat of building an 800 ft FRP stack for a 1,320 MW coal-fired power station in Rampal, Bangladesh. CPP is the first FRP manufacturer in this part of the world to utilize Vertical Winding technology to filament wind the FRP stack for their project in Bangladesh. The project is an environmentally friendly supercritical technology-based thermal power plant. Vijay Rajpurohit, Managing Director, Chemical Process Piping (CPP) shared, "Stack Liner manufacture using FRP for FGD Coal-fired power plants (Super: FGD - Flue Gas DeSulphurisation) is the preferred solution world over. The reason being that it is manufactured from a single material thus making it an extremely low maintenance proposition. Add to that, the time-tested qualities of FRP give it the perfect construction characteristics for a highly corrosive industrial chimney. With the Make in India initiative, Indian FRP manufacturers are in a position to bring in foreign exchange and boost the economy." The company unveiled a white paper at the 6th Flue Gas Desulphurization Conference held in Delhi on July 19, 2022. The white paper threw light on the usage of FRP stacks for FGD plants and why using FRP is the low-cost and durable alternative to traditional metal liners in concrete stacks. CPP has several first to its name, like installing a 50 Km Fire water network for Petronas and for installing the largest FRP Cooling water line for a Nickel mine in Caledonia. As market leaders in GRP, FRP, GRE for close to six decades, CPP's market share for FRP piping in Chlor - Alkali membrane cell plants is over 90 per cent in India. Similarly, for the Soda ash plants, it is over 80 percent market share. Further, the company has supplied FRP piping to over 25 desalination plants globally. The Chemical industry contributes 40 per cent of its revenues while the rest of the markets bring in the remaining 60 per cent in aggregate. Chemical Process Piping CPP, is today one of the global leaders in the field of design, manufacture and installation of FRP, GRE and thermoplastic lined FRP pipes and fittings. CPP has been 'Making in India' for over 60 years and serving the global markets even before the concept was popularized by the GOI. The company is the largest exporter of FRP products from India. "The stack liners made from FRP are of a single material construction unlike Steel lined with Borosilicate bricks or high-grade alloy. This makes FRP the most suited material without the issues that crop up when using dual materials. Borosilicate liners have joints on each brick thus thousands of joints make it vulnerable over time. Whereas FRP Stack liners are filament wound as one piece segments which are joined on site making it leak-proof," shares Vijay Rajpurohit, CPP. The Bangladesh project demanded a make-shift manufacturing facility which was another feat the company achieved. While speaking about how FRP can help reduce the construction cost while enabling safety and durability he further adds, "CPP is equipped to manufacture large FRP Stack liners at site thus eliminating local transportation issues. Also, size is no more a limitation now. Production cycle times are very short thereby CPP can take up multiple projects at the same time. Installation of FRP Stack liners takes a fraction of the time. There is also no need for heavy lifting and shifting due its lightweight compared to steel." CPP products are exported to countries like Germany, Singapore, the USA, France, Finland, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Canada etc. The core industries CPP caters to are Power, Desalination, Chemical, Oil & Gas, and Metallurgy. Chemical Process Piping Pvt Ltd (CPP) is one of the world's largest in the field of design, manufacturing and installation of FRP/GRP, GRE and Thermoplastic lined FRP/GRP Pipes and Fittings for the Water, Power (FGD Systems, Cooling Water lines, Desalination), Chemical, Metallurgy, Oil & Gas Industries. A two-man unit started by B. S. Rajpurohit way back in 1964 has grown up into a well-diversified multi-product company. B.S. Rajpurohit was born in 1938 in a small village in Rajasthan. CPP are the market leader in GRP, FRP, GRE for over five decades. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is working on a phased implementation of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in both wholesale and retail segments, Ajay Kumar Choudhary, Executive Director, RBI, said on Wednesday. Addressing an event organised by industry body FICCI, Choudhary said that with the announcement of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in the Union Budget, necessary amendment to the relevant section of the RBI Act 1934 had been made enabling RBI to conduct pilot and subsequent issuance of CBDC. "RBI is also working on phased implementation of a Central Bank Digital Currency in both wholesale and retail segment," he added. Choudhary said that the Indian Fintech market currently stands as a third largest Fintech ecosystem in the world, just behind US and China. "In the next five years, the Indian fintech sector is expected to grow with a cumulative annual growth rate of around 22 per cent. Today, the world is looking up to India, as we continue to innovate and lead the way seamlessly imbibing the new age technology without compromising on the safety and security aspects," he said. Choudhary also emphasised that as a regulator, it is also important for RBI to identify the risks and challenges associated with all innovations. Central bank has taken several measures to foster innovation in the fintech sector which includes regulatory sandbox, Reserve Bank Innovation hub, etc. "Sustainability is the most critical aspect in fintech sector. RBI has constituted a committee to both examine and suggest measures to address the risks and challenges associated with the fintech eco-system while continue to foster innovation," he said. Speaking on the opportunities in the fintech sector, Choudhary said that the sector will continue to have responsible innovations which will transform the financial landscape of the country. The growth does not have to be only swift but a sustainable growth and inclusive of all, he asserted. Enumerating on the 4 success pillars for fintech, Choudhary said it is imperative to implement responsible innovations which serve the under-privileged, corporate governance; make technological advancements that are scalable and interoperable; giving importance to policy on data privacy, consumer protection, cyber security and prevention of financial crime. (ANI)
NTPC has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy for cooperation in the renewable energy sector, the Ministry of Power said on Wednesday. The agreement was signed during the 17th CII EXIM conclave on India-Africa growth partnership held in New Delhi from 9th-20th July 2022. The conclave witnessed huge participation from several African countries and deliberations were held to promote investment and collaboration between Indian and African companies in various sectors in Africa. The MoU between NTPC Ltd and Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen) promises to usher in the joint development of utility-scale projects based on renewable energy in Africa. Through this cooperation, it is intended to support services for capacity building, share experience, know-how, and expertise in the areas of mutual interest, especially in the field of Research and Development. The cooperation may witness NTPC and Masen exploring common development opportunities for renewable energy power projects in other African Countries, the Ministry of Power said. Created in 2010, Masen is the group in charge of piloting renewable energy in Morocco. At the end of 2021, 4109 MW are in operation in wind, hydro and solar. The Masen Group places at the heart of its strategy the development of renewable resources, to create an inexhaustible force of economic, social, and environmental development for Morocco and beyond. The CII-Exim Bank Conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership was launched in the year 2005 with the support of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. Over the last sixteen editions, the Conclave has played a pivotal role in encouraging Indian companies to establish and grow their footprints in Africa. (ANI)
Both sides agreed to further strengthen and diversify trade and economic linkages.

The Ministers reviewed the bilateral relations with a focus on trade and investment, defence and maritime cooperation, according to an official statement released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Both sides appreciated that there are deep-rooted cultural and people-to-people ties between both the two countries. Many students from Sudan are pursuing their higher studies in institutions across India.

During the meeting, Patel emphasised that India has always stood in solidarity with the people of Sudan and partnered in undertaking development projects, capacity building and humanitarian assistance.

She also called upon Sudan to effectively utilise and benefit from the preferential market access offered by India under India's Duty-Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme for Least developed countries (LDCs) and LDCs services waiver schemes.

Sudan's trade minister is on a two-day visit to New Delhi. (ANI)
Kartik Aaryan is currently busy shooting for the upcoming film 'Shehzada' and while the actor has been keeping his fans updated about the shoot, he also keeps giving a glimpse of the fun time he has on sets. The actor, who is currently shooting for the film in Haryana, recently shared a picture of himself enjoying the beautiful sunset, surrounded by lush green grass, making us all reminisce about the last sunset we witnessed. Kartik and Kriti were recently shooting together. However, Kriti is not with him in the Haryana schedule of the film. Speaking of Shehzada, the film recently got a new release date. Last week, Kartik took to his Instagram to share the release date and wrote, "Shehzada Returns Home. Feb 10th 2023''. Helmed by Rohit Dhawan, the film is touted as an action-packed family musical film. Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala, Ronit Roy, and Sachin Khedekar are also a part of 'Shehzada'. It is the Hindi remake of the Telugu blockbuster 'Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo', which starred Allu Arjun. Apart from Shehzada, Kartik recently announced that he has signed a project with Sajid Nadiadwala's production house which will be helmed by Kabir Khan. Though the details of the project have been kept under wraps, it is speculated to be a massive entertainer on a large-scale production based on true events. Kartik will also be seen in 'Freddy' opposite Alaya F. Produced by Ekta Kapoor, the film is touted to be a romantic thriller. He also has Hansal Mehta's 'Captain India' in his kitty. Bankrolled by Ronnie Screwvala and Harman Baweja, the film revolves around India's most successful rescue operations from a war-torn country. (ANI)
The animated Hollywood flick, 'Lightyear' starring Chris Evans, Taika Waititi, Keke Palmer, Uzo Aduba will be streaming soon on Disney+ from August 3. It debuted in theaters on June 17. On Tuesday, the movie's official Twitter handle Pixar's Lightyear shared a post and announced the details. The tweet reads, "Get ready to blast off with Disney and Pixar's #Lightyear streaming August 3 only on @DisneyPlus." https://twitter.com/PixarsLightyear/status/1549423824638074881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1549423824638074881%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpeople.com%2Fmovies%2Flightyear-movie-disney-plus-release-date-revealed%2F Director Angus MacLane said in a statement, "Lightyear looks amazing on the big screen, of course, but we are so excited to bring it to Disney+." "We devoted years of our lives to this film and we are so proud of it. We want to share it with as many people as possible. Disney+ not only gives more fans an opportunity to see Lightyear, it gives us all the means to see it again and again," according to People magazine. The animated sci-fi adventure shares the definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear, the hero who inspired the Toy Story action figure character, which was voiced by Tim Allen. After being lost on a distant planet. the young astronaut Buzz must find a way back to Earth with the help of his commander and crew. Captain America alum Evans, said that he was a "kid in a candy store" getting to be part of the project, as per People. "The movie Toy Story was such an impactful film. It's so iconic and the characters had such variety. They just offer something that's so relatable," Evans shared in a behind-the-scenes featurette. "This film is the origin story of Buzz 'Lightyear'. It's the story that made Andy and his friends want to go buy a Buzz Lightyear toy." "I'm a massive Pixar fan. I was a kid in a candy store. It's unlike any Pixar movie to date," he added. Meanwhile, 'Lightyear' has become the latest Disney movie to be banned in various Middle East countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The news has been confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter with sources stating that the decision is linked to the inclusion of a same-sex kiss in Pixar's 'Toy Story' prequel spin-off. The scene, involving the female character Hawthorne (voiced by Uzo Aduba) and her partner, was originally cut from the film, but reinstated following the uproar surrounding a statement from Pixar employees. This movie has now become the latest in a growing list of major Disney features including 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' and 'Eternals', that have faced issues in Gulf countries due to scenes involving LGBTQ references or issues, which often fall foul of censors for theatrical releases due to homosexuality being officially illegal across the region, as per The Hollywood Reporter. In January, 'West Side Story' was also stopped from reaching cinemas in Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait. (ANI) Currently Angus MacLane's 'Lightyear' is in theaters. (ANI)
Jennifer Lopez recently tied the knot with Ben Affleck and although the 52-year-old actor hasn't shared any pictures of her Vegas wedding, an employee of A Little White Wedding Chapel shared the details of 'Bennifer' wedding moments. A Little White Wedding Chapel employee Kenosha Booth, was working when the pair tied the knot at the Las Vegas venue on Saturday. In an interview on Good Morning America that aired on Tuesday, she recalled the "exciting moment" when Lopez and Affleck walked in, as per People. https://twitter.com/GMA/status/1549367472834355200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1549367472834355200%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpeople.com%2Fmovies%2Fjennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-wedding-witness-recalls-emotional-vows-they-cried-to-each-other%2F "We were getting ready to close and we had a special guest arrive as a walk-in." "I started shaking a little bit. I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, this is Jennifer Lopez we're getting ready to marry!' " Booth Portis shared. As Affleck and Lopez "were reading each other's vows, they were very sweet," she remembered. "They both were emotional. They cried to each other. The kids were right there behind them," the wedding venue employee added. She also shared that Lopez, "had on a nice, elegant, beige, lacy-type dress." "It had a train on it. The veil was beautiful. Everything was very sleek and beautiful. She was stunning." "She had a beautiful white bouquet, and he had a boutonniere as well, that matched." Sharing the memories of the wedding, Booth Portis said, "It was beautiful. It wasn't overly emotional, but some tears were shed by them both. Jennifer looked stunning." According to People magazine, the song they played was traditional. "Here Comes the Bride" procession, and Booth Portis was shocked when the pair came in, not believing it was actually Affleck and Lopez until they gave the paperwork to her. On Sunday, Lopez, 52, revealed in her 'On the JLo' newsletter that she and Affleck, 49, tied the knot at A Little White Chapel. In the newsletter, she wrote, "So with the best witnesses you could ever imagine, a dress from an old movie and a jacket from Ben's closet, we read our own vows in the little chapel and gave one another the rings we'll wear for the rest of our lives," adding that the ceremony was "exactly what we wanted." A source confirmed to People magazine that the newlyweds "plan on having a bigger party so they can celebrate with family and friends." "They don't have a honeymoon planned yet. Jennifer says that every day with Ben is a honeymoon."A source told People, "They don't have a honeymoon planned yet. Jennifer says that every day with Ben is a honeymoon." (ANI)
Ahead of the release of 'Laal Singh Chaddha', megastar Chiranjeevi, on Wednesday, introduced the character of Naga Chaitanya from the film. Taking to social media, Chiranjeevi dropped a poster of Naga Chaitanya's look. "Introducing 'Lal Singh Chadha', Cheddy Buddy 'Balaraj'. Mana is the grandson of the 'boy king' of those days. This boy king is Akkineni Naga Chaitanya. @chay_akkineni," he captioned the post. Sharing the same, Aamir Khan Production wrote " Introducing Balaraju from Bodipalem... played by Chaitanya Akkineni! Thank you Chaitanya for being so supportive, passionate, loving and delivering such a memorable performance and bringing Bala to life!" A few days ago, the film's lead actor Aamir Khan organised a special screening for Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Sukumar, and SS Rajamouli in Hyderabad. In a video from the preview posted by Chiranjeevi on social media on Saturday, the actor is seen praising the film and hugging an emotional Aamir. Taking to Twitter, Chiranjeevi posted a minute-long video showing all of them watching the screening and then discussing it afterwards. He captioned it, "Fascinating how a chance meeting & a little chat with my dear friend #AamirKhan @Kyoto airport - Japan, few years ago led to me becoming a part of his dream project #LaalSinghChaddha. Thank You #AamirKhan for the exclusive preview at my home. Heartened by your warm gesture!" In a response to the original tweet, the veteran actor wrote, "Most of all, what a gem of a film you have made!! Such a wonderful emotional journey!!" In the clip, Chiranjeevi walked up to Aamir shaking his head and shook Aamir's hand, before giving him a warm hug. At this, Aamir wiped a tear off his eyes. Helmed by Advait Chandan, 'Laal Singh Chaddha' is an official Hindi adaptation of the Academy Award-winning 1994 film Forrest Gump, which had Tom Hanks in the lead role. It is scheduled to release on August 11 this year. Kareena Kapoor and Mona Singh are also a part of the film. (ANI)
"Delhi Commission for Women has taken suo-moto cognizance of a video on social media wherein a woman is delivering a baby right outside the building of Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi," said the commission.

It further added that in the video, the pregnant woman can be seen surrounded by a group of ladies who are assisting her.

Terming it a "very serious matter", the Commission has sought clarifications from the Medical Superintendent of the Safdarjung Hospital.

The DCW has asked the date and time of the first visit with relevant documents.

It has also asked the hospital to provide the reason for the refusal of admission of the lady despite her pregnancy, if any.

The DCW has also asked to provide the complete sequence of events since when the lady was lying outside the hospital.

The Commission has also sought the details of the staffs responsible for the alleged negligence along with the action taken against them and the copy of the enquiry report of the hospital in the matter.

The hospital administration has been told to provide the information by July 25.

--IANS avr/pgh

( 234 Words)

2022-07-19-22:02:03 (IANS)
As Microsoft founder Bill Gates congratulated him for crossing 200 crore vaccine doses mark, the Prime Minister, in his response, said: "India's vaccination drive is big on speed and scale. It has been powered by collective efforts of many, including scientists, doctors and nurses. At the same time, the people of India have shown remarkable faith in science and taken their doses in a timely manner.

Gates had tweeted: "Congratulations @narendramodi for yet another milestone of administering #200crorevaccinations. We are grateful for our continued partnership with Indian vaccine manufacturers and the Indian government for mitigating the impact of COVID19."

On July 17, India crossed the milestone of administering 200 crore doses of Covid vaccines.

--IANS ssb/vd

( 147 Words)

2022-07-20-20:12:03 (IANS)
A Delhi Court on Tuesday sent the Wadhawan brothers to eight-day CBI remand in Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) alleged loan fraud case. Special Judge Vishal Gogne, on Tuesday, while passing the order in remand days, said, "seen in the context of the allegations, accused Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Rajesh Wadhawan, in their capacity as the Chief Managing Director and Director respectively of DHFL for the period 2010 onwards, do require a probe in their role firstly in obtaining the large volume of loans inter-alia about Rs 42,000 crores and then not only occasioning default in repayment of about 34,000 crores but also allegedly diverting funds to the extent of Rs 29,000 crores." The Court finds it a case of manifest necessity for the Investigation Officer to be granted the custody (police custody) of accused Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Rajesh Wadhawan in aid of the investigation. "Custodial interrogation is thus likely to reveal material facts related to a possibleconspiracy, the complicity of other accused persons, routing and re-routing of the allegedly diverted funds, details of the entities where such funds were immersed and similar facets of the investigation," said the court. That paintings worth about 30 crores, allegedly purchased by accused Kapil Wadhawan, were tracked to the premises of co-accused Ajay R. Nawandar does justify the submission of the Sr. PP for the CBI that greater information relating to the use/diversion of the funds may be obtained through custodial interrogation, the court noted. The Senior Advocate KTS Tulsi and Sr Advocate Vikas Pahwa appeared for accused Ajay R. Nawandar in the case. Senior Advocate Rebecca John appeared for Dheeraj Rajesh Wadhawan and Advocate Vijay Aggarwal appeared for Kapil Wadhawan in the case. Senior Public Prosecutor Raj Mohan Chand, along with Rattan Deep Singh and Arvind Kumar Public Prosecutor for CBI, submitted that the two accused persons, arrested today, are the principal architects of the concerted diversion of loan amounts amounting to about Rs 29,000 crores (approximately) out of the NPA amount of Rs 34,000 crores (approximately) in relation to the total loans of approximately Rs. 42,000 crores advanced to M/s Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL). These loans were advanced by the complainant bank i.e. the Union Bank of India and other banks, forming a consortium of 17 Indian banks, to DHFL which is a non-banking finance company engaged in extending financial assistance to low and middle-income group individuals for the acquisition of houses. CBI lawyers further stated that the independent audit of the funds loaned by the consortium to the DHFL revealed that these funds were instead disbursed by the DHFL to connected entities and individuals with commonalities to DHFL promoters/ directors. According to the CBI, out of 35 such entities, 25 entities had minimal operations and were still disbursed loans by DHFL. Thereafter, 31 more connected entities have purportedly emerged. The sum of Rs 29,000 crores (approx) has allegedly been together diverted to these 66 entities. (ANI)
The ED said it has also seized cash amounting Rs 11.88 crore lying in 37 bank accounts belonging to Pankaj Mishra, Dahoo Yadav and their associates in the case.

Earlier, the ED had conducted searches at 19 locations in Sahibganj, Barhet, Rajmahal, Mirza Chauki and Barharwa resulting in seizure of various incriminating documents and Rs 5.34 crore unaccounted cash on July 8.

During this search operation, the ED had also seized five stone crushers that were being illegally operated, and five illegal firearm cartridges, as well.

The evidence collected during the course of investigation including statements of various persons, digital evidence and documents revealed that the seized cash and bank balance are derived from illegal mining being rampantly done in Sahibganj area including the forest area.

A trail of further Rs 100 crore of proceeds of crime generated from illegal mining has also been unearthed and being probed.

--IANS atk/pgh

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2022-07-19-21:00:04 (IANS)
A Telangana minister's remarks on Polavaram project and the demand for demerger of seven mandals (blocks) evoked strong reaction from ministers in Andhra Pradesh, who wondered if Telangana would agree to their demand to merge Hyderabad with Andhra Pradesh or unify both the states. Hours after Telangana's Transport Minister P. Ajay Kumar alleged that the Polavaram project being constructed by Andhra Pradesh across Godavari led to floods in the river at Bhadrachalam, at least two ministers from the neighbouring state hit back. On the demand that seven mandals of Telangana merged with Andhra Pradesh in 2014 be handed back to Telangana, Andhra Pradesh's Education Minister Botsa Satyanarayana and Water Resources minister Ambati Rambabu hit back at him. Satyanarayana wondered if Telangana would agree to the demand to merge Hyderabad with Andhra Pradesh. He said Andhra Pradesh suffered loss of revenue after Hyderabad was made the capital of Telangana. "Let them demand that the state be united like in the past. We have no objection to it," he said. The minister also claimed that Polavaram project was being constructed as per the design. "We can't do anything without permission from Central Water Commission," he said. Satyanarayana said if some areas in Telangana are getting submerged due to floods, the government of that state should address the problem. Rambabu advised the Telangana minister not to create new problems between the two states. He pointed out that the seven mandals were merged with Andhra Pradesh in 2014 to create any hurdles in construction of Polavaram project. On Ajay Kumar's demand to handover at least five villages near Bhadrachalam to Telangana, Rambabu said the demand should be made to the Centre. Talking to reporters in Hyderabad, he found fault with the Telangana minister's statement that Bhadrachalam is facing floods due to the Polavaram project. --IANS ms/vd ( 314 Words) 2022-07-19-22:46:02 (IANS)
The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed a Karnataka High Court judgment, which allowed the trial of a husband for allegedly raping his wife. A bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising justices Krishna Murari and Justice Hima Kohli, passed an order of ad-interim stay on the high court's judgment and also stayed the sessions court proceedings in connection with the FIR lodged by the wife against her husband. "Until further orders, there shall be an ad-interim stay of the common impugned judgment and final order dated 23rd March, 2022 passed by the High Court of Karnatakaa and further proceedings in relation to Special C.Ca.. arising out of FIR bearing crimea... pending before the Additional City and Sessions and Special Court for cases under the POCSO Act, Bangalore." The wife's counsel sought four weeks' time to file a counter-affidavit and the husband's counsel opposed this request for adjournment. "In view of the above, list the matter after one week," said the top court. In May, the apex court had issued notice in the husband's plea against the high court judgment, but however, had then refused to stay the high court's judgment and trial proceedings. A single judge bench of the high court said the institution of marriage cannot be used as a license for unleashing a "brutal beast" on the wife. It said it is for the lawmakers to ponder over existence of such inequalities in law and for ages, man, donning the robes of a husband, has used the wife as his chattel. The high court said: "A brutal act of sexual assault on the wife, against her consent, albeit by the husband, cannot but be termed to be a rape. Such sexual assault by a husband on his wife will have grave consequences on the mental sheet of the wife, it has both psychological and physiological impact on her." In May, an appeal was filed in the Supreme Court challenging Delhi High Court's verdict that expressed 'split views' on criminalisation of marital rape. On May 11, a bench of Justice Rajiv Shakdher and Justice C. Hari Shankar expressed different opinions in the judgment on the exception to Section 375 of the IPC, which exempts forceful sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife from the offence of rape. --IANS ss/vd ( 401 Words) 2022-07-19-22:58:03 (IANS)
Hindustani Awam Morcha chief and former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Tuesday termed the Agnipath and Agniveer scheme of defence recruitment "dangerous" for the country. His statement of Manjhi came after the provision of caste certificates introduced by the Central government in the recruitment of Agniveers in the defense forces. "I have been protesting against the Agnipath and Agniveer schemes since the beginning. Centre is giving lollipops in the name of Agniveer. Demanding caste certificates in the recruitment is absolutely wrong. It creates suspicion. They will make their own people powerful and will create discrimination in the society," Manjhi said. After the Centre had launched Agnipath and Agniveer schemes in the country, a massive outrage appeared among youths who were preparing for jobs in the armed forces. Massive violence was seen in Bihar when a large number of railway properties were set afire. JD-U Parliamentary Board president Upendra Kushwaha on Monday questioned the need for caste certificates for recruitment under the Agniveer scheme. "I was surprised when I saw the caste certificate and religion certificate required in the notification. Hence, I asked Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to clarify this point. There is not any such provision in the recruitment in the defense forces. They are demanding caste and religion certificates. I don't know why such a provision was mentioned in the notification." RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav also raised his point as well. He said that youths are ready to sacrifice their lives for the country and the Centre is asking about their caste and religion. Meanwhile, Rajnath Singh told media persons in New Delhi: "There is no change in the recruitment process of Agniveers in the country. It is the same since the independence of the country. Hence, there is no need of giving clarification in this matter." --IANS ajk/vd ( 313 Words) 2022-07-19-23:02:01 (IANS)
Who Protects Christian Properties in Northeast Syria?

Christians of various sects from northeastern Syria have suffered mass emigration in the years since 2011. Some of those who emigrated from Syria, known as "absentees," left behind real estate and other properties without legal representatives to take care of them. Those properties, especially the ones in city and town centres, have become the targets of seizure through extortion, forgery and fraud.

The Committee for Protection of Syriac, Assyrian and Armenian Absentee Properties

To address the problem of mass emigration, the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) formed the Committee for Protection of Syriac, Assyrian and Armenian Absentee Properties in 2014. Committee members receive their salaries from the AANES and other compensation from funds donated by Christian residents and expats from the area. The committee is a civilian body with branches in various AANES-controlled parts of northeastern Syria, and only intervenes before AANES courts in judicial disputes where one of the parties is an absentee Christian. Members field complaints related to extortion or occupation of absentees' properties and handle requests from tenants of absentee Christians' properties regarding rent, furoogh contracts and evictions.

However, the committee's powers are limited only to the cases that are raised before the AANES courts, as well as any cases of property violation already known to the absentee Christian property owners themselves. At the same time, some property extorters may benefit from the conflict of jurisdiction between AANES courts and regime courts. For example, an extorter can counteract a lawsuit raised against him in the courts belonging to one of the parties to the case by filing a separate lawsuit himself before the courts of the other party. This conflict grants the usurper the opportunity to continue occupying a given property.

Fraud

Seizure through fraud remains among the most common violations against absentee Christians' properties in northeastern Syria. Such seizures can be done through fake sales contracts that feature forged signatures, as well as by carrying out the ownership transfer process in absentia through courts that are under the Syrian government's judicial authority. This is what happened in the city of Qamishli to the Ephram family; a prominent businessman seized the family's building through fraud.

Oftentimes, perpetrators forge the property owner's signature on a sales contract, then file a case before the Civil Court of First Instance in order to formally document the contract. The claimant also provides proof that the original property owner is currently outside Syria or that their residence is unknown (i.e., that they live in regions of Syria outside of government control). After the court confirms that the property owner is either outside Syria or of unknown residence, it publishes a notification announcement in official newspapers and posts it on the court bulletin board. A month and a half later, the court publishes another notice in official newspapers and on the bulletin board, specifying the date of the upcoming court session, the name of the court, the names of the claimant and defendant and the type of case to be deliberated.

The defendant -- the absentee owner of the property under dispute -- is usually unable to see these locally published notices. That means the official notification procedures may occur without the property owner having ever known they happened.

For the judge to resolve such cases, two witness testimonies are usually sufficient. In cases where there is suspicion of fraud, the judge orders testimony from an expert to confirm the authenticity of any signatures or fingerprints. This process is called "cross-matching for the outstanding contract" and involves comparing the contract in question with any of the original property owner's previous signatures or fingerprints.

Afterwards, the court publishes a summary in official newspapers of its decision to confirm the in absentia sales contract. The court also sets deadlines for appealing and rebuttal.
The interaction by the Prime Minister is a part of his continuous endeavour to motivate athletes ahead of their participation in major sporting events.

Last year, Modi interacted with the Indian athletes' contingent bound for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as well as the Indian para-athletes' contingent for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Even during the sporting events, the Prime Minister took a keen interest in the progress of the athletes. On many occasions, he personally rang up athletes to congratulate them on their success and sincere efforts, while motivating them to do better.

Further, also upon their return to the country, the Prime Minister has also met and interacted with the athletes.

The CWG 2022 is scheduled to be held in Birmingham from July 28 till August 8. A total of 215 athletes, participating in 141 events across 19 sporting disciplines, will represent India in the CWG 2022. (ANI)
The Customs sleuths have arrested a passenger who had flown in from Dubai and seized air guns, telescopic sights and arms accessories worth Rs. 20,54,000 at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow, informed the officials on Tuesday. The materials were recovered from a passenger coming from Dubai via flight no. IX-194. The passenger was intercepted on the basis of database while attempting to pass through green channel without any declaration to Customs. "During the examination of his luggage 10 air Guns, telescopic sights mountable on arms and other misc. arms accessories were recovered. During subsequent interrogation, the pax was found to be not in possession of licit documents," read an official statement. The goods have been seized for contravention of Customs Act, 1962 read with Baggage Rules, 2016, Foreign Trade (D&R) Act 1992 and Arms Rules, 2016. The passenger has been arrested and will be produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offences) Lucknow for judicial custody. Further investigations are underway. Earlier on July 14, the Customs department at Indira Gandhi International airport arrested an Indian couple who had arrived from Vietnam and seized at least 45 guns worth more than Rs 22 lakh from their bags. According to the Commissioner of Customs, the accused couple admitted their previous involvement in the smuggling of 25 guns having a value of more than Rs 12 lakh. "An Indian couple that arrived from Vietnam was nabbed and 45 guns worth over Rs 22 lakh from two trolley bags seized. They admitted their previous indulgence in smuggling 25 pieces of guns having a value of over Rs 12 lakh," said the Commissioner of Customs, Indira Gandhi International Airport and General. While the National Security Guard (NSG) has confirmed the functionality of the seized guns in a preliminary report, the Customs said that a ballistic report will confirm whether they are genuine.(ANI)
A total of 5 officials including the Public Works Department (PWD) Head & Chief Engineer Manoj Gupta suspended due to transfer irregularities in the department. This is after the action was taken on PWD Minister Jitin Prasada's OSD Anil Kumar Pandey on July 18.

According to the official statement, Chief Engineer (Development) and departmental head of PWD Manoj Kumar Gupta, Chief Engineer (Project and Planning) Rakesh Kumar Saxena and Senior Staff Officer Shailendra Kumar Yadav have been suspended with immediate effect.

Along with them, administrative officer Pankaj Dixit and principal assistant Sanjay Kumar Chaurasia have also been suspended and a disciplinary inquiry has been instituted against them.

It further said that after coming to the notice of the serious irregularities in the transfer orders passed during the current transfer session in the Public Works Department, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath constituted a high-level inquiry committee headed by the Agriculture Production Commissioner Manoj Kumar Singh.

He said that based on the inquiry report submitted on July 16, the Chief Minister ordered the suspension of engineers with immediate effect by instituting disciplinary action against them.

Taking immediate cognizance of the serious irregularities in the transfer in the Public Works Department, the above action has been taken by the Uttar Pradesh government.

Acting on the 'zero tolerance' policy on corruption, the State government had already suspended Anil Kumar Pandey, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of PWD Minister Jitin Prasad. (ANI)
A video of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) minister KR Periyakaruppan threatening a journalist in Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga district is garnering social media attention. The Rural Development minister was supposed to attend an event at 10 am. However, the minister arrived at the event only afternoon, making the public wait for over two hours. When confronted by a regional journalist over the two-hour delay, the minister threatened the journalist. "Who waited for three hours? Who gave such an interview? Who waited inside?", the minister can be seen asking the journalist in the viral video. The DMK minister, however, did not comment on the matter in the viral video. Meanwhile, the state is witnessing protests after a Class 12 student jumped off her hostel building on July 13 in Kallakurichi. She was allegedly tortured by a teacher, as stated in the girl's suicide note. The team of Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has asked the parents of the deceased Class XII girl student of a private school at Kaniyamoor near Chinna Salem in the Kallakurichi district to collect her body for final rites as the probe team has initiated the investigation into the case that sparked violence in the State. CB-CID has put a notice outside the deceased girl's house in the Cuddalore district informing the family members about the re-postmortem and asked her parents to collect her body for final rites. On Sunday, the Director General of Police C Sylendra Babu, who made a spot visit to the school, ordered the transfer of the case to the CB-CID. On July 18, the Madras High Court has ordered a second autopsy of the girl who killed herself after she was allegedly harassed by two teachers at her school in Kallakurichi. The court ordered that the father of the girl be allowed to remain during the procedure. The first post-mortem report mentioned "abrasions", according to the police. The cause of death as mentioned in the first autopsy was multiple injuries and haemorrhage. The father of the deceased girl has moved to the Supreme Court, seeking an amendment of the Madras High Court order on the second autopsy. (ANI)
Mumbai Crime Branch on Monday arrested four persons for allegedly demanding Rs 100 crore for offering ministerial posts to MLAs in Maharashtra. This news comes ahead of the likely cabinet expansion in Maharashtra. Although the final date for the exercise is still under discussion, insiders in the BJP said cabinet expansion was high on the party's agenda and will take place, in all probability, in the fourth week of July. In order to take advantage of the political situation, four accused tried to cheat 3 MLAs in the name of offering ministerial posts in the cabinet, Mumbai Crime Branch sources told ANI today morning. The arrested accused have been identified as Riyaz Sheikh (41 years, Kolhapur), Yogesh Kulkarni (age 57 years, arrested from Thane), Sagar Sangwai (37) and Zafar Ahmed Usmani (who was arrested from Mumbai). Sources said that "one accused Riyaz Sheikh tried to contact MLA Rahul Kul via his personal assistant. The next day, the PA had a talk with MLA Kul, after which he called Shaikh to meet him at a hotel in Nariman Point. MLA Kul talked about a portfolio, on which accused Shaikh said that for this you will have to pay Rs 90 crores." The MLA informed the police about this and the police set a trap to nab the accused. As the accused Sheikh reached the hotel at around 1.30 pm on Monday, the police took him into custody. In the hotel, MLA Kul, his PA and another BJP MLA were present in the hotel. During interrogation, Sheikh shared information about the role of two more accused, Kulkarni and Sangwai, following which they were also arrested from Thane late on Monday night. Kulkarni and Sangwai told that a person named Usmani had claimed that he knew a person in Delhi who was also involved in this matter. After this, the police laid a trap and arrested Usmani on Tuesday morning and registered a case of fraud against the four accused and presented them in the Court, where the court sent them to police custody. The police is probing whether these people had cheated anyone else like this before. (ANI)
The Supreme Court began hearing on Wednesday petitions filed by both factions of the Shiv Sena relating to the control of Shiv Sena party and the recent political crisis in Maharashtra, which brought down the Mahavikas Aghadi (Congress-Shiv Sena-NCP) government in the state. A bench led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli hearing the petitions filed by Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray factions said time is not an issue but some of the issues are important constitutional issues which should be settled. The pleas one by the Shinde camp and five by the Thackeray camp pertain to the disqualification proceedings, the election of Speaker, recognition of whip, floor test and others. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal representing Uddhav Thackeray''s camp told the apex court that every elected government in this country can be toppled if this case can be accepted. "Democracy is in danger if state governments can be toppled despite the bar under the 10th schedule," Sibal said. Meanwhile, senior advocate Harish Salve for the Eknath Shinde camp said that inner party democracy has been throttled by disqualification proceedings. He has sought time to file reply on the petitions filed by Thackeray camp and asks to post the hearing next week. In his arguments Sibal said: "Forty members of Shiv Sena by their conduct are deemed to have incurred disqualification by giving up party membership. By voting for a candidate put up by the BJP as Speaker in violation of the official whip, they have attracted disqualification. By voting in the vote of confidence violating official whip, they have incurred disqualification," said Sibal. He further said that the Governor should not have sworn-in to the new government when the Supreme Court was hearing the matters. "Speaker recognizing a whip other than the official whip nominated by the party is mala fide," he said. Sibal said that the issue of the political party is itself in question. When disqualified members elect a person and they stand disqualified, then the election itself is bad. "What happens to the verdict of the people who elected the government," Sibal asks. He said that the Schedule that has been used to prevent defection has been used to instigate defection. The tenth schedule has been turned topsy-turvy. Every day''s delay will play havoc with democratic decisions. An illegitimate government should stay for a single day, he added. Senior advocate Singhvi appearing for the Uddhav Thackeray-led camp also told the Supreme Court that the so-called departing faction sent a letter to the then Deputy Speaker seeking his removal and they sent it from an unauthorized email followed by a letter by an advocate. Deputy Speaker didn''t take it on record saying no MLAs came before him. Singvhi said the condition in the 10th Schedule is that not only you should have two-thirds going but also the 2/3rd should merge with another party. They have not merged with another party and they are not calling themselves BJP either. It is common ground that they have not merged. Yet they are not disqualified. They can vote in a floor test and form a contrived majority. We are beseeching the court to uphold a very important moral, ethical, legal and constitutional aspect, he added. Meanwhile, senior advocate Harish Salve for the Eknath Shinde camp said that inner party democracy has been throttled by disqualification proceedings. "If a large number of people in a party feels that another man should lead, what is wrong with that. The moment someone gathers enough strength within the party and stays within the party to question the leader without leaving the party and says we will defeat you in the house, that is not defection. Defection is only when they leave the party and join hands with one another, not when they stay in the party," he said. Salve further said that the inner party matter and the court has never interfered in the workings of a political party. Earlier, the top court had asked the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Rahul Narwekar not to take any action on the new disqualification notices issued against the members of Shiv Sena. It had asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Maharashtra Governor, to inform its direction to the newly-appointed Assembly Speaker. Uddhav Thackeray-led faction had approached the top court challenging the Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari''s decision to invite Eknath Shinde to form the government and also the Speaker''s election and floor test. They had also challenged the newly appointed Maharashtra Assembly Speaker''s action recognising the whip of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde group as the whip of Shiv Sena. The plea said the newly appointed Speaker has no jurisdiction to recognise whips nominated by Shinde as Uddhav Thackeray is still the head of the Shiv Sena official party. However, the Shinde group challenged the disqualification notices issued by the Deputy Speaker to 16 rebel MLAs as well as the appointment of Ajay Choudhary as Shiv Sena Legislature Party leader, which is also pending before the apex court. (ANI)
The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday constituted a three-member fact-finding committee to probe the alleged incident in Kollam where a student was asked to remove her innerwear before appearing for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) in Kerala. The Committee will submit its report in four weeks. "In pursuance of the directions of the Ministry of Education regarding a Candidate of NEET (UG)-2022 being subjected to harassment/ inhuman treatment at a Centre in Kollam District, Kerala during frisking at the examination centre on 17th July, 2022, a Fact Finding Committee to ascertain the facts on the spot has been constituted," the NTA said in a statement. The member of the fact-finding committee are: Dr Sadhana Parashar, Senior Director of NTA; Shylaja OR, Principal of Saraswathi Vidyalaya Arappura Vattiyoorkavu, Kerala; and Suchitra Shyjinth, Pragati Academy, Kerala. The committee will visit the spot and verify the facts of the matter after talking to all concerned persons. "To see whether the security/frisking Protocols of NTA as detailed in "Chapter 9: Barred Items and Dress Code" of Information Bulletin, as well as "Chapter 3: Para 3.13 of NTA NEET(UG)-2022 Guidelines for City Coordinators, Centre Superintendents, Observers 8 Invigilators, were followed," the NTA said. Meanwhile, BJP workers held a protest outside the examination centre, where women candidates were reportedly asked to remove their innerwear before entering the examination hall on July 18. Union Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Tuesday thanked Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for taking cognisance of an incident at the NEET Exam centre in Kerala's Kollam and instructing NTA to ascertain facts. Kerala police on Tuesday registered a case in connection with an alleged incident where a student was asked to remove her innerwear before appearing for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) in the state's Kollam district. A case was registered under sections 354 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code at the Chadayamangalam police station in the Kollam Rural police district. So far five people have been arrested in connection with an alleged incident. The arrested people include three from the agency and two from the college. The incident came to light after a student filed a complaint with the Superintendent of Police at Kollam after the NEET exam for undergraduate medical courses on July 18. In her complaint, the student alleged that she was asked to remove her innerwear before entering the examination hall. Reportedly, the parent of the student alleged that girls were forced to remove their innerwear before being permitted to sit for the exam and they had to give the exam along with other students who were boys as well as male invigilators, which made the girls uncomfortable affected them mentally. Citing the National Testing Agency's guidelines, the parent also highlighted that according to the norms mandated by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET had not mentioned any ban on any form of brassiere (bra) and hooks'. Meanwhile, the NTA an autonomous and self-sustained testing organization for conducting entrance examinations in a statement said that the exam centre's superintendent, the independent observer, as well as city coordinator (NEET) of the Kollam district, did not find any such incident happening at the examination centre. (ANI)
New Delhi, July 20 (ANI) The incidents of Naxal violence reduced by 77 per cent from all-time high of 2,258 in 2009 to 509 in 2021, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. While giving a written reply to the query of Congress MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Rai said "The steadfast implementation of the 'national policy and action plan to address Left Wing Extremism (LWE) 2015 has resulted in a consistent decline in LWE violence". "The incidents of LWE violence have reduced by 77 per cent from all-time high of 2,258 in 2009 to 509 in 2021. Similarly, the resultant deaths (civilians and security forces) have reduced by 85 per cent from all-time high of 1,005 in 2010 to 147 in 2021," the Minister said. The geographical spread of the violence has also reduced as only 46 districts reported LWE-related violence in 2021 as compared to 96 districts in 2010, said the Minister. The Minister said the decline in the geographical spread is also reflected in a reduced number of districts covered under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme. The number of SRE districts was also reduced from 126 to 90 in April 2018 and further to 70 in July 2021, said Rai. Similarly, the Minister said, the number of districts contributing approximately 90 per cent of the LWE violence, categorised as 'Most LWE Affected Districts', came down to 30 from 35 in 2018 and further to 25 in 2021. As per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, subjects of 'Police and Public Order' are with the State Governments. However, to address the LWE menace holistically, a National Policy and Action Plan was launched in 2015. The Policy envisages a multi-pronged strategy involving security-related measures, development interventions, ensuring the rights and entitlements of local communities. On the security front, the MoS also said, the Government of India supports the LWE-affected State Governments by providing Central Armed Police Forces battalions, helicopters, training, funds for the modernisation of State police forces, arms and equipment, sharing of intelligence and construction of Fortified Police Stations. "The Central government also provides funds for capacity building of the LWE affected States under various schemes like Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme and Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS) to fight the LWE menace effectively," said the Minister. Under SIS, Rai said, projects worth Rs 991.04 crore have been approved during 2017-21 for upgradation and strengthening of Special Forces (SFs) and Special Intelligence Branches (SIBs) and for construction of 250 Fortified Police Stations in LWE affected areas. Under SRE Scheme, Rs 2,299 crore has been released to States since 2014-15. On the development front, the Minister said, the Central government has taken several specific initiatives in LWE-affected states. Special thrust has been given on expansion of road network, improving Telecommunication connectivity, skill development and financial inclusion, said Rai, adding, that more than 11,230 km of roads have already been constructed in LWE affected areas under specific schemes like Road Requirement Plan-1 (RRP-I) and Road Connectivity Project for LWE affected areas (RCPLWEA). A total of 2,343 mobile towers were installed under Phase-1 and a work order has been issued for 2,542 towers under Phase-I of the Mobile Connectivity Project for LWE Affected areas, said the Minister, adding Rs 3,085.74 crore has been released to the most LWE affected districts under the scheme 'Special Central Assistance (SCA)' to fill the critical gaps in public infrastructure and services. "Special focus has been given on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of the youth in these areas. 47 Industrial Training Institute (ITI) and 68 Skill Development Centres (SDC) have been approved under Skill Development Scheme in 47 districts affected by LWE," said the MoS. "For financial inclusion of the local populace in these areas, 1,258 Bank Branches were opened, 1348 ATMs were installed and 22,202 Banking Correspondents have been made functional in 30 Most LWE affected districts in the last seven years. Further, 4,903 new Post Offices have also been opened in 90 LWE-affected districts in the last seven years," Rai added. (ANI)
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's letter to the vaccinators of the country aiming to motivate the healthcare workers of the country. "PM @NarendraModi ji has written a letter on the achievement of 200 crore vaccinations of the world's largest vaccination campaign against COVID-19. I appreciate and thank every effort related to this campaign. This has encouraged all vaccinators. With this enthusiasm, all of us will continue to work in this drive, "Mandaviya tweeted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi today wrote a letter to all vaccinators of the country and lauded their efforts in the battle against COVID-19 as India surpassed the 200-crore vaccination mark recently. "The scale and speed that India imparted to the world's largest vaccination programme has been spectacular and this has happened due to the efforts of people like you," PM Modi wrote in an appreciation letter on Wednesday thanking the vaccinators for their contribution. "Our COVID-19 vaccination journey commenced on January 16, 2021, and on July 17, 2022, we achieved yet another milestone. It was a memorable day for the country as India surpassed the 200-crore vaccination mark. This is a landmark achievement in our battle against the COVID-19 pandemic," PM Modi said in his letter. He added, "Our vaccinators, healthcare workers, healthcare support staff and frontline workers have played a critical role in protecting Indians. This is a laudable example of dedication to duty and delivering when it is most necessary." This comes just days after the country passed the 200 crore vaccination doses mark on July 17. "India creates history again! Congrats to all Indians on crossing the special figure of 200 crore vaccine doses. Proud of those who contributed to making India's vaccination drive unparalleled in scale and speed. This has strengthened the global fight against Covid-19," PM Modi had tweeted. On Friday, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya launched 'Covid Vaccination Amrit Mahotsav' at COVID Vaccination Camp in Nirman Bhawan. He also appealed to the people to get the free dose so as to ensure protection against COVID-19. "All Health Ministry employees initiated their inoculation of the free doses. My appeal to all citizens above the age of 18 years to get the free dose to ensure your protection against Covid-19," said Mandaviya. "On 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav', all eligible people (18+) can get a free precaution dose for the next 75 days," Mandaviya added. (ANI)
Hours after a female sub-inspector named Sandhya Topno was mowed down to death allegedly during a vehicle check, Jharkhand Police on Wednesday assured that the guilty won't be spared. In an exclusive conversation with ANI today, Ranchi Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kaushal Kishore said, "We got information from Tupudana Out Post area that a suspicious vehicle coming from Gumla is reaching Ranchi. Thus, a police check led by sub-inspector Sandhya Topno was deployed in the area." The police have arrested one accused in the matter and is trying to nab the other accused. "This incident happened with the Sub-Inspector while she was trying to stop this vehicle. After getting injured, she was taken to a hospital where she was declared dead. The vehicle has been taken into custody and the driver has been arrested too," said Ranchi SSP Kishore Kaushal. The accused arrested tried to breach government works as well in the past, the police said. "One more person was present inside the vehicle, for whom a continuous search is on. Efforts will be to complete the investigation quickly and get the guilty punished with a speedy trial. Accused, namely Nigaar Khan tried to breach government works as well," said Ranchi SSP Kishore Kaushal. Further probe into the matter is underway. In another incident in Haryana, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Surendra Singh Bishnoi was mowed down by a truck while probing illegal stone-mining in Nuh district. Police officer, Surendra Singh Bishnoi, who had gone to investigate a case of illegal mining in Nuh, died after being allegedly run over by a dumper driver. Nuh Police official informed ANI today in this case and said, "Tawadu (Mewat) DSP Surendra Singh Bishnoi, who had gone to investigate an instance of illegal mining in Nuh, died after being run over by a dumper driver. A search operation is underway to apprehend the accused. More details are awaited." Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday announced a compensation of Rs 1 crore to the family of DSP Surendra Singh Bishnoi and said the culprits will not be spared. He said strict action will be taken against the mining mafia in the state. "We will control the mining mafia in the state and the culprits will not be spared. Strict action will be taken against them," he said. Khattar said police posts will be created near mining areas and the destination of mining vehicles and their equipment will also be fixed. (ANI)
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In the third incident of technical malfunction involving Go First planes in the last 2 days, a windshield of a flight between Delhi and Guwahati cracked mid-air due to bad weather on Wednesday, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official said. The aircraft was diverted to Jaipur and landed safely. Earlier this month, DGCA said that 30 such incidents take place daily, but these occurrences hardly have any safety implications. "On average, about 30 incidents do take place, including go-around, missed approaches, diversion, medical emergencies, weather, technical and bird hits," the top DGCA told ANI. "Most of them have no safety implications. On the contrary, they are a sine qua non of a robust safety management system," he added. On Tuesday, a Delhi-bound GoAir aircraft was rejected take-off from Leh due to a dog on the runway. In similar incidents, another two Go First flights were diverted due to engine snags on Tuesday. The DGCA has said that the matter is being investigated and the aircraft are being grounded. The DGCA added that the flights will take off once they get clearance from the authority. While the GoAir A320 aircraft VT-WGA flight from Mumbai to Leh was diverted to Delhi due to Engine No.2 EIU (Engine Interface Unit) fault, Go Air A320 aircraft VT-WJG flight G8-6202, from Srinagar to Delhi was diverted to Srinagar due to Engine no. 2 EGT over limit. Meanwhile, after frequent engineering-related glitches were reported in several airlines, the DGCA conducted several spot checks and advised that all aircraft at base and transit stations shall be released by certifying staff holding a licence with appropriate authorization by their organization, said officials on Monday. The DGCA mentioned that there have been reports of increased engineering-related occurrences in scheduled airlines in recent times. In order to ensure that airlines are adhering to the laid down standards, DGCA has conducted several spot checks in the recent past. The spot checks carried out by DGCA teams have indicated the improper identification of the cause of a reported defect, increasing trend of minimum equipment list (MEL) releases and non-availability of required certifying staff to cater to multiple scheduled arrivals/ departures in a short interval. "It is also seen that airlines are resorting to frequent one-off authorisation to Category A certifying staff at transit stations which is not in line with existing regulatory provisions. Keeping the above in view, it has been decided that all aircraft at base and transit stations shall be released by certifying staff holding Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) Category B1/B2 licence with appropriate authorization by their organization," read the letter. "The airlines are therefore advised to position certifying staff (AME Category B1/B2 licence) at all base and transit stations including the availability of required tools and equipment. Alternatively, you may opt for sending the certifying staff on flight duties. The compliance with the above shall be ensured by July 28, 2022, under intimation to their office," added the letter. The move comes after several instances were reported in the country where flights were diverted citing safety or functioning issues. (ANI)
National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted a raid in Jamia Maria Niswa Madrasa located in the Dhaka police station area of Bihar's Purvi Champaran district and arrested a teacher. The arrested person, who was identified as Asghar Ali, was brought to Patna on Tuesday. The Central agency also detained two others, however, they were let off after questioning along with the laptop that was recovered initially. Notably, after the arrest of Athar Parvez and Mohammad Jallauddin of Popular Front of India from Phulwari Sharif area in Patna, the investigation reached East Champaran district as well. After the name of Riyaz of Chakia surfaced in the investigation, many areas of the district came on the radar of security agencies. Two teams of NIA reached Motihari. The first team of NIA probed the teacher of the Madrasa and arrested him while two others were detained for questioning. The laptop was also looked into. The two detained persons were left after the questioning. The second team of NIA reached Asghar Ali's house located in Gad Siswaniya village of Palanwa police station area. Apart from Raxaul DSP, the police of many police stations were also with the NIA. The agency recovered five bags full of books which were taken to Patna. Bihar Police recently busted a potential terror module with some links to extremist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and arrested two accused from the Phulwari Sharif area of Patna for indulging in anti-India activities. Three more arrests have been made later and taking the total to five. One of the accused has been arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police from Lucknow. Among those arrested is a retired police officer of Jharkhand, Mohammad Jallauddin and a former member of Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) "who is also a current member" of PFI and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), Athar Parvez. ASP Phulwarisharif, Manish Kumar had said that an FIR has been lodged against a total of 26 people of which three people have been arrested. The case has drawn wide attention in Bihar and the state ATS is involved in the investigations.Kumar had said an excerpt from an eight-page-long document the accused shared titled 'India vision 2047' talks about "subjugating coward majority community and bringing back the glory". Kumar said that Parvez's younger brother went to jail in 2001-02 bomb blasts in the state after SIMI was banned. He said their internal document is very objectionable and talks of "rule of Islam in India". Kumar said an excerpt from an eight-page long document they shared amongst themselves titled 'India vision 2047' says, "PFI confident that even if 10 per cent of total Muslim population rally behind it, PFI would subjugate coward majority community and bring back the glory," he added.He said the document mentions that in case of a full-fledged showdown with the state, "apart from relying on cadres we would need help from friendly Islamic countries." (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in all the FIR registered against him in Uttar Pradesh. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and AS Bopanna said there is no justification to keep Zubair in continued detention, especially since the allegations in the FIRs registered in Uttar Pradesh are similar to those in the Delhi Police FIR. "Existence of powers of arrest must be distinguished from the exercise of powers of arrest which must be used sparingly," Justice Chandrachud said. It also clubbed all the six FIRs registered by the UP Police and transferred all the FIRs registered across the country as well as in UP to Delhi. The apex court also disbanded the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the UP Police to probe the cases against Zubair. The apex court ordered that the transfer of the FIRs shall apply to all existing FIRs and to all future FIRs that may be registered on the issue. The top court, while granting interim bail to Zubair, noted that he had already been granted bail by the Patiala House Court in Delhi in a similar case registered by the Delhi Police. The bench directed Zubair to furnish a bail bond of Rs 20,000 before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Patiala House Court. It said that immediately after the submission of the bail bond, the Superintendent of Tihar Jail must ensure that Zubair is released before 6 pm today. The bench in its order stated, "Essentially the gravamen of allegations are tweets by him. He has been subjected to fairly sustained probe by Delhi Police. We don't find a reason for his deprivation of liberty to persist further. We direct Zubair be released on bail on each of the FIRs in UP. Existence of powers of arrest must be distinguished from the exercise of powers of arrest, which must be used sparingly." The apex court also said that Zubair can move Delhi High Court for quashing of all or any of the FIRs. Additional Advocate General of UP, Garima Prashad appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government urged the bench to impose a bail condition on Zubair that he should not tweet again. The bench declined the request saying "We can't say that he won't tweet again. It is like telling a lawyer that you should not argue. How can we tell a journalist that he will not write? If there is any tweets against law, he will be answerable. How can we pass any anticipatory order that someone will not speak..." During the hearing today, advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for Zubair, contended that "we are in the age of digital media and social media" and that is why the role of someone debunking propaganda can irk someone but the law cannot be weaponised against Zubair. AAG Prashad said that the accused is not a journalist and he calls himself a fact-checker. "Instead of fact-checking, he posts tweets which are getting viral and spreading venom," Prashad said. She added that Zubair "has been paid for these tweets and he gets paid more for the malicious tweets"."State is conscious that here is a person who instead of informing police, takes advantage of videos, speeches etc which can create communal divide. UP State is not here because of some tweets, but because of violence that has happened after such tweets," she added.Zubair had approached the top court seeking to either quash all the FIRs registered against him in Uttar Pradesh or in the alternative club them and also challenged the constitution of SIT. Zubair challenged the FIRs registered at six places in Uttar Pradesh -- Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad and Hathras (two FIRs). On Monday, the Supreme Court directed the Uttar Pradesh police to not take any precipitative action against Zubair in any of the FIRs filed in the state till July 20.The top court had stayed precipitative action against Zubair in connection with five FIR saying it appears that he is being taken into custody in another FIR if he gets bail in one and that the content of the FIRs appeared similar. In the plea, Zubair said his personal liberty has been completely jeopardized without following the due procedure established by law, and requested the court either to quash the six FIRs in UP or club all of them with the FIR at Delhi, where he was first arrested, to avoid multiplicity of proceedings and prolonged detention. The plea also challenged the constitution of the two-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) by the Uttar Pradesh government. Uttar Pradesh government had last week formed the SIT to investigate the six cases registered against Zubair in various districts of the State. The SIT comprised Inspector General Preetinder Singh, currently posted at Department of Prisons Administration and Reform, and Deputy Inspector General of police Amit Verma.Zubair also sought interim bail in all FIRs. On July 12 the Supreme Court had extended till September 7 the five days of interim bail granted to Zubair in the case registered against him by Uttar Pradesh Police in Sitapur. The apex court had clarified that its interim bail order is with respect to the FIR lodged in Sitapur only and has nothing to do with a separate case registered against him in Delhi. Zubair had challenged the Allahabad High Court order refusing to quash an FIR registered against him by Uttar Pradesh police in Sitapur for a tweet in which he allegedly called three Hindu seers "'hate mongers". Sitapur court had sent him to judicial custody and declined his bail plea.Hathras court had also sent Zubair to 14-day judicial custody after two cases were registered against him in the district on July 4. The case was registered by Deepak Sharma for Zubair's remarks on Hindu Gods and Goddesses in a tweet in 2018. Last week, the Lakhimpur court had sent Zubair to 14-day judicial custody.Delhi court had also sent him to judicial custody in the case registered against him. The Delhi police had arrested him on June 27 for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through one of his tweets. (ANI)
A total of 307 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles (AR) personnel sacrificed their lives in the line of duty for the nation in the last five years, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Rai shared the information while replying to a query of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP KRN Rajeshkumar, mentioning 27 of the 307 personnel sacrificed their lives in 2021; 39 in 2020; 90 in 2019; 75 in 2018; and 76 in 2018. Of the 307 troops, 180 were deployed in Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 49 in Border Security Force (BSF), 37 in Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), seven each in Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), and 27 in Assam Rifles. The minister answered when asked by DMK leader Rajeshkumar "whether it is a fact that a large number of paramilitary personnel have sacrificed their lives for the nation". Informing about the benefits available to the Next of Kin (NoK) of CAPFs and Assam Rifles personnel killed on duty, the minister said the Central ex-gratia lump sum compensation has been enhanced with effect from January 1, 2016 from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 35 lakh for death on active duty and from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh for death on duty. The NoK of the deceased are entitled to get Liberalized Family Pension under Central Civil Service (Extra Ordinary Pension) Rules, 1939, said the MoS. All service benefits like Death-cum-Retirement Gratuity (DCRG), Leave Encashment, Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme (CGEGIS), General Provident Fund (GPF) are admissible. Each of the forces has set up force-level welfare schemes for their personnel such as Benevolent Funds, Financial Assistance and Scholarship to the children for education, financial assistance for daughter's and sister's marriage. 'Bharat ke Veer' is an online portal which enables people to donate voluntarily to the NoKs of CAPF personnel who sacrifice their lives. Such contributions are made online directly to the accounts of NoKs, said the minister. "In addition, funds received in Bharat Ke Veer corpus are also distributed to the NoKs of such personnel." 'Operational Casualty Certificate' (OCC) are given to the NoKs of CAPFs personnel killed in action on the lines of 'Battle Casualty Certificate' in Armed Forces. OCC entitles NoKs to certain benefits like Air and Rail travel fare concession, allotment of Petrol Pumps, etc on the lines of benefits available to NoKs of the Armed Forces personnel. Under Prime Minister Scholarship Scheme (PMSS), an amount Rs 3,000 per month for girls and Rs 2,500 per month for boys is released to the wards of serving and ex-CAPFs, Assam Rifles and National Security Guard (NSG) personnel. Many states and Union Territories have also made provisions to pay compensation and assistance to NoKs as per their rules. (ANI)
Hyderabad's Saroornagar police station registered a case against Arvind for using derogatory language and abusive words for KCR. Police registered a case against him after receiving a notice from KCR's advocate to take action against the alleged act of creating an "unlawful atmosphere".

On July 18, Saroornagar police received a petition from advocate V Ravikumar. The petition stated that on July 13 Dharmapuri Arvind who is also MP from Nizamabad, conducted a press meet along with the BJP party cadre at the BJP party office. Wherein, he had used abusive words for the CM of Telangana in an attempt to degrade his image in public.

During the press meet, he allegedly abused the CM of Telangana in the local language by saying, "He is third rated liar," "a notorious criminal," he is a rogue of first grade".

The notice further read that the language used during the meeting was targeted to tarnish the image of the government and to generate hatred by inciting people or to create disaffection towards the state government and create an unwanted and unlawful atmosphere and enmity.

The notice further suggested taking action against the Arvind. (ANI)
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said that Congress is not letting DK Shivakumar 'function' as a KPCC president and claimed that Shivakumar is nursing his dream of becoming the Chief Minister. Speaking to media persons in Mysuru, Bommai said, "Shivakumar has been nursing the dream of becoming the Chief Minister. The Congress leaders are not allowing him to function even as the KPCC president. We have been watching what is happening in Congress." "Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC President DK Shivakumar are poles apart", Bommai said. Reacting to Shivakumar's statement on his (Bommai) style of functioning, Bommai said, "Let him first look into his own plate before commenting on what is there in others' plate." Refuting reports of power tussle within Karnataka Congress, state party chief DK Shivakumar on Tuesday asserted that 'Congress coming to power is more important than him becoming Chief Minister'. "It is more important for the Congress to come to power than for me to become the Chief Minister. Only if the Congress party comes to power, the post of Chief Minister will be available. The party high command will decide who should be the chief minister candidate. I am the party president after SM Krishna from the Vokkaliga community and I have requested that the Vokkaliga community should stand behind me," said KPCC president DK Shivakumar. With Karnataka Assembly elections scheduled next year, Congress which is hoping to return to power is in a tough spot as the party is facing factionalism with many leaders wanting to be projected as the party's chief ministerial candidate leaving the workers confused. (ANI)
The Tihar Jail Superintendent produced a compact disc (CD) in court containing CCTV footage of the cell where Sharjeel Imam has been lodged. The CD produced in the court could not be played due to a lack of technical support. The matter has been listed for July 23 for further hearing. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat was directed to list the matter on July 23. The CD would be played on the next date of hearing. The court also adjourned the order on the interim bail application of Sharjeel Imam in the sedition case. Superintendent of jail number one Gaurav Yadav appeared before the court and produced the CD. He submitted that the duty register is kept for the jail staff. For others, an attendance sheet is maintained. Karkardooma Court on July 14 had directed to produce the CCTV footage and duty register in connection with the incident of alleged assault on Sharjeel Imam. The court had also summoned the Superintendent of Tihar Jail. Sharjeel had alleged assault on him by jail officials and convicts during a search. According to him, he was called a terrorist. Jail authorities had filed a report and denied the allegations. The allegations of assault, throwing his books, and calling him a terrorist have been denied in the report. It was stated in the report that a search was conducted in his ward on June 30, 2022, under the supervision of the Deputy Jail Superintendent. It was also stated that Sharjeel Imam misbehaved with staff. He threatened to falsely implicate them. It stated he made the complaint to remain in media highlight. Jail authorities stated that the entire incident is recorded on the CCTV and the same has already been preserved. It will be produced in the court as and when directed. The court after perusing the report and hearing the submissions had directed to file the CCTV footage and duty register of Sahayak (sewadar) on the next date of hearing on July 20. Sharjeel had sought direction from jail authorities to preserve the CCTV footage. It was alleged that a search was illegally organized in his cell on the evening of June 30. His clothes and books were thrown by inmates during the search. He was assaulted in the presence of the assistant superintendent when he tried to stop them. Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad and advocate Talib Mustafa and Ahmed Ibrahim advanced their rebuttal on the interim bail application. Sharjeel had moved the lower court for bail in the Sedition case on May 27. His counsel had withdrawn the bail application from the Delhi High Court after the prosecution had raised the issue of maintainability. The High Court had asked him to approach the lower court for bail. The application says in the view of recent direction of the Supreme Court, Sharjeel Imam should be granted bail. On the other hand, the Special Public prosecutor (SPP) argued that though the proceedings under sedition law are stayed by the Supreme Court but the section of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) is invoked. These sections cannot be ignored. In these circumstances, the accused should not be granted interim bail. The Supreme Court had directed to keep all pending appeals and proceedings with the respect to the charge framed under section 124A (Sedition) of the Indian Penal Code in abeyance. This case was registered by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police for allegedly inflammatory speeches allegedly given by Sharjeel Imam at different places in the country in protest against CAA-NRC. Former JNU student Sharjeel Imam has been lodged in Tihar jail in an alleged conspiracy related to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots. (ANI)
Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday hit out at the ruling TRS in Telangana terming its government as "failed" which has "taken away the rights of the poor" and said it did not distribute additional 5 kg ration under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) since April. Goyal told the media persons here the Centre wrote several letters and spoke to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government but they "continued not to dispense" the ration. Food Corporation of India had earlier hit a pause on rice procurement from Telangana due to "state government irregularities". Goyal, who is Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, said the decision was taken with a heavy heart and accused the state government of being "insensitive" and "merciless". "It is with a very heavy heart I had to stop it because the Telangana government is such a merciless and insensitive government that the decision of the Prime Minister to provide 5 kg extra foodgrains under the PM-GKAY during the COVID pandemic, the state government was not implementing that decision since April. No government can do a bigger injustice than depriving the poor of their rights," Goyal said. Goyal said some mills were found to have poor storage during the audit and the state government did not act despite the Centre's reminder to do so. "Only using foul language against the Prime Minister and all of us does not do any good to the public. People are benefitted when the Centre takes care of the poor. The state government should have implemented the scheme honestly. We wrote several letters, spoke with them but they continued to not dispense. They have taken away the rights of the poor. Besides, some mills were found during the audit to have poor storage of the rice. Some mixture was found. The state governmnet was asked to act against it, they did not do that also," he said. The Union Minister, however, added that the state government, following pressure from the Centre to resume the implementation of the scheme, has distributed the foodgrains for the month of June and has "promised to do the same for July as well". "It is a failed government in the state of Telangana. We had to put a lot of pressure on the state government to resume it. They have distributed the grains for the month of June and have promised to do the same for July as well. I expect that the rights of the poor will be given to them," he said. The Union Cabinet had in March this year extended PM-GKAY for another six months till September 2022. Under the extended PM-GKAY, each beneficiary is entitled to additional 5 kg free ration per person per month in addition to his normal quota of foodgrains under the National Food Security Act. It means every poor household is entitled to nearly double the normal quantity of ration. FCI in several letters to K Chandrashekar Rao-led government had reminded it to address issues immediately and furnish an action-taken report "after multiple irregularities were found in the physical verification of the mills". The FCI found that the TRS government, despite having lifted a considerable quantity of rice from the central pool had not distributed it among the beneficiaries. The state lifted 1.90 lakh tonnes from Decentralized Procurement Scheme stocks during April and May, sources had told ANI. In March this year, a list of defaulter millers where shortages of rice had been noticed was communicated to the state government and it was asked to take immediate actions. As many as 453,896 bags of paddy were found short in a total of 40 mills, sources said. Again in May, shortages of another 137,872 bags were noticed in 63 mills. During verification of the rice stocks, a central team alleged that the paddy was not stored in a countable position due to which the physical verification of stocks could not be completed due to the lack of proper bookkeeping and standard operating procedures by the defaulting millers. In a recent letter addressed to the Civil Supplies Department of the Government of Telangana, the Centre's decision to put on hold rice procurement was enumerated with the reason behind it. "Despite considerable time period has lapsed, till date no concrete strict action has been taken by the state government in above regard against default millers where shortages have been noticed," FCI letter said. Taking into consideration the inaction by the state government against defaulter millers and non-distribution of PMGKAY foodgrains, the FCI informed that there would be no further rice receipts in the central pool till further orders. (ANI)
Of the nine places searched by the NIA, four were in Srinagar district and five in Pulwama district.

The searches conducted on Wednesday at the premises of the accused and suspects in the case have led to the recovery and seizure of digital devices and other incriminating materials, the NIA said.

The case is linked to a case related to the conspiracy of carrying out terror activities in and around Srinagar, in which four accused persons were arrested and 15 pistols, 30 magazines, 300 rounds and an SUV were seized.

The case was registered initially at Chanapora Police Station in Srinagar and was re-registered by the NIA on June 18. (ANI)
To honour the valour and sacrifice of the soldiers who laid down their lives in the line of duty, the Indian Army is organising a victory motorcycle rally in Jammu and Kashmir to commemorate the 23rd Kargil Vijay Diwas. The rally commenced from Turtuk on 20 July and will culminate at Kargil War Memorial, Dras on 26th July. According to a statement by the PRO, Defence, 18 Army personnel from Forever in Operation Division are participating in the rally. "The rally is being organised to honour the exemplary valour and sacrifice of our soldiers who laid down their lives in the line of duty and the riders, in memory of our fallen heroes will traverse through the tough terrain of Ladakh Region covering a total distance of 481 Kms," read the statement. "The Victory Motor Cycle Rally is a solemn reminder to all the men in uniform, of the enormous responsibility that rests on their shoulders, for which they are answerable, not only to the nation, but also to the bravehearts whose sacrifice continues to guide and motivate them," the statement added. The Indian Armed Forces defeated Pakistan on July 26, 1999. Since then, the day is celebrated as 'Kargil Vijay Diwas' to rekindle the pride and valour of the soldiers who took part in Operation Vijay. The day marks the victory of Indian soldiers in recapturing the mountain heights that were occupied by the Pakistani Army on July 26, 1999, known as the Kargil War. (ANI)
On June 13, two Youth Congress workers boarded the IndiGo 6E flight from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram. After the flight landed, they raised slogans against CM Vijayan who was on board, demanding his resignation over the allegations raised by the gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh.

Youth Congress workers Farseen Mageed and RK Naveen Kumar alleged that they were manhandled by EP Jayarajan inside the flight. Jayarajan allegedly pushed the two leaders, causing chaos at the Thiruvananthapuram airport.

Meanwhile, CPI (M) stated that the LDF convenor was trying to rescue the CM from the Youth Congress workers.

The Chief Minister also said in the Assembly that no action will be taken against EP Jayarajan who was travelling along with him.

A case of attempt to murder has been registered against the Youth Congress workers who raised slogans and protested against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the flight.

IndiGo Airlines has put Kerala ruling front Left Democratic Front's (LDF) convenor EP Jayarajan and the two Youth Congress workers on a 'no-fly list' over their unruly act inside the aircraft.

The action was taken following Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) guidelines on unruly passengers. IndiGo has set up a committee and based on findings three passengers have been put on the 'no-fly list'.

An incident of unruly behaviour occurred on June 13 on board IndiGo flight 6E - 7407 from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram involving Naveen Kumar RK, Farsin Majeed PP and EP Jayarajan wherein Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was on board.

Valiyathura police have registered a case against Youth Congress workers who protested inside the flight against Vijayan. The case has been registered under IPC sections 307, 332, 334 and 120b. A case has also been filed for aircraft rules violation. (ANI)
Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair on Wednesday evening walked out of Tihar jail after Supreme Court granted him interim bail in all the FIRs registered against him in Uttar Pradesh. Advocate Soutik Banerjee, his lawyer, said, "Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair is released from Tihar and is now out of jail." Mohammed Zubair was arrested on June 27 by Delhi Police. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and AS Bopanna said there is no justification to keep Zubair in continued detention, especially since the allegations in the FIRs registered in Uttar Pradesh are similar to those in the Delhi Police FIR. "Existence of powers of arrest must be distinguished from the exercise of powers of arrest which must be used sparingly," Justice Chandrachud said. It also clubbed all the six FIRs registered by the UP Police and transferred all the FIRs registered across the country as well as in UP to Delhi. The apex court also disbanded the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the UP Police to probe the cases against Zubair. The apex court ordered that the transfer of the FIRs shall apply to all existing FIRs and to all future FIRs that may be registered on the issue. The top court, while granting interim bail to Zubair, noted that he had already been granted bail by the Patiala House Court in Delhi in a similar case registered by the Delhi Police. The bench directed Zubair to furnish a bail bond of Rs 20,000 before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Patiala House Court. It said that immediately after the submission of the bail bond, the Superintendent of Tihar Jail must ensure that Zubair is released before 6 pm today. The bench in its order stated, "Essentially the gravamen of allegations are tweets by him. He has been subjected to fairly sustained probe by Delhi Police. We don't find a reason for his deprivation of liberty to persist further. We direct Zubair be released on bail on each of the FIRs in UP. The existence of powers of arrest must be distinguished from the exercise of powers of arrest, which must be used sparingly." The apex court also said that Zubair can move Delhi High Court for quashing all or any of the FIRs. Additional Advocate General of UP, Garima Prashad appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government urged the bench to impose a bail condition on Zubair that he should not tweet again. The bench declined the request saying "We can't say that he won't tweet again. It is like telling a lawyer that you should not argue. How can we tell a journalist that he will not write? If there is any tweets against law, he will be answerable. How can we pass any anticipatory order that someone will not speak..." During the hearing today, advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for Zubair, contended that "we are in the age of digital media and social media" and that is why the role of someone debunking propaganda can irk someone but the law cannot be weaponised against Zubair. AAG Prashad said that the accused is not a journalist and he calls himself a fact-checker. "Instead of fact-checking, he posts tweets which are getting viral and spreading venom," Prashad said. She added that Zubair "has been paid for these tweets and he gets paid more for the malicious tweets". "State is conscious that here is a person who instead of informing police, takes advantage of videos, speeches etc which can create communal divide. UP State is not here because of some tweets, but because of violence that has happened after such tweets," she added. Zubair had approached the top court seeking to either quash all the FIRs registered against him in Uttar Pradesh or in the alternative club them and also challenged the constitution of SIT. Zubair challenged the FIRs registered at six places in Uttar Pradesh -- Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad and Hathras (two FIRs).On Monday, the Supreme Court directed the Uttar Pradesh police to not take any precipitative action against Zubair in any of the FIRs filed in the state till July 20. The top court had stayed precipitative action against Zubair in connection with five FIR saying it appears that he is being taken into custody in another FIR if he gets bail in one and that the content of the FIRs appeared similar. In the plea, Zubair said his personal liberty has been completely jeopardized without following the due procedure established by law, and requested the court either to quash the six FIRs in UP or club all of them with the FIR at Delhi, where he was first arrested, to avoid multiplicity of proceedings and prolonged detention. The plea also challenged the constitution of the two-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) by the Uttar Pradesh government. Uttar Pradesh government had last week formed the SIT to investigate the six cases registered against Zubair in various districts of the State. The SIT comprised Inspector General Preetinder Singh, currently posted at the Department of Prisons Administration and Reform, and Deputy Inspector General of police Amit Verma. Zubair also sought interim bail in all FIRs. On July 12 the Supreme Court extended till September 7 the five days of interim bail granted to Zubair in the case registered against him by Uttar Pradesh Police in Sitapur. The apex court had clarified that its interim bail order is with respect to the FIR lodged in Sitapur only and has nothing to do with a separate case registered against him in Delhi. Zubair had challenged the Allahabad High Court order refusing to quash an FIR registered against him by Uttar Pradesh police in Sitapur for a tweet in which he allegedly called three Hindu seers "'hate mongers". Sitapur court had sent him to judicial custody and declined his bail plea. Hathras court had also sent Zubair to 14-day judicial custody after two cases were registered against him in the district on July 4. The case was registered by Deepak Sharma for Zubair's remarks on Hindu Gods and Goddesses in a tweet in 2018. Last week, the Lakhimpur court had sent Zubair to 14-day judicial custody. Delhi court had also sent him to judicial custody in the case registered against him. The Delhi police arrested him on June 27 for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through one of his tweets. (ANI)
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has prepared a big action plan for the global branding of Uttar Pradesh before the Global Investor Summit scheduled for January 2023. The preparation for the same has already started, said a press release. A team of Uttar Pradesh ministers will organize road shows in different countries and introduce them to the potential and possibilities of business in Uttar Pradesh, added the press release. The target of industrial investment of Rs 10 lakh crore has been set, as per the statement. Referring to the investment-friendly environment of UP, the people of the industrial world will be invited for investment, the statement said. Not only this but in those countries, dialogue with the overseas Indians, especially the people of UP, will also take place on the changing environment and future action plan of the state. There is a possibility that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself will also go on a tour of one country. CM Yogi described the Global Investor Summit as a big opportunity to "flight the aspirations of a new UP". As per the present plan, the team of a Cabinet minister can have one independent charge (Minister of State) and one Minister of State. Singapore has expressed its desire to go ahead and become the first country partner for the UP Global Investors Summit. Prior to this, the Netherlands, Japan, Slovakia, Finland, Czech Republic, Mauritius, Thailand, Nepal, and Belgium have been country partners in the 2018 Investor Summit. Along with these countries, road shows are being organized in countries like the UK, USA, Canada, UAE, Sweden, Singapore, Netherlands, Israel, France, Germany, South Korea, Mauritius, Russia and Australia. This visit of the ministers can take place in September-November. In view of the huge employment opportunities from industrial investment, the Chief Minister has asked for timely changes in the rules to further improve the industrial investment environment. UP will invite investors in Food Processing, Handloom, Powerloom, IT, Bio Fuel, Film and Media, Tourism, Solar Energy, Electric Vehicles, Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic Industry, Toy Manufacturing, Civil Aviation, Housing and Real Estate ahead of the ministers' foreign visits including a dozen new sectoral policies. Preparations are being made from villages to metros for the expansion of the land bank in the state. (ANI)
The Aam Aadmi Party activists protested against the rising prices of essential commodities, at the freedom park in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Speaking on the occasion, Channappa Gowda Nallooru, AAP Bengaluru City Political Activities President, said, "The prices of essential commodities as well as corruption are becoming 'double' in the 'double engine' administration of the BJP. They have proved that their sole aim is to loot people by levying GST even on very essential items such as curd, butter milk etc. It is shameful that those BJP leaders who were calling for Bandh even for a small price rise till 2014, are now defending the rise in the prices." "CM Basavaraj Bommai should apologise to the people of the state for cheating them by giving wrong information on the GST levied on curd and buttermilk. If what he said is true that the Central government is going to reimburse KMF on the GST levied on curd and buttermilk, then why did their prices increase in the market? It's condemnable that a person sitting in the responsible position of the Chief Minister is giving wrong information to the people," added Channappa Gowda. AAP Bengaluru Women's Unit President Kushala Swamy, who was present in the demonstration said, "BJP considers collecting more taxes as a great achievement. They announce a scheme that allows looting of the money collected from tax hikes. They get 40 per cent commission out of it and make the work poor. The additional tax will ultimately reach the pockets of BJP leaders. The party, which is sure that it will not come to power again, is using the opportunity it has now to loot." According to Kushala Swamy, the Modi government has betrayed the poor and middle class of the country by cancelling the subsidy on cooking gas. "The Modi government has severely hiked tax on petrol and diesel. Due to this, although the price of crude oil has decreased in the international market, Indians are not getting the benefit. The Modi government has betrayed the poor and middle class of the country by cancelling the subsidy on cooking gas. The B J P is busy only protecting the interests of rich businessmen and getting huge donations from them for the party, but the plight of common people is not visible to them," said Kushala Swamy. The presidents of Bengaluru Political Activities of all Assembly constituencies and hundreds of party activists were present at the demonstration. (ANI)
With hours to go for the counting of votes to take place to elect the 15th President of India, people belonging to the native place of NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu, Rairangpur in Odisha, have made sweets anticipating her victory in the contest against Yashwant Sinha, the Opposition candidate. The people of her native place have also planned a victory procession and tribal dance on Thursday. "Tomorrow will be a big day for Rairangpur and for the entire Odisha because, for the first time in the history of India, a tribal woman will become the President of India. There is an atmosphere of celebration here. 20,000 sweets are being made. There will be fireworks and tribal dance tomorrow morning. The victory procession will be taken out tomorrow," said a local resident. The Headteacher of the Government Upper Primary School where Murmu studied, recalling her school life, said that she was a brilliant student and wanted to "serve the people". "From 1968 to 1970, I was the Head Teacher, when she was studying in the school. I feel very proud to know about Droupadi Murmu. She was a brilliant student. I remember once, the students were asked to share what they want to become in future, students mentioned different professions, but when Murmu was asked, she stated that she wants to serve the people. Today I can connect to that," Bisweswar Mohanty told ANI. "First she served as Governor and now she will be on the highest constitutional post," he added. The students of the school said that they felt proud that Murmu who was a student of the school had attained a high position. "She had also studied in this school. Tomorrow she is going to be the President of India. It is a matter of pride and happiness for us that we are studying in the same school. We are inspired by her," a student, Tanushree said. Another student, Indrajeet said, "I am feeling proud that she studied at this school. We too want to make it big when we grow up." Meanwhile, the counting of votes to elect India's 15th President will take place on Thursday. The counting will begin at Parliament House at 11 am. The voting took place on July 18 and was completed in a peaceful manner. The contest is between BJP-led NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu and opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. The NDA candidate is seen to have a clear edge in the contest. The voting ended at 5 pm at the Parliament House and at designated places in the capitals of all states besides the UTs of Puducherry and Delhi on Monday. Of the 736 electors comprising 727 MPs and nine MLAs who were permitted by the Election Commission to vote at Parliament House, 728 electors cast their vote. This includes 719 MPs and nine MLAs. The total turnout at Parliament House was 98.91 per cent. Arrangements were made to bring back the polled ballot boxes from states to Parliament House by July 19. The counting will take place in Room No 63 in Parliament House and the result will be declared immediately after the counting. The immediate precincts of Room Number 63 have been declared as a sanitised and "silent zone". (ANI)
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi will appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday in the National Herald case. The Congress has decided to protest across the country against the BJP-led government Thursday in support of Sonia Gandhi. Congress leader Manickam Tagore tweeted, "Congress office HQ in Akbar Road but now closed by shah police.... They know the strength of Congress workers and their commitment." The police have already made elaborate arrangements and have barricaded Akbar Road as the party headquarters is located at 24, Akbar Road. Meanwhile, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, other senior party leaders and MPs are already present in Delhi. They had a meeting this evening at Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge's house. Congress leader and former MP PL Punia said that both the Houses of Parliament would be adjourned on Thursday and after that, all Congress MPs will gather at Pant Marg near Gurdwara Rakabganj and from there they will reach the Congress headquarters together. Further, Punia said that the rest of the Congress leaders and AICC members will go to the ED office from the party headquarters in support of Sonia Gandhi. Official sources said that Sonia Gandhi has been asked to depose before the investigators at the party headquarters here around 11 am on Thursday. The fresh summon was issued as Sonia Gandhi could not join the ED investigation in the case due to COVID-19. The agency had earlier issued similar summons to Sonia Gandhi as she did not appear before the investigators on June 8 and then on June 21 due to COVID-19. The Congress leader had developed a mild fever on June 1 evening and was found COVID-19 positive upon testing the next morning. The ED had on June 1 summoned Sonia Gandhi to appear before its investigators on June 8 in the case for the first time in connection with a money laundering case involving the National Herald. The ED wants to record both Sonia Gandhi's statements under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED last month questioned Rahul Gandhi on several occasions in the case. The case to investigate alleged financial irregularities under the PMLA was registered about nine months ago after a trial court took cognisance of an Income Tax Department probe carried out on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013. Swamy had approached the court alleging that the assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published the National Herald newspaper, were fraudulently acquired and transferred to Young Indian Pvt Limited (YIL), in which Sonia Gandhi and her son owned 38 per cent shares each. The YIL promoters include Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Swamy had alleged that the Gandhis cheated and misappropriated funds, with YIL paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to the Congress. Congress argued that YIL was a not-for-profit company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 that can neither accumulate profits nor pay dividends to its shareholders. Calling it a case of political vendetta, senior Supreme Court advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi had said, "This is truly a very weird case -- an alleged money laundering case on which summons are issued with no money involved." The federal agency's move followed the questioning of senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Treasurer Pawan Bansal in April this year in New Delhi in connection with its money laundering probe into the National Herald case. The agency then recorded the statements of both the Congress leaders then under the PMLA. The National Herald is published by AJL and owned by YIL. While Kharge is the CEO of YIL, Bansal is the Managing Director of AJL. The ED is currently investigating the shareholding pattern and financial transactions as well as the role of party functionaries in the functioning of AJL and YIL. (ANI)
To mark the celebration of 75 years of Independence and ahead of the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' programme to celebrate the 75th Independence Day of India, the artisans of Assam Khadi and Village Industries Board (AKVIB) in Guwahati are busy making the tricolour flags. According to the Assam Khadi and Village Industries Board (AKVIB), the artisans have targeted to produce at least 5 lakh pieces of the national flags ahead of this year's Independence Day celebration. Rakhi Choudhury, an officer of Assam Khadi and Village Industries Board said, "This year they have targeted to make at least 5 lakh pieces of national flags". "Comparing to the previous year, this year's target is more. Last year we made 2-2.5 lakh national flags. But this time, the government has given us a target to make 5 lakh flags. This year, our work started in February," Rakhi Choudhury said. Along with the rest of the country, the Assam government has targeted to hoist 80 lakh national flags in houses, government offices, schools, private institutions, and commercial establishments across the state from August 13 to 15 as part of the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' programme, being implemented by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India (GoI) under the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' to mark the celebration of the 75 years of Independence of India. Urkhao Gwra Brahma, Assam Handloom and Textile Minister said, "The Assam government will buy at least 50 lakh national flags from the centre." "The Assam government has decided to bring maximum flags from the centre, at least 50 lakh flags will be purchased from the Government of India. After buying all these things, the flags will be sold out to all families at the cheapest rate. Free distribution is not our agenda, selling all flags at the cheapest rate that is affordable for all the poorest families. Thing is that nationalism and patriotism," Urkhao Gwra Brahma said. The Assam Minister also said, the Chief Secretary to the secretary will be given responsibility and they will prepare the mechanism for how this process will be completed with the help of Deputy Commissioners of districts. Assam Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma has also appealed to all sections of people of the state to hoist the national flag from August 13 to 15 as part of the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' programme. (ANI)
Opposition parties continued to force adjournment in the two Houses of Parliament on Wednesday over their demands related to price rise and imposition of GST by the government on some items of daily use. Lok Sabha saw two adjournments before it was adjourned for the day on the third day of the monsoon session of Parliament. The Rajya Sabha was also adjourned for the day after lunch following an earlier adjournment. Opposition parties also held a protest near Mahatma Gandhi's statue in Parliament to press their demands. In the Lok Sabha, the opposition parties staged protests during the question hour. Speaker Om Birla said the opposition members should not resort to sloganeering and take their seats. "The House is for dialogue, not for sloganeering,"he said. He said opposition members resorting to sloganeering and displaying placards is not appropriate for the House and the country. Birla said people of the country want the House to function and differences are an attribute of democracy. "If you want to raise an issue, go to your seats. You have not been elected to raise slogans, display placards, " he said. The House was adjourned till 2 pm, 4 pm and later for the day. The Monsoon session of Parliament began on Monday. During the protest near Mahatma Gandhi's statue, opposition leaders accused the government of disrupting the common man's budget due to revised GST rates on several items of daily use. Leaders of opposition parties including the Congress, NCP, DMK and Left raised slogans against the government demanding a rollback of the hike in GST rates on commodities like curd, bread and paneer. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury were among those present. (ANI)
British Cabinet minister and India-born Alok Sharma, who led the UN climate summit (COP26), will travel to India from July 21-22, it was announced on Wednesday. He will also meet the local community to hear how climate change is impacting them directly. The visit is an opportunity to again engage with India on climate policy as well as strengthen and support progress and delivery of the Glasgow Climate Pact, following COP26 in Glasgow and in the run up to India's G20 Presidency. On his third visit to the country as COP President, Alok Sharma will continue the work of the UK COP Presidency in pressing for updated climate commitments from all countries, as he meets with senior ministers and climate and energy leaders to discuss India's ambitious climate plans and progress on smart grid upgrades, electric vehicles and affordable energy storage. Sharma will travel to the International Solar Alliance (ISA) headquarters at the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) campus in Delhi. There he will witness renewable energy generation in action, and discuss how to further advance the Green Grids Initiative -- One Sun One World One Grid (GGI-OSOWOG), a product of UK-India partnership focused on strengthening global support for green power infrastructure. While in Delhi Sharma will attend a joint launch of UK-India initiatives on electric mobility, hosted by the apex government of India think-tank NITI Aayog. The partnership between the UK government and NITI Aayog has been instrumental in taking forward Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) initiatives launched under the UK's COP26 Presidency. He will visit the Centre for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) to hear an update on progress since COP26 and discuss future plans. As record heatwaves are recorded in India, Sharma will also meet the local community to hear how climate change is impacting them directly and understand how extreme heat affects their livelihoods in the city. Sharma, the COP26 President said: "India's green transition is gathering pace, with an increasing slate of renewables and commitments to phase down fossil fuel based energy. I have previously commended India on its emissions reduction targets and truly believe that delivery of its commitments will have a major positive impact. "The UK continues to stand side-by-side with India as it progresses to a low carbon, self-sufficient future. At this critical juncture ahead of COP27 and the NDC Synthesis Report deadline, I am eager to explore how the UK can further support India in translating its COP26 commitments into action." After his visit to India, the COP President will travel to Australia, then on to Fiji, to engage with governments, states, businesses and civil society in support for stronger climate action ahead of COP27 in Egypt, an official statement said. --IANS vg/pgh ( 464 Words) 2022-07-20-19:18:54 (IANS)
In the backdrop of the recent brutal murder of a Hindu tailor in Udaipur, the government admitted on the floor of the Lok Sabha that though miniscule, there is a threat of radicalisation in India as foreign agencies are conspiring with global terror organisations. In a reply in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, MoS Home Nityanand Rai said that "Radicalisation by the global terrorist groups like the ISIS, Al Qaeda etc. is one of the most challenging problems faced by countries all over the world." "In the Indian context, some foreign agencies inimical to India along with global terrorist groups have been making efforts to radicalise people." However, he said that the inclination towards radical ideologies is "minuscule" as compared to the population of the country owing to various factors and efforts by the government including ensuring universal coverage of various government welfare schemes without discrimination. There are also special schemes for un-served and "underserved communities/areas". The government said that it is working towards the promotion of a composite culture and co-existence among various communities, constitutional safeguards to minorities and institutional efforts for ensuring fair representation of minorities and other less represented communities in all spheres of life. The government said that it has created a Counter Terrorism and Counter Radicalisation Division in the Ministry of Home Affairs to help and coordinate with various security and law enforcement agencies. The debate on radicalisation came to the fore after the murder of a tailor in Udaipur in the wake of controversial remarks made by some BJP leaders who have since been expelled from the party posts. Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor, was killed by cleaver-wielding men -- Riaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad on June 28 in Udaipur over his social media post. The accused had then posted a video of the crime on social media platforms. The NIA is investigating the case. There were allegedly seven accused in the killing of Kanhaiya Lal in Rajasthan's Udaipur. --IANS miz/bg ( 339 Words) 2022-07-20-19:34:03 (IANS)
The new Superintendent of Police of Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi district, R. Pakalavan who assumed office on Wednesday said the police would hunt down all those who were involved in the violence on Sunday. A mob had vandalized a private residential school in Kallakurichi and burnt the school buses and four police vehicles on Sunday after a protest over the suicide of a plus two student of the school had turned violent. The incident was a major setback to the Kallakurichi police and the district administration leading to the shunting out of the District collector, P.N. Sridharan and the district superintendent of Police, R. Selvakumar. The Chief Minister had directed the DGP and home secretary to visit Kallakurichi and assess the situation. The new Superintendent of Police told reporters on Wednesday that the priority of the police would be to bring the law and order situation back to normalcy. He said that while the law and order situation was almost back to normalcy, the police would hunt down all those who were involved in the vandalizing and torching of vehicles and would bring them before the law of the land. He said that the police would take measures to bring confidence among the local people and would interact with the people at the grass root level for ensuring that the situation in the area was under control. R. Pakalavan said that the investigation of the case regarding the suicide of the girl and the violence in the area was handed over to specific teams. He said that the Crime Branch, the Special Investigation Team, and the Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID) were conducting the investigation in the case. He also said that the police were in touch with the family members of the girl who had committed suicide and would do all assistance for her funeral with all due respect. The new Police superintendent also said that the police have already started investigation and those involved in the incidents including local people and outsiders would be brought to book. The police superintendent also said that a proper handwriting analysis of the suicide note would be conducted properly. The Madras High court had earlier come down heavily against the police and said that the incidents were not sporadic but instead meticulously planned and executed and called upon the police to bring to book all those involved in the incident. The court had also said that the violent incidents have brought a bad reputation to the state of Tamil Nadu and the law and order situation in the state. --IANS aal/pgh ( 442 Words) 2022-07-20-20:00:03 (IANS)
NCPCR Chairman Priyang Kanoongo will on July 27 visit the school and the hostel premises at Kallakurichi from where the student committed suicide on July 13.

Kanoongo, in a tweet, said that he would visit Kallakurichi to "inquire into the suspicious death of a girl child in a residential building".

After the Madras High Court had made a scathing attack on the failure of police to contain the violence that erupted at Kallakurichi on Sunday, a Special Investigation Team led by DIG, Salem, Praveen Kumar Abhinapu was set up to probe the riots and violence.

The CB-CID has also commenced probe on the circumstances that had led to the suicide of the girl student.

--IANS aal/vd

( 170 Words)

2022-07-20-21:34:01 (IANS)
As the death toll in the hooch tragedy at Ghusuri in West Bengal's Howrah district rose to 10 on Wednesday, the local people said that the cops at the Malipanchghora police station ignored several complaints against the killer hooch joint in the locality, where the victims consumed spurious liquor on Tuesday night. The local people have also alleged that the owner of the joint, Pratap Karmakar, enjoys a lot of clout in the ruling Trinamool Congress and hence the police were hesitant in taking action against him. They also alleged that many a times in the past, action has been taken by the local police and the state excise department against illegal hooch factories in the area, but each time Karmakar's joint managed to escape the action of the law enforcement agencies. When the local Trinamool Congress legislator and state minister Arup Roy reached Ghusuri on Wednesday afternoon, the women of the area complained to him against the local police. They alleged that the local police refused to take action against Karmakar even though several complaints were filed against him. The women also complained that the cops at the Malipanchghora police station misbehaved with them when they demanded action against Karmakar. Roy said the state government will adequately compensate and take care of the victims' families. "At the same time, I would like to say that none responsible for the tragedy will be spared, including police personnel," Roy said. Stating that the West Bengal state government recently introduced home delivery of country liquor, state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar said, "Liquor and lottery are two avenues of revenue generation both for the state government as well as the ruling party leaders. That is why the police are silent and the common people are suffering." --IANS src/arm ( 308 Words) 2022-07-20-21:44:02 (IANS)
The deceased, identified as Adam Ali, allegedly had links with extremist groups, and was involved in several cases related to cattle smuggling as well as arms smuggling, the police said.

As per reports, he died during a police encounter near the Dhubri-Kokrajhar border of the state in the early hours of Wednesday night.

District Superintendent of Police, Dhubri, Gaurav Abhijit Dilip said: "We received a tip-off about Adam Ali and his accompanies were looking for arms dealing. When our team reached the spot, Ali managed to flee towards the West Bengal border side."

However, the police team chased and nabbed him from Cooch Behar in West Bengal. One small arm was seized from his possession, the police officer said.

After questioning Ali, the police came to know about some extremist elements and arms dealers operating on the Dhubri-Kokrajhar border.

Gaurav Abhijit also said that, while returning with Ali towards the Assam border, the police team was trapped in an ambush by some unknown miscreants.

In the cross-fire between police and the miscreants, Ali and two other policemen were seriously injured.

They were rushed to the Dhubri civil hospital where Adam Ali was declared dead by the doctors.

The police personnel are said to be out of danger, and are undergoing treatment.

--IANS tanuj/pgh

( 245 Words)

2022-07-20-22:04:03 (IANS)
The outcomes of the urban local body polls in Madhya Pradesh will send warning signal to the two national parties dominating state politics, the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress, as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) have made a stunning entry in Madhya Pradesh's political scenario. While the Arvind Keriwal-led AAP bagged one Mayoral post besides winning around half-a-dozen municipal wards, Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM also made an impressive entry into state politics by winning as many as six municipal wards. After the second phase of counting on Wednesday, results of five municipal corporations -- Rewa, Katni, Morena, Dewas and Ratlam -- were announced, in which the AAP managed to win one municipal ward while the AIMIM won three municipal wards. Notably, the results came just about 16 months before the Assembly elections scheduled in 2023, boosting the confidence of the cadres both the debutant parties in the state. In the first phase of counting held on July 17, AIMIM had bagged two municipal wards in Jabalpur and one each in Khandwa and Burhanpur. In the second phase of counting held on Wednesday, out of the three municipal seats AIMIM won, one was won in Khargone by a candidate belonging to the Hindu community. AIMIM's Aruna Upadhyay, who won from Khargone, told IANS, "I had never thought of contesting elections, but I was impressed by the thoughts of Asaduddin Owaisi. Communal violence in April this year changed the scenario of the city and the people who used to walk and talk together are now experiencing bitterness. People from both the communities have supported me and I will try my best to work for them." In the overall results, out of the 16 municipal corporations in Madhya Pradesh, BJP could retain only nine Mayoral posts, while the Congress for the first time managed to win five Mayoral. The AAP and an Independent candidate won one Mayoral post each. The saffron camp lost the Mayoral post in the Morena Municipal Corporation, the home turf of party stalwart and Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar. The BJP also lost the Mayoral post in Rewa after a gap of 25 years. --IANS pd/arm ( 377 Words) 2022-07-20-22:08:02 (IANS)
The Congressional Committee investigating the Capitol Hill insurrection of January 6, 2021 has lined up for Thursday two key witnesses, both then US President Donald Trump's top aides, to testify on what happened in the ex-President's Oval office and the West Wing on the fateful day of the mob attack on the Congress building. Scheduled to appear on Thursday before the committee's next public hearing are reportedly two former White House aides -- a press aide and a deputy NSC advisor -- who are expected to testify as to what Trump was doing when a mob comprising his supporters violently stormed the US Capitol. The hearing, according to committee member Jamie Raskin, would be a "moment of reckoning" for the US, and is set to focus on Trump's inaction during the attack. The two aides in question are Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security advisor, and Sarah Matthews, a former press aide, according to media reports trickling in from Washington. Both Pottinger and Matthews were among a group of Trump administration staffers who resigned immediately after January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification of the 2020 Presidential election results. They will join a parade of witnesses -- including Trump family members, former administration staffers and Republican state officials -- who have testified publicly before the panel or sat for previously recorded depositions. Matthews, who was first deposed by the committee in February, came to the defence of Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who testified last month about how a frantic Trump ordered Secret Service agents to take him to the Capitol following his January 6 speech on the Ellipse rallying his supporters, according to the New York Post. The panel has interviewed over 1,000 witnesses, including star witnesses Pat Cipollone, White House counsel to Trump, and Cassidy Hutchinson, top aide to Mark Meadows, white house chief of staff, already over the former President's behaviour during the riots, during which Hutchinson disclosed in an explosive testimony that Trump had refused to send a tweet calling the crowd off and that he may have suggested they were right to call for Mike Pence to be hanged as she overheard conversations in the West Wing. Cipollone did not deny Hutchinson's testimony or witnesses prior to that. Trump ally Steve Bannon was scheduled to stand trial on Monday on contempt charges for his involvement as he had advance knowledge of the insurrection since he had said in messages prior to January 6 that "all hell is about to break loose (tomorrow) on Jan 6". A former Trump strategist had reportedly been in touch with Trump all through, though not physically present in the White House on the fateful day. Bannon, the former President's longtime lieutenant and hardcore right-wing agitator, had refused to comply with the committee's subpoena, and his various last-ditch efforts to head off or delay the trial had failed. The committee had said he was not entitled to executive privilege of the ex-President as he was not physically present in the White House on that day, though Trump had said he was willing to waive that. Secret service to hand over erased tapes to select committee The Secret Service is facing the deadline on Tuesday to hand over text messages from January 5-6, 2021, some of which the agency said it deleted as part of a "device-replacement programme" and secret service periodical protocols. The committee had subpoenaed the Secret Service for "relevant" text messages and any action reports "pertaining or relating in any way to the events" of January 6 on last Friday after the agency disputed claims that it had erased the messages before an electronic communication request was made, according to a report in the Washington Examiner. It's not clear whether data that were "lost" on mobile phones when they were reverted to their factory settings as part of a "pre-planned" system migration could be recovered. The tapes are crucial exhibits to corroborate the events of attacks on Capitol Hill. The subpoena was issued after Joseph Cuffari, the inspector general in the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of the Secret Service, met with the committee behind closed doors on Friday. The Secret Service denied any "insinuation" that it had "maliciously deleted text messages" and said it has been cooperative with the office of the inspector general's evaluation of the events of January 6, 2021. --IANS arm/ ( 763 Words) 2022-07-19-23:14:03 (IANS)
The safety of Pakistani dissidents is a major concern even in well-governed democracies as they are pursued by local killers and conspirators, mainly with roots in Islamabad. The recent killing of Saqib Karim, a young dissident from Balochistan, under mysterious circumstances in distant Azerbaijan in Central Asia, is a fit example of political exiles being hunted down. He was reportedly being targeted by Pakistan's intel agencies, Islam Khabar reported. Baloch National Movement (BNM) has urged the Azerbaijan government to investigate the Saqib case. Pakistani dissidents have been targeted in various countries including the US, the UK, the Netherlands and France, Islam Khabar reported. Is it to be noted that in 2020, the body of Banuk Karima Baloch, a political refugee and a BNM leader was found in Ontario Lake Toronto harbour front in Canada. Amnesty International had called for a thorough investigation into Karima Baloch's suspicious death. She was strong-spirited, and her determination was to apprise the world about Baloch human rights abuses carried out by the Pakistan army. She moved to Canada to save her life but death threats chased her all along and finally, she met a mysterious death fate what her family and friends believe is a heinous act of murder. Baloch has publicly stated that she was critical of Pakistan's intelligence agency which is notorious for abducting human rights activists inside Pakistan. Meanwhile, there are reports that missing Baloch people are being executed in the custody of Pakistani security forces in the country. A statement was issued by Baloch human rights activist Mama Qadeeroch against the genocide of Baloch people which stated that the missing people are being killed in the custody of Pakistani security forces, local media reported. With a spike in the number of enforced disappearances in Balochistan in the past few months, there is not even a single family in the province whose member or a relative has not been forcibly disappeared, reported a Canada-based think tank, International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS) earlier this month. Enforced disappearances are used as a tool by Pakistani authorities to terrorize people who question the all-powerful army establishment of the country or seek individual or social rights. (ANI)
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska on Tuesday (local time) visited the White House, as part of her high-profile trip to Washington. Zelenska was greeted on the South Lawn by US President Biden, who presented her with a bouquet of yellow sunflowers, blue hydrangeas and white orchids -- reminiscent of the colours of the Ukrainian flag, The Washington Post reported. "First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska embodies the same tenacity and resilience as the country she hails from. It was an honor for Jill and me to welcome her to the White House this afternoon," Biden Tweeted. US President was along with first lady Jill Biden, who hugged Zelenska at White House. Jill Biden has visited Ukraine in May. "Since we met on Mother's Day in Ukraine, my heart has remained with Mrs Zelenska and the Ukrainian people. That day, I also met mothers and children who fled the war. Their courage, and Mrs Zelenska's courage, has inspired the world," Jill tweeted. The Ukrainian delegation includes -- Ambassador Oksana Markarova, according to The Washington Post. On Monday, Zelenska met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power to "address the long-term psychosocial impacts of Russia's war" in Ukraine, according to the White House. Earlier Tuesday, Zelenska visited the new Victims of Communism Museum in Washington to accept a human rights award on behalf of the people of Ukraine. In remarks at the museum, Zelenska noted that there were three photographs of Ukrainian dissidents who had been tortured or sent away for "questioning the cult of Stalin." She compared those to some of the atrocities Ukrainians had faced in the past five months as a result of Russia's military actions in Ukraine, The Washington Post reported. Zelenska, as per The Washington Post, is scheduled to address Congress to give an update on the security, economic and humanitarian conditions on the ground in Ukraine on Wednesday. Notably, Russia launched a "special military operation" in Ukraine on February 24, which the West has termed an unwarranted war. As a result of this, the western countries have also imposed several crippling sanctions on Moscow. (ANI)
Falun Gong, the lesser know discipline in China, is being persecuted for 23 years in the country as the Chinese Communist Party considered the practice a "posing serious threat" to the rule of Xi Jinping, a media report stated. The so-called "five poisons" acknowledged by the Xi Jinping government include Tibetans, Uyghur Muslims, democracy activists, pro-independence Taiwanese and Falun Gong practitioners, reported a Canada-based think tank, International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS). It is to be noted that the violations of human rights of the Uyghur Muslims and Tibetans are known and criticized globally, while Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is less known. The practitioners are witnessing brutality and suppression by the Chinese government. China banned the spiritual discipline Falun Gong in 1999 calling it an "evil cult," which damaged Chinese society and culture, IFFRAS reported. Falun Gong is basically a spiritual discipline followed by a group of meditators who practice a prescribed set of exercises for a healthy body and mind. After getting banned, Falun Gong is facing inhuman treatment in China. Since the "qigong boom" of the early 1990s, the number of followers swelled. The practice initially enjoyed support from CCP officials, but by the mid-to-late 1990s, the government increasingly viewed Falun Gong as a potential threat due to its size, independence, and spiritual teachings. By 1999, the Chinese government estimates placed the number of Falun Gong practitioners at 70 million, IFFRAS reported. (ANI)
Extreme heat in western Europe is causing devastating wildfires in France and Spain, and unprecedented drought in Italy and Portugal, according to World Metrological Organization (WMO). According to UN's WMO, the UK recorded its highest-ever temperature of just over 40 degrees Celsius during Tuesday, at London's Heathrow airport. With temperatures expected to remain above normal until the middle of next week, the WMO warned that heatwaves will occur more and more frequently, into the 2060s. The pattern is linked to the observed warming of the planet that can be attributed to human activity, raising serious concerns for the planet's future, the UN weather agency said. "We are expecting to see major impacts on agriculture. During the previous heatwaves in Europe, we lost big parts of harvest. And under the current situation -we are already having the global food crisis because of the war in Ukraine - this heatwave is going to have a further negative impact on agricultural activities," warned Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the WMO at a presser here to launch the latest extreme weather findings. In several countries, some economic sectors - including tourism that has only begun to fully recover in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic - are suffering as a result. "The negative trend in climate will continue at least until the 2060s, independent of our success in climate mitigation," Taalas added. Taalas reflected growing concerns over extreme weather patterns, in his sartorial selection on Tuesday, he told journalists, choosing to wear short sleeves and a red and blue tie, in recognition of the increasing number of red alerts flashing up across Europe. WMO briefed journalists that the European heatwave may not end, until the middle of next week. The heatwave also acts as a kind of atmospheric lid, WHO explained, trapping pollutants, and degrading air quality, with adverse health consequences, particularly for vulnerable people such as the elderly. In the major 2003 heatwave in Europe, some 70,000 people died, UN News reported. "Climate change is affecting our health in many ways, not only by heatwaves which are having direct consequences" but also other areas of essential healthcare, such as rising levels of disease, alerted Maria Neira, Director for public and environmental health at WHO. She explained that reliable access to food and water is at stake, as with agricultural production levels at risk. She said that 99 per cent of the global population is breathing air that does not meet the health standards set by WHO, hugely impacting chronic respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. "The best solution to this will be, again, being very ambitious on tackling the causes of this global warming. "We have been alerting for a long time that climate change is affecting very much human health", she emphasized, which will also impact the struggle to reach net zero carbon emissions, and the crucial transition to clean, renewable sources of energy. More deaths among the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions are feared due to the ongoing heatwave in the weeks ahead, and subsequent challenges to health systems, to keep up with rising demand. (ANI)
The United States aid chief has criticized China for not doing enough in a food crisis amid the Ukraine war that has led to a surge in global food prices and threatened global food security. Samantha Power, the head of the US Agency for International Development, on Tuesday, delivered an address on the growing global food security crisis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. In her speech titled "The Line Between Crisis and Catastrophe," Power said that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated the food crisis in the Horn of Africa, and that nation must increase their efforts to avert a famine there. "Putin's war has already driven millions of Ukrainians from lives of relative prosperity to destitution and dependence on humanitarian aid. But through his actions, he is also waging a war on the world's poor, spiking food, fertilizer, and fuel prices while taking Ukrainian grain off the market," she said. Power laid out the severity of the current food crisis, particularly in the Horn of Africa, outlined steps the United States is taking to address global hunger and malnutrition and emphasized the urgent need for additional action to prevent the crisis from getting much worse. Power detailed three fronts on which the global food crisis must be fought to avert a catastrophe and announced that USAID will provide a nearly USD 1.3 billion surge of humanitarian and development assistance to the Horn of Africa. "We must battle together on three fronts, providing immediate humanitarian aid to the severely hungry and malnourished, providing sustained investment in global agriculture that will help farmers boost their harvests, and undertaking concerted diplomacy so that we mobilize more resources from donors, avoid export restrictions that can exacerbate the crisis, and lessen the burden on poor countries." Slamming China, the US aid chief said that the second largest economy "in particular stands out for its absence" in humanitarian efforts in East Africa. According to power, if China exported more food and fertilizer to the global market or to the World Food Program, it would "significantly relieve pressure on food and fertilizer prices and powerfully demonstrate the country's desire to be a global leader and a friend to the world's least developed economies." "One country in particular stands out right now for its absence: the People's Republic of China. Even before the war in Ukraine began, Beijing's trade restrictions on fertilizer and hoarding of grain was inflating prices. While at the same time, the government offered little of the transparency into its stocks and production that might have soothed markets," she said in her speech. (ANI)
Zambian authorities have handed over a Chinese citizen to Malawi after he ran away from the country last month due to the allegations of selling exploitative videos of Malawian children to China, media reported. Malawi police sources on Sunday said that Lu Ke was handed over to them on Saturday night in the Mchinji district of the country which borders Zambia by their counterparts. "He is in police custody. He was handed over by our friends from Zambia. As of now he has been charged with trafficking in persons, but other charges may be added," Malawi Police Service deputy spokesperson Harry Namwaza said. An investigation by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) revealed Lu Ke was recording young villagers in central Malawi and making them say racist things about themselves in Mandarin, Voice of America (VOA) reported. Police were looking for him after the investigation, however, Lu Ke fled to Zambia. In one such video some children speaking in Mandarin are heard referring to themselves as "black monsters" and describing themselves as people with "low IQ". The videos were sold for USD 70 each to a Chinese website and the children in the video were paid 50 cents each, VOA reported citing BBC. Several Malawi rights organizations held street protests against the videos and they submitted a petition to the Chinese Embassy in Lilongwe. The protestors asked the Chinese government to compensate the children as they were fooled to say words in a language they did not know. These protests were led by University of Malawi Child Rights Legal Clinic President Comfort Mankhwazi. Mankhwazi expressed happiness over the extradition and said, "Because we feel like this is one of those things we had in our petition, what we wanted, and we got that. We truly hope that this extradition and the arrest will lead to something big like the prosecution in our courts and finally those victims will be able to get justice they deserve." Chinese authorities have not yet commented over the extradition, but Lu Ke's police spokesperson Namwaza is expected to appear in court soon. (ANI)
At least 26 people have been confirmed dead and 27 are still missing after a boat carrying over 100 wedding guests capsized in the Indus River near Machke, approximately 65 km from Rahim Yar Khan on Monday. The accident took place on Monday when a wedding party was returning to Machke from Khrore village in two boats, the Dawn reported. "One of the boats was overloaded and capsized after one of the planks in its hull fell apart, mostly women and children of the family drowned as only the men were rescued in the initial efforts," a cousin of the groom said. Around eight members of a single family belonging to the Solangi clan drowned in the accident along with their relatives, the Dawn reported. The bodies of the deceased were laid down in the ancestral graveyards in their native village Hussain Bakhsh Solangi near Machke in Sindh. Clan chief Sardar Abbas Khan Solangi attended the funeral prayers for the 26 people including two children and a woman whose bodies were fished out from the river. Solangi demanded compensation from Sindh and Punjab (where the incident took place) governments as he blamed them for failure to construct bridges in the area forcing people to use worn-out wooden boats to cross the river. Rahim Yar Khan's deputy commissioner said that a contingent of 18 Pakistan Army divers from Mangla also arrived in Rahim Yar Khan to take part in the rescue operation, the Dawn reported. Dozens remained missing despite the passage of over a day after the capsizing incident, and their relatives waited on the banks of the Indus with hopes for the success of the rescue operation launched to retrieve the remaining bodies. Earlier, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed condolences to the people who met the watery grave after the boat capsized on Monday. "I am saddened by the loss of 19 precious lives in the boat capsizing accident in the Indus River near Rahim Yar Khan. We pray to God to grant the deceased a place in His mercy and grant patience to the affected families," he tweeted. Last week, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority of Punjab issued an alert of heavy rains in the province from July 15 to 17 urging people to avoid going into the water. "Medium to high-level flooding is expected in the hill torrents of Dera Ghazi Khan division from July 15 to July 17," it had noted, adding that flash floods could also be reported in rivers and nullahs. (ANI)
Ranil Wickremesinghe who was on Wednesday elected as Sri Lanka's new President said that he was "in a very difficult situation" and that he faces "big challenges ahead" to lead the country out of the dire economic crisis. "The country is in a very difficult situation, we have big challenges ahead," Wickremesinghe said after defeating main rival Dullus Alahapperuma, with 134 votes to 82 in the parliamentary vote to become President of the island nation. Sri Lanka MPs voted Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as the new President following a voted through a secret ballot in Parliament. He received 134 votes. SLPP parliamentarian Dullas Alahaperuma received 82 votes while National People's Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake received three votes. "The Secretary-General of Parliament announces to the House that Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe has been elected as the Succeeding President by Parliament," the Sri Lankan Parliament tweeted. Wickremesinghe, who has served as Prime Minister six times, was among the forerunners for President post. After his official resident in capital Colombo was stormed by tens of thousands of angry protesters last week, Sri Lanka's ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had fled the country to Maldives before flying out to Singapore. Rajapaksa had offered his resignation after fleeing the country. The main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa on Tuesday withdrew his candidature from the presidential race and said he was supporting rival candidate Dullas Alahapperuma for the top post. Meanwhile, India today categorically denied media reports that New Delhi was making efforts at the political level to influence leaders in Sri Lanka regarding the Presidential polls. "We have seen baseless and purely speculative media reports about efforts at the political level from India to influence political leaders in Sri Lanka regarding elections in the Sri Lankan Parliament to the post of the President of Sri Lanka," the Indian High Commission tweeted. While denying the false media reports, India also reiterated that it supports the realization of aspirations of the people of Sri Lanka in accordance with democratic means and values. The economy in Sri Lanka is bracing for a sharp contraction due to the unavailability of basic inputs for production, an 80 per cent depreciation of the currency since March 2022, coupled with a lack of foreign reserves and the country's failure to meet its international debt obligations. Hundreds of Sri Lankans continue to queue up at petrol pumps across the debt-ridden country every day amid fuel shortage, and a large number of people are ditching their cars and motorcycles for bicycles for their daily commute. (ANI)
The European Union has raised concerns about the business environment in China, including the lack of a level playing field and the growing politicisation of business in the second largest economy in the world. This issue was raised when EU Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis met Vice-Premier Liu on Tuesday during the 9th EU-China High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue (HED). This meeting came after months of failed efforts to set a date for talks after the tense EU-China summit in April, during which the sides failed to agree on a joint statement. "The EU raised concerns related to the business environment, including the lack of a level playing field and the growing politicisation of the business environment in China. This is leading EU companies to reconsider their existing operations and planned investments in the country," the European Commission said in a statement following the high-level economic meeting. The key meeting focused on global economic challenges, disruptions of supply chains caused by COVID-19 and the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including on food, energy and financial markets. Parties also discussed bilateral trade and investment concerns and stepping up cooperation in financial services. Executive Vice-President and Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, said: "The importance of our economies comes with a responsibility to shape joint responses to global economic and trade challenges, such as disruptions in supply chains, global food insecurity, debt relief for the most vulnerable countries and reform of the World Trade Organization." Dombrovskis said he emphasised that Russia's war against Ukraine is creating considerable challenges for global security and the economy. "I also underlined the need for continued engagement to build more balanced and reciprocal trade and investment relations between the EU and China." During the EU-China HED, the two sides also discussed a number of topics and proposals, including concerns related to the world economic outlook. The two sides also exchanged views on financial services. "This included a commitment by China to ensure that its future domestic regulations will not curtail the ability of European leasing companies to provide services throughout its territory." The EU and China are major trading partners: in 2021, China was the third largest partner for EU exports of goods (10.2 per cent) and the largest partner for EU imports of goods (22.4 per cent). Since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, the EU has called on China to use its influence with Russia to reach an immediate ceasefire and to support humanitarian corridors. Back in April, EU High Representative Josep Borrell said China did not want to talk about human rights. "They did not want to talk about human rights, and other issues, and instead focus on the positive things. The European side made clear that this "compartmentalization" is not feasible, not acceptable. For us, the war in Ukraine is a defining moment for whether we live in a world governed by rules or by force," he said. Borrell described the last summit as a "dialogue of the deaf" after European officials failed to secure reassurances that Beijing would not offer practical support to Russia. (ANI)
Former Pakistan envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani on Wednesday downplayed the importance of the recent bypoll win of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which is being described as a "game-changer" for the country's politics. PTI won 15 out of 20 provincial seats that were up for grabs in Pakistan's most populous province. Its main rival in the province, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's PML-N, managed to win just four seats. Most of the PTI turncoats who voted for PML-N's Hamza Shehbaz Sharif for chief minister lost the polls. Former Pakistan Prime Minister claimed that PTI won the by-polls despite the use of state machinery in PML-N's favour. The PTI chief also insisted that free and fair elections were the only solution to Pakistan's woes. Haqqani, who is now Director for South and Central Asia at Hudson Institute in the US, said that PTI's bypoll win should not be seen as a big shift and this victory does not reflect how people might vote in a general election. "Conventional wisdom is that the recent by-poll win reflects a major win for Imran Khan's PTI. But the 20 seats that were contested were all previously held by PTI so the party winning them should not be seen as a big shift. Compared to 2018 General elections, PTI got 400,000 votes more on these seats while PML-N also increased its vote total by 300,000. A low turnout by-election does not reflect how people might vote in a general election," the former envoy told ANI. On the possible impact of the win in the upcoming federal election, the former Pakistani diplomat said things can change by the time of the next general election. He said Pakistan's "establishment" has upset major political party's supporters and that might impact its actions between now and the next election. "Right now, Imran Khan is in the news and his followers are emotionally charged. Things can change by the time of the next general election. One thing is certain. Pakistan's establishment has upset supporters of almost every major political party and that, more than anything else, might impact its actions between now and the next election," he said. Answering how the Pakistani establishment views the win secured by Imran Khan, Haqqani contended that if Imran Khan is fighting the establishment, that should mean that the state apparatus should be working against him. "But his party's relative success in by-elections suggests the state apparatus allowed votes to be cast and counted fairly. Imran Khan and his supporters have neither been jailed nor obstructed in any other way so far," he said. Haqqani said Imran Khan's complaint against the establishment is not that it is not neutral, its rather "that the establishment is not giving him the political support it gave him in the past." (ANI)
Afghan Minister Nooruddin Azizi on Tuesday said that the country is holding talks with a Pakistani delegation to sign an agreement to facilitate bilateral trade. A trade delegation from Pakistan led by Pakistan's Commerce Secretary Saleh Farooqui arrived in Kabul on Monday evening to hold a discussion on coal imports along with transit and barter trade between the two countries, TOLO News reported. "The barter trade, which is a serious issue for Afghan traders, cross-staffing, the trade of materials, and coal will be discussed," the acting Minister of Commerce and Industry Azizi said. Pakistan's Commerce and Industry Ministry had earlier said that delegates with hold talks regarding trade, transit and transportation with the Afghan authorities. The Pakistani delegation is led by Commerce Secretary Saleh Farooqui. Earlier, Pakistan's Ministry of Commerce and Industry said the delegation will discuss trade, transit and transportation with the Afghan authorities. The Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI) had also said that Islamabad is trying to extend its trade with Afghanistan, local media reported. "Pakistan is trying to ramp up imports from Afghanistan. There are some technical problems in Wagah, Karachi, Ghulam Khan, Spin Boldak and Torkham which create hurdles against trade," ACCI member Khanjan Alokozai said. Afghanistan Chamber of Agriculture and Livestock (ACAL)'s head Mirwais Hajizada said that Afghani traders are facing difficulties while exporting fresh fruits and vegetables to Pakistan, it added. "The exports stopped during the fruit season. Either their scanners are destroyed or they don't scan it," Hajizada said. According to the data provided by the ACCI, the exports to Pakistan are over USD 300 million. Kabul had earlier raised coal prices for Pakistan, two days ahead of the delegation's visit. The coal price has increased from USD 200 to USD 280 per tonne. The price of coal was increased owing to the constant surge of price in the global market, Afghanistan's Ministry of Minerals and Petroleum spokesperson Ismatullah Burhan said adding that 10,000 tons of coal are exported to Pakistan every day earning the country millions. Earlier this month, the Taliban had increased the price of coal by 30 per cent after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved of importing coal from Afghanistan. As per Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan would save more than two billion dollars by importing coal from Taliban-led Afghanistan. Shehbaz Sharif had approved the import of super-critical quality coal from Afghanistan in Pakistani rupee instead of dollars to help generate low-cost electricity in the country. (ANI)
Twenty-nine dogs were shot dead by a group of armed men at a local factory in Qatar. The incident has sparked outrage and a debate has started on social media The attackers claimed that dogs had bitten their sons. PAWS animal rescue centre on Sunday said that the group stormed the factory, shot the 29 dogs and injured several others, Doha News reported. Qatar authorities have not yet commented on the incident. Sheikha Al Mayasa bint Hamad Al Thani, the sister of Qatar's ruling Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has criticised the attack and called it "unacceptable" in an Instagram post. The armed men threatened the security guards of the factory and forced their way inside, local media reported. "Security team was rightfully scared as two of the men were holding guns. The security team tried to stop the men from shooting a group of beautiful friendly neutered dogs, but they realised that they were also putting themselves in danger also," the animal rescue centre said in an Instagram post. The dogs and puppies were shot in front of the security team. The rescue shelter mentioned that one puppy is fighting for his life at the vet, it added. Roni Helou, an animal rights sustainability brand, condemned the incident and called it a "barbaric act and threat to Qatari society." It urged the government to probe the incident and hold the group responsible. "The people who blatantly killed all dogs have to be put in jail, disregarding their nationality. Whoever can kill an animal without a blink of an eye, can easily kill a human being," the brand said in a comment. Meanwhile, netizens were worried about the gun laws in the country and asked why the citizens could own guns. According to Qatar's law, a person can own a firearm after obtaining a license from the interior ministry. It is rare for expats to obtain the gun license unless they are a part of the special forces or the military. A person can be fined QAR 1,000 to QAR 50,000 for possession of an unlicensed firearm and might get sentenced to prison for one to seven years depending on the type of the firearm. Similar incidents of animal abuse have also been reported in the country. Last year, a cat was killed by hanging by an unknown individual. A picture of the incident was shared by an animal welfare advocate in Doha. (ANI)
Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday criticised the Shehbaz Sharif government for the free fall of the Pakistani Rupee against the US dollar and the worsening economic crisis in the country. Taking a dig at Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Imran Khan said that the economic crisis in the country shows that Sharif never had any expertise in running the economy or administration, adding that their only expertise includes looting, money laundering and getting NROs, the Dawn newspaper reported. "When US regime conspiracy's VoNC [vote of no-confidence] was tabled, USD was at PKR 178. Today it is PKR 224 and in freefall despite IMF agreement. The economic meltdown shows Sharifs never had any expertise in running economy or administration. Their only expertise is looting, money laundering and getting NROs," the PTI chief said in a tweet. "The nation will hold accountable all those responsible for regime change conspiracy and bringing Pakistan to this sorry state of affairs," he added. Meanwhile, Asad Umer, ex-minister and general secretary of PTI, said that the 'imported' government has failed to prevent the fall of the Pakistani currency against dollar after it slumped to an all-time low for two days in a row. The general secretary further said that "irreparable damage" could take place if steps were not taken to get rid of the "imposed system," local media reported. Umer added that there was a need to take "timely decisions" to control the economic crisis and the depreciation of the currency. The Pakistani rupee on Tuesday surpassed all prior records against the US dollar after hitting a fresh record low of PKR 221 against the US dollar in the interbank market. The currency fell by PKR 5.80 in the interbank market on Tuesday after it closed at PKR 215.20 on Monday, Geo News reported citing the data released by Tresmark, a platform for treasury markets. The currency witnessed the highest day-on-day depreciation since March 26, 2020. A day earlier, The Pakistani rupee had dropped to PKR 212 against the US dollar. The political uncertainty in the country due to the by-elections in Punjab and the import payment pressure took the currency to its new low, Pakistan-Kuwait Investment Company Head of Research Samiullah Tariq said. Pakistan's ruling PML-N party is set to lose its provincial government in Punjab province, after a decisive win by Imran Khan's PTI in the byelections to 20 seats held on Sunday. The Khan-led PTI won 15 seats while PM Sharif's PML-N managed to secure just 4 seats. One seat went to an Independent. (ANI)
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Wednesday released a report outlining the human rights situation in Afghanistan over the 10 months since the Taliban takeover. The report summarises UNAMA's findings with regards to the protection of civilians, extrajudicial killings, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and detentions, the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, fundamental freedoms and the situation in places of detention. The report also contains recommendations to both the de facto authorities and the international community. Despite an overall, significant reduction in armed violence, between mid-August 2021 and mid-June 2022, UNAMA recorded 2106 civilian casualties (700 killed, 1406 wounded). The majority of civilian casualties were attributed to targeted attacks by the armed group self-identified "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant - Khorasan Province" against ethnic and religious minority communities in places where they go to school, worship and go about their daily lives. "It is beyond time for all Afghans to be able to live in peace and rebuild their lives after 20 years of armed conflict. Our monitoring reveals that despite the improved security situation since 15 August, the people of Afghanistan, in particular women and girls, are deprived of the full enjoyment of their human rights," said Markus Potzel, Acting Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan. While the de facto authorities have taken some steps seemingly aimed at the protection and promotion of human rights, such as the amnesty for former government officials and security force members, the 3 December decree on women's rights and a code of conduct relating to prisoners, they also bear responsibility for a broad range of human rights violations. The erosion of women's rights has been one of the most notable aspects of the de facto administration to date. Since 15 August, women and girls have progressively had their rights to fully participate in education, the workplace and other aspects of public and daily life restricted and in many cases completely taken away. The decision not to allow girls to return to secondary school means that a generation of girls will not complete their full 12 years of basic education. At the same time, access to justice for victims of gender-based violence has been limited by the dissolution of dedicated reporting pathways, justice mechanisms and shelters. "The education and participation of women and girls in public life is fundamental to any modern society. The relegation of women and girls to the home denies Afghanistan the benefit of the significant contributions they have to offer. Education for all is not only a basic human right, it is the key to progress and development of a nation," said the UN envoy. The UNAMA expressed concern about the impunity with which members of the de facto authorities appear to have carried out human rights violations. UNAMA's report details extrajudicial killings of individuals accused of affiliation with armed groups, as well as cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments and extrajudicial killings of individuals accused of "moral" crimes and the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials. Human rights violations must be investigated by the de facto authorities, perpetrators held accountable, and ultimately, incidents should be prevented from reoccurring in the future. UNAMA's report highlights specific concerns with respect to two bodies within the de facto authorities - the de facto Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Amr bil Maruf) and the de facto General Directorate of Intelligence (Istikhbarat). Many of the directives issued by the de facto Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice limit the human rights and freedoms of Afghans, in particular women and girls. Although such directives are said to be recommendatory in nature, at times members of the de facto authorities have taken a harsh stance on their implementation, including carrying out physical punishments for alleged infringements of their directives. Officials of de facto Istikhbarat have been identified for their particularly severe treatment of people deprived of their liberty. UNAMA's report details instances where the de facto Istikhbarat was involved in perpetrating human rights violations against individuals in their custody, including extrajudicial killings, torture and ill-treatment, as well as arbitrary arrests and detentions. In the 10 months since they took control of Afghanistan, the de facto authorities have made clear their position on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of opinion. They have limited dissent by cracking down on protests and curbing media freedoms, including by arbitrarily arresting journalists, protestors and civil society activists and issuing restrictions on media outlets. "The rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of opinion are not only fundamental freedoms, they are necessary for the development and progression of a nation. They allow meaningful debate to flourish, also benefiting those who govern by allowing them to better understand the issues and problems facing the population," said Fiona Frazer, UNAMA Chief of Human Rights. (ANI)
Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo on Wednesday after Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as Sri Lanka's President. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was elected as Sri Lanka's new President said that he was "in a very difficult situation" and that he faces "big challenges ahead" to lead the country out of the dire economic crisis. "The country is in a very difficult situation, we have big challenges ahead," Wickremesinghe said after defeating main rival Dullus Alahapperuma, with 134 votes to 82 in the parliamentary vote to become President of the island nation. Sri Lanka MPs voted Ranil Wickremesinghe as the new President following a secret ballot in Parliament. He received 134 votes. SLPP parliamentarian Dullas Alahaperuma received 82 votes while National People's Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake received three votes. "The Secretary-General of Parliament announces to the House that Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe has been elected as the Succeeding President by Parliament," the Sri Lankan Parliament tweeted. Wickremesinghe, who has served as Prime Minister six times, was among the forerunners for the President post. After his official residence in the capital Colombo was stormed by tens of thousands of angry protesters last week, Sri Lanka's ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had fled the country to Maldives before flying out to Singapore. Rajapaksa had offered his resignation after fleeing the country. The main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa on Tuesday withdrew his candidature from the presidential race and said he was supporting rival candidate Dullas Alahapperuma for the top post. Meanwhile, India today categorically denied media reports that New Delhi was making efforts at the political level to influence leaders in Sri Lanka regarding the Presidential polls. "We have seen baseless and purely speculative media reports about efforts at the political level from India to influence political leaders in Sri Lanka regarding elections in the Sri Lankan Parliament to the post of the President of Sri Lanka," the Indian High Commission tweeted. While denying the false media reports, India also reiterated that it supports the realization of aspirations of the people of Sri Lanka in accordance with democratic means and values. The economy in Sri Lanka is bracing for a sharp contraction due to the unavailability of basic inputs for production, an 80 per cent depreciation of the currency since March 2022, coupled with a lack of foreign reserves and the country's failure to meet its international debt obligations. Hundreds of Sri Lankans continue to queue up at petrol pumps across the debt-ridden country every day amid fuel shortage, and a large number of people are ditching their cars and motorcycles for bicycles for their daily commute. (ANI)
More than 250 posts of doctors and nurses have been lying vacant in the medical centres of Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa obstructing basic healthcare to patients. During a briefing to the deputy commissioner Fazal Akbar on Tuesday, health department officials informed about the gruesome situation and said 60 posts for doctors and 25 posts for nurses had been lying vacant in the District Headquarters Hospital, affecting the healthcare system badly, reported Dawn. "The tehsil hospitals, rural health centres and basic health units are understaffed as a total 121 posts of doctors and 63 posts of charge-nurse are lying vacant there," the officials claimed, adding that the hostels of paramedics and nurses were non-functional due to improper maintenance. The deputy commissioner released immediate orders for the health authorities to prepare a PC-I for repair of the paramedics and nursing hostels without delay and also assured release of funds for the renovation of hostels and filling the vacancies. The administration would also ensure the installation of incinerators in hospitals, he said. According to Dawn, the deputy commissioner chaired a meeting at his office to finalise a strategy to cover polio refusal cases and said the availability of computerised tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and blood bank would be taken care of in the DHQ hospital to avoid travelling of residents to big cities to avail of these facilities. Additional deputy commissioner Tariqullah, district Khateeb Maulana Abdul Wahab, and officials of health and partner organisations marked their presence during the briefing alongside district health officer, Dr Abdugul. Pakistan is one of the two countries, together with neighbouring Afghanistan, where polio is still endemic. Pakistani Taliban have long been the country's most prominent resistance to the polio vaccination drive. Interestingly, in many cases, the family members show reluctance towards vaccination. Such discernments are prevalent in certain areas of the tribal regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Parents refuse to immunize their children due to a lack of awareness, doubts regarding vaccine quality, misunderstandings related to vaccination, and low confidence in vaccinators. They believe that it will harm or sterilize their children. As the attacks on polio workers, doctors, and security forces intensify, Pakistan is falling into the cruel grip of the polio virus. The year 2012 marked the commencement of a series of violent attacks against polio workers across Pakistan, beginning in July 2012 and continuing until today. The victims of these attacks include frontline workers, international consultants, program staff, and even police officers providing security. Polio transmission is highly active in certain core districts of Pakistan, including Peshawar (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Karachi (Sindh), and the Quetta block in Balochistan. (ANI)
After Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August last year, over 700 families have been displaced from Panjshir to Parwan due to security reasons. Faraidoon Noori, an official at the refugee and repatriations department of Parwan said, "748 families were displaced from Panjshir to Parwan province. They left their houses due to conflict," reported Tolo News. Bebe Begom, a 90-year-old woman, who was displaced from Panjshir said that she left her house behind due to fighting in the region. She along with her family live in a small room in Charikar city (capital of Parwan province). "We were not allowed to take clothes, we were even not allowed to drink a cup of tea. We came to Charikar, and are staying here without food," said Bebe Begom. "It is one month since we left our home there (in Panjshir). My family and I brought nothing with us," said Dilawar. "They have beat us, saying bring the arms, you are in the resistance party, you are part of Ghani's government," said Mohammad Haneef. Meanwhile, local officials of Panjshir province confirmed the arrival of the families, saying that a precise number of displaced families were not available. Panjshir officials said that the department is planning to provide families with cash assistance and pledged to seek ways for the displaced families to return to their homes, reported Tolo News. "The refugees and repatriation department is considering providing assistance with the families who sustained damages," said Nasrullah Malekzadah, head of information and culture of Panjshir. Earlier, in June, a London-based rights group raised concerns about the reports of unlawful killings and arbitrary arrests in Afghanistan's Panjshir province. "Constantly, reports are coming of arbitrary arrests and unlawful killings of civilians by the Taliban in Panjshir. Events in the last couple of weeks leave little room for doubt that there is a growing pattern of extrajudicial executions and arbitrary arrests committed by the Taliban," said Zaman Sultani, Amnesty International's South Asia Researcher. The amnesty researcher in a statement said these serious human rights violations create a climate of fear and distrust in the region and violate international humanitarian law and may constitute war crimes. While the Taliban have rejected any reports of civilian deaths, these incidents are accompanied by a lack of accountability within the Taliban rank and file. As the de facto authorities in the country, the rights groups have asked the Taliban to take immediate steps to conduct thorough, impartial and independent investigations of these incidents and prosecute those responsible for the torture, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial execution, according to rights groups. "To ensure accountability, transparency and safeguard civilians from torture, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, the Taliban must release information on all those who have been arrested or detained and permit detainees to communicate with their families." (ANI)
A Chinese firm has demanded payment of over Rs 86 billion from Pakistan on an immediate basis. China Huaneng has served notice of non-payment to Pakistan's Central Power Purchasing Agency Guarantee (CPPA-G) pursuant to guarantee within 30 days, reported Business Recorder. The company, in a letter written on July 15, 2022, had made a demand for payment. In a letter to Managing Director, Private Power & Infrastructure Board (PPIB), the Chinese company's Vice President, Fan Jinda said that pursuant to section 1.5.1 of the guarantee signed between Huaneng Shandong Ruyi (Pakistan) Energy (private) Limited (HRS) and PPIB on January 23, 2017, HRS is notifying the government of Pakistan through PPIB about non-payment by the CPPA-G of the overdue amount of over Rs 86 billion, reported Business Recorder. The company has cautioned CPPA-G that in case the overdue amount is not settled within 30 days from the submission of the letter, it will have no alternative but to demand the amount from the government of Pakistan under the guarantee. According to HRS, the total amount of overdue invoices on account of energy payments and capacity payments as of July 14, 2022 was Rs 70,889,690,499 with an additional amount pertaining to delayed payment interest being Rs 15,387,545,709. Thus, the overall overdue amount is Rs 86,277,236,208, reported Business Recorder. "Settle the entire overdue amount of Rs 86,277,236,208 on an urgent basis," said Vice President HRS, warning that consequences/damages of any shut down of the power plant due to inadequate coal will need to be borne by CPPA-G. The company has also shared its letter with the Chinese embassy in Islamabad, Chairman CEPC Authority and other senior officials of concerned ministries. Pakistan has been reeling under heavy economic turmoil and it is hoping that its all-weather ally China will come to its rescue however eminent economists differ, saying expectations from Beijing are highly misplaced. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a body that tracks sovereign default risk, recently placed Pakistan's scoring at 10 (indicating 50 per cent or higher chances of defaulting), equivalent to countries such as Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Russia, Venezuela, Argentina, Ghana, Tunisia. Some of these nations have already defaulted, reported Dawn. Moreover, amid renewed political volatility, the Fitch Ratings agency on Tuesday downgraded Pakistan's outlook from stable to negative. In a statement, the credit rating entity affirmed the Long-Term Foreign-Currency (LTFC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'B-'. "Pakistan's 'B-' rating reflects recurring external vulnerability, a narrow fiscal revenue base and low governance indicator scores compared with the 'B' median," said Fitch, adding that external funding conditions and liquidity will likely improve with the new staff-level agreement, reported Business Recorder. The move comes in view of the significant deterioration in the country's external liquidity position and financing conditions since early 2022. (ANI)
Popular short-form video app TikTok has taken down nearly 12.5 million videos in Pakistan for violation of community guidelines. With 12,490,309 videos removed, Pakistan is now ranked second in the world for the largest volume of videos taken down for violations between January and March 2022, reported Dawn. The videos were removed because they violated TikTok's robust set of community guidelines that are designed to foster an experience that prioritises safety, inclusion and authenticity. The report revealed that in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, TikTok's safety team removed 41,191 videos, 87 per cent of which violated its policies against harmful misinformation. TikTok also labelled content from 49 Russian state-controlled media accounts, reported Dawn. The platform also identified and removed six networks and 204 accounts globally for coordinated efforts to influence public opinion and mislead users about their identities. The report revealed that the total volume of ads removed for violating TikTok's advertising policies and guidelines increased in the first quarter of 2022, reported Dawn. TikTok has released its latest Community Guidelines Enforcement Report for the first quarter (January-March 2022), including updates on its commitment to support the safety of the community and foster kindness on the platform. The report reflects the platform's ongoing commitment to earn trust by being accountable while working to be safe and welcoming. Efforts include fostering authentic engagement across the comment space, safety reminders for creators and adhering strictly to the extensive Community Guidelines, reported Dawn. TikTok, one of the most popular short-form video apps, has recently shifted from solely funny content to serious and informative videos too, including political developments. According to the report, Pakistan had a removal rate of 96.5 per cent before any views and 97.3 per cent before 24 hours, whereas 98.5 per cent proactive removal rate was used by TikTok to remove 12,490,309 Pakistani videos. With these figures, Pakistan ranks second in the world for the largest volume of videos taken down in the first quarter of 2022, behind the US which ranks first with 14,044,224 videos removed. In this quarter, 102,305,516 videos were removed globally, which represents about 1 per cent of all videos uploaded to TikTok, reported Dawn. Earlier in April, TikTok had taken down almost 6.5 million videos in Pakistan for violating community guidelines. (ANI)
Phnom Penh [Cambodia], July 20 (ANI/Xinhua): Cambodia recorded 2,869 dengue fever cases in the first half of 2022, jumping by three times over the same period last year, a health official said on Wednesday. Leang Rithea, program manager for the National Dengue Control Program (NDCP) under the Ministry of Health, said the mosquito-borne disease killed seven people, mostly children during the January-June period this year. He added that an increase in precipitation in the early rainy season was blamed for the rise in dengue fever cases. "It rained more this year, and there are several factors contributing to the surge in dengue fever cases including climate change, heat, humidity, and rainfall," he told Xinhua. "All in all, the more it rains, the more mosquitoes there are." Despite the growing number of cases, the NDCP has brought the situation under control after working with relevant stakeholders and local authorities, he added. Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted through the bite of an Aedes mosquito, which is a day-biting mosquito. Rithea urged people to fill in the puddles around their houses, saying the puddles are breeding grounds for mosquitoes and advised the use of mosquito nets when sleeping. He said the NDCP will continue distributing the anti-dengue mosquito larvicide Abate to households in dengue-prone areas. "Parents must bring their children to the nearest public hospitals or health centers, not later than 72 hours if their children have an acute fever," he said. "Please don't try to treat the disease by yourselves, nor seek treatment from unauthorized medical practitioners." Dengue fever causes an acute illness with symptoms such as headache, high fever, exhaustion, severe muscle and joint pain, swollen glands, vomiting and rashes. In the Southeast Asian nation, the dengue peak time is in the rainy season from May to October. (ANI/Xinhua)
Ranil Wickremesinghe will take oath as the President of Sri Lanka at the parliament complex on Thursday after his victory in a parliament vote to choose a new president for the South Asian country.Wickremesinghe will be sworn in on Thursday morning and will appoint a new prime minister within the course of the day, the officials from the President's office told Xinhua. President Ranil Wickremesinghe this afternoon also expressed gratitude to the three armed forces and the police who performed their duties in the security affairs of the Parliament in the past few days. Wickremesinghe further said that he is thankful to all those who dedicated themselves to protecting the country's democracy, read the President's Media Division in an official statement. Ranil Wickremesinghe received 134 votes in the parliament vote following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa from the presidency last week amid severe economic turmoil in the country. Soon after winning the parliament vote by secret ballot, Wickremesinghe addressed the parliament, calling on all legislators including the opposition parliamentarians to unite and work together with him to lead Sri Lanka out of the current economic crisis."We are at a critical juncture. There is an economic crisis and the youth want a system change. People want all parliamentarians to come together," said Wickremesinghe.Out of the 225 parliamentarians, 223 voted to elect a new president and there were four invalid votes. Another two candidates, parliamentarian of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party Dullas Alahapperuma, and National People's Power leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, got 82 votes and three votes, respectively.Wickremesinghe is not a new name in politics and has served as the Prime Minister of the island nation six times earlier. He was one of the top contenders for the Presidential election in which members of the House voted through a secret ballot. Earlier, Wickremesinghe was appointed as the interim president of Sri Lanka after Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled abroad after his palace was stormed by angry protesters amid the unprecedented economic crisis. After his official residence in the capital, Colombo was stormed by tens of thousands of angry protesters last week, Sri Lanka's ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country to the Maldives before flying out to Singapore. Rajapaksa had offered his resignation after fleeing the country. The main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa on Tuesday withdrew his candidature from the presidential race and said he was supporting rival candidate Dullas Alahapperuma for the top post. Sri Lanka's economy is bracing for a sharp contraction due to the unavailability of basic inputs for production, an 80 per cent depreciation of the currency since March 2022, coupled with a lack of foreign reserves and the country's failure to meet its international debt obligations. Hundreds of Sri Lankans continue to queue up at petrol pumps across the debt-ridden country every day amid fuel shortage, and a large number of people are ditching their cars and motorcycles for bicycles for their daily commute. The economic crisis which is the worst in Sri Lanka's history has prompted an acute shortage of essential items like fuel. (ANI)
Activists in Gwadar district of Pakistan's Balochistan province have announced a large sit-in protest this week, alleging the government has failed to address their concerns regarding China's Belt and Road infrastructure endeavours in the country. The development in Gwadar, which is the backbone of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), had decelerated during the leadership of former Prime Minister Imran Khan due to friction between the two countries, the Nikkei Asia news agency reported. The leaders have voiced that their concerns over thousands of illegal fishing trawlers from abroad and other parts of Pakistan depleting marine resources, insufficient water and power supplies and a clampdown on informal trade across the border with Iran have not been addressed by the government. Gwadar Ko Haq Do Tehreek (the Gwadar Rights Movement) leader Molana Hidayat ur Rehman announced a major sit-in starting on Thursday that would last for an indefinite period accusing the government of not fulfilling the promises about the illegal fishing trawlers along with other issues. Rehman led a month-long sit-in against the unnecessary checkposts and fishing trawlers in Gwadar district last year. Thousands of people joined the protest. The protesters want the government to completely stop deep-sea trawling off Gwadar, ease up on the informal border trade that had supported livelihoods, reduce the number of checkpoints and allow fishermen to operate near the strategic port, among others, the publication said. "I have public support, and if I am arrested then there will be strong reaction across the province," the Gwadar Rights Movement leader said. Rehman has threatened that if his demands are not met then the Gwadar port would be shut down. According to experts, the protest could affect the activities at the port. The government of Pakistan has been dealing with animosity among the tribes of Balochistan since the time the country came into existence in 1947. The causes of the conflict with Balochistan include a ripe ethnic nationalism along with feelings of economic and political exclusion. Balochistan is located in the south west of Pakistan and constitutes half of the country's territory. Demographically though it constitutes a mere 3.6 per cent of the total population of Pakistan. The province is home to over 13 million people, mostly Baloch. Balochistan is Pakistan's largest, but least developed province. It is one of the most important provinces of Pakistan because of the high concentration of natural resources including gas, oil, copper and gold. However, despite the richness in natural resources, Balochistan continues to remain the poorest province of Pakistan. In 2015, China announced the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project in Pakistan worth USD 46 billion, of which Balochistan is an integral part. It would link Pakistan's southern Gwadar port in Balochistan on the Arabian Sea to China's western Xinjiang region. It also includes plans to create road, rail and oil pipeline links to improve connectivity between China and the Middle East. The Baloch have opposed China's increasing involvement in the province. The CPEC has not benefited the people of Balochistan while people of other provinces enjoy the fruits of the mega project. This has led to widespread protests as the Chinese are viewed as encroachers who are squeezing out all the wealth from the region. (ANI)
Amid an incessant surge in the killings of missing persons in fake encounters by Pakistan's Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), the Human Rights Council of Balochistan (Hakkpan Balochistan) has raised concerns and urged the authorities to investigate the matter. Hakkpan Balochistan stressed ending this illegal practice and persecuting those responsible, to prevent human rights violations in the future. They said that recently CTD gunned down five people on the outskirts of Quetta city, the capital of Balochistan, on July 6, one of them was identified as Qudratullah, a resident of Kharan district of Balochistan, who was registered with the Human Rights Council of Balochistan as a missing person. He was abducted and disappeared on March 23, 2021. Security forces whisked him away from his hometown Kharan during a raid and he was kept incommunicado despite several requests and appeals from his family. This is not the first incident in which the CTD has killed previously missing persons in fake encounters, reported the Human Rights Council of Balochistan. The CTD was first introduced in 2010 after revamping the Crime Investigation Department, another police department. But the CTD soon gained a reputation as an encounter specialist squad due to the sheer number of fake encounters it carried out in the province. This year alone, the CTD has killed at least 14 people in Balochistan, 11 of whom were identified so far and had already been registered as disappeared persons, all of whom were abducted by personnel of law enforcement agencies, reported Hakkpan Balochistan. On January 18, 2021, the Eagle Force of Balochistan, claimed during a press conference that they had arrested Jameel Pirkani and Sami Pirkani having found two hand grenades in their possession. Officials claimed that both the detainees were handed over to the CTD. The two detainees were cousins. On March 7, 2021, the CTD claimed to have killed five Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) members in a shootout near Mastung, on the outskirts of Quetta, Balochistan. The five "alleged terrorists" were identified as Sami Pirkani, Jameel Pirkani, Arif Marri, Yousuf Marri and Shah Nazar. After investigation, it was found that not only Sami Pirkani and Jameel Pirkani but the other three also had been in the custody of the security forces and had been registered as enforced disappeared persons on the dates of their disappearances, said Hakkpan Balochistan. On June 18, 2021, the CTD claimed to kill four "terrorists" during a search operation in Marwadh, Balochistan. All four of them were enforced disappeared persons who were abducted by forces from different areas on different dates. Enforced disappearances are used as a tool by Pakistani authorities to terrorize people who question the all-powerful army establishment of the country or seek individual or social rights. The report suggests that it is a crime that is often used by the authorities to get rid of people that are considered a "nuisance" without any arrest warrant, charge or prosecution. The victims of these abductions, who are often youth, women, children, and elderly, are described by Amnesty International as people "who have literally disappeared." The organisation states that the authorities grab the victims from the streets or their homes and later refuse to say where they are. The forceful abductions are being carried out in Balochistan since the early 2000s. Students are often the most targeted section of these abductions. The victims also include several political activists, journalists, teachers, doctors, poets, and lawyers. The report added that tens of thousands of Baloch people have been kidnapped by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Pakistan Army personnel in the last 20 years. Several victims have been killed and dumped and it is believed that many of them are still confined in the Pakistani torture cells. The authorities, including law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system, have long failed to demonstrate the political will to end enforced disappearances, reported Hakkpan Balochistan. Moreover, the bill to criminalize enforced disappearances had been strangulated in between ministries since 2019 when it was first drafted but recently introduced to National Assembly. (ANI)
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Wednesday released a report which highlighted that women's rights have eroded in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover. The report stated that the erosion of women's rights has been one of the most notable aspects of the de facto administration to date. Before the Taliban came to power, women and girls have progressively had their rights to fully participate in education, the workplace and other aspects of public and daily life. However, these rights have been restricted and in many cases completely taken away following the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban. A decision taken by the Taliban prevented girls from returning to secondary school which meant that a generation of girls will not complete their full 12 years of basic education. At the same time, access to justice for victims of gender-based violence has been limited by the dissolution of dedicated reporting pathways, justice mechanisms and shelters, it added. "The education and participation of women and girls in public life is fundamental to any modern society. The relegation of women and girls to the home denies Afghanistan the benefit of the significant contributions they have to offer. Education for all is not only a basic human right, it is the key to progress and development of a nation," Markus Potzel, Acting Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, said. The atrocities of the Taliban against Afghan women have been on an incessant surge since the group seized power in Afghanistan in August last year, banning young girls and women of humanitarian rights. Taliban on Monday issued a new diktat against female employees and told them to send male relatives as their replacements. The Taliban had previously promised of an inclusive society and equality during their first press conference after the takeover of Afghanistan, the Afghan Diaspora publication said. On the contrary, girls were stopped from going to school beyond sixth grade on March 23 and a decree against the women's dress code was issued after a month. A degree legitimising the hijab was issued by Akif Mahajar, the spokesperson of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, under the leadership of Maulavi Hibatullah Akhundzada. A three-page statement was issued by the Taliban that emphasised the dress code for women, and the guardians of the women will be summoned and punished according to the Taliban court if the dress code is not followed. There are restrictions on movement, education and freedom of expression of women posing a threat to their survival. According to locals, the Taliban has prevented women from using smartphones, and the Women's Affairs Ministry often extort money for providing essential protection. Around 80 per cent of women working in the media have lost their jobs, it said adding that almost 18 million women in the country are struggling for health, education and social rights. (ANI)
Following the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government's allocation of Rs 100 million for establishing a university in North Waziristan tribal district against its actual cost of Rs 4 billion, member of the opposition Pakistan Peoples' Party, Nighat Yasmin Orakzai complained that tribal districts do not have higher educational institutions. "The estimated cost of the university proposed for North Waziristan tribal district was Rs 4 billion but the government had allocated just Rs 100 million funds, which were insufficient," she stated during the question hour in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday. The KP government has also allocated an insufficient amount of Rs 50 million for the construction of the education city in the adjacent South Waziristan tribal district while the total cost of the project was over Rs 2 billion, Dawn reported. Orakzai also complained that the provincial government had allocated only Rs 50 million for the proposed education city in South Waziristan while she urged the government to establish universities, and colleges in the erstwhile FATA to bring the region to an equivalent level to other areas of the country. In response to Orakzai, the higher education minister Kamran Khan Bangash said the provincial government has planned an education city on over 2,700 kanals of land in the South Waziristan district and the project would comprise schools, colleges, and campuses of the country's different universities. The Education City will be established in the Barwand area at the estimated cost of Rs 2.5 billion, he said, informing further that the establishment of a campus of the Khyber Medical College, Peshawar had been proposed for the Bakakhel area, which was a buffer zone between North Waziristan and Bannu districts, reported Dawn. Moreover, the house also admitted an adjournment motion regarding the murder of three minor girls in Peshawar and the overall law and order situation in the provincial capital as three girls have been killed in Peshawar during the last couple of days. Labour minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai told the house that the police had completed the profiling of 149 people in the murder of minor girl Mahnoor and said samples of 48 suspects had been sent to the laboratory in the case and that the police would soon arrest the culprits. (ANI)
On the sidelines of the ongoing 17th CII EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Growth Partnership, India and Namibia signed three MoUs to strengthen bilateral cooperation between the two nations. The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Namibia H.E. Netumbo Nandi Ndaitwah is on a visit to India from July 17-21 to attend the 17th CII EXIM Bank Conclave as well as to hold bilateral talks between India and Namibia. During the visit, the Deputy Prime Minister met with Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and also held an extensive round of bilateral discussions with External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar and Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav. Three MoUs were signed during the visit between the two countries, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated in a release. Taking to Twitter, EAM S Jaishankar said, "Pleased to meet Namibian DPM and Minister of International Relations Netumbo Nandi Ndaitwah this morning." The MoUs signed between India and Namibia are on 'Wildlife Conversation and Sustainable Biodiversity Utilization, the agreement between Namibia and India on 'Authorizing Spouses and Dependents of Members of the Diplomatic Mission to Engage in Gainful Employment and the MoU between National Forensic Science University (NFSU) of India and Namibian Police Forensic Science Institute (NPFSI). The visiting DPM delivered her address at the inaugural of the CII Exim Bank Conclave on 19 July 2022. Moreover, a country session on doing business with Namibia was also held on 20 July 2022 on the sidelines of the conclave where prominent business houses and business persons were present. The visiting DPM also had business meetings covering several sectors of the economy including small industries, renewable energy, agricultural equipment and technology, startups and vaccine manufacturing among others, the Press Release read. Notably, the visit by the Deputy PM and Foreign Minister of Namibia is expected to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries. The CII- EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership was launched in the year 2005 with the support of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Government of India, according to CII-EXIM Africa Conclave's official website. In the last sixteen editions, the Conclave has played a pivotal role in encouraging Indian companies to establish and grow their footprints in Africa. According to the website, the level of economic engagement between India and Africa has grown multi-dimensional and to reflect the changing contours of this dynamic relationship, the Conclave is being rechristened as "CII EXIM Bank Conclave on India Africa Growth Partnership" expanding the earlier focus on "Project Partnership". The upcoming edition focussed on project exports, trade, investments, and exchange of knowledge and expertise creating shared value for business and industry at large between India and Africa. (ANI)
The Chinese Communist Party information operations are successfully silencing governments, businesses and civil society organisations globally and deterring them from criticising the CCP's human rights record and actions in Xinjiang. Albert Zhang, an analyst and Tilla Hoja, a researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's (ASPI) International Cyber Policy Centre said that China's information operations are silencing and influencing global audiences on Xinjiang. The CCP is projecting its preferred narratives about Xinjiang and influencing unwitting audiences around the globe, instead of improving its treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities. The CCP is responding to critiques of its human rights record by coordinating its state propaganda apparatus, security agencies and public relations industry to influence and even silence governments, businesses and civil society at home and abroad, reported Zhang and Hoja. The new ASPI report, assessing the impact of CCP information operations related to Xinjiang, collected and analysed a vast amount of multi-language data, including Chinese government documents and speeches, government statements made to the UN Human Rights Council, corporate responses to Chinese state-affiliated consumer backlashes (regarding Xinjiang-related forced labour), 613,301 Facebook posts, 6,780,809 tweets and retweets, and 494,710 media articles. The findings come on the back of President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Xinjiang--his first since 2014. Despite almost a decade of repressive and discriminatory policies, including the arbitrary detention, mass sterilisation and cultural degradation of minorities in Xinjiang, reporting from Xi's visit showed Uyghurs and other Muslim minority residents apparently waving and cheering the draconian policies they have been forced to live under, reported ASPI. However, CCP online information operations deny, distract and deter voices critical of CCP policies by flooding social media with positive depictions of Xinjiang and whitewashing evidence of human rights abuses. These activities are coordinated with other coercive tactics such as state-affiliated trolling campaigns, cyber surveillance operations and offline harassment, reported Zhang and Hoja. Xinjiang-focused CCP propaganda and information operations were more effective on Facebook than on other platforms such as Twitter, the report found. For example, of the top 400 Facebook posts with the most interactions (including reactions and shares), 60.3 per cent were posted by Chinese state media and diplomats. Of the top 1,000 tweets with the most interactions (including likes and retweets), only 5.5 per cent were posted by Chinese state media and diplomats, and 4 per cent were from accounts suspended by Twitter for platform manipulation. Social media data collected in this report also confirmed that the CCP and state-affiliated entities are likely deploying coordinated inauthentic accounts to amplify their online public diplomacy and disseminate disinformation. News articles in different languages varied significantly in the tone of their reporting about Xinjiang and reflected differences in global public opinion about the CCP's policies in the region, reported ASPI. Of 494,710 articles analysed in more than 65 languages, Chinese-language articles were more likely to convey positive assessments of Chinese state policy and action in Xinjiang. Statistically similar results came from analyses of articles published in Urdu, Japanese, Thai and Turkish. Moreover, the analysis of government statements at UNHRC sessions found that most countries that have supported CCP policies were based in Africa or the Middle East, which are emerging markets for US-based social media companies, while countries that have condemned CCP policies were mostly democratic nations in Europe and elsewhere. (ANI)
India and Maldives on Wednesday signed MoU for judicial cooperation to accelerate court digitization and boost prospects for IT companies & start-ups in both countries. "In another reaffirmation of our #NeighbourhoodFirst policy, today the Cabinet approved signing of an MoU for Judicial Cooperation between India & Maldives. Will accelerate court digitization and boost prospects for IT companies & start-ups in both countries," tweeted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Earlier in June, Jaishankar interacted with the President of Maldives, Ibu Solih and underlined the broad-based cooperation between India and Maldives that continues to grow at Kigali while he was there to attend the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). India was among the first to recognise the Maldives after its independence in 1965 and to establish diplomatic relations with the country. India and Maldives share ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious and commercial links steeped in antiquity and enjoy close, cordial and multi-dimensional relations. Relations between India and Maldives have been traditionally warm. However, during Abdulla Yameen's presidency (2013-18), bilateral relations frayed, especially with Maldives' economic and strategic relations with China growing rapidly. Despite its small size, the Maldives is currently being wooed by a number of developed and developing countries. Because of the Strategic Importance of the Geographic Location of the Maldives with respect to key International Shipping Lanes (ISLs). The Indian Ocean is a key highway for global trade and energy flows. The Maldives is geographically positioned like a 'toll gate' between the western Indian Ocean chokepoints of the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Hormuz on the one hand, and the eastern Indian Ocean chokepoint of the Strait of Malacca on the other. It is extremely important for India's strength in the blue economy through sustainable management and utilisation of marine resources. Maldives is important for political stability and security in the Indian Ocean Neighbourhood and the protection of Indian trade and investment. They have a clear responsibility in maintaining peace and security in the Indian Ocean. India to see Maldives supporting the Pacific strategy of the Quad -- a strategic arrangement between India, US, Japan and Australia. India being a net provider of security, is also our responsibility to maintain peace and security in the region. So these two are complementary approaches that India is working on. It is key that Male treats India as the "first among equals" when it comes to China. When Solih came to power, he categorically said India First policy is my foreign policy. In 2016, an Action Plan between India and the Maldives was signed for 'defence cooperation' to enhance the "shared strategic and security interests of the two countries in the Indian Ocean region". This potential must be realised through imaginative foreign policy and maritime-security initiatives. While the recent 'India-First Policy' of the Maldives and India's 'Neighbourhood First Policy' are intuitively complementary, the challenge lies in implementing these policies with cultural, geo-economics, and geostrategic sensitivity. (ANI)
China circulated a letter urging UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to bury a report on human rights violations in Xinjiang, according to UK-based media. China has been urging to bury the report among diplomatic missions in Geneva since late June, asking countries to sign it to show their support. Bachelet has been facing severe criticism for being too soft on China during a May visit in what could have been a golden chance to investigate the human rights situation in areas like Xinjiang and Tibet and to hold Beijing accountable for its abuses against Uyghurs and Tibetans, but it seems that the first visit of the rights body chief turned out to be a "wasted historic opportunity". The first visit of a UN Chief in 17 years to China has made the world question the role of the United Nations in this era and the extent of influence China holds in twisting opinions and moulding narratives. The Global Times reported that the statement by the UN rights chief at the end of her trip stressed that her trip was not an "investigation" and that this was "an opportunity to hold direct discussions - with China's most senior leaders" on areas including "human rights" "was a slap to the Western countries". Another Chinese media CGTN stated that the visit provided "a chance to clarify the situation and dispel a lot of misinformation and other things that have been put out". After the six-day trip to China, Bachelet provided no transparency about the trip and that a prison visit in Xinjiang was a "Potemkin-style sham," Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported citing the Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs. "The high commissioner has disgraced herself and her office by refusing to investigate China's genocide and adopting, repeating the Chinese regime's narrative, further cementing their propaganda in the UN," Rushan Abbas, the organization's executive director, told RFA. "Her comments seem custom-made for Beijing's propaganda machine, and she neglects the duties of her office and the founding principle of the UN," she said. Abbas called on Bachelet to step down from her post. Bachelet, meanwhile, said that she would not seek a second term for personal reasons. Following Bachelet's highly disappointing visit, the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) strongly urged her office to release her independent assessment of the situation in East Turkistan, as a show of willingness to hold the Chinese government accountable for crimes against humanity and genocide being committed. The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) has expressed disappointment with the Bachelet's visit to China, saying this trip has given a "political victory" to the Communist regime. According to the Tibetan group, the UN rights chief adopted the Chinese Communist Party's framing of policies, domestically and internationally. Dozens of rights groups say the Chinese government has committed widespread abuses and systematic policies of mass detention, torture, cultural persecution, and other offences against Uyghurs and members of other Turkic groups in Xinjiang that amount to crimes against humanity. (ANI)
In the wake of the ongoing political slugfest between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Shehbaz Sharif-led PML-N government, Pakistan has been facing an unprecedented foreign policy challenge due to consistent 'anti-US' rhetoric by ex-Premier Imran Khan and his party members which continues to create political instability in Pakistan. Pakistan is facing an unprecedented foreign policy challenge amid growing tensions between the two political camps in the country due to the Shehbaz Sharif-led coalition government standing on a 'weak' electoral majority and facing a historic economic crisis amid strong political opposition from Imran Khan's PTI while Imran Khan's blame game against the US for allegedly ousting him from power also continues. There are emerging cases of growing sentiments against Washington in Pakistan even three months after the incident, for its "alleged role" in dethroning Khan from power, and Khan has intensified his support for the betterment of Pakistan-Russia relations and has refused to condemn Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, Islam Khabar reported. Several reasons have played a role in creating serious roadblocks in resetting Pak-US ties, a few being Khan's denial to attend Biden's Summit for Democracy event in December last year and Biden not paying heed to call Imran Khan while he was Prime Minister. All these reasons had hit Pak-US ties significantly under Imran Khan's almost four-year-long rule. Moreover, the army establishment is facing serious credibility issues and a rare spurt of public anger against it for remaining silent/neutral during the ousting of Imran Khan's government. The whole issue has aggravated the civil-military imbalance in Pakistan and put the military establishment on the defensive mode. Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa had even spoken publicly about improving relations with the US and openly criticised Russia's "invasion" of Ukraine to prove the military establishment's neutrality on the issue, reported Islam Khabar citing sources. Pakistan's 'brotherly' relations with China and Imran Khan's severe pressure on the Sharif-led government to import oil, gas, and wheat from Russia amid the growing food and energy crisis in the country are also becoming a roadblock for the country's foreign policy. As per the reports by Islam Khabar, the PDM coalition in Islamabad is facing serious difficulties in choosing to either reset ties with the US or face public resentment and likely electoral defeat in the 2023 general elections in Pakistan and the Sharif-led government has taken the political risk to put its weight behind the 'West' to seek the immediate resumption of the stalled International Monetary Fund bailout programme and a desperate exit from the Financial Action Task Force's "Grey List". Imran Khan has relied on "anti-American" rhetoric both in his rise to power as well as in his recent fall. Given that his relationship with the Biden administration was "non-existent", Khan's ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin -- who called him three times since August 2021 -- and Chinese President Xi Jinping was a major foreign policy shift for Pakistan, much to Washington's chagrin. Notably, Imran Khan continues to put immense pressure on Sharif's coalition government through public speeches, media interviews, countrywide protests and a "foreign conspiracy" narrative against the United States and this has led to critical political instability in Pakistan and the country continues to falter in its bilateral relationships. (ANI)
After the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated in early July, a trend, mimicking the shooter of the leaders, is going on Chinese social media, the country accused of celebrating the killing of the Japanese leader. Shinzo Abe was assassinated in early July 8. Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old resident of Nara City, in western Japan shot Abe while he was delivering a campaign speech on July 8. Chinese considered it fun to dress and strike pose the same way as the killer, showcasing how low one country can go. Youth in China are creating a short video, posing and dressing like the shooter, and uploading it on social media to set a trend to hail the shooter who killed Abe, Japan's longest-serving Prime Minister. Soon after the attack on Abe, anti-Japan posts on Chinese social media circulated, calling Tetsuya Yamagami a "hero". Shinzo Abe sustained two gunshot wounds to the front of his neck and the bullet that killed him damaged his heart and a major artery, causing blood loss, Hidetada Fukushima, the head of emergency services at Nara Medical University Hospital said. According to Dr Fukushima, Abe went into cardiopulmonary arrest at the site of the attack and lost vital signs during transportation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Ties between Japan and China which have been tense for years owing to territorial disputes in the East China Sea, deteriorated in the year 2012 over the uninhabited Japanese-administered Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, which China considers as part of its territory. In December 2021, Abe while delivering a speech to an audience in Taiwan via video said that any armed invasion of Taiwan would present a serious threat to Japan adding that Chinese President Xi Jinping should understand that a Taiwan crisis would be a Japan crisis and therefore a crisis for the Japan-US alliance. Abe's comment had irked Beijing. Abe had also expressed his support for Taiwan's participation in the regional trade pact Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). (ANI)
New comprehensive data shows that Asian Americans have confronted thousands of incidents of anti-Asian bias over the course of the pandemic.

The reporting forum Stop AAPI Hate released a national report on Wednesday, revealing that they have collected data on almost 11,500 anti-Asian incidents since March 2020. But researchers emphasized that the majority of incidents are nonviolent and cannot be considered crimes.

We think we need a comprehensive approach to racism. Its so deeply embedded in our institutions and our history, Russell Jeung, the organizations co-founder, told NBC Asian America. Hate crimes make up a small fraction of whats happening and to solely address hate crimes wont get that breadth and depth of racism.

According to the report, roughly two-thirds of the incidents recorded involved harassment, from verbal or written hate speech to inappropriate gestures. About 17% of the incidents were reported as physical assault, and another 16% involved avoidance or shunning. And 60% of all incidents were reported by women.

When asked about solutions, 53% of Asian Americans and 58% of Pacific Islanders said education was the most effective response. Community-based solutions were also highly favored, with 50% of Asian Americans and 58% of Pacific Islanders identifying it as a response. Many also advocated for civil rights legislation and enforcement.

A minority of respondents reported more law enforcement as an effective solution, with 30% of Asian Americans and 21% of Pacific Islanders.

Most of our incidents are not criminal in nature, and, therefore, require solutions outside of the criminal justice system, the report reads. We do not endorse solutions such as increased policing or incarceration that have a disparate impact on communities of color, perpetuating rather than dismantling long-term systemic racism.

Jeung, whos also a professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University, said that the attacks during the pandemic revealed historic racism and subconscious fears about Asians as the yellow peril. The inflamed hate against the group, he said, was further normalized in the pandemic due to then-President Donald Trumps mocking rhetoric around the coronavirus.

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Due to the deeply rooted nature of these attacks, Jeung said that his organization has been advocating for more systemic measures, like education equity. This would include language access, campus safety, culturally responsive mental health services, as well as curriculum and educational materials that reflect the Asian American experience. Currently, nine states have passed legislation that requires Asian American content to be included in K-12 curriculum.

Jeung also said that his organization is pushing for an expansion of civil rights protections. It has backed two bills in California, introduced in February, that aim to combat harassment and violence against women and other vulnerable populations in public spaces, including on streets and transit platforms.

We need to establish a new normal of respect and dignity, Jeung said.
Rachel McAdams as Regina George in "Mean Girls." CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, and Tom Hiddleston have made movies iconic by playing the villain.

Femmes fatales like Megan Fox and Sharon Stone added their own flare to villainous ladies.

The "Harry Potter" series wouldn't have been the same without Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort.

Jack Nicholson is great at being unhinged ... well, pretending to be unhinged on-screen, at least. One of his most famous roles is the Joker in 1989's "Batman."

"Batman." Murray Close/Getty Images

His real-life eccentricity and lively nature seem to be part of the foundation of his bad guy characters, enabling him to completely disappear into his villainous roles.

Even though Nicholson wasn't the first on-screen Joker (that'd be Cesar Romero in the 1966 camp classic "Batman"), he truly made the role his own. And, as the 33rd anniversary of the 1989 film "Batman," just passed, it's fitting that we delve into how much he made that movie the iconic film it is today.

Nicholson's portrayal of the Joker was eerie, and his peculiar mannerisms accentuated just how sociopathic the core of the Joker is. For many, Nicholson will always be the defining Joker, even though Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger both took home Oscars for playing him in other movies.

But prior to his legendary performance as the Joker, Nicholson also terrified audiences as the homicidal maniac Jack Torrance in 1980's "The Shining."

"The Shining." Warner Bros.

Nicholson's slow descent into madness in "The Shining" was eerie, but it made for a classic film and a master-class for villainy.

Nicholson's character, Jack Torrance, starts the film as a relatively normal man (if a little troubled and dealing with alcoholism), but his slow descent into madness spurred on by the ghosts haunting the Overlook Hotel remains genuinely terrifying 42 years later.

And, of course, attempting to murder his family with an axe was definitely a different level of unhinged villainy that only Nicholson could pull off.

Jolie absolutely embodied the archetypal antihero when she played the disturbed mental patient and trouble-starter Lisa in "Girl, Interrupted" back in 1999.

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"Girl, Interrupted." Archive Photos/Stringer/Getty Images

"I'm playing the villain, baby, just like you want. I try to give you everything you want." That chilling line said by Lisa, portrayed by Angelina Jolie, in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted" is a definitive turning point in the dramatic film that focuses on a group of young women living inside a mental institution.

Jolie's performance as Lisa, a woman inside the mental institution along with main character Susanna (Winona Ryder), was so captivating that it even earned her an Oscar.

Jolie played the classic fairy tale villain in the 2014 Sleeping Beauty re-telling "Maleficent" and its 2019 sequel, giving her more depth.

"Maleficent: Mistress of Evil." Associated Press

In the original Disney movie, Maleficent was simply painted a cruel fairy who was painfully jealous of Princess Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty. As a punishment for not inviting her to the new princess's christening, she curses Aurora with eternal sleep.

But in the 2014 re-telling, "Maleficent," it becomes clear that Maleficent was actually mistreated by Aurora's parents for years.

While some of Maleficent's actions were evidently mean-spirited, like her cursing Aurora to spite her parents, they were somewhat understandable  and that comes down to Jolie's nuanced performance.

In both "Girl, Interrupted" and "Maleficent," Jolie did an excellent job at convincing the audience that her characters were not entirely bad, just misunderstood.

Megan Fox proved in the infamous 2009 teen horror flick "Jennifer's Body" that she's good at being deliberately offensive, and still making you root for her.

"Jennifer's Body." 20th Century Fox

Movie bad guys don't always come in the form of deranged super-villains or hard-hearted exiled queens. Sometimes, they can be in the form of a mean girl whose second language is insults, just like in "Jennifer's Body."

Fox's natural off-camera snarkiness and dry sense of humor works in her favor when it comes to her playing a mean girl, enhancing her believability on-screen  specifically in the 2009 cult classic in which Fox plays Jennifer Check, a succubus who is obsessed with killing boys after a demonic sacrifice gone wrong.

Sure, she technically becomes a serial killer, but you pretty much remain on her side the entire movie, even rooting against the supposed "hero" Needy, played by Amanda Seyfried. Even Needy herself is sucked into Jennifer's plans, that's how charismatic Fox is in this role.

In 2012's "Django Unchained," Leonardo DiCaprio deepened the movie and stunned audiences as the vehemently racist and violent slave owner Calvin Candie.

"Django Unchained." Miramax

We were used to seeing DiCaprio as the angel-faced Romeo in "Romeo + Juliet" or the disarmingly sweet Jack in "Titanic," but when he assumed the role of Calvin Candie, he embodied the villain perfectly.

The way that DiCaprio transformed when he played this monster is so good that you can't envision the film without him. Candie was sadistic, racist, and his ego completely blinded him to the horrific nature of his actions.

If you need more convincing, just watch this video of DiCaprio actually slicing his hand open and continuing to stay in the scene.

DiCaprio made audiences love to hate (and hate to love) him as Jordan Belfort in 2013's "The Wolf of Wall Street," playing another unlikable character.

"The Wolf of Wall Street." James Devaney/Getty Images

Adapted from the real Jordan Belfort's memoir of the same name, DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort in "The Wolf of Wall Street" film was supreme casting. He was even nominated for an Oscar for the role.

During the entire film, DiCaprio convincingly behaved as a charismatic, narcissistic hedonist who comfortably scammed others for selfish reasons in the corporate world and you couldn't tear your eyes away from him.

Between "Django" and "Wolf of Wall Street," we're now seeing a pivot of DiCaprio playing more complicated characters (see: "The Revenant," "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," "Don't Look Up"), and we can't wait to see what's next.

Almost nobody plays a better anti-hero better than the "Godfather" breakout star and acting icon Al Pacino.

"The Godfather." CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

Pacino has never failed at bringing a certain level of menace to movies that were dependent on that element to ensure authenticity, and nowhere is it more clear than in the 1972 epic "The Godfather" and its two sequels.

Much of those movies' acclaim can be traced back to Pacino and his impactful performance as the core anti-hero, Michael Corleone.

Originally, Michael has no desire to be sucked into the family business (aka the mob), but over the course of the trilogy you watch with horror as Michael descends into depths of organized crime, taking over as the new boss. Spoilers for a 48-year-old movie, but Michael even organizes the killing of his own brother, Fredo, for going against the family.

Pacino's portrayal of Michael epitomized the entire "good guy, gone bad" trope in the best (i.e., compelling) way possible.

In the 1983 film "Scarface" Pacino plays Tony Montana, a no-nonsense drug king-pin whose greedy ambitions were the source of his downfall.

"Scarface." Universal

What was so intensely scary about Pacino as Tony, aka the titular Scarface, was the way that he used his eyes. Pacino's cold dead looks made the character that much more aggressive and hostile, conveying that his character's sole focus was always his own selfish desires, with little concern about anyone or anything else.

Anything that prevented Tony, a ruthless drug lord who immigrated from Cuba to Miami, from acquiring his goals was fair game for annihilation, and Pacino's performance in the legendary final scene solidified just how willing he was to die protecting his infamous legacy.

Robert De Niro is a grade-A actor in pretty much every role of his, specifically his villainous ones. One of his most terrifying characters of all time is Max Cady in "Cape Fear," released in 1991.

"Cape Fear." Archive Photos / Stringer/Getty Images

In "Cape Fear," De Niro stars as Max Cady, a convicted rapist who makes it his sole mission in life to get revenge on his lawyer, played by Nick Nolte, who was so disgusted by his crimes that he botched his defense of Cady.

Part of what makes "Cape Fear" so insidious is the combination of the menacing score and De Niro's truly unsettling wordless stares. If anyone can make you feel truly scared just by standing and staring, it's De Niro.

Rarely does Denzel Washington play the bad guy  but the time he did, he earned him an Oscar in 2002 for "Training Day." That's how good he was at being bad.

"Training Day." screenshot/Training day

Washington's performance as the dangerously corrupt LAPD officer Alonzo Harris in "Training Day" was intensely dynamic and elicited emotions of fear and disdain, like every real villain should.

Harris was extremely self-serving, loved to scheme, and seemed like he was one bad day away from losing his mind. The way Harris connived to set people up to further his own agenda, and preyed on members of lower-income communities was distasteful, but was also a raw depiction of many people's reality, as he was loosely based on a real corrupt LAPD cop.

That's why Harris is so scary  there really are police officers like him out there.

Out of all his bad guy roles, Anthony Hopkins' role as Hannibal Lecter in 1991's "The Silence of the Lambs" was the most disturbing and purely villainous  in no uncertain terms, absolutely nothing about his character was redeemable.

"The Silence of the Lambs." Orion Pictures

Obviously, Hopkins is nothing like the psychopathic serial slayer Hannibal Lecter in his everyday life, but his performance in "The Silence of the Lambs" was so genuinely unnerving that it made you think he could be.

If you didn't know any better, you might just think that Lecter was a run-of-the-mill criminal, until he casually drops that he loves eating human beings with a nice glass of Chianti.

Lecter is the ultimate unapologetic villain that has gone down in film history as one of the most nefarious characters ever, and Hopkins's portrayal of the cannibal was epic  so epic, in fact, that he won an Oscar for it.

Only Helena Bonham Carter could make Voldemort fan-girl Bellatrix Lestrange just as disturbing as the infamous "Harry Potter" villain Voldemort himself.

"Harry Potter." Warner Bros.

As the 15th anniversary of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and the 13th anniversary of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" approaches, it's mandatory that we discuss Helena Bonham Carter's truly unhinged performance as Bellatrix Lestrange.

Bellatrix was a die-hard Voldemort supporter, and her obsession with her pure-blood lineage led her to do some harsh things to whoever she labeled as her enemy. Eccentric and sociopathic, Bellatrix only cared about her loyalty to the cold-blooded Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters.

Although she had limited time in the "Harry Potter" series, Bonham Carter still is one of the most discussed and analyzed actors in the series, because of how memorable she was as Bellatrix.

Let's not forget about Mrs. Lovett from "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber on Fleet Street," released in 2007.

"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Paramount Pictures

Bonham Carter's character significantly contributed to the horror of "Sweeney Todd," because of her diabolical entrepreneurial endeavors. Mrs. Lovett was even more disturbing then Depp's character Sweeney Todd because she baked meat pies out of his murder victims, and knowingly fed them to the unsuspecting citizens of London.

Not only was her character was an accomplice, but she also was the one who floated the idea of making pies out of Todd's murder victims. She combined murder with capitalism ... if that's not villainy at its finest, then we don't know what is.

Sharon Stone is one of Hollywood's most notable femmes fatales, most famously in 1992's "Basic Instinct."

"Basic Instinct." TriStar Pictures/Guild Film Distribution/UGC

Stone is everything that a female villain should be when she plays one: beautiful, bold and cold.

In "Basic Instinct," Stone's character Catherine had no regard for human emotions or genuine interpersonal connections, since she was driven solely by being able to manipulate and control people.

But it wasn't just that Catherine desired control and had the ability to persuade others to do her bidding that was frightening. Her love of the cat-and-mouse game with Nick, a detective played by Michael Douglas, showed that she thought of her actions as a game, and didn't care that she was playing around with people's lives.

When it comes to playing the villain in a teen movie, aka the "mean girl," Rachael McAdams takes the cake with her performance as Regina George in the 2004 film "Mean Girls."

Rachel McAdams as Regina George in "Mean Girls." CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

McAdams is probably best-known today for her role as Regina, the haughty head honcho of the Plastics in one of the best teen comedies ever, "Mean Girls."

The way McAdams had teens everywhere nervous about high school because of the possibility of encountering someone like Regina George speaks to how well she did as portraying a mean queen bee who loved to scheme, steal boyfriends, and put down everyone else around her.

One of the most alarming bad guys in movie history by far is Voldemort, portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in the "Harry Potter" film series.

"Harry Potter." Warner Brothers

Aside from Voldemort's look being the physical manifestation of evil (kudos to the "Harry Potter" costume team), Voldemort's aura was acutely sinister.

Fiennes superbly captured the core aspects that makes a character a villain namely, murdering anyone in his way, playing all of his followers against each other, plotting his revenge for over a decade in the shadows  inhabiting the role so fully that you can't envision anyone else as Voldemort besides him.

Tom Hiddleston cemented his character Loki as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) most likable bad guy, portraying the supervillain with dimensionality.

"The Avengers." Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Hiddleston became a fan-favorite after his debut in "Thor" in 2011, and later appearances in "The Avengers," "Thor: The Dark World," "Thor: Ragnarok," "Avengers: Infinity War," and "Avengers: Endgame" proved his staying power.

There's a compelling argument to be made that Thor, as played by Chris Hemsworth, is the second-most beloved character in his own franchise, just behind Loki. As played by Hiddleston, you are somehow always on Loki's side, or delighted to be spending time with him even as he attempts to subjugate the entire human race to his rule as a god-king.

There's a reason that Loki is one of the only villains in the entire MCU to stick around for as long as he has: Because Hiddleston is immensely charming, more than a little devilish, and easy on the eyes.

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LAS CRUCES - Las Cruces Womens Health Organization is preparing to open its doors to provide the people of southern New Mexico and surrounding areas access to abortion care.

Activists who oppose abortion rights have already pledged to fight to try to drive the clinic out of town. One of their first steps will be the planned establishment of a crisis pregnancy center nearby.

The clinic is moving to Las Cruces from Jackson, Mississippi, where it took a central role in the U.S. Supreme Court case that ultimately resulted in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the nearly 50-year-old ruling which found the Constitution protected the right to have an abortion.

The Jackson center was the only abortion clinic operating in Mississippi  until recently.

Gallery:Bans Off Las Cruces abortion rights demonstration at Pioneer Women's Park

Anti-abortion advocates hold signs up in front of pro-abortion rights protesters during the Emergency Pro-Life Rally for New Mexico on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

Owner Diane Derzis and Shannon Brewer, Jackson Womens Health Organization executive director, have both stated publicly that their intention is to create a place where people seeking to end a pregnancy can go for the medical procedure  particularly in a state that does not legally restrict abortion access.

Now, the Las Cruces location, which will also be known as Pink House West to echo the closed Jackson clinics nickname, will be the only clinic outside the Albuquerque area to offer medical abortions in the state. Currently, the few abortion providers which exist in southern New Mexico only offer abortion via medication early in a pregnancy.

Pink House West is expected to open soon in a former dentist's office building at 2918 Hillrise Dr. However, the date medical procedures are to begin is still unknown.

A Las Cruces Sun-News reporter dropped by the Hillrise location, but found the doors tightly shut and no signage posted. Operators did not respond to multiple inquiries, both in-person and via email.

Mark Cavaliere, CEO of Southwest Coalition for Life, speaks during the Emergency Pro-Life Rally for New Mexico on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

Anti-abortion organizers plan competing center next door to Las Cruces abortion provider

Mark Cavaliere is CEO of the Southwest Coalition for Life, a faith-based nonprofit opposed to abortion which organizes against providers in the region. On its website, the group credits its organizing efforts to the closures of three abortion clinics in Las Cruces and El Paso since the group formed in 2015.

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On Tuesday evening, several hundred anti-abortion organizers gathered at a rally next to the planned location of Pink House West to decry the clinics arrival and talk about next steps for the pro-life movement. During the event, Cavaliere announced the planned opening of a center next door meant to deter people from receiving abortions.

To raucous applause, Cavaliere said a lease was secured at 2908 Hillrise Dr., yards away from the new abortion provider, and staff and volunteers were being sought. Cards were passed around to rally attendees asking for financial contributions to help set up the facility.

If ever there was a place to respond to a challenge like were facing, its the City of the Crosses, Cavaliere told rally goers. Weve seen what God can do.

More:Where do New Mexico voters stand on oil and gas for November election? Climate change?

The crowd cheers as Mark Cavaliere, CEO of Southwest Coalition for Life, announces that a pregnancy crisis center will open yards away from the new abortion clinic during the Emergency Pro-Life Rally for New Mexico on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

The facility is planned to be a branch of the Guiding Star Project, which currently has a center in El Paso.

This will be an affiliate of Guiding Star  to provide that message that we don't feel is being accurately represented from this neighboring facility, Cavaliere said in an interview with the Sun-News.

The Guiding Star Project is opposed to abortion and contraception, saying on its website both practices interrupt natural, healthy biological processes for women.

Pregnancy is not a disease, Leah Jacobson, CEO of the National Guiding Star Project, told rally attendees. Fertility is a gift. It is not a burden.

Like similar crisis pregnancy centers in Las Cruces, Guiding Stars center will provide free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, parenting classes, material assistance such as diapers, wipes and infant clothes, post-abortion support groups and options counseling, Cavaliere said.

Leah Jacobson, CEO of The National Guiding Star Project, speaks during the Emergency Pro-Life Rally for New Mexico on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

We do (counseling) in a really non-judgmental way without any shame or judgment, informing women of all the pros and cons of all their decisions  which include parenting, adoption and abortion  in a medically accurate way that a lot of times they're not hearing  from the facility that profits off of one of their choices, Cavaliere said, claiming that an abortion clinic has a profit incentive to convince someone to terminate a pregnancy.

Critics of these types of pregnancy centers say they often provide medical misinformation to people who are considering abortion, such as claiming it makes women more susceptible to breast cancer, infertility and mental illness.

A 2017 report from NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights organization, argues crisis pregnancy centers use misleading advertising, obscure details over the phone, and use coercive and emotionally manipulative tactics against visitors to persuade women against having an abortion.

One Las Cruces city councilor has previously floated the idea of proposing a citywide ordinance to regulate the ways crisis pregnancy centers present themselves and their services. At least two CPCs already operate in Las Cruces.

Several other cities nationwide have passed ordinances prohibiting CPCs from engaging in deceptive advertising, a type of speech that courts have ruled is not constitutionally protected.

When reached Tuesday, City Councilor Johana Bencomo said she was still researching the best way the city government could address the issue of CPCs within city limits.

More:US investigates New Mexico helicopter crash that killed 4

Anti-abortion advocates listen to various speakers during the Emergency Pro-Life Rally for New Mexico on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

Cavaliere said outreach workers will likely be posted outside the Guiding Star facility to offer support and information to people considering abortion who may be visiting Pink House West.

The Guiding Star center is just a start. During Tuesday evenings rally, attendees heard from Mark Lee Dickson, leader of an effort to outlaw abortion by enacting ordinances declaring cities sanctuary cities for the unborn. Attendees were also encouraged to look into the records of candidates running in this years general election and vote for those who oppose abortion.

The governor  wants to make this an abortion destination, said David Gallegos, a Republican State Senator. Instead of talking about White Sands, they want to talk about the Pink House. We have to take this curse off of New Mexico.

Michael McDevitt is a city and county government reporter for the Sun-News. He can be reached at 575-202-3205, mmcdevitt@lcsun-news.com or @MikeMcDTweets on Twitter. Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Abortion provider central to Roe v Wade reversal to open in Las Cruces
A new study by the ACLU of Ohio recommended that the Cincinnati Public Schools system address what they found as inequity and exclusionary discipline disparities, in part by breaking ties with the citys police department.

The ACLU and its Campaign for Smart Justice partnered with the Young Activists Coalition to research disciplinary practices at the school from 2021 to 2022, and said the research showed racially disparate discipline in the schools, perpetuating harm and reinforcing the school-to-prison pipeline.

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The research was done through polling of 400 parents and more than 100 recent graduates, a majority of whom (53% of parents and 65% of recent grads) said they did not support the current contract between the school and the Cincinnati Police Department, according to the study.

The study found that Black students were 21 times more likely to be put in alternative placement centers at CPS, and 10.5 times more likely to be put in an alternative learning center, away from their peers.

The contract between the police and the district grants CPD unilateral power over school policing, while CPS remains in the dark, the ACLU and YAC concluded.

Parents and grads said they would like to see modifications to the police contract to reform the use of force guidelines, training and accountability, according to the ACLU/YAC findings.

Removing children from the learning environment is yet another way that Black, Brown and disabled children are funneled into negative interactions with law enforcement at a young age, far too often resulting in arrest and the irreparable consequences of getting caught up in the mass incarceration system, said Elena Thompson, an ACLU Ohio legal fellow, in announcing the study.

Bella Gordo, president of the YAC, said the group has continually made the district aware of racial disparities it has found within the schools through direct appeals, protests and many other methods.

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We will not rest until the district fully commits to anti-racism through the replacement of exclusionary discipline with restorative practices and the ending of the relationship between the Cincinnati Police Department and the Cincinnati Public Schools, Gordo said in a statement.

Other recommendations made in the study included investment in mental health services within the schools, including an increased amount of counselors and social workers within the district.

Cincinnati Public Schools said it is aware of existing disparities, both nationally and locally, in the way students of color are disciplined.

Superintendent Iranetta Wright said she plans to focus on student discipline as one of the assessments shell make in her first 100 days.

We need to place a stronger emphasis on implementing and monitoring our restorative justice program at every school, build more social emotional learning lessons into the curriculum, better leverage our mental health professionals and social workers at every school, and participate in joint training with SROs to ensure they better understand their roles in our schools, Wright said in a statement to the OCJ.

But placing the blame on school resource officers as a root cause of the school-to-prison pipeline fails to address the multiple needs and challenges that occur outside of school, the district argued.

SROs are not responsible for things like emergency removals, suspensions and/or expulsions, a statement from the district explained.

CPD did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the OCJ.

Previous research done by the groups to analyze data from 2016 to 2021 showed Black students at the school district were five times more likely to face exclusionary discipline than their white peers.

That study used public records requests with the police department and the school district to look at policies and data relating to (school resource officers) and student discipline since 2016, and the memorandum of understanding between the police and the school.

The data showed 63% of CPS made up of Black students, but also made up 93% of out-of-school suspensions and 89% of police referrals.

The vast majority of school incidents can and should be handled by teachers or school administrators and should not merit police intervention, Thompson said.

State Sen. Cecil Thomas, D-Avondale, who worked on the Cincinnati police force for nearly 30 years, agreed that the presence of more mental health counselors should be a goal for the school system, though he disagreed with removing police officers from the schools.

I would say lets not take officers out of the schools, I would say lets look at how we can help the students, Thomas told the OCJ. It lends an opportunity to schools to look at the training and the overall intent of having the officers in the schools.

Thomas said he hadnt had a chance to take a deep dive into the data in the report, but he was hopeful that the study could be used as the school board begins to collaborate with a newly-hired superintendent.

Everything in the report raises red flags, and those red flags need to be given a significant amount of attention, Thomas said.

Thomas is hoping to garner bipartisan support for a bill hes cosponsoring with state Sen. Tina Maharath, D-Canal Winchester, that would raise the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21, but also increase funding for Ohio Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports grants, expanding the program to include all grade-levels. The OPBIS program is conducted through the Ohio Department of Education.

A new law that allows teachers to bring weapons into schools wont help the situation in Cincinnati schools, according to Thomas. Training and other alternative interaction methods for students are much preferred to an increase in the amount of weapons the school contains, he said.

My argument has always been instead of arming teachers with guns, arm the schools with more counselors, Thomas said.

Gov. Mike DeWine committed $100 million in the most recent capital budget to school safety grants, but its not clear if those grants could be used for counselors or other mental health services.

A new student safety advisory council, empaneled last week by the governors office but first announced in April, will develop strategies to encourage their peers to actively engage in maintaining a safe school environment and will be advocates for students overall well-being. DeWines office stated.

No deadline was given for the release of the strategies.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David DeWitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and Twitter.
LONDON  Bluebell Capital Partners wants to shake up Compagnie Financiere Richemont, involving everything from selling off its soft luxury and e-commerce operations to renaming itself.

It also wants to tap luxury jewelry expert, entrepreneur and activist investor Francesco Trapani to join Richemonts board.

More from WWD

Bluebell wants to reshape Richemont in the medium term and is lobbying for changes to corporate governance; better board representation for minority shareholders, and a strategic focus on hard luxury. Bluebell has even floated the idea of a new name involving the luxury giants flagship brand, Cartier.

As reported earlier this week, Richemont issued a statement confirming that it had received requests from Bluebell asking for more board representation for the holders of Richemonts A shares, which are publicly listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

There are 522 million A shares, and 522 million B shares in issue.

While the A shares are listed, the B ones are not. Instead, they are held by Compagnie Financiere Rupert, which belongs to Johann Rupert, Richemonts founder and chairman.

Rupert controls 10 percent of the companys capital, and 51 percent of its voting rights. Although a management team runs Richemont, Rupert remains deeply involved in, and committed to, the business.

Richemont said Tuesday that Bluebells proposals will be submitted to shareholders at the annual general meeting on Sept. 7.

We are Richemont investors, and we believe this stock could double in value in two to three years time. We think Richemont is a fantastic company, and we want to work constructively with it to achieve that goal, said Marco Taricco, partner and co-chief information officer at Bluebell, which is based in London.

We think there is no better person on the planet than Francesco Trapani to contribute and add value to the Richemont board, Taricco added.

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Bluebell first invested in Richemont around 18 months ago, and holds at least 1 million A shares.

Richemont declined to comment further regarding Bluebell and its requests.

Shares in the company edged down slightly on Wednesday, closing at 105.85 Swiss francs.

On Wednesday, Bluebell issued a statement detailing its Richemont demands. It wants Trapani named as an independent board director, and a representative of the A shareholders.

Bluebell described Trapani as an undisputable leader in the jewelry and global and luxury goods industry with an exemplary track record. The investor said that having Trapani on the board would significantly improve Richemonts governance, and contribute to the long-term success of the company.

Bluebell also wants amendments to Richemonts bylaws, and would specifically like to see an increase in the minimum number of A board directors from one to three, and an equal number of A and B board members, with equal voting rights.

As reported, some of Richemonts board members own A stock, but there is no specific representative of A shareholders currently on the board.

Swiss law requires that in companies where there is more than one class of share, each class should be able to have one representative on the board, although only a few companies actually conform to the rule.

Bluebell believes that by closing the voting and financial gap between the A and B teams, Richemont will become more efficient, accountable and driven to succeed.

Those proposed changes to the board, and to Richemonts corporate governance policies, are just the beginning.

In the medium term, Taricco said Bluebell would also like to see Richemont focus entirely on hard luxury. He and his team want Richemont to divest its online businesses, Yoox Net-a-porter Group, and Watchfinder, and its fashion division, too.

Richemonts soft luxury brands include Chloe, Dunhill, Azzedine Alaia, Montblanc, AZ Factory and Delvaux.

Bluebell believes those companies are an unprofitable distraction, and dragging down the share price growth compared with Richemonts luxury peers such as LVMH and Hermes. He said a focus on pure, hard luxury would restore a dynamism to Richemont shares, and send the company flying alongside, or even past, its peers.

Bluebell also believes that Richemont can use its net cash cushion, currently 5.4 billion euros, more effectively, and potentially rebrand the whole operation as Cartier Group, signaling a renewed focus on hard luxury, and its largest and most lucrative brand.

Although Richemont doesnt break out sales by brand, jewelry has long been its biggest and most profitable division. In the first quarter ended June 30, combined sales at Cartier, Buccellati and Van Cleef & Arpels, grew 12 percent to 3.02 billion euros at constant exchange rates.

Richemonts specialist watchmaking division, which includes collector brands such as Panerai, IWC and A. Lange & Sohne, grew 10 percent in the three months to around 1 billion euros. Richemonts e-commerce platforms and its luxury fashion division had combined revenues of 1.29 billion euros.

Overall revenue in the quarter amounted to 5.26 billion euros, 12 percent higher than last year.

Bluebell has never been shy about stating exactly what it wants. Founded in 2019 by Trapani and the former investment bankers Taricco and Giuseppe Bivona, the activist investor turned up the heat on Hugo Boss in 2020, and helped to eject its chief executive officer Mark Langer.

In the span of a few years, Bluebell has also invested in, and demanded changes at, companies including Danone, GlaxoSmithKline and Lufthansa.

Although Trapani officially severed his ties with Bluebell late last year, he remains on friendly terms with his former partners, and he knows a thing or two about corporate activism.

The former Bulgari CEO and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton executive muscled his way onto the board of Tiffany & Co. in March 2017 as part of a deal with another activist investment firm, Jana Partners LLC.

He was vocal from the get-go and was instrumental in picking a new Tiffany CEO, Alessandro Bogliolo. Tiffany & Co. was later sold to LVMH in a blockbuster deal, and Trapani left the board to pursue other interests.

Trapani has a long history with LVMH, which purchased his familys company, Bulgari, for roughly $5.2 billion. That deal put Trapani in charge of LVMHs watch and jewelry activities, where he served as chairman and CEO. It also made Trapani and his extended family very rich.

In exchange for the Bulgari family jewels, they were granted 3.6 percent of LVMHs share capital, and later sold off a large portion of those shares.

Trapanis resume also includes a stint as chairman of private equity firm Clessidra SGR, where he helped with the acquisition of the Roberto Cavalli brand in 2015, and as an investor in two Italian food companies.

Bluebells arguments arent new. For years, many financial analysts have pummeled Rupert and his managers with questions about the future of YNAP, and Richemonts strategy for its costly digital businesses.

Rupert has always said he is investing in the retail and marketing models of the future.

As reported, Richemont is in advanced talks about merging YNAP with Farfetch to create a neutral, open platform to sell luxury online. Those negotiations are ongoing.

Over the years, analysts have also wondered why Richemont spends its money and energy on the luxury fashion brands, when theyre not driving sales or profits.

But Richemont and its brands are close to Ruperts heart, and for decades he has built and shaped the company just the way he wants it.

And while the analysts have voiced their opinions over the years, Rupert has gone largely unchallenged by activist investors. After all, hes the founder with 51 percent of the voting rights.

A few months ago, shares in Richemont jumped more than 5 percent following reports that activist Daniel Loebs hedge fund Third Point was taking a close look at the luxury giant. Some reports said Third Point had taken a stake in the company, while others said the activist made some inquiries.

The furore quickly died down.

With Bluebell and Trapani now in the mix and agitating for a new approach to governance and business, that narrative could change dramatically.
After a school board committee in Wisconsin decided against including a novel about Japanese American incarceration during World War II in its curriculum, more than 100 demonstrators rallied Monday in support of the book.

Local community members, organizers and educators gathered for a teach-in, just before the Muskego-Norway School Board meeting, to protest a committees decision last month not to include the novel When the Emperor Was Divine in an English literature class. Speakers also discussed the books subject matter, sharing details about the events surrounding the unjust imprisonment of 120,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II.

Asian Americans are invisible to so many people. Our history has been really erased from so many curricula, Kabby Hong, an Asian American and a 2022 Wisconsin Teacher of the Year who spoke at the event, told NBC Asian America. We thought that instead of a traditional protest, what we wanted was for it to be a teach-in so that we can help educate and also share our stories.

Image: Muskego-Norway teach-in (Courtesy Kabby Hong)

School board President Christopher Buckmaster did not return NBC News request for comment.

More than 100 people, including locals and Asian Americans from surrounding areas, attended the event spearheaded by the Asian American Pacific Islander Coalition of Wisconsin. Organizers also distributed free copies of the novel, written by Julie Otsuka, which Hong said were all taken by the end of the event. Among the most powerful moments of the event, Hong added, was a speech delivered by Ron Kuramoto, president of the Wisconsin chapter of the nonprofit Japanese American Citizens League.

Ron shared a very moving story about his own family, being housed in horse stables, and how that just still resonates with him today, Hong said. Its different when you hear history through someones lived experiences.

The teach-in comes weeks after the boards educational services committee, made up of three members who approve educational materials before theyre purchased by the full board, decided against moving forward with Otsukas novel.

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Parent Ann Zielke previously told NBC News she had reached out to two board members for the reason. She said she was eventually told that adding the book  alongside the classs existing inclusion of Farewell to Manzanar, a separate memoir about Japanese American incarceration during WWII  to the curriculum created an unbalanced account of history and that they would need perspective from the U.S. government.

Image: Muskego-Norway teach-in (Courtesy Kabby Hong)

Buckmaster previously said in a statement that the book was brought to the committee but was never moved forward to the full board. He also wrote that at no point was this book banned or denied by the committee of the board or the full board.

Rather, district staff recommended that it be sent through the staff committee process again, he wrote.

Zielke maintains that board members were clear in both private and public conversations about their disapproval of the novel and made no indication that the book would undergo another review.

Kuramoto said among his main objectives for speaking at Mondays event was to emphasize that diverse perspectives have the power to enrich students educational experiences. If readers dig further, he said, they would see that the official perspective of the U.S. government is that the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WWII, in hindsight, was a grave mistake. And in 1987, then-President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1987 and issued a formal apology.

Going forward, Hong said organizers and community members will continue advocating for the book. They expect to host a virtual event with Otsuka later this year. And dozens of community members expressed interest in forming a book club, with the novel being the first up for discussion. Regardless of what the board decides, Hong said, people deserve access to the book.

For some kids, [books] serve as a window that they can look out into the lived experiences and lives of someone that is very different from them, Hong said. It allows kids to develop a sense of empathy for others. And when I look out into the world that we see today, I think we need more empathy.
India and Namibia signed a deal Wednesday to bring cheetahs into the South Asian country, with the first batch of eight wild cats set to arrive next month, officials said.

India has been working to relocate the animals since 2020, when the Supreme Court announced that African cheetahs could be introduced in a "carefully chosen location" on an experimental basis.

India in the past had Asiatic cheetahs, but the species was officially declared extinct within the country by 1952.

The deal inked Wednesday will see Namibia's African cheetahs flown in next month to a wildlife sanctuary in the central state of Madhya Pradesh for captive breeding -- a move expected to coincide with India's 75th Independence Day celebrations.

"Completing 75 glorious years of Independence with restoring the fastest terrestrial flagship species, the cheetah, in India, will rekindle the ecological dynamics of the landscape," India's environment minister Bhupender Yadav tweeted.

"Cheetah reintroduction would also greatly enhance local community livelihoods through eco-tourism prospects in the long term."

Signed in New Delhi with Namibia's deputy prime minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the deal will also see the two countries collaborate in areas of climate change, waste and wildlife management.

The Kuno-Palpur National Park in Madhya Pradesh state was selected as the new home for the cheetahs because of its abundant prey base and grasslands which were found suitable for the felines.

"The main goal of cheetah reintroduction project is to establish viable cheetah metapopulation in India that allows the cheetah to perform its functional role as a top predator," the environment ministry said in a statement.

The cheetah is the only large carnivore believed to have gone extinct in India, primarily due to hunting for its distinctive, spotted pelts and habitat loss.

Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo is widely believed to have killed the last three recorded cheetahs in India in the late 1940s.

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India is also planning to ship in some cheetahs from South Africa but a formal pact has yet to be signed.

Considered vulnerable under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the cheetah has a declining population of less than 7,000 -- found primarily in African savannas.

abh/dhc
The Daily Beast

Fox NewsThe Five co-host Will Cain on Monday tried out a relatively new tactic to characterize what former President Donald Trump could have done to justify the FBIs raid of Mar-a-Lago. Whatever Trumps error, Cain said, it better be egregious and more than the nuclear codes.Trump is under investigation for allegedly violating the Espionage Act and two other laws that relate to mishandling federal records and obstructing an investigation by falsifying documents, according to court documents
Disbarred lawyer Alex Murdaugh was denied bond Wednesday in the June 2021 murders of his wife and son, as a South Carolina judge said hell consider how much evidence in the case should be kept secret before trial and whether to allow the trial to begin soon, likely in January.

Judge Clifton Newman denied bond in Colleton County, where Murdaughs wife Maggie and and son Paul were found shot to death on June 7, 2021.

In an 18-minute hearing, Murdaugh pleaded not guilty.

When asked by the prosecutor how he wished to be tried, in a strong, clear voice, Murdaugh said in a generations-old legal formula, By God and my country.

Murdaugh, 54, wearing a white face mask with his head shaved, stood in the courtroom wearing a button down white shirt and khaki pants, a change from his navy blue jail jumpsuit and red/orange Nikes he was seen wearing while entering the courthouse.

He had been transported the roughly 90 miles to Walterboro from the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County, where hes been held on a $7 million bond.

A fourth-generation member of a Lowcountry legal dynasty, Murdaugh was indicted last week by a Colleton County jury on two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife and son and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, were found shot to death  Maggie by a rifle and Paul by a shotgun, the indictments said  in the evening of June 7, 2021, on their 1,700-acre hunting lodge estate in rural Colleton County, which locals referred to as Moselle. Their bodies were found separated from one another near the dog kennels on the property.

Murdaugh has said he found their bodies on returning home to Moselle and called 911.

The courtroom on Wednesday was crowded with dozens of reporters representing state and national publications, television producers and several people who working on Murdaugh true crime books.

Attorney Generals Office top prosecutor Creighton Waters said some of the victims in the case  apparently relatives of Maggie  were not in the courtroom but watching the proceedings by a remote hookup. He did not identify them. Waters also said Attorney General Alan Wilson, who was not present, was traveling.

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Wednesdays hearing took place in an old-timey courtroom with a high ceiling and seats for some 250 on the second floor of Colleton Countys historic courthouse.

Hanging on the rear wall of the courtroom behind Murdaugh was an oil portrait Murdaughs grandfather, Randolph Buster Murdaugh, a legendary 14th Judicial Circuit solicitor known for fiery jury arguments who held office some 48 years, from about 1940 to 1988.

Murdaugh lawyers say gag order, speedy trial necessary

Newman told Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, Murdaughs attorneys, Wednesday that he would consider a limited gag order that aims to limit disclosures to mostly the media and seal evidentiary-related motions.

Further discussion of the alleged facts in this case we think continues to run the risk of polluting the jury pool. Harpootlian said.

Harpootlian said the defenses motion would include putting a seal of confidentiality over all the evidence in the case, meaning neither the prosecution nor the defense could talk publicly about such matters. In criminal cases, the prosecutors are required to turn over all relevant evidence to the defense.

South Carolin Attorney Generals office prosecutor Creighton Waters agreed with Harpootlians motion, noting the case has generated a lot of media attention. He motioned an adjacent jury box packed with more than a dozen reporters, while dozens more sat beside him.

A lot of the financial material provides motive and background, Waters told the judge.

A string of 16 state grand jury indictments issued since November against Murdaugh charges him with stealing more than $8.4 million from his law firm, fellow lawyers, associates and clients. Murdaugh has been in jail unable to make a $7 million bond.

At the time his wife and son were killed, Murdaugh was heavily in debt and his finances were in danger of being made public as a result of an ongoing civil lawsuit, according to The State newspapers analysis of evidence made public in lawsuits and criminal charges against him.

Three months after Maggie and Pauls deaths, in September 2021, Murdaugh was kicked out of his law firm for allegedly stealing out of the firms client trust account. The S.C. Supreme Court later suspended his law license, and, later, disbarred him.

That same month, Murdaugh was charged with staging a botched suicide attempt in what authorities said was a failed effort to collect on a $10 million life insurance policy for his surviing son Buster. The alleged shooter, close friend and relative Curtis Eddie Smith, also was charged.

Separately, Harpootlian told the judge that Murdaugh wants a speedy trial because he is innocent.

Harpootlian, a state senator, said he is willing to waive his legislative duties if there are conflicts. Senators who are lawyers have the right to be excused from many courtroom duties while the Legislature is in session.

He (Murdaugh) believes the killer, or killers, are still at large and this will allow SLED (the State Law Enforcement Division) to move forward and look for the real killers, Harpootlian said.

Waters called the evidence in the case, such as forensic and other evidence, substantial, saying it all points back to Alex Murdaugh.

Our response to that is he (Waters) is wrong, Harpootlian said.

According to sources in this case, evidence that prosecutors have includes cell phone data, blood or flesh material and location data from the SUV that Murdaugh was driving the night of the killings.

Waters said prosecutors will be turning over to the defense all the evidence gathered in the state grand jurys monthslong investigation of not just the murders of Paul and Maggie, but also information from the probe of Murdaughs many alleged fraudulent financial dealings.

Newman said he would study the motions, sounding somewhat skeptical because he said he rarely issues gag orders, telling lawyers, I just want it clearly understood its a public matter, a public trial.. Matters that need to be sealed can be sealed. I want it clear we will not have any private motion hearings. Public matters will be public.

One lingering question to be resolved is whether the trial would occur in Colleton County.

Columbia attorney Joe McCullough told reporters outside the courthouse Wednesday that he wasnt sure what county the case could be located in given everyone knows about it.

I know the people in Hampton County would like this to go away and get back to what theyre accustomed to, he said.

Reporters Sarah Haselhorst and Bristow Marchant contributed to this report.
The Daily Beast

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyIn a recent interview with Russian state media outlet TASS, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministrys North American Department, Aleksandr Darichev, said that in the event the U.S. designates Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, it would represent a point of no return in relations between the two countries. Speaking on behalf of the country that ruthlessly invaded its smaller neighbor and is continually being accused of human right
One of Seattles most popular modern art museums has been forced to apologise for a planned exhibition featuring the work of Amazon and Microsoft employees.

Last week, the Museum of Museums (MoM) advertised the Amazon v Microsoft exhibition as a showcase of work that would highlight and underline unknown artists working in big tech.

Collectively, Amazon and Microsoft employ over 1.5 million people, the arts centre wrote in an Instagram post featuring a drawing of founders Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates wearing boxing gloves.

Alongside the extreme wealth that often defines these two companies, we believe there is an alternative and equally impressive wealth of artistic talent within their ranks, continued the MoM.

It said the exhibition  which has since been cancelled, as Geekwire first reported  would also recalibrate the narrative around what a tech worker is.

It would also potentially have seen submissions from lower and upper ranks of Amazon and Microsoft, all of whom were invited to submit pieces of artwork before a 20 August deadline.

However, following backlash from Seattles arts and creative community, the MoM decided to cancel the exhibition altogether and apologised on Tuesday.

The Museum of Museums in Seattle has apologised for a planned showcase of tech giant workers artwork (Google Maps)

Greg Lundgren, the gallerys founder and director, said on Instagram that he regretted not sharing the context, the backstory, or the motivation behind this exhibit  I knew it was a hot button to push and I believed art was the right vehicle for such a conversation. 

My sincere apologies to anyone I have offended or caused harm, he continued. And my sincere apology to the artists we are currently exhibiting  they do not deserve the fallout from my failed attempt to bring two groups together.

The MoM director also touched on some of the criticism aired on Instagram by social media users, artists and creatives, who pointed out that some of Amazons lowest paid employees arent going to have time to apply to your show, let alone the resources to make the art.

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The rest of us are just barely scraping by here (if we are lucky) and tech is a huge contributor to that, the same Instagram user added. Im so frustrated that a space with such potential to offer voice to real Seattle community has decided to go this route.

Another wrote: This is gross and responses are weird, if we give THEM a platform maybe theyll help US and we can start a dialog, the dialog already exists and these corporations arent interested.

Outside Amazons headquarters in Seattle (Getty Images)

Mr Lundgren added in his apology: This is the right time to turn up the volume on the conversation around art, wealth and the future cultural landscape of our city. I believe that. But from the weekends reaction to our call for artists, I heard loud and clear that this was not the way to have this conversation and that the big tech should not be viewed as the underwriters of our future health and vibrancy.

The gallery, which was founded in 2000, says in a message on its website that its mission is to increase the artist population of Seattle and inspire our local arts ecosystem through exhibition, education, and conversation about the role of the artist, philanthropist and collector.

Seattle, which is home to Amazons Three Spheres headquarters and Microsofts Redmond campus, has thousands of people employed in big tech. The founders of both companies are meanwhile among the worlds richest people.
U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown won Tuesdays Democratic primary for Maryland attorney general, defeating former Judge Katie Curran OMalley of Baltimore.

The Associated Press called the race for Brown, who led by 60% to 40% of votes counted, early Wednesday.

A heartfelt thank you to Maryland voters for putting their faith in me, Brown tweeted early Wednesday morning. An attorney general can either be a champion for progress or a defender of the status quo. Im running for attorney general to dismantle barriers because the status quo isnt working for Marylanders.

If elected in November, Brown would become the states first Black attorney general.

Maryland has not elected a Republican as attorney general since 1918.

Brown thanked OMalley for her years of public service, writing on social media that the pair will work together to create a more just and equitable [Maryland] for all.

OMalley did not concede Tuesday night, but said in an earlier statement that she was cautiously optimistic as there were precincts that remained uncounted, in addition to mail-in ballots that cant be opened and counted until Thursday.

This has been an amazing campaign, and I am energized by all of my supporters and my family, she said.

In the Republican race, Michael Peroutka, a former Anne Arundel County councilman, won with 58% of the votes counted so far, compared with 42% for Jim Shalleck, an attorney from Montgomery County.

Brown, who represents parts of Prince Georges and Anne Arundel counties, collected more than 60,000 votes in Prince Georges. He also fared better than OMalley in her hometown of Baltimore, where she was a judge for 20 years. Brown also led in the Baltimore suburban counties of Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford.

OMalley had sought to follow in her fathers footsteps as attorney general: Democrat J. Joseph Curran served in the office from 1987 to 2007.

During the course of the campaign, the candidates sparred over each others experience, each boasting they were best qualified to become the states top prosecutor and replace longtime incumbent Democrat Brian Frosh.

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The Democrats mostly agreed on key policy issues and shared ties to former Democratic Gov. Martin OMalley. Brown served as his lieutenant governor, while Katie OMalley is his spouse.

Both Katie OMalley and Brown expressed support for strengthening consumer and environmental protections, restricting gun purchases and expanding the agencys involvement on criminal prosecution and police accountability. Both said they supported legalizing recreational cannabis and said they would support expanded legal protections for tenants facing evictions.

The two differed on some issues, including which office should prosecute shootings by police. The Attorney Generals Office last year became responsible for investigating all police-involved fatalities, and at times, has clashed with local law enforcement over the investigations. While the legislature changed who investigates officer-involved shootings, it stopped short of requiring the attorney generals office to prosecute such cases, and left the responsibility to local prosecutors.

Brown said local states attorneys should have first right of refusal on whether to prosecute, while OMalley said the attorney generals office should prosecute such cases alone or jointly with a states attorneys office.

The campaign became more aggressive in the weeks leading to primary day. Brown, on Twitter, accused OMalley of mudslinging in a TV ad that started airing June 24. OMalley criticized Brown, saying he had never tried a criminal case in Maryland and does not have the right experience to be attorney general.

After nearly three decades as an attorney, Brown has been a part of at least five trials  all of them civil cases, a review of online state and federal court records showed. OMalley is a former prosecutor, working 10 years as an assistant states attorney in Baltimore County, and then serving two decades as a judge in Baltimore District Court.

An ad from VoteVets Political Action Committee, a political PAC supporting progressive candidates with military experience, criticized OMalley for dismissing Browns experience as a lawyer in the U.S. Army.

Baltimore Sun reporter Lee O. Sanderlin contributed to this article.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Hundreds of men using heroin, opium and meth were strewn over a hillside above Kabul in tents or lying in the dirt. Some of them overdose, and quietly slip across the line from despair to death.

Theres a dead man next to you, someone told me as I picked my way among them, taking pictures.

We buried someone over there earlier, another said.

One man was face down in the mud, not moving. I shook him by the shoulder and asked if he was alive. He turned his head a bit, just half out of the mud, and whispered that he was.

Youre dying, I told him. Try to survive.

Its fine, he said, his voice sounding exhausted. Its OK to die.

He lifted his body a little. I gave him some water, and someone gave him a glass pipe of heroin. Smoking it gave him some energy. He said his name was Dawood. He had lost a leg to a mine about a decade ago during the war and couldn't work after that. His life fell apart and he turned to drugs to escape.

Drug addiction has long been a problem in Afghanistan, the worlds biggest producer of opium and heroin and now a major source of meth. The drug use has been fueled by persistent poverty and decades of war that left few families unscarred.

It appears to be getting worse since the countrys economy collapsed following the seizure of power by the Taliban in August 2021 and the subsequent halt of international financing. Families once able to get by found their livelihoods cut off, leaving many barely able to afford food. Millions have joined the ranks of the impoverished.

Drug users can be found around Kabul, living in parks and sewage drains, under bridges and on open hillsides.

A 2015 survey by the U.N. estimated that up to 2.3 million people had used drugs that year, which would have amounted to about 5% of the population at the time. Seven years later, the number is not known, but its believed to have only increased, according to Dr. Zalmel, the head of the Drug Demand Reduction Department who like many Afghans uses only one name.

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The Taliban have launched an aggressive campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation. At the same time, they inherited the ousted, internationally backed governments policy of forcing drug users into camps.

Earlier this summer, Taliban fighters stormed two areas frequented by drug users  the one on the hillside and another under a bridge. They collected about 1,500 people, officials said. They were taken to the Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment, a former U.S. military base.

Its the largest of several treatment camps around Kabul. There, the residents were shaved and kept in a barracks for 45 days. They receive no treatment or medication as they go through withdrawal. The camp barely has enough money to feed those who live there.

Such camps do little to treat addiction.

A week after the raids, both locations were once again full of hundreds of people using drugs.

On the hillside, I saw a man who was wandering in the darkness with a feeble flashlight. He was searching for his brother, who fell into drug use years ago and left home. I hope one day I can find him, he said.

Under the bridge, where the stench was overwhelming, one man in his 30s who identified himself as Nazer seemed to be a figure of respect, breaking up fights and mediating disputes.

He said he spends most of his days under the bridge but goes to his home every once in a while. Addiction has spread throughout his family, he said.

When I expressed surprise that the area under the bridge had filled up again, Nazir smiled.

Its normal, he said. Every day, they become more and more. ... It never ends.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Army is significantly cutting the total number of soldiers it expects to have in the force over the next two years, as the U.S. military faces what a top general called unprecedented challenges in bringing in recruits.

Army officials on Tuesday said the service will fall about 10,000 soldiers short of its planned end strength for this fiscal year, and prospects for next year are grimmer. Army Gen. Joseph Martin, vice chief of staff for the Army, said it is projecting it will have a total force of 466,400 this year, down from the expected 476,000. And the service could end 2023 with between 445,000 and 452,000 soldiers, depending on how well recruiting and retention go.

With just two and a half months to go in the fiscal year, the Army has achieved just 50% of its recruiting goal of 60,000 soldiers, according to Lt. Col. Randee Farrell, spokeswoman for Army Secretary Christine Wormuth. Based on those numbers and trends, it is likely the Army will miss the goal by nearly 25% as of Oct. 1. If the shortfalls continue, Martin said, they could have an impact on readiness.

Weve got unprecedented challenges with both a post-COVID-19 environment and labor market, but also competition with private companies that have changed their incentives over time, Martin told a House Armed Services subcommittee on Tuesday. Asked if the Army will have to adjust its force structure to meet national security and warfighting missions around the world, Martin said: We dont need to do that immediately. But if we dont arrest the decline that were seeing right now in end strength, that could be a possibility in the future.

Cutting the size of the Army is the best option, said Wormuth.

The Army is facing our most challenging recruiting environment since the inception of the all-volunteer force. This is not a one-year challenge. We will not solve this overnight," she said, adding that the service is looking at a wide range of steps to recruit more soldiers without lowering standards or sacrificing quality.

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We are facing a very fundamental question, she added. "Do we lower standards to meet end strength, or do we lower end strength to maintain a quality, professional force? We believe the answer is obvious  quality is more important than quantity.

The Armys recruiting problems are the most severe across the military, but the other services are also having a tough time finding young people who want to join and can meet the physical, mental and moral requirements.

Senior Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps leaders have said they are hopeful they will meet or just slightly miss their recruiting goals for this year. But they said they will have to dip into their pool of delayed entry applicants, which will put them behind as they begin the next recruiting year.

The services bring in recruits all year around, but usually send them to basic training and boot camp over a spread-out period of time. The delay can help recruits prepare for entry-level training, particularly the more physical demands.

Military leaders are also banking on cash as an incentive. They are spending tens of thousands of dollars in increased bonuses to woo recruits, hoping to compete with other employers around the county as unemployment sits at about 3.6%.

In January, the Army, for the first time, began offering a maximum enlistment bonus of $50,000 to highly skilled recruits who join for six years. At the time, Maj. Gen. Kevin Vereen, head of Army Recruiting Command, told The Associated Press that shuttered schools during the COVID-19 pandemic and the highly competitive job market have posed significant challenges for recruiters.

The military services rely heavily on face-to-face meetings with young people in schools or at fairs and other large public events. And they are only now really starting to get back to something close to normal after two years of the pandemic.

Compounding the problem is the low unemployment rate and the fact that private corporations may be able to pay more to lure workers. And, among young people, only about 23% are physically, mentally and morally qualified to serve without receiving some type of waiver.
One photo from Scott Laursen's upcoming photo exhibit July 20-21.

SAULT STE. MARIE  The Waishkey building in Bay Mills will be displaying an extensive collection of photographs July 20-21 to celebrate Native American traditions.

Photographer Scott Laursen spent two years creating this collection of 55 photographs displaying various historical moments and traditions of the Bay Mills community.

Laursen originally grew up in Manistee. Later, he traveled with his wife Eva across the country. They spent 15 years in New York City and San Francisco, where Laursen worked as an executive search recruiter for several companies.

When the couple decided to move back to Michigan they ended up in Bay Mills Township, where they decided to continue their education.

The couple took multiple history classes about Native American history and Laursen took photography classes at different schools, including Grand Rapids Community College and the New Hampshire Institute of Art.

A photo from Scott Laursen's photo exhibit.

As part of his final thesis project to earn his master's in photography, Laursen decided to document some of the history and traditions of the Bay Mills Native American community.

One series of photos in the exhibit displays the story of how the Bay Mills community regained the rights to fish in the Great Lakes, including a photo of the tribal chairperson that appealed to the Supreme Court to regain those rights.

"For a time it was illegal for the tribes to have any of their traditional ceremonies because the colonization wiped all that stuff away. So, the fact that they really held on to these things, that's really what brought their identity back. I just thought it was very impressive," said Laursen. "I wanted to do this body of work to help inform and educate other people who are non-native of where they've been and where they are now, living in modernity and holding on to customs and traditions from way back ... Just really helping them to regain their identity and their culture and to regain regain pride in their identity and culture."

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Another group of photos in the exhibit shows the red dress displays. The red dresses are part of an ongoing awareness campaign to inform people about the high number of missing and murdered Native American women.

More: Empty, red dresses: May events will shed light on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women plight

Subscribe: Get unlimited access to our coverage

The exhibit also includes photos of a boarding school in Mount Pleasant. This school is one of many that were used to separate young Native American children from their families. A recent report by the U.S. Department of the Interior detailed the intergenerational trauma created by the federal boarding school policies.

Laursen also depicts many modern day tribal members and uses photography to show traditions that are still alive in their communities, such as organized pow wows and other important events.

"There's some photos from Washington D.C. too," said Laursen. "We went with some tribal members to the Dakota Access Pipeline protest and took some photographs of the tribal members supporting the Standing Rock community."

Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Art exhibit in Bay Mills displays Native American history
Atlanta police are asking for the publics help to identify four men they say robbed a man at gunpoint outside a Waffle House.

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Police said the robbery happened at around 6:15 a.m. July 5 at a Waffle House on Howell Mill Road.

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The victim told police that he was sitting in his car in the parking lot when four armed men robbed him at gunpoint. The men took the victims phone, cash, wallet and bookbag and then sped away in a white Nissan Sentra.

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The victim, who hasnt been identified, wasnt hurt.

Police released images of three of the suspects who were caught on surveillance cameras before the robbery.

Anyone with information is asked to contact 911 or Crime Stoppers Atlanta. Information on the case can be submitted anonymously to the Crime Stoppers Atlanta tip line at 404-577-TIPS (8477) or online at www.StopCrimeATL.com .

Anyone with information leading to an arrest is eligible for up to a $2,000 reward.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley warned Iran against helping Russia amid concerns that Tehran would send drones to help Moscow in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

We would advise Iran to not do that, Austin said in a joint press conference alongside Milley.

We think thats a really, really bad idea, and Ill leave that at that, he added.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said last week that the U.S. believed Iran was preparing to provide hundreds of drones to Russia on an expedited timeline, and that Tehran was preparing to train Russian forces to use the drones as early as this month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a visit to Iran Tuesday, during which he met with Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The Iranian official lauded Putin for sending troops into Ukraine, saying that if Moscow hadnt done that, then it would instead face attacks from NATO, The Associated Press reported.

Austin and Milley thought it would not be a good idea for Tehran to help Russia given U.S. opposition to Iran providing assistance. However, when asked why, Milley declined to answer.

I dont think its a good idea that Iran is providing UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] or other weapon systems that are being commented on the media to Russia. And well see where all that goes, Milley said.

The comments come as Russias invasion of Ukraine edges toward its sixth month, and Moscow focuses its efforts on the Donbas region of the country.

Austin addressed reporters after the fourth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, during which defense officials from more than 40 nations discussed helping Ukraine sustain its efforts against Russia long term.

Earlier on Wednesday, Austin announced that the U.S. would send four additional high mobility artillery rocket systems to Ukraine as part of an upcoming weapons package.

Milley said that 200 Ukrainians have been trained on the system, which the U.S. has touted as extremely effective for this phase of the fight.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australians admitted to hospitals from COVID-19 neared record levels on Wednesday as authorities urged businesses to let staff work from home and recommended people wear masks indoors and get booster shots urgently amid a major coronavirus outbreak.

Australia is in the grip of a third Omicron wave driven by the highly transmissible new subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, with more than 300,000 cases recorded over the past seven days. Authorities say the actual numbers could be double that total, and Wednesday's 53,850 new cases was the highest daily tally in two months.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is resisting pressure to reinstate tough curbs to halt the spread of the virus, including making masks mandatory indoors, though he encouraged people to wear it.

"The truth is that if you have mandates, you've got to enforce them," Albanese told reporters on Wednesday. "Whilst there are mandates on public transport ... not everyone is wearing a mask."

Albanese said businesses and employees must decide together on any work-from-home arrangement, as unions called for employers to do more for their staff.

Employers must go beyond the government's pandemic leave payments and provide paid leave at full pay for workers who need to isolate, and offer free rapid antigen tests, Australian Council of Trade Unions President Michele O'Neil said.

"No worker should have to decide between putting food on the table or isolating with COVID," O'Neil said.

Last week, Australia reinstated support payments for casual workers who have to quarantine.

Australia's Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly predicted the number of people ending up in hospital will soon hit a record high, and urged businesses to let more staff work from home.

Australia could see "millions" of new cases over the coming weeks, authorities have warned.

About 5,350 Australians are currently in hospital with COVID-19, not far off the record 5,390 recorded in January during the BA.1 outbreak, official data showed. Numbers in the states of Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia are already at their highest since the pandemic began.

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Many frontline health workers are also sick or in isolation, further straining the health system.

Australian doctors said masks must be made mandatory in indoor venues.

"We don't have optional seat belts, we don't have optional speed limits. There's a lot of limits on our freedoms that we accept because it's the right thing to do," Australian Medical Association President Omar Khorshid told radio station 2GB.

Authorities have also warned of a lag in people taking their booster shots.

So far, 95% of people above 16 have had two doses, helping keep Australia's total COVID-19 cases just under 9 million and deaths at 10,884, far lower than many countries. But only about 71% have received three or more doses.

(Reporting by Renju Jose; editing by Richard Pullin and Stephen Coates)
NY Daily News

NEW YORK  Jose Rodriguez was tired, hungry and beaten down when he crossed the border from Mexico into Texas after a two-month journey. He didnt have money, and he didnt have many options. Although he had originally hoped to go to Miami, he heard there was a free bus to New York. Officials told him that if he boarded the bus, thered be help waiting for him. Rodriguez believed there was a ...
A man who was a member of a violent South Baltimore gang has pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise.

Travis Eugene Alewine, 30, also known as Sticks, of Baltimore, pleaded guilty Monday for his role in the so-called Hillside gang that operated in the Cherry Hill neighborhood, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland announced Tuesday in a news release.

Alewine, who was on the run for two years before he was arrested by U.S. marshals in 2019, will be sentenced to between 15 years and 21 years and a month in federal prison in exchange for his plea agreement. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 18.

He and his fellow gang members terrorized the Cherry Hill community for years, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron said. Hillsides operation ran for 14 years in Cherry Hill, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The gang members pushed drugs into the community, threatened violence constantly, and even took the lives of others, ATF Baltimore Special Agent in Charge Toni M. Crosby said.

Alewine participated in selling crack and powder cocaine, heroin, oxycodone and marijuana as a member of the gang and used the profits to buy guns and traffic narcotics, the U.S. Attorneys office said in the release. He also committed robbery, homicides and nonfatal shootings.

Gang members sold drugs in the 600 block of Cherry Hill Road and other locations throughout Cherry Hill as well as in West Baltimore and Southwest Baltimore, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

During one of these gang dealings in August 2012, Alewine and three other members discharged a .45-caliber firearm and killed 28-year-old Anthony Cureton, whom they mistakenly believed was a member of a rival South Baltimore gang called Up Da Hill, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

Cureton and a 29-year-old African American man were in the 2700 block of Giles Road in Cherry Hill when someone fired at them from a car, according to police. Cureton was shot in the head and died at a hospital two hours later. The 29-year-old was shot in the hip and was able to get himself to a hospital. He survived.

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Hillside members have been in a long-running dispute with Up Da Hill members, the Lakebrook Circle Boys gang and others. Hillside members committed acts of violence and murdered members of rival organizations and people who were in territory that was controlled by the rival gangs.

A total of 21 defendants charged in the Hillside case, including Alewine, have pleaded guilty to their roles in the conspiracy, according to the release.

Eighteen defendants have been sentenced to 10 to 30 years in federal prison. Alewines attorney, Paul F. Enzinna, declined to comment.
Bayraktar drone

"Turkey and Ukraine have a strategic level of relations, especially in the aerospace and defense industries, he said.

Read also: Three donated Bayraktar drones are almost ready to ship to Ukraine

This concerns years of effort. Turkey supports Ukraine with combat drones, we also buy turbine engines for drones from Ukraine. We have built relations with Ukraine in a way that provides advantages to both countries.

Read also: Lithuanians purchased 110 anti-drone weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine

When asked about the theoretical possibility of supplying Bayraktar drones to Russia, the CEO had a clear answer.

Read also: Lithuanias Defense Ministry gets green light from Turkey to buy Bayraktar drone for Ukraine

"We have not done that and will not provide for them, Bayraktar said.

We will never do that either. Because we support Ukraine, we support its sovereignty, in fact, its struggle for independence.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
#Myers-SmallOut

The Rochester school board informed Superintendent Lesli Myers-Small Tuesday night it wants to negotiate for her departure, three sources said Wednesday morning, ending her tenure halfway through her four-year contract. Linda Cimusz, who served once before as interim superintendent, will do so again while the board seeks a permanent replacement. The timing of the change has not been finalized, but it is expected to happen within the next few weeks. Board members said Myers-Smalls performance reviews were negative, leading them to the decision to find another leader. There has been significant turnover in the districts top job in recent years, with five different full-time superintendents serving between 2008 and 2022.

Rochester City School District Superintendent Lesli Myers-Small answers questions about an incident at Enrico Fermi School 17 on May 27, 2022.

#TeenSentenced

A judge on Monday sentenced Edgar Tolentino to 20 years in prison for the murder of a 71-year-old Irondequoit man during an attempted carjacking in April 2021. Tolentino was 16 when he and Anthony Jacobs, also 16 at the time, tried to carjack Richard Sciascia in Gates. When Sciascia refused to give up his vehicle, Tolentino shot him in the upper body. He later died from his wounds. Last month, Tolentino pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Jacobs pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted robbery and second-degree attempted murder. His sentencing is set for later this week.

#NewOwners

Red Bird, a specialty food market in Fairport Village Landing Plaza, has new owners, Ryann Guglielmo and her mother, Debbie Bouchard. They reopened the 14-year-old enterprise July 13, after buying it from LuAnn Trapatsos. Nearly everything in the store, down to the bulk items, is crafted in the area, from salty bread to natural peanut butter, available in 15 flavors including chocolate and butterscotch, to Guglielmo-brand Italian sauce, created by Ryanns husband, Pauly Guglielmo. More.

See you Thursday.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Being shown the door
Its tempting to get your kid every shiny new toy they ask for. But some toys are better than others when it comes to actually stimulating your childs brain while also keeping them entertained. The parents on the Engadget staff know this well, and weve tried out a bunch of educational toys with our kids, with various results. These are some of the ones that have had staying power with our children  and even we adults have to admit we found them pretty fun, too.

Magna-Tiles

Magnatiles

There are tons of building toys out there, from LEGO, to Tegu, to the classic wooden block. But one of my favorites (and my kids) are Magna-Tiles. These large, colorful construction toys come in a variety of sizes and shapes and click together, or to other surfaces, with the aid of powerful magnets. They can be combined to form simple shapes like cubes and pyramids, or arranged to make magnetic art on a garage door. Plus there are themed packs that can add windows, staircases or even functional cranes to the playsets.

These are open-ended building toys that dont have set instructions for making a particular scene or item. Theyre safe for a three-year-old, and fun for much older kids, too. Honestly, as a nearly 40-year-old man, even I have a blast finding new and interesting ways to create ever more elaborate structures with my son. Weve built castles, spaceships, racecars and even a ferry terminal complete with a moveable boarding ramp.

At $120 for a 100 piece set, Magna-Tiles certainly arent cheap, but theyre definitely the sort of toy that will keep your child entertained for years to come, while also helping them learn valuable problem solving skills.  Terrence OBrien, Managing Editor

Shop Magna-Tiles at Amazon

Kindle Kids Edition

Kindle Kids Edition

I can tell you first hand that Amazons Fire tablets for kids are great for little ones. They can withstand the carelessness of a young child and offer access to tons of content with parental controls. However, once your kid gets a little older a dedicated device for books with fewer distractions is a better option. And for exactly that reason, Amazon makes a kid-friendly version of its Kindle e-reader.

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The device comes with a protective cover and one year of the companys Kids+ service for unlimited access to books ($4.99/month afterwards). There are no videos or games on the Kindle Kids, but it does offer access to Audible. It can store books for offline reading and battery life lasts for weeks at a time. Most importantly, parental controls allow you to monitor content and a dedicated dashboard keeps tabs on their reading habit over time.  Billy Steele, Senior News Editor

Buy Kindle Kids Edition at Amazon - $110

Lovevery play kits

Lovevery play kits

It can be a daunting task picking the best toys to help your baby learn and develop through the toddler and preschool years. Lovevery tries to reduce the stress by doing all the picking for you. Its a mail-order service that delivers specifically timed play kits designed around Montessori tenets for different developmental windows. Each box is a mix of toys and books (or cards for little babies) that start at birth and go all the way up to four-years-old. The kits come every two months through the first year. At this point, things get understandably more complex and the boxes arrive every three months.

The kits arent cheap: the boxes for babies are $80 each and when you hit one year they go up to $120. I can attest after nearly a year and a half that the service is great. It has been nice to refresh our childs toys with things that are more appropriate for his developmental stage on a regular basis. Everything is safe and well-built, and most importantly, highly engaging.  B.S.

Shop Lovevery kits

Smart Lab: Smart Circuits

Smart Lab: Smart Circuits

When it comes to introducing kids to electronics there are a ton of options, but I personally like the Smart Circuits kit. It can take a kid from simple blinking lights to complex motion-controlled games. The snap-together baseboard can lie flat on a table like a regular breadboard, but it can also be folded into a cube or the pieces can be attached at a 90-degree angle. This gives kids an extra element to play with when they graduate to designing their own circuits.

The kit itself only has a few pieces, but theyre quite flexible. And theyre all housed in large colorful plastic that should be easy for a kid to handle. Theres the usual electronics kid fare, like LEDs, a speaker, a potentiometer and two buttons. But theres also a tilt switch, a light sensor and a microprocessor capable of handling some relatively robust tasks. The kit comes with instructions for 50 projects, but with the parts available a creative child could build quite a few more.

My one critique is that the jumper wires can be tough to insert and might require a bit of patience  something we know not every eight-year-old has an abundance of.  T.O.

Buy Smart Circuits at Amazon - $50

Playskool Shape Sorter

Playskool Shape Sorter

A shape sorter is an awesome toy for younger kids because it encourages hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, problem-solving and even vocabulary (by identifying the names of shapes and colors). My kids have a few of them, but the one I like most is this Playskool model and heres why. The lid latches, which means they cant just dump the shapes out easily; they have to learn how to work the mechanics of the lid as well. Also, the multi-colored shapes have tactile patterns on them that match the area of the box theyre supposed to fit into, and that gives me another teaching opportunity. The whole thing is durable, too  my son likes to chew on the shapes and my daughter likes to stand on the box, but despite that abuse, theres not so much as a dent or a scratch on it. And because its only $12, it makes a great gift if youre buying for someone elses kiddo.  Amber Bouman, Associate Editor, Parenting

Buy Shape Sorter at Amazon - $12

Yoto Player

Yoto Player

The Yoto Player is the perfect toy for a young child who wants to play their own tunes and stories, but who isnt ready for an iPad or smart speaker of their own. Yotos cute design and blocky, pixel-like display looks distinctly retro. Its detailed enough for kids to make out images, but its insufficient for video, which should actually be good news for parents worried about too much screen time. Yoto calls the player a carefully connected speaker: You bring it online during the initial setup, but from there kids can access safe songs and other content through physical cards.  Devindra Hardawar, Senior Editor

Buy Yoto Player starter pack at Amazon - $110

Kiwi Crates subscription

Kiwi Crates subscription

I am, admittedly, a sucker for a good subscription box. But Kiwi Crate is the only one that doesnt feel like an indulgence. Each month my three-year-old gets a collection of simple DIY toys, crafts and games built around a theme. For instance, a recent box was all about bioluminescent animals. Inside was a plush lightning bug that we had to stuff ourselves and shape using hair ties; a mushroom that had us painting a Slurpee lid and then dotting it with glow-in-the-dark stickers; and a dancing, glowing jellyfish as well as several window clings of sea creates for him to create scenes with.

Past kits have covered farm life, dinosaurs and simple machines like ramps. The stuff inside the box is usually pretty simple (think: cardboard, felt and wood). Its definitely not built to last, but my kid has gotten plenty of use out of each piece.

The best part is the crates will grow with him. As he gets older the projects will get more complex (and the price will go up). Later boxes include everything from screen-printing tools, to trebuchet kits and even robots.  T.O.

Buy Kiwi Crates starting at $16 a month

Kano PC

Kano PC

The Kano PC may look at first like a cheap Surface knock-off, but based on our testing, its also a perfect introduction to the computer world for young children. Its partially DIY  the base unit is a Windows 10 tablet with a pre-installed CPU, memory and storage, but kids will have to plug in a colorful battery and speaker module to get it going. Kano encourages youngsters to take a close look at all of the PCs clearly labeled hardware with the bundled magnifying glass. And once they get going, its still a decently capable Windows 10 PC, with a Celeron CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 1080p webcam. Heck, it even comes with a keyboard cover, something Microsoft still hasnt bundled with the Surface tablets.  D.H.

Buy Kano PC at Microsoft - $150

Playtime Engineering: Blipblox

Playtime Engineering: Blipblox

The Blipblox may look like a simple noise-maker for kids, but this gadget is much more than just a toy. While the device is loaded with 300 melodies and a synchronized light show, it also packs a capable digital synthesizer engine. Theres an oscillator with the usual assortment of synth parameters along with an amp envelope, two LFOs, modulation envelope and a low-pass filter. The Blipblox also has a MIDI input for use with a keyboard or other accessories in addition to a -inch output. Lastly, it runs on three AA batteries or plugged in via a USB cable. Blipblox can teach kids about music through a basic approach to instruments and synthesis, but its features are advanced enough to offer noise-making magic for parents, too.  B.S.

Buy Blipbox at Amazon - $189

Montessori Busy Board

Montessori Busy Board

My kids are currently fascinated with snaps, zippers and closures, which is fun because it means its easy to amuse them, but awkward, too, because they often decide to undo the closures on the shirt Im wearing. A busy board capitalizes on this curiosity by offering several different clasps, snaps, zippers, buttons and openings for little ones to work their fingers on. It intrigues children by activating their senses and helps them develop their fine-motor skills and problem solving by using real-world obstacles. It also adheres to the Montessori philosophy of simple, wooden toys that help children explore the world around them through play. The deMoca busy board is one of my favorites because it has bright, eye-catching colors, and 10 sensory activities including a zipper, a buckle, a latch and Velcro. Its easy to bring along on trips, and deMoca also makes a Quiet Book  a soft-cover, fabric version thats washable.  A.B.

Buy busy board at Amazon - $45
President Joe Biden announced more measures to tackle the climate crisis on Wednesday, including new offshore wind development in the Gulf of Mexico  but he stopped short of declaring a national emergency amid growing calls from Democrats.

The president called climate change a clear and present danger and lambasted Congress for failing to pass climate legislation, adding that not a single Republican had supported the bill.

This is an emergency and I will look at it that way, Mr Biden said during remarks in Somerset, Massachusetts as temperatures soared into the 90s.

When it comes to fighting climate change, I will not take no for an answer, the president continued.

The president spoke in the shadow of Brayton Point, an old, coal-fired power plant that is being transformed into a manufacturing hub for undersea cables to support New Englands growing offshore wind industry.

In the absence of congressional action, Mr Biden said that he would use presidential executive powers to tackle the climate crisis, and will announce additional actions in the coming weeks.

Among the plans was $2.3bn to deal with the impacts of extreme heat. The funding will be funnelled to states to create cooling centers, and help vulnerable residents gain access to efficient air conditioning units.

Mr Biden also announced plans to expand offshore wind in the Gulf fo Mexico which has the potential to power over three million homes, according to the White House.

The announcements come as calls grow within Democratic ranks for the president to declare a national climate emergency.

As president, Mr Biden has the power to invoke an emergency, creating an alternative path to cut planet-heating carbon emissions and produce more clean energy without input from Congress.

If ever there is an emergency that demands ambitious action, climate chaos is it, read a letter sent to Mr Biden from eight Democratic senators and Bernie Sanders, the Independent senator of Vermont, this week.

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We ask that you start by declaring a climate emergency to unlock the broad powers of the National Emergency Act (NEA) and immediately pursue an array of regulatory and administrative actions to slash emissions, protect public health, support national and energy security, and improve our air and water quality, the senators wrote.

Last week, Mr Bidens bid to create ambitous climate legislation stalled once again when West Virginia Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin, pulled out of negotiations.

We cannot allow a single Senator to stall our progress, the senators letter read.

While a climate emergency declaration is a possibility, a potential timeline remains unclear.

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that a declaration would not happen on Wednesday in Massachusetts but that it was part of ongoing discussions.

Everything is on the table, Ms Jean-Pierre added.

New York Congresswoman Alexandrio Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent on Tuesday that declaring a climate emergency would be an essential step and slammed Senator Manchins actions.

Manchin has paused all action for the United States to act on climate for the last four years, Rep Ocasio-Cortez said. So I dont think he has any authority to speak on climate for the rest of our term here.

Mr Manchin told senior Democrats last week that he would not support their attempt to push through an economic package this month, which included billions of dollars to fight the climate crisis.
Robert Adams, 23, was fatally shot while running from police who approached him in an unmarked vehicle on July 16. (Photo: San Bernardino Police Department)

Robert Adams, 23, was fatally shot while running from police who approached him in an unmarked vehicle on July 16. (Photo: San Bernardino Police Department)

Police in San Bernardino, California, released body camera footage Tuesday eveningshowing officers fatally shooting a Black man in the back.



The footage offers new details on Saturdays police killing of 23-year-old Robert Adams, who family says may have been unaware of law enforcements presence until they exited an unmarked car with guns drawn.

The way they pulled up was like some gang members about to do a drive-by, his father, Robert Adams Sr., told HuffPost. They never rolled down the window and said, This is the police. All we can see is that they jumped out the carandjust started immediately opening fire.

The San Bernardino Police Department said it received a call from a citizen informant on July 16 saying that a Black male armed with a gun was in the parking lot of what the authorities said was an illegal online gambling business.

According to police, two officers who were conducting surveillance in the area went to the parking lot and saw Adams holding a gun in his hand.Police said they recovered a loaded gun on the scene, but his mother disputes that he was armed.

Tamika Deavila King, Adams mother, told HuffPost that he was on the phone with her talking about his best friend getting a new car. King said her son was holding a cellphone, not a gun, when police arrived.

The bodycam footage shows Adams about 100 feet from the officers unmarked car. He took a few steps toward the car, although its not clear he was aware of the police officers inside.

Robert Adams in a family photo. (Photo: Family Handout)

Robert Adams in a family photo. (Photo: Family Handout)

As Adams stepped toward the unmarked vehicle, both officers jumped out. Body camera footage shows an officer with his gun already drawn as he got out of the vehicle. Surveillance footage from a nearby business shows the officers exited the car with their guns pointed toward the 23-year-old.

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Adams began running in the other direction toward two cars and a wall in the parking lot, as seen in the bodycam footage.

Officers said they gave Adams verbal commands. Police Chief Darren Goodman said in remarks paired with the bodycam footage that the officers believed Adams intended to use the two parked cars as a cover to shoot at them.

But before Adams could turn around or find cover, an officer fired at him. The shots were fired within seconds of Adams turning from police.

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who drew attention to the shooting on social media and appeared at a press conference with the family on Wednesday, said King heard the gunshots over the phone.

Crump compared the killing of Adams to how police treat white suspects who are arrested without being killed, even after they murder multiple people. He cited several cases, including those of two white supremacists: Dylann Roof in 2015 at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and Peyton Gendron in May at a market in Buffalo, New York.

This is a classic example of shoot first and ask questions later, Crump said.

We see young white males who are confirmed mass murderers and you dont see police get out and start shooting.

In the video, Adams is seen lying on his back near a red brick wall. While officers tried to render aid, a person in distress can be heard in the background.



You shot my cousin, bro, the person said in the body camera footage.



While the officer told Adams that he was going to be OK and stay with me, he kept his gun pointed toward him. Adams was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Crump posted the surveillance footage on social media on Monday, prompting outrage.

Police in San Bernardino, CA, fatally shot 23-year-old Robert Adams execution-style! Its reported Robert didnt know there were police in the unmarked car before he ran for his life. We need a full investigation into this horrific execution! Crump tweeted.



Goodman, the police chief, said the area Adams was in was known for crime and that he was a suspect for a previous robbery. It is unclear if officers knew at that time that Adams was a suspect.



The video, which has been posted online, fails to provide critical details or context as to what actually occurred during the event, Goodman said, referring to the surveillance footage.

Adams family has demanded more police accountability and questioned the tactics of the officers involved. His father told HuffPost that police shot his son in the back and the bullet also went through his arm.

Adams birthday was on June 1, and the two celebrated together last month, his father told HuffPost.

King, Adams mother, told CBS Los Angeles that her son did not pose a threat to police and was running for his life.

King called for Goodman to be removed as police chief. She told HuffPost she wants the officers involved in killing her son stripped over their badges and criminally charged, with the shooter charged for murder.

He murdered my son, coldblooded, she told HuffPost.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Bradley Cooper and Huma Abedin are "in no rush" to get serious about their new relationship and plan on keeping their romance "under wraps" for the time being.

Cooper, 47, was first introduced to Hillary Clintons longtime political adviser earlier this year through Vogue editor Anna Wintour and the couple has been seeing each other for months.

"Bradley is fascinated by her," a source told People magazine. "Huma is very international and has seen and done so much. He finds this intriguing and challenging."

The insider also revealed that the Academy award-winner and New York Times bestselling author are "a good a match" with common interests.

Bradley Cooper is reportedly "fascinated" by Huma Abedin as the couple keeps their flourishing romance under wraps. They began dating earlier this year after meeting through Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Both are pictured separately at the Met Gala in May. Getty Images

ANTHONY WEINER SPOTTED IN NEW YORK AFTER EX-WIFE HUMA ABEDIN REPORTEDLY BEGINS DATING BRADLEY COOPER

"They are both serious-minded people dedicated to their work and doing the right thing," the source added. "Huma is smart and a straight-shooter. They make an interesting pair."

A second source said Coopers new relationship was "casual" and added: "They have private dates and they are still getting to know one another."

The new couple reportedly "both want to keep good relationships with their former partners because of the kids."

Bradley Cooper and Huma Abedin both attended the Met Gala in May, but did not walk the red carpet with Abedin. John Shearer

HOWARD STERN CHOOSES BRADLEY COOPER AS HIS POTENTIAL PRESIDENTIAL RUNNING MATE

Cooper was previously in a relationship with model Irina Shayk. The former couple co-parent their five-year-old daughter Lea De Seine.

Abedin married disgraced New York politician Anthony Weiner in 2010, but the pair separated in 2016 following one of his many sexting scandals.

The catalyst to the end of their marriage was a suggestive photo he sent to a woman showing their son in bed in the background.

The following month, it was revealed Weiner had sent sexually suggestive images to a minor. He was later charged with transferring obscene material to a minor and served 15 months in prison.

Anna Wintour, Hillary Clinton, and Huma Abedin pose backstage at the 2018 Glamour Women Of The Year Awards: Women Rise on Nov. 12, 2018 in New York City. Cindy Ord

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He previously represented New York's 9th Congressional District from January 1999 until June 2011.

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Weiner infamously resigned from office after it became publicly known that he sent a lewd image to a woman and later admitted to exchanging "messages and photos of an explicit nature with about six women."

Abedins political career with Clinton began in 1996 when she was an intern in the first ladys office. She rose to be a top aide in Clintons various offices and served as vice chair for Clintons 2016 presidential campaign .
Brighton High School

BRIGHTON  In their response to a federal lawsuit filed in April by a former student in which she claimed she was sexually assaulted and the district retaliated against her for reporting it, Brighton Area Schools challenges the allegation that an assault took place or that school officials pressured the teen into recanting.

In the federal lawsuit, the Brighton woman is seeking unspecified damages because, she says, the district violated her 14th Amendment rights, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title IX, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

She's also claiming the defendants violated the Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act including creating and failing to prevent a sexually hostile education environment, retaliation and sex discrimination; as well as violation of the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act including harassment, retaliation and discrimination.

In the district's July 15 response, officials disputed the key allegation, saying the male student accused of assaulting the teen girl in a school restroom wasnt at school the day of the reported assault because he was suspended.

BAS's response also claims that when the female student told law enforcement about what occurred in the restroom she said it was consensual.

In her suit, the woman claimed the district retaliated against her for filing a police complaint, including by not allowing her to take a picture with a teacher's classroom dog and issuing her a broken iPad. The district denied those incidents took place.

According to the district, iPads are not issued to students individually, but are issued to each classroom. The response claims the classroom iPad was not broken. The district also claims the student did not receive approval for a photo with the dog that was later rescinded.

Additionally, the district denied that the student was bullied and harassed by students after making the report. The response claims she never reported any bullying.

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After initially filing a police report about a sexual assault, the female student later met with police again and recanted the assault report. Her suit claims she changed her story because of bullying and harassment.

Her attorney, Zachary T. Runyan of Runyan Law Group, said the the woman "looks forward to engaging in extensive discovery which will further validate her allegations."

In addition to the school district, the lawsuit names Superintendent Matt Outlaw; principals Gavin Johnson, Jennifer Sprys-Tellner and Henry Vecchioni; special needs teacher Jody Renicker; a teacher identified as Mrs. Levine; and 10 others who weren't identified by name.

No court dates have been scheduled in the suit.

Contact Livingston Daily reporter Patricia Alvord at palvord@livingstondaily.com about news coverage.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Brighton Area Schools denies allegations in a sexual assault lawsuit
Village of Bristol officials approved the sale of land to a Kenosha company tied to Hard Rock International on Tuesday night, bringing a new tribal casino in the area one step closer.

Officials for Kenosha Landco Co. LLC have not officially said what they plan to use the land for, but the companys principal address is the same as the corporate offices for Hard Rock in Florida.

The Bristol Village Board and the Community Development Authority approved the sale to Landco in a unanimous, said Randy Kerkman, Bristol village administrator. The property, 60 acres on the east and west sides of 122nd Avenue, is in Kenosha but is owned by the village.

Landco will pay more than $15 million to buy the property. Bristol has been trying to sell the property for several years, Kerkman said.

"The group (Landco) now has to do the work to get it approved by the city of Kenosha," said Kerkman

There have been multiple efforts to build a casino in Kenosha since tribal casinos were legalized in the 1990s, because of Kenoshas proximity to Milwaukee and Chicago.

This would be the second time Hard Rock has tried to open a casino near the state border. The Menominee tribe attempted to open a massive casino complex in Kenosha with Hard Rock as a partner, but then Gov. Scott Walker vetoed the legislation in 2015.

There are several casinos in the region. Hard Rock also owns a casino in Rockford, Illinois. The Ho-Chunk tribe plans to open an off-reservation casino in Beloit, and the Black River Falls tribe owns several casinos, including a large gambling hall near Wisconsin Dells.

Only a Wisconsin tribe can own a casino in the state, so Hard Rock announced Wednesday morning a partnership with the Menominee tribe.

The tribe would have to petition the federal government to place the land in trust  a process that could take a decade. Ultimately, the sitting governor has unilateral authority to approve or veto any off-reservation casinos.

As is the case with the building of a new casino, groups that are opposed to new or expanded gambling will also mobilize. Lorri Pickens, of Citizens Against Expanded Gambling, told the Journal Sentinel, "It's really wrong for a government to make so much money off the losses of its citizens. She said a casino does little to boost the local economy.

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Contact Drake Bentley at (414) 391-5647 or DBentley1@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DrakeBentleyMJS.

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: A new casino in Kenosha gets one step closer with Village Board OK
Jul. 20CHIPPEWA FALLS  A 61-year-old carnival worker has been arrested after he was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in a vehicle after they left the Northern Wisconsin State Fair grounds Saturday.

Craig D. McPherson, who has a Georgia address and family in Illinois, appeared in Chippewa County Court on Tuesday on a possible charge of second-degree sexual assault of a child, where a $50,000 cash bond was set. McPherson is set to return to court Aug. 2.

Chippewa Falls Police Lt. Brian Micolichek said McPherson, the 14-year-old girl, and the girl's 22-year-old sister left the fairgrounds together and drove to the Kwik Trip on the city's East Hill to purchase alcohol. While the 22-year-old woman was in the store, McPherson is accused of climbing into the back seat of the vehicle and having sexual intercourse with the 14-year-old girl.

Micolichek said the incident happened at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and the girl reported the sexual assault about three hours later. Micolichek said the sisters are from a city near Chippewa Falls, and did not know McPherson before the fair began.

"It appeared the ride there (to the gas station) was consensual," Micolichek said.

The Eau Claire Police Department arrested McPherson at the Scottish Inn on Tuesday and took him to the Chippewa County Jail.

Chippewa County assistant district attorney Scott Zehr said that when McPherson was interviewed, he denied having gone into the back seat of the car. However, video surveillance from the gas station showed him getting into the back seat, Zehr said.

Zehr said the district attorney's office requested a $75,000 cash bond because McPherson has criminal history in six different states, including an active warrant from Ohio in 2003 that was non-extraditable. His prior criminal record includes an aggravated arson conviction in 1988 and a rape charge from 1999, Zehr said. The high cash bond was requested because McPherson was set to leave the area with the carnival, Zehr said. McPherson had left the area but returned to get his paycheck, Zehr said.

There was a prior sexual assault case at the fair in 1999. Micolichek said the fair has typically done a good job of monitoring staff who come in to work at the fair.

"They run a very tight crew up there, and are very strict with their employees," Micolichek said.
Jul. 20Now in a new Norman headquarters, Daniel Remington looks to continue building his company's legacy that began more than 20 years ago.

The Norman Chamber and many members of the local business community gathered at Remington Enterprises new digs, 2460 Boardwalk St., for a ribbon cutting event to celebrate the grand opening of a headquarters for his properties. Remington owns Buffalo Insurance, Dream Maker Property Management and Quality Buildings Manufacturing, and has also grown Silver Ram Investments Land Development and Remington Residential Construction.

"We're so thankful to be a part of Norman, Newcastle, Blanchard and all the surrounding communities through our home building program, our insurance program, our real estate brokerage and last but not least, our property management company," Remington said. "Thank you all for letting us be a part of Norman and spending part of your day with us."

Remington started in real estate in 2001 with the purchase, remodel and sale of a home in Midwest City. He said the inspiration to get into real estate began when he purchased an industry course after viewing a late night infomercial. In 2003, he quit his job at Tinker Air Force Base and set his fulltime focus on real estate.

That was the formula with multiple remodels, until 2004, when he transitioned to new home construction and began his first land development project in Newcastle in 2005.

For Remington, Norman not only provided an opportunity to house all of his companies under one roof, but with one son studying at the University of Oklahoma and another in high school with plans to attend college there, Remington said it will be nice to be closer to campus.

Scott Martin, president and CEO of the Norman Chamber of Commerce, said the Remingtons have an inspirational entrepreneurial story.

"Daniel, his wife Kindle and their family have been growing and building their business for years now, diversifying in a lot of different ways, which is representative of this incredible building  their new home for their business," Martin said. "We are thrilled at the Chamber of Commerce to be a small part of their success story and are thrilled to partner with them as they continue to grow and help our community flourish."

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In 50 days, Remington said he's going to build 88 homes on the east side of Norman. The rental properties will be managed by his property management company, which he says is unique.

"We mow the yards so they stay looking great all the time, and we do a 90-day maintenance visit on every property that we have, and we go through the house to make sure everything's in proper working order for that tenant to make sure they have a great place to live," Remington said.

"They've come out in this 110 degree [heat] here on the hottest day of the summer so far, and we really appreciate you all taking the time to come meet with us," Remington said at the ribbon cutting.

Jeff Elkins covers business, living and community stories for The Transcript. Reach him at jelkins@normantranscript.com or at @JeffElkins12 on Twitter.
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - As China grapples to contain a mortgage boycott that has triggered rare protests, censors have gone into overdrive with social media messages blocked, videos of demonstrations wiped and key word searches coming up blank.

Censors are scrambling to filter or erase details of angry homebuyers threatening to stop paying mortgages on hundreds of unfinished housing projects, as regulators seek to reassure residents that everything will be taken care of.

The protests have erupted at a sensitive time for Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a third leadership term at the 20th Communist Party Congress later this year, and social stabililty is crucial ahead of the meeting.

In a bid to appease protesters and contain the crisis, regulators and local governments have stepped up efforts to reassure critics that projects will be completed.

The banking authority has encouraged lenders to extend loans to projects, and districts - including in Henan province and the city of Chongqing - have set up task forces.

But mounting turmoil over uncompleted developments is testing Chinese social media companies, which are subject to strict laws requiring them to censor content that "undermines social stability" or is critical of the central government.

One video showing fingerprinted notices from homebuyers declaring a boycott on mortgage payments was blocked on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, according to saved images shown to Reuters by a protester. The social media platform said "the content didn't pass scrutiny".

A protester in the city of Zhengzhou in Henan province surnamed Lu said a video about the mortgage boycott that he uploaded via Douyin was among the top trending items at one point. But he added that such videos could no longer be uploaded or found on the platform.

Yang, a mortgage protestor in Nanchang, capital of southeastern Jiangxi province, said his videos of mortgage protests on Douyin were also censored.

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ByteDance, which owns Douyin, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Another protester surnamed Wang, also in Henan province, told Reuters he tried to upload videos about the mortgage boycott, but they were either restricted, failed to get approval, or could only be viewed by him.

On the social media platform Weibo, the hashtag #stopmortgagepayments has been censored, according to a search by Reuters. A notice says: "Due to related laws and rules, the topic page cannot be displayed."

Other videos that were blocked or deleted from social media sites included scenes of empty construction sites, protesters scuffling with bodyguards, and analyst commentaries on the boycott movement, underscoring the sensitivity of the issue.

Another protester told Reuters he could not share videos related to the crisis via China's most popular messaging service, WeChat.

Weibo, Tencent, which owns WeChat, and the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the government body responsible for enforcing censorship guidelines, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Censorship of the issue is not limited to social media.

An official at a developer said his boss had banned staff from commenting on the mortgage protests, even off the record, due to an "order from above".

Analysts at some securities and research firms in China told Reuters they were also advised not to comment on the protests.

(Reporting by Shanghai and Beijing Newsrooms, additional reporting by Clare Jim; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
China is preparing to hit ride-hailing giant Didi with a fine of more than $1 billion to wrap up a long-running probe, media reports said, boosting investor hopes that the country's tech crackdown is winding down.

Didi, once known as China's answer to Uber, has been one of the highest-profile targets of the widespread clampdown on the sector, which saw years of runaway growth and supersized monopolies before regulators stepped in.

The fine -- imposed over Didi's cybersecurity practices -- would amount to more than four percent of its $27.3 billion total revenue last year and pave the way for its new share listing in Hong Kong, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, the Journal said that once the fine is announced, the government will ease its restrictions on Didi's operations.

The firm was prevented from adding new users and its apps were removed from online stores in China by regulators.

The WSJ report triggered a rally in Chinese tech shares in Hong Kong on Wednesday, with investors hopeful that the two-year regulatory storm that swept the sector was nearing its end.

E-commerce giant Alibaba soared four percent, while gaming titan Tencent gained 2.5 percent in early trade.

Didi got into hot water in June last year after it pressed ahead with an IPO in the United States, reportedly against Beijing's wishes.

Days after it raised $4.4 billion in New York, Chinese authorities launched a cybersecurity probe into the company, sending its shares plunging.

If confirmed, Didi's fine would be the biggest imposed on a Chinese tech company since Alibaba was told to pay $2.75 billion in April 2021 as punishment for anti-competitive practices.

Didi did not respond immediately to an emailed request for comment.

Its shareholders voted to delist the firm from New York in May.

That move is expected to pave the way for a Hong Kong listing that was reportedly put on hold after China's top internet watchdog told executives their proposals to prevent security and data leaks were insufficient.

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China's regulatory crackdown has eased this year as it grapples with the economic fallout from its zero-Covid strategy, with the country struggling to reach its 5.5 percent growth target.

However, there is still a strict regulatory environment for tech firms: President Xi Jinping last month called for stronger oversight and better security in the financial tech arena.

lxc/qan/dan
Chris Pratt shared a shirtless selfie showing off his six-pack abs  and an adorable note from his son Jack.

The "Guardians of the Galaxy" star took to Instagram and Twitter on Monday to share a mirror selfie while on the set of Amazon Prime Videos "The Terminal List" with the caption "Lookin cut," with a fake slash, gushed with blood on his body.

But his followers were quick to point out a handwritten note from his son instead.

Pratts 9-year-old son Jack, whom he shares with ex-wife Anna Faris, wrote to his dad, "See yaa at 8:00ish," on a yellow sticky note while signing off the sweet message with a heart symbol and his name.

CHRIS PRATT WILL NEVER PLAY INDIANA JONES BECAUSE HE'S SCARED OF HARRISON FORD

Fans werent the only ones who noticed the message on the "Jurassic World: Dominion" actors side mirror.

Chris Pratts 9-year-old son Jack, whom he shares with ex-wife Anna Faris, wrote his dad a sweet note while he was on set. Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Pratts wife Katherine Schwarzeneggers brother commented on the post saying, "See yah at 8ish jackkkooo," with three crying laughing emojis.

Katherine's mom, Maria Shriver, also swooned over the cute post, from her Sunday Paper account, "The note from Jack," with a red heart emoji.

The Marvel actor, 43, co-parents his son with Faris, 45. The pair was married from 2009-2018.

In June 2019, Pratt tied the knot with Katherine, 32. They have since welcomed two daughters together: Lyla, 1, and Eloise, 2 months.

Katherine Schwarzenegger and Chris Pratt recently welcomed their second daughter, Eloise, into the world. Rich Polk

Schwarzenegger also took to Instagram Friday to share her first photo with both of her daughters  two months after giving birth to Eloise  with the caption, "Two under 2 vibes."

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Pratt stars in and produces Amazon Prime Videos "The Terminal List." In the eight-episode action series, the Hollywood actor plays a Navy SEAL officer who investigates why his entire platoon gets ambushed during a mission.

The show is based on the book series written by former Navy SEAL Jack Carr, and 28-year-old Patrick Schwarzenegger also co-stars in "The Terminal List," alongside Pratt.
With civics instruction in public schools becoming increasingly controversial, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a set of three new civics career academies on Monday, designed to give high school students skills that could lead to political and government jobs.

DeSantis touted the academies as a one-of-its-kind work program for politically engaged students, at a news conference in Jacksonville.

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Central Floridas Polk State College, Broward College in South Florida, and Florida State College at Jacksonville  all community colleges  have been tapped to host the new civics academies. They are scheduled to launch in the fall of 2023.

But questions arose Monday about the new initiative, such as who will develop the curriculum for the academies? Where did the money come from for the project, and why were those three particular colleges chosen?

DeSantis mentioned $6.5 million but it isnt clear which pot of money will be used to house the academies.

The DeSantis administrations handling of civics education has previously been under scrutiny.

In late June, the Miami Herald reported that local educators were concerned about new state civics professional development trainings. Some teachers found the trainings to be skewed towards a Christian fundamentalist interpretation of American history and founding documents, according to the Herald.

A non-profit organization aiming to ensure the separation of church and state announced it was launching an investigation, through public records requests on Floridas new civics training. The goal is to see how conservative groups, such as the Michigan-based Hillsdale College and the Koch-founded Bill of Rights Institute in Virginia, were involved in developing the contentious training.

Now, with the three civics academies announced, how will the public know if the initiative will be a partisan effort to funnel conservative-leaning kids into state jobs and politics? Or, could the effort be completely nonpartisan?

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Monday, DeSantis described the initiative, saying, They (students) will be provided the knowledge base and the tools to potentially have a career in public service. They will be linking students with things like apprenticeships, internships  this is something, I mean, think about the applications here.

He added: Someone that wants to go into local government and become, like, a county manager, people that wanna work in a state agency  you know, what kind of a foundation are they having? And this is really what were providing here: the ability for them to really excel. And, if you go through a lot of this and you choose to do other stuff, this is still gonna be very helpful for what youre gonna be doing. 

According to a Monday press release from the governors office:

Courses will include public service leadership, careers and communication, experiential learning, pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship opportunities with local and state agencies, and a research seminar.

Angela Falconetti, president of Polk State College, laid out a few names of agencies and institutions that might be involved in developing these academies.

This training initiative is a collaboration between the Florida Department of Education also the University of Central Floridas Lou Frey Institute, she said at the Monday press conference.

Falconetti added: Polk State (College) in partnership with Polk County public schools will develop civics careers academies to build an integrated, seamless program of study in the government and public administration discipline  from high school through postsecondary education. We will also partner with local businesses and government entities and program design and delivery.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
Jul. 19CLARKSVILLE  Police in Clarksville are investigating a fatal hit-and-run that occurred Sunday night on Brown's Station Way.

According to CPD the incident happened at about 9:57 p.m. on Sunday on westbound Brown's Station Way, across from North Clark Boulevard.

Officers said anyone with information or involvement in the wreck should contact Lt. Jeff Kennedy at 812-288-7151 extension 307 or J.Kennedy@clarksvillepolice.com. People can also contact Cpl. John Miller at 812-288-7151 extension 312 or email at J.Miller@clarksvillepolice.com.

Local camera feed from security cameras is being accessed by police.

Police said they appreciate any information the public can provide in connection to this case.
The Daily Beast

Gregg DeGuire/GettyThe Flash star Ezra Miller has broken their silence after a number of highly publicized incidents, saying they are seeking help and treatment for complex mental health issues.Miller, who is nonbinary, released a statement through a rep to The Daily Beast apologizing for their actions and saying they have gone through a time of intense crisis and that they have begun ongoing treatment. The actor was arrested twice in Hawaii in spring, once for disorderly conduct and anoth
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Back-to-school season is in full effect! While a few weeks of summer still lie ahead, classes will start up before you know it, so now is the time to buy school supplies  and yes, that includes clothes.

Whether your student wears a uniform and has simply grown out of last years weekend duds or they wear their own styles to school every day, you wont want to pass up the clothes on Amazon right now.

Full of top-rated pieces, high-quality basics and affordable yet trendy styles, Amazon has a ton of appropriate back-to-school clothes that any high school or college student would love.

Below, shop five fashion staples to mix and match all year long.

$39.99 $48.99 at Amazon

A fashionable jumpsuit is great for the days when you have no idea what to wear. This style is perfect to wear in the summer, spring or fall  just change up your shoes! Shop it now in over 15 shades.

Credit: Amazon

$36.99 at Amazon

This Swiss-dot dress has an oversized fit and adorable cuffed sleeves. Wear this lightweight dress during the spring when classrooms start to heat up, and have fun accessorizing this versatile design with jackets in the fall.

Credit: Amazon

$17.84 $20.99 at Amazon

Is there anything more basic (in the best way) than a plain white tee? This capped-sleeve style is soft and stretchy and looks just as good with jeans as it does with leggings or a skirt.

Credit: Amazon

$39.99-$79.50 at Amazon

A dependable pair of jeans is a back-to-school must! This light-wash pair from Levis has a classic cut and features a high-rise fit with five pockets, plus you can toss them right into the washing machine.

Credit: Amazon

$18.58-$32.80 at Amazon

If your teacher likes to blast the AC, make sure to bring a simple yet stylish crewneck with you to class. This sweatshirt is terry cotton and modal blend, so itll keep you warm and cozy all year round.

If you liked this story, check out the best deals under $25 at Nordstrom right now.

More from In The Know:

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These are the most requested wedding registry gifts, according to The Knot

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The 7 best affordable bras discounted for the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale because your boobs deserve all the love and support

The post Cute back-to-school outfits you wouldnt guess are from Amazon appeared first on In The Know.
Daily Harvest said Tuesday that it has identified tara flour as the ingredient causing hundreds of people to become sick, with some reporting liver dysfunction and having to have their gallbladder removed, after eating a lentil-based product from the popular vegan food company.

As of July 14, there were 96 hospitalizations and 277 reports of illness around the country connected to Daily Harvests French Lentil & Leek Crumbles, the Food and Drug Administration said last week, citing complaint reports. The FDA has been investigating complaints of gastrointestinal illness and abnormal liver function related to the Daily Harvest frozen product.

At this time, we have identified tara flour as the cause of the issue, Daily Harvest said in a statement on its website Tuesday afternoon. We have only used this ingredient in French Lentil + Leek Crumbles and we are no longer sourcing from this producer who does not provide any ingredients for our 140+ other items.

Tara flour is made from the seed of the tara tree.

Image: The flour is made from the seed of the tara tree. (gustavo ramirez / Getty Images)

This was the first and only time weve used tara flour, which has been available and used in the North American market as a plant-based source of protein prior to our use, Daily Harvest said. Our investigation team will continue working with the FDA, the tara flour producer and others to help determine what specifically made people sick.

Daily Harvest initiated a voluntary recall of the product last month after customers began to complain of becoming sick. Some reported elevated liver enzymes and hospitalizations as well as having their gallbladder removed.

The company also faces several lawsuits from people who say they became sick after consuming the product. Two of the lawsuits were filed against the company and the products manufacturer on behalf of two children, including a 4-month-old who was breastfeeding.

Bill Marler, an attorney representing the families, said he was not surprised by Daily Harvests announcement, and said he told the companys lawyer that tara flour was the likely culprit, given that the lentil dish was the only item that contained it.

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Marler said he has more than 250 clients in connection with the Daily Harvest complaints with potential claims against the company.

Still unknown, Marler said, is what in the tara flour is causing people to become ill.

He said neither Daily Harvest, the FDA, nor his lab had confirmed yet whether the tara flour contains a toxin or a chemical, for instance, that is making people sick.

So, theres still more work to do, he said.

Daily Harvest did not immediately respond to request for comment Tuesday.

The company previously said its testing had ruled out common food-borne pathogens, major allergens, pesticide, Hepatitis A, norovirus and a range of mycotoxins, including aflatoxins. Aflatoxins are a type of toxin produced by fungus that can grow on grains and seeds.

The company said in a previous statement to NBC News that it does not comment on pending or potential litigation. Daily Harvest emphasized, however, that it initiated a recall as soon as it received reports of customer illnesses, is working with the FDA to investigate, and reached out multiple times to customers who bought the lentil product.

The FDA did not immediately respond to request for comment Tuesday.

Daily Harvest first issued a statement advising customers about reports of illnesses on June 19. The company posted a voluntary recall announcement via the FDA on June 23.
The Takeout

In my former profession, I was a teacher, so let me start this by saying I will never make it my business to tell teachers they need to do something more than what they already do every day. This complaint is not about them. Its about the policy of the school, the greater school district, or possibly someone even higher up the ladderwhoever can be blamed for the current snack time infrastructure in early elementary classrooms. Please, as a parent, I dont want snack time duty. Please relieve
ABC

Theres a famous story from 1992s election season on Saturday Night Live. Dana Carveys iconic impression of President George H.W. Bush was already well established and his castmate Phil Hartman was playing challenger Bill Clinton. But when Ross Perot entered the race as a third-party candidate, Carvey ended up doing double duty in the shows three-way debate sketch. While newcomer David Spade played Perot in the live wide shots, Carvey pre-taped the billionaire candidates lines for the close-ups.

So when Carvey returned for his second night guest-hosting for Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday, he decided to one-up that feat by playing the only two roles in a preview of what the 2024 debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump might look like.

After delivering a few jokes about Biden and Trump as former Tonight Show host Johnny Carson, Carvey pivoted to the debate bit, moderated by Kimmels security guard, Guillermo, of course.

As the camera cut back and forth, Carvey expertly transformed himself into each candidate using nothing but a bad wig and his impressive mimicry skills. He played Biden as a befuddled old man who mixes up Kamala Harris and Harrison Ford and Trump as a far more deranged madman who ranted about Kim Jong Uns tiny feet and said, I like my fro-yo like I like my voters: white and sloppy.

Dana Carvey Breaks Out Spot-On Biden Impression in Kimmel Guest-Hosting Gig

Ultimately, Carvey presented a choice that few Americans are going to be happy with come 2024. While Biden seemed to embrace the slogan, Monkeypox: Its whats for dinner, Trump sent prospective voters off with the message, God bless me and God bless my terrific penis.

Goodnight, America, Guillermo told viewers when it was over. We are fucked.

For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast.

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Harvard Police Department/Vermont State Police

Vermont police on Tuesday shot and killed a man wanted for questioning in the death of a 23-year-old Massachusetts woman who was reported missing by her family and later found deceased in a pickup truck.

Authorities said the man was walking in West Brattleboro when police tried to speak to him. His identity is being withheld pending the notification of his family, according to NECN, and state police did not provide other details as to how he ended up dead.

Vermont officials had earlier said they were looking to find and speak to 34-year-old Matthew Davis, the ex-boyfriend of victim Mary Anderson, in connection with her recent death.

Andersons family reported her disappearance late Sunday afternoon after she was last seen around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night, Harvard Police Department officials said.

Shes never been away. This is very much unlike her, Sheila Anderson, Marys mother, told Boston 25 News on Monday.

The 23-year-olds body was discovered just after midnight two days later, in the navy blue Toyota Tacoma with Massachusetts license plates that she was last seen driving, Vermont police said. Authorities said her death was suspicious.

Davis, Andersons ex-partner, was identified as a person of interest who may have important details about the events that occurred here in Brattleboro, Major Dan Trudeau, commander of the Vermont State Police Criminal Division, said at a Tuesday evening press conference.

At this point I would consider him dangerous, Trudeau added, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Im not saying that hes a suspect, but he is of importance to us.

Davis was convicted of armed assault with intent to kill after a February 2009 incident in which he attacked another ex-girlfriends new partner, The Berkshire Eagle reported. Then 21 years old, Davis hid in the womans bedroom closet and waited until the couple had finished having sex.

He then jumped out, armed with a large kitchen knife, and stabbed the man in the chest, arms, and legs, according to MassLive.

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Authorities found Davis hiding in a snow bank several hours after the attack. He was eventually sentenced to four to nine years in prison, court records stated.

Following Andersons Sunday disappearance, friends expressed concern over a number of weird posts made to her Instagram and Snapchat in recent days. One told CBS Boston that the updates didnt seem like they had been made by Anderson.

Sheila Anderson told MassLive that she feared her daughter had been abducted by an ex-fiance. Separately, Sheila told WCVB that her daughter and Davis had broken up in November after dating for four years.

Something happened in their relationship, Sheila explained, and she said: Im done.

I know that Mary told me that he was texting her to try and get back together, Sheila told NBC10 Boston. I just know that Matt had anger issues and I knew that through Mary.

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.
As Russias blitz invasion of Ukraine shifts to become a slow-rolling war of attrition, Democrats on Capitol Hill say theyre increasingly concerned that a Republican majority might cut off the spigot of U.S. aid thats proven crucial to Kyivs military defenses.

A number of conservative Republicans have vowed to stop funding Ukraines defensive efforts, citing a variety of reasons that range from domestic economic concerns, to deficit spending worries, to simple anti-interventionist sentiment. Those lawmakers are ready to press GOP leaders to halt the aid if Republicans flip the House in Novembers midterm elections.

That would be a disaster, according to Democrats, who are warning that an end to U.S. aid would doom Ukrainian defenses, empower Russian President Vladimir Putin and more broadly encourage authoritarian regimes that are on the rise around the globe.

Clearly the Republican Party has lost its moral bearings, and that comes with regards to domestic politics but to foreign policy as well, said Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.). These are kids and families that dont deserve to die from Russian missiles.

Moulton is hardly alone. A long list of Democrats are voicing similar concerns, citing the grip that former President Trump  who had praised Putin over the course of his presidency  retains over Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

What would worry me with a Republican majority  which is why we need to make sure that it doesnt happen  is because they are so deeply embedded and committed to carrying Donald Trumps water that  most of them cower in fear from his criticism, said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). So even if they, individually, might be willing to support continued aid to Ukraine and sending weapons, they are so fearful of losing power that it affects how they vote. And thats really disturbing.

Making the case for more aid this week has been Ukraines first lady, Olena Zelenska, who met Wednesday morning at the White House with President Biden before moving afterwards to the Capitol, where she addressed lawmakers from both parties and both chambers. Her message was short and simple: Russian forces are killing civilians, and Kyivs military forces need more help to deflect Putins aggression.

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Usually the wives of presidents are exclusively engaged in peaceful affairs  education, human rights, equality, accessibility and maybe you expected from me to speak on those topics, she said. But how can I talk about then when an unprovoked, invasive terrorist war is being waged against my country?

Russia is destroying our people, she added.

The United States and its Western allies have already supplied tens of billions of dollars in assistance to Ukraine, largely in the form of military equipment and training, for Kyivs military forces, and humanitarian supplies to help the civilians who have been the frequent targets of Russian attacks. In May, Congress approved a $40 billion aid package, which the Biden administration has been allocating as need arises.

Yet a number of Republicans have been opposed to the massive Ukraine aid packages provided by Congress since the Russian invasion on February 24. In April, 10 House lawmakers voted against legislation making it easier for the Pentagon to provide military gear to Kyiv. And a month later, when the House voted 358 to 57 to approve the $40 billion in new aid, all the opposition came from Republicans.

The critics have cited different reasons for their objections, arguing that bills will draw the U.S. further into the conflict, and taking issue with the fact that Congress was sending more money to Ukraine as Americans struggled with rising prices.

As the midterms approach, and Republicans are widely expected to win control of the lower chamber, some of those same GOP lawmakers are pledging to fight any new Ukrainian aid in the next Congress.

No more BILLIONS for Ukraine! Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) tweeted last week.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the former chair of the House Freedom Caucus, is sending a similar message. He has argued that the funds would be better spent securing the southern border rather than Ukraines border.

We are spending money we do not have and spending money on a conflict that does not advance our national interests, he wrote on Twitter last month.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is in line to become Speaker if Republicans win back the majority, is already pushing back, vowing to help Ukraine fend off Putins advances.

We continue to monitor whats going on there. We know what Russia has done is an atrocity, we do not want to see Putin win this atrocity going forward, he said Wednesday following Zelenskas speech.

We would always evaluate, we were very supportive of the last [bill], a number [of lawmakers] have been over there, he added. Well continue to work in a bipartisan manner to make sure Russia is not successful.

Even some Democrats said theyre optimistic that Congress would come together in a bipartisan way to provide more assistance  regardless of which party controls the gavel.

There are people on both the left and the right who dont support sending arms and material to Ukraine, but I think that theyre outliers on both sides, said Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.).

And if the Republicans took the House they would have their work cut out for them to make sure that the deeply misguided people in their caucus who think that Russia is our friend need to be pushed to the sidelines, she added.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
REDDICK  Detectives from the Marion County Sheriff's Office are seeking information from the public about the shooting death of a 23-year-old Gainesville man whose body was found Monday along a rural roadway in northwest Marion County, according to an MCSO press release.

Deputies responded to a report of a deceased person in the 15700 block of Northwest 41st Avenue at 10:15 a.m. Monday and found the body of Dequandre Alexander, who had sustained a gunshot wound, the release stated.

The area where the body was found is about a mile and a half west of U. S. 441 in a heavily wooded area about two blocks north of Northwest 155th Street on Northwest 41st Avenue.

Ocala courts: Four felony cases resolved; involved drugs, robbery and child sex offense

Sad case: Parents arrested in connection with child overdosing. Child is recovering.

Plea for leniency fails: 50-year prison term for Ocala landlord who fatally shot a tenant

Major Crimes detectives are asking anyone with information on the death to call Detective Nicholas Sutliff at 352-368-3546. To remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers of Marion County at 352-368-STOP (7867) and reference 22-39, the release stated.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Gainesville man's body found in rural NW Marion County, Florida
Dubai aims to be one of the top 10 cities globally in the metaverse economy, creating 40,000 virtual jobs and adding US$4 billion to the citys economy in five years.

See related article: Dubai could be cryptos promised land, Citi says

Fast facts

The launch of the Dubai Metaverse Strategy on Monday was aimed at fostering innovation in new technology, Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed said on his verified Twitter handle.

The Emirati state is home to over 1,000 companies operating in the metaverse and blockchain sector, contributing US$500 million to the national economy, he said.

The strategy entails increasing the number of blockchain and metaverse companies five-fold in five years, Bin Mohammed said.

Dubai also aims to develop metaverse use-cases and applications for its government, cultivating talent for the industry through education and training.

Dubai has been attracting cryptocurrency exchanges with its favorable regulatory environment and faster approvals for licenses.

See related article: Binance wins crypto license in Dubai days after FTX
An Indian restaurant in the United States is causing a massive buzz on Twitter after one user shared a screen shot of its menus attempt to westernize the names of Indian dishes.

The tweet, shared by user @Inika__ on Sunday, shows a screen shot of Indian Crepe Co.s menu, which consists of south Indian dishes such as sambar idli and sambar vada that have been renamed to Dunked Rice Cake Delight and Dunked Doughnut Delight.

Omfg, the Twitter user solely wrote in the caption of their tweet, which has already received more than 20,400 likes.

The other dishes highlighted in their post include a plain dosa, which the restaurant calls a Naked Crepe, and a masala dosa, which was named "Smashed Potato Crepe."

More from NextShark: BTS is TIME Magazine's 'Entertainer of the Year'

Another Twitter user, @Rapidsnail, commented on the tweet and shared two screen shots of the menu showing dosa and uttapam dishes, with their names whitewashed to Mr. Spicy Crepe and Baby Cocktail Pancake.

Some Twitter users expressed outrage at the restaurants attempt to westernize the names of popular Indian dishes.

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Why can't they use the original names? Others things can be given in explanation. Sushi is called sushi everywhere and not "Raw boneless fish chunks wrapped in celery, one user wrote.

More from NextShark: Meet the war hero who invented banana ketchup

Why can't they use the original names? Others things can be given in explanation. Sushi is called sushi everywhere and not "Raw boneless fish chunks wrapped in celery".  Vijayan (@IVijayan2) July 17, 2022

They whitewashed our dishes Im gon cry, another user wrote.

They whitewashed our dishes Im gon cry https://t.co/Isd2wPlLmF  ` (@TENSDlOR) July 18, 2022

If Indians can pronounce croissant and bouillabaisse, western people can pronounce dosa, medu wada and idli, another user said. Use the real names of these dishes.

If Indians can pronounce croissant and bouillabaisse, western people can pronounce dosa, medu wada and idli. Use the real names of these dishes. https://t.co/OPIpiP5T7W  brojack (@dontwannashar3) July 17, 2022

Besides the outrage sparked by the dishes names, some Twitter users found the menus prices to be over the top, with one user writing that the money spent on a plate of vada from the restaurant (around $16) could buy enough vada to feed their entire joint family in India.

Omfg is Rs1300 for a plate of Vada. For as much my whole joint family can eat Medu Vada in India.  Kashyap (@KashyapJaveri) July 18, 2022

Imagine telling a 99 variety dosa guy that theyre selling a masala dosa for 1500 Indian rupees (approximately $18), another user wrote.

imagine telling a 99 variety dosa guy that theyre selling a masala dosa for Rs.1500  sadi (@sadizzle) July 16, 2022

Featured Image via Sumitbanti (CC BY-SA 4.0)
West Tennessee officials met Monday at Lane College to take a step forward in the fight against community violence in Jackson  a rising problem over the last year.

Following numerous meetings hosted by District 2 City Councilmember Johnny Dodd to organize community response to the startling increase in local gun violence, a coalition named iCare  Community, Advocacy, Resilience and Empowerment compromised of law enforcement officers, civic leaders, government officials and clergy members will be hosting a summit in August to educate and rally the community.

The initiative originally started in Memphis with a group of community leaders, according to U.S. Attorney, Western District of Tennessee, Joseph Murphy Jr., who spoke at the event.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Murphy Jr. speaks at the ICare summit press conference.

This got started because my office had a meeting with clergy members in Memphis because I don't know if you've heard, but we've got a little bit of a problem with violence in Memphis, Murphy said. And we did some community outreach. we were all a little discouraged, and we decided we were going to do something.

The group originally settled on a wrap around event, where numerous topics of violence were addressed, and the turnout was amazing.

'Spread the conversation': Jackson residents, local leaders march against gun violence

We had the first one in November of last year, and we've had two more, and we've had as many as 200 people attend at a time, he said.

And then, the connection to Jackson  U.S. Marshal Tyreece Miller reached out, along with Dodd, to bring their work to the city.

Matthew Marshall of United Way, who also spoke at the event, described the move to bring the Memphis program into the community.

This, for us, began in the beginning of this year around January or February, and started with Councilman Dodd pulling together leaders from across the Jackson community to talk about the issues of community violence, he said. It's no secret that unfortunately we've seen an uptick in community violence. And so we began coming together at the leadership of Councilman Dodd to figure out how we could go about addressing these issues in Jackson.

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The program brings together the Seven Ps: pastors, politicians, parents, proprietors, policeman, principals and partners, and will give each of them an opportunity to voice their needs and aspirations at the August summit.

The reality is that the world is just beginning, Marshall said. We still have a long way to go to make Jackson what we all dream that it can be.

Murphy agreed.

(Violence) is a problem in West Tennessee, but it's not a problem that can't be solved, he said. We are not talking about changing the weather. We're not talking about changing the tides or eliminating hurricanes. We're talking about changing people. And that's what this is about.

Jackson has seen a rise in gun violence over the past year with multiple shootings in the area claiming a number of lives.

Jackson Police Chief Tom Corley called the rise stark and detailed the impact community policing can have on the area.

We're going out there, and we're trying to find, to solve (violence issues) before they begin, he said. But theyre here, and we could make 500 arrests or 1,000 arrests and it's still not going to change that cycle.

According to Corley, around 47 guns have been taken off the streets under the community policing initiative Blue Impact, which was rekindled in recent months after its push last year. The program will work hand in hand with the iCare initiative to further energize community involvement in safety.

It even took a lot of drugs off the street, as well, and 300 some-odd arrests or charges, he said. When we do that type of initiative, you know, it needs to be just a constant.

ICares summit will be held on Aug. 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Lane Colleges Chambers-McClure Academic Center. All Jackson-Madison County residents are welcome. Activities will include speakers and workshops on issues such as gang violence, educational impact, mental health issues and domestic violence. There will also be a childrens section.

Jackson City Councilman Johnny Dodd speaks to demonstrators about the rise in youth gun violence in the city, and his efforts to put a stop to it.

Dodd in particular is excited to see such forward momentum.

Sometimes it takes a while to organize, said Dodd.  I've been working on committees for several years, and I'm always, always been about the community and making the community better. So sometimes it takes a long time, but I hope that we can keep this organization together to do what's best."

Have a story to tell? Reach Angele Latham by email at alatham@gannett.com, by phone at 731-343-5212, or follow her on Twitter at @angele_latham.

This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: West Tennessee officials join forces to combat gun violence in Jackson
The Pentagon is sending four more rocket artillery launchers to Ukraine as its defense against Russia in the eastern part of the country continues in what has become an increasingly brutal war of attrition, the U.S. militarys top leaders said Wednesday.

The additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems will bring to 16 the number of long-range missile launchers provided to the Ukrainian military, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

The HIMARS systems can fire rockets with precision more than 40 miles and have been used to destroy Russian command posts and supply depots.

Russias war aims have been trimmed since mid-April after it abandoned its offensive against the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. President Vladimir Putin has redeployed Russian forces into eastern Ukraine and waged a war reliant on saturating towns and villages with tens of thousands of rockets per day, said Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Russia is keeping up its relentless shelling, and thats a cruel tactic that harkens back to the horrors of World War I, Austin said.

Other developments:

The U.S. House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday approved measures requiring the intelligence community to track Russian war crimes against Ukraine as part of the Intelligence Authorization Act. It will go on to both chambers of Congress for approval.

Despite focusing its war effort on the mineral-rich Donbas region, Russia has only gained 6 to 10 miles of Ukrainian territory since April, Milley said. He cited the "incredible cost in terms of Russian casualties and destroyed equipment."

Syria, one of Russia's closest allies, announced it is formally breaking diplomatic ties with Ukraine in response to a similar move by Kyiv.

The Biden administration is expected to announce more military aid for Ukraine later this week, said John Kirby, the White Houses National Security Council coordinator.

Ukrainian missiles struck and seriously damaged a key supply bridge for Russian troops in southern Ukraine, said the Moscow-backed administration for Russia-controlled southern Kherson. The bridge remained open for traffic.

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USA TODAY ON TELEGRAM: Join our Russia-Ukraine war channel to receive updates straight to your phone.

A Ukrainian serviceman speaks by radio at the frontline in the Kharkiv region on Wednesday.

Russia looking beyond Donbas region, state media reports

Russia's aims are now expanded beyond the eastern Donbas region in Ukraine, its foreign minister said Wednesday. Sergey Lavrov told Russian state media that its objectives will include areas of the south, including the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

But Ukrainian troops destroyed a bridge on Wednesday that is key for Russia to funnel troops into the south.

The U.S. warned earlier this week that the Kremlin was looking to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory, including Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, by installing proxy officials and holding "sham referenda."

EU looks to impose more sanctions on Russia

The European Union's 27 ambassadors saw a breakthrough Wednesday in their efforts to tighten extensive sanctions on Russia by backing new measures including bans on gold imports.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said this week that the most important thing is a ban on Russian gold, Moscows second-largest export industry after energy.

The EU also decided to grant 500 million euros to boost military aid to Ukraine.

'While Russia kills, America saves': Ukraine first lady thanks Congress

Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska addressed Congress on Wednesday, urging the U.S. to provide more weapons for her country's fight "for our shared values of human life."

Zelenska thanked the U.S. for the billions of dollars already committed since Russian troops rolled into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

"You help us and your help is very strong," Zelenska said. "While Russia kills, America saves, and you should know about it. We thank you for that."

Zelenska showed photos of children and families destroyed by Russia's unrelenting missile attacks on Ukraine's cities. She pleaded for more U.S. air defense weaponry to fend off the Russian military  "not to kill children in their strollers."

Zelenska met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday and President Joe Biden on Tuesday, who tweeted after their meeting, "First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska embodies the same tenacity and resilience as the country she hails from."

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden greet Olena Zelenska, spouse of Ukrainian's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

Ukrainians evacuated to Russia face hardships

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have been forced from Russian-controlled cities to Russia, stripped of their passports, subjected to interrogations and strip searches, and barred from returning to their homeland, U.S. and Ukrainian authorities say.

Both countries estimate that up to 2 million Ukrainians have been relocated to Russia. Russia says the refugees willingly accept humanitarian evacuations but Ukraine says it's a forced exodus and a war crime.

Europe to cut gas usage 15% amid Russian cutbacks

European nations should immediately cut natural gas use by 15% or face cold homes and struggling economies this winter, the European Commission recommended Wednesday.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that Russia is using gas as a weapon in its war with Ukraine and said the cutback was an "aspirational," voluntary goal that could become mandatory if gas supplies become too tight.

Russia, which has supplied about 40% of Europe's natural gas in recent years, already has been cutting back and Von der Leyen said thus far European nations have been making up for the shortfall with gas from other countries.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine live updates: US sending more rocket launchers to fight Russia
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  European Parliament Vice President Nicola Beer met with Taiwans leader Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday and called for China to open a mutual and respectful dialogue with the self-governing island democracy it claims as its own territory.

Beer emphasized Taiwans importance on a global scale and called for the island to be allowed to participate in the World Health Assembly and for the European Union to upgrade its representation in Taipei.

She reaffirmed support for Taiwans right to determine its own future amid Chinese threats to annex the island by force, saying Beijing should refrain from its threatening gestures and not destroy the islands prosperity.

Taiwan deserves to play this role as a global, strategic, responsible and reliable international partner to the full, Beer told Tsai.

Only the Taiwanese people can decide on Taiwanese future," Beer said, adding that China should take an active and constructive part in maintaining and securing the current status quo based on mutual and respectful dialogue."

In her comments, Tsai hailed growing economic relations between Taiwan and the EU and the passage of 20 resolutions in the European Parliament since the start of 2021 favorable to Taipei.

On behalf of the people of Taiwan, I would like to take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Vice President Beer, Tsai said.

Beer is one of 14 vice presidents of the European Parliament, whose members are elected from the EU's 27 member states and which exercises legislative, budgetary and oversight powers over the bloc's executive, the European Commission. Its members are known for taking independent stances on foreign relations, human rights and the environment.

Beer's visit is the latest in a series of increasingly active moves by European and American politicians to counter China's aggressive assertions of its global clout, including a relentless drive to isolate Taiwan diplomatically.

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Beijing cut off all contacts with Taipei following Tsai's initial 2016 election over her refusal to acknowledge that Taiwan is a part of China and her efforts to build an independent Taiwanese identity.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian condemned Beer's Taiwan visit and the European Parliament's adoption of pro-Taiwan resolutions.

This is a grave breach of the one-China principle and has poisoned the atmosphere for China-Europe relations," Zhao said, referring to China's insistence that Taiwan has no right to independent diplomatic recognition.

We urge the EU to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and be prudent on Taiwan-related issues so as to avoid serious disruptions to China-EU bilateral relations," Zhao told reporters.

China routinely threatens economic and diplomatic retaliation over such visits, although its actual response is often muted. One exception is Lithuania, from which China withdrew its ambassador and severed trade links after the Baltic nation broke with diplomatic custom by agreeing that a Taiwanese representative office in its capital of Vilnius  a de facto embassy  would bear the name Taiwan instead of Chinese Taipei, which other countries use to avoid offending Beijing.

At the same daily briefing, Zhao warned that China would take resolute and strong measures should the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi proceed with reported plans to visit Taiwan.

Pelosi, who is second in line to the presidency, is due to visit Taiwan in August, according to a report in the Financial Times.

She would be the highest-ranking American lawmaker to visit the close U.S. ally in 25 years.

A visit by Pelosi would severely undermine Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity, gravely impact the foundation of China-U.S. relations and send a seriously wrong signal to Taiwan independence forces, Zhao said, without offering details on what actions China might take.

The White House and State Department have issued no official statements on Pelosi's planned visit, which stands to further disrupt relations between Washington and Beijing that have deteriorated to their worst level in decades amid disputes over trade, China's human rights record, its support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
By Elizabeth Piper and Andrew MacAskill

LONDON (Reuters) - If it's not the pictures of her standing atop a tank in a nod to Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher, it's the meme-defining moment when she vented her anger over cheese imports into Britain that made Liz Truss something of a household name.

For many, she was a figure of fun, but for those in the governing Conservative Party choosing who should replace Boris Johnson, it is her conversion to passionate Brexit supporter and her offer of tax cuts that have propelled her to within touching distance of becoming Britain's next prime minister.

It also helps that she is not former finance minister Rishi Sunak, who some in the governing Conservative Party blame for triggering the rebellion against his boss, Johnson, and fear cannot beat the opposition Labour Party in the next election.

Truss, Britain's foreign secretary, will now take on Sunak after she made it to the final two in the race to become prime minister on Wednesday, recovering after a slow start and knocking out junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt.

She will face the party's around 200,000 members, and looks poised to win them over - ranking first in polls so far - to be appointed their new leader, and Britain's next prime minister, on Sept. 5.

Supportive lawmakers say Truss can govern from day one, with a plan to revive the economy by cutting 30 billion pounds ($36 billion) in taxes. Her robust stance on Russia, China and with Brussels over Brexit will also feature in the campaign.

Saying she is a true Conservative, she has dismissed Sunak, a long-term party member and former Goldman Sachs banker, as being a "socialist".

"Now is the time for boldness, not a business-as-usual approach," she said on Tuesday in a pointed reference to Sunak who has said he would not reduce taxes immediately.

JOURNEY

Truss's ascent to the top of the Conservative Party has been anything but straightforward.

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Born to parents she describes as "left-wing", her mother, a nurse and a teacher, and her father, a maths lecturer, took her on demonstrations against then Conservative prime minister Thatcher, now her political idol.

She criticised the monarchy when a member of the more centrist Liberal Democrats at the University of Oxford, and described her conversion to conservatism as a "rebellion" spurred by a belief that people "should succeed on merit".

A management consultant, she entered parliament in 2010.

Her early ministerial career was all but defined by a bizarre 2014 speech at the Conservative Party conference.

Stating that Britain imported two thirds of its cheese, she then declared angrily: "That. Is. A. Disgrace." A dramatic pause was met with a ripple of applause and the clip has become a much-used GIF and meme in Westminster and beyond.

Since entering the foreign office in September last year, Truss has been prolific in posting pictures of her endeavours -- from standing in Moscow's Red Square in a fur hat despite it being relatively warm to standing atop the tank in Estonia.

She has modelled herself as a strident critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but some fear her robust stance on Russia's war could ratchet up tensions to perilous levels.

At an encounter with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov just before Moscow invaded Ukraine, Truss was left embarrassed when he got her to deny Russian sovereignty over Rostov and Voronezh, two regions in the south of Russia, the Kommersant newspaper reported.

A British source said Truss had misheard during the meeting, calling it "classic Russian propaganda".

Truss has also warned China to learn lessons from the West's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and said Beijing would face consequences if it did not "play by the rules".

Even her supporters fear she could be too quick with opinions to be an effective diplomat, but for the contest, most Conservatives are more focused on matters closer to home.

WOODEN?

Her appeal, even her most reluctant supporters say, is that she is dynamic, a workaholic who is across the detail of policy. Others believe she can steady the ship after Johnson's turbulent three years in power.

Beyond tax cuts funded by more borrowing, Truss has said the debt incurred from the COVID-19 pandemic should be treated like a "war debt" and should be paid back over a longer period.

Sunak on Sunday criticised her plan as "a fairytale". Truss replied: "You cannot tax your way to growth."

But it is perhaps her stance on Brexit that had the biggest impact.

Despite voting to remain in the European Union at a 2016 referendum, Truss has taken a hard line over Northern Ireland trade, to the delight of eurosceptics and the dismay of Brussels which says it breaks international law.

Perhaps one of her biggest weaknesses is what one Conservative lawmaker describes as her not being the "most effective communicator", characterised as being a "bit wooden" by Ed Costelloe, chair of the group Conservative Grassroots.

At a debate, she admitted she might not be "the slickest presenter" but "when I say I'll do something, I do it".

($1 = 0.8351 pounds)

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Kate Holton and Alison Williams)
Reuters

Regions that rely on the Yangtze, China's longest river, are having to deploy pumps and cloud-seeding rockets as a long drought depletes water levels and threatens crops, and a heatwave is set to last another two weeks. The Yangtze's middle and lower reaches have faced temperatures in excess of 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) over the past month, with experts blaming climate change-induced variations in the western Pacific subtropical high, a major determinant of summer weather throughout east Asia. With the autumn harvest under threat, the agriculture ministry has deployed 25 teams to key regions to take action to protect crops, the Shanghai government's Guangming Daily newspaper reported.
STORY: Wildfires have broken out in several parts of Italy this week as temperatures keep rising.

Nine cities were on the country's highest heatwave alert, which warns of serious health risks linked to the weather, up from five on Tuesday. The total will rise to 14 on Thursday, including Rome, Milan and Florence.

Temperatures are expected to hit 104F across a swathe of the north and centre this week, as well as in the southern heel of Italy's boot, Puglia, and the islands of Sardinia and Sicily.

On Wednesday, in Tuscany, a fire that broke out on Monday evening continued to burn near the town of Lucca, having already destroyed some 560 hectares (2.15 square miles) of woods.

It forced around 500 people to evacuate as the flames raged through the night reaching some villages and causing the explosion of some liquified gas tanks, the region's governor Eugenio Giani said on Twitter. "Some fronts have strengthened because of the wind," he added.

In the northeastern Friuli Venezia Giulia region, residents were urged to stay indoors because of heavy smoke from a wildfire that started on Tuesday in the Carso area bordering Croatia and Slovenia.

The fire prompted state-owned shipbuilder Fincantieri to close down its plant in the port city of Monfalcone.
The first full trailer for House of the Dragon, HBOs prequel series to Game of Thrones, has finally arrived.

Set 200 years before the events of the original series, House of the Dragon promises all the carnage, magic and political infighting Game of Thrones is known for. HBO released a teaser in May, but the nearly three-minute trailer below is almost twice as long.

Featuring Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen and Emma DArcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, the trailer arrives mere days before cast members are set to appear at San Diego Comic-Con for a House of The Dragon panel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The dream, it was clearer than a memory, whispers Daemon Targaryen in the trailer. When I heard the sound of thundering hooves, splintering shields and ringing swords, and I placed my hand upon the iron throne, and all the dragons roared as one.

With Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martins 700-page Fire & Blood as the source material, and showrunners Miquel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal at the helm, House of the Dragon will chronicle the power struggles of House Targaryen amid a civil war.

I was a fan of these books for 20 years, Condal told The Hollywood Reporter. I was a fan of Game of Thrones  I watched the pilot the night it aired on HBO and every episode after. You cant follow Thrones, its The Beatles.

It hasnt eluded either showrunner that House of the Dragon has a massive challenge in the shadow of the most popular TV series of the last 20 years.

Im setting out as a fan to make the thing I want to see, and Im happy with what weve achieved, said Condal. The Targaryens are like the Jedi in Star Wars, where you heard about this time when they were plentiful and powerful and always wanted to see that. And now you get to.

Whether the series will win back fans disappointed in the last season of Game of Thrones remains to be seen. Martin, who revealed in April on his blog that he had seen rough cuts of a few House of the Dragon episodes, believes it will.

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Those of you who like complex, conflicted, grey characters (as I do) will like the series, I think, the author wrote. There will be plenty of dragons and battles, to be sure, but the spine of the story is the human conflicts, the love and the hate, character drama rather than action/adventure.

Starring Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen and Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, House of the Dragon premieres on HBO on Aug. 21.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
First Lady Jill Biden visited a New Haven summer camp Wednesday alongside U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to kick off their national summer learning tour.

Horizons at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven was the first of three stops on Biden and Cardonas tour that aims to highlight how funding from President Joe Bidens American Rescue Plan has broadened summer learning opportunities for students to catch up on education lost during the pandemic.

I wanted to come see your program because your president cared so much about what happened to you during the pandemic when you were all home and learning on Zoom, Biden said to a crowd of Horizons students. A lot of us missed a lot of time and a lot of days at school.

Gov. Ned Lamont and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker joined Biden and Cardona for the tour of the summer program where they read books, participated in a Lego engineering activity and met with students, parents and teachers.

Funded by a state grant financed by the American Rescue Plan Act, Horizons at Albertus Magnus College opened during the summer of 2021, joining a national network of more than 70 Horizons programs in 20 states.

Horizons provides six-weeks of educational and developmental enrichment for 46 New Haven and Hamden public school students entering first, second and third grade. Horizons is tuition-free and only serves students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

Horizons National has worked to prevent summer learning loss for more than 25 years, but challenges in youth education brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have expanded this mission.

Weve always seen in the summertime, the gaps grow academically and opportunity-wise between higher income students and low income students who just dont have those opportunities. COVID turbocharged that, Aaron Dwokin, CEO of the National Summer Learning Association, said. Were putting in all this investment to not just bring kids back academically, but also socially and emotional and health-wise.

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According to Horizons National, students fell an estimated four months behind on math and five months behind on reading skills due to the pandemic. Students from low-income and hard-hit districts suffered even greater losses. Those students are now reading at an average of seven months behind, Horizons National said. Their programming hopes to change that.

Our students at Horizons gain six to 10 weeks of reading and math skills every summer, Lorna Smith, CEO of Horizons National said. This funding has helped us start new programs and increase the number of students that can be served. Its been a tremendous boost, but we need a lot more to do a lot more.

Sue Shaw, the interim executive director of Horizons at the Foote School in New Haven, met the First Lady along with a handful of eighth graders from the sister program. She said that Horizons is critical.

For our students it means the difference between a summer of learning loss and success, Shaw said.

Jacqueline Taylor told Biden and Cardona that the Horizons location at Albertus Magnus College holds extra meaning for her and her 6-year-old son Bryce. Taylor is an alum now pursuing her masters degree at the school. She said that she is thankful that at Horizons, Bryce can see the educational future thats waiting for him.

He always says, Mom I go to the same school as you, Taylor told the First Lady. This is college, you dont have to be afraid. This is what learning looks like.

Taylor said that after being away from his peers during the pandemic, she has loved seeing Bryces confidence grow as he excels in academics and learns to swim through Horizons.

Hes excelling very well, hes always ready to learn. Taylor said. COVID has taken a toll on a lot of people and a lot of children with learning  but theyre coming along.

Contact Alison Cross at across@courant.com
The first openly gay mayor of a small Oklahoma town has quit after saying he had faced malicious threats and harassments.

Adam Graham, who was elected mayor of The Village in May, told the city manager in an open resignation letter that he had been targeted in coffee shops and while walking his dog.

Unfortunately, these malicious bad-faith attacks are escalating and I no longer feel safe to serve in my capacity as mayor, he wrote.

Its with a heavy heart that I tender my resignation effective immediately.

In the last month, Ive been followed home from meetings, threatened while walking my dog, harassed at Starbucks and had my tires slashed.

City officials confirmed his resignation had been accepted.

Mr Graham, 29, was elected to the City Council in the town of just over 9,000 residents in 2019.

In his resignation letter, Mr Graham referred to a 28 May incident where he was pulled over by two officers from the neighbouring town of Nichols Hills for allegedly speeding.

Bodycam footage of the encounter showed a tense exchange between Mr Graham and the police officers, in which he told the officers to get out, and said they couldnt pull over cars in his town.

Mr Graham claimed he had stood up against Nichols Hills Police targeting The Village residents.

Nichols Hills Police chief Steven Cox told The Oklahoman he had not heard from Mr Graham about the traffic stop.

Adam Graham has quit as mayor of Oklahoma town The Village over homophobic threats (Adam4TheVillage)

Mr Cox and The Villages police captain Matt Butcher both said they were unaware of any threats towards Mr Graham.

A Democrat in a deeply red state, Mr Graham had pledged to try to ban conversion therapy within city limits and improve transportation and public parks.

According to an online profile, Mr Graham now works as a political consultant. He said in his letter he plans to continue to be an active private citizen.

LGBTQ Victory Institute spokesman Albert Fuji told NBC News that Mr Graham had been a fierce LGBTQ leader in Oklahoma.

We are devastated  and angry  that he faced harassment and threats to the point he no longer feels safe serving in public office, Mr Fuji said.
Passengers and flight attendants aboard a flight from LaGuardia Airport bound for Kansas City International Airport on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 in Queens, NY. Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

A flight attendant says the current travel chaos has led to some crew members calling out.

Others are switching to other airlines that pay better leaving some flights short-staffed, George Connelly, told Insider.

Shortages or delays on one flight impact others.

As flight cancellations and delays continue, a flight attendant said he's noticed cabin crew members react to a chaotic travel season.

"As a collective we're voluntarily dropping shifts, not coming to work, because we just don't wanna deal with any of that stuff, " George Connelly, a flight attendant with Spirit Airlines, told Insider, referring to extensive air travel disruptions this summer. "Which actually, compounds the problem because now they're having to call reserve crew members who may take two, three hours to get to the airport."

Delays on one flight have impacted others. In one instance, Connelly said his flight was delayed on the tarmac for two hours because there was only one ground crew to deboard five flights that landed within an hour of each other at nearby gates at Chicago's international airport.

"It's just, there's no way to get it done in a reasonable timeframe," he said.

Internationally, airlines have faced labor shortages amid a surge in travelers this summer. Thousands of flights have been canceled or delayed last month alone, and in some cases, travelers have had their flights rebooked from different countries. Baggage has been lost and or placed on charter flights just to get luggage to its right destination.

Experts previously told Insider that while the shortage crisis differs from airline to airline, staff shortages across the airline industry existed before the pandemic and were worsened as employees were furloughed or fired as travel significantly decreased during the pandemic.

Last month, Airlines like American had to suspend about 100 regional routes due to a lack of pilots. In April, the Department of Transportation received 637 complaints against Spirit airlines, mostly for delays or cancellations. That same month, Spirit flight attendants protested at airports in Dallas, Las Vegas, and Orlando over staff shortages and flight cancellations.

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The Association of Flight Attendants, which represents these workers, said in April that the labor shortage meant there weren't enough flight attendants to handle these cancellations, and many flight attendants were stranded in airports for hours or overnight.

Connelly told Insider that the labor shortages are impacting airline and airport staff like baggage crews and fuelers. Last month, a pilot for a European airline blamed the travel chaos on a shortage of air traffic controllers and airport staff. Some pilots have been recorded helping baggage crew members load luggage to help move along delayed flights. If conditions don't improve  further extending air travel disruptions to t crew and attendants  cancellations could worsen, Connelly said.

"People are just having to pitch in wherever they can," he said, adding that he's heard of instances where people in various roles have helped out doing things not normally assigned to their role. However, as flight attendants, he said the FAA prohibits them from leaving the aircraft during the boarding process so there's not a lot else they could do to assist.

'A lot of turnover'

When it comes to flight attendants calling out or switching jobs, he said the issue goes back to management. Connelly said he's seen flight attendants from low-budget airlines that tend to pay less switch to work for larger airlines like Delta and American, which pay more.

"So it has been a lot of turnover," he said.

Connelly said it's rare that a flight has to be canceled because of a lack of cabin crew, but in the future, more flights could be canceled because there are not enough flight attendants for a flight to take off.

"If nothing changes then in the next couple months to a year, you're going to see a lot more cancellations for the crew," Connelly said.

As the travel chaos continues, Connelly advised flyers to book their flights days in advance, though there's no guarantee as flights can be canceled midflight.

"I think that they can go into it not expecting a whole lot," Connelly said, referring, in particular, to families who have booked trips or cruises. "I would just tell 'em to expect the unexpected as cliche as that sounds."

Read the original article on Insider
A Florida jury found Tesla Inc 1 per cent negligent in the death of an 18-year-old man whose Model S sedan slammed into a concrete wall after the cars speed limiter had been deactivated (REUTERS)

A Florida jury found that Tesla Inc was 1 per cent responsible in the death of a teenager who crashed a Model S sedan into a concrete wall after the electric cars speed limiter had been deactivated.

Barrett Riley, 18, and his father James Riley, were found to be 99 per cent responsible for the teens death, the verdict from the federal Fort Lauderdale jury ruled Tuesday in what lawyers for the family described as the first trial against the electric-car maker over an accident involving one of their vehicles.

In the case, the parents of Barrett, Mr Riley and Jenny, sought to prove that the electric-car giant was responsible for the 8 May 2018 death of their son, alleging that it was the Model Ss batteries that caused the car to ignite after Barrett lost control of the vehicle from speeding around a curve where the posted speed limit was 25mph (40mph) at 116 mph (187kph) and crashing into a concrete wall.

Mr Riley argued in the case that Barrett and another teenage victim, 18-year-old Edgar Monserratt Martinez, had both initially survived the crash but had later died after the car burst into flames.

Attorneys representing the Rileys also argued during the proceedings that a Tesla technician had, without the consent of the owner of the Model S sedan, Mr Riley, disabled the speed limiter which had been installed at the parents request to keep the car from going above 85mph (137kph).

In the opening arguments of the trial, Curtis Miner, the attorney representing the Rileys, told a jury that billionaire chief executive Elon Musk had personally told Mr Riley during a phone call after the May 2018 accident that the technicians for his company shouldnt have removed the device from the vehicle that was intended to cap its speed without the consent of the cars owner.

Well, I guess we shouldnt have taken the limiter off, Mr Riley said Mr Musk told him when he took the witness stand earlier this month to testify against Tesla, according to Fortune.

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Lawyers for the electric-car maker, however, countered Mr Miners narrative, arguing that the speed limiter wouldnt have made a difference in the deadly 2018 car crash.

A speed limiter is not a safety device, Vince Galvin, the attorney representing Tesla said during the opening arguments. Is it all right if they crash at 85mph instead of 116mph?

The lawyers for the tech giant strived to further distance the company from responsibility for the crash, contending that the teen had tricked the Tesla staff to disable the speed limiter.

Tesla is not in a position to police the Rileys children, Mr Galvin said. The Tesla attorney also disputed the contents of the phone call that allegedly occurred between Mr Riley and Musk, stating that if the CEO had admitted to the company being at fault, this wouldve come up during the fathers interview with the National Transportation Safety Board, but instead he disclosed nothing.

Ultimately, the jury sided with placing a lions share of the blame on Barrett, who investigators had noted had a history of problematic driving, which included receiving a speeding ticket just two months before the fiery crash for going 112mph (180kph).

In addition to Barrett, the jury also placed 9 per cent of the negligence on the father.

The jury awarded Mr Riley and Mrs Riley a respective $4.5m and $6m of damages for pain and suffering, which the judge noted could be reduced based on the negligence findings.

Though it was not at issue in the Rileys case, the Autopilot feature on Teslas has recently fuelled lawsuits and regulatory probes over crashes involving the feature.

Most recently, a California family retained a prominent personal injury law firm to represent them in the wake of a crash that left two dead after their 2015 Tesla slammed into the back of a freight truck near Gainesville, Florida.

We are in the very early stages of our investigation to determine what caused this deadly collision and have requested Tesla preserve all evidence related to this matter, the firm said, according to NBC.

The Florida Highway Patrol released a statement earlier this month stating that they were still unclear about what caused the crash and could not confirm whether the electric-cars self-driving system was engaged at the time.
Somalia Danab brigade commandos climb a fence to get to a Jubba Airlines aircraft that crash-landed July 18, 2022, at Mogadishu International Airport, Mogadishu, Somalia. Three 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade soldiers from Fort Bragg helped first responders care for 16 injured passengers.

SOMALIA  A medical training exercise shifted into real-world application Monday for Fort Bragg soldiers as a passenger airplane crashed in front of them in Mogadishu, Somalia, according to an Army news release.

The soldiers are deployed to Somalia under the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa to train, advise and assist African partner militaries.

They are part of the Maneuver Adviser Team 2231, which is working with the Somali National armys Danab Brigade to support the Danab Brigades mission to conduct offensive operations against violent extremist organizations

According to the news release, the soldiers were medically training a platoon of Somalias Danab commandos when a Jubba Airlines airplane with about 30 passengers crashed at about 10:30 a.m. Monday at the nearby Mogadishu International Airport.

The commandos and Fort Bragg soldiers rushed into action climbing a razor-wire fence to reach the plane, which skidded to a halt upside down just meters from their training location, according to the news release.

As the Danab commandos rushed toward the aircraft to pull injured passengers, Fort Bragg soldiers Sgt. 1st Class Caleb Vanvoorhis, Staff Sgt. JoAnna Baxter and Staff Sgt. Taylor Palmer established a triage area and helped local emergency responders evacuate 16 injured passengers to nearby medical facilities.

Three Fort Bragg soldiers with the 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade help first responders and Somalia Danab brigade commandos care for injured passengers, after a Jubba Airlines aircraft crash-landed Monday, July 18, 2022, at Mogadishu International Airport in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Leaders of the Fort Bragg brigade said they are proud of the reactions of the three soldiers and the Danab commandos.

Fort Bragg:Security Forces Assistance Command welcomes new leadership to Fort Bragg

Their combined actions demonstrated the agility, quick thinking and decisive action that is essential to the advisor mission, Lt. Col. Sean Nolan, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade, said in the release.

Col. Michael Sullivan, commander of the 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade, keyed in on the commandos reaction to the crisis.

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Our soldiers supported their response, which was highly professional and demonstrates the value of our commitment to long-term security cooperation efforts in the region, Sullivan said.

Somali first responders extinguish a fire on a Jubba Airlines aircraft Monday, July 18, 2022, at Mogadishu International Airport, Mogadishu, Somalia. Three 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade soldiers from Fort Bragg helped first responders care for 16 injured passengers.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fort Bragg soldiers help rescue injured passengers in Africa
This is the U.S. Marshals Office, an agent says outside of a North Carolina home. We have a warrant for your arrest. Come out with your hands up.

Those are the words heard by fugitives in the Carolinas before theyre surrounded by deputy marshals and local law enforcement officers and then taken into custody. For the dozens of wanted criminals in the area, the U.S. Marshals Office says its just a matter of time before theyre behind bars.

A task force of deputy marshals and officers from police and sheriff departments have been working to apprehend wanted criminals in North Carolina and South Carolina for months. The task force is revealing the effects of their efforts after wrapping up this week.

We are excited to finally share a story weve been working on for the last few weeks. We spent a week with the US Marshals Carolinas Regional Task Force as they went after dangerous criminals in our area. #FugitiveFinders is ahead on @wsoctv at 5 pm. pic.twitter.com/2ObkNIITO5  Genevieve Curtis (@GenevieveonTV) July 20, 2022

Channel 9s Genevieve Curtis got full access with the task force for seven days as they worked through Gaston and York counties.

Operation Washout was the task forces first joint operation after the Carolinas Regional Task Force was created by US Congress in 2018. The task force has one purpose: catching violent offenders in the Carolinas.

MORE: Federal fugitive task force tracks most dangerous criminals in Charlotte

The criminals targeted by the marshals include people wanted for murder, drug trafficking, and sex crimes. Some of the fugitives have already been convicted, while others are accused of skipping bail and going on the run before facing their charges.

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These arent just one-offs, said Cmdr. Brian Alfano with the US Marshals Office. These are people that have multiple warrants, multiple violations or crimes of violence. The problem is, theyre not going to stop.

Five specialized teams consisted of deputy marshals, local law enforcement, the State Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and state troopers. They chased down leads and watched their targets before moving in to make the arrests.

READ: Gang member, 2 others arrested in Gaston County for possessing 2 kilos of meth

In Gaston County, one team was looking for Floyd Wright, who was wanted for trafficking methamphetamine and having a stolen gun.

Hes armed, hes always armed in all of the deals weve done, Alfano said.

Police say Wright had threatened to kill any law enforcement officers trying to arrest him.

Hed always brag about, When the cops come, Im going to shoot them, Alfano said. Hes got a lengthy history, a lot of assaults, a bunch of weapons charges; hes not a nice guy.

Spotted in Gaston County

Channel 9 was with the team as they went to a property where Wright was suspected to be. When the moment was right, the task force team moved in and quickly surrounded the property, shouting, Show me your hands, as they opened the door.

Within 10 minutes, Wright was in custody. The officers executed a search warrant at the property and found a sawed-off shotgun and a gun that was reportedly stolen. Both of those guns could result in federal charges.

Elsewhere in Gaston County, a team moved slowly and methodically through the woods to a tent.

Their target: a child sex offender. The marshals say their mission is to get to dangerous criminals before they strike again.

FUGITIVE FINDERS:

We all live here, Alfano said. Its a big reason why a lot of the members of this task force take violent crime and surge of violent crime so personal; because we live here, too, right? Were raising our families here as well.

RELATED: Violent crime, property crimes on the rise in Charlotte

According to the US Attorneys Office, a total of 91 suspects were taken into custody during the operation. But Alfano says there are always more to be found.

>>Watch Channel 9s LIVE STREAM wherever you are, at this link.

Oh, we dont stop. Doesnt matter where you go ... where you think you can hide. Were going to find you and you will go to jail, Alfano said.

(WATCH BELOW: N.Y. fugitive found in Charlotte; arrested by U.S. Marshals)




WASHINGTON  A Justice Department memo suggests Donald Trump won't face any federal indictment over the insurrection Jan. 6, 2021, before the election in November, legal analysts said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland reminded U.S. Department of Justice officials that extra steps are required before action can be taken in politically sensitive cases during the fall election season  and unprecedented charges against a former president would qualify.

Legal analysts said Garland restated a long-standing policy that discourages the announcement of investigations or indictments of major political figures on the cusp of elections because it could be construed as interference.

In the memo May 25, Garland:

Cited policies "governing the opening of criminal and counter-intelligence investigations by the Department, including its law enforcement agencies, related to politically sensitive individuals and entities," especially during campaigns.

The Trump investigations: Inquiries set to accelerate in coming weeks: Where they stand

The Jan. 6 committee:For the first time, panel alleges Trump, others engaged in criminal conspiracy to overturn election

Did not mention Trump or any other politician who may be under investigation. Justice Department officials who charged hundreds of people for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, haven't said whether their investigation touches on Trump specifically.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland cautioned Justice Department officials about bringing charges in politically sensitive cases before an election.

Reminded officials they are subject to the federal Hatch Act, which "generally prohibits Department employees from engaging in partisan political activity while on duty, in a federal facility, or using federal property."

Takeaways: Garland reminded prosecutors that they need extra approvals for cases involving political figures in the weeks leading up to an election.

What they're saying:

Anti-Trump commentators cast the memo  first reported by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow  as an excuse for inaction against Trump. The Maddow Blog says the memo "doubles down" on the policy of Trump-era Attorney General Bill Barr "against investigating candidates without approval."

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NEW: May 25, 2022 Merrick Garland memo to DOJ on "election year sensitivities" doubles down on Barr's policy against investigating candidates without approval. pic.twitter.com/KIQZMB34Qi  Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) July 19, 2022

Attorneys, including Trump critics, noted that the caution makes sense because the department wants to avoid the perception of politically motivated investigations.

In a video posted on Twitter, former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., a former federal prosecutor, described the Garland guidance as "a reaffirmation of what has been Justice Department policy for a long, long time."

Lots of chatter about the leaked May 25th Garland memo to DOJ personnel. Heres my take https://t.co/Tg4B2IWsWp  Doug Jones (@DougJones) July 19, 2022

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti tweeted, "Yes, Garland extends Barrs instruction that investigations of presidential candidates and their senior aides must be cleared by the AG. That would typically happen in any event."

Mariotti said, "Although that is not explicitly stated in the policy, I agree that we are unlikely to see an indictment of Trump or his associates before November." He added, "I dont consider Garlands memo to be a significant change from DOJ policy before Bidens presidency."

Bottom line: Few people expect the Justice Department to indict Trump in the weeks before the November midterm election.

Bear in mind:

As in previous guidance, the Garland memo does not foreclose all investigative action. It only calls for more consultation before moving forward in a politically sensitive case.

Garland's guidance applies to the federal Department of Justice, not to law enforcement officials in Georgia.

An Atlanta-based grand jury is investigating Trump's attempts to pressure state election officials to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden in Georgia.

The Georgia story:Atlanta-area DA weighs whether to call Trump to testify before grand jury in election fraud probe

Bottom line: The Garland memo tells employees that "we must be particularly sensitive to safeguarding the Department's reputation for fairness, neutrality, and non-partisanship."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Garland memo to DOJ lays out steps for "politically sensitive" cases
Assyrian People Must Resist in Order to Survive

Nabil Warda, the spokesman for the Assyrian Khabour Guards in Syria. Last Friday, the leadership of the Syrian Democratic Forces warned, during a press conference, the Turkish army that it would confront the forces of all Syrians if it attempted to occupy new Syrian areas, and the forces confirmed that they are fully prepared to confront it.

In the same context, the spokesman for the Khabour Guards, Nabil Warda, indicated that the threats and attacks of the Turkish occupation state on the Syrian lands and the general Syrian people, including the Assyrian component, have existed since the emergence of ISIS mercenaries, and their goal is to displace the Syrians from their land, and said, "Since 2015, the Turkish occupation threatens the existence of the Assyrian people, and aims to end it through their attacks on the Assyrian areas with different methods and tools.

He explained that the forces of the Assyrian Khabur Guard are fully prepared to repel any attacks on northern and eastern Syria, "We will stand in the face of the attacks by various means, and we confirm that our readiness at this stage is the opposite of what it was before, and we will remain side by side with all the forces.

Warda stressed that the people of the region and all the forces affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces are concerned with defending it, "Our duty is to respond, as we are defenders of our land in the face of the invaders who are trying to occupy it, so it is the responsibility of all components to defend the region, and all forces must see themselves responsible. About defending under the banner of SDF.

Warda pointed to the movements of the forces of the Khabur Guards Council, in addition to standing in the trenches in preparation to respond to the attacks at this sensitive stage, saying, "We have tours among our Assyrian people, to inform them of the latest situation. We always stress survival and resistance, because this stage is the the last supposition of the Assyrian people to stay on this land.

And if we cannot withstand the occupation and its mercenaries, then the Assyrian people are heading for annihilation in the region, so our Assyrian people must sacrifice for their survival on this land."

A spokesman for the Khabur Guards, Nabil Warda, sent a message to the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries, saying: "We will make Tal Tamr a cemetery for the occupation and its mercenaries."
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany, faced with labour shortages that are contributing to soaring inflation, plans reforms to its immigration system to make itself more attractive to skilled workers who currently lean towards other rich countries, ministers said.

Labour Minister Hubertus Heil and Interior Ministry Nancy Faeser wrote in an article for business newspaper Handelsblatt that they wanted to turn Germany into an immigration destination.

"If we want to attract clever people, we have to offer them more than just simpler processes," they wrote.

"We're competing in the search for skilled labour with countries like the United States, Canada and Australia. We're talking good jobs, jobs with collective wage bargaining."

Europe's largest economy's need for skilled labour continues unabated, exacerbated by the country's ageing population. In June, almost 40% of employers in the engineering sector experienced shortages, economic research institute Ifo said.

Competition for skilled labour has intensified around the world, especially in industries where the COVID-19 pandemic has normalised home working, leading to narrowing wage differentials between wealthy and emerging economies.

German politicians hope the country's strong labour protections and human rights laws can help to attract skilled foreign workers.

"Germany has for a long time struggled to make itself visible as an immigration country," said Misbah Khan, migration policy specialist and member of parliament for the Green party, which is part of the centre-left coalition government. "Our strong civic rights are an important plus point."

Legislation announced last week will allow migrants already in Germany more time to find a job, but the two ministers said they wanted to go further to attract people from outside the EU who do not have an automatic right to work in the bloc.

Among the promised changes is a measure allowing industry trade associations to recognise foreign qualifications, sparing applicants the lengthy process usually needed to check their equivalence with Germany's certifications.

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The ministers wrote that other countries do not have this hurdle. "Qualified workers steer wide of Germany," they said.

Recognition by a trade association would entitle people coming to Germany from overseas to a one-year visa to look for a job, they said.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt, editing by Rachel More and Jane Merriman)
US Vice President Mike Pence presides over a joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes for President at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 6, 2021. (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Mike Pence was praised for his courage in certifying the 2020 election results and urged to run for president in a private meeting of House Republicans, a report says.

The former vice president was thanked for his actions on January 6 by Rep Chip Roy of Texas at a meeting of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus.

Mr Roy stood and thanked Mr Pence for his courage and standing for the Constitution and certifying Joe Bidens election win over Donald Trump, Rep French Hill of Arkansas told NBC News.

Mr Hill said that the comments received sustained applause in the meeting.

I commend Vice President Pence for standing for the Constitution and doing his duty under duress, Mr Hill said.

Other GOP lawmakers heaped praise on Mr Pence as they left the meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on Wednesday.

Let me just say the vice president is a real moral force. Hes a real true leader and hes earned the respect of Republicans and other Americans all over this country, said Rep. Andy Barr, of Kentucky.

Rep Don Bacon, of Nebraska, told reporters after the meeting that people were encouraging him in there to run for the White House.

Mr Trump is a favourite among Republicans to secure the partys nomination in 2024, despite expected competition from Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

Neither Mr Trump nor Mr Pence has yet confirmed they will be running in two years.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida at a hearing on Capitol Hill on March 10, 2022. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

GOP Sen. Marco Rubio told Insider he wouldn't vote for a bill to codify same-sex marriage into law.

"I know plenty of gay people in Florida that are pissed off about gas prices," he quipped.

He says the legality of same-sex marriage is a "non-issue" but believes states should decide marriage laws.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida told Insider on Wednesday that he would not vote to codify same-sex marriage at the federal level, calling it a "non-issue."

"I don't know why we're doing that bill, there's no threat to its status in America," he told Punchbowl News reporter Christian Hall when asked about the Respect for Marriage Act. "But I know plenty of gay people in Florida that are pissed off about gas prices."

The bipartisan bill, which passed the House on Tuesday with 47 Republicans joining every Democrat in favor, would write protections for both same-sex and interracial marriage into law.

Six Republicans from Florida voted for the bill, including Reps. Kat Cammack, Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez, Brian Mast, Maria Elvira Salazar, and Mike Waltz.

Asked whether he supported same-sex marriage generally, Rubio punted again.

"States decide marriage laws, they always have," he said. "It's why you can get married in Las Vegas by an Elvis impersonator in two hours."

Insider then asked Rubio why he wouldn't say clearly which way he'd vote.

"I'm not voting for that bill, what do you mean I won't say how I'll vote?" he said, calling the bill a "waste of our time on a non-issue."

Rubio is up for re-election this year and is expected to face Democrat Val Demings in the state's US Senate race.

Asked for clarification on Rubio's comments, his communications director Dan Holler pointed out that the Florida Republican has been consistent in his position on the issue.

"I don't think the current Constitution gives the federal government the power to regulate marriage," Rubio said on "Meet The Press" in December 2015. "That belongs at the state and local level."

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The push to codify same-sex marriage into federal law comes after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, revoking the right to an abortion at the federal law.

Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion that the court "should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell"  referring to three landmark decisions regarding the right to access contraception, anti-sodomy laws, and same-sex marriage.

Read the original article on Business Insider
P&O Ferries were suspended after the company sacked 800 workers

The government has admitted P&O Ferries was used by the military - despite widely condemning the firm for sacking nearly 800 staff without notice.

The Department for Transport cancelled a contract with P&O after it conducted a review of government business with P&O, after the sackings in March.

The Ministry of Defence said it used P&O to support a recent exercise.

It came after the RMT transport union said it saw evidence the MoD had bought slots on P&O's Dover-Calais service.

In March, P&O replaced its sacked staff with foreign agency workers paid less than the minimum wage.

Its services were suspended after the mass sackings and several of the company's vessels failed safety inspections before being cleared to resume operating.

The reduced ferry capacity was one factor in long lorry queues building up around Dover before Easter.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps accused P&O at the time of "acting like pirates of the high sea" and initiated a review of the government's contracts - which led to the termination of a contract between the Home Office and P&O Ferries.

The Department for Transport said that P&O was not providing any direct services to the government. It later said it could not rule out the possibility government departments would use P&O services on an ad-hoc basis.

It has now emerged that the Ministry of Defence used P&O Ferries while air transport was busy supporting Ukraine.

Responding to the military's use of P&O, a government spokesperson said: "We do not have any contracts with P&O.

"The Ministry of Defence occasionally require specific logistics operations to support national and international security arrangements.

"P&O Ferries are the provider of last resort in such situations, on an exceptional basis only," the spokesperson added.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch described the MoD's use of P&O services as "new low, even by this zombie government's sinkhole standards".

He urged the government to issue a statement prohibiting public contracts with P&O Ferries and its parent company DP World.
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's parliament has banned "sex-normalising" surgeries on babies born intersex, with atypical chromosomes that affect their bodies in a way that does not fit with the normative definitions of male or female.

Under a new law approved by parliament on Tuesday, surgeries that seek to ensure a child ascribes to traditional notions of male and female on people under the age of 15 years are banned in Greece, unless there is a court decision stating otherwise.

The bill stipulates fines and a prison term for doctors conducting such surgery.

Operations, including corrective surgeries or hormonal therapies to change face or body characteristics, on intersex people over the age of 15 years will be permitted if the teenagers consent, according to the law.

Rinio Simeonidou, mother of an intersex teenager and secretary general of Intersex Greece, told parliament before the vote that the approval of the bill would be "a truly historic moment for all intersex children in Greece" and a good start in eliminating violations of intersex people's rights.

Malta, Portugal and Germany have already banned such surgeries, which in the past have led intersex people to sterilization, loss of sexual sensation, psychosomatic trauma and health problems, Simeonidou said.

Earlier this year, Greece banned so-called conversion therapy for minors, practices aimed at suppressing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity and which health experts have condemned as psychologically harmful and unethical.

"I was truly saddened by the mistakes of the past that led to dramatic situations because we were lacking the knowledge and courage," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who faces elections next year, told parliament before the vote as he urged lawmakers to endorse the legislation.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The long-time financial chief of former President Donald Trump's namesake real estate company is expected to plead guilty in New York on Thursday in a tax fraud case, a person familiar with matter said. Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg could be required to testify against the company, which is also charged in the case, the person said. A spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Weisselberg and a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization.
This years policy bill for the intelligence community focuses heavily on Russias war in Ukraine, establishing a coordinator to track Russian war crimes and directing agencies to focus on Russian and Chinese efforts across the globe.

The House Intelligence Committee approved the bill, the Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA), by voice vote Wednesday morning, leaving it awaiting consideration by the full House.

The war in Ukraine has demonstrated the immense contribution the Intelligence Community can make to our national security and to our allies, and this years IAA ensures we will be ready for the next crisis as well, committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in a statement.

The bill establishes a Russian atrocities coordinator who will be tasked with identifying and disseminating intelligence about potential Russian war crimes. The direction comes as the International Criminal Court is eyeing bringing its first case against Russia as soon as this winter, according to reporting from Bloomberg on Wednesday.

The bill also calls for a review of the U.S. response to the war in Ukraine and continued monitoring of any Chinese support for Russian efforts there.

This includes any steps taken by China to help Russia evade the full weight of global sanctions or to provide military assistance to Russias war, the committee said in a press release.

The bill similarly directs monitoring of Chinas and Russias attempts to gain influence in Latin America and the Caribbean and Irans use of unmanned aircraft systems.

The bill also requires review of broader issues, including establishing a Social Media Data and Threat Analysis Center that will coordinate with social media companies to monitor and assess foreign malign activities on the internet.

The Center must determine which categories of social media data and metadata are valuable indicators of these foreign malign activities and, critically, how they can be shared in a manner that protects the privacy and civil liberties of all Americans, the committee said in a press release.

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A similar effort at the Department of Homeland Security  which would have established a board to review ongoing disinformation efforts to set civil liberties guardrails  was widely panned by Republicans earlier this year, pushing the agency to ultimately pause the boards work.

The bill also directs a review of the last five years of counterterrorism strikes on targets outside areas of active hostilities following reports of numerous deaths of civilians during operations.

The legislation also directs the Government Accountability Office to study classified information about unidentified aerial phenomena that may further the broader IC effort to understand and explain UAPs  including the implications they may have for our national security.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A House panel advanced a comprehensive data privacy bill in a 53-2 bipartisan vote Wednesday, pushing forward legislation that aims to set a national standard for how tech companies collect and use Americans data.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee vote on the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) is a significant step forward after years of delay in lawmakers taking action on a federal data privacy law, but there are still hang ups that could complicate the proposal moving forward.

Several lawmakers from California voiced concerns about how the federal bill could undermine protections from the states data privacy law. Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Nanette Diaz Barragan (D-Calif.) were the only votes against advancing the bill.

Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) said she would vote to push it forward to continue discussion but would not vote in favor of passing the bill without additional changes.

I recognize that this law would be an improvement for much of the country, but I cant say the same for my constituents and all Californians, Eshoo said.

Eshoo put forward an amendment that would set the federal standard as a floor, allowing states to go beyond the federal regulations. The amendment gained support from her Democratic California colleagues, but it failed to pass at Wednesdays markup.

Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), among the members who voted against the amendment, said the update to set a floor would undermine the compromises made and in turn make the entire bill unable to move forward with bipartisan support.

But basically what this amendment would do would reject all of the efforts to come to a compromise by replacing carefully crafted preemption provisions, mindful of some of the states, with a provision that would not set a true federal standard, Pallone said.

California has the strongest data privacy law in the U.S., but other states lack the same protections offered by the Golden State.

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The version of the bill considered by the committee was amended before the markup to include updates that grant the California Privacy Protection Agency, created under the states privacy law, the express authority to enforce the ADPPA.

The federal proposal aims to create a national standard as opposed to a patchwork of state laws. Republicans have broadly pushed for the federal standard to pre-empt state laws because they said the varying state standards could cause issues for businesses, especially small firms, in complying with different standards.

The bill would give users the ability to sue over violations of the law through a private right of action. The version of the bill the panel voted to advance allows private enforcement beginning two years after the law goes into effect, cutting it down from the four years initially proposed.

The four-year delay was a key target of criticism from Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, when the draft of the bill was first released. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) backs the proposal, but without Cantwells support the bill faces little chance of moving forward in the Senate.

The amended proposal that advanced in the House also changed the language around protections for children. The proposal still bans targeted ads to children and treats all information relating to individuals under 17 as sensitive data.

The version of the bill that advanced includes a tiered approach to what constitutes knowledge that an individual is under 17, applying different levels to companies of varying sizes.

An amendment to the bill from Reps. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) and Ann Kuster (D-N.H.) was adopted to exclude the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children from being a covered entity to ensure it can collect, process and transfer data to assist in its work on child trafficking, abuse and abduction.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
SAUGATUCK  Police say a water rescue was able to avert the worst-case-scenario Tuesday afternoon for a 78-year-old woman at Oval Beach.

At about 4:45 p.m. July 19, emergency responders were dispatched to the beach in the city of Saugatuck on a report of a water rescue.

By the time first responders arrived, first responders were able to pull the woman from the water started administering CPR, according to the Allegan County Sheriff's Office.

Witnesses said the woman, from Illinois, was on a paddle board or kayak when she suffered a medical emergency and fell into the water. They told police the victim was under water for approximately 1-5 minutes before she was rescued and pulled to shore.

Emergency medical services arrived on scene and were able to get a pulse on the victim. She was then transported by ambulance to a local hospital for further medical treatment.

The Saugatuck Fire Department, Douglas City Police Department and Holland AMR assisted at the scene.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Illinois woman nearly drowns at Oval Beach in Saugatuck
CNN reported that an increase in American presence in France has saved the countrys summer. This is especially true in Paris, one of the worlds most visited cities.

Its a world apart from two years ago, when the pandemic gutted tourism. Back then, France 24 reported that restrictions and closures made summer less lively. The publication wrote that 2020 would be the summer of masks and hand sanitizer. It will also be one of the quietest in decades; with dramatically reduced numbers of international tourists and many locals on holiday around France instead of going abroad.

CNN reported that travel to France is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, to the relief of all in the tourism industry.

Frederic Hocquard, the deputy mayor of tourism in Paris remarked, the Americans are doing the job, meaning they are coming back en masse and with a lot of money to spend.

CNN said American tourists, mostly visiting in groups, are each spending $402 (400 Euros) per day in France, bringing the budget for a 10-day visit to a stunning $7,687. This is way ahead of any other foreign tourists, according to a report done by research company GfK for Visa.

The tourism surge extends beyond the capital, too.

The French Rivera is another American favorite. It has also been popular with wealthy Russian tourists, especially Nice, Cannes and St. Tropez. However, due to the invasion in Ukraine, Russia has less of a presence than usual. The Alpes-Maritime department, where Nice and Cannes are, was expected to lose $50.4 million in 2022 due to the absence of Russian tourists.

CNN reported that Russians actions in the Ukraine have driven down the value of the euro to its lowest levels against the US dollar since 2002. This makes travel to Europe a lot cheaper for Americans.

Some of the top attractions in and near Paris include the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge and Versailles. The French Riviera boasts the Promenade des Anglais in Nice and Le Club 55 in St. Tropez. This beach club on Pampelonne Beach was once popular with the 1960s elite. Nowadays, Le Club 55 is less concerned about glitz and more interested in simplicity.

Its safe to say that expensive air tickets, airport drama and record hot temperatures across Europe arent keeping Americans from participating in revenge travel.
Elisjsha Dicken has been identified as the

It was an act of pluck and composure worthy of a scene in the movies. But this was real life: A heavily armed man emerged from the bathroom in a Greenwood, Indiana, shopping mall on Sunday evening and began shooting  until he was killed by an armed bystander.

Mike Wright, manager of the Luca Pizza di Roma in the malls food court, remembers taking shelter when the firing started and then emerging when it stopped to see the bystander behind a low-slung wall with his handgun trained on the assailant he had shot to death.

He stood there maybe 25 or 30 feet from the body and held that pistol pointed at him until law enforcement arrived, Wright remembered Tuesday. The good Samaritan guy seemed poised and under control. He appeared to be very disciplined. Jim Ison, the local police chief, went further, saying that his engagement with the gunman, who had killed three people, was nothing short of heroic.

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But along with the horror, drama and acclaim came a roaring and rekindled controversy in a country united in revulsion over its ceaseless plague of gun violence, yet bitterly divided over a loosening of gun restrictions like the Indiana law, passed this year, that allowed the bystander, Elisjsha Dicken, 22, to carry his 9-mm handgun in the first place.

Proponents of expanded gun rights were quick to praise Dickens actions. We will say it again: The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, the National Rifle Association wrote in a tweet Monday morning.

But Dickens act, though heroic, was also a statistical unicorn. An examination of 433 active shooter attacks in the United States between 2000 and 2021 showed that only 22 ended with a bystander shooting an attacker, according to data from the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University. In 10 of those cases, the armed bystander was a security guard or off-duty law enforcement officer. In other encounters, civilians attempting to step in and stop an assailant were themselves shot to death by police.

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It is exceedingly rare, the exception rather than the rule, Adam Skaggs, chief counsel and policy director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said of scenarios like the one in Indiana. The reality is that more people carrying guns means more conflicts escalating into deadly violence and more people being shot and killed.

The police identified the assailant at the Greenwood Park Mall as Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, 20, but have not indicated a motive. But Dickens intervention almost certainly saved lives: The police said that Sapirman, who had fired off 24 rounds, had come with more than 100 rounds of ammunition, two rifles and a pistol. Dicken killed the gunman 15 seconds after the shooting began, Ison said Tuesday, amending an earlier statement.

The attack was bracketed by other mass violence that underscored the Groundhog Day nightmare from which the United States seems unable to awaken. Hours after the shooting at the mall, four people were shot, one of them fatally, at an unrelated vigil in a park 9 miles north of Greenwood.

The same day, a special Texas House committee released a 77-page report criticizing the police response to a gunmans May 24 massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in which nearly 400 law enforcement officers waited to confront him as 19 children and two teachers died.

The Texas State University data suggests that mass shootings in the United States are on the rise. At the same time, the Indiana legislation is part of a concerted push by conservative state lawmakers to make it easier to carry weapons. Indiana is one of 25 states that have passed so-called constitutional carry laws that allow people to carry a concealed firearm without a permit.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York law that had placed strict limits on carrying guns outside the home.

In Indiana, the constitutional carry law was opposed by the state police superintendent and a number of other law enforcement groups.

The point I would make about the new permit-less law is that if I am a regular law-abiding citizen and 21 or older, I can go to a gun store and buy a handgun, walk out and carry the firearm wherever I go without any training or knowledge of how to use the gun safely and legally, Skaggs said.

Ison said the police found no indication that Dicken had a permit for the handgun. But the chief said he was carrying it legally under the new law. In a brief interview, Dickens lawyer, Guy A. Relford, described his client as an all-American Indiana boy, and declined to provide any specific information about him or the mall encounter.

Paul Helmke, a professor at Indiana Universitys ONeill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and a former president and CEO of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Dickens actions meant that the mall shooting ended up better than it couldve been.

But he said that active shooter situations tended to be too chaotic  and too prone to unexpected tragedy  to rely on the intervention of armed bystanders, who can sometimes get in the way of an effective law enforcement response, making it difficult for police officers to differentiate between an assailant and a well-intentioned armed civilian.

You have to make a split-second decision, and one of the problems with armed citizens is that when the police respond, or when another bystander responds, theyre not always going to know who the right person is, he said.

That was the case in Arvada, Colorado, when, in June 2021, a bystander named Johnny Hurley was shot and killed by a police officer after Hurley had used his handgun to shoot another man who had killed a police officer.

In November 2018, a Chicago security guard named Jemel Roberson detained a gunman outside the bar where he worked, pointing his gun at the mans back. Roberson was shot and killed by a responding officer.

That same month, an armed man named Emantic F. Bradford was shot and killed by a police officer in an Alabama shopping mall. A lawsuit filed by Bradfords mother asserts that he had pulled out the handgun he had been lawfully carrying as part of his good Samaritan response to a chaotic scene at the mall after a shooting erupted.

In a discussion about the Indiana shooting on Fox News, Brandon Tatum, a conservative commentator and former police officer, echoed the NRAs position that armed bystanders could make an important contribution to peacekeeping. I think good gun owners, or at least legal gun owners, are the recipe for success against people who do not want to follow the law, Tatum said.

This week in The Federalist, a conservative website, senior editor David Harsanyi noted a number of recent incidents in which armed people were able to stop people with bad intentions from committing acts of violence. Among other things, Harsanyi argued that the data from the Texas State researchers was misleading.

It is impossible, unless one is a mind-reader, to quantify how often the presence of good guys with guns dissuades murders, he wrote. It is likely that shooters, suicidal or not, prefer soft targets that allow them to make the most gruesome impact, which is one reason I simply cant understand why we wouldnt want to train (willing) teachers to use firearms.

But Adam Winkler, an expert on gun policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, noted that there are 400 million guns in the United States, and yet the nation has one of the worst gun death records. If more guns led to less crime, America would be the safest country in the world, he said.

Most states that require a permit to carry a gun do not require active shooter response training, he noted  and in the roughly two dozen states that have eliminated permitting requirements, no training is required at all.

If we really thought that good guys with guns were the answer, then we would require the good guys to go through extensive training, so that if they engage a mass shooting, we can depend on them to do it right, he said.

But as states and the Supreme Court dismantle gun control laws, he worries there is little hope for other alternatives.

Even if reliance on a good guy with a gun is not a good strategy for reducing gun violence or protecting people from mass shooters, he said, it may be the only thing we have left.

 2022 The New York Times Company
A janitor contracted to a business in Foxborough is accused of planting a hidden camera in one of the bathrooms.

Anizio Carvalho, 29, of North Attleborough, has been charged with photographing an unsuspecting nude person. His arraignment was scheduled for Wednesday in Wrentham District Court.

On Tuesday, an employee found the camera in a restroom in a common area of the building, police said. Officers found a cell phone actively recording video, which was disguised in a box on the floor made to look like extra cleaning supplies, police said.

Police are investigating whether there are other victims in Foxborough or other communities where he may have worked as a janitor.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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A young Japanese man studying English in Portland, Oregon, has come forward to accuse Dylan J. Kesterson of attacking him last month.

Kesterson, 34, is currently facing 19 charges for attacks he allegedly committed against a Japanese father and his 5-year-old daughter on July 2 and a Filipino woman on April 17. Those charges include counts of assault, harassment and bias crime.

Kaito Nakajima, 21, said Kesterson approached him near the Safeway store at Southwest 10th Avenue and Jefferson Street on June 25. He recalled his assailant yelling before physically assaulting him.

Maybe the F-word, so dirty words, and after that I was slapped, [on] my cheek two times, Nakajima said in an interview with KGW. My hat was stolen after that and the guy go away, somewhere. He ran off.

More from NextShark: Washington School District Says Asians Arent Students of Color, Now Counted With White Students

Nakajima said he did not hear what his assailant yelled because he was wearing earbuds. But he quickly recognized Kesterson when he made the news after his arrest over the July 2 attack.

Me and my friends saw the guy's face, so me and my friends realized  [it was] both, he said of Kestersons involvement in the incidents.

More from NextShark: 'Real Housewives of Dallas' Star Brandi Redmond Mocks Asians in 'Racist' Video

The July 2 incident involved a Japanese man, his wife and their 5-year-old daughter who were biking along the Eastbank Esplanade. Kesterson allegedly punched the man and his daughter multiple times because they were Japanese.

Last week, Tyra Blackmon, who is Filipino, came forward to accuse Kesterson of assault. Blackmon said she was targeted by Kesterson on April 17 when she and her friends tried to help a teenage boy being chased by Kesterson.

He sees me and starts walking up to me really fast. He said, Are you Filipino? and I just froze immediately, Blackmon told FOX 12. He grabbed the back of my head extremely hard and gripped as hard as he could and threw me on the back of our car. I fell to the ground and he kept yanking and yanking.

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More from NextShark: Man stole more than $23,000 from his ex-girlfriend by using her phone's facial recognition

Nakajima, who shrugged off his attack when it happened, has now filed a police report. His case is being investigated as a possible bias crime, Oregons equivalent of a hate crime.

Nakajima is reportedly halfway through his six-month language program. He said he wants to continue enjoying Portland, but hes been afraid of going out.

I feel so afraid. If I have to go, maybe I go to downtown, but [Im] so afraid, he told KGW.

More from NextShark: Private Photos of Thai King's Consort Leaked to Anti-Monarchy Activists

Kesterson is currently being held without bail at Multnomah County Jail.

Featured Image via KGW News
Jul. 20EBENSBURG, Pa.  A Johnstown man entered a guilty plea in Cambria County court Wednesday, accused of stealing funds from his employer earlier this year.

James Russell Miller Jr., 40, entered a guilty plea to theft by failure to make required deposit of funds before Judge Tamara R. Bernstein on Wednesday.

According to Assistant District Attorney Matthew Gribler, on June 9, 2021, the owner of D&J's Beer and Tobacco in Richland Township contacted police after he had evidence of Miller stealing money.

According to a criminal complaint, the owner allegedly had video of Miller stealing money. Police said he used returns and canceled sales to steal the funds.

Gribler said that the amount stolen could be between $18,000 and $25,000, but Miller disputes that it could be up to $25,000.

Miller will be sentenced at 9 a.m. on Sept. 20 with a restitution hearing being held on Sept. 15.
A judges ruling on Tuesday granting Twitter (TWTR) fast-tracked litigation against Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk offers clues about its broader case to block him from reneging on his $44 billion contract to buy the social media company.

In a decision mostly aligned with Twitters request for a four-day September trial, Delaware Chancery Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ordered the parties to identify five trial days in October. The judges ruling, a more extensive departure from Musks request for a date no sooner than February, came within minutes of arguments offered by Musks and Twitter's lawyers.

Corporate lawyers experienced in Delaware Chancery Court contract disputes say the judges ruling came with some important observations for Twitters underlying case. Still, they caution that at such an early stage Twitter would be premature to celebrate its incremental victory.

Simply because Her Honor thought an expedited trial was warranted at this early stage of the case, does not serve as a sound basis to predict what the final post-trial ruling in the case might be, said Francis Pileggi, corporate litigation attorney and managing partner of the Wilmington firm Lewis Brisbois.

The dispute turns largely on the prevalence of fake Twitter accounts, known as spam bots. Musk contends he's backing out of the deal because Twitter isn't providing him with data regarding the number of spam bots that operate on its platform  and in some cases, spread disinformation. Twitter says the bot issue is a pretext for backing out of the agreement, and that Musk has been deliberately trying to frustrate the deal with a series of disparaging tweets. The uncertainty surrounding the transaction, the company argues, is unfairly disrupting its stock price and business operations.

SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during a conversation with legendary game designer Todd Howard (not pictured) at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 13, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Boston College Law School professor Brian Quinn notes that McCormick disagreed with Musk that the cases complexity warrants a February trial. Although the judge held back on which specific issues shell entertain, a narrow focus for the dispute, Quinn said, could play to Twitters hand.

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If the judge just wants to ask questions about whats in the contract, its not necessarily going to be that complex, Quinn said. If the judge is going to allow Musk to get down to what exactly the number of bots is, then thats a more complex question.

Either way, he said, McCormick made it clear that the court could handle the dispute quickly.

In its suit, Twitter is seeking a remedy known as specific performance  essentially forcing Musk to go through with the deal, rather than just paying it monetary damages. Before issuing her ruling on Twitter's expedited trial request, McCormick made it clear that money damages are not an obvious solution to the high-stakes dispute.

It is not at all apparent that damages could constitute sufficient remedy, she said.

It's notable that the judge appeared to validate Twitter's assertion that forcing Musk to go through with the deal might be the only way to resolve the dispute, according to Anat Alon-Beck, a law professor for Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

The court has the discretion to issue equitable remedies customized for the circumstances of a particular case, and the chancellor did specify that specific performance is important here, Beck said.

Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed.

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Kerry Porter

UPDATE: Porter was given in June 2022 a five-year diversion sentence that means he cannot reoffend during that time or will risk further punishment. The other charges were dismissed, according to court records. CORRECTION: This update initially also erroneously said Porter was indicted in a separate case involving an alleged assault of a Lowe's employee, but he was not the individual indicted in that case.

Kerry Porter, the Louisville man who received a $7.5 million settlement from the city in 2018 for a wrongful murder conviction, was indicted Tuesday on gun- and drug-related charges.

The grand jury indictment in Jefferson Circuit Court includes one count of marijuana possession, one count of buying/possessing drug paraphernalia, two counts of possessing a handgun as a convicted felon and two counts of receiving stolen property.

Porter, 57, was arrested in late November when Louisville police went to his home to investigate unspecified trouble and found several firearms, some of which were stolen.

Police also found marijuana and drug paraphernalia at Porter's home, according to the indictment.

The subsequent charge for possession of a handgun by a convicted felon cited Porter's past conviction for murder, which was set aside in 2011 by a joint agreement of then-Commonwealths Attorney Dave Stengel and the defense.

Stengels successor, Tom Wine, said in December that the murder conviction cannot be used as the basis for the gun possession charge.

But Wine noted that the gun charge could be amended to reflect other prior convictions on Porter's record. Court records show that he pleaded guilty in 1997 to burglary and receiving stolen property for swiping scrap metal.

Previously: Kerry Porter, paid $7.5M for wrongful murder conviction, arrested on a gun charge

Gerth: After 11 years locked away, who can blame Kerry Porter for being angry?

Porters defense attorney, Rob Eggert, has said he may challenge those prior convictions.

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Eggert told The Courier Journal on Wednesday that Porter will plead not guilty to his latest charges.

Eggert told The Courier Journal in December that if Porter had guns at his home when police arrested him, it may have been because he is scared of Juan Sanders, who was named last year by police as a person of interest in the murder of truck driver Tyrone Camp, for which Porter served 11 years behind bars before his exoneration.

Camp was ambushed as he warmed up his truck at Active Transportation Inc. on Dec. 27, 1996.

Porter was cleared of the murder of Camp after The Courier Journal fought in 2001 to open a sealed statement from a witness who told state and local officials that Camp was killed by another man  Sanders.

Sanders has denied the allegation and has never been charged in the case.

More: Exonerated man, victim's family want investigation of Camp's murder

The witness, Francois Cunningham, alleged Sanders tried to hire him before doing the hit himself. He provided intricate details of the murder, including that the murder weapon, a shotgun, had been muffled with a silencer made with carpet and duct tape, both of which were found at the scene.

To protect another investigation  of accused killer Ricky Kelly  police and prosecutors didnt disclose the statement to Porters attorneys at the Kentucky Innocence Project, who had sought for years to free him.

Stengel, the former commonwealth's attorney, dropped the case against Porter in 2011, citing Cunningham's statement and DNA on the duct tape that belonged to someone other than Porter who couldnt be identified.

Porter, who was serving a 60-year sentence, was freed.

He also sued the city, alleging that Sanders conspired with his girlfriend, Cecilia, who had been married to Camp, to kill Camp and get his $150,000 in life insurance money.

According to court records, Porter is scheduled to be arraigned in court Jan. 27.

Watch this: Kerry Porter speaks on wrongful conviction

Reporter Andrew Wolfson contributed to this story.

Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com or 502-582-7030. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kerry Porter, exonerated of Louisville murder, faces gun charges
The Kettering Police Department is reaching out to the public for help identifying two theft suspects.

A male and female are suspected in stealing several items from a store on the west side of Kettering, according to the police department.

Police say the suspects got into a vehicle that appears to be a silver Honda Pilot with the rear window busted out and several areas of damage to the body of the vehicle.

Anyone with information on the suspects or vehicle is asked to contact Officer Plas at 937-296-2555.
Andre Bivins, right, and his attorney, John Edward Eagen, listen as the verdict is read. Jurors deliberated 25 minutes before finding Bivins guilty in the March 2019 death of Edward Ross of Panama City Beach.

PANAMA CITY  A 14th Judicial Circuit Court jury deliberated for 25 minutes before finding a Tallahassee man guilty in the March 2019 shooting death of a Panama City Beach man.

Andre Bivins, 32, was convicted of first-degree felony murder and attempted armed robbery.

Bivins is facing 20 years to life in prison, and although the jury found Bivins guilty, his attorney, John Edward Eagen, pointed out that jurors did not find him to be the one who killed Edward Ross.

Panama City Beach murder trial continues: Another gunman testifies victim grabbed gun

Background reporting: Trial begins for last of 5 men accused in botched robbery that led to PCB man's death in 2019

Prosecutor Mark Graham, left, points to Andre Bivins, right, who is seated by attorney John Edward Eagen, center. Graham is telling jurors that the evidence in the shooting death of Edward Ross, on the TV screen, points to Bivins as one of three men responsible for Ross' death.

Bivins was one of five men charged in connection with the death of Ross, who lived on Sunset Avenue. Ross was shot to death in a home-invasion style robbery when three men, including Bivins opened fire.

Joshua Campbell, who was one of the other gunman who shot Ross, testified Tuesday that Bivins fired the first shot, but the gun misfired. Campbell said Ross went to grab the gun and Bivins fired again, shooting Ross in the stomach.

Campbell and Abel Ortiz followed up with a series of gunshots before the trio ran from Ross' home.

Authorities alleged that Jorge Perez had arranged for Ross, a known marijuana dealer, to be robbed of marijuana and money, but when Bivins, Joshua Campbell and Abel Ortiz opened fire, the robbery was botched. Campbell and Ortiz also have been convicted for their roles in Ross' death. Perez was found not guilty.

A Bay County Sheriff's deputy takes fingerprints from Andre Bivins after Bivins was convicted in the March 2019 shooting death of Edward Ross, a Panama City Beach man.

Jorge Hernandez, the teenage driver, was also convicted.

Bivins was the last to face trial.

No sentencings have yet taken place.

Bivins' sentencing has been set for Aug. 9.

A seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated and returned the verdict that ended the two-day trial.

"We appreciate the jury looking at the evidence and the hard work they put in," said Prosecutor Mark Graham.

Eagen said it was "a difficult case with difficult facts and you try to do the very best you can."

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Bivins was also facing trial on a home-invasion robbery that happened a week prior to the Ross homicide and involved most of the same suspects.

But the prosecutor asked Judge Shonna Young Gay to consider the cases as having run concurrent as the sentence in this trial is more harsh.

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Andre Bivins found guilty in Panama City Beach murder of Edward Ross
The Mississippi Center for Justice dropped a lawsuit seeking to restore legal abortion in the state.

The legal challenge was pulled after the state's last abortion clinic shut down and was sold.

The state's last clinic was shut down and sold because of "dim prospects for a speedy and meaningful ruling," a lawyer said.

A lawsuit filed by the Mississippi Center for Justice to reinstate legal abortion in the state has been dropped as the last remaining clinic  which was at the center of the landmark Supreme Court case overturning Roe v. Wade  was shut down and sold this week.

"Diane Derzis, the clinic's owner, has now sold the clinic's building in light of the dim prospects for a speedy and meaningful ruling that would allow the clinic to reopen," Rob McDuff, one of the attorneys for the Jackson Women's Health Organization who works at the Mississippi Center for Justice said in a statement.

"Accordingly, we have dismissed our case on the clinic's behalf. If the clinic is not in a position to reopen in Mississippi, it no longer has a basis to pursue this case in the courts," McDuff added.

The state lawsuit  based on a 1998 decision from Mississippi's state Supreme Court that ensured the right to abortion  was filed on behalf of the Jackson Women's Health Organization just after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade that enshrined the federal right to an abortion.

Mississippi's trigger ban, which completely banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, went into effect on July 7, shortly after Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was decided on June 24.

McDuff said state court denied the organization's motion to block the ban. He added that The Mississippi Supreme Court then declined to hear an appeal on an emergency basis.

"Diane's work is not done and we applaud her commitment to continuing to ensure people can exercise their right to abortion," McDuff said in the statement.

He added that she is working on opening a new clinic in Las Cruces, New Mexico, "where she can provide abortion care without fear of being put in prison for 10 years."

Read the original article on Insider
COVID-19 cases have slightly increased in Lenoir County recently.

New coronavirus cases increased 3.6% in North Carolina in the week ending Sunday as the state added 26,388 cases. The previous week had 25,462 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

North Carolina ranked 21st among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States increased 29% from the week before, with 947,862 cases reported. With 3.15% of the country's population, North Carolina had 2.78% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 42 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

The Fourth of July holiday disrupted who got tested, when people got tested and when both test results and deaths were reported. This may significantly skew week-to-week comparisons.

Lenoir County reported 168 cases and two deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 159 cases and one death. Throughout the pandemic, it has reported 16,743 cases and 234 deaths.

a

Within North Carolina, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Graham County with 557 cases per 100,000 per week; Pamlico County with 471; and Surry County with 436. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Adding the newest cases overall were Mecklenburg County, with 3,112 cases; Wake County, with 2,994 cases; and Guilford County, with 1,039. Weekly case counts rose in 63 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Surry, Cumberland and Cabarrus counties.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

a Across North Carolina, cases fell in 36 counties, with the best declines in Wake County, with 2,994 cases from 3,442 a week earlier; in Buncombe County, with 527 cases from 617; and in Iredell County, with 362 cases from 419. a

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In North Carolina, a 138 a people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 48 people were reported dead.

A total of 2,919,068 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 25,395 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 89,542,107 people have tested positive and 1,023,799 people have died.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

North Carolina's COVID-19 hospital admissions rising

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, July 17. Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

Last week: 2,073

The week before that: 1,800

Four weeks ago: 1,638

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

Last week: 73,328

The week before that: 67,692

Four weeks ago: 57,602

Hospitals in 36 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 27 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 40 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Kinston/Jones Free Press: Lenoir County reported 168 additional COVID-19 cases this week
A still photo of surveillance video taken at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, shows a heavy police presence after the shooter entered a classroom. (Associated Press)

To the editor: What do you suppose would happen to a lifeguard if they ignored the pleas of drowning children and then stopped their distraught parents from entering the water to save them? ("'Systemic failures' in Uvalde school massacre, report finds," July 17)

If that guard was either former President Trump or any police officer present at the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, it's likely that they'd be required to take a short leave of absence and then be allowed to return to their jobs, feeling they'd paid their dues.

Sadly, the only way the deaths of the five killed as a result of the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt and the 22 killed during the Robb Elementary School massacre can possibly be avenged, is if Trump and every police officer present at the school are charged with the appropriate crimes and tried in a court of law.

Sharon Austry, Fort Worth, Texas

..

To the editor: Years ago I landed in Dallas. In the airport lobby there was a statue of a Texas Ranger. The motto at the base of the statue read, "One riot, one ranger."

After reading the summary of events at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, and hearing that there were numerous state troopers in attendance, perhaps it's time to remove that statue or at least cover it up in honor of the students and teachers who didn't experience the bravery that state law enforcement has so proudly claimed for so long.

Jim Rosenberger, Hermosa Beach

..

To the editor: Myths dispelled!

After years of listening to National Rifle Assn. chief Wayne LaPierre, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and a legion of Republicans spew their ridiculous inane proclamations to protect the 2nd Amendment, we can finally put those claims to rest.

In Uvalde, nearly 400 highly trained adults with guns were no match for one teenager with a gun. Those officers knew the damage a weapon of war could cause and hesitated for more than an hour to react effectively.

Its time to stop listening to the ramblings of anti-gun-control proponents. We need to elect people with intelligent plans on how to combat the horrific gun violence in this country.

Ron Diton, Upland

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
FARNBOROUGH, England (Reuters) -Malaysia Airlines is nearing a deal for Airbus SE A330neos to replace its fleet of 21 earlier-model A330s, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Izham Ismail said last month that the carrier was looking to make a decision on a one-for-one replacement of its A330 fleet by mid to late July.

At the time, he declined to say whether the airline would order the planes, meant to replace 15 A330-300s and six A330-200s, from a manufacturer directly or from lessors.

Malaysia Airlines has A330s and A350s in its fleet and had placed a provisional order for Boeing Co 787s in 2017 but let the deal lapse.

The sources, who could not be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the matter, told Reuters that the A330neo had been selected as the preferred model.

A Malaysia Airlines spokesperson said on Wednesday that the carrier had not yet made a decision on an A330 replacement.

"We are still going through the process," the spokesperson said.

The fleet modernisation plan designed to help lower carbon emissions comes as the airline, which was loss-making for years even before the pandemic, has been reporting positive cashflow since October.

An Airbus spokesperson declined to comment, citing the company's policy of not disclosing discussions it may or may not be having with customers.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher in Farnborough and Jamie Freed in Sydney; editing by Richard Pullin)
A 42-year-old man was hosting four others on his boat docked at a Nebraska lake when he was shot and killed, authorities said.

The Lancaster County Sheriffs Office was called to Branched Oak Lake shortly before 11:30 p.m. local time Tuesday, July 19, after a report of gunfire and someone yelling for help.

Benjamin Case was pronounced dead after lifesaving attempts were unsuccessful, according to a news release.

An investigation into the fatal shooting found that Case, the owner of the Bayliner boat, was having a small party with four others, according to a press conference recorded by the Lincoln Journal-Star.

They felt somebody else walking on the boat, and when Case opened the door to the cuddy cabin, officials say he was immediately shot twice by a male gunman.

A struggle ensued between the gunman and a few of the others who were on the boat before most of them jumped into the water to get away, officials said at the press conference. The gunman escaped in a vehicle.

Detectives do not believe this was a random shooting since the shooter appeared to know where he was going.

The four friends who were on the boat were not hurt, according to KOLN.

A homicide investigation is ongoing as detectives conduct interviews and review video footage.

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriffs office at 402-441-6500 or Crime Stoppers at 402-475-3600.

Branched Oak Lake is about 25 miles northwest of Lincoln.

Family argument over who will sleep on couch leads to fatal shooting, Arizona cops say

Woman shoots man in the back of head over his alleged infidelity, Missouri cops say

Man is shot and killed outside Law & Order TV set, New York reports say

Man shoots accused thief driving through his makeshift roadblock, Oregon cops say
BALTIMORE  On an unusual and delayed primary Election Day, shortages of election judges meant many precincts were understaffed and delayed in opening across Maryland on Tuesday  but otherwise, everything from abortion to local schools to high taxes sent voters to ballot boxes as usual.

At Vincent Farm Elementary School in White Marsh, there were only eight poll workers  not the expected 22  after staff dropped out because of new jobs, a rescheduled primary and a case of COVID-19 caught at a Las Vegas trade show, Chief Election Judge Gary Davison said.

That meant polls there opened about 10 minutes late Tuesday morning, but Davison said voters were patient.

Weve been fortunate, Davison said. Ive got the toughest eight-judge crew this side of the (Jones Falls Expressway).

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The challenges, which also included new political districts for many voters, didnt stop voters from being heard.

Bonnie Rice, an 84-year-old Linthicum resident who said her top priority as a Republican voter was tax increases, voted at a new polling site, Linthicum Elementary School, because of redistricting. She said it was easier to cast her ballot than it had been in years.

There was no line, and then they had someone waiting at the door for me, Rice said.

The State Board of Elections received reports of locked facilities in Prince Georges County well past scheduled 7 a.m. poll openings, while in Baltimore City, election officials said they were still trying to determine how many sites opened late. Armstead Jones, director of Baltimore elections, said he believed most of the delayed openings were only by 15 to 20 minutes, caused by a lack of chief judges, who are responsible for administering voting procedures at each precinct and ensuring a fair and accessible election for all eligible voters.

It was not immediately clear how large the statewide shortage of judges was, exactly; Baltimore election officials said theirs likely wont be known until after polls close. Nikki Charlson, deputy administrator of the state Board of Elections, said although she did not have a statewide estimate, there were not a lot of resulting delays at the polls. The state board of elections had continued to recruit for election judges as recently as Monday.

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We have enough to make sure we have the all precincts covered, said Richard Siejack, deputy director of the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections.

Jones said Baltimore election officials had warned that summer vacations and COVID-19 quarantines would make it difficult to staff the citys 296 precincts  compared to the just 34 voting centers that have been used since the coronavirus pandemic began  and those fears came true.

Its one of those situations where, We told you so, Jones said. Everybody is short.

Harford County Elections Director Stephanie Taylor said that the county was more than 150 judges short of the 742 officials were looking for, meaning some polling sites were understaffed but none were prevented from greeting voters.

In Carroll County, some judges quit with hours to go ahead of Election Day, though with a relatively low turnout of about 4,600 voters across the county by 11 a.m., precincts were staffed adequately, said Katherine Berry, the countys election director. A confluence of factors have made this primary season especially challenging, she said.

The primary had been scheduled for June 28 but was delayed three weeks as the states highest court considered legal challenges to newly drawn district maps for congressional, state legislative and some county council races. Now, the results of some contests might not be known until August, with counting of mailed ballots not set to begin until Thursday.

There were many things in this election cycle that are simply out of our control to manage, beginning with everything that occurred during redistricting, Berry said. We have done everything we can on the compressed timeline, and I am hopeful that everyone will be patient with the election judges that we do have.

Voters can cast ballots in person until 8 p.m. at their assigned polling place. Those who requested mail-in ballots also have until 8 p.m. to drop those in one of nearly 300 designated drop boxes around the state; otherwise, ballots must be postmarked Tuesday to be accepted.

On the ballot are candidates for virtually all statewide political offices: governor, comptroller, attorney general, the General Assembly and the U.S. Congress.

Polls suggest close races for the Democratic and Republican nominations for governor. Comptroller Peter Franchot, former U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez and former nonprofit leader Wes Moore are leading a crowded Democratic field looking to recapture the office from Republicans, while on the GOP side, voters appear evenly divided between former state Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz, endorsed by outgoing Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, and Del. Dan Cox, the choice of former President Donald Trump.

Marylands primary is closed, meaning voters must have a registered party affiliation to cast ballots and can only weigh in on their partys contests.

It could become clear Tuesday whether expectations of lower-than-usual turnout come true. Turnout during an early in-person voting period that ended Thursday was lower than in the 2018 primary. Some 347,000 voters had cast ballots either by mail or in person by then, about 9.2% of eligible active voters, according to the State Board of Elections. About 24% of Maryland voters turned out during the 2018 state primary election.

Traffic was light at many polling places, though voters like Joel Evans, a Randallstown resident and student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said they were eager to cast ballots in person, instead of by mail. Evans cast his ballot at Liberty Senior Center in Randallstown.

Voting in person is more important than just mailing in because when you come in, people are seeing you vote; its not behind closed doors, Evans, 21, said. If people see you do it, then they will most likely do it as well.

If Election Day voting was light, its likely because of the growth in mail-in voting since the pandemic began, said Howard County Election Director Guy Mickley. By 11 a.m., turnout in Howard was just over 7,000 voters, lighter than Election Day voting in 2018, whereas the county had received 13,000 mail-in ballots and 10,500 ballots during the early in-person voting period July 7 to 14, Mickley said.

Issues including abortion rights and schools were motivating some voters who did choose to cast ballots at polling places early Tuesday.

Dawn Fuller, 57, a government contractor and Catonsville resident, said abortion rights are at the forefront of her mind this primary season. Although access to abortions appears safe in Maryland, she remained concerned about laws restricting them elsewhere as she cast her ballot at Woodbridge Elementary School.

You dont really know, Fuller said. I mean, unless you go out and vote for the people you think will will stop doing that stuff.

At Liberty Senior Center in Randallstown, Nadia Ankrah, a 33-year-old nurse and Randallstown resident, said her main concern this primary season is school safety, specifically school shootings.

I feel like your children are your best investment, Ankrah said. You want to hope they leave a legacy; you dont want to take your child to school and then be afraid, wonder, Are they going to come back?

Local races were bringing some voters to to the ballot box, such as in Howard County, where voters are choosing school board members and a county executive.

David Greenberg, a 61-year-old from Long Reach, said he is pleased with the education his three grown children received in the county and was voting Tuesday for the status quo on Howards school board.

There are a lot of school boards around the country where people have decided theres some boogie man that they have to go after and deal with, and I just think its nonsense, he said. I like where things are going, so Im not trying to change things up crazily.

Janine Pollack, another Long Reach resident, said she was casting her ballot at Long Reach High School to reelect Calvin Ball as Howard County executive.

(Ball) has been really good for the environment, and Im hoping he continues that, said the 48-year-old environmental scientist at NASA.

Democrats outnumber Republicans about two-to-one among Maryland registered voters, but the GOP has held the governors office in three out of the past five terms. This time, with polls showing Republican voters about evenly divided between Cox and Schulz, the influence of Trump weighed heavy on the race.

In the Republican stronghold of Westminster, 64-year-old Kevin Brennan said he voted for Cox because he carries the former presidents endorsement. But 81-year-old Charles Ryan said it was for that reason that he voted for Schulz.

Theres been enough of Trump, Ryan said.



(Baltimore Sun Media Group reporters Emily Opilo, Matt Cohen, Brooks DuBose, Daniel Belson, Allana Haynes, Jason Fontelieu, Sherry Greenfield and Molly Spence contributed to this article.)


A diver looks at decorated gravestone near the Mortar wreck (Bournemouth University/PA)

A medieval shipwreck lying off the coast of Dorset has been granted the highest level of legal protection to preserve it for future generations.

Known as the Mortar wreck, the 13th century vessel was discovered in the waters of Poole Bay in 2020 by local diver Trevor Small, and is the oldest known wreck where the remains of the hull are still visible.

It was given its name because of the mortar bowls used for grinding grain that were among the first artefacts found on the site.

Tree-ring dating of the ships timbers has revealed it was constructed from Irish oak trees felled between 1242 and 1265, during the reign of King Henry III.

There are no other known wrecks of seagoing ships from the 11th to the 14th century in English waters, although two bronze-age wrecks have been discovered in Devon and Kent.

It is one of three vessels to be designated protected wreck sites under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on Wednesday.

It means that divers need to request a licence from the DCMS before diving on the sites in order to protect the structures and the artefacts within them.

The Mortar wreck and two sites dating from the 16th and the 17th century off Needles Channel near the Isle of White were given protected status on the advice of public body Heritage England.

As well as the mortars, two pristine pre-carved gravestones made from Purbeck stone were found on the site, both featuring a different gothic design.

Stone mortars and cookware found on the Mortar wreck in Dorset (Bournemouth University/PA)

One depicts a wheel headed cross and the other has a splayed arm cross  both of which were common 13th century styles.

These types of gravestones were a mark of high status and are found in churchyards across the south coast.

Also found was large cauldron for cooking soup, and a smaller cauldron for heating water.

Mr Small, who has 30 years experience diving Dorsets waters, said: I was born into a seafaring family. Ive skippered thousands of sea miles looking for shipwrecks from my home port of Poole.

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In summer 2020, I discovered what I believed to be an undetected wreck site. Recent storms had revealed something unknown on the seabed. I was granted permission to dive the wreck.

The rest is history. Ive found one of the oldest shipwrecks in England.

It is not known where the vessel was headed or how it came to grief, but Mr Small, Heritage England and a team of archaeologists from Bournemouth University continue to investigate the wreck.

Maritime archaeologist Tom Cousins, who is part of the team at Bournemouth University studying the wreck, said: Very few 750-year-old ships remain for us to be able to see today and so we are extremely lucky to have discovered an example as rare as this, and in such good condition.

A combination of low-oxygenated water, sand and stones has helped preserve one side of the ship, and the hull is clearly visible.

A gun and a lead ingot found on the NW96 wreck (Martin Pritchard/PA)

The other two vessels, the 16th century Shingles Bank Wreck NW96 and 17th century Shingles Bank Wreck NW68, were found by divers Martin Pritchard and Dave Fox in 2020.

Surviving wrecks dating pre-1700 is extremely rare, Heritage England said, as is finding previously unrecorded wrecks in the Solent, which is a busy shipping route.

It is believed that both of these vessels became stranded on the Shingles Bank in Needles Channel  a well-known hazard  before sinking.

Several cannons, a large anchor, and more than 50 very large lead ingots and stone cannonballs have been found at the NW96 site.

A diver points to the 1628 date on the cannon found on the NS68 wreck site (Wessex Archaeology/PA)

The ingots would have been used as a commodity for trading purposes, and would have been melted down to make a variety of products including bullets, lead flashing on roofs and pipes, Heritage England said.

The technique used to cast the ingots fell out of use around 1580, while stone cannon balls were replaced with iron shot by the end of the 16th century.

The finds suggest the wreck dates from the 16th or very late 15th century.

One of the cannons found on the NW68 site was was cast in Amsterdam between 1621 and 1661, dating the vessel to the mid to late 17th century.

Archaeologists believe it could have participated in the Battle of Portland in 1653, when the fleet of the Commonwealth of England was attacked by the Dutch Republic during the First Anglo-Dutch War.

The two sides were locked in a struggle for supremacy over the Channel.
Christe Chen, 36, was found dead inside the couples hotel room at the Turtle Island Resort in the Yasawa Islands (FOX 13/video screengrab)

A Tennessee man has been charged by Fijian police for allegedly murdering his newlywed wife while the pair were spending their honeymoon at an exclusive resort on the South Pacific island.

Bradley Robert Dawson, 38, and his wife of five months, Christe Chen, 36, had been vacationing at Fijis Turtle Island Resort, a luxury vacation destination in the Yasawa Islands, when on 9 July the Memphis-native allegedly killed Chen, the Fiji Sun reported.

Police told the South Pacific news outlet that when they arrested Mr Dawson, he was reportedly uncooperative, claiming that the US citizen refused to participate in a DNA test, which led them to ask a judge to order one.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News affiliate WHBQ-TV, Mr Dawsons attorney, Iqbal Khan, confirmed to the Memphis-based news outlet that he could not confirm the cause of Chens death, but said that the 36-year-old Tennessee-natives body was found inside the couples hotel room.

Mr Dawson, who has been charged with one count of murder, maintains his innocence, Mr Khan said to WHBQ-TV.

Bradley Dawson, 38, was charged by Fijian police for allegedly murdering his wife, Christe Chen, while the pair were on their honeymoon at a luxury resort (FOX 13/video screengrab)

Last Wednesday, Mr Dawson made his first appearance in court before a Magistrates Court in Lautoka, where the magistrate said that the accused had committed an an indictable offence, the Fiji Sun reported.

The couples marriage, which was officiated at a small inn on 18 February with an intimate ceremony of just 20 people, according toThe Daily Beast, seemed at the time to have caught some in Chens network by surprise.

Chen, a University of Tennessee Health Science Center graduate who worked at Kroger as a pharmacist, reportedly became engaged in what one of her professional acquaintances characterised as a whirlwind romance.

It was some kind of a whirlwind romance, said the professional friend in an interview with The Daily Beast, asking not to be named out of concerns for privacy.

Christe Chen, 36, was found dead inside the couples hotel room at the Turtle Island Resort in the Yasawa Islands (FOX 13/video screengrab)

The friend also noted that the pair had known each other for such a brief period before the nuptials that it would be difficult for anyone to potentially raise any red flags about their relationship since Mr Dawson had met so few people from Chens life before February.

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Mr Dawson, who worked as an IT professional at Youth Villages, a non-profit which provides services for at-risk children, has since been suspended from the organisation, according to a statement issued by the non-profit to FOX13

Bradley Dawson was an IT professional at Youth Villages. He has been suspended pending further information. It is our understanding Ms. Chen was his wife, and our condolences go out to her family, said Youth Villages in a statement to FOX13.

The case has been transferred to Fijis High Court in Lautoka, where Mr Dawson is scheduled to appear in court on 27 July while his attorney says he is working to secure a bond for his client, according to the Fiji Sun.

The Independent reached out to the attorney for Mr Dawson but did not hear back immediately.
Traces of methanol were found in the bodies of 21 teenagers who died after celebrating at a South African nightclub in June. Government officials joined police at a press conference on Tuesday to reveal the latest details in the case, The Washington Post reports. While the substance was detected in the blood samples of the teens, experts said theyre still assessing the methanol levels to determine whether the amounts were lethal or nonlethal.

The teens, who were between the ages of 13 and 17, died after being at the Enyobeni Tavern in the coastal city of East London on June 26. Police said some of the victims were slumped over tables and chairs when officers arrived.

Health officials initially suspected that alcohol and carbon monoxide poisoning could have been possible causes of death. Litha Matiwane, the Eastern Cape provincial deputy director for clinical service, said initial tests ruled out those factors. Some reports also indicated that a stampede may have been to blame.

Yonela Dekeda, a spokeswoman for the Eastern Cape Health Department, told the Post that there are more tests that are being done to identify exactly what the cause of death was.

We cant say at this stage where they got the methanol, whether it was through liquor or something else. That is still unknown, Dekeda continued.

Methanol, which can cause various health issues, is often found in fuels, plastics, pesticides, paint and antifreeze, according to the CDC.

Most methanol poisonings occur as a result of drinking beverages contaminated with methanol or from drinking methanol-containing products, the CDC states. In the industrial setting, inhalation of high concentrations of methanol vapor and absorption of methanol through the skin are as effective as the oral route in producing toxic effects.

One witness who spoke with the Post said people were heard in the tavern, yelling I cant breathe and Im choking. Others said people were being suffocated by a substance that smelled like gas.

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The 52-year-old owner of the Enyobeni Tavern, who was arrested in June, is expected to appear in court next month. The owner faces multiple charges, including supplying underage people with alcohol. Two employees, ages 33 and 34, have also been arrested.

As Blavity previously reported, the students were celebrating the end of their high school exams when the tragedy unfolded.

They died as they danced, Police Minister Bheki Cele told CBS News. They dance, fall and die. Literally.
By Kylie Madry

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican startup Arrenda, which offers advance payments to landlords upfront to lower barriers to renting in the country, raised $26.5 million in equity and debt financing in an early funding round, the company said Wednesday.

Arrenda already has about $12 million in finance requests pending and hopes to provide $2.5 million this year, said founder Joseph Merullo.

In 2023, "we're going to look to increase the rate of financing quite aggressively," Merullo said, adding that the company had put together a $25 million credit facility and $1.5 million in equity financing before launch.

The idea behind Arrenda came about after Merullo moved to the Mexican beach town of Tulum in 2020 and was shocked at the difficulties of renting an apartment there compared with the United States.

Various requirements presented high barriers to renting, he said. They might be several months' rent as a security deposit, promissory notes given to the landlord or even what are known as "avals," in which a renter must have a co-signer who is a property owner in the same delegation.

"Almost immediately I started to think, 'This sucks; we can build something better,'" Merullo told Reuters.

Landlords of Mexico's 5.5 million rental properties often lacked access to banks, so they they sought strong protection for their most valuable assets, the properties, he said.

Arrenda, which launches its "Adelanta," or "Advance," service Wednesday, pays out up to 12 months' rent in as little as 24 hours with a one-time commission fee, Merullo said.

The pre-launch funding round was led by Fasanara Capital, which provided the credit facility, with participation from other startup backers, such as Kube Ventures and ODX, the company said.

(Reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Bradley Perrett)
A 24-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday afternoon after, Miami-Dade police say, she abducted her two biological kids from their legal guardian over the weekend.

Jemima Gutierrez of Collier County was booked at 2:48 a.m. Wednesday on two counts of kidnapping and two counts of custodial interference by a parent, Miami-Dade Corrections online records say.

Miami-Dade police say Gutierrez took 4-year-old Josiah Gutierrez and 6-year-old Jody Gutierrez from the area of Southwest 107th Avenue and Southwest 186th Street around 1:30 p.m. Sunday during a visit.

Due to incorrect information given to the Miami Herald, an earlier version of this story misspelled Gutierrezs first name.
A trial begins this week for the man accused of killing retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn during the height of summer unrest following the police killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020.

Opening statements were made on Monday in the trial of Stephen Cannon, 26, of Glasgow Village, who is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Dorn, who was protecting a friend's pawn shop during looting on June 2, 2020, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The shooting came on a night of violence across St. Louis after demonstrations sparked by the killing of Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020.

Dorn and four others were shot, officers were pelted with rocks and fireworks, and 55 businesses were burglarized or damaged across St. Louis during the protests.

JAYLAND WALKER SHOOTING: AKRON POLICE CONFRONT PROTESTERS FOLLOWING RELEASE OF BODY CAM FOOTAGE

"Along with the unrest that came  that civil unrest  came chaos," chief trial assistant Marvin Teer told jurors Monday. "And St. Louis was touched by it, too. ... Our streets were ravaged with looters, with chaos, a pain set ablaze. With that legitimate pain came acts, many of which are unconscionable."

Dorn, who was 77, served nearly four decades on the St. Louis force before working six years as chief in Moline Acres. His wife, Ann Dorn, said her husband often checked on alarms at the pawn shop because he was friends with the owner.

A car burns at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Tucker Boulevard on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Prosecutors have said Cannon was one of several people looting the store that night. When Dorn arrived, Cannon went to a nearby corner, allegedly with a gun in his hand. Cannon was the only person on the corner when shots were fired and Dorn was hit, prosecutors said.

Cannon's attorney, Brian Horneyer, told jurors Monday that no physical evidence linked Cannon to the killing. He also said the state's main witness, who is also charged with several felonies, told detectives he would say "anything" they wanted for a plea deal and to escape a murder conviction.

The trial is expected to last through the week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Good Morning America

As monkeypox continues to spread across the U.S., the number of children infected with the virus is growing as well. At least eight children have tested positive for monkeypox since July in multiple states, from Florida and Maine to California. Children under the age of 8 are among those whom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers at "increased risk" for developing more severe illness if infected with monkeypox, along with pregnant people, people who are immunocompromised and those who have a history of atopic dermatitis or eczema.
Three motions filed by a Colfax man, one of three people accused in the November 2021 shooting death of a Pineville man, were withdrawn by his attorney on Monday.

Dexta Zayshawn Hall, 23, was arrested by the Alexandria Police Department on May 2. He was booked into the Rapides Parish Detention Center #1 on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Kevin Ray Hammond Jr., 18.

Hammond's body was found with multiple gunshot wounds on Nov. 23, not far from a car that had stopped in a wooded area off Futrell Street.

Hall was the third person arrested in the case. Also arrested on charges of second-degree murder were Charley Natija Brown and Deltrevious Zyshon Conston.

Kevin Ray Hammond Jr.: Third person arrested, charged with murder, in 2021 shooting death of Pineville man

Initial story: Pineville man dies in shooting late Tuesday in Alexandria, police say

Brown is from Colfax, too, while Conston is from Alexandria.

None of the three defendants have been formally charged yet. All remain jailed.

Hall had an attorney appointed for him, but he filed motions for a preliminary examination, to quash and to reduce his $500,000 bail on his own behalf  or, in legal terms, "pro se."

Hall's attorney, Chad Guillot, withdrew the motions. He can file them again at a later date.

Conston also was in court on Monday. His attorney, Phillip Robinson, was granted a continuance on motions for a preliminary examination and to reduce bond.

The new hearing date is Aug. 29.

Brown was denied a preliminary examination and a bond reduction during a June 30 hearing, according to online Rapides Parish Clerk of Court records.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Hearings held for 2 men accused in shooting death of Kevin Hammond Jr.
NASA on Tuesday awarded a new contract to SpaceX to launch the agencys next telescope into space in 2026.

NASA is expected to pay SpaceX $255 million to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from its Falcon Heavy rocket at NASAs Kennedy Space Flight Center in Florida, according to a press release from the agency.

The target date for the launch is October 2026.

The Roman is the next big space telescope for NASA after the popular James Webb, which just released dazzling images this month of the universe looking back billions of years in time. Webb is transformative technology that can capture stars and galaxies light-years away in the infrared.

According to NASA, the Roman Space Telescope is the space agencys next adventure. The telescope will tackle outstanding questions in cosmology, including the effects of dark energy and dark matter, and exoplanet exploration.

The telescope was previously known as the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope but was renamed to honor the first woman to hold an executive position at NASA.

Roman, who died in 2018, oversaw the design and production of the Hubble Space Telescope, the first telescope to launch into space.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The first trailer for the Marvin Sapp starring Chaz Lamar Shepherd has been released.

Slated for an Aug. 21 on TV One, the film stars Chaz Lamar Shepherd as Marvin Sapp and Ambre Anderson plays his wife, MaLinda Prince Sapp.

The trailer depicts the trials in Sapps life as he struggled to find his way.

The official description reads:

The Marvin Sapp biopic chronicles the prominent gospel music artist and preachers Michigan upbringing, battle against teenage alcohol abuse, love for MaLinda Prince, rise in the music industry and growth in his faith. Sapp came into prominence more than 30 years ago as a member of Commissioned and is widely known for his award-winning, chart-topping crossover hit Never Would Have Made It. Currently, he is an author, radio show host and senior pastor of The Chosen Vessel Cathedral in Fort Worth, Texas and pastor emeritus of Lighthouse Full Life Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan  the church he founded with his late wife.

Russ Parr directs the biopic.

It is produced for TV One by Swirl Films. Eric F. Tomosunas, James Seppelfrick and Keith Neal serve as executive producers in addition to Marvin Sapp and Phil Thornton.

Watch the trailer below:
FARNBOROUGH, England  The Norwegian Ministry of Defence confirmed this week it will buy Raytheon Technologies StormBreaker smart bomb from the U.S. Air Force.

The country has already begun to integrate the network-enabled munition on its F-35 fleet, and the head of Norways F-35 project office said in a July 18 statement the weapon will play an important role in helping the country begin initial operations for its Joint Strike Fighter fleet.

The weapon will bring significant capability against stationary and moving targets at stand-off ranges, further enhancing the Norwegian Air Forces ability to maintain national and regional security alongside our allies, Brig. Gen. Sigurd Fongen said.

Paul Ferraro, president of air power at Raytheon, told C4ISRNET in a July 19 interview at the Farnborough Airshow the company doesnt know how many Stormbreakers Norway will buy. He said Raytheon is on contract to produce about 1,100 rounds of the weapon a year for domestic and international customers and has the capacity to make more.

Stormbreaker is certified and fielded on the F-15E, and Raytheon expects to complete that process for the Navys F/A-18 later this year. The company is making progress integrating the weapon on all three variants of the F-35, and Ferraro said that work should be finished for the A and B models in early 2023 and the C model later that year.

He said the company has completed multiple tests of Stormbreaker on the F-35, and theyre going very well.

Stormbreaker was designed specifically to be space-efficient for the F-35s bomb bay. The jet can carry four of the weapons in each of its bays with room for other munitions. The weapon can autonomously detect and define targets in low-visibility conditions, including adverse weather, smoke or dust.

The recent progress comes after delays that stalled the program for about a year. A technical issue in 2019 with one of Stormbreakers key components paused production; after a redesign and retrofit of about 600 already-delivered bombs, the Air Force restarted fielding in September 2020.
Hiring a more diverse nurse workforce may help address "racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes" and improve maternal health, according to a report from Columbia University researchers.

The findings, which were published earlier this month in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, revealed that states with the highest nurse diversity reported fewer health complications for moms during childbirth, including eclampsia, blood transfusion, hysterectomy and intensive care unit admission.

The more racially and ethnically diverse the nurse workforce is, the better maternal health outcomes are, said Guohua Li, a study author and professor of epidemiology and anesthesiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. This finding holds up for white mothers as well as for mothers of color.

Giving birth in states with the highest nurse diversity was associated with a reduction in severe adverse maternal outcomes by 50% for Asian and Pacific Islander mothers, 32% for white mothers, 31% for Latina mothers and 20% for Black mothers.

This study is important because persistent racial disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality are of public health significance and because health care workforce diversity is amendable to policy interventions, Li said.

Li advised medical centers to employ a more diverse health care workforce to reduce maternal health disparities.

Demographic diversity is widely regarded as a strength of the United States, Li said. Our study indicates that workforce diversity could also be a major strength of the U.S. health system, which benefits the entire population.

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On Wednesday, Governor Bill Lee visited Saint Benedict at Auburndale, a private school in Cordova, to continue the rollout of the states Education Savings Account program, also known as school vouchers.

He said with the applications just opening in the last week, theyve gotten more than 600 applicants so far and more than 40 schools committed to giving families another schooling option.

So if a parent now has a choice, another option for the education for their child that they believe is a better option. Then it certainly stands to reason that it will benefit that child, he said.

But, one of the biggest questions presented is how will steep tuition prices for some of these schools affect the families who can even get through the doors?

The program would give up $7,300 per student.

Saint Benedict at Auburndales website says the schools tuition starts at more than $13,000.

Individual schools have individual strategies and many of them, these independent schools have scholarship programs, and theyre already enrolling children with financial need in their institutions, said Lee.

Not everyone is on board with this law, including Memphis Representative Jesse Chism.

Any time you take away public dollars to use for private enterprise, I have to be against that.

Chism, a Democrat from Memphis, said he feels the timeline to get this in place by the start of the school year was rushed.

He also believes Lees idea of having more choices is misleading because the schools ultimately make that decision.

They would take the best students from our school district and put them in private school, and the students who are struggling, those are the ones leftover. When you look at what those test scores may become, it could be harmful to our public school system.

Lee said theres no breakdown so far of exactly how many of those applicants are from MSCS.

Back in May, the school system released a statement calling this program an alarming assault on public education.

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The private schools in Shelby County that are participating in the school voucher program are as follows:

St. Agnes Academy

St. Dominic School

Brinkley Heights Urban Academy

Central Baptist School

Christ Methodist Day School

Christ the King Lutheran School

The Collegiate School of Memphis

Concord Academy

Creative Life Preparatory

Greater Praise Christian Academy

Harding Academy of Memphis

Holy Rosary Catholic School

Immaculate Conception Cathedral School

Immanuel Lutheran School

New Hope Christian Academy

Presbyterian Day School

Sensational Enlightenment Academy

St. Ann Bartlett Catholic School

St. Benedict at Auburndale School

St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School

St. Georges Independent School

St. Louis Catholic School

St. Paul Catholic School

Woodland Presbyterian School

Word of Faith Christian Academy

St. John Vianney Catholic School  Sumner

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BOSTON  A paving company owner from Weymouth will plead guilty in connection with a seven-year scheme to underreport income on his tax returns.

Robert Brainard, 52, of Weymouth, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of tax evasion, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins. The court has not scheduled a plea hearing.

Brainard, the former owner of Got Pavement Needs Inc., underreported income on his personal tax returns for tax years 2014 through 2021, resulting in an income tax loss of more than $593,993.

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Brainard also allegedly transferred ownership of his company in a straw sale while maintaining control over the companys operations and income.

The charge of tax evasion carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Owner of Weymouth paving company to plead guilty in tax evasion case
Paddy Pimblett has said he plans to take off Jordan Leavitts head when the lightweights clash at UFC London on Saturday.

Pimblett was the star of the show at UFC London in March, and the Liverpudlian will feature on this weekends card at the O2 Arena, too.

The 27-year-old, who is 2-0 in the UFC with two stoppage wins, faces American Leavitt (10-1), who dismissed Pimbletts abilities at Wednesdays media day.

Hes been talking all sorts of s***, lad, Pimblett (18-3) said in response. Hes an absolute crab, hes an absolute idiot. He cant throw a punch to save his life. Hes trying to outweird me, but no ones weirder than me.

My nans dead, and shed finish him. Im gonna come out and take his head off, Im coming to take his chin home with me. Im not gonna shoot no takedowns.

He doesnt come into fights to win, he tries not to lose. This might be the first time someone actuall s***s themselves in the Octagon.

Pimblett and Leavitt later faced off, and although the lightweights did not come to blows, the Briton suggested that he will show his opponent no respect on fight night.

I always touch gloves, but Im not touching gloves with this little mushroom, Pimblett said. Ive never really been p****d off heading into a fight, but I want to hurt him.

Paddy Pimblett celebrates his win over Rodrigo Vargas in London this March (Getty Images)

Im gonna batter him. If I get the chance, Im going to split him open with elbows and rearrange his face. I cant wait to come out and absolutely flatline him. Im gonna put him unconscious.

Pimblett played down the chances of his emotions affecting his performance, however, insisting: Im still very relaxed, mate, dont worry.

Pimblett also gave an emotional response when asked about his friend Lee Hodgson, a four-year-old Liverpudlian who recently passed away after suffering from terminal cancer.

Thats why I know Jordan Leavitt isnt gonna hurt me. I know baby Lee is gonna be in there with me, lad, a tearful Pimblett said.

The former Cage Warriors champion also addressed the cost of living crisis in Britain, saying: Its absolutely disgraceful, then youve got this [politician Rishi] Sunak saying he wants to sort the country out. Just do a general election and lets see the [Conservatives] get voted out. Sunak is a multi-millionaire, his birds a billionaire. Its absolutely despicable that more and more people are eating from food banks.

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Pimbletts revelation about his fight pay, which was far lower than most fans expected, went viral in March, but the 27-year-old assured the media that his wages had improved ahead of Saturdays bout.

Oh, its good. Its good. Dont you worry about that, the Liverpool FC fan said. Im nearly [the biggest star in the UFC] already. Ive only had two fights [in the promotion].

This will be my last fight in the UFC for a good few years, until we come here and do Anfield. I will be fighting on pay-per-views in the US.
A pair of naturalized U.S. citizens from China are accused of funneling a portion of investors money intended for a China-themed park to the re-election campaign of then-president Donald Trump in 2017.

Sherry Li, 50, and Lianbo Wang, 45, were arrested in Long Island, New York, and charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, as well as wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

Prosecutors say the pair illegally used $600,000 from Chinese and Singaporean investors who thought they were funding a park to be built in upstate New York.

According to court records, Li and Wang never completed the park despite raising $27 million in foreign investments.

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A portion of this amount was used to make large political donations to be seen with Trump and other prominent politicians. Prosecutors alleged that at least $2.5 million of the investors money was spent by Li, Wang and others on jewelry, vacations and exorbitant meals, among other personal expenses.

On June 28, 2017, Li and Wang reportedly contributed funds in their own names to a committee hosting a fundraiser for Trump. The amount, however, came from 12 foreign donors who each paid the pair $93,000 to attend the event.

Election law expert Kenneth Gross noted that while campaign finance laws in the U.S. prohibit foreign individuals from contributing to political candidates, they are not barred from attending fundraisers.

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Prior to their arrest, Li and Wang were business partners who lived in the same home on Long Island, along with some of Lis relatives.

For years, the pair had been seeking investor support for a development project that started as a proposed cultural theme park called the China City of America. When local officials later told Li that zoning would not allow the planned Chinese Disneyland, the project was turned into a proposal for a for-profit college campus. The project, called the Thompson Education Centre, also was rejected by local officials in 2017.

Story continues

Despite the rejection, Li and Wang reportedly told investors that the project was still pushing through development, and they even shared images of a construction site. The photos turned out to be from a house Li was having built at a different location.

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To appear more credible to investors, the pair tried to foster an image of power and influence by showing themselves rubbing elbows with politicians, according to reports.

A photo the pair took during the June 2017 event, in which Li is seen smiling with Trump and then-first lady Melania Trump, was purportedly used to solicit investment for the theme park project.

Trump and other politicians, including Democratic then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, were also featured along with Li or Wang in brochures distributed to potential investors.

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The large political donations from Li and Wang drew journalists attention in 2017 amid the number of donors linked outside the U.S. who were supporting Trumps administration at the time.

Following their first appearance at a federal court in Brooklyn, Li and Wang are now being held without bail. Their lawyers may file an argument for bail in succeeding hearings.

Featured Image Donald J Trump
The Daily Beast

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyDemocratic strategist James Carville has a message for people who are doubting Merrick Garland: Just wait.People are like, well, but lets wait and see a little bit. And this is like the top of the first inning. I mean, remember Merrick Garland is like a pit viper. He prosecuted the Oklahoma City bomber case, the Unabomber case, the Olympic bomber case. And I think these guys are really methodical, Carville says on this episode of The New Abnormal pol
GREENWOOD, Ind. (AP)  A 20-year-old man who shot five people in a suburban Indianapolis shopping mall, killing three of them, fired 24 times within 15 seconds before he was shot and killed by an armed bystander, authorities said Tuesday.

Preliminary autopsy results show gunman Jonathan Sapirman of Greenwood was shot eight times, the Johnson County Coroners Office said Tuesday.

None of the gunshot wounds was self-inflicted, the coroners office said.

Also, Greenwood Police Chief James Ison issued a statement Tuesday saying surveillance video showed Sapirman was shot within 15 seconds of opening fire, not within two minutes as the chief had said at a news conference on Monday.

Ison blamed the timing error on misreading his notes during the news conference.

Sapirman continued shooting people at the Greenwood Park Mall on Sunday until he was shot and killed by 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, of Seymour, a city about 45 miles (72 kilometers) south of Greenwood.

Dicken was shopping with his girlfriend at the time, Ison has said, calling Dickens quick action nothing short of heroic.

The Johnson County and Marion County coroners offices identified the slain victims as a married Indianapolis couple  Pedro Pineda, 56, and Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda, 37  and Victor Gomez, 30, also of Indianapolis.

A woman shot in the leg and a 12-year-old girl who was hit by shrapnel to her back were wounded in the attack, police have said.
A New Jersey police lieutenant has been indicted on charges of interfering in the investigation into a fatal car accident last Halloween involving his son, who is also a police officer.

The indictment of Newark Police Lt. Luis Santiago is the latest twist in the probe into the death of Damian Dymka, a nurse who was killed while walking along the Garden State Parkway.

Essex County prosecutors say Santiagos 25-year-old son, Louis Santiago, was off duty and drunk when he crashed into Dymka about 3 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2021.

Louis, who joined his fathers department in 2019, didnt render aid or call the police, prosecutors said last November. Instead he and his passenger, Alberto Guzman, loaded the victim into the back of his Honda Accord and drove to his home in nearby Bloomfield, prosecutors said.

Damian Dymka. (via Twitter)

After discussing what to do with his mother, Louis drove back to the scene with the body in the car. His father called 911 and reported the accident, prosecutors said.

Dymka, 29, who was born in Poland and grew up in Garfield, N.J., was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:27 a.m., roughly two and a half hours after he was hit. The cause of death was blunt force trauma, according to a spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutors Office.

Louis Santiago, his mother and Guzman were all charged after the incident.

Louis was charged with 12 felony counts, including reckless vehicular homicide and endangering an injured victim. Guzman and Santiagos mother were charged with tampering with evidence and related offenses.

Last Friday, a grand jury opted not to indict his mother, but they did return indictments against Louis, Guzman and Louis father, according to Essex County prosecutors.

Lt. Luis Santiago, who joined the Newark police department in 1993, was charged with hindering prosecution, conspiracy to hinder prosecution and official misconduct.

His son was indicted on the same 12 charges as before, and Guzman on the same three charges.

The Santiagos have both been suspended without pay by the Newark Police Department, a spokeswoman said.

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They voluntarily surrendered at a state police facility where they were booked and released, according to Essex County prosecutors. Their arraignments have not yet been scheduled.

Luis Santiago Sr.s lawyer, Frank Arleo, said he was stunned by the indictment.

All of the evidence we saw suggested he did everything right, Arleo said. He did everything to try to make the situation better, including telling his son to go back to the scene and calling the police. It sounds like we have a runaway grand jury.

Patrick Toscano, a lawyer representing Louis Santiago, said the indictment came as no surprise to his client.

We will defend against these charges forcefully and energetically, Toscano said. That having been said, charging Officer Santiagos father with any offense whatsoever remains the quintessential example of prosecutorial overreach. Lieutenant Santiago, a highly decorated and widely respected lieutenant in the Newark Police Department, broke no law at any time.

Guzmans lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Friends of Dymka, who was struck and killed while still in his Halloween costume after a night of partying, previously told NBC News they wondered whether hed still be alive if aid was rendered immediately.

We cant know that because of one person who was incredibly selfish, said Miranda Stone, who met Dymka when they were students at Bergen Community College.
As Donald Trump weighs whether and when to announce his official campaign for a bid at reelection in 2024, a recent poll suggests that hes the favoured Republican nominee if the GOP primary were to be held today.

In a new poll conducted by Politico and Morning Consult, 53 per cent of respondents who identified as being Republican voters or leaning that way politically said they would vote for the former US president to represent the GOP ticket in 2024.

Few of the other 16 Republican candidates suggested as possible frontrunners gained more than one per cent of the respondents support. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis secured second to the one-term president with 23 per cent, ahead of former vice president Mike Pence with 7 per cent, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz with 3 per cent. Behind those four, were Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney and Nikki Haley at 2 per cent.

On the other side of the aisle, 72 per cent of Democrat or Democratic-leaning independents surveyed in the poll said that if the primary was held today, theyd vote for Joe Biden to represent the Democratic ticket in 2024.

Twenty per cent of those respondents, however, said theyd opt to vote for someone else, while 8 per cent stated theyd simply not vote.

The news from the Politico poll is perhaps a boon for the US president, who just this week docked in a dismal approval rating of just 38 per cent. In that poll, conducted by SSRS and released yesterday by CNN, it placed Mr Bidens numbers as actually slumping to one point lower than what his predecessor  and potential challenger in 2024  had in July 2018.

Though Trump has yet to officially announce his campaign to return to the White House, hes spent more than a year teasing crowds at rallies as he stumps for candidates hes backed in various midterm races.

As recently as this past week, the one-term president hinted at his possible intention to seek a second term when he called a gossip columnist for the New York Post to discuss his ex-wife Ivanas recent death and while chatting, told the reporter that 78  the age Trump would be if he were elected again  is not too old for the Oval Office.

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Look, lets us just manage to get through this awful painful experience, Mr Trump, now 76, said. And after this... just remember... just remember what Im telling you... 78 is not old.

The age of a US president has come under intense scrutiny recently, particularly as media reports have emerged from inside the Biden administration that there could be concern within the party about the 79-year-old president seeking reelection when hed be days away from celebrating his 82nd birthday if successful and would be 86 at the end of a second term.

Mr Biden has indicated on multiple occasions that he fully intends to run for a second term should he remain in good health.
In this article:

President Joe Biden will travel to Orlando and Tampa on Monday.

In Orlando, Biden will speak at the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives annual conference.

In Tampa, the president will speak at a Democratic National Committee rally.

Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Orlando to speak at the annual gathering of her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Watch Channel 9 Eyewitness News and download the free WFTV news app to watch live coverage of the presidents arrival Monday.

Read: Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at sorority convention in Orlando

Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Russian President Vladimir Putin could be facing another war front, this time on his own turf, as one Chechen battalion prepares a second offensive against Moscow, a spokesman for the volunteer fighting force in Ukraine said.

Following Russias invasion of Ukraine in February, volunteer Chechen forces joined the fight in support of Kyiv  fueling the flames to a long-held animus towards not only Russia, but Putin.

"We know the enemys positions, where Russian military bases are," Islam Belokiev, spokesman for the Sheikh Mansur Battalion, said in a video message obtained by Fox News Digital this week with the help of Ukraine Frontline Media Platform.

"We have divided the Chechen Republic of Icheriya into three fronts and 16 sectors," he added while announcing a plan to once again fight for Chechen independence.

Members of the volunteer Sheikh Mansur Battalion speak to an AFP journalist during an interview on June 9, 2022, in the town of Zaporizhzhia, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo by GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images

BIDEN ADMIN TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL WEAPONS, SECURITY ASSISTANCE TO UKRAINE AS RUSSIA PLANS TO ANNEX TERRITORIES

Chechen resistance to Russian rule dates back centuries, and calls for independence began more than 30 years ago following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Broad autonomy was granted under a peace treaty signed by then Russian President Boris Yeltsin after a brutal war devastated the republic from 1994-1996.

However, disdain for Putin and a decade of war broke out after he voided the treaty and launched a deadly military campaign in 1999 following his appointment as prime minister by Yeltsin.

Grozny, Russia, besieged by the Russian army in August 1996. Photo by Eric BOUVET/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

In an infamous speech that was a prelude to his presidential rise, Putin said, "We will pursue the terrorists everywhere. If we catch them on the toilet, we will wipe them out in the outhouse."

An estimated 160,000 people were killed in both campaigns, though exact figures remain unclear.

At least two volunteer Chechen battalions, including veteran soldiers from both the first and second Chechen wars, have taken up arms against Russia in Ukraine, including the Sheikh Mansur Battalion and the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion.

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Both groups have been vocal in denouncing the leader of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, who was appointed to the post in 2007 by Putin and has brutally backed his war efforts against Kyiv.

Ramzan Kadyrov proudly displays his shooting skills in front of members of his private army at a firing range in his village of Tsentoroi in Checknya, Russia, in November 2004. Photo by Kadyrov Press Office/Getty Images

RUSSIA'S NEED FOR TROOP DISPOSAL BEHIND PUSH TO BRING BELARUS INTO WAR, UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL WARNS

A spokesman for the Sheikh Mansur Battalion said the resistance group had divided Chechnya into three sectors and claimed to have begun working with local populations "to uncover the enemy troop movements, type of transport, type of armaments, number of troops and quantity of weapons."

Fox News could not independently verify the claims, but Rebekah Koffler, a Russia expert and former intelligence officer in Russian doctrine and strategy for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), said it could serve as a strategy to distract Putins war effort in Ukraine.

"The possibility of them taking advantage of Putins forces being tied up in Ukraine to assert their independence is very plausible," she explained.

It is unclear if the Chechen volunteer forces are strategizing with Kyiv by creating a second front, but Koffler noted that even if a second front is not fully launched in Chechnya, it could still strain Putins forces.

It would "at least make Putin and the Russians believe that they will have to divert their attention and take eyes off Ukraine, so Ukrainians could launch a counter-offensive," she said. "Thats very clever."
ANASTASIIA KALATUR - WEDNESDAY, 20 JULY 2022, 00:20

Russia will not hinder the export of Ukrainian grain in exchange for the lifting of sanctions related to the supply of Russian grain.

Source: Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Iran for a meeting with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Quote from Putin: "We will facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain, but we assume that all restrictions related to the supply of Russian grain will be lifted. Nobody has objected so far. Including the American partners."

Background:
Former Vice President Mike Pence addresses the GOP Lincoln-Reagan Dinner on June 3, 2021 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Several Republicans thanked Mike Pence for upholding his constitutional duty on January 6.

Some lawmakers also encouraged Pence to run for president in 2024.

The comments came during Pence's first trip to the Capitol since he left office in 2021.

Several Republican lawmakers during a meeting on Capitol Hill on Wednesday praised former Vice President Mike Pence for upholding his constitutional duty on January 6, 2021, and encouraged him to run for president in 2024, according to multiple news reports.

"I just want to say thank you for defending our Constitution," Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told Pence in the meeting, per Axios.

"I'm happy to shout it from Mar-A-Lago to Bedminster," Roy continued, referencing former President Donald Trump's clubs in Florida and New Jersey. "But I just want you to know how grateful we are."

The remarks, met with applause from other Republican lawmakers in the room, were made during Pence's meeting with the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative congressional caucus, per CNN.

In the lead up to January 6, 2021  the day Congress would certify then-President-elect Joe Biden's 2020 victory  Trump and his allies pressured Pence to throw out Electoral College votes in battleground states. Pence rejected the push, saying he had no constitutional authority as vice president to change the election results and that his role was only to formally preside over the certification.

"People thanked him for his courage and doing the right thing," Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told Politico after Wednesday's meeting.

This marked Pence's first trip to the Capitol since he left office in 2021. The former vice president's appearance comes as speculation swirls over his possible 2024 presidential bid. Other rumored 2024 candidates, such as former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have also met with the influential Republican Study Committee.

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Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) July 20, 2022

Bacon told CNN that multiple lawmakers offered words of encouragement for Pence to run in 2024, though the former vice president did not broach the subject, instead saying he's focused on helping Republicans win in this year's midterms.

Over the past year, Pence has endorsed a slew of House Republicans, speaking at campaign events and holding fundraisers on their behalf in several states, especially in the Midwest, sparking rumors about whether he plans to make a bid for the White House in 2024, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

In the wake of the Capitol attack, Pence has distanced himself from Trump, as the former president also teases a 2024 run.

Read the original article on Business Insider
IRYNA BALACHUK  WEDNESDAY, 20 JULY 2022, 15:45

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to head the supervisory board of a new all-Russian movement of children and youth  the constituent assembly of the new "Pioneers" was held in occupied Crimea on 20 July.

Source: Russian news agency "Interfax"; Russian state-owned news agency TASS, Russian publication Kommersant

Quote from TASS: "Putin has agreed to head the supervisory board of the Russian children and youth movement. The president hopes that this work will be beneficial to him and his colleagues."

Details: It is reported that the founding meeting of the movement took place in the Artek children's centre in occupied Crimea. The name of the movement has not yet been chosen.

46 people participated in the founding meeting, including representatives of children's public organisations and movements, the administration of the President of the Russian Federation and federal authorities.

Among the founders are Yunarmiya ["Young Army" - ed.], Autonomous non-profit organisation Bolshaya peremena [Big change - ed.], and the Russian Movement of Schoolchildren.

For reference: The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a law on the creation of a new youth movement on 6 July. Its purpose was called "the formation of a world view for children based on traditional values".

In the first reading of the document, it was suggested that the movement be called Bolshaya peremena, but this idea was rejected.

The document was reportedly submitted to the parliament on 19 May  the anniversary of the founding of the Pioneer movement [founded in 1922 for children aged 9 to 15 and one of the first steps of integrating citizens into communist ideology - ed.]. The Kremlin then assured that there was no question of a revival of pioneering.

However, the structure of the new organisation will resemble the Soviet pioneer movement and will build a "unified policy of education of children and youth."

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According to "Interfax", the movement aims to:

create equal opportunities for the all-round development and self-realisation of children and youth;

prepare children and youth for "a full life in society, including the formation of their world view on the basis of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, traditions of the peoples of the Russian Federation, achievements of Russian and world culture";

develop in children "socially significant and creative activity, high moral qualities, love and respect for the Motherland, hard work, legal culture, caring attitude to nature and the environment, a sense of personal responsibility for their destiny and the fate of the Motherland before current and future generations".

All children from 6 to 18 years of age will be able to join the new "pioneer movement".

The movement structure will include "regional, local and primary branches". The highest governing body of the movement will be the congress, and it will be funded from the budget.

Background:
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss at the ITV Leadership Debate on July 17, 2022. Jonathan Hordle /ITV via Getty Images

Sunak and Truss are in the final of the Conservative Party leadership contest. The winner will be the next prime minister.

Trade minister Penny Mordaunt was eliminated in Tuesday's final round of votes by Conservative MPs.

The pair will now go to the Tory party membership in a head-to-head contest over the summer.

Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak or Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will be the UK's next prime minister, as they move into the second stage of the Conservative party leadership contest.

Trade minister Penny Mordaunt was knocked out of the contest in the final round of voting by Conservative MPs on Wednesday.

Sunak and Truss will now go into a head-to-head contest to secure the backing of Conservative Party members over the summer. The Conservatives claimed to have 200,000 members in March 2021, the Independent reported.

The result will be announced on September 5, with Boris Johnson expected to formally resign to the Queen on September 6 before handing over the keys to Downing Street to the winner.

Sunak was the frontrunner throughout the first stage of elimination rounds by Conservative MPs, while Truss' campaign to make it to the final two saw her lagging behind Mordaunt in the first four rounds.

The final ballot saw Sunak get 137 votes, Truss get 113, and Mordaunt eliminated on 105. Two ballot papers were spoilt.

One MP who supported Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee who was eliminated in the third round of voting, told Insider on Tuesday: "Many of us think it wouldn't be right to give the membership two members of Boris's cabinet [Truss and Sunak] given everything that's happened."

The contest's move to focusing on gaining the support of the Conservative Party membership will see in-person and virtual hustings, as well as campaigning across the country by the candidates.

Conservative members will then vote in a postal vote, with ballot papers expected to arrive on members' doorsteps between August 1 and August 5.

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Sunak and Truss can spend up to 300,000 each throughout the leadership contest, up from 150,000 in the 2019 leadership contest, giving them capacity  should they get the funding  to bombard members with reasons why they deserve to be the next leader of the party.

The Tory donors behind Truss and Sunak

Truss has received the backing of the donor Maurizio Bragagni and has been running her campaign from the Westminster townhouse of Lord Greville Howard, another donor.

Sunak, the first major politician to appear on the Sunday Times Rich List, has been publicly backed by more Tory donors.

Lord Michael Farmer, the former party treasurer, told the Telegraph he supported Sunak; donor Lord Rami Ranger endorsed Sunak; former party treasurer Lord Michael Spencer told the Telegraph he was backing Tugendhat in earlier stages, with Sunak or Mordaunt as his next preferred candidates; and donor Alexander Temerko told Insider he too backed Tugendhat with Sunak as his backup option.

Conservative Party donor Lord Peter Cruddas, who was made a peer in the House of Lords by Johnson, has campaigned for Johnson to be put on the ballot paper as an option to be kept as leader of the Conservative Party. He has been critical of Sunak.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Rudy Giuliani has been ordered by a judge to testify in Georgia's election-interference probe.

He didn't show up for a July 11 hearing in New York to show cause why he could not testify in Georgia.

Now, Giuliani received a final order to testify before a Georgia grand jury on August 9.

Rudy Giuliani has been ordered by a judge to testify as prosecutors in Georgia investigate attempts by former President Donald Trump's associates to throw out the results of the 2020 election in the state.

Giuliani was first subpoenaed earlier this month to appear in a New York court on July 11 to show cause why he could not appear and testify before a Fulton County special grand jury investigating election interference.

But Giuliani did not show up for the hearing, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wrote in a Wednesday notice.

Now, the former Trump lawyer has received a final order to appear before the grand jury in Georgia on August 9, according to Willis' notice to Superior Court Judge Robert C. I. McBurney, which was obtained by POLITICO.

The investigation has led to subpoenas of several Trump insiders, including his legal advisor John Eastman, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as prosecutors focus on whether Trump and his allies illegally pressured officials in Georgia to help overturn Joe Biden's 2020 presidential victory.

Trump called on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger at the time to "find" more than 11,000 votes for him, and Graham also called Raffensperger to encourage him to question absentee ballots.

Rep. Jody Hice, a Georgia Republican who has parroted Trump's false claims of voter fraud in the state, was subpoenaed and his office said on Monday that the matter was transferred to a federal court.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine)

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's central bank has proposed banning Russians with holdings worth less than $550,000 from buying foreign shares, as a step to protect investors after Western sanctions left them with billions of dollars in frozen accounts.

Russia has had a retail investment boom since the COVID-19 pandemic, with small players seeking to make money amid a record number of domestic share flotations and low deposit rates.

Many Russians also bought foreign shares, using accounts now frozen under Western sanctions imposed after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Central Bank Deputy Chairman Philip Gabunia said more than 5 million people in Russia have foreign stocks in frozen accounts, worth a combined value of more than 320 billion roubles ($5.84 billion).

Russia's second largest bourse, SPB Exchange, which specialises in foreign shares, said in May up to 14% of U.S.-listed shares held by its clients should be transferred to a non-trading account, due to restrictions imposed by Brussels-based depository Euroclear.

Seeking to minimise future risks for retail investors, Russia's central bank has already reduced the maximum leverage they can use.

New restrictions would tighten the requirements to obtain qualified status to buy foreign shares, Gabunia told a media briefing. In addition to requiring investors to have holdings worth more than 30 million roubles ($550,000), the change would also require them to pass a knowledge test.

($1 = 54.7500 roubles)

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Peter Graff)
OLENA ROSHCHINA  WEDNESDAY, 20 JULY, 07:45

Russian occupying forces shelled Nikopol again last night, firing more than 30 shells from Grad multiple-launch rocket systems: private houses have been destroyed and damaged, two people have been killed, and nine others have been injured.

Source: Yevhen Yevtushenko, head of the Nikopol District Military Administration; Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration

Details: At 02:42 on the night of 19-20 July, Yevtushenko reported that the city of Nikopol was under fire.

Reznichenko later stated that "the Russian horde has not stopped terrorising the Nikopol district."

Quote from Reznichenko: "A residential area in Nikopol has been deliberately shelled using Grads. More than 30 rockets were fired.

Preliminarily, two people have been killed and nine have been injured. Six victims are in hospital, including four children. The youngest injured person is only three years of age! Three years old! The child who was sleeping at home when the Russian scoundrels struck the kid using Grads.

Three private houses have been completely destroyed by shelling, and dozens have been damaged."

Details: As of 07:00, rescue workers are continuing to clear the rubble and find out the scale of the destruction.

Undetonated ammunition is scattered around the city. Bomb disposal experts are at work.

This is at least the third day in a row that Russian troops have attached Nikopol with rocket artillery. Earlier it was reported that they had insidiously installed Grads on the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which makes it impossible to strike back.

Pivden [South] operational command reported in the night briefing that the Russian occupying forces continued to shell Nikopol the day before: the port infrastructure and the coast were attacked with 20 rockets. There were no casualties.

On Monday evening, the Russian army hit the port and two industrial enterprises in Nikopol, damaging a residential building, an outbuilding and electricity networks.
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Russian forces in Syria on Wednesday shot down two drones that fired at its military base at Hmeimim, Interfax news agency cited a defence official as saying.

The official said there had been no casualties or damage.

Russia launched a military campaign in 2015 that helped turn the tide in a civil war in favour of President Bashar al-Assad.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Mark Porter)
The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce has decided to end its fight to appeal a recent Washington Court of Appeals ruling, which upheld the King County Superior Courts dismissal of a lawsuit that contested the constitutionality of a controversial payroll tax, also known as JumpStart Seattle.

King County Superior Court judge Mary Roberts had ruled in June that a payroll tax that applies to businesses that spend $7 million or more on payroll in Seattle is constitutionally permissible.

Weve decided the Chamber will not appeal this recent court decision. Ultimately, with two lower court rulings against us, it is unlikely that there will be a different outcome for this legal strategy at the Washington State Supreme Court  and no guarantee the court will even accept this case, said Rachel Smith, president and CEO of the chamber.

The chamber had argued that JumpStart was an illegal tax on employees and their right to make a living, while Seattles lawyers said the measure was a tax on employers and their business activities.

Seattle City Council voted 7-2 to pass the tax on July 6, 2020. It was introduced by Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda.

We can jump-start our economy and do it in an equitable and inclusive way, Mosqueda previously said.

About two weeks after the tax passed, then-Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan refused to sign the tax bill but she did not veto it either.

While the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce has ended its lawsuit, it plans to bring new focus to our advocacy work on the city of Seattle budget to hold city leaders accountable for what you and your employees, the voters, want  a city budget that aligns with priorities and delivers action on public safety, affordability, and homelessness.
King County prosecutors filed hate crime and fourth-degree assault charges against a man Thursday after he allegedly punched two women, one of whom was from China, in downtown Seattle.

Just after 5 p.m. on July 11, Seattle police officers responded to reports of a shirtless white man punching multiple people in the area of Third Avenue and Union Street, where dispatchers told officers that the man appear(ed) to be going after Asians, according to court documents.

Unprovoked, the suspect first hit a woman in the back of the head, according to court documents. She told officers she did not believe she was targeted because of her race. The suspect then began yelling at two other women, who were of Asian descent, to go back to China before punching one of them in the shoulder, the first victim also said in court documents.

Officers arrested Michael Allen, 40, and brought him to King County Jail, where prosecutors requested a $30,000 bond.

Allen had no prior felony convictions but was convicted of disorderly conduct in 2005 and driving under the influence in 2002, according to court documents.

Allens public defender, Brandon Davis, did not immediately respond to NBC News request for comment.

Image: A demonstrator holds a sign calling for a stop to hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) during a national day of action against anti-Asian violence in Seattle on March 27, 2021. (Jason Redmond / AFP via Getty Images file)

The latest available data from the Seattle Police Department shows that the number of hate crimes and bias incidents in the city rose from 260 in 2019 to 509 in 2021. The King County Prosecuting Attorneys Office this year approved new positions specifically focused on hate crimes.

Another Seattle man faces a hate crime charge from King County prosecutors in connection with threats he allegedly made toward U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a prominent Democrat who represents Seattle. The suspect, Brett Allen Forsell, was accused of telling her to go back to India. He was arrested near the lawmakers house earlier this month and held on a $500,000 bond.

Anti-Asian hate crimes have risen exponentially since the onset of the pandemic, with a 339% increase just last year, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

Allens arraignment is set for July 28.
The rains from tropical storm Sally lash the state capitol building in Montgomery, Ala., on Wednesday afternoon September 16, 2020.

The Secretary of States office said in a statement Tuesday that federal organizations contributing to state campaigns will have to file campaign finance reports with the state.

The move, which Secretary of State John Merrill said Tuesday would include dark money groups, comes after years of controversy over the scope and application of Alabamas ban on transfers of money between political action committees (PACs).

Alabama House Speaker: Who will be the next Alabama House Speaker? GOP reps are mum so far

People asked about the U.S. Senate election in 2022, Merrill said on Tuesday, referring to outside spending. We believe if theyre trying to do that, make sure theyre filing according to state law.

Before the Legislature banned the practice in 2010, PAC-to-PAC transfers were used to move campaign finance donations to hide the source of donations to political candidates. The law banning the transfers defines a PAC as a group that receives or expects to receive contributions that it spends or plans to spend on Alabama candidates, and applies it to any group, whether in-state or out-of-state.

But enforcement of the ban has been inconsistent. In 2011, a state PAC chaired by former Gov. Bob Riley, who signed the PAC-to-PAC ban into law the year before, accepted $50,000 from the Republican State Leadership Committee in Virginia. The Alabama Democratic Party filed a complaint about the donation, which Rileys PAC returned, but a grand jury in 2012 said the law did not appear to give the state to the ability to prosecute out-of-state political action committees.

In 2018, a PAC affiliated with the Republican Attorneys General Association gave Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshalls state re-election campaign $735,000. The PAC had received funding from other PACs. But a court dismissed a complaint filed by former Attorney General Troy King, who ran against Marshall that year. After the election, the Alabama Ethics Commission said in a 3 to 2 vote there was insufficient evidence to bring a charge against Marshall.

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Responding to an inquiry from Alabama Democratic Party chair Chris England in 2020, the commission issued an opinion saying the Democratic Party could not use federal funds for a state account.

Alabama's PAC-to-PAC ban prohibits any transfer of funds in addition to contributions and expenditures from one PAC to another or on behalf of any Alabama state or local elected official, proposition, candidate, principal campaign committee or other political action committees, and provides no exception to that ban except for contributions, expenditures, or a transfer of funds made by a PAC directly to a candidate's Principal Campaign Committee, the opinion said.

The new guidance from the Secretary of States office says that federal PACs seeking to intervene in an election must register as state PACs and file regular campaign finance reports. Merrill said the guidance would not be retroactive.

Outside spending in the Republican Senate primary included about $4.4 million by the Washington D.C.-based Club for Growth, which supported U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks of Huntsville against former Business Council of Alabama President and CEO Katie Britt. The Senate Leadership Fund, a PAC affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, spent $1.4 million opposing Brooks.

During her re-election campaign, this spring Gov. Kay Ivey got $1.7 million from getting Families Back To Work, a dark money group affiliated with the Republican Governors Association. Merrill said an organization doing that should be filing campaign finance reports.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or blyman@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Federal groups supporting Alabama candidates must register with state
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said she is concerned by the state of the U.S. monkeypox response in a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra.

As I have raised on multiple calls with the Administration, I am concerned with the state of the U.S. response to monkeypox, Murray said in her letter Tuesday. The spread of monkeypox is a reminder that our work to protect families and strengthen our preparedness and response system is far from complete and cannot end with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Murray requested that Becerra provide a briefing on how HHS is currently responding to the monkeypox outbreak and specifically asked how the department is applying lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The most recent count of confirmed monkeypox cases in the U.S. was more than 2,000. However, cases are believed to be undercounted due to limited testing capabilities.

Murray made note of the challenges at the local level that people, particularly men who have sex with men, have been dealing with since the start of the outbreak.

Ensuring the public health system responds appropriately to monkeypox will require both decisive action from the Department and its state, local, and Tribal partners, as well as robust, sustained investments in public health, she said.

The monkeypox response has been criticized by some as a repeat of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many lambasting the delayed and overly complicated rollout of vaccines and tests.

The U.S. Strategic National Stockpile had relatively few doses of Jynneos  the preferred smallpox vaccine administered to prevent monkeypox infections  when the outbreak began.

While more doses have been ordered, critics have questioned how a well-known virus with preexisting available treatments was able to spread so quickly, especially after more than two years of dealing with the novel coronavirus.

The Hill has reached out to HHS for a response to Murrays letter.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Senate voted Tuesday evening to proceed to a legislative vehicle that will carry legislation to provide $52 billion to the domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry and help the United States compete with China.

The 64-34 vote sets up final Senate action on part of a bill the Senate passed more than a year ago, the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. The legislation has been stalled for months in a Senate-House conference negotiation.

The original Senate-passed bill provided $250 billion to help U.S. companies compete with China as well as a large package of trade provisions negotiated by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). The bill coming to the floor this week has been whittled down substantially.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that, at a minimum, it will provide $52 billion to domestic semiconductor industry as well as an investment tax credit.

Schumer told reporters the bill is something our country desperately, desperately needs.

He said if the motion to proceed passes with a large margin, he will add tens of billions of dollars to reform the National Science Foundation.

This will be a test vote and the outcome will decide whether the science portion of USICA is included, he said. If we get enough to pass it, which means some comfortable room  60 votes  I will put the science provision in.

It is my preference for the Senate to include the science provisions in this bill because they are so important for the future of our country, he said shortly before the floor vote.

The science section would provide $20 billion to establish a tech directorate within the National Science Foundation.

The bill received pushback from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who took to the floor to criticize what he called massive corporate welfare for the profitable semiconductor industry.

I hear a lot of concern about the deficit here in the Senate, and I hear people say, We cant afford to feed hungry children, cant afford to deal with climate change, we cant afford to guarantee health care to all,' Sanders argued. You might want to also take into account tax break and corporate welfare for large, profitable corporations.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Senator Joe Manchin just said he wont support the climate bill  is it time to dump solar stocks for good and double down on coal producers?

Renewable energy stocks were some of the biggest winners in 2020. But the upward momentum wasnt able to continue in 2021. In 2022, things are even more challenging.

Last Friday, reports suggested that Sen. Joe Manchin will not be supporting his partys economic package that includes new spending on climate measures.

Why does that matter? Well, in a 50-50 Senate with a united Republican opposition, Democrats need the West Virginia senators vote to move the package forward.

Political headlines are of no value to the millions of Americans struggling to afford groceries and gas as inflation soars to 9.1%, Manchins spokesperson tells NBC News.

Senator Manchin believes its time for leaders to put political agendas aside, reevaluate and adjust to the economic realities the country faces to avoid taking steps that add fuel to the inflation fire.

The news has sent some waves across the renewable energy sector.

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Solar stocks bloodbath

Solar stocks took a big hit.

On Friday, First Solar plunged 8.1%, Sunrun dropped 6.4%, Sunnova Energy International fell 5.0%, while SunPower was down 3.4%.

The Invesco Solar ETF (TAN) tumbled as much as 7% at one point on Friday before ending the session with a 2% loss.

And its not like solar companies were hot commodities to begin with. While the sector has rebounded after Fridays sell-off, the four companies mentioned above are all down more than 20% year to date.

But not everyone is giving up on this investing theme.

Manchins decision impairs the ability for the U.S. to achieve President Bidens goal to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 50% to 52% below 2005 levels by 2030, investment bank Cowen writes in a note to clients.

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Despite the disappointing news, the economic rationale for the shift toward renewable power is increasingly compelling and keeps us constructive on the group.

If you are looking for contrarian ideas, these beaten-down solar stocks  alongside other renewable energy names  could be worth a look.

For those who dont want to pick individual winners and losers, ETFs like TAN, the First Trust Global Wind Energy ETF (FAN), and the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (ICLN) would provide a good starting point for further research.

Time to revisit coal?

Climate advocates point out that Manchin has longtime ties to the coal industry.

Manchin helped found coal brokerage firm Enersystems, Inc. in 1988. And according to CNN, he had a between $1 million and $5 million stake in the company in 2021.

CNN further notes that financial disclosures show Manchin making over $536,000 from his share in Enersystems last year. To put that in perspective, his Senate salary was $174,000.

Public Citizen lobbyist Craig Holman told CNN that Manchin is a walking conflict of interest.

And what makes it all the more troubling is that hes the 50th Democratic senator, which gives him enormous sway over climate change policy.

To be sure, coal is no longer making headlines in the investing world. In fact, the only coal-focused ETF  the VanEck Vectors Coal ETF (KOL)  stopped trading in December 2020.

But the industry is far from dead.

Alliance Resource Partners (ARLP), a diversified producer and marketer of steam coal to major U.S. utilities and industrial users, recently raised its cash distribution to investors by 40%. The stock is also up 58% year to date, in stark contrast to the broad markets double-digit decline.

Another example is Peabody Energy (BTU), a coal producer headquartered in St. Louis. The companys products are essential for electricity generation and steelmaking. Its shares are up 91% in 2022.

What to read next

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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  Egypt and Serbia on Wednesday agreed to boost political, economic and other cooperation as the two countries look for ways to deal with the global impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was in Serbia on a three-day visit this week  the first in more than three decades by an Egyptian president. His host, Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic, said the visit had a historic character.

"It will bring so much in the future, Vucic said at a joint press conference with Sissi. This is just a beginning.

The two leaders signed a partnership declaration, Vucic awarded el-Sissi a state decoration and announced plans for a free trade agreement by the end of the year. A business forum was held as officials signed a series of deals focusing on fields of cooperation.

Both our countries should cooperate for better economies in relation to the global events, said el-Sissi. Egypt expects stronger cooperation in all fields.

Vucic said Serbia will export grain, primarily wheat, to Egypt, which has been hit hard by the price hikes caused by the war in Ukraine. Egypt is among the worlds largest importers of wheat, with much of that from now-blocked Ukrainian ports.

Serbia, a candidate country for European Union membership, has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia and has maintained friendly relations with Moscow despite the war. Both leaders said the war in Ukraine was among the topics discussed at their meeting Wednesday.

Egypt is a country that wishes to see everything resolved peacefully and through agreements, said el-Sissi, who met with U.S. President Joe Biden in Saudi Arabia last week.

El-Sissi and Vucic also evoked during their press conference the decades-old ties of Belgrade and Cairo as founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement of nations outside the opposed blocs during the time of Cold War divisions.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska long has made clear she has no personal craving for the spotlight. Yet on Wednesday, she stood in the U.S. Capitol and made the case for more U.S. air defense systems to block Russian missiles.

She showed Americas most powerful lawmakers stark images of the toll of Russian bombardment of cities on Ukraines children  a blood-splattered baby stroller, a small crumpled body.

For Zelenska, spouse of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the appearance capped a week in Washington that marked some of her highest-profile appearances of the five-month war. The visit was also one of the first times most Americans have laid eyes on her.

We want no more airstrikes. No more missile strikes, Zelenska told Republicans and Democrats Wednesday, as an overhead screen displayed the war's youngest victims. Is this too much to ask for?

Zelenska, speaking to an audience that included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, appeared in the same congressional auditorium where her husband drew standing ovations from lawmakers three weeks into Russia's invasion. Her husband had spoken by video.

Zelenskyy has won praise from supporters for staying in Kyiv since Russia attacked, speaking nightly by video address. Zelenska and the couple's two children, meanwhile, went into hiding away from Zelenskyy for security reasons over the first two months of the war.

Zelenska worked as a scriptwriter for her husband, a comedian and actor before he won the presidency in 2019. They married in 2003.

Speaking to Vogue magazine the same year her husband was elected, Zelenska said she herself by nature was no teller of jokes, and a non-public person.

But as first lady, I found for myself arguments in favor of publicity. One of them is the opportunity to draw peoples attention to important social issues, Zelenska said then.

A visit by Jill Biden to western Ukraine in May, when the two first ladies spoke privately and sat alongside displaced children living at a school, marked the start of Zelenska's emergence from her wartime seclusion. Ukrainian officials said it was Jill Biden who invited Zelenska to come to Washington.

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The Ukrainian first lady in Washington has spoken  largely away from reporters  with Jill Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Agency for International Development head Samantha Power and others.

She received a blue and yellow bouquet of sunflowers and hydrangea from Joe Biden on arrival at the White House for her meeting with the U.S. first lady.

Until Wednesday's appearance before lawmakers, accounts of Zelenska's conversations with U.S. officials this week focused on the need for mental health care for Ukrainians dealing with the trauma of the war, and a U.S. offer of rehabilitation assistance for children who've lost limbs in the war  humanitarian causes, not strategic or tactical.

But Zelenska also noted in a tweet she had talked with Vice President Kamala Harris's husband, Doug Emhoff, at the White House Tuesday on how "to turn the soft power of the first spouses into a powerful and effective tool.

Her blunt description to lawmakers of the deaths of children turned that soft power into a blunt and forceful instrument.

She showed photographs of a smiling, paint-smeared 4-year-old girl, Liza Dmytrieva, whom the first lady had happened to meet before Christmas.

The screen next showed an overturned baby carriage with blood caking on the sidewalk beneath it, after an airstrike killed the girl and badly injured her mother last week.

Our family represents the whole world for us, and we do everything to preserve it, Zelenska said. We cry when we cannot save it. And we remain completely broken when our world is destroyed by war.

Another photo showed a girl in a pink headband, shot by Russian soldiers with her family as they tried to flee, and who screamed and cried for two hours in their car before dying herself, Zelenska said.

Another showed three generations  grandmother, mother, baby daughter  killed by a Russian airstrike in the port city of Odesa, Zelenska told lawmakers. Yet another showed a 3-year-old boy, learning how to use a prosthetic limb after another airstrike.

Zelenska noted in passing Wednesday the humanitarian needs of the war. Maybe you expected from me to speak on those topics, she told lawmakers, through an interpreter. But how can I talk on all that when an unprovoked war is being waged on our country?

Lawmakers and others gave her standing ovations before her speech. But the photos on the screen had some shaking their heads at the scenes. The unsparing account and her direct appeal to lawmakers for more arms, especially more air-defense systems, echoed her husband's calls throughout the war for more weapons from the U.S. and other allies.

The daily hammering on the U.S. for more support has been effective, but as the war grinds on could risk resentment from government leaders, who as of the start of June have committed $4.6 billion in security assistance for Ukraine.

We've seen from Ukrainian leadership their courage but also their no-nonsense direct appeal and laying out the brutal mentality of Mr. Putin, Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, said as lawmakers walked out.

Pelosi spoke before Zelenska's address to describe U.S. lawmakers as strong supporters of the Ukrainian people and admirers of Zelenskyy's and Zelenska's leadership.

In his nightly video address in Ukraine on the event of his wife's speech, Zelenskyy said she would be speaking to lawmakers on behalf of all Ukrainian mothers, all Ukrainian women, and it will be an important address.

In Kyiv this week, some Ukrainians said they had been following her U.S. visit.

I treat her with great respect, said one, Larysa Logvinova, 63, adding, Oh, Im going to cry now.

Shes the best, Logvinova said. She is fragile, intelligent, and says the right things. As for her visit to the USA, I am very positive about it. And I hope that the result of her mission will be that Ukraine will receive additional aid."

___

Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.
AUSTIN, TEXAS  Solar power has played a small but crucial role in keeping the lights  and air conditioning  on in Texas amid this weeks brutal heat wave.

Solar plants gave the state grid about 8 gigawatts of power amid soaring midday temperatures on Wednesday, according to the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which oversees the state grid.

Solar was pumping 9 percent more power than expected into the grid at noon, ERCOT reported.

Thats more than twice the state operating reserves of 3.7 megawatts.

The solar supply was a welcome relief as record energy demand  at levels far above what was predicted in early summer  strained the state grid this week.

Texas peak demand was projected to hit just under 80.5 gigawatts in the heat of the afternoon, according to ERCOT, well above the 77 gigawatts that ERCOT predicted would be the maximum summer power demand back in May.

It also marks the ninth time this year the state grid has broken demand records, Bloomberg reported.

Without solars contribution, the state would have been in energy deficit, ERCOTs figures show.

Solar is providing needed stability to municipal grids, Cody Tellgren of Duke Energy told West Texas-based television station KIDY.

Duke operates about 200 megawatts of solar energy in West Texas, KIDY reported.

One benefit of solar is that supply peaks at midday, when the sun is the highest  and so is electricity demand, according to an op-ed by Patrice Parson of the nonprofit Texas Solar Energy Society.

That quality could make expanding solar the easiest way for Texas to shore up its creaking grid, Reuters columnist Robert Cyran argued.

Expanding solar was more sustainable than continuing to run gas and coal plants without maintenance, cheaper than building new fossil fuel power plants and more politically feasible than connecting Texass isolated grid to the rest of the country, Cyran contended.

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But better battery solutions are needed to store solar power to meet the demand of hot summer evenings, when air conditioning use remains high but solar supply dwindles, according to a Department of Energy fact sheet.

Even now, more than 85 percent of homeowners are now buying batteries as part of rooftop solar systems, Parsons of the Texas Solar Energy Society noted.

Texass solar capacity has doubled over the past year and tripled over the past eighteen months, renewable energy consultant Doug Lewin told ABC last week.

But regulatory roadblocks, rising processing fees and unpredictable delays in permitting  as well as drastically different processes in different Texas cities  are threatening further expansion, Parsons argued.

The boom in solar has helped the Texas renewables industries outpace the states fossil fuel industry in bringing back jobs after the coronavirus pandemic.

As fuel production lost about 14,000 jobs last year, sustainable technologies added about 13,000 new jobs, according to a study published on Monday by the nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

If you are focused on oil and gas to be your savior for creating jobs you are focusing on a cyclical market, analyst Trey Cowan, who worked on the study, told S&P Global.

It makes more sense to invest your policy dollars where you can grow faster, Cowan added.

Meanwhile, recovery in the fossil fuel sector  long regarded as Texass hallmark industry  are lagging behind the rapid job growth in renewables, electric vehicles and energy efficiency, according to the study.

The state oil and gas industry has brought back only about half the jobs lost during the pandemic, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis reported.

That may be as good as it gets, as job growth in fossil fuels appears to have plateaued, the institute found.

Texass advantages led solar manufacturer GAF Energy to choose the state for its new solar roof-tile factory  rather than offshoring production to Asia, CEO Martin DeBono told Reuters.

GAF announced on Tuesday that it would open a $100-million factory just north of Austin, according to a company statement.

Rather than external solar panels, GAFs light-capturing solar shingles are part of a houses roof, Reuters reported. De Bono told Reuters that domestic production was better suited to this approach, which contrasts from the mass-produced external panels whose manufacture is currently dominated by East Asia.

You cant expect to make the same thing as everybody else in the world and be successful in a business, especially in a business as competitive as solar, DeBono said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The son of a prominent former Manhattan judge is accused of fatally bludgeoning his mother before jumping 16 stories to his death from their Upper East Side luxury building Tuesday, New York City police said.

Doug Solomon, 26, allegedly fatally beat his mother, Diane Gallagher, 65, hitting her in the head at the familys home on East 79th Street. He hit her with a piece of furniture, a senior police official told NBC New York.

Then he jumped from the building, they said.

Solomons father, and Gallaghers husband, is Charles Solomon, who served on the Manhattan Supreme Court.

He retired in 2018 after serving three decades, NBC New York reported. During his time on the bench he oversaw Sean P-Diddy Combs 2001 nightclub shooting trial and a case involving former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer and one of his mistresses.

Related video: Family entered Sheriff's office before murder-suicide

Police responded to the family's residence around 10:30 a.m. and upon arrival observed Doug Solomon unconscious and unresponsive with trauma to the body. The injuries were consistent with falling from an elevated position, authorities said.

Officers also discovered Gallagher inside the apartment, also unconscious and unresponsive, with head trauma.

Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

Neighbors said the family also had a daughter who was preparing to get married soon, according to NBC New York.

Law enforcement sources told the station there were no domestic violence records from the Solomons home prior to the Tuesday tragedy.

It's not clear whether Charles Solomon was home at the time of the deaths.
SOUTH BEND  A South Bend police officer was given an unpaid suspension Wednesday by the city's Board of Public Safety for unsafe driving during a vehicular pursuit.

The six-day suspension given to officer Lauren Slisher comes as police departments in the area have dealt with concerns regarding pursuit policies in the wake of a number of recent chases resulting in crashes.

According to a letter to the board from South Bend Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski, Slisher "passed a civilian vehicle improperly and at excessive speed" and "disregarded a traffic control device" before turning her lights on during a brief chase with a motorcycle in the early morning hours of May 22 on North Ironwood Drive and then Edison Road.

More:Fatal Mishawaka crash renews questions about police chases

Scanner traffic indicates the chase lasted less than one minute, but Ruszkowki found Slisher went against multiple points of the department's policy on vehicular pursuits by not "placing a priority or due regard on/for the safety of the public" and for not taking into account a combination of factors before initiating the pursuit.

Before chasing a suspect in a vehicle, the department's policy states officers should consider:

road and weather conditions,

how many vehicles and pedestrians are on the roadway

the seriousness of the offense

the relative performance levels of the officer's and suspect's vehicle and the officer's experience level

The motorcycle Slisher was pursuing did commit a traffic violation, the letter said, but the severity of the offense did not warrant the excessive speeds or "improper passing."

Ruszkowski's letter also stated supervisors have verbally reprimanded Slisher for similar instances since she was hired in June 2021. However, a post made to the department's social media pages in March praised Slisher for arresting two men following a vehicular pursuit in which the suspects' vehicle "disregarded multiple stop signs as it weaved in and out of traffic" before its battery cable broke loose and the car shut down.

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The board unanimously approved the six-day, unpaid suspension without discussion at Wednesday's meeting.

Pursuit policies and deaths

The letter sent to the board does not indicate anyone was injured in the pursuit that led to disciplinary action against Slisher, though police chases have resulted in a number of crashes and handful of deaths in St. Joseph and Elkhart counties over the past few years.

In 2018, Justin Gorny was fired from the South Bend Police Department for hitting and killing 22-year-old Erica Flores while responding to a reckless driver call. Gorny reached speeds of close to 100 mph before he collided with Flores' car near the intersection of West Western Avenue and South Kaley Street. Flores' family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city, though that case appears far from a resolution.

A recent lawsuit from northwest Indiana was settled for $1.2 million when police from East Chicago and Hammond pursued a suspect who wound up killing a 13-year-old girl in a crash.

Similar situations unfolded locally in 2020 when three people were killed after being hit by suspects fleeing from police.

Authorities stand near the scene of a serious crash Friday night at McKinley and Byrkit avenues in Mishawaka.

In February 2020, 58-year-old John Riedle was killed near the intersection of Byrkit and McKinley avenues after being hit by a Jeep running from police. Police from multiple agencies, including the Elkhart County Police Department, Mishawaka Police Department and Indiana State Police, were involved in the chase which also seriously injured a passenger in Riedle's car.

Then in December of the same year, Clayton McClish, 19, and Elizabeth Johnson, 18, were hit and killed by suspects fleeing from Mishawaka police on Spring Street.

A few police chases ended in traffic crashes last year as well. In March 2021, a one-minute chase near the University Park Mall on Grape Road ended in a crash while a 20-minute pursuit through Mishawaka and parts of South Bend in May resulted in the suspect's vehicle being pinned against a wall on Lincoln Way West.

In Elkhart, an outside review of the department found over 60% of pursuits between 2016 and 2018 stemmed from mere traffic offenses. Almost 30% of those pursuits ended in crashes and 14% resulted in someone being injured, the report found.

Most advocates and many policing institutes recommend departments restrict pursuits to violent felony offenses. Many local departments list the alleged offense as a factor officers should consider when initiating a pursuit, but none limit pursuits to certain criminal offenses.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend officer suspended for violating pursuit policies
Glamping in Singapore. Marielle Descalsota/Insider

I spent a night glamping in a two-person tent in a park in eastern Singapore.

A night's stay in a tent cost 260 Singapore dollars, or $185.

It was an uncomfortable experience, mostly because of the city-state's hot, humid weather.

Singapore is known for its skyscrapers and bustling business district, but if you head to the eastern coast, you can find a more relaxed vibe.

Pasir Ris Park, eastern Singapore. Marielle Descalsota/Insider

I grew up in Pasir Ris, a residential town in eastern Singapore that's home to over 160,000 people. Many residents enjoy fishing, hanging out at the beach, and camping.

I've been camping at the beach before in Singapore, and it was an uncomfortable experience: It was hot, humid, and the views were average at best.

But in the past few years, glamping has gained popularity in Singapore for its reputation as an Instagrammable experience. An assortment of companies has cropped up to deliver on the interest, including Glamping City and Go Glamping SG.

Recently, I decided to give glamping a go myself. I booked a one-night stay in a two-person tent for 260 Singapore dollars, or $185, from Glamping Society. I initially wanted to glamp at East Coast Park in southeastern Singapore, but camping permit quotas had run out for the weekend.

"Glamping Society was started by a group of friends who love the outdoors and nature in 2016," a company representative told me. "Glamping is so popular in Singapore because it offers the great outdoors," she added.

Insider paid for my stay in full.

The campsite is located in an area of Pasir Ris Park called Heritage Chalet. I arrived in the evening and found a dozen tents erected on a grass patch, surrounded by several blocks of chalets.

Glamping in Pasir Ris Park. Marielle Descalsota/Insider

Like most public parks in Singapore, Pasir Ris Park has blocks of bungalows and terrace-houses that people can book to host barbecues and parties. Because most people in the city-state live in high-rise apartments, chalets  which are available for nightly rental  are a popular option for people seeking out more space.

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Dozens of people were hosting parties at the chalets, many of whom were singing karaoke. It seemed like there were more people staying in the chalets than at the tents.

I only saw two tents occupied during my stay, both of which looked to be rented by families.

I knocked on the door of one of the chalets and was greeted by a caretaker who led me to the campsite. It was right behind the back entrance of the chalet.

People enjoying an outdoors barbecue. Marielle Descalsota/Insider

By no means was it a private set-up: A gate led to the public park, which meant that any one could come into the campsite.

People were grilling food on barbecue pits, which can be rented for an additional SG$25.

Glamping Society also provides food for grilling, which consists of chicken wings, hotdogs, corn, and other snacks, for SG$45.

Each tent had a small patio for eating and lounging. It was functional but far less glamorous than what the photos had advertised online.

My tent for the day. Marielle Descalsota/Insider

The tent was simple and plain, and it offered little respite from the humidity and sweltering heat.

While the temperature was cooler at night, the heat in the morning was intense, going up as high as 93 degrees Fahrenheit by 9 a.m.

The tent itself was sparsely furnished. There were three inflatable beds set up directly on the floor of the tent, each of which had two pillows. It seemed more like a large camping tent than a luxurious glamping tent.

The interior of the tent. Marielle Descalsota/Insider

In the morning, the sunshine illuminated the interior of the tent. But at night, it was pretty dark, with only fairy lights lighting the space up.

I found stains all over the the bedsheets and pillowcases.

The condition of the pillows inside the tent. Marielle Descalsota/Insider

"Though the bedsheets and pillowcases were stained, they are clean," a representative told me when I asked them for comment about the state of the bedding. "We apologise that they were not up to your expectations. We do change a new set of bed linen if customers request."

The only major difference I found between my glamping and camping experiences is that this tent came with an air-conditioning unit  but even that wasn't fully effective.

Air conditioning unit inside the tent. Marielle Descalsota/Insider

While the unit cooled the tent down at night, it did little to quell the heat in the morning. I woke up at 7 a.m. drenched in sweat because the unit itself was emitting heat.

It felt like a greenhouse inside the tent.

"I am not too sure whether you had a faulty aircon, if you did, we apologise," the company representative told me. "However, it is true that the aircon cannot cool down the tents in the afternoon, but by evening and night, the tents should be cool," she added.

Glampers have to use public bathrooms during their stay.

Public toilets for glampers. Marielle Descalsota/Insider

The chalets, for comparison, have private bathrooms.

It wasn't the cleanest bathroom I've ever seen, but it was better than most other public toilets.

The shower and toilet. Marielle Descalsota/Insider

There were shower cubicles and toilets which had an attached shower (pictured above). The water pressure was terrible  there was barely any water coming out of the shower and taps.

No soaps were provided, and hand soap was also running low, so I would advise anyone thinking of glamping to bring their own toiletries.

The best part of the campsite was the eatery.

Halal eatery near the glamping area. Marielle Descalsota/Insider

The eatery  a local coffee shop  served many of Singapore's top Malay dishes, like mee rebus and mee soto. In the morning, cyclists filtered into the campsite from the park in search of breakfast.

Overall, I found glamping to be just as uncomfortable as camping, and with a huge markup to boot.

Glamping can be just as unglamorous as camping in Singapore. Marielle Descalsota/Insider

I don't recommend glamping in a park in Singapore.

Part of this is because of the weather: When the temperature is consistently at or above 90F, a tent is just not a desirable option.

But it's also because of the company's offerings. For what I got  a tent, three inflatable beds, and a weak air-conditioning unit  I felt the SG$260 price tag was far too expensive. The nearby chalets, which can be rented for a similar price, seem like they offer better value for money. I would have been better off applying for a camping license and camping at the beach, and entering the campsite just to eat at the coffee shop.

Read the original article on Insider
Ranil Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister of Sri Lanka, was elected president by lawmakers amid the country's political and economic turmoil. (Eranga Jayawardena / Associated Press)

Sri Lankan lawmakers elected the unpopular prime minister as their new president Wednesday, a choice that risked reigniting turmoil in a nation reeling from economic collapse.

The crisis has already forced one Sri Lankan leader out, and a few hundred protesters quickly gathered after the vote to express their outrage that Ranil Wickremesinghe  a six-time prime minister whom they see as part of the problematic political establishment  would stay in power.

Sri Lankans have taken to the streets for months to demand that their top leaders step down as the country spiraled into economic chaos, a crisis that has left the South Asian island nation's 22 million people struggling with shortages of essentials, including medicine, fuel and food. After demonstrators stormed the presidential palace and several other government buildings, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled last week and then resigned.

Much of the protesters' ire is focused on Rajapaksa and his familys political dynasty, which ruled Sri Lanka for most of the last two decades. But many also blame Wickremesinghe for protecting Rajapaksa, and during demonstrations last week, crowds set his personal residence on fire and occupied his office.

Wednesday's vote means that Wickremesinghe  who was also Rajapaksas finance minister and became acting president after the leader fled  will finish the presidential term ending in 2024. He can now appoint a new prime minister.

I need not tell you what state our country is in," Wickremesinghe, 73, told fellow lawmakers after his selection was announced. "People are not expecting the old politics from us. They expect us to work together.

He pleaded for the country to move on: Now that the election is over, we have to end this division.

But protesters flocked to the presidential residence instead, chanting: Ranil, go home.

We are very sad, very disappointed with the 225 parliament members who we elected to speak for us, which they have not done, said Visaka Jayawware, a performance artist in the crowd. We will keep fighting for the people of Sri Lanka. We have to ask for a general election.

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Wickremesinghe has wide experience in diplomatic and international affairs  he noted Wednesday that he had spent 45 years of his life in Parliament  and has led the talks on a bailout package for the bankrupt country with the International Monetary Fund.

But many voters view him with suspicion since he was appointed prime minister by Rajapaksa in May, in hopes that he would restore stability.

The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful family of siphoning money from government coffers and of hastening the countrys collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but the former president acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lankas meltdown.

The struggle will continue until our demands are met, said Nemel Jayaweera, a human resources professional. [Wickremesinghe] doesnt have a mandate to rule the country. We will oppose him.

The ruling party's majority in Parliament swept Wickremesinghe to victory in Wednesday's vote, with 134 votes. Populist Dullas Alahapperuma, a longtime ally of Rajapaksa and also a minister in his government, secured 82, while a Marxist candidate netted three.

The vote, shown on national television, was a decorous, solemn affair. Although balloting was secret, as the results were announced, lawmakers thumped their tables in support of their candidates.

After the vote, some supporters celebrated Wickremesinghes win in the streets. He will be sworn in on Thursday.

Only a few lawmakers had publicly said they would vote for Wickremesinghe given the widespread hostility against him  but dozens loyal to Rajapaksa had been expected to back him because he had assured them he would severely punish protesters who burned politicians' homes in the unrest.

On Monday, in his role as acting president, Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency that gave him broad authority to act in the interest of public security and order. Authorities can carry out searches and detain people, and Wickremesinghe can also change or suspend any law.

The political turmoil in Sri Lanka has only worsened the economic disaster. Wickremesinghe said Monday that negotiations with the IMF were nearing a conclusion, while talks on help from other countries had also progressed. He said that the government had taken steps to resolve shortages of fuel and cooking gas.

Hours before Wednesday's vote, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told financial magazine Nikkei Asia that the organization hoped to complete the rescue talks as quickly as possible.

As prime minister, Wickremesinghe delivered weekly addresses in Parliament cautioning that the path out of the crisis would be difficult, while also pledging to overhaul a government that increasingly has concentrated power in the presidency.

Presidents in Sri Lanka are normally elected by the public. The responsibility falls to Parliament only if the presidency becomes vacant before the term officially ends.

That has happened only once before in Sri Lanka, when then-Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga was chosen by Parliament uncontested in 1993 after former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, father of the current opposition leader, was assassinated.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
ROME (AP)  Italian Premier Mario Draghi won a confidence vote Wednesday in the Senate, but it was a hollow victory after three of his key coalition allies boycotted the voting, virtually dooming any prospects for his unity government's survival.

The vote Wednesday went 95-38 in the favor of Draghis government in the 315-member Senate, after lawmakers deserted the roll call in droves.

In these days of folly, Parliament decides to go against Italy, tweeted Enrico Letta, a former premier who leads the Democratic Party, the only large party in the ruling coalition to back Draghi in the confidence vote. Italians will show themselves at the ballot box to be wiser than their representatives.

The rapid unraveling of Draghi's 17-month-old coalition could prompt President Sergio Mattarella to dissolve Parliament, opening the path to holding an early election as soon as late September. .

Coalition turmoil prompted Draghi last week to offer his resignation, but Mattarella rejected the bid and asked the premier to take his case to Parliament. After hours of debate Wednesday on his fate, Draghi asked the Senate to vote on a confidence measure calling on him to keep on governing. But his national unity government's staying power dramatically fell apart.

Just before the vote, representatives of the populist 5-Star Movement, the conservative forces of former Premier Silvio Berlusconis center-right Forza Italia party and right-wing senators from Matteo Salvinis League party announced they would skip the roll call.

The coalition's implosion came despite an unprecedented outpouring of sentiment by ordinary Italians in the last few days appealing for Draghi to keep on governing, amid soaring inflation, high energy costs and a surge in pandemic infections.

The former European Central Bank chief  considered by financial markets to be a guarantor of fiscal stability in Italy  had challenged his coalition partners to recommit to a unity pact.

Story continues

Are you ready? Are you ready to rebuild this pact? Are you ready? Draghi thundered. You dont have to give the answer to me. You have to give it to all Italians.

Assuming Draghi tenders his resignation again, Mattarella could hold a round of consultations with party leaders before deciding his next move.

The president could see if parties might agree to a short-lived, limited government by a non-political figure, like the current finance minister, to help ensure that lawmakers could pass the annual budget, whose first draft is due in mid-October. But with a raft of Italian parties already proclaiming themselves ready for an early election, that appeared unlikely.

Opinion polls of voters have indicated neck-to-neck percentages for Letta and Giorgia Meloni, who leads the far-right Brothers of Italy party, the main opposition party now. If Meloni stays teamed up with her traditional allies, Salvini and Berlusconi, in an election alliance, she stands a good chance of clinching her goal of becoming Italy's first female premier.

Lettas Democrats had been counting on an election alliance with the 5-Stars, but the split over the confidence vote makes that difficult.

"Nothing will be the same tomorrow, as political parties go,'' said Matteo Renzi, another former premier who leads a centrist party that voted for Draghi.

In recent weeks, Draghi was bombarded with ultimatums from 5-Star leader Giuseppe Conte, his predecessor in the premiership. The populists have criticized Italian military help for Ukraine, as did Salvini. That prompted one lawmaker last week to describe Draghi's impending departure as a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Draghi has also pressed efforts to slash Italy's dependence on Russian gas, including forging agreements with Algeria, which he visited this week.
15-year-old Iosif Tolchinski rehearses his trumpet while his mentor, Christopher Gray, right, looks on during a song recording from "Pirates of the Caribbean." (Gabriella Angotti-Jones/For The Times)

On a Sunday morning in May, the sound-locked wooden hull of the Warner Bros. scoring stage, where countless film and TV scores have been recorded since the days of Casablanca, hummed with energy. Musicians tuned their strings and did scales on their wind and brass instruments, ready for the downbeat of the conductors baton and the red recording light to flicker on. Hands were poised for action on cello bows and French horn valves, waiting to begin laying down a piece of music from a major Pixar film. When the conductor launched the orchestra into the French-influenced ballad by Michael Giacchino, there were no sour notes.

None of this would be exceptional for an orchestra accustomed to recording Hollywood film scores  but these musicians were teenagers from high schools in the Los Angeles area.

How many of you have played to click before? Booker White, who had done the new arrangements of the music these students were recording that day, asked the group. A handful of hands went up in the air. A few, okay. Well, let me give you a little history of click...

White, the head of music preparation at Disney, explained that Looney Tunes composer Carl Stalling devised the click track  a metronome-like beat played through headphones  to help musicians synchronize with early cartoons in this very room. Fernando Arroyo, a professional violinist from Mexico also present for the session, encouraged the young musicians to listen to the click in one ear, but leave the other ear free to hear their fellow players.

Rickey Minor, Emmy Award-nominated music producer, composer and author, and Booker White, supervisor of music preparation and director of music library, Walt Disney Pictures and Television, listen to the students record a song from Pixar's "Up" at Warner Bros. Clint Eastwood sound stage. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones/For The Times)

When the constant tick-ticking started up as they recorded their first piece, the players took to it like ducks to water.

White and Arroyo were two of several film music veterans volunteering their time for the workshop and ensuring this session simulator felt as close to the real thing as possible.

The final cue of the three-hour session, from Pirates of the Caribbean, wasnt one the students had rehearsed the day before  throwing the novice players into the deep end of sight-reading a piece for the first time. Their pitch was a little wobblier, their harmony a little less tight, but the music sounded solid for a surprise read-through.

Story continues

I dont know how to explain it, but you can hear everything  including yourself  really well, said Nicholas Doan, a 16-year-old bass player from Long Beach, during a break. So you have to really listen to your intonation and make sure that youre in tune with everyone.

Its definitely a bit scary, he added, but I think its a nice experience, too.

Nelhuayotl Vargas, 15, of Phineas Banning Senior High School, plays the sousaphone. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones/For The Times)

William An, 17, of Arcadia High School, rehearses the cello. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones/For The Times)

Students ranging from age 13 to 18 auditioned for this inaugural event of the Rise Diversity Project, which capped a week of Zoom workshops and a full day of rehearsals before the scoring session. Hailing from Asian, Latinx and Black communities, the young musicians traveled from Long Beach, Diamond Bar and Glendale to the soundstage in Burbank. The Rise project was conceived and organized by Musicians at Play, a nonprofit founded in 2015 by April Williams and her husband, Don.

Williams is the daughter of the late Maurice Harris, who played trumpet on Johnny Carsons Tonight Show and on numerous film and TV soundtracks including Bonanza and Rocky. She grew up around these musicians, many of whom often go uncredited yet breathe life into movies. After mingling with many of L.A.s incredible studio players every night at Vitellos Italian Restaurant in Studio City  where she ran the jazz program for several years  Williams decided to start an organization that would expose these talented musicians to a broader audience while simultaneously providing music education to local schools in Burbank. The program later expanded to include institutions across the Southland.

For this event, Musicians at Play reached out to school music departments from Inglewood and other predominantly Black neighborhoods  but only a small percentage of the final orchestra was Black. Williams quickly realized that most of the Title I schools dont have music programs, and one of the ways she hopes to increase the diversity projects reach going forward is by sending more instruments and teachers into schools.

The organization ultimately aims to expose audiences to L.A.s musical cultural heritage, she said. And then when were in the schools, we pair it up with: where did this music come from? And the mentors talk about their experiences in the streets and in the world. We try to sync it up with our students and where theyre from so that they can relate to the music and see that their cultural heritage, musically, is in the film music and in music in general.

One of those mentors is Don Williams, a timpani player and veteran of the scoring stage  and younger brother of composer John Williams.

I just do the grunt work, really, said April, but he is definitely in charge of all the artistic and music. If it wasnt for him, we wouldnt have an organization.

At the session, Don sat at his drums between two young percussionists. While running through the house-floating cue from Pixars Up, he told the player on his left that the glockenspiel can be a little louder and to try adding a little shimmer. After a seamlessly executed cymbal swell from the musician on his right, Don nodded and gave a thumbs up.

Violin players, from left: Mana Tatsuki, Justin Tanaka and Julian Rife, take a break in between recordings from the "Ratatouille" movie soundtrack. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones/For The Times)

16-year-old Nicholas Doan, center-right, a Bass player from Orange County High School of the Arts, listens for recording directions. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones/For The Times)

In each section, a mentor who knew the ropes of the film scoring business led the students through each performance and illuminated what their own experience in the industry has been like. Karl Vincent, a bass player and former touring musician, told the students that as soon as he discovered Hollywood scoring sessions he felt like he was home.

The musicians who perform [film] music have been anonymous for a long time, he told me later, and were trying to change that. And also, young people coming up  even if they did know it existed  did not have access to it as a profession.

Theres talent everywhere, he continued, and we need to tap into all the talent everywhere. In the past, it was very exclusive. And that has to change. That has not helped the industry.

The scoring stage is its own miniature musical universe, with unique rules and demands. Lightning-fast sight reading skills are paramount, the pressure is high when youre recording music for multi-million dollar studio movies, and the click is ticking in everyones headphones.

Its so niche, and theres so much institutional knowledge here, said mentor Danielle Ondarza, a French horn player whos been playing sessions for 23 years. Ondarza remembers being the only female in the brass section on most sessions when she first started.

In the recording industry, we dont audition for this  we just get called, she said. One of the problems is the pool of people who get called has not been diverse, and so its one of those chicken/egg things. ... If you dont have any experience, youre really not appropriate for the job. But you cant get experience unless you get called for the job.

A cello in studio. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones/For The Times)

At the end of the three-hour session, conductor Olivia Tsui praised the group  From the first note we played yesterday morning till right now, is just a huge improvement, she said  and she invited the players to listen to the playback of their days work, the recording of which they got to keep as a memento. The players all crowded into the recording booth and many of them pulled out their phones to take photos and video of the listening party. Even behind masks, their pride was radiant.

This was an instructive first attempt for Musicians at Play. April Williams plans to implement it earlier in the school year next time around so that students have more free time in their schedule, and to cast the net even wider. There are even talks to do it twice a year, she said: You know, everybody dreams big.

Ondarza believes its possible the Rise project can contribute to broadening who we hear on soundtracks as well. Experiences like this put it out there in the world for young people: I want to do this, I can do this, I have done this, she said. And it just changes your whole trajectory. It changes the way you interact with your instructors. It changes the kind of music you listen to. It changes your approach. And I have to believe that will lead to more diversity.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A 24-year-old Fresno woman pleaded not guilty Tuesday to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated for a deadly crash in west Fresno  her second drunk-driving crash in six months.

Angie Thao was arrested July 2 by the California Highway Patrol on suspicion of DUI and manslaughter after driving her 2002 Acura RSX through a stop sign at Jensen and Marks avenues and colliding with a 2013 Nissan truck.

The 39-year-old driver of the tuck and his 34-year-old passenger had minor injuries.

Yang Vue, 38, of Sanger, a passenger in Thaos Acura, did not survive the crash. Thao was also injured, sustaining major injuries. She was taken to Community Regional Medical Center for treatment and then transferred to the Fresno County Jail.

Thao remains in jail without bail after violating the conditions of her release from the previous driving under the influence charge in January.

In that case, Thao was charged with DUI with a blood-alcohol concentration of .08% or more and DUI of alcohol while causing injury.

Thao was instructed to not drink and drive while her case was going through the judicial process.

Prosecutor Steven Ueltzen said Thao could face up to 12 years and 8 months if found guilty of the DUI charges.

Her next court appearance is Sept. 7 in Dept. 30 for a pre-preliminary hearing.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP)  Syria said Wednesday it is formally breaking diplomatic ties with Ukraine in response to a similar move by Kyiv.

Syria is a strong ally of Russia, which joined Syrias conflict in September 2015 helping tip the balance of power in favor of President Bashar Assad.

In late June, Damascus said it would recognize the independence and sovereignty of Ukraines Russia-backed eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions, becoming the first country to recognize the two breakaway states' independence. That led Ukraine to sever ties with Syria.

The Syrian Arab Republic has decided to break diplomatic relations with Ukraine in conformity with the principle of reciprocity," a Syrian Foreign Ministry statement said.

It said that Ukraine had in reality ruptured relations with Syria in 2018, when it refused to revalidate residencies of Syrian diplomatic staff in Kyiv, making it impossible for them to carry out their duties. It said that the Syrian embassy at that time suspended its duties as a result of the hostile attitudes of the Ukrainian government.

Wednesday's announcement came as Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad was in Tehran to meet with Iranian officials, a day after a summit meeting between the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey was held in Tehran.

In only his second trip abroad since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Putin conferred with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the conflict in Syria.

After abandoning its bungled attempt to storm Ukraines capital of Kyiv two months ago, Russia declared that taking the entire Donbas is its main objective. Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian government forces in the Donbas since 2014, and the region has borne the brunt of the Russian onslaught in recent weeks.
KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - A 13-year-old boy was killed by a Russian missile strike as he waited for a bus near a mosque in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Wednesday, local officials said.

After the attack, the teenager's father knelt holding the hand of his dead son, whose covered body lay on the street near the destroyed bus shelter, a Reuters photograph showed.

Rescue workers carried away another corpse on a stretcher. The nearby mosque had been badly damaged.

Oleh Synehubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, said three people had been killed in Kharkiv on Wednesday - the teenager, a man and a woman - but it was not clear whether all three died at the bus stop.

He said the dead teenager's 15-year-old sister had also been wounded but did not give their names.

"This is another terrible act of terror by the Russians," Synegubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, did not immediately comment on the incident. It has denied deliberately targeting civilians although Russian missile and rocket attacks have devastated Ukrainian cities and towns.

In a separate Telegram post, the local prosecutor's office said it believed the rockets were fired from an Uragan multiple rocket launcher.

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city, resisted a Russian assault that reached its outskirts in the first two months of the invasion, but has experienced almost daily shelling over the past month after a period of relative calm.

(Writing by Max Hunder, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
Jul. 19A man who shot another Monday afternoon at Greenwood Manor Apartments on Terre Haute's South 19th Street was acting in self-defense and likely will not face charges, according to city police.

Terre Haute officers were sent to the apartment complex in the 2600 block of South 19th after 4 p.m. They identified the victim and suspect and secured the scene, according to a posting on social media by police.

The person shot was taken to a local hospital, where he was treated for a non-life threatening gunshot wound to the thigh.

Detectives determined that the man who was shot was the aggressor in a dispute between the two men, police said. The man who fired the shot did so in self-defense as he was physically incapable of stopping the aggressor due to legitimate medical conditions.

Police said that although the investigation continues, no charges are being filed against the man who fired the firearm.
A veteran politician backed by the party of ousted Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the favourite to be elected to replace him, analysts said after nominations closed Tuesday.

Ranil Wickremesinghe is a six-time former prime minister who became acting president after Rajapaksa resigned, but is despised by the protesters who forced his predecessor from office.

Wickremesinghe has the formal backing of the Rajapaksas' SLPP, the largest bloc in the 225-member parliament that will elect the president on Wednesday.

His main opponent will be SLPP dissident and former education minister Dullas Alahapperuma, who is being supported by the opposition.

The winner of the three-way contest will take charge of a bankrupt nation that is in talks with the IMF for a bailout, with its 22 million people enduring severe shortages of food, fuel and medicines.

Sri Lanka ran out of foreign exchange to finance even the most vital imports in a crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic but exacerbated by mismanagement, critics say.

Months of protests culminated in Rajapaksa fleeing his palace before flying to the Maldives and then Singapore, from where he submitted his resignation.

As acting president, Wickremesinghe has extended a state of emergency that gives police and security forces sweeping powers to deal with troublemakers, and last week he ordered troops to evict protesters from state buildings they had occupied.

An opposition MP said Wickremesinghe's hardline stance against demonstrators was going down well with MPs who had been at the receiving end of mob violence, and most SLPP legislators would side with him.

"Ranil is emerging as the law-and-order candidate," Tamil MP Dharmalingam Sithadthan told AFP.

Political analyst Kusal Perera agreed that Wickremesinghe had a "slight advantage" despite his own party securing just one seat at the August 2020 elections.

"Ranil has regained the acceptance of the urban middle classes by restoring some of the supplies like gas and he has already cleared government buildings showing his firmness," Perera said.

Story continues

Observers believe that Wickremesinghe will crack down hard if he wins and the demonstrators -- who have also been demanding his resignation, accusing him of protecting the Rajapaksas' interests -- will take to the streets.

The protesters were planning another rally against Wickremesinghe in the capital later Tuesday.

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, the deposed Gotabaya's elder brother and head of the clan that has dominated Sri Lankan politics for years, remains in the country and party sources said he was pressing SLPP legislators to support Wickremesinghe.

- Backroom deal -

His main opponent Alahapperuma, a former journalist, is not the object of so much scorn from the demonstrators, despite being an SLPP member.

He promised to form "an actual consensual government for the first time in our history," in a tweet three days ago.

Moments before the formal nominations in parliament, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa announced he was withdrawing from the race in favour of 63-year-old Alahapperuma.

"For the greater good of my country that I love and the people I cherish, I hereby withdraw my candidacy for the position of President," Premadasa tweeted.

Alahapperuma was a rights campaigner in the late 1980s, when Premadasa's late father Ranasinghe ruled the country with an iron fist.

But a legislator from Premadasa's SJB party told AFP that the two men struck a deal overnight for Premadasa to be chosen as the new prime minister should Alahapperuma become head of state.

"We have a common minimum programme that we agreed on," the SJB MP said. "We had only one sticking point about who will be the president and that was sorted out last night."

The third candidate is Anura Dissanayake, 53, leader of the leftist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, which has three parliamentary seats.

MPs will rank the candidates in order of preference in a secret ballot -- a mechanism which gives them a freer hand than an open poll, and previous elections have seen allegations of bribes offered and accepted in exchange for votes.

Candidates need more than half the vote to be elected. If no one crosses the threshold on first preferences, the candidate with the lowest support will be eliminated and their votes distributed according to second preferences.

The new leader will be in office for the balance of Rajapaksa's term, which runs until November 2024.

If Wickremesinghe is confirmed in the post, he is expected to name public administration minister Dinesh Gunawardena, 73, his schoolmate and a strong Rajapaksa loyalist, as the new premier.

aj/slb/dva
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, center, and members of her team watch as potential jurors are excused during proceedings to seat a special purpose grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, on Monday, May 2, 2022, to look into the actions of former President Donald Trump and his supporters who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The hearing took place in Atlanta. AP Photo/Ben Gray

Trump supporters chosen as alternate electors to overturn the 2020 election may face charges.

Georgia prosecutors are investigating election interference, conspiracy, and racketeering in the state.

16 alternate electors received official notice that they are targets for prosecution.

Sixteen would-be electors who were slated to serve as alternate voters in the 2020 election to overturn its results are facing possible criminal charges as Georgia prosecutors investigate allegations of election interference and conspiracy.

The electors are being investigated for participating in the creation of a document that, in an attempt to circumvent President Joe Biden's victory in the state identified them as being among the "duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Georgia." The submission of that document to the National Archives, is also a part of the investigation, according to court documents.

"Each of the sixteen persons who signed the unofficial Elector Certificate ultimately submitted to the National Archives received similar target letter, alerting that person both that his testimony was required by the special purpose grand jury and that he was target of the investigation," the filing read.

The District Attorney of Fulton County, Fani T. Willis, is considering possible racketeering and conspiracy charges against the electors, according to the filing. Willis' office has also been investigating possible election fraud solicitation and has subpoenaed allies of former President Donald Trump, including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, his legal adviser John Eastman, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

"This is a sign of a dramatic acceleration of her work," Norman Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first Trump impeachment, told The New York Times, adding that prosecutors typically work their way "up the food chain, so usually the first wave of target letters is not the last."

Read the original article on Business Insider
A woman and a man allegedly involved in a road rage incident at Tuas Second Link were caught on camera in several viral videos. (SCREENSHOTS: @singapore_incidents Instagram/Mhzq Ziq Facebook)

SINGAPORE  A woman and a man who were allegedly involved in a road rage incident at the Tuas Second Link have been released on bail following their arrest by Malaysian police.

The duo have returned to Singapore and have not been charged, said Iskandar Puteri district police chief Rahmat Ariffin, according to a report by The Straits Times on Wednesday (20 July). He did not mention when the duo were released.

The local police previously said the 46-year-old Chinese woman and 18-year-old Singaporean man were nabbed last Thursday night at the immigration checkpoint of the Sultan Abu Bakar Complex heading towards Johor, without mentioning the woman's nationality.

Both suspects had admitted to being involved in the incident, according to Iskandar Puteri Assistant Commander Rahmat Ariffin.

In an earlier statement, Rahmat said police had received statements from the Singaporean victim of the incident. The incident allegedly occurred when the victim's vehicle collided with a car driven by one of the suspects, he added.

The incident, which was caught in several viral videos, happened after a person, who was driving a Toyota Alphard, was reported to have changed lanes and collided with a Kia sedan.

A woman came out of her Kia and was seen trying to stop the Toyota from moving forward by leaning against the vehicle and trying to push it backward. She then pulled out the number plate of the Toyota and smashed it on the windscreen of the vehicle.

A short while later, a man can be seen coming out of the Kia and rushing towards the woman and gesturing wildly in the direction of the Toyota.

In another video of the incident, the woman was caught on a dashcam  supposedly from the Toyota  staring in front of the vehicle amid sustained honking. She was seen gesturing to several cars in an adjacent lane to move forward and a person in the Toyota can be heard shouting, Crazy ah!

Do you have a story tip? Email: sgnews.tips@yahooinc.com.

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Tucker Carlson has again promoted the baseless Great Replacement Theory on his show to lash out at Democrats for allegedly trying to replace the electorate.

The Fox News host, who has spoken about the white supremacist theory frequently, went on a long rant on Tuesday night on Tucker Carlson Tonight and blamed the government for changing America completely and forever and undermining democracy by replacing US-born Americans with immigrants.

Sometime around 1965, our leaders stopped trying to make the United States a hospitable place for American citizens, their constituents, to have their own families, he said. That used to be considered the central task of leadership  perpetuating the population. If people are happy and confident, theyll have kids.

So, they stopped doing it and instead they just imported new people. Thats literally what happened, he added, lashing out at the media for remaining silent over the topic he deems to be a recipe for social collapse.

The media become absolutely hysterical when you do because its so obviously true... when it happens in this country, there is mandatory media enforced silence and in fact, if you notice its happening, its your fault. Youre immoral. Youre a racist, but it has nothing to do with race.

He said population growth in the US since 1965 has come from immigration, not from Americans having more kids, without citing any references, reports or data for the year in question.

Again, you cant just replace the electorate because you didnt like the last election outcomes. That would be the definition of undermining democracy, changing the voters, he added.

Carlson has repeatedly been called out for raising the theory that has been cited by perpetrators of mass shootings to justify their actions.

Most recently, it was referenced by suspected Buffalo mass shooter Payton Gendron.

Replacement theory is a nebulous term used for the idea that Democrats and the Left in general are trying to replace or lessen the influence of white voters in the US through immigration policies.

Story continues

Variations of the theory veer sharply into white supremacist ideologies and racism.

According to a New York Times analysis, the Fox News host has referred to that idea in more than 400 episodes since 2016.

Carlson went on to explicitly address the theory by its name and baselessly claimed it is an electoral strategy.

The great replacement. Yeah. Its not a conspiracy theory. Its their electoral strategy and we know that because they see it all the time.

A Daily Dot article rebutted a claim that white birth rates are falling, citing Pew Social and Demographic Trends that suggested birth rates for self-identified white, Black, Hispanic and Asian people are all in decline.
Lady Gaga Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

U.S. Marshals are seeking information on a man accused of shooting Lady Gaga's dog walker after the suspect was accidentally released from jail more than three months ago.

The U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement a reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of 19-year-old James Howard Jackson, who was charged with attempted murder and robbery after allegedly shooting Lady Gaga's dog walker in Feburary 2021. The pop star's French bulldogs were kidnapped but later returned, and the dog walker, Ryan Fischer, recovered from his injuries.

Officials said Jackson was "erroneously" released from custody in April 2022 "due to a clerical error," as was reported at the time. In April, charges against the suspect were dismissed so they could be replaced with a superseding indictment, but he was apparently mistakenly released because the court records weren't correctly updated, NBC News reported.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Major Crime Team has now asked the U.S. Marshals Service for help locating the suspect, who "should be considered armed and dangerous," officials said.

Jackson was one of five suspects arrested in the shooting of Ryan Fischer, who told CBS that "people in the E.R. who I'd seen that night told me that they didn't think I was going to survive that night." In April, Fischer said he was "deeply concerned" to learn Jackson had been released but "confident law enforcement will rectify the error."

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WASHINGTON  The U.S. and Dutch militaries signed an agreement Wednesday in the Netherlands to work together on future vertical lift programs, according to a statement from the U.S. Army.

FVL is a plan to design and manufacture a generation of helicopters  and other low-tier aviation  with the latest in technology and capabilities. Douglas Bush, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, said this agreement keeps the U.S. and its allies ahead of its adversaries.

By working closely on our future efforts, we garner the greatest possible strength for the long-term advance of our mutual interest, Bush said during the ceremony at Gilze-Rijen Air Force Base. In todays security environment, we must maintain superiority over determined adversaries by vastly increasing speed, range, lethality and survivability of our aviation platforms.

The agreement allows the two countries to collaborate on aviation modernization. The U.S. Army has been intently pursuing FVL capabilities, which include Future Long-Range Attack (FLRAA) and Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA), as well as Future Unmanned Aerial Systems and other Department of Defense programs.

FVL is one of the top modernization priorities for Army Futures Command, which leads many of the services major program acquisitions. Over the next five years, the U.S. Army will spend $3.1 billion to develop FARA and $3.6 billion on FLRAA, according to fiscal year 2023 Army budget justification documents.

In February, the United Kingdom signed a similar agreement to examine how U.S. and U.K. aircraft could be more closely integrated. U.S. Maj. Gen. Walter Rugen, director of the FVL Cross-Functional Team at Army Futures Command, said such agreements allow for greater openness with vital allies.

It allows us to talk concepts at sensitive levels, Rugen said. It allows us to talk requirements, and allows us to talk science and technologies.

Last month, the Netherlands signed onto a memorandum of understanding with five other NATO allies  Italy, France, Germany, Greece and the United Kingdom  to commit $28 million for a Next-Generation Rotocraft Capability (NGRC) project. With many helicopters in the specified countries reaching the end of their expected life, the goal of the collective is focused on getting those aircraft replaced by 2035.

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And there remains potential for future agreements on helicopter modernization and coordination, but no specific allies were mentioned during the press conference. Regardless, Bush said, this type of coordination among allies has proven valuable.

Weve seen the benefits for interoperability among our forces, especially in aviation, Bush said. Knowing that your ally on your flank has equipment every bit as good as yours, that they can operate day and night, in bad weather and that their tactics and training are similar to yours, is the key to successful military operations.

Although more than 2,000 miles away, the invasion of Ukraine remained an issue during the signing. For a country the size of the Netherlands, Dutch Maj. Gen. Andre Steur said, maintaining strong relationships with allies militarily have become even more necessary for security.

You can not have enough friends in the world we live in right now, Steur said. Not too long ago we were celebrating 75 years of peace in Europe, and now we have war in Europe. We have war at the eastern edges of the alliance, and I think its upon all of us to be able to counter future threats as one fighting force.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington is monitoring the situation following a shelling that killed civilians in northern Iraq on Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, declining to comment in detail while information emerges on the strike.

Iraqi state media accused neighboring Turkey of carrying out the strike that killed eight tourists and wounded another 23 people at a resort in the northern Dohuk province. Ankara denied it played any role.

In a regular press briefing, Price reiterated the U.S. position that military action in Iraq should respect Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity, and emphasized "the importance of ensuring civilians are protected."

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis; Editing by Leslie Adler)
There are only around 25 cities in the entire country that host a $1 billion per year university research enterprise. Gainesville is now one of those cities.

University of Florida faculty, staff and students in Gainesville and around the state have every reason to be extremely proud of UFs announcement this week that we have surpassed our long-sought goal of $1 billion in research spending.

It is through the hard work of thousands of faculty, staff and students that UF has joined approximately 30 public and private universities in the U.S. with $1 billion in research expenditures.

While the research we do impacts people everywhere, the vast majority of the work happens here in Gainesville and at our research centers around the state, including multiple Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) facilities and UF Scripps Biomedical Research.

A researcher with the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences places a plant grown during a lunar soil experiment in a vial for genetic analysis, at a laboratory in Gainesville. For the first time, scientists have used lunar soil collected by long-ago moonwalkers to grow plants, with results promising enough that NASA and others already are envisioning hothouses on the moon for the next generation of lunar explorers.

And it is here in Florida that the economic impact of that research is so important. The State University System of Florida estimates that research at the 12 state universities has a $4 billion economic impact, and UF accounts for over 40% of that research. Locally, the impact is even greater, especially if the many UF spinoff companies in the area are factored into the equation.

UF excels at translating research into impact through commercialization. UFs success in technology transfer and company incubation has been recognized both nationally and internationally. Our Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator has, in the past 10 years, been named the top incubator in the world three times. Our newest incubator, the Hub, has also received global recognition as the best in its class.

A worker collects data at a laboratory inside the University of Florida's Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator in Alachua.

Dozens of people in our community work in the companies housed in the Sid Martin and Hub incubators, and hundreds more work in spin outs from UF, like AGTC, Axogen, Sinmat and Exactech.

This past May, a nonpartisan think tank known as Heartland Forward released a study of all research universities in the U.S., comprehensively measuring the effectiveness of each at translating research discoveries into impact within the marketplace. This was not a beauty contest based on reputation; it was a metrics-driven assessment whose scoring placed a higher bar for large institutions versus smaller ones. According to this report, the University of Florida No. 2 among all U.S. universities at infusing research and discovery into private industry through commercializing discoveries and producing graduates in science and technology.

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While $1 billion a year in research is a remarkable feat, it is the impact of our research in advancing knowledge, creating new technologies and powering Floridas economy that really counts.

For example, UF Health has major research thrusts that are seeking cures for cancer, diabetes, neurological disorders and other diseases, where scientists and physicians work together to create hope through new treatments and therapies for patients in Florida and beyond.

Through IFAS, UF ranks first among U.S. universities in total research spending for agriculture. With IFAS, Floridas agricultural industry has the most powerful research engine in the country behind it, ensuring that farmers of almost 100 different commodities, from citrus to strawberries to pine trees, have the most recent science and technologies at their disposal.

At the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, faculty are shaping the future by developing new technologies for health care, resilient communities, cybersecurity and the connected world.

People walk around the atrium of the University of Florida's Herbert Wertheim Laboratory for Engineering Excellence building and labs during the dedication ceremony in Gainesville on Oct. 7.

In fact, across all our 16 colleges and hundreds of centers and institutes, UF researchers are helping to make life better. Theyre improving the effectiveness of teaching, whether in a classroom or online. Theyre using the arts to give voice to communities and the individual. Theyre exploring Mars for signs of life and preparing to sustain human life on the moon by growing plants in soil brought back from the Apollo 11 mission.

At UF, it is the impact of new discoveries that defines what our research is really all about  why we work so hard to secure funding and to be accountable for every dollar spent.

David P. Norton , vice president for research at the University of Florida

UFs $1 billion-a-year research enterprise is essential for Floridas citizens and for its future economy. We are changing the lives of people for the better in our state, our nation and around the world.

David P. Norton is the vice president for research at UF.

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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: David Norton: UF's $1 billion in research benefits Gainesville, state
Speaking to members of Congress in Washington, D.C., the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, urged lawmakers to continue U.S. support of Ukraine's response to the Russian invasion that started nearly five months ago.

Video Transcript

INTERPRETER: You help us. And your help is very strong. While Russia kills, America saves. And you should know about it. We thank you for that.

But unfortunately, the war is not over. The terror continues. And I appeal to all of you on the behalf of those who were killed, on behalf of those people who lost their arms and legs, on behalf of those who are still alive and well and those who wait for their families to come back from the front, I'm asking for something now I would never want to ask. I am asking for weapons, weapons that would not be used to wage a war on somebody else's land, but to protect one's home and the right to wake up alive in that home. I'm asking for air defense systems in order for rockets not to be killed-- not to kill children in their strollers, in order for rockets not to destroy children's rooms and kill entire families.

I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, will be leaving for the traditional congressional recess in a week. And all of you will be able to return to your offices in the fall and. Probably all of you have already your calendar and schedule for September. This is normal.

And it is precisely this normalcy that we Ukrainians are deprived of now. Will my son be able to return to his school in the fall? I don't know, like millions of mothers in Ukraine. Will my daughter be able to go to university at the beginning of the academic year and experience normal student life? I cannot answer.

What should Ukrainian teachers prepare for? To work in classrooms or in bomb shelters? We would have answers if we had air defense systems.

In fact, the answer is right here in Washington, DC. America, unfortunately, knows from its own experience what terrorist attacks are and has always sought to defeat terrorism. Help us to stop this terror against Ukrainians. And this will be our joint great victory in the name of life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness of every person, every family.

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This is what I'm asking for and what my husband is asking for, not as a presidential couple, but as parents and children of their parents, because we want every father and every mother to be able to tell their child, go to sleep peacefully. There will be no more airstrikes, no more missile strikes. Is this too much to wish for?

The fact that I am here as the first lady of my country and have this opportunity to talk to you about weapons is a manifestation of the greatest equality. This is the equality among free people, people who know what they are protecting. They know what they live for.

I hope you heard me today. And I hope that your decisions will be speedy. Thank you for your attention. Glory to Ukraine.
(Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday dismissed as inadequate a seventh round of European Union sanctions against Russia, which is currently being finalized.

"This is not enough and I am telling my partners this frankly. Russia must feel a much higher price for the war to force it to seek peace," he said in a late-night video address.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Leslie Adler)
The First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska on Wednesday addressed Congress in an emotional appeal as Russia continues its deadly war in Ukraine.

Zelenska highlighted the atrocities that Russian forces have committed on civilians, particularly on the children of Ukraine.

In an unusual turn of events, the Ukrainian first lady made a plea for arms and defensive weaponry to better fend off Russias continued assault.

PRESIDENT BIDEN, JILL BIDEN WELCOME UKRAINE'S FIRST LADY OLENA ZELENSKA TO THE WHITE HOUSE

"Im asking for weapons," she said. "Im asking for air defense systems in order for rockets not to kill children in their strollers

"Help us stop this terror," she continued. "And this will be our joy, a great victory in the name of life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.

"We want every mother and every father to be able to tell their child go to sleep peacefully, there will be no more air strikes. Is this too much to wish for?" she questioned.

The Ukrainian first ladys plea comes as Russia has increased its missile strikes across the country and is once again honing in on areas around the capital city of Kyiv.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday announced that Moscows war ambition was no longer just "full control" over the Donbas regions, but said Russia has expanded the geographical objectives of its "special military operation."

BIDEN ADMIN TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL WEAPONS, SECURITY ASSISTANCE TO UKRAINE AS RUSSIA PLANS TO ANNEX TERRITORIES

Lavrov said the Kremlins objectives to "denazify" and demilitarize regions in Ukraine had extended to the Kherson, Zaporizhia and a "number of other territories" in Ukraine, reported Russian media outlets.

Though the foreign ministers comments suggest this is a new strategy Moscow will pursue, Russian forces have occupied these areas and engaged in a brutal campaign there for months.

Lavrov suggested Russias objectives in Ukraine had changed as Western allies continue to send defensive aid to Kyiv.

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Lawmakers in Congress and the Biden administration have vowed to continue supporting Ukraine.

"The Congress remains with Ukraine as it fights to defend democracy not only for its people but for the world," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said when introducing Zelenska.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) last week confirmed that there have been at least 11,544 civilian casualties in Ukraine with 5,024 people that have been killed, including 343 children, and 6,520 others who have been injured.

The OHCHR said it believes actual causality figures are "considerably higher" than what has been reported.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukrainian forces on Wednesday damaged a bridge that is key to supplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine, where Russias foreign minister said Moscow will consolidate its territorial gains.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state-controlled RT television and the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia plans to retain control over broader areas beyond eastern Ukraine, including the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south, and will make more gains elsewhere.

Lavrov's remarks and the Ukrainian missile attack on the strategically important Kherson region bridge indicated the nearly five-month war could broaden after unfolding mostly in eastern Ukraine since April.

Russia's top diplomat noted that when Russia and Ukraine in March discussed a possible deal to end the fighting, Our readiness to accept the Ukrainian proposal was based on the geography of March 2022.

Now its a different geography, Lavrov said, repeating Moscow's claims that the United States and Britain were encouraging Ukraine to expand the hostilities.

With Western countries providing Ukraine with longer-range weapons, Lavrov said Russia's geographical tasks will be pushed even further from the current line because we cannot allow the part of Ukraine under control of Zelenskyy or whoever comes to succeed him, to have weapons that will pose a direct threat to our territory and the territories of those republics that have declared their independence.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 and quickly seized territory, but withdrew from the capital region and north to concentrate on seizing Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, which pro-Moscow separatists have partly controlled since 2014.

As Russian forces captured more of the two provinces, which together make up Ukraine's industrial Donbas region, Ukrainian officials planned a counter-offensive to retake Russian-occupied areas in the south.

The Ukrainian strike on the Dnipro River bridge, the second in as many days, appeared intended to loosen Russia's grip on the southern Kherson region.

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Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of a temporary, Russian-installed administration running the region, said the Ukrainian military struck the Antonivskyi Bridge using U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers. The 1.4-kilometer (0.9-mile) bridge is the main river crossing in the Kherson region, and the Russian military uses it to supply its forces. Stremousov said that because of the bridge damage, pontoons would be constructed over the river, also known as the Dnieper.

The head of the Moscow-appointed Kherson administration, Vladimir Saldo, said cars could continue driving across the bridge but trucks couldn't and instead could use a dam 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

Early in the war, Russian troops overran the Kherson region just north of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. They have faced Ukrainian counterattacks, but have largely held their ground.

Kherson  site of ship-building at the confluence of the Dnipro River and Black Sea  is one of several areas a U.S. government spokesman said Russia is trying to take over.

White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence officials have evidence that Russia wants to annex Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and all of the Donbas through referendums, as soon as September.

In Zaporizhzhia, Russian-installed authorities claimed Wednesday that Ukraine's military had used drones to attack the local nuclear power plant, Europe's largest. Vladimir Rogov, a local Moscow-appointed official, said three Ukrainian attack drones had hit the plant's territory with explosives but not its reactor area. All normal operations continued, and no release of radiation was detected, he said. Russia's state news agency Tass reported 11 plant workers were injured, four seriously. The news agency later quoted a Russian military official as saying the attack had occurred Monday.

Ukrainian authorities, who have over the past months reported Russian missiles almost hitting the plant, did not immediately comment on the report.

The bulk of Russia's forces are fighting in the Donbas, where they have made slow gains facing Ukrainian resistance. The Russian military has used long-range missiles to strike targets across Ukraine, killing hundreds of civilians.

Ukraine's presidential office said at least 13 civilians were killed and 40 wounded in Russian shelling across the country in a 24-hour period between Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Wednesday, at least three more people died when Russia bombarded the northeastern city of Kharkiv with Hurricane salvo rocket systems. The victims, who were waiting at a bus stop, included a 69-year-old man, his wife and a 13-year-old boy.

The boys 15-year-old sister was injured, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutors Office. Video showed the boy's father, apparently in a state of shock, praying above his son's uncovered body and holding his hand.

Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of launching cross-border attacks. Another such report came Wednesday, when Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had fired on two Russian border villages.

Most villagers were previously evacuated under a state of emergency, but Gladkov said the latest attack killed a man, and damaged homes and a village club.

In other developments Wednesday:

 An Associated Press investigation has found that many refugees from Ukraine are forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that Ukraine has been using U.S-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers effectively and would provide four more, bringing the total to 16. The truck-mounted HIMARS launchers fire GPS-guided missiles that can reach targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

 Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, appealed to American lawmakers during a speech at the U.S. Capitol for more air defense systems to protect her countrys skies. In her unsparing Capitol address, Zelenska shared images of blood-stained baby strollers and small crumpled bodies left after Russian missile attacks.

 The European Unions head office proposed that member states cut their natural gas use by 15% over the coming months to ensure that any full Russian cutoff of natural gas supplies will not cause unmanageable winter disruptions. While the initial cuts would be voluntary, the European Commission also asked for the power to impose mandatory reductions across the bloc in the event of a severe gas shortage or exceptionally high demand.

Zelenskyy, in a Wednesday night video address, said Europe should have reduced its dependence on Russian gas previously. If our position had been listened to earlier, he said, "we would not have had to look for emergency ways to fill the deficit that Russia is artificially creating on the European market."

 In a sign of the crippling economic impact of the war, the Ukrainian government said it would ask investors to allow the country to postpone foreign debt payments for two years. Leaders of a group of creditors said they agreed to the delay and urged bondholders to do the same.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
WASHINGTON  While U.S. companies struggle to fill cybersecurity and artificial intelligence positions, Australia has too few jobs to keep its talent at home, leaving it vulnerable in an increasingly hostile cyber environment, defense industry leaders said.

Australia is investing millions of dollars into research and development to close gaps in the countrys cyber defense apparatus, they told the Australian Defence Science, Technology and Research Summit in Sydney on June 20.

And while the talent pool for workers with for AI and machine learning in Australia is deep, Anton van den Hengel, director of the Centre for Augmented Reasoning at the Australian Institute for Machine Learning, said their are simply not enough jobs and career opportunities in the country to keep them at home.

Weve made very little  very little  progress towards artificial intelligence, he said.

The U.S. faces a critical cyber labor shortage, with some 700,000 cybersecurity positions open nationwide, according to estimates from the White House. More than 35,000 job openings are currently posted on the Indeed hiring wesbite using the search term Artificial Intelligence.

Van den Hengel, who also works as a director of applied science at Amazon, and other industry leaders at the summit pointed to the governments inability to compete with tech companies as a major issue when expanding the countrys AI abilities. In both the U.S. and Australia, governments come up against the draw of private industry, creating high salary costs and other the hurdles to attracting and retaining talent.

Defense no longer has the best tech, he said, noting that private companies have committed billions of dollars to develop technologies and have the open positions to attract workers in the AI field.

The Defence Science and Technology Group, a part of the Australian defense department aimed at providing science and technology support to national security interests, hosted the summit.

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Private-sector competition intensifies for AI talent

With high salaries and access to breaking-edge technologies, the private AI field has become increasingly lucrative. In recent years, many western counties, including the U.S., have turned to the private sector to compete with investments made by China.

Van den Hengel said outsourcing to the private sector only goes so far. Governments have to try and keep track of the technologies coming out of companies while also trying to understand them deeply enough to figure out their defense applications, he said.

In November, the Australian government said it would invest $10 million in innovative AI tech. The move followed the September announcement that Australia would partner with Britain and U.S. in a new working group, known by the acronym AUKUS, to share advanced technologies, including AI.

Kate Devitt, the chief scientist of Trusted Autonomous Systems, said Australia specifically needs experts in the field of deep learning and natural language processing compared to companies such as Google and Meta as well as specialists in reinforcement learning.

We lack the digital infrastructure and investment required to enable the human capital with these skills to flourish in universities, she said. These gaps make Australia vulnerable and dependent on the choices of our allies and our rivals.

Trusted Autonomous Systems is Australias first defense cooperative research center. It partners the countrys defense industry and research organizations with Australias defense department to develop autonomous and robotic technology.

While Devitt said the obvious answer is more investment in technical AI capabilities and infrastructure, she said that Australia needs to be decisive in its investments. As a medium-sized country, the government must use its limited resources to make scrappy decisions that yield outsized impacts, she said.
The U.S. Postal Service will order more than twice the number of electric vehicles initially projected for its new fleet, the agency announced Wednesday.

The move follows months of controversy after the Postal Service initially sought to make about 10 percent of its fleet electric. Now it plans to make at least 40 percent of its fleet electric.

The Postal Service said in a statement it adjusted the fleets Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to include more electric vehicles under the current contract. The Postal Service is targeting a purchase of at least 25,000 electric vehicles, it said.

The Postal Service said in February that its initial order to have 10 percent of its new trucks be electric included an option to adjust the percentage later, but the announcement sparked pushback from members of Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Postal Service maintains the largest vehicle fleet in the federal government, and critics argued that not including more electric vehicles in the fleet would fly in the face of President Bidens push for the federal government to pursue carbon neutrality.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy argued increasing the electric vehicles in the fleet was financially unfeasible, but critics suggested DeJoy, a longtime donor to Republicans and former President Trump, was deliberately undermining the Biden administrations climate goals.

In June, the Postal Service opened the door to increasing the number of electric trucks but maintained it was always an option and was not in response to the controversy.

In March, Congress passed a Postal Service reform package freeing up billions in funds, while DeJoy has also reorganized mail carrier routes that make the charging process for delivery drivers more efficient. Also significantly, however, Biden has secured a majority of appointees on the Postal Services board of governors, the only entity with the power to dismiss DeJoy.

In the meantime, a coalition of environmental groups and 16 state attorneys general have sued the Postal Service over the initial order, arguing it was based on faulty data that exaggerated the cost of electric vehicle batteries. The Hill has reached out to California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D), who led the multistate lawsuit, for comment.

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Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who spearheaded the USPS reforms in the Senate, praised the Postal Services announcement Wednesday in statement.

I was pleased to see that the Postal Service plans to increase their investments in more energy efficient vehicles that will help reduce the cost of operating their fleet in the long run, he said. I will continue to push for every part of the postal fleet to be environmentally-friendly and union-made, and will continue my oversight efforts to ensure the Postal Service can provide timely service to the American people while deploying better delivery vehicles that keep postal workers safe while on the job.

Updated: 2:27 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
School district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, third from the left, during a news conference in Uvalde, Texas, on May 2. The Uvalde school board will consider firing him. (Dario Lopez-Mills / Associated Press)

Facing massive public pressure, Uvaldes top school official has recommended the firing of the school district police chief who was central to the botched law enforcement response to the elementary school shooting nearly two months ago that killed two teachers and 19 students.

The South Texas citys school board announced Wednesday that it will consider firing Chief Pete Arredondo at a special meeting Saturday. Arredondo has been accused by state officials of making several critical mistakes during the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

School officials have previously resisted calls to fire Arredondo. The announcement comes two days after a meeting where the school board members were lambasted for more than three hours by members of the public, who accused them of not implementing basic security at Robb, of not being transparent about what happened and of failing to hold Arredondo to account for his actions.

Confronted with parents' vociferous demands to fire Arredondo and warnings that his job would be next, Supt. Hal Harrell said Monday that the police chief was a contract employee who could not be fired at will. The agenda for Saturday's meeting includes the board discussing the potential firing with its lawyer.

Arredondo, who has been on leave from the district since June 22, has faced blistering criticism since the massacre, most notably for not ordering officers to immediately breach the classroom where an 18-year-old gunman carried out the attack. If fired, Arredondo would become the first officer ousted from his job after the deadliest Texas school shooting in history.

Although nearly 400 officers from various agencies were involved in the police response that took more than an hour to confront and kill the shooter, Arredondo is one of only two known to have faced discipline. His attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The move to potentially fire the chief follows the release of a damning 80-page report by a Texas House committee that blamed all levels of law enforcement for a slow and chaotic response. The report found that 376 law enforcement officers massed at the school, with more than half coming from state and federal agencies, but that they failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.

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According to the committee, Arredondo told lawmakers that he didnt consider himself the on-scene commander in charge and that his priority was to protect children in other classrooms. The committee report called that decision a terrible, tragic mistake.

Body camera footage released by the Uvalde officials shows Arredondo in the hallway trying multiple sets of keys on other classroom doors, but not the one where the massacre took place. The classroom door could not be locked from the inside, but there is no indication officers tried to open the door while the gunman was inside.

Our thought was: If he comes out, you know, you eliminate the threat, correct? Arredondo told the committee, according to the report. And just the thought of other children being in other classrooms, my thought was: We cant let him come back out. If he comes back out, we take him out, or we eliminate the threat.

Arredondo, 50, grew up in Uvalde and spent much of his nearly 30-year career in law enforcement in the city. He took the head police job at the school district in 2020 and was sworn in as a member of the City Council in a closed-door ceremony May 31. He resigned from his council seat July 2.

Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.




NEWS PROVIDED BY

Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

July 20, 2022



NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on reaction to monkeypox:

"Monkeypox can be exceptionally painful," says Patrick Ashley, senior deputy director at the D.C. Department of Health, "especially if there are lesions on the penis, a lot of penal swelling, on the anus as well, it can be significantly painful."

Now we all know who is the most likely to have these kinds of problems. They used to be called homosexuals, then they were called gay. Now they are often known as men having sex with men (as if this is not what defines homosexual behavior).

The D.C. Department of Health confirms our suspicion. So who is listed on its website as the most likely to get monkeypox? "Gay, bisexual, and other men 18 and older who have sex with men and have had multiple or anonymous sexual partners in the last 14 days; or transgender women [e.g. males who think they are a woman] and nonbinary persons assigned male at birth who have sex with men; or sex workers [prostitutes] of any sex; or staff (of any sex) at establishments where sexual activity occurs (e.g., bathhouses, saunas, sex clubs)."

In other words, promiscuous gay men are the problem.

This is not a generalization. While all health officials and gay activists will insist that everyone is at risk, they know full well that this is a gay-driven disease.

ABC News reports that in Britain, monkeypox is spreading in "defined sexual networks of gay, bisexual, or men who have sex with men." The reporter adds, "Officials said there were no signs suggesting sustained spread beyond those populations."

NBC News reports that "To date, more than 99 percent of monkeypox cases in Britain are among men, and the majority of those are in men who are gay, bisexual or who have sex with men."

California state senator Scott Wiener, who is a homosexual, is angry about the news. "What's most frustrating about this whole situation is that it is completely and utterly avoidable, and it's impacting the queer community in a very significant way."

He's right, but not for the reasons he gives. The San Francisco Democrat is blaming government for not doing enough to combat monkeypox. He should instead hold those accountable for unnecessarily spreading the disease. There are many others like him, and they include healthcare officials and gay activists.

Charles King is a gay activist who has worked with AIDS patients. "Telling people not to have sex or not to have multiple sex partners or not to have anonymous sex is just a no-go, and it's not going to work. People are still going to have sex, and they're going to have it even if it comes with great risk."

He's right. You may as well talk to the wall. Gays who practice dangerous sexual acts, and who have multiple sex partnerswith men they never met beforeare impervious to reason. They will stop at nothing. For them, the pain and suffering that they endure is worth the risk. That they may spread their disease to innocent unsuspecting persons seems not to matter.

After AIDS was discovered in 1981, those who demanded that the bathhouses remain openeven though they were a popular venue for the spread of HIVwere not gay bashers. They were gay activists.

In the 1980s, Bruce Mailman was the owner of the four-story St. Mark's Bath in the East Village. He said people like New York City Mayor Ed Koch, who called bathhouse owners "merchants of death," were demonstrating "a regrettable lack of sensitivity to our constitutional rights," rights that included "the right of individuals to associate freely, to practice private sex and to operate a lawful business." [The Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University is named after him, even though he proved to be an existential threat to the health of all New Yorkers, especially gays.]

Jim Downs recently wrote a piece in The Atlantic lamenting the closing of bathhouses in the 1980s; he now opposes calls for restraint among gays. "When public-health authorities shut down bathhouses during the early days of HIV, many gay people saw the closures as a violation of their governing liberation." He's rightmany gays, then as well as now, define freedom in terms of genital liberation.

Downs goes further today, heralding bathhouses as a plus for public health. "Rather than treating bathhouses, clubs, and dance parties exclusively as spreaders of infectious diseases, they should be recognized as potential promoters of sexual health."

The combination of narcissism and suicidal thinking is stunning. It proves, once again, that it is not the public that gays need to fearit is the advocates in their own community. Their advice is deadly.
UVALDE, Texas (AP)  Facing massive public pressure, Uvaldes top school official has recommended the firing of the school district police chief who has been blamed for the botched law enforcement response to the elementary school shooting nearly two months ago that killed two teachers and 19 students.

The South Texas citys school board announced Wednesday that it will consider firing Chief Pete Arredondo at a special meeting Saturday. Arredondo has been accused by state officials of making several critical mistakes during the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

School officials have previously resisted calls to fire Arredondo. The announcement comes two days after a meeting where the school board members were lambasted for more than three hours by members of the public, who accused them of not implementing basic security at Robb, of not being transparent about what happened and of failing to hold Arredondo to account for his actions.

Confronted with parents' vociferous demands to fire Arredondo and warnings that his job would be next, Superintendent Hal Harrell said Monday that the police chief was a contract employee who could not be fired at will. The agenda for Saturday's meeting includes the board discussing the potential firing with its lawyer.

Arredondo, who has been on leave from the district since June 22, has faced blistering criticism since the massacre, most notably for not ordering officers to immediately breach the classroom where an 18-year-old gunman carried out the attack. If fired, Arredondo would become the first officer ousted from his job following the deadliest Texas school shooting in history.

Although nearly 400 officers from various agencies were involved in the police response that took more than an hour to confront and kill the shooter, Arredondo is one of only two known to have faced discipline. His attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The move to potentially fire the chief follows the release of a damning 80-page report by a Texas House committee that blamed all levels of law enforcement for a slow and chaotic response. The report found that 376 law enforcement officers massed at the school, with more than half coming from state and federal agencies, but that they failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.

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According to the committee, Arredondo told lawmakers he didnt consider himself the on-scene commander in charge and that his priority was to protect children in other classrooms. The committee report called that decision a terrible, tragic mistake.

Body camera footage released by the Uvalde officials shows Arredondo in the hallway trying multiple sets of keys on other classroom doors, but not the one where the massacre took place. The classroom door could not be locked from the inside, but there is no indication officers tried to open the door while the gunman was inside.

Our thought was: If he comes out, you know, you eliminate the threat, correct? Arredondo told the committee, according to the report. And just the thought of other children being in other classrooms, my thought was: We cant let him come back out. If he comes back out, we take him out, or we eliminate the threat.

Arredondo, 50, grew up in Uvalde and spent much of his nearly 30-year career in law enforcement in the city. He took the head police job at the school district in 2020 and was sworn in as a member of the City Council in a closed-door ceremony May 31. He resigned from his council seat July 2.

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Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

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The spelling of the police chiefs last name has been corrected in several places in the story.

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More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting
LONDON (Reuters) - Nine months after the world's first malaria vaccine was recommended for use, international vaccine alliance Gavi invited countries to apply for financial support to roll out the jab, particularly targeting young children in Africa.

The World Health Organization endorsed GSK Plc's four-dose Mosquirix shot in October last year, saying it could save thousands of lives.

Now Gavi, which has $155.7 million available over 2022-2025 for the initial roll-out of the vaccine, has invited countries to apply for funding and support to distribute the shot.

It is a step forward for the vaccine, which has taken decades to develop. Malaria, on average, kills a child every minute.

However the roll-out is expected to start slowly, with supply falling far below the vast demand for several years, a recent Reuters investigation found.

Ghana, Kenya and Malawi - African nations that have been involved in pilot progammes using the vaccine - can apply first, by September, to broaden their use of the shot. Other countries can apply by the end of this year, Gavi said in a statement.

"The work towards a malaria vaccine has been long and hard," said Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi. Alongside the existing interventions like bed nets, Berkley said he hoped that the new tool would now "allow us to save more lives in countries hit hardest by this killer disease."

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
EVANSVILLE  The cleanup of a hazardous waste site in an Evansville neighborhood is largely done, but what comes next for the old Miller Plating & Metal Finishing property is still unclear.

Located near the corner of North Sixth Avenue and Allens Lane, it is contaminated with TCE (trichloroethylene) and heavy metals in its soil and groundwater, according to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management said it will monitor groundwater at the site for at least the next 20 months.

TCE has been linked to cancer, kidney and liver damage and other health effects.

Covered with open pits and debris, the site was not fenced off until spring 2017. It remains fenced in and overgrown with weeds.

The old Miller Plating & Metal Finishing facility at 1551 Allen Lane in Evansville is surrounded by chain link fences and posted with no trespassing signs Tuesday evening, June 28, 2022. The Environmental Protection Agency's $1.4 million tax-funded cleanup started in 2009, but the future of the property is still up-in-the-air.

Rather than remove the soil, a contractor was hired to treat it on site, said Barry Sneed, an IDEM spokesman. Approximately 3,800 cubic yards of soil, to a depth of 17 feet, was mixed with a substance called zero valent iron that helps break down chlorinated pollutants such as TCE.

Sneed said the agency first became aware of the ground contamination in 2009. That is the same time that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was doing an emergency cleanup of chemicals left above ground on the property.

"It is common for complex cleanup sites that require active remediation to be in the state cleanup program for 10 or more years," Sneed said.

A 2015 Courier & Press investigation found that Miller Plating's owner, former Evansville businessman Dan Stocks, moved to Florida after the company declared bankruptcy and closed in December 2007. Thousands of gallons of volatile chemicals, contaminated wastewater and sludge were left behind.

The EPA spent $1.4 million in taxpayer funds to clean up the chemicals and demolish Miller Plating's three buildings. Stocks escaped liability for the EPA's cleanup bill, taxes and loans because Miller Plating was a limited liability company (LLC), protecting him from personal liability for business debts.

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More:Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke talks COVID-19, Roberts Park. What will his legacy be?

According to IDEM, the site's owner  MPMF Realty, LLC, an arm of Miller Plating  was identified as responsible for the pollution and funding its cleanup. However, the company is no longer active, according to Indiana Secretary of State records.

Carrie Doehrmann, an Indianapolis attorney, said various insurance policies are working with IDEM to address the pollutants. However, she said she does not represent the property owners.

Once environmental officials are satisfied with the cleanup, the property will only be able to be redeveloped for industrial or commercial use, Sneed said.

However, anyone wanting to locate there will first have to pay its back taxes by bidding on the two parcels that make up the site at tax sale. Nearly $1.3 million in taxes and penalties are owed on the Miller Plating site, according to the Vanderburgh County Treasurer's Office.

The minimum bid for the property includes those taxes plus the next fall tax installment. Miller Plating has been in every tax sale since 2010 without a buyer and Vanderburgh County has declined to take the title to it. It is slated to be included in this year's auction on Sept. 13.

Mark Wilson covers education and environment at the Courier & Press. Contact him at mark.wilson@courierpress.com.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Miller Plating site in Evansville gets EPA cleanup, still no owner
By Peter Eisler and Nathan Layne

(Reuters) - A coalition of rightwing constitutional sheriffs, who claim legal power in their jurisdictions that exceeds U.S. federal and state authorities, has a new calling: investigating conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was rigged against former President Donald Trump.

The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association has teamed with True the Vote, a Texas nonprofit and purveyor of debunked voter-fraud claims, to recruit like-minded sheriffs nationwide to investigate 2020 stolen-election allegations and to more aggressively police future voting.

The partnership, detailed last week at the associations annual gathering in Las Vegas, aims to intensify a movement already underway. At least four ideologically aligned county sheriffs in Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas and Arizona have launched election-fraud probes since the 2020 vote. None has established evidence of systemic fraud.

This is our top priority. Its our duty, Richard Mack, founder of the constitutional sheriffs organization, told Reuters in an interview at the Las Vegas meeting. Mack also touted the True the Vote partnership later in the week at FreedomFest, a national gathering of libertarian-leaning thinkers and political figures, where he urged that sheriffs join us in this holy cause.

Election officials are raising concerns that partisan investigations by sheriffs into baseless voter-fraud claims could undermine public confidence in elections. In an interview, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, called such probes part of a "nationally coordinated effort to dismantle democracy through lies and misinformation, and through people misusing or abusing their authority."

False fraud claims have also sparked a wave of threats against election administrators, including more than 900 hostile messages documented by Reuters https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/campaign-of-fear, along with at least 17 attempts to illegally access voting equipment https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-election-breaches in search of evidence to prove election-rigging.

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Officials with True the Vote said at the constitutional sheriffs meeting that they plan to raise money to provide grants and equipment to help sheriffs investigate 2020 voter-fraud claims and expand surveillance of ballot drop boxes in future elections. Trump supporters have alleged, without evidence, that drop boxes enabled the mass collection of fraudulent votes in the presidential election.

While election fraud is exceedingly rare, some states with Republican-controlled legislatures have passed new laws in response to the false rigged-election claims. Nine states have banned drop boxes or restricted their distribution since the 2020 vote, according to a recent report by the Voting Rights Lab, which monitors state election policies. Other states have enacted more stringent voter-registration requirements. In Florida and Georgia, lawmakers expanded the powers of law enforcement to police election-law violations.

The constitutional sheriffs new focus on probing elections illustrates how Trumps voter-fraud falsehoods have found a receptive audience in some corners of law enforcement.

Leaders of the movement touted the recent documentary 2000 Mules as they gathered in Las Vegas. The movie, based on cell-phone tracking data and surveillance video obtained by True the Vote, alleges that Democratic operatives stuffed drop boxes with fraudulent ballots in key counties to deliver the presidency to Democrat Joe Biden.

2000 Mules has presented overwhelming evidence," said Mack, urging sheriffs to investigate its fraud claims. It cannot not be dismissed.

Many Democratic and Republican officials, along with independent fact-checkers, have in fact dismissed the movie as misleading and its evidence as flimsy.

POWER PLAY

The constitutional sheriffs association promotes an extreme view of sheriffs legal authority, asserting on its website that their power in their jurisdictions exceeds that of any other official and even supersedes the powers of the President.

Its rare for sheriffs to investigate voting irregularities, especially without a request from election officials. They generally handle criminal law enforcement in jurisdictions that lack a police force and manage local jails, among other duties.

True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht said at the Las Vegas meeting that sheriffs are the best hope for pursuing rigged-election claims because other agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have dismissed its allegations.

It's like the lights went on, she said. It's the sheriffs: that's who can do these investigations; thats who we can trust; that's who we can turn over information to.

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

Mack, who founded the constitutional sheriffs association in 2011, is a former county sheriff in Arizona. He served until 2016 as a board member of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia that includes several members charged with helping to organize the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack. Mack told Reuters that he left the Oath Keepers when the organization became too militant, but extremism researchers have documented ongoing ties https://www.irehr.org/2022/07/15/shoulder-to-shoulder-cspoa-and-the-oath-keepers between his association and the militia group.

True the Votes coalition also includes another right-leaning sheriffs group, Protect America Now, led by Sheriff Mark Lamb of Pinal County, Arizona. That group describes its mission as standing for our constitution by guarding against government overreach, protecting gun-owner rights and stopping illegal immigration.

True the Vote officials described the coalition as a multi-faceted effort to encourage sheriffs to pursue election-fraud claims. In addition to grants meant to help sheriffs conduct surveillance of drop boxes, the group said it aims to provide sheriffs with artificial intelligence software to assist in analyzing the video they collect. True the Vote also plans to set up hotlines to alert sheriffs to suspicious activity at polling stations and ballot drop boxes.

Its unclear how many of the nations sheriffs will join the effort. The constitutional sheriffs association does not disclose membership numbers; Protect America Now says it includes about 70 sheriffs from more than 30 states.

Political Research Associates, a left-leaning think tank that studies political extremism, has identified 136 sheriffs who align with the so-called patriot movement, which includes constitutional sheriffs and others embracing anti-government or far-right conspiracy theories.

The National Sheriffs Association, the nations leading professional organization for sheriffs, did not respond to requests for comment on the effort to pursue election-fraud allegations.

Calvin Hayden, sheriff of Johnson County, Kansas, told the Las Vegas gathering that he plans to employ technology to expand his investigation.

"Were going to start doing our geodata," Hayden said. "I have no question that were going to get to the bottom of this."

Hayden launched the probe last year despite repeated assurances from county and state election officials that the vote had been conducted fairly. Asked what evidence justified the probe, a spokesperson for Haydens office, Shelby Colburn, said the investigation was based on more than 200 tips from voters and that the sheriff would soon provide more details.

Haydens efforts were praised by Mack, who told meeting attendees that election fraud had become the constitutional sheriffs associations biggest concern. He said his members are uniquely positioned to pursue the matter because sheriffs dont have to ask permission from anybody to start an investigation.

(Reporting by Peter Eisler and Nathan Layne. Editing by Jason Szep and Brian Thevenot.)
Wisconsin has filed a lawsuit against 18 companies over the manufacturing and marketing of toxic forever chemicals, alleging that these firms engaged in the widespread contamination of the states property and natural resources.

Every Wisconsinite should be able to trust the water that comes out of their tap, Gov. Tony Evers (D) said at a live-streamed press conference on Wednesday morning.

But unfortunately, we know that for so many across our state, including folks right here on French Island, this isnt always the case, Evers said.

Evers was speaking in the town of La Crosse on French Island  a Mississippi River island that has long experienced such contamination, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

These cancer-linked compounds, also known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are notorious for their long-term ability to linger in both the human body and the environment.

The state is filing a lawsuit against three manufacturers and 15 other defendants for wrongful and deceptive acts that directly led to PFAS contamination of Wisconsins water, property and natural resources, Evers said.

The lawsuit, filed by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul in Dane County, alleges that the defendants knew or should have known that the ordinary and intended use of their products could cause dangerous public health and environmental impacts.

The science is clear: Exposure to certain PFAS and the environment can be damaging to human health, Evers said.

There are thousands of types of PFAS, which are most infamous for their presence in industrial discharge and firefighting foam but are also key ingredients in many household items. PFAS are linked to a variety of illnesses, such as thyroid disease, testicular cancer and kidney cancer.

Among the defendants named are 3M, DuPont, The Chemours Company and Tyco Fire Products. Others include E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, The Chemours Company FC, Buckeye Fire Equipment, Kidde-Fenwal, National Foam, Chemguard, Amerex Corporation, Chemdesign Products, BASF Corporation, Dynax Corporation, Archroma U.S., Carrier Global Corporation, UTC Fire & Security Americas Corporation and Clariant Corporation.

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The lawsuit alleges that these companies are liable for designing, manufacturing, marketing, promoting, distributing, selling, using, and/or disposing of PFAS products in ways that cause widespread PFAS contamination.

These manufacturers knew or should have known that their products could harm public health, pollute our waters and our natural resources, Evers said.

But rather than warning consumers and users of associated risk and harms from their products and PFAS, these polluters concealed these dangers and even downplayed them to our families, communities and Wisconsinites, the governor added.

Accusing the companies of carelessness and his political opponents of inaction, Evers said that Wisconsin taxpayers are now on the hook for over a billion dollars to address the contamination.

The lawsuit also alleges that the defendants took measures to protect the health of their own employees, but did not notify the public of the danger that PFAS contamination caused over the last several years in Wisconsin, according to Kaul, who spoke alongside the governor.

While the attorney general stressed that the most important tool for addressing Wisconsins PFAS crisis would be federal and state action and funding, he said he hopes to achieve several goals through the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs are asking that the defendants be forced to help remediate the problem by taking action to provide clean and safe drinking water to the impacted communities, Kaul explained.

The lawsuit also seeks to recover all costs, expenses and damages linked to their allegedly tortious conduct, which includes restoration and loss-of-use damages, natural resource damages and the costs of investigating and remediating PFAS pollution throughout the state.

Wisconsinites should not have to foot the bill for polluters who should have known that what theyre doing is wrong all along, Evers said.

Thats why we are demanding that the polluters who are responsible should have to pay for the reckless and reprehensible conduct, the governor added.

In response to the filing, a statement from DuPont de Nemours said that the company was established in 2019 as a new multi-industrial specialty products firm and that it never manufactured firefighting foam or two specific types of PFAS: PFOA and PFOS.

While we dont comment on pending litigation, we believe this complaint is without merit, and is the latest example of DuPont de Nemours being improperly named in litigation, the statement added, noting that the company would vigorously defend its record of safety, health and environmental stewardship.

A statement from 3M, meanwhile, said that the company acted responsibly in connection with its manufacture and sale of PFAS and will vigorously defend its record of environmental stewardship.

The Hill has also reached out to Chemours and Tyco for comment.

Updated: 12:50 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A teenage girl with ties to a South Florida rap star was killed and two others wounded after an overnight triple shooting in Miami, police said Wednesday.

Detectives were still uncertain about the motive for the shooting, but were homing in on some type of domestic squabble. Several law enforcement sources said they dont believe that the dead teen, Toni Chester, was the intended target.

A woman reached by cellphone who claimed to be Trinas agent, said Toni, a 17-year-old who also goes by the name Baby Suga, is the niece of Trina, a Miami-born rap legend whos had several Billboard hits. TMZ also reported that sources had confirmed Toni was Trinas niece.

But Miami police werent certain as of Wednesday afternoon. One source said they did believe that Tonis mother grew up with and is extremely close to the rapper, but that they hadnt determined if the two were blood relatives.

Miami police also said they believe they knew everyone involved in the shooting, though no arrests had been made by Wednesday afternoon. Police had not named the two males who were shot and taken to the hospital, but said they were expected to survive.

The woman who identified herself as Trinas publicist, Aleesha Carter, said the rap star was not ready to give a statement and declined to comment on whether Trina was aware of the shooting. Carter noted that Toni was the daughter of Trinas sister, Laura.

TMZ reported that Trinas family was reeling from the loss of the teenager, whom the rapper endearingly referred to as Baby Suga.

The shooting happened at about midnight near the corner of Northwest 62nd Street and 13th Avenue in Liberty City. Toni was dead when police arrived. The two injured men were driven to Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Trina, whom hip-hop artist XXL a decade ago called the most consistent female rapper of all time, was given the key to the city of Miami by Mayor Francis Suarez in May, during the citys first annual Trina Day.

Born and raised in Miami, Trina, whose real name is Katrina Taylor, graduated from Miami Northwestern High. Her father owned a store on 15th Avenue in a building that now has her face painted on it. She shot to prominence in 1998 under Trick Daddys guidance. In 2014, Billboard put the Diamond Princess on its list of 31 female rappers who changed Hip-Hop.
By Lucy Craymer

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand said late on Wednesday it had increased measures to prevent foot and mouth disease (FMD) from getting into the country after the disease was recently found in the Indonesian tourist resort of Bali.

"With FMD recently found in the tourist hotspot of Bali, we've taken concrete steps to boost our work at the border in recent weeks including a public awareness campaign," said Biosecurity and Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor.

"I call on everyone to be vigilant in playing their part to protect New Zealand's economic security," he said.

Foot and mouth disease is a highly contagious virus that affects cloven hooved animals. An outbreak of the virus in New Zealand would severely impact key exports of dairy, red meat and pork products for months or even years, according to the Ministry for Primary Industries.

Biosecurity New Zealand this week introduced foot mats with disinfecting chemicals for arrivals from Indonesia to ensure footwear is clear of the virus. A campaign has been launched to educate travellers going to Bali of the issues. There is an on-the-ground audit happening of the supply chain for animal feed palm kernel. And New Zealand is providing equipment to Indonesia to help contain the virus there. (This story corrects the name of the disease in headline and first paragraph)

(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Central Virginia Electric Cooperative estimates more than 90% of Nelson County residents will have access to gigabit-speed internet by Jan 1, 2023.

However, CVEC and Firefly Fiber Broadband CEO Gary Wood said complications with railroad crossings and Regional Internet Service Expansion (RISE) partner Appalachian Power Company are holding up connections in the Shipman, Arrington and Schuyler areas

Wood presented a map of the county to the Nelson County Broadband Authority and the board of supervisors on July 12 that indicated nearly the entire county will be connected to broadband by 2023.

The only areas not highlighted on the map, and not included in the year end internet estimate, are the northernmost tip of the county, around U.S. 250 in Afton, and the northwesternmost tip of the county near Love. Wood estimated these two areas, which include about 175 homes, will be connected by late 2023.

Our intent is to get as many people connected as possible. We may still be connecting people into early next year in parts of the county, but the fiber will be up, Wood told the Broadband Authority.

Wood also presented a map of Fireflys current footprint in the county  with gaps in Arrington, Schuyler and Shipman and around Lovingston, Tyro, Piney River and Roseland, which he went on to address.

He told the broadband authority fiber construction and splicing is complete in the Arrington area southeast of the railroad tracks and around Variety Mills Road, but Firefly is waiting for Norfolk Southern Railway to schedule a crossing for his teams to make final connections. Wood said fiber construction and 75% of splicing is complete in the Shipman area along Virginia 56 and around Deer Run Lane, but Firefly teams are waiting on a railroad crossing permit to finish.

According to Woods presentation, Appalachian Power Company completed its preliminary work in a Schuyler area around Rockfish River Road and Schuyler Road, and fiber construction will begin once CVEC finishes work on the Schuyler substation by the end of July.

Wood said about 400 people have signed up for service out of about 630 homes and businesses in these three areas: so theres a significant need and we need to get those railroad crossings and get AEP moving. APCo is a subsidiary of American Electric Power (AEP).

He identified several areas AEP is currently working on: along James River Road and Front Street in Lovingston; along Variety Mills Road near Norwood; and along Virginia 151 around Clay Pool Road and Cow Hollow Road.

AEP hasnt started its make-ready work in other pockets: along Roseland Road, Dark Hollow Road and Horseshoe Road; from Massies Mill to Pharsalia and along Pharsalia Road and Browns Hollow Lane; from Salem Road along Glade Road to Piney Mountain Place; along Glade Road and Hunting Lodge Road; along Taylor Creek Road; and from Salem Road to Rockfish Crossing.

Wood said the holdup isnt an engineering or money problem: Its just getting crews out to get the work done. So were encouraging them daily and weekly, calling everyone we can at AEP to send us some help because as soon as they get their work done we can get our work done. We asked them last year to finish this work in August. Its the second week of July.

He said AEP currently has three crews working in the county, but he thinks they need eight to meet the year end goal.

Jesse Rutherford, who sits on both the board of supervisors and broadband authority, said both bodies would be sending letters to APCo, Norfolk Southern and any regulators holding up the process.

This impedes the health and wellness of our community, Rutherford said.
RUSTBURG  The Campbell County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to adopt a resolution that declares the county a right to life advocate in the aftermath of the Supreme Courts decision to overturn the result of Roe v. Wade in June.

Board Chairman Matt Cline introduced the resolution Tuesday night to the board, which reads in part, Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Campbell County Board of Supervisors hereby expresses its strong belief that all human beings in the County of Campbell, including the unborn, should be afforded protection by law from acts of cruelty and neglect.

It goes on to urge the Governor of Virginia, the Virginia State Legislature and, the citizens of Campbell County to promote and defend the unalienable right to life and the inherent dignity of all human beings, including the unborn, from conception.

The final part of the resolution says, Campbell County Board of Supervisors hereby resolve to use all means within its power to support the sanctity of human life in accordance with its responsibilities as the peoples elected governing body.

Before reading the resolution into the record, Cline said, As a Christian and someone who maintains conservative values, I feel a heavy burden of sadness that there is even a debate going on in America today over the protection of the unborn.

In the past, the countys board of supervisors has adopted other politically oriented resolutions, including a First Amendment sanctuary resolution in December 2020, as well as a resolution that named the county a Second Amendment sanctuary in November 2019.

Cline told The News & Advance in an email the resolution speaks directly to elective abortion and not to an abortion in the instance of a medical emergency where serious injury or death of the mother is a risk.

Speaking to the 15-week abortion ban that is expected to be proposed during the next session of the General Assembly, Cline said, although the 15 week limit being considered in the state legislature is a vast improvement over the current law, I feel that it does not go far enough to effectively protect the lives of the unborn.

Brookneal Supervisor Charlie Watts supported the resolution but also made note to thank the chairman for drawing up the resolution for the board to vote upon.

After its adoption, the board room in the Haberer Building in Rustburg erupted in applause.

While the resolution was adopted, it is largely a symbolic gesture, as any laws regarding abortion rights in Virginia would have to come from the General Assembly.
A new three-digit phone number, 988, is available in Virginia for mental health emergencies and suicide prevention, part of a national effort to address increases in substance abuse and reports of depression.

The Virginia Department of Health announced Tuesday it had successfully transitioned the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline from its old number to the new one. The number 988 will serve as the 911 for mental health emergencies.

"988 will give Virginians in crisis an easy way to quickly connect to trained support, no matter where you are, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement. "This is a crucial step in transforming our crisis system so that all Virginians have someone to talk to, someone to respond, and dont have to wonder about how to access help."

In 2020, Congress designated the old number - 1 (800) 273-8255 - be transitioned to a shorter three-digit code. The professionals who answer the calls are staffed and funded by more than 200 local crisis centers across the country.

Anyone needing support for mental health distress, thoughts of suicide, substance abuse or emotional distress may call the number. People worried about a loved one may also use the hotline.

More than 1,200 Virginia residents died by suicide in 2020, and the use of opioids spiked during the early months of the pandemic.

Since the beginning of 2021, calls to Virginia's suicide prevention line increased 23%. Teenagers and young adults have reported increased feelings of depression and sadness.

To counter the swelling need, Virginia authorities have increased the ability to answer calls by 33% thanks to greater funding.

The line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Hanover County Public Schools division will be among the first in Virginia to build a school with no gendered bathrooms.

There will be individual toilet rooms in every wing on every floor for second through fifth grades. Each stall has complete privacy, with partitions from the ceiling to the floor with no gaps, according to designers from Crabtree, Rohrbaugh, & Associates.

Sinks will be located in an open area in the hallways.

When youre washing your hands, youre combing your hair, youre doing anything else, youre doing that in the quarter, said designer Joshua Bower at the meeting. Theres really no behind the wall except for when youre doing things that are very private.

For grades kindergarten and first grade, there will be individual toilet rooms inside each classroom. In the cafeteria and in the gymnasium on the main floor, there will be multiple stall toilet rooms, according to Bower.

According to an HCPS spokesperson, the design team does not expect a deviation in costs or construction timeline for this design versus a more traditional design.

The goal of this design is to increase student safety and decrease potential damage to the bathrooms, said HCPS spokesman Chris Whitley.

The new Gandy Elementary School in Ashland, on track for a 2024-25 school year opening, will be among the first K-12 schools in Virginia to have only gender-neutral bathrooms available. It is the first school constructed in Hanover County since Laurel Meadow Elementary opened in 2008.

At the School Board meeting, Mechanicsville District representative John E. Redd Jr. asked about restrooms at the schools in regards to the policy.

The school division has been involved in a 10-month controversy that began when its School Board did not put into place Virginia Department of Education guidelines regarding the treatment of transgender and nonbinary students, as school boards were legally required to do by the start of school, following a 2020 state law.

The board took a vote in November, which covered some parts of the requirements but stopped short at the more contentious transgender bathroom policy, which would have explicitly allowed transgender students to use bathrooms that aligned with their identity.

Though lawsuits and threats ensued, the Hanover School Board did not change its policies. In March, the board through a 4-3 vote allowed a conservative organization with established anti-LGBTQ views to review its equal educational opportunities policy.

Redd said in an interview that the design for a school with completely gender-neutral bathrooms is a possible solution.

We dont want to show favoritism to one [side] over another, we just got to live by what the courts are telling us weve got to do and thats what were trying to do, Redd said. Everybodys got their own personal opinions, but your personal opinion cant necessarily rule when youre a member of the School Board or when youre a member of the Board of Supervisors. You got to follow the law. You got to represent all people and thats kind of what were trying to do.
The interim leader for Virginia's community colleges pledged Tuesday to build a strong partnership with Gov. Glenn Youngkin's office, three weeks after the governor threatened the jobs of state board members and the board agreed to the governor's demands.

Interim chancellor Sharon Morrissey, in her first public gathering since the Virginia Community College System hit the restart button on its search for a permanent leader, said she intends to reestablish unity, trust and stability in the system and mend bridges with the Youngkin administration.

"Perhaps we got off on the wrong foot," Morrissey said at a State Council of Higher Education meeting. "It's been unsettling, to say the least."

Last month, Glenn DuBois retired as chancellor or head of Virginia's 23 community colleges after two decades of service. The board was close to naming his replacement when Youngkin interceded and asked to restart the hiring process and add a member of the administration to the search team.

However, the board declined the request and named Russell Kavalhuna, a Michigan community college president, as its new chancellor. Kavalhuna signed a contract with the state but later backtracked, opting to stay in Michigan.

"We were unsuccessful, and we have to start again," Morrissey said Monday. "There was some bad press associated with this."

Reaffirming his request, the governor in late June sent a stern message to the community college board: welcome the administration into the search or resign immediately. Democrats objected, saying Youngkin had bypassed the state's layered governance structure in which a governor nominates board members, and the board leads the community college system and chooses a chancellor.

The board relented, saying it would accept a member of the administration as a nonvoting member of the search committee. Youngkin has expressed concern over a 10-year decline in community college enrollment and slow workforce recovery since the beginning of the pandemic.

The governor hasn't nominated new members to the board yet, even though the board is scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday and Youngkin has named new members for the boards of other four-year colleges. The VCCS isn't aware of any board member resignations, a spokesperson said Tuesday.

Three of the 15 members will see their terms expire this summer  Nathaniel Bishop, Adnan Bokhari and Eleanor Saslaw. Board members typically stay on until their successors are named.

The business of the board will continue under Morrissey's interim leadership, she said Monday. The system can't hit the pause button while it searches for a new chancellor.

That's why Morrissey set goals of bringing back unity to the community college system, rebuilding ties with the governor's administration and immediately continuing the work of the VCCS.

Morrissey said she shares the same goals for Virginia's community colleges as the governor  enhancing colleges' ability to produce qualified employees and strengthening the state's workforce.

The state's community colleges are a "workforce engine" for Virginia, she said.
Ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, pro-choice activists and their media allies have been on a campaign to influence public opinion that the decision was a mistake.

They apparently believed they had discovered an ideal case when the Indianapolis Star reported that a 10-year-old rape victim who lives in Ohio had gone to Indiana for an abortion because Ohios new abortion restrictions wouldnt allow her to have one there. Like many other rush-to-judgment stories, this was untrue as there is a medical emergency exception in Ohio, though the state law is unclear, and its uncertain how it would even have been applied in this case.

No one could initially confirm the accuracy of the rape story. There was no police report and Ohios attorney general said he had heard nothing. Though Columbus police did receive a report on the rape from a local childrens services department in late June, no Ohio hospital reported treating the girl. Even Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler said he was skeptical about the case.

When details emerged proving the story true, there seemed to be less enthusiasm as to its usefulness to the pro-choice side. Thats because, according to ICE, the alleged rapist, 27-year-old Gerson Fuentes of Guatemala, entered the country illegally.

There are many questions about this case reporters should be asking.

First among them is how did Fuentes get to Ohio? Was he brought to the state on one of the Biden administrations late-night flights that are distributing immigrants across the country?

Second, did Fuentes have a criminal record and was he a known sex offender?

Third, where did the alleged assaults occur? Police say Fuentes has admitted to raping the victim twice. If the rapes occurred in the girls home, where was her mother? Did she fail to exercise parental oversight? Did the assaults occur on different days?

Fourth, did the girl tell her mother about either incident? If she did, why didnt her mother call the police and have Fuentes arrested? Police say she eventually called them. After the first assault, or the second? In a bizarre twist, the girls mother has denied the charges against Fuentes, even though police say he confessed.

Fifth, was Fuentes living with the girls mother as her boyfriend? If not, how did they meet? Where was the girls father?

There is a legal maxim that says hard cases make for bad law. It means an extreme case, such as this one, is a poor basis for a general law that would cover a wider range of less extreme cases. In other words, a general law is better drafted for the average circumstance.

The pro-choicers may be overreaching. Churches have been vandalized and burned. So have pregnancy help centers, which offer their services for free, unlike most abortion providers who charge a fee. A not-so-subtle anti-Catholicism has also been directed at Supreme Court justices who are Roman Catholic. Pro-lifers have countered by targeting abortion clinics and threatening the lives of abortion providers. Where will it end?

In their protests, pro-choicers dont address the reasoning behind the majority opinion. They simply claim the ruling was unconstitutional, when the court ruled it was the original Roe decision that was unconstitutional.

No young girl  or grown woman  should be sexually assaulted. Those who are convicted of such a crime should suffer the strongest penalties, registered as sex offenders, or surgically altered so they are incapable of ever committing this crime again.

The 10-year-old girl deserves compassion, counseling and help in overcoming this double trauma. The authorities must answer the questions raised above and many other questions as more information about the case comes to light. The results of their investigation should be released to the public, which now has what appears to be incomplete information behind this tragedy.
Japan is looking to hold a state funeral on Sept. 27 to honor former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated this month, Japanese news outlets reported Wednesday.

The event is expected to a be a major gathering of current and former world leaders, with dignitaries already making plans to attend to commemorate Abe, who worked to increase Japans image and influence globally and was the countrys longest-serving and most recognizable leader of the modern era.

Arrangements for a state funeral have sparked mixed reactions and criticisms of whether taxpayer money should be spent on the event, particularly for a leader who was domestically divisive.

It would be the second state funeral in postwar Japan since the 1967 death of Shigeru Yoshida, and a break from past practice in which ceremonies for former leaders have been jointly funded by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Japanese Cabinet. A state funeral would be fully taxpayer-funded. ...continue reading
Jetstars flights between Tokyo and Cairns take off today after nearly two and a half years, with the airline preparing to welcome thousands of visitors from Japan into tropical north Queensland each week.

While restrictions remain in place for independent tourists travelling from Australia to Japan, Japanese citizens are now able to travel freely between the two countries, driving strong demand for Jetstars relaunch of direct services to Cairns.

The airline will operate five return flights per week between Cairns and Narita (Tokyo), bringing more than 1,600 people into Australia from Japan every week and providing an important boost to local tourism.

The first return flight from Tokyo to Cairns, which is close to sold out, will take off on Thursday night and touch down early Friday morning.

Following todays launch, Jetstar will resume three weekly services between Cairns and Osaka (Kansai) on 26 July, increasing to four services from September.
After passing a bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriages amid concerns that the U.S. Supreme Court overturning a federal right to abortion access could jeopardize other rights criticized by conservatives, the U.S. House is poised to vote to establish a right to contraception nationwide.

House Democrats say the legislation would defend decades-long precedent and ensure access to contraceptives in the face of the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization.

Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson intends to vote against the bill.

Hinson instead introduced a separate bill with Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks that would ensure women over the age of 18 can access birth control pills over the counter.

The bill requires the Food and Drug Administration to give priority review to already-approved, safe oral contraceptives for routine use so that they can be available over the counter for adult women.

Over-the-counter birth control pills are available worldwide but are available in the U.S. only with a prescription.

In contrast, emergency contraceptives, including Plan B, are already available over the counter.

Drugmaker HRA Pharma has asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve an over-the-counter birth control pill called Opill. The agencys review process is estimated to take about 10 months.

Millions of American women safely use oral contraceptives and enabling women to access birth control pills at their local pharmacy is common-sense policy, Hinson said in a statement.

This is particularly important for women in rural areas who may have to drive over an hour to see their doctor. We should come together to support and empower women by expanding birth control access, improving maternal health care options, and ensuring women have the resources to choose life. I will continue working in a bipartisan manner to advocate for Iowa women and support families in Congress.

The bill would also allow patients greater flexibility to use health savings and flexible spending accounts to pay for contraception and waives stockpiling limitations on the purchase of over-the-counter items when using such accounts for birth control.

As a state senator, Miller-Meeks introduced and passed a bill in the Iowa Senate allowing women over 18 to buy oral contraceptives over the counter in Iowa. The bill, which was backed by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Planned Parenthood, failed to win support in the Iowa House and died in the 2019 legislative session.

Studies from the Guttmacher Institute and other medical researchers have shown access to contraception reduces abortion rates.

This important bill will ensure that the FDA acts quickly to approve oral contraceptives for over-the-counter use, Miller-Meeks said in a statement.

As a woman and a doctor, I recognize the need for increased access to contraceptives and believe that this bill is an important step to promote womens health.

RIGHT TO CONTRACEPTION BILL

The right to contraception bill being considered in the House protects a range of contraceptive methods, devices and medications, including oral and emergency contraceptives, intrauterine devices, condoms, transdermal patches, sterilization procedures and more.

It also allows the Department of Justice, as well as providers and individuals harmed by restrictions on contraception access made unlawful under the legislation, to go to court to enforce access.

Republicans argue the legislation violates conscience protections for health care providers, and could send taxpayer dollars to abortion providers.

Justice Clarence Thomas concurring opinion in Dobbs  which overturned the constitutional right to an abortion  urged the court to reconsider its 1965 decision protecting access to contraception.

Several states already have restricted access to contraception by cutting off public funding for it, defining abortion broadly enough to include contraception, and allowing health care providers to refuse to provide services related to contraception based on their personal beliefs, according to House Democrats.

FUTURE IN SENATE UNCLEAR

Its unclear whether Democrats Right to Contraception Act would pass the evenly divided U.S. Senate, where they will need at least 10 GOP votes to defeat a filibuster.

Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst told the Washington Post she feels pretty strongly about making sure women have contraception. Ernst introduced legislation in 2019 similar to Hinsons bill that would expand access to over-the-counter contraception without a prescription and allow for people to pay for it with their health savings accounts.

Ernst, though, was noncommittal about voting for federal protections for contraception, saying it perhaps should be up to the states.

I dont think states will go that far, she added.

Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said he is not aware of any meaningful effort to challenge access to contraception, which has been widely available for decades.

Most insurance plans cover it as well. I support access to contraception and dont think the government should further restrict it, Grassley said in a statement.
Raising chickens in urban areas has grown increasingly popular over the last couple of decades, and many cities and counties across the country have changed laws and zoning ordinances to accommodate the rising trend.

Pottawattamie County may soon cross the road and allow a small flock of chickens in residential neighborhoods.

County Planning and Development Director Matt Wyant submitted a preliminary proposal to the Board of Supervisors at yesterdays meeting to change zoning ordinances in R3 (Urban Residential) and R5 (Planned Residential  multifamily) districts, and create a permitting process, to allow residents to keep chickens on their property.

Is there really a need for this? Board Chair Tim Wichman asked.

There is a definite need, Wyant said. We get phone calls every week.

The pandemic seems to be the main cause of the heightened interest in raising chickens. A hatchery in Connecticut reported that by the first week of March 2022, sales were already at 98% of the previous years figures, according to The Happy Chicken Coop, a website dedicated to backyard chicken keepers. By the end of March, sales had increased to more than 500% of last years total.

The Pottawattamie County proposal as written would allow residents who live on less than one acre of land to have up to 12 chickens on their property. The chickens  no roosters, only hens  must be kept in an enclosed pasture or coop in the rear yard of the property, and owners must have a plan for dealing with the manure. Chickens will not be allowed to live in the residents house.

The initial permit would cost $250, and $150 for annual renewals. The county would also require a site inspection prior to granting a permit, and additional inspections each year when the permit is up for renewal.

As part of the permitting process, residents must get signatures from every neighbor with adjoining property. If even one neighbor doesnt want to live next door to a chicken flock and refuses to sign, the resident will not be awarded a permit.

The biggest issues facing residents who want to keep chickens on their property are noise and manure, Wyant said.

People get (chickens), but they dont understand the noise that its gonna generate, Wyant said. And then they dont know what to do with all the manure, and so the manure starts to build up, and then the flies start going, and then it causes the neighbors an issue.

Wyant believes that the permitting process will force people to think through what would be required of them before they put all of their eggs in one basket.

What are you gonna do with your manure? Hows the coop gonna be built? Wyant said. And then, that way, the coops not just built out of old pallets they have laying around there. It matches the area in which its at, and it will hopefully alleviate a lot of those issues.

Some or all of the proposed rules are subject to change. Board Member Brian Shea thinks $250 for the initial permit is too much, for example.

The City of Council Bluffs has its own farm animal permit, which costs $75 per year.

This proposal at the county level comes at the same time the Council Bluffs City Council is looking into changing city ordinances to allow residents to keep a limited number of goats on their property.

The discussion this week was just the first of many that the Board expects to have before it makes a final decision. Would-be urban farmers are cautioned not to flock to the nearest hatchery and count their chickens before they hatch.
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The World Bank, through its Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), has just announced a 570 million disbursement guarantee for the construction of a new university campus for the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) near Rabat. These funds are made up of loans whose guarantee lasts up to 10 years and which are allocated to the OCP group.

MIGA has issued a guarantee to Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank of France and BNP Paribas of France amounting to 570 million to cover loans to Moroccos OCP Group, a major player in plant nutrition and world leader in the phosphate industry.

OCP Group will use the funds to finance the construction of a new university campus for the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) near Moroccos capital city of Rabat.

MIGAs support is helping unlock competitive financing from international lenders to fund the development of cutting-edge education facilities in Morocco, Hiroshi Matano, MIGA Executive Vice President, was quoted as saying in a MIGA press release.

Furthermore, the expansion of UM6Ps R&D facilities will boost the countrys competitiveness and contribute to the training of current and future human capital.

The new campus will offer high-quality education to 2,000 students in the fields of economics, governance, political sciences, international relations, behavioral and social sciences, hospitality business and management. In addition, the campus will house a new faculty of governance and include Moroccos first school and business incubator for artificial intelligence. The facility will also have multisport centers, digital learning laboratories, a language center, a library, and hotels to host university guests and train students in the School of Hospitality Business and Management, the press release said.

Hicham El Habti, President of Mohammed 6 Polytechnic University, said, We are very grateful for MIGAs vote of confidence in our plan to grow UM6Ps reach and educational capacity for the long-term returns it delivers. MIGAs support in developing our new campus facilities in Rabat will allow us to increase skills, innovation and development in important fields that the current campus does not offer.

UM6Ps mission is to consolidate Moroccos frontline position in these fields, in a partnership-based approach to boosting skills training that are relevant for the future of Africa. OCP Group has grown to become a major player in plant nutrition and remains convinced that education and R&D are key levers for both the future of food security and community development. This is an exciting development not just for Moroccan students, but for young people across Africa, El Habti said.

Completion of the campus also includes auxiliary works, with the most important two being the addition of hydraulic structures to protect the campus against the risk of flooding and the burial of a 60 Kv electrical line along with the rehabilitation of an associated substation.

Morocco has been prioritizing development of human capital and higher education. As a result, enrollment rates in higher education grew from 15 percent to 38 percent between 2010 and 2018, higher than enrolment growth in the MENA region overall. Higher education in Morocco is available through public, public-private partnerships, and private institutions. In this context, the development of high-quality private sector institutions such as UM6P is considered critical to complementing public efforts to increase higher educations overall enrollment capacity.

OCP Group plays a strategically important role in Moroccos economy and national development strategy being the countrys largest private employer, and a major exporter, and contributor to the GDP. This role arises not only from OCPs position as one of the top largest producers and exporters of phosphate products, but also from its core mission to maximize sustainable value creation in all that it does.

UM6P is at the core of OCPs innovation, sustainability, and transformation strategy that was led by OCP Group over the past 15 years. Founded in 2017 with a first campus in Benguerir, near Marrakesh, offering multidisciplinary vocational and technical training to Moroccan and other African youth, UM6P is fully owned by OCP SA through its foundation, OCP Fondation, and operates a first campus since 2015 in Benguerir Mohammed VI Green City with current enrollment of 2,182 students.UM6P provides more than 80 percent of OCPs research and development activities in strategic areas such as fertilizers, industrial facilities, clean energy and sustainable water management. In addition, the university also contributes to developing training programs with OCPs Learning Institute to enable OCPs human capital to achieve their full potential.

With MIGAs support, OCP Group has committed to pursue its progress towards green building certifications through the U.S. Green Building Councils LEED certification program for many of its campus facilities in Rabat, in line with its commitment to the Smart City spirit of UM6Ps campus in Benguerir which was the first project to receive this certification in Morocco. Moreover, UM6P will secure third-party verification and will be monitored by a LEED accredited professional.

The new UM6P campus has earned a Social Loan label thanks to scholarships granted by the OCP Foundation. Moroccan and other African students from underserved low-income households will thus benefit from affordable high quality tertiary education. For this reason, the qualification has been confirmed to be aligned with the Loan Market Associations Social Loan Principles by Moodys ESG, an external third-party reviewer.

OCP Group is a long-term partner of the World Bank Group. In June 2021, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank Group member, invested $100 million in OCP to help it expand its logistics networks and increase the availability of fertilizers, adapted to local soils and crops, in Cote dIvoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania.

In September 2020, IFC signed an advisory agreement with OCP aimed at strengthening the rice sector in Cote dIvoire and the millet sector in Senegal. IFC also helped OCP obtain the leading global business certification for gender equalityEDGE (Economic Dividends for Gender Equality)  that was announced in March of this year.
President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Chairman of the Africa50 Board of Directors, Akinwumi Adesina, hailed on Tuesday in Marrakech the coherence of Moroccos development plan and the resilience of its economy, which has demonstrated its ability to successfully emerge from the Covid-19 crisis.

I salute the Moroccan authorities for the coherence of their development plan and the resilience of the economy. Morocco has demonstrated its ability to successfully emerge from the Covid-19 crisis, thanks to the dynamism of its government, the courage of its people and the strength of its private sector, under the enlightened leadership of H.M. King Mohammed VI, Adesina said at the opening of the Africa50 General Shareholders Meeting.

Morocco is a model in Africa on numerous important issues, such as the generalization of social protection, regional integration, agricultural innovations, digital transformation and also on the crucial issue of climate transition, he said.

The AfDB chief also recalled that the Kingdom is home to the solar complex which includes the Noor Ouarzazate power plant, the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world, which was financed by the AfDB.

Adesina noted that Morocco and the AfDB are bound by a historic partnership for over half a century, recalling that the African bank funded over 170 projects in the Kingdom, totaling 12 billion dollars.

Morocco was one of the first countries that supported the creation of Africa50 and it hosts its headquarters, he stated, reiterating his full commitment to further bolster collaboration between the two parties.

On the sidelines of the Africa50 General Shareholders Meeting, the African Development Bank, Africa50 and the forum of African sovereign investors (ASIF), led by Moroccan sovereign investor Ithmar, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to attract more funds to African infrastructure, primarily the development of green infrastructure and climate resilient projects.

The MoU follows a letter of intent signed last June in Rabat during the launch conference of the ASIF.

Under this agreement, the signatory parties agree to work together to boost financing and strengthen the acquisition of skills and expertise in the infrastructure sector.

The collaboration will also focus on research and project preparation, which are key to securing financing.

The Africa50 shareholders meeting, held under the theme Accelerated and Resilient Recovery, was attended by African Ministers of Finance and other senior government officials representing Africa50s shareholder countries, as well as heads of institutions, the diplomatic corps, and leading business operators from Morocco, Africa and eleswhere.

Africa50 is an investment platform created by African Heads of State and the AfDB with the aim of developing and investing in high-impact infrastructure projects through public and private funds.
Morocco and the United Nations Office for the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect (OSAPG) are co-organizing a high-level Symposium to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the landmark United Nations Fez Action Plan on the role of religious leaders and actors to prevent incitement to violence that may lead to atrocity crimes.

The Symposium, held in Fez this July 20-21, aims to identify best practices and lessons learned from the Fez Action Plan since its adoption. It is also discussing ways and mechanisms to ensure the plan implementation in a bid to support international efforts to lay the foundations for peace and security, advance human rights, and stimulate sustainable development, a joint statement by the Interministerial Delegation for Human Rights, the Rabita Mohammadia of Ulemas and the OSAPG said.

The event focuses on multiple topics, including the role of religious leaders in promoting peaceful, inclusive and fair societies, strengthening support for the implementation of the Fez Action Plan at the international level, gender approach in further implementing the Fez Action Plan, especially through empowering and enhancing the role of women and youth, and highlighting experiences and best practices. It also features an interactive discussion to identify future recommendations and the way forward.

The Symposium is attended by prominent UN officials, representatives of the UN system and other international organizations, high-level Moroccan Government representatives, prominent national and international stakeholders and religious leaders, as well as representatives of civil society.

The Fez Action Plan was adopted by the United Nations in 2017, following two years of consultations that were launched in Fez, with leaders of different faiths and religions from around the world. This landmark Plan is a tangible tool to prevent incitement to violence that may lead to atrocity crimes, combat hate speech, counter the rhetoric of violent extremism, in addition to promoting the values of peace and security and respect for human rights and enshrining the principles of coexistence and social justice.
Morocco and Israel are fostering their relations on all fronts including in the defense industry as Israels top general and Moroccan minister in charge of defense discuss means to develop cooperation to cover military manufacturing.

Following talks with Israels army chief Aviv Kohavi in Rabat Tuesday, Minister in charge of defense, Loudiyi reiterated Moroccos determination to develop defense industry projects with Israel as Morocco seeks to reduce its dependence on imports.

The two leaders reaffirmed that their closer ties are geared to serve regional peace and stability.

Kohavi also met Moroccos top general Farouk Belkhir. The two parties expressed satisfaction at their growing cooperation as evidenced by the participation of Israeli troops in joint exercises, including the African Lion, co-organized by Morocco and the US with the participation of friendly armies.

Kohavis visits cements a growing cooperation between the two countries in vital sectors including security. Since the resumption of diplomatic ties, Morocco and Israel have exchanged visits by top civilian and military officials.

Prior to Kohavis visit, Israeli ministers in charge of the interior, trade, the economy, defense and foreign affairs have paid visits to Rabat.

Last month, a delegation of Israeli innovation firms held a meeting with their Moroccan counterparts in Casablanca, in a sign of growing economic interest by the business communities for joint projects.

Israeli media reported that Morocco was planning to open its embassy soon in Israel, upgrading its already existing liaison office there.

Israeli trade minister had announced during a visit to Rabat earlier this year that her country aspires to bolster trade with Morocco to 500 million dollars from 130 million currently, buoyed by increasing connectivity between the two countries.

Morocco also hopes direct air links would attract more Israeli tourists to the country which was once home to the largest Jewish community in North Africa.
The African Development Bank Board of Directors approved a loan of USD 271 million to finance Egypts Food Security and Economic Resilience Support Program to support efforts to mitigate the impact of the global shocks on the domestic economy from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and to preserve resilience, Abidjan-based bank said in a statement.

The program includes two major components: Support for the Food Security Response and Build Private Sector and Fiscal Resilience.

The first component seeks to increase national agricultural productivity and mitigate food security risks for people in vulnerable situations, the statement said.

The second will help enhance Egypts private sector and fiscal resilience as a resilient private sector can be instrumental in reducing the economic and social impacts of the exogenous shocks.

This new operation integrates emergency measures as well as structural measures. Its objectives: strengthen food security and improve the resilience of the private sector and public finances, said Mohamed El Azizi, African Development Bank Director General for North Africa.
HAICA, Tunisias media watchdog, has fined Qatar based al Jazeera with around $16,300 fine for publishing 25 July referendum opinion poll results that the institution believes will influence voters.

In a statement issued Tuesday, HAICA, Webdo Tunis reports, poll results, which were aired on the July 12, 2022 episode of Al-Hassad, could influence the will of the voters.

The organic law of the North African country at its article 70 on elections and referendums prohibits during the election or referendum campaign as well as during the period of electoral silence, to broadcast or publish the results of opinion polls directly or indirectly related to elections and referendums.

Tunisians are called to polls on July 25 to adopt a new constitution that will usher in a new republic after President Kais Saied dissolved the parliament and suspended the 2012 constitution.

Several voices have rejected the new draft constitution that they believe has been cooked to suit the president and which will roll back the democratic gains made in the wake of the 2011 uprising.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has thanked King Mohammed VI and the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) for hosting the U.S.-Africa Business Summit which opened on 19 July in Marrakech.

Addressing, remotely, participants in the summit from Washington D.C., the American Vice-President said: I would like to thank the Corporate Council on Africa, His Majesty King Mohammed VI and the Kingdom of Morocco for hosting the 2022 U.S.-Africa Business Summit .

In her virtual remarks, Vice President Kamala Harris also said she is honored to participate in the opening ceremony of the Marrakesh summit held this year under the theme: Building Forward Together.

President Joe Biden and I recognize the critical importance of strengthening our relationship with countries across Africa, underlined Mrs. Kamala Harris, highlighting how the U.S. through Prosper Africa initiative drives investments that advances shared prosperity.

The U.S. Vice-President also availed this opportunity to invite leaders from across the African continent to attend the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit due in Washington on December 13-15, 2022.

The Summit, she said, will demonstrate the United States enduring commitment to Africa, and underscore the importance of U.S.-Africa relations and increased cooperation on shared global priorities.
Coast guards of the Royal Navy operating in the Mediterranean Sea have provided assistance, from July 17 to 19, to 236 would-be immigrants, mostly Sub-Saharans, military sources said.

The illegal immigrants, including 06 women, were in difficulty aboard makeshift boats, the source said.

The rescued people received first aid on board the fighting units of the Royal Navy, and were then transported to the nearest ports of the Kingdom before being handed over to the Royal Gendarmerie for the usual administrative procedures, the source said.
The water stress faced by Morocco requires the adoption of complementary policies such as those recommended in the New Development Model (NMD), the World Bank Director of Operations for the Maghreb and Malta, Jesko Hentschel, said Wednesday.

Recent events have shown that technical solutions are no longer sufficient to protect the economy against climate shocks and underline the need to adopt complementary policies, such as those described in the NMD, which would allow to take into account the true value of water resources and encourage more efficient and reasoned uses, said Hentschel during a roundtable dedicated to the presentation of the Monitoring Report on the economic situation in Morocco  The economic recovery is running dry.

These reforms include pricing scarcer water resources at an appropriate level, developing efficient water allocation mechanisms, such as a tradable quota system, and producing and publishing accurate and detailed data on water resources and their use, the World Bank said in the report, which identifies resilience as a key element for Moroccos growth and economic stability.

Morocco will therefore need to accompany infrastructure development efforts with water demand management policies that encourage the sustainable, efficient and equitable use of water resources, noted the report, which offers an analysis of the effects of droughts and water scarcity on Moroccos macroeconomic situation.
Hundreds of African and American businessmen are discussing in Marrakesh partnership projects in various sectors including agribusiness, finance, energy, fertilizers, health, mining infrastructure, ICT, security and creative industries.

A large American delegation, led by Alice Albright, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), is taking part in the 2022 U.S.-Africa Business Summit, held in Moroccos most popular tourist city.

Themed Building Forward Together, the four-day summit is hosted by the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) in partnership with Morocco and aims to advance trade and investment between African countries and the United States.

Speaking at the opening of the Summit, Alice Albright said the Business Summit is an occasion to build new partnerships, explore new opportunities, and collaborate more with African partners, noting that MCC is working to create a long-term partnership with them to address current challenges.

This Summit will demonstrate the United States enduring commitment to its African partners, she said, noting that it will be based on the principles of mutual respect and shared interests and values, with the aim of strengthening economic relations.

She also highlighted the opportunities for economic growth in Africa, a continent that is the fastest growing in the world, before emphasizing the great interest of participating in this gathering of public and private sector leaders.

For his part, chairman of the Moroccan Employers Association (CGEM), Chakib Alj, said that private companies, along with the public sector, have a key role to play in solving Africas greatest challenges, particularly those related to energy, food security, education, digital transformation and health, noting that Moroccan companies are ready to work hand in hand with American and African partners to accelerate this dynamic.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has committed so far $1.1 billion in Morocco. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is expected to announce new commitments to advance the development of information and communications technology, clean energy, and healthcare infrastructure across the continent.

The Summit, which offers the opportunity to establish future-oriented tripartite US-Morocco-Africa business partnerships, is also an occasion to consolidate the strategic positioning of Morocco, the only African country to have concluded a free trade agreement with the United States, as a hub for Africa and an economic partner of reference for the US.

This event is marked by the organization of high-level dialogues, plenary sessions, panels, roundtables, and side-events around the continents priorities in food security, health, agriculture, energy transition, new technologies, infrastructure, and the integration of industrial ecosystems.

The Marrakesh conference serves a platform connecting U.S. and African companies looking to do business with one another, and offers an opportunity to global investors seeking the long-term returns offered by Africas fast-growing markets.

During the summit, the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) will highlight the central role of African small and medium-sized enterprises in fueling the continents economic growth and recovery; and the Prosper Africa Chief Operating Officer will announce new funding opportunities and deals closed.

The Marrakesh gathering features presentations and debates on business challenges & opportunities offered in various sectors in Africa, US-African government policies and success stories.

The summits exhibition center enables SMEs and entrepreneurs to display their brand and showcase their business to leaders and the investment community.
Two sales of city land for North Platte economic projects cleared the City Council Tuesday, though one prompted some drama over its timing.

Councilman Jim Carmans absence threatened to leave the council one yes vote short of immediately adopting an ordinance selling north-side land for a 51-lot shovel-ready housing project.

The ordinance for that sale won 5-2 approval after Councilman Mark Woods, one of its two opponents, voted to waive the usual requirement of three rounds of yes votes on ordinances.

After the waiver motion won on a 6-1 tally  such motions require six votes in favor  Woods rejoined Councilwoman Donna Tryon in voting against selling the 13.2 acres at West 17th Street and Adams Avenue for $120,250 to the North Platte Area Chamber & Development Corp.

The evenings other land sale cruised to approval, with the council voting 7-0 to turn over the former city sewer lagoon to the citys Community Redevelopment Authority for the Sustainable Beef LLC plant.

An identical 7-0 vote waived the three-reading rule on the necessary ordinance. The CRA will pay $142,500 to the city, then recoup that amount from Sustainable Beef once its organizers show theyve completed financing for the $325 million project.

Council members had approved a redevelopment plan for the chamber housing project June 7 and an accompanying rezoning ordinance in a trio of votes ending July 5. Tryon and Woods consistently opposed them.

When the housing plans sale ordinance came up Tuesday night, Tryon questioned whether a private person would have the chance to buy the citys land as an in-town acreage.

I guess my point is that if someone wanted to have a little piece of country in the city, thatd be the perfect spot to do it, the Ward 1 councilwoman said.

If they were to buy it, would they have to develop it into 51 lots, or could they put up their castle out there?

Its unlikely that we would sell it for something beyond this project, Mayor Brandon Kelliher replied.

Chamber President and CEO Gary Person said Tuesdays ordinance triggers public notices to be published each of the next three weeks. A 30-day waiting period starts after that before the sale can close, he said.

He asked the council to expedite the ordinances passage rather than add a month to an already tight time frame to install water service before winter for the first eight lots fronting Adams.

If you dont waive the readings, it kicks us into late October or early November to get things started, Person said. The (housing) need is beyond desperate at this point.

The chamber plans to install streets and utilities in the subdivision, then sell lots to individual developers. The council last month approved $1.87 million in tax increment financing to help the chamber gradually cover its infrastructure costs.

Councilman Pete Volz was among members urging quick action so the chamber can get started.

We feel the need for good employment in this community (and) good-paying jobs like those Sustainable Beef and the proposed Hershey rail park would offer, he said.

This goes hand in hand. We cant do one without the other.

Tryon remained unmoved.

Not everybody working in North Platte lives in North Platte, because our cost of living is higher, especially the rent, she said.

And I dont expect 800 people to be living here in the next two years, referring to Sustainable Beefs forecast 875 new full-time jobs.

But the sale ordinances path was cleared when Woods said he would vote against the way I feel and allow final adoption Tuesday.

I have, I would say, a disgust for this project with whats going on, he told his fellow council members. But its going to pass, and theyre going to be built.

If he didnt vote to waive the three ordinance readings, it seems kind of spiteful, Woods added.

In other business, the council:

Voted 7-0 to let the city Sanitation Department start selling pickup labels on Oct. 1 to attach to appliances and other large items they want garbage crews to pick up for them.

City workers have picked up such items when able rather than let them pile up, said Interim City Administrator Layne Groseth, the full-time public works director.

But the city has seen both bulky and non-bulky trash items being left outside receptacles over the past 18 months, he told the council.

When I accepted the Public Service position, I didnt want junk all over town, Groseth said.

The 4-inch by 6-inch labels will cost $30 each for refrigerated appliances and $10 each for other miscellaneous and large items. Theyll be available to buy at Municipal Light & Water.

People also can pay for additional city garbage carts or use the free cleanup card theyre entitled to as city sanitation customers, Groseth said.

Agreed to sell temporary easements and permanent rights of way to the Nebraska Department of Transportation for access and additional city-owned land for next years state-led rebuilding of South Jeffers Street (southbound U.S. Highway 83) between First and Leota streets.

Most of the affected land sits at or near the citys Public Safety Building, said City Engineer Brent Burklund. NDOT will pay the city $11,000.

Tuesdays vote doesnt cover the state agencys plans to rebuild South Dewey Street (U.S. 83s northbound lanes) starting in 2026, Burklund said.
Memorandum of Understanding outlines collaboration to support the decarbonization of the steel industry by using disruptive technology and reduce carbon emissions

Johan Soderstrom

Johan Soderstrom, Head of Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Hitachi Energy

Henrik Henriksson

Henrik Henriksson, CEO of H2 Green Steel

Zurich, Switzerland, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hitachi Energy today announces that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with H2 Green Steel to leverage electrification, digitalization, and hydrogen to support the decarbonization of the steel industry.

H2 Green Steel, a Swedish industrial start-up, is on a mission to accelerate the global steel industrys greatest technological shift by eliminating almost all of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from the steel production process. It is planning to build its first fossil-free steel plant in Boden, Sweden, alongside a giga scale electrolyzer plant for the production of green hydrogen.

The MoU outlines a collaboration which is built on three (3) pillars: 1) Hitachi Energys equity investment in H2 Green Steel; 2) products and services from Hitachi Energy that are needed to construct and improve the electrical infrastructure to power steel production and giga scale electrolyzer plants; 3) green steel to be used in the manufacturing of Hitachi Energys products, once H2 Green Steel starts production.

Over the past decade, expanding steel production has increased total energy demand and CO 2 emissions1, which contributes to about eight percent of the worlds global industrial carbon emissions2.

Starting with the plant in Boden, H2 Green Steel will leverage Hitachi Energys capabilities to optimize customers value chain to plan, build, operate, and maintain the power infrastructure that includes IT and operational technology (OT). The steel production in Boden will use green hydrogen instead of coal in a fully integrated process using end-to-end digitalization, which reduces up to 95 percent CO 2 emissions compared to traditional steelmaking. This will be equivalent to removing 3 million passenger cars per year from road3.

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Achieving carbon-neutrality globally requires efforts from all industries to speed up the energy transition through collaborations, says Johan Soderstrom, Head of Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Hitachi Energy. This collaboration with H2 Green Steel is a pioneering example of how we are working together and creating additional benefits for our customers. We are supporting H2 Green Steels electrification project and at the same time, we are able to secure green steel for our products, which is in line with our Purpose: Advancing a sustainable energy future for all, he added.

"The partnership we have entered into with Hitachi Energy is further reinforced by an equity investment in H2 Green Steel. The partners we choose to work with need to share our values, to make a real commitment to live up to the Paris Agreement, and to work tightly together to leverage each others strengths. With Hitachi Energy we have that, as well as their long history, broad experience, and innovative offerings, says Henrik Henriksson, CEO of H2 Green Steel.

1 IEA, Iron and Steel

2 McKinsey, Decarbonization challenge for steel (World Steel Organization)

3 Based on average 160 g CO 2 /km and average distance of 15,000 km

-END-

About Hitachi Energy Ltd.

Hitachi Energy is a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all. We serve customers in the utility, industry and infrastructure sectors with innovative solutions and services across the value chain. Together with customers and partners, we pioneer technologies and enable the digital transformation required to accelerate the energy transition towards a carbon-neutral future. We are advancing the worlds energy system to become more sustainable, flexible, and secure whilst balancing social, environmental, and economic value. Hitachi Energy has a proven track record and unparalleled installed base in more than 140 countries. Headquartered in Switzerland, we employ around 38,000 people in 90 countries and generate business volumes of approximately $10 billion USD.

https://www.hitachienergy.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/hitachienergy

https://twitter.com/HitachiEnergy

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi drives Social Innovation Business, creating a sustainable society with data and technology. We will solve customers' and society's challenges with Lumada solutions leveraging IT, OT (Operational Technology) and products, under the business structure of Digital Systems & Services, Green Energy & Mobility, Connective Industries and Automotive Systems. Driven by green, digital, and innovation, we aim for growth through collaboration with our customers. The companys consolidated revenues for fiscal year 2021 (ended March 31, 2022) totaled 10,264.6 billion yen ($84,136 million USD), with 853 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 370,000 employees worldwide. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at https://www.hitachi.com.

About H2 Green Steel

H2 Green Steel (H2GS AB) was founded in 2020 with the ambition to accelerate the decarbonization of the steel industry, using green hydrogen. Steel, which is one of the worlds largest carbon dioxide emitters, is the companys first business vertical. The founder and largest shareholder of H2 Green Steel is Vargas, which is also co-founder and one of the larger shareholders in Swedish battery maker Northvolt. H2 Green Steel is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with its first green steel plant under development in Boden, northern Sweden. www.h2greensteel.com

Attachments

CONTACT: Jocelyn Chang Hitachi Energy Ltd. +41 79384 7775 jocelyn.chang@hitachienergy.com




NEW YORK, July 20, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UBS today announced the launch of the US version of the UBS Climate Aware Equity Index, which is a rules-based strategy that aims to provide investment exposure to the long-term theme of transitioning to a low carbon and climate resilient economy.

The index aims to serve the increasing demand for investment and retirement products that not only help investors achieve their investment goals but also help mitigate climate-related risks in their portfolios and capture environmental objectives within the investment philosophy.

Featured by Global Atlantic in a registered index-linked annuity (RILA), the UBS Climate Aware Equity Index is pioneering climate-focused indices in the US RILA market. The Index includes equity securities of large and medium sized US companies, while tilting the allocation towards companies that are expected to be successful in a low carbon economy.

The Index applies a systematic, rules-based approach to select and weight Index constituents based on climate scores. Current and forward-looking data is used to assess a companys carbon footprint and gauge its forward-looking carbon emissions profile. UBS Climate Aware Equity Index scoring aims to consider key risks and opportunities related to climate change using six climate scores; carbon emission, coal energy, fossil fuel reserves, renewable energy, emissions trajectories and severe weather events.

Ghali El Boukfaoui, Head of Insurance Solutions at UBS Investment Bank said: "We are proud to collaborate with Global Atlantic around UBS Climate Aware Equity index which allows investors to access the theme of a low carbon and climate resilient economy, exclusively within Global Atlantic inaugural Registered Index Linked Annuity. We are happy to offer retirement savers with a unique access to a tried and true investment strategy and hope this can help Global Atlantic clients build a retirement portfolio that is both well performing and climate conscious."

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"Registered index linked annuities are the fastest growing category of retirement products," said Rob Arena, Co-President and Head of Individual Markets at Global Atlantic. "The inclusion of climate-focused index options within RILAs can be a meaningful way for environmentally-conscious clients to link their savings strategy with sustainability principles and values."

The Index is maintained by a third-party benchmark administrator and uses ESG scoring information provided by a recognized market data provider.

Notes to Editors

About the UBS Investment Bank

The Investment Bank provides corporate, institutional and wealth management clients with expert advice, innovative solutions, execution and comprehensive access to international capital markets. It offers advisory services and provides in-depth cross-asset research, along with access to equities, foreign exchange, precious metals and selected rates and credit markets, through its business units, Global Banking and Global Markets. The Investment Bank is an active participant in capital markets flow activities, including sales, trading and market-making across a range of securities.

About UBS

UBS provides financial advice and solutions to wealthy, institutional and corporate clients worldwide, as well as private clients in Switzerland. UBS is the largest truly global wealth manager, and a leading personal and corporate bank in Switzerland, with a large-scale and diversified global asset manager and a focused investment bank. The bank focuses on businesses that have a strong competitive position in their targeted markets, are capital efficient, and have an attractive long-term structural growth or profitability outlook.

UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. It has offices in more than 50 regions and locations, with about 30% of its employees working in the Americas, 30% in Switzerland, 19% in the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 21% in Asia Pacific. UBS Group AG employs more than 72,000 people around the world. Its shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Disclosures

This material is authorized for distribution only when accompanied or preceded by a prospectus and an applicable product brochure for the annuities being offered. The prospectus contains features, benefits, risks, fees, and other information regarding the registered index-linked annuity contract, which should be considered carefully before investing. You should read the prospectus carefully before investing money.

ForeStructured Growth registered index-linked annuity is issued by Forethought Life Insurance Company, 10 West Market Street, Suite 2300, Indianapolis, Indiana. FA1901SPDAX-01 and FA4131-01 and rider forms FA4132-01, FA4133-01, FA4134-01, ICC14-FL-FIATI, ICC14-FL-FIANC.

ForeStructured Growth is underwritten and distributed by Global Atlantic Distributors, LLC.

Global Atlantic Financial Group (Global Atlantic) is the marketing name for The Global Atlantic Financial Group LLC and its subsidiaries, including Accordia Life and Annuity Company, Commonwealth Annuity and Life Insurance Company, Forethought Life Insurance Company and Global Atlantic Re Limited. Each subsidiary is responsible for its own financial and contractual obligations. These subsidiaries are not authorized to do business in New York.

This material is for distribution only under such circumstances as may be permitted by applicable law. It has not been prepared with regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs of any specific recipient. It is published solely for informational purposes and is not to be construed as a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any securities or related financial instruments or to participate in any particular trading strategy. Options, derivative products and futures are not suitable for all investors, and trading in these instruments is considered risky. The recipient should not construe the contents of this material as legal, tax, accounting, regulatory, or other specialist or technical advice or services or investment advice or a personal recommendation. Foreign currency rates of exchange may adversely affect the value, price or income of any security or related instrument mentioned in this material. No representation or warranty, either express or implied, is provided in relation to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of the information contained herein except with respect to information concerning UBS AG, its subsidiaries and affiliates ("UBS"), nor is it intended to be a complete statement or summary of the securities markets or developments referred to in this material or a guarantee that the services described herein comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations. It should not be regarded by recipients as a substitute for the exercise of their own judgment. Any opinions expressed in this material are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by other business areas or groups of UBS as a result of using different assumptions and criteria. UBS is under no obligation to update or keep current the information contained herein, and past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. UBS, its directors, officers, employees or clients may have or have had interest or long or short positions in the securities or other financial instruments referred to herein and may at any time make purchases and/or sales in them as principal or agent. UBS may act or have acted as market-maker in the securities or other financial instruments discussed in this material. Furthermore, UBS may have or have had a relationship with or may provide or have provided investment banking, capital markets and/or other financial services to the relevant companies. Neither UBS nor any of its directors, officers, employees or agents accepts any liability for any loss or damage arising out of the use of all or any part of this material or reliance upon any information contained herein. Additional information may be made available upon request. Not all products or services described herein are available in all jurisdictions and clients wishing to effect transactions should contact their local sales representative for further information and availability.  UBS 2022. All rights reserved.

 UBS 2022. All rights reserved. The key symbol and UBS are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of UBS.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005544/en/

Contacts

Media Contact:

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Members from the Lee County NAACP presented a new redistricting map for the City of Opelika on Tuesday at the Opelika City Council meeting.

Laticia Smith, the vice president of the Lee County NAACP branch, and members Tabitha Isner and Elizabeth Hill attended to explain the changes they made to the map.

They said the goal was a map that accommodated the concerns of citizens, which they gathered by reviewing comments and feedback from the public meetings held in each of the five wards in Opelika.

What I was tasked with doing was finding a map that would honor as many of the citizens suggestions as possible, said Isner, the mapmaker. Were wanting to make sure that the voice of the people is heard.

Moving district lines can create a domino effect, but the members said they were able to meet the legal guidelines while also satisfying five out of the eight concerns raised by citizens either at the public meetings or to the NAACP directly.

We would like to see the city adopt our map, Smith said.

These changes include:

Moving Westend Subdivision out of Ward 1 and back into Ward 3.

Moving Gateway Drive, Airport Road and Fredrick Road out of Ward 4 and back into Ward 1.

Moving Fox Run Parkway, Douglas Street, West Point Parkway and Jeter Avenue out of Ward 5 and back into Ward 2.

Moving Oak Bowery and Morris Avenue out of Ward 3 and back into Ward 4.

Moving Towne Lakes out of Ward 2 and back into Ward 5.

Moving Spring Hill out of Ward 4 and into Ward 3. No changes were requested by the community to make this change, but this change was needed to meet the redistricting requirements after making the other changes.

While someone from the community did ask for Commanche Drive between Marvyn Parkway and Crawford Road to be moved out of Ward 2 and back into Ward 5 and for the downtown area to be moved out of Ward 1 and back into Ward 2, the NAACP wasnt able to make these changes and said they agree with the mayors proposal involving these areas.

It is really hard because the city doesnt grow at even rates, Isner said. If it did, all the districts could stay where they are, but knowing that youre gonna have to move district lines, someones going to be unhappy.

Smith said the NAACP map is a little tighter and more compact, which she said is a good thing. This map also keeps two minority-majority wards.

In my opinion, both maps that have been presented are legally defensible, said City Attorney Guy Gunter. They comply with all legal provisions, and its up to the city council in your total discretion to determine which meets the needs and interests of the citizens of the City of Opelika.

Theres not a whole lot of difference, said Council President and Ward 4 Councilman Eddie Smith about the two maps. Either plan would be sufficient.

The statistics for the NAACPs proposed map are as follows:

Ward 1: 6,270 total population; 72.99% minority (63.24% Black, 6.92% Hispanic, 1.90% Asian, 1.84% Native American and 0.24% Pacific Islander) and 27.01% white.

Ward 2: 6,228 total population; 68.27% minority (60.32% Black, 4.52% Asian, 2.77% Hispanic, 1.53% Native American and 0.09% Pacific Islander) and 31.73% white.

Ward 3: 6,179 total population; 58.77% white and 41.23% minority (25.28% Black, 12.70% Hispanic, 2.07% Native American, 1.50% Asian and 0.13% Pacific Islander).

Ward 4: 6,157 total population; 74.22% white and 25.78% minority (13.50% Black, 6.44% Hispanic, 3.67% Asian, 2.15% Native American and 0.08% Pacific Islander).

Ward 5: 6,161 total population; 63.36% white and 36.64% minority (28.49% Black, 3.61% Hispanic, 2.62% Asian, 1.87% Native American and 0.02% Pacific Islander).

After giving the presentation, the NAACP will now need to work on formalizing legal documentation and creating an ordinance.

For the NAACPs proposed map to be adopted, the following must happen:

The mayors proposal removed from the table by a vote from the council. The NAACPs proposal introduced as an ordinance for the first reading at a council meeting. The NAACPs proposal passed by a vote at the following council meeting.

If the NAACPs ordinance is not introduced in August and nothing is decided by Sept. 13, the mayors proposal and redistricting plan will go into effect.
The record-breaking heat wave in Europe doesn't mean record solar power generation, as extremely high temperatures actually reduce the efficiency of solar panels.

As temperatures in the UK hit the highest-ever on record at over 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) this week, solar power output hasn't set records and is unlikely to do so amid very high temperatures, scientists say.

On Tuesday, a provisional temperature of 40.3 C (104.54 F) was recorded at Coningsby in the UK, the UK's Met Office said, adding that it was the first time on record temperatures in the UK have exceeded 40C.

However, power output during the heat wave has dropped below the levels that are typically reached during the spring when there is sunshine, but temperatures are cooler.

"It's because of this balance between irradiance and temperature that the record for peak half-hourly generation is always in April or May, because that's when we get sunny but relatively cool weather," Jamie Taylor, a senior data scientist at Sheffield University, told the BBC.

While solar output has been relatively high in recent days, it hasn't broken any records, according to trade association Solar Energy UK.

"The heat itself brings down the efficiency of solar panels slightly," Solar Energy UK's chief executive Chris Hewett told the BBC.

"So don't expect to see records set," Hewett added.

During very high temperatures, a very high number of the electrons on the solar panel are excited, which reduces the generated voltage and the panel's efficiency.

Hot weather could reduce the efficiency of solar panels by between 10 percent and 25 percent, according to U.S. solar equipment distributor CED Greentech.

"It may seem counter-intuitive, but solar panel efficiency is affected negatively by temperature increases. Photovoltaic modules are tested at a temperature of 25 degrees C (STC)  about 77 degrees F., and depending on their installed location, heat can reduce output efficiency by 10-25%. As the temperature of the solar panel increases, its output current increases exponentially, while the voltage output is reduced linearly," CED Greentech notes.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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If ever there had been a time when crude oil was going to reach the US$200-plus per barrel (pb) levels posted in clickbait headlines or bank research reports talking their own books then it is now. With Russias invasion of Ukraine, geopolitical risk has not been higher in recent memory, there are swingeing cuts in the ready supply of oil and gas from bans in place or set to come in on Russia for the same reason, and the prospect of compensatory supplies coming from Saudi Arabia or any of its OPEC brethren have been dashed in the realisation finally that endless talk over their abundant spare capacity was just a lie. And yet, oil prices are nowhere near US$200 pb and nor have they been close  in fact, they are looking soft - and the key factor at play in this has Chinas handling of Covid-19. These fears remain well-founded and, despite the endless chatter of the ignorati to the contrary, China is not set to reverse its Draconian handling of the disease any time soon, casting a long shadow over oil prices for a long time to come. Given the huge discrepancy between its need for various commodities to power its economic growth and its lack of many of these resources, China was almost single-handedly responsible for the commodities pricing super-cycle that occurred between 2000 and 2014. This notably included crude oil and even beyond the 10 percent annual growth years seen in China during its boom manufacturing growth-led years, it has remained the largest annual gross crude oil importer in the world, surpassing the U.S. in this regard in 2017. In short, for best part of 25 years, China has been by far the biggest backstop bid in the global oil markets. And yet, as it has migrated it growth-generation policy from being principally driven by manufacturing and towards goods and services connected to the expansion of its own middle class, the headline GDP growth numbers have been in decline, and this was seen before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was against this already deteriorating economic growth profile, then, that Chinas economy-crimping hard-line defence against Covid-19 has compounded many existing problems.

Related: EU Considers Mandatory Gas Rationing

Although China came out of the first big wave of Covid-19 in the first half of 2020 in better economic shape than any other major country, its certainty at that point that this had been due to its exceptionally tough handling of the pandemic led to the continued backing for the zero-Covid policy that it saw as the reason for its success in this regard. When massive new outbreaks of Covid-19 occurred earlier this year in China, and led to the shutdowns of several major cities, oil markets had looked at comments coming out of several Chinese agencies as evidence that a softer line on the handling of the pandemic might be in the offing and might mitigate downside price risks for the oil pricing matrix. In particular, the optimists cited the publication in the middle of April by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) of a guide that outlined measures for quarantining at home. This would have alleviated the economy-paralysing effects of people having to quarantine at centralised state-run facilities, even if suffering from very mild symptoms or none, having tested positive for Covid-19. These hopes, however, were dashed as, when asked for further clarification of these home-quarantining procedures, the CCDC simply reiterated the previous rules. Chinas President, Xi Jinping, then personally reiterated that: We must adhere to scientific precision, to dynamic zero-CovidPersistence is victory.

Last weeks sudden and sharp plunge in oil prices in a very short space of time is a stark reminder to oil bulls of the profit and loss swing fragility of long positions with the shadow of this China Factor hanging over the global oil markets, about which this author has written several times, most recently at the end of May. It is also extremely apposite to note here that even the tiniest inkling of a resurgence of Covid-19 in China is sufficient to have such a dramatic negative effect on crude oil prices. Last weeks price fall resulted only from news that Covid-19 cases in Shanghai over the previous weekend had hit their highest levels since late May and that several other Chinese cities, including Xian and Lanzhou, had placed restrictions on their residents in response to a rise in Covid-19 cases. The point that the markets are, rightly, pricing in is that it does not require much at all in the way of rises in Covid-19 cases for Chinas zero-Covid policy to go into full swing. In this context, even at the height of the outbreaks across the country earlier this year, the government did not increase its flexibility to any greater degree than had been shown in the previous huge outbreaks, which was to allow daily increases in symptomatic cases to be capped at around 200 on a national basis before the full zero-Covid measures are put into place.

Related: Are Oil Prices Set To Rally Once Again?



While the isolation period for incoming travellers has been cut by half to seven days of centralised quarantine, local governments are still expected to eliminate domestic outbreaks as soon as possible with widespread testing, contact tracing and quarantine policies, Eugenia Fabon Victorino, head of Asia Strategy for SEB, in Singapore, told OilPrice.com. [Although citywide lockdowns are meant to be implemented as a last resort, the policy of regular and frequent testing in major cities will keep the fear factor elevated, in our view, and the Covid strategy will likely translate into sporadic restrictions in various parts of the country in the face of virus outbreaks, she said. The recent rise of infections in Anhui province has already triggered lockdowns in some counties and, in Shanghai, the 24 positive cases reported on 5 July prompted a three-day mass testing exercise in nine districts and parts of three other districts, out of a total of 16, she underlined.

Although the severe degree of resonance that Chinas zero-Covid policy has for oil prices appears even greater than from the broader impact on Chinas economic growth trajectory, many economic analysts are also now predicting extremely low economic growth  by Chinas standards  this year. Among others, SEBs Victorino, predicts 4.3 percent GDP growth for 2022, while TS Lombards head of China and Asia research, Rory Green, sees just 2.5 percent real GDP growth in 2022 at best, down from 3.3 percent as recently as two months ago. Beijing is firmly committed to zero-Covid, making further lockdowns almost inevitable during the remainder of 2022,, he told OilPrice.com. Healthcare limitations, including the low vaccination rate and insufficient numbers of hospitals and staff, combined with politics ahead of the Q4/22 Party Congress - Xi is closely associated with current Covid policy - make an ending of strict Covid restrictions unlikely in the remainder of the year, he said.

Bad though this is for Chinas economy  and for oil prices  much worse may be to come. Weakness in the property sector will keep bond defaults rising and a fresh stimulus package is required to offset the deteriorating fiscal balances of local governments, said Victorino. [However], at only 2.7 percent of GDP, the possible stimulus package underscores the governments ambivalence to flood the economy with supportive measures, she underlined. For Green, a new variant of the Covid Omicron variant  subvariant BA.5  is of extreme concern. China is experiencing what could prove an economically devastating wave of the Omicron subvariant BA.5, with the number of areas classified as high and medium risk being 483 [as of 7 July], well above the peak of around 240 in April/May, he said. The full extent of spread is as yet unknown, but the outbreak shows no sign of slowing, and until a clear geographical boundary is established, estimating the economic fallout is difficult, and caution is warranted, he added. Last week, we downgraded China growth [to 2.5 percent], in the face of market optimism, on our judgment that a significant level of reopening - that is, sufficient to boost mobility/spending/credit demand and so on  was still six to nine months down the road, so in late Q1 2023, he concluded.



By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

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China continues to buy discounted Russian crude and is gobbling up the ESPO crude grade from Russias Far East, upending global trade flows.

ESPO, which Russia ships from its Far Eastern ports, is being offered at a 10-percent discount compared to similar-quality crudes from Brazil or West Africa, traders familiar with the Chinese buying told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

ESPO goes for around $1-$2 discount per barrel to the international benchmark Brent, while Brazils Lula and Sapinhoa crudes, for example, are being offered at a $10 per barrel premium over Brent, the traders told Bloomberg.

The high demand for the cheaper Russian crude relative to rival grades has already reduced Chinese imports from West Africa, and even forced Iran to additionally discount its crude going to Chinapretty much the only current buyer of Iranian oil, which continues to be under U.S. sanctions.

ESPO is also attractive in China because shipment from Russias Far Eastern port of Kozmino takes around four days, compared to two months for a cargo delivery from Brazil.

ESPO is among the favorite blends of Chinas independent refiners, the so-called teapots, and they have lifted a lot of that grade over the past weeks, traders told Bloomberg.

The high Chinese demand for cheaper Russian crude was evident in the Chinese customs data released on Wednesday, which showed that Russia remained Chinas top oil supplier ahead of Saudi Arabia for a second month running, while Saudi oil imports slumped.

In June, China imported around 1.77 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil, below the previous months record, but still way ahead of shipments from Saudi Arabia, according to the customs data cited by Reuters. Chinese oil imports from Saudi Arabia slumped to 1.23 million bpd, from 1.84 million bpd in May, and were 30% below the June 2021 imports.

In May, China imported a record volume of Russian crude, with arrivals surging by 55 percent to nearly 2 million bpd. This made Russia the top oil supplier to the worlds leading crude importerputting it ahead of Saudi Arabia for the first time in a year and a half.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Saudi Arabia has limited additional crude oil production capacity, Wall Street Journal sources revealed on Wednesday.

The sources, who are said to be familiar with Saudi Arabias oil production capabilities, were not named.

The mystery surrounding Saudi Arabias crude production capabilities has grown in recent weeks amid a tight oil market, Europes energy crisis, and the United States battle with high retail gasoline prices. Large oil producers such as Saudi Arabiathought to be one of the only possible swing producers left within OPECtry to maintain at least some spare capacity that can be turned on to respond to market demands, providing those producers with greater market control.

Alternatively, the market is spooked by a lack of spare capacityparticularly of OPECs largest produceradding more volatility to already volatile oil prices. That fear exists even if that spare capacity is not needed now, simply because it means that should demand increase or supply elsewhere falter, they would be unable to respond to the changing market conditions.

U.S. President Joe Biden just returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia. Upon his return, the President said that he expected Saudi Arabia to boost oil production. Saudi Arabia, however, is bound by the production quota that it agreed to with OPEC+, at least until the end of August. Under that deal, Saudi Arabias production quota will be lifted to 11.004 million bpd for that month. After that, Saudi Arabia would be free to produce as much crude oil as it would like, limited only by its willingness to do so and its spare capacity.

Today is not the first time that concerns have been raised that Saudi Arabias true spare capacity is quite thin. For June, Saudi Arabia produced 10.424 million bpd, an increase of 60,000 bpd from the month prior. Its allocated quota for the month of June was 10.662a miss of 238,000 bpd. Its under production lends credence to the notion that Saudi Arabia might not have as much spare capacity as some think.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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While there is uncertainty regarding whether African oil and gas countries have time to exploit their resources, this reversal from Europe certainly gives them a chance.

The hypocrisy of Europe asking for oil and gas from countries that, just last year, it had told to keep fossil fuels in the ground only makes it harder to take.

As European governments race to secure every drop of natural gas that they can, consumers in countries like Nigeria and Mozambique are losing out.

European governments are scouring the world for natural gas as they seek to reduce their overwhelming and increasingly uncomfortable dependence on Russia's Gazprom.

Besides the United States, which has done its best to supply as much LNG as possible to its European allies, several African countries have emerged as potential sources of additional gas supplies. But they are not exactly happy about it.

"The gas here goes to Bonny and Europe to power homes and industries but we have no benefits from it," one local community development activist from the Niger Delta told Bloomberg recently. "Nothing comes to us."

The comment was part of an in-depth analysis by Bloomberg on Europe's mad dash for gas that has seen Nigeria, for example, send millions of tons of LNG abroad while local communities use illegally made fuels and wood to stay warm. Nigeria is far from the only one.

Mozambique is one of the biggest LNG hopefuls in the world, and the current energy security anxieties of European leaders have made it even more important. But Mozambique is a troubled country. It is suffering extremist attacks on civilians that have, in addition to the tragedy of human deaths, delayed the development of the country's gas reserves.

Yet there is a much bigger problem with Europe and its thirst for African hydrocarbons. Hypocrisy.

For years, new oil and gas field development and pipeline construction projects across Africa have suffered setbacks because of Western banks and governments' unwillingness to fund new hydrocarbon projects as the crusade on carbon emissions gathered pace.

Now, suddenly, the tables have turned with a deafening crash. The G7 is suddenly all for new oil and gas investments abroad after committing to suspend these just last November at the COP26. And Europe, that same Europe that has been advising African countries to focus on renewable energy and keep the oil and gas in the ground, is now asking for gas.

The International Energy Agency has joined the discourse, too, adding urgency to the continent's hydrocarbon development outlook. In a report released last month, the IEA said African gas producers had limited time to commercialize their resources, saying these producers needed to act quickly because the world would only need gas for a while before going low-carbon.

Apparently, the large-scale development of African gas resources was not at odds with Paris Agreement targets, according to the IEA's secretary-general, Fatih Birol. He told Reuters back in June that "If we make a list of the top 500 things we need to do to be in line with our climate targets, what Africa does with its gas does not make that list."

He also said that if African countries with gas reserves turned all of these reserves into production, this production could reach 90 billion cubic meters per year by 2030, of which two-thirds could be used domestically and the rest exported.

That would be 30 billion cubic meters for exports, equivalent to what the United States and Qatar, taken together, can supply annually to Europe. For context, Russian gas exports to Europe totaled 158 billion cubic meters last year.

Of course, to do that, energy companies and other funding providers would need to strengthen their walk-back on emission reduction commitments. They will probably do just that, on the basis that 'it's only for a short while", as Germany's government said when it decided to restart coal plants.

But there are environmental concerns about the long-term viability of gas production in Africa itself.

"It's difficult to predict how long this opportunity will be there, especially in the context of the energy transition, the world moving away from the fossil fuels," Silas Olan'g, Africa co-director of the Natural Resources Governance Institute, a New York-based environmental NGO, told NPR recently. "I think they are kind of misleading most of the governments," he said.

The situation is pretty complicated. On the one hand, some, notably the leaders of African countries with oil and gas reserves, feel that these countries deserve the chance to exploit these reserves the way Western countries did, which was instrumental in their evolution into developed economies.

While a year ago, the West would have frowned at this argument, now it is in the West's interest to support it wholeheartedly, so it gets a piece of the gasand oil, why notpie.

But on the other hand, there are environmentalists in Africa, too, and they are concerned that the continent's gas-rich countries may be going into a trap of stranded gas assets. It is difficult to argue with this concern when so many think tanks active in the same area as the NRGI are warning about such stranded assets.

Of course, the current U-turn being made by Europe and the U.S. appears to counter the argument of stranded assets and suggests that gas-rich African countries such as Nigeria, Senegal, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea have sufficient time to monetize their resources. If the U-turners are willing to provide the money for it.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Russias Gazprom could cut natural gas flows to Europe via Nord Stream even more due to slow progress with the maintenance of the gas turbines at compressor stations, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

There are two functioning machines there, they pump 60 million cubic metres per day ... If one is not returned, there will be one, which is 30 million cubic metres. Has Gazprom something to do with that? Putin was quoted as saying by Reuters during a visit to Iran.

Another gas turbine is scheduled to be sent for maintenance on July 26, Putin said.

Nord Stream is undergoing regular maintenance between July 11 and 21 and no gas currently flows from the key gas link between Russia and Germany.

Before the start of the maintenance period, Gazprom had already slashed deliveries via Nord Stream, saying that a gas turbine for a Nord Stream compressor station being repaired by Siemens at a facility in Canada could not be returned due to the Western sanctions on Russia. European leaders, including those of Germany and Italywhose countries are most affected by the slashed Gazprom deliverieshave said that the Russian excuses are lies and that the lower gas supply was a politically motivated decision.

Canada sent the gas turbine that was being repaired in the country on a July 17 flight to Germany, from where the equipment will need another five to seven days to reach Russia if there are no logistics or customs problems, Russian daily Kommersant reported on Monday, citing sources familiar with the situation. The turbine is expected to arrive in Russia around July 24, but could take another three to four days to commission and install. Thus, the turbine is expected to be ready to pump gas in early August, Kommersant reports.

Meanwhile, the European Union is bracing for the possibility that Russia will not resume natural gas deliveries to Europe via Nord Stream as plannedright after the regular maintenance on the pipeline ends on July 21.

We are working on the worst possible scenario. And that scenario, and assumption therefore, is that Gazprom would no longer deliver any gas to Europe... We are basing our winter preparedness plans on the worst possible scenario, a European Commission spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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As anticipated, U.S. President Joe Biden refrained from declaring a climate emergency, which would grant him additional powers to deal with a national climate crisis, during his speech Wednesday at the site of a former coal plant in Massachusetts.

Citing a staggering $145 billion in damages caused by extreme weather events just last year, and calling the climate crisis a clear and present danger, in a live stream, Biden told those gathered in Massachusetts that his administration would use its executive powers to tackle the impact of climate change.

My message today is this: Since Congress is not acting as it should [...] this is an emergency, and I will look at it that way. [...] As president I will use my executive powers to combat climate crisis in the absence of Congressional action, Biden said.

The U.S. president said that the administration would announce executive actions in the coming days, but this is unlikely to appease those who were holding out for a declaration of emergency.

Noting that our national security is at stake, with extreme weather damaging military installations in the U.S., and with 100 million Americans currently under heat alert, Biden discussed his $2.3-billion pledge to help communities across the country to build infrastructure designed to withstand natural disasters we are seeing today.

The administration's efforts are part of stated plans to move the U.S. power sector towards cleaner energy and less volatile price swings, as well as towards energy security that creates jobs, lowers costs and provides energy security.

Congress and the Supreme Court have set up roadblocks to the administrations agenda. The Biden administrations $550-billion budget for climate initiatives faces strong opposition, and not only from Republicans. That budget is part of the Build Back Better legislation.

Stiff opposition is coming in particular from Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative West Virginia Democrat who is reported to have received more money from the oil and gas industry in 2021 than any other member of Congress, according to NPR, citing the OpenSecrets tracking group.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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China has accelerated the approval of coal-fired power plants this year, and in the first quarter alone, it approved new coal capacity equal to nearly half of all the coal-fired capacity approved for the whole of 2021, Greenpeace said on Wednesday.

China gave the green light to as much as 8.63 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power plants in the first quarter of 2022 alone, which was equal to

46.55% of all the coal capacity approved throughout 2021, the environmental group said in a research report.

Greenpeace slammed China for contributing even more to climate change and blamed it for using the energy security card to approve more coal-fired power generation capacity.

Energy security has become a sort of code word for coal, rather than for reliable supply of energy, Wu Jinghan, climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace in Beijing, told Reuters.

As it looks to avoid a repeat of last autumns coal and energy crisis, China is now reportedly considering ending the ban on Australian coal, which was enacted in October 2020 after Australia backed a call for an international inquiry into the way China handled the initial COVID outbreak. China is concerned that the EU ban on Russian coaleffective August 2022would intensify a global run for non-Russian coal supply that could weaken Chinas purchasing power.

In recent months, China has significantly boosted its coal production, following government orders for more coal supply. Faced with power shortages last autumn, Chinese authorities ordered an increase in domestic coal production as global coal prices soared.

In March 2022, Chinas daily coal production hit a record high as it jumped by 15 percent compared to March 2021.

China has put more emphasis on energy security since the autumn of 2021. Earlier this year, China said it would continue to maximize the use of coal in the coming years as it caters to its energy security, despite pledges to contribute to global efforts to reduce emissions.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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With Europe on edge over the possibility that Russia will cut off gas flows, new grid data now shows that orders via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline have been made for Thursday, easing some of the panic that has prompted the EU to call on member states to reduce gas usage 15%.

Germanys energy regulator has confirmed that Russian state-run Gazprom has renominated gas flows for July 21st at 30% capacity for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, ZeroHedge noted on Twitter.

The renominations for Nord Stream 1 were also confirmed by Reuters.

According to Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, shipments of natural gas will resume on Thursday, when maintenance that began on July 11th are scheduled to end. However, for now, shipments remain below the norm in volume based on orders placed so far.

Prior to the maintenance shut-down, gas flows via Nord Stream were only operating at 40% capacity, and Bloomberg noted concerns earlier this week that maintenance on another unit of the pipeline could reduce flows to 20% capacity later this month.

Presently, only two turbines are operating on Nord Stream 1.



Earlier on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin had indicated that gas would start flowing again to Europe via the pipeline, but warned that flows could be severely reduced if there is no resolution with regard to sanctioned partsparticularly gas turbinesneeded to maintain Nord Stream 1.

There are two functioning machines there, they pump 60 million cubic metres per day ... If one is not returned, there will be one, which is 30 million cubic metres. Has Gazprom something to do with that? Putin was quoted as saying by Reuters on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, the European Union urged its member states to reduce gas consumption by 15% until next spring to head off a further crisis in the face of the threat of a complete Russian natural gas cutoff. The move is part of the European Commissions gas demand reduction plan released on Wednesday.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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In its latest Electricity Market Report, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) says that global demand for electricity is already slowing sharply thanks to slowing economic growth and high energy prices.

Electricity demand growth is slowing significantly in 2022. After global electricity demand grew by a strong 6% in 2021, propelled by rapid economic recovery as COVID-19 lockdowns eased, we expect growth to slow to 2.4% in 2022--about the same as the average from 2015 to 2019, according to the report.

The agency said that the slowing growth reflected slower global economic growth and higher energy prices following Russias invasion of Ukraine as well as renewed public health restrictions, particularly in China.

Renewable sources of energy are growing faster than demand and replacing fossil fuels, according to the international energy body, with strong capacity additions so far this year helping global renewable power generation achieve a 10% growth clip.

Further, the agency notes that the EU is gearing up to lower its reliance on Russian fossil fuel imports by accelerating the clean energy transition.

The IEA has given a poor prognosis for the coming year, too: As of mid-2022, we expect global electricity demand growth in 2023 to remain on a similar path as this year. Strong renewables growth of 8% and recovering nuclear generation could displace some gas and coal power, resulting in the electricity sectors CO2 emissions declining by 1%, the IEA has predicted in its report.

If accurate, falling electricity demand is likely to be bad news for natural gas producers, with fossil fuels accounting for a whooping 25% of global electricity generation.

In more bad news for natural gas punters, the European Union has proposed to member states Wednesday to cut gas usage by 15% until March as it braces for the "likely scenario" that Russia could cut off gas flows to Europe.



By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  Sri Lankan lawmakers on Wednesday elected the unpopular prime minister as their new president, a choice that risked reigniting turmoil in the South Asian nation reeling from economic collapse and months of round-the-clock protests.

The crisis has already forced out one leader, and a few hundred protesters quickly gathered after the vote to express their outrage that Ranil Wickremesinghe  a six-time prime minister whom they see as part of the problematic political establishment  would stay in power.

While the choice invited more protests, lawmakers apparently considered Wickremesinghe a safe pair of hands, a politician with deep experience who could lead Sri Lanka out of the crisis. He has spent 45 years in Parliament and led recent talks seeking a bailout for the bankrupt island nation.

Sri Lankans have taken to the street for months to demand their top leaders step down as the country spiraled into economic chaos that left its 22 million people struggling with shortages of essentials, including medicine, fuel and food. After demonstrators stormed the presidential palace and several other government buildings last week, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled and then resigned.

Much of the protesters' ire is focused on Rajapaksa and his familys political dynasty, which ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades. But many also blame Wickremesinghe for protecting Rajapaksa. During demonstrations last week, crowds set his personal residence on fire and occupied his office.

Wednesday's vote means Wickremesinghe  who was also Rajapaksas finance minister and became acting president after the leader fled  will finish the presidential term ending in 2024. He can now also appoint a new prime minister.

I need not tell you what state our country is in," Wickremesinghe, 73, told fellow lawmakers after his victory was announced. "People are not expecting the old politics from us. They expect us to work together.

He pleaded for the country to move on: Now that the election is over, we have to end this division.

But protesters flocked to the presidential residence instead, chanting, Ranil, go home.

We are very sad, very disappointed with the 225 parliament members who we elected to speak for us, which they have not done, said Visaka Jayawware, a performance artist in the crowd. We will keep fighting for the people of Sri Lanka. We have to ask for a general election.

Wickremesinghe has wide experience in diplomatic and international affairs and oversaw the bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund.

But many voters view him with suspicion since he was appointed prime minister by Rajapaksa in May, in hopes he would restore stability.

The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful family of siphoning money from government coffers and of hastening the countrys collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but the former president acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lankas meltdown.

The struggle will continue until our demands are met. Wickremesinghe "doesnt have a mandate to rule the country, said Nemel Jayaweera, a human resources professional. We will oppose him.

Still, the ruling party's majority in Parliament swept Wickremesinghe to victory with 134 votes. Populist Dullas Alahapperuma, a longtime ally of Rajapaksa and also a minister in his government, secured 82 votes. A Marxist candidate netted three votes.

The vote, shown on national television, was a decorous, solemn affair. While the balloting was secret, as the results were announced, lawmakers thumped their tables in support of their candidates.

After the vote, some supporters celebrated Wickremesinghes win in the streets. He will be sworn in Thursday.

Only a few lawmakers had publicly said they would vote for Wickremesinghe given the widespread hostility against him. But dozens loyal to Rajapaksa had been expected to back him because he had assured them he would severely punish protesters who burned politicians homes in the unrest.

On Monday, in his role as acting president, Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency that gave him broad authority to act in the interest of public security and order. Authorities can carry out searches and detain people, and Wickremesinghe can also change or suspend any law.

The political turmoil in Sri Lanka has only worsened the economic disaster. But Wickremesinghe said Monday that negotiations with the IMF were drawing close to a conclusion, and talks on help from other countries had also progressed. He also said the government has taken steps to resolve shortages of fuel and cooking gas.

Hours before Wednesday's vote, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told financial magazine Nikkei Asia that the organization hoped to complete the rescue talks as quickly as possible.

As prime minister, Wickremesinghe delivered weekly addresses in Parliament cautioning that the path out of the crisis would be difficult, while also pledging to overhaul a government that increasingly has concentrated power under the presidency.

Presidents in Sri Lanka are normally elected by the public. The responsibility falls to Parliament only if the presidency becomes vacant before the term officially ends.

That has happened only once before in Sri Lanka, in 1993, when then-Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga was chosen by Parliament uncontested after former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, father of the current opposition leader, was assassinated.

Associated Press writer Bharatha Mallawarachi contributed to this report.
The Westside school district is suing the Douglas County treasurer for allegedly failing to repay millions of dollars in payments that were miscalculated for three years.

The district filed the suit earlier this month against John Ewing after his office overpaid and underpaid several local governments in 2021, including Westside and four other school districts, according to the Nebraska State Auditors Office.

The lawsuit alleges that the Treasurers Office underpaid the Westside Community Schools by more than $3.7 million in 2021 and similar amounts in 2020 and 2019.

The State Auditors Office earlier this year concluded that Ewing and his staff incorrectly interpreted state statute that spells out how counties with more than one school district within a single city are supposed to distribute annual payments from the Omaha Public Power District.

OPPD makes the payments, which are ultimately transmitted to local governments and school districts in lieu of property and real estate taxes. The utility directs 5% of its gross revenues from the previous years retail electricity sales to those entities.

The Treasurers Office started the calculation by using levies only from the Omaha Public Schools to determine the amount to be disbursed to the five school districts within the city of Omaha, according to a letter from State Auditor Charlie Janssens office.

In April 2021, OPS was overpaid by about $5.7 million, while the treasurer underpaid the Elkhorn Public Schools by about $4.2 million, the Ralston Public Schools by about $4 million, the Westside schools by about $3.7 million and the Millard Public Schools by about $820,000, according to the letter.

The treasurer also overpaid Douglas County and the City of Omaha while underpaying the City of Ralston.

A similar mistake was found last year in Sarpy County and is the subject of a lawsuit filed by four school districts. The case is currently under advisement by a district court judge.

Westsides lawsuit alleges that the district was underpaid by millions of dollars for three consecutive years. According to the auditors letter, Janssens office only examined the Douglas County treasurer payments in 2021, but Ewing used a similar process in 2020 that resulted in roughly the same miscalculations.

The lawsuit says upon information and belief the district alleges that the treasurer used the same process in 2019, resulting in another year of underpayments. Ewing said in May that the Treasurers Office has been calculating the payments the same way for 61 years.

Craig Kubicek, the deputy auditor for this investigation, said the State Auditors Office doesnt have any say in what happens to the governments that were underpaid or overpaid. The letter, signed by Kubicek, does recommend that Ewing correct the erroneous distributions.

We just turn (the investigation) over and let the attorneys figure out how they are going to go back and correct it and move forward, if they do that at all, Kubicek said.

The Treasurers Office has corrected its payments for 2022, according to the letter.

Ewing said on Wednesday that he and several local government officials have been in contact with Westside and the other school districts to discuss next steps.

What we are looking to do is come to a resolution with all of the districts that were underpaid and looking to have all of the entities that were overpaid participate in the solution, Ewing said. Were looking at going forward, doing it correctly and doing the best we can to reconcile the past.

The Ralston district hasnt made any decisions regarding the payments, said Jim Frederick, district spokesman.

We will continue to work with the Douglas County Treasurers Office to figure out a solution for underpayments and overpayments, Frederick said in an email.

Bridget Blevins, spokeswoman for OPS, said the district also is still in the discussion stage. Officials from the Westside, Millard and Elkhorn school districts did not respond to requests for comment as of Wednesday.
The Omaha City Council signaled broad support Tuesday for a plan that would see the city contribute millions of dollars for the construction of a new central library.

With the expected approval of an agreement between the city and local nonprofit Heritage Omaha, the city would commit to spend $20 million on the new central library project and further integrate a philanthropic group into Omahas library system.

The project planned for the southwest corner of 72nd and Dodge Streets was previously estimated to cost upward of $100 million. Including the $20 million from the city, the new library will likely carry a price tag between $140 million and $150 million, said Rachel Jacobson, president of Heritage Omaha.

Heritages plan creates a remarkable opportunity for the city, Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert told council members Tuesday.

This is possible because we have strong and generous philanthropic support for civic projects that enhance the quality of life in Omaha for everyone, Stothert said.

If plans for the new library move forward, the nonprofit Community Information Trust (CIT) would be incorporated into the Omaha Public Library Foundation, which for decades has served as the fundraising arm of Omahas public libraries.

Heritage created CIT in 2015 to oversee operations of Do Space, a digital library constructed through Heritages fundraising efforts. The merger of CIT and the Library Foundation will ensure the technology offered by Do Space is fully integrated into Omahas public libraries, Jacobson said.

If council approves the agreement, CIT would be responsible for the design and construction of the library. Once the project is complete, the nonprofit would be absorbed by the Omaha Public Library Foundation and the new library would be given to the city.

A majority of City Council members voiced support for the project Tuesday.

The goal is to not just meet the needs but exceed the expectations, said Councilman Brinker Harding. We have had comments about the libraries maybe not being funded to a level we should expect in our community. This gives a jumping-off point to make the system that much better.

The merger proposal comes after the Omaha Public Library Board in June approved the formation of a 10-member advisory committee that will include city and library officials, the CEO of Do Space and a representative from CIT.

The decision was contested by a number of Omaha residents who raised concerns that the creation of the committee gave too much control and long-term influence to a private group.

Board members and city officials supported the move, which they said would bring diverse expertise to the shaping of future library operations.

The committee will define and recommend priorities for the new library and the overall public library system, according to the resolution that created the committee.

The City Council will vote on the proposed city contribution next Tuesday, July 26, at 2 p.m. in the legislative chambers at 1819 Farnam St.
A deputy chief of staff in the Mayors Office is leaving Omaha next month.

Troy Anderson, who currently serves as deputy chief of staff for economic development and development services, has been a member of Omaha Mayor Jean Stotherts executive team since 2018.

He is resigning Aug. 5 to become the assistant city manager in Wichita, Kansas, the Mayors Office announced in a press release Monday.

We have great momentum in Omaha and Troy has been an integral part of the planning and implementation of projects that are changing the landscape of the city, Stothert said. The City of Wichita is very fortunate and will benefit from Troys vision and leadership.

A member of the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Certified Planners, Anderson has also served on the MAPA Regional Planning Advisory Committee, the ARPA affordable housing and public spaces committees and the TIF committee and as interim executive director of the Omaha Municipal Land Bank. He also played a part in the creation of the annual annexation plan and capital improvement plan.

Andersons economic development experience, including his strong history of success with managing land banks, made him a desirable candidate for the job, Wichita City Manager Robert Layton said in a press release.

His experience working with developers and communities to attract opportunities and spur catalytic investments will help Wichita as we continue to focus on dynamic growth and expansion across the City, Layton said.
Dan Cox, backed by Trump, wins Maryland GOP governor primary

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP)  A far-right Maryland legislator endorsed by former President Donald Trump, Dan Cox, has won the Republican primary for Maryland governor. Cox defeated a moderate rival backed by outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan. Cox will face the winner of the Democratic primary in the November general election. Wes Moore, a bestselling author backed by Oprah Winfrey, had an early lead Tuesday night, with the focus starting to turn to mail ballots that wont be counted until later in the week. Despite being a win for Trump, Coxs victory over former Hogan Cabinet member Kelly Schulz could be a blow to Republican chances to hold on to the seat in November.

Sri Lanka Parliament to choose president to lead past crisis

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  Sri Lanka's Parliament will vote by secret ballot Wednesday for a new president to lead the country out of a deep political, economic and humanitarian crisis. Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe will face a hefty challenge after late support swelled for his main rival. Dullas Alahapperuma was nominated by a breakaway faction of the ruling coalition and ethnic minority parties also said they'll support him. Marxist party leader Anura Dissanayake was also expected to run. The winner will serve the remainder of Gotabaya Rajapaksa's term that ends in 2024. Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned last week after protesters furious over the country's economic collapse stormed his official residence and took over key state buildings.

House passes same-sex marriage bill in retort to high court

WASHINGTON (AP)  The House has overwhelmingly approved a bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriages. Tuesday's vote stands as a direct confrontation with the Supreme Court, whose conservative majority in overturning Roe v. Wade abortion access signaled that other rights may be in jeopardy. While the Respect for Marriage Act easily passed the House, it is likely to stall in the Senate, where most Republicans could stop it with a filibuster. But it's part of a political strategy setting up an election-year roll call that forced all lawmakers to go on the record with their views. Dozens of Republicans joined Democrats in Tuesday's House passage.

Most major nations lag in acting on climate-fighting goals

WASHINGTON (AP)  Most major countries are finding that it's easier to promise to fight climate change than to actually do it. Experts who track action to reduce carbon emissions say only the European Union is close to doing what's necessary to limit global warming to a few more tenths of a degree. A new report finds that the U.S. is on track to cut emissions by 24% to 30% by 2030, but that's far lower than the country's goal of reducing by 50% to 52%. Experts say other nations, particularly China, are waiting to see what happens in the U.S. But Congress and the Supreme Court have stymied the Biden administration's climate-fighting plan.

UK breaks record for highest temperature as Europe sizzles

LONDON (AP)  Britain shattered its record for highest temperature ever registered amid a heat wave that has seared swaths of Europe. The national weather forecaster predicted it would get hotter still in a country ill prepared for such extremes. The typically temperate nation is the latest to be walloped by unusually hot, dry weather that has triggered wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans and led to hundreds of heat-related deaths. Images of flames racing toward a French beach and Britons sweltering have driven home concerns about climate change. The U.K. Met Office weather agency registered a provisional reading of 40.3 degrees at Coningsby in eastern England.

Elections officials urged to prepare for shortages, delays

MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Elections officials from across the country meeting under heightened security in swing state Wisconsin are being urged to prepare for supply chain issues that could lead to shortages in paper used for everything from ballots to I voted stickers for years to come. The summer meeting of the National Association of State Election Directors brought together nearly 200 people including elections directors from 33 states, experts in election security, interest groups that work with elections, vendors and others. Election security experts told election directors to be prepared for supply chain issues affecting paper, computer hardware and other services lasting not just for months but potentially years.

Putin, in Tehran, gets strong support from Iran over Ukraine

TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Russian President Vladimir Putin won staunch support from Iran for his countrys military campaign in Ukraine, with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei saying the West opposes an independent and strong Russia. Khamenei said that if Russia hadnt sent troops into Ukraine, it would have faced an attack from NATO later, a statement that echoed Putins own rhetoric and reflected increasingly close ties between Moscow and Tehran as they both face crippling Western sanctions. NATO allies have bolstered their military presence in Eastern Europand sent weapons to Ukraine to counter the Russian attack. Putin held talks Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on some of the most pressing issues facing the region.

Frequent lockdowns may have contributed to Uvalde tragedy

UVALDE, Texas (AP)  Nearly two months after a deadly shooting a Texas elementary school, a Texas House of Representatives committee report found that nearly 400 officers from local, state and federal agencies responded to the 77-minute rampage in which 19 kids and two teachers died. According to the report, frequent lockdowns contributed to a "diminished sense of vigilance about responding to security alerts. Nearly 50 security alerts and lockdowns were called in Uvalde since February, many of which are attributed to bailouts--- a local term for people fleeing from law enforcement after crossing into the U.S., according to the report.

Georgia fake electors may face charges in election probe

ATLANTA (AP)  The Georgia prosecutor whos investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally interfered in the 2020 election in the state has informed 16 Republicans who served as fake electors that they could face criminal charges. They all signed a certificate declaring falsely that then-President Donald Trump had won the 2020 presidential election and declaring themselves the states duly elected and qualified electors even though Joe Biden had won the state and a slate of Democratic electors was certified. Eleven of them filed a motion Tuesday to quash their subpoenas, calling them unreasonable and oppressive.

Stanton, Buxton HRs lead AL over NL for 9th straight ASG win

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Giancarlo Stanton and Byron Buxton homered back-to-back in the fourth inning to rally the American League over the National League 3-2 in the All-Star Game. It was the AL's ninth straight victory in the Midsummer Classic. Nine-time All-Star Clayton Kershaw got the first start of his career for the NL and pitched one inning. He gave up a leadoff single to Los Angeles two-way star Shohei Ohtani. The NL got a solo shot by Paul Goldschmidt and Dodgers star Mookie Betts had an RBI single in the first. Dodger Stadium hosted the All-Star Game for the first time since 1980.
UVALDE, Texas (AP)  Teachers and students at Robb Elementary School knew the safety protocols when an 18-year-old with an AR-15 style rifle entered the building in May. Dozens of times in the previous four months alone, the campus had gone into lockdown or issued security alerts.

Not because of active shooter scares  because of nearby, often high-speed pursuits of migrants coming from the U.S.-Mexico border.

An entire generation of students in America has grown up simulating lockdowns for active shooters, or worse, experiencing the real thing. But in South Texas, another unique kind of classroom lockdown occurs along the state's 1,200-mile southern border: hunkering down because Border Patrol agents or state police are chasing migrants who are trying to evade apprehension.

The frequency of lockdowns and security alerts in Uvalde  nearly 50 between February and May alone, according to school officials  are now viewed by investigators as one of the tragic contributors to how a gunman was able to walk into a fourth-grade classroom unobstructed and slaughter 19 children and two teachers. Although a slow and bungled police response remains the main failure, a damning new report by the Texas House says recurring lockdowns in Uvalde created a diminished sense of vigilance."

With a new school year now just weeks away in heavily patrolled South Texas, there are worries the lockdowns will resume and deepen the trauma for scarred students in Uvalde, as migrant crossings remain high and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott continues expanding a massive border security operation.

Thats what it probably was, just complacency, because it does happen on a frequent basis," said Uvalde County Justice of the Peace Eulalio Lalo Diaz Jr., who had to identify the bodies of the dead at Robb Elementary.

The new findings that a culture of lockdowns in Uvalde played some role in the failures on May 24 reflects how one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history intersected with immigration policies and thousands of Border Patrol agents, National Guard members and state police assigned to apprehend migrants and stop drug traffickers. Of the nearly 400 law enforcement officers at the scene of Robb Elementary, more than half were Border Patrol agents or state police, according to the report.

On Tuesday, over the span of just 20 minutes, eight state police vehicles and Border Patrol SUVs cruised through Uvaldes central square, less than a mile from Robb Elementary.

Uvalde is about an hour's drive from the border with Mexico, located at the crossroads of two major state highways. Nearby are the cities of Pearsall, Dilley and Karnes  all of which have immigration detention centers with some of the nations highest populations. More than 4,500 detainees in total were at the three facilities as of June 2022, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Jazmin Cazares, whose 9-year-old sister Jacklyn was among the students killed, told Texas lawmakers in June that no one in the school district took lockdowns seriously until that day." She said she is now terrified to return for her senior year in the fall.

Am I going to survive it? Unbelievable, Cazares said.

Even the first officers on scene at Robb Elementary wondered whether the threat was a so-called bailout"  the term used by law enforcement along the border to describe suspected migrants or drug traffickers who have fled. Pete Arrendondo, the embattled Uvalde school police chief who has become the target of angry demands by parents to resign or be fired, told the House committee the thought crossed his mind since it happens so often.

The gunman entered Robb Elementary at 11:33 a.m. One minute earlier, according to the report, a fourth-grade teacher in Room 105 received a lockdown alert and made sure her classroom door was locked. That teacher also told the committee she saw a teacher across the hall locking the door in Room 112, one of two adjoining rooms where the shooting occurred.

The shooter is believed to have entered the classroom through Room 111, which was known to have trouble locking properly.

The signal the schools alert system sends out does not specify the potential threat. And because of the prevalence of lockdowns in recent months, according to the report, many teachers and administrators assumed it was another bailout.

"Bailouts has become an increasingly common part of Uvaldes vernacular in the last year as the area has become extraordinarily busy with migrants crossing illegally, largely from countries outside Mexico and northern Central America.

The Border Patrol sector based in Del Rio, Texas  one of nine along the Mexican border  was the most transited corridor for illegal crossings in June, replacing Texas Rio Grande Valley. For much of the year, the two South Texas sectors have posted similar numbers of border encounters, well ahead of the others in California, Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas.

While many migrants turn themselves in to the Border Patrol in the border towns of Del Rio and Eagle Pass  each about an hours drive from Uvalde  many seek to elude capture for hours or days, hiding in stash houses or in tall fields of corn and other crops for smugglers to pick them up at a previously agreed location for the drive to San Antonio.

The committee report said there had been no incidents of bailout-related" violence on Uvalde school campuses before the shooting. High-speed driving sometimes crossed school parking lots, according to the report, which also said some pursuits involved firearms in surrounding neighborhoods.

Diaz, the Uvalde justice of the peace, serves as a magistrate when police make arrests in the area as part of the governor's massive border mobilization known as Operation Lone Star. He sets bail for people taken into custody for alleged human or drug smuggling, but also for crimes unrelated to national security, like minor drug charges.

He said Abbotts operation hasnt made Uvalde safer.

These people who are coming through dont want to be in Uvalde, said Diaz. They are looking to get away from the border and were too close.

Over the last decade, many police departments have shifted away from having officers engage in car chases because they are a danger to the public. A 2017 report from the Justice Department found that between 1996 and 2015 police pursuits killed an average of 355 people annually, with nearly a third of those killed in vehicles not involved in the chases.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, who said he has not spoken to Abbott for nearly a month, has called on the governor to do even more on the border to curb migrant crossings. With classes set to re-start in less than two months, he worries about the bailouts by the schools and so forth and said "it needs to stop.

Angie Villescaz, who grew up in Uvalde and after the shooting founded the Latina mothers advocacy group Fierce Madres with local moms, said the border rhetoric is a distraction from the most pressing issue.

They've always wanted to keep the narrative about securing the border, Villescaz said, and now they can't because it's about securing our schools.

Coronado reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting
LONDON (AP)  The fractious race to replace Boris Johnson as Britains prime minister entered an unpredictable endgame Tuesday as three candidates for Conservative Party leader were left battling for the two spots in a run-off vote.

Kemi Badenoch, a previously little-known lawmaker who has become a rising star of the partys right wing, was eliminated from the contest after receiving the fewest votes from Conservative lawmakers in their fourth round of voting.

After the latest vote knocked Badenoch out, former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak led the shrinking field of candidates and had all but secured his place in the final pair. Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who were neck and neck behind him, will now scramble to woo Badenoch's supporters before a final elimination vote on Wednesday.

All are running to succeed Johnson, who quit as party leader this month after snowballing ethics scandals sparked mass resignations in his government.

The two finalists will go to a runoff vote by all 180,000 members of the Conservative Party, with a winner expected to be announced Sept. 5.

Sunak got 118 votes on Tuesday, two short of the number that would guarantee he is one of the two candidates Conservative members can choose. Mordaunt received 92 votes, Truss 86 and Badenoch 59.

The remaining candidates are also courting supporters of Tom Tugendhat, an influential lawmaker who was eliminated from the contest on Monday.

Both Mordaunt and Badenoch tweeted praise for Tugendhat after Mondays vote. Truss promised to increase military spending from 2% to 3% of gross domestic product  a key issue for Tugendhat, a former soldier who chairs the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

The bitter campaign has exposed deep divisions in the Conservative Party at the end of Johnsons scandal-tarnished reign. Opponents have rounded on Sunak for raising taxes in response to the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Sunak has hit back that his rivals are peddling economic fairy tales.

In a contest where every vote counts, the electorate of 358 Conservative legislators was reduced Tuesday to 357. Tobias Ellwood, a Johnson critic who supports Mordaunt, was suspended from the party group in Parliament for failing to vote in a confidence motion on Monday.

The government easily won the vote thanks to a big Conservative majority, but Ellwood was punished for not cutting short a trip to Moldova to return for it.

Ellwood, who heads Parliaments Defense Committee, said he had been unable to return due to unprecedented disruption both here and in the U.K., where a heat wave is adding to summer travel chaos.

I am very sorry to lose the whip but will now continue my meetings in Ukraine promoting the prime ministers efforts here and specifically seeking to secure the reopening of Odesa port  so vital grain exports can recommence, Ellwood said.

Follow all of APs coverage of British politics at https://apnews.com/hub/boris-johnson
CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  A five-year government report found Australia's environment continues to deteriorate due to climate change, resource extraction and other causes, prompting leaders on Tuesday to promise new laws and enforcement of them.

The State of the Environment report also adds political pressure on the government to set a more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target when Parliament resumes next week for the first time since May 21 elections.

The previous conservative government received the report in December but decided against making it public before the elections.

The center-left Labor Party won on pledges including greater action on climate change.

It wants a target to reduce emissions by 43% below 2005 by the end of the decade enshrined in law when Parliament sits on July 26.

Several unaligned lawmakers want a more ambitious target. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the report sent a very strong message that we need to do better, but she rejected calls for deeper emission cuts.

On the 43% target, we made a promise to the Australian people. Were going to keep the promise we made to the Australian people, Plibersek told the National Press Club.

She said she would introduce new environmental protection laws to Parliament next year and the government would create an agency to enforce them.

The government will also set a target of having 30% of Australias land and surrounding sea declared protected areas. It wants to create an east Antarctic marine park.

I am optimistic about the steps that we can take over the next three years. Legislating strong action on climate change is a great start, Plibersek said.

The wide-ranging report found the number of Australian species listed as threatened had increased by 8% since the 2016 report.

That number will increase substantially after wildfires in 2019 and 2020 destroyed vast tracts of southeast Australian forests, the report said.

Kelly OShanassy, chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, an environmental organization, said land clearing was the major cause of habitat loss.

Theres nothing in this report we dont know. This is the fourth State of the Environment Report and every time its told us that the environment is getting worse and worse and worse because were not taking the type of action we need, OShanassy told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

She welcomed the governments commitment to law reform.

Thats what we need to do pretty quickly, otherwise these endangered species will go extinct and theyll do that in our lifetimes, O'Shanassy said.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee's former chief of staff did not break the law when he personally involved himself in efforts to secure approval to develop some wetlands he had a financial interest in, but he did show poor judgment, state Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a report released Wednesday.

While Anthony Silva's dealings with state Department of Environmental Management and Cumberland town officials were not criminal, his conduct undermined confidence in state government, the 22-page report concluded.

The picture that all this paints is one consistent with what many Rhode Islanders believe happens routinely: a government insider who, because of his position ... was able to have the ear of top DEM officials and put his application on their radar screen," the report said.

The investigation centered on whether Silva broke bribery or extortion laws. The report concluded there is no evidence he offered anything of value in exchange for approval, and he never threatened anyone.

Silva had an agreement to purchase the property in Cumberland  where McKee was once mayor and Silva was police chief  and wanted to build on it. Neighbors opposed development, saying it would worsen flooding in the area.

After the agency issued the necessary approvals, the property was purchased by Silvas son. It was never developed and later donated to the town.

Silva resigned last August when the issue became what McKee called a distraction, and the Democratic governor requested the investigation. Silva maintained he did nothing wrong.

A McKee spokesperson in a statement said based on this report, the people of Rhode Island should have full confidence in how both the Governor and the Department of Environmental Management conduct state business.

The state Ethics Commission in January dismissed a complaint against Silva lodged by the state Republican Party.

A message was left with an attorney for Silva.
A 19-year-old woman from Sioux City, Iowa, was fatally injured after she was thrown from an SUV as it rolled on Interstate 80 east of Lexington, Nebraska.

The crash occurred before 5:20 p.m. Tuesday about halfway between Lexington and Overton, said Dawson County Sheriff Ken Moody.

Witnesses told sheriffs deputies that a 2000 Ford Explorer was eastbound when its rear tire blew and the driver overcorrected, Moody said. The SUV entered the median and rolled.

Emma Kerr, who was sleeping in the back seat and wasnt wearing a seat belt, was ejected, Moody said.

Kerr ended up in the westbound lane of traffic but wasnt hit by any vehicles, the sheriff said. She was flown by medical helicopter to Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney, where she died.

The 16-year-old driver, who was wearing a seat belt, was taken to Lexington Regional Health Center in Lexington to be treated for her injuries.

Westbound I-80 traffic was backed up for a little over an hour after the crash, Moody said.
BLOOMINGTON  It's unclear what the future holds for a long-vacant plaza at West Market and Howard streets, once targeted as a potential solution for west Bloomington's food desert, after the property failed to sell at auction Wednesday.

The sale at the McLean County Law and Justice Center was held as the result of foreclosure proceedings on the property formerly known as Fox Plaza West, 906-918 W. Market St. The opening bid was $197,865, but it failed to garner any interest from potential buyers.

The sale comes two years after city officials and residents gathered in July 2020 to celebrate what was hailed at the time as a new beginning for the property as demolition work began on the properties there. The lot was cleared by December of that year.

Arthur Haynes and Laurie Bell, leaders of the West Market Street Council, said they have been trying to work with the property owner, city officials and nonprofit agencies to acquire the plaza. They hoped to turn it into a home for several retail businesses, community service agencies and a nonprofit grocery store, and had opened a nonprofit account at Illinois Prairie Community Foundation to help raise money for the effort.

Project advocates celebrated the development of a neighborhood grocery store as a potential end for the food desert in west Bloomington, formally designated by the City of Bloomington, McLean County and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The plan, according to Haynes and Bell as well as documents they provided, was that the previous owner, Rajesh Kumar, would agree to pay for demolition and sell the property to the council for $515,000. Kumar died in late 2020, causing a legal and financial standstill for the project.

Before Kumar's death, Bell said, the council tried to secure a loan through the nonprofit Local Initiatives Support Corporation. LISC provides funding for local projects throughout the country. According to its website, it acts as an "'intermediary'a nimble non-profit with strong community partnerships that would connect hard-to-tap public and private resources with underinvested places and people working to access opportunities."

Bell and Haynes said that, in order to secure a loan through LISC, the City of Bloomington needed to be "invested" in the project.

An employee reached at LISC's New York headquarters declined to comment on the project, saying she was not familiar with it.

Kumar's death caused the estate to enter probate, a process by which the courts determine who receives the deceased person's assets and assures all debts and taxes are paid. The properties did have debts and back taxes in 2018 that totaled over $30,000, but Haynes said all parties were working on making monthly payments. These ceased when Kumar died.

Haynes said COVID-19 disrupted many court proceedings in California, where Kumar was a resident, further complicating the situation. "That whole entire year and a half, nothing was getting done," he said. "The bank wasn't getting paid as well."

Bell said many of the major players involved still wanted to complete the agreement. In March, she said, there was a meeting involving the mortgaging bank, the lender, the executor of the estate and the council. She said the parties planned to ratify and agree to continue the previous arrangement.

Bell said there was a sense of urgency. "This was all happening very last-minute," Bell said, "All of us were just flying by the seat of our pants." Despite this, she said, all parties were in agreement with one exception: the City of Bloomington.

A City of Bloomington spokesperson said city staff would not comment because of pending legal issues with the property.

Haynes and Bell spoke to The Pantagraph before the sale and said they were working with a new investor. It was unclear why the investor did not bid on the property Wednesday, and he could not immediately be reached for comment.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Local Initiatives Support Corporation. LISC Headquarters, based in New York, is the entity that was not familiar with the local project and did not wish to comment.
NORMAL  Where there is wildlife, there will be injured animals. But when nature's course won't allow for healing, where are they to go?

For many locally injured creatures, the answer is Brunswick Animal Hospital, 401 N. Kays Drive in Normal.

There are more than 200 licensed wildlife rehabilitators across the state, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Four are located in McLean County, with just one of those, Dr. Randy Brunswick, in Bloomington-Normal.

Brunswick has been working in wildlife rehab since 1987, when he he started his private practice. Since then, he has been treating everything from deer and ducks to raccoons and hawks, all free of charge.

Not a lot of practices are jumping into it because youre not making any money. Youre donating your time, said Brunswick, who is permitted both by the state and federal governments to treat wild animals. Its just goodwill, like donating to a charity, but I dont see many of the other practices in town doing this.

Many times, people bring in squirrels, rabbits, possums or goslings to be treated after their cat or dog tried to eat them, Brunswick said.

Brunswick, who graduated from University of Illinois Veterinary School in 1981, said he relies heavily on books and online research for guidance as he treats all manner of creatures.

Brunswick said he has received animals as big as snapping turtles, blue herons and even bald eagles for treatment. They were later sent to another rehabber to continue recovery because of limited space in his practice.

Hes unusual in that he seems to find the time and, remember, the money, said Ginnie Underwood, a state and federally permitted rehabber in Hudson. There are some animals that go in that have to be euthanized and the drugs cost money, but he doesnt charge anybody, and I think thats amazing.

Recently, she received from Brunswick a young red-tailed hawk that was severely underweight and a kingfisher that was concussed for rehabilitation. Both have been doing better each day, Underwood said.

The hawk has been building up its confidence and has started to eat more on its own. The kingfisher has already been released back into the wild near Lake Bloomington, Underwood said.

Brunswick said he also does not prioritize certain species over others.

Even though theres thousands of raccoons and thousands of possums, its a baby animal and they need help, Brunswick said. Whether it's been hit by the lawnmower or the neighborhood cat  we do what we can and nothing gets prioritized over anything else.

Underwood said she recalled a possum that had been attacked by a hawk, leaving part of its back exposed. Brunswick treated it and gave it some rest before releasing it back into the wild.

Although people may want to save every baby bird or fawn they see, they should also err on the side of caution and practice observing animals before intervening.

Particularly deer in the first couple of weeks, they hide the fawns in really odd places and they dont wan t to draw attention to them until theyre mobile, so they will only check on the fawn maybe once or twice a day, said Mike Wefer, wildlife division chief with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. People just need to be aware of that, unless you are for sure that the mother was hit by a car or if its condition is declining and its getting dehydrated. Then thats an opportunity to come in.

Wefer said there are Good Samaritan laws that protect people who pick up injured animals and transport them to a rehabber, but it is illegal to keep wildlife in captivity or as pets in Illinois. This is because most wildlife in Illinois are protected by the Wildlife Code, and they cannot be kept in captivity without a state or federal permit.

Anyone untrained should not handle wildlife animals because they can inflict serious injuries and can also be carriers of diseases and parasites that are transmittable to humans or domestic animals, he said.

Ultimately, people should be more cognizant of their surrounding wildlife and if they decide to help an injured animal, they should call a local rehabber and check with them ahead of time before deciding to drive over, Wefer said.

As for Brunswick, he said once he retires he is not sure if anyone will fill his shoes and continue this work because it is so demanding with no material payoff.

You got to have your mentors who want to do it. Youre not going to charge into another practice to say, 'Im fresh out of school and I want to do wildlife rehab,' he said. Its hard to have that happen if you dont have somebody that has the wherewithal and the will to do it.
SPRINGFIELD  Just over two weeks after its streets were soaked in blood following the nation's 309th mass shooting of 2022, Highland Park was center stage again Wednesday.

This time, it was on Capitol Hill.

Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, joined by other community leaders, was in Washington to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Dick Durbin, at hearing titled After the Highland Park Attack: Protecting Our Communities from Mass Shootings.

The hearing was the Senate's 10th this year on the nation's gun violence epidemic. This one specifically honed in on the consequences to widespread civilian access to military-style assault weapons.

The message from Rotering to assembled senators and anyone listening? Ban them.

We are only as protected as our weakest gun law neighbors, Rotering said. We are surrounded by states that have far more lenient gun laws and until those states are brought into line with the rest of us, we will continue to have this scourge, this stain on our existence as a great nation. So to that end, we need a federal ban.

The message has been gaining steam with Democrats at all levels of government over the past few weeks as the amount of mass shootings committed with semiautomatic weapons stacks up.

Whether such a massive expansion of gun control could actually pass the U.S. Congress is another question entirely.

Just a few weeks ago, President Joe Biden signed the most expansive gun safety legislation since the assault weapons ban of 1994, which expired in 2004.

The new law expands background checks for gun buyers under 21, strengthens laws against gun trafficking and increases resources for mental health and the enforcement of red flag laws. Durbin saluted "some progress" on the issue.

But we have got to do more," he said. "If were serious about reducing gun violence, we need to keep weapons of war where they belong  on the battlefield, not in our communities.

Durbin and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who also testified Wednesday, have urged their colleagues to take up an assault weapons ban.

It appears unlikely in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to move most pieces of legislation. Though it appears the House may vote on a ban in the coming days or weeks.

"We need to pass that at the congressional level," said state Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Highwood, who also attended the hearing in Washington. "That is the best way to make sure no other community experiences this violence and this trauma.

"But Illinois will not stand by and wait for that to happen," he said. "Illinois will take actions."

Indeed, where there appears to be gridlock at the federal level, Illinois lawmakers are preparing to fill the void.

Morgan told reporters in Washington that state lawmakers are working on a package of gun safety measures, including an assault weapons ban.

Currently, there are eight states  California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York  that ban assault weapons in some form.

Historically, an assault weapons ban has been a tough sell in Illinois, even among some Democrats.

The issue has largely fallen along regional lines, with Chicago-area legislators with liberal constituencies favoring more gun control and downstate lawmakers representing conservative bastions favoring a more lax approach.

But there are signs that dynamics have shifted as the parties have realigned. Most conservative downstate Democrats have either retired or lost their races in the past few years while the party has had more success in the moderate Chicago suburbs, where gun control is popular.

Within days of the Highland Park shooting, an Illinois House proposal to ban assault weapons picked up 56 cosponsors  just four shy of an outright majority. A similar Illinois Senate proposal has 15 cosponsors.

Since it is after May 31, any bill with an immediate effective date would need supermajorities to pass  71 in the House, 36 in the Senate. Legislation passing with majorities less than that would not take effect until at least June 1, 2023.

Illinois lawmakers could take up up gun safety legislation during a special session later this summer or this fall. They are already expected to return to address topics relating to abortion following the Supreme Court's striking down of Roe v. Wade.

Whether gun reform is added to the mix and what that package might look like is still an open question.

"We're having that conversation now," Morgan said.

In another way, the U.S. Congress is having a conversation about gun safety in America. Any action it leads to remains to be seen.

But there at least seems to be a paradigm shift in the debate on guns.

"Second Amendment rights conversations need to return to a point where common sense prevails, where public safety is prioritized, and where Americans can go to school, to the store, and to a hometown Fourth of July parade without fear of dying in a mass shooting," Rotering said.

Bailey at massive cash disadvantage

State Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, crushed his competition in last month's Republican primary for governor, but he is starting the general election in a massive hole against incumbent Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

According to campaign finance reports, Pritzker started with a 167-to-1 advantage in cash on hand against Bailey. The governor had $60.8 million in his campaign account on June 30, compared with just $363,918 for Bailey.

Though Bailey raised nearly $8.7 million in the second fundraising quarter, he spent more than $9.2 million, most of it on television advertising.

The vast majority of Bailey's funds  $8 million  came from billionaire Richard Uihlein, who also funneled money to a political action committee aimed at attacking Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, who came in third place.

It is unclear if Uihlein will continue to be involved.

Though he did not have a serious primary opponent, Pritzker spent more than $27 million last quarter, much of it on television advertisements attacking Irvin and seemingly boosting Bailey's conservative credentials.

Pritzker, who is self-funding, has already poured $125 million into his campaign account this cycle. He spent $172 million in his successful 2018 run.
The Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Yaw Baah, has called for a total overhaul of the current pension system to benefit the working majority in the country, as he says the current scheme is unfair to low-income earning workers.



According to him, only a few privileged individuals are being paid huge sums of money from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) scheme every month, at the expense of ordinary workers who are contributing from their meagre salaries.



Dr. Baah says it is unfair for such a system to continue operating, hence it must be changed for the good of all workers.



We are demanding a total overhaul of the pension system. The current system is unfair to many workers. A few privileged individuals are being paid huge sums of money from the SSNIT scheme every month, at the expense of ordinary workers who are contributing to the scheme from their meagre salaries, he said during a press conference organised by the TUC on Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA) and the National Economic Situation.



He stated that the TUC and its member groups are ready to meet the authorities to properly put in place a better system that will benefit every worker.



On the IMF



Commenting on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme that the country is seeking, he said it will not solve the fundamental structural problems of the economy that is currently in place.



According to him, just like the previous programmes have always done, it will only prepare the country for another bailout to continue keeping them in business.



IMF programmes will not deal with these fundamental structural issues. IMF programmes only prepare the country for the next bailout so that the IMF will continue to be in business, he said.



Dr. Baah stated that the TUC is willing to lead the countrys working people in resisting any attempt to impose hardships on workers and the entire Ghanaian population. The TUC believes that IMF programmes and policies are completely separated from reality.



We have already communicated our objections to the decision to seek an IMF bailout for the eighteenth time. We are convinced that an IMF programme will not solve our problems. It will only impose hardships on Ghanaians, he stated.



Speaking on the economy and how best to grow it, the TUC boss said: We insist that our main challenge in managing the economy has to do with corruption and failure  on the part of successive governments  to transform the economys structure so as to allow Ghanaians produce what we eat and eat what we produce.



Although the TUCs request for an increase in COLA has been granted after intense negotiations took place between Organised Labour and the respective ministries, its still calling on government to honour its promise to pay the lump-sum top-up to workers who retired in 2020 under the new pensions act, Act 766.



Concerning the Single Spine Salary Structure Review, Dr. Baah said: The TUC and its affiliates have their eyes and minds firmly fixed on outcomes of the Single Spine Salary Review process currently underway. We are determined to work together with other Organised Labour groups to end the unfairness in remunerations for public sector workers on the Single Spine Salary Structure on one hand, and Article 71 office-holders and state-owned enterprises on the other hand.



Dr. Baah however commended government for its timely intervention and positive attitude toward the negotiations that enabled the parties to reach a win-win deal. He also thanked all the unions and their members for the extraordinary display of unity that brought results.



Organised Labour led by the TUC reached an agreement with government for a 15 percent Cost of Living Allowance for all workers on the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), effective July 1, 2022. This agreement led to the strike being called off.

Source: BBC









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Reverend Robert Seddoh, Chairman of Ghana Private Schools in the Volta region has commended private school teachers and urged them to continue their relentlessness in delivering their duties.



He said the standard of living has increased hence the demand for teachers in the public sector for strike action and applauded the private school teachers for their purposefulness in managing the situation.



Reverend Robert Seddoh, who said this in an interview with Ghana News Agency said Private school teachers also feel the economic hardship but have been able to bear with their leadership since the schools itself were not seen to be making any profit recently.



We understand our teachers are less paid, we continue to plead with them not to give up on us because we are all experiencing hardship as well, he said.



The Chairman of Ghana private schools in the Volta region added that, despite the food shortage reported in most public schools, private schools are still determined to provide healthy meals to their students adding that, we don't make any profit these days, most of the cash goes into feeding and salary payment.



He said the government should have extended financial assistance toward private schools because if not for private schools, unemployment would have been on a different scale.



Some of the teachers also mentioned they are not happy with their salary but bad job is better than no job has been the reason for their continued commitment to the teaching field.



Some staff of the private school mentioned parents are not seeking enrolment for their wards in the private schools during this strike period because of the economic hardship.



Four teacher unions comprising the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT), have declared an indefinite nationwide strike on Monday, July 4, over demands for the payment of the Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA).



The unions were demanding 20 per cent of their basic salary.



They called off their strike action on Thursday, July 14, 2022, after the government agreed to a 15 per cent cost of living allowance (COLA) with Organised Labour.



A visit to some schools in the South Tongu District saw students in class with school activities ongoing.





Source: GNA









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Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central Constituency has stated Ghana's unemployment situation could change drastically if the tourism sector was well-developed.



He said tourism had the potential to generate a lot of income through creation of millions of jobs for the young people to transform the socio-economic fortunes of the country, saying if that sector was developed every aspect of the economy would improve.



Mr Agyapong was responding to a question posed by a participant who wanted to know what his plans were to reduce unemployment if he became President of Ghana at a fourth in the series of 'Guidance Conference' held in Sunyani on the theme: 'The Youth-Our Future Hope''.



The conference is a platform created by the MP to bring hope to young Ghanaians through motivational messages and sharing of life experiences by him and other selected individuals who are well-established socio-economically.



Touching on agricultural development, Mr Agyapong also a business magnate said the area of mechanisation was the huge driving force for the sector and if well-managed, it would boost food production, generate income, and create wealth to boost the nations economy.



He indicated the mechanisation drive would be focused on the northern and the Afram plains areas with naturally flat-level lands of the country to promote large scale commercial and suitable types of farming.



Okokyeredom Sakyi Ako II, the Paramount Chief of Drobo Traditional Area in the Jaman South Municipality of Bono Region who chaired the event commended the MP for the Guidance initiative, saying guidance and skill development is the key to transforming the youth.



Okokyeredom Ako II, also the Vice-President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs advised the youth to always distinguish between their needs and wants and prioritise those needs that best suited the moment.



He further advised young entrepreneurs to start a business with whatever small capital but not a loan since they might forever be indebted to banks, which had the tendency to affect the progress of the business.





Source: GNA









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All things being equal, the Sunyani Airport is ready to be reopened for aircrafts after its closure to freights since 2015 for renovations, Kweku Ofori Asiamah, Transport Minister, has announced.



The Minister made the disclosure after he led a team comprising of Minister for Employment and Labour Relations Hon Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Bono Regional Chairman Kwame Baffoe Abronye, MP for Sunyani East Hon Akwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, Authorities of Ghana Airports Company Limited, Ghana Civil Aviation Authority and other regulatory bodies on a final inspection tour of the phase one of the Sunyani Airport on Tuesday.



The minister after the inspection of the renovation works at the airport expressed his satisfaction with the work done and added that phase two, which consist of raising the central tower from two-storey to three-storey, separating departure hall from the arrival hall, providing drainage and proper sewage system, and adding bigger septic tanks is next in line to be constructed.



Hon Ofori Asiamah averred that, the project would open the economy of the country, especially for those in the three regions of Bono, Bono East and Ahafo, because it would reduce travel time of passengers which is in line with the vision of the Government to develop and promote domestic airline services.





The Managing Director for the Ghana Airports Company Limited, Pamela Djamson-Tettey pegged the progress of work on the facility at 99.99 per cent which she hopes to it starts receiving aircrafts any moment from now pending approval from the regulatory bodies.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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An aide to the Member of Parliament for Dome Kwabenya has refuted claims that the MP has avoided honouring the invitation extended to her by the Privileges Committee of the legislature.



Sarah Adwoa Safo, who doubles as the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, was summoned by the Privileges Committee to answer for absenting herself from parliament for more than 15 sittings without the permission of the Speaker.



She, however, failed to honour the Committee's invitation even though an opportunity was given to her to honour the invitation virtually from her current base in America.



This led the Committee to conclude that the Dome Kwabenya MP has failed to justify her absence hence recommending her seat be declared vacant.



However, her Special Assistant, Nana Nubin, according to a Citinewsroom.com report, maintains that her boss has not avoided the Committee as reported.



Despite failing to be specific about the reasons accounting for her absence from the committee, Nana Nubin said it was for personal reasons.



According to him, he reached out to the Clerk of the House to find an appropriate time for Adwoa Safo to meet with them, when his boss could not honour the invitation by the Committee.



Adwoa Safo and two other MPs were referred to the privileges committee by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, for absenting from the house.



Kennedy Agyapong and Henry Quartey honoured the Committees invitation and attributed their absence to ill health.



The two have since been pardoned by the Committee while a recommendation has been made for Adwao Safos seat in parliament to be declared vacant.



Meanwhile, GhanaWeb is accepting nominations for the prestigious GhanaWeb Excellence Awards  Youth Edition. Click here to nominate.







Source: ghanaweb.com









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The opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, has indicated that the Asomdwee Park, where late President John Evans Atta Mills was buried does not belong to Koku Anyidoho, a former aide to the late President.



According to the party, Asomdwee Park was conceived as a possible final resting place for deceased Presidents and Vice Presidents.



The party stressed in a statement copied to GhanaWeb that, the fact that late President Atta Mills is so far the only dignitary buried there does not change its non-political purpose.



Indeed, the facility was developed by the National Security Office during the tenure of H.E John Dramani Mahama and remains a National Monument as well as a place of pilgrimage to honour the memory of dignitaries buried there. It was designed to be managed by the national security office with access authorized only by that office.



While it is in order for the Government of Ghana to organize functions at the facility and invite persons to same, it is, in our candid view, wholly inappropriate for any private entity to be given an office at the location, directly or indirectly conferring on it a role as overseer even to the extent of issuing invitations in the name of the state, the statement signed by Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the party said.



Koku Anyidohos Atta Mills Institute, has been planning to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the late Presidents demise in a grand style but the NDC is of the view that no private institution should be given the mandate to do so.



To the NDC, Atta Mills Institute appears to be serving as a vehicle for political opponents to sow seeds of confusion in the minds of Ghanaians and obliterate the enviable legacy of late President Atta Mills.



We are concerned about the posture and activities of an Institute that has assumed for itself some form of mythical ownership of the name John Evans Atta Mills, three times NDC flag bearer and President of Ghanaians 2009- 2012. That Institute appears to be serving as a vehicle for our political opponents to sow seeds of confusion in the minds of Ghanaians and obliterate the enviable legacy of late President Atta Mills, a man of peace who was elected into office on the ticket of the NDC.



It would be a shame, as the invitation purports, for President Akufo-Addo to be associated with a divisive organization, well-known for its fabrications and abusive language. Let us be clear, the Institute in question has been on a collision course with the NDC party on whose ticket Prof Atta Mills contested and won the 2008 election and became President.



For your information, its founder has been dismissed from the NDC. An unfortunate impression should not be created that the Institute is being used by the Presidency and the enviable Coastal Development Authority (CODA) to spite the Atta Mills family, former President John Mahama and the entire NDC for that matter, the statement read further.











Source: ghanaweb.com









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A Deputy Communications Director of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Abdul Kamal Deen has said that the factors that compelled President Akufo-Addo to seek International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout are different from what occurred during former President John Mahamas regime.



According to him, unlike President Akufo-Addo who is being pushed to go for IMF bailout because of global crises likes Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia and Ukraine war, former President Mahama had to go for the bailout because of his sheer mismanageent of the economy.



Speaking on Accra-based TV3 on Tuesday, July 19, he admitted that the Akufo-Addo administration previously stated that it was not going to seek support from the Fund but has been compelled by global economic forces to do so.



What got us to go to IMF after Senchi under Mahama? The factors that got us to go to IMF today, were they the same then? No, he said.



He added that gross incompetence, to the extent that [John Mahama] himself said he had assumed the status of a dead goat. Dumso occurred because of their abysmal performance.



The NPP communicator blamed John Mahama for destroying the great economy bequethed him by the late Prof Mills and subsequently running to IMF for help.



Kamal Deen made these remarks as a rebuttal to Tamale Central Member of Parliament (MP), Murtala Mohammed accusation that the Akufo-Addo administration is seeking for IMF bailout because of gross mismanagement of the economy.





Source: ghanaweb.com









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Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, Chairman of Groupe Nduom paid a courtesy call on former President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday, 15th July, 2022.



This was to inform the former President about what he has been doing these past three years, why he has been absent from Ghana and the 2020 elections as well as his plans going forward.



The former President received Dr. Nduom with great enthusiasm.



It will be recalled that after the 2000 elections, President Kufuor appointed an inclusive administration which included CPP, PNC and independents.



Dr. Nduom had contested the election then to become the MP for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) on the ticket of the CPP.



Dr. Nduom was initially appointed Minister for Economic Planning and Regional Cooperation and also Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).



He worked very closely with the former President to fashion the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and get it through Cabinet. It is this GPRS which was used to help qualify Ghana for HIPC benefits with Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo as the Minister of Finance.



He was appointed Energy Minister at the height of Ghanas search for oil. President Kufuor during his second term of office appointed Dr. Nduom as Minister for Public Sector Reform.



This led to a number of reform initiatives including pension and salary administration (introduction of single spine) and others.



President Kufuor and Dr. Nduom travelled together to a number of international assignments in the UK, France, Spain, USA and a number of African countries.



Perhaps a defining moment in their relationship was the appointment of Dr. Nduom to lead a stalled Millennium Development Challenge project which led to the USA giving Ghana a $547 million grant for a number of projects including the construction of the N1 Highway (Tetteh Quarshie to Mallam).



Former President Kufuor knows Dr. Nduoms family very well so they had a good discussion about his family and how his children are doing.

Dr. Nduom discussed the reasons why he had been absent for so long from Ghana including health and business challenges.



He told the former President he had been paying particular attention to his business operations in the USA particularly the bank especially given the reputational damage caused by the loss of the Ghana banking license and the accusations made about illegal money transfers.



All these he hoped would be proven false through the courts and administrative processes.



The former President wished him well and prayed that all will be well for him to return to Ghana to play a meaningful role in the development and job creation.



Dr. Nduom presented the former President with an enlarged and framed front page of the Today Newspaper which featured photographs taken at the State Department in the USA when the MCA compact was signed between Ghana and the USA.



He expressed his gratitude for the MCA assignment and the support the former President gave during the process.



As a sign of accountability, Dr. Nduom promised to help prepare a presentation on what the $547 million compact has accomplished in Ghana.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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American record producer, Khaled Mohammed Khaled, aka DJ Khaled has praised Ghanaian act Black Sherif for the amazing delivery of his song Kwaku The Traveller.



He described his music as a creative piece that touches the soul. In an Instagram post on Tuesday DJ Khalid shared a short video of Black Sherif singing his song; Kwaku The Traveller.



Khaled who is happy about the Ghanaian musician wrote underneath the post saying, @blacksherif_  KEEP GOING Music that touch your soul.



Earlier reports suggested that early hours of Tuesday, July 19, 2022, Khaled also shared a screenshot of Black Sherifs single on his Insta-story indicating he was listening to the track. It was after listening to the piece that he posted Black Sherif on his main page on Instagram.



Kwaku The Traveller by Black Sherif was published on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, The single during its first week of release debuted on Apple Music Top 100 Music Charts in several countries across the globe and has also received positive comments and reviews from music enthusiasts.









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TV3, Ghanas leading television station out-doored sixteen beautiful ladies at a grand event in Kumasi, last Sunday, to officially begin the contest for Ghanas Most Beautiful 2022 crown amidst rich Ghanaian culture and tradition.



The launch of the 15th edition of GMB, was well attended by chiefs, patrons, sponsors of the event, past contestants and the public. It was a colourful and fun-filled entertaining event, as the contestants arrived at the durbar ground in beautifully made clothing with their entourage amidst cultural displays from their respective regions as they greeted traditional leaders, dignitaries, guests and the public gathered at the event grounds.



The theme for this year is Ghanas beauty, Africas pride and contestants are expected to exhibit knowledge about their regions and about Africa to show themselves as worthy ambassadors of the continent.



In the next 13 weeks, the ladies will go through training and undertake various contests for the selection of a winner who will take away the crown, bragging rights and a car.



Mr Francis Doku, General Manager 3TV, said Media General team went around the country for the auditions and the 16 ladies were selected after the audition process. He asked the public to support them.



Nana Owusu Berimah III, Atasomansohene and chairman of the launch commended TV3 for portraying the countrys rich cultural diversity through GMB.



 GMB has kept Ghanaians connected to our roots. It brings together all cultures, breeds respect between tribes, erodes all kinds of discrimination and opens our eyes to the beauty that every single culture exudes, he said.



The reigning queen of GMB, Safoa described GMB process as a discipline that helps the ladies to cultivate the art of spontaneity to meet tasks upfront.



GMB is a competition that teaches young ladies to be able to stand up for themselves, protect their bodies in a dignified way and also use their brains to work, she said



TV 3 began GMB contest in 2007 to offer Ghanaian young ladies the opportunity to unearth their skills and talents, project the countrys culture and showcase the beauty of the Ghanaian that reflects the total beauty and hospitality of the country.



Since its inception, Central Region leads with more wins of the crown, having won three times. The Greater Accra, Northern, Eastern and Ashanti Regions have won twice each while the Volta, Upper East, Upper West and Western Regions have coveted the crown once for each region



This years contest for GMB crown is expected to be even more keenly contested for as it coincides with TV3s 25th anniversary

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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" " The U.S. Supreme Court is set to take up Moore v. Harper, a case being brought by Republican state legislators in North Carolina challenging the authority of their state's Supreme Court to reject the congressional redistricting map drawn by them. Shutterstock

In June, the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court has rocked the nation with two startling decisions on bitterly contested issues. First, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 49-year-old decision that had established a constitutional right to abortion, and gave states the power to completely outlaw it if they choose. Then, in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the court decided that the Second Amendment gives Americans the right to carry concealed handguns outside the home, without showing a special need for such protection.

Those cases have caused such a tumult that another action by the court may have gone unnoticed by some, even though it has the potential to even more radically reshape America  and possibly, according to some experts, pose a real threat to American democracy itself.

On June 30, the court indicated that it would take up Moore v. Harper, a case being brought by Republican state legislators in North Carolina. They're challenging the authority of their state's Supreme Court to reject the congressional redistricting map that they had drawn, in which districts were gerrymandered to give the Republican Party an advantage in 10 out of the state's 14 congressional districts, even though slightly more North Carolina voters cast ballots for Democrats in the 2020 congressional election. The North Carolina court has imposed what it saw as a fairer map, drawn by a court-appointed group of special masters, which would give Democrats an edge in six out of 14 districts.

The GOP legislators say the courts intervening in redistricting and elections violates Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution, often referred to as the Elections Clause, which states that "the Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof." In their application to the court, they argue that the founders intended for state legislatures to have that authority to themselves, without judicial review.

"I am confident that this court recognizes what our state Supreme Court failed to recognize  that the United States Constitution explicitly gives the General Assembly authority to draw districts and that authority must be recognized," North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore explained in a statement, according to WRAL.com.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case in its fall 2022 term and presumably will issue its ruling in the summer of 2023. If the case is decided in favor of the plaintiffs, it might give state legislatures near-total control over the drawing of congressional districts in their states, allowing them to create gerrymandered maps that couldn't be overturned as unfair by state courts. The result, experts warn, might be entrenched one-party rule, in which one party increasingly could eliminate contestable seats, and fill the U.S. House with members who were guaranteed reelection cycle after cycle.

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Case Could Affect Presidential Elections Too

But the decision's effect might reverberate beyond just the issue of gerrymandering, notes Jonathan L. Entin. He's a professor emeritus of law and adjunct professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and a former law clerk to Ruth Bader Ginsburg when she was on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit.

"Although this is not squarely an issue in the case, presumably if they can persuade the Supreme Court that the legislature has unfettered discretion to draw the maps, it also gives the state legislature the unfettered discretion to decide how to award the electoral votes in the presidential election," Entin explains.

"Many observers are undoubtedly reading this case through the lens of the 2020 presidential election, where [former President Donald] Trump urged state legislatures to make their own determination as to who had won the elections within their states, effectively substituting the will of the people's representatives for that of the people," says John Vile, dean and professor of political science at Middle Tennessee State University.

If state legislatures had that power in 2020, it's possible to imagine a scenario in which Republican-dominated legislatures in several states could have awarded their states' electoral votes to incumbent Donald Trump, even though he had received fewer votes at the polls than Joe Biden. (Indeed, in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Trump in Pennsylvania, one for the proposed remedies was throwing out the popular vote and letting state legislators choose the winner, an option that a federal judge derided as "breathtaking.")

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Independent State Legislature Theory

If the Supreme Court found in favor of the North Carolina GOP legislators, it would be a striking shift from the position that the court took just three years ago in Rucho v. Common Cause, another North Carolina case. A 5-4 majority found that federal courts cannot consider challenges to gerrymanders done to get partisan political advantage (as opposed to, for purposes of racial discrimination). In that case, Chief Justice John Roberts' opinion on behalf of the court argued that while federal judges couldn't throw out maps because of partisan gerrymandering, state courts might be able to do so. That recently happened in Maryland, where a state judge threw out a Congressional map drawn by the Democratic-controlled legislature because she saw it as unfair to the GOP.

More importantly, legal and political scholars say it would also be a departure from the traditional balance of power in American government, the system in which judges and state constitutions act as a check on the power of legislators, and vice versa.

"The idea that there's some kind of legislative power that is separate and apart from the ordinary constitutional limitations is really quite remarkable and lawless," Chicago-Kent College of Law's Carolyn Shapiro, founder of the Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States, told NPR.

" " The result of a decision in favor of the plaintiffs in Moore v. Harper, experts warn, could be entrenched one-party rule, in which one party could fill the U.S. House with members who are guaranteed reelection cycle after cycle. Shutterstock

Critics of that legal concept, called the independent state legislature theory, say it grew from a single line in then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist's majority opinion in Bush v. Gore, the 2000 case that stopped recounting votes in Florida, in effect awarding the Presidency to George W. Bush. Rehnquist quoted an 1892 decision, McPherson v. Blacker that states had "the broadest power of determination" and that the Constitution "leaves it to the legislature exclusively to define the method" of appointment. (That case, Entin notes, involved a totally different and only tangentially related issue  whether Michigan legislators had the right to split up their state's electoral votes among congressional districts, as Maine and Nebraska do today.)

One problem with giving legislatures near-total authority in elections is that they themselves often are the product of gerrymandering, according to Charles Anthony "Tony" Smith. He's a professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine and co-author of the books "Gerrymandering in America: The House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, and the Future of Popular Sovereignty," and "Gerrymandering the States: Partisanship, Race, and the Transformation of American Federalism."

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Extreme Gerrymandering

Smith points out that gerrymandering of state legislative districts also has become so extreme that it's possible in a place such as North Carolina for one party to hold power even if it isn't supported by a majority of voters. "You could get a minority government picking the presidential winner," he warns. "If you do that, you're stepping away from democracy in a real and very dangerous way."

"We would be eliminating the check we have on bad actors, which is elections," Smith says.

Despite several justices indicating that they're willing to consider the independent state legislature theory, it's not necessarily a done deal that the U.S. Supreme Court will totally do away with state courts' oversight of redistricting and elections, according to Christopher Parker, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island.

Instead, the court may adopt a more constricted view "that would limit the ability of state courts to create new election regulations or draw their own district maps, but still allow those courts to exercise the ability to strike down regulations that violate the state constitutions," Parker says via email. "North Carolina's legislature has also explicitly authorized the state courts to implement temporary redistricting plans, so that also leaves open the possibility that a majority of justices will more narrowly rule that the North Carolina judiciary has been constitutionally delegated the authority to implement new district maps, and thus leave the larger questions about [independent state legislature theory] for another day. Or they may reject the doctrine altogether."

And even if the Supreme Court rules that legislatures don't have to listen to state courts, there's not total agreement that they would gain the power to choose presidential electors. In this article for Election Law Blog, New York University constitutional law professor Richard Pildes argues that legislators wouldn't be able to appoint electors after a popular election has taken place.

Now That's Important Whether or not the U.S. Supreme Court decided that state legislatures had the authority to draw Congressional maps and make election rules without judicial oversight, Parker notes that one check on their authority will remain  Congress itself. That's because the elections clause contains one condition: "The Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of [choosing] Senators."
The cheetah is considered vulnerable under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

India and Namibia signed a deal Wednesday to bring cheetahs into the South Asian country, with the first batch of eight wild cats set to arrive next month, officials said.

India has been working to relocate the animals since 2020, when the Supreme Court announced that African cheetahs could be introduced in a "carefully chosen location" on an experimental basis.

India in the past had Asiatic cheetahs, but the species was officially declared extinct within the country by 1952.

The deal inked Wednesday will see Namibia's African cheetahs flown in next month to a wildlife sanctuary in the central state of Madhya Pradesh for captive breedinga move expected to coincide with India's 75th Independence Day celebrations.

"Completing 75 glorious years of Independence with restoring the fastest terrestrial flagship species, the cheetah, in India, will rekindle the ecological dynamics of the landscape," India's environment minister Bhupender Yadav tweeted.

"Cheetah reintroduction would also greatly enhance local community livelihoods through eco-tourism prospects in the long term."

Signed in New Delhi with Namibia's deputy prime minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the deal will also see the two countries collaborate in areas of climate change, waste and wildlife management.

The Kuno-Palpur National Park in Madhya Pradesh state was selected as the new home for the cheetahs because of its abundant prey base and grasslands which were found suitable for the felines.

"The main goal of cheetah reintroduction project is to establish viable cheetah metapopulation in India that allows the cheetah to perform its functional role as a top predator," the environment ministry said in a statement.

The cheetah is the only large carnivore believed to have gone extinct in India, primarily due to hunting for its distinctive, spotted pelts and habitat loss.

Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo is widely believed to have killed the last three recorded cheetahs in India in the late 1940s.

India is also planning to ship in some cheetahs from South Africa but a formal pact has yet to be signed.

Considered vulnerable under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the cheetah has a declining population of less than 7,000found primarily in African savannas.

Explore further Rare birth of Asiatic cheetah cubs in Iran

 2022 AFP
Dr Lia Chalifour checks water quality in the Fraser River estuary. Credit: Michael Snyder via UBC.

Nineteen major populations of wild Pacific salmon in the Fraser River are projected to decline over the next 25 yearsbut it's not too late to boost their chances of recovery.

According to a new open-access study published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology, active interventions can lift these populations, known as conservation units (CUs), to "green status"which means they are healthy and able to sustain fisheries under Canada's Wild Salmon Policy.

"The Fraser is the largest salmon-bearing river in British Columbia, and 19 of 54 conservation units of wild Pacific salmon that it supports are on a declining trajectory over the next 25 years. We urgently need to take critical action to bring them back to a sustainable path," says lead author Dr. Lia Chalifour, who completed the research as part of her Ph.D. studies at UBC and University of Victoria.

The authors recommend implementing an integrated habitat strategy that includes barrier removal, estuarine and freshwater restoration, in order to protect the salmon, as well as improving policies for watershed management and protecting remaining habitat.

These actions can shift 14 CUs of wild Pacific salmon to green status at a cost of $20 million per year for 25 years, or the equivalent of $4.25 per person per year in B.C.

If the investment is doubled to around $40 million per year over 25 years and invested in all strategies assessed in the study, up to 17 of these CUs can recover to green status.

Without intervention, the authors say none of the 19 CUs examined in the study are likely to be assessed as green status in 25 years.

"The Lower Fraser has been subject to extreme habitat loss since European colonization, resulting in devastation of the watersheds that wild salmon rely on, as we saw from the catastrophic damage caused by last year's floods. Our study found that direct investment in restoring and conserving remaining habitat can benefit the most salmon populations for the least cost," notes senior author and principal investigator Dr. Tara Martin, a UBC professor who leads the Conservation Decisions Lab at the faculty of forestry.

The study evaluated 11 management strategies to lead the salmon to recovery. The authors also call for a co-governance framework for salmon management between Indigenous and Crown governments, which can increase the success of these management strategies.

The study comes on the heels of renewed provincial and federal commitments to funding for salmon recovery via the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund. Dr. Chalifour notes that these investments must be targeted to regional challenges to achieve the best outcome for salmon.

"There is a political appetite to support the recovery of wild salmon, however without a road map to direct those recovery efforts, success is going to be limited. Applying decision-making tools such as Priority Threat Management facilitates strategic investments in management solutions that will have the greatest possible benefit to wild salmon."

Priority Threat Management is a conservation decision science framework developed by Dr. Tara Martin and her team that considers the predicted benefit, cost and feasibility of management strategies to rapidly identify which strategies will have the greatest impact on the largest number of populations.

Explore further Two pathogens linked to salmon health and survival in British Columbia

More information: Lia Chalifour et al, Identifying a pathway towards recovery for depleted wild Pacific salmon populations in a large watershed under multiple stressors, Journal of Applied Ecology (2022). Journal information: Journal of Applied Ecology Lia Chalifour et al, Identifying a pathway towards recovery for depleted wild Pacific salmon populations in a large watershed under multiple stressors,(2022). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.14239
More than 350 species of birds are counted on the Pacific Flyway every year. Credit: Davis Ranches/John Brennan

Every spring, migratory birds arrive in the continental United States from south and central America to breed. But precisely when they arrive each spring varies from year to year. In a NASA-led study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, scientists have linked this variability to large-scale climate patterns originating thousands of miles away.

Migratory birds benefit ecosystems by helping to control pests, pollinating plants and serving as food for other wildlife. The more land managers know about the current migration patterns of these birdsand the migration patterns that are likely to develop in the future due to climate changethe better they can direct their efforts to protect the birds and to restore and conserve their habitats. This study brings them one step closer to that goal.

The scientists analyzed 23 years of bird migration data collected via NOAA's Next Generation Radar systema network of 143 radar stations across the continental U.S.to determine the variability in the birds' arrival times each spring. This is where they made their first discovery: The U.S. could be divided into two regions, east and west, each with a distinct pattern of variability in bird arrival times.

The east region includes all areas east of 102 degrees west longitudea line that, in the U.S., bisects North Dakota and extends down through Texas. The west region includes all areas west of that line.

Bird migration in the U.S. is monitored in the context of four "flyways" or principle migration routes, two in the eastern U.S. and two in the western U.S. The new research digs into the different influences on each half of the country that affect the timing of environmental cues, such as temperature and weather patterns, that prompt birds to travel along their flyway.

"Our approach doesn't replace the 'flyways' but rather introduces a different geographic framework that reflects the interannual variability of bird migration at the continental scale," said Amin Dezfuli, scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of the study. "This framework helps us to better understand how climate patterns influence broadscale bird movements and migration variability."

In order to identify what was driving the variability in bird migration in each of these newly-defined regions, the science team analyzed meteorological and climate model data for both. They found that variability in the west region was strongly linked to regional air and sea surface temperature in the adjacent (Pacific) Ocean. For instance, above-average temperatures in the region in 2005 resulted in the birds arriving earlier than average.

Every spring, migratory birds arrive in the continental United States from south and central America to breed. But precisely when they arrive each spring varies from year to year. To better understand what is driving variability, scientists decided to turn to climate models, radar stations and a little bit of math. By studying the link between climate patterns and bird migration, scientists can better prepare to protect these birds and the habitats on which they rely. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

They found that variability in the east region, however, was more strongly linked to large-scale atmospheric disturbances called Rossby waves. Rossby waves form due to the Earth's rotation and geography. They help transfer warm air from the tropics poleward and cold polar air to the lower latitudes. Flowing east to west, they can be thousands of miles long and impact weather and climate patterns.

"Using the climate data, we were able to attribute the bird migration patterns, especially in the eastern region of the U.S., to Rossby waves," said Dezfuli. "Rossby waves can be triggered in the tropical Pacific, thousands of kilometers away, and propagate all the way over to the U.S., providing the climatic conditions we associate with these bird migration patterns."

Because Rossby waves can be as long horizontally as the country itself, a peak in the west can bring warm temperatures to that region while a low-pressure trough in the east could bring cooler temperatures and storms to the eastern region at the same time. This ultimately impacts bird migration in both regions.

"Knowing the timing of migration is fundamental to our overall understanding of migration systems," said Kyle Horton, co-author and biologist at Colorado State University. "This study adds a new and important dimension to this understanding, highlighting how interconnected migration systems are with atmospheric circulationnear and far."

Dezfuli is now looking toward how these results may be applied in the future.

"Now that we have established regional-specific associations between climate variability and bird migration patterns, we could next investigate the potential changes in migratory patterns under future climate scenarios," Dezfuli said.

The more scientists and other stakeholders know about climate change's effects on bird migration, the better they can prepare to protect these birds and the habitats on which they rely.

Explore further Dashboard reveals migration paths of billions of birds

More information: Amin Dezfuli et al, Continental Patterns of Bird Migration Linked to Climate Variability, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (2021). Journal information: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Amin Dezfuli et al, Continental Patterns of Bird Migration Linked to Climate Variability,(2021). DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-D-21-0220.1
Telescopes are seen on the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii's Big Island, on Aug. 31, 2015. The National Science Foundation said Tuesday, July 19, 2022, that it plans to conduct a study to evaluate the environmental effects of building the Thirty Meter Telescope, one of the world's largest optical telescopes, on sites selected on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and Spain's Canary Islands. Credit: AP Photo/Caleb Jones, File

The National Science Foundation said Tuesday it plans to conduct a study to evaluate the environmental effects of building one of the world's largest optical telescopes on sites selected in Hawaii and Spain's Canary Islands.

The agency published a notice in the Federal Register of its intentions to prepare an environmental impact statement for the $2.65 billion Thirty Meter Telescope.

The telescope's supporters have pursued plans to build it on their preferred site on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii's tallest mountain and one of the world's best locations for viewing the night sky, for over a decade. But there is strong opposition from Native Hawaiians who consider the mountain's summit sacred.

The National Science Foundation plans to host four meetings on the Big Island of Hawaii in August. It said it won't decide on whether to fund the telescope until after it considers public input, the environmental review, the project's technical readiness and other factors.

Protesters blocked construction crews in 2015 and 2019, saying building a new telescope there would further defile a site that they say has already been harmed by a dozen other observatories.

The TMT International Observatory, the international consortium of scientists behind the project, has selected the Spanish island of La Palma off Africa's western coast as an alternate if it cannot build in Hawaii.

The group completed an environmental study in 2010 that was mandated by Hawaii law for construction on Mauna Kea.

The National Science Foundation must conduct a new study under U.S. law to invest in the project because it is part of the federal government.

A report from the U.S. astronomy community last year said TMT planned to obtain 30% of the project's estimated construction costs, or $800 million, from the U.S. government.

TMT is a partnership between the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and government-backed research institutions in Canada, China, India and Japan.

Mauna Kea, Hawaii's tallest mountain and the proposed construction site for a giant $1.4 billion telescope project, is seen from Hilo, Hawaii, on Aug. 31, 2015. The National Science Foundation said Tuesday, July 19, 2022, that it plans to conduct a study to evaluate the environmental effects of building the Thirty Meter Telescope, one of the world's largest optical telescopes, on sites selected on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and Spain's Canary Islands. Credit: AP Photo/Caleb Jones, File

Robert P. Kirshner, TMT's executive director, said in an emailed statement that federal funding will provide the entire U.S. astronomy community with access to the observatory.

"This ensures that the TMT tests the best ideas and does the most important observations to contribute to understanding where we are in the universe and how it works," he said.

Telescope opponents criticized the new study, saying it will force them take time away from their lives again to give their views about the project, said Kealoha Pisciotta.

"Why don't people accept our 'no' for the answer?" said Pisciotta, who is a spokesperson for the groups Mauna Kea Hui and Mauna Kea Aina Hou that oppose the project.

In October, the U.S. astronomy community said in a report that the National Science Foundation should invest in at least one or two of a new class of observatories called Extremely Large Telescopes being planned by U.S. institutions.

TMT would cover the skies from the Northern Hemisphere. The Giant Magellan Telescope project, to be built in Chile, would observe the universe from the Southern Hemisphere.

U.S. astronomers included this recommendation in their once-in-a-decade analysis of their priorities and goals called the Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s.

The report said the success of at least one of these two projectsTMT or Magellanwas a critical priority due to their "transformative scientific potential." It concluded that having at least one was "absolutely essential" for the U.S. to remain a leader in ground-based astronomy.

When the U.S. government invests in a telescope, U.S.-based astronomers get a share of the viewing time regardless of where in the world it is built.

The European Southern Observatory, which is run by 16 European nations and partners with Chile and Australia, has already started building its own Extremely Large Telescope in Chile. It's expected to start observations in 2027.

Explore further Spain will get giant telescope if Hawaii doesn't, group says

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
A De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 MR aircraft drops water over a wildfire raging in the Monts d'Arree, near Brennilis, Brittany.

Europe counted the cost of a record heatwave on Wednesday as French firefighters brought twin blazes near Bordeaux under control and climate change protesters pointed to the sizzling weather as a wake up call for the continent.

Temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) over previous days have spelled misery for millions and shattered heat records, focusing attention on the impact of global warming.

Cooler air swept in Wednesday, bringing relief to people from Portugal to Britain, but thousands of firefighters continued to tackle mass fires that have broken out in multiple countries in recent days after months of drought-like conditions.

"Our assessment is generally positive. The situation improved overnight," French fire service spokesman Arnaud Mendousse told AFP from the southwestern Gironde region where two huge blazes have engulfed 20,600 hectares (50,900 acres) of tinder-dry forest since last week.

The infernos had barely expanded overnight, with lower temperatures and the construction of a 300-metre wide fire break helping stem the spread of the flames.

President Emmanuel Macron was set to visit later on Wednesday to speak to emergency services members and some of the 37,000 people who have been evacuated in the popular Atlantic Ocean region that is teaming with tourists in the summer months.

Firefighters were in action against a wildfire that forced hundreds to flee a suburb of Athens.

Two firefighters were severely injured overnight, government spokesman Olivier Veran told reporters.

Separate blazes in the Monts d'Arree area of northwestern Brittany continued to rage on Wednesday, with aircraft dropping water from above.

Greek planes and helicopters were also in action against a wildfire that has forced hundreds of people to flee mountainside suburbs north of Athens.

Greece had been spared the scorching heatwave experienced in western Europe, but the flames fanned by high winds were threatening the suburbs of Penteli, Pallini, Anthousa and Gerakas, home to tens of thousands of people.

"The civil protection authority was late in alerting us," a Pallini resident who lost his car and shed to the flames told ERT television. "The fire was scorching our backs, we left in the nick of time. Had we stayed another 30 seconds it would have burned us."

Firefighters have also been pressed into action in Portugal, Spain and Italy in recent weeks to tackle wild fires.

Blazes in the Monts d'Arree area of France's northwestern Brittany continue to burn.

Heat records

The heatwave saw a host of local records set in France and a new all-time record for Britain where the national weather service clocked 40.3C in eastern England, surpassing the previous high set in 2019.

Grassland fires erupted on Tuesday on the edge of London, with one forcing the evacuation of 14 people as farm buildings, houses and garages were consumed by the flames.

Sixteen firefighters were injured around the capital with two taken to hospital, the London Fire Brigade said.

"Yesterday was the busiest day for the fire service in London since the Second World War," the city's mayor Sadiq Khan told Sky News on Wednesday, urging the public to remain vigilant despite temperatures now falling.

Khan also accused Conservative leadership candidates vying to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson of ignoring "the elephant in the room" of climate change.

Map of Britain locating places which recorded above the previous British high temperature record of 38.7C.

Cooler air swept into western Europe helping to bring fires under control.

Climate demonstrators triggered a lengthy tailback on Britain's busiest motorway encircling London on Wednesday as they sought to highlight the need for greater action to reduce greenhouse gases which are responsible for global heating.

Members of the group Just Stop Oil climbed gantries over the M25 arterial motorway, causing police to intervene and vehicles to back up for several miles (kilometres) in one direction.

"This is the moment when climate inaction is truly revealed in all its murderous glory for everyone to see: as an elite-driven death project that will extinguish all life if we let it," the activist group said in a statement.

Explore further Firefighters gain upper hand in Athens suburbs wildfire

 2022 AFP
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged people to take 'extreme caution'

Spain's prime minister said "more than 500 people died" during a 10-day heatwave as Europe counts the cost of a record period of extreme temperatures.

Climate change protesters said the scorching weather should be a wake-up call for the continent.

"This has nothing to do with ideologies, but with a reality, with a climatic emergency that the planet is living through," said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

Speaking against a backdrop of charred trees and burnt ground in the hard-hit northeastern Zaragoza region, he urged people to exercise "extreme caution".

Sanchez cited figures released by the Carlos III Health Institute, which estimates the number of heat-related fatalities based on the number of excess deaths compared to the average in previous years.

The institute has stressed these figures are a statistical estimate and not a record of official deaths.

Meanwhile Greek firefighters gained the upper hand in a battle against a wildfire raging for a second day in mountainside suburbs north of Athens that had forced hundreds of people to flee, an official said.

"For the most part the fire is in decline," fire department spokesman Yiannis Artopios told reporters.

Greek firefighters gained the upper hand in a battle against a wildfire raging in mountainside suburbs north of Athens.

Greece had been spared the blistering heatwave experienced in western Europe, but flames fanned by high winds were threatening the suburbs of Penteli, Pallini, Anthousa and Gerakas, home to tens of thousands of people.

"The fire was scorching our backs, we left in the nick of time. Had we stayed another 30 seconds it would have burned us," a Pallini resident who lost his car and shed to the flames told ERT television.

"The civil protection authority was late in alerting us," he said.

In France, firefighters brought twin blazes near the southwestern city of Bordeaux under control.

Temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) over previous days have spelled misery for millions and shattered heat records.

Cooler air swept in Wednesday, bringing relief to people from Portugal to Britain, but thousands of firefighters continued to tackle blazes that have broken out in multiple countries after months of drought-like conditions.

"Our assessment is generally positive. The situation improved overnight," French fire service spokesman Arnaud Mendousse told AFP from the southwestern Gironde region where two huge blazes have engulfed 20,600 hectares (50,900 acres) of tinder-dry forest since last week.

Firefighters were in action against a wildfire that forced hundreds to flee a suburb of Athens.

Heat records

The heatwave saw a new all-time record for Britain where the national weather service clocked 40.3C in eastern England, surpassing the previous high set in 2019.

Grassland fires erupted on Tuesday on the edge of London, with one forcing the evacuation of 14 people as farm buildings, houses and garages were consumed by the flames.

Sixteen firefighters were injured around the capital with two taken to hospital, the London Fire Brigade said.

"Yesterday was the busiest day for the fire service in London since the Second World War," the city's mayor Sadiq Khan told Sky News on Wednesday, urging the public to remain vigilant despite temperatures now falling.

Khan also accused Conservative leadership candidates vying to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson of ignoring "the elephant in the room" of climate change.

Hundreds of firefighters were also deployed in western Slovenia Wednesday to battle a blaze that forced the evacuation of several villages, emergency services said.

Record temperatures in Britain.

The blaze broke out Tuesday in the spectacular wooded Karst region, where vegetation was dried up by the strong heat, and intensified Wednesday afternoon because of the wind.

Residents were forced to flee their homes in several areas and emergency sirens were sounded.

Climate demonstrators triggered a lengthy tailback on Britain's busiest motorway encircling London on Wednesday as they sought to highlight the need for greater action to reduce greenhouse gases responsible for global heating.

Members of the group Just Stop Oil climbed gantries over the M25 motorway, causing police to intervene.

"This is the moment when climate inaction is truly revealed in all its murderous glory for everyone to see: as an elite-driven death project that will extinguish all life if we let it," the activist group said in a statement.

Explore further Europe counts cost of heatwave as French fires come under control

 2022 AFP
Illustration of Qikiqtania wakei (center) in the water with its larger cousing, Tiktaalik roseae. Credit: Alex Boersma

A meme has been circulating online during the pandemic featuring Tiktaalik roseae, the iconic, four-legged "fishapod" that first made the transition from water to land 375 million years ago. Most variations show Tiktaalik poking its head out of the water and ready to crawl ashore, while an out of frame hand threatens it with a rolled-up newspaper or a stick. The joke is that those of us exhausted by the modern world wish we could go back in time, shoo it back into the water, and stop evolution in its tracks, sparing ourselves the present day of war, pestilence, and internet memes.

As it turns out, one of Tiktaalik's close relatives did just that, opting to return to living in open water instead of venturing onto land. A new study from the laboratory of Neil Shubin, Ph.D., who co-discovered Tiktaalik in 2004, describes a fossil species that closely resembles Tiktaalik but has features that made it more suited to life in the water than its adventurous cousin. Qikiqtania wakei was smalljust 30 inches longcompared to Tiktaalik, which could grow up to nine feet. The new fossil includes partial upper and lower jaws, portions of the neck, and scales. Mostly importantly, it also features a complete pectoral fin with a distinct humerus bone that lacks the ridges that would indicate where muscles and joints would be on a limb geared toward walking on land. Instead, Qikiqtania's upper arm was smooth and curved, more suited for a life paddling underwater. The uniqueness of the arm bones of Qikiqtania suggest that it returned to paddling the water after its ancestors began to use their appendages for walking.

"At first we thought it could be a juvenile Tiktaalik, because it was smaller and maybe some of those processes hadn't developed yet," Shubin said. "But the humerus is smooth and boomerang shaped, and it doesn't have the elements that would support it pushing up on land. It's remarkably different and suggests something new."

The paper, "A New Elpistostegalian from the Late Devonian of the Canadian Arctic and the diversity of stem tetrapods," was published July 20, 2022, in Nature.

A prehistoric pandemic project

Shubin, who is the Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, found the fossil days before Tiktaalik was discovered, at a site about one mile east on southern Ellesmere Island in the territory of Nunavut in northern Arctic Canada. The name Qikiatania comes from the Inuktitut word Qikiqtaaluk or Qikiqtani, the traditional name for the region where the fossil site is located. The species designation wakei is in memory of the late David Wake, an eminent evolutionary biologist from the University of California at Berkeley.

Shubin and his field partner, Ted Daeschler, Ph.D., from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, collected the specimens from a quarry after spotting a few promising looking rocks with distinctive, white scales on the surface. But they sat in storage, mostly unexamined, while the team focused on preparing Tiktaalik.

Fifteen years later, the discovery of Qikiqtania became another pandemic story. Postdoctoral researchers Justin Lemberg, Ph.D., and Tom Stewart, Ph.D., CT-scanned one of the larger rock specimens in March 2020 and realized that it contained a pectoral fin. Unfortunately, it was too deep inside the rock to get a high-resolution image, and they couldn't do much more with it once the pandemic forced labs to close.

"We were trying to collect as much CT-data of the material as we could before the lockdown, and the very last piece we scanned was a large, unassuming block with only a few flecks of scales visible from the surface," said Lemberg, who is now doing cultural resource management fieldwork in Southern California. "We could hardly believe it when the first, grainy images of a pectoral fin came into view. We knew we could collect a better scan of the block if we had the time, but that was March 13th, 2020, and the University shut down all non-essential operations the following week."

In the summer of 2020 when campus facilities reopened, they contacted Mark Webster, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Geophysical Sciences, who had access to a saw that could trim pieces off the specimen so that a CT scanner could get closer and produce a better image. Stewart and Lemberg carefully marked the boundaries on the block and arranged an exchange outside their lab in Culver Hall. The resulting images revealed a nearly complete pectoral fin and upper limb, including the distinctive humerus bone.

"That's what blew our minds," Shubin said. "This was by no means a fascinating block at first, but we realized during the COVID lockdown when we couldn't get in the lab that the original scan wasn't good enough and we needed to trim the block. And when we did, look at what happened. It gave us something exciting to work on during the pandemic. It's a fabulous story."

Glimpses into vertebrate history

Qikiqtania is slightly older than Tiktaalik but not by much. The team's analysis of where it sits on the tree of life places it, like Tiktaalik, adjacent to the earliest creatures known to have finger-like digits. But even though Qikiqtania's distinct pectoral fin was more suited for swimming, it wasn't entirely fish-like either. Its curved paddle shape was a distinct adaptation, different from the jointed, muscled legs or fan-shaped fins we see in tetrapods and fish today.

We tend to think animals evolved in a straight line that connects their prehistoric forms to some living creature today, but Qikiqtania shows that some animals stayed on a different path that ultimately didn't work out. Maybe that's a lesson for those wishing Tiktaalik had stayed in the water with it.

"Tiktaalik is often treated as a transitional animal because it's easy to see the stepwise pattern of changes from life in the water to life on land. But we know that in evolution things aren't always so simple," said Stewart, who will be joining the faculty at Penn State University this summer. "We don't often get glimpses into this part of vertebrate history. Now we're starting to uncover that diversity and to get a sense of the ecology and unique adaptations of these animals. It's more than simple transformation with just a limited number of species."

Explore further How fish fins evolved just before the transition to land

More information: Thomas Stewart, A new elpistostegalian from the Late Devonian of the Canadian Arctic, Nature (2022). www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04990-w Journal information: Nature Thomas Stewart, A new elpistostegalian from the Late Devonian of the Canadian Arctic,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04990-w
The map shows earthquakes related to hydraulic fracture. Major earthquakes are represented with red and white graphics. Credit: University of Waterloo

Scientists from the University of Waterloo have developed a map showing which regions and population centers of Western Canada are likely to experience earthquakes induced by underground energy extraction.

Hydraulic fracturing is used to produce cracks in the rock formation to enhance energy extraction from geothermal and unconventional resources. This process is typically accompanied by seismicity, or induced earthquakes, because injection changes pore pressures and temperatures, facilitating slippage of fractures and faults.

"We are trying to better understand and therefore better predict the phenomenon of induced seismicity during subsurface engineering processes," said Maurice Dusseault, a professor of engineering geology at Waterloo. "Using Western Canada's Montney Formation as a case study is important as the 130,000 km2 area of western Alberta and northeast British Columbia is home to some of the world's largest petroleum and natural gas reserves."

The report concluded induced earthquakes in this region continue to threaten communities that have already experienced of the largest fracking-caused earthquakes reported worldwide. This includes a magnitude 4.6 near Fort St. John, British Columbia on November 29, 2018, and a magnitude 4.1 near Fox Creek, Alberta on January 12, 2015.

"The majority of injection-induced seismicity occurred near Fort St. John, British Columbiaclose to the border of Alberta," said Ali Yaghoubi, the study's lead author and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Waterloo. "When I compare the seismicity map with the population density map of Canada, some earthquake-prone areas are indeed populated. However, the majority of seismogenic areas aren't populated."

They also found that the area south of Grande Prairie, Alberta is far less prone to significant levels of induced seismicity, despite the fact that the Montney and Duverney formations in the region have been subjected to more than 700 multistage hydraulic fracturing operations. "This is particularly important considering that the area is home to Alberta's No.1 geothermal project," said Yaghoubi.

Their map can serve as a baseline for future fluid injection projects or underground energy extraction in the region including wastewater disposal, hydraulic fracture stimulation, carbon sequestration, as well as geothermal energy extraction.

The study, "Injection-induced fault slip assessment in Montney Formation in Western Canada," was recently published in the academic journal Scientific Reports.

Explore further Study maps stress changes around fault activated by hydraulic fracturing

More information: A. Yaghoubi et al, Injection-induced fault slip assessment in Montney Formation in Western Canada, Scientific Reports (2022). Journal information: Scientific Reports A. Yaghoubi et al, Injection-induced fault slip assessment in Montney Formation in Western Canada,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-15363-8
Waves start to increase as Storm Eunice gathers momentum around Porthcawl lighthouse in South Wales UK. Credit: Shutterstock

The U.K. has recorded its hottest ever temperature, passing 40 for the first time. But you can't deny it had fair warning. The Met Office issued an amber weather warning six days before the heatwave and upgraded it to red three days later, enough time to trade cooling-down tips with friends and stock up on ice lollies.

It's easy to take modern weather prediction technology and warning systems for granted, but the new advancements save lives. The most well known weather forecast failure in U.K. history happened 35 years ago. Hours after veteran weather presenter Michael Fish said there was no hurricane coming "but it will be very windy in Spain," the a devastating storm raged across the country and claimed 18 lives.

A huge amount has changed since 1987. Weather forecasts are more precise, reliable, and better communicated. Re-analysis shows that in 2022 the 1987 storm would be noticed a few days ahead, but there would have likely been uncertainty. An amber warning would probably have been sent out and the storm would have been named, alerting the public. So how exactly has forecasting improved?

The real change is in people's experience of extreme weather. For example, Storm Eunice in February 2022, which broke the English wind gust record at 122 miles per hour. The storm was forecast days ahead, with a rare red warning issued the night before.

The high pressures that drive heatwaves are a little easier to predict with older models, as the physics limits the changes possible over distance. So I expect an extreme heat event would have been predicted a few days ahead even in 1987 (although the recent high temperatures wouldn't have been hit back then as they are worsened by climate change).

However, today there would be more confidence in the predictions and, crucially, there are better mechanisms for warning the public. Without such warnings, it's likely far more people would die.

What has changed

Most of us walk around with a computer in our pockets several times more powerful than the one used to forecast weather in 1987. It was among the fastest in the world at the time, capable of 4 million calculations per second. The current Met Office supercomputer does 14,000 trillion per second.

Since the 1920s, weather forecasting has been done by numerical models that calculate physics on a grid. In the 1950s, this process moved to computers, which made timely forecasting more feasible, as humans cannot process the calculations quickly enough to do it on their own. The forecast is made using a grid of locations, calculating the weather conditions at a point then stepping forward in time.

As computers improve, they can make meteorological calculations faster. The grid and time-steps can be smaller. The modern numerical model uses a grid smaller than a kilometer between points over the U.K. (and 10km across the globe). In 1987 weather forecasters used a global grid of points 150km apart.

The science the models rely on is better understood today. For example, we understand how sting jets, small areas of intense winds, develop.

Looking to the skies

Satellites transformed meteorology. They were incorporated into computer models from the 90s. One of the key problems in 1987 was a lack of weather monitoring at sea, but satellites and buoys filled the gap. A network of buoys around the U.K. were set up as a direct result of the 1987 storm.

Techniques to make best use of observations are rapidly developing. But the main change is the sheer quantity of observations available. We have less ground stations but more overall observation points from satellites, radars, instruments mounted to commercial aircraft and other systems. Satellite readings provide hundreds of billions of observations each day.

Satellite data brought southern hemisphere forecasts (where less land means less surface observations) up to a similar accuracy to those the northern hemisphere. Previously, southern hemisphere forecasts often had a day's less lead time.

The U.K. is also living in the golden age of radar. In 2018 a radar network upgrade was completed which enabled weather forecasters to start using new radar technology that can tell us more information about the shape and size of raindrops and snowflakes, not just their location.

Talking about it

Instead of a regional TV forecast, in 2022 we tend to rely on apps forecasting for our neighborhood. Street-level forecasts are tricky to get right. In changeable weather conditions, such as summer showers, forecasters know to expect showers, but not their precise location. Like heating water on the hob, you can predict the timing of boiling, but you can't predict the locations of each bubble.

The U.K. is notorious for unpredictable weather. Sunny days can turn into downpours within minutes. Winter weather in the U.K. is dominated by large bands of cloud, wind and rain, which makes predictions more reliable. However, when meteorologists know an area should expect showers, but not the precise location and timing, an excellent forecast can appear poor to a casual user.

Weather forecasters believe the U.K. public do not understand scientific uncertainty so don't communicate how sure they are about predictions. But in the U.S., weather forecasts have given confidence in a chance of rain for decades).

Looking ahead

Weather forecasting will always remain uncertain, thanks to the butterfly effect, which means small changes in conditions can lead to big changes later.

But the process is improving. Big things to come include more joined up thinking. For instance, scientists are thinking about connecting weather and flooding models.

Computer models will get more realistic. Satellites (and other observation systems) are improving. I'm working on a satellite we hope to fly in 10 years that will measure wind speed in clouds across the globe.

As climate change is driving more extreme weather worldwide, weather forecasts have never been more important. With more flooding, wildfires, storms and record breaking temperatures, it can be a matter of life and death.

Explore further The mathematics of weather prediction

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

According to a new study, students in grades 3 through 8 across the United States lost as much as 20 weeks of academic progress during the 20202021 school year as a consequence of remote and hybrid learning at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"That gives you an idea, if you're half a year behind, what the challenges are here," says economist Doug Staiger, the John Sloan Dickey Third Century Professor in the Social Sciences, who was part of the research team.

"Think about a fourth grader who is starting a new academic year five months behind where they should be in math. We're trying to emphasize that this is a really big challenge. And people shouldn't be thinking about doing something small to catch up."

The good news, says Staiger, is school districts received a total of about $190 billion in COVID relief money through the American Recovery Act, particularly high-poverty districts, that tend to have larger learning gaps in normal years, and which were more likely to remain remote for longer periods of time.

"The question is, how will this money be spent? There are a lot of other priorities, capital expenses, technology. What we are really trying to emphasize is that districts should be spending it on instructional supplements to get the kids caught up."

The report, "The Consequences of Remote and Hybrid Instruction During the Pandemic," was published by Harvard's Center for Education Policy Research. It acknowledges that some of the possible responses school districts might use to make up for lost academic achievementextending the school year or extending the school day over a period of years, intensive tutoring for all students in small groups, accelerating instruction in other ways, or some combination of those optionswill be considerably more expensive per hour of instruction.

The researchers write, "School districts urgently need to reassess their plans and ensure that the scale of their catch-up efforts matches the magnitude of their students' losses. If they don't, we will see the largest widening in educational inequity in a generation."

While the $190 billion in American Recovery Plan money to schools only requires that 20% of school district funding be spent on instruction, the researchers call on districts, particularly high-poverty districts, to spend nearly all the relief funding on instruction.

The research group has also begun a new study using the same data methods to examine nine major school districts that have adopted some of these makeup methods, in order to offer data on which approaches are most successful, Staiger says. Among the nine districts included in the follow-on study are the Guilford County Schools in North Carolina, a district of about 70,000 students which includes Greensboro, and the Richardson Independent School District in Texas, a Dallas-area district of about 40,000 students.

Tom Kane, Staiger's longtime research associate and head of the Center for Education Policy Research, has met with White House and Department of Education officials to discuss the challenges facing school districts. Staiger will speak to the New York Association of School Boards in Albany in August to present the report findings.

"There's a very big appetite for this message. People get it," Staiger says. The research group hopes to get a conversation going on the national level that brings in all the players, Staiger says, including governors, politicians, heads of teachers unions, education foundation officials, teachers, administrators, and parents.

"I feel like you have to get all the parties on board with the idea that this is an important moment and we have to take some big steps and it shouldn't be business as usual," he says. "If we don't do anything, I'm worried we're going to be seeing this for a decade, including in things like college attendance, career success, and long-term quality of life."

Explore further Remote learning likely widened racial, economic achievement gap

More information: The Consequences of Remote and Hybrid Instruction During The Pandemic: The Consequences of Remote and Hybrid Instruction During The Pandemic: cepr.harvard.edu/road-to-covid-recovery
The wildfires on the foot of Mount Penteli north of Athens were fanned overnight by winds.

Greek firefighters on Wednesday gained the upper hand in a battle against a wildfire raging for a second day in mountainside suburbs north of Athens that had earlier forced hundreds of people to flee, an official said.

"At the moment there is no active front...for the most part the fire is in decline," fire department spokesman Yiannis Artopios told reporters.

Nearly 500 firefighters, 120 vehicles, nine planes and 10 helicopters supported by army units had earlier battled to prevent the flames from causing further damage in the suburbs of Penteli, Pallini, Anthousa and Gerakas, home to some 90,000 people.

Greece has been so far spared the kind of scorching heatwave that has seen deadly wildfires destroy vast tracts of land in France, Portugal and Spain, but has instead faced gale-force winds.

Experts blame climate change for extreme weather events and warn that worse is yet to come.

Thirty people, including three firefighters, required medical attention for burns and breathing difficulties, the fire department said earlier.

Several buildings have sustained varying degrees of damage from the fire that broke out Tuesday, AFP images showed.

Citizen's Protection minister Takis Theodorikakos said his officers had since Tuesday helped evacuate nearly 700 people to safety, noting that some had refused to leave.

"The sky was red... we left without taking anything with us," a Pallini resident who lost his car and shed to the flames told ERT television.

"The civil protection authority was late in alerting us. The fire was scorching our backs, we left in the nick of time. Had we stayed another 30 seconds it would have burned us," he added.

The house next door was completely gutted, the man said.

Eleni Gerasimidou, a popular Greek comedian, was among those whose homes in Pallini were damaged.

"The house is no longer inhabitable...it has sustained massive damage," she told Alpha TV, pointing to the charred upper floor.

The father of Olympic pole vault Katerina Stefanidi, Yiorgos, told Alpha TV he and some neighbours had fought the flames "with spades and dirt" to save his home, without any help from the fire service.

'Faster than a car'

"The fire was racing faster than a car," he said.

Authorities warned residents to stay indoors and keep their windows shut.

With winds racing at over 100 kilometres (62 miles) per hour, smoke from the fire billowed as far as the island of Crete, hundreds of kilometres to the south, satellite imagery showed.

Residents say fires have struck the area three times in the last three decades.

Greek media reported that an 84-year-old man in Anthousa shot himself dead in despair over the fire.

The wildfires around Mount Penteli north of Athens were fanned overnight by strong winds that constantly changed direction.

Residents in several areas, a paediatric hospital and the national observatory at Athens were evacuated as a precautionary measure.

'Insane'

"It was insane, we did not know where to flee," an elderly resident of Anthousa told ERT.

"Embers were falling from the sky, I've never seen anything like it," he said.

Greece has set up a crisis cell and firefighters battled 117 wildfires in the country in the last 24 hours.

A force of 87 firefighters had earlier been dispatched against a blaze in the Peloponnese, a southern peninsula. Another fire broke out in Megara, west of Athens on Wednesday.

Athens has asked European countries to send firefighters. A squad from Romania helped tackle Tuesday's mountain fire.

A heatwave and wildfires last year destroyed 103,000 hectares (255,000 acres) and claimed three lives in Greece.

The country's worst fire disaster was in 2018 in the coastal suburb of Mati, claiming 102 lives, just a few kilometres from the area affected by Wednesday's blaze.

Explore further Greece evacuates Athens suburb under wildfire threat

 2022 AFP
The Teklanika River seen from the backside of Cathedral Mountain on July 26, 2019. Credit: By NPS Photo / Emily Mesner - NPGallery, Public Domain

The ill-fated "Into the Wild" adventurer chronicled by author Jon Krakauer and film director Sean Penn may have been able to cross the river that turned him back had he tried a day earlier or later, research by the Oregon State University College of Engineering suggests.

Three decades after Christopher McCandless died in the Alaska wilderness, hydrologist David Hill and water resources graduate student Christina Aragon of the OSU College of Engineering conclude that McCandless was thwarted by high flows in the Teklanika River because of an intense, short-lived runoff event.

"Mr. McCandless had unfortunate timing," said Hill, a professor of civil engineering. "The specific day of his attempted crossingJuly 5, 1992coincided with a large amount of rainfall-driven runoff. Had his attempt occurred a bit on either side of that day, the conditions might have been more favorable and the outcome may have been different for him."

Findings were published in Frontiers in Earth Science.

How much water flows in a stream at any given time is determined by a combination of many factors, Hill said, including precipitation, snowmelt and evaporation, as well as infiltration of water into the soil.

"Those and many other complex processes determine the places water goes, how much of it goes where, and when it goes," he said. "The two most significant drivers of streamflow are the patterns of precipitation and temperature."

Using all of the relevant data they could obtain involving weather, land cover and elevation, Hill and Aragon applied a collection of computer models that have been widely used in snowy, high-latitude locations including Alaska. The goal was to compare the 1992 hydrology of the Alaska Range to other years and the July 5, 1992, Teklanika River conditions to the days before and after.

"David and Christina's paper is fascinating to me for deeply personal reasons," Krakauer said. "Over the three decades that have passed since Chris McCandless perished in Alaska, I've been eager to learn as much as possible about his experience from the moment he 'walked into the wild' in April 1992 until his death inside Bus 142 some four months later. This paper sheds a little more light about a key event during that periodhis attempt to return to civilization halfway through his Alaska adventure."

McCandless had hiked west along the Stampede Trail near Healy, Alaska, forded the Teklanika on April 28 and lived in Bus 142, an abandoned Fairbanks city transit vehicle, 8.6 miles from the river. Several weeks later when he sought to leave the wilderness, he found the river impassable, returned to the bus and died of starvation on Aug. 18.

Bus 142 upon its arrival at the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks. Credit: Roger Topp, UAMN Photo.

"The spring snowmelt in 1992 was delayed, which kept flows in the Teklanika relatively low and made it possible for Mr. McCandless to cross the river and reach Bus 142 at the end of April," Aragon said. "When the snowmelt finally happened, it happened fast. After that, the river got higher or lower on roughly a weekly basis depending on rain in the region. Streamflow in summer 1992 was more variable than usual because of the quick snowmelt followed by periods of heavy rain."

For the 1992 water yearthe period of Oct. 1, 1991, through Sept. 30, 1992the Teklanika watershed received just under 27 inches of precipitation, 20% greater than average. Also in 1992, mean daily temperature was a month slower than usual in rising above freezing, and summer rainfall was more intense than it normally is.

Exactly what that means in terms of streamflow and river hydraulics is hard to know, the researchers note, partly because of the difficulties associated with river monitoring in the nation's largest, wildest state.

"Alaska is a challenge in terms of long-term gauging datasets," Aragon said. "Remoteness, harshness and sheer scale mean many river basins are not gauged with the same coverage as those in the lower 48. The U.S. Geological Survey maintained a gauge on the Teklanika River for 10 consecutive years, but that ended in 1974."

Though the researchers don't have access to all the information necessary to say what the actual patterns of water elevation and velocity were at the Stampede Trail crossing of the Teklanika River in July 1992, the modeling techniques shed a great deal of light on the main driver of what makes a river fast and impassable: water quantity.

"Connecting relative changes in streamflow to hydraulic estimates of how velocity and stage vary with streamflow is a useful step toward understanding the ups and downs of the Teklanika River," said Hill.

In the years following McCandless' death and the "Into the Wild" book and movie, two hikers died in the river trying to visit Bus 142, which had been hauled into the wilderness in the 1950s so workers could live in it while upgrading a route to an antimony mine.

Many others needed to be rescued on pilgrimages to the bus, finally prompting the state of Alaska to enlist the National Guard to airlift it from the Stampede Trail with a Chinook helicopter on June 18, 2020. The 1946 International Harvester model K-5 is now on display at the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks.

"Although the paper can't determine with certainty whether McCandless would have been able to safely exit the wild if he'd tried to cross the Teklanika River again at a later date, it raises poignant questions that are worthy of consideration," Krakauer said. "Perhaps even more importantly, the paper conveys valuable information about the dynamics of Alaska's riversthe fording of which has always struck me as one of the most dangerous aspects of backcountry travel in Alaska, based on close calls I personally had on numerous trips into Brooks Range, the Alaska Range and the Coast Mountains of Southeast Alaska. David and Christina's paper might help other adventurers avoid calamity going forward."

Explore further First multi-centennial streamflow variability of the Karnali River

More information: David F. Hill et al, Stuck in the WildThe Hydrology of the Teklanika River (Alaska) in the Summer of 1992, Frontiers in Earth Science (2022). Journal information: Frontiers in Earth Science David F. Hill et al, Stuck in the WildThe Hydrology of the Teklanika River (Alaska) in the Summer of 1992,(2022). DOI: 10.3389/feart.2022.902226
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview, and data from the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS)

During the first week of July, NASA satellites began detecting signs that several wildland fires were burning in Russia's far east. Two weeks later, several fires had grown much larger and more intense, creating rivers of smoke that flowed over parts of Khabarovsk and the neighboring Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image of smoke swirling over the region on July 17, 2022. The image has been overlaid with red circles indicating locations where MODIS detected heat signatures indicative of fire. Many of the fires were burning in the Ayano-Maysky district of Khabarovsk, which is home to larch forests and the circular Kondyor massif.

According to Sakha's emergencies ministry, 51 fires burned across roughly 9,737 hectares (38 square miles) on July 18. More than 500 people were fighting the fires in Sakha, and thousands more were deployed to fire fronts across Russia, according to Russia's ministry of emergency situations (EMERCOM).

For the past two years, Sakha has endured unusually severe fire seasons. In 2021, more than 8.4 million hectares of forests burned in Sakha, nearly four times the long-term average.

Fires are not the only hazard facing the region. Flooding along the Yana River recently displaced hundreds of people in Sakha.

Explore further Fires near Lake Baikal, Russia

Provided by NASA Earth Observatory
Even though the figure in red lies hidden, out of the direct line of sight of the figure in green, radiation naturally emitted by the concealed figure at submillimeter wavelengths betrays its presence. At these long wavelengths, many types of walls act as partial mirrors, reflecting the light into view of the green figure. Credit: NIST

A new way of imaging concealed objects, devised by a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and his colleagues, might take all the fun out of hide-and-seek, but could also help save lives.

Imaging scenes that lie outside an observer's direct line of sight could greatly enhance search and rescue missions, such as finding a lost child in an abandoned factory, as well as military and police surveillance operations, such as exposing a hidden terrorist or enemy stronghold. The ability to see around corners and reconstruct a full image of a hidden object or obstacle in real time also could someday improve robotic vision and the safety and accuracy of self-driving cars. (At present, the prototype method cannot create an image instantaneously.)

Most conventional methods used to image objects behind an obstruction use an external source of lightultra-short pulses of visible or infrared laser light, for example. The light source initially illuminates a wall that scatters the light into the concealed region. When the light strikes a hidden object, the object re-scatters some of the light back to the wall where it can be detected.

However, imaging hidden objects using only visible and infrared light is challenging. At those relatively short wavelengths, a typical wallno matter how smooth to the human touchpresents itself as a rough surface and scatters incoming light in all directions. It therefore reveals less information about objects than light reflected from a smooth or mirrored surface and requires sophisticated algorithms and significant computing time to create even a semi-sharp image. In addition, the illumination could tip off adversaries that they are under surveillance.

Other methods, which don't require a light source, analyze shadows cast by a hidden object on a wall, or detect the heat (infrared radiation) naturally emitted by the concealed body and scattered diffusely into view. But these approaches also require extensive computing time and analysis. "A good algorithm and lots of computer power might extract an image, but not a very good one," said NIST physicist Erich Grossman.

Grossman and his colleagues based their new approach on detecting the tiny amounts of much longer wavelength radiationthe "submillimeter" range of the spectrum of light that lies just beyond microwave radiation and which people and objects also naturally emit. At these long, invisible wavelengths, ranging from 300 micrometers up to 1 millimeter, walls made of a variety of materials appear relatively smooth and act as partial mirrors, reflecting rather than diffusely scattering into view radiation from a concealed object.

The setup for the experiment at Erich Grossmans home, where the hidden object (Grossman himself) sat just behind an occluding, or concealing, wall, out of direct view of detectors. Wall under test connotes the various types of walls, including ceramic tile and plywood, that the team examined to determine which were best at reflecting submillimeter radiation. Credit: E. Grossman/NIST

To create an image, the reflected radiation has to be directed and focused. Unlike visible light, submillimeter radiation can't be steered by glass lenses. Instead, Grossman and his colleagues relied on curved mirrors to focus the invisible light.

Experimenting with their prototype, Grossman and his collaborators at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in Minneapolis demonstrated that they could construct images of objects hidden behind walls in about 20 minutes.

The prototype technique employs state-of-the-art indium phosphide transistors, which amplify submillimeter radiation with little noise over a wide range of wavelengths. The method does not require complex algorithms or intensive computer analysis. "What's cool about this method is its simplicity," Grossman said. "There's no quantum mechanics, no relativity, there's nothing cryogenic or anything fancyjust transistors and a basic computer and mirrors," he added. The entire apparatus is small enough to fit in a backpack.

With NIST facilities closed during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Grossman used his own homeconverting the bedroom of his daughter, who had left for college, into a makeshift laboratory. Grossman himself was the body hidden behind a wall.

He tested walls made of a range of common indoor building materials to determine which ones reflected enough submillimeter radiation to form an image, including wet and dry wallboard, plywood, wood paneling, unpainted cinderblock and stone kitchen tiles. Walls that reflected at least 5% of the submillimeter radiation were best at producing images of concealed bodies. These included dry wallboard, wood paneling, vinyl floor planking, plywood, stone kitchen tiles and medium-density fiberboard.

With a larger array of detectors and transistors, Grossman said that the method should be able to image hidden objects in real time.

Explore further Researchers perform non-line-of-sight ghost imaging with human vision

More information: James Leger et al, 3D Imaging from Passive Scattered Light Using Plenoptic Information. James Leger et al, 3D Imaging from Passive Scattered Light Using Plenoptic Information. www.optica.org/events/congress  ?day=Tuesday#3Tu4A.1
Glenn Cohen and Alicia Ely Yamin. Credit: Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer; Harvard Law School

Even the staunchest abortion opponents once hedged when it came to saying the law should force a woman to continue a life-threatening pregnancy. But since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, eliminating "life of the mother" exceptions in abortion bans is no longer seen as politically unthinkable.

Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the federal government after the Department of Health and Human Services issued a reminder that doctors who perform abortions as part of emergency care for a mother are protected from criminal prosecution under federal law, even in states where the procedure has been outlawed. Any hospital that prevents physicians from performing an emergency abortion would lose its federal funding, the agency warned. The Department of Justice has formed a reproductive rights task force to monitor and assess state legislation around reproductive care, including abortion and access to contraception.

The Gazette asked two experts in reproductive law about the Texas lawsuit and how we define a health emergency. I. Glenn Cohen is the James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and faculty director of the School's Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics. Alicia Ely Yamin is a lecturer at HLS, a senior fellow on global health and rights at the Petrie-Flom Center, and senior adviser on human rights and health policy at Partners In Health. Interviews have been edited for clarity and length.

Q&A: Glenn Cohen and Alicia Ely Yamin

GAZETTE: Other states are expected to join the Texas lawsuit and/or challenge other federal enforcement efforts. Where might this be headed?

COHEN: The district court will make a determination in the Texas lawsuit. Whoever loses is likely to appeal to the Fifth Circuit. To be sure, every issue is different, but the Fifth Circuit is probably one of the most advantageous courts for the kind of argument Texas is making.

If Texas wins in the Fifth Circuit, it will be up to the Biden administration to decide whether to seek certiorari in the Supreme Court. Given that this is an important plank of the administration's plans to protect abortion, it is likely they would pursue it to the Supreme Court in such a circumstance, even if their chances of success are not great, but there is always a risk of a bad decision from the court for them having collateral consequences for other programs they are implementing. If Texas loses in the Fifth Circuit, it seems very likely, given their prior success in the Supreme Court, that they would seek certiorari.

GAZETTE: What are some key legal questions or issues that may arise from this debate about the life of the mother exception?

YAMIN: I would expect that there are questions about the definition of what constitutes an emergency, and how imminent the threat to the life of the pregnant person is. But I'd also expect that there are questions about who decides the process for determining whether states will now put into effect protocols that say there has to be some kind of committee at each facility, so that individual doctors don't have the power to make that decision in connection with their own patients. There may be multiple doctors who need to decidemaybe a judge needs to decide? We don't know. But all those things have been tried in different countries.

Physicians have a lot at play in making a decision that could get their license suspended or put it at risk. All the chilling effects end up weaponizing health systems against women and pregnancy-capable people. When providers are assessing whether to do something or not, the risk-reward thing really operates to the detriment of the people who are seeking abortions. Because unless the provider is a champion of women's reproductive justice, there's no benefit to going out on a limb.

GAZETTE: Are terms like 'the life of the mother,' 'emergency,' and 'reasonable care' matters of settled law or could those be litigated and redefined by legislatures on a state-by-state basis?

COHEN: The terms, tests, and case law vary significantly by state. In some states, things are clearer in the way the statute is written. In some states there has traditionally been significant deference given to physician judgment, and in some states, multiple physicians must agree. I would expect litigation to first emerge in states that are (1) becoming more restrictive on abortion, (2) have less clear statutory language, and (3) where, in the past, there has been more deference to physician judgments. But it is too soon to tell.

GAZETTE: The World Health Organization defines 'the life of the mother' as conditions that affect either physical health or mental health. But it's an expansive definition not every country shares 

YAMIN: We've heard from certain legislators here that they want to eliminate the mental health exception, so that would open a big loophole. That has been variously interpreted by different courts around the world and it's been deeply contested, even when there are questions of possible suicidal ideation. Some courts have a kind of temporal rule, where if the woman is suicidal and might kill herself during the pregnancy, then it becomes part of physical health. But in other places, courts have been unwilling to extend "health" to mental health concerns and that, of course, is very concerning.

GAZETTE: With potential circuit conflicts and an array of knock-on effects that are likely to occur when state laws vary so widely, how likely is the Supreme Court to consider challenges to foundational matters like interstate commerce and Americans' freedom to travel within the U.S.?

COHEN: The cases that are most likely to make it up to the court in the near future are going to be about pre-emption. Both the Texas case and then other cases about whether the approval by FDA and REMS [Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy] around mifepristone [oral abortion medication] pre-empt contrary state laws that restrict medical abortion. Circuit splits are possible, but it will depend in part on whether conflicting precedent emanates from the circuits quickly or whether the Supreme Court reaches out to decide the matter before they do.

Questions about travel to other states may come in the future but would depend on a state first taking an aggressive stand on prohibiting travel for abortion or seeking to apply extraterritorially its criminal law on abortion to conduct partially in another state. Justice Kavanaugh's Dobbs concurrence signaled he thought interstate travel for abortion was constitutionally protected, but it is less clear if his statement encompasses the question of extraterritorial application of state law. Kavanaugh plus the three more liberal justices would not be enough to resolve the case in favor of interstate travel, but it is possible that restricting going out of state for an abortion would be a bridge too far for Chief Justice Roberts at least.

GAZETTE: The U.S. is just now wading into this politically fraught area of reproductive law. How has this issue played out internationally?

YAMIN: In international law where there are "exceptions to criminalization," sometimes they preserve a right to abortion in cases that affect the life or threaten the health of the pregnant person, and sometimes, in cases of rape or incest. Sometimes those exceptions apply in cases of congenital anomalies inconsistent with life. Virtually all abortion bans around the world, with very few exceptions, have what's called an indication or exception to criminalization to preserve the life of the woman. That has been interpreted variously by courts, say the European Court of Human Rights, in different ways. In some countries, it is defined. For example, if it is an ectopic pregnancy, if the woman has a cervical cancer, if the woman has pre-eclampsia, which is an obstetric emergency that requires delivery immediately. In some cases, it has not been defined in legislation, and courts like the European Court of Human Rights don't view it as appropriate for courts to be weighing in and making those determinations. Those are determinations generally made by the person's own physician or an emergency room physician.

GAZETTE: Should a majority of U.S. states make no abortion exception for the mother's life, what kind of company would we be keeping globally?

YAMIN: Just a few countries: Somalia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Malta. Sierra Leone just decriminalized abortion because their law, which had been imposed in 1861, was considered to be an outdated, colonialist rule. We'd be in the company of very few and not democratic states and completely out of line with international law and trends in comparative law.

This story is published courtesy of the Harvard Gazette, Harvard University's official newspaper. For additional university news, visit Harvard.edu.
A flare burns at Venture Global LNG in Cameron, La., on April 21, 2022. Most major countries are finding it easier to promise to fight climate change than actually do it. Credit: AP Photo/Martha Irvine, File

For most of the major carbon-polluting nations, promising to fight climate change is a lot easier than actually doing it. In the United States, President Joe Biden has learned that the hard way.

Among the 10 biggest carbon emitters, only the European Union has enacted polices close to or consistent with international goals of limiting warming to just a few more tenths of a degrees, according to scientists and experts who track climate action in countries.

But Europe, which is broiling through a record-smashing heat wave and hosting climate talks this week, also faces a short-term winter energy crunch, which could cause the continent to backtrack a tad and push other nations into longer, dirtier energy deals, experts said.

"Even if Europe meets all of its climate goals and the rest of us don't, we all lose," said Kate Larsen, head of international energy and climate for the research firm Rhodium Group. Emissions of heat-trapping gases don't stop at national borders, nor does the extreme weather that's being felt throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

"It's a grim outlook. There's no getting away from it, I'm afraid," said climate scientist Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics. His group joined with the New Climate Institute to create the Climate Action Tracker, which analyzes nations' climate targets and policies compared to the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Farmer Sitaram Murmu, 52, whose agriculture land had been transferred to build a solar power plant stands near the plant in Mikir Bamuni village, Nagaon district, northeastern Assam state, India, Feb. 18, 2022. Most major countries are finding it easier to promise to fight climate change than actually do it. Credit: AP Photo/Anupam Nath

The tracker describes as "insufficient" the policies and actions of the world's top two carbon polluters, China and the U.S., as well as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. It calls Russia and South Korea's polices "highly insufficient," and Iran comes in as "critically insufficient." Hare says No. 3 emitter India "remains an enigma."

"We are losing ground against ambitious goals" such as keeping global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) or 1.5 Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, said veteran international climate negotiator Nigel Purvis of Climate Advisers. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

Seven years ago, when almost all the nations of the world were preparing for what would become the Paris climate agreement, "it was all about ambition and setting ambitious targets," Larsen said. "Now we are transitioning into a new phase that's really about implementation ... I don't think the international community knows how to do implementation."

Other nations and the United Nations can pressure countries to set goals, but enacting laws and rules is a tougher sell. While Europe has been successful with "a long history of implementing and ratcheting up existing policies," Larsen said, that's not the case in the United States. The U.S. is on path to cut emissions by 24% to 35% below 2005 levels by 2030, far shy of the nation's pledge to reduce emissions by 50% to 52% in that time, according to a new analysis by Rhodium Group.

Biden is running low on options, said Larsen, a report co-author. Congressspecifically key Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginiais balking on the president's climate-fighting legislation, and the Supreme Court curbed power plant regulations.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., arrives to greet witnesses as he chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Congressional action "was a big window of opportunity that would have allowed us to be on track to our goal," Larsen said. A second window is available in "the suite of federal regulations that the Biden administration plans to release."

"These are the two big deciders of whether the U.S. will meet its target, and one we have largely failed on. So in that sense, it is a big miss because these opportunities don't come along very often," she said.

"The U.S. can get close" to reaching its goal, but it's not close yet, Larsen said. Whether that happens "depends on the next three to 18 months of what the administration does."

Other nations, particularly China, look at what the U.S. is doing to fight climate change and are reluctant to ratchet up their efforts if America isn't doing much, Purvis and Hare said.

At the urging of activists and some Democrats, the Biden administration is considering declaring a national emergency because of climate change and using special powers to cut carbon pollution from power plants and vehicles. Calling it an emergency is not enough; what matters is the actions that follow, Purvis said.

A sign at King's Cross railway station warns of train cancellations due to the heat in London, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. Most major countries are finding it easier to promise to fight climate change than actually do it. Experts tracking action to reduce carbon emissions say of the major economies only the European Union is close to doing what's necessary to limit global warming to a few more tenths of a degree. Credit: AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth

Biden could put a moratorium on federal lands and water. He could reinstate a ban on U.S. oil exports. He could move up spending on wind and solar. But all are subject to a conservative Supreme Court.

"The big question is where can Biden go with executive orders and how convincing is that going to be to other leaders?" Hare said.

Elsewhere in the world, "the Russian energy crisis has definitely been a major setback," Hare said. It's a short-term problem for Europe, and it's even loosened some of their rules, but "their long-term policy framework is very robust, and this might help them double down on alternative energy," Larsen said.

But the panic over natural gas has other countries, specifically in Africa, jumping onto the bandwagon of liquified natural gas, which still emits carbon. The pivot to LNG has added 15% to 20% to the amount that the world uses, Hare said.

While there is a risk Europe might add infrastructure for natural gas that will be hard to abandon, it looks like the Russian invasion of Ukraine strengthened Europe's resolve to reduce Russia's energy influence and get off fossil fuels, Purvis said.

A pump jack extracts crude oil at an oil field near wind turbines in Emlichheim, Germany, March 18, 2022. Most major countries are finding it easier to promise to fight climate change than actually do it. Experts tracking action to reduce carbon emissions say of the major economies only the European Union is close to doing what's necessary to limit global warming to a few more tenths of a degree. Credit: AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File

There are other places where weaning the world off carbon looks more possible. A new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency found the cost of electricity last year from onshore wind fell by 15%, offshore wind by 13% and solar panels by 13% compared to 2020.

Meanwhile, electric vehicle sales in America are rising, and the time when they could hit "escape velocity" and really make a difference is on the horizon, Larsen said.

Explore further Report: Most nations fall far short in plans to curb warming

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
A warm-blooded mammal ancestor breathing out hot hair in a frigid night. Credit: Luzia Soares

Endothermy, or warm-bloodedness, is the ability of mammals and birds to produce their own body heat and control their body temperature.

This major difference with the cold-blooded reptiles underpins the ecological dominance of mammals in almost every ecosystem globally. Until now, it was not known exactly when endothermy originated in mammalian ancestry. A team of international scientists, including researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) in Johannesburg, South Africa, has found the smoking gun of this key evolutionary event in the inner ears of fossils from South Africa and around the globe.

A new study suggests that endothermy appeared in mammalian ancestors about 233 million years ago, well before the origin of mammals, which occurred about 200 million years ago. This study, titled "Inner ear biomechanics reveals Late Triassic origin of mammalian endothermy" is published in Nature.

"For the first time, we are able to trace through evolution the direct consequence of the origin of endothermy on the skeletal anatomy of our pre-mammalian ancestors," says Dr. Julien Benoit, Senior Researcher in Paleontology at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University. "This is an exciting time for our field of study."

The bony inner ear of a squirrel monkey (in blue) and the soft tissues inside it (in red). Relations between bony and soft tissue structures have been studied in extant species to infer inner ear function in fossils and infer whether they were cold or warm-blooded. Credit: Romain David

The intuition

The inner ear is not only the organ of hearing; it also houses the organ of balancethe semicircular canals. The three semicircular canals of the inner ear are oriented in the three dimensions of space and are filled with a fluid that flows in the canals as the head moves and activates receptors to tell the brain the exact three-dimensional position of the head and body. The viscosity, or runniness, of this fluid (called the endolymph) is of paramount importance for the balance organ to efficiently detect head rotation and aid balance.

As for any other fluid, the viscosity of the endolymph changes with body temperature, just like a piece of butter turns from solid to liquid in a warm pan. Because of this physical property, the viscosity of the endolymph would be altered by the evolution of a higher body temperature. However, this change of viscosity cannot be left unchecked because the balance organ would stop working properly. The semicircular canals of the inner ear must adapt to the new viscosity imposed by higher body temperature, i.e., they have to change their geometry.

The key intuition of the two lead authors of the discovery, Dr. Ricardo Araujo (University of Lisbon) and Dr. Romain David (Natural History Museum of Paris), was to realize that this change in the semicircular canals shape would be easy to trace through geologic time using fossils. Pinpointing the species in which this change of geometry occurred would work as an accurate guide to when endothermy evolvedthe smoking gun identifying when mammalian ancestors transitioned from cold-blooded to warm-blooded.

"Until now, semicircular canals were generally used to predict locomotion of fossil organisms. However, by carefully looking at their biomechanics, we figured that we could also use them to infer body temperatures. This is because, like honey, the fluid contained inside semicircular canals gets less viscous when temperature increases, impacting function. Hence, during the transition to endothermy, morphological adaptations were required to keep optimal performances, and we could track them in mammal ancestors," says Dr. Romain David, Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Natural History Museum and Lead Author on the paper.

Size differences between inner ears (in grey) of warm-blooded (on the left) and cold-blooded (on the right) mammal ancestors. Inner ears are compared for animals of similar body sizes. Credit: Romain David and Ricardo Araujo

The contribution of Karoo fossils

The team found that the inner ear canals' geometry adapted to a relatively abrupt change in endolymph viscosity some 233 million years ago, indicating that the overall body temperature of mammal ancestors became warmer at this time.

Fossils from the South African Karoo played a key role in this discovery, in part because of the wealth of fossils of mammal ancestors that the Karoo-aged rocks have produced in more than a hundred years of study.

South African fossils offer an unbroken record of the evolution of life during an interval of almost 100 million years, documenting the transformation from reptilian-like animals (the therapsids) to mammals in exquisite detail. In addition, because the Karoo was situated closer to the South Pole at that time as a result of continental drift, the warmer body temperature suggested by the geometry of the inner ear cannot be due to an overall warmer climate.

"As the South African climate was colder on average, the change in inner ear fluid viscosity can only have been caused by a generally warmer body temperature in mammalian ancestors," says Benoit.

Using cutting edge CT-scanning techniques and 3D modeling, the researchers were able to reconstruct the inner ear of dozens of mammalian ancestors from the South African Karoo and elsewhere in the world, and managed to point out exactly which species had an inner ear anatomy consistent with a warmer body temperature, and which ones did not.

A change of paradigm

Until now the general expectation was that endothermy arose very close to the Permo-Triassic boundary, about 252 million years ago, or perhaps closer to the origin of mammals 200 million years ago. The new results suggest that endothermy appeared in mammalian ancestors some 233 million years ago. This new date is consistent with the recent findings that many of the traits usually associated with "mammalness," such as whiskers and fur, also evolved earlier than previously expected. More importantly, the results support that the evolutionary transition to warm-bloodedness was unexpectedly fast.

"Contrary to current scientific thinking, our paper surprisingly demonstrates that the acquisition of endothermy seems to have occurred very quickly in geological terms, in less than a million years," says Dr. Ricardo Araujo, Junior Researcher at Instituto de Plasmas e Fusao Nuclear, Instituto Superior Tecnico, University of Lisbon and Lead Author on the paper. "It was not a gradual, slow process over tens of millions of years as previously thought, but maybe was attained quickly when triggered by novel mammal-like metabolic pathways and origin of fur."

"The origin of mammalian endothermy is one of the great unsolved mysteries of paleontology," says Dr. Kenneth D. Angielczyk, MacArthur Curator of Paleomammalogy at Field Museum of Natural History, U.S. and senior author on the paper.

"Many different approaches have been used to try to predict when it first evolved, but they have often given vague or conflicting results. We think our method shows real promise because it has been validated using a very large number of modern species, and it suggests that endothermy evolved at a time when many other features of the mammalian body plan were also falling into place."

More information: Ricardo Araujo, Inner ear biomechanics reveals the Late Triassic origin of mammalian endothermy, Nature (2022). www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04963-z Journal information: Nature Ricardo Araujo, Inner ear biomechanics reveals the Late Triassic origin of mammalian endothermy,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04963-z
A sample is clamped in the traverse table of the ionization chamber. Credit: UBT / Chr. Wiler.

Mass spectrometry imaging (MS imaging) provides highly precise information on the spatial distribution of substances in many areas. Researchers at the University of Bayreuth now present exemplary new applications in food analysis in the journal Food Chemistry. For the first time, they have succeeded in making visible an additive in dairy products and a production-related contamination in baked goods. Special ingredients that influence food quality can be detected in fruit, vegetables and meat products. The study, which was conducted in cooperation with the Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority (LGL), shows the great potential of this method, not least in terms of consumer protection.

Natamycin in cheese

To protect cheese wheels or smoked sausages from mold infestation, the surfaces are often treated with the fungicide natamycin. An EU regulation sets a limit of one milligram per square decimeter for this and also stipulates that natamycin must not penetrate deeper than five millimeters into a treated cheese wheel. However, this penetration depth cannot be described in detail using the food analysis methods commonly used to date, but the Bayreuth research team led by Prof. Dr. Andreas Rompp has been able to use MS imaging to show for the first time where and in what quantities the fungicide occurs in different types of Gouda.

The penetration of the natamycin molecules can be tracked from the rind to the inside of the cheese wheel. The scientists collaborated with the Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority (LGL) in these investigations. Based on the results obtained, they have developed methodological standards for the identification of natamycin in cheese. "Building on this newly developed MS imaging approach, it may be possible to reduce consumer exposure to preservatives in the future," says Prof. Rompp, who is the Chair of Bioanalytic Sciences and Food Analysis at the University of Bayreuth.

Acrylamide in gingerbread

An EU regulation also sets limits for the presence of acrylamide in food. It is a cancer-promoting substance that is formed from sugar and asparaginean amino acidat low humidity and temperatures above 120 degrees Celsius. A method developed in Bayreuth, Germany, based on MS imaging, visualizes acrylamide distribution in traditional German gingerbread. "To do this, we had to cool the gingerbread samples to less than minus 60 degrees Celsius and then use an electric microsaw to produce gingerbread slices of two millimeter thickness. This was the only way we could detect very small amounts of acrylamide," reports Prof. Rompp.

Ingredients of a kiwi: green = sugar, blue = polyphenol, red = typical kiwi lipid. Credit: Oliver Wittek

Studies of veal sausages

The new study also shows that MS imaging is equally suitable for analyses of processed meat products. In veal sausages, water-soluble and fat-soluble components become visible, so that low-fat and high-fat regions can be clearly distinguished. Likewise, it becomes visible where substances of plant origin are found that come from admixed herbs. "However, MS imaging not only enables the localization of ingredients in meat products, but also helps, for example, in investigations of 'sticky meat' or so-called hydrolysate additives, which are supposed to feign higher quality when they are not declared on the packaging. It could therefore be useful in detecting consumer deception in meat products and better protect consumers in this respect as well," says Prof. Rompp.

Kiwifruit and carrots

The application potential in the field of fruits and vegetables is demonstrated by studies on kiwifruit and carrots. The "mini kiwi" (Actinidia arguta) is not only sweet, but also has numerous health-promoting bioactive ingredients. Using sample slices that were only a few hundredths of a millimeter thick and cooled down to a temperature of minus 40 degrees, the Bayreuth bioanalysts visualized the distribution of several substances in the skin and flesh: sugar molecules (disaccharides), antioxidant polyphenol and a fat (lipid) characteristic of kiwis. In carrots, in turn, molecules of beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, were detected. In addition, it was also possible to identify the spatial distribution and typical molecular structures of different dyes (anthocyanins) that give carrots an orange, yellow or violet coloration.

An analytical method without dyes

"Our study makes it clear that MS imaging is a valuable addition to already established food analysis methods: It offers new insights into the spatial distribution and relative proportions of ingredients. It has the great advantage that the molecules of the ingredients do not have to be labeled with dyes or other labeling methods. At the University of Bayreuthwithin the newly established Faculty VII of Life Sciences: Food, Nutrition and Healthwe will continue to work in the future on refining the analytical capabilities of imaging mass spectrometry, combining it with other food analysis tools, and applying it to ingredients not previously studied. In this way, we at the University of Bayreuth can make important contributions to consumer protection," says Prof. Rompp.

On imaging mass spectrometry (MS)

MS differs from other analytical methods such as UV, fluorescence, infrared or nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in that it is not dependent on particular properties of the molecules and atomsi.e. neither on light absorption or fluorescence nor on nuclear spin, the angular momentum of an atomic nucleus around its center of gravity. If two molecules or atoms differ in mass, this difference can be made visible by mass spectrometry. In this respect, a mass spectrometer is similar to a scale for atoms and moleculesthe only difference being that it is several million times more accurate and sensitive than any kitchen scale.

Before any mass spectrometric analysis, it is necessary to ionize the molecules of the substances to be identified, so that charged particles are created. This is because only charged particles can be deflected and accelerated by the magnetic and electric fields used in the mass spectrometer. One ionization method that is also used at the Chair of Bioanalytics and Food Analysis at the University of Bayreuth is the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI). Here, a matrix substance is placed on the sample and then irradiated with a laser. Imaging mass spectrometry (MS imaging) combines information about molecules obtained from MS with spatial information: by scanning a sample surface and irradiating a different spot on the sample each time, pixel by pixel, a mass spectrum can be recorded for each point that the laser has hit.

Explore further Researchers develop a new peptide system for the targeted transport of molecules into living mammalian cells

More information: Julia Kokesch-Himmelreich et al, MALDI mass spectrometry imaging: From constituents in fresh food to ingredients, contaminants and additives in processed food, Food Chemistry (2022). Journal information: Food Chemistry Julia Kokesch-Himmelreich et al, MALDI mass spectrometry imaging: From constituents in fresh food to ingredients, contaminants and additives in processed food,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.132529
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

In recent years, a large number of exoplanets have been found around single "normal" stars. New research shows that there may be exceptions to this trend. Researchers from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (UANL), the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and New York University Abu Dhabi suggest a new way of detecting dim bodies, including planets, orbiting exotic binary stars known as Cataclysmic Variables (CVs).

CVs are binary star systems in which the two stars are in extremely close proximity to each other; so close that the less massive object transfers mass to the more massive. CVs are typically formed of a small, cool type of star known as a red dwarf star, and a hot, dense stara white dwarf. Red dwarf stars have a mass between 0.07 and 0.30 solar masses and a radius of around 20% of the sun's, while white dwarf stars have a typical mass of around 0.75 Solar masses and a very small radius similar to that of planet Earth.

In the CV system, the transfer of matter from the small star forms an accretion disk around the compact, more massive star. The brightness of a CV system mainly comes from this disk, and overpowers the light coming from the two stars. A third dim body orbiting a CV can influence the mass transfer rate between the two stars, and hence the brightness of the entire system. The method described in the new work is based on the change of brightness in the accretion disk due to perturbations of the third body that orbits around the inner two stars.

In their research published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, team leader Dr. Carlos Chavez and his collaborators have estimated the mass and distance of a third body orbiting four different CVs using the changes in the brightness of each system. According to calculations carried out by the team, such brightness variations have very long periods in comparison to the orbital periods in the triple system. Two out of the four CVs appear to have bodies resembling planets in orbit around them.

Dr. Chavez says, "Our work has proven that a third body can perturb a cataclysmic variable in such a way that can induce changes in brightness in the system. These perturbations can explain both the very long periods that have been observedbetween 42 and 265 daysand the amplitude of those changes in brightness. Of the four systems we studied, our observations suggest that two of the four have objects of planetary mass in orbit around them."

The scientists believe that this is a promising new technique for finding planets in orbit around binary star systems, adding to the thousands already found in the last three decades.

Explore further A new super-Earth detected orbiting a red dwarf star

More information: Carlos E Chavez et al, Testing the third-body hypothesis in the cataclysmic variables LU Camelopardalis, QZ Serpentis, V1007 Herculis and BK Lyncis, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2022). Journal information: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Carlos E Chavez et al, Testing the third-body hypothesis in the cataclysmic variables LU Camelopardalis, QZ Serpentis, V1007 Herculis and BK Lyncis,(2022). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stac1112
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Thomas Iadecola worked his way through the title of the latest research paper that includes his theoretical and analytical work, patiently explaining digital quantum simulation, Floquet systems and symmetry-protected topological phases.

Then he offered explanations of nonequilibrium systems, time crystals, 2T periodicity and the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Iadecola's corner of quantum condensed matter physicsthe study of how states of matter emerge from collections of atoms and subatomic particlescan be counterintuitive and needs an explanation at most every turn and term.

The bottom line, as explained by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in announcing that 2016 physics prize to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, is that researchers are revealing more and more of the secrets of exotic matter, "an unknown world where matter can assume strange states."

The new paper published in the journal Nature and co-authored by Iadecola, an Iowa State University assistant professor of physics and astronomy and an Ames National Laboratory scientist, describes simulations using quantum computing that enabled observation of a distinctive state of matter taken out of its normal equilibrium.

The paper's corresponding author is Dong-Ling Deng of Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Deng and Iadecola worked together in 2017 and '18 as postdoctoral researchers at the University of Maryland.

"Our work paves the way to exploring novel non-equilibrium phases of matter," the authors wrote in a summary of their paper.

For you and me, those novel states of matter could one day provide unique and useful properties for new technologies. Possible applications in quantum information processing include precision measurement science and information storage.

For this project, Iadecola was a supporting scientist who contributed theoretical work and data analysis. For example, "In a collaborative project like this, my role is to help define the questions the experimentalists need to address," he said.

The major question they answered in this paper is how a quantum computing platform can be used to study and understand exotic states of matter.

"This paper demonstrates the researchers have a very nice digital quantum simulation platform," Iadecola said. "This platform can also be applied to other interesting problems in quantum many-body physics."

The project dovetails with work Iadecola will start this summer. The upcoming project will involve theoretical work in many-particle quantum systems, including studying how delicate quantum states can be preserved. That preservation would allow the states to be used for quantum computation, a new technology that uses quantum dynamics to process and store information.

Iadecola also hopes to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum in quantum computing at Iowa State to help "grow the quantum talent pipeline."

While the project is all about theory and education, a summary says it will be approached "with a view towards emerging quantum technologies."

"We're thinking about new phenomena," Iadecola said. "Realizing these phenomena on present-day quantum hardware could set the stage for moving us toward these applications in quantum information processing."

Explore further The realization of measurement induced quantum phases on a trapped-ion quantum computer

More information: Xu Zhang et al, Digital quantum simulation of Floquet symmetry-protected topological phases, Nature (2022). Journal information: Nature Xu Zhang et al, Digital quantum simulation of Floquet symmetry-protected topological phases,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04854-3
Tan Son Nhat staff suspended after passenger uses knife on flight

A security screening team member at HCM City's Tan Son Nhat Airport has been suspended after a passenger was found using a knife while aboard a flight.















The passenger is caught using a knife while aboard a flight from Tan Son Nhat Airport on July 18



The Southern Airport Authority announced on Tuesday that the staff member, whose name was not disclosed, has been temporarily suspended while they are investigating the case of a passenger using a knife to peel fruits aboard a plane, an act that violated flight safety and security regulations.



"The staff member has 13 years of experience but failed to detect the knife which was in a bag carried by an elderly woman," the Southern Airport Authority said.



According to a report from Tan Son Nhat Airport, the incident occurred at 7.58 am on July 18 on Vietnam Airlines flight VN208 from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi.



"A short time after taking off, a passenger saw an elderly woman cutting fruit with a knife and immediately notified the flight attendants who then gave the passenger a warning and confiscated the womans 20-centimetre knife," the airport reported.



The woman, who was accompanied by an elderly man, was asked to sign in a record of the incident. The case was immediately reported to the Southern Airport Authority for investigation.



Knives are prohibited from being brought into restricted airport areas and planes.



According to To Tu Hung, head of the Aviation Security Department under Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, passengers are banned from carrying razors, paper knives, knives with blades longer than six centimetres, and knives with both the handle and blade over 10 centimetres long in their carry-on luggage.



Violators are subject to a fine of VND7-10 million (USD304-434).
Northeastern student Alexandra Morales influencer TikTok page. Credit: Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University

With multiple social media platforms and millions of people flocking online every day, it's no surprise so many people want to become digital content creatorsor even better: influencers.

An influencer is someone whose online videos, photos or podcasts are followed, listened to and trusted by a sizable audience. They promote brands as well as new products and services.

The influencer marketing business, which Bloomberg reports is a growing $20 billion industry, started in 2011 on YouTube when the social media video giant made the decision to attract more premium advertisers and raise the quality of its programming, according to the Atlantic.

This prompted YouTube executives to seek out a growing class of users who were attracting large audiences on the social platform. These users were later known as "YouTube stars," the very start of the influencer marketing business.

Even today, an important step to becoming a successful influencer is being one of the first users on a new social media platform, according to Koen Pauwels, distinguished professor of marketing at Northeastern and co-director of the Digital, Analytics, Technology and Automation Initiative.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok long ago joined YouTube in the influencer arena, but the same strategy holds true now as it did a decade ago. If there's fewer people that do exactly what you do, the better, Pauwels says.

"There's some pioneering advantage as we call it," he says. "And then in marketing, we have the segmentation and targeting approach. You have to be in the channels where your customer is. Having a multichannel approach helps you to reach people that otherwise wouldn't be reached."

Amy Pei, assistant professor of marketing at D'Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern, agrees influencers must always remain one step ahead of their competition, both in content and platform.

"When TikTok first emerged (four years ago), it wasn't like a major problem. People were mostly still on YouTube or Instagram," Pei says. "So if you, at the time, made the right judgment call or you took the right gamble, you migrated to TikTok and then you became big."

Every social media platform has its own demographics that include age, gender and number of active users. This includes TikTok, the extraordinarily popular video app that has more viewership than YouTube, according to BBC News.

But since it was first made available outside China in 2018, TikTok has received backlash from politicians around the globe who fear that users' data could end up in the wrong hands or viewership could be molded by Chinese propagandists, Economist reports.

Back in 2020, the platform was banned in India, whose government claimed the app was "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting" users' information. Two months later, former President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring TikTok to be sold to an American company within 45 days or else face a ban. The executive order was later revoked by President Joe Biden.

Because of this, Pauwels says cross-channel marketing is especially important for TikTok influencers.

"Just a few years ago, there was a possibility that TikTok would be banned," Pauwels says. "It's always important to remember as an influencer, that you're really dependent on the platform, which can change at any time."

Social media influencers make money in a number of ways, including pushing sponsored content, serving as brand ambassadors and getting a cut of website advertising. But it's not as easy as it looks.

Alexandra Morales is a Northeastern student who studies business marketing and graphic design. She has over a million followers on TikTok, but says it's not the best decision to depend on social media as a main source of income.

"I think to each their own, you can definitely make a steady income through it, but it might not be as rewarding as you think," she says.

Pei suggests starting slow with few expectations.

"For anyone who wants to do this as a full-time job, as a career, perhaps they should dabble in it, do it as a hobby, but a more serious hobby, or maybe try to do it part-time for a while, and see whether they have what it takes or whether it's the lifestyle they are looking for," she says.
The Penrose tiling pattern is a type of quasicrystal, which means that it has an ordered yet never-repeating structure. The pattern, composed of two shapes, is a 2D projection of a 5D square lattice. Credit: None

By shining a laser pulse sequence inspired by the Fibonacci numbers at atoms inside a quantum computer, physicists have created a remarkable, never-before-seen phase of matter. The phase has the benefits of two time dimensions despite there still being only one singular flow of time, the physicists report July 20 in Nature.

This mind-bending property offers a sought-after benefit: Information stored in the phase is far more protected against errors than with alternative setups currently used in quantum computers. As a result, the information can exist without getting garbled for much longer, an important milestone for making quantum computing viable, says study lead author Philipp Dumitrescu.

The approach's use of an "extra" time dimension "is a completely different way of thinking about phases of matter," says Dumitrescu, who worked on the project as a research fellow at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Quantum Physics in New York City. "I've been working on these theory ideas for over five years, and seeing them come actually to be realized in experiments is exciting."

Dumitrescu spearheaded the study's theoretical component with Andrew Potter of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Romain Vasseur of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Ajesh Kumar of the University of Texas at Austin. The experiments were carried out on a quantum computer at Quantinuum in Broomfield, Colorado, by a team led by Brian Neyenhuis.

The workhorses of the team's quantum computer are 10 atomic ions of an element called ytterbium. Each ion is individually held and controlled by electric fields produced by an ion trap, and can be manipulated or measured using laser pulses.

Each of those atomic ions serves as what scientists dub a quantum bit, or "qubit." Whereas traditional computers quantify information in bits (each representing a 0 or a 1), the qubits used by quantum computers leverage the strangeness of quantum mechanics to store even more information. Just as Schrodinger's cat is both dead and alive in its box, a qubit can be a 0, a 1 or a mashupor "superposition"of both. That extra information density and the way qubits interact with one another promise to allow quantum computers to tackle computational problems far beyond the reach of conventional computers.

There's a big problem, though: Just as peeking in Schrodinger's box seals the cat's fate, so does interacting with a qubit. And that interaction doesn't even have to be deliberate. "Even if you keep all the atoms under tight control, they can lose their quantumness by talking to their environment, heating up or interacting with things in ways you didn't plan," Dumitrescu says. "In practice, experimental devices have many sources of error that can degrade coherence after just a few laser pulses."

The challenge, therefore, is to make qubits more robust. To do that, physicists can use "symmetries," essentially properties that hold up to change. (A snowflake, for instance, has rotational symmetry because it looks the same when rotated by 60 degrees.) One method is adding time symmetry by blasting the atoms with rhythmic laser pulses. This approach helps, but Dumitrescu and his collaborators wondered if they could go further. So instead of just one time symmetry, they aimed to add two by using ordered but non-repeating laser pulses.

In this quantum computer, physicists created a never-before-seen phase of matter that acts as if time has two dimensions. The phase could help protect quantum information from destruction for far longer than current methods. Credit: Quantinuum

The best way to understand their approach is by considering something else ordered yet non-repeating: "quasicrystals." A typical crystal has a regular, repeating structure, like the hexagons in a honeycomb. A quasicrystal still has order, but its patterns never repeat. (Penrose tiling is one example of this.) Even more mind-boggling is that quasicrystals are crystals from higher dimensions projected, or squished down, into lower dimensions. Those higher dimensions can even be beyond physical space's three dimensions: A 2D Penrose tiling, for instance, is a projected slice of a 5-D lattice.

For the qubits, Dumitrescu, Vasseur and Potter proposed in 2018 the creation of a quasicrystal in time rather than space. Whereas a periodic laser pulse would alternate (A, B, A, B, A, B, etc.), the researchers created a quasi-periodic laser-pulse regimen based on the Fibonacci sequence. In such a sequence, each part of the sequence is the sum of the two previous parts (A, AB, ABA, ABAAB, ABAABABA, etc.). This arrangement, just like a quasicrystal, is ordered without repeating. And, akin to a quasicrystal, it's a 2D pattern squashed into a single dimension. That dimensional flattening theoretically results in two time symmetries instead of just one: The system essentially gets a bonus symmetry from a nonexistent extra time dimension.

Actual quantum computers are incredibly complex experimental systems, though, so whether the benefits promised by the theory would endure in real-world qubits remained unproven.

Using Quantinuum's quantum computer, the experimentalists put the theory to the test. They pulsed laser light at the computer's qubits both periodically and using the sequence based on the Fibonacci numbers. The focus was on the qubits at either end of the 10-atom lineup; that's where the researchers expected to see the new phase of matter experiencing two time symmetries at once. In the periodic test, the edge qubits stayed quantum for around 1.5 secondsalready an impressive length given that the qubits were interacting strongly with one another. With the quasi-periodic pattern, the qubits stayed quantum for the entire length of the experiment, about 5.5 seconds. That's because the extra time symmetry provided more protection, Dumitrescu says.

"With this quasi-periodic sequence, there's a complicated evolution that cancels out all the errors that live on the edge," he says. "Because of that, the edge stays quantum-mechanically coherent much, much longer than you'd expect."

Though the findings demonstrate that the new phase of matter can act as long-term quantum information storage, the researchers still need to functionally integrate the phase with the computational side of quantum computing. "We have this direct, tantalizing application, but we need to find a way to hook it into the calculations," Dumitrescu says. "That's an open problem we're working on."

Explore further Doubling up Cooper pairs to protect qubits in quantum computers from noise

More information: Philipp Dumitrescu, Dynamical topological phase realized in a trapped-ion quantum simulator, Nature (2022). www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04853-4 Journal information: Nature Philipp Dumitrescu, Dynamical topological phase realized in a trapped-ion quantum simulator,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04853-4

Provided by Simons Foundation
Credit: Hobby School of Public Affairs/University of Houston

As a signal of the intense abortion debate continuing to simmer in Texas, a new survey from the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs found just four percentage points separating the issue's two extremes50% of survey participants opposed the state's strict new abortion law and 46% supported it.

More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents in the Texas Policy & Politics 2022: Abortion Policy survey said the new Texas restrictions will go too far once in effect. Yet almost as many (72%) did not approve of the leniency of the prior standards established by Roe v. Wade (1973).

The same survey, however, did find common ground with overwhelming support among respondents for eight proposed policies designed to help pregnant women, babies and young children.

"Most Texans recognize that lawmakers need to address access to resources and a range of programs for pregnant women, and their babies and children, especially in the wake of these new restrictions. Abortion will remain a divisive issue impacting public policy, health care, equality and the criminal justice system," said Renee Cross, executive director of the UH Hobby School of Public Affairs.

Texas' change in abortion law advanced after the U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 Dobbs decision on June 24 overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving each state to establish its own policy. Texas was one of 13 states with previously enacted trigger laws written to automatically ban or severely restrict abortions once Roe v. Wade was abolished.

The Texas trigger law, State House Bill 1280, contains one of the country's most restrictive abortion regulations and will soon outlaw almost all abortions in the stateexcept when the woman's life is in danger or to prevent substantial impairment.

By the numbers

Among the 50% of survey respondents who opposed Texas' new abortion restrictions, 42% were strongly opposed. Among the 46% who approved of the restrictions, 26% were strong supporters.

"The divide followed partisan lines, 80% of respondents who identify as Democrats oppose the new restrictions, with 76% strongly opposing. And, 76% who identify as Republicans support the new restrictions, with 44% strongly supporting," said Mark P. Jones, senior research associate at the UH Hobby School.

Other options

More than half of all respondents56%said Texas women determined to have an abortion should be allowed to travel to seek legal procedures outside the state.

At 59%, a majority of respondents opposed legislation that would classify abortion as homicide, which opens a door to prosecutors bringing legal charges against a woman who ends her pregnancy. But three in ten (30%) respondents supported the idea.

On the morning-after pill (also known as Plan B), 76% of respondents supported its availability, while 16% opposed. While 60% opposed any felony law against taking a morning-after pill from another state, 29% supported imposing felony charges for doing so.

Help for pregnant women, babies, children

An overwhelming majority representing a broad cross-section of Texans voiced support for eight potential legislative proposals aimed at helping pregnant women, babies and young children.

89% supported expanding and improving foster care

89% supported newborn-care classes

87% supported increasing adoption services

87% supported prenatal care

86% supported pregnancy counseling

80% supported increasing the social safety net for pregnant women and young children

74% supported expanding Medicaid coverage for pregnant women

74% supported free diapers, formula and baby food for low-income families

The Hobby School's Texas Policy & Politics 2022 survey was conducted between June 17 and July 7 among a representative sample of 1,169 Texas registered voters, with a confidence interval of +/- 2.9%.

Explore further US abortions rise: 1 in 5 pregnancies terminated in 2020

More information: Texas Policy & Politics 2022: Abortion Policy. Texas Policy & Politics 2022: Abortion Policy. uh.edu/hobby/txpolicyandpolitics/abortion.pdf
Map of the recovery sites of Aletai masses. The close-up of recovery sites in Xiaodonggou area shown in the top right corner. Only the masses listed in the Meteoritical Bulletin (www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php) are plotted. The base map is from Google Earth. Asterisk denotes the unnamed 15 kg of mass that was found in the Xiaodonggou area close to Wuxilike and Akebulake without precise latitude and longitude. We plot it in the middle between Wuxilike and Akebulake. Credit: Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm8890

During their entry to Earth, meteoroids and asteroids can deposit energy, causing great concerns to astrophysicists. Recent discoveries of the massive Aletai irons in Northwest China constitute the longest-known strewn field, approximating 430 kilometers, that indicate this unique process. Using petrographic and trace elemental studies, scientists suggest that Aletai masses exhibit unique compositions, and therefore may be from the same event.

In a new report now published in Science Advances, Ye Li and a team of scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Arizona, U.S., and the Institute for Nuclear Research in Hungary, used numerical models to suggest the stone skippinglike trajectory is associated with a shallow-entry angle to facilitate the exceptionally long-strewn field for a single-body entry scenario. While the trajectory of stone-skipping would not contribute to a large impact energy on the ground, the team believes it could lead to energy dissipation during its extremely long-distance flight.

Meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere

Meteoroids and asteroids can invade the Earth's atmosphere at different entry angles and velocities to break into fragments in the atmosphere and fall as meteor showers to create funnels and craters. During the process, meteoroids and asteroids can deposit large amounts of kinetic energy causing explosions and affecting the ecosystem. It is therefore crucial to understand how meteoroids fall through the atmosphere. The massive Aletai irons were first recovered in the Aletai region in Northwest Xinjiang, China, close to the China-Mongolia Border. The extraordinary long-strewn field implies the trajectory or dynamics of the asteroid Aletai to be unique. In this work, Li and the team conducted a comprehensive study of petrology and whole-rock trace element geochemistry with radionuclide analysis and numerical modeling for Aletai irons. The outcomes showed a 430-km-long strewn field.

Trace elements versus Au for Aletai irons. Aletai data from this study, and IIIE and IIIAB data for comparison. IIIAB data from Chabot and Zhang. IIIE data from Malvin et al. and online Meteoritical Bulletin Database (www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php). U, Ulasitai; Wu, Wuxilike; Ak, Akebulake; Ar, Armanty. Credit: Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm8890

Researchers had previously conducted petrographic studies for some large masses and in this work, the team performed detailed mineralization studies for previously retrieved masses of Akebulake and WuQilike asteroids. They then used neutron activation analysis data of Aletai irons and noted select elements, including copper and gold content. The researchers studied the radionuclide contents and the initial mass of Aletai and credited a larger initial mass to the asteroid; which is more realistic. Using numerical simulations, the team next indicated the flying direction of Aletai to be from Southwest to Northwest, with disintegration occurring near the Northwest region. The team tested the dynamics of the asteroid by assuming a single body entry in the atmosphere. During numerical simulations, they used the Monte Carlo method and input three basic parameters including the initial velocity, initial mass and entry angle. Among the variables, the stone skippinglike trajectory described the flight path of the samples.

The unique strewn field of a stone skippinglike trajectory

For all samples with a strewn field length of more than 430 km, the stone skippinglike trajectory appeared to be necessary. The scientists explored the trajectory of Aletai via the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, and the outcomes revealed the Aletai asteroid to have an initial velocity approximating 11.9 to 14.9 km/s. The researchers also calculated an entry angle of 6.5 to 7.5 degrees with an initial mass approximating 280 to 3440 tons with a radius ranging from 2.1 to 4.7 m. The final impact velocity and impact energy were relatively low with an impact angle of 19 to 26 degrees.

MC modeling results for asteroid Aletai. The entry angle versus initial velocity plotting (A) and length of the strewn field versus entry angle plotting (B) based on the Monte Carlo method. In (A), the gray spots refer to the samples with direct falling trajectory, the red spots refer to the samples with stone skippinglike trajectory, and the blue spots refer to the samples as earths grazers. The schematic trajectory diagrams from Monte Carlo modeling are shown to the right. In (B), the open circles refer to the samples with a stone skippinglike trajectory, and the solid circles refer to the direct falling objects. The length of strewn field is assumed to be equivalent to the longest distance between fragments weighing over 0.5 tons individually. Panel (B) only shows the samples with length of strewn field less than 3000 km; there are also a few samples with length over 3000 km. Credit: Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm8890

A representative trajectory motion of asteroid Aletai. The numbers above the x axis refer to the computed weight of final masses, and only the fragments with weight over 0.5 tons are shown here. The currently known Aletai masses are marked by red ellipses along the x axis. i = entry angle, mi = initial mass, vi = initial velocity, mTF = the weight of total final fragments, mMF = the weight of the largest final fragment, D>0.5 tons = the longest distance between fragments with individual weight over 0.5 tons (assumed to be equal to the length of the strewn field), D>20 tons = the longest distance between fragments with individual weight over 20 tons, and WuQ = WuQilike. The base map is from Google Earth. Credit: Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm8890

Posterior distributions of entry angle, initial velocity and initial mass or radius from MCMC modelling. In the histograms, the red line marks the median value, the dotted light blue lines constrain 95% credible bounds, and the dotted dark blue lines constrain 99% credible bounds. The results shown on the top of histograms are from 99% credible bounds. Credit: Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm8890

Outlook: Understanding asteroid Aletai

In this way, Ye Li and colleagues showed how the asteroids Akebulake, WuQilike and Aletai masses shared strong similarities in mineral chemistry. The scientists analyzed these masses that maintained identical bulk compositions to suggest pairing in the Aletai masses. They characterized the Aletai irons by higher gold and copper content, and unexpected contents of iridium. The team then combined additional geochemical data with petrologic compositions of Aletai iron to describe its unique and incomparable nature to other samples in the world meteorite collection. The outcomes suggest all Aletai masses to be from the same fall event. The modeling results further highlighted the fragmentation of Aletai into smaller pieces in the atmosphere while emphasizing the entry angle to Earth. The team underscored the significance of the stone skippinglike trajectory, which had not been previously identified, and potentially overlooked in the historical record, and credited its uniqueness to its geochemistry and extremely long-distance flight.

Explore further Stone skipping techniques can improve reentry of space vehicles

More information: Ye Li et al, A unique stone skippinglike trajectory of asteroid Aletai, Science Advances (2022). Ye Li et al, A unique stone skippinglike trajectory of asteroid Aletai,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm8890 P. Brown et al, The orbit and atmospheric trajectory of the Peekskill meteorite from video records, Nature (2003). DOI: 10.1038/367624a0 Journal information: Science Advances , Nature

 2022 Science X Network
GLENS FALLS  After being closed since March 2020 due to pandemic-related constraints, the New Way Lunch location at 21 South St. will open its doors with some new additions by early fall.

Peter Gazetos, owner of New Way Lunch, said that the building is in the process of receiving a facelift.

Were putting in a little addition on the back, he said. Were going to change the color of the building, update the interior.

The idea of an outdoor addition to the building had been discussed internally, according to Gazetos. He said that with the property being closed for so long, it seemed like the perfect time to pull the trigger.

Ali Gazetos Mineo, Peters daughter, said that the restaurant closed when the state mandated restaurants could only be filled at half capacity for indoor dining.

They said that the restaurant faced labor issues during the pandemic as well, which contributed to the South Street location remaining closed.

New Way Lunch has been in the Gazetos family ever since John Floro, his grandfather, traveled from Greece to New York City and found his way to Glens Falls and New Way Lunch in August 1919, according to the restaurants website.

The Gazetos family  his wife Susan, son Nicholas Gazetos and daughter Ali Gazetos Mineo  all run the business together in 2022.

The new addition will feature a steel roof, and allow for the location to offer covered outdoor seating once reopened. The pair, interviewed Tuesday, didnt know how much additional seating would be possible in the space.

Mineo said that the renovations began about a month ago, and they wont have an idea of how much space they will have to work with until they see the finished product.

We kind of have to get a feel. Once the roof goes up well place some tables, we wont try to jump the gun, she said.

She said that the South Street location  which they have been at since 2006  was in need of a refresh.

Its mostly storage. Those older buildings, theres not a lot of space, she said.

It doesnt have a basement, Gazetos added.

While not being at 21 South St. for it entire history, New Way Lunch has always had a home on the Street of Dreams. The first storefront for the restaurant was located at 54 South St.

Weve always maintained our business on South Street, he said. Thats where we originated.

New Way Lunch has two other locations, one on Upper Glen Street in Queensbury and the other in Warrensburg.
HUDSON FALLS  A structure fire on Monday displaced tenants at 38 River St. in Hudson Falls.

The fire was started by an electrical malfunction of a phone charger on the second floor of the two-story residence, according to Glenn Bristol, Washington County fire coordinator.

Bristol said that the emergency call came in approximately at 5:45 p.m. Monday.

The second floor was completely gutted, while the first floor sustained extensive water damage, he said.

The tenants were not home during the fire and the distress call was made by neighbors.

While the exterior of the building does not reveal much damage, Bristol said the structural integrity of the building was significantly compromised.

Bristol said that the Hudson Falls Volunteer Fire Department, Fort Edward Fire Department, Kingsbury Volunteer Hose Company, South Queensbury Volunteer Fire Department, South Glens Falls Fire Company and Hudson Falls Police Department all responded to the scene.

Argyle and Hartford fire departments were on standby, while Bay Ridge Volunteer Fire Company responded as an emergency rescue team in case any firefighters got trapped inside the structure.

Fort Edward EMS responded as well.
FORT ANN  An inmate at the Washington Correctional Facility broke the orbital (eye socket) bone of a correction officer and injured two others on Tuesday, according to the union representing correction officers.

The 28-year-old inmate, whose name was not released, is serving a 2- to 4-year sentence after being convicted of third-degree burglary in Albany County in 2021.

The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, or NYSCOPBA, released these details Tuesday:

The first officer was entering the medium-security state prisons school building as the inmate was exiting. The inmate hit the officer with his shoulder on purpose.

The officer ordered the inmate to subject to a pat frisk, after which the inmate became belligerent.

When the officer approached the inmate, he spun off of the wall and punched the officer multiple times in the eye and face.

Two officers responded, with one administering pepper spray to the inmate with no effect. The inmate, who was still combative, bit the officers left middle finger.

The second officer placed the inmate in a body hold as he continued to struggle. After getting control, the officers forced the inmate to the ground and he was placed in handcuffs.

The inmate was compliant once in handcuffs.

The officer who was struck in the face sustained a laceration above his left eye, two small lacerations under his left eye, bleeding from his nose and pain to one of his fingers. He was diagnosed with an orbital fracture at Glens Falls Hospital.

The officer who was bit suffered a small laceration to his finger, pain and swelling to his forearm, and knee pain. The third officer had hand pain and swelling.

The pair remained on duty after the attack.

Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, and Assemblyman Matt Simpson, R-Horicon, will hold a joint press conference on Wednesday in Comstock regarding their legislation to repeal the states HALT Act, which prohibits the use of special housing units in correctional facilities.

The conference was scheduled prior to Tuesdays incident.

Members of NYSCOPBA will attend to speak about the HALT Act, including Michael Powers, president of NYSCOPBA.

John Roberts, vice president of the NYSCOPBA Northern Region, said the attacks on officers have to be stopped.

The endless attacks on staff by inmates is sickening. Despite our countless calls for the Legislature to repeal the HALT Act, the politicians who supported this ill-advised legislation remain silent. They simply have turned their backs on the men and women who risk their lives every day to keep our communities safe, he said in a news release.

The press conference will begin outside of the correctional facility starting at 10 a.m.
EASTON  A free medical clinic will pop up again at the Washington County Fairgrounds in September, bringing free medical, dental and vision care to anyone who shows up.

Remote Area Medical set up at the fairgrounds in October  the first ever in the area and the second pop-up clinic in the state.

Last year, the clinic saw 200 patients and provided more than $100,000 in free services, including free eyeglasses.

People are not familiar with RAM in our area so we worked real hard last year and the community came out gangbusters. I mean it was amazing, said Karen Weinberg, a core volunteer with the community host group.

For more than 35 years, Remote Area Medical has provided free health care services to those in need through the operation of pop-up clinics around the country. RAMs free clinics deliver free quality services to underserved and uninsured individuals who do not have access to or cannot afford a doctor.

The clinic will take place from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 17 and from 6 a.m. to noon Sept. 18 at the Washington County Fairgrounds, 391 Old Schuylerville Road.

Patients are encouraged to get in line as early at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 16.

Part of it is for people that dont have health insurance, said Don Franks, the lead volunteer with the community host group, or they have health insurance and the dental and vision arent covered, or their deductible is so large that they cant go at all.

The clinic also provides free medical services to farm laborers, some of whom are undocumented.

All services are free. RAM clinics dont require an ID, proof of income or citizenship. There are no forms to fill out.

You can come to our clinic with empty pockets, Weinberg said. Just show up and we will take care of you.

The free dental, vision and medical services are provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

It costs about $600 to get a tooth pulled in our area, Weinberg said. So if you get three teeth pulled, $1,800 worth of dental care to sit in your car for a few hours, thats not a bad ratio of time spent to value. Same with glasses. Most glasses these days are hundreds of dollars.

RAM provides the staff to run the clinic, and 95% of work is performed by local volunteers.

Doctors also volunteer their time and services during the weekend, but RAM is still looking for more local dental and vision care professionals to volunteer on Sept. 17 and 18.

The medical area is pretty well staffed, but the dental and the vision leave something to be desired, Franks said.

Any dental or vision professionals can volunteer by calling RAM at 865-579-1530 or go to ramusa.org and click on the link to volunteer. All of the doctors have to be licensed in New York state.

They are also in need of Spanish interpreters.

Many local businesses and individuals provide financial donations and food donations for the event. And local nonprofit services will also attend to provide information to people who attend the clinic. There will also be a free farmers market.

More than just getting stuff for free, Weinberg said, there is this level of kindness that is remarkable.
LAKE GEORGE  On Monday, with the picturesque Queen of American Lakes just outside the window, Glens Falls business owner and financial adviser Jean Lapper announced her intent to run for state Senate for the 45th District.

The Democrat from Queensbury will challenge state Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, who is completing his first two-year term in the Senate after previously serving in the state Assembly. Stec is a former Queensbury town supervisor and Town Board member.

The 45th District contains the northern tip of Washington County, all of Warren, Essex, Clinton and Franklin counties, as well as eastern St. Lawrence County.

More than ever we need leadership that will stand up for the North Country. Our rights and our opportunities are under attack and I decided I cannot sit on the sidelines, Lapper told a crowd of her supporters.

Lapper said she is a candidate for the people.

I am not a career politician. You wont see me in a ton of photo ops. I have been doing things to help people and give back to the community behind the scenes. Ive been doing this kind of work because it needs to get done, she told a Post-Star reporter Monday.

She is a past president of Glens Falls Rotary Club and has served on the boards of the Family Services Association of Glens Falls and Tri-County United Way.

Lapper, a certified public accountant, ran unsuccessfully in 2019 for a Queensbury at-large seat on the Warren County Board of Supervisors. In 2021, she was not on the ballot but received 34 write-in votes for an at-large supervisor seat.

As a mother of two daughters, Lapper said Monday that she understands the nuts and bolts of what it takes for a family to succeed in this region.

She said the northern counties have been ignored by Albany, but she will make their needs heard.

Lapper was surrounded by family and friends, as well as fellow Democratic Party members.

Warren County Democratic Chair Lynne Boecher introduced Lapper, praising her leadership.

We need active leadership in the state Senate to represent the North Country. We are being neglected and we need a public servant that will work with everyone to find solutions to the complex challenges we are facing, Boecher told the crowd.

She said leadership was not pointing the finger or arguing with another elected official to grab cheap headlines, but rather finding and trying to work toward a solution.

Boecher called Lapper a breath of fresh air who would work for the families and working class citizens of the district.

Lapper stated her reasons for deciding to run for the Senate.

I want to fight for reproductive rights, protect our environment from climate change, and deliver affordable, high-speed broadband to our rural communities, she said.

We need to invest in small businesses, which are the backbone of the North Country.
NORTHFIELD  Atlantic County is considering a deal with the Catholic Diocese of Camden to build 70 units of senior housing on Dolphin Avenue next to Meadowview Nursing Home.

But at least one resident vowed to stop the plan and prevent more traffic from clogging her neighborhood during Tuesdays Board of Commissioners meeting.

I am going to put as many people together as I can to try to stop it, Dolphin Avenue resident Joan Brennan said. It is out of control. I dont understand the connection between the county and the archdiocese, and why they want to stuff something into that property over there.

The property under consideration is a large open space between the bike path and the nursing home, said county Administrator Jerry DelRosso. He said similar ideas have been pursued in the past, and officials believe it is a good use of the property.

We are very supportive of the program, DelRosso said. It will be housing for senior citizens ... (with) access to senior services on our campus at Shoreview.

The Shoreview Building is a county building nearby on Shore Road, where Intergenerational Services and the Office on Aging are located.

Brennan said traffic problems are already bad from county employees, trucks and buses using Dolphin Avenue.

I do not want anything else on this street. You are already getting ready to construct a 10,000-square-foot (county) warehouse there, Brennan said. Its already a nightmare.

One side of Dolphin Avenue is a campus of county buildings and open space, and the other is a residential neighborhood.

Now you are saying ... there will be some assisted living and some independent apartments, Brennan said. Independent means cars, traffic and parking. Where is all of that going to go?

DelRosso said the terms of a sale or lease of the land have not yet been discussed, but the deal would generate revenue for the county.

Residents would also be able to access therapy services at the nursing home, DelRosso said.

Drawings are being prepared by the diocese, and the project is in its early phases. It would need to clear the approval process in Northfield, where the tax-exempt diocese has said it will make voluntary payments to the city in lieu of taxes, DelRosso said.

Brennan said the diocese would charge substantial rents, as it does in other similar properties, so it would not create more affordable housing.

But DelRosso said he understood housing vouchers could be used to pay about 70% of the cost of rent for low-income residents.

Brennan suggested the diocese instead build it behind St. Gianna Beretta Molla Parish on New Road in Northfield, on land it already owns and that has more space for facilities.

The county owns most of the area from Shore to New roads between Dolphin Avenue in Northfield and Ridgewood Avenue in Pleasantville.
ATLANTIC CITY  The Atlantic County Superintendent of Elections office had employees and 10 voting machines hard at work at the Atlantic City Convention Center on Tuesday.

But dont worry. City residents didnt miss an election.

It was a service provided to the NAACP National Convention, during which a new national board member was selected.

Its part of the statute, that we can also run outside elections, said Superintendent of Elections Maureen Bugdon. We have done union elections ... and elections for political party leaders.

As a government entity, Bugdon said, the office charges only what is needed to recoup costs. It is not a revenue-generating service, she said.

Deputy Superintendent of Elections Audrey Miles, who joined the office in April, said the NAACP election was her first for an independent group.

Political Briefs: Audrey Miles new deputy election superintendent Audrey Miles, of Brigantine, was approved by the state Senate as deputy superintendent of el

Its interesting  its different, Miles said. Its not as coordinated when somebody else is running the election.

The NAACP is handling all but the machine elements of it, they said.

Well run the tapes as soon as they close (voting), Miles said of the totals for the candidates on each of the machines. We will print the tickets, present them and they will do the tally and make the announcement.

Incumbent Alice A. Huffman, of Sacramento, California, started out in 1999 as president of the California-Hawaii NAACP. She was being challenged by Atlanta NAACP chapter President Richard Rose for a seat on the 66-member board. Rose has not served on the board before.

Delegates streamed in to cast their ballots when voting opened at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Rose breathed new life into the chapter in Atlanta, said Jennifer Seibert, co-chair of the health and welfare committee of the NAACP chapter in Oakland, California. Its exciting to see how we decide. Do we go with the tried and true, or the new?

I definitely see it as the past vs. the future, said Bernard McNair, of Bridgeport, Connecticut. I think his (Roses) grassroots efforts are more beneficial for what we are looking for.

Bugdon and Miles said they are happy to serve the public in a different way.

Its great to showcase our new voting machines to the public, Bugdon said.
ATLANTIC CITY  Chances for a casino workers strike in the city are still possible after an overwhelming majority of members of the Unite Here Local 54 union at Resorts Casino Hotel and Golden Nugget Atlantic City endorsed hitting the picket lines if a new deal is not reached.

After Tuesdays vote, the unions negotiating committee set a deadline of July 30.

Resorts and Golden Nugget are the last of the citys nine casinos to settle contracts with the union.

It has been the strategy of Local 54 Union Leadership to authorize a strike vote prior to negotiations with the properties in Atlantic City, Mark Giannantonio, Resorts president and CEO, said in a statement. We are eagerly awaiting to meet with the union and negotiate in good faith, terms for an amicable deal for our Team Members and Resorts.

Strikes threatened to disrupt casino operations earlier this month prior to the deals being signed, with as many as five casinos facing a lack of employees during the busy Fourth of July weekend.

Last week, Local 54 members at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Caesars Atlantic City, Harrahs Resort Atlantic City, Tropicana Atlantic City and Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City ratified a new contract that would provide for substantial wage increases for all classifications, including tipped and non-tipped employees, retroactive to June 1.

Under the new contract, housekeeping employees will immediately see their hourly salary increased to $18, up from varying levels at different casinos.

Two other casinos, Ballys Atlantic City and Ocean Casino Resort, agreed to so-called me-too deals, committing themselves to adopting the terms of contracts reached by some of the larger properties in the city.

City officials declined to comment on the labor issue.

About 1,000 workers at Resorts and Golden Nugget remain without a new agreement. With their contract expiring this summer, workers at both casinos, like the others, are demanding significant wage increases, better housekeeping workload standards, and job protections, Local 54 said.

We just want what workers at the other casinos in the city are getting, J Eger, a bartender at Golden Nugget, said in a statement on behalf of his coworkers. Were not asking for any more or any less than that.
The Coalition for a Safe Community is partnering with the Atlantic City Police Department to host its second community cookout of the year.

The cookout will take place from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. today at the Walter J. Buzby Homes at 600 S. Drive. The event will include a DJ playing music and free food.

Coalition for a Safe Community President Perry Mays said the cookout was designed to bring the community together while connecting people with important resources.

One of the focuses of the cookout is to provide access to useful health care services. Multiple organizations from the area will be offering attendees information about their services, including AtlantiCare, Center for Family Services, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the Southern Jersey Family Medical Center.

The cookout also seeks to improve community relations with law enforcement. In addition to the Atlantic City police, representatives from the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office and Sheriffs Office will be in attendance.

The idea is to bring the community and the police together, Mays said.

The Coalition for a Safe Community hosted its first cookout of the year on June 21 in Pleasantville. Scores of adults, children and public officials ate, talked and connected. Service providers offered information to community members while members of the police department manned the grill and other volunteers handed out other food. The event was well received by attendees who spoke to The Press of Atlantic City and celebrated by Pleasantville public officials.

Two more community cookouts are scheduled for later this year  one in Egg Harbor City on Aug. 25 and another cookout in Atlantic City tentatively scheduled for Aug. 30.
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE  A 63-year-old man faces charges of possession of child pornography after a search of a Mechanic Street property Friday.

Ronald Curll was charged with possession and distribution of child pornography. Curll allegedly had more than 1,000 images, authorities said in a news release.

Another man, Shawn Gaston, 20, faces separate charges related to possession and distribution of marijuana, according to police.

The investigation began with a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to details released by acting Cape May County Prosecutor Saverio Carroccia and Middle Township police Chief Chris Leusner on Tuesday. The tip was that someone was distributing child pornography videos over the internet.

As part of the investigation, police searched a home on Mechanic Street on Friday. Joining the search were members of the Cape May County Prosecutors Office, Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, State Police and Homeland Security Investigations.

Authorities seized multiple computers and mobile devices.

Hamilton Township man accused of child porn possession, distribution A Hamilton Township man is accused of sharing more than 1,000 pictures and videos of child p

Curll was not home when the search took place. He was found Monday in the Rio Grande section of the township, police said.

After further investigation, Curll was charged with possession of more than 1,000 images of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. He was held in the county jail pending court, police said.

During the search, police allegedly found about 21 ounces of marijuana and about $4,000 in cash. That led to Gastons charges of possession of marijuana and possession with intent to distribute, police said.

Although those over 21 can now legally possess marijuana in New Jersey, that applies only to possession of 6 ounces or less, and does not apply to a 20-year-old. Only licensed dispensaries may sell marijuana, and technically, only marijuana purchased from licensed sites is legal to possess.

Gaston was released on a summons pending court.
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SEA ISLE CITY  Three Pennsylvania men have been arrested over an alleged domestic violence incident that escalated into a physical confrontation with police and sent three officers to the hospital.

Police responded to a report of domestic violence on Central Avenue at 8:56 p.m. Monday, according to a news release from the city.

The three suspects in the incident are alleged to have locked police out of the residence while victims were requesting help. Police forced entry, at which point they were allegedly assaulted by the three suspects.

Three officers were injured, the release said, including one who broke his fibula. They were treated at Cape Regional Medical Center and have since been released from the hospital. Two additional officers received minor injuries.

The suspects, Colin Watmuff, Robert Watmuff Sr. and Robert Watmuff Jr., were arrested after the incident.

Upper Township: Beware of fireworks on beach UPPER TOWNSHIP  Since the start of summer, Township Committee member Jay Newman has made a 

Robert Watmuff Sr., 64, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, was charged with five counts of aggravated assault on police, resisting arrest, obstruction, conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, domestic violence strangulation, domestic violence aggravated assault, domestic violence criminal restraint, domestic violence terroristic threats and domestic violence simple assault.

Robert Watmuff Jr., 42, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, was charged with five counts of aggravated assault on police, resisting arrest, obstruction, conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and two counts of domestic violence aggravated assault.

Colin Watmuff, 23 and also of West Chester, was charged with four counts of aggravated assault on police.

The three suspects, who police said are related, refused medical treatment.

Police are investigating.
TRENTON  As it has for blueberries, the state Department of Agriculture will hand out free tomatoes Thursday at three Jersey Shore boardwalks.

Members of the departments marketing staff will be in Atlantic City, Wildwood and Seaside Heights beginning at 1 p.m., staying on the boards while supplies last.

They deployed a similar campaign earlier this month, handing out blueberries along the three towns boards.

The grape tomato stations will be at the end of East Schellenger Avenue, near Moreys Piers in Wildwood; on New York Avenue, near Ripleys Believe It Or Not museum in Atlantic City, and along the Boardwalk in Seaside Heights, the department said in a news release.

New Jersey is a top-10 producer of tomatoes in the U.S. In 2020, when farmers harvested 80 million pounds of tomatoes from 3,100 acres, the state held a production value of $48 million, the department said, citing data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

These grape tomatoes can be eaten as a tasty nutritious snack or taken home to use in a wide range of recipes and dishes, Agriculture Secretary Douglas Fisher said. We encourage everyone to seek out all the varieties of famous Jersey Fresh tomatoes throughout the growing season.
ATLANTIC CITY  The NAACP hosted a workshop during its national convention Tuesday that shed some light on communities that are still heavily affected by police brutality and violence two years after the death of George Floyd.

The workshop, titled After the Protestors Go Home  Communities in Crisis Post George Floyd, highlighted communities where violence against Black people has increased not only at the hands of law enforcement but at the hands of people fueled by racial hate.

We need to have a conversation and to figure out how to come up with a strategic plan to alleviate this violence, said Scot X. Esdaile, president of Connecticuts NAACP branch and a member of the organizations National Board of Directors.

Floyd was killed in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, after police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyds neck for nine minutes as Floyd struggled to breathe.

The aftermath of Floyds death sparked protests all over the world against the use of excessive force by police officers and a perceived lack of police accountability.

The goal of the workshop was to pick apart what happens when the people who protest police brutality and violence go home to the communities that are left vulnerable in the aftermath.

Atlantic County voting machines help with national NAACP board election ATLANTIC CITY  The Atlantic County Superintendent of Elections office had employees and 10

Another goal of the workshop was to come up with ways to alleviate the violence between law enforcement and Black people.

The hourlong discussion panel was moderated by Judith Browne Dianis, an attorney from Queens, New York, and executive director of the Advancement Project, a multiracial civil rights organization whose stated goal is to fulfill Americas promise of democracy.

Members of the NAACP who took part in the panel included Robert Rooks of the REFORM Alliance, Pastor Michael McBride from Oakland, California, and Rick Robinson, co-chair of the NAACPs Criminal Justice Committee.

The discussion opened up with a four-minute video presentation titled How Cops Get Off, which broke down the laws that keep police officers from being held accountable.

The first question that was posed to the panel highlighted how the Black community has long been affected by an unforgiving criminal justice system.

Rooks said that over three decades, 2.4 million Black people were incarcerated and 4.5 million were in community supervision. The number of Black people behind bars has declined over the past few years, and Rooks said he was proud of the progress that has been made as many pieces of legislation have been passed to address the issue.

Weve been working for decades trying to reduce mass incarceration, Rooks said. In New York, weve seen a 30% decrease in the prison population, and when I first moved to California in 2012, there were 188,000 people in prison and now there is 96,000.

Robinson, who is also the chairman of the NAACP New Jersey State Conference, then talked about what New Jersey has experimented with to keep people safe without relying solely on the criminal justice system.

He cited the importance of strong partnerships with community members who have the same vision.

I have willing partnerships with the mayor of Newark, the FBI and the Attorney Generals Office. With that, you start to enhance your vision when it comes to fairness, Robinson said.

McBride discussed how he has worked to mitigate gun violence in Oakland. He said police get so much funding because they are the only institutionalized anti-violence department in many cities. If you can build other institutions, he said, then cities can have a non-law enforcement-centered approach to crime in communities.

We dont need to use law enforcement as a blunt instrument or as a collective punishment organism when we can use community violence interventions, McBride said. We could use credible messengers such as violence interrupters and public health-oriented individuals with this approach.

Rooks added that a better understanding of mental health can help with the fight against violence.

A lot of people have emotional trauma and dont know where to go to get help for it, he said. Most police officers also arent trained to handle individuals going through a mental health crisis, so I think police need to have a better understanding of those situations.
UPPER TOWNSHIP  In the large barn at Misty Meadows Sheep Dairy, most of the 10 lambs walk to the fence as Bill Simmerman approaches.

A few remain in the shade, but most come up and begin to snack on feed pellets, reaching their heads between the slats. These lambs, born in March and rapidly maturing, are kept separate from the rest of the herd nearby.

Blasting fans help disperse the dense clouds of black flies gathering on a summer morning. That is also why the sheep have not been sheared, Simmerman said, with the thick wool adding some protection.

Through the spring, the lambs have each been under the care of members of a 4-H club. Simmerman said he donated the animals to 10 young people in Cape May County in exchange for work on the dairy. The lambs stayed on the farm at 100 Dennisville-Petersburg Road in the Petersburg section of Upper Township, where the young people have cared for them as they grew.

In the process, Simmerman said Friday, the kids get a better understanding of life on a farm, and what it takes to care for animals. He describes the process as strengthening the connection to the community, something he sees as lacking in todays world, but still vitally important.

All the work is leading to Thursday night and the livestock auction at the Cape May County 4-H Fair at the fairgrounds at 355 Court House-South Dennis Road in Middle Township.

Celebrate Christmas in July at the 4-H Fair and Chicken BBQ July 21-23 CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE  Come celebrate Christmas in July at the Cape May County 4-H Fair on J

The event did not take place in 2020 or 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is set to return this weekend with music, the traditional chicken barbecue and a theme of Christmas in July. That will include a Santa visit at the free event.

There are multiple local 4-H clubs participating in the fair, including several equestrian clubs, art and theater clubs, a shooting club and others focused on science and agriculture.

In previous years, Robert Walker, 14, and Jonathan Walker, 11, of Middle Township, participated in the robotics club, their mom, Stefanie Walker, said Friday. This year, they decided to participate in the dairy sheep club Simmerman organized.

Both of her boys have been deeply involved in scouting, she said, which helped lead to their participation in 4-H.

Theyve been working hard and learning a lot, Stefanie Walker said.

Its been incredible. Bill has taught them so much, she said.

Join new 4-H Club and get a lamb to raise CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE  Youth who join a new Cape May County 4-H Club will receive a free lam

Thats why he decided to begin the club, Simmerman said, and its also a big motivation for the farm, which he started about six years ago. He said his grandfather farmed, and he remembers learning about the life as a child.

But his career was in heavy marine construction. He started Misty Meadows after he retired, and said he had his grandchildren in mind when he did so.

If we dont start passing these skills on to a new generation, were going to lose them, Simmerman said.

This is the first year for the club, Simmerman said. Two of the lambs are dairy lambs, the same Friesian breed he uses for the sheep milk yogurt, cheese and other products produced at the farm. Eight others are Tunis and are bred for meat.

The animals will sell for between $5 and $10 per pound, Simmerman said, and they could be getting close to 100 pounds each. He said the money will likely go toward the club members education savings.

They can do whatever they want with it, he said.

Sheeps milk creamery getting started in Petersburg UPPER TOWNSHIP  Lambs suckle in a misty field off Route 610 in the Petersburg section of Up

Its been hard work for the club participants so far, and for their families, Simmerman said, crediting the parents of participants with getting the kids to the farm and making sure they get their work done.

Its hard for anyone running a small farm, he said. He relies on special events, such as lamb camps, a petting barn and a sunflower festival planned on Saturday, to break even. Without agritourism, he said, the numbers just wouldnt work.

There are farm stands and a pick-your-own sunflower stand dotting the roads in Petersburg. There is a small shop at the farm, which is open daily, but thats an expense to operate and makes in weeks what the farms refrigerated truck makes in a day at one of the areas many farm markets.

For years, the 4-H Fair has been a major event in Cape May County, a rare summertime staple that drew far more locals than beach vacationers. Organizers say they are happy to be able to hold it again.

After a two-year hiatus  the Cape May County 4-H Fair is back, and we are working hard to make it a fair to remember, said Craig DeGenova, president of the Cape May County 4-H Foundation. We are very excited about this years theme, Christmas in July, which means Santa is coming to the 4-H Fair in addition to all the fun, fair activities that you expect to see at the 4-H Fair.

There will be livestock and horse shows and several musical acts. Jordyn Mulligan, 18, is set to open the event with The Star Spangled Banner on Thursday and perform on the main stage at 5:30 p.m. Folk and pop music is planned, along with a performance by Mainland Regional High School graduate John Wood, who now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and released a single this year, Here She Comes.

Also planned are rides and games, along with ax throwing.

The 4-H Youth Development program is part of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station and Rutgers Cooperative Extension. For more information, call 609-465-5115, ext. 3605, or visit cmc4h.com.
(002910):H 20220720 21:09:20  :

:  :H Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited take no responsibility for the contents of this joint announcement, make no representation as to its

accuracy or completeness and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this announcement.This announcement appears for information purposes only and does not constitute an invitation or offer to acquire, purchase or subscribe for securities of the Company.This announcement is not for release, publication or distribution in or into any jurisdiction where

to do so would constitute a violation of the relevant laws of such jurisdiction.*

Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.



(a joint stock limited liability company incorporated in the Peoples Republic of China)(Stock Code: 1533)

SUPPLEMENTAL ANNOUNCEMENT

1. CONDITIONAL CASH OFFER BY ELSTONE SECURITIES LIMITED

ON BEHALF OF

LANZHOU ZHUANGYUAN PASTURE CO., LTD.*

TO BUY-BACK ALL THE ISSUED H SHARES

AT HK$10.89 PER H SHARE;

2. PROPOSED VOLUNTARY WITHDRAWAL OF LISTING OF THE H

SHARES OF LANZHOU ZHUANGYUAN PASTURE CO., LTD.*

ON THE STOCK EXCHANGE OF HONG KONG LIMITED;

AND

3. REPORTING ON PROFIT FORECAST OF

ESTIMATED FINANCIAL RESULTS

FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 30 JUNE 2022

UNDER RULE 10 OF THE TAKEOVERS CODE

Financial Adviser to the Company

Independent Financial Adviser to the Independent H ShareholdersHong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited take no responsibility for the contents of this joint announcement, make no representation as to its

accuracy or completeness and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this announcement.This announcement appears for information purposes only and does not constitute an invitation or offer to acquire, purchase or subscribe for securities of the Company.This announcement is not for release, publication or distribution in or into any jurisdiction where

to do so would constitute a violation of the relevant laws of such jurisdiction.*

Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.



(a joint stock limited liability company incorporated in the Peoples Republic of China)(Stock Code: 1533)

SUPPLEMENTAL ANNOUNCEMENT

1. CONDITIONAL CASH OFFER BY ELSTONE SECURITIES LIMITED

ON BEHALF OF

LANZHOU ZHUANGYUAN PASTURE CO., LTD.*

TO BUY-BACK ALL THE ISSUED H SHARES

AT HK$10.89 PER H SHARE;

2. PROPOSED VOLUNTARY WITHDRAWAL OF LISTING OF THE H

SHARES OF LANZHOU ZHUANGYUAN PASTURE CO., LTD.*

ON THE STOCK EXCHANGE OF HONG KONG LIMITED;

AND

3. REPORTING ON PROFIT FORECAST OF

ESTIMATED FINANCIAL RESULTS

FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 30 JUNE 2022

UNDER RULE 10 OF THE TAKEOVERS CODE

Financial Adviser to the Company

Independent Financial Adviser to the Independent H Shareholders

References are made to (i) the offer document of the Company dated 6 June 2022 (the Offer  

Document ); (ii) the update announcement of the Company dated 7 June 2022 (the Update 



Announcement ); (iii) the voluntary announcements of the Company dated 27 June 2022 and 4 July 2022; (iv) the poll results announcement of the Company dated 29 June 2022 in relation to, among other things, the Share Buy-back Offer and the Voluntary Withdrawal of Listing; and (v) 

the overseas regulatory announcement of the Company dated 14 July 2022 (the Profit Warning 



Announcement ) in relation to the estimated financial results of the Company for the six months  



ended 30 June 2022 (the Profit Forecast ). Unless otherwise defined, capitalised terms used herein shall have the same meanings as those defined in the Offer Document and the Update Announcement.

PROFIT FORECAST UNDER RULE 10 OF THE TAKEOVERS CODE

Pursuant to Rule 10 of the Takeovers Code, the estimated financial results of the Company for the six months ended 30 June 2022 as disclosed in the Profit Warning Announcement constitutes a profit forecast and is required to be reported on by the Companys financial advisers and auditors or accountants in accordance with Rule 10.4 of the Takeovers Code. As stated in the Profit Warning Announcement, in view of the requirement of timely disclosure of the estimated financial results of the Company under the listing rules of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the requirement to timely announce any overseas regulatory information released to other stock exchange under Rule 13.10B of the Listing Rules, the Company is required to issue the Profit Warning Announcement within 15 days following the end of the six months ended 30 June 2022 and given the time constraints, the Company has encountered genuine practical difficulties (time-wise or otherwise) in meeting the requirements set out in Rule 10.4 of the Takeovers Code. Accordingly, this announcement is issued with the report from WUYIGE Certified Public Accountants LLP (WUYIGE) and the report from Veda Capital in relation to the Profit Forecast in accordance with Rule 10 of the Takeovers Code.

The reports issued by WUYIGE and Veda Capital in relation to the Profit Forecast are set out in Appendices I and II to this announcement, respectively.

Each of WUYIGE and Veda Capital has given and has not withdrawn its consent to the issue of this announcement with the inclusion of its report and references to its name and logo in the form and context in which they respectively appear.

LETTER FROM THE INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL ADVISER

Veda Capital has confirmed that, having taken into account the Profit Forecast, its conclusion and recommendation in respect of the Share Buy-back Offer and the Voluntary Withdrawal of Listing as set out in the Letter from Veda Capital, the text of which is set out in the Offer Document, remain unchanged as at the date of this announcement.

NO MATERIAL CHANGE IN INFORMATION PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED

DURING THE OFFER PERIOD

In accordance with Rule 8.5 of the Takeovers Code, as at the date of this announcement:(a) there has been no material change in the information set out under the section headed 11. Material Contracts in Appendix V to the Offer Document;

(b) there has been no material change in the information set out under the section headed 7. Shareholding and Dealings in Securities of the Company in Appendix V to the Offer Document;

(c) there has been no material change in the information set out under the paragraph headed  



Letter from the Board  Other Arrangements in the Offer Document; and

(d) there has been no material change in the information set out under the section headed 6. 



Service Contracts in Appendix V to the Offer Document.

The copy of this announcement will be posted to the Independent H Shareholders.WARNING

This announcement is supplemental to and should be read in conjunction with the Offer Document.

H Shareholders and potential investors of the Company should note that the Share Buy-back Offer is subject to the satisfaction of the Conditions in all respects. Accordingly, the Share Buy-back Offer may or may not become unconditional. H Shareholders and potential investors of the Company should therefore exercise caution when dealing in the securities of the Company. Persons who are in doubt as to the action they should take should consult their licensed securities dealers or registered institutions in securities, bank managers, solicitors, professional accountants or other professional advisers.

The Directors make no recommendation as to the fairness or reasonableness of the Share Buy-back Offer and the Voluntary Withdrawal of Listing or as to the acceptance of the Share Buy-back Offer in this announcement, and strongly recommend the Independent H Shareholders not to form a view on the Share Buy-back Offer and the Voluntary Withdrawal of Listing, unless and until they have received and read the letter from the Independent Financial Adviser containing its advice to the Independent H Shareholders in respect of the Share Buy-back Offer and the Voluntary Withdrawal of Listing, which is included in the Offer Document despatched to the Shareholders on 6 June 2022.Independent H Shareholders are reminded that if they do not accept the Share Buy-back Offer, and if the Share Buy-back Offer subsequently becomes unconditional in all respects and the H Shares are delisted from the Stock Exchange, this will result in the Independent H Shareholders holding unlisted H Shares and the liquidity of the H Shares may be severely reduced. In addition, the Company will no longer be subject to the requirements under the Listing Rules and may or may not continue to be subject to the Takeovers Code (depending on whether it remains as a public company in Hong Kong under the Takeovers Code) after the completion of the Share Buy-back Offer, and the rights of Independent H Shareholders to certain information of the Company will be reduced.

By Order of the Board

Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.*



Yao Gexian

Chairman

Lanzhou, the PRC, 20 July 2022

As at the date of this announcement, the Board of the Company comprises the non-independent directors of the Company are Mr. Yao Gexian, Mr. Lian Enzhong, Mr. Zhang Yu, Mr. Yang Yi, Mr. Ma Hongfu and Ms. Zhang Qianyu; and the independent directors of the Company are Mr. Wang Haipeng, Mr. Zhang Yubao and Mr. Sun Jian.

All the directors of the Company jointly and severally accept full responsibility for the accuracy of information contained in this announcement and confirm, having made all reasonable inquiries, that to the best of their knowledge, opinions expressed in this announcement have been arrived at after due and careful consideration and there are no other facts not contained in this announcement,

the omission of which would make any statement in this announcement misleading.* For identification purposes only

APPENDIX I  LETTER FROM WUYIGE ON THE PROFIT FORECAST

WUYIGE Certi?ed Public Accountants.LLP Telephone: +86 (10) 8233055822/F, Xueyuan International Tower Fax: +86 (10) 82327668

No. 1 Zhichun Road, Haidian Dist. Internet: www.daxincpa.com.cnBeijing, China, 100083

Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.*:

We refer to the estimated financial results of the Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.* (the  



Company ) for the six months ended 30 June 2022 (i.e. the net profit attributable to shareholders  



of the Company and the net loss after non-recurring profit or loss (the Profit Forecast )) 

as set out in the announcement of the Company dated 14 July 2022 (the Profit Warning 



Announcement ).

The Profit Forecast as disclosed in the Profit Warning Announcement have been prepared by the directors of the Company and constitute a profit forecast under Rule 10 of the Takeovers Code.

1. Directors Responsibilities

The Profit Forecast have been prepared by the directors of the Company based on the unaudited consolidated management accounts of the Company for the six months ended 30 June 2022.

The directors of the Company are solely responsible for the Profit Forecast.2. Our Independence and Quality Control

We have complied with the independence and other ethical requirements of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants issued by the China Code of Ethics for Certified Public Accountant, which is founded on fundamental principles of integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality and professional behaviour.Our firm applies China Standards on Quality Control No.5101 (CSQC5101) and accordingly maintains a comprehensive system of quality control including documented policies and procedures regarding compliance with ethical requirements, professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.



3. Reporting Accountants Responsibilities

Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the accounting policies and calculations of the Profit Forecast based on our procedures.

We conducted our engagement in accordance with Hong Kong Standard on Investment Circular Reporting Engagements 500 Reporting on Profit Forecasts, Statements of Sufficiency of Working Capital and Statements of Indebtedness and with reference to Hong Kong Standard on Assurance Engagements 3000 (Revised) Assurance Engagements Other Than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information issued by the HKICPA. Those standards require that we plan and perform our work to obtain reasonable assurance as to whether, so far as the accounting policies and calculations are concerned, the Companys directors have properly compiled the Profit Forecast in accordance with the bases adopted by the directors and as to whether the Profit Forecast is presented on a basis consistent in all material respects with the accounting policies normally adopted by the Company. Our work is substantially less in scope than an audit conducted in accordance with Hong Kong Standards on Auditing issued by the HKICPA. Accordingly, we do not express an audit opinion.

4. Opinion

In our opinion, so far as the accounting policies and calculations are concerned, the Profit Forecast is prepared and presented on a basis consistent in all material respects with the accounting policies normally adopted by the Company as set out in the audited financial statements of the Company for the year ended 31 December 2021.WUYIGE Certified Public Accountants LLP

PRC Certified Public Accountants

Beijing, the PRC, 20 July 2022

APPENDIX II  LETTER FROM VEDA CAPITAL ON THE PROFIT FORECAST20 July 2022

The Board of Directors

Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.*

25th-26th Floors, Block B

Shanghui Building of Gansu Province

No. 601, Yanyuan Road, Chengguan District

Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, the PRC.

Dear Sirs,

We refer to the profit warning statement made by Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.* (the    



Company ) dated 14 July 2022 (the Profit Warning Announcement ) for which the directors  



of the Company (the Directors ) are solely responsible for. Capitalised terms used herein shall have the same meanings as defined in the offer document issued by the Company dated 6 June 2022, unless otherwise stated.

As noted from the Profit Warning Announcement, based on the latest available information including the unaudited management accounts of the Group for the six months ended 30 June 2022, the Group is expected to record a net profit attributable to the Shareholders for the six  



months ended 30 June 2022 between RMB8 million and RMB11 million (the Profit Estimate ). Such profit was mainly attributable to (i) the exchange gains on deposits dominated in Hong Kong dollars due to fluctuations in the exchange rate of Hong Kong dollars against RMB; (ii) the significant increase in the operating costs of the Company as compared with the corresponding period of previous years resulted from the ongoing international and domestic pandemic and 

repeated outbreak of pandemic in major sales markets of the Company s products; and (iii) a continuous and significant rise in the major raw materials used by the Company as impacted by the international environment.

As noted from the Profit Warning Announcement, based on the latest available information including the unaudited management accounts of the Group for the six months ended 30 June 2022, the Group is expected to record a net loss for the six months ended 30 June 2022 after non- 



recurring profit or loss between RMB11 million and RMB8 million (the Loss Estimate ). Such loss was mainly attributable to (i) the significant increase in the operating costs of the Company as

compared with the corresponding period of previous years resulted from the ongoing international and domestic pandemic and repeated outbreak of pandemic in major sales markets of the 

Company s products; and (ii) a continuous and significant rise in the major raw materials used by the Company as impacted by the international environment.

We note that the Profit Estimate and the Loss Estimate are regarded as a profit forecasts for the purpose of Rule 10 of the Takeovers Code.

We have discussed with the Directors and senior management of the Company the bases and assumptions upon which the Profit Estimate and the Loss Estimate have been made and reviewed the unaudited management accounts for the six months ended 30 June 2022 and other relevant information and documents. In addition, we have considered, the report on the Profit Estimate and the Loss Estimate by WUYIGE Certified Public Accountants LLP, the independent auditors of the Company addressed to the Directors regarding the accounting policies adopted and the arithmetical accuracy of the calculations upon which the Profit Estimate and the Loss Estimate have been made.

Based on the above, we are satisfied that the Loss Estimate and the Profit Estimate have been made with due care and consideration.

Yours faithfully,

For and on behalf of

Veda Capital Limited

Julisa Fong

Managing Director

 Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited take no responsibility for the contents of this joint announcement, make no representation as to itsaccuracy or completeness and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this announcement.This announcement appears for information purposes only and does not constitute an invitation or offer to acquire, purchase or subscribe for securities of the Company.This announcement is not for release, publication or distribution in or into any jurisdiction whereto do so would constitute a violation of the relevant laws of such jurisdiction.*Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.(a joint stock limited liability company incorporated in the Peoples Republic of China)(Stock Code: 1533)SUPPLEMENTAL ANNOUNCEMENT1. CONDITIONAL CASH OFFER BY ELSTONE SECURITIES LIMITEDON BEHALF OFLANZHOU ZHUANGYUAN PASTURE CO., LTD.*TO BUY-BACK ALL THE ISSUED H SHARESAT HK$10.89 PER H SHARE;2. PROPOSED VOLUNTARY WITHDRAWAL OF LISTING OF THE HSHARES OF LANZHOU ZHUANGYUAN PASTURE CO., LTD.*ON THE STOCK EXCHANGE OF HONG KONG LIMITED;AND3. REPORTING ON PROFIT FORECAST OFESTIMATED FINANCIAL RESULTSFOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 30 JUNE 2022UNDER RULE 10 OF THE TAKEOVERS CODEFinancial Adviser to the CompanyIndependent Financial Adviser to the Independent H ShareholdersHong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited take no responsibility for the contents of this joint announcement, make no representation as to itsaccuracy or completeness and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this announcement.This announcement appears for information purposes only and does not constitute an invitation or offer to acquire, purchase or subscribe for securities of the Company.This announcement is not for release, publication or distribution in or into any jurisdiction whereto do so would constitute a violation of the relevant laws of such jurisdiction.*Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.(a joint stock limited liability company incorporated in the Peoples Republic of China)(Stock Code: 1533)SUPPLEMENTAL ANNOUNCEMENT1. CONDITIONAL CASH OFFER BY ELSTONE SECURITIES LIMITEDON BEHALF OFLANZHOU ZHUANGYUAN PASTURE CO., LTD.*TO BUY-BACK ALL THE ISSUED H SHARESAT HK$10.89 PER H SHARE;2. PROPOSED VOLUNTARY WITHDRAWAL OF LISTING OF THE HSHARES OF LANZHOU ZHUANGYUAN PASTURE CO., LTD.*ON THE STOCK EXCHANGE OF HONG KONG LIMITED;AND3. REPORTING ON PROFIT FORECAST OFESTIMATED FINANCIAL RESULTSFOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 30 JUNE 2022UNDER RULE 10 OF THE TAKEOVERS CODEFinancial Adviser to the CompanyIndependent Financial Adviser to the Independent H ShareholdersReferences are made to (i) the offer document of the Company dated 6 June 2022 (the Offer  Document ); (ii) the update announcement of the Company dated 7 June 2022 (the Update Announcement ); (iii) the voluntary announcements of the Company dated 27 June 2022 and 4 July 2022; (iv) the poll results announcement of the Company dated 29 June 2022 in relation to, among other things, the Share Buy-back Offer and the Voluntary Withdrawal of Listing; and (v) the overseas regulatory announcement of the Company dated 14 July 2022 (the Profit Warning Announcement ) in relation to the estimated financial results of the Company for the six months  ended 30 June 2022 (the Profit Forecast ). Unless otherwise defined, capitalised terms used herein shall have the same meanings as those defined in the Offer Document and the Update Announcement.PROFIT FORECAST UNDER RULE 10 OF THE TAKEOVERS CODEPursuant to Rule 10 of the Takeovers Code, the estimated financial results of the Company for the six months ended 30 June 2022 as disclosed in the Profit Warning Announcement constitutes a profit forecast and is required to be reported on by the Companys financial advisers and auditors or accountants in accordance with Rule 10.4 of the Takeovers Code. As stated in the Profit Warning Announcement, in view of the requirement of timely disclosure of the estimated financial results of the Company under the listing rules of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the requirement to timely announce any overseas regulatory information released to other stock exchange under Rule 13.10B of the Listing Rules, the Company is required to issue the Profit Warning Announcement within 15 days following the end of the six months ended 30 June 2022 and given the time constraints, the Company has encountered genuine practical difficulties (time-wise or otherwise) in meeting the requirements set out in Rule 10.4 of the Takeovers Code. Accordingly, this announcement is issued with the report from WUYIGE Certified Public Accountants LLP (WUYIGE) and the report from Veda Capital in relation to the Profit Forecast in accordance with Rule 10 of the Takeovers Code.The reports issued by WUYIGE and Veda Capital in relation to the Profit Forecast are set out in Appendices I and II to this announcement, respectively.Each of WUYIGE and Veda Capital has given and has not withdrawn its consent to the issue of this announcement with the inclusion of its report and references to its name and logo in the form and context in which they respectively appear.LETTER FROM THE INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL ADVISERVeda Capital has confirmed that, having taken into account the Profit Forecast, its conclusion and recommendation in respect of the Share Buy-back Offer and the Voluntary Withdrawal of Listing as set out in the Letter from Veda Capital, the text of which is set out in the Offer Document, remain unchanged as at the date of this announcement.NO MATERIAL CHANGE IN INFORMATION PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHEDDURING THE OFFER PERIODIn accordance with Rule 8.5 of the Takeovers Code, as at the date of this announcement:(a) there has been no material change in the information set out under the section headed 11. Material Contracts in Appendix V to the Offer Document;(b) there has been no material change in the information set out under the section headed 7. Shareholding and Dealings in Securities of the Company in Appendix V to the Offer Document;(c) there has been no material change in the information set out under the paragraph headed  Letter from the Board  Other Arrangements in the Offer Document; and(d) there has been no material change in the information set out under the section headed 6. Service Contracts in Appendix V to the Offer Document.The copy of this announcement will be posted to the Independent H Shareholders.WARNINGThis announcement is supplemental to and should be read in conjunction with the Offer Document.H Shareholders and potential investors of the Company should note that the Share Buy-back Offer is subject to the satisfaction of the Conditions in all respects. Accordingly, the Share Buy-back Offer may or may not become unconditional. H Shareholders and potential investors of the Company should therefore exercise caution when dealing in the securities of the Company. Persons who are in doubt as to the action they should take should consult their licensed securities dealers or registered institutions in securities, bank managers, solicitors, professional accountants or other professional advisers.The Directors make no recommendation as to the fairness or reasonableness of the Share Buy-back Offer and the Voluntary Withdrawal of Listing or as to the acceptance of the Share Buy-back Offer in this announcement, and strongly recommend the Independent H Shareholders not to form a view on the Share Buy-back Offer and the Voluntary Withdrawal of Listing, unless and until they have received and read the letter from the Independent Financial Adviser containing its advice to the Independent H Shareholders in respect of the Share Buy-back Offer and the Voluntary Withdrawal of Listing, which is included in the Offer Document despatched to the Shareholders on 6 June 2022.Independent H Shareholders are reminded that if they do not accept the Share Buy-back Offer, and if the Share Buy-back Offer subsequently becomes unconditional in all respects and the H Shares are delisted from the Stock Exchange, this will result in the Independent H Shareholders holding unlisted H Shares and the liquidity of the H Shares may be severely reduced. In addition, the Company will no longer be subject to the requirements under the Listing Rules and may or may not continue to be subject to the Takeovers Code (depending on whether it remains as a public company in Hong Kong under the Takeovers Code) after the completion of the Share Buy-back Offer, and the rights of Independent H Shareholders to certain information of the Company will be reduced.By Order of the BoardLanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.*Yao GexianChairmanLanzhou, the PRC, 20 July 2022As at the date of this announcement, the Board of the Company comprises the non-independent directors of the Company are Mr. Yao Gexian, Mr. Lian Enzhong, Mr. Zhang Yu, Mr. Yang Yi, Mr. Ma Hongfu and Ms. Zhang Qianyu; and the independent directors of the Company are Mr. Wang Haipeng, Mr. Zhang Yubao and Mr. Sun Jian.All the directors of the Company jointly and severally accept full responsibility for the accuracy of information contained in this announcement and confirm, having made all reasonable inquiries, that to the best of their knowledge, opinions expressed in this announcement have been arrived at after due and careful consideration and there are no other facts not contained in this announcement,the omission of which would make any statement in this announcement misleading.* For identification purposes onlyAPPENDIX I  LETTER FROM WUYIGE ON THE PROFIT FORECASTWUYIGE Certi?ed Public Accountants.LLP Telephone: +86 (10) 8233055822/F, Xueyuan International Tower Fax: +86 (10) 82327668No. 1 Zhichun Road, Haidian Dist. Internet: www.daxincpa.com.cnBeijing, China, 100083Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.*:We refer to the estimated financial results of the Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.* (the  Company ) for the six months ended 30 June 2022 (i.e. the net profit attributable to shareholders  of the Company and the net loss after non-recurring profit or loss (the Profit Forecast )) as set out in the announcement of the Company dated 14 July 2022 (the Profit Warning Announcement ).The Profit Forecast as disclosed in the Profit Warning Announcement have been prepared by the directors of the Company and constitute a profit forecast under Rule 10 of the Takeovers Code.1. Directors ResponsibilitiesThe Profit Forecast have been prepared by the directors of the Company based on the unaudited consolidated management accounts of the Company for the six months ended 30 June 2022.The directors of the Company are solely responsible for the Profit Forecast.2. Our Independence and Quality ControlWe have complied with the independence and other ethical requirements of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants issued by the China Code of Ethics for Certified Public Accountant, which is founded on fundamental principles of integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality and professional behaviour.Our firm applies China Standards on Quality Control No.5101 (CSQC5101) and accordingly maintains a comprehensive system of quality control including documented policies and procedures regarding compliance with ethical requirements, professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.3. Reporting Accountants ResponsibilitiesOur responsibility is to express an opinion on the accounting policies and calculations of the Profit Forecast based on our procedures.We conducted our engagement in accordance with Hong Kong Standard on Investment Circular Reporting Engagements 500 Reporting on Profit Forecasts, Statements of Sufficiency of Working Capital and Statements of Indebtedness and with reference to Hong Kong Standard on Assurance Engagements 3000 (Revised) Assurance Engagements Other Than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information issued by the HKICPA. Those standards require that we plan and perform our work to obtain reasonable assurance as to whether, so far as the accounting policies and calculations are concerned, the Companys directors have properly compiled the Profit Forecast in accordance with the bases adopted by the directors and as to whether the Profit Forecast is presented on a basis consistent in all material respects with the accounting policies normally adopted by the Company. Our work is substantially less in scope than an audit conducted in accordance with Hong Kong Standards on Auditing issued by the HKICPA. Accordingly, we do not express an audit opinion.4. OpinionIn our opinion, so far as the accounting policies and calculations are concerned, the Profit Forecast is prepared and presented on a basis consistent in all material respects with the accounting policies normally adopted by the Company as set out in the audited financial statements of the Company for the year ended 31 December 2021.WUYIGE Certified Public Accountants LLPPRC Certified Public AccountantsBeijing, the PRC, 20 July 2022APPENDIX II  LETTER FROM VEDA CAPITAL ON THE PROFIT FORECAST20 July 2022The Board of DirectorsLanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.*25th-26th Floors, Block BShanghui Building of Gansu ProvinceNo. 601, Yanyuan Road, Chengguan DistrictLanzhou City, Gansu Province, the PRC.Dear Sirs,We refer to the profit warning statement made by Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co., Ltd.* (the    Company ) dated 14 July 2022 (the Profit Warning Announcement ) for which the directors  of the Company (the Directors ) are solely responsible for. Capitalised terms used herein shall have the same meanings as defined in the offer document issued by the Company dated 6 June 2022, unless otherwise stated.As noted from the Profit Warning Announcement, based on the latest available information including the unaudited management accounts of the Group for the six months ended 30 June 2022, the Group is expected to record a net profit attributable to the Shareholders for the six  months ended 30 June 2022 between RMB8 million and RMB11 million (the Profit Estimate ). Such profit was mainly attributable to (i) the exchange gains on deposits dominated in Hong Kong dollars due to fluctuations in the exchange rate of Hong Kong dollars against RMB; (ii) the significant increase in the operating costs of the Company as compared with the corresponding period of previous years resulted from the ongoing international and domestic pandemic and repeated outbreak of pandemic in major sales markets of the Company s products; and (iii) a continuous and significant rise in the major raw materials used by the Company as impacted by the international environment.As noted from the Profit Warning Announcement, based on the latest available information including the unaudited management accounts of the Group for the six months ended 30 June 2022, the Group is expected to record a net loss for the six months ended 30 June 2022 after non- recurring profit or loss between RMB11 million and RMB8 million (the Loss Estimate ). Such loss was mainly attributable to (i) the significant increase in the operating costs of the Company ascompared with the corresponding period of previous years resulted from the ongoing international and domestic pandemic and repeated outbreak of pandemic in major sales markets of the Company s products; and (ii) a continuous and significant rise in the major raw materials used by the Company as impacted by the international environment.We note that the Profit Estimate and the Loss Estimate are regarded as a profit forecasts for the purpose of Rule 10 of the Takeovers Code.We have discussed with the Directors and senior management of the Company the bases and assumptions upon which the Profit Estimate and the Loss Estimate have been made and reviewed the unaudited management accounts for the six months ended 30 June 2022 and other relevant information and documents. In addition, we have considered, the report on the Profit Estimate and the Loss Estimate by WUYIGE Certified Public Accountants LLP, the independent auditors of the Company addressed to the Directors regarding the accounting policies adopted and the arithmetical accuracy of the calculations upon which the Profit Estimate and the Loss Estimate have been made.Based on the above, we are satisfied that the Loss Estimate and the Profit Estimate have been made with due care and consideration.Yours faithfully,For and on behalf ofVeda Capital LimitedJulisa FongManaging Director
MIDDLE TOWNSHIP  A young pilot was on his way to pick up an advertising banner when his plane crashed Saturday, according to a staff member at the air advertising company.

Thomas Gibson, 23, of Ocean City, was pronounced dead at the scene after the crash of his Piper PA-12 shortly after takeoff from a private airfield in the Green Creek section of the township.

The crash took place about 9:35 a.m. Gibson was the only person in the airplane, according to officials.

Mary Ellen Kelly, the office manager for Cape May Aerial Advertising, said Gibson had started working for the company this summer and was on his way to pick up a banner when the crash took place. She said any further details would have to come from federal aviation authorities.

Eva Lee Ngai with the Federal Aviation Administration office of communications said the National Transportation Safety Board was leading the investigation and any updates will come from that agency.

A preliminary investigation indicates the pilot had taken off and, as is standard procedure, turned around to pick up the banner, according to Peter Knudson, an NTSB spokesperson. The pilot missed the banner on the first pass, Knudson said Tuesday, and had begun to climb for a second pass when the plane veered to one side, lost altitude and crashed.

Investigators are gathering facts about the crash for a preliminary report to be released in the coming weeks, Knudson said. The search for the cause of the crash will come as part of the next phase of the investigation.

The registration number for the plane showed it was owned by Paramount Air Service, which has been flying advertising banner planes in Cape May County for generations. The company was started by two World War II veterans, including Andre Tomalino, who had been a glider pilot during the war.

Former owner Barbara Tomalino, the daughter of the founder who ran the company since 1985, said she sold the planes, equipment and property to the new company Cape May Aerial Advertising.

She still owns the name, she said.

I didnt sell Paramount. What I sold were the assets, she said. Jeromie Hunter, owner of Cape May Aerial Ads, is a former pilot of Paramount who moved to the area from Washington state to run the business. She said he knew she was considering retirement.

Tomalino declined to reveal the purchase price.

Federally-funded study to look at economic potential at Woodbine Airport WOODBINE  A federally-funded study is set to look at the development potential for Woodbine

Contacted on Tuesday, she described the crash Saturday as a tragedy and said she always worried about the pilots who worked at the company.

You worry for these kids, she said. There had been crashes while she and her family operated the business, but she said there had been no fatalities. We were blessed.

Kelly said the new owners operated the air service starting last summer, and the sale was finalized in April of this year.

Gibson was originally from Medford Lakes, Burlington County, and studied at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania, according to his Facebook page. In addition to working as a pilot, he worked at his familys business, Gibson Electrical. He played lacrosse at Shawnee High School.

Middle Township police announced the crash Saturday. Multiple emergency vehicles from several agencies responded to the crash, including fire companies from Green Creek and Rio Grande, and the Cape May County Prosecutors Office.

Police Lt. Tracey Super said Tuesday the crash is a federal investigation, and local police could provide no further information.

Here's what was going through the teen pilot's head as he landed his banner plane on the Ocean City bridge Landon Lucas, 18, stood next to the 1946 airplane that had failed him two days earlier, lead

The Piper PA-12 was produced in the 1940s after World War II. It was designed as a three-seat plane.

There have been three fatal accidents involving Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser planes recently, according to the Aviation Safety Network, which maintains a database on plane crashes. On May 24, a pilot died from injuries sustained in a crash near Seagraves, Texas, and on May 28, a pilot died in a banner plane accident in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, reportedly while attempting to pick up a banner.

Most accidents involving banner planes take place in one of three circumstances: the maneuver to pick up the banner, entangled or snarled banner towlines, or due to the loss of engine power, according to a 2003 report from the FAA.

Last year, a teenage pilot working for Paramount Air Service made national headlines when he safely landed his struggling banner plane on the bridge between Ocean City and Somers Point, finding a gap in summer traffic to set down June 19.

Landon Lucas, 18 at the time, was not hurt. He told authorities his plane was experiencing engine trouble and he tried to make it to the Ocean City Airport after dropping the banner.

In April, Lucas was a passenger in a small plane that crashed in New Mexico. He told reporters afterward that he was seriously injured in the crash. The pilot was killed.

Banner plane pilot, 18, makes emergency landing on Ocean City bridge OCEAN CITY  The pilot of a banner plane experiencing engine trouble on Monday tried to reac

Banner planes are a common sight each summer along Jersey beaches, and have been for decades.

There have been multiple plane crashes involving banner planes in southern New Jersey, including some in which the plane ended up in the ocean. In several incidents, the pilots escaped without serious injuries.

In 2012, a Paramount banner plane crashed into a tree in Middle Township, and in 2015, a banner plane went down in the marsh near the Delaware Bay near Reeds Beach, with the plane flipping over. The pilot survived in each instance.

In July 2008, another banner plane ran out of fuel and crashed into a fence in the backyard of a motel in Middle Township.

In Ocean City, a Paramount plane went down in the marsh near 51st Street in 2010. The pilot was not seriously injured in that incident, either.
Drink water, even when youre not thirsty. Stay in air conditioning as much as possible and avoid strenuous outdoor activities between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Our heat wave becomes official Wednesday, and I see triple-digit heat indexes some days.

Wednesday will start out in the low to mid-70s, which is about five degrees above average for this time of year. Well be loaded with sunshine, and that sun will heat us up quickly.

Well be around 90 in some spots by 11 a.m. Then, for highs, well top out in the mid-90s for Port Republic and inland towns, while Beach Haven and other shore locations stay in the upper 80s. Dew points will be in the noticeable upper 60s. The heat index should stay just a shade below 100.

During the evening, well be in the 80s as it turns more muggy. Under a clear sky, well only fall into the mid-70s for low temperatures. Thats not record breaking, but it will be tough to sleep without air conditioning.

Thursday will pump temperatures up a degree or two more. The humidity drives much of our heat index though, and itll be soupy out there, in the mid-70s.

You add that (complicated) heat index equation up and were talking upper 100s for inland spots, with the shore around 100. This only happens once or twice a year on average, so do take it easy out there.

Look for some cooling relief in the form of much needed rain from thunderstorms between 2 and 10 p.m. A broken line will pass through. A damaging wind gust or flooded road is possible. Were talking 90 minutes of rain at most.

Well see another small bump up in the thermometer just in time for the weekend. A west-southwest wind will be responsible for that. In South Jersey, that is our best blend of high heat and high humidity.

So highs will be in the mid- to upper 90s both days inland. Dew points will be around 70 during the day. That will yield a peak afternoon heat index in the mid-100s, with much of the daytime hours at or above the century mark.

Youll beat the heat at the shore, but only barely. Highs will be in the upper 80s to around 90 degrees. The sand will burn your feet, but the water should feel quite nice. The heat index will be in the mid-90s, which is pretty high for the coastline.

All of this will come with a mostly sunny sky. The overnight hours will be clear and muggy, feeling more like South Florida than South Jersey with lows well into the 70s, save the Pine Barrens.

The only difference between the two days is that Sunday will be breezy.

All in all, we should go eight days in a row with highs in the 90s at Atlantic City International Airport, taking us through July 25. That would be our longest heat wave since June 28 to July 5, 2018, and has happened 16 times since records started in 1943.

Its possible we go nine days. The last time we did that was July 16-25, 2010. That has only happened seven times in history.

Finally, were talking the most epic weather events in the Bible in the Something in the Air podcast Wednesday. JMJ Missions, a Catholic filmmaking and speaking group based in South Jersey, hops on my podcast to give us the rundown. Anthony McCullough, one of the founders, earned a meteorology degree with me at Rutgers, so this was right up his alley.
Western Illinois University announced that it will offer six new online degree programs this fall in a news release on Wednesday.

The programs include bachelors degrees in Business Analytics, Finance and Emergency Management and master's degrees in Applied Statistics and Decision Analytics, Accountancy and Mathematics.

These new online opportunities will help WIU remain responsive to the needs of the professional workforce.

Our goal is to support the workforce development needs of the communities we serve, Craig Conrad, Dean of WIU's College of Business and Technology.

The online format was designed to allow more access for current workers and students hoping to stay in close proximity, in addition to providing more flexibility for students pursing high-demand careers looking for a competitive, quantitative edge.

Westerns new online academic programs align with the goals within the Quad Cities Campus Strategic Plan. Each new program responds to student interests and our communitys call for flexible, innovative programs within high demand fields that contribute to the success of our region, said Kristi Mindrup, vice president of WIU's Quad-Cities Campus Operations.

Students can apply for all of programs now. For undergraduate applicants, visit wiu.edu/apply. For graduate applicants, visit wiu.edu/graduate_studies.

More information about the online programs can be found at wiu.edu/academics.
Converting downtown Davenport's one-way streets to two-way traffic would cost between $1.6 million and $3.2 million, depending on the number of city blocks to be included in the change.

The cost of the conversion was among the questions still pending on the proposal to change 3rd and 4th streets, and the Davenport City Council this week heard some answers.

A report analyzed traffic counts, lane configurations, intersection patterns and speeds and laid out three options for how far the conversion would go. It also outlined challenges that need to be addressed if the council decides to move forward.

The report was peer reviewed by Cedar Rapids engineering consultancy HR Green.

It did not include an overall recommendation, and council members will discuss the findings at their next work session, which is Tuesday, July 26.

The report laid out three scenarios: End two-way traffic at Marquette Street, Division Street or at Telegraph Road, including specific signage to show where the one-ways begin.

One point of particular interest to the motoring public has been the impact on downtown traffic flow when delivery trucks are parked in a two-way traffic configuration.

The streets would have "sufficient capacity" to handle traffic if converted to two-ways, according to the report, but the city would have to be more strict in not allowing vehicles to block lanes of traffic, including regulating when trucks could unload to downtown businesses and where Uber or Lyft cars could stop.

The city also would need to add a traffic signal near the Central Fire Station to allow emergency responders to exit safely.

The Downtown Davenport Partnership proposed the city implement a long-discussed conversion of downtown's one-ways to two-ways at the same time the city plans to complete a separate project resurfacing 3rd and 4th streets  set for fiscal 2024  in order to save time and expense.

The Partnership, which has for years promoted the conversion as a way to make downtown Davenport more inviting to businesses and pedestrians, contracted its own study in recent years of converting to two-way traffic from East River Drive to Marquette Street. But some council members raised the idea of doing a complete conversion to Telegraph Road to ease confusion.

The Partnership's proposed plan included one lane of traffic in each direction with a center turn lane.

Kyle Carter, director of the Partnership said he was encouraged by the report.

"We finally had just a numbers conversation, feasibility," Carter said. "So this was not an emotional conversation. It was not a conversation about what was or what should be. It was just what is.

"And what the data showed is that there is plenty of traffic capacity to do this and have it run very smoothly."

Would 3rd and 4th streets be over capacity with reduced traffic flow?

According to the report, which analyzed Iowa Department of Transportation traffic counts and capacity, 3rd and 4th streets would have "sufficient capacity" to accommodate traffic flow if converted to one lane of each traffic direction and one center turn lane.

"It's not like we have to go widening the roadways," said Brian Schadt, a city engineer with the city of Davenport. "With a re-striping and proper application, the roadways will handle the change."

According to the most recent traffic data from the Iowa Department of Transportation, measured in 2018, between 7,000 and 10,000 vehicles per day travel along East 4th Street and between 8,000 and 11,000 vehicles travel East 3rd Street per day.

According to IDOT, a road with a lane in each direction and a center turn lane could handle 15,000 vehicles per day.

"Both streets have sufficient capacity on the existing roadways to accommodate traffic flow should the roadways be converted to three-lane, two-way streets with a center left turn lane," the city's report reads. "In addition, data indicates that River Drive also has additional capacity should traffic relocate to that roadway."

It would take longer, however, to drive through downtown by a few minutes, according to data analyzed by the city from traffic simulation software.

For example, on 4th Street, from Marquette to River Drive, the report estimated travel time would increase from 3 minutes and 15 seconds to 5 minutes and 10 seconds.

One concern that's been raised by both those opposing and those in support of converting one-ways is safety.

City staff measured average speeds on 3rd and 4th Street. In the heart of downtown, with a 25 mile per hour speed limit, drivers averaged between 25.3 miles per hour and 29.8 miles per hour, with faster speeds toward the west.

What about loading trucks and lane closures?

The report says with fewer traveling lanes, shipping vehicles such as semis and delivery trucks should be restricted to non-peak travel times and loading zones.

Existing alleys within the downtown area do not appear to be sufficient to provide space for loading zones due to existing parking, dumpster locations and narrow traveled ways, the report says.

Vehicles being in the travel lane could introduce pedestrian/vehicle conflicts, impact roadway volume capacity and ultimately could impact emergency response time," according to the report.

"It is further recommended that scheduled restocking shipping be restricted to non-peak travel times within the downtown area.

The report also recommends loading zones for Uber or Lyft drivers.

On drive-thru businesses, the report says if the conversion is completed stacking onto the roadway must not be allowed.

The report also recommended against angled parking, which would require removing the center turn lane and would "directly impact traffic capacities as well as emergency vehicle access."

At the intersections with E. River Drive, the angle of the intersections at 3rd and 4th Streets "fall below typical design standards," for safe left turns on typical two-way traffic.

If conversion goes through, according to the report, the city should time the street lights to allow for conflict-free left turns.

And flooding?

The city's analysis recommends re-routing River Drive and 3rd Street two-way traffic to 4th Street during a 19-foot flood stage if the city converts to two-ways. One way traffic would be re-routed to Federal Street.

Changing some intersections to four-way stops

The report recommended changing five lighted intersections to four-way stops while keeping six intersections as traffic-signaled intersections between Telegraph Road and East River Drive.

Traffic Signal Locations

Gaines Street and 3rd Street/4th Street

Harrison Street and 3rd Street/4th Street

Brady Street and 3rd Street/4th Street

River Drive and 3rd Street/4th Street

Division Street and 3rd Street/4th Street

Marquette Street and 3rd Street/4th Street

Four Way Stop Locations

Fillmore Street and 3rd Street/4th Street

Ripley Street and 3rd Street/4th Street

Main Street and 3rd Street/4th Street

Pershing Street and 3rd Street/4th Street

Iowa Street and 3rd Street/4th Street

Alderwoman Judith Lee said she's looking for city staff to answer to the benefits of converting the one-ways to two-ways and weigh whether they are sufficient.

"I'm really thinking that we need to look at the various needs," Lee said. "Why are we doing this and why now? Those are my two questions I've asked quite a bit, and I've always said that when I get more information is when I'll make my decision."

Alderwoman Marion Meginnis, who has spoken favorably of the conversion in the past, said: "I certainly have some more questions, and I haven't gotten the chance to ask those yet. Not concerns, but questions."
After 27 years with the Davenport Police Department, Major Jeff Bladel will take over as Davenport's top law enforcement official next month.

Bladel is another internal selection for police chief after Paul Sikorski, who will have logged 34 years himself with Davenport police before retiring at the end of August.

In an interview, Bladel said he hopes during his tenure to put emphasis on crime analytics to make the department more effective and efficient, preventative efforts, such as the Group Violence Intervention strategy, building trust in the police department, and recruiting and retaining officers.

"When we look at how we respond to crime, we get challenged with a continuous cycle of reacting to crime," Bladel said. "And by infusing a little prevention as well as a collaboration with our community we have the opportunity to slow those cycles down and look at things in a different path."

Bladel's salary will be $150,000, said Sarah Ott, chief strategy officer with Davenport.

The city conducted a nationwide search for its next police chief, said City Administrator Corri Spiegel. Two qualified candidates submitted applications, and one withdrew, leaving Major Bladel as the sole candidate certified by the Civil Service Commission for police chief of Iowa's third largest city.

Spiegel said the city advertised with professional associations and sent the position to national mailing lists, but high demand for municipal staff, especially department heads means those positions field fewer applicants.

"Our HR staff did more for this specific search than I think we've done for any other head department search," Spiegel said. One day, she said, she looked on a municipal hiring service and saw more than 26 police chief positions open.

Although there was only one applicant, Davenport Mayor Mike Matson said he was "very pleased" with the selection of Bladel.

"He's everywhere," Matson said. "He takes concern about this city and the people in this city, seriously."

Bladel has served in the position of major, or assistant chief, since 2016.

Bladel holds a Bachelor of Science degree in law enforcement and justice administration from Western Illinois University, and a Master of Science degree in law enforcement intelligence and analysis from Michigan State University.

Davenport added a crime analytics staff member in the last year to begin an analytics unit, and Bladel said he sees crime analytics playing a "big role in the future of the organization."

"By understanding the crime problems, we have a more effective way of tackling them as an agency and community," Bladel said.

"A problem that seems overwhelming, we have the ability to narrow down on it and actually focus our resources," Bladel said.

Bladel has been key to the early stages of Davenport's implementation of Group Violence Intervention, a strategy that aims to interrupt cycles of violence between members of informal social groups or gangs. The strategy partners social service organizations, law enforcement and community members to bring an anti-violence message directly to the door of someone who was identified as a person at risk of being victims of or perpetrators of violence.

The council funded the strategy by hiring a coordinator and entering into a contract with John Jay College to analyze crime statistics using COVID-19 relief dollars after the Davenport Police Department reported a record number of shots-fired incidents in 2020.

Bladel said he hopes to instill that strategy from the top down.

He recalled in the 1990's, in his earliest days with Davenport police, they would have a gang-related incident in a neighborhood, and would respond with saturated patrols, where multiple officers go to a particular location.

"It doesn't bring our community along with us if we're working that way," Bladel said. "So, we have to be focused on who's committing the crimes, who's our trigger pullers, and not necessarily focused on an area of the city."

"There's people in those neighborhoods that, you know, want to have a safe community, want to raise their children, want to work and do everything they can. So we, as the police, again, have to understand how our impacts or how our policing impacts the community."

Dwayne Hodges, a community member who works with Bladel on Group Violence Intervention calls and strategy, said Bladel was "a great choice."

He remembered Bladel attended a "Save our Streets" event, which for Hodges, put a different light on the department.

"I feel like he has passion, he always shows up," Hodges said. "I've never seen him shy away from those controversial things, but he seems like he's someone who's very hands on and doesn't shy away."
If you ask Sue Cook, the merger between First Midwest and Old National Bank is anything but smooth.

The merger was completed in February, but Cook said she received no information about steps to maintain the account. Cook is a joint-member with her 81-year-old mother. When she moved to Oklahoma to live with her daughter, Cook, she kept the account at First Midwest.

Kathy Schoettlin, the communications officer for Old National, said the conversion of accounts took place the week of July 8-10. It involved moving account information for more than 300,000 clients and re-branding 103 banks.

"The data conversion was a smooth and successful process. All client account information was successfully transferred to the new Old National system with no data integrity issues or operating system concerns," she said in a statement.

Tuesday, Cook spent nearly three hours on hold while she waited to speak with customer service. The day before, she received an email saying her mother's debit card would be null and void the next day. Cook said she never received a new card or any prior notice of this.

In her statement, Schoettlin said customers received their new debit cards, "in the weeks prior to the conversion. But, a hitch in the merger still happened on July 9 when clients were trying to activate their new cards.

"The debit card provider was having technical issues, which resulted in a spike in calls," Schoettlin said. "While we continue to experience some intermittent issues related to debit card activation, our provider has assured us that the underlying problem has been resolved, and our call volume continues to decrease."

Once Cook's call was answered, a representative with Old National Bank told her to check the email on the account, but Cook said she didn't receive anything. This only heightened her concerns.

Her mother does not use email, or the internet in general. She would have no way of knowing what was going on, or how to fix it, Cook said. Older folks who do not use the internet or don't have the option of waiting on the phone for hours are those who are affected the most, she said.

Cook said she sent a message to the Old National Bank Facebook account, and received a reply in 30 minutes. On the phone, the representative told her 80,000 customers had called that day, and there was a line out the door for those trying to handle their financial business in person.

In Oklahoma, it was 107 degrees Tuesday. Standing outside to wait for a chance to speak to someone in person is not manageable, she said. In Davenport, the high for the day was 91.

"It just seems like Old National should have had a better plan to work this out," she said.

A glance through the Old National Bank's Facebook page shows Cook is not alone in her frustration. A post outlining that mobile banking would be down for maintenance garnered nearly 700 comments by Tuesday afternoon. Most of them were customers upset about the wait time and lack of information from Old National.

However, Schoettlin said the situation is on its way to being resolved.

"Our core promise at Old National is to exceed the expectations of our clients in every interaction, and we want to apologize to every client who was inconvenienced or felt frustrated in any way during this process," she said.
Desavion Foster was trying to get a car fixed the afternoon of May 22 when he was shot to death by a ski-masked gunman on a Rock Island street.

Foster and another man were walking along 10th Avenue at 15th St. to go get a tire when the gunman approached on foot and began shooting, Rock Island Police Department Detective Jonathan Shappard testified Tuesday in a Rock Island County courtroom. Foster was hit and suffered fatal injuries. The other man fled and was not hurt in the attack.

Shappards testimony was part of the preliminary hearing for Terrionce C. Kitchen, 19, Rock Island, who has been charged with first-degree murder for Fosters killing.

A preliminary hearing is an initial test of the prosecutions case against a defendant. A judge  in Kitchens case, Chief Judge Frank Fuhr  listens to an outline of the evidence collected by investigators and determines if the case is strong enough for the prosecution to continue. The burden for making that determination is not considered high.

After the shooting, the masked gunman ran away, Shappard said.

A family member of Kitchen who was nearby heard the shots and then saw a person in all black and wearing a ski mask, but recognized the person as Kitchen, Shappard said.

A warrant was issued for Kitchen on May 27, and he was arrested in June in Arkansas.

When interviewed about the shooting, Kitchen told police that he was not in Rock Island that day, Shappard said. Hed initially been in Davenport, then went to St. Louis. He went to Arkansas after hearing that police were looking for him in relation to the killing.

As of Tuesday, the gun used to kill Foster has not been recovered and neither has the ski mask, Shappard said. There were 9mm shell casings recovered, but no fingerprints were recovered from them.

Once Shappards testimony was complete, Fuhr ruled the case against Kitchen could continue.

Kitchen had the option to waive the preliminary hearing and whether the hearing is held or waived, defendants maintain the presumption of innocence.

Kitchen remained in custody Tuesday, held on a $1 million cash-only bond, according to court records. His next court date is scheduled for Aug. 18.
A Clinton man is charged with harassment after police say he pulled out a gun and pointed it in the air in a hospital room.

Raymond Cecil Mitchell, age unknown, was arrested on suspicion of harassment in the first degree.

Clinton police responded at 11:22 a.m. Tuesday to a patient room on the fourth floor of MercyOne Medical Center.

"An investigation at the scene determined Mitchell drew the handgun out of a holster and pointed the weapon in air while a nurse was in the room," Chief Kevin Gyrion wrote in a news release Tuesday.

Mitchell was arrested and booked into the Clinton County Jail without incident, Gyrion said. By Tuesday afternoon, Mitchell had posted bond and was released.
Two people were arrested on drug charges late Monday after leading Davenport police on a high-speed chase through the city that ended when officers used a PIT, or Pursuit Intervention Technique, to stop the vehicle.

Dajuan Demetrius Carrol, also known in Scott County District Court records as Dajuan Demetrius Carroll, 34, of Davenport, is charged with one count of possession with the intent to deliver more than 5 grams of ecstasy, also known as methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA. The charge is a Class B felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of 25 years.

Carrol also is charged with possession with the intent to deliver marijuana, two counts of violating Iowas drug tax stamp law, and felony eluding. Each of those charges is a Class D felony that carries a prison sentence of five years.

Carrol also is charged with driving while his license is suspended or revoked, and reckless driving.

Jasmine Jada Love, 21, of East Moline, is charged with possession of marijuana-first offense, a serious misdemeanor that carries a jail sentence of up to one year, and violating Iowas drug tax stamp law, a Class D felony.

According to the arrest affidavits filed by Davenport Police Officers Jared Crow and Murphy Simms, at 11:42 p.m. officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a silver 2016 Chevrolet Malibu bearing Texas license plates in the area of East Dover Court and Brady Street.

When attempting to pull the vehicle over, the driver of the Malibu, Carrol, sped away leading officers on a chase through Davenport with speeds reaching in excess of 100 mph. Officers had to use a PIT maneuver to bring the vehicle to a stop at East 46th Street and Grand Avenue.

During a search of the vehicle, officers located 246.15 grams of marijuana in the passenger seat of the vehicle.

In a black bag found in the backseat of the vehicle directly behind the driver, officers seized another 80 grams of marijuana, 18.75 grams of ecstasy and 4 grams of crack cocaine.

Officers seized $3,050 in cash from Carrol.

Both Carrol and Love were booked into the Scott County Jail.

During a first appearance hearing Tuesday in Scott County District Court, Magistrate Jay Sommers scheduled a preliminary hearing for Carrol for July 29 in district court. Sommers set Carrols bond at $15,000, cash only.

Love waived her preliminary hearing. Sommers scheduled an arraignment on the charges for Aug. 18 in district court. She was released from the Scott County Jail on her own recognizance.

Carrols criminal history includes pleading guilty to a charge of aggravated battery with a firearm during a hearing Sept. 28, 2010, in Rock Island County Circuit Court. The charge is a Class X felony under Illinois law that carries a prison sentence of six to 30 years.

Carrol was one of two men charged in a shooting in January 2010 at the Century Woods apartment complex that put a juvenile male in the hospital.

Carrol was sentenced to 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. According to circuit court electronic records, Carrol was to serve 85% before being placed on parole. He was given credit for time served in the Rock Island County Jail while awaiting trial. A charge of home invasion, also a Class X felony, was dropped in accordance with the plea agreement.
Chicago will see a bricks-and-mortar Toys R Us store on State Street this year, after Macys announced it will launch in-store Toys R Us shops in all of its U.S. retail locations over the next several months.

Since last August, Macys has sold Toys R Us products exclusively online, the company said in a news release Monday. The new in-store shops will open between late July and mid-October. Theyll range from 1,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet in flagship locations, including at the Macys in the historic Marshall Field and Co. Building on State Street in the Loop.

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We hope Toys R Us kids of all ages discover the joy of exploration and play within our shops and families create special memories together, said Nata Dvir, Macys chief merchandising officer, in a statement. The customer response to our partnership with Toys R Us has been incredible and our toy business has seen tremendous growth.

Macy's plans to bring Toys 'R' Us to every Macy's store in America in time for the holiday season, including its flagship store on State Street in the Loop.

Stores will include hands-on demonstration tables for customers to interact with various toy assortments, the company said. Flexible footprints will allow Macys to expand the stores during the holiday season.

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Macys has more than 400 department stores, 14 of which are in the Chicago area.

The Toys R Us shops are not Macys first pass at the store-within-a-store concept. The company first brought its off-price Backstage concept to the Chicago area in 2018. And in April, Macys opened its first city Backstage in the Marshall Field building on State Street.

Kohls has its own in-store Sephora shops, saying earlier this year it expected to roll out the small-format shops at 850 stores by 2023. Targets in-store makeup partnership is with Ulta; the company launched its shop-in-shops last year and said in February it planned to add more than 250 shops to Target stores this year.

Toys R Us sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2017 and announced plans the following year to shutter its more than 700 remaining U.S. stores, including 31 in Illinois. At the time, the retailer still accounted for between 15% and 20% of the U.S. toy market.

The company attempted to open two U.S. bricks-and-mortar stores in 2019, one in New Jersey and one in Houston, but both closed last year. The company continued to sell toys online.

Shortly after Toys R Us closed the two stores, New York-based brand management firm WHP Global took a controlling stake in Toys R Us parent company Tru Kids. Macys now sells Toys R Us products as part of a partnership with WHP Global.

In 2019, Toys R Us opened a pop-up exhibit it called Toys R Us Adventure in a former Topshop store on North Michigan Avenue.
The Rock Island-Milan School District will host their annual "Ready to ROCK the School Year!" back-to-school event on Sunday, July 24, 2022.

The event will take place in Schwiebert Park in Rock Island from 2 - 4 p.m.

Families will be able to register their children for the 2022-23 school year at the event, with representatives from each school in the district.

NEST Cafe, Miguel's Street Tacos and Sweet Shardae's will provide refreshments.

Rock Island Library, METROlink, Rock Island-Milan Education Foundation, and local colleges will be on hand at the event, providing information and resources for students and families.

Around 3 p.m., the eighth annual "Bikers 4 Backpacks" will ride into the event and deliver school supplies to students. The cyclists have been collecting school supplies to donate for the last few weeks.
IOWA CITY  The University of Iowa College of Education has received a $15 million donation  the largest gift ever to the college  to support training and research in school mental health.

The Iowa Center for School Mental Health, founded last summer with $20 million in federal pandemic relief money, will be renamed the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health after the gift from the Chicago-based Scanlan Family Foundation.

The gift and renaming, which will be considered July 27 by the Iowa Board of Regents, will expand clinical support for school mental health in collaboration with the UIs Belin-Blank Center.

We know there are a lot of people who have been personally impacted by mental health and were very grateful for the Scanlans and their support, College of Education Dean Dan Clay told The Gazette.

The center is a partnership between the UI and the Iowa Department of Education to address the mental health needs of Iowa students and staff with professional development, research and clinical assessment and intervention.

The need for the center became apparent in 2020 as suicide rates escalated among teens during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many teens were isolated and experiencing depression or anxiety.

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Iowans ages 14 to 44 and one in 13 Iowa high school students have attempted suicide one or more times, the UI reported.

The purpose of the center is to provide social, emotional, behavioral and psychological services to schools, not only to aid in COVID-19 recovery but to build capacity for immediate and future delivery of mental health supports across the state, a news release from the UI states.

The benefit of this gift is it provides a baseline of annual ongoing support for clinical services  funding for psychologists and social workers to work with schools, Clay said.

The center will work with Iowa school districts and Area Education Agencies to provide training and services.

The $15 million gift also will have a focus on the mental health of veterans and military families, Clay said.

Mary Bucksbaum Scanlan, a Des Moines native, and her husband, Patrick Scanlan, have been longtime supporters of the Belin-Blank Center, pledging $10 million in 2016 to create the Martin and Melva Bucksbaum Early Entrance Academy for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics.

Many people, and especially our youth in Iowa and across the country, are struggling with mental health issues, Bucksbaum Scanlan said in a statement Tuesday. Our family foundation recognizes the extraordinary work at the University of Iowa and wants to help scale those efforts to help more people.
CARTHAGE, Ill.  The Illinois State Police (ISP) has reported that a Muscatine man was shot and killed by Hancock, Ill., County Sheriffs deputies after holding a deputy at gunpoint and taking his vehicle, then leading deputies on a chase.

The state patrol says Timothy Ostrander, 31, of Muscatine, was killed during a confrontation with deputies on July 13. The investigation remains ongoing.

Preliminary information from the ISP says at about 2 p.m. July 13, Hancock County deputies responded to reports of a suspicious subject. During the interaction Ostrander reportedly entered the patrol car of the first deputy on scene and held the deputy at gunpoint. The deputy exited the vehicle and shots were reported fired at the vehicle. Ostrander reportedly fled the scene in the vehicle. A second responding deputy picked up the first responding deputy. A short pursuit reportedly ended with an exchange of gunfire between Ostrander and the deputies near route 136 and Hancock County Road 2500E. Ostrander was pronounced deceased at an area hospital a short time later.

The Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation Zone 4 was contacted by the Hancock County Sheriffs office to investigate the incident.

Court documents show Ostrander had been cited for several traffic violations. The only felony arrest was reported in 2009, when he spent 45 days in jail for contempt of court. Charges of third degree burglary and possession of burglary tools were dismissed. The day before the incident he was cited in Cedar County by the Iowa State Patrol for failure to provide proof of financial liability.
Mike Franken posted strong fundraising numbers over the course of the end of the primary election campaign and start of the general election.

However, the Democratic challenger still faces an uphill fundraising climb against longtime Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in Iowas U.S. Senate campaign.

Franken, a retired U.S. Navy admiral from Sioux City, raised nearly $1.8 million in the most recent federal reporting period, which covered the six weeks spanning May 19 through June 30.

Iowas primary election was June 7.

Grassley, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 1981, raised just more than $800,000 over the same six weeks.

But at the periods close, Grassley had more than $4 million in his campaign account, while Franken had just a little more than $1.1 million.

Part of that advantage stems from Grassleys ongoing war chest as an incumbent, and because he faced only a token challenge in the Republican primary.

Franken used most of his primary season fundraising to aid his victory in a competitive Democratic primary.

Frankens campaign in a news release celebrated the latest fundraising numbers, and highlighted that Franken has raised more than $4.2 million this calendar year.

Its clear Iowans have had enough of Sen. Grassleys failed leadership and lack of results, Franken campaign manager Julie Stauch said in the news release.

Grassleys campaign stressed the overall fundraising numbers, including Grassleys advantage at the end of the reporting period.

No matter how much money Franken raises from liberal out-of-state donors, Sen. Grassley will be re-elected to the U.S. Senate to continue his work for Iowans, Grassley campaign communications director Michaela Sundermann said in a news release.

He has an unmatched record of achievements for Iowa and works harder than anyone to earn Iowans trust by listening and representing their views and values in the U.S. Senate.

HINSON FUNDRAISING: U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, raised more than $1 million during the recent three-month federal reporting period, her campaign said.

Hinson ended the period, which closed June 30, with more than $2 million in her campaign account, her campaign said.

Hinson, is running for re-election in Eastern Iowas new 2nd Congressional District against Democratic challenger Liz Mathis, a Democrat and state senator from Hiawatha.

Iowans are fed up with higher prices at the pump and grocery store, open borders and wasteful spending, Hinson said in a campaign news release.

Iowans will reject my liberal opponent and the radical Biden-Pelosi agenda she stands for at the ballot box. I will continue fighting the chaos and dysfunction in D.C. with Iowa common sense and delivering results so that we can win in November and get our country back on track.

REPUBLICANS LEAD IN IOWA POLL: Theyre both in front, but Gov. Kim Reynolds is enjoying the size of lead to which Sen. Chuck Grassley is more accustomed.

Grassley and Reynolds are leading their respective re-election campaigns, according to the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll results, which were published over the weekend.

In the campaign for Iowa governor, Reynolds, a Republican, leads Democratic challenger Deidre DeJear by 17 points, according to the poll. Reynolds was the choice of 48 percent of poll respondents; DeJear was chosen by 31 percent.

Thats the kind of margin typically enjoyed by Grassley, but he leads by just 8 percentage points in Iowas U.S. Senate campaign, according to the poll. Grassley was the choice of 47 percent of poll respondents, while 39 percent chose Democratic challenger Mike Franken.

The poll surveyed 597 likely Iowa voters from July 10 to July 13. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

ANOTHER REPUBLICAN ENDORSES KINNEY: The Republican mayor of Solon is the fourth Republican to endorse Democratic Iowa Sen. Kevin Kinney for re-election, Kinneys campaign announced.

Steve Stange has been Solons mayor since 2014, and before that served on the City Council since 2006, according to the Kinney campaign.

Kinney, a Democrat from Oxford, is running for re-election against Sen. Dawn Driscoll, a Republican from Williamsburg. The two are running in the same district after the decennial redrawing of Iowas political boundaries.

I trust Sen. Kinney to do what is right  not just what is popular, Strange said in a news release from Kinneys campaign.

He looks out for his constituents and doesnt play partisan games. As a mayor, my No. 1 priority is public safety, and Sen. Kinney has always been committed to reducing crime and making our communities as safe as possible.

On top of that, Kevin is a friend, and I urge my fellow Republicans to join me in supporting him in the upcoming election.
DES MOINES  National Republican Party chairwoman Ronna McDaniel will speak at the Republican Party of Iowas annual fundraiser next month, the state party announced Tuesday.

McDaniel will speak at the state partys Lincoln Dinner at the Iowa Events Center on Aug. 10 in Des Moines.

According to a news release from the state party, the event will be a celebration of Iowa Republicans retaining the states status as the first to cast votes in the nations presidential nominating process.

Iowa has always had a friend in Ronna McDaniel, and there is no better way to celebrate our first in the nation status than to have her join us for our annual Lincoln Dinner, Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann said in the news release. Iowa leads the nation when it comes to starting off the presidential nominating calendar as well as with our incredible lineup of conservative statewide leaders. We look forward to highlighting all of their accomplishments.

In addition to McDaniel, Iowas U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, Gov. Kim Reynolds, and congressional members and candidates are scheduled to appear.

Tickets for the fundraising event can be purchased at iowagop.org.

RISING STAR TO WING DING: Mallory McMorrow, a state senator from Michigan and rising star in the Democratic Party, will speak at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding, the annual fundraiser held by the county party organizations in seven northern Iowa counties.

McMorrow rose to prominence earlier this year when, on the Michigan Senate floor, she gave an impassioned defense of herself against the unfounded accusations from a Republican senator that she had groomed and sexualized children. The video went viral, and earlier this month Politico wrote a feature on McMorrow with the headline, The Michigan Democrat Who Could Solve Her Partys Identity Crisis.

The 2022 Iowa Democratic Wing Ding is scheduled for Aug. 12 at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. Tickets can be purchased at iowawingding.com.

CLOVIS ENDORSES GRASSLEY: Sam Clovis, the former national co-chair to Donald Trumps presidential campaign and former senior White House adviser to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, endorsed Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, for the U.S. Senate.

In a statement provided by Grassleys campaign, Clovis said Grassley is a leader on limited government, fiscal responsibility, strong national defense, and the preservation of cultural values.

I know he will fight to bring our government and the Congress of the United States back inside its constitutional bounds, Clovis said in the release. After all, the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and it is the moral obligation of our nationally elected officials to support and defend the constitution. To do less is an abomination.

Grassley is running for his eighth term in the U.S. Senate against Democratic challenger Mike Franken, a former U.S. Navy admiral from Sioux City.
Mike Franken posted strong fundraising numbers over the course of the end of the primary election campaign and start of the general election.

However, the Democratic challenger still faces an uphill fundraising climb against longtime Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in Iowa's U.S. Senate campaign.

Franken, a retired U.S. Navy admiral from Sioux City, raised nearly $1.8 million in the most recent federal reporting period, which covered the six weeks spanning May 19 through June 30.

Iowa's primary election was June 7.

Grassley, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 1981, raised just more than $800,000 over the same six weeks.

But at the period's close, Grassley had more than $4 million in his campaign account, while Franken had just a little more than $1.1 million.

Part of that advantage stems from Grassley's ongoing war chest as an incumbent, and because he faced only a token challenge in the Republican primary.

Franken used most of his primary season fundraising to aid his victory in a competitive Democratic primary.

Franken's campaign in a news release celebrated the latest fundraising numbers, and highlighted that Franken has raised more than $4.2 million this calendar year.

"It's clear Iowans have had enough of Sen. Grassley's failed leadership and lack of results," Franken campaign manager Julie Stauch said in the news release.

Grassley's campaign stressed the overall fundraising numbers, including Grassley's advantage at the end of the reporting period.

"No matter how much money Franken raises from liberal out-of-state donors, Sen. Grassley will be re-elected to the U.S. Senate to continue his work for Iowans," Grassley campaign communications director Michaela Sundermann said in a news release.

"He has an unmatched record of achievements for Iowa and works harder than anyone to earn Iowans' trust by listening and representing their views and values in the U.S. Senate."

Hinson fundraising

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, raised more than $1 million during the recent three-month federal reporting period, her campaign said.

Hinson ended the period, which closed June 30, with more than $2 million in her campaign account, her campaign said.

Hinson, is running for re-election in Eastern Iowa's new 2nd Congressional District against Democratic challenger Liz Mathis, a Democrat and state senator from Hiawatha.

"Iowans are fed up with higher prices at the pump and grocery store, open borders and wasteful spending," Hinson said in a campaign news release.

"Iowans will reject my liberal opponent and the radical Biden-Pelosi agenda she stands for at the ballot box. I will continue fighting the chaos and dysfunction in D.C. with Iowa common sense and delivering results so that we can win in November and get our country back on track."

Republicans lead in Iowa Poll

They're both in front, but Gov. Kim Reynolds is enjoying the size of lead to which Sen. Chuck Grassley is more accustomed.

Grassley and Reynolds are leading their respective re-election campaigns, according to the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll results, which were published over the weekend.

In the campaign for Iowa governor, Reynolds, a Republican, leads Democratic challenger Deidre DeJear by 17 points, according to the poll. Reynolds was the choice of 48 percent of poll respondents; DeJear was chosen by 31 percent.

That's the kind of margin typically enjoyed by Grassley, but he leads by just 8 percentage points in Iowa's U.S. Senate campaign, according to the poll. Grassley was the choice of 47 percent of poll respondents, while 39 percent chose Democratic challenger Mike Franken.

The poll surveyed 597 likely Iowa voters from July 10 to July 13. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Another Republican endorses Kinney

The Republican mayor of Solon is the fourth Republican to endorse Democratic Iowa Sen. Kevin Kinney for re-election, Kinney's campaign announced.

Steve Stange has been Solon's mayor since 2014, and before that served on the City Council since 2006, according to the Kinney campaign.

Kinney, a Democrat from Oxford, is running for re-election against Sen. Dawn Driscoll, a Republican from Williamsburg. The two are running in the same district after the decennial redrawing of Iowa's political boundaries.

"I trust Sen. Kinney to do what is right  not just what is popular," Strange said in a news release from Kinney's campaign.

"He looks out for his constituents and doesn't play partisan games. As a mayor, my No. 1 priority is public safety, and Sen. Kinney has always been committed to reducing crime and making our communities as safe as possible.

"On top of that, Kevin is a friend, and I urge my fellow Republicans to join me in supporting him in the upcoming election."
Comedian Ron Tater Salad White, best known as the cigar-smoking, scotch-drinking funny-man from the Blue Collar Comedy phenomenon, plans to retire from touring at the end of 2022. He will make a final appearance at 8 p.m. July 24 at Deadwood Mountain Grand. A limited number of tickets are still available. To purchase tickets, go to ticketmaster.com or call 877-907-GRAND.

White, 65, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this year that he is done with stand-up comedy. He plans to do more shows this year nationwide and wrap it up for good on New Years Eve.

Ive been doing this 37 years. Ive loved the whole ride. I just feel like its time to put it down. I have a big year coming and thatll be it, White said.

The comedian has always been a classic storyteller. His stories relay tales from his real life, ranging from growing up in a small town in Texas to sharing stories of his daily life to becoming one of the most successful comedians in America. All four of his comedy albums charted number one on the Billboard Comedy Charts. He has sold more than 14 million albums (solo and with the Blue Collar Comedy Tour), been nominated for two Grammys, and is consistently one of the top grossing stand-up comedians on tour in America.

White partnered with Netflix to release his most recent effort  the highly successful comedy special, If Youd Quit Listening, Id Shut Up. White also has had supporting roles in the films Horrible Bosses and Sex and the City 2, and he had a principal role in Jayne Mansfields Car, written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton, and he was a co-executive producer of the award-winning Bridegroom, a Linda Bloodworth-Thomason documentary. White also gave a critically acclaimed performance in Cameron Crowes Showtime series Roadies.

Live performances on a comedy stage remain the lifeblood of Ron White, and after all these years, the fans still cant get enough. In 2021, White was nominated as Pollstars Comedy Touring Artist of the Decade.
Midco said technicians are at each location assessing the damage. The fiber cuts have also impacted Midco's contact center, and customers are currently unable to connect with them via phone, chat or text. The company is asking customers to check Midco's Facebook page for frequent updates. As of 3 p.m., Midco did not have an estimated time on when the service repairs will occur.
A citizen petition requesting the resignation of Mark Vargo as the Pennington County State's Attorney was brought before the Pennington County Board of Commissioners Tuesday morning. The board voted 3-1 to reject the petition, with Commissioner Travis Lasseter voting no.

Vargo was appointed by Governor Kristi Noem in late June to serve as South Dakota Attorney General following the impeachment and conviction of former Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg. Vargo is taking a leave of absence from his position as Pennington County State's Attorney while serving as Attorney General through Jan. 6, 2023, with Lara Roetzel serving as acting State's Attorney in Vargos absence.

The petition calling for Vargos resignation, presented by Tonchi Weaver at the commission meeting, garnered about 100 signatures. The petition cited a conflict of interest. The petition read that his position as Attorney General gives him oversight and authority over all South Dakota State's Attorneys, creating a conflict due to his direct connection to the office and his intention to reoccupy that position.

The petition also questioned the granting of a leave of absence, stating that elected officials are normally granted a leave of absence only for military service, ill health or family matters.

The petition asked that the board request Vargos resignation as well as appoint a permanent replacement.

The board read a letter from Noem, sent to the Board of Commissioners on July 14. The letter acknowledged the board may be discussing Vargos appointment at their meeting, and stated that she would not have made this request to Mr. Vargo if it was not important to the entire state. The letter also read that the county is in good hands with Ms. Roetzel as the acting State's Attorney until Mr. Vargo returns in January.

Vargo also submitted a letter to the board prior to the meeting, which was also read aloud Tuesday morning. His letter stated that, while he was not familiar with the language of the petition, hed read an email suggesting that him taking the AG appointment will hurt the office and that I should, therefore, resign. Vargo said in the letter that this logic ignores the fact that his resignation would only make permanent the loss of my experience and talents to the office, to which I have every intention of returning. He also stated he has every faith in the staff left behind in his absence.

Public comment for and against the petition discussed the perceived conflict of interest, rules surrounding a leave of absence, and praise for both Vargo and Roetzel.

This is not an adversarial thing, said Weaver, telling the board she and other signers of the petition simply wanted to remedy a situation and just make it right. She cited the Pennington County handbook regarding leave of absence, questioning whether or not Vargo should have been allowed to take it in the first place.

She also noted she was not a Ravnsborg apologist, and that she was only concerned with legislative function. She read the list of duties of the Attorney General from South Dakota codified law 1-11-1, calling out number five, which reads: To consult with, advise, and exercise supervision over the several state's attorneys of the state in matters pertaining to the duties of their office.

Well, that would include himself, Weaver said, and theres a very good chance that he will be administering things in the office of the AG pertaining to our county and his office here.

Mike Mueller, representing South Dakota Citizens for Liberty, suggested that statutes were being ignored, and that the board should study statutes presented by Weaver before making a decision.

Speakers in support of the petition expressed no opposition to Vargo or Roetzel personally, but generally spoke to the perceived conflict of interest and disagreement with the way his appointment and replacement were handled.

Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom told the board they were in uncharted waters with Vargos appointment, with a quick need to fill the position and no roadmap. So maybe things werent perfect, he said, but applauded Vargo, saying he took one for the team.

Pennington County Treasurer Janet Sayler, who noted she was speaking as a taxpayer and not the treasurer, said she is proud to think that we have a state's attorney in Pennington County who the governor feels has the knowledge, trust and integrity to move the state forward until our new attorney general takes office.

Sayler also praised Roetzels abilities to lead the office in Vargos absence.

Both Commission Chair Gary Drewes and Jay Alderman, State's Attorneys Office, addressed the questions regarding Vargo taking a leave of absence. Drewes said there is nothing in the Pennington County handbook that says an elected official cannot have a leave of absence, while Alderman said Vargo absolutely had the right to take it as an elected official.

I do appreciate the taxpayers right to petition their government, said Alderman. Thats a long-standing right that we all endorse. He said he felt the need, however, to address statements that are misleading or statutes that are not fully read and presented. He clarified that Vargos leave of absence does not create a vacancy, but if he resigned, it would, at which point the commissioners would have the authority to appoint a replacement.

Commissioner Ron Rossknecht moved to deny the action requested in the petition, which passed 3-1, with Lasseter voting no. Commissioner Deb Hadcock was absent from the meeting.

Vargo expressed his gratitude to the commission, telling the Journal following the meeting, I appreciate the support of the county commission.
A new program at South Dakota Mines, funded by the National Science Foundation, aims to improve retention of first-generation college students and to increase the number of talented young people who become STEM professionals.

According to a news release, the program has potential to meet a genuine need. At Mines, one-third of incoming freshmen are first-generation students, and 36% of Mines students with families below South Dakotas median income level of $52,000 are first-generation.

The SD-FIRST program is impacting first-generation students by providing a three-pronged approach to building success through academic, social and financial support, said Cassandra Birrenkott, Ph.D., associate professor of mechanical engineering at Mines.

Birrenkott leads the SD-FIRST program, which connects students to campus resources, creates a social network, and provides needs-based scholarships to alleviate financial burden. The average financial need of each student in the first cohort of SD-FIRST is $14,904 per person.

The SD-FIRST grant lasts through 2026. Because of generous donors who have contributed to scholarships and to funds needed to run the program, Birrenkott said it will support more students than initially envisioned. Starting in the fall of 2021, 25 students were awarded a total of $117,500 in SD-FIRST scholarships.

Current SD-FIRST students have a significant unmet financial need, Birrenkott said. Financially, first-generation students tend to come from lower-income families and have greater responsibility to pay for college on their own.

This limited financial support from their family means they may be required to hold a job outside of classes.

Our students who are working are also the students who are struggling academically and financially, said Alycia Jensen, the SD-FIRST program coordinator.

The program is showing success in the first year. Student GPA scores for SD-FIRST students were higher than those of other first-generation freshmen for the fall 2021 semester. SD-FIRST also has an 88% retention rate in its first semester, compared to the average five-year graduation rate for first-generation students which is 24%.

We had one student struggling while working 30-plus hours a week the first semester. We were in danger of losing him, Jensen said. We were able to get him down to 10 hours a week, his grades went up significantly, and he is thriving now.

There is significant research showing students who are involved in clubs and connected on campus are more successful academically, and for students who are working, it can be difficult to be involved on campus, Birrenkott said.

As the first in their families to attend college and complete a degree, first-generation students can lack experience navigating the higher education world. For some, higher education hurdles can seem insurmountable.

Learning to not be intimidated to ask for help when you need it, going to office hours, was something that was very helpful to me but took a little while to get comfortable with, said Jada Bell, a computer science major at South Dakota Mines who is participating in the SD-FIRST program.

SD-FIRST also provides academic and social support to first-generation students by making them aware of campus resources, helping them negotiate faculty/staff interactions, sharing opportunities for involvement in clubs and teams, providing a personal connection for overall support and much more.

It helped me get connected to other first-generation students and our program coordinators have been awesome, Bell said.

The SD-FIRST program gives students like Bell tools to better understand and navigate college culture and encourage higher levels of emotional intelligence, which results in greater involvement in campus life, higher retention and graduation rates. Ultimately, that leads to more first-generation students entering the STEM fields.

For Jesiah Wight, a first-generation civil engineering freshman at Mines, advice on work-life balance was crucial. Wight holds a part-time job while also attending Mines.

They (the SD-FIRST program) give you advice on how to not overwhelm yourself, Wight said. One key example is how much time you should spend on your schoolwork compared to your part-time job. They give you actual tools to succeed.

Wight plans to use his degree in civil engineering to help those in need after graduation. Ultimately, my goal is to use my degree to do missionary work to help establish infrastructure, buildings or water resources in disaster areas or countries that have never had it, he said.

These first-generation students are top-notch, and they have all the abilities in math, science and other traits needed to excel as engineers. We just need to make sure they know all the tools available to help them succeed, Jensen said.

Programs like SD-FIRST will help support students to graduation, benefiting the STEM workforce through an increase in talent pool and diversity.

Nationally, a larger workforce for STEM fields is needed and the pipeline through the education system must adapt to meet the changing needs. First-generation students are a large, untapped population that can help meet this workforce gap, Birrenkott said.
Only about 5.3% of Illinois children under 5 have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine nearly a month after little kids first became eligible for the shots  a number that worries local pediatric leaders.

We are deeply concerned about the low rates of COVID-19 vaccinations in children across the country, said Dr. Sharon Robinson, a pediatrician at NorthShore University HealthSystem, at a news conference Wednesday. We know that vaccination not only protects the individuals receiving it but also our community at large.

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In the city of Chicago, the percentage of children under 5 whove received a shot is slightly higher at 6.4%, which only includes children who physically received the vaccines within the city, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

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Though most children dont get seriously ill from COVID-19, some require hospitalization, doctors from NorthShore, Advocate Childrens Hospital and the University of Chicago Comer Childrens Hospital, which work together as the Chicagoland Childrens Health Alliance, said at a news conference Wednesday. Advocate and Comer each have a few children hospitalized with COVID-19 now, doctors said.

Doctors still dont fully understand the long-term effects of COVID-19 in children, said Dr. Michael Cappello, vice chairman of pediatrics at Advocate Childrens Hospital in Park Ridge.

Some children also develop long COVID-19 symptoms. And some can develop a rare but severe illness linked to COVID-19 called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C.

Approval of COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5 was a huge step toward protecting children and their families from COVID-19 and its long-term effects, but unfortunately, we are not seeing the response to the vaccine we had hoped among the parents of children, Cappello said. Many families are hesitant to get their young child vaccinated.

Some families are shying away from the vaccines because they worry about their safety or side effects. Others dont think their children need it because children dont usually get severely ill from COVID-19, Robinson said.

Robinson, however, emphasized Wednesday that the vaccines are safe, and that when children experience side effects, theyre typically mild, such as soreness or low-grade fevers. Its also safe for children to get COVID-19 vaccines alongside their other, normal childhood vaccinations, she said.

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Chii Lewis holds her son, Isaiah, 3, as medical assistant Joyce Brown administers a COVID-19 vaccination at an Advocate Children's Medical Group clinic on June 30, 2022, in Evergreen Park. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Difficulty finding shots may also be stymieing some families.

COVID-19 vaccines were authorized for young children on June 18, and within a week many pharmacies and health systems were offering them to young kids.

But some parents who were eager to get their babies and toddlers vaccinated right away found it tough to get the shots because Illinois pharmacies arent allowed to vaccinate children under 3, and some pediatricians offices have been slow to roll out the vaccines to their patients.

Advocate and Comer are administering the vaccines in their pediatricians offices. NorthShore has been offering them to young kids at regional vaccination clinics, but is still working to get them into their pediatricians offices, Robinson said.

NorthShore expects to begin offering the vaccines to young kids in its pediatricians offices in the next week or so  a delay that Robinson blamed on logistical issues.

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The city health department has been holding family vaccination clinics at City Colleges of Chicago and has also been working with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois to hold vaccination clinics, among other events. A number of county health departments have been vaccinating young children as well.

Two vaccines are available to young children, including a Pfizer vaccine, which has been authorized for children ages 6 months through 4 years old, and a Moderna vaccine authorized for kids ages 6 months through 5 years old. The Pfizer vaccine consists of three doses given over the course of about 11 weeks, with each dose about one-tenth of an adult dose. The Moderna vaccine is two doses, given about four weeks apart. Each shot of Moderna is about one-fourth of an adult dose.

Theres no time to waste if we want our children to be protected by the start of the school year, said Dr. Allison Bartlett, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Comer.

The low vaccination rate among young children follows relatively low rates among older kids as well.

In Chicago, about 48% of children ages 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated, despite the fact that vaccines have been available to that age group since late 2021. Statewide, about 37.5% of children ages 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Older age groups are more highly vaccinated, with about 63% of kids ages 12 to 17 fully vaccinated statewide.

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With an omicron subvariant now making up the majority of cases in the U.S., the city of Chicago and Cook, Lake, DuPage and Will counties are considered to be at high community levels of COVID-19 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on hospital beds being used, hospital admissions and their numbers of new COVID-19 cases. The CDC recommends people living in high community level areas wear masks in public when indoors.
Thayne Elshere of Hereford currently sits atop the first performance leaderboard in saddle bronc through four performances of the National High School Rodeo Finals in Gillette, Wyoming.

Elshere, son of J.J. Elshere, a five-time National Finals Rodeo saddle bronc qualifier, turned in an 82-point ride in the Monday evening performance.

A couple of other South Dakotans sit atop the top five if the first go-round in the their specialties. Howes' Jaysee Jones, a Faith High School student, is fifth in goat tying, while Jestyn Woodward of Custer is fourth in bull riding.

Woodward came into the NHSRF riding a proverbial hot streak in professional rodeo events, having finished second in the prestigious Black Hills Roundup in Belle Fourche over the Fourth of July and adding another runner-up finish in the Corn Palace Rodeo in Mitchell over the weekend.
Your phone.

Your computer.

Your refrigerator.

Your car.

What do all of these have in common? They use semiconductor chips, a tiny component responsible for the technology you use on a daily basis.

Over the decades, America lost its place as the leader in manufacturing capability. For example, rare earth metals15 elements of the lanthanide series in the periodic table of elements, as well as scandium and yttriumare the most important substances necessary for the manufacturing of electronic products, including the semiconductor chip. Currently, most of this extracting and processing happens in China; they provide around 80 percent of the global supply. The United States produces only 15 percent of the global supply.

We need to reverse the trend. Our dependence on foreign suppliers makes us vulnerable to too many variables that could threaten our economy and national security. The stark reality is that we rely on foreign trade partners for the manufacturing of a large supply of our chips. This makes us dependent on China for some of our most basic needs  basic needs that could be mined right here in South Dakota, utilizing our states rich mineral deposits and creating economic progress here instead of on the other side of the globe.

Thankfully, a solution is approaching the finish line. Right now, Congress is negotiating legislation passed separately in the House and Senate. This legislation would greatly increase our ability to manufacture semiconductors domestically. If successfully passed by both chambers, it will be signed by the president and become law.

The Facilitating American-Built Semiconductors (FABS) Act establishes a tax credit for investments in constructing and upgrading semiconductor manufacturing facilities and equipment in the U.S. The bill that goes to the presidents desk should also include CHIPS Act funding of $52 billion in federal investments for domestic semiconductor research and manufacturing.

Passage of an investment tax credit (as proposed in the FABS Act) and funding of the CHIPS Act will be catalysts to reinvigorate the semiconductor industry. We need Congress to get this legislation done to return America to self-reliance and generate more careers in the industry that could easily be filled by South Dakota School of Mines and Technology graduates.

Senator John Thune and Senator Mike Rounds have been champions of our states economy in Washington, and I encourage them to support this legislation that creates opportunity for jobs, economic growth, and domestic autonomy. Technology is the present and the future of South Dakota. Lets ensure we are equipped to be the leader that continues to drive the world in creativity and innovation.

Scyller Borglum is a petroleum and geological engineer and former member of the South Dakota House of Representatives.
Organizer of Crimean cell of banned terrorist organization gets 17 years in prison

ROSTOV-ON-DON, July 20 (RAPSI)  The Southern District Military Court has sentenced Azamat Eyupov, who has been found guilty of organizing a cell of the international terrorist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir banned in Russia, to 17 years in high-security penal colony, the courts press service has told RAPSI.

Eyupov born in Uzbekistan created the terrorist cell in Crimea in 2017. He was aided by two people, Enver Omerob and Aider Dzhapparov, according to case papers. The men were convicted earlier.

Eyupov was engaged in outreach efforts and recruited new members to the group.

As the terrorist group leader the defendant determined the cells goals and objectives, held secret gatherings of its members and controlled the compliance with the covert measures, the court press services statement reads.

Earlier this month, the Southern District Military Court sentenced two members of the Crimean cell of the prohibited terrorist organization to 13 years in high-security penal colony each. According to the case papers, Ernest Ibragimov and Oleg Fedorov joined the terrorist organization in Crimea in 2017. The court found them guilty of participating in terrorist activity and preparation to a coup.




Prosecutor seeks 14 years in jail for ex-St. Petersburg lawmaker charged with bribery

ST. PETERSBURG, July 20 (RAPSI)  A prosecutor has demanded 14 years in penal colony for ex-lawmaker of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Roman Koval, who stands charged with receiving bribes on a large scale, the Joint press service of St. Petersburg courts has told RAPSI.

In addition to the prison term the prosecutor asked to fine the defendant 88 million rubles (over $1.5 million) and to prohibit him from holding state service posts for 7 years.

In July 2020, Koval was arrested on bribery allegations. According to investigators, between 2018 and 2020 he repeatedly took bribes personally and through his assistant. He allegedly used his official position in submitting and adopting lawmakers amendments to the city budget. The funds were allocated as subsidies for state healthcare institutions for the purchase of equipment and materials from the firms of a bribe giver.

According to the case papers, in 2019 he received three bribes totaling nearly 8.7 million rubles. In 2018, investigators claim, he took a new Audi Q7 car as a bribe; in 2020, he received money and property worth over 16.9 million rubles.




Embassy of Lugansk Peoples Republic to appear in Russia

MOSCOW, July 20 (RAPSI)  The embassy of the Lugansk Peoples Republic will appear in Russia, according to a decree signed by the LPR governments chairman Sergey Kozlov.

The diplomatic mission is to be established due to the initiation of diplomatic relations, the document reads.

The decree came into force on July 19 after its official publication.

Earlier, the embassy of the Donetsk Peoples Republic appeared in the Russian Federation. It was opened in Moscow on July 12.




Wide Angle Fine Art Gallery & Printing, a landscape photography and fine art printing shop, is now open in Hamilton.

Owner Nathan Wotkyns has been all over the western United States, always wanted to live in Montana, and fulfilled a dream with his landscape photography and fine art printing shop he just opened in Hamilton.

Ive wanted to move here since I was 13, Wotkyns said. Its been a long time coming. My dad brought me to Montana to fish the Yellowstone, the Gallatin, and the Madison when I was 13 and I wanted to be here ever since.

Born in Washington, he lived in southern Utah for thirty years when he realized life was short. He started taking photos of the fish he caught. Then he developed a unique style that shows the fragile beauty of nature. Through the years, his love of the outdoors evolved into a passion for sharing it with others through photography. After his schooling, he took his first option and created a photography gallery.

In 2005, I opened that gallery in St. George at age 25, Wotkyns said. I had artist friends who were well known in that community and they had customers wanting different sizes of their artwork. I started taking photos of their work and making prints for them. It became a whole other business, different from what I thought I was going to do. It has become a great business and a needed service.

About 10 years ago he and his wife started looking at Hamilton for a place to work and live. When the real estate prices rose they thought their dream of moving to Montana was gone. But when the Neeves building in downtown Hamilton went on the market they took the leap.

Wotkyns and his family moved here in January and he spent two months remodeling.

Hamilton is a darling town and it is similar to where I grew up, Wotkyns said. Where I moved from was growing. Hamilton is growing and I tell everyone Im sorry but Im one of those people coming in but hopefully I can offset that. I feel I can bring something good to the community for local artists and photographers.

He uses state-of-the-art equipment and keeps the entire process in-house which allows him to keep prices competitive and business local.

I do all the work and am a one-man show, Wotkyns said. My specialty is photographing the original and making the prints look like the original. I do the photographing and the printing. I do the whole process.

He said digitizing art has been a boon for local artists.

There were artists only doing original work but because they are now offering prints it has opened up a whole new market for them, Wotkyns said. I know some artists who have quit their day job to sell their prints online. It is cool to give artists another way to make money because it is hard to make a living selling art.

At Wide Angle Fine Art Printing get artwork digitized and printed on fine art papers  canvas, watercolor, photographic papers, or traditional photo paper prints.

I have two price points because not everyone wants to spend the money on a canvas but they still want to print it out, Wotkyns said. I do photo restoration so if people have old beat-up photos I can fix those up for them. I do it all.

Wotkyns said he and his family are overwhelmed with gratitude for the community encouragement that helped make their dream a reality.

Everyone has been so supportive, my realtor, my finance guy, the remodel guy, Michelle [Biggins] at Art Focus, everyone has been amazing, he said. We look forward to many wonderful years serving our new neighbors and enjoying all that this area has to offer.

After living in Hamilton for two months and focusing on remodeling and opening a business, Wotkyns was finally able to fly fish the Bitterroot River.

When I came back my wife said you have a very big smile on your face," he said. "I just love it so much, it is so special. Youre outdoors and fish  trout in particular  live in the prettiest places. Fishing is like the icing on the cake. I love to fish, its my passion as is my photography. The surprise with each is you never know what youre going to get.

Wotkyns is encouraged by the work of the Bitterroot Land Trust and Open Lands Program to preserve the beauty and special community.

As a business owner you do want some growth, he said. But its a balancing act. I love it here.

He and his wife, an artistic crafter, participate in the Hamilton Farmers Market each Saturday.

The farmers market is incredible, Wotkyns said. The setting, the big trees, the old building  it is just perfect.

Explore the valleys newest photography gallery and learn more about Wotkyns large-format photo printing services in person at 237 N. 2nd St. Hamilton, by phone at 406-363-7664, or online at www.wideangleprint.com or www.wideangleart.com. Wide Angle Fine Art Gallery & Printing is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

When not at the gallery, find Wotkyns on the river with a fly rod in his hand and a big smile on his face.
The Glacier County Sheriff's Office released more details Tuesday evening on a violent incident in East Glacier Park Village, in which two men and an 18-month-old girl died and two women were critically injured.

The Glacier County Sheriff's Office said in a release on its Facebook page that Derick Amos Madden, 37, of Oklahoma, intentionally drove his vehicle into a group of people walking beside a road on Sunday. Madden crashed his car into a tree and exited the vehicle holding a shotgun. He then began shooting at the people he had hit or tried to hit with his car.

Madden shot and killed David Siau, 39, of New York. He wounded David's wife Christy Siau, 40, of New York, and mortally wounded their daughter McKenzie Siau, age 18 months, of New York.

Madden attacked David's sister Christina Siau, 30, of East Glacier Park, with a knife. According to the release, Christina "fought for her life," and fatally wounded Madden, who died at the scene.

Two children were present during the incident but were able to run away, escaping injury.

Christy, Christina and McKenzie were transported to the Indian Health Service facility in Browning, where McKenzie was pronounced dead. Christy and Christina were then flown elsewhere to receive a higher level of care.

The sheriff's office revealed that Madden was in a past relationship with Christina and has been struggling with mental health issues.

The FBI, Glacier County Sheriff's Office, Blackfeet Law Enforcement Services and Montana Highway Patrol are investigating the case.

The Associated Press reported that local authorities did not know of any previous interactions Madden had with law enforcement. Madden had been working in East Glacier, and Christina, originally from New York, had been living in East Glacier, where her family was visiting.

Christy was a former bookkeeper for the American Baptist Churches of New York State. A statement from Executive Minister Rev. James Kelsey described Christy as "a long time and beloved member."

Christy and David were also active in the First Baptist Church of Hoosick Falls, New York, according to AP.

A GoFundMe has been created to assist with the victims' medical bills.

Matthew Brown of The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Nasheena Whitedirt used to walk the streets of Lame Deer with her cousins all the time.

Theyd walk around the south side of town to check their mailboxes at the post office. Theyd walk to the tribal office to access the internet. Theyd walk to the Lame Deer Trading Post to buy groceries.

Now, Whitedirt, who is 23 and Northern Cheyenne, wont walk around town without pepper spray or a knife in hand.

Its not the dogs were worried about anymore, she said. Its the people. Theyre on drugs, and they yell at us. Some of them we dont know and some of them are just unrecognizable.

Whitedirt said she tries not to walk outside much, except to the tribal headquarters.

They make us feel uncomfortable, she said. It just feels unsafe.

More than the drug users make Whitedirt uneasy. In recent weeks, there have been reports of human trafficking in southeast Montana, an increased number of missing Indigenous people, and in June, Lame Deer was on lockdown when a suspected shooter was on the loose.

This is what led Whitedirt to sign a petition circulating the Northern Cheyenne community demanding action from its tribal council. As of Tuesday afternoon, the petition gained 82 signatures. About 5,000 people live on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeast Montana.

The petition, created by a group called NC Guardian Angels, specifically condemns high rates of drug and alcohol abuse and notes a lack of substance use and mental health treatment programs on the reservation. It states that consequences of the crisis include high rates of rape, sex trafficking, sexual assault and missing and murdered Indigenous people, among other things.

The petition provides four main recommendations to the council and outlines specific instructions for implementing those recommendations. The four recommendations instruct the council to:

Ensure all tribal employees and partner agencies have training, support and a system of accountability that enforce best practices, including mandatory training on trafficking and domestic violence. This includes creating a task force that plans and implements relevant training. Make changes and investments in the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Court system to increase victim-centered sentencing of violent offenders and substance abuse-related crimes. According to the petition, this means hiring more prosecutors, implementing stricter protocols dealing with violent offenders, and developing culturally relevant sentencing models for certain crimes, among other items. Pursue funding to invest in long overdue, desperately needed social programming for the healing, safety and wellbeing of our people. This includes substance use and mental health treatment programs, the creation of a domestic violence shelter, investment in rape kits at the Indian Health Service clinic in Lame Deer, and other items. Exercise sovereignty to address violence and substance abuse. President Joe Biden in March reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, which extended tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Native perpetrators of sexual violence, sex trafficking, child violence and other crimes. Petitioners urge the council to strengthen the tribal court so it may implement the extended jurisdiction.

Community members have expressed concern about the shuffling of council positions and general lack of transparency. The Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council in February voted to remove then-President Donna Fisher from office following her handling of a tribal employees alleged misuse of a tribal credit card. She was the third Northern Cheyenne president to be removed from office through a tribal council vote in the last 10 years.

"We want more transparency," Whitedirt said. "It would be great to have webcams record the meetings, or if the council would broadcast them on Facebook or YouTube. That's what they lack. They don't connect with the people they're representing."

The petition urges the council to have monthly public meetings to brief community members on progress of the requests.

This crisis in our community is urgent, and for that reason, we also ask that immediate action be taken, with a goal of full implementation of these requests within one calendar year, the petition reads.

Councilwoman Silver Little Eagle wrote in an email to the Missoulian that she worked closely with the individuals who drafted the petition and provided recommendations to the call to action.

It is clear that victims of violence need consistent services, and that the women and youth in our community deserve safety, Little Eagle wrote, adding that she plans to propose the creation of a Justice Task Force at the next council meeting on Aug 1.

Little Eagle drew national attention last year when she was robbed and assaulted. Her family created a GoFundMe page for her hospital bills, and as the page accrued tens of thousands of dollars, accusations and theories about the attack spread online, criticizing Little Eagle and her family. Some community members denounced the online attacks, labeling them a symptom of lateral oppression.

Additional members of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Daniel Big Man, a Northern Cheyenne community member, helped draft the petition. His nephew was involved with drugs and was killed a few weeks ago. Big Man said he is most concerned about the lack of justice for victims on the reservation and hopes the petition will lead to change.

We can prevent a lot of these issues by enforcing rules and regulations, he said.

Big Man is encouraged that more than 80 people have signed the call to action but said he knows some community members who arent online may not know about it.

Its not like we have a billboard with this information, he said. So were trying to get the public to learn about what were trying to do.

Whitedirt said she signed the petition because she wants her nieces and nephews to grow up in a healthy, thriving community.

I hope our representatives take this seriously and get more involved, she said. This is about living a life that we love on the homelands that we love.

Upon former President Fishers removal, Serena Wetherelt has served as council president. The tribe is holding an election on Aug. 9 for the vice presidency, which is vacant. Nizhoni Robinson is council secretary, and Melissa Fisher, Eva Foote, Gwen Talawyma, Norma Gourneau, Phillip Beckman, Silver Little Eagle, Henry Speelman, Diane Spotted Elk, Lane Spotted Elk and Debra Charette all serve as council members.
Fires in southwest Montana radically expanded on Tuesday, continuing to send plumes of smoke into the air and threatening dry forests.

The Moose Fire, burning 22 miles south of Lost Trail Pass and the Montana-Idaho state line, grew from 1,000 to more than 12,000 acres burned between Monday and Tuesday. The Hog Trough Fire in the Bitterroot National Forest grew from about three acres to 300. The Lolo National Forest moved its fire danger level to high.

Near North Fork, Idaho, the Moose Fire is burning along both sides of the Salmon River and the Salmon River Road, according to an update from the Salmon-Challis National Forest.

Extreme fire behavior occurred on Monday, and was expected to continue through Tuesday. It remains at 0% contained, the update stated.

Firefighters are worried about the fires movement, and potential for the flames to reach the Highway 93 corridor. Officials are asking people to avoid the area.

There are 190 personnel on scene.

Not too far south of Missoula County, the Hog Trough Fire is burning 17 miles east of Hamilton. As of Tuesday, its burning in the Sapphire Wilderness Study Area about five miles east of the Black Bear Campground and seven miles southwest of Skalkaho Falls, a press release from the Bitterroot National Forest stated.

No structures are at risk, but an area closure is being developed for both the Bitterroot and Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forests.

Mondays fire growth was largely to the east (away from Hamilton). It was driven by 50-mph winds swooping over the fire area. Winds were so strong that a window was blown out of the Gird Point Fire Lookout, according to the release.

The flames are active in an area inundated with dead standing trees and downed timber, which presents a significant safety risk to firefighters.

High temperatures and lack of significant rainfall prompted the Lolo National Forest to set its fire danger level to high on Tuesday. Hot conditions and rapidly drying fuel moisture levels have left grass and vegetation incredibly dry and susceptible to burning. Fire danger on the Bitterroot National Forest is also set at high.

To date this year, firefighters have responded to 18 fires total on the Lolo National Forest, a press release from the Lolo National Forest stated. Sixteen have been human-caused, while two started from lightning.
Over the years, Richmond has served as the backdrop for many television shows, commercials and films. Take a look back at familiar spots aroun
Twisted Hippo's draft beers, from left, Cash(mere) Rules, Beeting Heart, The Bee's Sleaze and Black Umbrella. Six months after its brewery was destroyed by fire, Twisted Hippo will make and sell its beers at brewery incubator District Brew Yards. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)

Six months after its brewery was destroyed by fire, Twisted Hippo will rise again at brewery incubator District Brew Yards.

Twisted Hippo continues to look for a new home of its own, but in the meantime will have its beer made and served alongside several other breweries at District Brew Yards original West Town location, plus a second facility District Brew Yards is opening in the fall in north suburban Wheeling.

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Im incredibly sorry for what happened to them, of course, but were really happy they could join us, District Brew Yards co-founder Steve Soble said.

Twisted Hippo launched in 2019 in Albany Park with a colorful taproom and equally colorful approach to making beer, which co-owner Marilee Rutherford described as weird but awesome. The brewery was destroyed in February by a large fire that also claimed an adventure course for kids.

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Chicago firefighters work the scene of an extra-alarm fire at a building on West Montrose Avenue at North Richmond Street in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood on Feb. 21, 2022, which included the Twisted Hippo brewery. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

In a late June Instagram post, Twisted Hippo said it spent the spring months saying goodbye to a beloved place and space, and ushering in an age of transition. Through the almost unthinkable generosity of our community, we were able to pay our full staff for two months after the fire as they took a moment to breathe and reposition themselves. Every single one of them will be offered the opportunity to return when we are able to open our doors again, wherever that may be.

The brewery said it is looking for a space in or near Albany Park to serve our community.

The search is daunting, but we are committed, the post read. Albany Park is our heart.

Rutherford did not respond to a message Tuesday evening. Twisted Hippo beer will be available at District Brew Yards West Town location starting Aug. 16, the brewery said.

District Brew Yards opened in 2019 with a unique concept of multiple breweries operating under one roof and a service model of customers pouring their own beer, paid by the ounce. Soble said he will employ the same model in Wheeling, at 700 N. Milwaukee Ave., in what was previously Ram Restaurant & Brewery.

Workers inside the taproom at District Brew Yards on Aug. 28, 2019 in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Soble said District Brew Yards was planning an expansion to Pittsburgh before the COVID-19 pandemic upended those plans. He chose to stay closer to home, landing in a former brewery that has been closed since 2019. Soble said he was attracted to the space because it was close to a turnkey operation; he hopes to have it open after Labor Day.

The new District Brew Yards will be far smaller, with the capacity to make about one-third the amount of beer as the West Town location. Most of the beer made in Wheeling will be served on site, Soble said, while the beer made in West Town is served on site and sent into distribution in both cans and kegs. Soble said he eyes further expansion for the concept, but we wont do anything until we prove we can make it work in Wheeling.

Responding to customer feedback, he said, hell add wine on tap and a cider at the new location.

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Beer from three breweries available at the original District Brew Yards location will also be made and served in Wheeling: Burnt City Brewing (which Soble also co-owns), Around the Bend and Casa Humilde. Twisted Hippo will be available at both locations; Histrionic Brewlab will join the District Brew Yards roster in Wheeling after relocating from a smaller brewery startup, Pilot Project.

Jose Lopez pours Casa Humilde Mesita hibiscus table beer at District Brew Yards, a collaborative brewery and self-serve taproom, on Oct. 29, 2019, in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

District Brew Yards Wheeling location will feature three food concepts from chef Charlie McKenna: Lillies Q barbecue (also served at the West Town location after a successful run in Bucktown), fish and fried chicken from Salt & Scratch and Mexican-themed Chicano Taqueria.

Bold Dog Beer Co., which was one of the original breweries to get its start at District Brew Yards, is pulling out of the concept at the end of July. Bold Dog co-founder Jerome Stontz said hes shutting down the brand for the time being. He said he and his wife, who also is a co-owner, hope to resurrect the brand as a small cafe, bakery and taproom.

We love Chicago, but this is an extremely competitive market especially for distribution, Stontz said. Ideally we want to be on our own and not dependent on a host contract brewery.

In addition to beer, District Brew Yards Wheeling location will feature something for sentimental bowling enthusiasts: a commemorative table built from the lanes of Southport Lanes, a Lakeview bar and bowling alley that shut down early in the pandemic after more than 100 years of operation, which Soble also owned.

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jbnoel@chicagotribune.com
Police on Wednesday released the name of the woman killed in a crash on Interstate 95 in Hanover County on Tuesday afternoon.

Angela Clements Hurley, 49, from Mechanicsville, died when a 2015 GMC Terrain slammed into her car as it was stopped on the shoulder near mile marker 90. She died at the scene.

Virginia State Police said the driver of the sport-utility vehicle, Levi E. Braxton III, 70, of Saluda, was driving northbound and went into the right shoulder to pass another vehicle. Hurleys 2007 Nissan Sentra had become disabled and she was in the vehicle when it was hit, police said.
A Richmond man was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder and abduction charges.

Kevin Lee Rice, 43, pleaded guilty in Richmond Circuit Court on Wednesday to charges of second-degree murder, abduction for monetary benefit, eluding police and possession of a firearm by non-violent felon of more than 10 years.

Rices charges stem from two incidents, the first occurring April 2, 2021, during a traffic stop for reckless driving.

Rice drove away from police during the stop and hit multiple parked vehicles before being apprehended, according to a summary of evidence presented to Richmond Circuit Judge Clarence N. Jenkins.

Rice also was involved in an investigation of a homicide in Richmond that occurred Nov. 13, 2021, authorities said in court documents.

Richmond police responded to reports of a suspicious situation in the 2500 block of Melbourne Street, where they found 54-year-old Robert Pulling with his hands, feet and neck tied up.

Pulling had been stabbed 19 times in the chest and head, according to court documents presented by Richmond prosecutors.

The Office of the Medical Examiner also found that Pulling showed signs of strangulation and a head and neck injury, according to the prosecutors.

A witness saw Rice leaving the victims room with a knife around the time of the incident, officials said. As Rice fled the scene, he handed the victims bank card to the same witness, said prosecutors. Police later found Rice hiding in a shed on the same property where officers recovered Rices home electronic monitoring device, which had been cut off.

Before entering a guilty plea Wednesday, Rice faced a first-degree murder charge which was later amended, according to Rices defense attorney.
The leadership exodus continues at the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, where Chief Administrative Officer Dan Wolf is the fourth high-level executive to resign since Gov. Glenn Youngkin took office in mid-January.

Wolf, who had served as CAO since the agency created the position in mid-2019 and worked in state government for more than 15 years, announced his departure in a LinkedIn post last week that extolled the transformation of VITA under leadership that is now mostly gone.

The agency, created in 2005 under then-Gov. Mark Warner, exited a 13-year, $2.4 billion contract with Northrop Grumman in 2018 to serve more than 65 executive branch state agencies through eight vendors of information technology services.

Since then, it has moved out of its old data center in Chester and into cloud-based computer services and a new home at a massive data center in eastern Henrico County.

During my time here, Ive had the unique opportunity to work with an incredible team on the types of programs that can keep Virginia business moving, enable critical government services, and change lives for the better, Wolf said in the LinkedIn post.

Among other accomplishments, he cited the agencys first diversity, equity and inclusion program for minorities and restoration of its human resources department after previously relying on the central state personnel agency.

And we have kept our staff safe during the COVID-19 pandemic while keeping our customer agencies working to serve all Virginians, he said.

Wolf promised more news coming soon on my next chapter, but didnt divulge his plans.

Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter said Wolf was leaving for another job.

Dan Wolf is a dedicated public servant with decades of experience and Governor Youngkin thanks him for his service, Porter said. Wolf resigned from his role at VITA for another professional opportunity and we wish him the best.

Wolf is the fourth high-profile departure from VITA since Youngkin replaced Chief Information Officer Nelson Moe in late January.

Moes replacement, Phil Wittmer, resigned less than a month later to return to Kansas, where he previously has served as chief information officer. Chief Information Security Officer Michael Watson served as interim CIO until Youngkin appointed Robert Osmond, a former information technology expert at the Virginia Department of Transportation, to lead the IT agency. Watson remains in his previous role at VITA.

Soon after the governor replaced Moe, Chief Operating Officer Jon Ozovek resigned and became an executive at Iron Bow Technologies, based in Reston and one of the contractors providing computer hardware and services to Virginia government agencies. Moe subsequently went to work at Iron Bow, as well.

Deputy Chief Operating Officer Demetrias Rodgers, who had become acting COO after Ozoveks departure, resigned in May to become chief technology officer at Planet Technologies, based in Germantown, Md.

VITA had created the positions of chief operating officer and chief administration officer in a reorganization under Moe in 2019 after the state disentangled itself from the contract with Northrop Grumman the previous year. He hired Ozovek as chief operating officer to coordinate operations and customer service, and Wolf to oversee internal administration, including planning and strategy, legal affairs, finance and budget, work with outside partners.

Wolf was serving as interim director of legal and legislative affairs at the agency before he was promoted to chief administrative officer. Previously, he had worked at the Department of Transportation and more than eight years at the attorney generals office.

Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Beth Levermore will serve as interim CAO while the agency conducts a search for Wolfs permanent replacement.
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Big heat has made headlines from England to Oklahoma, and Virginia is about to get its turn. Weve had heat waves before, but slowly and methodically, they are trending longer and hotter as the background climate continues to warm.

In this case, a small bubble of hot air will migrate toward Virginia from the Plains, setting the stage for the coming heat wave.

Wednesday will surge into the upper 90s, and this coming weekend promises to be the hottest one of the summer. Both Saturday and Sunday will be around 100 degrees, and there are suggestions in the data that Richmond could be as much as 102-104 on Sunday.

Thats the air temperature, not the heat index. During the hottest part of the afternoons, there will be a slight easing of the humidity. Even so, the heat index will be 102-108 during some of the hottest and most humid afternoons from Wednesday through Monday.

***

Those who follow the weather know that the data in Richmonds weather records are collected from Richmond International Airport. After all, weather is critical for aviation. The old joke that no one lives at the airport persists, although people in Sandston and Seven Pines may have something to say about that statement.

Nonetheless, there is plenty of evidence to show how some neighborhoods in and around Richmond are hotter than the official observations. Some will also be cooler.

Temperatures across the city can routinely vary as much as 15 degrees on summer days with no breeze. The underlying surface conditions make a huge difference. Areas dominated by pavement and concrete, like Jackson Ward, Manchester and Scotts Addition, are typically the hottest.

Conversely, neighborhoods with more trees and natural ground cover, like Stratford Hills, Westover Hills and Windsor Farms, are cooler.

This is more than just being in direct sunlight versus the shade. Pavement and asphalt heat up more rapidly during the day and send that heat back into the air well into the night.

Trees and grasses absorb more heat energy and use that energy for photosynthesis, so there is less heat being transferred back to the air.

As an example, place your hand on the outside of a brick building an hour or so after the sun sets, and you can feel the heat radiating from the bricks.

Not coincidentally, there are large variations in socio-economic status between these hotter and cooler locations across the city, which compound the health risks from extreme heat in these hottest neighborhoods. Evidence indicates that this is a legacy of redlining neighborhoods during the early to middle 20th century.

Social isolation in many of these hotter neighborhoods also contributes to fatalities during heat waves, so check on people in your neighborhood who may be especially at risk.

***

The level of heat expected this weekend can easily be dangerous unless the body is prepared for it  or can get out of its way. Heat may not be as visually stunning as hurricanes or tornadoes, but over the past three decades, it has consistently caused more fatalities than any other weather hazard, including cold.

Heat cramps can develop first, when muscles cramp and spasm. In time, that can progress into heat exhaustion, when loss of salt and water in the body make it increasingly difficult for the body to cool itself.

If nothing is done to alleviate the problem, heat stroke follows. The core body temperature can climb to 104 degrees, damaging the brain and other vital organs. Remember the signs of heat stroke: rapid breathing and pulse, headache, nausea, dizziness, confusion and/or seizures. Get medical attention as soon as possible.

As a first step, find a way to get cool water on the skin. A cool water mist applied to the skin promotes evaporation, helping bring down the core body temperature. Ice packs to the neck, back and armpits are also good ways to start.

***

Record highs will be within reach this weekend, but early indications suggest we will fall short. Saturdays record high is 103 (1952), and Sundays is 105 (2010).

Richmonds all-time record high is 107 (1918), but the highest temperature in the past 100 years is 105 (1977, 2010). The all-time record is probably out of reach this time, but 105 is not entirely off the table yet.

While the worst of the heat will come on Sunday, most of next week will continue to be hotter than normal, with highs in the 90s for the entire week. This means there is a legitimate chance Richmond will have two consecutive weeks in the 90s to close out the month of July.
The Vinton man convicted of two counts of first-degree murder this spring was sentenced Tuesday in Roanoke Circuit Court to 50 years in prison.

In March, a jury found William Reno Ray, 25, guilty of the March 2020 murders of his fiancees mother and the mothers boyfriend.

Ray did not take the stand and the defense put on no evidence. The prosecutions witnesses were mostly police officers who on March 1, 2020, found the bodies of April Barnicoat, 42, and Eric Surface, 44, in Barnicoats apartment in the Jamestown Place complex in southeast Roanoke.

The centerpiece of the evidence against Ray was a video of a long statement he made after walking into the Roanoke Police Department on July 31, 2020, and saying he wanted to speak to investigators.

In it, Ray confessed that he fatally stabbed and slashed Surface.

Ray said that he and Surface had not got along since Ray and his girlfriend, Barnicoats daughter, lived in the Jamestown Place apartment with Barnicoat two years earlier.

Ray said there also were lingering bad feelings between Barnicoat and her daughter and he had gone over to try to make peace. Instead, Ray and Surface began shouting at each other, then shoving and throwing punches, he said. Eventually, Ray pulled out a folding knife, he told police.

A medical examiner testified that Surface sustained at least 20 wounds from a sharp object, including a cut or series of cuts that laid open the left side of his neck.

Ray also told police that after killing Surface, he bound Barnicoat with duct tape, put a pillowcase on her head, and sat with her in her apartment for more than an hour. Then, Ray said, he drowned Barnicoat in her own bathtub.

Ray told police that he did this because Barnicoat had witnessed the killing of Surface.

In his recorded interview, Ray said his deeds had weighed on him until he could not look his girlfriend in the eyes, and that he now wanted to tell the truth.

McNeil said that Rays own words were enough to convict him of two counts of first-degree murder.

Ray had entered not guilty pleas on the two first-degree murder charges but was found guilty of both.

At the close of Rays trial, defense attorney Dirk Padgett had asked that a mental health screening of his client be completed prior to sentencing.

But Assistant Commonwealths Attorney John McNeil said Wednesday that Ray had been evaluated before the trial and had been found competent. The prosecutor said nothing about Rays mental status was mentioned during Tuesdays sentencing hearing.

For one first-degree murder charge, Ray was sentenced to 50 years of incarceration with 15 years suspended. On the second charge, he was sentenced to 30 years with 15 years suspended.

Once his combined 50-year sentence is complete, Ray will be placed on supervised probation for two more years.

The maximum sentence for a first-degree murder conviction in Virginia is life in prison. The minimum is 20 years.

When considering Rays sentence, McNeil said Judge David Carson indicated a desire to balance the brutality of the vicious and unnecessary crimes with the fact that Ray had no previous criminal record.

The commonwealths attorneys office was grateful that the jury found Ray guilty of the two incredibly brutal murders, McNeil said.
Everyone likes to save money on car insurance. Sounds like the opening to a commercial, but it actually describes well the philosophy behind the Earned Sentence Credits (ESC) Bill passed in 2020.

The insurance company offers you lower rates as long as you drive safely and obey the rules of the road. The commonwealth of Virginia lowers the sentence time of those with nonviolent offenses when they remain infraction free and improve themselves by participating in programs. Both policies keep us safe and everyone benefits.

In 2020 during a special session, a bipartisan group of legislators devised legislation to incentivize those with nonviolent crimes to improve themselves for an earlier release. These individuals would eventually be released anyway so why not incentivize them to participate in programs, hold a job, and in general stay out of trouble and come home better citizens. In order to give the Virginia Department of Corrections time to update its databases and prepare, Gov. Ralph Northam amended the bill so that it wouldnt take effect until July 1, 2022.

Then came the Virginia elections in the fall of 2021 and there was a change in the political makeup of the House of Delegates and every top political office including that of governor. Before the law could even take effect, in 2022 members of the House of Delegates entered bills to either exclude more people from the original bill or to repeal the bill entirely. These bills passed in the House, but didnt even make it out of the Senate committees. In the normal legislative process this should have been the end of the story for this legislative session.

After the 2022 General Assembly adjourned, final steps were taken to bring home those who had worked for two years to improve themselves, stay out of trouble, and earn an earlier release. Those who were eligible were notified and given a release date. Family and friends made plans to help their loved ones come home. Home plans were approved, jobs were found, applications for drivers licenses were filled out. Weddings were planned, reunions set up, and fathers and grandparents were in joyous anticipation of seeing children after many years or for the first time.

About 500 of those scheduled to be released have what are called mixed charges. They have completed their sentences for violent offenses that did not qualify for the ESC bill but were also serving consecutive sentences for nonviolent offenses that did qualify. Members of the House of Delegates persuaded Gov. Glenn Youngkin to use a nonconventional way to block legislation it was unable to block through the normal legislative process of the 2022 General Assembly session. The governor was persuaded to enter a budget amendment that would exclude those with these mixed charges. But Virginia doesnt legislate through the budget. There is a legislative process followed for a reason. Its called democracy.

One month ago, Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Rockingham, rose before the Senate body to urge members to deny early release to people who had worked in good faith for two years to improve themselves, fully expecting the legislative process to honor the promises made in 2020. As Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax, pointed out, We cannot create a system of reform if the people we govern cannot trust the laws we have set in place. Sen. Obenshains repeated claim that murderers and rapists would be given reduced sentences is completely false. They have served their full sentence for the crimes which are not eligible for the ESC Bill. But as Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, pointed out, Obenshains statements are a great soundbite and a great commercial, but (its) not what they are doing.

The news of the cruel reality that those eligible for ESC release are not coming home this summer as promised is quickly being spread through the facilities and to loved ones. They feel anger, disbelief and betrayal by a system they trusted to honor the commitments made to them. They kept their end of the bargain. They did everything required of them so they could come home just a little earlier to their loved ones. Sadly, the Virginia General Assembly has sacrificed its honor for the benefit of a political soundbite.
The best, eeriest parts of director Jordans Peeles third feature, Nope, are as good as anything in Get Out or Us, and theyre very different from either of those earlier triumphs of imagination. This one is a three-fifths triumph, which means whatever you want that to mean. To me, it means go.

Its a UFO movie with a peculiar, stop-and-start rhythm, telling a story set in a geographically remote realm of film and TV industry outsiders. Most of Nope takes place on a horse ranch northeast of Santa Clarita, California, where the skies  contrary to the old cowboy song Home on the Range  are cloudy all day. One cloud in particular, hanging over a ridge, doesnt appear to have moved in days. Months, even. Somethings in there, and it likes to come out now and then, fly around, check things out, and vacuum up a human or animal specimen or two as an appetizer for what may come.

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From left: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Brandon Perea in "Nope." (Universal Pictures/Universal Pictures/TNS)

Haywood Hollywood Horses is the name of a family business of animal wranglers hired for movie, commercial and TV shoots. Its a Black-owned concern with a secret movie history: OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) are the great-great-great grandchildren, were told, of the Bahamian jockey who rode the horse in Eadweard Muybridges photographic study A Horse in Motion.

The films sinister prologue exists on another plane entirely. A chimpanzee on a fictional 1990s sitcom goes crazy and attacks his human co-stars, which sounds like a joke but is handled with perfect, unsettling restraint by Peele. It indicates troubles ahead for both the animal and human kingdoms.

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The current story begins with OJ and Emeralds father (Keith David) on his white horse, under a sunny sky. Suddenly, quietly, objects metal and otherwise start falling from the clouds. A single key on a keychain sticks out of a horses hide. The rider lies on the ground, bloody and near death.

From there, Nope establishes its small posse of humans who must match wits with whatevers up there. A Frys Electronics geek-squad guy, Angel (Brandon Perea), installs some surveillance camera equipment for the Haywoods, and soon enough he learns hes not the only one who suspects the presence and threat of a UFO. Not far from the ranch, an Old West fairground is run by a former child star (Steven Yeun), whose claim to fame is co-starring on the sitcom we see brutally disrupted in the prologue.

How these folks respond to the stealthy visitor from another world leads to plenty of odd, off-kilter laughs and sidewinding scares in roughly equal measure. The saucer and alien glimpses, sparing at first (as they should be), are truly magical. Peele and his crack cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar) show us flashes, darting glimpses, of a saucer-like disc with a giant hole in the middle. Its an airborne bagel, in other words, as manufactured by Hoover.

Until the first full-on sightings, Nope cannily favors whats meant to resemble shadowy footage of what many believe to be authentic UFO sightings. The sound design in Nope, an amalgam of clicks, vacuum-on-very-high whooshes and human screams, matches the simplicity and brilliance of the digital effects. Working with his largest budget to date, Peele doesnt squander a cent.

Palmers brash, motormouthed Emerald dominates the human element. Its a forceful, often funny turn, though Peeles screenplay feels a draft away from fleshing these people out and sharpening the interactions to full advantage. Not to play meddling studio head, but Nope wouldve benefited from a 15-minute trim, simply to give the pacing a push when it counts. As is, the various strands of patronized Hollywood castoffs, from Yeuns traumatized former child star to the Haywoods long-standing, teeth-gritting dealings with the white establishment, operate as independent, slightly tangled ideas in a movie thats almost terrific and occasionally is terrific.

Theres another major character: a surly cinematographer (played by Michael Wincott of the one-better-than-Sam-Elliott basso profundo voice), brought out to the ranch to capture flying saucer footage before its too late. Cranking away at his manually operated makeshift camera, he may as well be shooting a silent Western in the era of The Great Train Robbery. Nope takes place today and in 1990s flashback, but Peeles picture feels like a time-traveling entity itself. He has made a film, featuring the latest arresting musical score by composer Michael Abels, thats a little bit Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a little bit M. Night Shyamalans Signs and a dash of Cowboys & Aliens.

As previously stated: The best of its otherworldly images, sounds and shudders stick in the craw the morning after.

Ive already seen too many films this year that cant make the same claim.

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Nope  3 stars (out of 4)

MPAA rating: R (for violence, bloody images and strong language)

Running time: 2:15

How to watch: Premieres in theaters July 21.

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

mjphillips@chicagotribune.com

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Twitter @phillipstribune

Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.
The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians recently donated $35,000 toward the Buellton Senior Center's anticipated expansion project that soon will include the square footage currently being utilized by its adjoining neighbors, the Buellton Library.
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Four LSU researchers have been awarded the National Science Foundation's most prestigious grant for early-career faculty, who exhibit potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. This highly competitive grant supports an individual's research helping build a firm foundation for a lifetime of research and academic leadership.

"The first few years of a new professor's career can be challenging as they work to establish their lab, recruit and mentor students, develop and teach courses and serve on departmental committees. The NSF CAREER award offers support for these new faculty members to advance their research. NSF's investment in our talented faculty has a positive ripple effect for the state, the nation and the world as these researchers tackle some of our most pressing problems," said Samuel J. Bentley, vice president of the LSU Office of Research & Economic Development.

The following faculty at LSU have received NSF CAREER Awards this year.

LSU School of Education Assistant Professor Yu April Chen was funded to pursue her research into boosting the four-year degree completion rate of underrepresented racial minority transfer students and to promote racial equity in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, fields. The research and educational components of the project will contribute to the statewide STEM initiative in Louisiana by emphasizing STEM students' transition, retention and degree completion in four-year institutions.

Community colleges offer a crucial transfer pathway toward bachelor's degrees in STEM for many underrepresented racial minority students. Although previous studies have focused on creating a seamless STEM transfer pathway connecting sending community colleges and receiving four-year institutions, significant issues remain unsolved after transfer students arrive at receiving four-year institutions. For example, transfer students may experience credit loss, transition challenges and a lower degree attainment rate at the four-year institution.

Chen's project aims to examine influential psychosocial factors of post-transfer success for underrepresented racial minority STEM transfer students and to develop tailored institutional strategies to foster a transfer receptive culture in four-year institutions. She will collaborate with multiple LSU departments to implement a transfer student success program as well as to develop evidence-based strategies for transfer student recruitment and faculty professional development.

"Getting an NSF CAREER grant as an education or a social science researcher is extremely difficult and challenging. I feel privileged and grateful as this will open up amazing opportunities for me to advance my research agenda, translate scholarship to practice and benefit the communities of science and practice at LSU and beyond," Chen said.

NSF has awarded Chen $497,713 over five years for her project, "Leveling the Playing Field in STEM: Post-transfer Success for Underrepresented Racial Minority Community College Transfers."

LSU Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences Assistant Professor Matthew Hiatt has been funded to research complex coastal hydrological processes that are critical to predicting future impacts of coastal restoration strategies and evaluating their efficacy, especially in light of global issues such as sea-level rise. Hiatt's project will combine five years of field measurements in the Wax Lake Delta, Louisiana, with computer simulations of long-term and short-term changes to the delta to understand dynamic patterns of water movement changes through time. This research is especially important in the context of Louisiana's coastal restoration efforts.

Surface water movement through coastal environments is controlled by both marine and terrestrial processes, which yields complicated patterns of water circulation that vary through time and space. In river deltas, this is complicated by the presence of deep, fast-moving water in channels that is connected to slow, shallow moving water in vegetated wetlands.

"The project has implications for biology, ecology, fisheries, and society and I have a wealth of world-class collaborators who can provide their expertise just down the hall from me," Hiatt said.

NSF has awarded him $480,941 over five years for this work.

LSU Department of Mathematics Assistant Professor Rui Han was funded to pursue his research on the study of electrons in a lattice material structure, such as graphene, under external magnetic fields. His research aims to answer the question: as time evolves, will electrons escape, exhibiting metal-like behavior or stay confined near their original positions, showing insulator-like behavior? And, are there mathematical ways to quantify these behaviors?

Understanding these features in different materials has important real-world applications including in electricity transmission and room-temperature superconductors.

NSF has awarded him $464,836 over five years for his project, "Schrodinger operators on lattices."

LSU Department of Psychology Associate Professor Don Zhang was funded to pursue his research on the impacts of risk takers in the workplace.

The personality profile of a risk taker is extroverted, open to experiences, disagreeable, emotionally stable and irresponsible. However, risk taking is also essential for innovation, courage and the fight against social injustice.

Zhang's goal is to provide organizations with a valid measure of workplace risk taking to help their assessment and selection efforts. He aims to reach organizations with high-risk occupations, such as the chemical and manufacturing industries, to understand how to prevent safety incidences due to reckless risk-taking.

"Risk takers at work can be a liability and asset and it's critical that we understand how to leverage employees' appetite for risks toward virtue rather than malice," Zhang said.

NSF has awarded him $430,000 for his project, "Understanding workplace risk-taking behavior."

Provided by Louisiana State University
Credit: Yang Zhang, et al

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a class of chemical substances that pose a serious threat to human health and the ecological environment owing to their persistence, toxicity, bioaccumulation, and long-range environmental transport. Therefore, in its decision 18/32 in May 1995 the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) called for an international assessment of a preliminary list of 12 POPs, including nine organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), PCBs, polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs), and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs).

The UNEP Governing Council, in its 19/13C decision in February 1997, requested that the UNEP prepare and convene meetings of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop a legally binding international instrument for action on 12 POPs. The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (hereinafter referred to as the Stockholm Convention) was adopted and opened for signature at the Conference of Plenipotentiaries held in Stockholm, Sweden, from May 22 to 23, 2001 (Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention, 2019). To date, approximately 18 additional chemicals have been included in the Stockholm Convention, making the total number of POPs approximately 30.

According to the requirements of the Stockholm Convention, parties should first develop a National Implementation Plan (NIP) as a programmatic document for POP reduction, elimination, control, and environmental management. However, owing to the wide scope of NIP preparation, China faces issues such as lack of basic information, insufficient funds, and backward technology in the field of POPs. To solve the above issues, the Chinese government has coordinated with experts, relevant line ministries, industry associations, local governments, and other parties, and successfully completed the preparation of the NIP for the implementation of the Stockholm Convention in China.

This was submitted to the Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention in November 2006, thus fulfilling China's commitment to the international community. Concurrently, the Chinese government has gradually strengthened capacity development to meet all the requirements to comprehensively promote the implementation of the Stockholm Convention. Twenty years passes, how about the China's implementation of the Stockholm Convention?

A comprehensive and systematic research on the history, practice, and effectiveness of China's implementation of the Stockholm Convention was conducted by scantiest from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China and Beihang university. This study entitled "Twenty years of achievements in China's implementation of the Stockholm Convention" is published online in Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering.

China has established an implementation guarantee system including institutions, implementation mechanisms, policies, law enforcement, and scientific and technological support. During the 20 years since the implementation of the Stockholm Convention, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) concentrations in the air have been steadily decreasing, and Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid/Perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride (PFOS/PFOSF) concentrations in water bodies have decreased. In the past 20 years, China has safely disposed of 6352.1 tons of pesticide persistent organic pollutants and 36998 sets of electrical equipment containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), with a disposal rate of 100%. In the future, China will further strengthen the construction of persistent organic pollutant monitoring networks, scientific research, publicity, education, and international cooperation to improve environmental quality, providing a reference for other countries to implement the Stockholm Convention.

More information:

Yang Zhang et al, Twenty years of achievements in China's implementation of the Stockholm Convention, Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering (2022). DOI: 10.1007/s11783-022-1587-7

Provided by Higher Education Press
MOMBASA, Kenya  Officials are meeting in Kigali in Rwanda this week as part of the continents first-ever Africa Protected Areas Congress in a bid to expand the preservation of land and marine wildlife, despite little funding and the low quality of many existing conservation areas in the region.

Just 14% of Africas land and inland water ecosystems and 17% of coastal and marine areas are protected, according to United Nations estimates. The continent currently has 9,118 protected areas. Over 100 countries worldwide have ambitions to expand conservation efforts and protect wildlife from human-caused damages.

Africas protected and conserved areas face serious issues that need to be addressed urgently, said Ken Mwathe, policy coordinator for Birdlife International in Africa. He said climate change, the decline in quality for protected areas due to underfunding and the growth of infrastructure development in protected areas area severely hampering biodiversity on the continent.

The push for development in protected and other key biodiversity areas is one that governments and stakeholders should critically interrogate during the congress, Mwathe said.

Those working on the frontlines of conservation are already facing increasing challenges. On Kenyas Wasini Island, where coral reefs and fish are protected by a community-managed marine park, conservation managers say its difficult for these projects to succeed.

Managing this local marine park is quite expensive for the community and requires a lot of external support, said Dosa Mshenga, a member of the community that looks after the coral reefs. However it has a major positive side. Since we started coral restoration and watching the designated area around eight years ago, we have seen fish, octopus and even lobsters which had disappeared returning.

But these gains are now threatened by the construction of a major fishing port in Shimoni, just 1.9 miles from the island, Mshenga said.

The Great Blue Wall Initiative  a project to protect marine life across Africas east coast  will play a prominent part in marine conservation discussions, alongside community-led projects like those in Wasini, Luther Anukur, regional director of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which is hosting the conference, said. He added that local communities and Indigenous people will be at the forefront of conservation efforts.

It is important to note that African people have not only lived alongside wildlife but have been its protectors too, Anukur said.

African governments have found themselves under increasing public pressure and international condemnation in recent weeks following evictions of Indigenous communities from conservation areas, with the Maasai in Tanzania appealing to the U.N. for better protections following violent confrontations that forced them to leave their ancestral homes in Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

The congress brings together wildlife parks and reserves managers, scientists, and Indigenous and community leaders. Its hoped that increasing the dialogue between groups will improve the health of Africas biodiversity hotspots and combat worrying trends, such as the increase in poaching and the illegal wildlife trade.

A high-level discussion on the link between climate change and biodiversity, with an emphasis on protected areas that can significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, will be central to the meeting, organizer Anukur added.
After my June column, Losing well is critical to democracy, in which I praised Tom Rice for his grace in defeat and compared his response to Donald Trumps incessant lying about his loss, I received an email from someone whom I will call Randy who is a Trump supporter.

Randy told me he grew up in Florence and now lived out west. He was back home visiting and saw the column. He is a volunteer poll worker and has witnessed serious problems with conducting fair elections although the only example he cited was an error that involved 40 votes in a local election.

Given that Steven Wukela won the Florence mayoral Democratic primary by a single vote in 2008, I agree with Randy that election integrity is paramount: Votes must be properly counted and only eligible voters should vote.

I was curious about his poll-working experience and wanted to know more. Did he believe that the 2020 election had been stolen? How did he think it had occurred?

But the most interesting statement in his email was Trump gets his power from loyal voters like me. He is nothing without the huge support he enjoys from voters. Whenever you insult him, you actually insult voters like me which cost Tom Rice his job from fellow Trumpers!

I found this very helpful. For someone like me who knows and respects many people who voted for Trump but sees Trump himself as reckless and solipsistic, I wanted to engage with Randy and find out why he is such a devoted follower.

I was also encouraged that he ended his missive with this benediction: I enjoyed reading your column but could not disagree with you more.

Randys sentiment, that he could both enjoy my column but totally disagree was refreshing and is largely missing from current political discourse. My intuition is that there are many Americans like Randy, who can disagree enjoyably and leave an argument respecting their opponent.

I quickly composed an answer. The first draft was civil but contained the accusation that due to his fealty to Trump he had a chip-on-the- shoulder attitude and that he was primed to be insulted.

When I reread it, I realized that I was making the error that so many of us make  I assumed I understood his motives, that I could read his mind. Its always better to allow people to tell you why they feel the way they feel. Of course, they may or may not reveal their true motivations, but it is worth hearing them out.

So I edited my draft. Here is what I sent: Randy, I really appreciate your responding to my column. Thank you for your service as a poll worker and the insights in your email. I would be happy to entertain evidence that there was significant fraud in 2020. I agree that elections are not perfect. But the fact that 40 voters voted twice in (your home state) is a far cry from what would be needed to overturn a presidential election  After almost two years and 60 court cases in which no evidence of fraud was found, I think your position that significant fraud existed is weak. Your position is also opposed by attorney general Bill Barr, countless election officials including the Republican Secretary of State who certified the result in Georgia, Brad Raffensperger (who recently beat the Trump-backed candidate is his primary reelection campaign), and the U.S. Congress. Again, I would be open to hearing the evidence and being swayed by it.

Im interested in your statement Whenever you insult him, you actually insult voters like me. Im not out to insult Trump and certainly not people like you who support him. Im stating what I believe to be a fact, that he knows he lost the election and is purposely pushing a lie about fraud because it is effective with many of his supporters. He has a unique and strong bond with you and many others. I would benefit from your telling me more about why he means so much to you.

I truly value your willingness to engage with me civilly. If you would, please write back. Thanks and best wishes, Paul

I sent that over a week ago and as of this writing have not received a response. But for me the possibility that he might respond is energizing. So much of what I read and listen to makes me grit my teeth in despair. I sit between the two warring sides as they lob innuendo- and contempt-laden grenades at one another. Its depressing and deeply boring. There are many of us in this no-mans land. If what was said on Twitter was what most of us truly felt about our political opponents, fist fights should be breaking out daily in every grocery store in the country.

Truth is, only a small fraction of us participate in our media dialogues and fewer still enjoy it. Most of us would rather have honest discussions that include various points of view. I hope Randy writes back, or if not that someone else who disagrees with me will.
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 Might Prez Biden wisely focus on marijuana offenders for his next clemency efforts? | Main | "Federal Sentencing of Illegal Reentry: The Impact of The 2016 Guideline Amendment" 

The title of this post is the title of this new article authored by Danielle C. Jefferis and now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract:

For decades, scholars across disciplines have examined the stark injustice of American carceralism. Among that body of work are analyses of the various intent requirements embedded in the constitutional doctrine that governs the states power to incarcerate. These intent requirements include the deliberate indifference standard of the Eighth Amendment, which regulates prison conditions, and the punitive intent standard of due process jurisprudence, which regulates the scope of confinement. This Article coins the term carceral intent to refer collectively to those legal intent requirements and examines critically the role of carceral intent in shaping and maintaining the deep-rooted structural racism and sweeping harms of Americas system of confinement.

This Article begins by tracing the origins of American carceralism, focusing on the modern prisons relationship to white supremacy and the post-Emancipation period in U.S. history. The Article then turns to the constitutional doctrine of incarceration, synthesizing and categorizing the law of carceral intent. Then, drawing upon critical race scholarship that examines anti-discrimination doctrine and the concept of white innocence, the Article compares the laws reliance on carceral intent with the laws reliance on discriminatory intent in equal protection jurisprudence. Critical race theorists have long critiqued the intent-focused anti-discrimination doctrine as incapable of remedying structural racism and inequities. The same can be said of the doctrine of incarceration. The laws preoccupation with an alleged wrongdoers bad intent in challenges to the scope and conditions of incarceration makes it ill-suited to remedying the U.S. prison systems profoundly unjust and harmful features. A curative approach, this Article asserts, is one in which the law focuses on carceral effect rather than carceral intent, as others have argued in the context of equal protection.
People stand outside the Donnellan Family Funeral Services on July 18, 2022, after attending a funeral for Kevin McCarthy, 37, who was killed in a mass shooting along with wife Irina McCarthy, 35, in Highland Park during a Fourth of July parade. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Among the responses to the Fourth of July shooting in Highland Park, news went out earlier this week that one of its residents was staging a benefit concert  Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan announced he would host and perform in a livestreamed concert event July 27. Newly added to the lineup: Perry Farrell of the band Janes Addiction.

Titled Together and Together Again, the concert, put together with Corgans partner Chloe Mendel, will raise money for the Highland Park Community Foundation and its July 4th Highland Park Shooting Response Fund, and will take place at Madame ZuZus, the couples tea house and performance space in Highland Park.

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Its Corgan and Mendels way of giving back to their hometown.

Its almost impossible to put into words what this community is going through, Corgan said in an interview with the Tribune.

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The performance will be livestreamed via the Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel; viewers will be able to donate as well as buy artwork such as posters and T-shirts from artist Gary Baseman, the proceeds also donated.

Corgan said the lineup is still taking shape, but the bill will include him and Smashing Pumpkins bandmate Jimmy Chamberlin, jazz saxophonist Frank Catalano and the also newly announced Bob Moses  the Vancouver duo of Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance and a Lollapalooza headliner.

Musician Billy Corgan in 2014 at his Madame Zuzu's Teashop in Highland Park. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

Putting together his own song contributions has been a challenge, Corgan said.

Im looking back into my catalog, he said, and he knows there are songs people will want to hear but I also want to make sure theyre appropriate for the occasion.

Also on the bill is Lincoln Trio, a classical music group with members who live in Highland Park.

Corgan himself has lived there for two decades, Mendel for a decade, now with their two children. For those unfamiliar with that history  how a famous rock star ended up settling down in a northern Chicago suburb versus New York or somewhere  Corgan said it started with being born and raised in Chicago.

I did try to live in New York and in LA in different parts of my life but I always moved back to Chicago, he said. He hadnt lived in Highland Park when he was younger but it was a dream of mine to live in the North Shore. I suppose it came from reading The Great Gatsby. To live among the fancy people, he laughed.

From his time in Soho in New York, he thought opening an art gallery would be cool; an earlier iteration of Madame ZuZus in Highland Parks Ravinia District was closer to that. That business didnt last, but the current tea shop, which opened in 2020 (in the middle of a pandemic, he adds) is their lives now. Both Corgan and Mendel say they spend a lot of time there, Mendel as a general manager.

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Madame ZuZus Plantbased Emporium is located at 1876 1st St. in Highland Park, near where the mass shooting took place during the holiday parade.

I had just been at the intersection and night before and it was empty. A few chairs out from people saving space for the parade, Corgan said.

On the morning of the shooting, he remembers he had been texting with Mendel, who was on a flight from Europe with their children, and then quickly, texts from friends started arriving asking if they had heard what had happened.

It was strange and awful, Corgan said. I was in New York for 9/11 and it felt a bit like that. I was actually having flashbacks. Its like youre living history at the same time youre experiencing it.

He said he hadnt often attended the parade himself in the past, but Mendel always did. Although Highland Park is generally respectful of his privacy, he said, for things like that, I dont usually insert myself into them. I dont want to be there to make it about me.

The same goes for Madame ZuZus, he said. Mendel said they created the space to be the kind of place that would be low-key, welcoming and fun, the kind of place both of us would have felt welcome in while we were in high school, she said. Billy sometimes plays, if he feels like it.

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But he says lately hes been keeping a lower profile. Regular customers know to just be cool. But especially now with people coming to Highland Park and coming to the memorial, they may come in expecting to see him, he said. Expecting me to be the celebrity guy.

Putting together the concert has been a whirlwind, he said. Ive never done anything like this.

Mendel added, This is our way a way to heal through music. Now more than ever, Highland Park has shown how strong our community really is.

Together and Together Again will be 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. July 27, streamed on the Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel; more information at www.zuzuscafe.com/eventtickets (limited in-person invites have been filled); artwork is now on sale at togetheragainhp.com

dgeorge@chicagotribune.com
ANNAPOLIS, Md.  Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen won the Democratic nomination for a second term on Tuesday, while both parties closely watched the highly competitive primaries to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.

Van Hollen will be the heavy favorite in November's general election in the liberal state, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1.

In other top contests in Maryland's primary election, voters selected nominees in the highly competitive contest to replace Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who is prohibited from running for a third consecutive term.

He endorsed Kelly Schulz, who served as labor and commerce secretaries in his administration. Her top challenge in the Republican gubernatorial primary was from Dan Cox, a Donald Trump-backed state legislator who sued Hogan over his pandemic policies and later sought unsuccessfully to impeach him.

On the Democratic side, Tom Perez, a former U.S. labor secretary and former Democratic Party chair, has the backing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a native daughter of Baltimore, while bestselling author Wes Moore has the support of Oprah Winfrey and U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democrat. Other top candidates include Comptroller Peter Franchot, former Attorney General Doug Gansler and former U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr.

The big-name endorsements in Maryland's governor's race illustrate the high stakes for both parties. Democrats see the contest as one of their best chances nationwide to flip a governor's mansion in this year's midterm elections, while Republicans want to cement the party's hold on the office.

The Republican primary provides a potential 2024 preview of the appeal of candidates in the mold of Hogan and Trump, who offer competing visions for the future of the party.

Other top races include contests for U.S. House and attorney general. The state's eight-member congressional delegation has an open seat in the Washington suburbs. The daughter of the state's former attorney general is vying for her father's old job.

It could take days, or even longer, to determine the winners in the most closely contested races. Maryland law prohibits counties from opening mail ballots until the Thursday after election day.

Ten candidates seek the Democratic nomination for governor. Perez has support from labor unions, while Moore, the former CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, an anti-poverty organization, has been endorsed by the state's teachers union and the two top Maryland legislative leaders, House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson.

Franchot, who comfortably won four races to be the state's tax collector, brings significant name recognition to the primary. Gansler, a longtime prosecutor, is running as a moderate. King served in President Barack Obama's Cabinet.

Voter Laura Kretchman, a 41-year-old high school teacher, said Moore's endorsement by the Maryland State Education Association helped her choose him. She said she's impressed by Moore's accomplishments after rising above childhood challenges and being raised by a single mom.

"I teach children at a school that also come from difficult upbringings, so I'd like to see maybe what he can bring to helping those students that are struggling and challenged," said Kretchman, an Annapolis resident.

Other voters said they preferred a long resume of government service. Curtis Fatig, a 67-year-old voter in Annapolis, settled on Perez, who also worked on the Montgomery County Council, as Maryland's secretary of labor and as the assistant attorney general for civil rights in Obama's administration.

"He's not a newcomer," said Fatig.

On the Republican side, Hogan has stood firmly behind Schulz, whom he sees as the strongest candidate to face a Democrat in November. Democrats seem to agree, with the Democratic National Committee plowing more than $1 million behind an ad intended to boost Cox in the Republican primary. It's a tactic they've used elsewhere in an effort to face an easier opponent in the general election.

Hogan has criticized Cox for organizing busloads of Trump supporters to go to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, for the "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Cox has said he didn't go to the Capitol and left before the rioting began.

In a tweet he later deleted, Cox called then-Vice President Mike Pence a "traitor" for refusing to heed Trump's demands not to certify the 2020 election. He apologized for it and denounced the attack on the Capitol.

Trump, meanwhile, has branded Schulz and Hogan as RINOs, or Republicans In Name Only, a term of derision reserved for party members who don't fall in line behind him.

"Get rid of Shutdown RINO Larry Hogan who is trying to get another RINO into office, Kelly Schulz," Trump said in a statement Monday.

Maryland's only open congressional seat is in the 4th Congressional District, a heavily Democratic Black-majority district. Incumbent U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown is leaving to run for attorney general. Former Rep. Donna Edwards, who previously held the seat, faces former county prosecutor Glenn Ivey in Tuesday's Democratic primary.

The Democratic primary for attorney general has turned into a battle between former Gov. Martin O'Malley's wife, Katie Curran O'Malley, who is a former Baltimore judge and the daughter of former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., and Brown, O'Malley's lieutenant governor who lost the 2014 governor's race to Hogan.

The two are vying to replace Democratic Attorney General Brian Frosh, who is retiring. Maryland hasn't had a Republican attorney general in nearly 70 years.
Sri Lanka's prime minister has been elected president by lawmakers who opted for a seasoned, veteran leader to lead the country out of economic collapse. Ranil Wickremesinghe is an ally of the ousted president whose term he is finishing after he fled the country and resigned. The new leader on Wednesday urged fellow lawmakers to unite in saving the nation. But he is a divisive figure and unpopular among a public fed up with shortages of food, fuel and medicine. He has already served six terms as prime minister and as finance minister and has been leading negotiations on a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund. Last week he declared a state of emergency after protesters stormed the presidential palace and his office.
Theres a lot thats left unexplained in the highly atmospheric Where the Crawdads Sing.

For starters, how does a little girl spend her adolescence in the marshes of North Carolina without some in authority wondering what happened to her parents. Siblings are gone, too. But there, in a swampy home without visible means of support, she raises herself, draws pictures of flora and fauna, engages with a general store owner and his wife and, supposedly, teaches herself to read and write.

Were never sure how those gaps are filled, but they help foster her identity as the marsh girl, a target of ridicule from the teens in town.

Luckily, another environmentally conscious teen shares her love of wildlife and, soon, theyre hanging out. He doesnt ask obvious questions either but, soon, hes off to college and shes back to drawing detailed pictures of plants and animals. Another young man (Harris Dickinson) slips in and, presumably, appears to be interested in her. She falls for his attention and, then, after shes ridiculed in town by his friends, he winds up dead  near her home.

Is Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones) responsible? Was it an accident? Or could someone else have entered the picture?

Director Olivia Newman starts with the death, then backtracks. Courtroom testimony fills in the gaps  but not enough. Often too interested in finding its own To Kill a Mockingbird vibe, Crawdads doesnt ask enough questions about the family that walked out on Kya. It also paints a bleak picture of the folks who didnt seem to care when she arrived at school without shoes. Kids made fun of her and she retreated. The next thing we know, marsh girl is selling mussels, drawing pictures and avoiding much  if any  contact.

When the first relationship unfolds, its incomplete, too. When the second one crops up, its like something from Peyton Place or another 50s potboiler.

Based on Delia Owens best-seller, Crawdads manages a few choice lines but not a steady throughline.

The courtroom scenes, commanded by David Straithairn as Kyas attorney, clear things up in ways that bring audible gasps from those in attendance. But, still, there are holes that even the storys shocking end dont clear up.

Edgar-Jones does her best to make us care for a woman who has been ridiculed by most everyone. Plucky  in a quiet way  she deserves the success she achieves. But she shouldnt be the first person everyone in town thinks is guilty of murder, particularly since she didnt seem to have a public relationship with the victim.

While Taylor John Smith (as Tate, the first beau) could be just as suspect, hes never charged with anyone. Instead, he has to stand by while Kya lets others craft a scenario that would absolve them of misjudging her.

When Edgar-Jones is drinking in the marshlands (beautifully photographed by Polly Morgan), Crawdads has a certain charm. Once shes put into play with a familiar story, it begins to dry up.

A song by Taylor Swift over the end credits tries to add depth but its a little late for something that should have been painted in finer strokes from the beginning.
TUESDAY, July 19, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- American society may seem more fractured than ever, but cooperation among total strangers has been on the upswing for decades, researchers in China say.

Their conclusion emerged from an analysis of more than 500 studies that tracked cooperation patterns over the past six decades.

The upshot, study author Yu Kou said, is that Americans appear to have gradually embraced a "slight increase in cooperation" over generations.

"That is, Americans became more cooperative toward fellow Americans -- at least to strangers," she added.

Kou is a professor at the Chinese National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education at Beijing Normal University.

She said her team was surprised by its finding, which she acknowledged runs "contrary to a highly influential hypothesis and perspective that American cooperation among strangers is declining."

Yet Kou pointed to a number of changes in American life that might explain what's afoot.

For one, more Americans now live in dense urban centers and more are living alone. That's important, she said, given prior research suggesting that "individualism could be associated with higher impersonal cooperation."

Increases in education and thinking skills as well as income inequality may also help explain the increase in cooperation, researchers said.

The findings don't prove these factors caused more cooperation, only that there is a link. A study earlier this year examined how perceptions of political polarization affect Americans' trust in one another.

For the new study, Kou and her colleagues reviewed 511 studies conducted in the United States between 1956 and 2017. Taken together, they included more than 63,000 Americans between 18 and 28 years of age, with college students making up a majority.

Each of the studies focused on the tendency to cooperate with strangers. Kou said researchers broadly defined that "as behavior that benefits the group or collective but is costly for the individual."

Because all of the studies were conducted in controlled laboratory settings, the researchers stressed that the findings may not represent how people actually behave in real life.

Still, they said, over time Americans do appear to have become more likely to interact with -- and perhaps even depend on -- strangers, leading to a slight but notable uptick in cooperation.

Surprisingly, the researchers pointed to the advent of social media as a factor that may have helped to boost cooperation. That's because it provides an easy way to engage with strangers who might otherwise have been out of reach.

"We expect this trend to continue going forward, along with [the] above societal changes," Kou said.

James Maddux, senior scholar with the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., reviewed the analysis.

"These findings are surprising," he said, "because they are inconsistent with the popular narrative and 'accepted wisdom' that trust and cooperation in general in American society has declined significantly, and that this is both a cause of and a result of increasing political polarization."

At the same time, Maddux acknowledged that it's not surprising that once again conventional wisdom goes unsupported by careful scientific investigation -- in this case, research that examined actual behavior and not just beliefs and feelings.

"These results are encouraging, and I hope they get the attention they deserve," Maddux said.

A University of Pennsylvania expert offered a far less rosy view of the findings, however.

Melissa Hunt, associate director of clinical training at Penn's Department of Psychology, said that far from offering insight into real-life behavior, the studies reviewed were all conducted under conditions that don't truly reflect how people make key decisions.

For example, Hunt noted that the studies generally didn't do a good job of fairly assessing how and when people act out of selfishness. Nor did they rigorously examine how people tend to distinguish between making decisions based on short-term versus long-term interests, she said.

Hunt also pointed out that while many of the earlier studies mostly involved men, by the end of 60-year time frame, mostly women were involved. That, she said, is a big and perhaps influential gender shift that was unaccounted for by the new research analysis.

"I certainly wouldnt make much of [this] finding, and I dont think it's relevant to the actual problem of civic engagement, much less does it address core issues of partisanship and tribalism," Hunt said.

The findings were published July 18 in the American Psychological Association's Psychological Bulletin.

More information

UNICEF has more on the benefits of cooperation.

SOURCE: Yu Kou, PhD, professor, Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, China; James Maddux, PhD, professor emeritus, psychology, and senior scholar, Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, George Mason University, Fairfax, Va.; Melissa Hunt, PhD, associate director, clinical training, Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Psychological Bulletin, July 18, 2022
With cases of COVID-19 on the rise in the U.S., federal health officials have held out an antiviral pill as an important tool in keeping high-risk people who get infected with the coronavirus from getting sick enough to require hospitalization.

Dr. Mark Rupp, chief of the infectious diseases division at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said the drug, called Paxlovid, probably is underappreciated and underutilized.

Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration opened the door to the drug wider. It updated the emergency authorization for the medication to allow licensed pharmacists to prescribe the drug, with certain limitations. The move, according to the FDA, was intended to improve timely access to the drug, which must be taken within five days of the first symptoms.

But how the move will play out in practice isn't yet clear. Patients who have tested positive for the virus are supposed to bring enough information for pharmacists to determine their eligibility for Paxlovid, including a list of medications and medical records with enough information to allow for a review of liver and kidney function.

In the meantime, health care providers appear to be doing most of the prescribing of Paxlovid.

At Nebraska Medicine, Rupp said, clinicians are prescribing about three courses of the medication a day. Providers there have been provided with online guidance to walk them through the prescribing information so they can decide what's best for their patients.

Rupp said he didn't know how widely the drug is being used in outside the health system, "but I'm going to guess it's not as well utilized as it should be."

A CHI Health spokeswoman said the health system's pharmacists are dispensing a fair amount of the drug, but not a lot. They're both prescribing the drug directly and filling prescriptions written by other health care providers.

Methodist Physicians Clinic providers are prescribing the drug at all locations. Methodist Health System's only public-facing pharmacy in Fremont requires a prescription from a health care provider.

Anecdotally, Rupp said, he has had family members in other states who have sought the drug and been discouraged by providers from getting it. He said he has not heard such reports in Nebraska.

He also has heard from a couple of out-of-state relatives whose providers have prescribed antibiotics and steroids for COVID-19. "That's not an appropriate treatment for somebody with acute COVID," he said.

The initial data that drug-maker Pfizer presented to the FDA in support of its request for emergency authorization for Paxlovid indicated the drug reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 89%. In that trial, all the participants were unvaccinated.

Rupp said the drug has not been as rigorously studied in people who are vaccinated or have had COVID infections. "But what we know is that it showed very good efficacy in preventing progression of disease in high-risk patients," he said. "So I think we would still be recommending very strongly that folks who have risk factors for serious disease ... that they should avail themselves of this."

Among those at higher risk from serious cases of COVID-19 are older people, those with compromised immune systems and people with chronic illnesses such as heart disease, lung disease and diabetes.

The chief limitation for people in those higher-risk groups is that many take other medications, and Paxlovid has the potential for adverse interactions with a number of other drugs. "It's an extensive list," Rupp said. "It's not easy."

The time and effort needed to evaluate patients' medications and medical conditions, which may include corresponding with patients' health care providers, may hamper direct prescribing by pharmacists.

"I don't think the aim of having the test-to-treat program where folks could be tested at an urgent care center or a pharmacy and immediately transition to treatment has been as effective as we would like," Rupp said.

Both CVS and Walgreens officials said in statements that they were evaluating the FDA update to allow pharmacists to prescribe the medication.

At CVS pharmacies, according to the company's statement, patients with COVID-19 symptoms can visit an in-store clinic to be seen by a provider for testing. If positive, eligible patients can get a prescription for an oral drug that can be filled at the pharmacy or another of the patient's choosing. Patients who already have tested positive also can schedule a telehealth or in-person appointment with a clinic provider who can assess eligibility and write a prescription.

An online federal COVID therapy finder indicates that local Walgreens and Walmarts recommend that patients talk to their doctor or visit a community health center to get a prescription before going to the pharmacy to have it filled.

Options for Baker's pharmacy users, according to the online tool, include the same recommendation but add the option of a telehealth appointment for positive patients.

Hy-Vee is dispensing COVID-19 antivirals, including Paxlovid, at pharmacies throughout its eight-state region to eligible patients with a prescription from their health care provider, a spokeswoman said. The grocery store chain is not participating in the test-to-treat program.

Rupp said there are other treatment alternatives, including an oral drug called molnupiravir. But it's not as effective as Paxlovid and there are concerns about using it in people of child-bearing age.

Other therapies, including monoclonal antibodies, are given as IV infusions, making them less easy to access. Some monoclonal antibodies don't work well against the newer COVID variants now circulating.

A small number of people who take Paxlovid, probably 1% to 2%, Rupp said, get better initially and then develop symptoms again a week or more later. They may even test positive again.

Rupp said there's not much indication that people who experience such "rebound" symptoms are at increased risk of serious illness and no indicators that the virus has become resistant to the drug, which patients take for five days. Providers are shying away from prescribing a second course unless the patient is getting significantly worse.

But some COVID patients experience recurring symptoms even without the drug, he said. That makes it difficult to determine whether the rebound results from the drug or the virus itself.

"It's incumbent upon us as clinicians that if we have patients with COVID who have these (high-risk) conditions we should be trying to preserve their health to the best of our ability," Rupp said, "and Paxlovid is a powerful tool to do that."
BANGKOK (AP)  Scattered pro-democracy rallies were held across military-ruled Myanmar on Tuesday to mark the 75th anniversary of the assassination of the independence hero and father of the countrys civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in last years military takeover.

The protests generally dispersed within a short time to avoid confrontations with security forces. Since the army took power and detained Suu Kyi and thousands of supporters, 2,091 civilians including poets, activists, politicians and others had been killed in the crackdown, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The opposition National Unity Government, which was established by elected lawmakers and considers itself the countrys legitimate administration, broadcast a livestream of the commemoration ceremony on social media.

Mahn Winn Khaing Thann, the shadow prime minister of the government that the ruling military considers a terrorist organization, promised to fight until freedom is restored in Myanmar.

I would like to reiterate that the entire population, including monks, students, and youth, can only exercise their freedom of choice and fully enjoy their rights after ending the military dictatorship and restoring democracy, he said.

Gen. Aung San was 32 when he was gunned down by a group of armed men in uniform in Yangon, the countrys biggest city. A political rival, former Prime Minister U Saw, was tried and hanged for plotting the assassination less than six months before the country, then called Burma, achieved its independence from British colonial rule.

In Yangon, neighborhoods heard wailing sirens and car horns bellowing out for one minute at 10:37 a.m., the time of the 1947 attack that also killed six Cabinet members and two other officials.

Photos and videos showed protesters carrying banners and chanting Eradicate racism, there are more than nine martyrs in Yangon.

An annual official ceremony was held at Martyrs Mausoleum in Yangon, near the foot of the famous Shwedagon Pagoda.

Neither Suu Kyi, who is under arrest, nor Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who heads the ruling military council, attended the event. The highest-ranking official there was Vice-Senior Gen. Soe Win, vice chairman of the military council. An official of the ceremonys subcommittee laid a wreath on behalf of Suu Kyis family.

Suu Kyi, 77, has not been seen in public apart from one photo shown on state television in May 2021, taken inside a court at the start of criminal proceedings against her.

Suu Kyi has been sentenced to 11 years in prison and was transferred from a secret detention location to a custom-built solitary facility at a prison in the capital Naypyitaw last month.

She is being tried on a slew of legal cases brought by the military. Her supporters and independent analysts say the charges are politically motivated and an attempt to discredit her and legitimize the militarys seizure of power.

The historic secretariat office building where the 1947 attack took place, and Bogyoke Aung San Museum, the last residence of Aung San and his family before his assassination, were reopened to the public under strict safety protocols after being closed for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Residents who live near the sites said security was tight and few visitors were seen on nearby roads coming to pay respects.
This is not the first time a B-17 has touched the tarmac in Sioux City. During World War II, the airport was converted into an Army Air Corps base, where gunners, pilots and other members of the crew were trained, according to the Sioux City Museum. One of the most common aircraft found at the base was the B-17. 12,731 B-17's were constructed during World War II, but only five, including Texas Raiders, still fly today.
LE MARS, Iowa  Iowa tourism officials on Tuesday presented its annual "Peoples Choice" award to the Wells Visitor Center & Ice Cream Parlor.

Delegates to the state tourism conference in April selected the popular attraction in downtown Le Mars. Nominees were the second-highest scoring nominations in each of the 13 award categories and included both metro and rural areas.

Jessica ORiley, tourism communication manager, and Katie Kenne, outreach and engagement coordinator with the Iowa Tourism Office, traveled to Le Mars Tuesday to present the trophy at a ceremony.

To celebrate the award and National Ice Cream Month, visitor center staff and attendees filled the trophy with Blue Bunny Bunny Tracks ice cream.

To be recognized by not only the state for excellence in tourism, but also by industry partners and peers, is an honor, Shannon Rodenburg, senior manager at The Wells Visitor Center, said. Its a true testament to all the work being done at The Wells Visitor Center and in Le Mars to position the Ice Cream Capital of the World as a must-see-and-visit destination.

The visitor center also was awarded Outstanding Dining Business in the metro category during the tourism conference.

The visitor center and ice cream parlor is open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday.
SIOUX CITY  The Sioux City Neighborhood Network is inviting residents to celebrate National Night Out from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 2 at the following locations:

Grandma Moos Park, 221 Cecelia St., hosted by the Greenville Project Area Committee

Riverside Lutheran Church, 1817 Riverside Blvd., hosted by the Riverside Project Area Committee

Cook Park, 505 Market St., hosted by the Westside Neighborhood Coalition

Dale Street Park, 1514 Dale St., hosted by the Jones Street Neighborhood and Rose Hill Neighborhood Coalition

Latham Park, 1915 So. Lemon St., hosted by Morningside Lutheran Church

St. Mark Lutheran Church, 5200 Glenn Ave., hosted by St. Mark Lutheran Church

St. John Lutheran Church, 2801 Jackson St., hosted by St. John Lutheran Church

Leeds Splash Pad, 3810 41st St., hosted by the Leeds Community Club

Mary J. Treglia Community House, 900 Jennings St., hosted by the Mary J. Treglia Community House.

During National Night Out, residents throughout Sioux City and the nation are asked to lock their doors, turn on outside lights and spend the evening with neighbors and representatives of the Sioux City Police Department and Sioux City Fire - Rescue.

Many of the Sioux City events will have free food, fun games and bounce houses.

For more information on National Night Out, contact Sioux City Neighborhood Network president Rick Arnold at 712-251-8877.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, July 12, 2022. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

WASHINGTON  Reps. Elaine Luria and Adam Kinzinger, who will lead questioning in the closing summer hearing of the Jan. 6 committee on Thursday night, are from different parties but agree emphatically on one thing: The investigation into the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is worth sacrificing their political careers.

Luria, a Democrat first elected in 2018, is facing a difficult reelection in a Virginia swing district that was redrawn to be more Republican. Kinzinger, a Republican whos a pariah to some in his party because of his condemnation of former President Donald Trump, decided not to seek another term in his Illinois district.

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The two also are military veterans and have invoked their service oaths as part of their reason for pressing the inquiry. Luria is a Naval Academy graduate who served 20 years, including as a nuclear-trained surface warfare officer who commanded 400 crewmembers in the Persian Gulf. Kinzinger flew combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq and remains a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard.

Youre going to see the fulfillment of the meaning of the sacred oath that all of us take that have served in government, to preserve and protect the Constitution and the United States, said Norm Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2020, during Trumps first impeachment trial.

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But its one that  particularly those who serve in the military, like the two of them, and put their lives on the line  take to heart, Eisen said.

The most prominent and imperiled committee member is Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the vice chair, who has been unsparing in her criticism of Trump. She was removed by her own party as the No. 3 House Republican and now faces a potentially uphill primary battle for reelection in her deeply red home state.

Cheneys immediate political fortune, as well as that of Kinzinger and Luria, may provide the most direct answers to larger questions about whether the hearings into the mob attack on Jan. 6, 2021, will chip away at Trumps continued hold of the national Republican Party. They could also offer clues about whether efforts to fully make public the former presidents responsibility in helping spark the mob attack can be a boon to front-line Democrats during November midterm elections that could otherwise be brutal for their party.

Mr. Kinzinger and I, who are both veterans leading this committee, I think, as veterans of the military, understand what action looks like in a time of crisis, Luria told CNN last weekend. She added of Trumps actions: I look at it as a dereliction of duty. He didnt act. He had a duty to act.

The hearing on Thursday will focus on Trumps actions as rioters overran the Capitol. Witnesses will describe what occurred during the 187 minutes between when the then-president addressed supporters who had gathered in Washington by imploring, We fight like hell. And if you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, and his releasing a video in which he praised the rioters as very special while also asking them to disperse.

Luria has said repeatedly that the committees work defending American democracy is more important than her prospects for reelection in a district that includes Naval Station Norfolk, the worlds largest naval base. During an interview last summer, shortly after she was appointed to the committee, Luria also argued that her serving on it bolstered her credibility as a pragmatic moderate in a centrist district.

I think its incredibly important for the American people to understand what happened, why it happened and what we can do to prevent something like that from happening in the future, Luria said then. While campaigning around her district, she has referred to the insurrection as a dry run, saying such an attack might happen again unless the root causes of the first one are fully exposed  and that voters have expressed gratitude about that effort.

Republican Virginia state Sen. Jen Kiggans, who is trying to unseat Luria in November, said the election wont be decided by the Jan. 6 committee.

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I have never had a single voter, or person (whose) door Ive knocked on, or civic league Ive visited or event Ive attended, Ive never had a single person come up to me and say that this is the main issue theyre focused on, Kiggans said. On a daily basis, I hear over and over and over again about gas prices and grocery prices and grocery shortages and how much everything is costing them from their home repair projects to their kids school supplies to going out to eat at a restaurant.

Kinzinger has represented his Illinois district since 2013. He voted to impeach Trump and announced last fall that he wasnt seeking another term in Congress after the Democrat-controlled Illinois Legislature approved new congressional maps that would have forced Kinzinger and another Republican incumbent who has more reliably defended Trump, Rep. Darin LaHood, into a primary matchup.

Still, Kinzinger hasnt ruled out seeking elective office in the future.

When you fight for your nation and you fight for people, it makes you believe in something bigger, Kinzinger said in an interview last summer.

Eisen, a former Obama administration ambassador to the Czech Republic and senior governance studies fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that the political stakes are real for Luria and Kinzinger, adding that losing an election is never pleasant but they all understand that might be a consequence.

In some ways, their willingness to take that risk actually enhances the power of the example that they set, Eisen said. Historys going to be kind to them. I dont think any of them will have regrets.
DES MOINES  The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit in which a former Sioux City elementary school principal had sued the Sioux City Community School District and top administrators for sex discrimination.

The court ruled Wednesday that a district court judge correctly found there was insufficient evidence to show the district administrators' decision to transfer Dawn Stansbury from her position as Morningside Elementary School principal to an assistant principal's position at East Middle School was motivated by sex discrimination.

Stansbury had asked the appeals court to overturn the judge's decision and return the case to Woodbury County District Court for trial.

"Even taking the record in the light most favorable to Stansbury, we agree with the district court that she provided only indirect evidence that the district took adverse employment action against her on the basis of sex," the three-judge panel that heard Stansbury's appeal in May said in the 20-page ruling.

Stansbury resigned in August 2018 after she said she was given an ultimatum to be demoted to a middle school principal position or be fired. She said she was told by director of elementary education Brian Burnight, her direct supervisor, that as long as Paul Gausman was superintendent, she would never receive a promotion, cost of living adjustments or salary increases. She said a hiring committee later was encouraged to hire male principals because they would be better able to oversee student discipline.

Stansbury sued the district, Gausman, Burnight and associate superintendent Kim Buryanek in February 2019 for sex and age discrimination, breach of contract and other claims. All claims except the sex discrimination allegation were later dismissed. Gausman and Buryanek are no longer with the district.

Burnight placed Stansbury on a Plan of Awareness in March 2017 because Morningside Elementary School's reading scores were not high enough, Stansbury said in the lawsuit, though male principals at two other schools that had lower scores were not disciplined. She said two teachers on the panel to interview her replacement told her Burnight had said a man could do the job better. During depositions, one of those teachers denied saying that to Stansbury, and the other teacher said she couldn't remember telling her.

The district presented a performance evaluation that rated her performance as "needs improvement" on culture and climate and it wished to transfer her to East Middle so she could improve and also because of concerns of favoritism voiced by some of her elementary staff members.

In May 2021, District Judge Duane Hoffmeyer (who has since retired and taken senior judge status) granted the school district summary judgment and dismissed the lawsuit, ruling he could not find sufficient evidence to support her claim.

In its ruling, the appeals court cited evidence showing numerous complaints from several employees about Stansbury's performance, leading to a conclusion that her transfer was due to her job performance rather than her sex.
ROCK RAPIDS, Iowa  A Rock Rapids woman has pleaded not guilty of running over a sheriff's deputy's foot after driving away from a car accident.

Mandy Davis, 45, entered her written plea Wednesday in Lyon County District Court to charges of assault on persons engaged in certain occupations and interference with official acts.

Davis is accused of running over a Lyon County Sheriff's deputy's foot on May 30 as he attempted to talk to her about a car rollover on U.S. Highway 75.

According to court documents, the deputy arrived at the accident scene south of Rock Rapids when Davis was pulling away with three minors who had been in the rollover.

Davis went to the hospital in Rock Rapids, where, according to court documents, she took the three boys inside, later coming back out with two and telling them not to talk to the deputy. Davis drove over the deputy's foot while jumping the curb and leaving the parking lot.

The deputy and a backup officer pursued Davis to her home, where she resisted arrest while being handcuffed, court documents said.
SIOUX CITY  Woodbury County secondary roads employees will receive a 4 percent wage increase on top of a 2.25 percent negotiated raise.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved up to $115,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding to be used for a 4 percent wage increase to unionized secondary roads employees. This increase is in addition to the union negotiated increase.

Secondary roads employees do not have step wage increases for years of service and the most experienced equipment operators earn less than those in four out of five comparable counties in Iowa, according to research done by the human resources department.

Story County, Pottawattamie County, Dubuque County and Johnson County all have higher maximum salaries then Woodbury County and each have step increases for road employees.

A flat wage, regardless of years of service, fails to retain essential employees, Supervisor Matthew Ung said in the agenda item.

The new wages for secondary roads employees are: $26.92 for equipment operator; $26.44 for engineering technician I; $30.09 for engineering technician II and $32.39 for draftsman.

In FY24 the employees will also receive a 2 percent negotiated increase on top of these rates. In the future, the 4 percent wage increase will be absorbed into the secondary roads budget.

This is a similar process the board went through went approving an 8 percent wage increase for Woodbury County jailers.
Iowas U.S. senators did not say whether theyd vote for a bill protecting the federal right to same-sex and interracial marriage after the measure passed the U.S. House with support from three of Iowa's four U.S. House members.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters on Wednesday he didn't think the U.S. Supreme Court's past decisions on marriage equality were at risk of being overturned, but he didn't say whether he'd vote for or against the bill if it goes to a vote in the Senate.

"I'm also not aware of any pending challenges to any of the other decisions that this bill agrees with," Grassley said. "But I do want you to know that I'm going to read the text and the House bill and we'll wait and see if that is going to come up in the United States Senate."

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she's "keeping an open mind" on the bill on Wednesday, according to HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic.

U.S. Reps Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, both Republicans, and Cindy Axne, a Democrat, voted for the bill on Tuesday. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, voted against it.

The bill passed 267-157, with support from every Democrat and 47 Republicans.

The bill would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman, and would require states and the federal government to recognize marriages that were valid in the state they took place in, regardless of sex or race. The Defense of Marriage Act is still on the books, but it was invalidated in a 2015 Supreme Court decision that recognized a constitutional right to marriage equality.

The bill will now go to the U.S. Senate, where its unclear if it will get the 60 votes necessary to pass in the chamber.

In a statement on Tuesday, Rep. Ashley Hinson said the legislation upheld settled law.

Now, Democrats need to focus on policies that will help families: lowering costs for groceries and gas, securing our border to keep our communities safe, and getting our economy working again, she said.

Today I voted yes on the Respect for Marriage Act to enshrine marriage equality in federal law and ensure same-sex and interracial marriages will continue to be recognized, Axne said in a statement. I will continue fighting in Congress to protect these rights.

Miller-Meeks said the bill protects legal precedent and First Amendment rights.

"This legislation aligns with the legal precedent established by numerous U.S. Supreme Court rulings. Notably, this bill does not require individuals or organizations to perform marriages contrary to their religious beliefs upholding religious rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution," she said in a statement.

The bill was the most recent measure by House Democrats to enshrine constitutional rights that have been previously recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court, out of concerns the court could roll back those rights in future decisions.

The action was spurred on by the June Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, which overturned the federal right to an abortion.

In a concurring opinion to Justice Samuel Alitos opinion in the Dobbs case, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should revisit its previous decisions made on substantive due process, including rights to contraception and same-sex marriage.

The House has already passed bills protecting abortion rights and protections for people who travel for an abortion, but they likely wont get support to pass in the Senate. Democrats are also preparing for a vote this week on protecting access to contraception.

On Tuesday, Miller-Meeks and Hinson introduced competing legislation that would make birth control pills available over the counter, a measure Miller-Meeks voted for as a state senator, but never cleared the Iowa House to become law.

This important bill will ensure that the FDA acts quickly to approve oral contraceptives for over-the-counter use, Miller-Meeks said in a statement. As a woman and a doctor, I recognize the need for increased access to contraceptives and believe that this bill is an important step to promote womens health.

Tom Barton of the Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.
ALVORD, Iowa  A passenger suffered injuries described as "substantial" after she was ejected from a side-by-side off-road vehicle, which then landed on top of her, in a rollover in rural Alvord.

On Saturday, Lyon County Sheriff's deputies were called to a collision in rural Alvord, at the 2100 block of Elmwood Avenue. The 16-year-old male driver of the side-by-side vehicle was going downhill when he lost control and it rolled, according to a press release from the Lyon County Sheriff's Office.

One passenger, Amanda Neyens of Sioux Falls, was ejected from the side-by-side before it landed on her. Neyens was taken to Rock Valley Hospital, according to the press release.

Alvord Fire and Rescue and Lyon County Ambulance assisted the Lyon County Sheriff's deputies in responding to the rollover.
The 2-year-old Kouts boy who was rushed to a Chicago hospital Sunday after reportedly shooting himself has died, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said.

Wyatt Luczak was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, the report shows.

The agency listed in association with his case is the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network.

Porter County police were notified of the shooting at 11:06 a.m. Sunday, and the child was initially taken to Franciscan Health Crown Point, Porter County Sheriff's Cpl. Ben McFalls said.

The child was then transferred to the University of Chicago Medicine hospital, he said.

McFalls confirmed early Wednesday the case remains under investigation.

"Please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time," McFalls said.
Take a look at some trending topics for today, July 19.

Hoover Dam

A transformer exploded Tuesday at Hoover Dam, one of the nation's largest hydroelectric facilities, producing a thick cloud of black smoke and flames that were quickly extinguished.

No one was hurt in the explosion near the base of the dam, an engineering marvel on the Colorado River that straddles the border of Arizona and Nevada. Electricity continued to flow to 1.3 million people in Arizona, Nevada and Southern California.

The cause of the fire was under investigation and officials were working to determine the extent of damage to the transformer, one of 15 at the complex that control the voltages for power sent to customers.

Read more about it here:

Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit

Limp Bizkit will not be kicking off the UK and European leg of their "Still Sucks" tour.

Frontman Fred Durst and the band posted a note on their verified Instagram account.

"For personal health concerns and based on medical advice given by my personal physician to take an immediate break from touring, Limp Bizkit will sadly have to postpone their 2022 UK and European tour," the note reads. "We truly apologise for any inconvenience this may cause to our loyal fans, promoters and support staff. Stand by for further news. Sincerely, Fred & Limp Bizkit."

Get more info here:

AOC

16 Democratic politicians might have been arrested today at an abortion rights rally just outside Washington D.C.

Those reported arrest by authorities include Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Veronica Escobar, Ayanna Pressley, Jackie Speier, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. However, it's unclear if lawmakers law Ocasio-Cortez actually were put into handcuffs.

Images circulating on social media and re-shared by outlets like the New York Post show Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez mimicking being cuffed and then raising an arm in solidarity moments later.

Find out more here:

***

Get more on today's trending topics here:

Chelsea Handler

Claes Oldenburg

Toys R Us

Drew Barrymore
Speed cameras werent the only traffic safety issue the Chicago City Council took up Wednesday.

Aldermen also passed an ordinance that will allow police to impound vehicles they believe to have been involved in drag-racing, drifting or other types of illegal stunt driving  even if the owner is not present.

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The new law comes after footage went viral of drivers spinning in circles while a mass of people circled them, purportedly from last weekend at a West Loop intersection.

In this screenshot of a video posted to the Citizen app and then uploaded to YouTube by CWB Chicago, a car is seen doing donuts at a crowded Chicago intersection in downtown Chicago on July 17, 2022. (Citizen app)

Mayor Lori Lightfoot attends a City Council meeting at City Hall on July 20, 2022, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Chief sponsor Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, nodded to that video in remarks before the unanimous vote, saying there need to be consequences.

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This has gotten out of control, and this isnt about fining people and taking their cars from them. This is about safety, Reilly said. Our hope is that with some aggressive enforcement on the front end, we can make some high-profile examples.

Reilly noted in committee earlier this week that some illegal stunt driving attracts spectators who film the cars and have lit fires with gasoline on the streets, which he called an absolute recipe for disaster.

Lightfoot also spoke on the ordinance, which she supported and also appeared to tie to her speed cameras ticket policy.

It is the same issue on the spectrum with people speeding and driving recklessly, the mayor said. These are extraordinarily dangerous, dangerous events.

Separately Wednesday, aldermen by an 18-26 vote rejected a proposal to reset the minimum for a speed camera ticket to 10 mph over the limit. The outcome means drivers can continue to be ticketed for going as little as 6 mph over the posted speed.

In something of a coincidence, if not an irony, Lightfoot also this week announced with much fanfare that Chicago will host NASCARs first-ever street race next year.
Pressure on Senate GOP after same-sex marriage passes House

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate unexpectedly launched a new push Wednesday to protect same-sex marriage in federal law after a surprising number of Republicans helped pass landmark legislation in the House. Some GOP senators are already signaling support.

The legislation started as an election-season political effort to confront the new Supreme Court majority after the court overturned abortion access in Roe v. Wade, raising concerns that other rights were at risk. But suddenly it has a shot at becoming law. Pressure is mounting on Republicans to drop their longstanding opposition and join in a bipartisan moment for gay rights.

This legislation was so important, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said as he opened the chamber Wednesday.

The Democratic leader marveled over the House's 267-157 tally, with 47 Republicans  almost one-fifth of the GOP lawmakers  voting for the bill late Tuesday.

I want to bring this bill to the floor, Schumer said, and we're working to get the necessary Senate Republican support to ensure it would pass.

Giuliani ordered to testify in Georgia 2020 election probe

ATLANTA (AP)  A judge in New York has ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta that's investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia.

New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber on July 13 issued an order directing Giuliani, a Trump lawyer and former New York City mayor, to appear before the special grand jury on Aug. 9 and on any other dates ordered by the court in Atlanta, according to documents filed Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court.

Giuliani's lawyer did not immediately return a call and email seeking comment Wednesday.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began her investigation early last year, and a special grand jury with subpoena power was seated in May at her request. In a letter requesting the special grand jury, she said her team was looking into any coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections in this state.

Earlier this month, she filed petitions to compel seven Trump associates, including Giuliani and U.S. Sen Lindsey Graham, to testify before the special grand jury.

Indiana Republicans propose banning abortion with exceptions

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  Leaders of Indianas Republican-dominated Senate on Wednesday proposed banning abortion with limited exceptions  a move that comes amid a political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who came to the state from neighboring Ohio to end her pregnancy.

The proposal will be taken up during a special legislative session that is scheduled to begin Monday, making Indiana one of the first Republican-run states to debate tighter abortion laws following the U.S. Supreme Court decision last month overturning Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The Indiana proposal would allow exceptions to the ban, such as in cases of rape, incest or to protect a womans life.

Republican state Sen. Sue Glick, who is sponsoring the bill, said the proposal would not limit access to emergency contraception known as the morning-after pill or limit doctors from treating miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies.

The bill would prohibit abortions from the time an egg is implanted in a woman's uterus.

Outcry after Uvalde pressures schools to keep kids safe

UVALDE, Texas (AP)  When the shooting began at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Mario Jimenezs son was in the classroom next door. The 10-year-old saw his teacher and a friend hit by bullets that passed through the wall. Now, Jimenez worries the boy will never again feel secure in a classroom.

I dont think these kids are going to feel safe going back to school no matter what they do. Theyre supposedly protected by the system, and they know the system failed them, he said.

In the aftermath of the May shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers, poor decisions by law enforcement have attracted widespread criticism, but the Uvalde school system is also taking its share of the blame for basic failures  unlocked doors, a spotty alert system and lax enforcement of rules. Now, incensed parents and politicians want concrete safety solutions as the attack becomes part of a larger conversation about how to prepare students for emergencies without potentially inflicting an emotional toll with active-shooter drills.

An investigative report released Sunday by the Texas Legislature found the district did not treat maintenance issues like broken doors and locks with urgency. For instance, the lock on the door to one of the classrooms where the shooting occurred was known to be faulty, and the House committee concluded the shooter likely entered the room through that unlocked door.

The House committee found a regrettable culture of noncompliance by school personnel who frequently propped doors open and deliberately circumvented locks at Robb Elementary. The report said school administrators and district police tacitly condoned the behavior, noting that the school suggested the practice for the convenience of substitute teachers and others who lacked their own keys.

2 indicted in migrant death-trailer case that left 53 dead

Two men were indicted Wednesday in the case of a hot, airless tractor-trailer rig found last month with 53 dead or dying migrants in San Antonio, officials said.

A federal grand jury in San Antonio indicted Homero Zamorano Jr., 46, and Christian Martinez, 28, both of Pasadena, Texas, on counts of transporting and conspiring to transport migrants illegally resulting in death; and transporting and conspiring to transport migrants illegally resulting in serious injury.

Both remain in federal custody without bond pending trial. Martinez's attorney, David Shearer of San Antonio, declined to comment on the indictments. A message to Zamorano's attorney was not immediately returned.

Conviction on the death counts could result in life sentences, but the Attorney General's Office could authorize prosecutors to seek death penalties. The serious bodily injury counts carry sentences of up to 20 years in prison.

It was the deadliest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico. The truck had been packed with 67 people, and the dead included 27 from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador, said Francisco Garduno, chief of Mexicos National Immigration Institute.

Senators propose changes to electors law after Capitol riot

WASHINGTON (AP)  A bipartisan group of senators agreed Wednesday on proposed changes to the Electoral Count Act, the post-Civil War-era law for certifying presidential elections that came under intense scrutiny after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Long in the making, the package introduced by the group led by Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Joe Manchin of West Virginia is made up of two separate proposals. One would clarify the way states submit electors and the vice president tallies the votes in Congress. The other would bolster security for state and local election officials who have faced violence and harassment.

From the beginning, our bipartisan group has shared a vision of drafting legislation to fix the flaws of the archaic and ambiguous Electoral Count Act of 1887, Collins, Manchin and the other 14 senators said in a joint statement.

We have developed legislation that establishes clear guidelines for our system of certifying and counting electoral votes," the group wrote. "We urge our colleagues in both parties to support these simple, commonsense reforms.

Both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell have signaled support for the bipartisan group, but the final legislative package will undergo careful scrutiny.

UK weather turmoil spurs calls to adapt to climate change

LONDON (AP)  Britains record-breaking heatwave has spurred calls for the government to speed up efforts to adapt to a changing climate, especially after wildfires created the busiest day for London firefighters since bombs rained down on the city during World War II.

The country got a break Wednesday from the dry, hot weather that is gripping much of Europe as cooler air moved in from the west. Forecasters predict London will reach a high of 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, down from the national record 40.3 C (104.4 F) set Tuesday at Coningsby in eastern England.

Even so, travel was disrupted for a third day as rail operators repaired damage caused by the heat, and firefighters continue to mop up hotspots at the scene of Tuesdays fires.

Britain needs to prepare for similar heatwaves in the future because manmade carbon emissions have already changed the climate, said Professor Stephen Belcher, chief scientist at the Met Office, the U.K.s national weather service. Only aggressive emissions reductions will reduce the frequency of such events, he said.

Everything is still to play for, but we should adapt to the kind of events we saw yesterday as an occasional extreme event, Baker told the BBC.

'The mouth of a bear': Ukrainian refugees sent to Russia

NARVA, Estonia (AP)  For weeks Natalya Zadoyanova had lost contact with her younger brother Dmitriy, who was trapped in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

Russian forces had bombed the orphanage where he worked, and he was huddling with dozens of others in the freezing basement of a building without doors and windows. When she next heard from him, he was in tears.

Im alive, he told her. Im in Russia.

Dmitriy Zadoyanov was facing the next chapter of devastation for the people of Mariupol and other occupied cities: Forcible transfers to Russia, the very nation that killed their neighbors and shelled their hometowns almost into oblivion.

Nearly 2 million Ukrainians refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these journeys as forced transfers to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations of war victims who already speak Russian and are grateful for a new home.

EXPLAINER: Can Europe live without Russian natural gas?

BERLIN (AP)  Europe faced an energy crisis even before the Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia to Germany went offline for regular maintenance.

While there were signals that at least some gas was likely to flow Thursday, it was still uncertain and government officials braced for the possibility that the key pipeline won't restart as scheduled. They say Russian President Vladimir Putin is using energy for political leverage in his confrontation with the European Union over Ukraine.

Russia has already slashed Europe's flows of natural gas used to power factories, generate electricity and heat homes in the winter, and Putin warns they could keep dwindling. The deliveries through Nord Stream 1 were cut by 60% before repairs began.

Even if the pipeline restarts at reduced levels, Europe will struggle to keep homes warm and industry humming this winter.

Here are key things to know about the energy crisis:

Funeral held for Ivana Trump; ex-president pays tribute

NEW YORK (AP)  Ivana Trump, the 1980s style icon and businesswoman who helped Donald Trump build the empire that put him on a road toward the White House, lived a beautiful life, the former president recalled as loved ones paid final respects to her Wednesday.

The ex-president joined all his children, an array of other relatives and friends at a Manhattan church for Ivana Trump's funeral Mass.

A very sad day, but at the same time a celebration of a wonderful and beautiful life, he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, before he, former first lady Melania Trump and their son Barron headed to St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church, located just a few blocks from Ivana Trump's home near Central Park.

Ivana and Donald Trump's three children  Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric  stood with their father and their families as the gold-toned casket was carried from the church. Eric Trump briefly put an arm around his sister's shoulders as she held the hand of one of her small children, who clutched a red flower.

Tiffany Trump, the daughter of the former president and his second wife, Marla Maples, also attended the service, as did family friends including Jeanine Pirro, co-host of Fox News' The Five, and Charles Kushner, a real estate developer and the father of Ivanka Trump's husband, Jared Kushner. Fashion designer Dennis Basso, a longtime friend of Ivana Trump's, was also among the mourners.
Pressure on Senate GOP after same-sex marriage passes House

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate has unexpectedly launched a new push to protect same-sex marriage in federal law. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the effort Wednesday after a surprising number of Republicans helped pass the landmark legislation in the House on Tuesday. Some GOP senators are signaling support. What started as an election-season political bill to confront the Supreme Court majority after it overturned Roe v. Wade has a shot at becoming law. So far, the legislation has just two Senate Republican co-sponsors, Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio. Ten Republican senators would need to join all Democrats to break a filibuster.

Giuliani ordered to testify in Georgia 2020 election probe

ATLANTA (AP)  A judge in New York has ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta thats looking into whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 election in Georgia. New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber on July 13 issued an order directing Giuliani to appear before the special grand jury on Aug. 9 and on any other dates ordered by the court in Atlanta. Giulianis lawyer did not immediately return a call and email seeking comment Wednesday. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began her investigation early last year, and a special grand jury was seated in May at her request.

Indiana Republicans propose banning abortion with exceptions

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  Leaders of Indianas Republican-dominated Senate have proposed banning abortion with limited exceptions  a move that comes amid a political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who came to the state from neighboring Ohio to end her pregnancy. The proposal announced Wednesday will be taken up during a special legislative session that is scheduled to begin Monday, making Indiana one of the first Republican-run states to debate tighter abortion laws following the U.S. Supreme Court decision last month overturning Roe v. Wade. The proposal would allow exceptions to the ban, such as in cases of rape, incest or to protect a womans life. Its fate is uncertain, though, because some hardline Republicans want to ban all abortions.

Outcry after Uvalde pressures schools to keep kids safe

UVALDE, Texas (AP)  The mass shooting that left 21 people dead inside Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, has parents there and across the nation demanding safer schools. A report found glaring errors at Uvalde, including doors that weren't locked. Safety experts say schools need to emphasize the basics of the plans they already have and make sure staff is properly trained. They caution against relying too much on the lockdowns and drills that have become a fact of life. For years, some parents and teachers have warned the realistic drills are traumatic for some students, whose mental health has become even more of a concern on the rebound from COVID-19 disruptions.

2 indicted in migrant death-trailer case that left 53 dead

Two men have been indicted in the case of a tractor-trailer rig found with 53 dead or dying migrants inside in San Antonio. A statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Antonio says 46-year-old Homero Zamorano Jr. and 28-year-old Christian Martinez, both of Pasadena, Texas, were indicted Wednesday on counts of transporting and conspiring to transport migrants illegally resulting in death; and transporting and conspiring to transport migrants illegally resulting in serious injury. The incident happened on a remote San Antonio back road on June 27. Conviction on the death counts could result in life sentences. But the Attorney Generals Office could authorize prosecutors to seek death penalties.

Senators propose changes to electors law after Capitol riot

WASHINGTON (AP)  A bipartisan group of senators has reached agreement on proposed changes to the Electoral Count Act. That's the post-Civil War-era law for certifying presidential elections. The law came under intense scrutiny after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The changes proposed Wednesday are twofold: One would update the law to clarify the way states submit electors and the vice president tallies the votes in Congress. The other would bolster security for state and local election officials who have endured harassment.

Ex-cop Thomas Lane faces sentencing in George Floyd killing

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  Former Minneapolis police Officer Thomas Lane is hoping for a sentence Thursday that could let him go free after as little as two years for his role in the killing of George Floyd. His attorney has argued the rookie was the least culpable of the four officers involved in Floyds death under Officer Derek Chauvin's knee in 2020. Lane was one of three ex-officers convicted of violating Floyds civil rights. Prosecutors have asked Judge Paul Magnuson to sentence Lane to 5 1/4 to 6 1/2 years. But Lane has asked for 2 1/4 years. Assuming good behavior, that would result in two years in prison.

EXPLAINER: Can Europe live without Russian natural gas?

BERLIN (AP)  Europe is waiting to see if the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that brings natural gas from Russia to Germany will reopen as scheduled after routine maintenance. While there are signals that at least some gas is likely to flow Thursday, it's still uncertain and countries are bracing for the possibility it won't. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been increasing pressure on Europe over sanctions and weapons deliveries to Ukraine, warning this week that gas flows could keep dwindling. If the pipeline doesn't reopen, Europe will be forced into tough conservation measures to avoid running out of natural gas for heating, electricity and industry this winter. Even if Nord Stream 1 does restart, Europe will struggle in the cold months.

Funeral held for Ivana Trump; ex-president pays tribute

NEW YORK (AP)  Former President Donald Trump, all his children and an array of relatives and friends have paid respects to Ivana Trump at her funeral Mass. It was held Wednesday in New York City. The 1980s style icon and businesswoman died last week at her Manhattan home, age 73. She helped her husband build an empire that put him on the road toward the presidency. Heading to her funeral, he wrote on his social media platform that it was a very sad day, but a celebration of what he called a beautiful life. Ivana and Donald Trump were married from 1977 to 1992. Their divorce was ugly, but in recent years, they were friendly.

Rapinoe, King urge freedom for Brittney Griner at The ESPYS

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Detained WNBA star Brittney Griner was front and center at The ESPYS. Soccer star Megan Rapinoe admonished her fellow athletes for not doing enough to speak out while also encouraging them to support Griner. Griner was arrested in Russia in February after customs officials found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. NBA Finals MVP and show host Stephen Curry joined WNBA players Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith in calling attention to Griner's plight. Griner's wife attended the show in Hollywood and applauded their comments.
President Joe Biden has announced modest new steps to combat climate change and promised more robust action to come, saying, This is an emergency and I will look at it that way.

The president stopped short Wednesday of issuing a formal declaration of a climate emergency. Democrats and environmental groups have been seeking such a declaration after an influential Democratic senator quashed hopes for sweeping legislation to address global warming.

During a speech at a former coal-powered plan in Massachusetts, Biden said he would use his executive powers to turn concern about a climate emergency into formal, official government actions.

A ban on certain semi-automatic weapons is moving forward in the House. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee began considering legislation to ban some assault-type weapons on Wednesday.

Uvaldes top school official has recommended the firing of the school district police chief who was central to the botched law enforcement response to the elementary school shooting nearly two months ago that killed two teachers and 19 students.

Leaders of Indianas Republican-dominated Senate have proposed banning abortion with limited exceptions  a move that comes amid a political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who came to the state from neighboring Ohio to end her pregnancy.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has announced a new push to protect same-sex marriage in federal law. Schumer leaned into the bill Wednesday after a surprising number of House Republicans helped pass the landmark legislation in their chamber on Tuesday. Some GOP senators are signaling support.

An Indiana man who ran into a burning home and saved five people, including a 6-year-old girl he jumped out of a second-floor window with, says hes no hero and the serious injuries he suffered in the dramatic rescue were all worth it.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed for the fifth consecutive month in June as higher mortgage rates and rising prices kept many home hunters on the sidelines. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that existing home sales fell 5.4% last month from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.12 million.

Individual health insurance rates are going up across the country. The coronavirus pandemic caused lots of people to put off routine health care. But now many people are returning to doctor's offices. Health insurers in individual marketplaces across 13 states and Washington D.C. will raise rates an average of 10% next year.

High diesel prices are driving up the cost of everything, from groceries to Amazon orders and furniture. That's because nearly everything thats delivered, whether by truck, rail or ship, uses diesel fuel.

Disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty to fatally shooting his wife and son. His defense lawyers agreed on Wednesday to ask the judge to deny him bond, saying he cant afford to post it anyway.

The European Unions head is proposed that member states cut their gas use by 15% over the coming months to make sure that any Russian cutoff of natural gas supplies to the bloc will not fundamentally disrupt industries and send an additional chill through homes next winter.

Britains Conservative Party has chosen Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss as the two finalists in an election to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The pair came first and second in a vote of Conservative lawmakers on Wednesday.

A Sesame Street-themed amusement park has apologized after a viral video appearing to show a costumed character waving off two 6-year-old Black girls at a parade outside Philadelphia. Sesame Place has issued two apologies since, saying the performer did not intentionally ignore the girls and promising to take action to do better.

Micronesia has likely become the final nation in the world with a population of more than 100,000 to experience an outbreak of COVID-19. For more than two-and-a-half years, the Pacific archipelago managed to avoid any outbreaks thanks to its geographic isolation and border controls.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP)  Dan Cox, a far-right state legislator endorsed by former President Donald Trump, won the Republican primary for Maryland governor on Tuesday, defeating a moderate rival backed by outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan.

Cox will face the winner of the highly competitive Democratic primary in the November general election. Wes Moore, a bestselling author backed by Oprah Winfrey, had an early lead Tuesday night, with the focus starting to turn to mail ballots that wont be counted until later in the week.

Despite being a win for Trump, Coxs victory over former Hogan Cabinet member Kelly Schulz could be a blow to Republican chances to hold on to the governor's mansion in November. Hogan, who was prohibited from running for a third consecutive term, was a rare two-term Republican governor in a heavily Democratic state, and he had endorsed Schulz as the successor to his bipartisan style of leadership.

Cox has been a thorn in Hogan's side over the last few years, suing over the governor's stay-at-home orders and regulations in the early days of the pandemic and seeking unsuccessfully to impeach him for COVID-19 orders Cox called restrictive and protracted.

Cox alluded to his fight with Hogan in his victory speech Tuesday night, telling a cheering crowd: We will never again give over our bodies, our churches and our businesses to a lockdown state.

The Republican primary was viewed as a proxy battle between Trump and Hogan, who offered vastly different visions of the partys future as they consider 2024 campaigns for the White House. Hogan, one of Trumps most prominent GOP critics, urged the party to move on from his divisive brand of politics, while Trump spent much of his post-presidency elevating candidates who promote his lies about a stolen 2020 election.

One of those candidates was Cox, who organized busloads of protesters to Washington for the Stop the Steal rally that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Cox has also said President Joe Bidens victory shouldnt have been certified and tweeted that former Vice President Mike Pence was a traitor." Cox later deleted the tweet and apologized.

Democrats were likely giddy over Cox's win in the Republican primary. The Democratic Governors Association plowed more than $1 million behind an ad intended to boost Cox, seeing him as an easier opponent in November.

Trump, too, was gleeful, saying in a statement shortly before the race was called: "RINO Larry Hogans Endorsement doesnt seem to be working out so well for his heavily favored candidate. Next, Id love to see Larry run for President!

Cox joins Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania and Darren Bailey in Illinois as ultraconservative state legislators endorsed by Trump who have gone on to win their Republican nominations for governor. All three fought against their governors' COVID-19 policies, staunchly oppose abortion rights and raised questions about the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

In Maryland, it could potentially take days, or even longer, to determine the winners in the most closely contested races, including the Democratic primary for governor. Maryland law prohibits counties from opening mail ballots until the Thursday after election day.

In one of the earliest called races of the night, Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen beat back a primary challenge just months after suffering a minor stroke. He is favored in November to win a second term against Republican Chris Chaffee, who launched a failed congressional bid in 2014.

Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who is awaiting trial on federal criminal charges, was trailing in early returns in her three-way Democratic primary as she seeks a third term.

Mosby is charged with perjury and making false statements on loan applications to purchase properties in Florida. She rose to national prominence in 2015 when she pursued criminal charges against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who suffered a spinal injury after police handcuffed, shackled and placed him head-first into a van. None of the officers was convicted.

In the Democratic primary for governor, the top candidates included Moore, the former CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, an anti-poverty organization; Tom Perez, a former U.S. labor secretary and former Democratic Party chair; and Peter Franchot, the state's four-term state comptroller.

Laura Kretchman, a 41-year-old high school teacher, said she voted for Moore, swayed in part by his endorsement from the state's teachers union. She said she's impressed by Moore's accomplishments after rising above childhood challenges and being raised by a single mom.

I teach children at a school that also come from difficult upbringings, so Id like to see maybe what he can bring to helping those students that are struggling and challenged, said Kretchman, an Annapolis resident.

Other voters said they preferred a long resume of government service. That's why Curtis Fatig, 67, voted for Perez. Hes not a newcomer, Fatig said.

Cox's victory on Tuesday serves as a win for Trump, who has a mixed endorsement record in this year's midterm elections. But in such a heavily Democratic state, his candidate faces an uphill battle heading into the fall.

Some Republican voters said Trump's endorsement persuaded them to vote for Cox. Others said it didn't matter.

David Gateau, 63, said he voted for Cox because he believes Maryland is extremely liberal and we need to get back to some values. Trumps endorsement, he said, wasnt really a factor.

I think Hogan was more of a RINO than he was a Republican governor, and I think our state reflects that," Gateau said.

Cameron Martin, 22, said Trump's endorsement was the main reason he voted for Cox, but added that he feels like Cox shares his Republican values and that "he will best represent me.

Maryland's only open congressional seat was in the 4th Congressional District, a heavily Democratic Black-majority district. Former county prosecutor Glenn Ivey won the Democratic primary, defeating former Rep. Donna Edwards, who previously held the seat.

The incumbent in the 4th District, Rep. Anthony Brown, left his seat to run for attorney general. He won the Democratic primary on Tuesday night, defeating Katie Curran O'Malley, the former first lady, a former Baltimore judge and the daughter of former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. Brown was Gov. Martin O'Malley's lieutenant governor.

Candidates were on the ballot for all 188 seats in the Maryland General Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats.

The Maryland primary was delayed by three weeks because of lawsuits challenging the states congressional and state legislative maps.

Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics.

___ Associated Press writer Michael Kunzelman in Silver Spring contributed to this report.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  The president of North Carolina's community college system is stepping down, as board members who lost confidence in him after barely 18 months on the job accepted his resignation.

Thomas Stith III, once chief of staff to then-GOP Gov. Pat McCrory and a former Durham city council member, will resign effective Friday, according to a statement released Tuesday by State Board of Community Colleges Chair Burr Sullivan.

The statement disclosing the resignation came days after board members met behind closed doors for three hours. Friday's closed session was in part to talk about Stith's performance related to his goals as president, and followed Stith's presentation on those goals.

The state board voted in December 2020 to hire Stith as the next president of the 58-college system, which is one of the nations largest. Now a presidential search will have to begin to seek another new leader. Four different permanent presidents and two interims have held the job since 2015.

An emergency board meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, with considering the selection of the next interim president on the agenda.

The board thanks Mr. Stith for his service and wishes him well, Sullivan said in a news release. Despite a change in leadership, the important work of the great 58 community colleges will continue. The board remains confident and committed to meeting the higher education and training needs of our citizens and businesses, especially during this critical time."

Stith, who headed the U.S. Small Business Administration in North Carolina before taking the president's job, said in the same release that it's been an honor to lead the system since January 2021 alongside educators, other professionals and students.

While navigating the uncharted waters of the COVID-19 crisis with careful stewardship, authentic collaboration and unshakeable faith, I am thrilled that our community college system enhanced its offerings, making students more competitive for the workforce, entrepreneurship and transfer to four-year institutions, he said.

Stith and Sullivan didn't immediately return phone messages Tuesday seeking additional information on why Stith was leaving.

Board members had expressed concern for months about a high turnover rate among employees at the state system office in Raleigh, leading to many vacancies. It also didn't help that there had been well over 30 new campus presidents hired since 2015, increasing instability.

The board is composed of 22 members, 10 of whom are appointed by the governor and four elected each by the House and Senate. The other four include Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, State Treasurer Dale Folwell, Labor Commissioner Josh Dobson and the president of the statewide community college student government association.

Stith's predecessor as president was Peter Hans, who left to become president of the University of North Carolina system.

-

The story is corrected to show eight board members are elected by the General Assembly chambers, rather than appointed by legislative leaders.
Malaysia seizes animal parts worth $18 mn

Malaysian customs officials said Monday they seized a stash of rare animal parts worth $18 million thought to have come from Africa, including elephant tusks, rhino horns and pangolin scales.















The Southeast Asian nation is a hub for wildlife trafficking, with animal parts shipped through the country to lucrative regional markets.



Authorities foiled a smuggling attempt on July 10 when they uncovered the illicit cargo in Port Klang, on Malaysia's west coast, hidden in a container along with timber.



The shipment included an estimated 6,000 kilograms (13,200 pounds) of elephant tusks -- Malaysia's biggest single seizure of elephant ivory, said customs department chief Zazuli Johan.



There were also 29 kilograms of rhino horns, 100 kilos of pangolin scales, and 300 kilos of animal skulls and other bones, he told a press conference.



The seizure had an estimated value of 80 million ringgit ($18 million), he said, adding it was believed to have come from Africa, without giving more details.



Zazuli said Malaysia was not the shipment's final destination, but did not say where it was heading.



Animal parts such as elephant tusks and pangolin scales are popular in countries where they are used in traditional medicine, including China and Vietnam.



There have been no arrests over the seizure.



Kanitha Krishnasamy -- Southeast Asia director at wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic -- hailed the "significant seizure".



"This medley of threatened species in a single seizure is concerning, and it certainly verifies the suspicion that criminals continue to use Malaysian ports to move contraband wildlife," she said.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukrainian forces on Wednesday damaged a bridge that is key to supplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine, where Russias foreign minister said Moscow will consolidate its territorial gains.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state-controlled RT television and the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia plans to retain control over broader areas beyond eastern Ukraine, including the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south, and will make more gains elsewhere.

Lavrov's remarks and the Ukrainian missile attack on the strategically important Kherson region bridge indicated the nearly five-month war could broaden after unfolding mostly in eastern Ukraine since April.

Russia's top diplomat noted that when Russia and Ukraine in March discussed a possible deal to end the fighting, Our readiness to accept the Ukrainian proposal was based on the geography of March 2022.

Now its a different geography, Lavrov said, repeating Moscow's claims that the United States and Britain were encouraging Ukraine to expand the hostilities.

With Western countries providing Ukraine with longer-range weapons, Lavrov said Russia's geographical tasks will be pushed even further from the current line because we cannot allow the part of Ukraine under control of Zelenskyy or whoever comes to succeed him, to have weapons that will pose a direct threat to our territory and the territories of those republics that have declared their independence.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 and quickly seized territory, but withdrew from the capital region and north to concentrate on seizing Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, which pro-Moscow separatists have partly controlled since 2014.

As Russian forces captured more of the two provinces, which together make up Ukraine's industrial Donbas region, Ukrainian officials planned a counter-offensive to retake Russian-occupied areas in the south.

The Ukrainian strike on the Dnipro River bridge, the second in as many days, appeared intended to loosen Russia's grip on the southern Kherson region.

Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of a temporary, Russian-installed administration running the region, said the Ukrainian military struck the Antonivskyi Bridge using U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers. The 1.4-kilometer (0.9-mile) bridge is the main river crossing in the Kherson region, and the Russian military uses it to supply its forces. Stremousov said that because of the bridge damage, pontoons would be constructed over the river, also known as the Dnieper.

The head of the Moscow-appointed Kherson administration, Vladimir Saldo, said cars could continue driving across the bridge but trucks couldn't and instead could use a dam 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

Early in the war, Russian troops overran the Kherson region just north of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. They have faced Ukrainian counterattacks, but have largely held their ground.

Kherson  site of ship-building at the confluence of the Dnipro River and Black Sea  is one of several areas a U.S. government spokesman said Russia is trying to take over.

White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence officials have evidence that Russia wants to annex Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and all of the Donbas through referendums, as soon as September.

In Zaporizhzhia, Russian-installed authorities claimed Wednesday that Ukraine's military had used drones to attack the local nuclear power plant, Europe's largest. Vladimir Rogov, a local Moscow-appointed official, said three Ukrainian attack drones had hit the plant's territory with explosives but not its reactor area. All normal operations continued, and no release of radiation was detected, he said. Russia's state news agency Tass reported 11 plant workers were injured, four seriously. The news agency later quoted a Russian military official as saying the attack had occurred Monday.

Ukrainian authorities, who have over the past months reported Russian missiles almost hitting the plant, did not immediately comment on the report.

The bulk of Russia's forces are fighting in the Donbas, where they have made slow gains facing Ukrainian resistance. The Russian military has used long-range missiles to strike targets across Ukraine, killing hundreds of civilians.

Ukraine's presidential office said at least 13 civilians were killed and 40 wounded in Russian shelling across the country in a 24-hour period between Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Wednesday, at least three more people died when Russia bombarded the northeastern city of Kharkiv with Hurricane salvo rocket systems. The victims, who were waiting at a bus stop, included a 69-year-old man, his wife and a 13-year-old boy.

The boys 15-year-old sister was injured, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutors Office. Video showed the boy's father, apparently in a state of shock, praying above his son's uncovered body and holding his hand.

Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of launching cross-border attacks. Another such report came Wednesday, when Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had fired on two Russian border villages.

Most villagers were previously evacuated under a state of emergency, but Gladkov said the latest attack killed a man, and damaged homes and a village club.

In other developments Wednesday:

 An Associated Press investigation has found that many refugees from Ukraine are forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that Ukraine has been using U.S-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers effectively and would provide four more, bringing the total to 16. The truck-mounted HIMARS launchers fire GPS-guided missiles that can reach targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

 Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, appealed to American lawmakers during a speech at the U.S. Capitol for more air defense systems to protect her countrys skies. In her unsparing Capitol address, Zelenska shared images of blood-stained baby strollers and small crumpled bodies left after Russian missile attacks.

 The European Unions head office proposed that member states cut their natural gas use by 15% over the coming months to ensure that any full Russian cutoff of natural gas supplies will not cause unmanageable winter disruptions. While the initial cuts would be voluntary, the European Commission also asked for the power to impose mandatory reductions across the bloc in the event of a severe gas shortage or exceptionally high demand.

Zelenskyy, in a Wednesday night video address, said Europe should have reduced its dependence on Russian gas previously. If our position had been listened to earlier, he said, "we would not have had to look for emergency ways to fill the deficit that Russia is artificially creating on the European market."

 In a sign of the crippling economic impact of the war, the Ukrainian government said it would ask investors to allow the country to postpone foreign debt payments for two years. Leaders of a group of creditors said they agreed to the delay and urged bondholders to do the same.

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russian missiles struck cities and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine, hitting homes, a school and a community center on Tuesday as Russian President Vladimir Putin won strong support support from Iran for his country's military operation.

In Kramatorsk, a city in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk province considered a likely Russian occupation target, one person was killed and 10 wounded in an airstrike that hit a five-story apartment building, regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

Fresh blood stained the concrete amid green leaves that were torn off trees as nearby apartments on at least two floors burned. Shrapnel was placed in a small pile near an empty playground.

There was no one here. Everything is ruined, said Halyna Maydannyk, a resident of one burned apartment. Who knows why theyre doing this? We were all living peacefully.

Kramatorsk residents Mykola Zavodovskyi and Tetiana Zavodovska stood in bandages outside a hospital. They heard a loud clap and went to their balcony to investigate, then everything exploded and the windows shattered.

Probably it was a rocket, and probably it was brought down by Ukrainian forces, Zavodovska said.

The midday strike came after Kyrylenko had reported four earlier Russian strikes in Kramatorsk and urged civilians to evacuate.

On the political front, Putin visited Tehran, where Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said the West opposes an independent and strong Russia. Khamenei said that if Russia hadnt sent troops into Ukraine, it would have faced an attack from NATO, echoing Putins own rhetoric and reflecting increasingly close ties between Moscow and Tehran as they both face severe Western sanctions. NATO allies have bolstered their military presence in Eastern Europe and provided Ukraine with weapons to help counter the Russian attack.

The Tehran talks also touched on attempts to unblock Ukrainian grain exports, a problem that is causing global shortages and driving up food prices. Putin told reporters after his meetings that Russia would help facilitate such shipments if the West lifts restrictions on Russian grain exports. He noted that the Americans have effectively lifted the restrictions on Russian fertilizer supplies to global markets, adding that if they sincerely want to improve the situation in the global food market, I hope they will do the same with Russian grain exports.

In the Odesa region in southern Ukraine, Russian forces fired seven Kalibr cruise missiles overnight. The Russian Defense Ministry said strikes on the village of Bilenke achieved a legitimate military goal and "destroyed depots of ammunition for weapons supplied by the United States and European countries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disputed Moscow's claim and said six people were wounded, including a 5-month-old girl.

What did they hit? Zelenskyy asked in his nightly video address Tuesday. An ordinary rural field and a non-working farm, rural houses, outbuildings, a lyceum, a cultural center. No military sense. Just terror.

With indications that Ukraine is planning counterattacks to retake occupied areas, the Russian military in recent weeks has targeted Odesa and parts of southern Ukraine where its troops captured cities earlier in the war.

In the east, Ukrainian forces are fighting to hold onto the declining territory under their control. Donetsk has been cut off from gas supplies and partly from water and power as the Russians try to complete their capture of the province. Russia's ground advance has slowed, in part because Ukraine is using more effective U.S. weapons and partly because of what Putin has called an operational pause. Russia has been focusing more on aerial bombardment using long-range missiles.

The infrastructure of the cities is being methodically destroyed by missile strikes, and the civilian population, cut off from bare necessities, suffers the most, Kyrylenko said.

Russian-installed officials in the southern region of Kherson, under Moscows control since early in the war, said Ukrainian forces damaged the only bridge in the city of Kherson over the Dnipro River, east of Odesa. Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Kherson region's Kremlin-backed administration, told the Russian news agency Interfax that Ukrainian forces used American-made rocket launchers to damage the bridge in an attempt to cut Kherson off from the left bank of the Dnipro.

Ukrainian officials have spoken of plans for a counter-offensive to retake Kherson and other southern Ukrainian territory from the Russians.

Serhiy Khlan, an official with the Ukrainian administration of the Kherson region, tacitly confirmed the strike on Ukrainian television, reporting a precise hit and explosion in the area of the bridge.

Also in the Kherson region, Ukraine claimed to have used anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down a Russian Su-35 fighter jet that had planned to attack its planes. Several ground-based videos posted on social media showed a plane breaking up in the evening sky Tuesday near Nova Kakhovka, in flames and spewing gray and black smoke as it descended and crashed into the ground, at least some pieces into a green field. Ukrainian news reports said the pilot ejected and showed a helicopter search for him. Russian officials didn't immediately confirm the shootdown. Little information has emerged during the war about aerial battles.

Kherson  hosting a major ship-building industry at the confluence of the Dnieper River and the Black Sea near Russian-annexed Crimea  is one of several areas a U.S. government spokesman said Russia is trying to annex. Following months of local rumors and announcements about a Russian referendum, White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence officials have amassed ample new evidence that Russia is looking formally to annex additional Ukraine territory and could hold a sham public vote as soon as September. Russia is eyeing Kherson as well as the entirety of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.

Russia is laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls in direct violation of Ukraine sovereignty, Kirby said in Washington.

Kirby also said the White House is expected to announce more military aid for Ukraine later this week. The aid is expected to include more High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, a critical weapon Ukrainian forces have been using with success in their fight to repel Russian troops.

On the ground, Ukraine and Russia continued their sporadic exchanges of bodies of fallen soldiers. Each side gave the other 45 soldiers bodies in the Zaporizhzhia region. Russia's Ria-Novosti news agency said Tuesday the soldiers had been killed in Mariupol, the Azov Sea city that captured worldwide attention because of a weeks-long siege of a steel plant.

At least two civilians were killed and 15 wounded by Russian shelling across Ukraine over the past 24 hours, Ukraines presidential office said in a Tuesday morning update.

With Russia's missiles hitting cities 799 kilometers (497 miles) apart Tuesday, there remains a high level of threat of missile strikes throughout the territory of Ukraine, said Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesman of the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces.

The missile strikes came as the British military said it believes Russia is struggling to keep up its troop strength in its grinding war of attrition that began with the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

The British Defense Ministry said in a Tuesday assessment that Russia has struggled to sustain effective offensive combat power since the start of the invasion, and this problem is likely becoming increasingly acute as Moscow seeks to conquer the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

The British military added: While Russia may still make further territorial gains, their operational tempo and rate of advance is likely to be very slow without a significant operational pause for reorganization and refit.

In other developments Tuesday:

 Ukraine's parliament approved President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's dismissal of Ivan Bakanov as head of the country's Security Service, the SBU, and the Ukrainian leader on Tuesday finalized the firing of Iryna Venediktova, who served as Ukraines prosecutor general. As part of the reshuffle stemming from alleged collaboration with Russian authorities, Zelenskyy on Tuesday also fired six other SBU officials.

 Ukraines first lady, Olena Zelenska, visited Washington at the invitation of U.S. first lady Jill Biden. Zelenska met Monday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who assured her of the U.S. commitment to Ukraine, and praised her work with civilians dealing with trauma and other war damage. At the White House on Tuesday, Zelenska met with Jill Biden, embracing and posing for photos before discussing how the U.S. is helping Ukrainians suffering mentally and emotionally from the war.

Cara Anna contributed to this report from Kramatorsk.

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP)  The leader of Tunisias main opposition party was freed after being questioned by the countrys counterterrorism unit Tuesday on suspicion of money laundering and terrorism financing through an association charity.

Rached Ghannouchi, 81, the leader of the Islamist Ennahdha party was allowed to return home after over nine hours of hearings. Critics feared that it would lead to his arrest and outside the hearing in the capital, Tunis, Ghannouchis supporters decried the proceedings as a sham orchestrated by authorities.

Angry demonstrators held placards reading: No to political trials, "Down with the putsch and Saied get out, in allusion to the exceptional measures taken by President Kais Saied that he claimed were to cleanse the country of corruption that plagues all the cogs of the state.

Saied suspended parliament last year and seized broad powers in a move that he said was necessary to save the country from a political and economic crisis. This prompted criticism from the opposition, which accuses him of shunning democracy and a slide toward totalitarianism.

Ghannouchi was among a dozen top party officials whose bank accounts the north African countrys central bank froze earlier this month. Ennahdha vehemently disputes the accusations of money laundering and terrorism financing.

Ennahdha has said all these accusations are aimed at distracting attention from a July 25 referendum planned by Saied to change the constitution to augment presidential powers and reduce the role of the parliament and prime minister. The presidents critics say he is trying to legitimize a coup.

One Ennahdha official, former Justice Minister Noureddine Bhiri, had said he feared a possible detention of Ghannouchi.

Bhiri was in power in the aftermath of the revolution that brought down the government of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 amid protests that inspired the Arab Spring movement.

The Ennahdha party published a statement on its website attributed to its president in which he denounced the slander and shenanigans of Saieds presidency.

Saied and some others blamed Ennahdha in part for Tunisias political crisis last year. Ennahdha, which dominated parliament before it was suspended, is among the presidents fiercest critics.
A 24-year-old Omaha man who pleaded guilty to motor vehicle homicide while driving drunk has been sentenced to 16 to 20 years in prison.

Ulises Pantoja caused the death of 37-year-old Candice McDowell of Omaha when he sped through the intersection of 144th and Harrison streets on Nov. 24, 2021. His southbound BMW coupe collided with a Mitsubishi Outlander driven by McDowell that was eastbound on Harrison Street.

The Sarpy County Attorney's Office said witnesses described Pantoja as driving at "an extremely high rate of speed." His blood-alcohol content later tested at 0.134%, nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08%.

McDowell, the mother of four children, was driving home from work at Timber Creek Pizza Pub and Grill in Omaha the night before Thanksgiving. She was taken to Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy, where she died.

"Mr. Pantoja's decision to drink and drive ended Candice's life and took her from her family and friends," Deputy Sarpy County Attorney Scott Earl said.

Sarpy County District Judge George Thompson sentenced Pantoja on Monday. Under Nebraska sentencing guidelines, Pantoja must serve at least half of the minimum sentence before he is eligible for parole.
LEXINGTON, NEB.  A 19-year-old Sioux City woman was fatally injured when she was thrown from an SUV as it rolled on Interstate 80 east of Lexington.

The crash occurred before 5:20 p.m. Tuesday about halfway between Lexington and Overton, said Dawson County Sheriff Ken Moody.

Witnesses told sheriff's deputies that a 2000 Ford Explorer was eastbound when its rear tire blew and the driver overcorrected, Moody said. The SUV entered the median and rolled.

Emma Kerr, who was sleeping in the back seat and wasn't wearing a seat belt, was ejected, Moody said.

Kerr ended up in the westbound lane of traffic but wasn't hit by any vehicles, the sheriff said. She was flown by medical helicopter to Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney, where she died.

The 16-year-old driver, who was wearing a seat belt, was taken to Lexington Regional Health Center in Lexington to be treated for her injuries.

Westbound I-80 traffic was backed up for a little over an hour after the crash, Moody said.

-- Bob Glissmann, Omaha World-Herald
Heres an ideal worth preserving: Judges should be chosen without partisan politics in mind and then do their work in the same fashion.

Iowa is in danger of slipping further away from this ideal. And, yes, its an ideal, not a reality. Lay people with little knowledge of statutory interpretation and other legal mechanics can often predict the outcome of a case where Republicans and Democrats preferences are at odds: They just use conservative and liberal labels attached to each judge and count up votes.

This is especially true of the current U.S. Supreme Court, which, according to Gallup, has never in almost 50 years of polling had the confidence of less of the public than it does now, at 25%. That June survey was performed before release of several of the most momentous decisions of the just-completed term, including the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that legalized abortion.

But consider how todays membership of the nations high court was assembled. The last seven justices to join the nine-member court were picked by presidents whose party controlled the only body with any say on the matter, the U.S. Senate, and none earned the vote of more than a handful of senators in the minority party. Similar dynamics have played out for years in the nominations and confirmations of hundreds of federal lower-court judges.

For 60 years, Iowa has used a better system. For every judicial vacancy, a panel of Iowans  some appointed by the governor and confirmed by a two-thirds vote in the Iowa Senate, others elected by Iowa lawyers  accepts applications, interviews candidates and sends a few names for the governors unfettered selection.

The lawyers on nominating commissions bring practical experience and topical expertise to the work. Political appointees bring a measure of voter accountability. The commissioners serve six-year terms, meaning the commissions arent blown up every time the party in control changes. Governors can directly influence the direction of the courts through their choices, but only after the fields of candidates are substantially narrowed. The process is commendably transparent, with interviews streamed live and detailed applications released online. Unlike in the federal system, Iowans vote regularly on whether to retain judges and justices in office.

The process wasnt broken before the Republican-controlled Legislature tinkered with it in 2019, proposing some seismic changes before settling on letting the governor nominate an additional person for the commission that selects candidates for the Iowa Supreme Court and Iowa Court of Appeals, and removing a sitting justice from the commission.

The process was dented but still wasnt broken before Senate Democrats tried to make a point in May by torpedoing four of Gov. Kim Reynolds appointees to that statewide panel. One nominee had been confirmed 48-0 to a partial term in 2019. Another was rejected for the second straight year (inexcusably, Democrats offered no public explanation for voting down Derek Muller in 2021). This year, rather than consider the ample qualifications of each nominee, Democrats seized upon only their political views to claim that Reynolds was breaking a law that says All commissioners shall be chosen without reference to political affiliation.

Thats a stretch. First, in many discussions of courts, politicians, lawyers and observers go to some lengths to draw distinctions between judicial philosophies and political affiliations. However real those distinctions are, they are more than enough to sustain deference to any governors picks. Second, positions on the nominating commissions have for decades been, for practical purposes, spoils for members of the governors party. And even at that, the commissions still produce diverse slates of candidates. Take, for example, the panel that in January 2011, fully loaded with Democrat Tom Vilsacks and Democrat Chet Culvers appointees, offered up, from a field of 60 applicants, Edward Mansfield. Gov. Terry Branstad placed him on the Supreme Court. Last month, Mansfield wrote the opinion that weakened abortion rights under the Iowa Constitution.

Commissioners are volunteers. The slate Democrats rejected had impressive resumes, and they deserved the chance to serve out their terms.

Republicans have indicated they arent finished  they want judges excluded from nominating panels for lower-court vacancies and want another gubernatorial appointee added.

Leaders in each party would do well to back off, on both legislation and confirmation stunts. Each voluntary injection of politics into Iowas judicial selection represents an unwarranted chipping away of the ideal that the judiciary is an independent branch of government, not subject to the whims of elected officials.

After a flurry of vacancies on the statewide courts, only five people applied last month to replace Brent Appel on the Supreme Court. The previous 13 vacancies attracted an average of 16 applicants per spot. Many factors could be involved, but we hope nobody concluded that accomplished lawyers who dont think like Reynolds would be wasting their time to apply.

As state and federal Supreme Court rulings have shown, judges decide the scope and permissibility of laws. They decide what rights all people do or do not have. Judges shouldnt feel beholden to party bosses as they deliberate such weighty questions.
It is very hot in Britain. At midday on Tuesday, the U.K. recorded its highest-ever temperature of 40.3 degrees Celsius, or 104.5 Farenheit.

Before people who live in Death Valley get angry with me, let me explain why that does in fact count as very hot here in London. Our summers used to involve a couple of weeks in the early 20s (around 70 Fahrenheit for Americans), a good bit of rain, and complaints that summer never really came this year. No longer. Now, you can bank on weather in the 20s, yes, but also one week where it becomes impossible to remain sane as temperatures and tempers skyrocket. We live in homes originally built for shivering chimney sweeps or something, and so on the whole, homes are built to keep heat in. I have never been in a home in this country that had air conditioning. Most of us didnt even know how to keep a house cool until a few years ago when this first started happening consistently, blithely leaving our windows open and saying Ill just buy a fan if it gets hot every day for a month until they sell out when it does in fact get hot.

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How are we dealing with it? Not well. There is nothing like a weather event to short fuse the collective consciousness of the United Kingdom at the best of times. Temperatures in double digits Celsius are enough to guarantee that there will be British people out in the parks sunbathing. So instead of hearing 40 degrees Celsius and thinking batten down the hatches, its time for a cold bath, they think tops off lads, its a once-in-a-lifetime tanning opportunity. We cant, as a nation, get our head around what it means to live in that heat. I went out to buy some food, battling headwinds that felt like standing in front of an oven, and found myself reading car number plates and not quite being able to remember how the shapes of the letters connect to the sounds you make when you say them.

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And all our infrastructure was built with lower temperatures in mind. Chaos has reigned. There were train tracks on fire, roads and airport runways melting, police smashing car windows to rescue boiling dogs, forest fires, suburban houses all over London burning down, Beefeaters being given bottles of water to suckle from like baby goats, surgeries cancelled because operating theatres were too hot, ambulances being called out left right and center to treat heat exposure, peoples leather sofas and rubbish bins and fences going up in flames. Every lush green park in the south of England looked like New Mexico overnight.

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The hotter it got, the more insane the advice trotted out to deal with the heat became. Dont put an ice pop in any of the bodys less salubrious holes, carry frozen vegetables under your top on the train, rub yourself with a raw onion. And look, some of the heatwave madness is funnyof course it is. Its funny to see videos of a burnt Englishman yelling at a passerby about their right to enjoy a cocktail in their own wheelie bin filled up with water undisturbed. Its funny that Sky News ran splitscreen coverage of the heatwave with a livestream of the sun on one side like it was O.J. Simpson on the freeway. With all due respect to the animals involved, it is funny that Welsh pigs had to be lathered with suncream ahead of an agricultural fair. Its funny that one cinema chain offered free tickets to ginger people. Its funny that chocolate deliveries were suspended because makers remembered the summer of 1990 when the entire stock of a chocolate factory in Liverpool melted.

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But some of it is not. Obviously, the writing is on the wall in terms of the climate crisis. Bill McGuire, a University College London professor of geophysical and climate hazards, told the Guardian that this is just the beginning. When our children are our age, they will yearn for a summer as cool as 2022, because long before the centurys end, 40C-plus heat will be nothing to write home about in the climate-mangled world they inherit. Another news report claimed that researchers are also increasingly concerned that extreme heatwaves in Europe are occurring more rapidly than models had suggested. Nobody wants to read these things while housebound and immobile under a collection of wet tea towels they put in the freezer.

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Then again, we knew all this. Scarier, almost, is that the heat managed to become a culture war issuenot even climate change, but the heat itself. People who havent had a drink of water since they accidentally opened their mouth in the shower some time in the late 90s posted online about how allowing kids to wear their gym clothes instead of a school uniform is woke bullshit; how Winston Churchill wouldnt be bitching about a little sunshine, hed be out there on the beaches with a rapidly warming pint of lager, chuffing on that cigar and turning the colour of Pepto Bismol. Brendan ONeill, a commentator famous in this country primarily for having a large forehead, wrote an article saying that people talking about the hot weather in relation to global warming is proof that climate change activists are a medieval End of Days cult. Another climate skeptic, James Whale, claimed in the Express that the reason the climate is getting hotter is that the planet is moving closer to the sun. A meteorologist on right-wing GB News was lambasted for not seeming excited for unprecedented heat and instead reporting on the likely excess deaths. Sir John Hayes, one of the nations large supporting cast of grisled Tory MPs and (yes) the former energy and climate change minister, said that this is not a brave new world but a cowardly new world where we live in a country where we are frightened of the heat. Hayes has been given a 50,000 salary by an oil company since 2018.

Late last night, the heat broke and rain swept over London. Well probably get warm, cloudy days for the rest of the summer. But this heatwave was a Petri dish in which to examine precisely how fucked the country is for the rapidly accelerating climate emergency. The results do not look good.
The big news coming out of the war in Ukraine this past month is President Bidens shipment of a high-tech weapon called HiMARS. Its been touted as a very significant factor on the battlefield, a game-changer that has greatly slowed down the Russian advance. Is this truth or hype? And what is HiMARS anyway?

On the most basic level, the weaponfirst deployed by the U.S. Army in 2005is what its acronym, fully spelled out, indicates: a High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System. What makes it unlike most artillery rocketsand much more lethal than what the Ukrainian army has had in its arsenal up until nowis that it can fire a wide variety of rockets as far as 50 miles, and, thanks to its GPS guidance system, the rockets can hit their targets with remarkable precision, landing and exploding no more than two to three meters away.

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Because of its range and its accuracy, HiMARS has allowed the Ukrainian army to destroy Russian ammunition dumps, command posts, bridges, barracks, and other vital targets well behind Russias front lines.

In this sense, HiMARS has leveled the playing field. Until recently, especially in the brutal stand-off in eastern Ukraine, Russian artillery crews could pound Ukrainian positions, while the Ukrainians had nothing with the range to fire back. Now they have something, and the Russians are hurting in ways that they havent been hurting before.

Biden, backed by many Western leaders, was initially hesitant to send Ukraine these sorts of weapons because they have the range to strike Russian territory, even from some distance, and therefore might be viewed as provocative. If a U.S.- or NATO-supplied weapon hit Russian territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin might respond by hitting U.S. or NATO targets in Europewhich would escalate the conflict, possibly setting off World War III. However, as Putin kept bombing and shelling Ukrainian civilians well to the west of the battlefield (and after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged not to hit targets inside Russia), Biden and other Western leaders relaxed their restrictions.

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The U.S. has supplied 12 HiMARS, with another four on the way. But Zelensky has said he needs 100and more ammunition to go with them. Hes unlikely to get that many. For one thing, it takes a few weeks to train Ukrainian soldiers how to use these weapons; even now, the U.S. is sending them faster than the Ukrainians can absorb them. Still, faster delivery could bolster Ukraines resistance and even help spark a counteroffensive.

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In addition to destroying command posts, bridges, ammo dumps, and other large, fixed targets, HiMARS has also busted up Russian artillery batteries, in some cases a minute after the Russians fired their rockets. U.S.-supplied technology has made this possible: A special radar detects a rocket being fired by a Russian artillery unit, transmits the units latitude and longitude to a data-control network, which directs a particular HiMARS to fire a rocket at precisely that point.

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One retired U.S. officer who has been advising the Ukrainians told me, If Ukraine could do this [rapid counter-firing] more often, Russian [artillery] soldiers would be afraid to go near their guns. For Ukraine to do this more often, they would need more HiMARS and more rockets for them to fire.

That said, its important to note that one new weapon rarely transforms the battlefield irreversibly. Enemies usually counter with a new weapon of their own or with a tactic that adapts to the new situation. The Russians are intensifying their attacks on Ukraines heavy artillery piecesand they have a lot more rockets than Ukraine does. If they had the imagination to do so, the Russians could also disperse their ammunition dumps and place them farther away from the railroad tracks that transport the ammo to the front. (Then again, maybe not: imagination has never been the Russian armys strong suit.)

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There is also the larger geopolitical picture, which is affecting the day-to-day battle more and more directly. Putin has been stepping up his diplomatic game with China, Iran, and Turkeyhoping to turn their converging interests on particular issues into a potent wartime alliance. Xi Jinping has ignored Bidens pleas to support Ukraine, or at least to stop supporting Russia. After a meeting with Putin just this week, the Ayatollah Khamenei endorsed Russias position on the war, supporting the invasion as a necessary preemption to aggression by Ukraine and reportedly sending drones to Russias army. Recep Tayyip Erdogans interests are mixedsome would drive him to take Ukraines side, others might drive him toward Russiasbut he seems to be drawn to the Moscow-Beijing-Tehran triumvirate, smilingly joining in with the Putin-Khameini powwow despite the backing that Turkey (a member of NATO) has generally given Ukraine.

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Putin is doing all he can to bolster this alliancehis trip to Tehran was only the second time hes been out of the former Soviet Union since the onset of COVID-19as a way to hold out for another season in his war.* His aim is to keep up the pressure on Ukraine, grab a bit more territory, formally annex a bit morethen hope that in the fall and winter, when the temperatures plummet, Germany and other European countries will succumb to their dependence on Russian oil and gas, take the fix, and drop out of the sanctions regime against Russiaand, with it, the unified effort to support Ukraine.

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The brutal stalemate on the battlefield is the cover for a desperate race for time. Which will happen first: Ukraine gets the heavy weapons it needs to turn back the Russian army; or the Western alliance frays and falls apart? The U.S. shipment of HiMARS increases the odds for Ukraine, but this race has many laps and hurdles. Its not nearly finished.
It sounds like a dramatic scene: Seventeen Democratic members of Congress arrested for protesting the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Police officers warning them over a loudspeaker to cease and desist. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, amid a crowd of demonstrators, yelling, If we dont get it, shut it down!

But the reality of Tuesdays demonstration outside of the Supreme Court was a bit more subdued. According to Capitol Police tweets, the whole thing lasted less than half an hour.

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A little after 1 p.m., a bunch of members of Congress showed up and blocked a street. Around 1:20 p.m., they were corralled into a shady area, where they were ticketed and issued $50 fines. Videos of the event show several membersincluding Reps. Ilhan Omar, Carolyn Maloney, and Jackie Speiersimply walking away from the protest; they didnt force officers to escort them from their site of civil disobedience.

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So, if the gathering was quickly dispersed, forced no action, and didnt appear to inconvenience anyone other than a few Capitol Police officers, what exactly was the point?

Some commentators, including many on the right, mocked the stagecraft of the event, disparaging Omar and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for holding their hands behind their backsperhaps in imitation of being handcuffed?as police led them away. Adding to the sense that the whole event was a publicity stunt with no material impact, Rep. Pramila Jayapal told a reporter, I was running to be arrested but I missed it.

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The fact that Jayapal and others knew theyd be ticketed for obstructing the street should not be counted against them. Its not uncommon in activist organizing to plan a protest with the express intent of getting arrested. In fact, its a time-honored tactic, less a cheap bid for attention than a strategic, surefire way to keep an issue in the news and stress an urgent need for action. When a mass of protesters gets cuffedor, er, gently herded onto the grassthe media pays attention. As Omar put it in a tweet, it was a way to raise the alarm about the GOPs escalating attack on reproductive health care.

That part of the plan worked. National news outlets covered the fracas, sure, but local outlets, which often reach a broader and less politics-obsessed audience, also reported on the demonstration. In Missouri, they covered the arrest of Rep. Cori Bush. In the Bay Area, there were spots on Reps. Barbara Lee and Jackie Speier. In New Jersey media, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman got her message across. Massachusetts watched a TV news segment on Pressley and Rep. Katherine Clark.

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There are surely constituents in each of these states, and elsewhere who have been boiling over with rage in the weeks since the Dobbs opinion came down. They may feel powerless in the face of the naked barbarism of conservatives gleefully sentencing pregnant girls to torture; numbed by the swelling stream of anecdotes of patients suffering needless injury, pain, and infection; or disillusioned and cynical in the wake of Democratic inaction. (Count me among them!)

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For millions of people, watching members of Congress exhibit a level of anger and moral outrage that other Democrats have failed to evince might be exactly the motivation they need to stay in the fightnow, as nascent networks of abortion care are forming, and on Election Day, when Democrats need a near-miraculous massive turnout to keep control of the House and Senate. In other words, the efficacy of a protest lies just as much in its capacity to energize supporters as it does in its ability to force immediate change.

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And yet, there is something unseemly about the way the representatives are hyping up their arrests.

In a statement, Maloney said, I have the privilege of representing a state where reproductive rights are respected and protectedthe least I can do is put my body on the line for the 33 million women at risk of losing their rights.

Omar told a reporter, It was really important for us to be out there to put our bodies on the line. So many people who came before us put their bodies on the line for us to have the freedoms that we have today in this country.

Pressley tweeted, Today, we put our bodies on the line to defend abortion rights because the stakes couldnt be higher.

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The phrase they all used, bodies on the line, is a familiar one in direct-action activism. Usually, it refers to putting oneself in danger to achieve a righteous goal, sometimes quite literally, using ones body as a shield or blockade. When demonstrators at Donald Trumps inauguration chained themselves to fences at security checkpoints to prevent attendees from entering the event, they were putting their bodies on the line. So were the protesters who formed a buffer zone around that blockade, forcing Trump supporters to to pry through an extra layer of bodies before they could try to shove past the chain.

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Incidentally, Bodies on the Line is also the title of a recent book by Lauren Rankin, who chronicles the history of abortion clinic defenders and escorts in the U.S. For decades, these volunteers have put their bodies in between aggressive anti-abortion protesters and patients who are trying to get in and out of clinics. Before federal law made it a crime to block the entrance to an abortion clinic, defenders used their bodies as human shields, creating safe passageways from the sidewalk to the clinic door, often thanklessly and without fanfare, at considerable risk to themselves.

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In this context, the claim that members of Congress put their bodies on the line to protect abortion care appears kind of weak. These representatives are acting like they have taken a real risk. The reality is they have gotten fined for crowding, obstructing, or incommoding, a surprisingly non-bathroom-related word that means disrupting the public use of space. It doesnt feel like solidarity with the health care providers and pregnant patients who could face lengthy prison sentences for pursuing abortions so much as a reminder that, as long as the country is held hostage by extremist conservatives on the Supreme Court and filibuster-enamored moderates in the Senate, even the progressives with actual power in this countrywho, to be fair, did pass an actual bill that would enshrine abortion rights in U.S. lawbelieve the best they can do right now is stage a protest photo shoot.

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Its not that I think Maloney and Speier should have ferried a busload of abortion medication to Houston on a press trip. And Im not suggesting that progressive members of Congress would be of better use to the country if they were in prison for providing illegal abortion services.

But if these legislators want to put their bodies on the line somewhere, they might consider positioning those bodies such that they serve an actual purpose. The next time Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton visits D.C., his itinerary should be littered with congressional blockades. It wont change the Dobbs decision or convince Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to support a filibuster carveout for abortion legislation, but it will make one cruel politicians day a little more annoying. Thats a bigger win than the Dems got on Tuesday.
Only one councillor voted to change the name.

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Prosecutor General Maros Zilinka has lodged a protest against a generally binding regulation issued by the town of Varin, Zilina Region. In his initiative from May 30, he proposed removing the name of Jozef Tiso, the president of the Nazi-allied Slovak State during WWII, from a street name sign, arguing that the name goes against the law.

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The Varin municipal council did not succumb to the protest and voted to keep the wartime president and convicted war criminal in the name of the street. The spokesperson of the General Prosecutor's Office, Peter Mihal, confirmed the vote's result for TASR.

Only one person voted for the change, the others did not comply with the protest, said Mihal. The general prosecutor has the right to file an indictment over the municipal council's vote with the Supreme Administrative Court. Mihal said this is likely to happen.

The councillors of Varin, however, say that they want people to decide on whether to keep the street name in a local referendum.

Nobody knows why they named the street after Tiso
The European Commission announces a plan on how to reduce gas use. A Nazi collaborator's name remains on a street sign.

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Good evening. The Wednesday, July 20 edition of Today in Slovakia is ready with the main news of the day in less than five minutes.

Enough gas for winter?

A gas pipeline station near the Slovak-Polish border near Vyrava in the district of Medzilaborce, eastern Slovakia, on May 27, 2022. (Source: TASR)

An International Monetary Fund study published on July 19 shows that a shutdown of Russian gas supplies could have a negative impact on Central and Eastern European countries, with Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic most affected.

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However, the Economy Ministry said earlier that Slovakia has enough gas for the next winter season, both for households and firms.

Most recently, the European Commission has published a European Gas Demand Reduction Plan for how EU member states could cut gas demand. According to the plan, the EU aims to reduce gas use in Europe by 15 percent until next spring.

More stories from The Slovak Spectator website

CORONAVIRUS: Slovakia has begun offering a fourth dose of Covid vaccinations to people over 50. The country reported 1,159 new Covid-19 cases, seven deaths, and almost 400 hospitalised patients with Covid-19 on July 19. Several hospitals have recently banned visits, including a Ruzomberok military hospital.

Slovakia has begun offering a fourth dose of Covid vaccinations to people over 50. The country reported 1,159 new Covid-19 cases, seven deaths, and almost 400 hospitalised patients with Covid-19 on July 19. Several hospitals have recently banned visits, including a Ruzomberok military hospital. VARIN: Varin councillors have refused to rename a local street that bears the name of Slovakia's wartime president and Nazi collaborator, Jozef Tiso.

Varin councillors have refused to rename a local street that bears the name of Slovakia's wartime president and Nazi collaborator, Jozef Tiso. RIVER: The pollution on the river Slana has reached an extreme scale, prompting the government to declare an emergency in several districts.

The pollution on the river Slana has reached an extreme scale, prompting the government to declare an emergency in several districts. TRAVEL: A trailpark has opened in the Spis region, eastern Slovakia.

Event to look forward to:

On Saturday, July 23, Venice Night will take place at Strbske Pleso lake in the Tatras. Visitors can meet people in Baroque costumes, listen to music, try any of 22 boats, and taste Italian food. The event is free.

FEATURE STORY FOR WEDNESDAY

Canadian-Icelandic writer inspires Slovak women in equality fight

Eliza Reid reads from her debut book at a July 15 event during this year's Authors' Reading Month in Bratislava. (Source: Dominika Bolgacova)

Eliza Reid, a former travel journalist and the First Lady of Iceland, recently visited Slovakia to take part in the Authors' Reading Month, the largest literature festival in Central Europe, which this year was celebrating writers from Iceland.

The Canadian author describes her debut book, "Secrets of the Sprakkar", which came out earlier this year and will be published in Slovakia later this year, as a love letter to Iceland, the country that became Reid's new home nearly 20 years ago.

In the book, she recounts her story as an immigrant, pays tribute to extraordinary Icelandic women, and takes readers on a journey around the island, a great place for women, the first lady emphasises  it has performed the best in the Global Gender Gap Index for more than a decade - but not a paradise.

If you like what we are doing and want to support good journalism, buy our online subscription. Thank you.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The police have identified the human remains found during a shooting incident in Bratislava last weekend. They belong to a 68-year-old woman. The shooter had killed the woman and tried to burn her in a home-made furnace.

last weekend. They belong to a 68-year-old woman. The shooter had killed the woman and tried to burn her in a home-made furnace. Mondelez International will create an additional 180 jobs at its plant in Kostolne Kracany , southern Slovakia, and increase the production of croissants. The firm produces the well-known 7 Days croissants and Bake Rolls.

, southern Slovakia, and increase the production of croissants. The firm produces the well-known 7 Days croissants and Bake Rolls. A first-contact centre for Ukrainian citizens at Kramare hospital in Bratislava has been shut down . Another centre, at Petrzalka hospital, remains open, University Hospital Bratislava said on Facebook.

. Another centre, at Petrzalka hospital, remains open, University Hospital Bratislava said on Facebook. Two thirds of Ukrainian refugees want to return to Ukraine when possible, shows the latest International Organisation for Migration report based on 1,027 interviews with refugees. Fourteen percent of the surveyed refugees told the organisation that they would want to stay in Slovakia. The interviews were carried out between March 9 and June 30.

A motorised ice cream cone, a useful tool during a heatwave, was patented in the USA by inventor Richard B. Hartman in 1998. (Source: Facebook/Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic)

The public administration website, Slovensko.sk, is up and running after yesterday's outage due to a damaged cable in a railway tunnel.

due to a damaged cable in a railway tunnel. The registered unemployment rate in Slovakia stood at 6.28 percent in June , Labour Minister Milan Krajniak (Sme Rodina) said. It is down 1.48 percentage points year on year.

, Labour Minister Milan Krajniak (Sme Rodina) said. It is down 1.48 percentage points year on year. The Interior Ministry will buy two helicopters for rescuers and police officers, spending 29 million on the purchase.

for rescuers and police officers, spending 29 million on the purchase. The government on Wednesday endorsed the NATO accession protocol for Sweden and Finland.

If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.
Eliza Reids debut book, Secrets of the Sprakkar, will be published in Slovak later this year.

Canadian-Icelandic writer and Iceland's First Lady Eliza Reid takes a selfie with Slovak President Zuzana Caputova's spouse Juraj Rizman in Bratislava on July 15, 2022. (Source: Dominika Bolgacova)

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Eliza Reid, Icelands First Lady, recalls how at an official event she attended with her husband, Gudni Johannesson, the presidential couple were given aprons as gifts.

The Presidents apron had the words, Gudni - a role model for us all printed on it, while Reids had, Eliza - the woman behind the man.

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I wasnt very happy with that, Reid, a proud feminist and newly-published author, tells The Slovak Spectator.
The 2022 stakes season has been quite kind to veteran trainer John Bax and to driver James MacDonald, and on Tuesday night they put on quite a show in the Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots divisions at Woodbine Mohawk Park .

Resolve To Win captured the first $22,600 OSS Grassroots division of the evening for Bax and MacDonald.

The two-year-old son of Resolve-Sensual Hall rallied to a three-length triumph over Floyd The Freak in a sharp clocking of 1:57.4. Mr Experience took home the show dough in the nine-horse affair.

Sent off at odds of 10-1, the colt scored the victory after finishing third in his debut effort against Grassroots foes for Bax Stable, Brad Grant, Gaelic Stable and Don Allensen. The lions share of the purse lifted his earnings to $13,964.

Darbyshire turned a two-hole trip into a 1:58.1 score in the second division for the tandem of trainer Bax and driver MacDonald.

MacDonald mapped out the sweet trip for Darbyshire, who was able to chase early fractions of :29.2, :59.2 and 1:28.4 before using a :29.1 closing kick to win by a length over Lava Field. Take On Me set most of the speed before fading to finish third.

Sent off as the 2-1 second choice in the wagering, the son of Muscle Mass-Danish Darby posted his second win in as many tries for the partnership of Bax Stable, Glengate Farms, Goin To The Show Stable and Happy Trails Stable. The youngster has now banked $22,400 to date.

Hasty Bid gave MacDonald yet another Grassroots score, and this one is sure to garner some brownie points from the colts trainer, Paige Austin, who celebrated her first training victory in the process.

Austin, who shares ownership on the rookie with 1000063663 Ontario Inc, watched the son of My MVP-Sunshinenlollipops, sit fourth in the first half of the mile while Lookslikeadream laid down fractions of :29.2 and 1:00.3. Hasty Bid came first over going into the final turn, and he pressed the leader to the three-quarter pole in 1:30.3 before using a :27.3 closing quarter to win by 3-1/2 lengths over Fox Valley Ontario in 1:58.2. Lookslikeadream faded late and wound up third.

After finishing third in his debut versus OSS Grassrooters at Clinton Raceway on July 3, Hasty Bid nabbed the maiden-breaking win in impressive fashion.

Nothingbutadreamer overcame early interference to win the fourth division for the white-hot James MacDonald and trainer Harry Poulton.

The son of Muscle Mass-Myimpossibledream got away third before being bothered by a breaking RFLs Jasper. Despite the bump in the road, Nothingbutadreamer maintained his poise and sat a pocket trip behind Hamilton De Vie through first-half fractions of :30 and 1:00. Nothingbutadreamer came first-over in the third quarter and showed a short lead while racing parked past the three-quarter pole in 1:29.4. He then stormed home in :28.3 to win by 4-3./4 lengths over Busting With Pride in 1:58.2. Finishing third was Like Chaos.

Thestable Nothinbutadremr of Guelph , Ont. owns the freshman, who was sent off as the even-money favourite in the eight-horse affair. It was the first win from three attempts for the career winner of $11,900.

Tuscan Prince was treated to a three-hole ride throughout the fifth and final division, and when he shook loose in the lane he had more than enough trot to handle the competition.

Bob McClure ducked his charge down to the rail early and watched race favourite Dark Hammock Road lay down fractions of :28.3, :59 and 1:29.1. McClure then started up the engine on Tuscan Prince, who kicked home in :28.4 to win by four lengths over New Rules. Tempo-setting Dark Hammock Road settled for third prize in the $22,200 affair.

Luc Blais trains the son of Kadabra-Tosca for Determination of Montreal, Que. The youngster now owns a 1-1-0 record from three assignments. Hes managed to stash away $16,650 in earnings.
Last year's Joe Gerrity Jr. Memorial Pace winner and half-mile track world record holder This Is The Plan will face a stiff challenge in his title defense this coming Saturday at Saratoga Casino Hotel as he faces seven other top pacers including a couple of Canadian-connected contenders.

This Is The Plan will look to defend his title in the 13th edition of the $250,000 Gerrity when he leaves from post two in the evening's sixth race with regular reinsman Yannick Gingras in the bike. Trained by Ron Burke, the seven-year-old Somebeachsomewhere gelding, who has amassed more than $2.7 million in purses lifetime, holds the world record on a half-mile track of 1:47.3 that he set in the Battle of Lake Erie last year at Northfield Park. His stablemate Workin Ona Mystery will have the inside post with Tim Tetrick listed to drive.

Linedrive Hanover, Canada's fastest pacer on a half-mile track, has drawn post position seven and will have Brian Sears in the sulky for Ontario-based trainer Anthony Beaton and owners West Wins Stable of Wellington, Florida, McKinlay & Fielding of Toronto, Ont., and Mac Nichol of Burlington, Ont. The four-year-old Betting Line gelding has won 11 of his 16 starts this year, including a 1:49 Canadian record performance in the Charles Juravinski Memorial Cup at Flamboro Downs. Most recently, he finished third in the sizzling 1:46.1 final of the Graduate Series on July 9 at The Meadowlands.

Former O'Brien Award winner and millionaire pacer Tattoo Artist, with Wally Hennessey picking up the mount, will start just outside of This Is The Plan from post three. Trained by Chris Ryder, the five-year-old Ontario-sired son of Hes Watching enters the Gerrity off a third-place finish in last Saturday's 1:45.4 world record mile in the William R. Haughton Memorial at The Meadowlands, where he paced his own last quarter in :25.4.

Also coming out of that historic race is Nandolo N (post four) and Dragon Said (post eight). The Ontario-owned son of Sunshine Beach, Priceless Beach, has drawn post five and Mach Three gelding Leonidas A will take another shot at the Gerrity this year from post six.

Notably absent from the field is another Canadian star, Jimmy Freight, who has been sidelined from a couple of his scheduled events due to an injury.

Here is a look at the complete Gerrity field in post position order:

$250,000 Joe Gerrity Jr. Memorial Pace

Post - Horse - Driver - Trainer

1. Workin Ona Mystery - Tim Tetrick - Ron Burke

2. This Is The Plan - Yannick Gingras - Ron Burke

3. Tattoo Artist - Wally Hennessey - Chris Ryder

4. Nandolo N - Jason Bartlett - Shane Tritton

5. Priceless Beach - Matt Kakaley - Jared Bako

6. Leonidas A - Austin Siegelman - Steven Finkelstein

7. Linedrive Hanover - Brian Sears - Anthony Beaton

8. Dragon Said - Joe Bongiorno - Jennifer Bongiorno

AE1. American Dealer N - Joe Bongiorno - Linda Toscano

AE2. Charlie May - Tim Tetrick - Jody Riedel

Post time for the first race is 6:45 p.m.
While visiting Columbus recently, I was asked by a member of the press what was my favorite part of my time in the area.

I explained that the truth is visiting with Nebraskans is one of the best parts of my job. As lawmakers, its vital that we are out in our communities, listening to Nebraskans, and hearing whats on folks minds. Thats why I was pleased to have the opportunity to stop by this great community.

The first stop of the day was the Columbus Community Hospital. While there, I toured the facility and met with staff to discuss the challenges posed by COVID, recent expansions to the hospital grounds, and exciting future construction projects. Some of the additions included a physical therapy area, an emergency department, as well as a comprehensive day care center. These new facilities have been critical to broadening the types of services the hospital can provide, as well as helping Columbus attract and retain the next generation of Nebraskans.

During the tour I met one nurse who had been at the hospital for over 40 years, a truly remarkable commitment to serving her community. While at the hospital we also received some beautiful news as a soft lullaby came over the loudspeakers  a new baby had just been born. This wonderful occasion highlighted the needed services the hospital provides. The hospital has an innovative approach to caring for the community, and it was great to see all the good work they do.

Later that day, I stopped by the Good Neighbor Health Clinic. Community health centers like Good Neighbor play an important role in rural areas, offering everything from traditional primary care to dental services and even a pharmacy. While their staff explained that they continue to navigate workforce shortages and supply chain issues, I saw firsthand their hard work and dedication to providing the people of Columbus with quality care.

The following day, I had the chance to visit with folks at the Nebraska Business Development Centers kickoff event in Lincoln.

During the event, I discussed how investing in our infrastructure is critical to growing our economy and keeping our local communities connected. Thanks to the infrastructure law, which I voted for, significant investments are being made in Nebraskas roads, bridges, airports, railways, and water systems. At this event, I announced that both the Omaha Eppley and Lincoln airports would be receiving significant Airport Terminal Program Grants from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which were made possible by the infrastructure law. Omaha Eppley airport will specifically receive $20 million toward their terminal access road project, while the Lincoln airport will receive $850,000 for terminal modernization.

Core infrastructure is also broadband connectivity, which is critical to modern life. Without connectivity, young people will leave our rural communities and our local economies will struggle to grow. Crucially, the infrastructure law will provide a total of about $48 billion for broadband deployment. The goal for this historical investment in broadband buildout is to close the digital divide and make broadband more accessible for all Nebraskans, no matter where they live.

To be out in the state meeting with Nebraskans is always enjoyable. I look forward to future visits and continuing to discuss the pressing issues facing our communities across The Good Life.

Thank you for participating in the democratic process. I look forward to visiting with you again next week.
A retired Alaskan couple is driving their tractor back home from Nebraska, a nearly 4,000-mile journey, while raising money for Childrens Hospital Colorado.

Dick and Carol Ourada live in Fairbanks, Alaska, but also have a home in Holyoke, Colorado, near the Nebraska state line. The couple bought a house to renovate and decided they wanted a small tractor with a loader, but those are difficult to acquire in Alaska.

The Ouradas decided to get one shipped to Fairbanks. However, with Dick needing heart surgery and the coronavirus pandemic halting travel, the couple put that plan on pause for years.

When it came time to collect their tractor, they decided they could do some good along the way, Dick said.

Having had time to consider it, and being of an age where we have time to do these things, we decided Wouldnt it be a wonderful opportunity to raise a lot of money for something?

The couple took their tractor on a test ride to Imperial, Nebraska.

On Monday, they traveled through Gering, stopping at the Legacy of the Plains. From there, their goal is to get to Fairbanks, accepting donations for Childrens Hospital Colorado both online and in person wherever they stop.

The tractor, nicknamed Aggie, is a bright red 1977 International Harvester 574 vehicle with a repurposed Allis-Chalmers tractor cab. Dick painted and refurbished it at his Holyoke shop.

The reason I went to it is its a very basic tractor, he said. Not a lot of hydraulic shift or anything. Its good old steel gears and things that dont burn out or break down. Its built more like a little old Ford tractor was built and thats why theyre still out there, just basic simplicity.

Dick expects the journey to take around 60 days, driving 20 miles an hour, 10 hours a day. Either he or Carol drives Aggie, and the other follows in their Winnebago, switching periodically.

If we had just driven the shortest distance, its closer to 3,400 - 3,500 miles, but we wouldnt meet anywhere near as many people because we want to get our aim out there, get noticed, he said.

Their goal is to raise $100,000, and so far, theyve raised around $4,000. Everything collected goes straight to Childrens Hospital Colorado for research purposes.

They chose the hospital because of how its workers had helped their families in the past. When Dicks daughter, Donica Munyiri, was born, she wouldnt eat. At just three days old, she was at deaths door.

She was actually starving to death, Dick said. She had maybe a day or two left to live.

Local doctors were unable to properly help, and recommended Donica be rushed for treatment at the childrens hospital in Denver. Doctors were waiting to help her when the family arrived, and they didnt charge a thing for their services.

By the next morning, the doctors had treated Donica and were giving her small, frequent meals to keep her alive.

They said, We have trouble with premature babies having the same complaint. We dont exactly know why but we did a lot of research and basically found a special nipple for a baby bottle that these babies all seem to accept, Dick said.

The nipple attached to a glass soda bottle, so thats how Donica was fed at the start of her life. Dick said people would see him and his wife feeding her that way, and think they were giving their baby soda. Sometimes, Dick would joke that she liked soda better than milk.

It was a kind of funny-looking nipple, but it went on the end of a pop bottle  I said Boy, with all the research and stuff like that this is going to be expensive. And they said I think the nipples cost only 50 or 75 cents. Basically, they saved my babys life for 75 cents, he said.

Carols nephew also received lifesaving treatment at Childrens Hospital Colorado.

(Carol) said her nephew, at eight weeks I think, had heart surgery at the same hospital  and they fixed his heart well enough to keep him alive until he was 5, then they did total heart surgery on him. Hes alive and has a family and is somewhere around 40 years old now, Dick said.

Donica is now 58 years old, working for the Head Start program at Northwest Community Action in Chadron.

Thats quite an adventure theyre on, she said of her fathers and stepmothers journey. Hes always been like that. He gets an idea in his head, hell go through it and hell come out on the other side.

Donica said shed been told about her eating ordeal growing up, but that she hadnt been told how young she was or how dire her situation had been until her father started planning his trip.

The thing thats really interesting about this is I work for Head Start  and we help a lot of families in similar situations by making referrals and such. So Ive kind of fallen into the same business as he would have gone through with me, she said.

Dick and Carol left for Fairbanks on July 13  Donicas 58th birthday. They stayed in the Scottsbluff/Gering area for the first weekend of their trip, meeting tourists and raising money at the Legacy of the Plains Museum.

Dick said any donations would be like paying the hospital back for their work decades later. At first, the money was to go directly to the hospital, but he said he was unsure if Canadians would donate since their countrys government funds hospitals.

The couple then decided to focus the fundraising on research. Smaller research projects dont get much publicity, and the money they raise can help children in the future.

You can spend half a million dollars on cancer treatment pretty easily and a with a little bit of research, they saved my daughter for 75 cents. Of course, you wont cure cancer for 75 cents but it gets the publicity, and these little things you never hear about until its your kid, or your familys kid, or your grandkid, he said.

People from as far away as Germany and Alberta have reached out to them; the latter family offered to let the Ouradas stay with them a spell to help collect donations from their neighborhood.

Thats a pretty good spread when weve reached that far already, Dick said.

Dick said its almost unusual to talk to a person who doesnt know someone whose life was saved there. He even met two people who have family who used the special nipples.

To be able to run into two (families) who used something that specialized within a month, there must be thousands of them out there, he said. When you take that times 58 years, how many people have been saved by this silly little nipple on a pop bottle?

For additional information or to donate, people can visit www.tractortrip.com.
For the past few years, Nellie De Los Santos has been searching for a home for her and her sons, Izise, 10, and Arnaldo, 5.

I've applied to get a home loan prior but the market wasnt good. (With the houses on the market) in my price range, it just wasn't feasible for us to get in without having (to make extensive) repairs, De Los Santos said.

De Los Santos search is over after being selected for this years Habitat for Humanity project.

We are currently living with my parents, so it's going to be nice to be on our own, she said. We've been with them for the last few years, so we're ready for our own personal space and place to grow.

De Los Santos said having a hand in building the house makes it a little more personal.

It is making a lot of memories for us, especially with the build. We get to help and see how our house was actually built. Every time they do something new, we come out here and we take photos. We learn a little bit more about (the process of building a house), she said.

After being selected for this years Habitat for Humanity project, De Los Santos said she was shown plans for the house and was able to pick a few options.

They do give you a lot of the options of different things that you would like in the home. (A kitchen) island was one option that they do give, plus the paint and the siding color are some of the things that they let you be a part of because it's your own home in the end, she said.

The De Los Santos home is the 21st home built by Habitat for Humanity. The project is slated for completion in late fall, Kevin Mooney, head of fundraising for Habitat for Humanity, said.

Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization. Its sole purpose is to provide affordable housing, Tom Holyoke, the chair of the Habitat for Humanity board of governors, said.

This is our 21st home, so you've got 21 families in this community who would not have a home if not for the volunteers and public support that we get from the community, he said. Habitat is not a giveaway program. It's a partnership. We partner with a family to build that family a home. They contribute sweat equity. When the home is done, they buy the home  interest-free for a 20- or 25-year loan.

It takes a lot of help from the community to make the homes possible, Holyoke said.

We depend on volunteers, he said. We depend on community support and it's the contributions that we get from (businesses like) Floyd's Truck Center and Platte Valley Bank that take this home from a dream, to a possibility, to reality.

This is the first year Floyds Truck Center has given a major donation for the project, Mooney said.

Platte Valley Companies has been wonderful (to the program)  for a second year in a row, (Platte Valley Companies) will also provide major money to help us with the house, Mooney said. We also have some other anonymous donors as well. Even a gentleman as far away as Utah, who has provided money for this house. So we appreciate all those folks as well.

Habitat for Humanity is looking for volunteers and volunteer groups to help. No construction experience is necessary. For volunteer opportunities, call 308-633-2368 or email sbch4h@gmail.com.
The Statesville Kiwanis Club chose nine students as recipients of the scholarships handed out from some of the proceeds from last years Iredell County Agricultural Fair.

Six of the students received their scholarship checks in June, but a trio of recipients was not able to be at that meeting. On Tuesday night, those three students received their checks.

Josie Ann Chenevey, Molly Brooke Smyth and Hannah Elizabeth Loftin received the final three scholarship checks.

Chenevey is a graduate of North Iredell High School and will be attending Montreat College. Smyth is a graduate of South Iredell High School and will be attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Loftin is home-schooled and will be attending Mount Olive University. All three received $1,000 scholarships

Kiwanian Joe Stephens said there were close to 50 applications this year.

Its not based on where you go. Its not totally based on your grades. Its not totally based on your community service, he said But being a civic club, community service plays a large part.

Loftin also received another $2,400 in scholarship monies. Kiwanis Fair Manager Jim Head said Loftin was one of a limited number of students statewide to receive a scholarship from the North Carolina Association of Fairs.

The three join Brylee Grace Gibson, Blair Hamilton Morrison, Karli Wilson Townsell, Allison Joy Eudy, Skylin Grace Guill, Kirsten Rae Gusler and Hannah Marie Van Buren in receiving Kiwanis scholarship.

Harvey Pons of the Kiwanis Club congratulated Smyth, Chenevey and Loftin.

We are very proud of you, he said.
By Syune Arakelyan

The 19th Golden Apricot international film festival was opened with Armenian American Emmy winning director, actor and writer Michael Goorjian's and producer Arman Nshanyan's movie "Amerikatsi" (the American), which features a lot of famous actors from Armenia and abroad. Among them, Spanish actor of Armenian origin Hovik Keuchkerian who is best known for portraying Bogota on Netflix TV series Money Heist/La Casa de Papel. The actor was not present at the Armenian premiere of the movie and hasn't watched it yet, but he hopes he can do it in the nearest future, along with the film cast and the creators. In his exclusive interview with NEWS.am STYLE, Hovik recalled the shooting process during the pandemic days, and spoke about his success after Money Heist and the new projects he is involved.

According to Hovik, the most important thing in playing Tigran in "Amerikatsi" was not only creating the character, but also being able to work in Armenia with the Armenian staff.

"It wasnt just a question of building a character. This movie was a huge thing for me; it was about going to Armenia, feeling Armenia in my blood and in my soul for the first time in my life, being on my land, on my fathers land, so it was also a question of blood and feelings. The character is a very powerful one, he has good relationship with main characters and for the moment it touched me very emotionally," said the actor remembering the difficult period of shootings because of the pandemic.

"I will always remember, when the pandemic started my brother called me laughing and saying, Youre there shooting in Armenia with so many Armenian people, in your world like usual, and you dont know whats going on? I said, No, and he was like, Man, there is a world pandemic. But I didnt realize what was going to happen, so we kept going with the shootings, and one day my mother called saying, Listen, you have to come, they gonna close everything. So, I had a meeting with Michael and with the team, saying that I had to go to my family, and then I went home in Madrid. But later I finally could go back to Armenia and finish my shootings. Im very happy that the efforts of the whole team fulfilled."

The actor says working with an Armenian team was a great experience for him. "They put all their hearts and souls in the job, and it was great to work with my brothers and sisters," he said.

Hovik was also impressed by all the love and support he received from the Armenian fans.

"I was very happy to see how the Armenian people loved Money Heist, and all of them were very proud that an Armenian guy was in that successful project. Im very proud as well. Life is a matter of periods and that was a period, which is over now, but that was a great experience, and the most important thing is that due to Money Heist, people in the industry and in the world knew my name, so now I can work morespecially in major projects," he said.

Keuchkerian has some good news for his fans. He has already finished his shootings for HBO and now is up for a new onebut this time for Amazon.

"Im finishing shootings in a series for HBO, its the second season of The Head, and Im very happy with the role, with the team and with the project. I dont know when it will be released, maybe on Christmas. And Im also starting the shootings for the first season of preproduction of Reina Roja/Red Queen for Amazon," he said.

Returning to the importance of the movie Amerikatsi, Hovik hopes that its message will reach the world, as well telling not only the Armenian story, but also representing it as a good movie from Armenia.

"I think the most important thing for the Armenian people was to do a movie sending a message of hope. The movie was made for the Armenian people, but with the universal message; thats the most important thing. Would be great if the world sees the movie not as a movie for Armenians, but as a great and an unbelievable one," he said.

The movie Amerikatsi was produced by People of AR production, which was founded by Arman Nshanyan. Among the producers of the movie are also Patrick Malkhasyan, and Sol Tryon. The story is by Michael Goorjian, who embodies the main character, Charlie. It is starred also by Narine Grigoryan, Jean-Pierre Nshanian, Aram Karakhanyan, Davit Hakobyan, Lernik Harutyunyan, Mikhail Trukhin, Nelli Uvarova, and others. The movie tells a story of an Armenian American man who had survived the Armenian Genocide and repatriated back to his homeland in order to find his roots.

Photos are from the movie and Hovik Keuchkerian's Instagram

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RIDGEFIELD  Costco is planning to build a warehouse store in Ridgefield alongside Interstate 5, just north of Pioneer Street, according to new plans submitted to the city of Ridgefield.

The new Costco Wholesale, the third in Clark County, will generate $700,000 per year in local tax revenue and provide 300 to 400 jobs, according to a news release from the city of Ridgefield. Construction will start next year, according to the propertys co-developer Josh Oliva.

The development, on an 80-acre site owned by local developer Steven Oliva, will include a Costco gas station. Costco will occupy a 151,000-square-foot building in the larger development that will include other retail tenants that have yet to be decided.

The land is currently farmland with no buildings on it. The construction plans are not final, and there will be substantial work and development processes to work through to assure the best possible result for the retailers and Ridgefield community, according to the news release.

Costco does not comment on new locations until three months from opening day, according to its website.

We are excited by the prospect of adding this desirable store to the valuable services that have been developing in Ridgefield, said Mayor Jennifer Lindsay in the news release. This Costco will serve as a destination retail location for Clark County and Cowlitz County, create quality employment opportunities, and help diversify the Citys economic base to focus more on revenue from sustainable sales tax and less on residential development to support essential services.

The plans were submitted to the city on Tuesday, and a pre-application conference will be scheduled soon.

Costco currently has two locations in Clark County: one on 192nd Avenue Camas that opened in November 2010 and one on Andresen in the Walnut Grove neighborhood that opened in 2004.
Cowlitz County District Court Judge Debra Burchett is suspended from the bench for 10 days without pay starting Aug. 2.

The Supreme Court of Washington filed the decision Tuesday, almost two months after a state ethics committee recommended a bench suspension for the first-term judge after Burchett and the organization agreed she violated parts of the states Code of Judicial Conduct.

The Washington state Commission on Judicial Conduct in May censured Burchett and recommended she be suspended from the bench for 10 days and required her to receive permission from the ethics commission to run for re-election. Burchetts term ends this January and she did not file for re-election.

The censure is the highest reprimand the commission can impose. This was the second time Burchett has faced disciplinary action from the ethics commission recently. She was also reprimanded in April 2021.

The ethics commission says Burchett agreed she violated judicial conduct rules under her latest set of charges, including not acting impartially or ensuring every person with a legal interest in a proceeding is heard.

During a June 2021 small claims case in which a plaintiff was suing a defendant, Burchett awarded the defendant money the defendant didnt ask for, which prevented the plaintiff from arguing against the reward.

In August 2021, the commission says Burchett also had an off-the-record conversation with a litigant that resulted in her dismissing his traffic infraction without explanation.

The April 2021 violations include similar misconduct. According to a commission report, Burchett imposed a week of jail in January 2020 without telling a defendant of her right to counsel or her right to counter the allegations. The report also states Burchett didnt let a person who was late into a virtual courtroom because she was apparently tired and said that she just cant.
Two people are charged with felony drug violations after law enforcement last week say they seized 13 pounds of illegal drugs, plus 30,000 fentanyl pills in a vehicle off Interstate 5s exit 39 in Kelso.

Natasha Louise Djordjevic, 40, of Lakewood, Washington, and Richard Lee Ernsting, 40, of Tacoma, each were charged Tuesday in Cowlitz County Superior Court with two counts of violating the Uniform Controlled Substances Act. Detectives say they found $350,000 worth of drugs in the vehicle the pair was in during a traffic stop.

According to a police report, Longview officers and Cowlitz County deputies arrested the pair July 14 after they were pulled over around 7:30 p.m. in the 1400 block of Allen Street in Kelso, near the I-5 exit, a park and ride and a Dutch Bros Coffee shop. A Kelso Police Department K-9 detected the smell of controlled substance in the pairs maroon Acura SUV, reports Longview police.

Detectives knew the make and model of the SUV Djordjevic was driving because a source working with law enforcement ordered drugs from what detectives called a known supplier, who said Djordjevic would drop off the stash, according to a police report. Ernsting was in the passenger seat.

Cowlitz County Chief Criminal Deputy Troy Brightbill said law enforcement had probable cause to pull over the pair because the supplier identified who would bring the drugs.

After receiving a search warrant, detectives say they found $27,000 in cash, 11 pounds of crystal meth, two pounds of heroin and more than 30,000 fentanyl pills disguised as oxycodone in the vehicle. A backpack found near Ernstings feet had drugs inside and a ledger of payments and names, the report says. All of the drugs have an estimated $350,000 street value.

Djordjevic and Ernsting each have separate arraignments scheduled for July 28 in Cowlitz County Superior Court.

The investigation was a partnership between Longview Police Departments Street Crimes Unit and the sheriff offices detective unit called the Cowlitz County Crime Reduction Team.
Many Kelso students are facing feelings of depression and anxiety, according to local results from a statewide healthy youth survey.

These kids have been at home on-and-off for a year and a half now, said Don Iverson, Kelso School District director of student services. A lot has happened in their families, in their community.

The Kelso School Board last month heard localized results from the 2021 statewide Health Care Authority survey, which asked students from grades six, eight, 10 and 12 about their drug and alcohol use as well as their emotional wellbeing.

Specific to the Kelso community, results showed about 23% of 12th-graders said they had drank alcohol at least once in the last month. Almost one-fifth of high school seniors said they had a problem with heavy drinking, defined as drinking three or more days in a row during the last month.

The Health Care Authority notes the survey got less than 70% of responses from 10th- and 12th-graders in Kelso, meaning it may not be representative of all students.

Still, the results point to how students in Kelso are slightly more likely to drink and use drugs as compared to the statewide results, though a majority  about 80%  of students across all grades do not use illicit drugs or drink alcohol.

As students get older, the survey shows the perceived availability of alcohol and drugs like marijuana or vaping products rises. More than 70% of sixth-graders said getting alcohol would be very hard to get, as compared to 34% of high school seniors.

Where to get help 24/7 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Call or text 988; call 1-800-273-8255; or chat online at 988lifeline.org and suicidepreventionlifeline.org. Spanish speakers can press 2 after dialing to reach the Spanish language line. Interpretation services are available in over 250 languages. Great Rivers regional crisis line: 1-800-803-8833. Cowlitz County crisis line: 360-425-6064. Washington Recovery Help Line: Anonymous, confidential 24/7 help line for state residents experiencing substance-use disorders, problem gambling and mental health challenges. Call 1-866-789-1511 or text 1-866-789-1511 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., weekdays.

Feelings of depression, anxiety and suicide in Kelso hover closer to the state average. About 42% of 12th-graders reported feeling sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row, as compared to 45% across the state.

Almost one-fifth of high school seniors in both Kelso and across the state said they had seriously considered suicide in the last year. About 14% of sophomores and 17% of eighth-graders also said they had.

More than half of respondents from grades eight, 10 and 12 said they had an adult to turn to when they felt sad or hopeless.

Anxiety has affected about two-thirds of students across all three grades, the survey shows.

Still, a majority of students said they felt safe at school and had hope for the future. Almost 90% of high school seniors said they could discuss problems with their parents, and 91% said they had chances for involvement in school activities.

Whether students felt safe at school was lowest among 12th-graders, with about one-fourth of seniors saying they did not.

About one-fourth of seniors also said they had used an electronic cigarette, JUUL or vape pen in the past 30 days, and 14% said they had used it on school property in the last 30 days. About 17% said they did not know what was in their vaping device.

The school district earlier this year joined a lawsuit against vaping product giant JUUL Labs, Inc., just weeks before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered its products off shelves because of its allegedly misleading marketing.

Iverson said the district-specific survey results help guide the school board and educators about which problems are affecting their students the most.

All these things give us information to move forward with as a district, Iverson said.

Earlier this spring, county results from the same survey were made public, revealing how mental health and substance use has become a focus point for school districts across Cowlitz County.

Though drug and alcohol use is down across the county, feelings of depression have remained either stagnant or higher than the state average.

We saw persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, Sarah Mariani, section manager with the Health Care Authoritys behavioral health division, told The Daily News after the county results were published. The rates of students reporting those feelings have remained steady. Its still concerning.
iPhone 14 is now rumoured to ditch the physical SIM card tray and stick to eSIM for certain markets. Here is all we know.

The iPhone keeps making bold moves every few years and the entire industry follows. After ditching the headphone jack and the charger, the iPhone is once again ready to ditch another crucial component of the smartphone  the SIM card tray. Yes, with the iPhone 14 generation, Apple is planning to get rid of the physical SIM card tray and stick to an eSIM option. Are you annoyed already? Worry not, as Apple seems to have a better solution to tackle this omission this year  by giving an option.

Based on a report from The Wall Street Journal, it is said that Apple is going for an eSIM only option for the iPhone 14 in selected markets. It wants to see whether consumers are open to the idea of an eSIM only iPhone from this year. If customers don't prefer that, Apple will be selling the iPhone 14 with physical SIM card slots as well. This eSIM-only version of the iPhone 14 will be available in only a few markets though.

iPhone 14 may ditch the SIM card slot this year

The report goes on to say that Apple has already been in talks with certain US carriers to prepare for an eSIM-only model. The eSIM model allows for Apple to better utilize the space inside to accommodate for larger components, such as a bigger battery. Additionally, the eSIM will also allow carriers to roll out updates faster and simultaneously.

iPhones have had the provision for having an eSIM since years. It first appeared with the iPhone XS and iPhone XR generation, and Apple has ever since allowed for a secondary or primary eSIM connection on your iPhone. Along with the physical SIM card slot, this technically makes the iPhone a dual SIM smartphone. What remains to be seen is whether Apple will make space for two eSIM connections.

The iPhone 14 generation is expected to bring some big upgrades compared to its predecessor. The Pro variants will get a new 48MP main camera sensor, lose the notch in favour of a pill-shaped camera cutout, a new A16 chipset, and a couple of other tweaks. The vanilla iPhone will use the current A15 chip and might get a high refresh rate display.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

University of Virginia cognitive scientist Per Sederberg has a fun experiment you can try at home. Take out your smartphone and, using a voice assistant such as the one for Google's search engine, say the word "octopus" as slowly as you can.

Your device will struggle to reiterate what you just said. It might supply a nonsensical response, or it might give you something close but still offlike "toe pus." Gross!

The point is, Sederberg said, when it comes to receiving auditory signals like humans and other animals dodespite all of the computing power dedicated to the task by such heavyweights as Google, Deep Mind, IBM and Microsoftcurrent artificial intelligence remains a bit hard of hearing.

The outcomes can range from comical and mildly frustrating to downright alienating for those who have speech problems.

But using recent breakthroughs in neuroscience as a model, UVA collaborative research has made it possible to convert existing AI neural networks into technology that can truly hear us, no matter at what pace we speak.

The deep learning tool is called SITHCon, and by generalizing input, it can understand words spoken at different speeds than a network was trained on.

This new ability won't just change the end-user's experience; it has the potential to alter how artificial neural networks "think"allowing them to process information more efficiently. And that could change everything in an industry constantly looking to boost processing capability, minimize data storage and reduce AI's massive carbon footprint.

Sederberg, an associate professor of psychology who serves as the director of the Cognitive Science Program at UVA, collaborated with graduate student Brandon Jacques to program a working demo of the technology, in association with researchers at Boston University and Indiana University.

"We've demonstrated that we can decode speech, in particular scaled speech, better than any model we know of," said Jacques, who is first author on the paper.

Sederberg added, "We kind of view ourselves as a ragtag band of misfits. We solved this problem that the big crews at Google and Deep Mind and Apple didn't."

The research was presented Tuesday at the high-profile International Conference on Machine Learning, or ICML, in Baltimore.

Current AI training: Auditory overload

For decades, but more so in the last 20 years, companies have built complex artificial neural networks into machines to try to mimic how the human brain recognizes a changing world. These programs don't just facilitate basic information retrieval and consumerism; they also specialize to predict the stock market, diagnose medical conditions and surveil for national security threats, among many other applications.

"At its core, we are trying to detect meaningful patterns in the world around us," Sederberg said. "Those patterns will help us make decisions on how to behave and how to align ourselves with our environment, so we can get as many rewards as possible."

Programmers used the brain as their initial inspiration for the technology, thus the name "neural networks."

"Early AI researchers took the basic properties of neurons and how they're connected to one another and recreated those with computer code," Sederberg said.

For complex problems like teaching machines to "hear" language, however, programmers unwittingly took a different path than how the brain actually works, he said. They failed to pivot based on developments in the understanding of neuroscience.

"The way these large companies deal with the problem is to throw computational resources at it," the professor explained. "So they make the neural networks bigger. A field that was originally inspired by the brain has turned into an engineering problem."

Essentially, programmers input a multitude of different voices using different words at different speeds and train the large networks through a process called back propagation. The programmers know the responses they want to achieve, so they keep feeding the continuously refined information back in a loop. The AI then begins to give appropriate weight to aspects of the input that will result in accurate responses. The sounds become usable characters of text.

"You do this many millions of times," Sederberg said.

While the training data sets that serve as the inputs have improved, as have computational speeds, the process is still less than ideal as programmers add more layers to detect greater nuances and complexityso-called "deep" or "convolutional" learning.

More than 7,000 languages are spoken in the world today. Variations arise with accents and dialects, deeper or higher voicesand of course faster or slower speech. As competitors create better products, at every step, a computer has to process the information.

That has real-world consequences for the environment. In 2019, a study found that the carbon dioxide emissions from the energy required in the training of a single large deep-learning model equated to the lifetime footprint of five cars.

Three years later, the data sets and neural networks have only continued to grow.

How the brain really hears speech

The late Howard Eichenbaum of Boston University coined the term "time cells," the phenomenon upon which this new AI research is constructed. Neuroscientists studying time cells in mice, and then humans, demonstrated that there are spikes in neural activity when the brain interprets time-based input, such as sound. Residing in the hippocampus and other parts of the brain, these individual neurons capture specific intervalsdata points that the brain reviews and interprets in relationship. The cells reside alongside so-called "place cells" that help us form mental maps.

Time cells help the brain create a unified understanding of sound, no matter how fast or slow the information arrives.

"If I say 'oooooooc-toooooo-pussssssss,' you've probably never heard someone say 'octopus' at that speed before, and yet you can understand it because the way your brain is processing that information is called 'scale invariant,'" Sederberg said. "What it basically means is if you've heard that and learned to decode that information at one scale, if that information now comes in a little faster or a little slower, or even a lot slower, you'll still get it."

The main exception to the rule, he said, is information that comes in hyper-fast. That data will not always translate. "You lose bits of information," he said.

Cognitive researcher Marc Howard's lab at Boston University continues to build on the time cell discovery. A collaborator with Sederberg for over 20 years, Howard studies how human beings understand the events of their lives. He then converts that understanding to math.

Howard's equation describing auditory memory involves a timeline. The timeline is built using time cells firing in sequence. Critically, the equation predict that the timeline blursand in a particular wayas sound moves toward the past. That's because the brain's memory of an event grows less precise with time.

"So there's a specific pattern of firing that codes for what happened for a specific time in the past, and information gets fuzzier and fuzzier the farther in the past it goes," Sederberg said. "The cool thing is Marc and a post-doc going through Marc's lab figured out mathematically how this should look. Then neuroscientists started finding evidence for it in the brain."

Time adds context to sounds, and that's part of what gives what's spoken to us meaning. Howard said the math neatly boils down.

"Time cells in the brain seem to obey that equation," Howard said.

UVA codes the voice decoder

About five years ago, Sederberg and Howard identified that the AI field could benefit from such representations inspired by the brain. Working with Howard's lab and in consultation with Zoran Tiganj and colleagues at Indiana University, Sederberg's Computational Memory Lab began building and testing models.

Jacques made the big breakthrough about three years ago that helped him do the coding for the resulting proof of concept. The algorithm features a form of compression that can be unpacked as neededmuch the way a zip file on a computer works to compress and store large-size files. The machine only stores the "memory" of a sound at a resolution that will be useful later, saving storage space.

"Because the information is logarithmically compressed, it doesn't completely change the pattern when the input is scaled, it just shifts over," Sederberg said.

The AI training for SITHCon was compared to a pre-existing resource available free to researchers called a "temporal convolutional network." The goal was to convert the network from one trained only to hear at specific speeds.

The process started with a basic languageMorse code, which uses long and short bursts of sound to represent dots and dashesand progressed to an open-source set of English speakers saying the numbers 1 through 9 for the input.

In the end, no further training was needed. Once the AI recognized the communication at one speed, it couldn't be fooled if a speaker strung out the words.

"We showed that SITHCon could generalize to speech scaled up or down in speed, whereas other models failed to decode information at speeds they didn't see at training," Jacques said.

Now UVA has decided to make its code available for free, in order to advance the knowledge. The team says the information should adapt for any neural network that translates voice.

"We're going to publish and release all the code because we believe in open science," Sederberg said. "The hope is that companies will see this, get really excited and say they would like to fund our continuing work. We've tapped into a fundamental way the brain processes information, combining power and efficiency, and we've only scratched the surface of what these AI models can do."

But knowing that they've built a better mousetrap, are the researchers worried at all about how the new technology might be used?

Sederberg said he's optimistic that AI that hears better will be approached ethically, as all technology should be in theory.

"Right now, these companies have been running into computational bottlenecks while trying to build more powerful and useful tools," he said. "You have to hope the positives outweigh the negatives. If you can offload more of your thought processes to computers, it will make us a more productive world, for better or for worse."

Jacques, a new father, said, "It's exciting to think our work may be giving birth to a new direction in AI."

Explore further Neuroscientist explains differences between AI and human learning
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

China's free large-scale technology training in Indonesia poses a major security challenge to Australia and the region, according to a paper by experts at The Australian National University (ANU).

Report co-author, Dr. Dirk van der Kley said Australia and other Quad countriesIndia, Japan and the United Statesmust do more to provide technology training to Indonesia.

"And it should be short-term and technically-focused to help Indonesia meet its critical ICT skills shortage," Dr. van der Kley said. "Chinese firms have become the cybersecurity partner of choice in Indonesia.

"This is not only because they provide the hardware but also enormous training at all levels of society from government officials down to rural students.

"The programs are huge and are being provided by major companies like Huawei. Huawei alone is potentially training tens of thousands of Indonesians every year. This is steering Indonesia's current and future tech leaders towards Chinese technology.

"Indonesia holds deep animosity toward China, yet there has been almost no complaints about China's dominant position in telecommunications and cyber. This is because rich liberal democracies are not delivering the kind of benefits that Indonesia needs or wants."

The report, "China Inc. and Indonesia's Technology Future," outlines a number of key steps Australia and Quad countries can take to address the "imminent challenge," including vocational training.

"Australia, in concert with other Quad countries, should deliver a vocational technology training program that is large enough to genuinely improve Indonesia's technology capacity and offer alternatives to Chinese state-backed technology and training," co-author Dr. Benjamin Herscovitch said.

"The first step for new Australian governmentand hopefully the Quadis to provide Indonesia with large scale, short-term technical training. This is what they want. We are currently ceding that ground to China.

"Large tech firms from Quad countries should contribute their technology and expertise to an internationally accredited vocational program. Australia's vocational education and training sector should also help develop people-to-people and educational links with Indonesia."

Co-author Gatra Priyandita, from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, says Australian technology training could help Indonesia meet major security threats such as cybercrime.

"The most urgent cybersecurity threat for the Indonesian government is cybercrime. Indonesia is one of the most vulnerable countries to cybercrime on earth," Dr. Priyandita said.

"Data security is poor and Chinese firms are seen as partners for swift solutions. But regardless of China's active ICT agenda in the region, serious short-term vocational training in Indonesia is the right thing to do.

"So, Australia, and the Quad countries, should do it regardless of their goal of counteracting China's influence. Partnering on digital skills and capacity building in Indonesia would be a win-win for all."

More information: China Inc. and Indonesia's Technology Future: China Inc. and Indonesia's Technology Future: nsc.crawford.anu.edu.au/public  as-technology-future
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Touch screens on mobile devices can be attacked and manipulated via charging cables and power supply units. This is what researchers at the System Security Lab at TU Darmstadt have discovered together with a Chinese research team. Several smartphones and standalone touchscreen panels could be compromised in practical tests by simulated touches, the "ghost touches." The results were presented at this year's IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.

The researchers from TU Darmstadt and Zhejiang University in Hangzhou carried out attacks on capacitive touchscreens via charging cables and power adapters, revealing a new way to attack mobile devices. Similar to their previous research project, "GhostTouch," the researchers were able to create false touches, called "Ghost Touches," on multiple touchscreens and manipulate the device via them.

The international research team had to overcome two main challenges. The first was to affect the capacitive touchscreens via a charging-only cable without damaging the hardware. Electronic devices are usually equipped with resistive filters in the circuits to ensure a stable power supply. It was necessary to design an attack that would work even if users were using a charging-only cable without a data channel, which is typically used in public spaces for privacy and security reasons. Second, the touch points had to be specifically controlled in order to manipulate the device. This was necessary so thatfor examplemalicious Bluetooth connections could be established, users could be tapped by a phone call, or malware could be received.

In the test setup, a compromised public charging station was assumed to be the starting point of the attack. A manipulated USB charging socket, whose power supply could be controlled remotely, was used. Such publicly accessible charging stations are often found in cafes, in hospitals, hotels or at airports and train stations. Anyone who charges their smartphone or tablet at this charging station initiates the attack, which is initially disguised as a normal charging signal. The attacker measures the sampling frequency of the touchscreen via the charging connection in order to adapt the attack signal. Beyond that, no data connection is necessary.

A sophisticated attack signal is injected into the GND line, i.e. the ground line, via the charging line. The attack signal, which is injected via the USB interface, affects the power supply and is converted into a noise signal due to the lack of filtering. With the help of these noise signals, three different attack effects can be achieved, which are related to the typical structure of capacitive displays.

The main component of a touchscreen is a matrix of rows and columns of conductive electrodes (TX) and sensing electrodes (RX), whose crossing points are called mutual capacitance. When one touches the screen, the finger forms an additional capacitance with the electrodes and changes the equivalent capacitance, creating a touch event and allowing the smartphone to be controlled.

The researchers were able to achieve targeted ghost touches along both the TX electrodes and the RX electrodes without physical contact. Furthermore, the screen could be manipulated in such a way that it no longer responded to real touches.

In addition to the attack scenarios, the international research team also describes possible software-based and hardware-based countermeasures in their paper, which was published at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2022. Looking further to a hardware-based functional tool that disrupts the common-mode attack signal, software-based measures can be used to detect altered capacity or to identify reliable charging stations in a manner similar to the fingerprint mechanism.

Explore further Engineers hack electric vehicle charging to demonstrate cybersecurity vulnerabilities

More information: Yan Jiang et al, WIGHT: Wired Ghost Touch Attack on Capacitive Touchscreens, 2022 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (2022).

www.computer.org/csdl/proceedi  1600b537/1CIO7Ic5kR2 Yan Jiang et al, WIGHT: Wired Ghost Touch Attack on Capacitive Touchscreens,(2022). DOI: 10.1109/SP46214.2022.00108
The 2022 International Forum on Culture and Tourism Development of Silk Road Cities was held in Zhongwei, Ningxia Hui autonomous region on July 18-19.

Zhang Xu, deputy-minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China and Wang Daoxi, deputy chairman of Ningxia Hui autonomous region, attended the event. Ali Asghar Shalbafian, deputy of tourism of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of Iran joined the forum online.

Zhang addressed the forum and said the Belt and Road Initiative has entered a new period with fruitful achievements and steady development since it was launched in 2013.

"The initiative contributed Chinese ideas to the global development and management system and the building of a community with a shared future of mankind. Areas of cooperation and innovative communication channels should be continuously expanded. Practical cooperation needs to be deepened to create a new era of cultural and tourism communication as well as cooperation under the guidance of the Belt and Road Initiative."

Wang said the forum will lay a foundation for future cultural exchange and industry cooperation among countries along the Silk Road.

Shalbafian suggested improving infrastructure along the Silk Road and taking the cultural heritage along the Silk Road as the focus of the declaration to UNESCO, and enhancing the tourism influence of the cities along the Silk Road.

During the forum, representatives from enterprises, experts from home and abroad discussed a series of topics concerning cultural heritage tourism.

The forum was held by the Bureau of the International Communication and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, the Department of Culture and Tourism of Ningxia Hui autonomous region and Network of International Culturalink Entities.
College Station is continuing to work with the nonprofit Unlimited Potential, which helps 18- to 25-year-olds who aged out of foster care, by potentially helping it fund a facility to house its youth and provide community resources.

During last weeks College Station City Council meeting, members of UP updated the council on its future facility needs. In May 2021, UP asked the city if it could support its group with a federal loan to rehabilitate a former nursing home at 1115 Anderson St. The new facility would allow UP employees and volunteers to move out of their current center on East 29th Street, and provide temporary housing to youth who have aged out of the foster care system.

However, UP informed the council it determined that the building on Anderson Street was not feasible for housing and would rather demolish the building and build a new one in the same location. UP also found the timespan and expense to apply and get approved for the federal loan would be a long process, according to Debbie Eller, the citys director of community services.

[UP] had determined the building had dilapidated so much that it is not worth renovating, so they want to move forward with demolishing the building and then coming back and rebuilding in that location, but the funding sources are not completely identified yet, Eller said after the meeting. [UP] decided they wanted to pursue private and local funding.

Don Russell, chairman of UPs Building Committee, told the council that the administration building they are planning would serve the local administration of UP, and also potentially house other services that could potentially be associated with UP, such as GED programs.

We dont think philanthropic giving alone can make this project work. There are so many needs in this community, so many charities that are asking for money, so many events where people are asked to give money, Russell told the council. We really need the citys help.

Jacque Flagg, UPs board president, also told the council that their plan for the new facility would include two residential houses; one for men, one for women and an administration building.

In 2019, Housing and Urban Development set up a separate fund for housing, specifically for youth aging out of the foster system, she said at the meeting. This program is called Foster Youth to Independence or FYI, the local HUD agency must have passed through agencies which provide services including basis skills, housing counseling, landlord support services, employment and training, and education and career advancement services. Unlimited Potential provides those services and more including mentorship and therapy, all free of charge to the youth.

Kelyn Wardlaw, UPs executive director, presented the UPs Transitional Living Program, which would be part of the services provided in UPs new facility.

For anyone that is not familiar with foster care, when a young adult is 18, typically that means you age out of the foster care system. Which means on the day of your 18th birthday the state is no longer supporting you, she said at the meeting. The question we face as an organization is, What if you never had a home to go back to? What happens to you then?

Wardlaw noted that after reaching 18, 20% of the children who were in foster care will become instantly homeless.

Our goal as a program is to build a healthy support agency to allow youth to have a full life with multiple aspects, she said. Our ask is that we be the village, the support and the connection in the community for these youth, because ultimately addressing their health, impacts our communities health as well.

Councilman John Crompton proposed that the city look into matching up to $2 million to help UP in demolishing the building on Anderson Street and bringing a new building to fruition.

Councilman John Nichols suggested the city look into utilizing funds from the citys Community Development Block Grant.

Perhaps the city could find a way to use some of our CDBG monies to demolish that and scrape that property clean, he said at the meeting. During that time [UP] could be developing a joint funding plan across the several other entities that should share in the cost of this.

Councilman Dennis Maloney said he thinks it is time for the city of College Station to take up its responsibilities for social services in a community with over 125,000 people.

Mayor Karl Mooney ultimately made the motion to direct city staff to work on a plan to demolish the building, which could include funding from the city, but the funding source was not identified. The motion also directed UP to look into other local funding to source their project.

Eller said UP will come back to the council with a plan for demolition.

At some point in the future, UP will come back and present their financing and plans back to council, and at that time the council could consider providing some type of funding for the facility, Eller said after the meeting. Council wanted to see UP go to other entities for funding, [perhaps] go to surrounding counties and see if they can get any other entities interest in funding for the facility.

For more information about Unlimited Potential, visit upbrazosvalley.org.
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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met virtually with Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Klaus Schwab on Tuesday.

Li said cooperation between China and the WEF has traversed a journey of over four decades, almost in tandem with China's reform and opening-up process.

He pointed out that at present, world development faces many uncertainties and destabilizing factors, however, world peace and development, and interaction and exchanges between countries are a shared wish of the people and prevailing trend of the time.

"The international community needs to firm up confidence, safeguard peace and stability, and jointly meet challenges with closer dialogue and communication," Li said.

Li said China appreciates the WEF's consistent focus on economic development and stronger cooperation with China, and deeper cooperation between the two sides will help send to the world a positive message of growing the economy and improving lives.

The premier said China will stay committed to the fundamental national policy of opening-up, and will work with all parties to intensify dialogue and communication to create conditions for win-win cooperation of mutual benefit.

Noting that the WEF has maintained a good partnership with China for more than four decades, Schwab said the WEF is ready to deepen cooperation with China to promote global dialogue, leverage the role of the business community, enhance global and regional exchange and cooperation, and play a positive role for meeting the climate challenge, promoting industry transformation and advancing social fairness.
On July 7, the Franklin County Democratic Committee held its annual potluck dinner at the Pig River Community Center, in Rocky Mount.

One of the highlights of the event was the announcement of the recipients of The Rev. and Mrs. McKinley Hamilton Award and the Jo Shively Service Award.

The Rev. and Mrs. McKinley Hamilton Award was given to area resident Susan Hughes for her numerous contributions to charitable organizations in the community. The Rev. and Mrs. McKinley Hamilton Award honors someone who involves others in improving the community in much the same way as the Hamiltons promoted education, political involvement and faith.

The Jo Shivley Award was bestowed on Daphne Jamison for her long work within the Democratic Party and her work in water and soil conservation. The Jo Shively Service Award honors someone who works for some years at all levels of political activity in Franklin County including personal example, individual campaigns, local party activities and the like.

The special guest speaker was Taysha DeVaughan, Virginias Congressional candidate for the 9th District.

DeVaughn discussed her passion for serving the people of Southwest Virginia in the 9th District and how the issues as in housing, transportation and jobs unites and bonds no matter party affiliation. Sharing the core message of unity in confronting these issues is what shell be working for in Washington, she said.

For more information, contact the Franklin County Democratic Committee at fcdemocratsva@gmail.com or 540-238-7307.

-Submitted by Reed Dillon
Franklin County is on the receiving end of two multimillion dollar broadband grants from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Developments 2022 Virginia Telecommunication Initiative program.

The funds will further broadband infrastructure development efforts that began in 2017.

In conjunction with the 2022 VATI program grants and support from partners like Shentel, West Piedmont Planning District Commission, River Street Networks and Patrick and Henry counties, the county hopes to facilitate projects that are expected to extend service to more than 5,500 homes throughout the county. Work on the projects is expected to start this year.

Franklin Countys 2022 VATI grant of roughly $11.8 million will go to extending 100 megabits per second speed service to areas including Boones Mill, Ferrum, Hardy, Redwood and Westlake. The estimated cost of the project is $30.5 million overall. The county already set aside $6 million of federal COVID-19 relief funds for broadband development. The remaining $12.5 million will come from Shentel, which is the countys partner for the project.

Another $33.5 million VATI grant was awarded to WPPDC, about $5.9 million of which will go to broadband infrastructure in Franklin County. The overall project  which includes WPPDC, River Street Networks and Franklin, Patrick and Henry counties and is estimated to cost $95 million  will extend high speed service to more than 10,000 homes in parts of Franklin, Patrick and Henry counties. The Franklin County portion is expected to cost about $12.4 million and impact more than 2,000 homes in southern Franklin County.

Franklin County previously set aside $1.7 million in county funds that will also assist with the project.

River Streets bringing in $15.6 million, River Street Network Business Development Manager Robert Taylor said Tuesday. Just over $2 million is for Franklin County.

Meanwhile, Appalachian Power Co. will make investments in the overall project worth roughly $37 million.

As long as we are able to finalize these agreements ... we made a commitment that were going to be your middle mile partner, Amanda Cox with Appalachian Power said. To move forward with the project, Appalachian will need approval from the Virginia State Corporation Commission. Thats our infrastructure, its our power zone; we plan to restore and repair all while hardening the grid.

The Shentel project should take two years and the River Street project is set to take three years.

Not everyone is going to have to wait two years to see service. Some people may see it in six months, depending on where you are on that schedule, Assistant County Administrator Steve Sandy said.

The Shentel and River Street projects will build on Franklin County broadband investments that began with a 2017 survey and analysis of the countys broadband needs, followed by the creation of the Franklin County Broadband Authority and broadband plan.

In 2019, 2020 and 2021 the county received roughly $4 million overall in state funds to support broadband development. That money, coupled with investments from Shentel, Blue Ridge Towers and Seiontec  formerly Briscnet  has already helped grow fiber and fixed wireless service to underserved areas of the county.

The 2022 VATI grant funding will focus on wired service to homes and businesses.

Realizing that the fixed wireless is good and its served its purpose in a lot of these more remote areas and those numbers are still increasing, but really getting a wire to somebodys house is really kind of the ideal, Sandy said.
Nine motor vehicles were stolen between Thursday and Monday in Grand Island.

As of Tuesday, four of the vehicles had been recovered.

A 2020 four-door Jeep Wrangler Unlimited was stolen while it sat unlocked in the street at 3207 Kennedy Day. That crime took place in the overnight hours between Thursday and Friday. The keys were left in the vehicle.

On Saturday, a parked vehicle was hit by a car at Platte Valley Whispering Pines Lodge, 4211 Shanna St. A third vehicle was stolen, police say. That vehicle was recovered later in the day.

The other thefts took place late Sunday or early Monday.

A 2017 Ford 250 work truck was taken from 3112 Dixie Square.

Early Monday, a gray 2007 BMW Series 3 vehicle was taken from a driveway at 4029 Lillie Drive by an unidentified group of individuals. The theft was reported at about 3 a.m.

Also early Monday, suspects forcefully entered a secured garage and residence at 4338 Indian Grass Road. They attempted to steal a 2021 Ram 2500 pickup truck and did make off with a black 2020 Ford Explorer and a firearm. The Explorer was recovered. That theft was reported at 3:30 a.m.

In another early Monday theft, someone stole a Navigator from a driveway at 4224 Pennsylvania Ave. The vehicle was unlocked, with the key left inside. Video doorbell footage shows the vehicle was taken at about 1:20 a.m.

Two vehicles were taken from a driveway at 4217 New York Ave. The vehicles had the keys in the ignition and were unlocked. One of the vehicles was recovered.

Another vehicle was taken from a driveway at 2227 Sunrise Ave. Sunday night. That car was located through a GPS locator.
Thanks to a new partnership between the Nebraska State Fair and News Channel Nebraska, everyone who attends the fair Aug. 30 will get in free, as long as they display an app at the gate.

The Nebraska-based media company announced Friday that it will donate $50,000 in cash and media services to the State Fair. As part of the partnership, News Channel Nebraska will advertise a special promotion via its statewide TV network, 15 radio stations and online outlets.

Tuesday, Aug. 30, is the Veterans Day Celebration at the State Fair. The fairs traditional veterans recognition program will be at 3 p.m. at the Heartland Events Center.

Fairgoers will need to show the News Channel Nebraska app on their mobile devices in order to gain free gate that day. The app is available for free on the App Store and Google Play.

We are excited to support the State Fair and even more excited to use our multimedia outlets to invite the state of Nebraska to this premiere event in Grand Island, News Channel Nebraska Chief Executive Officer Andy Ruback says in a news release.

News Channel Nebraska focuses on serving all of Nebraska, from metro to the smaller rural communities  so does the Nebraska State Fair, State Fair Executive Director Bill Ogg says in the release. Our partnership is a very natural outgrowth of our mutual desire to serve all Nebraska in the best possible way.

The State Fair runs from Aug. 26 to Sept. 5.
Hall County Commissioners Tuesday unanimously approved data centers as an agricultural zone conditional use.

Regional Planning Commission approved recommending the change on July 6.

The change, from a request made by property owner Michael Seda, will allow New York-based VCV Digital to request a permit to bring a data center site in Hall County, said Regional Planner Chad Nabity. A data center is essentially a warehouse for computers, Nabity said. It is a prefabricated structure that is brought in and set down on a foundation.

VCV President Matthew Feast, on July 6, said VCV wants to set up a mobile data center that would be like a modified shipping container with heavy HVAC systems to keep the equipment inside at a consistent temperature.

Such facilities need to be in close proximity to an electric substation as they can use between 10 and 100 megawatts of electricity.

The VCV data center proposed for Hall County would use 12.5 megawatts.

Nabity said he has not received any verbal opposition to the change.

He noted that the data centers do raise some concerns about noise.

There are a lot of air conditioning units there, said Nabity. Those things can be handled with a conditional use permit, to put some noise limitations or those kinds of things in.

He compared it to a grain bin dryer, which moves similar amounts of air.

The permit process will allow commissioners to consider such conditions as distance from property lines or from neighbors when a request is made.

Citing is one of those things that does become important with this, said Nabity.

Commissioner Pam Lancaster thanked VCV for considering our county for your business.

We talk about these kinds of things, and we think these would be great businesses to have in our county, she said. I dont know how your decision was made, but I appreciate the fact that you want to be a part of Hall County.

John Skalla, who does site selection and development for VCV, said Hall County is important for data transmission across Nebraska.

Nebraska is a state weve wanted to do business in for a long time, he said. A lot of data moves east to west, and it all goes through Omaha and the state, almost like a train-switching yard.

He added, This is of strategic importance for digital connectivity.

Improvements will be made to the property where the data center will be located, said Skalla, and the project will create local jobs.

We havent finished the design for it yet, but there would be local contractors engaged for that construction, he said. Any sort of technical jobs, were going to try to coordinate with Economic Development and the Chamber, and get those technical folks instituted into our operations.

He added, We definitely want to leverage the community.

The definition added to the county regulations reads:

A data center, or other facilities used to house computer systems and associated components such as telecommunications and storage systems, coding systems, power supplies and systems for managing property performance (inc. generators) and equipment used for the transformation, transmission distribution or management of electricity (inc. substations), internet-related equipment and services, data communications connections, environmental controls and security devices, structures and site features and related uses.
MARION  Rob Lundgren was not necessarily looking for a bank when he set out to open his own restaurant, but a century-old former financial institution turned out to be the perfect home for The Vault Cafe in Marion.

When Lundgren was looking for a location near Tower Square, an architect told him about the former financial institution right on the square. The first floor was empty and almost completely remodeled in another chefs desire to open a restaurant.

I put my face up against the window and looked in. That was it, Lundgren, who was looking to step out on his own following years with the Bob Evans chain of restaurants, recalled.

The space featured towering ceilings, high windows and, of course, the namesake vault, complete with a table for four. While architecture and nostalgia appeals to customers, it is the food that customers bank on at The Vault. The restaurant, which is open daily for breakfast and lunch only, features food that Lundgren calls simple.

We didnt want a complicated menu, he said. Really the idea behind the menu was to make it fast, because of the square, the business people have to be able to get in and get out. We wanted to be able to control what we had and do it really well, instead of having a bunch of mediocre things.

Walk through the kitchen, and you will see kitchen staffers choreographing orders ranging from breakfast items to wraps and sandwiches, frequently turning from commercial cooler to griddle and from service shelf to a large, warming dispenser for syrup  a popular side for the 10-inch pancakes and French toast. They move with ease, preparing The Money  opened biscuits topped with gravy, scrambled eggs and cheese then moving to a Reuben sandwich. Most everything on the menu is available whenever the restaurant is open.

Lundgren said over its nearly ten years on the square, The Vault has become a popular spot for overnight workers from factories and medical centers for dinner when they get off work  when most of the rest of us are having breakfast.

Thats the reason we make Reubens at 7 a.m., he said.

What you will not find at The Vault, however, is a fryer.

We try to be a little bit healthier, Lundgren added.

He called the morning selections basic American breakfast: omelets, eggs benedict, pancakes, biscuits and French toast. Lunch offerings include grilled chicken, hamburgers, club sandwiches, wraps and salads.

We do a great chef salad, the owner shared.

A veteran of decades in the restaurant business, Lundgren knows that it takes more than unique architecture and quality food to bring customers back.

Sometimes at chain restaurants they just want to get you in and get you out, he suggested. I want to talk to you, ask about your family. I want people to feel like they are in my home, not just a number.

The Vault Cafe on The Square is open 7 a.m.-2 p.m., Monday-Saturday and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday at 504 Tower Square Plaza in Marion.

Editors Note: Eats of the Week is a new feature of The Southern Illinoisan appearing each Wednesday. Every week we will spotlight a different dining establishment in the region. Have one you think we should visit? Email les.odell@thesouthern.com.
MARION  Marcy Cascio-Hale broke a long-standing barrier in Williamson County politics Wednesday when she was officially appointed state's attorney by the county board of commissioners in a unanimous vote, thus becoming the first female to hold the position in county history.

Cascio-Hale, a research attorney for the Fifth District Appellate Court who has worked in the Jackson County Public Defender's Office and has also done volunteer work at SIU, has 13 years of experience as a lawyer.

"I'm super excited for this opportunity," Cascio-Hale said. "I'm honored to be chosen as Williamson County State's Attorney. I am looking forward to working for the people of the county."

Cascio-Hale, who begins work on Monday, said she first plans to get to know the assistant state's attorneys.

"We have a team of amazing attorneys with many years of experience working for us," she said. "As for me, I will be trying cases. I don't know which ones yet, but I will be involved as soon as I get up to speed with our cases. There is work to be done and I plan to help out as much as possible."

Cascio-Hale was the Williamson County Democrat Party's choice for replacing Brandon Zanotti, who resigned with close to 2 1/2 years left on his term. She will square off with Republican candidate Theodore "Ted" Hampson in the November general election.

Zanotti recommended Tyler Dihle with the Mitchell & Associates law firm in West Frankfort, but the board, as has been past policy, went with the recommendation of the party chair - Tom Caliper.

I am impressed with Marcys resume," Caliper said. "Our committee overwhelmingly supported her nomination. We are proud to have Marcy as both the first woman states attorney in Williamson County and as a candidate in this November election. She is the states attorney we need. She will serve with integrity and respect and provide the type of service that citizens of Williamson County have come to expect.

Former assistant state's attorney for Williamson County, Mike Ruffley, spoke highly of Cascio-Hale's selection.

Ive worked with attorney Cascio-Hale during her volunteer work with Dispute Resolution Institute, a not-for-profit organization that assists low-income parents and families with mediation services required by the first circuit," he said. She is one of the best and she is a very intelligent attorney. Marcy is the type of attorney we want in the states attorneys office.

Former Carbondale police officer Jeff Gill is also impressed with the new state's attorney.

Attorney Cascio-Hale has always been known for her work and love for our community," he said. "Since her relocation to Southern Illinois in 2006, she has volunteered for SIU, advocated for clients in court for the best possible resolution, and promoted local businesses and leaders throughout the region. She acts with integrity and treats everyone with respect. This position is yet another way she will honor the citizens of Southern Illinois.

Cascio-Hale is a native of the Rockford area. She graduated from SIUC's School of Law in 2009 with her Juris Doctorate degree and a year later earned her Master of Laws degree.

Cascio-Hale, 52, of Murphysboro, thanked Mike Greathouse, research director for the Fifth District Appellate Court and Jack Flood, Appellate Court clerk, for allowing her to give such short notice when changing jobs.

"It's going to be very busy these next four months, but I am ready for the challenges that lie ahead," she said.

Cascio-Hale and her husband, Christian, have one son, Gage, who graduated Carbondale Community High School and John A. Logan College.
Two international standards for high-speed railway infrastructure design and power supply, which were mainly drafted and developed by China, have been published by the International Union of Railways, demonstrating the nation's contribution to promoting the internationalization of high-speed railway standards, national railway operator China State Railway Group said.



The International Union of Railways was founded in 1922 in France and is known by its French initials UIC. It is an international association with 210 members, aiming to promote railway transportation and cooperation globally.

The two standards are the second and third in a series of high-speed railway design and construction standards. They are the first of their kind mainly developed by China.

In November, the first standard in the series, which is about communication signals in high-speed railway design, was published by the UIC. Those standards will fill gaps in international standards.

Led by experts from China, more than 20 professionals from a dozen countries, including France, Germany, Japan and Spain, spent four years drafting the two latest standards.

The standards introduced China's design concept based on its global experience in building high-speed railways, promote China's advanced technologies, such as a system for power supply, and they provide solutions to designing and building high-speed rail globally, China State Railway Group said.

In recent years, experts from China State Railway Group have participated in drafting, revising and developing more than 60 important technical standards published by the UIC in many fields, including high-speed railways, train networks and braking systems.

China's involvement has incorporated its experiences into international standards, such as design concepts, technical equipment and maintenance. But in addition to China's experiences, the new standards have also considered technologies and needs of other countries.

"China has become a major driving force in the development of international high-speed rail standards," according to the group.

"International standards are an important technical foundation for international trade, which is crucial to promote the Belt and Road Initiative. China's railway sector has relied on the international platform to lead the drafting and revising of technical standards, improving the international influence of China's railway standards," said Huo Baoshi, chairman of UIC's Intercity and High-Speed Committee.

"China's involvement in making international standards showcases its strengths in building high-speed railways globally. It will help China's railway to 'go out'," he added.

By the end of last year, China's high-speed railway network stood at more than 40,000 kilometers, accounting for over two-thirds of the world's total high-speed rail.

China's high-speed railway system spans different geographic conditions, including icy weather, frozen soil, mountainous areas and humid coastal areas, providing abundant experience in building high-speed rail.
The head of the Better Government Association says Illinois has a culture of corruption and one cure is deep-dive journalistic investigations.

David Greising, president and CEO of the Chicago-based not-for-profit that calls itself Illinois non-partisan full-service watchdog, participated in a virtual conversation Wednesday with John Shaw, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He said ethics problems in Illinois government are long-standing and deep-seeded.

There is something about the culture of corruption that is undeniable about the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois, he said. A lot of it has to do with our tolerance for conflicts of interest that are not the case in other areas.

Greisling, who has been with the BGA since 2018 after stints at the Chicago Sun Times, City News Bureau of Chicago, Business Week, Reuters and the Chicago Tribune, pointed to several examples of conflicts of interest.

He pointed to the dual role Michael Madigan had for many years when he was speaker of the Illinois House at the same time that his law firm was one of the states top firms in real estate tax appeals. He also suggested Madigans tenure of more than 35 years as speaker was a long-standing conflict of interest.

When you allow one person to hold that much power for that long, youre going to have compromises, etc. that are just going to happen, Greisling said. Fixing corruption in Illinois will require a change in the culture.

Greisling said he has been disappointed that Gov. J.B. Pritzker has not done more to change the culture.

Pritzker ran as an ethics reformer, but when the major ethics reform package was being considered, he was basically a no-show. He signed a law and declared victory for reform that was really just not up to the measure of the reform and so we missed a moment, so theres a tolerance for corruption here, Greisling said.

He continued, He had super majorities in both houses and he would have had support had he chosen to take some political risks in favor of ethics reform.

Greisling said Pritzkers failure to act on serious reform may be seen as a negative should the governor have presidential aspirations.

The Better Government Association is known for deep investigative reporting, what Greisling calls solutions journalism. He said efforts like those of his group can lead to better accountability with elected leaders.

Solution journalism is objective, fact-based investigative journalism. The idea is you apply the same rigor that you use in investigative reporting to problems in government to find out what has been tried elsewhere and what works and what doesnt where reforms have happened, he explained. I think that is one factor that can get us out of this.

He continued, It is wash, rinse, repeat the cycle on corruption, financial mismanagement and some of the crime issues and the other significant issues facing the state.
MARION  Williamson County Democrat Party Chair Tom Caliper said Monday evening that Democrats have met and will recommend a first-ever female state's attorney candidate as a replacement for outgoing State's Attorney Brandon Zanotti.

Caliper said he would hold off on releasing the name of the candidate until Wednesday morning's meeting of the Williamson County Board of Commissioners.

Brandi Bradley, who serves as secretary for the Democrat Party in the county, said the woman slated by the party has 13 years of legal experience in criminal, civil and family cases.

"She worked for the Jackson County Public Defender's Office and had her own practice," Bradley said. "She presently works for the Fifth District Appellate Court. We are excited about the first woman state's attorney in Williamson County."

It has been past practice of the board to accept the recommendation of the party when an officeholder has left office before his or her term has been completed.

Zanotti, however, the officeholder in this case, said earlier Monday that he would still push for the approval of Tyler Dihle, an attorney with West-Frankfort-based Mitchell & Associates - the same firm that has agreed to hire Zanotti whose last official day in office is Friday.

Zanotti said Dihle is the right choice in his opinion as he is "intelligent, fair, honest and possesses the leadership skills and character to do the job admirably."
COLUMBIA  SHL Medical, a world-leading provider of drug delivery solutions, has announced plans to establish operations in Charleston County. The companys initial $90 million investment will create an estimated 165 new jobs.

"I am delighted to announce SHLs expansion into South Carolina," said SHL Medical Chairman and CEO Ulrich Faessler. "Our new U.S. site in North Charleston will be a state-of-the-art facility that will support our customers further with our end-to-end capabilities, providing high-quality drug delivery systems to the end users  patients around the world. This new facility brings us closer to our customers and reduces the risk of supply chain disturbances. Furthermore, it will support our sustainability goals by lessening global shipping distances. I want to acknowledge the support that we have received from the state and county levels for this project."

Headquartered in Switzerland, SHL Medical designs, develops and manufactures drug delivery solutions for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies around the world. With years of experience, the company uses top-notch technology to create autoinjectors, pen injectors and innovative specialty delivery solutions that allow patients to self-inject at home. The company also offers contract manufacturing and engineering services for products such as wafer testing equipment, laboratory handling equipment, neurosurgical devices and industrial equipment.

Located at 7791 Palmetto Commerce Parkway in North Charleston, SHL Medicals Charleston County operations will expand the companys global footprint to meet growing demand for its products to support more customers.

Operations are expected to launch by the second quarter of 2024. Individuals interested in joining the SHL Medical team should visit the companys careers page.

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development has approved job development credits related to this project. The council also awarded a $250,000 Set-Aside grant to Charleston County to assist with costs related to the project.
Orangeburg

Department

of Public Safety

A man reported that a gunman threatened to Swiss cheese him on Tuesday morning, according to an ODPS incident report.

The man said he gave an acquaintance a ride to the American Inn, located at 610 John C. Calhoun Drive, around 7 a.m.

When they pulled in front of room 118, a male stranger told them to get out of the mans Nissan Sentra. They got out, leaving the engine running.

They all went into room 118. The man said there were four additional strangers inside.

The stranger then presented a handgun with an extended magazine and said, What you got on you?

The man attempted to walk back to his car, but the gunman said, If you move that car, Im going to Swiss cheese you, put holes all in you.

The man ran from the room so fast, he left his slide sandals behind.

He ran through a parking lot, jumped over a cinder block wall then to ODPS headquarters on Middleton Street to report what happened, according to the report.

When officers went to the motel, they found the mans wallet emptied of everything but his state-issued identification card in the motel room.

The keys to the Sentra werent anywhere to be found, but the car was still at the motel.

Motel management reported that everyone who was in the room had left  and a flat screen television was also missing.

Investigators are reviewing surveillance video footage for clues in the incident.

In an unrelated report, someone cut and stole catalytic converters from seven vehicles owned by the Orangeburg County School District.

The theft was reported on Monday.

When an employee arrived at 560 Ellis Avenue that morning, he discovered catalytic converters were missing from the following trucks: a 2004 GMC TG33, a 2006 Ford F-150, a 2018 Ford F-250, a 2019 Ford F-250, a 2019 Ford F-450 and two 2001 Ford F-250s.

Investigators are reviewing surveillance video recordings.

The value of the catalytic converters is $8,700.
HOLLY HILL  The Holly Hill area welcomed a popular Netflix teen drama on Tuesday, with the Outer Banks crew filming at Larry Gardner Field at the Holly Hill Airport.

Every exposure we can get is great! Holly Hill Mayor Billy Chavis said.

Crews were working at the airport from early in the morning until late at night Tuesday.

They were filming season three of Outer Banks, a reference to the barrier islands of North Carolina.

Each episode of Outer Banks is centered on the storyline: On an island of haves and have-nots, teen John B. enlists his three best friends to hunt for a legendary treasure linked to his fathers disappearance, according to its official description on the Netflix website.

The series first season aired in 2020. It stars Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline and Madison Bailey, among others. Its created by Josh Pate, Jonas Pate and Shannon Burke.

Harrison Katz, assistant to producer Carole Peterman of Narrow Isle Productions, said the Holly Hill location best matched the storywriters descriptions.

We take whats on the script and try to find places that match what the writers write, Katz said.

And thats how we landed on that one, he said about Holly Hill.

What attracted directors to the airport and field was the grass landing strip with trees lining both sides, Katz said.

Featured at Tuesdays filming was a Skyvan aircraft, Katz said.

It was difficult to get the aircraft reserved for filming opportunities, he said.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the 1982-built Short Brothers SC-7-3A model is the only model registered in the United States.

Its a fixed-wing double-engine aircraft that seats 20 people.

The Skyvan is noted for its boxy construction.

Katz said the script called for a 1970s style Skyvan.

He noted the planes are often associated with skydiving, military uses and transporting cargo.

Early Monday morning, Kimmie Stewart Casting, the agency working to hire extra cast members for Outer Banks, posted on social media that they were seeking individuals for the roles of a South American worker (Latino males ages 25 and up) and South American locals (Latin Americans of any gender ages 18 and up).

The grassy parking area in front of Solid Rock International Ministries church, located at 9007 Old State Road, just outside of the town limits, was full of cars, trucks and travel RVs for cast and crew all day on Tuesday.

Vans shuttled cast and crew to and from the airport, just a short distance away, throughout the day and night on Tuesday.

Chavis said he appreciates the kindness of the churchs pastor, Bishop Donald Howell.

A month ago, Carolina Film Alliance President Linda Lee visited Holly Hill to do some scouting for possible film recording locations, Chavis said. Then this past Thursday, the CFA called saying it needed the towns help.

Chavis said the town acted quickly to work out legal details in time for filming at the first of this week.

He said there were approximately 120 to 130 crew members on hand for Tuesdays filming.

Its about hospitality, Chavis said.
COLUMBIA  A House committee reviewing South Carolina's abortion law suggested Tuesday the state ban almost all abortions other than when the life of the mother is at risk.

The state currently has a ban at roughly six weeks that includes exceptions for rape and incest. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, conservatives in the General Assembly started to look if they could join the growing number of states banning the procedure.

The 12-member special panel voted 9-to-3 with all eight Republicans joining one of the House's most conservative Democrats in approving the new bill.

This is a huge opportunity for the state of South Carolina. For 50 years, we have been killing the unborn  the ones who dont have a voice, said Republican House Majority Leader David Hiott.

Everyone emphasized the bill has a long way to go through the legislature. It moves on to the the House Judiciary Committee and then has to go through the whole process in the Senate. South Carolina's General Assembly typically meets from January to May, but allowed the special session to consider abortion.

But the vote was a big step in a state that just 18 months ago had a similar debate over abortion that ended with a law requiring an ultrasound and banning the procedure if cardiac activity is detected, which typically happens six weeks after conception. The law includes rape and incest exceptions after some Republicans suggested they could not support it without them.

The exceptions were quietly placed in the bill last year without an on-the-record vote.

Bill writers said they have learned from flaws seen in abortion bans passed before the U.S. Supreme Court decision. The proposal specifies what emergencies would allow an abortion, such as an ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or a ruptured womb. It protects in-vitro fertilization and specifically allows contraception, said Rep. John McCravy, the Republican chairman of the House's special abortion committee.

But it prevents in almost all cases killing a fetus while in the womb, requiring it to be separated from the mother. And McCravy said a bill banning abortion with exceptions for rape and incest is not truly protecting life.

What will it do to turn one tragedy into two," McCravy said.

Democrats on the panel asked their Republican colleagues if they thought through all the repercussions of a ban  women who might have to stop working to care for children or stop their education.

They said a state that did not expand Medicaid and trails behind a majority of other states in spending and quality of life for children needs to show it truly values life by helping parents and children.

I do hope if you consider yourself champions of the unborn, if you will also consider making yourself champions of the born," Democratic Rep. David Weeks said.

Even though almost all the lawmakers are the same as the 2021 debate, the circumstances around the abortion debate is much different after the June high court decision.

I know my colleagues, and many truly care and worry about this issue which before now was merely an empty vote. Now its the real deal. I hope my fellow senators either vote for a more moderate state law or abstain, Republican Sen. Sandy Senn told The Associated Press.

During the 2021 debate, Senn was the only Republican to vote against the six-week ban, but as other conservatives tried to remove rape and incest expectations, a few other Republicans suggested those exceptions were required for their support.

Senn said she is pro-life and not in favor of forced birth. She said instead of banning abortion, the state should let a woman make her decision unrushed, and within the first trimester.

If given time to figure out her situation, most women who are able will make the right call, she said.
An international flight carrying 73 passengers departed on Tuesday from north China's Tianjin Municipality for Osaka, Japan.

The air route was the first international route resumed by Tianjin Airlines and the first direct route from the Chinese mainland to the Kansai region of Japan after the outbreak of COVID-19, the company said.

The resumption of flights between the two cities will help promote work and production resumption, economic cooperation, trade exchanges, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges, said Yang Zhihua, with Tianjin Airlines.

The company has also launched connecting flights departing from Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Kunming, Urumqi, and other Chinese cities for Osaka, with a stopover in Tianjin.

The air route between Tianjin and Osaka, launched on May 15, 2015, was suspended due to COVID-19 at the beginning of 2020. By 2019, 3,110 flights had been carried out, transporting more than 556,000 passengers.
(TBTCO) - Trao oi voi phong vien TBTCVN, TS. Nguyen Huu Huan - Truong bo mon Tai chinh thuoc Truong ai hoc Kinh te TP. Ho Chi Minh, cho biet boi canh kinh te nua cuoi nam 2022 a co nhung thay oi so voi nua au nam. Trong o, ap luc lam phat a giam bot. Vi vay, Ngan hang Nha nuoc nen can nhac viec noi han muc tang truong tin dung (room) e ho tro tang truong kinh te cuoi nam.
(TBTCO) - Theo du bao cua cac chuyen gia, trong thoi gian toi, thi truong au tu cong nghe ngay mot soi ong, hoat ong oi moi sang tao va cac startup se tiep tuc la ong luc cho phuc hoi kinh te. ac biet, cong ong startup Viet se ua ra nhieu giai phap cong nghe e giai quyet nhung van e, nhu cau cua thi truong va doanh nghiep.
Nic Przeor and Sam Steen talked about Rotondes' 22 concerts set to make up this year's edition of Conges Annules.

Nic Przeor stopped by The Sam Steen Show Wednesday morning to chat about Conges Annules and how it was originally born out of complaints there is nothing to do in Luxembourg during the month of August.

The Conges Annules festival offers urban summer vibes, with the Rotondes venue transformed into the perfect place to soak up the summer sun and move to the groove.

For 22 nights straight, Rotondes hosts a new concert; showcases, DJ sets, screenings and all-around fun. The festival has something for everyone, no matter your musical preference.

Are YOU gonna be stuck doing nothing in August? Head on over to the Rotondes' website to learn all about the fantastic program of this year's edition of Conges Annules! And if you're like us and simply can't wait until next month, you can get your fill of Conges Annules chat by listening to the full interview below or on RTL Play!
A group of protesters has occupied the woodland between Kaerjeng and Sanem since Friday to demonstrate their disapproval of plans to build a bypass.

In an unprecedented action in this country, a group of activists have joined together to occupy a section of woodland which is earmarked for construction - the "Bobesch", situated on a 4-kilometre stretch of land between Kaerjeng and Sanem, where plans are afoot to build a new bypass.

The plans for the bypass, which is designed to relieve the main road in Bascharage due to high nitrogen values, have been around for several years. However, environmental organisations have actively opposed the plans since their conception, in part because the new road is set to pass through a Natura 2000 zone. Both the Mouvement Ecologique and the Sanem citizens' initiative have attempted to take legal action against the project in the past.

Now, a new movement has been active since last Friday, settling in the forest under the slogan "Bobi Bleift" (Bobi stays). Forest occupation is a popular demonstration in other countries, including our neighbours - in Trier, a similar movement has been in place since 2021 under the slogan "Besch bleibt" to prevent a motorway extension.

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The "cross-generational collective", as the Bobi Bleift movement describes itself, calls for measures to manage and reduce car traffic instead of building a new road. "The government could take many other measures (such as investment in public transport, P&R, electric mobility, car-sharing and intelligent lighting systems) to combat climate change," the group states in a press release.

In addition, the group advocates for a halt to other road projects and for the protection of all forests. Construction of the Bascharage bypass has not yet started. In response to RTL's questions, the initiative's members said they were willing to keep their peaceful protest going as long as necessary.
Luxembourg has three plans in place for a potential gas crisis, an increasingly likely scenario given the declining gas deliveries to Europe, but none of the existing plans take into account a war.

There are currently 3 plans related to gas supplies: the emergency plan, the load-shedding plan and a third plan that applies if there are no gas supplies left at all. However these schemes need adapting, as they were developed for short term shortages, following an accident for instance. There is no plan for a war.

But LSAP MP Francine Closener, president of the Chamber's economic commission, assures that people need not worry. They are "protected consumers" and will not be sitting at home without heating this winter.

"This has been determined on the EU level. Nursing homes, hospitals and other facilities are also in this category. I was a bit surprised to find that schools do not. But the government will convene with schools, municipalities and all stakeholders to see how we can develop a concept for our schools," she said.

Read also: Gazprom says no guarantee Nord Stream pipeline will work



Businesses, on the other hand, are not protected. If there is a gas shortage, at least some of them will be impacted, which left CSV MP Laurent Mosar with some questions.

"I still don't know what criteria the load-shedding plan for businesses is based on. Which businesses this applies and mostly, what kind of aids are planned if businesses really will get less or no gas and have to reduce production."



The answers to these questions should be available once the three plans have been revised.

"Very few clear and precise answers", concluded the CSV following the parliamentary commissions for economy, consumer protection, environment and energy.

Green MP Francois Benoy, president of the energy commission: "Of course we want to avoid having to turn off anyone's production. So the first step is to update all these plans and to become more efficient and start saving gas. Then if we really do get to the worst case scenario where a business has to be cut off, the normal aids will come into play, starting with partial unemployment."

Government to launch information campaign

The government will launch an information and awareness campaign in autumn on saving gas.

Information is already available now on energiespueren.lu.
On Tuesday, Police Minister Henri Kox presented the bodycam bill, which started its approval process on Friday.

Details of the new bill were presented during a press conference on Tuesday. Henri Kox said other countries had made positive experiences with bodycams, which often had a de-escalating effect on situations involving police. This is why Luxembourg has decided to immediately employ body cams in a generalised fashion.

"It is primarily meant for administrative police. This means uniformed officers will be wearing them on the job. This can be during demonstrations, when they are patrolling, but also in enclosed spaces, for instance when they are called for domestic violence incidents."

The camera will be switched on in case of danger to the officers. Alain Engelhart, who is responsible for introducing the cameras within the police, explains how they work.

"The camera is constantly filming, but the footage is overwritten every 30 seconds, unless the recording is activated."

If an event is recorded that has no legal consequences, the footage is deleted automatically after 28 days. Manipulation of the data is not possible before this date. There are still open questions about who can access the data, which is saved on a server.

"If an officer has to write a report on an incident, they have the right to consult the footage recorded by their camera. This can help them write their report. But they can also copy film sequences which can for instance be passed on to the judge."

Other police officers can also get access to the material, provided they have an authorisation from the police director general.

Details on the camera model, whether they could be auto-activated if an officer pulls a gun, and how officers will be trained, are not available at this date. The new bill has to be voted before it can be implemented.

Pascal Riquier, president of the police union SNPGL, says the bodycams are an important tool and welcomes them. He is less pleased that the union found out about the new bill from the press. The SNPGL were involved in the draft bill, he says, but excluded in the development of the bill. According to him, the training aspect is still too unclear at this point.

"It is important for us that police officers be properly trained before they start using such a bodycam. Both in theory and in practice, as well as in the tactical aspects. They need to play through situations of stress, so they remember to turn on the camera. And they need to know when they should turn it on."

Pascal Riquier does not agree with the director general giving approval for police officers to access the material. During the draft bill stage, the SNPGL had written an opinion requesting that judicial authorities should get access to the footage, but only during judicial procedures.
Total revenue of groups, corporations hits nearly 900 trillion VND

The combined revenue of 17 out of 19 groups and corporations under the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises was estimated at over 892.16 trillion VND (38.05 billion USD) in the first half of this year, equivalent to 90% of the yearly target and up 27% year-on-year.







The figure does not include the revenue of State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) and Vietnam Expressway Development Investment Corporation (VEC).



Ho Sy Hung, Vice Chairman of the Commission, reported at a conference in Hanoi on July 19 that pre-tax profit of the 17 enterprises totaled 53.27 trillion VND, exceeding the yearly target by 39% and equivalent to 91% of the figure reported in the same period last year.



Outstanding performers include the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), the Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem) and the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV).



Except for the Vietnam Rubber Group (VFG), SCIC and VEC, the remaining 16 firms contributed some 125.82 trillion VND to the State budget, surpassing the yearly target by 1%, and up 21% year-on-year.



Hung said the Commission, groups and corporations have actively coordinated with ministries, agencies and localities to roll out many key, urgent projects such as Song Hau 1 Thermal Power Plant, Thai Binh 2 Thermal Power Plant, Dung Quat Oil Refinery Upgrading and Expansion project, and the first phase of Long Thanh International Airport.



The Commission has also issued documents guiding the enterprises in equitisation, capital divestment and restructuring, he added.



Nguyen Hoang Anh, Chairman of the Commission, said in the last six months the Commission will concertedly take solutions to support the groups and corporations in production and business; consider, approve or submit projects, strategies and plans to competent agencies; and accelerate the implementation of key projects.



Meanwhile, the 19 enterprises should ensure the progress and transparency of restructuring, equitisation and State capital divestment in line with legal regulations, he said.
Iran on Tuesday launched the Iranian rial-Russian ruble trading in its foreign exchange market, in an important step to boost economic ties with Russia.

Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Ali Salehabadi made the remarks at the ceremony to launch trading in the currency pair in the Iranian capital of Tehran, reported the official news agency IRNA.

Salehabadi stressed that, under the world's present political circumstances where major currencies have been used as political tools by the hegemonic powers, using local currencies and signing bilateral and multilateral monetary pacts can be an effective solution to neutralizing major powers' political coercive measures to dominate other countries.

The governor said that Iran's exports to Russia will increase following the launch of the trading in the ruble-rial currency pair.

Both Iran and Russia are under the U.S.-led Western sanctions. Russia will gradually abandon the U.S. dollar in its trade with Iran, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Iran on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning, Anne-Marie Hanff, president of the Luxembourg National Association of Nurses (ANIL), was a guest on RTL Radio.

The ANIL President confirmed that the main reason why most people continue to give up their jobs in the healthcare sector is the enormous workload.

According to Hanff, the interaction within the teams has also changed "especially during the pandemic". She made it clear that the primary source of stress is not face masks, but "the feeling you get when you come home that you didn't do everything you should have done". Hanff stated that 35% of nurses report feeling exhausted in the morning "simply at the notion of the new workday ahead". This has a great impact on people's personal lives as well, with 70% of nurses saying that they "almost never have the no energy to take care of their personal lives".

40% of nurses due to retire in the next few years

The sector is currently said to be in a "critical situation" with regard to succession. 40% of the country's nurses are due to retire in the next few years, and a third of them "frequently" considers leaving the profession. In addition, fewer and fewer people are reportedly enrolling in the Higher Technician Certificate (BTS) programmes of the Lycee technique pour professions de sante (LTPS, "Secondary School for Health Professions"). According to Hanff, the main reason for this is because there is "a lot of uncertainty". Many reforms are on hold and there is a lack of information, the ANIL President explained.

In fact, the bachelor's degree for nurses, which ANIL has been calling for for years, was supposed to be introduced this academic year, but the plans were ultimately scrapped and postponed.

'The government needs to be clearer in its messaging'

This type of degree should feature a practical curriculum as well as interdisciplinary teaching, for example with medical students, Hanff explained. "More than 90% of the students currently pursuing a BTS indicate that they would actually prefer to do a Bachelor's degree rather than a BTS," she pointed out, adding that this also explains why fewer students are currently enrolled at LTPS.

For this reason, the government needs to be clearer in its messaging, for example by stating unequivocally that if someone pursues a BTS, it will be fully recognised as a Bachelor or they will be able to pursue the Bachelor afterwards, Hanff stressed. "In France, the majority of nurses have a bachelor's degree," the President of ANIL pointed out. "In Luxembourg, two thirds of nurses come from abroad," meaning that by introducing a bachelor's degree, Luxembourg could also align its curriculum with that of its neighbouring countries.

In anticipation of the autumn season and a possible new wave of Covid-19, it would be a good idea to set up "multi-purpose teams of temporary replacements" who could intervene when staff are off sick. More powerful computers would also be "absolutely necessary," according to the ANIL president.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has forwarded the budgetary discrepancies in the recent accounts of the Intercommunal Syndicate for IT Management (SIGI) to the competent authorities within the syndicate.

The Ministry expects the syndicate to correct the discrepancies internally. According to Minister for Home Affairs Taina Bofferding, a more in-depth probe was deemed "not necessary".

Bofferding states that she has taken note of recent news reports about mismanagement within the syndicate. Rumours have been circulating for years, but a recent series of investigative articles published on Reporter.lu led the General Confederation of Local Government (FGFC) to demand official responses to the findings.

To this end, the Minister also met with the management of SIGI. Following this meeting, it was decided to open the path for two internal audits and an external investigation to investigate accusations of bullying, embezzlement, and privacy concerns. SIGI manages the IT infrastructure of nearly all municipalities in Luxembourg.

The Minister provided this information in her response to a parliamentary question by MP Francois Benoy from the Green Party (Dei Greng).
Lawmakers have asked the Legislative Service Office to draft a bill that would increase their daily reimbursements.

The Subcommittee on Legislator Compensation met Friday to discuss changing lawmaker compensation in light of an ongoing increase in workloads.

Born from the Management Council, the subcommittee was created to examine the topic and draft legislation after data from the Legislative Service Office indicated a significant rise in the number of interim meeting days. In 2005  the last time lawmaker salary was boosted  the Legislature met for a total of 103 days, according to the LSO. In 2021, there were 155 meeting days. Those numbers do not include regular sessions or special sessions, two of which have occurred since 2020.

Though pay has held steady, many longtime lawmakers say the nature of the job has changed, with increasingly complex interim topics stacking up. Thats raised questions about who has the means and ability to serve the state and who does not. That disparity is reflected in the demographics of the Legislature, which consists largely of retirees and the self-employed, who can absorb the additional costs or time away, according to Rep. Mike Greear, R-Worland.

People who are retired are very important, [theyre a] great segment of our state. However, we need younger people  we need younger people of both genders, Greear said at the subcommittee meeting.

Wyoming is one of the few states that constitutionally requires legislative action to raise lawmakers salaries, so the Legislature will need to pass a bill in order to bump pay. Thats proven to be a challenge.

Twenty bills have either been numbered or introduced since 2001 that would modify legislator compensation, per diem pay, constituent service allowances and other benefits, according to the LSO. Only five of those have become law. The most recent success came in 2020 when lawmakers passed a bill to provide workers compensation coverage for legislators. (Lawmakers will become eligible to enroll in that program in January.)

We havent been able to do much as a body in terms of even talking about our per diem, salary, these benefits or lack thereof, because of what Ive called the optics of it appearing that we are raising our own salaries, Rep. Cathy Connolly, D-Laramie, said.

Regardless of appearances, lawmakers hands are somewhat tied by the state constitution. While they can increase the base salary for the next body of lawmakers, according to LSOs Matt Obrecht, they cannot do so for themselves. In other words, the 67th Wyoming Legislature could not raise their own salaries, but could for the 68th.

Per diem rate refers to a daily allowance to cover the expenses associated with serving. Unlike salary, per diem rate is not considered as a constitutional compensation, so could be changed with the passage of a bill, effective immediately. In 2019, lawmakers passed a bill to adjust per diem rates based on the federal amount  a practice adopted by most states, according to the LSO.

Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed that bill since it cut those rates by 50% for lawmakers with primary residences within 25 miles of the Capitol Building in Cheyenne.

Since then, lawmakers per diem has remained at $109.

As for base salary, the state pays legislators $150 a day for each day they are in Cheyenne for a session, including weekends, and each day of an interim committee meeting. Lawmakers are paid $109 a day for travel to and from the session and for the days before and after interim meetings in the instance that they have to leave their hometowns to attend. Mileage compensation is pegged to the federal rate, currently 58 cents per mile. Lawmakers also receive some pay when not in session  though how many days of salary and at what rate depends on considerations like committee roles  as well as a $750 constituent service allowance per quarter, among other things.

Because of different constitutional setups, different statutory schemes, its never going to be a perfect comparison at all, Obrecht told lawmakers in reference to how Wyoming stacks up against other states. Direct comparison of legislator daily salaries can be misleading since some states, such as Kansas and Nevada, pay lawmakers for each calendar day while others, like Utah, only pay for session and interim meeting days. The New Mexico Constitution, meantime, prohibits state legislators from receiving a salary or any compensation other than per diem and mileage reimbursement.

Wyoming is one of nine states (Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming) that pay legislators a daily salary for session or interim calendar or legislative day, according to the LSO. Among them, Wyomings compensation falls midpoint between the lowest state (Kansas with $88.66) and the highest (South Dakota with $348.94).

Wyomings average two-year legislator salary is about $26,355, according to the LSO. For comparison, that rate is about $61,500 for Colorado lawmakers, $24,000 in Nebraska and $35,700 in Idaho.

Direct comparison may be difficult, but there are other clear distinctions. Wyoming is the only state to not provide some type of insurance benefit. Thats one of the most glaring compensation issues, according to Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne.

Speaking from a situation where my previous employer, I had to give up [health] insurance to come serve, Brown said, it was a big issue for me to step away.

Idaho and Montana provide supplemental compensation to legislators with large districts. Thats something Connolly expressed interest in during Fridays meeting. Other committee members, including Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, suggested a stipend-type offering to assist lawmakers in hiring contract work. Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, proposed a cafeteria plan, where lawmakers could pull from a general fund to use for something like contract work or to opt into the state health insurance plan.

The subcommittee plans to meet again in October to further discuss those options. In the meantime, LSO has been charged with drafting a bill to raise the per diem rate.
Rep. Liz Cheney and 46 other Republicans in the U.S. House voted Tuesday in favor of legislation that protects marriage equality.

The Respect for Marriage Act comes amid concerns that the federally protected right to same-sex marriage could be in jeopardy following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe. v. Wade. While that ruling addressed abortion, some legal scholars have suggested the reasoning behind it could be used to reconsider other judicially established rights like same-sex marriage.

The legislation would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and requires federal recognition for same-sex and interracial marriages nationwide. DOMA defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman and allowed states to not recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. That law has remained on the books despite the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage.

The congresswomans vote, cast Tuesday evening, came roughly eight years after she said that she opposed same-sex marriage. Her stance then put her at odds with others in her family. Her sister, Mary, is a lesbian who is married to a woman.

In a 60 Minutes interview in September, Cheney said she had changed her views.

I was wrong, Cheney said. I love my sister very much. I love her family very much, and I was wrong. Its a very personal issue and very personal for my family. I believe that my dad was right, and my sister and I have had that conversation.

Cheney is facing an uphill reelection battle against natural resources lawyer Harriet Hageman, who has avoided answering questions on the issue.

When asked in person by the Star-Tribune at a town hall in Bar Nunn earlier this year, Hageman dismissed the question and walked off when pressed.

The Star-Tribune has also requested comment from her campaign staff. They did not respond until asked Tuesday whether Hageman would vote in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act if she wins her congressional bid.

Harriet will examine all legislation that comes before the next Congress and make her decisions at that time, said Carly Miller, Hagemans campaign manager. In all the hundreds of events shes held across Wyoming since last year, and in the conversations shes had with thousands of voters, this issue has come up exactly once, and it was a reporter who raised it. Wyomingites are more worried about the economy and having a member of Congress who will actually fight the Biden administration.

As of 2017, 62% of Wyomingites backed same-sex marriage, which was legalized by the courts here in 2014. Although Wyoming is one of the nations most conservative states by many measures, its version of conservatism traditionally tends to leans libertarian, with a focus less on social issues than fiscal ones. In that sense, Cheney is falling in line with the broader sentiment in Wyoming  and the rest of the nation.

Support for legal same-sex marriage stands at 71% nationally, according to a 2022 Gallup poll. Thats the highest rating since the outfit began polling on the issue in 1996.

Although the Respect for Marriage Act passed the House easily, it is expected to stall in the Senate where Republicans will likely filibuster to block it.
Trinidad and Tobago NGL Ltd (TTNGL) yesterday reported after-tax profit of $117.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2022, which represents a 40.6 per cent increase compared to the $83.6 million the producer of cooking gas and natural gasoline recorded for the same period in 2021.

Directors of TTNGL said the company continues to post a solid financial performance for 2022.
For Astor50th Anniversary is the title of a series of performances in celebration of The Astor Johnson Repertory Dance Theatres (AJRDT) 50 years of existence and also in memory of the late dancer.

The shows, put on by AJRDT dancers at Queens Hall, St Anns, will run from September 16 to 19. A school show is planned for September 16 from 10 a.m., a gala performance night on September 17 from 6 p.m. and a performance night on September 18, 2022, from 7 p.m.
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A judge in the U.S. state of Delaware on Tuesday ruled that Twitter's lawsuit against Elon Musk over their $44 billion acquisition agreement should proceed to a five-day trial in October.

The ruling gave an early win for the social media giant which filed the lawsuit last week after the billionaire announced his intention to break off the agreement.

Days after the announcement, Twitter's lawyers wrote a letter to Musk telling him that "the Agreement is not terminated."

"Twitter reserves all contractual, legal, and other rights, including its right to specifically enforce the Musk Parties' obligations under the Agreement," they wrote.

At the first hearing in the case Twitter's lead counsel William Savitt argued in favor of a speedy trial, citing uncertainty that has befallen the company from the outstanding deal and litigation.

Musk's legal team however proposed that the litigation should go to trial early next year.

Musk and Twitter struck a deal for the sale of the company in April. However, soon after, the Tesla and Space X CEO started sending messages that seemed to show he had developed cold feet.

In May, he announced that deal was "on hold" as he looked into alleged fake users on the platform.

Twitter's board agreed to give him access to internal data by offering access to its full "firehose," a massive stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted each day.

Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that the deal was "in jeopardy" because Musk doubted that Twitter's spam figures are verifiable.

On Tuesday, Twitter lawyers urged a speedy trial, noting that all that was needed in the litigation was before the court.
A Moruga man was shot dead by someone who called him out of his home on Monday night.
One month before his passing on May 6, 2001 the artist Carlisle Chang relived with relish th
CTI, Inc.: DMC Insurance, Inc. has named Rudy Kroll of CTI, Inc. the 2022 DMC Driver of the Year. Kroll was unanimously selected as the winning driver by a committee comprised of trucking industry experts. Kroll has been a professional driver with CTI for the past 38 years, accumulating over 2 million miles, without ever being involved in a single accident, collision or incident, a news release said. In addition to his safe-driving record, Kroll has been a long-time mentor to his fellow drivers at CTI and is meticulous in his safety practices, from navigating regulations in his area to the most detailed of pre-and post-trip inspections.

Carondelet Health Network: St. Marys and St. Josephs hospitals have been recognized for high-quality stroke care by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. Both campuses received the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke GoldPlus with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite, and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll awards. The 2022 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke awards highlight Carondelet Health Networks commitment to research-based treatment guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

Womens Foundation for the State of Arizona: Arizona Capitol Times, Best Companies Group and Best Companies AZ announced that the Womens Foundation for the State of Arizona has earned a spot on the 10th annual list of 2022 Top Companies to Work for in Arizona. The list is the result of anonymous and comprehensive employee surveys measuring culture, work environment, leadership and employee pride and satisfaction, combined with evaluations of workplace practices, policies, employee perks and inclusivity based on demographics.

Feast and The Grill at Hacienda Del Sol: Two Tucson restaurants, Feast and The Grill at Hacienda Del Sol, were recognized in Wine Spectators 2022 Restaurant Awards, which honor the worlds best restaurants for wine. This years awards program honored 3,169 dining destinations from all 50 states in the U.S. and more than 70 countries internationally.

University of Arizona Center for Innovation: The University of Arizona Center for Innovation has been named the Soft Landings Designee of the Year, which was announced at the 36th International Conference on Business Incubation, hosted by the International Business Innovation Association. The category references the ability to provide a soft landing experience, meaning international businesses have the necessary accommodations for a smooth entry into the United States. UACI works with the businesses to introduce them to local community leaders, connect them to governmental officials, and inform them of the resources and tools available through the University of Arizona.

 Arizona Daily Sun
Tucson-based Raytheon Missiles & Defense and partner Northrop Grumman successfully completed a key flight test of a hypersonic missile being developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Air Force.

The test of the scramjet-powered Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, or HAWC, was the second successful flight test for the Raytheon-Northrop missile prototype and follows a flight test of a HAWC concept made by Lockheed Martin in April.

Raytheon applied data from its first flight test last September and the test met all primary and secondary objectives, including demonstrating tactical range capabilities, Raytheon and DARPA said Tuesday.

The HAWC prototype is powered by a supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, which uses supersonic air produced during initial acceleration to reach speeds greater than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

During the most recent test, after release from an unidentified aircraft, the missiles first stage boosted the vehicle to the expected scramjet ignition speed range, DARPA said.

From there, the missiles Northrop Grumman scramjet engine fired up and propelled the cruiser past Mach 5 for more than 300 nautical miles and reached altitudes higher than 60,000 feet, the missile agency said.

The date and site for the test were not disclosed, and many details about the program remain classified.

The Pentagon is scrambling to develop ultra-fast, hard-to-kill hypersonic missiles and counter-hypersonic weapons in response to apparent hypersonic testing successes by Russia and China.

Colin Whelan, president of Advanced Technology for Raytheon Missiles & Defense, said the most recent HAWC flight test success was an important milestone for the hypersonic missile program.

The test demonstrated how weve rapidly matured affordable scramjet technology, which is the basis for air-breathing weapons, Whelan said in a news release.

The test vehicle flew a trajectory that engineers designed to intentionally stress the weapon concept to explore its limits and further validate digital performance models, Raytheon and Northrop said in a joint news release.

Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have been working together since 2019 to develop, produce and integrate Northrop Grummans scramjet engines onto Raytheons air-breathing hypersonic weapons.

Tucson-based Raytheon unit advances in counter-hypersonic program Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have been awarded contracts of about $41 million each to continue development of the Glide Phase Interceptor.

Tucson Tech: Advanced manufacturing building takes shape at PCC Pima Community College's Advanced Manufacturing building at the Downtown campus in Tucson is on track and expected to start hosting students next spring.

Tucson to tackle building permit backlog For Star subscribers: Tucson is devoting nearly $1.5 million to hire staff and upgrade systems to relieve delays in permit and plan approvals now lasting months.
Tucson officials are backing proposed reforms to the nation's 911 system, and will launch a 311 number here in March to reroute nonemergency service requests in order to strengthen 911 responses.

Only 25% of 911 calls are actual emergency calls for service, said Mayor Regina Romero. She said it's important to create a system that deals with mental health, substance use, homelessness and other issues that result in calls to 911 seeking nonemergency services.

"We need to make sure that we ensure the right response at the right time," Romero said. "We have for decades been putting on the backs of police officers responsibilities and societal challenges that we haven't created new structures for."

Romero, Police Chief Chad Kasmar, Fire Chief Chuck Ryan and other key players in Tucson's safety and wellness planning are focusing on such reforms locally and nationally. They support an initiative to "modernize and strengthen" America's 911 emergency response system.

Transform911, an initiative led by the University of Chicago Health Lab, unveiled a comprehensive policy blueprint on June 29 at a New Orleans gathering to transform the 911 system, and the Tucson officials were there.

Trust issues

The policy recommendations, which were open to public input, culminated more than a year of work by over 100 experts representing 911 professionals, first responders, law enforcement officers, researchers, community advocates, public health officials and other experts. Enacting the blueprint would represent the most significant overhaul ever of the nation's 911 system, experts say.

Data shows that only a quarter of the estimated 240 million calls made annually to the nations 911 centers relate to a crime in progress, but the default mechanism for most calls is to initiate a police response, even when police may be more needed elsewhere or not needed at all, according to Transform911.

The recommendations include creating a cabinet-level position to report to the U.S. president on urgent 911 improvements; creating a federal task force on 911 data and technology ethics; supporting an expert, well-resourced 911 workforce; making 911 independent and equal to other public safety departments; embedding community perspectives in improving 911 response and reintroducing 911 to the American public.

While 911 is a vital public resource, many people  especially those of color  have grown mistrustful of its services, according to the recommendations. Experts say building relationships between 911 professionals and the community they serve is essential to bolstering equity and trust in the system.

While a growing number of communities across the country are exploring alternatives to a traditional 911 police response, experts say issues run far deeper than who is deployed to respond to a call.

New Orleans model

New Orleans has been innovating solutions to the traditional 911 system for a decade now, launching its 311 system in March 2012.

NOLA-311 is the go-to for citizens who need nonemergency services, including street light outages, blight control and more.

Residents can call 311 and speak with a service agent 24/7, with citizens also being able to submit service requests online through the NOLA-311 website, its various social media platforms or through a recently launched chatbot.

Both 911 and 311 calls are handled by the Orleans Parish Communications District.

In 2021, that district responded to 1.2 million calls and managed 600,000 individual public safety incidents, according to an article in StateTech.

"At one point, OPCD and 911 operations were the black eye of this city. We saw 6-minute hold times on 911," said Tyrell Morris, executive Director of Orleans Parish Communication District. "The mayor (LaToya Cantrell), along with the administration at the time, said enough is enough. We consolidated and really put a system in place that meets the needs of our city."

The communications district now houses 182 employees, whose goal echoes Romero's sentiments.

"Our mission is very simple: Get the right people to the right place at the right time, better than any other place in the world," Morris said. "Right now we're laser focused on who are the right people? Sometimes it's police, sometimes it's fire, sometimes it's EMS, but we need to be much more open that sometimes, it's someone else."

Tucson's initiatives

Morris, Romero and Kasmar were among a handful of speakers during a livestream of the June 29 event in which the Transform911 blueprint was announced.

"In 2020 ... the world really changed because of the pandemic, but because also of the highlight that was put on policing and the systems that we have in place that frankly were not working," Romero said during the event.

"They were not working for communities of color, low-income communities, and they were not working for our own workers in the city of Tucson and throughout the United States. They were not working for police officers, they were not working for fire, they were not working for 911 communications."

Romero said that since then she's made it a point to try to change the infrastructure and systems that were "causing more headache and harm than good" for the community.

The city has three social workers in its 911 center and is working to hire more social workers under the Community Safety, Health and Wellness Plan. The plan, designed to address the root causes of violence and crime  poverty, lack of economic opportunity, and more  has been a priority of Romero's this year, as outlined in her December 2021 State of the City address.

Since Romero took office in 2020, the Community Safety, Health and Wellness plan has moved from an idea to reality. The city hired a director in January, who, in the months since, has been working with public safety departments, as well as housing, code enforcement, planning and development, city courts and more.

The 911 system is a key part of changing how communities police their residents, Romero said.

"It's been a priority for me that we are really instituting the systems we need to do community policing and serve our residents well," Romero said.

Community policing is a collaboration between police and the community that identifies and solves community problems, often with the assistance of other agencies and non-law enforcement-related resources.

The Tucson team attending the Transform911 event included Ryan; Sarah Launius, the Community Safety, Health and Wellness director; and Sharon McDonough, public safety communications director.

"Mayors across the U.S. must support the effective functioning of the 911 system across America. Everyone knows 911, but what we are facing is we need to reintroduce 911 to the communities," Romero said during the event.

American Rescue Plan Act funding has been instrumental in helping to improve local emergency response systems, Romero said, but added that it's up to elected officials across the nation to change the governance and policies in order to ensure effective community policing.

"We are holding hands as professionals in public safety and making sure that the systems that we create together actually work for our communities and that they're people-centered, and that we have the systems in place in our communities that we need to connect the people that need services to the services available, whether they're created by your government or created by nonprofit organizations," Romero said.

She pointed to the 2020 in-custody death of Carlos Ingram-Lopez as a need for change. Ingram-Lopez was going through a panic attack brought on by drug use, Romero said, adding that if Tucson's public safety response had been functioning under a different model, the situation could have yielded a different result.

Ingram-Lopez died after being restrained by Tucson police officers on April 21, 2020. An autopsy report showed he had high amounts of cocaine in his system and a preexisting heart condition. He went into cardiac arrest while restrained, but the manner of his death was listed in the report as undetermined.

"Being able to have the psychologists or appropriately trained people respond to the situation that's happening, that is the ultimate goal," Romero said. "Transform911 is the beginning of what we're trying to do in Tucson."

911 first responders

Kasmar said during the event that as a police chief and former interim director of the city's 911 center, he believes all seven national recommendations to be important. He spoke at length about two of the recommendations: making 911 independent and making it an equal public safety partner.

"I want to emphasize  the need to support and classify 911 professionals as first responders," Kasmar said. "Emergency communication centers are independent and equal to other first responder systems that help improve outcomes in all of our communities."

Kasmar said 911 centers have transformed from "simple information transfer stations to critical points in the public safety lifecycle."

This means cities need to equip those workers to tap into a diverse range of responses to best match the need of each emergency a community faces, he said.
TYLER, Texas (AP)  A former East Texas deputy has pleaded guilty to a civil rights violation for punching a restrained detainee in the chest repeatedly with a shock gun, according to court documents.

Former Van Zandt County sheriffs deputy David Yager pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge arising from a February 2021 assault on a detainee. The plea came before a federal magistrate in Tyler, Texas, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The man was in a restraint chair with one arm free when he banged his food tray against a cell door, then knocked a shock gun from Yagers hand. Angered, Yager assaulted the detainee until another deputy persuaded him to stop, according to court documents.

He would face up to 3 1/2 years in prison under a plea agreement.

Yager, 29, is the second former Van Zandt County deputy to plead guilty this month to using excessive force.

Earlier this month, former chief deputy Steven Craig Shelton pleaded guilty to a similar civil rights violation arising from a separate incident last September. He would face almost four years in federal prison under his plea deal.

Sheriff Steve Hendrix resigned in April after indictments accused him and two other deputies of lying about Sheltons actions. Hendrix, whose attorneys contend is not guilty, still awaits trial.
WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP)  The once-powerful and now disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he murdered his wife and son 13 months ago, with one of his defense attorneys calling for a speedy trial to clear his name and prod authorities to go for the real killers.

Wearing a white face mask beneath his shaved head and ankle chains above shiny leather shoes, the 54-year-old Murdaugh made his first court appearance in Colleton County since being indicted in the murder case last week. Despite his not guilty plea, he agreed to remain jailed without bond.

One of his lawyers, Dick Harpootlian, said the defense team wanted to avoid a bond hearing that might reveal new information about the killings and risk prejudicing potential jurors when the case goes to trial. He also said Murdaugh, already saddled with $7 million in bond on unrelated criminal charges, can't afford to put up cash for his release pending trial.

Murdaugh has been behind bars since October, charged with financial crimes and several other misdeeds that were uncovered after the killings of his wife Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, at the family's Colleton County hunting estate in June 2021.

Harpootlian told a judge Wednesday that Murdaugh wants to stand trial within the next three to four months to show that investigators from South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division targeted the wrong man.

He believes that the killer or killers are still at large and this would allow SLED to put this behind them and go for the real killers, Harpootlian said.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters, a deputy state attorney general, replied that trying the case by January or sooner would be very aggressive.

The evidence in this case is substantial and it all points back to Alex Murdaugh," Waters said. "There is forensic evidence as well as other evidence of his guilt of these murders.

Circuit Judge Clifton Newman made no rulings in court other than denying bond for Murdaugh. He said he would issue written orders later on the speedy trial request as well as a request for a gag order to prohibit lawyers and investigators in the case from speaking to news outlets.

Murdaugh is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of possessing a weapon during a violent crime. The indictment alleges that he fatally shot his wife with a rifle and used a shotgun to kill his son.

Authorities have released no evidence of how police linked Murdaugh to the deaths after 13 months of investigation. And the hearing Wednesday provided no clues as to why a man who had no criminal history and was part of a wealthy, well-connected family that dominated the legal community in the tiny town of Hampton might have wanted to kill his own family members.

Authorities have been tight-lipped since the start of the investigation. Last year, they released the late-night 911 call in which Murdaugh reported finding the bodies of his wife and son outside by the dog kennels on his estate. The coroner said both victims had been shot multiple times.

Newman, the judge who presided over Murdaugh's hearing Wednesday, had previously denied bond for Murdaugh on the financial crimes charges. A different judge later set bond at $7 million but Murdaugh was unable to pay it and has remained in jail. His lawyers have complained several times that the bond was set too high, and said that because of lawsuits and frozen assets Murdaugh couldnt even afford to buy underwear from the jail store.

If convicted of murder, Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison without parole. Under state law, prosecutors could also choose to seek the death penalty because more than one person was killed.

The four new indictments connected to the slayings added to a pile of 80 other charges lodged against Murdaugh by investigators who have scrutinized every part of his life over the past year. No trial dates have been set for any of the cases.

Prosecutors said the once-prominent attorney stole more than $8 million in settlements and other money from clients, committed fraud and lied to police by trying to arrange his own death so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy. Murdaugh was also charged last month with co-running a $2 million money laundering and drug ring.

The murder charges and other cases are being prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney General's Office because of links Murdaugh has to the local 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office. The office's jurisdiction includes Colleton County and Hampton County, where Murdaughs father, grandfather and great-grandfather were the elected prosecutors for 87 consecutive years.
A spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council on Tuesday voiced strong opposition to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan to visit China's Taiwan region.

"We resolutely oppose any official exchange between the United States and Taiwan," said Zhu Fenglian, the spokesperson, adding that the repeated provocative comments and acts of some members of the U.S. Congress lately are nothing but attempts to obstruct China's reunification process.

Zhu urged relevant U.S. Congress members to understand the high sensitivity of the Taiwan question, cease provocations, and refrain from offering any support to separatist elements advocating "Taiwan independence."
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  Teachers gave heart-wrenching testimony Wednesday in the penalty trial of Nikolas Cruz, with one recalling how a boy in her Holocaust studies class correctly answered a question seconds before he became one of 17 people murdered during the school shooter's rampage four years ago.

Ivy Schamis, then a teacher at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was leading students through a discussion about the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany when star swimmer Nick Dworet correctly responded that Adolf Dassler founded the Adidas shoe company. He then added that Dassler's brother founded the rival Puma brand.

It was then that they heard the initial gunshots in the first-floor hallway of the three-story building, and Cruz began firing his semi-automatic rifle through the glass on her classroom door near where he entered.

It was really seconds later that the barrel of that AR15 just ambushed our classroom," Schamis testified, wiping her eyes with a tissue. It came right through that glass panel and was just shooting everywhere. It was very loud. Very frightening. I kept thinking about these kids who should not be experiencing this at all.

She said the students scrambled to find safety behind furniture, but didn't panic and acted with bravery and maturity as they waited to be rescued. Three students were wounded in her class and two were killed: Dworet and Helena Ramsay, both 17.

When shown their portraits, she began to weep.

Thats my girl, Helena Ramsay, she said. Nicholas Dworet, handsome boy.

Dworet's brother Alexander was grazed by a bullet in a classroom across the hall, where three students were killed and several more wounded.

Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder for the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre. The jury must decide if the former Stoneman Douglas student should be sentenced to death or life without parole for the nations deadliest mass shooting to go before a jury. The trial is expected to last through at least October.

Nine other gunmen who killed at least 17 people died during or immediately after their shootings, either by suicide or police gunfire. The suspect in the 2019 slaying of 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, is awaiting trial.

Schamis' testimony was followed by that of Ronit Reoven, who was lecturing her advanced psychology class about Sigmund Freud when Cruz started firing into her neighboring classroom, also through the door's window.

There were multiple gunshots," she said. "They were incredibly loud. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! I froze for a moment and the students jumped out of their seats. Of course, they were startled and scared."

Reoven said she and the students crouched on the floor around her desk and wounded students were moaning and crying. She used a blanket that normally covered her coffee machine as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from a boy's arm. Another boy used a jacket to stanch the bleeding from a girl's chest. A girl shot in the knee appeared to be stable. But 16-year-old Carmen Schentrup was lying facedown in a pool of blood.

I knew that she was probably gone, Reoven said.

On the third floor, Stacey Lippel was teaching creative writing and Ernest Rospierski was supervising study hall when Cruz's shots on the first floor triggered the fire alarm. Not realizing a shooting was happening below them, they led their students into the hallway to evacuate.

That's when screaming students began coming back up the stairwell and they could hear gunshots.

Lippel said she and the teacher from the neighboring room, Scott Beigel, quickly reopened their doors and started getting students back inside. It was then that Cruz emerged from the stairwell, splaying the rifle back and forth, shot after shot after shot," she said. "It never stopped.

Lippel said she got inside her room and closed the door, but Beigel was fatally shot.

Beigel's student, Veronica Steel, testified that his body kept the door from closing, leaving the students in the room fearful Cruz would come inside.

It was scary. We didn't know what to do, she said.

Rospierski's head and hip were grazed by bullets, but he helped students who had gathered in the alcove outside his classroom flee down a stairwell when Cruz briefly stopped shooting.

Surveillance video played for the jury shows that two wounded students, 18-year-old Meadow Pollack and 14-year-old Cara Loughran, remained behind, lying on the floor. Cruz killed them with a second blast. He then killed 17-year-old Joaquin Oliver, who was lying wounded in front of a restroom.

Two students in the fleeing group, 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg and 15-year-old Peter Wang, were hit just before they reached the stairwell door and potential safety. Both died, Wang after Cruz shot him with a second volley.

When jurors eventually get the case, they will vote 17 times, once for each of the victims, on whether to recommend capital punishment.

For each death sentence, the jury must be unanimous or the sentence for that victim is life. The jurors are told that to vote for death, the prosecutions aggravating circumstances for that victim must, in their judgment, outweigh the defenses mitigators. A juror can also vote for life out of mercy for Cruz. During jury selection, the panelists said under oath that they are capable of voting for either sentence.
UVALDE, Texas (AP)  Facing massive public pressure, Uvaldes top school official has recommended the firing of the school district police chief who has been blamed for the botched law enforcement response to the elementary school shooting nearly two months ago that killed two teachers and 19 students.

The South Texas citys school board announced Wednesday that it will consider firing Chief Pete Arredondo at a special meeting Saturday. Arredondo has been accused by state officials of making several critical mistakes during the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

School officials have previously resisted calls to fire Arredondo. The announcement comes two days after a meeting where the school board members were lambasted for more than three hours by members of the public, who accused them of not implementing basic security at Robb, of not being transparent about what happened and of failing to hold Arredondo to account for his actions.

Confronted with parents' vociferous demands to fire Arredondo and warnings that his job would be next, Superintendent Hal Harrell said Monday that the police chief was a contract employee who could not be fired at will. The agenda for Saturday's meeting includes the board discussing the potential firing with its lawyer.

Arredondo, who has been on leave from the district since June 22, has faced blistering criticism since the massacre, most notably for not ordering officers to immediately breach the classroom where an 18-year-old gunman carried out the attack. If fired, Arredondo would become the first officer ousted from his job following the deadliest Texas school shooting in history.

Although nearly 400 officers from various agencies were involved in the police response that took more than an hour to confront and kill the shooter, Arredondo is one of only two known to have faced discipline. His attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The move to potentially fire the chief follows the release of a damning 80-page report by a Texas House committee that blamed all levels of law enforcement for a slow and chaotic response. The report found that 376 law enforcement officers massed at the school, with more than half coming from state and federal agencies, but that they failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.

According to the committee, Arredondo told lawmakers he didnt consider himself the on-scene commander in charge and that his priority was to protect children in other classrooms. The committee report called that decision a terrible, tragic mistake.

Body camera footage released by the Uvalde officials shows Arredondo in the hallway trying multiple sets of keys on other classroom doors, but not the one where the massacre took place. The classroom door could not be locked from the inside, but there is no indication officers tried to open the door while the gunman was inside.

Our thought was: If he comes out, you know, you eliminate the threat, correct? Arredondo told the committee, according to the report. And just the thought of other children being in other classrooms, my thought was: We cant let him come back out. If he comes back out, we take him out, or we eliminate the threat.

Arredondo, 50, grew up in Uvalde and spent much of his nearly 30-year career in law enforcement in the city. He took the head police job at the school district in 2020 and was sworn in as a member of the City Council in a closed-door ceremony May 31. He resigned from his council seat July 2.

Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

The spelling of the police chiefs last name has been corrected in several places in the story.

More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting
The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

In a state where significant challenges plague the education system  and legitimate solutions exist  strong leaders thinking and working together across both sides of the aisle can ignite meaningful change. What is most important, however, is prioritizing voters priorities for education  their priorities need to be at the forefront of all decision-making.

If you were to solely rely upon the hot-button issues that generate heated banter on social media and in news headlines, you would be highly misguided about the true education concerns that Arizonans believe warrant the greatest attention. Unfortunately, issues like critical race theory, gender identity and closing failing schools take the spotlight.

Its a confounding challenge. Voters continue to prioritize education and want to see their candidates discussing and taking action on the issues that matter most to improving student outcomes. Yet the disconnect perseveres.

Education Forward Arizona recently conducted a poll of 500 Arizona voters to better understand their priorities for education. The survey, conducted in coordination with the Center for the Future of Arizona, complements and dives deeper on findings reported in the Arizona Voters Agenda.

In the survey, likely Arizona voters were asked an open-ended question about what they believe the biggest issues are facing education. Their most common responses were that teachers are underpaid and schools are underfunded. When asked specifically about school funding and teacher pay, 78% said they believed teachers were underpaid, and 66% said that they believed that schools were underfunded.

Notably, the survey also showed a majority of likely Arizona voters do not support banning critical race theory; restricting discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation during sex education; or closing failing schools.

Instead, they prioritized ensuring every classroom has a qualified teacher, raising teacher pay, increasing school funding, and fostering more opportunities for Career and Technical Education for Arizona students. Voters also prioritized actions that would close achievement gaps, including providing additional funding and resources to schools to support their low-income students along with scholarships for low-income students to go to college.

Voters want to see candidates prioritizing and offering solutions to address Arizonas teacher shortage, to help students learn key subjects, and to ensure they have opportunities that lead to education attainment and good careers. These are meaningful changes that will move the needle on the goals in the Arizona Education Progress Meter and meet our states Achieve60AZ attainment goal.
The art projects of more than 30 Southern Arizona community members reflecting life during the pandemic have been placed in a specially curated online exhibit through the University of Arizonas Special Collections archives.

The projects are a part of the UAs Confluencenter for Creative Inquirys PandemiDiarios program, which allows community members to document their pandemic-related experiences through art.

The 16 winners of the 2020 PandemiDiarios program and the 21 winners of the 2021 PandemiDiarios on the Border program created written works, photographs, short films, murals and more representing life during the pandemic. The 2021 program focused on life during the pandemic, specifically in the U.S.-Mexico region.

Since the program started in 2020, the Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry has provided over $10,000 in microgrants to the selected participants through the Fronteridades program in partnership with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

During the peak of the pandemic, there was a national conversation among humanities and arts organizations regarding the incentives or the opportunities to make sure that people not only in the academic community but also in our communities had access to small pockets of funding to make sense out of the pandemic, out of their experiences, said Javier Duran, the director of the Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry. And so we took that idea and applied it locally and we created a small grant program called PandemiDiarios, which is really this account of the daily life of people and how they are coping with the pandemic.

The PandemiDiarios participants include 15 local community members, 13 UA students and five UA employees, according to their website.

One of the 2021 winners includes Ruben Urrea Moreno, a local muralist and a senior exhibit preparator at the Arizona State Museum.

Morenos art project titled, "On the inside looking out," is a large portable mural made from recycled billboard banners featuring a saguaro cactus adorned with wildlife native to the U.S.-Mexico region.

The piece represents the proliferation of Sonoran Desert animals inhabiting new spaces while people stay home, according to the PandemiDiarios website.

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I turned this saguaro into like the sanctuary of our home, he said. And the top of the saguaro was like a cage. And it was perfect because the saguaro already has lines like the cage, and I kind of felt like everybody was kind of trapped at home. And then above the saguaro was this skull symbol and that's like the coronavirus looming over our head, but inside, we're safe. And then we have our pets and we have our music, and outside, we're witnessing all these animals kind of have free rein of the world.

Moreno chose to work with large banners because of their portability, making it easier to place the mural around various places across the city, most recently on the side of La Estrella Bakery on South 12th Avenue and West Nebraska Street.

I can go put it up somewhere around town and I can even move it around, you know, I can like, instantly beautify a neighborhood that needs a little bit of beautification, Moreno said. And the main reason I decided to do it this way is because when you're working a full-time schedule, it's really hard to go to a job site and set up and then paint and then tear down and come back home.

Moreno says he was surprised and honored when he found out that his work would be digitally archived in the UAs special collections.

I never even thought of anything on my own being digitally archived, he said. But it makes total sense (to digitally archive) because of the direction our world is going. I looked at the projects that are being archived and the variety of them is just so beautiful. And to be a part of the group of artists and the whole process of what they did with the PandemiDiarios, it was pretty special.

While the Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry focuses on the arts, humanities and social sciences through the sponsorship of interdisciplinary projects, Duran says one of the most significant components of the center is community engagement and how to get our diverse community involved in those projects.

Although its hard to say if the center could continue this program next year given the unpredictability of COVID-19, Duran says he is open to having a post-pandemic project in the future where people document lessons learned throughout the pandemic.

I think it's an opportunity to really showcase our diversity and the diversity of voices and also a creative incentive in a time in which a lot of people feel really, really left out of things, Duran said. We are a very resilient community and creative and that creative energy is manifested in many different ways. The PandemiDiarios are a great example of how our Tucson and Southern Arizona communities were really, really not only coping, but trying to succeed in a moment of despair.

For more information about the PandemiDiarios program or to check out the digital archive, visit their website.
Owasso and Collinsville public schools recently received nearly $22,000 from the state to invest in needed classroom projects.

Both districts were named among dozens of recipients that received more than $4.5 million in lottery funds from the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education.

ODCTEs CareerTech awarded over $2 million in grants to 26 technology centers and over $2 million to K-12 school districts for the 2022-23 school year, along with 388 scholarships worth a total of more than $400,000, for 2021-22.

These funds from the Oklahoma Lottery will benefit instructors and students throughout the CareerTech system and help us fulfill our mission to give students the skills they need to enter the workforce and make informed career choices, Lee Denney, CareerTechs interim state director, said in a news release.

Owasso Public Schools, which received nearly $12,000, will use this years grant to update appliances within its Family & Consumer Sciences Department.

We are very grateful for this grant and appreciative of CareerTech for the opportunity to apply for these funds each year, Jordan Korphage, director of communications for OPS, told the Owasso Reporter. The goal is for each student to be proficient in training on and using high-tech appliances to be competitive in the marketplace.

Additionally, Collinsville Public Schools received around $10,000 that will allow the district to purchase new lab kits and 3D printers for its Medical Detective and Flight and Space curriculum.

Instilling an interest at this grade level can be critical to sparking a lasting desire to pursue a career in a STEM field, CPS Superintendent Jeremy Hogan told the Reporter. We are excited to receive this grant, which will allow us to maintain our quality STEM activities and renew our PLTW curriculum.

ODCTE receives about 5% of the Oklahoma Education Lottery Trust Fund, which it uses to help CareerTech programs upgrade equipment and provide scholarships for teachers to continue their own education to fulfill certification and credential requirements.

CareerTech has also previously provided a platform for local students and staff to thrive in their respective fields.

Owasso educator Jonathan Holloway, for example, received the Teacher of the Year award for the Agricultural Education Division of the Oklahoma Association of Career and Technology Education in August 2017.

Likewise, four Tulsa Tech-Owasso students participated in a work-based learning video contest sponsored by ODCTE in February 2021.

More information about ODCTE and CareerTech can be found at oklahoma.gov/careertech.html.
A Roland man was killed early Monday, and another Roland man has been arrested on a manslaughter charge in connection with the death, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a news release.

Cody Nichols, 34, told Roland police officers who responded around 2:30 a.m. Monday to a 911 call about a shooting in the 100 block of Nichols Street that he had shot Stephen Moravac, 42, the OSBI said.

Emergency medical personnel attempted to aid Moravac before transporting him to a Fort Smith, Arkansas, hospital, where he died.

Nichols was arrested Tuesday on a first-degree manslaughter complaint, the OSBI said.

The Roland Police Department asked the OSBI to lead the investigation.

Roland is in Sequoyah County near the Arkansas border, about 110 miles southeast of Tulsa.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  A judge in Oregon granted a motion Tuesday to acquit far-right Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson and associate Russell Schultz on felony riot charges.

Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Souede said no reasonable jury could find their behavior at a 2019 street confrontation threatened an imminent breach of the peace, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

Oregons law clearly does not permit such an outcome, Souede said, rebuking the district attorneys office for pursuing a jury trial on the evidence presented.

Schultz, Gibson and their associate Mackenzie Lewis each faced a riot charge for their roles in political violence in May 2019 at the now-closed Northeast Portland bar Cider Riot.

Lewis attorney also sought a motion for acquittal, but Souede denied that effort.

After the prosecution rested, defense attorney Brian Schmonsees said the state had presented no evidence that Schultz had participated in any violent activity. Schmonsees argued the video evidence showed Schultz standing on the periphery as those with the far-right and anti-fascists exchanged fist jabs and threw things, and later video showed him telling people in his group that it was time to leave.

In videos presented by the prosecution, Gibson taunts anti-fascists on the bar patio and tells them to do something. After someone in the crowd spits on Gibson, he wipes the spit onto a bar patron.

The record is overwhelming, and I suggest indisputable, that Mr. Gibson spoke obnoxiously to the crowd, Souede said in his ruling. He was provocative, he was taunting, he was acting like a troll.

Souede said Gibsons activity amounted to speech, and Oregon law prohibits taking speech into consideration when deciding riot charges. A charge of harassment, however, would have been likely to survive a motion for acquittal, Souede said.

If this defendant could be convicted in this case, there would be no protection for protesters in Oregon on other occasions, Souede said, before referencing 2020 racial justice protests in Portland.

In his denial of Lewis motion for acquittal, Souede pointed to video of Lewis shoving a person and throwing an empty can of mace at a crowd as reason for the trial to continue.

Three other brawl participants with the Patriot Prayer group, Chris Ponte, Ian Kramer and Matthew Cooper were indicted and previously pleaded guilty to riot charges.

Gibson founded the Vancouver, Washington, based Patriot Prayer in 2016. He has held rallies supporting former President Donald Trump and supported other demonstrations organized by the Proud Boys  a group thats been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Elections officials from across the country meeting under heightened security were urged Tuesday to prepare for supply chain issues that could lead to shortages in paper used for everything from ballots to I voted stickers for years to come.

The summer meeting of the National Association of State Election Directors brought together nearly 200 people, including elections directors from 33 states, experts in election security, interest groups that work with elections, vendors and others.

Election security experts told the directors to be prepared for possibly years of supply chain issues affecting paper, computer hardware and other things.

The supply chain as it affects elections may not return to normal until 2026, said Ed Smith, a longtime election technology and administration veteran who chairs a federal government-industry coordinating council that works on election security issues.

The lead time to obtain election hardware is two- to three-times longer than the norm, a delay not seen since 1999 or 2000, Smith said. Costs are also higher and elections officials should be prepared for spotty and unpredictable problems due to transportation and pandemic-related shutdowns, he said.

The supply chain issues are largely sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by worldwide closures of factories and a drop in people in the workforce. They have been felt by a wide array of industries.

Elections officials preparing for the November midterm are also bracing for their own problems that could make it difficult to get paper needed to print ballots, informational inserts and other materials needed to run an election.

Certainly, the paper supply has been the leanest its ever been, said Jim Suver, co-chair of a federal election security working group that focuses on supply chain issues. The biggest crunch will start in September, when all states are working toward the same November election, he said.

Suver said that hoarding was not an issue.

Theres not enough paper to hoard," he said. "It is not happening.

Elections officials were urged to order their supplies early and be prepared for shortages and delays.

The biggest risk is having an urgent request, like the need for a large number of reprints, 10 days or 15 days before an election, Suver said. It will be crucial for jurisdictions to be extremely careful in proofreading ballots so they dont have to place reorders, Smith said.

Printing errors already have occurred during this year's primaries. In Oregon, election workers in Clackamas County had to transfer the votes from tens of thousands of ballots that had blurry bar codes and had been rejected by ballot-counting machines. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a printing company mailed thousands of ballots with the wrong ID code, which meant they couldn't be read by scanning machines.

The three-day meeting, which also covered issues such as insider threats to running elections and how to connect with hard-to-reach communities, comes as elections officials are facing increasing threats amid false claims by former President Donald Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election was stolen.

Amy Cohen, executive director of NASED, cautioned meeting attendees to wear their name tags when at the event so that security could see they belong there, but to take them off when out and about in the city.

Dont advertise who you are and exactly why youre here, she said.

Cohen said meeting organizers coordinated with federal, state and local law enforcement for the event. The group was not live tweeting or livestreaming the event, but there was no prohibition on attendees posting about it on social media.

Please do be thoughtful about what you post and remember that some of the people in this room are dealing with serious security concerns and we need to be respectful to keep everyone safe, Cohen said.
Villagers pack their belongings for relocation in Doima Township of Tsonyi County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, July 12, 2022. [Photo/Xinhua]

Tsonyi County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, started the relocation of its second batch of residents on Tuesday, as part of the region's plan to improve people's living conditions and protect the fragile local ecosystem.

At around 7:40 a.m. Tuesday, more than 300 residents left their hometown in Doima Township of Tsonyi, China's highest county, moving nearly 1,000 km southward to their new home Singpori.

Singpori is on the north bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River in the city of Shannan, located at an altitude of 3,600 meters. It is only some 10 km from the Lhasa airport.

Four townships of the county will complete relocation by early August, and by then, all seven townships of Tsonyi, including the three that moved in 2019, will have completed relocation.

Tibet relocated the first batch of 2,900 residents in Tsonyi to Singpori in 2019.

"After moving to my new home, I will be able to visit the monasteries in Lhasa and Shannan more frequently to worship Buddha," said Garma, a 70-year-old herder from Doima Township.

Hard decision

With an average altitude of over 5,000 meters, Tsonyi County covers a total area of 120,000 square km and is part of the Changtang National Nature Reserve, China's biggest and highest nature reserve.

Due to the high altitude and harsh environment, the county is not suitable for human habitation. The oxygen in the air is a mere 40 percent of that on the plain. Its winter lasts 10 months each year, with the lowest temperatures reaching minus 40 degrees Celsius.

However, it was not easy for Garma to decide to move.

"It is the place where I was born and grew up. How can I not miss it?" said Garma. "But I know the relocation is good for us."

Suffering from rheumatic arthritis, a joint disease commonly seen on the plateau, Garma has lost the ability to herd. All she can do is fire the stove and cook butter tea while waiting for her family to return from herding.

"The relocation will not only make it easier for me to go to the hospital but also help my children avoid developing plateau diseases like me," she said.

As a compensation for their sacrifice, Garma's five family members, including her 2-year-old great-grandson, will receive 7,500 yuan (about 1,112 U.S. dollars) per person a year as a subsidy under the local policy of forage-livestock balance.

The government has set up a transitional period spanning the next few years so that some young people can take turns to herd in Tsonyi County, with a cooperative established in every village. The relocated residents can hold shares of the cooperatives with their pastures and livestock as investments and earn dividends.

When the transitional period expires, young people will also come to their new home, returning the vast land to nature.

"When my children go back for herding, I may also return with them to have a look at the ranch and the sheep," Garma said.

New hope

In Singpori, Garma's family has been allocated a two-story house and a small apartment, equipped with flush toilets and gas stoves. The community also has a newly-built hospital, a kindergarten, a school, a market and a recreation center.

Sichod Tsomo, Garma's granddaughter, did not attend school as she had to help her family with herding when she was young. The 22-year-old now has difficulty inputting characters on her smartphone.

She said her son is lucky as he can enter a good kindergarten free of charge in Singpori next year thanks to the relocation.

"I hope my son can go to a university someday," she said.

Sichod Tsomo plans to attend vocational training and open a tea house near her new home. Her husband, who received training to become an excavator driver last year, will try to find a job at a construction site nearby.

According to Yang Wensheng, Party chief of Tsonyi, some of the relocated residents have found jobs like chefs and machine operators after receiving vocational training, while some others have started working in cities like Lhasa and Shannan.

Thanks to the relocation, the per capita disposable income of the county surged to nearly 13,600 yuan in 2021, up nearly 30 percent from the level in 2019, when the county was lifted out of poverty.

Yang said the latest relocation came amid efforts to consolidate and expand poverty alleviation achievements with rural vitalization endeavors.

Returning land to nature

Tibet has 11 national nature reserves, four national scenic spots, three national geological parks, nine national forest parks, and 22 national wetland parks. Protected natural areas make up almost 40 percent of the region's land area.

The rare wildlife population in the region has been growing, with the Tibetan antelope population increasing to over 300,000, wild yak exceeding 20,000 and black-necked cranes surpassing 10,000, according to a report issued by the regional department of ecology and environment last month.

Because of the increasing populations of wild animals in the Changtang National Nature Reserve, the problem of local people and wildlife competing for living space has become more prominent.

"Our livestock is often attacked by bears, wolves and even snow leopards," Garma said. According to the local compensation standard, herders get a compensation of 500 yuan for a sheep killed by wildlife and 5,000 yuan for a yak.

"The relocation is beneficial to the ecological protection of the Changtang nature reserve," said Liu Baoyuan, a professor of geoscience with the Beijing Normal University, who is in Tsonyi to conduct a survey on water and soil erosion.
A newly issued federal audit is highly critical of Gov. Kevin Stitts administrations handling of $31 million intended to provide emergency pandemic relief for Oklahomans educational needs.

The first of two rounds of Governors Emergency Education Relief Funds, spent between March 2020 and August 2021, are the subject of a new audit report issued this week by the U.S. Department of Educations Office of Inspector General.

The audit covers a total of $39.9 million in GEER funds, including $8 million administered by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. The audit says the money handled by that department seems to have been administered properly.

Ultimately, Oklahoma may be forced to repay about $653,000 that auditors said was misspent by families on noneducational items such as televisions, washers and dryers, air conditioners and Christmas trees. The report further recommends a 100% review of an additional $5.4 million spent through the Bridge the Gap program and that the state repay the federal government for any additional unallowable purchases found.

Bridge the Gap was largely overseen by Oklahoma Secretary of Education and state superintendent candidate Ryan Walters, both in his official capacity and as executive director of the non-profit Every Kid Counts Oklahoma.

Walters has blamed problems with the program on a vendor, ClassWallet.

The state has received the report and is reviewing it, said Kate Vesper, a spokeswoman for the Governors Office. Collaboration with OIG (the Office of Inspector General) will continue.

Stitt is in the United Kingdom attending the Farnborough Air Show, long a regular fixture for Oklahoma governors.

The governor is committed to transparency and accountability in state government and has called for more audits than any other governor in our states history, Vesper said. The state has been proactive in monitoring and ensuring appropriate use of Oklahoma taxpayer dollars, and an internal audit (of GEER funds) was initiated several months ago.

The report could not have been much of a surprise to the administration. It received a preliminary version this spring, and the final draft that was released late Tuesday includes a five-page response, dated May 13, signed by Oklahoma Chief Operating Officer Steven Harpe.

In it, Harpe says corrective actions are underway, and he reminds the auditors that the state was trying to disburse funds while dealing with coronavirus and the unprecedented global health crisis to which it gave rise.

The report states that Oklahoma initially returned $919,354 of its $39.9 million GEER grant award for the initial round of awards in February 2021 because the funds were not used by the grants deadline.

The report says a total of $1.7 million was ultimately turned back to the federal government.

It calls for a host of other next steps and corrective actions that could cost the state more time and money.

The auditors wrote, Oklahoma provided us with documentation for some of the corrective actions that it stated it had implemented.

However, the states proposed corrective actions were found not to be fully responsive to the recommendations, and none of the federal audit findings changed as a result of the administrations response to the preliminary draft.

In general, the Office of Inspector General found that the administration could not support its stated processes for awarding funds totaling $31 million in the way GEER grant funds were intended.

The funds were to be used for those most significantly impacted by the coronavirus or deemed essential for carrying out emergency educational services, providing childcare and early childhood education, providing social and emotional support, or protecting education-related jobs.

Conversely, the OIG report states that the $8 million in GEER funds allocated to the state Department of Education was used appropriately to support local school districts most significantly impacted by the coronavirus.

The report comes a week after Stitt and Walters called for a state audit of Tulsa Public Schools because of a self-reported potential misuse of donated money the district says amounts to less than $20,000.

It also comes amid plans for a state audit of the Oklahoma State Department of Education requested by Stitt.

State Superintendent and gubernatorial candidate Joy Hofmeister blasted Stitt, saying, Gov. Stitt weaponizes audits to distract from his administrations own self-dealing, incompetence and arrogant disregard for the law. This federal audit speaks for itself.

The $31 million in GEER grant funds whose management is criticized in the audit was divided among three entities for four initiatives:

$18 million to the Oklahoma Office of Educational Quality and Accountability for an $8 million initiative called Bridge the Gap Digital Wallet, which was to provide up to 5,000 low-income Oklahoma families with $1,500 grants to purchase materials for students ahead of the 2020-21 school year, and a $10 million private school voucher program for low-income students called the Stay in School Fund.

$12 million to the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board for the Learn Anywhere Oklahoma initiative to provide statewide access to digital content for both core classes and advanced coursework to students in kindergarten through grade 12.

$1 million to Tri-County Tech for the Skills to Rebuild initiative, which paid for tuition for fast-track coursework for 375 students in training programs for in-demand jobs such as those in health care. Tri-County Tech serves students in Washington, Nowata, and Osage counties.

For Bridge the Gap Digital Wallet, Oklahoma leaders awarded a no-bid contract to a Florida company called ClassWallet to administer the program and send out grants to families.

The audit states that Walters declined to use a control that ClassWallet offered that would have limited the items available for purchase to only those it had preapproved as education-related.

The report says Walters told auditors he did not use the control option because it would have limited families choices of retailers.

The decision to not take advantage of the digital wallet systems pre-approved purchases option resulted in grant recipients (families) using Bridge the Gap GEER grant funds to purchase items that were not education-related, the report states.

The report also notes that while Walters was not secretary of education when the program launched and the contract for administering it was signed, he was involved in the process as executive director of Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, a position he still holds.

The auditors did not buy Walters and the Stitt administrations assertion that ClassWallet is to blame for any failures.

Oklahomas statement that any deficiencies relating to the Bridge the Gap initiative are wholly attributable to ClassWallet is not in line with Federal laws and regulations that require Oklahoma, as the recipient of the GEER grant funds, to ensure that its grant funds are used properly, the report says.

The purpose of Stay in School private school vouchers was to offer up to $6,500 for low-income families of nonprofit private school students who had faced hardship or changes in income because of the coronavirus pandemic.

A press release from the Governors Office in January praised the program for having exceeded expectations, with 1,893 children receiving private school tuition assistance at an average cost of $5,132 each.

But when federal inspectors checked a small sample of 10 of those students, they were unable to find eligibility documentation for eight of those 10. The report does not say the recipients werent eligible, only that the contractor did not maintain records verifying eligibility.

The Office of Inspector General recommends that Oklahoma review 100% of the Stay in School recipients to confirm eligibility for the private school vouchers.

Additionally, the OIG has called for Oklahoma to return any unspent GEER funds currently held by grant subrecipients and develop and implement policies requiring fiscal agents for federally funded grant programs (to be) aware of and understand the rules and regulations for the grant programs theyre overseeing.

The report also states: OIG recommends authorizing the (U.S.) Assistant Secretary for the Office of Elementary & Secondary Education to take additional action if the state does not provide documentation or answers that show it followed all requirements.

Stitts office continued to blame contractors.

It has been made apparent through demand letters that if it is determined that a vendor failed to ensure funds were properly utilized or that any individual misused funds received for educational purposes, the state will take swift and appropriate action, Vesper said.

Randy Krehbiel contributed to this story.

Featured video: Majority of Oklahomans not taking advantage of internet discount offered by federal government
In the first half of 2022, the prices of building materials such as steel, cement, asphalt, sand, and stones skyrocketed, slowing down the disbursement of public investment and worrying many investors and contractors involved in large-scale infrastructure projects in Vietnam.

The prices of several materials will continue to increase sharply for the rest of the year, according to a recent report on building material prices and the real estate market in the first six months of the year sent to the steering committee for price management by the Ministry of Construction.

Many property developers, contractors, investors, and economic experts said that it was necessary to quickly adopt appropriate solutions to control the hike in building material prices and deal with price escalation to ensure the progress of public investment projects, especially the big-ticket North-South expressway.

Hesitant to get involved in projects

Tran Anh Tu, general director of Vietnam Infrastructure Development and Finance Investment JSC (Vidifi), which is a major traffic infrastructure developer in northern Vietnam, said that the ongoing price volatility is discouraging investors and contractors from getting involved in infrastructure projects.

To ensure the progress of the projects underway, a suitable mechanism for price adjustment should be applied, Tu said, adding that the mechanism must be issued as soon as possible.

Besides, investors should make life easier for contractors, including increasing advance limits, to remove difficulties over costs.

Ho Dinh Chung, general director of Deo Ca Group, the investor of the Cam Lam-Vinh Hao expressway project, part of the North-South expressway, said that most investors of infrastructure projects clearly saw the risks before executing them.

However, they failed to take building material price fluctuations into account.

Construction agreements signed between private investors and state agencies stipulate cost adjustment for price volatility, but in reality, it takes a long time for such adjustment.

The group proposed the Ministry of Transport suggest the government remove these obstacles.

Unless the governments support for price adjustment is given, investors and contractors will gradually withdraw from projects or plunge into failure, Chung said.

Building materials now get scarcer and more costly.

As such, apart from efforts from investors and contractors, support from the national government and related ministries is needed, said Chung.

The increasing prices of building materials severely affect public investment projects in Vietnam. This picture shows the construction of the Cam Lo-La Son expressway, which links Quang Tri Province and Thua Thien - Hue Province. Photo: Phuoc Tuan / Tuoi Tre

Construction firms nationwide are running into trouble due to skyrocketing building material prices, according to Le Viet Hai, chairman of Hoa Binh Construction Group

To reduce its impact, they have had to negotiate with project investors for price compensation and with material suppliers on price revision.

These enterprises must also cut their profits to make up for losses caused by price volatility.

Timely price escalation compensation

As of June 30, Vietnam had disbursed over VND151 trillion (US$6.4 million) worth of public investment capital, reaching 27.86 percent of the target set by the prime minister, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The ministry attributed the slow disbursement to surging prices of construction materials and a shortage of laborers after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Vu Dinh Anh, former deputy head of the Price Market Research Institute under the Ministry of Finance, said that the progress of public investment projects should be put first so it is vital to use the contingency budget to offset cost increases in the first six months of the year.

In addition, to prevent projects from being delayed, it is urgent to add conditions on price escalation compensation to the execution agreements.

An investor of build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects in central Vietnam affirmed that if price increases are not controlled promptly, a series of large-scale infrastructure projects will lag behind schedule.

To minimize the number of stalled projects, Hoa Binh chairman Hai proposed the government weigh providing construction firms involved in projects funded by the state budget with price escalation compensation.

Conditions on price escalation should be added to new construction agreements amid current fluctuations.

Le Quoc Hiep, chairman of the Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors, said that given the building material price volatility seen since 2021, the association has repeatedly called for support from relevant ministries and departments, but in vain.

Hiep also put forward some solutions for ensuring the progress of public investment capital disbursement amid soaring prices, including requiring cities and provinces to update and detail construction material rates and lowering taxes and fees on building materials.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Construction should closely manage prices and change outdated unit pricing.

Building material prices expected to rise in H2 The prices of construction materials such as steel, cement, asphalt, sand, and stones will continue to spiral up for the rest of 2022 due to soaring prices of imported materials and high local costs of material exploitation and production. There will be high demand for building materials and construction in the final months of the year, according to the Ministry of Construction.

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The Stimson Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan U.S.-based think tank, recently presented evidence that the water levels in the Mekong River were about 1.4 meters higher than the average at the start of the rainy season, which poses a high risk of natural disasters to the ecology and livelihood of millions of people.

At a webinar, titled 'Wheres the Water: Mekong Dry Season' and organized by the Stimson Center last month, experts cited data showing that the Mekong Delta has experienced higher rainfall levels than the average in recent dry seasons.

One reason for the increased water level is that in the upper part of the river in the Tibetan plateau, the melting snow added a large volume of water to the Mekong River in the wake of the high temperature in April.

From April 25 to May 1, China's two largest hydroelectric dams, Noa Zhuodu and Xiaowan, released an estimated 3.7 billion cubic meters of water, equivalent to nearly 10 percent of the total water of the 45 largest dams, and caused the downstream water level to rise.

In May, the Mekong River received about six billion cubic meters of water from hydroelectric dams, most coming from China.

The water volume flowing on the river in May this year was 22.8 billion cubic meters, nine billion cubic meters higher than the average.

May also recorded the second-highest water level in the Mekong River since 1910.

According to experts, high water levels in the dry season will continue to cause adverse impacts on downstream rivers, including those in the Mekong Delta region in Vietnam.

Unnatural releases from dams upstream have entirely altered the natural flow of the river.

Due to that change, the Stung Treng Ramsar site in Cambodia, once being submerged for a few months a year during the annual flood season, is inundated almost all year round.

Ian Baird, from the geography department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said locals in Stung Treng Province told him that 95 percent of the small shrubs of the Stung Treng Ramsar site near the river had died due to the water encroachment.

For larger trees which serve as habitats for bird and fish species in northern Cambodia, the mortality rate is close to 50 percent.

It has severe consequences for the birds that nest in the trees and affect the catfish -- a fish species that eats leaves and fruits dropped from trees during the rainy season.

Baird said there was no doubt that the higher dry season river level in Stung Treng is the consequence of the discharge of water from the hydroelectric dam.

He suggested that water discharge should be reduced during the dry season to limit the impact on the ecosystem.

Otherwise, the already negative influence will worsen.

The impact of hydropower dams on the Mekong Delta

Responding to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper about the impact of hydropower dams releasing water in the dry season on the Mekong River, Nguyen Huu Thien, an independent researcher on ecology in the Mekong Delta, said that the dams on the Mekong River section in China and neighboring countries, such as Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, are designed to stock floodwater for electricity generation in the dry season.

There are three possible scenarios related to the water retention and discharge of these dams.

The most common scenario is that the dams will hold some of the floodwater and store it in reservoirs for power generation in the dry season during the normal years with sufficient rainfall.

This lowers the flood peak of that year and increases the dry season run-off the following year.

The amount of water in the dry season can reduce drought and salinity in the Mekong Delta and it can be seen as having positive impacts.

In the second case, the chain of dams on the Mekong River can delay the time the Mekong Delta receives water in a dry year with water shortage.

Therefore, with severe drought and salinity, people will either have to abandon their crops or change their farming schedule.

In the third case, the dams will release water to relieve the pressure on their reservoirs in high flood years.

The water from the dams will add to the natural floodwater and together, they cause severe flooding downstream with extremely unpredictable impacts.

According to Thien, the dams on the river can bring about many consequences.

The accumulation of water during the rainy season slows the river pulse and weakens flood flows.

Weak floods are not able to load sand and sediment onto the Mekong Delta, which can result in riverbank and coastal erosion.

In addition, the abnormal discharge of water from hydroelectric dams also sends false signals to the river, disturbing the ecosystem.

When the dams suddenly release water in the dry season, some aquatic species might misunderstand the signal of the river, thinking it is time to spawn and migrate.

After spawning, the small fish cannot survive because the environment for them to grow is not there.

Then in the real flood season, shrimp and fish no longer reproduce.

Saving the Mekong Delta

The U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City on June 28 held a seminar on solutions to protect the Mekong River with the participation of American and Vietnamese experts.

Dr. Van Pham Dang Tri, director of the Institute of Climate Change Research of Can Tho University in southern Vietnam, pointed out that the Mekong Delta region is facing serious challenges, including anthropogenic impacts such as biodiversity loss, pollution, subsidence, and more.

The Mekong Delta region is also affected by upstream water extraction, sea level rise, and climate change.

Tri said that to support the prosperous and sustainable development of the delta, more guidance from the Vietnamese government is needed.

Some guidance already exists and is reflected in Resolution 120 on the sustainable and climate-resilient development of the Mekong Delta and other specific governmental activities.

To better address the challenges of the delta, scientists need to engage with fundamental research.

It is important that the researchs recommendations are communicated, disseminated, and applied locally, Tri emphasized.

He said Can Tho University's current practice is to sign cooperation agreements with localities and invite businesses to join in supporting local development.

Issues such as land subsidence and sand mining are causing serious impacts on the Mekong Delta so, according to Tri, they should be discussed widely with the participation of relevant departments, agencies, and people to come up with practical and appropriate solutions.

For example, groundwater extraction has been identified as the major cause of land subsidence in the Mekong Delta but we cant simply ask the people to stop extracting it as in some areas, fresh water is not available, he said.

Matthew E. Anderson, a biological scientist of the U.S. Geological Survey, agreed with Tri's comments and cited some preliminary data from a study about the impact of climate change on the groundwater accessibility of local communities in the Mekong River basin.

Depending on the economic characteristics of the locality -- such as cultivation or animal husbandry -- the need for groundwater is varied, Anderson said.

The level of vulnerability and adaptability of people to groundwater depends on many factors, including education level and support from social organizations and departments.

In Vietnam and Cambodia, people's ability to adapt and change is generally low.

At the seminar, experts all agreed that solutions for the Mekong River must be multi-sectoral, multilateral, among countries and domestic organizations, regionally and internationally, in addition to bilateral solutions.

Brian Eyler, Southeast Asia program director of the Stimson Center, said that transparency and information exchange are part of the solutions.

China should share data with downstream countries from its numerous monitoring stations and reservoirs upstream, something Beijing should have done three decades ago given the fragile ecology of the downstream Mekong, ever-increasing drought, and the tens of millions of people who rely on the river to survive.

China should have a clear notice to downstream countries before it releases water so that downstream communities can prepare for it.

According to Eyler, downstream countries also need to have their own early warning systems, monitoring the water level at the gauge to give early warnings to people.

Currently, the Mekong Dam Monitor, the near-real time tracking of dam operations and river flows, provides unique insights into the changes that dams have created to the Mekong Rivers natural flow.

It has data to warn of water increasing 24 hours in advance.

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Indonesia's Constitutional Court on Wednesday rejected a judicial review of the country's narcotics law that would have paved the way for legalising marijuana for medicinal use.

Three mothers of children with cerebral palsy backed by civil society organisations filed a judicial review of the country's strict narcotics law in 2020, arguing for the use of medicinal marijuana to treat symptoms.

The judges said there was insufficient research to justify a ruling in favour of the plaintiffs, but urged the government to "immediately" conduct research on the therapeutic usage of narcotics.

"The court needs to emphasise that the government [should] immediately follow up  The results of which can be used to determine policies, including in this case the possibility of changing the law," said judge Suhartoyo, who like many Indonesians uses one name only.

Decriminalisation of cannabis would be a dramatic shift for the Southeast Asian nation, which has one of the world's strictest anti-drug laws with penalties for possession or trafficking of large quantities of narcotics including life imprisonment and death.

The plaintiffs had argued that not being allowed to use narcotics for medical reasons was a constitutional violation of citizens' rights to obtain health services and benefit from the development of science and technology.

"The Constitutional Court has only shifted the responsibility to the government by asking the government to immediately conduct research," said Yosua Octavian, from the Legal Aid Institute, a civil society group involved in the case.

"The point has been rejected  So people who use marijuana for health reasons in Indonesia will continue to be punished."

The issue gained traction after a video of a campaigner went viral after being posted on social media.

Standing in downtown Jakarta, Santi Warastuti, one of the plaintiffs whose 13-year-old daughter has cerebral palsy, held a placard that read: "Help, my child needs medical marijuana."

In a briefing after the ruling, the 43-year-old mother urged the government to provide other solutions.

"Research to turn [medical marijuana] into therapeutics will take a while, whereas we as parents of children with special needs are racing against time," she said.

She told Reuters last week that her daughter, who first exhibited seizures when she was four years old, was a teenager with a "big heart" who had once been an active child but now struggles with frequent seizures.

Indonesia's parliament has said it would undertake a comprehensive study on the benefits of medical marijuana.

Any moves to legalise would follow Thailand, which became the first country in the region to green-light medical marijuana in 2018, and cannabis cultivation and consumption this year.
Portugal has reported more than 1,000 deaths due to the current heat wave, with the health chief warning on Tuesday that the country must gear up to cope with the effects of climate change as temperatures continue to rise.

"Portugal ... is among one of the areas of the globe that could be (more) affected by extreme heat," Graca Freitas, head of health authority DGS, told Reuters. "We have to be more and more prepared for periods of high temperatures."

Temperatures across drought-stricken Portugal surpassed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) last week. Although they have dropped in the last few days, Freitas said they remained above normal levels for this time of the year.

DGS previously reported 238 excess deaths due to the heat wave from July 7 to 13, but Freitas said the number of fatalities has now increased to 1,063 for the period up to July 18.

High temperatures, the ongoing drought and poor forest management have been blamed for several wildfires sweeping across Portugal. Firefighters also are combating blazes in other southern European nations, including in Spain.

Carlos Antunes, a researcher at Lisbon University's faculty of sciences, said in an interview that the data showed those most likely to die due to heat waves were elderly people.

He said the number of deaths in the future will depend, among other things, on the preventive measures people adopt to protect themselves, how care homes tend to their residents and the adaptation of infrastructures.

"With climate change, it is expected that this increase in mortality will intensify and therefore we have to take measures at the public health level to minimise the impact," Antunes said.
A heatwave fuelling ferocious wildfires in Europe pushed temperatures in Britain over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time on Tuesday after regional heat records tumbled in France.

After the UK's warmest night on record, the Met Office said 40.2C had been provisionally recorded by lunchtime at Heathrow Airport, in west London, taking the country into uncharted territory.

Britain's previous all-time temperature record of 38.7C, set in Cambridge in eastern England in 2019, had already been smashed earlier Tuesday.

Experts blame climate change for the latest heatwave and warn worse is in store in years to come.

A heatwave fuelling ferocious wildfires in Europe pushed temperatures in Britain over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Photo: AFP

"Climate change driven by greenhouse gases has made these extreme temperatures possible and we're actually seeing that possibility now," said Stephen Belcher, the Met Office's head of science and technology.

"These extremes will get more extreme," he added.

The high temperatures have triggered an unprecedented red alert in much of England, where some rail lines were closed as a precaution and schools shuttered in some areas.

Grassland fires erupted on the edge of London, threatening nearby houses.

Meanwhile, all trains were cancelled from usually busy Kings Cross station, leaving many travellers stranded.

The high temperatures have triggered an unprecedented red alert in much of England, where some rail lines were closed as a precaution and schools shuttered in some areas. Photo: AFP

Runways melting

"It's a little frustrating," said US tourist Deborah Byrne, trying to reach Scotland.

But with road surfaces and runways melting and fears of rails buckling, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps conceded much of Britain's infrastructure "is just not built for this temperature".

Tim Wainwright, chief executive of the charity WaterAid, said it served as "the wake-up call the world needs to stop climate change from claiming any more lives".

In France, 64 different areas registered record high temperatures on Monday, the national weather service confirmed, most of them along the western Atlantic coast where temperatures also soared above 40C.

But the all-time high for mainland France, set in 2019 near Montpellier, of 46C did not appear under threat this week.

The heatwave -- the second to engulf parts of Europe in recent weeks -- has contributed to deadly wildfires in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain, destroying vast tracts of land.

Firefighters in France's southwest were still struggling to contain two massive fires that have caused widespread destruction and forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes.

Nearly 1,700 firefighters from all over the country, supported by significant air resources, are battling the two blazes that have so far burned more than 19,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of forest.

'Heartbreaking'

"It's heartbreaking," said Patrick Davet, mayor of La Teste-de-Buch, the site of one inferno which has prompted mass evacuations.

"Economically, it's going to be very difficult for them and very difficult for the town because we are a tourist town, and we need the (tourist) season."

In Brittany's Finistere region, hundreds of firefighters, specialised vehicles and waterbombing aircraft were tackling blazes.

In Spain -- nearly 10 days into the latest heatwave -- more than a dozen fires continued to rage Tuesday, including in the northwest province of Zamora, which already experienced a huge fire last month.

Known as one of the largest wolf reserves in Europe, it saw nearly 30,000 hectares of land reduced to ashes during the June blaze.

Nearly 6,000 people had to be evacuated from there this week after flames destroyed several thousand hectares of meadows and forests, regional authorities said.

Rail traffic between Madrid and Galicia, in the northwest, remained suspended after fires on either side of the tracks.

Several people have died in recent days due to the blazes while separately, an office worker in his 50s died from heatstroke in Madrid.

In Portugal, more than 1,400 firefighters were fighting fires in the centre and north of the country, despite a clear drop in temperatures in recent days.

A couple in their 70s died Monday after they ran off the road while trying to escape the flames in their car.

Wildfires in Portugal had already killed two other people, injured around 60 and destroyed between 12,000 and 15,000 hectares of land. Photo: AFP

'Major losses'

Wildfires in Portugal had already killed two other people, injured around 60 and destroyed between 12,000 and 15,000 hectares of land.

Elsewhere, temperatures could exceed 40C in Belgium near the French border, prompting the Royal Meteorological Institute to issue its highest alert level.

Big state-run museums, primarily in Brussels, took the unusual step of offering free access Tuesday to over-65s to help them stay cool.

In Germany, temperatures were expected to reach up to 40C in the west.

In Germany, temperatures were expected to reach up to 40C in the west. Photo: AFP

On Monday, two firefighters were injured while beating back a forest fire in a mountainous area in Saxony state.

The hot summer so far has raised fears of drought, with the German Farmers' Association president warning of "major losses" in food production.

Henning Christ, who grows wheat and other crops in Brandenburg state, told AFP his farm was 20 percent below its average annual yield.

"We've had almost no rain for months, coupled with high temperatures," he said.

"We have become used to drought and dry periods to some extent, but this year has been very unusual."
Read what is in the news today:

COVID-19 Updates

-- The Ministry of Health reported 1,085 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, raising the national caseload to 10,762,532.

Society

-- Rains are in the forecast for the entirety of Vietnam on Wednesday, according to the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.

-- The administration of Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City has suspended a security screening officer for failing to detect a case where a passenger brought a knife in her carry-on luggage onto a plane.

-- The driver of a passenger bus fell asleep and let the vehicle crash into a tank truck parked on the side of National Highway 1, causing one fatality and leaving 17 people injured in Hoang Mai Town, north-central Nghe An Province on Tuesday.

-- Households that do not classify their domestic solid waste will be fined from VND500,000 (US$21.3) to VND1 million ($42.7) as per a new regulation that will take effect on August 25.

-- The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has probed into a video capturing a man filming a woman who was dancing on the apron at Van Don International Airport in northern Quang Ninh Province.

Business

-- An additional 3,422 digital firms were established in the first six months of 2022, bringing the total number of such companies in Vietnam to 67,300, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications

Lifestyle

-- Ho Chi Minh City is the most favorite destination of Vietnamese tourists during this years summer holiday, according to data from digital travel platform Agoda.

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A high-ranking delegation led by Ho Chi Minh City chairman Phan Van Mai is on a week-long business trip to the United States, during which the officials are scheduled to meet businesses and organizations to promote bilateral cooperation.

During the trip from July 18 to 25, the high-ranking officials from the southern Vietnamese metropolis will convene meetings with economic and financial organizations, the business community, and young intellectuals, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Press Center.

On Monday (U.S. time), the delegation met the Bank of America (BofA)  the second-largest banking institution in the U.S. and one of the world's leading asset management companies.

Chairman Mai expressed his impression with the development of BofA and invited the institution to contribute to the development of Ho Chi Minh City.

The city has the advantage in terms of political and macroeconomic stability, the official said, adding that it accounts for a quarter of Vietnams GDP and is considered the economic locomotive of the country.

Ho Chi Minh City wants to learn from BofA's experience to take reasonable steps in building an international financial center, Mai stated.

The chairman called for investment into the city in the fields of finance, hi-tech industry, digital transformation, infrastructure, education, and healthcare.

Madhu Kannan, BofAs executive vice-chair of global corporate and investment banking, said that the bank is operating in certain fields that are compatible with the development plan of Ho Chi Minh City.

Kannan expressed his intention to carry out more in-depth working sessions on the topics that the Vietnamese city is concerned about.

The BofA is applying to open its branch in Ho Chi Minh City with an investment capital of US$50 million, he continued, hoping that city leaders will provide favorable conditions for this process.

On the same day, chairman Mai and his delegation had working sessions with global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, architecture, planning, landscape, and design firm Sasaki, and global investment company KKR.

They also made a visit to the Vietnamese delegation to the United Nations, during which chairman Mai expressed his hope that the delegation will assist the city in forming connection and cooperation with businesses in the U.S..

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Speaker:







Li Kuiwen, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China (GACC) and director general of the GACC's Department of Statistics & Analysis





Chairperson:

Shou Xiaoli, deputy director general of the Press Bureau of the State Council Information Office (SCIO) and spokesperson of the SCIO





Date:

July 13, 2022

Shou Xiaoli:

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to this press conference held by the SCIO. This is a routine press conference on China's annual economic standing. Today, we are delighted to be joined by Mr. Li Kuiwen, spokesperson of the GACC and director of the GACC's Department of Statistics & Analysis, who will introduce China's import and export performance in the first half of 2022 and answer your questions.

We will first invite Mr. Li Kuiwen to give a brief introduction.

Li Kuiwen:

Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media, good morning. It's a great pleasure to meet with you at today's press conference. I'll begin by introducing China's import and export performance in the first half of 2022, and then answer your questions.

In the first half of 2022, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, China has efficiently contained the pandemic while ensuring socioeconomic development. China has strived to maintain stable macroeconomic performance and achieved steady growth in foreign trade. According to statistics from the GACC, China's foreign trade volume in goods in the first half of 2022 jumped 9.4% year on year to 19.8 trillion yuan. Exports grew by 13.2% to 11.14 trillion yuan, and imports increased by 4.8% to 8.66 trillion yuan. Specifically, there were five main features which I will now outline.

First, foreign trade growth in May and June picked up significantly. As the epidemic prevention and control situation improves and pro-growth policies are taking effect, foreign trade enterprises have resumed work and production in an orderly manner since May. In particular, the rapid recovery of imports and exports in the Yangtze River Delta region led to a marked rebound in the overall growth of China's foreign trade. China's foreign trade volume in goods in May was up by 9.5% year on year, 9.4 percentage points higher than in April, and further increased by 14.3% in June.

Second, the proportion of general trade continued to increase. In the first half of 2022, China's general trade rose by 13.1% to 12.71 trillion yuan, accounting for 64.2% of China's total foreign trade volume, 2.1 percentage points higher than the same period last year. Exports increased by 19% to 7.16 trillion yuan, and imports grew by 6.5% to 5.55 trillion yuan. During the same period, processing trade rose by 3.2% to 4.02 trillion yuan.

Third, imports and exports with major trading partners kept growing. In the first half of 2022, China's trade with ASEAN, the EU and the United States reached 2.95 trillion yuan, 2.71 trillion yuan and 2.47 trillion yuan, up by 10.6%, 7.5% and 11.7%, respectively. During the same period, trade with countries along the Belt and Road and RCEP trading partners grew by 17.8% and 5.6%.

Fourth, foreign trade entities have been further thriving. In the first half of 2022, there were 506,000 foreign trade enterprises in China involved in exports and imports, an increase of 5.5% year on year. The number of private enterprises in China rose by 6.9% to 425,000 with imports and exports increasing by 13.6% to 9.82 trillion yuan, accounting for 49.6% of the country's total, 1.9 percentage points higher than the same period last year. In the same period, imports and exports of foreign-invested enterprises reached 6.75 trillion yuan, up by 2.1%. State-owned enterprises achieved 3.2 trillion yuan in imports and exports, up by 15.2%.

Fifth, imports and exports of major products enjoyed steady growth. In the first half of 2022, China's imports and exports of mechanical and electrical products grew by 4.2% to 9.72 trillion yuan, making up 49.1% of China's total foreign trade. Imports and exports of agricultural products grew by 9.3% to 1.04 trillion yuan, accounting for 5.2% of China's total. Exports of labor-intensive products grew by 13.5% to 1.99 trillion yuan, making up 17.8% of China's total exports. Imports of energy products including crude oil, natural gas and coal were up by 53.1% to 1.48 trillion yuan, accounting for 17.1% of China's total imports.

In general, China's foreign trade showed strong resilience in the first half of the year. The first quarter got off to a relatively good start. In May and June, the downward trend of growth in April was quickly reversed, laying a solid foundation for the stability and improvement of foreign trade throughout the year. At present, as the COVID-19 situation and international environment have become more severe and complex, China's foreign trade is still facing some instability and uncertainty and a lot of pressure to maintain stability and improve quality. However, it should also be noted that the fundamentals of China's economy  its strong resilience, huge potential and long-term sustainability  remain unchanged. With the implementation of a package of policies and measures to stabilize the economy, and the orderly resumption of work, China's foreign trade is expected to continue maintaining steady growth.

Next, we will adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and the plenary sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee, and conscientiously implement the important guidelines made by General Secretary Xi Jinping that, "we must contain the epidemic, stabilize the economy and keep development secure." We will efficiently coordinate epidemic prevention and control measures with socioeconomic development, resolutely implement the various deployments of the national video and telephone conference on stabilizing the economy, focus on "guarding the country's borders and promoting development," strengthen supervision and optimize services, and strive to promote the stability and improvement of foreign trade. These efforts will enable us to pave the way for a successful 20th CPC National Congress.

Now, I would be happy to answer your questions.

Shou Xiaoli:

Now the floor is open for questions. Please identify the media outlet you represent before raising questions.
A South Korean man who led one of the biggest drug rackets in Southeast Asia, with over US$5 million worth of transactions, was extradited to his homeland on Tuesday after his arrest in Vietnam two days earlier, South Korean police reported.

The drug baron, only identified by his surname Kim, arrived at South Koreas Incheon airport on Tuesday, after his extradition from Vietnam, Yonhap News Agency cited the South Korean National Police Agency (NPA) report.

Kim, 47, who was detained in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday, had been the subject of an Interpol red notice for supplying illegal substances, such as methamphetamine, through Telegram since 2018.

Kims arrest resulted from the coordination between the two countries police forces over the past three years, according to Yonhap.

This is a great example of consistent policing cooperation with Vietnamese authorities to arrest the person in charge of one of the biggest drug trafficking rings based in Southeast Asia, said Kang Ki-taek, director of Interpol and International Investigative Assistance Division at the NPA.

Kim was one of three major drug kingpins in Southeast Asia, Yonhap said, adding that the NPA previously arrested two others in Cambodia and the Philippines.

The NPA alleges that Kim trafficked illegal drugs worth around $5.3 million and led a ring with nearly 20 suppliers across the country.

The total amount earned from drug sales is expected to be higher when thorough investigations are concluded by the NPA after Kims extradition.

The drug lord was also allegedly involved in supplying drugs to the two other kingpins before their arrest, according to the NPA.

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The administration of Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City has suspended a security screening officer for failing to detect a case where a passenger brought a knife in her carry-on baggage onto a plane this week.

The results of the investigation into the case showed that the woman and her companion were walking through the No. 9 security checkpoint at the A Hall of the domestic terminal at the airport with three carry-on bags at around 6:30 am on Monday.

They were to board flight VN208 from the southern metropolis to Hanoi.

Through a scanner monitor, which was later confirmed to be operating correctly at that time, the airport security screening officer on duty at the No. 9 checkpoint saw that there were several metal objects, including cellphones and a wristwatch, in the hand baggage of the two passengers.

Although those objects overlapped one another, the officer, who was determined to have normal health and a valid professional certificate, did not request the passengers to take out each item for a visual check and allowed them to go ahead.

As a result, the woman was able to bring a knife in her carry-on baggage onto the plane and used it to peel fruit during flight VN208.

Another passenger on the flight discovered the womans act and reported it to a flight attendant, who gave her a warning, temporarily seized the knife from her, and made a report of the incident.

The management board of Tan Son Nhat International Airport determined that the failure to detect such a dangerous item, which stemmed from a personal mistake of skipping the security screening process, posed a threat to aviation safety.

Therefore, the security screening officer in question has been temporarily suspended, according to the Southern Airport Authority.

As per current regulations, knives are on the list of dangerous items prohibited from being brought into the airports restricted areas and an aircraft cabin.

These items must be placed in checked baggage.

Before boarding, passengers must complete a strict security control process at the airport terminal, including presenting identification documents, undergoing security screening and a visual search if needed.

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Ho Chi Minh City is the most popular destination for Vietnamese tourists during this years summer holiday, according to data from digital travel platform Agoda.

Agoda came up with this ranking after analyzing bookings from its customers made from May through August.

The central coastal city of Da Nang followed Ho Chi Minh City in second place and Hanoi is in third.

Vung Tau City in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, Da Lat City in Lam Dong Province, Nha Trang City in south-central Khanh Hoa Province, Phu Quoc City off southern Kien Giang Province, Ha Long City in northern Quang Ninh Province, Hoi An City in central Quang Nam Province, and Phan Thiet City in south-central Binh Thuan Province round off the top ten list, respectively.

The Ho Chi Minh City tourism departments director Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa recently commented that the southern metropolis is not only a market providing visitors to destinations across Vietnam, but has also become an attractive tourism area with a diversity of travel activities for tourists.

Many 4-5 star hotels in the city reported an increase in room occupancy to 85-90 percent during this summer holiday, according to the municipal tourism department.

For overseas travel, Vietnamese tourists tend to choose to explore Thailand, Singapore, France, South Korea, and Indonesia this summer, according to Agodas report.

Regarding international arrivals, most foreign visitors to Vietnam in the first six months of this year are South Korean nationals.

Out of 602,000 international arrivals to Vietnam during the January-June period, 107,900 are South Korean tourists, marking a jump of 487.8 percent over the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office.

Omri Morgenshtern, CEO of Agoda, said the desire to return to previous favorite destinations is common this summer.

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A crew member for Law & Order: Organized Crime was shot and killed early on Tuesday in New York.

We were terribly saddened and shocked to hear that one of our crew members was the victim of a crime early this morning and has died as a result, NBC and studio Universal Television said in a joint statement. We are working with local law enforcement as they continue to investigate. Our hearts go out to his family and friends and we ask that you respect their privacy during this time.

Variety reports the crew member was a 31 year old male named Johnny Pizarro who was sitting in his car at approximately 5:15am in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Greenpoint when an unknown person approached the car, opened the door, and opened fire. He was transported to Woodhull Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Pizarro was employed by a private company, contracted by the production. It is unclear if the killer knew the victim or motive.

Production was cancelled for the day while police officers moved in and out of the scene

City Hall Press Secretary Fabien Levy said in a statement, The safety of all New Yorkers is our top priority. No shooting is acceptable, which is why we are working every day to get illegal guns off New York City streets, the statement read. The NYPD is actively investigating the fatal shooting of a crew member of Law and Order: Organized Crime early this morning. We offer our deepest condolences to the victims family, friends, and coworkers during this difficult time, and will work diligently to bring the suspect to justice and stem the tide of gun violence we are seeing.

Law & Order: Organized Crime screens in Australia on Nine.

Source: Variety
It was only fitting for Mystery Road: Origin that in addition to the lead role of Jay Swan, originally played by Aaron Pedersen, being handed to Mark Coles Smith that the creative was also given over to the new breed of First Nations storytellers.

Enter 29 year old director Dylan River, son of Warwick Thornton, who had already shown his talent with acclaimed SBS digital series Robbie Hood. In addition to being cinematographer on Thorntons solo series The Beach, River was also 2nd Unit Camera on Mystery Road and Sweet Country.

He recognises that Bunya Productions took a leap of faith in asking him to direct all of Mystery Road: Origin.

The fact that they wanted me to do all the eps was the real winner for me, he tells TV Tonight.

TV hasnt been my ambition

Because TV hasnt been my ambition. I havent done a block (of episodes) which is the traditional way to do it. I dont really even know how it works. So when they asked me to do the whole lot, I could kind of own it.

L-R: Mark Coles Smith, Hayley McElhinney & Director Dylan River

Obviously, theres lots of amazingly talented directors out there. But I think for a show of this scale, it is really about not being a liability. Its being able to finish it on time, on budget. The second thing is Can you do it well? I think Ive proved to them in the past that I can shoot and keep on schedule. (Producer) Greer Simpkin, especially, likes what I do.

Who do you really want to work with?

Handing over duties for cinematography, a role River usually helms, was another question, but he knew the equally young Tyson Perkins, nephew to Mystery Road director Rachel Perkins, was right for the job.

I did ask some of the great industry professionals, people whose work I respect to do it, but its been a very busy couple of years, and no one who I wanted to work with, was available. So I was asked by Greer, Who do you really want to work with? and I said, I want Tyson to do it he did Robbie Hood. Were both coming up together, hes one of the only cinematographers who I feel pushes my own work.

I knew that we could do it so its great to be able to do it with him.

It was quite a blessing to to get ABCs approval for him, knowing that were two risky young people in these key positions.

Set in 1999, the series stars Mark Coles Smith as a freshly minted police detective at his first posting in a mining town, Jardine, pop. 1000. But he is confronted by a series of robberies by a masked gang, and a historic unsolved crime.

A lot of the mystery is the mystery of Jay

There is a bit of the whodunnit and crime in it. But really, a lot of the mystery is the mystery of Jay and the mystery of family. Theres a lot to do with skeletons in the closet and how relationships unfold, how people intertwine and the drama of that. That was really important for me. A lot of my personal touches on the series have to do with those relationships and the history of Jay, River explains.

Marks really made Jay his own.

Marks really made Jay his own. Hes just done little things that are the traits that Aarons version of Jay has.

Aaron sort of gave us his blessing, especially giving Mark his blessing, but then he let us do our thing.

L-R: Script Supervisor Benedict Paxton-Crick DOP Tyson Perkins & Director Dylan River

The series also features Toby Leonard Moore, Daniel Henshall, Lisa Flanagan, Clarence Ryan, Steve Bisley, Caroline Brazier, Hayley McElhinney, Serene Yunupingu, Kelton Pell, Leonie Whyman, Salme Geransar, Nina Young, Jayden Popik, Grace Chow, with Tuuli Narkle as Jays great love, Mary.

Theres big, grand, amazing buildings in this tiny little town

Fiming took place in Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie doubling as the fictional mining town, Jardine.

It has this sort of grandeur from the gold rush. Its like walking down past Town Hall in Sydney, or something like that. Theres big, grand, amazing buildings in this tiny little town. And its kind of all decaying. So I saw that as very exciting, as potential to talk about Australias past and the colonial history. Set in 1999 we could essentially pull all the modern cars off the street and put our ones in.

A lot of towns in Australia have sort of been done up, with new gutters and streetlights and things like that. Its just those little details that really help us to do it cheaply and efficiently on a TV budget.

River, who is influenced by auteurs such as the Coen Brothers, is winning praise for the finished product of a prized franchise. He doesnt take for granted the opportunity to helm a six part primetime drama at such a young age and where it may lead.

Its a big thing for me. I havent worked with an ensemble cast this big before, or with actors who are as experienced as this. But I learned a lot from them.

Mystery Road: Origin continues 8:30pm Sundays on ABC and iview.
Following TV Tonights scoop yesterday on Kath & Kim now filming at NEP Studios in South Melbourne, now widely reported by media, here is further intel

Stars such as Sonia Kruger and Celia Pacquola are understood to be amongst a parade of celebrities filming this week, but paparazzi are yet to catch any as they exit the building into black SUVs waiting outside.

Producers also managed to get plenty of interior photos of the Patterson Lakes home, before it was demolished, for green screen use in the 20th anniversary special.

Industry sources suggest there will be a hefty price tag associated with the project, which could also be sold to British television.

An Australian broadcaster is yet to be finalised but Seven is mooted as the front runner.

Seven has been contacted for comment.
Why Tom of Finland is a fashion phenomenon By



Chenu Alexis Published

Jul 20, 2022

Last week, the Tom of Finland license unveiled its new collaboration with , the third of its kind. Over the last 10 years, more than 30 brands, from to , Sweden's CDLP or the French Carne Bollente have been associated with the homoerotic imagery created by Finnish artist Touko Valio Laaksonen in the late 1950s. A work that is now distributed in many countries and emblematic of gay and queer culture forever thanks to the Tom of Finland license, owned by the Tom of Finland Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles and dedicated to preserving the work of the artist, the erotic arts in general, and to offering a cultural program and hosting artists in residence. A look back at the phenomenon with Joakim Andreasson, who has been director of the Tom of Finland license since 2014.







Joakim Andreasson, Director of Tom of Finland's licence



FashionNetwork.com: What messages and values does the work of Tom of Finland represent today?



Joakim Andreasson: In the most universal terms, Toms body of work represents tolerance, acceptance, pride, joy and freedom. His imagery has become symbolic of the advancement of gay rights and sexual freedom.

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FNW: The capsule collections signed with fashion brands and houses brought Tom of Finlands imagery to the streets. Who started to buy these pieces ?



JA: The distribution of Tom of Finland designs has evolved in tandem with human rights and increased visibility of the LGBTQ community around the world. Over the past near ten years, we have worked hard to embed Tom of Finlands role in popular culture through commercial partnerships across categories, including fashion, the adult sector, spirits, home textiles and lifestyle merchandise. Most of our collaborations have been released in Europe and North America, but we are also doing projects in Asia, including a ready-to-wear collection with the Thai brand Leisure Projects which will be released on the 22nd of July with a special pop-up at Central Original in Bangkok. The online store, CULTUREEDIT / Tom of Finland Store, established in 2017 with a storefront in Hollywood, has been instrumental in making our collaborations available to a worldwide audience and generate interest from partners to collaborate.



FNW: Tom of Finland brought gay arts into fashion. Does this mean that the subject of sex is more uninhibited today? That it is easier to talk about it, to the point of displaying it?



JA: I think there are multiple levels of sexual expression in fashion  be it through shape and form, attitude and personality or references and imagery. Toms work influenced countless iconic fashion designers including Jean-Paul Gaultier, and to name a few. It's only as of late however that the fashion world has embraced and featured actual Tom of Finland imagery on garments through our official partnerships. It required a few brave fashion voices, including our ongoing relationship with Jonathan Anderson (JW Anderson) and past collaborations with (Nicopanda), Hubert Pierre Pouches (Rufskin), Andreas Palm and Christian Larson (CDLP) and Schiller (Eytys), to break the mold. The acceptance of the display of erotic art on garments is certainly relative to where you live and to how progressive and an area is. Regardless, I think there will still be limits that are not necessarily contingent on the ability to express, but rather contingent on peoples comfort with wearing sex. An example would be the new Tom of Finland x JW Anderson tank top, which features phallic imagery. The beauty of such garments however is that they inspire people to tap into a part of themselves that they otherwise would not through fashion.







Tom of Finland and JW Anderson capsule collection



FNW: Recently Diesel and Happy Hour Skateboards have signed collaborations with you. How do you explain the enthusiasm of mainstream brands for the work of Tom of Finland?



JA: Even within more mainstream brands, it takes brave voices to challenge the status quo and incorporate art that challenges that norm. For Diesel, it was their creative director who spearheaded the partnership, and for Happy Hour Skateboards it was Jarkko Propudas, an openly gay Finnish skateboarder. I think the enthusiasm is multi-faceted, and beyond the appreciation of Toms art and its message, my experience with more mainstream brands is that they choose to work with us to align themselves with the LGBTQ community with a stronger stance  daring to not only have the conversation about love and human rights, but also sex and desire.



FNW : With what direction and philosophy are you directing the Tom of Finland license?



JA: I always try to maintain a mix of high-end and more accessible products, be it a cock ring, a hand-knotted rug or fine fragrance. Together they create a tension that evokes the unexpected. Contrary to other artist estates, we can communicate Tom of Finlands work on multiple levels, including matters of human rights, fashion, art and sex. In Finland, we have realized projects that are communicated more broadly as Tom is considered a national treasure. That said, I mainly credit the continuous lifecycle of our licensing projects to our collaborative nature and openness to exploring ways of interpreting and working with Toms body of work. It is very important that each project has creative integrity and channels not only Tom, but also the voice of the brand we work with.



FNW: How do you choose your collaborations today?



JA: It is a very organic process and dialogue  especially for more creative partnerships in fashion, where it is much more important to be aligned in terms of vision and execution. Some take years to come into fruition, and others a week, so with that said, there is no strategy. Partnerships happen when the gay fashion stars are aligned. Many partnerships are based on my personal relationships and dynamics I established in the near 20 years of working with Mr. Helmut Lang and via brands we carry at CULTUREEDIT / Tom of Finland Store. Collaborating with designers we also sell allows for a more honest conversation that is based on an established relationship that goes beyond the capsule at hand  leading to a more authentic outcome that could only have been achieved with time and regular engagement.







Carne Bollente and Tom of Finland first collaboration



FNW: JW Anderson has just released his third capsule collection with Tom of Finland. What does this collaboration mean to you?



JA: Jonathan Anderson's methodology in incorporating Toms work into the world of JW Anderson is different from others in the sense that he only features works that he acquires for his personal art collection. Collecting art is immensely personal, so this equation in determining imagery becomes much more intimate. And sheds further insight into Jonathans appreciation for Toms work.



FNW: Has fashion's new spotlight on Tom of Finland's work sparked any negative reactions from anti-gay organizations or similar?



JA: Not from organizations or media per se, but if you look at social media comments at times, we are very well aware that there is still a long way to go and that outside of what appears as a queer bubble, there is an immense amount of work to do.



FNW: Finally, Tom of Finland, is it a message of freedom?



JA: Yes, absolutely. And what is more freeing than uninhibited sex?







CDLP and Tom of Finland's collaboration



FNW: What are the next developments for the Tom of Finland license?



JA: We are continuing to develop new partnerships, most notably in Finland in anticipation of an upcoming exhibition there. In fashion we will next see our collection with Honey Fucking Dijon hit stores this fall. In general, I am an advocate of ongoing relationships rather than funneling Toms work through a never-ending list of brands, so I look forward to continuing and furthering those we have in place and look forward to exploring what other facets of Tom work they want to encapsulate. But there will for sure be surprises along the way! And if anyone in the skincare world reads this  call me!


Fueled by the pandemic, the digital economy has grown significantly in the past two years. At Visa, we are continuously listening to and learning from all members of the payments ecosystem. What were hearing is that while online purchases are more seamless than ever before, an opportunistic form of fraud is on the rise: first party misuse (sometimes referred to as friendly fraud, or first party fraud).

When most people think of fraud, they think of stolen account numbers or identity theft, but first party misuse, which can account for up to 75 percent of all chargebacks1, is when a cardholder disputes a legitimate purchase that they intended with their issuer. This includes customers refuting valid purchases such as long-forgotten recurring subscriptions, or children given access to use their parents card to make purchases with parental approval. As none of these purchases are considered unauthorized by the cardholder, the chargebacks negatively impact merchants in both cost and time spent responding to the false claim.

Those ramifications for merchants include losses that can be up to double the original transaction amount and increase a merchants chargeback ratio, which can impact their business and their bottom line.

A recent study by SIFT found that nearly one in five consumers who have filed a chargeback dispute have committed first party fraud by submitting false claims in order to get their money back on legitimate purchases. In fact, according to the NRF, the losses from friendly fraud totals over $25 billion a year2.

At Visa, our goal is to reduce all types of fraud in the ecosystem and were taking action to do so. To relieve the burden of these losses, starting on April 15, 2023, merchants will be able to better fight back against first party misuse with a change to our dispute program developed in partnership with clients, the Merchant Risk Council (MRC) and Merchant Advisory Group (MAG). With this change, if merchants can provide additional data or evidence to show that the disputed charge is valid, then the dispute will be invalid.

Reducing the impacts of first party misuse on small businesses requires industry-wide support, says Julie Fergerson, CEO at MRC. We stand with Visa in their commitment to ensuring the entire ecosystem is taking the right steps against inaccurate chargeback disputes and protecting merchants from bearing the weight of these costs.

Weve seen first-hand how first-party fraud is a financial burden for merchants. The updates Visa is making will help improve protection for small businesses and merchants against friendly fraud, says John Drechny, CEO of the Merchant Advisory Group.

This change will empower merchants to protect themselves against first party misuse by enabling them to submit additional evidence that a purchase was indeed legitimate and authorized by the cardholder in order to stop the dispute claim. Additional examples that can help identify that a purchase is legitimate include a customer using the same payment credential previously at the merchant, login credentials, proof of use of a product and more.

Friendly fraud is not always friendly, especially from a merchants perspective, said Mike Lemberger, Senior Vice President of North America Risk at Visa. At Visa, were evolving our disputes program using technology and insights that help level the playing field for the entire ecosystem. When we give merchants and issuers the tools to take more fraud out of the equation  everyone wins.

Learn more about Visa Security.

1Mercator: Chargebacks: Increases in Credit Card Disputes Threaten Merchant Profitability, Nov 2021

2NRF: $428 Billion in Merchandise Returned in 2020
 Flash

China on Tuesday urged the United States to immediately stop arms sales to Taiwan and faithfully implement its statement of not supporting "Taiwan independence."

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price has reportedly said that according to the "Taiwan Relations Act," the U.S. is obliged to provide necessary national defense articles and services to Taiwan to help the island maintain a sufficient self-defense capability, adding this complies with the one-China policy.

In response, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian reiterated China's firm opposition to the new round of arms sales plan to Taiwan by the United States. "We have lodged stern representations with the U.S. side."

Noting the so-called "Taiwan Relations Act" is a domestic law unilaterally concocted by the United States, Zhao said it severely violates universally acknowledged international laws and basic norms of international relations. He added it runs counter to the one-China principle and provisions in the three China-U.S. joint communiques. "China has never acknowledged and has always opposed such an act."

The United States is in no position at all to swagger with such an act to interfere in China's internal affairs and sell weapons to Taiwan, Zhao added.

The U.S. insistence on arms sales to Taiwan has seriously violated the one-China principle and the provisions in the three China-U.S. joint communiques, emboldened the "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces and intensified tensions across the Taiwan Strait, said Zhao.

"The United States should immediately stop arms sales to and its military contact with Taiwan, cease creating factors leading to tensions in the Taiwan Strait, and faithfully implement the statement of not supporting the 'Taiwan independence' made by its government," Zhao added.

When responding to media reports about U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan to visit Taiwan next month, Zhao said if Pelosi visits Taiwan, it would seriously violate the one-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-U.S. joint communiques and harm China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"China firmly opposes such a visit," Zhao said, adding that China firmly opposes any form of official interaction between the United States and the Taiwan region.

Should the U.S. side insist on doing otherwise, China will take strong and resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the United States must assume full responsibility for any ensuing consequences, Zhao added.
HA NOI  To mark the 60th anniversary of the Peoples Police force a special exhibition has been organised displaying the latest high-tech crime fighting equipment.

It is being held at Ha Noi Museum and also features the many modes of transport used by the various police departments as well as artefacts and documents detailing the history of the force which was established on July 20, 1962.

One of the organisers of the exhibition, Nguyen Bich Van, said as criminals become more sophisticated, the police must evolve to beat them.

She said: Through the exhibition, we want to introduce the proud history of the police forces in the last 60 years to domestic and international visitors as well as our police officers.

We hope that this will help to educate the young generation in police forces to try their best to fulfill the tasks set by the Government and the Party.

There are many forms of crimes in today life, including economic, environmental as well high technology crimes. The equipment and technology that the ministry of public security deploys for police forces have met the requirements for them to fulfil the tasks.

This is just many events organised to mark the occasion.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh spoke at a ceremony where he praised the accomplishments and contributions that the force has made over the past six decades.

He said: During the glorious journey that is also full of hardship, thousands of officers of the force have died or been injured in duty to protect the people. Even when the country is in peace, members of the police force are still shedding blood to protect the peaceful and happy live of the people.

To mark each year since the police were established, 60 outstanding individuals received honours for their dedication and efforts in the line of duty. VNS
News

New Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty Helps Government Customers Meet Requirements

Announced at this week's big Inspire partner event, the new Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty has arrived to help public sector customers meet compliance, security and policy requirements when processing data and workloads in the company's cloud.

Cloud and data sovereignty is an increasingly important concept that especially concerns the government sector, where organizations must adhere to many compliance, security and policy requirements/regulations in their cloud computing initiatives, most prominently around the collection, handling and processing of data.

In helping its public sector/government customers meet those requirements, Microsoft said its new cloud offering will also give them greater control over their data, along with increased transparency to cloud operational and governance processes.

"Governments are obligated to meet specific requirements for varying data classifications including data governance, security controls, privacy of citizens, data residency, sovereign protections and compliant operations following legal regulations like the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)," said Microsoft cloud exec Corey Sanders in a July 19 blog post announcing the new cloud offering at the beginning of the Inspire event. He said the solution will combine the Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty's governance, security, transparency and sovereign technology with strategic partner expertise in order to support the digital transformation efforts of government customers.

The increasing importance of cloud sovereignty was examined in a recent "Cloud Sovereignty: The Road Ahead" report by Capgemini, which pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a contributory factor to the sharpened focus:

Sovereignty has gained a new prominence as a result of the pandemic, which has revealed significant vulnerabilities in complex international supply chains and has emphasized the role of critical data such as health. National governments and businesses have not only questioned the security of physical supply chains, but also where exactly their data is stored in the cloud, and what control they have over service capacity and availability in the event of a burst of demand, or in events of security incidents. Concerns around cloud sovereignty -- including data, operational, and technical issues -- are not new and have been gaining impetus over the past few years. However, it is a subject that is now under increasing scrutiny because of rising geopolitical tensions; changing data and privacy laws in different countries; the dominant role of cloud players concentrated in a few regions; and the lessons learned through the pandemic. As a result, governments and organizations are re-evaluating their external exposure and looking for ways to maintain physical and digital control over strategic assets, including data, algorithms, and critical software.

Capgemini said cloud sovereignty comprises three elements: data sovereignty, operational sovereignty and technical sovereignty:

[Click on image for larger view.] Elements of Cloud Sovereignty (source: Capgemini).

Microsoft, meanwhile, says its cloud for sovereignty provides expertise, governance and transparency, sovereign controls, and data residency.

[Click on image for larger view.] Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty (source: Microsoft).

Data Residency

Data residency, the final item on that list, refers to the physical/geographic location of an organization's data or information. Sanders said data residency policy controls in the new cloud can help customers meet many regulatory requirements and implement policies to ensure that data and applications are contained within their preferred geographic boundaries. Those customers can specify a country or region with the most service deployments that can satisfy industry, national or global security, privacy, and compliance requirements.

A concrete example: "Specifically in Europe, expanding on our data residency commitment, the forthcoming EU Data Boundary will ensure Microsoft not only stores but also processes customer data in the EU and European Free Trade Association."

Sovereign Controls

Sovereign controls will also play a key part, giving customers additional layers to protect and encrypt sensitive data through capabilities across the entire Microsoft Cloud, including infrastructure, platform services and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions such as Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. The new cloud will include a Sovereign Landing Zone to simplify data classification requirements, specifically surrounding the architecture, deployment workflow and provision of intelligent tools to orchestrate operations across various Microsoft security services and policy controls in a streamlined manner.

Partner Expertise

Another important component of the cloud solution will come from the expertise of Microsoft partners, who the company said would play a key role in enabling customer success and delivering on government requirements.

"Public sector customers worldwide are increasingly looking for customized cloud solutions that offer additional choice, flexibility and control," Sanders said. "With the Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, customers will work with in-country partners that have industry and technical experience to help them plan, onboard, govern and operate their cloud environments with capabilities including data residency, confidential computing, document classification and hybrid deployments."

Governance and Transparency

As far as the fourth component of the cloud depicted in the graphic above, governance and transparency, the new cloud will expand the Microsoft Government Security Program (GSP) to critical elements of the cloud offering -- initially with key Azure infrastructure components -- in order to increase cloud transparency.

"The GSP provides participants with the confidential security information and resources they need to trust Microsoft's products and services," Sanders said. "GSP participants currently include over 45 countries and international organizations represented by more than 90 agencies. Eligible participants receive controlled access to source code, engage on technical content about Microsoft's products and services, and have access to five globally distributed Transparency Centers. Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty will also enable audit rights to examine Azure's compliance processes and evidence under non-disclosure agreements and available audit terms."

The Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty is being rolled out in a private preview across select locations, with more details to come.
A federal lawsuit against Coryell County alleging that a female inmate died because of jailers use of excessive force will return to Wacos federal district court after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the case in the plaintiffs favor.

Kelli Leannae Page, 46, a pretrial detainee in the Coryell County Jail, died in custody on October 8, 2017.

Pages parents, John and Susie Fairchild, filed an excessive force lawsuit against the county and two corrections officers in federal district court in Waco in January 2019.

Wacos U.S. District Court found that Pages constitutional rights had not been violated and granted the defendants a summary judgment. The 5th Circuit in New Orleans reversed it July 14, raising concerns about jailers treatment of Page.

Steven Russell Lovelady and Wesley Harland Pelfrey, two jailers on duty the day Page died, entered Pages cell in an attempt to restrain her, Gregg Costa, a circuit judge on the appeals court, wrote in a summary in the three-judge panels reversal opinion.

Page had serious mental health challenges, physical ailments and weighed 220 pounds, Costa wrote. After the struggle with the jailers, Page ended up lying face down on her stomach, with her hands cuffed behind her back, Costa wrote. Lovelady, who weighed 230 pounds, sat on Page with his knee on her back. Pelfrey, weighing 390 pounds, pressed his forearm against her neck, Costa wrote.

After the jailers held her this way for over two minutes, they found her unresponsive, Costa wrote.

They performed CPR until a deputy sheriff relieved them, he wrote. Not long afterward, Page was pronounced dead, he wrote.

Viewing the facts in favor of the plaintiffs would allow a jury to find that the jailers used excessive force, Costa wrote. And the jailers continuing to apply that force for more than two minutes after Page was subdued would violate clearly established law. We thus reverse.

Costa wrote that video evidence appeared to show that the jailers put their weight onto Pages neck, back and legs until she was unresponsive, contrary to the defendants claim that the jailers did not put their weight on her.

Dean Malone, attorney for Pages parents, noted in a statement that Coryell County Jails written policies require a team of at least five when corrections officers attempt to restrain an inmate.

Malone also released some of the medical examiners findings from Pages autopsy.

The report stated in part: Based on the case history and autopsy findings, it is my opinion that Kelli Leanne Page, a 46-year-old female, died as a result of mechanical asphyxia in association with physical restraint.

Heart disease, liver disease and obesity likely contributed to the cause of death, Malone wrote of the medical examiners report.

It is unfortunate that families of those dying in our Texas jails must wait years before seeing jurors judge what happened, Malone wrote in his statement. After 3 years of litigation, we may finally be able to try this case to a Waco jury. Regrettably, Kellis father did not live long enough to see a trial regarding his daughters death.

None of the defendants attorneys returned the Waco Tribune-Heralds phone calls Tuesday.
The McLennan County Sheriffs Office has arrested two Bellmead men in the case of the McGregor teens who were the cause of a July 4 Amber Alert, and a Georgetown man has been re-arrested on human trafficking charges in the case.

Ricardo Chavez-Arriaga, 24, and Justin Anthony Phillips, 33, both of Bellmead, were arrested Monday and charged with harboring a runaway child, a Class A misdemeanor. Chavez-Arriaga was given a bond of $5,000, and Phillips was given a $2,000 bond. Both have since bonded out, McLennan County Jail records show.

McLennan County deputies and Georgetown police on Tuesday arrested the Georgetown suspect, James Robert Vanhouten, 30, on first-degree felony human trafficking charges after a brief standoff, a sheriffs office news release states. Vanhouten was previously arrested July 5 on two counts of harboring a runaway child after the girls were found at his home. He was free on a $10,000 bond at the time of his arrest Tuesday, Williamson County Jail records show, and sheriffs officials said he will be transferred to McLennan County Jail in coming days.

The two 14-year-old teens were initially reported as missing to McGregor police on June 28. The release says the girls were reported as runaways.

The sheriffs office would become involved on July 4 after McGregor police and family members of the girls asked them for help. A statewide Amber Alert was issued that same day after one of the girls sent out a message on Snapchat asking for help, showing evidence the girls were in danger.

Sheriff Parnell McNamara said his deputies immediately got on the case and didnt let up, following leads around Central Texas before eventually finding the two girls in a residence in Georgetown in the early morning hours of July 5.

The two girls were reunited with their families a few hours after being found, the release says.

McNamara said investigators believe the girls initially ran away from home and came into contact with the wrong people who offered to shelter them before taking advantage of them and mistreating them.

McNamara said investigators now believe this was attempted human trafficking.

McNamara said the investigation is ongoing, and more arrests and charges are likely.

We are going to make these scumbags accountable for what they did to these young girls, McNamara said in the release. There will be more charges and more arrests to come. We are not going to let up.
 Flash

Seventeen members of U.S. Congress were arrested outside the Capitol at an abortion rights rally on Tuesday.

The Capitol Police tweeted that demonstrators were blocking First Street, NE, and that "it is against the law to block traffic."

"We have already given our standard three warnings. Some of the demonstrators are refusing to get out of the street, so we are starting to make arrests," they wrote.

A total of 35 people were arrested, reportedly including members of the Democratic Women's Caucus.

The demonstration came more than three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade, which eliminated the constitutional protection of abortion rights for women.

Abortion has been one of the most divisive issues in the United States, with the ruling further splitting the nation.

Without Roe v. Wade, states are allowed to impose their own legislation on the medical procedure.

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a pair of bills aimed at protecting access to abortion but they face little chance of clearing the evenly-divided Senate.
DALLAS  A 26-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison after she was found guilty of killing two Plano residents in 2019, the Collin County district attorneys office announced Thursday.

Carmen Moreno was convicted June 10 in the murders of 72-year-old Jimmy Michael Farris and 71-year-old Theresa Ann Coomes, who were found Nov. 17, 2019, in Farris apartment in the 2300 block of Pebble Vale Drive in Plano. Moreno plead guilty to the murders, according to court records.

Murdering even one person is unthinkable to most law-abiding citizens, said Collin County district attorney Greg Willis. But viciously stabbing to death two of our citizens just to get some quick cash is a crime worthy of life in prison.

Facing the same charges in the slayings is Cynthia Wingate, who in jail records listed Moreno as her wife. Wingates trial is scheduled for July 25, according to court records.

On the night of Nov. 17, 2019, Wingate was pulled over by McLennan County Sheriffs Office Deputy Jeremy Bost on Interstate 35 in Bruceville-Eddy, about 20 miles south of Waco. Moreno, covered in blood, pulled up to the stop and asked if she could get Wingates wallet, according to the affidavit.

After Moreno mentioned an incident in Plano, deputies ran the license plates on the cars and found that the vehicles belonged to Farris and Coomes. Inside the cars, deputies found meth in Wingates purse and two bloody knives wrapped in a grocery bag, according to the affidavit.

The sheriffs office then called Plano police, who performed a welfare check at Farris apartment. Officers found a body covered in blood on the kitchen floor, and they could not immediately determine whether the victim was a man or woman. In the bathroom, police found another body bent over the side of a bathtub with the faucet still running, according to the affidavit.

Moreno told McLennan County investigators that she had known Farris for about a year and that she and Wingate had spent most of the day leading up to the stabbings at the apartment with him and Coomes, according to the affidavit. Moreno and Farris began to argue after he asked her to shower with him, she said.

During her argument with Farris, Moreno pepper-sprayed him in the face and shut the bathroom door, leaving him inside. He fell and hurt himself, according to the affidavit, so Moreno opened the door and continued arguing with him as he stood up. Then, she told investigators that she grabbed a hunting knife from her bag and stabbed him twice in the chest, according to the affidavit.

Coomes, who saw Moreno with the knife, threatened to call the police, the affidavit said. Moreno then stabbed her in the throat, according to the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, Moreno and Wingate took laptops, cellphones, a wallet and keys that belonged to Farris and Coomes before they fled the scene.

Police said previously that the suspects were found with debit and credit cards as well as medical and identification documents belonging to the victims, too. The credit and debit cards were used at multiple locations along southbound I-35 in the hours after the slayings, the district attorneys office said.

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2022 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
For 38 local community college students, the scholarships totaling $330,000 awarded Tuesday through the MAC College Money Program promise to be life-changing.

For Jerushalayim Guadarrama Perea, her award was a sign of divine providence.

In a ceremony Tuesday evening, 35 students received $5,000 scholarships to continue their higher education. Guadarrama Perea was among three McLennan Community College students who received a full ride to finish their studies at Baylor University.

That was a detour for Guadarrama Perea, but a welcome one. She graduated as valedictorian of La Vega High School in May, also receiving an associate degree from MCC at the same time through dual enrollment.

She told friends she was headed to the University of Texas at Arlington, but she had her doubts.

Really, I didnt have the money to continue studying, so I was really worried about that, Guadarrama Perea said. But I asked God what he wanted for me and I saw how slowly the doors opened and he provided the university and hes provided the whole tuition.

Now she is the third in her family to receive a MAC College Money scholarship, and the first to become a Baylor Bear.

Like other scholarship recipients Tuesday, Guadarrama Perea had previously qualified for the MAC program, which begins with need-based grants to high school graduates to attend the first four semesters of college.

To receive the additional $5,000 scholarship, students must complete 60 college credit hours and maintain a GPA of 3.0 or better.

Since its founding 27 years ago, the MAC program has assisted 14,000 students and awarded $11.4 million to students in the cause of making higher education possible, regardless of financial constraints. The program is administered and funded through the Waco Foundation.

Malcolm Duncan Sr., former mayor of Waco and local philanthropist, established the program alongside his wife, Mary Ruth, in 1995 to aid local students, giving them the opportunity to achieve higher education and graduate without debt. This years ceremony was the first to be held without Duncan, who died in May 2021.

In addition to the work hes done for the foundation over the years, Duncan left the Waco Foundation a $9 million legacy gift  the second-largest gift ever made to the Waco Foundation.

The gift will be used to fund the recently launched Duncan Scholars program, gradually taking the place of the MAC College Money Program. In contrast to the MAC program, the Duncan Scholars program will target students leaving Waco ISD and entering McLennan Community College and will focus on increasing college completion in local colleges.

Natalie Kelinske, senior director of communications and donor services, leadership and staff at the Waco Foundation, said the foundation has kept in mind Duncans wishes to get local students through college debt-free.

When we learned about his very generous gift, it gave us an opportunity to kind of take a look at the whole program and say, Okay, now we have this super-generous gift, what can we do to continue his legacy?  Kelinske said.

The Duncan Scholars program will further this initiative by offering seven full-ride scholarships at MCC as well as an emergency expense fund for students, with hopes of providing more services to more students in the future.

This years class of award recipients includes 18 students who like Guadarrama Perea earned an MCC associate degree upon high school graduation. Kelinske said the number has slowly increased as more students are able to take advantage of dual credit.

I think that is such a testament to McLennan Community College and Waco ISD and the surrounding ISDs because they really work together to make that happen and that is huge for our local student population because they can graduate high school and have their first two years of college at the same time, Kelinske said. So then youre focusing on those last two years, it cuts down on costs and its just a huge benefit that we have here. Very thankful.

Alyssa Summersett, another recipient of the full-tuition Baylor scholarship, took a more traditional route, attending MCC after graduating from Midway High School in 2020. She said as a Waco native, its always been a dream of hers to attend Baylor, but she realized during her senior year of high school she may not be able to afford it. After qualifying and applying for the grant, she knew what she had to do.

As soon as I heard about the Baylor scholarship, I realized that was probably my only chance of coming to Baylor, Summersett said.

After learning she had received the award, Summersett said she called her mom immediately and shared the happy moment with her. Passionate about design and media, she said this opportunity will allow her to pursue marketing as a career.

Joseph Sword, the third full-tuition award winner, said he plans to study communications at Baylor. Sword expressed his gratitude for the opportunity presented to him.

Thank you to the MAC Program and MCC, Sword said.
Highway 6 closures

The Texas Department of Transportation will close the outside lane of Highway 6/Loop 340 on Wednesday near Beverly Drive to set beams on the new frontage road.

The westbound outside lane will be closed in the morning and the eastbound outside lane will be closed in the afternoon. Crews will also fully close the westbound frontage road from the on-ramp before Beverly Drive to the where the frontage road meets Beverly Drive.

The closures and work will occur all day Wednesday beginning at 9 a.m.

Cooling center open

The city of Waco and WacoMcLennan County Office of Emergency Management will open cooling centers starting Wednesday through the weekend to assist local residents with relief from the heat. Cold bottles of water and chairs will be provided.

Wednesday through Friday, a cooling center will be open from noon to 7 p.m. at the city of Waco Multipurpose Facility, 1020 Elm Ave.

Saturday and Sunday, a cooling center will be open from noon to 7 p.m. at Sul Ross Community Center, 1414 Jefferson Ave.

Adult Ed graduation

McLennan Community Colleges Adult Education & Literacy program will host a graduation ceremony at 7 p.m. Thursday at the MCC Conference Center. The ceremony will honor 38 students completing Graduate Education Development requirements, nine competing the Educator Paraprofessional Certification program and 10 completing the Certified Nurse Assistant program.

For more information, contact Michelle Telg-Moore at 254-299-8760.

Storytelling Guild

The Heart of Texas Storytelling Guild meets at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Good Neighbor House, 2301 Colcord Ave.

For more information, call 254-717-1763.
A North Texas wildfire continued to grow Tuesday amid sweltering temperatures and dry conditions after burning at least a dozen structures, officials said.

The Chalk Mountain Fire near Glen Rose, about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth in Somervell County, was the largest active Texas wildfire as of Tuesday afternoon after blackening 6,000 acres, an increase from 4,000 acres Tuesday morning, the Texas A&M Forest Service said. The fire, which began Monday afternoon, was just 10% contained, and crews using bulldozers were digging containment lines while fire trucks and aircraft worked to extinguish the flames, the Forest Service said.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Hood County Judge Ron Massingill ordered the mandatory evacuation of a rural area south of Tolar, about 45 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

It was not yet clear how many, if any, of the 12 structures lost as of Tuesday afternoon were residences or businesses, Forest Service spokeswoman Mary Leathers said.

Meanwhile, crews continued to battle a wildfire that has burned at least 10 structures, five of them homes, around a lake in North Texas, authorities said.

The fire at Possum Kingdom Lake about 70 miles west of Fort Worth, which began Monday afternoon, had burned about 500 acres and was 10% contained Tuesday, Forest Service spokesman Adam Turner said. Firefighting crews were working around the clock, focusing on protecting threatened homes in resort subdivisions along the lakes western shore.

The area remained under a voluntary evacuation notice, the Forest Service said.

A 160-acre fire near Meridian in Bosque County, about 40 miles northwest of Waco, was 80% contained as of 8:27 p.m., according to an online fire map hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

No injuries have been reported from the fires, and their causes were under investigation. A combination of near-record- and record-high temperatures approaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit combined with breezes gusting as high as 30 mph and drought conditions leave the region ripe for fire, the forest service said.

The National Weather Service has issued a red flag fire warning for northern and central Texas and western and eastern Oklahoma for Tuesday.

We are experiencing dry fuels to a level that we havent seen in the past 10 years, Turner said. Any spark that lands in tall grass or even lands in some short grass right now is liable to spark.

Wildfires and intense heat in Texas and some other parts of the United States come as unusually hot, dry weather has gripped large swaths of Europe since last week, triggering wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans and leading to hundreds of heat-related deaths.

High heat, no rain

Over the past few weeks, the heat in McLennan County has consistently reached highs of over 100 degrees. Rainfall for the year is minimal and currently 12 inches lower than it usually is.

Tuesday saw a slight increase in wind as well, though it is projected to fall slightly in the coming days. Altogether, these conditions have created a perfect storm for wildfires in the state.

Leathers said higher winds means it is easier for fire to spread, as wind can pick up sparks and change the direction of a fire. Though wind will drop slightly over the next few days, she said the drought conditions still mean wildfire risk is high.

All the holes in the swiss cheese have lined up, Leathers said. Theres no rain, high heat. It doesnt take much wind to pick up and spread sparks.

According to the Forest Service, 99% of Texas is experiencing some level of drought. Leathers said the Forest Service has been responding to around 5 to 10 wildfires a day, and that doesnt include the wildfires handled by local departments. In a Forest Service press release Tuesday, the Waco area was named as an area of concern for wildfires.

Leathers said the increased wildfire danger can be attributed to both the drought conditions and last years wet summer. The increased rainfall last summer led to increased vegetation growth, which then became fuel for fires when it dried out as Texas saw higher heat and less rain.

Though she said fire officials are concerned by the current conditions, Leathers said McLennan County and areas near Waco typically are at lower risk to have a large wildfire due to the higher population density and usage of the land.
WAVERLY  The Waverly City Council took the first step toward raising the citys water and sewer rates at its July 12 meeting, holding a public hearing and voting to approve the first readings of the ordinances that would put the increases in effect.

The water rate increase is consistent with the councils decision in 2019 to follow a rate schedule included in a five-year water and wastewater rate study.

The study, conducted by engineering firm JEO Consulting Group, lays out a plan to increase water rates by 4% and sewer rates by 1% in each of the five years. This years water increase would follow that plan, but the proposed sewer rate increase is lower, at about .05%. City Administrator Stephanie Fisher said the sewers fund is in a manageable spot and did not warrant a higher rate increase.

During the public hearing, Waverly citizen Cal Weeks said hes frustrated with the yearly water rate increases and asked why Waverlys rates are higher than other neighboring cities.

Mayor Bill Gerdes said Waverly is closer to the middle of the pack. He pointed to a survey completed by the Lincoln Water System in late 2021 that compares rates of communities in the Lincoln area. Of the cities studied, Waverly has the lowest water rates and the highest sewer rates.

Gerdes said the yearly increases are in place to keep up with demand for water and sewer costs, as well as pay rates for workers. Fisher said the increases also help pay for improvements to the citys water and sewer infrastructure.

We have a lot of maintenance costs every year, she said. We have an aging infrastructure in the central part of the community. Theres water mains that need to be replaced, theres sewer mains that need to be lined.

Weeks said its time for the city to hold the line on the rate increases.

Theyve just gone up so much since I moved to town, its just hard to believe, Weeks said. And its not reasonable.

The council later unanimously voted to approve the first readings of the rate increase ordinances.

In other city news, the council voted to postpone a vote on an interlocal agreement with Lincoln Fire and Rescue to provide emergency medical services assistance to Waverly for the next year.

Waverly resident and Waverly Fire/Rescue Disaster Preparedness Manager Terry Spoor spoke in opposition of the agreement, mainly citing a section explaining that Lincoln Fire and Rescue (LFR) would no longer automatically dispatch its services to incidents in the Lincoln area. It says local fire districts can call for LFRs advanced life support (ALS) services once the local crew is on location.

...But in times of high, peak-demand within the City, ambulance response may be delayed until that time an ambulance resource becomes available, the agreement reads.

Spoor said such delays could in some cases result in deaths.

Council Member Aaron Hummel explained that LFR responds to ALS issues in Waverly.

They respond to all of the county, Hummel said. So they would stop responding to the county until they were asked to respond by the local fire department. Not signing this contract means LFR would never come out here.

Waverly Assistant Fire Chief Ryan Mueller said in the future, he hopes to have Waverly Fire/Rescue personnel trained on advanced life support procedures so the city can handle such calls independently.

The deadline to sign the agreement is Aug. 15, and Gerdes said he intends to speak with the Lancaster County Commissioners regarding the agreement before the city council revisits it at the July 26 meeting.

Sam Crisler is a reporter for The Waverly News. Reach him via email at samuel.crisler@wahoonewspaper.com.
WAVERLY  Before the July 12 Waverly City Council meeting, it seemed that a contractor would be assigned to carry out preliminary work on the long-awaited Waverly Aquatic Center by the end of the night.

Engineers from Omaha-based Lamp Rynearson presented a bid from metro Kansas City firm Carrothers Construction, detailing the companys experience building municipal pools. In Nebraska, Carrothers has completed projects for the cities of Columbus, Fairbury, Friend and Bellevue, among others.

Lamp Rynearson selected Carrothers as the lowest responsible bidder out of four bids, which ranged from $6.4 million to $8 million.

But city officials had hoped for those numbers to be a little lower. The most recent aquatic center funding update showed an initial estimate of $6 million knocked down to $5.7 million after accounting for a few cost-cutting measures. After recent donations and ongoing matching grant campaigns, the projects funding is closing in on $5 million, which includes the $3.5 million bond and a half-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in 2020.

On the agenda for the July 12 meeting was an item considering whether to approve Lamp Rynearson and the City of Waverly to begin the value engineering process with Carrothers  in other words, examining possible cutbacks on the project to lower the cost. A total of $6 million was tossed around at the meeting as a target value.

Lamp Rynearson Project Lead Kyle McCauley said possible savings could be realized by finding more economical options for fencing, masonry, windows, doors and more, and by removing a dumpster enclosure from the projects scope. A previous proposal involved building a gravel parking area instead of a paved lot.

City Administrator Stephanie Fisher said its a possibility that the city could separately pay for the paved lot later, after the pool is built.

Council Member Aaron Hummel was opposed to the gravel parking lot option when it was brought up at the May 10 council meeting, and he stood firm on July 12. He said he wanted to see the pool completed as it was bid. He posed a hypothetical grand opening in which mud splashed attendees cars in the gravel parking lot after overnight rain.

Were taking things out to get to a number, but those were things that were put (into the bid scope) because those are things that we wanted, Hummel said. Is there another option rather than asking them to design engineer and get this down? Do we need to find a solution to do it as it was bid?

Council Member Andy Cockerill asked Hummel if that meant he hoped more money could be found to pay for the project.

Yeah, Hummel said. I mean, it sucks. It sucks because COVID is here. The timing couldnt be worse. But I dont want to shortchange this pool.

Cockerill said he also didnt want the council to commit to a project that was going to end up requiring further taxes or levies on citizens. Council Member Dave Nielson said that wouldnt be necessary for the duration of the sales tax increases 16-year lifespan.

I think well have plenty of sales tax money to pay for the whole $6.4 million, Nielson said. He said he expects the taxes to pay off the bond after 10 years.

The council went into executive session to discuss negotiation strategy, and emerged with a decision to postpone the vote on the value engineering option until the July 26 meeting. In the meantime, the council will study whether the sales tax increase will be able to pay for the total project cost if extended longer than planned.

Were just hitting the pause button for two weeks, Hummel said. And then were going to come back, either with a different motion, or well vote on the value engineering.

Sam Crisler is a reporter for The Waverly News. Reach him via email at samuel.crisler@wahoonewspaper.com.
WAHOO  After the verdict was read, the courtroom was quiet, the silence punctuated only by the occasional sniffle as emotions seeped out for family members of Kayla Matulka.

Kolton Barnes, 27, was sentenced Monday, July 18, by Saunders County District Court Judge Christina Marroquin to life in prison without parole for first degree murder of his fiance just over two years ago. Matulka was found dead on July 15, 2020 in the Malmo home she had just moved into with Barnes and her two children.

Matulka was discovered by her 11-year-old son Jayden, who ran to a neighbor to get help. She had been stabbed 24 times from her neck to her thighs and she had been strangled.

Jayden and his sister, 6-year-old Kinsley, had been sleeping in the house when the murder occurred.

The children were in court when the verdict was read, along with about 20 members of the Matulka extended family. Tammy Matulka, Kaylas mother, was also there. She had been to every hearing and attended every minute of the trial, which took place in mid-April and early May. A jury found Barnes guilty of all counts.

Before the sentence was announced, Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Sandra Allen spoke for the prosecution. Allen said the presentence investigation showed Barnes still minimizes and rationalizes his behavior on the night of the murder.

It appears the defendant continues down a path of victim-blaming, she said.

During the trial, Barnes testified that Matulka had attacked him with a knife and had killed his dog, Diesel. He said Matulka hit him and he blacked out.

The prosecution countered that Barnes beat, stabbed and strangled Matulka and then methodically got rid of evidence.

All of these things are contrary to what self-defense case would be, Allen said.

The prosecution said Barnes has not shown remorse for his actions.

The only redeeming quality that Mr. Barnes has is he didnt harm those kids that night, Allen said.

Allen also said Jaydens life has been altered by finding his deceased mother.

The vision of his mom lying there is going to be etched in his mind forever, she said.

Barnes attorney, Matt McDonald of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, acknowledged that under Nebraska state law, Barnes would be sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first degree murder. But he asked the judge to consider a sentence on the lower end of the scale for the other charges, which he said were due to alcohol use.

When the judge asked Barnes if he wanted to speak, he said, I understand it all. Im not going to waste your time.

Marroquin said she considered Barnes age, the presentence investigation, the nature of the crime and the relevant statutory factors when determining the sentence.

It is clearly troubling to the court the lack of accountability and remorse observed by the court during the proceedings, Marroquin said.

The judge called the crime an atrocity that was violent and brutal.

Marroquin said she read the letters sent to her from Matulkas family members stating the devastating consequences the murder has had on them, especially her two children.

I too believe the situation will forever affect the family, the judge said.

After pronouncing the sentence of life in prison, Marroquin said, A lesser sentence would depreciate the seriousness of the crimes and would promote disrespect for the law.

Marroquin also sentenced Barnes to 40 to 50 years each for two counts of using a weapon to commit a felony. Additional years of incarceration were also tacked on for animal cruelty (two to three years), child abuse (one year each for two counts) and tampering with evidence (one to two years).

All sentences are to be carried out consecutively, Marroquin said.

Barnes was given credit for 733 days of time served toward one count of use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony.

After the trial, Barnes was immediately remanded to Saunders County Corrections and transported to the Nebraska Department of Corrections.

McDonald said Barnes plans to file an appeal.

Suzi Nelson is the managing editor of the Wahoo Newspaper. Reach her via email at suzi.nelson@wahoonewspaper.com.
WAHOO  A 27-year-old former Lincoln man learned Monday he would get life without parole plus 85 to 106 years more for strangling and stabbing his fiancee to death at their home in Malmo and leaving her young children alone to find her.

Kolton Barnes turned down an opportunity to speak at his sentencing for Kayla Matulka's killing but maintains it was self defense.

"I understand it all," he told Saunders County District Judge Christina Marroquin. "I'm not going to waste your time."

His attorney, Matt McDonald of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, said Barnes plans to appeal.

In May, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder for killing Matulka, his 27-year-old fiancee, in their bedroom early July 15, 2020, as her two young children slept.

At trial, Barnes testified that Matulka attacked him with a knife when he returned home that night from the bar.

He told the jury he went in their bedroom, saw his dog, Diesel, on the floor, then Matulka coming at him with a knife. He said he put his hand up to block her and punched her three times and they fell to the floor with him on top of her, the knife in her chest.

The state argued it was first-degree murder and pointed to evidence that suggested Barnes had kicked his way into the house, just as he'd threatened to do in texts later deleted, after she told him their relationship was over and not to come home.

The next morning, Matulka's 11-year-old son Jayden and 6-year-old daughter Kinsley went to a neighbor's house saying they couldn't find their mom or Barnes. Jayden went back alone to check if they'd returned, but soon came back saying his mom was dead.

The neighbor -- and then police -- found Matulka naked and dead on the floor with a black eye and purple, finger-shaped bruises on an elbow.

She had had been stabbed 24 times.

On Monday, Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Sandra Allen said this was a case about credibility. Specifically Barnes'. The jury heard his self-defense claim and didn't find him credible.

Instead, they found him guilty of seven felonies: first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon to commit the crime; two counts of negligent child abuse; animal cruelty and use of a deadly weapon for stabbing his dog to death; and tampering with evidence.

Allen said Barnes beat, strangled and stabbed Matulka, then acted methodically to cover his tracks, getting rid of the knife, deleting texts and sending fake ones to Matulka knowing she was dead.

"All of these things are contrary to what a self-defense case would be," the prosecutor said.

She said Barnes didn't appear to have any remorse whatsoever for her death.

"The only redeeming quality that Mr. Barnes has is that he didn't harm those kids that night," Allen said.

On the other side, McDonald pointed to the testimony of an investigator who said whatever happened likely happened fast. He asked the judge to take that into consideration.

In the end, the judge called the lack of accountability and remorse she had observed by Barnes troubling.

"This was an atrocity, the crime that was inflicted on Kayla Matulka. And the actions were violent and brutal," Marroquin said.
Two Omaha teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with a fatal shooting last year at 39th Street and Ames Avenue.

Mariano Flores and Quan White, both 16, were arrested in connection with the June 16, 2021, shooting death of 37-year-old Timothy Washington III. They were booked into the Douglas County Youth Center.

Flores and White also were arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault, shooting at an occupied dwelling or vehicle and three counts of use of a weapon to commit a felony.

Nowa Kawunda, 15, previously was charged with first-degree murder in Washingtons slaying. Kawunda has filed a motion to have his case transferred to juvenile court.

Brenda Beadle, the chief deputy in the Douglas County Attorneys Office, said last month that Kawunda also is accused of shooting a man who was sitting in a parked vehicle near 28th and Spencer streets on the same night. Kawunda, who is being held on $1 million bail, also has been charged with first-degree assault, two counts of robbery, two counts of shooting at an occupied dwelling or vehicle and five counts of use of a weapon to commit a felony.

Washingtons older sister, Rayonta Washington, said Washington had three children.
A Hastings family proposing new horsetrack-casino combinations in North Platte and Gering has lost its primary partner in proposing both.

Global Gaming Solutions LLC, a subsidiary of the Chickasaw Tribe of Oklahoma, told the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission its no longer involved in the two racino projects.

Executive Director Tom Sage said Friday that Global Gaming, which operates horsetracks and casinos in Texas and Oklahoma, told the commission as much in an email that was read into the record at the panels Thursday meeting.

Sage told The Telegraph he was in Omaha Friday afternoon and didnt have a copy of the email with him.

But it included a sentence that, in Sages words, said that Global Gaming was no longer interested (in) or a party to the applications for Scottsbluff Expedition and Racing and North Platte Exposition and Racing.

Those are the separate entities created last summer and primarily involving the family of quarter horse owner Brian Becker, who has operated a one-day annual quarter horse meet at FairPlay Park at Hastings Adams County Fairgrounds.

Their separate horsetrack applications, filed July 16, 2021, proposed oval racetracks five-eighths of a mile long at sites between North Plattes two Interstate 80 interchanges and on the south edge of Gering.

The Beckers and Global Gaming representatives also unveiled plans for accompanying casinos at both last summer.

Attempts by The Telegraph to reach the Beckers for comment were unsuccessful Friday evening. Sean Boyd, president of Global Gaming Nebraska, declined comment Friday.

Gary Person, president and CEO of the North Platte Area Chamber & Development Corp., referred questions about the North Platte projects status to North Platte Exposition and Racing.

Sage said casinos werent included in either the North Platte or Gering applications, neither of which has been granted. The racino petition initiatives approved by Nebraska voters in 2020 say casinos may be built and operated only at licensed horsetracks.

North Platte Exposition and Racing won a conditional use permit for its racino proposal on Aug. 17, 2021, after Mayor Brandon Kelliher broke a 4-4 City Council tie in favor of granting it.

Another Chickasaw Nation subsidiary now owns the Becker groups planned site between I-80 and East Walker Road and due south of North Platte Community Colleges North Campus.

Sovereign Properties Holdco LLC of Ada, Oklahoma, purchased the 77.25-acre site June 6 from Prospect Enterprises LLC for $2,464,275, according to the Lincoln County Register of Deeds Office. It had a 2021 taxable value of $415,591.

The Gering Planning Commission voted 6-2 last Sept. 21 in favor of granting a conditional use permit to Scottsbluff Exposition and Racing for its racino project.

Gerings City Council voted Dec. 13 to send a letter of support for the Becker groups racino plan. It didnt vote on its conditional use permit at that time.

State senators in April passed Legislative Bill 876, which put racinos beyond those proposed at Nebraskas six existing tracks on hold until the Racing and Gaming Commission can study their market and socioeconomic impacts. Such studies must be done by Jan. 1, 2025.

The Unicamerals moratorium didnt stop Ogallala leaders from backing a second horsetrack-casino proposal for the gateway to Lake McConaughy, long a popular summer destination for Colorado tourists.

Ogallala City Council members and Keith County commissioners last December endorsed a racino project backed by Minnesota-based Canterbury Park. That entity also has proposed a racino along I-80 near Kimball.

In late June, the County Board and Ogallala council likewise lent their support to a fresh proposal with backers including Grand Islands Fonner Park, Nebraskas oldest continuously operating racetrack.

The Racing and Gaming Commission has yet to receive any horsetrack applications for either Ogallala or Kimball, Sage said.

Both Ogallala proposals are eyeing sites at the citys I-80 interchange. Elite Casino Resorts, which is building a casino at the Grand Island track, would also in time build one in Ogallala.

Each of the Keith County seats would-be racino projects has a local nonprofit as its primary partner.
 Flash

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday held a telephone conversation with Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto at the latter's request.

During their phone conversation, Haavisto said that Finnish President Sauli Niinisto attaches great importance to the friendship between Finland and China, and that the friendly relationship between the two heads of state has injected strong momentum into bilateral cooperation.

The joint economic and trade commission between the two countries has carried out productive work, and the Finnish business community has set up a China office and looks forward to expanding business in China, Haavisto said.

Finland continues to adhere to the one-China policy, stands ready to expand economic and trade cooperation with China, resume more flights, and facilitate business and personnel exchanges between the two countries, he said.

Noting that China plays an indispensable role in economic recovery, ecological environment protection and other global issues, Haavisto said Finland is willing to expand cooperation with China in such areas as climate change, green transformation and circular economy.

Finland supports Europe and China in developing a strong relationship and calls for candid dialogue as well as equal and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides, Haavisto said.

He also explained Finland's application for NATO membership and said NATO will remain a defensive alliance.

Wang said that under the guidance of the two heads of state, China-Finland relations have maintained a sound momentum.

The two sides have carried out equal-footed exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation, the China-Finland freight train service, part of the China-Europe freight train service, continues to operate, and the China-Finland Joint Work Plan has achieved important progress, he said.

China is ready to work with Finland to implement the plan in a comprehensive and high-quality way, continue to deepen cooperation in such fields as economy, trade and investment, scientific and technological innovation, green development, connectivity and winter sports, and make good use of cooperative mechanisms like the joint economic and trade commission between the two countries to further release the potential of bilateral cooperation, said Wang.

China is committed to targeted prevention and control measures to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, will resume personnel exchanges in an orderly manner, and speed up the resumption of work and production, Wang said.

He said China is firmly committed to green, low-carbon and sustainable development, will continue to participate in global cooperation on climate change in an all-round manner, and stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination with Finland.

Mutual respect and mutual trust are the key to the development of China-Finland relations, which is at the forefront of China's bilateral relations with Europe, especially with Nordic countries, said Wang.

China appreciates Finland's adherence to the one-China policy, believes the Finnish side will continue to adopt an objective and prudent attitude on China-related affairs, and safeguard the overall interests of bilateral relations, he said.

Wang said the establishment and development of China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership is the result of the concerted efforts of both sides.

Noting that China and Europe have always been partners, not rivals, Wang said it is not in the interest of either China or Europe to play up and even create confrontation between the two sides.

He said China hopes and believes that Finland will continue to play a constructive role in the European Union (EU).

The Chinese and Finnish sides expressed concern over the challenges posed by spillovers from the Ukraine crisis on global food and energy security.

Wang stressed that all parties should work together to cope with global risks caused by the crisis, jointly promote food, energy and financial security, maintain the stability of global industrial and supply chains, and support vulnerable developing countries in overcoming difficulties.
As noted in the First Flight Societys press release from a couple of days ago, the organization is celebrating National Aviation Day at Dare County Regional Airport on August 19th. They have just released additional details (see below) regarding the days events, which will include the opportunity to ride aboard the CAF Capital Wings TBM Avenger. For readers who dont know, the present day airport began life as Naval Auxiliary Air Station Manteo during WWII, and saw many famed aviators receive some of their training in the skies above  perhaps none more famous, of course, than the pilots of VF-17 Jolly Rogers who worked up at NAAS Manteo in April, 1943 before their first tour in the Pacific Theatre flying the might F4U Corsair so Dare County Regional Airport is hallowed ground for many. Roanoke Island, the small scrap of coastal land where the airport sits, is also well known for being the site of the first British settlement in the US, the notorious Lost Colony established by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585, but the islands human history dates back at least 10,000 years prior to that

KITTY HAWK, N.C.  July 19, 2022  One month from now, the First Flight Society holds its 4th annual National Aviation Day (NAD) celebrations at Dare County Regional Airport on August 19th, 2022. The event runs from 10AM-3PM and features Airplane Displays, Exhibitors, and Food Trucks. The mission of the celebration is to provide a fun and educational experience promoting, honoring, and celebrating the accomplishments of the Wright Brothers and helping educate the world about aviation. NAD is a free event aimed at all ages.

NAD is also Orville Wrights birthday. Former president Franklin D. Roosevelt was the creator of National Aviation Day, deciding for the first time in 1939 that the nation should celebrate the growth and advancements being made in aviation.

Our keynote speaker will be historian Larry Tise. His presentation is titled The Elusive Orville Wright from Kitty Hawk and Beyond.

Another highlight will be warbird rides. To combine the First Flight Society observation of National Aviation Day and the mission of the Commemorative Air Force, the Capital Wing will bring the queen of its fleet, a TBM-3E Avenger named Doris Mae on August 19th and 20th and provide warbird rides to the public. Advance purchases of rides in the TBM can be made online at: www.capitalwingwarbirdrides.org.

Confirmed exhibitors include Kitty Hawk Kites, Civil Air Patrol, Military Aviation Museum, Elizabeth City State University, Dare County Radio Control Flyers, AOPA, Dare County and Tubbs Hot Dogs.

Dare County Regional airport (MQI) is located at 410 Airport Road, Manteo, NC 27954.

Additional information can be found at www.nationalaviationday.org.

The Kill Devil Hills Memorial Association, later named First Flight Society, began as a group of local businessmen who successfully petitioned the US Congress to fund and build a monument to the Wright Brothers 1903 achievement.

The FFS plans an annual celebration at the Wright Brothers National Memorial on December 17th to memorialize the accomplishments of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, NC.
WATERLOO  Mayor Quentin Hart is one of 40 mayors from across the globe chosen to participate in a leadership and management initiative.

Hart is attending classes hosted by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in New York City for four days. The classes are taught by faculty from Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, as well as experts from the Bloomberg Philanthropies network.

Over the course of a year, the faculty and experts work with the mayors in the classroom, online and in the field.

A news release states topics covered in the program include equitable growth, jobs and economic development, poverty reduction, affordable housing and homelessness, transportation and infrastructure, climate, resiliency, and resource management.

The initiative, started in 2017, has worked with 428 mayors, 1,400 senior city officials and 494 cities.

Im looking forward to joining this years class of mayors to exchange ideas and discuss how to best approach the concerns we share, Hart said in the news release. When it comes to tackling priority issues for Waterloo like housing, equity, and public safety, my team is invested in using data to diagnose problems, collaborating across sectors, and engaging our citizens to address these challenges in a way that makes the most sense for our community.

He also said the program will help connect him to other mayors and learn about innovative approaches to social and economic recovery.
OUR SINS (of the USA)

(which is Russias fault)

1. In the crazy rise in the price of gasoline at all gas stations in the United States and its close allies.

2. Rising prices for all food products in all stores on all continents.

3. In the stupefying heat at European resorts, from which all living things suffer.

4. In provoking the introduction of hellish sanctions against Russia, which hit defenseless European companies.

5. That Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. periodically confuses words, cannot find a way out of the room and reads technical notes on the text of the prompter.

6. That in America you can vote by mail.

7. That Olaf Scholz was called offended liver sausage.

8. In the resignations of European leaders since the arrogant creation of the Russian Empire by Peter I to spite everyone.

9. In manipulating public opinion at the expense of works of Russian classical literature and symphonic music, which are uncritically consumed by gullible Europeans.

10. In the villainous assassination of the progressive European politician Gaius Julius Caesar by a gang of terrorists Publius Servilius Casca, Mark Brutus and other Russian mercenaries in order to split the Western world and promote anti-liberal values.

11. In an unprovoked pre-emptive meteorite impact on our planet and the subsequent disappearance of the dinosaurs.

The list is open. Replenished.

Medvedev

Russia stole your homework

Russia is hiding under your bed

Russia took your allowance

Russia did it and imagine if they were not just a gas station with snack foods and drinks?

Again Medvedev posted another on this subject

THEIR SINS

(which is not Russias fault)

1. The fact that the European fools were cynically swindled by the Americans, forcing them to take on the most painful consequences of the sanctions strike on the population of the EU countries.

2. The fact that ordinary Europeans will be fiercely cold in their homes this winter.

3. The fact that Europe and the US have the highest food inflation in recent decades.

4. The fact that companies from the EU and the US have lost their multibillion-dollar investments in the Russian economy.

5. The fact that the Americans elected their president a strange grandfather with dementia, who, forgetting about his duties, loves another country much more than his own.

6. The fact that the city lunatics, who called themselves the leadership of the EU, have completely lost touch with reality and are forcing the unfortunate Ukrainians to sacrifice their lives to join the European Union.

7. The fact that numerous political crooks are manipulating the topic of restoring the statehood of Ukraine within the former borders, counting on new military orders and cutting the cash flows allocated to the Kyiv regime.

8. That NATO continues, contrary to logic and common sense, to approach the borders of Russia, creating a real threat of world conflict and the death of a significant part of humanity.

9. The fact that after the 2014 coup, Ukraine lost its state independence and came under the direct control of the collective West, and also believed that NATO would ensure its security.

10. The fact that as a result of all that is happening, Ukraine may lose the remnants of state sovereignty and disappear from the world map.

11. The fact that Ukrainian criminals will definitely be tried for the atrocities committed against the people of Ukraine and Russia.

Medvedev

WtR
Well I must say, Just ignore what is said by the USA, well unless you really are in Russia to cause issues!

You know? I think I will travel Russia! Today I will go to the Big Village and the Fish Village. That is over a hundred kilometers of driving in Russia and well, maybe I will live? For the barbarians are thick in Russia 

Just changed the oil in Sammy the Volga and I need to check for leaks and tore pressure also. This could be my last trip among these Orcs and Barbarians that run Russia

Get real people, I live in Russia and am an American

Need a good laugh? Read the post below. It is sad that the USA GOV just lies so blatantly and easily

***

Last Update: Reissued with updates to wrongful detention information.

Click Here for Important Information for U.S. Citizens Seeking to Depart Russia.

Do not travel to Russia due to the unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials, the singling out of U.S. citizens in Russia by Russian government security officials including for detention, the arbitrary enforcement of local law, limited flights into and out of Russia, the Embassys limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, COVID-19-related restrictions, and terrorism. U.S. citizens residing or travelling in Russia should depart Russia immediately. Exercise increased caution due to wrongful detentions.

U.S. citizens should note that U.S. credit and debit cards no longer work in Russia, and options to electronically transfer funds from the United States are extremely limited as a result of sanctions imposed on Russian banks. There are reports of cash shortages within Russia.

Limited commercial flight options and overland routes by car and bus are still open and available. If you wish to depart Russia, you should make arrangements on your own as soon as possible. The U.S. Embassy has severe limitations on its ability to assist U.S. citizens, and conditions, including transportation options, may suddenly become even more limited. U.S. citizens who are able to depart Russia for another country and are in need of emergency assistance upon arrival may contact a U.S. embassy or consulate in that country.

Due to Russias further invasion of Ukraine, an increasing number of airlines are cancelling flights into and out of Russia, and numerous countries have closed their airspace to Russian airlines. In addition, airspace around southern Russia is restricted, and a number of airports in the area have closed. U.S. citizens located in, or considering travel to, the districts of the Russian Federation immediately bordering Ukraine should be aware that the situation along the border is dangerous and unpredictable. Given the ongoing armed conflict, U.S. citizens are strongly advised against traveling by land from Russia to Ukraine. In addition, there is the potential throughout Russia of harassment of foreigners, including through regulations targeted specifically against foreigners.

The U.S. governments ability to provide routine or emergency services to U.S. citizens in Russia is severely limited, particularly in areas far from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, due to Russian government limitations on travel, the number of U.S. staff, and the ongoing suspension of operations, including consular services, at U.S. consulates.

Do Not Travel to:

The North Caucasus, including Chechnya and Mount Elbrus, due to terrorism, kidnapping, and risk of civil unrest.

Crimea due to Russias occupation of the Ukrainian territory and abuses by its occupying authorities.

Country Summary: U.S. citizens, including former and current U.S. government and military personnel and private citizens engaged in business, who are visiting or residing in Russia have been interrogated without cause and threatened by Russian officials, and may become victims of harassment, mistreatment, and extortion. All U.S. government personnel should carefully consider their need to travel to Russia.

The Department has determined that at least one U.S. national is wrongfully detained by the Russian government.

Russian security services have arrested U.S. citizens on spurious charges, singled out U.S. citizens in Russia for detention and/or harassment, denied them fair and transparent treatment, and have convicted them in secret trials and/or without presenting credible evidence. Russian officials may unreasonably delay U.S. consular assistance to detained U.S. citizens. Russian authorities arbitrarily enforce local laws against U.S. citizen religious workers and open questionable criminal investigations against U.S. citizens engaged in religious activity. Russian security services are increasing the arbitrary enforcement of local laws to target foreign and international organizations they consider undesirable, and U.S. citizens should avoid travel to Russia to perform work for or volunteer with non-governmental organizations. Russian authorities may not notify the U.S. Embassy of the detention of a U.S. citizen, and consular access to detainees may be denied or severely delayed.

Russia enforces special restrictions on dual U.S.-Russian nationals and may refuse to acknowledge dual nationals U.S. citizenship, including denying access to U.S. consular assistance and preventing their departure from Russia.

The rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression are not guaranteed in Russia, and U.S. citizens should avoid all political or social protests.

Terrorist groups, transnational and local terrorist organizations, and individuals inspired by extremist ideology continue plotting possible attacks in Russia. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, local government facilities, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, parks, major sporting and cultural events, educational institutions, airports, and other public areas.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) prohibiting U.S. aviation operations into, out of, within, or over those areas of the Moscow Flight Information Region (FIR), the Samara FIR (UWWW) and the Rostov-na-Donu (URRV) FIR within 160NM of the boundaries of the Dnipro (UKDV) Flight Information Regions. For more information, U.S. citizens should consult the Federal Aviation Administrations Prohibitions, Restrictions, and Notices.

Read the country information page for additional information on travel to Russia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has determined Russia has a moderate level of COVID-19. Visit the CDC page for the latest Travel Health Information related to your travel. There are restrictions in place affecting U.S. citizen entry into Russia.

If you decide to travel to Russia:

North Caucasus (including Chechnya and Mount Elbrus)  Level 4: Do Not Travel

Terrorist attacks and risk of civil unrest continue throughout the North Caucasus region, including in Chechnya, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Stavropol, Karachayevo-Cherkessiya, and Kabardino-Balkariya. Local gangs have kidnapped U.S. citizens and other foreigners for ransom. There have been credible reports of arrest, torture, and extrajudicial killing of LGBTI persons in Chechnya allegedly conducted by Chechen regional authorities.

Do not attempt to climb Mount Elbrus, as travelers must pass close to volatile and insecure areas of the North Caucasus region. The U.S. government is unable to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens traveling in the North Caucasus region, including Mount Elbrus, as U.S. government employees are prohibited from traveling to the region.

Visit our website for Travel to High-Risk Areas.

Crimea  Level 4: Do Not Travel

The international community, including the United States and Ukraine, does not recognize Russias purported annexation of Crimea. There is extensive Russian Federation military presence in Crimea. Russia staged its further invasion of Ukraine, in part, from occupied Crimea, and Russia is likely to take further military actions in Crimea as part of its occupation of this part of Ukraine. There are continuing abuses against foreigners and the local population by the occupation authorities in Crimea, particularly against those who are seen as challenging their authority on the peninsula.

The U.S. government is unable to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens traveling in Crimea, as U.S. government employees are prohibited from traveling to Crimea.

Visit our website for Travel to High-Risk Areas.

Not too much truth that I see there. Could have just asked me about what Russia is like and they could have saved themselves making up more and more lies

I wonder why they did not just ask me?

I would have told them the truth, as I was driving down the highway

WtR
Weather Alert

...Another Round of Thunderstorms This Week... * Another surge of monsoon moisture will bring back thunderstorms to the region this week, with the best chances being today, Wednesday, and Thursday. * Each day today through Thursday, most areas will have a 20 to 40 percent chance of seeing a storm in the afternoon and early evening hours. Nocturnal showers and thunderstorms are possible tonight and again Wednesday night. * Impacts will range from lightning, new fire starts, and strong outflow winds with blowing dust, to periods of heavy rainfall and flash flooding. * Ensure you have a way of receiving weather alerts or monitoring radar on your phone. If you live in a flash flood prone area, especially near a burn scar, be ready to act quickly if heavy rainfall occurs.
 Flash

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said on Tuesday that he delivered a verbal message from President Yoon Suk-yeol to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, expressing the willingness to improve relations with Japan during his courtesy call on the Japanese premier.

Park told reporters that the outcomes of the meeting at the Japanese prime minister's official residence in Tokyo showed an effort to mend the bilateral ties strained over the wartime history and trade.

During the 20-minute meeting between Park and Kishida, the two sides also touched on the issues related to Japan's wartime forced labor and sexual slavery, Park said.

Tuesday's meeting followed Park's talks with his Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi the previous day, which focused on restoring ties.

During Monday's meeting, Park and Hayashi agreed on the need for an early settlement over issues related to Koreans who were forced to labor during Japan's 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

During World War II, soldiers from the Japanese army also coerced and kidnapped tens of thousands of girls and women from Asian countries and forced them to work as sex slaves, servicing Japanese soldiers at military brothels.

Many of the women forced into sexual slavery came from the Korean Peninsula, as well as from other parts of Asia, and euphemistically these sex slaves have been known collectively as "comfort women."

Seoul maintains that the "comfort women" issue has not been settled as the will of the surviving victims has not been reflected.

On Tuesday, Park also talked to a cross-party group of Japanese lawyers for promoting exchanges between the two countries.
You see an actor on TV and have trouble remembering her name  that tip of the tongue sensation. Or you walk into a room to retrieve something only to forget what it was you came to get, a phenomenon known as the doorway effect. These sorts of things happen to most of us as we get older.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a stage between cognitive changes associated with normal aging and the more serious decline of dementia.

MCI is an umbrella term for an early stage of loss of cognitive, or thinking, ability, says Tamar Gefen, a neuropsychologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. An individual does not lose their ability to carry out their typical activities of daily living. They have cognitive problems but can still work, can still drive. No one would necessarily from the outside know that theres anything wrong with their thinking.

The changes, however, are serious enough to be noticed by the person affected and by family caregivers and others who know them well. Ardeshir Hashmi, M.D., section chief of the Center for Geriatric Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, likens MCI to borderline diabetes, a condition that develops before a person gets type 2 diabetes.

That is what MCI is to memory impairment, he says. You dont have dementia at the time but are you borderline or at risk of developing it in the future. Its sort of a warning stage.

There are two categories of mild cognitive impairment.

Amnestic MCI affects memory. A person may start to forget information they would have recalled easily before, such as the contents of a recent conversation, an appointment theyve been reminded of multiple times or a recurring event like a close relatives birthday.

Non-amnestic MCI affects other thinking skills. You can remember things, but other ways you engage your brain become more difficult. These might include:

 Your ability to make sound decisions or understand instructions.

 Spatial ability  you have trouble navigating through your environment or gauging distances.

 Language  losing your train of thought or forgetting familiar words when speaking.

 Calculation  difficulty with anything that involves math, for example.

Whats behind the brain fog?

According to the Alzheimers Association, 12 to 18 percent of people age 60 or older are living with mild cognitive impairment. An estimated 10 to 15 percent of individuals with MCI develop dementia each year.

Some people [with MCI] will be in the early stages of a neurodegenerative process, such as Alzheimers disease, says C. Munro Cullum, a neuropsychologist at the UT Southwestern ODonnell Brain Institute. Others may be experiencing cognitive decline or memory loss due to vascular risk factors, such as a series of small mini-strokes or hyper-cholesterol building up over many years, leading to reduced blood flow through blood vessels in the brain.

There are people who have MCI and remain stable, and some actually get better and revert back to normal cognition, Hashmi says. Depending on the underlying cause, it may be a treatable thing.
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YBO - Representatives from the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Vietnam have paid a visit to Yen Bai to discuss policies on supporting youth startups under the project PARTICIPATE: Empowered civil society organisations and ethnic minority youth for active participation in decision making in Yen Bai, Vietnam.

Fund by the EU Delegation in Vietnam, the project has been implemented by the organisation Save the Children (SC) and the Center for Sustainable Development of Mountainous Communities (SUDECOM) in Yen Bai city.





During their trip, the officials toured and held working sessions with authorities of the province and Tran Yen district on support policies regarding vocational training, job creation, and startup for young people.





Lauding the policies implemented in the project areas and the startup spirit of ethic youth there, the officials stressed its commitments to further assist the localities and their young people.








Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A teenage tryst took a violent turn Monday, when it was interrupted by a brawl breaking out between two families.

The fight ended with one man fatally shooting another.

On Tuesday, Albuquerque police charged Michael Anthony Koester, 25, with second-degree murder in the death of Raul Gallegos, 44. Koester and Gallegos had been fighting and police said Koester shot Gallegos three times as he was retreating to his vehicle after the fight, an Albuquerque police spokesman said in a news release.

The chain of events started when Daysha Aragon returned to her apartment at 6000 Topke NE and caught a naked teenage boy laughing in a bedroom with three teenage girls, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. The boy and one of the girls were putting their clothes back on, according to the complaint.

Koester, Aragons boyfriend, confronted the teenage boy, identified as J.G., and picked him up in a bear hug and removed him from the apartment. At one point J.G. called family members and asked them to come to the apartment, which is near Montgomery and San Pedro.

Aragon later told police that J.G. told his family members to bring their straps, which is slang for guns. She said she then retrieved a gun from her apartment.

Multiple people started to arrive at the complex and a fight broke out. Brass knuckles and blood were later observed in the parking lot, along with clothes and a tan gun, according to the complaint.

Police were called to the complex around 4:30 p.m. on a reported disturbance call that was later upgraded to a shooting.

Parts of the physical fight were recorded on a cellphone, according to the complaint.

Police were able to watch the scene unfold as Koester fought with Gallegos, J.G.s father. The men were shirtless and in shorts, fighting near a red sedan with its hazard lights on, according to the complaint. Koester is 6 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 350 pounds and at times during the fight is seen holding Gallegos against the car and throwing him to the ground.

As the video progresses, Aragon and Shamrah Gallegos, J.G.s mother, start to fight and pull each others hair, according to the complaint. Koesters father and other people are also observed in the footage of the fight, according to the complaint.

Near the end of the video, police said a voice is heard saying, hey brother, calm down. A gun slide is heard. The footage then shows Koester armed with a gun.

In describing the video, an Albuquerque detective wrote that Gallegos moved away from Koester and Gallegos raised his left hand when Koester shot him three times.

Shamrah and Raul Gallegos drove away from the scene after the shooting and flagged down a police service aide at the scene of a crash. Emergency medical personnel who also responded to that crash drove Raul Gallegos to University of New Mexico Hospital, where he died.

Koester declined to speak with police. It wasnt clear from court records if he has an attorney. Aragon, his girlfriend, declined to comment.

The video captured shows Raul (Gallegos) retreating back to his vehicle as Michael is cocking the firearm and pointing it at Raul, the detective wrote in the complaint.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A new-to-the-market internet service provider says it is ready to reach into even the most underserved parts of Albuquerque through a new licensing agreement with the city.

Texas-based Vexus Fiber is venturing into New Mexicos largest city this year with plans to spend $250 million on fiber-optic infrastructure for what officials call the citys first fiber-to-the-home network.

Albuquerque leaders this week announced the new license agreement that will make Vexus the fourth company to provide home internet service in Albuquerque, one with plans to provide coverage throughout the 188-square-mile city.

One of the tenets of our agreement with the city is that were going to build the entire city, Vexus President and CEO Jim Gleason said in an interview Tuesday.

While there is some fiber around Albuquerque already, the city governments broadband program manager said it is not readily available to residential customers.

It is either used for transport services or for certain businesses, broadband program manager Catherine Nicolaou said. We do not have a fiber-to-the-home network in Albuquerque.

Nicolaou said 2020 numbers show that a quarter of people in Albuquerque lack access to broadband internet. She could not identify which specific areas of Albuquerque are considered underserved nor where residents do not have any options, but she said there is an assessment of the conditions underway now.

Theres definitely a need for more service, Nicolaou said.

Vexus plans to start building its network north of Downtown in September, according to the city, and customers in that area should have access about three to four months later. Completing the entire citywide network is expected to take about three years. The project will create about 300 construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs, the city said in a news release.

Vexus has not received or sought any economic development incentives, though Gleason said it would likely explore its options.

The company will pay the city for using its right-of-way and, eventually, 3% of gross revenue, Nicolaou said.

Gleason said the company  which grew from the 2019 acquisition of West Texas-based NTS Communications  specializes in medium-sized cities. Albuquerque will be its biggest market, though he said it is comparable in size to the Rio Grande Valley region of southern Texas, where Vexus is already working with multiple municipalities. He said Albuquerque made geographic sense as an expansion market for the company, but that the limited broadband competition and the citys economy also made it appealing.

We think theres a lot of positive momentum in Albuquerque today, he said.

Vexus starter package for 150 Mbps service generally runs $49.99, Gleason said, though the company offers an introductory rate of $39.99 for the first year.

Were looking forward to seeing the economic impact that Vexus Fiber will bring to our city, not only from construction, but also for the industries that benefit from fiber and technology startups, city Economic Development Director Charles Ashley III said in a statement. We know that by investing in broadband now, we will have a positive impact on the lives of future generations of New Mexicans.

Editors note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Charles Ashley IIIs name.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico may no longer be at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but many families are still struggling.

Legislation unanimously passed in 2020 thats set to kick in this school year will give many of those families a break by covering school breakfasts and lunches for their children.

Around 57,000 New Mexico students who qualify for reduced-price meals will be able to keep eating for free, according to a news release from the state Public Education Department. Nearly 180,000 students qualify for free meals, according to the PED.

By covering these school meal copays, were giving hard-working families one less bill to worry about at the end of the week, Student Success and Wellness Bureau Director Michael Chavez said.

You cant learn on an empty stomach, Secretary of Education Kurt Steinhaus added.

At Albuquerque Public Schools, the largest district in New Mexico, about 70% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, according to an April report by the Legislative Finance Committee. Statewide, its about 71% of students, according to the PED.

For two years, New Mexico didnt have to use annual funds to cover school meals because of federal pandemic legislation that waived their costs for every student, according to the release.

But with President Joe Bidens signing of the federal Keep Kids Fed Act, which extends funding to provide meals through the summer, New Mexicos safety net is set to kick in this school year, a PED spokeswoman said.

Lawmakers passed that measure  House Bill 10, which required the PED to foot the bill for copayments families were expected to cover  in 2020 without a single vote in opposition. Along with the bill came $625,000 in funds set to recur each year, according to the PED.

Families with incomes up to 130% of the federal poverty level  a maximum of $36,000 for a family of four  are eligible for free meals. Then families with incomes up to 185% of the level, or $51,000 for a family of four, are eligible for reduced-price meals for their students, the PED said.

Schools will need to report the number of reduced-price meals they serve so the PED can reimburse them. Copays are capped at 40 cents per meal.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

It began with a 911 call around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

A man was in a lot of pain and disoriented. He told a dispatcher he was trapped inside a downed helicopter. There were three others in the helicopter, which had crashed in a remote part of San Miguel County.

Hes just advising that its just him right now, but he is stating that there were four on board, including himself, the dispatcher said over the radio, kicking off a frantic search.

By 8:06 p.m. the caller had fallen silent as officers and firefighters scoured a 5-mile area for the wreckage and at least one rescue helicopter declined to respond due to weather.

The line is open but hes not responding to anything, a dispatcher said over the radio.

When New Mexico State Police officers found the crash site, there were two men unresponsive and two others clearly dead. Within minutes, ambulances and medical assistance was called off.

The four were beyond help.

It was the single deadliest incident for law enforcement in New Mexico, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, claiming the lives of Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office Undersheriff Larry Koren, 55; Lt. Fred Beers, 51; and Deputy Michael Levison, 30. Bernalillo County Fire Department rescue specialist Matthew King, 44, was also killed in the crash. The last time BCSO lost someone in the line of duty was 2010, when a deputy was killed in a vehicle crash in Southeast Albuquerque.

Lengthy investigation ahead

The National Transportation Safety Board said the BCSO helicopter fell out of the sky at a high rate of speed, killing all four onboard. But dispatch recordings reveal at least one of the men, who is not identified, was not killed instantly.

What caused the crash and other details surrounding the incident will be determined through a lengthy investigation, according to the NTSB. A preliminary report could be released in two to three weeks, but the full report could take a year or two.

Officials have not said who was piloting the aircraft.

Prior to the crash, according to BCSO, the four had spent the day providing dozens of bucket drops and other logistics to assist crews fighting the East Mesa Fire on private land south of La Liendre.

They wrapped up their mission on the fire at around 6:20 p.m., refueled at the Las Vegas, New Mexico airport and began heading back home at around 6:35 p.m., according to BCSO.

The helicopter crashed in the hills south of town less than an hour later.

It is unclear which medical rescue helicopter, referred to as air ambulance in the recordings, advised it couldnt respond due to weather. A Department of Health spokeswoman said its rescue helicopter was told not to respond after the men were pronounced dead.

Carly Newlands, a spokeswoman for University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, wouldnt say whether their helicopter was the one that was initially requested and declined to respond. She said a full investigation will outline and provide these details when released.

A flash flood warning had been issued for the area north of the crash site in the hours before the incident occurred. A meteorologist with the National Weather Service said the thunderstorms in the area that day brought less rain and more gusty, erratic, winds due to a drying of the atmosphere.

The call

The 911 call around 7:30 p.m. alerted local authorities about the crash, according to archived San Miguel County dispatch recordings. Authorities traced the call to a stretch of County Road B27, west of Chapelle.

They do have (communications) with one of the occupants, they are trapped in the helicopter, a dispatcher said in the early minutes.

Responding State Police and other rescue personnel asked how many were injured, and if they were ambulatory, as a medical helicopter was requested.

One first responder asked if the trapped passenger said the helicopter is smoking or on fire  anything like that?

A dispatcher responded, They were advising that they saw dust on the initial contact with the ground but  did not see smoke or anything at this time. They did state that there is gas leaking from the aircraft, unknown how much at this time.

Someone asked for the Federal Aviation Administration to be contacted. Around 7:45 p.m. an air ambulance advised it was going to cancel due to weather.

Go down the line and see if you can find the next available, see if anybody is willing to fly out, someone said over the radio. State Police officers arrived in the area at about 7:50 p.m. and told dispatch they were going to start scouting. Dispatch was asked if there were any updates from the 911 caller.

(We are) not getting much information. Subject is in a lot of pain and he is disoriented, a dispatcher replied. First responders then asked what the flight path was.

I have the (caller) on the line, sounds like hes trying to say south but his words arent really making sense anymore, sounds like hes trying to say south, a dispatcher said.

Rescue personnel found a medical helicopter willing to respond to the site and the 911 caller told dispatch he could hear the sirens of first responders to the east.

Thats me, Im running into a fence so Im going to go ahead and cut the fence and I think we should get to them, a first responder said. Then someone asked, Do they still hear the sirens?

Stand by, the male subject is not responding to dispatchers questions anymore, the dispatcher said. The (caller) is not answering  the line is open but hes not responding to anything.

Around 8:06 p.m. a State Police officer found the wreckage.

They are requesting medical assistance ASAP, someone said over the radio. Theres a total of four patients, two nonresponsive and two 10-7 (dead).

By 8:25 p.m. the dispatcher is told to cancel incoming medical helicopters.

No need for additional medical helicopters whatsoever, someone said over the radio.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

The morning after 10-year-old Victoria Martens was murdered in 2016, the girls mother, Michelle Martens, repeatedly made one comment: She said she killed my daughter, neighbors testified Tuesday.

One neighbor told jurors that she became infuriated by what appeared to be Martens lack of concern for her two children.

I kept begging her, where are your kids? Sharlene Benavidez, Martens neighbor, testified Tuesday on the fifth day of Fabian Gonzales trial for his role in Victorias death.

I asked her like five times and she wouldnt say anything, she recalled. Benavidez and other witnesses testified that Martens appeared remote and expressionless. She didnt have any reaction.

Benavidez said she became so concerned for the welfare of Martens children that she began to walk over to Martens apartment, but was stopped by her daughter.

It really was strange to me that she didnt ask any questions, Benavidez said of Martens.

Martens youngest child, Victorias brother, was staying with his father the night of the slaying and was unharmed.

Victoria was strangled and dismembered on Aug. 23, 2016, in her mothers West Side Albuquerque apartment.

Prosecutors allege that Gonzales and his cousin, Jessica Kelley, worked together to dismember the girl and clean the apartment to destroy evidence of the killing.

Kelley, 37, pleaded no contest in 2019 to six felony charges, including child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12. Kelley was sentenced in April to 44 years in prison, although she will be eligible for parole in half that time.

Martens, 40, pleaded guilty in 2018 to child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12. She faces 12-15 years in prison. Her sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.

Both women were required by their plea agreements to testify in Gonzales trial.

Kelley testified last week that a man she didnt know barged into Martens apartment and strangled Victoria in her bedroom while Kelley smoked a cigarette on the balcony.

Gonzales is on trial for charges including child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12.

Gonzales attorney, Stephen Aarons, told jurors last week that Kelley acted alone without the knowledge of either Martens or Gonzales.

Aarons also alleges that Kelley received a generous plea deal in exchange for her testimony.

Kelley testified last week that she decided to kill both her co-defendants and struck Martens in the face with an iron.

Aarons told jurors in opening statements last week that, as Martens fled the apartment, Kelley told her that her daughter was dead.

Neighbors in Martens apartment complex testified Tuesday that chaos erupted about 4:30 a.m. the morning after Victorias killing.

Benavidez said she was awakened that morning by Gonzales pounding on the door of her apartment. By the time Benavidez got to her door, Gonzales was knocking at the apartment downstairs where he told residents to call 911.

Then, Martens approached with a gash on her forehead, and blood on her face, chest and arms, said Myriah Bitah, Benavidezs daughter, who was living with her mother at the time.

Bitah overheard Martens say: She killed my daughter, she told jurors.

I just remember seeing Michelles face. She was in shock, but she didnt really have emotion on her face. She was there, but she wasnt there.

Others testified that the previous evening they saw Kelley carry Victorias body down the stairs from Martens apartment.

Victor Rojas-Acevedo, Martens next-door neighbor, said he and other family members returned home from a park about 8:45 p.m. the night of Victorias death.

Gonzales and Martens were sitting in Martens car in front of the apartment building singing and dancing to loud music, Rojas-Acevedo testified. The two also were drinking from a bottle, he said.

Kelley emerged from Martens apartment cradling a girl wrapped in a blanket and began walking down the outside stairway, he told jurors.

Only the childs hair and feet were visible, he said. Kelley looked like she was struggling to carry the girl, he said. She was having trouble walking.

Then, Kelley yelled, are you ready? and Gonzales answered, no, not yet, Rojas-Acevedo told jurors. Kelley carried the girl back up the stairs to the apartment, he said.

Rojas-Acevedo said he was awakened early the next morning by Martens screaming stop, stop, in the apartment next door.

We heard what sounded like running inside Martens apartment, he told jurors. It sounded like fighting, banging on the walls, as well.

The chaos next door stopped and resumed several times before Martens ran out of her front door and down the stairs, he said. Then, Martens joined Gonzales in front of the apartment building.

Martens told Gonzales, I think she killed her, and Fabian responded, Its OK, babe, lets go, Rojas-Acevedo said.

The two then walked to another neighbors apartment where Albuquerque police arrested them.

An officer charged up to Martens apartment and called for Kelley by name, then forced his way into the apartment after getting no response, Rojas-Acevedo testified.

Kelley testified last week that she set fire to Victorias body in a bathtub as police tried to enter the apartment. Kelley then jumped off the balcony, injuring her ankle.

Kelley was quickly arrested on the grounds of the apartment complex.
Two hours after issuing an Amber alert for a 1-year-old boy they said had been abducted by his mother, authorities canceled it, saying the boy was no longer missing.

Dakota (Sadrick) has been located and is safe, State Police said shortly before 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. The agency didnt say where the boy was found or whether Sonya Lucero, his biological mother, is facing any charges.

State Police issued the Amber Alert at around 11:20 p.m. on Tuesday, saying Dakota had last been seen Monday morning in Los Lunas.

They are believed to be traveling in a blue 2006 Chevrolet Impala displaying a New Mexico Temporary Tag, the alert said.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

NewSpace New Mexico is launching a new business incubator to help ignite the commercial engines of space companies that need some extra thrust to achieve market success.

The NewSpace Ignitor is a first-of-its-kind incubator for established space-related firms that need more direct industry connections, mentoring and access to resources to prototype and test new technology, allowing them to attract customers, win contracts and secure financing to build their businesses into sustainable enterprises, said NewSpace NM CEO Casey DeRaad.

Both NewSpace NM and the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base are working together on the program to create a bridge for budding companies to transverse the infamous valley of death, where new, promising businesses surpass the initial startup phase of growth only to crash and burn as they attempt to penetrate markets and scale operations.

Its for small and medium-sized companies that need resources to move beyond research and development to overcome barriers to market entry, DeRaad told the Journal.  Were targeting companies at the precipice of the valley of death to help them get across. Well help them advance from business concept to actual product and then help them scale up with direct customer connections to generate the income they need to move forward.

Ignitor will be housed at the Unite & Ignite Launchpad, an 8,700-square-foot innovation hub and co-working space that NewSpace and the AFRL opened last year near the Albuquerque International Sunport. That facility offers collaborative work spaces, offices, conference rooms and high-tech equipment for small satellite manufacturing, and for building, testing and evaluating space technology components and products.

A five-year, $11 million AFRL contract awarded to NewSpace last year provides the financing for Unite & Ignite, and for the new Ignitor incubator, which is free for participants.

Ignitor is the latest AFRL-backed endeavor to support the emerging commercial space industry. In 2018, AFRL launched the annual Hyperspace Challenge in partnership with the ABQid business accelerator run by CNM Ingenuity for companies to learn about government needs and explore ways to align their technology development with those missions.

And last year, AFRL contracted the New Mexico Trade Alliance to manage a new, 9,000-square-foot co-working space in Nob Hill called Q Station, which is now completing its first business accelerator for six space-related startup companies. A second accelerator cohort will launch in January.

Four of the current cohorts participants now plan to establish independent business offices in New Mexico, said Randy Trask, Trade Alliance president and Q Station executive director.

Q Station is bustling with activity, Trask told the Journal. We have around 30-40 people coming through the co-working space every day.

But unlike Q Station  which specifically concentrates on startups  the new Ignitor program aims to accelerate growth and sustainability for existing companies, said AFRL Space Force Accelerator Program Director Gabe Mounce.

Ignitor provides the next step in the ecosystem to help companies mature their technology and build their business operations, Mounce told the Journal.

NewSpace will choose 10 companies for Ignitor participation based on applications submitted in August, DeRaad said. It will then select four of those for the first incubator cohort.

There is no set curriculum. Services and resources will be tailored to individual company needs.

Well develop a navigation plan for each company with a menu of services, from testing new technology to building business pitches and showcasing their products to potential customers, DeRaad said.

NewSpace  which launched in 2018 to unite space-related companies and organizations in a joint effort to advance New Mexicos commercial space industry  will draw on its 189-member network to help provide services and resources for Ignitor participants. As participants graduate from the program, more firms will be brought in to continuously serve companies, DeRaad said.

Defense agencies and the private sector mutually benefit from AFRLs accelerator programs, which encourage new technology development needed by government while also building the commercial space industry, Mounce said.
MEXICO CITY  When fugitive 1980s Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested in Mexico last week, it stirred up old, terrible memories for Lannie Walker, the daughter of American writer John Clay Walker.

While Caro Quintero was only ever sentenced in Mexico for the killing of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Kiki Camarena and Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar in 1985, his gang apparently killed as many as six U.S. citizens in the western city of Guadalajara around the same time.

John Clay Walker, then 36 and a writer who had moved to Guadalajara to finish a book, was one of them.

We were both very glad to hear that (Caro Quintero) had been captured, and it also brought back a lot of trauma for us, said Lannie Walker. My sister and I have lost almost 40 years with our father, there is nothing that can make up for that.

The U.S. writer and his friend Alberto Radelat, a dental student from Fort Worth, Texas, had walked into The Lobster, a high-end Guadalajara seafood restaurant, to celebrate Walkers planned return to the United States.

They did not know that Caro Quintero and his companions were holding a private party in a back room of the restaurant.

Our father was an American citizen with no involvement in the Mexico-United States drug war, he was an innocent bystander that unwittingly became caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous drug cartel, said Lannie Walker. They began questioning my father and Al, asking them what they knew about the drug enforcement agents in Mexico, what they knew about the investigation. My father knew nothing, he was an innocent writer. They tortured him with an icepick for hours.

Mike Vigil, the DEAs former chief of international operations, said Caro Quintero was one of those individuals that because he now had power, he had wealth, he crossed the line many times in terms of the people that he killed.

Describing what occurred at the restaurant, Vigil said they looked out and they saw the two Americans and they immediately through their paranoia as well thought that they were DEA agents. They took him into the back and stabbed to death.

The bodies of Radelat and Walker were found wrapped in carpet in June 1985, nearly five months after they disappeared.

In December 1984, two young American couples were walking door to door in Guadalajara, trying to spread their faith as Jehovahs Witnesses. The four were abducted and never seen again.

Two state police officials later said that they helped kidnap and kill the couples on the order of Caro Quintero and fellow capo Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo. They apparently inadvertently knocked on Fonseca Carrillos door as they proselytized.

Vigil, who was in Mexico and worked on Camarenas case at the time, explained why the investigation focused on the killing of the DEA agent.

I think that the DEA concentrated on the Kiki Camarena case and then the drug trafficking charges. I dont think that the DEA, it was not that they werent interested in the other murders, but, you know, that probably would have fallen into the jurisdiction of maybe another agency, Vigil said.

One of the things that we were really focused on was bringing these individuals to justice simply because the DEA is committed that if one of the agents is murdered, we will hunt these people down to the end of the earth and not spare any expenditure, any resources or any activity that we have to do to get the job done, he said.

Lannie Walker says that if Caro Quintero is extradited to the U.S. and is convicted and punished here, that would be a small amount of justice.

They likely will not come quickly. Caro Quinteros lawyers filed measures with the court  and the judge agreed  that would ensure he goes through the full extradition process and will have the possibility of the corresponding appeals if necessary. Extradition for former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin El Chapo Guzman took a year.

We do have hope, she said. But we are very aware of how the Mexican government and the Mexican judicial system has worked, you know, as far as our fathers case is concerned up until now. So we do have hope but we are nervous that what happened in 2013 could happen again.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Lannie Walker said her father was tortured for hours.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  A retired judge serving as a hearing officer approved a settlement Wednesday that would require state Rep. Rebecca Dow to pay a $500 civil penalty for violations of the state Governmental Conduct Act.

The tentative settlement is now set to go before the State Ethics Commission in August for final approval.

Retired U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan C. Torgerson said he was pleased to see the negotiated resolution given the very contentious nature of the case.

For nearly two years, Dow has fought allegations that she failed to properly disclose income from a nonprofit group she founded and violated the state law that restricts when legislators may represent a client before a state agency.

At one point in the case, Dow refused to sit for a court-ordered deposition, resulting in sanctions of $50 a day, according to documents filed in the case.

The settlement doesnt address the financial disclosure allegation. Dow contends she worked diligently to comply with the disclosure law and over disclosed her role with AppleTree, the nonprofit she founded and once led as CEO.

But the agreement says Dow will pay a civil penalty for violations of the law restricting when lawmakers may represent someone before state agencies. The Governmental Conduct Act prohibits state lawmakers from helping someone before a state agency unless the lawmaker is unpaid or working on behalf of a constituent, among other exceptions.

AppleTree is funded mostly by state contracts and grants, according to documents filed in the ethics case. It serves children and families in Sierra County.

Walker Boyd, the general counsel of the State Ethics Commission, highlighted emails Dow had sent to the Public Education Department and an invoice she submitted to AppleTree listing her meetings with state Cabinet secretaries to promote AppleTree as evidence that she had violated the Governmental Conduct Act.

Boyd described the settlement as a hard-fought agreement negotiated by both sides to avoid the cost and time of further litigation. The settlement also sets a precedent, he said, for enforcing the relevant parts of the Governmental Conduct Act, the states ethics law.

I think the settlement is fair and reasonable, Boyd said.

Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for governor this year and will step down from her state House seat before the start of next years 60-day legislative session.

She didnt appear at the online hearing because of technical trouble, her attorney, Lucas Williams, said. But he agreed the settlement was in the best interest of the state.
NEW YORK  Ivana Trump, the 1980s style icon and businesswoman who helped Donald Trump build the empire that put him on a road toward the White House, lived a beautiful life, the former president recalled as loved ones paid final respects to her Wednesday.

The ex-president joined all his children, an array of other relatives and friends at a Manhattan church for Ivana Trumps funeral Mass.

A very sad day, but at the same time a celebration of a wonderful and beautiful life, he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, before he, former first lady Melania Trump and their son Barron headed to St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church, located just a few blocks from Ivana Trumps home near Central Park.

Ivana and Donald Trumps three children  Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric  stood with their father and their families as the gold-toned casket was carried from the church. Eric Trump briefly put an arm around his sisters shoulders as she held the hand of one of her small children, who clutched a red flower.

Tiffany Trump, the daughter of the former president and his second wife, Marla Maples, also attended the service, as did family friends including Jeanine Pirro, co-host of Fox News The Five, and Charles Kushner, a real estate developer and the father of Ivanka Trumps husband, Jared Kushner. Fashion designer Dennis Basso, a longtime friend of Ivana Trumps, was also among the mourners.

The Mass was an elegant, wonderful send-off for Ivana Trump, another longtime friend, R. Couri Hay, said as he emerged.

Trumps family announced Thursday that the 73-year-old had died at her home. Authorities said the death was an accident, with blunt impact injuries to her torso as the cause.

Ivana and Donald Trump met in the 1970s and were married from 1977 to 1992. In the 1980s, they were a power couple, and she became well known in her own right, instantly recognizable with her blond hair in an updo and her glamorous look.

Ivana Trump also took part in her husbands businesses, managing one of his Atlantic City casinos and picking out some of the design elements in New York Citys Trump Tower.

Their very public divorce was ugly, but in recent years, they were friendly. Ivana Trump was an enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign and said they spoke on a regular basis.

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed.
KYIV, Ukraine  Ukrainian forces on Wednesday damaged a bridge that is key to supplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine, where Russias foreign minister said Moscow will consolidate its territorial gains.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state-controlled RT television and the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia plans to retain control over broader areas beyond eastern Ukraine, including the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south, and will make more gains elsewhere.

Lavrovs remarks and the Ukrainian missile attack on the strategically important Kherson region bridge indicated the nearly five-month war could broaden after unfolding mostly in eastern Ukraine since April.

Russias top diplomat noted that when Russia and Ukraine in March discussed a possible deal to end the fighting, Our readiness to accept the Ukrainian proposal was based on the geography of March 2022.

Now its a different geography, Lavrov said, repeating Moscows claims that the United States and Britain were encouraging Ukraine to expand the hostilities.

With Western countries providing Ukraine with longer-range weapons, Lavrov said Russias geographical tasks will be pushed even further from the current line because we cannot allow the part of Ukraine under control of Zelenskyy or whoever comes to succeed him, to have weapons that will pose a direct threat to our territory and the territories of those republics that have declared their independence.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 and quickly seized territory, but withdrew from the capital region and north to concentrate on seizing Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, which pro-Moscow separatists have partly controlled since 2014.

As Russian forces captured more of the two provinces, which together make up Ukraines industrial Donbas region, Ukrainian officials planned a counter-offensive to retake Russian-occupied areas in the south.

The Ukrainian strike on the Dnipro River bridge, the second in as many days, appeared intended to loosen Russias grip on the southern Kherson region.

Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of a temporary, Russian-installed administration running the region, said the Ukrainian military struck the Antonivskyi Bridge using U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers. The 1.4-kilometer (0.9-mile) bridge is the main river crossing in the Kherson region, and the Russian military uses it to supply its forces. Stremousov said that because of the bridge damage, pontoons would be constructed over the river, also known as the Dnieper.

The head of the Moscow-appointed Kherson administration, Vladimir Saldo, said cars could continue driving across the bridge but trucks couldnt and instead could use a dam 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

Early in the war, Russian troops overran the Kherson region just north of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. They have faced Ukrainian counterattacks, but have largely held their ground.

Kherson  site of ship-building at the confluence of the Dnipro River and Black Sea  is one of several areas a U.S. government spokesman said Russia is trying to take over.

White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence officials have evidence that Russia wants to annex Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and all of the Donbas through referendums, as soon as September.

In Zaporizhzhia, Russian-installed authorities claimed Wednesday that Ukraines military had used drones to attack the local nuclear power plant, Europes largest. Vladimir Rogov, a local Moscow-appointed official, said three Ukrainian attack drones had hit the plants territory with explosives but not its reactor area. All normal operations continued, and no release of radiation was detected, he said. Russias state news agency Tass reported 11 plant workers were injured, four seriously. The news agency later quoted a Russian military official as saying the attack had occurred Monday.

Ukrainian authorities, who have over the past months reported Russian missiles almost hitting the plant, did not immediately comment on the report.

The bulk of Russias forces are fighting in the Donbas, where they have made slow gains facing Ukrainian resistance. The Russian military has used long-range missiles to strike targets across Ukraine, killing hundreds of civilians.

Ukraines presidential office said at least 13 civilians were killed and 40 wounded in Russian shelling across the country in a 24-hour period between Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Wednesday, at least three more people died when Russia bombarded the northeastern city of Kharkiv with Hurricane salvo rocket systems. The victims, who were waiting at a bus stop, included a 69-year-old man, his wife and a 13-year-old boy.

The boys 15-year-old sister was injured, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutors Office. Video showed the boys father, apparently in a state of shock, praying above his sons uncovered body and holding his hand.

Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of launching cross-border attacks. Another such report came Wednesday, when Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had fired on two Russian border villages.

Most villagers were previously evacuated under a state of emergency, but Gladkov said the latest attack killed a man, and damaged homes and a village club.

In other developments Wednesday:

 An Associated Press investigation has found that many refugees from Ukraine are forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that Ukraine has been using U.S-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers effectively and would provide four more, bringing the total to 16. The truck-mounted HIMARS launchers fire GPS-guided missiles that can reach targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

 Ukraines first lady, Olena Zelenska, appealed to American lawmakers during a speech at the U.S. Capitol for more air defense systems to protect her countrys skies. In her unsparing Capitol address, Zelenska shared images of blood-stained baby strollers and small crumpled bodies left after Russian missile attacks.

 The European Unions head office proposed that member states cut their natural gas use by 15% over the coming months to ensure that any full Russian cutoff of natural gas supplies will not cause unmanageable winter disruptions. While the initial cuts would be voluntary, the European Commission also asked for the power to impose mandatory reductions across the bloc in the event of a severe gas shortage or exceptionally high demand.

Zelenskyy, in a Wednesday night video address, said Europe should have reduced its dependence on Russian gas previously. If our position had been listened to earlier, he said, we would not have had to look for emergency ways to fill the deficit that Russia is artificially creating on the European market.

 In a sign of the crippling economic impact of the war, the Ukrainian government said it would ask investors to allow the country to postpone foreign debt payments for two years. Leaders of a group of creditors said they agreed to the delay and urged bondholders to do the same.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
DENVER  Colorados secretary of states office on Wednesday said it has told two candidates who lost their Republican primary races last month that it will not conduct a recount of those races because they failed to pay the required amount by the deadline.

The office informed Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who lost her race for the GOP nomination for secretary of state, and state Rep. Ron Hanks, who fell short in his bid for the partys U.S. Senate nomination, that it was moving forward finalizing the results of the primary. Neither candidate paid the $236,000 that was due by July 15 for the recount.

In letters sent to the office on Tuesday, both said they wanted a hand recount rather than one done by machine. A centerpiece of their election conspiracy theory has been mistrust of voting machines.

Peters and Hanks have promoted the false claim that President Joe Biden did not actually win his election against former President Donald Trump in 2020 and also claimed widespread fraud led to their losses in the states June 28 GOP primary. They are part of a growing number of deniers of the outcome of the 2020 election also questioning their own primary losses.

The secretary of states letters said a hand recount is not allowed under the offices regulations and dismissed the candidates concerns about possible fraud. It said they have one last window to pay for a recount  until July 26.

The Secretary of States Office followed all statutes and rules regarding requests for recounts, and Mr. Hanks and Ms. Peters chose to not provide the certified funds as required under law, spokeswoman Annie Orloff said. Coloradans made their voices heard and candidates should accept the results of a secure and fair election  not spread disinformation.

There was no response to a request for comment from an email set up for both candidates.

Meanwhile, a group representing Colorados county clerks said Peters sent an email to clerks early Tuesday saying she would be requesting a hand recount of ballots in certain unspecified counties. Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said state law did not allow such requests to be made directly to individual counties and that he feared the improper request could trigger more attacks on county clerks and their election staff.

Clearly, Peters request is part of a larger effort to create chaos, disrupt, and cause doubt in our elections, he said in a statement.

He noted that her race was not close: Peters lost the GOP primary to a former local clerk, Pam Anderson, by about 88,500 votes.

The request came just ahead of Wednesdays deadline for counties to certify the election results after rechecking and auditing the vote count.

The normally routine verification of election results was subject to controversy in Nevada and New Mexico after critics raised concerns about voting machines and mail ballots.

But no problems have been reported in Colorado. All of the states 64 counties say they have completed their certifications or expect to by the end of the day, said Jack Todd, a spokesman for the secretary of states office.

The office has until Monday to review the certification reports before officially signing off on the election results.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

Not long ago, city leaders thought the proposed Albuquerque Rail Trail was headed nowhere.

Mayor Tim Keller said his administration did not have a clear cut way to fund a new pedestrian-friendly path linking the historic Albuquerque Rail Yards to the heart of Downtown, the Sawmill District and Old Town despite his conviction that it was a worthwhile endeavor that could become the citys next iconic landmark.

Two months ago, Keller said Wednesday during a news conference, this was the best project we ever thought of that was never gonna happen.

But a pair of recent investments mean there is now enough money available to complete the first phase of the trail. That includes $10 million from a $100 million infrastructure bond package the City Council approved in June, and a $10 million state contribution that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced on Wednesday.

The city also has a pending request for federal funding, one the governor said she thinks has a good chance of fulfillment.

Are we premature in celebrating (this project)? Lujan Grisham said during the news conference at the Rail Yards. No, we are not.

A framework plan released earlier this year calls the Rail Trail a localized and convenient multi-modal connection across Downtown.

The vision, according to the plan, is to connect communities and transform Downtowns rail corridor into a vibrant and artistic urban trail that creates opportunities for economic development, healthy recreation and culture expression. It would have shade, parklets and art.

Including money the city already had for the redevelopment project, officials say they now have $25 million in total available funding. That should cover about a mile of development near the railroad tracks from the Rail Yards in Barelas to Lomas Boulevard. That would include an at-grade pedestrian crossing above Central Avenue.

The second and third phases would develop the trail along a railroad spur and into Old Town, which would bring the total estimated cost to about $40 million.

The city has a pending request for federal assistance with the Central crossing; if the grant comes through, it should be enough to cover the first three phases, according to Albuquerque Chief Administrative Officer Lawrence Rael.

Potential future phases would connect Old Town to the Albuquerque BioParks botanic garden and aquarium, where the trail would meet the existing Bosque Trail. Users could then take the Bosque Trail to the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and the city may one day finish the loop by creating a trail from the center to the Rail Yards.

Lujan Grisham said the project represents the best kind of infrastructure spending. She said it could positively impact businesses, neighborhoods and tourism and could prompt millions more in additional investments along the corridor.

Im going to tell you were going to need that as we reimagine the state, starting with reimagining Albuquerque, she said. Because we never lost sight of its potential.
WASHINGTON  A bipartisan group of senators agreed Wednesday on proposed changes to the Electoral Count Act, the post-Civil War-era law for certifying presidential elections that came under intense scrutiny after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Donald Trumps effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Long in the making, the package introduced by the group led by Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Joe Manchin of West Virginia is made up of two separate proposals. One would clarify the way states submit electors and the vice president tallies the votes in Congress. The other would bolster security for state and local election officials who have faced violence and harassment.

From the beginning, our bipartisan group has shared a vision of drafting legislation to fix the flaws of the archaic and ambiguous Electoral Count Act of 1887, Collins, Manchin and the other 14 senators said in a joint statement.

We have developed legislation that establishes clear guidelines for our system of certifying and counting electoral votes, the group wrote. We urge our colleagues in both parties to support these simple, commonsense reforms.

Both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell have signaled support for the bipartisan group, but the final legislative package will undergo careful scrutiny.

Votes are not likely before fall. But with broad support from the group of 16 senators, seven Democrats and nine Republicans, who have worked behind closed doors for months with the help of outside experts, serious consideration is assured.

In a statement, Matthew Weil, executive director of the Democracy Program at the Bipartisan Policy Center, called the framework a critical step in shoring up ambiguities in the Electoral Count Act.

After Trump lost the 2020 election, the defeated president orchestrated an unprecedented attempt to challenge the electors sent from battleground states to the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, when the vice president presides over certification.

Under the proposed changes, the law would be updated to ensure the governor from each state is initially responsible for submitting electors, as a way to safeguard against states sending alternative or fake elector slates.

Additionally, the law would spell out that the vice president presides over the joint session in a solely ministerial capacity, according to a summary page. It says the vice president does not have any power to solely determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate disputes over electors.

That provision is a direct reaction to Trumps relentless efforts to pressure then Vice President Mike Pence to reject the electors being sent from certain battleground states as a way to halt the certification or tip it away from Joe Bidens victory.

The bill also specifies the procedures around presidential transitions, including when the election outcome is disputed, to ensure the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next.

Thats another pushback to the way Trump blocked Bidens team from accessing some information for his transition to the White House.

The second proposal, revolving around election security, would double the federal penalties to up to two years in prison for individuals who threaten or intimidate election officials, poll watchers, voters or candidates, according to the summary.

It also would seek to improve the way the U.S. Postal Service handles election mail and provide guidance to states to improve their mail-in ballot processes. Mail-in ballots and the role of the Postal Service came under great scrutiny during the 2020 election.

An Associated Press review of potential cases of voter fraud in six battleground states found no evidence of widespread fraud that could change the outcome of the election. A separate AP review of drop boxes used for mailed ballots also found no significant problems.

The need for election worker protections was front and center at a separate hearing Wednesday of the House Committee on Homeland Security. Election officials and experts testified that a rise in threats of physical violence is contributing to staffing shortages across the country and a loss of experience at local boards of elections.

The impact is widespread, said Neal Kelley, a former registrar of voters in Orange County, California, who now chairs the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. And, while the effects on individuals are devastating, the potential blow to democracy should not be dismissed.

Elizabeth Howard, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, told the committee that Congress needs to direct more money and support toward protecting election workers personal safety, including by funding local and federal training programs and providing grants to enhance security at election directors personal residences.

Democratic New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who recently reported a series of threats, told the panel the situation has become worse after former President Donald Trumps attacks against the 2020 election result.

Unfortunately, we are still on a daily basis, in my state and across the country, living with the reverberating effects of the Big Lie from 2020, she said. And, as we all know, when it comes to leadership, what you say from the very highest echelons of government power in this country do have those reverberating effects.

Some Republican members of the committee condemned violence against election workers  and also drew a parallel to recent threats and intimidation directed toward some Supreme Court justices after their decision to overturn constitutional protections for abortion.

GOP Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana rejected the notion that Trump and other election skeptics were solely responsible for the atmosphere of mistrust that grew up around the 2020 election.

__

Associated Press writer Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio contributed to this report.
GroupM, WPPs media investment group, today introduces the approach it will take to measure and reduce ad-based carbon emissions using a newly developed global carbon measurement framework. The framework is an innovative, new set of measurement methodologies designed to break down the media value chain and define the necessary data inputs to measure carbon emissions across all five stages of the advertising lifecycle for all formats, channels and markets in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocols standards.

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The establishment of a globally scalable approach to carbon measurement is a major step GroupM is taking to deliver on its commitment to decarbonize its media supply chain by 2030, as announced by WPP in April 2021. It provides the parameters, data inputs and methodology necessary to power what we believe to be the industrys most robust global carbon calculator, which will be available to GroupM clients later this year and will allow media planners to map the total carbon footprint of advertising campaigns from development to delivery.

Our clients want to prioritize media investment with publishers and platforms that are actively decarbonizing their media supply, said Christian Juhl, GroupMs Global CEO. While we applaud the many steps taken to quantify ad-based carbon emissions in recent years, having different standards across companies, platforms, and markets is delaying meaningful action. By sharing this global framework, we hope to begin aligning our industry behind a consistent set of standards that will create clear goals and incentives for rapidly decarbonizing the media supply chain.

Jerome Amouyal, Media Performance Insights Director, AXA said: We have seen that our industry has an increasing number of calculators, but not an aligned reduction plan. It is important that we as a collective get behind a robust, actionable solution that accelerates decarbonization. We believe that market approaches such as GroupMs will lead the way in educating, informing and enabling vital change in the industry. Were looking forward to working with them to have the right framework to inform our future buying decisions.

To develop its decarbonization framework, GroupM worked with independent specialists in carbon measurement and incorporated input from clients, industry partners, third parties, and experts across GroupM and WPP. In addition to providing standards and processes for measuring carbon emissions, the framework also outlines steps advertisers can take immediately to accelerate their decarbonization efforts. These include buying fewer but higher-quality ads, cutting the complexity of the supply chain by reducing intermediaries, and buying low-carbon media products.

To encourage the establishment of industry-wide standards for carbon measurement across channels and formats, GroupM will make the methodologies and processes supporting its new framework available to industry bodies and organizations committed to decarbonizing the media supply chain setting a target approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Sebastian Munden, Chair, Ad Net Zero, said: Action 3 of the Ad Net Zero action plan is all about getting the whole industry to the point where we can accurately track, report and therefore reduce the carbon footprint of all media channels. This is no easy task, especially as we scale the efforts of Ad Net Zero globally. We would need an agreed standardized approach that works for all parts of the ecosystem: advertisers, agencies, media and tech. This move by GroupM is hugely welcome, and a very timely development to help deliver those aims. Through the new Ad Net Zero Global Group recently announced at Cannes Lions, we will explore how this approach can be scaled right across the industry.

The details of GroupMs media decarbonization framework are summarized in Calculating a Cleaner Future Now: A Unified Methodology for Accelerated Media Decarbonization, a report published by GroupM today. To download the report and learn more about GroupMs global framework for media decarbonization and WPPs wider net zero commitments, visit GroupM.com and WPP.com. Parties interested in more information about the framework or who would like to obtain access to the complete report and methodology underpinning the framework should reach out to mediadecarb@groupm.com.
Himalaya Wellness Company, one of Indias leading wellness brands, has launched a new campaign on its flagship Purifying Neem Face Wash explaining the science behind pimples and how to solve them. Weaved around the key message, Pimple ke liye soap ki nahi, science ki maano, Himalaya empowers consumers with the knowledge and science behind the clinically proven benefits of its purifying neem face wash as compared to a soap, which can aggravate pimples.

The campaign is based on the story of a teenager who, on getting her first pimple asks her elder sister of the science behind pimples. The elder sister shares her knowledge and tells her worried younger sister that the best way to manage pimples is to keep the facial skin healthy and avoid using soap on face, which could make pimples come back again. To this, the teenager skeptically asks her why she should not use soap. The elder sister then demonstrates with a comparative test on a flower petal (connoting facial skin) how soap can damage skin and lead to recurrence of pimples while Himalaya Purifying Neem Face Wash which has the goodness of Neem and Turmeric is clinically proven to prevent pimples and give healthy skin.

Commenting on the campaign, Mr. Rahul Panchal, General Manager  Skin Care, Himalaya Wellness Company, said, Himalaya has been a pioneer in offering safe, effective, and trusted skin care solutions for decades. Every Himalaya product aims at solving consumers day-to-day personal care problems, and this vision embodies the brands mission of bringing Wellness in every Home and Happiness in every Heart. Himalaya Purifying Neem Face Wash is one of our flagship skin care products that has gained trust of crores of Indians to discover pimple-free healthy skin. With this new campaign, our aim is to educate the consumers and bring to forefront the scientific proof of our efficacy-superiority over the regular face-cleansers.

Abhinav Chugh, Category Manager  Face Wash, Himalaya Wellness Company, said, Himalaya is the most preferred brand in the Face Wash category. It is our responsibility to educate consumers with scientific proof that Himalaya Purifying Neem Face Wash is the most efficacious and the best solution for pimple free healthy skin. Through our language of science, this campaign resonates with the teenagers who encounter first pimple and are curious as well as apprehensive of how to deal with it and demonstrates the reason for them to switch from soap to the right face cleanser for pimples.

Sourav Chakravarty, Brand Manager  Face Wash, Himalaya Wellness Company, said, This communication assures consumers of Himalaya Purifying Neem Facewash as the science-based solution to their pimple problem that comes from the trusted house of Himalaya. In addition to the thematic film, we are also persuading consumers to let go of the 4 common excuses that hinder their switch from soap to the right face cleanser and present the right solution in a quirky, engaging way in the form of short films

Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Chairman and Chief Creative officer, 82.5 Communications India, says, The story of Didi advising Chhutki on how to get rid of her pehla pimple works so well for the brand, we want to stay true to it, gently evolving it over executionsjust as gently as the brand works on skin to heal pimples. The petal test is the latest edition of our communication. Its fresh. And its convincing."

Anirban Mozumdar, Chief Strategy Officer, 82.5 Communications, India, says, The world of Himalaya purifying Neem face wash celebrates the nok-jhok (light-hearted banter) common between sisters. When the first pimple appears, it brings with it myriad questions, confusions, and insecurities  we find that the recent empathy of an elder sister, who has been through it is comforting and reassuring at the same time for the young teenager. In this edition, we celebrate the new Gen-Z dynamic of inquisitiveness  never taking anything for granted or at face value. Always wanting to know the how behind the wow. Himalaya Purifying Neem Face Wash then proves itself  through science.

Sangeetha Sampath and Ravikumar Cherussola, Group Creative Directors, 82.5 Communications  South, further elaborates, Himalaya Purifying Neem Facewash is clinically proven to remove pimples, unlike soaps which only worsen them. And we had the petal test to prove it too. All we wanted to do was convince all the Chhutkis that their pehla pimple needs the care of Himalaya. And thats how Pimple ke liye soap ki nahi, science ki maano came about, not only in our thematic film but also in the fun shorties.

Credits:

Client  Himalaya Wellness Company

Brand  Himalaya Purifying Neem Face Wash

Agency  82.5 Communications Pvt Ltd

Chairman & Chief Creative Officer  Sumanto Chattopadhyay

Co-Chairman & Chief Executive Officer - Kapil Arora

Chief Strategy Officer - Anirban Mazumdar

Sr. Vice President & Branch Head, South - Naveen Raman

Group Creative Directors  Ravikumar Cherussola, Sangeetha Sampath

Associate Creative Director - Sunil Krishnan

Creative Controller - Vaishali Jain

Planning Director  Sai Karthik

Client Services Director  Kiran Nair

Group Account Manager - Arunima Sardar

Director  Shwetabh Varma

Production house  Roger That Production

Executive Producer: Prasanna Bhende

Producer: Kimaya Bhende
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) has announced the appointment of Yogesh Mishra as Executive Director, Supply Chain, HUL and Head  Supply Chain, Unilever South Asia with effect from September 1, 2022. Mishra takes over from Willem Uijen, who has been elevated as the Chief Procurement Officer for Unilever, globally.

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Mishra, who is currently the Vice President  Supply Chain, Beauty & Personal Care, joined HUL in 1990 and over the last 32 years, has had a strong performance track record across various roles in manufacturing, quality, planning and technology. He had been instrumental in driving the Winning in Many Indias agenda in Supply Chain and more recently, led the setting up of nano factories to further step up agility and flexibility in manufacturing operations at HUL.

Welcoming Mishra to the HUL Management Committee, Sanjiv Mehta, CEO and Managing Director, HUL, said, Yogesh comes with deep knowledge and diverse experience across various areas of the Supply Chain. Yogesh has contributed significantly towards creating a future-ready Supply Chain by not only embedding technology in our operations, but also developing a robust talent pipeline. I am certain that Yogesh will take HULs Supply Chain to the next level of performance.

Thanking Willem for his contribution to the business, Sanjiv Mehta said, In a challenging operating environment, Willem ensured that the HUL Supply Chain remained agile and resilient, and continued to serve consumers with essential products even during strict lockdowns. His vision for a future-fit supply chain helped us land several ground-breaking initiatives across our operations. It was under his leadership that our digitally advanced Dapada factory joined the World Economic Forums prestigious Lighthouse Network, becoming the first FMCG manufacturing site in India to be accorded that status. He passionately advocated the Companys sustainability agenda and contributed towards making HUL plastic neutral. It brings me immense joy and pride to see him move on to a key leadership role in Unilever.
Netflix has released it second quarter 2022 financial results and business outlook, with the streamer losing 970,000 subscribers during the three-month period (from April to June), just short of the one million mark. This, in fact, is a relief for Netflix as the streamer had initially projected to lose two million subscribers during the quarter.

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The streamer lost subscribers during the April-June time period, during which the first part of Stranger Things Season 4 launched.

Asked what could have prevented subscriptions from losing further, chief executive Reed Hastings said: "If there was a single thing, we might say 'Stranger Things.'"

Season four of the popular drama, which has been a huge success with 13 Emmy nominations, seemed to have helped the streaming platform from losing subscribers massively. Netflix intelligently split up the series into two parts, deliberately delaying its release iso the first seven episodes fell during Q2 (May 27th) to encourage new signups, while Part 2 was saved for July 1st so they would debut in Q3.

The loss of subscribers is phenomenal in the history of the streaming platforms. The US and Canada, followed by Europe, accounted for the highest number of cancellations during this quarter.

Netflix stock closed at $201.63 per share on Tuesday. Netflix co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos will talk about the results today in a web interview.

The ad-supported version will be launched in early 2023. This is in contrast to the earlier projection that the lower-priced version will debut by the end of this year.

First quarter

The first quarter of this year saw a loss of 200,000 subscribers; it was the first time since 2011 that it lost subscribers.

Password-sharing was attributed as one of prime reasons for the loss.

"Streaming is winning over linear, as we predicted, and Netflix titles are very popular globally. However, our relatively high household penetration  when including the large number of households sharing accounts  combined with competition, is creating revenue growth headwinds," said a letter issued in April.

One of the reasons for the loss of subscriber could be due to the fact that people are returning to their pre-pandemic lifestyle. The increasing living costs is another reason.

Once a disruptor, Netflix today is losing its leadership position with increasing competition from rivals such as Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.

"Netflix is still the leader in video streaming but unless it finds more franchises that resonate widely, it will eventually struggle to stay ahead of competitors that are after its crown," said Insider Intelligence analyst Ross Benes.

"When you're the leader, there's only one direction to go, especially when a large amount of competition launches, which is what Netflix has seen in the last couple of years,Ampere Analysis executive director Guy Bisson said.
Ice Media Labs & Analytics Pvt Ltd, a leading branded content solutions provider for the Indian brands, has roped in Taru Dewan as National Revenue Lead. She will be nurturing the key accounts and simultaneously focus on new business development across markets at Ice Medialab.

Dewan has expertise in sales, revenue, managing P&L, strategic thinking and Brand Management. She was instrumental in the launch of multiple magazines, radio station and digital wallets in her previous stints.

She will be based out of Mumbai and reporting to Debojit Saha, Co-founder & Creative Partner, Ice Media Labs & Analytics Pvt Ltd.

Speaking on her appointment Saha said, We are very happy to onboard Taru as we celebrate the roll out of our 50th film this year. Taru has a great understanding of the market and content. We have done some amazing fun stuff together in our previous stint and I am certain she will bring in a lot of value with her expertise in ICE Media Lab. Good luck, Taru!

Dewan said,  Pleasure in the job puts Perfection in the work and I am hoping to achieve the same perfection as I become a part of content mavericks- ICE Media Lab. I am really looking forward to working with the team who has done some really exemplary, award winning work with brands like Dabur, ITC, and Lenskart.

She has over 15 years of industry experience and is a senior sales professional experience across multiple media verticals - Print, Radio, Digital, Infilm branded content, and outdoor (Instore ). Dewan has worked across multiple brands and publishers such as Future Brands, Radio Indigo, Haymarket, HT, Madison Teamwork and others.
Have the skies fully opened up in the post-pandemic period? Will travel be the same it was in the pre-Covid times? Although the variants of Covid-19 are still doing their rounds world over, the people have lost their earlier apprehensions about the virus and want to hit the road and skies to visit their favourite holiday spots. The aggressive vaccination drive followed by many countries has helped in managing situation. Many countries have begun cautiously relaxing travel restrictions and reopening their borders. For some of the countries for whom foreign exchange is big source of revenue are taking all precautions and safety to keep the tourist happy when he or she visits. In India travel companies like Thomas Cook India & SOTC are maintaining strict protocols on the safety aspect to restore customer confidence in travel on the vaccination front through their TravShield program.

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A McKinsey survey reveals traveling to be the second-most-desired activity among respondents (in first place: dining out). In the United States, air travel has hit two million daily passengers, closer to the prepandemic level of around 2.5 million than to the low of around 90,000, in April 2020. Hotel reservations and rental-car bookings are surging and there are long queues at the airports.

According to a report by travel and hospitality technology platform OYO, sustained momentum is now visible in business travel with a jump-start in business activities across all industries since January 2022.Within the business travel category, the three biggest constituents are corporate employees at 29 per cent, small business owners at 17.7 per cent and government employees at 12.3 per cent.

With no schools and colleges operational for the last two years the number of days available as summer vacation was restricted. But with the monsoon setting the short breaks to visit places like Goa, Mahabaleshwar and Puducherry is on the increase. Monsoon get aways has always been a routine feature for the many but the last two years even that came to a grinding halt. But this year the momentum looks better as attractive discounts are being offered by the hotels. The domestic and international destinations is also seeing some movements but mostly from the young professionals/millennials and couple segments. The pent-up demand and the revenge travel is what will drive traffic to the tourists locations. Many hotels are running special monsoon packages to woo travellers short getaway type holidays.

It has been a very bumpy ride for the travel industry and both the airlines company, hotels and travel operators are making up for the lost time. Similarly, the travellers are also making for the lost time. According to some online research many potential travellers are already searching for the best deals to go to their favourite destination. With the greater air connectivity from many cities to more international destinationshave also pushed some of the first-time travellers to plan their holidays to places like Bangkok, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Since these are not very far off most young couples plan a quick holiday to these destinations.

According to Abraham Alapatt, President & Group Head, Marketing, Service Quality, Value Added Services & Innovation  Thomas Cook (India) & SOTC, with easing of restrictions coupled with strong pent up travel desire, we witnessed a rise in demand of between 30-40% of our pre-pandemic levels. Travel sentiment is at an all-time high among families, young professionals/ millennials and couples/DINKS; also, revival from our corporate MICE groups.

Adding further, Alapatt said that closer to home easy visa favourites are seeing growing demand - South East Asias Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia; Maldives, Mauritius, Turkey, Egypt, USA (for visa holding customers) and Australia. Despite visa challenges, we are also witnessing strong consumer demand for Europe (Switzerland, France, Italy and Austria). On the domestic front, popular destinations include Kashmir, Leh-Ladakh, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Goa, Andaman, Kerala, Pondicherry and the North-East.We also observed thatdespite challenges like visa approval process for Europe, USA and UK, supply side constraints, uptick in airfares; our overall business is on strong recovery mode and we are witnessing continued acceleration in our holiday business.

On the brand promotion and campaign frontour influencer marketing with renowned influencers have been very successful. In terms of traditional media for our ads, we prefer print and ground activations via Holiday Carnivals.

To ensure affordability/ viability in our overall holiday pricing, we have also introduced special deals that offer great value proposition like Buy One Get One Free, Early Bird offers and Travel Now Pay When You Return at Zero processing fee; cash back offers through bank partnerships. We have also partnered with prominent airlines such as Vistara and Emirates to offer attractive air-inclusive holidays.

The industry is witnessing strong recovery, with demand bouncing back for both domestic as well as international travel that is mainly being driven by VFR (Visiting Friends & Relatives) and leisure travel segments. Deepak Rajawat, Chief Commercial Officer, Vistara, remarked, In fact, we are now operating more flights on our domestic routes vis-a-vis pre-pandemic. To cater to the increasing demand, we have scaled up our frequencies to daily flights, to key international destinations including Singapore, London, Bangkok, Dubai, Kathmandu and Dhaka. We also announced the addition of Jeddah to our growing international network starting 2 August 2022 and bolstered our connectivity to Thailand with 5x weekly flights from Mumbai. However, the continuous rise in ATF prices, coupled with falling value of rupee against dollar and high taxation have been putting immense cost pressure on all the players, including Vistara.

He further added that, Our approach to marketing and advertising is to stay relevant yet unique while actively keeping our key audiences engaged with a range of interactive campaigns. One such example is #TheSoundtrackOfTravel  a unique melody that aims at rekindling the joy of travelling. Additionally, we are proud to become the first Indian airline to offer special wellness-focused IFE content in association with Shyft, and partner with the home-grown luxury brand, Forest Essentials for thoughtfully curated amenity kits for business class fliers on long haul flights starting 1 August 2022.

Manoj Agarwal, Head  Asset Management, InterGlobe Hotels, noted that the year 2022 started on a low note due to the third Omicron wave, but industry saw a sharp recovery from March onwards. Pent-up demand from all business segments except inbound was observed which led to green shoots for the industry.

The industry witnessed some of its best performing months this year having already surpassed the same month pre-COVID performance levels of 2019. This was largely driven due to decline in COVID cases, resumption of international flights from March 2022, strong leisure, wedding demand and gradual return of relocation corporate travel. However, I think that its too early to declare that tourism industry is back to pre-pandemic times and the real test would be Q3 of this year which is usually considered as the lean season for Indian hospitality sector.

Agarwal further pointed out that Goa emerged as one of the most sought leisure destinations in India which was evident by the occupancies achieved in the last year and a half. Furthermore, destinations like Shimla, Rishikesh, Mussoorie, Nainital, Manali etc. which are at drivable distances from Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh & Punjab were the preferred getaway destinations in the North. A similar trend was observed in other parts of the country with experiential travel helped homestays and boutique accommodations capitalize on their occupancies and revenues.

We perceive that uncertainty around COVID and resulting restrictions hampering the business continuity /momentum is one of the biggest threats at this moment. Through our many distribution channels, our efforts have always been to maximize direct bookings and trying to connect with our guests and end users. We aim to leverage our loyalty base and explore technology, focused public segment campaigns to grow this segment.

Himank Tripathi, President- External Affairs, EaseMyTrip, opined that positive sentiment towards travel is expected to continue and EaseMyTrip anticipates significant travel growth in addition to the considerable pent-up demand. We have crossed the pre-pandemic numbers and the number of bookings is still increasing month over month.

He further pointed out that some of the most popular international destinations that travellers are exploring is places like, Maldives, Dubai, Thailand and London. For the domestic market, Himachal, Rajasthan and Goa are some of the most favourite destinations. Our expectations from the travel and tourism industry are at an all-time high. People have positive sentiments towards travelling and that is enabling the industry to revive quicker than anticipated.

The industry is still recovering from the pandemic and now the risen ATF is also posing a concern. However, on the other hand, the travel sentiment is high and they are continuing with their travel plans. At EaseMyTrip, we dont believe in extravagant marketing spending and would like to stay transparent and pass on the benefit to our customers and offer genuine pricing.
Known for bucking the slowdown trend within the Edtech ecosystem and making headlines for all the correct reasons, upGrad, Asias higher Edtech major has now announced the appointment of Saurabh Deep Singla as the Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO), effective July 13th.

With over 2 decades of experience across both corporate and business HR roles, Saurabh will be responsible for creating a strategic roadmap for upGrad and its divisions while also addressing HR complexities across levels for driving sustainable growth. In his previous stint with Ecom Express Ltd. as the Chief People Officer (CPO), he was leading the end-to-end e-commerce pipeline by fueling the business with agile and focused talent across 3000+ geographies, which in turn resulted in year-on-year growth for the brand.

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Mayank Kumar, Co-Founder, and MD, upGrad said, It's a pleasure to have Saurabh onboard at a time when the upGrad family is growing in India and across geographies. He brings with him a proven track record of transforming cultures across organisations and a strong business acumen for driving HR-led initiatives and creating a strategic talent pipeline within the upGrad ecosystem. We look forward to leveraging his expertise for integrating operations while also strengthening upGrad's stature as a People's company."

An XLRI Jamshedpur alumnus, Singla has also worked with leading international and national organisations like G4S, Rio Tinto Group, Whirlpool, and Bharti Airtel and has led cross-geo businesses and workforce through his expertise in the areas of Design Thinking, Business Model Innovation, and Talent Management,



Commenting on his career move, Saurabh Deep Singla further added, Thrilled to become a part of the journey which has been transforming the lives of millions through its quality education. Its an opportunity to collaborate with the leadership and create a workplace and culture that fosters trust, freedom, and growth for every employee and their families. Im both happy and excited at the same time to take up this role so as to build an all-inclusive HR function to support upGrad in its growth journey ahead.

Recently, the global higher-Ed leader also announced the appointment of Rakesh Raju as the Director of Brand Marketing and with a new boardroom update, upGrad aims at becoming the LifeLongLearning leader with the most diverse workforce and flexible policies, thus also enhancing its stature across the higher education segment globally.
The soul of phantom voter fraud is the occasional, non-committed voter. They show up at the last minute, delivering winning margins.

Actually, nobody shows up. Nor does anyone return an absentee ballot.

That magic comes from a wonderful customer service innovation, the Phantom Voter Concierge, who casts the non-committed voters' votes for them.

Let's go there.

Voter rolls are crammed with millions of voters who seldom, occasionally, or never vote.

Democrat-leaning organizations run voter registration drives in edge communities, collecting identities they expect will never vote.

You remember ACORN registering drug addicts on city streets? You might have said, "Why, they will never vote!"

They aren't expected to vote. They are simply voter identity placeholders later used by vote-harvesters.

State-funded groups like ERIC are paid by a dozen state governments, some with clueless Republican governors, to make sure almost nobody is ever taken off voter rolls. ERIC provides institutional cover to this national phantom voter scam.

During early voting, our vote-harvester pals track those who never voted or have not voted yet and vote for them.

In some states, like Wisconsin, leftist groups had access to the online voter rolls  something nobody else had. They could track every voter and vote for all of them if they did not show up in 2020.

Remember the stories in 2020 of people coming out to vote, often for the first time in years, to be told, "Sorry, you already voted"? Your Voter Concierge voted for you! Saved you the gas money to drive to the polls!

There are people voting from Salvation Army Food Banks who registered at that address twelve years ago. Those people are likely dead or living in a tent in Austin now  but still voting.

There are people at the Alabama college dorm, registered since 1984, still active and voting.

In Wisconsin, the Voter Concierges went to cognitive care facilities, where the patients did not recognize their own children. Their Voter Concierge voted them. Now part of a criminal investigation, this is how it's done.

So how bad is the problem?

The Wisconsin voter integrity team did a deep dive, using U.S. government and state databases, and found 225,000 active, current voters who had "issues." Those included addresses that did not exist; locations that could not be a true registration address, like a jail; and scores of others.

Elections are often decided by 1% of the vote. The Wisconsin team identified potential phantom voters easily able to impact an election.

The other half of the scam is sending out absentee ballots to addresses that don't line up.

For instance, there may be an apartment building at 145 Essex Street. The ballot-harvesting industry registers people there, deliberately skipping their apartment number.

Their mail gets returned to  you guessed it, smarty-pants! Those absentee ballots accumulate at the local Post Office.

The Wisconsin voter integrity team, one of the best in the country, found evidence that the Post Office collected those ballots and gave them to the Voter Concierges  to vote. Pretty good USPS customer service!

You might think this would be caught with signature matching. Right! That is why so many states or counties eliminate the signature match  like Maricopa County in Arizona.

If your blood is boiling right now, you just don't get it. This is customer service on a whole new level. The Voter Concierge gets votes counted  even if the voter never casts that vote.

Voter integrity teams are now applying advanced computer technology to thwart the Voter Concierge by deep-cleaning the rolls.

In 2022, the vote-harvesting industry will again flood the zone in swing counties with over 250,000 new registrants from September to November.

Several voter integrity teams, using advanced artificial intelligence technology, can check every registrant, at silicon speed, against over 30 databases, with a billion records, ensuring that the registrant is not living in an R.V. park, a church, or a UPS store, and that his address meets current legal standards.

Sorry, Beto, but registering every itinerant is no longer the key to the Texas Governor's Mansion.

For the first time, phantom voters are being identified before their registrations take effect.

Living in an apartment where you do not designate the apartment number? Sorry, pal  you aren't voting this year. Registering from a church? There had better be enough bathrooms to meet the certificate of occupancy requirements for that county.

More voters showing up in a county than there are eligible citizens? Flagged hourly! Alert issued before the ballots are counted!

As ballots arrive during early voting, artificial intelligence snapshots aggregate voter identities. That guy who voted on day 2 in person, disappeared on snapshot 8, reappeared on snapshot 11 with his ballot changed to absentee...is identified.

Before that ballot is tabulated, it is red-flagged, and the voter integrity team files a protest.

Thirty-five thousand inactive voters, changed to active  then voted, then changed to inactive again? The A.I. systems pick this up with snapshot analysis. That scam is over!

For the first time, voter integrity teams have technology ballot-harvesters cannot outrun.

When Sheriff Clarke and Mike Lindell started supporting these kinds of technologies, after the 2020 election, the focus was voter roll anomalies. Anomalies were abundant.

The battlefield has changed to real-time analysis, driven by artificial intelligence.

The combined knowledge of a dozen gifted voter integrity teams, with 16 months of experience, is built into an artificial intelligence engine, identifying phantom voters before they are registered, before they can illegally vote.

Every time a fake vote is cast by a Voter Concierge, an American is disenfranchised.

Artificial intelligence helps the good guys protect the vote and gives confidence to all Americans that ttheir elections are legit.

Voter integrity teams learned that chasing 2020 voter fraud after the election is too late.

Some leading election integrity teams are stopping phantom voter fraud before it impacts elections.

Cleaning up voter rolls just became an A.I.-driven, real time endeavor.

Jay Valentine led the team that built the eBay fraud detection engine and the TSA No-Fly List. Jay's website is JayValentine.com. He can be reached at Jay@ContingencySales.com.

Image: cagdesign via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
On Feb. 27, 2022, just days after invading Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an order to prepare Russian nuclear weapons for use.

Putin referred to this action as putting nuclear weapons "on special alert." This step meant effectively placing an announcement: "Beware! The Russian Federation is a superpower, for it has nuclear weapons."

The superpower had just attacked another country that had renounced its nuclear weapons in exchange for its security guarantees, as set forth in the Budapest Memorandum signed on Dec. 5, 1994. This document, signed also by the Russian Federation, contains the following paragraph:

"The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America confirm their commitment to seek immediate action by the UN Security Council to assist Ukraine as a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in the event that Ukraine becomes a victim of an act of aggression or is threatened with aggression with nuclear weapons."

Ukraine has since become a victim of aggression by a nuclear superpower.

The Russian Federation's attack on Ukraine is a gross violation of its obligations under the Budapest Memorandum.

Georgetown University professor and national and international security expert Dr. Philip Karber said, "The military intervention in Crimea was a violation of international law, the first state-level territorial aggression since the end of World War II. These actions violate the UN Charter, Article 2, they violate documents that the Russian side has signed, including the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, on short- and medium-range forces, and agreements on the reduction of conventional armed forces. And this is a blatant violation of the Budapest Memorandum on security guarantees for Ukraine, which will have consequences for the entire international system (arms control) in the future."

Dr. Karber was referring to the seizure of Crimea in 2014. Of course, an even greater violation of the UN Charter, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Budapest Memorandum is the Russian Federation's attack on Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The Russian leadership's repeated reminder that their country is a nuclear power is more than just superpower self-assertion. By declaring the purpose of its attack on Ukraine its "denazification," the Russian Federation thereby declared that its victory over Nazi Germany in World War II gives it the moral right to determine which country is a Nazi and what "punishment" that country should bear for its supposed "guilt," as established by the Russian Federation.

The Russian Federation believes that the victory of a different state, the USSR, and its allies in World War II, gives it a moral advantage over other countries in any conflict.

According to the English historian Arnold Toynbee, twentieth-century Russia resembles Byzantium because of two characteristic features. The first is the conviction that it is always right, and the second is the institutions of totalitarian statehood.

Toynbee was referring to the USSR. However, the Russian Federation inherited the Soviet consciousness of absolute rightness and totalitarianism in foreign and domestic policy.

There is another characteristic the Russian Federation inherited from the USSR and the Russian Empire: drunkenness.

In the Russian Federation, alcoholism is a widespread and painful phenomenon. Russian nationals have always drunk alcoholic beverages in enormous quantities. Since the time of Tsar Ivan IV, the Terrible (16th century), the Russian authorities had been getting the people drunk in order to profit from the alcohol trade. Drunkenness is not only a social disaster of the Russian people, but also a byproduct of their distorted self-esteem, an exaggerated sense of national rightness and confidence in their power. The British writer Mark Forsyth, in his book A Short History of Drunkenness, noted that Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Stalin used alcohol to rule the country.

The Russian Federation is intoxicated with its power. Its authorities get their population drunk and use massive propaganda to indoctrinate them into their worldview. The authorities of the Russian Federation and its people are intoxicated with the consciousness of their rightness and their power.

The people are being enveloped in narcotically acting propaganda vapors that isolate Russian society from reality. Society in the Russian Federation is stupefied and dumbed down by superpower propaganda.

The possibility of the use of nuclear weapons by the Russian Federation has been actively discussed since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine. Ronald Reagan said: "A nuclear war cannot be started and cannot be won." There is no evidence that Reagan is right, but it is known that nuclear superpowers lose wars: the United States lost the war in Vietnam, the Soviet Union lost the war in Afghanistan and ceased to exist. Empires, including nuclear superpowers, involve themselves in colossal military adventures and cannot stop. This is what happened to Nazi Germany. Not only did Hitler commit suicide, but Nazi Germany condemned itself to defeat in the war it unleashed and its liquidation as an empire, for it could not retreat from its unrealistic plans of conquest.

Nuclear weapons are not only murderous, but suicidal for the country that uses them.

On April 22, 1915, for the first time in history, weapons of mass destruction were used: the Germans used them against the Belgians during World War I in a chemical attack. Fifteen thousand soldiers suffered from this attack. However, this chemical attack did not give Germany any advantage as the French soon used chemical weapons against German soldiers. Germany hoped to win with a terrible new weapon, but it lost World War I. Chemical weapons harmed those they were aimed at and those who deployed them, as the wind directed the poisonous gases against the attacker.

Nuclear weapons are also weapons of mass destruction, but the winds of war can turn them against an aggressor. Their use could be an uncontrolled chain reaction, like the one that takes place in the atomic nucleus. The Russian Federation does not present the results of its nuclear initiative. The U.S. and other NATO countries also have no idea what would happen or what to do if the Russian Federation used nuclear weapons.

Russia borrowed nuclear weapons and reactionary totalitarianism from the USSR. The Russian nuclear bomb chain reaction, which is the realization of Russia's reactionary, challenges those who are against aggressive totalitarianism and against the use of nuclear weapons.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
We need to  dismantle the ideas of patriarchy, misogyny, racism and capitalism, and [decide] what autonomy and self-determination needs to look like for women. Ilhan Omar, Dec. 5, 2017

The evil patriarchy that saved Ilhan Omar from the violence in her native Somalia by bringing her to America when she was a child is apparently dedicated to the oppression of American women. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC) states that Patriarchy [is] about women not having control over their lives. Rep. Ayanna Pressley states that Patriarchy threatens all women and that abortion prohibitions are rooted in patriarchy and white supremacy. Rep. Cori Bush asks for help to smash the patriarchy.

Politico gushes that Rather than  set about dismantling the patriarchy by taking on sex-discrimination cases, Sen. Elizabeth Warren chose to enter male fields and compete toe-to-toe. There is even an Elizabeth Warren Crush the Patriarchy Feminist Floral Sweatshirt commemorating her 2020 run for the presidency, illustrating that one can even make good capitalist dollars off such anti-capitalist tropes. AOC even told Vogue that she courageously fights the patriarchy with her confidence-boosting trademark Latina perfect red lip.

By the patriarchy feminists do not merely mean a culture in which lineage is traced through the male but rather a culture in which males are dominant and oppress women. AOC, Omar, Pressley, Warren, Powers and others make clear that their concept of the patriarchy is, conveniently for their careers, a motley grab-bag of all the political bogymen they oppose: misogyny, racism, white supremacy, and capitalism.

The surprising presence of capitalism in Omars description derives from the fact that the feminist concept of the patriarchy traces to Marxism (i.e., communism. Marx employed the notion of the patriarchal family to refer to the social relation of domestic production  that performed necessary functions under capitalism). More than 50 years ago, modern feminist theorists began linking Marxism to their burgeoning movement. Since the concept has Marxist roots, it is necessary to review the basic tenets of Marxism if one is to understand the linkage.

Marxs core view is that a capitalist system is characterized by a class struggle between the capitalists (the bourgeois), who own the means of production, that is, the factories, machines, raw materials, etc., needed to produce a commodity, and the workers who are forced to sell their labor to capitalists. Since Marx holds that human labor is the source of economic value, and since the capitalist does not pay the workers for the surplus value the workers have added to the commodity via their labor, the capitalist exploits the workers. The reason the workers enter into this unfair bargain is that since the capitalist owns the means of production, the workers have no real choice in the matter.

Engels, in an 1884 essay, fleshes out Marxs concept of the patriarchy explaining that the modern family is based on the  enslavement of the woman, where the man as the bread-winner is the bourgeois [capitalist] while the wife represents the proletariat.

First, Engelss analogy between the husband and wife as, respectively, the capitalist and the proletariat, is strained at best. The idea that the husband who, in Marxs view, is himself enslaved by the capitalist, and who, upon returning home exhausted with his meagre wages, gives them to his wife to manage the household, owns the means of production within the family like a capitalist in a factory is bizarre.

More importantly, Marx states on the first page of Vol. 2 of Capital that his aim is to describe a pure capitalist system that abstracts from an enormous number of factors found in actual historical capitalist economies. Marx thereby makes a plethora of assumptions that are simply not satisfied in modern Western countries. The most obvious is that most Western democracies do not have a pure capitalist system but are mixed economies in which free markets coexist with government intervention [including] state-owned enterprises (such as public health or education systems), regulations , subsidies, that benefit people. In the United States, unlike Marxs abstraction in Capital, the government provides an enormous number of services to women that distinguish them from the slaves of the fantasized Marxist patriarchy. Further, women outnumber men at colleges by a large margin. Young women now out earn young men in many major US cities, and so on.

Despite this, feminists like Kirsten Powers thinks it is obvious women in the United States are oppressed by a patriarchy,

...if you dont think we have a patriarchal system please explain to me why weve never had a woman president.  57 other countries have had women heads of state.  The most basic definition of patriarchy is a society controlled by men.  [T]he United States absolutely meets the definition.

In fact, this is quite easy to explain. Powers has, apparently, forgotten that the United States is a democracy in which women outnumber men and vote in higher percentages than men. The Center for American Women and Politics reports that in the 2016 election that so distressed the Democrats, 9.9 million more women than men voted [and] 63.3% of eligible female adults went to the polls, compared to 59.3% of eligible male adults. Indeed, it appears that more white women voted for Trump in 2016 than for the white woman Hillary Clinton. Since, in a democracy, the voters are the ultimate control on their representatives, Powers must take this problem up with her sisters who regularly vote for men to represent them.

Ironically, Powers elsewhere claims that white women (like herself) benefit from the patriarchy by being associated with white men, a rather peculiar notion of patriarchy that benefits most of the women in the country, including her. One must wonder whether Powers even knows what her thesis is. Finally, Powerss pretense that patriarchy is specific to white culture is literally silly. Such claims, as usual, are not factual language but rather are an attempt to construct a narrative for political purposes and get invited back on CNN.

One of the assumptions that underlies Powerss argument, as well as many of the usual grievance mongers on the left, is the absurd assumption that a woman can only be represented by another woman, or, more generally, that a person can only be properly represented by a member of their own group, blacks by blacks, Asians by Asians, gays by gays, etc. However, in a non-racist and non-sexist view, should this still be permissible, a person can be perfectly represented by someone of a different racial or gender or sexual identity, e.g., a white person by Allen West or a black person by Joe Manchin.

Since Marxist and communist ideas could never become popular in the United States if their lineage were known, these had to be introduced by subterfuge. The specter of the evil bogyman patriarchy is employed to sow division in the country and achieve political power without acknowledging its Marxist origins. One cannot, however, assume that any of these people actually know what they are doing or saying, resulting in the spectacle of privileged US politicians and feminists, many of whom are or will be worth millions or tens of millions of dollars, slavishly addicted the grievances they memorized as adolescents in Sociology 101.
There is much that America can be proud of in our relationship with China. Our nation was often at odds with other global powers in our attempt to protect that nations sovereignty. Often, we stood alone. Following independence, our new nation was shut off from trade within the British Empire and both China and the U.S. benefited from cooperative trade agreements. Until driven out by the communists 150 years later, American missionaries in China established churches, schools, and worked to relieve the distress of the poor. When Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan began carving out spheres of influence within China, the United States sought to negotiate Open Door Agreements with them to protect Chinese interests. When the Boxer Rebellion threatened the lives of thousands of Europeans and an international military coalition restored order in China, the United States made it a point to use the Chinese financial reparations to educate Chinese students in American universities to assist in its modernization upon their return. In the 1930s, as Japan used its military to invade China, America refused to invoke neutrality in order to legally supply China with weapons. A hundred American pilots volunteered to defend China against Japan as part of the famous Flying Tigers fighter squadrons. Americas continued defense of China was the reason behind Japans attack upon Pearl Harbor and our entry into WWII. Americans then built the Burma Road to get needed supplies to Chinese military forces fighting Japan. Following a thaw in the Cold War relations between our nation and China, American businesses led the way in efforts to modernize China. As American corporations invested heavily in China, our own factories were allowed to rust and millions of our manufacturing jobs and much of our middle class disappeared entirely.

What has the United States gained from being Chinas longtime protector and most fair western trading partner? Weve seen Chinese espionage take place at unprecedented levels within our universities, businesses, and scientific research facilities. The FBI recently announced it opens two new investigations each day related to Chinese espionage. China has succeeded in copying our most advanced weapons systems, even to point of having superiority in some areas. The disastrous trade imbalance America shares with China threatens our countrys future. The Chinese openly brag of their influence and infiltration within the top levels of our government. Chinese spying has led to an unprecedented joint U.S. FBI--British MI5 warning to alert our citizens to the danger. FBI Director Christopher Wray has stated he was blown away by the level of current Chinese espionage efforts. China is simultaneously trampling democracy in Hong Kong, committing atrocities against the Uyghurs, and employs slave labor to keep its production costs low. It has provided military aid and has entered into strategic partnerships with our enemies and has even announced the U.S. and NATO should be treated as an enemy.

While many of the above U.S.- Chinese issues have been the subject of negotiation between our two nations, little or no pressure has been placed upon Xi Jinping to halt Chinas distribution of fentanyl to third-party nations such as Mexico. Chinese drug lords and Mexican Cartels now export hundreds of pounds of the deadly drug into the United States and collaborate in extensive money laundering schemes to fund their operations. Last year over 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, mostly from Chinese fentanyl. This represented a 29% increase from the year before. Enough of the drug was seized in 2021 to kill every American. Sadly, as it is deliberately laced with other counterfeit drugs it has become the number one killer of young American adults.

Britains imperialist Opium Wars are often cited as on reason China is slow to halt the export of the deadly drug to the West. This comparison represents a false analogy and is irrelevant to the harm it poses to the United States. The refusal of the Biden administration to secure our border will, of course, only increase the number of Americans murdered by this drug. Can this president remind Xi Jinping of Americas long history of support for China? Can he live up to his constitutional duty to protect the lives of innocent Americans who are increasingly being murdered by Chinese drug lords, deadly Mexican Cartels, and a complicit CCP? To counter this threat, the United States needs to warn China that it will face increased U.S. criminal prosecutions, the threat of additional tariffs on its exports, and calls for investigations by World Health organizations and the United Nations into the manufacture of Chinese illegal drugs. Without such pressure, the genocide against our citizens will continue unabated.

The writer has been a social studies educator, founder of Rho Kappa -- the National Social Studies Honor Society -- past president of the Florida Council for the Social Studies, and a former Elementary School Principal of the Year in Lee County, Florida. He may be reached at: jsbovee@aol.com.

Image: Library of Congress
Yesterday, most mainstream media outlets reported that a number of Democrat representatives  including "Squad" members  were arrested outside the Supreme Court following protests against the Court's recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), AKA AOC, was among those arrested for blocking traffic. Reps. Barbara Lee of California, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Cori Bush of Missouri, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Nydia Velazquez of New York, Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, and Andy Levin of Michigan were among the other legislators arrested.

The Capitol Police said they had arrested 35 people, including 17 members of Congress, for "crowding, obstructing or incommoding." Law enforcement officials said that the group had, despite warnings, refused to vacate the street, so they took action.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) melodramatically tweeted a video of the arrests.

Today I was arrested while participating in a civil disobedience action with my fellow Members of Congress outside the Supreme Court.



I will continue to do everything in my power to raise the alarm about the assault on our reproductive rights! pic.twitter.com/rpFYOGBDf4  Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 19, 2022

Such brutality! Such handcuffs. Such a price to pay, so the narrative went.

But well, what really happened was something a bit different.

What's the truth about these dramatically presented "arrests"?

Start with the words used:

The Oxford dictionary defines "arrested" as "the person is taken to a police station and kept there because the police believe they may be guilty of a crime."

However, none of the individuals was taken to the police station, and no force was used. The protesters were merely escorted to a containment unit nearby, where they weren't allowed to be a nuisance to the public. They were let go after that. AOC was back on Instagram in the evening.

The right word to describe what happened is "detained."

The "arrests" would have been a great opportunity for Democrat lawmakers to get some easy visibility. Alas, for them, the publicity piranha AOC was there.

She extracts all publicity for any occasion faster than a piranha fish can strip flesh from a bone.

And sure enough, she pulled a phony stunt.

Many news outlets reported the incident with headlines that read "AOC and Other Lawmakers Arrested for Supreme Court Protest," with photos of AOC with her arms behind her back and wrists close to one another. She appeared to be handcuffed, the poor thing, resignedly smiling as the cameras rolled. The picture, of course, was of O Brave, Sir Sandy...she was not afraid to die, as the Monty Python song goes.

But social media users and some members of the press found something a little different:

AOC pretended to be in handcuffs when she was escorted away from the Supreme Court pic.twitter.com/QnUP4ZQWxX  Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) July 19, 2022

Oh my gosh @AOC faking handcuffs.



This is too much. https://t.co/9Q8ur8KCgM  Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) July 19, 2022

.@AOC so you faked being handcuffed to keep lying to women?



Abortion is legal up until birth in NY, but your voters cant afford groceries and crime is out of control.



Desperate isnt a good look on you.



Go back to your Insta makeup tutorials, youre actually good at those. pic.twitter.com/LYsQU75ZfB  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) July 19, 2022

Having been found out, caught in fake a melodramatic stunt, and not for the first time, you'd think she'd be embarrassed.

But that little fake handcuff revelation hardly matters to AOC.

What matters is that most U.S.-based news agencies such as CNN, NBC News, Axios, etc. reported it as an arrest. Even agencies overseas such as the U.K. Guardian, the BBC, France 24, ABC in Australia, and numerous others reported it as an arrest, complete with a pity party for poor brave AOC.

AOC knows that more people will read the news than will read social media posts exposing her false claims.

Perhaps she may claim to be arrested, handcuffed, and even assaulted in her memoirs.

Following the January 6 protests, AOC went full drama queen there, too, falsely suggesting she was in the Capitol Building and in immediate danger because the protesters were demanding to know where she was and were even banging on her office door. It was eventually revealed that AOC wasn't even in the building during the incident.

She also did a comparable border stunt in 2019, wearing white, posing in front of a chain link fence, pretending to cry over "caged" migrant illegal border-crossers, and then being found out from other pictures that she was "crying" in front of a parking lot for the cameras.

Now she's doing something right out of her own well practiced playbook around the issue of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

This wasn't the only protest that AOC conducted in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling.

She's protesting in every creative way she can.

A few weeks ago, AOC informed her 8.6 million followers on Instagram that she was going to "redo her nails" to display her commitment to the "resistance."

@AOC says she finds red nails empowering because her family was socially conservative and believed they encouraged loose behavior. pic.twitter.com/UnSyNzFZfO  John Gage (@johnrobertgage) July 2, 2022

AOC claimed she grew up in a socially conservative and religious environment, where women wearing red nail polish and red lipstick were "frowned upon," hence the use of red was her way of protesting in favor of abortion.

So does AOC care about abortion or the overturning of Roe v. Wade? Does she care for the downtrodden, as she also claims?

Emphatically not.

She had no time for the exploited Amazon workers in New York who were attempting to unionize in her own district.

She supports extreme gun control laws and defunding the police for regular citizens, but for herself, she spends thousands of dollars and has armed bodyguards.

When the NYPD was arresting "defund the police" protesters, AOC was just yards away, attending the ostentatious MET Gala, where tickets are priced at $35,000 per head.

There are myriad instances of blatant hypocrisy.

The only cause that AOC passionately cares about is AOC herself.

Nothing else matters.

AOC has found a shortcut to success in politics.

She doesn't waste her time authoring or co-authoring bills or working at the grassroots. She doesn't engage with her colleagues to convince them to vote for progressive laws or the Green New Deal.

For AOC, every occurrence, irrespective of its graveness, is an excuse to seek publicity by making a spectacle of herself. She knows that the footage is captured all over by cameras and will be broadcasted all over. When she isn't on other people's cameras, she is on her own web camera on Instagram "connecting with her followers."

Gone are the days when people allowed their work to speak for itself.

For the likes of AOC, words are a replacement for work.

In a recent TV appearance, AOC urged Biden to create abortion facilities on federal land. She also demanded the impeachment of Supreme Court justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neal Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett because she claims they misled the Senate about their positions on Roe v. Wade during their Senate confirmation hearings, which is nonsense, given that most Democrats weren't happy with their answers and didn't vote for their confirmations.

Both proposals are absurd and impossible to achieve, but AOC promoted them anyway since she knows that her audience will conflate her words with actions.

WATCH: If Supreme Court nominees lied under oath, @repaoc says impeachment should be very seriously considered.



Rep. Ocasio-Cortez: "There must be consequences for such a deeply destabilizing action and hostile takeover of our Democratic institutions." pic.twitter.com/VLU8jsafw2  Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 26, 2022

She is aware that when she bloviates about minority rights, the environment  the Green New Deal, racism, sexism, and transphobia during her Instagram sessions or in TV interviews, her voters think she really means those words. She knows that few care to evaluate the actual steps she took to bring any change.

AOC understands that being in the public eye is all that matters. Congressman Hal Roger from Kentucky has been an elected House member since 1981. He has served for more years in the House than AOC has lived, yet few beyond his district will recognize him, while AOC has national recognition, perhaps even global recognition.

AOC has enough clout that her reluctance to endorse Biden for 2024 causes headlines.

She may be an object of derision among some, but she does have a base who adores and worships her.

She is like an actor, who plays the part of a kind, compassionate, empathetic progressive. Her act is like that of someone who stars in her own biopic or reality show.

What is surprising and disappointing is that despite her obvious charades, she not only gets elected, but is likely to be re-elected for as long as she wants to be.

AOC could someday become speaker of the House.

But her prospects aren't limited to Congress. Perhaps she becomes senator  there was buzz last year that she may challenge Chuck Schumer for his seat. While that will not happen now, it could happen some years later.

In a decade, she could become governor of New York. All she has to do is knock out her rivals in the primary through virtue-signaling and empty talk. It is unlikely she will be held accountable for her subpar performance in the House. If she is, she will claim to be a victim of sexism and racism, and the liberals of New York will fall for it.

AOC could even aim higher than that and aspire to the Executive Branch.

Image: Screen shot from Washington Free Beacon video via Twitter.
Would any other American president have committed as many gaffes and missteps as Joe Biden has and still be said to love America?

What other free-country world leader has treated his own people so badly and been allowed to stay in office?

What other world leader cannot string two cogent sentences together and still remain in office? Joe Biden is non compos mentis and should remove himself from the White House before he is removed by his own party or before he further collapses the American economy and its status on the world stage. It cannot get much worse.

Clearly, the man is cognitively in decline. His many gaffes, word salads, blank stares, popcorn temper flare-ups, weird demeanors, creepy whisperings, touchy-feely gropings with women and children, and his monumentally wrong-headed economic policies are enough to turn the strongest of stomachs.

Biden has single-handedly destroyed America's energy independence.

He has personally made America a ridiculous paper tiger in the eyes of our enemies who want us dead or conquered.

Joe Biden has fist-bumped the most powerful oil producer on the planet in a way that signals an utter lack of seriousness.

He has opened the borders and welcomed terrorists and murderers.

Biden seems to deliberately want to link arms with the socialists among us in order to drag America's standard of living down to that of Venezuela's. Food shortages, brownouts and blackouts, a severely reduced reputation as the planet's finest fighting force, and other admirable things America was known for, to have been destroyed or crippled by this impaired president.

Joe's policies are bankrupting America.

In order to kowtow to the climate cretins in Congress whose policies would further damage our economy, he has implemented policies and executive orders that drag America down from the Trump-high economy and energy independence to the Biden-low of scarcity, inflated prices, worker shortages, and supply line problems that would never have happened under Trump.

His failure to address the light-speed increase in crime is inexcusable.

He has done all that with the energy of an aging retriever and the political instincts of Barbra Streisand.

Joe Biden has done more to drop-kick America back to the political, fiscal, and energy Stone Age than any president in memory.

Under Biden, our social and economic infrastructure has been all but decimated. It is almost as if he has signed on to an America-last agenda. For that matter, does he even know what his agenda is? Or has he delegated his presidency to pre-Trump power brokers?

Worst of all, Joe Biden's policies regarding racial matters have reignited a previously placid racial state. He is now exacerbating a simmering situation between white and black that hasn't been seen since the '60s.

While doing this, he has turned our once illustrious military into a race-based adversarial social experiment, pitting our fighting forces against one another instead of against our enemies abroad. How can the American military defend our country against a vicious socialist, communist, or radical Islamic threat if our own fighting forces are pitted against each other by color? This is treasonous because what he has not directly promoted, he has allowed.

If Biden does not remove himself, he should be removed for terminal gross incompetence. The people who are actually running this administration need to be removed as well. Obama's not easily hidden, radical, "fundamentally transformational" policies show through Biden's actions loud and clear. No one is fooled about who is actually running America while Biden and Doctor Jill high-tail it off to Delaware for some pudding.

As for his designated successor, Kamala Harris, becoming POTUS, let's deal with one disaster at a time. She can be removed as well, and perhaps someone sane (certainly not the ethically challenged, slurring Nancy Pelosi and her marble-mouthed inanities) will turn this energy and economic disaster around for the sake of all decent Americans who love this country and want her and her people to prosper. Perhaps now is a good time for the Manchins, et al. to jump this sinking Democrat ship and sign on with an America-first agenda. Even the berserkers in the media are starting to pile on, a sure sign that bumbling Biden is bad for the brand.

Joe Biden is a shuffling, sputtering wrecking ball. We cannot afford him.

American voters have learned a brutally hard and expensive lesson in the debilitating year and a half of the Biden cuckoo's nest: never vote for another Democrat until all the demented socialists, perverts, political prostitutes, and outright quislings within the party are removed. And maybe not even after that until they moderate their slavering lust for control and brainless collectivism.

We need our pipelines re-opened. We need to stop printing money. We need to regain our status abroad. We need to clean out the schools that are producing millions of little degenerate socialists and infantilized adults who can see no farther than their iScreens. We need borders and the rule of law. We need fertilizers and farmers again. We need to rid America of the CDC, the IRS, and the NEA, to name only three. We need people who remember God and the founding of America. We need people who know what a woman is.

The GOP needs some fumigating as well, but at least we on the right tend to love America, family, God, and individualism. Make socialism and radical leftism unacceptable again. Make America great again with your vote. Vote Republican as though your life and liberty depend on it because they do.

Image: Screen shot of a live television broadcast, enhanced with Adobe Camera Raw filters.
At times, it seems as though the elite left is winning. They exult at drag queen story hours while conservatives moan and groan about how empires rise and empires fall (we're in the falling part). But new San Francisco D.A., Brooke Jenkins, and Texas congresswoman Mayra Flores have won their offices with full-throated campaigns directly challenging the leftist political miasma we seem unable to find out way out of.

Attorney Brooke Jenkins was a success story even before the San Francisco mayor last week named her to replace recalled Soros D.A. Chesa Boudin. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley, attended University of Chicago Law School, and enjoyed a career in corporate law. Her riveting speech after being sworn in is worth listening to (starting at about 43:00). In that speech, she tells of how she lost her first child at birth and how her grief compelled her to find some greater meaning in life. Soon afterward, she left her corporate law career and joined the D.A.'s office. She later resigned in protest in 2021 to join the recall movement, disillusioned and angry at the leftist bent of Boudin's leadership and the chaos on the streets and the courtrooms. It is a political miracle of sorts, or maybe plain canniness on the part of the mayor, that this rebel was appointed at all. At the ceremony, she spoke words rarely uttered in this leftist city: she vowed to make the streets safe again for all, including both the Asian community and the black community. "We can no longer turn a blind eye to the gun violence going on in our black community here. The families ... of this violence deserve justice." These words, acknowledging violence and death in the black community, are never uttered by public officials, except if the death is at the hands of the police. Chicago, New York, Los Angeles  all these mayors and D.A.s downplay a death toll that far outstrips the metrics of all mass shootings and police shootings combined.

D.A. Jenkins then went to work, firing all the ideologues and public defenders masquerading as prosecutors that Boudin installed. (Many of them are now whining on Twitter about the unfairness of it all, while the S.F. papers, aided by leaks from the fired, begin their campaign to take her down.) She has named other disaffected deputies to her leadership team. Most of all, she has vowed that they will restore accountability to criminal law: no more outcry about deincarceration or restorative justice, although Jenkins has already said she is not throwing out the bad with the good. Perhaps there is hope for San Francisco, and for California.

Mayra Flores, on the other hand, was born in Mexico and emigrated to the U.S. when her migrant worker father brought her here legally. She worked alongside her parents in the cotton fields and went on to study and become a respiratory care practitioner, finishing her undergraduate degree at South Texas College later in life. Her husband is a Border Patrol agent, and they live in South Texas with their four kids. She is the first Republican to win a seat in Congress from that district in modern history. Proud of her working-class life, she ran her campaign on "God, Family, Country." At her memorable swearing in, she stood amid several beaming, almost tearful fellow Republican lawmakers as she took her oath. Quite a moment. No family political dynasty, no tony Ivy League connections brought her to the House of Representatives; her piety, bravery, and patriotism did. In her speech, she told Speaker Pelosi in no uncertain terms who she is and why she ran for this office and what she intends to do about it.

These are hopeful developments for anyone who respects our traditional political values and sees only ruin when we abandon them. Brooke Jenkins and her mantra of safety and accountability, minus the Marxism, bodes well for San Francisco residents and maybe other cities, too. Soros D.A. Gascon down in Los Angeles is facing his own recall. Mayra Flores burns with the same fire as did our patriot founders in the War of Independence. Her piety, courage, and nationalism, predicated on our first principles, has already moved mountains. Both women will have to run again in November to cement their offices, of course, but a tide may be turning.

Image: PxHere.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell indicated, July 19, that former president Donald J. Trump will not have an easy time winning the GOP's presidential nomination in 2024. McConnell, who comes pretty close to being a card-carrying member of the NeverTrump Association of Republican Malcontents, envisions a "crowded field" for the 2024 GOP presidential race.

First, let's see if McConnell is retained as Republican leader in the U.S. Senate should Republicans win a significant majority this November 8. How long can McConnell hold his GOP leadership post in the Senate if a new Republican Senate majority reflects the Trumpian conservative populist mindset that Mr. McConnell opposes down to his political DNA? And the canary in this coal mine just might be the outcome of the Cheney-Hageman primary contest in Wyoming next month.

Perhaps Mr. McConnell should have waited four weeks before taking a gratuitous jab at Donald J. Trump. In four weeks, on August 16, Wyoming Republicans will choose their nominee for the House of Representatives. At this time, the virulently anti-Trump incumbent, Rep. Liz Cheney, is not favored to retain her seat in the House against pro-Trump challenger Harriet Hageman. Should Ms. Hageman thrash Rep. Cheney, can Mr. McConnell be expected to do more than grumble? How can Republicans running for the U.S. Senate not be affected by a Hageman win?

Indeed, what effect will a rousing victory by Ms. Hageman over turncoat Republican Cheney have on the Republican presidential field in 2024? Only the most anti-Trump of anti-Trumpians  say, The Wall Street Journal  would warn that the GOP is doomed in 2024 if it reacts to the Hageman victory by nominating the former president for a second term in 2024.

This is not to gainsay the possibility that a number of Republicans will announce their presidential candidacy for 2024  but such a "crowded field" is, more likely than not, to be headed by Mr. Trump with more than 50% support in the polls, followed by a string of hopefuls registering single-digit support.

One more word on the Wyoming contest, four weeks away. Ms. Cheney is reportedly hoping for the support of Democrats, who, for this Republican primary, will tell election officials they are Republicans. This form of Cheney-induced political finagling was reported, late June, in the Casper (Wyo.) Star Tribune.

Sounds here as though Liz Cheney has stooped to encouraging election-rigging  cheating  as her way to hold on to elective office for the purpose of continuing her vendetta against Mr. Trump. Hmm. Will citizen Liz Cheney be served with a subpoena from a House committee investigating election-tampering next year?

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
News is coming out that the Occupier in Chief is planning to use emergency powers to promote abortion and to implement the "Build Back Bankrupt" agenda he cannot get through Congress. The reason both of these cannot pass Congress is because there are not enough stupid people in the Senate to vote for them. Further, implementation of the Build Back Bankrupt agenda will distress the country to such a point that chaos will ensue, much like what's happened in Sri Lanka over the past months.

First, let's look at emergency powers in the United States. There are 123 statutory powers that might be available to a president when he declares a national emergency. An additional thirteen would require a declaration from Congress. The most recent emergency power law is the National Emergencies Act, enacted in 1976, which ended all previous national emergencies and formalized the powers of the president. Under this law, repealing an emergency power would take two thirds of both houses of Congress.

When you take a look at the emergency powers laws, the top 16 powers are as follows:

Bank accounts can be frozen. Bans on biological or chemical agents can be lifted. Civil liberties, such as the right to a peaceful assembly, can be halted. The president can order incarcerations. Elections can be postponed indefinitely. Federal leases can be suspended when the country faces dangers. Foreign individuals can be ordered to leave the nation, and the borders can be closed. National resources can be ushered into play to confront a natural disaster. Sanctions pertaining to property and finances can be removed or initiated. Soldiers and naval vessels may be ordered to engage in combat during a crisis. The government can take control of the internet, radio, and TV because of a perilous matter, and production and distribution of goods can be seized. The military can be mobilized domestically in a crisis, and martial law can be declared by the president. The leader of the Executive Branch can launch a nuclear strike if necessary. The president may order an assassination resulting from an emergency. The right of habeas corpus can be suspended as a consequence of crises. Transportation networks can be taken over by the government.

More than half of these violate the Constitution and take away our civil rights.

Let's take a look at what presidents have done with their "Emergency Powers."

In 1933, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102, eliminating the ownership of gold to "prevent hoarding." In 1942, President Roosevelt took away constitutional rights of Japanese citizens via Executive Order 9066. The E.O. incarcerated 120,000 Japanese-Americans with no due process, no trial, no jury.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy used Executive Order 10995 to seize regulatory control of all telecommunications spectra in the United States. Kennedy, citing emergency powers, also signed executive orders allowing for the seizure of electric power fuels and minerals, roads, highways, ports, sea lanes, waterways, railroads, and the private vehicles on those throughways. Under further orders, he allowed for the Executive Office of the President to conscript citizens as laborers and seize health and education facilities and airports and aircraft. These are contained in Executive Orders 10997, 10999, 11000, 11001, 11002, 11003, 11004, and 11005. So much for the belief that Kennedy was conservative.

Since passage of the National Emergencies Act in 1976, every U.S. president has declared multiple national emergencies: Carter (2), Reagan (6), H.W. Bush (4), Clinton (17), W. Bush (12), Obama: (13), Trump (7). Most of these dealt with blocking property of foreign actors or governments and had little to do with taking away citizens' rights.

Given what Biden and the Democrats have already done to destroy America, I have no doubt they would come up with a list of egregious declarations to finish us off before the midterms. We cannot allow this apparently lawful tyranny to continue if we expect to have a nation left. If we make it through to 2024, emergency powers need to be cut back significantly.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
In her opening argument to the jury in the government's case against Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress  not complying with a subpoena from the House Select Committee on Jan. 6  prosecutor Amanda Vaughn said, according to a report in Politico, "Ours is a nation of laws, and our system doesn't work if people think they're above them." The Politico report then out pointed that the jury Ms. Vaughn addressed consisted of "nine men and five women, including alternates."

It might have been pointed out to this jury that the House committee that issued the subpoena that is at the heart of this criminal trial consisted of nine members, seven Democrats and two Republicans, all of whom were selected by the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

Yet the resolution that established this committee, House Res. 503, called for a committee of 13 members of the House of Representatives: eight Democrats selected by Speaker Pelosi and five Republicans selected by House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy. The committee that issued the subpoena to Mr. Bannon consisted of nine House members, not thirteen, and not one of them was named by House Republican leader McCarthy, not even the two so-called Republicans on this committee  they were specially selected by Speaker Pelosi. Is a House committee above its own rules? If so, what kind of instruction does that give the American people other than this? The American people are not above the law, but members of Congress are.

Let me tell you now what James Madison, in Federalist No. 57, said about the possibility that Congress would make itself exempt from the laws it passed for the people of America to obey. Madison wrote that if the American spirit of freedom "shall ever be so far debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the legislature, as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate anything but liberty."

I say to you that if you permit the specially selected, indeed specially partisan, House committee established by Speaker Pelosi to ignore the very rules by which it was established, not only will you be signaling that the people of America will "tolerate anything but liberty," but you are saying the people of America will tolerate committees of Congress that are boards of inquisition whose proceedings can be as repressive as the show trials of a dictatorship, the star chambers of a tyrannical legislative body.

And mind you, it is not only in the number of members of this illegitimate, unconstitutional panel by which Speaker Pelosi disregarded the organizing resolution, or the fact that she vetoed the Republican leader's selections. House Resolution 503 provided for a ranking member who would consult with the chairman on the matter of issuing subpoenas. There is no ranking member, because there is no member chosen by the House Republican leader.

This above-the-rules committee claims to have a vice chair  Rep. Liz Cheney  but guess what! House Resolution 503 does not call for a vice chair. Ms. Cheney's post as "vice chair" is the above-the-rules decision of Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, not the decision of the House of Representatives in approving the establishment of this wayward panel.

Ms. Vaughn has declared, in effect, that no one is above the law. James Madison, in Federalist No. 57, has indicated that the starting point of this vital principle on which is based the American spirit of freedom, is the Congress of the United States of America. If you find Steve Bannon guilty of not complying with a subpoena issued by a House body in utter disregard of its own rules, the jury will be telling Speaker Pelosi and the members of her January 6 committee that no one is above the law  except the majority members of the House of Representatives  and their allies in the minority party. Validate the subpoena in this case that traduces the essence of our spirit of liberty, and you declare to the country that you are "prepared to tolerate anything but liberty."

The jury should tell the country, tell the world, that the United States will not tolerate a legislative body that places itself above its rules.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
Social media apparently are planning on turbo-charging the censoring of conservative voices  particularly ones who criticize Democrats  leading up to the midterm elections. How do I know this? What happened to me on Twitter last weekend cannot be an accident and is enough evidence for me. That's how.

What I am about to report is anecdotal. But from little anecdotes, great forests of fake news and censorship can grow.

Last weekend, I read an article at Yahoo News that was originally published at the certifiably left-wing site The Daily Beast. The article's title was "'Shocking' Monkeypox Screw-Up Means We Need to Admit We Now Face Two Pandemics." The message was clear: another major pandemic is imminent, and the federal government and the tail wagging the dog  the medical establishment  will soon be unveiling draconian plans to combat it, similar to what went down for two years with COVID-19.

Since Drudge had linked to the article at the top of his site for almost 24 hours on July 16, most of the reader comments at Yahoo News were pretty much on target and highly skeptical. I decided to tweet a link to the article, and I added three hashtags. This is what I tweeted:

Is Monkeypox the new Democrats' Plandemic? Sounds like it. https://news.yahoo.com/shocking-monkeypox-screw-means-admit-030643200.html Read this closely & then the comments. #monkeypox #plandemic #fauci

Shortly after my tweet went online, it was taken down, and I was blocked from logging in to my account. This is part of the message from Twitter that awaited me:

What happened? We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically, for: 1. Violating the policy on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19. We understand that during times of crisis and instability, it is difficult to know what to do to keep yourself and your loved ones safe. Under this policy, we require the removal of content that may pose a risk to people's health, including content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information. For more information on COVID-19, as well as guidance from leading global health authorities, please refer to the following links: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public from the WHO FAQs about COVID-19 from the WHO As a result, we've temporarily limited some of your account features. While in this state, you can still browse Twitter, but you're limited to only sending Direct Messages to your followers  no Tweets, Retweets, Fleets, follows, or likes.

To restore access to my account, I was required to agree that I had violated the rules (a digital mea culpa), delete my offensive tweet (which had already been deleted by Twitter), and promise not to do it again. A 12-hour countdown began after I agreed to all of this until I could access my account again. I was warned that a further transgression might result in my permanent banning from Twitter and the total deletion of my account.

The action taken against me appears to be an early sign that social media are preparing a new wave of rigid censorship leading up to the election. I feel like the canary in the coal mine. It's like what happened with the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in Oct. 2020. More broadly now, it appears that anything criticizing the Democrats will be canceled.

While I have soured on Twitter in recent years and use it only occasionally, my five years of tweeting represent a table of contents of descriptions and links to my prolific work as a journalist in a variety of media  alternative and mainstream. Occasionally, I retweet others' tweets as well. I would hate for that archive representing many hours of work to suddenly and forever disappear down the memory hole. There is also the issue of Twitter direct messages. The five years' worth of messages back and forth with hundreds of people I have communicated with, and their contact info on Twitter, would also disappear if I were canceled. For most of them, I would have no other way of communicating with them.

I immediately attempted to understand what I had supposedly done to earn the ire of a Twitter bot or possibly a human and woke Twitter employee. For one thing, my tweet never directly mentioned COVID. Additionally, a Google search revealed that thousands of tweets  which remain online  also link the words "plandemic" and "monkeypox." What was my crime, then?

It appears to have been the inclusion of "Democrats," as in "Is Monkeypox the Democrats' new Plandemic?" That's the only reasonable deduction I could make.

In the past, I have posted far more critical tweets about COVID and other politically incorrect topics, none of which has ever resulted in a warning from Twitter. I won't link to any of them here in case someone from Twitter is reading this and might take further action against me for something he might have previously overlooked.

But I don't think anyone did overlook what I tweeted in the past, or what thousands of others are tweeting right now. A reasonable suspicion is that "Democrats" is the new red flag for getting one censored or ultimately canceled.

If I am correct, then RIP the First Amendment  now that the town square and most people's primary sources for information have been reduced to the increasingly narrow, woke, and pathetic confines of social media.

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who writes about politics, media, popular culture, and health care for American Thinker and other publications. He also appears in the media, including recently as a contributor to OANN, BBC World News, The Glazov Gang, and Fox News. Peter's website is https://peter.media. His YouTube channel is here. For updates on his work, follow Peter on Twitter at @pchowka.
Federal rifle legislation has allowed America's Democrat (and some neo-con and other RINO) gun-grabbers to create the myth that the Second Amendment bans citizens from owning weapons of war. This myth arises from the way Democrats use America's existing weapons legislation.

An "assault rifle" is a type of gun invented around WWII and common thereafter. It is a light, handheld rifle with a selective fire capability that allows its user to shoot it in fully automatic mode (several rounds fired consecutively with a single pull of the trigger, without reloading in between the shots) and in semi-automatic mode (only one round fired with a single pull of the trigger, without reloading between the shots).

Even before these potentially fully automatic rifles, the National Firearm Act (NFA) of 1934 controlled "machine guns"  controls extended, in 1968, with the Gun Control Act and, in 1986, with the Firearm Owners Protection Act. Under the NFA, it is illegal for any private civilian to own any fully automatic weapon.

Some legal experts have considered the NFA's constitutionality controversial, even as amended in 1968. Still, that it generally prohibited law-abiding civilians from having firearms with fully automatic fire capability was, arguably, only a relatively minor and well defined restriction. The NFA's more far-reaching consequence was that it created, out of thin air, an excuse for many politicians to claim there is no lawful reason for civilians to have "military" weapons.

Contrary to leftist ideologues' repeated claims, that conclusion had no factual basis in 1791, when the Second Amendment was ratified, guaranteeing private civilians the right to possess the very same pistols and rifles that were commonly used by the modern military, thus giving the armed citizenry firepower similar to that of a standing army. (Some private civilians did in fact lawfully possess cannons at that time.)

Image: Contrary to what Democrats will tell you, this is not an AR-15 (PK Machine gun).

That actual military rifles with selective fire capacity have been banned for private, civilian possession and ownership for many decades now has not stopped Democrats from pushing for more bans and using deceptive rhetoric to do so. They have smuggled into the discourse a different definition of an assault rifle to mean a semi-automatic firearm, with a detachable magazine, that has no selective fire capability but resembles an actual assault rifle based on its superficial features, such as a protruding pistol grip, barrel shroud, etc.

Democrats have done so to deceive the American public into believing that firearms that look scary or "military-like" have no lawful purpose in private civilian hands and should be banned. (Never mind that doing so would violate the Second Amendment principles set out in District of Columbia v. Heller.)

So why this leftist charade about scary but legal and constitutional semi-automatic rifles? The answer is easy to guess: leftists want to disarm law-abiding citizens completely rather than just keep fully automatic weapons away from them. Calling popular semi-automatic rifles "assault rifles" makes it easier for leftists to accomplish that goal.

Most likely, leftists feel uncomfortable governing a country that allows armed citizens. Moreover, many of them seem to believe that the government has, or should have, a strict monopoly on using violence to defend citizens' lives. They must sense, too, that We the People may try to resist our disarmament if we realize that the main goal is to complete a free citizenry's subordination to total government. And that brings up this obvious conclusion: because the liberals resort to deception to accomplish their objectives, it stands to a reason that they must not be trusted.

If one assumes they are lying about their motives for demonizing legitimate constitutional weapons, we must not be stupid enough to fall for this deception. If we aren't smart, leftists will be able to disarm us, control us, deprive us of our fundamental right to self-defense, and confiscate some or all fruits of our hard work and ingenuity as they please.

Please remember that our guns are the only things of consequence that stand between America, with the unprecedented freedom that she offers to common people, and the Soviet-type totalitarian system leftists advocate (although all for our own good, of course). Once we lose our Second Amendment rights, our other constitutional rights will become indefensible, and the Soviet Union 2.0  or something equally bad  will be imposed on us right here in America.

UPDATE: A reader was kind enough to inform us that it is legal in some states to own a fully automatic weapon, although the process is difficult and expensive.

Mark Andrew Dwyer's recent columns are posted at The Federal Observer and Canada Free Press. Links to his other commentaries can be found here.
Dr. Gustav Zander's institute in Stockholm, founded in 1865, could be called the worlds first gym. It was equipped with twenty-seven custom built machines that Zanders patients exercised on. Zander claimed that his therapeutic machines could correct a range of physical deficiencies, impairments and ailments brought about by accidents of birth or by hard labor. A follower of the movement cure promoted by an earlier pioneer of exercise Per Henrik Ling, Zander argued that the key to health was not strenuous acrobatics but progressive exertionthe controlled, systematic engagement of the bodys muscles in order to build strength.

Shortly after becoming a licensed physician in 1864, Zander put his ideas into practice at a local Stockholm school by setting up prototype therapy machines for the students. His machines used weights and levers that could be pulled and moved to adjust resistance to suit each individual's strength. Another set of weights and levers compensated for the body or limb weight of the user. For those with paralyses or extreme weakness, motorized machines kept the affected muscles from atrophying.

After noticing a marked improvement in the strength and health of his subjects at the Stockholm school, Zander opened a Medico-Mechanical Institute in Stockholm to promote his machines. At first medical practitioners were skeptical of the claims for the new therapy, but as evidence of patient improvement mounted an increasing number of practitioners worldwide endorsed Zanders therapy, enabling him to open a second Zander Institute in London.

Zanders machines became a sensation at the 1876 Centennial and International Exposition in Philadelphia, earning him the award for best mechanical design. The rapid mechanization brought about by industrialization in the latter part of the 19th century saw an increase in the number of office workers, and Zander began to market his machines to this fast rising American business class. His machines offered, Zander explained to an American audience, a preventative against the evils engendered by a sedentary life and the seclusion of the office.

By the turn of the century, his machines could be found in health spas across the country, and at private institutes such as the one Zander set up near Central Park in New York. Access to these health machines was a mark of status that reflected a persons leisurely lifestyles and exemption from physical labor.

After Zanders death in 1920, his machines and his contribution to physical therapy were essentially forgotten, until these radical ideas were rediscovered in the last decades of the 20th century. His revolutionary ideas are once again receiving the attention and respect they merited.

References:

# The Origins Of Cybex Space, Cabinet Magazine

# The Therapy Machines of Dr. Gustav Zander, NPS

# Dr. G. Zanders Medico-mechanical Gymnastics, Smithsonian Institute

# Dr. Zander's exercise machines, Mashable
(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 20 - Premier Mario Draghi told the Senate on Wednesday that the "only way forward" for his executive is "to reconstruct the pact of trust" that it was founded on as reported on the crisis of government.

The premier was in parliament after President Sergio Mattarella refused to accept the resignation he presented last week following the failure of the 5-Star Movement (M5S), an important part of the ruling coalition, to back the government in a confidence vote.

"Not supporting a confidence vote is a clear political gesture," said the former head of the European Central Bank.

"It is not possible to ignore, as that would amount to ignoring parliament.

"It is not possible to contain it, because that would mean anyone can repeat it.

"It is not possible to play it down".

The premier defended the achievements of his government of national unity and outlined its eventual future aims.

"Italy has lots to say about going beyond the principle of unanimity in the EU and budget (rule) reform," he said.

"But a strong, cohesive government is needed to do all this.

"Italy needs a new concrete, honest pact of development.

"Parties, are you ready to reconstruct this pact?" "We are in this chamber because the Italian people asked us to.

It is an answer that you must give to all the Italian people". Draghi said he was moved by the "undeserved" array of appeals for him to stay on from a variety of spheres, including business leaders, university deans and voluntary associations.

He said he was most struck by the appeals for him to keep going from around 2,000 mayors and from the health workers who have been on the front line during the pandemic.

He pointed out that last week's confidence vote was only one example of how the unity of the ruling coalition in backing the government's agenda had faded in recent months.

Draghi referred to opposition from within the coalition to the government's justice and competition reforms, an overhaul of the values ascribed to properties in the land registry and opposition form some quarters to Rome sending addition military aid to Kyiv following the Russian invasion.

Draghi told the Senate that his decision to present his resignation was "as painful as it was obligatory".

He added that he agreed with President Sergio Mattarella's decision to refuse to accept the resignation and request for him report on the crisis of government to parliament.

Draghi recalled that Mattarella asked Draghi to form a government of national unity early in 2021 after the collapse of the previous executive to address the health, social and economic emergency Italy was facing in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But he stressed that a technocrat premier "who has never presented themselves before voters (at elections) needs broad support (from the political parties)".

Many Senators were on their feet applauding at the end of the speech.

But none of the M5S lawmakers in the Upper House applauded and very few representatives of Matteo Salvini's League did. (ANSA).


BELGRADE - The presidents of Serbia and Egypt, Aleksandar Vucic and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, on Wednesday signed a joint statement on the establishment of a strategic partnership between the two countries.



In the presence of the two heads of state, 12 bilateral agreements were then signed on collaboration in various sectors ranging from agriculture to the environment, culture, and television services.

Sisi's visit to Belgrade was the first by an Egyptian head of state in the past 35 years.

A business forum with businessmen from both countries flanking the visit underscored the interest by both to step up collaboration.

The last Egyptian president to visit Belgrade was Hosni Mubarak in July 1987.

The two countries have had friendly relations since the 1961 creation of the Non-Aligned Movement, which included Josip Broz Tito and Gamal Abdel Nasser among its founding members.






The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have met veterans of the Falklands war during a reception to mark the 40th anniversary of the conflict on board the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The couple were greeted by the president of the South Atlantic Medal Association 82 (SAMA82), Commodore Jamie Miller, and received the royal salute from a Royal Navy guard of honour accompanied by an army band on the jetty at Portsmouth Naval Base.

As they arrived on the ship, they were met by the carriers commanding officer, Captain Ian Feasey, and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.

Charles and Camilla then had a chance to meet veterans of the Falklands war, serving personnel and their families during a reception in the carriers vast hangar.

The reception concluded with a flourish by buglers and the royal couple were given three cheers as they signed the visitors book before leaving the ship.

Charles became the royal patron of the SAMA82 when it was founded in 1997 to recognise the role of all three services in the conflict.

Mr Wallace said: Forty years ago, 30,000 service personnel made the 8,000-mile journey to help protect the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. Today, we thank every one of them for their efforts and honour the 255 who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

I am heartened that veterans from the Falklands conflict have had the opportunity to spend time with, and continue to inspire, serving members of our armed forces.

The UK is as determined to defend our values now as we were 40 years ago.

Cpt Feasey said: It was humbling for our sailors and officers to meet veterans of the Falklands conflict and to remember the sacrifices made by the UK armed forces and Merchant Navy personnel during the Falklands conflict, in which aircraft carriers played a vital role.

The reception on board HMS Queen Elizabeth is one of many events being held across the country to commemorate those who fought in the war and the 255 service personnel who lost their lives.

Mr Miller, who survived the sinking of destroyer HMS Coventry, said: We have already enjoyed around 25 major events around the country to commemorate the 40th anniversary to remind people of what we achieved, celebrating the success of Great Britains armed forces and strengthening our associations membership.

To have Their Royal Highnesses present aboard the nations flagship  a reminder of the importance of sea power and the vital role of aircraft carriers in the Falklands  is a fitting end to this years events and we are truly honoured by their presence.

It is vital that we remember the past to get the present and future right.

Engineering Technician (Weapons Engineering) Lewis Merckel, 20, whose first ship in the navy is the HMS Queen Elizabeth, attended the reception with his father Martyn, 60, who served as an able seaman aboard HMS Yarmouth during the Falklands conflict.

Mr Merckel said: I was keen to get the experiences and see the things my dad did, there are a lot of traditions that havent changed.

The world is in a similar state to how it was when my dad went to war, we have all talked about it, we have had the conversation, its what I signed up for, I want to do what my dad did.

Mr Merckel, from near Kendal in Cumbria, said: Its all very emotional, it brings back memories and Ive met people I havent seen for 40 years.
Fires are continuing to ravage through houses and buildings across the UK after temperatures topped 40C in the UK for the first time ever.

A new record for the hottest day ever seen, of 40.3C, was recorded in Coningsby, in Lincolnshire, on Tuesday afternoon  beating the previous record of 38.7C in Cambridge three years ago, by 1.6C.

Amid the sweltering heat, major incidents were announced by fire brigades in London, Leicestershire and South Yorkshire as dozens of fires broke out amid the sweltering heat  with flames ripping through houses, schools and churches.

It comes as the temperature is set to drop by up to 10C in some areas on Wednesday, with heavy showers and thunderstorms to lash parts of the country, potentially causing localised flooding.

The Met Office said 34 observation sites across England provisionally broke the previous all-time record, ranging from Bramham, in West Yorkshire, to Charlwood, in Surrey, while a further five had equalled it on Tuesday.

A total of six sites, mostly in Greater London, saw temperatures reach or exceed 40C.

Scotland experienced its hottest day on record, with the temperature reaching 34.8C in Charterhall in the Scottish Borders, Met Office provisional figures showed.

(Yui Mok/PA)

However, two large-scale incidents took place in Upminster and the village of Wennington, east London, where black smoke billowed into the air, while flames destroyed buildings and ravaged nearby fields.

Several other significant incidents also occurred in the capital, with people urged not to have barbecues or bonfires due to the unprecedented challenges crews face.

Jonathan Smith, assistant commissioner at London Fire Brigade, earlier told the PA news agency crews would continue to tackle the flames into the evening.

He also said: It would be premature to say we are out the other end of this incident.

New smaller fires, related to the hot weather, were continuing to crop up in different corners of the city by 11pm on Tuesday.

(Yui Mok/PA)

Elsewhere, a serious blaze occurred in Barnsley when a row of houses in the Moorland Avenue area was consumed by flames, with crews continuing to battle fires elsewhere in the area.

Doncaster Council said a major blaze in Clayton also spread to three residential properties and there were reports of houses on fire in the Kiverton Park and Maltby areas of Rotherham.

Leicestershire Fire and Rescue tweeted: We have declared a major incident due to high demand across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

We will not be attending Automatic Fire alarms. Please only call us if its an emergency.

(Liam McBurney/PA)

It stood down its major incident warning later in the day.

Nine people have died since Saturday in swimming accidents and there has been widespread disruption to train services.

As temperatures soared:

 Interim deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Miriam Deakin, said the heatwave was forcing hospitals to scale back the number of planned surgeries and install cooling units and try to cool down IT server rooms.

 An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said the service had seen above-average call numbers since Monday afternoon and it expected to still be seeing an impact from heat-related illness into the weekend.

 Road congestion in several cities, including Birmingham, London and Manchester was down on Tuesday, as people heeded advice not to travel, while commuter numbers were also down on the Tube and bus services in the capital.

(Yui Mok/PA)

 Sales of fans, ice cream and paddling pools and burgers rocketed as the heatwave sparked a spending spree on summer essentials, according to retailers, while tech experts urged smartphone users to keep their gadgets out of the sun to ensure they continue working properly.

Heatwaves are being made more intense, frequent and longer by climate change, and scientists said it would be virtually impossible for the UK to have experienced temperatures reaching 40C without human-driven global warming.

However, the Met Office said there would be a showery and thundery breakdown of the heat on Wednesday, with a yellow warning for thunderstorms in place for parts of south east, east and central England in the afternoon and evening.

It warns people to expect flooding or lightning strikes, delays and some cancellations to train and bus services, spray and sudden flooding, road closures and possible power cuts.

(PA Graphics)

It will be fresher for most places, although some parts of East Anglia will still see temperatures reach as high as 30C.

Wednesdays rain, where it occurs, will be much heavier than on Tuesday.
A High Court judge has drawn the marriage of Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel and his wife Sigrid to a close after being told they had reached agreement over the division of their finances.

Mr Justice Mostyn on Wednesday said Mrs Tuchel, who had petitioned for divorce, could apply for a decree absolute forthwith.

The judge, who is based in the Family Division of the High Court in London, made a direction at an online hearing.

He had said neither Tuchel nor Mrs Tuchel needed to attend the hearing.

Both had agreed to the judge making the decree absolute direction.

The judge had approved an agreement over the division earlier this month and pronounced decree nisi at a hearing in June.

Tuchel, who comes from Germany, took control at Chelsea in early 2021 after leaving Paris St-Germain.

Mr Justice Mostyn had said, in a written order, he was satisfied that Tuchel had behaved in such a way that Mrs Tuchel, who is known as Sissi, could not reasonably be expected with him.

The judge also said he was satisfied the marriage had broken down irretrievably.
Liz Truss is no stranger to political transformations.

Having marched in her youth side-by-side with left-wingers to demand the ousting of Margaret Thatcher, she is now seen by supporters as the heir to the Iron Ladys throne.

The highest office in the land is now within grasping distance for Ms Truss, who will face former Cabinet colleague Rishi Sunak in a ballot of party members after overcoming the stiff challenge of rival Penny Mordaunt.

The avid Brexiteer, never far from a clash with the European Union, campaigned to Remain, and Ms Truss joined the Conservatives after a brush with the Liberal Democrats.

Now the fierce free-marketeer who became only the UKs second female foreign secretary last year at the age of 46 is aiming to convince party members to giver her the top job.

Born in Oxford in 1975 to parents she describes as left-wing, her mother, a nurse and a teacher, took a young Ms Truss to marches for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1980s and to peace camp.

Aged four, she moved to Paisley in Scotland, where she has recalled yelling a slogan that perhaps no other Tory Cabinet minister has ever yelled before.

It was in Scottish so it was Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, oot, oot, oot, she has told the BBC.

But Ms Truss also had an early fascination with Mrs Thatcher, saying that she was around eight when she agreed to play her during a mock school election. I got no votes, she conceded.

Ms Truss says her father, a mathematics professor, has long struggled to comprehend her move to conservatism, believing, perhaps wishfully, she is a sleeper working from inside to overthrow the regime.

Conservative Party leadership contender Liz Truss before a live television debate (Victoria Jones/PA)

The family upped sticks to Leeds, where Ms Truss attended the Roundhay state secondary school before studying philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

There she became active in student politics, first with the Liberal Democrats, even once espousing an anti-monarchist sentiment.

I think it was fair to say that, when I was in my youth, I was a professional controversialist and I liked exploring ideas and stirring things up, she told the BBCs Political Thinking With Nick Robinson.

At the 1997 Conservative Party conference, she met future husband Hugh OLeary. She has two teenage daughters.

Ms Truss worked as an accountant for Shell and Cable & Wireless but her heart was in politics, though she suffered the setbacks of two failed electoral bids.

After the unsuccessful runs for the Tories in Hemsworth in 2001 and Calder Valley in 2005, she was elected as a councillor in Greenwich in 2006 before becoming deputy director of the right-of-centre Reform think tank two years later.

But she was selected as the candidate for the Tory safe seat of South West Norfolk after making it on to David Camerons A-list of priority candidates.

Liz Truss, canvassing in the village of West Walton, Norfolk (Chris Radburn/PA)

She entered Parliament after winning in the 2010 general election by a comfortable majority of more than 13,000 votes.

Her candidacy narrowly survived an attempt by traditionalist members of her local Tory association  nicknamed the Turnip Taliban over their conservative views and their local agricultural product  to deselect her after it emerged she had an affair with married Conservative MP Mark Field.

During her early days in Parliament she co-authored the Britannia Unchained book alongside Thatcherite future Cabinet colleagues Kwasi Kwarteng, Priti Patel and Dominic Raab.

It set out proposals to strip back regulation and encourage innovation, but caused controversy with a claim that British workers are among the worst idlers in the world.

Two years after entering Parliament, Ms Truss was part of the Government, being made an education minister in the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition.

After clashes with Lib Dem deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg, she was promoted to environment secretary in 2014.

But while her fortunes were rising in Westminster, her reputation as a speechmaker faltered.

It was in the environment brief that she gave an often-ridiculed address to the Tory conference where she discussed her left-to-right conversion in a pantomime manner.

Then-environment secretary Liz Truss addressing the Conservative Party conference in Manchester (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Her tone switched to a serious one when decrying the state of play that saw the UK importing two thirds of its cheese. That is a disgrace, she insisted, deadpan.

Ms Trusss star kept rising, however, and she did a year as justice secretary before heading to the Treasury as chief secretary and then leading the Department for International Trade.

It was during this period that her prolific and carefully curated social media output saw the department nicknamed the Department for Instagramming Truss.

Another political conversion was under way, and she shifted from arguing to stay in the EU at the 2016 referendum to become a strong defender of the decision to leave.

She inherited the role of Foreign Secretary in September after Mr Raab was moved aside in the wake of his handling of the Afghanistan crisis.

Here, she would take a tough stance in talks and anger the EU with legislation threatening to potentially break international law over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss meeting European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic for talks in central London on the Northern Ireland Protocol (Rob Pinney/PA)

She would also oversee the successful release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori from Iranian detention where other ministers had failed.

The Foreign Office gave her a much higher profile and she seized on it with numerous eye-catching photo ops that bore a resemblance to Mrs Thatchers escapades.

Though the frequent comparisons with the Tory grandee are at times derided as lazy and sexist, they are comparisons that Ms Truss has clearly sought to encourage.

Ms Truss donned military gear and perched in a tank for pictures during a visit to Estonia, echoing an image of Mrs Thatcher in a tank in West Germany in 1986.

Her choice of Russian hat on a visit to Moscow in February emulated that of Mrs Thatchers three decades earlier, while a leadership debate outfit also bore uncanny similarities.

And she has sought to portray herself as her tax-cutting heir during the fight for No 10, though Mr Sunak has sought to claim the same mantle with his very different approach.

Ms Truss has set the stage, but it is now in the hands of party members to decide whether she will tread the boards as prime minister.
Mourners including Lorraine Kelly and Gaby Roslin have begun arriving for the funeral of Dame Deborah James in London.

The podcast host and mother-of-two, who became known as Bowelbabe, her social media handle, died last month aged 40 after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016.

Close friends and family arrived at St Marys Church in Barnes, west London, ahead of the service on Wednesday afternoon.

Lorraine Kelly arrives at St Marys Church in Barnes (Aaron Chown/PA)

TV presenters Kelly and Roslin, who were both friends of Dame Deborah, filed into the church alongside family members carrying a wreath of white flowers.

A note attached to the flowers said: Deborah, thank you to our extraordinary friend. You together with Seb, Eloise and Hugo are such an important part of our family, we will love and miss you forever.

A mourner carried sheet music for the song Tell Me Its Not True from the musical Blood Brothers, along with an order of service with a picture of Dame Deborah.

A mourner carries a copy of the order of service (Aaron Chown/PA)

McFly star Tom Fletcher and his podcaster wife Giovanna were pictured holding hands as they arrived.

The church bells chimed at 12.30pm ahead of the intimate service, which is set to begin at 1pm with readings and music from relatives.

Dame Deborah, a former deputy headteacher, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016 and subsequently kept her nearly one million Instagram followers up to date with her treatments.

Her candid posts about her progress and diagnosis, including videos of her dancing her way through treatment, won praise from the public and media alike.

Dame Deborah revealed in early May that she had stopped active treatment and was seeing out her final days at her parents home in Woking, Surrey.

She received end-of-life care with her husband, Sebastien, and their two children, 14-year-old son Hugo and 12-year-old daughter Eloise, by her side,

Gaby Roslin was among the mourners (Aaron Chown/PA)

In her final months, the presenter of the BBC podcast You, Me And The Big C raised almost 7 million for cancer research, with the amount climbing further following her death.

She was made a dame for her tireless work improving awareness of the disease, with the honour conferred by the Duke of Cambridge, who joined her family for afternoon tea and champagne at home.

Her death was announced on June 28 with a message saying she had died peacefully, surrounded by her family.

William and Kate, charities, celebrities and many whose lives have been affected by cancer shared tributes.
The parents of Nora Quoirin, a French-Irish schoolgirl from London whose body was found near a Malaysian jungle resort during a family holiday, have settled a case against Facebook.

Lawyers for the social media giant, trading as Meta, read out an agreed statement in the High Court in Dublin on Wednesday.

Sebastien and Maebh Quoirin, who were in court, had initiated proceedings against Facebook and retired solicitor Anne Brennan over posts made on Facebook in 2019 and 2020.

Sebastien and Maebh Quoirin outside the High Court in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA)

Both proceedings were settled and Facebook has expressed its sympathies to the Quoirin family.

Declan Doyle, senior counsel for Mr and Mrs Quoirin, told the court that a series of allegations had been made on the platform in 2019 and 2020 which he described as grossly defamatory.

The action has been settled, Mr Doyle told the court, adding that the terms of the settlement were confidential.

Ms Brennan was not in court for the hearing.

Nora, 15, was discovered dead nine days after she went missing from an eco-resort in Malaysia in August 2019. Her family believe she was abducted.

She was born with holoprosencephaly  a disorder which affects brain development  and her family have said she would not have wandered off on her own.

Meta lawyers said in a statement: During what was a distressing time for the Quoirin family in the course of Noras disappearance and in the aftermath of her subsequent discovery, a Facebook user posted a series of allegations that were disturbing and offensive to Noras parents on the Facebook platform.

Meta Platforms Ireland Limited appreciates that the users allegations were distressing to the Quoirin family and takes this opportunity to express its sympathy for the distress and trauma arising from that users allegations.

Meta Platforms Ireland Limited will continue its efforts in preventing the misuse of its platform and ensuring the safety of its users.

The hearing took place before the President of the High Court, Mr Justice David Barniville, who expressed his sympathy to Mr and Mrs Quoirin and thanked them for travelling from the UK for the proceedings.

Speaking outside court, Noras mother said the family are satisfied the matter has been concluded.

Today marks the end of another chapter in the quest for truth, she said.

We are satisfied this matter is now concluded.

We will continue our efforts in Malaysia in order to bring justice for our beloved Nora.

We wish to thank our legal team for all their support.

The teenager, whose mother is from Belfast and father is French, had poor motor skills, needed help to walk, and her mental age was about five or six, her parents previously said.

The Quoirins gave a statement after the hearing (Niall Carson/PA)

The family were staying at Dusun eco-resort near Seremban, about 40 miles south of the capital Kuala Lumpur, and reported Nora missing the day after they had arrived.

Her naked body was discovered beside a small stream about 1.6 miles from the resort on August 13, 2019.

Police previously said there was no sign the teenager had been abducted or raped, with a preliminary post-mortem investigation showing she succumbed to intestinal bleeding due to starvation and stress.

An inquest was held in Malaysia and a coroner ruled in January 2021 the death was accidental rather than criminal, and said there was no third-party involvement.

Her family branded the findings incomplete at the time.

But in June last year a court in Malaysia overturned an inquest verdict of misadventure in her death.

At the time Mrs Quoirin said it was the only reasonable outcome after it was changed to an open verdict.

Overturning the original ruling, the judge said it would not have been been probable for the teenager to venture out on her own and navigate challenging terrain in and around the location she was found.
Rail services between Scotland and England faced disruption on Wednesday following Tuesdays record breaking temperatures.

Network Rail announced on Wednesday morning there would be no trains between London Euston and Scotland as teams repaired damage caused to overhead lines on Tuesday as temperatures hit 40C south of the border on Tuesday, the hottest on record in the UK.

Services on both the east and west coast mainlines have been affected.

Overhead lines and tracks between Kings Cross and Peterborough are being repaired following a fire on the line on Tuesday.

Damage at a level crossing in Sandy, Bedfordshire, which has led to severe disruption on the East Coast mainline (Network Rail/PA)

On the west coast mainline, power lines were damaged between Lancaster and Carnforth; at Harrow in North London; at Birmingham New Street and near Wolverhampton.

Network Rail tweeted: Colleagues in England have been working through the night to repair damage caused by the extreme heat yesterday.

 We're also asking you to check your journeys before travelling on the East Coast Main Line today because we expect severe disruption. We're repairing the line after a fire on the route between Peterborough and London Kings Cross:  https://t.co/nNgIhK31bw#heatwaveuk pic.twitter.com/HU8DsGmSRl  Network Rail (@networkrail) July 20, 2022

This has been a very challenging 24 hours. There is still a lot of work to do, but the teams are working hard to make those repairs.

Avanti West Coast, which operates trains on the west coast mainline between Glasgow Central and London Euston, said tickets that had been purchased for journeys on Tuesday and Wednesday will be valid for travel until Friday.

The operator urged members of the public to check journeys and find alternative routes.

Please check your journey before leaving for the station. Train tickets for yesterday (Tue 19 July) and today (Wed 20 July) will be valid for travel Thurs 21 July and Fri 22 July until midday. Were sorry for the inconvenience this will cause.https://t.co/gHe5m9i9uF  Avanti West Coast (@AvantiWestCoast) July 20, 2022

Meanwhile, Lumo confirmed they would only run services between Edinburgh Waverley and Newcastle on Wednesday.

Original tickets will be accepted onboard Lumo services for up to a week following the planned day of travel.

The Caledonian Sleeper services on Wednesday evening are scheduled to run, but the operator has urged passengers to check ahead of travelling.

Customers are advised that due to damage on the line caused by the extreme hot weather yesterday, Lumo services will only run between Edinburgh Waverley and Newcastle today. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/yNEMpm6vI8  LUMO (@LumoTravel) July 20, 2022

East coast mainline operator LNER warned passengers not to travel to London Kings Cross Station and tweeted: Due to urgent repairs to the railway between Kings Cross and Peterborough, all lines are blocked. Please Do Not Travel to or from Kings Cross today.

James Dean, Network Rails West Coast South route director, said: Were sorry to passengers impacted by the damage caused to our overhead electric lines during the record-breaking heat.

Our Sleeper services this evening (20th July) are planned to operate. However, some disruption to boarding and departure times may be possible given Network Rail are still working to deal with the impact of yesterday's extreme weather.1/2  Caledonian Sleeper (@CalSleeper) July 20, 2022

Specialist teams worked all night but have been unable to fix the cables in time for the start of service this morning.

Were doing everything we can to get things back up and running.

In the meantime, please check National Rail Enquiries before you set off on your journey as delays will continue today.
A Samsung ad criticised for featuring a woman running alone at 2am has been cleared by the advertising watchdog following complaints that it was irresponsible for encouraging unsafe behaviour.

The ad for a Samsung smart watch, which showed the woman running through the streets of London in the early hours by herself, attracted 27 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) from viewers who noted the number of recent high profile cases where women had been attacked in similar circumstances.

In April, womens safety group Reclaim These Streets described the campaign as tone deaf in light of the death of Irish teacher Ashling Murphy, who was killed after she went for a run in January.

The 23-year-olds death in Tullamore, Co Offaly, caused shockwaves and sparked vigils across Ireland and beyond in her memory, as calls were made for a change in attempts to tackle gender-based violence.

It led to the hashtag #shewasonarun as women shared stories about being harassed while out running.

Responding to the complaints to the ASA, Samsung acknowledged that the ads might have been perceived as insensitive by some viewers, particularly given the recent high-profile attacks on women at night, and apologised.

The tech giant said the ads would not screen again in the UK but welcomed clarity on whether or not the campaign breached advertising rules.

Samsung said that while the ads were not intended to encourage women to go running at night, the unsafe element complained about related to the risk of predatory individuals attacking the woman shown in the ads and that running alone at night, of itself, did not present that risk.

They added that the victims of attacks who had chosen to run alone at night should never be blamed or judged for deciding to take the risk and believed that a ruling that advertisers could not show individuals running alone might be perceived in that way.

Ad clearance agency Clearcast said the danger was not the fault of the woman running, and it was concerned that upholding complaints about Samsungs ad could set a precedent for wider victim blaming, making it difficult to assess future ads.

The ASA said: We recognised that some care would need to be taken when going for a run alone in the middle of the night, particularly for women, and we considered that people would be likely to realise that by doing so, they could be placed in a vulnerable position.

We noted that the woman shown in the ads appeared alert and aware of her surroundings, and was seen running in well-lit, main streets where other people were present. We considered, therefore, that the woman was not shown behaving recklessly or obviously placing herself in danger.

The watchdog added: We considered that running alone at night, of itself, was not likely to result in harm or injury. Whilst we acknowledged that an attack could happen, that was outside of a persons control and it could also happen in other, everyday scenarios and at all times of the day or night.

For those reasons, we concluded that the ads did not encourage an unsafe practice and were not irresponsible.

Samsung said: We were fully co-operative with the ASAs investigation into the recent Night Owls campaign.

The campaign was designed with a positive message in mind: to celebrate individuality and freedom to exercise at all hours. It was never our intention to be insensitive to ongoing conversations around womens safety. As a global company with a diverse workforce, we apologise for how this may have been received.
FILE - This image provided by the National Transportation Safety Board shows damage to a 2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor electric car following a crash in September, 2021, in Coral Gables, Fla. A Florida jury on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, found electric car maker Tesla negligent for disabling a speed limiter on a vehicle but placed much of the blame for a fiery fatal crash on the 18-year-old driver. Barrett Riley and his friend Edgar Monserrat Martinez, both seniors at a private school in South florida, died in the May 2018 crash in Fort Lauderdale. A backseat passenger was ejected from the car and survived, officials said. (NTSB via AP, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

MIAMI (AP)  A jury in Florida has found Tesla just 1% negligent in a fiery crash that killed two teens, for disabling a speed limiter on the electric car.

Tuesday's verdict placed 90% of the blame on the driver, Barrett Riley, and 9% on his father, James Riley, who brought the lawsuit against Tesla.

It's the first known case involving a Tesla crash that has gone to trial, said Michael Brooks, acting exective director at the Center for Auto Safety, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization.

Barrett Riley and his friend Edgar Monserrat Martinez were about to graduate from their private school in South Florida when they died in the May 2018 crash near Fort Lauderdale Beach. A backseat passenger was ejected and survived.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined he was driving at 116 mph (186 kph) in a 30 mph (48 kph) zone, and the most likely cause of the crash was the drivers loss of control as a result of excessive speed.

James Riley claimed the crash was entirely survivable and that it was the ensuing fire that killed the teenagers, but the judge dismissed his lawsuit's claim that Tesla designed defective lithium ion batteries that burst into an uncontrollable and fatal fire upon impact.

James Riley also said Tesla removed a speed limiter without his permission. He had ordered the instrument installed to prevent his son from driving at more than 85 mph (136 kph).

An investigation found that about a month before the crash, the teen asked workers at Teslas Dania Beach dealership to return the car to normal operating mode while it was being serviced.

Tesla denied negligence in disabling the speed limiter. The company argued that the teens parents were negligent in allowing him to drive the vehicle when they were aware of his history of speeding and reckless driving, according to the judges instructions to the jury.

Brooks, at the Center for Auto Safety, said other lawsuits are pending against Tesla involving the vehicle's autopilot and full self-driving systems.

Jurors recommended awarding the teen's mother Jenny Riley $6 million for pain and suffering, and $4.5 million to the father, the newspaper reported.

But the apportionment of responsibility means Tesla will only be liable for $105,000, which is equivalent to 1% of the negligence as determined by the verdict, according to Curt Miner, an attorney representing the Riley family.
WALTERBORO, SC (AP)  The disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to murdering his wife and son.

His defense lawyers and prosecutors agreed to keep the evidence secret amid media attention. His defense asked the judge to deny him bond, saying he cant afford to post it anyway and wants a speedy trial because he feels the killer or killers are still at loose.

The prosecution denied that, telling the judge that all the evidence points to his guilt in the shootings of his wife and son.

Circuit Judge Clifton Newman had previously denied Murdaugh bond after he was charged with stealing money from clients. A different judge later set bond at $7 million but Murdaugh was unable to pay and has remained in jail since October.

His lawyers have complained several times that the bond was set too high, and said that because of lawsuits and frozen assets Murdaugh couldnt even afford to buy underwear from the jail store.

Murdaugh, 54, was indicted on two counts of murder in the shootings of his wife Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, at the familys Colleton County hunting estate in June 2021. He also faces more than 80 other charges, including stealing money from clients; running a money laundering and drug ring; and trying to arrange his own death so that his surviving son could receive a $10 million life insurance payout.
A Kansas City man was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of North Kansas City Police Officer Daniel Vasquez during a traffic stop late Tuesday morning.

Clay County Prosecutor Dan White charged Joshua T. Rocha, 24, Wednesday with one count each of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Vasquez. He was being held on a $2 million bond in the Clay County jail and is scheduled to make his first appearance in court at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Rocha could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole, White said during a news conference Wednesday morning outside the North Kansas City Police Department.

White said his plan is to get the investigation completed before deciding whether or not to seek the death penalty. In the past in cases like this, he wants to have the investigation and complete case file on his desk.

I will then reach out to the family members of the victim and well have those discussions, he said. I will then reach out to members of the North Kansas City Police Department and have those discussions about what they think the proper punishment will be.

After that, he will meet with his staff before making the decision on whether to seek the death penalty.

Vasquez was shot about 10:40 a.m. Tuesday after he pulled over a gray Ford Taurus with a temporary Missouri tag that expired in 2018 near 21st Avenue and Clay Street in North Kansas City. Authorities allege Rocha left the vehicle during the stop and opened fire on Vasquez.

North Kansas City police officer Daniel Vasquez.

Vasquez died of his wounds at North Kansas City Hospital as he was being prepared to be moved to another hospital.

Rocha surrendered to Kansas City police after the Missouri State Highway Patrol issued a statewide alert for the car and the apprehension of its driver.

White said he believed the $2 million bond was appropriate in this case.

Shooting a police officer, in my opinion, is a clear indication that youre a danger to the community, he said.

Clay County Prosecutor Dan White charged Joshua T. Rocha, 24, Wednesday with one count each of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of North Kansas City police officer Daniel Vasquez.

Police recovered a weapon Tuesday using a search warrant, said Deputy Chief Mike Wood with the Kansas City Police Department, the agency handling the investigation. Officers were not releasing other information on the kind of weapon and are investigating if it was used in the shooting.

North Kansas City Police Department Chief Kevin Freeman thanked the community and outside agencies that responded to the killing for their support during this very very hard time.

Community members added flowers, candles and cards to Vasquezs patrol car which sits as a memorial outside the police headquarters. Theyre also donating to a fund created to raise money for Vasquezs family.

Unfortunately, there is no successful ending to the tragic death of Daniel Vasquez, North Kansas City Mayor Bryant Long said. Todays announcement, though, is the first step in achieving any Justice for Daniels death.

Clay County Prosecutor, Dan White, front, announced charges against Joshua T. Rocha, 24, Wednesday with one count each of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the killing of North Kansas City Police officer Daniel Vasquez, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop late Tuesday morning. Rocha was being held on a $2 million bond in the Clay County jail and is scheduled to make his first appearance in court at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

Freeman had described Vasquez as a shining star for the department.

Vasquez joined the department in January 2021 as a recruit and was promoted to full officer status after he graduated from the Regional Police Academy in July 2021.

Prior to joining the department, he worked for the Independence Avenue Community Improvement District, where he received special recognition for his service from his employer, according to a story from the Northeast News.

Vasquez is the first North Kansas City police officer killed in the line of duty.

Kansas City FOP Lodge 99 created a fundraiser for Vasquezs funeral arrangements and other family assistance.
Disbarred lawyer Alex Murdaugh was denied bond Wednesday in the June 2021 murders of his wife and son, as a South Carolina judge said hell consider how much evidence in the case should be kept secret before trial and whether to allow the trial to begin soon, likely in January.

Judge Clifton Newman denied bond in Colleton County, where Murdaughs wife Maggie and and son Paul were found shot to death on June 7, 2021.

In an 18-minute hearing, Murdaugh pleaded not guilty.

When asked by the prosecutor how he wished to be tried, in a strong, clear voice, Murdaugh said in a generations-old legal formula, By God and my country.

Murdaugh, 54, wearing a white face mask with his head shaved, stood in the courtroom wearing a button-up white shirt and khaki pants, a change from his navy blue jail jumpsuit and red/orange Nikes he was seen wearing while entering the courthouse.

He had been transported the roughly 90 miles to Walterboro from the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County, where hes been held on a $7 million bond on financial indictments.

A fourth-generation member of a Lowcountry legal dynasty, Murdaugh was indicted last week by a Colleton County jury on two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife and son and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, were found shot to death  Maggie by a rifle and Paul by a shotgun, the indictments said  in the evening of June 7, 2021, on their 1,700-acre hunting lodge estate in rural Colleton County, which locals referred to as Moselle. Their bodies were found separated from one another near the dog kennels on the property. It is not known whether law enforcement has possession of the murder weapons.

Murdaugh has said he found their bodies on returning home to Moselle and called 911.

The courtroom on Wednesday was crowded with dozens of reporters representing state and national publications, television producers and several people who working on Murdaugh true crime books. Court TV broadcast livestream. A dozen cameras or more caught the proceedings.

Attorney Generals Office top prosecutor Creighton Waters said some of the victims in the case  apparently relatives of Maggie  were not in the courtroom but watching the proceedings by a remote hookup. He did not identify them. Waters also said Attorney General Alan Wilson, who was not present, was traveling.

Wednesdays hearing took place in an old-timey courtroom with a high ceiling and seats for some 250 on the second floor of Colleton Countys historic courthouse.

Hanging on the rear wall of the courtroom behind Murdaugh was an oil portrait Murdaughs grandfather, Randolph Buster Murdaugh Jr., a legendary 14th Judicial Circuit solicitor known for fiery jury arguments who held office some 48 years, from about 1940 to 1988.

Murdaugh lawyers say gag order, speedy trial necessary

Newman told Murdaughs attorneys, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, on Wednesday that he would consider a limited gag order that aims to limit disclosures to mostly the media and seal evidentiary-related motions.

Further discussion of the alleged facts in this case we think continues to run the risk of polluting the jury pool. Harpootlian said.

Harpootlian said the defenses motion would include putting a seal of confidentiality over all the evidence in the case, meaning neither the prosecution nor the defense could talk publicly about such matters. In criminal cases, the prosecutors are required to turn over all relevant evidence to the defense.

South Carolina Attorney Generals office prosecutor Creighton Waters agreed with Harpootlians motion, noting the case has generated a lot of media attention. He motioned an adjacent jury box packed with more than a dozen reporters, while dozens more sat beside him.

A lot of the financial material provides motive and background, Waters told the judge.

A string of 16 state grand jury indictments issued since November against Murdaugh charges him with stealing more than $8.4 million from his law firm, fellow lawyers, associates and clients. Murdaugh has been in jail unable to make the $7 million bond.

At the time his wife and son were killed, Murdaugh was heavily in debt and his finances were in danger of being made public as a result of an ongoing civil lawsuit, according to The State newspapers analysis of evidence made public in lawsuits and criminal charges against him.

Three months after Maggie and Pauls deaths, in September 2021, Murdaugh was kicked out of his law firm for allegedly stealing out of the firms client trust account. The S.C. Supreme Court later suspended his law license, and, later, disbarred him.

That same month, Murdaugh was charged with staging a botched suicide attempt in what authorities said was a failed effort to collect on a $10 million life insurance policy for his surviving son Buster. The alleged shooter, close friend and relative Curtis Eddie Smith, also was charged.

Separately, Harpootlian told the judge that Murdaugh wants a speedy trial because he is innocent.

Harpootlian, a state senator, said he is willing to waive his legislative duties if there are conflicts. Senators who are lawyers have the right to be excused from many courtroom duties while the Legislature is in session.

He (Murdaugh) believes the killer, or killers, are still at large and this will allow SLED (the State Law Enforcement Division) to move forward and look for the real killers, Harpootlian said.

Waters called the evidence in the case, such as forensic and other evidence, substantial, saying it all points back to Alex Murdaugh.

Our response to that is he (Waters) is wrong, Harpootlian said.

According to sources in this case, evidence that prosecutors have includes cell phone data, blood or flesh material and location data from the SUV that Murdaugh was driving the night of the killings.

Waters said prosecutors will be turning over to the defense all the evidence gathered in the state grand jurys monthslong investigation of not just the murders of Paul and Maggie, but also information from the probe of Murdaughs many alleged fraudulent financial dealings.

Newman said he would study the motions, sounding somewhat skeptical because he said he rarely issues gag orders, telling lawyers, I just want it clearly understood its a public matter, a public trial.. Matters that need to be sealed can be sealed. I want it clear we will not have any private motion hearings. Public matters will be public.

One lingering question to be resolved is whether the trial would occur in Colleton County.

Columbia attorney Joe McCulloch, who is suing Murdaugh in an unrelated 2019 boat crash case involving an injury to his client, told reporters outside the courthouse that he wasnt sure what county the case could be located in given everyone knows about it.

I know the people in Hampton County would like this to go away and get back to what theyre accustomed to, he said.

Reporters Sarah Haselhorst and Bristow Marchant contributed to this report.
Street fruit vendor Tomas Escamilla, who was attacked in May by someone who destroyed his fruit cart, sets up his stand in Woodland Hills. (Raul Roa / Times Community News)

In what would be a first for California, Santa Ana city officials considered Tuesday whether they can classify attacks against street vendors as hate crimes, which could offer additional safeguards for vendors in the predominantly Latino city.

Councilman Jonathan Ryan Hernandez, 29, said that he's noticed an increase in attacks against street vendors and that viral videos seem to show a pattern of verbal and physical assaults with an undercurrent of anti-Latino racism.

"These aren't robberies. These people are not having their food stolen; they're not having their shopping carts taken from them," Hernandez said. "They're getting beaten up and spit at, and then these people are walking away."

Hernandez introduced the proposal at Tuesday's regular City Council meeting, where council members discussed whether such a rule would be possible.

"I believe this is an issue of discrimination," Hernandez said. "Let's call it what it is. It's racism."

The council members and Mayor Vicente Sarmiento were supportive of acting to protect vendors, but some said they were concerned that vendors can't be considered a protected class under state law.

Sarmiento and council members Thai Viet Phan and David Penaloza said they wanted city staff to look into whether a hate crime enhancement for attacks on street vendors would be enforceable if enacted.

"I would hate to adopt something that would have to be repealed," the mayor said.

The matter will be sent to city staff for further research. No vote was held Tuesday night.

Hernandez, whose family is from Jalisco, Guadalajara, in Mexico, said there is not enough support for street vendors and the immigrant community in Santa Ana. He wants to change that with his proposal.

"We're in their corner," Hernandez said. "They're not alone. And for anybody who thinks that disrespecting street vendors is acceptable, we're looking to hold them accountable."

Hernandez said he hopes his proposal could be a model for other jurisdictions across California. Elsewhere in the region, cities including Anaheim and Santa Monica have cracked down on street vending, blocking unpermitted vendors from selling in certain areas.

The Orange County district attorney's office and the Santa Ana Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment about attacks against street vendors or whether there has been an increase in reported assaults on Latino residents.

Last year, Cudahy resident Edin Enamorado armed Los Angeles street vendors with pepper spray, Tasers and in some instances personal security after a string of attacks in Long Beach, as reported by L.A. Taco.

Senior organizer Sergio Jimenez of the Community Power Collective's Street Vendor Justice program said more recorded attacks against street vendors may be going viral, but it's mainly because street vendors are taking back some agency and recording their attackers.

Many street vendors are undocumented, monolingual businesspeople who might not be familiar with their 1st Amendment rights in the United States, Jimenez said. He's hopeful that support from law enforcement and educating street vendors on their rights can go a long way to building a safer community.

"A lot of it has to do with outreach, education and raising the social consciousness," Jimenez said. "What we're telling them is, 'Hey, you know what? You got to record these things, step away and record and narrate everything that's happening to retell your particular point of view.'"

Times staff writer Gregory Yee contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Residents use hoses to try to extinguish fires near homes east of Athens on Wednesday. (Thanassis Stavrakis / Associated Press)

Nearly 500 firefighters struggled to contain a large wildfire that threatened hillside suburbs outside Athens for a second day Wednesday, after hundreds of residents were evacuated overnight.

Fires continued to burn across Southern Europe, but authorities in France, Spain and Portugal all reported improved conditions with a respite from severe heat wave conditions.

At least two people were hospitalized in the Greek capital with breathing problems and minor burns, while local officials said several houses had been burned in the fire around Mount Penteli, about 16 miles northeast of Athens.

The conditions are very challenging. The priority is to safeguard human life, critical infrastructure and private property, Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios said. Five water-dropping aircraft and four helicopters were operating Wednesday, officials said, adding that more than 600 people have evacuated from their homes so far. Helicopters scooped up water pumped into outdoor tanks on the hillside before flying back into thick smoke to make the water drops.

Artopios said the fire was contained on all fronts despite difficult conditions earlier in the day, with winds of up to 50 mph. But a second fire broke out in the hills outside the town of Megara, 25 miles to the west, prompting a new, but more limited, round of evacuations.

Greece has avoided the heat wave that is currently afflicting countries in Western Europe, but fire officials say that hot and dry conditions that have lasted for weeks, as well as longer-term temperature rises, have increased the overall risk of forest fires.

Cooler weather gave firefighters in Spain and Portugal some respite, but temperatures are forecast to rise back to 104 degrees in the coming days.

Petteri Taalas, the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, said more frequent and more extreme heat waves were an inevitable consequence of climate change.

In the future, these kinds of heat waves are going to be normal. We will see stronger extremes. We have pumped so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that the negative trend will continue for decades, Taalas said in a statement Tuesday. I hope that this will be a wake-up call for governments.

A spate of blazes in Spains northwestern Galicia region has burned 85 houses and forced the evacuation of 1,400 people. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the area late Tuesday and warned of hard days ahead here in Galicia and the rest of Spain.

In France, firefighters created huge firebreaks through threatened forests in the southwest of the country, using heavy machinery to tear out trees and roots, in order to leave large barren strips to stop the fires from spreading. After a week of raging wildfires, the blazes have slowed.

We are pretty confident, said Ronan Leaustic, a regional official from the southwestern Gironde area. But we are still very vigilant.

The Gironde fires have burned 80 square miles of forests, authorities say.

Wildfires in France so far this year have consumed 25% more land compared with the same period last year, the government said Wednesday as it announced that it is requisitioning two civilian helicopters to help tackle the blazes.

Portugals health ministry says that from July 7-18 the excess mortality rate was 1,065 deaths, with officials blaming the heat wave for the spike and saying more heat deaths are likely in coming days as high temperatures return.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The cause of a fire that destroyed an Idaho Youth Ranch store and a bevy of donations on Monday afternoon is still under investigation by the Boise Fire Department.

The fire, which was reported at 1:46 p.m. in the 5400 block of W. Irving Street, resulted in no injuries to the 50 or so people who were present when it ignited. Three Boise firefighters were hurt battling the blaze, according to a Tuesday news release. All three have been treated and released back to work, spokesperson Haley Williams told the Idaho Statesman.

Jeff Myers, Idaho Youth Ranch vice president of marketing and communications, said it is too early to determine the full extent of the damage at the facility, but he called it substantial. Myers said that both the outlet store and all of its contents were destroyed, and that they are still assessing damage to the main warehouse and the e-commerce area.

Sixteen fire engines, three ladder trucks, five command officers, one rehab unit, fire investigators, Ada County Paramedics and the Boise Police Department responded to the fire, according to the release. Firefighters remained at the site overnight and into Tuesday morning to ensure the fire did not reignite, and officials have encouraged people to stay away from any lingering smoke in the area.

Myers said Idaho Youth Ranch will continue to offer its counseling and therapeutic services to youths throughout Idaho, but the nonprofit will have to rely more on private donations and grants while the store is not operational.

He said financial donations are the most beneficial way to help the organization in the short term.

I would like to say thank you to both the Boise police and fire and also just to the outpouring of support that weve received for it from the community already, Myers said. Its really been humbling to witness the generosity and the caring that weve witnessed in the last 24 hours.
As one of the oldest U.S. states and birthplace of the nation, Pennsylvania is a key destination for antique shoppers across the country.

But finding a good antique store can be difficult, especially if youre traveling.

Pennsylvania Antique Trail is a guide to antique stores across the state, marking their locations, specialty items, and events. The guide has 61 stops in Pennsylvania, stretching from Erie to Lancaster.

Marcia Cole Huffman, founder of antiquetrail.com, started the guide in 2010 with her friend and business partner Bruce Pate. After retiring from her job at Boeing, Huffman spent her time traveling and browsing antique stores. She began helping store owners create websites, and the idea of a brochure and online guide to antiquing was born.

I want to go to as many antique stores as I can on the way to where Im going, Cole Huffman said. It bothered me there was no way that I could really tell where they were, so I decided that we should do a brochure and a map online we call the antique trail route.

At first, the guide was only for Cole Huffmans home state, Alabama, but in the decade since, the trail has spread to 26 states with nearly 1,400 stores.

Ann Lordi, the trails representative in Pennsylvania, joined last year helping to involve the antique stores in the Adamstown area. Lordi also works with Antique Capital USA, an organization of dozens of antique dealers along a seven-mile strip of Route 272.

Lordi said Pennsylvania is a destination for antiquers across the country, especially those in the South.

We have lots of old homes, old possessions and the weather is favorable to preserving them, as opposed to the South, Londi said. And so people find in their homes, and their familys homes, more antiques that are more valuable than in other states.

During the pandemic, the antique trail team switched focus, running a free online store where members could upload their antiques for sale.

My team worked harder than ever, calling all our members and teaching them how to upload their products to our online store, Cole Huffman said. So even though people werent going anywhere they could still buy from our stores.

The websites purpose is to make antiquing easier for store owners and customers alike. Visitors can map out trips to find the antique stores along their route, or search for items a shop might specialize in, like music, pottery or clothes.

I love antiques because I think antiques are tangible pieces of history, Cole Huffman said. That is why Im just a fanatic about the whole thing because we lose pieces of history, tangible pieces, every day. When an antique shop will buy the old things and resell them, it kind of recycles history.

Cole Huffman said she hopes to continue to expand the antique trail with New York as the next state. Antique stores not yet affiliated with the trail can apply online or contact the representative in their state.

Antique stores near me: For those looking to antique closer to home, Conklins Corner in Philipsburg is a member of the trail. Bellefonte is also home to many antique stores including the Plaza Center Antique Gallery and Victorian House Antiques.
The Siau family was walking down a road in East Glacier Park Village in Montana when tragedy struck.

As the family  a mother, father, aunt and three children  were walking on the evening of Sunday, July 17, a man drove his car into them, according to the Glacier County Sheriffs Office.

But the sheriffs office says the man, Derick Amos Madden, 37, of Goldsby, Oklahoma, wasnt done.

Madden got out of the car and started firing a shotgun, officials said. First, he is accused of shooting and killing David Siau, 39, of Syracuse, New York.

As the other family members tried to run away, the sheriffs office said, he continued firing.

Christy Siau, 40, of Syracuse, New York, was carrying her 18-month-old daughter, McKenzie Siau, when she and her toddler daughter were shot, officials said.

When he was done firing, Madden attacked Christina Siau, 30, of East Glacier Park Village, Montana, with a knife, according to officials.

During this attack Christina fought for her life, officials said.

Though she was injured, Christina Siau was able to fight Madden off, fatally wounding him, officials said.

The two other Siau children were able to escape the attack uninjured, according to officials.

Christy, Christina and McKenzie Siau were taken to the Indian Health Service in Browning, where the toddler was pronounced dead, officials said. As Christy and Christina were critically injured, they were flown on to a higher level of care.

A friend of David Siaus said it is an understatement that he was devastated by the news of his friends death.

David was a friend since before I could remember. We played together, laughed and cried together. Matured together, the friend shared on Facebook. I stood at his wedding. His kids played with my kids. We love the Siaus. Man, I am gonna miss you.

More friends went on to describe Christy and David Siaus relationship as beautiful.

Knowing them for years (Christy found the love of her life, the friend wrote on Facebook.

Officials did not give a motive for the attack. Madden was previously in a relationship with Christina Siau, according to the release, and also suffered from mental health issues.

East Glacier Park Village is about 250 miles north of Butte.

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Fulton County Dist. Atty. Fani Willis last year opened a criminal investigation "into attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election." (Ben Gray / Associated Press)

The Georgia prosecutor who is investigating whether former President Trump and others illegally interfered in the 2020 general election in the state has informed 16 Republicans who served as fake electors that they could face criminal charges.

They all signed a certificate declaring falsely that Trump had won the 2020 presidential election and declaring themselves the state's duly elected and qualified electors, even though Joe Biden had won the state and a slate of Democratic electors was certified. Eleven of the fake electors filed a motion Tuesday to quash their subpoenas, calling them unreasonable and oppressive.

Also Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) agreed to file any challenges to a subpoena in the investigation in either state superior or federal court in Georgia, according to a court document. He had previously filed a motion in federal court in South Carolina trying to stop any subpoena from being issued to him there on behalf of the prosecutor in Georgia.

Fulton County Dist. Atty. Fani Willis last year opened a criminal investigation into attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election. A special grand jury with subpoena power was seated in May, at her request. In court filings this month, she alleged a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.

Willis' office declined to comment Tuesday on the motion to quash the subpoenas.

A lawyer for Willis' office said in a court filing Tuesday that each of the 16 people who signed the false elector certificate has received a letter saying they are targets of the investigation and that their testimony before the special grand jury is required.

In the motion to quash the subpoenas, lawyers for 11 of the fake electors said that from mid-April through June, Willis' office told them they were considered witnesses, not subjects or targets of the investigation. For that reason, they agreed to voluntary interviews with the investigative team, the motion says. Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer and another of the fake electors appeared for interviews in late April.

On June 1, grand jury subpoenas were sent to all 11 of those fake electors. On June 28, the district attorney's office for the first time told the fake electors' lawyers that their clients were considered targets, rather than witnesses, the motion says.

On Dec. 14, 2020, when Georgia's official Democratic electors met to certify the state's electoral votes for Biden, the fake Republican electors met to certify a slate of electoral votes for Trump. They did so, the motion says, because there was a pending lawsuit challenging the election results, and if a judge found that Trump had won, their electoral slate would become valid. The district attorney's office knew this and properly labeled the fake Republican electors as witnesses, prompting them to agree to voluntary cooperation, the motion says.

The abrupt, unsupportable, and public elevation of all eleven nominee electors' status wrongfully converted them from witnesses who were cooperating voluntarily and prepared to testify in the Grand Jury to persecuted targets of it, the motion says. As a result, their lawyers advised them to invoke their federal and state rights protecting them against self-incrimination, and they reluctantly accepted that advice, the motion says.

Their lawyers assert that the change in status to targets was based on an improper desire to force them to publicly invoke their rights as, at best, a publicity stunt. Therefore, they should be excused from appearing before the special grand jury, the motion says.

The motion asks Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who is overseeing the special grand jury, to excuse the 11 electors from appearing before the panel and to look into Willis' actions indicating the improper politicization of this investigatory process."

It also asks him to grant a motion filed Friday by state Sen. Burt Jones seeking to remove Willis and her office from the investigation. Jones, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, alleged that the investigation is politically motivated because Willis is an active supporter of his Democratic opponent. McBurney on Tuesday set a hearing on that motion for Thursday.

Willis' office has said Jones' claims are without merit; a lawyer representing the office wrote in a filing Tuesday that Jones has identified no actions that show political motivation.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Lowes Foods, which bills itself as a Swiss Army Knife Grocery Store, has it sights set on the old Sams Club building on Hilton Head, according to documents filed with the town.

The more than 70,000-square-foot building in Port Royal Plaza has been vacant since Jan. 17, 2017, two days before the Bluffton Sams Club opened.

Lowes Foods is a North Carolina-based grocery chain in the Carolinas and Virginia, according to its website. The closest store to Beaufort County is in the Charleston area. It has no connection to Lowes home improvement stores.

Two of the Charleston-area Lowes Foods stores were remodeled last year and feature what the company calls Lowes Foods Originals, special concept areas within the larger store. Those include the Beer Den, offering local craft and draft beer; Pick and Prep, where chefs will cut up fruits and vegetables for shoppers; The Cakery; Smokehouse; and Chicken Kitchen; among others.

Plans submitted to the Town of Hilton Head show Lowes Foods using the entire footprint of the vacant building at 95 Mathews Drive.

Initial plans submitted to the Town of Hilton Head by Lowes Foods for the former Sams Club location in Port Royal Plaza show changes proposed for the facade.

The Design Review Board first discussed the stores plans at its June 28 meeting and offered feedback about proposed landscaping, lighting, parking and facade changes. Lowes Foods representatives withdrew the application before the Design Review Board voted and are on the agenda to bring revised plans to the board at its July 26 meeting.

Hilton Head Councilman Alex Brown, whose ward includes Port Royal Plaza, said a grocery store like Lowes would be a blessing to residents who have been in a food desert since Bi-Lo closed in 2019. He said the idea pairs well with the towns Mid-island Initiative redevelopment and revitalization plans.

I have not seen a confirmation that Lowes is absolute. I can only speak conceptually, he said, but Im overly excited about Lowes coming into that space.

Port Royal Plaza

In December 2019, representatives from Burkes Outlet appeared before the Town of Hilton Heads Design Review Board with their plans to give the vacant Sams Club space a facelift and share it with its companion Home Centric furniture and home decor store and two other tenants. Those plans never made it past paper and into reality.

David Bloom, who originally developed the Port Royal shopping center with business partner Jim Bradshaw and others more than three decades ago, was behind the 2019 redevelopment that saw Planet Fitness move into a section of the shopping center.

Bloom told a reporter at the time that changes in the business climate because of the coronavirus caused the plans with Burkes Outlet to fall through.

The former Sams Club location in Port Royal Plaza on Hilton Head has been vacant since 2017.

In July 2020, that portion of Port Royal Plaza was sold to new owners. Madison Capital Group, based in Charlotte, specializes in converting empty big box stores to other projects. In February 2021, the towns planning commission approved a zoning change that would make it possible to open a self-storage facility there.

After public outcry and criticism from town officials the plans for the storage facility were withdrawn.

Several well-established restaurants call Port Royal Plaza home, including Plantation Cafe, OKKO, Street Meet, North End Pour House, Bella Italia and Fiesta Fresh. Public Kitchen and Wine Bar opened last year.

Across the parking lot from the vacant Sams Club, Paris Baguette bakery opened last week. Both Hook and Reel seafood and Kung Fu Tea are under construction.
Remember those ominous and slightly threatening cows that would demand that we Eat Mor Chikin?

Idahoans certainly took that threat to heart  along with residents of 26 other states. A new study from market intelligence company My Telescope used online marketing metrics through Google to find each states favorite fast food chain. One chain dominated over the rest.

Maybe in part to its intimidating cows and definitely in part to its delicious chicken sandwiches, Chick-Fil-A was found to be the go-to fast food chain in 27 states, including Idaho.

Fast-food giant Chick-fil-A is opening a store at Fashion Fair on Thursday.

My Telescope used a metric called share of search to determine each states favorite fast food chain. The metric measures the relative interest in a search term using specifically defined search terms, with the idea that there is a correlation between what people search for and the final outcome.

Share of search measures search data combined with sentiment analysis to give a more accurate measurement of consumer and business purchasing intent and demand, My Telescope CEO Rodrigo Graviz stated in a news release.

Data can be geo-fenced by state or country to give an accurate look into what people in the area are searching for, Graviz continued. When combined with specific keywords, Share of Search data can give valuable insights on what people are going to do, what they think, how they feel, and what theyre going to buy.

Idaho isnt the only state in the west that craves Chick-Fil-A every day of the week  especially on Sundays, the one day of the week that the chain remains closed all day to provide employees a day of rest and worship.

The Gem States two neighbors to the north, Montana and Washington, as well as California, all join Idaho in eating mor chikin.

Idaho is one of 27 states that most often searches for Chick-Fil-A, according to My Telescope.

Oregon is the only state that most regularly searched for Burgerville  a burger chain founded in Washington in 1961  while Nevada is one of two states that prefers Raising Canes, a direct rival of Chick-Fil-A.

But despite its popularity, Chick-Fil-A certainly doesnt come without its fair share of controversy.

Many people began having an issue with the fast food chain in the early 2010s when it was discovered that the company had donated nearly $2 million to anti-LGBTQ groups.

The fire was further stoked in 2012 when Chick-Fil-A chief operating officer Dan Cathy  son of founder Samuel Truett Cathy  said in a radio interview that same-sex marriage is inviting Gods judgment.

The company has attempted to fan out that fire in recent years and, in 2020, began focusing on education, homelessness and hunger as its three main philanthropic priorities.

Chick-Fil-As in the Treasure Valley

Built up an appetite for a spicy chicken sandwich or some nuggets after reading this story? The following map shows the five Chick-Fil-A restaurants in the Treasure Valley.
A staff dispute at a Jack in the Box restaurant in Tennessee spiraled out of control when more employees joined in and one was killed, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

Restaurant employee Keanthony Thompson, 30, died of a gunshot wound after being rushed to a hospital, police said in a news release.

Co-worker Trey Scales, 28, has been charged with criminal homicide in his death, officials said.

The shooting happened around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 19, in the parking lot of a Jack in the Box on Largo Drive in southeast Nashville, police said.

The investigation ... shows that (the two men) became involved in a physical altercation between their girlfriends, both of whom also work at the Jack in the Box, police said. During the dispute, Scales retrieved a pistol and shot Thompson. Scales said he did so in self-defense; however, that claim was not supported by video surveillance.

Scales was arrested at the restaurant and is jailed in lieu of $250,000 bond,

According to an affidavit, Thompson also had a weapon in his waistband during the altercation but never brandished or threatened to use it, WKRN reported.

Investigators did not report what started the fight between the two women.

Taco Bell night shift turns combative and ends with arrest of worker, Florida cops say

Arbys employee tosses hot grease on customer waiting at drive-thru, Alabama cops say

Freak accident at McDonalds drive-thru ends with man crushed to death in Vancouver
An attorney said the family has lost trust in local and state agencies in Akron, Ohio, to probe the police shooting.

On what would have been Jayland Walkers 26th birthday had Akron, Ohio, police officers not shot him 46 times, an attorney representing his family requested that the U.S. Attorneys Office investigate Walkers death.

I have spoken with (U.S. Ohio) Senator Sherrod Brown as recently as last night, Bobby DiCello, the familys lawyer, said Wednesday. He is facilitating our dialogue with the Department of Justice. We have reached out to (U.S. Attorney General) Merrick Garlands office directly. The mail should be arriving on his desk today.

Eight police officers shot Walker 46 times after a brief car and foot chase last month. Walker failed to stop when police attempted to pull him over in the early hours of June 27, according to law enforcement. Minutes later, police allege, he fired a shot from his vehicle before exiting the car and running.

Pam Walker, center, addresses the public for the first since Akron, Ohio, police killed her son, Jayland, by shooting him 46 times after a foot chase. Family lawyer Bobby DiCello, right, has requested the U.S. Attorneys Office to investigate Walkers death.

Thats when multiple officers unleashed a barrage of bullets that hit Walker in his arms, legs, abdomen and face, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.

Last week, Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, made the same request of Garland. Judi Hill, president of that civil rights organizations Akron chapter, joined DiCello as he announced his plea to local media. She stood with DiCello and Walkers family members outside the familys church for a press conference at which DiCello expressed doubt about the integrity of the states investigating agencies.

DiCello said Clay Cozart, president of the Akron Fraternal Order of Police, spoke to local media last week and declined to provide specifics of the shooting of my client, Jayland Walker. DiCello cited Cozarts statements as indicative of collusion between police, the state Attorney Generals Office, and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

He shouldnt have any specifics, DiCello said. Last I checked, he was not involved in either the shooting or the operations of the city police departmentWe are going to drill down to figure out exactly how you became a witness. Who is talking to you? How did you have the information that you gave to local media regarding this horrific shooting?

The Akron Beacon Journal reported Cozart told its reporters that he talked to officers involved in the shooting before the Bureau of Criminal Investigation interviewed them. I am allowed to talk to my members as I represent them, he told the newspaper.

DiCello, however, says the family has lost trust in local agencies. The Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Attorney Generals Office was brought it to maintain some form of trust You did not hear us initially ask for a different investigative body to get involved because we wanted to give that opportunity to the state to run this investigation. And we have given it that opportunity, and now we are calling for the Department of Justice to replace the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

In a statement emailed to theGrio, Steve Irwin, a spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, responded to DiCellos remarks.

Pam Walker, mother of Jayland Walker, sobs as she recounts one of his childhood birthday parties. She spoke publicly for the first time on July 20, 2022, the day that would have been her sons 26th birthday.

BCI shall remain steadfast in our commitment to independent investigations regarding officer-involved shootings, and this case is no different. No updates have or will be provided to the FOP president or any other parties by BCI while the investigation is ongoing, Irwin wrote. The officers involved in the incident have a constitutional right to legal counsel like everyone else would in this situation. The family and the community deserve a thorough, independent investigation, and that is what they will get.

The press conference served two purposes, DiCello said: to make his plea to Garland public and to allow the family to observe Walkers birthday with the community from which it has received consistent support. After viewing a video of birthday wishes from family members, Walkers tearful mother addressed the audience and recounted his birth and a childhood birthday party she threw for him.

He struggled to come into this world because he was a twin that survived a miscarriage, said Pam Walker, Jaylands mother. Unfortunately, he had to leave this world the same way, tragically.

I can only go on memories, she said before tears covered her cheeks. The only thing I can share with you guys is a memory of one of his birthday parties. The Walker matriarch said her son loved WWE wrestling and Stone Cold Steve Austin in particular. So she hired a look-alike actor to attend his party. And when the actor entered her backyard, Jayland and his friends froze in their steps, and their eyes were this big. Their mouths dropped to the ground, and they couldnt say anything, she recalled. Thats one of the best memories I have of Jayland on his birthday. That was a really great party. As her mouth quivered and her voice cracked, she concluded the anecdote with I love you, Jayland, as she sobbed heavily. I love you!

Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect the location of the press conference as the Walker familys place of worship.

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The post Jayland Walkers family observes his birthday with a plea for feds to investigate his death appeared first on TheGrio.
A 14-year-old Colleyville student is a finalist in the 2022 3M Young Scientist Challenge.

Daniel Thomas, along with nine other finalists from around the nation, will compete Oct. 17-18 at the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, for $25,000 and the title of Americas Top Young Scientist.

I still cant believe it, because, well, theres a lot of great topics, said Thomas, who will be a freshman at Colleyville Heritage High School. I was ... looking at the other finalists, and Im like, Wow, this is like really good. 

Thomas entry is a dosing pump to prevent clogs and bacterial overgrowth in air conditioner condensate lines  an idea he got by watching his father and HVAC technicians repair the clogged line at his house.

The finalists participate in a summer mentorship program, and Thomas and his mentor, 3M scientist Jeffrey Emslander, are working together over Zoom to perfect Thomas invention.

He gives me advice, saying I like this idea, but maybe you should tweak it like this, or ... maybe you shouldnt do it, Thomas said.

Emslander said it has been fun to see Thomas make progress.

The excitement in the email I got from him that came through on Monday morning after he did a bunch of work ... that made my whole day, Emslander said. He was so excited.

The 3M Young Scientist Challenge bills itself as the ultimate middle school science competition. Discovery Communications launched the program in 1999, and 3M, a manufacturing company, came on board in 2008, according to 3Ms Young Scientist Lab website.

Karina Chavez, 3Ms senior vice president and chief strategy officer, said the competition is important because it gets young people engaged with science.

Its extraordinary to see these young scientists creating and developing solutions that have the potential to impact communities across the world, Chavez said in an email interview. I am amazed by the projects weve seen thus far, and it gives me so much pride to see the excitement in these young scientists eyes as they bring their ideas to reality.

Thomas interest in science goes back to the fifth grade, the year his teacher made DNA models in 3D and got the students involved in hands-on projects. Thomas said science appealed to him because it explains things we cant understand.

Thomas first idea for an invention was the dosing pump. He entered it in a state science fair, but it didnt win.

Instead of giving up, Thomas reached out to a friends mother, who is a high school chemistry teacher. She gave him ideas how to research and develop his project.

Thomas new, improved dosing pump uses a simple peristaltic pump, a timing mechanism and a water/chlorine solution that is added to the condensate line on a regular basis. The solution changes the pH balance of the water in the line and prevents clogs and the buildup of harmful mold and bacteria.

Thomas said the components of his pump cost only $33 in contrast to the hundreds of dollars condensate line repairs can cost.

Now he and his 3M mentor are perfecting the project and getting it ready for the October competition.

Chavez said the mentorship aspect of the program is what makes the Young Scientist Challenge special.

The mentorship component of the program is the biggest differentiator between the 3M Young Scientist Challenge and other national science competitions, Chavez said. This component creates the perfect opportunity to connect these young minds with real-world insights from 3M scientists, engineers, innovators and thinkers. 

Thomas said he is grateful for the opportunity.

It gets kids like actually learning science and how to have fun in science, to make them ... like science more, Thomas said. Because a lot of people dont like science. But like hey, you can have a mentor thats actually a scientist. Thats fun. Like people will like that I think. So thats why I think its a great opportunity.

Emslander said it would be wonderful for Thomas to win the competition in October, but taking away a love of science and skills that will help him in his future are just as important.

If we can pull that off, then weve been very successful, Emslander said.
The 32-year-old North Kansas City police officer shot and killed during a traffic stop on Tuesday afternoon was part of the same class of recruits as an Independence officer who was also killed in the line of duty 10 months ago, a police spokesman said Tuesday.

Officer Daniel Vasquez, of North Kansas City police, was fatally shot shortly before 11 a.m. near the intersection of 21st Avenue and Clay Street. Authorities said Tuesday that the driver of a sedan exited his car and fired upon Vasquez after being pulled over for an expired temporary license plate.

Vasquez died at an area hospital. After a brief manhunt, which included a statewide alert issued by the Missouri Highway Patrol, authorities said a subject of interest had surrendered Tuesday afternoon.

Law enforcement officers and crime scene personnel were on the scene investigating after a North Kansas City Police Officer was shot during a traffic stop Tuesday, July 19, 2022, near 21st and Clay Streets in North Kansas City. Officer Daniel Vasquez died after being shot during the stop. Vasquez had been a member of the North Kansas City Police Department for two years. Crime scene technicians photographed a police vest on the street.

Officer Jack Taylor, an Independence police spokesman, said Tuesday that Vasquez was part of the same police academy as slain Independence Officer Blaize Madrid-Evans. Madrid-Evans was shot and killed Sept. 15, while still in field training, as officers were responding to a tip about a person who may have had an active warrant.

Authorities have said Madrid-Evans, 22, was killed during an exchange of gunfire with another man, who also died. Police later identified him as 33-year-old Cody L. Harrison.

The Independence police officer who was shot and critically wounded on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, has been identified as Blaize Madrid-Evans, 22.

Taylor said Vasquez was among the police officers who came to the department with gifts in the wake of Madrid-Evans death. He said Vasquez brought in a wooden Thin Blue Line flag that hangs in police headquarters.

Authorities released little information Tuesday about the identity of Vasquezs suspected shooter. Earlier information offered by authorities as he was actively being sought described him as a white man driving a gray sedan.

Kansas City police were handling the homicide investigation, at the request of North Kansas City police and the Clay County Sheriffs Office. A KCPD police spokesman said a subject of interest was being held in police custody on Tuesday evening.
Ford's $45,000-plus Mustang Mach E is sold out for the model year. (Russ Mitchell / Los Angeles Times)

In their first rollouts of electric vehicles, Americas automakers targeted people who value short-range economy cars. Then came EVs for luxury buyers and drivers of pickups and delivery vans.

Now, the companies are zeroing in on the heart of the U.S. auto market: the compact SUV. In their drive to have EVs dominate vehicle sales in coming years, automakers are promoting their new models as having the range, price and features to rival their gas-powered competitors.

Some are so far proving quite popular. Fords $45,000-plus Mustang Mach E is sold out for the model year. On Monday night, General Motors Chevrolet brand introduced an electric version of its Blazer, also starting around $45,000, when it goes on sale next summer.

Also coming next year: an electric Chevrolet Equinox, with a base price of about $30,000, which could give it particular appeal with modest-income households. Theres also the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Volkswagens ID.4 in the $40,000s and Nissans upcoming Ariya around $47,000 with a lower-priced version coming.

All start off considerably less expensive than Teslas Model Y small SUV, the current top EV seller, with a starting price well into the $60,000s.

The new models, which can get about 300 miles per electric charge, are aimed at the largest segment of the U.S. market: modest-size SUVs, representing about 20% of new-vehicle sales. Industry experts say entering the smaller SUV segment, with its reach into a broader demographic of buyers, is sure to boost electric vehicle sales nationally.

Going to the smaller utility segment gives you the opportunity to access the most customers in one [market] segment, said Stephanie Brinley, principal analyst for S&P Global Mobility. To make a transition from [internal combustion engines] to electric, you have to be in more space. You have to be in more price points. You have to be in more sizes.

Brinley said the small and midsize SUV segments meet many peoples needs, something that previous electric vehicles did not.

If its a price you can reach, but its a product that you cant put your kids and your dog in, youre not going to buy it, she said.

Chevrolet says the Blazer will get a minimum of 247 miles per charge. Pricier high-end versions could go up to 320 miles. The Blazer will be available with Chevrolets SS performance package with a zero-to-60-mph time of less than 4 seconds. There will be a police version too.

Early on, the demographic composition of an EV buyer was certainly someone that perhaps had higher education, higher household income, said Steve Majoros, Chevrolets marketing director. Thats very indicative of early adopters. But as we move up that curve, the intention and where were pricing this product is to certainly make it more available for more mainstream buyers.

To attract buyers of modest means, EVs need to be priced even lower, in the $30,000-to-$35,000 range, GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said in an interview this week with the Associated Press. Electric vehicles, she said, also have to have the range and charging network needed to be the sole vehicle that some people own.

Most electric vehicle owners today own multiple vehicles, so they have an internal combustion vehicle to jump into depending on their needs, Barra said.

Automakers have been pushing to fully restore a $7,500 tax credit for people who buy EVs to jump-start sales. But the measure is stalled in Congress. Its especially important for GM, Tesla and Toyota, which have maxxed out the number of credits they are allowed and can no longer offer them to buyers. Other automakers are approaching the limit too.

Money for the credits, as well as funding for additional EV charging stations, was in President Bidens $1.8-trillion Build Back Better social and environment bill, which is all but dead because of the objections of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).

Last week, Manchin also rejected a slimmed-down version that included provisions to combat climate change. He indicated his support for just two items from Bidens broader agenda: reducing prescription drug costs and bolstering subsidies for families to buy health insurance. His vote in an evenly split Senate would be needed for anything to pass.

Even without the tax credit, the industrys march toward electric vehicles is moving apace. Edmunds.com says electric vehicles now account for about 5% of U.S. new vehicle sales with 46 models on sale. S&Ps Brinley foresees the market share rising to 8% next year, 15% by 2025 and 37% by 2030.

It seems like the number of choices are growing exponentially for electric vehicles as we move forward, said Erich Merkle, Fords top U.S. sales analyst.

Demand for battery-powered vehicles and gas-electric hybrids has grown as gasoline prices skyrocketed this year. Dealers report that every vehicle delivered is typically already sold or gone soon after it arrives.

Jonathan Chariff, CEO of South Motors, an 11-dealer group in South Florida, said its impossible to assess just how big the demand for electric vehicles is. Theres huge interest, especially in electric SUVs, and vehicles are selling fast. But the supply is constrained because automakers dont have enough computer chips to build as many vehicles as they want.

Given the enormous consumer interest in EVs, Chariff said he expects the vehicles to continue to sell even if their prices dont fall.

The real question, he said, is if and when the supply chain can meet the market demand, what is the true price point?

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A Tennessee man has been jailed in Fiji after his new wife was discovered dead during their luxurious honeymoon getaway in the South Pacific.

Bradley Dawson has been charged with the murder of Christe Chen Dawson, just more than five months after they tied the knot in their hometown of Memphis. She was found dead on July 9 at a scenic Fiji resort in the Yasawa Islands, the suspects attorney confirmed to Fox 13 on Tuesday.

Bradley Dawson has been charged with killing Christe Chen Dawson.



Bradley Dawson has been charged with killing Christe Chen Dawson.

The lawyer also declined to discuss the 36-year-old brides cause of death, but said Dawson has maintained his innocence in the slaying.

During an initial appearance before the Magistrates Court in Lautoka, Fijis second-largest city, Magistrate Sekonaia Vodokisolomone concluded Dawson committed an indictable offense, according to the Fiji Sun. His case was then transferred to the High Court in Lautoka, where he will be allowed to request bail during his next hearing, slated for July 27.

Authorities have also requested a DNA sample from Dawson, who allegedly refused to undergo certain forensic tests in wake of his wifes murder.

Bradley Dawson has been charged with the murder of Christe Chen Dawson, just more than five months after they tied the knot their hometown of Memphis.



Bradley Dawson has been charged with the murder of Christe Chen Dawson, just more than five months after they tied the knot their hometown of Memphis.

Christe, who graduated from the University of Tennessee, worked as a pharmacist for Kroger. A close friend of the couple said she had been looking forward to the romantic getaway with her husband to Turtle Island Resort. According to its website, the resort provides pure indulgence, relaxation and romance at one of the most sought-after destinations in the world.

It also served as the location for the 1980 film Blue Lagoon, starring Brooke Shields.
The city of Miami is sending more than 150 used guns to Ukrainian police  not to soldiers fighting on the front lines of the Russian invasion.

In June, city officials announced the intention to put firearms in the hands of Ukrainians defending their country, though it was not clear who would receive the weapons. Since then, the city has rushed to throw together a plan that became clearer Tuesday when the city announced that the police department for one of Kyivs suburbs, Irpin, would receive 167 surplus guns.

Weve been building a plane as we fly it, said Commissioner Ken Russell, who has sponsored the idea. Hes running for Floridas 27th Congressional District as a Democrat.

To facilitate the shipment, Miami commissioners on Tuesday named Irpin as one of Miamis sister cities. The vote allows the city governments to coordinate the donation. A dozen of the guns were later displayed on a table at City Hall during a press conference. Officials hope other local police departments will piggyback on Miamis plan.

Commissioner Ken Russell holds a press conference about the citys Guns 4 Ukraine gun buyback program on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 at Miami City Hall. A total of 167 guns were collected that will be given to the sister city of Irpin, Ukraine, for the police force.

The firearms range from guns purchased as part of the citys buyback program to confiscated weapons. Miami police held a Guns 4 Ukraine buyback event on June 18, where the department offered gift cards worth between $50 to $200, depending on the type of gun.

Russell had previously proposed giving the guns to Ukraine, but it was not clear who would receive the firearms. Russell said that after he connected with a Ukrainian member of parliament, they requested that the guns be directed to Irpin police..

This is an unprecedented effort, and many people were skeptical that a city would be able to do this, but we have found a way, Russell said. We are here to help them in their time of need, and theyve shown their bravery.

Miami Police Chief Manny Morales, left, and Commissioner Ken Russell hold a press conference about the citys Guns 4 Ukraine gun buyback program on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, at Miami City Hall. A total of 167 guns were collected that will be given to the sister city of Irpin for the police force.

Officials on Tuesday said that the city has cleared the plan with the U.S. State Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Miami police also verified that confiscated guns werent part of ongoing criminal cases or reported stolen.

Miamis city government has not yet signed an agreement with a licensed exporter but hopes to ship the guns within a few weeks, said Miami Police Chief Manny Morales.

Russell said Irpins police department has reported a shortage of handguns and rifles. In addition to guns, the city will also send helmets and bulletproof vests. Morales said they are assisting fellow police officers who are putting their life on the line, as they would in any other country fighting to keep their community safe.

Ukraine officials had asked them to send the initial shipment as soon as possible, according to Russell.

Miami Police Chief Manny Morales, right, speaks with Commissioner Ken Russell during a press conference about the citys Guns 4 Ukraine gun buyback program on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, at Miami City Hall. They worked to safely collect the guns and create a relationship with Irpin, now a sister city, for their police force. A total of 167 guns were collected.
People from Mariupol and eastern Ukraine disembark from a train in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, on April 7 to be taken to temporary residences in the region. (Associated Press)

For weeks, Natalya Zadoyanova lost contact with her younger brother Dmitriy, who was trapped in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

Russian forces had bombed the orphanage where he worked, and he was huddling with dozens of others in the freezing basement of a building without doors and windows. When she next heard from him, he was in tears.

Im alive, he told her. Im in Russia.

Dmitriy Zadoyanov was facing the next chapter of devastation for the people of Mariupol and other occupied cities: Forcible transfers to Russia, the nation that killed their neighbors and shelled their hometowns almost into oblivion.

Nearly 2 million Ukrainians refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these journeys as forced transfers to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations of war victims who already speak Russian and are grateful for a new home.

An Associated Press investigation based on dozens of interviews has found that while the picture is more nuanced than the Ukrainian government suggests, many refugees are indeed forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are.

The abuses start not with a gun to the head but with a poisoned choice: Die in Ukraine or live in Russia. Those who leave go through a series of what are known as filtration points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip searches to being yanked aside and never seen again. Refugees told the AP of an old woman who died in the cold, her body swollen, and an evacuee beaten so severely that her back was covered in bruises.

Those who pass the filtrations are invited to live in Russia and often promised a payment of about 10,000 rubles ($170) that they may or may not get. Sometimes their Ukrainian passports are taken away and the chance of Russian citizenship is offered instead. And sometimes, they are pressured to sign documents denouncing the Ukrainian government and military.

Those with no money or contacts in Russia  the majority, by most accounts  can go only where they are sent, eastward, even to the sub-Arctic. More than 1,000 are as far away as Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, a 10-day train journey to the edge of the Pacific Ocean, according to people the AP spoke with who saw multiple trains arrive over the weeks of the war.

However, the AP investigation also found signs of clear dissent within Russia to the government narrative that Ukrainians are being rescued from Nazis. Almost all the refugees the AP interviewed spoke gratefully about Russians who quietly helped them escape through a clandestine network, retrieving documents, finding shelter, buying train and bus fare, exchanging Ukrainian hryvnia for Russian rubles and even lugging the makeshift baggage that holds all that remains of their prewar lives.

The investigation is the most extensive to date on the transfers, based on interviews with 36 Ukrainians mostly from Mariupol who left for Russia, including 11 still there and others in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia, Ireland, Germany and Norway. The AP also drew on interviews with Russian underground volunteers, video footage, Russian legal documents and Russian state media.

Dmitriy Zadoyanov, an evacuee from Mariupol, speaks in Tbilisi, Georgia, on April 15. (Shakh Aivazov / Associated Press)

The story of Zadoyanov, 32, is typical. Exhausted and hungry in the basement in Mariupol, he finally accepted the idea of evacuation. The Russians told him he could board a bus to either Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine or Rostov-on-Don in Russia.

They lied. The buses went only to Russia.

Along the way, Russian authorities searched his phone and interrogated him on why he was baptized and whether he had sexual feelings toward a boy in the camp. A man from Russian state television wanted to bring him to Moscow and pay him to denigrate the Ukrainians, an offer he declined. People with video cameras also asked arriving children to talk about how Ukraine was bombarding its own citizens.

It was 100 percent a tactical pressure, Zadoyanov said. Why children? Because it is much easier to manipulate them."

Then he, five children and four women were taken to the train station and told their destination would be Nizhny Novgorod, even deeper into Russia, 800 miles from the Ukrainian border. From the train, Zadoyanov called his sister Natalya in Poland. Her panic rose.

Get off the train, she told him. Now.

A deliberate strategy

The transfer of hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine is part of a deliberate and systemic strategy, laid out in Russian government documents.

An emergency mass order describes the distribution of 100,000 Ukrainians to some of the most remote and impoverished regions of Russia. None was to be sent to the capital, Moscow.

The AP verified through interviews with refugees, media reports and official statements that Ukrainians have received temporary accommodation in more than two dozen Russian cities and localities, and were even taken to an unused chemical plant in the Bashkortistan region, 100 miles from the nearest major town. One refugee, Bohdan Honcharov, told the AP that about 50 Ukrainians he traveled with were sent to Siberia, so far away that they effectively disappeared with little chance of escape.

A Ukrainian woman said her elderly parents from Mariupol were sent to Russia and told to move to Vladivostok, at the other end of the country. Russian border authorities did not let her father out of Russia because he still had Soviet citizenship from the old times, along with Ukrainian residency documents.

Many Ukrainians stay in Russia because although they are technically free to leave, they have nowhere to go, no money, no documents or no way to cross the distances in a sprawling country twice the size of the United States. Some fear that if they return, Ukraine will prosecute them for going to the enemy  a fear encouraged by Russian officials.

Others speak Russian, with family there and ties that they feel are stronger even than their links to Ukraine. One woman told the AP that her husband was Russian and she felt more welcome in Russia.

Lyudmila Bolbad, an evacuee from Mariupol, Ukraine, holds her Russian documentation in her hotel room in Khabarovsk, Russia, on July 18. (Associated Press)

Lyudmila Bolbads family walked out of Mariupol and ended up in Taganrog in Russia. The family speaks Russian, and the city of Khabarovsk, more than 6,200 miles from Ukraine, was offering jobs, special payments for moving to the Far East and eventual Russian citizenship. With nothing left to lose, they took the nine-day train trip across some of the worlds most deserted territory to a city far closer to Japan than Ukraine.

Bolbad and her husband found work in a local factory, much as she was doing in the Azovstal steel mill back in Mariupol. Little else has gone as theyd hoped.

They handed over their Ukrainian passports in exchange for promises of Russian citizenship without hesitation, only to discover that landlords would not rent to Ukrainians without a valid identity document. The promised payments to buy a home are slow to come, and they are stranded with hundreds of others from Mariupol in a rundown hotel with barely edible food. But Bolbad plans to stay in Russia and thinks Ukraine would label her a traitor if she went back.

Now we are here ... were trying to return to a normal life somehow, to encourage ourselves to start our life from scratch, she said. If you survived [the war], you deserve it and need to move forward, not stop.

Russias reasons for deporting Ukrainians are not entirely clear, according to Oleksandra Matviichuk, the head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. One goal appears to be to use the refugees in propaganda to sell Russians on the Ukraine war by pressuring them to testify against Ukraine.

[Ukrainians in] the Russian Federation are extremely vulnerable, she said. Russia tries to use these people in a quasi-legal war against Ukraine to collect some testimonies from people who have no right to say no because they are afraid for their safety.

The deportation of local civilians from occupied territories also clears the way for Russians to replace them with loyalists, as was the case in Crimea, Matviichuk said. And Russia may want Russian-speaking Ukrainians to populate its own isolated regions with depressed economies.

Ivan Zavrazhnov describes the terror of being in Russia and not knowing where he would wind up. A producer for a pro-Ukrainian television network in Mariupol, he made it through filtration only because officials never bothered to plug in his dead cellphone.

Ukrainian refugees line up as they arrive to get accommodations on the ferry Isabelle in Tallinn, Estonia, on June 15. (Associated Press)

He managed to escape and ended up on the docked ferry Isabelle in the city of Tallinn in Estonia with about 2,000 other Ukrainians, nearly all of whom left Russia.

This is some kind of incomprehensible lottery  who decides where and what, he said. You understand that you are going, as it were, into the mouth of a bear ... an aggressor state, and you end up on this territory. ... I did not have the feeling that I was safe in Russia.

Stopped for filtration

Refugees on the way to Russia are interrogated at multiple stops in what both Russians and Ukrainians call filtration. Each time, some are weeded out.

They are fingerprinted and photographed, which the Ukrainian government calls the collection of biological information. Some are stripped of their clothing, and those with tattoos, wounds or bruises from munitions come under special scrutiny. Phones are confiscated and sometimes connected to computers, raising fears that tracking software is installed.

The Kovalevskiy family left Mariupol after eating cold scraps of food in an unlit basement and watching sores fester on their unwashed skin. At their first filtration, they held their breaths and thought fearfully of the photo and video the eldest daughter had transferred from her phone to a flash drive hidden among their belongings.

It never crossed their minds to delete contacts. When a Russian soldier searched a phone, he stopped at the one listed as Commander.

The commander was not a military connection but the head of the youth camp. The explanation was satisfactory  this time. But the family did not know how many more times they would be interrogated  Human Rights Watch has identified 14 filtration points in Ukrainian territory controlled by Russian forces.

The next stop was Vynohradne, named for its vineyards but now one of the mass grave sites established by Russia for Mariupol's thousands of dead. The tent there was freezing and suffocatingly crowded, and the smell of rotting flesh clung to their nostrils. An old woman died overnight in the 15 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures, her body swelling.

The mother, Viktoria Kovalevska, peered outside and saw a wooden crate that a soldier had dropped to the ground. Inside were severed limbs.

Finally, the family reached the Russian city of Taganrog. When questioned by Russian officials about why they had left their hometown, the mother could no longer restrain herself.

We did not leave; we were deported, she replied testily. We were loaded into cars by the military and taken away.

Dozens of people from Mariupol were then given free train passage to two Russian cities: Volgograd, about 370 miles to the east, or Penza, twice as far.

You go where youre told, they heard.

The Kovalevskiy family was among the lucky ones  they made it through the filtrations.

At an interrogation in Donetsk, a Mariupol policewoman was blindfolded and taken to Yolonevska, she told the AP. There, she saw military personnel and civilians taken for reasons that ranged from taking photographs of military equipment to running down the street in a panic. Some were beaten, and one woman's back was covered with bruises. She heard others died.

She was blindfolded again, handcuffed and taken to the Rostov region in Russia. She asked where they were going. Somewhere, they said, and ordered her to be silent.

She was told that evacuees in Russia would be seen as traitors and get a prison term of 10 years if they returned to Ukraine. She was finally set free in a prisoner exchange and found her way back to Ukraine anyway.

They psychologically influence people, she said. Many of the detainees who are released are simply afraid to return to Ukraine after hearing such stories.

Identities in question

The Ukrainian refugees in Russia sometimes lose their identities along with their homes.

Some leave their Ukrainian documents behind. Others have their Ukrainian passports confiscated and are offered Russian citizenship or refugee status. Many end up in limbo without paperwork, and only 55,502 have received temporary asylum, according to Russias human rights ombudsman, Tatiana Moskalkova. The others have uncertain legal standing in a country where they are often seen as the enemy.

Along with giving up their own documents, Ukrainian refugees are sometimes pressured to sign papers holding the Ukrainian government or military responsible for the war.

Eighty-year-old Valentina Bondarenko still doesnt know what she signed. When soldiers in white armbands burst into a Mariupol basement, she climbed out the window, kicking over the cup holding her dentures.

She was taken with a few other elderly women on a bus through filtration in three Ukrainian towns, then to Taganrog in Russia. Her next stop, she was told, would be Perm, 1,300 miles away.

There were only enough Ukrainian passengers that day to fill four of the trains 10 cars. So the train was canceled. She ended up in a town near the Georgia border that her family had never heard of, in a dormitory with 50 others from Mariupol.

She called her adult children still in Ukraine, coughing every few minutes. They were frantic. Increasingly distraught, Bondarenko asked migration officials how she could get out.

Theres only one way open, which is to apply for Russian citizenship, submit an application, receive all the documents and when you get your passport you can go wherever you want, they told her.

They asked everyone with Ukrainian passports to hand them over to start the process. So she did. Then came a residency application and a document that an official would not let her examine.

Theres nothing to read here, and were running late, he told her.

What is written here? Bondarenko persisted.

Everything we talked about, came the reply. She signed. Her passport was returned to her a few days later.

Many evacuees dont realize they have the right to refuse to sign documents and the right to leave Russia, according to Tanya Lokshina, author of an upcoming Human Rights Watch report on forced deportations. HRW and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties documented multiple cases in which Ukrainians like Bondarenko were pressured into signing paperwork, including documents accusing Ukraines military of war crimes.

When you are there and they have the power and youre basically in their hands, you dont know whats going to happen, Lokshina said. So many people sign just because they are afraid.

A Russian volunteer walks through Narva, Estonia, on June 16. The tattoo artist helps Ukrainians into Europe, making trips twice a week either to Finland or Estonia with them. (Associated Press)

Angels who came from heaven

For Ukrainians trying to escape, help often comes from an unexpected source: Russians.

On a recent day in Estonia, a Russian tattoo artist easily hefted the suitcases of a Mariupol family into the trunk of a waiting car. The matriarch sat in front, seemingly oblivious to the cars Russian license plates or unsurprised at underground help from a Russian.

The tattoo artist, who asked that his name be withheld because he still lives in Russia, was the last in a chain of volunteers that stretched 1,100 miles from Taganrog and Rostov to Narva, the Estonian border town. He boards in St. Petersburg a couple of times a week to accompany refugees to Finland and sometimes Estonia. There is always at least one Ukrainian family that needs an extra pair of strong arms, if nothing else.

They are disoriented. ... You need to meet them at one station and take them to another station, because otherwise people get lost, he said. Its clear theyre not psychologically equipped.

He said Russians involved in helping Ukrainians leave know each other only through Telegram, nearly all keeping anonymous because everyone is afraid of some kind of persecution. Some of the loose groups are set up with chatbots to protect identities.

I cant stop it, he said of the war and the forcible transfers of Ukrainians to Russia. This is what I can do. ... Shooting at people, this is normal in the 21st century, with old Soviet pieces of iron? This is utter nonsense.

The volunteers face a slew of challenges. Those in Penza in Russia shut down their efforts because of anonymous threats that included slashed tires, the Russian symbol Z painted in white on a windshield and graffiti on doors and gates calling them the likes of Ukro-Nazi helpers.

Another Russian volunteer, who also communicated with the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said they faced logistical and bureaucratic hurdles thrown up by the Russian government, such as travel documents lost or taken by administrators.

They had organizational problems, but they created an amazing chain to help Ukrainian refugees, she wrote in a message to AP.

Leaving Russia is still often dependent on luck and an officials whims. Some Russian border guards let people through with just their Ukrainian national identity; others insist upon an international passport. In at least one case, a family wasnt allowed to travel without a Russian passport.

Armed men search the refugees in a final filtration and disembark a passenger or two.

For Zadoyanov, Bondarenko, Kovalevska and many others, the lifeline out of Russia was Russians.

After talking with his sister Natalya, Zadoyanov got off the train to Nizhny Novgorod. Natalya Zadoyanova found local people through church contacts inside Russia to take her brother and the others from the station. They ended up at a church where they got food, shelter and eventually the first steps in finding a way out of Russia. Zadoyanov is now in the country of Georgia.

For Bondarenko, the elderly woman from Mariupol who signed unknown papers, her children in Ukraine found volunteers to help. One arrived at Bondarenkos dormitory and demanded her release, saying the law protected a refugees freedom of movement. He took her to a hotel, with the room prepaid for two nights. The third night, she stayed at the home he shared with his Ukrainian wife.

The couple bought her sneakers, clothes and food for the trip to come.

We are against the war, against Putin, they told her.

In St. Petersburg, another volunteer met her at the train, took her to his apartment for the night and helped her get to the bus station.

At the Russian border, no matter what, do not tell them you want to return to Ukraine, he warned her. Say you are going to Estonia to visit family.

It took about 90 minutes to pass the Russian side of the border. At one point, guards checked passports. Bondarenkos noted Mariupol as her hometown, and they pulled her aside and asked what her destination was.

I wont lie. I want to return to Ukraine, to my children, she answered, torn between defiance and fear. She was asked to wait and imagined the worst.

She didnt know it, but she was already in Estonia. The guard returned with a giant smile and an even bigger box filled with food and water.

Bondarenko finally joined her children in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod on May 20, having paid nothing for a 2,600-mile journey organized from start to finish by volunteers.

Viktoria Kovalevska persuaded a bus driver at a detention center in Russia to hide the family on board.

We sat like mice. ... I closed the curtains, she said.

After about an hour, the driver said, Lets go. When the family emerged from their hiding spot in Rostov, two taxis arrived for them and their bags. They were given hot soup and a way to finally wash their stained, charred clothes, and stayed up until 3 a.m. doing laundry.

Train tickets materialized to St. Petersburg, where other volunteers bought a suitcase to replace their fraying bags. Then it was a near-seamless trip to Estonia. Kovalevska warned her daughters to say nothing when they were roughly asked at the crossing why they wanted to leave Russia.

You can get a bullet in the forehead and not tell the whole truth about what happened, or you can wait and later say everything as it was, she told the girls.

The whole journey took four days.

Her memories of Mariupol are a nightmare  the torso of a woman in the street, her daughter stepping in human brains smeared on the ground, the hunger and cold that she feared would kill them more painfully than bombs. But her memories of Russia are laced with the unexpected, surreptitious kindness they received from Russian volunteers.

I would love to say their names, said Kovalevska, her face lighting up. And I would tell them all, you are like angels who came from heaven and sheltered us with your wings. ... Because there was no hope. None.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Just 18 lawmakers opposed a U.S. House resolution that proclaimed support for Sweden and Finland joining military alliance NATO.

All were Republicans, one a Californian.

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, said in a statement Tuesday that Every country admitted to NATO expands the risk of the United States being entangled in a European war, requiring the blood and treasure of the entire nation to support.

Members of the 30-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization must come to the defense of one another if under attack.

In return, what does America get? The strength of the mighty Finnish and Swedish armies? If American interests are threatened, we always have the option of becoming involved. This measure would change the option into an obligation, he said.

Mondays House vote merely voiced support for the two Nordic nations becoming part of NATO and encouraged swift action.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in May amid the ongoing Russian war on Ukraine. The alliance  which spans Europe, the U.S. and Canada  invited the two nations to join at the end of June, kick-starting the process to become a member. It typically takes about a year.

McClintock voted no along with a group of far-right conservatives, many of whom remain ardent supporters of former President Donald Trump. As president, Trump complained that the U.S. shouldered an unfair burden of defense costs.

On Tuesday, McClintock said adding nations to NATO that were neutral in the wake of World War II and the Cold War would add still more trip-wires that could embroil America in a European war at a time when Americas greatest international threats are outside of Europe.

Nineteen House members skipped Mondays vote  two Democrats and 17 Republicans  none of whom were from California.

McClintock on adding to NATO

McClintock has long advocated against NATO nations who do not pay their fair share for its support.

In 2019, the Elk Grove congressman voted no on the NATO Support Act which blocked U.S. withdrawal while Trump pondered pulling support.

The U.S. is part of a minority of NATO countries that spends at least 2% of its gross domestic product on defense, a fiscal goal that member countries agreed to meet by 2024.

McClintock said he supported NATO and the U.S. being a part of it but that the 2019 act perpetually allowed other countries to unfairly ride on U.S. coattails.

NATO was formed to provide security against the now-defunct Soviet Union; not to relieve individual European nations from their responsibility to maintain their own defenses at Americas expense, he said at the time.

The 2022 House resolution also says that Russian action against Sweden and Finland joining NATO would not be tolerated and encourages NATO nations to meet the goal of spending 2% of their GDP on defense, which countries pledged to at the 2014 NATO summit.

McClintock on Russia

Russia swiftly criticized NATOs invitation in June. President Vladimir Putin warned that if troops and military weapons were deployed in Sweden and Finland, Russia would be obliged to respond symmetrically.

McClintock, historically tough on Russia, was late to condemn the invasion of Ukraine in February. The week prior, the congressman had said that a simple way to deter Putin would be to say that Ukraine would not become part of NATO.

A few days after the invasion, McClintock said that Russias actions were barbaric and an affront to all humanity.

In a 522-word statement, he criticized how the U.S. handled oil production, troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the U.S.-Mexico border.

This is not a call to war with Russia, he said in the February statement. It is a wake-up call that America is growing dangerously vulnerable in an increasingly violent and unstable world.

In voting yes to $40-billion in military aid for Ukraine in May 2022, McClintock said he hoped it would stabilize the region before the conflict spreads to a point that directly threatens American security or triggers American treaty obligations.

McClintock voting record

McClintock, seeking re-election in Californias new 5th Congressional District, was awarded by the American Conservative Union for siding with their views 100% of the time on key issues last year, the only California Republican to do so.

Reps. Andy Biggs, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also voted against the resolution regarding NATO, similarly sided with the ACU 100% of the time on key issues  against impeaching Trump over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, D.C. statehood and stricter background checks for firearm sales, to name a few.

The 18 naysayers on supporting Finland and Swedens entry to NATO were:

Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. Dan Bishop, R-N.C. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C. Ben Cline, R-Va. Michael Cloud, R-Texas Warren Davidson, R-Ohio Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. Bob Good, R-Va. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R- Ga. Morgan Griffith, R-Va. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. Tom McClintock, R-Calif. Mary Miller, R. Ill. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont. Chip Roy, R-Texas Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J.

McClatchy DCs David Lightman contributed to this story.
MULTAN, Pakistan (AP)  Pakistan's police have arrested at least two people after a 21-year-old American woman reported she was gang raped at a hotel when she was visiting a tourist resort in the eastern Punjab province, officials said Wednesday.

The detainees included the woman's host, who took her to a hotel in Dera Ghazi Khan, a district in the Punjab province where she says she was sexually assaulted this week, according to an initial police investigation.

The woman arrived in Pakistan three weeks ago, according to police. The Associated Press does not typically name victims of sex abuse.

Police say they are still investigating to determine how the woman was lured and taken to a hotel by the two men accused of raping her. The woman earlier stayed at the home of one of the alleged attackers for five days.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad told The Associated Press that its consulate in Pakistan's city of Lahore was ready to provide consular services to the victim.

The protection of U.S. citizens overseas is the highest priority of the U.S. Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad," it said. It said out of respect for the privacy of the alleged victim, we cannot comment on the specifics of the allegation."

Although sexual abuse against Pakistani women is common, such crimes against foreigners are rare. Many Pakistani women don't report such incidents to avoid stigma in a society where rapists often escape justice because of flaws in the legal system and poor investigations by police.
Sandra, a medical assistant, inside a room where abortion procedure takes place at Planned Parenthood in El Centro, Calif. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

On a recent Monday afternoon, all the abortion appointments at Planned Parenthood-Imperial Valley Health Center were already booked up for the week.

Vivian Perez, an office manager at the center, had already clocked in a 12-hour day, but she remained in the office tinkering with the schedule. Shed received a desperate call from the San Diego call center, which helps with scheduling.

Could you please add one more" patient? the scheduler asked.

Knowing that the patient was probably traveling from far away, Perez managed to squeeze her in.

It didnt used to be this way.

The El Centro clinic was always busy. Now it's overwhelmed as it finds itself on the front lines of the drastic changes wrought by the U.S. Supreme Courts recent Dobbs decision, which by overturning Roe vs. Wade eliminated 50 years of federal protections for abortion care.

Planned Parenthood is right next to Imperial Valley Life Center in El Centro, Calif. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Almost instantly, many abortion clinics throughout the country stopped providing services, positioning states such as California, where the procedure is still legal, as something of a refuge for people seeking abortions.

A recent report from the UCLA School of Law's Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy estimates that between 8,000 and 16,100 more people will journey to California each year for abortion care, and that at least half of those will travel from Arizona because of the long border it shares with California.

Since the Dobbs decision, out-of-state patients have increased at all 19 clinics in San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties affiliated with Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest.

As of last week, out-of-state patients made up 21% of abortion visits at the clinics in those three counties, a 513% increase compared with two weeks before the Dobbs decision. Patients from Arizona make up the highest demographic of out-of-state patient visits for abortion care  a 847% increase from two weeks before the Dobbs decision, Sandra Duran, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, said.

In the Imperial Valley, the Planned Parenthood center in El Centro is one of the most affected because its the closest to Arizona, where legal abortion care vanished overnight. The fall of Roe vs. Wade created confusion because Arizona's laws are unclear on whether abortions are outlawed.

The Grand Canyon State had a ban dating to 1901 that had been blocked by the courts since the 1973 Roe decision. Some legal scholars argued that the courts would have to lift the block for it to go into effect.

In March, the Arizona Legislature passed a ban on all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest. But the law didn't make it clear when it would be implemented. As a result, abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, have stopped all abortions in the state out of an abundance of caution.

Vivian Perez, facility manager, in the post-procedure recovery room at Planned Parenthood in El Centro. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

In El Centro, Perez, 60, who lives in nearby Holtville, had long prepared for a rise in patient visits.

In late May, she was in the midst of looking for more employees, including an additional registered nurse and medical assistant, to bolster the clinic's 20-person staff. She said she wanted to make sure to have enough capacity for abortion care while still providing preventative healthcare, birth control, pregnancy tests and other womens health services.

At the time, the clinic offered surgical abortions once a week, and medical abortions were performed about twice a week. Perez planned to offer one more day of surgical abortions.

Last week, Perez was so inundated with abortion care appointments that she had to ask the Planned Parenthood medical team for additional abortion providers.

We were preparing, anticipating that it would be busy, Perez said after the Dobbs decision. But this is more than I expected. Definitely.

Last week, Perez booked more than 100 surgical and medical abortions for Tuesday and Thursday and the rest of the week was booked up with more than 50 medical abortions. The clinic normally would have one abortion provider during the week. Now it has two to three.

One day a couple of weeks ago, El Centro's clinic saw 17 patients for medical abortions. All but one was from Arizona.

Frida Diaz, a member of Planned Parenthood Generation Action, restocks a condom dispenser in a restroom in the Associated Students Union building at San Diego State University, Imperial Valley Campus, in Calexico. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Out-of-state patients  especially Arizonans  aren't something new for the El Centro center. Ever since it opened seven years ago, it was clear that Planned Parenthood-Imperial Valley Health Center wouldnt just serve El Centro.

An easy 20-minute drive from the Mexican border and an hour from Yuma, Ariz., the center has long served as a refuge, particularly for Mexicans and Arizonans seeking abortion care.

In Arizona, you have to go through a process, Perez said a few weeks before the Dobbs decision. There is a waiting period. There are barriers. Its a lot easier for them to come over here. Its not far from Yuma, Phoenix, Tucson.

Patients have come from all over the country, Perez said.

A few months ago, an Oklahoma woman, her husband and small children crammed into a small recreational vehicle and traveled more than 1,200 mile to get her abortion care in this conservative agricultural border town.

Exhausted from the journey, the family looked relieved when it arrived at the health center, Perez said.

The mother was finally able to get an abortion  something Oklahoman leaders had made nearly impossible to obtain in her state.

Oklahoma banned abortion in May with a law enforced through private citizen lawsuits. State officials also criminalized abortion the day that Roe vs. Wade was overturned, except to save a mothers life.

Tucked into a strip mall next to a Thai restaurant, the center looks unassuming  a beige and brown building with a blue sign that reads "Planned Parenthood." It's just steps from the Imperial Valley Life Center, a pregnancy center, one of many that have sprung up in the last few years and are meant to persuade people to reconsider abortion and provide support to those who continue with their pregnancies. A gate on rollers usually separates the two in El Centro.

Jazmyn Horton-Alvarado, president of Planned Parenthood Generation Action, at Planned Parenthood in El Centro. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Inside the health center, a modern lobby akin to that of a three-star hotel welcomes patients. The building has a nouveau mid-century flair with neutral tones and a turquoise wall accent.

It used to be a health clinic that served the Spanish-speaking population before Planned Parenthood took over and renovated it. It hosts six exam rooms. A security room near the back is full of screens with images from cameras stationed throughout the facility.

The clinic attracts maybe one protester a day.

Anticipating that Arizona might be one of those states to do away with abortion if Roe fell, Planned Parenthood officials in California and Arizona created a system to provide coordinated abortion care and help funnel Arizonans to providers in California. Planned Parenthood staffers in Arizona confirm each case of pregnancy and then refer the patients to clinics in California.

If a patient decides to get an abortion, the care coordinators in California assist them. That could mean helping pay for gas, a plane ticket or rental car, securing child care, providing a hotel voucher or cutting the cost of the abortion procedure, said Tessa Hemmi, care coordination program manager at Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest.

On June 24, the day the U.S. Supreme Court justices gutted Roe, Hemmi and three others on her team already had five patients waiting on the phone when they started their day at 9 a.m.

They fielded 50 calls just that day. It's been consistently busy and all hands on deck. The need was so great that first week that the team had to work over the weekend, navigating patients to California.

Some callers cry. Others thank her. Most are panicked.

Their stories are overwhelming, Hemmi said.

"I have my two kids. What do I do with my two kids? I don't have child care," one caller said.

"Do you have a Sunday available so I don't have to take off work?" another questioned.

"Is it legal for me to come to California?" others asked.

"Abortion is safe and legal in the state of California," Hemmi and her team members responded.

One of the biggest worries for those calling from out of state are California's gas prices.

"People gasp when we tell them it's more than $6 a gallon," Hemmi said.

One woman called to say her car had broken down. In between sobs, she said she had to spend all the money she had for the abortion procedure on a rental car.

Hemmi sent the woman gift cards for gas and helped reduce the abortion cost.

The call center's team can help with just about everything but one complicated question.

"Can I get in trouble for getting an abortion here when I go back home?" some ask.

Hemmi and her team tell callers that they can't really answer that question because they don't want to provide wrong information.

"We're not legal professionals, and the laws are constantly shifting," Hemmi said.

Perez said she's happy to see that many of the out-of-state patients arriving at the El Centro center have received some sort of support to get them there. Some have gas cards. Others hotel vouchers. Many of those arriving for abortion care are women who already have children.

The center didn't used to perform medical and surgical abortions on the same day, but some travelers are too far along to qualify for a medical procedure. When that happens, Perez can sometimes easily squeeze them in for a surgical appointment the same day.

Some days, Perez feels the pressure. But, she said, she then thinks that it's nothing like the pressure the traveling patients must feel.

"We can do this," she tells herself. "This is what we need to do, and this is what we're going to do."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Residents in China's highest county relocated for better life

08:17, July 20, 2022 By Cao Jian, Zhang Jingpin, Lyu Qiuping, Kelsang Namgyai ( Xinhua

* With an average altitude of over 5,000 meters, Tsonyi County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, covers a total area of 120,000 square km and is part of the Changtang National Nature Reserve, China's biggest and highest nature reserve.

* Tsonyi County started the relocation of its second batch of residents on Tuesday, as part of the region's plan to improve people's living conditions and protect the fragile local ecosystem.

* Four townships of the county will complete relocation by early August, and by then, all seven townships of Tsonyi, including the three that moved in 2019, will have completed relocation.

Aerial photo taken on July 13, 2022 shows trucks carrying furniture preparing to depart from Doima Township of Tsonyi County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje)

LHASA, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Tsonyi County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, started the relocation of its second batch of residents on Tuesday, as part of the region's plan to improve people's living conditions and protect the fragile local ecosystem.

At around 7:40 a.m. Tuesday, more than 300 residents left their hometown in Doima Township of Tsonyi, China's highest county, moving nearly 1,000 km southward to their new home Singpori.

Singpori is on the north bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River in the city of Shannan, located at an altitude of 3,600 meters. It is only some 10 km from the Lhasa airport.

Four townships of the county will complete relocation by early August, and by then, all seven townships of Tsonyi, including the three that moved in 2019, will have completed relocation.

Tibet relocated the first batch of 2,900 residents in Tsonyi to Singpori in 2019.

A villager loads furniture onto a truck in Doima Township of Tsonyi County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, July 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhou Dixiao)

"After moving to my new home, I will be able to visit the monasteries in Lhasa and Shannan more frequently to worship Buddha," said Garma, a 70-year-old herder from Doima Township.

HARD DECISION

With an average altitude of over 5,000 meters, Tsonyi County covers a total area of 120,000 square km and is part of the Changtang National Nature Reserve, China's biggest and highest nature reserve.

Due to the high altitude and harsh environment, the county is not suitable for human habitation. The oxygen in the air is a mere 40 percent of that on the plain. Its winter lasts 10 months each year, with the lowest temperatures reaching minus 40 degrees Celsius.

However, it was not easy for Garma to decide to move.

"It is the place where I was born and grew up. How can I not miss it?" said Garma. "But I know the relocation is good for us."

Suffering from rheumatic arthritis, a joint disease commonly seen on the plateau, Garma has lost the ability to herd. All she can do is fire the stove and cook butter tea while waiting for her family to return from herding.

Villagers pack their belongings for relocation in Doima Township of Tsonyi County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, July 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje)

"The relocation will not only make it easier for me to go to the hospital but also help my children avoid developing plateau diseases like me," she said.

As a compensation for their sacrifice, Garma's five family members, including her 2-year-old great-grandson, will receive 7,500 yuan (about 1,112 U.S. dollars) per person a year as a subsidy under the local policy of forage-livestock balance.

The government has set up a transitional period spanning the next few years so that some young people can take turns to herd in Tsonyi County, with a cooperative established in every village. The relocated residents can hold shares of the cooperatives with their pastures and livestock as investments and earn dividends.

When the transitional period expires, young people will also come to their new home, returning the vast land to nature.

"When my children go back for herding, I may also return with them to have a look at the ranch and the sheep," Garma said.

NEW HOPE

In Singpori, Garma's family has been allocated a two-story house and a small apartment, equipped with flush toilets and gas stoves. The community also has a newly-built hospital, a kindergarten, a school, a market and a recreation center.

Aerial photo taken on March 27, 2022 shows a view of Tsonyi County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Zhou Dixiao)

Sichod Tsomo, Garma's granddaughter, did not attend school as she had to help her family with herding when she was young. The 22-year-old now has difficulty inputting characters on her smartphone.

She said her son is lucky as he can enter a good kindergarten free of charge in Singpori next year thanks to the relocation.

"I hope my son can go to a university someday," she said.

Sichod Tsomo plans to attend vocational training and open a tea house near her new home. Her husband, who received training to become an excavator driver last year, will try to find a job at a construction site nearby.

According to Yang Wensheng, Party chief of Tsonyi, some of the relocated residents have found jobs like chefs and machine operators after receiving vocational training, while some others have started working in cities like Lhasa and Shannan.

Thanks to the relocation, the per capita disposable income of the county surged to nearly 13,600 yuan in 2021, up nearly 30 percent from the level in 2019, when the county was lifted out of poverty.

Yang said the latest relocation came amid efforts to consolidate and expand poverty alleviation achievements with rural vitalization endeavors.

RETURNING LAND TO NATURE

Tibet has 11 national nature reserves, four national scenic spots, three national geological parks, nine national forest parks, and 22 national wetland parks. Protected natural areas make up almost 40 percent of the region's land area.

A villager herds livestock in Doima Township of Tsonyi County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Sun Fei)

The rare wildlife population in the region has been growing, with the Tibetan antelope population increasing to over 300,000, wild yak exceeding 20,000 and black-necked cranes surpassing 10,000, according to a report issued by the regional department of ecology and environment last month.

Because of the increasing populations of wild animals in the Changtang National Nature Reserve, the problem of local people and wildlife competing for living space has become more prominent.

"Our livestock is often attacked by bears, wolves and even snow leopards," Garma said. According to the local compensation standard, herders get a compensation of 500 yuan for a sheep killed by wildlife and 5,000 yuan for a yak.

"The relocation is beneficial to the ecological protection of the Changtang nature reserve," said Liu Baoyuan, a professor of geoscience with the Beijing Normal University, who is in Tsonyi to conduct a survey on water and soil erosion.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Du Mingming)
A residential building is damaged after a rocket attack in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on July 19, 2022. (Nariman El-Mofty / Associated Press)

Russian missiles struck cities and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine, hitting homes, a school and a community center on Tuesday as Russian President Vladimir Putin won strong support from Iran for his country's military operation.

In Kramatorsk, a city in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk province considered a likely Russian occupation target, one person was killed and 10 wounded in an airstrike that hit a five-story apartment building, regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

Fresh blood stained the concrete amid green leaves that were torn off trees as nearby apartments on at least two floors burned. Shrapnel was placed in a small pile near an empty playground.

There was no one here. Everything is ruined, said Halyna Maydannyk, a resident of one burned apartment. Who knows why theyre doing this? We were all living peacefully.

Kramatorsk residents Mykola Zavodovskyi and Tetiana Zavodovska stood in bandages outside a hospital. They heard a loud clap and went to their balcony to investigate, then everything exploded and the windows shattered.

Probably it was a rocket, and probably it was brought down by Ukrainian forces, Zavodovska said.

The midday strike came after Kyrylenko had reported four earlier Russian strikes in Kramatorsk and urged civilians to evacuate.

On the political front, Putin visited Tehran, where Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the West opposes an independent and strong Russia. Khamenei said that if Russia hadnt sent troops into Ukraine, it would have faced an attack from NATO later, echoing Putins own rhetoric and reflecting increasingly close ties between Moscow and Tehran as they both face severe Western sanctions.

NATO allies have bolstered their military presence in Eastern Europe and provided Ukraine with weapons to help counter the Russian attack. Putin and other officials at the Tehran meetings said little new about negotiations to unblock Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.

In the Odesa region in southern Ukraine, Russian forces fired seven Kalibr cruise missiles overnight. The Russian Defense Ministry said strikes on the village of Bilenke achieved a legitimate military goal and "destroyed depots of ammunition for weapons supplied by the United States and European countries.

A local official disputed Moscow's claim and said six people were wounded.

These strikes on peaceful people have one goal  to intimidate the population and the authorities and keep them in constant tension, Serhiy Bratchuk, the speaker of the Odesa regional government, told Ukrainian television.

With indications that Ukraine is planning counterattacks to retake occupied areas, the Russian military in recent weeks has targeted Odesa and parts of southern Ukraine where its troops captured cities earlier in the war.

In the east, Ukrainian forces are fighting to hold on to the declining territory under their control. Donetsk has been cut off from gas supplies and partly from water and power as the Russians try to complete their capture of the province. Russia's ground advance has slowed, in part because Ukraine is using more effective U.S. weapons and partly because of what Putin has called an operational pause. Russia has been focusing more on aerial bombardment using long-range missiles.

The infrastructure of the cities is being methodically destroyed by missile strikes, and the civilian population, cut off from bare necessities, suffers the most, Kyrylenko said.

Russia-installed officials in the southern region of Kherson, under Moscows control since early in the war, said Ukrainian forces damaged the only bridge in the city of Kherson over the Dnipro River, east of Odesa. Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Kherson region's Kremlin-backed administration, told the Russian news agency Interfax that Ukrainian forces used American-made rocket launchers to damage the bridge in an attempt to cut Kherson off from the left bank of the Dnipro.

Ukrainian officials have spoken of plans for a counteroffensive to retake Kherson and other southern Ukrainian territory from the Russians.

Serhiy Khlan, an official with the Ukrainian administration of the Kherson region, tacitly confirmed the strike on Ukrainian television, reporting a precise hit and explosion in the area of the bridge.

Also in the Kherson region, Ukraine claimed to have used antiaircraft missiles to shoot down a Russian Su-35 fighter jet that had planned to attack its planes. Several ground-based videos posted on social media showed a plane breaking up in the evening sky Tuesday near Nova Kakhovka, in flames and spewing gray and black smoke as it descended and crashed into the ground, at least some pieces into a green field. Ukrainian news reports said the pilot ejected and showed a helicopter search for him. Russian officials didn't immediately confirm the shootdown. Little information has emerged during the war about aerial battles.

Kherson  hosting a major ship-building industry at the confluence of the Dnieper River and the Black Sea near Russia-annexed Crimea  is one of several areas a U.S. government spokesman said Russia is trying to annex. Following months of local rumors and announcements about a Russian referendum, White House National Security Council spokesman John F. Kirby said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence officials have amassed ample new evidence that Russia is looking formally to annex additional Ukraine territory and could hold a sham public vote as soon as September. Russia is eyeing Kherson as well as the entirety of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.

Russia is laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls in direct violation of Ukraine sovereignty, Kirby said in Washington.

Kirby also said the White House is expected to announce more military aid for Ukraine this week. The aid is expected to include more high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, a critical weapon Ukrainian forces have been using with success in their fight to repel Russian troops.

On the ground, Ukraine and Russia continued their sporadic exchanges of bodies of fallen soldiers. Each side gave the other 45 soldiers bodies in the Zaporizhzhia region. Russia's RIA Novosti news agency said Tuesday that the soldiers had been killed in Mariupol, the Azov Sea city that captured worldwide attention because of a weeks-long siege of a steel plant.

At least two civilians were killed and 15 wounded by Russian shelling across Ukraine in the previous 24-hour period, Ukraines presidential office said in a Tuesday morning update.

With Russia's missiles hitting cities about 500 apart Tuesday, there remains a high level of threat of missile strikes throughout the territory of Ukraine, said Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesman of the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces.

The missile strikes came as the British military said it believes Russia is struggling to keep up its troop strength in its grinding war of attrition that began with the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

The British Defense Ministry said in a Tuesday assessment that Russia has struggled to sustain effective offensive combat power since the start of the invasion, and this problem is likely becoming increasingly acute as Moscow seeks to conquer the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

The British military added: While Russia may still make further territorial gains, their operational tempo and rate of advance is likely to be very slow without a significant operational pause for reorganization and refit.

Ukraine's parliament approved President Volodymyr Zelensky's dismissal of Ivan Bakanov as head of the country's Security Service, the SBU, and the Ukrainian leader on Tuesday finalized the firing of Iryna Venediktova, who served as Ukraines prosecutor general. As part of the reshuffle stemming from alleged collaboration with Russian authorities, Zelensky on Tuesday also fired six other SBU officials.

Ukraines first lady, Olena Zelenska, visited Washington at the invitation of First Lady Jill Biden. Zelenska met Monday with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who assured her of the U.S. commitment to Ukraine, and praised her work with civilians dealing with trauma and other war damage. At the White House on Tuesday, Zelenska met with Jill Biden, embracing and posing for photos before discussing how the U.S. is helping Ukrainians suffering mentally and emotionally from the war.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Sacramento LGBT Community Center on Wednesday afternoon will host a monkeypox vaccination clinic as the number of confirmed and probable cases continues to climb in Sacramento County.

The community center, located at 1015 20th St. in the Lavender Heights section of midtown, will host the vaccination clinic from 1 to 4 p.m., the center announced Tuesday in a Facebook post. The clinic will accommodate appointments and walk-up appointments as the vaccine supply permits.

The number of likely or confirmed monkeypox infections in the county reached 22 on Tuesday. Sacramento County Public Health officials on Monday reported seven new probable cases of monkeypox. The county has reported 14 new cases in the past week.

Monkeypox has been found across several counties in the Bay Area, Southern California, Northern California and the Central Valley. Butte County on Monday disclosed its first probable case of monkeypox in a resident. Stanislaus County reported its first monkeypox case on Tuesday.

Spread of monkeypox is linked to prolonged, skin-to-skin exposure, according to experts. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. The patient typically develops a rash, often beginning on the face and spreading to other parts of the body, normally about one to three days after fever.

Sacramento County health officials say men who have sex with men and transgender people who meet at least one of these criteria should get vaccinated:

 Tested positive for a sexually transmitted infection in the past two months.

 Had two or more sexual partners in the previous three weeks.

 Visited or worked at a commercial sex venue in the previous three weeks.

 Had anonymous sex in the previous three weeks.

 Engaged in sex work in the previous three weeks.

The Bees Michael McGough contributed to this story.
Two of South Carolinas Republican U.S. representatives bucked their party and supported a bill that would codify federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriage.

In the 267-157 vote on the bill Tuesday, U.S. Reps. Nancy Mace, R-Daniel Island, and Tom Rice, R-Myrtle Beach, joined House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia, and all other House Democrats and supported the Respect of Marriage Act. South Carolinas four other House members  Republicans William Timmons, Joe Wilson, Ralph Norman and Jeff Duncan  voted against the bill.

Mace and Rice were two of 47 Republicans to vote for the bill, which now heads to the Senate.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he will not vote for the bill. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. did not immediately respond for comment.

Mace, the Lowcountry congresswoman, released a statement after the voting ended.

I always have and always will support the right of any American to marry. This vote is no different. I believe any two people, regardless of the color of their skin or gender or orientation or otherwise, should be free to enter into marriage together, Mace said. If gay couples want to be as happily or miserably married as straight couples, more power to them.

She added to the statement on Twitter, joking Trust me, Ive tried it more than once.

Mace recently got engaged to Charleston software entrepreneur Patrick Bryant.

Rice in June lost in the primary election against state Rep. Russell Fry, R-Horry, which will bring his tenure in Congress to a conclusion at the end of the year. Rice voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, who later endorsed Fry in the primary.

Rice did not immediately respond for comment.

The bill would codify the 2015 Supreme Court ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges, which legally protects same-sex marriage, and the 1967 ruling on Loving v. Virginia, which protects interracial marriages. The bill also would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage as between a man and woman, which was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Obergefellcase.

The legislations passage comes after House Democrats feared for another major reversal of Supreme Court precedent, akin to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

In the ruling for Dobbs v. Jackson which sent the decision about whether abortion is legal back to each state  Justice Clarence Thomas signaled in a concurring opinion that other precedents should be revisited.

Before Tuesdays vote, Clyburn defended same-sex marriage.

In a concurrent opinion ripping away womens right to choose, Justice Thomas outlined next steps  including ending marriage equality, the House majority whip tweeted. Today, House Democrats will pass the Respect for Marriage Act to enshrine marriage equality in federal law and stop state efforts to curb this right.

He added on Twitter after the vote.

House Democrats will not let unelected, right-wing justices weaken Americans constitutional right to marriage equality.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister of Sri Lanka, was elected president by lawmakers amid the country's political and economic turmoil. (Eranga Jayawardena / Associated Press)

Sri Lankan lawmakers elected the unpopular prime minister as their new president Wednesday, a choice that risked reigniting turmoil in a nation reeling from economic collapse.

The crisis has already forced one Sri Lankan leader out, and a few hundred protesters quickly gathered after the vote to express their outrage that Ranil Wickremesinghe  a six-time prime minister whom they see as part of the problematic political establishment  would stay in power.

Sri Lankans have taken to the streets for months to demand that their top leaders step down as the country spiraled into economic chaos, a crisis that has left the South Asian island nation's 22 million people struggling with shortages of essentials, including medicine, fuel and food. After demonstrators stormed the presidential palace and several other government buildings, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled last week and then resigned.

Much of the protesters' ire is focused on Rajapaksa and his familys political dynasty, which ruled Sri Lanka for most of the last two decades. But many also blame Wickremesinghe for protecting Rajapaksa, and during demonstrations last week, crowds set his personal residence on fire and occupied his office.

Wednesday's vote means that Wickremesinghe  who was also Rajapaksas finance minister and became acting president after the leader fled  will finish the presidential term ending in 2024. He can now appoint a new prime minister.

I need not tell you what state our country is in," Wickremesinghe, 73, told fellow lawmakers after his selection was announced. "People are not expecting the old politics from us. They expect us to work together.

He pleaded for the country to move on: Now that the election is over, we have to end this division.

But protesters flocked to the presidential residence instead, chanting: Ranil, go home.

We are very sad, very disappointed with the 225 parliament members who we elected to speak for us, which they have not done, said Visaka Jayawware, a performance artist in the crowd. We will keep fighting for the people of Sri Lanka. We have to ask for a general election.

Wickremesinghe has wide experience in diplomatic and international affairs  he noted Wednesday that he had spent 45 years of his life in Parliament  and has led the talks on a bailout package for the bankrupt country with the International Monetary Fund.

But many voters view him with suspicion since he was appointed prime minister by Rajapaksa in May, in hopes that he would restore stability.

The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful family of siphoning money from government coffers and of hastening the countrys collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but the former president acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lankas meltdown.

The struggle will continue until our demands are met, said Nemel Jayaweera, a human resources professional. [Wickremesinghe] doesnt have a mandate to rule the country. We will oppose him.

The ruling party's majority in Parliament swept Wickremesinghe to victory in Wednesday's vote, with 134 votes. Populist Dullas Alahapperuma, a longtime ally of Rajapaksa and also a minister in his government, secured 82, while a Marxist candidate netted three.

The vote, shown on national television, was a decorous, solemn affair. Although balloting was secret, as the results were announced, lawmakers thumped their tables in support of their candidates.

After the vote, some supporters celebrated Wickremesinghes win in the streets. He will be sworn in on Thursday.

Only a few lawmakers had publicly said they would vote for Wickremesinghe given the widespread hostility against him  but dozens loyal to Rajapaksa had been expected to back him because he had assured them he would severely punish protesters who burned politicians' homes in the unrest.

On Monday, in his role as acting president, Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency that gave him broad authority to act in the interest of public security and order. Authorities can carry out searches and detain people, and Wickremesinghe can also change or suspend any law.

The political turmoil in Sri Lanka has only worsened the economic disaster. Wickremesinghe said Monday that negotiations with the IMF were nearing a conclusion, while talks on help from other countries had also progressed. He said that the government had taken steps to resolve shortages of fuel and cooking gas.

Hours before Wednesday's vote, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told financial magazine Nikkei Asia that the organization hoped to complete the rescue talks as quickly as possible.

As prime minister, Wickremesinghe delivered weekly addresses in Parliament cautioning that the path out of the crisis would be difficult, while also pledging to overhaul a government that increasingly has concentrated power in the presidency.

Presidents in Sri Lanka are normally elected by the public. The responsibility falls to Parliament only if the presidency becomes vacant before the term officially ends.

That has happened only once before in Sri Lanka, when then-Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga was chosen by Parliament uncontested in 1993 after former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, father of the current opposition leader, was assassinated.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School teacher Dara Hass wipes away tears as she testifies in court about the shooting in her classroom during the penalty phase of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz's trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. His brother, Nicholas Dworet was also shot, and was killed in the rampage. Cruz previously plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  Teachers gave heart-wrenching testimony Wednesday in the penalty trial of Nikolas Cruz, with one recalling how a boy in her Holocaust studies class correctly answered a question seconds before he became one of 17 people murdered during the school shooter's rampage four years ago.

Ivy Schamis, then a teacher at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was leading students through a discussion about the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany when star swimmer Nick Dworet correctly responded that Adolf Dassler founded the Adidas shoe company. He then added that Dassler's brother founded the rival Puma brand.

It was then that they heard the first gunshots in the hallway, and Cruz began firing his semi-automatic rifle through the glass on her classroom door.

It was really seconds later that the barrel of that AR15 just ambushed our classroom," Schamis testified, wiping her eyes with a tissue. It came right through that glass panel and was just shooting everywhere. It was very loud. Very frightening. I kept thinking about these kids who should not be experiencing this at all.

She said the students scrambled to find safety behind furniture, but didn't panic and acted with bravery and maturity as they waited to be rescued. Three students were wounded in her class and two were killed: Dworet and Helena Ramsay, both 17.

When shown their portraits, she began to weep.

Thats my girl, Helena Ramsay, she said. Nicholas Dworet, handsome boy.

Dworet's brother Alexander was grazed by a bullet in a classroom across the hall, where three students were killed and several more wounded.

Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder for the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre. The jury must decide if the former Stoneman Douglas student should be sentenced to death or life without parole for the nations deadliest mass shooting to go before a jury. The trial is expected to last through at least October.

Nine other gunmen who killed at least 17 people died during or immediately after their shootings, either by suicide or police gunfire. The suspect in the 2019 slaying of 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, is awaiting trial.

Schamis' testimony was followed by that of Ronit Reoven, who was lecturing her advanced psychology class about Sigmund Freud when Cruz started firing into her neighboring classroom, also through the door's window.

There were multiple gunshots," she said. "They were incredibly loud. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! I froze for a moment and the students jumped out of their seats. Of course, they were startled and scared."

Reoven said she and the students crouched on the floor around her desk and wounded students were moaning and crying. She used a blanket that normally covered her coffee machine as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from a boy's arm. Another boy used a jacket to stanch the bleeding from a girl's chest. A girl shot in the knee appeared to be stable. But 16-year-old Carmen Schentrup was lying facedown in a pool of blood.

I knew that she was probably gone, Reoven said.

The teachers' testimony came a day after jurors saw surveillance video showing victims being gunned down at point-blank range. Cruz also killed some of the wounded by firing on them a second time as they lay on the floor.

When jurors eventually get the case, they will vote 17 times, once for each of the victims, on whether to recommend capital punishment.

For each death sentence, the jury must be unanimous or the sentence for that victim is life. The jurors are told that to vote for death, the prosecutions aggravating circumstances for that victim must, in their judgment, outweigh the defenses mitigators. A juror can also vote for life out of mercy for Cruz. During jury selection, the panelists said under oath that they are capable of voting for either sentence.

___

Associated Press reporter Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report.
In early March, after senior U.S. officials made a rare visit to Caracas, the Biden administration announced a breakthrough:. Two Americans detained in Venezuela were free and flying home. Direct talks with the government of Nicolas Maduro seemed to be paying off.

But U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials were alarmed when, days later, two more Americans were quietly apprehended by Venezuelan authorities, seemingly replenishing Maduros stock of political prisoners. The detentions raised fears within the Biden administration that the Maduro regime is working more aggressively to increase its leverage of detained Americans, one senior U.S. official told McClatchy and the Miami Herald.

At the time, White House officials said they had simply rewarded Maduro with an in-person meeting in exchange for the freedom of the two Americans. But modest sanctions relief on Venezuelas state-run oil company followed months later, as senior Biden officials encouraged Maduro and Venezuelas democratic opposition to resume negotiations in Mexico City over the countrys political future.

Now, U.S. officials are torn over how to negotiate over the freedom of the Americans who remain in detention without encouraging Maduro to increase the practice.

In total, at least three Americans have been detained by Venezuela this year, joining at least eight more Americans  including five oil executives and three veterans  that the U.S. government believes are being wrongfully detained.

On Tuesday, the State Department introduced a new feature on travel warnings indicating whether a country has made a practice of wrongfully detaining Americans. Venezuela is one of only six countries on the list, joining Russia, Iran, North Korea, China and Burma (Myanmar).

A Maduro strategy

Senior officials in the Venezuelan opposition, led by Juan Guaido, fear that Maduro has adopted a strategy of arresting Americans and charging them with espionage in an attempt to coerce President Joe Biden to release Alex Saab, a close Maduro associate imprisoned in Miami facing federal criminal charges.

The general impression is that a new modus operandi has emerged, where Americans are being captured in events that are not taking place in the manner that regime says, a high-ranking opposition official said under the condition of anonymity. We have reports of some of these detentions taking place inside Colombia, near the border, or in nearby Caribbean islands.

U.S. officials have been meeting with regime leaders in Caracas since March, hoping among other things to free the Americans and persuade Maduro to participate in a dialogue process with the opposition in Mexico. Sanctions relief on Venezuelas oil sector would follow meaningful progress at the negotiating table, U.S. officials say.

But the focus has shifted towards freeing the Americans while Maduro stonewalls efforts to participate in the Mexico talks, opposition leaders told the Miami Herald.

Two senior U.S. officials traveled to Caracas in late June hoping to secure the freedom of Matthew Heath, a former U.S. Marine who had recently attempted suicide in a Venezuelan prison. The Venezuelans denied the requests to release him to U.S. custody for emergency treatment.

Antonio De La Cruz, an analyst close to the Venezuelan opposition, said that Maduro is taking advantage of the U.S. governments concerns over the safety of detained Americans.

The Maduro regime, understanding that the U.S. will try to protect its citizens anywhere in the world, appears to have decided to use this to increase its leverage in its pursuit to get back Alex Saab. So it seems to have established an action plan to capture Americans and hold them hostage accusing them of espionage, said De La Cruz, senior associate of the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a think tank based in Washington.

The espionage charges are key in order to bring about the exchange, De La Cruz said. Getting Saab returned, he added, is a top priority for Maduro in his talks with the Biden administration, given the Colombian businessmans extensive knowledge of the regimes secret illicit dealings.

Last week, rumors that U.S. officials were exploring the possibility of yielding to this demand exploded on social media after former Treasury Assistant Secretary Marshall Billingslea warned against it on Twitter.

Credible rumors swirling that the White House wants to trade Alex Saab to Venezuela. By recognizing his sham claim to be a diplomat, they would sabotage the court case against him, said Billingslea, who while in office was one of the chief architects of the U.S. sanctions against the Caracas regime.

It took years to build the sanctions package & indictment, & to secure arrest & extradition, he added. Saab was one of Maduros top bagmen. Whats worse, he made his money by profiting from starvation of the Venezuelan people, looting from the CLAP [subsidized food] program.

Difficulties obtaining access

A State Department spokesperson told McClatchy that the U.S. government often has difficulties obtaining access to and confirming reports about detained U.S. citizens in Venezuela.

We make every effort to provide the appropriate assistance, the official said. We will continue to work with the international community to press for concrete progress in fundamental areas, including the unconditional release of all political prisoners, increased humanitarian aid access, freedom of the press and peaceful assembly, rehabilitation of political parties and politicians so that Venezuelans can choose their leaders for themselves, and a cessation of attacks against civil society.

The Associated Press reported last week that three Americans were jailed in Venezuela earlier this year for allegedly trying to enter the country illegally and now face long prison sentences.

Two of the men  a lawyer from California and a computer programmer from Texas  were arrested in late March.

Venezuelan security forces arrested lawyer Eyvin Hernandez, 44, and computer programmer Jerrel Kenemore, 52, in separate incidents in the western state of Tachira, according to a person familiar with investigations of the arrests. The person spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to discuss the cases publicly.

Hernandez is from Los Angeles. Kenemore is from the Dallas area, but had lived in Colombia since 2019.

A third American was arrested in January, also for allegedly entering the country illegally along its lengthy border with Colombia. The AP reported it is withholding his name at the request of his family, which fears retaliation.

This story was complemented by McClatchys wire services.
U.S. companies are hitting speedbumps in the race to win contracts to extract lithium in the Americas, particularly as the Chinese and Russian governments throw their weight around to land such agreements.

While the most easily exploitable currently known lithium deposits are in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, the United States has so far not been able to capitalize on its influence in the Western Hemisphere to support its companies.

My friends in the hemisphere, and my own observations, tell me that the Chinese are eating our lunch. Their diplomats are active, visible, responsive, and skilled. Just like U.S. officials used to be, except they are said to be more willing to use financial incentives (bribes) to convince foreign decision-makers to buy Chinese, said Otto Reich, who served as assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs under former President George W. Bush.

Lithium has a variety of industrial uses, but its importance has skyrocketed as the main component in modern rechargeable batteries.

Bolivias lithium deposits in particular are the largest of their type in the world, but the landlocked country has had trouble commercializing its lithium because of technical and political issues.

The Bolivian government this year launched a contest among international companies to showcase their lithium mining technologies.

EnergyX, a U.S. company that had begun production tests at the Uyuni salt flats, was disqualified on a technicality in June, casting doubts on the impartiality of the process.

While EnergyX was the only company in the tender to deploy its technology on site, six companies  one from the United States, one Russian and four Chinese  are still competing for the right to partner with state-owned Yacimientos de Litios Bolivianos.

The Bolivian government last month delayed its final decision on the tender, saying a winner will be announced in December.

But the sudden disqualification of EnergyX, a company that says it has the most advanced and environmentally friendly lithium extraction technology, raised questions about U.S. influence in the region.

We should have a tremendous relationship with Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia, said Teague Egan, CEO and founder of EnergyX.

The U.S. is lagging behind is what were seeing. China and Asian countries do the majority of the investment into South America and were really falling behind. China is literally investing billions, Koreas investing billions, Russia is trying to invest billions, added Egan.

South American lithium deposits are highly sought after in part because they are easier to extract, as they are mainly found as dissolved salts in brine, allowing for a filtering process to extract the valuable metal.

Bolivias deposits are potentially the largest, but they also have a high magnesium content and present other logistical challenges due to their remoteness and high altitude.

Other countries, such as Australia and Mexico, have large deposits of lithium, but they are mineralized in rock formations and require traditional, invasive mining methods to extract.

U.S. embassies around the world have cut services both because of the pandemic and the whiplash of aggressive policy changes from the Obama to Trump and now to the Biden administrations.

Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), whose district holds one of the largest lithium deposits in the United States, blamed former President Trumps isolationist approach to foreign policy that left a void that Russia and China has taken advantage of in terms of their involvement and investments for infrastructure development.

That was a wrong national security move that has weakened the United States, Ruiz said.

But the decay of U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere started long before Trump took office due to political winds in the U.S. and in Latin America.

In the 1990s, U.S. influence in Latin America was such that American companies were seen to have a leg up on third-country competitors throughout the region, armed with more capital, better technology and a supportive diplomatic corps.

On the U.S. side, geopolitical attention veered away from Latin America toward the Middle East and Asia.

I think the best term an academic came up with years ago is benign neglect. Its not like we purposefully turned our back, but we just have not paid attention, said Dan Foote, a U.S. diplomat who most recently served as President Bidens special envoy to Haiti.

That benign neglect was itself fed by a wave of nationalist governments in the region led by Venezuelas Hugo Chavez, Ecuadors Rafael Correa, Cubas Fidel Castro and Bolivias Evo Morales.

In the 1990s, said Foote, the United States was seen as a positive influence in the region, bolstered by free trade agreements and events such as the 1994 World Cup.

Thats totally changed with the propaganda  the Chavez, Correa, Castro, Evo propaganda thats kind of flipped the field in the favor of our adversaries, said Foote.

The case in Bolivia isnt helped by the fact that the United States hasnt had a formal ambassador in the country since Morales expelled former Ambassador Rob Goldberg in 2008.

I mean, what do you expect? We havent had an ambassador to Bolivia since Goldberg got booted out in 08. We havent exchanged ambassadors since Rob Goldberg left. And, you know, I dont know that China and Russia have great embassies there either, but at least they probably have ambassadors, said Foote.

Asked for comment, a State Department spokesperson told The Hill in an email that the United States recognizes the importance of cooperation on supply chain issues with international partners and allies.

The Department maintains strong and ongoing cooperation with international partners and allies, including in South America on developing resilient, responsible, and diverse critical minerals supply chains, the spokesperson added.

The geopolitical difficulties and global supply chain issues have made the idea of mining lithium in the United States more attractive, but it wasnt until Bidens infrastructure deal added federal funds to the mix that the idea became viable.

Until that came through, it didnt make sense for us to look at U.S. resources because the U.S. resources are dramatically of less quality than South America. So without that subsidy, why would you look at something thats a worse quality? But with that extra support, yes. Now it makes sense, said Egan.

One of the places in the United States with the best lithium potential is Californias Salton Sea, which abuts Ruizs district.

Ruiz said an environmentally exploited Salton Sea could cover U.S. lithium requirements while creating economic development in the area.

Right now I know that were sitting in a goldmine, but in this case, its a lithium mine, or what we refer to down in Southern California as a lithium valley that is going to be transformative for our nation and for a lot of our allies, he said.

But, Ruiz said, domestic development is not mutually exclusive with securing overseas contracts for U.S. companies.

I think that we need to be strategic. I think that we have our domestic lithium supplies and if being strategic for our national security and partnerships to help our steady supply of lithium [means searching] for lithium in other countries, I think that that could be included as well, said Ruiz.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
ATHENS (Reuters) - Hundreds of firefighters on Wednesday battled a wildfire that raged for a second day in mountains near Athens, burning homes and cars and forcing the evacuation of at least nine settlements and a hospital.

Gale-force winds and thick smoke in the Penteli region hindered fire-fighting efforts from the air and on the ground, authorities said. Strong winds were forecast to persist until Wednesday afternoon.

The wildfire broke out around 1430 GMT on Tuesday, some 27 km (16 miles) north of the capital and was still burning on several fronts. The billowing smoke was visible from the island of Evia some 50 km away.

Penteli had suffered a wildfire in July 2018. Huge wildfires in 1995 and 1998 had burned more than 13,000 of hectares.

Firefighters recovered the body of an 84-year old man who died from shotgun injuries, police said. A fire brigade spokesman said the injuries appeared to be self-inflicted but the incident was under investigation.

Ambulances took other three people to hospital with respiratory problems and slight burns, authorities said.

About 485 firefighters and 120 fire engines were deployed to contain the blaze. Nine aircraft and 10 helicopters were dumping water on the flames on Wednesday.

"There are a number of destroyed homes and businesses. We will have a clearer count tomorrow," Thanasis Zoutsos, the mayor of Pallini, on the outskirts of Athens told state ERT TV.

In a televised statement, Fire Department spokesperson Yiannis Artopios talked of a "difficult night," as wind speeds exceeded 80 kilometres (50 miles) per hour, constantly changing direction, hindering efforts to tame the blaze.

Authorities had ordered the evacuation of nine districts, including Pallini and Gerakas. One hospital and the National Observatory of Athens were also evacuated as police helped at least 600 people flee fire-stricken areas.

Last year, wildfires ravaged about 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) of forest and bushland in different parts of Greece as the country experienced its worst heat wave in 30 years.

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos, Renee Maltezou, Costas Baltas, Angeliki Koutantou, Karolina Tagaris and Vassilis Triandafyllou; Writing by Renee Maltezou and George Georgiopoulos; editing by John Stonestreet)
Senior MP Tobias Ellwood has again had the Tory whip withdrawn after he was temporarily handed it back so he could cast his final vote in the Conservative leadership contest.

Boris Johnson removed the chair of the Commons Defence Committee from the parliamentary party after he failed to vote for the Government in a confidence vote.

But with the whip went Mr Ellwoods right to vote in the leadership race, raising questions of fairness as the outgoing Prime Minister acted against one of Penny Mordaunts supporters.

Apologies for missing key vote. Air travel chaos, after meet with the Moldova President, prevented return. Saddened to lose the whip. I carry on  good to be in ODESA and meet the impressive Mil Governor Marchenko to seek ways of re-opening the port & get that vital grain out. pic.twitter.com/gOKJnazKQS  Tobias Ellwood MP (@Tobias_Ellwood) July 19, 2022

Mr Ellwood was handed it back so he could take part in the final round of voting in Westminster, before a whips office spokeswoman said on Wednesday evening: Tobias Ellwood MP has had the Conservative whip suspended.

Ms Mordaunt was eliminated from the race when she came third behind former chancellor Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary being supported by Mr Johnsons loyalists.

Mr Ellwood, a former minister, had argued he was unable to make it to the crucial vote as he struggled to travel back from a meeting with the president of Moldova.

But on Wednesday afternoon, as voting in the ballot of Tory MPs got under way in Westminster, he tweeted: Delighted to report my request for a momentary return of the whip has been granted  just long enough for my proxy vote to be cast!

Apologies for missing key vote. Air travel chaos, after meet with the Moldova President, prevented return. Saddened to lose the whip. I carry on  good to be in ODESA and meet the impressive Mil Governor Marchenko to seek ways of re-opening the port & get that vital grain out. pic.twitter.com/gOKJnazKQS  Tobias Ellwood MP (@Tobias_Ellwood) July 19, 2022

The decision to strip the Bournemouth East MP of the party whip had prompted suggestions, rejected outright by allies of the Prime Minister, that Mr Johnson was working to boost Liz Trusss campaign for No 10.

The whips spokeswoman had said: From the start of the leadership contest the whips office took a neutral position.

After Tobias Ellwood MP failed to attend an important vote he had the Conservative Party whip suspended.

To ensure that the whips office neutrality in the leadership contest cannot be questioned, the whip has been temporarily unsuspended from Tobias Ellwood MP.

Upon the conclusion of todays leadership contest, Tobias Ellwood MP will have the whip suspended.

But that was only until the reprieve was over.

Mr Ellwood had earlier said that recent weeks have been a sad chapter in the history of the Conservatives, warning that the party had lost our way.

Mr Ellwood told Sky News that he deeply regretted losing the whip, but said he did not ignore the whips office and kept the party informed of his movements.

(PA Graphics)

There are a few options to get back, but there were problems with travel in the UK, he said.

I am very sorry I didnt make it back.

He told Sky News that he did not want to speculate about the reasons why he specifically lost the whip, adding: Id be then fuelling the blue-on-blue (attacks), which Im actually trying to avoid.

Lets focus on how we can move forward and make sure that we conclude this leadership campaign to the highest professional standard that I think the British people want to see.

Government minister Simon Clarke defended the decision, calling Mr Ellwoods actions a very serious mistake.

He was in Moldova, rather than Ukraine.

He was not on Government work, he is a backbench MP, he said.

Mr Clarke suggested that Mr Ellwood knew the consequences of missing the vote.

Look, Im not a member of the whips office.

What I will say is that there are clear arrangements in place which all MPs understand, which govern the conditions for absence from votes, most especially critical votes like a motion of confidence in the Government, which has the potential to trigger a general election, Mr Clarke told Sky News.
ANKARA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Launching a new military operation into northern Syria is on Turkiye's agenda as long as its security concerns are not met, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said following his meetings with leaders of Iran and Russia.

"A new operation will continue to be on our agenda as long as our national security concerns are not resolved," Erdogan told reporters on his flight from Iran to Turkiye.

The Turkish president stressed that he raised the issue during a meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the semi-official Anadolu Agency quoted Erdogan as saying on Wednesday.

"We want Russia and Iran to be on our side in the fight against terrorist organizations, 30 km south of the border. On this, they should give us the necessary support," Erdogan said.

"I think that we are not in a different view about the issue of PKK/YPG," he said.

In 2017, Iran, Turkiye, and Russia launched a joint monitoring body to enforce the UN resolution on the peace process in Syria.

Since May, Erdogan has been talking about Turkiye's plans to launch a new military operation in Syria against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in an effort to link up two areas already under Turkish control in the northern region near the Turkish border.

He said the aim is to create a 30-km safe zone along the Turkish border with Syria.

Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States, and the European Union. The PKK has been rebelling against the Turkish government for over 30 years.

Erdogan also stressed the troops of the United States should leave the western side of the Euphrates, and this was the common understanding of the last summit with the Russian and Iranian leaders.

Turkiye was in the same opinion because the U.S. was giving support to the "terrorist organizations there," he said.

"Since America is harboring terrorist organizations and we are fighting against these terrorist organizations, our work will be easier as soon as it withdraws from there or if it does not harbor these terrorist organizations," he added.

Ankara has long criticized the U.S. for supporting the YPG in northern Syria and objects to its arms support to the Kurdish militia in the region.

Turkiye had said earlier it would not tolerate the YPG presence on the western side of the Euphrates, declaring it a red line. 
A Delaware Chancery Court judge on Tuesday granted Twitter (TWTR) a five-day trial slated for October in its case seeking to force Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk to buy the social media site for $44 billion after he tried to terminate the deal last month.

Twitter had sought to expedite the trial so the matter could be resolved before the deal's Oct. 24, 2022 drop dead date  a deadline that, if reached before the transaction is finalized, allows either party to walk away. Twitter wanted to resolve the case in a four-day trial in September, while Musk wanted to push the case until February.

"The reality is that delay threatens irreparable harm to the seller, Twitter, for the reasons I described earlier: The longer the delay, the greater the risk. Given this reality I think a schedule closer to the norm is in order. For this reason, I think we should go to trial in October of this year," Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ruled on Tuesday.

'A cloud of Musk-created doubt'

Musk contends he's backing out of the deal because Twitter isn't providing him with data regarding the number of fake accounts, known as bots, that operate on its platform  and in some cases, spread disinformation. Twitter says the bot issue is a pretext for backing out of the agreement, and that Musk has been deliberately trying to tank the deal with a series of disparaging tweets. The uncertainty surrounding the transaction, the company argues, is unfairly disrupting its stock and business operations.

"Millions of Twitter shares trade daily under a cloud of Musk-created doubt," Twitter wrote in a court filing arguing for a September trial date.

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk arrives for a S.E.C. hearing at the Manhattan Federal Courthouse in New York, April 4, 2019. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

On July 11, Twitter sued Musk in Delaware Chancery Court, seeking to keep him on the hook for his agreement to acquire Twitter for $54.20 per share. In a matter of weeks after entering into the April 25 agreement with Twitter, Musk hinted of cold feet and notified the company of his intent to terminate the transaction. During that same period, Twitter's shares began to lose value along with a broader tech rout and bear market  they're now trading around $38.

Musks lawyers argue that the billionaire can legally wash his hands of the deal because Twitter refused to disclose proprietary data on the platforms fake accounts. Twitter has reported in securities filings bots make up that less than 5% of its monetizable accounts, but Musk says he suspects the number is actually higher.

However, Twitter counters that Musk waived his right to the data and that the merger agreement allows it to refuse Musks demands.

While Chancellor McCormick looked at the claim and made her own determination on Twitters fast-track request, Boston College Law School professor Brian Quinn told Yahoo Finance he believes the company made a solid case for an expedited trial.

For one, Twitter was merely tasked with showing a colorable claim that Musk breached the merger agreement, and that it would likely suffer irreparable injury if its denied an expedited trial. That standard is a departure from criminal cases that require a party to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, and civil cases that require proof by a preponderance of the evidence.

A colorable claim is the lowest possible burden that a plaintiff has to bear, Quinn said.

Another factor weighing in Twitters favor, he said, was a language in the parties agreement stating that irreparable injury would indeed occur if the deal does not go through.

Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed.

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Police have confirmed that two people have died following a crash involving a light aircraft in Co Down.

Emergency services rushed to Newtownards Airport following a 999 call on Tuesday evening.

A PSNI spokesman said: It was reported to police at 8.20pm that a light aircraft had crashed at the airport.

Officers and other emergency services attended the scene.

Sadly, two people were pronounced dead.

Emergency services attended the airport on Tuesday (Rebecca Black/PA)

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service attended, and said no patients were taken from the scene on the Portaferry Road in the town.

A statement said: NIAS despatched two emergency crews, a doctor and an ambulance officer to the incident.

No patients were taken from the scene.

Alliance Party councillor Victoria Moore said the incident is a terrible shock to the community.

She told the BBC: As somebody who lives very locally  just under the flight path of the airfield  I know how busy it is.

This will be a terrible shock to the community and very sad news for the families affected.

The airfield is so popular, it is not expected that something like this would happen.
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Minister of High Technological Industry Robert Khachatryan received the delegation of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Russia led by General Director Yasushi Kakitsuka, the minister said.

The minister introduced the guests on the current situation, developments and challenges in Armenias high-tech industry and outlined the possible cooperation directions.

Yasushi Kakitsuka in turn presented the activity directions of their company and highlighted the potential scenarios for mutual partnership.

A number of issues of bilateral interest were discussed during the meeting.

The sides noted that the cooperation could serve as a serious bridge for establishing new business ties and conducting activity. Views were exchanged also on organizing meetings with tech companies and discussing the programs.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Russia plans to outline partnership directions with the Armenian governments and after their clarification to start operation in Armenia.
BAGHDAD, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Up to eight people were killed and 23 wounded Wednesday in an artillery bombardment on a resort in Duhok province in Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, the Iraqi military said.

The artillery bombardment occurred at 13:50 p.m. (1050 GMT) on a resort in Parakh village in the Zakho area, leaving eight people killed and 23 injured, all of whom were tourists, the media office of the Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, also commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, ordered an immediate investigation into the incident and dispatched Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and several military commanders to the scene to follow the incident, according to the statement.

Earlier, a medical source from Duhok hospital anonymously told Xinhua that the Turkish artillery pounded the resort and put out the toll as five killed and 17 wounded.

The Turkish side has yet to comment on the incident.

Noor Nafie, a female lawmaker, called on the parliament to hold an emergency session to discuss the bombing."

The bombardment occurred as many Iraqis used to travel to resorts in the mountainous areas in the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, escaping the summer heat.

The Turkish forces frequently carry out ground operations, air strikes, and artillery bombardment in Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, especially the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States, and the European Union. 
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan met with Speaker of the Senate (upper house of parliament) of Poland Tomasz Grodzki on the sidelines of his official visit in Warsaw, the Foreign Ministry said in a news release.

During the meeting the sides agreed that the close parliamentary cooperation plays an important role in enriching the agenda of the Armenian-Polish inter-state relations and further deepening the friendly ties. In this respect the importance of maintaining active mutual visits and contacts at different levels was emphasized.

FM Mirzoyan presented the ongoing reforms of the Armenian government aimed at strengthening democracy, protecting human rights and ensuring rule of law.

In his turn Tomasz Grodzki said that he fully supports Armenia on the path to democratic progress.

During the meeting FM Mirzoyan introduced Tomasz Grodzki on the current situation in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone and the position of the Armenian side over the settlement of the NK conflict and the normalization of the relations with Azerbaijan. Ararat Mirzoyan said that Azerbaijans maximalist rhetoric distorts the efforts aimed at establishing regional stability and peace.

Touching upon the post-war humanitarian problems, the Armenian FM stressed the necessity of the urgent release and repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and civilians illegally held in Azerbaijan, as well as the preservation of Armenian historical-cultural and religious heritage in the territories that have come under the Azerbaijani control.

It was stated that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict must be solved peacefully around a negotiation table.

Tomasz Grodzki expressed readiness to support the efforts of achieving peace.
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. State Minister of Artsakh Artak Beglaryan received American-Armenian philanthropist, President of the Westbrook City Council Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte, the Office of the State Minister said.

Artak Beglaryan highlighted the activity of the Anna Astvatsaturian Foundation in Artsakh, thanks to which numerous humanitarian problems caused by war have been solved.

Your patriotic activity is reflected first of all with the support provided to newborn babies and their mothers in Artsakh through the Ser Artsakh charity program, as the new-born babies are the main guarantee of the continuation of life and the belief towards future. I am sure that the project will positively affect the further development course of Artsakh, the State Minister said.

Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte in her turn thanked for the warm welcome and presented the activity directions and sources of her Foundation, stating that the funds are collected mainly through public fundraisings. She assured that she will continue contributing to improving the life quality of the people of Artsakh.

A number of issues relating to the implementation of other possible projects in educational, healthcare and social sectors were also discussed.
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory message to President-elect of the Republic of Colombia Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego on the occasion of Independence Day, the PMs Office said.

The message reads as follows,

Your Excellency,

I warmly congratulate you on the Independence Day of the Republic of Colombia.

I am confident that through to joint efforts we will reach a new level of cooperation for the welfare and prosperity of our friendly states.

Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurance of my highest consideration.
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan met with European Investment Bank (EIB) Regional Representation for the South Caucasus, Maciej Czura. Within the framework of the meeting, the parties discussed the progress of jointly implemented projects and outlined the upcoming activities.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Yerevan Municipality, with the support of the European Investment Bank, within the framework of Yerevan's energy efficiency project, kindergartens are being overhauled in Yerevan, steps are being taken to include Yerevan's polyclinics and hospitals in the project as well. Within the framework of Yerevan's solid waste management program, it is planned to build a new landfill in the area adjacent to the Nubarashen landfill, as well as to close the existing Nubarashen and Ajapnyak landfills.

The parties agreed to clarify the new directions of cooperation in the near future in order to move the programs to the practical stage.

Attaching importance to the expansion of cooperation, Yerevan Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan noted that joint projects can play a significant role in improving the quality of life of residents.

The regional head of the European Investment Bank Maciej Czura noted that Yerevan Municipality is a reliable partner for them, and emphasized that the bank is ready to expand its programs, covering new areas.
The top court observed that the power of arrest must be exercised sparingly by the police

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in all the seven FIRs registered against him in Uttar Pradesh and transferred all of them to Delhi police for investigation by its special cell. Hours after being granted relief from the apex court, Mr Zubair was released from Tihar Jail.

The Delhi police arrested Mr Zubair on June 27 for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through his tweets.

Multiple FIRs were lodged against him in UP -- two in Hathras and one each in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, and at Chandauli police station -- on similar charges.

Noting that all the FIRs registered against Mr Zubair in Uttar Pradesh were largely on the subject matter of the Delhi FIR and either he was in judicial custody or an application for police custody has been moved in other FIRs, the top court observed that the power of arrest must be exercised sparingly by the police.

The court also relaxed its earlier order directing Mr Zubair not to post any tweets, observing that it is like asking a journalist not to write or an advocate not to argue. The court said that if any tweet posted by Mr Zubair is in breach of the law, action will follow accordingly.

Heading a bench also comprising Justices Surya Kant and A.S. Bopanna, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said that the bail granted to Mr Zubair will also be applicable in all the FIRs on the same subject matter that may be registered in the future.

The bench was of the view that there was "no justification" to keep Mr Zubair in continued custody and subject him to diverse proceedings when the gravamen of allegations arises from the tweets, which also form part of an investigation by the Delhi police in a case in which he has already been granted bail.

With the transfer of all the FIRs and the investigation into them to the Delhi police, the court also ordered the disbanding of the special investigation team (SIT) formed by the UP police to probe the FIRs against Mr Zubair in Uttar Pradesh.

The top court ordered that Mr Zubair be released on furnishing a bail bond of ~20,000 by 06.00pm today. It also transferred proceedings currently going on in an Uttar Pradesh court relating to Sudarshan TV to a Delhi court.

"Zubair has to file a personal bond of ~20,000 in connection with the seven UP FIRs. Also, he has to be presented before the chief metropolitan magistrate, Patiala House in New Delhi and immediately after submission of the bond, the Superintendent of Tihar Jails is directed to ensure he is released before 6pm on Wednesday itself," said the order.

Later in the evening, a senior official confirmed that, complying with the SCs order, Mr Zubair has been released from Tihar Jail.

In all these matters, the order said, Mr Zubair can approach the Delhi High Court to pursue his plea for the quashing of the FIRs.

Accepting the alternate prayer of Mr Zubair to club all FIRs in Delhi with interim bail, the top court said the direction to transfer all UP FIRs to Delhi police shall also apply to the future FIRs registered on the basis of his tweets and he will be entitled to bail in all such future FIRs.

Seeking protection from the top court, Mr Zubairs lawyer Vrinda Grover pointed out that all FIRs are on the same tweets, none of which remotely uses language that is improper or amounts to a criminal offence. She said this is a clear case of "silencing" a fact-checker by invoking criminal action under multiple FIRs.

"In this digital age, the job of someone who is debunking false information may draw the ire of others. But the law cannot be weaponised against him... The dormant FIRs are activated the moment I secure bail in any case. Old dormant FIRs get suddenly activated. There is a scenario of encircling me," she said.

Uttar Pradesh additional advocate general Garima Prashad insisted that Mr Zubair is not a journalist. "He calls himself a fact-checker. Under the guise of fact checking, he is promoting malicious and provocative content. And he gets paid for the tweets. More malicious the tweets, the more payment he gets. He has admitted that he has got over ~2 crore," she said.

She submitted that instead of informing the police of illegal speech or hatred, Mr Zubair has been taking advantage of speeches and videos that have the potential to create a communal divide and he has been sharing them repeatedly.
In the North, manufactured daily incidents keep communalism on a continuous simmer and folks huddle and wonder what the future portends

Poet Ghalib longed for fursat ke raat din (nights and days of doing nothing). He couldnt have been familiar with the lucid expression in Malayalam: Nalla Irippu (agreeable sitting, doing nothing).

This blessed state is a boon conferred on Aruna, my wife, and me at Kottakal Ayurvedic Centre, Kozhidoke. After subjecting ourselves to the magic of Ayurvedic herbs, oils, concoctions, decoction from all orifices, were too cleansed and delicate to resume our frenetic lives immediately. Nalla Irippu is mandatory!

Kottakal, in the heart of Muslim-dominated Mallapuram, symbolic in itself, gave us another bonus: a southern perspective on North Indian communalism.

One of the women masseurs told Aruna shell take a day off on Sunday; she must visit Muslim homes on Bakrid! It would be wrong to compare enthusiastic inter-religious participation on occasions like Id or Onam in Mallapuram to our South Delhi experience.

In New Delhi, ours is the only Muslim home in a mostly Punjabi colony, of those who came after Partition. I am usually an invitee for hoisting the flag on August 15. But there are no spontaneous Id visitations as Muslims are mostly not part of their daily experience as theyre of mine.

This obvious, little noticed fact is critical to understand Hindu-Muslim equations. The Hindu is part of the Muslims daily life -- from the newspaper delivery boy, vegetable sellers, shopping malls, restaurants and, above all, workplaces. The Hindu, on the other hand, has no occasion to come into contact with any Muslim. My friend for 60 years whom I must identify as a Hindu (a shame, as our religious backgrounds never mattered all these years) hasnt ever known a Muslim except me.

A Hindu without any Muslim experience is prone to be afflicted by an apartheid of the mind. For years Ive been trying to persuade Hindu friends to accompany me to Jama Masjid during Ramzan to see Muslim congregations, milling crowds, authentic kebabs and not even an iota of harassment of women. Friends were reluctant. Politicians and TV channels have cast Muslims as such murderous monsters that friends make excuses and opt out.

That communalism as a political project hasnt had traction in Kerala isnt not for want of trying by RSS cadres and Congress leaders like late K. Karunakaran. The Congress had two distinct approaches to the RSS-BJP. In Madhya Pradesh, Arjun Singh fought the BJP tooth and nail; Karunakaran made tacit adjustments with the RSS to inject its one per cent vote for UDF candidates to thwart the Left. Like right-of-centre parties everywhere, the Congress too is more comfortable with Hindu nationalism than with Communists.

In the North, manufactured daily incidents keep communalism on a continuous simmer and folks huddle and wonder what the future portends. For this lot, I have good news. They are guilty of extrapolating from their experience in the North and theorising for the rest of India. UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, part of Maharashtra and Bihar are in the BJPs thrall. Im not counting Assam and Tripura as a different set of circumstances operates there.

Even if you add the two, a total of nine BJP-ruled states, minus Rajasthan for now, is far short of a comprehensive saffron hue over 29 states and eight Union territories. If roadblocks in the BJPs way in the North was caste politics, it will face linguistic and ethnic headwinds in the rest of the country. The federal spirit is a huge obstruction.

Political culture in the North is overwhelmingly conditioned by identity politics. Pardon my biases, but Kerala is truly Gods own country in every sense, including the charms of Kottakal. A deep-rooted Left movement gave the people a sense of dignity not seen in the North. To the Church must go much of the credit for the states saturation with education.

One of the invigorating treatments at Kottakal is an oil massage. Four men in blue uniforms sit on either side of the massage table. An oil, laden with herbs, simmers on a stove. Hand towels, virtually cooked in oil, are lifted out of the vessel, shared by the masseurs who proceed to squeeze the tepid oil onto the body. They slide the hand up and down the part of the body which has fallen to the particular masseurs share.

To break the rhythmic monotony of the massage, I asked if they were all vegetarians, the only food available in Kottakal. They protested. In fact, this was a prelude to a conversation on politicians and their favourite restaurants. It turns out that Rahul Gandhi, ostensibly on the way to Wayanad, his constituency, never misses a chance to visit Paragon, that has even my vote as the nations premier restaurant. The Kerala exceptionalism is not limited the masseurs knowledge of cuisine. They had even savoured Paragon food.

The 14-day exemption in Kottakal from pollution, perverse politics and stories of police excesses in the North reminded me of something I had learnt during my five-year stint in the South, with headquarters in Chennai: the entire Muslim experience in the South is at a vast variance from the North.

Muslims in the North came as invaders who set up empires. In the South they came as traders. Accepting local cultures was good business as well as excellent public relations. It was to facilitate traders to pursue their new religion that Cheruman Perumal, a Hindu nobleman, built a mosque for their namaz in 629 AD near Kochi, three years before the Prophets death, making it Indias first mosque and among the first six in Islam.
A nationalist to the core, Abe San wanted Japan to be strong again and stand tall among the comity of nations

At the end of the day, its all about destiny! The grandson of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, son of foreign minister Shintaro Abe, and a charismatic personality himself, Shinzo Abe was clearly destined to hold Japans highest office. And he did so with great distinction for over eight years, becoming his countrys longest-serving PM. But no one, not even his critics and opponents, could ever imagine (or wish) that he would meet such an end, at the hands of a mentally unstable former member of Japans maritime self-defence forces, who casually pumped two bullets into him at an election rally on July 8 at the ancient city of Nara.

Japan has a fringe group of radicals, including the notorious Yakuza (mafia-like transnational organised crime syndicates) and the far-right nationalists. Yet violence, leave alone political violence, is rather rare in this highly homogenous nation of 125 million people. That said, there have been isolated cases of attacks on national leaders, including his own grandfather Nobusuke Kishi and PM Takeo Miki (both survived). Between 1921 and 1932, three Prime Ministers were assassinated. Nonetheless, it is incomprehensible why Abe San was so targeted, from within, two years after demitting office, for his policies and beliefs.

A nationalist to the core, he wanted Japan to be strong again and stand tall among the comity of nations. He strove to revise his countrys pacifist Constitution (unsuccessfully), strengthen defence capabilities (especially to deter Chinese muscle flexing) as well as, enhance security cooperation with the United States and other nations (especially India). He did bring about a major change in 2015 by reinterpreting Article 9 of the Constitution to allow for limited collective self-defence, or aiding an ally under attack.

Shedding its traditional reticence, Japan also decided in 2015 to be a regular participant in the Malabar exercises along with India and the US. Tokyo stepped up joint military exercises with the US in the South China Sea. Defence spending was steadily increased, and could exceed the limit of one per cent of GDP soon.

An instinctive internationalist, he made friends with influential world leaders and had a visible presence at key regional and multilateral events. Under his watch, ties with Asean and Taiwan deepened, but deteriorated with the Koreas and China. It was partly due to history -- the alleged excesses by Japanese occupation forces during and prior to the Second World War. Japan has since apologised numerous times, but Seoul and Beijing have remained unimpressed. Like his predecessors, Abe tried to dilute the narrative of Japans role in its textbooks (rewriting history), which riled the neighbouring capitals.

The idea of the Quad was ingrained in Abes historic 2007 address to Indias Parliament when he eloquently outlined the vision of a dynamic coupling of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, or the Confluence of the Two Seas. He mooted the idea of like-minded nations such as Japan, India, the US and Australia joining forces to form an Arc of Freedom and Prosperity.

He was among the earliest among world leaders to turn the spotlight on the growing common challenge posed by Chinese aggression and extra-territorial ambitions. Abes legacy is a world better prepared to confront China, Josh Rogin wrote in the Washington Post.

Both Shinzo Abe and Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 but met for the first time after two years in Beijing on the APEC summits margins. Ties were tense due to the regular intrusions of Chinese vessels into Japanese waters around the disputed Senkaku islands. Also Japan, conscious of its economic inter-dependence with China, made some positive overtures including tentatively endorsing President Xis BRI initiative. Japanese companies have invested over $130 billion in China, which also absorbs 22 per cent of Japanese exports.

Tensions did abate and ties appeared to stabilise. The Chinese President was invited on a state visit to Japan in April 2020, which of course had to be aborted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Chinas handling of the crisis inflamed passions in Japan like the rest of the world. Abe promptly set aside $2.2 billion to assist its factories in pulling out of China. Negative sentiment on China hardened with 71 per cent of Japanese viewing the country as a threat (in 2021), as against 63 per cent in 2020.

China was of course shocked at Abe Sans untimely demise. Its official reaction was measured. In his condolence message, President Xi Jinping sais Abe had made efforts to improve China-Japan relations during his tenure and contributed positively to this endeavour, and deeply regretted the Japanese leaders sudden passing. But the Chinese social medias reaction varied from sympathy to vitriol. Chinas Global Times basically described him as right-wing conservative politician who left a mixed legacy. It particularly expressed concern about increasing public support in Japan for revising the Constitution, which was at the top of Shinzo Abes agenda.

Under Abe, Japan became a less diffident power -- coming to terms with the rapid rise of Chinese power and influence. He had to walk a tightrope between a China, with which Japans economy was deeply integrated, and an America more sharply confrontational with China. Indias former foreign secretary Shyam Saran felt he managed this delicate act quite successfully.

Japan and China have generally had a testy relationship in the preceding century. That is unlikely to change. Both sides will continue to jostle for an edge over the other while not allowing matters to go over the precipice. That said, the imprint of Shinzo Abes vision would have a lasting impact on Japanese policies. RIP Abe San!
Wickremesinghe secured 134 votes in 225-member House while his nearest rival and dissident ruling party leader Dullas Alahapperuma got 82

Ranil Wickremesinghe elected new Sri Lankan president; protesters demand his resignation (Eds: Updating with more inputs, reax from protesters & pix)

Colombo, Jul 20 (PTI) Veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe was on Wednesday elected as Sri Lanka's President by lawmakers, in a rare move that could provide continuity for crucial discussions with the IMF for a bailout deal for the cash-strapped nation but a development that has angered anti-government protesters who renewed their demand for his resignation.

The 73-year-old Acting President and six-time former prime minister won a parliamentary ballot after his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid escalating protests against his government over an unprecedented economic crisis marked by acute shortages of essentials like fuel, medicine and food.

Wickremesinghe secured 134 votes in the 225-member House while his nearest rival and dissident ruling party leader Dullas Alahapperuma got 82. Leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake secured just three votes during the voting held in Parliament amidst tight security.

Wickremesinghe's comfortable victory with the backing of the Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party also showed that the Rajapaksa family's firm grip on political power despite the resignations of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa in recent weeks in the face of massive anti-government protests.

In his victory speech soon after the results of the vote were announced by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, President Wickremesinghe, a key ally of former President Rajapaksa, thanked the two contenders, Dullas Alahapperuma and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and urged the MPs to work together to revive the country's economy.

"The people are not asking us for old politics. I request Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and other opposition parties including former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena to work together, he said.

"We were divided for the last 48 hours. That period is now over. We have to work together now, he said, ahead of his planned swearing in ceremony on Thursday.

"Now that the election is over we have to end this division From now on I am ready to have a dialogue with you," he said.

Wickremesinghe also urged Sri Lankan Tamil leaders, some of whom who were opposed to his candidacy, to join him in rebuilding the nation.

The Indian High Commission here said it will continue to be supportive of the Sri Lankan people's quest for stability and economic recovery, through democratic means and values, established democratic institutions and constitutional framework.

"As a close friend and neighbour of Sri Lanka and a fellow democracy, we will continue to be supportive of the quest of the people of Sri Lanka for stability and economic recovery, through democratic means and values, established democratic institutions and constitutional framework, the Indian mission said in a tweet.

Wickremesinghe's victory could inflame the situation once again as many anti-government protesters see him as inextricably tied to the erstwhile Rajapaksa regime, blamed for the country's worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.

The protesters, who forced President Rajapaksa to flee the country and quit, on Wednesday demanded the resignation of his successor Wickremesinghe as well.

"He has been elected against the will of the people. The Rajapaksas have brought him in," Father Jeewantha Peiris, a spokesman for the protest group Aragalaya', told reporters.

"We will continue our protest campaign until Wickremesinghe resigns, he said.

Many protesters insist only a complete overhaul of government will satisfy their demands.

Protesters burnt down his private home and also stormed his prime ministerial office in Colombo in demonstrations against his leadership.

Wickremesinghe was sworn-in as acting president on July 13 after President Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives and then to Singapore from where he resigned in the face of public revolt against his government's mishandling of the country's economy.

In his address to Parliament, Wickremesinghe said the country was in a perilous state and the youth were clamouring for a change.

Wickremesinghe, who has been leading the crucial talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), last week said that negotiations were nearing conclusion.

Sri Lanka needs about USD 5 billion in the next six months to cover basic necessities for its 22 million people, who have been struggling with long queues, worsening shortages and power cuts.

Meanwhile, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said it hopes to complete rescue talks with Sri Lanka "as quickly as possible."

Speaking with Nikkei Asia in Tokyo, Georgieva said the fund was very deeply concerned about the well-being of the people in Sri Lanka.

Wickremesinghe will have a mandate to serve out the rest of Rajapaksa's term, which ends in November 2024.

Wickremesinghe, who has been in Parliament for nearly five decades, was appointed as prime minister in May, nearly two years after his United National Party (UNP) was routed and failed to win a single seat in the general election held in 2020.

Widely accepted in political circles as a man who could manage the economy with far-sighted policies, Wickremesinghe is struggling to fix the economy which, he said, had collapsed at the time of his appointment in May.

Wickremesinghe, who is believed to be close to India and its leaders, has held many important posts during his career.

Today's election was the first time in 44 years that Sri Lanka's Parliament has directly picked a president. Presidential elections in 1982, 1988, 1994, 1999, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2019 had elected them by popular vote.

The only previous occasion when the presidency became vacant mid-term was in 1993 when president Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated. DB Wijetunga was unanimously endorsed by Parliament to run the balance of Premadasa's term.
TEHRAN, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Wednesday that for the talks to save the 2015 nuclear deal, the United States should give guarantees for securing Iran's economic interests under a possible agreement, according to official IRNA news agency.

"The ground is ready for an agreement, and we believe that there is no important problem to this end," he said during his press conference.

Washington should make a political decision, Kanaani said, adding that Iran demands "serious" guarantees from the United States.

On the recent indirect talks between Iran and the United States in the Qatari capital Doha, he refuted Western reports about the "inconclusiveness" of the talks, saying that contrary to the claims "the Doha negotiations were good negotiations and opened the way for the continuation of negotiations and a nuclear agreement."

Josep Borrell, foreign policy chief of the European Union, and the Iranian side are following up on the issue to prepare the ground for the continuation of the next round of negotiations, he noted.

Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held in Vienna between Iran and the remaining parties to the 2015 deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iran signed the JCPOA with the world powers in July 2015 accepting to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on Tehran. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed Washington's unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting Iran to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the agreement in retaliation.

The talks, which were suspended in March, were mediated by the European Union to be continued bilaterally between Iran and the United States in Doha in June, however, the indirect talks did not bear tangible results. 
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Current Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority Board Member John Ward speaks to members of the Aspen City Council and Pitkin County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, captured in this screenshot. Ward reapplied for his current seat on the APCHA board, running against Chris Council. The city council and BOCC will make a selection in the coming days.
A harvester reaps beets at a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on July 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

by Yao Bing, Mahmoud Fouly

MINYA, Egypt, July 20 (Xinhua) -- As a giant sugar beet harvester powered through the vast farmland in the desert west of Minya province in southern Egypt, dozens of trucks were busy loading the harvested beets and transporting them to a processing factory about 40 km down the road.

"We're now quite happy with the amount of sugar that we get out of our beets. This will be our second year and we've seen about a 50-percent increase in yield over last year, so we feel that we've got a very good model and we're able to create a crop that can feed the factory," said Aaron Baldwin, agriculture general manager of Canal Sugar, a 1-billion-U.S.-dollar joint venture between Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Canal Sugar project aims to turn 50,000 hectares of desert into farmland to meet the factory's enormous demand for sugar beets. To make this happen, finding enough water for irrigation is crucial.

"We came to the middle of the desert and, with the help of China's Zhongman Petroleum and Natural Gas Group Corp., Ltd. (ZPEC), we started doing exploratory wells, and then developed a network that allows us to start irrigating," Baldwin told Xinhua, adding that "when the project is completed, there should be a well field of about 330 to 350 wells."

With over 150 water wells drilled, large swathes of lush and green sugar beet fields have been scattered across the desert, forming an enormous farm to feed the beet processing factory.

"The place was just a desert when we started this project in 2018, but now it turns into a farmland irrigated by the wells we drilled and planted with beet, alfalfa and barley, which makes us feel proud," said Zhou Guiqiang, toolpusher of the ZPEC branch in Egypt.

Zhou emphasized that the project goes in line with both the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, which seeks win-win cooperation among participants, and Egypt's plan to turn deserts into farmlands.

When it first came to the site, ZPEC faced many challenges related to the geological conditions of the area, but through relentless research and exploration, the project has been going "smoothly," said the Chinese toolpusher.

"In the beginning, drilling a well took us about one month, while now it can be completed in about 14 days," he noted.

"Now we have completed more than 150 high-quality wells, over 50 of which are in operation, and Canal Sugar is satisfied with our work," Zhou told Xinhua.

After it reaches its full capacity, the mega factory can produce 900,000 tonnes of white sugar each year. It will be a significant boost for Egypt's sugar production, which now stands at around 2.8 million tonnes every year.

Sugar is an essential commodity for Egyptians. The populous Arab country consumed more than 3.3 million tonnes of sugar every year.

Baldwin expressed happiness and satisfaction with the work of ZPEC, saying the Chinese drilling company has done "a great job" and noting that the sugar factory was also built by another Chinese company.

Baldwin, who proudly picked up a beet from the farm, described the Chinese drilling firm as one of the main partners in developing the farm's irrigation system, expecting the farm to produce around 2 million tonnes of sugar beets annually within the next three years.

"For me, I've developed some good friendships and I see a great prospect for ZPEC and other Chinese companies here in Egypt and the Middle East," he said.

For his part, Ahmed Soliman, a base manager of ZPEC, said that he joined the Chinese company in 2019 and joined the Canal Sugar project in early 2020.

"I feel happy to participate in turning this vast desert green. It's like a dream. When I first came here, I didn't imagine someday it will be turned into all this huge farm," the Egyptian man told Xinhua. 

Photo shows a well drilling platform of the Chinese firm Zhongman Petroleum and Gas Group (ZPEC) at a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on Feb. 2, 2021. (ZPEC/Handout via Xinhua)

A farming machine loads newly-harvested beets onto a truck at a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on July 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

Workers of the Chinese firm Zhongman Petroleum and Gas Group (ZPEC) drill a well for a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on Nov. 12, 2018. (ZPEC/Handout via Xinhua)

Aerial photo shows a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on July 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

Aaron Baldwin, agriculture general manager of Canal Sugar, a 1-billion-U.S.-dollar joint venture between Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), poses for a photo with a beet at a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on July 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

Aerial photo shows a well drilling platform of the Chinese firm Zhongman Petroleum and Gas Group (ZPEC) at a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on Feb. 2, 2021. (ZPEC/Handout via Xinhua)

Trucks wait to transport newly-harvested beets at a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on July 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

An automatic sprinkler waters beets at a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on July 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

Aerial photo shows a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on July 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

Workers of the Chinese firm Zhongman Petroleum and Gas Group (ZPEC) drill a well for a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on Aug. 24, 2016. (ZPEC/Handout via Xinhua)

Photo shows a well drilled by the Chinese firm Zhongman Petroleum and Gas Group (ZPEC) at a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on July 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

Aerial photo shows a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on July 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

Aerial photo shows a well drilling platform of the Chinese firm Zhongman Petroleum and Gas Group (ZPEC) at a beet plantation in a desert of Minya Province, Egypt on Feb. 2, 2021. (ZPEC/Handout via Xinhua)
Carvana has had its license to sell cars in Illinois suspended for the second time in as many months.

The company first had its Illinois license suspended in early May following some 90 complaints over title and registration issues, with some Carvana customers having to wait four to six months to receive proof of ownership documentation.

However, this suspension only lasted for two weeks before the Illinois Secretary of States office issued a stay on its order, allowing Carvana to resume sales under a number of strict requirements.

Fast forward to mid-July and Carvanas license has been suspended once again. The state alleged the company has not been transferring titles within 20 days of sale as required, nor issuing Illinois temporary registrations to Illinois buyers. Furthermore, the state said Carvana has issued temporary registrations up to four to five times from different states for the same vehicle, Auto News reported.

A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for Aug. 30.

When the Illinois Secretary of States office issued a stay on its original order in May, Carvana was required to register titles through Illinois remitters and post a $250,000 bond to pay for any fines or fees incurred by customers resulting from Carvana failing to follow the law. It was also unable to issue temporary registration permits or license plates.

Carvana has encountered a number of issues over the past 12 months. In August 2021, its North Carolina license was blocked for 180 days due to various title and tag issues. In February, Carvana narrowly avoided a suspension of its dealer license in Florida.

We thank CarScoops for reprint permission.
Imagine this glider - but equipped w/ a hydrogen combustion engine. The Blue Condor project w/ @PerlanProject @DLR_en is doing just that to test #H2's impact on contrails. First ????? test of the modified glider is expected by end 2022. https://t.co/GC82wL8MuR #FIA2022 #AirbusUpNext pic.twitter.com/ohvW3IFqAI  Airbus (@Airbus) July 20, 2022

Airbus UpNext, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airbus, is hosting the flight test program, which is part of Airbus' ZEROe initiative that focuses on the development of the world's first zero-emission commercial aircraft by 2035.To compare contrail emissions, the project "Blue Condor" will see two gliders, one with a hydrogen combustion engine and the other with a traditional kerosene-powered combustion engine, reach impressive altitudes.The aircraft used will be two Arcus-J gliders, which are sailplanes fitted with a PBS Aerospace TJ-100 jet engine. For the program, the Perlan Project team, alongside Airbus, will modify one of the gliders. A hydrogen-powered propulsion system will be set up in the place of the rear pilot seats. The turbojet hydrogen combustion engine will be fuelled by two 700-bar gaseous hydrogen tanks.The other glider will not suffer any modifications. The pilots who will fly modified Arcus-J are the same people who set the world subsonic altitude record in a pressurized glider for Airbus Perlan Mission II in 2018.The first test flight is expected to take place in July, with the second scheduled for November in Nevada. North Dakota will host the third flight test campaign, which will be conducted in partnership with the University of North Dakota. During the campaign, a Grob Egrett aircraft will take the two gliders to the required test altitude, release them, and then follow closely to gather crucial data regarding the emissions."The Blue Condor project is a major milestone on our ZEROe journey as it will launch the first series of in-flight tests using a hydrogen combustion engine at Airbus," says Mathias Andriamisaina, Airbus Head of Zero-Emission Demonstrators. "These flight test campaigns will provide an excellent knowledge base on hydrogen's impact on engine behaviour, contrails and other non-CO2 emissions," he explained.
Located in the enchanting province of Bali, Nicko Eigerts Smoked Garage is one of the most distinguished motorcycle customization enterprises youll find on Indonesian soil. Their lengthy portfolio houses more stunning masterpieces than you can shake a stick at, and what were about to inspect is a caffeinated Kawasaki ER-6n appropriately nicknamed Sublime Kicking things off with a 2006 model, Nicko and his crew wasted no time getting rid of its stock outfit, wheels, and suspension components. The donors original subframe was amputated, making way for a bespoke replacement thats been manufactured in-house. Atop this item, one may spot a curvy tail section and a solo saddle upholstered in black leather.Custom fenders were installed at both ends, while an aluminum fuel tank with knee indentations can be seen taking pride of place center-stage. Up north, theres an aftermarket LED headlamp flanked by a handmade nose fairing, and the bodywork-related wizardry is concluded with a new radiator cover.The bikes suspension arrangement comprises the inverted forks of a Suzuki GSX-R1000 up north and a top-shelf Ohlins monoshock at the rear end. For additional stopping power, Eigerts craftsmen proceeded to upgrade the brakes using Tokico calipers, along with drilled 320 mm (12.6 inches) rotors at the front and a 220 mm (8.7 inches) unit at six oclock.In terms of footwear, the ER-6n features custom-made 17-inch hoops that wear grippy Pirelli tires, measuring 120/70 up front and 180/60 out back. We find clip-on handlebars, bar-end blinkers, and a single Daytona gauge occupying the motorcycles cockpit, with the front brake master cylinder originating from Brembos inventory.Deciding not to fiddle with the Kawis liquid-cooled 649cc parallel-twin, Smoked Garage limited the powertrain modifications to a unique two-into-one exhaust system. Finally, the guys wrapped things up with a majestic two-tone color scheme and thin pinstripes, which are joined by a backward-facing arrow motif on the rear fender and OEM belly pan.
SUV

AMG

The meet was a stylish one between old and new Ghosts and some might easily feel that was a welcomed departure from the current days of only seeing Cullinans flaunted everywhere. Even across the aftermarket realm, people might enjoy a quick break from all the ultra-luxuryhype currently engulfing the posh parts of the world.So, the good folks over at Hollywood, California-based RDB LA have another YouTube vlog episode out and about . Thus, perhaps it is the right time to dive in and take a deeper look at this featured Ghost. And yes, we know that we previously ignored it due to a 2022 Mercedes-Benz S 580 showcasing its sporty-inspired carbon fiber body kit while riding lowered on brand-new, contrasting RDB Wheels.But it was all a ruse  we knew that sooner, rather than later, the Rolls-Royce Ghost would get its chance to shine under the social media spotlight. And, here it is, all Ghost-related content is now neatly embedded below for your (sometimes guilty) viewing pleasure. As always, the vlog episode is just part of the build story (with the Ghost featured at the 5:16 mark), while the Instagram posts give a more personal look at the custom goodies.Those include a clean gray specification for the Black Badge Ghost that also adopts a few contrasting bits and pieces (such as all the trim details and badges, plus the Spirit of Ecstasy) to better match up with the humongous RDB wire-spoke wheels. Interestingly, the client chose an odd exterior/interior combination  thus some fans might be saddened to hear the cockpit is feeling quite blue and black. Alas, as always, beauty is only in the eyes of the beholder!
Some action movies are nothing compared to the missions of OPVs across the world. Although not as often in the spotlight as aircraft carriers and frigates, patrol vessels are an essential part of any navys fleet. From anti-piracy and counter-drug operations to humanitarian tasks, these speedy, powerful ships make sure that coastal waters are safe.The day of their final training session turned out to be much more exciting than what the crew of this Dutch OPV probably expected. Just hours after completing their training, the onboard crew Zr. Ms. Groningen was sent to intercept a speedboat that was believed to be carrying illegal cargo, discovered by a coastal guard in the south of Curacao. The Dutch Review reports that two fast boats were launched from the patrol vessel to stop the suspect's ship, and warning shots were fired. Finally, a sniper shot from the helicopter that had joined the OPV stopped the boats outboard engines. The operation ended with the arrest of the five drug smugglers on board  a routine procedure for a patrol ship in general, just not so soon for a recently-launched crew.Built at the prestigious Damen shipyard, the Royal Netherlands Navys OPVs are truly impressive. At 354 feet (108 meters), they can fit in 90 crew members and carry 100 evacuees. Their eyes and ears are comprised of an innovative integrated mast module (IMM) that skillfully combines camera, radar, and communication systems in a single mast structure. This allows the ships to keep an eye on boats as well as aircraft at the same time.Plus, the Zr. Ms. Groningen and its sister ships are eco-friendly, sporting two diesel engines and two electric motors, able to hit 20 knots (23 mph/37 kph) with increased fuel efficiency. Theres also a bioreactor on board for the treatment of wastewater.The Dutch Royal Navys OPVs were delivered in 2013, and as this impressive drug bust confirms, theyre a force to be reckoned with.
Dubbed Gelber Baron, the custom stunner well be looking at today revolves around a 2017 R nineT Scrambler from BMW s lineup. It is the work of the esteemed bike-modding specialists over at David Widmanns NCT Motorcycles, who operate in a small Austrian town located close to the border with Slovenia.The two-wheeled titan theyve used for this project draws power from an air- and oil-cooled 1,170cc boxer-twin engine, which is mated to a six-speed gearbox. By delivering up to 110 hp and 88 pound-feet (119 Nm) of torque, the fuel-injected powerplant enables Motorrads superstar to hit a top speed of 130 mph (209 kph).As soon as the donor crossed their doorstep, the guys had it dismantled and fitted with a handmade loop-style subframe. Next, a local collaborator was tasked with fabricating a flat solo saddle using blue upholstery, while NCT replaced the nineT s standard fuel tank with the repurposed module of an R100RS.Handmade side panels and meshed inserts adorn the flanks, but items like the front fender and headlight bucket are still stock. Furthermore, the Scramblers airbox was replaced with dual intakes manufactured from scratch, and these goodies are complemented by two-into-one exhaust pipes that terminate in a premium SC-Project silencer.Up in the cockpit area, Gelber Baron carries Magura levers, Motogadget bar-end turn signals, and a single underslung mirror mounted on the left-hand side. At the rear, youll be finding a bespoke license plate holder topped with an LED taillight, but what really caught our attention is the blue-finished monoshock spring matching the color of the new seat.On unsprung territory, were greeted by a pair of laced wheels whose rims are wrapped in Metzeler Kanoo 3 tires. Last but not least, the final touch comes in the form of a funky yellow finish laid over the motorcycles bodywork, with black pinstripes complementing the base color.
However, this doesnt necessarily mean its also everybodys cup of tea, and this is the reason the so-many Google Maps alternatives out there come in handy.Russian-based Yandex Navi is one of them, and the parent company Yandex describes it as one of the best replacements for other navigation apps out there. It comes with the full package, and this includes not only the typical navigation capabilities but also speed limit and traffic camera warnings, podcast integration, and even CarPlay support on iPhones.Given the geopolitical tensions produced by the war in Ukraine, we all know what happened with everything Russian, but this doesnt necessarily mean developers have also stopped working on their apps.Yandex is living proof in this regard, as the companys navigation app has recently been updated with new capabilities that are specifically aimed at users in the domestic market.For example, Yandex Maps now supports ordering takeaway from cafes and restaurants by just typing Where to eat in the search bar. After you choose a restaurant and pay for the order, the navigation app itself sends a notification and then guides you to the location where you can pick up the order.Then, the application also supports booking appointments at beauty salons, once again right from the main UI without leaving its interface.Inspired by Google Maps, the update is obviously available only for Russian users, and this is why most people out there will probably ignore this version completely. Given the war in Ukraine, theres a good chance the userbase of Yandex Maps is dropping anyway, but if you still want to try out the improvements mentioned above, just download the latest update from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store right now.
Jetson Aero teamed up with camera company Insta360 to tell the story of a dream come true.Jetson Aero has been around since 2017 and, in 2018, it already finished its first flying car prototype. The companys mission is to unlock the skies for everyone by manufacturing and commercializing the most affordable and easy-to-fly eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft on the market. And after years of hard work and dedication, that goal was partially achieved. In 2021, the Swedish developer launched the Jetson ONE, describing it as a Formula 1 racing car for the sky.What makes the Jetson ONE such an insanely popular product is the fact that it is budget-friendly (well, for a flying car) and doesnt require a pilot license to be flown in the United States. Jetson Aero claims anyone can learn to fly the aircraft within just five minutes.Jetson ONE has an aluminum and carbon fiber construction, packs eight powerful motors, and can still fly safely in case it loses one of the motors. Additionally, it also features a triple-redundant flight computer, obstacle avoidance, terrain tracking, and a ballistic parachute with rapid deployment time. The flying car can reach a speed of 63 mph (102 kph) and offers a flight time of 20 minutes per charge.Last month, Jetson shared footage of the aerial vehicle completing the worlds first eVTOL commute , with the pilot being no other than Tomasz Patan, the companys founder and the creator of the Jetson One. Patan says it flew the aircraft from his home to his workplace, reducing his commuting time by 88 percent.The Jetson One has become so insanely popular that the entire production for 2022 is sold out , which is not surprising, given that the price of the flying car is $92,000. The company is now preparing for mass production.Take a peek at the video below to find out how the Jetson One flying car was born.
Officially confirmed to AutoNews by Hyundai Europes chief of marketing, Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, the model will take some time to hit the market. That is because such vehicles have all sorts of technical problems, and they are not exactly profitable either.Everybody in the industry knows the target of this kind of vehicles is 20,000 (equal to a little over $20,000 at todays exchange rates), Hofmann told the quoted outlet, confirming at the same time that the brand will launch no less than 11 more electric vehicles in Europe by the end of the decade.Acting as a possible successor to the i10 , the electric city car will launch in Europe at an undisclosed date. It will quench the markets appetite for tiny vehicles with zero-emission powertrains and will take on the likes of other small EVs currently in development at the VW Group, which will sport Cupra, Skoda, and Volkswagen logos, and will have a targeted starting price of 20,000.The i10 has been a successful product ever since it hit the market back in 2007. Sharing its underpinnings with the Kia Picanto, the first generation was followed by the second one in 2013. The third and latest iteration of the brands city ca r is almost three years old, having been shown in Frankfurt in 2019 for the European market, and comes to life in Turkey, India, and Vietnam, being offered as a five-door hatchback, and four-door sedan. Depending on where it is being sold, the engine family comprises different gasoline units, and a diesel, which can be mated to a five-speed manual or a five-speed automated manual transmission.
ABUJA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria has transformed the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) into an independent and limited liability firm, about 45 years after the creation of the national oil corporation.

The move is part of the ongoing reform of the country's oil industry, heralded by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) signed into law last year by President Muhammadu Buhari.

On Tuesday, Buhari unveiled the new Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Limited), which replaced the now defunct NNPC, at a ceremony in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.

He said Nigeria is transforming the petroleum industry to strengthen its capacity and market relevance for the present and future global energy priorities.

"This is a landmark event for the Nigerian oil industry," Buhari said, noting that as a limited liability company, the new NNPC Limited is now mandated by law to ensure that Nigeria's national energy security is guaranteed.

The new NNPC Limited will operate independently, devoid of bureaucratic tendencies. This, according to industry experts, will boost the new national oil company with increased expectations around active engagement with stakeholders, regulatory compliance, and more significantly, accountability.

Buhari, who also doubles as Nigeria's minister of petroleum resources, expressed optimism that the NNPC Limited, which he described as "Africa's largest national oil company," would further support sustainable growth across other sectors of the economy as it delivers energy to the world.

"Our country places a high premium on creating the right atmosphere that supports investment and growth to boost our economy and continue to play an important role in sustaining global energy requirements," Buhari said.

According to the Nigerian leader, the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act give the Nigerian petroleum industry a new impetus, with an improved fiscal framework, transparent governance, enhanced regulation, and the creation of a commercially-driven and independent national oil company.

The new national oil company, he said, will conduct itself under the best international business practices in transparency, governance, and commercial viability.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva told the ceremony that with the signing of the Petroleum Industry Act, which assures international and local oil companies of adequate protection for their investments, the nation's petroleum industry is no longer "rudderless."

The Nigerian government has created a more conducive environment for the growth of the oil and gas sector, and addressed legitimate grievances of communities most impacted by extractive industries, the official said.

"While the country was waiting for the PIA, Nigeria's oil and gas industry lost about 50 billion U.S. dollars worth of investments," Sylva said, noting that the Nigerian government has finally set all those woes behind, and a clear path for the survival and growth of the petroleum industry has now been created. 
EV

One of the worst things that could happen to a car owner is finding your car keyed, scratched, or dented. It's terrible when the perpetrator runs without fessing up, but worse when it's intentional According to the Reddit poster, they had gone to downtown Portland to hang out with some friends. They received an alarm notification less than an hour after having parked the car.The video, posted on a Tesla Model 3 subreddit, shows a skater pounding on the car's windows with a flashlight. They seem startled for a moment, probably from the alarm, before running away and getting on their skateboard.Tesla owners have had their fair share of vandalism over the years. News of vandals denting, keying, or smashing the's windows is not uncommon.However, unlike other automakers, Tesla comes with Sentry Mode, which sends a notification to the vehicle owner whenever the alarm is triggered. The cameras are also activated, and footage is stored in the cloud.We aren't sure if Tesla vandals don't think before they act or are just ignorant. If you are vandalizing such a high-tech automobile, it'd probably be wise to do a little research before embarking on your little adventure."Not even one hour into leaving my car in the lot, I received a notification that my alarm went off. Rushed out there only took three minutes, and I came back to this. Disgusting people, man. My first brand new car that I have owned for two months," the Tesla owner lamented in the post.The owner got a quote for $331 for the new glass. While it's not as bad as needing a paint job, it sucks to pay for absurdity. That said, vandalism is shameful and cowardly, and all perpetrators should be held accountable.
The Competition Sport Lightweight numbers a grand total of 1,098 examples, comprising 169 examples fitted with Zenith 35/40 INAT carburetors and 929 examples fitted with Bosch fuel injection. Chassis number 2275133 is a fuel-injected model produced in 1972, which stands out for a number of reasons. Obviously, the exterior paint finish really stands out.Originally sold in Germany, the car was later shipped to Sweden. Refurbished under previous ownership, the car was ultimately imported to the United States. Acquired by the selling dealership earlier this year, chassis number 2275133 has clocked 60,622 kilometers (37,669 miles).True mileage isnt known, most likely because of the rotisserie-style restoration that included the oily bits. Currently located in California, the Ceylon Gold-painted 3.0 CSL features a Karmann-produced body. Augmented with aluminum for the hood and trunk lid, this fellow isnt perfect. A few blemishes and some lighting issues are noted, although these imperfections are easily repairable. Described as excellent in the pre-purchase inspection uploaded on Bring a Trailer, the Bavarian coupe shows no signs of collision damage and no signs of rust in the spare tire area.Presented with a crack-free dashboard, the car starts well cold and idles properly. The compression test shows two cylinders at 190 pounds per square inch and the others at 185 pounds per square inch. The cylinder leak-down test concluded at less than six percent, and there are no signs of engine oil or coolant leaks following a retightening of the valve cover bolts.Equipped with a great-shifting manual transmission supplied by Getrag, the car is offered with a clean title, a set of aluminum door skins, European registration documents, and restoration photos. With nine days left on the ticker, the 3.0 CSL is currently going for $75,000 on Bring a Trailer
The developer of the first all-electric vertical take-off and landing jet has teamed up with AAP Aviation, a company providing a wide range of professional services for the aviation industry. As per the recently signed agreement, the latter has engaged to buy 40 Lilium Jets, to offer sustainable, flexible, and time-saving travel mobility to Scandinavia. AAP Aviation will first focus on bringing Liliums eVTOL to Norway, with other Scandinavian countries to follow. The two partners will work on identifying and developing landing sites all over the region.Speaking about the collaboration with Lilium, Espen Hoiby, AAP Aviation CEO, said that the Lilium Jet can achieve hours of time savings compared with todays transportation modes, with the eVTOL aircraft being chosen for its high performance, low noise profile, and spacious cabin.In addition to Scandinavia, Lilium also plans to help aviation company Helity develop an eVTOL network in Andalusia, Spain. Helity also agreed to purchase Liliums jets, five units to be more specific, which are going to join its existing helicopter fleet and will be used to provide premium and business charter flights to its customers.Since 2015, Lilium has designed and built five generations of technology demonstrators and is currently conducting test flights with its fifth one. The eVTOL aircraft is being developed in Germany and will be able to transport from four to six passengers. It will offer a range of up to 155 miles (250 km) per charge.Lilium's eVTOL aircraft has 36 propellers placed on both its front and rear and uses Liliums proprietary DEVT (Ducted Electric Vectored Thrust). It is highly customizable, being able to adapt to a wide range of customers and uses. It can be used as a luxury private jet, a cargo jet, or an air taxi . We are yet to find out when Liliums eVTOL Jet will enter operation.
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WINDHOEK, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Namibia has lost nearly 20 percent of its forest area during the past 30 years as a result of unsustainable use of resources, a government official said Wednesday.

To contain the loss, Namibia is pondering introducing a provision in its law that will compel everyone who harvests vegetation to plant more, Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism Pohamba Shifeta told a national conference in Windhoek, the capital.

The theme of the conference was: "The future of Namibia's forests - Sustainable forest management as key to unlocking its potential."

"With only eight years remaining to reach our 2030 target as set out in the revised 'Nationally Determined Contribution,' Namibia is taking concrete actions to reduce the impacts of climate change," the minister said.

"This noble endeavor cannot be left to the government alone," he said, imploring all stakeholders to contribute to meeting this target.

He said forests do not only play a major role in mitigating climate change in southern Africa and the rest of the developing world, but most people depend on forest products for their livelihoods.

"We must, therefore, take urgent actions to reverse the rate at which deforestation is taking place and aggressively embark on reforestation and afforestation programs," Shifeta said.

He said Namibia remains committed to reversing forest loss by reducing deforestation and promoting tree planting, even though Namibia is one of the driest countries in southern Africa. 
After the We Are Kern County coalition amassed enough signatures for its ballot initiative, voters were supplied with a decision in November p
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LUANDA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Angola inaugurated here on Tuesday the National Communication Monitoring Center with an aim to regulate and monitor the communications market.

The center will enable better monitoring of communications unauthorized by the National Institute of Telecommunications and prevent interferences capable of affecting and harming the normal functioning of commercial activities, Manuel Homem, Angola's minister of telecommunications, information technology and media, said at the inauguration ceremony.

The facility can identify all telecommunications operations within a distance of 180 km, according to the minister.

Calling the center a landmark that will guarantee more security, the minister said the government has set a goal of installing monitoring centers all over the country. 
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After the Weeknds tour-opening Philadelphia show at the Lincoln Financial Field on July 14, a man fell about 40 feet from an escalator rail and died.

Officials say the 32-year-old man, whom they still have not publicly identified, was sitting on an escalator rail when he accidentally fell and suffered extreme head trauma. He was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and was pronounced dead a few minutes after midnight.

According to a report by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the incident occurred shortly before 10:50 p.m. at the stadium. Police told the Inquirer that they investigated the incident and the fall appears to have been accidental, with no foul play suspected.

Bob Lange, SVP of communications for the Philadelphia Eagles team, which operates the Lincoln, said he believes the incident happened after the concert was over as people were leaving.

The Weeknd and tour promoter Live Nation have yet to comment on the incident publicly.

CBS3 in Philadelphia identified the man through his friends as Hugo Sanchez.

The After Hours til Dawn tour is in support of the Weeknds fourth and fifth studio album, 2020s After Hours and this years Dawn FM. Although the tour was originally set to begin at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, that date was postponed due to a nationwide power outage, marking the Philadelphia show as opening night.

The tour was originally slated for 2020 but was postponed twice due to the pandemic. Additionally, Doja Cat was originally set to perform as the opening act in North America but had to cancel due to tonsil surgery and was replaced by Canadian DJ Kaytranada, Snoh Aalegra and American record producer Mike Dean.

In other news, the Weeknds new HBO series The Idol, co-created with Euphorias Sam Levinson, shared its first teaser trailer. The show stars Lily-Rose Depp and the Weeknd as himself, with additional appearances by Blackpinks Jennie and Troye Sivan.

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The city of Beaumont can now sell the downtown AT&T Building.

The City Council on Tuesday voted to change the contract under which it previously purchased the building, which ultimately will allow the city to move forward without demolishing the building.

The council voted 6-1 to remove a requirement that the property at 555 Main Street be demolished. Ward III Council member Audwin Samuel, who has previously voiced his disapproval for the move, was the sole nay vote.

Related: Beaumont council could take step to sell downtown AT&T Building

The city in July 2021 purchased the building for about $2.7 million from former owner Tom Flanagan with the intent to demolish the building. As such, the contract under which the city bought the building prohibited the sale or rehabilitation of the property. If the city decided not to tear down the building, Flanagan would have the first right of refusal to buy the building back.

However, after the council voted to demolish the building to move forward with riverfront development, the city was approached by Dallas-based real estate investor Selim Kiralp, who expressed interest in renovating the building and made a $3 million verbal offer.

After purchasing the building last summer, interim city manager Chris Boone said the city's original plan was to demolish the building and develop a plaza. The city decided to pause those plans after it was approached, "unsolicited," by the private investor. By approving Tuesday's change, the city now has the option to publicly advertise the building and review all of its options.

Everything was kind of put on pause recently when we were approached by a developer for this building, Boone said. Approving this addendum rather to the sales agreement gives the council the option to retain the building. We can still demolish the building and move forward with the original plan, but this gives the council the option to keep the building itself, sell or lease it. It simply gives the council more options.

The city is required by law to open the sale up to the public for bids and proposals to see if anyone else is interested in purchasing and developing the building, city officials previously said.

"We in the next 30 days will issue a public (Request for Proposals), which will go through this body to be approved," Boone said. "It will be publicly advertised and anyone, including this individual, is welcome to bid on a proposal as to what to do with the building. It would come back to this council to decide if it would make sense to perhaps sell or lease the property for residential, retail, or restaurant  or move forward with the original plan, which is to demolish it and move forward with a plaza or some kind of combination of both. It gives the council the opportunity, but yes it will be a public process and the public will know what the next steps of the process are."

As part of the changes made, the revised contract will require the buyer to develop and adopt a Downtown Security Enhancement Plan no later than Oct. 1 and form an advisory committee empowered with the purpose of formulating a long-term master plan for the revitalization of downtown Beaumont no later than Oct. 31.
Hardin County is now under a burn ban and a disaster declaration due to severe drought conditions.

County Judge Wayne McDaniel in a news release said that the decision came after receiving formal requests from nearly every fire chief in the county and consulting with the Hardin County Office of Emergency Management, Texas A&M Forest Service and the National Weather Service Lake Charles office.

The order restricts outdoor burning, effective immediately, and will continue until rescinded.

Outdoor burning of trash, brush, trees, debris or open campfires is prohibited in the county.

Violation of the order could result in a fine of up to $500.

McDaniel said the county previously staved off the declaration prior to the Fourth of July due to recent rainfall.

RELATED: Online tool helps homeowners, shoppers estimate property wildfire risk

However since then, there has been little to no rainfall and with temperatures rising throughout the past week, drought conditions "have continued to deteriorate and there is no relief in sight," McDaniel said.

According to a weather service report McDaniel received late Tuesday night, Hardin County has seen up to 5 inches of rain in the past 30 days, and the trend is getting drier.

The report also said that the drought conditions are expected to hold into early August.

An update from the Texas A&M Forest Service regarding fire potential in Hardin County said that continuing hot and dry conditions will continue to dry out surface fuels and increase fire danger.

RELATED: Regional drought conditions forecast to last until September

National Weather Service Lake Charles Forecaster Joe Rau said there is a small chance of rain on Thursday, however the "best chance" is Friday.

"There's a pretty strong upper level ridge over the southwest U.S.," Rau said. "This is happening is pretty much just depressed in any sort of rain across the area, just keeping any sort of storm tracks well to the north and to the south of the area."

Rau said there is a lot of "hot sinking air" which does not allow for thunderstorms.

Although, Rau said this weather pattern has nothing to do with the lack of tropical weather the area is seeing.

The order will be reviewed again by the Hardin County Commissioners Court on July 26.

Orange and Jefferson counties do not have and are not considering burn bans.

Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick said area fire chiefs do not want a burn ban but he will continue to check with them daily.

"I can understand Hardin County making that decision," Branick said. "They have the Big Thicket and a lot more timber property than Jefferson County."
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP)  A Kentucky coal company was fined $51,000 for failing to submit court-ordered plans to clean up two polluted West Virginia mine sites.

U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers issued the order Monday against Lexington Coal Company LLC, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported. In May, Chambers found the company in contempt for not complying with his previous order to submit a plan to address selenium discharges and other pollution at the sites in Mingo County.
Lamar University is continuing to help tackle the national nursing faculty shortage.

To foster that mission, the Lamar University JoAnne Gay Dishman School of Nursing received a $607,018 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for education and tuition support to students who pursue degrees in nursing education, according to a news release.

The school intends to provide financial support to eligible nursing students, particularly in the Master of Science in Nursing Education track and Graduate Certificate Program for Nursing Education.

"These grant dollars will be used to increase the number of nursing faculty throughout the region, state and nation by removing one barrier to higher education cost," said Ruthie Robinson, Lamar Director of Graduate Nursing Studies. "Eligible graduate nursing students can apply for loan repayment up to 85% of their loans for their MSN."

RELATED: Local college in pursuit of $70M grant to get visit from federal officials

In addition to easing the financial load for eligible students, the program will increase the number of students admitted to the program and the number of graduates that complete the program.

"We hope that by receiving this grant, LU's MSN program will be able to attract even more students and further increase the number of nurse educators," Robinson said. "While Texas and the nation is facing an increasing nursing shortage, the ability to smooth the pathway to becoming a nursing educator becomes even more important than ever."

For more information about Lamar's graduate nursing studies program, visit the department online at lamar.edu.

Robinson said if the initial year is successful, the university will be eligible to reapply for the grant.

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HOUSTON (AP)  The family of a 9-year-old Houston girl who died after she was shot by a man who had opened fire when he was robbed at an ATM said Wednesday they remain angered by a grand jurys decision to not indict the man.

That was not an accident. That was not self-defense, April Aguirre, the aunt of Arlene Alvarez said during a news conference as a photograph of the girl as she lay in a hospital bed bloodied and bandaged shortly before her death was shown.

Tony Earls, 41, had been charged with aggravated assault, serious bodily injury, in Alvarezs Feb. 14 death. A Harris County grand jury in Houston on Tuesday could have indicted him on this charge or several others, including manslaughter and murder, but declined to do so.

However, the grand jurys decision was not a surprise as prosecutors efforts in this case had little chance of success, according to a legal expert.

Texas law gives very, very broad self-defense rights for people carrying guns, even if the person makes a mistake, said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a law professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

Earls and his wife were at an ATM to withdraw money when an unidentified robber pulled a gun on them and fled after taking $20, along with a check and their car keys, according to prosecutors.

Earls attorneys said after their client go out of his car, the robber fired and Earls fired back in self-defense.

Investigators say Earls fired at a truck thinking the robbery suspect had possibly climbed into it. But the vehicle was actually carrying Alvarez and her family as they went to the ATM to make a deposit before heading to a late dinner at a pizzeria. The girl was shot in the head and she later died at a hospital.

Earls attorneys say their client continues to grieve for Alvarez but that the grand jury made the right decision and that the person responsible for her death is the robber.

Mr. Earls did what we believe anyone in that situation would have done. We are relieved that, despite the emotion and tough decisions that had to be made in dealing with this case, justice was served for Mr. Earls, his attorneys, Myrecia Donaldson and Brennen Dunn, said in a statement.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said the grand jurys decision didnt mean that youre innocent, Mr. Earls. It means that you were not held criminally accountable.

Gwen Alvarez, the girls mother, tearfully said Tuesday the grand jurys decision left her feeling that the system failed us.

In my eyes, (Earls) is guilty because he was the one who decided to fire on our vehicle multiple times and he didnt stop until he ran out of bullets,

Rick Ramos, the attorney for the Alvarez family, said Wednesday that Earls actions were reckless and he questioned whether Earls was capable of carrying a weapon as his lawyers had indicated in court records that he had suffered from mental illness before the shooting.

But Thompson said issues of mental illness would not have made a difference in this case as Texas does not have red flag laws that would allow law enforcement or family members to ask a judge to order the seizure or surrender of guns from someone who is deemed dangerous, often because of mental health concerns or threats of violence. Last year, Texas lawmakers expanded gun rights by letting people carry handguns without first getting a background check and training.

Ramos said he plans to have an independent expert review the evidence and see if the case can be presented to another grand jury.

But Ogg said investigators planned to focus on finding the unidentified robber and holding him responsible for Alvarezs death, with authorities now offering a $30,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

If Mr. Earls had shot the robber... we probably would be celebrating him, Thompson said. But that wasnt the situation and unfortunately, tragically an innocent child was killed.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia saw its exports rise 38.8 percent to a record high of 146.16 billion ringgit (32.83 billion U.S. dollars) in June compared to a year earlier, official data showed Wednesday.

The export growth was attributed to a strong demand for electrical and electronic (E&E) products, petroleum products, liquefied natural gas (LNG) as well as palm oil and palm oil-based products, the Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry said in a statement.

Malaysia's trade in June increased by 43.4 percent to a new high of 270.39 billion ringgit, showed the ministry's data.

Imports in June grew by 49.3 percent to 124.23 billion ringgit while trade surplus declined marginally by 0.8 percent to 21.93 billion ringgit.

According to the ministry, for the second quarter, trade expanded by 32.7 percent to 730.36 billion ringgit compared to the same period of last year.

Exports for the second quarter grew by 30 percent to 394.24 billion ringgit while imports rose 36.1 percent to 336.13 billion ringgit.

Trade surplus for the quarter edged up by 3.2 percent to 58.11 billion ringgit.

For the first half, Malaysia's trade was up by 28.2 percent to 1.36 trillion ringgit from the same period last year.

Exports for the period increased by 26.1 percent to 739.13 billion ringgit while imports grew by 30.9 percent to 616 billion ringgit, resulting in a trade surplus at 123.13 billion ringgit, an increase of 6.7 percent year on year, according to the trade ministry.

The ministry's data also showed that in June, Malaysia's trade with China, which made up 16.5 percent of its total trade, grew by 17.3 percent year on year to 44.52 billion ringgit, marking the 19th successive month of double-digit growth.

Malaysia's exports to China for the month grew by 4.2 percent to 18.34 billion ringgit largely due to higher exports of E&E products, metalliferous ores and metal scrap as well as LNG.

Its imports from China for the month rose by 28.6 percent to 26.17 billion ringgit.

For the first six months, Malaysia's trade with China rose by 16.4 percent to 232.3 billion ringgit compared to the same period of 2021.

Malaysia's exports to China for the period rose by 13.7 percent to 101.03 billion ringgit underpinned by higher exports of E&E products, LNG as well as palm oil and palm oil-based products, according to the trade ministry.

Malaysia's imports from China for the period increased by 18.7 percent to 131.27 billion ringgit. (1 ringgit equals 0.22 U.S. dollar) 
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Former Beaumont Police Ofc. Sheena Yarbrough-Powell woke her husband up with a phone call telling him to pick up some cat litter and food.

She had been excited to learn that another law enforcement official had found an abandoned orange cat -- the color she wanted -- and decided to take it home, said Ofc. Gabriel Fells, who was her law enforcement partner the night of Aug. 9, 2020.

"She hung up the phone and she was all excited with this cat on top of her," Fells said.

She thought it was funny -- all the officers involved did, he said.

A body camera attached to Fell's belt captured Yarbrough-Powell's joy -- smiling and laughing with the cat in the passenger seat of the patrol car as it traveled down U.S. 69 to head back to the police station in downtown Beaumont.

Then came the hit.

It was her last seconds.

Her last shift.

Opening arguments in the intoxication manslaughter trial of 20-year-old Luis Torres began Tuesday afternoon following jury selection in Judge John Stevens Jr.'s court. Testimony will resume at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Torres, who was 18 at the time of the crash, pleaded guilty earlier this year. However, he withdrew his plea in late May and now faces two criminal trials following the fatal crash that also critically injured Fells.

He is accused of driving a vehicle on the wrong side of the highway before crashing into the vehicle carrying Fells and Yarbrough-Powell near the intersection of 69 and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.

"You are about to sit through a week of misery," State Prosecutor Wayln Thompson said to the jury Tuesday afternoon.

It was the first sentence of his opening statement -- one that drew an objection from defense lawyer Thomas Burbank. Stevens overruled the objection, allowing the 35-year Jefferson County District Attorney's Office veteran to continue.

Thompson informed the jury that the state planned to provide witnesses and video evidence from the scene of the crash as he asked the jury to prepare themselves for a case that would be "extremely difficult" to listen to. The state claims evidence will also show that Torres was twice the legal limit for alcohol and had been warned repeatedly of the dangers before allegedly speeding down 69 in his Ford Mustang on the wrong side of the divided highway and crashing into the patrol car at the crest of the overpass approaching the curve at Lamar University.

"We are going to put on witnesses on the scene that are going to give you details, the kinds of which you wish you never had to hear," Thompson continued. "We are going to introduce photographs that you are never going to be able to get out of your head because they are that bad."

The defense did not give an opening statement.

Jefferson County jail records show Torres has been held since his arrest by the Texas Department of Public Safety on August 13, 2020. His bond was set at $500,000.

Torres was originally was indicted in Nov. 2020 for intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault of a police officer in connection with Fells' injuries.

Related: Port Arthur man withdraws guilty plea, will go to trial for officer's death

After opening arguments, the jury heard from a security officer who was working and traveling on 69 in front of the car carrying Yarbrough-Powell. He saw a car traveling the wrong direction quickly toward him on the inside lane. He and other drivers swerved to avoid the car.

"It would have killed me," he said.

The jury also watched dash camera footage from Fell's vehicle and an audio recording of Fells answering a call from a 9-1-1 operator, who had been alerted by the crash.

Fells, who was pinned by the car, could be heard calling out for an unresponsive Yarbrough-Powell.

Emergency personnel can be heard smashing a window and using machinery to cut into the vehicle to save Fells. Emergency responders could also be heard during the incident realizing Yarbrough-Powell no longer had a pulse.

Fells confirmed he was taken to the hospital for medical treatment for several injuries, released after a few hours, and then readmitted for up to six days. He sustained more than five broken ribs, lacerations to his face and arm, and other injuries, he said.

During cross examination, Burbank confirmed with Fell that Yarbrough-Powell leaned down in the car and that neither she, nor Fell, were wearing seatbelts. Burbank also showed that the car allegedly driven by Torres could be seen for seconds prior to impact.

"There are laws in Texas that say people who drive vehicles have to wear seat belts, correct?' Burbank asked Fells.

"Correct. There are also laws that govern the right side of the roadway too, sir," Fells said, later adding that there sometimes are reasons officers don't wear a seat belt, such as during emergencies or simply because officers' gear can sometimes get caught on the seat belt.

Related: Sister: Fallen Beaumont officer was more than her profession

Fells said he did not notice the car heading towards them, despite the camera footage, and believed that the car was on the other side of the road.

Torres was previously scheduled for a sentencing in May after he agreed to accept a plea deal in April for the alleged intoxication manslaughter of the officer. But the court told The Enterprise in May that the defendant changed his mind, and the case was reset for trial..

Jefferson County Prosecutor Pat Knauth previously said that he believed Torres changed his plea as the result of confusion. However, he wouldn't give more details on what confusion he was referring to.

"We were very upset and disappointed, and the family is devastated," Knauth said previously.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
In the dog days of summer, if youre a parent youre probably wondering how to entertain your kids. Between trips to the park, summer camp stints, and dropping them off at Maw Maw and Paw Paws to get them out of your hair, keeping your children engaged in the summer is an ongoing war of attrition.

To educate, entertain and keep them from destroying the house and each other seems like a tall order but KiwiCo has what the doctor ordered. The project crates from the Los Altos California-based company offer edutaining activities for all ages, no matter their development level.

What is KiwiCo?

Fennell Harris for Hearst

KiwiCo is a company that specializes in activity crates housing various projects based in STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art Mathematics) and geography, which Americans sorely need right now. The company, founded by Sandra Oh Lin in 2011 was created, ...To celebrate kids' natural creativity and curiosity, while helping parents who want to bring enriching experiences to other children.

As a chemical engineer and a mother of three, she knew all too well the struggle of keeping children engaged and luckily for parents like myself, had the foresight to build a company to help us with that matter as well.

KiwiCo Cost

Fennell Harris for Hearst

The activities are broken up into nine crates, with ages ranging from 0-24 months to 12-100 years:

Panda 0-24 Months (Explore and Discover)

Koala 2-4 Years (Play and Learn)

Kiwi 5-8 Years (Science and Art)

Atlas 6-11 Years (Geography and Culture)

Yummy 6-14 Years (Science of Cooking)

Doodle 9-16 Years (Create and Craft)

Tinker 9-14 Years (Science and Engineering)

Maker 14-100 Years (Art and Design)

Eureka 12-100 Years (Engineering and Design)

Seems overwhelming, but only if youre trying to sample all of them at once. More than likely youre going to sample the crate or crates closest to your childs age range and stick with that for a bit, or at least thats what I did. My family has ordered the Atlas Crate, primarily because we wanted our children to learn about other cultures outside of America.

Regarding the pricing, its super reasonable. You can choose between four subscriptions; either on an auto-renew basis or termed subscriptions (manual renewal) but the prices are higher with the termed subscriptions to encourage you to convert to auto-renew:

KiwiCo Auto Renew  PER MONTH

Monthly: $23.95

Three Months: $21.95

Six Months: $19.95

12 Months: $18.50

Obviously, the longer you subscribe, the lower the price drops per month. More bang for your buck is always great, but compare these prices to the termed subscription tier:

KiwiCo Termed Subscriptions - NON-RENEWABLE (One Time Payment)

One Month: $27.95

Three Months: $67.95

Six Months: $124.95

12 Months: $229.95



That price jump is a heck of an encouragement to convert to auto-renew. What my family did was subscribe for three months for $21.95 a month, thinking that if we liked it wed resubscribe for another three months. Theres also a specially curated book to complement the theme of the crate for $10.95, but we abstained from that. If these prices are still too steep for your liking, they do have one-off crates that feature engineering activities ranging from creating moon darts and bottle rockets to making your own headphones and light-up speakers. And just in case youre thinking that all this stuff sounds cool, but maybe its not feasible, every activity has been designed by expert engineers and tested by children.



Shipping is free when the craft boxes are shipped within the United States. If you choose, you can digitally write your child's name on each box so it's mailed personally to them.

What comes in a KiwiCo Crate?

Fennell Harris for Hearst

The boxes are sturdy and compact; with all the trinkets stuffed in there, it's rather hefty. All killer, no filler. As I've previously mentioned, I've only dealt with the Atlas Crate but from what I've researched the contents are similar in scope. The crate contains an envelope from your "travel buddies" Anya the Cricket and Milo the Sandpiper; within the envelope are seven Atlas Cards highlighting each countrys geography, customs, landmarks, history, and foods. With each Atlas Crate opened, the Atlas Cards can be combined to make an Atlas Adventure Book; a globally inspired keepsake of amazing activities to look back on.

The most recent Atlas Crate we've received and finished with was about Kenya. There are two activities within; making a pair of binoculars using cardboard, felt and plastic lenses and creating a facsimile of an authentic Kenyan beaded bracelet with a leather strap, string, and beads. There's also a mini activity that ties in with the binoculars, folding paper replicas of animals on the savanna so that your newly created field glasses can be put to good use. The paper replicas of the animals are fine.

It's a useful activity for those on the lower end of the age spectrum, but the binoculars and beaded bracelets are of high quality. The binoculars are made out of thick cardboard tubes, bracings, and foam circles. The plastic lenses fit snugly within the eye cup and are very transparent, no cloudiness detected. It's held together exceptionally well and is adjustable for distance. The leather (or leather-like) base of the bracelet is durable and the beads are tiny but tough. Obviously, you're going to have to facilitate the stringing of the beads to prevent ingestion.

Is KiwiCo worth the cost?

This is only just a fraction of what KiwiCo has to offer, and if the Atlas Crate is any indication, this product is sure to bring hours of imaginative and educational enjoyment. For those teachers who think that this would be a handy addition in their school classroom, KiwiCo does offer classroom packs and bulk orders catalog on the main website. Theyve also partnered with one hundred schools and homeschool networks (Mostly in California, but they have partnerships in other states like New York, Wisconsin, or Utah) for ease of learning regarding the homeschooled or independent learner.

If theres any parent or educator that is looking for a way to introduce their children to STEAM, whether through cooking, geography, or art, the folks at KiwiCo have got you covered. They are engineering a world of awesome for our children and if this piques your interest, you should definitely take them up on their offer.
ISLAMABAD, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The government and people of Pakistan extended heartfelt condolences to the Egyptian government and people on the loss of lives and injuries to many in a tragic road accident in southern Egypt, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

"We express the deepest sympathies to the families of the deceased and pray for the speedy recovery of those injured," the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

At least 22 people were killed and 33 others injured earlier in the day in a bus-truck accident, 200 km away from Cairo, on the desert road of Minya Province in southern Egypt.

"A passenger bus traveling to Cairo from the southern Province of Sohag crashed into the back of a truck parking on the side of the road for changing its tyres," Governor Osama Al Qady told Xinhua.

"Pakistan stands in solidarity with the fraternal people and government of Egypt in this moment of grief," said the foreign ministry. 
Muhammad Rizieq Shihab, leader of the now banned Indonesian Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), waves as supporters greet him at the Tanah Abang, in Jakarta, Nov. 10, 2020.

A hardline Indonesian Muslim cleric vowed to fight on as he walked free on parole Wednesday after serving about 18 months of his four-year prison sentence for lying about his COVID-19 test result.

Muhammad Rizieq Shihab, founder of the banned but influential anti-vice group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), pledged to continue to enjoin the good and forbid the evil, no matter the risks, in his first public statement after being set free from a prison in Jakarta.

Im telling you my friends and fellow scholars, we are united in the struggle and I will not abandon the people, I will not betray the people, Rizieq said in a speech livestreamed online.

I will try my best to protect the people and will continue to fight for the rights of the people, because we are the people, and the people are us, he said.

Rizieq also said he was forbidden from travelling outside the capital without written permission from parole officers. According to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Rizieq was allowed to go free because he had met minimum requirements for parole, but he will have to report regularly to the Bapas correctional institution in Jakarta for at least a year.

Azis Yanuar, Rizieqs attorney, said his client would spend his time preaching what he called a moral revolution but in a way that avoids breaching his parole terms.

He will go about it without violating the law and in a softer manner, Azis told BenarNews.

Wont risk criminal offenses

Rizieq would likely avoid mobilizing followers for political rallies ahead of national elections scheduled for 2024, said analyst Rakyan Adibrata.

During the period of parole, I believe that he will not risk criminal offenses. In other words, he will play it safe, Rakyan, Indonesia director of the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, told BenarNews.

However, Rakyan said, conservative Muslim politicians might try to court Rizieq as he remains influential politically.

I believe soon there will be meetings between politicians and Habib Rizieq that will be covered widely by the media as identity politics heats up, said the analyst, using the Arabic honorific for the cleric.

A Jakarta court in June 2021 sentenced Rizieq to four years in prison for saying he was not infected with COVID-19 after testing positive and refusing to give the government access to his test results.

The previous month, Rizieq and five of his associates were sentenced to eight months in prison for violating coronavirus restrictions by organizing events in late 2020 that drew thousands of people. These included a gathering to celebrate the birthday of Prophet Muhammad and a wedding for Rizieqs daughter.



Rizieq, a vocal critic of the government, held the gatherings upon his return home from Saudi Arabia on Nov. 10, 2020.



Since founding the anti-vice group FPI in 1998, the cleric and the groups members have had several brushes with the law.



In the early 2000s, FPI was notorious for raiding bars and night clubs, which, the group said, harbored drug dealers and prostitutes.



In 2003, Rizieq was sentenced to seven months in prison for these raids.



In 2008, he was jailed for 18 months after being found guilty of inciting FPI members to assault protesters from the National Alliance for Freedom of Religion and Beliefs.



In Dec. 2020, police shot and killed, allegedly in self-defense, six of Rizieqs supporters who were traveling in a convoy with him.



A month later, the National Commission on Human Rights said its investigation found police had acted unlawfully in the killings of at least four of those followers.



FPI, for its part, claimed the six were victims of extrajudicial killings.



The Indonesian government officially banned FPI in December 2020 after it accused the group of violating the law and disrupting peace and security. In addition, 35 members and former members had been convicted on terrorism charges, officials said.



The decision to ban the organization was taken jointly by Indonesias home, law and communications ministers, the police and counter terrorism heads, and the attorney general.
Pro-democracy activist Panusaya Rung Sithijirawattanakul shows her mobile phone, which was allegedly hacked while she was jailed on royal defamation charges, during a news conference in Bangkok, July 18, 2022.

A Thai minister acknowledged the country was using surveillance software to track people in cases involving national security or drug matters, after a report revealed this week that phones of pro-democracy activists and government critics were targeted with Israeli-made spyware.

Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, the minister of Digital Economy and Society, told lawmakers that spyware was used in limited and special cases, but he didnt specify which software was used by what government agency or agencies, and against whom.

Regarding the spyware embedded on a cell phone that can eavesdrop, monitor the display, listen in to the conversation, and read messages, I know there is such a system.  As far as I know, it is used for natural security or drug matters, Chaiwut said during a televised debate in parliament on Tuesday.

We studied about it, but the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society did not use it because we have no authority.  There is an authority [for other agencies] to do so.

His ministry had previously denied any knowledge of the matter.

Chaiwut made the comments after three cybersecurity research groups said Monday that at least 30 people were targeted for surveillance with Pegasus spyware produced by the NSO Group, an Israeli cybersecurity company. After the researchers released their findings, Royal Thai Police denied that they were using surveillance technology.

A rapper, an actress, Thai academics and pro-democracy protest leaders who are facing charges of royal defamation and sedition were among dozens whose phones were hacked with spyware likely linked to the government, the researchers said.

The three organizations involved in the research were Canada-based cyber research group Citizen Lab, Thai digital and legal rights NGO iLaw, and Southeast Asian tech rights group Digital Reach.

The hacks took place between October 2020 and November 2021, at the height of the pro-democracy protests, when young Thai took to the streets demanding changes to the constitution, for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha to resign and for the monarchy to be reformed.

The phone hacks were revealed in November 2021, when Apple warned several Thai iPhone users that state-sponsored attackers may have targeted their devices, said Ruchapong Chamjirachaikul, advocacy officer at iLaw.

Meanwhile on Monday, the NSO Group that the cybersecurity groups report did not reveal the names of the companys customers.

We refer you to the report itself, which states that the forensic evidence they collected from infected [or hacked] devices did not, in itself, provide strong evidence pointing to a specific NSO customer, a company spokesperson told BenarNews via email.

Politically motivated organizations continue to make unverifiable claims against NSO hoping they will result in an outright ban on all cyber intelligence technologies, despite their well-documented successes saving lives.

The companys website said: NSO products are used exclusively by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to fight crime and terror.

Last year, the U.S. government blacklisted the NSO Group for supplying spyware that foreign governments allegedly used against peaceful dissidents and their associates worldwide.

Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok contributed to this report.
China strongly opposes Pelosi's plan to visit Taiwan

Xinhua) 08:19, July 20, 2022

BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- A spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council on Tuesday voiced strong opposition to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan to visit China's Taiwan region.

"We resolutely oppose any official exchange between the United States and Taiwan," said Zhu Fenglian, the spokesperson, adding that the repeated provocative comments and acts of some members of the U.S. Congress lately are nothing but attempts to obstruct China's reunification process.

Zhu urged relevant U.S. Congress members to understand the high sensitivity of the Taiwan question, cease provocations, and refrain from offering any support to separatist elements advocating "Taiwan independence."

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Du Mingming)
JAKARTA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's investment realization rose 35.5 percent year on year in the second quarter of this year, amid global economic uncertainties over the conflict in Ukraine and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, a senior government official said Wednesday.

"It seems that this is the first time in history (since data of Indonesia's investment realization began to be compiled) grew this much," Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia told a press conference.

The latest quarterly figure also marked a 7 percent increase from the first quarter.

The total realized investment in the April-June period stood at 302.2 trillion rupiahs (20.2 billion U.S. dollars), including foreign direct investment which reached 163.2 trillion rupiahs (10.9 billion U.S. dollars) or 54 percent of the total.

The realization of foreign direct investment grew 39.7 percent year on year and 10.8 percent quarter on quarter, with Singapore, China, Japan and the United States being the biggest source countries.

Cumulatively, the realization of investment in Indonesia from January to June reached 584.6 trillion rupiahs (39 billion U.S. dollars), growing 32.0 percent compared to the same period last year. 
JAKARTA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government is speeding up the construction of the Herbal and Horticulture Technology Science Park (TSTH2) in North Sumatra province as the country's "super priority" tourism destination, a government official said Wednesday.

The TSTH2 is a joint project between the Indonesian authorities with China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Beijing Genomics Institute, in an effort to conserve and innovate herbal plants in the Southeast Asia's largest economy, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said.

"The construction team is optimistic that they will finish the entire building structure this October and complete all of the facilities by the second quarter of 2023," Pandjaitan said in a written statement released Wednesday, adding that the park was expected to be the country's research and development headquarter in the future.

He also said that all research on herbal genomics, horticultural plant breeding, biodiversity conservation, as well as genetic analysis for breeding will be developed and centered in this park. 
If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us

We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom.
In a story published July 20, 2022 about the Respect for Marriage Act, The Associated Press cited a June Gallup poll that implied the poll was released in June 2022
PITTSFIELD  A judge Tuesday increased by five years the minimum prison sentence for Kevin Nieves, who was convicted this past spring in the armed kidnapping and near-fatal shooting of Nick Carnevale.

In resentencing Nieves, Judge John Agostini said he bears a similar degree of culpability in the attack at October Mountain in 2018 as Luis Delvalle-Rodriguez, whom a jury convicted of pulling the trigger. Delvalle-Rodriguez received a sentence of 25 to 30 years in state prison.

I do think their roles were similar in this case, Agostini said. I think it makes sense to give the same sentence.

The judge then sentenced Nieves to 25 to 28 years in state prison on the charge of armed kidnapping with serious bodily injury, in line with the recommendation from Assistant District Attorney Joseph Yorlano.

Agostini had previously sentenced Nieves to 20 to 25 years on the armed kidnapping with serious bodily injury charge. The DAs office and the state Department of Corrections said the charge carried a 25-year minimum sentence.

The Supreme Judicial Court ultimately clarified the sentencing guideline surrounding the charge, wrote Agostini, who said Nieves initial bid was therefore outside sentencing requirements.

He was also convicted in March of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily harm, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, two counts of assault and battery, and a single count of malicious damage to a motor vehicle.

In Berkshire Superior Court, Nieves defense lawyer Joseph Harty said Nieves is an ideal inmate who works multiple jobs in prison and earned the ability to have fewer restrictions at the correctional center.

He argued for Nieves to serve up to 15 years on the charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and five years probation for the armed kidnapping charge.

Delvalle-Rodriguez was convicted of shooting Carnevale twice in the head, gravely injuring him, on Aug. 21, 2018, while Carnevale was trying to leave an outdoor bonfire and party at October Mountain State Forest in Washington. Nieves played a central role in the attack, a separate Berkshire County jury found.

Nieves was tried in March with Daquan Douglas, who was acquitted of most charges but found guilty of misleading the police. Delvalle-Rodriguez was tried in May alongside Christopher Frazier, who was acquitted of all charges.

Carnevale has undergone multiple surgeries and procedures since then and continues to recuperate. Prosecutors argued that the motive for the attack was Nieves jealously toward his former girlfriend, who went to the party that evening with Carnevale.
The Berkshire Humane Society announced a new $4 million fundraising campaign to raise money to create an endowment for the organization and cover the cost of several renovation projects. The Humane Society has partnered with Allegrone Companies to begin drafting plans and images of what's in store for the Barker Road building's future.

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Meg Britton-Mehlisch Pittsfield Reporter Meg Britton-Mehlisch is the Pittsfield reporter for The Berkshire Eagle. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, she previously worked at the Prior Lake American and its sister publications under the Southwest News Media umbrella in Savage, Minnesota. Follow Meg Britton-Mehlisch 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
SEOUL, July 20 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba held talks in Seoul on Wednesday, according to the South Korean presidential office.

Yoon said during the talks that he hoped to expand cooperation with resource-rich Gabon in the fields of infrastructure construction, information technology and climate change.

Bongo said he also hoped to expand cooperation with South Korea, and took note of South Korea's plan to hold a special meeting in 2024 between Yoon and leaders of African countries.

Yoon asked the Gabonese president to pay special attention to South Korea's bid to host World Expo 2030 in the southeastern port city of Busan, and Bongo said he will make efforts to support South Korea's bid.

The two presidents also exchanged views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula. 
A large fraction of Googles search results are news content, and more than half of Massachusetts residents get their news from Facebook. Yet while those two tech titans profit massively from that journalistic content  not to mention the reams of valuable consumer data collected  they are not the ones producing it by hiring reporters, covering news and doing the vital work of a free and independent press.
Workers unload Russian humanitarian aid supplies in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 20, 2022. A Russian plane carrying 23.5 tons of humanitarian aid supplies landed at Kabul International Airport on Wednesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

KABUL, July 20 (Xinhua) -- A Russian plane carrying 23.5 tons of humanitarian aid supplies landed at Kabul International Airport on Wednesday.

Receiving the shipment, Ghulam Ghous Nasiri, acting minister of state for disaster management and humanitarian affairs, thanked Russia for sending the support and said that the assistance including food and non-food items would be distributed to the people affected by recent earthquakes and flooding.

This is the second shipment of Russian humanitarian aid supplies to Afghanistan. The first shipment arrived in the capital Kabul on July 13.

More than 1,000 people have lost their lives and more than 3,000 others sustained injuries due to the devastating earthquakes and flash floods in Afghanistan over the past month, according to officials. 

Workers unload Russian humanitarian aid supplies in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 20, 2022. A Russian plane carrying 23.5 tons of humanitarian aid supplies landed at Kabul International Airport on Wednesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

Workers unload Russian humanitarian aid supplies in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 20, 2022. A Russian plane carrying 23.5 tons of humanitarian aid supplies landed at Kabul International Airport on Wednesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

A worker transfers Russian humanitarian aid supplies in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 20, 2022. A Russian plane carrying 23.5 tons of humanitarian aid supplies landed at Kabul International Airport on Wednesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

Workers unload Russian humanitarian aid supplies in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 20, 2022. A Russian plane carrying 23.5 tons of humanitarian aid supplies landed at Kabul International Airport on Wednesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)
Why Is Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit an "Unforgivable" Sin?

In Matthew 12 Jesus says that whoever commits the sin of blasphemy will not be forgiven. However, knowing that doesnt really address the question of why this sin is unforgiveable? You could just say because Jesus said so but I think there is more to the answer.

To help you understand the why you must recognize how the Holy Spirit works in the heart of an unbeliever. The reason why I am focusing on the unbeliever is because I dont believe a Christian or true believer can commit this sin, but more on that later. Lets look at how the Holy Spirit works and you will understand why the person who commits this sin can never receive forgiveness.

According to John 16:8-9 one of the primary works of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of sin. Here is what Jesus said:

When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me.

The he Jesus is referring to is the Holy Spirit. When a person does not know Jesus as Savior the primary work of the Holy Spirit in that persons heart is to convict them of sin and point them to Christ with the hopes of them turning to Christ for salvation. John 6:44 says that no one comes to Christ unless the Father draws them. The Father draws them by the work of the Holy Spirit. If someone constantly rejects the Holy Spirit and speaks evil about him, attributing his work to Satan here is what is happening: they are rejecting the only one who can convict them of sin and move them towards repentance.

Consider how Matthew 12:31-32 reads in The Message Bible:

Theres nothing done or said that cant be forgiven. But if you deliberately persist in your slanders against Gods Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives. If you reject the Son of Man out of some misunderstanding, the Holy Spirit can forgive you, but when you reject the Holy Spirit, youre sawing off the branch on which youre sitting, severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives.

Let me summarize why this sin is unforgivable.

All sin can be forgiven. However, the key to forgiveness is repentance. The key to repentance is conviction. The source of conviction is the Holy Spirit. When a person blasphemes, slanders and rejects the true work of the Holy Spirit, they disconnect their source of conviction. When this happens, there is nothing or no one who will move that person to repentance and without repentance there can be no forgiveness. In essence, the reason why they wont be forgiven is because they can never come to the place where they can ask for it, because they have rejected the Holy Spirit. They have cut themselves off from the one who can lead them to repentance. By the way the person who falls into this sin would probably not even know that they are beyond repentance and forgiveness.

Also remember this was not a sin limited to biblical times. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is still happening today. There are people in our world who are blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Whether they realize the severity of their actions and the consequences attached to them I dont know, but unfortunately this still goes on.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Anthony Tran
To bridge the existing skill gap in healthcare industry and strengthen the nations future workforce

UPES School of Health Sciences & Technology, Dehradun has signed an exclusive partnership with Wipro GE Healthcare, to jointly launch the B.Tech Biomedical Engineering programme. The partnership aims to co-design and co-deliver this programme to students during their semesters of study so that students who graduate here are industry-ready from Day 1.

Wipro GE Healthcare will be setting up a state-of-the-art skill lab for students. Upon successful completion of the modules, students will receive a certificate of completion by Wipro GE Healthcare.

Final year students will be provided with an opportunity to attend a 21-day advanced training programme at the GE Healthcare Institute in Bengaluru. Upon completion of the advance certification, students will also be provided with an internship within the healthcare industry, so that they are ready for the job from the very first day and can serve as an asset to any healthcare employer. There will be advanced ECG machines, precise anaesthesia solutions, high-frequency X-ray machines and advanced simulation monitors that will offer students a unique learning experience.
Models holding hands, Lagos, Nigeria, 2019 by Stephen Tayo. Courtesy Lagos Fashion Week. Source: V&A

A landmark show has recently opened its doors at the V&A in London, where exhibitions celebrating fashion and design from around the world have omitted the continent of Africa for years. In fact nearly 200 years. For the first time in its 170-year history, the V&A is holding an exhibition that centres solely on African fashion.

Open today! Africa Fashion.



Our new major exhibition exploring the vitality of a fashion scene as dynamic as the continent itself.



'A glorious celebration'  Time Out

'Elegant and exuberant'  The Telegraph



Book now, members go free: https://t.co/7uCia56XTs pic.twitter.com/CWE51POmdZ  V&A (@V_and_A) July 2, 2022

Fashion has long been seen and taught as centred in Europe, with Japanese designers occasionally highlighted as international non-western exponents. The fashion education experienced by students often relies on a design cycle that has not changed since the 1980s, focused on well-known designers from New York, London, Paris and Milan.

Fashion internationalism must now look beyond a Eurocentric perspective and draw from a broader source of creativity with respect  and appeal to a wider market. It is time to break the stereotypical elitist view of Africa and fashion. And this latest exhibition from the V&A, Africa Fashion, is an excellent place to start.

Just back from a quick visit to a very sunny London. The @V_and_A's #AfricaFashion exhibition is one of the best I've seen in a long time! I loved seeing the creativity of 20th century and contemporary African designers shown through garments, textiles, accessories and photos. pic.twitter.com/hvlmZpfpI9  Victoria Haddock (@vickyhaddock) July 9, 2022

Decolonising fashion

Could the lack of recognition of African fashion be pinpointed to the years of colonialism and the view that many cultures and heritages of Africa were dismissed as simple and not worthy of archiving or exhibiting? Even in the capturing of the past there is a hierarchical process that pushes some cultures to the bottom of a historical league table.

The simple take by early colonialists on African dress  or lack of it as they saw it  fuelled the dismissal of the African continent as unsophisticated or unqualified to offer fashion for decades. This thinking was yet another form of othering that grew from the imagery and language perpetrated to sell slavery. Colonialists portrayed Africans as uncivilised and different to European people and culture, thereby dehumanising the African continent.

Alphadi, Catwalk Image, c.1992-3  Alphadi. Source: V&A

European designers have always borrowed  sometimes even plundered and tokenised  African cultures in their designs and catwalk shows. Western designers have been applauded for their take on African heritage and culture, while the originators have been dismissed and left without a platform.

The Western use of African textiles, colours, patterns and style often exhibited disrespect and lack of understanding, resulting in appropriation rather than appreciation. At last, in this exhibition, the opportunity to celebrate African fashion has arisen, providing recognition and status to wonderful sources of inspiration, creativity, and cultural abundancy as Cameroonian designer Imane Ayissi has pointed out in the past:

Showcasing, under the golden crown moulding of a Parisian building during Haute Couture Week, luxurious contemporary garments made of textiles woven by artisans in Cameroon, Ghana or Nigeria is for me the best way of showing that Africa knowhow is just as sophisticated and valuable as artisanship in the rest of the world.

Groundbreaking

The V&A exhibition has been two years in the making, and is an opportunity to showcase vibrant fashion history overlooked by museums and galleries in the UK, often separated and presented in anthropology and ethnoecology sections.

The entrance to Africa Fashion is welcoming and beautifully presented, indicating from the start that this is a respectful space that will tell the story of rich creativity, but by no means the whole story. The exhibition was masterminded by the V&As senior curator for Africa and the diaspora, Christine Checinska and initiates various conversation points such as the political and cultural renaissance of Africa, and how this impacts on designers.

An important theme is highlighting the variety of cultures and nations that make up Africa, which is a continent, not a country. The exhibition covers 45 designers from more than 20 countries and serves as an informative foundation to build on for fashion lovers, educators and industry contributors.

The show sets out to involve the diaspora of Africa from the start. As a woman of African heritage, it is wonderful to see family albums of photographs so relatable to my own. These images capture artisanal craft, style and pride, and are evidence that fashion was and is very much part of the lives of so many Africans today.

A variety of short films show how fashion from Africa retains traditional elements combined with contemporary touches, and explore creativity and inspiration while offering opportunities for discussion.

The presentation of traditional clothing and fashion on display embodies the myriad cultures and heritages within the continent. Divided into two sections, the first acts as an introduction and looks at the development of post-colonialist fashion.

We see the Ghanian prime minister Kwame Nkrumah wearing a traditional kente cloth as he announces his countrys independence from British rule in 1957, and watch as Nelson Mandela rocks his signature look, the casual madiba shirt that made him feel connected him to his people. There is also an array of striking imagery from the well-known studios of photographers Sanle Sory and Seydou Keita from the 1960s and 1970s.

The contemporary section of the exhibition presents fashion from a variety of designers, well known in the continent. The new-era designers have included brands like Nigerian label Orange Culture and sustainable textile designer Sindiso Khumalo both of which address political issues such as feminism and LGBTQI+ rights in their work.

The Africa Fashion exhibition is the start of a conversation on creative developments taking place, which have been largely ignored in the west. Its vivid and glorious displays challenge stereotypes and educate the onlooker by enriching the knowledge of African fashion. I urge you to go and see it for yourself.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Veteran poet, legendary journalist and renowned author, Donato Francisco "Don" Mattera passed away peacefully on Mandela Day. His life stretched from a gang leader in the romanticised slum of Sophiatown, in the western part of Johannesburg, to a murder charge, to becoming a leading voice in South African society.

Source:  Mail & Guardian Mail & Guardian Veteran poet, legendary journalist and renowned author, Donato Francisco Don Mattera passed away peacefully on Mandela Day

Tributes to his life have come from the president to filmmakers and colleagues.

President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his sadness at the passing. As a nation, we are saddened by the loss of Don Matteras eloquent, rousing and revolutionary voice for justice. As we observe International Nelson Mandela Day, we remember Bra Don as a patriot, who in the spirit of this commemorative day, did what he could, with what he had, where he was. May his soul rest in peace as, in his own prose, he sleeps the sleep of freedom."

An icon and poet

Anant Singh says that South Africa has lost an icon, a poet and an exceptional human being. His legacy lives on in his writings.

The filmmaker calls Mattera a remarkable activist and creative mind who used the power of words to great effect. His works, as an author and poet, focused on his life experiences and the struggles of our people, he says.

He was deeply committed to his people and is well-known for his community work, especially for taking gangsters off the street and ensuring that they reformed to become upstanding citizens, as he was once a gangster, adds Singh.

From gangster to activist and poet

Mattera was in his teens when he got involved in the maelstrom of gangsterism.

News24 says: Quick with his knife, he rose to the top leadership of the Vultures, a gang that terrorised the communities of Sophiatown and Western Native Township.

He was stabbed and shot at by rival gang members numerous times and when he was 20, he was charged with the murder of a rival gang member and spent time in jail as an awaiting trialist before his acquittal.

After his acquittal, which was at the height of protests against the demolition of Sophiatown, he was introduced to Father Trevor Huddleston, an Anglican priest who was active in Sophiatown and surrounding communities.

This is when his political consciousness started, and he joined the ANC Youth League. In his lifetime he would be arrested 202 times and spend 12 years in jail during the apartheid years. He is also credited for being a founding member of the Black Consciousness movement and was a director of the black consciousness publishing imprint, Skotaville.

This is also when Mattera started writing poems, plays and short stories.

A great humanist

The South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) also paid tribute to Mattera through its various members who knew and worked with him.

Media stalwart Dr Mathatha Tsedu describes Mattera, who was fondly called Bra Don, as a great humanist who hated pity and charity.

Mattera would refuse handouts even when he was financially down, insisting on being given responsibility so he can earn whatever he would get.

But he would give without asking for anything in return. And many a time, at political rallies when spirits would be down, he could rise and rouse the crowd with his incisive poetry, showing that the commitment to telling truth to power is not restricted to media as we know it, Tsedu says.

Journalist with a capital J

Mattera worked as a journalist at Sunday Times, Sowetan, and Weekly Mail (now the Mail and Guardian). Among other credentials, he is also cited as a founding member of the Union of Black Journalists and the Congress of South African Writers.

Bra Don was a much wider personality than the narrow confines of journalism. But even as a journalist, it was with a capital J because he was so colossal in that sphere, says Tsedu.

He was an author who was banned by the apartheid government from 1973 to 1982 for his political activism. He also taught journalism and produced many whose by-lines and sign-offs litter our pages, screens and airwaves, he says.

Former Press Ombudsman Dr Joe Thloloe says he still remembers the peculiar position at The Star newspaper, where after negotiations between the newspaper and the Minister of Justice, Jimmy Kruger, Mattera was allowed to continue working as a sub-editor but was not allowed to write any copy or headlines. All he could do was edit the work of others.

In all this, Mattera remained optimistic to the last and went on to write: I knew deep down inside of me, in that place where laws and guns cannot reach nor jackboots trample, that there had been no defeat. In another day, another time, we would emerge to reclaim our dignity and our land. It was only a matter of time and Sophiatown would be reborn.

For the children of our beautiful land, and to the memory of our freedom fighters who gave their livesMay freedom reign." - front cover quote, Azanian Love Songs, published in 1983, one of Don Matteras most celebrated books,
Amid intense competition for funding and pressure to make their research more accessible to the public, researchers around the world, including South Africa, are sharpening their communication skills. Their aim is to communicate their findings to public audiences while maintaining the integrity of their work. Such skills are essential, given the changes sweeping the media: downsizing means that few media houses have journalists with the time to make complicated, jargon-heavy academic content more accessible to their readers or viewers.

In response to the need for top-level research communication training, Enterprises University of Pretoria has developed an eight-week online course, the Transdisciplinary Research Communication Course.

Professor Tawana Kupe, vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Pretoria said: Increasingly, across many disciplines at UP, we are taking a multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary approach to knowledge creation. The launch of this course will enable us to enhance, develop, and implement critical media literacy programmes to counteract misinformation and propaganda. Its a major and essential undertaking which we support fully. Higher education departments that teach critical media and critical journalism studies are more important than ever before. They need to develop programmes that can help society to critically engage with media content and messages. We have to deal with the issue of information as a public as a national, social and political emergency, and the way to do this is by educating people.

The course is designed to enable researchers and scientists across disciplines to communicate their expertise to the public, and it was developed by Dr Nokuthula Vilakazi, a researcher at the African Research Universities Alliance Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Food Systems, and the Universitys Department of Institutional Advancement. This approach ensures the course is underpinned by the latest trends in science communication and an understanding of the requirements of the print, digital and broadcasting media.

A strength of this training is that it is informed by what is currently being demanded in terms of science communication and a thorough understanding of the tools and techniques experts need to translate their work to the greater public, without losing the core audience, says Dr Vilakazi, who is the course facilitator.

The course content and format includes practical exercises and mutual learning, and focuses on visual communication, writing, interviewing and storytelling skills. By the end of the course, you should be a well-rounded research communicator equipped with multimedia, public relations, presentation and writing skills, she says.

Another important aspect of the course is the emphasis it places on the social responsibility scientists and researchers have to communicate their findings for the benefit of society. Should your research address societal challenges, this course will guide you on how to communicate in a way that your target audience will find relevant, Vilakazi says.

The Transdisciplinary Research Communication Course, which consists of five sessions, starts on 5 September 2022 and will run for eight weeks.

The cost per delegate is R12,535.

For more details or to register, contact Enterprises University of Pretoria at az.oc.pu.sesirpretne@ofni or call +27 (0)12 434 2500.




As part of the Cultural Producers Programme (CPP) launched in March 2022, the CPP Showcase will launch on Wednesday 20 July 2022 at P72, 72 6th Street, Parkhurst.

According to Basa head of research, Madeleine Lambert, CPP is a response to the need for expanded capacity and skills in the creative economy and is presented by Business and Arts South Africa, Common Purpose South Africa, and Manchester International Festival. CPP is supported by the British Council Creative Economy programme, which provides assistance to cultural organisations, festivals, artists, and creatives, building networks between sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the United Kingdom (UK) to create art, collaborate, develop markets and networks, and share artists work with audiences. "The CPP showcase has been created by the cohort of young cultural producers from the programme, with micro-grants from CPP and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), and hosted by P72 Projects," she explains.

While transient in nature, P72 nevertheless makes its mark on contemporary ideation, through a multi-discipline/multi-function hybrid space enabling open platform curatorial projects and facilitating collaboration across multiple genres, mediums, and continents, making it an ideal space for the collective narrative of TH[!S] US [AN]THOLOGY, a multi-talent creative collaboration comprising chambers of imaginings; installations and performances that portray ancient indigenous heritage, contemporary AR, fashion, remembrance, and ritualistic practice

Visitors can enjoy an immersive experience that embraces a range of local artistic talent, including an interactive and playful intervention by Mandisa Buthelezi, Luke Draper, Lebogang Mashifane, Siwaphiwe Mgoboza, Chumisa Ndakisa, and Xabiso Vili; a collection of site-specific fashion/performance interventions from Hector Dibakoane, Lesiba Mabitsela, Khaya Masipa and Hannah van Tonder; a celebration and preservation of the Khoi San/Khoe heritage and identity by Darion Adams, Deidre Jantjies, Nadine Mckenzie and Robyn-Lee Pretorius; collective expression of grief metamorphosing into celebration from Ash-Leigh La Foy, Tegan Peacock, Niamh Walsh-Vorster and Thobile Ximba; and an interdisciplinary exploration of sacrifice in the pursuit of power, status, money, and love by Kutlwano Kepadisa, Mzwakhe Khachela, Jane Mpholo, Zandile Nongogo, and Promise Nyalungu

Running until the end of this month, the CPP recruited a core cohort of 25 mid-career creative and cultural producers, as well as an extended cohort of over 120 cultural sector workers, in an intensive leadership and practical skills programme. This innovative programme dovetails seamlessly with Basas overall 25-year anniversary celebrations and Basas role in shaping the future of artistic endeavours in South Africa.

The CPP Showcase is open for public viewing from 9am  4 pm, 2123 July 2022.

For more information, contact Lethabo Khumalo on az.oc.asab@ppc.




Everlytic recently hosted an event in the UK with keynote speaker Kath Pay, a best-selling author and Email Marketing Thought Leader Award winner. At this event, Kath revealed the eight ways that many marketers go wrong when they personalise their emails. And now, the recording is available as a free replay.

Why email personalisation?

At the UK event, Kath Pay shared some potent statistics about why email personalisation is important, like:

72% of consumers claim they will only engage with personalised messaging (SmarterHQ).

63% of consumers see personalisation as a standard of service (RedPoint Global and Harris Poll).

But why do stats like this matter? Because, as Kath revealed, consumers want a personalised experience. They want the corner-shop experience when the shopkeeper knew you personally and gave you treats that they knew youd love.

In todays online marketplace, the best way to replicate this experience is using email personalisation.

Learnings from the replay

The event replay gives viewers ideas on how to stay ahead of their competitors, ensuring that they give customers the enhanced customer experience they long for. Viewers learn things like:

What can go wrong when marketers are overwhelmed by email personalisation and how to address it How and when to use covert and overt personalisation, and when personalisation can get too much The risks of over-segmenting email databases, what to look out for, and how to avoid it How to use copy and tone of voice to simulate personalisation when marketers dont have the resources for more advanced tactics Why lifecycle automations get so much engagement and how marketers can maximise their campaigns using them How to test email marketing correctly to increase customer lifetime value Why marketers should be using dynamic content to increase engagement, revenue, and customer retention Why having a journey-wide personalisation strategy is key to boosting ROI

How to watch the replay

Marketers who are new to email personalisation or looking to enrich their current strategy can join Everlytic and Kath Pay to uncover the eight ways that they may be going wrong when personalising emails  and how to avoid them to stay ahead of their competitors. They just need to register for the free replay here.

More about Kath Pay

Kath is one of the UKs leading email marketers, having won the Email Marketing Thought Leader of the Year award from the ANA/EEC in 2021. Her best-selling book, Holistic Email Marketing, also won the Highly Recommended award for the Sales & Marketing category in the Business Book Awards in 2021.

About the Everlytic platform

Everlytic is the bulk communication and automation platform that helps you grow. From day one, it enables you to send out bulk communication and automatically manage your database, then it empowers you, step-by-step, to maximise your messaging and increase sales with personalisation and automation. Get a demo here.




Modern Greek eatery GRK opened its doors in Sandton, Johannesburg in early July 2022, launching its menu with an exciting twist on classic Greek street food.

Image supplied: GRK is aiming to redefine the gyro

This includes an innovative twist on the gyro. A classic gyro is usually made from meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie and served wrapped or stuffed in pita bread. The owners saw an opportunity to make the gyro the star of the show, however via the "new method" of cooking the meat - which was encountered by the owners in Greece five years ago.

The new method offers a product that is fresher and safer utilising only top-quality meat prepared and grilled on flat grills onsite. The meat is thinly sliced and then cut on open kitchen butcher blocks with custom-made half-moon knives, unique to GRK. Although a different take on the traditional gyro, there is no compromise on that punchy gyro flavour. This method of cooking is cleaner and more sanitary offering discerning diners great tasting food, in a modern, upmarket, yet casual setting.

Pork, beef, lamb, chicken and kofta gyro is offered, all served in a traditional pita. The pitas, which are imported directly from Greece, contain no added sugar and are suitable for vegetarians and vegans, and come in four variations; village (choriatiki), wholegrain, carob and corn, each containing their own nutritional values. Furthermore, for vegetarians and vegans; falafel, traditional halloumi and mushroom options are offered, which are equally as delicious as the meat options.

All gyros come with a variety of dips, which have been specially adjusted to South African palates. Dips include classic options such as Tzatziki (garlic, herbed or avocado) and hummus but also less traditional flavours such as yoghurt mustard and babaganoush. A variety of salads are also available - displayed in GRKs fruit and vegetable feature display fridge, situated within the open kitchen.

The eatery, which is owned by Greek natives, displays a fresh clean look with interiors designed by Giorgio Tatsakis of Atelier Giorgio, featuring ebony timber, a neutral palette, and clean geometric lines.

Image supplied: GRK opened in Sandton earlier in July

Inspired by, and paying reference to Greek art forms, the intention of the space was to steer away from the traditional blue and white aesthetic that one generally sees and associates with a Greek restaurant, and modernize it, just like the food, said Tatsakis.

The contemporary setting of GRK is largely made up of custom-coloured Herringbone Wolkberg tiles, which appear on both the floor and walls, mirroring the geometric wooden detail that stretches across the ceiling above, as well as an upholstery print which is a modern take on a Greek mosaic. Inspired by Greek art forms, a focal point is the organic-shaped bar counter detail and the symmetrical, modular wall panel placed perfectly at the back of the arched seating booths.

Besides gyro, GRK also specialises in Vaflaki (freshly baked mini waffles imported from Greece), homemade Italian gelato (using imported products), as well as authentic ready-made meals which are personally prepared by their in-house team of Greek chefs, ready for you to grab on the go or enjoy at the eatery.

GRK is situated at Shop 5, Rivonia Village Shopping Centre, Corner Rivonia Boulevard and Mutual Road, Rivonia in Sandton.

To make an order or for more information, go here.
This year marks the 13th year anniversary of Mandela Day, and the theme for 2022 is shining the spotlight on food security and climate change.

East Coast Radio partnered with Futurelife to make a positive impact in the lives of the children at Early Childhood Development Waterloo Crisis Centre. The two brands honoured Madibas legacy by starting their day at the centre by serving a nutritious porridge breakfast.

Each morning, kids from the community  aged six months to five years  visit the centre to spend the day. The centre runs a day care which assists working parents who dont have the financial means to pay for childcare.

Mandela Month holds a very special place in the hearts of most South Africans and people really dig deep to support initiatives that provide relief, especially to those who are vulnerable. But not knowing where to start can be a big deterrent. Working as partners, Futurelife and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, are giving South Africans a quick and easy way to make a tangible difference in the lives of our children this year.  Tshepang Motsekuoa, head of marketing for the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Keegan Eichstadt, marketing manager for Futurelife, had this to say about creating this initiative with the Nelson Mandela Foundation: Nelson Mandela said that giving children a start in life is the moral obligation of every one of us. We are involved in feeding millions of children through our partners with Hope Worldwide, but we are expanding on that, and that is why we have partnered with the Nelson Mandela Foundation to raise funds not only for this Madiba Day but for the whole year. In addition, Futurelife will contribute towards the building of an Early Childhood Development Centre with the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

We have made it as simple as possible for people to get involved as each Futurelife Smart Food Mandela pack features a QR code on the back, linked to a secure online donation portal, which you can scan. Alternatively, you can go online and donate a months worth of breakfast to a child in need at donate.futurelife.com. 100% of the funds raised will go towards helping us to reach more children with life-changing nutrition. Keegan added.

ECR got involved on the day by preparing meals and packing food parcels for distribution for the kids to take home. The stations breakfast team also replaced some of the broken doors at the centre and donated a gas stove and other kitchen utensils.

In helping build better communities, ECRs partnership with Futurelife will not end today. The station reached out to its stakeholders for assistance and Hirschs came on board by donating a chest freezer for the centres kitchen.

Every bit of getting involved and playing your part goes a long way. The ECD centres can do with some help. Whether it is by feeding the children or sacrificing your time and coming in to read a book to the children, there is always something to do. ECR saw a massive need at the centre, and we will be doing renovations that will help improve the state of the centre that is currently in.  Tanya Davis, ECR marketing manager.

Visit www.futurelife.com for more details on how you can get involved and contribute by buying a pack of Futurelife porridge for the centre or donating cash.




Crucially, the average dwell time at forecourts is 15 minutes. That's enough time for the average person to run 4km, an aeroplane to travel 232km, or your blood to travel 1km. That's a lot of time to catch people's attention, especially with targeted marketing messages.

Supplied. The average dwell time at forecourts is 15 minutes, yet they remain an underutilised market

With an average dwell time of 15 minutes, consumers have the time to engage with content and follow measurable calls to action, whether thats popping into the convenience store to purchase a product or downloading an app to receive a discount, says Lizelle Mc Connell of Tractor Outdoor.

Yet forecourts remain an underutilised market.

Tractor Outdoor has taken advantage of this opportunity to relaunch its Digilites network of full-motion, high-definition, small-format screens at 80 BP and 100 Sasol forecourts across Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape.

Forecourts are high-traffic areas with fast food offerings, convenience and grocery stores, multiple loyalty partners, car washes and so forth, representing a powerful opportunity to influence the buying consideration of customers, says Mc Connell.

The perfect location

A report by digital analytics group, Lightstone, found that the average South African visits a petrol station nine times a month, far more often than required just to refuel.

Forecourts offer the convenience of access and shopping and are perfectly positioned to provide for daily consumer necessities, particularly in the post-Covid environment where people favour convenient shopping centres.

The forecourt advantage

The number of loyalty programmes operating at forecourts across South Africa is another clear indication that these are attractive, highly transactional spaces.

Consumers are ready to spend money when they visit a forecourt; the key is to engage them at the right moment.

That is made so much easier by the lack of advertising clutter in these locations.

Forecourts are clean, efficient spaces outside of the usual advertising network, where increasing saturation makes it hard to stand out.

This lack of competition for consumers attention, coupled with screens positioned at eye level, offers advertisers a unique opportunity to push targeted, relevant messages to people in a moment of decision-making.

Location, location

With consumer spending shifting from busy commercial centres into outlying areas, the future looks bright for marketers putting their DOOH dough in the right places.

In advertising location is everything. With the war for consumers attention heating up, location-based advertising presents an opportunity for brands to target consumers with laser focus.

This is because marketing messages can be placed in contextually relevant locations like malls, gyms, office blocks and bars, matching the message to the likely activity and thus increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Furthermore, because this sort of advertising is inherently nonintrusive, it can catch peoples eyes as they move through the day without making them feel pestered or bombarded.
by Xinhua writer Gao Wencheng

TEHRAN, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Iran's capital Tehran on Tuesday brought together Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and their Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, for trilateral talks on Syria and bilateral meetings on more topics of mutual interest.

Analysts said that the intensive diplomatic interactions in one day were arranged against the backdrop of unfolding international and regional dynamics, and bear significance way beyond the three countries.

COORDINATION ON SYRIAN CRISIS

As guarantor countries of the Astana process, which was initiated in 2017 for peace in Syria, they differ in their positions on the Syrian conflict. Moscow and Tehran have been key allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Ankara has backed the Syrian rebels.

The Tehran Summit followed Turkiye's announcement of its intention to launch a new operation in the neighboring country against Syria's Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), raising alarm in Russia and Iran.

"Turkiye, Russia and Iran already have differences on the Syrian issue, and these developments around Syria have further prompted them to communicate and coordinate," said Wang Jin, a Middle East expert at Northwest University of China.

On Tuesday, Erdogan pledged to continue to fight "terrorist organizations," and expected Russia and Iran to "side with Turkiye in this fight," a move widely seen as an effort to press his case for a military offensive against the YPG, which Turkiye regards as the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). PKK has been listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye.

Yet, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday warned against any "military attack on Syria." He told Erdogan in their meeting that such an operation against Syria "would be harmful to Syria, harmful to Turkiye, and harmful to the region, and it would be to the benefit of the terrorists."

In their joint statement after their summit, the three presidents "rejected all attempts to create new realities on the ground under the pretext of combating terrorism," and expressed their determination to "stand against separatist agendas aimed at undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria as well as threatening the national security of neighboring countries," appearing to include concerns of different sides.

ENERGY COOPERATION, ANTI-TERROR FIGHT

In his meeting with Putin, Khamenei urged the two countries to "increase mutual cooperation on a daily basis," notably in the oil and gas sectors.

Ahead of Putin's visit to Tehran, the National Iranian Oil Company and Russia's gas giant Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding, under which the latter is expected to make an investment worth roughly 40 billion U.S. dollars in Iran's petroleum industry.

Iran is an important energy producer and exporter in the Middle East, and Turkiye is a gas and oil transit connecting the Middle East and Europe. Russia's more interaction and consensus with the two countries could help it wrestle with the U.S.-led West in the geopolitics of energy, analysts said.

The fight against terrorism has also emerged as a hot topic when leaders charted the future of bilateral ties of their countries. For instance, Raisi told Putin that their "serious cooperation" in anti-terrorism has shown "their sincerity and determination in this field."

The Iranian president also underscored the importance of maintaining security on Iran's common border with Turkiye in his joint press conference with Erdogan, saying terrorism must be fought against in all of its manifestations.

"Cooperation between Tehran, Moscow and Ankara can help bring sustainable peace and lasting security to the region," Iran's English daily Tehran Times commented.

PURSUIT OF STRATEGIC AUTONOMY

The visits of Putin and Erdogan to Tehran came only days after U.S. President Joe Biden's first Middle East trip, during which Washington failed to rally support to counter what it called the "Iranian threat."

Both Biden's regional tour which ended on a low note and Iran's subsequent hosting of Russian and Turkish presidents have indicated that more countries tend to make decisions in their own interests, instead of following the agendas dictated by the United States, analysts said.

The United States is "not the big bully anymore, and therefore, cannot decide for the region's future," the Tehran Times said, adding that Biden's visit to the region also showed that "the U.S. interventionist policies in the region have backfired."

Over the past decades, Iran's strained ties with some regional countries left Washington sufficient room to pressure Tehran through sanctions and isolation policy, analysts said. But things are changing with more intra-regional visits recently.

This explains why Anwar Gargash, a senior diplomatic advisor to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) president, said during Biden's visit to the Middle East, that the UAE is working to send an ambassador to Tehran to thaw relations.

"It's abundantly pleasing to witness one of the most vibrant and dynamic episodes of the Islamic Republic of Iran's foreign policy in spite of complicated global and regional conditions and the enemies' failed efforts in spreading Iranophobia," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote on Tuesday. 
Remote working from foreign jurisdictions has become increasingly popular during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the lockdown rules being relaxed in most jurisdictions, it appears that employers should not expect the workplace to return to the way it was before the pandemic.

For example, Microsoft 365 corporate vice-president Jared Spataro said: "As organisations around the world make the definitive shift from remote to hybrid work, one thing is clear: the people who went home to work in 2020 are not the same people returning to the office in 2022."

Relocation

For personal reasons, growing numbers of employees are choosing to relocate to other jurisdictions while remaining with their current employers. In many instances, the employers will go along with these arrangements, sometimes as a continuation of remote working during lockdown and in other instances in order to attract valuable employees.

But there are risks involved  risks of which many South African employers may not be aware.

In the past, employers would establish a presence in other jurisdictions; now it is employees who want to work from foreign jurisdictions. Often, these employees will argue that they can be as productive working remotely as from the office, and that this should make no difference to the employer. However, the situation may not be as straightforward as it seems.

Watch out for creating a permanent establishment

The risks for South African employers include the possibility that an employees presence in another country may amount to creating a permanent establishment for the employer, thus creating a tax presence for the employer in the foreign jurisdiction.

The interest of a foreign tax authority may be triggered by something as apparently harmless as the employee having business cards bearing the South African companys name and the address of his or her home office in the host country.

Although unusual, where the executives of a business work remotely, this could even create a risk of changing a companys place of effective management (POEM) and thus the companys corporate tax residence.

Other tax considerations include the risk that the South African employer may be obliged to register as an employer in the foreign jurisdiction and pay employees tax and social security in the foreign jurisdiction. South African employers also sometimes fail to realise that they could still have an employees tax withholding obligation in South Africa.

It all depends...

However, it is difficult to say definitively if and when such risks will actually materialise without taking the specific facts into account. It all depends; there is no one-size-fit-all answer. What works for one does not necessarily work for the other. Thus, the best course of action for an employer considering an employees request to work for the company from a foreign jurisdiction, is to seek expert local advice.

When doing so, some of the questions employers should be asking are: Is there a risk that the employee could create a taxable presence for the employer in the foreign jurisdiction? Which country has the right to tax the employees remuneration? Would the employer still be obliged to withhold employees tax in the country where the employer is tax resident and/or is there a risk that it would also have to register as an employer in the foreign jurisdiction?

Relaxed stance may not last

During April 2020, the Secretariat of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) issued guidance regarding the interpretation of tax treaty concepts such as POEM and permanent establishments during the Covid-19 pandemic, when people were literally stranded overseas.

However, employers should keep in mind that the relatively relaxed stance many foreign jurisdictions and regulators adopted to remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic will not last. A return to normality also means a return to normal tax rules. While there does seem to be a realisation that the world of work is very different to the pre-pandemic world, the tax rules are still the ones that were created for such old world.

While a remote working arrangement could offer exciting opportunities for employers and employees alike, it is crucial for employers to carefully consider the risks that a more permanent cross-border remote working arrangement could have for the employer, before agreeing thereto.
Airlink is preparing to increase the frequency of flights between Johannesburg and Jamestown, St Helena Island to a weekly service from 15 October 2022. This is in line with plans by the St Helena Government to lift Covid-19 quarantine, testing and mask-wearing restrictions from 8 August 2022 and the reopening of tourism facilities, including the South Atlantic island's Mantis hotel, which is planning to open its doors again, from mid-October.

Source: Luke McKernan via Wikimedia Commons

"Airlink is preparing to ramp up services between the African mainland and St Helena, with a view to returning to weekly flights by mid-October. St Helena is a unique destination with a community of 4 200 people. To date, it has managed to avoid exposure to the various strains of Covid-19.

Airlink is working in tandem with the local authorities and St Helenas tourism and hospitality sector, to safely increase flights to and from the island," explains Rodger Foster, Airlink CEO and managing director.

Airlink began flying the Johannesburg-Jamestown route in November 2017 under contract to the St Helena Government and it is the islands only scheduled airline service.

After the Covid pandemic caused an almost two-year hiatus to the service, the airline resumed flights with a fortnightly service in March this year. Although 98% of St Helena residents are vaccinated, most have not been exposed to Covid-19 or any of its variants. Until its Covid entry restrictions are lifted on 8 August, visitors to the island are required to quarantine and must comply with testing requirements.

Flight schedule with effect from 15 Oct 2022

4Z 131 - depart from Johannesburg at 9am and arrive in Jamestown at 1.25pm on Saturdays (the west-bound flight includes a 30min refuelling stop at Walvis Bay)

4Z 132 - depart from Jamestown at 2.30pm and arrive in Johannesburg at 9.15pm on Saturdays (the east-bound flight is non-stop)

Airlink operates a modern 98-seat Embraer E-190 jetliner on the Johannesburg-St Helena route, with flights refuelling en route at Walvis Bay on the Namibian coast. The total journey time is approximately six hours. In addition, Airlink provides a monthly charter air service between St Helena and Ascension Island, which are almost 1,300kms apart.
News24 has launched CrimeCheck, an online app designed to help South Africans quickly assess the crime risk factor in particular neighbourhood anywhere in the country.

Adriaan Basson, News24's editor-in-chief

The application has been built over several months and involved the processing of hundreds of thousands of official crime statistic records from 1,158 policing precincts from 2017 to 2022 and which will continue to be updated when crime data is released each quarter.

"This is a unique data journalism tool that we have developed for News24's readers to be informed about crime in their neighbourhoods, or when they plan to relocate," said Adriaan Basson, News24's editor-in-chief.

Risk calculation and breakdown

CrimeCheck provides a gauge of risk on a series of crime indices as well as on several individual crimes like murder and burglary. It also provides detail of each of the more than 50 crime types in every precinct which are reflected in South African Police Service's data.

The engine of the CrimeCheck risk gauge is the rate of crime per 1,000 people in a police precinct or the rate of crime per 1,000 households in a precinct. The challenge is that South Africas police precinct boundaries do not match any other geographic boundaries like suburbs, wards or towns, so there are no readily available population numbers for precincts.

Working with a Geographic Information Systems mapping expert and starting with the last available census in 2011, the developers have been able to calculate populations and household estimates for every precinct for each year in our dataset by also drawing on annual district-level population estimates provided by Statistics South Africa.

These figures are then used to calculate the crime rate for various categories or crime types in each precinct. From these rates, a statistical normalisation technique is used to derive a value between zero and one for each category and precinct which allows the precincts to be compared to each other and compared from year to year. This is the value which powers the risk gauge for each precinct.

Using this view of crime data CrimeCheck surfaces some alarming insights like precincts where the risk of dying violently is arguable greater than for a civilian living in a war zone and many precincts are higher risk than you might think, and others are lower despite perceptions that they are dangerous.

CrimeCheck also includes a page which calculates the daily average of each crime type for every year and for the currently available year. This is useful because it can be difficult to understand if the year which is unfolding is worse or better than previous years. The daily average provides that insight.

Finally, the user is also able to compare up to three precincts side by side. This could be useful if you are researching neighbourhoods if you are planning to move or buy a property, or if you are simply curious about risk where friends and family live.

Visit https://crimecheck.news24.com/ to assess the risk in your neighbourhood.
This week, we caught up with Roxanne Norman, head of digital for Food Lover's Market.

Image supplied: Roxanne Norman, head of digital at Food Lover's Market

Norman and her team manage the digital remit for Food Lovers Market, FreshStop, Manhattan Coffee, Market Liquors, Diamond Discount Liquor and Liquors and Food Lovers Eatery.

We found out more about her career, inspiration and how she keeps busy away from the work desk

Tell us a bit more about what you do?

I manage the team that is accountable for delivering the customer online experience of the Food Lovers Market, Food Lovers Eatery, Market Liquors, Diamond Discount Liquors and FreshStop brands.

I ensure that the online impression matches the beautiful in-store experience. I believe that the online space is where brands have the opportunity to show more of their heart, values and unique stories.

So in between the more sales-driven campaigns - such as the ever-popular Ten Buck Tuesday promotion - that is what I aim to do. I also look over the Customer Care team, as the marketing department and customer care department works closely together. It is beneficial to be able to cast a customer perspective on every piece of marketing that leave our desks because we are so aligned.

Whats really behind your selfie?

A 30-something wondering what TikTok is all about.

Growing up, what did you want to do?

I wanted to be a marine biologist because I loved sea animals. While I didnt take that route, I did retain care and concern for the environment. When the series CSI was having its heyday, I wanted to be a forensic investigator and did my Grade 11 job shadowing at a local police station, which changed my mind! I do recall the exact moment I knew I was going to do marketing - I was 18 years old and on a gap year in London.

How did you end up doing what you do now?

Fundamentally there were two points that swayed me:

Moving from working for a company that sold various chemicals and components to Hotel Verde  Africas greenest hotel. I realised that I could not sell a product that I didnt believe in and that didnt align with my values. Even now at Food Lovers Market, I believe in the product we sell which encompasses whole foods, and healthy eating - in a shopping environment that puts fresh produce first. It was 2015 when I saw the signs that digital marketing was going to be a significant force in businesses.

The company I was working at had just hired their head of digital, Melanie Mack. I approached her for guidance on how I can move over into the digital marketing space, and she was patient and insightful in sharing what steps I could take to enter the industry. After that, I did have another general marketing job, where I was actively bringing social media and web presence into the role where it suited the companys portfolio.

Soon after that, I started working at Food Lovers Market. The timing was perfect. Digital marketing was making big moves to find a space in the Food Lovers marketing mix and getting it to where it is now has been my journey and responsibility.

Tell us a bit about some highlights of your career.

My first overseas work trip to receive a Gold Award at the World Responsible Tourism Awards.

I sat on a panel to nominate the best performing local business in Kingston as part of Kingston First, a local Business Improvement District. It was the first time I was recognised for my profession outside of my actual job.

Most recently, I reached my five-year milestone at Food Lovers Market. Now some might not think staying in one place is such a highlight, but for me it truly is. Like any millennial, I did my job-hopping  adding to my Dads grey hairs! His generation worked at one company until retirement. The achievement for me is sticking it out, going up against my own figures, beating my own objectives to do even better against the processes Ive introduced. A proud moment for me was to present to over 300 colleagues at our annual internal conference and to have a voice at the FreshStop quarterly forum.

When youre not busy working, what do you do? How do you socialise these days?

Now that times have recently changed to no masks, I have seen an upswing in events in Cape Town which allows us a chance to support our local talent again. Braving the cold of winter, Ive enjoyed seeing local DJs and bands over the past month.

I like to cook, shop (for food!), read and hike.

What are you watching/reading/listening to right now?

I have just finished Lauren Beukes Afterland. She is an international best-selling, proudly South African, author. If you dont know Laurens work, please give it a read! I also recently enjoyed The French Girl by Lexie Elliot.

Podcasts are where I keep up with our ever-changing, fast-paced industry and I listen on the drive to work. Social Media Examiner is a must-listen for anyone in the social media space.

Whats your favourite gif?

What are you hoping to achieve for the rest of the year?

I started my BPhil Honours In Marketing with IMM GSM in January so I hope to finish that by December. It has been an eye-opening experience to study with the industry experience I already have and to add context to the theory is invaluable. n August, my friends and I will take on the beautiful four-day Otter trail hike.

In the position I am in, with the double whammy of FMCG and digital marketing, I think it is important to escape technology and connectivity completely to refresh your energy and creativity. I think it might be more of a special experience than we are even anticipating.
The Cyril Ramaphosa Education Trust (CRET) celebrated this past year's academic successes with a well-attended ceremony held in honour of top achieving students and graduates who have completed their studies through the Trust's prestigious bursary programme.

The annual event was held in Sandton on 07 July 2022 and was attended by the founder and Patron of the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation, President Cyril Ramaphosa, delegates from the Foundations partner entities, CRET key sponsors, representatives of various youth-led organisations, and graduates.

Ramaphosa expressed pride in the results produced by the Trusts unique model which provides both financial and psychosocial support to its beneficiaries. The aim of the Trust is to be a vehicle for grooming young people for the task of positively impacting South Africa and changing it into a country that will reach the highest heights of development, said a beaming Ramaphosa during his address on the CRET awards stage.

Giving a keynote address, CRET executive director Chantelle Oosthuizen commended the students' will to succeed even when faced with significant disruptions to education - while also saluting the CRET model for its ability to adapt to the challenges brought about by the pandemic. None of us were prepared for the advent of a pandemic. The uncertainty could have resulted in paralysis, and we were tested in just how agile we are as a programme. In the past two years, mental wellness became our primary focus. The distinction from other bursary programmes lies in our holistic approach. Its not merely about supporting them financially with accommodation and tuition. Over and above, every one of our CRET students is nurtured individually and they have access to mentorship, tutoring, volunteering to participate in holiday programmes, driver license training and other soft training skills. Of course, none of this would be possible without our founders and help from our donors.

CRET reflected on the academic triumphs of seven top achieving students and 23 graduates who have also shown exemplary academic performance, distinguished leadership, and impactful community service during the course of their tertiary career. The award for overall student top achiever went to Thamsanqa Gazide who is currently pursuing a degree in International Relations.

Since 1996, the Trust has been supporting academically deserving students from disadvantaged backgrounds with bursaries in different fields of study. Its bursary programme has produced over 300 highly qualified professionals that have charted new career paths in different fields of study including Medicine, Law, IT, Actuarial Sciences, Engineering and Accounting.

Former CRET bursary programme alumni Cyril Madiba and Tracey Nkosi were also in attendance - with the former being recognised for his involvement in founding the Cyril Madiba Empowerment Foundation and his leadership of the CRET Alumni Advisory Board that helped set-up a subsidiary bursary scheme that is paying it forward by putting other exceptionally performing students through school. Nkosi attributed her success as a qualified chartered accountant to the CRET programme.




CureVac NV, a global biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), announced that it has moved to assert its intellectual property rights, accumulated over more than two decades of pioneering work in mRNA technology, which contributed to Covid-19 vaccine development.

CureVac has filed a lawsuit in the German Regional Court in Dusseldorf against BioNTech SE and two of its subsidiaries, seeking fair compensation for infringement of a portfolio of CureVacs intellectual property rights utilised in the manufacture and sale of Comirnaty, BioNTech and Pfizers mRNA Covid-19 vaccine.

CureVac does not seek an injunction nor intend to take legal action that impedes the production, sale or distribution of Comirnaty by BioNTech and its partner Pfizer.

The CureVac intellectual property portfolio protects multiple inventions that are considered essential to the design and development of BioNTechs Sars' CoV-2 mRNA vaccine, among others.

These relate to the engineering of mRNA molecules, including sequence modifications to increase stability and enhance protein expression, as well as mRNA vaccine formulations specific to Sars CoV-2 vaccines.

Over the last 22 years, CureVac developed proprietary foundational technology related to mRNA design, delivery and manufacturing that materially contributed to the development of safe and efficacious Covid-19 vaccines.

CureVac considers the rapid development of these vaccines a tremendous achievement, with unprecedented positive impact for global public health. This achievement is based on decades of scientific research and innovation, supported by CureVac as the earliest pioneer in mRNA technology.

"Accordingly, CureVacs intellectual property rights need to be acknowledged and respected in the form of a fair compensation to reinvest into the further advancement of mRNA technology and the ongoing development of new classes of life-saving medicines," it's media statement said.
ATHENS, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese technological giant ZTE Corporation through ZTE Hellas S.A. has partnered with Greek internet service provider INALAN to launch new generation (10 Gbps) of high-speed optical network for retail and business customers.

The so-called commercial 10 Gbps capable symmetric passive optical network (XGS-PON), which will provide the highest speed access available to date in Greece, was presented on Tuesday during an event attended by executives of the two companies.

"We are very excited to announce this together with INALAN company, a very fast growing FTTH (fiber to the home) company in Greece. We are launching for the first time in Greece the 10G (XGS) PON ... This is the first time Greece people have a chance to enjoy the 10 giga download speed," Jianbo Wang, CEO ZTE Southeast Europe, Cyprus, Israel, told Xinhua.

"Previously the speeds available in Greece were up to 1 Gbps and this is a very good opportunity to evolve the networks of Greece ... With the help of ZTE Hellas, with their equipment, we will be very happy for our customers to reach their needs and to evolve the market in general," Gianna Tanasidou, head of legal, INALAN, added.

The launch of the new services, thanks to the cooperation between the two companies, marks an important milestone in the exploration of 10 Gbps PON application scenarios in Greece, experts noted during the event. 
When Jeff Bezos was CEO of Amazon, he took an arms-length stance toward the companys affairs in Washington. He rarely lobbied lawmakers. He testified only once before Congress, under the threat of subpoena.

Andy Jassy, Bezos successor, is trying a different approach.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy took over from Jeff Bezos as Amazon chief last year. Credit:Bloomberg

Since becoming Amazons CEO last July, Jassy, 54, has visited Washington at least three times to traverse Capitol Hill and visit the White House. In September, he met with Ron Klain, President Joe Bidens chief of staff. He has called Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, to lobby against antitrust legislation and talked with Senator Tim Kaine about Amazons new corporate campus in Virginia.

He was very inquisitive, said Kaine, who met with Jassy at the Capitol in September and spoke with him by phone last month. Jassy was diplomatic rather than out to bowl you over by force of personality, Kaine said, and came prepared with knowledge of the lawmakers committee assignments.
South-east England looked for a time this week like a scene from south-east Australia in the midst of a long, hot summer.

Fires sprang up in parched parks and fields and made their way through the suburbs into London. Drivers battled smoke and flames along motorways on the outskirts. Social media filled with emergency warnings in a manner that Australians know too well.

Fires burn out of control near Landiras, south of Bordeaux. Credit:AP

London Fire Brigade has just declared a Major Incident in response to a huge surge in fires across the capital today, tweeted London Lord Mayor Sadiq Khan as the blazes spread through the city.

This is critical: @LondonFire is under immense pressure. Please be safe. Im in touch with the Commissioner and will share updates when I have them.
He noted emerging  though not conclusive  evidence that these strains may also cause more severe illness than their viral antecedents. Across Australia, coronavirus hospitalisations have soared past 5300. Kainer said that during the first Omicron wave patients were staying in hospital at Western Health for an average of three or four days. Now, many needed to stay a week or two. World Health Organisation infectious disease epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said this week there was no strong evidence BA.4 and BA.5 caused more severe disease, but the data needed to assess severity was becoming more limited at a global level. In Queensland, where coronavirus hospitalisations have topped 1000, infectious diseases physician Dr Paul Griffin said there has to be something in the severity of BA.5 to at least partly account for that.

Griffin said he was treating higher numbers of older people, but also younger patients, including some in their 30s who were severely ill. Loading Its not exclusively older people, he said. Anecdotally, we are seeing people with more prolonged and more significant lung issues than perhaps we saw before and some of that could be the immune evasion of the new subvariants or people being boosted some time ago before the eligibility changed. But infectious diseases physician Greg Dore, who works at St Vincents Hospital in NSW, remains unconvinced BA.5 is more severe. If this were the case, he said, intensive care units across the country would be filling up. Our ICU numbers [in NSW] are less than half of what they were in January, he said. The data does not back up an increase in severity.

Dore said many people hospitalised with coronavirus this time were older and had co-morbidities, increasing the risk they would be sicker and require treatment longer. The first Omicron wave, he said, overwhelmingly infected Australians aged in their 20s and 30s. Loading Professor Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician who works at Canberra Hospital, also believes it is too soon to determine if BA.5 is more severe than previous Omicron subvariants. What is beyond doubt is that theres a lot of people in hospital and the reality is itll take a while to unravel it, he said. Kainers and Griffins clinical insights were important, he said, but large datasets examining more patients were needed. Kirby Institute virologist Associate Professor Stuart Turville, who has been studying BA.5, said there were early signs the subvariant may infect people differently to other Omicron strains.

Essentially, it has expanded its options to infect us, he said. His team, which has published a pre-print report that is yet to be peer-reviewed, indicates that BA.5 is more likely to target the lower respiratory system than other Omicron variants  with a potential increase in disease severity and infection within lung tissue. Turville pointed to a recent pre-print publication from a Japanese research group, which found in a lab-based study that BA.4-BA.5 was able to replicate more efficiently in the lungs of hamsters than BA.2, targeting the lung tissue and causing more severe disease. But, crucially, Turville said lab-based and animal studies did not consider immunity built up from prior viral infection or the power of widespread vaccination in humans.

What I think is driving the wave is that BA.5 is getting into our bodies a little bit differently than before, he said. Loading But importantly, weve got maturation of the immune response, or at least enough breadth to cover BA.5, so it is not translating to increased death, but unfortunately, its putting our hospitals under the pump. As experts warn coronavirus is on track to become a leading cause of death in Australia, Kainer said there remains huge opportunities to reduce the numbers of coronavirus deaths. Theres a lot of people in Australia who are eligible for their third or fourth dose, who have not yet got that, and it makes a big difference in terms of reducing your chances of getting severely sick, she said.
Police believe CCTV footage of two men walking down a street in Sydneys west may be key in an investigation into the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old last month.

On June 4, emergency services were called to Australis Drive in Ropes Crossing near Mount Druitt following reports a stabbing had occurred at a small gathering at a home.

Police arrived to find Alosceous Jay Samarawickrama, who was about to start his air-conditioning apprenticeship before the attack, with a single stab wound to his chest. Paramedics performed CPR on the teenager but he died at the scene.

Police say the stabbing was not about drugs or gang-related, but are investigating whether a fight over a girl was the cause of the stabbing. The victim was not known to police.
Two prominent West Australian Liberal elders have written to the partys entire membership base urging them to take back control from powerbrokers or face a bleak future.

The letter, by members of the recently formed Liberal Reform Coalition Norman Moore and former Barnett government treasurer Mike Nahan, urged inactive party members to stand up and vote for powerbroker-busting reforms at the WA Liberals state conference at the end of the month.

WA Liberal Party veterans Mike Nahan and Norman Moore have urged the party to embark on reforms to remove the influence of powerbrokers. Credit:Trevor Collens/Getty Images

However, it has further inflamed tension within the party base, with one senior figure describing the LRC as Moore-ons.

Moore, a former Liberal Party president, and Nahan urged true Liberals within the party to remove members of the alliance of powerbrokers known as The Clan from office-bearing positions and adopt reforms that prevent branch stacking.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said this week he wants to lead a government that does things. COVID-19 management aside, the early signs are that he will. Australias international relations performance has been transformed since the election on May 21.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher have set a fiscally sensible, productivity-focused economic policy tone for an October budget crafted to meet Labors election promises while dealing with its inherited Morrison government debt bomb.

Anthony Albanese says he wants to lead a government that does things. Credit:Flavio Brancaleone

Releasing the State of the Environment report on Tuesday, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek demonstrated ministerial compliance with legal disclosure responsibilities, and a determination to take effective action on problems outlined which have been chronic for years.

Chalmers announcement on Wednesday of the details of the Reserve Bank review reinforced perceptions that this administration will be about the substance, not just the spectacle, of government. Its refreshing to a populace tired and hungry for better outcomes from Canberra than theyve had in recent years.
Viral fragments of foot and mouth have been detected in pork and beef products coming into Australia from China and Indonesia, ratcheting up fears the highly infectious disease could decimate the nations livestock industry.

Australia has been free of the disease for over a century but just one positive case of foot and mouth could shut the $27 billion livestock export trade down for months or even years. The federal government has estimated the total cost of a major outbreak at $80 billion.

The contaminated food products brought in by a traveller from Indonesia were undeclared. Credit:Nick Moir

The news comes as Indonesia implores Australia not to panic, despite a shortage of foot and mouth vaccines or even personnel to administer the shots to livestock as Australias northern neighbour battles its first outbreak of the virus in decades.

Foot and mouth infects cloven-hoofed animals and does not affect the health of humans. It can be carried on animal products including meat and leather and people can carry it on their shoes, clothes or in their noses, where it can survive for up to 24 hours.
When it amalgamated with two neighbouring councils 14 years ago, Redcliffe ceased to be a city.

But a new push from Moreton Bay Regional Council could see that title returned to the bayside community, but it would have to share it with its new siblings.

Redcliffe could soon be a city again, or at least part of one, as Moreton Bay Regional Council seeks city status. Credit:Tammy Law

Redcliffe City Council merged with the Pine Rivers and Caboolture shire councils in 2008, as part of the Beattie Labor governments Local Government Reform Commission recommendations.

MBRC voted on Wednesday to pursue a name change to Moreton Bay City Council, with just three councillors voting against the proposal.
Singapore: Beijing is forging ahead with plans to curtail Australian minings power over the iron ore sector despite its Foreign Ministry praising positive developments in the Australia-China relationship.

A new state-backed company, the $4.3 billion China Mineral Resources Group, was launched on Tuesday to centralise purchases of iron ore for the steel sector and increase Chinas bargaining power. It will take leverage away from Australian giants BHP and Fortescue who have historically dealt with scores of smaller operators.

Chengde Iron and Steel company, 200 kilometres northeast of Chinas capital Beijing Credit:Sanghee Liu

The shake-up is expected to result in two of the industrys top executives, Yao Lin, the chairman of Chinalco and Guo Bin, executive vice president of China Baowu, leading the new group.

Australia exported $154 billion worth of iron ore last year, most of it to China, where it is a key ingredient in making steel and driving Beijings economic stimulus. But Chinese importers have long made unsubstantiated claims of price gouging by Australian exporters as prices galloped towards $US200 ($289) a tonne last year, adding $30 billion in tax revenue to the federal budget.
Dairy products maker Products has crossed the



Rs 2,000 crore sales mark during the quarter ending June 30, 2022 for the first time, the company said on Wednesday.

The city-based company reported revenues of Rs 2,014.60 crore for the quarter ending Jun 30, 2022 as against Rs 1,538.78 crore registered during corresponding quarter previous year.

Strong sales recovery in the domestic market post the COVID-19 pandemic with good summer sales led to highest ever quarterly sales volume, company chairman RG Chandramogan said in a statement here.

The profit after tax for the quarter under review stood at Rs 51.95 crore as compared to Rs 58.33 crore registered corresponding quarter previous year.

"We are happy to report good growth in revenue and crossing Rs 2,000 crore sales mark for the first time in a quarter. All our business segments did well with our leading brands registering healthy sales growth," Chandramogan said.

" Products retail expansion in the last two years helped us reach customers in new markets like Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh and also supported existing strong base in South India", he said.

Products in the last financial year invested about Rs 450 crore across new manufacturing facilities for capacity expansion in ice cream, milk, curd, milk products and cattle feed.

"The new capacities will further support our sales plans for FY 2022-23. Considerable investments have also been made to strengthen distribution, sales and marketing of our brands," he said.

The company has commenced exports of its popular Arun ice cream brand to Singapore and Maldives in the last quarter. It has plans to further widen the international reach of Arun ice creams, the statement 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.)
Meta, a small business operating in the immersive and experiential technology industry since 2010, has filed a lawsuit against for trademark violation, alleging that Mark Zuckerberg's name change violated its established brand.

The installation art company said that for 12 years, it has powered the types of experiences and products that is now building and has served the same creators and consumers that is now targeting.

META's lawsuit alleged that Facebook unlawfully seized its mark and name -- willfully violating its trademark rights and engaging in egregious acts of unfair competition.

"On October 28, 2021, Facebook seized our META mark and name, which we put our blood, sweat, and tears into building for over twelve years," the company said in a post late on Tuesday.

"Today, after eight months of trying to negotiate with Facebook in good faith to no avail, we were left with no choice but to file a lawsuit against them."

"This case is about ensuring the collective protection of rights to our work, innovation, and intellectual property, which we have devoted our lives to buildinga" as we evolve towards a more equitable digital and social future," said the original Meta.

"META has spent 12 years supporting, developing, and protecting the creator community, creators' rights, and ironically, creators' intellectual property," said Justin Bolognino, META's Founder & CEO.

"Facebook's actions, illegally usurping our name and mark, have not only put our business in jeopardy, but that of the entire industry and the intellectual property rights of the innovators that have helped build it," he alleged.

Meta (formerly Facebook) was yet to react to the lawsuit.

The complaint alleged that Facebook is now doing exactly what Meta has done for over a decade -- conducting the same immersive experiences, at the same events and venues, and working with the same creators and .

"As a result of Facebook's actions, consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Meta's products and services emanate from Facebook or that META is affiliated with Facebook. The Meta mark is now infected by the toxicity that is inextricably linked with Facebook," said the company.

Bolognino said that Facebook acts like it can freely destroy the communities Meta has helped develop, overrun the industry, and obliterate its business.

"But today, Meta is taking a stand against Facebook's flagrant and unlawful conduct," he said.

--IANS

na/shb/

(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.)
is eyeing a leadership position in the SUV segment as it continues to add new products across various sub segments, a top company official said on Wednesday.

The country's largest carmaker has bolstered its presence in the high volume entry and mid level SUV segments with new Brezza and all new model -- Grand Vitara.

"In every segment except SUV, we are the market leader by a distance. It is only in the SUV that we are behind, so we need to catch up. Clearly, we have to become number one in the SUV space also," MD and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi said in an interaction on the sidelines of the global unveiling of Grand Vitara.

He was replying to a query whether the auto major, which has leadership position in the hatchbacks, sedans and MPVs, also eyes pole position in the robustly growing SUV segment.

Takeuchi noted that the SUV market is tough as there were already 56 products competing with each other.

"It (segment) is getting bigger and bigger and so the competition is also getting intense," he said, adding that while the competing brands have many products in the SUV segment, MSI is trying to catch up now with new product interventions.

When asked how soon the company could match up to the likes of Tata Motors and Hyundai in the SUV space, he noted: " I don't know..we would like to do it as quickly as possible."



Takeuchi said that the company currently has a small market share in the mid-SUV vertical as it had insignificant presence in the segment.

"We did not have products in the segment. We had S-Cross but that is more like a crossover type of a product. So this is the first time that we have introduced a product in the vertical. We will now look to maximise our volumes," he stated.

Last fiscal, the SUV segment accounted for 40 per cent of the overall passenger vehicle sales.

Similarly, the mid-size SUVs contributed half of the sales in the segment.

Also, the entry level SUV segment has become the largest contributor in the overall passenger vehicle sales overtaking the premium hatchbacks which led the market since 2011.

Premium SUV segment, however, remained small despite the presence of various products.

According to Takeuchi, the customers were now looking for more features in their cars leading to enhanced sales of high end trims across models.

On the company's plans to enter the diesel segment, he said the company is not looking to enter the segment in the near future.

Citing European carmakers, he noted that the introduction of strict emission norms have led the automakers to ditch diesel engines in small cars and sedans.

A new set of emission norms could also lead to a similar kind of situation in bigger diesel cars as well, he added.

"So we see more potential for CNG, hybrid cars. Such technologies have a better future," Takeuchi stated.

On market outlook, Takeuchi informed that chip shortage issues continued to impact carmakers.

"Chip shortage issue has not completely gone away, still there are some hiccups..but at the same time demand for personal mobility remains strong," he said.

On small cars, he noted that the company would continue to produce them as it would continue to cater to all kinds of customers in the market.

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Tech giant has announced that it is introducing Viva Engage, a new app in Teams that helps build community and connection, along with providing tools for personal expression.

Built on the foundation of Yammer, Viva Engage brings people together across the organisation to connect with leaders and coworkers, find answers to questions, share their unique story, and find belonging at work.

"Leaders can share and insights, answer questions, and facilitate two-way conversations that help employees feel heard and included," the company said in a blogpost.

"With Storyline and Stories features, employees can connect with co-workers, and share their thoughts, expertise, passions, and ideas," it added.

Viva is designed to give employees across multiple roles and functions what they need to feel connected -- no matter when or where they work.

But employee experience is more than that. It is about helping employees excel at their job, whether it's sales, marketing, finance, or IT, the company said.

The social app for digital communities, conversations, and self-expression tools builds on the existing capabilities of the Communities app for Teams and 365.

Last month, Microsoft introduced the first of a new dimension of Viva, tailored to meet these vertical, role-specific needs -- Microsoft Viva Sales.

--IANS

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The Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Wednesday admitted Bank of Indias petition under Section 7 of the (IBC) to start proceedings against and appointed an interim resolution professional (IRP) in the matter. It also dismissed the intervention application of e-commerce giant Amazon, which was opposed to Futures deal with Reliance Retail.

In the order, the Bench, presided over by Justice Pradeep Narhari Deshmukh and Shyam Babu Gautam, said, (The) Bench is of the view that the existence of debt and default has been proved  we hereby appoint Vijay Kumar V Iyer as an IRP, with a direction to the financial creditor to pay remuneration to the IRP and his expenses until the constitution of the CoC (committee of creditors). Dismissing Amazons petition, the Bench said, the applicant is not even a stakeholder in respect of the corporate debtor  and has no locus standi to question initiation of proceedings ...

had moved the insolvency petition against on April 14 for its dues not being paid.

had subsequently moved the tribunal, alleging that the lenders had colluded with to deny it its rights in the case. had even written to the Reserve with the same allegation. Future Group owes its 26 lenders over Rs 15,000 crore.

The Group in 2020 had decided to go for a jumble sale of its unlisted and listed to Reliance Retail for about Rs 25,000 crore to repay its ballooning debt. However, Amazon, which had in 2019 acquired 49 per cent in Future Coupons, a company that owns 10 per cent in Future Retail, accused Future Group of breach of contract.

Recently, in a regulatory filing, said the deal with Future Retail would not go through because the companys secured creditors had voted against it. Reliance Retail may now look at buying the assets of Future Group, depending on what is up for sale, said industry sources.



The way ahead Future Retails board will be disbanded as interim resolution professional (IRP) will carry out administrative functions

IRP will invite and verify claims, and form the committee of creditors

may move NCLAT against order, legal experts say

Future group owes over Rs 15,000 crore to creditors

In February, the Mukesh Ambani-led retail major had taken over 947 stores belonging to Future Retail, which it had sub-leased to it. Retail shareholders representative Vijay Kulkarni said: This decision will give a free hand to the interim resolution professional to assess the nature of transactions and accounts and evaluate the decisions taken by the companys board."

Ashish Pyasi, associate partner, Dhir & Dhir Associates, said: Amazon can challenge this before the appellate tribunal.

Generally, a petition moved under Section 7 of the IBC should be admitted by the adjudicating authority within 14 days. However, the tribunal took more than three months to do it due to the intervention application by Amazon.

Ashish Kumar Singh, managing partner of law firm Capstone Legal, said: By virtue of this order, there is a prohibition on the institution of suits or proceedings and all pending proceedings have also been stayed.

Salman Waris, managing partner at technology law firm TechLegis Advocates & Solicitors, said: Its a strategic victory for Reliance and Future Group and a win for the lenders.

K Narasimhan, advocate, Madras High Court, said: It is clear the lender will get a haircut and retail investors lose everything. What is surprising is that no one bothered to ask the lenders why they backed out of the Future Retail deal when Reliance had mentioned it would take over 100 per cent debt.

Shivek Sharma, associate, law firm Pioneer Legal, said: The order will trigger a moratorium under Section 14 of the IBC and Future Retail will be prohibited from transferring or disposing of its assets. Moreover, any institution of suits or continuation of proceedings against Future Retail will be prohibited till the completion of the corporate insolvency resolution plan.
Streaming giant Netflix added 1.1 million (11 lakh) paid subscribes in the Asia-Pacific region in the second quarter (Q2) this year.

The Average Revenue per Membership (ARM) was -2 per cent (year-over-year), due to the impact from "our price decrease in India last December as well as plan mix," Netflix told shareholders after declaring Q2 results.

Netflix in December announced new and reduced prices in India, with the mobile-only plan starting at Rs 149 per month.

Users now pay Rs 149 a month from Rs 199 earlier for Netflix's mobile and Rs 199 instead of Rs 499 for its basic plan for the same period.

The standard plan is now Rs 499 per month. The most expensive Netflix plan, which is the premium plan, now costs Rs 649 per month from the earlier Rs 799 per month.

In the first quarter (Q1), Netflix saw an uptick in user engagement in India, as it doubled down on creating more localised content.

"The product fit incorporates subscription prices as well as willingness and ability to pay. So we have seen a nice uptick in engagement in India. We are definitely taking it in the right direction," Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos had said.

In APAC in Q2, Netflix's revenue grew 23 per cent year over year.

"At over $900 million of revenue, APAC is approaching the size of our LATAM business. We added 1.1 million paid memberships in the region (vs 1 million in last Q2)," the company informed.

The company said that it is in a position of strength "given our $30 billion-plus in revenue, $6 billion in operating profit last year, growing free cash flow and a strong balance sheet".

--IANS

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State-owned power giant has inked a pact with Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN) for cooperation in .

"India's largest integrated energy company, the signed an MoU with MASEN (Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy) for cooperation in the sector during the 17th CII EXIM Conclave on India Africa Growth Partnership held in New Delhi from 19th-20th July 2022," a company statement said.

According to the statement, the MoU was signed in the presence of Mohamed Maliki, Ambassador of Morocco to India and Ujjwal Kanti Bhattacharya, Director (Projects), Ltd.

The MoU was signed by Rachid Bayed, Executive Director (Operations) and acting Director of Development, MASEN, and Narinder Mohan Gupta, Chief General Manager and Head of International Business from NTPC.

The pact signing function was part of the session titled 'Collaboration for Energy Security and Harnessing Alternative Sources'.

The MoU between NTPC and MASEN, which are pioneers in the field of generation, promises to usher in the joint development of utility-scale projects based on renewable energy in Africa.

Through this cooperation, it is intended to support services for capacity building, share experience, know-how and expertise in the areas of mutual interest, especially in the field of research and development.

The cooperation may witness NTPC and Masen exploring common development opportunities in renewable energy power projects in other African Countries.

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group digital payments firm is planning to shift its headquarters from to India, according to a source privy to the development. Flipkart, the largest shareholder of the firm, will continue to remain headquartered in and there is no decision to shift its base.

When contacted, a spokesperson confirmed the development.

"We are in the process of moving our registered entity from to India," the spokesperson said.

An email query sent to Flipkart elicited no reply.

Flipkart had partially spun-off PhonePe in December 2020 to enable the payments firm to access dedicated capital to fund its long-term ambitions over the next three to four years.

The e-commerce firm continues to be its biggest shareholder. As per the last fundraise of USD 700 million, about Rs 5,172 crore, PhonePe was valued at USD 5.5 billion.

PhonePe had crossed the 250 million registered user milestone, with over 100 million monthly active users (MAU) generating nearly one billion digital payment transactions in October 2020.

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The opposition will conduct marches across on July 25 against the proposed in the state. The protests will be held at all district headquarters.

Power Minister, Senthil Balaji on Monday announced that the state electricity board has proposed an increase in the power tariffs for all sections, including domestic, commercial, and industries. The state electricity board has already forwarded the proposal to the State Electricity Regulatory Authority for final clearance of the proposal.

The proposed in the state will happen for the first time since 2011.

The protest, according to the AIADMK, is against the burden that will fall on the people amid rising price rises of essential commodities. The party will also highlight the increase in the house tax, property tax, water, and drainage tax as also rise in prices of all essential commodities in the state.

In a statement on Wednesday, the interim general secretary and former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami said the demonstration would begin at all district headquarters at 10 a.m.

He said that the DMK government was taking the people for a ride and that even after the rising prices of essential commodities, the government hiking the electricity tariff was not acceptable and that the party would conduct strong marches in all district headquarters.

The CPI-M, which is part of the ruling coalition in Tamil Nadu, has also come out strongly against the proposed hike in power tariff. CPI-M state secretary K. Balakrishnan told the mediapersons that the hike in power tariff would lead to an additional burden on the people. Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) leader, TTV Dhinakaran opposed the price hike and called upon the government to roll back the proposed increase.

--IANS

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The on Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking a judicial inquiry about a recently-found structure in the Gyanvapi mosque in by a high court or a Supreme Court judge.

A Lucknow bench of the court comprising justices Rajesh Singh Chauhan and Subhash Vidyarhti passed the order on the plea moved by Sudhir Singh and others.

The bench had, on June 10, expressed reluctance to hear the PIL for want of territorial jurisdiction.

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After successfully demonstrating its ability to land on, and take off from, the ski-jump that equips Indias two aircraft carriers, The Company (Boeing) is confident that the aircraft it is offering  the F/A-18 Block III  is in pole position to win the Indian Navys tender for initially 26, increasing to 57, multi-role carrier-based fighters (MRCBF).

Even though the was initially designed to operate from a catapult-launch environment, the jet is so powerful that it is able to easily achieve ski-jump launches again under its own power with heavy payloads, said Alain Garcia, Boeings defence head in India.

Challenging Boeings in the MRCBF race is the naval version of the French Rafale fighter  called the Rafale Marine. However, the Rafale Marine has only a single-seat version, while the requires both single-seat and twin-seat variants.

A two-seat fighter offers several unique advantages, such as mission flexibility, higher fleet utilisation and the ability to carry out high workload missions that require a second crew member. Furthermore, a twin-seat fighter can also be used as a trainer.

The competitor (the Rafale Marine) does not offer a two-seat, carrier-capable platform. So the fact that we can offer a two-seat platform that is carrier capable gives a lot of flexibility from a training perspective and a mission perspective to the Indian Navy, said Garcia.

In January, the Rafale Marine had undergone tests at the shore-based test facility (SBTF) in Goa to demonstrate its ability to operate off Indias two aircraft carriers  INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant. Now it was the turn of the Super Hornet.

During the testing in Goa, two US Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornets completed multiple ski-jumps, roll-in and fly-in arrested landings, as well as performance flights, in a variety of weights in the air-to-air, air-to-ground, and air-to-surface configurations, meeting the Indian Navys test requirements, announced on Wednesday.





ALSO READ: Boeing fighter Super Hornet shows it can operate off Indian carriers

With the Super Hornet Block III, the would not only get the most advanced platform but also benefit from tactics, upgrades and knowledge related to the naval aviation ecosystem that the US Navy offers, Garcia said.

announced on Wednesday that the Super Hornet tests in Goa had been preceded by internal testing in 2020 at Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland. That had included eight ski-jump take-offs, in various weights and configurations, and had demonstrated the Super Hornets ability to operate from a short take-off but arrested recovery (STOBAR) aircraft carrier.

The Super Hornet Block III is the US Navys premier fighter, with over 800 aircraft delivered around the world and over 2.5 million flight hours logged. The US Navy intends to retain the Super Hornet in service till beyond 2035.

Towards this end, multi-billion-dollar investments have been made to increase the Super Hornet Block IIIs airframe life to 10,000 hours, from 6,000 hours in the Block II, reduce the radar cross-section, and incorporate an advanced cockpit with a large area display.

Published figures reveal that the Super Hornet Block III has the lowest cost per flight hour of all the US militarys fighter aircraft. It has been designed, ground up, for carrier operations and requires no modifications for operating on the deck, hangar and lifts of Indian carriers.

The F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III uses the General Electric F-414 engine, which is from the same family that powers the Tejas Mark I fighter and could go on to power its Mark 1A and Mark 2 versions. This commonality will result in efficiencies of scale, reducing the cost of engines, which amount to one-third the cost of a fighter aircraft.
The Centre has flagged concerns on low testing and vaccination in nine states that are witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases and test positivity rates.

On Wednesday, Union Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired a high-level review meeting with these states: Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.

Vinod Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog said, We need to be mindful that Covid has not gone. Looking at the global scenario, we need to be on high alert. There is poor surveillance, poor testing and below average vaccination in many states undergoing the present surge. He urged states to improve the testing in areas with high positivity, increase surveillance as per the revised surveillance strategy and speed up Covid-19 vaccination.

Bhushan said that all districts reporting higher positivity rate need to undertake adequate testing with a higher proportion of RT PCR tests. Any laxity will result in deterioration of the situation in these districts, the Union said, adding that there is need to effectively and strictly monitor home isolation cases so that they are not intermingling and circulating in their neighborhoods, and spreading the infection.



Also Read: Nasal boosters will be essential to thwart future Covid variants: Study

States were advised to conduct surveillance as per revised surveillance strategy issued on June 9, 2022. They were further directed to report district-wise SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Illness) and ILI (Influenza-like Illness) cases on a daily basis and also to send these for genome sequencing to mapped INSACOG labs. Testing of international arrivals with genome sequencing to continue.

Concerned about low levels of testing, the Centre has now asked states to create awareness regarding reporting of those who opt for home-test kits through Rapid Antigen-test kit.

Besides, states were asked to step up their drives on free Covid-19 vaccination for first, second as well as precaution doses.

Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS, New Delhi advised states to be attentive to clinical symptoms of Covid-19 patients and not wait till their genome sequencing is done to identify whether a cluster is emerging in any state. States need to be attentive to the changing pattern of clinical manifestation of hospitalised patients, he stated.

It was pointed out that the average tests per million population is below the national average in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh, while the share of RT-PCR tests is very low in the states of Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam and below the national average in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal.

The has asked these states to urgently address the declining trend of RT-PCR tests and improve their average daily tests per million.

It was noted that there remains substantial scope in increasing the pace of vaccination in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Assam, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. States were also exhorted to ensure strict surveillance in all the districts of concern that are showing a positivity rate of over 10 percent in the last week.
The Police have arrested from a 41-year-old man allegedly involved in a case and absconding since 2013, an official said.

Shravan Kumar Mandal (41), a native of Bihar, was arrested by a joint team of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Raipur police's Anti Crime and Cyber Unit and police from Deoghar district of Jharkhand, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Prashant Agrawal said on Tuesday.

Mandal was on the run since 2013 when the case was registered at Raipur's Khamtarai police station, he said.

"He had allegedly transferred several lakhs of rupees through his bank account to the accounts of people linked with terrorist organisations Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Indian Mujahideen, the official said.

In 2013, the ATS arrested Dheeraj Sao who ran a roadside eatery in Transport Nagar area here for allegedly receiving funds from a Pakistani called Khalid and transferring it to people linked with the Indian Mujahideen and SIMI through his bank account, Agrawal said.

The money went to Raju Khan, Jubair Husain and his wife Ayesha Bano, he said. All of them were subsequently arrested.

A court in Raipur recently convicted Dheeraj Sao, Pappu Mandal, both natives of Bihar, and Jubair Husain and Ayesha Bano of Karnataka in the case and sentenced them to 10 years in jail, the police official said.

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Pharmaceutical major Bharat Biotech on Wednesday said its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin has proven to be safe, well-tolerated, and immunogenic in subjects in controlled clinical trials.

The study has been accepted and published in Nature Scientific Reports, a high impact factor journal.

A press release from the vaccine maker said the study was conducted in 184 subjects, who were randomised 1:1 and received either a booster dose of Covaxin or a placebo, six months after the primary series of two doses.

Subjects were evaluated for safety, neutralising antibody responses against variants of concern, binding antibodies against spike protein, RBD, N proteins, and for memory T and B cell responses to demonstrate cell-mediated immunity, it said.

Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director, Bharat Biotech, said the team has now demonstrated that Covaxin is a multi-epitope vaccine with antibodies against spike, RBD and N proteins.

"Post booster dose, it has proven neutralising antibody responses against variants of concern and long term protection through memory T and B cell responses. We have now achieved our goal of developing a safe and efficacious vaccine with long-term protection against a spectrum of variants," Ella said.

Covaxin, is formulated uniquely such that the same dosage can be administered to adults and children alike, for primary and booster doses, making it truly a universal vaccine, the company release said.

The jab is a ready-to-use liquid vaccine, stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius, with 12-months shelf life and multi-dose vial policy.

Bharat Biotech has a stockpile of more than 50 million doses of Covaxin ready to be distributed as and when required.

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The assembly is not meeting enough to deliberate on citizens' issues, a recent report by an NGO claimed, suggesting that the number of sittings of the House should be increased.

The report by NGO Praja Foundation contains a consolidated report card on the performance of 61 out of 70 MLAs over a span of two years.

It said much of the data used in compiling the report was obtained through Right to Information (RTI) applications.

There was no immediate reaction on the report from the ruling Aam Aadmi Party.

This Praja Foundation report card includes data covering the performance of the MLAs for the period from February 24, 2020 to January 4, 2022.

Of the total 70 MLAs of Delhi, the report card measures the performance of 61. The remaining nine are the speaker, deputy speaker and the ministers of the city government.

Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha has been included in the rating as he was an MLA during the period covered for this report card, the NGO said.

The report states that MLAs' attendance declined from 90 per cent in 2015 (first year of Sixth Assembly) to 87 per cent in 2020 (first year of Seventh Assembly).

Noting that in the data, attendance is not directly related to the number of sittings held, it said in 2018, the highest number of 32 sittings were held but attendance was still at 82 per cent.

The report claimed that the assembly met only 10 times in 2021 post-lockdown. The number of sittings was the lowest in 2020 (five) before the lockdown out of the 19 assemblies tracked, it said.

"This clearly shows that the has not been meeting enough to deliberate on citizens' issues and by learning from other states, they should maximise the opportunity to meet as much as possible to address citizens' issues through the constitutional process," read the report.

Due to the fewer number of sittings, Praja Foundation decided not to publish separate annual report cards for 2020 and 2021, and instead went for a consolidated one.

In 2020, only 55 issues were raised, while in 2015, 963 issues were raised in the assembly. In 2018, when more 32 sittings were held, 2,336 issues were raised, it said, adding that increasing the number of sittings will ensure more issues are addressed efficiently.

Although Delhi faces major pollution problems every year, issues raised on the subject decreased by 74 per cent from 39 in the first two years of the Sixth Assembly to 10 in the similar period of the Seventh Assembly.

Deliberation on health issues dropped by 83 per cent from 66 in 2015 to 11 in 2020, and that on education decreased by 99 per cent from 84 in 2015 to only one in 2020, the report said.

The NGO said three BJP MLAs have ranked on top in its assessment in terms of attendance, issues raised in the assembly, quality of issues raised and least criminal record.

These are Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Mohan Singh Bisht and Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, it said.

Two AAP MLAs, Vishesh Ravi and Mohinder Goyal, are among the top five. AAP's Dinesh Mohaniya, Amanatullah Khan, Atishi and Shoiab Iqbal were the lowest ranked on these parameters, the NGO said.

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Digitisation or e-office has been implemented in all central government departments, the was informed on Wednesday.

In addition, several departments like the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ministry of Finance, Department of Justice, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, and Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, provide facility to citizens to submit their applications and grievances at portals, Union Minister of State for Personnel told the House in a written reply.

"As a part of digital secretariat, e-office has been implemented in all ministries/ departments in Government of India. Central registry units in the ministries have also been digitised," he said.

The website of the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) has features to facilitate the parliamentarians to make online recommendations of work and track progress thereon, the minister added.

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External Affairs Minister is expected to address the annual high-level session in September, according to a provisional list of speakers released by the UN here.

The General Debate of the 77th Session of the will commence on September 20, with US President Joe Biden scheduled to address world leaders at the 193-member .

The high-level week will run through September 26.

Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegation and address the high-level session on the afternoon of September 24, according to the first provisional list of speakers released by the UN.

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the high-level UN General Assembly session.

The high-level session will take place against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war and the ongoing COVID19 pandemic. Global leaders are expected to focus on these and other security and humanitarian challenges confronting the world.

As per the list, Afghanistan, where the Taliban took control last August, is not listed to speak at the high-level session. Afghanistan's former Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ghulam Isaczai stepped down from his role as the Kabul envoy in December 2021.

On December 6 last year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to delay a decision on who will represent Afghanistan and Myanmar at the world body. The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, as well as the military rulers in Myanmar, had sought to replace the UN envoys, who were appointed by democratically-elected governments that were deposed in the two countries last year.

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Turkish Businessman Extradited from Austria to Face Money Laundering and Wire Fraud Charges

WASHINGTON  A Turkish businessman was extradited from Austria to face money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction charges.

Sezgin Baran Korkmaz arrived today in Utah in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. Korkmaz was indicted in Salt Lake City, Utah, with laundering more than $133 million in illegal proceeds through bank accounts he controlled in Turkey and Luxembourg. According to an April 2021 superseding indictment, the proceeds relate to a scheme orchestrated in Plymouth, Utah, by Jacob Kingston, Isaiah Kingston and Levon Termendzhyan to defraud the U.S. Treasury by filing false claims for more than $1 billion in tax credits allegedly for the production and sale of biodiesel by their company, Washakie Renewable Energy LLC.

Korkmaz and his co-conspirators allegedly used the biofuel fraud proceeds to acquire luxury homes and assets, as well as businesses such as Biofarma, the Turkish airline Borajet, a yacht named the Queen Anne, a hotel in Turkey and a villa and apartment on the Bosporus river in Istanbul. In coordination with authorities in Lebanon, the U.S. Marshals Service took the Queen Anne yacht into custody in July 2021 and sold it earlier this year for $10.11 million pursuant to an October 2021 order of U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, who is presiding over the Korkmaz case. Other assets of Korkmaz-related companies in Turkey and Europe are the subject of forfeiture claims by the United States and Turkey.

According to the superseding indictment, Korkmaz also devised a scheme to defraud Jacob Kingston and Isaiah Kingston in early 2018 by falsely representing he could provide them with protection, through unnamed government officials, from a federal grand jury investigation and civil lawsuits. In exchange, the Kingstons sent him $6 million over several months.

Additionally, Korkmaz allegedly made false statements to federal agents in an attempt to obstruct the pending criminal trial against Kingston and Termendzhyan. Among other misstatements, Korkmaz allegedly lied about $38 million in wire transfers sent to a bank account controlled by Termendzhyan.

The successful apprehension and extradition of Baran Korkmaz demonstrates the departments commitment to working with our international partners to pursue, capture and return those who seek to defraud the American people, said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Departments Tax Division. Thanks to our law enforcement partners and their counterparts in Austria and Lebanon, we are now able to bring Korkmaz to trial on the pending charges, and have recovered significant forfeiture proceeds.

We commend our partners from the Tax Division and the Department of Justice for pursuing Sezgin Baran Korkmaz on behalf of the American taxpayers and ensuring his return to Utah to face justice in U.S. District Court, said U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins for the District of Utah. We are also thankful for the efforts of our foreign partners in Lebanon and Austria, and in particular, the Austrian Bundeskriminalamt Fugitive Active Search Team, for locating Korkmaz overseas.

In July 2019 Jacob and Isaiah Kingston both pleaded guilty to federal charges, and in 2020 both men testified at the trial of Levon Termendzhyan in Utah. The federal jury convicted Termendzhyan of all charges. The Kingstons and Termendzhyan all await sentencing.

If convicted, Korkmaz faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count of money laundering conspiracy, wire fraud, and obstruction of an official proceeding. A district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division and the Department of Defense DCIS are investigating the case.

The Justice Departments Office of International Affairs and FBI Legal Attache in Vienna, Austria played key roles in securing the arrest and successful extradition of Korkmaz. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cy Castle for the District of Utah, Senior Policy Advisor Darrin L. McCullough of the Criminal Divisions Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, and the U.S. Marshals Service provided significant assistance in the seizure of the Queen Anne yacht and its subsequent sale.

Trial Attorney Richard Rolwing and Senior Litigation Counsel John Sullivan of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This story has been published on: 2022-07-19. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Raisi, Putin vow to expand Iran-Russia cooperation, ensure regional security

Xinhua) 08:21, July 20, 2022

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) shakes hands with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran, Iran, on July 19, 2022. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua)

The Iranian and Russian leaders expressed satisfaction with the leap in bilateral ties and vowed to expand cooperation in varied fields.

TEHRAN, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held talks here on Tuesday, agreeing to further strengthen bilateral relations and expand cooperation to ensure security in the region.

The meeting was held following Putin's arrival in Tehran on Tuesday afternoon for participation in a trilateral meeting with Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the issue of Syria later in the day, according to a report by the Iranian presidency's website.

The two sides reviewed the latest developments in bilateral relations, which have improved significantly following the start of the Raisi administration, expressing satisfaction with the leap in ties, particularly, in the economic, security, infrastructure, energy, trade and industry sectors, the report noted.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) meets with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran, Iran, on July 19, 2022. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua)

The two presidents also expressed determination to continue the path of further strengthening bilateral relations.

Lauding the joint achievements in the fight against terrorism, Raisi and Putin highlighted the necessity of enhancing cooperation in regional and transregional areas, noting that they are determined to help ensure security in the region's "independent states."

Describing the two countries' will to expand bilateral relations as "remarkable," Raisi said that, after his meetings with Putin in Moscow in late January and Ashgabat in late June, the Iran-Russia cooperation has kept reflecting a growing trend which needs to be further reinforced.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) shakes hands with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran, Iran, on July 19, 2022. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua)

On the "successful" bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism in Syria, the Iranian president said such collaborations "prepare the ground for improving regional security and stability."

He added that Iran and Russia have proved their honesty and strong will in combating terrorism through cooperation to this end.

For his part, Putin said the cooperation between Russia and Iran has increased in different sectors, particularly in the area of international security, adding that both sides have a very big share of the efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Du Mingming)
Green clearances have been accorded to 83 mining projects of state-owned Ltd in the last two years, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

To ensure adequate supply of coal to various sectors, including power, the government has set a target of 1 billion tonnes coal production for Ltd (CIL).

"To achieve 1 BT (billion tonne) coal production by FY 2024-25, the progress made so far by Ltd. (CIL) from April 2020 to June 2022, (includes)... environmental clearance granted for 60 proposals with an incremental capacity of 104.86 Mty (million tonnes per year). Stage-I forest clearance granted for nine proposals involving 934.96 Ha of forest land.

"Stage-II forest clearance granted for 14 proposals involving 2580.68 Ha of forest land," Coal Minister said in a reply to the Lok Sabha.

The minister further said that 53 project reports, including expansion projects, have been approved by Coal India and its arm for building additional production capacity of dry fuel.

"These projects will add additional capacity of about 278 Mty...and projected to contribute additional production of about 102 Mt by FY 24-25," Joshi explained.

Work awarded for six Mine Developer and Operator (MDO) Projects with aggregate capacity of 96.74 million tonnes per year.

Six first mile connectivity projects of coal handling plant (CHP), silos have been commissioned with an aggregate capacity of 82 million tonnes per year, Joshi said, adding that four rail connectivity projects have been commissioned.

The minister had earlier said that India needs to increase domestic coal production in order to fulfill the ever-growing demand for fuel and reduce import dependency.

"The need for coal is going to double by 2040 with the rise in electric vehicles and the increased demand for electricity. Therefore, we need to ramp up our coal production to meet this growing energy requirement," Joshi had said at an investors' meeting in Mumbai.

He had said the target of the is to minimise the import of thermal coal and to make the country self-reliant in the sector.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A fire broke out on board India's lone on Wednesday when it was operating off the strategic Karwar base in Karnataka, officials said. They said all personnel on board the warship were safe. It is learnt that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has been apprised of the incident by the naval headquarters.

In a statement, the Navy said a board of inquiry has been ordered to investigate the fire incident. The was carrying out sea trials after it underwent a refit.

"During a planned sortie for the conduct of trials at sea, an incident of fire was reported onboard today. The ship was operating off Karwar," the Navy said.

"The fire was brought under control by the ship's crew using onboard fire fighting systems. No casualties have been reported. A board of inquiry has been ordered to investigate the incident," it added.

The officials said the incident took place in the evening. Earlier, a young naval officer had died when a fire broke out on board the solitary in April 2019. There was a minor fire on board in May last year as well. The is set to commission its second aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, next month.

INS Vikramaditya is a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier purchased by India from Russia in 2013 under a USD 2.3 billion deal, and it was renamed in honour of Vikramaditya, the legendary emperor. The Russian-origin ship is often called a floating airfield. The 44,500-tonne warship is about 284 metres long and its height is around 60 metres, which is like a 20-storey building from the keel to the highest point.

The ship has a total of 22 decks, and it has the ability to carry over 30 aircraft comprising an assortment of MiG 29K jets, Kamov 31 and Kamov 28 helicopters.

(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.)
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday said that India is among the top five countries that have invested in the African continent.

"With cumulative investments at $73.9 billion from 1996-2021, India is among the top five investors in Africa," Jaishankar said while addressing the 17th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Growth Partnership.

He said that India's bilateral trade with Africa has now reached $89.5 billion in 2021-22 compared with $56 billion the previous year. "Notably, through the Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme that extends duty free access to 98.2 per cent of India's total tariff lines, India has opened its market to African countries. So far 33 LDC African nations have been entitled to get benefits under this scheme."

"We hope that the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) which was commenced in 2021 would be helpful to Indian companies to enhance and intensify the business footprint in Africa," he said.

Jaishankar noted that in India, there is a growing recognition of the need of Atma Nirbharta (self-reliance). "Responsible governance today requires that critical needs of people are not held hostage by the vagaries and uncertainties of international markets. Food security and energy security have come into special focus in the context of the Ukraine conflict. Here too, India and Africa can work together for mutual benefit," the minister added.

--IANS

uj/shs

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
and on Wednesday signed a crucial memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the reintroduction of cheetahs, declared extinct in the country in 1952.

A senior environment ministry official said the first batch comprising four male and four female cheetahs will arrive from in August.

"Talks are on with South Africa too. An MoU will be signed with them as soon as we get approval," the official said.

The fastest land animal in the world will find a new home in the Kuno-Palpur Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district.

The cheetah is the only large carnivore that got completely wiped out from India, mainly due to over-hunting and habitat loss. The last spotted feline died in 1948 in the Sal forests of Chhattisgarh's Koriya district.

has the world's largest population of cheetahs.

According to the pact, the two countries will share and exchange expertise and capacities to promote cheetah conservation in their ranges.

They will collaborate in areas of climate change, environmental governance, environmental impact assessments, pollution and waste management etc and undertake an exchange of personnel for training and education in wildlife management, including sharing of technical expertise, wherever relevant.

(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.)
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Reliance Foundation's on Wednesday welcomed its founding batch of students for two inaugural post-graduate programmes.

Classes for the first cohort of Jio Institute's Post Graduate Programmes in & and & Marketing Communications are set to begin from July 21, 2022.

With a mix of geographic and gender diversity, the cohort will have students from 19 Indian states and four countries--South Africa, Bhutan, Nepal and Ghana. The batch has students from academically diverse disciplines like engineering, science, arts, commerce, mass media, and management studies or business administration.

The founding class also has candidates with an average work experience of about four years from diverse fields such as advertising, automotive, banking, construction, digital media, edtech, fintech, healthcare, Information Technology (IT), logistics, micro finance, oil & gas, pharma, telecom, and government, among others.

Welcoming the new batch, Nita Ambani, founder chairperson, Reliance Foundation said that the would prepare the next generation of global leaders, who will significantly contribute to the advancement of India and the world.

"At Jio Institute, we endeavour to create an environment that is a fertile ground for your intellectual discovery and development, that encourages curiosity and a robust exchange of ideas, and enables practical experimentation for real-life solutions. A collaborative setting for personal growth, and a research-oriented culture that can catalyse national growth. Here, you will experience a unique learning environment, with a focus on research and innovation, and a global community of academicians and industry leaders," said Ambani.

Earlier. Jio Institute, which has its campus in Navi Mumbai, had announced the appointment of Guruswami Ravichandran from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as its founding Provost and Professor of Engineering.

Both the one-year post-graduate programmes are being taught by renowned faculty from top global institutions and industry. In both programmes, is focusing on cultivating essential life skills through its holistic learning module in addition to Foundation, Core and Elective Courses. Jio Institute has planned for a study abroad module during which students will get exposure to a renowned global university. Along with these, Jio Institute will lay emphasis on application-based learning through capstone projects.
The government told the on Wednesday that it could not allow activist to make phone calls from prison since he was facing charges of .

Navlakha is an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

The state's counsel Sangeeta Shinde placed before a bench led by Justice Nitin Jamdar a resolution that the government had issued on March 25 this year imposing such prohibition.

As per the resolution signed by state Inspector General of Police, a coin box facility for inmates to make phone calls is available in prisons, including the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai, where Navlakha and others accused in the case are lodged as undertrials.

However, the resolution lists 10 categories of undertrials and convicts that cannot be granted access to the coin box facility. The first of these 10 categories is of those undertrials who face charges of or conspiring against the nation- state and the government.

As per the Investigation Agency's (NIA) charge sheet filed in the Elgar Parishad case, Navlakha and his co-accused were part of a banned terrorist organisation or such outfits that acted as a "front" for banned organisations.

The charge sheet also claims that Navlakha and his co-accused conspired to "overthrow" the Union government.

Shinde submitted the resolution in response to Navlakha's appeal field through his counsel Yug Mohit Chaudhary, seeking that he be permitted to make phone and video calls while in prison.

He said in his plea that the video call (VC) facilities had been extended to all inmates during the last two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic protocol.

But, now that physical meetings have resumed in prisons across the state, the VC facility has been withdrawn, he said.

Navlakha said his partner was a senior citizen and lived in Delhi and it was not possible for her to visit him often in the prison.

Chaudhary also argued on Wednesday that denying phone call access to Navlakha was a breach of his fundamental right to life.

But, Shinde argued that the state prison manual only prescribed making available "reasonable facilities" for communication to inmates.

"What is the hurry in this matter anyway?" Shinde asked.

"He (Navlakha) has the option of writing letters and physical meetings are also allowed for all inmates," she said.

The HC will hear the matter further on August 2.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the 'Elgar Parishad' conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the city's outskirts.

The Pune police claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists.

The NIA later took over probe into the case.

(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.)
AIMIM chief on Tuesday accused the government of politicising the all-party meeting on the Sri Lanka crisis by raising "unrelated issues" about finances of Indian states.

A presentation by the Union finance ministry on the financial health of states during the all-party meeting saw some regional parties such as the YSR Congress, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) raising objections, according to sources.

Confirming the objection raised by Opposition parties, Owaisi alleged that the government used the meeting to raise "unrelated issues" about the finances of Indian states.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in his initial remarks said that there's a misinformed campaign" and comparison between India and Sri Lanka, Owaisi said and asked if that was the case then why did the Department of Economic Affairs have to make a presentation.

"Many opposition parties opposed this politicisation," the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief said in a series of tweets.

"I cited a report from May 24 that clearly indicated an impending fiscal crisis in Sri Lanka. I asked what the Modi government was doing to help Sri Lanka was too little, too late. The government denied it but a request was made by Gotabaya (Rajapaksa), he'd in fact tweeted about it too," Owaisi said and also posted a link to a media report on it.

The Lok Sabha MP said if Sri Lanka wants an IMF facility of USD 4.6 billion, asking why let the US take control as India has enough reserves to invest in such a facility.

"We have our own experts, including IAS officers (current and former) who have worked in IMF and can organise this for us. The government must see what's playing out in Sri Lanka as part of the US-China rivalry. We shouldn't allow Sri Lanka to become a pawn," he said.

Owaisi also stressed that India should not ignore the risks of ethnic tensions.

"Let's not forget Sri Lanka government's Islamophobic policies and the ISIS-like Easter Day bombings. Neglect of minorities in Sri Lanka is endemic," he said.

Muslims and Tamils weren't part of the previous government and not of the current one either, he noted.

The consequences of ethnic tensions heating up in Sri Lanka will be felt in Tamil Nadu too, Owaisi said.

"Did Gotabaya Rajpaksa want to come to India and was refused by GoI? If yes, why? Did the NSA facilitate his flight to Maldives & then Singapore?" he said in another tweet.

The government has said that there aren't any refugees coming from Sri Lanka but what if they start streaming in later, he asked.

"Doesn't the govt agree that we need a refugee policy? What will the government do? How many can we accommodate?" Owaisi said.

"I'd asked if it was true that the Renewable Energy project in Northern Mannar district of Sri Lanka was given to an Indian company on @PMOIndia's insistence?" he said.

Noting that Lanka is in this mess because Gotabaya Rajapaksa suppressed data, Owaisi asked will the Prime Minister's Office here release data on job loss and child labour.

Jaishankar on Tuesday briefed the leaders of all major political parties about the situation in Sri Lanka ravaged by economic turmoil and the assistance being provided by India.

At the meeting attended by the representatives of 28 political parties, two presentations were made -- one by Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra on the Sri Lankan crisis and its political implications and another by Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth on the fiscal health of all the Indian states.

During the meeting, finance ministry officials spoke of certain states' budgeted and non-budgeted borrowings to underline their fiscal stress, prompting regional parties to say that this was a platform to discuss the Lankan crisis and not the fiscal condition of states.

Some leaders claimed that the Centre's GDP to borrowing ratio is higher than any state.

Government sources said the presentation was made to underscore bad consequences of fiscal imprudence and freebies.

In his comments to the media after the meeting, Jaishankar said lessons from Lanka are very important.

"They are of fiscal prudence, responsible governance and there should not be a culture of freebies," he said.

The presentation said that some states have large outstanding guarantees which could pose a threat if invoked.

Citing data, it said the average committed expenditure to revenue receipt of all states is 56 per cent while this is over 75 per cent in Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand.

Owaisi said he strongly associates with YSR Congress and the TRS on the alleged "injustice" that has been meted out to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana by the Modi government.

(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 2022 was held on Monday, July 18. It was conducted to elect the 15th president of the country. The ruling National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidate on Thursday crossed the 50 per cent mark after the third round of counting to emerge victorious in the poll over her rival . An official announcement on her win is expected after all votes are counted.

How is the elected?

The is indirectly elected by an electoral college, which consists of the elected members of both the houses of parliament, members of legislative assemblies of 28 states, and members of the union territories of Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir.

The Election Commission assigns a varying number of votes to the electoral colleges members proportionate to the size of their constituency.

The electoral college

776 members of parliament

4,033 members of legislative assemblies

4,809 total votes

Who were the nominees for this years presidential election?

Droupadi Murmu

Murmu, 64 and a leader, is the first person from a scheduled tribe to be nominated for the post of Indian president. She belongs to the Santhal tribe of Odisha. Previously, she has served as a legislator and the governor of Jharkhand from 2015 to 2021. She is now set to become Indias first tribal president and only the second woman to hold the position.

Yashwant Sinha

Sinha, 84, is a former leader who left the party in April 2018 and joined the rival Trinamool Congress in March 2021.

He has previously served as the Union Minister of Finance and External Affairs. He was born in Patna, Bihar, and joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1960, spending over 24 years in the service.

List of presidents of India
The proceeding washed out completely on Wednesday and was adjourned for the day amid continued protest by the parties led by the Congress over price rise and levy of (GST) on daily essentials.

As soon as the House resumed in the afternoon, Deputy Chairman Harivansh called Congress member Shaktisinh Gohil to speak on the Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Amendment Bill, 2022.

In the meantime, the parties led by the Congress continued their protest and sloganeering in the House.

Despite repeated requests by the deputy chairman of the Upper House, some members trooped into the well. He requested them to go back to their seats.

He also took note of Randeep Singh Surjewala taking pictures in the House and asked him not to do that saying it was against the rules. Even Union Minister Piyush Goyal pointed out that some members were taking pictures.

When the deputy chairman did not find Gohil speaking on the bill, he called P Wilson to speak on it. Wilson asked the deputy chairman to bring the House in order, but he called BJD member Prashanta Nanda to speak on the bill.

Later, Wilson said he was willing to speak on the bill.

But in the meantime, the deputy chairman adjourned the House for the day. He said the members had the chance to speak on the bill on Tuesday and now also.

In the pre-lunch session too, proceedings were washed out without transacting any business after parties continued to protest over price rise and levy of GST on daily essentials.

While Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said he has allowed a discussion on the issue of price rise, the opposition parties insisted that it be held immediately, setting aside the agenda of the day.

As the Opposition members began trooping into the well of the House holding packets of milk and curd, on which a five per cent GST was effected from July 18, Naidu adjourned the proceedings till 2 pm.

Soon after listed official papers were laid on the table, Naidu allowed Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge to briefly mention the subject on which he and others had given a notice under rule 267.

Kharge said the rising prices of essential commodities have hit the common man hard.

Close on the heels of an increase in petrol and diesel prices and cooking gas rates spiking to record levels, daily essential items like wheat, rice, flour and curd have been slapped with a GST, he said, adding this had burdened the common man.

Naidu said the business advisory committee (BAC) of the House has agreed to a discussion on price rise. "I am allowing a discussion, you don't want it, I will adjourn (proceedings) then," he said.

As opposition members insisted on acceptance of the rule 267 notice that calls for setting aside the listed agenda and taking up the issue that is being raised, Naidu said, "You cannot dictate to me."



"In the BAC it was suggested we must have a discussion. I have agreed for the discussion on price rise (but) you people don't want," Naidu said before adjourning the proceedings till afternoon.

After the adjournment, some opposition MPs were spotted in the well of the House holding packets of milk, curd and buttermilk and shouting "scrap GST".

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The on Wednesday granted bail to Co-founder Mohammad Zubair in all FIRs lodged in Uttar Pradesh against him concerning his alleged derogatory tweets, saying there was no justification in keeping him in continuous custody when a court here has granted him bail in an FIR registered by the Delhi police.

The apex court also ordered that he will be released on bail if any future FIR is lodged against him for the same cause of action.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and AS Bopanna said that Zubair will be enlarged on bail in all the FIRs lodged in UP after depositing a bail bond of Rs 20,000 with Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Patiala House Court, New Delhi.

The top court also transferred all the FIRs lodged in UP against Zubair for allegedly outraging religious sentiments to be investigated by the Delhi Police and clubbed them along with the existing FIR lodged by a special cell of Delhi Police.

The bench also disbanded a UP police Special Investigation Team formed by the state government to investigate the FIRs against Zubair.

It said that Zubair can move to Delhi High Court for quashing of FIR registered by Delhi police along with the FIRs lodged by UP police, which now stands clubbed with it.

The bench said that the existence of the power of arrest must be distinguished from the power of arrest, which should be pursued sparingly.

It added there was no justification in keeping Zubair in continuous custody when the Delhi court granted him bail in an FIR registered by the Special Cell of Delhi police which is already investigating the whole gamut of tweets and funding of his organisation.

The bench said that it would be fair and appropriate if all the FIRs are investigated by one authority rather than piecemeal investigation by various authorities as the FIRs lodged in UP overlap with the scope of investigation of the Delhi police.

The top court refused to restrain Zubair from tweeting in the future as sought by the UP government saying can a lawyer be restrained from arguing.

How can a journalist be restrained from tweeting and writing? If he violates any law by tweeting, then he can be proceeded as per law, the bench said in a lengthy order passed after more than nearly two-hour hearing.

A total of seven FIRs have been registered in UP against Zubair -- two in Hathras and one each in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, and at Chandauli police station.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chief Minister on Tuesday asked his ministers to interact with public representatives of parties and take their feedback on government policies during their visits to the districts under the Sarkar Aapke Dwar' campaign.

The chief minister asserted that corruption and irregularities will not be tolerated and directed the ministers to take all decisions based on merit.

As part of the Sarkar Aapke Dwar' campaign, 18 groups of ministers - one each for 18 administrative divisions in -- were constituted in April to reach out to the people and ensure efficient execution of development work.

Addressing the ministers, Adityanath said the government has the reports of the two visits conducted by the groups so far and during the future visits, the parties representatives' feedback on government schemes as well as grievances, if any, should be taken note of.

"We live in a democratic setup. During your visits to your respective divisions, you should meet public representatives of the parties and have a dialogue with them and take their suggestions," the chief minister said.

He said there should be coordination between cabinet and state ministers.

State ministers should be included in the departmental meetings. No instance of corruption or irregularity is acceptable. The decisions should be taken on merit and not in haste," he said.

He said the ministers' visits have had a positive impact and it should be maintained in future.

Nodal officers should be given reports of the ministers and developmental work should be carried out accordingly, he said.

In 2023, the global investors' summit is planned and the groups of ministers should go abroad and create a favourable atmosphere for the state there so that it attracts more investment.

(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.)
admits Bank of India's insolvency petition against Future Retail

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Wednesday admitted Bank of Indias petition under Section 7 of Insolvency and (IBC) to start insolvency proceedings against and appointed an interim resolution professional (IRP) in the matter.

In an oral order, the two-judge bench, presided over by Justice Pradeep Narhari Deshmukh and Shyam Babu Gautam, said, The company petition is admitted and Vijay Kumar Iyer is appointed as IRP. The intervention application is dismissed. Read more...

Q1 results: Net profit falls 21% to Rs 2,564 cr as expenses rise

IT major Ltd reported a 21% fall in June-quarter profit on Wednesday as higher employee-related costs pushed up the information technology services firm's overall expenses.

June-quarter consolidated net profit came in at Rs 2,564 crore, compared with Rs 3,243 crore a year ago. Read more...

net profit jumps 61% to Rs 1,631 cr in June quarter

on Wednesday reported a 60.5% jump in net profit at Rs 1,631.02 crore for the quarter ended June, mainly due to a fall in bad loans.

The private sector lender had posted a net profit of Rs 1,016.11 crore in the year-ago period.

In the first quarter of the current fiscal, the bank's total income increased to Rs 10,113.29 crore as against Rs 9,298.07 crore in the same period a year ago. Read more...

closes below 80 mark for first time against dollar

The declined 13 paise to close below the 80 mark for the first time against the US currency on Wednesday due to strong dollar demand from importers amid high crude oil prices.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened at 79.91 and later slid to a low of 80.05 to a dollar. Read more...
A good pour on Wednesday brought respite to the residents in Delhi from a long spell of humid heat, but became a bane for the commuters, who across the city were forced to negotiate snarls and waterlogging.

According to civic authorities, at least five complaints of tree felling were reported from across Delhi due to rains.

Trees were uprooted in Dwarka Sector-1, Tughlakabad village, Delhi Gate, Paschim Vihar, and Netaji Subhash Place.

Authorities said they received 11 calls complaining about waterlogging after the rain lashed the city.

Places that witnessed waterlogging and traffic congestion included stretches between INA and AIIMS, Moolchand Underpass, Aurobindo Marg between IIT and Adhchini, NH-8 (Delhi-Gurugram highway), and Mehrauli-Badarpur Road.

Ring Road between Naraina and Moti Bagh, Rohtak Road, Kapashera Chowk, ITO, Vikas Marg, Sarai Kale Khan, Delhi-Meerut Expressway, Anand Parbat-Zakhira Road, Dhaula Kuan, Najafgarh, Mahipalpur, and Rangpuri were some of the other areas that saw waterlogging and traffic snarls.

Several incidents of vehicles breakdown due to heavy rain and waterlogging were also reported.

People tried to draw authorities' attention by posting pictures of submerged spots from across Delhi on social media.

A video shared on social media showed what was purported to be a mohalla clinic flooded with rainwater with doctors making urgent appeals to authorities to fix the problem.

PTI couldn't independently check the veracity of the video.

Traffic police took to Twitter to inform commuters about waterlogging and traffic congestion.

Kindly avoid the following routes due to waterlogging and vehicle breakdown in South District- 1) Aurbindo stretch from INA to AIIMS 2) Moochand Underpass on Ring Road 3) Aurbindo marg from IIT to Adhchini 4) MB road near Vayusenabad, police said in a Tweet.

In another tweet, it said the traffic is affected on NH8 on both carriageways between Dhaula Kuan and Gurgaon due to waterlogging and breakdown of vehicles.

It also advised the commuters to avoid stretch between Naraina and Moti Bagh, where vehicles moved at a dragging speed on both sides of the road due to waterlogging.

The city was reeling under a muggy weather for the last several days, and Wednesday rain provided a long-pending respite to the people.

All the same, commuters had a nightmarish experience as they moved at a crawling speed on the city roads.

Delhi gets flooded even with slightest of rain followed by long traffic snarls. It is a nightmarish experience as I was stuck in traffic jams and reached home around an hour late from my office in central Delhi, said Joginder Sethi, a resident of New Ashok Nagar.

Another commuter, Lata Chauhan, said she fought traffic jams at number of places due to the collection of water on roads.

Authorities should do something to fix this issue, she said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The 2022 election for the vice-president of India was held on August 6. The ruling National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar won the poll by defeating the Opposition's V-P candidate Margaret Alva. He won 528 votes against Alva's 182. Securing 74.36% votes, he has the highest winning margin in the last six vice-presidential elections held since 1997.

How is the vice-president of India elected?

The vice-president of India is elected by an electoral college consisting of members of the and the Lok Sabha, the two houses of the Indian parliament. The nominated members of these houses are also eligible to vote. Voting is done through a secret ballot.

The electoral college

543 members of Lok Sabha

237 members of Rajya Sabha

780 total members

All four seats of Jammu and Kashmir are currently vacant

The sole seat of Tripura is also vacant

Three nominated member seats in the Rajya Sabha are vacant as well

Who were the nominees for this years vice-presidential election?

Jagdeep Dhankhar

Dhankhar, 71, a BJP leader, was born in 1951 in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. A former lawyer, he served as the governor of West Bengal from July 2019 to July 2022. Previously, he has served as a member of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, a member of parliament, and a Minister of State in the Indian government.

Margaret Alva

Alva, 80, a Congress leader, was the joint VP candidate of the Opposition.

Born in Mangaluru, she has been elected to the Rajya Sabha four times and also won a election. She has also served as a Union Minister of State and held the post of governor in four states - Goa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand.

List of VPs of India

India has seen 13 vice-presidents since the formation of the post in 1952.
Wilful loan defaults in India have grown ten-fold since 2012 and amount to Rs 2.4 trillion, said a media report on Wednesday listing a shipyard companys promoter and two brothers as among top culprits.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) defines wilful defaulters as people who had the capacity to repay their loans but chose not to. Companies that use funds for purposes other than what the loans were originally granted for are wilful defaulters as well.

The 'Times of India' named Rishi Agarwal, Arvind Dham, Mehul Choksi, and the Sandesara brothers among defaulters. Agarwal is the promoter of Ltd, which allegedly has failed to repay loans worth Rs 6,382 crore and is the top defaulter. Its followed by Amtek Auto Limited and subsidiaries, promoted by Arvind Dham. The group has defaulted on loans worth Rs 5,885 crore.

The newspaper report considered accounts that have an outstanding loan amount of Rs 25 lakh or more. There were over 12,000 such cases, till March 31, 2022.

The Sandesara brothers, Nitin and Chetan, are third on the list and (FEO) according to the Indian government. They have allegedly defaulted on loans worth Rs 3,757 crore taken by their company Sterling Global Oil Resources Pvt Ltd and its subsidiaries.

Rs 2.4 trillion, the total default amount, is 42 per cent of the total budgeted amount for MGNREGA, the governments job guarantee scheme for rural India. It is 2.7 times the Rs 86,200 crore allotted to the health ministry in Budget 2022.

As many as nine companies have defaulted on loans worth Rs 2,000 crore or more. Apart from the three names mentioned above, there are names like Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhwan (Dewan Housing Finance Limited and others), Sanjay and Sandeep Jhunjhunwala (Rel Agro) and (Gitanjali Gems Ltd and others).

Sanjay Sureka (Concast Steel and Power Ltd), Atul Punj (Punj Lloyd Ltd) and Jatin R Mehta (Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery Ltd and others) are the other names on the list.

The newspaper said that 95 per cent of the defaults were recorded in the books of public sector banks (PSBs). And out of this, the State Bank of India (SBI) and its associates account for over 30 per cent of such loans.

Punjab National Bank (PNB), Union Bank of India (UBI) and Bank of Baroda (BoB), each has over 10 per cent share in the outstanding amount.

Maharashtra tops the list with the most defaults. The state which has the highest gross state domestic product (GSDP), Maharashtra, accounted for 34 per cent of all the loan defaults in the country. Delhi recorded the second highest loan defaults, accounting for 17.5 per cent of the total. West Bengal stood at the third spot, with 8.8 per cent of the total wilful defaults.

According to the report, FEOs and do not make it to the list of the top wilful defaulters in India. They both have been seeking asylum in the United Kingdom (UK). However, Modi's uncle is included in the list. He has been living in Antigua and Barbuda since fleeing from India in 2018. He is also accused in the PNB along with his nephew .
Woman inspector Sandhya Topno was mowed down by a pick-up van during vehicle checking in the Tupudana police station area of in the wee hours of Wednesday. She was taken to the hospital in a critical condition, where she died during treatment.

It is reported that the police of Khunti and Gumla districts were chasing the vehicles smuggling cattle. The police also had information that some vehicles carrying cattle were about to pass through Tupudana. A police team was deployed on the highway near Hulhundu for checking the vehicles. At around 3 a.m. a pick-up van with cattle was signalled to stop, but the driver sped away after running over the woman inspector. Sandhya was a 2018 batch officer of Police.

Later, the police seized the vehicle that had crushed the inspector. The driver has been arrested, but the cattle smugglers in the vehicle managed to escape. Based on CCTV footage, the police are trying to trace the smugglers.

--IANS

snc/skp/uk/bg

(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 government on Wednesday exempted the export of petroleum products from units located in (SEZs) from the windfall tax and slashed the export levies on these fuels amid easing global crude oil prices, less than three weeks after imposing them.



The move is expected to provide significant relief to (RIL), whose 55 per cent of refining production comes from its two SEZ refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat, from where a majority of products are exported. Other beneficiaries include the government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and .



The central government, on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest to do so, hereby exempts the excisable goods, when exported from units located in SEZs, a government notification said.



According to the notification, the government lowered the windfall tax on upstream oil production to Rs 17,000 per tonne from Rs 23,250 per tonne. It also scrapped the Rs 6-per-litre export tax on petrol and revised down the levy on diesel to Rs 10 per litre from Rs 13 per litre earlier, and on aviation turbine fuel to Rs 4 per litre from Rs 6 per litre.



Tax dilemma Early June: Oil minister hints at levying windfall tax on domestic oil producers

July 1: Govt imposes Rs 6/litre tax on ATF and petrol exports, and Rs 13/litre on diesel exports; says will review the levy fortnightly

July 15: No decision taken as petroleum ministry assesses the levy; says will consider average price trends, and not brief fluctuations

July 20: Export levy on petroleum products cut; exempted from windfall tax

JP Morgan in a report said the revision in taxes would result in revenue foregone of Rs 67,600 crore. Moodys had earlier estimated that the government might generate Rs 94,800-crore revenue from the windfall tax after it was imposed on July 1.





ALSO READ: What is windfall tax on oil companies?





It was announced earlier that windfall tax gains will be reviewed. So we have reviewed and rationalised the levy, Finance Secretary T V Somanathan told reporters outside North Block.

The Centre had earlier announced that it would review the windfall tax every 15 days.



CLSA in an analyst report said the governments clarification that SEZ units would now be exempt from the windfall tax was a positive for Reliance. This will also ensure that the governments export-friendly image is not hurt. With this clarification as well as the windfall tax cut, our bottom-up calculation shows the (impact on) refining margin of Reliance falling from $10-11 per barrel to $3-4 per barrel, it added.



The RIL stock surged 2.5 per cent to Rs 2,501 per share on the BSE on Wednesday.



According to industry experts, though the cess imposed on crude oil has been reduced, it remains quite steep at about $30 per barrel and is likely to adversely impact the EBITDA of the Indian upstream industry by about Rs 39,000 crore for FY23.

We expect the capex plans of the incumbents would remain largely intact owing to the still remunerative realisations of $70-90 a barrel for crude (net of cess). The special additional excise duty imposed on export of diesel and ATF, though reduced, remains negative for the non-SEZ situated exporters of these products and would adversely impact the realisations on export sales, said Prashant Vasisht, vice president and co-head, corporate ratings, ICRA.

(Shine Jacob contributed to this story)
The redevelopment of Mumbai's iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) railway station, which has been long overdue, will go through fresh tendering as the earlier round has been shelved due to internal restructuring in the Indian . The Unesco World Heritage site was supposed to undergo redevelopment last year. But it has now been sent back to the drawing board following the shutdown of the nodal agency Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC).

Railways, Oberoi Realty, and GMR Highways were among the nine bidders in the now discarded race for the marquee station project. According to minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the station will be developed under the hybrid built-operate-transfer (BOT) mode.

"The project is currently in the techno-economic feasibility report stage, since all projects under IRSDC were sent back to the drawing board. Once detailed project reports are made after that, they will be internally approved and presented to a heritage committee, after which a fresh request for qualification (RFQ) will be raised, a senior ministry official said.

Once all these processes are complete, the redevelopment project will reach the stage where it had been left off last year, the official indicated.





Also Read: Travelling on a premium train? This is what you will need to pay for meals

The project was overseen by Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC), a joint venture between Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) and IRCON, two entities owned by the ministry of railways. In October last year, IRSDC was abruptly shut down and all its projects were handed to RLDA and zonal railways.

Not only were these 60 odd projects redistributed, progress on many of these tenders was also discarded and the process had to begin from scratch. Almost 10 months later, there is little headway in its flagship development projects such as CSMT, where IRSDC was about to finalise the awardee following a request for proposal (RFP).

The timely redevelopment of Tier-1 stations such as CSMT is important not just for the passengers and businesses, but for the finances of railways too as these form a sizeable portion of its asset monetisation pipeline for the fiscal year.

The railways ministry plans to deploy significant resources this fiscal for the development of stations  both under the ongoing Adarsh station scheme and a new project for upgradation of major stations which involves a near-complete overhaul in services and passenger amenities.

In April, the railways had also conducted stakeholder meetings for its other flagship station redevelopment project  New Delhi railway station, which it also intends to award under BOT mode. There are, however, internal discussions of building some of these Tier-1 stations through engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) mode and engaging the private sector through real estate investment trusts (REITs) post completion.

The ministry has so far spent Rs 2,700 crore on station redevelopment this fiscal, minister Vaishnaw informed Parliament on Wednesday.
As the revised rates of after the 47th Council Meet came into effect earlier this week, apartments for senior executives rented by will now cost more. The rent of apartments for top executives will attract an 18 per cent (GST).

While commercial properties such as offices or retail space on lease earlier attracted GST, the lease of residential properties by or individuals did not attract any tax.

Firms renting out apartments will pay as pure cost, and no tax credit will be available.

An Input Tax credit means claiming GST paid on purchasing Goods and Services can be set off against future tax liability.

Talking to The Economic Times, Vivek Jalan, Partner at Tax Connect Advisory, said, "This would have a big impact on corporations who take guest houses on rent or take residential houses on rent for the use of their employees."

He added, "Furthermore, going by experience in such cases, the input tax credit (ITC) of GST on this rent paid by corporates may be disputed by the GST department arguing on the basis of Section 17(5)(g) of the CGST Act 2017 where the ITC of GST paid for any service for personal consumption is blocked."

"The new GST law would increase the cost of every rent agreement where the transaction involves a registered person, such as a company or a corporation. The 18% additional cost on the rent could either be borne by the company or the landlord, depending upon the commercial arrangement thereof, " a tax partner at KPMG India, Abhishek Jain, told ET.

For example, if a landlord rents an apartment to a company for its CFO at Rs 1 lakh per month, a GST of Rs 18,000 will be charged monthly. It depends on landlords and who will bear the cost of GST; either they can split the cost or absorb it entirely, the ET report said.

Pradeep Prajapati, the founder of Wealthvisory Capital, told ET that this move will "affect high-end rental transactions in metro cities as many MNCs take apartments on rent by paying anywhere between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 15 lakh a month and give them to top executives."

However, this GST rate change will not affect the overall rental market as tenants, who mostly comprise the salaried class, will not be affected by the move.

"It would not have any impact on the total outgoing for self-employed professionals and small business owners. However, residential leasing is an inherent demand which will not evaporate merely by higher . Certainly, there will be a marginal slump or rental stagnation, and rental yields in top cities can moderate in the coming months, as the market acclimates to the new tax-induced dynamics," Piyush Bothra, Co-Founder and CFO, Square Yards, told ET.
After falling in 2020-21, India's with China widened in 2021-22 and continues to do so in 2022-23, the Ministry of Commerce data showed. In the 2021-22(FY22), the was recorded at $72.9 billion, up nearly $29 billion from FY21's figure of $44 billion. In 2020-21, the was recorded at $48.6 billion.

What is widening the trade deficit between India and China?

The trade deficit is the difference between the imports and exports of the country (Here, imports are greater than the exports). When the imports rise, and exports fall, the deficit widens. Also, if imports rise more than exports, the deficit widens.

In May 2022, India exported goods worth $1.6 billion to China, over 25 per cent lower than the $2.1 billion in May 2021. In April and May combined, the exports fell nearly 31 per cent from $4.4 billion in 2021 to $3 billion in 2022.

On the other hand, the imports recorded a growth of 5.47 per cent in May 2022 compared to the same month last year. For April and May combined, the imports grew 12.75 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021.

In India's case, imports from China have risen. At the same time, exports have fallen, leading to a higher trade deficit.

The Ministry of Commerce and China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) figures reveal that for the second year straight, India and China may hit a total trade figure of $100 billion. In 2021-22, the total trade volume between the two neighbours stood at $115 billion.

Why are India's exports declining?

China has been under strict lockdown due to the resurgence of Covid-19 cases. This has led to a fall in demand for goods that were majorly imported from India, including iron ore, cotton and meat.

A report by Mint quoted a commerce ministry official as saying, "China was our second largest export destination in the first half of 2021 with a share of 6.8%; however, it has declined to 5th position in the first half of 2022 (share: 3.7%) as exports have been destined to the US, UAE, Netherlands and Bangladesh."

Why are imports from China rising?

Chemicals used in industries are a major part of India's basket from China. A Mint report stated that as India is showing growth in the manufacturing sector, the need for such chemicals has also gone up.

Besides that, India's pharma sector relies heavily on raw materials from China for manufacturing medicines and other pharma products. These are then exported to other countries.

This comes just two years after the government of India gave the call to make India self-reliant or 'Aatmanirbhar'.

The Centre has also been proactive in implementing the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to boost the manufacturing sector in India.

In a recent interview, NITI Aayog chief executive officer (CEO) Amitabh Kant told Business Standard that the PLI scheme would help put India on a firm footing in the global value chain by creating competitive firms.
U.S. Christians Help Power 'Church Aid Machine' in Ukraine, Poland Slavic Gospel Association's integral relief network gets food, supplies to desperate families other aid agencies can't reach





UKRAINE: AMERICANS HELP POWER CHURCH 'AID MACHINE:' American Christians are helping thousands of people experiencing the horror of war in Ukraine through a one-of-a-kind, church-powered aid machine. Food and other supplies are sorted and shipped on pallets by church volunteers in neighboring Poland, and then delivered by local church workers in Ukraine, part of a network of evangelical churches supported by U.S. mission agency Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org).



NEWS PROVIDED BY

Slavic Gospel Association (SGA)

July 20, 2022



LOVES PARK, Ill., July 20, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- American Christians are helping thousands of people experiencing the horror of war in Ukraine through a local church-powered humanitarian aid machine.



The grassroots relief network delivers food, hygiene items and other supplies to desperate families that other aid agencies can't reach in war-torn regions and remote villages across Ukraine.



In less than 5 months, the church-run emergency operation has distributed 124,000 bags of groceries, helping nearly 100,000 families with more than 5.4 million meals.



Food and other supplies are sorted and shipped on pallets by church volunteers in neighboring Poland, and then delivered by local church workers in Ukraine, part of an established network of evangelical churches supported by U.S. mission agency Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org). Each pallet load of food is enough to feed 100 families for a week, and more than 740 pallets have been shipped so far.



Unique Partnership, Tears of Gratitude

"There's another side to this story -- that is, what God is doing in the midst of this crisis," said SGA president Michael Johnson, who recently returned from Ukraine. "Our strategy is not only meeting people's physical needs, but also their spiritual needs, with local believers sharing the Gospel and giving them Bibles in their own language."



The organization partners with the Baptist Union and its thousands of local churches across Ukraine, Poland, and the former Soviet Union  a unique partnership that goes back to pre-World War II.



"Many (people) have tears of gratitude," said local church leader Vitaly, heading up the church relief efforts in Dnepropetrovsk, central Ukraine. "Most of them have nowhere to return to, as their homes have been destroyed."



Mom, Kids Drank From Radiator

A young mom-of-2 hid in a basement for weeks with 90 other people to escape the bombing. To survive, they had to drink water drained from a radiator and strain out the rust.



One boy told how he and some neighbors were cooking food in the street when there was an explosion. When he looked up, a man next to him was "cut in half."



In Ukraine's conflict-ravaged Poltava region, Pastor Oleg Ovsly's congregation delivers aid to families whose lives have been wrecked by the war, as well as local children with disabilities and the elderly.



One couple and their 5-year-old daughter  with no food and nothing to sleep on  were overwhelmed with gratitude when the church came to their rescue, Ovsly said. They represent thousands amazed by the compassion they've been shown by local churches on the frontlines.



Sanctuaries Turn Into Aid Centers

Congregations throughout Ukraine and Poland  where more than 3.5 million refugees have flooded across the border  have welcomed streams of desperate families in the past months, quickly turning their sanctuaries into aid centers and Sunday School rooms into dormitories.



At one church in Odesa, Ukraine, that turned its basement into an emergency shelter with mattresses and beds, a volunteer said: "The doors (are) open to everyone."



For many Ukrainians  who've grown up in the aftermath of communism and inbred atheism  it's the first time they've been in a church or even met a Christian. "Most people (seeking shelter) in the churches are far from God," said Pastor Volodymyr Shvets. "They hear about God for the first time and begin to pray."



The churches' hands-on care and their message that "God loves you" makes a powerful impact on shattered lives, says SGA's Johnson. "The Gospel shared and the Gospel lived out is like an explosion of hope," he said.



Founded in 1934, Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org) helps "forgotten" orphans, widows and families in Russia, the former Soviet countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel  caring for their physical needs and sharing the life-transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ. SGA supports an extensive grassroots network of local evangelical missionary pastors and churches in cities and rural villages across this vast region.



SOURCE Slavic Gospel Association



CONTACT: Matti Stevenson, 719-360-0586, mstevenson@inchristcommunications.com



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With the signing of the worlds largest areaAfrican Continental Area (AfCFTA)--the time is right for India to explore a trade with the union, commerce secretary BVR Subrahmanyan said on Wednesday.

The African Continental FTA came into force in January last year. I know it's early years, a lot of it has to get operationalized, I think the time has come for India and to also start talking about engaging in a comprehensive economic partnership or a agreement, Subrahmanyan said at the 17th CII- Bank conclave.

Officials (from India) will be engaging with some of your colleagues (from African nations) on trade matters to do that.We can help each other with raw materials, technologies, manufacturing, ideas and potential investment. We can help each other in education, health, in pharmaceuticals, and we can help each other become part of global value chains. And I think that is something that's very important for both of us. We can do that. There is a great feature for our partnership, he said.

AfCFTA brings together the 55 countries of the African Union and eight regional economic communities to create a single market for the continent, with an aim to enable the free flow of goods and services across the continent and boost the trading position of in the global market.

The commerce secretarys statement comes at a time when the Indian economy is rapidly opening up, and has signed two trade pacts with the (UAE) and Australia in February and April, respectively. Negotiations with developed nations such as the United Kingdom, European Union and Canada are underway.

We are going to sign one (trade agreement) with the UK by Diwali which is in October. We'll finish one with Canada by the end of the year. We'll have one with the EU by the middle of next year. That's almost pretty much a very large part of the developed world, he said.

India is already thinking of similar free trade agreements with Israel with the GCC (GCC) countriesBahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the (UAE) and possibly even the South African Customs Union, the secretary added.

India would be more than happy to engage with fellow countries in or collectives or even the large African African continental free trade agreement in terms of actually can we have a partnership there, he said, adding that Indias trade with Africa is booming and was about $90 billion.
ICSI CS Foundation, CSEET result 2022 for June-July sessions to be out soon

The ICSI will announce the of the CS Foundation course along with the of the CS Executive Entrance Test (CSEET) 2022 today

The (ICSI) on Wednesday is likely to announce the of CS Foundation course along with results of CS Executive Entrance Test (CSEET) 2022. The ICSI will announce the Company Secretary (CS) Foundation course and CSEET results 2022 on its website by 4 pm.

The CS students will be able to check their results once release on the official website - icsi.edu.

The CSEET exams were held in an online mode from July 9 to 11 this year while the CS Foundation exams were held on June 15 and 16, 2022 in an online remote proctored mode.

The ICSI will announce the candidates' results along with the subject-wise break-up of marks, the board said in an official statement. The results will be published in a form of e-mark sheets on the website.

Here's how you can check your ICSI CS Foundation and CSEET results 2022 for June-July sessions online:

Go to the official website of ICSI at icsi.edu Click on the link that says 'CS Foundation Result' or 'CSEET results' Submit your details Your ICSI CSEET result 2022 or CS Foundation result 2022 will now display on screen Download the same and take out a physical copy for future references

Candidates should keep this in mind that the ICSI will send not the results in physical format and only the soft copies will be available on the website.
will resume in-person classes for students of all courses from the next month, according to an official notification issued on Wednesday.

The notification asked students to attend physical classes from August 3.

JNU, which was closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reopened in February to resume offline classes for all students except those in the first year.

However, the students had alleged that several centres, including the School of International Studies (SIS), did not resume offline classes.

Students groups including the All India Students' Union and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) held protests calling for the resumption of offline classes in the SIS.

The notification issued on Wednesday said, "It has been decided to start classes in offline mode in the university by 3rd of August, 2022. All the students are hereby required to attend the offline classes from August 3rd."



On Tuesday, JNU issued a separate notification for the resumption of offline classes in the SIS.

"It has been decided to start classes in offline mode for the School of International Studies by 3rd of August, 2022. All the students have to attend the offline classes from 3rd August, 2022," the notification read.

(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 Reserve Bank of India has renewed its statement of commitment to the FX Global Code, which is a compilation of best market practices formulated by worldwide.

 continues to support the principles of good practices within the Code. had also facilitated the formation of India Committee (IFXC) to promote adoption and adherence of the Code among FX market participants in India, the said through a press release on Wednesday.

The FX Global Code has been developed under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements, Basel.

The FX Global Code was initially launched in May, 2017. Subsequently, after a holistic review, an updated code was published by the Global FX Committee on July 15, 2021, the RBI said.

The Code is applicable to the Wholesale FX market participants covering sell-side, buy-side and financial intermediaries, and is voluntary in nature. The Code does not impose any legal or regulatory obligation and is intended to be a supplement to the local laws, rules and regulations, the RBI said.

At present, the code is being implanted across the world by the Global FX Committee in coordination with Local FX Committees in each jurisdiction.

According to a statement on the website of the Global FX Committee, the purpose of the code is to promote a robust, fair, liquid, open, and appropriately transparent market.

The code aims to facilitate effective transactions at competitive prices which reflect available market information for a diverse set of market participants.

In May, 2017, the Bank of Korea, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the and the RBI had jointly welcomed the publication of the code.

Given the increasing volume of FX activity taking place in Asia, they encourage all market participants based in their jurisdictions to adhere to the principles of the Code, read the joint statement in May 2017.
The recent announcement by the (RBI) to allow cross border trade transactions in rupee is a timely move and a step towards internationalisation of the currency, according to experts.

Earlier this month, had asked banks to put in place additional arrangements for invoicing, payment, and settlement of exports/ imports in rupee, a step aimed at promoting growth of global trade with emphasis on exports from India and to support the increasing interest of the global trading community in the domestic currency.

Speaking at an event organised by IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, RBI's former Executive Director G Padmanabhan said, 'for internationalisation, one of the things to happen is that increasingly the currency gets used for trade transactions. This (RBI's rupee invoicing move) is definitely a step forward as far as internationalisation is concerned".

DBS Bank's Senior Economist and Executive Director Radhika Rao said rupee invoicing will help in establishing rupee's role as the settlement currency internationally.

"It is a very timely and definite step towards an eventual internationalisation. Now this eventuality is few years to few decades away but nonetheless the timing of this circular has understandably drawn many to conclude quite swiftly that this is meant to be here now, she said.

Rao, however, said that one should not see this announcement as a move to make the rupee stronger.

"It basically is more about expanding its (rupee's) usage than pushing the currency in a certain direction," she said.

The circular said that before putting in place rupee invoicing mechanism, Authorised Dealer (AD) banks will require prior approval from the Foreign Exchange Department of .

"The bank of a partner country may approach an AD bank in India for opening a Special INR VOSTRO account. The AD bank will seek approval from the Reserve Bank with details of the arrangement," it said.

Padmanabhan said with this approval process, the central bank wants to keep a tab on whether the accounts are getting opened for the purpose they are intended for.

"Who is opening the account? Which country is opening the account? What kind of transactions are happening? Initially, would like to keep a tab of what is happening. So, this approval process has been put in place, he added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The countrys largest lender, State Bank of India, plans to raise up to Rs 11,000 crore via additional tier-I and tier II bonds to meet regulatory requirements and support business .

SBI's board of directors approved the plan to raise capital by ways of issuance of Basel III company debt instruments in rupees, dollars or any other convertible currency, the bank informed BSE.

The board nod is for raising fresh AT1 capital of up to Rs 7,000 crore, subject to concurrence from the government of India, and fresh tier-II capital of up to Rs 4,000 crore, the lender said.

SBI's capital adequacy ratio stood at 13.83 per cent with tier-I of 11.42 per cent and Tier-II of 2.41 per cent at end of March 2022.

Early this month, public sector lender raised Rs 2,000 crore in capital vis tier-I bonds at a fine rate of 8.75 per cent.

Other public sector lenders have lined up fund-raising plans as well. and plan to raise Rs 4,000 crore through the issuance of .

Last December, had raised about Rs 3,974 crore through . The coupon for these bonds was fixed at 7.55 per cent, 17 basis points cheaper over the last issuance in September 2021, when the bank had issued amounting to Rs 4,000 crore at 7.72 per cent.
US President unveiled new executive steps address climate in a visit to Massachusetts on Wednesday that are expected to fall short of declaring the federal emergency many Democrats had urged.

" is literally an existential threat to our nation and to the world," Biden said.



He said the threats posed by represent a true emergency, but he stopped short of declaring a federal emergency.

"This is an emergency, an emergency, and I will look at it that way."



Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups have been calling for the White House to take aggressive measures on after conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said last week he was not ready to support key climate provisions in Congress, a critical loss in the evenly divided Senate.



White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy told reporters on Air Force One that new Biden executive actions will include Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to help states build cooling centers to deal with excessive heat and to tackle other impacts of climate change. The $2.3 billion FEMA funding is the largest ever to its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program, the White House said.



A White House official said that new funding could expand flood control, shore up utilities, retrofit buildings, and help low-income families pay for heating and cooling costs.



Biden will also announce new support for the domestic offshore wind industry. The administration has identified 700,000 acres for possible offshore wind energy development in the Gulf of Mexico, the White House said. Biden spoke from a former coal-fired plant that is playing a role in supporting the state's offshore wind industry as a manufacturing hub for undersea cables.

McCarthy said Biden will lay out more executive actions on climate in coming weeks. Biden has been under pressure to declare a climate emergency, which would enable the use of the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of a wide range of products and systems.





ALSO READ: Biden disputes Saudi Arabia's account of Khashoggi murder discussion

Senator Jeff Merkley and eight other Democrats sent a letter to Biden on Wednesday urging him to declare a climate emergency and use aggressive executive actions to limit emissions from fossil fuels produced on public lands and waters and maximize use of electric vehicles.



But the president is not expected to declare a climate emergency on Wednesday even as a heat wave swept across the country and threatened millions of Americans as well as the power grid. Biden promised tough action on climate change in his presidential campaign and pledged in climate negotiations to cut climate pollution by 50% by 2030 and reach 100% clean electricity by 2035.

But that climate agenda has been derailed by several major setbacks, including Congress failing to pass crucial climate and clean energy measures in a federal budget bill, record-setting gasoline prices, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine disrupting global energy markets.



A Supreme Court ruling last month limiting the federal government's authority to issue sweeping regulations to reduce carbon emissions from power plants also is undermining Biden's climate plans.



When asked whether Biden has concluded there is no longer any option for a climate bill, a senior White House official told reporters that other people could answer that question, evidently suggesting a lot depends on Manchin. "Our focus is on what we can do," the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
plans to build a new highway along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India as part of Beijing's efforts to strengthen its strategic position and project its power, a media report said on Wednesday.

The highway, spanning from Lhunze county in Tibet to Mazha in Kashgar, Xinjiang region, is among 345 construction plans proposed in the new national programme, which aims to build a total of 461,000 kms of highway and motorway by 2035, as seeks to revive its faltering economy with infrastructure investment, the Hong Kong-based South Morning Post reported.

Lhunze county, according to reports, formed part of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as part of South Tibet.

Under the plan released last week, the highway known as G695 is expected to run through Cona county which lies immediately north of the LAC, Kamba county bordering Sikkim and Gyirong county near the border with Nepal, the report said.

The planned road would also go through Burang county between Tibet, Nepal and India as well as Zanda county in Ngari prefecture, parts of which are held by India, it said.

The details of the new construction remain unclear, but the highway, when completed, may also go near the hotly contested areas such as the Depsang Plains, Galwan Valley and Hot Springs on the LAC, it said.

There was no official reaction here to the news report in the Hong Kong media.

India has said previously that it keeps an eye on all the activities along its border.

The report of the new highway plan along the comes at a time when India and China made efforts to resolve the over two-year eastern Ladakh standoff.

The two countries have so far held 16 rounds of talks to disengage troops at different points. At Sunday's 16th round of talks between the top military commanders of the two countries, it was learnt that the Indian delegation sought resolution of pending issues in Depsang Bulge and Demchok.

India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the were key for the overall development of the bilateral ties.

Last month External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar asserted that India will not allow any unilateral attempt by China to change the status quo or the .

At his meeting with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the side-lines of recent G20 foreign ministers in Bali, Jaishankar conveyed to Wang the need for early resolution of all the outstanding issues in Eastern Ladakh.

The eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas.

Both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.

As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process last year on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area.

China has been ramping up infrastructure in Tibet. Last year it launched a high-speed bullet train connecting the provincial capital Lhasa with Nyingchi, the Tibetan border town close to Arunachal Pradesh.

On Tuesday, new satellite images emerged indicating the construction of a Chinese village East of the Doklam plateau on the Bhutanese side, a region that is considered important for India's strategic interest.

Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled by bullet train during his rare visit to border areas in Tibet.

The massive development of rail, road and airport development vastly improved the Chinese military's ability to move men, materials and weapons to the border areas at a faster pace.

Tibet has five airports including at Nyingchi, Shigatse and Ngari located close to the Indian and Nepal borders.

Authorities in Tibet accelerated 15 key construction projects last year, including the middle section of the highway from the regional capital Lhasa to Xigaze.

Tibet completed an investment worth 20.1 billion yuan (about USD 3.2 billion) in fixed assets for road transport last year, according to an official media report.

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The told member states on Wednesday to cut gas usage by 15% until March as an emergency step after President warned that Russian supplies sent via the biggest pipeline to Europe could be reduced further and might even stop.

Deliveries via Nord Stream 1, which accounts for more than a third of Russian gas exports to the EU, are due to resume on Thursday after a 10-day halt for annual maintenance.

German gas network operator Gascade said on Wednesday it expects flows to resume at pre-maintenance levels based on current requests for gas.

On July 10, the last full day before maintenance on the pipeline started, flows stood at around 698 GWh.

Supplies via the route had been reduced even before the maintenance outage in a dispute over sanctions, and may now be cut further, while flows via other routes, such as Ukraine, have also fallen since Russia invaded its neighbour in February.

The disruptions have hampered Europe's efforts to refill gas storage before winter, raising the risk of rationing and another hit to fragile economic growth if Moscow further restricts flows in retaliation for Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

The European Commission proposed a voluntary target for all EU states to cut gas use by 15% from August to March, compared with their average consumption in the same period in 2016-2021.

"Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon. And therefore, in any event, whether it's a partial, major cut-off of Russian gas or a total cut-off of Russian gas, Europe needs to be ready," EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

The Commission proposal would enable Brussels to make the target mandatory in a supply emergency, if the EU declared a substantial risk of severe gas shortages.

The move, which needs the backing of EU states, will be discussed on Friday so ministers can approve it on July 26.

"We believe that a full disruption is likely," one EU official said. "If we wait, it will be more expensive and it will mean us dancing to Russia's tune."

EU states are trying to ensure storage facilities are 80% full by Nov. 1, from about 65% now.

WILL FLOWS RESUME?



European politicians say Russia is using technical issues as a pretext to cut deliveries. The Kremlin says Russia is a reliable energy supplier and blames sanctions for reduced flows.

Two Russian sources familiar with export plans said flows via Nord Stream 1 were expected to restart on Thursday but below capacity of 160 million cubic metres (mcm) per day.

Kremlin-controlled Gazprom cut gas exports via the route to 40% capacity in June, blaming delays to the return of a turbine that Siemens Energy was servicing in Canada.

That turbine, which was caught up in sanctions, was reported this week to be on its way back, although Gazprom said on Wednesday it had not received documentation to reinstall it and said the turbine's return and maintenance of other equipment was needed to keep the pipeline running safely.

Putin said there might be a further reduction in supplies or even a complete halt to flows via the pipeline that runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany, which relies heavily on Russian fuel.

He said equipment was being returned from Canada but said the quality of the returned gear and other parameters meant the pipeline might still be shut down in the future.

"Maybe... they will turn it off at some point, and that's it, and Nord Stream 1 will stop, because they came from there, from Canada," he said in televised comments, without elaborating.

Gas prices have rocketed in volatile trade since the Ukraine crisis erupted. The front-month gas contract climbed above 160 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) on Wednesday, 360% up on a year ago but below its March peak of 335 euros.

'CRUMBLING' EQUIPMENT

The surge in price has squeezed utility companies, triggering bankruptcies. In Germany, the government plans to inject billions of euros into the country's biggest buyer of Russian gas, Uniper.

Siemens Energy said maintaining turbines for Nord Stream 1 would normally be a routine matter. It said it would continue maintaining equipment under sanctions if possible and where required, and it would work as fast as it could.

In earlier remarks, Putin said one of the five gas pumping units, operated by Siemens Energy at Nord Stream 1, was out of order due to a "crumbling of inside lining" and another was due to be sent for maintenance on July 26.

Putin said Gazprom, which has a monopoly on Russian gas exports by pipeline, was not to blame for the reduction of gas transit capacity via a network of pipelines to Europe.

He blamed Kyiv for closing one route via Ukraine, although Ukraine's authorities blame the shutdown on Russia's invasion.

In its pivot east, Gazprom said on Wednesday Russian heading to China hit a new daily record. Moscow has been expanding capacity to supply China as deliveries to Europe dwindle, although Russia's far east network is not connected to the European supply system.

European nations, meanwhile, have been chasing alternative supplies, although the global gas market was stretched even before the Ukraine crisis, with demand for the fuel recovering from the pandemic-induced downturn.

Those efforts have included seeking more gas from suppliers linked to Europe by pipeline, such as Algeria, and by building or expanding more liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to receive shipments from much further afield, such as the United States.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Carmel Crimmins, Elaine Hardcastle and Barbara Lewis)

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Co and a union representing its workforce have sealed a wage deal that will boost annual pay by about 9% just days after the automaker committed to building its first new Korean car plant in nearly 30 years.

The union, one of the biggest in with more than 46,000 members, said late on Tuesday that a total of 62% of its voting members approved the tentative agreement reached last week, while 38% rejected it.

The accord, reached after 15 rounds of talks that started in May, comes after Hyundai announced a plan to build a dedicated electric vehicle (EV) factory in .

"With the latest agreement, we hope the company and the union will be able to collaborate closely and share vision to lead the future mobility industry," said in a statement to Reuters on Wednesday.

The unionised workers had voted earlier this month for a possible strike over demands for higher amid anger that management was prioritising overseas investment. workers last went on strike in 2018.

The union had urged Hyundai to invest in the country to support new business, including urban air mobility, purpose-built vehicles and electric vehicle-related auto parts manufacturing. One of its demands was the building of an EV-related manufacturing facility.

In May, Hyundai Motor Group, which includes Hyundai Motor and Kia Corp, said it would invest 63 trillion won ($48 billion) in South Korea through 2025.

Separately, the South Korean auto group said it would invest more than $10 billion in the United States by 2025, which includes its plans to invest $5.5 billion in Georgia to build EV and battery facilities.

Shares in Hyundai Motor were up 1.3% in morning trading, versus a 1.2% rise in the KOSPI benchmark.

($1 = 1,306.0200 won)

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Catherine Evans, Jonathan Oatis, Susan Fenton and Kenneth Maxwell)

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More than a dozen Democratic members of Congress, including lawmaker Ilhan Omar, were arrested in DC during an rights protest in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday (local time).

A video clip shared by Omar's official Twitter handle showed the lawmaker pretending to be handcuffed as they were escorted away from the Supreme Court by police.

"Today I was arrested while participating in a civil disobedience action with my fellow Members of Congress outside the Supreme Court. I will continue to do everything in my power to raise the alarm about the assault on our reproductive rights!" Ilhan Omar tweeted.

The US Capitol Police said that they arrested 35 people including 17 members of Congress.

"Demonstrators are starting to block First Street, NE. It is against the law to block traffic, so officers are going to give our standard three warnings before they start making arrests," the police tweeted.

"We made a total of 35 arrests for Crowding, Obstructing or Incommoding (DC Code SS 22-1307). That arrest number includes 17 Members of Congress," the tweet added.

Apart from Omar, the detainee, as per CNN include -- Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Barbara Lee of California, Jackie Speier of California, Sara Jacobs of California, Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, Andy Levin of Michigan, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Madeline Dean of Pennsylvania, Cori Bush of Missouri, Carolyn Maloney of New York, Nydia Velazquez of New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Alma Adams of North Caroliimage.

rights supporters and those opposed to rights have been demonstrating near the Supreme Court since the court's decision to strike down abortion protections under Roe nearly a month ago, as per reports.

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the US abolished abortion rights while overturning the constitutional right granted to women in a historical 1973 ruling called Roe vs Wade. Through this, abortion was legalized across the states.

The Supreme Court has struck down Roe vs Wade, eliminating the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion, and ruled that states may regulate the practice of it.

(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 sharp price cuts announced by streaming giant in December 2021 across its subscription plans in India caused a drop of two per cent in its average revenue per member (ARM) for the Asia-Pacific region, it said on Wednesday when announcing its June quarter results. The company follows a January-December financial year. The two per cent drop is over the same period last year.

In December, the streaming service had slashed its mobile-only plan by 25 per cent to Rs 149 a month. The basic subscription plan, which allows access to all content on any one device, was slashed by 60 per cent to Rs 199 a month. Some other plans saw a drop of 18-23 per cent in prices.

Excluding India, the ARM in the region grew four per cent in constant currency terms over last year in the June quarter, the company said, pointing to challenges the company faces in India, as it attempts to shore up subscriber numbers here.

To put things in perspective, is estimated to have a subscriber base of 5.5 million in India, according to industry sources. Disney+Hotstar is estimated to have a subscriber base of 50 million, and Amazon Prime Video, 20 million.

While said on Wednesday that it had added 1.08 million paid members in APAC, largely in India, for the June quarter, as compared to 1.09 million additions in the March quarter and 1.02 million additions in the same period last year, experts said the streaming service still remains a comparatively small player in terms of subscribers to Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar in the country.

Globally, Netflix lost 970,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2022, which is the largest subscriber drop it has witnessed to date. In the first quarter, it had lost 200,000 subscribers, the first in over a decade.

However, the quarterly drop in subscribers seen in the April-June period was still an improvement from a two-million customer loss it had forecast in April 2022 for the second quarter. The service expects to return to customer growth in the third quarter of 2022, with a forecast of adding one million members during the period.

is also approaching the size of Netflix's Latin American business, it said on Wednesday, having clocked $908 million in revenue during the June quarter, a 23 per cent increase over last year.

In the pecking order of markets, remains the smallest region for now, trailing the US and Canada (UCAN), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Latin America for Netflix. But the streaming service has been investing in content initiatives including local productions and movie acquisitions in markets such as India as it competes with big rivals here.

Also, since the first quarterly drop of 200,000 subscribers in January-March, the company has taken several measures to realign its strategy in a competitive market. This includes cracking down on password sharing, laying off employees, and announcing a lower-priced ad-supported streaming service, which is a departure from its earlier position of not advertising on the platform.

On Wednesday, Netflix said it plans to launch its ad-supported service in early 2023. Last week, the company announced Microsoft as its global advertising technology and sales partner for the ad-supported service.
Some suppliers to Chinese real estate developers are refusing to repay bank loans because of unpaid bills owed to them, a sign that the loan boycott that started with is starting to spread.

Hundreds of contractors to the property industry complained that they can no longer afford to pay their own bills because developers including Evergrande Group still owe them money, Caixin reported, citing a statement it received from a supplier Tuesday.

One group of small businesses and suppliers circulated a letter online saying they will stop repaying debts after Evergrandes cash crisis left them out of pocket.

We decided to stop paying all loans and arrears, and advise our peers to decline any requests to be paid on credit or commercial bill, the group said in the letter dated July 15, which was sent to the developers Hubei office. Evergrande should be held responsible for any consequence that follows because of the chain reaction of the supply-chain crisis.

Evergrande didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Calls to the media office at the housing authority in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, went unanswered Wednesday morning.

The payments protest is the latest sign of how a movement by to boycott mortgages on unfinished homes in is spreading to affect other sectors in the .

The development underscores a dilemma for Xi Jinpings government as it grapples with who to bail out as the countrys property crisis deepens: Relief for some borrowers could prompt threats of non-payment by a whole host of others. While bending to demands for support could put a strain on state finances, ignoring them might lead to a spiral of defaults as more and more borrowers refuse to meet their obligations.

The mortgage strike, which kicked off in late June in a stalled Evergrande development in Jingdezhen, has rapidly grown to at least 301 projects in about 91 cities. The protests have exacerbated the countrys real estate woes and threaten to derail attempts to revive the market amid an economic slowdown.

Authorities have urged banks to boost lending to builders to help complete the projects, and are also considering giving homeowners a grace period on payments, Bloomberg reported this week.

Homebuyers refusal to pay mortgages stems from the widespread practice in of selling apartments before theyre built. In the past year, overleveraged Chinese developers have been in crisis mode over debt repayment as funds ran dry, and construction has stopped on more and more projects.

Chinese banks say the risks from the housing loan nonpayments are controllable. So far, they have disclosed only 2.1 billion yuan ($311 million) of credit at risk. Still, GF Securities Co. expects that as much as 2 trillion yuan of mortgages could be impacted by the boycott.

Overall, Chinese banks sit on 38 trillion yuan of outstanding residential mortgages and 13 trillion yuan of loans to the countrys beleaguered developers.




Russian President said Tuesday that the flow of Russian natural gas to European customers has dwindled due to the West's own fault and warned that it could continue ebbing.

Putin's statement further cranked up pressure on the European Union, which fears could cut off gas to wreak economic and political havoc in Europe in the winter.

Speaking to Russian reporters in Tehran, where he attended the talks with the leaders of Iran and Turkey, Putin said the amount of gas pumped through the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany will fall further from 60 million to 30 million cubic meters a day, or about one fifth of its capacity, if a turbine isn't quickly replaced.

He added that could launch the recently completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline that has never entered service, but noted that it would only have half of its designated capacity because the rest has been used for domestic needs.

The Russian leader also warned the West that its plan to cap the prices of Russian oil as part of its sanctions over Ukraine will destabilize the global oil market and make prices soar.

We are hearing some crazy ideas about restricting the volumes of Russian oil and capping the Russian oil price, he said. The result will be the same a rise in prices. Prices will skyrocket.

Since Russian troops rolled into Ukraine in February, the EU has approved bans on Russian coal and most oil to take effect later this year but did not include natural gas because the 27-nation bloc depends on it to power factories, generate electricity and heat homes.

However, Russia's Gazprom state-controlled natural gas giant reduced gas deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany by 60% last month, citing technical problems after a turbine that Siemens sent to Canada for overhaul couldn't be returned because of sanctions.

Canada and Germany made a deal to return the turbine, but Putin said Tuesday that Gazprom still hasn't received the relevant documents.

The Russian leader said that Gazprom was to shut another turbine for repairs in late July, and if the one that was sent to Canada isn't returned by that time the flow of gas will ebb even more.

He also pointed out at Ukraine closing a branch of a transit pipeline carrying the Russian gas to the West that comes via the territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists as another reason behind the dwindling Russian gas flow to Europe.

German and other European leaders have rejected the Russian arguments, saying the reductions in were political. The EU fears that will cut off gas to try to wreak economic and political havoc in Europe this winter.

Putin, in turn, insisted that Gazprom has always fulfilled and will fulfill all of its obligations, charging that our partners are trying to shift the blame for their own mistakes to Gazprom without any basis.

(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.)
Russian President did not discuss the deliveries of drones either with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi or with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, aide Yury Ushakov said on Tuesday.

"The drones have not been discussed with either the President or the Supreme Leader," Yury said as quoted by Sputnik News Agency.

Media reports surfaced that the Iranian government is preparing to supply with several hundred drones, including weapons-capable drones.

"They discussed conceptual issues with the Supreme Leader -- the situation in the world and bilateral relations. In general, broadly," the aide said further.

The Russian President arrived in yesterday and met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

This is Putin's first trip outside the former Soviet Union since Moscow's military operations in Ukraine on February 24.

The conversation between the two counterparts took place in the office of the President of the Islamic Republic of .

According to aide Yury Ushako, Moscow's meeting with Tehran is expected to exchange views on the main aspects of bilateral cooperation, as well as on and regional security issues, including the current situation around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program (JCPOA).

TASS reported that the Kremlin representative called Tehran an important partner of Moscow, pointing out that the countries' relations are friendly, have a centuries-long history and are developing very effectively in a wide range of areas.

Ushakov had earlier noted that and have plans to bring bilateral cooperation to a new level, the level of strategic partnership, so a corresponding interstate treaty is currently being prepared.

According to Russian media, the issue of increasing Russian-Iranian cooperation in the economic sphere is especially relevant in light of the tightening of Western sanctions against and the prospect of signing a permanent agreement between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union on a free trade zone in 2022, which should replace the interim treaty in place now.

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The Senate Foreign Relations Committee gave easy bipartisan approval Tuesday to admitting and into NATO, as lawmakers aimed for quick Senate passage and a show of congressional support for expansion of the U.S. and European defense alliance in the face of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Committee members approved the expansion by voice vote. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and frequent critic of U.S. policy abroad, voted a neutral present rather than yes or no.

The vote sets the expansion up for a decision by the full Senate as soon as next week.

We obviously want to see and brought into the alliance as soon as possible, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House after Tuesday's vote.

These are modern militaries, militaries that we know well, Kirby said, stressing the strength that supporters say the two countries would bring to the military bloc.

NATO's 30 members are considering the admission of the two northern European countries against a backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia's five-month-old offensive against a pro-West Ukraine government has led European and U.S. allies to tighten ranks and strengthen defenses against any further aggression by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

As U.S. foreign policy priorities evolve to account for a changing world, what is self-evident is the future of the transatlantic partnership will be even more intertwined and integrated thanks to Putin's recklessness," Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said in a joint statement with ranking Republican committee member Jim Risch of Idaho after his panel's endorsement.

Today's vote is further proof that the answer to aggression is not isolation, but deeper engagement with likeminded democracies, Menendez said.

Putin's invasion led and to abandon longstanding policies of military nonalignment and seek to join forces with NATO, with its joint conventional and nuclear forces.

President Joe Biden encouraged the move behind the scenes and welcomed leaders of the two countries to the White House in May to signal U.S. support.

The expansion proposal marks a rare moment of Republican and Democratic agreement on a substantive issue before Congress. Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in May that lawmakers were moving the membership applications at a faster pace than is usual for expansion bids. He said he expected full Senate approval this month.

Lawmakers are rushing to approve the matter before the long August break.

The applications by Finland and Sweden initially had been expected to win easy approval from other members as well. NATO member Turkey has rescinded an unexpected early announcement that it would block the two nations' admission.

But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned this week that Turkey could still move to deny the expansion, if Finland and Sweden fail to crack down on members of banned Turkish Kurdish groups in exile there and meet other Turkish demands.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow's military "tasks" in Ukraine now went beyond the eastern Donbas region, in the clearest acknowledgment yet that its war goals have expanded in the past five months.

In an interview with state news agency RIA Novosti, Lavrov said geographical realities had changed since Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held peace talks in Turkey in late March that failed to produce any breakthrough.

At that time, he said, the focus was on the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), self-styled breakaway entities in eastern Ukraine from which Russia has said it aims to drive out Ukrainian government forces.

"Now the geography is different, it's far from being just the DPR and LPR, it's also Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and a number of other territories," he said, referring to territories well beyond the Donbas that Russian forces have wholly or partly seized.

"This process is continuing logically and persistently," he said, adding that Russia might need to push even deeper.

If the West, out of "impotent rage" or desire to aggravate the situation further, kept pumping Ukraine with long-range weapons such as the U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), "that means the geographical tasks will extend still further from the current line", Lavrov said.

Russia could not allow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy "or whoever replaces him" to threaten its territory or that of the DPR and LPR with the longer-range systems, he said - referring casually, and without any evidence, to the possibility that the Ukrainian leader might not remain in power.

The foreign minister is the most senior figure to speak openly of Russia's war goals in territorial terms, nearly five months after President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion with a denial that Russia intended to occupy its neighbour.

Putin said then that his aim was to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine - a statement dismissed by Kyiv and the West as a pretext for an imperial-style war of expansion.

After being beaten back in an initial attempt to take the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Russia's defence ministry said on March 25 that the first phase of its "special military operation" was complete and it would now focus on "achieving the main goal, the liberation of Donbas".

Nearly four months later, it has taken Luhansk, one of two regions that make up the Donbas, but remains far from capturing all of the other, Donetsk. In the past few weeks it has ramped up missile strikes on cities across Ukraine.

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Sri Lankan lawmakers voted in acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe as the new president on Wednesday, hoping his long experience in government would help pull the country out of a crippling economic and political crisis.

The six-time prime minister garnered 134 votes in the 225-member parliament, despite public anger with the ruling elite after months of severe shortages of fuel, food and medicines. Meanwhile, the defence ministry orders troops to shoot on sight anyone involved in looting or causing harm to life.

Our country is facing massive challenges and we have to work on a new strategy to fulfil the aspirations of the people, the 73-year-old leader said after his victory. Now everyone must come together.

The response of protesters was broadly muted, with just about 100 people gathered on the steps of the presidential secretariat, but some vowed to turn their focus to dislodging Wickremesinghe.

Were shocked. Hes a person handling things in a very cunning way, protester Damitha Abeyrathne said of the leader.

Many of the hundreds of thousands who poured into the streets to force the ouster last week of previous president Gotabaya Rajapaksa had wanted Wickremesinghe gone too, labelling him an ally of the Rajapaksa family.

But one organiser of previous protests, Chameera Dedduwage, said Rajapaksas removal had been one of the movements goals, and protesters would have to be satisfied with achieving it.

Unlike GR, Ranil is not a populist: hes known to be a ruthless pragmatist, Dedduwage said, referring to Rajapaksa by his initials.

Wickremesinghe took over as acting president last week, after Rajapaksa fled on a military plane to the Maldives before taking a commercial flight to Singapore.

The other key candidate in Wednesdays contest, ruling party lawmaker Dullas Alahapperuma, received just 82 votes. A third candidate, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, got just three, a parliament official said. Two lawmakers did not attend the session and four votes were ruled invalid.

Alahapperuma, although more acceptable to the protesters and the opposition, has no experience of governance at the top in a country desperate for an IMF bailout as it has barely any dollars to buy imports. The IMF was looking forward to engaging with Sri Lankas new leadership, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told the Nikkei newspaper before the vote.

The moment there is a government that we can continue our discussions with, our team will be there, she said, adding that she was very hopeful of completing program negotiations as quickly as possible, with some good technical groundwork done.

Crackdown starts

The four suspects who were arrested earlier this month for allegedly torching the private residence of Sri Lankas newly-elected President were on Wednesday remanded to judicial custody till July 27.

The four suspects who were arrested on July 10, will be produced for an identification parade during the next hearing date on July 27, according to the Daily Mirror newspaper.
British has bought another 100,000 doses of vaccine to stop monkeypox as the number of cases across the country has risen to more than 2,130, the majority of them in London, officials said on Tuesday.

Britain's Health Security Agency said while the epidemic is expanding, the majority of cases continue to be in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, with the infection being passed on mainly through close contact between people in interconnected sexual networks.

Scientists previously said there was no evidence of monkeypox spreading beyond those limited networks.

Monkeypox can infect anyone who has close, physical contact with an infected individual or the person's clothing or bedsheets, regardless of sexual orientation.

Last month, British authorities expanded their vaccination strategy, offering vaccines not only to health workers treating monkeypox patients and high-risk contacts of patients, but to some men who are gay or bisexual and at high risk of catching the virus, including those with multiple sexual partners or who participate in group sex.

Officials also dropped a recommendation for the contacts of monkeypox cases to isolate for three weeks unless they have symptoms.

The change was prompted by data showing that only a small number of contacts are ultimately sickened by monkeypox and a lack of evidence that the disease spreads without close, intimate or sexual contact.

However, health authorities urged people to remain vigilant for any signs of the disease, including a fever, headache or rash.

Monkeypox is still a serious public health challenge, and we urge contacts to take a break from any activities or events involving skin to skin contact, including sex, hugging and kissing, to reduce the risk of the virus being passed on unknowingly, said Dr Merav Kliner of the Health Security Agency.

The agency said it expected the first additional doses of vaccine to arrive this month, with the rest being delivered in September.

The vaccine, made by Bavarian Nordic, was developed for smallpox, a related disease, and is thought to be about 85 per cent effective against monkeypox.

Earlier this month, British scientists estimated the monkeypox outbreak was doubling about every two weeks, although many cases are likely being missed due to insufficient testing.

The disease has been endemic in parts of Central and West Africa for decades but had not been known to cause large outbreaks elsewhere until May. Since then, infections have been reported in nearly 70 countries, mostly in people without travel links to Africa.

Experts think the surge of cases across Europe was likely triggered by sex at raves in Belgium and Spain and that the disease was likely spreading undetected for months or years.

The World Health Organisation plans to convene its emergency committee on Thursday to weigh for the second time in weeks whether the outbreak merits being declared a global emergency.

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Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, on Tuesday accepted a human rights award on behalf of the people of in recognition of their fight against Russia's invasion of their country.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation recognized the Ukrainian people with its Dissident Human Rights Award. Zelenska, who is visiting Washington this week, accepted the award in person.

It is an honour to be here and accept this award in the name of every Ukrainian man and woman fighting Russian aggression today, she said, speaking through a translator.

Her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has won admiration from Ukrainians and Ukraine's supporters abroad by staying put in the capital, Kyiv, after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his attack on in late February.

Zelenska largely disappeared with the couple's two children during the first months after the invasion but emerged from seclusion May 8 to greet US first lady Jill Biden, who had been travelling in eastern Europe and made an unannounced visit to western to meet her counterpart.

Zelenska was due at the later on Tuesday to meet with Jill Biden. Michael LaRosa, a spokesperson for Biden, said the women would discuss continued US support for Ukraine and its people as they defend their democracy and cope with the fallout from Russia's war.

On Wednesday, Zelenska will address members of Congress in an auditorium at the Capitol, following a similar appearance by her husband at an earlier stage of the war.

(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 Sri Lankan Parliament on Wednesday began voting to elect the successor to Gotabaya in a three-way presidential contest, following a high-voltage political drama which saw the former president fleeing the country and resigning after a popular uprising against his government for mismanaging the economy.

The voting by secret ballot is taking place amidst tight security in the wake of the simmering tensions in the island nation triggered by the unprecedented economic and political crisis



Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Dullas Alahapperuma, a dissident ruling party MP backed by the main opposition, and leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake were proposed by lawmakers on Tuesday as the three candidates for the presidential election.

A candidate has to cross the magical figure of 113 in the 225-member House to win the election.

Alahapperuma's name was proposed by the Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa and Member of Parliament G L Peiris seconded it. Wickremesinghe's name was proposed by the Leader of the House and minister Dinesh Gunawardena and MP Manusha Nanayakkara seconded it. Dissanayake's name was proposed by MP Vijitha Herath and MP Harini Amarasuriya seconded it.

Wickremesinghe, 73, is seen as the frontrunner as he has the backing of the ruling Podujana Peramuna (SLPP).

Wickremesinghe faces a serious challenge from 63-year-old Alahapperuma, who is backed by the main opposition.

This is for the first time in 44 years that Sri Lanka's Parliament will directly elect a president. Presidential elections in 1982, 1988, 1994, 1999, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2019 had elected them by popular vote.

The only previous occasion when the presidency became vacant mid-term was in 1993 when president Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated. DB Wijetunga was unanimously endorsed by Parliament to run the balance of Premadasa's term.

The new president elected on Wednesday will serve the remaining tenure of till November 2024.

After the election, Parliament will convene again on July 27.

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The market capitalisation (m-cap) of cryptocurrencies topped the $1-trillion mark on Wednesday, capping a weeklong bull run as in India experts cautioned about the future of the digital assets.

Bitcoin, the largest by m-cap, was nearing $23,500 after rising nearly 20 per cent in the last seven days, according to coinmarketcap.com. Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, was trading above $1,500, up nearly 45 per cent in a week.

The of all was above $1.05 trillion, according to coinmarketcap at 3pm IST.

"Bitcoins price surge has ignited some bullish sentiments among investors. It reinforces the commitment to the fundamentals of . However, we have also witnessed Bitcoins dropping to the lowest hence we will have to wait and watch the global market movements to understand the market changes better," said Mridul Gupta, chief operating officer at CoinDCX.

Sridhar R, partner at Grant Thornton Bharat, said Indias legislation in April cleared the air on taxing digital assets. "With government implementing the withholding tax and income tax provisions as recommended in the Finance Act of 2022, the crypto market in India is all set to comply with these strict tax provisions. While these impose difficult withholding tax compliances on the market players and platforms, they do clear the air under income tax law, to some extent", he said.

From April 1, a 30 per cent tax was applied on income from the sale of crypto assets. From July 1, an additional 1 per cent tax was applied in the form of tax deducted at source (TDS).

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a written reply to Parliament on Tuesday, said the is of the view that should be "prohibited". She urged international collaboration in regulating the assets.

In India, could be rising due to anticipation that they would be brought under (GST), Sridhar said.

"If this proposal [GST on cryptocurrencies] is accepted, then India is all set to be a prohibitively high tax jurisdiction for crypto players and the market in general. The current buzz is perhaps in anticipation of the GST proposal, with people trying to square off their positions at the soonest", he said.

"If the GST proposal is accepted as is, or is not diluted to a lower rate of 12 per cent to 18 per cent, then the crypto market in India is likely to fizz out in the coming days. There is also a real concern on cross-border settlements of these instruments under provisions of Indian Exchange Control law with enforcement agencies also beginning to investigate such transactions. This is also likely to lead to diminishing interest in such assets further."

Vaibhav Gupta, founder of DesiCrypto, a marketing platform, was optimistic that India would allow cryptocurrencies space. "Cryptocurrency/Blockchain industry is one of the most important opportunity for young Indian audience, not just because of the risk-reward theory, but because of the immense opportunities. One can't ignore the importance of it and thus losing the ground to other country", he said.
Today: The seem poised for a strong start following the robust rally on the Wall Street led by corporate earnings. As of 07:00 AM, the SGX Nifty futures quoted at 16,470, indicating a gap-up of over 125 points on the Nifty 50 benchmark.

Meanwhile, following stocks are likely to see some action in trades on Wednesday.

Earnings Watch: CEAT, Havells India, IndusInd Bank, JSW Ispat Special Products, Mastek, Oracle Financial Services Software (OFSS), Rane Engine, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure (RIIL), Sasken Technologies, Syngene International, Tata Communications and Wirpo are some of the prominent companies scheduled to announce Q1 results today.

(HUL): The FMCG major beat analysts estimates by posting a net profit of Rs 2,381 crore in the June quarter of 2022-23, up 13.5 per cent YoY. Revenue also beat estimates with a 19.6 per cent YoY growth at Rs 14,357 crore in Q1 FY23. READ MORE

NTPC: Indias largest power producer, is going ahead with construction of its first coal-fired plant in about six years, as the global energy crunch spurs demand for the dirtiest fossil fuel. Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has emerged as the lowest bidder to build the 1,320 megawatt project in the eastern state of Odisha. READ MORE

Ambuja Cements: The cement maker which was recently acquired by the Adani group, along with ACC in a $10.5-billion deal, reported a 14.2 per cent drop in consolidated net at Rs 752 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2022 versus the same period last year. Net sales rose 15.1 per cent to Rs 7,943 crore. READ MORE

ICICI Lombard General Insurance: The countrys largest private sector general insurer's net profit jumped 79.6 per cent YoY to Rs 349 crore in Q1FY23, on the back of a healthy growth in premium income. The gross direct premium income rose 28.2 per cent to Rs 5,370 crore. READ MORE

L&T Finance Holdings: The company posted a strong 47.5 per cent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 261.17 crore for the quarter ended June 2022 when compared with Rs 177.02 crore in June quarter of 2021. Total income, however, was marginally down at Rs 2,988.40 crore from Rs 3,053.77 crore.

Grasim Industries: The Aditya Birla Group company has approved foray into B2B e-commerce in the building materials segment with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore over the next five years. Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Group said the move will also catalyse the growth of the MSME universe in India and provide an impetus to the governments vision of Digital India. READ MORE

Vedanta: The metals and mining major announced a second interim dividend of Rs 19.5 per equity share on Tuesday, taking its total payout in two rounds of dividends announced so far in FY23 to Rs 18,960 crore. was the top dividend-paying firm in FY22, followed by TCS, ONGC, HCL Technologies, IOC, HUL, Hindustan Zinc, ITC, SBI and Reliance Industries among others in the top 20 list. READ MORE

HDFC Life: The private sector insurers net profit surged 21 per cent YoY to Rs 365 crore in the April-June quarter of FY23, aided by lower mortality reserves and healthy jump in value of new business (VNB). Its VNB rose 25 per cent to Rs 510 crore. READ MORE

Rallis India: The company reported a 18.1 per cent decline in Q1FY23 net profit at Rs 67.47 crore when compared with Rs 82.42 crore in Q1FY22. Total income grew by almost 16 per cent YoY to Rs 866.80 crore.

Car Makers: India's passenger vehicle exports rose by 26 per cent in Q1FY23. As per the latest data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), passenger vehicle shipments rose to 1,60,263 units as compared with 1,27,083 units in the same quarter of FY22. READ MORE

Canara Bank: The state-run bank raised Rs 2,000 crore by issuing Basel III compliant additional tier I bonds this month. "The bank received total bid amount of Rs 5,719 crore, out of which full issuance of Rs 2,000 crore was accepted at 8.24 per cent," the bank said in a regulatory filing.

TV18 Broadcast: The company reported a net loss of Rs 4.97 crore for the quarter ended June 2022 as against a net profit of Rs 21.21 crore in the quarter ended June 2021. Total income increased 2 per cent YoY to Rs 283.52 crore from Rs 277.97 crore.

Network 18: The companys Q1 net loss widened to Rs 35.43 crore in the quarter ended June 2022 when compared with a loss of Rs 26.95 crore in the year ago quarter. Total income, however, surged 28.4 per cent to Rs 41.60 crore YoY.

PNB Housing Finance: The company and its board of directors paid nearly Rs 73 lakh to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to settle a case around preferential allotment of shares to the Carlyle Group and other investors. The payment was made under the settlement regulations, which allow an alleged wrongdoer to settle a matter without admitting or denying the guilt.

Ponni Sugar: The company reported a sharp 52.7 per cent fall in Q1 net at Rs 2.16 crore for the quarter ended June 2022 as against Rs 4.57 crore in the year ago period. Total income, however, rose 34.9 per cent YoY to Rs 88.09 crore.

Stocks in F&O ban: Delta Corp remains the only stock in F&O ban period on Wednesday as well.


With effect from 19 July 2022

ICICI Securities announced the resignation of Pankaj Gadgil (DIN: 08521239), Additional Director (Non-Executive Non-Independent Director) of the Company with effect from 19 July 2022.

Gadgil was representing the company's Promoter, ICICI Bank. The letter received from him states that his resignation from the Board of Directors of the Company is pursuant to his resignation as an employee from ICICI Bank.

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Japanese shares advanced to fifth straight session on Wednesday, 20 July 2022, with the benchmark Nikkei index finishing at its highest level in almost six weeks, as investors took heart from overnight rally on the Wall Street rallies overnight and ahead of the end of the Bank of Japan's two-day policy-setting meeting that began on the day.

Market sentiments also bolstered by reports that Russia and Ukraine are nearing a deal that would end the blockade on grain exports, and that Nord Stream 1 is likely to restart gas exports on schedule after maintenance is completed.

At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average advanced 71858 points, or 2.67%, to 27,680.26, its highest close since 10 June 2022. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 43.65 points, or 2.29%, to 1,946.44.

Tech shares led the surge, with Advantest, Screen Holdings and Tokyo Electron rallying 4-5%.

Technology investor SoftBank Group advanced 2.4%.

Japan Airlines rose 2% even as a report said the airliner would relocate about 3,000 employees to other businesses, such as low-cost carrier operations, as travel demand remains weak.

Shares of Toyota Corp advanced after the Japanese automaker statement that its production in August would be around 7 lakh units, lower than the previously announced figure of 850,000 units, due to a parts shortage related to Covid disruptions.

CURRENCY NEWS: The U. S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 106.503, after falling sharply. The Japanese yen traded at 138.13 per dollar, stronger than the levels seen last week.

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NHPC has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Damoder Valley Corporation to explore formation of joint venture company (JVC) for setting up hydropower and pump storage projects.

The MoU between the two power sector organization envisages jointly harnessing the hydropower projects and pump storage projects as energy storage solutions. It is in line with the national objective of energy transition which is 500 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy by 2030 and Net Zero by 2070.

NHPC is the largest organization for hydropower development in India. It has also diversified in the field of solar & wind power. As of 31 March 2022, the Government of India held 70.95% stake in the company.

The company's consolidated net profit grew 5.61% to Rs 467.15 crore on a 4.05% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 1,674.31 crore in Q4 FY22 over Q4 FY21.

Shares of NHPC were down 0.74% to Rs 33.45 on the BSE.

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The Reserve Bank of India has renewed its statement of commitment to the FX Global Code, which is a compilation of best market practices formulated by central banks worldwide.

RBI continues to support the principles of good practices within the Code. RBI had also facilitated the formation of India Foreign Exchange Committee (IFXC) to promote adoption and adherence of the Code among FX market participants in India,the RBI said through a press release on Wednesday.

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Reliance Industries (RIL), ONGC: India cut a windfall tax on oil producers and refiners and exempted petrol from an export levy as international rates decline, less than a month after it imposed the two charges. The Centre reduced the windfall tax on diesel and aviation fuel shipments by Rs 2 per litre and scrapped completely a Rs 6 per litre levy on gasoline exports. It also cut the tax on domestically produced crude by about 27% to Rs 17,000 a tonne.

Hindustan Unilever (HUL): Hindustan Unilever reported 11% rise in standalone net profit to Rs 2,289 crore on a 19% increase in revenue from sale of products to Rs 14,016 crore in Q1 FY23 over Q1 FY22. The company recorded an underlying volume growth of 6%.

Grasim Industries: The board of directors of the company considered and approved the plan to undertake trading and marketing of all types of building materials primarily through a B2B e-commerce platform.

Vedanta: Vedanta on Tuesday (19 July 2022) announced that its board has approved a second interim dividend of Rs 19.50 per share. The record date for the purpose of payment of dividend is Wednesday, 27 July 2022.

Ambuja Cements: The cement major's consolidated net profit slipped 14.2% to Rs 752 crore on 15.1% increase in net sales to Rs 7,943 crore in Q2 CY22 over Q2 CY21. EBITDA fell 39% to Rs 1,115 crore during the quarter. EBITDA margin stood at 14% in Q2 CY22 as against 26.5% in Q2 CY21.

Canara Bank: The state owned lender said it has raised Rs 2,000 crore by issuing Basel III compliant additional tier I bonds. The bank came out with the issuance of Rs 2,000 crore of additional tier-I bonds on 15 July 2022. The bank said it received total bid amount of Rs 5719 crore, out of which full issuance of Rs 2000 crore was accepted at 8.24%.

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Vedanta Ltd is quoting at Rs 257.55, up 7.87% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The stock is down 2% in last one year as compared to a 4.81% jump in NIFTY and a 4.97% jump in the Nifty Media index.

Vedanta Ltd is up for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 257.55, up 7.87% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 1.5% on the day, quoting at 16585.55. The Sensex is at 55613.05, up 1.54%. Vedanta Ltd has gained around 9.11% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty Media index of which Vedanta Ltd is a constituent, has gained around 7.67% in last one month and is currently quoting at 4991, up 1.84% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 387.23 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 193.55 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark July futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 257.4, up 7.83% on the day. Vedanta Ltd is down 2% in last one year as compared to a 4.81% jump in NIFTY and a 4.97% jump in the Nifty Media index.

The PE of the stock is 5.1 based on TTM earnings ending March 22.

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The chief executive officer-designate of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Ashish Kumar Chauhan, takes over in challenging circumstances. The reputation of one of the worlds largest stock exchanges is under deep scrutiny. Former CEO Chitra Ramkrishna, another senior officer Anand Subramanian, and even former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey have been arrested in connection with two cases, one of which is the so-called co-location, or  algo, case. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has passed strictures and imposed fines on multiple employees in that affair.

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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Digital Editor
Last week, Prime Minister sparked fresh debate on the politics of by taking a crack at politicians who garner votes by promising freebies. He described the practice as distributing revadi (sweets) and should be removed from Indian politics. Though Mr Modi did not name anyone, Delhi Chief Minister has chosen to take those comments personally. On the same day he took time out to argue that far from offering vote-catching sweeteners, his Delhi Model of ensuring free education, health care, power, and water for low-income groups was an effort to lay the foundation of the country.

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.



As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.



Digital Editor
(AAP) national convenor on Wednesday said that in the next few weeks, his party would share with the people of its agenda on what it plans to do for them if voted to power in the state.

Kejriwal, who arrived here late on Wednesday night - his second visit to the poll-bound state so far this month - is scheduled to hold a town hall meeting and a press conference in Surat on Thursday.

"I visited several times in the recent past, and people of the state have given a lot of love. People of are fed up with the 27 years of the BJP rule and want change. We have talked to the public as to what they want, and in the next few weeks, we will put before them our agenda, as to what our agenda will be when voted to power," the Delhi chief minister said after landing at Surat airport.

Before Kejriwal arrived in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Gujarat unit chief C R Paatil warned the people earlier in the day that they should not get misguided by the "revadi culture" of freebies as it could eventually turn the state and India into Sri Lanka, which is currently going through a severe economic crisis.

Although Paatil did not name anyone, he was apparently targeting the AAP and Kejriwal, who has promised free electricity if voted to power in Gujarat.

Kejriwal last visited Gujarat on July 3, when he held a town hall on the issue of free electricity in Ahmedabad.

During the interaction with the people, he had then said that free electricity was possible in Gujarat and that he would soon visit the state with a formula on how his party can provide it if voted to power. Presenting the "Delhi model," he had said that free electricity was possible in the state if corruption is eliminated.

The AAP has made free electricity as a major poll plank in Gujarat, where election is due in December. The party has positioned itself as a major contender in the state, where elections have traditionally seen a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress.

(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 recalling the contribution of Assam to the 1971 war of liberation fought jointly by Bangladesh's Mukti Bahini and Indian forces, said he is likely to visit the neighbouring country soon to further strengthen the age-old relations between the two countries.

He was interacting with a 25-member delegation of 'Muktijoddhas' is on a three-day visit to Guwahati and Shillong.

The visit is part of #AzadiKaAmritMahotsav and Swarnim Vijay Varsh celebrations organised by High Commission of India in & Act East Policy Affairs, GoA," Sarma tweeted after meeting the delegation on Monday evening.

India is celebrating its 75 years of Independence as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' while Swarnim Vijay Varsh' marks the 50th year of the victory of the allied forces against Pakistan in the 1971 war.

"The Liberation War was a landmark event where 9 valiant soldiers from Assam made the supreme sacrifice. Some Assam Police officers trained and equipped Mukti Bahini members," the chief minister said in a Twitter post.

The civil society of Assam also came forward to help the refugees who had come from East Bengal, he added.

The chief minister said that he has received an invitation from the Foreign minister of to visit the country.

I will make sincere efforts to honour the invitation to give a further push to civilisational ties between India and Bangladesh, Sarma tweeted.

Meanwhile, a delegation of 19 editors and senior journalists from various organisations in Bangladesh also arrived in Guwahati on Monday.

The team led by Chief News Editor, Independent TV of Bangladesh, Ashish Ghosh Saikat, will be meeting various organisations during their stay, an official release said.

This exercise is undertaken as part of the Familiarisation Programme organised by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, for Foreign Media, it 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.)
Youth vice president KS Sabarinadhan got bail in connection with the alleged protest against Chief Minister inside a flight.

Trivandrum Principal Sessions Court has granted bail to the leader on conditions.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sabarinadhan appeared before Assistant Commissioner of Police Sanghumugham at 10 am in connection with the alleged protest case.

The remand report submitted before the Trivandrum Principal Session Court said that Sabarinadhan contacted the accused at least five times over the phone on June 13 2022.

It was said that the what's app chat of Sabarinadhan showed that Sabarinadhan has sent a what's app message stating that it would be good if someone come on the flight and protested.

All four accused conspired with intention of attacking the Chief Minister. Police have objected to his bail plea and said that his mobile phone and other electronic equipment need to be seized.

All four accused need to be questioned together, it added.

After getting bail, Youth spoke to the media and said, "The sections of the attempt of murder and conspiracy have been charged against him who protested peacefully and legally here."

He said he will continue to protest against Chief Minister in the gold smuggling case.

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The on Wednesday junked a plea by seeking a review of its order, which transferred to the the investigation in the FIRs against former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh.

A bench of Justices S.K. Kaul and M.M. Sundresh said: "Application seeking permission for an oral hearing is rejected. We have perused the review petition and record of the criminal appeal and are convinced that the order of which review has been sought, does not suffer from any error apparent warranting its reconsideration. Accordingly, the Review petition is dismissed."

On March 24, terming the legal clash between former Mumbai Police Commissioner and former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh as "battle royale", the ordered a probe into all cases lodged against Singh by the Maharashtra Police.

Emphasising that an impartial probe into the matter is required, it clarified that it is not revoking Singh's suspension, and also, if there were any FIRs registered against Singh in the future, then these will also be transferred to the .

A bench of Justices Kaul and Sundresh then said the CBI must hold an impartial probe in all the aspects of the matter and examine whether the allegations in the FIRs have any truth or not. "What is the truth, who is at fault... How does such a scenario come to prevail is something which investigation must get into. CBI must hold an impartial inquiry into all these aspects," it said.

Singh is facing multiple cases of extortion, corruption, and misconduct, and was removed from the post of Mumbai police chief over his alleged mishandling of the Antilia bomb scare case.

The bench passed the order on a plea by Singh against the Bombay High Court judgment passed in September last year, dismissing his plea challenging the two inquiries ordered by the Home Department for allegedly violating service rules and corruption charges, as non-maintainable.

In November, last year, the apex court granted protection from arrest to Singh in criminal cases lodged against him. Singh had claimed that inquiries were initiated against him after he accused Deshmukh of ordering arrested police officer Sachin Vaze to collect money from bars and restaurants to the tune of Rs 100 crore. Singh claimed the Home Department resorted to a witch hunt after he refused to withdraw his letter (written last year) to then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, where he had made corruption allegations.

--IANS

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A worker of the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the was attacked by unidentified persons at Kalyan in Thane district on Wednesday morning, police said.

Harshawardhan Palande, deputy chief of the Kalyan city unit of the Sena, was injured in the attack and admitted to hospital, said an official.

The incident took place on Pune Link Road in Kalyan East, said inspector S G Gavali of Kolsewadi police station.

Four to five men arrived in a car and attacked Palande with sticks, iron rods and choppers, he said.

No case had been registered in this regard as Palande's statement was yet to be recorded, the police official said.

Thane district neighbouring Mumbai is considered to be a stronghold of rebel Sena leader and now Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Several Sena workers and office-bearers in the region joined his group after Shinde rebelled against last month.

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A Delhi court on Wednesday sent former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey to nine days' custodial interrogation by in a money laundering case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of stock exchange employees.

Special Judge Sunena Sharma allowed ED to quiz Pandey after the agency said he was required to be confronted with other accused in the case.

Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the ED, moved an application seeking Pandey's 14-day custodial interrogation, saying the former Mumbai Police Commissioner committed an unlawful act of tapping of MTNL phones, for which purpose Rs 454 crore was paid, and becomes proceeds of crime.

Pandey told the court that he never did any phone tapping or live monitoring.

He was arrested by the investigating agency on Tuesday in the case.

ED had earlier arrested former MD Chitra Ramkrishnan on July 14 after conducting her interrogation which was permitted by the court, where she was produced from jail on an order passed by the judge earlier.

The judge had issued a production warrant against the accused on a plea moved by the ED.

Later, the ED arrested Ramkrishnan on the ground of non-cooperation and again produced her before the court and urged for her nine-day custodial interrogation.

The court, however, had granted her four-day custody to the agency.

Ramkrishnan was arrested by the CBI in a separate case and was currently in judicial custody.

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With an aim to help users, tech giant has announced that it is planning to test (AR) glasses in public beginning next month.

The company said that testing AR prototypes only in a lab environment has its limitations.

"Starting next month, we plan to test AR prototypes in the real world. This will allow us to better understand how these devices can help people in their everyday lives," the company said in a blogpost. "And as we develop experiences like AR navigation, it will help us take factors such as weather and busy intersections into account -- which can be difficult, sometimes impossible, to fully recreate indoors," it added.

The company said it will begin small-scale testing in public settings with AR prototypes worn by a few dozen Googlers and select trusted testers.

These prototypes will include in-lens displays, microphones and cameras -- but they will have strict limitations on what they can do. "For example, our AR prototypes do not support photography and videography, though image data will be used to enable experiences like translating the menu in front of you or showing you directions to a nearby coffee shop," the company said.

"It is early, and we want to get this right, so we are taking it slow, with a strong focus on ensuring the privacy of the testers and those around them," it added.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
is set to launch in India the Redmi K50i smartphone on July 20. The Chinese electronics maker is hosting an event, which would livestream on the company's YouTube channel and social media platforms starting 12 noon. You can also watch the Redmi K50i launch event livestream through the video embedded below.

The Redmi K50i is touted by the company to be a performance-centric smartphone. The smartphone would be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8100 system-on-chip, which is the same chip powering the recently launched OPPO Reno 8 Pro, OnePlus 10R, and Realme GT Neo 3. The Redmi K50i is expected to come in multiple RAM and storage configuration with 8GB RAM and 256GB on-board storage in the top-end variant.

It would sport a 6.6-inch fullHD LCD screen of 144Hz refresh rate. Like other midrange smartphones, the Redmi K50i is expected to support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

As for the cameras, the Redmi K50i is expected to sport a triple-camera system on the back. The rear camera system would likely sport a 64-megapixel primary sensor paired with an 8MP ultra-wide-angle sensor, and a 2MP macro camera. On the front, the smartphone is expected to get a 16MP camera sensor for selfies, videos, and face unlock mechanism. The phone is expected to be powered by a 5,000 mAh battery with support for 67W fast wired charging.

Connectivity would be covered by Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless connectivity, USB-C for charging, 3.5mm audio port, and infrared blaster. The smartphone is expected to feature the fingerprint sensor integrated in to the power button.
TCI Express Ltd

TCI Express Limited (TCI XPS) was incorporated on November 10 2008 in Hyderabad. Headquarted in Gurugram (NCR) India the Company operates in the business of express cargo distribution through road rail air and water mode. The Company comprised a pan-India network covering 704 of 712 districts with more than 650 branches capable of servicing 40000 pickup and delivery points. The global footprint o...> More
The exchange rate of the rupee fell to 79 rupees per US dollar this week. But, at the same time, the local currency has strengthened against the basket of the G10 currencies like euro, yen and pound sterling. While most experts are worried about the falling rupee, some are of the opinion that it may not be as bad at all. Know about the virtues and vices of the depreciating rupee.

Market experts believe that IT stocks remain a strong bet as rupee depreciates. Meanwhile, Ashish Kumar Chauhan is set to take over the reins of the National Stock Exchange or NSE. A mechanical engineer from IIT, Chauhan served as MD and CEO of BSE for a decade, before the new assignment. So what are the challenges that await Chauhan at NSE  which has been hit by a massive scam and whose former CEO is in EDs custody.

Notwithstanding soaring input costs and supply snags due to the war in Ukraine, the market has been bullish on fertiliser companies, thanks to the governments subsidy support. However, experts believe that emerging risks of a fiscal slippage ring warning bells for the sector. Look at the factors that make analysts cautious on fertiliser companies.

Insider trading or markets manipulation are some of the evils which regulators have long been trying to curb. In all such illegal practices, it is the insider who misuses the information he is privy of. And it is not just the markets. Other sectors like banking too are at risk. And they are now warning employees against using non-official means of communication like WhatsApp. Several European banks have now asked their staff to install the Movius app for all official communications. Let us know more about it and mor in this episode of the podcast.
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Over 21-year after leaving the National Stock Exchange, Ashish Kumar Chahuan is set to return to the bourse. A member of the founding team of in the 1990s, Chauhan was there for seven years before taking up another assignment.

An alumnus of IIT Bombay, Chauhan went on to head the Bombay . During his stint, he took the exchange public, which was pending for over 10 years.

As the head of BSE, Chauhan introduced several market leading products including the first of a kind BSE SME and BSE STAR-MF platforms. Till now, 383 small and medium enterprises have been listed on the BSE SME platform, of which 148 have recorded strong growth and migrated to the main exchange. The Star MF handles almost 20 million transactions in a month.

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Chauhan put to rest the perception that BSE was not keeping up with changing times by making it the fastest exchange in the world with less than six microseconds response time. Currently, the median response time is four microseconds for a trade. Under Chahuan, BSE has relatively handled the business without any hiccups on the technological front.

Now, as the term of incumbent Vikram Limaye draws to a close, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has handed over the responsibility to head to the IIM Calcutta alumnus.

Growing from the solid foundations, has come a long way since Chauhan left. Currently, it is the worlds largest derivatives trading platform by volume and is ranked fourth in cash equities by number of trades as per the World Federation of Exchanges 2021 statistics. In FY22, NSE's revenue grew 59% to Rs 8,500 crore, while net profit rose to Rs 5,198 crore

But Chauhans appointment comes at a time when NSE is plagued by many corporate governance and legacy issues. The exchange is entangled in the co-location case, allegations of illegal phone tapping during the tenure of former NSE chief Chitra Ramkrishna. In February 2021, the exchange had to be shut down due to glitches in the servers and the bourse had seen similar technical glitch in March this year. It all has undermined the reputation of the NSE among market participants.

Deven Choksey, Managing Director, KRChoksey Holdings says one of the biggest challenges is to revamp technology at the exchange. Chauhan will have to deal with a lot of legacy issues at the bourse. He could do well do shore up the cash market volumes under his tenure. Chauhans vast experience with tech could help keep NSE in good stead.

In his previous stint at NSE, Chauhan played a key role in establishing the technological foundation for derivatives trading. Even at BSE, Chauhan was at the heart of the exchange's automation and technological innovation. Now, back at NSE, restoring governance trust in the platform would be one of the biggest challenges for Chauhan. Last but not least, Chahuans key challenge lies in taking the NSE public, which has been on hold due to regulatory troubles. Market participants, especially institutional and foreign investors, long wanted the exchange to list to unleash their investment value.

Deven Choksey, Managing Director, KRChoksey Holdings says Chauhan is cool-headed, balanced and extremely articulate. He is good at maintaining relationships at various levels and can carry people along with him. Chauhan by and large remained non-controversial. His great understanding of technology and commercial aspects of business could prove to be a miracle.



Going by his previous tenures, experts say Ashish Chauhan is a visionary when it comes to taking decisions and has a wealth of experience to lead NSE to the next level. His technological prowess, coupled with his collaborative style of working with the stakeholders could come in handy at the bourse which is in need of a makeover

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A British daily recently reported that officials of Deutsche bank have been told to install an application called Movius. The aim was to keep a tab on their communication with clients.

In the age of remote working, Movius allows companies to keep a track of employees contact with clients, especially in regulated banking roles that warrant strict monitoring. Movius is a US mobile application that tracks private communication like WhatsApp texts, messages and phone calls.

In Movius CEO Ananth Sivas own words, the app is designed to provide firms with compliant, reliable mobile communications that enable employees to interact with their clients.

It is often natural and instinctive for bankers to use private messaging and emails to establish good client relationships. However, most leading banks have policies that bar employees from doing so and mandate them to only use work-related channels to communicate with clients. Breaking such norms may invite action.

Tier-1 global banks have been rattled after a series of regulatory investigations forced bankers to quit for using private channels to communicate with clients. Last year, JP Morgan paid a hefty fine of $200 million for failure to protect staff communications on and emails. Similarly, Credit Suisse, earlier this year, fired a banker after he used a private channel to communicate with clients.

As part of wider scrutiny, Deutsche Bank reportedly resorted to Movius for monitoring private messages and calls of employees. Similarly, JP Morgan is also said to have insisted that employees use Movius for business communication.
Guangzhous Nanhu Amusement Park is about to receive a major renovation. Southern Chinas first theme park is showing signs of its age since opening in 1985. The city government plans to invest about 500 million yuan in the park, which will be open 24 hours a day and feature esports venues and night markets

Aug 16, 2022 04:26 PM
G20 - 2022 Screen Capture

African ministers, central bankers send letter to G20 meeting to stress need to deploy 'all available financing mechanisms' for continent

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) - As the G20 leaders' meeting gets underway in the Indonesian city of Bali, senior economic officials from Africa have called for the deployment of "all available financing mechanisms to save lives," citing the continent's economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and food insecurity.

Anadolu Agency obtained a letter sent to the G20 finance ministers and central bank heads by their African peers.

"The G20 must urgently deploy all available financing mechanisms to save lives and strengthen financial and social stability," the African finance, planning, and economic development ministers, as well as central bank governors, wrote in the letter.

"We cannot overstate the urgency with which the food crisis should be addressed, and we ask for immediate liquidity support akin to the global response during the COVID-19 pandemic to help support our economies," it added.

The African ministers mention the Russia-Ukraine war, which, in addition to previous exogenous crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, is "felt intensely on the ground" in Africa.

Calling for "swift and decisive collective action to address the growing food insecurity on the continent," the ministers requested a new general allocation of Special Drawing Rights equal to the $650 billion provided in 2021.

"The war in Ukraine has led to a rise in food, fertilizer and fuel prices. It is predicted that over 6 million more people will fall into poverty. Many African governments have had to double what they spend on subsidies for food, fuel and fertilizer," it added.

The ministers also urged their G20 peers to continue servicing Africa's debt beyond 2021, referring to the Extend the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI).

"The end of the G20 DSSI in December 2021 meant that countries are due to resume payments on their debt obligations despite a deteriorating global context, particularly for middle and low-income economies on the African continent," it said.

It added: "Given the new crisis, we ask that the G20 members extend the DSSI for two more years and reschedule the deferred interest payments for over 5 years. The DSSI created over $12.9 billion of additional fiscal space for countries in need, and a deferment of this would allow countries space to manage the new emerging crisis while planning for a more orderly debt service obligation process."

The African ministers also called for permanent representation of Africa -- a continent with a combined GDP of $2.7 trillion -- in the G20.

Addis Getachew/AA
Ukrainian artillerymen in the military assembly center check the weapons and special equipment to make them ready before they go to their duties at the frontline in Kherson, Ukraine on July 15, 2022 AA Images

The Wests delivery of long-range weapons to Ukraine will expand the geographical tasks of the "special operation" of the Russian army beyond regions in eastern Ukraine, the Russian foreign minister said in an interview aired Wednesday.

ANKARA (AA)  The Wests delivery of long-range weapons to Ukraine will expand the geographical tasks of the "special operation" of the Russian army beyond regions in eastern Ukraine, the Russian foreign minister said in an interview aired Wednesday.

Now the geography is different, Sergey Lavrov told Russian state-owned channel RT.

This is far from being only the DPR and LPR (Donetsk and Luhansk regions), he added, referring to two so-called republics in eastern Ukraine declared independent by Moscow this February, just before Russia launched its war in Ukraine.

It is also the Kherson region, the Zaporizhzhia region and a number of other territories, and this process continues, and continues consistently and persistently, he added, mentioning areas in southern and southeastern Ukraine.

Analysts have long said Russia wants to capture such areas to provide a bridge to Crimea, a key Ukrainian peninsula occupied by Russia since 2014.

As the West sends more long-range weapons into Ukraine, such as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), the geographical objectives of Russian troops will move "even further" from the current line, Lavrov added.

Because we cannot allow the part of Ukraine that (President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy, or whoever replaces him, will control to have weapons that will pose a direct threat to our territory and the territory of those republics that have declared their independence, those who want to determine their future on their own, he stressed.

Russia has tried to justify its war, launched on Feb. 24, by alleging a threat from Ukraine to Russia, while also warning the West to not get involved in the war.

Western countries have not sent troops to Ukraine, but have sent weapons to help Ukraine fight off the war launched by its giant eastern neighbor.

Over 5,100 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, according to UN figures.

At least 16 million people in Ukraine have also been forced to flee their homes, including around 9.2 million that have fled to other countries

AA/Jeyhun Aliyev
Vladimir Putin AP Images

Truly sovereign states can show high growth dynamics as 'new era' coming in world history, says Vladimir Putin

ANKARA (AA) - The West has taken a leading position in the world largely through "robbing other nations," and it cannot offer its own model of the future, the Russian president said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the plenary session of the forum of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives -- an autonomous non-profit organization set up by the Russian government -- Vladimir Putin stressed that a "new era" is coming in world history, adding that only truly sovereign states can show high growth dynamics.

"Russia must move forward, it is unacceptable only to rest on our laurels and rejoice in the successes of our ancestors," he said.

Putin noted that the so-called "golden billion" model of the West is unfair as it divides people into first and second grade, dubbing it "racist and neo-colonial."

The unipolar world order was a brake on development, Putin said.

Speaking on the gas tribune issue, Putin claimed that Canada did not want to provide the turbine for the Nord Stream pipeline not because of the Russian "special military operation," but because it produces oil and gas itself.

"Sitting on foreign technologies all the time means sinking into humiliating dependence, the retreat of foreigners forced Russia to move," the Russian leader said.

Putin also questioned the quality of the repair of the turbine, which he said should be returned from Canada.

While issues related to the natural gas supply continue, Russia's energy giant Gazprom announced that it cannot guarantee gas flow due to a gas tribune problem.

The turbine, which was repaired by German industrial giant Siemens in Canada, was decided to be sent to Germany instead of Russia due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Gazprom had reduced the natural gas flow to Europe citing the absence of the turbine.

Jeyhun Aliyev/AA
In pics: rice-fish co-culture system in east China's Zhejiang

Xinhua) 08:27, July 20, 2022

In this aerial photo, villagers celebrate in traditional costumes as they start ploughing and release fish fry into rice fields in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

In this aerial photo, villagers celebrate in traditional costumes as they start ploughing and release fish fry into rice fields in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

In this aerial photo, farmers carry buckets of fish fry before releasing them into rice fields in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Aerial photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Photo taken on July 19, 2022 shows a fish caught by a farmer in a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

People visit a museum themed on Qingtian rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, July 18, 2022.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows fish swimming in a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

A farmer releases a fish into a rice field in a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, July 19, 2022.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

A farmer feeds fish in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, July 25, 2019.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

People visit a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, July 18, 2022.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

A farmer catches fish in a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, July 19, 2022.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Photo taken on June 11, 2020 shows fish swimming in a rice field in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Aerial photo taken on July 25, 2019 shows terraced rice fields in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Aerial photo taken on July 25, 2019 shows terraced rice fields in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

A farmer releases fish fry into a rice field in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Aerial photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Farmers release fish fry into a rice field in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Aerial photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Photo taken on July 25, 2019 shows fish swimming in a terraced rice field in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

A farmer plows the rice field in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Du Mingming)
Photo: The Canadian Press B.C. Attorney General David Eby (right) and then-federal minister of border security and organized crime reduction Bill Blair speak to media following a meeting to discuss money laundering at the Legislature in Victoria on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

A high-profile New Democrat has announced his bid to become the next premier of British Columbia, saying he has secured the support of an overwhelming majority of his party colleagues in the legislature.

Attorney General David Eby says he has the backing of 48 out of 57 NDP caucus members and is so far the only declared candidate in this fall's leadership election, with the winner set to be announced on Dec. 3.

Several notable cabinet ministers have already said they wouldn't run for the leadership, including Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon, Finance Minister Selina Robinson and Municipal Affairs Minister Nathan Cullen.

Eby's announcement ends weeks of speculation after Premier John Horgan said he would resign because he no longer has the energy to seek re-election following two bouts with cancer.

Eby says that as recently as 15 days ago he thought Horgan would carry on through the fall session at a minimum, even as the premier was struggling with his health.

The attorney general says accomplishments that include launching an inquiry into money laundering and calling on municipalities to take action on affordable housing have given him the experience to tackle tough challenges if he becomes premier.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Roman Baber is asking Conservative party members to give him a second look  not just think of him as their second choice.

The former Ontario legislator  best known before the race for being removed from Ontario Premier Doug Ford's caucus over opposing COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2021  released a policy document Wednesday highlighting the promises he's made around themes including democracy and natural resources.

Baber, who has broadened his fight of COVID-19 health measures to vaccine mandates, points to pledges such as cancelling agricultural supply management and federal equalization payments to the provinces as "material differences" between himself and the two candidates he may find himself trailing on the ballot.

One being Pierre Poilievre, the party's longtime Ottawa-area MP and the contest's perceived front-runner, whose campaign has been centred around the very word freedom.

Another is Leslyn Lewis, a social Conservative MP from Ontario, who also speaks against COVID-19 health measures and in support of last winter's convoy protests after placing third in the party's 2020 leadership race.

"A lot of Conservative members appreciate that I took a principled position in defence of Canadians over the last couple of years when it was unpopular," Baber said in a recent interview.

"But they're not prepared to mark me as their No. 1, as of yet."

He's now embarking on what he calls an "educational campaign" with party members on how the ranked balloting system works, telling them they don't need to worry about splitting the vote.

"If you mark me (second) after a more popular candidate, then I will not get your (second) vote. That's (because) I'll likely fall off the ballot before a more popular candidate," he tweeted Tuesday.

He went on to ask them to "switch" and pick him first.

As for his political future, Baber said he will make his decision once the race is over.

"We're focused on a strong finish."

His efforts to cajole members into his court comes as voting is already underway and other candidates seek to do the same.

With the party having mailed most of the more than 670,000 ballots out to members, it began the process this week of ensuring the ones that have been sent back are valid  checking, for example, that members sent in a copy of their driver's licence.

The results will be revealed in Ottawa on Sept. 10.

New Canadians are among the potential supporters some candidates have been reaching out to, a segment of the population Conservative insiders believe the party must do more to attract after the contest.

Questions hang over what will happen to the thousands of new party members Patrick Brown claimed to have signed up before he was disqualified from the race. He ran a campaign focused on finding Conservatives from racialized and immigrant communities, saying after he was ousted that he felt ex-Quebec premier Jean Charest was best suited to defeat Poilievre.

Lewis has also appealed to Brown's supporters.

A Black immigrant from Jamaica, she recently emailed party members railing against what she described as the categorization of people under the label of the so-called ethnic vote.

She said it's a problem when people, including those inside the party, see voters as belonging to a single block.

"Patrick Brown could not deliver the 'ethnic vote.' He was free, as all of us leadership candidates are, to make an appeal to the Conservative values that they have. But they did not belong to him," she wrote.

"Can I deliver the so-called ethnic vote to our party in the next election? I have done so in the past, and I can do it again. But not because I fit some checkbox. Because I treat people like everyone else."
Photo: The Canadian Press

For weeks Natalya Zadoyanova had lost contact with her younger brother Dmitriy, who was trapped in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

Russian forces had bombed the orphanage where he worked, and he was huddling with dozens of others in the freezing basement of a building without doors and windows. When she next heard from him, he was in tears.

Im alive, he told her. Im in Russia.

Dmitriy Zadoyanov was facing the next chapter of devastation for the people of Mariupol and other occupied cities: Forcible transfers to Russia, the very nation that killed their neighbors and shelled their hometowns almost into oblivion.

Nearly 2 million Ukrainians refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these journeys as forced transfers to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations of war victims who already speak Russian and are grateful for a new home.

An Associated Press investigation based on dozens of interviews has found that while the picture is more nuanced than the Ukrainian government suggests, many refugees are indeed forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are.

The abuses start not with a gun to the head, but with a poisoned choice: Die in Ukraine or live in Russia. Those who leave go through a series of what are known as filtration points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip searches to being yanked aside and never seen again. Refugees told the AP of an old woman who died in the cold, her body swollen, and an evacuee beaten so severely that her back was covered in bruises.

Those who pass the filtrations are invited to live in Russia, and often promised a payment of about 10,000 rubles ($170) that they may or may not get. Sometimes their Ukrainian passports are taken away, and the chance of Russian citizenship is offered instead. And sometimes, they are pressured to sign documents denouncing the Ukrainian government and military.

Those with no money or contacts in Russia  the majority, by most accounts  can only go where they are sent, eastward, even to the sub-Arctic. More than 1,000 are as far away as Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, a 10-day train journey to the edge of the Pacific Ocean, according to people the AP spoke with who saw multiple trains arrive over the weeks of the war.

However, the AP investigation also found signs of clear dissent within Russia to the government narrative that Ukrainians are being rescued from Nazis. Almost all the refugees the AP interviewed spoke gratefully about Russians who quietly helped them escape through a clandestine network, retrieving documents, finding shelter, buying train and bus fare, exchanging Ukrainian hryvnia for Russian rubles and even lugging the makeshift baggage that holds all that remains of their pre-war lives.

The investigation is the most extensive to date on the transfers, based on interviews with 36 Ukrainians mostly from Mariupol who left for Russia, including 11 still there and others in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia, Ireland, Germany and Norway. The AP also drew on interviews with Russian underground volunteers, video footage, Russian legal documents and Russian state media.

The story of Zadoyanov, 32, is typical. Exhausted and hungry in the basement in Mariupol, he finally accepted the idea of evacuation. The Russians told him he could board a bus to either Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine or Rostov-on-Don in Russia.

They lied. The buses went only to Russia.

Along the way, Russian authorities searched his phone and interrogated him on why he was baptized and whether he had sexual feelings toward a boy in the camp. A man from Russian state television wanted to bring him to Moscow and pay him to denigrate the Ukrainians, an offer he declined. People with video cameras also asked arriving children to talk about how Ukraine was bombarding its own citizens.

It was 100 percent a tactical pressure, Zadoyanov said. Why children? Because it is much easier to manipulate them."

Then he, five children and four women were taken to the train station and told their destination would be Nizhny Novgorod, even deeper into Russia, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the Ukrainian border. From the train, Zadoyanov called his sister Natalya in Poland. Her panic rose.

Get off the train, she told him. Now.

A DELIBERATE STRATEGY

The transfer of hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine is part of a deliberate and systemic strategy, laid out in Russian government documents.

An emergency mass order describes the distribution of 100,000 Ukrainians to some of the most remote and impoverished regions of Russia. None was to be sent to the capital, Moscow.

The AP verified through interviews with refugees, media reports and official statements that Ukrainians have received temporary accommodation in more than two dozen Russian cities and localities, and were even taken to an unused chemical plant in the Bashkortistan region, 150 kilometres (100 miles) from the nearest major town. One refugee, Bohdan Honcharov, told the AP that about 50 Ukrainians he traveled with were sent to Siberia, so far away that they effectively disappeared with little chance of escape.

A Ukrainian woman also said her elderly parents from Mariupol were sent to Russia and told to move to Vladivostok, at the other end of the country. Russian border authorities did not let her father out of Russia because he still had Soviet citizenship from the old times, along with Ukrainian residency documents.

Many Ukrainians stay in Russia because while they are technically free to leave, they have nowhere to go, no money, no documents or no way to cross the distances in a sprawling country twice the size of the United States. Some fear that if they return, Ukraine will prosecute them for going to the enemy  a fear encouraged by Russian officials.

Others speak Russian, with family there and ties that they feel are stronger even than their links to Ukraine. One woman told the AP that her husband was Russian and she felt more welcome in Russia.

Lyudmila Bolbads family walked out of Mariupol and ended up in Taganrog in Russia. The family speaks Russian, and the city of Khabarovsk, nearly 10,000 kilometers from Ukraine, was offering jobs, special payments for moving to the Far East and eventual Russian citizenship. With nothing left to lose, they took the 9-day train trip across some of the worlds most deserted territory to a city far closer to Japan than Ukraine.

Bolbad and her husband found work in a local factory, much as she was doing in the Azovstal steel mill back in Mariupol. Little else has gone as theyd hoped.

They handed over their Ukrainian passports in exchange for promises of Russian citizenship without hesitation, only to discover that landlords would not rent to Ukrainians without a valid identity document. The promised payments to buy a home are slow to come, and they are stranded with hundreds of others from Mariupol in a rundown hotel with barely edible food. But Bolbad plans to stay in Russia, and thinks Ukraine would label her a traitor if she went back.

Now we are here ... were trying to return to a normal life somehow, to encourage ourselves to start our life from scratch, she said. If you survived (the war), you deserve it and need to move forward, not stop.

Russias reasons for deporting Ukrainians are not entirely clear, according to Oleksandra Matviichuk, the head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. One goal appears to be to use the refugees in propaganda to sell Russians on the Ukraine war by pressuring them to testify against Ukraine.

(Ukrainians in) the Russian Federation are extremely vulnerable, she said. Russia tries to use these people in a quasi-legal war against Ukraine to collect some testimonies from people who have no right to say no because they are afraid for their safety.

The deportation of local civilians from occupied territories also clears the way for Russians to replace them with loyalists, as was the case in Crimea, Matviichuk said. And Russia may want Russian-speaking Ukrainians to populate its own isolated regions with depressed economies.

Ivan Zavrazhnov describes the terror of being in Russia and not knowing where he would wind up. A producer for a pro-Ukrainian television network in Mariupol, he made it through filtration only because officials never bothered to plug in his dead cell phone. He managed to escape, and ended up on the docked ferry Isabelle in the city of Narva in Estonia with about 2,000 other Ukrainians, nearly all of whom left Russia.

This is some kind of incomprehensible lottery  who decides where and what, he said. You understand that you are going, as it were, into the mouth of a bear ... an aggressor state, and you end up on this territory. ... I did not have the feeling that I was safe in Russia.

STOPPED FOR FILTRATION

Refugees on the way to Russia are interrogated at multiple stops, in what both Russians and Ukrainians call filtration. Each time, some are weeded out.

They are fingerprinted and photographed, which the Ukrainian government calls the collection of biological information. Some are stripped of their clothing, and those with tattoos, wounds or bruises from munitions come under special scrutiny. Phones are confiscated and sometimes connected to computers, raising fears that tracking software is installed.

The Kovalevskiy family left Mariupol after eating cold scraps of food in an unlit basement and watching sores fester on their unwashed skin. At their first filtration, they held their breaths and thought fearfully of the photo and video the eldest daughter had transferred from her phone to a flash drive hidden among their belongings.

It never crossed her mind to delete her contacts. When a Russian soldier searched her phone, he stopped at the one listed as Commander and pulled her aside.

She explained that the commander was not a military connection but the head of the youth camp where she worked for two years. The explanation was satisfactory  this time. But they did not know how many more times they would be interrogated  Human Rights Watch has identified 14 filtration points in Ukrainian territory controlled by Russian forces.

The next stop was Vynohradne, named for its vineyards but now one of the mass grave sites established by Russia for Mariupol's thousands of dead. The tent there was freezing and suffocatingly crowded, and the smell of rotting flesh clung to their nostrils. An old woman died overnight in the minus 9-degree (15 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures, her body swelling.

The mother, Viktoria Kovalevska, peered outside to the tent next door and saw a wooden crate that a soldier had dropped to the ground. Inside were severed limbs.

Finally, the family reached the Russian city of Taganrog. When questioned by Russian officials about why they had left their hometown, the mother could no longer restrain herself.

We did not leave; we were deported, she replied testily. We were loaded into cars by the military and taken away.

Dozens of people from Mariupol were then given free train passage to two Russian cities: Volgograd, about 600 kilometers (370 miles) to the east, or Penza, twice as far.

You go where youre told, they heard.

The Kovalevskiy family was among the lucky ones  they made it through the filtrations.

At an interrogation in Donetsk, a Mariupol policewoman was blindfolded and taken to Yolonevska, she told the AP. There, she saw military personnel and civilians taken for reasons that ranged from taking photographs of military equipment to running down the street in a panic. Some were beaten, and one woman's back was covered with bruises. She heard others died.

She was blindfolded again, handcuffed and taken to the Rostov region in Russia. She asked where they were going. Somewhere, they said, and ordered her to be silent.

She was told that evacuees in Russia would be seen as traitors and get a prison term of 10 years if they returned to Ukraine. She was finally set free in a prisoner exchange, and found her way back to Ukraine anyway.

They psychologically influence people, she said. Many of the detainees who are released are simply afraid to return to Ukraine after hearing such stories.

IDENTITIES IN QUESTION

The Ukrainian refugees in Russia sometimes lose their identities along with their homes.

Some leave their Ukrainian documents behind. Others have their Ukrainian passports confiscated and are offered Russian citizenship or refugee status. Many end up in limbo without paperwork, and only 55,502 have received temporary asylum, according to Russias human rights ombudsman, Tatiana Moskalkova. The others have uncertain legal standing in a country where they are often seen as the enemy.

Along with giving up their own documents, Ukrainian refugees are sometimes pressured to sign papers holding the Ukrainian government or military responsible for the war.

Eighty-year-old Valentina Bondarenko still doesnt know what she signed. When soldiers in white armbands burst into the Mariupol basement, she climbed out of the window, kicking over the cup holding her dentures.

She was taken with a few other elderly women on a bus through filtration in three Ukrainian towns, and then to Taganrog in Russia. Her next stop, she was told, would be Perm, 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) away.

There were only enough Ukrainian passengers that day to fill four of the trains 10 cars. So the train was cancelled. She ended up in a town near the Georgia border that her family had never heard of, in a dormitory with 50 others from Mariupol.

She called her adult children still in Ukraine, coughing every few minutes. They were frantic. Increasingly distraught, Bondarenko asked migration officials how she could get out.

Theres only one way open, which is to apply for Russian citizenship, submit an application, receive all the documents and when you get your passport you can go wherever you want, they told her.

They asked everyone with Ukrainian passports to hand them over to start the process. So she did. Then came a residency application and a document that an official would not let her examine.

Theres nothing to read here, and were running late, he told her.

What is written here? Bondarenko persisted.

Everything we talked about, came the reply. She signed. Her passport was returned to her a few days later.

Many evacuees dont realize they have the right to refuse to sign documents and the right to leave Russia, according to Tanya Lokshina, author of an upcoming Human Rights Watch report on forced deportations. HRW and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties documented multiple cases where Ukrainians like Bondarenko were pressured into signing paperwork, including documents accusing Ukraines military of war crimes.

When you are there and they have the power and youre basically in their hands, you dont know whats going to happen, Lokshina said. So many people sign just because they are afraid.

ANGELS WHO CAME FROM HEAVEN

For Ukrainians trying to escape, help often comes from an unexpected source: Russians.

On a recent day in Estonia, a Russian tattoo artist easily hefted the suitcases of a Mariupol family into the trunk of a waiting car. The matriarch sat in front, seemingly oblivious to the cars Russian license plates or unsurprised at underground help from another Russian.

The tattoo artist, who asked that his name be withheld because he still lives in Russia, was the last in a chain of volunteers that stretched 1,900 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Taganrog and Rostov to Narva, the Estonian border town. He boards in St. Petersburg a couple of times a week to accompany refugees to Finland and sometimes Estonia. There is always at least one Ukrainian family that needs an extra pair of strong arms, if nothing else.

They are disoriented. ... You need to meet them at one station and take them to another station, because otherwise people get lost, he said. Its clear theyre not psychologically equipped.

He said Russians involved in helping Ukrainians leave know each other only through Telegram, nearly all keeping anonymous because everyone is afraid of some kind of persecution. Some of the loose groups are set up with chatbots to protect identities.

I cant stop it, he said of the war and the forcible transfers of Ukrainians to Russia. This is what I can do. ... Shooting at people, this is normal in the 21st century, with old Soviet pieces of iron? This is utter nonsense.

The volunteers face a slew of challenges. Those in Penza in Russia shut down their efforts because of anonymous threats that included slashed tires, the Russian symbol Z painted in white on a windshield and graffiti on doors and gates calling them the likes of Ukro-Nazi helpers.

Another Russian volunteer, who also communicated with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said they faced logistical and bureaucratic hurdles thrown up by the Russian government, such as travel documents lost or taken by administrators.

They had organizational problems, but they created an amazing chain to help Ukrainian refugees, she wrote in a message to AP.

Leaving Russia is still often dependent on luck and an officials whims. Some Russian border guards let people through with just their Ukrainian national identity; others insist upon an international passport. In at least one case, a family wasnt allowed to travel without a Russian passport. Armed men search the refugees in a final filtration and disembark a passenger or two.

For Zadoyanov, Bondarenko, Kovalevska and many others, the lifeline out of Russia was Russians.

After talking with his sister Natalya, Zadoyanov got off the train to Nizhny Novgorod. Natalya Zadoyanova found local people through church contacts inside Russia to take her brother and the others away from the station. They ended up at a church where they got food, shelter and eventually the first steps in finding a way out of Russia. Zadoyanov is now in the country of Georgia.

For Bondarenko, the elderly woman from Mariupol who signed unknown papers, her children in Ukraine found volunteers to help. One arrived at Bondarenkos dormitory and demanded her release, saying the law protected a refugees freedom of movement. He took her to a hotel, with the room pre-paid for two nights. The third night, she stayed at the home he shared with his Ukrainian wife.

The couple bought her sneakers, clothes and food for the trip to come.

We are against the war, against Putin, they told her.

In St. Petersburg, another volunteer met her at the train, took her to his apartment for the night and helped her get to the bus station.

At the Russian border, no matter what, do not tell them you want to return to Ukraine, he warned her. Say you are going to Estonia to visit family.

It took about 90 minutes to pass the Russian side of the border. At one point, guards checked passports. Bondarenkos noted Mariupol as her hometown, and they pulled her aside and asked what her destination was.

I wont lie. I want to return to Ukraine, to my children, she answered, torn between defiance and fear. She was asked to wait and imagined the worst.

She didnt know it, but she was already in Estonia. The guard returned with a giant smile and an even bigger box filled with food and water.

Bondarenko finally joined her children in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod on May 20, having paid nothing for a 4,300-kilometer (2,600-mile) journey organized from start to finish by volunteers.

Viktoria Kovalevska persuaded a bus driver at a detention center in Russia to hide the family on board.

We sat like mice. ... I closed the curtains, she said.

After about an hour, the driver said, Lets go. When the family emerged from their hiding spot in Rostov, two taxis arrived for them and their bags. They were given hot soup and a way to finally wash their stained, charred clothes, and stayed up until 3 a.m. doing laundry.

Train tickets materialized to St. Petersburg, where other volunteers bought a suitcase to replace their fraying bags. Then it was a near-seamless trip to Estonia. Kovalevska warned her daughters to say nothing when they were roughly asked at the crossing why they wanted to leave Russia.

You can get a bullet in the forehead and not tell the whole truth about what happened, or you can wait and later say everything as it was, she told the girls.

The whole journey took four days.

Her memories of Mariupol are a nightmare  the torso of a woman in the street, her daughter stepping in human brains smeared on the ground, the hunger and cold that she feared would kill them more painfully than bombs. But her memories of Russia are laced with the unexpected, surreptitious kindness they received from Russian volunteers.

I would love to say their names, said Kovalevska, her face lighting up. And I would tell them all, you are like angels who came from heaven and sheltered us with your wings. ... Because there was no hope. None.
Photo: The Canadian Press

The once-powerful and now disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he murdered his wife and son 13 months ago, with one of his defense attorneys calling for a speedy trial to clear his name and prod authorities to go for the real killers.

Wearing a white face mask beneath his shaved head and ankle chains above shiny leather shoes, the 54-year-old Murdaugh made his first court appearance in Colleton County since being indicted in the murder case last week. Despite his not guilty plea, he agreed to remain jailed without bond.

One of his lawyers, Dick Harpootlian, said the defense team wanted to avoid a bond hearing that might reveal new information about the killings and risk prejudicing potential jurors when the case goes to trial. He also said Murdaugh, already saddled with $7 million in bond on unrelated criminal charges, can't afford to put up cash for his release pending trial.

Murdaugh has been behind bars since October, charged with financial crimes and several other misdeeds that were uncovered after the killings of his wife Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, at the family's Colleton County hunting estate in June 2021.

Harpootlian told a judge Wednesday that Murdaugh wants to stand trial within the next three to four months to show that investigators from South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division targeted the wrong man.

He believes that the killer or killers are still at large and this would allow SLED to put this behind them and go for the real killers, Harpootlian said.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters, a deputy state attorney general, replied that trying the case by January or sooner would be very aggressive.

The evidence in this case is substantial and it all points back to Alex Murdaugh," Waters said. "There is forensic evidence as well as other evidence of his guilt of these murders.

Circuit Judge Clifton Newman made no rulings in court other than denying bond for Murdaugh. He said he would issue written orders later on the speedy trial request as well as a request for a gag order to prohibit lawyers and investigators in the case from speaking to news outlets.

Murdaugh is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of possessing a weapon during a violent crime. The indictment alleges that he fatally shot his wife with a rifle and used a shotgun to kill his son.

Authorities have released no evidence of how police linked Murdaugh to the deaths after 13 months of investigation. And the hearing Wednesday provided no clues as to why a man who had no criminal history and was part of a wealthy, well-connected family that dominated the legal community in the tiny town of Hampton might have wanted to kill his own family members.

Authorities have been tight-lipped since the start of the investigation. Last year, they released the late-night 911 call in which Murdaugh reported finding the bodies of his wife and son outside by the dog kennels on his estate. The coroner said both victims had been shot multiple times.

Newman, the judge who presided over Murdaugh's hearing Wednesday, had previously denied bond for Murdaugh on the financial crimes charges. A different judge later set bond at $7 million but Murdaugh was unable to pay it and has remained in jail. His lawyers have complained several times that the bond was set too high, and said that because of lawsuits and frozen assets Murdaugh couldnt even afford to buy underwear from the jail store.

If convicted of murder, Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison without parole. Under state law, prosecutors could also choose to seek the death penalty because more than one person was killed.

The four new indictments connected to the slayings added to a pile of 80 other charges lodged against Murdaugh by investigators who have scrutinized every part of his life over the past year. No trial dates have been set for any of the cases.

Prosecutors said the once-prominent attorney stole more than $8 million in settlements and other money from clients, committed fraud and lied to police by trying to arrange his own death so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy. Murdaugh was also charged last month with co-running a $2 million money laundering and drug ring.

The murder charges and other cases are being prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney General's Office because of links Murdaugh has to the local 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office. The office's jurisdiction includes Colleton County and Hampton County, where Murdaughs father, grandfather and great-grandfather were the elected prosecutors for 87 consecutive years.
Photo: Contributed

Crown Counsel prosecuting Dutch citizen Aydin Coban in connection with the cyberbullying of Port Coquitlam student Amanda Todd said it plans to call no more witnesses.

In the seventh week of the trial at BC Supreme Court in New Westminster, lead prosecutor Louise Kenworthy told Justice Martha Devlin and the jury the Crown intends to close its case next Tuesday.

Kenworthy made the statement after Cpl. Jim Devine, the lead investigator handling the Todd file at Coquitlam RCMP, finished his testimony Tuesday.

Devine told the court he reviewed dozens of forensic images and videos presented to him by Sgt. Keith Hack, a B.C. RCMP digital forensic officer who took the stand last week.

In cross-examination under defence counsel Joe Saulnier, Devine said he saw Cobans name listed on seized devices from the Netherlands, referenced on bank documents, emails and rental agreements.

Meanwhile, Saulnier also submitted Todds Facebook records as part of the evidence.

In an admissions of fact  agreed to by defence counsel and Coban  prosecutor Heather Guinn read last week that RCMP inspected a number of electronic devices from the Todd family, including technology Todd had used before her death in October 2012.

These included an Apple iPhone 4; a Hitachi hard drive (removed from a Toshiba laptop); a Seagate 1 hard drive (removed from her fathers computer tower); a Toshiba hard drive (from her fathers laptop); and a Maxtor hard drive (taken from her fathers computer tower).

On Oct. 10, 2013  a year after Todd died  the U.S. Department of Homeland Security obtained a search warrant for Facebook account records, which were supplied by the social media company five days later.

The admissions statement, which was submitted as evidence, also indicates the DHS forwarded those records to the RCMP via an online secure file transfer system, of which Devine downloaded on Nov. 26, 2013; the Facebook records show Todds Facebook activity from Dec. 1, 2010, to Oct. 11, 2013.

Devine also received a CD-ROM on July 14, 2016, containing more Facebook records, after the Department of Justice Canada International Assistance Group worked with the FBI to obtain a search warrant, the admissions statement reads.

In her opening address, Kenworthy said the Crown will prove that Coban was behind 22 fake accounts in a persistent campaign of online sextortion against Todd.

Coban has pleaded not guilty to: extortion, importing and distributing child pornography, possession of child pornography, communicating with the intent to lure a child, and criminal harassment.

None of the allegations is proven in court. The trial continues.
Photo: Contributed

The provincial government today announced an expansion of the Speculation and Vacancy Tax that will apply to Squamish.

The tax is already in place in Metro Vancouver and other major urban centres in B.C.

The aim of the tax is to help eliminate speculative real estate practices and turn empty units into homes for people in additional communities in B.C. struggling with housing affordability, according to a provincial government news release.

The change will take effect in January 2023.

"An independent review report of the speculation tax shows it is working in existing areas by helping to keep housing prices and rents lower than they would have been without the tax. The speculation tax, alongside the 2% tax rate for foreign owners and satellite families, has also encouraged the return of approximately 20,000 condo units to the long-term rental market in Metro Vancouver," the release states.

The expansion will include, in addition to Squamish, North Cowichan, Duncan, Ladysmith, Lake Cowichan, and Lions Bay, where there are acute housing shortages.

Residential property owners in the expansion communities can declare and claim an exemption from the tax for the first time in January 2024. Exemptions are available for primary residences, properties with a long-term tenant and under a number of other special circumstances.

The provincial government anticipates that more than 99% of British Columbians will continue to be exempt from paying the tax.

"In 2018, we implemented the landmark speculation and vacancy tax that targeted speculators and quickly helped turn thousands of empty units into homes for people," said Minister of Finance Selina Robinson in the release. "After careful consideration and listening to people and community leaders on speculative real estate concerns in their communities, we're expanding the tax to these additional areas that are facing intense housing pressures."

Squamish's mayor said the inclusion of Squamish was necessary as part of a host of solutions that are needed to tackle our critical housing shortage.

"People, businesses and service providers in Squamish are all facing the critical challenge of housing affordability," said Mayor Karen Elliott, in the release. "Our citizens want to see that we are addressing both the supply side, as well as advocating for demand-side policies that help make housing more attainable. We support a collaborative approach to delivering the homes we need. Squamish is proud to be a partner in the province's efforts to create affordable housing, strategically develop private property, and implement solutions like the speculation and vacancy tax. Together, we can create more stable, attainable and affordable housing."

Homeowners will be able to declare online or by phone with call centre staff. Last year, more than 92% of owners declared online, according to the provincial government.

A speculation tax review report must be produced and made public every five years. The first of these reports was released in June 2022.

Locals can read the Speculation tax review report for themselves.

Learn about how the speculation and vacancy tax works and available exemptions on the provincial government site.


Photo: The Canadian Press People leave after arriving at Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

You've just returned from a fabulous trip abroad. You make it through Canadian customs, ready to get home and settle back into normal life, or at least the new normal you've established since the pandemic.

Unvaccinated people arriving in Canada need to take a test but if your shots are up to date, you're in the clear! Then you get a ping from your inbox: you've been selected for a random, off-site COVID-19 test.

Here's what it means, and what you have to do now:

If you land in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal or Calgary you might have the slight misfortune of being randomly picked for a mandatory test.

You should know sooner rather than later, as the notification email is supposed to land in your inbox within 15 minutes of completing your customs declaration. That email will have some info about where you can get a test.

If you have a connecting flight or somewhere to be, don't panic. You can continue your journey, but the test must be completed by the end of the next calendar day after arriving in Canada.

Sadly, you can't use that rapid test in your cupboard at home but you've got options, and they're all free. Labs provide home-swab kits to go, or you can get a test in person. Some labs might refer you to a pharmacy in your area.

There's a list of approved locations on the government's website. Make sure when you register for your test that you use the same email address you use when you sign into the ArriveCan app, since that's how the government will get your results.

You don't need to quarantine while you wait for results, which should come within four days, but if you test positive you'll need to isolate.

For how long, you ask? Regardless of the rules in your province, you're supposed to stay home for 10 days and report your result to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

If you need to leave the country before your quarantine period is up then you need permission from a quarantine officer who will give you a set of rules to follow.

If the test was inconclusive  who knows, the swab didn't travel far enough up your nostril?  bad luck, you'll have to take another.

If you test negative but then get sniffles, sore throat or some other COVID-19 symptom then you'll need to do a 10-day isolation as well.

If you're negative and feeling well then welcome home, hope that vacation glow lasts.

You could also be selected for a random test when you come into Canada from the United States across the land border. But in that case the agents should be able to give you all the instructions you need.

Now, what happens if you don't seek out a swab like you've been told to? The public health agency will be in touch. After five days you're likely to get a phone call.If you still don't have a test booked you could face a fine.

You might be docked as much as $5,000 plus surcharges  money that could go toward your next trip, just saying.

And disobeying any instruction you get upon entering the country is an offence under the Quarantine Act, and could land you in jail for up to six months with a much heftier $750,000 fine.
Photo: File. New Westminster police arrested a suspect who allegedly tried to steal a wig in uptown New West.

Numerous people were pepper sprayed after a wannabe wig thief fled a store in uptown New West.

New Westminster police officers attended a business near Sixth and Sixth, after receiving a 911 call about an alleged theft in progress. The incident occurred about 6 p.m. on Friday, July 15 in uptown New West.

The caller shared that a man was inside a retail store attempting to steal a wig, said a press release from the New Westminster Police Department. After being confronted by store staff, the suspect pepper sprayed the staff and ran from the store. As the suspect fled the area, he continued to spray people in the area with pepper spray.

According to the NWPD, police rushed to the scene and arrested someone matching the suspect description. Police say the suspect was found in possession of additional items that had been reported stolen earlier that evening.

Wed like to thank the quick-thinking witnesses that saw this theft in progress and called 911, said NWPD spokesperson Sgt. Justine Thom. Their quick action allowed officers to arrive within four minutes of the call. At that point, the suspect was still in the area and could be taken into custody.

A 27-year-old Vancouver resident was arrested and later released on a number of conditions.

There is reason to believe there may be additional people who were pepper sprayed and fled the area before police arrived on scene, said the press release. Police are asking these victims to reach out to police, to share what happened and to access the services of the Victim Assistance Unit.

Anyone who witnessed this incident is asked to call the New Westminster Police Department at 604-525-5411.
China has strongly opposed US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's upcoming visit to Taiwan next month amid concerns over cross-strait ties following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Addressing a press briefing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the Chinese side has stated on many occasions that it is firmly opposed to any form of official interaction between the United States and the Taiwan region.

"If Speaker Pelosi visits Taiwan, this would gravely violate the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-U.S. joint communiques, seriously undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, severely impact the political foundation of China-U.S. relations and send a seriously wrong signal to 'Taiwan independence' secessionist forces," Zhao said.

Beijing's opposition came after a US media report said that the US House of Representatives plans to visit Taiwan in August amid tension with China.

Pelosi and her delegation will also visit Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, and spend time in Hawaii at the headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific command, Financial Times reported.

According to a Chinese state media outlet, "If the news is true and the trip happens, it will be one of the most egregious provocations by the US to China on the Taiwan question since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the US."

A Global Times editorial said visiting Taiwan is definitely a red line that Pelosi must never cross. "China is resolute in defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and has the right to take forceful measures against "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces and extraterritorial forces at any time in accordance with changes in the situation, including against the trip and Pelosi herself," the state outlet said.

Back in April, Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan had been postponed after she tested positive for COVID-19. At that time, Beijing had resolutely opposed any official exchange between the United States and Taiwan.

This latest visit comes after China asked the US to immediately cancel a potential sale of military-technical assistance to Taiwan worth an estimated USD 108 million.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the US arms sales to China's Taiwan region seriously violate the One-China principle and the three China-US joint communique, particularly the August 17 communique, and gravely undermine China's sovereignty and security interests.

China, which regards Taiwan as its province despite decades of separate governance, has earlier strongly opposed military cooperation between Washington and Taipei.

This defence agreement between the US and Taiwan came after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the One-China principle is what underpins stability across the Taiwan Strait and warned of "ferocious storms" across the region if the principle is "arbitrarily challenged or even sabotaged."

(ANI)

Also Read: China stands in way of peace process in Myanmar
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I guess I'm not surprised to read that during a private event hosted recently by Hillsdale College president Larry Arnn in an affluent suburb of Nashville, Republican Governor Bill Lee sat quietly as Arnn said education is a plague and called public school teachers and the colleges that train them dumb.

The college president, Governor Lees education advisor and personal friend, disparaged Tennessee public education.





I guess this is what the Republican Party wants to hear to retain its base.







And Georgia now has to amend the motto of its universities offering degrees in primary and secondary education to read "Thank God for Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee"





Joe Warren

Ringgold

* * *

Recently Dr.

Larry Arnn gave a private talk to a group in the Chattanooga area. Dr. Arn is quoted as saying, "Teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges..."

The verbal and quantitative scores on the Graduate Record Exam of education majors are lower than other graduate school majors.

George Mayo, Ph.D.

* * *

George Mayo, PhD., in a letter to the Chattanooga claims that Dr Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College in Michigan and advisor to Governor Bill Lee made disparaging comments about teachers at an event in Hamilton County where he commented that teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges..." . He also supported Dr Arnns comments by making a blanket statement that "The verbal and quantitative scores on the Graduate Record Exam of education majors are lower than other graduate school majors.

Now, I would expect that a PhD would know how to attribute sources. Dr Mayo does not. He offers a blanket condemnation of teachers, just like Dr Arnn did. I would invite him to cite the source for his claim that the GRE scores of education majors are lower than other graduate school majors. It would also be helpful if Dr Mayo acknowledged that the comments were not made at a private event in the Chattanooga area, but they were made at an event held in Franklin, Tennessee, approximately 110 miles away.







Bottom line, Dr Arnn is a partisan hack seeking to suck off the public teat with Bill Lee offering millions of dollars to set up 50 charter schools across the state of Tennessee. Arnn's insults are gaining a backlash across the state with school boards denying the applications for Hillsdale charter schools, as they should. Of course, there is the commission that can override the local school boards decision on charter schools, but Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis), chair of the Tennessee House Education Administration Committee has declared that Hillsdale Colleges hopes of charter schools in Tennessee are shattered, as they should be.





Our teachers work their tails off to educate our precious children. In the past decade or two, they have done so under increasing pressure from politicians with an agenda who dont know the first thing about what teachers face and who would run screaming from the classroom after only a couple of hours of instruction time.





If Dr. Arnn and Dr. Mayo truly believe what they have stated, then let them put up or shut up. Our teachers deserve respect, not attacks.





Wayne Cook

* * *

Larry Arnn certainly chose his words poorly. His recent comments about teachers are undiplomatic at best and offensive at worst. However, the most important question about what he said is, "Is it true?" Are those who major in education the least intelligent students on most college campuses? I'm sure all of us have opinions on the matter, but opinions are irrelevant in the face of data, and this question has been studied systematically.



For those who care about facts more than political squabbling, the data on this issue are summarized in this article:

https://www.sciencealert.com/your-college-major-can-be-a-pretty-good-indication-of-how-smart-you-are.

It looks like Mr. Arnn was just following the science. The real issue here is, what should we do about it?



Andy Walker
In just five years, more than $1 million has been kept in the pockets of students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga by its Affordable Course Materials Initiative.



The initiative was barely more than a good idea when Rachel Fleming joined UTC as scholarly communications librarian in 2017 and was charged with taking it forward.



What drew me to UTC was that affordability was part of the position, and I was looking for something where I knew the work that I do would make an impact for the good of students and this is very fulfilling to me, Ms.

Fleming said.One of the things librarians like to do is talk to all of the faculty and help them design what they need for their courses, and I love hearing from them about how we can do that.According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the annual cost of college textbooks and supplies averaged $1,226 per student in 2021. Affordable course materials, generally alternatives to printed or digital textbooks, have proven to help lower costs for students.The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the development of digital and/or online course materials in response to demand from online instruction andalmost overnightdoubled their inventory at UTC.Not only did COVID really bring this to students who were having to continue their education from home and needing materials, a lot of peoples eyes were opened to the real lives of students where expenses and money are big issues, Ms. Fleming said. For a lot of students, textbooks can be an unexpected expense, especially to first-generation students.I think of someone coming to UTC who has worked really hard, maybe taken some community college courses and made good grades, gotten admitted here and then runs into all of these unanticipated expenses. Their experience is, I worked really hard to get here and to pay my tuition, and now youre telling me theres this additional $400 for books? It can be not only an unexpected cost, some students come from families who just dont have that kind of money, and it can mean making choices between living expenses and books.While textbook publisher e-version books are widely prevalent, they arent necessarily a lower-cost option.Developing more affordable course materials for UTC students is the result of collaboration between Ms. Fleming and faculty who come for help designing and preparing materials that can replace textbooks in achieving course learning outcomes. In most cases, course materials costs are completely eliminated in revised courses.Its really the faculty who are doing the work of adjusting their courses, Ms. Fleming said. Weve worked on courses at all levelsintroductory to upper-division to graduate-leveland Ive worked with faculty from all colleges. Even though its been primarily the College of Arts and Sciences, Ive also worked with faculty from the Rollins College of Business, the College of Health, Education and Professional Studies, and even the College of Engineering and Computer Science.Faculty are also creating free materials with open access via the UTC Scholar platform that is being shared worldwide. For instance, UTC Dalton Roberts Professor of Public Administration Chris Hornes A quick, free, somewhat easy-to-read introduction to empirical social science research methods has been downloaded more than 5,800 times since 2018all for freeby scholars in Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe.Ms. Fleming described UTC Scholar as the home of the Universitys research and creative works and publications, including honors theses, masters theses and doctoral dissertations, conference proceedings such as from ReSEARCH Dialogues and the annual River Cities Industrial-Organizational Psychology conference at UTC, and the Modern Psychological Studies journal produced by undergraduates and overseen by UC Foundation Professor of Psychology David Ross.

Ms. Fleming has kept busy this summer assisting faculty with finding and reviewing materials for courses that will be revised for the upcoming 2022-2023 academic year.



Affordable Course Materials is part of what we do as an institution to ensure an engaging and enlightening experience, Ms. Fleming said. Its part of meeting our strategic, transformative learning goal of being good stewards of our resources and enabling good stewardship of our students resources while also delivering really great learning experiences.



Since 2020, theres been such a boom in Tennessee in interest and development of free materials for courses, and we really are a leader in this in the state and among the institutions setting the pace.



The Affordable Course Materials initiative is unquestionably Ms. Flemings favorite responsibility.



Folks are looking at their course materials and asking, What if I taught it this way and what about these more engaging, active pedagogy processes could I use?" Ms. Fleming said.



My portfolio does include other tasks, but if somebody contacts me about affordable materials, Ill literally throw whatever else Im doing off my desk. I cant wait to talk about what we can do to make their course materials more affordable and achieve their learning goals.
ArtsBuild announced the next application and funding cycle of the Racial Equity Grant for Individual Artists (REGIA) program. This grant cycle is open to individual artists living and working in Hamilton County who identify as Indigenous (e.g., Native American), Asian American or Pacific Islander (AAPI).

The REGIA grant program strives to support the work of diverse artists that are reflective of our community.

National reports done over the years have shown funding inequities in the nonprofit arts sector, and REGIA is aimed at providing more equitable grant funding in our community. Each grant cycle, a different identity group is prioritized for grant funding.

Examples of a few past recipients and projects include: Isela Arredondo, a local writer, visual and craft artist from Guadalajara who has produced a childrens book; The Artist Seven, a muralist, illustrator, and designer who has created a new landmark mural installation at 110 E. 7th St. in Chattanooga; Christian Kofi Mawuko, an internationally touring musician and teaching artist, and Jazmine LeBlanc, co-founder of ELLA Library, who traveled to Ghana to research African storytelling and drumming and shared newly developed performances and teaching models in Hamilton County Schools. After this next funding cycle, a total of $150,000 will have been awarded to 15 local artists. Funding for the program is provided by individual donors, Lyndhurst Foundation, Benwood Foundation, and Footprint Foundation.

The REGIA application will be open beginning August 1, 2022 to artists of color who identify as Native American, Asian American, or Pacific Islander and are living and working in Hamilton County. A total of $50,000 in awards will be given for up to $10,000 per awarded applicant. Grant funding will be available in three categories: Artist Works, Equipment, and Professional Development. Disciplines considered include Visual (2D, 3D, Installation), Craft, Media (Film, Photography), Performance (Dance, Music, Theater), and Literary.

The goals for the program include:

Making arts funding more equitable in our community by creating access to resources for artists of color in Hamilton County.

Providing support to established and emerging racially diverse artists.

Broadening the types of artists supported in the community.

Ensuring the distribution of financial and capacity-building resources for minority artists.







Applications will be accepted from August 1 until the deadline on October 14, 2022. A grant information session will be held Wednesday, July 27 at 6:00 p.m. via Zoom. Click here to register for the information session or contact Melissa Astin for access to the recording of the info session. Award announcements will be made in December.
A recent photo of Jack and Duane Case on the Hixson Auditorium steps - photo by Photo courtesy of the Cases

Jack and Duane Harper Case on Tuesday walked past some political signs at the Hixson Community Center to cast their ballots during early voting.

More than 60 years ago, Jack Case did some politicking of his own on the steps of the old Hixson school auditorium still standing there while proposing to his wife and trying to convince her to select him as her future spouse.

Although they were just high school seniors at Hixson then, she did say yes, and they were married a little over two years later  on July 19, 1962. As it turns out, that was exactly 60 years ago Tuesday, so they celebrated their 60th anniversary in part by going to vote at the center and visiting the steps where it all began.

"This was our hangout after lunch and before our next class, said Mr. Case of the steps outside the old auditorium building. We were both seniors in the class of 1960 at Hixson High.

Mr. Case recently contacted chattanoogan.com after seeing the recent story on the tour I took with 1950s-era Hixson High graduates Bill and Jim Smith inside the old school auditorium. It is part of the physical plant of the current Hixson Community Center but is not currently used and its interior is normally shut off from public access.

It is the only pre-World War II part remaining of the school grounds which once housed the entire Hixson school community, and it still brings back memories to the Cases. They said they usually try to vote early there, and occasionally bring a lunch at other times to the old school site in their car and reminisce.

As the couple reflected Tuesday after voting, they said they had met as Hixson High students their junior year. Mr. Case had enrolled there that year after the former Central High students family had moved from East Chattanooga, while Mrs. Case had started at Hixson in the seventh grade after going to elementary school in Lupton City, where both her parents worked for Dixie Yarns.

They met that first year at a school sock hop, and he persisted through the fact she was not initially crazy about the red hair he had at the time, he jokingly remembered. He had a new pair of penny loafers for the event, and while he lost them somehow after he took them off to dance, he found true love.



"Weve been together ever since, he said with a smile.

Ms. Case recalls that everyone, even the teachers, knew they were dating. Ms. Groce, she used to see us going down the hall and said, You all need to separate. You are joined at the hip,  she laughingly recalled.

Ms. Groce was their English teacher and one they greatly respected along with such other instructors as math teacher Inez McConnell and chemistry teacher Tony Matusek.

After they graduated from Hixson, Mr. Case tried to convince Ms. Cases father to let them get married, but he encouraged Mr. Case to join the Navy and see the world first. Mr. Case told him the only way he was going to see the world was if his future wife went with him.

He enrolled at the University of Tennessee to study electrical engineering, and they were able to convince everyone to let them get married after he completed his second year. They were married in the older wooden Brooks Memorial Methodist Church in Lupton City before the newer and still-standing church was built.

He went on to work for the Electric Power Board for 38 years. She had worked for the dean of the College of Education at UT after their marriage but years later got a degree in the arts and taught middle school. They had two sons, Jackson IV, who is a magistrate in Abingdon, Va., and Brian, who is a principal at Donelson Christian Academy in Nashville.

They had lived in the Northwoods subdivision of Hixson for several years but now live on Signal Mountain.

Also surviving their 60 years of marriage has been the old Hixson auditorium, although it has not been used since Hixson Middle School vacated the property in 2009 when a newer school opened by the current high school near Middle Valley Road and Old Hixson Pike.

Mr. Case added after seeing the story that he would like to see the old auditorium that has been the source of a lot of good memories for them restored. It needs to be updated and cleaned and modernized for community projects, he said, adding that younger people would need to get involved.

Added his wife, It would be nice.

Besides going past the old auditorium to vote and reminisce, they also planned other activities to celebrate their milestone 60th wedding anniversary. Mr. Case said preparing for a doctors visit on Wednesday prevented them from celebrating on the actual day of Tuesday, but they plan to go to Ruths Chris Steak House by Hamilton Place on Thursday.

Shes worthy of it, he said with a wink as he looked at his wife.

* * *

To see the previous story on the old Hixson school auditorium, read here.



https://www.chattanoogan.com/2022/7/16/452554/John-Shearer-Examining-Old-R.H.aspx

* * *

Jcshearer2@comcast.net
The new city Parks and Rec Director Scott Martin told members of the Kiwanis Club on Tuesday that Chattanooga 'has great parks if you are a visitor but we need to be delivering that same level of service to all residents, equitably across the city."





Mr. Martin said, Chattanooga has always been on my list of cities where it would be great to be a parks and rec director,. This job, that Im very fortunate to sit in, is one of the top jobs in the nation. When you think about the great parks jobs in the nation you think of the director in New York and San Francisco, but in my opinion Chattanooga is in that space because of what yall accomplished on the waterfront.





Mr. Martin said most of the growth within the next 50 years is projected to be in cities with fewer than 300,000 people. He said officials are planning to prepare for a Chattanooga with 300,000 people.





Mr. Martin said when he lived in Boise, Idaho there were 100,000 people at the time and now they are pushing 500,000. He said he sees the same trends and urgency here. He said Chattanooga is getting an older and younger population simultaneously and he wants to create parks to serve that.





In fact, Mr. Martin said Chattanooga has a significant amount of green space that is unused right now - upwards of 1,000 acres, where nothing is being done with it.





We are becoming more urban and we understand a very strong impulse to get green space lockdowned so in 50 years when theres 50,000 new residents out there they have the option, he said.





The speaker said there will be a parks plan drawn up over the next nine months and then it will become a capital document for City Council. He said he will present council members with a rational roadmap and then the community will decide what investment to make.





We know great parks last, said Mr. Martin. I have yet to find a community that bought land for a park and comes back20 years later saying that it was a bad idea.




Gov. Bill Lee has signed into law Senate Bill 2342 by Senator Ken Yager (R-Kingston), which establishes a length of service award program for volunteer firefighters, emergency medical services providers and ambulance drivers.

The bill authorizes the State Treasurer to award grants to eligible employers that match employee contributions. Each grant would be a one-to-one match of the employers contributions, with a maximum of $200 per participating volunteer and a maximum of 25 volunteers or $5,000 per employer.

Our volunteer firefighters and emergency services personnel generously donate their time and effort to protect our communities, said Senator Yager. They provide an invaluable service across the state and this is the least we can do to support them. I want to thank Rep. Ron Gant (R-Piperton) for co-sponsoring this bill and helping it pass in the House.

A length of service award program is a great way to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters and emergency service personnel, said Treasurer David H. Lillard, Jr. I thank Senator Yager and Representative Gant for the legislation to allow Treasury to support communities through this program.

The grants will be awarded annually on a first-come, first-served basis, beginning July 1, 2023 and in each fiscal year thereafter. The law was unanimously passed by both the Senate and House earlier this year.
The Schaeffer Oil Southern National series rolled into Sweetwater, Tennessee's I-75 Raceway for a special Tuesday night shootout for super late models.

Fast qualifier Cory Hedgecock (# 23) of nearby Loudon, Tennessee inherited the lead of the A-Main after a fracas occurred between early race leader "Big" Mack McCarter and challenger Ashton Winger.

The incident saw Winger's # 22 violently flip down the back straight away multiple times before coming to a rest on all four tires. Winger would then attack McCarter, on the track which ended both drivers' night.

Hedgecock went on to lead the final 16 laps to pick up the $4,053 payday. Fort Payne Alabama's Sam Seawright was second and Johnson City's Jensen Ford rounded out the podium finishers. Heath Hindman of Signal Mountain finished 22nd overall.

The racing program was delayed twice by rain, but series officials decided to forge ahead with the event. The series takes Wednesday off before returning to Senoia, Georgia on Thursday. Racing action is broadcast live on Floracing.com for subscribers of the website.
A former Chattanooga resident was shot and killed by her husband in Chicago on Monday. Police said Raheel Ahmad turned the gun on himself after shooting Sania Khan at her condo.

Police found both dead inside the residence after hearing the gunshots.

Ahmad, 36, had traveled from his home in Alpharetta, Ga., to Chicago.

The family was concerned about his mental state and had asked for a wellness check on him.

The couple had recently been divorced.

Ms. Kahn, 29, was a photographer who was a former student at Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences and employee at Signal Centers.
Ronald Ronnie Milligan, 71, of Dunlap, Tennessee, went to his heavenly home on Saturday, July 16, 2022.

He was born on Feb. 1, 1951, in Chattanooga, to the late Luther and Jessie Milligan of Signal Mountain. He enjoyed fishing, the great outdoors, working on cars, and most importantly, he loved spending time with family and friends. He served his country in the U.S. Army from 1974-1976 and was a veteran of the Vietnam War.

Survivors are his children, Michele Smith (Ronald), Evan Milligan (Hollie), Nathaniel Milligan, Ariana Griffin (Bryan), Cindy Wheeler (Scott), Sheena Layne (Derrick); siblings, Herman, John, twin brother Donnie, Sue, Annette and Marilyn; numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins which he loved so very much.

Graveside services will be on Thursday, July 21, at 11 a.m. at Chattanooga National Cemetery with Chaplain Charles Ingle officiating. Those that are planning to attend the graveside service should meet at the funeral home by 10 a.m. The procession will leave at 10:15 a.m. to travel to the cemetery.

Dont weep for me

For Ive made it home

Through Heavens gates

There I may roam

Wipe your tears

And dry your eyes

Im in a better place

With Heaven as my prize

Dont weep for me

No tears and no sorrow

Live life for Jesus

He promises tomorrow

Condolences and memories may be shared at www.williamsonandsons.com.

Arrangements are by Williamson and Sons Funeral Home, 8852 Dayton Pike, Soddy Daisy, Tn. 37379.
Normally the United Way of Greater Chattanooga is concerned with changing the world  but this Friday, the 100-year-old nonprofit is focused on changing a world record. United Way of Greater Chattanooga has partnered with the Chattanooga Lookouts to throw the communitys biggest birthday party and break the world record for most people wearing birthday party hats.

"We are beyond excited to serve as a gathering place for our community and to partner with such an amazing organization like United Way of Greater Chattanooga," said Andrew Zibo, Chattanooga Lookouts vice president. "Celebrating United Way's 100 years of impact and breaking a world record will be a special night at AT&T Field and we can't wait to see everyone at the ballpark."

Fridays celebration at AT&T field will come with all the fun of a Lookouts home game along with fireworks, one-of-a-kind Lookouts jerseys and the ability to participate in breaking the world record. The Lookouts will face the Tennessee Smokies on Friday at 7:15 p.m.
Cleveland City Schools released the following information about the upcoming school year.

Registration

Registration for new and current students is open online. You can find instructions for registration by visiting Enrollment on Cleveland City Schools website.

Schedule for the first week of school:



? Monday, August 8  Reconnection Day

? Students with last names A-F attend class

? Elementary: 8:15 a.m. - 3:15 p.m.

? CMS/CHS: 7:45 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.

? Tuesday, August 9  Reconnection Day

? Students with last names G-N attend class

? Elementary: 8:15 a.m. - 3:15 p.m.

? CMS/CHS: 7:45 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.

? Wednesday, August 10  Reconnection Day

? Students with last names O-Z attend class

? Elementary: 8:15 a.m. - 3:15 p.m.

? CMS/CHS: 7:45 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.

? Thursday, August 11  Abbreviated Day

? All students will be dismissed early

? Elementary: 8:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

? CMS/CHS: 7:45 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.

? Friday, August 12  Full Day

? All students will attend a full day of school

? Elementary: 8:15 a.m. - 3:15 p.m.

? CMS/CHS: 7:45 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.



Regular School Hours:

? Elementary: 8:15 a.m. - 3:15 p.m.

? Doors will open at 7:45 a.m.

? Car riders will begin dismissal at 3:15 p.m.; bus riders will be dismissed as buses arrive at the school after 3:15 p.m.

? CMS/CHS: 7:45 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.

? Doors will open at 7:15 a.m.

? Car and bus riders will be dismissed at 2:45 p.m.

PowerSchool

PowerSchool includes a parent portal where we can provide access to a students grades and attendance. These resources are available over the internet or through the PowerSchool App available for download for iPhone and Android users. To learn more about logging into PowerSchool click here.

Nutrition

Breakfast and Lunch Meals will be served at no cost for all Cleveland City Schools students during the 2022-2023 School Year. We will still be offering a variety of snacks for students to purchase. You may put money on their account for snack items and extra servings through PowerSchool or SchoolCafe.

Supply Lists

Tennessees traditional sales tax holiday will take place from Friday, July 29 through Sunday, July 31. During this time, clothing, school supplies, and computers may be purchased tax-free. You can find school supply lists by clicking their schools names below.

? Cleveland High School

? Cleveland Middle School

? Arnold Elementary

? Blythe-Bower Elementary

? Candys Creek Cherokee Elementary

? Mayfield Elementary

? Ross Elementary

? Stuart Elementary

? Yates Primary

Bus Routes

Cleveland City School leaders have been working tirelessly to hire additional school bus drivers to ensure routes are not disrupted. However, we are asking for patience as adjustments are made to cover routes on the first day of school. If you have registered your child for transportation, you will be notified of their bus number, stop, and pickup time a week before classes start if your child is eligible for bus transportation. This information will be sent to the primary contact on your childs registration through email and text message. If you have trouble receiving this information, you can call the Operations Department (423) 472-9576.

Families can learn more about deployment, registration and open house by visiting their schools page on our website.
Anya Parambath, of Chattanooga, is one of 100 young women selected to attend the 75th American Legion Auxiliary (ALA) Girls Nation session July 23-30 in Washington, D.C. As part of the premier ALA program, two outstanding high school seniors are selected to represent their respective state as senators at ALA Girls Nation after participating in one of 50 ALA Girls State sessions held across the country. ALA Girls Nation is a seven-day leadership conference that provides aspiring young women leaders with practical insight into how the federal government operates, instills a sense of pride in our country, and promotes youth civic engagement. Many participants of the program go on to have careers in public service at the local, state, and national level.

Ms. Parambath, a rising senior at Girls Preparatory School, was active in many ways during her week at ALA Volunteer Girls State. She also participates in many activities in her school and community. Parambaths activities include Mock Trial, Model UN, Science Olympiad, SDLC Conference, MIT Splace, MIT HSSP, and Next Tutor. Shes also part of Elite Dance Company and plays piano and violin.

Ms. Parambath has volunteered with Ronald McDonald House, IronMan, Engin, and Chattanooga Community Kitchen.

At ALA Girls Nation, Ms. Parambath, will participate in mock senate sessions complete with caucuses and debating bills that range from personal to political interests. Other activities on the agenda include a visit to Arlington National Cemetery where they will place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a community service project, and a tour of the D.C. monuments.

ALA Girls Nation is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our nations future leaders to learn about the inner workings of the federal government before they are of voting age, said Nancy Magginnis, ALA Girls Nation Committee chairman. After attending their local ALA Girls State program and then ALA Girls Nation, the girls return home ready to be engaged citizens at all levels of government.

The American Legion Auxiliary (ALA) is a community of volunteers serving veterans, military, and their families. Our members also support the mission of The American Legion in improving the quality of life for our nations veterans. Proud sponsor of ALA Girls Nation, National Poppy Day and recognized for advocating for veterans on Capitol Hill, the more than 500,000 ALA members across the country volunteer millions of hours annually and raise millions of dollars in service to veterans, military, and their families. Founded in 1919, the ALA is one of the oldest patriotic membership organizations in the U.S.A. To learn more and to volunteer, join, and donate, visit www.ALAforVeterans.org.
Westside Evolves, a collaborative neighborhood planning initiative led by the Chattanooga Housing Authority, Chattanooga Design Studio, Ccty of Chattanooga, Westside residents, and other stakeholders, provided information regarding the request for $2 million in American Rescue Plan dollars for the project.

The Westside is Chattanoogas oldest public housing communities providing homes to over 1,500 families. The residents earn less than $15,000 annually and the area has a poverty rate of 87 percent. The area has experienced a 40 percent increase in domestic violence and 65 percent increase in violent crime since the start of the pandemic.

The ARP funds requested for the project will be used to renovate the CHA-owned historic James A. Henry School. The renovation will provide 100 Head Start seats to 3-5 year-olds living in the area along with classrooms for training, a health clinic and other social, recreational and educational opportunities.

The effort to receive funding from Hamilton County was led by Commissioner Warren Mackey who said, This request fits perfectly with the Countys desire to grow educational efforts. The Westside currently has 60 Head Start seats. With the renovation of the James A. Henry School, this will immediately increase to 100 seats. Education is a top priority for our community and this is a wise investment in Hamilton Countys future.

Chattanooga Housing Authority Executive Director Betsy McCright said, The community is fully supporting efforts in one of our oldest public housing communities and we couldnt be more grateful. Over 82 percent of the residents in the Westside participated in surveys to guide the planning efforts for their community. The survey results showed that The James A. Henry school has historical significance to the community and is the place they want to see renovated for the future. We are grateful to increase opportunities for 100 students who will begin their educational careers at James A. Henry and to many throughout the community who will come to it for training, social, recreational and life-long learning experiences.

The CHA plans to begin working on the project immediately.
A body language expert analyzed Prince Harrys recent speech at the United Nations General Assembly, in which he spoke about his childhood and Princess Diana. The expert claims that Harry appeared comfortable talking about his early life and late mother. Heres what the Duke of Sussex discussed and what the expert said about his behavior.

Prince Harry | Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

Prince Harry spoke of his mother, Princess Diana, at the U.N. on Nelson Mandela International Day

On July 18, Prince Harry gave a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Nelson Mandela International Day. His wife, Duchess Meghan Markle, accompanied him to the U.N. headquarters in New York. The royal couple visited South Africa in 2019, where they met Mandelas widow, Graca Machel.

In his speech, the Duke of Sussex mentioned when his mother, Princess Diana, met Mandela. On my wall, and in my heart every day, is an image of my mother and Mandela meeting in Cape Town in 1997, Harry said (via USA Today). He added that the photo was given to him and his wife by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu during the couples 2019 visit to South Africa.

When I first looked at the photo, straight away what jumped out was the joy on my mothers face, said Harry. The playfulness, cheekiness, even. Pure delight to be in communion with another soul so committed to serving humanity.

The Duke continued to say that Mandela was also beaming in the picture, despite being a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Yet, in that photo and so many others, he is still beaming, he said. Still able to see the goodness in humanity. Still buoyant with a beautiful spirit that lifted everyone around him. Not because he was blind to the ugliness, the injustices, of the world  no, he saw them clearly; he had lived them  but because he knew we could overcome them.

A body language expert says Prince Harry appears at ease when telling stories about his childhood

Body language expert Darren Stanton (on behalf of Slingo) analyzed Prince Harrys behavior during his speech at the U.N. Stanton claimed that while the Duke seemed uncomfortable about being in the spotlight, he appeared at ease when discussing his childhood and his mother, Princess Diana.

Stanton called this confident Harry a very different version compared to the one we are used to seeing. When speaking of Princess Diana, Harry became less fidgety and smiled sincerely as he remembered the playfulness and cheekiness he referenced in his speech.

A look at childhood photos of Prince Harry, as he announces his wife Meghan has given birth to a boy: https://t.co/YxhahRyPI5 pic.twitter.com/Ng6XO1sfVl  Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) May 6, 2019

The Duke of Sussex will likely open up more about his childhood and Princess Diana in his upcoming memoir

Prince Harry has been writing a tell-all memoir that was scheduled to come out later this year, but it looks like it might be delayed until 2023. There has been a great deal of speculation about what the memoir might expose about the royal family. But one expert believes that the book wont reveal juicy secrets, and instead will be an account of Harrys childhood as a royal.

Royal expert Kinsey Schofield said Harrys recent return to the UK for the Queens Jubilee is a sign that he is softening toward his family. I am certainly surprised by the decision and it makes me feel like Prince Harrys book isnt the scathing tell-all we feared, Schofield told Express UK (via Geo News).

She continued, Perhaps its just a book about a man who learned to live and love after the death of his mother. Ive always hoped that it was more of a motivational book than a hit piece.

RELATED: The Royal Family Will Need Prince Harry to Return as a Royal Once Queen Elizabeth Dies, Biographer Says: He Was an Asset
Classic rock legend Eric Clapton experienced a tragedy when his 4-year-old son, Conor, died in a tragic accident. But in the days that followed, Clapton received a surprise in the form of a letter from his late son. Sadly, it was the first and last time he had received a note from Conor. What did it say?

Eric Clapton | Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images

Eric Claptons son changed his life before he died

According to Clapton, Conor was his reason for sobriety. He said the birth of his son made him want to be a better person, and it was what he needed to get on the right path after his marriage to Pattie Boyd ended.

But Conors life was tragically short, and he died after falling approximately 50 stories from an apartment building window in 1991. Clapton was staying nearby and later revealed a crowd gathered around Conor as he walked by to enter the building where his ex-girlfriend lived.

In an interview with Ed Bradley, available on YouTube, he said he was too frightened to go to Conor, which was a terrible thing of shame for him. He offered, Ill never, perhaps, recover from [it].

But Clapton received a reminder of his sons love for him days after the accident, thanks to a forgotten letter.

Eric Clapton received a letter from his son after his funeral

.@EricClapton's 4 1/2-year-old son Conor died today in 1991 after falling out of an open window in a New York City high-rise: https://t.co/YeFlBskdws  UltimateClassicRock (@UltClassicRock) March 20, 2020

After Clapton returned to London and had a funeral for Conor, he received an unforgettable piece of mail. In an interview with Liz Barnes (per Daily Mail), Conors mother, Lory Del Santo, opened up about the moment.

The baby had learned to write a few words, she shared.  He said to me, Oh mummy, I want to write a letter to daddy, what shall I write? I told him, Well, write, I love you.'

She added, He wrote that, and we posted it like a regular letter.

Notably, she was present when Clapton received Conors love note at his home in the United Kingdom. After Conor died, Eric and I arrived in London for the funeral. I was there when Eric received his mail just after the funeral, she recalled. And he opened it up, and it was Conors letter.

Fortunately, Clapton maintained his sobriety after the tragedy, spending a year in Antigua living in a small community with little outside contact. He told Barnes all he could do was play music again and again and again and again until he could come out again.

What happened the day Eric Claptons son, Conor, died?

Cue the tears ??



Thirty years ago today, Eric Clapton released "Tears in Heaven," which is written after the death of his four-year-old son Conor who fell from a tall building.



Clapton poured his grief into the song, which won Record and Song of the Year at the 1993 Grammys. pic.twitter.com/fyD9PHm35j  Philstar.com (@PhilstarNews) January 8, 2022

Conor was home with his mother on the day he died, and a housekeeper reportedly left a window open after cleaning it.

He went in this room, opened the door, Del Santo said (per ABC News). As soon as I entered the room and I see the window. Where can he be?

Clapton later wrote Tears in Heaven about the tragedy, but also a lesser-known song called Circus about taking Conor to the circus the night before he died. Del Santo concluded of their son, He was an angel, I think. Really, he was.

RELATED: Eric Clapton: Why Weird Al Yankovic Wouldnt Parody 1 of His Biggest Songs
Writer/director Quinn Shephards Not Okay presents an exaggerated look at the desperation attached to social media culture. Actors Zoey Deutch, Dylan OBrien, and Mia Isaac deliver worthwhile performances, but the films anti-redemption arc is lacking. Not Okay is the type of comedy that walks a very fine line with particularly sensitive themes involving terrorism, school shootings, and trauma.

Not Okay is a cautionary tale of social media and attention desperation

Zoey Deutch as Danni Sanders | Nicole Rivelli/Searchlight Pictures

Danni Sanders (Deutch) is a young woman who works at a digital media outlet in imaging. However, she dreams of making the switch over to becoming a writer. Meanwhile, Danni crushes on a colleague named Colin (OBrien) and makes up a lie that shes traveling to Paris, France, for a writers retreat. However, a deadly terrorist attack in Paris makes her pretend shes a survivor of the horrible tragedy.

Not Okay finds Danni gaining fame, followers, and sympathy in ways that suddenly fulfill her desperate search for attention, kindness, and respect. However, shes about to learn that online notoriety comes with a terrible price. She becomes close friends with a school shooting survivor and activist named Rowan (Isaac), who fights for change.

Writer/director Quinn Shephard crafts an anti-redemption story

Not Okay positions itself as a cautionary tale in several regards, including the dangers of social media obsessions and the desire to be seen. However, Shephard also warns the audience of unlikable female protagonists, making it clear from the get-go that this isnt necessarily a character to root for. Nevertheless, Not Okay dives into how the Internet turns villains into victims and vice versa. Dannis story contains a generational discourse on how the world processes hardship in the social media age.

Shephards screenplay tackles white privilege and creates comedy surrounding it that often uses cringe culture as its punchline. Rowan acts as a juxtaposition to Danni, providing the film with authenticity and hope of how future generations can utilize their social platforms for good. However, Danni refuses to take any shred of responsibility, always displacing her hardships on external factors. Shephards story presents many opportunities for the character to potentially redeem herself, but she never takes them.

Not Okay tackles some deep subject matter, including trauma. However, the screenplay doesnt focus on applying dramatic weight but only teases the most serious ramifications of Dannis actions. Theyre often sugar-coated with sprinkles of comedy that break up the tension. Rowen teaches Danni that pain is ones biggest asset to use in the world, but in Not Okays case, it doesnt quite find how to incorporate that message organically.

Not Okay has its heart in the right place, but its an underbaked narrative

L-R: Dylan OBrien as Colin and Zoey Deutch as Danni Sanders | Nicole Rivelli/Searchlight Pictures

Not Okay explores some really sensitive themes, such as school shootings, terrorism, and depression. This requires Shephard to explore this terrain carefully; her heart is certainly in the right place. However, it doesnt really have anything new or particularly impactful to contribute to the conversation. Its predictable and occasionally insensitive in how it handles the exploitation of school shootings and other acts of terrorism.

Nevertheless, the cast turns in good work here. Deutch successfully pulls off a narcissistic character in Danni and gives her layers. OBrien easily pulls off his comedic timing, making Colin a welcome addition away from the films main arc. However, Isaac is an absolute star and consistently steals the show. She injects this character with such an easy sense of honesty that draws the viewer in, making her character increasingly fascinating.

Social media can be a wonderful place, but it can also turn ugly very quickly. Danni and Rowan experience this in their own ways, but Shephard ultimately makes a message about the real world and the importance of living an authentic life. Danni is despicable, but unlike Dear Evan Hansens title character, the journey to redemption takes a more appropriate route. Not Okay is appropriately an anti-redemption movie, but it struggles to find the humor or the compelling drama in a touchy subject.

Not Okay lands on Hulu starting on July 29.

RELATED: I Love My Dad Movie Review [SXSW 2022]: Patton Oswalt Fully Embraces Cringe Humor
A groundbreaking new study recently published in the journal Earths Future and led by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in collaboration with the University of Alaska Anchorage, is the first to comprehensively account for the hydrological impact of lithium mining. Since lithium is the key component of the lithium-ion batteries that are crucial for the transition away from fossil fuels and towards green energy, it is critical to fully understand how to responsibly obtain the precious element.

Previous studies have not addressed two of the most important factors in determining whether lithium is obtained responsibly: the age and source of the water the lithium is found in. This first-of-its-kind study is the result of more than a decade of research, and it suggests that total water usage in the Salar de Atacama is exceeding its resupplythough, as the team also points out, the impact of lithium mining itself is comparatively small. Lithium mining accounts for less than 10% of freshwater usage and its brine extraction does not correlate with changes in either surface-water features or basin-water storage.

Lithium, says David Boutt, professor of geosciences at UMass Amherst and one of the papers co-authors, is a strange element. Its the lightest of the metals, but it doesnt like to be in a solid form. Lithium tends to occur in layers of volcanic ash, but it reacts quickly with water. When rain or snowmelt moves through the ash layers, lithium leaches into the groundwater, moving downhill until it settles in a flat basin where it remains in solution as a briny mix of water and lithium. Because this brine is very dense, it often settles beneath pockets of fresh surface water, which float on top of the lithium-rich fluid below. These fresh-water lagoons often become havens for unique and fragile ecosystems and iconic species such as flamingos.

More than 40 percent of the worlds proven lithium deposits are located in the Salar de Atacama, a massive, arid Chilean salt flat encompassing approximately 850 square miles, and the site of the research. The Salar de Atacama is host to a number of ecologically unique wildlife preserves and is also the ancestral home of several Atacameno indigenous communities, with whom the UMass team worked. Because the salt flats are so ecologically sensitive and depend on scarce supplies of fresh water, the use of water in the Salar de Atacama runs the risk of disturbing both the ecological health of the region and the indigenous ways of life.

And yet, up until now, there has been no comprehensive approach to gauging water use or lithium minings impact in the Salar de Atacama.

Complex Hydrology in Chilean salt flat

To understand the environmental effect of lithium mining, says Brendan Moran, a postdoctoral research associate in geosciences at UMass Amherst and the lead author of the paper, we need to understand the hydrology in the region the lithium is found. That hydrology is much more complex than previous researchers have given it credit for.

To illustrate the complexity, and the previous misconception about the Salar de Atacamas hydrology, Moran and Boutt draw on the metaphor of a bank account. Imagine that you get a paycheck every month; when you go to balance your checkbook, as long as your monthly expenditures dont exceed your monthly income, you are financially sustainable. Previous studies of the Salar de Atacama have assumed that the infrequent rainfall and seasonal runoff from the mountain ranges that ring it were solely responsible for the water levels in the salt flats, but it turns out that assumption is incorrect.

Using a variety of water tracers that can track the path that water takes on its way to the Salar de Atacama as well as the average age of water within different water bodies, including surface waters and sub-surface aquifers, Moran and his colleagues discovered that though localized, recent rainfall is critically important, more than half of the freshwater feeding the wetlands and lagoons is at least 60 years old. Because these regions are so dry, and the groundwater so old, says Moran, the overall hydrological system responds very slowly to changes in climate, hydrology and water usage. At the same time, short-term climate changes, such as the recent major drought and extreme precipitation events, can cause substantial and rapid changes to the surface water and the fragile habitats they sustain. Given that climate change is likely to cause more severe droughts over the region, it could further stress the areas water budget.

To return to the accounting metaphor, the paycheck is likely getting smaller and isnt coming monthly, but over a period of at least 60 years, which means that researchers need to be monitoring water usage on a much longer time scale than they currently do, while also paying attention to major events, like droughts, in the region.

Complete hydrological monitoring requires additional tools paired with these geochemical tracers. The UMass and UAA teams used water usage data from the Chilean government, and satellite imagery, which allowed them to assess the changing extent of wetlands over the past 40 years, rain gauges, and satellite measurements to determine changes in precipitation over the same period.

Given how long it takes for groundwater to move within the basin, The effects of water over-use may still be making their way through the system and need to be closely monitored, says Moran, potential impacts could last decades into the future.

Ultimately, this comprehensive framework, which was funded by BMW Group and BASF, is applicable far beyond the Salar de Atacama. Its a modern approach to water management, says Boutt.
William Edgars new book, A Supreme Love: The Music of Jazz and the Hope of the Gospel, is itself a work of love. Edgar, professor of systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, describes himself as a decent amateur of jazz who has played, studied, and written about it not from any career aspirations but out of a lifelong attachment. He is an amateur in the truest sense of the words origin, the French amateur: one who loves. This affection spills out of the margins, inviting readers to dive into a subject presented with joyful attention to detail and collegial warmth.

The book is a friendly read, dotted with Edgars own asides (In my opinion, this was the best of his albums or Personally, I dont think this is quite true) like a friend sharing opinions about a concert over a drink. But the love of jazz is far from Edgars sole motivation. He writes, By knowing the historical roots of jazz and by being better listeners, I believe that we will hear something that is deeply embedded in jazz: a supreme lovethe love of God.

This affectionate approach does not preclude academic rigor. The book presents a comprehensive and deep account of both the historical and technical aspects of jazz, as evidenced by its extensive engagement with important works of jazz scholarship. Edgar proceeds chronologically, from jazzs origin in African diaspora music to the development of its background genres, namely spirituals, gospel, and the blues. Readers will come away better informed about the history of jazz, including its central figures, internal debates, and present innovations.

Edgars own proficiency ...

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Its different when you get down to the bone.

Jack Gary, director of archaeology at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, can get excited talking about the excavation of old post holes and brick foundations. Hes thrilled when his team finds bits of bottles, old coins, and the porcelain foot of a long-lost baby doll, giving them a glimpse of what life was like at a historic Baptist church where enslaved Black people lifted their voices to God.

But the buried remains of these faithful Christiansonce covered over by a parking lotreveal their full humanity.

It doesnt hit you until you see a bone you recognize: Thats a piece of a person. You are touching another human, Gary told CT.

The Colonial Williamsburg archaeologist and his team started excavating the 40 or 41 graves at the church on Monday, slowly and carefully removing about a foot of soil from the first three sites. They believe it is one of the oldest Black congregations in America, founded at the time of the Declaration of Independence by an enslaved man named Gowan Pamphlet, who was given a special allowance for ordination by the woman who owned him.

The building that housed the congregation was demolished in the 1950s as part of the ongoing reconstruction and restoration of the former capital of colonial Virginia. No one in authority at the time appears to have thought the church was an important enough part of that history to preserve, continuing the generations-long practice of diminishing or even erasing Black people from the American story.

Connie Matthews Harshaw, a descendent of the Christians who worshiped there, started pushing and organizing for the recovery of the church in 2019. She convinced Cliff Fleet, the new president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, to approve the excavation and eventual restoration of the church, which will become part of the living history museum.

Shortly after the second phase of work started in January 2020, the archaeologists detected bodies buried at the church. There was no written record of the graves, but some older members of First Baptist recalled family stories of ancestors buried there.

When your grandmother tells you something, normally you can count on it, Harshaw told the Associated Press.

On Monday, Harshaw and other Black Baptist descendants of the church gathered to say a blessing over the graves before they were opened and the bodies disinterred. Roosevelt Taylor, a deacon from St. Johns Baptist Church, read Scripture. Valerie Matthews, pastor at Zion Baptist Church, said a prayer. Sylvia Tabb Lee, from New Zion Baptist Church, sang Amazing Grace. And Reginald Davis, pastor of First Baptist, said the ancestral blessing in honor of those whose names are known only to God.

Davis said the excavation project is a rediscovery of the humanity of a people that will help erase the historical and social amnesia that has afflicted this country for so many years.

According to Gary, the archaeologists are very aware that every little detail they discover in these graves is importantthe way they were buried, their proximity to each other, and whether anything was buried with them.

Who knows what stories these people had, he said. But this is it. For most of them, this will be all we know.

The excavation is a careful, painstaking process, starting with the slow removal of soil that is then sifted for any historic objects. Archaeologists dont know how deep the bodies are buried, so they go very slowly, removing a little earth at a time. As they dig, they watch for a layer of rotted wood from the decayed coffin, but they cant count on that, because the deceased may have been buried with a simple shroud.

When they do discover bodies, the team will stop and go put on Tyvek suits and sterilize their equipment so they can recover an uncorrupted sample of DNA. They will look for the petrousa hard bone right behind the earto send to the University of Connecticut for DNA analysis. If they cant find the petrous, the other pieces most likely to carry good samples of genetic information are molars, fingers, and toes.

The DNA tests may help connect the remains to living descendants and also provide some basic demographic data. The lab may be able to determine eye color and skin tone, as well as biological traits.

Then the archaeologists will fully uncover the bodies and document their burials with photography, 3D renderings, and hand-drawn sketches. According to Gary, the multiple modes of documentation provide redundant data, ensuring they dont miss any important details. Photography and 3D renderings can capture what a human eye wont see, while drawings often preserve contextual clues missed by mechanical renderings.

After the graves are fully documented, the bodies will be carefully packed and shipped to the Institute for Historical Biology at the College of William and Mary. The scientists there will get one year to examine skeletons, learning as much as they can from the physiology and morphology about the social conditions and the lives of the Black Christians buried at the Williamsburg church.

The institute has agreed to return the bodies after a year, out of respect to the dead, and they will then be reinterred in their original resting places. The descendants will work with Colonial Williamsburg to memorialize them, and include the graveyard in the restoration of the church, which will become part of the living history museum.

The reenactors who portray Gowan Pamphlet will talk about what it was like to be a Black Baptist in the days after the American Revolution, believing in the equality of all before God in a society that proclaimed All men are created equal and yet perpetuated slavery.

The interpretive site will also recount the history of Christians who persevered in their faith through the Civil War, the emergence of laws that applied only to Black people, the legislation of segregation, and, in the middle of the civil rights movement, the erasure of the testimony of the historic church with a parking lot.

Before that can happen, though, the archaeologists have a lot of work ahead of them. On Tuesday, they removed a second foot of soil from three graves, taking them incrementally closer to the human remains.

Things quiet down as we get closer and our tools become much smaller, Gary said. You almost hold your breath. The next turn of the trowel could reveal bone.
Christian mayoral candidate fired by employer for publicizing views on marriage Case believed to be 'first of its kind,' watchdog group says

A Christian woman running for mayor of a London borough has taken legal action against her former employer, claiming she was fired for expressing her views on marriage as part of her campaign.

Maureen Martin, 56, was fired for gross misconduct by LONDON & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q), where she worked for over a decade. Her termination came after three complaints were filed in response to a campaign statement she made in support of the biblical definition of marriage, according to the advocacy group Christian Legal Centre.

As part of her campaign for mayor of Lewisham, just southeast of London, Martin shared a graphic stating her positions on knife crime, housing and marriage. She said that "natural marriage between a man and a woman is the fundamental building block for a successful society."

Martin shared the graphic with residents in Lewisham on April 18 as part of her campaign. An image of her "six point plan" leaflet was shared on social media, with at least one user calling it "hate speech" and suggesting it "broke the law."

In addition to her work at the housing trust, Martin is an ordained Christian minister who serves as president of the Christian People's Alliance (CPA), a political party in the United Kingdom founded in 1999.

Martin worked for L&Q as a housing manager for 13 years with what her legal team describes as "an unblemished record and had good relationships with LGBT colleagues and service users in her non-customer facing role."

According to the Christian Legal Centre, Martin was called into her employer's HR office a few days later and informed of three anonymous complaints calling Martin "hateful" and a "bigoted moron." A third complaint demanded that L&Q require her to "actively participate in anti-oppressive training and for disciplinary action to be taken to address her statements."

She was told in a subsequent meeting that her tweets and manifesto were "homophobic" and in breach of the company's social media policy.

When asked about her Christian beliefs on marriage, Martin told HR: "This is freedom of speech. What's the point in being allowed freedom of speech if you can't have it?"

"I'm a Christian. It's just my preference that a marriage be between a man and a woman," Martin reportedly told her bosses. "My view doesn't affect my job in any way and hasn't done since 2007. I've had no complaints from people of other sexual orientations or colleagues. I've never displayed or raised homophobic opinions in any form in my job."

After being asked about posts on social media, Martin was asked if she would continue running for mayor of Lewisham, to which she replied in the affirmative.

According to Christian Legal Centre, Martin was accused of failing to declare political activity and a conflict of interest with L&Q's policies banning staff engagement "in any political or campaigning activity that might compromise the position of L&Q."

An investigating officer with the company allegedly told Martin that her stating her views on marriage publicly brought "L&Q into disrepute," suggesting that her photo on the campaign leaflet "is clearly linked to L&Q."

Martin was suspended until May 4 for "discrimination via homophobic tweets posted on Twitter" and bringing the company into disrepute, which in turn prevented her from resuming her mayoral campaign.

Following her suspension and a disciplinary hearing, Martin was terminated for gross misconduct. Her dismissal letter quoted by the Christian Legal Centre stated the cause was for tweets and beliefs "perceived to be discriminatory, hurtful and offensive views towards members of the LGBTQ+ community, non-traditional families, and abortion."

Martin brings her legal complaint on grounds of discrimination, harassment, indirect discrimination and unfair dismissal.

In a statement to The Christian Post, Fiona Fletcher-Smith, L&Q Group chief executive, said: "We are proud to promote equality for people from all backgrounds. Whilst we respect that individuals' freedom to hold particular religious or other beliefs is absolute, we do not tolerate it when these beliefs are manifested in a way that is derogatory or offensive to others."

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said the case is believed to be the first of its kind.

"We have never seen a case like this which sends a crushing message to anyone who believes in Christian marriage and wishes to express those beliefs at work or in public office," said Williams.

In response to Martin's firing, The Christian People's Alliance said in a statement that "offense is part of a functioning society."

"This fine nation once stood on the pedestal of freedom of speech however, this unparalleled action seems to be a way for the LGBT Cartel to dictate our thoughts and feelings," the political party's statement reads. "We simply can't have a nation that prosecutes citizens for speaking out against immoral behavior or for having a different opinion."
Excavation work begins on graves at ruins of early American black church

Excavation has begun on graves found at the site where one of the oldest African American congregations in the United States once stood.

Work began on Monday examining three burial sites at the ruins of Historic First Baptist Church of Williamsburg, Virginia, whose building is believed to have been originally built circa 1818.

Before the excavation began, an ancestral blessing ceremony was attended by members of the congregation and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

The ceremony included remarks by Liz Montgomery, chairwoman of FBCs history ministry, along with a prayer, Scripture reading, a medley of spirituals and a blessing of the gravesite.

Jack Gary, director of archaeology at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, told The Christian Post that he considered the event to be a moving ceremony in honor of those whose names are known only to God.

After discussing next steps and answering questions about our work, we began the excavation process of the first of three burial sites after the ceremony. We expect the work on these three burial sites to be completed in about two months, said Gary.

Gary also told CP about how the FBC congregation and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation have worked closely together throughout the entire process.

[We] first [came together] to try to identify the first permanent structure of the church and now to try to learn as much as we can about the people buried at the site, he said.

This is the churchs story, and everyone at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and on our archaeology team are honored for its guidance as we try to uncover as much as we can about one of Americas oldest black churches.

First Baptist Church of Williamsburg traces its origins back to worship meetings held in secret by slaves and ex-slaves in the 1770s at Green Spring Plantation, near Williamsburg.

In 1781, the congregation became an official church and was led by Gowan Pamphlet, an enslaved man who was the first African American to be ordained a Baptist preacher.

Last October, archaeologists discovered what is believed to be the first permanent structure for the congregation, which had been built around 1818 and then destroyed by a tornado in 1834.

In 1856, a brick church building was built on the same site, with the historic congregation eventually moving to its present location at 727 Scotland Street a century later in 1956.

The early history of our congregation, beginning with enslaved and free blacks gathering outdoors in secret in 1776, has always been a part of who we are as a community, said the Rev. Reginald F. Davis, the church's pastor, in a statement last October.

To see it unearthed  to see the actual bricks of that original foundation and the outline of the place our ancestors worshiped  brings that history to life and makes that piece of our identity tangible. After 245 years, this is a reason to truly celebrate.

In March, the FBC congregation approved a proposal to excavate three of the 41 grave shafts that have been discovered at the site to learn more about the people buried there.

The investigation into the burial sites is also expected to include DNA analyses of the remains, which are expected to take between six months to a year to process.
106 Florida churches sue United Methodist Church over disaffiliation process

Over 100 congregations in Florida have sued a regional body of The United Methodist Church, believing they are not being given fair terms for leaving the second-largest denomination in the United States amid its schism over homosexuality.

A total of 106 congregations filed suit against the UMC Florida Annual Conference last Thursday in the Circuit Court for the Eighth Judicial Circuit in and for Bradford County, Civil Division.

A specific issue in the lawsuit is how the departing congregations are required to pay the conference a "sum of money" to retain control of their church properties.

The complaint alleges that this payment "is determined in the discretion of the aforementioned parties, and is always substantial and often prohibitive, yet nonnegotiable and unappealable."

The plaintiffs also contend that the UMC Book of Discipline, which is the denomination's central rule book, allows for them to "amicably disaffiliate," citing Section 2548.2.

Grace United Methodist Church of Lawtey, the lead plaintiff, believes it should not have to pay to secure its property because it purchased the property long before the UMC was founded in 1968.

"The Annual Conference has taken the position that it is entitled to keep the Grace UMC Property  which was owned and paid for by Grace UMC long before The UMC and the Annual Conference ever existed  unless Grace UMC pays a substantial payment of money as unilaterally determined by the Annual Conference Defendant," the suit states.

Grace UMC and the other churches are represented by the National Center for Life & Liberty, which also provided The Christian Post with a copy of the lawsuit.

NCLL CFO Jonathan Bailie told CP in an interview on Monday that he believes "the payments that the Florida Annual Conference is requiring them to pay is inequitable and onerous."

"The reason the lawsuit was filed was that the 106 churches believed that the Florida Annual Conference is not being equitable in creating a split that they're able to successfully minister in the communities for the Gospel," said Bailie.

"The churches are frustrated with the annual conference's violations of the Book of Discipline and refusal to honor the Traditional Plan as outlined in the 2019 General Conference."

Bailie was referring to the 2019 special session of the UMC General Conference, which passed a proposal known as the "Traditional Plan." The proposal reaffirmed the denomination's opposition to homosexuality and same-sex marriage while also attempting to streamline the disaffiliation process for congregations.

A Florida Conference spokesperson directed CP to an open letter that Bishop Ken Carter sent to the members of the regional body, in which he said he was "deeply grieved by" the lawsuit.

"We have been trying to engage those churches in that process but they have refused to follow that process choosing to file this lawsuit instead," wrote Carter.

"We ask that, despite their haste, these groups seeking to break away live up to the responsibilities established by the General Conference in 2019, and that they not cause pain, damage or disparage other United Methodist churches, other members in their churches or other pastors, or the Conference."

Carter cautioned against "an abrupt separation" like what he believed the churches wanted, writing that it "creates significant issues that could damage benefits and pensions for retired pastors and their spouses who devoted their lives to service."

"In all this, our overarching goal is to move through this process in a spirit where we can support, bless and love each other," he added.

"A tenet of our faith is that we embrace a Church built in loving relationships rather than uniformity in thought and action. As John Wesley is quoted, 'though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike?'"

The UMC has been embroiled in a divisive debate over whether to change its official stance labeling homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching."

Although the UMC has consistently voted down efforts to change its stance, theologically liberal members and clergy have often refused to enforce the Book of Discipline position on the issue.

Frustrations over the endless debate and refusal of some UMC officials to enforce the rules have prompted many theologically conservative churches to seek dismissal from the denomination.

In May, the conservative Methodist group the Wesleyan Covenant Association announced that 107 churches were planning to leave the Florida Conference, representing around 20% of the member churches of the regional body.

The departing congregations intend to affiliate with the newly launched Global Methodist Church, which is meant to be a conservative alternative to the UMC.
Pastor, youth advocate shot dead in driveway; 15-year-old charged with her murder

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with murder after Rev. Autura Eason-Williams, the pastor of Capleville United Methodist Church in Tennessee, was gunned down during what police believe was a carjacking in the driveway of her Whitehaven home on Monday evening. She was 52.

Friends and loved ones are still struggling to process the fatal shooting of the beloved church leader known for her work with young people and as district superintendent of the Metro District in the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Annual Conference of the denomination.

Eason-Williams was identified as a victim after police officers responded to a shooting on Whitehaven Lane after 4 p.m. Monday, WREG reported. She succumbed to wounds suffered during the shooting at an area hospital.

Memphis police have since charged a 15-year-old boy with first-degree murder, murder in the perpetration of a robbery, especially aggravated robbery, carjacking, and employment of a firearm during a dangerous felony. The boy was arrested Tuesday along with a 16-year-old accomplice.

The 16-year-old was charged with theft of property valued between $2,500-$10,000.

"Incidents like these should make everyone have sleepless nights," Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon at the Raines police precinct, Action News 5 reported. "It should make everyone have feelings of hurt and pain."

The Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference urged in a statement that anyone with "any information about where or with whom Autura may have been on that Monday between the hours of 2:30 and 4:30 p.m." to contact Sgt. Q. Smith with the Memphis Police at 901-636-3413.

"It may be helpful for the police investigation," the statement noted. "We all are shocked and saddened by this senseless act."

Jody Hill, president of Memphis Theological Seminary, said in a statement on Facebook that Eason-Williams was a graduate of the school and the seminary community is "devastated" by her death.

"She was a wife, mother, and a devoted friend to many. She led Formation classes at MTS and Signposts groups for the Center for Faith and Imagination. We join so many of you in shock and pain. Autura was a real light and a well of deep care," Hill said.

"Personally, I saw in her the spiritual gift of hospitality. Autura was eager to embrace all of God's children with a warm smile, gentle hug, or encouraging word. We grieve her loss and this senseless violence."

David Perry, a field representative at the United Methodist Foundation for the Memphis and Tennessee Conferences, called Eason-Williams a "dear friend." He revealed in a Facebook post Wednesday that the Tennessee pastor was on a call with another colleague at the time of her death.

"Even since Monday evening, I've been trying to process the tragic news of the murder of a dear friend and an esteemed colleague, Rev. Dr. Autura Eason-Williams, in her own driveway while talking with another pastor on her cell," Perry wrote.

"Autura's presence and leadership in Methodist circles have been exemplary.  Her leadership was outstanding as a pastor, as a Board Chair, and as a District Superintendent. Autura was strong in her convictions, but loving in the face of disagreement; gentle in her relationships and firm in her faith. Her presence and her faithful walk with Jesus made a difference for so many of us. Now, we share the shock and grief of the violence that ended her walk in this life."

Perry said he is more troubled by the news that the suspect charged in the pastor's murder is a teenager. Perry suggested the murder is a sign that the Church has much work to do.

"My pain over this tragic loss was compounded yesterday by the news that a 15 year old boy pulled the trigger. What an awful evidence of the increasing violence we see in our world! Only a few weeks before, the 19 year old son of another friend and exemplary Christian servant was shot and killed while driving down a main street of Jackson, apparently from a random gang-related act of violence," he said.

"Regardless of our faith, our politics, our personal leanings, it becomes the responsibility of us all to combat the conditions that breed these kinds of senseless, reprehensible acts of violence," he argued. "Every one of us should be praying- for the victims, their families, and, yes, even the perpetrators of these crimes; however, we also should be praying that God will show us how to become agents of change, helping replace violence with kindness, hatred and prejudice with love, gangs with true fellowship, fear with hope, and despair with action. Love and justice require us to allow God to use us in these ways."

Memphis Police Lt. Colonel James Kirkwood, who worked with Eason-Williams, says she was a dedicated youth advocate.

"She was awesome," Kirkwood told Action News 5. "Her strongest advocation was for young people. She fought for young people. It was so important that young people have a chance."
JD Halls former church says he embezzled money, physically assaulted wife and son

An elder with Fellowship Baptist Church in Sidney, Montana, said Friday that former pastor Jordan Daniel "J.D." Hall, a polemics blogger known for criticizing Christian leaders, embezzled money from the church and was kicked out of his home for being physically abusive.

Last month, Fellowship Baptist Church announced the removal of Hall as pastor in light of his abuse of Xanax, alleging in a June 27 statement that he had a dependency above his prescribed dosage.

The church's statement also stated that the decision to remove Hall, known for his scathing criticisms of Christian leaders on his now-defunct polemics website Pulpit & Pen and more recently Protestia, came several days following a June 5 incident. The details of the incident were not disclosed in the church's statement.

Caleb Snodgrass, an elder at Fellowship Baptist Church who has been serving in that role for approximately four years, told The Christian Post in an interview Friday that the church was told on June 5 by Hall's wife, Mandy, that he physically abused her and her son.

After the incident, she reportedly kicked him out of the home to protect herself and their children.

"The night, it [was] June 5th, Mandy called some of the deacons to come over. She [had] kicked him [Hall] out of the house at that point. And so that's when she told us the things that we found out about what was going on in the family," Snodgrass said.

Reports of the June 5 incident and an allegation that Hall embezzled more than $10,000 from the church were filed with the Sidney Police Department on June 23.

The Sidney Police Department provided heavily redacted copies of both reports to CP on Monday as the claims are still "under investigation."

In the June 5 incident, Hall was alleged to have committed "assault with a weapon" described as a "knife/cutting Instrument." He was also alleged to have committed "strangulation of a partner or family member" inside his home.

Snodgrass confirmed that the church reported the assault to the Sidney Police Department. He noted that before Hall's alleged attack on his family, the elders did not know how bad Hall's addiction issues were. The church elder said they didn't realize Hall needed more serious intervention, so they initially told Hall that he needed to get clean.

"We didn't know how bad the addiction was. And so we simply said, 'You got to stop [using] Xanax. And so we really sent him home with his family."

After the alleged assault, Snodgrass said Hall "was not allowed to go back home."

He said the church initially wanted to take him to a rehab facility immediately, but Snodgrass said they realized that "you can't just take somebody to rehab."

"You have to know it's like a monthlong process to get into one of these places," Snodgrass said.

The deacons took Hall to the church "where we've got some bedrooms until we can figure things out," Snodgrass said.

A day later, they tried to get Hall into rehab by taking him to an emergency room several hours away, but that did not work, Snodgrass added.

The elder said Hall is now getting treatment near his parents in Missouri, but he wasn't sure where.

Snodgrass didn't go into details regarding the embezzlement allegations but confirmed that the church filed a report. He said church leaders discovered the financial irregularities after they removed Hall as their leader.

The police report records this allegation as "theft exceeding $10,000 by embezzlement."

According to Snodgrass, Hall continues to live separately from his family but has had conversations with his wife. He claims the church has been trying to minister to Hall, but he has been resistant to their discipline.

"We are trying to [minister to Hall], but there's a lot of anger there. Due to how we've handled this, and due to differing of opinions on whether or not he's pretentious," Snodgrass said.

"We have reached out to them a lot more than he and Mandy would suggest. But we are, we are trying to do whatever we can. They are not really allowing us to do much. At this point, we are distancing ourselves a little bit due to whatever we say being misconstrued."

Snodgrass alleges that Hall has been so resistant to church discipline that he has questioned the validity of his board of elders and deacons.

Weekly attendance at Fellowship Baptist  usually 50 to 100 people  has now fallen to about 50% since Hall's misconduct, Snodgrass disclosed.

When asked if he saw a future return for Hall to ministry, Snodgrass responded with a solid "no."

"There's no real hope for that," he said. "You know, maybe, in my opinion, maybe 10-15 years down the line when things are so totally different. I don't think he would with the group at our church. I don't think he would be welcomed back. This whole situation, especially with the family, has exploded. And it's so, so horrible that and now with the financial stuff that's coming out. He's disqualified himself, and it's a pretty bad disqualification."
John Gray experiencing 'miraculous' recovery after suffering life-threatening embolism: wife

More than a week after he was hospitalized with a life-threatening pulmonary embolism, Relentless Church Pastor John Gray is now slowly on the mend, according to his wife, Aventer Gray, and shes calling it a miracle.

We cant explain it, but we know that its God. And that its only God that has kept him and that is keeping him even now, Aventer Gray, who co-pastors Relentless Church with her husband, told churchgoers during an address on Sunday, Greenville News reported. Hes in amazing spirits and he cant wait to see you all again.

Relentless Church has campuses in Greenville, South Carolina, and Powder Springs, Georgia.

Gray, 49, was first admitted to a hospital in Alabama and then transported to the critical care unit of another hospital in Atlanta with a saddle pulmonary embolism.

The condition is a rare type of acute pulmonary embolism that occurs when a large blood clot gets "lodged at the intersection where the main pulmonary artery divides and branches off into the left and right lungs," according to Medical News Today.

As her husband wrestled on his sickbed with the condition, Aventer Gray urged his followers to bombard Heaven with prayers so he could receive a "miracle" from God.

She told congregants that the recovery she's seen in her husband since he was admitted to the hospital is a miracle.

I came here today because I wanted to let you know that if you believe in God for any type of miracle, this house is definitely a house of miracles, she said. Ive seen it, and Im seeing it right now.

In an Instagram post a day earlier, she shared how the blood clots in her husbands body were responding to his medical treatment.

Doctors, multiple cardiologists, a hematologist  the best, baffled Only God! We are stable today moving in the right direction. You heard his voice, but dont let it fool you, the way this SPE was set up, it was trying to destroy, suffocate him. He is being unhooked from supplemental everything, because the timeline of how soon it would take to see these clots dissipate was accelerated by months and the only thing they could attribute this to was prayer, Aventer Gray said. Nothing they did do, was able to do what we now see based on most recent imaging. It was the prayers of the righteous that availed

The Relentless Church co-pastor urged congregants on Sunday to keep praying and supporting the ministry as her husband continues to experience his miraculous recovery.

I need you to remain committed to your ministries; I need you to remain a participant in this vision and this work because he will step out here again, Aventer Gray said. And oh my God, when he does  Im going to tear every pew out of here with my bare hands because I know how close to death my husband was, and I need you to take it up because there is a miracle taking place in our midst!

While a saddle pulmonary embolism is life-threatening, most people with the condition generally survive. One study shows the mortality rate for the condition is 3.62%.

Aventer Gray explained earlier that her husband had been flying between two campuses weekly before the diagnosis. She said his body had been "screaming" for him to take his health more seriously.

She said his doctor revealed that his pulmonary artery was "50% blocked" and called for prayers that the clot would "shrink, shrivel and die."
Rick Warrens Saddleback successor Andy Wood is cleared of abuse allegations

Just over a month after a preliminary investigation cleared Pastor Andy Wood of allegations of leadership abuse during his time at Echo.Church, elders at Saddleback Church say that Rick Warrens named successor has been completely cleared by two separate investigations.

Saddleback elders said in a July 11 statement that the Vanderbloemen Search Group, one of America's best-known and highly respected Christian executive search firms, conducted a rigorous background check on the 40-year-old Wood before his initial selection as Saddleback Churchs new lead pastor.

The Vanderbloemen investigation was also reviewed by the Middlebrook & Goodspeed firm, and the results are the same, the elders said. Wood is cleared to lead.

The team at Vanderbloemen interviewed former employees, former volunteers, peers, and current employees to ask them about their experiences with Andy. The sample can be said to be thorough. After our work, we concluded there is no systemic or pattern of abuse under Andys leadership, nor was there an individual that we felt was abused, Vanderbloemen stated after the additional review.

The selection of Wood and his wife, Stacie, to succeed Rick and Kay Warren as leaders of the California-based megachurch triggered "shock" and "fear" in some individuals who have previously worked with Wood who publicly accused him of leadership abuse.

"When I first saw the news that Andy had been selected as Rick's replacement, my first reaction was shock. And my second reaction was fear," Lance Hough, a former creative arts pastor at Echo.Church Fremont Crossroads, told The Christian Post in response to Saddleback's June 2 announcement of Woods selection.

"It seems to me like Andy has been in a place of unaccountable leadership. And I would hate to see the patterns that started at Echo Church be recreated at Saddleback at such a much larger scale."

Podcaster and international speaker Lori Adams-Brown, whose LinkedIn page says she worked full-time at Echo.Church from August 2019 to March 2021 as an associate campus pastor and development director, claimed on Twitter that "a pastor with many allegations of abuse against him" had been "hired to be the pastor of one of the largest churches in America."

In the July 11 statement, the Saddleback Church elders noted that Middlebrook & Goodspeed were hired "to ensure the thoroughness and competence of Vanderbloemens findings" and evaluate the investigation, process, and findings." The firm didn't find anything to challenge the conclusion reached by Vanderbloemen.

Based upon the testimony and evidence provided by Vanderbloemens background team, we believe the investigation was objective, thorough, transparent, and truthful. The investigation was done in a manner to protect the identity of the witnesses, which is essential to obtaining the truth. We feel that a conflict of interest did not exist in this investigation and that Vanderbloemens team followed all the leads provided to seek the truth, Middlebrook & Goodspeed stated.

Further, there was nothing in the materials and interviews we reviewed that would lead us to contradict Vanderbloemens finding that there was no pattern of abuse nor abuse towards an individual, the firm added.

Andy and Stacie Wood officially stepped down from Echo.Church on June 26 and are expected to move to Orange County, California, this month with their children. The couple will attend Saddleback in August during Warrens final preaching series.

Saddleback Church will celebrate the Warrens 43 years of service on the weekend of Sept. 3-4. On the weekend of Sept. 10-11, the Woods will be commissioned into their new roles. Woods first official day as Saddleback's new senior pastor will be Sept. 12.

Saddleback Church elders said that based on the most recent findings from two experienced and unbiased firms, they will now move on with Woods installation as planned.

We can now say with complete confidence that the investigations have CLEARED Pastor Andy Wood of the accusations made by a former employee. We will now resume moving forward with the process of installing Andy Wood as the next Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church in September. Thank you for your patience while we did our due diligence, so that these investigations could be completed, the elders said.

We wanted the truth. We will now turn our attention to planning a celebration of Pastor Rick and Kays unprecedented 43-year ministry, and then welcoming Pastor Andy, Stacie, Caedmon, Sammy, and Karis as our newest members of the Saddleback Family.
Abortionist moves to sue Indiana AG after questioning if she reported 10-year-old's abortion

An abortionist who made headlines after revealing publicly that a 10-year-old rape survivor crossed state lines to get an abortion claims she followed proper protocol and is moving to sue the state's attorney general over claims that he caused her "reputational harm."

In a tort claim filed Tuesday, Dr. Caitlin Bernard argued that Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita made several statements to the media that he "recklessly and/or negligently failed to ascertain" were true. She intends to seek damages for security costs, legal fees, reputational harm and emotional distress.

"On July 14, 2022, various news outlets obtained the Terminated Pregnancy Report through public record requests, confirming that Dr. Bernard complied with reporting requirements under Indiana law," the legal document states.

Rokita said in a July 13 interview with Fox News that his office is looking into whether Bernard violated the law by failing to report the underaged abortion of a rape victim.

Indiana law requires reporting abortions for girls under the age of 16 to the state Department of Health and the state Department of Child Services within three days of the abortion.

"If she failed to report it in Indiana, it's a crime for  to not report, to intentionally not report," Rokita said.

"This is a child, and there's a strong public interest in understanding if someone under the age of 16 or under the age of 18 or really any woman is having abortion in our state. And then if a child is being sexually abused, of course parents need to know. Authorities need to know. Public policy experts need to know."

Bernard disputed Rokita's claims that she may have violated the girl's privacy rights under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and failed to file the proper paperwork required for an underage abortion.

As Politico reported Tuesday, the tort claim triggers a 90-day period where the state will investigate the matter, and a lawsuit will be filed depending on their findings.

The story about the 10-year-old girl was first published by The Indianapolis Star. Bernard told the outlet on July 1 that she provided the girl with an abortion after she received a phone call from a child abuse doctor in Ohio.

Bernard reportedly received the call three days after the U.S. Supreme Court returned the abortion issue to the states and triggered an Ohio law banning abortion after six weeks.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost told Fox News that the girl could have had an abortion in Ohio under the medical exception in the state's abortion law.

Last Wednesday, The Columbus Dispatch reported on the arrest of 27-year-old George Fuentes, who confessed to raping the girl on at least two occasions.

The girl recently turned 10 and is believed to have been 9 years old when the rape occurred, according to Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Dan Meyer.

According to an official filing obtained Thursday by Fox News Digital, Bernard erroneously filed a report with authorities declaring the girl's abortion but stated that the girl's 27-year-old alleged rapist was 17 years old.

An Indiana Department of Health spokesperson told The Christian Post Tuesday that "Providers must enter the age of the father, or an estimated age if the actual age is unknown, on all terminated pregnancy reports." It is unclear if Bernard knew the actual age of the alleged father.

As The New York Times reported, Bernard is said to have listed the suspect's "approximate age" as 17. The outlet reports that abortionists often make their "best guess" if a pregnancy is the result of abuse, and more details about the perpetrator are unknown to them.

The girl's mother filed a report through Franklin County Children Services on June 22, which alerted Columbus police to the girl's pregnancy. During Fuentes' Wednesday arraignment, Detective Jeffrey Huhn testified that the minor underwent a chemical abortion in Indianapolis on June 30.

Bernard also took issue with the claim made by Rokita on Fox News that she has a "history of failing to report."

"A simple [online] check [finds] that, as of July 13, 2022, Dr. Bernard's license (No. 01078719A) was active with no disciplinary history," the tort claim states. "Thus, Mr. Rokita's statements that Dr. Bernard was an 'abortion activist acting as a doctor' with a 'history of failing to report' were false."

The Christian Post reached out to Rokita's office for comment. A response was not received by press time.

Bernard was among nine abortionists that Indiana Right to Life reported in 2018 were at the center of 48 consumer complaints from parents statewide, alleging they "failed to follow the legal reporting requirements to protect young children from sex abuse."

Bernard's employer, Indiana University Health, also opened a HIPAA investigation after the abortionist let the girl's story get out to the news media. However, Bernard's tort claim indicates that IU Health stated on July 15, after further investigation, that Bernard acted "in compliance with privacy laws."
2 Catholic priests abducted in Nigerias Kaduna State

A Catholic diocese in Nigerias Kaduna State has asked the faithful to pray for two of its priests who were kidnapped from the rectory of a church, bringing the number of priests kidnapped in the country this year thus far to 20.

The priests, identified as Fr. John Mark Cheitnum and Fr. Denatus Cleopas from the diocese of Kafanchan, were kidnapped Friday from the rectory of Christ the King Catholic Church in the town of Lere in Kaduna State, Catholic News Agency reported.

May Jesus, crucified on the Cross, listen to our prayers and hasten the unconditional release of His priests and all other kidnapped persons, Fr. Emmanuel Uchechukwu Okolo, the dioceses chancellor, was quoted as saying.

Three of the 20 Nigerian priests kidnapped this year were killed. The Catholic group Aid to the Church in Need says that at least seven were abducted this month alone.

The Nigerian Diocesan Catholic Priests Association has requested that priests observe a week of prayer and fasting for the clergy who continue to serve in the country, risking their lives.

Our duty is to lay before the altar of God the gratitude, cares, worries and petitions of the faithful and ours. We are advocates of pro-life and peace, the association said in a statement.

Last month, unidentified terrorists killed two Catholic priests in Kaduna and Edo, a month after two other priests were slain in two other districts in the West African country.

The two victims were identified as Fr. Vitus Borogo, a priest serving in the Archdiocese of Kaduna, and Fr. Christopher Odia from the Diocese of Auchi.

In May, unidentified gunmen stormed a Catholic parish in northern Nigeria and abducted two priests, identified as Fr. Stephen Ojapa and Fr. Oliver Okpara from the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, and two unidentified boys from St. Patrick Catholic Church in Gidan Maikambo area of Katsina states Kafur Local Government Area, Vatican News reported at the time.

In a separate incident the same month, radical Islamic militants affiliated with either radical Islamic Fulani herdsmen or the Islamic State West Africa Province terrorist group killed at least eight Christians, including children younger than 5, and wounded several others in an attack in Borno state.

In a report released last year, the Anambra-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) estimated that about 10 million people had been uprooted in northern Nigeria, where extremist violence was most severe, from July 2009 to July 2021.

The report added that about 2,000 Christian schools were attacked during that time.

The atrocities included massacres, killings, mutilations, torture, maiming, abductions, hostage-taking, rape, girl-child defilements, forced marriages, disappearances, extortions, forceful conversions and destruction or burning of homes and sacred worship and learning centers, Intersociety reported.

Intersociety said the mass violence had resulted from the propagation of radical Islamism.

The Nigerian government, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, who comes from a Fulani background, attributes the violence in the Middle Belt states to decades-old farmer-herder clashes. However, Christian human rights advocates have accused the government of overlooking religious elements and not doing enough to protect Nigerian citizens.

Many have raised concerns about what they perceive as the governments inaction in holding terrorists accountable for the rising number of murders and kidnappings, which some groups warn have reached the level of genocide.

ICC identified Nigeria as one of its 2021 Persecutors of the Year.

Nigeria is one of the deadliest places on Earth for Christians, as 50,000 to 70,000 have been killed since 2000, the ICC Persecutors of the Year report states.

Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, reported that at least 4,650 Christians were killed between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. That is an increase from 3,530 the previous year. Additionally, more than 2,500 Christians were kidnapped, up from 990 a year earlier.
Frank Turek says concept of 'relative truth' is a false idea that contradicts itself

Apologist Frank Turek recently shot down the idea of truth being relative, countering that such an idea is inherently at odds with itself, logically speaking.

The 60-year-old author, public speaker, radio host and founder of the Christian apologetics ministry CrossExamined.org told an audience of predominantly young adults at Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia, on Monday that any statement claiming that "there is no truth" is a "self-defeating" statement because it contradicts itself.

"You hear people saying: 'there's no truth. You got your truth. I got my truth. All truth is relative.' Well, if there's no truth, Christianity can't be true.  If there's no truth, atheism can't be true either. In fact, if there was no truth, would you ever go to school? Would you ever go to church? Would you ever call somebody out on a lie if there was no truth? No. Lies presuppose there's truth. Right? Of course, there's truth," Turek said.

"If someone were to say to you: 'there is no truth,' you should ask that person a question.  You ought to say: 'Hey, is that true? Is it true that there's no truth? Because if it's true that there's no truth, the claim there is no truth can't be true, but it claims to be true.'"

Turek defined a "self-defeating statement" as one that "doesn't meet its own standard" because it "violates the law of non-contradiction," which is "one of the fundamental laws of all thought. That says that opposite ideas cannot both be true at the same time and in the same sense."

"For example, if I were to say: 'I can't speak a word in English.' What would you say? 'You just used English to say it.' Right? This is a self-defeating statement. And the easiest way to identify self-defeating statements is to turn the claim on itself. That's the thinking skill. You've got to get good at turning the claim on itself," Turek noted.

When Christians are faced with people who question Christianity, Turek said, they should "call a timeout briefly and apply the claim to itself [by turning] the claim on itself."

Turek said if someone were to say to a Christian "all truth is relative," the Christian can turn the claim around by replying, "Is that a relative truth?"

"It's an absolute truth, while claiming 'all truth is relative.' It's like when people say: 'there are no absolutes.' What are you going to say to him? 'Is that an absolute?'" he explained.

In our culture today, Turek said people will often say: "there isn't the truth, only my truth," noting further examples like "you've got your truth, I've got my truth" and "you live your truth, I live my truth."

"Sounds like everybody ought to agree with this, right? There's just a problem. When somebody says: 'there isn't the truth, only my truth,' if you turn the claim on itself, what question are you going to ask back?" Turek asked the audience.

"You can say this: 'is that just your truth or the truth?' Right? If this statement up here is just 'your truth,' in other words, just your opinion, then why should I believe it? Right? But, if you're saying that this statement up here is 'the truth,' you just got done telling me there aren't any 'the truths.' You see the problem here? This is a 'the truth' statement claiming there are no 'the truths.'"

When people say "there's no truth in anything but science," Turek said the statement can be turned on itself by responding, "Is that statement science? Is that a scientific truth?"

"Can you go into the laboratory and prove this claim? No, that's a philosophical claim. You can't prove that in the laboratory. In fact, you can't do science without philosophy," Turek rationalized.

"Science doesn't say anything. Scientists do. And why am I saying that? Because all data needs to be gathered, and then all data needs to be interpreted. And who does that? Scientists do that. Science doesn't say anything."

Turek said it's important for Christians to understand that virtually every doubting question a non-Christian asks them about the topic of truth can be revealed as contradictory.

The apologist also said it is important for Christians to understand that sharing the truth is about more than just humbly contradicting those who question the faith. He said there are two kinds of faith, "belief that" and "belief in."

"'Belief that' is getting evidence that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead,that the documents are telling us the truth. All that is apologetics; getting evidence for what you believe. But all the 'belief that' in the world won't get your moral transgressions forgiven. For that, you got to go from 'belief that' to 'belief in,'" Turek stated.

He noted that James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote in James 2:19 that "even the demons believe that God exists, but they tremble."

Turek said the demons referenced didn't want to trust in Jesus. Even though the demons know He is God, "they don't trust in Him."

"There's a difference between 'belief that' and 'belief in.' 'Belief that' is just of the head. 'Belief in' is not only of the head, but it's of the heart. You can know something's true and still not trust in it," Turek elaborated.

"In fact, we know this in relationships. Don't we? In fact, when I first met my wife 37 years ago, I got evidence that she would be a good wife. But all the evidence in the world didn't make her my wife. I had to take a step of trust in her to ask her to be my wife.  That's the difference between 'belief that' and 'belief in.'"

Turek claimed that he has often heard people who reject Christianity because they are facing a "heart-issue" rather than because of factual evidence.

"The problem isn't in the head. The problem is in the heart," Turek added. "They don't want it to be true."
Archaeology professor resists push to omit gender when identifying human remains

An archaeology professor says the push to eliminate the gender identification of human remains is akin to ideologically-motivated fudging" after a student argued on social media that male and female classifications should be omitted because it's unknown how ancient individuals identified themselves.

Earlier this month, Canadian masters degree candidate Emma Palladino expressed concern in a tweet that archaeologists who locate remains will identify the remains as either male or female  the gender they were assigned at birth. Palladino argued that assigning gender to human remains is bull.

"Archaeologists are acutely aware of how culturally and spatially relative the concepts of sex, gender, and identity are. While a bioarchaeologist might identify a set of remains as 'probably female,' it is understood that the gender of an individual is never necessarily the same as their sex, and that gender is a whole spectrum we've barely begun to unpack," she added.

"We can make culturally-specific inferences about gender if we have a good idea of the gender norms+identities within a given culture, but beyond that, it's never a given. ...

"And even IF some s- archaeologist in the future misgenders you, that will never change who you were, regardless of whether you've medically or socially transitioned, regardless of anything. You are you, a dignified human, and always will be, even in death."

Palladino isn't the only person pushing for gender identity to be omitted from the identification of skeletal remains. An organization known as the Trans Doe Task Force maintains a database of missing or unidentified people it believes self-identified as transgender. Activists in the group are seeking to explore ways in which current standards in forensic human identification do a disservice to people who do not clearly fit the gender binary.

Contrary to that view, San Jose State archaeology professor Elizabeth Weiss compared eliminating gender classifications to ideologically-motivated fudging in a statement to The College Fix. Weiss said there is a movement among academics toward getting all of the academys favored shibboleths to accord with one another.

She also asserted that the increased presence of trans-identifying individuals is a trend that is social and not biological, so retroactively de-sexing obscures this obvious fact. In addition, the professor said that assigning biological sex to human remains has improved perceptions about women.

Some early anthropologists sometimes mistook some robust female skeletons as male skeletons, particularly in the Aleut and Inuit collections; this reinforced false stereotypes that females were not as hard working as males, she said.

Over time, biological anthropologists and archaeologists worked hard to determine which traits are determined by sex, regardless of time and culture. This new policy of erasing this progress is a step back for science and women.

As The Fix reported in February, Weiss is suing San Jose State University for locking her out of its collection of human remains when she had previously been the curator. The professor alleges the school took this action due to her position on the repatriation of human remains.

Weiss doesn't believe remains should be reburied, arguing that they could hold valuable information.

Last year, National Public Radio reported that a DNA analysis of a medieval warrior thought to be female belonged to a nonbinary person. The study was published in the peer-reviewed European Journal of Archaeology.

The grave containing the remains was first discovered in 1968 in Suontaka Vesitorninmaki, southern Finland. The remains were buried alongside a sword and jewelry found in fragments of woolen clothes, which were "a typical feminine costume of the era."

A DNA analysis in the study purportedly showed that the chromosomes are neither male nor female. Ulla Moilanen, the studys lead author, said the findings are proof that "biology does not directly dictate a person's self-identity. The researchers concluded that the deceased was likely a male who had Klinefelter syndrome.

According to the British National Health Service, females are typically born with two X chromosomes, and males are born with XY chromosomes. A man with Klinefelter syndrome might be born with an extra X chromosome, in addition to low levels of testosterone and infertility.

While the researchers noted the remains were badly damaged, they claim that through the use of modeling, they "found overwhelming evidence that the genetic data of the Suontaka individual most closely resemble an XXY karyotype."

Although the researchers use the term nonbinary in their study, it's complicated, NPR reported. People choose whether to identify as nonbinary, and it's not known how this ancient person identified.

Also, many people with Klinefelter syndrome, which is one of the chromosomal patterns under the umbrella term intersex, do not consider themselves nonbinary.
House Democrats block resolution condemning violence against churches, pro-life pregnancy centers

Congressional Democrats have blocked a resolution that would have condemned the violence directed at churches and pro-life organizations by pro-abortion activists in recent months.

On Tuesday, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., introduced House Resolution 1233, which would "[express] the sense of the House of Representatives condemning the recent attacks on pro-life facilities, groups, and churches."

The resolution noted that "since the May 2, 2022 leak of the Supreme Court's draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, individuals professing anti-life views have targeted, destroyed, or vandalized numerous pro-life facilities, groups, and even churches to further their radical cause."

The leaked Dobbs draft, published by Politico, indicated that a majority of Supreme Court justices were inclined to reverse the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The final Dobbsruling, released on June 24, ultimately reversed Roe and stated the Constitution doesn't confer a right to abortion.

The resolution listed examples of the vandalism directed at churches and pro-life organizations before and afterDobbs.

Johnson's resolution would have declared that the House "condemns recent attacks of vandalism, violence, and destruction against pro-life facilities, groups, and churches," "recognizes the sanctity of life and the important role pro-life facilities, groups, and churches play in supporting pregnant women, infants, and families."

The resolution urged "the Biden Administration to use all appropriate law enforcement authorities to uphold public safety and to protect the rights of" such organizations.

Johnson elaborated on the need for the resolution on the House floor as the House considered the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, the Right to Contraception Act and the Respect for Marriage Act.

"If the previous question is defeated, Republicans will amend the rule to immediately consider House Resolution 1233," Johnson vowed.

FLOOR ALERT: @HouseDemocrats refused @HouseGOP requests to consider @RepMikeJohnsons resolution condemning the escalating violence & vandalism by radical left-wing activists on pro-life & religious organizations that care for pregnant women, infants & families. @GReschenthalerpic.twitter.com/3XoLARiXo7  House Rules Republicans (@RulesReps) July 19, 2022

The previous question was not defeated, as the House agreed to begin debate on the three pieces of legislation in a party-line vote. Later Tuesday, the House approved the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify same-sex marriage into federal law, accumulating support from all Democrats and 47 Republicans.

The Twitter account for Republicans on the House Rules Committee shared a video of Johnson's speech on the House floor.

"@HouseDemocrats refused @HouseGOP requests to consider @RepMikeJohnson's resolution condemning the escalating violence & vandalism by radical left-wing activists that care for pregnant women, infants & families," the House Rules Republicans tweeted.

The push to pass the Right to Contraception Act and the Respect for Marriage Act, two of the three pieces of legislation House Democrats were seeking to begin debate on, suggests that the Dobbs ruling was very much on their minds.

Progressive have feared that the Dobbs decision could pave the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider other landmark Supreme Court rulings championed by Democrats, specifically those legalizing contraception nationwide and requiring all 50 states to recognize same-sex marriages.

In a concurring opinion in Dobbs, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that the court should "reconsider" the aforementioned cases and determine "whether other constitutional provisions guarantee" the "rights" created by those decisions other than the "legal fiction" of "substantive due process."

The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, insisted that this decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right," adding, "Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion."

Pro-abortion activists calling themselves Jane's Revenge have taken credit for multiple acts of vandalism against churches and pro-life organizations, recently declaring "open season" on such groups.

Johnson believes inaction from the House puts churches, pro-life groups and Supreme Court justices at risk. He criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for only bringing a bill to increase security for Supreme Court justices up for a vote after police arrested a man who admitted he wanted to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh but turned himself over to authorities.

The bill unanimously passed the U.S. Senate and ultimately passed the House overwhelmingly six days after the assassination attempt.

"Radical leftists were emboldened by the inaction of this body in the aftermath of the leaked opinion," Johnson said. "When will this body stand up against the mob? When will we restore law and order?"

Johnson claims that pro-choice elected officials have done the exact opposite.

On multiple occasions since the release of the Dobbs decision, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has echoed the calls from Jane's Revenge, demanding that pro-life pregnancy centers be shut down. Most recently, Warren maintained that such organizations "are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help."

"You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that," she added. "We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts, and we need to shut them down all around the country."

Many pro-life pregnancy centers are staffed by licensed medical professionals and provide things like pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, prenatal care, cancer screenings and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Many also provide families with diapers, wipes, baby formula, baby food, clothing and other supplies.

Heidi Matzke, the executive director of Alternatives Pregnancy Center in Sacramento, California, told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that her clinic has recently spent up to $150,000 to improve security measures.

"Our clinic is one of 3,000 pregnancy care centers across America," Matzke said. "Each year, hundreds of thousands come to our clinics looking for free medical care, emotional support and practical resources that will enable them to carry their pregnancies to term."
Sadie Robertson Huff encourages all Christians to be social media influencers: 'Lead your followers'

Sadie Robertson Huff of "Duck Dynasty" fame recently told young adults at a Washington, D.C. church on Sunday that everyone is an influencer and that all believers should lead your followers on social media.

Robertson Huff and her husband, Chris Huff, were guest speakers at Passion City Church in Washington, D.C., where they discussed topics related to social media.

Jesus speaks to the things that we're facing when it comes to social media. And it was just kind of funny that Jesus literally used the verbiage when He talks to His disciples to follow Him. And I was like, that's funny because we follow each other all the time," the 25-year-old Robertson Huff said.

"Obviously, it looks so different to follow Jesus then to follow someone on social media. But, I thought maybe if we can incorporate some of the principles and what it looks like to follow Jesus in our life on social media, it would be great.

Robertson Huff, a podcaster and social media influencer, pointed the crowd towards two verses in Scripture  Matthew 5:15 and John 8:12  which she combined to stress that the answer to conflicts caused by social media isnt for all Christians to delete their accounts.

[Jesus] says: You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.' It says 'people don't light a lamp and put it under a stand. So, when I read that, I was like the answer to the Church for social media is dont delete it," she added.

I think a lot of times, we just go: 'Well, its horrible. Everybody delete it. Well, youre not going to get the whole world to delete social media and you also dont want to take the Church out of social media.

When Christians choose to have social media accounts, she said, their No. 1 focus should be to bring glory to God by being a light in the content that they share.

Don't delete it. You know, sometimes you need to take a break from it. I actually just did that. But be in it and be the light of the world in it. And the same way that people are going to see your light, as they're scrolling on their feed, people will see your Father through you, Robertson Huff recommended.

I've had so many God-stories of things that have happened through Instagram, through social media, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. And so, I don't think [social media] is necessarily a bad thing. I just think it's a reflection of how healthy we are. Because social media is what we make it.

When she was in high school, the Louisiana native recalled feeling hypocritical on social media because she was posting her life one way, and that was not exactly how it was behind the scenes.

My captions would have a happy ending, but my life didn't look like the happy ending. My pictures were filtered. But in reality, I was not in the best relationships. [I] didn't have a lot of great friendships, she admitted.

As a result of not being fully truthful, while also seeing only the positive aspects of other peoples lives on social media, the reality star said she struggled with anxiety, stress, insecurity, uncertainty and [feeling] discontent.

I remember just thinking: This is just how it is. But, I think a lot of times, what we can do is you look around the world, and when so many people struggle with something, then you almost think that it's not a struggle anymore, but it's still a struggle, she said.

It's like because everyone's anxious, then it's OK to be anxious, or because everyone is insecure, then it's OK to be insecure because everyone talks about it.  But, it's not OK. It's less than the life that God's called us to live. So it's not OK. There's more to the story.

Robertson Huff said as she continued in high school, she began to yearn for a more intimate relationship with God and she wanted to obey His Word.

As she began to pursue God more, she realized that the way she was portraying herself on social media was not honest. She said she wanted to experience true change.

I just remember feeling like I got to take God at His Word. And in doing that, I had to really surrender a lot of things; turn from a lot of things. Repentance was involved in all of that, and really dive into this Word and understand what is the more? What are the promises of God? What did God design me for? she recounted.

When I began to understand His Word and how to receive those things by being within His Word, and in His Spirit and in His presence,  things started to change for me.  My priorities weren't worldly anymore. They were of God.

Huff said that while a lot of us want the promises of God," all too often we want to live like the world," rather than walking "in obedience with the Lord.

It's so worth it. Obedience is always worth it.  And the world [is] saying, oh, that's not fun.  I think it's way more fun to not live with anxiety and to actually be joyful, she added.

Robertson Huff said Christians often tend to be quick to unfollow, cancel, block, delete anyone that says something they dont like on social media, primarily because they give in to cancel culture or unfollow culture. And sometimes, Christians can treat Jesus the same way.

I think we can have that tendency with Jesus. It's like, the minute we don't like something, or the minute we don't agree with something in the Word, or something feels off, we're like 'unfollow. I'm going to follow Him in this area of life, but not in this area of life. Or [we say]: I like what He says there, so I'm with You on that, but not in that, she remarked.

And I think this unwillingness to just commit to the Word of God is really showing in how if you're not committed, you're not going to get the full fruit of what it's like to follow Jesus."
The Biden admin has turned a blind eye to violent persecution of Nigerian Christians

In the middle of Sunday morning services, gunmen on motorcycles surrounded and opened fire on worshippers at St. Moses Catholic Church and Maranatha Baptist Church in Kaduna state, Nigeria. Three Christians were killed and more than 30 were reportedly kidnapped. I covered it with For the Martyrs  the nonprofit I work for  but overall the story got little international attention.

Two weeks ago, on Pentecost Sunday, a tragic shooting at a Catholic Church in Owo, southwestern Nigeria, got unique international attention.

During the church service, gunmen opened fire upon the congregation and detonated explosives. Initial reports said that at least 50 people were killed, including women and many young children. The current, confirmed number is 40. Many more were injured. Doctors and volunteers scrambled to provide aid and begged the community to donate blood. The governments interior minister blamed Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) for the attack, but the group has yet to claim responsibility.

These recent spates of violence against Christians in Nigeria did not happen in a vacuum.

For over a decade, violence against Christians has been raging across Nigeria, mainly in the north, as shootings, mobs, Islamic militants, church burnings, and kidnappings strike daily and often unreported blows to Nigerias Christian community. In fact, Open Doors ruled that Nigeria is the most violent place in the world for Christians, with over 4,000 Christians murdered in 2021 alone. Usually, these instances only make small waves in international news.

Nigeria is roughly half Christian and half Muslim. Christians are the majority in southern Nigeria while Muslims hold the majority in the north, according to the State Department. Islamic militant groups like ISWAP and Boko Haram, in addition to nomadic Fulani herdsmen, have targeted Christians for various reasons: land, resources, and ransom money.

But there is also a large religious component. Christians are attacked without consequence. In May, Deborah Samuel, a Christian university student, was beaten and burned to death by a Muslim mob who accused her of blaspheming Islam in a WhatsApp message. What she really said was Jesus Christ is the greatest and praised him for helping her pass her exams. Her horrific murder was caught on video.

Church leaders, like Methodist pastor Samuel Kanu-Uche, are often kidnapped by gangs or Islamic militants and ransomed at high prices, with some killed in captivity.

Similar events happen daily to thousands of Christian women and girls. Leah Sharibu, a young Christian woman who was kidnapped at 14 years old, has been in Boko Harams captivity for over four years because she refused to convert to Islam. Despite pleas from her family and NGOs, the Nigerian government has done little to rescue her.

The Nigerian government and President Muhammadu Buhari have taken few steps to stop the bleeding. If anything, the government has cut off the handful of ways Christians protect themselves. The Nigerian senate recently passed a law making it a crime punishable with 15 years in prison for families of kidnapped victims to pay ransom to return their sons or daughters. With little assurance of government rescue attempts, as in Leah Sharibus case, families of kidnapping victims have few options.

Nigerias government claims it is secular and tolerant and that it values religious freedom. And yet it is the most violent country in the world for a religious group that composes nearly half of the nations religious population.

Christian leaders in Nigeria have repeatedly called out President Buharis and the Nigerian governments inaction. At a recent funeral for the victims of the Owo massacre, Bishop Emmanuel Badejo said the government had failed to exhibit any desire to protect the Christian religion.

There are steps the U.S. can take to effect change. However, the Biden Administration and the State Department have backtracked progress meant to hold the Nigerian government accountable for the religious freedom conditions in their country. In November, the State Department removed Nigerias designation as a Country of Particular Concern. The CPC designation is ideally accompanied by sanctions to motivate the improvement of religious freedom conditions in designated countries.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended Nigeria for the CPC list every year since 2009. And the State Department did at long last in 2020 designate Nigeria as a CPC, but it was shortly removed a year later without explanation or improvement in the country.

Bidens Secretary of State Antony Blinken has yet to provide a substantial reason for his decision. According to the State Departments report, Secretary Blinken determined that Nigeria did not meet the criteria to be designated as a Country of Particular Concern.

Nigerian Christian leaders struggle to make sense of the U.S.s decision as it seems both their own government and the U.S. have abandoned them. In a statement, Bishop Badejo said that there is nothing on the ground to suggest that Christians have an easier time practicing their faith in Nigeria today than they did one or two years ago.

He asked the U.S. State Department to reassess its decision and worried that glossing over the suffering of Nigerian Christians would jeopardize the CPC listings credibility. Christian NGOs, like For the Martyrs, have tirelessly made similar requests for the U.S. to return Nigerias CPC designation, to no avail.

Violence against Christians continues to rage across Nigeria, as bandits and extremists are given the green light to terrorize, kidnap and kill the Christian community with impunity  as shown in the Owo massacre and Sundays mass kidnapping. Whos going to hear their cries?

The Biden Administration must step up. In the wake of recent events and ongoing violence, the path is clear: Redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern and motivate the Nigerian government to take action.

President Biden and the State Department have the opportunity to show Nigeria that the U.S. will not tolerate apathy towards a decade of bloodshed.
Workplace Stress Hits All-Time High, 100 Florida Churches Sue UMC, Trans Inmate Moved After Impregnating Other Prisoners

link to download the audio instead. link to download the audio instead. 08:09 08:09

Stress among the worlds workers reached an all-time high in 2021, with many not feeling hopeful about the future, according to the State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report from global analytics and advice firm Gallup.



Over 100 congregations in Florida have sued a regional body of The United Methodist Church, believing that they are not being given fair terms for leaving the denomination amid its schism over homosexuality.



Elders at Saddleback Church say that Rick Warrens named successor has been completely cleared" of abuse allegations by two separate investigations.



A trans-identified male who allegedly impregnated two women while incarcerated at a women's prison in New Jersey has reportedly been transferred to a new facility.



Religious freedom advocates are celebrating a United Kingdom police department dropping charges against an elderly British woman charged for praying outside an abortion clinic.



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Judge blocks West Virginia abortion ban; state plans to appeal

A judge has blocked the enforcement of West Virginias ban on most abortions, which predated the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, with the state intending to appeal the ruling.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Tera Salango issued the block, which opened the door for the states lone abortion clinic, Womens Health Center of West Virginia, to resume operations.

The clinic suspended its operations in late June after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe, due to a 19th century state law banning all abortions except in the event of a life-threatening medical emergency for the mother.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is helping to represent the abortion clinic suing West Virginia over the law, applauded the decision in a press release on Monday.

The impacts of forcing women and pregnant people to carry to term and give birth against their will has life-altering consequences, including grappling with serious health risks, making it harder to escape poverty, and derailing education and career plans, said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project.

While todays decision is an important first step, the fight is not over and were determined to use every tool at our disposal along the way to protect abortion access for West Virginians.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey denounced the decision, calling it a dark day for West Virginia and vowed to appeal the ruling, according to West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

We will appeal this decision to the Supreme Court of Appeals as soon as legally possible, said Morrisey. I am committed to protecting unborn babies to the fullest extent possible under the law, and I will not rest until this injunction is lifted. The current law on the books calls for the protection of life.

West Virginia had an anti-abortion law from 1849 that, while blocked from being enforced when the Roe decision was in effect nationwide, was never officially repealed.

In a memorandum from June 29, Morrisey wrote that the Antebellum-era law is on the books and enforceable, as are many other abortion-related statutes passed since then.

Morrisey recommended that state lawmakers amend the laws in our state to provide for clear prohibitions on abortion that are consistent with Dobbs.

As the Legislature considers the many issues raised in this memorandum, we stand ready to defend the present suit against the 1849 abortion statute and take action upon a request from the governor to petition the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia to lift the current injunction against West Virginias partial-birth abortion law, he concluded.

We will continue to provide counsel in response to this landmark decision and changing legal landscape, as well as to update the Legislature and governor about ongoing developments in the courts.
Sen. Warren doubles down, demands all pro-life pregnancy centers be shut down 'You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that'

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who was earlier calling for a crackdown on crisis pregnancy centers, now says they should be shut down around the country because they fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help and outnumber true abortion clinics.

In Massachusetts right now, those crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help outnumber true abortion clinics by three to one, Warren told NBC 10 Boston.

We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts, and we need to shut them down all around the country. You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that, added Warren, whose war on crisis pregnancy centers started after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last month.

Elizabeth Warren believes each and every pregnancy resource center across the country should be shut down.



What does the left have against those working to support mother and child? pic.twitter.com/vjNX21WAZ3  Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) July 14, 2022

Heidi Matzke, who heads one such facility in Sacramento, California, told Fox & Friends First that her center has faced violence ever since Warren called on Congress to shut down pro-life pregnancy centers,

We have had to stop operations of our mobile clinic. Weve had to hire 24-hour onsite security. Weve had to add cameras. Weve had to arm our staff with pepper spray, she said, narrating an incident where a man with a machete came to attack her center but was thankfully prevented from causing harm.

Pregnancy centers give away $266 million of free medical services and resources to communities all over this incredible country. And her words are just incredibly hurtful, she continued.

Matzke, who testified before U.S. Congress last week, added that most of the women who work at her center have had an abortion before and many believe their lives would be so much different if they had gone to a pregnancy center.

Megan McArdle, a Washington Post columnist, called Warrens suggestion unconstitutional.

Liz Wolfe, an associate editor at The Reason, wrote, Its unclear what legal authority Elizabeth Warren would use to enact her will."

"In fact, a sitting U.S. senator trying to shut down charitable organizations, like crisis pregnancy centers, for no violation of laws but rather due to the fact that they further the pro-life cause, would be quite blatantly unconstitutional," Wolfe wrote.

Casey Mattox, a First Amendment attorney, wrote on Twitter, wrote: Not gonna sugar coat this. Its evil. If I knew nothing about Elizabeth Warren but the lies she tells about pregnancy centers Id know enough.

Now THIS is harmful disinformation, The Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon tweeted, alluding to the Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation Act, or H.R. 8210, that Warren introduced last month, which would direct the Federal Trade Commission to prescribe rules prohibiting disinformation in the advertising of abortion services, and for other purposes.

This is, at its most basic foundation, simply none of the governments business, remarked conservative writer Chad Felix Greene.

According to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, as of 2019, as many as 2,132 pregnancy centers performed 486,213 free ultrasounds and 731,884 free pregnancy tests; offered 967,251 free consultations to new clients; among other services.

Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International, an affiliation group with a worldwide network of more than 3,000 pro-life pregnancy centers, all of which assist pregnant women by offering free services, told The Christian Post in an earlier interview that while the care each center provides might differ, most offer material services and connect women with community resources.

We provide connection services through things like Option Line, Godsey said. But its the local pregnancy centers that are really defining their own services.

Thats one of the beauties of being local, the idea that the community knows best what the community needs, he continued. So we firmly believe that the local pregnancy centers are positioned very well to serve the very type of woman in their community who needs that help.

In the conclusion of her op-ed, Wolfe wrote: Pro-choicers frequently criticize pro-lifers for abandoning women once theyve made the decision not to abort or for being insufficiently charitable toward mothers in need. But crisis pregnancy centers are attempts, however imperfect, at precisely that. Whatever you think of their tactics, calling for them to be shut down by the federal government would be a gross misuse of state power.
Texas sues Biden admin. over abortion guidance, claims it violates 'sovereign interest'

Texas is suing the Biden administration over guidelines released earlier this month saying that hospitals must conduct abortions in medical emergencies following the U.S. Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade last month.

The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the suit Thursday, claiming that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' July 11 letter to healthcare providers violates the state's "sovereign interest in the power to create and enforce a legal code."

The guidance states that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) requires doctors to provide "stabilizing treatment" to resolve a medical emergency, listing abortion as a potential form of care in cases of ectopic pregnancy, hypertension and preeclampsia.

Hospitals that don't perform the procedure in these scenarios could face fines or have their Medicare status revoked, according to the suit. It also says that state laws that prohibit abortion and do not include a life of the mother exception are "preempted."

"These hospitals are now threatened with having to choose between violating state law under the threat of criminal penalty or jeopardizing their ability to participate in Medicaid," Paxton's office argued.

The Biden administration claims the guidance clarifies a hospital's duties under EMTALA and ensures doctors know they are free to provide emergency medical care by law.

"In no uncertain terms, we are reinforcing that we expect providers to continue offering these services, and that federal law preempts state abortion bans when needed for emergency care," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a July 11 statement.

Becerra maintains that no matter where women live, they have the "right to emergency care  including abortion care."

The Texas lawsuit argues that the federal guidance does more than clarify existing law, stating that it "includes a number of new requirements related to the provision of abortions that do not exist under federal law."

"This administration has a hard time following the law, and now they are trying to have their appointed bureaucrats mandate that hospitals and emergency medicine physicians perform abortions," Paxton said in a statement.

"I will ensure that President Biden will be forced to comply with the Supreme Court's important decision concerning abortion and I will not allow him to undermine and distort existing laws to fit his administration's unlawful agenda."

In a post on its website, Texas Right to Life called the guidance "unnecessary," arguing that abortion bans make exceptions for when the mother's life is in danger. The pro-life advocacy group pointed to what it described as a "clearly defined exception" that Texas has in such cases.

"The new directive unlawfully takes EMTALA outside its bounds, falsely claiming: '[w]hen a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life of the pregnant person  or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA's emergency medical condition definition  that state law is preempted,'" Texas Right to Life wrote.

The advocacy group contends that EMTALA doesn't permit the federal government to mandate the types of treatment provided under the act.

Texas Right to Life Senior Legislative Associate Rebecca Parma accused President Joe Biden of attempting to "weaponize communities' life-saving doctors and hospitals to push his abortion agenda."

"We look forward to once again beating the Biden administration in court and saving lives," she added.

This is not the first time that the state of Texas and the Biden administration have filed lawsuits against one another over the abortion issue.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Texas over a law banning abortions after six weeks of gestation. Texas Right to Life Vice President Elizabeth Graham predicted the lawsuit would fail, noting that the Biden administration did not have "jurisdiction to stop the Texas Heartbeat Act."

The law is still in effect today.

A 1925 Texas law banning all abortions except for cases when the mother's life is in danger will go into effect this weekend, 30 days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 legal precedent making abortion a national right, according to Fox 44. The Texas Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the law can go into effect after a lower court issued a temporary injunction.

According to The Texas Tribune, the state Supreme Court's ruling doesn't permit prosecutors to prosecute abortion providers but does leave abortion providers subject to fines and lawsuits.
Has the Webb Telescope found God?

Have you seen the first, breathtaking color composites from the James Webb Space Telescope? Almost a million miles from Earth, NASAs incredible telescope can detect the faintest infrared light in the farthest reaches of space. The scale of vastness is off the charts, with images, says NASA, of thousands of ancient galaxies, billions of lost stars, and trillions of long-dead planets.

Given such an astounding scientific achievement, dare one throw even a spoonful of cold water on the ambitious project? Yet, one cant help but wonder about NASAs claims regarding the age of the universe. The working premise is that the farther Webb can look into the universe, the closer in time we get to the origin of the universe. Is that premise actually true?

According to NASA administrator, Bill Nelson, the Webb team plans to look back into the past to when the lights were first turned on in the universe. "We will look back to 13.5 billion years ago, only a few hundred million years after the beginning." So the hunt is on for when "the first stars were created" (via a randomly-unfolding evolutionary process)  subtly but significantly different from when "the stars were first created" (via an instantaneous act of divine creation).

When it comes to calculating distance and time, get the starting point wrong and wrong conclusions follow, as in the police radar fallacy. Suppose a traffic cop radars a car going 90 miles per hour. One quite logically might conclude that an hour earlier the car was 90 miles away, but its far more likely that the driver pulled onto the highway a few miles down the road and kicked it up to 90. In such a case, extrapolating from the 90 mph observed by radar to the conclusion that the car was 90 miles away an hour previously is logical enough, but wrong.

So, when did the expansion of the universe begin, and when did light first start hurtling away at the speed of light? Was it billions of years ago at some Big Bang moment when an unguided, unpurposed process of cosmic evolution first began? Or, was there suddenly and instantaneously an up-and-running universe all at onceexpanding from the word go, complete with light in motion from one end of the universe to the other? As in, Let there be light!

NASAs Webb search assumes that seeing greater distance indicates greater time. But what is the crucial starting point? Having philosophically ruled out any possibility of a divine Creation, NASA is left with a police radar correlation of distance to time which may or may not be true.

What matters most, of course, is not the age of the universe, whether billions of years or only a few millennia, but whether NASAs creation story of a mindless, randomly-evolving universe is factually true. Believing that our incomprehensibly vast and intricate universe haphazardly self-assembled over time (any more than the intricately designed Webb Telescope itself) is more science fiction than science. Rather than seeing all the way back to the earliest stages of time, NASA cant see beyond the end of its naturalistic nose.

Wondrous as Webbs discoveries are, the story were being told of a mindless universe is nothing to celebrate. If the universe itself has no meaning, then neither do you and I. The more we can see, the blinder weve become. Time was when scientists looked up and proclaimed, How great Thou art! With NASA seeing nothing of God, todays hymn is How great We art!
Discriminatory: Pro-life NGO wins case after We love life! bus ad is banned

A state-owned bus company in the Catholic-majority country of Slovenia discriminated against a nonprofit group by removing their pro-life ads, Slovenia's national equality body has found, going against a previous court ruling.

The Advocate of the Principle of Equality ruled that the state-owned bus company discriminated against the pro-life nonprofit Zavod ZIV!M by removing the ads, Austria-based human rights group ADF International, which supported the NGO, said in a statement.

The ads carried the messages "We love Life!" "You are not alone," "Step out of Silence" and "I mourn my child," accompanied by pictures of a happy family, a grieving mother and a woman holding a pregnancy test.

The agency held that the ads should have been guarded by freedom of expression and beliefs protections found in the Slovenian Constitution.

"Every life is valuable. We want to stand by women in crisis, especially those facing unplanned pregnancies or the loss of a child," Darja Pecnik, the director of Zavod ZIV!M, said in a statement.

Zavod ZIV!M contracted the bus company, which had agreed to display its ads for a couple of months, but the municipal authorities deemed the messages "intolerant." As a result, authorities ordered the removal of the advertising from buses about a week into the campaign in 2018.

The bus ads were meant to show women in crisis that they are not alone, Pecnik said.

"Whether you agree or disagree with the work of Zavod ZIV!M, everyone should be able to agree that it is wrong for the state to simply censor messages with which it disagrees. We seek to offer hope and support to many in difficult situations," Pecnik added.

ADF International's Senior Counsel Adina Portaru called the freedom of expression "the foundation of every free and democratic society."

"These innocuous statements and pictures of a happy family, a grieving mother and a woman holding a pregnancy test should not have been censored," Portaru said.

Last December, Slovenia's Administrative Court ruled against the NGO, saying that municipal authorities did not discriminate against the group, Catholic News Agency reported at the time.

The national equality body had previously ruled that Zavod ZIV!M suffered discrimination when authorities ordered the bus company to remove the ads. However, the bus company sued the Advocate of the Principle of Equality and the court also asked the equality body to reconsider the case.

Responding to the court's judgment at the time, Pecnik said: "We are disappointed that the court agreed with the bus company that removed the ads. Our message, which celebrates life, should be celebrated, and instead, we have faced discrimination for it."

ADF International contends that censorship of pro-life messages is an "increasing problem across Europe."
Stress reaches all-time high among worlds workers as 60% detach emotionally: report

Stress among the worlds workers reached an all-time high in 2021, with 60% reporting they felt emotionally detached from their jobs while many others reported not feeling hopeful about the future, according to the State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report from global analytics and advice firm Gallup.

Some 44% of employees reported that they experienced stress a lot the previous day, the report said. And while they may not have been stressed about work, the report added, they were certainly stressed at work.

Inevitably, the stress workers feel impacts the workplace. And while 2021 saw declines in worry, sadness and anger, all these negative emotions remained above pre-pandemic levels, the report said.

Employee engagement, according to Glint, is the degree to which employees invest their cognitive, emotional, and behavioral energies toward positive organizational outcomes. Engaged employees are usually absorbed in and passionate about their work. They also usually find a greater sense of meaning in what they do.

Gallup found that only 21% of the worlds employees are engaged with their work and when broken down by regions, varying levels of engagement emerge.

With 33% of employees reporting that they are engaged, the United States and Canada registered the highest level of engagement, according to the report. South Asia was 27%; Southeast Asia, 24%; Latin America and the Caribbean, 23%; Sub-Saharan Africa, 21%; Commonwealth of Independent States, 20%; East Asia, 17%; Australia and New Zealand, 17%; Middle East and North Africa, 15%; and Europe was at the bottom of the regional employee engagement rankings at 14%.

While only 33% of the worlds workers reported that they are thriving, 63% of workers in Australia and New Zealand reported that they were thriving followed workers in the United States and Canada where 60% of workers said they were thriving.

These regions were the only two worldwide where more than 50% of workers reported that they're thriving.

The pain from work has caused leaders to invent new ways to get as far from work as possible. Movements to attain work-life balance, implement four-day workweeks and expand remote work are now everywhere, Jon Clifton, CEO of Gallup noted in the report. But its not just the hours, imbalance or location that leave workers unhappy. Its whats happening at work that makes them miserable.

He explained that in one of the largest studies of burnout, Gallup found the biggest reason people cited for a job being bad was rooted in unfair treatment at work. The reason was followed by an unmanageable workload, unclear communication from managers, lack of manager support and unreasonable time pressure.

Clifton further noted that many of the reasons behind bad jobs can be tracked back to bad bosses.

Get a bad one (boss) and you are almost guaranteed to hate your job, he wrote. A bad boss will ignore you, disrespect you and never support you. Environments like that can make anyone miserable. A managers effect on a workplace is so significant that Gallup can predict 70% of the variance in team engagement just by getting to know the boss.

He noted that having thriving workers not only benefits the individual but companies in general.

It pays to have thriving workers. Business units with engaged workers have 23% higher profit compared with business units with miserable workers. Additionally, teams with thriving workers see significantly lower absenteeism, turnover and accidents; they also see higher customer loyalty, he said. The point is: Wellbeing at work isnt at odds with anyones agenda. Executives everywhere should want the worlds workers to thrive. And helping the worlds workers thrive starts with listening to them.
UK police drop charges against 76-year-old arrested for praying outside abortion clinic

Religious freedom advocates are celebrating a United Kingdom police department dropping charges against an elderly British woman arrested, detained and fined for engaging in silent prayer outside an abortion clinic.

ADF UK, a chapter of the religious liberty legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom, announced in a statement Monday that Merseyside Police Department dropped the charges against 76-year-old Rosa Lalor for silently praying outside an abortion clinic during the coronavirus pandemic in February 2021.

The fine levied against Lalor has also been dropped.

Lalor's legal troubles began on Feb. 24, 2021, when a law enforcement officer inquired why she was outdoors during the lockdowns implemented to contain the coronavirus. When she responded that she was "walking and praying," the officer told her she did not have a "reasonable" excuse to be doing so because she was not at a church.

A case summary compiled by ADF notes that "during the lockdown in 2021, Rosa was always careful to follow the rules." Specifically, "she took a walk most days, as was permitted, and even wore a mask, which wasn't required, in order to take extra precautions."

"I'm delighted that the prosecution has finally dropped this charge after a long and exhausting battle for justice," Lalor said in a statement. "I took this challenge forward with support from ADF UK to show that we do all have a fundamental right to pray  not least pray as I did, in the privacy of my own mind."

"It was wrong for the police officer to tell me that I could not pray in a public street," she added. "It's important for officers to respect basic religious freedom, and improve their understanding of how that right manifests, in order to maintain a truly tolerant society."

ADF UK argued that Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights gives Lalor the right to pray outside the abortion clinic.

Article 9 declares: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance."

Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK who worked on Lalor's case, said it is "deeply regrettable that this law-abiding woman was subjected to distressing, drawn-out criminal proceedings in the first place, no doubt due to her pro-life stance."

"This follows a worrying trend in law enforcement where individuals are routinely arrested because their views are considered to be controversial or offensive," he said in a statement.

Igunnubole said Lalor's story shows the "urgent need for the upskilling of police officers across the country to ensure that they have a proper grasp of the right to freedom of expression and religion as it relates to public order."

"Law, policy, and training procedures must be improved to restore the public's confidence in policing and stem the trend of unjust arrests," Igunnubole said. "Officers should be prioritising real crimes that concern ordinary people rather than being agents of cancel-culture."

Robert Colquhoun, the international director of the pro-life organization 40 Days for Life, which holds prayer rallies outside abortion clinics, called it "an important win because authorities cannot simply decide to censor prayer on the street."

"We are committed to engaging in prayer because we believe that women and babies deserve far better than abortion, and that we can find solutions to support both lives in a pregnancy," Colquhoun said.

"We are always delighted to point women to charities and services where they can receive support to continue their pregnancy, should they want it. We hope that Rosa's story sends a clear message that in a democracy, there is space for freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought  and that censorship is a disservice to everyone."

ADF UK is concerned with a Northern Ireland law that bans protesters from "influencing" women seeking to enter abortion clinics by requiring that they remain at least 100 meters, or nearly 300 feet, away from the facilities. The U.K. Supreme Court is slated to examine the law later this week as other cities in England, including Liverpool and Bournemouth, consider implementing similar measures.

ADF UK Communications Director Lois McClatchie warned of the impact such laws could have on pro-life protesters like Lalor.

"The criminalisation of any kind of 'influencing' is so broad that it could reduce the threshold of criminality to an impermissibly low level," McClatchie said. "We know from a Home Office Review into the situation that instances of harassment outside of abortion facilities are rare, and when it happens, police already have powers to stop it."

"Buffer zones introduce a blanket ban on all activity, including offering meaningful charitable help and support to women where they need it most," she contended.
What exactly happened, where are we now and what can we create from it?  new artists on the post-pandemic world

Ahead of the opening of Un/Sense, an exhibition of emerging artists at Christies in London, we talk to the shows two curators about championing some of the top talents of the citys next generation

From 20 to 29 July, Christies in London is transforming its St Jamess gallery space into Un/Sense, a non-selling exhibition for NEXT at Christies  an initiative dedicated to championing some of the best emerging artists. It is curated by Sasha Shevchenko and Pia Zeitzen, who met in 2019 while completing their MFA degrees in Curating at Goldsmiths in London, and collaborated on their first project a year later. They were selected from an open call issued by Christies last summer. Together, they chose the theme of absurdity for the upcoming show. Shevchenko and Zeitzen asked for submissions from artists who are London-based, are still studying or have graduated within the past five years, and have no commercial gallery representation. There were more than 500 applications. In the short film above, some of the successful applicants discuss their work in the show. Supporting Shevchenko and Zeitzen throughout the process has been a group of mentors including Touria el Glaoui, founder of the 1-54 contemporary African art fair; Rose Aidin, chief executive of the charity Art History Link-Up; Boaz Levin, a Berlin-based artist, writer and curator; and Dirk Boll, deputy chairman of 20th/21st Century Art, Christies Europe, Middle East and Africa. Alongside Un/Sense, Christies Education is running a programme of public courses focusing on contemporary art, curating and the process of moving from art school to the art world. In the run-up to the opening of Un/Sense, Shevchenko and Zeitzen talked to us about their curatorial journey.

Pia Zeitzen (left) and Sasha Shevchenko, co-curators of Un/Sense

Tell us about your working relationship. Sasha Shevchenko: We met over lunch and quickly realised we both shared similar ideas. Its an ongoing joke that we must have been related in a past life, because we never disagree. Pia Zeitzen: Some people think that if youre too close, the creative relationship can become stagnant, but were constantly challenging each other. How would you describe your shared curatorial vision? PZ: Were very interested in philosophy, and in conceptualising exhibitions that have a strong theoretical backdrop. Our work is intrinsically site-specific  we are inspired by the context of the exhibition space. SS: We want to take a variety of arts  such as painting, cinema or literature  and find the best ways to manifest them in a physical space, nurturing connections between them and the audience.





Hoa Dung Clerget (b. 1985), The Trace, 2022 (detail). Carbon paper, wall-size installation in-situ. On view in Un/Sense, 20-29 July at Christies in London

Why did you want to work with emerging artists from London? PZ: The great thing about London is that there is such a big pool of talent. There are so many artists and initiatives here, and its been a real pleasure getting to know the scene. Its also paramount for us that the show is as inclusive as possible, working with artists from all kinds of social and economic backgrounds. Being aware that art school is an economic privilege, it was important for us to include artists who dont have traditional higher-education backgrounds.

Tayo Adekunle (b. 1997), Reclamation of the Exposition #05, 2020. Giclee print mounted on foamboard. 119.4 x 179 cm. On view in Un/Sense, 20-29 July at Christies in London

Why did you choose the theme of absurdity for Un/Sense? PZ: We thought it was relevant to the time we live in, in a post-pandemic world. We feel as though we have learnt a lot but arent sure how to apply this knowledge, or to evaluate it. For instance, what exactly happened, where are we now and what can we create from it? We want to compare it with other times in history when there was a similar sort of vacuum and people struggled to make sense of the world  as with the Surrealists in the aftermath of the First World War, for example, when artists were trying to make sense of the collapse of what they thought to be true about humanity. SS: When you reach the point of realising things dont make sense any more, you question the very foundations that you live by. But from this state, you can also find freedom and potential, because everything opens up and the rules fall apart.





Darren Lynde Mann (b. 2001), Mother and Child, 2020. Pastels, emulsion on stretched calico. 200 x 150 cm. On view in Un/Sense, 20-29 July at Christies in London

How did you select the participating artists? PZ: We wanted to showcase a variety of media, blending more traditional practices, such as painting and sculpture, with newer modes of expression, such as video art and kinetic art. SS: It was hard, because sometimes their work was great but it just didnt fit the brief. We ended up visiting lots of artists in their studios to see their processes. PZ: Its been exciting having big meet-ups and seeing the artists get to know one another. When we curate group exhibitions it is important for us to shape a sense of community with the artists, because that helps you to express their vision. Its co-creation  were all making something together. This is what helps a show feel cohesive.

Lucy Gregory (b. 1992), The Blame Game, 2021. Digital prints on ply, steel, MDF, paint, fixings, perspex mirror. 220 x 120 x 45 cm (each sculpture). On view in Un/Sense, 20-29 July at Christies in London

How will the show take shape in the space? SS: It was initially planned for 2021, but got postponed, and were now presenting the show in a different space inside Christies, not the one originally intended. But in a funny way, these adjustments have mirrored our concept of absurdity, and the uncertainty has helped shape the project. PZ: We had originally thought of moving the exhibits around the space over the duration of the show, in order to echo the idea of absurdity, but due to the changing nature of the plans, this is no longer possible. Instead, weve decided to play with curatorial placements, which has been very exciting.

RedBlack D. Lawrence (b. 1993), Exhuming Three Elements!, 2021. Khadi extra-large rag paper, pen, red-filtered Perspex container. 97 x 137 x 5.5 cm. On view in Un/Sense, 20-29 July at Christies in London. Photo:  Todd White Art Photography

What has it been like working with Christies? PZ: Theyve given us a lot of control and trust  apart from some health and safety guidelines, its been largely left up to us. It has been a great opportunity to learn whats involved with organising a show at this level.

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Heres a problem: How do you design a vehicle to traverse unexplored polar zones on another planet?

Heres the solution: Get a group of students from the University of Connecticut to do it.

The goal of NASAs 2022 BIG Idea Challenge is to design a lunar rover capable of exploring the moons harsh polar regions. A group of UConn students has been named a finalist. Traditional wheeled rovers cannot reach many of the unexplored areas of the moon and Mars, wrote organizers of NASAs Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing Idea contest.

Student Theresa Nosel started by seeking out other interested students in the colleges newspaper and elsewhere on campus. Now 15 students, funded by a $150,000 grant from NASA, are among seven finalist groups.

The teams latest design has four wheeled appendages that can be used as legs or wheels, as the terrain requires. Its called the Adaptive Morphing and Balanced Exploratory Rover, or AMBER.

Its going to operate like a tank, and its going to operate like legs, Nosel told UConn Today. Were developing this for extreme lunar terrain, but youre not always going to have extreme terrain. Sometimes, youre just going to be going across a flat surface, and in those instances, you dont really need some crazy, many-degrees-of-freedom contraption. You can just go across it like a tank. Tanks are energy efficient. They have excellent traction and a durable stability to them. Then, when you do go up and down these slopes, or maybe on more uneven terrain, you can change it to a leg or some combination of the two with the adaptable stability and obstacle avoidance that comes with it. So, its just extremely versatile.

The team will present their final prototype in November to the BIG Idea Challenge judges at a forum in California. To track their progress, follow them on Instagram @AMBER_UConn.
In her new memoir, Who Do I Think I Am?: Stories of Chola Wishes and Caviar Dreams, which debuted earlier this year, comedian and actress Anjelah Johnson-Reyes (MADtv) describes Texas as her sweet spot place for performing stand-up shows.

I dont know why it is, but Texas has always given me so much love, Johnson-Reyes, 40, told MySA during a recent interview. Im so grateful for it. So, I try and return the favor and come back to Texas as much as I can.

Last month, the California native started her tour through Texas and has completed one-night-only performances in Austin, Midland, Lubbock, Irving, McAllen, Corpus Christi, and Houston over the last five weeks. Shes wrapping up her run through the Lone Star State with her second string of shows at San Antonios Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club from Thursday, July 21 through Sunday, July 24.

Johnson-Reyes chose to book two weeks in the Alamo City so she could spend more time with her family members who call San Antonio home, including her in-laws. While she said, the best audience is a diverse audience, she admits that when there are a lot of Latinos in the crowd, her humor hits differently.

I can do a joke about my family thats funny for anyone  whether you're white, Black, Asian, or Latino, she said. But if youre Latino, youll be like, Oh, my gosh! My tia (aunt) is the same way! It hits a little deeper.

These days on stage, Johnson-Reyes is talking about life after COVID and how its changed for her and her husband. She said shes also being more honest and open about their relationship, which makes it relatable to other couples.

I talk about how we argue and communicate, she said. I love when I look at the audience, and I can see people pointing at each other because theyre connecting to what Im saying on a human level.

Her husband of 11 years, Christian hip-hop artist Manwell Reyes, doesnt mind that some of her jokes come at his expense. In fact, Johnson-Reyes said at the beginning of their marriage, hed sometimes pitch her ideas he thought she should include in her material.

Hed be like, Babe, why dont you talk about the time when I did this? she explained. Now, he pitches less ideas, but he still enjoys it. He loves to be part of the show.

A comedian for the last 16 years, Johnson-Reyes, is recognized by many people for her MADtv characters Bon Qui Qui, a rude fast-food employee, and Tammy," a curious Vietnamese nail salon technician. Sketches and routines featuring both characters have been viewed by tens of millions of people on YouTube.

While social media helped expand her career, Johnson-Reyes said shes in a different place than when she first started. Before, she felt she was fighting against the industry because she wanted to be an actress. Now, shes completely embraced her calling as a stand-up comedian.

Ive always had fun on stage, but now Im having a different kind of fun, she said. I feel more liberated. I feel like Im enjoying what I do now more than I ever have before.
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SCHONAU AM KONIGSSEE, Germany (AP)  At 23 minutes before midnight, at 1,703 meters (5,600 feet) above sea level, the lashing rain and furious winds outside the darkened bunkroom prompted two questions to turn over in my head: Will the roof of this hut be ripped off in the dead of night? Will I be able to continue my ridge trek to my next destination on the German-Austrian border the next day?

Several sleepless hours later, the answers emerged: 1) No, these arent just simple mountain huts and 2) yes, this is typical Alpine weather for southern Bavaria.

And so at dawn, I trekked out, up through the undercast clouds.

The reward was the majesty of the Bavarian Alps, showering glory upon those willing to hike serious trails, and maybe endure copious amounts of apricot schnapps in the company of hearty German hikers.

This is Berchtesgaden, a national park in southeastern Germany, wedged into a thumb of land poking into Austria. The Alps slash the skies, in jagged granite and knife-drops into sudden valleys.

Berchtesgadens huts are serious structures. Supplies are helicoptered in, or hefted on cable cars. They range from huge  Watzmannhaus has 200 sleeping spots  to small  Wasserhalm has a few dozen. Some are concrete and steel; others have simple wooden roofs and beams. All serve serious meals: soups, stews, beef-and-dumplings. And lots of beer and wine.

Spend your days trekking steep trails and meeting random people. Then swap stories about hiking, and life, and then youre drinking beer and schnapps, and then youre fumbling through languages and life tales, and then, by lights out, youre hugging and toasting and laughing and crying.

Trekking into Berchtesgaden is easiest from the northern tip of Konigssee, an 8-kilometer-long (5-mile) impossibly turquoise lake. The town at the tip is a tourist mess: ice cream, T-shirts, lederhosen and Tyrolean hats. Privately run electric boats run passengers up and down the lake seasonally, offering access to Germanys highest waterfall or the stoic lakeside Church of St. Bartholomews.

Many visitors forgo the hike and instead take the year-round Jennerbahn cable car up 1,874-meter (6,200-foot) Jenner Mountain, where theres a massive restaurant and spectacular views.

For hikers, it takes about 15 minutes to leave the madding crowds for quieter wood trails. Some are rough footpaths; others allow service vehicles to supply a couple smaller huts that dot the hillsides and provide meals to day-trekkers. Not far from Koenigsbachalm, you can poke your head into a tiny distillery where schnapps are made from the mountain waters.

On the eastern end of Berchtesgaden is the Austrian border and Carl von Stahl Haus, where I overnighted. I ate lentil stew and drank German pilsner into the evening, until the storm lashed us with marble-size hail and gale-force winds. In the midnight hour, the winds banged open the bunkroom windows.

At dawn, the soup of clouds gave many of us doubts. But after climbing further up a sodden trail, I crested at Schneibstein (2,276 meters, or 7,467 feet) into brilliant skies. The clouds below shrouded everything but the highest peaks.

Trails are well-marked. They include degrees of difficulty, similar to ski trails. They also include not mileage, but estimated hiking times.

Once I realized that the times were VERY conservative, I worried less about making it to my destination on time and instead hiked in mesmerized awe.

Wasseralm in der Roth (1,423-meters, or 4,469 feet), my next destination, was a cluster of three modest buildings folded into a hollow ringed by sub-peaks. Torrents of evening and overnight rain sent a raucous stream bursting its banks and nearly turned the buildings into islands.

It also made for a wet dinner conversation over vegetable stew and stacks of dark rye bread. The other hikers and I huddled under dripping eaves before retiring to a common room, where a wood-fired stove dried wet clothes and warmed bodies. White wine, beer and schnapps kept conversation going until 10 p.m. lights out  a strict rule of the huts.

Those of us headed out the next morning had to ford the stream  with or without shoes, which made for a good conversation starter. Being an American backpacking alone also made a good conversation starter, and I fell in with two German guys and a woman from a separate group as we clambered up.

Surprisingly for a German national park, the trails were in some places poorly maintained and not for the faint-hearted. Some places, we had to pick our way over scree fields, and hold onto steel cables bolted into the hillside. Wood ladders were broken or rotting, rain slippery. Bog bridges were under water.

Karlingerhaus am Funtensee (1,638-meters, 5,374 feet), the next stop, was perched over a small lake, in a bowl ringed by ridges that caught the next mornings sun like facets on a gem. On the lakes other side, two low-slung wooden buildings were for the distillers who made schnapps from local waters. There was also a sheep herder who, I was told, was paid by valley farmers to mind their flocks in the summer and harvest wool and milk for cheese.

Alas, we got neither that rainy evening.

We did get tureens of chicken broth and heaps of beef slices and potato dumplings drenched in gravy, and dark rye bread  or pasta and tomato sauce for vegetarians.

We drank marillenschnaps  an apricot brew commonly associated with north-central Austria  and again, the presence of a solitary American sparked fun conversation, not to mention complimentary schnapps. Lights out: 10 p.m.

Did I mention the boot drying room? An essential elements of German huts: rows of heated metal bars to hang up and dry your boots out. If youve ever woken up to sodden boots, the joy of the boot drying room is immeasurable. Equally immeasurable is the odor of dozens of wet hiking boots drying out in a room overnight.

Back down to the lake, to meet a boat back to my car, the trail cut deep between two ridges, shrouding the trail in cool morning shade. An Alpine chamois  a type of antelope-goat  scrambled up the grass as I rounded one corner. She appeared unbothered by a solitary hiker, and grazed for several minutes as we stared at one another, before she hopped over a boulder, out of sight.

When I finally reached the Konigssees shoreline, it was impossible not to contemplate going for a swim. I had no swimsuit, however.

No matter.

A few moments later, a group of older German men showed up and, without hesitation, dropped their packs, dropped their clothes and hopped into the shimmering waters full monty.

Wouldnt you?

IF YOU GO:

Bring a sleeping bag or bag liner. Whether youre in a semi-private room or a larger bunkroom, huts provide pillows, heavy blankets and reasonable mattresses. An absolute must: hut shoes slippers, sandals. Its a no-no to clomp around the interiors in your hiking boots.

Making reservations can be confusing; patience is in order. Most huts are individually managed, and they belong to different reservation systems. Some take credit cards for reservations; most accept only cash on site.

Start with the German Alpine Club, which oversees 321 huts across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Huetten Holiday is another online portal that manages reservations for huts, in Germany, Austria and Italy.

General information can be found on the Berchtesgadens web page. You can also visit park headquarters, about 5 miles north of the lake, where you can get hiking maps and other information.
Its getting hard to keep track of all the stories of women being denied care for miscarriages and otherwise having their lives endangered because of state abortion bans.

The Washington Post reported on a woman who had to travel to Michigan after a doctor in her home state refused to end an ectopic pregnancy because of the presence of fetal cardiac activity. (Ectopic pregnancies, in which an embryo implants outside the uterus, never lead to a live birth and are the leading cause of first-trimester maternal death.)

In an interview with The Associated Press, a doctor described a patient who was miscarrying in Texas and had developed a uterine infection. She couldnt get the necessary treatment  an immediate abortion  as long as the fetus displayed signs of life. The patient developed complications, required surgery, lost multiple liters of blood and had to be put on a breathing machine, The AP reported, all because, as the doctor said, we were essentially 24 hours behind.

A doctor in Wisconsin, Carley Zeal, told The New York Times about caring for a woman having a miscarriage who had been denied treatment at a hospital. By the time she found Zeal, The Times reported, the woman had been bleeding intermittently for days, which the doctor said put her at increased risk of hemorrhage or infection.

Some in the anti-abortion movement insist that the doctors refusing to treat these women are mistaken about what the laws in their states say. To the extent that doctors or attorneys are confused about whether necessary womens health care is forbidden under pro-life laws, the fault lies in large part with pro-abortion activists, who have been intentionally muddying the waters, tweeted Alexandra DeSanctis Marr, a writer for National Review and the co-author of Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing.

If that was the case, one might think opponents of abortion would be eager to see their laws clarified. After all, the suffering caused by mismanaged miscarriages doesnt serve the cause of fetal life. Ultimately, it will likely be detrimental to the anti-abortion movement. In Ireland, it was the death of Savita Halappanavar, who developed septicemia after being refused a termination while she was miscarrying, that spurred the successful campaign for legalized abortion there. Preventing such deaths should be as urgent a priority for those opposed to legal abortion as for those who champion it.

But it isnt. Last week, the Biden administration released guidance that under federal law, hospitals must provide abortions when theyre necessary to stabilize patients suffering medical emergencies, or transfer them to a hospital that will. Texas is suing to prevent that policy from going into effect, saying it would transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic.

Idahos Republican Party recently changed its platform to call for the criminalization of all abortions without exception. According to a blog post by Idaho Reports, a public policy television program, some delegates shared concerns about ectopic pregnancies and proposed an exemption in the platform when a womans life is in lethal danger. The exemption proposal was voted down, 412-164.

In The Times, the president of Texas Right to Life, John Seago, acknowledged that abortion bans could delay intervention during miscarriages. Doctors, he said, cannot decide that I want to cause the death of the child today because I believe that theyre going to pass away eventually.

I thought I was sufficiently cynical about the anti-abortion movement, but I admit to being taken aback by this blithe, public disregard for the lives of women, including women suffering the loss of wanted pregnancies.

I suspect that part of whats happening is the right following its own rhetoric to its logical conclusion. Its common for opponents of abortion to claim that abortion is never medically necessary. Among conservative elites, this argument relies on semantic trickery, defining the termination of pregnancy to save a womans life as something other than abortion. Hence when the president of Americans United for Life testified before Congress, she argued, about the high-profile case of the 10-year-old rape victim, If a 10-year-old became pregnant as a result of rape and it was threatening her life, then thats not an abortion.

This stance allows some opponents of abortion to avoid reckoning with the consequences of the laws they support. Others, however, see those consequences fully and are fine with them. Scott Herndon, an Idaho Republican who recently unseated an incumbent state senator, was the politician who proposed the abortion criminalization language in his partys platform. A website he runs, Abolish Abortion Idaho, says, of legislation he pushes, Doctors may not intentionally kill the child in their medical attempts to treat the mother.

On the day Roe v. Wade was overturned, Herndon posted a Facebook video arguing for murder prosecutions for abortion patients as well as abortion providers. This body inside the mothers body is not her body, and we need to get over the lie that mothers are not accountable, he said. Men like him are making laws now. Dont expect mercy.

Michelle Goldberg is a columnist for the New York Times.
TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP)  Three migrants and two Mexican citizens are dead and a dozen migrants are recovering from injuries following a highway accident in northern Mexico, the country's National Immigration Institute said Tuesday.

The three dead migrants included a girl from Honduras; the nationalities of the other two remained unclear. The van the migrants were riding crashed in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon.

It is not clear if the dead Mexicans included the driver of the vehicle.

The injured included people from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The institute said they would be given humanitarian visas, and the bodies of those deceased would be returned to their home countries.

Victims of crashes involving migrant smuggling are generally considered crime victims in Mexico, and thus are eligible for such visas.

Immigrants smuggling has become increasingly risky in Mexico, with dozens of migrants often found stuffed into freight trucks or buses.

On Tuesday, authorities said angry residents of a town on Mexico's southern border seized three Mexican immigration agents to demand the National Guard and soldiers combat rampant migrants smuggling operations.

Residents say the migrants smugglers frequently attack, rob or threaten them.

Inhabitants of the town of Frontera Comalapa, near the Guatemala border, blocked a local highway and refused to allow the agents to leave on Monday, according to an employee of the Chiapas state prosecutors' office who was not authorized to be quoted by name.

The immigration institute expressed confidence that the agents would be released soon.

In May, six migrants were killed and 25 were injured after a bus they were riding in plunged through a guardrail and down an embankment in the northern state of San Luis Potosi. All of the victims in that crash were migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Cuba.

A much larger truck carrying migrants overturned on a highway near the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez in December, killing at least 56 people.
PHOENIX (AP)  Planned Parenthood Arizona said in a legal filing Wednesday the courts need to harmonize the state's two different laws on abortion after Attorney General Mark Brnovich moved last week to reinstate an almost complete ban on the procedure dating back more than a century.

Brnovich on July 13 asked a court in Tucson to lift an order that had blocked the earlier ban. The newly conservative U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, leaving it up to states to decide how to regulate abortions.

Planned Parenthood Arizona said in its new court filing that providers must now navigate inconsistent statements from elected officials and insisted this court has a duty to harmonize all of the Arizona Legislatures enactments as they exist today.

Brnovich had said the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade meant that Arizona's old law banning all abortions except when the woman's life was at risk should now be enforceable.

Arizona also has a law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy that Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law in March. Ducey has insisted it takes precedence over the near-total ban Brnovich wants to enforce.

"The Supreme Court rightly returned this important issue to our elected representatives, Brittni Thomason, spokeswoman for Brnovichs office, said Wednesday. In Arizona, our legislature has consistently re-affirmed our existing law prior to Roe v. Wade, most recently with legislation passed by lawmakers and signed by the governor earlier this year.

"While we wait for the court to issue its opinion, we will continue to seek to protect the most vulnerable, she added.

Planned Parenthood Arizona's CEO Brittany Fonteno said Wednesday that Brnovich is playing politics at the expense of Arizonans lives.

We know that Arizonans are overwhelmingly in favor of abortion access, and Planned Parenthood will continue to fight these attacks to ensure that everyone gets the health care they need and deserve," Fonteno said.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP)  Federal regulators Wednesday canceled a policy adopted under former President Donald Trump that weakened their authority to identify lands and waters where declining animals and plants could receive government protection.

The move was the latest by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service undoing changes to the Endangered Species Act that industry and landowner groups had won under Trump. President Joe Biden ordered a broad review of his predecessor's environmental policies after taking office in 2021.

One Trump measure required regulators not to designate areas as critical habitat if there would be greater economic benefit from developing them.

That forced the agency to disprove speculative claims of economic harm made by industries such as mining, logging, and oil and gas" as they sought to extract resources from public lands, said Earthjustice, a law firm that represents environmental groups.

In a 48-page document explaining withdrawal of the rule, the agency said it gave outside parties an outsized role in determining which areas were needed for preserving imperiled species while undermining the Fish and Wildlife Service's authority.

"The Service is the federal governments lead agency on endangered species, responsible for conserving the nature of America for future generations, agency Director Martha Williams said.

Returning to the pre-Trump policy, she said, would make sound science and citizen participation the basis of habitat decisions.

Under the 1973 law, federal agencies cannot fund, permit or take actions that would destroy or severely damage critical habitats. It doesnt restrict activities on private land unless government approval or financial support is involved.

It allows regulators to deny critical habitat designation to areas after considering economic and national security issues, and other factors such as conservation activities underway in such areas.

In some cases, the designation "can discourage conservation and restoration by making habitat a serious liability for landowners, whose property values can plunge up to 75 percent, The Property and Environment Research Center, a landowner advocacy group, said in a statement.

Instead of simply reversing the Trump administrations flawed rule, the Fish and Wildlife Service should reform the critical habitat process to focus on creating the right incentives for landowners to actively conserve and restore habitat," said Jonathan Wood, the group's vice president of law and policy.

Earthjustice said the Biden administration's action would return the focus to imperiled species instead of the self-interest of destructive industries.

The Trump rules violated the letter and spirit of the Endangered Species Act "by stripping vital protections necessary to address the extinction crisis," attorney Leina`ala Ley said.

The Biden administration in June withdrew a Trump rule that prevented agencies from selecting for protection areas that dont presently meet a species needs but might in the future as a result of restoration work or natural changes, including global warming.

A federal judge this month threw out a number of Trump actions to roll back protections for endangered or threatened species.

___

This story was first published on July 20. It was retransmitted on July 21 to correct a quote from Earthjustice. The group said the Trump regulation had forced the federal agency to disprove speculative claims of economic harm made by industries, not environmental harm.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP)  Anti-abortion activists from across the country converged in southern New Mexico on Tuesday to protest relocation plans by the Mississippi clinic at the center of the court battle that overturned Roe v. Wade, but New Mexico's governor vowed not to back down from her support for access to abortions.

Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is running for reelection, tweeted hours before the protest that access remains legal and safe in her state.

New Mexicans understand the right to make personal decisions about ones own reproductive health care  and we wont go back, she wrote.

The crowd gathered in triple-digit temperatures near the location where Jackson Women's Health Organization plans to open its new clinic next week. Some held signs that read Pray to End Abortion and Vote Your Values. They heard from the leader of a local Catholic parish, a university student group and activists from Texas and Mississippi who talked about their experiences shutting down abortion clinics elsewhere.

Terri Herring, president of Mississippi-based group Choose Life, told the crowd about more than two dozen pregnancy centers in her state that have helped mothers who were considering abortion but opted to have their babies.

We need to make this a refuge for women and their children, she said of New Mexico, before organizers of the rally announced they would open a Guiding Star Project clinic next door to the planned abortion clinic. The facility will provide fertility care, pregnancy and childbirth support services.

Leah Jacobson, founder and CEO of The Guiding Star Project, told the crowd that the root causes of what is driving women to abortion need to be addressed and that a culture shift is needed to recognize the reverence of womanhood.

If we love life, if we want to protect women and children, we need to understand that there is something fundamentally broken about how we are treating motherhood in our culture, she said, pointing to the lack of maternity leave or breastfeeding spaces, among other challenges. How about we actually take the needs of women into consideration?

New Mexicos Democratic-controlled Legislature and Democratic governor support access to abortion. State lawmakers last year repealed a dormant 1969 law that outlawed most abortion procedures as felonies, ensuring access to abortion even after the Supreme Court rolled back the national guarantee.

The furniture and equipment from Jackson Womens Health Organization have been moved from Mississippi to the new abortion clinic that will open soon in Las Cruces.

Were just trying to tie up loose ends, Diane Derzis, owner of Las Cruces Womens Health Organization, told The Associated Press on Monday.

Derzis was not bothered by Tuesday's gathering, saying she has seen protests for years at other abortion clinics she has owned in Mississippi and elsewhere.

Its not a big deal, she said. Thats life at an abortion clinic.

___

Associated Press writers Susan Montoya Bryan, in Albuquerque, and Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed to this report.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  Gubernatorial hopeful Chris Jones on Tuesday called for increasing Arkansas teacher salaries, following a push by fellow Democrats to put teacher pay raises on the agenda for a legislative session next month.

Jones endorsed a proposal that Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson made earlier this year to increase minimum teacher salaries in the state to $46,000 a year. Hutchinson, however, has said he won't put the proposal on the agenda for next month's session due to lack of support in the majority-GOP Legislature.

When we invest in teachers, they invest in students and teachers are worth the investment," Jones said at a news conference outside Little Rock Central High School. Right now, they deserve to know and see that they are a priority."

Jones is running against Republican nominee and former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, who is heavily favored in the November election in the solidly red state. Hutchinson is barred by term limits from seeking reelection. Sanders' campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Lawmakers are meeting next month for a special session focused on tax cuts after the state ended the fiscal year with a $1.6 billion budget surplus. All 29 Democratic members of the Legislature signed an open letter released Monday supporting putting the pay raises on the session agenda. It would take a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Legislature to consider the issue if it's not on the agenda.

Arkansas has raised teacher salaries over the past several years, and the minimum teacher salary for the coming school year is $36,000. Proponents of the pay raise have noted that base salaries in most of the states adjoining Arkansas is higher. Mississippi's governor in March signed legislation setting its base pay at $41,500.

Republican legislative leaders have said the special session isn't the right time to take up the issue, since the Legislature hasn't completed its annual review of education funding required by law. That review is used to recommend increases in school funding and includes a look at teacher salaries.

GOP lawmakers on Tuesday also noted that there's about $500 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding that districts could use to provide bonuses for teachers.

What were encouraging districts and really the administration to do is talk with their school boards and superintendents about the availability of these funds and the fact they can be used for retention and recruitment," Republican Sen. Jonathan Dismang, who co-chairs the Joint Budget Committee, said.

Jones said the state could use part of its surplus to help pay for the salary increase, and vowed to raise minimum salaries to $50,000 within four years if elected.

Jones also called for setting aside $400 million from the surplus for one-time needs, including bonuses of between $1,000 and $2,500 for teachers and staff. Other one-time needs include an incentive program aimed at addressing a shortage of rural teachers.
ELIZABETH, Pa. (AP)  A former police chief in western Pennsylvania who was sentenced to probation in state court in 2019 after admitting to stealing thousands of small bags of heroin and fentanyl from his departments evidence room has been indicted on federal charges.

Timothy Butler Jr., 45, was indicted by a grand jury on one charge of theft of government property, the U.S. Attorney's office for the Western District of Pennsylvania announced Wednesday. According to the indictment, Butler, who was the police chief for the Elizabeth Borough Police Department and was deputized as a federal officer as part of a task force, is accused of taking drugs recovered through two federal investigations.
As Maryland voters brace for days or weeks of not knowing who won tightly contested primary races, Gov. Larry Hogan doubled down on the veto that ensured the unprecedented scramble.

A spokesman for term-limited Hogan (R), who was in Colorado on Tuesday as voters cast their primary ballots for statewide office, blamed the Democratic lawmakers who pitched the proposal in advance of what they feared would become a chaotic primary.

"It's regrettable the General Assembly did not pass a clean early-canvassing bill," Michael Ricci said in response to questions about Hogan's decision.

The legislation at issue let election workers count mail-in ballots early, easing a confluence of challenges rooted in the coronavirus pandemic, redistricting and Maryland's only-in-the-nation law forbidding their tabulation until the Thursday after Election Day.

But it didn't meet Hogan's standards for election security, he said, and the governor struck down the proposal in late May.

Hogan's action added to the state's peculiar primary, which was delayed because of a redistricting lawsuit and pushed to the middle of summer vacation season, resulting in low attention from voters. Election offices already were struggling with staffing shortages fueled by the pandemic and its attendant disruptions to training.

"This problem was unnecessary," said John T. Willis, executive in residence at the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Baltimore. "Every time you have what to the public looks solvable and wasn't solved, people are going to question why and that builds on itself, leading to distrust."

Nearly a half-million people requested mail-in ballots this year - the highest number the state has ever recorded - as people who shifted to voting remotely during the pandemic continued to do so. As of Monday, 213,019 of the ballots had been returned.

Even without the ballots counted, the Associated Press called several high-profile races late Tuesday night because the margins were so wide to overcome. They projected Del. Daniel L. Cox (R-Frederick) would win the Republican gubernatorial contest, Del. Brooke E. Lierman (D-Baltimore City) would clinch the Democratic nomination for comptroller and Rep. Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.) would take the Democratic nomination for attorney general.

Hogan said his decision was based on a provision of the bill that would have loosened security requirements at a time of increasing mistrust in the integrity of elections, a lightning-rod issue since the 2020 election and former president Donald Trump's unfounded claims of fraud.

"Maximizing voter participation and providing citizens with accessible and convenient ways to cast their ballots is vital to a healthy democracy," Hogan wrote in his veto letter. "Just as equally vital, however, are election security and voter confidence - and most scholars agree that abuse does happen more so with mail-in voting versus voting in person. . . . Even the appearance of impropriety or the opportunity for fraud can be enough to undermine citizens' confidence in their electoral system."

Hogan said the bill passed by the General Assembly would have allowed voters who neglect to sign their ballots to provide a signature either in person, by mail, email or text. "It remains silent on basic security measures such as signature verification," he wrote.

State Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery), the bill's sponsor, and some other voting rights advocates said Hogan's decision to reject the bill, which would have permitted local boards to start tallying mail-in ballots on June 30 - eight days before the start of early voting - is the reason election results could be delayed for days, if not weeks.

"It's so important that our local boards cannot be blamed for the delay," she said. "It will not be as if they're not working hard enough. It will not be because of fraud. It will not be for any reason other than Larry Hogan's veto of legislation that would have solved the problem."

Kagan wrote a letter to the governor June 1 asking him to issue an executive order, just as he did in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, to allow for early counting.

She said she never got a response.

Ricci said the situation did not warrant the action Kagan suggested.

"There are specific conditions for a state of emergency to be declared under the law. It is not a fix or remedy for any inconvenient situation, including legislative ineptitude," he said.

The state's elections board could have intervened, and it considered taking legal action, but opted against it last month.

William G. Voelp, chairman of the Maryland State Board of Elections, whose members are appointed by the governor, said there were a number of people who would have liked for the state to seek relief from the court to allow canvassing to start early. "And I was one of them," he said.

The board decided not to pursue legal action at its June 28 meeting.

Voelp said with early voting starting on July 7, when mail-in ballot counting could not take place, boards would have only had about four days to start canvassing.

"The facts were before us and the timing that was around us just did not support . . . going to heroic efforts," he said.

Instead, board workers will begin processing ballots on Thursday, releasing results at the end of each day. It is up to local boards to decide whether they will canvass on weekends, and it remains unclear when winners could be declared. The uncertainty about results has rankled candidates.

"It's going to be a really frustrating evening for a lot of politicians statewide," James Shalleck, one of two Republican primary candidates for attorney general and a former president of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said on Tuesday. "I think it's going to take at least a week to get really solid numbers."

Parry Hughes, who voted in Calverton, said he is not concerned about waiting for the final results as long as the reasons are legitimate. He understands that thousands of mail-in ballots still need to be processed, and he trusts the elections board, he said.

"They're usually very reputable and very good at it," said Hughes.

Hughes, however, is concerned about candidates not accepting a loss. "If you didn't win, you didn't win this time," he said. "The whole thing right now is geared up to . . . if they don't like what it is, just to change the vote."

- - -

The Washington Post's Steve Thompson and Vanessa Sanchez contributed to this report.
DALLAS -- When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the feeling was complicated for Aubrey Schlackman, who considers herself pro-life.

As someone who believes the unborn should be saved, she was thankful. But Schlackman also felt the sobering reality of the fact that we have to step up to the plate and help these moms with a sense of urgency.

Schlackman runs a North Texas ministry called Blue Haven Ranch, west of Denton, that provides housing, support and other resources to single mothers who are pregnant and choose to have the child. A mother herself, she knows motherhood is a life-changing decision not to be taken lightly.

With the courts decision, Blue Haven and other faith-based organizations in Dallas-Fort Worth anticipate increased demand for the parenting resources, housing and support systems needed to raise children. And while such organizations vary in philosophy and approach to abortion, some advocating pro-life policies and others avoiding discussing abortion at all, they align in feeling that their mission to support women and families has become more urgent.

While so many are rejoicing over this decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, I think they need to take the stance of taking action, too, by stepping in to help us organizations, said Thana Hickman-Simmons, founder and executive director of Violas House.

A need for housing

Housing applications are already spiking at Violas House in Dallas, a maternity home for mothers age 18 to 24 who find themselves homeless or at risk of homelessness, Hickman-Simmons said. Now that Roe v. Wade is overturned, she expects a larger housing crisis. Through a partnership with Cornerstone Baptist Church, Violas House plans to close on a 12-unit apartment building in the next 30 days.

Violas House currently offers five beds for 10 residents, with each bed accommodating a single mother and one child for up to six months. The new apartment units will be available for them for up to a year, and will accommodate mothers with multiple children.

Schlackman, who runs Blue Haven Ranch, is trying to expand and began receiving more donations and volunteers after the courts decision. The facility serves five mothers and has a waitlist of 12.

I cant help them all, Schlackman said. And I know thats only 12. I know theres so many more that they just havent found us. And I know that will grow.

The ministry provides housing, paid maternity leave, baby showers, support groups, farm therapy, cooked meals and other resources for up to 18 months after birth for a single pregnant mother who already has a child, she said.

Starting with one mom who came to Schlackmans home in January 2021 to cook meals and study the Bible together, the idea quickly expanded. As the organizations name suggests, Schlackman ultimately plans to create a maternity ranch with cottages for families, a community center and resources to create a healing environment for moms.

She and her family recently moved to Krum, northwest of Denton, and she began the process of purchasing 124 acres of land nearby for the nonprofit. Blue Haven has until the end of October to determine whether it will use the land to build the ranch, which will cost $3.3 million.

For now, Blue Haven uses a church facility in Argyle for support group meetings and Bible studies and to cool meals.

Last week, the families gathered at the church to celebrate the birthday of the third child born into the program. Yellow and green balloons and a happy birthday banner marked the occasion for Victoria, a one-year-old girl in a yellow tutu.

Community and camaraderie

For moms, the community aspect of the family services is crucial.

Tia Stelzer, a member of Watermark Community Church in Dallas, said even her planned pregnancy was difficult, and it made her realize how challenging motherhood could be for women experiencing unplanned pregnancies.

Its absolutely important as the church that we come around these women and these babies and really support them, because honestly, the best way to love these babies is to love and care for their parents, she said.

Stelzer joined the church four years ago and used the ministry service that provides guidance to first-time moms.

It was a great, great sense of community and camaraderie and just support during a very vulnerable time in my life, Stelzer said. I felt very blessed, I was a part of a church that offered that ministry because it kind of felt like a breaking point for me  and it was much needed during that time.

A year after she joined, she became a mentor in the unexpected pregnancy ministry, where she paired up with a woman experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and spent about two years guiding her. Now, Stelzer is the ministrys coordinator.

The church offers additional ministries to families, women and men with unexpected pregnancies and past abortions. Watermark has three urgent care clinics that provide sonogram, UTI care, and services for unexpected pregnancy and miscarriages.

We would never wait until a child needs to be adopted to begin caring for them, said Bruce Kendrick, director of the churchs Life Initiative program. And so we dont want to wait until a womans had an abortion or mans been involved in that to begin caring for them.

I can give hope

Samela Macon, vice president of domestic operations and support services at Buckner Children and Family Services, said its too early to predict the courts impact on adoptions. While Buckner International focuses primarily on adoption and foster care, the ministry also provides social services.

Macon expects those services for women experiencing unplanned pregnancies to be in demand. The organization provides resources for families in underserved communities, which tend to reflect the population experiencing unplanned pregnancies, she said.

Buckner doesnt give referrals to abortion clinics; it focuses on empowering women to make informed decisions during pregnancy, Macon said.

We really work to meet them where they are, treat them with respect and dignity and empathy, knowing that theyre making very difficult decisions that have an impact on the rest of their lives, Macon said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unintended pregnancy rates tend to be highest among women aged 18 to 24, Black women, and those who have income below the federal poverty line, have not completed high school, or were cohabitating but never married.

When Lisa Olgin-Galindo begins to tell the story of her experience with Buckner, she tears up.

I have a brand new life, Galindo said. I can give hope out now freely in abundance because it was given to me.

Galindo is a case manager at Exodus Ministries, which helps formerly incarcerated moms and their children by providing a safe place to live and other resources. Exodus was Galindos first stop when she came to Dallas in 2016 trying to piece her life back together.

Galindo said she was estranged from her two oldest daughters and had a baby while in prison. She struggled to pay bills and child support while living on her own and trying to avoid her old lifestyle.

After Exodus, she went to Buckners Family Pathways program, which helps single parents attain affordable housing, child care, counseling, mentorship, money management training and more. She said the program was dire to the success of her family, relieving financial stress and helping her rebuild her relationship with her children.

Had I known that there were people who believed in me, who believed in the unity of family, who believed in goals, hopes and dreams, I dont think it would have taken me as long to make it to where I am today, Galindo said.

Galindo said she found herself in a similar situation in life as her own mother, and events sent her down a path of depression and worthlessness and led to drugs and a cycle of incarceration. She said Buckners positive influence will last for generations, giving her children an upbringing different than her own.

Galindo met her husband while in the program and they got married soon after graduation. They have a family of nine. But to raise a child on ones own, she said parents need support.

You can do it all on your own. You can push everyone away, but youre bitter and youre isolated, and you are not able to teach children social skills, Galindo said. But if you will receive a community, and you have a community of other single women, of those who believe in you, who support you, community groups, counselors  you can thrive to be a stronger version of you, which trickles down into your family.

Collective responsibility

Following the overturning of Roe, there must be a focus on the collective responsibility, said Macon with Buckner; Texans have to advocate for vulnerable families.

People are really struggling right now, Macon said. Theres a lot of anxiety around the ruling and I think we first have to keep front-of-mind the importance of empathy and compassion.

Schlackman, who founded Blue Haven Ranch, said no matter where someone stands on the legality or politics of abortion, there is a heavy responsibility to care for women that cant be carried by the government alone.

I wish people could get past the labels and understand these are just women in need, Schlackman said.

Hickman-Simmons, at Violas House, said the organization simply doesnt get into the politics of abortion.

We are pro-love. Love is an action word, she said. So, no matter what myself or my staffs personal views, we step into action and we support the mother and the baby.
Glenn Ivey, the former top prosecutor in Prince George's County, has defeated ex-congresswoman Donna Edwards in Maryland's 4th Congressional District, according to a projection from the Associated Press, positioning him to join the U.S. House after an acrimonious campaign.

The race in the deep-blue district anchored by Prince George's was Tuesday's highest-profile Maryland congressional primary. Elsewhere, Republicans notably selected Del. Neil Parrott, R-Washington County, to take on Rep. David Trone, D-Md., in a 6th District rematch that is likely to be the most competitive House race in the state.

Ivey was helped to victory with millions of dollars in outside spending, a showcase of the largely unlimited influence that national special-interest groups can wield in political campaigns. A super PAC affiliated with the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, which endorsed Ivey, spent nearly $6 million helping him in the race - an enormous sum in a primary House race - and flooded the airwaves with attack ads targeting Edwards. Roughly half of Ivey's more than $1 million in fundraising contributions also came from AIPAC donors.

The huge resources from the powerful pro-Israel lobbying arm gave Ivey the resources to be competitive with the much better-known Edwards, who had backing from major Democratic figures including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and powerhouse advocacy groups such as Emily's List.

Ivey has been eyeing a seat in Congress since at least 2003 and previously ran twice for the 4th District seat - dropping out against Edwards in 2012 and losing the 2016 primary to Rep. Anthony Brown, who decided to run for attorney general this year.

In an interview late Tuesday night just before the race was called, Ivey credited his grass-roots campaign volunteers, some of whom had been with him for two decades since his first run for state's attorney. But he also acknowledged the central role that AIPAC and its affiliated super-PAC, United Democracy Project, played in the campaign.

Ivey said he was comfortable with AIPAC's involvement in the race, both because he supports AIPAC's values and positions on Israel and because he believed the content of the ads from the United Democracy Project were fair. The ads alleged Edwards had poor constituent services while in office, attacks that hurt her previous campaign for Senate as well. Edwards pledged to do better if elected but decried the perception of her the ads created.

"Regardless of these national players coming in on both sides and spending millions of dollars to weigh in on the race," Ivey told The Post, "the bottom line is the content that was generated by the AIPAC ads was true and relevant and the kind of factual information voters should know."

Some voters at the polls Tuesday said they were turned off by the negative ad campaign. Ellen Hughes, of Laurel, said she was open to learning about both Edwards and Ivey but said her "breaking point" was Ivey's reluctance to condemn the negative ads against his opponent. "He could have said, 'Stop this,' but he didn't," Hughes said.

Ivey and Edwards agreed on many liberal causes, such as gun violence prevention and abortion rights, which left Israel policy as a key wedge in the race. AIPAC's opposition to Edwards dates to 2009, in her first term, when she voted "present" on a resolution to support Israel's right to defend itself from attacks from Gaza. But Edwards retained strong support from the more liberal Israel policy group J Street, which spent more than $700,000 to support her. One of its attack ads against Ivey connected him to AIPAC, pointing out that it also supports former vice president Mike Pence and Republicans who objected to election results - which Ivey condemned.

Ivey largely ran on his record as Prince George's County state's attorney, having served from 2002 to 2011. At the start of his tenure, he inherited a justice system rife with police misconduct that had drawn federal oversight, and he ran his initial state's attorney campaign promising to prioritize police accountability - an issue that featured in his congressional campaign this year.

But he also balanced that goal against residents' concerns about public safety, which many voters called a top issue for them this year in interviews with The Post. Ivey often touted in campaign ads that crime fell significantly during his decade-long tenure as the top prosecutor, and he pointed to community programs and a domestic-violence unit he created.

On Wednesday morning, AIPAC issued a statement congratulating Ivey, saying it will continue to be involved in races this election cycle "to help build broad bipartisan support for the U.S.-Israel relationship."

"Pro-Israel activists mobilized in this race because there was a clear and unambiguous choice between a candidate who will strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance and one who would weaken it," AIPAC's statement said, calling Ivey a "strong pro-Israel progressive."

Maryland's six incumbent House Democrats who were seeking reelection did not face competitive primary challengers Tuesday and advanced to the general election, as did Sen. Chris Van Hollen, according to AP projections. Van Hollen's general election contest is not expected to be competitive; he will face perennial political candidate Chris Chaffee, who won the Republican nomination for Senate on Tuesday, the AP projected.

Rep. Andy Harris, the only Republican in the state's congressional delegation, was unopposed in his 1st District primary. The AP projected Tuesday that former delegate Heather Mizeur won the Democratic primary Tuesday, queuing up a long-shot bid to unseat him. Mizeur, who previously represented Takoma Park but now lives on a small farm on the Eastern Shore, defeated former U.S. Foreign Service officer Dave Harden.

Mizeur had raised nearly $2 million - more than Harris - during the campaign. But while Democrats were eager for a chance to unseat Harris, a staunch Trump ally, their hopes faded after a redistricting legal battle yielded a final congressional map that left the Eastern Shore solidly red.

In Maryland's 6th district, Parrott defeated several competitors - including 25-year-old Matthew Foldi, who had endorsements from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and some national figures - to advance to the general election. Trone, the massively wealthy co-founder of Total Wine & More, is the state's only vulnerable Democrat heading into the midterm elections, where the party's slim House majority is on the line.

Parrott lost to Trone in 2020 by roughly 20 points. But the 6th became much more competitive after redistricting this year, creating an opening for Republicans to flip the seat red under the right conditions. Parrott, however, will have to contend with Trone's huge campaign war chest. The two-term Democrat has already poured $12 million of his personal money into his campaign, evidence that he isn't taking any chances this year, despite past criticism that he was "buying" the seat.

Parrott has served six terms in the Maryland House of Delegates, developing a reputation as a combative socially conservative lawmaker and advocate of direct democracy in the state who has taken his crusades to the courts and to the ballot box. Soon after taking office in 2011, Parrott's public profile rose with the creation of MDPetitions.com, as he led petition drives to repeal laws such as same-sex marriage or in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, forcing voter referendums on the issues that ultimately failed.

In the courts, Parrott sued Hogan over his pandemic mandates in May 2020 prohibiting large gatherings. More recently, Parrott sued the state over a congressional map that advantaged Maryland Democrats. That lawsuit turned out to be a major victory for Parrott and Republicans, after a judge agreed that Democrats engaged in illegal partisan gerrymandering and ordered that the map be redrawn, resulting in the 6th District's new, more competitive format.

President Joe Biden still won the district as it's currently drawn by 10 points in 2020, but rising costs of living and a poor approval rating for Biden have Republicans chattering about a red wave this year.

Parrott's stiffest competitor, Foldi, faced an apparent name-recognition hurdle despite his endorsements.

Pam Beall, a voter who said she came to the polls at Urbana High School in Ijamsville to support conservative candidates opposing abortion and big government, said she voted for Parrott in part because his was the only name she knew.

"I've heard about him," she said, "so that's who I'm voting for." Asked whether she knew anything about Foldi, she shrugged and shook her head.

Daniel Larason, a 27-year-old viticulturist, said he had also cast his ballot for Parrott at the high school. Most of the candidates in that primary seemed ideologically similar, but Larason had seen more ads from Parrott than any of his rivals. And in his mind, he said, winning in November was the top priority.

One couple split between Parrott and Foldi, seeing different strengths or weaknesses in each.

Barbara Pfister, 60, went for Foldi, taking a cue from Hogan's endorsement. "I thought he would bring positive change," she said.

Her husband, though, thought Foldi was too young. "Not that youth is a detriment," Bruce Pfister, 63, was quick to add, but "I like experience." Parrott won him over, he said, with a "very personal" mailer sent to the Pfisters and signed by Parrott's wife.

- - -

The Washington Post's Vanessa G. Sanchez, Daniel Wu and Teo Armus contributed to this report.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP)  A Japanese company announced plans Wednesday for a $150 million plant to make copper foil for electric vehicle batteries in Augusta, Georgia, instead of at its previously announced location near an existing Camden, South Carolina, facility.

Nippon Denkai's American subsidiary said it would hire more than 100 people and could eventually triple production at the Georgia site from an initial 9,500 metric tons (10,500 tons) to 28,500 metric tons (31,500 tons). That would raise investment to $430 million and create 250 jobs over the next five years.

Our goal is to triple the capacity in Augusta; market conditions will determine timeline, said Denkai America spokesperson Michael Coll.

The company said it would raise its initial investment by $10 million from what it had announced in December. It told Japanese investors that the 115-acre (47-hectare) Augusta site is better than the South Carolina location because there is room for expansion, because it can host an advanced equipment layout and because of a key cost competitive edge in electricity price.

State and local officials will give the company what could be more than $76 million in tax breaks and incentives.

Nippon Denkai said it will start construction in September and hopes to be shipping samples to manufacturers by the summer of 2024.

The company said it sees a big opportunity to make copper foil for electric vehicle battery makers, saying many battery plants are being built in the United States, but few copper foil plants are. Nippon Denkai said that companies will want domestic sources to avoid supply chain problems including risks of politically driven supply disruptions. The company projects an annual 21.4% growth in copper foil demand through 2035.

Nippon Denkai said the ability to triple production in Augusta will allow it to pursue that growth. Combined with the 30-year-old Camden plant, the company would have an American production capacity of more than 35,000 metric tons.

In June, Denkai announced a smaller $14 million expansion at the 80-worker Camden plant, also related to expansion in the electric battery and vehicle market.

Augusta-Richmond County will give property tax breaks valued at a projected $68.7 million over 25 years, although the company will pay $30 million in taxes, according to the Augusta Economic Development Authority. The company gets free land valued at $2.25 million, said Cal Wray, the authority's president. Georgia officials said they will spend an undisclosed amount of money to train workers. Nippon Denkai could claim various state tax breaks, including an income tax credit allowing it to annually deduct $4,000 per job from state income taxes, up to $5 million over five years, as long as workers make at least $28,000 a year.

Georgia Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson pointed to the announcement as more fruit of the state's focus on what he calls a generational opportunity in electric vehicles, including the $5 billion Rivian Automotive plant east of Atlanta and the $5.5 billion Hyundai Motor Group plant near Savannah.

Wray said a $347 million, 125-job copper smelter announced by Aurubis AG in Augusta is another development driven by the growth in electric vehicles.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  The Los Angeles Police Department will pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit by a legally blind man who said he was beaten, strapped to a hospital gurney and nearly suffocated during an arrest three years ago, attorneys said Wednesday.

The civil lawsuit filed by Michael Moore alleged unlawful seizure, excessive force, battery and negligence.

Moore was arrested in February 2019 when he called police to his home in South Los Angeles after he said he was attacked by a family friend.

Moore, who has a history of mental illness, was taken to a hospital where he was secured to a gurney and an LAPD officer held a towel over his mouth and nose until he passed out, the lawsuit alleged. The incident was captured on body camera footage from another officer.

Moore, who was 62 at the time, was arrested because officers misperceived the effects of his disabilities as criminal activity, the court filing said.

"To prevent police violence in the future is to impose penalties for such violence in the past, Matthew Strugar, one of Moore's attorneys, said in a statement announcing the settlement. The Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately comment on the agreement.

Moore was charged with assaulting a peace officer and resisting, and spent more than four months in jail awaiting a trial before a jury acquitted him in July 2019 of all charges.
AURORA, Colo. (AP)  A man wanted in connection with the shooting death of his girlfriend in Georgia was shot and killed by police after a standoff in suburban Denver, authorities said Tuesday.

Fabien Perry, 27, emerged from a home in Aurora holding a high-powered rifle around 2 a.m. Tuesday, and an Aurora police officer and an Arapahoe County sheriff's deputy both fired at him, Aurora police chief Daniel Oates said.
Maryland residents voted in statewide primary elections Tuesday, but it could take days - or even weeks - to get final results in all the races. Maryland is the only state that doesn't allow mail-in ballots to be counted until two days after an election, and the volume of these ballots - expected to be close to half a million - could mean lengthy waits in close contests.

In this modern era of technological expediency and instant gratification, Americans generally expect to know election results within a matter of hours. But it wasn't always that way.

The United States has a long history of long elections, starting with the first presidential campaign. Though it seemed a foregone conclusion that George Washington would become the nation's first leader in 1789, it took nearly two months to name him the winner.

Voting was completed Dec. 15, 1788, but the former commander in chief of the Continental Army was not confirmed by electors until Feb. 4, 1789. "It was out of necessity in those days," said James Roger Sharp, a scholar of early presidential elections and professor emeritus of history at Syracuse University. "The difficulties of travel hampered early elections. It took a lot longer to collect ballots on horseback across muddy trails."

Closeness often begets delays. In Maryland, the 1904 presidential election was so tight that the state's winner was not determined for nearly a month. In the end, Theodore Roosevelt wound up taking the state by a mere 51 votes - although by then he already had the electoral votes needed to claim the presidency.

However, the most divisive delay in a presidential election occurred during the 1800 race, when Thomas Jefferson challenged incumbent John Adams. It was the longest election in U.S. history: The winner would not be known for 10 months after the first ballots were cast.

In those days, states could choose their own election day, so voting across the country took place from April through October 1800. "Elections needed to be spread out over a longer period because of weather," said Sharp, who wrote the 2010 book "The Deadlocked Election of 1800: Jefferson, Burr, and the Union in the Balance." "Massachusetts, for example, didn't want to hold Election Day late in the year, when it could be snowing."

In 1800, the issue wasn't which presidential candidate had come out ahead: Jefferson defeated Adams, 73 electoral votes to 65. But political wrangling over who would be the next president pushed the nation to its first constitutional crisis as partisan politics reared its ugly head.

The 1800 election was a showdown between the country's first two political parties: the Federalists, led by Adams, and the Democratic Republicans, captained by Jefferson. The 1787 Constitutional Convention had not anticipated the rise of parties, which Washington warned in his farewell address in 1796 could allow "unprincipled men" to "subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government."

This was also the first election when vice presidents were included on the ballot. Previously, the runner-up became vice president - as was Adams to Washington and Jefferson to Adams. That changed in the 1800 race, when Jefferson ran for president with Aaron Burr of New York as his vice-presidential nominee against Adams, who ran with Charles Pinckney of South Carolina.

Each elector cast two votes, for his preferred presidential and vice-presidential candidates. But that left Jefferson and Burr tied at 73 votes - something the Constitution hadn't set rules to resolve.

"The parties didn't trust each other then," Sharp said. "Plus, the Democratic Republicans, who could have broken the tie, didn't want to take votes away from Burr, for fear of him leaving the party."

With a stalemate, the House had the responsibility of deciding the winner. However, the Federalists, who still controlled Congress, did not want Jefferson to become president.

On Feb. 11, 1801, members of the House met to try to break the deadlock. For more than a week, they voted on who should be the winner. Each time, with Federalists backing Burr to block Jefferson, the results were the same. Jefferson and Burr were tied after 35 ballots.

Finally, on Feb. 17, the House picked a president on the 36th ballot. Jefferson was named the winner after a group of Federalists led by Rep. James Bayard of Delaware agreed to end the stalemate by withholding their votes, giving Jefferson a plurality of states for the win.

One of the people playing a major role in this decision was Alexander Hamilton, Washington's treasury secretary and a senior Federalist. Though he despised Jefferson, he believed the Virginia statesman was a better choice than his former friend and now archenemy, Burr.

In a letter to Rep. Harrison Gray Otis of Massachusetts, Hamilton wrote, "In a choice of Evils let them take the least - Jefferson is in every view less dangerous than Burr."

Jefferson was inaugurated on March 4, 1801, with Burr becoming the vice president - as the electors had intended. Of course, Hamilton's support for the eventual president would come back to haunt him. Burr mortally wounded Hamilton in a duel on the banks of the Hudson River in New Jersey on July 11, 1804. Burr, still vice president at the time, was vilified for killing Hamilton and would never hold a high office again.

To avoid future election problems, the 12th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1804, stipulating that electors "name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President."

And to establish uniformity in the election process, Congress passed legislation in 1845 requiring states to select electors on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November - thus establishing the quadrennial presidential Election Day that is in use today.

Over the years, Congress continued to change election laws to ensure speedy and accurate results. However, those efforts were not always successful; the winner of the 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore was not known for five weeks after Americans cast their votes.

That took a Supreme Court ruling to declare that Bush was the winner, finally ending recounts in Florida.

Sharp thinks it's not impossible that we could see a repeat of the 1800 fiasco. "Much like 220 years ago, trust is gone between the two parties," Sharp said. "The situation today is very similar in many ways to what happened then."
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Thomas Stewart, Penn State

(THE CONVERSATION) Approximately 365 million years ago, one group of fishes left the water to live on land. These animals were early tetrapods, a lineage that would radiate to include many thousands of species including amphibians, birds, lizards and mammals. Human beings are descendants of those early tetrapods, and we share the legacy of their water-to-land transition.

But what if, instead of venturing onto the shores, they had turned back? What if these animals, just at the cusp of leaving the water, had receded to live again in more open waters?

A new fossil suggests that one fish, in fact, did just that. In contrast to other closely related animals, which were using their fins to prop their bodies up on the bottom of the water and perhaps occasionally venturing out onto land, this newly discovered creature had fins that were built for swimming.

In March 2020, I was at The University of Chicago and a member of biologist Neil Shubins lab. I was working with Justin Lemberg, another researcher in our group, to process a fossil that was collected back in 2004 during an expedition to the Canadian Arctic.

From the surface of the rock it was embedded in, we could see fragments of the jaws, about 2 inches long (5 cm) and with pointed teeth. There were also patches of white scales with bumpy texture. The anatomy gave us subtle hints that the fossil was an early tetrapod. But we wanted to see inside the rock.

So we used a technology called CT scanning, which shoots X-rays through the specimen, to look for anything that might be hidden within, out of view. On March 13, we scanned an unassuming piece of rock that had a few scales on top and discovered it contained a complete fin buried inside. Our jaws dropped. A few days later, the lab and campus shut down, and COVID-19 sent us into lockdown.

The fin revealed

A fin like this is extremely precious. It can give scientists clues into how early tetrapods were evolving and how they were living hundreds of millions of years ago. For example, based on the shape of certain bones in the skeleton, we can make predictions about whether an animal was swimming or walking.

Although that first scan of the fin was promising, we needed to see the skeleton in high resolution. As soon as we were allowed back on campus, a professor in the universitys department of the geophysical sciences helped us to trim down the block using a rock saw. This made the block more fin, less rock, allowing for a better scan and a closer view of the fin.

When the dust had cleared and wed finished analyzing data on the jaws, scales and fin, we realized that this animal was a new species. Not only that, it turns out that this is one of the closest known relatives to limbed vertebrates  those creatures with fingers and toes.

We named it Qikiqtania wakei. Its genus name, pronounced kick-kiq-tani-ahh, refers to the Inuktitut words Qikiqtaaluk or Qikiqtani, the traditional name for the region where the fossil was found. When this fish was alive, many hundreds of millions of years ago, this was a warm environment with rivers and streams. Its species name honors the late David Wake, a scientist and mentor who inspired so many of us in the field of evolutionary and developmental biology.

Skeletons tell how an animal lived

Qikiqtania reveals a lot about a critical period in our lineages history. Its scales tell researchers unambiguously that it was living underwater. They show sensory canals that would have allowed the animal to detect the flow of water around its body. Its jaws tell us that it was foraging as a predator, biting and holding onto prey with a series of fangs and drawing food into its mouth by suction.

But it is Qikiqtanias pectoral fin that is most surprising. It has a humerus bone, just as our upper arm does. But Qikiqtanias has a very peculiar shape.

Early tetrapods, like Tiktaalik, have humeri that possess a prominent ridge on the underside and a characteristic set of bumps, where muscles attach. These bony bumps tell us that early tetrapods were living on the bottom of lakes and streams, using their fins or arms to prop themselves up, first on the ground underwater and later on land.

Qikiqtanias humerus is different. It lacks those trademark ridges and processes. Instead, its humerus is thin and boomerang-shaped, and the rest of the fin is large and paddle-like. This fin was built for swimming.

Whereas other early tetrapods were playing at the waters edge, learning what land had to offer, Qikiqtania was doing something different. Its humerus is truly unlike any others known. My colleagues and I think it shows that Qikiqtania had turned back from the waters edge and evolved to live, once again, off the ground and in open water.

Evolution isnt a march in one direction

Evolution isnt a simple, linear process. Although it might seem like early tetrapods were trending inevitably toward life on land, Qikiqtania shows exactly the limitations of such a directional perspective. Evolution didnt build a ladder towards humans. Its a complex set of processes that together grow the tangled tree of life. New species form and they diversify. Branches can head off in any number of directions.

This fossil is special for so many reasons. Its not just miraculous that this fish was preserved in rock for hundreds of millions of years before being discovered by scientists in the Arctic, on Ellesmere Island. Its not just that its remarkably complete, with its full anatomy revealed by serendipity at the cusp of a global pandemic. It also provides, for the first time, a glimpse of the broader diversity and range of lifestyles of fishes at the water-to-land transition. It helps researchers see more than a ladder and understand that fascinating, tangled tree.

Discoveries depend on community

Qikiqtania was found on Inuit land, and it belongs to that community. My colleagues and I were only able to conduct this research because of the generosity and support of individuals in the hamlets of Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord, the Iviq Hunters and Trappers of Grise Fiord, and the Department of Heritage and Culture, Nunavut. To them, on behalf of our entire research team, nakurmiik. Thank you. Paleontological expeditions onto their land have truly changed how we understand the history of life on Earth.

COVID-19 kept many paleontologists from traveling and visiting field sites across the world these last few years. Were eager to return, to visit with old friends and to search again. Who knows what other animals lie hidden, waiting to be discovered inside blocks of unassuming stone.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/meet-qikiqtania-a-fossil-fish-with-the-good-sense-to-stay-in-the-water-while-others-ventured-onto-land-186116.
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  Environmental criminals in the Brazilian Amazon destroyed public rainforests equal the size of El Salvador over the past six years, yet the Federal Police  the Brazilian version of the FBI  carried out only seven operations aimed at this massive loss, according to a new study.

The destruction took place in state and federal forests that are unallocated, meaning they do not have a designated use the way national parks and Indigenous territories do. According to official data, the Brazilian Amazon rainforest has about 580,000 square kilometers (224,000 square miles) of forests in this category, or an area almost the size of Ukraine.

As Brazil has repeatedly legalized such invasions, these public forests have become the main target for criminals who illegally seize land.

The study, from Igarape Institute, a Brazilian think tank, analyzed 302 environmental crime raids carried out by the Federal Police in the Amazon between 2016 and 2021. Only 2% targeted people illegally seizing undesignated public lands.

The report says the lack of enforcement likely stems from the weak legal protection of these areas, in other words, the same problem that draws the illegal activity. Environmentalists have long pressed the federal government to turn these unallocated public forests into protected areas.

Since Brazils return to democratic rule in 1985 after two decades of military rule, most successive governments have made moves to extend the legal protection, and today about 47% of the Amazon lies within protected areas, according to official data. Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, however, has repeatedly said the country has too many protected areas and stalled this decades-long policy.

In 2016, some 2240 square kilometers (865 square miles) of unallocated public land were illegally deforested. Last year, it reached almost double that amount. Over six years, the accumulated loss has reached some 18,500 square kilometers (7,100 square miles), according to Amazon Environmental Research Institute, or IPAM, based on official data.

Deforestation is increasingly taking place on these lands in particular. In 2016, they made up 31% of all illegally-felled forest. Last year, they reached 36%.

Almost half of Brazils climate pollution comes from deforestation, according to an annual study from the Brazilian nonprofit network Climate Observatory. The destruction is so vast that the eastern Amazon has ceased to be a carbon sink, or absorber, for the Earth and has converted into a carbon source, according to a study published in 2021 in the journal Nature.

Igarape divides environmental crime in the Amazon into four major illicit or tainted activities: theft of public land; illegal logging; illegal mining; and deforestation linked to agriculture and cattle farming.

The enforcement operations were spread over many locations, 846, because most investigated deep into illegal supply chains. Nearly half were in protected areas, such as the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, which, despite a heavier police presence, suffers a growing invasion by thousands of illegal gold miners.

The Igarape study also pointed to an extensive regional ecosystem of crime, since the police operations took place in 24 of Brazil's 27 states plus 8 cities in neighboring countries. Environmental crime stems from illicit economies that access consumer markets and financing outside the Amazon, the report says.

The Federal Police didnt respond to an Associated Press email seeking comment about its strategy in the Amazon.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  A bipartisan group of senators agreed Wednesday on proposed changes to the Electoral Count Act, the post-Civil War-era law for certifying presidential elections that came under intense scrutiny after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Long in the making, the package introduced by the group led by Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Joe Manchin of West Virginia is made up of two separate proposals. One would clarify the way states submit electors and the vice president tallies the votes in Congress. The other would bolster security for state and local election officials who have faced violence and harassment.

From the beginning, our bipartisan group has shared a vision of drafting legislation to fix the flaws of the archaic and ambiguous Electoral Count Act of 1887, Collins, Manchin and the other 14 senators said in a joint statement.

We have developed legislation that establishes clear guidelines for our system of certifying and counting electoral votes," the group wrote. "We urge our colleagues in both parties to support these simple, commonsense reforms.

Both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell have signaled support for the bipartisan group, but the final legislative package will undergo careful scrutiny.

Votes are not likely before fall. But with broad support from the group of 16 senators, seven Democrats and nine Republicans, who have worked behind closed doors for months with the help of outside experts, serious consideration is assured.

In a statement, Matthew Weil, executive director of the Democracy Program at the Bipartisan Policy Center, called the framework a critical step in shoring up ambiguities in the Electoral Count Act.

After Trump lost the 2020 election, the defeated president orchestrated an unprecedented attempt to challenge the electors sent from battleground states to the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, when the vice president presides over certification.

Under the proposed changes, the law would be updated to ensure the governor from each state is initially responsible for submitting electors, as a way to safeguard against states sending alternative or fake elector slates.

Additionally, the law would spell out that the vice president presides over the joint session in a solely ministerial capacity, according to a summary page. It says the vice president does not have any power to solely determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate disputes over electors.

That provision is a direct reaction to Trump's relentless efforts to pressure then Vice President Mike Pence to reject the electors being sent from certain battleground states as a way to halt the certification or tip it away from Joe Biden's victory.

The bill also specifies the procedures around presidential transitions, including when the election outcome is disputed, to ensure the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next.

That's another pushback to the way Trump blocked Biden's team from accessing some information for his transition to the White House.

The second proposal, revolving around election security, would double the federal penalties to up to two years in prison for individuals who threaten or intimidate election officials, poll watchers, voters or candidates, according to the summary.

It also would seek to improve the way the U.S. Postal Service handles election mail and provide guidance to states to improve their mail-in ballot processes. Mail-in ballots and the role of the Postal Service came under great scrutiny during the 2020 election.

An Associated Press review of potential cases of voter fraud in six battleground states found no evidence of widespread fraud that could change the outcome of the election. A separate AP review of drop boxes used for mailed ballots also found no significant problems.

The need for election worker protections was front and center at a separate hearing Wednesday of the House Committee on Homeland Security. Election officials and experts testified that a rise in threats of physical violence is contributing to staffing shortages across the country and a loss of experience at local boards of elections.

The impact is widespread, said Neal Kelley, a former registrar of voters in Orange County, California, who now chairs the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. And, while the effects on individuals are devastating, the potential blow to democracy should not be dismissed.

Elizabeth Howard, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, told the committee that Congress needs to direct more money and support toward protecting election workers personal safety, including by funding local and federal training programs and providing grants to enhance security at election directors personal residences.

Democratic New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who recently reported a series of threats, told the panel the situation has become worse after former President Donald Trumps attacks against the 2020 election result.

Unfortunately, we are still on a daily basis, in my state and across the country, living with the reverberating effects of the Big Lie from 2020, she said. "And, as we all know, when it comes to leadership, what you say from the very highest echelons of government power in this country do have those reverberating effects.

Some Republican members of the committee condemned violence against election workers  and also drew a parallel to recent threats and intimidation directed toward some Supreme Court justices after their decision to overturn constitutional protections for abortion.

GOP Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana rejected the notion that Trump and other election skeptics were solely responsible for the atmosphere of mistrust that grew up around the 2020 election.

__

Associated Press writer Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio contributed to this report.
Donald Trump had already been told by his campaign manager, his top campaign lawyer and his lead data analyst that he had lost the presidential election when he was visited by his attorney general on Dec. 1, 2020.

William Barr was a steadfast Trump ally. But in the Oval Office that afternoon, he had no solace to offer the president. He told Trump that claims of 2020 voter fraud were "complete nonsense," "crazy stuff," "a grave disservice to the country," he later recounted. They were "bullshit."

In an interview with the Associated Press that day, he offered the country the same conclusion, though in less profane terms: The Justice Department had found no evidence sufficient to overturn Joe Biden's election win.

Trump could have accepted what Barr later termed "reality."

But inside the White House, the AP story was met with presidential fury. Sitting inside the ornate West Wing dining room, Trump threw his lunch, shattering a porcelain dish and leaving ketchup dripping down the wall.

That account came from a White House aide who testified to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which over seven public hearings this summer has laid out an elaborate case with a stark conclusion: It was Donald Trump himself who repeatedly set the nation on the path to violence in the weeks after he lost reelection.

At each moment when Trump could have soothed an agitated nation, he escalated tensions instead, the committee has illustrated through its presentation of 18 live witnesses, scores of videotaped depositions and vast documentary evidence. At each moment when longtime loyal advisers offered their view that his election loss was real, he refused to listen and found newcomers and outsiders willing to tell him otherwise.

On at least 15 different occasions, the president barreled over those who told him to accept his loss and instead took actions that sought to circumvent the democratic process and set the nation on the path to violence, according to the committee's evidence.

The resulting attack on the Capitol was not spontaneous, the committee has argued, but instead a predictable outcome that Trump enabled even after learning the crowd he was addressing that day was armed and baying for blood.

"President Trump is a 76-year-old man - he is not an impressionable child," said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the committee's vice chair, at the panel's most recent hearing on July 12. "Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices."

Trump, she said, "cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind," invoking a legal term for a person who can only argue they were unaware their actions were wrong because they purposely ignored evidence to the contrary.

The committee, which interviewed more than 1,000 people in all, has not limited its inquiry to the president, unveiling new information about the cast of characters who enabled some of Trump's darkest impulses following the election.

There was, for instance, his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who one witness said was intoxicated when he urged Trump to declare victory on election night despite the vote count. (Giuliani denies it.) Or John Eastman, the constitutional scholar, who sold Trump on a theory that the vice president could use the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 to overturn the election, even while acknowledging to White House lawyers that the move would be illegal and likely rejected unanimously by the U.S. Supreme Court. And then there was the bevy of Republican members of Congress who cheered Trump on before Jan. 6 but then asked him for pardons afterward when the plot to keep Trump in office fizzled.

But again and again, the committee has returned with relentless focus to the commander in chief - his knowledge, his planning, his choices.

Panel leaders have promised to put Trump even more in focus at their eighth hearing on Thursday, to be held in prime time as a finale to their first round of public sessions. This time, the lens is expected to be trained on Trump's inaction on the afternoon of Jan. 6 while his supporters rampaged at the U.S. Capitol.

On the social media platform Truth Social and in interviews, Trump has repeatedly denounced the hearings as a partisan exercise intended to harm his political prospects and has denied the most damaging revelations lodged against him.

"So the Unselect Committee of political HACKS refuses to play any of the many positive witnesses and statements, refuses to talk of the Election Fraud and Irregularities that took place on a massive scale," he wrote in a June message.

The hearings are not a legal trial. Witnesses have not been cross-examined, and some have complained the committee has played clips of their words taken from lengthy closed-door depositions without proper context. The committee - composed of seven Democrats and two Republicans, all of whom are sharply critical of Trump - has made no effort to offer potentially exculpatory information.

Still, the evidence put forward by the committee - which includes newly disclosed text messages, internal White House records and accounts from those who have not before spoken publicly - has formed a compelling presentation that in the lead-up to Jan. 6, Trump chose a course that made violence likely, if not inevitable.

- - -

The outcome of the presidential election was supposed to be final on Dec. 14, 2020. On that day, electors gathered in state capitols across the country to formally cast their ballots in a reflection of certified tallies of the popular vote.

But behind the scenes, Trump was directing the Republican Party establishment to get involved in a plan concocted by a cadre of his legal advisers. The idea was to wrangle Trump supporters to gather in key swing states to cast ballots for him instead. The committee revealed that he called Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to fill her in on the plan.

"Essentially, he turned the call over to Mr. Eastman, who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the [Republican National Committee] helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing changed the result of any of the states," McDaniel told the committee, in testimony that for the first time connected the president directly to that scheme.

Not all Republicans were sold on continued efforts to overturn the vote. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took to the Senate floor on Dec. 15 to declare that "the electoral college has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden."

Others who had been with Trump until then, including members of his inner circle, privately acknowledged in conversations they later recounted to investigators that the president had lost.

But days later, Trump welcomed into the Oval Office an unvetted delegation of outside advisers pushing a last-ditch plan and outlandish conspiracy theories, including that the election had been stolen by foreign powers via Nest thermostats.

Led by lawyer Sidney Powell and ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn, they met with the president alone for 1o to 15 minutes before White House counsel Pat Cipollone and others who had caught wind of the unplanned gathering rushed into the room.

Punctuated by insults and yelling, members of Trump's senior staff spent hours trying to persuade him that his visitors were spinning wild tales with little basis in reality. The shouting during the meeting got "completely, completely out there," testified White House lawyer Eric Herschmann. "It'd been a long day. And what they were proposing, I thought was nuts."

But Trump was inclined to side with the interlopers over his own staff, intrigued by a proposal to use an executive order to seize voting machines.

"He was very interested," Powell testified of the president's reaction to the idea, which, she said, "apparently nobody had bothered to inform him of."

Powell testified that Trump declared he would name her special counsel to investigate the election and offer her top-secret clearance. She said his aides responded that even if she held the title, no one in government would listen to her.

" 'You see what I deal with? I deal with this all the time,' " Powell recounted that Trump responded, speaking dismissively of the White House attorneys.

The group departed after midnight, with the future of their proposals uncertain. But Trump still had a plan for keeping his election grievances - and hopes to cling to power - alive.

- - -

"Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election," he tweeted at 1:42 a.m. on Dec. 19. "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild."

The tweet galvanized Trump supporters and extremist groups around the country. Later that morning, the head of the Florida branch of the extremist group Oath Keepers, wrote on Facebook that the organization had formed an alliance with other extremists called the Proud Boys. "We have decided to work together and shut this . . . down," he wrote, adding an expletive for emphasis.

That same day, prominent YouTuber Tim Pool informed his viewers that Jan. 6 could be "Trump's last stand."

"It's a time when he has specifically called on his supporters to arrive in D.C.," he said. Alex Jones, the far-right founder of Infowars, likewise told his audience that day that the president had issued a call for "we the people to take action, to show our numbers."

Extremists quickly began calls for violence. "Why don't we just kill them? Every last Democrat down to the last man, woman and child," read one message posted online and presented by the committee. "It's time for the day of the rope. White revolution is the only solution," read another.

While Trump's supporters made plans to descend on Washington, the president remained focused on using the vast powers of the federal government to endorse the falsehood that the election had been stolen, the committee showed.

"Just say the election was corrupt," Trump told acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue during a call in late December, according to notes Donoghue took at the time. "Leave the rest to me and the [Republican] Congressmen."

Three days after Trump's "will be wild" tweet, the president met in the Oval Office with a group of Republican members of Congress who were convinced, in the words of attendee Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R.-Ga., that "this election has been stolen."

Another member who attended, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, had an idea for the president: He should meet Jeffrey Clark, a mid-level Justice Department official whom Perry apparently understood to be a fellow traveler on issues related to the election.

In the two weeks that followed, Trump repeatedly pressured Justice Department officials to intervene in the outcome of the election. He threatened to fire acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and in his place install Clark, the head of civil litigation for the department, whose experience was mostly in environmental law.

During a New Year's Eve meeting at the White House, Justice Department officials testified Trump attempted to rope in his Department of Homeland Security as well, placing the agency's acting deputy secretary on speaker phone to berate him for not ordering that voting machines be seized. Rosen had explained there was neither legal authority nor factual basis to justify the unprecedented step.

By Jan. 3, Trump came so close to handing the reins of the Justice Department to Clark that White House phone logs began referring to the midlevel official as "acting attorney general."

That night, Justice Department officials made their last stand in a remarkable two-and-a-half-hour Oval Office showdown. During the meeting, Clark promised Trump he would do as the president desired if put in charge. Department leaders countered that those were empty assurances by a man who had never so much as met the FBI director.

"It's impossible. It's absurd. It's not going to happen. It's going to fail. He has never been in front of a trial jury, a grand jury. He's never even been to Chris Wray's office," Donoghue testified he told Trump.

"'You're an environmental lawyer. How about you go back to your office and we'll call you when there's an oil spill?'" Donoghue said he told Clark.

The group told the president that putting Clark in charge would spark a wave of resignations across the department - and stretching into the White House Counsel's Office.

"Jeff Clark will be left leading a graveyard," assistant attorney general Steven A. Engel told the president.

Trump agreed to back off. "That's it," he told the group. "We're not going to do it."

But the president was not deterred for long.

- - -

Instead, he leveled all his focus on the joint session of Congress scheduled for three days later. Trump's plan was to try to bully his own vice president publicly and privately into using his constitutional role presiding over the session to thwart Biden's victory.

Mike Pence had already been drafting a letter stating his view that the Constitution gave him no power to change the results of the election.

On the afternoon of Jan. 5, Trump summoned Pence to the Oval Office to push him one-on-one. After their meeting ended, Trump's campaign released a statement from the president.

"The vice president and I are in total agreement that the vice president has the power to act," Trump said in the statement.

Pence's aides testified the assertion was entirely false. Jason Miller, a Trump campaign aide, testified Trump had dictated it himself.

Trump's words put a target on the back of his long-loyal vice president just as the president's angry backers began flooding the Washington area by the plane, bus and carload.

Permits for the Jan. 6 rally called for a large demonstration on the Ellipse, near the White House and about 2 miles from the U.S. Capitol. But the committee presented evidence that some protesters came to Washington planning to march on the Capitol after speeches from Trump and others had concluded.

Trump was aware and encouraging of the plans, spreading word that he would issue a call for protesters to descend on the building during his speech that day, the committee argued. He drafted a tweet promoting his speech that concluded "March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!!" The tweet, obtained by the committee from the National Archives, was never sent.

Two key rally organizers both wrote in text messages sent before Jan. 6 that they knew Trump was planning to direct his followers down Pennsylvania Avenue.

"POTUS is going to call for it just unexpectedly," Kylie Kremer, a leader of Women for America First and an organizer of the rally at the Ellipse, wrote on Jan. 4, insisting that plans for the march "can not get out."

"Trump is supposed to order us to the capitol at the end of his speech but we will see," wrote Ali Alexander, an organizer of the "Stop the Steal" movement, the following day.

Over the final 24 hours before the Jan. 6 rally, witnesses testified that Trump drew gleeful energy from the gathering crowds, which he could hear from his desk in the Oval Office. Listening to their anger, he instructed that his speech for the Ellipse rally be altered in ways more likely to rile up his fans.

"Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore," he added to the draft of the speech on the evening of Jan. 5. "Together, we will stop the steal."

The next morning, he instructed that a reference to Pence be inserted. "We will see whether Mike Pence enters history as a truly great and courageous leader," he planned to say.

White House lawyers were concerned. One pulled aside speechwriter Stephen Miller to complain the line would be "counterproductive," Miller testified. Obliging, speechwriters yanked the line. But later that morning, Pence told Trump by phone that he would not comply with the president's demands. Trump responded by calling the vice president "a wimp" and then ordering the line questioning Pence's courage be reinserted.

- - -

As the debate over Trump's speech unfolded, some of his advisers grew anxious over the size and anger of the building crowds.

Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified that she heard Meadows receive a briefing that morning that members of the crowd had been spotted armed with guns, knives, bear spray, body armor and even spears. She said Meadows was told the president had also been informed.

But the president's concerns were apparently elsewhere, fixated on the apparent less-than-capacity crowd in the area set aside for the rally.

"He was f-ing furious," Hutchinson texted another staffer at the time, according to messages obtained by the committee.

She said staff informed Trump that some members of the crowd were declining to go through magnetometers set up as a standard safety precaution for presidential speeches, preferring to listen to Trump's words from afar rather than relinquish their weapons.

" 'I don't f-ing care that they have weapons,' " Hutchinson testified that she overheard the president say. " 'They're not here to hurt me. Take the f-ing mags away. Let my people in.' "

Once onstage, Trump, an inveterate ad-libber, added language likely to wind the armed crowd up further.

Trump did not deliver just the one line about Pence that had alarmed his staff. He railed against his vice president eight separate times. He didn't tell the crowd to march on the Capitol once, as included in his prepared remarks. He urged them forward four times.

And he added one more line: He promised to join.

"We're going to walk down, and I'll be there with you," he said.

Multiple Trump aides testified that the president had been talking for days about joining the crowd as it marched to the Capitol. Hutchinson testified that she was told that, after the speech, Trump tried to order his Secret Service detail to drive him to the Hill, even grabbing for the steering wheel of the vehicle and for the collar of an agent. Trump has denied the account.

His security detail refused. Trump returned to the White House fuming.

The crowd he left behind was angry too.

Armed, empowered and believing their president would be right there with them, they were on the move.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  U.N. experts said Tuesday the threat from Islamic State extremists and al-Qaida remains high in conflict areas and neighboring countries and warned that those conflicts will incubate the capability for a terrorist operation elsewhere in the world unless they are successfully resolved.

In a wide-ranging report to the U.N. Security Council, the experts said both the Islamic State and al-Qaida operate in the areas of greatest concern -- Africa, central and south Asia, and the Levant which includes Syria and Iraq.

The experts said foreigners who fought with the Islamic State group are another major potential threat multiplier along with their dependents and quoted one unnamed country reporting that an estimated 120,000 remain in 11 camps and some 20 prison facilities in northeast Syria.

Another country reported that approximately 10,000 foreign terrorist fighters remain in custody of the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, they said.

The panel of experts monitoring sanctions against al-Qaida and the Islamic State, also known as IS and ISIL, said that among those being held are 30,000 children under the age of 12, who are at risk of radicalization by extreme ISIL ideology.

It quoted another unnamed country as saying ISIL is seeking to create a new generation of extremists and is continuing its cubs of the caliphate approach adopted when its so-called caliphate ruled a significant swathe of Syria and Iraq from 2014-2017.

ISIL was defeated by Iraqi forces and a U.S.-led coalition in 2017 but the experts said it still maintains two distinct organizational structures for Iraq and Syria and has vigorous and well-established regional networks in Afghanistan covering south Asia, in Somalia covering Mozambique and Congo, and in the Lake Chad Basin which also covers Nigeria and the the western Sahel.

What is notable, the experts said, is that two of the three most dynamic ISIL networks are in Africa, which is also the location of some of al-Qaidas most dangerous affiliates.

The panel said the most dynamic developments during the first six months of 2022 covered by the report were the major jailbreak mounted by ISIL in )the northeastern Syrian city of Hassakeh in January, releasing a large number of prisoners while sustaining heavy casualties and the Feb. 3 killing of the Islamic State leader known as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in a U.S.-led counterterrorism raid near the Turkish border in northwest Syria, the experts said.

On March 10, ISIL acknowledged his death and announced his successor as Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Qurashi, but the panel said his real identity has not yet been established though it has been widely discussed by many countries, with Iraqi Bashar Khattab Ghazal al-Sumaidai cited as the most likely candidate.

By contrast, the experts said, al-Qaidas leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, has issued regular video messages that provided almost current proof of life.

They quoted unnamed countries saying al-Zawahris apparent increased comfort and ability to communicate has coincided with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan (in August 2021) and the consolidation of power of key al-Qaida allies within their de facto administration.

Surveying the global situation, the panel said, the international context is favorable to al-Qaida, which intends to be recognized again as the leader of global jihad.

Al-Qaida propaganda is now better developed to compete with ISIL as the key actor in inspiring the international threat environment, and it may ultimately become a greater source of directed threat, the experts said.

According to one unidentified country, the al-Qaida committee that coordinates global leadership has demoted al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula below its African affiliates.

The panel quoted many countries reporting that the ISIL leadership controls approximately $25 million in reserves, with much of the cash remaining in Iraq. It said expenditures mainly to fighters and their family members exceed current revenues but additional sources of revenue including extortion, kidnapping for ransom, direct donations and income from trading and investments have helped ISIL adapt and sustain itself.

The experts said member states report that ISIL leaders ability to direct and maintain funding to global affiliates remains resilient.

One country highlighted the emerging importance of South Africa in facilitating transfers of funds from ISIL leadership to affiliates in Africa, the panel said, adding that it is aware of several large transactions totaling more than $1 million.

The experts said they continue to receive reports of ISIL and al-Qaida making use of cryptocurrencies to solicit donations and support activities.

One unidentified country said ISIL was providing tutorials on how to open digital asset wallets and make transactions using cryptocurrencies while another another country raised concerns about transactions totaling more than $700,000 involving privacy-enhancing cryptocurrencies to fund ISIL operations in Afghanistan, which indicates its increasing sophistication in the use of lesser-known cryptocurrencies, the panel said.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP)  A 15-year-old boy was charged Tuesday with murder in the fatal shooting of a pastor and leader of the United Methodist Church during a carjacking in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Rev. Autura Eason-Williams was shot Monday afternoon outside of her home, the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference of the United Methodist Church said. She was found in her driveway with multiple gunshot wounds, Memphis police said.

Eason-Williams was taken to a hospital, where she died, police said on Twitter.

At a news conference Tuesday, Memphis Police Director Cerelyn CJ Davis said three juveniles had been taken into custody as people of interest in what she called a heinous killing."

After the juveniles were questioned, a 15-year-old boy was charged with first-degree murder, murder in the perpetration of a robbery, especially aggravated robbery, carjacking and a weapons offense, Memphis police said late Tuesday

Also, a 16-year-old boy was charged with theft of property between $2,500 and $10,000. A 17-year-old boy was released without charges, police said.

Video footage showed that the pastor was approached by two males while she was in her Chevrolet Malibu. The teens pointed a gun at her and ordered her from the car, police said.

The video also showed that Eason-Williams was shot and one of the teens drove away in her vehicle, police said.

The killing rocked the United Methodist Church community in Memphis. Church members attended a vigil for Eason-Williams on Monday night.

We all are shocked and saddened by this senseless act, the conference said in a statement.

Eason-Williams was a wife and the mother of four children, according to a biography posted on her website. She was superintendent of the conferences Metro District.

She also was the pastor of Capleville United Methodist Church and a graduate of the Memphis Theological Seminary.

"Autura was a real light and a well of deep care, seminary president Jody Hill said in a Facebook post.

Hill added that Eason-Williams would embrace people with a warm smile, gentle hug, or encouraging word.

Eason-Williams entered the ministry full-time in 1997 and has served under appointment in the United Methodist Church since 2002, according to her biography. She was commissioned Provisional Elder in 2003 and Ordained Elder in 2006, the biography said.

She led youth camps, retreats and women's events, and she preached for local church, district, and conference events.

Eason-Williams also served on several boards and on planning committees that created My Sisters Keeper  an outreach that addresses health disparities of African American women  and The Congregational Health Network  a network of 600 churches that address health disparities and build relationships between hospitals, the faith community, and neighborhoods, according to the biography.
Alan Powdrill/Getty Images

Houston PD can now force certain businesses across the city to turn over surveillance camera footage without obtaining a warrant, after a city of Houston ordinance went into effect Tuesday.

The ordinance, which passed Houston City Council in April, requires owners of convenience stores, nightclubs and bars, sexually oriented businesses and gambling rooms to install surveillance cameras that "provide an overall view" of the outside of their buildings. Owners must record and store surveillance footage 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of their hours of operation.
WFO BINGHAMTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Tuesday, July 19, 2022

_____

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT

Special Weather Statement

National Weather Service Binghamton NY

715 PM EDT Tue Jul 19 2022

...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of central Otsego and

north central Delaware Counties through 745 PM EDT...

At 715 PM EDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm over

Hartwick, or 8 miles southwest of Cooperstown, moving east at 35 mph.

HAZARD...Wind gusts up to 40 mph and pea size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around

unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is

possible.

Locations impacted include...

Oneonta, Davenport, Worcester, Hartwick, Maryland, Cooperstown,

Westville, Kortright, Burlington and New Lisbon.

This includes the following highway exits...

Interstate 88 between 16 and 19.

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 4255 7468 4252 7471 4249 7468 4234 7480

4258 7527 4274 7511 4263 7463

TIME...MOT...LOC 2315Z 292DEG 29KT 4262 7507

MAX HAIL SIZE...0.25 IN

MAX WIND GUST...40 MPH

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 800 PM EDT

FOR SOUTHERN FRANKLIN...EAST CENTRAL ST. LAWRENCE AND NORTHWESTERN

ESSEX COUNTIES...

At 715 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 7 miles southwest of

Madawaska, moving east at 25 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

IMPACT...Minor hail damage to vehicles is possible. Expect wind

damage to trees and powerlines.

Saranac Lake, Adirondack Regional Airport, Wawbeek, Madawaska,

Harrietstown, Paul Smiths, Saranac Inn, Ray Brook, Lake Colby,

Rainbow Lake, Loon Lake, Gabriels, Lake Clear, Upper Saint Regis,

Onchiota, St. Regis Mountain, Azure Mountain, Vermontville, Upper St.

Regis and Bloomingdale.

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO BURLINGTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Tuesday, July 19, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Burlington has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southern Franklin County in northern New York...

East central St. Lawrence County in northern New York...

Northwestern Essex County in northern New York...

* Until 800 PM EDT.

* At 653 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Lake Ozonia,

moving east at 30 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor hail damage to vehicles is possible. Expect wind

damage to trees and powerlines.

* Locations impacted include...

Saranac Lake, Adirondack Regional Airport, Carry Falls Reservoir,

Wawbeek, Lake Ozonia, Madawaska, Harrietstown, Stark, Paul Smiths,

Saranac Inn, Ray Brook, Lake Colby, Rainbow Lake, Loon Lake,

Gabriels, Lake Clear, Upper Saint Regis, Onchiota, St. Regis

Mountain and Azure Mountain.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO DALLAS / FT. WORTH Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Fort Worth has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southwestern Wise County in north central Texas...

Southeastern Jack County in north central Texas...

* Until 645 PM CDT.

* At 556 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Boonsville,

or 10 miles southwest of Bridgeport, and is nearly stationary.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and nickel size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Bridgeport, Boonsville, Cottondale, Runaway Bay and Lake

Bridgeport.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection get inside a sturdy structure and stay away from

windows.

If on or near Lake Bridgeport, get away from the water and move

indoors or inside a vehicle. Do not be caught on the water in a

thunderstorm. High winds and waves can capsize boats.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

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Over 100 mln people under alert as extreme heat scorches south central U.S.

Xinhua) 08:31, July 20, 2022

A man kayaks across Calaveras Lake in Bexar County, Texas, the United States, on July 18, 2022. More than 100 million people are currently under heat related warnings and advisories across the United States, the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center said on Tuesday. (Photo by Nick Wagner/Xinhua)

HOUSTON, July 19 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 million people are currently under heat related warnings and advisories across the United States, the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center said on Tuesday.

Especially in south central United States, dangerous and record-breaking heat is forecast across much of the region on Tuesday and is expected to linger through much of this week, the center said on Twitter.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, nearly 40 high temperature records are at risk of breaking, especially in southern plains. Through Thursday morning, more than 90 warm minimum temperature records could fall, the center forecast.

Through this week, parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas could see their hottest temperatures so far this year, with predicted highs reaching 102 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

In Texas, triple-digit temperatures will continue this week, testing the state's power grid. If the demand for electricity outstrips the supply, there will be power outages.

The projection of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which monitors grid conditions, showed that about 3 p.m. Monday, the demand for electricity seemed to go right up to the supply, local media network ABC13 reported.

With the extreme heat, calls for help due to heat-related issues in Texas soared by 120.4 percent in 2022 during the months of May 1 to July 12 when compared to the same time period in 2021, according to the regional emergency medical services agency MedStar.

MedStar paramedic supervisor John Hamilton told CBS News that he's never seen so many heat-related calls.

Smoke rises from the Calaveras Power Station in Bexar County, Texas, the United States, on July 18, 2022. More than 100 million people are currently under heat related warnings and advisories across the United States, the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center said on Tuesday. (Photo by Nick Wagner/Xinhua)

Power transmission lines span toward San Antonio, Texas, the United States, on July 18, 2022. More than 100 million people are currently under heat related warnings and advisories across the United States, the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center said on Tuesday. (Photo by Nick Wagner/Xinhua)

A boy cools off at a splash pad in San Antonio, Texas, the United States, on July 18, 2022. More than 100 million people are currently under heat related warnings and advisories across the United States, the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center said on Tuesday. (Photo by Nick Wagner/Xinhua)

A sign reads the temperature at 102 degrees Fahrenheit in San Antonio, Texas, the United States, on July 18, 2022. More than 100 million people are currently under heat related warnings and advisories across the United States, the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center said on Tuesday. (Photo by Nick Wagner/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Du Mingming)
Express Entry: ITAs up CRS down in new all-program draw IRCC holds second all-program draw in a row after 18-month hiatus.

Express Entry: ITAs up CRS down in new all-program draw IRCC holds second all-program draw in a row after 18-month hiatus.

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Canada invited 1,750 Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence on July 20. Express Entry is one of the main ways Canada welcomes immigrants. In 2022, Canada is on track to welcome 55,900 immigrants through Express Entry, then by 2024 the target will skyrocket to 111,500.

Candidates were invited if they had a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of at least 542. There was no program specified for this draw, meaning candidates from the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) or Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) had the potential to be invited.

The CRS requirement for the new draw is 15 points lower than the previous all-program draw on July 6, when the minimum cut-off score was 557. Also, Canada issued 250 more invitations in this draw compared to the previous round of 1,500 invitations.

Get a Free Express Entry Assessment

Second Express Entry draw since December 2020

This was the second all-program draw since July 6 after an 18-month hiatus, during which time Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) only invited candidates eligible for immigration through either the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) or Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).

In an all-program Express Entry draw, IRCC considers the CRS from all candidates in the Express Entry pool, regardless of which program they are eligible for. Before the pandemic, most Express Entry draws were not program-specific, meaning candidates eligible for any Express Entry program had the chance to receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) if they met the minimum CRS.

Between January 2021 and September 2021, IRCC held PNP and CEC draws about every two weeks. After September 21, 2021, IRCC stopped inviting CEC candidates because the expected application processing times were driven in excess of the six-month standard.

Although IRCC is back to holding all-program draws, further changes are forthcoming to the Express Entry system. The reforms named in the recently-passed Bill C-19 are expected to come into force in early 2023. Once implemented, IRCC will be able to hold targeted draws that invite Express Entry candidates to apply based on an economic goal. Candidates could be invited based on their occupation, educational credential, language ability, or other factor that corresponds to labour market needs.

What is Express Entry?

Express Entry is the application management system for three Canadian immigration programs: the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP). Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates in the Express Entry pool are already eligible for at least one of these programs.

Express Entry uses a points-based system, the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS), to rank candidates profiles. The top-scoring candidates receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) and can then apply for permanent residency.

After the candidate applies, an IRCC officer reviews the application and makes a decision. The officer will ask for biometrics and may set up an interview or request more documents.

Once approved, the applicant gets a Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR). After that, the final step is to complete the landing process and officially become a Canadian permanent resident.

Get a Free Express Entry Assessment

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Leadership styles have traditionally centered their focus on profits, share prices, and productivity, but a new approach increasingly taken up by todays leaders, known as authentic leadership, takes a different spin on the concept. With the authentic leadership model, the focus is on people, values, and ethics first, with productivity and profits subsequently promoted by fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment where everyone feels heard.

Authentic leadership is a relatively new concept, and because of that, there isnt an official definition of authentic leadership. But ultimately, authentic leadership can be viewed as the opposite of traditional leadership in many ways. For example, whereas traditional leadership emphasizes leading with goals, authentic leadership instead focuses on leading with purpose. Or whereas traditional leadership focuses on profitability and productivity, authentic leadership focuses on inclusivity, ethics, and morals.

Authentic leaders are those who demonstrate self-discipline and a strong moral code  they dont take shortcuts or bend their morals to meet certain goals. Theres a pattern of behavior that defines authentic leadership and its one that trends toward transparency, self-discipline, self-awareness, empathy, and emotional intelligence.

What are the characteristics of authentic leadership?

The theory of authentic leadership was introduced formally by Bill George in his 2003 book Authentic Leadership. In this book, George presents his theory that the key to being a successful leader is to be yourself. He suggests that great leadership starts with authenticity, which then strengthens your ability to hone your other leadership skills.

According to Bill George, there five main characteristics that define authentic leadership:

Purpose and passion: An authentic leader should have a sense of purpose and know exactly who they are and what they are about. That purpose drives an authentic leaders passion to understand people better, figure out how employees are best motivated, and demonstrate an interest and care for what theyre working on.

An authentic leader should have a sense of purpose and know exactly who they are and what they are about. That purpose drives an authentic leaders passion to understand people better, figure out how employees are best motivated, and demonstrate an interest and care for what theyre working on. Values and behavior: Part of being an authentic leader means having a strong set of values and sticking to them in a consistent manner. Authentic leaders know their values and demonstrate those values regularly through their behavior. By acting in accordance with your values, you reinforce what type of leader you are and build trust with your employees.

Part of being an authentic leader means having a strong set of values and sticking to them in a consistent manner. Authentic leaders know their values and demonstrate those values regularly through their behavior. By acting in accordance with your values, you reinforce what type of leader you are and build trust with your employees. Relationships and connectedness: Building relationships and having a real connection with others is an important characteristic of authentic leadership. Its not just about networking; its about getting to know your coworkers and employees by listening to them, allowing them to share their experiences, and having open lines of communication.

Building relationships and having a real connection with others is an important characteristic of authentic leadership. Its not just about networking; its about getting to know your coworkers and employees by listening to them, allowing them to share their experiences, and having open lines of communication. Self-discipline and consistency: Having a strong sense of self-discipline is important for an authentic leader because you will need to stay focused on specific goals and maintain a consistent pace toward those goals. Authentic leaders need to be able to manage setbacks, failure, and stressful situations with a calm confidence. They arent deflated by failure or deterred by setbacks, instead working to find a solution to any problem that arises.

Having a strong sense of self-discipline is important for an authentic leader because you will need to stay focused on specific goals and maintain a consistent pace toward those goals. Authentic leaders need to be able to manage setbacks, failure, and stressful situations with a calm confidence. They arent deflated by failure or deterred by setbacks, instead working to find a solution to any problem that arises. Compassion: A key element of authentic leadership is compassion, which shows you are sensitive to the needs of others and want to help everyone thrive and grow in the organization. That might mean checking in around deadlines, having flexibility with schedules, or finding ways to alleviate times of stress for employees. Its important to show you have empathy for your employees and that you want them to feel comfortable speaking up if they need help or a break.

The value of authentic leadership

While authentic leadership is still a relatively new concept, research has backed up Georges claims, with several studies published on how authentic leadership can positively influence employee productivity, job performance, and overall employee engagement. Employees that are engaged, productive, and performing at their best boost the companys overall success. And research shows that authentic leadership has a way of bringing out the best in employees by creating an environment where they feel empowered and supported.

Authentic leaders create a productive, effective, and motivated environment by being transparent, honest, admitting when theyre wrong, and being open to criticism or feedback when needed. They are leaders who can solve conflicts without being manipulative, function within a specific set of ethical values, and can display vulnerability when appropriate. Building this sense of trust with employees is critical to authentic leadership and it all must come from a genuine place.

Authentic leadership and inclusion

Authentic leadership is important for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, because employees need to feel safe at work and comfortable speaking up if they experience or witness a threatening situation or microaggression in the workplace. If employees feel they must stay silent about toxic behavior in the workplace, the consequences to the organization can be significant. This can lead to high turnover, low productivity, and low morale across the company.

Research from Dr. Cottrill, Associate Professor Lopez, and Dr. Hoffman from the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University found a strong connection between authentic leadership and individual feelings of inclusion. The research surveyed professionals and asked them to rate how inclusive they felt their organizations were and how they felt about themselves as employees. The survey looked at Organization Based Self Esteem (OBSE) ratings and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). Employees with a high OSBE would describe themselves as important, meaningful, effectual, and worthwhile to the organization, and companies that have a high OCB rating display altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy, and civic virtue.

The findings showed that employees who feel more included at work are more likely to rate higher levels of self-worth within the organization and are also more likely to help their co-workers manage and prevent problems, demonstrate initiative, show up on time, overlook minor inconveniences, and care about their organizations performance. And the results also showed that authentic leadership had a direct impact on inclusivity  and that authentic leadership can model inclusivity in the workplace all the way down the ladder. Companies with authentic leadership were also more likely to rate higher on the scale for OCB and that OCB is more likely when an employee feels included and experiences higher rates of OBSE.

Diversity is also critical to organizational success  companies that are more diverse at every level are more successful than their less-diverse counterparts. Authentic leaders create inclusive environments where everyone feel safe to bring their full selves to work. They wont have to hide parts of their identity to make others comfortable or to protect themselves from potential discrimination.

How to become an authentic leader

Becoming an authentic leader takes a lot of self-reflection and self-awareness. Youll need to work to understand yourself and others, using empathy and compassion as your driving force. For examples of authentic leadership in the tech industry, you can look to former CEO of Apple Steve Jobs, former CEO of GE Jack Welch, former CEO of Xerox Anne Mulcahy, and former CEO of IBM Sam Palmisano. These leaders are all known for their authentic leadership styles that helped them drive business success.

To become an authentic leader, youll need to embark on a path of self-discovery, establish a strong set of values and principles that will guide you in your decision-making, and be completely honest with yourself about who you are. An authentic leader isnt afraid to make mistakes or to own up to mistakes when they happen. Youll need to make sure youre someone who takes accountability, maintains calm under pressure, and can be vulnerable with coworkers and employees.

Its important to know your own strengths and weaknesses as an authentic leader and to identify how you cope with success, failure, and setbacks. Authentic leaders are comfortable being themselves, but the first step is figuring out who you are. It requires an immense amount of honesty with yourself, and a full acceptance of your positive and negative traits. Once youve figured out who you are and what you stand for, you will be ready to start leading authentically.

Authentic leadership training courses

For those interested in learning more about how to become an authentic leader, several courses that focus on developing authentic leadership skills are available today, including the following:
Healthcare is deeply human, and each successful doctor-patient interaction is unique. Some patients feel the most reassured by a straight-forward physician in a white coat; others respond better to a warm and humorous bedside manner. But if theres one thing nobody wants their doctor to be, its overwhelmed.

In addition to the detrimental effects on the doctors themselves, rampant burnout among healthcare providers puts patients at risk. Its almost inevitable that doctors will miss important things, says Anne Amario, VP of Marketing at Navina. That includes inevitably missing data thats hiding in those overstuffed patient records, and missing significant diagnoses, too. Thats where Navina comes in; only AI can make this data work for physicians and not against them. Founded in 2018, Navina is leveraging the full AWS toolkit to improve the human-to-human interactions at the heart of healthcare. [The result is] a better physician experience, says Amario, as well as better diagnosis and care.

A 2018 survey found 78 percent of doctors reported feeling burned out. If the workings of the human body werent complicated enough, healthcare providers today must navigate a complex terrain of patient data and clinical research while carrying ever-growing patient loads. The same survey found that doctors saw more than 20 patients each day on average. As the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic have driven healthcare providers across all levels of care out of the industry, the trend toward burnout has only gotten worse.

In an effort to cut administrative costs and make important patient data more accessible to distributed networks of providers, the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2009 mandated the digitization of patient records. But having all the information doesnt mean the information is readily available for physicians to use, Amario says. Patient records remain complex, unstructured, and unprocessed. Parsing them all is more than most overwhelmed doctors can manage in the scant minutes before each patient meeting.

Navina changes that by providing physicians with the tools to control their data in every interaction with their patient. Using proprietary transformers-based Natural Language Processing (NLP) models, Navinas AI can analyze and filter this unprecedented volume of available information. Navina integrates the data from electronic medical records (EMRs) and other sources, surfaces whats important, identifies potential quality and risk gaps requiring attention  and empowers physicians to take action and to document on the spot. It uses the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to manage millions of patient records. Meanwhile, Amazon Textract and Amazon Comprehend scan clinical documents including hospital and consultation notes, cutting through medical jargon to identify issues that require physicians attention, like missing labs, abnormal results, and potentially missed diagnoses.

And, as Amario explains, Navina is shifting the patient-doctor interaction from reactive to proactive, from Whats wrong with you today? to How can we optimize your health? so users feel safer when they have Navinas support. Its like having another set of eyes, or another virtual doctor that has all the time in the world to read through every single document and alert them to what could have clinical significance. And in a value-based care environment, where physicians are financially reimbursed for their performance and missed diagnoses mean lost revenue as well as poor patient outcomes, Navina helps providers avoid millions of dollars in losses. One physician group that has integrated Navina into their practice has pulled in $45,000 in additional revenue per provider per year, adding up to more than $1 million in revenue they would have otherwise foregone.

Navinas user base is growing fast, having started off with having started off with hundreds of physicians and now serving over 3,000 users in dozens of clinics throughout the United States eager to put the tool to work. The growth of the value-based care model throughout the healthcare industry means the most exciting developments are likely still to come. The machine learning (ML) infrastructure of AWS allows Navina to accelerate the training process for its proprietary ML and NLP models, so the company can scale quickly and streamline experiments as needed.

Looking towards the future, Amario says, The irony is that the entire ecosystem is focused on generating more and more data about patients, but in this way everyone is adding to the workload and nobody is focused on how the data will be digested. Navina is staying ahead of the curve, with an eye toward how physicians can make the most of all this data, and creating space for more meaningful patient interactions.
The Charity Commission has removed London-based charity SPAC Nation from its register after the church group was wound up by the High Court.

Last month, the High Court wound up Salvation Proclaimers Ministries Limited , more commonly known as SPAC Nation, after the organisation only partially complied with statutory requirements.

These requirements included providing data to support claimed donations and accounting for more than 1.87m in expenditure.

The regulator has now confirmed that it has banned SPAC Nation from operating as a charity, saying that it and the related company are one and the same.

'A different side to the charity'

Founded in 2012, the church group initially received positive reviews and media attention for its work with vulnerable people, youth, and offenders.

But by late 2019, SPAC Nation was subject to media scrutiny following allegations by former church members they had been financially exploited by senior church personnel.

SPAC Nation was insolvent at the time of last month's court hearing, where it was criticised for a lack of transparency and for filing suspicious or incorrect accounts.

Edna Okhiria, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: While SPAC Nation claimed it had noble intentions to support vulnerable and young people, our enquiries uncovered a different side of the charity. There were clear concerns around how the church group managed its affairs and SPAC Nation failed to properly account for income received from donations and other expenditure.

The court recognised the severity of SPAC Nations actions and this sends a strong message that proper records and accounts must be maintained, even if youre a charity.

Charity removed from register as inquiry continues

The Charity Commission confirmed this week that it has banned SPAC Nation from operating as a charity, but its investigation into the organisation continues.

A spokesperson for the regulator said: As per the charitys governing document, the charity and the company are one and the same. Therefore, the charity also ceased to operate. The Commission removed SPAC Nation from the Register of Charities and it can no longer operate as a charity. The Commissions inquiry into financial controls, governance and safeguarding matters at the charity is ongoing.

The Charity Commission launched a statutory inquiry into the religious charity in 2019 following allegations of fraud and the exploitation of young people. It was also reviewed by police, but no criminal investigation was launched into the allegations.

When it launched the inquiry three years ago, the regulator was concerned by a lack of clarity between the personal, business and charity roles of the leaders.

Civil Society News was unable to contact the organisation for a comment.

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This article was featured in the Tow Center for Digital Journalisms weekly newsletter. Subscribe here to stay up to date on our latest events and publications.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson, rocked by months of overlapping scandals, announced his resignation this month, less than three years after leading his Conservative Party to a landslide election victory.

Johnsons resignation fired the starting gun on a Conservative leadership contesthe will remain caretaker until September 5thats playing out this summer. The winner automatically becomes UK prime minister.

Under Britains parliamentary system, any sitting Conservative MP can run for party leader, with the contest split into two phases. First, Conservative MPs whittle down a short list to two people. Second, the roughly 200,000 Conservative Party members vote for their preferred candidate.

Prime-ministerial hopefuls, then, must appeal to multiple key groups at once: fellow MPs, whose support they need to make the final ballot; right-leaning Conservative members, who ultimately decide the victor; the UK public, with a general election scheduled within two years; and the British press, with many outlets picking a horse in the race and aggressively attacking other candidates.

On July 20, from an initial short list of eleven leadership contenders, former chancellor Rishi Sunak and foreign secretary Liz Truss became the last two standingand now face a runoff vote with Conservative members.

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We spoke to Jim Waterson, The Guardians media editor, on what role the media is playing in the contest.

JB: How would you characterize the UK media landscapeand its involvement with Westminster politicsfor US readers?

JW: The first major characteristic is, whereas in the US its the TV channels that are opinionated and the newspapers who are fairly neutral and anodyne, in the UK its always been the opposite. We have a heavily regulated broadcast sphere. The BBC, ITV, Sky, Channel 4, and the radio stations must follow due impartiality standards on news. But we have a famously wild print newspaper industry, whichdespite the onrush of the internethas largely maintained its power over politics.

A key thing that people in the US are often surprised by is the UKs very centralized political and media sphere. Its all in London. Its all very close to each other, and theres a very porous wall between the two. People flip back and forth. If youre big in the media world in London, youre almost certainly known in politicsin a way that isnt necessarily the case of the US, where youve got different power bases in LA, DC, New York.

JB: And Boris Johnson is a perfect example of that merging of the political and media classes. How much is his rise and fall attributed to his dealings with the press?

JW: I mean, never let a journalist actually run something. Its a very dangerous thing to happen. Weve experimented with it for three years. The worst characteristics of every journalist, Johnson has taken into Downing Street: playing things late, hoping that the deadline can still be met, winging it with the words filed at the last minute.

Johnson is a media creation. He was the guy who pioneered the grain of truth story about European Union waste as the Daily Telegraphs Brussels correspondent. That laid the ground for Brexit, which he then helped lead as a politician. Hes the guy who basically won elections based on the vibes of being a funny, jokey guy, and that reputation was built upon appearances on TV like the satirical BBC show Have I Got News for You. He was a Telegraph columnist all the way through his political careerright up until he became prime minister, he was still being paid a salary of 275,000 [$325,000] a year while being a serving politician. Thats something that I struggle to imagine happening in the States.

JB: Coming to the ongoing contest for prime ministerwhich is decided by 200,000 Conservative memberswhat influence does the press have on who wins?

JW: The classic thing with UK newspapers is they like to back winners. So theyre deciding: Do they wait to jump until they see a winnerto claim victory and call in favors lateror lead the public, give an endorsement and make a difference to the contest? Newspaper editorials influencing the race can become almost self-fulfilling prophecies. When a newspaper backs someone, it gives momentum to their campaign and makes it easier for other people to come on board, rather than necessarily persuading voters. Its more of a signal someones doing well.

JB: So its best to understand the press as half-kingmakers, half-jostling to back the right horse for their own influence?

JW: Totally. Look at Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Sun and the Times. Hes a canny operator whos happy to flip sides when it suits him. He supported New Labour under Tony Blair, and then when he realized that things were changing, he switched sides.

JB: Sticking with legacy media for now, who wields the most influence today?

JW: The Sunday newspapers [the Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Observer, etc.] are still the place you drop your scandalous story or your particularly explosive, grubby bit of briefing. The insurgent candidate Penny Mordaunt, who was topping polls with Conservative members, got an absolute kicking from the Sunday papers as rival teams tried to damage her. [Mordaunt was eliminated in the final round of MPs voting, on July 20.]

Mail on Sunday: Does leak show Penny did back

gender self-ID? #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/hRrKb75kQD  George Mann  (@sgfmann) July 16, 2022

The main thing American audiences might not understand is the odd relationship in British media between the press and the publicly funded BBC. Newspaper sales have collapsed, but they really still set the mainstream news agenda, in part because the BBC follows up so many of their stories. That connection is really powerful. Highly political newspapers tend to break the news, and the BBC feels obliged to follow up something the Daily Mail says is a story, for fear of looking partisan if it didnt. So theres a lot of power in being a newspaper proprietor.

In [Johnsons] Downing Street, talking to people in there, they were obsessed with what was in the Telegraph or Mail. It was real panic if the Mail was going for them or if the Telegraph was really critical of a policy. Its kind of bizarre, the whole country in hock to these outlets and their editors.

JB: What about the leadership candidates tacticsare they so far directing messaging toward the media, toward conservative members, or toward the public?

JW: At the moment, its all among the MPs. To explain how Westminster reporting works, briefly, most political journalism in the UK is done through the lobby system. I used to be a lobby reporter myself. Its quite odd. It means that rather than the US waywhere you have lots of specialists who cover different arms of governmentyou have a general pool of all-politics reporters, and quite a lot of stories that come out through the lobby are briefed out to friendly publications. Theyre intended to create political moments or cause damage to opponents, rather than necessarily to inform the public.

So weve seen a lot of briefings to conservative newspapers. Its taking a party full of MPs whove known each other for decadesthat know where the skeletons are buriedsplitting them up into different leadership campaigns and saying, Youve got a week-long fight to the death to make the final ballot. Theyre just taking turns to brief stuff out and hope it destroys the other.

JB: Can you give some examples?

JW: Just look at Nadhim Zahawi, who was health secretary, made chancellor for two days, then immediately called on the prime minister to resign and launched a leadership bid. He watched as his campaign collapsed under the weight of questions about his own tax affairs. Youve particularly seen the Daily Mailwhich is known for taking no prisonersbeing incredibly loyal to the outgoing Boris Johnson regime. The Mails being rigorously antiRishi Sunak, who they view as knifing Johnson, and seemingly is gearing up to back Liz Truss, the former foreign secretary.

The ebbs and flows of a British political campaign can be incredibly brutal: you can come from nowhere, and thento use a very distinctive British termbe absolutely shit-bagged very quickly. A well-timed and well-placed Machiavellian briefing for a Sunday newspaper can destroy a rival candidates career.

JB: Meanwhile, the Reuters Institute found 41 percent of people in the UK now mainly get the news from social media. How has this changed thingsmust prime-ministerial hopefuls now pitch to influencers and partisan pundits?

JW: In a general election they do. But in a very narrow election run within a party, they dont necessarily. Conservative members are likely to be older, still read a print newspaper, and be more traditional than most of the UK. Weve handed the keys to the whole country over to 200,000 Conservatives, a tiny, niche set of people.

But you cannot exaggerate the extent to which MPs in the UK are glued to Twitter. If you look down from the public gallery in the House of Commons during a debate, you can just see the iPhones lined up, with them all just refreshing Twitter. So little scandals can blow up. I do worry that very niche topics get pushed to the top of the leadership contest. So you end up with a fixation on things like trans rights rather than about the impending economic collapse. Whereas if you actually look at polling, normal voters are saying, Hang on, how am I going to pay my energy bill this winter? Thats a particular danger for Conservatives in this race, appealing to their narrow base rather than the public.

Obviously, though, the contest is being fought in public. It will influence how candidates are seen at the next general election. Interestingly, on TikTokwhich is still emerging as a feature in UK politics and most people in Westminster still dont engage withone of the biggest viral clips is of Rishi Sunak, the leading candidate, age twenty, talking about being privileged and laughing about not having any working-class friends. Its everywhere. Its showing up in focus groups after bubbling to the top of peoples feeds.

JB: So UK politics doesnt have figures like Tucker Carlson or Joe Rogan in the same way yet?

JW: I think it will go that way in a general election. I wouldnt be surprised if you see the big-name podcasters being courted. TikTok is obviously primed to be enormous, because it drives so much culture in the UK. Politics is always about eighteen months behind when it comes to realizing trends, catching up, and trying to exploit them. But even then, theyre usually terrible at it. In 2015, when Jeremy Corbyn surged to the Labour leadership, that just completely baffled people in Westminster. The buzz was generated mainly on Facebook back then. And you saw in the 2016 Brexit referendum how actually understanding online audiences helped the Vote Leave campaign win. Westminster is often quite slow to catch up.

JB: Finally, what are your reflections reporting on the British presshow open are people, how easy is it to get stories, and so on?

JW: Journalists love to gossip, right? Its relatively easy. There are very few places that report on other outlets, and there are very few left-leaning outlets in the UK. So Im very lucky; I adore doing it. Youd be amazed by how many people at right-leaning outlets like to tell you that, secretly, they dont agree with the politics at all, and theyre just carrying out orders. They tell me, If you want the real inside story, then give me a ring anytime. Its never quite what it seems from the outside.

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Jem Bartholomew is a Reporting Fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Jems work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Economist, TIME, New York Magazine and others.
On Monday, my sister, who lives in Sweden, messaged to ask if I was dead yet. I live in London, where the temperature was ticking up toward to forty degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit)a marker that has not been hit here since modern records began, and may never have been hit in Britain, period. Haha no, I replied. Its not *that* bad. The heat was certainly uncomfortable, intensely so. But Id been in forty degrees before, and so far, this felt no worse. Id be fine, I thought.

That morning, headlines in leading British newspapers had focused on the rise in temperatures: BLOWTORCH BRITAIN; MELTDOWN MONDAY; HOTTER THAN THE SAHARAAND INDIA..AND PAKISTAN..AND ALGERIA..AND ETHIOPIA.. Often, these headlines appeared next to pictures of revelers (the liberal Daily Mirrors word) enjoying the hot weather, splashing joyously into cold water or eating ice cream. ITS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD! the conservative Daily Express declared, next to an image of a British flag over a packed beach. Just stay cool and carry on. Various right-wing politicians and columnists had already, volubly taken issue with official heat advisories that they saw as nanny-statism, decrying government advisories as sinister and harking back to the tougher times of World War II and the hot summer of 1976, when no one moaned about the adversity (not least all the people who died). Since I started studying the Stoics a while back, Julie Burchill wrote for Spiked, it takes a lot to get me riled. But it happened this week when I received an email from the British Red Cross warning me about the weather. On Monday night, Darren Grimes, a right-wing pundit, tweeted a meme contrasting Australia at 40C (an idyllic beach scene) and British media predicting 40 degrees celsius in the UK (a hellish inferno engulfing a city that, confusingly, appears to be New York). So true, Grimes added.

ICYMI: On the grim news cycle, and shutting it out

Meanwhile, in my apartment, my message to my sister was not aging well. I had started to feel hotter than I ever have in my life (outside of, like, saunas); I had been in comparably hot weather before, but always, I was swiftly realizing, in places equipped to handle it. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, feeling as if my bedsheets were cooking me alive like aluminum foil in an oven, I finally conceded that my girlfriend had been right when shed suggested that we sleep on the living room floor, so we tried that. I took a cold shower first. It took my breath away.

The newspaper front pages that I woke up to on Tuesday almost uniformly (no pun intended) led with a photo of a police officer feeding water to one of the preposterously dressed guards who stand outside Buckingham Palace. The Mail used the image next to a headline referencing the Sunny day snowflake Britain had a meltdown, noting that it wasnt too hot for the guard to wear his tall furry hat or for Prince Charles to wear a jacket and tie. The Sun splashed the headline BRITAIN IS MELTING, using a melty orange font for emphasis; the Mirror went with a front-page image of sunbathers on a beach and the headline Record baker, noting in smaller font: Schools shut..rails buckle..runways melt. The Guardians lead story accused Boris Johnson, Britains outgoing prime minister, of checking out after he skipped emergency meetings about the heat. The i led with a weather map in various hues of orange and red. Its headline: Earth sends a warning.

As I started to write yesterdays edition of this newsletter, I mainlined heavily iced water and propped a tower fan on a stool next to me, but the ice soon melted and the fan did little more than churn stale air into my face. It was so hot that my work on the newsletter took me much longer than usual, and I ended up sending it out late. (Apologies.)

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Around midday, ceremonial guards at Buckingham Palace and other historic London venues were taken off duty for their safety. At 12.50pm, a temperature reading at Heathrow Airport officially, if provisionally, surpassed the forty-degree mark. By mid-afternoon, fires had started breaking out across London, and the city had declared a major incident. News cameras relayed aerial footage of burning backyards and homes, obscured by billowing smoke.

Meanwhile, activists with Extinction Rebellion, a climate movement dedicated to non-violent civil disobedience, smashed windows at the headquarters of News UK, the Murdoch-owned publisher whose titles include The Sun. They sprayed slogans on the sidewalk outside: 40 degrees = death; Tell the truth. Five people were arrested. An XR spokesperson defended the protest as a response to upbeat coverage of the heat. Instead of warning readers of the increased risks from such heatwaves as the climate crisis intensifies, they said, The Sun chose to cover their front pages in images of women in bikinis, beachgoers and happy toddlers with ice-creams.

By this point, Britains heatwave had become a major international news story. Top US news organizations covered everything from a British cinema chain offering redheads free entry, so that they might avoid the sun, to the severe risk faced by unhoused people in London; the New York Times sent me a push notification when Britains previous heat record was provisionally surpassed, and, at some point, pinned a live blog about the heat to the top of its homepage. Britain wasnt the only country that was burningswaths of continental Europe were, too, with temperatures also climbing in the USbut nonetheless seemed to be centered in this coverage, perhaps for symbolic reasons: Britain is supposed to be cold and wet. Such symbolism, of course, only makes sense in the context of global climate change, and various US outlets explicitly and prominently tackled that context in their coverage yesterday: Britain has been hot before, but the climate crisis is making extreme heat more likely and more intense. Half of humanity is in a climate danger zone, Jake Tapper said at the top of his CNN show yesterday, broadening the story out by citing the UN. The record temperatures many of you are feeling right now are just a symptom. Multiple heatwaves across the globe are creating a series of crises.

As Ive written often in this newsletter, and my colleagues at Covering Climate Now have also noted, major US news organizations have often failed to link their quick-turnaround stories about extreme weather eventsheat, hurricanes, wildfiresto the broader climate context. This feels like less of a problem to me now than when I started writing this newsletter, in 2018; the climate-inflected coverage I saw yesterday would seem to speak to that. But its still a problem, including in very recent heat coverage: according to the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America, US broadcast and cable networks ran more than sixty segments on global heatwaves between Saturday and Monday, but only mentioned climate change in twenty. And just mentioning climate change is a low bar. Weve been pushing news outlets to mention climate in extreme weather coverage for years, but even that is not enough, the climate reporter Emily Atkin wrote yesterday. Journalists must mention that climate change is caused primarily by fossil fuels, otherwise the viewer remains uninformed about both the problem AND solution.

Problems of global equity also persist in climate coverage, as in climate policy. Heatwaves are a rolling phenomenon these daysa succession of them swept parts of South Asia earlier this year, to the point where David Wallace-Wells, of the Times, asked whether we can really call them extreme anymoreand yet those in Europe seem to more reliably generate attention in the US. (Massive heatwaves in India and Pakistan in March and April did get some coverage in US media, but according to a Stanford University tool, there were zero discussions of the word heatwave on US cable news in those months.) Yesterday, Somini Sengupta, the international climate reporter at the Times, appeared on the papers Daily podcast and did a good job of tying together Europes heatwave, the continents broken climate pledges, and how the worst impacts of climate change will, ultimately, be felt not in places like the UK but in the Global South. But such lucidity remains too rare in day-to-day coverage. Britains frosty place in the global weather imaginary made its plight this week shocking. But shock value isnt always a reliable way to order news coverage.

Fires breaking out in London certainly seemed to shock much of Britains media. Of this mornings front pages only onethat of The Guardian, which routinely does an excellent job with its climate coverage, local and globalexplicitly referenced the climate crisis in its headline, quoting scientists calling the heat a wake-up call. But every front page had a big picture of the fires, a striking visual departure, at least, from the implied frivolity of the days before. The Mail called the fires a nightmare. Whos a snowflake now?

This morning, as I woke up to these front pages, I felt a lot cooler. As I came to, still on a mattress in my living room, I breathed in and smelled burning. I havent seen any fires around where I livethe smell may have been a neighbors toast, for all I know, and it quickly dissipatedbut my tired mind immediately jolted to yesterdays fire footage. The worst of the heat may be over here for now. Its images will linger. So, elsewhere, will the heat.

Below, more on climate coverage and the UK:

The wrong images: Last summer, following an intense heatwave in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada, Michael Shaw, of the visual-literacy site ReadingThePictures, wrote for CJR that coverage had often failed to reflect the severity of the situation in its choice of photos. The devastating heatmore harbinger than anomalyexposed weaknesses in the medias representation of deadly temperatures as well as their connection to climate change, Shaw wrote. The images that led news stories widely minimized the event. Many photos made it look like a run-of-the-mill heat wave; some were so banal as to conjure stock photography. Photo slideshows confused the issue with a juxtaposition of the ordinary and extraordinary.

Last summer, following an intense heatwave in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada, Michael Shaw, of the visual-literacy site ReadingThePictures, wrote for CJR that coverage had often failed to reflect the severity of the situation in its choice of photos. The devastating heatmore harbinger than anomalyexposed weaknesses in the medias representation of deadly temperatures as well as their connection to climate change, Shaw wrote. The images that led news stories widely minimized the event. Many photos made it look like a run-of-the-mill heat wave; some were so banal as to conjure stock photography. Photo slideshows confused the issue with a juxtaposition of the ordinary and extraordinary. XRs PR: In November, I reported for CJR from inside the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. For one of my dispatches, I spoke with Extinction Rebellion activists about their strategy for engaging the British press, and thoughts on its coverage of climate. While right-wing British publications continued to demonize XRs tactics, an XR spokesperson told me that the movement was being taken increasingly seriously by mainstream mediaa shift she believed may be attributable to public opinion, recent flooding in London, and a dire United Nations climate report published this summer.

In November, I reported for CJR from inside the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. For one of my dispatches, I spoke with Extinction Rebellion activists about their strategy for engaging the British press, and thoughts on its coverage of climate. While right-wing British publications continued to demonize XRs tactics, an XR spokesperson told me that the movement was being taken increasingly seriously by mainstream mediaa shift she believed may be attributable to public opinion, recent flooding in London, and a dire United Nations climate report published this summer. The next PM: The race to replace Johnson as Britains next prime minister has been winnowed down to three candidates: Rishi Sunak, the former finance minister; Liz Truss, the foreign minister; and Penny Mordaunt, a trade minister. Later today, the field will be cut to two, with members of the governing Conservative Party set to pick a winner in the coming months. Climate was largely absent from the opening exchanges of the racea recent poll found climate action to be at the bottom of party members list of concernsbut the subject did come up during a recent leadership debate on ITV. While all this has been going on, Johnson, who at one point tried to position himself as a climate leader, has been living his best life, throwing a big party and riding in a fighter jet.



Other notable stories:

ICYMI: Five journalists on covering the internet in search of meaning, not viral trends

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
LA TESTE-DE-BUCH, France (AP)  French investigators probing the suspected deliberate lighting of what has become a raging wildfire in the countrys southwest detained a man for questioning, as firefighters and water-bombing planes on Tuesday fought the ferocious flames fueled by a heat wave smashing temperature records in Europe.

Two huge fires feeding on tinder-dry pine forests in the Gironde region have forced tens of thousands of people to flee homes and summer vacation spots since they broke out July 12.

One of the blazes, tearing through woodlands south of Bordeaux, is suspected to have been started deliberately. A motorist told investigators that he saw a vehicle speeding away from the spot where that fire started on July 12. The motorist pulled over and tried unsuccessfully to extinguish the flames, the Bordeaux prosecutors office said. Criminal investigators found evidence pointing to possible arson, it said.

The 39-year-old man being questioned Tuesday lives in Gironde and was detained on Monday afternoon, the prosecutors office said. He previously also was questioned in 2012 on suspicion of starting a forest fire but that investigation was shelved in 2014 for lack of evidence, the prosecutors office added.

Investigations are continuing and witnesses are being heard, it said.

Ten water-bombing planes and more than 2,000 firefighters are working day and night to contain that fire and another fierce blaze southwest of Bordeaux that police investigators are treating as accidental. The blazes have already burned through more than 190 square kilometers (more than 70 square miles) of forest and vegetation, Gironde authorities said.

Thick clouds of smoke and the risk of flames spreading to buildings have forced the evacuations of more than 37,000 people, including 16,000 on Monday alone, authorities said. A smaller third fire broke out late Monday in the Medoc wine region north of Bordeaux, further taxing regional firefighting resources.

Those evacuated Monday included 74 residents of a retirement home, authorities said. Animals were also evacuated from a zoo. Five camping sites went up in flames in the Atlantic coast beach zone southwest of Bordeaux, around the Arcachon maritime basin famous for its oysters and resorts.

Swirling winds and extreme heat have complicated the firefighting. But changing weather Tuesday offered some consolation, with heat-wave temperatures easing along the Atlantic seaboard and rains expected to roll in late in the day.

The double blow of heat waves and droughts exacerbated by climate change are making wildfires more frequent, destructive and harder to fight. In Spain, the prime minister has linked wildfires that have killed two people to global warming, warning Monday that climate change kills.

The head of Spains Civil Protection and Emergencies agency, Leonardo Marcos Gonzalez, noted Tuesday that extreme heat and wildfires have hit the country three weeks earlier than usual this year and that many fires broke out at the same time.

We are in the midst of the most significant civil protection emergency on record, he told radio station SER.

In Portugal, cooling temperatures have eased pressure on emergency crews, with just two major wildfires being tackled by around 800 firefighters Tuesday. But more torrid weather is forecast for Wednesday.

Authorities suspect a wildfire is to blame for the death of a couple in their 80s whose car went off the road and flipped over in a northern Portuguese village late Monday. Their charred vehicle with two bodies inside was found after a blaze engulfed the area, and officials suspect they were killed while trying to flee the flames.

The pilot of a water-dumping plane also died in Portugal last week when his aircraft crashed while fighting a wildfire.

Leicester reported from Le Pecq, France. Associated Press journalist Barry Hatton contributed from Lisbon and Jade Le Deley also contributed from Paris.

About the photo: A burned car wreck Pyla camping in Pyla sur Mer, near Arcachon, southwestern France, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. French investigators probing the suspected deliberate lighting of what has become a raging wildfire in the countrys southwest have detained a man for questioning, as firefighters and water-bombing planes continued fighting Tuesday against the ferocious flames (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A Miami-area collections company backed by litigation-funding investors has won another appellate court victory over insurers, persuading a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate Medicare Secondary Payer Act claims that were rejected by the trial court.

The panel ruled Monday that MSP Recovery and its affiliates had adequately pleaded claims that units of the Metropolitan Insurance Group had failed to reimburse Medicare Advantage Organizations for medical treatment that should have been paid by their auto insurers. MSP said in a press release that the ruling marks the fourth time that the 11th Circuit had reversed District Court decisions to dismiss its claims.

This is yet another example of MSP Recovery overcoming obstacles, stated MSP Chief Legal Officer Frank C. Quesada. The original dismissal of this case did not deter us from pushing forward and once again reversing a lower court decision. Case by case, we continue to establish and solidify the law relating to reimbursements under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act.

The Medicare Secondary Payer Act allows the government, Medicare Advantage plan insurers and medical providers to sue for double damages if they prove they provided medical care that should have been paid by a primary insurer. Medicare Advantage plan insurers assign their collection rights to MSP Recovery and its affiliates for a fee.

The company was founded by Coral Gables, Florida attorney John H. Ruiz, who told the Claims Journal in 2020 that he spent $150 million in investor money to develop an algorithm that he uses to identify beneficiaries who received care from Medicare or Medicaid that should have been paid by auto, workers compensation and liability insurers.

The company went public as a special-purpose acquisition company last October and announced that Virage Capital Management has agreed to pay $3 billion for the right to collect 50% of future awards against insurance carriers.

Judges with the US District Court for the Southern Florida, however, havent always been receptive to MSP Recoverys efforts to collect. US District Court Judge Robert N. Scola refused to accept the method that MSP Recovery used to state its claims. The company submitted as an exhibit to its a complaint a spreadsheet that contained data about hundreds of Medicare beneficiaries who had settled claims with the Metropolitan insurers yet still sought treatment through their Medicare providers. MSP stated that it knows Medicare payments were made because it compared the assignors claims data with a database that lists settlements that the Metropolitan insurers had reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Judge Scola was not enough to show that payments made by the assignors was for care that could have been provided by Metropolitan and ruled that the exhibit could not serve as a substitute for factual allegations. The 11th Circuit panel disagreed.

The panels opinion says the court ruled in 2014 that documents attached to a complaint can be considered when ruling on motions to dismiss. Other decisions have established that a plaintiff in Medicare Secondary Payer Act cases can establish that an insurer is liable for medical treatment by showing that it had entered into a settlement agreement with a beneficiary.

A defendants responsibility can be shown in many ways, including by having a contractual obligation to pay and entering into a settlement agreement with a beneficiary for accident-related medical expenses, the opinion says.

MSP Recovery said in its press release that the decision has broader implications because several other judges in the Southern Florida district have dismissed, or partially dismissed, its claims in other pending lawsuits.

MSP Recovery believes that this latest ruling from the Eleventh Circuit will likely impact the scope of the claims being litigated in those actions, the press release says.
NEW YORK (AP)  The FBI and Justice Department recently disrupted the activities of a hacking group that was sponsored by the North Korean government and that targeted U.S. hospitals with ransomware, ultimately recovering half a million dollars in ransom payments, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Tuesday.

Monaco revealed new details of the attacks during a speech in which she encouraged organizations hit by ransomware to report the crime to law enforcement, both so that officials can investigate and so that they can help victim companies try to get ransom payments back.

In this case, Monaco said, a Kansas hospital that paid a ransom last year after being attacked by ransomware also contacted the FBI, which traced the payment and identified China-based money launderers who assisted the North Korean hackers in cashing out the illicit proceeds. The FBI ultimately recovered half a million dollars, including the entire ransom payment from the hospital.

U.S. officials in 2021 scrambled to confront a wave of high-profile ransomware attacks  in which hackers encrypt or lock up a victims data and demand exorbitant sums to return it  including against a crucial fuel pipeline on the East Coast. Though the pace of such large-scale, front-page attacks seems to have slowed, smaller targets  such as hospitals  continue to be affected.

This particular variant of ransomware, known as Maui, specifically targeted hospitals and public health organizations around the country.

Companies, she said, invariably ask why they should cooperate with law enforcement and what is in it for them.

The answer is that if you report that attack, if you report the ransom demand and payment, if you work with the FBI, we can take action, Monaco said at a speech at Fordham Law School. We can follow the money and get it back; we can help prevent the next attack, the next victim; and we can hold cybercriminals accountable.

Later Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Gen. Paul Nakasone, the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, were expected to speak about election security.

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

Groveport Editor

A pair of friends are fulfilling some rodeo dreams this summer.

Arly Kisner of Groveport and Allie Beerman of Columbus qualified for the National High School Finals Rodeo in Gillette, Wyoming, from July 17-23.

Kisner competes in team roping, breakaway roping, goat tying, barrel racing and pole bending events. She qualified for Nationals in team roping, goat tying and pole bending.

Beerman runs barrels and poles in her rodeo events. She qualified for Nationals in barrel racing.

Both attend Eastland Career Center.

Kathy Kisner, Arlys mother, said Arly started riding horses at age seven. She said Arly and Allie are rodeo friends.

Arly began competing in rodeo events at age 10, said Kathy. She was introduced to rodeo by family friends Kim McCutchen and Valerie Burch.

Arly competes in rodeos with two horses  Yoder, a 17-year-old gelding she has worked with for two years; and Bunny, an 11 year-old mare she has been competing with for five years.

Arly was named the Female Rookie of the Year in the state of Ohio as this is her first year competing, added Kathy.

Arly said she loves the challenge of rodeo and working towards getting faster times in all her events.

According to Arly, her most exciting and memorable experience with rodeo was when she broke the arena record for pole bending at Crazy Woman Ranch in Lancaster during the 2020-21 Winter Rodeo series.

Allies horses name is Shiner.

Allie started riding when she was nine and participated in some small local rodeos and at age 14 she started competing in the Ohio high school rodeo association, said Allies mother Robin Rodgers. She loves competing and when she has a good run, it makes her feel like all the hard work she puts in with Shiner pays off. Plus she enjoys encouraging others to excel in their events.

According to Allie, one of her best moments was going to Fort Worth earlier this year to compete at the Junior Patriot Rodeo.

It was a great experience, said Allie.

Rodgers said Arly and Allie have been friends since elementary school.

Ryan Gasser, Eastland-Fairfield Career Center coordinator of communications and marketing, said Arly, a junior, and Allie, a senior, are both enrolled in the welding program at Eastland Career Center. Arlys home high school is Teays Valley and Allies is Hamilton Township.

Having two area students and both being welding students at Eastland Career Center is pretty awesome, said Gasser.

Kathy said Arly would like to go on to college and also compete in collegiate rodeo.

Rodgers said in the future Allie wants to start her own welding business and continue rodeoing.
Apple seems to have confirmed what we already knew: times are tough, and while the company will continue to invest in product development, it will be freezing investment in some of its departments, according to Bloomberg.

Showdown for the slow down

We dont know which parts of Apples business will be affected. Bloomberg simply says the company will no longer increase headcount in some departments next year. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and other tech firms are also slowing recruitment in response to unyielding economic headwinds.

Thats not the same as eliminating jobs, of course, and, at least in Apples case, the freeze is not company-wide, affecting only some parts of the vast business. Tesla, meanwhile, has laid off hundreds of workers and closed at least one research facility.

What parts of the company may be hit?

It's reasonable to think that in the context of recession Apple may decelerate the rate at which it opens new stores. Having said that, it's worth remembering that Apple opened its first two retail stores in May 2001, just one year after the dot-com bubble burst in early 2000. In other words, Apple has in the past succeeded with more long-term bets laid against prevailing market headwinds.

Well find out what impact those headwinds have had on Apples business in the current quarter on July 28, which is when the company next reports its financial results.

We do know that there's been an expectation sales will slow as consumer demand softens. During its last fiscal call, Apple did warn of a bumpy quarter with sales down by as much as $8 billion, quarter-on-quarter.

Beneath the hype

Despite these potential points of pain, there have been some positive insights in the last 13 weeks. Macs are gaining market share in the declining PC market. iPhones remain popular in China  Apples share of the market continues to increase. Some supply chain problems seem to be improving. But what isnt improving is consumer confidence as we face the veritable four horsemen of insecurity: disease, increasing food and energy prices, pestilence of the environmental kind, and war.

Apples reported actions simply confirm that when the horsemen ride out, the going gets tough. Credit Suisse chairman Axel Lehmann told CNBC that while some tech companies may not make it through the next chapter, "the fundamental trends will remain, that technology and digitization will be important, new business models.

While analysts have cut current targets on Apple stock in response to the headwinds, the company seems well-poised for further growth atop those new emerging business models.

Where the puck is going

Not only has its move to Apple Silicon given the companys Mac sales a big impetus in enterprise markets, but its focus on making technology that is both personalized and private (such as its health products) continues to give the company a strong argument as its products become essential components of the connected future Lehmann envisions.

This digital transformation is driving  and will likely continue to drive  strong growth for Apple in the enterprise and for companies providing services to support such use.

In other words, even in a potentially recessionary market, Apple still has strong opportunities for growth. The Bloomberg report makes it clear that Apple intends to chase that growth. It even specifically notes the company has no plans to slow its product announcement cycle, and we anticipate it will launch a completely new AR Glasses family in 2023. Apple innovated its way through the dot-com bust and will continue to use the same strategy this time around.

Meanwhile, Apples installed base is generating additional opportunities for services income. Apples services business has now become a bigger business than IBM, which shows how shrewd Apple management was to diversify its business mix to make it less reliant on pure hardware sales than before.

Analysts at Evercore recently predicted Apples services would generate $100 billion in revenue by 2024.

While the nervous market backdrop is creating a fearful environment for tech stocks, we believe Apple's growth story remains well intact despite the shaky macro. Apple remains our favorite tech name, wrote Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives.

Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolics bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
- Added ReShade FX support for writing to different mipmap levels in compute shaders

- This includes a new MipLevel property on storage objects to set the level it targets and a GenerateMipMaps pass state to be able to disable automatic mipmap generation

- Added macros to manually include various date and time components in screenshot file names (%DateYear%, %DateMonth%, %DateDay%, %TimeHour%, %TimeMinute%, %TimeSecond%)

- Also added option to disable saving current preset on every modification and instead require explicit clicking on the save button (Save current preset automatically on every modification checkbox on the Settings page)

- Added button to open add-on developer documentation to add-on list in overlay

- Added missing D3D12 PIX exports, to support installation as d3d12.dll on Windows 11

- Fixed crash in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

- Fixed crash when viewing VR overlay in D3D12 (e.g. F1 22)

- Also fixed crash on exit in OpenGL VR games

- Fixed crash when IDirect3DDevice9::Present is called after device reset failed in D3D9

- Fixed hooking in Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered

- Also fixed hooking when application uses NVIDIA Streamline (e.g. F1 22)

- Fixed ReShade not loading in UWP applications

- Fixed black screen in Need for Speed Underground 2 when MSAA is active

- Also fixed screen darkening when application is using MSAA swap chain in D3D10/11 (e.g. DayZ)

- Fixed upside down image in Google Earth VR

- Fixed depth buffer detection in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

- Also fixed copying depth buffer failing sometimes in Star Wars: Republic Commando

- Fixed mouse input and input blocking in Gothic (and other games using DirectInput 7)

- Fixed add-on loading error code getting overwritten before it is logged

- Improved performance in Far Cry 6 (and other D3D12 games)

- Improved performance in OpenGL games slightly

- Disabled preset save button during preset transition to prevent saving broken preset file

- Changed behavior of execute_command_list add-on event in D3D9/10/11/OpenGL to be called when immediate command list is flushed (either explicitly with e.g. ID3D11DeviceContext::Flush or implicitly during present)

- Changed add-on list in overlay to hide version information for add-ons that do not provide any

- Changed default screenshot path to a relative path

- Removed unnecessary explicit global config saves from add-ons

- Removed Loading image files for textures  log message

- Preset selection page is now shown when updating an existing installation as well

- Fixed crash when invalid path characters are put into the application search text box

- Fixed application search for Epic Games Launcher games and when encountering recursive symlinks

- Changed setup tool to automatically set file permissions to grant write access to config and preset files

L'outil, est desormais disponible en version, outre les classiques corrections de bugs, les developpeurs annoncent des gains de performances sousetLa nouvelle version du logiciel se trouve ici
Ministry calls for all-out rescue efforts after gas explosion in north China's Tianjin

Xinhua) 09:03, July 20, 2022

BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Emergency Management on Tuesday called for all-out efforts to carry out rescue and relief work after a gas explosion in a residential building in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

The explosion, which took place at around 7:15 a.m. Tuesday in Beichen District, damaged the six-story building and left some residents trapped, the ministry said.

By 4 p.m. Tuesday, 11 people were found injured while three are still missing. The injuries sustained by the victims are not life-threatening, according to the publicity department of the district government.

The ministry called for the immediate evacuation of people in the vicinity and determining the cause of the explosion at the earliest.

Efforts should also be made to comprehensively screen and identify gas leakage risks to prevent the occurrence of such accidents in the future, the ministry said.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
Tabletop exercises give your organization an opportunity to practice incident response plans. They are both an opportunity to rehearse and revise existing plans and a training opportunity for new employees.

Done well, tabletop exercises allow for the discovery of ways to reduce your threat surface, says Stephen Jensen, senior director of operations at the Center for Internet Security (CIS). When you rehearse in a tabletop format, your written policies go from just being plain policies to becoming well-written policies and procedures.

CIS is best known for its critical security controls and benchmarks, but is also home to the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) and the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing Analysis Center (EI-ISAC). In support of those ISACs Jensen oversees incident response and vulnerability management for over 12,000 state, local, tribal, and territorial member agencies.

In his role as exercise coordinator for the MS-ISAC, Jensen works with DHS CISA and local governments to set up and execute tabletop exercises. He is also a member of CISs Crisis Management Team.

Jensen delivered a presentation at CSOs recent Future of InfoSec Summit where he explained how to create and execute a tabletop exercise and how it can help you identify gaps in your security processes and procedures. What follows are edited excerpts from that presentation. For more insights, watch the full video embedded here.

8 steps for effective tabletop exercises

1. Set your objective

The first thing you should do is develop an objective statement. [This] helps the team to define the specific exercise goals, provide a framework for scenario development, and provide exercise evaluation criteriaat least at a general level.

[An] example [objective statement might be]: Evaluate the incident response plan for when an insider threat is discovered. It is very specific, it lets the team who will be participating, understand what the exercise is going to be about, allows them to prepare in advanceto look at the procedures that they have for the security measures that they may put in place or may already have in placein the event of an insider threat.

2. Establish who is participating

Once we have that kind of overall objective, we need to understand who we are going to have in the room. Its really about identifying our intended audience. Sometimes it might be  a larger-scale tabletophow do we as a company handle this event? Other times its going to be a smaller subsetare we practicing and rehearsing response procedures? [Y]ou have to make sure that the exercise is controlled for the intended audience.

3. Develop your scenarios

Once you have your overall objective, you have to start developing discussion questions. The tabletop is a lot like a role-playing game, and so you are going to ask leading questions, open-ended questions, to start to create an environment where a conversation can build, but where you want to continue to focus on your specific objective. If it is a leadership team, [the questions might be around] what do you do with an insider threat: If the person is found, are they reprimanded? Are they fired? What are those kind of procedures that a leadership team might have?

4. Dont skimp on scheduling

So, we have a plan, we have scenarios built out, and we have got this discussion question so that we can lead our participants kind of down a path. Then we have to work on scheduling. Depending on your overall focus, a tabletop exercise can last anywhere from two to eight hours  you need to provide enough time to have active participation.

5. Set ground rules

Once the tabletop exercise begins, the first thing you need to do is set ground rules  defining the purpose of the exercise. Explain to them how the exercise is going to move forward, and then discuss roles and responsibilities, Hey, I am the facilitator. This person is the evaluator, and they will be watching. We have observers in the back of the room, but they will not be participating. They will just be watching. And then begin presenting discussion questions.

6. Do the hot wash

At the end of the tabletop, after all the discussion questions are asked, all the objectives are met, it is really important to do a hot wash. [A]s close as you can to the end of the exercise, sit down with the team, review the objectives, identify what went well, find some best practices, and then it is also a chance to kind of define what did not go well.

And then give the participants the opportunity to suggest improvementsnot only to the overall objective, but to your process, to the actual exercise process itself, to say what worked for them, what was confusing to them, so that you as the exercise planner can do a better job next time.

7. Write the after-action report

Everything that comes out of the hot wash then gets put into an after-action report. The after-action report describes the entirety of the exercise, highlights best practices, and proposes an improvement plan. So, that after-action report might come out maybe a week or two after the exercise occurs because it does take a little time when you annotate possible improvements to your processes, your procedures, or your documentation, you then have to kind of write it all out in a timeline and decide who is going to be responsible for those changes.

8. Create an implementation plan

Another thing that we need to remember with a tabletop exercise is the importance of your implementation plan. The implementation plan isnt just a way for you to take that written guidance and polish it up or dot your is and cross your ts or to ensure that every step is correct; it is also an opportunity to introduce new solutions. So, as you go through and you have these discussions during your tabletop exercise, you might notice that you have a group of really smart people in a room, and they come up with a solution that maybe you did not anticipate or that is not documented anywhere. And so then, as part of your implementation plan, should be also to evaluate that new solution.

An example scenario

[This example from the CIS tabletop exercises guide] will give you a quick example of how easy this can really be for you:

Joe your network administrator is overworked and underpaid. His bags are packed and he is ready for a family vacation to Disney World, when he is tasked with deploying a critical patch. In order to make his flight, Joe quickly builds an installation file for the patch, and deploys it before leaving for his trip. Sue, the on-call service desk technician, begins receiving calls that nobody can log in. Turns out that no testing was done for the recently installed critical patch. What is your response?

The discussion questions are, What is Sues response in this scenario? What would she normally do, day to day?

And then  do any of your on-call technicians have the correct expertise to handle this incident? Are they going to have to call in another tier of help? So, are there defined escalation processes?

Another question would be, Does your organization have a formal change control policy? In this example, Joe just did something that was quick and easy for him, but maybe not within the overall change control policy. So along with that, are your employees trained on this? And then, does your company have disciplinary procedures in place for when an employee fails to follow established procedures? And then finally, does your organization have the ability to roll back patches in the event of an unanticipated negative impact?

So again, [this will test your] documented policies and procedures. But also [it] is a way for those participants in this tabletop exercise to perhaps find a way to innovate the process. Maybe your organization has grown, but your policies have not grown with you or your technology has not kept up. So maybe now is the time to look at automated patching instead of just having Joe write a script that pushes out a patch. Do you actually have a patch server that kind of is automating this for you? And if not, is that something that you want to put onto your roadmap over the next couple of years to try to budget for and purchase and evaluate? And so that would go into your after-action report.
Although its sometimes easy to think about threat actors as evil geniuses, the reality is theyre like any other group of people whose goal is to make money with as little effort as possible.

Thats clearly seen throughout Netscouts 2H 2021 Threat Intelligence Report, which highlights several examples where threat actors have improved the efficacy of long-established attack methods via new modifications and strategies. Such is the case for botnets, which have been around since the 1980s.

Innovation throughout history

Indeed, a quick history of botnets illustrates how attackers have modified their strategies for using them over the course of 20 years. The first botnets were deployed on server-class computers. Later, attackers began building distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)-capable botnets by compromising personal computers (PCs)  and attackers continue using compromised PCs to create botnets for launching DDoS attacks today.

Today, Internet of Things (IoT) botnets are common, with attackers generally launching DDoS attacks via IoT devices through a common command and control (C2) infrastructure. These botnets soared in popularity after the source code of the Mirai IoT botnet was leaked in 2016.

What were now seeing is that threat actors have changed up their botnet strategy yet again by increasing the size of IoT botnets, while also conscripting high-powered servers into larger botnets. Servers are being leveraged to launch targeted DDoS attacks against high-value targets. What we saw in the second half of 2021 is that attackers have once again changed strategies to create powerful Mirai botnets.

Whats happening now?

The result is new server-class Mirai botnets that are being used to launch high-impact DDoS attacks. For instance, two direct-path packet-flooding attacks of more than 2.5 Tbps were launched using server-based botnets in the second half of 2021. These are the first terabit-class, direct-path DDoS attacks that have been discovered, and we expect to see more of such attacks.

But attackers arent satisfied with just server-based DDoS botnets. What were also seeing is growth in direct-path DDoS attacks in relation to reflection/amplification attacks. Several trends will likely create ample reason for attackers to continue along this path. These include the introduction of multigigabit consumer internet connectivity, 5G broadband, increasingly powerful home computers, and the continued proliferation of IoT devices.

Learn more about how attackers use botnets and how that behavior will impact networks around the world in the 2H 2021 Threat Intelligence Report.
Microsoft has pulled back on its decision to block downloaded Excel files containing macros by default. They have said they will push this change out again in the future. If you were caught flat-footed by this decision and suddenly couldnt figure out how to unblock your Excel files that you relied upon, you need to act before Microsoft rolls this out again. Evaluate now why you are allowing such risky behavior and how you can better protect your firm.

While Microsoft pulled back from this decision, I urge you to look for additional ways to protect users from phishing lures and attack vectors that include malicious Office files. Because many of these attacks come via email, but not necessarily as email attachments, evaluate whether your phishing protection and user education are appropriate. Ive seen many a phishing lure come in via web links, pretend cloud services, and other techniques that bypass traditional antivirus and file filtering.

Educate users on file sharing, suspicious file processes

Educate your users on how your cloud file-sharing services work and which ones are normal processes for your firm. Empower them to not open files and have a process for them to request review and evaluation of suspected files. Standardizing on a browser process that screens files proactively will ensure that many such phishing lures are blocked from your users.

Limit access to Excel macros and Office applications

Determine who in your office truly needs access to Excel macros. Set up Group Policy restrictions to limit access only to those users and organizational units that need them. Stratify your firm and user roles as to who needs macros and who does not. Chances are that not everyone in your firm needs  or uses  Excel or even macros. The Office Deployment Tool (ODT) allows you to customize who in your firm has access to which applications in the Office suite. Not everyone in your organization needs access to every Office application. Use the tool to customize your deployment. Structure your organizational units and deployment processes with a limitation mindset: Only deploy software to those users that need the ability to use a particular platform.

Next set the policies for macros for the applications that you wish to limit. Enable Protected to block running macros in files obtained from the internet. Download the ADMX files from Microsoft and install the version of templates depending on whether you have deployed 32 bit or 64 bit versions of Office.

Each Office application has a specific Group Policy setting. You need to look under the following locations: User Configuration then under Policies then under Administrative Templates:

For Access look under Microsoft Access 2016\Application Settings\Security\Trust Center.

For Excel look under Microsoft Excel 2016\Excel Options\Security\Trust Center.

For PowerPoint look under Microsoft PowerPoint 2016\PowerPoint Options\Security\Trust Center.

For Visio Microsoft Visio 2016\Visio Options\Security\Trust Center.

For Word Microsoft Word 2016\Word Options\Security\Trust Center.

To determine what files these changes will impact, use the Readiness Toolkit (download version 1.2.22161). From a command prompt go to the folder where you installed the Readiness Toolkit and run the ReadinessReportCreator.exe command with the blockinternetscan option. For example: ReadinessReportCreator.exe -blockinternetscan -p c:\officefiles\ -r -output \\server01\finance -silent

Review the need and settings for older Excel macros

Microsoft has provided a setting to block Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros by default as the first step in making the process more secure for enterprises. As noted in January, you can manage the setting. You can set a policy to re-enable XLM macros. However, you should question why you need an older macro process that has since been replaced with newer technologies. Are there files that still depend on 4.0 versions?

Use Group Policy, Office cloud policy service (OCPS), or other endpoint management tools to control the use of XLM macros. Beginning with Excel build 16.0.14427.10000, XLM 4.0 macros are now disabled. Use the Group Policy setting located by following this selection sequence

Group Policy Path: User configuration Administrative templates Microsoft Excel 2016 Excel Options Security Trust Center

To control it at the registry level, look for registry key path: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\excel\security

XLM is disabled by default in the September fork, version 16.0.14527.20000+. Its also disabled in:

Current Channel builds 2110 or greater (first released in October)

Monthly Enterprise Channel builds 2110 or greater (first released in December)

Semi-annual Enterprise Channel (Preview) builds 2201 or greater (Microsoft created the policy in January 2022, but it first shipped in March 2022)

Semi-annual Enterprise Channel builds 2201 or greater (will ship July 2022)

Review what channel you are deploying and be aware of when these blocking rules will be deployed.

Enable tamper protection

Enable tamper protection features to prevent attackers from disabling security services to then bypass detections. You should also enable attack surface reduction (ASR) rules as they can limit lateral movement. For ASR rules, review the following:

Microsoft has provided a reprieve to determine the impact of blocking Office macros on your organization. Use the time to plan better for blocking macros by default.
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Courts decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which will expose pregnant people in over half of U.S. states to a digital law enforcement surveillance environment, the Biden administration and Congress have kicked into gear to address a spate of privacy and digital protection threats that substantially broaden the scope of privacy and data security protections.

As each week passes, additional government efforts to address access to sensitive data by police, prosecutors, and the private sector continue to unfold and progress rapidly. These actions have significant implications for how IT, security, and privacy operations within organizations must manage the personal data collected and stored within their organizations and the policies under which the data can be shared.

American Data Privacy and Protection Act

The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bipartisan version of a landmark privacy bill, the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA), a historic feat considered virtually impossible a few months ago. The ADPPA sets clear limits on how companies can collect and use data by setting data minimization rules, making privacy the default posture.

As currently amended, the bill establishes substantial restrictions on the collection and use of sensitive data, including precise geolocation, biometric, and health information, as well as data identifying an individuals online activities over time and across third-party websites and online services. It also extends civil rights protections online, requires algorithmic impact assessments, and gives users the right to access, correct, and delete data collected about them. The ADPPA would also give all Americans the right to opt out of targeted advertising globally.

FTC commits to prosecuting companies that violate data protection laws

Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reiterated its commitment to using the full scope of its legal authorities to protect consumers privacy. We will vigorously enforce the law if we uncover illegal conduct that exploits Americans location, health, or other sensitive data, Kristin Cohen, acting associate director, FTC Division of Privacy & Identity Protection, said in a statement.

She stressed that companies must consider several factors when collecting confidential consumer information, including location and health data. Among these factors are existing state and federal laws protecting sensitive data and the likelihood that the FTC will view any claims of anonymized data skeptically. Most importantly, companies that over-collect, indefinitely retain, or misuse consumer data will likely face legal action by the Commission.

Lawmakers seek to extend HIPAA privacy rule

On July 1, Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to protect the privacy of Americans receiving reproductive health care services by updating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule following the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization (Dobbs).

They urged HHS to clarify that this information cannot be shared with law enforcement agencies who target individuals who have an abortion. Moreover, they want HHS to determine that so-called pregnancy care centers (also known as crisis pregnancy centers) must follow the Privacy Rule requirements. Abortion advocates maintain that these centers are merely deceptive front operations run by anti-choice advocates to dissuade pregnant people from seeking abortions and are likely to turn over sensitive health and location data to authorities to prosecute people in states where abortion is outlawed.

FCC collects data on mobile data retention and privacy policies

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote to the top 15 mobile providers requesting information about their data retention, privacy policies, and general practices. In the letter, she asks about their policies around geolocation data, including how long it is retained and why, and the current safeguards to protect this sensitive information.

She also asked the carriers to explain their processes for sharing subscriber geolocation data with law enforcement and other third parties data sharing agreements and whether and how consumers are notified when their geolocation information is shared with third parties. Rosenworcel said, Mobile internet service providers are uniquely situated to capture a trove of data about their subscribers, including the subscribers identity and personal characteristics, geolocation data, app usage, and web browsing data and habits. Mobile providers have until August 3, 2022, to reply and provide a response.

Digital dragnet bill gains a hearing

Last year, lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced a bill called the Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act (H.R. 2738 and S.1265) that prevents the government from purchasing data from third parties that it would otherwise need a warrant to obtain under the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment protects American from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government, although how it operates in the digital era is still an evolving question.

Earlier this week, in support of the legislation, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on digital dragnets, namely the increasing reliance of law enforcement on massive data sets produced by private third parties with little consideration for due process under the Fourth Amendment.

Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) made clear the nexus between the Supreme Courts recent decision and the revived momentum of this legislation. In the states where abortion is now a crime, law enforcement can use available data to keep track of who searches online for the words, miscarriage or abortion, he said.

They can purchase geolocation data to monitor which phones travel out of state to go to a medical provider. They can access the data from tracking apps or purchase integrated data profiles to see, or even predict if and when a woman may be pregnant or may be likely to seek an abortion. The result of the federal governments use of private third-party data, which goes largely unmonitored, is that just by going about your daily life, your data may be swept up in and make you the subject of criminal investigations, Nadler said.

Bob Goodlatte, senior policy advisor, Project for Privacy & Surveillance Accountability, and former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said as a witness at the hearing that the solution for the government overreach is the Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act. This bill would close the loopholes in the law. It would forbid government agencies from buying personal data it would otherwise need a warrant or subpoena to obtain it. When the Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act passes, U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies will still have powerful legal tools at their fingertips with which to follow leads that can catch terrorists, spies, and dangerous criminals.

Impact on organizations data management policies

Although the dust hasnt settled on any of these rapidly emerging developments, its clear that IT, security, and privacy operations within organizations will have to quickly revamp how they collect, share and store data. John Wills, field CTO at Alation, tells CSO in an email that the string of recent efforts to protect individuals data privacy could majorly impact businesses.

Among the significant impacts, according to Wills, are:

Increasingly complex rules, sometimes split across various jurisdictions, requiring additional investments to stay compliant

An increased need for data cataloging and management software to help companies maintain accurate data logs

Changes to customer loyalty plans and other data-intensive company programs

A need for more advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning systems to help gather, sort, use, and report data

Corporate law firm Balch and Bingham produced a breakdown of the ADPPA, at least, and how it would impact businesses. The bill places significant obligations on businesses, particularly those that are not currently subject to European privacy law or state comprehensive privacy laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, and the California Privacy Rights Act, or those soon to be in effect in states such as Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and Utah, according to Balchs attorneys.

Even those subject to these laws may have to add critical aspects to their privacy policies and procedures, such as requirements to publish annual impact assessments disclosing methods taken to minimize data risks, appoint a data security or privacy officer, modify privacy policies to ensure required information is disclosed and conduct audits to ensure reasonable internal controls related to individuals data and compliance with the Act.
By Jennifer K. Morita

The Vertebrate Museum in Sequoia Hall, which houses a collection of more than 2,500 mammals and 3,700 birds, was among the activities for Roberts Family Development Center students on a field trip to Sac State Friday, July 15. (Sacramento State/Andrea Price)

Anystie Islas said she was scared.

In a room full of skeletons, live reptiles and a hairy spider the size of a grown persons fist, who could blame her?

Ultimately, the 8-year-olds grin told a different story.

It was fun, she said. Im not scared anymore.

Anystie was one of about 600 children from the Roberts Family Development Center Freedom School who converged on Sac State Friday, July 15, to see some of what it has to offer, from kayaking at the Aquatic Center, to learning about the Universitys diversity, to petting snakes at the Vertebrate Museum and touring The WELL, an important campus amenity.

The field trip is an opportunity to expose our kids to the culture of a four-year institution located in our city, RFDC Chief Executive Officer Derrell Roberts said. We want them to know about the resources that are available to them within Sacramento.

Were trying to show our kids that this is a place for you, this is an opportunity for you to succeed.

The visit opened with Harambee, a morning rally at Hornet Stadium. Harambee is Swahili for all pull together and consists of call-and-response chants.

Sacramento State President Robert S. Nelsen greeted the students as they arrived and spoke during the morning rally.

How many of you are going to go to college? Everybody better raise their hands, OK? Nelsen said. We want you to go to college. You can go to UC Davis, you can go to Berkeley. You can go anywhere.

If youre smart, youll come to Sac State, but you can go anywhere because you are our future. Youre the one who makes a difference.

Roberts and his wife, Tina, opened RFDC in 2001 to serve kindergarten through 12th-grade students and their families in the greater Sacramento area. Services include academic support and enrichment, parent education and engagement, and community involvement and advocacy.

RFDC serves more than 500 students at schools in high-risk neighborhoods.

In addition to after-school activities, RFDC has been a Children's Defense Fund Freedom School for eight years, operating a literacy-based summer learning experience. Students participate in STEM activities, arts, sports, and cultural exploration, and they read specially selected books with diverse characters.

The summer program includes field trips to museums and local universities. At Sac State, the hundreds of students spread out to experience a range of University venues and offerings, including a scavenger hunt on the Main Quad and Sac State Planetarium show.

Several groups visited the Vertebrate Museum in Sequoia Hall, which houses a collection of more than 2,500 mammals and 3,700 birds. There were also living specimens, including Venus flytraps, a tarantula named Walnut, and giant hissing cockroaches.

Students could even pet a couple of live snakes and Sam, the bearded dragon.

You get to touch and see lots of things, Anystie Islas, the 8-year-old, said. Ive never touched nothing here before, like the snakes or the lizard. It felt spikey and rough.

Some of the older students learned to kayak and tried stand-up paddling at the Sac State Aquatic Center.

Several older students from the Roberts Family Development Center Freedom School learned to kayak and tried stand-up paddling at the Sac State Aquatic Center, Friday, July 15, during a field trip. (Sacramento State/Andrea Price)

While waiting for her turn in a kayak, Grant High School senior Cherish Jackson, 16, talked with friends and stayed cool in the searing heat by dipping her feet in the water.

Jackson, who has been a part of Freedom School since she was 11, made sure shed be back this year.

Every year, I look forward to coming back, because Ive made a lot of connections with people, and I have a lot of great memories, Jackson said. Even just sitting here with our legs in the water, taking the moment in, feels very peaceful.

Its probably going to be one of my favorite field trips.

Participating students came from Taylor Street, Robla, and Leataata Floyd elementary schools as well as Martin Luther King, Jr. Technology Academy and Grant High School.

Sac State Health Sciences major Treshawn Weatherspoon, 28, volunteered to be a tour guide after the Black Student Union approached him.

Im from the Del Paso Heights community, and a lot of these kids come from my community, said Weatherspoon, who is a member of Phi Beta Sigma, an African American fraternity on campus.

Its important that we have people here who look like me. It makes it a more welcoming and inviting experience for the kids. Now these children know there are people who look like them at Sac State.

Roberts said many of the Freedom School educators and mentors are Sac State students who participated in RFDC activities as children, including third-year Mathematics major Anthony Orozco.

I was a trouble head at first, Orozco, 19, said.

But he was good at math, and Roberts persuaded him to give RFDC a chance.

I feel like that was my complete 180, Orozco said. They gave me hope. They gave me a shot to change my life.

On Friday, he led a group of teens around campus.

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About Jennifer K. Morita Jennifer K. Morita joined Sacramento State in 2022. A former newspaper reporter for the Sacramento Bee, she spent several years juggling freelance writing with being a mom. When she isnt chauffeuring her two daughters, she enjoys reading mysteries, experimenting with recipes, and Zumba.

Being here on a college campus shows the scholars that things can change around, Orozco said. I wasnt the smartest. I wasnt the brightest. But definitely going on a college campus tour showed me what I could become.
PHOENIX (AP)  The Arizona Republican Party has censured state House Speaker Rusty Bowers after his gripping public testimony to the Jan. 6 panel about Donald Trump's relentless pressure to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The censure Tuesday night by the state GOP's executive committee came hours after Trump reiterated his support for Bowers' opponent in his upcoming Republican primary for state Senate. The former president is scheduled to campaign with his favored candidates on Friday in northern Arizona.

The censure is largely symbolic, but it's illustrative of the iron grip that Trump continues to have over the Republican Party, even after a mob of his supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to stop Joe Biden from becoming president.

(Bowers) is no longer a Republican in good standing & we call on Republicans to replace him at the ballot box in the August primary, Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward tweeted Tuesday.

Its highly unusual for a state political party to formally take sides in a contested primary, but the Arizona GOP under Ward has not been shy about boosting Trump allies in the internal struggle over the future of the Republican Party. The Arizona Republican Party last year censured other top Republicans who crossed the former president, including Gov. Doug Ducey, Cindy McCain and former Sen. Jeff Flake.

A spokesman for Bowers, Andrew Wilder, did not immediately respond to a phone call and text message seeking comment.

The censure does not specifically mention Bowers' testimony to the House Jan. 6 committee but characterizes him as hostile to the GOP platform and activists. It cites his efforts to block election bills advanced by Trump allies and his support for a bill banning most employers from discriminating against LGBTQ people, among other measures.

Bowers is term-limited in the House and is running for the state Senate against David Farnsworth, a former Republican senator who echoes Trump's lies about the 2020 election.

Bowers earned national acclaim with his recitation of the pressure he faced from Trump and his allies, including angry and noisy protests outside his home as his adult daughter lay dying inside from an extended illness. Bowers says he supported Trump's campaign in 2020 but would not help the former president overturn his loss in Arizona.

In his testimony last month, Bowers walked through what started with a Trump phone call on a Sunday after he returned from church. The defeated president laid out a proposal to have the state replace its electors for Biden with others favoring Trump.

I said, Look, youre asking me to do something that is counter to my oath,  Bowers testified.

Bowers insisted on seeing Trumps evidence of voter fraud, which he said Trumps team never produced beyond vague allegations. He recalled Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani later told him, Weve got lots of theories; we just dont have the evidence.

He took heat for telling The Associated Press before his testimony that he would support Trump if he won the GOP nomination. He has since walked that back, saying hes even more opposed to Trump after testifying publicly before the Jan. 6 committee.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  A man drove his pickup truck into a family as they walked in a tourist village bordering Glacier National Park and opened fire with a shotgun, killing one man and mortally wounding a toddler who was in her mother's arms before the mother's sister-in-law managed to kill the assailant after he ran out of ammunition, authorities said.

Killed in the weekend attack on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana were David Siau, 39, of Syracuse, New York, and Siau's 18-month-old daughter, McKenzie.

The assailant, Derick Amos Madden, 37, had been in a prior relationship with the woman who killed him and had mental health issues, the Glacier County Sheriffs Office said. Authorities on Wednesday would not say how he was killed.

Madden plowed a Toyota Tacoma onto a sidewalk and into the Siau family just before 9 p.m. Sunday as they walked in the small town of East Glacier Park, hitting some of them before crashing into a tree, the sheriff's office said.

Madden got out and shot and killed David Siau and mortally wounded McKenzie. The young girl was being held by her mother, Christy Siau, 40, who was shot and wounded as she tried to run away.

Madden then ran out of ammunition and used a knife to attack the sister-in-law, Christina Siau, 30. But the woman fought back and fatally wounded Madden, who authorities said died at the scene, said Capt. Tom Seifert with the Glacier County Sheriffs Office.

Seifert declined to release details on how Siau killed Madden or if any other weapons were recovered from the scene.

She fought back and she won, he said.

Two other children of David and Christy Siau were present but managed to run away and were not injured.

McKenzie Siau was pronounced dead at the Indian Health Service hospital in Browning. Christy and Christina Siau suffered critical injuries and were flown to another hospital with a higher level of care.

Due to Christy Siau's injuries, investigators have been unable to interview her about what happened, Seifert said.

Bystanders in the area witnessed the attack and reported it to authorities, Seifert said. He added that police responded to the scene within minutes, but the attack already was over.

The Montana Highway Patrol was trying to determine the exact speed Madden was driving when he hit the family. Seifert described it as faster than the posted speed limit, which he said was at least 25 miles (40 kph) per hour.

Authorities have not said if Madden, originally of Goldsby, Oklahoma, had the shotgun legally. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is also involved in the case.

The sheriffs office described it as an isolated...incident with a clear nexus between the victims and Madden and said the investigation was ongoing. It was not clear what provoked Sundays attack beyond the prior relationship between Madden and Christina Siau.

There were no records of any restraining orders against Madden on file in the Glacier County Courthouse, court officials said.

Local authorities did not know of any previous interactions that Madden had with law enforcement. He had been working in East Glacier Park, a town of about 300 year-round residents bordering Glacier National Park that gets throngs of summer tourists.

Id like to thank everyone who has so graciously surrounded us, reached out and helped us through this difficult time," said John Siau, David Siau's father and McKenzie Siau's grandfather.

He said he told his children to grieve, be sad, but don't harbor anger about what has happened, because what we have seen is actually the result of somebody who has harbored anger in his own life and allowed it to fester and allowed it to grow and develop into something very terrible and unspeakable.

Christina Siau was originally from New York and had been living in East Glacier Park. Her brother and his family had been visiting her on vacation, Seifert said.

A co-worker of David Saiu described him as a a great person, a great friend .... (and) a great dad, definitely loving with his three kids.

They just loved to do activities with them outdoors, even just fun simple things, like weekend and day trips, said Peter Depuy, a bookkeeper for a Syracuse audio products company, Benchmark. David Saiu was the production manager at the 13-employee company and first started work there more than two decades ago when he was a teenager, Depuy said.

Christy Siau was a former bookkeeper for the American Baptist Churches of New York State, according to a social media postings by the organization. She was described as a long time and beloved member of the organization's staff in a statement from Executive Minister Rev. James Kelsey.

Christy and David Siau were also active in the First Baptist Church of Hoosick Falls, New York, Kelsey said.

___

Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
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MADRID (AP)  When Jose Antonio Gonzalez started his afternoon shift sweeping the streets of Madrid, the temperature was 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) amid a heat wave gripping Spain.

After a long time without a job, Gonzalez couldnt afford to pass up a one-month summer contract to sweep the city, where he lived in a working-class neighborhood. Three hours later, the 60-year-old collapsed with heat stroke and was found lying in the street he was cleaning.

An ambulance took the father of two to the hospital, where he died on Saturday.

His death is driving a debate in Spain about the need to adapt labor arrangements to climate change. The poorest in society, often the elderly and the low-paid such as construction workers and delivery riders for whom heat stress is a workplace hazard, have long been identified as being at a disadvantage in attempts to adjust to rising temperatures.

Its obvious that social inequalities play a part in how much people suffer during heat waves, says Julio Diaz of Spains Carlos III Health Institute.

Enduring a heat wave in an air-conditioned house with a swimming pool is not the same as five people in the same room with a window as the only source of fresh air, he told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.

The recent torrid weather in Europe, which has seen a spike in the number and size of wildfires, is forcing the issue to the forefront.

France has already taken some steps to alleviate heat inequality after a 2003 heat wave caused 15,000 heat-related deaths, many of them older people left in city apartments and retirement homes without air conditioning.

Ahead of France's latest heat wave, which set some record temperatures this week, the government reminded employers of their legal obligation to protect workers in extreme heat. That includes free drinking water, ventilation and, if possible, changing working hours and providing extra breaks.

And as Britain prepared for this weeks heat wave, which saw temperatures hit a national record of 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, labor unions urged the government to impose maximum workplace temperatures for the first time. Many homes, small businesses and even public buildings in Britain do not have air-conditioning.

Unite, the countrys biggest union, is pushing for a maximum workplace temperature of 27 C (80.6 F) for strenuous jobs and 30 C (86 F) for sedentary jobs. The union also says employers should be required to take steps to reduce indoor temperatures and impose strict protections for outdoor workers whenever temperatures reach 24 C (75.2 F).

As the climate changes, it is vital that health and safety law is updated in line with the serious challenges this presents for workers, said Rob Miguel, Unites national adviser on health and safety.

In Madrid, Gonzalezs 21-year-old son, Miguel Angel, says his father, days before he died, had searched on the internet for how to deal with heat stroke. The evening before he died, he had arrived home from his cleaning shift gasping for air.

Scientists say the worsening of pre-existing illnesses, not heat strokes themselves, are the main cause of deaths linked to the high temperatures.

The Carlos III Health Institute estimates that 150 deaths in Spain were somehow linked to the heat wave on the day that Gonzalez died. The following day, the institute attributed 169 deaths to the heat, bringing a total of 679 cases during just the first week of the heat wave.

Ramming home the danger, another Madrid street sweeper was hospitalized with heat stroke on Tuesday.

In places accustomed to high temperatures, such as Spain's southern Andalusia region, construction workers already work only morning hours during the summer.

Three days after Gonzalez's death, Madrid officials agreed with labor groups that street cleaners could postpone their afternoon shift and work instead amid cooler evening temperatures.

___

Hatton contributed from Lisbon, Portugal. John Leicester in Le Pecq, France and Danica Kirka in London contributed.

___

Follow APs climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.
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SERRASTRETTA, Italy (AP)  From a rustic, tiny synagogue she fashioned from her familys ancestral home in this mountain village, an American rabbi is keeping a promise made to her Italian-born father: reconnect people in this southern region of Calabria to their Jewish roots, links nearly severed five centuries ago when the Inquisition forced Jews to convert to Christianity.

In the process, Rabbi Barbara Aiello is also helping to revive Serrastretta, one of many small southern towns struggling with dwindling population, as young people leave in droves to find work and where each year deaths far outnumber births.

Besides the chatter of visitors who come to her synagogue, curious to learn about Judaism in predominantly Catholic Italy, the laughter of newly arrived children resounds in the town. This spring, the rabbi helped bring Ukrainian refugees, including some with Jewish roots, to live here for now, and  Serrastrettas mayor hopes  maybe permanently.

On a small wooden table near the synagogue's entrance sits a yellowed family portrait. In the photograph, is the rabbis father, Antonio Abramo Aiello, as a child. Born in Serrastretta, he was studying for his bar mitzvah, the rabbi said, but before that religious coming-of-age ritual could take place, the young Aiello left with his family for the United States in 1923.

His daughter, Barbara, would be born in Pittsburgh and ordained a rabbi at the Rabbinical Seminary International in New York at age 51. Her synagogue is a recognized affiliate of the Reconstructionist movement, a small branch of American Judaism.

Before studying to become a rabbi, Aiello taught special needs children for many years, creating a puppet show to help teach kids about tolerance. After being ordained, she served at a synagogue in Florida for a few years before moving to Italy, where she first worked as a rabbi in Milan from 2004-2005. Then she realized her passion in serving as a rabbi in her late fathers native town.

When visitors arrive from abroad for ceremonies at her synagogue, Rabbi Aiello, who is 74, shows them the house in what had been the Jewish quarter in the nearby city of Lamezia Terme, where her father had been learning about his Jewish faith.

She points out a plaque which reads: In this quarter was active an industrious community of Jews from the 13th till the 16th centuries.

One recent summer evening, as Aiello, who wears a yarmulke and necklace with a small Star of David, walked by en route to the ancient neighborhood, a local resident, Emilio Fulvo, 73, leaped up from a bench to greet her. When he was 15, Fulvo recounted, genealogical research discovered that his family has Jewish roots.

Learning about his background made me feel free, Fulvo said. I knew something was missing while raised as a Catholic in southern Italy.

Families like his are known as Bnai Anusim, descendants, of those who were forced to accept Christian baptism and to publicly renounce their Judaism, the rabbi said.

In her family, legends were passed along that we were Jews, and we were expelled from Spain in 1492, as the Inquisition gathered steam, Aiello said. Eventually, the Aiellos made their way to the southern end of the Apennine mountains, where Serrastretta sits, perched atop a road winding through slopes thickly forested with beech, pine and chestnut trees.

The remoteness of many villages in Calabria, coupled with Italians tendencies to live in the same places for generations and the strength of oral traditions, helped keep alive what Roque Pugliese, a Jew in Calabria, calls the spark of Judaism even among those who dont realize they have Jewish heritage.

A physician who emigrated from Argentina, Pugliese recalled once hearing residents of a care home in Calabria sing an ancient song about Passover, softly, as if afraid to be overheard.

On a stone wall along a walkway that leads to Aiellos home and synagogue is a Star of David.

On a recent Friday afternoon, she set out a bowl of cherries and a tray of miniature pastries for those coming for a bat mitzvah sought by the Blum family of Parkland, Florida. They chose Aiello despite the great distance because, before becoming a rabbi, she had worked as a special needs educator, and their daughter, Mia, has autism.

Pushing a childs stroller up the steep street that leads to the synagogue was Vira, one of five Ukrainian mothers, who, with nine children among them, were brought to Serrastretta thanks to efforts by Aiello and logistical help from a Serrastretta native. Transportation and housing costs have been paid by donors, most of them Jewish, in Britain, the United States, Australia and Canada, the rabbi said.

Two of the women have since returned to Ukraine, including the wife of an Orthodox Christian priest. But Vira, who asked that her surname not be published because her husband, still in Ukraine, works for a government ministry, said she is considering settling in Serrastretta.

The first thing is my son, my only son, his life, his future, his safety, Vira said of 2-year-old Platon. Barbara invited us to a safe place. It was like really a miracle.

Vira is also grateful for the opportunity to learn about Judaism. Her grandmother, born in Crimea, is Jewish. But her father, a Russian, would take her to church, so she had never gone to a Jewish house of worship, she said. Aiello invited me to a bar mitzvah. It was a very beautiful experience that she opened her house to me.

The rabbi said she tells those curious about their past to embrace those (traditions) that make sense to you  embrace all, embrace some, but understand that you were once Jewish (in your family) and we can connect you, reconnect you, if you so choose.

Mayor Antonio Muracca hopes at least some Ukrainians stay. These guests have created in a certain sense more vitality in our town, he said. Serrastretta has seen a shocking depopulation, the mayor said. There are so many old people, few children.

The towns population shrank from 4,000 in 2001 to 2,900 in 2020.

Serrastretta was long called the city of chairs, because generations of artisans handcrafted furniture from beech wood with seats fashioned from woven reeds. But demand for cheaper, mass-produced furniture decimated the trade.

Serrastrettas parish pastor, the Rev. Luigi Iuliano, invited Aiello to read a Psalm at Easter vigil services in April. With the rabbi there is no competition, jealousy.

We brought the First Communion kids to show them the Torah, the synagogue, to become aware that our faith in a certain way comes from the Hebrew faith, said Iuliano, a Serrastretta native.

Aiello, who describes herself as the first female rabbi in Italy and who runs Calabrias only synagogue, relies on destination weddings and bat and bar mitzvahs to boost her synagogues finances.

She is cut off from funding that derives from taxpayer donations in Italy. The Italian government only recognizes the Orthodox Jewish communities in Italy, whose official members number about 23,000, nearly half of those living in Rome and barely 200 living in southern Italy.

___

This version corrects that her synagogue is recognized by the Reconstructionist movement, and Aiello describes herself as the first female rabbi in Italy.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  A Utah man pleaded guilty Tuesday to fatally shooting his mother and three siblings when he was a teenager in 2020.

Colin CJ Haynie, who is now 19 and goes by his middle name of Jeffery, killed his mother and one of his sisters as they returned from her school pickup, then waited for two more siblings to arrive home and killed them, prosecutors said.

His father came back to the home later that evening and was shot in the leg but survived after wrestling the gun away from his son.

After the father subdued him, the then-16-year-old said that he had planned to kill everyone in his family at their home in the small town of Grantsville, near Salt Lake City, authorities said.

Authorities have said they dont know his motive.

Jeffery Haynie pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder on Tuesday. Several other weapons charges were dismissed in the plea agreement, court documents show.

He had been charged as an adult by prosecutors because of the seriousness of the Jan. 17, 2020, crime.

His attorney, Richard Van Wagoner, said in a statement that prosecutors agreed to let his client stay in the juvenile justice system until he is 25 under a new law that went into effect this year in Utah. That will enable Jeffery Haynie to get access to education and mental health programs designed for younger people.

Jeffery has wanted to accept responsibility, Van Wagoner said. Jeffery was a troubled teen and lacked certain abilities and resources.

The victims were his mother, Consuelo Alejandra Haynie, 52; his sisters Milan and Alexis, ages 12 and 15; and his 14-year-old brother Matthew.

The familys oldest child, Danny Haynie, was not home at the time of the shootings. At a funeral for the family members in 2020 at their local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' congregation, Danny Haynie said that CJ Haynes was still loved and part of the family.

Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 7. Aggravated murder in Utah typically carries the possibility of the death penalty, but state prosecutors cannot seek it for people convicted of crimes that happened when they were under 18 even if their cases are moved to adult court.

So Haynie faces a prison sentence of 25 years to life for each aggravated murder conviction under state law.
UVALDE, Texas (AP)  Facing massive public pressure, Uvaldes top school official has recommended the firing of the school district police chief who has been blamed for the botched law enforcement response to the elementary school shooting nearly two months ago that killed two teachers and 19 students.

The South Texas citys school board announced Wednesday that it will consider firing Chief Pete Arredondo at a special meeting Saturday. Arredondo has been accused by state officials of making several critical mistakes during the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

School officials have previously resisted calls to fire Arredondo. The announcement comes two days after a meeting where the school board members were lambasted for more than three hours by members of the public, who accused them of not implementing basic security at Robb, of not being transparent about what happened and of failing to hold Arredondo to account for his actions.

Confronted with parents' vociferous demands to fire Arredondo and warnings that his job would be next, Superintendent Hal Harrell said Monday that the police chief was a contract employee who could not be fired at will. The agenda for Saturday's meeting includes the board discussing the potential firing with its lawyer.

Arredondo, who has been on leave from the district since June 22, has faced blistering criticism since the massacre, most notably for not ordering officers to immediately breach the classroom where an 18-year-old gunman carried out the attack. If fired, Arredondo would become the first officer ousted from his job following the deadliest Texas school shooting in history.

Although nearly 400 officers from various agencies were involved in the police response that took more than an hour to confront and kill the shooter, Arredondo is one of only two known to have faced discipline. His attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The move to potentially fire the chief follows the release of a damning 80-page report by a Texas House committee that blamed all levels of law enforcement for a slow and chaotic response. The report found that 376 law enforcement officers massed at the school, with more than half coming from state and federal agencies, but that they failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.

According to the committee, Arredondo told lawmakers he didnt consider himself the on-scene commander in charge and that his priority was to protect children in other classrooms. The committee report called that decision a terrible, tragic mistake.

Body camera footage released by the Uvalde officials shows Arredondo in the hallway trying multiple sets of keys on other classroom doors, but not the one where the massacre took place. The classroom door could not be locked from the inside, but there is no indication officers tried to open the door while the gunman was inside.

Our thought was: If he comes out, you know, you eliminate the threat, correct? Arredondo told the committee, according to the report. And just the thought of other children being in other classrooms, my thought was: We cant let him come back out. If he comes back out, we take him out, or we eliminate the threat.

Arredondo, 50, grew up in Uvalde and spent much of his nearly 30-year career in law enforcement in the city. He took the head police job at the school district in 2020 and was sworn in as a member of the City Council in a closed-door ceremony May 31. He resigned from his council seat July 2.

___

Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

___

The spelling of the police chiefs last name has been corrected in several places in the story.

___

More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting
A $2 million Powerball was sold to a Connecticut resident during Saturday's drawing.

The Powerball ticket was purchased at the Shell station on Waterbury Road in Prospect. The winning ticket correctly matched the winning numbers of 3-18-23-32-57 but failed to get the Powerball number of 21. Additionally, the ticket had a Power Play of 2x.

According to the Connecticut Lottery website, the winner of the $2 million ticket has not claimed their ticket. The winner has until January 12, 2023 to claim their prize.

Read more: Map: Where major Connecticut Lottery prizes were sold this year

Other major unclaimed Connecticut Lottery prizes include a $2 million Powerball ticket that was sold in Guilford in May and a "Lucky for Life" ticket that is worth $25,000 a year for life, which was sold in Ellington last month.

Last month, the largest Connecticut Prize claimed was a $825,000 200x ticket winner in Stamford.
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AKRON, Ohio (AP)  An attorney for the family of Jayland Walker, the 25-year-old Black man killed in a hail of police gunfire last month in Ohio, on Wednesday joined the national NAACP and its Akron branch in calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Walker's death.

Attorney Bobby DiCello made the call while questioning the integrity of the current investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which was asked by Akron officials to examine the June 27 shooting.
For all the misguided social media chatter about arming teachers with firearms, a more effective deterrent is ensuring school doors are locked.

Reports in the wake of the tragedy at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, underscore the need for vigilance regarding such mundane policies. The gunman entered through a back door before killing 19 students and two teachers. Texas state police initially reported a teacher propped the door open with a rock while carrying food from a vehicle. It was subsequently revealed the teacher closed the door when she realized the shooter was nearby, but it failed to lock.

That points to two problems that are easily addressed. School doors should never be propped open, and they need to function correctly.

Its not that the school lacked security policies. Both exterior and interior classroom doors are supposed to be locked while school is in session.

There was a regrettable culture of noncompliance by school personnel who frequently propped doors open and deliberately circumvented locks, the joint committee of the Texas Legislature wrote in a report on the incident.

Anyone who works in a school or office building can empathize with how easily such mandates can be compromised. Robb educators are hardly alone in being lax about security measure, but they can offer invaluable lessons for peers across the nation.

Its hardly the only problem revealed in the 77-page report, which was released Sunday. The shorthand was that the school, and emergency personnel, were not prepared for an armed intruder. Every school in America needs accept the reality that it could happen there.

The committee determined it would not have been difficult for any intruder to gain access to Robb Elementary. Three exterior doors were unlocked. One of the targeted classroom was routinely accessible due to a faulty latch.

There should be no debate over repairing a lock or closing a door at a school. Or to guarantee there are strong mobile connections.

The report has drawn more attention for the committees rebuke of law enforcement responders. There was no designated commander on the scene, and procedures from active shooting training were not followed. Most damning of all is the personal critique that they failed to prioritize saving lives of innocent victims over their own safety.

A jarring 73 minutes passed between the time the gunman entered the school and officers killed him, according to the report. During those minutes, a breakdown in communication led to chaos.

Nearly a decade after the massacre in Sandy Hook, Newtown Public Schools Security Director Mark Pompano emphasized the need for active shooting training to be renewed every year. Serendipitously, Newtown staff is scheduled for training in one of the districts buildings next month.

Pompano also stressed that security ... has to start with locking doors.

School officials in Newtown, in Uvalde and in too many other districts know the potential consequences of even a minor security lapse. We all have a responsibility to help close the door on this horrific epidemic of mass shootings.
With heat indices expected to push close to 100 this week, Connecticut municipalities are opening cooling centers for people to get a respite from scorching temperatures.

In addition to the cooling centers, which are typically municipal buildings like senior centers and public libraries, many communities also offer splash pads for residents to cool off.

Many state parks also have swimming areas, including at Connecticuts four shoreline parks, as well as at freshwater swimming areas in some inland parks.

Heres a list of local cooling centers and places that officials have announced are opening amid the summers first potential heat wave. The list will be updated as more locations are announced. A list of cooling centers can also be found through 211s website, or by calling 211.

Ansonia

Ansonia High School, 42 Grove St. Open from noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Ansonia Democratic Town Committee Headquarters, 301 Main St. Open from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Bloomfield

The town will provide water to residents. Residents will need to bring their own food, as well as their medications, emergency contact phone numbers and other items that may be needed during the day. Service dogs are welcome. Individuals should call for information regarding other pets.

Alvin and Beatrice Wood Human Services Center, 330 Park Ave. Open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Individuals should use the flagpole entrance on the east side of the building.

Prosser Library, 1 Tunxis Ave. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

McMahon Wintonbury Library, 1015 Blue Hills Ave. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Bolton

Bentley Memorial Library, 206 Bolton Center Road. Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.

Senior Center, 184 Notch Road. Open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.

Town Hall, 222 Bolton Center Road. Open Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Bridgeport

Black Rock Senior Center, 2676 Fairfield Ave. Open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

North End Bethany Senior Center, 20 Thorme St. Open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Bridgeport Public Library - East Side Branch, 1174 East Main St.. Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Bridgeport Public Library - Main Branch, 925 Broad St. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, noon to 8 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. It is closed on Sunday.

Bridgeport Public Library - Black Rock Branch, 2705 Fairfield Ave. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, noon to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, noon to 8 p.m. on Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. It is closed on Sunday.

Bridgeport Public Library - North Branch, 3455 Madison Ave. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, noon to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, noon to 8 p.m. on Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It is closed on Sunday.

Mount Aery Church, 73 Frank St. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Colebrook

Town Hall, 562 Colebrook Road. Open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Danbury

Danbury War Memorial, 1 Memorial Dr. Open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Also a charging station.

Danbury Public Library, 170 Main St. Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Hatters Hall, 7 East Hayestown Road. Open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

New Street Shelter, 41 New St. Open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Derby

Derby Public Library, 313 Elizabeth St. Open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. Closed Sunday.

East Hartford

Town officials directed residents to three locations if they need to cool off, but said no special staff services will be available.

The East Hartford Public Safety Complex, 31 School St. Open 24/7.

East Hartford Public Library, 840 Main St. Open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

East Hartford Senior Center, 15 Milbrook Dr. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Ellington

Hall Memorial Library, 93 Main St. Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Ellington Senior Center, 40 Maple St. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday.

Facilities are handicapped accessible.

Fairfield

Bigelow Center for Senior Activities, 100 Mona Terrace. Open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Fairfield Public Library - Main Branch, 1080 Old Post Road. Open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Closed on Sunday.

Fairfield Public Library - Woods Branch, 1147 Fairfield Woods Road. Open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. Closed on Sunday.

Glastonbury

Riverfront Community / Senior Center, 300 Wells St. Open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday; 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

Welles Turner Memorial Library, 2407 Main St. Open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; noon to 9 p.m. Wednesday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Officials advised that the library has drinking fountains, chargers for devices, and suggested individuals planning to stay a while should bring layers such as a sweater.

Greenwich

Greenwich Library, 101 W. Putnam Ave. Open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Perrot Memorial Library, 90 Sound Beach Ave. Open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday; from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. Closed on Sunday.

Byram Shubert Library, 21 Mead Ave. Open from 9 a.m, to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday and noon to 8 p.m. on Thursday. Closed on Sunday.

Cos Cob Library, 5 Sinawoy Road. Open from noon to 8 p.m. on Monday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Closed on Sunday.

Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center, 449 Pemberwick Road. Open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Greenwich Public Safety Complex, 11 Bruce Place. Open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.

Town Hall, 101 Field Point Road. Open from 8 a.m. through 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and on Monday, July 25.

Hamden

Hamden Government Center, 2750 Dixwell Ave. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Keefe Community Center, 11 Pine St. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Miller Memorial Library, 2901 Dixwell Ave. Open from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, noon to 5 p.m. on Wednesday and 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Whitneyville Branch Library, 125 Carleton St. Open from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and noon to 8 p.m. on Thursday.

Brundage Community Branch Library, 91 Circular Ave. Open from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and noon to 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

Hamden Police Department Lobby, 2900 Dixwell Ave. Open 24/7.

Hartford

Downtown Library, 500 Main St. Open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Albany Library, 1250 Albany Ave. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday.

Barbour Library, 261 Barbour St. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday.

Campfield Library, 30 Campfield Ave. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday.

Dwight Library, 7 New Park Ave. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday.

Park Street Library at the Lyric, 603 Park St. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday.

North End Senior Center, 80 Coventry St. Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

South End Wellness Senior Center, 830 Maple Ave. Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Starting today and continuing through the week, temperatures will be reaching highs in the mid-to-high 90s, so we will be opening our cooling centers throughout the city to help our residents stay safe and cool, Mayor Luke Bronin said in a statement.

Mansfield

Mansfield Community Center, 10 S. Eagleville Road Open from 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

Mansfield Public Library, 54 Warrenville Road. Open from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday and from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.

Mansfield Senior Center, 303 Maple Road. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

Middletown

Middletown officials plan to open fire hydrants to serve as sprinklers at several locations Saturday and Sunday.

They also pointed to several municipal buildings that residents can visit to cool off, including:

Middletown Police Department lobby, 222 Main St. Open 24/7.

Russell Library, 123 Broad St. Open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

The Middletown Senior Center, 61 Durant Terrace. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.

The City Hall Lobby, 245 deKoven Drive. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.

New Haven

Atwater Senior Center, 26 Atwater St. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Dixwell / Newhallville Senior Center, 197 Dixwell Ave. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

East Shore Senior Center, 411 Townsend Ave. Open 24 hours.

Ives Library, 133 Elm St. Open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Fair Haven Library, 182 Grand Ave. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; Noon to 8 p.m. on Thursday; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Mitchell Library, 37 Harrison St. Open noon to 8 p.m. Monday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Wilson Library, 303 Washington Ave. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; Noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

New London

New London Public Library, 63 Huntington St. Open from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 9:30 to 1 p.m. Saturday.

New Milford

New Milford Senior Center, 40 Main St. Open starting at 8 a.m. Seniors only.

Town Hall - E. Paul Martin Room, 10 Main St. in the upper floor. Open starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.

Town Hall - Loretta Brickley Room, 10 Main St. in the basement. Open starting at 8 a.m. on Tuesday and Friday.

North Branford

Atwater Memorial Library, 1720 Foxon Road. Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

Edward Smith Library, 3 Old Post Road. Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

Norwalk

Norwalk Library - Main Branch, 1 Belden Ave. Open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and Friday through Saturday; and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Norwalk Library - South Norwalk Branch, 10 Washington St. Open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday and Wednesday through Saturday, and 11:30 a.m to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Norwalk Police Department Community Room, 1 Monroe St. Open 24/7.

Following Mondays storm, we are expecting temperatures above 90 degrees, with humidity that could make it feel like its nearly 100 degrees, Mayor Harry Rilling said in a statement. We want everyone  particularly those most vulnerable to extreme heat  to take the proper precautions to stay safe.

Orange

Orange Police Station, 314 Lambert Road. Open 24 hours a day Tuesday through Sunday.

Preston

Preston Senior Center, 42 Long Society Road. Open from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Putnam

Town Hall, 200 School St. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday; 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Putnam Library, 225 Kennedy Drive. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday; 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday.

Rocky Hill

Cora J. Belden Library, 33 Church St. Open from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday and Friday.

Stamford

Stamford Government Center Lobby, 888 Washington Blvd. Open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Sunday. Masks are required and can be provided as necessary.

South Windsor

South Windsor Library, 1550 Sullivan Ave. Open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

South Windsor Community Center, 150 Nevers Road. Open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Stratford

Baldwin Center, 1000 W. Broad St. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

Stratford Library, 2203 Main St. Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Stratford YMCA, 3045 Main St. Open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Thomaston

Thomaston Ambulance Headquarters, 237 S. Main St. Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Sunday. The cooling center is pet friendly and ADA compliant.

Thompson

Thompson Public Library, 934 Riverside Drive. Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday.

Quinebaug Fire Station, 720 Quinebaug Road. Open Saturday and Sunday, hours have not been announced yet. Call 860-923-9561 for more information.

Torrington

Torrington City Hall Auditorium, 140 Main St. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Friday.

Trumbull

Trumbull Public Library, 33 Quality St. Open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Fairchild Nichols Memorial Branch, 1718 Huntington Turnpike. Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Westfield Trumbull Mall, 5065 Main St. Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Lakewood-Trumbull YMCA, 20 Trefoil Drive. Open from 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Vernon

The Community Pool, at 375 Hartford Turnpike. Open for an additional two hours each evening this week. The hours through Sunday, July 24, are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a one-hour break for staff, then from 6 to 8 p.m.

Waterbury

North End Recreation Center, 268 N. Main St. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Waterbury Senior Center, 1985 E. Main St. Open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. The senior center is available to seniors age 60 or older only. Extended hours are available. For information on extended hours, call 203-574-6746.

River Baldwin Recreation Center, 135 E. Liberty St. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Waterford

Waterford Community Center, 24 Rope Ferry Road. Open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Winchester

Winchester Town Hall, 338 Main St. at the Francis P. Hicks room on the second floor. Open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon on Friday.

Blanche McCarthy Senior Center, 80 Holabird Ave. Open from 8 a.m. to noon on Wednesday and Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday.

Beardsley and Memorial Library, 40 Munro Place. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Windsor Locks

Senior Center, 41 Oak St. Open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 1 p..m. on Friday.

Woodstock

Town Hall, 415 Route 169. Open from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP)  When Top Gun: Maverick roared into theaters in late May, the Air Force was ready.

The smash hit movie may feature Tom Cruise as Pete Maverick Mitchell, a hotshot Navy aviator, but to much of the movie-going public, the distinction between Air Force and Navy fighter jets is lost. So Air Force recruiters struggling to meet their enlistment goals took boxes of free mugs and lanyards, and fanned out to movie theaters for the premiere, determined to capitalize on the jet-fueled excitement surrounding the film.

These are tough times for military recruiters. With COVID-19 complicating their work and low unemployment reducing the number of potential recruits, all services are having problems finding young people who want to join and can meet the physical, mental and moral requirements.

The Army especially is struggling. On Tuesday, it said it will cut the total number of soldiers it expects to have in the force over the next two years. If those trends continue, that could present challenges as it tries to meet future national security and warfighting missions.

The situation is somewhat less dire for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. Leaders of those branches say they hope to meet or just slightly miss their recruiting goals for this year. But they say they will have to dip into their pool of delayed entry applicants, which will put them behind as they begin the next recruiting year.

So recruiters are offering bigger bonuses and other incentives to those who sign up. And they are seizing on the boost that Hollywood may offer  such as the buzz over the sequel to the 1986 hit Top Gun.

When the original Top Gun was released, the Navy and Air Force received a pretty good recruiting bump, said Maj. Gen. Edward Thomas, head of Air Force Recruiting Service. "Frankly, we hope people get excited all over again about what we do. Whether they want to aim high or fly Navy, we just want them to come join us. We want them to be excited about military service.

The Air Force said it usually goes into each year with about 25% of its recruiting goal already locked in, but this year will have about half of that. The Navy and Marine Corps often have as much as 50% of their goals at the start of the year, but also will see their percentage slashed.

Gen. Eric Smith, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps., said the Marines are focusing more on retention than recruiting. He said the Marine Corps will make or come very close to making its recruiting goals this year, but at the expense of the 2023 pool. And when recruits have less time to prepare before reporting to boot camp, more fail to complete their training, he said.

The situation is more dire for the Army, which a top general says faces unprecedented challenges in recruitments.

Gen. Joseph Martin, vice chief of staff for the Army, said the service will have a total force of 466,400 this year, down from the expected 476,000. It could end 2023 with between 445,000 and 452,000 soldiers, depending on how well recruiting and retention go.

With just 2 1/2 months to go in the budget year ending Sept. 30, the Army has met just 50% of its recruiting goal of 60,000 soldiers, and based on those trends will likely miss that goal by nearly 25% as of Oct. 1.

An array of factors has made recruiting more difficult across the services.

Two years of the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools and other large public events that the military relies on to meet young people face to face.

The low unemployment rate means fewer people are looking for jobs. Private companies often pay more and are more nimble in responding to a tight labor market by raising salaries. Military salaries vary widely and are determined by Congress.

Across the country, fewer people are familiar with the military. Many do not know anyone who served and do not have bases in their regions. As political and cultural divisions over race, abortion, vaccines and other issues tear through the nation, trust in the government  including the military  has declined.

At the same time, only about 23% of young adults are physically, mentally and morally qualified to serve without receiving some type of waiver. Moral behavior issues include drug use, gang ties or a criminal record.

We look at it as the toughest recruiting environment that weve had in decades, said Rear Adm. Lex Walker, who heads Navy Recruiting Command. Companies are also offering great pay, theyre offering sign-on bonuses, help with college. Theyre offering many of the same benefits the Navy has historically used to recruit."

One short-term solution is money. The Air Force and Navy commanders both said they had to request more money for bonuses this year as they began to see the recruiting struggle worsen.

For the first time in a decade, the Air Force approved two rounds of additional bonuses this budget year. Last October the service budgeted $17.5 million for enlistment bonuses, but in April service leaders added another $14 million, and in July they put in $7 million more.

The Navy, said Walker, has also increased bonuses by about $100 million. It also has also relaxed some restrictions to make it possible to enlist some who may not have qualified before. He said the Navy expanded its waiver policy for some prior marijuana use and for tattoos  allowing recruits to have visible ones in more places, such as the neck. A new pilot program allows single parents with up to two children over a year old to seek a waiver to enlist as long as the recruits have someone who can care for the children in case of a deployment.

The recruiting officials also said it's crucial to increase the public's awareness of the military and the benefits available for serving. They said recruiters and all members of the military need to get out into their communities, connect with people and tell their stories.

Air Force Sgt. Eric Way did just that at the Regal Cinema in Waterford, Connecticut, during the premiere of Top Gun: Maverick." Standing in the lobby, surrounded by Air Force swag and banners, he captured the attention of a 22-year-old from Old Lyme, who later told him the movie convinced him that he should enlist.

Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Gervacio Maldonado, who helped organize the New England recruiting campaign centered on the movies premiere, said recruiters spoke to the young man before the film and gave him social media information to contact them later.

It worked. The man has already done his first interview.

Maldonado said the man later told a recruiter that he had been debating the enlistment idea for some time and said that "after watching the movie, that was my tipping point and I want to start the process.
Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

BRIDGEPORT  A city police officer arrested last week in Monroe has been placed on administrative status with pay.

Police Department Spokesman Scott Appleby said this week that Wally Franco was placed on administrative status, meaning he remains at work but in a non-patrol role, effective July 14, the day after he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Information about Francos status within the department comes days after Hearst Connecticut Media first reported on the arrest on Friday.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A driver accused of causing a triple-fatal DUI crash in Nevadas Nye County has been sentenced to up to 60 years in prison.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Tuesday that Tyler Kennedy received 8 to 20 years for each of three counts of DUI causing death, with the sentences to run consecutively.
ATHENS, Greece (AP)  Battered by heavy winds, firefighters in Greece struggled to contain new fires Wednesday around the capital of Athens while other countries in southern Europe took stock of the damage caused during the latest severe heat wave and prepared for the return of scorching temperatures. Two new fires broke out west of Athens following a round-the-clock effort to halt a blaze in the outskirts of the city that had swept through inhabited areas and forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents. Given the conditions created by climate change, we have new fires expanding, Greece's Civil Protection and Climate Change Minister Christos Stylianides said. The conditions we are operating under are extremely adverse. Wind gusts have exceeded 110 kilometers per hour (68 mph) in some areas. Fires were burning across southern Europe on Wednesday, but authorities in France, Spain and Portugal all reported improved conditions with a respite from the severe heat. French President Emmanuel Macron visited the country's worst-hit Gironde region, in the southwest, meeting with firefighters who have been battling the flames for a week. French firefighters created huge firebreaks through threatened forests, using heavy machinery to tear out trees and roots, leaving large barren strips to stop the fires.

You have saved lives, Macron said, shaking hands with a group of firefighters lined up at the regional fire department.
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BRIDGEPORT  A former assistant police chief who is suing the city over 2018s rigged search for a top cop has again applied for that job.

I still have an interest in serving at the Bridgeport Police Department, James Nardozzi, who currently works in the private sector, said in an interview Tuesday.

Last Thursday was the deadline for applications.

The city did not immediately respond questions about the number of individuals who applied, how many of those are from within the force, how many contenders are from out-of-state, and the specific next steps to whittle those candidates down to three finalists to be presented to Mayor Joe Ganim.

Acting Police Chief Rebeca Garcia last week confirmed to Hearst Connecticut that she had decided to compete.

Nardozzis application adds another wrinkle to the search given his history here and claims that, were it not for the interference of former Chief Armando Perez and former Personnel Director David Dunn four years ago, he would have been one of the 2018 finalists.

Instead, Perez, Police Capt. Roderick Porter, who retired from the Bridgeport department this month, and then-New Haven Assistant Chief Luiz Casanova made the cut. And Ganim subsequently chose longtime friend Perez to be permanent chief.

But in September 2020 Perez and Dunn were arrested following a federal investigation and charged with rigging the search to enable the former to be a finalist. They pleaded guilty and have since served time in prison and been released.

Nardozzi, who was Bridgeports assistant chief from late 2012 until early 2016, in October 2020 filed a pending lawsuit alleging that absent the conspiracy to commit fraud and the cheating by Perez and Dunn he instead would have been one of the trio of finalists.

His lawsuit states he was among the six candidates who progressed in 2018 to the final phase  interviews with a group of outside panelists with careers in law enforcement and human resources  and was notified he finished fourth.

The Ganim administration last year unsuccessfully sought to quash Nardozzis lawsuit, arguing he could not pursue it because of a settlement he entered into related to a different legal dispute.

In 2020, the Bridgeport City Council approved a $180,000 settlement plus legal fees for Nardozzi. Originally hired in 2012 by then-Mayor Bill Finch, Nardozzi was fired in 2016 by the newly-elected Ganim as part of the latters successful effort to convince Finchs police chief, Joseph Gaudett, to exit his the five-year contract.

Finch gave Gaudett that deal after losing the 2015 Democratic mayoral primary to Ganim and after Ganim won that years general election. Ultimately Gaudett struck a deal with Ganim to step down as chief and be rehired for three years as a public safety consultant, allowing the mayor to promote Perez from captain to acting top cop, setting him up to eventually become permanent police chief in 2018.

Nardozzi on Tuesday said he has faith in Bridgeports current search for someone to lead the police force because the city hired as its consultant the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Immediately following the 2020 arrests of Perez and Dunn, Nardozzi in a letter published by Hearst Connecticut Media recommended ways to completely reform the police department, including hiring an outside organization such as ... the International Association of Chiefs of Police ... to conduct all aspects of recruitment and selection processes for executive level positions.

I have the utmost respect for the IACP, Nardozzi said Tuesday. If they say, Hey, youre a candidate or if they say theres others better than me, so be it.

As for whether Porter and Casanova have reapplied to be Bridgeports top cop, the former, one of only two Black captains in the department, just retired and did not return requests for comment. Porter has a federal lawsuit pending against the city alleging he was subjected to racial discrimination and also that he lost out on being Bridgeports chief because of Perezs criminal scheme.

Casanova meanwhile on Tuesday said he is happy with his job running the Connecticut State Capitol Police and has no interest in applying again to run the force in Bridgeport.

I wish the wonderful people of Bridgeport the best in their search, Casanova said. I hope they get somebody qualified, somebody who cares about the city, that can improve the quality of life for the folks of Bridgeport.
NEW YORK (AP)  The publisher of Simon & Schuster's flagship imprint, Dana Canedy, is stepping down to concentrate on a sequel to a book Denzel Washington adapted last year for a film of the same name, A Journal for Jordan.

Canedy, a former New York Times editor and writer and the first Black woman to be hired as publisher of Simon & Schuster, will step down July 27. Her next book has been acquired by Simon & Schuster and she will continue there as an advisor and to work on some projects she brought to the company, including former Vice President Mike Pence's memoir.
NEW HAVEN  At one point before First Lady Jill Biden, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and their entourage arrived at the Horizons program at Albertus Magnus College from Tweed New Haven Regional Airport, an excited Alexandra Varela was the only one standing out on Winchester Avenue waiting for them.

By time the 10 or so black and dark-blue SUVs drove up to Albertus Tagliatela Academic Center just before 1 p.m. Wednesday  behind a dozen or so Connecticut State Police officers on motorcycles  Varela had been joined by six or eight other people, most of them from the immediate neighborhood.

Still, Varela stood out, both because of her quiet excitement, diminutive size and the greeting she offered when the first lady arrived.

Wooooo!!! she screamed rather loudly as local media photographed Biden, the wife of President Joe Biden, getting out to head into the event a couple hundred yards away. Viva America!!!

Mark Zaretsky / Hearst Connecticut Media

Varela, 20, who lives in Bridgeport and goes to Gateway Community College in New Haven  with a younger brother, Jacob, 5, who is in a version of the same student enrichment program in Fairfield County  said it was really exciting to see Biden, although she was hoping she would have reacted to the greeting.

Viewing the arrival from outside the Albertus Magnus gates, which were guarded by Secret Service agents, Varela also wished she could have met Biden and Cardona in person.

Several others in the neighborhood, located right on the seam where the citys tony Prospect Hill neighborhood drops into decidedly working class and poor Newhallville, had things they would have loved to have said to Biden, had they gotten the chance.

I dont know from politics. I dont even know who she is, said Sharif Mitchell, a single father of two who is trying to set his life right after spending some time in prison. Id just say hello and keep on going.

But after thinking about it for a moment, he added, Ask em if theyre hiring. I need a job, said Mitchell, who was visiting his sister from New York. Tell her Ive got two kids and I really need a job.

Winchester Avenue residents Errol and Ashley Hutson, who live right across the street, both had things they wanted to pass on to the first lady.

Id tell her theres no more middle class  theres only rich and poor  and its real hard out here for families, said Erroll Hutson.

Mark Zaretsky / Hearst Connecticut Media

Ashley Hutson said her son, Nassir, 4, was supposed to attend a similar enrichment program elsewhere in the city until it got canceled two days before it was to have begun because of a lack of staff.

Im happy that shes here, but I just wish we had known about the youth program that was being offered right across the street, she said.

U.S. Postal Service mail carrier Jasmine Barnes, who was informed of the first ladys visit before being sent out on her rounds as a relief carrier Wednesday morning, thought the first ladys visit was pretty exciting.

I was surprised when they told me, said Barnes, who usually works in West Haven.

If Barnes could speak to Biden for 30 seconds, she said, I would just tell her Thank you for everything she and her husband have done for us.

Four friends from the neighborhood, Ryan Tourangau, Savannah Roman, Miguel Garcia and Yandiel Garcia, initially didnt know what was going on, but saw the Secret Service agents with trained dogs so they walked over to check it out.

They didnt have a lot they would tell the first lady, but would love to say hello.

I would at least shake her hand and thank her, said Tourangau.

Id just say good afternoon and keep on pushin, said Roman.

Mark Zaretsky / Hearst Connecticut Media

Not far away, Miss Hill, as she asked to be called, and her son, Professor Marquise Hill, 10, were watching Bidens arrival through a chain link fence.

We need some autistic programs, she said. See, my son is autistic and we never have enough programs for him.

Winchester Avenue resident Carol McDonald, who works at Yale University, called the first ladys visit a great thing for Connecticut, New Haven and the neighborhoods.

If she had a moment to talk with Biden, I would just tell her that I was glad she came to New Haven, McDonald said. She also would tell her that students and their parents and grandparents should get a break on their student loans, she said.

mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com
Viktoria Sundqvist / Hearst Connecticut Media /

HARTFORD  A Waterbury man was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for selling heroin and cocaine in the Bridgeport area, according to federal prosecutors.

Michael Munn, 55, of Waterbury, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances on Jan. 15, 2020. He was released on $100,000 bond and is required to report to prison on Aug. 23, U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery said in a news release Wednesday.
HYDERABAD: Filmmaker Ramgopal Varma on Wednesday filed a complaint with the Panjagutta police against film producer N. Ravi Kumar Reddy, accusing him of attempting to extort, cheat, and cause financial losses to him by using a forged document.

In his complaint, Varma claimed that prior to the July 14 release of his new film Ladki, Ravi Kumar Reddy, representing Sivam Celluloids, had forged a letter of assurance purported to have been executed by Varma and filed a suit in City Civil Court to stall the films release.

Further, the film director complained that Ravi Kumar Reddys fabricated letterhead denoted Varma allegedly promising to pay Rs 1.33 crore to Sivam Celluloids.

RGV also stated that Ravi Kumar Reddy had obtained injunction orders from the High Court to halt the release of his new film based on the letterhead, which was a fabricated document with a forged signature.

RGV told the police that he discovered the forged document on July 18 when the arbitration papers were given to him, after which he challenged the court's orders in Civil Miscellaneous Appeal No. 325/2022 and had the ad-interim orders suspended on the same day.

According to Panjagutta police inspector Niranjan Reddy, RGV requested that the letterhead with the forged signatures be sent to Forensic Science Laboratories signature experts. The inspector stated that after obtaining legal advice, the necessary action will be taken in accordance with the law.
Penny Mordaunt claims that, as Minister for Women and Equalities, she was 'challenging the trans orthodoxy with real and genuine concern'.

She was doing nothing of the sort. And now with breathtaking hypocrisy she is trying to rewrite history.

I was there as a campaigner on behalf of women and children, and I could see exactly what was going on.

Penny Mordaunt now claims that in 2018 she launched an inquiry into the number of adolescent girls being sent to the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock clinics in London and Leeds.

Penny Mordaunt claims that, as Minister for Women and Equalities, she was 'challenging the trans orthodoxy with real and genuine concern'. She was doing nothing of the sort. And now with breathtaking hypocrisy she is trying to rewrite history

The Government Equalities Office which she headed was supposed to safeguard the rights of women as well as minority groups. What I saw, by contrast, was a Whitehall department in thrall to trans ideology  its language, its goals, its propaganda.

A senior civil servant once insisted to me that the department was wholly impartial, but that was nonsense. Whenever I tried to challenge their doctrines on transgender policy, I was treated with barely disguised hostility.

On one occasion, at a Parliamentary session organised by the Monmouth MP David Davies to discuss women's concerns, I was appalled to see two civil servants from the Government Equalities Office sitting behind him, openly sniggering.

When I tried to raise a point in meetings with the Government Equalities Office, the jargon employed by civil servants was blatantly biased. It was clear to me that their starting point was that 'trans women are women' and that any debate about spaces exclusively for women, such as toilets and changing rooms, always had to incorporate trans women as well.

Penny Mordaunt now claims that in 2018 she launched an inquiry into the number of adolescent girls being sent to the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock clinics in London (pictured) and Leeds. The Government Equalities Office which she headed was supposed to safeguard the rights of women as well as minority groups. What I saw, by contrast, was a Whitehall department in thrall to trans ideology  its language, its goals, its propaganda

The hostility I faced was palpable. This made it impossible to have a meaningful discussion, let alone come to balanced decisions on policy. It seems under Penny Mordaunt, these attitudes were never questioned.

Much more was not questioned. When trans activists such as the Mermaids charity presented statistics to the original transgender equality inquiry in 2015, it was accepted without being fact-checked.

Government staff seemed to think that to raise any doubts about its unimpeachable accuracy would be transphobic.

Figures about the number of trans teenagers who had seriously considered suicide, for example, were taken at face value, even though they were disputed by the Tavistock clinic.

It was not until Liz Truss took over as equalities minister in 2019 that I began to see some of the bias being stripped back.

It's bad enough that Miss Mordaunt was such an ineffectual defender of women's rights, and her department apparently eager to swallow anything trans campaigners said.

What's worse is her hypocrisy today, her pretence that she treated the trans bandwagon with scepticism.

Her claim last week that she demanded an 'inquiry' into the numbers being referred to the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock is not the full story. Their research, if you can call it that, turned out to be a few statistics that any Google search could have discovered in moments.

When I offered my assistance to that 'inquiry' in 2018, I was told that its purpose had been misreported. It was not 'an inquiry into the number of girls being referred'  it was evidence-gathering on 'the issues faced by people assigned female at birth who transition in adolescence'.

In other words, they weren't as alarmed by the numbers of girls questioning their gender identity, as Miss Mordaunt now claims. In my view it was just a box-ticking exercise.

And look at that jargon  'people assigned female at birth.' The Government's own equalities office can't bring itself to call a young female human simply 'a girl'.

Penny Mordaunt as Minister for Women and Equalities Penny Mordaunt arriving at 10 Downing Street to attend a Cabinet meeting in London on April 30, 2019. It was not until Liz Truss took over as equalities minister in 2019 that I began to see some of the bias being stripped back

She has to be an 'assigned female' as if her femaleness is something she will grow out of.

Women and girls are being erased. We're seeing female-only spaces disappear everywhere, from the bra-fitting department of M&S to women's prisons.

Mothers-to-be are 'birthing parents' and 'pregnant people', not women. Trans women are 'women' but pregnant women are 'people'. That sums up Penny Mordaunt.

The remit of organisations such as Stonewall and Pink News is to dispense with biological sex as the distinction between men and women, and replace it with gender self-identification. Both organisations were big fans of Penny Mordaunt.

Women who fight back are threatened on social media with rape and murder, and in the real world risk losing their jobs and their livelihoods.

At one Women's Place UK meeting I attended in Brighton, to discuss violence against women, we had to run the gauntlet of screaming trans activists who then banged on the windows all the way through the debate.

This was real intimidation and very frightening. The police refused to intervene.

Yet Penny Mordaunt, campaigning to be Britain's next prime minister, says she wants to stop talking about this 'toxic' subject and move on to issues of greater relevance to the majority of the British public.

The majority of the British public are women. We're sick of being treated as though our rights, and the safe spaces we fought so hard to win, are irrelevant. We will not be erased.

Stephanie Davies-Arai is the founder and director of Transgender Trend
In a society which claims to be based on science, and which often comes close to the actual worship of scientists, we actually only listen to scientists if we want to. Sometimes we pay close attention.

I well remember back in the mid-1980s the sudden, violent reversal of advice on avoiding cot death. Before then, though it is very hard to find anyone who will admit to this now, we were told sternly that we should lie our babies on their fronts to keep them safe. By the end of the decade, the advice was the exact opposite.

The treatment of stomach ulcers, for decades wrongly blamed on stress, was also revolutionised in the 1980s, when it was recognised they resulted from infection and could be treated with antibiotics.

Likewise, most doctors would now be horrified if they were asked to prescribe barbiturates, which were at one stage handed out in their millions as sleeping pills. What might we be prescribing now, which will one day horrify us?

Well. Our media and the medical profession simply dont know what to do about yesterdays emphatic news that supposed antidepressant pills do not in fact do what it says on the packet.

Our media and the medical profession simply dont know what to do about yesterdays emphatic news that supposed antidepressant pills do not in fact do what it says on the packet

These drugs have been prescribed by the tens of millions for decades, on the basis that human mood depends on levels of a chemical called serotonin, in the brain.

Modern antidepressant pills, of a type known as SSRIs, were said to raise serotonin levels, and so tackle depression. I will let you into a secret. Distinguished doctors have argued for years that the evidence for this claim is very weak indeed. Other experts have said that the unpleasant side-effects of SSRI antidepressants can be severe, and that many who take them undergo pain and misery if they decide to stop doing so.

Now the doubts have grown far stronger. Yesterday, the distinguished researchers of that great institution, University College London, declared the prescribing of these brightly coloured capsules is not grounded in science. They said that the serotonin theory is a false belief and that there is no convincing evidence of a link between serotonin levels and depression.

Professor Joanna Moncrieff, the consultant psychiatrist who led the study, put it bluntly: After a vast amount of research over decades, there is no convincing evidence depression is caused by serotonin abnormalities, particularly by lower levels or reduced activity of serotonin. Using language of quite devastating force, this distinguished doctor drove home her message, which was published in the learned journal Molecular Psychiatry and based on the analysis of studies involving tens of thousands of patients.

Thousands of people suffer from side-effects of antidepressants, including the severe withdrawal effects that can occur when people try to stop them, yet prescription rates continue to rise. We believe this has been driven partly by the false belief depression is due to a chemical imbalance. It is high time to inform the public that this belief is not grounded in science.

It could hardly be clearer. Yet the Times, which published this news prominently, also printed an astonishing editorial under the headline: Antidepressant medication works, even if the mechanism is not yet clear.

It might as well have said: Its time to stop paying so much attention to scientists. It suggested that, despite this devastating study, SSRIs still worked better for most people than sugar-pill placebos. This is a poor argument.

As long ago as 2010, the psychology professor (and placebo expert) Irving Kirsch used U.S. freedom of information laws to unearth unpublished experimental records of antidepressant trials. He found the difference between sugar pills and real drugs was statistically so small as to be meaningless.

The refusal by the Times to accept the verdict of science is, I suspect, the true voice of our establishment, many of whom take SSRI antidepressants

He concluded, in his book The Emperors New Drugs that: It seems beyond question that the traditional account of depression as a chemical imbalance in the brain is simply wrong.

The refusal by the Times to accept the verdict of science is, I suspect, the true voice of our establishment, many of whom take SSRI antidepressants. I would be surprised if this latest news will make much difference to the vast and growing prescription of such drugs to millions.

This is for several reasons. The first is, of course, that there is a lot of money in prescription drugs. But there are others: many of us are undoubtedly depressed, probably thanks to lifestyles that deprive us of the exercise, fresh air and sunlight humans need to be healthy.

And, having grown used to a society which offers some sort of cure for almost every ill, we very much want to believe the astonishing claims of doctors and drug companies that they have unlocked the mysteries of the mind with biochemistry.

We readily accept the claim we can regain contentment by swallowing a couple of capsules. The taking of mind-altering drugs is now actually a protected characteristic of our society known as Neurodiversity.

Another reason for this acceptance of happy pills is World War II, with its widespread use  on both sides  of mood-altering amphetamines by soldiers and civilians trying to cope with fear and exhaustion.

Thanks to this, many law-abiding people became more accustomed to the idea of changing their mood with a pill.

In the 1950s, the respectable, middle-aged middle classes moved on from amphetamines to tranquillisers such as the American drug Miltown.

This was so widespread that one adult in 20 in the U.S. admitted to having taken it by 1956; and then they went on to Diazepam (Valium was an example, and its use is still common under other names), the drug satirised by the Rolling Stones in their song about housewives dependent on tranquillisers, Mothers Little Helper. Mick Jagger sang: Doctor, please! Some more of these! Outside the door, she took four more.

But he also warned: If you take more of those, you will get an overdose. And then: No more running for the shelter of a Mothers Little Helper.

Teenagers of the time, beginning to take illegal drugs such as marijuana, loved that song because they liked to mock their finger-wagging elders for their legal drug habits.

One way or another, we have become far more used to the idea that taking some sort of consciousness-altering drug  legal, illegal or decriminalised  is normal and perhaps good.

Even children are now dosed with amphetamines such as Adderall, widely used in the U.S., or drugs very like amphetamines, such as Ritalin, widely prescribed in the UK. This is supposedly to improve their behaviour in school classrooms.

Criticise this, as I have done, and you will have your head chewed off by angry advocates of the drugging of the young

Criticise this, as I have done, and you will have your head chewed off by angry advocates of the drugging of the young.

Surprisingly few of those given such prescriptions object. Many become active advocates of them, continuing to take them into later life.

It is now 90 years since Aldous Huxley prophesied, in Brave New World, about a family-free society of incessant trivial pleasure, begun in mass nurseries, continued through unrestrained, childless sex, untroubled by curiosity, literature or religion and ended by assisted dying.

It is held together by the drug Soma, which (unlike SSRIs, marijuana, amphetamines and the rest) does its users no harm at all and has no hangover.

As Huxley described it: All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects . . . the warm, the richly coloured, the infinitely friendly world of Soma-holiday. There is always Soma, delicious Soma, half a gram for a half-holiday, a gram for a weekend, two grams for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon.

Huxley meant it as a warning against a kind of willing, self-imposed slavery. We seem to have taken it not as a threat but as a promise.
A student who was told she had a year to live after what she thought was 'fresher's flu' turned out to be a brain tumour has defied the odds to graduate from university.

Laura Nuttall, 22, thought she may never see her graduation after being diagnosed with a stage 4 glioblastoma during her first year of an international relations degree at University College London.

But after four years of treatment including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and three operations, Laura has graduated from Manchester University with a 2:1 in politics, philosophy and economics (PPE).

During her battle, Laura and her family have also been fundraising for treatment in Germany - a campaign that saw comedian Peter Kay come out of semi-retirement to back last summer.

Laura (left with her sister Gracie, right) graduated from the University of Manchester on Monday with a 2:1 in PPE despite living with a stage 4 glioblastoma

Laura, 22, pictured after one of her three operations to remove parts of her tumours, was determined to finish her degree after being diagnosed

Laura, from Lancashire, has become an ambassador for The Brain Tumour Charity since her diagnosis

Comedian Peter Kay came out of semi-retirement last summer to speak at a Q&A on behalf of Laura's fundraising drive

Speaking at her graduation ceremony on Monday, Laura said: 'I started my degree on chemotherapy and finished it on chemotherapy with two brain surgeries in between  but I've made it.'

Laura first began to feel unwell in October 2018 when she started to feel headaches and nausea.

She put her symptoms down to 'fresher's flu' but a routine eye test showed she had swelling in her optic nerve and she was referred to Moorfields Eye Hospital.

However things took a turn for the worse the following day when Laura began to be violently sick and she called her mother Nicola and sister Gracie to travel down south.

When they arrived they rushed Laura, who was barely conscious, to A&E where a CT scan revealed she had two brain tumours. The next day, a further scan revealed even more tumours in her brain.

Laura (pictured with her father Mark) said she could not have achieved any of the incredible things she has done without the support of her family

Laura (pictured with father Mark, sister Gracie and mother Nicola at her graduation) has said now is the time for rest as she has more chemotherapy scheduled soon

When Laura first received her diagnosis doctors told her she should abandon her studies because she only had a year to live - but the brave student has defied all the odds

During her battle to fund treatment in Germany, comedian Peter Kay even came out of semi-retirement last summer to host Q&A sessions in support of the fundraiser.

In March 2021 Laura had a second brain operation - after which her tumour grew back. By December she was back on the operating table, just one day before her 22nd birthday.

Despite four years of life-changing treatment Laura attended her graduation on Monday and braved sweltering temperatures to don her academic robes.

She said: 'If someone tells me I can't do something, it makes me even more determined to do it and prove them wrong  my family knows that all too well,

'So when a doctor told me that I wouldn't be able to go back to university, I thought; "we'll see about that" and it made me want to do my degree even more. Now here we are.'

Over the last four years Laura (left) has had chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and three operations to reduce the size of her tumours

Laura (pictured before her diagnosis) first had symptoms of a brain tumour when she started her degree at University College London in 2018

The diligent student put her headaches down to 'fresher's flu' until a routine eye test revealed swelling in her optic nerve

Since her diagnosis Laura has helped to campaign for greater awareness of brain tumour symptoms alongside The Brain Tumour Charity

Laura has ticked off several 'bucket list' requests since receving her diagnosis four years ago

Nicola, who described her daughter as 'amazing', said the scans revealed she was a 'ticking time bomb'.

Brain Tumours: The statistics and symptoms Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40 in the UK Over 12,000 people are diagnosed with a brain tumour in the UK each year, with almost 5,000 people still losing their lives to the disease per year There are over 120 different types of brain tumour, as classified by the World Health Organisation. Just 12% of adults survive for five years after a brain tumour diagnosis, with the disease continuing to reduce life expectancy by 27 years on average  the highest of any cancer. Common signs of brain tumours in adults Perisistent/recurring headaches Fatigue Seizures or fits Nausea/vomiting Memory issues Problems with vision Cognitive changes, such as difficulty concentrating, learning, decision making, planning and problem solving. Speech difficulties Loss of taste and smell Source: The Brain Tumour Charity Advertisement

The next month Laura had an operation to remove the largest tumour - but a biopsy revealed she had a glioblastoma, an incredibly aggressive brain tumour.

By December, the student was on a gruelling course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

After being told by a doctor she may only have a year to live and should forget about completing her studies, Laura became determined to complete her 'bucket list'.

Over the next few years, while having cancer treatment, she has met Michelle Obama, gone fishing with Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse and has stayed at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

She has also met veteran TV presenter Fiona Bruce and actress Gillian Anderson.

She added she couldn't have achieved any of it without support from her mother, sister and father Mark - but that now it was time for a rest.

She said: 'Im going to have some time out - Im on chemotherapy again and have another three months to go before I have my next scan.'

Nicola, 52, said: 'We're all bursting with pride to see Laura graduating. When she was diagnosed we thought that was the end of her university career.'

The mother added: 'Laura reaching that milestone looked impossible when she was given 12-18 months to live  it was unimaginable pain for the whole family.

'There have been really tough times over the last three years when she's struggled with sickness and chemo related fatigue.'

Nicola added Laura has studied hard through Covid lockdowns and while moving around between Airbnbs in Germany to finish her degree - but throughout it all the student has remained 'determined and focused'.

Laura (pictured as a child with her sister Gracie) has thanked her family for their support throughout her cancer battle

Laura (pictured as a child with her sister Gracie) has been fundraising to pay for pioneering treatment in Germany

Laura and her family have taken part in several fundraising events for The Brain Tumour Charity

The Brain Tumour Charity has launched a Better Safe than Tumour campaign to make people aware of the key symptoms of brain tumours

On top of completing her studies Laura has also become involved with The Brain Tumour Charity - and was voted their Young Ambassador of the Year.

During Glioblastoma Awareness Week she is backing the charity's Better Safe Than Tumour campaign which raises awareness of common signs of brain tumours.

'I count myself lucky as I was diagnosed quickly but I know others haven't been so fortunate,' Laura said.

'The Brain Tumour Charity's Better Safe Than Tumour campaign is so important to let people know about the possible warning signs of brain tumours and go to their GP.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the common signs and symptoms in children and adults, urging the public to get any concerning symptoms checked out by their GP.

Dr David Jenkinson, chief scientific officer at The Brain Tumour Charity, said: 'Everyone at the charity is incredibly proud of Laura's achievement in graduating and we were so lucky to have her as one of our Young Ambassadors  she is truly inspirational.'

He added the charity's new campaign comes as the number of people being diagnosed with brain tumours in the UK has increased by more than 50% in the last 20 years.

Laura's family is fundraising to pay for her pioneering treatment in Germany. To donate to their GoFundMe page, click here

To find out more about The Brain Tumour Charity's Better Safe than Tumour campaign, click here
New Delhi: As Sri Lanka battles an unprecedented economic and political crisis, the Government of India declared on Sunday that it stands with the people of Sri Lanka and that it was closely monitoring the evolving situation in the island nation. While watching the Sri Lankans work their way to resolving the crisis, the external affairs ministry said India had already given $3.8 billion in support to Sri Lanka this year to help it to overcome the serious economic crisis.

India is Sri Lankas closest neighbour and our two countries share deep civilisational bonds. We are aware of the many challenges that Sri Lanka and its people have been facing, and we have stood with the Sri Lankan people as they have tried to overcome this difficult period We continue to follow closely recent developments in Sri Lanka. India stands with the people of Sri Lanka as they seek to realise their aspirations for prosperity and progress through democratic means and values, established institutions and constitutional framework, MEA spokesman Arindam Bagchi said.

He said in pursuance of the central place Sri Lanka occupies in Indias Neighbourhood First policy, New Delhi had given unprecedented support of over $ 3.8 billion this year to ameliorate the serious economic situation in Sri Lanka. In the latest step, India has provided more than 44,000 MT of urea to Sri Lanka supplied under a credit line. Indian high commissioner in Colombo Gopal Baglay stressed this latest assistance by India symbolises continued commitment to support Sri Lankas people, including its farmers, and bolster the efforts for food security.

Several Indian political parties urged the government to proactively help crisis-ridden Sri Lanka. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday urged the government and the international community to come forward and help Sri Lanka, where protesters took over the presidential palace on Saturday and set on fire the Prime Ministers house to pressure them to step down.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who has fled the presidential palace and even announced he would quit on July 13, on Sunday ordered his officials to ensure the smooth distribution of cooking gas after the fuel-starved country received 3,700 metric tonnes of LP gas.

The Indian National Congress has been following with concern the evolving political situation in Sri Lanka. The economic challenges, rising prices and shortage of food, fuel and essential commodities have caused enormous hardships and distress among the people there. The Congress expresses its solidarity with Sri Lanka and its people in this moment of grave crisis and hopes they will be able to overcome it. We hope that India will continue to assist the people and government of Sri Lanka as they deal with the difficulties of the current situation. The Congress also urges the international community to extend all assistance and support to Sri Lanka, Mrs Gandhi said in a statement.

External affairs minister S. Jaishankar said India was trying to help but Sri Lankans too were working through their problem and that India was watching the situation closely. Mr Jaishankar said: We have been supportive of Sri Lanka, are trying to help and have always been helpful. They are working through their problem, and we will see what happens. He added that there was no refugee crisis as of now.

While reacting to the turmoil in Lanka, the European Union called for a solution to the current crisis and return to normalcy, while the United States, in an official statement, said that the Sri Lankan people have the right to peacefully raise their voices.

As the Sri Lankan protesters laid siege to major government landmarks of the nearly defunct administration, several countries have asked their citizens to avoid non-essential travel to the island nation. The Chinese embassy asked its citizens not to participate in or watch any protests.
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Mr Stangryciuk, 100, had his war medals stolen in a robbery of his home

The war veteran survived a plane crash which left him with horrific burns

Jan Stangryciuk, originally came to Poland in 1942 to join the RAF and fight Nazis

A 100-year-old RAF veteran who had his war medals stolen said the robbery was a 'terrific shock' for him and his wife.

Jan Stangryciuk, who lives in Ealing, West London, discovered his war medals were missing after he let three men posing as workers from a water company into his house.

Mr Stangryciuk also realised the men had taken thousands of pounds in cash he had saved for a trip back to Poland, as well as jewellery with sentimental value.

Jan Stangryciuk, 100, originally from Poland but now living in Ealing, West London, was the victim of a heartless robbery

George Byczynski, a friend of the war hero who met him through the Polish community, has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Mr Stangryciuk and his wife

Speaking to Ranvir Singh and Ed Balls on Good Morning Britain, Mr Stangryciuk, originally from Poland, said he let the men into his house thinking he could trust them.

The war hero, who brought his telegram from the Queen for reaching his 100th birthday to the studio added he had been saving money at home, which had now been stolen.

Mr Stangryciuk said: 'I wanted to have a few pounds saved and of course it was a shock for me that such a thing happened.'

He added: 'I thought the people who committed the crime probably should have more respect for my old age.'

Jan was born in Eastern Poland in 1922 before moving to Argentina with his family at the age of 12. While living there, he volunteered for the Polish armed forces.

Mr Stangryciuk thanked the GMB presenters for their interest in his story

The war hero proudly donned some of his war medals as he told of how the other medals were stolen

In 1942 when he was 20 years old Mr Stangryciuk arrived by ship to Belfast where he joined the RAF.

While training, one of the veteran's flights crashed. Despite his best efforts to save the crew, Mr Stangryciuk was the only survivor.

The war hero was left with horrific burns which left him in hospital for months, and underwent 20 operations to reconstruct his face.

Despite the trauma of what he had lived through Mr Stangryciuk remained strong - but terror struck once more last month when he and his wife were robbed.

Since the traumatic incident Mr Stangryciuk's friend George Byczynski, who met him through the Polish community in West London, has rallied support for the veteran and helped raise more than 13,000 to replace the money that was stolen.

Describing Mr Stangryciuk as a 'living legend' he said the war veteran was an 'incredible person'.

Speaking about what happened to his friend, he said: 'There are a couple of bad apples but when you go on the fundraiser on GoFundMe page then you see over 400 that were putting in money to help.'

As he told his story to the GMB presenters, Mr Stangryciuk thanked them for their interest in his story and for taking the time to speak to them.

He added: 'I'm used to surviving in difficult days and I still try to do that.'
A bride-to-be was left shocked when she asked a pal ho studies graphic design to create wedding invitations for her - and the results were so bad that they friendship is now over.

Posting on the That's It, I'm Wedding Shaming forum on Reddit, an anonymous poster from the US shared pictures of the very basic designs.

It was unclear what exactly the bride had asked her friend to design, but the anonymous poster said that she felt that the invites looked as though they had been made on Microsoft Word.

They wrote: 'Bride asked a friend of hers who was studying graphic design to design her invites. This looks like Times New Roman [font] on a snowflake background!'

The anonymous poster put up photographs of the very basic invites on American-based discussion site Reddit

The sticky situation was saved by the bride's mother, who stepped in to sort out the invitations.

'Bride's mom (who is not good with computers) ended up designing MUCH BETTER invites on some wedding website herself,' they explained.

The invitations designed by the bride's mother were not shared on the post.

Understandably, the invite mishap caused some awkwardness between the bride-to-be and her friend and they are no longer pals.

Adding to the post further, the anonymous user revealed: '[The bride] was offering to pay [her friend].

'When my friend saw these "samples" and decided to politely tell her she didn't need her services anymore, the 'friend' wrote a b****y Facebook status about 'needing a beer because of certain people wasting her time.''

Understandably, the invite mishap caused some awkwardness between the bride-to-be and her friend and they are no longer pals. The anonymous poster explained that after her friend told the graphic design student she did not need her services anymore, she wrote a b****y Facebook status

People were left bemused by the very simple invites - and some said they could have been designed by a child.

One person, who is a graphic designer, claimed that even people with very little skill can secure a place at college or university.

They added that there are few prerequisites for getting into a program and that people with no passion, creativity and 'abysmal' skills are passed so that they can keep getting their money.

The poster added that after graduation they find out that they were scammed, adding; 'The misplaced capitalization and misplaced typography makes me think this was legitimately "designed" in Word.'

People were left bemused by the very simple invites- and some said they could have been designed by a child. One quipped that the bride-to-be should have waited for her friend to finish her degree

Another person quipped: 'That "friend" hates the bride' while a third added: 'I made our wedding invitations in word and they looked better than that (no graphic design background). That looks like a "I only have 5 minutes to finish this" project.'

A separate poster penned: 'This was not made with love.'

Meanwhile, someone else wrote: 'Aha they should have waited for the friend to FINISH her degree.

'At least it wasn't done in Wingding.'
A Spanish bar has sparked outrage for charging customers a cover charge for every time the waiter comes to the table on its outdoor terrace  and even making them pay for cutlery.

Blas Galey Hermoso, from Andalucia, Spain, was faced with the surprising bill after enjoying some holiday drinks at The Imperial Bar in Zamora, northwest Spain.

While it is standard practice in Europe to have a cover charge to drink on a terrace, he was baffled at having to pay and extra 20 cents every single time the waiter brought items to the table.

What made the situation even more confusing was being charged an extra 1 for the use of cutlery.

A Spanish bar sparked outrage for charging customers a cover charge for drinking on the terrace  and even making them pay for cutlery

He posted about the charges on Twitter in November last year and it quickly went viral, and the charge still seems to be in place with other tourists sharing similar experiences in the time since.

He posted: 'Something strange happened to us a few days ago in Benavente.

'Every time the waiter came to the terrace table to bring something: beer, the tapa  he charged us 20 cents.

'The last straw was the euro that he charged us to [bring] some cutlery to cut a toast that we had ordered.'

Blas Galey Hermoso, from Bailen, Andalucia, Spain, was faced with the shocking bill after enjoying some holiday drinks at The Imperial Bar in Zamora

The customer revealed he was not only charged an additional 20 cents (17p) every time the waiter went to his table but also an extra Euro (0.85) for the use of cutlery

The restaurant claimed the extra charge was for every drink that was served rather than every time the waiter went to the table.

Speaking to Spanish News the bar said it's common practice for venues to charge an extra fee for service on the terrace.

Some more customers had the same experience as Blas and took to Google reviews to explain.

One person said: 'They charged me for cutlery service and the amazing thing we ordered several beers and they charged us 20 cents for each trip of the waiter to come and bring them.

Many people also flocked to social media to voice their outrage and some even suggested the charges may have been 'illegal'

Another customer said: 'It must have changed owners, now they charge you for each time a waiter serves you.'

To which the owner of the bar replied: 'J. Manuel the waiter charges for each service.

'Every time a drink is served to you on the terrace, it carries a surcharge of 20c, perhaps it is easier to put a full price, but we believe that it is better you know what you pay and, we feel that this is your appreciation.

'Surely if you told the waiter he would have explained it to you, it will not happen to us again. We will correct what is wrong. We want our bar to be a place of enjoyment and not where you leave angry not because of the price that we understand is fair but because it is badly explained.'

Many people believed that the supplement on the terrace is 'normal' with people saying it is done a lot in Spain

Many people also flocked to social media to voice their outrage and some even suggested the charges may have been 'illegal.'

One person said: 'The supplement on the terrace is normal but I freak out with the cutlery thing. As they say around here you should have called the municipal authorities and put a claim sheet and not because of the euro, it is because of the fact itself.'

'Charging 4.5 for a beer can be expensive, or cheap, depending on other factors, but charging for each time the waiter goes out to the terrace or for a cutlery is directly illegal.'

Some more customers had a similar experience to Blas and they took to Google reviews to explain

Someone wrote: 'One solution would be to tell the waiter not to bring me the order in small drops, bring me the entire order at once, that way they would only charge 20 cents. Although the perfect solution would be to NEVER GO TO THAT RESTAURANT.'

While some people were shocked by the charge others said it was completely normal.

With one person writing: 'No gentleman, you have not been charged for the walks, they have charged you the terrace supplement for each of the drinks you have ordered, and the covered service, something totally normal. If you are not satisfied the next time you drink it in bar.'

Another wrote: 'Well, at first it's shocking... but thinking about it, the prices are not expensive and then there is the typical family: can you bring me a straw for the child's must? Can you bring me another fork that I dropped on the floor? ....so that they think about it before calling the waiter 200 times.'

While someone else said the terrace service charge is normal, however the cutlery charge was a step too far.

They said: 'The terrace thing seems normal to me that they charge you, but every time the waiter comes? And for asking for a knife? The cutlery must be put with what the client asks for, and not charge an extra for the cutlery.'

Mail Online has contacted The Imperial Bar for comment.
Princess Charlene of Monaco bucked tradition today as she showed her shoulders in a boat-necked black gown for a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

The mother-of-two, 44, could be seen bowing her head as she walked through the San Damaso courtyard with her husband Prince Albert, 64, following the meeting.

Normal protocol for papal audiences require that ladies wear a long black dress with a high collar and long sleeves, and a black mantilla.

However visiting the Vatican today, the royal appeared to wear a strapless black gown with a boat-necked sheer top for the occasion.

The visit came as the royal, who was born and raised Protestant but converted to Roman-Catholicism 'of her own free will and choice' in April 2011, continues her return to public life after an 11 month absence last year.

Earlier this week, she joined Albert at the 73rd Red Cross Gala in Monte Carlo - having previously missed the Monaco Rose Ball, which is one of the highlights of the principality's social calendar.

Princess Charlene of Monaco donned an elegant black lace gown today as she joined her husband Prince Albert for a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican

Inside the Vatican, Prince Albert and Princess Charlene could be seen speaking with Pope Francis during the private audience

It's not the first time she has worn something which bucked the normal tradition.

In 2016, Princess Charlene visited the Vatican in an all-white outfit as it was revealed she is one of only seven people allowed to don the colour while meeting Pope Francis.

Called le privilege du blanc in French or il privilegio del biacno in Italian, the special tradition is extended solely to designated Catholic queens and princesses and is usually reserved for important events at the Vatican such as private audiences, canonisations, beatifications and special masses.

Princess Charlene is bestowed this privilege, along with Queen Sofia of Spain, Queen Paola of Belgium, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Queen Letizia of Spain and Princess Marina of Naples.

Visiting the Vatican today, the royal opted to wear an off-the-shoulder black gown for the occasion

Charlene has long spoken of how her faith has offered significant comfort during challenging periods.

She said last summer that her decision to convert to Roman-Catholicism was because she found strength in the religion and it was part of Grimaldi tradition.

Visitors are required to wear 'casual but modest dress' to meet the Pope - but normal protocol calls for ladies to wear a long black dress with a high collar and long sleeves While a mantilla is considered standard wear for women meeting the Pope, Catholic women often wear them for other religious occasions as well. The veil serves several purposes, including covering a woman's physical beauty 'so that the beauty of God may be glorified instead,' according to Catholic Company. It also serves to emulate Mary, 'the archetype of purity and humility,' and to show 'reverence and piety while in the presence of God.' Black lace is worn by married or widowed women, while unmarried women and young girls wear white lace. Mantillas used to be required for women attending Mass; however, since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), they are just encouraged. While black clothing and a veil are considered appropriate for women meeting the Pope, the official dress code for a papal audience is less detailed. Explicitly required is 'casual but modest dress.' For women, this can include trousers, capri pants, skirts, and dresses, though bottoms must be knee length and shoulders must be covered. Advertisement

'Catholicism is the state religion [in Monaco]. But for me, it represents much more. The values of this religion profoundly touch me and correspond perfectly to my spirit,' People reported.

Charlene's first state visit to the Vatican was in January 2013 along with Prince Albert.

The royal couple's visit marked the 55th anniversary of the meeting of his parents, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco with Pope Pius XII in 1957.

The royal said the 'experience was extremely intense and moving for me'.

The couples visit today comes as Charlene continues to slowly re-enter royal life after largely remaining out of the public eye over the last 18 months.

Rumours have swirled that she is receiving 10million a year to appear at her husband's side at official engagements.

She spent 10 months in her native South Africa last year after contracting a sinus infection that later required surgery.

She returned to Monaco in November but was there for a matter of days before leaving for a Swiss treatment facility. The exact nature of her condition was not made public but Albert said she was 'exhausted'.

Since returning once again, the mother-of-two has made a handful of appearances including a recent solo engagement to a maternity ward.

Charlene and Albert's relationship has come under enormous scrutiny in recent months.

Prince Albert said he was 'hurt by the vicious rumours' peddled about his marriage following his wife's absence and said that it's the 'most beautiful thing' to have her back with him.

Major French outlets that specialise in celebrity news said Charlene's sudden re-appearance was welcomed by all Royal watchers.

'But the Princess did not return at any price,' magazine Voici reported. 'She would have had her husband sign an ultra-confidential contract.'

The revelations were followed up by rival publication Paris Match Belgium, which wrote: 'Prince Albert would himself pay a tidy sum to the princess so that she appears at his side at public events.'

The Royal Palace in Monte Carlo refuses to discuss specific financial arrangements, but the principality pays out some 40m a year to cover the institution's running costs.

Pope Francis arrived in the San Damaso courtyard at the Vatican prior to a private audience alongside a masked driver

The royal couple appeared in good spirits as they arrived side-by-side ahead of the audience today

The mother-of-two bowed her head as she arrived at the Vatican earlier this morning for the audience

Princess Charlene, who converted to Catholicism in 2011, wore a black off the shoulder gown with a nude pair of heels for the outing

Meanwhile Prince Albert opted for a smart black suit with a pale baby blue tie for the meeting with the Pope

The couples visit today comes as Charlene continues to slowly re-enter royal life after largely remaining out of the public eye over the last 18 months

As they arrived earlier today, the royal couple were welcomed by Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, a papal aide

In keeping with tradition, Princess Charlene wore a black mantilla across her short blonde locks for the event this morning

Royals are not salaried officials, however, meaning that Charlene would be reliant on Albert  a billionaire in his own right  for her own spending money.

A Royal insider based in Monte Carlo told Mail Online: 'Of course the Princess enjoys huge perks, but ready cash is not guaranteed.

'She's been through a very difficult time, so it would make sense for Charlene to try and secure her own guaranteed income.'

Prince Albert said the time apart was 'a test for his wife' but they 'spoke often, despite the distance.

Charlene first had a 10-month absence in her native South Africa, where she contracted and was hospitalised for a serious sinus infection that delayed her return to Monaco.

Meanwhile the mother-of-two also opted to wear a large cross and set of rosary beads for the meeting

Prince Albert and Princess Charlene walked alongside one another through the San Damaso courtyard as they left following a private audience with Pope Francis

After her return to the principality in November, Charlene left almost immediately to receive treatment for 'exhaustion' at a Swiss clinic.

The Monaco palace has consistently denied media reports of a rift between Charlene and the principality's ruler Prince Albert, who were wed in 2011, following the princess' long absence.

Speaking to French Sunday paper Journal de Dimanche last month, Albert said the last year was 'a test for my wife especially, who suffered greatly and lived through difficult times, far from her family. A test also for our children and for myself.

'We missed the princess a lot. And we were obviously hurt by the malicious rumours that were peddled. But we were able to stay united despite the distance, we spoke to each other often.'

He added: 'Today, Charlene is back with us and this is the most beautiful thing which could have happened. She's better, we can finally spend time together. It is a relief and a joy for all of us.'

At one stage, Prince Albert put sunglasses on to avoid the bright glare of the summer sunshine in the courtyard

Princess Charlene, who has previously spoken of how her faith has helped her through challenging times, bowed her head as she walked through the courtyard

The mother-of-two could be seen bowing her head as she walked through the San Damaso courtyard with Prince Albert following the meeting

The mother-of-two appeared pensive following the meeting with Pope Francis earlier this morning (left and right)

Charlene said last summer that her decision to convert to Roman-Catholicism was because she found strength in the religion and it was part of Grimaldi tradition

Princess Charlene met Prince Albert in 2000 during a swimming competition in Monaco and the pair married in 2011, before welcoming twins Gabriella and Jacques in 2014.

Born in Rhodesia - a previously unrecognised state in Southern Africa colonised by the British, she relocated to South Africa aged 11.

She had a successful swimming career and went on to win three gold medals and a silver medal at the 1999 All Africa Games in Johannesburg, as well as representing South Africa at the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games and winning a silver medal in the 4  100 m medley relay in the latter competition.

However the pair's marriage has made numerous headlines over the years, with a third paternity suit emerging in December 2020.

The couple appeared in good spirits as they waited for their car in the courtyard following the private audience

Soon afterwards Charlene famously shaved half her head in the style of a punk rocker. Months later she left for South Africa.

The allegations in December 2020 claimed that Albert had fathered a love-child (which would be his third, if proven) with an unnamed Brazilian woman during the time when he and Charlene were already in a relationship.

He has also fathered two other children outside of wedlock. Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, who is now 29 and the result of Albert's affair with an American estate agent, and Alexandre Coste, 18, whose mother is a former Togolese air hostess.

Both children were struck off Monaco's line of succession in return for vast financial settlements.
A grieving father whose teenage daughter took her own life has said 'every day is hard' after also losing his wife four months later.

Mariano Janin's daughter Mia, 14, died by suicide after her first day back at the Jewish Free School in Kenton, North London after a Covid lockdown on 12 March 2021.

Her loving father, who described his daughter as 'bubbly', appeared on This Morning to talk about his battle to have Mia's social media platforms unlocked.

He believes that Mia was up late online the night she passed away and suspects she was being subject to bullying.

Mariano Janin has been battling to unlock his daughter's phone and social media accounts since she took her life in March 2021

Mr Janin described Mia as a 'bubbly' girl who had just been invited on a holiday to Greece with her best friend from school

Speaking to presenters Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary, Mr Janin said Mia seemed excited to go back to school and had just been invited on a summer holiday to Greece with her best friend, Evie.

But when she took her own life, he and his wife Marisa fell apart.

Mr Janin told the presenters: 'Four months after my daughter passed away, my wife suddenly passed away as well. She couldn't cope with it.

Marisa Janin died of cancer, which Mr Janin believes came on suddenly due to the stress she was under after Mia's death.

'At the moment it's just me and my son. It's hard every day.'

He added he is desperately searching for answers as to why his daughter died, but said he hasn't been able to get into to her social media accounts.

'The problem is, we need access to [her] phone,' he said.

Mr Janin appeared on This Morning talking of his battle to unlock Mia's phone to find out if she was being cyber-bullied

Mr Janin appeared alongside NSPCC's Andy Burrows, who claimed social media companies are avoiding their responsibility to grieving families

Andy Burrows, head of child safety online policy at the NSPCC, said Mariano's battle is a common problem grieving families have.

He said: 'There's a legal process that kicks in whereby the [tech] companies have to meet the requests for data.

'Even though this process has ben streamlined it takes many many months its in the hands of lawyers in these tech companies.'

He added the Online Safety Bill, which was originally due to be voted on in the House of Commons today but has now been shelved, would have put the responsibility on social media companies to comply with requests like Mr Janin's.

In June, the bereaved father implored parents and pupils at Mia's school to come forward with any information that might help explain Mia's death.

He told The Times: 'This whole experience has been a nightmare that is too horrible to explain. Every day feels as though I am living in slow motion. Parents with information  please take it to the coroner.'

He recalled driving Mia to school the morning of the day she died, and said she was excited to go back after spending so long being homeschooled.

But when she came back home that day, Mia asked her parents if she could change schools.

Later that night and shortly before she took her own life, Mr Janin believes his daughter logged onto an app - either Houseparty or Yolo.

Today he told This Morning he believes data from Mia's phone has finally been unlocked, but it took more than a year for the information to be released.

'At the moment we are in the inquest process,' he explained.

'We have a hearing in September waiting to see what is found on the phone.'

He added the family now needs 'closure' about what happened to the teenager.

Mr Janin said: 'I need to find out whats happened with Mia and I want to know the truth.

'Then I would like to get some justice if I can.'

Dr David Moody, headteacher of the Jewish Free School, told the programme: 'Like the family, the school is waiting for the findings of the external investigations to be published.

'We hope the publication will be as soon as possible.'

If you are struggling and need mental health help, you can call The Samaritans helpline which is open 24/7 on 116 123.
Grace Kelly's granddaughter Camille Gottlieb celebrated her 24th birthday with a pink cowboy themed party.

The royal, whose mother Princess Stephanie of Monaco is the younger sister of reigning Prince Albert, shared snaps of her fun-filled bash on Instagram yesterday.

The photos show the stylisth 20-something posing with a large pink and white floral display, and pouting for the camera in a cowboy hat.

Yehaw! Camille Gottlieb celebrated her 24th birthday with a pink cowboy themed party and shared the fun-filled photos on Instagram. Pictured, Camille (left) poses with a friend

Blooming lovely! Camille, whose mother Princess Stephanie of Monaco is the younger sister of Prince Albert, was given a spectacular display of pink and white roses for the occasion

Camille is the daughter of Stephanie and former palace security guard Jean Raymond Gottlieb, who is understood to have been head of the princess's security detail when they started a relationship. Pictured, the couple in 1997

Another snap shows the birthday girl being given a kiss on the cheek by dashing fashion designer Andrea Del Monaco.

Camille is the daughter of Stephanie and former palace security guard Jean Raymond Gottlieb, who is understood to have been head of the princess's security detail when they started a relationship.

Although Camille shares Gottlieb's surname, his name is not on her birth certificate and Stephanie has never publicly confirmed that he is Camille's father.

However Camille herself has identified Gottlieb, a former Paris gendarme, as her father in a gushing birthday post shared on Instagram in 2017.

A kiss for the birthday girl! Another snap shows the birthday girl being given a kiss on the cheek by dashing fashion designer Andrea Del Monaco

Pucker up! Camille shared another playful snap with a friend to mark her birthday last week

Fit for a princess! The royal was treated to an extraordinary birthday cake topped with fresh flowers, fruit and macarons. Camille often shares snaps of her glamorous life on Instagram

As Stephanie and Gottlieb never married, Camille is not in the line of succession to the Monegasque throne, unlike Stephanie's two elder children, Louis, 29, and Pauline, 28, whom she shares with her first husband, bodyguard Daniel Ducruet.

When Camille was three years old, Stephanie began a relationship with married elephant trainer Franco Knie and moved, along with her three children, into Knie's circus caravan.

However the relationship came to an end the following year and Stephanie returned with her children to Monaco.

Family ties: Prince Albert spoke about how he called on his sisters Stephanie (right) and Caroline (left) for support during his wife's extended absence. Pictured, during Monaco Day celebrations in 2021

Night out: On Monday Camille joined her uncle Prince Albert and his wife Charlene at the Red Cross Gala in Monte Carlo. The birthday girl looked elegant in a black and gold dress and carried a chic black clutch bag

In 2003 Stephanie married Portuguese acrobat Adans Lopez Peres, who had been a member of Knie's circus, but the marriage ended in 2004.

The princess recently stepped up to take a more active role in the lives of Prince Albert's children while their mother Princess Charlene was in South Africa, then in Switzerland receiving in-patient treatment.

Prince Albert spoke about how he called on his sisters Stephanie and Caroline for support during his wife's extended absence.

On Monday Camille joined her uncle Prince Albert and his wife Charlene at the Red Cross Gala in Monte Carlo.

The birthday girl looked elegant in a black and gold dress and carried a chic black clutch bag.
An Airbnb host has revealed how every landlord's nightmare came true for him when 'guests from hell' managed to wreck his rental property in North London - in just one night of partying.

The 41-year-old property owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, shared footage of what greeted him when he arrived at the holiday rental after the guests had checked out.

He says he faced scenes of carnage, with nearly 5,000 of damage caused by the people who'd rented it - after pleas for the group to calm their revelry the previous evening had clearly been ignored.

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An anonymous Airbnb host in North London shared footage on TikTok of the devastation left by guests, who stayed in his home for just one night, leaving a broken wardrobe, sofa and laughing gas canisters everywhere

The holiday rental landlord was greeted with canisters of nitrous oxide - commonly known as 'laughing gas', with neighbours warning of loud music from 7pm on the evening the guests checked in

The host claims his tourists 'from hell' caused 5,000 worth of damage during their one night stay, saying he can't rent the property out until repairs have been made

A brand new sofa was also left disjointed, the Airbnb host posted a clip of what he found on social media and has seen it go viral

Alongside a broken wardrobe, broken blind and bags of rubbish everywhere there were also multiple discarded cans of nitrous oxide - commonly known as 'laughing gas'.

The horror guests booked the property on the day of their stay and allegedly smashed huge holes in a wardrobe door, broke a sofa and damaged blinds.

Cigarette butts and cans of Fastgas were also found scattered across the home.

The 41-year-old host said he received noise complaints from local residents about the guests and now hopes that Airbnb's insurance will cover the cost of the damage.

However, he says he's been left out of pocket after being unable to let the property out to other guests due to the damage.

The kitchen, as it was left: The host reached out to the guests on Airbnb and asked them to follow the house rules but they didn't respond

A plant pot was used as an ashtray during the guests stayed, some who've seen the video say the landlord should name and shame them

He told MailOnline: 'I have a couple Airbnb's and I've done it for a couple of years and I've never seen anything like it.

'At around 7pm, I received complaints from neighbours that the music was very loud and that they had gas balloons outside the property.

'I reached out to the guest on Airbnb and asked them to follow the house rules but they didn't respond. I drove past the property later and saw what the neighbours had said.

He said attempts to contact them via Airbnb saw the tourist rental company told 'there was nothing going on and they weren't having a party.'

Blind cords were also pulled away from the blinds at the property in North London

Fearing that the situation might escalate if he called the police, the landlord decided to wait until the next morning but got the shock of his life when he arrived at his property.

'I hoped Airbnb would calm things down but I was wrong. I went in the next day after they'd checked out to find they'd broken my brand new three seater sofa, a two door cupboard, three or four blind pullers and that the walls and floors were damaged.

He added: 'I'd never seen anything like this before, I was pretty shocked.'

A video of the damage was posted on TikTok on Sunday describing the party-goers as the 'guests from hell'. The clip has attracted over 21,000 views and dozens of comments from shocked viewers.

One said: 'Ouch, I feel you.' Another added: 'I hope that you have enough of a deposit to cover this'.

Others said the landlord should 'name and shame' the perpetrators.
Prince William's Earthshot Prize will be held in Boston this year in honour of President John F Kennedy's Moon Shot challenge, Kensington Palace has announced.

The annual ceremony, first launched in London in 2021, will take place in early December and has raised the odds that both the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, both 40, may travel to the US for a short trip.

Inspired by Kennedys Moon Shot proposal in the 1960s, which put the first man on the moon and led to the development of new technology, the Earthshot Prize is set to award 50 million in rewards over 10 years.

The Duke's environmental initiative aims to find solutions to repair and protect the planet - with five winners in 2021 being awarded 1million to support their schemes - such as projects to restore coral reefs and combat air pollution in India.

Prince William appeared in a short social media video today to announce Boston as this year's host. Kennedy was born just outside the city.

Prince William's Earthshot Prize will be held in Boston this year in honour of President John F Kennedy's Moon Shot challenge, Kensington Palace has announced

The annual ceremony, first launched in London in 2021 (pictured, William and Kate at the event), will take place in early December and has raised the odds that both the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, both 40, may travel to the US for a short trip

Fittingly, the announcement comes on the anniversary of the moon landing, and the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation will serve as host partner alongside Mayor Michelle Wu and the City of Boston.

On 12 September, 1962, in a landmark speech at Rice University, President Kennedy issued a soaring challenge to the country: to land a man on the moon within a decade and bring them safely back to Earth.

In July 1969, the Apollo 11 mission successfully landed the first two human beings on the moon. Sixty years later, that 'spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship and service' continues in Boston, said the palace.

'There is no more important Moonshot today than repairing the planet and no better place to harness the Moonshot spirit than the City of Boston,' said Caroline Kennedy, the former president's daughter and a US ambassador to Australia.

'It is a great tribute to President Kennedy that The Earthshot Prize will partner with the JFK Library Foundation to host the 2022 ceremony in Boston and inspire a new generation with the possibility of a sustainable future.'

Mayor Wu said: 'In Boston, were not just aiming to improve Bostons ability to tackle climate change - were setting an example for how imaginative, community-driven climate leadership can reshape whats possible.

Inspired by Kennedys Moon Shot proposal in the 1960s, which put the first man on the moon and led to the development of new technology, the Earthshot Prize is set to award 50 million in rewards over 10 years

Prince William appeared in a short social media video today to announce Boston as this year's host

'We are honoured and excited that Boston has been selected to host the 2022 Earthshot Awards.

'This is an opportunity to shine a global spotlight on our efforts to combat climate change and demonstrate that, together, we can meet the urgency this moment demands with innovative solutions that protect our planet and future generations.'

Each year, the Earthshot Prize aims to find and reward solutions to five Earthshot goals  Protect and restore nature; Clean our air; Revive our oceans; Build a waste-free world; and Fix our climate.

Each winner will receive 1 million to scale their solutions.

In 2021, sources claimed William and wife Kate are 'very focused on having a high profile in US' after 'their popularity took a dive because of the Oprah interview'.

Insiders told Vanity Fair's Katie Nicholl that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are highly likely to make a high profile visit across the pond in an effort to boost their popularity.

Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge arrive at the Earthshot awards ceremony in London, on October 17, 2021

The source added: '[They] are aware that their popularity took a bit of a dive post the Oprah interview, and that the focus now is on getting that support back.'

During the explosive interview in March last year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex sent shockwaves through the Royal Family when Meghan said that Kate had made her cry, and alleged one royal insider had questioned what colour their son Archie's skin would be.

The insider added that the couple were highly sensitive about the impact the explosive interview had on their profile.

The Duke and Duchess' last official visit to the US was to New York in December 2014 when Kate was pregnant with Princess Charlotte. They previously visited California at the end of a tour to Canada in 2011.

It is unknown if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would visit California to meet with Meghan and Harry if they were in the US.
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Ivanka Trump put on an elegant display in a figure-hugging black dress as she arrived at her mother, Ivana Trump's funeral alongside her half-sister, Tiffany Trump, her sister-in-law, Lara Trump, Donald Trump Jr.'s partner Kimberly Guilfoyle - and his ex-wife Vanessa Trump.

Hoards of Ivana's loved ones have come out to commemorate her during an emotional funeral service in New York City New York City on Wednesday.

Described as a 'celebration of life,' the first wife of Former President Donald Trump was honored at St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic church on Lexington Avenue at 1:30pm.

Ivana's immediate family - including her ex-husband, Donald, as well as their three kids - stopped by Frank Campbell Funeral Home in the Upper East Side of Manhattan to say their final goodbyes, before they headed to the church for the service.

Her daughter, Ivanka, 40, was accompanied by husband, Jared Kushner, 41, and their two sons - Joseph Frederick, eight, and Theodore James, six - at the funeral home. Their daughter, Arabella Rose, 11, was not in attendance.

Ivana's son Eric Trump, 38, was also spotted alongside his wife, Lara, 39, and their two kids, Eric Luke, four, and Carolina Dorothy, two, while her eldest, Donald Jr., 44, was joined by his fiancee Kimberly, 53.

Ivanka Trump put on an elegant display in a figure-hugging black dress as she arrived at her mother, Ivana Trump's funeral alongside her sister-in-law Lara Trump, Donald Trump Jr.'s partner Kimberly Guilfoyle - and his ex-wife Vanessa Trump

Hoards of Ivana's loved ones have come out to commemorate her during an emotional funeral service in New York City on Wednesday

Ivana's immediate family stopped by Frank Campbell Funeral Home in the Upper East Side of Manhattan to say their final goodbyes, before they headed to St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic church for the service

Her only daughter, Ivanka, 40, was accompanied by husband, Jared Kushner, 41, and their two sons - Joseph Frederick, eight, and Theodore James, six - at the funeral home

Ivanka donned a simple, black, form-fitting dress. Her husband, for his part, wore a black suit

She completed the look with a pair of $815 Gianvito Rossi Plexi 100 leather and PVC pumps and a white, pearl necklace

Ivanka's blonde locks were curled with beach-like waves. She wore simple makeup, sporting a smokey eye and nude lip color

Ivanka and Jared's daughter, Arabella Rose, 11, was not in attendance

The mother-of-three gave her son a kiss on the cheek as she comforted him outside of the funeral home

Ivanka's knee-length dress left her long legs on full display

His ex-wife, Vanessa, 44, was also seen paying her respects with her five kids, Donald Trump III, 13, Kai Madison Trump, 15, Spencer Frederick Trump, nine, Tristan Milos Trump, 10, Chloe Sophia Trump, eight.

Tiffany, 28 - the daughter of Donald and his second wife, Marla Maples - also attended the event, despite the fact that Donald and Ivana's marriage ended in an explosive divorce due to his affair with Marla and despite the fact that Ivana once publicly bashed her mother, calling her a 'showgirl' who 'didn't achieve anything in her life.'

Ivana, an icon of 1980s style, wealth, and excess, was a model and businesswomen who helped Donald build an empire that launched him to the presidency. The pair was married from 1977 to 1992, and they shared three kids together - Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka.

It was announced that Ivana had died at the age of 73 last Thursday, after she was found by a staff member 'unconscious and unresponsive' at the bottom of a set of stairs in her New York City townhouse.

Emergency services said they were called to the socialite's home after reports of someone in cardiac arrest were made around 12:40pm local time. Authorities said the death was an accident, with blunt impact injuries to her torso as the cause.

Ivanka donned a simple, long-sleeve, form-fitting dress - which left her long legs on full display - while visiting the funeral home.

Ivana's son Eric Trump, 38, was spotted alongside his wife, Lara, 39, and their two kids, Eric Luke (pictured with Eric), four, and Carolina Dorothy, two

Eric was seen giving his four-year-old son a hug before picking him and up and carrying him. The businessman seemed emotional and held back tears as he embraced the youngster

His wife, Lara, wore a Rowen Rose faux leather-trimmed wool-blend tweed midi dress with a sweetheart neckline. It costs $1,110 at Net-A-Porter

She seemed in slightly better spirits, smiling at a fellow guest outside the funeral home. She kept her long blonde locks in loose curls around her face

Lara was seen holding the hand of her and Eric's daughter, Carolina, as they made their way inside

The two-year-old wore a ruffled black dress and a bow in her hair, while their four-year-old son was seen in a suit and blue converse

Lara's textured gown showed off her muscular arms and shoulders

She completed the look with a pair of $815 Gianvito Rossi Plexi 100 leather and PVC pumps and a white, pearl necklace. Her husband, for his part, wore a black suit.

The Trump family appeared somber as they greeted other guests before entering the mortuary. Eric was seen holding back tears as he embraced his four-year-old son before picking him and up and carrying him inside.

His wife, Lara, wore a Rowen Rose faux leather-trimmed wool-blend tweed midi dress with a sweetheart neckline, which showed off her muscular shoulders and arms. It costs $1,110 at Net-A-Porter.

She kept her long blonde locks in loose curls around her face, and held on to their two-year-old daughter's hand.

Kimberly wore a velvet, black, long-sleeve gown, which she paired with a YSL clutch and black heels. Donald Jr. opted for a dark suit and dress shoes.

As for Vanessa, she was seen sporting a navy blue, ruffled Stuart Weitzman dress - which is currently sold out - along with a matching jacket and strappy heels. She was photographed exiting her vehicle looking serious, in a pair of dark sunglasses which hid her eyes.

Ivana's ex-husband, Donald, was joined by his current wife, Melania Trump, at the funeral home. He wore a blue suit, while Melania sported a long, black Dior ensemble, as well as Christian Louboutin shoes.

Ivana's eldest son, Donald Jr., 44, was joined by his fiancee Kimberly, 53

The couple greeted fellow guests outside before making their way into the building

Kimberly wore a velvet, black, long-sleeve gown for the event. She paired the look with a YSL clutch and black heels

Kimberly clutched onto Donald Jr. - who opted for a dark suit and dress shoes - as she walked into the building with a serious expression on her face

Tiffany Trump, 28 - the daughter of Donald and his second wife, Marla Maples - also attended the event, despite the fact that Donald and Ivana's marriage ended due to his affair with Marla

Donald Jr.'s ex-wife, Vanessa, 44, was also seen paying her respects. She was photographed exiting her vehicle looking somber in a pair of dark sunglasses, which hid her eyes

The former model wore a navy blue, ruffled Stuart Weitzman dress, along with a matching jacket and strappy heels

Vanessa, who is the mom to Donald Trump III, 13, Kai Madison Trump, 15, Spencer Frederick Trump, nine, Tristan Milos Trump, 10, Chloe Sophia Trump, eight, was seen with her five kids outside of the funeral home

The mother-of-five kept her children close as she held hands with one of her sons and one of her daughters while leaving the funeral home

They then headed to the service, where little Chloe became emotional, breaking down in tears as her mom, Vanessa, tried to console her

Tiffany, who donned a button-down dress with puffy sleeves, was accompanied by her fiance, Michael Boulos, whom she started dating in 2018.

After visiting the funeral home, the Trumps then headed to the service, where Vanessa and Donald Jr.'s daughter Chloe became emotional, breaking down in tears as her mom tried to console her.

The family watched on as a casket was brought into the church for the service. They stood together with somber expressions on their faces.

The invitation to the memorial requested that instead of flowers, mourners make donations to the Big Dog Rescue, 'in recognition of Ivana's steadfast and enduring love of animals.'

A glamorous woman with a penchant for younger men, skiing, and dancing, Ivana's funeral attracted socialites from New York City, Palm Beach, and Europe.

The well-heeled crowd gathered outside St. Vincent Ferrer Church in sweltering heat, clutching their funeral invitations to present to police officers and Secret Service agents at the doors.

The church, located between 65th and 65th street on Lexington Avenue, is a stone's throw away from the townhouse on 64th Street - where Ivana lived for 26 years and where she was discovered at the bottom of the stairs last week.

Many of the family members looked sunken with grief as they exited the service afterwards and made their way to waiting cars.

Ivana's ex-husband, Donald, was joined by his current wife, Melania Trump, at the funeral home. He wore a blue suit, while Melania sported a long, black Dior ensemble, as well as Christian Louboutin shoes

The couple seemed in low spirits, with the former president seen frowning alongside Melania and Ivanka

Melania shielded her eyes with dark sunglasses as she and Donald left the funeral home

A group of men were seen carrying the casket out of the mortuary

The family watched on as the casket was then brought into the church for the service

It was very emotional for them as they all stood together as a family, with a few people breaking down in tears

The Trumps were later photographed leaving the service after it was done, with the former president seen clutching onto one of the pamphlets from the memorial

The family, along with other hoards of guests, piled down the stairs of the church after the ceremony came to an end

Many of the family members looked sunken with grief as they made their way to waiting cars

Following the memorial, the Trumps are expected to travel to New Jersey for a private reception at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.

Donald confirmed the tragic news of Ivana's passing while posting a touching tribute to his ex on his Truth Social account hours after her death.

'I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City,' he wrote at the time.

He went on to describe her as a 'beautiful, amazing' woman, while honoring her close bond with their children.

'She led a great and inspirational life,' he continued. 'Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her. Rest In Peace, Ivana.'

At the height of their relationship, the two were business partners, working on some major projects like development of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the renovation of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, and the construction of the Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

But in 1989, Donald and Ivana's marriage ended in heartbreak for the model, after it was brought to light that he had an affair with the actress Marla during their relationship.

After her divorce from Donald - for which she was granted a $14million settlement and a mansion in Connecticut - Ivana left her old life of modelling behind and went on to become a businesswoman in her own right, as well as a media personality, fashion designer, and author.

Despite going through a nasty split, it was said that the two reconciled and were on speaking terms again by the time he began his successful run for president in 2015.

Donald later wed Marla in 1993, and together, they welcomed a daughter, Tiffany - but they split in 1999. He then tied the knot with his current wife, Melania, in 2005. They share one son, Barron.

The church, located between 65th and 65th street on Lexington Avenue, is a stone's throw away from the townhouse on 64th Street - where Ivana lived for 26 years and where she was discovered at the bottom of the stairs last week

Ivanka's youngest son, Theo, held on to a rose as he spoke to his mom after the service came to an end

After the service, the Trumps are expected to travel to New Jersey afterwards for a private reception at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster

After her death, Ivanka (seen at the funeral home) said she was 'heartbroken' on Instagram, writing, 'Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny. She modeled strength, tenacity and determination in her every action'

'She lived life to the fullest - never forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance. I will miss her forever and will keep her memory alive in our hearts always,' she added

Donald's former political aide Omarosa Manigault Newman revealed days after Ivana's death that he 'constantly' sought advice from his ex-wife during his presidency, claiming that she was 'one of the very few he listened to' - while discussing her sudden passing.

It was announced that Ivana (pictured in 2018) had died at the age of 73 last Thursday, after she was found by a staff member 'unconscious and unresponsive' at the bottom of a set of stairs in her New York City townhouse

Omarosa, who first met Donald when she appeared on the first season of his reality show The Apprentice in 2004, and went on to serve as the assistant to the president and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison - before she was fired by the White House Chief of Staff in 2017 - said Donald often turned to Ivana for her expertise, years after their marriage ended in a bitter divorce.

She claimed that Donald trusted his ex-wife's 'guidance' since she was 'a straight shooter' who 'was always able to size up a situation.'

'Ivana was a straight shooter and was always able to size up a situation,' Omarosa, 48, told People magazine. 'She is one of the very few people that Donald truly listened to. Even in the White House, he constantly sought her guidance.'

Back in 2017 - during Donald's presidency - Ivana hinted at their continuing bond while hitting out at Melania, branding herself the real 'first lady,' while claiming that she had a 'direct line' to her ex-husband at the White House.

Ivana added at the time that she was able to speak to her former spouse whenever she wanted to but that she always hesitated to phone him because 'Melania was there.'

'I [don't] really want to call him there, because Melania is there,' she told ABC News at the time. 'And I don't want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that, because I'm basically [the] first Trump wife. OK? I'm first lady.'

Ivana's son Eric also spoke out about her death to DailyMail.com, saying in a statement issued on behalf of the family: 'Our mother was an incredible woman - a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend.

Ivana, an icon of 1980s style, wealth, and excess, was a model and businesswomen who helped Donald build an empire that launched him to the presidency

The pair was married from 1977 to 1992, and they shared three kids together - Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka. They are seen in 1985

'Ivana Trump was a survivor. She fled from communism and embraced this country. She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination.

'She will be dearly missed by her mother, her three children and ten grandchildren.'

Ivanka said she was 'heartbroken' by the 'passing of her mother' on Instagram, writing, 'Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny. She modeled strength, tenacity and determination in her every action.

'She lived life to the fullest - never forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance. I will miss her forever and will keep her memory alive in our hearts always.'

Ivana was last pictured out and about in New York City on June 22, when she was seen leaving her Upper East Side townhouse and being escorted to hair salon.

She had also planned to visit her regular salon on Thursday, in preparation for an upcoming St. Tropez getaway.
Vijayawada: With floodwater levels receding in River Godavari, Andhra Pradesh faces a big challenge to reach healthcare to the flood-affected villages, where people are vulnerable to waterborne and viral diseases.

The Godavari floods are having a major impact on villages in districts like Alluri Sitarama Raju, Eluru, Konaseema, West Godavari and East Godavari. The villagers might fall prey to diseases like diarrhoea, typhoid and jaundice. There is also a likelihood of spread of viral fevers like dengue and malaria, as also flu and common cold.

The present need is to have more health camps and fever surveys and to position the 104 vehicles for tests and to distribute medicines to the affected people. The health department in coordination with public health, rural water supply, panchayat raj and other departments would ensure sanitation, supply of potable water etc in the flood-affected areas.

The health authorities have identified 41 affected mandals in the five flood-hit districts, where 61 PHCs and three UPHCs have been affected. They have shifted 417 pregnant women to safe camps or hospitals.

District medical and health officers from five districts would help in prevention and control of water-borne diseases. They have been provided with additional manpower, including gynecologists, anaesthetists etc drawn from unaffected districts.

Adequate stocks of essential drugs, ORS packets, chlorine tables, bleaching powder and specific drugs are arranged in order to use them based on need. DMHOs would purchase medicines locally, if required.

AP health director Dr Swarajya Lakshmi said, We are providing healthcare to the flood-affected in five districts. They are vulnerable to waterborne and viral diseases.

IMA AP branch president Dr Srinivasa Raju said, Several private doctors associated with IMA are ready to extend their services free of cost to the flood-affected people.
So is your essence yin or yang? Are you a soft dramatic or theatrical romantic? And do you have a strong vertical line? If this sounds like gibberish, thats because youre not yet familiar with the Kibbe body shape system thats taking over the internet.

From Generation Z on TikTok to their mothers on Facebook, it seems everyone is intent on finding out their Kibbe image identity  a series of clearly defined types that go far beyond the apple, pear and hourglass shapes with which were more familiar.

The trend is all thanks to a very modern reinvention of an idea dating back 40 years. New York stylist David Kibbe first came to the fore in the late 1980s when he wrote his book, David Kibbes Metamorphosis: Discover Your Image Identity And Dazzle As Only You Can. The 1987 style bible categorised women into image identities which grouped into five broader categories: dramatic, classic, natural, gamine and romantic.

From Generation Z on TikTok to their mothers on Facebook, it seems everyone is intent on finding out their Kibbe image identity. Celine Dion (pictured) has a dramatic figure

Which group you fall into is decided by all sorts of factors, from the amount of yin (feminine) versus yang (masculine) energy you possess  in other words, how rounded and small, or angular and large, various elements of your body are  to how tall you look (your vertical line).

Kibbes intention is not to dress to flatter or disguise certain body parts, but to complement what he calls the overall essence of your look.

The method offers a refreshing rethink to other body-typing systems, which often seek to disguise flaws. Perhaps this explains his current popularity  Kibbes outlook much better suits todays body-positive climate.

Heres a guide that will not only help you work out your image identity, but show you how to use it to look your best . . .

DRAMATIC

CELEBRITY EXAMPLES: Celine Dion, Taylor Swift and Tilda Swinton.

THIS IS YOUR TYPE IF YOU Are tall  probably over 5ft 8in  with angles to your physique, generally narrow and lithe shoulders and limbs, and long, slender hands and feet. You have the facial bone structure to match: prominent cheekbones and an angular nose, straight lips and a defined jaw.

HOW TO DRESS: Look for well-tailored clothing with plenty of structure. Solid colours and crisp cuts will enhance your strong shape. Dont try to blur your lines with oversized clothing, draped fabrics, frilly textures or fussy, busy prints as this will make you look messy rather than sleek. Monochrome, stripes and minimalism are your friends. Think cigarette pants and sharp blazers, simple straight-cut tees and polo-necks.

SOFT DRAMATIC

Rachel Weisz has a soft dramatic body type. This figure tends to have a sharp facial bone structure, with high cheek bones and sharp nose and jaw, but sensual features such as large eyes and full lips

CELEBRITY EXAMPLES: Christina Hendricks, Sophia Loren and Rachel Weisz.

THIS IS YOUR TYPE IF YOU Are tall  likely over 5ft 8in  with a large and angular bone structure but fleshy bust and hips. Your limbs are long and your hands and feet slightly above average. You tend to have a sharp facial bone structure, with high cheek bones and sharp nose and jaw, but sensual features such as large eyes and full lips.

HOW TO DRESS: Avoid overly sharp silhouettes: your outline should be sweeping rather than cutting, and make use of draped, lightweight fabrics which work with your curves. Keep the look fluid and colours bold.

FLAMBOYANT NATURAL

Cameron Diaz (pictured) is flamboyant natural. This is a tall body type with a broad, lean. slightly muscled physique

CELEBRITY EXAMPLES: Cameron Diaz and Princess Diana.

THIS IS YOUR TYPE IF YOU Are tall  never below 5ft 5in and likely over 5ft 8in, with a broad, lean, slightly muscled physique. Your angles are strong but not sharp  and your limbs and torso tend toward the muscular. You have an open face with a strong nose and chin. You would not be described as curvy or petite.

HOW TO DRESS: Think of straight but unconstructed outlines. Wideleg trousers and chunky textured jumpers are your friend. Large lapels or collarless shirts, doublebreasted jackets, shirt dresses, cable knits, A-line skirts and oversize blouses all suit you. Mix textured and natural fabrics as these suit your yang elements. Avoid anything girly: it will overpower what yin you have.

SOFT NATURAL

Soft Natural body types include Jennifer Lawrence (pictured). These are people of moderate height with an angular bone structure, but a soft figure and small waist

CELEBRITY EXAMPLES: Scarlett Johannson, Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Lawrence.

THIS IS YOUR TYPE IF YOU Are of moderate height, no taller than 5ft 7in. You have an angular bone structure, but a soft figure with a small waist and very slight hourglass shape, with a little softness about the upper arms and thighs. Your shoulders are broad, limbs moderate or slightly short in proportion to your torso, and you have full, sensual facial features.

HOW TO DRESS: Choose the light, flowing silhouette of the Natural, but add definition with something that highlights the waist.

Tactile fabrics will complement the softness of your body, and you can add detail with shirred waists. Avoid anything shapeless, or at the other extreme, too cinched.

DRAMATIC CLASSIC

Courteney Cox (pictured) has a dramatic classic body type, which means your bust, waist and hips are in proportion, with average to long legs and arms

CELEBRITY EXAMPLES: Jill Biden, Courteney Cox and Jackie Onassis.

THIS IS YOUR TYPE IF YOU Are of moderate height, up to 5ft 7in. Your bust, waist and hips are in proportion, with average to long legs and arms. You have sharp facial contours with medium to big eyes and medium lips.

HOW TO DRESS: Classic is the key. Try to keep a V shape to your outfits  strong on top and tapering at the bottom. Blazers and shift dresses or pencil skirts (not too tight!) are ideal. Sharp lapels, asymmetric necklines and pleats will elevate your yang. Avoid draping, gathering or any frilly effect.

SOFT CLASSIC

Kirsten Dunst (pictured) has a soft classic body type, which means you have soft arms, thighs and waistline, all equally proportioned

CELEBRITY EXAMPLES: Marion Cotillard, Meryl Streep and Kirsten Dunst.

THIS IS YOUR TYPE IF YOU Are up to around 5ft 6in. You have soft arms, thighs and waistline, all equally proportioned, with a defined waist. Your arms and legs may be moderately short in relation to your height. You have a symmetrical, slightly rounded bone structure with soft cheeks and full lips.

HOW TO DRESS: Understated sophistication is the aim, with flowing skirts a good look (Kibbe describes you as an enchantress  channel this vibe). Your frame suits short jackets, flared dresses and pussy-bow blouses.

FLAMBOYANT GAMINE

Penelope Cruz (pictured) has a flamboyant gamine body type, which is used to describe petite people who have a leggy look

CELEBRITY EXAMPLES: Audrey Hepburn and Penelope Cruz.

THIS IS YOUR TYPE IF YOU... Are petite, under 5ft 5in. You may have a coltish, leggy look, with a lean physique and flat hips. Your face is sharp-featured with large eyes and full lips.

HOW TO DRESS: Look to create a boxy silhouette, with angular details such as piping and sharp collars to go with your angularity. Avoid matchy-matchy looks and invest in contrasting separates, especially shorts, to show off your long legs. Colour is your friend; anything too flowing will swamp you. Ankle-grazer jeans, skinny trousers, mini skirts and boxy cropped jackets are ideal for you.

SOFT GAMINE

Reese Witherspoon (pictured) has a soft gamine body type, which is used to describe petite people who are curvy with a defined waist

CELEBRITY EXAMPLES: Thandiwe Newton, Halle Berry and Reese Witherspoon.

THIS IS YOUR TYPE IF YOU Are petite, under 5ft 5in, but curvy. You have a defined waist and soft arms and legs, with delicate bone structure. Facial features often have a doll-like quality, with round eyes and full lips.

HOW TO DRESS: Keep to a feminine silhouette. Sharp shoulders and sleeves work well, prints and fabric with movement suit you, as theyre feminine but not too much. A bit of lace will set you apart from the Flamboyant Gamine.

THEATRICAL ROMANTIC

Salma Hayek (pictured) has a theatrical romantic body type. This is used to describe someone with a voluptuous but trim physique

CELEBRITY EXAMPLES: Selena Gomez, Rihanna, Salma Hayek.

THIS IS YOUR TYPE IF YOU Are under 5ft 5in, with a voluptuous but trim physique. You will have a wasplike, well-defined waist (Kibbe describes your style as femme fatale), with softness to your arms and legs and small hands and feet. Your bone structure is delicate with a slight sharpness to your cheekbones and nose, and your eyes and lips are lush.

HOW TO DRESS: Choose anything that emphasises your curves. But dont go too soft with fabric and cut  make sure the waist definition is sharp and try to accentuate any sharpness in your shoulders. Gathered skirts, peplum hems, off-the-shoulder tops and sweetheart necklines are all perfect.

ROMANTIC

Beyonce (pictured) has a romantic body type. She has an hourglass figure and voluptuous curves but small waist

CELEBRITY EXAMPLES: Beyonce and Marilyn Monroe.

THIS IS YOUR TYPE IF YOU Are under 5ft 5in, with an hourglass figure and voluptuous curves but small waist. You have small hands, feet and short limbs and a full face with large eyes and lips.

HOW TO DRESS: Avoid severe or boxy silhouettes and always define your waist  with a belt, cinching, draping or gathering.

Tulip skirts, fluffy knits, flounced dresses, bodices and trousers with a gathered waist will all make the best of your body shape.
Queen Letizia of Spain looked polished to perfection today as she joined her husband, King Felipe at the La Caixa' scholarship awards in Madrid.

The royal, 49, handed out postgraduate scholarships to 120 students at the ceremony, which will help them receive education at some of the most prestigious academic centres around the world.

Looking typically stylish for the event, the mother-of-two donned a black and white polka dot midi dress by Massimo Dutti, an affordable Spanish fashion brand, along side espadrilles wedges.

Queen Letizia of Spain looked polished to perfection today as she joined her husband, King Felipe at the La Caixa' scholarship awards in Madrid

The royal (pictured with her husband), 49, handed out postgraduate scholarships to 120 students at the ceremony, which will help them receive education at some of the most prestigious academic centres around the world

The 49-year-old is often seen wearing Massimo Dutti dresses. She also wore Macarena shoes in black and CXC jewellery earrings.

She previously wore her black and white spotted frock in July 2020 for a visit to the Principality of Asturias.

The former journalist kept her make-up to a minimum, showing off her natural beauty while on stage.

Wearing her brunette hair loose, her soft waves swept her shoulders and were tucked behind her ear to show a flash of her hooped earrings.

Looking typically stylish for the event, the mother-of-two donned a black and white polka dot midi dress by Massimo Dutti, an affordable Spanish fashion brand, along side espadrilles wedges

The 49-year-old is often seen wearing Massimo Dutti dresses. She also wore Macarena shoes in black and CXC jewellery earrings

Wearing her brunette hair loose, her soft waves swept her shoulders and were tucked behind her ear to show a flash of her hooped earrings

Between 1982 and 2021, La Caixa Foundation has allocated 189 million euros to the scholarship program, which is one of the largest of Europe.

Throughout this period, 3,687 university students have been able to extend their training abroad with scholarships from La Caixa Foundation.

The former broadcast journalist Letizia tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month after showing mild symptoms of the virus.

Prior to testing positive for the virus, the royal had had a busy few weeks, welcoming world leaders to Madrid for the NATO summit. She also attended the presentation of the Princess of Girona Foundation Awards.

The former broadcast journalist Letizia tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month after showing mild symptoms of the virus

Queen Letizia of Spain and King Felipe of Spain attend the La Caixa awards 2022 at Caixa Forum. Here they're standing with students of the scholarships

Queen Letizia of Spain and King Felipe of Spain clap during the ceremony of the La Caixa awards 2022 at Caixa Forum
Liz Truss has made it to the final two in the race to become the next leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister - and will now battle it out against Rishi Sunak until September.

They will spend the rest of the summer wooing Conservative Party members, who will decide which of them will gain the keys to No10.

The incumbent Foreign Secretary, 46, has spent months, if not years, tacitly campaigning to become the UK's third female PM - with some very memorable times which made Ms Truss something of a household name.

These include the meme-defining moment when she vented her anger over cheese imports into Britain, and pictures of her standing atop a tank in a nod to Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher.

For many, she was a figure of fun, but for those in the governing Conservative Party choosing who should replace Boris Johnson, it is her conversion to passionate Brexit supporter and her offer of tax cuts that have propelled her to within touching distance of becoming Britain's next prime minister.

Here, FEMAIL looks back at some of her most memorable moments in the public eye so far...

EMBARRASSING GAFFE IN VICTORY TWEET

Ms Truss said she was 'ready to hit the ground' in an embarrassing gaffe on Twitter after advancing to the final two of the Tory leadership contest

Ms Truss said she was 'ready to hit the ground' in an embarrassing gaffe on Twitter after advancing to the final two of the Tory leadership contest.

In a tweet posted minutes after coming second placed in the last vote of Tory MPs, the Foreign Secretary thanked colleagues for their support before saying the blunder.

She wrote: 'Thanks for putting your trust in me. I'm ready to hit the ground from day one.'

She later deleted the tweet and reposted it with the correct phrase: 'Im ready to hit the ground running from day one.'

The tweet was seized upon by Dominic Cummings who used the gaffe to warn Tory members against electing Ms Truss as leader.

Mr Cummings said that the Foreign Secretary would certainly hit the ground but would not 'bounce' - in reference to the poll boost that new Prime Minister's tend to receive.

GETTING 'LOST' AT HER OWN LEADERSHIP LAUNCH

Another moment saw Ms Truss finish her speech when l aunching her leadership campaign and leave the podium the wrong way

Another moment saw Ms Truss finish her speech when launching her leadership campaign and leave the podium the wrong way.

Viewers tuning in to watch Tory leadership hopeful were left in stitches after she seemed to get lost on her way out of the press conference.

After finishing her speech where she highlighted Delivery, Trust, and Vision, she strode purposefully towards what she thought was the exit, before realising it was the wrong way and looking around lost.

Thankfully she was tapped on the arm and ushered out to the actual exit on the other side of the room.

Audience members can be seen in the background and many seemingly look to be struggling to contain their laughter.

Several viewers online also noticed the mistake, and social media exploded with memes and hilarious comments.

One comment said: 'My favourite part of the Liz Truss leadership launch was when she got lost leaving the room.'

PASSIONATE SPEECH ABOUT PORK MARKETS

'Pork markets'  a phrase uttered by Ms Truss during the 2014 Conservative Party Conference (pictured) has resurfaced now she's in the leadership run

Both leadership candidates served for years under Boris Johnson in senior Cabinet posts. Ms Truss also served under her predecessors Theresa May and David Cameron, as her ministerial career stretches back to 2012.

She first attracted public attention during the now famous 2014 conference when she was made environment secretary.

Her speech to the Conservative Party Conference slamming UK cheese imports and highlighting the importance of 'pork markets' in China went viral, for all the wrong reasons.

Ms Truss told Conservative Party members at the end of her speech: 'In December, I'll be in Beijing, opening up new pork markets.'

She grinned widely as she uttered the sentence, probably expecting applause. Instead, an awkward meme was born.

IMPASSIONED CHEESE RANT

During the same 2014 Conservative Party Conference her famous speech included a rant on UK cheese import. This early ministerial speech arguably went on to define her career with the everyday person

During the same 2014 Conservative Party Conference her famous speech included a rant on UK cheese import. This early ministerial speech arguably went on to define her career with the everyday person.

While she was known to fight particularly hard for UK-grown produce, she stated Britain imported two thirds of its cheese, before angrily declaring: 'That. Is. A. Disgrace.'

There was a dramatic pause and then a ripple of small applause and the clip has become a much-used GIF and meme online.

She appeared outraged that British people weren't eating enough British cheese and said: 'I want to see us eating more British food here in Britain.'

Social media went into meltdown and one comment said: 'Will somebody, for the love of god, please tell me if @trussliz ever sorted out the cheese deficit.'

Another said: 'To all the single people out there. I hope you find somebody who smiles at you the same way that Liz Truss does when talking about pork markets and cheese.'

BACKING BRITS GOING TO UKRAINE TO HELP FIGHT PUTIN'S ARMY

Ms Truss said she would support British nationals who chose to fight alongside Ukrainian forces against the Russian invasion as the embattled nation called on foreign fighters to join the war effort

Ms Truss said she would support British nationals who chose to fight alongside Ukrainian forces against the Russian invasion as the embattled nation called on foreign fighters to join the war effort.

Asked on the BBC's Sunday Morning programme in February 2022 if she would support UK citizens who chose to answer the call, Ms Truss said: 'I do. I do support that and of course that is something that people can make their own decisions about.

'They are fighting, the people of Ukraine are fighting for freedom and democracy, not just for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe because that is what President Putin is challenging.

'And absolutely, if people want to support that struggle, I would support them in doing that.'

Her comments came after Ukraine's defence ministry appealed for foreigners to come forward to join its armed forces and fight back against Putin's army, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba urging people to contact his department.

However, although Truss gave her backing to Britons who wanted to join the resistance movement, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and a No 10 spokesman both appeared to contradict her.

Mr Wallace said he didn't 'want to see British people killed any more than I want to see Ukrainians'. He asked people who were not properly trained or an 'experienced member of an armed forced' not to join the war in Ukraine.

MARGARET THATCHER PHOTO OPS

Liz Truss (left) was mocked by Russian media earlier this year for posing for pictures similar to those taken of Margaret Thatcher (right) during her visit to the country in 1987

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss visits British troops on deployment to Estonia last November. Mrs Thatcher in one in Germany in 1983

If Ms Truss wins, she would become Britain's third female prime minister. She has forged her image in homage to the first, Margaret Thatcher.

But she has faced some criticism from opponents for her fondness for social media, especially photo-sharing platform Instagram, and for photo ops that seem to paint her as the heir to Thatcher.

Truss has posed in a British Army tank in Eastern Europe, evoking an image of Thatcher during the Cold War.

And she was mocked by Russian media earlier this year for posing for pictures similar to those taken of Thatcher during her visit to the country in 1987.

In a televised leadership debate this week, Britain's top diplomat sported a pussy-bow blouse eerily similar to one the late prime minister used to wear.

Truss is a favourite among many Conservatives, who revere Thatcher above all other leaders. Critics say it's an empty homage and believe Truss lacks the gravitas to lead the country amid economic turbulence.

But while she is popular with party members, there are questions over how popular she is with the wider electorate.

She has come in for criticism over her wooden performances in the leadership debates and her campaign launch and how this will transfer across if she becomes PM.

She came bottom of a poll this week of who voters wanted to become prime minister, with Sunak first and Tom Tugendhat second.

GAFFE WHICH SAW HER PLEDGE TO 'UNDERMINE' UK FARMERS

Ms Truss was once again left red faced after accidentally promising to 'undermine' UK farmers in US trade talks during a Commons question time.

The gaffe happened when she was working as the Trade Secretarys in 2020 during a Commons questions session.

Responding to concerns over UK food standards she said: 'Of course in any trade deal we strike, we will be taking into account our high standards to make sure our farmers are undermined.'

Clearly a slip of the tongue, but one which she did not immediately correct herself, the remark caused a huge stir online, forcing her to apologise later on.

She later said: 'Were absolutely clear that were going to stand up for our high standards in any deal we strike, including with the United States, and making sure that the high standards our farmers operate to will not be undermined.'
The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall paid tribute yesterday to those who fought in the Falklands War, one of Britains biggest military deployments since WW2.

Prince Charles and Camilla were all smiles as they met veterans on board HMS Queen Elizabeth - the Royal Navys Flagship and very high readiness strike aircraft carrier - at Portsmouth to mark the 40th anniversary of the conflict.

Fighting broke out on April 2 1982 after Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory.

The Prince of Wales (pictured left) and Duchess of Cornwall paid tribute yesterday to those who fought in the Falklands War, one of Britains biggest military deployments since WW2

Prince Charles and Camilla (pictured) were all smiles as they met veterans on board HMS Queen Elizabeth - the Royal Navys Flagship and very high readiness strike aircraft carrier - at Portsmouth to mark the 40th anniversary of the conflict

Lasting 74 days, it was the first military action since the Second World War that utilised all elements of the Armed Forces.

Within days, a British task force comprising 127 warships, submarines and requisitioned merchant ships carrying troops, aircraft and equipment, set sail for the South Atlantic.

In all 255 British personnel lost their lives, seven ships destroyed by enemy action and nine aircraft shot down by the time British forces retook the islands and the conflict ended on June 2.

Arriving at The Princess Royal Jetty in Portsmouth, the prince and duchess were greeted with a Royal Salute from a Royal Navy Guard of Honour with Army Band.

After walking up the gangway and onto the ship, they were greeted by Captain Ian Feasey, HMS Queen Elizabeths Commanding Officer, who presented Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, and senior service representatives.

Arriving at The Princess Royal Jetty in Portsmouth, the prince (pictured) and duchess were greeted with a Royal Salute from a Royal Navy Guard of Honour with Army Band

After walking up the gangway and onto the ship, they were greeted by Captain Ian Feasey, HMS Queen Elizabeths Commanding Officer, who presented Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, and senior service representatives

In the ships vast hangar they met with groups of veterans, serving personnel and families, as well as members of South Atlantic Medal Association 82 (SAMA82),of which The Prince of Wales is Patron

In the ships vast hangar they met with groups of veterans, serving personnel and families, as well as members of South Atlantic Medal Association 82 (SAMA82),of which The Prince of Wales is Patron.

Charles, 73, and Camilla, 75, left to a rousing three cheers and signed a visitors book.

HMS Queen Elizabeth was deployed as the Flagship for Carrier Strike Group 21, the most ambitious naval deployment for a generation.

Minister Ben Wallace said: Forty years ago, 30,000 service personnel made the 8,000-mile journey to help protect the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. Today, we thank every one of them for their efforts and honour the 255 who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Charles, 73, and Camilla, 75, left to a rousing three cheers and signed a visitors book

HMS Queen Elizabeth was deployed as the Flagship for Carrier Strike Group 21, the most ambitious naval deployment for a generation. Pictured, Camilla

The UK is as determined to defend our values now as we were 40 years ago.

Captain Ian Feasey added: It was humbling for our sailors and officers to meet veterans of the Falklands conflict and to remember the sacrifices made by the UK armed forces and Merchant Navy personnel during the Falklands conflict, in which aircraft carriers played a vital role.

The reception on board HMS Queen Elizabeth is one of many events being held across the country to commemorate those who fought in the war.

Commodore Jamie Miller, who survived the sinking of destroyer HMS Coventry and is president of SAMA82, said: To have Their Royal Highnesses present aboard the nations flagship - a reminder of the importance of sea power and the vital role of aircraft carriers in the Falklands - is a fitting end to this years events and we are truly honoured by their presence. It is vital that we remember the past to get the present and future right.
A popular restaurant in the heart of Sydney is offering a bottomless barbecue feast for just $85.

The two-hour package at American-style tavern Surly's in Surry Hills will be sure to satisfy hungry foodies and meat lovers alike.

The menu includes 18-hour dry rubbed beef brisket, 12 hour pulled pork, smoked chicken thigh, Texas hot link sausage, smoked chicken wings, pickles, onion and corn bread.

Scroll down for video

American-style tavern Surly's in Sydney is offering a bottomless barbecue feast every weekend for $85 per person

The menu includes 18-hour dry rubbed beef brisket, 12 hour pulled pork, smoked chicken thigh, Texas hot link sausage, smoked chicken wings, pickles, onion and corn bread

The unique experience functions exactly like a bottomless brunch, but offers hearty meat and alcoholic beverages.

TikToker Christina posted a now-viral video documenting her experience, leaving thousands hungry to visit themselves.

'Have you tried bottomless BBQ? Forget bottomless brunch, Surly's in Surry Hills serves two hours of NON-STOP smoked BBQ plates filled with all your meat lover dreams,' Christina said in the video.

Her top favourites were the juicy chicken thighs, beef brisket and mouthwatering pulled pork - and she washed the meal down with a beer.

TikToker Christina posted a now-viral video documenting her experience, leaving thousands hungry to visit themselves. Her top favourites were the juicy chicken thighs, beef brisket and mouthwatering pulled pork - and she washed the meal down with a beer

The bottomless meal is only offered on weekends and the restaurant can accommodate for up to 20 people per booking, making it perfect for birthdays or special occasions.

Beverage options include PABST Blue Ribbon, Young Henry's Newtowner, Young Henry's Cloudy Apple Cider, house wine and soft drinks, and your glasses will instantly be refilled throughout the two hours.

Booking in advance is essential via the Surly's website.

The bottomless meal is only offered on weekends and the restaurant can accommodate for up to 20 people per booking, making it perfect for birthdays or special occasions

In less than 24 hours, Christina's video went viral exceeding more than 119,000 views, and many TikTok users tagged their friends in the comments.

'$85 is crazy value!' one person wrote, another added: 'That's a pretty good price!!'

A third wrote: 'I need this in my life.'

'My kind of bottomless tbh [to be honest],' another said.
Unresolved disputes between the Government and personal protective equipment (PPE) suppliers could cost the country 2.7billion, MPs have warned.

Ministers wasted nearly 9billion on buying faulty masks, gloves, and aprons at the height of the Covid pandemic.

Department of Health and Social Care bosses are currently trying to claw back cash from nearly 180 different contracts.

But none have yet to move to the litigation stage of the process, the Public Accounts Committee has said.

In a damming report, it said the situation 'beggars belief' and that up to 5 per cent of PPE expenditure may be fraudulent.

A damming report from MPs has found the Government disputes with PPE suppliers could cost the taxpayer 2.7billion and that officials are spending 7million a month on storage for faulty or expired equipment bought during the Covid pandemic (stock image)

Daily Covid hospital admissions have risen to a near 18-month high, with around 2,000 people currently being hospitalised every day. Yet only a third of 'patients' needing care primarily ill with the virus itself. The rest have incidentally tested positive, NHS figures show

China is paid millions to store our surplus PPE following spending spree during Covid pandemic The UK is storing three billion pieces of personal protective equipment in China, it has emerged. The health department is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds each month to store the surplus PPE. Health minister Maria Caulfield said this week the Government has 17.7billion items of PPE and more than a sixth is stored in storage units and warehouses in China. It is thought to be worth more than 1billion and cost 5.8million in storage between September and December last year. It means the Government sending millions of pounds each year to China, branded cheques to China by the Taxpayers Alliance. The think-tank said the revelations will shock taxpayers and urged the Government to sell or dispose of the excess stock. The Department of Health and Social Care said its priority during the pandemic was saving lives. A spokesman said: We have been reducing our logistics cost over time and continue to do so. Advertisement

The cross-party group of MPs, which scrutinises Government spending, claimed the Government was paralysed from acting against some providers because of the poor checks carried out before deals were signed.

It means companies 'may have made excessive profits whilst providing substandard PPE,' the report read.

In particular, DHSC failed to check the profit margin suppliers were making on sales, meaning the taxpayer was overcharged, the PAC said.

Additionally, potential conflicts of interest between companies and those referred through No10's controversial VIP lane were never considered.

PAC chairwoman and Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier said the Government's approach to PPE spending put a 'stain' on the UK's handling of the Covid pandemic.

'The departure from normal approaches to due diligence, record keeping, decision making and accountability in relation to PPE contracts puts a stain on the UK's response to the pandemic,' she said.

'Even if you accept that some proper procedure will have to slip in times of crisis, the complete collapse of some of the most well-established civil service practices beggars belief.

'The taxpayer will be paying for these decisions for years to come.'

Ministers spent 14.8billion on securing PPE in the first year of Covid, according to annual accounts.

But roughly 8.7billion was written off, in a staggering illustration of No10's waste.

Much of the kit, comprising masks, gowns and aprons, was faulty or not used before its sell-by date.

Ministers also paid hugely over the odds as demand skyrocketed in March 2020 and were left with equipment that later crashed in value.

Of the 37.9billion items of PPE purchased, the DHSC still holds more than 10 per cent that it does not need, according to the report.

The department is spending an estimated 7million per month on storing this excess equipment.

The items are spread over 70 locations across both the UK and China.

However, DHSC has failed to set up a system which allows it to fully track what PPE it has and where it is located.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) weekly infection survey found more than 2.7million Britons were infected with Covid in the last week of June

PAC MPs want the Government to fix the issues that went wrong with procuring PPE in case of another pandemic in the future.

Responding to the report Labour's Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner, said: 'This report exposes the Conservatives' catalogue of scandalous waste, with ministers opening the door for VIP fraudsters to rip off the British public.

'Billions of pounds of taxpayers money is now literally going up in smoke as the Governments bonfire of useless PPE grows.

'The taxpayer will be paying for the Conservatives' incompetence for years to come.'

A DHSC spokesperson defended the handling of PPE procurement in the pandemic saying that the priority had been 'saving lives'.

'Despite massive inflation in prices and unprecedented global demand, we delivered over 21.4 billion items of PPE to frontline staff to keep them safe, with only 3 per cent of the PPE we procured unusable in any context.'

'It is simply wrong to suggest that the department does not know how much PPE it has, or where it is located. We have a comprehensive data system in place to allow us to oversee the storage network and dispose of any excess stock.'

They added they take fraud 'extremely seriously' and that DHSC is exploring 'every available option' to recover losses.

The Government's handling of PPE contracts has faced huge scrutiny, particularly regarding its VIP lane for suppliers.

In some cases, it saw ministers recommend friends and companies with connections to the Conservatives for multi-million pound contracts.

Concerns over PPE procurement during the Covid pandemic come amid growing calls from some figures to reimpose restrictions like mask mandates in response to a surge in virus cases.
Low serotonin levels do not cause depression, according to a major review.

Today's landmark findings call into question society's ever-growing reliance on antidepressants like Prozac.

Millions of patients take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, designed to boost levels of the 'feel-good' chemical.

University College London researchers argue, however, that there's 'no convincing evidence' that depression is caused by an imbalance of the chemical.

One academic involved in the study described the findings as 'eye-opening', and that 'everything I thought I knew has been flipped upside down'.

Lead author Professor Joanna Moncrieff, a psychiatrist, said: 'The popularity of the "chemical imbalance" theory has coincided with a huge increase in the use of antidepressants.

'Thousands suffer from side effects of antidepressants, including severe withdrawal effects that can occur when people try to stop them, yet prescription rates continue to rise.

Researchers from University College London said a review of evidence has found no link between low serotonin levels and depression casting doubt on antidepressants designed to boost levels of the 'feel good' chemical. But other experts have cast doubt of the findings

Prescriptions for antidepressants among teens have risen by a quarter in England in 2020 compared to 2016. The greatest growth was seen among 13 and 19-year-olds where prescription rates rose by about a third

Young adults, who are often leaving home for the first time and starting their careers also saw antidepressant prescription rates boom by about 40 per cent

Anxious? Try eating MARMITE: High vitamin B6 levels can ward off bad thoughts, study claims If you want to ward off the blues, coating your toast with Marmite may help. Vitamin B6  abundant in the controversial spread  can reduce feelings of anxiety and depression, researchers say. Tests suggested vitamin B6 can ward off bad thoughts by interfering with your brain chemistry. Mental health benefits were, however, only achieved by consuming very high doses, similar to levels seen in supplements. Although, Reading University academics believe lower doses of B6 found in the 'love it or hate it' spread could potentially work to a smaller extent. The vitamin is also found in other foods, including tuna, chickpeas, leafy greens, oranges and bananas. Advertisement

'We believe this situation has been driven partly by the false belief that depression is due to a chemical imbalance.

'It is high time to inform the public that this belief is not grounded in science.'

One in six British adults and roughly 13 per cent of Americans take antidepressants, figures suggest.

NHS data shows there has been a surge in prescriptions doled out in England, with 8.3million patients taking them in 2021/22, 6 per cent more than the previous year.

The most common are SSRIs such as fluoxetine (Prozac), citalopram (Cipramil) and sertraline (Lustral).

Serotonin helps carry signals in the brain and is thought to have a positive influence on mood, emotion and sleep.

They are preferred to other types of antidepressants because they cause fewer side effects. Yet they can still lead patients taking them to experience anxiety, diarrhoea, dizziness and blurred vision.

Depressed patients can also be hit by crippling withdrawal symptoms when they try to come off the pills.

At the same time, a raft of studies have suggested they don't work any better than a placebo.

The UCL study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, analysed 17 previous reviews dating back to 2010 and consisting of dozens of individual trials.

It does not prove SSRIs don't work. However, it does suggest the drugs don't treat depression by fixing abnormally low serotonin levels.

SSRIs have no other proven way of working, Professor Moncrieff and colleagues said.

She added: 'We can safely say that after a vast amount of research conducted over several decades, there is no convincing evidence depression is caused by serotonin abnormalities, particularly by lower levels or reduced activity of serotonin.

'We do not understand what antidepressants are doing to the brain exactly.

'Giving people this sort of misinformation prevents them from making an informed decision about whether to take antidepressants or not.'

Studies used in the review involved hundreds of thousands of people from various countries.

They found there was no difference in serotonin levels between people diagnosed with depression and healthy people, despite polls suggesting up to 95 per cent of the public believing this is the case.

Artificially lowering serotonin levels in healthy volunteers also did not lead them to developing depression.

And over the long-term, powerful SSRIs may actually have the opposite effect as to what is intended.

WHAT IS DEPRESSION? While it is normal to feel down from time to time, people with depression may feel persistently unhappy for weeks or months on end. Depression can affect anyone at any age and is fairly common  approximately one in ten people are likely to experience it at some point in their life. Depression is a genuine health condition which people cannot just ignore or 'snap out of it'. Symptoms and effects vary, but can include constantly feeling upset or hopeless, or losing interest in things you used to enjoy. It can also cause physical symptoms such as problems sleeping, tiredness, having a low appetite or sex drive, and even feeling physical pain. In extreme cases it can lead to suicidal thoughts. Traumatic events can trigger it, and people with a family history may be more at risk. It is important to see a doctor if you think you or someone you know has depression, as it can be managed with lifestyle changes, therapy or medication. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

Co-author Dr Mark Horowitz said: 'I had been taught that depression was caused by low serotonin in my psychiatry training and had even taught this to students in my own lectures.

'Being involved in this research was eye-opening and feels like everything I thought I knew has been flipped upside down.'

However, other experts have criticised the study's conclusions.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) urged people with depression to continue taking their medication.

'Antidepressants will vary in effectiveness for different people,' a spokesperson said.

'And the reasons for this are complex, which is why its important that patient care is based on each individuals needs and reviewed regularly.

'Continued research into treatments is important to help us better understand how medications work as well as their effectiveness.

'We would not recommend for anyone to stop taking their antidepressants based on this review, and encourage anyone with concerns about their medication to contact their GP.'

Dr Michael Bloomfield, another psychiatrist at UCL, called the findings 'unsurprising' given how complex a condition depression is.

'Depression has lots of different symptoms and I dont think Ive met any serious scientists or psychiatrists who think that all causes of depression are caused by a simple chemical imbalance in serotonin,' he said.

However, he said it was still possible for SSRIs to help treat depression even if they didn't address the root cause.

'Many of us know that taking paracetamol can be helpful for headaches and I dont think anyone believes that headaches are caused by not enough paracetamol in the brain,' he said.

'The same logic applies to depression and medicines used to treat depression.

'There is consistent evidence that antidepressants can be helpful in the treatment of depression and can be life-saving.'

Professor Allan Young, director of the Centre for Affective Disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, said the review 'does not change' the evidence that antidepressants work.

An analysis of NHS data published this month found the number of antidepressants doled out to 13 to 19-year-olds rose by a quarter between 2016 and 2020.

It included prescriptions up to the end of 2020, following a year of national Covid lockdowns and school and university closures.

An increasing amount of evidence is beginning to accrue showing that restrictions took a heavy toll on young people's mental health.

The NHS data  obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request  also showed antidepressants use rose sharply among adults in their 20s.

Mental health and children's charities told MailOnline the data was an 'alarming sign' of a mental health crisis in Britain.

They warned some young people may have been given drugs by GPs because they can't get counselling due to pandemic backlogs.
Giving breast cancer survivors hormone replacement therapy is safe, research has suggested.

Doctors have for decades avoided recommending HRT to women who have beaten the disease over fears it would trigger a recurrence.

Danish scientists have now questioned the concerns, sparked by two studies in the 1990s.

They uncovered no increased risk of the disease returning in survivors taking HRT, specifically vaginal oestrogen.

The discovery gives hope to thousands who have survived breast cancer only to be plagued by crippling symptoms of the menopause. Many have been left to struggle through using natural remedies or nothing at all, campaigners say.

But the Danish study was small, and does not prove that all types of HRT are safe for breast cancer survivors.

A Danish study of 8,500 women with breast cancer has raised hopes more women can use HRT to treat symptoms of the menopause without increasing their risk of the disease returning (stock image of a breast cancer scan)

The new research, by Odense University Hospital, tracked 8,500 post-menopausal women.

All of the participants had been diagnosed with oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer, which thrive on the female sex hormone. About three quarters of all breast cancers in the UK are of this type.

HRT replenishes diminishing levels of oestrogen, hence why the cancer fears have left doctors afraid to dole out patches, gels and implants.

The drugs are currently available on prescription only.

Women in the study were given tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors. Both drugs work by blocking oestrogen from working, helping slow breast cancer growth.

Slightly over 2,000 of the women took some form of HRT in the years following their cancer diagnosis.

WHAT IS THE MENOPAUSE? Menopause is defined as the changes a woman goes through just before and after she stops her periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally. Some women go through this time with few, if any, symptoms, around 60 percent experience symptoms resulting in behavioral changes and one in four will suffer severely. Common symptoms include hot flushes, night sweats, vaginal dryness leading to discomfort during sex, disrupted sleep, decreased sex drive, problems with memory and concentration and mood swings. Menopause happens when your ovaries stop producing as much of the hormone oestrogen and no longer release an egg each month. In the UK, the average age for a woman to reach the menopause is 51, according to the NHS. Advertisement

Participants were followed for up to a decade, or until a cancer recurrence or death occurred.

During the analysis, 1,333 (16 per cent) women had a breast cancer recurrence.

Of these 111 were taking vaginal oestrogen, 16 another form of HRT and 1,206 did not take any.

Calculations showed recurrence rates stood at 15.4 per cent in the vaginal oestrogen group and 17.1 per cent in the other HRT group.

This compared to a 19.2 per cent risk in the group not on HRT.

However, researchers did find a 39 per cent increased risk of cancer recurrence in a subset of women taking both vaginal oestrogen and aromatase inhibitors.

Dr Elizabeth Cathcart-Rake, a breast oncologist at the prestigious Mayo clinic in the US, said: 'This large study helps to inform nuanced discussions between clinicians and breast cancer survivors about the safety of vaginal oestrogen therapy.

'The results suggest breast cancer survivors on tamoxifen with severe genitourinary symptoms can take vaginal oestrogen therapy without experiencing an increase in their risk for breast cancer recurrence.

'However, caution is still advised when considering vaginal estrogen for breast cancer survivors on aromatase inhibitors, or when considering menopausal hormonal therapy.'

A Cancer Research UK spokesperson said further research was needed to confirm the small Danish study's findings.

Dr Channa Jayasena, consultant reproductive endocrinologist at Imperial College London, said the results look credible and suggest 'future trials looking at the safety of HRT are warranted'.

However, he said: 'It seems premature to recommend HRT to women after breast cancer based on just this study.'

Professor Debasish Tripathy, an oncologist at the University of Texas, told NewScientist: 'I dont think [these results are] conclusive enough to tell someone that they can safely use these oestrogen products.'

While the study raises hope that breast cancer survivors could use more forms of HRT, it comes as tens of thousands of women in the UK struggle to get hold of the menopause medication due to ongoing supply shortages.

There are about 56,000 breast cancer diagnoses in the UK each, the vast majority of which (99 per cent) are in women.

About 11,000 people die each year from breast cancer in Britain, with three quarters of people diagnosed with the disease surviving at least a decade.

Charity Breast Cancer Now estimates there are 600,000 breast cancer survivors in the UK.

In the US, 260,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year, with 42,000 deaths.

The most common sign of breast cancer is a new lump on breast. Women who notice a new lump in their breast or an area of thickened tissue should get it checked with their GP.
Thousands more couples will get free IVF under reforms designed to shake-up how the NHS operates.

The Government's long-awaited Women's Health Strategy will tackle the 'postcode lottery' of fertility treatment.

It pledges to remove all 'non-clinical' criteria used to ration it, which leaves couples wanting children having to fork out up to 5,000 privately.

Couples previously denied IVF because one partner already had a child from another relationship will now be allowed to undergo the procedure for free.

And lesbians will also no longer be required to pay for artificial insemination to prove their fertility status before receiving NHS funding.

They will now get six free cycles of the treatment, which is less invasive and cheaper than IVF, before going on to the latter.

UK guidelines say IVF should be offered on the NHS to women aged 42 or under who have failed to conceive after two years of unprotected sex.

However, local health chiefs decide who can access funded treatment. Some trusts offer women struggling to conceive the recommended three cycles, others don't.

The Department of Health's strategy will also see both boys and girls taught about women's health, including the menopause, 'from an early age', with schools asked not to segregate them for Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) lessons.

This will improve awareness of women's health in society and ensure issues such as menstrual health, contraception and menopause are 'no longer taboo subjects'.

It comes after 84 per cent of people who responded to a Government consultation said women often feel ignored or not listened to when they seek help from the NHS for their health.

More couples will be offered free IVF on the NHS under reforms to health service aiming to improve provision to women

WHO GETS FREE IVF? IVF is only offered on the NHS if certain criteria are met. In 2013, the NICE published fertility guidelines that made recommendations about who should have access to the treatment on the NHS in England and Wales. However, individual NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups make the final decision about who can access it in their local area, and their criteria may be stricter. According to NICE, women aged under 42 should be offered three cycles of IVF treatment on the NHS if: They've been trying to get pregnant through regular unprotected sex for two years.

They've not been able to get pregnant after 12 cycles of artificial insemination.

If tests show that IVF is the only treatment likely to help you get pregnant, you should be referred for IVF straight away. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

The Government has set an ambition to ensure 'women and girls feel listened to and have their concerns taken seriously at every stage of their journey', from discussions about symptoms to treatments and follow-up care.

As part of the reforms, trainee medics will face assessments from the General Medical Council (GMC) on women's health, with topics including the menopause, obstetrics and gynaecology.

Those undergoing specialist training, such as to become a GP or physiotherapist, will also have teaching on women's health, while existing doctors could take extra courses to top up their learning.

'As a result, more doctors will have a better baseline understanding of women's health,' the strategy said.

In a raft of commitments, the strategy said transgender men and non-binary people with female reproductive organs should always receive screening invites so they can access cervical and breast cancer screening.

Another ambition is to end 'taboos and stigmas which reinforce beliefs among women, health and care professionals and wider society that health problems or painful symptoms  in particular "hidden pain" which could be a symptom of gynaecological conditions  are normal and something to be endured'.

Women have also been promised more discussions around pain relief before undergoing some procedures, such as intrauterine device (IUD) contraceptive fitting, which can often be extremely painful.

The strategy further promises to expand women's health hubs and 'one-stop clinics', which are so far up and running in Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Hampshire and Hackney.

These services are not organised by individual condition or issue, but instead look at women's life stage, such as offering both menopause help and contraception to women over the age of 40.

NHS-funded IVF treatment fell 35 per cent from 2019 to 2020 (left), compared to a 13 per cent drop in privately-funded treatment (right)

IVF cycles dropped for all ages in 2020 compared to 2019, with the largest drop among 18 to 34-year-olds

HOW DOES IVF WORK? In-vitro fertilisation, known as IVF, is a medical procedure in which a woman has an already-fertilised egg inserted into her womb to become pregnant. It is used when couples are unable to conceive naturally, and a sperm and egg are removed from their bodies and combined in a laboratory before the embryo is inserted into the woman. Once the embryo is in the womb, the pregnancy should continue as normal. The procedure can be done using eggs and sperm from a couple or those from donors. Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that IVF should be offered on the NHS to women under 43 who have been trying to conceive through regular unprotected sex for two years. People can also pay for IVF privately, which costs an average of 3,348 for a single cycle, according to figures published in January 2018, and there is no guarantee of success. The NHS says success rates for women under 35 are about 29 per cent, with the chance of a successful cycle reducing as they age. Around eight million babies are thought to have been born due to IVF since the first ever case, British woman Louise Brown, was born in 1978. Chances of success The success rate of IVF depends on the age of the woman undergoing treatment, as well as the cause of the infertility (if it's known). Younger women are more likely to have a successful pregnancy. IVF isn't usually recommended for women over the age of 42 because the chances of a successful pregnancy are thought to be too low. Between 2014 and 2016 the percentage of IVF treatments that resulted in a live birth was: 29 per cent for women under 35 23 per cent for women aged 35 to 37 15 per cent for women aged 38 to 39 9 per cent for women aged 40 to 42 3 per cent for women aged 43 to 44 2 per cent for women aged over 44 Advertisement

Other strategy commitments include reducing waiting times for women's health, including the time taken to get a diagnosis for endometriosis.

Workplaces should also become places where women feel supported as they go through infertility, miscarriage and menopause.

In a foreword to the strategy, Health Secretary Steve Barclay and health minister, Maria Caulfield, said the vast majority of people in the consultation had not felt properly listened to.

They said: 'This is the Government's first Women's Health Strategy for England and shows how we will right these wrongs.

'It sets out how we will improve the way in which the health and care system listens to women's voices, and boost health outcomes for women and girls.'

The report said that, while women make up 51 per cent of the population, 'historically the health and care system has been designed by men, for men.'

It added: 'This "male as default" approach has been seen in research and clinical trials, education and training for healthcare professionals, and the design of healthcare policies and services.

'This has led to gaps in our data and evidence base which mean that that not enough is known about conditions that only affect women, for example menopause or endometriosis.'

Women's health ambassador, Dame Lesley Regan, said the strategy was an opportunity to 'reset the dial on women's health'.

She added: 'The call for evidence, which informs the ambitions of the strategy, reiterates what I hear repeatedly from women  that our healthcare systems are failing them because NHS services are not designed to meet women's day-to-day needs.

'All too often it forces women to navigate their way around multiple different health professionals and facilities trying to access basic services to maintain their health and wellbeing.

'The irony is that their care can easily be provided more conveniently and at significantly lower cost during a single visit to a women's health hub or centre, if we adopt a 'one-stop-shop' model.'

Under the plans, parents who have experienced pregnancy loss before 24 weeks will be able to receive a certificate to provide recognition of their loss.

The NHS website will also have its women's health section overhauled and expanded, while 10 million will provide 25 new mobile breast screening units for regions that have lower screening uptake.

Mr Barclay said: 'Our health and care system only works if it works for everyone.

'It is not right that 51 per cent of our population are disadvantaged in accessing the care they need, simply because of their sex.

'The publication of this strategy is a landmark moment in addressing entrenched inequalities and improving the health and wellbeing of women across the country.'
A pensioner forced to wait 11 hours for an ambulance after falling over at home died two days later, her distraught son has revealed.

Jacqueline Hulbert, 78, fell over in her bedroom in Barwell, Leicestershire at 2am on July 10 and was left on the floor desperately needing the toilet.

Her son Mathew, 42, got to her home around three hours later but couldn't move her because she was in too much pain. The parish councillor rang 999 several times but was told the ambulance service was extremely busy.

A paramedic finally arrived at 4pm, followed by an ambulance that took her straight to the George Elliot Hospital in Nuneaton around half an hour later.

Jackie, as she was known to friends, died there two days later of sepsis, triggered by a UTI  which isn't thought to be related to the fall.

Mr Hulbert described the 'indignity, distress and frustration' endured by his mother while left in agony on the floor as 'traumatic'.

The case is a staggering illustration of the NHS's ambulance crisis, with heart attack and stroke patients told they face waits of several hours before being picked up.

Jacqueline Hulbert (pictured with her son Matthew), 78, fell over in her bedroom in Barwell, Leicestershire, at 2am on July 10, and was left on the floor desperately needing the toilet

Mr Hulbert said the 'indignity, distress and frustration' endured by his mother while waiting on the floor was 'traumatic'

Heart attack patients waited more than 50 minutes for an ambulance on average in England last month  nearly triple the NHS target. There were more than 300,000 category two callouts in June

Some 22,034 people had to wait more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England in June from a decision to admit to actually being admitted, NHS England said. The figure is up from 19,053 the previous month, but still below a record of 24,138 in April, which was the highest for any calendar month in records going back to August 2010. The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission stood at 130,109 in June, up from 122,768 the previous month. A total of 72% of patients in England were seen within four hours at A&Es last month, down from 73% in May

Heart attack patients told they could be waiting SEVERAL hours for an ambulance as NHS suffers busiest summer on record Heart attack and stroke patients who call for an ambulance are being told it could be hours before they are seen  as the NHS wrestles with its worst ever summer crisis. West Midlands Ambulance Service has warned it was 'under significant pressure' and category 2 callers could be waiting 'several hours'. The update acknowledged call handlers may encounter 'difficult conversations' with people desperate for help as a result, adding that 'support will be available' for staff. A BBC investigation last week showed how ambulances are being forced park for up to 20 hours outside hospitals waiting to hand over patients. NHS guidance says paramedics should be able to hand over patients within 15 minutes of arriving at A&E. The NHS is being battered by Covid, staff absences and excess admissions caused by the heatwave, with emergency departments the busiest they've ever been at this time of year. It comes as data released yesterday showed average ambulance response times for heart attack and stroke callouts are now nearly triple NHS targets. Advertisement

Mr Hulbert, who can't drive, woke up to the phone ringing at 4.30am and asked a friend to take him to his mother's house.

She fell on the way to the bathroom at and used the council-provided lifeline alarm around her neck to call for help.

Mr Hulbert said: 'I'm the first the council would have contacted and they were trying to call me for a while but I was asleep.

'When I did wake up, I had to a call a friend to take me the 15-minute journey.'

Mrs Hulbert had a pain in her ribcage, and her son and his friend did not want to risk moving her.

He added: 'The indignity of mum on the bedroom floor for 11 hours  unable to go to the toilet but desperate to go.

'There was nothing I could do beyond calling 999 again and again and again.

'She kept asking where they where but there was nothing else I could do beyond calling 999 and try to reassure her.

'I shall for the rest of my days remember those 11 hours because they were horrendous.'

Recalling his mother's ordeal, Mr Hulbert added: 'When the first paramedics arrived they couldn't have been kinder or compassionate towards mum.

'I understand that its not them as individuals and they're getting to people quickly as they can.'

Mrs Hulbert was taken to George Elliot Hospital in Nuneaton, where she died from sepsis on Tuesday, July 12.

The condition occurs when the body reacts to an infection  in her case a UTI  by attacking its own organs and tissues.

Some 44,000 people die from sepsis every year in the UK, while around 270,000 do in the US.

East Midlands Ambulance Service has sent its condolences to the family.

Charlotte Walker, head of operations for Leicestershire, said: 'We are deeply sorry that we were unable to get to the patient sooner and we recognise the distress that this will have caused to her and her family.

'Patient care and safety is always our priority.

'Unfortunately, we continue to experience a sustained level of life-threatening and serious emergency calls and we continually work to prioritise the sickest and most severely injured patients first.

'We would like to speak to the patient's family and urge them to get in touch with us at their earliest convenience.'
The dams water storage level is being maintained at 98.258tmc-ft as against a capacity of 105tmc-ft.  DC File Image

ANANTAPUR: After 38 years, the Tungabhadra reservoir witnessed flash floods and full storage of water during mid-July. Since decades, the TB Board had a tradition to release water by lifting the gates at least on August 15, Independence Day. Visitors in large numbers celebrate the tradition at the dam premises on that day.

The dam received heavy floods for the first time after 38 years. The dams water storage level is being maintained at 98.258tmc-ft as against a capacity of 105tmc-ft.

Inflows were recorded 1.67 lakh cusecs and outflows at 1.50 lakh cusecs. Though all 32 crest gates were opened for a couple of days, the first gate was closed on Tuesday due to a technical defect.

TB dam officials told DC that 31 gates were opened and water released to the river and canals.

About 6984 cusecs of water was released towards the High Level Main Canal, the Low Level Canal and the Raichur Canals under the project area. TB board and irrigation authorities of Kurnool have cautioned the low-lying areas of Tungabhadra river and the Sunkesula project over a possible rise in flood levels.

The 25 gates of Sunkesula reservoir were lifted with constant inflows from TB river and the water was discharged towards Srisailam.

Revenue and police authorities were monitoring the situation to avoid untoward incidents. Expert swimmers were kept ready as water was flowing at above the danger level.
A man in Texas has warned monkeypox was 'complete hell' and '100 times worse than Covid' after catching it  as cases in the United States topped 2,000.

Luke Shannahan, who works as a bartender in Dallas, revealed in an interview that the disease left him suffering a 101F fever, headache and swollen lymph nodes making him look 'like a frog' just two days after he was told he had been exposed.

Blisters then erupted all over his body that were so painful it felt like 'someone was taking a potato peeler to your skin' whenever they brushed against something.

Shannahan was administered a monkeypox vaccine after he was diagnosed, but still became bedridden for two days and felt so ill he feared for his life.

The patient is not sure how he became infected, but had attended bars, pool parties and a music festival in the days beforehand.

Luke Shannahan, who lives in Dallas, said monkeypox left him with blisters that were so painful it felt like someone was taking a potato peeler to his skin whenever he brushed against something

Pictured above is one of the blisters Shannahan suffered after catching monkeypox. They were extremely painful, and the disease was '100 times worse' than Covid, he said

He was administered a vaccine by the local department of health, but still ended up bedridden for two days with the disease. At one point he feared he would die

Revealing his illness, Shannahan told KHOU 11: 'It's just the most traumatic experience I've ever had. It's the worst sick I've ever been.

'You have these blisters that are inflamed and anytime it grazes something or touches something, it literally feels like someone is taking a potato peeler to your skin.'

In a separate interview with NBC 5, he revealed a contact tracer first alerted him that he had been exposed to the rash-causing virus.

Timeline of monkeypox 1958: Monkeypox is discovered when an outbreak of pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research. 1970: First human case of the disease is recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was later detected in a number of other central and western African countries. 2003: America's former largest monkeypox outbreak occurs. A total of 47 people are infected after having contact with pet prairie dogs that picked up the disease at a farm. July, 2021: Monkeypox case detected in the U.S. in a citizen who had recently returned from Nigeria. November, 2021: Monkeypox is detected in another U.S. resident who recently returned from Nigeria. May, 2022: A man in Massachusetts is diagnosed with monkeypox, becoming the first case in the current outbreak. There are now more than 2,000 cases nationwide. Advertisement

Two days later he had a temperature, constant headache and swollen lymph nodes. Which were then followed by painful blisters.

'The pain and tenderness was constant,' he said.

Asked whether it was like Covid, he said: 'Oh, 100 times worse. this was a totally different level of extreme fatigue.'

Shannahan was diagnosed two weeks and a day ago, and says most of his symptoms have now subsided.

But he will still remain in isolation for at least three weeks.

Patients must remain in quarantine until all their blisters have scabbed over and the scabs have dropped off because even these could spread the virus, according to official guidelines.

Shannahan has set up a gofundme page to replace lost wages as a bartender, which has so far made him $1,700.

Texas has recorded 81 cases of monkeypox to date, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says.

These are mostly among gay or bisexual men, although this week the Lone Star state also announced its first case among women.

Nationwide, infections have quadrupled over the last two weeks amid a surge in testing for the virus.

It has prompted warnings from some top experts that America has likely 'lost control' of the disease.

But CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky hit back against the claims yesterday, insisting they were 'misinformed and off base'.

Other experts say it will take another few days to become clear whether the rash-causing virus is now out of control in the United States.

Officials are urging gay and bisexual men to be aware of new lesions, rashes or scabs and get in contact with a sexual health clinic

Monkeypox patients are offered the Jynneous vaccine in the early stages of their illness, which doctors say can help reduce symptoms.

It is set to help kick-start the immune system to fight the virus off.

Many are also being offered TPOXX, an antiviral which works by stopping the monkeypox virus from invading other cells.

It was designed for use against smallpox, but is also being used to fight monkeypox infections because the two viruses are closely related.

There are mounting concerns over a shortage of monkeypox vaccines in the U.S. at present.

New York City and Washington D.C. are the first to start offering the jab to all gay or bisexual men who have multiple sexual partners every two weeks.

But in both appointments are running out in minutes when they are released, with New York now warning it may not be able to dish out second doses.

Residents have branded it 'ridiculous' that there are so few vaccines available in a city of more than eight million.
Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said he is 'really concerned' the UK could reach a point where patients are charged for doctor appointments

General practice could go the same way as dentistry  with millions having to pay for appointments, the country's top doctor warned today.

Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, admitted he is 'really concerned' about the sector, which is plagued by a staffing crisis.

Family doctors are choosing to retire in their 50s, moving abroad or leaving to work in the private sector because of soaring demand and paperwork.

Unless the situation changes drastically, Britain's taxpayer-funded GP sector could be left on its knees.

Professor Marshall warned it would see patients who can't afford to pay left with an 'inadequate safety net'.

While GP appointments are free, patients in England have to fork out 23.80 for any routine dental check-ups.

Poorer patients say they've been left with no option but to pull out their own teeth or travel abroad for cheaper dental treatment.

Overall, there are now nearly 1,700 fewer full-time equivalent GPs than in 2015. But projections warn the gap could grow even bigger.

It has led to a major appointments crisis, which has left patients struggling to see a doctor and piling pressure on A&E units.

Official health service data, which records the number of adults seen by NHS dentists in 24-month periods shows the drastic decline in the number of people seeing a dentist since the pandemic. While people struggled to access NHS dentistry services before Covid due to a lack of appointments, the situation has deteriorated further with 6million fewer people seen compared to pre-pandemic levels

Millions of people have been left without access to dental care after the number of NHS dentists fell to their lowest level ever last year

GP receptionists 'need new name' and should have career path, doctor says The role of a GP receptionists should be renamed and be included in a career path, a doctor has said. Dr Claire Fuller, a GP and chief executive officer of Surrey Heartlands integrated care system, said receptionists have more contact with patients than anyone else in the NHS but are 'the most overlooked' part of the health service. Speaking on a panel about the future of general practice today, she said receptionists are among the lowest paid and not included in NHS future planning. She said: 'We need to create a career path. 'We need to create it so when you walk past your surgery on your way to school, one of your aspirations is you might start as an apprentice within a practice as a receptionists  but we need a better name for it  but you work up through. 'We need to start to create different career trajectories for people so they can see a work future beyond being the job of traditional female-only occupation as it has been.' Advertisement

Professor Marshall's comments were made today at a panel discussing the future of general practice, hosted by the Policy Exchange thinktank.

He said: 'Dentists are finding it increasingly difficult to provide the service they want to apply to their patients and [are] therefore going private.

'And now we've ended up in a place where there is a very inadequate safety net service for those who can't afford to pay and the majority of people do pay for their dentistry care.

'Could general practice go that way? It could do.'

Professor Marshall argued a 'growing numbers of GPs' are deciding to work privately across the country, 'not just in big metropolitan areas'.

He added: 'That worries me greatly because the fundamental principle of the NHS around open access to all, irrespective of [one's] ability to pay, is such an important principle to my mind.

'It is such an important part of what's important to us as a set of values as a country that I worry about it greatly. So yes, I am worried.'

Only children, pregnant women, new mothers and those on benefits are eligible for free dental treatments on the NHS.

Everyone else faces paying at least 23.80 for NHS routine check-up, diagnosis and advice, as well as emergency care.

If they go privately, a check-up can cost up to 120, while fillings cost up to 175 and tooth extraction is as high as 370.

More patients have been forced to go private as dental surgeries close their doors to NHS patients, saying it is no longer financially viable to offer procedures at health service rates.

Nearly 90 per cent of practices in England are now not taking on new patients.

Patients have been known to call up to 40 practices to find an NHS dentist taking on new patients.

Health chiefs unveiled plans this week to ease the dentist appointments crisis, which will see patients wait for up to two years between check-ups, rather than six months.

It comes as patient satisfaction with general practice has fallen across the board. A poll of 700,000 people with long-term health conditions in England found that only 72 per cent of patients reported a good experience with their surgery (shown in map)

The survey also found that more than half of patients (55 per cent) who needed an appointment in the 12 months to April failed to secure one, up from 42 per cent the previous year. The main reason for a quarter of patients was that it was too difficult to book one, while a fifth said they did not want to burden the NHS

In another move designed to ease pressure on dentists, dental therapists will now be allowed to carry out fillings and a range of treatments.

Under previous guidance therapists, only trained to do routine work, had to wait for instructions on how to treat patients.

Dentists have also been told to publish up-to date info on whether they accept new NHS patients.

Speaking at the Policy Exchange event, Jacob Lant, head of policy, public affairs and research at Healthwatch England warned that general practice would follow in the footsteps of dentistry if patients were no longer linked to a practice.

He said: 'In 2006, we ended the idea that you have your dental practice. So you're not registered at a dentist the same way you are with a GP.

'You can theoretically go anywhere. But that then makes access much trickier.

'If we ever break the relationship between the patient and their GP practice we could definitely end up in the same place as we are with dentistry.'

It comes as patient satisfaction with general practice has fallen across the board.

A poll of 700,000 people with long-term health conditions in England found that more than half of patients (55 per cent) who needed an appointment in the 12 months to April failed to secure one, up from 42 per cent the previous year.

The main reason for a quarter of patients was that it was too difficult to book one, while a fifth said they did not want to burden the NHS.

Patients struggled to see a GP for check-ups, treatment and drug reviews during the pandemic as surgeries switched the majority of consults to phone and video.
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The BA.5 COVID-19 variant is continuing to grow in the U.S., almost entirely pushing out other forms of the virus. Some experts fear that the highly transmissible variant could fuel yet another summer Covid surge - a third in as many years - while others think there is enough immunity in the population to continue on life as normal.

The strain now makes up 78 percent of sequenced COVID-19 cases, according to data revealed Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is a rapid increase from the 55 percent of cases it made up only two weeks ago.

Federal officials' response to the virus thus far has focused on the rollout of vaccines, hoping that repeated shots could shore up protection long-term and reduce its ability to cause severe hospitalization or death. Another vaccine will soon join the lineup as well, with the CDC officially recommending the Novavax vaccine to U.S. adults this week.

Some experts disagree with this strategy, though, with Dr Marty Makary telling DailyMail.com this week that continuous pushing of the shots was support of a 'big Pharma narrative'.

Daily Covid infections and deaths are starting to taper off after rapid rises recorded in recent weeks. America is currently averaging 153,535 new infections and 536 deaths per day. Both figures are eight percent increases over the last seven days.

The BA.5 variant (dark green) now makes up 78% of Covid cases in the U.S., rapidly outpacing other forms of the virus. The previously dominant BA 2.12.1 strain (red) now makes up less than 10% of active cases, according to the CDC

The BA.5 variant (dark green) makes up between 70% and 80% of sequenced COVID-19 infections in every single region of America

The BA.5 variant is feared to be the most transmissible version of the virus to take hold in the U.S. yet by health officials.

It is also immune-evasive and can get around protections a person may have from previous Covid infection. Experts believe that a person could be re-infected with BA.5 within weeks of recovering from a different version of the Omicron variant.

This is a potentially worrying prospect that changes the understanding many have of the pandemic.

BA.5 has quickly grown in its prevalence across America and now makes up nearly four of every five cases in the U.S.

While is has caused cases to rise in recent weeks, experts are not panicking yet and believe the introduction of more Covid jabs could be what is needed to stop the spread.

'The good news here is our tools, our vaccines if you are up to date, if you've been vaccinated recently if you get treatments, those continue to work really well,' Dr Ashish Jha, the White House's COVID-19 response coordinator told ABC's This Week on Sunday.

'This is an area of concern but we know how to manage this.'

He noted that people over the age of 50 - who suffer the most risk from the virus - should receive their fourth vaccine dose if they have not already.

The shots, which are the second booster after the original two-dose regimen of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, were made available earlier this year in an effort to shore up protection for the most vulnerable to the virus.

'If you are 50 or over, if you have not gotten a shot this year in 2022, it is absolutely critical that you go and get one now it will offer a high degree of protection,' Jha said.

America has no introduced a new shot into its arsenal as well. On Tuesday the CDC officials signed off on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorization for the Novavax vaccine in all Americans 18 and older.

The long-awaited shots are the first protein-based COVID-19 vaccines to hit the market in the U.S., though they may already be outdated.

These jabs were formulated to combat the original Wuhan strain of the virus that stormed the world in early 2020.

In the time since the virus has mutated to get around much of the protection from infection provided by vaccines tailored to that strain.

While there is hope the Novavax shot will still be effective against the newer Omicron strains, the FDA has already made it clear it wants reformulated Covid jabs tailored to newer strains to be ready this fall.

Some also doubt these shots will ever be needed. While newer strains of the virus can evade immunity against infection, vaccinated individuals are still believed to have strong protection against serious hospitalization or death.

'He said it's absolutely critical to get boosted if you are over 50. But that added protection is a weak augmentation of immunity against the current strain since the booster vaccine is being given is against the original Wuhan strain,' Makary, a public health expert at Johns Hopkins University, wrote to DailyMail.com.

'Importantly, once again, Dr Jha supporting the big Pharma narrative in denying the fact that natural immunity provides strong protection against severe disease.'

'Dr Jha is failing to remind people that Omicron poses no significant public health risk to the vast majority of Americans beyond that of common-cold like symptoms,' he added.

As BA.5 has grown its pushed other variants to the fringes. The BA 2.12.1 variant that was dominant only a few weeks ago now makes up just nine percent of U.S. cases. The BA.2 'stealth' variant has almost entirely disappeared to this point.

BA.4, which was discovered in South Africa around the same time as BA.5, makes up 13 percent of cases in the U.S., the CDC reports.

The new dominant variant has spread across the country fairly evenly, making up between 70 to 80 percent of sequenced cases in every single region of America.
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Children up to four years old were just as likely to die from flu or a stroke as COVID-19 during the final months of 2021  the start of the Omicron wave, a DailyMail.com analysis of official statistics has revealed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published its estimates for the fatality rate for leading causes of death over October to December last year on Wednesday.

Data showed that despite the surge in infections at the time, fatalities caused by Covid remained minimal among American children less than 15 years old  with the disease not becoming the leading cause of death.

Among children aged one to four years cancer was the leading cause of death followed by heart disease, with Covid in third place alongside flu and stroke. Among five to 14 year olds, they were four times more likely to have died from cancer than Covid during the period.

Top experts  who asked not to be named  today said the figures suggested there was 'no emergency' to vaccinate children, especially considering more than three-quarters likely already have immunity from a previous infection with the pandemic virus.

But Dr Paul Offit, who was on the Food and Drug Administration's board that approved jabs for the youngest children, said it suggested children should still get vaccinated because they faced a risk from Covid.

Covid vaccines were approved for the youngest children in mid-June, but leaked data shows only 1.3 percent were vaccinated within the first three weeks of the approval. Among five to 11-year-olds, 15 percent were jabbed in the first three weeks. Flu vaccines are not offered to under-5s, despite a similar death rate.

The above chart shows the leading causes of death for under-4s and those aged five to 14 years over the last three months of 2021. It reveals that at no point Covid was the leading cause of death, despite the Omicron wave

Figures leaked in the first three weeks after vaccines were approved for the youngest children showed just 300,000 had got their first doses. When they were approved, officials said 'millions' were waiting to get the jabs

The CDC's report is published every three months and based on reports from all 50 states on fatalities by age groups and cause of death.

Overall, it showed that Covid was the third leading cause of death in the United States in the last three months of 2021 (107.5 deaths per 100,000 people). Heart disease remained the leading cause of death (179.6), followed by cancer (148.4).

Just 300,000 children under five years old - less than 1.6% - have been vaccinated 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. Advertisement

Breaking the data down into age groups showed that among one to four year olds cancer was the leading cause of death (1.7), followed by heart disease (0.7). The rate was 0.4 for Covid, flu and strokes.

Covid cases began to tick up in late November, reaching a record high of 320,000 a week by the end of December.

According to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Covid cases among America's youth reached their highest point during 2021 during the final week of the year  just as the Omicron strain began to take hold in the country.

During the final week, more than 580,000 pediatric Covid cases were reported, a 200,000 jump from the previous week.

But the bulk of America's Omicron wave struck early in 2022, with cases surging above 1.1 million a week in late January.

It was a similar picture among children aged five to 14 years, where the death rate from cancer at 1.9 was above that from Covid, at 0.4.

Even among people aged more than 85 years old  who are most at risk from Covid  the virus was the fourth leading cause of death at 1,199 fatalities per 100,000 people.

Heart disease was the top cause (4,275), followed by cancer (1,742) and Alzheimer's disease (1,274).

After viewing the data, a top expert told DailyMail.com it appeared there was 'no emergency' that would require children to get vaccinated against Covid.

They also pointed to CDC estimates that at least 75 percent of children have already had the virus, to say that the vast majority already have some form of protection.

But after viewing the data, Offit said: 'To me, this suggests that children can die from Covid, even if the rate is lower than that for cancer or heart disease.

'Therefore, if the disease can be prevented safely, then it should be prevented.'

The FDA approved Covid vaccines for the youngest children in mid-June, making the United States the only country in the world to offer the jabs to those less than a year old.

Children are offered either two doses of the Moderna vaccine up to eight weeks apart, or three doses of the Pfizer jab with a three week gap between the first and second and an eight week gap to the third.

Both jabs use a dose less than a quarter of the size of those given to adults, and studies show they are safe and effective in the age group.

But a number of experts have raised concerns over vaccinating children, saying they face a vanishingly small risk of becoming seriously ill or dying after catching the virus. Statistics show just 0.05 percent of America's more than a million deaths from the virus are among under-5s.

There are also concerns over myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation that can be a side-effect of the vaccine. Most cases are mild, although a few medics have raised concerns over long-term side effects.

And some experts fear the jabs may delay children getting other important jabs  such as the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine  because it can't be administered alongside others.

Figures leaked by a senior White House source showed barely one in 70 children less than five years old  or 1.3 percent  had got their first dose of the Covid vaccine despite it being approved last month.

Health chiefs rubber-stamped the jab saying 'millions' of parents were 'eager' to get the shots, but just 300,000 youngsters had come forward within the first few weeks.

Mother Maria Assisi holds her daughter Mia, 4, as she receives her first dose of the Moderna Covid vaccine at the Montefiore Medical Group center in the Bronx, New York City

Breaking down the statistics from the CDC report revealed Wyoming had the highest death rate from Covid (337.4) over the last three months of 2021.

West Virginia had the second highest (314.9), while New Mexico was third (312) and Montana was fourth (295).

At the other end of the scale, Hawaii had the lowest fatality rate from the virus (40.9), alongside Louisiana (62.7) and Florida (68.1).

A total of five million doses of Covid vaccine 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.

Moderna's Covid jab: Two doses needed to spark protection How many doses? Moderna requires two doses. How long is it in between doses? The first and second doses are given within three weeks of each other. How long does it take to reach maximum protection? Maximum protection is achieved within 42 days. Why does Moderna only have two doses? Moderna has a higher dosage of the vaccine which is why it works faster What are the side effects? The side effects are similar, with fever in toddlers and irritability in babies being the most common. Is one more effective than the other? Experts say no. Advertisement
Twitter's fallout with Elon Musk became more heated last night after it accused the billionaire of attempted sabotage, having pulled the plug on his 37billion takeover bid.

In a war of words, lawyers for the San Francisco-based social media giant told a US court to fast-track its trial against Musk to September and said the takeover uncertainty is harming the platform every hour of every day.

But lawyers for Musk, who said the social media giant is seeking a warp speed trial, called for the courtroom showdown to take place next February.

Legal battle: Twitter's lawyers told a US court to fast-track its trial against Elon Musk (pictured) to September and said the uncertainty is harming the platform 'every hour of every day'

Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Court of Chancery in Delaware largely granted Twitters wish as she set a five-day trial in October.

The 51-year-old Tesla boss has made no secret of his criticism of Twitter, firing off tweets bashing the platforms restrictions on free speech and failure to clamp down on fake accounts.

Earlier this month Musk said he no longer wanted to buy Twitter, claiming the firm had failed to uphold its side of the merger agreement by not disclosing enough information on fake accounts.

But the platform is suing him to force him to complete the deal.

Twitter lawyer Bill Savitt of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, said: Its attempted sabotage. He is doing his best to run Twitter down.

Hes doing his best to create jeopardy for Twitter, is doing his best to create exposure for Twitter, and hes doing that as a way to try and get out of the contract he promised to consummate.
Morses Club is to enter a 'potential scheme of arrangement' to address customer compensation claims that 'could jeopardise the groups future'.

The doorstep subprime lender said a central objective of the potential scheme, which has been identified to the Financial Conduct Authority, would be to treat all customers equitably and 'settle eligible redress claims' arising from customer complaints over a defined period.

Morses Club shares fell sharply in the wake of the announcement, and were down 42.40 per cent or 3.60p to 4.89p by midday, having fallen over 90 per cent in the past year.

Update: Morses Club revealed it plans to enter a 'potential scheme of arrangement'

It is understood that an additional sum of around 45million is expected to be set aside in its accounts for the 2022 financial year as an exceptional item to address any potential claims.

The Nottingham-based AIM-listed group flagged an increase in customer complaints only last month, which caused its shares to fall.

The group said in a stock market statement: 'Whilst the directors consider that Morses Club has adequate liquidity for the immediate future, they believe that without a potential scheme, the level of redress claims could jeopardise the group's future.

'Morses Club will continue to explore alternative options to a Scheme but it is likely the alternative options would result in those with Redress Claims receiving considerably lower amounts than they would under the Scheme.'

It added: 'Details of any potential scheme would be announced in due course. The scheme would be subject to the approval of the requisite majority of affected customers (i.e. those customers who received loans during the period to be covered by any scheme) and, thereafter, the court.'

For the year to 25 February 2023, which is a 'transition year in which legacy issues can be largely resolved', the group does not expect to make a profit.

But, looking further ahead, the company said market conditions were favourable, due to the exit of other significant competitors and the impact of the current economic situation in the UK on customer demand.

The group said: 'The Board is confident that the Group can return to profitability during FY24.'

Gary Marshall, chief executive of Morses Club, added: 'As the UK's leading home collected credit provider, we provide a valuable service to thousands of our customers who are unable to access mainstream credit providers and are likely to need even more support given the current economic climate.

'A successful Scheme of Arrangement would provide more certainty to the total liability arising from customer complaints and ensure that we can reshape the business for the future.

Aware: Morses Club has provided the FCA with its proposals and is engaging with them regarding a potential Scheme

'The potential Scheme is intended to provide a fair settlement for all eligible customers, whilst securing the Company's future and enabling us to continue to provide access to credit for an underserved and growing demographic.'

In March 2020 sub-prime lender Amigo Loans was forced to pause lending after a deluge of complaints from people who accused the firm of selling them loans that they could not repay.

But, in May its ongoing dispute over compensation for mis-sold borrowers was resolved and its latest business redress scheme was finally approved at a High Court hearing.

This emerged amid a crackdown on non-standard finance providers by the UK regulator, which saw the number of such providers diminish and big names like Wonga going bust.
They could shorten a four-and-a-half hour car journey to just 30 minutes or slash lengthy trips into London from cities like Cambridge, it is claimed.

California-based Joby Aviation, which makes flying taxis that seat one pilot and four riders, wants to offer journeys in the UK shortly after the company receives certification in the US.

Its founder and chief executive JoeBen Bevirt reckons it is the start of a new transport era 'similar to the transition from horses to automobiles' or 'canals to rail lines'.

Where to, guv? Joby Aviation's flying taxis, which seat one pilot and four riders, have a range of more than 150 miles and a top speed of more than 200mph

He said it would take time to build up manufacturing capacity but added: 'The industry will be moving millions of people by the end of the decade.'

The US company has applied for its aircraft design to be certified for use in Britain.

At the Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire, Bevirt said: 'We're so excited about the UK as a market. It's just fantastic to be able to provide the mobility that this new class of aircraft brings to people.'

He said a recent trip from an event in Cambridge to a dinner in London took two-and-a-half hours when it could have been over in 15 minutes.

He added: 'I was in the Scottish highlands recently  a four-and-a-half hour car trip that could have been done in 45 minutes, maybe even 30.

Every trip that I take, I am reminded of what a profound impact this is going to have on so many people's lives.'

Joby is aiming to have its US authorisation by the Federal Aviation Administration validated concurrently by the UK's Civil Aviation Authority.

That follows an agreement between the regulators this year to use an existing bilateral safety deal, which already applies to planes, for flying taxis, known as 'electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft' (eVTOLs).

High flyer: Joby Aviation chief exec JoeBen Bevirt reckons it is the start of a new era of transportation

Joby, whose investors include Uber, is targeting 2024 as the US start date, so the taxis could be in British skies soon after.

Initially the focus would probably be on routes between central London and the city's airports and, potentially, pairings such as Manchester-Birmingham and Oxford-Cambridge.

Japan and South Korea are other markets where it will look to launch.

It is one of a number of companies jostling to be at the front of the rank when the technology finally takes off, including Vertical, which is led by Ovo Energy founder Stephen Fitzpatrick.

Joby is a 'vertically-integrated' company, meaning it designs and manufactures most of the components on the aircraft, and plans to operate them.

It says it has flown the longest, the highest and the fastest flights of any eVTOLs.

Bevirt said, when asked to compare his 13-year-old company with rivals, that it had 'been in this a long time', flying full-scale aircraft since 2017 with a range of more than 150 miles and reaching speeds of more than 200mph.

He said the noise level was 'unprecedented'  65 decibels at a 100-metre distance during the loudest portion of flight  similar to a conversation.

It also tries to blend in with background noise, making a sound more like a fan than the 'wop-wop' of a helicopter, he added. per cent

Bevirt's firm listed in New York last year but shares are down 29 per cent in the year to date amid a broader downturn in stocks that are a bet on future growth.

It is not yet making money from sales and for the first quarter reported a loss of $62.3million (51.9million), though it had $1.2billion (1billion) in cash to support investment and operations, including certifying and manufacturing. It lost $114million (95million) for 2021.

Joby was among those making their pitches at the airshow this week as the aviation industry looks to a net zero future.

Bevirt said he was inspired as a boy living in the countryside by his 'very long trip home from school every day', who was motivated 'to dream of a better way to get from a school that I loved to a home that I loved'.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has called a truce with Easyjet in a bitter row over a multi-billion pound order for new planes.

The airlines founder and biggest shareholder backed buying 56 A320neo planes from Airbus, part of a 2013 order for 107 craft worth 4.5billion which he had said would sink the firm when flights were grounded after Covid struck.

The Cypriot tycoon, whose family owns 15 per cent of Easyjet, repeatedly lashed out at Easyjet bosses throughout the pandemic and sought to unseat four directors.

Turnaround: Easyjet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has backed a deal to buy 56 A320neo planes from Airbus, part of a 2013 order for 107 craft worth 4.5bn

He branded management scoundrels, threatened to sue them and offered 5million to whistleblowers for information that would scupper the deal.

He said going ahead with the order could be the biggest scandal in British corporate history.

The airline lost billions of pounds while international travel was halted. But the 55-year-olds change of heart marks a thawing of tensions.

Easyjet said the aircraft would consume 15 per cent to 25 per cent less fuel, significantly reducing costs.

They are also more profitable as they contain more seats. It said the price would be a lot lower than 4.5billion, due to concessions.
An Australian artist's work featuring a pickle from a McDonalds' cheeseburger stuck to a ceiling has raised the age-old question: what is art?

The artwork, creatively named 'Pickle' by Sydney artist Matthew Griffin, is part of the Hosting Fine Arts, Sydney exhibition currently on show at Michael Lett gallery in Auckland, New Zealand.

It displays a small slice of pickle on a pristine white ceiling as part of the exhibit of modern abstract works on show until July 30.

Director of Fine Arts Sydney, Ryan Moore, said the 'Pickle' exhibit will mean different things to different people 'but that's the point'.

'People dont have to think its art if they dont want to,' Mr Moore said.

'Anything can be an artwork, but not everything is. Thats often the point.'

Griffin's work is well known for '[combining] a wry humour with a DIY sensibility in his sculptures, photography, videos and installations', notes the Museum of Contemporary Art.

'His playful approach, often blending references from high and popular culture, disguises a more incisive critique of truth, authenticity and the construction of images in a digital age.'

'Meaning and value are things that we as humans create together - in art or any other part of life,' Mr Moore added.

'What makes an artwork is when whatever an artist makes or does is able to be used as art: when the object or action is thought about or talked about as an artwork. And thats what we are doing here, which I think is great.'

An image of the work shared to Instagram drew a mostly positive response.

'I can taste this photo,' one person commented.

'Perfection,' another person appraised the work.

'Love it,' wrote a third.

Griffin described his work on his Instagram as, 'a sculpture comprising the slice of pickle from a McDonalds cheeseburger flung onto the ceiling'.

One of Griffin's previous works, 'Anywhere but here', featured an old plastic chair - similar to one you'd see in a school classroom - precariously balanced on a ceramic dolphin, with a balloon hovering above blown by a hairdryer with the words 'anywhere but here' written on it.

Another one of his works, 'Aske', was an interactive piece that MCA said, 'responds to human presence with unexpected and alarming action'.

It was made out of a cardboard cylinder with a picture of a face with its eyes cut out. When an onlooker approached, ping pong balls would shoot out of the empty eye sockets.

This was done through a movement sensor connected to a hairdryer propelling the ping pong balls upwards.

Other abstract works currently on show at MCA in Sydney, are from Juliette Blightman, Prudence Flint and Yona Lee.

Flint's work titled 'Banana' is a stencil on a piece of paper depicting a lady sitting down eating a banana.

Juliette Blightman's work 'Pseudopanax', meanwhile, features a 60-minute loop of sound played through a small speaker - starting every hour on the hour - situated next to a potted plant.

While it might be questioned whether a slice of pickle stuck to a ceiling is really 'art', modern abstract works in various forms can attract serious money among collectors.

In 2021, for instance, a digital artwork which only exists as a JPG file sold for $69.3million after being listed for just $100 - making its US creator Beeple the third most valuable living artist behind Jeff Koons and David Hockney.

'Everydays: The First 5,000 Days' by artist Beeple became the most expensive ever 'non-fungible token' after being sold at auction for a record $69.3million, fetching more than physical works by many better-known artists

Another recent sale in 2021 was of an invisible sculpture which fetched more than $22,000.

Sardinian-born Salvatore Garau, 67, sold the artwork, titled 'I am', to an unidentified buyer earlier this month (pictured, Garau in 2016)

Sardinian-born Salvatore Garau, 67, sold the artwork, titled 'I am', to an unidentified buyer and gave them a certificate of authenticity to prove it was real.

How much money Griffin's Pickle would attract remains an open question, particularly as most people will be able to easily recreate it at their nearest fast food outlet.
A business owner in Fort Pierce, Florida, has been driving officials in the coastal town bonkers with his weekly messages on the marquee of his diner, Sweeties.

Irreverent at times, often rude and always a woke warrior's worst enemy, the messages routinely take aim at the chief of police and the mayor.

And Sweeties, partly owned by 63-year-old Rick Reed, happens to be at the highest-traffic corner of the city. It's a forced passage for thousands of motorists to I-95, the area's transportation lifeline.

Last week's sign reads: 'What do you call a lesbian dinosaur? Lickalotofp***'

While borderline homophobic and fat-shaming, the words are believed by some to be directed at Fort Pierce Police Chief Diane Hobley-Burney and Mayor Linda Hudson.

Reed won't fess up to it, telling DailyMail.com that associating either the chief or the mayor with lesbian dinosaurs would be 'an insult to lesbian dinosaurs everywhere.'

Rick Reed, 63, is part owner of Sweeties diner in Fort Pierce, Florida, and has used the restaurant's marquee to leave irreverent messages. This week's is directed at the town's mayor as he's posted her phone number for all to see

Last week's sign reads: 'What do you call a lesbian dinosaur? Lickalotofp***'. The joke is believed to be directed at the police chief and mayor, though Reed denies it

Many motorists in the blue-collar coastal city who see his signs get to speculate on the identity of the target of his sarcasm, something that creates a buzz about his diner without spending a dime on advertising.

Reed, however, has had unmistakable, crystal clear insults for the chief, a 27-year veteran law enforcer who he has nicknamed Hobley-Bobley, and Mayor Linda Hudson over the years.

Some of his favorite signs aimed at the chief include:

 'Now playing at Ft. Pierce Police Department: The Blob, starring Hobley-Bobley'

 'All I want for Christmas is a new chief of police'

 'Hobley-Bobley sat on our wall and it fell. The end'

 'Law enforcement week: All LEO receive 20% off, except Hobley-Bobley'

 'Fort Pierce Police theme song: Send in the clowns. BLT or burger fries $5.99'

 'No Hobley-Bobley served but we have ox tail, $9.95'

The mayor, too, has been the target of his scorn:

 'We support spaying and neutering at city hall'

 'Mayor Hudson, since you're 2 faced, can you make one pretty?'

 'City Hall is run like a wh**ehouse'

Many of Reed's words on the marquee are directed at Fort Pierce Police Chief Diane Hobley-Burney or Mayor Linda Hudson

Reed has gone so far as to take a jab at both of them, with one Halloween-themed sign reading: 'If the mayor and police chief lived together, they'd be broom-mates'

Occasionally, Reed has gone after both, with one sign reading: 'Buy a mayor, get a half-baked chief of police.'

And a Halloween-themed sign appeared in late October, reading: 'If the mayor and police chief lived together, they'd be broom-mates'

Much of the criticism about his signs, Reed says, comes from Fort Pierce City Hall.

Mayor Hudson emailed a short comment, about the Lickalotofp*** sign, one hinting that motorists may have complained. 'The city of Fort Pierce is a beautiful, diverse community and welcomes the sharing of ideas and thoughts openly,' she said

In one instance the sign read that city hall was run like a wh**ehouse. That resulted in a call from the city manager asking him, nicely and respectfully, to take it down.

Reed refused.

Another time, he received a visit from the police's Head of Internal Affairs with the same request about the sign asking for a new chief, and he escorted the cop off the diner's property.

Over the years, Reed says, he has never taken a sign down, including the one addressed to no one in particular that read 'Team work: One buttcheek says to the other, together we can stop this sh*t.'

'Sometimes I just try to have something funny out there for motorists,' he says. 'I don't always mean anything political by it.

'The signs are what they are. I'm not sure they offend anyone. For me, it's all about the First Amendment.'

Besides, he says, there's nothing more American than a citizen holding public officials' feet to the fire.

'The signs have become somewhat of an institution in town,' he says. 'I have no promotion or advertisement budget, but I do have a lot of people who come in because of the signs. We've got good food, so they likely become regular customers.'

City officials, meanwhile, either ignored or failed to respond to DailyMail.com's requests for comment.

Only Mayor Hudson emailed a short comment, about the Lickalotofp*** sign, one hinting that motorists may have complained.

'The city of Fort Pierce is a beautiful, diverse community and welcomes the sharing of ideas and thoughts openly,' the mayor wrote in an email to DailyMail.com. 'After further review by the city staff and consultation with the city attorney, it was determined that the sign in question does not violate the city of Fort Pierce's code of ordinances.'

Reed has had unmistakable, crystal clear insults for Fort Pierce Police Chief Diane Hobley-Burney, a 27-year veteran law enforcer, who he has nicknamed Hobley-Bobley

One sign directed at the police chief read: 'Law enforcement week: All LEO receive 20% off, except Hobley-Bobley'

The chief of police (center) was suspended by the Fort Pierce city manager for five days after allegedly making what Reed deemed to be 'threatening' comments to him. Reed is considered by the city's political establishment to be a pest who scrutinizes their every move in city hall meetings and through public records

Hudson declined further comment because the city is currently in litigation with Reed, who filed a $2.5 million lawsuit in July 2020 in federal court.

He claimed city officials, including Hobley-Burney, Hudson and others violated his civil rights by using the police department to harass him with incessant traffic stops.

The complaint says that Reed claims he started being harassed by the chief of police in April 2016, and that she had officers stop him repeatedly and issue traffic violations or warnings.

Over the years, records show he's been stopped for a broken light near his license plate, speeding and an improper stop.

A former unsuccessful mayoral candidate, Reed opened Sweeties a little more than six years ago as a throwback to the 1950s.

The joint is named after his maternal grandmother, whose nickname was Sweetie.

In the diner's website, Reed describes his passion as ensuring that 'our local government employees, police officials and elected officials (are) accountable to the taxpayer.'

But Reed is considered by the city's political establishment to be a pest who scrutinizes their every move in city hall meetings and through public records.

He's been forcibly removed from meetings and has been issued a trespassing ticket for refusing to leave city hall.

'Fort Pierce Police theme song: Send in the clowns. BLT or burger fries $5.99' one sign read

The chief of police was suspended by the Fort Pierce city manager for five days after allegedly making what Reed deemed to be 'threatening' comments to him.

Reed says the chief visited him after he sided with the family of an unarmed 21-year-old black motorist with no criminal record who was shot in the back and killed by patrolmen as he allegedly fled a traffic stop in April 2016.

Reed sided with those asking for the U.S. Department of Justice to step into the investigation, something he says the chief didn't appreciate.

'She told me her son would get me,' Reed said. 'He has a drug-related criminal record, so I took it as a threat.'

In court, too, Reed has already gotten under city officials' skin.

In 2019, he filed yet another federal lawsuit after City Commissioner Jeremiah Johnson blocked Reed from accessing his Twitter feed.

The men reached a settlement seven months after Reed filed that reads: 'If the First Amendment means anything, it means that the best respond to disfavored speech on matters of public concern is more speech, not less.'

Reed was so proud of the way the settlement read that he framed the choice parts and hung them in the diner.

So, there's little chance Reed will cool it with the signs anytime soon.

And if some of them sound sexist or homophobic or fat-shaming, he doesn't care. Everybody who knows him, he says, know he doesn't tolerate discrimination.

And for those who may still not like the signs, Reed had another message on his sign: 'Complain at 1-800-EAT-SH*T'
Hyderabad: Industries and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao said that the state government was giving the utmost priority to job creation to address the unemployment problem effectively.

He said all the governments in the country, be it state or at Centre-level, are facing a major challenge in the form of job creation as more and more youth are getting educated, acquiring requisite skills and awaiting jobs. "The Telangana government has laid a special focus on the job creation in the private sector from day one. Since jobs in the government sector are very limited, it is difficult to provide employment to all. To address this issue, Chief Minister KCR garu brought pro-industrial policy TS-iPASS, which we could attract over 20,000 industries since 2015 and provided jobs to nearly 16.50 lakh people," KTR said.

Speaking after inaugurating the Business Facilitation Centre and Model Career Centre of the industry body Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) at Saifabad on Wednesday, he said several industrialists and investors from other states were seeking schemes being implemented by Telangana in their respective states. The development and welfare programmes implemented by Telangana in the past eight years have become an inspiration to other states in the country. Only the opposition parties fail to recognise them," he remarked.

Stating that the empowerment of Dalits  socially and economically  remained the top priority of the TRS government, he said, "The CM has brought Dalit Bandhu, T-Pride schemes and several other schemes for the empowerment and welfare of Dalits. The responsibility of utilising these schemes effectively lies with beneficiaries."

Rama Rao expressed concern over the majority of the Dalit Bandhu

beneficiaries opting for vehicles. He said efforts were being made to

discourage people from opting to purchase vehicles including cars, tractors, harvesters and others under the Dalit Bandhu and T-Pride schemes.

The increasing number of vehicles will reduce the demand and affect the economic growth of the beneficiaries. Instead, the focus will be on

encouraging a group of beneficiaries coming together to set up manufacturing units as they will provide employment opportunities, he said.

He explained that Dalit Bandhu is not a dole but an affirmative action to

create new opportunities, create and distribute wealth. Many want to see

Dalit Bandhu scheme fail to politically attack our government, he said,

adding that the Telangana government is also focused on STs, OBCs, and

economically backward classes.

"Our focus is alleviating poverty (gharibi hatao) and not removing the poor

(gharibon ko hatao) being adopted by the Modi Government, he said.
Dan Cox, a far-right state legislator endorsed by former President Donald Trump, won the Republican primary for Maryland governor on Tuesday, defeating a moderate rival backed by outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan.

Despite being a win for Trump, Coxs victory over former Hogan Cabinet member Kelly Schulz could be a blow to Republican chances to hold on to the seat in November.

Hogan, who was prohibited from running for a third consecutive term, was a rare two-term Republican governor in a heavily Democratic state, and he had endorsed Schulz as the successor to his bipartisan style of leadership.

Democrats were likely giddy over Cox's win in the Republican primary. The Democratic Governors Association plowed more than $1 million behind an ad intended to boost Cox, seeing him as an easier opponent in November.

Cox has been a thorn in Hogan's side over the last few years, suing over the governor's stay-at-home orders and regulations in the early days of the pandemic and seeking unsuccessfully to impeach him for COVID-19 orders Cox called 'restrictive and protracted.'

Cox alluded to his fight with Hogan in his victory speech Tuesday night, telling a cheering crowd: 'We will never again give over our bodies, our churches and our businesses to a lockdown state.'

Maryland State Delegate Dan Cox gives a thumbs up as he enters a victory party after winning the Republican primary for Maryland governor, Tuesday evening

Cox beat out moderate Republican Kelly Schulz (left), who was backed by outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan (right), a critic of Cox and Donald Trump

Democrats had spent $1.2 million in the state running ads touting Cox's connection with Trump. The two are pictured together after the former president endorsed Cox

Cox, a far-right state legislator, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Democrats are said to expect an easier victory against Cox in November than against a moderate

The Republican primary was viewed as a proxy battle between Trump and Hogan, who offered vastly different visions of the party's future as they considered 2024 campaigns for the White House.

Hogan, one of Trump's most prominent GOP critics, urged the party to move on from his divisive brand of politics, while Trump spent much of his post-presidency lifting candidates who embraced his election lies.

One of those candidates was Cox, who organized busloads of protesters to Washington for the 'Stop the Steal' rally that preceded the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Cox has also said President Joe Bidens victory shouldn't have been certified and called former Vice President Mike Pence a 'traitor.'

Hogan slammed Cox's comments against the former Vice President and condemned the legislator's far-right views.

'Dan Cox ... is a QAnon whack job who was in favor of calling Mike Pence, my friend, a traitor, when they were talking about hanging him,' Hogan said of Cox last year.

Throughout the primaries, the Democratic Governor's Association (DGA) had booked almost $1.2 million in ads that touted Cox's link to Trump. Cox's campaign only spent a fraction of that, buying about $21,000 worth of ads, according to media-tracking firm AdImpact.

Cox was branded 'too conservative for Maryland' in the ads due to his opposition on abortion rights and gun reform.

Although the ads seemed to be an attack on the lawmaker at first glimpse, it appeared to rile up Trump voters to come out in droves and beat out moderate conservatives who support Hogan's candidate.

In a statement regarding the ads, DGA executive director Noam Lee called Cox a 'conspiracy theorist with an extreme track record.'

'We can't let Dan Cox turn Maryland into MAGAland, which is why the DGA has been holding him accountable for weeks and will continue to ensure we defeat him and his dangerous agenda in November,' Lee said.

Cox alluded to his fight with Hogan in his victory speech, telling a cheering crowd: 'We will never again give over our bodies, our churches and our businesses to a lockdown state'

While the targeted ads appeared to be an attack on Cox, it appeared to rile up his voter base in order to beat out a more moderate conservatives backed by the state's GOP incumbent. Cox was labeled 'too close to Trump' and 'too conservative for Maryland' in the ads

Cox will face the winner of the highly competitive Democratic primary in the November general election.

Wes Moore, a bestselling author backed by Oprah Winfrey, had an early lead Tuesday night, with the focus starting to turn to mail ballots that won't be counted until later in the week.

It could potentially take days, or even longer, to determine winners in the most closely contested races, including the Democratic primary for governor. Maryland law prohibits counties from opening mail ballots until the Thursday after election day.

In another top race Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen beat back a primary challenge just months after suffering a minor stroke. He is favored in November to win a second term.

People cast votes at Edmondson Westside High School during Maryland's primary election

A woman drops a ballot into a drop box while casting her vote on Tuesday

Pictured: People cast their votes at Edmondson Westside High School during Maryland's primary election, Tuesday, in Baltimore

Voters were also picking nominees for an open seat in the state's eight-member congressional delegation. And the daughter of the state's former attorney general was vying for her father's old job.

Ten candidates in all were seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.

Tom Perez, a former U.S. labor secretary and former Democratic Party chair, had support from labor unions, while Moore, the former CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, an anti-poverty organization, was endorsed by the states teachers union and the two top Maryland legislative leaders, House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson.

Another top candidate, state Comptroller Peter Franchot, who comfortably won four races to be the state's tax collector, brought significant name recognition to the primary.

Voter Laura Kretchman, a 41-year-old high school teacher, said Moore's endorsement by the Maryland State Education Association helped her choose him. She said she's impressed by Moore's accomplishments after rising above childhood challenges and being raised by a single mom.

'I teach children at a school that also come from difficult upbringings, so Id like to see maybe what he can bring to helping those students that are struggling and challenged,' said Kretchman, an Annapolis resident.

Cox is likely to face-off against top Democratic gubernatorial contenders Tom Perez (left) and We Moore (right), either one of whom is favored to take the state

Other voters said they preferred a long resume of government service. Curtis Fatig, a 67-year-old voter in Annapolis, settled on Perez, who also worked on the Montgomery County Council, as Maryland's secretary of labor and as the assistant attorney general for civil rights in Obama's administration.

'Hes not a newcomer,' said Fatig.

At an elementary school in Silver Spring, many Democrats said they cast a ballot for governor with an eye toward November's general election.

Retired high school teacher Tom Hilton, 75, said he viewed the Democratic primary field as 'kind of a toss-up' but ultimately picked Franchot.

'Mainly for the financial parts,' Hilton said. 'I think hell be a little bit more attuned to having a more secure financial future for Maryland.'

Cox's victory on Tuesday serves as a win for Trump, who has a mixed endorsement record in this year's midterm elections. But in such a heavily Democratic state, his candidate faces an uphill battle heading into the fall.

Trump's endorsement helped Cox earn 22-year-old Cameron Martin's vote.

'The main reason was because he was endorsed by Trump,' Martin said, adding that he feels like Cox shares his Republican values and that 'he will best represent me.'

Maryland's only open congressional seat is in the 4th Congressional District, a heavily Democratic Black-majority district.

Barbara McLean uses a magnifying glass while going over her ballot before casting her vote at Edmondson Westside High School during Maryland's primary election

Valerie Sligh, a worker in Baltimore Sheriff John Anderson's re-election campaign, canvases outside of a polling place at Edmondson Westside High School

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown is leaving to run for attorney general. Former Rep. Donna Edwards, who previously held the seat, trailed former county prosecutor Glenn Ivey in early results in Tuesday's Democratic primary.

The Democratic primary for attorney general turned into a battle between former Gov. Martin O'Malley's wife, Katie Curran O'Malley, who is a former Baltimore judge and the daughter of former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., and Brown, O'Malley's lieutenant governor who lost the 2014 governor's race to Hogan. Brown had an early lead in the race.

The two were vying to replace Democratic Attorney General Brian Frosh, who is retiring. Maryland hasn't had a Republican attorney general in nearly 70 years.

In other races, candidates were on the ballot for all 188 seats in the Maryland General Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats.

The Maryland primary was delayed by three weeks because of lawsuits challenging the state's congressional and state legislative maps.
Florida residents donated 167 assault rifles and handguns to Miami police as part of a buyback initiative that sends firearms to Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russia.

The Guns 4 Ukraine program allowed residents to off-load their weapons to police on Saturday with 'no questions asked.'

Officials gave residents $50 for handguns, $100 for shotguns and $150 for assault-style rifles such as AK-47s or AR-15s.

City Commissioner Ken Russell said the initiative was an 'unprecedented effort' to help Ukrainians 'in their time of need,' as well as get weapons off the Miami streets.

However, critics allege the weapons are too primitive to help Ukraine resist Vladimir Putin's assault on their nation and that getting the guns overseas is a really complex process.

The city has not yet signed an agreement with a licensed weapons exporter, but officials are hoping to send the guns to Ukraine within the next few weeks.

Florida residents donated 167 assault rifles and handguns to Miami police on Saturday as part of a buyback initiative that sends firearms to Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russia

The Guns 4 Ukraine program allowed residents to off-load their weapons to police on Saturday with 'no questions asked'

City officials say the initiative was an 'unprecedented effort' to help Ukrainians 'in their time of need,' as well as get weapons off the Miami streets. Officers are seen sorting through the donated weapons on Tuesday

However, critics allege the weapons are too primitive to help Ukraine resist Vladimir Putin's assault on their nation and that getting the guns overseas is a really complex process. The weapons are pictured during a press conference Tuesday

The Miami government plans to send the weapons to a police department in Irpin, Ukraine, a suburb of Kyiv, where cops have reported a handgun and rifle shortage.

'Many people were skeptical that a city would be able to do this, but we have found a way,' Russell told The Miami Herald. 'We are here to help them in their time of need, and theyve shown their bravery.'

However, cynics remain skeptical of the plan, noting how Florida law requires that any weapon given to a state official must be turned over to the local sheriff.

The sheriff could chose to loan the weapon to other departments, destroy it or sell it to benefit a state fund, The Washington Post reported. They are not typically permitted to send weapons abroad.

In fact, International Traffic in Arms Regulations require anyone looking to export guns, ammunition or defense-related items to obtain a license from the federal government.

Russell said the US State Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have cleared the city's plans to ship the weapons to Irpin.

The city will also be supplying Irpin police with helmets and bulletproof vests.

Additionally, Miami declared Irpin as one of its sister cities on Tuesday, which Russell claims permits both city governments to coordinate the donation.

Officials gave residents $50 for handguns, $100 for shotguns and $150 for assault-style rifles such as AK-47s or AR-15s. An officer is pictured holding a donated weapon on Saturday

Citizens lined up in their cars and on motorcycles Saturday to pass the unwanted guns off to police, who then inspected them

Officers had to confirm the weapons weren't stolen or part of any ongoing criminal cases. Cops are pictured inspecting the guns on Saturday

The Miami government plans to send the weapons to a police department in Irpin, Ukraine, a suburb of Kyiv, where cops have reported a handgun and rifle shortage. Officials are pictured sorting weapons at Saturday's event

Critics are concerned the guns (pictured on Tuesday) won't be 'sophisticated' enough to aid in the fight against Russia

Photos taken from Saturday's event show officers collecting the weapons outside Miami City Hall.

Citizens lined up in their cars and on motorcycles to pass the unwanted guns off to the police, who then inspected them. Officers had to confirm the weapons weren't stolen or part of any ongoing criminal investigations.

'We really didnt know what to expect,' Miami Police Chief Manuel Morales said in a video posted to Facebook after the event. 'But we came out here, the community came out, and showed great support for us.'

'A lot of people dont understand, why would somebody want to give up their guns,' Russell stated in the video. 'These are people that had guns in their house that no longer wanted them.'

'We dont ask any questions, but were happy to take them out of their homes, because that way, its one gun that may not fall into the hands of someone, or even a kid, and get misused.'

Morales added: 'How many lives were saved today by this event, well never know.'

The city says Ukrainian officials have requested the shipment be sent as soon as possible, but critics are concerned the guns won't be 'sophisticated' enough to aid in the fight against Russia.

Skeptics argue weaponry provided to Ukraine by the US military features medium-range advanced rocket systems, drones and thousands of antiaircraft and antitank weapons. They think the guns collected in Miami are 'likely to fall short of what Ukrainian officials say they need.'

Meantime, Miami city leaders hope other local police departments will be inspired by their efforts and offer similar buyback programs of their own.

Ukrainian officials have requested the shipment be sent as soon as possible. Police are pictured on Saturday collecting the weapons

The city will also be supplying Irpin police with helmets and bulletproof vests. An officer is seen at the buyback event on Saturday

Miami city leaders hope other local police departments will be inspired by their efforts and offer similar buyback programs of their own. An officer and civilian are pictured at Saturday's event
The author of a damning Meghan and Harry book has called the Duchess a scheming woman who is dreadful for Britain.

Tom Bower, author of a new insider's account of the insider's account of the Royal couple titled Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors, said the Duke and Duchess of Sussex 'pose a real threat' to the Royal Family.

In an interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV, he said: 'This woman is doing something dreadful to Britain.'

One of Mr Bower's revelations in the book is that the Queen told an aid she was glad Meghan was unable to attend the funeral of her husband Prince Phillip on April 17.

Tom Bower, the author of a damning Meghan and Harry book has called the Duchess a scheming woman who is dreadful for Britain

The biographer said Meghan Markle and Prince Harry 'pose a real threat' to the Royal Family in his interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV

Bower also says he believes the Queen kicked Harry and Meghan off the balcony at the Platinum Jubilee celebration, hiding them from view of the crowd for fear of the couple taking too much media attention away from the event and adding that Prince Charles and Prince William had a say in the decision.

'They weren't going to allow Netflix to dominate their celebration,' he said.

Meghan's split from her own family soon comes to mirror the separation Harry sees from his own, the book says.

Another passage includes Meghan behaving 'appallingly' at a advertisement filming for Reitmans, a women's clothing stores company in Canada, where she walked off with a pair of shoes the company had only lent to her for the shoot.

The author reveals a scene where Meghan meets Harry's friends for the first time on a weekend shooting party.

Most are his old friends from Eton, laughing together and sharing familiar jokes but soon finding themselves interrupted by Meghan, reprimanding them for joking about transgender people and feminism.

Bower said he had hoped to 'diminish' the importance of the royal couple with his book.

The author said no lawsuits from the Royal couple's legal team have been issued yet, but Bower is no stranger to visiting court over his controversial biographies.

Two unauthorised biographies of Robert Maxwell, father of convicted British convicted sex offender and former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, landed Bower in hot legal water  but ultimately won the raft of cases thrown at him.

The author of a damning Meghan and Harry book has called the Duchess a scheming woman who is dreadful for Britain

Maxwell went so far as to buy the publishing company that owned the rights to publication to stop the book from being printed.

'Maxwell tried to break into my house and went through my phone records and bank accounts,' he told GQ magazine in 2011. 'But I was a BBC reporter for 25 years and I've only feared for my life while reporting on wars.'

The author has penned original accounts of business tycoons including Richard Branson, Conrad Black and Bernie Ecclestone  but in his latest he has gone after the Sussexes.

Bower published a book on former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2019, accusing him of being an 'anti-semite' and a 'Marxist'.

The author has published biographies of Boris Johnson, Gordon Brown, Simon Cowell, Tony Blair and Prince Charles.

He pulled no punches in his interview, hitting out at Prince Harry's speech at the UN where he evoked the name of Nelson Mandela multiple times.

Harry and Meghan were both recently nominated as speakers at the UN's Nelson Mandela celebration. At Prince Harry's speech at the UN, he evoked the name of Nelson Mandela multiple times and talked about climate change, abortion and other political issues

Harry and Meghan were both recently nominated as speakers at a UN celebration as part of an ongoing project with the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

'He does it because he needs a profile, that's the only way he can get money,' said Bower, asked why Harry has made public appearances speaking on a wide range of issues.

'Everything is built around the future documentary series to promote the Sussexes,' he said, referring to the Netflix series featuring Harry and Meghan now said to be in jeopardy following the streaming company's stock collapse.

When Meghan was only 9 or ten years old, she told her father she wanted to walk down the red carpet.

'She's now done that,' said Bower. 'She's now calculated that she can be a great success, and by marrying Harry, she did it.'

The book is scheduled for release on July 21.
The son of a retired New York City Supreme Court judge allegedly beat his mother to death with a piece of furniture before jumping to his death, naked, from their upscale Upper East Side apartment.

NYPD officials said Douglas Solomon, 26, who is the son of retired judge Charles Solomon, 75, attacked his mother Diane Gallagher, 65, on Tuesday morning inside their apartment on 180 E. 79th Street, the New York Post reported.

Witnesses told police they then heard Douglas screaming on his way down from the 16th floor of their 20-story apartment building before dying.

Police, who found the young man's naked body in the building's courtyard, believe Solomon jumped to his death and are investigating the case as a murder-suicide.

NYPD believe Douglas Solomon, 26, (left) beat his mother Diane Gallagher, 65, (right) to death before jumping naked to his death on Tuesday morning

Solomon and Gallagher (left) are pictured with Charles Solomon (left), a retired NYC Supreme Court Judge Charles Solomon, who oversaw many high profile cases over the 30 year career

Solomon's body was found in the courtyard of the apartment complex (highlighted)

NYPD officials said they first got a call about the incident at around 10:30 a.m., finding Gallagher dead in the family's 16th floor apartment with several trauma injuries to the head.

Neighbors told the Post they had heard people arguing in the family's apartment before hearing Douglas fall to his death.

'I heard a bunch of voices. I thought it was construction workers arguing,' one resident told The Post. 'I thought it was just people angry with each other.'

Other neighbors mourned the loss of Gallagher, who they described as an 'amazing person.'

'A great mother, a great wife, a great everything and really a great friend,' a neighbor who went by Martine told the Post.

Police said the investigation is ongoing and that there was no history of domestic violence or mental health issues in the family.

Gallagher (right) was found with multiple trauma injuries to the head inside the family's apartment on 180 E. 79th Street, in the Upper East Side

Neighbors mourned the loss of Gallagher (above), who they described as an 'amazing person'

Charles, who most recently worked for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office after retiring in 2017 following a battle with cancer, could not be immediately reached for comment.

The judge, who served on the city's Supreme Court for three decades, oversaw the nightclub shooting trial for Sean Combs, better known as P-Diddy, in 2001.

He was also the judge who heard the infamous Lorna Santiago 2010 murder case, passing a guilty verdict on Michael Lenahan, who strangled Santiago to death and lay in bed with her corpse for two days.

Charles' last high profile trial came in 2017, when he approved a plea deal for one of the Russian prostitutes allegedly hired by former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, whom the disgraced governor accused of extorting him.
The ACT has unveiled plans to charge electric car owners less tax and bump up fees on petrol-powered vehicles in a major overhaul of its car registration system.

Under the long-term zero emission vehicle plan to be released on Wednesday, motorists in the ACT will be charged registration based on emissions rather than the weight of their vehicle.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr called the electric vehicle strategy a mixture of 'carrots and sticks' needed to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles.

The move follows the territory's decision to ban new petrol and diesel cars from 2035.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr (pictured) said motorists will be charged based on emissions rather than the weight of their vehicle, in a new zero emissions registration scheme

'I think if you look at incentives and disincentives - so carrots and sticks - at this point we're at the offering incentives phase,' Mr Barr told The Canberra Times.

'At the moment, their current fuel taxes serve that purpose in that the more fuel-guzzling your vehicle is, the more fuel tax you pay because you're consuming more petrol.

'We've got four or five different weight band brackets at the moment for registration fees.

'Instead, we'll have four or five different emission levels.'

Electric car owners will be pay less tax on vehicle registration than petrol or diesel drivers as registration will be based on emission levels rather than vehicle weight (stock image, electric car plugged into a fast-charging port)

The complete ban of petrol vehicles in the ACT by 2035 has forced the government to rethink funding for road infrastructure flowing from fuel taxes.

Mr Barr said all governments were looking to change the way vehicle fees and taxes are collected as electric cars replace petrol or diesel-powered vehicles.

'Its an issue for every government,' Mr Barr said.

'We need a revenue stream but we also want to drive the uptake of EVs. And youve got car makers getting out of internal combustion vehicles altogether.'

The chief minister said plans were underway to add electric car fast-charging ports to major highways out of the ACT after he met with NSW Treasurer and Energy Minister Matt Kean.

The registration and road user charge policies are unlikely to be fully in place for several years despite Mr Barr's hopes the new scheme would be developed in six to 12 months.

The ACT already offers electric car drivers free registration until June 30, 2024 and has projected 80 to 90 per cent of new vehicles sold in the territory will be electric by 2030.

The uptake of low-emission cars has forced governments to rethink road infrastructure revenue as current funding flows from fuel-based taxes (stock image, motorist filling their car with petrol in Surry Hills, Sydney)

Between 18,000 and 20,000 new electric vehicles a year are needed to reach the 2030 sales target.

Mr Barr said thousands of extra cars are needed and persuading major vehicle manufacturers to have them available in the ACT was imperative.

Major car manufacturers including Volvo, Ford, Honda and General Motors have all announced plans to phase out building internal combustion passenger models over the next 15 years.
Program expired on June 30 but was reinstated amid uptick in new Covid cases

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said government was flexible in extending the scheme

Those with more than $10,000 in the bank will not be eligible for the payment

The $750 payment will be available from Wednesday after government backflip

Thousands of Australians forced to isolate with Covid-19 without sick leave will be able to claim up to $750 in relief payments.

The one-off payment can be claimed through Centrelink from 8 am on Wednesday, with a $450 or $750 payment available to those eligible.

The federal government announced this week the pandemic payments would be extended until the end of September amid an uptick in Covid cases.

The scheme expired on June 30 due to pressures on the federal budget but was reinstated after warnings the number of people infected would continue to climb.

Thousands of Australians forced to isolate with Covid-19 without sick leave will be able to claim up to $750 in relief payments (pictured, a masked women in Melbourne)

Who is eligible?

The one-off payment is available to those who can't work because they are isolating, due to being infected with Covid or having been deemed a close contact.

Those who care for a person under the age of 16 who becomes a close contact, care for someone with Covid-19, or care for someone with a disability or severe medical condition who has to self-isolate as a close contact, are also eligible.

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said employees will have to show they aren't able to financially cover the impact of being off work to be eligible.

'If you have sick leave, you have to use your sick leave first but I stress, not your holiday leave,' Mr Shorten told the Seven Network's Sunrise program on Tuesday.

'Also, if you have more than $10,000 in the bank ... so it's not a means test but if you've got liquid assets, then you are not eligible.'

This means workers will need to use their sick leave before claiming the payment.

The one-off payment is available to those who can't work because they are isolating, due to being infected with Covid or having been deemed a close contact (stock image)

How much can be claimed?

If eight hours of work was lost during a seven-day work period that person will be eligible for a $450 payment.

If 20 hours of work was lost during a seven-day period that person will be able to claim the $750 payment.

If a couple both lost work while they were in isolation, each will be available for the payments, however separate claims must be lodged.

When can the payment be claimed?

The one-off payments can be claimed through Centrelink from 8am on Wednesday.

The applications must be lodged within 14 days of the first day of a person's seven-day isolation period.

The payment can still be claimed if a person was eligible during the period when the scheme wasn't running, with payments to be backdated to July 1.

The scheme is set to end on September 30 with Treasurer Jim Chalmers stating the government is 'flexible' on a possible extension.

The one-off Covid relief payments for those who lost work while isolating with Covid-19 can be claimed through Centrelink from 8am on Wednesday (stock image)

How do I make a claim?

Claims can be made through the MyGov portal which must be linked to Centrelink.

Users will be asked to prove their identity to ensure they haven't claimed the one-off payment before.

Who isn't eligible for the payment?

Those who are already receiving income support payments such as AUSTUDY, Jobseeker, Age Pension or Youth Allowance.

People receiving parental leave or Dad and Partner Pay also can't claim the payment.

Those who have received a seperate government benefit during their isolation period may also be ineligible.

A positive RAT or PCR test or a direction from a health official to isolate will need to be provided in order to claim the payment (pictured, pedestrians at Melbourne's St Kilda beach)

What proof needs to be provided?

A positive RAT or PCR test will need to be provided in order to claim the payment.

The RAT will need to be registered with a state or territory health authority.

Those applying for the payment as a carer or a close contact can use proof of a direction from a health official to isolate as evidence.
Scientists are still trying to understand all the long-term effects of Covid-19

A leading specialist in long Covid has revealed factors that may cause it

Long Covid is defined as suffering ongoing symptoms for longer than 12 weeks

A mother who was once an avid runner and fitness enthusiast has detailed the devastating physical effects of her ongoing battle with long Covid.

Natalie Lukas, 42, has been in a four-month battle with long Covid and has undergone a three-month treatment program at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital.

Despite taking a course of anti-inflammatory medication, Ms Lukas says she is still only functioning at about 30 per cent of what she was before contracting the condition.

'I'm a shadow of my normal self. Everyone who knows me [knows] I'm very physically active, mum of three kids,' she told the ABC.

Natalie Lukas (pictured), 42, said she is 'a shadow of my former self' after a four-month battle with long Covid

Long Covid is defined as when Covid-19 symptoms continue for longer than 12 weeks in people previously infected with the virus.

Some studies have shown as many as a third of all those infected with Covid suffer long-term symptoms, including brain fog, anxiety, fatigue and abnormal breathing.

Ms Lukas said she still has the symptoms of shortness of breath after exertion and that when she talks too much, she is out of breath.

She said she continues to struggle when having her lungs tested.

'That would have been a walk in the park for me, I feel like a very unfit version of myself,' she said.

St Vincent's associate professor Dr Anthony Byrne said long Covid remains a serious issue, particularly as the virus continues to mutate.

He says hospitals need more funding to deal with the number of potential individuals needing treatment due to long Covid.

'This condition has significant implications for the public health and the Australian health system because of the sheer number of potential patients... This virus is not going anywhere fast,' said Dr Byrne.

St Vincent's associate professor Dr Anthony Byrne (pictured) said long Covid remains a serious issue especially since the virus isn't going anywhere fast

Dr Byrne told Daily Mail Australia the condition is 'debilitating' for the potential third of those infected with Covid who then go on to experience 'long-hauler' symptoms.

He said even the young and healthy aren't being spared by the 'highly variable and quite debilitating' condition.

'I saw a high functioning, young individual, he was in a high-flying job, who got Covid in December and he hasn't been able to work since,' he said.

That patient, Dr Byrne said, isn't able to work because he suffers sleep issues, crippling fatigue and his brain 'doesn't work properly'.

It has left him in a state where he is unable to complete complex tasks and, some days, even find words.

Sufferers of the conditions have reported experiencing symptoms ranging from extreme tiredness, chest pain, shortness of breath, 'brain fog', memory loss and changes to taste and smell, among other ailments.

Long Covid is defined as suffering ongoing symptoms for longer than 12 weeks. Symptoms can range from shortness of breath to mental debilitation

Vaccination status, complex health conditions and old age are all risk factors for developing long Covid, while displaying a large number of symptoms when infected could also signal a likelihood of developing the condition, Dr Byrne said.

Even simply being a woman is a risk factor for developing long Covid.

'Interestingly, being male is a risk factor for being in hospital, but being female is a risk factor for getting long Covid,' Dr Byrne said.

Dr Byrne has seen a correlation between the number of symptoms shown when someone has Covid, and the likelihood the symptoms will progress to a long Covid diagnosis.

'The more symptoms you show when you have a diagnosis acutely, the more likely you are to go on to have long Covid,' he said.

'So if you just have the sniffles, that's probably fine, but if you've got a headache, shortness of breath, fever... count them up. If there's more than five, there's an increased risk of long Covid.'
A gambler has attempted to remain Covid-safe despite drinking, smoking and playing the pokies.

Decked out in a well-fitted N95 mask and gloves, the man can be seen lighting up his cigarette and removing his mask to blow out the smoke.

The video resurfaced on the 'playmakerbetting' Instagram page about a week ago as an example of Covid-era lunacy and was captioned: 'If an oxymoron was a person.'

A gambler (pictured) attempted to remain Covid-safe while playing on the pokies, smoking and drinking

In the video the American man is seen putting the cigarette into the side of his face mask.

He then uses a match to light it up before putting it out and placing it on the pokies, alongside three of his drinks.

The man then briefly removes his mask in order to blow out the smoke before putting it back on.

The man can be seen lighting up a cigarette he carefully was placed in the side of his N95 face mask (pictured)

He then removes the face mask in order to blow out the smoke (pictured) before putting it back on

Reaction to the video included one person who had a dig at the man's protective efforts: 'I got my gloves I'm good... (he then) touches machines all over casino, then grabs cigarette with glovesgenius.'

Another said: 'I bet the inside of his car looks crazy.'

'Imagine smoking cancer but being terrified of the flu,' a third commented.

The man's ridiculous attempt at Covid safety mirrored that of some Australians seen in the midst of the Covid pandemic.

One man in Sydney back in 2020 went all out when he was spotted in the CBD wearing a 3M 6800 model respirator.

A young man turned heads as he walked through Sydney's CBD wearing a 3M 6800 model respirator

Daily Mail Australia spoke to the young man, John, and his friend after they crossed George St, at the heart of the city

The hi-tech respirator made the young man look like something out of a science fiction film.

He told Daily Mail Australia at the time: 'It's the only effective mask that you have... You get them from China and eBay.'

Some of the excesses of the pandemic are becoming apparent as thousands of Covid-19 fines worth millions of dollars issued across New South Wales for breaching public health orders are challenged.

Over the past few years, there have been thousands of Covid-19 fines worth millions of dollars issued across New South Wales for breaching Covid-related rules (pictured, people out enjoying Bondi Beach with masks on)

The thousands of fines could be ruled invalid if two Sydneysiders win a landmark test case in the New South Wales Supreme Court (pictured, police patrolling Bondi Beach in 2021)

The fines could be ruled invalid if two Sydneysiders win a landmark test case in the New South Wales Supreme Court.

The man and woman claim their infringement notices were issued in such vague terms they could not be legally enforced and would be difficult, if not impossible, to challenge in front of a magistrate.

If they win their actions it could set a precedent that sees many of more than 45,000 such unpaid fines for Covid-related public health order breaches in NSW withdrawn.

A class action in NSW could now go ahead and similar law suits would likely be pursued in other states. There were 19,000 fines handed out in Victoria, and tens of thousands across the rest of Australia.
A New York City bodega worker is celebrating after the city's woke district attorney dropped murder charges that had been filed against him.

Exclusive DailyMail.com photos show Jose Alba, 61, posed for pictures with the president of the Bodega and Small Business Association of New York on Tuesday.

Alba fatally stabbed a man who physically attacked him over a bag of chips. The store employee said he was acting in self-defense.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office on Tuesday asked a judge to drop the charges Alba after having faced intense backlash, including criticism from the city's mayor, for charging the elderly worker to begin with.

Alba, confronted by reporters outside his home, said he is feeling 'so-so' and believes justice has been served. He also shared that the wounds he sustained during the altercation are 'healing.'

Jose Alba (right) posed for a celebratory photo with Francisco Marte, President of the Bodega and Small Business Association of New York, on Tuesday after DA Alvin Bragg dropped the murder charges against him

Bodega worker Jose Alba (right) was physically attacked by a customer before pulling out a knife and fatally stabbing the man. Charges against Alba are now being dropped

Alba, who had faced a second-degree murder charge, was working at the Blue Moon deli on July 1 when he fatally stabbed Austin Simon in the neck and chest.

Surveillance footage clearly showed that Simon, 37, had moved behind the counter at the convenience store in Hamilton Heights and pushed the store clerk into a stack of shelves before grabbing him.

It was only then that Alba reached over to a shelf and pulled out a knife to fight back.

During the altercation, Alba was apparently stabbed by Simon's girlfriend, who instigated the argument when her benefits card was declined. The girlfriend was never charged in the incident.

Tuesday's motion to dismiss stated that prosecutors 'have determined that we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.'

The filing said that 'a homicide case against Alba could not be proven at trial beyond a reasonable doubt' and that the case will not be presented to a grand jury.

Alba briefly spoke to the media on Tuesday after the charges were dropped. He said the wounds he sustained during the altercation are 'healing.' Alba's scarred arm is pictured as the bodega worker shielded his face behind his door

Alba (left) told reporters Tuesday he is feeling 'so-so' and believes justice has been served. His wound is pictured on the right

Marte (pictured), when asked if Alba would show his face, told the media: 'We appreciate the support but for his safety and by the lawyers advice we cant show his face'

Alba's wound is pictured on Tuesday, July 19

The 61-year-old seemed happy about the prosecutors' decision to drop the charges, as he was spotted almost smiling in a selfie with Francisco Marte, the bodega association president, on Tuesday.

Alba, hidden behind his apartment door, briefly spoke to the media with Marte by his side. Cameras captured his arm, which featured a scar from where he was wounded during the incident.

When asked how he was feeling, Alba answered: 'I'm so-so.'

He told reporters he was 'healing' and was doing ok 'after all.'

'Do you think justice has been served?' a reporter questioned him.

'Yes,' he replied.

'How do you feel about not having shackles?' another asked.

He said: 'I feel better cuz I dont have it.'

Alba declined to comment further, noting: 'I will be speaking soon.' He said he couldn't discuss the incident now 'due to what the lawyer advised me.'

He was also asked to show his face, but declined to do so, prompting reporters to say 'Jose, people want to see you' and 'everybody is supporting you.'

Marte hit back, reiterating that Alba would not be stepping out from behind the door: 'We appreciate the support but for his safety and by the lawyers advice we cant show his face.'

Surveillance footage from the Blue Moon convenience store in Hamilton Heights showed Jose Alba, 61, was assaulted before he grabbed a knife and stabbed Austin Simon, 37, on July 1

Jose Alba, 61, the Manhattan bodega worker charged with murder for stabbing a man who assaulted him, is pictured earlier this month after being released on bail

Progressive DA Alvin Bragg had faced intense criticism after charging the bodega worker

District Attorney Bragg had faced intense criticism after charging Alba, including from Mayor Eric Adams.

The progressive DA's move to drop charges will have to be approved by a judge, but likely means that Alba's legal ordeal has come to an end.

Pressure had been growing for Bragg to drop the charges against Alba since footage emerged showing that Simon - who has previously been convicted for other assaults - had pushed Alba into a shelf and started dragging him.

The footage shows the two struggling before Alba grabbed his knife and started stabbing Simon.

Other videos obtained by DailyMail.com show Simon - who was on parole for attacking a police officer when he died - marching behind the bodega counter to confront Alba.

'Papa, I don't want a problem, papa,' Alba told him calmly.

Simon charged into the Blue Moon convenience store minutes after his girlfriend tried to buy a bag of chips for her daughter, but her electronic benefits card had been declined.

This is the moment Alba was stabbed in the arm by the girlfriend of the man he stabbed to death on July 1 in a row over a bag of potato chips

Alba was stabbed in the arm by Simon's girlfriend during the altercation

Alba showed his wounds to DailyMail.com on July 11

The woman, who claimed Alba snatched the bag of chips from the child, is heard on the video asking Alba: 'Did you put food?'

Alba responds that he'll try her card another time.

'OK, mama, let me do it another time. My God,' he says to her as she insists: 'There's money on there.'

But he swipes the EBT card multiple times and hands it back to her, saying it's not working.

The woman was in the store with her daughter trying to buy a bag of chips

The edited footage cuts to show other customers in the bodega as the woman is heard yelling out of view from the camera.

'You can't touch my daughter. Don't snatch that out of my daughter, you f***ing piece of shit!'

The woman had reported that Alba snatched the bag of chips from her daughter's hands when they couldn't pay.

She continues, 'I'm gonna bring my n****r down here and he gonna fk you up. My n****r is gonna come down here right now and f**k you up!'

Alba tells her it's not his fault and the card wasn't working.

Another woman asked, 'Did they take something from you?' Alba replied, 'No, I take it back.'

Simon can then be seen on video storming into the store and walking behind the counter where he confronts Alba.

'What's up with you? N****r what is wrong with you?' he yells at him.

It is then that Simon pushes Alba into the shelf. According to court filings, Alba responded by stabbing Simon in the heart, lung, and jugular vein.

The convenience store where the incident occurred in Manhattan's Hamilton Heights

The video footage showed a bloodied Simon splayed out on the bodega floor and his girlfriend is heard yelling, 'That was over $3. Three f***ing dollars. He snatched something out of my daughterplease help him.'

Insiders have claimed the girlfriend has not been charged for attacking the shop worker because prosecutors think she was defending her boyfriend.

Following the altercation, Simon was brought to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead; Alba was thrown in the city's infamous Riker's Island prison on murder charges.

He was originally being held on a $250,000 bond, but the district attorney's office lowered it to $50,000 amid growing outrage.

Among those who expressed their support for Alba was New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, who even visited the bodega to offer his support.

United Bodegas of America joined the calls for Alba to be released last week

'I'm a person that's there for people following the law. I saw from the video, I saw a voter here inside the store following the law... It's time for New Yorkers and Americans to start standing up for people who follow the law,' he said.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin also slammed Bragg's decision to charge Alba, tweeting: 'My first Day 1 action as Governor next January will be to fire Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.'

Alba's fellow bodega workers said they will not let him return to work because they fear the victim's friends will come to harm him.

'We're not letting him come back,' a Blue Moon Convenience store worker named 'Wilson' told the New York Post.

Wilson said the 'friends and family' of the slain man now know where Alba works and his coworkers fear it's a 'death sentence' if he returns to his post.
Australia's chief medical officer has shut down complaints from frustrated cafe owners who are worried bringing back Covid rules will kill their off businesses.

Chief medical officer Dr Paul Kelly told Today on Wednesday that the new recommendations, that call for workers to stay away from the CBD and public transport and stay home, are designed to help businesses with their 'continuity plans'.

The CMO heard from Melbourne CBD cafe owners Darren and Jackie Silverman, who said their business was 'just hanging in there at this point'.

'It's just getting quieter and quieter on the street,' Ms Silverman said.

Scroll down for the video.

Australia's chief medical officer Paul Kelly (above) told struggling business owners renewed Covid recommendations are designed to help their 'business continuity'

Formerly thriving CBD businesses have struggled to recover from Covid lockdowns with more office workers choosing to work from home ever since the pandemic exploded in 2020.

Now renewed recommendations to work from home could see their dwindling customer numbers take another hit.

In response, Dr Kelly told Today he 'saw what was coming' with Australia's latest Covid wave.

'I'd made a decision a couple of weeks ago to start wearing a mask again because I saw what was coming,' he said.

'The key message today is that we can all contribute to decrease the spread of the virus, and that's the important thing over the next month or so. Masks work, particularly in indoor settings.'

Melbourne cafe owners Darren and Jackie Silverman (above) said their business was 'just hanging in there at this point' after Covid lockdowns saw more people avoid the city's CBD

Prof Kelly said the recommendations were designed to 'help' businesses.

'In terms of the work from home, there are two elements, one is slowing the spread and the second is actually helping businesses with their business continuity,' he said.

'A lot of people are going to get sick with these new variants so we're talking to businesses about keeping their absentee rates down.'

However, his comments were criticised for being out of touch as Prof Kelly spends his time in Canberra earning over $400,000 a year.

Professor Paul Kelly issued new health recommendations on Tuesday to work from home when possible and wear masks in crowded indoor spaces.

CBD businesses have struggled to recover from Covid lockdowns with more employees now choosing to work from home

The recommendations were in response to increasing case numbers that are rivalling January's outbreak.

Australia's total active cases hit 347,000 on Tuesday with 5,200 patients receiving treatment in hospital.

Prof Kelly said the drastic rise in cases was caused by the highly-contagious new BA.4 and BA.5 variants.

'We cannot stop this wave of infections but we can slow the spread and protect the vulnerable,' Prof Kelly said in a statement on Tuesday.

'The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) has reiterated its advice on reinfection periods, testing and isolation, mask-wearing, vaccine boosters and treatments and called on employers to allow work from home if feasible.'

Cafe owners slammed new Covid recommendations encouraging more people to work from home amid rising cases (pictured, a stock image of a barista)

The government has not yet put mandates in place.

He urged employers to reconsider their Occupational Health and Safety plans in response to the new recommendations.

'They should consider the feasibility of some employees working from home, wearing masks in the workplace and support employees to take leave when sick,' he said.

'All these recommendations are based on what we know works to either reduce the spread of the virus or protect those at highest risk of severe disease.'

'This is important to protect yourself and others.'
China urges U.S. to stop arms sales to Taiwan

Xinhua) 09:05, July 20, 2022

BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday urged the United States to immediately stop arms sales to Taiwan and faithfully implement its statement of not supporting "Taiwan independence."

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price has reportedly said that according to the "Taiwan Relations Act," the U.S. is obliged to provide necessary national defense articles and services to Taiwan to help the island maintain a sufficient self-defense capability, adding this complies with the one-China policy.

In response, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian reiterated China's firm opposition to the new round of arms sales plan to Taiwan by the United States. "We have lodged stern representations with the U.S. side."

Noting the so-called "Taiwan Relations Act" is a domestic law unilaterally concocted by the United States, Zhao said it severely violates universally acknowledged international laws and basic norms of international relations. He added it runs counter to the one-China principle and provisions in the three China-U.S. joint communiques. "China has never acknowledged and has always opposed such an act."

The United States is in no position at all to swagger with such an act to interfere in China's internal affairs and sell weapons to Taiwan, Zhao added.

The U.S. insistence on arms sales to Taiwan has seriously violated the one-China principle and the provisions in the three China-U.S. joint communiques, emboldened the "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces and intensified tensions across the Taiwan Strait, said Zhao.

"The United States should immediately stop arms sales to and its military contact with Taiwan, cease creating factors leading to tensions in the Taiwan Strait, and faithfully implement the statement of not supporting the 'Taiwan independence' made by its government," Zhao added.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
The procurement of rice was stopped in the first week of June, leading to about 94 lakh tonnes of paddy getting stuck at rice mills across the state.(Representational Photo: AFP)

Hyderabad: In a relief to the Telangana state, the Centre on Wednesday permitted the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to resume the procurement of rice from the state with immediate effect.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday along with Union tourism minister G. Kishan Reddy, minister for food and public distribution system (PDS) Piyush Goyal said the Centre was forced to stop rice procurement from Telangana after the state government acted insensitively towards poorer sections by stopping the implementation of the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana Scheme from April this year despite the Centre supplying Rs 5 kg free rice to each of ration card holders for distribution.

The procurement of rice was stopped in the first week of June, leading to about 94 lakh tonnes of paddy getting stuck at rice mills across the state.

Adding to the misery, the recent heavy rains damaged rice stocks resulting in huge losses.

The Centre was also forced to stop procurement after the Telangana government failed to act against errant rice millers in the state, who resorted to irregularities in milling and storage as physical verifications by FCI officials found that over 4 lakh rice bags were missing, the minister said.

The Telangana government has communicated to us that they have started distribution of rice under the Prime Ministers scheme from June. They also assured to distribute the backlogs of April and May months in July and August. They also assured to initiate action against errant rice millers. Trusting their assurances and keeping in mind the welfare of farmers and poor in Telangana, the Centre has decided to resume rice procurement from the state, Goyal stated.

The Union food minister said that the Centre took the decision to resume rice procurement keeping in mind the welfare of farmers in Telangana as well as rice millers who were suffering due to the negligent attitude of the Telangana government. Goyal came down heavily on the Telangana government calling it as the most insensitive towards farmers and poor.

He said Chief Minister and his cabinet ministers use 'foul language' against Prime Minister and Union ministers and level false charges against them.

He also accused that the Telangana government was more interested in playing politics and least bothered about the plight of farmers and poorer sections, who are dependent on PDS rice for their food needs.

Union minister G. Kishan Reddy also took a dig at the Telangana government for 'politicising' paddy procurement issue to derive political mileage instead of cooperating with the Centre for smooth procurement.

They stopped PM's rice scheme without any reason. They failed to act against errant rice millers. When we pointed out these lapses, the CM and his ministers started dharnas and protests in Telangana and even held a dharna in Delhi. Where was the need to do all this? It's the Telangana government which signed an agreement with FCI that they will supply only raw rice. Suddenly, they changed their stand and insisted on supplying boiled rice. When we questioned it, they started levelling false charges against the BJP and the Centre," Kishan Reddy said.

Meanwhile, representatives of Telangana rice millers association met Goyal and requested him to come to their rescue by resuming rice procurement. Goyal pointed out black marketing by a few rice millers and told them that farmers were facing problems on account of this. Millers promised Goyal that they will take steps to check black marketing. Goyal warned them of severe consequences if they resort to black marketing in future.
Ms Berejiklian claims the 'merger' will cause prices to rise and hurt regulation

Optus has traded blows with Telstra & TPG over the pair's network-sharing deal

Gladys Berejiklian is taking aim at a new opposition in the form of telco giants Telstra and TPG as she embraces her post-politics role at their competitor, Optus.

The former NSW Premier joined Optus as a managing director of Optus' enterprise, business and institutional division four months ago after her dramatic exit from politics last year.

Her sudden departure came following an inquiry into her conduct as NSW leader was launched by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Ms Berejiklian is now in the midst of a new battle as Optus trades blows with Telstra and TPG over their network-sharing deal.

Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) has found herself locked in a new battle with Telstra and TPG, four months into her role at Optus

The deal will allow TPG to use about a third of Telstra's 11,000 telecommunication towers in primarily regional areas across the country. In exchange, TPG is giving Telstra access to 169 telecom sites.

'Strengthening the dominant player and creating disincentives for investment means you don't have a resilient network, you don't have choice, you don't have alternatives,' Ms Berejiklian said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald about the Telstra-TPG deal.

The former premier shared her view that the deal, which she has labelled a 'merger', would cause prices to rise and have a detrimental effect on Australians in regional areas.

'We know that a lot of the benefits that the so-called proposal highlights don't cover the business sector, and we also know that it will have an inadvertent impact on people being able to have that choice if they're working from the regions whether it's permanently or temporarily.'

She added that the proposal would hurt regulation and healthy competition in the industry.

'We don't want to see 20 years of good regulation and competition going backwards, and we want to be in there investing like the rest of them,' she said.

Optus has traded blows with Telstra and TPG over their network-sharing deal. The deal gives TPG access to Telstra's towers in regional areas and Telstra will be able to use 169 telecom sites (pictured, an Optus store in Melbourne)

Ms Berejiklian's view, which has been echoed by Optus colleagues, has been strongly disputed by both Telstra and TPG.

A Telstra spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that the deal would 'be positive for regional Australia' especially because of the 'rapid demand' for data in regional areas.

Telstra said the deal will 'unleash new mobile capacity' for many Aussies via the 'use of under-utilised spectrum in thousands of regional sites', and also provide 'new competition and choice' and greater connectivity.

'Optus's only reason for opposing the deal is self-interest,' the spokesperson said.

'It would rather protect its own position than support an innovative deal to provide more capacity and competition in regional Australia.'

TPG Telecom general manager of external affairs James Rickards claimed Optus was 'breaching the public's trust and conducting a scare campaign' over the deal.

'This is an infrastructure sharing agreement that will bring choice and competition to regional Australia like never before. Optus' claim this is a merger is misleading, wrong, and against the interests of regional Australians,' he said.

'The only reason Optus is objecting to this network sharing agreement is because it will mean more competition for them, not less.'

Mr Rickards added that TPG agreed to the proposal to 'support regional Australia' and 'put competitive pressure on Telstra and Optus'.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will make a decision on whether the network-sharing proposal goes ahead in October.

A Telstra spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that Optus opposed the network-sharing deal because of 'self-interest' (pictured, Telstra headquarters in Melbourne)

Ms Berejiklian has no plans to return to politics anytime soon, saying she is 'really enjoying' her executive position at Optus.

The former premier abruptly resigned from office days out from the end of NSW's last Covid-19 lockdown after ICAC announced an investigation into whether she had breached public trust or encouraged corrupt behaviour during her relationship with former boyfriend, disgraced ex-MP Daryl Maguire.

'My resignation as premier could not happen at a worse time, but the timing is completely outside of my control, as the ICAC has chosen to take this action during the most challenging weeks of the most challenging times in the history of NSW,' Ms Berejiklian said at the time.

'Resigning at this time is against every instinct of my being and something which I do not want to do. I love my job, and serving the community, but I have been given no option following the statement issued.'

ICAC is yet to hand down its findings from the hearing late last year.

Ms Berejiklian has spent recent months out of the spotlight and rejected offers to enter federal politics before joining Optus in February.
Whether or not wearing sunscreen prevents healthy vitamin D production will be examined in a major new study in Australia.

The first ever large-scale trial is looking for about 500 volunteers to investigate how applying SPF 50+ sunscreen affects the hormone largely generated in the skin through sun exposure.

'Lots of people are confused about how sunscreen will affect their vitamin D levels, and that causes them to either avoid sunscreen or spend too much time outdoors to try to get that balance,' lead researcher Professor Rachel Neale says.

'The Sun-D Trial will provide evidence-based advice so we can clear up confusion in the community and the medical profession, arming people with the right information to enjoy the sun safely.'

Participants in the world-first trial must be aged between 18 and 70, have fair or olive skin and not be taking more than 10 micrograms of vitamin D supplements each day.

Participants in the eastern states are being encouraged to sign up, and researchers are keen to hear from those in Victoria and Tasmania where vitamin D deficiency is at its highest.

'Residents in these states are still told to wear sunscreen on any day where the UV index is forecast to reach or exceed three  that's actually most of the year,' Prof Neale said.

'We want to make sure this advice is not causing vitamin D deficiency in these states, so we really urge people from Victoria and Tasmania to sign up.'

Australia has the world's highest rate of skin cancer with more than 15,000 people diagnosed with melanoma each year, and sunscreen is vital to reduce the risk, Prof Neale says.

Participants must be aged between 18 and 70, have fair or olive skin and not be taking more than 10 micrograms of vitamin D supplements each day.

They will randomly be sorted into two groups; one will be given free sunscreen to apply every day, while the other will continue with their usual sun protection behaviour.

The study is being run by Brisbane's QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.

Volunteer for the study at www.qimrberghofer.edu.au/sund
An alarming 'culture shift' has triggered a rise in primary school kids vaping while at school as experts warn users can develop a deadly lung condition.

A study into 196 Australian schools found more than a third of primary school staff spotted young students vaping, with almost half of the kids admitting they'd sneaked the products from home when the teachers confronted them.

High schools were also targeted in the study, showing 80 per cent of them knew of a vaping problem.

It comes as US specialists discovered vaping can develop a 'popcorn' lung condition, which has a devastating five per cent survival rate and more deadly than lung cancer.

Experts was that users of vape and e-cigarette nicotine devices are vulnerable to developing 'popcorn lung', a condition that could require a lung transplant and even result in death in more severe cases

Professor Simone Pettigrew from the George Institute for Global Health, the organisation that spearheaded the study, told Daily Mail Australia the stats are alarming.

'You've got primary school children now being addicted to nicotine and not even aware it's happening and addiction at that young age has affects on brain development and long term addiction,' Prof Pettigrew said.

Nicotine e-cigarettes are illegal in Australia, unless someone has a prescription for it to help kick their smoking habit.

The program director said e-cigarettes with nicotine get packaged in a certain way that disguises the nicotine content, so kids buy ones that have nicotine in them.

'So the kids buy them thinking they are vaping these fruity flavours that don't have nicotine in them, but they actually do.'

Professor Simone Pettigrew from the George Institute for Global Health said half of primary school kids in the study are pinching their family's vaping stash

'It seems that in order to avoid prosecution for selling nicotine vapes, some suppliers package their nicotine-containing products as being non-nicotine,' Prof Pettigrew said.

One third of high school students and almost half of primary-aged kids were taking vaping products from the parents and siblings without permission.

'That's one of the main ways junior kids are getting a hold of this is they are taking mum and dad's supply into school - I don't think parents even know that is happening,' Prof Pettigrew said.

About 18 per cent of kids from both primary and secondary school claimed their parents or guardians were giving them the vapes.

Half the staff who reported kids vaping in their schools also said there was a decrease in students' mental wellbeing, sporting performance and social interactions.

One third of those teachers saw a rise in mood changes and behaviours resulting from vaping, including increased irritability, tardiness, restlessness and absenteeism.

Less than half of them said there was a decline in academic performance, with the trends being apparent across both primary and high schools.

There was a notable difference between government and independent school students in academic decline - 49 per cent and 30 per cent - respectively.

Meanwhile, vaping and e-cigarette devices continue to be viewed as safe alternatives to cigarettes but experts warn users can develop devastating conditions, including 'popcorn lung'.

Bronchiolitis obliterans, the official medical diagnosis for popcorn lung, occurs when a person's lungs become significantly scarred due to the inhalation of dangerous chemicals or via an infection of some sort.

Experts in the US warn that many users of electronic nicotine devices - like Juul and HQD - are developing the condition at alarming rates, especially at younger ages where these types of conditions are rare.

Dr Panagis Galiatsatos, director of the Tobacco Treatment Clinic at Johns Hopkins University in the US told DailyMail.com those who suffer the most severe cases of the condition will likely die from respiratory failure within five years of it developing.

Vaping suppliers are packaging products to make them appear nicotine free, when they are not - so kids are buying them thinking they are safely vaping these fruity flavours

Controversy around these devices has reemerged in recent weeks after the US Food and Drug Administration chose to pull Juul products from shelves, before allowing the company temporary reprieve as it reevaluated its decision.

Whether its vaping, e-cigarettes or combustible cigarettes. They all come with noxious chemicals that exploit the addictive properties of nicotine,' Mr Galiatsatos said.

Many companies who market these products claim their value lies in helping users of combustible tobacco products - like cigarettes - instead use a safer alternative.

Tobacco is dangerous on its own and cigarettes also have many other chemicals in them that put users at risk of multiple types of cancer, cardio vascular conditions and more health defects.

Dr Panagis Galiatsatos, director of the Tobacco Treatment Clinic at Johns Hopkins, warns that the five year mortality rate of popcorn lung could be as high as 95%

Nicotine is the substance that a user will actually become addicted to, though, and removing the rest of the dangerous chemicals and just letting a person use the drug on its own is safer - according to e-cigarette and vape manufacturers.

Some experts are sounding the alarm that this is not quite the case, though.

Often times you hear that using e-cigarettes or vaping is less problematic of a nicotine delivery device. But it has its own set of potential health problems that go with it,' Dr Clayton Cowl, a pulmonologist at the Mayo Clinic, told DailyMail.com.

'The problem with many of the newer devices coming out is that it is not just about nicotine it is about other products that can be placed within those devices that when aerosolized can create significant health related problems.'

He described it as 'picking your poison' as to which dangerous device a person would want to use.

Like cigarettes, the main danger of these products is not the nicotine itself but the other chemicals mixed in with it.

Diacetyl is a chemical commonly used in flavoring for food and when consumed orally it is perfectly safe.

When vaporized, it is extremely harmful to the lungs of someone that inhales it and continued exposure can cause disastrous long-term health issues.

It's link to bronchiolitis obliterans was discovered in the early 2000s, when employees of a Missouri popcorn factory in the US suddenly began to develop the condition.

An investigation revealed that the diacetyl used to flavor the popcorn was at fault, hence the 'popcorn lung' moniker.

Diacetyl is also used as a flavoring agent in many electronic nicotine products.

It's as brutal as disease as it sounds... if you develop it you have a 95 percent of dying within five years, Galiatsatos said, adding that it is more lethal than lung cancer - the disease most commonly associated with nicotine use.

The news comes after Aussie kids have started to succumb to the consequences of vaping.

Sydney schoolgirl Dakota Stephenson, 15, spent three days on partial ventilation struggling to breathe after taking up vaping in 2020

In 2020 Sydney teenager Dakota Stephenson went to hospital with a high temperature and back pain, seven months after she first started vaping with friends at school.

Dakota was diagnosed with hypoxia within hours - meaning her lungs weren't getting enough air - and spent three days on partial ventilation struggling to breathe.

Her doctors at Randwick Children's Hospital believe she was suffering from a lung condition called EVALI that was first reported in the US in 2019.

EVALI - which stands for e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury - is thought to be caused by vapes containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a psychoactive substance also found in marijuana, and the additive vitamin E acetate.

Dakota's mother Natasha Stephenson only found out her daughter had started vaping when she was admitted to hospital.

Ms Pettigrew said schools and parents combined can help bring awareness to kids about the risks of using e-cigarettes.

'One of my concerns is everything ends up at the doorstop of the schools and they are being expected to solve all of societies problems - but we need to engage parents a lot more so they are aware vaping is not healthy.'
A second man aged just 21 has been charged over the drive-by shooting of a nine-year-old girl and will appear in Bankstown Local Court today on multiple alleged offences.

Hassan Osseili was arrested on Tuesday night after allegedly being on the run and charged with offences including shoot at with intent to murder, conspire and agree to murder any person, possess unregistered unauthorised pistol in public place and participate criminal group contribute criminal activity.

The nine-year-old girl was wearing pyjamas and unloading groceries with her mother and two other children on Queens Road at Connells Point in Sydney's south at 5.50pm last Friday when a gunman opened fire.

The nine-year-old suffered a gunshot wound to the hip and was rushed to Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick where she had multiple surgeries for internal injuries and is in a stable condition.

It is the second time in nine months the residence has been shot at, with bullets fired at the same home last November.

Hassan Osseili, 21 (above) is arrested by police for the alleged drive-by attempted shooting murder of a nine-year-old girl at Connells Point last Friday

Hassan Osseili has been refused bail after the 21-year-old (above) was arrested at Greenacre in connection with the shooting of the 9-year-old girl in her pyjamas outside the family home

Osseili (above) is the second man police apprehended after the shooting of the girl who, police say, should not have been confused with an adult target

A 21-year-old man is the second to be charged with shot with intent to murder after the drive-by attack which injured a nine-year-old girl who was unloading groceries in her pyjamas

Mahmoud Rizk, 34, was arrested in the hours following the shooting after police found an abandoned black BMW on fire and two men reportedly tried to get into a red Mini Cooper.

He was charged with one count of shoot at with intent to murder.

About 8pm on Tuesday night, Raptor Squad officers arrested 21-year-old Osseili at a Greenacre residence following further inquiries, and took him to Bankstown Police Station.

Police recovered a loaded semiautomatic pistol found in bushland in southern Sydney which will be examined in connection with the shooting.

Police, who found an alleged get away black BMW on fire (above), say it is the second time the Connells Point home has been targeted with gunfire in nine months

NSW State Crime Commands Raptor Squad has formed Strike Force Camiri to further investigate the shooting.

Two vehicles, including the burnt-out BMW, have been seized to undergo forensic and ballistic testing.

Detective Superintendent Grant Taylor said the intended target of the shooting was a man who lived at the Connells Point house where the girl was hot, but had not been at 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.

Police charged Osseili (above) with shoot at with intent to murder as well as possess unregistered firearm and participate in a criminal group

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.'

A 34-year-old man and a 21-year-old were arrested following a drive-by shooting that injured a nine-year-old girl in Sydney's south

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.'

After the attack last November, when the Connells Point home was peppered with nine bullets, two men home at the time escaped 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.
The father of a family of six said he woke to his son vomiting after sustaining carbon monoxide poisoning when attempting to heat their home with a portable BBQ.

Paramedics were called to the Merrylands granny flat in Sydney's west early on Tuesday morning after an adult complained of a headache.

After arriving they discovered four adults, two of which were elderly, and two children in a serious condition after attempting to warm the home with a charcoal burner.

Najem Nawaseri said he found his 13-year-old son Raeed violently unwell before urgently calling triple-0 for assistance.

'When I woke up I was very dizzy and then I understood (what was going on), then I saw my young son vomiting and then I called triple-0,' Mr Nawaseri told the Telegraph.

A family of six have been rushed to hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning after attempting to heat their home with a portable BBQ (pictured)

They were all taken to Westmead Hospital after paramedics said they were displaying symptoms of monoxide poisoning

Emergency services found it difficult to communicate with the family due to a language barrier, however several members showed ambulance crews a picture of the BBQ which alerted them to the potential cause for the headache.

They had turned on the charcoal burner to heat the property and fallen asleep, with the poisonous fumes filling the granny flat.

Raeed said he was unaware the burner was responsible for the fumes but said he awoke feeling extremely well.

'I didn't realise it was this,' the youngster said as he pointed to the outdoor heater. 'It had no smell, it was just on but I was feeling very dizzy.'

His father said it was a response to rising gas prices in Australia.

'(It's) very expensive, the gas and everything,' Najem said.

'A lot of people's heaters do not work and they don't have enough money to pay.'

All six have been taken to Westmead Hospital in a stable condition to be monitored after breathing in the gas overnight, while fire crews also attended the home to assess its safety.

There have been several instances of people looking to use cookers or burners to heat homes due to skyrocketing prices of electricity in the winter months.
Schools will be told to stop splitting up pupils for sex education classes so boys grow up with a better understanding of female health issues.

Doctors will also receive additional training on contraception and the menopause as part of a ten-year Women's Health Strategy for England launched today.

Ministers want to tackle a culture of 'medical misogyny' which leaves women struggling to access the same quality of care as men.

The Government has set an ambition to ensure women and girls 'have their concerns taken seriously'.

It comes after 84 per cent of people told a consultation women often feel they are not listened to when they seek help from the NHS. Boys and girls will be taught about women's health, including the menopause, 'from an early age', with schools asked not to split them up for lessons on relationships, sex and health.

Schools will be told to stop splitting up pupils for sex education classes so boys grow up with a better understanding of female health issues

Boys and girls will be taught about women's health, including periods and the menopause, 'from an early age', with schools asked not to split them up for lessons on relationships, sex and health

The strategy said this will improve awareness and ensure 'issues such as menstrual health, contraception and menopause are no longer taboo subjects'.

As part of the reforms, trainee medics will face assessments from the General Medical Council on women's health, with topics including the menopause, obstetrics and gynaecology.

Staff undergoing training to become a GP or physiotherapist will also have specialist teaching while existing doctors could take extra courses to top up their learning.

The strategy said: 'As a result, more doctors will have a better baseline understanding of women's health.'

In a raft of commitments, there will also be a drive to end the 'postcode lottery' in access to IVF treatment, which currently sees some areas offering one cycle and others three.

The first Women's Health Strategy for England promises to expand female health hubs and 'one-stop clinics'.

The report said: 'Historically the health and care system has been designed by men for men.'

Under the plans, transgender men and non-binary people with female reproductive organs should always receive screening invitations so they can access cervical and breast cancer screening.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: 'Our health and care system only works if it works for everyone.'

He insisted: 'It is not right that 51 per cent of our population are disadvantaged in accessing the care they need simply because of their sex.

'The publication of this strategy is a landmark moment in addressing entrenched inequalities and improving the health and wellbeing of women.'

DAME LESLEY REGAN: There's no denying women's health is suffering

DAME LESLEY REGAN: There's no denying women's health is suffering

Writing for the Daily Mail, Dame Lesley Regan, the women's health commissioner, said: 'There's no denying women's health is suffering disproportionately. We have the data to back it up - the diagnosis times, the frequent cases of misdiagnosis, the way women are listened to and the way we respond to "taboo" conditions.

'But we're taking action.

'I'm a great believer in if we get it right for women, the rest of society benefits.

'Today's first Women's Health Strategy is a significant milestone in changing the way we view and discuss women's health, setting out bold ambitions around where we want to be in the next 10 years.

'It's crucial we get the basics right and ensure women can access services for their everyday needs easily  such as getting contraception, easing their menopausal symptoms or having their smear test - and as the Women's Health Ambassador and as a clinician, I'm looking forward to working with people across the sector to enact real change and better join up services so women don't have to take days off just for their health.

'The Strategy is broad ranging so we can ensure women are getting the right care across their lifetime. It sets out actions from education at school and university, to bolstering research to better understand how illness such as dementia affects women differently.

'This isn't the end of the conversation.

'Bridging the gender health gap will require perseverance and profound change - not only in health policy - but within wider societal attitudes too.

'It's up to every single one of us to continue tackling taboos and empowering women everywhere. Women, I urge you to keep speaking up to make sure everyone is listening.'
A California school administrator gave a brazen shrug when asked about students who were unhappy over the reintroduction of a school mask mandate.

'They really should wear the mask,' San Diego School board president Dr. Sharon Whitehurst-Payne, grimacing and shrugging her shoulders during an interview with KUSI News.

The school leader said that if they don't like it, they can stay home.

Dr Whitehurst-Payne made her disdain clear when asked about students who had begun summer school when there was no such mask mandate, only to now find themselves ordered to wear a face-covering at all times while indoors.

San Diego School board president Dr. Sharon Whitehurst-Payne said if students don't like masks, they can stay home and learn over Zoom

San Diego County summer school students must wear masks indoors now despite a two-month low in infections

'They should make it known that the don't feel comfortable and at that point just not return,' she said.

On Monday, the San Diego Unified School system reinstated the indoor face-covering requirement for all students in summer school despite a drop in cases.

The seven-day averaged for infections is 39.5, the lowest it's been since the beginning of June, according to the San Diego County Communicable Disease Registry.

Cases have surged and receded in the last month and a half as the highly transmissible, but less lethal BA.5 variant has spread across the country.

Whitehurst-Payne said that the school board had set an infection level for when indoor mask regulations would return and the community had reached that level.

'As a reminder, the District established criteria approved by our board on May 24, 2022 that, if reached, would require a return to mandatory indoor masking. This week, one of those criteria was reached, with San Diego County entering the high COVID-19 community level,' according to an announcement on the San Diego Unified School District webpage.

Whitehurst-Payne said that board of education would be going on vacation soon and wanted to institute the policy change before they left.

'The board will be on vacation and will be out, but we wanted to put in place policy that would take the data into consideration,' she said.

However, Dr. Kelly Victory, emergency medicine and disaster specialist, out of Steamboat Springs, Colorado said that masks have never been an effective way to stop the spread of Covid-19.

'I have over 200 published scientific studies refuting the effectiveness of masks in stopping respiratory viruses,' she told KUSI News. 'Let's talk about the science. Let's not talk about what's politically correct and what serves another narrative - fear mongering.'

Dr. Kelly Victory, emergency medicine and disaster specialist, out of Steamboat Springs, Colorado said that masks have never been an effective way to stop the spread of Covid-19

She said that if masks could stop Covid-19, 'we wouldn't be in the pickle we're in because the places around the world that were pedantic about their mask mandates wouldn't continue to see significant case numbers.'

Studies have shown that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus and mask wearing can inhibit learning, especially in younger kids.

'They always fail to acknowledge or address the mounting number of negative impacts of wearing a mask,' Victory said. 'We know that there are many, independent of the social impact, the impact that face masks have had on children's ability to speak properly, to recognize facial expressions, interact socially and on and on.'

She said that educators aren't weighing the negative impacts with the negligible effectiveness of the masks in their decision to reinstitute the policy.

Two tests determining kids' development quotients were conducted as well, illustrating marked drops since the start of the pandemic concerning how well children are maturing in their language skills and other skills as compared with a sample of youngsters their own age

The report found that there was a 23 per cent drop in scores measuring kids' intelligence quotients since the start of the pandemic. Results showed the early learning composite mean result dropped by a whopping 23 per cent, from a high of just under 100 in 2019, to 77 in 2021

The study's findings come as parents across the globe grapple with the idea that wearing masks may interfere with the natural learning experiences and communication skills of their young children

'It's hard to imagine why they would continue to propose these,' Victory said.

Social distancing measures including face masks are suspected of causing young children's development to have drop by up to 23 per cent during the COVID pandemic, according a Brown University study using data collected from 1,600 children.

Researchers from York University found that face masks make it 20 per cent more difficult for children to recognize faces, compared to just 15 per cent in adults.
John Barilaro's former chief of staff has accused the former NSW deputy premier of boasting about moving to New York City for a top trade job and 'getting the f*** out' of Sydney.

In sensational evidence to a parliamentary inquiry, Mark Connell recalled that Mr Barilaro had just come from a meeting with then-Treasurer Dominic Perrottet and minister Stuart Ayres when he made the alleged comments.

Mr Barilaro had only been appointed the state's trade minister the month before, Mr Connell said, adding Mr Barilaro had come directly to his office after the meeting.

'He said, "I've just come from a meeting with Dom and Stuart regarding trade and we're going to bring back the Agent General in London as well as a bunch of other postings around the world,' the staffer said.

John Barilaro (above), who created the New York position in 2020, was offered the job after Ms West was dismissed

'I responded to Mr Barilaro and stated, 'but John, the Agent General role will be filled well before you retire from this place'.

He claimed Mr Barilaro said: 'I don't want to go to London, f*** that, I'm off to New York.' I responded and stated, 'our current office and staff are in California.''

Pictured: Mark Connell, the former chief of staff to former deputy premier John Barilaro

'Mr Barilaro responded and stated, "I'll get them to put one in New York, that's where I'm off to.'

The bombshell statement comes amid growing criticism around the decision to appoint Mr Barilaro to a top trade posting in New York - which was allegedly offered to another top public servant, Jenny West.

Mr Connell said he served as the chief of staff to the former deputy premier from April 2017 to December 2019.

'It was mutually agreed that I relinquish my position due to Mr Barilaro ceasing to take my advice and seeking outside counsel,' he said.

Mr Connell said he only learnt of his appointment to the trade job when it was reported by the media and said it had triggered a memory of the conversation.

'I strongly believed that my knowledge of this incident, should be disclosed as it may be of interest or value for the Committee to consider,' the staffer wrote.

Former public servant Jenny West (pictured) said she lost her senior job at Investment NSW and was made redundant after the New York posting was withdrawn

'Therefore, in the matter of public interest, I contacted The Hon. Penny Sharpe, and disclosed this incident to her.'

Mr Barilaro said in a statement: 'I completely refute the statement by Mr Connell'.

'The conversation he has recalled is fictitious, false and only serves as a reminder as to why we had to part ways.'

The NSW parliamentary inquiry returned on Tuesday, hearing from Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment general counsel Chris Carr, who held the same role with Investment NSW from June last year to April 2022.

Former public servant Jenny West previously told the inquiry she had been offered the job of senior trade and investment commissioner to the Americas worth $500,000 a year.

Ms West said she lost her senior job at Investment NSW and was made redundant after the New York posting was withdrawn. The overseas role eventually went to Mr Barilaro, who withdrew after public outcry in June.

Before the job was rescinded, Ms West (pictured) told the inquiry she was sent a text message by Ms Brown on August 12, 2021, with a signed note from then-premier Gladys Berejiklian confirming she had the role

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment general counsel Chris Carr (above) claimed Jenny West was never offered the $500,000 trading post job in New York during an parliamentary inquest hearing on Tuesday

Appearing at the inquiry last week, Ms West said Investment NSW CEO Amy Brown told her she no longer had the job a month after she was offered the role because it was to be 'a present for someone'.

Before the job was rescinded, Ms West told the inquiry she was sent a text message by Ms Brown on August 12, 2021, with a signed note from then-premier Gladys Berejiklian confirming she had the role.

'Congratulations. This is one to frame,' Ms Brown wrote, adding emojis of the Statue of Liberty and a bottle of champagne popping.

On Tuesday, Mr Carr said he had 'limited' involvement in the appointment of Mr Barilaro to the plum job and disputed evidence given by other witnesses.

Ms West's testimony that she was 'fully offered the job' was 'not correct', he said.

Ms West (above) claims she was verbally offered the dream job last year before Investment NSW CEO Amy Brown told her a month after she was offered the role that her offer was retracted, saying it 'will be a present for someone'

He added that Ms West said she was having tax troubles in the US that would prevent her accepting the New York posting for some time.

'Ms West said: 'I need to find an expert here in US taxes that can advise me as you will see there are implications in many areas, and importantly, I can't move forward until this is sorted',' Mr Carr said.

'I felt there were material contract terms that (had) not yet been finalised, particularly as to tax.

'My understanding is that Ms West was well advanced in the process, but not at the end of it.'

Mr Carr was asked in September to prepare advice on why the appointment of senior trade and investment commissioners was a public service appointment, and whether it could be a ministerial one.

He told the hearing the request came from Ms Brown or her chief of staff not from Mr Barilaro, with whom he had little interaction.

'I did receive some questions subsequent to that from a junior officer in Mr Barilaro's office. They were related to the constitution and they were related to the Commonwealth foreign relations act,' Mr Carr said.

Ms Brown previously told the inquiry the request came from the former deputy premier's office.

Mr Carr (above) denied he commented on the job when he allegedly told Ms West he was 'horrified' by her treatment in the recruitment process, claiming he was only comforting a colleague

Ms West told the hearing she had spoken to Mr Carr after learning she would not be sent to New York for the job and took a note of their conversation at the time.

During a phone call last September, she said Mr Carr had told her he was 'horrified' by her situation.

'That was her interpretation. That was not a word that I would have used,' he told the inquiry.

'I felt the need to console her... I felt it was open to me as a colleague, at a human level, to give her some degree of comfort.

'I wasn't giving advice. Any of my responses would have been taken with a grain of salt because it was an environment (where she was disappointed).

'I don't think I was passing an opinion on the job description for these roles.'

Ms West submitted a note she made during their September 17 phone call, after hearing the verbal offer had been withdrawn.

Ms West submitted a note (above) she took during a phone conversation with Mr Carr as evidence to the inquiry in which she wrote he said he was 'horrified' by her treatment

'His comments were: you were offered the job, had it signed off and just waiting on the contract and then this happens  if it was me, I would be bitterly disappointed,' she wrote.

Documents show another highly qualified woman, Hong Kong-based executive Kimberley Cole, was shortlisted for the position after it was re-advertised.

Other documents have been kept from public view after government lawyers claimed they were privileged.

Mr Barilaro announced last month he would withdraw from the role saying it was 'not tenable with the amount of media attention this appointment has gained'.

He has maintained he followed the proper processes.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet (above) launched an internal inquiry into Mr Barilaro's appointment which is due to be finished in coming weeks

'It is clear that my taking up this role is now not tenable with the amount of media attention this appointment has gained,' Mr Barilaro said in a statement on June 30.

'I believe my appointment will continue to be a distraction and not allow this important role to achieve what it was designed to do, and thus my decision.

'I stress, that I have always maintained that I followed the process and look forward to the results of the review.'

Premier Dominic Perrottet has launched an internal inquiry into the appointment, led by former public service commissioner Graeme Head, which he expects to be finalised in the coming weeks.

'The former deputy premier, Minister Ayres, and I had numerous discussions in 2019 in relation to the establishment of Global NSW and at no point in any of those discussions was it ever raised that the former deputy premier may want to hold a position as a trade commissioner,' he told Daily Mail Australia.
Jeremy Corbyn's allies and opponents within Labour used the issue of anti-Semitism as a 'factional weapon', a damning report found yesterday.

The Forde report described a 'toxic' atmosphere within the party and told of incidents of bullying and discrimination by staffers.

It also found that any suggestion that allegations of anti-Semitism were not a problem in the party or that it was all a 'smear' or a 'witch hunt' was disproved by evidence it had received.

Labour struggled with allegations of anti-Semitism during the time that Mr Corbyn led the party from 2015-2019

The report added: 'Sadly though, some still deny the existence and seriousness of the problem, or the need to take action to combat it, as the party has now begun to do.'

Labour struggled with allegations of anti-Semitism during the time that Mr Corbyn led the party from 2015-2019.

Mr Corbyn was suspended from the party after he said that the scale of anti-Semitism within Labour had been 'dramatically overstated' by opponents.

Yesterday, the findings of an inquiry into a leaked report from 2020 detailing how Labour dealt with anti-Semitism complaints was published. Its author Martin Forde QC criticised both factions within the party for how they dealt with anti-Semitism.

The report said both 'sides' 'weaponised' the issue 'and failed to recognise the seriousness of anti-Semitism, its effect on Jewish communities and on the moral and political standing of the party'.

The leaked dossier found 'no evidence' of anti-Semitism being handled differently from other complaints and blamed 'factional opposition' towards former leader Mr Corbyn for hampering efforts to tackle the issue.

But the Forde report's foreword said: 'The evidence clearly demonstrated that a vociferous faction in the party sees any issues regarding anti-Semitism as exaggerated by the Right to embarrass the Left.'

'Keir Starmer is now in control and has made real progress in ridding the party of the destructive factionalism and unacceptable culture that did so much damage previously and contributed to our defeat in 2019,' the Labour Party said

It added: 'It was of course also true that some opponents of Jeremy Corbyn saw the issue of anti-Semitism as a means of attacking him.

'Thus, rather than confront the paramount need to deal with the profoundly serious issue of anti-Semitism in the party, both factions treated it as a factional weapon.'

The Labour Party said: 'The Forde report details a party that was out of control.

'Keir Starmer is now in control and has made real progress in ridding the party of the destructive factionalism and unacceptable culture that did so much damage previously and contributed to our defeat in 2019.'
A British man or woman could walk on the moon within the next couple of decades after NASA hinted there would be a future astronaut spot for one of its 'international partners'.

US space agency bosses, including administrator Bill Nelson, are currently in Britain holding talks with their UK counterparts over the country's involvement in NASA's Artemis lunar missions.

UK companies are helping to build the service and habitation modules for the planned Lunar Gateway space station, which will orbit the moon and serve as an 'outpost' for astronauts when humans return to the lunar surface later this decade.

Nelson said the first two astronauts to return to the moon in 2025 would be American, and would include 'the first woman and likely the next man' to walk on the lunar surface.

They would become the first humans to do so in more than 50 years.

Excitement: A British man or woman could walk on the moon within the next couple of decades after NASA hinted there would be a future astronaut spot for one of its 'international partners'. Pictured is Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969

UK firms are helping to build the planned Lunar Gateway station (shown in artist's impression)

Flying the flag: There have been seven UK-born astronauts who have travelled to space, including Tim Peake in 2015 and the first Briton to do so, Helen Sharman (pictured left), in 1991

US space agency bosses, including administrator Bill Nelson and his deputy Pamela Melroy (both centre above), are currently in Britain holding talks with their UK counterparts over the country's involvement in NASA's Artemis lunar missions

LUNAR GATEWAY: A SPACE STATION AROUND THE MOON International space-faring countries involved in the International Space Station have their sights set on the moon for the next space station. The NASA-led project will see the Lunar Gateway built in orbit around the moon as part of the Artemis mission. International space-faring countries involved in the International Space Station have their sights set on the Moon for the next space station. The agreement, signed in September 2017, is part of a long-term project to send humans to Mars. The crew-tended spaceport will orbit the moon and serve as a 'gateway to deep space and the lunar surface,' NASA has said. The first modules of the station could be completed as soon as 2026. Europe, Japan and Russia are also involved in the Gateway. The European Space Agency will build its own service and habitation modules with help from UK companies. Advertisement

Nelson's deputy Pamela Melroy also went on to add that there would later be a space on a future mission for an astronaut from one of NASA's partners.

She said: 'I feel very confident we'll have an international partner because they're contributing to building Gateway... but we haven't sorted out yet when they will go to the surface.'

Currently, Tim Peake  who spent six months on the International Space Station from 2015-2016  is the only Briton on the European Space Agency's (ESA) astronaut roster.

However, it is understood that several UK hopefuls have made it through to the final selection stages for the next batch of ESA astronauts, set to be revealed this year.

Nelson and Melroy met Paul Bate, the UK Space Agency's chief executive, at the Farnborough International Airshow this week.

Bate said it was an honour to welcome the two NASA bosses and added that there would be 'further opportunities [for UK involvement] as the programme comes to life'.

NASA's ambitious Artemis project plans a lunar base by the end of this decade, along with the Gateway station which is set to be built between the first and second crewed landings, from 2026.

The orbiting lab will have a four person capacity and will see NASA work with some existing International Space Station partners including Europe, Japan and Canada.

Large parts of the station will be built by commercial partners and will have a docking port for the SpaceX Starship lunar lander that will ferry astronauts between the orbiting base and the surface of the moon.

Lunar Gateway forms a core part of the Artemis missions, which will see NASA land the first woman and first astronaut of colour on the moon.

Later this year, the US space agency plans to send manikins to space as part of the Artemis I mission.

NASA's Artemis project plans a lunar base by the end of this decade, along with the Gateway station which is set to be built between the first and second crewed landings, from 2026

The orbiting Gateway lab will have a four person capacity and will see NASA work with some existing International Space Station partners including Europe, Japan and Canada

Currently, Tim Peake (pictured)  who spent six months on the International Space Station from 2015-2016  is the only Briton on the European Space Agency's (ESA) astronaut roster

It is planning to discuss the next steps for this at a teleconference from 16:00 BST (11:00 ET), on what is the 53rd anniversary of Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to walk on the moon.

Artemis I will pave the way for crewed flights  Artemis II, which will launch in May 2024 and fly by the moon without landing on it, and Artemis III, which will actually touch down on the lunar surface.

Artemis III, which will launch 'no earlier than 2025', will be the first to land humans on the moon in more than 50 years, since Apollo 17 in December 1972.

All 12 people who have so far set foot on the moon are American men. There have been seven UK-born astronauts who have travelled to space, including Peake in 2015 and the first Briton to do so, Helen Sharman, in 1991.
A cattle grazer suffered grievous injures as a tiger attacked him in the Nallamala forests at Guttalachenu area near Palutla Gudem in Yarragondapalem mandal of Prakasam district Tuesday night. (Representational Photo:PTI)

Nellore: A cattle grazer suffered grievous injures as a tiger attacked him in the Nallamala forests at Guttalachenu area near Palutla Gudem in Yarragondapalem mandal of Prakasam district Tuesday night.

The victim Desavath Balu Nayak, who took some cattle for grazing in the forest, was shocked as the tiger charged towards him. Nayak and another person countered the attack using sticks in their hand.

The counterattack with loud sounds scared the tiger and it retreated to the forests. Balu Nayak sustained deep injuries on his head and other parts of the body as the tiger charged at him using its claws.

Residents of Palutla rushed the victim to the government hospital in Yarragondapalem for treatment. His condition was stated to be stable.

Locals said that they never came across tigers though there were several encounters with bears. Forest officer of Ganjivaripalli area Subba Rao came to the hospital along with his staff and elicited information on the attack from Balu Nayak.

He said Balu Nayak would have been killed but he saved himself by using a towel similar to cover his head, like a turban, and bravely holding sticks to fight the tiger.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Palutla Gude are worried about taking their cattle into the forest for grazing. We know there are some tigers but they never attacked cattle or any human all these years, a resident of the Gudem said.
Gordon Brown was approached by Penny Mordaunt for advice on a book ahead of her Tory leadership run, it emerged last night.

The contender asked the Labour former prime minister for ideas on how to make the country better and develop a 'national plan' for recovering from the pandemic. Miss Mordaunt made the surprise request while writing Greater: Britain After the Storm.

The book, which was published last year, is seen as a manifesto for how she would lead if she became prime minister.

Ideas put forward in the book include modernising the House of Commons. It argues that parliament should be improved to 'facilitate democracy' with the re-introduction of electronic voting and video conferencing. Both were used during the pandemic at great expense. It would allow MPs to spend more time in their constituencies, bringing politicians closer to their voters and helping to rebuild trust, she suggested.

Miss Mordaunt also said the state could be smaller, more efficient and more localised to give voters a better connection with government and 'engender local trust'.

Penny Mordaunt approached former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown for advice on a book she released last year called Greater: Britain After the Storm

Ms Mordaunt asked Gordon Brown for ideas on how to make the country better and develop a 'national plan' for recovering from the pandemic. It is understood that Mr Brown did not provide Miss Mordaunt with ideas for her book

She suggested sending Civil Service high-flyers on the fast-track scheme out of Whitehall to local communities 'where their talent can be used more productively'.

It is understood that Mr Brown did not provide Miss Mordaunt with ideas for her book. But she won praise from Labour former prime minister Tony Blair, who described it as 'really important'. 'Whatever disagreements there are about the recent political past, there is no doubt at all that the spirit Britain needs for its future is one that is optimistic, outward-looking, innovative and inclusive,' Sir Tony wrote.

The book, co-authored by multi-millionaire PR guru Chris Lewis, also carried endorsements from Bill Gates, Sir Richard Branson and Sir Elton John. Miss Mordaunt and Mr Lewis chartered a helicopter to fly to the Hay literary festival in May this year to promote it.

Rival campaigns have labelled her 'part-time Penny'. In her job as trade minister, Miss Mordaunt is responsible for state-by-state US trade deals and when the UK signed its first with Indiana she did not travel to the ceremony as it was at the same time as Hay.

Miss Mordaunt did not dispute she had approached Mr Brown. But a source on her campaign said the former PM 'had no involvement'.
Victoria's Acting Chief Health Officer Ben Cowie proposed a return to working from home earlier this month amid a fresh wave of COVID cases, documents show.

During a meeting with new Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas, Mr Cowie strongly recommended Victorians work from home "where practical to do so" until the end of August due to concerns over the BA.4/5 variants.

Victoria's Acting Chief Health Officer Ben Cowie is pushing for workers to stay home until the end of August, documents from a meeting this month with the state's Health Minister reveal

Acting Chief Health Officer Ben Cowie

"Transmission of COVID-19 is increasing in Victoria currently because of BA4/5 variants of concern," he said in documents published by the state government under pandemic legislation requirements.

"I recommend that the three existing pandemic orders (Public Safety, Workplace and Quarantine Isolation Testing Order) be continued."

Mr Cowie also recommended masks be worn in additional areas including in early childhood and school settings but acknowledged face mask requirements "are not universally supported in the community".

Last week, Ms Thomas confirmed she rejected the official health advice regarding broader mask mandates.

"The chief health officer has provided his advice and I have accepted his advice, except that I have chosen not to extend mandates for mask wearing in some of the settings that were recommended to me," she previously said.

Victoria on Wednesday recorded 12,984 new cases and another 28 deaths, with 906 in hospital including 45 in ICU.
Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District officials are reportedly set to fire police chief Pete Arredondo come Saturday, several weeks after he held officers back for an hour while the gunman killed 19 elementary school students.

Sources close to the school board told CNN Arredondo will be fired over his botched leadership at the Robb Elementary School massacre that left the students and two of their teachers dead on May 24.

Parents and members of the community have continued to demand the board fire Arredondo after it was discovered he told officers to stand back for an hour while Salvador Ramos, 18, continued to shoot at children in the school.

He was placed on administrative leave last month.

The latest call for his termination comes a day after the Texas House investigative committee released a preliminary report on Sunday, where officials found 'multiple systemic failures' and poor leadership by law enforcement the day of the shooting.

Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo will allegedly be fired over his botched leadership at the Robb Elementary School massacre that left 19 students and two teachers dead on May 24. Pictured: Uvalde directing officers while speaking with the gunman

The Texas House investigative committee released a preliminary report on Sunday, where officials found 'multiple systemic failures' and poor leadership by law enforcement

Community members and state police officials alike have sharply criticized the leadership of Arredondo. Michael Brown, an Uvalde community member who has a child that was enrolled at Robb Elementary, is seen holding signs calling for police accountability on Sunday

Arredondo was placed on administrative leave last month following the backlash

A minute-by-minute break down of how cops waited outside class while kids called 911 after gunman walked through door that had been propped open by a teacher 11.28am: Gunman crashes truck, gets out of car with AR-15. He is seen by witnesses in a funeral home next to the school who tell 911 they see a man with a gun walking towards the school 11.31: Gunman is now in the parking lot of the school hiding in between vehicles, shooting at the building 11.32: School resource officer who arrives in a patrol car after hearing 911 call about truck crash drives past the shooter 11.33: Gunman enters the school and begins shooting into room 111/room 112. He shoots more than 100 rounds 11.35: Three police officers enter the same propped-open door as the suspect from the Uvalde PD. They were later followed by another four, making total of seven officers on scene. Three initial officers went directly to the door and got grazing wounds from him while the door was closed. They hang back 11.37: Another 16 rounds fired inside the classroom by the gunman 11.51: Police sergeant and USB agents arrive 12.03: Officers continue to arrive in the hallway. As many as 19 officers in that hallway at that time. At the same time, a girl from inside the classroom calls 911 and whispers that she is in room 112 12.10pm: The same girl calls back and advises 'there are multiple dead' 12.13pm: The same girl calls again 12.16pm: The same girl calls 911 for the fourth time in 13 minutes asking for help 12.15pm: BORTAC (SWAT) members arrive with shields 12.16pm: The same unidentified girl calls 911 and says there are '8-9 students alive' in classroom 112 12.19pm: A different child from classroom 111 calls. She hangs up when another student tells her to in order to be quiet 12.21pm: Gunman fires again 12.26pm: One of the girls who previously called 911 calls back again. She says the shooter has just 'shot at the door' 12.43pm: The girl on that girl is still on the line. She says 'please send the police now' 12.50pm: Police finally breach the door using keys from the janitor and kill gunman 12.51pm Officers start moving children out of the room Advertisement

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin released body camera footage from the mass shooting on Sunday, days after an 82 minute video of the shooting was posted online by the Austin American Statesman and KVUE.

The video documents the apparent confusion Uvalde cops faced on May 24 when Ramos entered a classroom inside the Robb Elementary School and began firing.

Officers were told that day by Arredondo that the situation had changed from an active shooter situation to one of a barricaded suspect - forcing them to act with more caution even as Ramos continued to fire.

Arredondo's decision came despite several students and teachers making desperate calls for help as the gunfire raged on.

The newly-released video also showed that Arredondo tried to speak with Ramos several times from the school hallway.

During his initial attempts at communication, Arredondo seemed unaware that Ramos had barricaded himself in a classroom with students.

'Let me know if there's any kids in there or anything,' Arredondo pleaded. 'This could be peaceful.'

The officer, met with no response, continued: 'Can you tell me your name, anything that can help please?' But, Ramos did not answer.

Minutes later, a 911 dispatcher alerted police that a student had called, revealing children and teachers were trapped with the gunman.

Six minutes later, Arredondo is seen trying to open the door to a nearby classroom with a set of keys, but fails to do so.

He passes the keys off to another officer who does make entry into the room. Additional officers, who are more heavily armored, arrive on scene, but little action appears to be taken.

Then, another round of shots are fired, prompting Arredondo yet again to plead with the shooter.

'Can you hear me sir?' he asked. 'Sir, if you can hear me, please put your firearm down, sir. We don't want anybody else hurt.'

Someone is heard saying 'I know, I know' and another officer says: 'That's what we're doing, we're trying to get him out.'

It was still at least another 30 minutes before police entered the classroom where Ramos was barricaded and killed him.

The footage comes amid the release of a 77-page report by the Texas House of Representatives, which holds state and federal cops largely responsible for the Uvalde school massacre.

The House probe marked the most exhaustive attempt so far to determine why it took more than an hour for police and other officers to confront and kill Ramos.

The report blasted 'system failures and egregious poor decision making' by nearly all those in power during the attack, noting how 376 law enforcement officers rushed to the school in a chaotic scene marked by a lack of clear leadership and sufficient urgency.

'Other than the attacker, the Committee did not find any 'villains' in the course of its investigation,' the report stated. 'Instead, we found systemic failures and egregious poor decision making.'

Arredondo is seen trying to open the door to a nearby classroom with a set of keys, but fails to do so. He passes the keys off to another officer who does make entry into the room

Minutes later, another round of shots are fired, prompting Arredondo yet again to plead with the shooter: 'Can you hear me sir? Sir, if you can hear me, please put your firearm down, sir. We don't want anybody else hurt'

It was still at least another 30 minutes before police entered the classroom where Ramos had barricaded himself and killed him

Tina Quintanilla-Taylor raises her hand and voice as she tries to ask a question of the Texas House investigative committee at a news conference after they released its full report on the shootings at Robb Elementary School on Sunday

'The void of leadership could have contributed to the loss of life as injured victims waited over an hour for help, and the attacker continued to sporadically fire his weapon.'

It also claimed the 149 US Border Patrol agents and 91 state police on the scene should have helped with the 'unfolding chaos.'

'There was an overall lackadaisical approach by law enforcement at the scene,' the report read. 'For many, that was because they were given and relied upon inaccurate information. For others, they had enough information to know better.'

The bottom line, the report found, is that 'law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety.'

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that the city had placed Lieutenant Mariano Pargas, who was the acting city policy chief on the day of the shooting, on administrative leave.

State police officials have sharply criticized the leadership of Arredondo, the police chief of the school district's six-man police force, who state police have said was in control of the scene.

But the report noted that hundreds of officers from agencies that were better trained and better equipped than the school's police force badly failed, too.

'Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies did not approach (Arredondo) or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or to offer that specific assistance,' the report stated.

'These local officials were not the only ones expected to supply the leadership needed during this tragedy.'

'Hundreds of responders from numerous law enforcement agencies - many of whom were better trained and better equipped than the school district police - quickly arrived on the scene.'

Salvador Ramos, 18, (pictured) shot and killed 19 students and two teachers while cops held back for over an hour during the Uvalde massacre on May 24

'In this crisis, no responder seized the initiative to establish an incident command post,' the report said.

'Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies did not approach the Uvalde CISD chief of police or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or to offer that specific assistance.'

The report also found that the Robb Elementary School failed to adhere to a number of basic safety protocols, which included a lack of keys leading to teachers regularly leaving doors unlocked or propping them open.

Door and lock maintenance did not receive adequate attention from the school district, the report noted, pointing out that though the lock in one of the rooms where the shooting took place was known to be unreliable, it was not repaired.

'In particular the locking mechanism to Room 111 was widely known to be faulty, yet it was not repaired,' the report said.

'The problem with locking the door had been reported to school administration, yet no one placed a written work order for a repair.'

Unreliable Wi-Fi in parts of the school also led to poor use of an app intended to notify the school of a lockdown in the event of an emergency.

Teachers also often responded without urgency to lockdown notifications on the app because they were desensitized by its overuse in situations involving nearby border patrol activity.

Robb Elementary is located about an hour from the US-Mexico border, and teachers would often be notified about illegal migrants who were being pursued by border patrol in the area.

There were 47 'lockdown' events at the school between May and February, 90 percent of which concerned border patrol activity.

Arredondo, met with no response continued: 'Can you tell me your name, anything that can help please?' But, Ramos did not answer

Arredondo told Ramos 'this could be peaceful' and asked him to 'please pout your firearm down' as he continued to fire shots into the classroom

Additionally, the report revealed that Ramos provided a number of warning signs that he was dangerous, but that nobody did anything to address them.

In one incident, Ramos sent someone a message on Instagram on April 2 saying 'Are you still gonna remember me in 50 something days?'

'Probably not' the person responded.

'Hmm alright we'll see in May,' Ramos said back.

He was also obsessed with gore and violent sex online, posting videos of suicides and beheadings, and harassing women who he played video games with.

He was also fired from his job at a Whataburger after threatening a female coworker.

Despite his violent behavior, no red flags were raised about Ramos and he was never reported to authorities.
Residents of a leafy suburb in Adelaide are being urged to stay inside after two 'American bull terrier-looking dogs' attacked an elderly woman.

Jo Howski, from Clarence Park in the city's inner suburbs, said she and her husband rescued a 78-year-old woman from a vicious attack just before 6 pm on Monday evening.

Ms Howski, her partner John and three young children had just arrived home from swimming training to find the woman being savaged by two dogs on their fence that appeared to be bull terriers.

'She was in shock, bleeding from both hands and both legs. We basically ran and got first aid gear, got a chair and sat her down,' Ms Howski told Daily Mail Australia.

'She had a large tear to her left calf, a skin flap. She was bleeding with wounds to both limbs and both hands.'

Pictured: The caravan where locals believe two pit bulls live who attacked an elderly woman and left her requiring surgery

Jo Howski, from Clarence Park in the city's inner suburbs, said she and her husband rescued a 78-year-old woman from a vicious attack just before 6pm on Monday evening

Ms Howski said they were only alerted to the attack after hearing an 'awful scream' and 'aggressive animal noises'.

A man that happened to be driving past the attack as it occurred had pulled over and managed to fight the dogs off the elderly woman prior to Ms Howski and her family reaching her.

The two brown dogs then ran away down the street to Church of the Trinity and to a caravan at the back of the church's carpark that they believe belongs to a rough-sleeping person.

The mother-of-three said the elderly woman had been attacked from behind while walking home from the shops.

'She didn't even see them coming. She went to the shops, was walking home with her Woolies bags and was attacked from behind,' Ms Howski told Daily Mail Australia.

The two brown dogs then ran away down the street to Church of the Trinity and to a caravan at the back of the carpark that they believe belongs to a rough-sleeping person

The mother said she feared for her own family's safety, saying the victim could have been her seven-year-old had they arrived home any earlier.

'We've got three young kids. They missed the attack by a minute, they were playing outside,' Ms Howski said.

The 78-year-old woman's family say she is having surgery today.

Ms Howski says she has since heard from two other local residents who have been attacked by the dogs and has visited the church to inform them of the incidents.

She claims there is in-fighting between South Australia Police and the City of Unley Council over whose role it is to seize the animals.

'We have no issues with the rough-sleeping people being there, the church should have families staying in the carpark. We just want the dogs removed,' Ms Howski told Daily Mail Australia.

'I went to the church to see if I could hear the dogs. I don't think they've been taken yet. There's some argy-bargy between police and the council over who has authority to act.'

Ms Howski said they were only alerted to the attack after hearing an 'awful scream' and 'aggressive animal noises' (stock image)

The church has been contacted for a comment.

The City of Unley told Daily Mail Australia the dogs were yet to be positively identified, and they were still investigating whether the dogs living at the church were involved in the attack.

'No dogs were found to be wandering at large when our inspectors investigated, and no dogs have been seized at this point. Some dogs which have been suspected of the attack were with their owner and restrained when this was reported,' a spokesperson said.

'There are no dogs roaming the streets  the safety of our community is paramount and we are taking this situation very seriously and following a process to identify the responsible dogs as quickly as possible.'

SA Police confirmed the elderly woman had been taking to hospital for treatment with 'injuries not considered life-threatening.'

'Officers spoke to the owner of the dogs nearby, after she had brought the dogs under control,' a spokesperson said.

'The matter is now being investigated by the local council.'
No Victorian Labor MPs will be criminally charged despite an integrity investigation unearthing deliberate, extensive and egregious misuse of taxpayer resources.

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and Victorian Ombudsman released their joint report into branch stacking allegations within the party on Wednesday.

The watchdogs considered whether the identified misconduct constituted criminal offending that should be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions and ultimately opted against it.

None of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' MPs will face criminal charges over the probe

The report made adverse findings against Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek

'Although we consider the conduct to be egregious, the difficulties in proof are such that we cannot recommend prosecution,' the report said.

'Rather, it will now be a matter for the Privileges Committees of each house to decide whether the named MPs have wilfully brought discredit upon parliament.'

It found branch stacking was not limited to one Victorian Labor faction but evidence of misconduct only concerned Mr Somyurek's moderate faction.

'We had no specific evidence that allowed us to determine the extent of misuse by any other faction,' the report said.

The probe was launched following allegations in a Nine Network investigation that Labor moderate faction powerbroker Adem Somyurek handed over cash and used parliamentary employees to create fake branch members and amass political influence.

The practice, known as branch stacking, is not illegal but against Labor party rules.

Mr Somyurek quit the Labor Party in June 2020 before he was expelled following the reports.

Former cabinet member Marlene Kairouz

His factional allies Robin Scott and Marlene Kairouz also departed cabinet following the expose. All three MPs have previously denied wrongdoing.

Luke Donnellan became the fourth ministerial casualty of the scandal in October after then-federal MP Anthony Byrne told the joint inquiry that the pair paid for others' Labor memberships.

The report made adverse findings against Mr Somyurek and Ms Kairouz but not against Premier Daniel Andrews and other witnesses.

In all, Mr Somyurek and six other witnesses were questioned in public hearings and another 26 in private, including Mr Andrews.

The premier previously refused to confirm if he was interviewed as part of the probe or comment on it until the final report was released.

According to the report, Mr Andrews 'agreed that the practice was not limited to one faction and occurred 'across the board'' but he 'denied any personal knowledge of or involvement in such practices.'

The 233-page report makes 21 recommendations, including legislating a parliamentary ethics committee, tightening the definition of permissible work for electorate officers and banning MPs from employing close family members in their electorate office.

The government banned electorate officers from carrying out campaign duties during work hours in 2019 following Labor's 'red shirts' scandal, but the new rules do not cover factional work outside of elections.

Over the course of public hearings, Mr Somyurek said he was aware of branch stacking when he joined the party in the 1990s, describing it as 'deeply embedded' within the party and admitted some of his electorate staff were 'factional operatives'.
Britain's military has introduced a blanket ban on personnel paying prostitutes for sex while stationed abroad in a bid to tackle unacceptable sexual behaviour in the Armed Forces.

A new defence strategy called 'Zero Tolerance to Sexual Abuse' has been drawn up after a damning parliamentary report on sexual harassment in the Armed Forces and reports on the conduct of British soldiers while on training in places such as Kenya.

The move, which will apply equally to all three branches of the military, comes as the Ministry of Defence tries to encourage more women to enlist.

The policy is designed to target sexual activity which involves British service personnel abusing their position of power while on duty overseas, with a zero-tolerance attitude that will see that each and every allegation of sexual exploitation is deal with.

Those deemed to have been participating in the offending behaviour, which the Mod describes as 'transactional sex,' faces being discharged.

They could also face prosecution if the country in which the offence was committed criminalises the behaviour.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has introduced a blanket ban on British military personnel paying for sex while overseas in a bid to encourage more women to join the Armed Forces

Under new rules, British service personnel will face dismissal and possible prosecution if they are found to have engaged in 'transactional sex' while stationed abroad

The new policy will replace a patchwork of overlapping and underlapping rules that currently operate within the military.

The developments have been driven by step change in social attitudes to sexually inappropriate behaviour across broader society, according to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.

Speaking at the Farnborough airshow, Wallace said he could not immediately explain why the policy had taken so many years to implement.

'Don't ask me, I'm the defence secretary who's now taken it over, and life's moved on. It's a different generation. I was in the army in 1991 in Germany, and things are different,' he said.

'You know, we want more and more women to be in our forces, we have to bear in mind all that means in different environments, and we have to set parameters for those environments and be very clear what is acceptable.'

A related policy will see a similar zero-tolerance approach taken to any unacceptable sexual behaviour.

Rose Wanyua holds a photo of her sister, Agnes Wanjiru, who was allegedly killed by a British soldier in Kenya in 2012

Kenyan sex workers hold placards and shout slogans in the streets during a protest against the murder and harrasment of their colleagues in recent years by their clients claiming majority of their clients are British soldiers

Greater emphasis will be placed on victim support, with a similar punishment of dismissal from the service to those found guilty of the acting in a sexually inappropriate way.

The MoD will offer a new 'Tackling Sexual Offending in Defence Strategy,' which is aimed to helping victims and tackle sexual offending.

The new strategy is likely motivated by a parliamentary report that was released a year ago damned the MoD for failing to protect servicewomen from bullying, harassment and sexual assault within the military.

The report, by the defence sub-committee on women in the armed forces, found that of those surveyed, 64 per cent of female veterans and 58 per cent of women serving in the army experienced bullying, discrimination and harassment throughout their careers.

The new prostitution ban will not apply within the UK, where domestic law will take precedence.

The conduct of British soldiers abroad has come under scrutiny lately after reports that members of a regiment were aware one of their comrades had killed a young Kenyan woman, Agnes Wanjiru, who worked as a prostitute in 2012.

From the case it emerged that British soldiers in the east African country regularly visited sex workers, who relied on the income to support their families, something which is illegal.

Two years ago soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment battlegroup, were confined to their barracks in Kenya after up to 100 sought medical advice after visiting temporary brothels that had been set up near their base.
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A young relief teacher accused of grooming a teenage boy may have the charges against her dropped, a court has heard.

Ammy-Clara Singleton, from Port Augusta in South Australia, was arrested in December and charged with communicating with a child under 17 to 'engage in, or submit to, sexual activity'.

A Snapchat message is understood to be at the centre of the police allegations.

The 28-year-old was supported by her lawyer when she arrived at the town's local court on Wednesday morning wearing a crucifix around her neck, hiding her face with a black mask and sunglasses.

Ms Singleton sat in the witness box as the public prosecutor told Magistrate David McLeod that her case - which made headlines across the country - is under review by prosecutors and 'may not proceed'.

Relief teacher Ammy-Clare Singleton appeared in Port Augusta Magistrate's Court on Wednesday morning (pictured) where court heard prosecutors were considering dropping charges

Ammy Singleton's case was adjourned to August 10, when it is expected she will enter a plea

The matter was adjourned to August 10, when it is expected she will enter a plea.

Ms Singleton refused to comment outside court when asked how she felt about the prospect of charges being dropped.

During her last appearance in May, the court heard Ms Singleton came in contact with the male victim at a sporting club.

Defence lawyer, Andrew Fowler-Walker, said the alleged victim was not a student of Ms Singleton, and that he contacted her through a chat room.

The mother-of-one was an accomplished netball player who was teaching at six schools when she was arrested last year.

She was subsequently stood down from all teaching roles.

Her mother Sharon Platt previously told Daily Mail Australia that the 28-year-old would claim she was sent a message on Snapchat from a teenage boy, which led to the allege charge being laid.

Ms Singleton (pictured) sat in the witness box as the public prosecutor told Magistrate David McLeod that her case 'may not proceed'

Ammy-Clare Singleton has a three-year-old son with her ex-husband. They broke up two years ago

Ms Platt said her daughter was a 'doting mum' who lives with her parents and three-year-old son - having left her husband two years ago.

She explained when Ms Singleton goes out with her friends, she regularly calls home to ask how her little boy is doing with his grandparents - usually ending her evenings early to ensure she is there if her son wakes during the night.

Ms Platt said her daughter, who is an indigenous Australian, aspired to be a teacher because she wanted to support Aboriginal children at school.

'She wanted to be a teacher because kids weren't getting a fair go, and she's a black girl and she stands by her culture,' she said.

When speaking about Ms Singleton's future, the mother broke down - asking how her daughter will pay off her $80,000 university debt without a job.

Ms Platt couldn't hide her devastation when she said her daughter will 'never have a career again'.

'She will never have a life again, and she's never done a bad thing to anyone but she's guilty until proven innocent.'

Ms Singleton (pictured outside her home) has been accused of grooming a child under 17

Ammy Singleton (pictured) lives with her parents and three-year-old son in Port Augusta, South Australia

'She'll have her day in court, but she will never get her life back and neither will we.

Ms Platt wondered if the attention on Ms Singleton was largely due to her good looks, and said she receives multiple anonymous phone calls from people who ask 'are you proud of your daughter?'.

Ms Singleton graduated from UniSA with a Bachelor of Education (Primary and Middle) in 2017, before returning to her hometown and becoming a full-time mum.

She then pursued work as a casual teacher at six schools, including Flinders View Primary School and Port Augusta West Primary School.

A former Flinders View student told The Advertiser that Ms Singleton was 'a nice teacher'.

The school's principal Anna Nayda sent a letter to parents confirmed the relief teacher worked there between February 2017 and April 2018, but that the allegations did not involve one of their students.

If she is found guilty of the offence, Ms Singleton faces 10 years prison.
A depraved baby rapist who filmed himself repeatedly sexually assaulting a two-year-old girl has won an interim claim his human rights were breached by housing him in prison with a cellmate.

Jason Daron Mizner - whose vile paedophile crimes across two countries included muzzling a toddler to stop her screaming - has previously complained his jail time was excessive.

Now the former Gold Coast yoga teacher, who is aged in his late 40s, has won a temporary Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) order he not be placed in a shared cell until his discrimination case is decided, the Courier Mail reported.

Having served 11 years in a Thai prison for raping and videotaping toddlers before being deported to Australia, Mizner claims discrimination by Queensland Corrective Services for placing him in a two-man cell.

Other notorious inmates at Wolston Correctional Centre at Wacol in western Brisbane include paedophile killer of Brisbane schoolboy Daniel Morcombe, Brett Peter Cowan, and wife killer, Gerard Baden-Clay.

Mizner says he is impaired by disorders including post-traumatic stress from his time in a Thai prison, where he served 11 years for raping a baby.

He says he also has autism, an acquired brain injury and foot or leg injuries which make it difficult for him to share a cell with another inmate.

And it looks like QCAT will permanently grant him his wish because sharing with another cellmate is unbearable for someone who suffers 'persistent emotional hyperarousal'.

Depraved baby rapist Jason Mizner (above, under arrest in Thailand) is likely to succeed in being housed in single cell despite prison overcrowding because his 'human rights are breached' by having a cellmate

He is serving 19 years in Queensland for 65 child-sex offences involving a two-year-old girl in the early 2000s who he repeatedly raped over a three-month period.

His sickening rap sheet included more than 30 counts of rape and videotaping the assaults.

Mizner was caught while on holiday in Thailand where he had befriended a Thai woman whose baby daughter he had also begun to sexually assault.

Back on the Gold Coast, the mother of a two-year-old girl had found a bag of his possessions at home which included handwritten notes with children's names, details on how to exploit them and videos of his horrifying abuse.

Along with the recordings and names of children, the bag also contained addresses of single mothers and plans for a child exploitation ring.

Mizner was convicted of shocking child-sex offences in Thailand and served 11 years of a 35-year sentence before being deported to Australia on his release.

Charged over the Gold Coast offences, he was sentenced in 2018 to a total of 26 years in continuous custody in two countries.

During sentencing, Justice Leanne Clare said she had struggled to cope with the disturbing footage of Mizner's offences despite 30 years experience with extreme child abuse cases.

Wolston prison (above) which also houses child killer Brett Cowan and wife killer Gerard Baden-Clay, will have to find a single cell for Mizner because he suffers PTSD from Thai jail where he served time for raping a baby

'I only watched a portion and it has been a battle to get the vision of your offending out of my head,' Judge Clare said.

'I cannot imagine the horror of it for (the girl's) mother.'

Judge Clare, who was so traumatised by the graphic footage she had to delay sentencing, said Mizner had shown no remorse for his heinous crimes.

A year later, Mizner claimed in the Queensland Court of Appeal that his jail time - which means he won't be eligible for parole until 2031 - didn't properly take into account the time he spent in prison overseas.

He lost his appeal.

Mizner is now held at Wolston Correctional Centre as his original claim under the Anti-Discrimination Act is being determined by QCAT.

The tribunal heard a prison psychiatrist supported Mizner's request not to share a cell due to 'persistent emotional hyperarousal, hypervigilance and intrusive recollections' consistent with PTSD.

Jason Mizer, now in his late 40s, filmed himself raping a two-year-old girl he muzzled to stop her screaming, but now claims his rights are being eroded by having to share a cell while he has 'persistent emotional hyperarousal'

Mizner claimed if placed in a shared cell for more than a few weeks 'it would impact on his mental health and lead him to have a mental breakdown', QCAT heard.

Mizner claims Corrective Services failed 'to give proper consideration to his human rights in making decisions' and that a prison psychologist told him he didn't meet the requirements for the 'Do Not Double Up' list.

Corrective Services argue Mizner is suitable for shared accommodation, and QCAT heard single cells are the exception at overcrowded Wolston prison, with inmates only placed in a cell alone under extreme circumstances.

QCAT member Ann Fitzpatrick found Mizner had demonstrated 'a sufficient likelihood of success in the complaint' and the risk of harm to his mental health must outweigh the prison's operational problems.

'In all I am not satisfied on the limited evidence available that the applicant would not suffer harm if placed in a shared cell,' she said in a published decision.

She ordered he not be placed in a dual occupancy cell before his discrimination complaint was dealt with.
Joe Rogan jokingly suggested shooting homeless people in Los Angeles after claiming the city's woke prosecutors no longer care about violent crime.

Rogan, 54, was recounting an experience of seeing 'four port-a-potties' under an underpass where a homeless encampment was set up and how a person had their car 'half-blocking' the road with a dresser and belongings stacked nearby.

His guest Tom Segura claimed homeless encampments are 'protected property' in the state and was 'protected by law.'

Under a 2019 federal court ruling, some California jurisdictions are prevented from prosecuting homeless people camping on public property. However, LA signed a new ordinance in August 2021 that prohibited encampments from popping up around parks, libraries, and other public spaces.

Rogan thought it was 'hilarious' that an ordinary person could be 'arrested' for 'trying to move' an encampment and suggested an even more dire way of taking care of California's homeless problem.

'But they wouldnt arrest you if you shot somebody. Maybe you should just go shoot the homeless people,' Rogan said on the July 14 episode of the show.

Segura agreed, telling Rogan he liked his 'ideas.'

'I mean nobody does anything about violent crime in LA anymore,' Rogan continued. 'It's a f**king joke.'

Joe Rogan, 54, suggests 'shooting the homeless' because 'nobody does anything about violent crime in LA anymore,' he said on his podcast. 'It's a f**king joke'

Overall crime is up 8.2 percent in Los Angeles. Shootings, assaults, and robberies are also up in the City of Angels, at 3.1, 5.0, and 20.8 percent, respectively.

LA's District Attorney George Gascon has been widely criticized for his handling of crime and has been accused of soft on criminals as the city's jails have become a revolving door.

He faces a recall over his unpopular policies, with the campaign to oust him bearing marked similarities to the recall that successfully booted San Francisco prosecutor Chesa Boudin from office in June.

But LA's homeless advocacy groups are shocked by Rogan's direct statements.

We the Unhouse podcast host and homeless advocate Theo Henderson told Variety that Rogan's statements were 'repulsive.'

'Its infuriating because its not only out of touch, but the reality is that unhoused people are targeted by housed people,' he told the outlet. 'To advocate trying to shoot at unhoused people or just giving these dog whistles to people that do not see unhoused people as human beings - I cant believe youd advocate for it.'

A homeless man sits near a tent, surrounded by overturned trash cans and foldable tables. Rogan suggested the vile solution after telling a story about seeing an encampment under an LA underpass and his guest Tom Segura telling him people would be 'arrested' if they messed with homeless encampments

A man runs by a homeless encampment on the beach. In August 2021, LA signed an ordinance that would prohibit the homeless from setting up encampments near parks, libraries, and other public spaces

Henderson said Rogan should have advocated for more 'bathroom access and shower depots' so they could take care of themselves, rather than complain about seeing it.

'Its a very abysmal response to a varied situation that we all should be really concerned and working aggressively to put people in housing right now,' he told Variety.

Andy Bales, who homeless shelter Union Rescue Mission, agreed with Henderson and said he was 'surprised and saddened' by the podcaster's comments.

'The comments about beginning to kill homeless people hits too close to reality for any comfort, because murders of homeless people in Los Angeles went up 47 percent last year over the previous year,' he told Variety.

Murder is currently down 2.1 percent compared to the same time last year.

'There is a bit of an unfortunate vigilantism already in Los Angeles towards people devastated by homelessness and they dont need any encouragement,' Bales continued.

It's not the only controversy Rogan has found himself in. Last year, he was slammed for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 about alternative treatments and vaccinations.

His comments brought on calls for his podcast to be taken off Spotify and led to several musicians to pull their music from the platform.
Motorists have come to the aid of a driver whose vehicle smashed into a barrier and rolled in a terrifying accident.

Dash-cam footage of the incident was uploaded to the 'Dash Cam Owners Australia' Facebook page on Tuesday.

The video, which was taken on a road in the Lake Macquarie suburb of Glendale, near Newcastle, NSW, captured the moment a driver lost control of the vehicle before smashing into a dividing barrier and rolling on the busy road.

Dash-cam captured the terrifying moment a vehicle lost control before smashing into a dividing barrier and rolling on a busy road in the Hunter region of NSW (pictured)

The vehicle rolled onto its side (pictured) after smashing into the barrier, causing concerned motorists to rush over to lend a hand

Concerned motorists are seen stopping their vehicles and immediately rushing over to the driver to lend a hand.

The driver capturing the footage can be heard saying: 'What the f***... ah God,' before leaving their car to more closely inspect the scene.

Members of the public manage to open the front passenger door and allow the river to climb out to safety.

'Hope all in the car were okay. Great response from other drivers... Hopefully one of them was quick to call an ambulance,' a person commented on the post.

'So many people are there to help in seconds...this is why I love Australia!' another noted.

Members of the public managed to open the front passenger door, allowing the driver to climb out to safety (pictured)

Others, however, used the footage to do some road safety finger-wagging.

'Amazing how a dozen people run over, leaving their cars sitting in the middle of the road, and then half of them stand metres away talking to each other,' one person commented.

'Move your vehicles out of the way to prevent further incident. And if you're not actively helping, or calling emergency services, get out of the way.'

'How do you turn right and then continue to turn into a fence? If the fence wasn't there this person would've taken out a few cars as well,' one person posted.

The incident was not dissimilar to one in Perth where a woman attempted to cross two lanes and enter a shopping centre only to smash into another car.

Her move sparked a debate after her insurer requested the victim pay for the damage.

The driver of the SUV in Perth (pictured) turned right into the path of a dash-cam owning ute

Footage from the ute's rear camera shows the SUV's front end was reduced to a pile of scrap in the middle of the Great Eastern Highway

The driver attempted to make the right turn from the far left lane, turning straight into the path of a passing ute and sending debris from her bumper and headlights flying over the ute's bonnet.

The incident took place in the middle of Western Australia's Great Eastern Highway on July 6.

In a testament to the ute's structural integrity, most of the damage was done to the offending driver's car with the ute appearing to escape largely unscathed, especially in comparison to the destroyed front end of the turning SUV.

However when a letter from the SUV's insurance company arrived in the mail, the incensed ute driver posted footage of the collision on the Dash Cam Owners Australia social media page.

The ute driver claimed the SUV driver said she was trying to get to Midland Shopping Centre - from the furthest lane - and hadn't seen the ute approaching behind it at the time of the crash.
HYDERABAD: In a long pending dispute over a land parcel of about 300 acres in Sulthanpally village, Shamshabad mandal in Ranga Reddy district between the state government and around 72 private persons, the government on Tuesday defended before the High Court that the land was vested with it and the claim of the private parties was not genuine.

The dispute over the land in Survey Nos. 123 to 126, 143 to 150, 152/A, 152/B, 153 and 154, totaling about 300 acres, has been pending before the High Court since 2005.

When the then government claimed that the property was under Jagir administration and was transferred to the government after the Jagir Abolition Act came into force. The government had issued a notice dated 21.6.2005 exercising the power U/s 166B of AP (TA) Land Revenue Act 1317 F and Section 9 of AP Record of Right in Land and Pattadar Passbook Act, 1971.

However, challenging the said notices, V. Tulasiram, the then Member of Parliament and 65 others, contended that they purchased the above land in 1982 from the original pattadars Syed Shabuddin and Syed Karar Hyder Hussain and that they were in possession and enjoyment of the lands and their names were recorded as owners as per relevant entries in revenue records and they were issued pattadar passbooks and title deeds in respect of the said lands.

A single judge bench of the High Court in 2009 quashed the notice on the ground that the same was patently without jurisdiction, apart from being barred by inordinate and unexplained lapses and delay and hence further enquiry could not be sustained.

Aggrieved by the order, the government filed an appeal in 2009, which has been pending and the matter was taken up for hearing on Tuesday. Arguments were advanced by advocate general B.S Prasad on behalf of the state government ,who brought to the notice of the court that the commutation amount of Rs 60,000 was paid to the Jagir as early as in 1951.

On account of which, the evidence was complete in all aspects, as the question of petitioners setting up title on the ground that they purchased the land in 1983 through registered sale deed was executed by incompetent persons and they had no right on the land, the advocate general submitted. The next hearing was adjourned to next week.
The mother of three children who died in a horror house fire has been taken into custody and is assisting police as part of a criminal investigation.

Fire crews rushed to Anderson Street in Port Hedland, 1,500km north of Perth, Western Australia, about 4.45pm on Tuesday when witnesses reported a home was up in flames.

After fighting to get the inferno under control for 30 minutes, first responders found the bodies of three children in the wreckage.

The youngest was just five months old, while the two older children are a boy aged seven and a 10-year-old girl.

Earlier on Wednesday, Premier Mark McGowan revealed a person has been taken into custody and is assisting police with inquiries.

'There's currently a criminal investigation underway as to how the fire started and someone is in custody,' Mr McGowan said.

Police and fire crews rushed to Anderson Street in Port Hedland, 1,500km north of Perth , Western Australia, about 4.45pm on Tuesday when witnesses reported a home was up in flames

Acting Deputy Commissioner Allan Adams was emotional as he held a press conference on Wednesday to provide an update on the investigation.

Mr Adams said there are 'many questions as to the events leading up to this incident' that he is not yet comfortable to speak further on.

'We will be looking back to see if there were any opportunities for this to have been prevented,' he said. '(We will) deconstruct all the events leading up to the fire.'

The children's mother is seeking medical treatment as a result of the fire.

Mr Adams said each of the children's fathers have been notified of the tragedy.

Police tape cordoned off the street after the tragic house fire on Tuesday afternoon (pictured)

Port Hedland mayor Peter Carter said his tight knit community is grieving the loss but will 'rally' to support the family.

'It's early days yet, we don't know exactly how or why this thing has happened, police are still doing their investigation,' he said.

'My condolences go to the family and the community. Hedland is a beautiful community and they will rally behind the people who need it at this time.

The remote town of 14,300 people is located on the northern WA coast about 1,500km north of Perth (file image)

'This is just unprecedented, I'm lost for words I really am, this just doesn't happen. It's gut-wrenching.'

The street was teeming with police and paramedics and police tape cordoned off the area hundreds of metres away from the scene by the early evening.

Regional energy provider Horizon was also called to the scene and police are investigating the cause of the fire.

'Local police, including detectives, remain at the scene tonight and specialist investigators from the Major Crime Division and Forensics will travel to Port Hedland to continue investigations,' police said.
The visa applications of thousands of highly skilled foreign workers will be fast-tracked in a desperate effort to address staff shortages in the health, education and aged care sectors.

Some 58,000 overseas migrants will jump to the front of the queue as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government prepares to overhaul Australia's permanent migration program.

Australia currently has a massive backlog of one million unprocessed visas, according to new Home Affairs minister Clare O'Neil. Almost 58,000 of those are skilled workers seeking permanent visas, whose applications will be given top priority.

Long term changes to the revamped program will be announced later this year following a government jobs and skills summit in early September.

Visa applications of highly skilled health workers seeking a move to Australia will be fast-tracked to address staff shortages (pictured Queensland hospital workers)

The move was hailed by the minister as a 'once in a generation opportunity to step back and ask what the immigration system was for and ask whether the current system is meeting needs.'

'We've got to get the system moving again, and then we have to have the deeper conversation,' Ms O'Neil told The Australian Financial Review.

'There's a really important conversation to be had about the size and composition of the migration program.'

High priority will be given to given to applications which can fill staff shortages in teaching, health and aged care.

Applicants who can contribute to a high-skilled, high wage economy through manufacturing and science will also be considered.

'We've just come through an unprecedented period in our history where the borders were shut for almost two years,' Ms O'Neil told ABC Radio National on Wednesday.

'So, at the other end of that we have a business community and an economy that's crying out for more workers and an enormous visa backlog.'

Highly skilled foreign workers such as health care workers and teachers (pictured) will be bumped to the front of the visa application queue

Ms O'Neil blamed the massive backlog on the former Morrison government which was booted from power in May.

Of the permanent visas issued since the pandemic began in 2020, more than 80 per cent were granted to migrants already in Australia.

'What many people probably don't realise is a lot of the people who are given visas to work in Australia are actually already here, and if we continue to operate that way, of course we're not going to address the skills crisis,' Ms O'Neil added.

'So, the change is prioritising people who are offshore who are wanting to come here to work and working through those applications as quickly as we can.'

Business groups have called for Australia's annual permanent migration intake cap to be boosted by at least 40,000 skilled workers to 200,000 for the next two years to address the skills shortage.

Overseas health workers applying for a permanent visa will be given priority as Australia prepares to overhaul its permanent migration program

For now, Ms O'Neil is focused on working through the country's current annual intake 'as quickly as we can'.

'We're working as hard as we can into September and then I think we want to have a big discussion with civil society, with unions and with business about whether this migration program is actually suitable for the needs of our modern economy and what we might want to do to shift it,' she said.

Some experts have called for a much higher skilled migrant intake to fill gaps.

'It's a drop in the ocean, when we are talking about a backlog that is close to a million and we need to close to half a million workers as unemployment keeps dropping,' University of Sydney Associate Professor Anna Boucher told SBS News.

'Even if they took all of those permanent visa holders in the queue and all of the temporary visa holders - it's still nowhere near going to cover the scale of the skill shortage.'
A fired-up truckie has slammed the Victorian government as he claims they continue to refuse to negotiate with struggling transport workers.

Victorian Tippers United Treasurer Ricky Woolcock said the 150 trucks that delayed traffic across Melbourne's CBD on Wednesday morning were in a fight to keep their businesses afloat.

Mr Woolcock said tipping truck drivers were expected to work for the same rate they did before fuel prices soared through the roof earlier this year, meaning strained workers were forced to cover excess costs.

Victorian Tippers United Treasurer Ricky Woolcock (above) said the 150 trucks that blocked Melbourne highways today was the result of the government failing transport workers

On Wednesday 150 truck drivers (some pictured above) gathered to block Melbourne's West Gate Bridge by travelling just 20kmp/h from the bridge through to the city

He said that truck drivers wanted their fuel levy - the number used to calculate what a customer is charged for fuel - to be increased to keep up with rising operation costs.

'For us in the tipping industry, the government sets an hourly rate for what we get paid on government jobs, which also affects our pay at private jobs,' Mr Woolcock said.

'The government rate is currently set to allow $1.80p/L for diesel. That's fine if fuel is $1.80 or $1.90 but we're now facing costs of $2.30p/L and $2.40p/L.

'Our trucks average a litre of fuel every 2km and we average 300km to 400km everyday. While 50c may not seem like much it adds up quickly.'

The truck convoy caused a 25km-long traffic jam to protest the government's low fuel levy that forces truck driver to pay about 50c out-of-pocket for every litre of fuel they use

Mr Woolcock said the government had promised a higher fuel levy earlier this year before ceasing all negotiations with tipping truck drivers

Mr Woolcock said truck drivers had been expected to pay for the difference in fuel price out of their own pocket, with some drivers' pay cut upwards of $500 a week.

He said tip truck drivers tried to negotiate a higher levy with the government in May but were quickly shut down.

'They buried it all and stopped speaking to us,' Mr Woolcock said.

'There's been no communication at all.

'We've been patient but patience can only go so far.'

Convoy spokesperson Mr Woolcock said truckdrivers had 'been patient but patience can only go so far' in response to low fuel levy rates

On Wednesday morning, Mr Woolcock joined 150 truckie protesters driving 20km/h along Melbourne's busy West Gate Bridge during morning peak-hour traffic, causing a 25km-long traffic jam.

The trucks then continued their crawl up to Victoria's State Parliament, where some remained as others continued to circle the city.

'Fuel goes up but everyone still expects trucks to run,' Mr Woolcock said.

'We're trying to find money to cover everything from tyres to insurance while taking on this extra cost.

'The government has this mechanism (the levy) in place to help us cover costs but they're refusing to do it.'

Mr Woolcock said more than 500 tipping truck drivers who were unable to joint the convoy also went on strike on Wednesday to protest the government's low levy.
An Australian mum relived the harrowing moment when she thought she was going to die after losing 75 per cent of her body's blood while giving birth.

Jessica Walker lost 3.6 litres of blood when she suffered a life-threatening postpartum hemorrhage after giving birth to her daughter Shiloh in November 2019.

'After birthing her the midwives gave me a needle to bring out the placenta,' Ms Walker told Daily Mail Australia.

'As the placenta came out I started haemorrhaging and next minute there's 30 people in the room.'

Gold Coast mum Jessica Walker suffered a life-threatening postpartum hemorrhage and lost 3.6 litres of blood after giving birth to her daughter (pictured, Ms Walker waited 10 hours to hold her daughter Shiloh for the first time)

Ms Walker said blood was pouring out of of her and a doctor had to sit on her stomach to stop her uterus contracting as they wheeled her to emergency.

After waking from her surgery, without her baby or wife by her side, the Gold Coast mum soon realised something was wrong when her room filled with doctors and nurses with 'worried looks on their faces'.

'Everyone was screaming category 1 and when they told me I needed surgery again because the bleeding hadn't stopped, I 100 per cent thought I was going to die,' Ms Walter said.

'The surgeon went and got my wife to come and kiss me goodbye and I remember thinking 'this is it, I'm going to die'.'

'I have never been so terrified in my life ... I cried to my doctor and said 'please don't let me die'. She promised me that I wouldn't.'

After two emergency surgeries, five blood transfusions and four litres of fluid, doctors were able to stop Ms Walker's bleeding (pictured, Ms Walker with her wife and daughter)

After five blood transfusions, four litres of fluid and 10 hours of waiting, Ms Walker finally got to hold her baby.

Ms Walker said many mothers have similar birthing experiences 'where the best day of your life was also the worst day'.

The Gold Coast mum volunteers for the Australian Birth Trauma Association (ABTA) and is helping to arrange the Walk N Support fundraiser event at Broadwater Parklands on Sunday.

Although Ms Walker has rebounded from the physical pain, she said her emotional trauma is long-lasting and is often overcome by anxiety when her daughter, who is now two-years-old, is away from her for too long.

Ms Walker was unable to return to full-time work and had to swap her 'high-flying' 50-hour-a-week corporate job with a casual role.

't took me a long time to talk about it and even now it still upsets me when I share the story but I do it because I want to spread awareness, start the conversation... because trauma in labour happens,' Ms Walker said.

'The after-birth trauma really impacted me. I don't think I remember anything about the first year of my daughter's life.

'For those early weeks and months that are supposed to be crucial bonding time with my baby. All I can remember is the bad.'

Ms Walker said her physical pain has healed but the emotional and mental trauma caused by the harrowing child birth experience remains

Australasian Birth Trauma Association Founder Amy Dawes said birth-related trauma is still taboo and as a result not enough people are getting the support they require.

'We want to let mums, birthing people and families who are suffering know that birth-related trauma is real, your feelings are valid and support is available,' Ms Dawes said.

'We encourage women and support partners to reach out to us to find out more about birth-related trauma, or reach out to their healthcare provider. There is no shame in seeking help.'

National Birth Trauma Awareness Week takes place from July 17 to July 24, and culminates in a fundraising Walk N Support event on Sunday in Brisbane, Sydney, Wagga Wagga, Melbourne and Canberra.

Ms Walker hopes to raise money for the Australasian Birth Trauma Association by joining the Walk n Support for those impacted by birth trauma.

'One in 3 Australian women identify their birth as traumatic and research suggests that 10 to 20 per cent of first-time mothers may suffer major irreversible physical birth trauma,' Ms Walker wrote on her fundraiser page.

'For too long women and families have suffered in silence, but the power is in sharing our stories and using our voices so other people don't need to walk this journey alone.'

Ms Walker volunteers for the Australasian Birth Trauma Association and has joined the Walk n Support fundraiser to raise awareness for those impacted by birth trauma

So far, Ms Walker's Walk N Support fundraiser event has raised more than $1,000.

Ms Walker wants other mothers who have experienced child birth trauma to know that they are not alone.

'If any other mums go through anything like this or any trauma in child birth, please reach out to the support group who hear you, see you and understand you,' Ms Walker said.

'Its ok to feel sad or robbed of this magical experience you thought you would have.

'Its a lot and no one should have to suffer alone.'
Jacinda Ardern's gift for US president Joe Biden has been labelled 'appalling' by environmentalists who say the Prime Minister has shown a 'lack of care'.

The New Zealand leader brought the US President a swamp kauri bowl made from glazed timber harvested from trees that have been buried in peat swamps for up to 60,000 years in the country's North Island.

The head of the Northland Environmental Protection Society slammed the 'faux pas', saying Ms Ardern shouldn't have promoted the exchange of indigenous plants and the harm the extraction process causes on the ecosystem.

'To us swamp kauri, of all things for a gift to America, is really not on. It's shocking after all the work we've gone through to try and protect these wetlands that produce the swamp kauri,' chair Fiona Furrell told RNZ.

Jacinda Ardern's gift for counterpart Joe Biden has been labelled 'appalling' by environmentalists who say the Prime Minister has shown a 'lack of care'

Mr Biden was gifted a kauri bowl - a piece of wood harvested from trees that have submerged in wetlands for up to 60,000 years

The kauri trees are commonly found in wetlands and culturally important sites, which can be damaged or destroyed while they are being milled.

In 2018, A Supreme Court of New Zealand ruling, found that to be lawfully exported, a swamp kauri item must be a product in itself and in its final or kitset form and it must be ready either to be used or to be installed into a larger structure.

To make matters worse, Ms Ardern's office confirmed the government had purchased the kauri bowl through businessman Nelson Parker, who was investigated in 2019 for exporting wood products to China.

The court found Mr Parker likely broke the Forests Act in exporting a large kauri log arrangement and called it art.

He was not prosecuted because the manufacturer was originally told the kauri was compliant, despite having conducted little work to change it from raw wood.

The kauri trees are commonly found in wetlands and culturally important sites, which can be damaged or destroyed while they are being milled

Ms Furrell said Ms Ardern should be doing a lot more 'investigating' before offering such polarising gifts and that her behaviour 'wasn't moral'.

'Any use of swamp kauri that is featured by our government, therefore puts our our wetlands at risk, because people will want more swamp kauri now,' Furrell said.

'He [Biden] could make the decision himself. Perhaps it could be returned to New Zealand.'

In a response, Mr Parker said anyone who questioned the PM's gift was a 'parasite' and said it was 'rude' to question her motives.

Ms Furrell said Ms Ardern should be doing a lot more 'investigating' before offering such polarising gifts and that her behaviour 'wasn't moral'

'To think that people, somebody, can out of the goodness of their heart give a gift to somebody and then somebody comes in behind and says 'well that's wrong, it's illegal, it's immoral' or whatever they say. To me that shows you the the quality of the people actually,' he said.

'To be quite blunt, these people, they're probably listed as zero in my, my opinion, as far as I'm concerned.

'I can pretty well describe these people to you, they probably don't do anything. They're parasites. As far as I'm concerned, if they want to meddle in what we do, well, then it's not a wise thing to do.'
An Australian woman has banned her boyfriend from booking their next holiday after he planned a trip that required the use of an 'ice axe', resulting in the couple stranded on New Zealand's highest mountain.

Tourists Keenan Kulisa-Tunhla and Evelyn Loh are holed up on Aoraki/Mount Cook after -12C temperatures, heavy rains and snow closed their only routes back to Queenstown.

It is 1,500 metres taller than Mount Kosciuszko, and official advice recommends 'mountaineering experience' to reach the lodge he planned for their stay halfway up the peak.

Mr Kulisa-Tunhla planned the adventure without checking the weather and appeared unprepared for the conditions and the arduous task he inadvertently set his girlfriend.

Keenan Kulisa-Tunhla (pictured right) is not allowed to book another holiday for his girlfriend Evelyn Loh (pictured left) after his choice saw them holed up on Aoraki/Mount Cook

Ms Loh said her boyfriend was banned from ever booking a holiday for her again without properly consulting her

Aoraki/Mount Cook is New Zealand's highest mountain

The official website describes a perilous four-hour rocky, zig-zagging steep track route to Mueller Hut in the mountainous national park.

'The route requires a good level of mountaineering experience, including walking on ice and snow with ice axe and crampons, route finding and using an avalanche transceiver, probe and shovel.'

The holiday was organised to celebrate her graduation after studying biomedicine at the University of Melbourne, stuff.co.nz reported.

The picturesque lodge Mr Kulisa-Tunhla aimed for is located just 30 minutes from Mt Olliver, the first peak that Sir Edmund Hillary ever climbed.

That was before Hillary became the first person to conquer the world's highest mountain, Everest.

Ms Loh vowed he would 'absolutely not' let her boyfriend book another holiday for them because he 'didn't do [the] research'.

He admitted not checking the forecast and the pair was strongly advised against attempting the climb.

Ms Loh later said overnight camping trips to mountain huts are 'not my kind of thing'

They opted for a safer walk up Hooker Valley track, each carrying 12kg backpacks, and stayed overnight in a hut - something Ms Loh isn't keen to repeat, despite enjoying the walk.

'Its not my kind of thing,' Ms Loh told stuff.co.nz.

The couple came off the mountain and made it back to Mount Cook Village, where they are trapped at the Aoraki Court Motel.

Storms including heavy rain and snow closed all roads out of the area and despite trying to find a ride out of the freezing area via social media, Ms Loh and Mr Kulisa-Tunhla remain there.

'The bad things just keep happening,' she said.

The pair hope to get out of the national park when the roads reopen and make their way back to Queenstown before a lower altitude adventure in the spectacular Milford Sound.
The chairman of the Georgia Republican party is among GOP officials facing a criminal probe over claims they tried to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 victory.

David Shafer has been told he is one of 16 electors in the Peach State who now face possible charges for allegedly vowing to sway the last presidential election in Trump's favor.

Shafer and his unnamed fellow electors were previously told they were 'witnesses' into an ongoing probe by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

CNN reported that they've now been told they're targets of the investigation over claims they tried to undermine America's electoral college.

Under the Electoral College process, voters cast their ballots for candidates, but are actually picking a group of representatives, or electors, for those candidates.

Georgia, like most states, have a winner take all system in which the candidate who wins the popular vote, is represented by all the electors. They meet and cast their vote in the state Legislature. Those votes are given to the candidate which won the most votes.

Those elector votes are then certified by the governor and sent to Congress.

Georgia State Republican Chairman David Shafer is under investigation for fraudulently claiming to be a state elector for former president Trump

Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis filed a motion stating that there are 16 state Republicans that are under probe of the elector scheme

Former president Donald Trump was recorded on a call asking the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to 'find' enough votes to secure victory

President Joe Biden won 2,473,633 votes to Trump's 2,461,854.

Despite the close race, Biden won the state. Losing Georgia was particularly sore for Trump, as Biden's victory was the first time the state had gone Democrat since Bill Clinton won it in 1992.

Trump was infamously recorded on the phone to Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to 'find' another 11,870 votes to propel him to victory.

It is now alleged that Shafer and 15 other Republican sent phony paperwork to Congress and the archives claiming they were the electors and they had cast their vote for Trump.

'Each of the sixteen persons who signed the unofficial Elector Certificate ultimately submitted to the National Archives received a similar target letter alerting, that person both that his testimony was required by the special purpose grand jury and that he was a target of the investigation,' the Fulton County prosecutor wrote in her motion.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger heard from Trump and Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) after the elections

Because the vote was so close, the former commander-in-chief reached out to the Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who oversees the vote count, and asked him to 'find' enough votes to win the battleground state in a recorded phone call.

'I just want to find 11,780 votes,' Trump said according to a transcript of the call.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

The former president had claimed that there was widespread voter fraud in the state.

A special grand jury has been convened by the prosecutor to look into the former president's effort to overturn the result.

Georgia State Senator Burt Jones has also called on the court to disqualify Willis from her role in the case.

Attorneys representing the men filed a motion charging there was a conflict of interest because she threw her political support behind an opponent of Jones.

'The unavoidable conclusion is that the nominee electors' change of status was not precipitated by new evidence or an honestly-held belief that they have criminal exposure but instead an improper desire to force them to publicly invoke their rights as, at best, a publicity stunt,' the lawyers wrote.

In response, the District Attorney's Office said: 'Jones has done nothing to establish an actual conflict of interest in the case.'

The next hearing in the case is on July 21 and Jones is scheduled to testify before the grand jury on July 26.

The Justice Department has been investigating a plan across several other states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico to submit fake declarations of victory in order to overturn Biden's victory.

The January 6th Committee subpoenaed 14 people involved in the effort saying they had information on 'who was behind that scheme.'

'The existence of these purported alternate-elector votes was used as a justification to delay or block the certification of the election during the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,' wrote panel Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).
The speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly said former President Donald Trump called him last week to try and get the state to decertify its 2020 presidential election results.

Robin Vos, 54, claimed Trump asked him yet again to throw out Biden's 2020 victory in Wisconsin after the state ruled absentee ballot drop boxes illegal earlier this month, WISN reported.

Vos said he shot down the former president's request, and appeared unfazed after Trump blasted him on Monday in a post on his Truth Social platform, calling the state assembly leader a Republican in Name Only (RINO) who is aiding Democrats.

'It's very consistent,' Vos said as he described the calls he said he has received from Trump over the 2020 election. 'He makes his case, which I respect.

'He would like us to do something different in Wisconsin. I explained it's not allowed under the constitution,' Vos added.

'He has a different opinion, and then he put out the tweet. So that's it.'

Robin Vos, speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly (left), said former President Donald Trump asked him yet again to throw out Biden's 2020 victory in the state

Vos said he rejected the former president's request because it was against the Wisconsin constitution as Trump blasted the lawmaker on his social media platform

Trump called Vos a RINO who was helping Democrats and repeated unfounded claims that the 2020 election was rigged

The 'tweet' Vos referred to was a post Trump put out on Truth Social criticizing the Wisoncsin official for not throwing out the election results following the state's Supreme Court ruling over the ballot boxes.

'Looks like Speaker Robin Vos, a long time professional RINO always looking to guard his flank, will be doing nothing about the amazing Wisconsin Supreme Court decision,' Trump wrote.

'The Democrats would like to sincerely thank Robin, and all of his fellow RINOs, for letting them get away with 'murder.''

'A Rigged & Stolen Election,' Trump added, repeating unfounded claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

Representatives for Vos and Trump did not immediately reply to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Although Vos had previously echoed Trump's false claims that voter fraud influenced the state's 2020 presidential results, he did not move to decertify Biden's win following the state's ruling.

Last month, Wisconsin's Supreme Court banned the use of most drop boxes and said voters could not submit absentee ballots on another's behalf.

The conservative majority on the court ruled 4-3 that the boxes may be placed only in election offices and that no one other than the voter can return a ballot in person, dealing a defeat to Democrats who said the decision would make it harder to vote in the battleground state that President Biden won by a margin of just 21,000.

Last month, Wisconsin's Supreme Court banned the use of most drop boxes and said voters could not submit absentee ballots on another's behalf

Vos said that he disagreed with Trump's interpretation that the court's ruling means the 2020 absentee ballots, which tended to favor Democrats, should be thrown out.

'The court case as you read it does not go back and say what happened in 2020 was illegal,' Vos said. 'It just says going forward it can't happen.'

The president went after Vos again on Tuesday, writing in a statement, 'So what's Speaker Robin Vos doing on the Great Wisconsin Supreme Court Ruling declaring hundreds of thousands of Drop Box votes to be illegal?

'This is not a time for him to hide, but a time to act,' Trump added. 'I don't know his opponent in the upcoming Primary, but feel certain he will do well if Speaker Vos doesn't move with gusto.'

Vos, who has been in office since 2004 and speaker since 2013, faces challenger Adam Steen, who previously called Vos a ''a treasonous traitor' for parroting Trump's claims of voter fraud in 2020.
Police have raided the squalid home where little Charlie, six, was found dead in her nappy in a suspected case of criminal neglect.

Major crime detectives visited the Munno Para home in Adelaide's northern suburbs on Wednesday, with the little girl's death the subject of a major crimes investigation.

The six-year-old was found unresponsive about 1am on Friday after her mother raised the alarm, screaming: 'Charlie's not breathing!'

Detectives spoke to Charlie's mother on Wednesday morning before she left the property on foot, in a pink hoodie, to allow detectives to carry out their search.

Police have stormed the housing commission home (pictured) where little Charlie, six, was found dead in her nappy in a suspected case of criminal neglect

The six-year-old (pictured) was found unresponsive in her family's housing commission home in the early hours of Friday morning after her mother raised the alarm

Police in protective clothing and masks were seen searching the home and taking photos as protective security kept watch.

They took what appeared to be a hard-drive from a neighbouring home which had a security camera installed.

Detectives were also seen door-knocking along Charlie's street.

The girl's five siblings have been removed from the house and placed in the care of the state as the investigation continues.

The housing commission home is surrounded by overgrown grass and littered with various items including old appliances, children's toys, a tent and a mattress.

The house Charlie died in was surrounded by junk - old toys, a tent, bikes and a disused freezer

Authorities have confirmed Charlie and her family were known to at least three government agencies - including the Department of Child Protection.

In January last year, Charlie and her siblings watched their 'drug-fuelled' father stab their mother multiple times - including to the neck - at the Munno Para home.

But despite the children witnessing the horrifying attack - and their father's history of domestic violence and drug use - authorities did not remove them.

Charlie's aunt - wearing a pink hoodie with a slogan that read 'but did you die? #mumlife' - lashed out at media when she was asked how her mother was feeling.

'How do you think she's feeling? Her daughter just died in her arms! Of course she's upset,' she said outside the home on Tuesday.

One neighbour, Bec, told Daily Mail Australia the girl's mum had raised the alarm late at night and described the efforts of those who tried to save Charlie's life.

'It was about 1am and we were about to go to sleep, and we heard this banging on the door.

The grass at home was overgrown and the yard littered with kids toys and miscellaneous items

Charlie's aunt - wearing a pink hoodie with a slogan that read 'but did you die? #mumlife' - lashed out at media when she was asked how her mother was feeling

'Charlie's mum was screaming "Charlie isn't breathing!" so we raced over there.

'She was on the floor in a nappy and she was paper white ... and when I touched her she was stone cold and her eyes were open and fixated on the ceiling.

'We did everything to try and get Charlie to breathe.'

Bec's sister desperately tried to resuscitate Charlie with the pair noticing something in the girl's mouth when they rolled her onto her side.

Debris, including an old mattress, bedding, and unused rabbit hutch, were seen in the yard

The cause of Charlie's death is still unknown, but a neighbour said Charlie had something in her throat when she died (family home, pictured)

They frantically tried to clear her airway, before rolling her onto her back, and trying CPR again. Paramedics arrived soon after and worked on Charlie for half an hour.

Bec said: 'Paramedics were able get the breathing tube in after a lot of suction, but even though they managed to get air into her lungs, her heart didn't want to start.

'They pronounced her dead in hospital, but she was gone before that.'

The mother-of-five said the image of Charlie on the floor wearing a nappy, dying on the floor, paper-white and stone-cold is burned into her mind.

Bec and her sister tried to keep Charlie's siblings away from the horrific scene. They were distraught over what was happening to their sister.

When asked about the cause of death, Bec said she didn't know whether she choked to death or whether there were health issues going on that no one knew about.

However, she noted that no one saw Charlie for the last few weeks of her life because she was suffering a mystery illness - noting the girl and her siblings never looked healthy and often had head lice.

Charlie (pictured) died on the floor of her mother's house in an alleged case of criminal neglect

Charlie's dad John (pictured) stabbed his partner of 18 years several times in the neck at their Munno Paro home, the District Court heard earlier this year

Eighteen months ago, police were called to the home after Charlie's father attacked her mother, his partner of 18-years, during a fight while he was under the influence of methylamphetamine.

During a sentencing hearing in February, the court heard he had been a habitual user of the drug for many years and, after quitting, relapsed on the night of the attack.

The fight started in the bedroom before moving to the front yard, where the mother was stabbed three times.

'It (the attack) occurred in front of the house and was witnessed by at least one civilian, who had to pull the defendant away from the victim not once, but twice,' a prosecutor told the District Court.

The father was initially charged with attempted murder before pleaded guilty to the downgraded offence of causing harm with intent.

He was sentenced in March this year to five years and six months in jail with a non-parole period of three years and six months.

Four years ago, he was also sentenced for aggravated assault for slapping the same victim in the face.

Little Charlie (pictured) reportedly witnessed her dad stab her mother outside the family home 18 months before the little girl died from suspected neglect on Friday

Pictured: The front of the house Charlie died in, which has a single swing out the front

Now, investigators will probe what other interactions they had with the family in the years leading up to Charlie's death.

Charlie's uncle, who cannot be named for legal reasons, expressed disbelief about what had happened.

'It's f***ed,' he said. 'I didn't find out on Friday - I found out she died on Monday.'

SA Deputy Police Commissioner Linda Williams on Tuesday said the six-year-old's living conditions were 'poor' and said it was too early to determine if her death could have been prevented.

Acting Premier Susan Close said a government review would investigate the interactions between Charlie's family and the state's human services, child protection, education and housing agencies.
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A distraught mother slammed a Texas grand jury for refusing to indict the man who shot and killed her young daughter while chasing down a man who'd just robbed him in February.

On February 14, Arlene Alvarez was sitting in her family's car listening to music through headphones when she was shot in the head by Tony Earls, a 41-year-old who was on the street chasing down a man who had just robbed him at an ATM.

Earls was withdrawing cash when the unidentified robber approached him, pulled a gun on him and demanded that he hand over his car keys.

When the suspect started to flee, Earls - whose criminal background includes charges for prostitution, marijuana possession and tampering with government records - opened fire.

It's unconfirmed exactly how many shots he fired. The Alvarez family say he fired at least nine times. One of the bullets hit Arlene and she died in the hospital the next day.

Earls - who has a criminal record that includes charges for marijuana possession and engaging in prostitution - was charged with aggravated assault but he protested his innocence and the case was sent to a grand jury which on Tuesday, declined to prosecute him to the horror of the Alvarez family.

Arlene's mother Gwen spoke out to slam the justice system on Tuesday night, saying it sides more now with criminals than it does with victims.

'Our future is dying. What is wrong with you guys? Where is your humanity? Where is your heart? Where is your soul?' she said.

Scroll down for video

Arlene (pictured) was shot on February 15 outside of a Chase Bank after Tony Earls (right) shot at her family's vehicles after he thought his mugger had gotten into it

Arlene (pictured in the hospital) was shot in the head and was taken to the hospital, where she died a month and a half later

'It was proven [the suspect] never jumped into our vehicle, so I don't understand [Earls] innocence. He gets to see the light my daughter doesn't, my daughter is still dug down underground. He knew what he was doing, and he knew he was going to kill intentionally whoever was in that vehicle.'

Gwen Alvarez (pictured) held back tears at a press conference on Tuesday after as she said she didn't understand his 'innocence,' while her daughter laid in a grave

Earls was ultimately able to escape a possible murder or manslaughter charge because he had just fallen victim to a crime himself. Jurors ultimately agreed with his defense team's assertion that he was entitled to protect himself and his property.

'Maybe Earls wasn't accountable for his actions, but he knows with what intentions he shot at our vehicle [with], because self-defense is not more than nine shots.

'There's a lot people dying, there's a lot of children dying.

Arlene's father previously said she was wearing headphones during the shooting and didn't hear her father when he told the family to 'get down.'

'She was the only one who didn't get down. She didn't hear me,' he said earlier this year.

Alvarez said he was driving his family to Arlene's favorite restaurant when the shooting happened.

He said his instinct was to drive faster when he heard the shooting start, to get away from the scene.

Earls later called police to report the robbery and told authorities he did not know his gunfire had hit the truck.

Earls was charged with aggravated assault for the shooting, but it were dropped on Tuesday and cannot be presented again, according to Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.

'The grand jury, a random group of ordinary people in Harris County who answered their jury summons, heard the evidence in this case as presented by our prosecutors, heard all of the possible charges - from murder to manslaughter to aggravated assault to criminally-negligent homicide,' Ogg said.

Arlene's father (pictured together) previously said his daughter wearing headphones during the shooting and didn't hear him say 'get down'

Earls is shown with his attorney and his wife, Deyonna Haines. They said the shooting had 'devastated' their family too - which was of little consolation to the Alvarez family

'That grand jury also heard possible defenses.'

The DA also said that deadly force can be sometimes excused when it comes to property protection.

Earls is shown on February 17 after being charged with aggravated assault

Now, the Alvarez family is turning their attention to the aggravated and asking the community to help identify him.

'Please, help us look for this person,' Gwen ask on Tuesday.

A now $30,000 reward is being offered to help identify the 'killer,' according to ABC 13 Houston.

Earls attorneys extended their condolences to the Alvarez family, but also said they believed Earls did what 'anyone in that situation would have done.'

They also threw shade at the DA, saying in a statement: 'We also hope that the DA's office will not be so hasty in the future to charge the best available person, but rather, the most appropriate one.'

Earls' criminal record includes charges in 2018 for engaging in prostitution and marijuana possession. The 41-year-old's wife, Deyonna Haines, pleaded his innocence before the Grand Jury decision yesterday.

He was being held on a $100,000 bond which he posted at least some of before Tuesday's decision.

Deyonna said the incident had ruined both families - a statement that was of little consolation to the grieving Alvarezes.

'We understand and support the Alvarez family in their journey for justice. The lives of two families have been forever altered by the poor decisions of a man who is still on the streets,' she said.
Congress Leaders and activists stage a dharna demanding Chintakunta two bed flats should be allocated to the poor and Priority should be given to flood victims and house collapse victims. (Photo:DC)

Karimnagar: The government must allot double bedroom houses constructed in Chintakunta by giving preference to those who lost their homes in the recent heavy rains floods in the district. These houses should also be given to other shelterless poor families, city Congress president Komatireddy Narendar said here on Wednesday.

Congress leaders staged a dharna along with the flood victims in front of the collectorate here.

Narendar said around 15,000 families living without proper shelter in Karimnagar town had applied for double-bedroom houses. The government has sanctioned only 660 such houses so far, he said.

In the past five years, the construction works for the 2bhk houses in Chintakunta are going on at snails pace due to funds problem and the negligence of the local public representatives. Apart from this, the ruling TRS party leaders are ignoring the poor and shelter-less families and are trying to sell these houses to others, he alleged.

If the government does not allot the 2bhk houses in Chintakunta to the flood victims and shelterless poor families, the Congress party will seize the house of BC welfare minister Gangula Kamalakar and intensify the agitation, he warned.

Congress leaders Samad Nawab, Md Taaz, Shravan Naik, Srinivas Reddy, Abdul Rehaman, Vilas, Nihal Ahmed, Babu, Narasaiah, Tirupati, Salimuddin, Arun Kumar, Kamruddin, Shabana, Md Chand, Ravinder, Satyanarayan Reddy, Bhaskar and Raj Kumar were present.
A gunman drove his car into his ex-girlfriend's family as they walked near Glacier National Park before opening fire on the group, killing a 39-year-old man and his 18-month-old daughter.

Derick Amos Madden, 37, of Goldsby, Oklahoma, purposefully drove his vehicle into his ex-girlfriend Christina Siau, 30, and her family as they were walking along a roadway in the small town of East Glacier Park, northwestern Montana on Sunday night.

After crashing his vehicle into a tree, Madden, who has mental health issues, began shooting at the group and shot and killed David Siau, 39, of Syracuse, New York, instantly.

Madden continued to shoot at the family, who were on vacation in East Glacier, as they frantically tried to run away from the line of fire and fatally wounded David's 18-month-old daughter McKenzie.

The young girl was being cradled in her mother Christy Siau's arms as she desperately tried to run away and protect her daughter. Christy, 40, was wounded in the attack. Christy and David had just celebrated their 10 year wedding anniversary last month.

David Siau, 39, of Syracuse, New York, (left) and his 18-month-old daughter McKenzie (right on her mother's lap) were shot and killed by his sister's ex-boyfriend on Sunday night. His wife Christy (right), who was holding McKenzie as she ran away from the gunfire was critically injured in the attack. David and Christy's two other children (pictured) were able to run away and were unharmed

Derick Amos Madden, 37, of Goldsby, Oklahoma, purposefully drove his vehicle into his ex-girlfriend Christina Siau, 30, (pictured) and her family as they were walking along a roadway in the small town of East Glacier Park, northwestern Montana on Sunday night. He shot dead her brother and 18-month-old niece before she was able to kill him despite being critically wounded

After running out of ammunition, Madden used a knife to attack and critically wound his ex-girlfriend Christina. But she fought back and fatally wounded Madden, who died at the scene, Glacier County Sheriff's Office said.

Christy and David's two other young children were present at the scene but they were able to run away and escape injury.

Christina Siau was originally from New York and had been living in East Glacier, where her family was visiting, Jody Hickey, a spokesperson for Glacier County Sheriff Vernon 'Napi' Billedeaux, said.

McKenzie Siau was later pronounced dead at the Indian Health Service hospital in Browning. Christy and Christina Siau were flown to a hospital with critical injuries.

Authorities were still trying to determine if Madden, originally of Goldsby, Oklahoma, had the shotgun legally.

The sheriff's office described it as an 'isolated...incident with a clear nexus between the victims and Madden' and said the investigation was continuing. It was not clear what provoked Sunday's attack beyond the prior relationship between Madden and Christina Siau.

Local authorities did not know of any previous interactions that Madden had with law enforcement.

Pictured: David (left), his wife Christie who is seen holding McKenzie and their two other children. David and McKenzie were shot and killed in the attack

Derick Amos Madden, 37, of Goldsby, Oklahoma, purposefully drove his vehicle into his ex-girlfriend Christina Siau, 30, and her family as they were walking along a roadway in the small town of East Glacier Park, northwestern Montana on Sunday night (file image)

After crashing his vehicle into a tree, Madden, who has mental health issues, began shooting at the group and shot and killed David Siau, 39, of Syracuse, New York, instantly. David is pictured with his wife Christy, who was injured in the attack

Madden had been working recently in East Glacier, a tourist town and gateway to the mountains in Glacier National Park, according to Hickey.

Christy Siau was a former book keeper for the American Baptist Churches of New York State, according to a social media postings by the organization. She was described as 'a long time and beloved member' of the organization's staff in a statement from Executive Minister Rev. James Kelsey.

Derick Amos Madden, 37, of Goldsby, Oklahoma, purposefully drove his vehicle into his ex-girlfriend Christina Siau, 30, and her family as they were walking along a roadway in the small town of East Glacier Park, northwestern Montana on Sunday night (file image)

Christy and David Siau were also active in the First Baptist Church of Hoosick Falls, New York, Kelsey said.
A fake medical doctor who issued thousands of bogus exemptions for people to dodge COVID-19 tests, vaccinations and face masks has been fined $25,000.

Maria Carmela Pau, who pocketed more than $120,000 during the bogus certificate scam, pleaded guilty to masquerading as a medical doctor in Southport Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

The 45-year-old handed out more than 1200 counterfeit medical exemptions for people to avoid mandatory COVID restrictions in place during the early wave of the global pandemic. She charged for each exemption.

The court was told Pau had shown no remorse and remained defiant against COVID-19 health advice, urging people to 'end the tyranny' of mandatory restrictions.

Maria Pau had shown 'no remorse' and remained defiant about Covid-19 health advice, the Gold Coast's Southport Magistrates Court heard

Defence barrister Greg McGuire said Pau held a doctorate of professional studies and a master's degree in public heath and was entitled to call herself a doctor.

She also studied psychology for a number of years, treating patients as a counsellor for addiction.

'The question is whether people believed she was a qualified medical doctor,' Mr McGuire said.

'She was knowledgable and clearly passionate about the issue and believed she had the power to issue the exemption - she was not Sally Smith office worker making these claims.'

Mr McGuire called for a 'level head', telling the court Pau had been deeply distressed and had been hospitalised for three days at the height of the ordeal.

She had been publicly humiliated, her business had been destroyed and she was unable to find work, he said.

'This was a lady motivated solely by trying to help people who may well have been desperate,' he said.

'She was motivated by good intentions.'

The 45-year-old has an extensive social media presence in which she claims her charity is 'multi-award winning'

While prosecutor Donn Reid said a period of imprisonment was not out of the question, Mr McGuire called for Pau to be handed a fine.

Acting magistrate Mark Bamberry said Pau was clearly an educated woman, but the restrictions had been put in place to protect the greater Queensland community during the deadly pandemic.

'She has turned a blind eye (to that) and went off on her own crusade,' Mr Bamberry said.

He acknowledged Pau's career had been 'decimated', but said she had only herself to blame and the sentence must stand as a significant deterrent.

'The Queensland community must be protected,' Mr Bamberry said.

Pau faced a possible $60,000 fine and three years' imprisonment for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency offences.

Instead she was fined $25,000, with no conviction recorded.

Pau refused to comment on the fine outside court.
BY KEVIN AIRS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

New data shows Covid cases in Singapore and New Zealand have overtaken Australia in the latest Omicron wave despite ultra-strict mask mandates.

Masks are worn everywhere in the densely-populated Asian city while New Zealanders are forced to wear them in all indoor public places, such as shopping centres and libraries.

But both now have higher case numbers per million than Australia, where compulsory mask rules have been abandoned in most indoor settings.

These figures appear to smash the push now on in Australia for a return to mask mandates, which are currently compulsory only on public transport and in aged care and healthcare centres.

Since Australian mandates began to ease last October, per capita case numbers in Singapore exceeded, matched or lagged behind Australia, before rising ahead again.

In New Zealand, case numbers were six weeks behind Australia's Omicron wave in January, but since February they have matched or exceeded Australia.

Death rates in New Zealand also overtook Australia per capita at the start of March, despite the Kiwis being on the highest code red mask mandate restrictions - and have stayed higher ever since.

In New Zealand, case numbers were six weeks behind the peak of Australia's Omicron wave in January but since late February they have matched or exceeded its Tasman neighbour

Since Australian mandates began to ease last October, Singapore's case numbers per capita exceeded, matched or lagged behind before overtaking Australia's again

Death rates in New Zealand overtook Australia per capita at the start of March while the country was still at code red for mask mandates and have stayed higher ever since

In Singapore, death rates in the city dropped lower in April after racing ahead between October and Christmas, but are now surging wildly again and set to overtake Australia once more

In Singapore, death rates dropped below Australia in April after racing ahead between October and Christmas, but are now surging wildly and are set to overtake Australia once more.

The Singapore findings were shared on Twitter by Australian National University infectious diseases professor Peter Collignon as debate rages on the need for masks.

The post, originally made by a Singapore resident, added: 'Singapore has never dropped its mask mandates. Masks are required indoors at all times.

'Australians aren't wearing masks much at all. Let's compare the data.'

Next to a graph of the statistics, he added: 'It doesn't matter.'

The data has been revealed as Victorian children over the age of eight are now asked to wear a mask in classrooms until the end of winter amid a spike in cases.

The state government has insisted the new advice is not a mask mandate, with students encouraged to wear a mask indoors and on public transport.

Parents have described the new rules as a 'mandate by stealth' but former Labor Leader Bill Shorten said kids should be encouraged to wear masks where possible.

'We've had 300 days of home-schooling, and the schools closed,' he told Karl Stefanovic during an appearance on the Today Show on Tuesday morning.

'To me it's a no-brainer, do you want your child sick at home or do you want them running around wearing a mask?' the father of one said.

NSW and Victorian health ministers have both so far resisted the growing calls for a return to mask mandates, but critics say the looming state elections in October and November are the main reason behind any delay in bringing them back.

The new data shatters the case for mask mandates to return to Australia, pictured, where they are now only compulsory on public transport and in aged care, medical and remand centres

The new figures come as it was revealed the median age of those dying from Covid in Australia is now 83 years old, the same age as the nation's average life expectancy.

The federal health department's latest Covid report explodes the myths being used to drive Australian authorities to re-introduce mask mandates and continue having Covid cases isolate for seven days.

The data comes as St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney said they have just 'one or two' patients in ICU - with top doctors confirming the winter wave is far less severe than those to have previously hit Australia.

'We certainly don't have many,' confirmed a hospital spokesman on Monday.

'It's not presenting so much on the very acute side, where patients need ventilation.'

The vast majority of those who have caught Covid are under 50, with 3,121,953 cases so far. Just 293 people under 50 have died of the virus since the pandemic began.

The statistics show that since Australia's mass vaccination rollout began, those under 50 face a less than one in 10,000 chance of dying from Covid.

'The median age of all those infected is 31 ... [but] the median age of those who died is 83,' the latest federal health department 'Coronavirus At A Glance' report states.

Australia's average life expectancy is 82.9 years of age.

Most killed by Covid were men over 70 and women over 80, accounting for 7,585 deaths out of the nation's total virus death toll of 10,582 as of 3pm on Friday.

The vast majority of those who have caught Covid are under 50, with 3,121,953 cases so far but just 293 of that age have died of the virus since the pandemic began. Most killed by Covid were men over 70 and women over 80, accounting for 7,585 deaths out of the nation's total virus death toll of 10,582, up to 3pm last Friday

And even if Covid breaks out among elderly frail residents in aged care centres, more than 95 per cent of those infected will survive.

Of the 63,875 who caught Covid in Australian aged care centres, 60,771 recovered, with less than 1 in 20 of infected residents dying, for a tragic toll of 3,104.

NSW Premier Dom Perrottet admitted on Monday that the current flu wave was now a bigger threat than Covid.

'At the moment, the current strand of influenza is more severe than the current strands of COVID,' he told 2GB.

'As we move through the next phase of the pandemic, we need to balance up the competing health issues.'

The official figures come as pressure grows for a return to compulsory masks ahead of a feared new outbreak of the virulent new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

Doomsday modelling by the Burnet Institute for the NSW government last year said the state's health system could cope with up to 947 Covid patients in ICU.

But NSW currently has just 64 Covid cases in ICU across the state with only 13 on ventilators, according to NSW Health.

The stats have also destroyed claims that Omicron is super-infectious, with infection rates staying constant all year long.

Australia's Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 outbreak, which started in January, coincided with the end of most mask mandates and lockdown restrictions.

Omicron BA.2's R0 - the number of people one person can infect without restrictions - is said to be around 13.3.

But the Re - the effective rate of infection - has stayed around 1 or less since the middle of January, after a brief spike to 2.0 for a couple of days after New Year.

The government's mass double-jab vaccination program, taken up by 95 per cent of the population, has played a huge part in controlling the spread of the virus.

But the subsequent third booster shot program has been less successful , with just a 71 per cent take up, as work now starts on encouraging a fourth jab.
A father will serve five years behind bars after his nine-month-old daughter drowned in a bath while he smoked a cigarette and browsed Facebook.

Daniel James Gallagher pled guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced for 'negligent killing' after his baby Leah Jayde died at their Hervey Bay home on the central Queensland coast on April 2 last year.

The Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday heard Gallagher put his daughter in the bath with the water running and left her unsupervised to attend an electrical fault in the house.

Daniel James Gallagher (left) was sentenced to five years in jail for his involvement in the death of his nine-month baby girl Leah (right). The 27-year-old left Leah unattended in the bath with the water running while smoking a cigarette and browsing Facebook

The court heard the 27-year-old smoked a cigarette and used his phone to browse Facebook before he returned to find his daughter 'floating face down,' Courier Mail reported.

Gallagher called emergency services and attempted CPR before paramedics arrived at the home and tried to resuscitate little Leah.

The nine-month-old was taken to Hervey Bay Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Crown prosecutor Chris Cook estimated Gallagher had left his daughter unattended for about seven minutes.

'This was more than inattention  his actions caused an entirely avoidable death,' Mr Cook said.

Brisbane Supreme Court heard Gallagher (left) called emergency services and attempted CPR on Leah (right) until paramedics arrived to their Hervey Bay home, a coastal city north of the Sunshine Coast

'The victim impact here is of course extreme.'

The court heard a similar incident took place days before the baby's death when Leah's mum went to the home and allegedly found Leah unattended in the bath while Gallagher was smoking.

Barrister Andrew Hoare said Mr Gallagher failed to acknowledge the risk of his actions but was sincerely remorseful.

'My client will always have the guilt of his conduct,' Mr Hoare said.

'My client has appreciated that his conduct won't just have an effect to him but  to everyone who loved his daughter.'

Justice Peter Applegarth said the incident which happened a few days prior to Leah's tragic death should have served as a wake-up call to Gallagher.

Justice Applegarth described the victim impact statement given my Leah's mother as 'profoundly moving'.

The devastated mother said she had been robbed of her daughter's life and experienced 'great pain and physiological damage'.

Gallagher was sentenced to five years jail to be suspended after 15 months.
Sanitation mats will be rolled out at international airports in an effort to stop foot and mouth disease entering Australia.

It's the latest measure by the federal government to prevent an outbreak of the livestock disease on Australian shores.

Indonesia has been grappling with the spread of the disease which was recently detected in Bali, a popular holiday destination for Australian travellers.

If allowed to spread in Australia, the disease is predicted to cause an $80 billion hit to the economy over ten years.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said the mats would add another layer of defence against an outbreak.

But Australians returning from the region should still clean their shoes and clothing, or leave their footwear overseas if possible, he said.

'There is no biosecurity silver bullet,' Senator Watt said in a statement on Wednesday.

'Our biosecurity controls rely on a multi-layered approach to mitigate the risk of FMD (foot and mouth disease).'

Agricultural Minister Murray Watts said the sanitation mats would be an extra layer of defence to stop foot and mouth disease coming to Australia

Thousands of Aussies are coming back from Bali every week, heightening the risk of foot and mouth disease

The mats will be rolled out this week, starting at Darwin and Cairns airports.

They are intended to be a physical reminder to travellers about the risk of the disease, Senator Watt said.

Travellers arriving in Australia from Indonesia will be asked to walk across the mats to sanitise their shoes.

The mats contain a citric acid solution, designed to dislodge any dirt from the sole of the shoe and cover it in the acid.

The mats will dissolve any dirt remaining in travellers' shoes

Other biosecurity measures include passenger declarations, profiling of all travellers entering from Indonesia, real time risk assessments, questioning and shoe cleaning.

A $14 million biosecurity package was announced by the government last week for more frontline defences in airports and mail centres as well as support for Indonesia and neighbouring countries to combat the spread.

Senator Watt is set to meet with his state and territory counterparts for the first joint meeting in eight months to discuss further measures.
A Sydney hospital attempted to 'clean up' its overcrowded hallways by hiding mentally ill patients during a surprise appearance from the NSW Premier.

Dominic Perrottet arrived at Westmead Hospital on Tuesday afternoon to speak with staff - prompting management to make last minute arrangements to 'pretty things up' before he made a public address.

An internal email from the hospital saw a staff member request a registered nurse from Cumberland Hospital to manage a number of mental health patients, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The nurse was to be specifically used to 'move the patients'.

A Sydney hospital attempted to 'clean up' its overcrowded hallways by hiding mentally ill patients during a surprise appearance from NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet on Tuesday

'They (the hospital) did a bit of cleaning up beforehand  There are patients being treated in corridors and on the floor,' a source told the publication.

'One of the big areas where that happens is mental health admissions who haven't been taken to Cumberland Hospital.'

The source claims senior staff quickly told workers to move mentally ill patients out of the emergency department after Mr Perrottet made his impromptu appearance.

The area is reportedly constantly full of mentally ill patients waiting for a transfer to nearby facilities, including Cumberland, with some forced to sleep on the floor.

Westmead management was forced to make last-minute arrangements to 'pretty things up' by moving mentally ill patients out of its crowded hallways - according to a hospital source

One Westmead staff member said they were told of the Premier's arrival briefly before he showed up - but by that stage the mentally ill patients had been moved from the area.

'It looks like, to pretty things up, they were (moved),' they said,

'If this was the solution, I don't know why it wasn't used before.'

The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association confirmed a letter had been sent from Westmead to Cumberland requesting a nurse help transfer patients

The internal email from Westmead to Cumberland was confirmed by NSW Nurses and Midwives Association member Nick Howson.

'We were asked if we could provide a mental health-trained nurse to go up to ED  to manage the large number of mental health patients at Westmead,' he said.

'They were specifically going to move the patients...'

A spokesman for the Western Sydney Local Health District said the move was part of 'daily patient flow' and 'no patients were moved or treated differently in any way before or during the visit'.
Viral fragments of foot and mouth disease and African swine fever have been detected in pork products at a Melbourne retailer.

Australia remains free of the diseases as the live virus was not detected, but Agriculture Minister Murray Watt reiterated the importance of biosecurity measures.

The products, believed to be imported from China, were detected in the Melbourne CBD as part of routine surveillance and have been seized.

It's the first time viral fragments have been detected in a retail setting, Senator Watt said.

'This is not the first time in Australian history that we have picked up foot and mouth disease viral fragments in meat products - it's happened a number of other times in airport settings,' he told reporters in Brisbane.

'At one level, these detections are very disturbing, but on another level, they show our borders are strong and our systems are working.

'I want to assure people that our systems have worked, we have monitored this, we have undertaken surveillance operations and these products have been found, tested and now seized.'

Agricultural Minister Murray Watts said the products were seized because authorities were conducting routine surveillance

Further investigations about how the products entered Australia was being taken and it was likely prosecutions would occur, Senator Watt said.

'If you do the wrong thing, you will be caught. If you try to bring products into the country without declaring them you will be caught,' he said.

'If you try to bring or post products into the country, you will be caught and we will take action.'

Thousands of Aussies are coming back from Bali every week, heightening the risk of foot and mouth disease

The detection comes as sanitation mats will be rolled out at international airports in an effort to stop foot and mouth disease entering Australia on traveller's shoes.

It's the latest measure by the federal government to prevent an outbreak of the livestock disease on Australian shores.

Indonesia has been grappling with the spread of the disease which was recently detected in Bali, a popular holiday destination for Australian travellers.

If allowed to spread in Australia, the disease is predicted to cause an $80 billion hit to the economy over ten years.

Senator Watt said the mats would add another layer of defence against an outbreak.

But Australians returning from the region should still clean their shoes and clothing, or leave their footwear overseas if possible, he said.

'There's no silver bullet when it comes to biosecurity, none of these measures will work on their own,' Senator Watt said.

'It is a shared responsibility and again, we do need people to take their share of responsibility.'

The mats will be rolled out this week, starting at Darwin and Cairns airports.

The mats will dissolve any dirt remaining in travellers' shoes

They are intended to be a physical reminder to travellers about the risk of the disease, Senator Watt said.

Travellers arriving in Australia from Indonesia will be asked to walk across the mats to sanitise their shoes.

The mats contain a citric acid solution, designed to dislodge any dirt from the sole of the shoe and cover it in the acid.

Other biosecurity measures include passenger declarations, profiling of all travellers entering from Indonesia, real time risk assessments, questioning and shoe cleaning.

A $14 million biosecurity package was announced by the government last week for more frontline defences in airports and mail centres as well as support for Indonesia and neighbouring countries to combat the spread.

Senator Watt is set to meet with his state and territory counterparts for the first joint meeting in eight months to discuss further measures.


Australia is scrambling to prevent the biosecurity and economic disaster of a foot and mouth outbreak from hitching a ride on hundreds of travellers returning home from Bali every day.

An outbreak could cost the economy up to $80billion and affect most Australians by raising the prices of everything from a morning coffee to a takeaway burger and the weekly grocery shop.

The warning comes as viral fragments of foot and mouth disease and African swine fever were detected in pork products at a Melbourne retailer.

Australia remains free of the diseases as the live virus was not detected, but Agriculture Minister Murray Watt reiterated the importance of biosecurity measures.

The products, believed to be imported from China, were detected in the Melbourne CBD as part of routine surveillance and have been seized.

It's the first time viral fragments have been detected in a retail setting, Senator Watt said.

The detection comes as sanitation mats will be rolled out at international airports in an effort to stop foot and mouth disease entering Australia on traveller's shoes.

It's the latest measure by the federal government to prevent an outbreak of the livestock disease on Australian shores.

Indonesia has been grappling with the spread of the disease which was recently detected in Bali, a popular holiday destination for Australian travellers.

Australia is scrambling to prevent the biosecurity and economic disaster of a foot and mouth outbreak from hitching a ride on thousands of travellers returning home from Bali every day

What a foot and mouth outbreak would mean for consumers The Cattle Council of Australia (CCA) has urged Bali travellers to think about the impact a foot and mouth disease outbreak would have on their friends, family and community. 'Red meat products would disappear faster than during the COVID-19 lockdowns,' CCA CEO John McGoverne said. 'Red meat would run out quickly and dairy products would follow soon after. 'This could mean no steak, no flat whites and no ice cream until we start the recovery. 'Even when we could start supplying the local market again, it would be a slow return with big shortages.' Advertisement

Foot and mouth disease, a highly contagious disease affecting cattle, sheep and pigs has been confirmed in Bali

Returning Aussies who match the risk profile will be questioned, checked by detector dogs and have their shoes and luggage decontaminated

The Cattle Council of Australia said biosecurity measures introduced are 'a good start' but need to take into account the disease can also travel on clothes

Watt said the mats would add another layer of defence against an outbreak.

But Australians returning from the region should still clean their shoes and clothing, or leave their footwear overseas if possible, he said.

'There is no biosecurity silver bullet,' Senator Watt said in a statement on Wednesday.

'Our biosecurity controls rely on a multi-layered approach to mitigate the risk of FMD (foot and mouth disease).'

The mats will be rolled out this week, starting at Darwin and Cairns airports.

They are intended to be a physical reminder to travellers about the risk of the disease, Senator Watt said.

Travellers arriving in Australia from Indonesia will be asked to walk across the mats to sanitise their shoes.

The mats contain a citric acid solution, designed to dislodge any dirt from the sole of the shoe and cover it in the acid.

Other biosecurity measures include passenger declarations, profiling of all travellers entering from Indonesia, real time risk assessments, questioning and shoe cleaning.

A $14 million biosecurity package was announced by the government last week for more frontline defences in airports and mail centres as well as support for Indonesia and neighbouring countries to combat the spread.

But there has already been criticism the measures don't go far enough, with calls for travellers to face severe consequences for not telling the truth on travel documents.

One of the main measures includes 18 new biosecurity officers to be stationed at Australian airports and mail centres and biosecurity detector dogs reintroduced to Darwin and Cairns airports.

Nationals leader David Littleproud claimed there is a 'one in five chance' of the disease making it into Australia at present.

He told Daily Mail Australia the Labor government had 'taken too long' with its response and 'they need to go further'.

'The Government must fast track the $20 million provided in the budget for traceability and a gene bank for livestock.'

He also called for '3D X-ray scanners at airports for baggage' to urgently be installed.

The Cattle Council of Australia said biosecurity measures introduced are 'a good start' but need to take into account the disease can also travel on clothes.

'This disease would gut our industry and can easily travel back to Australia on clothing,' CCA President Lloyd Hick said.

The CCA noted the maximum fines for not declaring banned items are up to $1.1 million and 10 years in jail.

But it said on-the-spot fines need to be urgently increased and called for tough penalties for travellers who make false declarations.

'The Government should also review its on-the-spot fines that are capped at $2,660.

'Sometimes fines of a few hundred dollars are issued, but the risk to our industry and Australian economy is in the billions.

'This is a massive imbalance, particularly when someone has deliberately made a false declaration.

'Immigration should also look at cancelling visas for people who make false biosecurity declarations.'

The Cattle Council has warned a foot and mouth disease outbreak could see ice cream and our morning coffee disappear because milk production would stop as humans can catch the disease from drinking milk

The scale of the biosecurity emergency is huge, with hundreds of Australians flying into Bali every day for a break from the cold Down Under.

On Thursday and Friday, a total of 32 flights landed in Australia from Bali, according to Mr Littleproud.

A Melbourne airport spokeswoman confirmed 686 passengers arrived from Bali on Thursday, and 1050 departed for the island destination.

A Brisbane airport spokesman 23,376 people, travelled to Bali between June 10 and July 10.

National Farmers' Federation CEO Tony Mahar said an outbreak would bring every industry involving cattle, sheep or pigs to a 'grinding halt'.

Calls are growing for an immediate travel ban to Bali, or at least Covid-level restrictions on travellers amid the FMD on the popular island

North Queensland senator Susan McDonald says people returning from a holiday Bali should undergo a week's quarantine to minimise the chances of the highly infectious disease entering Australia

'If FMD arrived in Australia we will first have to assess the outbreak and how far it has spread and this could mean immediate livestock standstills to prevent further spread. This will bring the supply chains to a grinding halt and if livestock can't leave the farm, then meat can't get to supermarket shelves,' Mr Mahar said.

'In the worst case scenario it could drastically reduce the availability of chops and snags for the barbecue and meat for your burger, but more than that, all the people along the supply chain will have their livelihoods in the hanging in the balance  farmers, truck drivers, processors, the list goes on.'

Earlier this week one grazier from southern NSW called for 'an immediate ban' to any travel to or from Bali.

'The cost to Australia if foot and mouth disease enters Australia is such that an immediate ban on travel to and from Bali and any other parts of Indonesia where the disease is present, is necessary and a very small price to pay to reduce the risk to Australia,' said farmer Charles Harvey on Twitter.

North Queensland senator Susan McDonald said people returning from a holiday in Bali should undergo a week's quarantine to minimise the chances of the highly infectious disease entering Australia.

She said the likely impacts on animals, consumers and farmers were of 'biblical proportions.'

'They might think about 'I haven't been on a farm,' but what we're saying is in Bali you have contact with animals and people who work with animals,' she said.

People could easily bring the disease in on their shoes or on the bottom of a suitcase if either touch animal faeces.

Ms McDonald was joined by columnist and fiancee of former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce Vikkie Campion, who called for empty Covid quarantine facilities around Australia to be used to keep FMD out.

'Everyone back from Bali should get a bonus 28 hours in the brand new Wellcamp quarantine station, which the Queensland Labor State Government opened just in time for Covid quarantine measures to end,' she wrote in The Saturday Telegraph.

'If you can slam Australian borders shut for a disease we already had, you can justify stricter controls for a highly contagious virus wearing an $80billion price tag.'

Sydney University professor Michael Ward said foot and mouth disease is 'remarkable' for how it survives and spreads.

'It can persist on many inanimate objects, such as equipment used with livestock, people's clothing and shoes, on the tyres of vehicles and in livestock transport,' he said.

'It can even remain infectious on the hands and within noses of those in contact with infected livestock.'

The disease, which cost the British economy $19billion in 2001, led to apocalyptic scenes of over six million cattle carcasses being burned on 2000 farms.

What is foot and mouth disease? It is a highly infectious and contagious 'zoonotic' disease that infects cattle, sheep, pigs, goat and deer with blisters, they also drool and limp

The meat of infected animals is not safe to eat

Exports from any country with infection are banned

Milk production stops as humans can catch the disease from drinking milk

Healthy animals must be killed and burned inside a quarantine zone

The disease was detected in Indonesia in May 2022 and has spread to Bali

People can spread the disease from contact with animals including on shoes, thongs and luggage

The estimated threat to the Australian economy is $80billion

Over six million cattle had to be destroyed during an outbreak in the UK in 2001 Advertisement

Foot and mouth disease is understood to be at least as contagious as the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

Although the disease is in theory transmissible to humans - especially from drinking milk - that is rare

Heartbreakingly, farmers could be ordered to destroy even healthy animals inside declared quarantine zones and burn their carcasses.

That's because it is extremely contagious and difficult to control and requires a vaccination program with vaccines matched to specific strains of the disease.

Another farmer, Catherine Marriott, the CEO of Riverine Plains, begged travellers to 'leave your clothes and your shoes over there'.

'Support their local economies, buy clothes [and shoes] over there and leave them over there.

There has not been an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Australia for 130 years.
The barrister representing a mum accused of using a fake Covid vaccine certificate to work at a school has blown up in court, blasting the police for its 'outrageous' raid.

Jeanette Catherine Jeske, 55, spent the night behind bars after she was arrested by elite 'Raptor' strike force officers at her Merrylands home in Sydney's west at about 8.30am on Tuesday.

Ms Jeske, who is the mum of alleged Alameddine crime clan member Trent Jeske, was accused of handing over the fraudulent certificate to a primary school where she worked as an administrative manager last October.

She faced Fairfield Local Court on Wednesday wearing a Nike puffer jacket and stared at the floor as her lawyer fought to get her freed on bail.

Her barrister, Winston Terracini SC, said she intended to plead not guilty, blasting her treatment by police.

Ms Jeske was filmed being dragged from her home in handcuffs by heavily-armed officers.

'This has got to stop, we were threatened by these hooligans,' he told the court.

'They trashed our house after they searched it and videoed us being arrested.'

Mr Terracini said the charges against the mum were 'outrageous' and 'made-up'.

Jeanette Jeske faced Fairfield Local Court on Wednesday after being accused of using a fake Covid vax certificate

Jeanette Catherine Jeske, 55, who is the mother to alleged Alameddine crime clan member Trent Jeske, (pictured together) was arrested on Tuesday

Ms Jeske was charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, dealing with property proceeds of crime less than $100,000, and participating in a criminal group contributing criminal activity.

Police allege she received the fake vaccine certificate through her connections to the crime group, which was uncovered during police investigations into the Alameddine's alleged drug syndicate.

She was was dragged out of her home in handcuffs in Merrylands, in Sydney's west at about 8.30am on Tuesday

Ms Jeske was granted bail and will face court in September

Footage showed Raptor Tactical officers armed with a battering ram banging on the door of Ms Jeske's home on Tuesday morning.

Moments later she was dragged out of the home in handcuffs as she tried to cover her head with her Nike jacket.

While on bail, Ms Jeske must be of good behaviour, stay at her address, attend Merrylands Police Station weekly, not go within 1km of an airport and not contact certain people.

She will have to hand over $20,000 if she breaches any of her bail conditions.

During the raid of Ms Jeske's home on Tuesday, police seized cash, documentation and electronic items, which will all be examined.

Elite Raptor Tactical officers barged their way into the home to arrest Ms Jeske, who allegedly used a fraudulent Covid vaccine certificate to work at a school

Ms Jeske will next appear in Mount Druitt Local Court on September 14.

Her son Trent, an alleged member of the Alameddine crime group, also appeared in the same court on Wednesday over charges related to his alleged involvement in the network.

The 25-year-old will next appear before Fairfield Local Court on September 14.

He was one of eighteen men arrested back in May, with cops dragging him out of his home in footy shorts.

Jeske was able to lose a lot of weight after having lap band surgery ealier this year, which involves putting a ring around the top part of the stomach.
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Harrowing images depicting the rampant drug addiction that has blighted thousands of Afghan families after years of conflict and the resurgence of the Taliban have emerged, in what is a stark reminder of the turmoil faced by the nation's long-suffering citizens.

A sea of people strung out on heroin, opium and meth were pictured strewn over a hillside overlooking Kabul, some scraping by in makeshift tents with many more simply lying in the dirt.

Hordes of dogs are seen skulking around to share in the drugs, with bodies of overdosed humans and hounds often found sprawled amid the stinking rubbish.

Drug addiction has long been a problem in Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of opium and heroin and now a major source of meth, but spiralling poverty and decades of war have turned millions more to drugs in recent years.

Since the total collapse of the country's economy following the seizure of power by the Taliban in August last year and the subsequent halt of international financing, families that were once able to get by have found their livelihoods cut off, leaving many barely able to afford food.

As a result, more and more people each day turn to drugs to escape their crushing problems, and the capital Kabul is now infested with addicts living in parks and sewage drains, under bridges and on open hillsides.

An Afghan drug addict smokes heroin on the edge of a hill in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan,Tuesday, June 7, 2022

An Afghan drug addict gives heroin to an addicted dog in a small camp on the outskirts of Kabul. The bodies of overdosed humans and dogs are strewn throughout Kabul amid the rubbish

An Afghan drug addict smokes heroin on the edge of a hill in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, June 9, 2022. Drug addiction has long been a problem in Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of opium and heroin

An Afghan searches for his drug addicted brother among other addicts under a bridge in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Addicted dogs sit among the hundreds of Afghans addicts who gather on the edge of a hill to consume drugs, mostly heroin and methamphetamines in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Afghans drug addicts gather under a bridge to smoke heroin, as the addicted and hungover dogs have fallen on the ground, in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, June 7, 2022

The ranks of the addicted have been fueled by persistent poverty and by decades of war that left few families unscarred

A 2015 survey by the U.N. estimated that up to 2.3 million people had used drugs that year, which would have amounted to around 5 per cent of the population at the time.

Now seven years later, the number is not known but it is believed to have increased dramatically, according to the head of the Drug Demand Reduction Department, Dr. Zalmel, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

The Taliban, who seized power nearly a year ago, have launched an aggressive campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation.

At the same time, they inherited the ousted, internationally backed government's policy of rounding up addicts and forcing them into camps.

On two nights earlier this summer, Taliban fighters stormed two areas where addicts gather in Kabul - one on a hillside and another under a bridge. In total, they collected some 1,500 people, according to officials in charge of registering them.

They were herded into trucks and cars and taken to the Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment, a former U.S. military base that in 2016 was converted into a drug treatment centre and the biggest of a number of addict treatment camps around Kabul.

There, the addicts were shaved and kept in barracks for 45 days. They receive no treatment or medication as they go through withdrawal.

Since the Taliban seizure of power, the international funding on which the Afghan government relied has been cut off, so the camp barely has enough funding to feed its inmate-patients.

But the camps do little to break addiction.

A drug addict detained during a Taliban raid is shaved at a drug treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, May 31, 2022

An Afghan drug addict smokes heroin on the edge of a hill in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan,Thursday, June 9, 2022

Hundreds of Afghans addicts gather under a bridge to consume drugs, mostly heroin and methamphetamines in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan,Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Hundreds of Afghans addicts gather under a bridge to consume drugs in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan

Kabul is now infested with addicts living in parks and sewage drains, under bridges and on open hillsides

Taliban fighters look for drug addicts hiding in the rubbish to detain and move them to a drug treatment camp, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, June 1, 2022

A week after the raids, AP reporter Ebrahim Noroozi went back to both locations and said both were once again full of hundreds of people.

At one notorious drug hangout on the hill, a man was seen picking his way through the crowds of whacked-out Afghans by torchlight.

He was searching for his brother, who became addicted years ago and left home. He goes from site to site, through Kabul's netherworld.

'I hope one day I can find him,' he said.

Meanwhile at the site under the bridge, one man in his thirties named Nazer seemed to be respected among his fellow addicts, breaking up fights among them and negotiating disputes.

He said most of his days are spent under the bridge but goes to his house every once in a while. Addiction has spread throughout his family.

'It's normal,' Nazer said when asked how the drug hangouts filled up so quickly after thousands of people were rounded up by the Taliban just weeks earlier. 'Every day, they become more and more... it never ends.'

Afghan drug addicts who were rounded up during a Taliban raid are waiting in a truck to be taken to a drug treatment camp, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, June 2, 2022

Drug addicts detained during a Taliban raid wait to have a shower in a drug addiction treatment camp in Kabul. They have no access to medication or withdrawal treatment and are forced to go cold turkey

Drug addicts detained during a Taliban raid wait to have their heads shaved in a drug addiction treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, May 31, 2022

A drug addict detained during a Taliban raid is shaved at a drug treatment camp in Kabul

Drug addicts detained during a Taliban raid are taken to the detoxification ward of a drug treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan. The camps do little to help people kick their addictions and the drug hangouts of the capital quickly refill, even after thousands of people are rounded up and taken away

A drug addict sits on his bed in the detoxification ward of a drug treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan

Drug addicts rest on their bed in the detoxification ward of a drug treatment camp, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, May 29, 2022

Drug addicts undergoing treatment stand in the detoxification ward of a drug treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, June 19, 2022

When the addicts die, either from overdoses, hunger or exposure to the elements living in the dirt, they do so unceremoniously.

Sometimes fellow addicts or family members will hastily bury them - others are just carted off and left to rot or be eaten by the dogs.

As Noroozi picked his way through the crowd, taking pictures and speaking to the addicts, he was told one body lying next to him had died hours earlier.

'There's a dead man next to you,' one of the addicts told him. 'We buried someone over there earlier,' another said further down.

Another man lay face down in the dirt, unmoving and barely clinging to life.

'You're dying,' Noroozi told him. 'Try to survive.'

'It's fine,' the addict croaked. 'It's okay to die.'

Noroozi said he bent down to gave the exhausted man some water, after which another addict passed him a glass pipe filled with smoke.

The man, whose name was Dawood, toked on the pipe and was seemingly imbued with some more energy.

He told Noroozi he had lost a leg to a mine about a decade ago during the war. After that he couldn't work - his life fell apart and he turned to drugs to escape.

It is a story shared by untold numbers of Afghans whose country and livelihoods have been left in ruin.
Heavily armed police swarmed a truck allegedly carrying $50million of cocaine after it busted through a police barricade in a desperate bid to escape.

The truck was tailed by police in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon after they received a tip from UK cops that it was part of an international syndicate importing drugs into NSW.

Officers followed the truck from a property at Cawdor, near Camden in Sydney's west.

However, when they first attempted to stop the vehicle, the driver allegedly rammed the truck into multiple police cars and kept driving.

Dramatic footage shows the moment they were eventually able to stop the truck before grabbing and arresting three suspects.

Police say the truck contained 125kg of cocaine with a street value of $50 million

Police monitored the truck being loaded at property in Sydney's west

Aaron James Pearce, 29, Daniel John Skaines, 32, and Corey Jones, 29, have now been charged with multiple drug importation offenses.

Later in the evening, detectives also searched a property in Lane Cove, where a number of items were seized.

All three men appeared before Sydney courts on Wednesday and did not apply for bail - which was formally refused.

In total, six people have been arrested in the operation, with three others arrested in Britain.

'All were held on suspicion of conspiracy to export a controlled drug and are now being questioned by NCA officers,' a statement from NSW Police said.

The discovery of the truck came through a joint police investigation launched earlier this year between Australian and British police.

Under Operation Phobetor, NSW Police combined forces with the Australian Federal Police, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Australian Border Force and Britain's Border Force and National Crime Agency.

NSW Police organised crime squad Commander Rob Critchlow said police were 'very pleased with the result' but the investigation will continue.

Heavily armed officers swarm around a truck alleged to be carrying a large shipment of cocaine

One of the three men that were arrested roadside is placed in handcuffs by police

The industrial generator that police seized is pictured

Police allege the cocaine was concealed in the base of an industrial generator

More properties are set to searched, he added.

'This was clearly a highly co-ordinated syndicate who have gone to extreme efforts both here and in Europe to ensure their shipment of drugs arrived uninhibited,' he said on Wednesday.

'This is a major operation involving international partners which has produced great success.

'Our intelligence sharing capabilities both here and overseas has resulted in the complete devastation of this criminal enterprise.'
A busker who raped a 'vulnerable' 13-year-old girl he pretended was his daughter has had his sentence reduced.

Glenn Ian Morrison, 55, lured the girl to his apartment in Sydney in 2019 before giving her alcohol and raping her.

He was later found guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual assault and three counts of sexual touching of a child between 10 and 16 years old.

Morrison was sentenced to 13 years in jail with a non-parole period of eight years and eight months.

However, his sentence has now been cut to 10-and-a-half years, with a non-parole period of seven years. He will be eligible for parole on August 21, 2026.

After arriving at his apartment, the court heard Morrison (pictured) attacked the girl, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and biting her neck and near her breast

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been waiting for a friend outside Manly Ferry Terminal when she met Morrison on August 19, 2019.

The busker struck up a conversation with the girl, offering her a cigarette before taking her back to his unit in Rosebery, in the city's east, on public transport.

When asked by a member of the public how he knew the girl, Morrison claimed she was his daughter.

CCTV footage later showed Morrison walking through Rosebery with the girl.

After arriving at his apartment, the court heard Morrison attacked the girl, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and biting her neck and near her breast.

She was then sexually assaulted twice - with the girl testifying that she was 'half-asleep' and said 'no, no, no'.

Morrison was later jailed but the Court of Criminal Appeals was told on Wednesday that Morrison believed the sentence was 'manifestly excessive'.

He appealed to have the overall sentence reduced and to have the two convictions for aggravated sexual assault dropped.

Glenn Ian Morrison, 55, lured the girl to his apartment in Sydney in 2019 before raping her

CCTV footage later showed Morrison walking through Rosebery with the girl before going to his apartment

His appeal was based on an apparent error which saw an extra word included in the 'very important' documents handed to the jury.

However, the NSW Criminal Court of Appeals ruled the error was 'immaterial' and could not have contributed to the guilty verdicts.

Despite the appeal being refused, the presiding justices agreed his original sentence of 13 years in jail was excessive.

The offences were related and occurred in a short period of time, prompting the reduction, it was said.

'The applicant was to be sentenced for five offences committed upon the same complainant in the same place in the same few hours of the morning of a single day,' the judgment read.

While Morrison's behaviour was 'opportunistic' and 'involved exploitation', the justices said there was no violence or predatory behaviour.

The victim told the court in February 2021 that her life had been shattered by the sexual assaults, which she also said she had to live with for the rest of her life.
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Rail bosses have warned services could be further delayed by heavy rain today with passengers already stranded after almost every service in and out of London King's Cross was axed following the UK's hottest day on record.

Network Rail said downpours on dry ground following the extreme heat could cause flooding and overwhelm track drainage this afternoon and evening  just as operators try to get services back up and running again.

Thunderstorms will hit much of England this afternoon and evening, with the Met Office issuing a warning from noon until 10pm saying flooding and lightning strikes could result in 'delays and some cancellations' to trains.

And Network Rail said: 'The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for heavy rain and thunderstorms today. Following severe hot weather, heavy rain on dry ground can cause flooding and overwhelm track drainage.'

Forecasters said parts of England could see 'slow-moving torrential downpours' with up to 1.2in (30mm) of rain in an hour and more than 2in (50mm) in three hours, adding that 'lightning will be an additional hazard' in the South.

LNER - which operates trains between King's Cross and Edinburgh via Peterborough, York and Newcastle - issued a 'do not travel' warning today and urged people to not even go to the London hub. Two other operators who run services from King's Cross - Lumo and Hull Trains - said they were told by Network Rail to cancel all services today.

The delayed 11am LNER service from King's Cross to Edinburgh today, which left at 11.46am, was the first direct train to travel on that route since a Lumo train on Monday at 8.27pm - a gap of nearly 40 hours in services.

Passengers trying to head north from London Euston also continued to face major delays following damage to overhead electric lines in four different locations. At St Pancras, there were almost no services heading north and East Midlands Railway warned of 'overcrowding' at stations with trains and crew out of place after line closures.

Operators such as CrossCountry, Northern, Chiltern, Southeastern and Southern also reported problems  while those heading abroad on the Eurostar faced delays of more than an hour due to a power failure in Lille, France. In addition, Thameslink and Great Northern warned of late notice cancellations and said: 'Avoid all travel by trains.'

King's Cross resembled a dormitory today as stranded passengers slept on suitcases, tables and benches while waiting for news of whether trains heading north would restart again after they were all cancelled yesterday.

The line between King's Cross and Peterborough was shut after a major fire spread onto the tracks at Sandy in Bedfordshire, causing damage to signalling equipment and a level crossing which both require complex repairs.

The fire at Sandy also meant a planned inspection of more than 250 miles of track on the southern end of the East Coast Main Line to see whether any other equipment was damaged in the heat has not yet taken place.

Most services on the Transport for London network were back up and running normally again today after two days of disruption, but there were severe delays on the Jubilee line after signal failure in the North Greenwich area.

There were also minor delays reported on the Central, Circle and District lines - and on the Elizabeth line between Paddington and Heathrow and Reading because of late-finishing engineering work in the Ealing Broadway area.

It comes as Network Rail said it had launched a new 'resilience taskforce' made up of independent experts to look at how the railway can avoid such a big shutdown during hot weather following the unprecedented heatwave.

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

Passengers sleep on suitcase and benches at London King's Cross this morning as all trains are cancelled out of the station

Huge numbers of rail passengers at London Euston station this morning after services to and from Scotland were axed

Passengers sleep on benches at London King's Cross station this morning as all trains are cancelled out of the station

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

Passengers wait for information at London St Pancras station this morning amid mass cancellations to the East Midlands

Passengers wait to speak to staff at London King's Cross railway station this morning as mass disruption continues

Huge numbers of rail passengers at London Euston station this morning after services to and from Scotland were axed

Passengers speak to staff at London King's Cross this morning as all trains are cancelled out of the station

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

Passengers wait for information at London St Pancras station this morning amid mass cancellations to the East Midlands

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

All trains are cancelled out of London King's Cross railway station this morning amid severe travel disruption

Passengers sleep on suitcase at London King's Cross this morning as all trains are cancelled out of the station

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

Passengers speak to staff at London King's Cross this morning as all trains are cancelled out of the station

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

Passengers at King's Cross station in London today following train cancellations amid extreme temperatures

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

The line between King's Cross and Peterborough has been shut after the major fire spread onto the tracks at Sandy in Bedfordshire, causing damage to signalling equipment and a level crossing which both require complex repairs

Teams from Network Rail are carrying out repair and recovery work after a major fire spread onto the railway line at Sandy in Bedfordshire, which is on the East Coast Main Line route between Peterborough and London King's Cross

Network Rail teams have been working throughout the night trying to restore power lines damaged at Harrow in North West London, which is causing major disruption on the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Glasgow

West Coast passengers are being urged to check before they set off after a tree fell onto the track at Harrow during a fire

Drone image of power lines damaged following a fire at Harrow in North West London which is causing major disruption today

The Met Office has issued a thunderstorm warning from 12pm until 10pm today saying flooding and lightning strikes could hit

Network Rail said rain on dry ground following the extreme heat could cause flooding and overwhelm track drainage

At Birmingham International, Lee Ball was trying to travel with his wife, Libby, and 10-year-old daughter, Amelie, from their home in Droitwich, Worcestershire, to Euston as part of a journey to Brussels for an Ed Sheeran concert.

The 46-year-old said their train from Droitwich to Birmingham New Street was cancelled with less than 30 minutes' notice so they drove to Birmingham International, where they have been left waiting for hours.

How is today's major rail disruption affecting your local train operator? Avanti West Coast: No direct trains between London Euston and Scotland, and all lines between Lancaster and Carlisle and in the Birmingham New Street area are blocked due to severe damage to the overhead electric wires c2c: Normal service Caledonian Sleeper: All services cancelled with passengers told to go home Chiltern Railways: Signalling fault between Leamington Spa and Banbury means trains are running at a reduced speed towards London CrossCountry: All lines blocked in the Birmingham New Street area because of damaged overhead electric wires; trains cancelled or diverted via Bescot Stadium East Midlands Railway: No trains between London St Pancras and Nottingham or Corby until 10am; no trains from Cleethorpes to Barton-on-Humber until 11am; no trains between Peterborough and Lincoln until 9.30am Eurostar: Due to a power failure in Lille, all services between London St Pancras, Paris and Lille are being delayed by an hour or more Gatwick Express: Normal service Grand Central: Operator warns passengers not to travel to or from London King's Cross until at least 12pm Great Northern: Most of the network closed this morning, with limited services set to restart later on Bedford to London via St Albans City; St Albans City/London to Sutton via Wimbledon or Mitcham Junction; and Luton/London to Rainham Great Western Railway: Normal service but 'possibility of some short notice alterations' Greater Anglia: No trains from Wickford towards Southminster due to a signalling fault Heathrow Express: Services delayed by up to 15 minutes due to engineering works not finished on time Hull Trains: No trains to and from London King's Cross with alternative routes also blocked and passengers advised 'not to travel' LNER: Due to urgent repairs to the railway between London King's Cross and Peterborough, all lines are blocked. Operator says: 'Please do not travel to or from King's Cross today'. London Northwestern Railway: Repair works ongoing in Hatch End on the line to and from London Euston following damage caused by fires Lumo: No trains to and from London King's Cross and passengers told 'not to travel' Merseyrail: Normal service Northern: Services between Worksop and Lincoln being disrupted due to a signalling fault; services between Lancaster and Carnforth cancelled due to overhead wire damage; services between Scarborough and Hull cannot run due to damage caused by heat ScotRail: Services between Inverness and Edinburgh are delayed due to signalling fault between Inverness and Carrbridge South Western Railway: Points failure at Virginia Watera and signalling issue at Ascot are causing delays Southeastern: Disruption to High Speed services due to signalling problem between Stratford and London St Pancras; delays between Dover and Ramsgate due signalling fault in the Martin Mill; no trains between Brixton and Beckenham Junction while track in Penge tunnel is repaired Southern: No services on the Clapham Junction to Watford Junction/Hemel Hempstead line 'until further notice' Stansted Express: Half-hourly service in place Thameslink: No trains until at least late morning on the Peterborough to London route; Welwyn Garden City and Moorgate (Great Northern Metro); Stevenage and Moorgate (Great Northern Metro); and at Kings Lynn, Ely, Cambridge and to / from London TransPennine Express: Severe damage to the overhead electric wires between Lancaster and Carlisle means all lines are blocked Transport for London: Severe delays on the Jubilee line after signal failure; and minor delays on the Central, Circle and District lines and on the Elizabeth line Transport for Greater Manchester: Normal service Transport for Wales: Normal service West Midlands Railway: Trains running between Birmingham New Street and Shrewsbury will start or terminate at Wolverhampton Advertisement

He said: 'I've been up since 4.30am, anxious, trying to get an answer from anywhere we can. I was monitoring trains this morning from Birmingham New Street to London Euston and one was literally cancelled with five minutes' notice.'

He added that communication from the train companies has been 'appalling', saying: 'It's massive, massive anxiety. Not being able to sleep, 4am this morning, fretting, seeing if there had been any updates.'

Laura Horn, a lecturer at Roskilde University in Denmark, was travelling from Copenhagen to a conference in Limerick in western Ireland but was left stuck at Euston.

She said: 'Station hall packed with people staring at the display, so many cancelled connections. Lots of worried and tired faces; I thought it was striking that so many seemed worried rather than annoyed.

'I think people are finally realising that, with the climate emergency we're in, we'll see much more of this in the next years. Staff at the station were really helpful and friendly.'

Alex Davies, a charity worker from Crewe, said he was 'physically and mentally exhausted' from trying to organise his journey home from Portsmouth via Euston.

The 28-year-old said: 'I'm autistic and need a lot of help from my wife, but she couldn't get the time off work to travel with me so the whole saga has been extremely difficult for me. I need to know plans in advance, struggle to adapt to changes, struggle with communication etc.'

Mr Davies was meant to travel yesterday evening but held off in the hope that the disruption would have subsided by today.

He added: 'Through extra taxis, meals and hotels I'm at around 250 loss and still don't have a guarantee that I'll be home today. Still very anxious and tired as, until I can get to Euston, there is not really any support.'

At King's Cross today, the queue for refunds and information stretched along the concourse and restaurants were full. Among those trying to travel today was journalist Karen Bourne, who was attempting to get to Peterborough.

She told MailOnline: 'I got in from Barcelona yesterday and I was due to go to Peterborough last night. Then I found that the trains have been cancelled and I booked a train for 9am today, but I heard there has been a fire.

'So that's quite understandable if we can't travel. I'm looking to try and share a cab with people to get there.'

Retired teacher David Carr, 73, had been hoping to get to York with his wife Diane yesterday. He told MailOnline today: 'I suppose it's in the hands of the big fella above.

'With all this modern technology you would hope that things would run a bit more smoothly. But there's nothing the train services can do when the lines buckle under the heat. It has been unprecedented weather.

'My wife and I don't know when we'll be able to get home. Hopefully the trains will be running this afternoon.'

Eventually, stranded passengers cheered and rushed to board a special train put on to take passengers to Peterborough and relieve the crowding at King's Cross.

Hundreds of people crammed onto the slow train which left at 9.40am and filled carriages including first class, despite having standard class tickets.

Rail bosses hoped to carry passengers from Peterborough onto Yorkshire and Scotland as repairs were continued at the location in Bedfordfordshire.

Charles Hurley, 74, a tourist from California who was heading to Edinburgh, boarded the train and told MailOnline: 'I have never heard of 'Peter's Borough' but they say it has a cathedral so if we get stuck there, at least there is a new bit of Britain to get to see.'

A member of train staff, with a sense of irony, apologised to passengers and said: 'I am sorry you are all running a bit late.'

Simon Pumphrey, Infrastructure Director for Network Rail's East Coast route, said: 'The heat has caused numerous challenges for the railway. Our teams remain on site to deal with the damage caused by the fire at Sandy.

'We're working as hard as we can, but the complexity of the work means there will be severe disruption to trains on the East Coast Main Line today.

'The incident has also disrupted our plans to manually inspect the route between Peterborough and King's Cross for any other damage and carry out any repairs, so we'll be working today to do that.

'We're sorry if this impacts on your plans and we're doing what we can to restart services as soon as possible. In the meantime, please check before travelling via National Rail Enquiries or with your train operator.'

On the West Coast Main Line, there were no direct trains between London and Scotland today as Network Rail engineers worked to repair multiple sections of 25,000-volt overhead electric cables which power services.

Teams worked throughout the night trying to restore the power lines that were damaged between Lancaster and Carnforth in Lancashire; at Harrow in North West London; at Birmingham New Street; and near Wolverhampton.

All trains are cancelled out of London King's Cross railway station this morning amid severe travel disruption

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

Empty platforms at London King's Cross railway station this morning amid severe travel disruption

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

Departure boards at London King's Cross railway station this morning amid severe travel disruption

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

Passengers wait to speak to staff at London King's Cross railway station this morning as mass disruption continues

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers sleep at London King's Cross this morning as all trains are cancelled out of the station

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

Empty platforms at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat

All trains are cancelled out of London King's Cross railway station this morning amid severe travel disruption

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers speak to staff at London King's Cross this morning as all trains are cancelled out of the station

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers sleep on tables at a Wasabi branch at London King's Cross today as all trains are cancelled out of the station

Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers wait to speak to staff at London King's Cross railway station this morning as mass disruption continues

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Departure boards at London King's Cross railway station this morning amid severe travel disruption

This repair work continued today in all locations meaning fewer trains will be running in and out of London Euston, and rail replacement buses were in operation between Preston in Lancashire and Carlisle in Cumbria.

Police move in to seize M25 protesters after SEVEN hours of road chaos: Just Stop Oil eco activists are hauled away Just Stop Oil protesters have been hauled away by specialist climbing officers after they scaled gantries and blocked three parts of the M25 - causing seven hours of traffic chaos and fury among drivers. Activists climbed a gantry over the M25 at the Poyle Interchange between Junction 14 and Junction 15 near Heathrow Airport, with police having to close the motorway in both directions while specialist officers attended the scene. A similar demonstration took place near Junction 10 between Cobham and Guildford today, causing nine miles of traffic and hour-long delays. This stretch of the motorway has also since reopened following the arrest of a 22-year-old woman, according to police. Queuing traffic on the M25 today caused by Just Stop Oil But the M25 just north of the Queen Elizabeth Bridge in Thurrock remains closed after a protester climbed another gantry between Junctions 30 and 31. In a statement released shortly before the demonstrations, Just Stop Oil said it was 'declaring the M25 a site of civil resistance' this week. The group asked that 'no one travels on this motorway from Wednesday to Friday this week as we will be blocking the highway'. Advertisement

Avanti West Coast said its train services on other routes out of London Euston may also be cancelled.

James Dean, Network Rail's West Coast South route director, said: 'We're sorry to passengers impacted by the damaged caused to our overhead electric lines during the record-breaking heat.

'Specialist teams worked all night but have been unable to fix the cables in time for the start of service this morning. We're doing everything we can to get things back up and running.'

There were also major issues at St Pancras, with all trains cancelled on the East Midlands Railway (EMR) route while engineers carried out safety checks between London and Kettering. Services were expected to start at 10am.

The only trains running out of St Pancras today were Eurostar and Southeastern High Speed services to Kent. EMR said there were also checks taking place between Cleethorpes and Barton-on-Humber, and Peterborough and Ely.

Rail passengers using the Midland Main Line north from St Pancras are being advised not to travel first thing this morning while safety checks continue.

It follows record temperatures in the East Midlands on Tuesday which were higher than the design limits for track and overhead line equipment.

Network Rail said services were stopped on the Midland Main Line between Bedford and Kettering and London yesterday afternoon as a safety precaution, and the safety checks could only be made in the daylight today.

There will be no Thameslink services until late morning at the earliest today on the routes between Bedford and London via St Albans; London and Sutton via Wimbledon or Mitcham Junctions, London and East Grinstead, Littlehampton or Orpington; and between Peterborough and Hitchin.

Gary Walsh, route director for Network Rail in the East Midlands, said: 'We're really sorry that the impact of the extreme weather at the start of this week is affecting passengers for a third day.

'Our teams will be out travelling the rails at first light to carry out the necessary inspections to allow us to fully reopen the network as soon as possible.

'As long as no serious faults are found we expect to have the route between Bedford and London open during the morning and the lines out to Kettering soon afterwards. We have extra response teams on shift who will respond as quickly as possible if any damage is found. I'd ask all passengers to check with your operator before you set off.'

The Caledonian Sleeper which runs overnight services between Euston and Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness, was suspended - with some passengers spending the night on trains held in London or Scotland.

National Rail has told customers to check before setting off on their journeys and to only travel if absolutely necessary.

Passengers wait for updates at London King's Cross station this morning as all trains are cancelled out of the station

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Signage at London King's Cross station this morning following mass train cancellations due to the hot weather

Passengers wait to speak to staff at London King's Cross railway station this morning as mass disruption continues

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers wait to speak to staff at London King's Cross this morning as all trains are cancelled out of the station

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

All trains are cancelled out of London King's Cross railway station this morning amid severe travel disruption

Passengers wait to speak to staff at London King's Cross this morning as all trains are cancelled out of the station

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

All trains are cancelled out of London King's Cross railway station this morning amid severe travel disruption

Departure boards at London King's Cross railway station this morning amid severe travel disruption

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Passengers at London King's Cross station this morning amid mass train cancellations following the extreme heat this week

Display boards at London King's Cross railway station this morning as passengers wait for updates

Passengers speak to staff at London King's Cross this morning as all trains are cancelled out of the station

All trains are cancelled out of London King's Cross railway station this morning amid severe travel disruption

Passengers wait to speak to staff at London King's Cross this morning as all trains are cancelled out of the station

It said on its website: 'A huge amount of work has been completed overnight to fix problems with the track and overhead wires caused by the heat yesterday.

Drivers warned over busiest summer getaway in at least eight years This weekend will be the busiest summer getaway in at least eight years, drivers have been warned. The RAC said an estimated 18.8 million leisure trips are planned in the UK between Friday and Monday. That is the most since the company began tracking summer getaway numbers in 2014. Leisure traffic volumes look set to peak on Saturday, a survey of 1,700 UK motorists suggested. Transport analytics company Inrix believes the M25 - London's orbital motorway - could see some of the worst jams, singling out the stretches between Bromley and the Dartford Crossing; Maple Cross and the M3; and the M23 to the M40. The A303 near Stonehenge, Wiltshire, the M4 between Cardiff and Newport in south Wales, and the M5 south of Bristol are also likely to see queuing traffic at various points this weekend. RAC spokesman Rod Dennis said: 'The extreme heat that's affecting much of the UK in the last few days might wane over the next few days, but we still expect the summer getaway to begin with a bang as a potentially record-breaking number of drivers take to the roads this coming weekend - and that's despite the unbelievably high cost of fuel. 'With school terms in England and Wales finishing this week and millions of people ready for a well-earned break, we anticipate a frantic Friday followed by a woeful weekend on major roads across the country, with traffic and congestion likely peaking on Saturday. 'The advice to drivers heading off on a holiday by car is therefore clear - leave as early as you can in the morning or expect to be sat in some lengthy queues.' Inrix transport analyst Bob Pishue said: 'Drivers should expect traffic congestion to build throughout the day, especially on motorways. Despite high fuel prices, travellers do not appear to be giving up their road trips and holidays.' National Highways head of road safety Jeremy Phillips said: 'With schools breaking up for summer soon there will be more people on the roads and taking longer journeys. 'We know that breaking down can be a very upsetting experience, nobody wants to start off their holiday stranded at the side of the road, next to fast moving traffic. So we are reminding drivers to check their vehicles, particularly the tyres, before setting off.' Advertisement

'Network Rail teams are continuing to work tirelessly to make the repairs so we can get services back up and running for passengers but there is still disruption to services throughout the day. So, for anyone travelling today, please take time to check before you travel.'

Network Rail said passenger numbers yesterday were around 40 per cent lower than the same day last week.

Overhead electric wires were down in Rugby, Birmingham and Carlisle, leading to a number of trains being trapped and emergency evacuations of passengers.

Network Rail Wales apologised for having to close the Cambrian Line between Dovey Junction and Aberystwyth 'due to extreme heat'. And no rail services were running into or out of London King's Cross yesterday.

It comes as after temperatures topped 40C in the UK for the first time ever.

A new record for the hottest day ever seen, of 40.3C, was recorded in Coningsby, in Lincolnshire, yesterday afternoon - beating the previous record of 38.7C in Cambridge three years ago, by 1.6C.

Amid the sweltering heat, major incidents were announced by fire brigades in London, Leicestershire and South Yorkshire as dozens of fires broke out amid the sweltering heat - with flames ripping through houses, schools and churches.

The temperature is set to drop by up to 10C in some areas today, with heavy showers and thunderstorms to lash parts of the country, potentially causing localised flooding.

The Met Office said 34 observation sites across England provisionally broke the previous all-time record, ranging from Bramham, in West Yorkshire, to Charlwood, in Surrey, while a further five had equalled it yesterday.

A total of six sites, mostly in Greater London, saw temperatures reach or exceed 40C.

However, two 'large-scale' incidents took place in Upminster and the village of Wennington in East London, where black smoke billowed into the air, while flames destroyed buildings and ravaged nearby fields.

Several other significant incidents also occurred in the capital, with people urged not to have barbecues or bonfires due to the 'unprecedented' challenges crews face.

Elsewhere, a serious blaze occurred in Barnsley when a row of houses in the Moorland Avenue area was consumed by flames, with crews continuing to battle fires elsewhere in the area.

Doncaster Council said a major blaze in Clayton also spread to three residential properties and there were reports of houses on fire in the Kiverton Park and Maltby areas of Rotherham.

Nine people have died since Saturday in swimming accidents.

Interim deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Miriam Deakin, said the heatwave was forcing hospitals to scale back the number of planned surgeries and install cooling units and try to cool down IT server rooms.

And an East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said the service had seen above-average call numbers since Monday afternoon and it expected to still be seeing an impact from heat-related illness into the weekend.

Passengers travel on the Northern line on the London Underground this morning as they commute to work

A thermometer on the Northern line on the London Underground this morning shows a temperature of 31.7C

People wait on board a Jubilee line train at London Bridge station this morning as they travel to work

People walk along the platform at London Bridge station this morning as they travel on the Jubilee line

Passengers travel on the Northern line on the London Underground this morning as they commute to work

People walk along the platform at London Bridge station this morning as they travel on the Jubilee line

Passengers travel on the Northern line on the London Underground this morning as they commute to work

People wait on board a Jubilee line train at London Bridge station this morning as they travel to work

People walk along the platform at London Bridge station this morning as they travel on the Jubilee line

People wait on board a Jubilee line train at London Bridge station this morning as they travel to work

People walk along the platform at London Bridge station this morning as they travel on the Jubilee line

Road congestion in several cities, including Birmingham, London and Manchester was down yesterday, as people heeded advice not to travel, while commuter numbers were also down on the Tube and bus services in the capital.

And sales of fans, ice cream and paddling pools and burgers rocketed as the heatwave sparked a spending spree on summer essentials, according to retailers, while tech experts urged smartphone users to keep their gadgets out of the sun to ensure they continue working properly.

The Met Office said there would be a showery and thundery breakdown of the heat today, with a yellow warning for thunderstorms in place for parts of south east, east and central England in the afternoon and evening.

It warns people to expect flooding or lightning strikes, delays and some cancellations to train and bus services, spray and sudden flooding, road closures and possible power cuts.

It will be fresher for most places, although some parts of East Anglia will still see temperatures reach as high as 30C. Today's rain, where it occurs, will be much heavier than yesterday.
Vladimir Putin was snubbed by Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan who left him twiddling his thumbs in front of TV cameras during a summit in Iran yesterday.

The Russian leader was holding face-to-face talks with his sometimes-ally in Tehran on Tuesday for the first time since ordering the invasion of Ukraine back in February.

But he was left waiting for a toe-curling 48 seconds in front of the world's press as Erdogan failed to arrive on time for a hand-shaking photo-op.

Putin's critics said he was left 'humiliated and insulted' by what they saw as a bare-faced snub, while others said it showed how far his standing had fallen since the war.

It comes after Putin himself had left Erdogan waiting for almost two minutes in front of TV cameras ahead of a meeting in 2020.

Vladimir Putin was due to meet with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Tehran yesterday, and arrived promptly for a hand-shaking photo-op in front of the world's media

But the Russian leader was left waiting for a toe-curling 48 seconds until his Turkish counterpart finally appeared

Erdogan's stunt mirrors an incident in Moscow two years ago where Putin kept him waiting for two minutes, leading some to suggest this was 'payback'

Anton Gerashchenko, a senior adviser to Ukraine's foreign ministry, said: 'Erdogan made Putin wait during the meeting in Tehran.

'The whole spectrum of emotions of the humiliated and insulted Fuhrer is on his face. The bunker is indeed the best place to stay with such a face.'

Meanwhile Joyce Karam, a senior correspondent for UAE outlet The National, added: 'Those 50 seconds that Erdogan made Putin wait, looking frazzled in-front of cameras, say plenty of how much has changed after Ukraine.'

Putin and Erdogan were meeting on the sidelines of a trilateral summit in Tehran with Iran's leaders to discuss the security situation in Syria.

The war was at the top of the agenda for the Turkey-Russia talks, as Erdogan tries to facilitate a deal that would see Putin release millions of tons of grain held up in Ukraine's ports to avert a global food crisis.

As well as being Putin and Erdogan's first face-to-face since the invasion, it marked the first time the leader of a NATO state has met with Russia in the wake of the war.

Turkey - which has a number of important deals with Russia including on weapons and nuclear power - has tried to treat a careful middle-ground on Ukraine.

Erdogan and Putin were meeting for talks on Ukraine, leading critics to observe that Erdogan would not have disrespected him before his failed invasion

Tehran summit marked the first time Putin has met with a NATO leader since Ukraine war, after West made Russian a pariah state over the invasion

Putin has been forced to deepen ties with Turkey and Iran - until now allies of convenience - after his plan to topple Ukraine's regime backfired

But relations were strained in recent weeks after Erdogan dropped his opposition to Finland and Sweden joining NATO, clearing the path for them to do so.

Publicly, Putin has insisted he has no problem with either country becoming members - but privately the Kremlin is thought to be furious.

After the meeting, Putin said 'progress' had been made in discussions towards exporting grain from Ukraine.

But he said the prospect of such a deal getting over the line hinged on the West's willingness to yield ground on sanctions.

'We will facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain, but we are proceeding from the fact that all restrictions related to air deliveries for the export of Russian grain will be lifted,' he said.

The summit has not produced a lot of good press for Putin, who had appeared to hobble with his arm hanging limp by his side as he arrived at the talks.

It is hardly the first time he has appeared in ill-health, as observers have noted him fiddling awkwardly with his feet or compulsively chewing his lip during meetings.

There is widespread speculation that Putin, 69, is suffering from Parkinson's or some form of cancer.

Rumours about his health started two years ago during the Covid pandemic, but speculation has become rife since the war in Ukraine.

Putin, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, and Erdogan were in Tehran to agree a new framework for Syria - but the summit was overshadowed by Ukraine

Russia has deepened ties with fellow pariah Iran since Ukraine began, and has been forced to rely on Turkey for trade as one of the few nations that has not levied sanctions

Russia has been forced to strengthen ties with fellow pariah-state Iran since being closed out by the West following the invasion of Ukraine.

Though the pair have coordinated on some issues before - most notably Syria - their alliance has until-now been one of convenience rather than friendship.

But that has changed drastically in the shadow of Ukraine, with Russia now thought to be buying Iranian combat drones to use in the war.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also gave staunch support for the war in Ukraine as he met with Putin on Tuesday, endorsing Moscow's view that the invasion was necessary to head off an attack from NATO.

Khamenei said the West opposes an 'independent and strong' Russia, and would have 'waged a war' to get back Crimea which Putin annexed in 2014.

'If the road would have been open to NATO, it will not recognize any limit and boundary,' Khamenei told Putin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin leaves his presidential plane during the welcoming ceremony in Tehran today

But, in a sign of the complicated relations between the trio, Iran and Russia warned Turkey off a plan to re-invade northern Syria in an attempt to establish a buffer zone along its border.

Ankara favours the plan because it wants to drive back Kurdish fighters - who it views as terrorists - who are in control of large parts of northern Syria after they led US coalition forces to drive back ISIS in the region.

Turkey also wants to use the zone to house millions of refugees who have fled the region since the outbreak of civil war in 2011.

But Iran, which has covert military bases in Syria and backs proxy groups there, is bitterly opposed - as is Russia, which has been heavily involved in backing up dictator Bashar al-Assad's government.

In the end, Iran and Russia seemed to win out as the trio issued a joint statement committing to resolving the situation 'by political and diplomatic means'.

The allies also committed themselves maintain 'the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity' of Syria - though after the invasion of Ukraine, many will doubt the sincerity of those words.
A British tourist has been arrested in the party resort of Magaluf after a UK holidaymaker reported him to police for raping her.

The woman alerted cops after meeting her alleged sex attacker during a drunken night out in the Majorcan resort town and blacking out in his hotel room.

Local paper Ultima Hora said she woke up hours later to find the man 'on top of her'.

The unnamed detainee was held after detectives went to the hotel where the pair ended up with a description the woman had given them of the rape suspect.

He was held in police custody before appearing in court where a judge agreed to release him pending an ongoing inquiry.

Prosecutors did not demand that he be remanded in custody after he admitted to the judge he had sex with his female accuser but insisted it was consensual.

A British tourist has been arrested in the party resort of Magaluf (pictured) after a UK holidaymaker reported him to police for raping her

The arrest is understood to have taken place on Sunday, while the behind-closed-doors court appearance unfolded on Monday.

The hotel in question has not been named.

It comes less than two weeks after another British tourist was arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing his partner at a hotel in the resort of Santa Ponsa, just a 15 minute drive away from Magaluf.

The 50-year-old was held after the alleged victim called a receptionist for help, with local reports suggesting he hit her in the face and tried to smother her with a pillow.

Ultima Hora said the 48-year-old victim had described her partner as 'very violent' and told cops he had punched her in the nose.

The suspect was arrested on Thursday July 7, but it is unclear whether his partner has decided to press charges.

A 50-year-old British man has been arrested in the Spanish holiday resort town of Santa Ponsa, Majorca (pictured), after allegedly sexually abusing his 48-year-old partner, also British

Santa Ponsa is a 15-minute drive from Magaluf and forms part of the same municipality of Calvia.

Magaluf has long been renowned as a major party destination for people across Europe, particularly Brits.

But its reputation has declined as authorities in Magaluf and all across Majorca have become increasingly fed up with the behaviour of British tourists visiting the island.

Physical violence and drunken, loutish behaviour are commonplace, and the party resort has also seen a host of sexual assault claims come to light in recent years.
Two female customers have allegedly been sexually assaulted by a masseur in one of Australia's most affluent suburbs.

Peyman Yazdi, 50, was arrested by detectives at about 5.45pm Tuesday at his home in Killara in Sydney's Upper North Shore.

An investigation was sparked when a 28-year-old woman alleged to police on Saturday that she was sexually assaulted while getting a massage at the wellness clinic in the nearby suburb of Mosman.

The following day another female customer alleged a separate sexual assault at the same business.

Two female customers have allegedly been sexually assaulted by a masseur in one of Australia's most affluent suburbs

Peyman Yazdi, 50, was arrested by detectives at about 5.45pm Tuesday at his home in Killara in Sydney's Upper North Shore

The two woman are not known to each other.

Mr Yazdi was taken to Chatswood Police Station and charged with sexual intercourse without consent and four counts of sexually touching another person without consent.

He appeared before Hornsby Local Court on Wednesday where he was granted conditional bail to reappear at the same court on September 14.

Investigations are ongoing and anyone with information or concerns is asked to call Crime Stoppers.
The funeral of Dame Deborah James - who inspired millions with her campaign to raise awareness of bowel cancer - will take place today with a private ceremony attended by close friends and family.

The podcast host and mother of two, who became known as Bowelbabe, her social media handle, died last month aged 40 after being diagnosed with the disease in 2016.

Close friends and family are expected to attend the private service in her memory.

Dame Deborah James will be paid to rest today at a private ceremony attended by close friends and family

The former deputy headteacher was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016 and subsequently kept her nearly one million Instagram followers up to date with her treatments.

Her candid posts about her progress and diagnosis, including videos of her dancing her way through treatment, won praise from the public and media alike.

Dame Deborah revealed in early May she had stopped active treatment and was seeing out her final days at her parents' home in Woking.

She received end-of-life care with her husband, Sebastien, and their two children, by her side.

The podcast host and mother of two, who became known as Bowelbabe, her social media handle, died last month aged 40 after being diagnosed with the disease in 2016

She was made a dame by the Duke of Cambridge at her family home, with William praising her for 'going above and beyond to make a very special memory'. Also pictured is her husband, Sebastien, and their children, Hugo and Eloise

In her final months, the presenter of the BBC podcast You, Me And The Big C raised almost 7 million for research, with the amount climbing further following her death.

She was made a dame for her "tireless" work improving awareness of the disease, with the honour conferred by the Duke of Cambridge, who joined her family for afternoon tea and champagne at home.

Her death was announced on June 28 with a message saying she had died peacefully, surrounded by her family.

William and Kate, charities, celebrities and many whose lives have been affected by cancer shared tributes.
The Tory leadership campaign is embroiled in more accusations of dirty tricks today as MPs and campaigns are accused of gaming votes to benefit their candidates.

Ahead of the final round of voting by politicians today there were suggestions that supporters of Rishi Sunak could have voted for Liz Truss to make sure Kemi Badenoch was eliminated.

The former equalities minister, seen as a favourite with grassroots Tories, finished last in the fourth round ballot last night.

In head-to-head polling she beat all the other contenders if she made it through to the last two.

But supporters of Tom Tugendhat, who was eliminated before her, expressed surprise that the number of MPs who seemed to move from the One Nation candidate to right-wingers Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt.

The Foreign Secretary picked up 15 votes to command the support of 86 Tory MPs on Tuesday.

Ms Mordaunt increased her share by 10 to sit on 92, while Mr Sunak gained an extra three votes to put him in 118, just shy of the number effectively guaranteeing him entry to the final phase.

But one Tugendhat backer told the Times: 'From my conversations the number of people backing Liz from our team was seven MPs at most. There is something very, very odd going on.'

Team Sunak have rejected claims they are gaming the system to manipulate who he faces in the run-off vote by party members.

It came as supporters of Liz Truss urged rival camps not to 'lend' votes to influence the Tory leadership ballot.

And Ms Mordaunt came in for criticism for retweeting a columnist who said votes for her rivals would 'murder' the Conservative Party - having previously claimed she was running a 'clean campaign'.

Ahead of the final round of voting by politicians today there were suggestions that supporters of Rishi Sunak could have voted for Liz Truss to make sure Kemi Badenoch was eliminated

Ahead of the final round of voting by politicians today there were suggestions that supporters of Rishi Sunak could have voted for Liz Truss to make sure Kemi Badenoch (right) was eliminated

Supporters of Tom Tugendhat, who was eliminated earlier, expressed surprise that the number of MPs who seemed to move from the One Nation candidate to right-wingers Liz Truss (pictured) and Penny Mordaunt.

Ms Truss and Penny Mordaunt are battling to win over Kemi Badenoch's supporters after she was knocked out of the contest, and face frontrunner Rishi Sunak in the run-off.

The Foreign Secretary received a surge in support in the penultimate ballot, putting her within touching distance of Ms Mordaunt as the right of the party appears to be coalescing around her.

Ms Truss last night warned Rishi Sunak against engaging in 'dirty backroom deals'.

But her backers fear the former chancellor's team may try to 'fix' the final vote today to ensure he does not face a candidate from the Tory Right in the run-off decided by party members.

The momentum of her latest result now puts her favourite to face Mr Sunak in the head-to-head competition to win a ballot of Conservative members, with that result being announced on September 5.

Her supporters pointed to a YouGov survey showing that  head to head  she would beat Mr Sunak by a comfortable margin of 54:35.

Ms Truss picked up 15 votes to command the support of 86 Tory MPs on Tuesday, after 31 votes were freed up by the elimination of Tom Tugendhat a day earlier.

Ms Mordaunt increased her share by 10 to sit on 92, while Mr Sunak gained an extra three votes to put him in 118, just shy of the number effectively guaranteeing him entry to the final phase.

Ms Badenoch came last in the ballot on 59 votes, with Ms Truss believed to be more likely to pick up a significant number of those votes than Ms Mordaunt.

A former minister also suggested that Mr Sunak, who he is backing, would rather face Miss Mordaunt. 'Rishi vs Liz is going to be the most feared contest,' said Chris Skidmore. 'That will be the battle for ideas, a battle of personalities.'

An ally of Miss Truss said her team was working flat out to secure every vote, adding: 'The Tory Party has had more than enough of macho politics done in dirty backroom deals. We don't want to see that again tomorrow.'

Another source said Miss Truss was 'in the driving seat' although 'there's a lot of work still to do'.

Yesterday's vote left outsider Kemi Badenoch as a potential kingmaker after she was knocked out. Rival candidates were battling to secure the crucial backing of her 59 supporters.

Mrs Badenoch is on the Tory Right and the Foreign Secretary's team believe at least 22 of her supporters are sympathetic to Miss Truss's cause.

In an early sign of success, defence minister Leo Docherty switched from Mrs Badenoch to Miss Truss last night, saying: 'I've seen at first hand her deep experience and sound judgement and know she has a credible plan.'

A former minister suggested that Mr Sunak would rather face Miss Mordaunt in the final round of the contest to become the next Tory leader

Mr Sunak's team deny accusations that they are cooking up 'dirty backroom deals' to squeeze out Miss Truss and get Miss Mordaunt through to the head-to-head final round

A Truss campaign spokesman said: 'Now is the time for the party to unite behind a candidate who will govern in a Conservative way and who has shown she can deliver time and again.

'Liz has a bold new economic agenda that will immediately tackle the cost of living crisis, boost economic growth and continue leading the global fight for freedom in Ukraine.'

But the contest has been overshadowed by fears it could be undermined by 'vote lending' between the rival teams, with suspicions focused on Mr Sunak's campaign aide Gavin Williamson. Mr Sunak's team deny underhand tactics  and insist that Sir Gavin has no formal role.

But senior Tories yesterday said Mr Sunak's supporters were making a 'concerted effort' to block the Foreign Secretary's chances.

Tory MP Steve Baker, a Truss supporter, said he believed individual MPs were 'occasionally voting tactically  which they are entitled to do' rather than doing deals.

Another Conservative MP said: 'There is a concerted effort I think to try to make sure that Rishi doesn't face Liz in the final.'

But former Cabinet minister David Davis accused Mr Sunak of helping Miss Truss in order to squeeze out Miss Mordaunt.

'There's clearly been some transfer of votes, presumably from Rishi to Liz,' he told LBC Radio. 'Rishi just reallocated some. He's got his four or five chief whips that he has in a boiler room to reallocate them. He wants to fight Liz because she's the person who will lose the debate with him.'

A Sunak-supporting MP denied wrongdoing, saying: 'We are encouraging every colleague who wants Rishi to win to vote for him.'

Yesterday's result left the contest finely poised with Mr Sunak gaining only three supporters after the votes of moderate Tom Tugendhat were redistributed. This left him on 118, well ahead of Miss Mordaunt, who picked up votes to move to 92, with Miss Truss narrowing the gap on 86.

Former Tugendhat backer Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the International Trade Secretary, came out in support of Ms Truss.
A London art dealer is being sued over claims he ripped off a super-rich Qatari sheikh by selling him 4.2m worth of 'fake' ancient statues.

John Eskenazi is accused of scamming art collector Sheikh Hamad Bin Abdullah Al Thani with 'forgeries' of ancient art.

Sheikh Hamad says he paid 'top dollar' for seven pieces, including a carved head of the god Dionysus and a 2.2m statue of the goddess Hari Hara.

He said he was told they had been created between 1,400 and 2,000 years ago before they were unearthed by archaeologists after being hidden in caves for centuries.

But Sheikh Hamad, whose London home Dudley House is reportedly Britain's most expensive private residence, later demanded that the dealer take them back and give him a refund, claiming the works were not authentic.

The Queen reportedly commented on the 330million house whilst having dinner with the sheikh in 2015: 'This place makes Buckingham Palace look rather dull'.

The High Court heard Sheikh Hamad had the pieces examined after purchase by experts having grown suspicious, and found evidence they were forgeries, with modern materials including bits of plastic embedded in one of the items, a grotesque clay head.

His also claim the state of preservation is too good to be true for their purported age.

John Eskenazi has denied all the claims in the High Court writ and is fighting the case

Sheikh Hamad Al Thani outside London's High Court for the hearing over the artworks

The Roll royce in which Sheikh Hamad Al Thani arrived at London's High Court for his case

Mr Eskenazi, 72, who is one of the world's top dealers in Indian, Gandharan, Himalayan and South-east Asian works of art, says they are authentic and denies all allegations of wrongdoing.

He and his company are now being sued by both his family company and the sheikh personally over allegations that the artifacts, far from being ancient, are 'the work of a modern forger' and that Mr Eskenazi knew the most expensive one was fake.

They are trying to force repayment of the 4.2m ($4.99m) they shelled out.

But Mr Eskenazi is presenting his own expert evidence to Mr Justice Jacobs at London's High Court and is counter-suing for a declaration that all the works - which were lined up in court before the judge - are real and authentic.

The court heard that Sheikh Hamad, 40, who arrived at court in a Rolls Royce, paid around 4.2m in 2014 and 2015 for seven pieces through the family company he heads up, QIPCO (Qatar Investment & Projects Development Holding Company).

It was part of a spending spree, during which, through the company, Sheikh Hamad 'spent 150m in a nine-month period' on ancient artworks.

He is relying on expert reports which state that on examination 'protruding plastic' was found embedded in one of the pieces, an unfired clay head of a demonic being, known as the Krodha.

His expert reports also state that modern materials and chemicals suggestive of forgery were found in several other pieces and that their state of preservation is too good to be true.

Sheikh Hamad's family home, Dudley House, in Park Lane, London, which dates from the 1700s, is a 44,000-square-foot, 17-bedroom pile

House to house: Does Sheikh Hamad's Dudley House really make Buckingham Palace seem 'rather dull' Dudley House Cost when bought: 37million Value now: 330million How big: 44,000 sq ft Renovation costs: 75million estimated Number of bedrooms: 17 Size of biggest gallery: 81 foot Buckingham Palace Cost when bought: 21,000 Value now: 1,3billion How big: 828,821 sq ft Renovation costs: 369million most recent Number of bedrooms: 240 Size of biggest gallery: Queens Gallery is an entire building Advertisement

Roger Stewart QC, for the sheikh, told the judge: 'The claimants' case is each of the works is a modern forgery, not an ancient object.

'All of the objects here, if genuine, are remarkable. They all vary from between 1,400 and 2,000 years old.'

He told the judge that there is only one known pre-7th century marble head from this region in existence in the hands of a collector.

'Mr Eskenazi has sold three. Your lordship will have to consider whether Mr Eskenazi has been very lucky in receiving these miraculous objects and selling them to his clients, or whether they are not genuine objects'.

He claimed that Mr Eskenazi was 'negligent' in 'not having a reasonable belief as to the authenticity of the objects sold'.

And in relation to one of them - a statue of a goddess known as the Hari Hara he sold to the sheikh for $2.2m - the barrister claimed that the dealer 'knew it not to be authentic'.

The barrister added that there was 'said to be evidence of plastic' when the Krodha head was examined, proving it was a modern fake.

But Andrew Green QC, for Mr Eskenazi, told the judge: 'Conservation and restoration treatments, particularly the more invasive and stringent methods used until the very recent past, self-evidently interfere with an object's surface including any weathering patterns; and are likely to introduce foreign materials to an object, whether in the form of the residue of the tools used, modern materials used in restoration, the application of aesthetic deposits, or the removal of existing patinas.

A Top Trumps style look at the two properties owned by the Queen and Sheikh Hamad

The Queen watches the parade ring before the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes with Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Than at Ascot in October 2013

Sheikh Hamad's opulent Dudley House home looks like a palace an d is packed with treasures

'It is often impossible to ascertain whether intervention was the work of a restorer or a forger.

'It is wholly implausible that the defendants would risk destroying an impeccable reputation built up over many decades with museums, collectors and scholars by either carelessly or deliberately selling forgeries.

'It is equally implausible that the defendants, who obviously knew the extraordinary value of Sheikh Hamad as a new customer, would risk destroying that burgeoning relationship by either carelessly or deliberately selling him forgeries.'

He put to Sheikh Hamad in the witness box that he had simply 'decided you wanted your money back' after a rival dealer had questioned the origin of the pieces and had then ignored expert evidence which backed the authenticity of the carvings in bringing his claim.

The Sheikh denied those claims.

Mr Green told the judge that carbon dating doesn't work on stone artworks as it simply reads their geological age, adding that any claim made about the origin of 'an object made 1,400 or 2,000 years ago is necessarily a statement of opinion because no-one of us was around 1,400 or 2,000 years ago'.

The judge is now set to hear competing evidence from art history and archaeology experts over the coming week.

Sheikh Hamad's father Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al-Thani was Qatar's prime minister from 1996 to 2007 and he is the eldest of six brothers. He studied political science at Coventry University.

His family home, Dudley House, in Park Lane, London, which dates from the 1700s, is a 44,000-square-foot, 17-bedroom pile.

It features an 81-foot-long picture gallery and a 50-foot ballroom and is London's only surviving aristocratic palace that still functions as a private, single-family home.

Qatari prince HH Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani was once described as the insatiable treasure hunter of world civilizations.

He is the cousin of the emir of Qatar and is said to have become interested in art aged just six years old.

His mother had taken him to the Louvre as a young child, which sparked his interest in beautiful objects and paintings.

Aged 18 he began buying up precious artefacts and is said to have items totalling nearly 6,000, which he loans out to some museums.

In 2015 he was made a vice-president of the Friends of the Castle of Mey after a large donation to the late Queen Mothers Highland Home.

His involvement in horse racing has seen him cross paths with the Queen on a number of occasions.

He even hosted her at his much admired Dudley House home.

The trial continues.
Japanese authorities are hunting a rogue monkey which is believed to have injured up to 18 people, primarily children and elderly citizens, amid a spree of violent attacks spanning almost a fortnight.

The first Japanese macaque attack came on July 8 when the primate climbed into a flat in Yamaguchi city's Ogori district and tried to drag a baby out of the window, inflicting several wounds.

The baby's mother said she was alerted by her child's screams and shooed the monkey away, before calling on authorities to catch the animal 'as soon as possible'.

'It had grabbed her by the legs while she was playing on the floor. It looked like it was trying to drag her outside,' she told local news outlets.

Reports suggest the monkey went onto attack another five people in the same district before entering a primary school on July 11, where it scratched one pupil, and then attacked a four-year-old girl three days later in a nearby nursery.

Police are now on high alert and are working with wildlife authorities to set traps for the animal.

Yamauchi city residents have been warned not to leave their windows open and to report any monkey sightings to authorities - but the frenzied primate is still on the loose.

Yakei, a famous Japanese macaque female who became her tribe's alpha by attacking several high-ranking males, is pictured

Other victims of the macaque include several elderly people who were attacked outside their homes as they hung out washing.

There are hundreds of thousands of Japanese macaques living in the wild across Japan.

But their presence in urban centres has increased in recent years as their interactions with humans have reduced their natural aversion to large groups of people.

The animals typically weigh around 20-25lbs and are only around 50-60cm tall, but they are considerably stronger than a human of the same size.

Monkeys are by no means the worst of the myriad wild animals that have begun making their way into Japanese cities, though.

The reduction of wilderness areas and declining access to food has forced many species to wander into urban centres in search of sustenance, often crossing paths with unsuspecting residents.

Bears and wild boars are among the most notorious offenders, with the number of sightings and attacks of both having increased considerably in recent years.

In the northernmost main island of Hokkaido alone, the number of bear sightings skyrocketed from 381 in 2020 - when a black bear terrorised a shopping mall before being shot by a hunter - to a staggering 2,197 last year.

And wild boars ran amok in a park in Hiroshima last year, inflicting injuries on six people before they too were shot.

The monkey's rampage through the streets of Yamauchi city comes as an Indian macaque killed a baby boy by throwing him off a roof in a village in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India.

The horrifying incident took place in the rural village of Dunka, close to the city of Bareilly, where Nirdesh Upadhyay was standing on the terrace of his three-story house with his wife and their baby son.

The trio were enjoying a lazy Friday evening up on the terrace when a troop of the primates clambered onto the roof and surrounded them.

The trio were enjoying a lazy Friday evening up on the terrace when a troop of the primates clambered onto the roof and surrounded them

The horrifying incident took place in the rural village of Dunka, close to Bareilly in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (building in Dunka pictured)

After futile efforts to bat the monkeys away, the new parents ran towards the stairs in an attempt to escape but Nirdesh, who was carrying his son, stumbled and dropped the child.

In a split second before either parent could react, one of the monkeys grabbed the baby boy by the hand and hurled him off the roof.

Distraught, the parents managed to get back inside the house and tore downstairs to their son's aid, but the infant reportedly died at the scene.

The incident is now under investigation with authorities at the Shahi police station, and Bareilly city's conservation chief, Lalit Verma, told PTI News his team were dispatched to investigate the involvement of monkeys in the child's death.

Uttar Pradesh is home to a huge population of rhesus monkeys, which roam free throughout many of the state's towns and cities.

Although the primates are generally able to live in relative harmony alongside the humans who reside in these settlements, there are a number of documented cases of the monkeys attacking people, in particular children.
The CEO of Starbucks is shuttering 16 profitable stores nationwide over disruptions that he's blamed on the cities' woke leaders for 'abdicating their responsibility' to fight crime.

Howard Schultz said 'America has become unsafe' after he announced that 16 stores will close in several left-leaning cities across the country because staff are being attacked and reports of drug use at the popular cafes.

The cities set to see closures include the company's hometown of Seattle, as well as four other liberal-run municipalities - Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Portland and D.C - where crime rates have soared due to woke policies including police cuts.

In LA, District Attorney George Gascon, who is set to face a recall election, has been accused of being a cheerleader for criminals who encourages them to 'commit more crimes' due to his woke policies.

Schultz warned that this is 'just the beginning' of store closures and said there 'would be many more' as staff fear for their own safety amid a rise in crime, homeless and people with mental health issues.

EXCLUSIVE: Today at an internal meeting CEO Howard Schultz said: "Starbucks is a window into America... we are facing things in which the stores were not built for... we're listening to our people and closing stores, & this is just the beginning. There are gonna be many more.  pic.twitter.com/E9ayQqSmB8  Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) July 13, 2022

In two leaked video excerpts of Schultz speaking at an internal meeting, shared by Ari Hoffman of KVI-AM talk radio in Seattle, Schultz said he was shocked to hear that one of the primary concerns of their retail partners is their 'own personal safety.'

The reported disruptions include drug use by paying customers and, more often than not, members of the public - who often take advantage of the company's open bathroom policy, which allows nonpaying patrons to use their facilities.

As a result, the bathrooms have in large part devolved into dens of debauchery, regularly used by vagrants and homeless to do drugs and engage in other illicit behavior.

The CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, has blamed woke elected leaders for 'abdicating their responsibility' to fight crime in their local areas which has led the chain to shutter more than a dozen stores nationwide (file image)

Starbucks is closing more than a dozen stores due to reports of rife drug use and disturbances by brazen members of the public at the popular cafes. Pictured is a shuttered store in Portland, Oregon - one of the cities that will see closures - that was ransacked by looters in 2021

The reported disruptions include drug use by paying customers and, more often than not, members of the public - who often take advantage of the company's open bathroom policy, which allows nonpaying patrons to use their facilities. Pictured are homeless people loitering outside a Starbucks in Seattle, which will also experience closures, the company said

In the leaked video excerpts, Schultz said: 'In my view at the local, state, and federal level, these governments across the country and leaders, mayors, and governors and city councils have abdicated their responsibility in fighting crime and addressing mental illness.

'And we're going to have to refine and transform and modernize many of the things we do to meet the needs of our customers in a very changing operating environment.'

He added that the demand for Starbucks by their customers has 'never been greater.'

In another short video, Schultz said: 'I don't have to spend too much time on what's going on in the country and how America has become unsafe, but you all read the press release the last couple of days about the fact that we are beginning to close stores that are not unprofitable.'

He added: 'It has shocked me that one of the primary concerns that our retail partners have is their own personal safety. And then we heard the stories about what happens in our bathrooms, the issues with mental illness, homelessness and crime.

Schultz blamed elected leaders of the Democrat cities where the stores are closing "at the local state and federal level, these governments... and leaders, mayors & governors & city councils have advocated their responsibility in fighting crime & addressing mental illness. pic.twitter.com/M8vTJgchCE  Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) July 13, 2022

'Starbucks is a window into America, we have stores in every community... we are facing things in which the stores were not built for. We're listening to our people and closing stores, & this is just the beginning. There are going be many more.'

All of the stores set to be closed have seen an influx of crime - with many attributing the rise to a recent wave of 'woke' policies implemented by progressive politicians.

The result are cities that border on lawlessness - with employees at the stores reportedly complaining in droves that they feel unsafe at work.

The planned closures, announced Monday, will see 16 stores closed in several cities across the country - all set in left-leaning, 'woke'-run locales such as Los Angeles. Pictured is a homeless person sleeping in front of one of the store's LA locations

Reports of assaults were also commonplace in the cities set to see closures, which include liberal LA, as well as five other left-leaning municipalities. Pictured is an LA Starbucks. Homeless citizens can be seen sitting outside the store on the street

What Starbucks CEO said about woke leaders Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said in the leaked video excerpts: 'In my view at the local, state, and federal level, these governments across the country and leaders, mayors, and governors and city councils have abdicated their responsibility in fighting crime and addressing mental illness. 'And we're going to have to refine and transform and modernize many of the things we do to meet the needs of our customers in a very changing operating environment in which customer behavior is changing. 'I say that but at the same time, you have to understand something. Despite the challenges of Covid and post-Covid and the changes in customer behavior in which over 50% of the business is drive-thru... the demand for Starbucks coffee, domestically and around the world, has never been greater.' In a second leaked video, Schultz said: 'I don't have to spend too much time on what's going on in the country and how America has become unsafe, but you all read the press release the last couple of days about the fact that we are beginning to close stores that are not unprofitable. 'It has shocked me that one of the primary concerns that our retail partners have is their own personal safety. And then we heard the stories about what happens in our bathrooms, the issues with mental illness, homelessness and crime. 'Starbucks is a window into America, we have stores in every community... we are facing things in which the stores were not built for. We're listening to our people and closing stores, & this is just the beginning. There are going be many more.' Advertisement

The closures were announced in an internal email sent to employees at the company Monday.

The correspondence saw Debbie Stroud and Denise Nelson, both senior vice presidents of the chains' US operations, cite questionable safety conditions at Starbucks stores in the aforementioned locations.

The memo remarked how staffers at other stores across the country have experienced similar unrest as a result of 'the challenges facing our communities.'

Those challenges, they wrote, include 'personal safety, racism, lack of access to healthcare, a growing mental health crisis, rising drug use, and more.'

The officials added that 'with stores in thousands of communities across the country, we know these challenges can, at times, play out within our stores too.

'We read every incident report you file - it's a lot,' the operations heads wrote. 'We cannot serve as partners if we don't first feel safe at work.'

Aside from the closures - which will see staffers at the stores transferred to other locations nearby - the company said it will now give staffers discretion to deny free access to the store's bathrooms.

Last month, Starbucks new interim CEO Howard Schultz - who has sought to improve company culture since being appointed in April, amid recent pushes from staffers to unionize - said the company was rethinking its 'open bathroom' policy due to mounting safety concerns.

'There is an issue of, just, safety in our stores, in terms of people coming in who use our stores as a public bathroom,' Schultz said during a New York Times DealBook event last month.

'We have to provide a safe environment for our people and our customers. The mental health crisis in the country is severe, acute and getting worse.'

Managers will also now have the freedom to adjust seating layouts and even adjust hours of operation in order to address staffers' safety concerns.

A spokesperson for the company confirmed the closures to DailyMail.com Tuesday.

They said: 'After careful consideration, we are closing some stores in locations that have experienced a high volume of challenging incidents that make it unsafe to continue to operate.'

The closures were announced in an internal email sent to employees at the company Monday

The closures come as cities across the nation have seen a drastic rise in crime over the past two years - spurred by the pandemic and recent soft-on-crime policies implemented by woke DA's who have sought to find alternatives to incarceration

Washington, DC, one of the locations that will experience closures, has seen a drastic rise in murders, with 93 compared to the 82 last year, a 13 percent jump

The closures come as cities across the nation have seen a drastic rise in crime over the past two years - spurred by the pandemic and recent soft-on-crime policies implemented by woke DA's who have sought to find alternatives to incarceration.

Seattle - the city where Starbucks was founded - has seen a surge in both violent and property crime since the start of the pandemic, with cops already recording 302 shootings so far this year - a 75 percent increase from last year.

In Washington, DC there has already been 93 murders, compared to 82 last year, signaling a 13 percent jump.

Seattle - the city where Starbucks was founded - has seen a surge in both violent and property crime since the start of the pandemic, with cops already recording 302 shootings so far this year - a 75 percent increase from last year

Robberies are also up in the nation's capital by a marked 25 percent.

Los Angeles, meanwhile, has arguably been hurt the most by woke politicians, with its District Attorney George Gascon now almost certain to face a recall election for soft policies.

The City of Angels has seen more people killed by guns during the first six months of 2022 than during the same period in any of the past 15 years, police say - while robberies are also rife, due to lax punishments on repeat offenders.

Gascon has been vocal about his belief that the criminal justice system needs to focus more on intervention and rehabilitation, blasting 'tough on crime' policies as racist and a failure.

And following his first 100 days in office, he touted the changes he has made to the city's justice system - including limiting the use of sentencing enhancements.

The California penal code has more than 100 enhancements that could add time to a convict's sentence depending on the situation, most of which date back to when California was facing soaring crime in the 1980s and 1990s.

But under Gascon's reign, the use of those enhancements have been greatly reduced, with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office 5,138 enhancements during his first three months - a 71 percent drop when compared to the same time the year before.

His first three months also saw prosecutors filing only 106 gun enhancements - an 85 percent decrease.

Los Angeles, meanwhile, has arguably been hurt the most by woke politicians, with its District Attorney George Gascon now almost certain to face a recall election for soft policies

In Portland, robberies have increased 56 per cent year-on-year, rising from 234 in January to March 2021 to 366 for the same period in 2022.

Similar rises took place in drug crime numbers which rose 30 per cent this year up 146 in 2022 on 108 in 2021 and assault cases which were up six per cent year-on-year.

The Portland Police Bureau suffered through a rash of retirements and resignations after Portland politicians embraced calls to defund the police.

A total of $15million was initially chopped from the city's budget, with progressive Portland prosecutors also blamed for the spiraling crime for refusing to charge 70 percent of people arrested by the city's police.

In Seattle, record-breaking high levels of crime have forced business owners to close their shops.

Piroshky Piroshky bakery owner Olga Sagan, 38, made the tough decision to close her shop after she constantly found the entrance blocked with drug users who refused to move - and she says the Seattle Police Department did nothing to help.

In its 2021 year-end report, Seattle Police said that violent crime in the city has increased by 20 percent compared to 2020- which is for the first time in 14 years.

According to SPD, shootings and shots fired calls increased 40 percent (+175) from 2020 to 2021, violent crime increased 20 percent and homeless-related shootings increased 122 percent.

Some reasons for homelessness Seattle have been attributed to the cost of living in the city having significantly risen in the past decade due to gentrification, lack of publicly owned affordable housing, and the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The moves by Starbucks come in direct response to these crime surges, but are also part of a broader effort to revamp the company, Schultz said in a Monday letter to staff.

'We need to reinvent Starbucks for the future,' he wrote, adding that the company will need to 'radically' improve employee experiences in the coming months.

He added that based on feedback from employees, the company will strive to create 'safety, welcoming and kindness for our stores.'

During its latest fiscal year, Starbucks closed 424 of its more than 15,000 US stores, about 5 percent of its total, while also opening 449 new locations.
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A wildfire fuelled by gale-force winds raged in the mountainous region of Penteli near Athens on Wednesday morning, burning homes and prompting authorities to order the evacuation of at least nine areas and a hospital.

Thick clouds of smoke darkened the sky over Mount Penteli where the fire broke out around 1430 GMT on Tuesday, some 16 miles north of central Athens, with one elderly resident saying: 'We didn't know where to flee.'

Nearly 500 firefighters, 120 vehicles, three planes and four helicopters swung into action from dawn to battle the flames near the suburbs of Penteli, Pallini, Anthousa and Gerakas, which is home to some 29,000 people.

Authorities had ordered the evacuation of nine areas, including Pallini and Gerakas. By Wednesday afternoon, officials had said firefighters had gained the upper-hand in tackling the blaze.

No injuries were immediately reported but at least 10 homes are believed to have sustained varying degrees of damage, state TV ERT said. However, Greek media reported that an 80-year-old man in Anthousa had fatally shot himself in despair over the fire, which broke out on Tuesday afternoon.

'It was a difficult night,' said Fire Department spokesperson Yiannis Artopios in a televised statement, adding that the wind speed exceeded 50 miles per hour.

'Due to the intensity and speed of the winds, the fire constantly changed direction throughout the night, which made fighting it, in the middle of the night, even more difficult,' he said.

One hospital and the National Observatory of Athens had been evacuated as a precaution. Traffic was halted on roads leading to Penteli and police helped at least 600 residents to find their way out of the fire-stricken areas.

Greece has so far been spared the scorching temperatures that have contributed to deadly wildfires in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, destroying vast tracts of land, but has faced gale-force winds this week.

The wildfires on the foot of Mount Penteli north of Athens were fanned overnight by the strong winds that constantly changed direction, and the billowing smoke was visible from the island of Evia some 30 miles away. The strong winds were forecast to persist until Wednesday afternoon.

Elsewhere, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that the 10-day heatwave that hit Spain left 'more than 500 people' dead. Portugal has reported more than 1,000 heat related deaths.

In southwest France, two massive fires have created apocalyptic scenes of destruction, despite much of the country's entire firefighting capacity being deployed. Across the channel, Britain also battled wildfires as temperatures exceeded 40 degrees for the first time on record.

GREECE: A wildfire fuelled by gale-force winds raged in the mountainous region of Penteli near Athens on Wednesday morning, burning homes and prompting authorities to order the evacuation of at least nine areas and a hospital. Pictured: Firefighters gestures as they work to extinguish a wild fire in Drafi agglomeration, north of Athens, on July 19, 2022

Thick clouds of smoke darkened the sky over Mount Penteli where the fire broke out around 1430 GMT on Tuesday, some 16 miles north of central Athens. Pictured: Smoke rises as a wildfire burns on the outskirts of Athens, July 19, 2022

Pictured: Fire burns next to houses in the area of Drafi east of Athens on Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Nearly 500 firefighters, 120 vehicles, three planes and four helicopters swung into action from dawn to battle the flames near the suburbs of Penteli, Pallini, Anthousa and Gerakas, which is home to some 29,000 people

An injured dog sits outside a house as a wildfire burns in Pallini, near Athens, July 20, 2022

A Canadair aircraft makes a water drop as a wildfire burns in the Pikermi suburb of Athens, July 20, 2022

Pictured: A house is shown on fire in the area of Anthousa, about 18 miles east of Athens on Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Pictured: A house is engulfed by flames during a wildfire in Pallini, near Athens, July 20, 2022

Pictured: Flames are seen in the hills near Athens as smoke rises above the city on Tuesday night

Firefighters try to extinguish a wildfire burning in Pallini, near Athens, July 20, 2022

A woman covers her face as a wildfire burns in Pallini, near Athens, July 20, 2022.

Pictured: A map of Europe showing the Fire Danger Forecast released by European monitoring service Copernicus

Greek firefighters had gained the upper hand in a battle against the wildfire by Wednesday afternoon.

'At the moment there is no active front...for the most part the fire is in decline,' fire department spokesman Yiannis Artopios told reporters.

Earlier, senior civil protection official Vassilis Kokkalis told Athens 98.4 radio: 'There are two active fronts... the winds are so strong that the planes are prevented from making targeted water drops.' He added that the fire was threatening businesses on a major Athens highway.

'It's a fire that will be a cause for concern for several days because of rekindlings,' Kokkalis said.

'It was insane, we did not know where to flee,' an elderly resident of Anthousa told ERT. 'Embers were falling from the sky, I've never seen anything like it,' he said.

Traffic was suspended on parts of a ring road around Athens, the company that manages it said on Twitter.

Greece has set up a crisis cell and firefighters battled 117 wildfires in the country in the last 24 hours.

Another 87 firefighters were battling a blaze in the Peloponnese, a southern peninsula.

Athens has asked European countries to send firefighters. A heatwave and wildfires last year destroyed 103,000 hectares (255,000 acres) and claimed three lives.

The fire brigade said that 28 firefighters from Romania were assisting local firefighters. More than 200 firefighters and equipment from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Romania, Norway and Finland will be on standby during the hottest months of July and August in Greece.

Citizen's Protection minister Takis Theodorikakos said his officers had since Tuesday helped evacuate nearly 700 people to safety, noting that some had refused to leave.

'The sky was red... we left without taking anything with us,' a Pallini resident who lost his car and shed to the flames told ERT television. The civil protection authority was late in alerting us. The fire was scorching our backs, we left in the nick of time. Had we stayed another 30 seconds it would have burned us,' he added.

The house next door was completely gutted, the man said.

Eleni Gerasimidou, a popular Greek comedian, was among those whose homes in Pallini were damaged. 'The house is no longer inhabitable... it has sustained massive damage,' she told Alpha TV.

The father of Olympic pole vault Katerina Stefanidi, Yiorgos, told Alpha TV he and some neighbours had fought the flames 'with spades and dirt' to save his home, without any help from the fire service. 'The fire was racing faster than a car,' he said. Authorities warned residents to stay indoors and keep their windows shut.

With winds racing at over 62 miles per hour, smoke from the fire billowed as far as the island of Crete, hundreds of kilometres to the south, satellite imagery showed. Residents say fires have struck the area three times in 30 years.

Last year, wildfires ravaged about 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) of forest and bushland in different parts of Greece as the country experienced its worst heat wave in 30 years.

Flames engulf a house as a wildfire rages in Anthousa, north of Athens, on July 19, 2022

A firefighting helicopter makes a water drop as a wildfire burns in the Pikermi suburb of Athens, Greece, July 20, 2022.

Fire burns at the Mount of Penteli as hundreds of people were ordered to leave their homes after a large forest fire broke out northeast of Athens, fanned by high winds

A munisipality worker uses a water canon to extinguish the fire in the area of Anthousa, about 18 miles east of Athens, July 20

A police officer takes a picture with his mobile phone as wildfires burn a residential area just outside Athens on the slopes of the Penteliko Mountain, on July 19, 2022

Residents spray water with a hose as fire burns near houses in the area of Drafi east of Athens on Wednesday, July 20, 2022

A firefighting helicopter makes a water drop as a wildfire burns in the Pikermi suburb of Athens, July 20, 2022

A view of scorched hill sides as a wildfire rages for the second day in Pallini, north of Athens on July 20, 2022

A half constructed house burns as a wildfire rages for the second day in Pallini, north of Athens on July 20, 2022

The fires ravaged the region near Athens as Europe continued to be pounded by an oppressive heatwave, sparking other wildfires across the continent.

Italian Fire brigades in Tuscany battled a wildfire on Wednesday that forced hundreds to evacuate and caused gas tanks to explode, as smoke from a blaze in northeast Italy forced shipbuilder Fincantieri to shut down a 3,000-staff plant. Wildfires have broken out in several parts of Italy this week as temperatures keep rising.

Nine cities were on the country's highest heatwave alert, which warns of serious health risks linked to the weather, up from five on Tuesday. The total will rise to 14 on Thursday, including Rome, Milan and Florence.

Temperatures are expected to hit 40C across a swathe of the north and centre this week, as well as in the southern heel of Italy's boot, Puglia, and the islands of Sardinia and Sicily.

On Wednesday, in Tuscany, a fire that broke out on Monday evening continued to burn near the town of Lucca, having already destroyed some 560 hectares (2.15 square miles) of woods.

It forced around 500 people to evacuate as the flames raged through the night reaching some villages and causing the explosion of some liquified gas tanks, the region's governor Eugenio Giani said on Twitter. 'Some fronts have strengthened because of the wind,' he added.

In the northeastern Friuli Venezia Giulia region, residents were urged to stay indoors because of heavy smoke from a wildfire that started on Tuesday in the Carso area bordering Croatia and Slovenia.

The fire prompted state-owned shipbuilder Fincantieri to close down its plant in the port city of Monfalcone.

ITALY: A wildfire is seen in Italy in footage released by the country's fire service on Wednesday

Wildfires have broken out in several parts of Italy this week as temperatures keep rising

Firefighters in southwestern France battled on Tuesday to contain massive forest wildfires and Britain recorded its highest ever temperature, while Portugal reported more than 1,000 heatwave-related deaths as Europe scorches.

Southern and western Germany and Belgium were also braced for potentially record-breaking temperatures as the heatwave, which scientists attribute to climate change, edged north and east.

Numerous wildfires were reported in Italy. One of the biggest blazes broke out on Monday night in the hills of Massarosa in Tuscany, and was still raging on Tuesday afternoon.

'Fire continues to devour the woods in a frightening way due to the wind,' Tuscany Governor Eugenio Giani said, noting that 365 hectares (900 acres) of land had been destroyed.

Fires were also reported in woods near Rome, as well as on the shores of Lake Orta north of Milan and near the northeastern city of Trieste.

FRANCE: A civil security helicopter flies over a wildfire raging the Monts d'Arree, French Brittany, on July 20, 2022

A wildfire rages behind the Brennilis nuclear powerplant in the Monts d'Arree, French Brittany, on July 20, 2022

A firefighter walks through the smoke as a wildfire rages in the Monts d'Arree, near Brennilis, Brittany, on July 19, 2022

This photo provided by the fire brigade of the Gironde region (SDIS 33) shows a burnt pine forests water near Landrias, southwestern France, Tuesday, July 19, 2022

This photo provided by the fire brigade of the Gironde region (SDIS 33) shows a water-bombing plane spreads water La Teste-de-Buch, southwestern France, Tuesday, July 19, 2022

 Slide me  Pictured: Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC showing a fire burning in the forest in La Teste de Buch, near Arcachon, southwestern France. Left: Smoke is seen rising on July 13. Right: The devastated region is seen five days later on July 18

Pictured: A swimming pool at the camping Les Flots Bleus, which has been ravaged by a wildfire in Pyla sur Mer in Gironde, southwestern France

Farmers bring water tanks to help firefighters fighting against a wildfire raging in the Monts d'Arree, near Brennilis, Brittany, on July 19, 2022

In France, 64 different areas registered record high temperatures on Monday, the national weather service confirmed, most of them along the western Atlantic coast where temperatures also soared above 40C. But the all-time high for mainland France, set in 2019 near Montpellier, of 46C did not appear under threat this week.

In southwest France, two massive fires have created apocalyptic scenes of destruction, despite much of the country's entire firefighting capacity being deployed.

Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said on Wednesday that France must invest more money to fight wildfires, as President Emmanuel Macron prepared to visit the Gironde region which has been hit by devastating blazes.

'We must go further,' Fesneau told France 2 Television.

Fesneau said the government had already earmarked 850 million euros ($870.23 million) to upgrade its fleet of fire-fighting planes, as well as 1 billion euros used for re-planting trees.

'We are having to confront a quite exceptional situation, we are talking about more than 20,000 hectares affected in Gironde, 1,500 in Finistere and 1,500 in the Bouches du Rhone,' added Fesneau, referring to damage caused in Brittany and Southern France.

The fires have spread across 19,300 hectares (about 75 square miles) in the countryside surrounding Bordeaux since July 12, forcing 34,000 people to evacuate their homes.

About 2,000 firefighters, supported by eight water-bomber aircraft, were battling the blazes.

Overnight, officials in Gironde hailed a night of 'calm', saying 'the fire progressed very little last night'.

SPAIN: A view of the forest after a wildfire near the town of El Pont de Vilomara, seen on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

The skull of a goat lies on the ground after a forest fire on a farm in San Martin de Tabara, north-west Spain, Tuesday, July 19

Villagers look at burnt houses after a wildfire in A Veiga de Cascalla, near O Barco de Valdeorras, northern Spain on July 19

A resident looks at the burnt out forest after a wildfire near the town of El Pont de Vilomara, Tuesday, July 19, 2022

People work to extinguish a fire as wildfires get close to a house in Tabara, north-west Spain, Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Alex Codonyer, 55, inspects his house burnt during a wildfire in River Park village, near the town of El Pont de Vilomara, Spain, Tuesday, July 19, 2022

In Spain - nearly 10 days into the latest heatwave - more than a dozen fires continued to rage Tuesday, including in the northwest province of Zamora, which already experienced a huge fire last month.

Known as one of the largest wolf reserves in Europe, it saw nearly 30,000 hectares of land reduced to ashes during the June blaze. Nearly 6,000 people had to be evacuated from there this week after flames destroyed several thousand hectares of meadows and forests, regional authorities said.

'The climate emergency is lethal,' said prime minister Pedro Sanchez, after visiting a badly hit area. He later said that more than 500 people have been left dead by the extreme heat.

'During this heatwave, more than 500 people died because of such high temperatures, according to the statistics,' Sanchez said, referring to a public health institute estimate based on excess mortality rates.

'I ask citizens to exercise extreme caution,' the premier said, noting the 'climate emergency is a reality'.

The heatwave pushed temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius in some regions last week.

Sanchez cited figures from the Carlos III Health Institute which estimates the number of heat-related deaths based on the number of excess deaths when compared to the average in previous years. The institute has qualified these figures in recent days, stressing that it was a statistical estimate and not a record of official deaths.

Rail traffic between Madrid and Galicia, in the northwest, remained suspended after fires on either side of the tracks.

Several people have died in recent days due to the blazes while separately, an office worker in his 50s died from heatstroke in Madrid.

Meanwhile, 2,000 people had to be evacuated from Ateca, in the province of Zaragoza, as a forest fire burned more than 34,500 acres. The regional government requested more resources from the federal government.

Railway lines between Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona - that were closed due to wildfires that in some parts surrounded trains - reopened, in a sign the fires were being brought under control.

In Portugal, nearly 2,000 firefighters were tackling fires in the centre and north of the country, buffeted by strong winds and a rise in temperature.

A forest fire in the Vila Real region in the far north of Portugal involved more than 800 firefighters and saw three villages evacuated.

Murca mayor Mario Artur Lopes said the fire, which began on Sunday, has devastated between 10,000 and 12,000 hectares of forest. Wildfires in Portugal had already killed two other people and injured around 60.

The head of Portugal's health authority DGS, Graca Freitas, told Reuters that 1,063 excess deaths due to the heatwave, above normal levels, were recorded from July 7 to 18.

'Portugal ... is among one of the areas of the globe that could be (more) affected by extreme heat,' Freitas said. 'We have to be more and more prepared for periods of high temperatures.'

Carlos Antunes, a researcher at Lisbon University's faculty of sciences, said the data showed the elderly were most likely to die due to heatwaves.

Hot nighttime temperatures are also hindering firefighting responses across Europe and worsening health conditions as the night hours fail to provide a cooling reprieve, experts said on Tuesday.

A firefighter waters a field affected by a wildfire in Tabara, north-west Spain, Tuesday, July 19, 2022

A fence post burns in a field affected by a wildfire in Tabara, north-west Spain, Tuesday, July 19, 2022

PORTUGAL: An airplane drops water over a forest fire in Cabanas, Valpacos, Portugal, 19 July 2022

GNR (National Republican Guard) officers and people look in the direction of a forest fire in Cabanas, Valpacos, 19 July 2022

Elsewhere, the Netherlands recorded its third-highest temperature since records began - 39.4C in the southern city of Maastricht, public broadcaster NOA said, quoting the national meteorological office.

Dutch authorities spread roads with salt in some areas to prevent the asphalt from melting and being damaged by the weight of vehicles.

In Amsterdam, council workers sprayed bridges over the famed canals with water to keep them cool, amid fears that steel in the structures could expand and prevent them opening to let boats pass.

Car parks at the beach in Scheveningen, near The Hague, were full by midday, and hundreds of beachgoers sheltered under the pier to escape the sun.

'It's just like a holiday in Majorca,' said Norwegian tourist Ane Herber, 25.

In neighbouring Belgium, big state-run museums, primarily in Brussels, took the unusual step of offering free access Tuesday to over-65s to help them stay cool.

Two nuclear reactors located near Antwerp had to reduce their production power by more than half in order to limit the temperature of water discharged into nearby rivers.

In Germany, the hot summer so far has raised fears of drought, with the German Farmers' Association president warning of 'major losses' in food production. Henning Christ, who grows wheat and other crops in Brandenburg state, told AFP his farm was 20 percent below its average annual yield.

'We've had almost no rain for months, coupled with high temperatures,' he said. 'We have become used to drought and dry periods to some extent, but this year has been very unusual.'

THE NETHERLANDS: An aerial photo taken on July 19, 2022 shows a view of the beach of Scheveningen, Netherlands, amid a fierce heatwave in Europe

A woman and a child are cooling off from the heat in a boat on the water in Loenen aan de Vecht, the Netherlands, 19 July 2022. The Dutch meteorogical institute KNMI has issued a warning due to the high temperatures

A municipal worker hoses the Wiegbrug streets in the city center to keep them wet and cool due to the hot weather in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 19 July 2022

With human-caused climate change triggering droughts, the number of extreme wildfires is expected to increase 30% within the next 28 years, according to a February 2022 United Nations report.

'We are seeing more frequent heatwaves, and the heatwaves are hotter than they would have been without climate change,' Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London, told Reuters.

The health impact of the heatwave has been in focus, with particular care given to the elderly and vulnerable.

Copernicus - Europe's atmospheric monitoring service - warned on Tuesday that Europe's searing heatwave is generating very high levels of harmful ozone pollution, adding that large areas of western Europe also face 'extreme' danger of wildfires.

The organisation's emergency management service has warned that a large proportion of western Europe is in 'extreme fire danger' with some areas of 'very extreme fire danger'.

The heatwave is also causing high levels of ground-level ozone, Copernicus said.

Unlike the protective layer in the upper atmosphere, this is a major greenhouse gas and component of urban smog that harms human health and inhibits photosynthesis in plants.

'The potential impacts of very high ozone pollution on human health can be considerable both in terms of respiratory and cardio-vascular illness,' said Mark Parrington, Senior Scientist from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.

Ozone is formed as emissions from fossil fuels and other man-made pollutants react in the presence of sunlight and Copernicus said cutting emissions of these pollutants is 'crucial'.

Scientists have already detected 'extremely high surface ozone pollution' across western and southern Europe, particularly over the Iberian Peninsula and parts of northern Italy.

Daily maximum levels of surface ozone, which normally peaks during the middle of the day, reached unhealthy levels in Portugal, Spain and Italy, according to Copernicus.

Scientists now warn that, while the situation is likely to ease across the Iberian Peninsula, very high surface ozone levels are now being seen in areas of northern and western parts of the continent as temperatures rise.

The ozone levels in these regions are forecast to peak in the next few days, before easing.

Copernicus also predicted no relief from the wildfires that have engulfed swathes of forests across parts of southern Europe.

Copernicus said total carbon emissions from the wildfires in Spain so far in July are the highest seen for the June-July period since 2003.

Parrington said high surface ozone can lead to sore throats, coughing, headaches and an increased risk of asthma attacks.

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition estimates that ozone pollution causes approximately one million additional deaths per year. Ozone is also a key concern for agricultural regions and food security.

In January, researchers estimated that persistently high levels of ozone pollution in Asia are costing China, Japan and South Korea an estimated $63 billion annually in lost rice, wheat and maize crops.

UK: Around 100 firefighters were called to an inferno in Wennington, Essex, alone, which one emergency worker described as 'absolute hell.' (Pictured: Row of destroyed homes in Wennington following Tuesday's inferno)

A row of houses on fire in the village of Wennington in East London yesterday afternoon as temperatures soar again tod

Residents and emergency services are assessing the damage this morning after Britain's hottest day on record sparked a string of devastating wild fires which destroyed dozens of homes and businesses. (Pictured: Aftermath in Wennington, Essex)

Burnt grass surrounds St Mary and St Peter's Church in the village of Wennington, as historic place of worship miraculously remains largely untouched by the inferno

Meanwhile in the UK, a punishing heatwave pushed temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius for the first time on Tuesday and regional heat records tumbled elsewhere.

After the UK's warmest night on record, the Met Office said a new high of 40.3C had been recorded at Coningsby in eastern England.

At least 34 locations in Britain beat the previous record of 38.7C set in Cambridge, eastern England, in 2019.

Experts blamed climate change for the soaring temperatures - and warned that worse is yet to come.

Heatwaves 'are becoming more frequent and this negative trend will continue... at least until the 2060s, independent of our success in climate mitigation efforts,' UN World Meteorological Organization chief Petteri Taalas told reporters in Geneva.

'In the future these kinds of heatwaves are going to be normal, and we will see even stronger extremes.'

The high temperatures have triggered an unprecedented red alert in much of England, where some rail lines were closed as a precaution and schools shuttered in some areas.

Grassland fires erupted on the edge of London, with one forcing the evacuation of 14 people as farm buildings, houses and garages were consumed by the flames.

Meanwhile, all trains were cancelled from usually busy Kings Cross station, leaving many travellers stranded.
Children in care are being illegally housed in caravans and narrowboats - while one 12-year-old boy was placed in a campsite for weeks more than 100 miles from his siblings and school.

Councils are breaking the law by placing under-16s in unregistered care homes. It is also illegal for care companies to run such facilities - although there are exemptions for holidays or leisure activities that campaigners fear are being exploited.



The Department for Education says it is Ofsted's job to pursue prosecutions, but the regulator insists it needs more powers.

Children in care are being placed in caravans, it emerged today. Pictured: A stock photo of a caravan

Provider Bear Care Services said caravans and narrowboats were needed due to a 'massive shortage of registered provision'. The Wigan-based company appears to pride itself on its mobile accomodation (pictured: a grab from its website)

At least 120 children have been placed in unregistered homes, according to a major investigation by BBC News.

In one case, a 14-year-old boy was placed in an unregulated placement above a shop in Portsmouth despite known to be at risk of jumping out of windows.

Some companies have even housed children in tents.

Another boy, 12, was recently placed into care for six weeks with Bear Care Services, a company which houses children in narrowboats and caravans.

The child had been moved between several care homes before his last home was closed at short notice. He was then moved into a caravan.

Worcestershire County Council did not deny breaking the law by placing the child in unregulated accommodation, the BBC reported, and described it as a 'crisis' placement.

Bear Care Services said caravans and narrowboats were needed due to a 'massive shortage of registered provision'.

It insisted it was not breaking the law because placements in mobile homes do not need to be registered.

The Wigan-based company appears to pride itself on its mobile accomodation, with a section on its website describing its 'crisis barges' as 'truly luxurious' and with 'a hand built solid oak kitchen and granite worktops'.

Worcester Council boss Paul Robinson. A boy in the care of the council was placed in a caravan

Its caravans, meanwhile, offer 'quality with a hint of luxury', according to the website, with a 'premium cabin door, aluminium frame windows and a hot water heating system'.

A total of 141 local authorities in England responded to freedom of information requests, with more than 50 admitting placing at least 120 children in unregulated homes.

Some of these placements include court-ordered restrictions on the child's freedom of movement for their own welfare, which judges sometimes agree to when there is no suitable accommodation available.

Katharine Sacks-Jones, chief executive of children's care charity Become, said the situation was 'a national scandal'.

'It's just tragic to hear that you've discovered so many children who are being placed in settings which are unsuitable for them', she added.

The Department of Education said: 'We have banned the placement of children under 16 from unregulated or semi-independent accommodation because it does not meet their needs.

'Instead, they should live with foster parents or in children's homes where they can receive the right care - and we are investing more than 260 million to support and expand these homes.'

Ofsted said: 'There have been no prosecutions of unregistered providers to date. Ofsted has been asking the Department for Education for additional powers to tackle unregistered children's homes including the ability to directly fine providers that are operating illegally.'

Children have also been kept in narrowboats. Pictured is a file photo of a narrowboat

In 2021, the then Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said the government would be legislating to give Ofsted more powers to take enforcement action against providers offering unregistered children's homes.

Tina Russell, Chief Executive of Worcestershire Children First, said: 'Keeping children in our care as stable and settled as possible in a placement is a real priority for us as we recognise the negative impact a breakdown in placement and loss of stability can have on the wellbeing of the child involved.

'When it becomes apparent there is a risk of a placement breakdown or termination of a placement for any reason, we work closely with the provider and supporting staff teams who are involved in the care of the child to try and prevent the end of their placement.

'Where the placement ends and there is no alternative provision available, a crisis situation arises. We only ever use unregulated provision where a crisis situation arises there is absolutely no alternative provision available. In this situation, we do our utmost to ensure the child is extensively supported by our team whilst we continue with daily extensive searches until a matched, regulated and registered placement becomes available.'

MailOnline has contacted Bear Care Services for comment.
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The Tory leadership battle is heading for a nailbiting showdown today as MPs choose the final two candidates - with Liz Truss desperately trying to overtake Penny Mordaunt.

Voting has closed in the fifth - and almost certainly last - ballot after a frantic day of wooing and horse-trading at Westminster.

Ms Truss and Ms Mordaunt were just six votes apart in the last round, and have been scrapping for Kemi Badenoch's 58 backers following her elimination from the race yesterday.

Tory leadership election: Round Four Rishi Sunak: 118 (+3) Penny Mordaunt: 92 (+10) Liz Truss: 86 (+15) Eliminated Kemi Badenoch: 59 (+1) Advertisement

The Foreign Secretary appears to have the momentum, having surged into contention after a relatively slow start. Allies voiced confidence that she will come out on top, while admitting that it could be desperately tight.

But Ms Mordaunt has been fighting hard to stay in contention - and has been given more hope with one of her declared supporters, Tobias Ellwood, having the whip restored temporarily so he can vote.

Rishi Sunak remains the front runner, having topped every round so far - although he is still short of the 120 votes needed to guarantee going forward to the run-off ballot of Tory members.

Ms Truss's backers fear the former chancellor's team may try to 'fix' the final vote today to ensure he does not face a candidate from the Tory Right in the run-off decided by party members.

They point to a YouGov survey showing that  head to head  she would beat Mr Sunak by a comfortable margin of 54:35.

Ms Truss picked up 15 votes to command the support of 86 Tory MPs on Tuesday, after 31 votes were freed up by the elimination of Tom Tugendhat a day earlier.

Ms Mordaunt increased her share by 10 to sit on 92, while Mr Sunak gained an extra three votes to put him in 118, just shy of the number effectively guaranteeing him entry to the final phase.

Ms Badenoch came last in the ballot on 59 votes, with Ms Truss believed to be more likely to pick up a significant number of those votes than Ms Mordaunt.

A former minister also suggested that Mr Sunak, who he is backing, would rather face Ms Mordaunt. 'Rishi vs Liz is going to be the most feared contest,' said Chris Skidmore. 'That will be the battle for ideas, a battle of personalities.'

In other twists and turns in the Westminster hothouse today:

The Cabinet Secretary has launched an investigation into allegations that civil service material has been leaked to damage Ms Mordaunt;

Ms Mordaunt tweeted and then deleted a link to an article warning votes for her rivals would 'murder' the Conservative Party;

There are claims that around 2,000 Tory members have written to the party chair asking for Boris Johnson to be included on the leadership ballot;

Taking his last PMQs in the Commons as parliament prepares to go into summer recess, Mr Johnson joked that he is 'not following' the Tory leadership battle 'particularly closely' but all the candidates would 'wipe the floor' with Labour;

The PM swiped at the Treasury saying it did not want to build the M25 or Channel Tunnel, and signed off by saying 'mission largely accomplished... for now';

Ms Mordaunt has seized on inflation rising to a 40-year high of 9.4 per cent saying it underlines her call for targeted tax cuts;

Mr Sunak has unveiled plans for energy reforms to make the UK self-sufficient but insisted he will not relax tough rules on onshore wind farm;

Keir Starmer has accused Mr Johnson of being a 'complete bullsh*****' who 'took the p***' out of the public with his partygate explanations.

The three candidates (pictured centre, Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss) posed with the 1922 committee executive as they waited for the result this afternoon

Liz Truss (left) enjoyed a surge in support in yesterday's penultimate leadership ballot, and is within touching distance of second-placed Penny Mordaunt (right)

Rishi Sunak's team deny they are cooking up 'dirty backroom deals' to squeeze out Ms Truss and get Ms Mordaunt through to the head-to-head final round

Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt look to be in a straight fight to feature in the run off after staving off the challenge from Kemi Badenoch - and will now be scrambling to pick up her 59 supporters

Boris Johnson took his last PMQs today with Liz Truss present - albeit a few places away from the outgoing leader. But Mr Sunak seemed to give the session a miss

HOW THE TORY LEADERSHIP RACE WILL PLAY OUT Today - A fifth ballot of Tory MPs will decide the final pair, ending the parliamentary phase of the contest. Tomorrow - MPs will head away from Westminster for their summer break. Late July and August - CCHQ will assume responsibility for leadership election and will send out ballot papers to around 200,000 Conservative Party members. The Tory grassroots will be asked to decide between the final two candidates, with hustings events to be held across the UK. 5th September - The result of the membership ballot is announced, with the candidate receiving more than 50 per cent of the vote being declared the new Tory leader and Boris Johnson's replacement as Prime Minister. 6th September - The new Tory leader is likely to be formally appointed as PM during a visit to the Queen at Buckingham Palace. 7th September - The new PM is set to be quizzed in the House of Commons in their first ever Prime Minister's Questions. Advertisement

Mr Sunak has tried to get himself over the line with a promise to make the UK self-sufficient in energy production by 2045.

But the former chancellor said he would scrap a plan to relax the ban on new onshore wind farms in England, instead focusing on offshore turbines.

The proposal has been unpopular with MPs in the Tory shires, although polls suggest the public are broadly in favour.

Under Mr Sunak's blueprint plan a new 'energy sovereignty' target for 2045 would be written in to law.

An energy security committee would co-ordinate action to keep power stations online, protect gas reserves and reform markets to cut consumers' bills.

A dedicated energy ministry would be formed by breaking up the current Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Mr Sunak said: 'As energy bills skyrocket in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it has never been more important that our country achieves energy sovereignty, so that we're no longer reliant on the volatility of the global energy supply.

'That's why as Prime Minister I would introduce an ambitious new plan to make the UK energy independent, investing in vital new technologies. '

A Truss campaign source said she Truss was 'in the driving seat' to reach the run-off although 'there's a lot of work still to do'.

Yesterday's vote left outsider Kemi Badenoch as a potential kingmaker after she was knocked out. Rival candidates were battling to secure the crucial backing of her 59 supporters.

Mrs Badenoch is on the Tory Right and the Foreign Secretary's team believe at least 22 of her supporters are sympathetic to Ms Truss's cause.

In an early sign of success, defence minister Leo Docherty switched from Mrs Badenoch to Ms Truss last night, saying: 'I've seen at first hand her deep experience and sound judgement and know she has a credible plan.'

Ms Mordaunt has been making calls to supporters of Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch, who have been eliminated from the leadership race, in a last-ditch attempt to gain the support needed to secure a place in the run-off.

Boris bows out at final PMQs... but hints it might only be 'for now' Boris Johnson today bowed out of his final PMQs with fresh attacks on Sir Keir Starmer and a swipe at his possible successor Rishi Sunak, as he told MPs: 'Hasta la vista, baby'. The outgoing Prime Minister was afforded a standing ovation by Tory MPs - although not from the Labour benches or from his predecessor Theresa May - at the end of this afternoon's session. It came less than two weeks after he was forced to announce his resignation following a revolt against his leadership from within his Conservative ranks. In his departing words, Mr Johnson issued a dig at his ex-Chancellor - with Mr Sunak having been among the torrent of ministers who recently quit the PM's administration - and gave a warning to those Tory MPs who rebelled against him. In advice to whoever replaces him, the PM said: 'Focus on the road ahead, but always remember to check the rear view mirror and remember above all it's not Twitter that counts - it's the people that sent us here.' Mr Johnson also urged the next Tory leader to 'stay close to the Americans, stick up for the Ukrainians, stick up for freedom and democracy everywhere'. 'Cut taxes and deregulate wherever you can to make this the greatest place to live and invest, which it is,' he added. 'I love the Treasury but remember that if we'd always listened to the Treasury we wouldn't have built the M25 or the Channel Tunnel.' Mr Johnson dropped a hint he could attempt a political comeback, telling MPs his premiership had been 'mission largely accomplished, for now'. Advertisement

A campaign source said: 'Today is about continuity versus change for the Conservative Party.

'Penny's been speaking with colleagues already this morning and so many of Tom and Kemi's backers are calling out for change.

'As the only one not in Johnson's cabinet, Penny is the sole MP left in the race who offers a genuine fresh start. Not every candidate would win an election, but time and time again the polls show that Penny is the candidate Labour fear the most.

'MPs have a choice today  the same old or a new start for the Conservative Party.

'Their colleagues, party members, and voters across the country are crying out for something new but only Penny Mordaunt can deliver that.'

Treasury minister Simon Clarke said he wanted MPs to back Ms Truss for 'positive' reasons.

'I think she has the most exciting plan for economic growth and she set out a compelling plan to lower the burden of taxation.'

'I have very high regard for Rishi Sunak,' he insisted. 'I am here to make the case for what I think is the right future step in terms of where we go from here and that is for a Government led by Liz Truss.'

A Truss campaign spokesman said: 'Now is the time for the party to unite behind a candidate who will govern in a Conservative way and who has shown she can deliver time and again.

'Liz has a bold new economic agenda that will immediately tackle the cost of living crisis, boost economic growth and continue leading the global fight for freedom in Ukraine.'

One former minister who is not cheerleading for any particular candidate told MailOnline that they thought whomever gets into the run-off would defeat Mr Sunak.

'I don't think the membership will vote for him. He is very competent and able, but not popular with our activists. The other candidate would have to implode,' they said.

The Cabinet Secretary has launched a investigation into allegations of leaking of information within the civil service, apparently intended to damage Ms Mordaunt's campaign.

In a letter to Tory MP and Mordaunt-backer David Davis, Simon Case wrote: 'Thank you for your letter of 17 July, raising your concerns about the apparent leaking of information designed to influence the Conservative leadership election.

'I have been very clear in writing with the civil service that it is paramount that public resources are not used to support leadership campaigns during the Conservative Party leadership election.

'Further to that, unauthorised disclosure of government information to the media is clearly inappropriate. In light of these facts and the concerns you raise, I can confirm that I have launched a leak investigation into this matter.

'The investigation will be completed as quickly as possible given the importance of the subject.'

Either Ms Truss or Ms Mordaunt would start a run-off campaign from a good position, as a YouGov survey has indicated they could comfortably defeat Mr Sunak

YouGov research suggested that the trade minister has fallen back after sparking an initial wave of enthusiasm among activists. The Foreign Secretary now has a 48 per cent to 42 per cent advantage when put up against Ms Mordaunt

There have been fears the contest could be undermined by 'vote lending' between the rival teams, with suspicions focused on Mr Sunak's campaign aide Gavin Williamson. Mr Sunak's team deny underhand tactics  and insist that Sir Gavin has no formal role.

Another Conservative MP said: 'There is a concerted effort I think to try to make sure that Rishi doesn't face Liz in the final.'

However, former Cabinet minister David Davis accused Mr Sunak of helping Ms Truss in order to squeeze out Ms Mordaunt.

'There's clearly been some transfer of votes, presumably from Rishi to Liz,' he told LBC Radio. 'Rishi just reallocated some. He's got his four or five chief whips that he has in a boiler room to reallocate them. He wants to fight Liz because she's the person who will lose the debate with him.'

A Sunak-supporting MP denied wrongdoing, saying: 'We are encouraging every colleague who wants Rishi to win to vote for him.'

Yesterday's result left the contest finely poised with Mr Sunak gaining only three supporters after the votes of moderate Tom Tugendhat were redistributed. This left him on 118, well ahead of Miss Mordaunt, who picked up votes to move to 92, with Ms Truss narrowing the gap on 86.

Former Tugendhat backer Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the International Trade Secretary, came out in support of Ms Truss.
Heathrow will maintain its limit on daily flights until after the October half term, raising fears of cancellations and travel misery lasting well into the autumn.

The west London airport is understood to have told carriers that limits on both inbound and outbound flights will be in effect until at least October 29, owing to staff shortages and absences.

The travel hub even threatened to sue airlines which fail to adequately reduce capacity as part of their legal duty to maintain 'safe and resilient' travel for passengers.

It comes as the country's busiest airport continues to struggle due to a lack of workers, with huge queues and crowding reported by fed-up holidaymakers.

Heathrow will maintain its limit on daily flights until after the October half term, it was revealed last night, raising fears of cancellations and travel misery lasting well into the autumn. (Pictured: Heathrow on June 27)

One passenger today said they missed their flight at Heathrow while waiting in queues for check in and security - despite arriving four hours ahead of their departure time

HEATHROW: Photo of left luggage at baggage reclaim in Heathrow Terminal 3 from earlier this month

In a letter to airlines seen by the Telegraph, Mark Powell, Heathrow's director of operational planning, said the travel hub had already introduced 'contingency' measures to avoid 'dangerous' overcrowding in its terminals.

One passenger today said they missed their flight at Heathrow while waiting in queues for check in and security - despite arriving four hours ahead of their departure time.

Passengers at Gatwick have also reported problems this morning, with one holidaymaker claiming their flight was delayed by more than 24 hours, 'ruining their holiday.'

In Edinburgh, one fuming traveller branded the situation a 'shambles' as they tweeted a picture of a packed-out baggage reclaim area, writing: 'This is the capital's airport... no ground staff when we arrived, queues everywhere, convoluted walkway... you need to get your act together!'

And things could soon get worse as airline workers join Britain's summer of strikes, including refuelling staff, who are set to walk out for three days starting next week.

The walk out will come at the start of school summer holidays and will affect airlines Emirates, Virgin Atlantic, Delta and KLM.

Spanish workers for EasyJet and Ryanair are also threatening industrial action, potentially wreaking even more havoc on Brits' holiday plans.

Heathrow was already under fire this week after it took the drastic decision to cap the number of daily departing passengers to 100,000 until at least September 11.

Others complained of problems at both Heathrow and Gatwick this morning

Why is Heathrow imposing a daily passenger cap? Airlines were able to take advantage of a Government scheme which meant they could cancel summer flights without losing their future rights to the valuable take-off and landing slots. But even with this measure, Heathrow believes airlines still planned to operate flights carrying 4,000 more daily passengers than could be processed in an acceptable manner. Heathrow said: 'On average only about 1,500 of these 4,000 daily seats have currently been sold to passengers, and so we are asking our airline partners to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers. 'We recognise that this will mean some summer journeys will either be moved to another day, another airport or be cancelled and we apologise to those whose travel plans are affected. 'But this is the right thing to do to provide a better, more reliable journey and to keep everyone working at the airport safe.' Heathrow insisted the capacity cap is 'in line with limits implemented at other airports'. It added that airlines have 'discretion as to how they implement this in their individual schedules'. Advertisement

Under the new plans, the number of daily flights leaving and arriving to Heathrow will be capped at 1,100 until August 31.

The figure will then climb to 1,150 between September 1 and 30, before reaching 1,200 between October 1 and 29.

In the pre-pandemic era, Heathrow was handling 1,350 flights per day.

Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy the PC Agency, said: 'These further limits on flight numbers will lead many to question why Heathrow is unable to get a grip on its staffing crisis before October at the earliest.

'Consumers will be concerned about booking half-term trips if they know that Heathrow is continuing to limit passenger numbers towards the end of the year.'

The airport defended limiting its schedules 'to ensure a continued safe operation and to mitigate risk of uncontrolled demand increases leading to potentially dangerous levels of congestion or crowding'.

It added: 'During the last few weeks, Heathrow has had to deploy contingencies to avoid safety events and overcrowding in the terminals including access control/call forward required to ensure the safe management of passengers queueing in landside areas.'

The measures were blamed on 'continued higher absence levels and reliance upon overtime across Team Heathrow' which meant 'there is volatility in resourcing levels, impacting resilience, safety, passenger experience and performance'.

The Telegraph reported that airlines have been issued legal letters, warning them they could face 'restricted usage or no further usage of the airport' if they fail to cancel flights.

An airport source told the paper: 'There are legal routes we can use. As part of the licence to operate at Heathrow, airlines need to run a safe and resilient schedule.'

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary says UK workers won't plug post-Covid staff shortages blamed for airport chaos British people do not want to be baggage handlers, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has said amid staff shortages and planned strikes at Heathrow Airport. The low budget airline has been 'completely unaffected' by airport chaos this summer which has seen others British airlines cancel thousands of flights due in part to staff shortages. In contrast, Mr O'Leary said Ryanair was prepared for the return of pre-Covid levels of travel because it could see the 'recovery coming' and got its staff back to work early. He also claimed unlike his competitors, his Irish company can take advantage of the European Labour market and not be faced with British workers who do not want to 'pick fruit or work in hospitality, security and baggage handling at airports'. He added: 'I'm not re-campaigning on Brexit, but the UK is going to have to find a way to open up the Labour market between the UK and Europe, to get people in here to do the jobs which frankly British people don't want to do. 'They don't want to pick fruit, they don't want to do agricultural labour, they don't want to do hospitality or security or baggage handling at airports.' Advertisement

It comes after a furious blame game broke out between Heathrow airport and airline bosses this week over the chaos that has left much of Britain's aviation sector paralysed.

The airport's chairman Lord Deighton rushed to chief executive John Holland-Kaye's defence after travel chiefs blasted Heathrow for failing to prepare for the summer period.

Former British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh slammed the airport for imposing an unprecedented flight cap to limit queues, baggage delays and cancellations that will affect 100,000 holidaymakers a day until September, and even called for Mr Holland-Kaye to be fired if the chaos continues into next year.

But turning on Mr Walsh, Lord Deighton accused BA bosses of overseeing 'decade of slashing' before 'being refashioned as a service organisation by its new team'.

He also blamed the disruption on Covid-era mass layoffs and cuts to the wages of baggage handlers - who typically earn between 15,000 and 28,000 - imposed by airlines during the pandemic.

'Ground handling is a highly competitive, labour intensive, low margin business, characterised by short term contracts,' the former Treasury official wrote in the Telegraph.

'Airlines have driven down costs over the years, and this was one of the first costs they slashed during the pandemic.

'For months ground handling companies have been trying to recruit and train skilled workers, but if their airline customers aren't willing to pay market rates, then they aren't able to fill the posts.'

He added: 'For months we have been asking airlines to keep their ground handling resource in balance with demand. In the last few weeks, we have seen a shocking increase in planes departing without bags and passengers having their flights cancelled after they were already onboard.

'That's why we stepped in and implemented a cap on departing passengers - just like Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Gatwick and many other airports around the world.'
A children's intensive care unit doctor has been suspended after he was held in a citizens' arrest for flashing whilst strolling around a nature reserve.

Dr Salman Siddiqi, 44, was detained by onlookers in June 2019 after they spotted him exposing his genitals in broad daylight as they walked through Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park in London's East End.

Siddiqi was subsequently handed over to police and later accepted a caution which meant he admitted the offence - but he then failed to tell regulators at the General Medical Council.

His caution remained a secret for almost two years until the shamed NHS medic alerted GMC officials in March last year following an 'informal discussion' with a senior colleague.

Dr Salman Siddiqi, pictured, flashed members of the public in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park in June 2019 when he was detained by members of the public

Siddiqi, pictured, received a caution at Bethnal Green police station 'for intentionally exposing his genitals'

Following his caution, Dr Siddiqi failed in his obligation to report the matter to the General Medical Council who would consider his conduct during a disciplinary hearing

At the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, Siddiqi a locum Paediatric Intensive Care Unit Consultant at the Royal London Hospital was suspended for a month in a hearing largely held behind closed doors due to the doctor's 'private issues.'

He had expressed 'regret' over his actions but although he claimed to have 'identified the trigger' for it, he could not give cast iron assurances against repeating his behaviour.

He says he has since formed a support network and was getting help from friends and the imam at his local mosque.

Siddiqi who qualified in 2001 had worked at Guys and Great Ormond Street children's hospital and at the time of the flashing offence was working for Barts Health NHS trust.

He was given a caution at Bethnal Green police station 'for intentionally exposing his genitals at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park on 1 June 2019, intending that someone would see them and be caused alarm or distress.'

The GMC hearing said stripping him of his medical licence would be an excessive punishment

Instead, they decided to suspend him from practice for one month

Little detail was given of the offence itself but GMC lawyer Boyd Morwood told the Manchester hearing: 'At a time of moral turbulence, the public expects professionals to act in accordance with the duties imposed upon them by law.

'Dr Siddiqi's conduct failed to meet the high standards expected of him. He acted in an indecent manner in a public place and accepted that his

conduct on the day was such as to cause others alarm or distress.

'Irrespective of whether Dr Siddiqi later regretted his actions, they were intentional, conducted in a manner traversing the accepted norms of behaviour and without fear of consequence.'

'He turned a blind eye to his responsibility and was willing to mislead the GMC both by concealment and by misrepresenting the offence. Whilst Dr Siddiqi has sought to identify the trigger for his actions, he could not give cast iron assurances against repetition. Until such evidence is received there remains a risk of re-occurrence.'

Siddiqi's counsel Ms Catherine Stock called for her client to immediately resume unrestricted medical practise and said: 'This has been a difficult journey for Dr Siddiqi. His reflective statement is candid and honest and he has provided evidence in a desire to be completely open and honest - evidence that he need not have provided.

'It is not the role of the regulator to interfere in the personal life of any doctor save as to any issues in a doctor's personal life that impact on the health and well-being of the public or indeed on the reputation of the profession.

'The incident that led to the police caution was a one-off and a bad judgement call. He has since that time sought support from his superiors at work and his friends. He has learned and matured a great deal in the intervening period.'

She added: 'The Tribunal should bear in mind the personal and professional matters in Dr Siddiqi's life and finally the lapse of time since the offence for which he was cautioned occurred, some three years ago. Dr Siddiqi has expressed clear regret and remorse and has identified in clear terms why this will never happen again.'

MPTS chairman Andrew Clemes said: 'The tribunal noted that members of the public had had to become involved in apprehending Dr Siddiqi, it was they who called the police, and that the offence had occurred in a public place in the hours of daylight.

'The Tribunal did accept the submissions made on behalf of Dr Siddiqi this was a one-off incident, as opposed to a repeated pattern. However, it concluded that albeit an isolated incident, this was a particularly serious incident in which members of the public were obliged to become involved in apprehending Dr Siddiqi until police were notified and ultimately issued Dr Siddiqi with a caution.'

He added: 'Dr Siddiqi did appear to be regretful and remorseful and had talked to colleagues and friends about it. The Tribunal found that the risk of him repeating the misconduct was highly unlikely.

'Despite Dr Siddiqi's religious and cultural background, he has decided to confide in friends, including his imam, which meant that he now has a support network which was lacking in the past.'
Russia appears to have shot down one of its own $40million fighter jets in the skies over eastern Ukraine, in just the latest humiliation for Putin's military.

Footage of a flaming wreck falling from the skies over Alchevsk, in Luhansk, first emerged overnight Sunday when pro-Moscow Telegram accounts posted it - saying 'allied forces' had shot the aircraft down.

But more video of the wreck on the ground emerged the following day and revealed the words 'Russian Aerospace Forces' written down the side of the aircraft.

It now appears that Putin's men shot down one of their own jets - identified online as a rare $40million variant of the Su-34 fighter-bomber.

Russia appears to have shot down a rare $40million Su-34M fighter-bomber in the skies over eastern Ukraine, after wreckage was spotted near the town of Alchevsk

Writing on the side of the plane appeared to read ' ' which is an acronym for Russian Aerospace Forces, while a partial serial number revealed the jet as an Su-34M

The shoot-down came shortly after Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered his anti-air defences to prioritise taking out American-made HIMARS rockets.

HIMARS have been playing havoc with Russia's invasion by taking out headquarters and ammo dumps deep behind the frontlines, with Putin's anti-air seemingly struggling to stop them.

Michael Weiss, a respected security correspondent, tied the two events together - tweeting that: 'They just downed their own Su-34, aiming at HIMARS.'

The incident was first brought to light by Yevgeny Poddubny, who runs a pro-Russian Telegram channel that typically posts videos of Putin's forces striking Ukraine.

Late Sunday, he published footage of a flaming ball falling from the skies over the city of Alchevsk, in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.

Alongside the video, he wrote: 'Last night, the air defense crew of the allied forces destroyed a target in the sky over Alchevsk (LPR).

'The nature of the target is not clear. The burning ball fell to the ground for more than a minute.'

The following morning, footage of the wreck emerged showing what appeared to be the burning remains of an Su-34 fighter-bomber.

The incident first came to light overnight Sunday when pro-Kremlin channels published footage of a flaming wreck falling from the sky near Alchevsk - saying their force shot it down

But more footage that emerged the same day of wreckage near Alchevsk showed what appeared to be a Russian jet, suggesting Putin's men downed one of their own

The night sky lights up orange as the wreck of the jet crashes to the ground near Alchevsk, in just the latest humiliation for Putin's military

Visible on the side of the aircraft was what appeared to be the words ' ' - an acronym which stands for 'Russian Aerospace Forces'.

A partial serial number was also visible, ending in '90'. According the Dutch Aviation Society, there is only one Su-34 jet whose serial number ends in '90' and it is a highly-advanced Su-34M variant.

The fighter-bombers - only 10 of which existed before the shoot-down - are almost exclusively flown by the 277th Bomber Aviation Regiment.

Russian state media has previously confirmed the 277th is deployed near Ukraine.

The Su-34M is a highly upgraded version of the basic Su-34, which is a long-range fighter-bomber designed to rival the American F-15.

Russia bragged at the time the aircraft was created that it has upgraded avionics, radar, communications systems, electronic warfare and weapons systems.

Yury Slyusar, head of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, previously said it has roughly twice the combat power of the basic model.

Losing such an advanced and rare jet is just the latest battlefield humiliation for Putin's military, almost five months into what was supposed to be a days-long 'special military operation'.

Just 10 Su-34M fighter-bombers have ever been built and they are one of Russia's most-advanced jets, costing around $40million each (file image)

In that time, Russia's army - once considered the world's second-best - has been forced to retreat from Kyiv and much of Ukraine's north after their offensive stalled.

Having abandoned attempts to take the capital, Putin's generals turned their attention to the eastern Donbas in the hopes of capturing it wholesale and possibly surrounding a large part of Ukraine's army in the process.

But that plan has also failed, with months of hard fighting leading to the capture of three cities - Mariupol in the south, and Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the north.

While taking the cities are victories for Russia, they have come at a huge cost and only marginally shifted the frontline from where it stood before the war.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has been hitting back - sinking the Black Sea's flagship Moskva and retaking the small but strategic Snake Island.

A counter-attack is also underway near the southern city of Kherson, which was taken by Russia in the early days of the war.

Progress here has been slow and bloody, with Kyiv said to have taken heavy losses, but it has achieved some success.

Meanwhile the assault on Donbas has all-but halted as troops are pulled from that front to reinforce the south, and as American-made HIMARS rockets devastate Russian command posts and artillery dumps.

Russia's main war aim now appears to be to hold on to the limited gains it has made since the start of the war, in the hopes of giving Putin the strongest-possible negotiating hand when it comes time to strike a peace deal.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is gambling its remaining manpower and whatever weapons it can get from the West on retaking territory before support for the war ebbs.
A woman has vowed to never fly with Qantas again after the airline lost her baggage for a week before charging her $380 in excess luggage fees on the return trip.

Corrine Olsen and her husband Peter travelled from Sydney to Denpasar Airport in Bali, on July 2.

However, a bag containing toiletries and other essentials failed to arrive at the airport and, after waiting three hours, airport staff gave them $60, a set of pyjamas and one toothbrush.

Over the next few days, the couple waited for the bag to arrive but say the online tracking process didn't work and that there was no telephone number to call.

Eventually, after spending a week in Bali, their bag arrived, just five days before they were set to fly back to Sydney.

In that time the couple had replaced their missing items but when they went to check in for their return flight on July 14, they were told to pay $380 for 11kg of excess luggage.

Corrine Olsen and her husband Peter travelled from Sydney to Denpasar Airport in Bali, on July 2 but Qantas lost their bag

Despite attempting to explain their situation, a Qantas employee told them 'either you pay or you stay'.

A shocked Mrs Olsen has now promised to never fly with the airline again.

'Why should I have to pay for excess baggage when they lost the luggage?' she told the Daily Telegraph.

'I was so disappointed on so many levels. I think Qantas is going down the gurgler. I will never travel with them again - ever.'

Qantas said it would reimburse the Olsens but also insisted the charge would have been refunded if they had raised the issue once back in Australia - something Mrs Olsen said she doubts.

A Qantas spokesman said: 'We accept that these customers shouldn't have to pay excess baggage in these circumstances and have provided a refund for the additional charges.'

Daily Mail Australia have contacted the airline for further comment.

It comes after worker at an outsourced company Qantas have enlisted to replace Aussie staff claimed the national airline is losing 'one in 10' bags of luggage - although the company vehemently disputes the figure.

The 'Spirit of Australia' were taken to court by the Transport Workers Union in late 2020 when it was ruled the airline illegally sacked nearly 2,000 baggage handlers, cleaners and ground staff before outsourcing their jobs to foreign-owned providers including Swissport.

The Swiss company has since been forced to look to labour firms, some of which aren't aviation-specific, to manage worker shortages for Qantas and Jetstar flights - a decision that has angered the company's staff who allege they are undertrained and up to 10 per cent of all luggage is being misplaced.

The couple had replaced their missing items but when they went to check in for their return flight on July 14, they were told to pay $380 for 11kg of excess luggage

Qantas said it would reimburse the Olsens but also insisted the charge would have been refunded if they had raised the issue once back in Australia - something Mrs Olsen said she doubts

'I would tell everyone, don't check in bags when you fly with Qantas right now, or even better if you can avoid it, don't fly Qantas at all,' an anonymous Swissport worker told The Guardian.

The worker claimed 25 per cent of the current workforce were from labour hire companies, many who have never worked in aviation settings in the past.

They believe the workers are less motivated, cutting corners and doing a poorer job, insisting thousands of belongings are being lost, wrongly labelled and transferred to the wrong carousels.

'These days there are about 10 barrows each day that just don't make it on,' the Swissport employee said.

Hired labourers have been failing to properly scan bags, according to the employee, which can result in the wrong weight distribution for planes and an inability to track where luggage is located.

'They've also been dropping transfer bags on arrival carousels, which is a reason why bags aren't making it onto flights with passengers,' they said.

A Qantas spokesperson vehemently disputed the worker's account.

'The story in the Guardian was completely inaccurate. Claims that one in ten bags have been mishandled are wrong.

'The rate of mishandled baggage across the Qantas network over the past four weeks is around one per cent and our teams are working hard to get this figure down further.'
An American vlogger was gang-raped in a hotel in Pakistan by her guide and an accomplice who took videos of her to use as blackmail, it has been claimed.

Pakistan's police have arrested at least two people after the 21-year-old woman reported the assault, which she says happened when she was visiting a tourist resort in the eastern Punjab province, officials said Wednesday.

The detainees included the woman's host, who took her to a hotel in Dera Ghazi Khan, a district in the Punjab province where she says she was sexually assaulted this week, according to an initial police investigation.

The woman arrived in Pakistan three weeks ago, according to police.

Police say they are still investigating to determine how the woman was lured and taken to a hotel by the two men accused of raping her.

The woman earlier stayed at the home of one of the alleged attackers for five days, with local reports suggesting he was her 'guide'.

Police officers escort a man in handcuffs for a court appearance who was allegedly involved in the gang-rape of an American woman, in Dera Ghazi Khan, in the eastern Punjab province, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. Pakistan's police arrested at least two people after a 21-year-old American woman reported she was gang-raped at a hotel when she was visiting a tourist resort in the eastern Punjab province, officials said Wednesday

Pakistani news outlets reported that the woman was a vlogger visiting the country, and that police are carrying out raids to find other suspects.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad told The Associated Press that its consulate in Pakistan's city of Lahore was ready to provide consular services to the victim.

'The protection of U.S. citizens overseas is the highest priority of the U.S. Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad,' it said.

It said 'out of respect for the privacy of the alleged victim, we cannot comment on the specifics of the allegation.'

The Free Press Journal reported that it had seen the First Information Report (FIR) - a written document by police when a case is first reported.

In it, the Free Press Journal says the woman told police she was gang-raped by two men who filmed the assault and used it to blackmail her.

'We stayed in a hotel at Fort Monroe where both suspects gang raped me and also made a video of the act to blackmail me,' she alleged in the FIR.

She then said one of the suspects threatened her after she went to the police.

Although sexual abuse against Pakistani women is common, such crimes against foreigners are rare.

Many Pakistani women don't report such incidents to avoid stigma in a society where rapists often escape justice because of flaws in the legal system and poor investigations by police.
A grandfather having a heart attack was forced to wait six hours in an ambulance before he could get a hospital bed, with an influx of Covid patients being blamed for the delay.

Russell Chambers, 71, from Melbourne's southeast woke at 4am on Monday morning struggling to breathe so his wife Glenys called triple-0.

Paramedics rushed to the scene and ran tests before telling Mr Chambers he was going into cardiac arrest.

He was put in an ambulance and raced to Frankston Hospital only to find there were eight other ambulances queued up before them.

Glenys and Russell Chambers were forced to wait in the back of ambulance for six hours while Russell was having a heart attack

Frankston Hospital had at least nine ambulances banked up waiting to admit patients in the early hours of Monday morning

This meant they had to wait until 11am to be admitted with the ambulance and paramedics unable to attend any other emergencies during that time.

Ms Chambers, 71, voiced her fury at the life-threatening situation saying it should never happen in Australia.

'My anger is the hold-up of the ambulances,' she told Seven News.

'It shouldn't be happening in this country.

'The staff are so under the pump and they are the ones that cop it.

'I believe it has to go to the top and be fixed.'

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has promised to fix the problems bedeviling the state's health system

Victorian hospitals are facing a new surge of Covid cases with over 900 currently in hospital

She also said Mr Chambers was expected to make a full recovery.

A government spokesperson offered an apology over the incident but pinned most of the blame on Covid.

'Every health system around the country has been under unprecedented pressure and we're investing billions to get it back on track as quickly as possible, manage the ongoing impacts of the global pandemic, staff furloughs and the flu while also supporting our healthcare workers,' he said.

'While every effort is made to prioritise those patients with the most critical need, we know it can be challenging when there are delays to treatment or longer than expected wait times  and we apologise to Glenys and her husband for any distress during this difficult time.'

Glenys Chambers expressed her fury at the situation that saw her husband waiting six hours for admission to hospital when he was having a suspected heart attack

LATEST 24-HOUR COVID-19 DATA NSW: 15,352 cases, 20 deaths, 2236 in hospital with 63 in ICU Victoria: 12,984 cases, 28 deaths, 906 in hospital with 45 in ICU Tasmania:1586 cases, three deaths (one occurred in April and has only just been confirmed) with 49 in hospital and two in ICU Queensland: 9650 cases, 15 deaths, 1034 in hospital and 21 in ICU SA: 4774 cases, 22 deaths (from May 3 to July 18), 323 in hospital with 11 in ICU WA: 7901 cases, two deaths, 457 in hospital with 22 in ICU NT: 642 cases, 68 in hospital with one in ICU ACT: 961 cases, no deaths, 160 in hospital with four in ICU Advertisement

Victoria had 906 Covid cases in hospital on Wednesday with 36 needing intensive care as state registered nearly 14,000 positive tests.

Melbourne hospitals have already moved to cancel category two and three elective surgery to focus on critical emergency operations as Covid and other winter ailments take hold.

Patrick Lo of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons said staff shortages because of illness and the severe flu season were hitting hard.

'There's just no resources left to carry out these procedures,' he told Virginia Trioli on ABC Radio Melbourne.

'The hospitals are completely bursting at the seams.'

Victoria's state government has been under fire over a series of code red warnings for ambulances.

This means critical staff or vehicle shortages left no ambulances available to be deployed to assist the sick and injured.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews on Monday launched what he called the third stage of his government's winter response plan.

This will include the broadening of a virtual emergency department program, which allows people suffering non-urgent conditions to consult health professionals by teleconference.

The government also promised to provide ambulance offload teams at 14 public hospitals to tackle ramping issues and make more private beds available for public patients.
A British carer 'with a heart of gold' died on Sunday after she fell from a seventh-floor balcony while on holiday in Turkey, her family have said.

Jenna Smith had been away in Turkey for three weeks with friends and was looking to return home next week.

Tragically, the 34-year-old's family said they were told by the Embassy of Turkey she died after falling from a balcony on Sunday and are waiting on more information surrounding the circumstances.

According to a Facebook post by her sister Daniella, Jenna was saying at the Dream Homes Sitesi Alanya apartment complex in Alanya, on Turkey's central Mediterranean coast (also known as the Turkish Riviera).

Her two brothers have flown out to the country today to speak to Turkish authorities to find out more information about their sister's death.

Paying tribute to Jenna, family friend Hayley Weston, who has known the 34-year-old since she was five, described her as 'bubbly' and 'loving'.

Jenna Smith had been away in Turkey for three weeks with friends and was looking to return home next week. Tragically, the 34-year-old's family said they were told by the Embassy of Turkey she died after falling from a balcony on Sunday

According to a Facebook post by her sister Daniella, Jenna was saying at the Dream Homes Sitesi Alanya apartment complex in Alanya, on Turkey's central Mediterranean coast (pictured)

She said Jenna had been popular among her friends, was a 'loving' carer who had worked in several different care homes, and was very family-orientated.

Hayley, 28, said: 'Jenna was well loved, bubbly, a really happy girl. She was chatty and had lots of friends. Jenna was popular, she had different friends but always had new friends because she was that outgoing.

'She was dead loving, she had a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone. Jenna was brought up by her nan and grandad so she cared for them because her mum had passed at a young age.'

Hayley added: 'Her main job was a carer and she worked in different care homes. That was just her, that was her loving nature.'

Hayley said Jenna, from Waterside in the Bootle/Netherton area of Liverpool, was brought up by her nan and grandad Beryl and Alex Smith and has two brothers and a sister, Joe, Tony and Danielle.

Hayley, Jenna's next-door neighbour, said she grew up with Jenna and her family and saw her as an 'older sister'.

She said: 'I am 28 now and I have known them for most of my life and have grown up with them. Me and Danielle used to 'rob' Jenna's clothes without her knowing and try and put them back and when she'd realise and she would go mad.

'We would be following her round and when she was with her friends and have her friends round we would be running in and trying to be the little class clowns, that kind of thing and making a show of her.

'When we got older we went on nights out [together]. We've literally grown up together. She was like the older sister I never had, it's like that older role model. She loved socialising, going out with friends on nights out and was funny.'

Hayley added Jenna loved to be with her family.

'She loved spending time with her nieces and nephews and she babysat them. Jenna loved spending time with them and was very family-orientated. She drove everyone mad but everyone still loved her.'

The 28-year-old has now set up a GoFundMe page to help Jenna's family with funeral costs and bringing the 34-year-old home from Turkey.

Writing on the fundraising page, Hayley said: 'As you can imagine, everyone is absolutely heartbroken and I wanted to take the pressure from them, not having to worry about cost.

Jenna Smith was holidaying in Turkey when she died. Pictured: A scene in Turkey (file photo)

'If anyone can spare any donations it will be greatly appreciated and I know they will be more than grateful. No family should have to go through this..'

Jenna's friends, Ste Pilson and Dean Ashton, are also running 20 miles in memory of Jenna and hope the money raised will also help with bringing her home and subsequent funeral arrangements.

Family and friends are also organising a balloon release in memory of Jenna which will take place on the fields of Waterside. This will be either be before or on the day of the funeral.

To donate to Hayley's GoFundMe page to help Jenna's family, please visit here. To donate to Ste Pilson and Dean Ashton's GoFundMe page, please visit here.

A spokesperson from the Foreign Office told MailOnline: 'We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Turkey and are in contact with the local authorities.'
Monty Python star John Cleese has slammed woke culture for having a 'disastrous' effect on comedy.

The veteran funnyman, 82, said he does not believe comedians have the freedom to be funny anymore, blasting today's cancel culture as the 'death of creativity'.

The Fawlty Towers icon, who has worked in the comedy industry for decades, told FreedomFest in Las Vegas, as reported by Fox News, that the current crackdown on jokes which could be perceived as offensive is putting off young comedians.

In recent years, Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Jimmy Carr and Ricky Gervais are among the stars who have been criticized for their material, although they are still among the highest-paid and most successful comedians in the world.

Cleese said: 'I think it's particularly worrying at the moment because you can only create in an atmosphere of freedom, where you're not checking everything you say critically before you move on.

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

Monty Python star John Cleese has slammed woke culture for having a 'disastrous' effect on comedy

'A lot of comedians now are sitting there and when they think of something, they say something like, "Can I get away with it? I don't think so. So and so got into trouble, and he said that, oh, she said that." You see what I mean? And that's the death of creativity.'

Cleese acknowledged that his audience tends to be older and less sensitive to jokes that may cause offence to certain sections of society.

He added: 'You can do the creation and then criticize it, but you can't do them at the same time. So if you're worried about offending people and constantly thinking of that, you are not going to be very creative. So I think it has a disastrous effect.'

The A Fish Called Wanda star said he believes no comedian should ever be 'canceled' for a joke, and taboo topics are often a source of humor.

In March, Cleese had his microphone confiscated at the South by Southwest festival panel in which he suggested Italy and France owed historic reparations for enslaving Brits.

Cleese acknowledged that his audience tends to be older and less sensitive to jokes that may cause offence to certain sections of society

The actor, 82, said he does not believe comedians have the freedom to be funny anymore, blasting today's cancel culture as the 'death of creativity' (pictured in Monty Python)

The icon was riffing with other comics in front of the crowd in Texas when he talked about the 'competition' between cultures over who has been more oppressed by colonizers throughout history.

Pointing to world history being 'a history of crime', he added: 'It's a history of people who were stronger beating up people who were weaker and it's always been that. It's deeply, deeply distasteful.

'But to pretend that one lot were worse than another  you do know the British have been slaves twice, right?

Cleese explained: '[People] get competitive about this business of being oppressed. We were oppressed, the English, by the Romans from about 0 to 400.'

Despite the event being labelled a 'comedy panel', his remarks sparked horrified reactions and an awkward environment for those in attendance.

At one stage Cleese even had his microphone confiscated by American comic Dulce Sloan, who said she did it to 'save a comic whose career I respect', per The Hollywood Reporter.

'And now you saved the colonizer,' Pasternack said. 'I saved a comic whose career I respect,' Sloan fired back.

Comedy legend John Cleese landed himself in hot water during his own event when he jokingly suggested Italy and France owed historic reparations for enslaving British people

The Monty Python icon, 82, drew shocked gasps from the South by Southwest crowd in Texas. He is pictured above (fourth from left) alongside moderator Dan Pasternack, and comics Dulce Sloan, Jim Gaffigan and Ricky Velez

Cleese rebutted claims that the British Empire was the first to colonise communities from other states throughout his 90-minute performance entitled 'John Cleese in Conversation.'

The British comic insisted England was owed 'reparations' from both Italy and France, referring to the historic invasions of the Romans, and 1000 years later by the Normans under William the Conqueror.

'I want reparations from Italy', he told the stunned crowd. 'And then the Normans came over in 1066... they were horrible people from France and they colonised us for 30 years and we need reparations there too, I'm afraid'.

His fellow comedians speaking at the event, Jim Gaffigan, Dulce Sloan and moderator Dan Pasternack all unsuccessfully attempted to draw Cleese away from his rant.

Pasternack even explained to the audience at one point: 'And this is why your phones are locked up'.

As tempers started to flare, Sloan grabbed out and temporarily confiscated Cleese's microphone to cheers and applause from sections of the audience, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Dave Chappelle came under fire last year over jokes about trans people in his Netflix comedy show The Closer

Speaking after the ordeal, Cleese explained his actions by saying: 'The thing is, I'm going to be dead soon. That's why I'm in favor of global warming - I don't want to be cold ever again'.

To which Pasternack jokingly replied: 'Where you're going you won't be!'

Other comedians have been chastised for their jokes, with Dave Chappelle coming under fire last year over jokes about trans people in his Netflix comedy show The Closer.

During the controversial special, he made one comment stating that 'gender is a fact', prompting Netflix staff to protest and mass outrage on social media against some of his jokes.

He also shared his backing for JK Rowling, who has also attracted criticism for her remarks about biological sex.

In the special, he stated that he does not hate transgender people, and tells a long anecdote about a trans woman comic, who he describes as a friend, who came to his defense in earlier entanglements with the community.

Chappelle added: 'Every human being in this room, every human being on Earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on Earth. That is a fact.'

In the contentious special, Chappelle also joked that women today view transwomen the same way black people might view white women wearing blackface, and remarked that women are entitled to feel anger toward transwomen, since Caitlyn Jenner won Glamour magazine's 2015 Woman of the Year award.

'I'd be mad as sh*t if I was a woman,' Chappelle said.

The star also joked about the anatomy of transwomen, joking that they lacked real female reproductive organs and that they did not have blood but 'beet juice'.

The comments prompted calls for Netflix to take down the show, but boss Ted Sarandos told staff that 'content on screen doesn't translate to real-world harm'.

Those who have criticized Chapelle's jokes have specifically cited the physical danger faced by the trans community as a result of anti-trans ideology.
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Rail operators confirmed today that they will run just 20 per cent of normal services across only half of the UK network during next Wednesday's strike - with trains only operating for 11 hours between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

Bosses are discussing a co-ordinated industry contingency plan for a 'very limited timetable' on July 27 during the walkout by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at train companies and Network Rail. The industrial action by thousands of workers means some parts of the country will have no train services at all.

The walkout is set to affect those travelling on summer holidays, attending the Women's Euro 2022 semi-final in Milton Keynes on July 27 or going to the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony Birmingham on July 28.

A special 'strike day' timetable for July 27 will be released by operators this Saturday - but Network Rail said it was 'certain that trains will start later and finish much earlier than usual, between 7.30am and 6.30pm'.

This means last services from London to Scotland will leave in the early afternoon - and rail bosses also warned of disruption on the morning of Thursday, July 28 with a later start to services as employees return to duties.

Among the first operators to confirm services for July 27 today was South Western Railway, which runs in and out of London Waterloo. It said that no trains would run past Southampton towards Brockenhurst, Bournemouth or Weymouth; past Basingstoke towards Salisbury and Exeter; and past Woking to Guildford or Portsmouth.

Northern released a 'do not travel' message as it also published a timetable, saying most routes and trains will not run. The only services it will run will be Darlington to Saltburn; Liverpool to Alderley Edge via Manchester; York to Leeds; Leeds and Bradford to Ilkey; Skipton to Bradford and Leeds; Sheffield to Leeds; and Bradford to Leeds.

Caledonian Sleeper, which runs overnight trains between London and Scotland, has cancelled all services next Tuesday and Wednesday; while Merseyrail said it will run a limited hourly service calling at selected stations only.

Network Rail has not yet released a map showing the planned rail services on July 27 - but during last month's strike, no passenger services served locations such as Penzance, Swansea, Chester, Blackpool and North Wales.

The action by the RMT on July 27 forms part of a so-called 'summer of discontent' and will take place on the same day as a separate walkout by members of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) on Avanti West Coast.

Then, members of the Aslef drivers' union at Arriva Rail London, Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, Great Western, Hull Trains, LNER, Southeastern and West Midlands Trains will walk out on Saturday, July 30 in a dispute over pay.

Separately, Aslef drivers on Greater Anglia and Stansted Express will strike this Saturday and on Hull Trains this Saturday and Sunday. And RMT members at Network Rail and 14 train operators will also walk out on August 18 and 20 - which comes after last month's strikes on June 21, 23 and 25 that caused nearly a week of disruption.

Passengers walk along the platform at London Waterloo station on June 21 during the strike by the RMT union last month

SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY -- Among the first operators to confirm services for July 27 today was South Western Railway, which runs in and out of London Waterloo. It said that no trains would run past Southampton towards Brockenhurst, Bournemouth or Weymouth; past Basingstoke towards Salisbury and Exeter; and past Woking to Guildford or Portsmouth

Today, the Rail Delivery Group and Network Rail said the contingency plan will see a very limited timetable next Wednesday, 'with around 20 per cent of services running and some parts of the country with no rail services'.

Passengers were urged to 'plan ahead, check before they travel, to expect disruption and only travel if necessary'. Network Rail said the strike 'will again bring unnecessary and entirely avoidable disruption for passengers'.

When are the next UK rail strikes planned? This Saturday (July 23): Aslef drivers on Greater Anglia and Stansted Express

(July 23): Aslef drivers on Greater Anglia and Stansted Express This Saturday and Sunday (July 23 and 24): Aslef drivers on Hull Trains

(July 23 and 24): Aslef drivers on Hull Trains Next Wednesday (July 27): RMT workers at Network Rail and train operators; TSSA at Avanti West Coast

(July 27): RMT workers at Network Rail and train operators; TSSA at Avanti West Coast July 30 : Aslef drivers at Arriva Rail London, Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, Great Western, Hull Trains, LNER, Southeastern and West Midlands Trains

: Aslef drivers at Arriva Rail London, Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, Great Western, Hull Trains, LNER, Southeastern and West Midlands Trains August 18 and 20 : RMT workers at Network Rail and train operators Advertisement

Rail bosses said 'thousands of specially-trained and fully qualified back-up staff will again step in during the walkout to keep vital services running for those who need them'.

They added: 'As only around 20 per cent of services will run across only around 50% of the network, passengers are advised to only travel by train if they must, and if it is necessary, allow extra time and check when their last train will depart.'

Passengers with an advance, off peak or anytime ticket who have bought a ticket on a strike day can use it for travel the day before, or up to and including Tuesday, August 2.

They can also change their tickets to travel on an alternate date, or get a refund if their train is cancelled or rescheduled.

Passengers with a season ticket that is monthly or longer, or have an activated days' worth of travel on a flexi season ticket, who choose not to travel on July 27 or 30 can claim compensation for these days through the 'delay repay' scheme.

Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said today: 'Despite our best efforts to find a breakthrough, I'm afraid there will be more disruption for passengers next week as the RMT seems hell-bent on continuing their political campaigning, rather than compromising and agreeing a deal for their members.

Network Rail has not yet released a map for services on July 27 - but this is what it issued ahead of the RMT strike last month

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch speaks at a rally outside London King's Cross station on June 25 during the last strike

'I can only apologise for the impact this pointless strike will have on passengers, especially those travelling for holidays or attending events such as the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 semi-final (Wednesday 27th) and the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games (Thursday 28th).

UK begins third day of travel chaos with NO trains from King's Cross and disruption across UK Rail passengers faced mass disruption across Britain today as all trains out of London King's Cross were cancelled and there were no direct services between Euston and Scotland following the UK's hottest day on record. Operators including LNER and Thameslink issued 'do not travel' warnings again, almost every train out of London St Pancras was axed and Eurostar passengers faced delays of more than an hour due to a power failure in Lille. The line between King's Cross and Peterborough was shut after a major fire spread onto the tracks at Sandy in Bedfordshire, causing damage to signalling equipment and a level crossing which both require complex repairs. The fire at Sandy also meant a planned inspection of more than 250 miles of track on the southern end of the East Coast Main Line to see whether any other equipment was damaged in the heat has not yet taken place. And there could be further disruption this afternoon when thunderstorms hit, with the Met Office issuing a warning from 1pm until 9pm saying flooding and lightning strikes could result in 'delays and some cancellations'. Advertisement

'It is frustrating to yet again ask our passengers to change their plans and only make essential journeys.'

All train operators are affected by the strike next Wednesday whether they have an individual dispute with the RMT or not, because Network Rail's signallers control train movements across the whole of the UK.

Network Rail added that although the network will only be open from 7.30am to 6.30pm that day, the electricity to tracks and overhead lines will stay on throughout - along with patrolling by security staff, police and from the air.

Steve Montgomery, chair of the Rail Delivery Group, added: 'We are incredibly disappointed that the RMT and Aslef leadership are continuing with this action, disrupting the summer plans of millions  including those attending the Commonwealth Games.

'While we will do all that we can to minimise disruption to passengers, our advice is to only travel if it is necessary, and if you are going to travel, please plan ahead. If you're not able to travel, you can use your ticket either the day before or up to and including 2 August, otherwise you will be able to change your ticket or claim a refund.

'We have a responsibility to bring our railway up to date and give our passengers a more punctual and reliable service so that we're able to give our staff the pay rise they deserve.

'But it is wrong to continue asking taxpayers to shoulder more of the burden when they have already contributed 600 per household during the pandemic, or to expect passengers to fund it by paying more for their tickets, when they too are feeling the pinch.

'We ask the RMT and Aslef's leadership to continue talking so we can come to a deal that works for our people, our passengers and for taxpayers.'

Over the weekend, Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said his union's rail strikes planned for later this month are still due to go ahead because 'no one's coming to the table' to find a way out.

He told Sky News on Sunday that the industrial action planned for the end of July will mean 'virtually no service' in areas affected.
The parents of Nora Quoirin, a French-Irish schoolgirl from London whose body was found near a Malaysian jungle resort during a family holiday, have settled a case against Facebook over 'disturbing and offensive' posts.

Lawyers for the social media giant, trading as Meta, read out an agreed statement in the High Court in Dublin on Wednesday.

Sebastien and Maebh Quoirin, who were in court, had initiated proceedings against Facebook and retired solicitor Anne Brennan over posts she made on Facebook in 2019 and 2020.

The posts related to a number of unproven theories and claims made by Brennan in posts on the social media platform following Nora's 2019 disappearance.

Both proceedings were settled and Facebook has expressed its sympathies to the Quoirin family.

According to the Belfast Telegraph, Brennan has agreed to never comment online again about the Quoirin or the tragic disappearance of their daughter.

The parents of Nora Quoirin (pictured), a French-Irish schoolgirl from London whose body was found near a Malaysian jungle resort during a family holiday, have settled a case against Facebook over 'disturbing and offensive' posts

Sebastien and Maebh Quoirin, (pictured on Wednesday outside of court in Dublin), had initiated proceedings against Facebook and retired solicitor Anne Brennan over posts she made on Facebook in 2019 and 2020

Declan Doyle, senior counsel for Mr and Mrs Quoirin, told the court that a series of allegations had been made on the platform in 2019 and 2020 which he described as 'grossly defamatory'.

'The action has been settled,' Mr Doyle told the court, adding that the terms of the settlement were 'confidential'. Brennan was not in court for the hearing.

Brennan made a number of controversial Facebook posts about Nora's disappearance, including being critical of procedures adopted by police in Malaysia.

Her comments were dismissed by a senior police officer.

The Belfast Telegraph said that Brennan had filed a defence is the case, but that the matter had now been settled. 'I am relieved it is over. I will never mention them or their case on social media ever again,' she said, the newspaper reported.

According to Brennan - who according to reports is a former partner at a Dublin law firm who retired due to illness - the settlement did not involve the payment of compensation, and each side will cover their own legal costs.

Nora, 15, was discovered dead nine days after she went missing from an eco-resort in Malaysia in August 2019. Her family believe she was abducted.

She was born with holoprosencephaly  a disorder which affects brain development  and her family have said she would not have wandered off on her own.

Meta lawyers said in a statement: 'During what was a distressing time for the Quoirin family in the course of Nora's disappearance and in the aftermath of her subsequent discovery, a Facebook user posted a series of allegations that were disturbing and offensive to Nora's parents on the Facebook platform.

'Meta Platforms Ireland Limited appreciates that the user's allegations were distressing to the Quoirin family and takes this opportunity to express its sympathy for the distress and trauma arising from that user's allegations.

'Meta Platforms Ireland Limited will continue its efforts in preventing the misuse of its platform and ensuring the safety of its users.'

Pictured: Sebastien and Maebh Quoirin, the parents of Nora, the French-Irish schoolgirl from London whose body was found near a Malaysian jungle resort during a family holiday, outside the High Court in Dublin on Wednesday

The Facebook posts related to a number of unproven theories and claims made by Anne Brennan in posts on the social media platform following Nora's 2019 disappearance

The hearing took place before the President of the High Court, Mr Justice David Barniville, who expressed his sympathy to Mr and Mrs Quoirin and thanked them for travelling from the UK for the proceedings.

Speaking outside court, Nora's mother said the family are 'satisfied' the matter has been concluded. 'Today marks the end of another chapter in the quest for truth,' she said. We are satisfied this matter is now concluded.

'We will continue our efforts in Malaysia in order to bring justice for our beloved Nora. We wish to thank our legal team for all their support.'

The teenager, whose mother is from Belfast and father is French, had poor motor skills, needed help to walk, and her mental age was about five or six, her parents previously said.

The family were staying at Dusun eco-resort near Seremban, about 40 miles south of the capital Kuala Lumpur, and reported Nora missing the day after they had arrived.

Her naked body was discovered beside a small stream about 1.6 miles from the resort on August 13, 2019.

Meabh Quoirin, left, the mother of then missing girl Nora Anne Quoirin, speaks to police officers as father Sebastien Quoirin, right, stands beside her in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia in August 2019

Nora disappeared near the Duson Resort, just outside of Kuala Lumpur, in August 2019

Police previously said there was no sign the teenager had been abducted or raped, with a preliminary post-mortem investigation showing she succumbed to intestinal bleeding due to starvation and stress.

An inquest was held in Malaysia and a coroner ruled in January 2021 the death was accidental rather than criminal, and said there was no third-party involvement.

Her family branded the findings 'incomplete' at the time.

But in June last year a court in Malaysia overturned an inquest verdict of 'misadventure' in her death.

At the time Mrs Quoirin said it was the 'only reasonable' outcome after it was changed to an open verdict.

Overturning the original ruling, the judge said it would not have been been probable for the teenager to venture out on her own and navigate challenging terrain in and around the location she was found.
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Britain's beach hut boom continues after a wooden cabin went up for sale for 450,000 - the same price as a five bed house in some areas of the country.

The 10ft by 16ft hut - that doesn't even face the sea - is on the exclusive Mudeford sandbank in Christchurch Harbour, Dorset.

The timber hut was only built three years ago but still has no mains electricity or washing facilities, although it does have a chemical toilet.

It can sleep up to seven people and has a kitchen area, with a cooker connected to a Calor gas bottle and fridge powered by roof-top solar panels.

It has a mezzanine floor space for sleeping, double glazed doors and windows and a decked terrace offering sunset views of the harbour.

The new owners will have to share a communal shower block with other like-minded hutters.

The hut (centre) - that doesn't even face the sea - is on the exclusive Mudeford sandbanks in Christchurch Harbour, Dorset

Pictured: The interior living space of the beach hut, which went up for sale for 450,000, located in Christchurch, Dorset

The kitchen area, which comes with a cooker connected to a Calor gas bottle and fridge powered by roof-top solar panels

It has been owned by a family but they have now put it up for sale because they aren't using it. Pictured: the beach hut's toilet

Mudeford is known for being home to the most expensive beach huts in the country.

Last year, in the midst of a fierce, post-covid market, one is rumoured to have broken all records by privately changing hands for over 500,000.

The main appeal of Mudeford is its remote location.

Cars are not allowed there and it is only reachable by a 20 minute walk, a ride on a novelty land train or a short ferry crossing.

Hut 222 is closer to the Hengistbury Head end of the sandy spit and faces Christchurch Harbour.

It has been owned by a local family for the past four years but they have now put it up for sale because they aren't getting enough use out of it.

Pictured above: As well as a spacious seating area, the wooden beach hut also features a decked terraced to the front

Pictured: The first floor bedroom which features two double beds, allowing the beach hut to sleep up to seven people at once

Pictured: The first floor bedroom which features two double beds, allowing the beach hut to sleep up to seven people at once

It is being marketed for offers over 425,000, although the estate agents handling the sale believe it will go for at least 450,000.

For the same price it is possible to buy a five bedroom detached house in North Yorkshire.

Andrew Denison, of estate agents Denisons, said while the market for beach huts has settled down from last year, demand remains strong.

He said: 'We have a healthy list of people wanting to buy a hut at Mudeford and that is why we have priced it at offers over 425,000.

'If two or three people come in for it then we will discuss and decide with the owners which offer to take but I could see a bit of an auction happening and it selling for 450,000 or 460,000.

'Last year we experienced a fierce market for beach huts.

Desirable location: Hut 222 is closer to the Hengistbury Head (pictured) end of the sandy spit and faces Christchurch Harbour

Pictured above: The beach hut's decked terrace looks out onto Christchurch Harbour with it's back to the sea

Although the hut doesn't face the sea, it is a stone's throw away from this seafront in Christchurch, which is located behind it

Pictured above: The beach huts at Mudeford sandbank are in a highly desirable location especially if they face the sea

'I think it was a consequence of covid. There was a lot of pent up demand from where people couldn't get out and buy during covid and after things opened up again a lot of people changed their lifestyles and decided they wanted to be by the sea and just went for it.'

There are about 360 huts on the Mudeford sandbank and the prices for them have rapidly increased over the past 20 years.

In 2002 the humble huts were selling for 70,000. The following year one broke the six-figure mark for the first time.

By 2005 they were up to 135,000. There was a dip in the market due to the credit crunch of 2008 but prices were up to 170,000 by 2012.

By 2014 the price increased to 270,000, then 300,000 in 2018. Only 12 months ago they were worth about 350,000 before the sale of the hut for over 500,000 last September.

As well as paying out the asking price, the new owners will also have to stump up about 4,500 a year to the local council in fees.
Boris Johnson will face his final session of Prime Minister's Questions today as he continues his long goodbye from Downing Street.

With MPs heading away from Westminster for their summer break from tomorrow, today's PMQs is the last before Mr Johnson is replaced as Tory leader.

He is likely to seize on the opportunity to hail his legacy as the Prime Minister that got Brexit done, to highlight Britain's swift Covid vaccine rollout, and to urge his successor to maintain his 'levelling up' agenda'.

Mr Johnson also might not be able to resist a parting dig at Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who he has previously dubbed 'Captain Hindsight', 'Sir Beer Korma', and 'Captain Crasheroonie Snoozefest'.

It has become tradition for departing PMs to be given a standing ovation in the House of Commons when their final PMQs ends.

But - with large numbers of Tory MPs having revolted against Mr Johnson's premiership, and many opposition MPs seeing him as a hate figure - it is unclear how many in the House will rise to their feet.

With MPs heading away from Westminster for their summer break from tomorrow, today's PMQs is the last before Boris Johnson is replaced as Tory leader

The outgoing PM might not be able to resist a parting dig at Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer - who he has previously dubbed 'Sir Beer Korma' and 'Captain Crasheroonie Snoozefest'

What did past PMs say as they ended their final PMQs? Sir Tony Blair: 'Some may belittle politics but we know it is where people stand tall. And although I know it has its many harsh contentions, it is still the arena which sets the heart beating fast. It may sometimes be a place of low skullduggery but it is more often a place for more noble causes. I wish everyone, friend or foe, well and that is that, the end.' David Cameron: 'The last thing I would say is that you can achieve a lot of things in politics and get a lot of things done; in the end, public service and the national interest is what it is all about. Nothing is really impossible if you put your mind to it. After all, as I once said, I was the future once.' Theresa May: 'This House of Commons is rightly at the centre of those events, and that is because of the vital link between every single Member of this House and the communitiesthe commonsthat we represent. That is the bedrock of our parliamentary democracy and of our liberty, and each one of us, wherever we sit and whatever we stand for, can take pride in that. That duty to serve my constituents will remain my greatest motivation.' Advertisement

The warmth of the reception granted to Mr Johnson today is already the subject of speculation at Westminster.

Mr Johnson today is already the subject of speculation at Westminster.

One senior MP told MailOnline: 'It will be interesting to see if he gets a good reception.

'There might be a few boos as well as cheers. All previous PMs have been clapped out of the chamber.'

They added: 'The benches should be packed but people could start leaving before the end... Tory MPs have a lot of other stuff to do today.'

When Sir Tony Blair ended his final PMQs, both the Labour and Tory benches - led by David Cameron - rose to applaud him.

And, when Mr Cameron and Theresa May ended their final PMQs, then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn resolutely remained seated, although some on the Labour back benches stood to applaud.

The SNP have also refused to pay tribute to departing Tory PMs in recent years.

Mrs May's final PMQs lasted more than an hour, but Tory MPs will be agitating for today's session - due to begin at noon - to wrap up quicker than that.

At 1pm, they are set to vote in the final round of the contest to replace Mr Johnson, with one of Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt due to knocked out the race this afternoon.

A final pairing will then be put to the Conservative Party's wider membership with the results of grassroots vote to be announced on 5th September.

Mr Johnson will then formally hand over as PM to the new Tory leader on 6th September.

Barring any emergency events over the summer, today is Mr Johnson's last scheduled appearance in the Commons as PM.

Theresa May's final PMQs lasted more than an hour, but Tory MPs will be agitating for today's session to wrap up quicker as they continue the contest to elect Mr Johnson's successor

Like Mrs May, her predecessor David Cameron was also given a standing ovation by MPs at the end of his final PMQs

Before departing PMQs for the final time, Sir Tony Blair told the House of Commons: 'I wish everyone, friend or foe, well and that is that, the end.'

The PM gave a flavour of what his parting words might be when he addressed MPs on Monday ahead of a confidence vote in his Government.

He delivered a full-throated defence of his time in power as he hailed his Government for fighting 'some of the hardest yards in modern political history'.

Mr Johnson told MPs how he had got the 'big calls right' despite having to take some of the 'bleakest decisions since the war'.

As a former journalist and author of a number of books, the PM is likely to have spent a while crafting his final line to MPs today.

At his own final PMQs in 2016, Mr Cameron quoted a line from his first PMQs appearance - when he faced Blair as leader of the opposition - telling MPs: 'I was the future once.'

Nine years earlier, Sir Tony himself told the Commons: 'I wish everyone, friend or foe, well and that is that, the end.'

And, in 2019 before she handed over to Mr Johnson, Mrs May - who unlike Sir Tony and Mr Cameron has remained in the Commons - told MPs: 'That duty to serve my constituents will remain my greatest motivation.'
Britain's biggest insurers will accept claims for damage caused by wildfires, the industry's trade body has said.

Homeowners whose lives are left in ruins by devastating fires, like the one that tore through Wennington yesterday, will be able to claim it back on insurance, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has claimed.

Terrifying photos and video showed a raging inferno tearing through and gutting homes in the east London village on Tuesday afternoon.

Those who were caught in the crossfire face the daunting task of having to rebuild their lives after the tragedy, including claiming the cost back on insurance.

Most insurance policies include accidental fire damage under items covered, although they stop short of confirming wildfires as one of the events included in this.

In what will come as welcome news, today the ABI has confirmed those affected by the terrible fire should have their property covered under standard home and contents insurance.

People in the village of Wennington, east London, who had their homes destroyed by a wildfire yesterday will be covered under their home insurance it has been revealed. Pictured is a row of houses burning in Wennington yesterday

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said: 'Standard home insurance policies cover destruction and damage caused by fires, including wildfires.' Pictured is rubble and destruction in Wennington caused by yesterday's fire

A heatwave which brought record temperatures to the UK created 'tinderbox' conditions for the wildfire. Pictured is the aftermath of the blaze in Wennington earlier this morning

A spokesperson from the ABI said: 'Standard home insurance policies cover destruction and damage caused by fires, including wildfires.

'When tragedy strikes insurers' priority is always to help affected customers recover as quickly as possible - from making emergency payments, arranging any temporary emergency accommodation and getting homes repaired or rebuilt.

'If you suffer damage to your property, contact your insurer as soon as you can for help and advice.'

Direct Line and the AA has also confirmed it would pay out for homes or property damaged by wildfires.

A spokesperson for Direct Line said: 'We deeply sympathise with the householders whose lives have been impacted by the recent wildfires.

'Our home insurance customers, with contents and buildings cover, whose property has been damaged by fire would be covered if the cause was weather related.

'If home insurance customers were impacted by the recent wildfires, following the recent heatwave, they would be covered by their policy.'

It will come as a relief to those who have lost almost everything they own in the wildfire, with dozens of people now left homeless by the destruction.

Lindsey Knuckey, of loss assessor firm Morgan Clark, said everybody who has insurance should be covered for the damage, but added they should resist the urge to start cleaning up their homes immediately.

She said homeowners should 'notify the insurer, don't touch anything and return home until you are sure it's safe'.

Ms Knuckey said: 'We recommend they don't start the clean up until their insurer has been notified, and they have taken video and photographic evidence before anything starts getting moved.

'They need evidence to show their insurer. The best thing people can do is document the damage - photographic evidence and video evidence are particularly good because the insurer can see the damage.'

It comes after 41 homes across London were destroyed in fires yesterday, driven by an unprecedented heatwave that has caused record temperatures across much of the country.

London Fire Brigade (LFB) said Tuesday was its busiest day since the Second World War as crews rushed to deal with multiple fires breaking out across the capital.

UK insurers say homeowners can claim for damage caused by wildfires. Pictured is smoke rising after the fire in Wennington yesterday

Extremely dry ground and searing temperatures created 'tinderbox' conditions that led to fires breaking out in London, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, South Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Scotland and Wales.

One expert, a specialist in wildfire operations, last night told the Telegraph that the severity of fires seen yesterday was 'rare, or possibly unprecedented' in the UK.

Steve Gibson said: 'It's difficult to find a previous time when so much of the country has been affected.'

Ed Miliband, Labour's shadow secretary of state for climate change, said that extreme hot weather like this will become the 'new normal' under climate change.

'Reports of fires across the country are deeply distressing. We must do everything we can to support the families and communities affected. I urge everyone to stay safe and salute the courage of our fire services,' he said.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire yesterday, residents would have been forgiven for worrying about the safety of themselves and their loved ones.

There were fires across the country yesterday as the UK baked in record temperatures.

Now they face the grim task of having to count the cost of the damage and deal with their insurance provider.

Fortunately, all those who have standard home and contents insurance will be able to claim for the damage caused by the inferno.

While most accidental fire damage is covered under these policies, there are exceptions.

According to the AA, insurance can be invalidated in the event of arson committed by the property owner, while homes damaged by arson committed by someone else tend to be covered.

The firm added insurers might also not pay out if the property has been left unoccupied for longer than a month, there are undeclared home improvements such as loft conversions, and if proper precautions haven't been taken to protect it, such as having faulty smoke alarms.

According to the ABI, which counts more than 200 UK insurers as members, the industry paid out more than 1.3 billion in response to all fire damage claims across the UK in 2021.
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A 'wonderful' campaign to put up plaques honouring elderly people and their remarkable contributions to the community has been hailed by the public.

The campaign saw purple plaques installed next to the famous blue plaques of British icons so Britain's everyday heroes can be seen alongside them.

The Purple Plaque Campaign said it wanted to help people recognise the importance and achievements of the elderly in their community - often 'overlooked and undervalued'.

Local heroes across the UK are being honoured by the campaign - including a woman who helped to break the enigma code, an RAF pilot who was shot down and escaped from behind enemy lines in WWII and a volunteer who taught literacy and numeracy in prisons.

Doreen Brooks, 101, was given a purple plaque to mark her contribution towards breaking the enigma code in WWII

Doreen (pictured aged 23 during WWII) was in the Royal Corps of Signals as a special wireless operator, intercepting German enigma-encoded messages, logging them and sending them on to Bletchley Park

Volunteer and lifelong charity worker Rhona Dunn, 82, was given a plaque for her charity work and teaching numeracy and literacy in prisons and a gift hamper to go with it

Purple plaques have been installed across the UK to celebrate the achievements and contributions of local heroes

Historian Barbara Waller had her plaque put up on the former home of British novelist Charles Dickens in London

Campaigner Edna Milton will temporarily share a space with Founder of the Suffragette movement Emmeline Pankhurst

Reverend Alex French said celebrating the 'uniqueness of people and the contributions that they make, whether big or small, known or unknown is really important.'

Rhona Dunn's plaque has been put up on the wall of The Salvation pub in Manchester, alongside the blue plaque of author Charlotte Bronte

The new plaques, created by home care company Home Instead, have been installed temporarily next to the plaques of Great Brits such as Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens and Emmeline Pankhurst.

Campaigners who organised the Purple Plaques for Remarkable People said they want to help end ageism in the UK and to show appreciation for the elderly.

One of the remarkable people celebrated in a purple plaque is Doreen Brooks, who turned 101 this July.

Doreen was part of the enigma-cracking team in the Second World War which intercepted German messages, logged them and sent them to Bletchley Park where they were decoded. At the time, she had no idea of the importance of their work.

Doreen said: 'We didn't know what they were. We didn't even know they were German. They didn't tell us because it was so hush-hush.

'They said not to discuss it with anyone - not your parents, brothers, sisters. My husband didn't even know until 2009 when it was made public.

'He said: "Oh, is that what you used to do?"'

The top-secret work of the codebreakers was finally recognised in 2009 and Doreen received a letter of thanks from then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Now being honoured for her work again, Noreen said she was surprised to be awared the purple plaque.

She said: 'Why me? I'm not an MP or anyone famous.

'It was a shock, but it was a nice shock.'

Another unsung hero person celebrated with a purple plaque is Rhona Dunn, 82, who has been involved in community and charity work throughout her life.

Rhona worked as a high school teacher before joining the prison service, where she taught prisoners numeracy and literacy, which won her a plaque outside The Salutation pub in Manchester.

She has also volunteered for a mental health charity for decades, worked for helped food banks and aided people affected by flooding in her home town of Morpeth, Northumberland.

Rhona said: 'All my life I have been a volunteer of some kind or another... I've always been for charity

'How old you are has nothing to do with it.

'Sometimes someone will say to me "How do you find all these people to help?" If you just walk outside you can find someone to help... There's always going to be people who need help.'

Rhona added she was thrilled with being awarded the purple plaque, saying: 'I'm delighted, and the hamper was nice as well! The plaque is in pride of place at the moment.'

The new scheme has been warmly welcomed by members of the public, who agreed it was a great idea to show the extra appreciation for the elderly in their area.

Jackie Knight told the campaign: 'I think it is wonderful that everyday heroes are being celebrated. I think it's about time.'

Reverend Alex French added: 'I certainly think having that recognition, and that understanding and knowing the uniqueness of people and the contributions that they make, whether big or small, known or unknown is really important.'

Sandy Robertson told the Purple Plaque campaign: 'Nobody is ordinary - elderly people have lots of stories to tell, and people who don't think they have stories to tell actually do and they can be really fascinating.'

Lee Chapman, Home Insteads director of brand & marketing said: 'With more people aged over 65 than ever before, we need to rethink how we value older peoples experience and the contribution they make.

'This campaign is all about highlighting the issues with ageism we have in this country. And it became very apparent, as we travelled around the UK installing our purple plaques, that many people in Britain think more needs to be done to counter age bias and recognise that older people bring so much to us as a society.

'Home Instead believes that quality of life has no expiration date and people of all ages deserve comfort, connection and dignity. And we believe strongly that the famous names were using to highlight this issue would back what were doing and applaud the idea of championing the countrys unsung heroes.'

The people honoured by the Purple Plaque Campaign include:
A shop manager falsely accused colleagues of making racist claims that Meghan Markle shouldn't have married Prince Harry because the Royal Family should be 'pure', a tribunal heard.

Charles Iseki made a string of unfounded allegations against his co-workers during a tribunal where he was suing his employer for wrongful termination.

Mr Iseki, manager of a McColl's convenience store, was described as 'rude' and 'aggressive' by employees who complained about his constant accusations and threatening behaviour.

He even once hung up on a social worker, who was trying to explain why one of his female employees needed time off to go to Great Ormond Street Hospital as her child needed life-saving surgery.

The shop manager was dismissed in July 2019 for inappropriate and threatening behaviour

Mr Iseki, a black Nigerian, took McColl's to an employment tribunal, alleging a string of race discrimination claims, but most were dismissed after a judge ruled he 'treated his staff very badly'.

Shop manager Charles Iseki accused colleagues of making racist claims that Meghan Markle shouldn't have married Harry because the Royal Family should be 'pure', a tribunal heard

However, he is in line to receive compensation as he won one of his claims of race harassment, relating to one offensive comment.

The East London tribunal, held in Croydon, heard Mr Iseki was the manager of the McColl's convenience store in Blackheath, London.

He claimed shop assistant Christopher Richardson was 'racist from the outset' and claimed he heard him tell other members of staff that 'he hates black people' on a regular basis.

Mr Iseki told the tribunal that multiple members of staff had complained about Mr Richardson being racist, but the tribunal found there was no evidence of this.

He claimed to have had a meeting with Mr Richardson to specifically talk about racism, but the tribunal also saw no evidence of this.

Mr Iseki claimed in December 2018 Mr Richardson said that 'Meghan Markle should not have married Prince Harry'.

Mr Iseki claimed he later told area manager James Coomber about Mr Richardson's alleged comment, and that Mr Coomber 'expressed his agreement with the sentiment and said that the Royal family should be kept pure'.

The tribunal found Mr Richardson and Mr Coomber did not make any racist comments about the Royal Family.

Employment Judge John Crosfil found there was no evidence that Mr Iseki's colleagues made the comments about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (pictured together above)

Employment Judge John Crosfil ruled: 'We do not accept that any of the members of staff raised allegations that Christopher Richardson had used racist language at any point in 2018.

'Furthermore we set out our conclusion that Christopher Richardson used no such language towards [Mr Iseki] at this time. We have concluded that these events simply did not happen.'

A social worker then complained about Mr Iseki after she failed to convince him his female staff member needed time off as her son was having a life-saving operation.

The boy was in end-stage renal failure and his mother needed to attend urgently for the operation, but Mr Iseki was 'extremely rude' and would not discuss it.

The tribunal panel said: 'We would consider that any reasonable employer would have taken these allegations extremely seriously.

'The allegations made by the Great Ormond Street social worker were by themselves of an extremely serious nature.

'[When complaints against Mr Iseki are considered together] a pattern of conduct was evident that would tend to suggest that he was treating his staff very badly.'

In March 2019, Mr Richardson's stepfather called Mr Iseki and made a suggestion he was unfit to manage the store and implied it was due to his race.

Mr Iseki won a claim of race harassment against Mr Richardson relating to the incident and will be awarded compensation at a later date.

His remaining claims of race discrimination were dismissed. No claims against McColl's succeeded.

Mr Iseki was dismissed in July 2019 for inappropriate and threatening behaviour.
British troops have been banned from paying for sex while abroad as part of a crackdown on poor behaviour in the military.

In new policies announced by the Ministry of Defence, those who employ prostitutes while away from the UK face being kicked out the Armed Forces.

The move comes as part of efforts to prohibit all sexual activity which involves the abuse of power and follows a string of scandals.

British soldiers paying for sex has long been common in Kenya.

Kenyan woman Agnes Wanjiru was found dead in a septic tank close to a British Army training camp two months after she disappeared in March 2012.

Her death has recently seen legal action taken against the MoD.

There have also been a number of scandals involving affairs between senior officers and lower-ranking troops.

As part of the crackdown, the MoD said that 'every allegation will be responded to, no matter where the allegation takes place'.

There will also now be 'a presumption of discharge for anyone found to be engaging in the targeted behaviours, including buying sex whilst deployed outside the UK'.

'This new policy places greater emphasis on the support for victims, with a presumption of discharge from the Armed Forces for any person who behaved in a sexually unacceptable way,' the MoD added.

The move comes as part of Ministry of Defence efforts to prohibit all sexual activity which involves the abuse of power and follows a string of scandals

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was this week asked why it had taken so long to ban troops from paying for sex while abroad

As well as a series of scandals, the MoD had also been moved to act following a report by Tory MP Sarah Atherton, a former soldier.

She found that 64 per cent of female veterans and 58 per cent of currently-serving women reported experiencing bullying, harassment and discrimination during their military careers.

Leo Docherty, Minister for Defence People, said: 'Abusive, discriminatory or predatory behaviour has no place in our Armed Forces and these measures send a clear message that these types of behaviours will not be tolerated.

'As a forward thinking and modern employer, the Armed Forces are a place where our serving personnel can thrive, and we will continue to expect the highest values and standards of each and every one of them.'

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was this week asked why it had taken so long to ban troops from paying for sex while abroad.

'Lifes moved on, its a different generation,' he said.

'We want more and more women to be in our forces, we have to bear in mind all that means in different environments, and we have to set parameters for those environments and be very clear what is acceptable.'
Britain must be prepared to face the long-term threat from China and cannot be distracted by Russia's war in Ukraine, the First Sea Lord has warned.

Admiral Sir Ben Key, speaking to the Council on Geostrategy yesterday, acknowledged that Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion 'represents a near and present danger to us' and Britain 'must respond' to it to.

But, he added, 'focussing solely on the Russian bear risks missing the tiger,' with Beijing posing a greater 'long-term strategic challenge' to the UK.

Putin's invasion of Ukraine is a 'clear threat' that the UK must deal with but it cannot ignore the 'long-term challenge' posed by China, the First Sea Lord has warned (file image)

China, Sir Ben noted, has a growing economy that is already ten times that of Russia and is spending four times as much as Putin on its military - $298billion in 2021.

That money is being spent on 'developing perhaps the world's largest navy,' Sir Ben added, 'coupled with a massive Coastguard and maritime militia.'

Warning of a 'concerted effort by China to gain the upper hand across the board', he also spoke of Beijing's attempts at 'covert theft, tech transfer, exploiting research, all to deliver information advantage.'

And while Russia's economy is set to shrink as a result of Ukraine, China's has been bolstered by Moscow flogging sanctioned oil to the Communist Party on the cheap.

'China is indeed one of the great beneficiaries of this conflict,' Sir Ben added.

'If the West is learning lessons from Ukraine, we should be in no doubt so is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

'And for us, having potentially overestimated some of Moscow's military capabilities, we must be wary of underestimating those of Beijing.'

The CCP is currently fitting out its latest-generation aircraft carrier - the Fujian - which will rival the US Nimitz in size and feature launch catapults for its jets.

China recently launched a new aircraft carrier that it is now outfitting and will be the first to rival America's Nimitz in size and feature a launch catapult for its jets

Fears are also growing that China will soon invade Taiwan in an attempt to 'reunify' the island with the mainland (pictured, Taiwanese military volunteers)

It has also spent years building military bases in the South China Sea in an attempt to assert territorial rights over one of the world's most-valuable shipping lanes.

And fears are growing that Xi Jinping is planning to invade Taiwan, after the CCP threatened 'forceful measures' in response to rumours that US house speaker Nancy Pelosi may visit Taipei in August.

James Rogers, the Co-Founder and Director of Research of the Council on Geostrategy, told MailOnline: 'As China grows in power, it will seek to engineer an international order which looks more like itself.

'The prevailing international order  open and liberal  was constructed by countries such as the UK and US.

'The international order China will seek to generate will be hierarchical, centred on China.

'In many respects, China is acting like an imperial power, as it attempts to centre itself geographically, with all routes leading to China.'

Sir Ben used his speech to call on the government to continue investing in the military - and in particular Britain's navy - in order to deter Beijing.

Building partnership in Asia such as the AUKUS pact to provide Australia with new nuclear submarines, will also be key.

Admiral Sir Ben Key said Britain must 'adapt to the geostrategic situation we find in front of us', as Beijing become increasingly assertive

'Our Chinese friends might argue that alliances... is something that weak countries do, but history shows that such thinking is flawed,' he added.

'The evidence shows it is those states who don't build alliances which are the ones which ultimately fail.'

Underlining tensions in the region, Beijing hit out at the US today after one of its warships sailed down the Taiwan Strait that separates the island from the mainland.

America says such missions reinforce 'freedom of navigation', which states open oceans should be accessible to all under international law.

Beijing views Taiwan as a breakaway province and the waters surrounding the island as its own.

China tried to paint Washington as a 'a destroyer of peace' after the latest mission, saying its 'provocations and showboating' are creating unnecessary risk.

China's Eastern Theatre Command spokesman Colonel Shi Yi said forces are always 'on high alert to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.'

On Tuesday, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Benfold 'conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit ... through international waters', the US Seventh Fleet said in a statement.

'The ship transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State,' it added.
One of Boris Johnson's loudest Tory critics has been allowed back into the party to take part in the leadership vote this afternoon.

Tobias Ellwood apologised again today for failing to make it back from a foreign trip for a confidence vote in the government on Monday.

The former minister and defence committee chairman was stripped of the Tory whip despite claiming he was stranded in Moldova by international travel delays.

His punishment sparked claims that he was targeted because he was backing Penny Mordaunt for leader, while No10 is believed to be rooting for Liz Truss.

But the Tory whips this afternoon confirmed he would be allowed the whip back temporarily to allow him to cast a vote and 'ensure that the Whips Office neutrality in the leadership contest'.

'Upon the conclusion of today's leadership contest, Tobias Ellwood MP will have the whip suspended,' a spokesman said.

Tobias Ellwood apologised again today for failing to make it back from a foreign trip for a confidence vote in the government

The decision has caused anger in some quarters because it means Mr Ellwood cannot vote in the final stages of the Tory leadership contest - where he was backing Penny Mordaunt (pictured at PMQs today)

Mr Ellwood was in Moldova meeting the country's president when the showdown - which was comfortably won by the government - happened in parliament on Monday.

He blamed travel chaos caused by the heatwave, and has said he is 'sad' to have been cut adrift from the Conservatives at Westminster.

The premier's allies have flatly denied the move had anything to do with boosting Liz Truss's campaign for No10. The Foreign Secretary and Ms Mordaunt are fighting for the second spot in the run-off with Tory members, with Rishi Sunak almost certain to come top in the parliamentary phase.

Speaking from Odesa in Ukraine, Mr Ellwood told Sky News that he deeply regretted losing the whip, but said he did not ignore the whip's office and kept the party informed of his movements.

'There are a few options to get back, but there were problems with travel in the UK,' he said.

'I am very sorry I didn't make it back.'

He said he did not want to speculate about the reasons why he specifically lost the whip, adding: 'I'd be then fuelling the blue-on-blue (attacks), which I'm actually trying to avoid.

'Let's focus on how we can move forward and make sure that we conclude this leadership campaign to the highest professional standard that I think the British people want to see.'

Mr Ellwood had harsh words for his party, after a turbulent few weeks in British politics that has seen the Conservative Party unseat Mr Johnson as Prime Minister, a precursor to what has turned into an increasingly bitter contest to replace him.

'The nation wants to be impressed and inspired, not demoralised, by what they're witnessing right now,' he said.

Boris Johnson's allies have flatly denied the move had anything to do with boosting Liz Truss's campaign for No10

'And we need to perhaps exhibit greater decorum, dial the temperature down a bit, showcase the ideas, the vision, focus on those things that are important, that the nation wants to see.

'That's what will earn us the right to stay in government, otherwise we're just going to be letting ourselves down and indeed committing ourselves to probably a long spell in opposition.'

It remains unclear when Mr Ellwood will have the whip restored, as he voiced hope it would only be a temporary suspension.

However, Treasury minister Simon Clarke defended the punishment, calling Mr Ellwood's action a 'very serious mistake'.

'He was in Moldova, rather than Ukraine. He was not on Government work, he is a backbench MP,' he told Sky News.

Mr Clarke suggested that Mr Ellwood knew the consequences of missing the vote.

'Look, I'm not a member of the whip's office. What I will say is that there are clear arrangements in place which all MPs understand, which govern the conditions for absence from votes, most especially critical votes like a motion of confidence in the Government, which has the potential to trigger a general election,' he said.
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A logbook featuring a first-hand account of the nuclear attack on the Japanese city of Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War has sold for more than 450,000.

The devastating attack on the city in August 1945 caused the deaths of up to 130,000 Japanese men, women and children.

The bomb, named Little Boy, was dropped by the crew of the B-29 bomber named Enola Gay and was the first atomic weapon used in warfare after successful tests carried out by the US.

Three days after the levelling of Hiroshima, the US dropped a second atomic weapon - Fat Man - on the city of Nagasaki. It was an act that took at least 40,000 more lives and forced the Japanese to finally surrender.

The log book was written during the mission by Captain Robert A Lewis, the co-pilot of the plane. In it, Captain Lewis revealed the extent of what had taken place.

He described the scene after the bomb was dropped as the 'greatest explosion ever witnessed', before adding: 'Just how many did we kill? I honestly have the feeling of groping for words to explain this or I might say My God what have we done. If I live a hundred years I'll never quite get those few minutes out of my mind.'

The document, which was written in both pen and then pencil after Captain Lewis ran out of ink, was sold this week via Heritage Auctions in the US for $543,000 (453,345).

Captain Lewis compiled his real-time account after being approached by New York Times reporter William Laurence, who had been barred from being on the plane himself.

Captain Lewis's account is the only contemporary record of the mission that exists.

A logbook featuring a real-time account of the nuclear attack on the Japanese city of Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War has sold for more than 450,000. The log book was written by Captain Robert Lewis, the co-pilot of the plane that dropped the bomb

The devastating attack on the city in August 1945 caused the deaths of up to 130,000 Japanese men, women and children

The bomb, named Little Boy, was dropped by the crew (pictured) of the B-29 bomber named Enola Gay and was the first atomic weapon used in warfare after successful tests carried out by the US

Enola Gay is seen landing after its infamous mission to drop a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945

Although the crew had been aware that they were dropping an atomic bomb, none of them had any idea of the level of death and destruction that it would cause.

The team that Captain Lewis was part of was commanded by lead pilot Paul Tibbets.

In the research programme that was named the Manhatten Project, the US beat Nazi Germany and Japan to developing the atomic bomb.

When the technology was ready, the US opted to use it on Japan after the country's leaders refused to surrender following Nazi Germany's defeat in May 1945.

The crew of Enola Gay carried out their mission to bomb Hiroshima August 6. The bomb was detonated at an altitude of 1,750 feet and destroyed an area of approximately 4.7 square miles.

It was later estimated that 70 per cent of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed. At least 70,000 people were killed in the immediate moments after the bomb exploded, with more deaths coming later.

Captain Lewis described the scene after the bomb was dropped as the 'greatest explosion ever witnessed', before adding: 'Just how many did we kill? I honestly have the feeling of groping for words to explain this or I might say My God what have we done. If I live a hundred years I'll never quite get those few minutes out of my mind

Captain Lewis described in his log book the progression of the flight and then the moments after the bomb had been dropped from the plane.

He wrote: 'For the next minute no one knew what to expect, the bombardier and the right seat jockey or Pilot [Tibbetts] both forgot to put on their dark glasses and therefore witnessed the flash which was terrific... 15 seconds after the flash there were two very distinct slaps on the ship.

'Then that was all the physical effects we felt. We then turned the ship so we could observe results, and there in front of our eyes was without a doubt !!! the greatest explosion man has ever witnessed.'

He then added: 'I am certain the entire crew felt this experience was more than anyone [sic] human had ever thought possible. It just seems impossible to comprehend.'

The pilot went on to record the feelings of the dumbstruck crew.

The bomb was detonated at an altitude of 1,750 feet and destroyed an area of approximately 4.7 square miles. Above: The aftermath of the attack

It was later estimated that 70 per cent of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed. At least 70,000 people were killed in the immediate moments after the bomb exploded, with more deaths coming later

The 'mushroom' cloud that rose into the air after the detonation of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima is seen above

He also wrote that he believed the Japanese would 'give up before we land' because 'they certainly don't care to have us drop any more bombs of atomic energy like this'.

However, the Japanese authorities still refused to surrender and so the US dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki.

The device was carried by the B-29 bomber named Bockscar. The detonation - on August 9 - was the second and, so far, last nuclear attack in history.

Japan then finally surrendered on August 15, with the decision broadcast to the Japanese people by the country's Emperor.

Captain Lewis died of a heart attack at his home in Virginia in 1983 aged 65.

His log book was sold with a 1985 edition of Time Magazine that featured Captain Lewis's chilling words.
Salaries for the same job at Twitter can vary by up to 225 per cent depending on which countries the staff work around the world, internal data has revealed.

The social media giant's Salary Range Dashboard shows staff how much their colleagues in the same roles in different offices around the world are earning.

The leaked data shows the US employees are far better remunerated than their counterparts in other countries, leading to unrest among some staff who are now threatening to leave, sources claimed.

For instance, legal counsel directors at a Level 8 position can earn a maximum of $338,000 in New York but only $203,000 in the UK.

Curation leads, a Level 6 role, earn up to $226,000 in San Francisco but $149,000 in Australia and $65,000 in Mexico.

Level 3 data specialists take home $51,000 in the UK but only pocket $15,600 in Ghana.

Salaries for the same job at Twitter can vary by up to 225 per cent depending on where the staff work, internal data has revealed

A non-US Twitter employee told Input, who have reviewed the data: 'A manager in the UK is being paid less than someone they'd manage in the US, and of course, offices outside the UK and US are being paid horribly.'

The data was labeled 'Twitter confidential. For internal use only. Do not distribute', and is current as of April 2022.

The figures have allegedly led some Twitter employees to consider their futures at the company.

They say that issues over pay have been their main concern, over the aborted takeover by Elon Musk.

One employee said: 'Elon kind of feels like an annoyance.'

Because of Twitter's global structure, employees at the same level but on vastly different salaries will work together, knowing of the huge disparity.

Staff claim they have raised it with bosses but they have ignored their complaints.

The figures have allegedly led some Twitter employees to consider their futures at the company (pictured: San Francisco headquarters)

Another Twitter staffer based outside the US said: 'The company released the salary dashboard with the caveat that they were doing so for transparency, but with no intention to change the huge pay discrepancy.'

They said the company has justified the difference because of the average salary in each region rather than the cost of living.

Disgruntled employees also say staff in the US are the ones who make the rules and they are the ones who benefit the most from it.

A Twitter spokesman told Input: 'Twitter regularly evaluates compensation in each market where our employees are based to ensure we pay equitably and remain market competitive.

'Each role's compensation is localized depending on location, and our approach ensures we are competitive against local market practices.'

The leak comes as Twitter faces a crucial moment, with Musk fighting a lawsuit after backing out of a $44billion takeover deal.

Tesla and SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk lost his fight to delay Twitter 's lawsuit against him as a Delaware judge on Tuesday set an October trial

The Tesla CEO lost his fight to delay the case yesterday and a Delaware judge on Tuesday set an October trial, citing the 'cloud of uncertainty' over the social media company.

Twitter had asked for an expedited trial in September, while Musk's team called for waiting until early next year because of the complexity of the case.

'Delay threatens irreparable harm,' said Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, the head judge of Delaware's Court of Chancery, which handles many high-profile business disputes. 'The longer the delay, the greater the risk.'

Regarding the request by Musk's team for a later date, McCormick said they underestimated the Delaware court's ability to 'quickly process complex litigation.'

Twitter is trying to force the billionaire to make good on his April promise to buy the social media giant for $44 billion  and the company wants it to happen quickly because it says the ongoing dispute is harming its business.

Delaware Court of Chancery Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick set an October trial, citing the 'cloud of uncertainty' over the social media company after Musk backed out of a deal to buy it

Musk, the world's richest man, pledged to pay $54.20 a share for Twitter, but informed the company in July that he wants to back out of the agreement.

'It's attempted sabotage. He's doing his best to run Twitter down,' said attorney William Savitt, representing Twitter before McCormick on Tuesday. The hearing was held virtually after McCormick said she tested positive for COVID-19.

Musk has claimed the company has failed to provide adequate information about the number of fake, or 'spam bot,' Twitter accounts, and that it has breached its obligations under the deal by firing top managers and laying off a significant number of employees.

Musk's team expects more information about the bot numbers to be revealed in the trial court discovery process, when both sides must hand over evidence.

Twitter argues that Musk's reasons for backing out are just a cover for buyer's remorse after agreeing to pay 38 percent above Twitter's stock price shortly before the stock market stumbled and shares of the electric-car maker Tesla, where most of Musk's personal wealth resides, lost more than $100 billion of their value.

Parag Agrawal, CEO of Twitter, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho earlier this month

Twitter filed the lawsuit (above) on Tuesday in Delaware Chancery Court and will look forward to October for the expected start of the trial

The lawsuit was a widely anticipated step after Musk announced his intent to pull out of the April 25 merger agreement (file photo)

Savitt said the contested merger agreement and Musk's tweets disparaging the company were inflicting harm on the business and questioned Musk's request for a delayed trial, asking 'whether the real plan is to run out the clock.'

'He's banking on wriggling out of the deal he signed,' Savitt said.

But the idea the Tesla CEO is trying to damage Twitter is 'preposterous. He has no interest in damaging the company,' said Musk attorney Andrew Rossman, noting he is Twitter's second largest shareholder with a 'far larger stake' than the company's entire board of directors.

Savitt emphasized the importance of an expedited trial starting in September for Twitter to be able to make important business decisions affecting everything from employee retention to relationships with suppliers and customers.

Rossman said more time is needed because it is 'one of the largest take-private deals in history' involving a 'company that has a massive amount of data that has to be analyzed. Billions of actions on their platform have to be analyzed.'
The leading Republican to take on squad member Ilhan Omar in November says the far-left lawmaker is mostly interested in 'celebrity activism' and claims her actions are a 'wrecking ball to progress'.

Cicely Davis, in an interview with DailyMail.com, said that Omar is an 'insult' to Minnesotans she represents in the 5th congressional district  and specifically those within the Somali-American community.

'Ilhan Omar, in my opinion, has been remarkably ineffective in her role as the congresswoman here representing this district,' Davis said.

'That was absolutely manifested in video and seen across the world,' she added, referencing the incident earlier this month where a full stadium booed Omar's appearance at a Somali music festival, telling her to 'get the f*** out'.

She also said that most of Omar's actions are just 'activist theater' and a way for her to 'increase her celebrity status.'

The progressive Somali-American lawmaker was arrested outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday along with fellow squad member and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The two were part of a group of Democratic lawmakers protesting the overturn of Roe v. Wade last month.

Both lawmakers were seen walking away with police with their hands behind their backs as though they were in handcuffs, even though neither were bound by their wrists.

Cicely Davis  the GOP woman taking on Ilhan Omar in Minnesota  says the squad member is only interested in increasing her fame and engaging in 'celebrity activism' and has lost touch with what the people Minnesota's 5th congressional district want

Omar was arrested outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday during a protest against the overturn of Roe v. Wade last month

Omar and squad member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez smirked and appeared to fake being handcuffed as they were detained during the protest Tuesday

Davis says that Omar is 'insulting' to Minnesota voters  and specifically Somali-Americans after comparing violence in Minneapolis to that in a Somali refugee camp like the one she was in as a child. Pictured: Davis meets with Somali women at a fundraiser in St. Paul on April 9, 2022 for the Hargeisa Market fire in Somaliland

'Ilhan Omar rallying against the official ruling at the Minnesota State Capitol this past Sunday to her brazen embrace of political theater at the Supreme Court  it's clear she is more interested in fact-free, celebrity activism than in actually doing her job and writing legislation that can pass Congress,' Davis told DailyMail.com Tuesday in a follow up from last week's wide-range interview.

She added that Omar is interested in running against the abortion ruling and former President Donald Trump rather than on their own record or real issues like public safety and the economy.

Davis said that the jeers from voters at the Target Center over Independence Day weekend were also in part constituents' denunciation of the congresswoman, but also a response from the community after she compared Minneapolis to a Somali refugee camp where she and her family settled after fleeing war in the 1990s and before coming to America.

Omar (left) appeared to pretend to be handcuffed by police during the arrest. Pictured: Omar smiles and chats with fellow squad member Rashida Tlaib (right) as they sit in the grass after being detained for participating in an abortion rights protest at the Supreme Court Tuesday

'Imagine how insulting that sounds to those who had fled there, and to understand it's precisely what they left behind,' Davis said. 'This was an insult to them She just doesn't bear their values.'

'It's something I've been hearing from them,' Davis added of the dissatisfaction of voters with who represents them in D.C. 'And again, it was nice to have it come from their mouth and to be seen via video. And so that was just confirmation and manifestation.'

'You know, when you have a Target Center full of her community members and they are booing  those are her people, that's her culture,' Davis told DailyMail.com in a phone interview.

'And a resounding boo, a booming boo for minutes on end gives you an indication that she's not connected, that she is absolutely tone deaf. And the fact that they are willing to so blatantly express their disgust for her, gives you an indication as to what congressional District 5 is feeling, what we're experiencing and the reflection of her leadership.'

Omar was booed off stage during a Somali music festival in Minneapolis over Independence Day weekend (pictured)  shortly after her comments comparing violence in the city to a Somali refugee camp

'Get the f*** out' one crowd member is heard yelling at Omar in a now-viral video of the concert. Davis says that the clip is 'confirmation and manifestation' onto video of Minnesota's dissatisfaction with Omar

Davis also claimed that constituents in Minneapolis aren't pleased with Omar's push to defund police and said that the area has always had a big independent voter push that she is hoping to tap to defeat the lawmaker come November.

Minnesotans here have forgotten that she led the charge to defund the police,' Davis told DailyMail.com in the interview last week. 'So thankfully that was on the ballot box.'

'She was supposed to represent and understood the risk that it poses for their safety specifically. The soaring crime rate can't be papered over with fancy political slogans,' Davis added. 'And so, you know, the bottom line is, is that Ilhan Omar is just simply ineffective.'

'This is about activist theater, it's about gas lighting issues. She's offering no real way to make change and so she's just more about, you know, increasing her celebrity status than actually bringing about policies to bring about change.'

To take on Omar, however, Davis must first win the GOP primary on August 9 against two other candidates. The contest, however, is virtually none for Davis as she emerged the mostly likely candidate to advance to the general election later this year.

'Ilhan Omar is a complete wrecking ball to progress for any of the constituents here and my point is to just simply step in, step up and hold her to account,' Davis insisted.
The Government's controversial Rwanda deportation flights for asylum seekers could be grounded until at least October as two dates have been set for legal challenges to be heard.

Several asylum seekers, along with the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) and charities Care4Calais, Detention Action and Asylum Aid, are bringing challenges against the plan to provide one-way tickets to the east African country.

The main hearing will go ahead from September 5 for five days, with a second hearing in the claim brought by Asylum Aid taking place in October and both judgments expected to be delivered together after that date.

However, the Home Office has not ruled out further attempts to remove asylum seekers to Africa before the ruling and said plans for the next flight have already begun.

It comes as at least 100 migrants crossed the Channel by small boat yesterday with government figures showing more than 15,000 people have made the journey so far this year.

The first attempt at a removals flight to Rwanda under the deal, which was announced in April, was due to leave on June 14.

It had to be called off at the 11th hour after the European Court of Human Rights intervened.

A Strasbourg judge used little-known powers to block the flight even though a series of senior UK judges had refused to intervene.

The European court said no removals could take place until the legality of the Rwanda policy had been properly scrutinised by British courts.

Rwanda deportation flights could be grounded until at least October as a date has been set for the legal challenges to be heard in court. Pictured: Migrants arrive in Dover yesterday

A full judicial review of the policy at the High Court had been due to begin on Tuesday, but some of the groups bringing the case asked for a delay earlier this month to allow them to prepare.

In a judgment on Wednesday, Lord Justice Lewis said the main hearing will go ahead from September 5 for five days, with a second hearing in the claim brought by Asylum Aid taking place in October.

Lord Justice Lewis, sitting with Mr Justice Swift, said: 'We accept that there is a strong public interest in hearing this claim as soon as reasonably possible.

'The challenge is to arrangements adopted by the Government to give effect to a policy which it regards as in the public interest and which it considers may impact on the ability and willingness of persons to risk dangerous journeys by lorry or small boats across the English Channel.

'We are satisfied after careful consideration that the timetable that we have settled on will ensure all claimants can present their claims fairly.'

Lord Justice Lewis said both judgments are expected to be given at the same time.

It comes as at least 100 migrants including a tiny baby crossed the Channel yesterday with government figures showing more than 15,000 people have made the journey so far this year

Pictured: A woman and child are spoken to by a member of the armed forces on July 18

He added: 'We stress that we have not yet considered any evidence, or heard any argument, about the details of those claims.

'We are only dealing at this stage with procedural matters. This judgment does not, therefore, express any view on whether the arrangements are lawful or unlawful.'

The Home Office would not clarify whether any deportation flights would be sent prior to the conclusion of these proceedings but sources previously indicated to the Times it was unlikely due to the Tory leadership contest.

A spokesman for Detention Action tweeted earlier this month: Until the lawfulness of the policy is fully tested in the courts, this Government should not attempt any forced removals to Rwanda, as they have threatened.

We also call for all people seeking asylum targeted by this policy to be released from detention, with proper support.

The judge said two of the individual claimants, allegedly victims of trafficking, will have their cases heard after the main case, and other individual claims could be adjourned based on Home Office decisions in their asylum cases.

A group thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover on a Border Force vessel on Monday

At a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, the court was told that recently provided documents showed that Rwanda had initially been excluded from the shortlist of potential countries 'on human rights grounds'.

The documents provided earlier this month included several memos and internal communications from the Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Judges were told that in a note from March 2021, Foreign Office officials told then-foreign secretary Dominic Raab that if Rwanda was selected for the deportation policy 'we would need to be prepared to constrain UK positions on Rwanda's human rights record, and to absorb resulting criticism from UK Parliament and NGOs'.

In another memo, Foreign Office officials said they had advised Downing Street against engagement with several countries, including Rwanda, the court was told in written arguments.

The court was later told that the UK High Commissioner to Rwanda previously indicated that the east African country should not be used as an option for the policy, telling the Government it 'has been accused of recruiting refugees to conduct armed operations in neighbouring countries'.

Another official memo in April this year said the 'fraud risk is very high' and there is 'limited evidence about whether these proposals will be a sufficient deterrent for those seeking to enter the UK illegally', judges were told.

Pictured: A baby in carrier arriving at Dover after being taken across the Channel on July 18

After Tuesday's hearing, a UK Government spokesperson said: 'Rwanda is a safe and secure country with a track record of supporting asylum seekers.

'We remain committed to delivering this policy to break the business model of criminal gangs and save lives.'

It comes as at least 100 migrants including a tiny baby crossed the English Channel by small boat yesterday with government figures showing more than 15,000 people have made the journey so far this year.

With the UK and Europe in the grip of a record-breaking heatwave, dozens of migrants crossed the water, helped to shore by Border Force patrol boats.

The new provisional figures show nearly double the amount of people have made the perilous journey in 2022 than compared to this time last year.

A total of 15,107 people have travelled on the water from France in dinghies and cobbled-together boats so far this year, compared to 7,735 at the same time in 2021.

With the sweltering weather bringing calmer waters, the numbers show no signs of slowing down - with boat crossings for the last 12 days.
It has been revealed Charlie had been diagnosed with coeliac disease

Five other siblings, aged between seven and 16 have been removed from home

Charlie was found unresponsive at her family's Adelaide home on Friday

Just two weeks ago, Charlie - dressed in a baby-pink tracksuit and broad-brimmed hat - posed for a photo at her family home hunched over with her eyes closed.

It was the last picture of the six-year-old ever taken before the little girl was found unresponsive at her family's housing commission home in Munno Para, in Adelaide's northern suburbs, in the early hours of Friday morning.

Her tragic death - which has been officially recorded as malnutrition - sparked a major crimes investigation by police and has led her five siblings to be taken into the care of the state as their mother is investigated for criminal neglect.

Now, sources have told The Advertiser that Charlie had been diagnosed with coeliac disease, a serious immune disorder in which the digestive system reacts to gluten.

Pictured: The last known photo of Charlie taken two weeks ago

The reaction causes damage to the small intestine which can prevent the absorption of some nutrients, leading to deficiencies.

Neighbours say Charlie's mother is 'distraught' over her youngest child's death.

'She watched her child die  any mother who has gone through that would be traumatised and scared and confused and just heartbroken that her child, her baby that she carried for nine months is gone,' one said on Wednesday.

It comes after Tuesday's revelations that authorities allowed Charlie to stay at the home despite being exposed to drug abuse and domestic violence.

Court documents show the family was already known to at least three government agencies - including the Department of Child Protection.

In January last year, Charlie and her siblings watched their 'drug-fuelled' father stab their mother multiple times - including to the neck - at their home.

But despite the children witnessing the horrifying attack - and their father's history of domestic violence and drug use - authorities did not remove them.

Neighbours say Charlie's mother (pictured) is 'distraught' over her daughter's death

Charlie (pictured) was raced to Lyell McEwin Hospital in the early hours of Friday morning in Adelaide's north

Neighbours claim they contacted the department eight times over a three-week period in the lead up to Charlie's death, with the agency reportedly having more than 500 case notes in relation to the little girl.

They believe the department was responsible for Charlie's death for not taking any action.

'It wasn't her (Charlie's mother), it was the state that failed,' one said.

'We're not blaming her for what happened to Charlie ... she needed help and DCP (Department for Child Protection) did nothing to support her in the ways she needed help.'

Outside the home on Tuesday, Charlie's aunt - wearing a pink hoodie with a slogan that read 'but did you die? #mumlife' - lashed out at media when asked how the six-year-old's mother was feeling.

Charlie (pictured) died on the floor of her mother's house in an alleged case of criminal neglect

Charlie's aunt arrived that afternoon, wearing a pink hoodie with a slogan that read: 'But did you die? #mumlife (pictured, left)

'How do you think she's feeling? Her daughter just died in her arms! Of course she's upset.'

One neighbour, Bec, told Daily Mail Australia the girl's mum had raised the alarm late at night - leading her to do everything she could to try and save Charlie's life.

'It was about 1am and we were about to go to sleep, and we heard this banging on the door. Charlie's mum was screaming 'Charlie isn't breathing!' so we raced over there.

'She was on the floor in a nappy and she was paper white ... and when I touched her she was stone cold and her eyes were open and fixated on the ceiling.

'We did everything to try and get Charlie to breathe.'

Paramedics arrived soon after and worked on Charlie for half an hour, but the six-year-old was pronounced dead at the hospital.

When asked about the cause of death, Bec said she didn't know whether she choked to death or whether there were health issues going on that no one knew about.

However, she noted that no one saw Charlie for the last few weeks of her life because she was suffering a mystery illness.

The house Charlie died in was surrounded by junk - old toys, a tent, bikes and a disused freezer

The cause of death is still unknown, but a neighbour said Charlie had something in her throat when she died (family home, pictured)

She also said the girl and her siblings never looked healthy. They often had head lice, which Bec tried her best to help with.

'After a while, she came over less and less and then she wasn't allowed to come over and play with my two-year-old daughter, and she wasn't allowed to leave the house,' Bec said.

Bec remembered Charlie as a 'beautiful' girl who was shy, but always smiling happy, and carried around a pink teddy bear.

Eighteen months ago, police were also called to the home after Charlie's father attacked her mother, his partner of 18-years, during a fight while he was under the influence of methylamphetamine.

During a sentencing hearing in February, the court heard he had been a habitual user of the drug for many years and, after quitting for a while, relapsed on the night of the attack.

The fight started in the bedroom before moving to the front yard, where the mother was stabbed three times.

'It (the attack) occurred in front of the house and was witnessed by at least one civilian, who had to pull the defendant away from the victim not once, but twice,' a prosecutor told the District Court.

Pictured: The front of the house Charlie died in, which has a single swing out the front

Debris, including an old mattress, bedding, and unused rabbit hutch, were seen scattered around the yard of the home on Tuesday

'Had he not been pulled away there can be no doubt far more serious consequences could have flowed.'

The prosecutor told the court the mother wished to return to her partner despite the stabbing.

'I think it would be fair to say the victim is probably lacking in insight into the preservation of her own safety,' the prosecutor said.

'I can tell you that the Department of Child Protection has an interest in this matter and certainly should the defendant return to that home, I would anticipate the department would get involved again.'

The father was initially charged with attempted murder before pleaded guilty to the downgraded offence of causing harm with intent.

He was sentenced in March this year to five years and six months in jail with a non-parole period of three years and six months.

Investigators will now probe what other interactions they had with the family in the years leading up to Charlie's death.

SA Deputy Police Commissioner Linda Williams said the six-year-old's living conditions were 'poor' and said it was too early to determine if her death could have been prevented.

The grass was overgrown and the yard littered with kids toys and miscellaneous items

She could not confirm the last time Charlie had been seen or even attended school.

A special taskforce has been formed to investigate her death and the circumstances behind it.

Task Force Prime will investigate possible criminal neglect charges relating to her five siblings living in the same house.

Acting Premier Susan Close said a government review would investigate the interactions between Charlie's family and the state's human services, child protection, education and housing agencies.

The chief executive of the Department of Premier and Cabinet will determine which services were engaged, how they collaborated, how effective they were, and what changes might be required.

Child Protection Minister Katrine Hildyard said these were 'absolutely tragic and heart breaking circumstances' and offered her sympathies to Charlie's family.
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Eerie pictures reveal the inside of one of America's most haunted prisons where the notorious gangster Al Capone was jailed for eight months in a cell dubbed Park Avenue.

The crumbling stone walls, dark corridors and claustrophobia-inducing cells that once housed thousands of dangerous criminals are laid bare in a series of photographs taken by an urban explorer.

The infamous Eastern State Penitentiary, in Philadelphia, which closed its doors in 1971, is considered by many people as one of the most haunted buildings in America.

Built in 1829, it was the first jail to implement solitary confinement for every single inmate which was thought to have brought on mental illness.

Even outside the tiny cells, guards would cover their heads with a hood so they remained in confinement even when they wandered through its stone halls.

The Philadelphia prison's 142-year history is steeped in controversy and cruelty and those who believe in ghost stories say the troubled souls of inmates still roam the abandoned halls.

The explorer captured the prison's eeriness in photos of its decaying walls, abandoned and broken furniture and cramped cells where the bones of dead animals remain.

The crumbling stone walls, dark corridors and claustrophobia-inducing cells that once housed thousands of dangerous criminals are lade bare in a series of photographs taken by an urban explorer

Eerie pictures reveal the inside of one of America's most haunted prisons where the notorious gangster Al Capone was jailed for eight months in a cell dubbed Park Avenue

Philadelphia newspapers noted that Capone's cell contained fine furniture, beautiful rugs, tasteful paintings, and a fancy radio. Pictured: A recreation of what Capone's cell would have looked like

The infamous Eastern State Penitentiary, in Philadelphia, which closed its doors in 1971, is considered by many people as one of the most haunted buildings in America. Pictured: Inside one of the cells

Built in 1829, it was the first jail to implement solitary confinement for every single inmate which was thought to have brought on mental illness

The explorer captured the prison's eeriness in photos of its decaying walls, abandoned and broken furniture and cramped cells where the bones of dead animals remain

The crumbling walls and the destroyed furniture is seen inside one of the prison cells

The prison guards would tie inmates so tightly in a device called 'the mad chair' that it would cut off circulation and necessitate amputations

Eerie pictures reveal the inside of one of America's most haunted prisons where the notorious gangster Al Capone (pictured) was jailed for eight months in a cell dubbed Park Avenue

'I spent about three hours inside Eastern State exploring cell to cell and photographing everything from the crumbling walls to broken stools and beds and peeling paint,' said the explorer, who did not want to be named.

'I even sat inside a cell for a good while imagining what prisoners would have felt.

'Parts of Eastern State are incredibly uncomfortable, yet the history is all over the walls and floors, even the steel beds tell a story none of us can really imagine, each cell is different in 'character' and each cell feels different.

The inmates were severely mistreated by the prison guards who found a number of sick ways to punish those who misbehaved.

Prison guards would use a torture method called the 'water bath' where they would dunk the prisoner in water then hang them to dry in the cold outside until ice formed on the skin.

They would also tie inmates so tightly in a device called 'the mad chair' that it would cut off circulation and necessitate amputations.

And the worst offenders would be put in 'the hole', a pitch-black underground cell where they had no light, no human contact and little air.

'Inmates back then would sit in their cell for 23 hours a day,' the explorer said.

'After sitting inside a few cells taking photographs, it feels each decaying wall is closing in on you.'

The solitary confinement system was eventually discarded when the prison became overcrowded but Eastern State is widely thought to have induced mental illness in many of its inhabitants.

The inmates were severely mistreated by the prison guards who found a number of sick ways to punish those who misbehaved

The explorer captured the prison's eeriness in photos of its decaying walls, abandoned and broken furniture and cramped cells where the bones of dead animals remain

Since its 1971 closure, the penitentiary has since been turned into a National Historic Landmark, offering both day and nighttime tours. Pictured: The remains of a rusty bed inside a prison cell

It housed infamous criminals like bank robber Willie Sutton and even Al Capone who headed a criminal syndicate illegally supplying alcohol during the prohibition in the early-1900s.

Since its 1971 closure, the penitentiary has since been turned into a National Historic Landmark, offering both day and nighttime tours.

'From the entrance to cells to even the exit, the decay and ruined structure of Eastern State makes it possible to experience urban exploration safely while taking in history at its finest,' the explorer said.

'It's a shame not many places decay naturally and are open to the public such as this.

'While I have explored abandoned buildings for many years nothing will come close to photographing Eastern State Penitentiary.

'It really is a photographer's dream inside here.'

Abandoned and decaying furniture was left inside the Eastern State Penitentiary, in Philadelphia

The remains of some prison clothing was pictured by the explorer during the eerie visit to the prison

Since its 1971 closure, the penitentiary has since been turned into a National Historic Landmark, offering both day and nighttime tours

Capone was one of the most feared figures in organized crime during the Prohibition Era, when the sale or production of alcohol was banned in the United States.

He is widely believed to be behind the bloody St. Valentine's Day massacre in 1929 that left seven rival gang members dead.

Born in 1899 to Italian immigrants, the Brooklyn-born Capone became influenced by a life of crime by friend Johnny Torrio.

He earned the nickname 'Scarface' in 1917 after getting into an altercation with a man at a bar that left three scars on his face.

He married wife Mae Coughlin in 1918 and his son Sonny was born on December 4 of that year.

This is the last photo taken of Al Capone with his wife Mae and grandchildren Diane, Barbara and Ronnie

Capone was considered one of the most notorious gangsters of the Prohibition era and was the mob boss of the Chicago Outfit. This photo of Capone and his associates in Hot Springs, Arkansas, will begin at $1,250

He was the boss of the Chicago Outfit, a 1920s gang that beat out rivals in bootlegging and racketeering with increasingly brutal methods.

These culminated in the 1929 St Valentine's Day Massacre, when seven members of a rival gang were executed, resulting in Capone being dubbed 'Public Enemy Number One'.

He was indicted in 1931 on 22 counts of tax evasion and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

He ultimately ended up in Alcatraz, a San Francisco island fortress prison in 1934.

He died on January 25, 1947 at the age of 48 after developing dementia as a result of a syphillis contraction.

He has been immortalized in film and television on numerous occasions, mostly notably by Robert De Niro in The Untouchables and Stephen Graham in Boardwalk Empire.
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A brutal 'heat dome' is set to fry the US on Wednesday as scorching temperatures rocket above triple figures in multiple states.

'Dangerous' rays will blast more than 265million people across the country as the mercury soars to up to 118F in some parts.

A staggering third of America has been issued with excessive heat warnings, with Boston declaring an emergency and New York City urging residents to stay inside for their own safety.

It comes as temperatures started to rise over the last few days that caused people to faint of heat exhaustion, flee from sharks circling beaches further northwards due to the warmer seas and battle raging wildfires.

A UPS delivery driver was recorded on a doorbell camera passing out as he tried to post a parcel amid extreme heat in Arizona.

Meanwhile there have been multiple sightings of sharks lurking off the coast of Long Island, with five attacks taking place in the past few weeks shutting down multiple beaches.

And a horrifying new report this week found 130 homeless people were killing in scorching temperatures in Phoenix last year.

NEW YORK: Locals in New York flocked to Rockaway Beach yesterday to soak up the sunshine on the East Coast with temperatures set to hit 97F today

TEXAS: Construction workers took a break in the shade from working on pipes in San Antonio, Texas, where temperatures will reach triple figures

NEW YORK: Officials have shut down several popular beaches because of a rise in shark sightings as high up as Long Island

Tourists soaked in the sunshine as they looked at the World War II memorial in Washington DC today

Heat index levels: What are the risks? Caution: 80 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit Fatigue possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity Extreme caution: 90 to 103 degrees Heat stroke, heat cramps, or heat exhaustion possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity Danger: 103 to 124 degrees Heat cramps or heat exhaustion likely, and heat stroke possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity Extreme danger: 125 degrees or higher Heat stroke highly likely Source: Weather.gov Advertisement

Michelle Wu, Boston's Mayor, declared the emergency and has launched dozens of cooling centers across the city to help protect locals.

The National Weather Service has also issued a heat advisory until 8pm tonight in Boston, with the heat index forecast to soar past 100 degrees.

Meanwhile Jackie Bray, commissioner of New York's homeland security and emergency services division, has urged residents to stay indoors rather than risk the 'dangerous' heatwave.

She pushed for the move so locals can avoid 'dangerous conditions that can lead to heat stress and illness'.

New York will reach 97F, while Death Valley in California is set to reach a scorching 118F and Las Vegas estimated to soar to at least 113F today.

New York City could also be facing the longest heatwave in nearly a decade, with seven straight days of temperature above 90F, which last happened in 2013.

If the scorching conditions last eight consecutive days it would be one of the ten hottest in history, with the record of 12 days being set in 1953.

The Big Apple's energy company, Con Edison, is also advising residents to limit their energy use to avoid blackouts.

Workers in the city are claiming that their air conditioning has been shut off because of the 'mandatory demand response'.

At least one-third of the US population has been issued with heat advisories and excessive heat warnings and roughly 265 million people will see temperatures above 90 degrees in the coming days.

A 'heat dome' covering the country is largely due to a persistent region of high pressure trapping heat over an area.

Temperatures in the United States are set to exceed triple figures across the nation with the southern states being hit hardest

TEXAS: Families in Houston, Texas, were quick to cool off in swimming pools yesterday after the state was issued with an excessive heat warning by the National Weather Service

Jackie Bray, commissioner of New York's homeland security and emergency services division, has urged residents to stay indoors rather than risk the 'dangerous' heatwave

NEW YORK: New Yorkers sunbathed in Washington Square Park yesterday, laying down their towels as they enjoyed the scorching sunshine

NEW YORK: High temperatures across the nation are largely due to a persistent region of high pressure trapping heat over an area, called a 'heat dome'

TEXAS: Children were quick to cool down in water jets in Houston, Texas, with other states setting up cooling stations to allow residents to access water and shade

TEXAS: At least one third of the US population has been issued with head advisories and excessive heat warnings and roughly 265 million people will see temperatures above 90F

NEW YORK: Scorching temperature are expected to last until at least Friday, with meteorologists warning that above average highs will be 'dominating' the country

TEXAS: Workers put neon rims on their hard hats with neck covers in an attempt to keep cool in the burning San Antonio sun today

Officials have also shut down several popular beaches because of a rise in shark sightings as high up as Long Island, with five attacks taking place in the past few weeks.

A new study has warned that climate change is intensifying, with a research team finding that nearly one in three of all species will disappear or be threatened by 2100.

This is mainly due to biodiversity loss, which is a result of production and consumption, human population and climate change.

In Arizona UPS drivers today slammed the company after a horrified resident released footage of his delivery driver collapsing in the extreme heat.

The doorbell video, shared by Brian Enriquez from Scottsdale, shows the man leaning over to deliver the parcel before falling and slumping to the ground.

He lies there for a few moments before standing up, ringing the doorbell, and then 'staggering away', as temperatures reached 110F in Phoenix.

Enriquez told KPNX News in Mesa: 'I was concerned for the fact that he was stumbling to the door. 'Had I gotten to my phone sooner, I could have talked to him through my Ring, but he had already left the property at that point.

The homeowner called the police to see if they could help, with UPS confirming that the driver had not been seriously injured.

UPS said: 'UPS drivers are trained to work outdoors and for the effects of hot weather. Our employee used his training to be aware of his situation and contact his manager for assistance, who immediately provided assistance.

'Our package delivery vehicles make frequent stops, making air conditioning ineffective.'

A UPS driver told ABC News their vans do not have air conditioning due to frequent stops, adding that drivers are 'dropping like flies' in the heat.

A worker put his waterproof gear on and donned a hat as he battled the rising temperatures at the National Mall in Washington DC

TEXAS: Texas is continuing to face drought conditions amid the excessive heat. Emily Buss, 16, left is seen here reaching for an umbrella to put on the lifeguard stand at the Allen Bolden Outdoor Pool

NEW YORK: A couple took advantage of the heat to go for a paddle on Central Park Lake before posing for a picture

BOSTON: Children did not seem to mind the looming heatwave as they played in a water fountain in Boston, Massachusetts

NEW YORK: Women tried to cool off in the excessive heat wearing bikinis to lay on the grass in Central Park

A surge of wildfires has been breaking out in North America as temperatures continue to soar United-States California - Yosemite National Park Fire erupted on July 8 in part of California's Yosemite National Park, home of some of the largest and oldest giant sequoia trees in the world. Flames consumed 3,772 acres according to a report by InciWeb, a U.S. interagency all-risk incident information management system, as per July 13. None of Yosemite's landmark sequoias had been lost as of July 11. read more Arizona The so-called Pipeline Fire, which erupted on April 17, in the Coconino National Forest, the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, and the Lack Bill Park, north Flagstaff city, in Arizona. The fire burned more than 20,000 acres and prompted the mandatory evacuation order of more than 2,100 homes. read more New Mexico The merger between the Hermits Peak Fire in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains in San Miguel County, and the Calf Canyon Fire, in the east of Santa Fe, constitutes the New Mexico's largest blaze to date. Each fire started on April 6 and April 19, respectively, and burned 341,735 acres as of July 15, according to a report by Santa Fe National Forest Services. The flames are now contained at 93%. California - Big Sur The rare winter blaze, dubbed the Colorado Fire, burned 1,050 acres south of Monterey and just north of the area known as Big Sur in California, from Jan. 21 to Jan. 24. It forced about 500 people under evacuation orders and shut a major highway. read more Canada British Colombia A blaze broke out on July 14 near the village of Lytton, in British Columbia. It is the most significant wildfire in the province so far this year, according to BC Wildfire Service. The day after the fire broke out, nearly 2,000 acres were burned. Local authorities issued evacuation orders to 24 property owners close to the fire, while residents of several First Nation reserves were told to flee the area Credit: Reuters Advertisement

He claimed that when a drivers suffers from heat exhaustion then they are sent home with no treatment and if they do seek medical care it is up to them.

They added: 'The fact of the matter is that no amount of training can prepare your body for 160 degrees, 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week.

'Every week drivers are dropping like flies due to heat conditions and UPS is killing drivers because of this.'

Maricopa county, where Scottsdale is located, reported 339 heat-related deaths in 2021, a record number of such fatalities.

Of the hundreds of people who died as a result of the heat, at least 130 homeless people were killed in the scorching temperatures.

Experts have said that if they had died in any other way it would be considered a 'mass casualty event', with many on the streets being forced to sleep in stifling tents before being moved on by cops.

About two-thirds of the heat associated deaths in greater Phoenix so far this year involved people who were outdoors, according to the latest statistics from the Maricopa County Department of Health.

The heat associated deaths from the first half are far above those seen in the county during the same period in past years.

There were 11 such fatalities in the first six months of 2021 with 107 more under investigation; four during that period in 2020 with another 48 under investigation; and three in 2019 with another 27 under investigation.

Excessive heat causes more weather-related deaths in the United States than hurricanes, flooding and tornadoes combined, with around half of the 1,500 heat-related deaths a year estimated to be those who are homeless.

Meteorologist Domenica Davis of the Weather Channel warned that the southern plains will be worst hit by the sweltering heat, but above average temperature will be 'dominating' the country.

She expects temperatures to be up between five to 15 degrees, adding that there is a 'potential for record breakers' as many cities will hit higher than 100F.

Excessive heat warnings are also in place until 10pm this evening across San Joaquin Valley, lower Sierra foothills, and the Kern River Valley.

The National Weather Service has also issued the warning across parts of Texas, including Dallas and Fort Worth.

Northern Louisiana, Eastern Texas, Memphis, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma are also covered by the excessive warning.

New Jersey, Delaware, parts of New York and Philadelphia have also been issued with a heat advisory  while other parts of the country have been put on a fire weather watch.

Little Rock, Arkansas, recorded temperatures of at least 100F for the tenth day this year on Tuesday.

The National Weather Service warned that today will be 'another brutal day', with rising temperatures.

Wildfires have broken out across the country leaving waves of devastation in their wake, with the largest blaze breaking out in Texas.

On Tuesday the Chalk Mountain Fire blackened 6,000 acres, and was only ten per cent contained after breaking out Monday afternoon.

Crews using bulldozers were forced to dig containment lines as fire tricks and aircrafts battled to extinguish the flames.

Five homes have also been destroyed around Possum Kingdom Lake in North Texas, with the fire burning down at least five other structures.

TEXAS: Multiple wildfires have been burning through Texas, with homes and structures in Palo Pinto County, punctured on Monday, being destroyed

NEW YORK: A young boy played in the art installation fountain outside Rockefeller Center as temperatures reached into the 90s on Tuesday

BOSTON: A boy was seen enjoying himself as he played in a water fountain on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston on the first day of a nationwide heatwave

In North Texas, residents are being asked to conserve water amid drought conditions and the looming heatwave - both of which could pose a potential water shortage.

The North Texas Municipal Water District is calling for customers to reduce their water use 'immediately,' especially outdoors, until at least Wednesday.

The water district serves about 2 million people including in Plano and North Dallas County.

It was already forced to cease water production at one of its four treatment plants unexpectedly on Saturday 'to return the plant back to full water purification capacity,' according to ABC News reports.

The district claims that maintenance combined with a regional drought prompted the company to request a precautionary reduction in water usage.

It comes just one week after the Electric Reliability Council of Texas had to ask its 26 million customers to voluntarily reduce their electric use in an effort to avoid rolling blackouts as excessive air conditioning use created a strain on the electric grid.

Prisoners in Texas are also battling the brutal heat without air conditioning, with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice warning that some jails do not have working facilities.

Residents in Texas complained that there were no cases of water or Gatorade for them to pick up to give to volunteers fighting wildfires

Temperatures yesterday reached a scorching 110F, with a spokeswoman for the department adding: 'There are 100 (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) units, 31 have full AC, 55 have partial AC, and 14 have no AC.

'We take numerous precautions to lessen the effects of hot temperatures for those incarcerated within our facilities.

'In 2022, there have been seven inmates who required medical care beyond first aid for heat related injuries, none were fatal.'

Alaska has also experience more than 500 forest fires since the beginning of April, with more than 3m of land burning by mid-July.

As of yesterday there were at least 264 individual fires still burning across the state, with a climate specialist calling it 'unprecedented.'

Severe thunderstorms and even tornadoes are also a possibility in parts of Canada, according to Environment Canada.

They said in a statement that 'damaging wind gusts' will be the main threat adding that a 'significant tornado' can't be ruled out.
Plans for a major new nuclear power station on the coast of East Anglia have been given the go-ahead.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng today announced that development consent was granted for the twin reactor Sizewell C nuclear plant to be built in Suffolk.

It is intended that Sizewell C will generate enough low-carbon electricity to supply six million homes.

The application was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate by NNB Nuclear Generation in May 2020 and accepted for examination the following month.

The current Sizewell Nuclear Plants site consists of two power stations - Sizewell A and B - but with today's approval, it will be joined by a third station - Sizewell C

The government has given development consent for the planned Sizewell C nuclear plant (pictured) to be built in southeast England

The inspectorate's chief executive, Sarah Richards said: 'The examining authority listened and gave full consideration to local views and the evidence gathered during the examination before making its recommendation.'

Carly Vince, Sizewell C's Chief Planning Officer, said: 'I am delighted that, after months of careful consideration, the Government has given planning consent for Sizewell C. It is a big endorsement of our proposals and supports our view that this is the right project in the right place.

'I would like to thank the thousands of people in East Suffolk who contributed to our consultation sessions and the public examination.

'The input of residents, local authorities, environmental groups and many others has helped us to improve our plans.

'We will continue to work closely with them to make sure we minimise the impacts of construction and maximise the huge opportunities for the area.'

Negotiations with the Government on raising funds for the project are continuing and a Financial Investment Decision is expected in 2023.

The plant will be capable of producing enough power for around 6 million homes, is majority-owned by French utility EDF and is to be built on a site in Sizewell (pictured) a small fishing village in Suffolk

Charlotte Childs, GMB national officer, said: 'Sizewell C is essential for meeting our energy challenges. This is a vital step forward for energy security and net zero.

'The UK's nuclear programme has been delayed too many times due to political decisions. We need further investment in nuclear to secure good jobs for the future.

'This project is essential for jobs and skills and hitting our environmental targets. It is clear - there can be no net zero without new nuclear.'

But the project is not without its critics.

A spokesman for campaign group Stop Sizewell C said: 'The wrong decision has been made but it's not the end of our campaign.

'It's deeply concerning, given that households will have to pay for this massively expensive project in times of such hardship, that no one in Government is prepared to come clean about how much it will cost to build.'

The current Sizewell Nuclear Plants site (pictured) consists of two power stations - Sizewell A and B - but with today's approval, it will be joined by a third site - Sizewell C

Greenpeace UK's chief scientist, Dr Doug Parr, said: 'The contrast between dynamic, cost-cutting and innovative technologies in the renewables sector and the limping behemoths of new nuclear power could barely be more striking.

'Rather than wasting time and money on this red herring energy solution, the Government should throw everything at making cheaper, cleaner and more reliable renewables the backbone of our energy system.

'Whatever else is going on in UK politics at the moment, there's no sign of a fresh start here.'

Beccy Speight, chief executive of the RSPB, said the charity was 'extremely disappointed' at the approval of the power plant that would affect its nature reserve at Minsmere in Suffolk, and which went against the advice of Government experts.

She said: 'The construction of the proposed development will be damaging and it has been granted with insufficient consideration for the effects on nature as described by the Government's own experts.'

'This is a ludicrous decision for an interim government to make,' she continued, adding that the RSPB would be considering its options in response to the decision.

Elsewhere, Senior deputy general secretary of Prospect union Sue Ferns said: 'We now need the Government to bring forward its investment decision as a matter of urgency so the project can progress.

'Approving the funding for Sizewell C will send a firm signal to investors that the Government is committed to new nuclear delivering energy security and taking us to Net Zero.

'This week's extreme temperatures have shown that we cannot afford to delay decarbonising our energy supply.'
A Massachusetts' woman's boyfriend seen as a person of interest in her death was shot and killed by police Tuesday after authorities said he threatened them with a knife.

Matthew Davis, 34, was wanted in connection with what police called the suspicious death of his girlfriend, 23-year-old Mary Anderson.

Davis, according to Vermont State Police, had been arrested in 2009 for stabbing the boyfriend of the mother of his children.

Anderson's body was found early Tuesday morning inside her truck in the Vermont town of Brattleboro on Elliot Street after having gone missing the past weekend.

At 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, Davis - who police said they were trying to find and speak to - was located by the state troopers and local police in nearby West Brattleboro.

Police didn't say how it escalated, but Davis - who was armed with a knife and threatened officers with it, according to the Boston Globe - was shot by police 'during an attempt to speak with' him.

Matthew Davis, 34, was wanted in connection with what police called the suspicious death of his girlfriend, 23-year-old Mary Anderson

Anderson's body was found early Tuesday morning inside her truck in the Vermont town of Brattleboro on Elliot Street after having gone missing the past weekend

At 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, Davis - who police said they were trying to find and speak to in connection with Anderson's death - was located by the state troopers and local police in nearby West Brattleboro

Anderson was last seen on Saturday 70 miles from where she was found, driving her navy blue 2017 Toyota Tacoma in Hudson, New Hampshire at about 10:30 p.m.

Her truck was found in the next state over in Brattleboro at around 12:55 a.m. Tuesday morning, police said.

Anderson's cause of death has not yet been determined pending an autopsy by the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner's Office.

Sheila Anderson, Mary's mother, said the couple had been dating for three years until they broke up in November.

'They just broke up in November,' Anderson told WCVB. 'They were going together for three years and something happened in their relationship and she said, 'I'm done.''

Sheila Anderson, Mary's mother, said the couple had been dating for three years until they broke up in November

The scene where Davis was fatally shot by police on Tuesday evening in West Brattleboro, Vermont

Anderson added that her daughter was supposed to be headed home Saturday night after hanging out with friends in the New Hampshire town where she was last seen.

She noted that her family provides constant updates on their whereabouts, so it frightened her when Mary didn't come home that night.

Mary Anderson was reported missing by the family on Sunday evening.

The mother was heartbroken over the fact that her daughter may have been on her own in her last moments.

'The sad part for me as a mom  whatever she experienced these last four days. Just heart-wrenching. She was alone. She wasn't with her mom or her siblings. I think that's the devastating part. Not knowing what she was going through the last four days,' she said.

Davis, according to reports, has a criminal past.

Mary's mother was heartbroken over the fact that her daughter may have been on her own in her last moments

In 2009, Davis was convicted in a violent stabbing involving the boyfriend of his childrens' mother and served several years in prison

In 2009, he was convicted in a violent stabbing involving the boyfriend of his childrens' mother and served several years in prison.

A police report said that Davis was hiding in his ex's bedroom closet before jumping out and stabbing the new boyfriend. He was found hiding in a snow bank by police a few hours later.
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A 13-year-old boy has been killed by a Russian missile strike in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv this morning, local officials said.

A heart-wrenching image of the teen's father kneeling beside his dead son, clutching his lifeless hand as tears streamed down his face, highlights the stark reality of the brutal consequences Ukrainian citizens face at the hands of the warmongering Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The boy, whose name has not been revealed, died from injuries sustained when a Russian missile slammed into a mosque close to the bus stop where he was stood.

Two other people - a man and a woman - also died according to Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov, though it was unclear whether they were killed in the same incident.

Rescue workers were seen hurriedly carrying one covered corpse away from the scene on a stretcher. The mosque meanwhile suffered considerable damage in the attack.

Synehubov added that the dead teenager's 15-year-old sister had also been wounded, without commenting on her condition or giving their names.

'This is another terrible act of terror by the Russians,' Synegubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city, resisted a Russian assault that reached its outskirts in the first two months of the invasion, but has experienced almost daily shelling over the past month after a period of relative calm.

A policewoman comforts the father of a 13-year-old boy who was killed by a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Wednesday July 20

Heart-wrenching image of the teen's father kneeling beside his dead son as he wept and clutched his lifeless hand has emerged, highlighting the stark reality of the brutal consequences Ukrainian citizens face at the hands of the warmongering Russian president.

Police officers look at a bus stop, a mosque and buildings damaged by a Russian military strike, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv, Ukraine July 20, 2022

Men move the body of a victim killed by Russian shelling onto a stretcher in Kharkiv

People evacuate the body of a woman who died in a Russian missile strike in Saltivka, a northern district of the second largest Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on July 20, 2022

The body of a 13-year-old boy is guarded by his father, after a Russian attack on the city of Kharkiv

This map provided by AFP reviews the latest battlefield developments in eastern and southern Ukraine

Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, did not immediately comment on the incident.

Military officials and the nation's defence ministry have routinely denied deliberately targeting civilians in their attacks, although Russian airstrikes have devastated Ukrainian cities and towns and are thought to have killed tens of thousands of innocent people.

In a separate Telegram post, the local prosecutor's office said it believed the rockets were fired from an Uragan multiple rocket launcher.

Russian shelling has also continued to pound dozens of other urban centres throughout eastern and southern Ukraine in recent days with the neighbouring nations' armed forces locked in a relative stalemate along the eastern front in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.

It comes as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier today that Moscow's military 'tasks' in Ukraine now extend beyond the eastern Donbas region, in the clearest acknowledgment yet that its war goals have expanded in the past five months.

In an interview with state news agency RIA Novosti, Lavrov said geographical realities had changed since Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held peace talks in Turkey in late March that failed to produce any breakthrough.

At that time, he said, the focus was on the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), self-styled breakaway entities in eastern Ukraine from which Russia has said it aims to drive out Ukrainian government forces.

'Now the geography is different, it's far from being just the DPR and LPR, it's also Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and a number of other territories,' he said, referring to territories well beyond the Donbas that Russian forces have wholly or partly seized.

'This process is continuing logically and persistently,' he said, adding that Russia might need to push even deeper.

Emergency services at the scene following a Russian rocket strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 20 July 2022

Police at the scene of a crater in the road following a Russian rocket strike in Kharkiv

Ukrainian servicemen ride BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine

Ukrainian soldiers ride a tank on a road in the Donetsk region on July 20, 2022, near the front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier today that Moscow's military 'tasks' in Ukraine now extend beyond the eastern Donbas region

If the West, out of 'impotent rage' or desire to aggravate the situation further, kept pumping Ukraine with long-range weapons such as the U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), 'that means the geographical tasks will extend still further from the current line', Lavrov said.

Russia could not allow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 'or whoever replaces him' to threaten its territory or that of the DPR and LPR with the longer-range systems, he said referring casually to the possibility that the Ukrainian leader might not remain in power.

The foreign minister is the most senior figure to speak openly of Russia's war goals in territorial terms, nearly five months after President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion with a denial that Russia intended to occupy its neighbour.

Putin said then that his aim was to demilitarise and 'denazify' Ukraine - a statement dismissed by Kyiv and the West as a pretext for an imperial-style war of expansion.

After being beaten back in an initial attempt to take the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Russia's defence ministry said on March 25 that the first phase of its 'special military operation' was complete and it would now focus on 'achieving the main goal, the liberation of Donbas'.

Nearly four months later, it has taken Luhansk, one of two regions that make up the Donbas, but remains far from capturing all of the other, Donetsk. In the past few weeks it has ramped up missile strikes on cities across Ukraine.
A neighbour has revealed how she desperately tried to save three children who died in a horrific house fire in remote Western Australia.

Fire crews rushed to Anderson Street in Port Hedland, 1,500km north of Perth, about 4.45pm on Tuesday after witnesses reported a home was up in flames.

They battled to get the inferno under control for 30 minutes, but found the bodies of three children in the wreckage.

The youngest was just five months old, while the others are a boy aged seven and a girl aged 10.

A neighbour named Jess, still reeling from the traumatic episode, said she and other locals tried to rescue the children.

'We had to get out, the smoke was too much. The fire was [too], you could feel the heat and everything was cracking. The fire was intense, the smoke was intense, the smell was intense and it choked you,' she told 7News.

'I couldn't go in there any more than a few seconds.'

Jess also opened up about how she heard the children's mother say they were trapped inside.

Fire crews rushed to Anderson Street in Port Hedland, 1,500km north of Perth, about 4.45pm on Tuesday

Tributes were left for the children (pictured) in the grief-stricken town in remote WA

'The mother was out on the driveway and she said her babies were in there.'

The mother has since been taken into custody and is assisting police as part of a criminal investigation.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Allan Adams was emotional as he held a press conference on Wednesday to provide an update on the investigation.

Mr Adams said there are 'many questions as to the events leading up to this incident' that he is not yet comfortable to speak further on.

Western Australian Police rushed to the scene when witnesses reported a home was up in flames

Police tape cordoned off the street after the tragic house fire on Tuesday (pictured)

'We will be looking back to see if there were any opportunities for this to have been prevented,' he said. '(We will) deconstruct all the events leading up to the fire.'

The children's mother is now undergoing medical treatment as a result of the fire.

Mr Adams said each of the children's fathers have been notified of the tragedy.

Port Hedland mayor Peter Carter said his tight knit community is grieving the loss but will 'rally' to support the family.

'It's early days yet, we don't know exactly how or why this thing has happened, police are still doing their investigation,' he said.

'My condolences go to the family and the community. Hedland is a beautiful community and they will rally behind the people who need it at this time.

A neighbour named Jess has revealed how she and other locals tried to rescue the children

The remote town of 14,300 people is located on the northern WA coast about 1,500km north of Perth (file image)

'This is just unprecedented, I'm lost for words I really am, this just doesn't happen. It's gut-wrenching.'

The street was teeming with police and paramedics following the blaze as police tape cordoned off the area hundreds of metres away from the scene.

Regional energy provider Horizon was also called to the destroyed home.

'Local police, including detectives, remain at the scene tonight and specialist investigators from the Major Crime Division and Forensics will travel to Port Hedland to continue investigations,' police said.
The father of a man killed on the set of Law and Order: Organized Crime on Tuesday fears the attack may have been targeted.

Johnny Alvarado Pizarro Jr, 31, was sitting in the drivers' seat of his vehicle, saving a parking space for members of the crew in Brooklyn, when police say, a hooded gunman opened his car door and shot him. The car was also heavily riddled with bullets in the aftermath.

Pizarro, a father of six, was then rushed to a local hospital with multiple gunshot wounds to his neck and face, and was pronounced dead upon arrival.

The male suspect, meanwhile, fled the scene on foot and remains on the loose, with one crew member telling Deadline he saw a man running away with 'something under his shirt.'

He is described as being around 5'4'', with a thin-built. He was reportedly wearing a black hoodie and black pants at the time.

There was apparently no security or New York Police Department officers from the department's Movie and TV unit on the scene, according to Deadline, with one source telling the magazine: 'It is unclear right now if this was an established set or not, or whether the victim was close to where filming was supposed to occur.'

An investigation into the shooting is ongoing, but authorities are now suggesting the shooting may have been targeted, according to The US Sun.

Pizarro has a criminal history, and authorities have suggested he may have been killed over a parking dispute.

'It could've been a targeted attack, yes, although I don't know what he was involved in because I don't live in New York,' said his father, Johnny Pizarro Sr. who moved back to Puerto Rico a few years ago.

'I don't know much about his life over there,' he noted, 'but it's worrying. I'm just in shock.'

Johnny Pizarro Jr, 31, was fatally shot while sitting in the drivers' side of a car on the set of Law and Order: Organized Crime, which was filming in Brooklyn on Tuesday

Pizarro Jr is described as a father of six, with his father saying he always took care of his children. Pizarro Jr is pictured here with one of his kids

The elder Pizarro said he was first alerted about his son's death by his daughter.

He had spent the past three years trying to mend his relationship with his son, he said, and last saw him in May, when Pizarro Jr flew down to Puerto Rico to visit him and other family members.

'I couldn't believe it when my daughter called me,' Pizarro Sr told the Sun. 'We were trying to work on our relationship, but now we no longer can.

'But he was my son, no matter what, and I'm sad he's no longer here.

'I feel so down,' he noted, 'I just can't believe it.

'It's so shocking to me that he's just disappeared and is not living anymore.'

Pizarro Jr has had a criminal history, but authorities say he has stayed out of trouble since 2015, according to the New York Post.

Among his arrests were marijuana possession charges and a driving while intoxicated charge in New York City's 75th Precinct, which includes Brooklyn's East New York and Cypress Hills neighborhoods.

But since then, the Post reports, the Queens man has had a steady job putting up film-shooting notices, placing cones around sets and parking trucks for crew members.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, NBC confirmed that the victim was a crew member hired by the network.

'We were terribly saddened and shocked to hear that one of our crew members was the victim of a crime early this morning and has died as a result,' the statement read.

'We are working with local law enforcement as they continue to investigate. Our hearts go out to his family and friends and we ask that you respect their privacy during this time.'

The murder took place around 5.15 a.m. in the area of Greenpoint when the killer opened the door of the victim's vehicle and shot him in the face and neck

The victim was sitting inside the vehicle when he was ambushed, and the car was found to be riddled with bullets in the aftermath

The NYPD is continuing to investigate the crime, which they have suggested may have been targeted as Pizarro Jr has had a criminal history

Friends and neighbors have now said they did not believe Pizarro Jr had any problems with anybody, with his father telling the Post, 'To me, he was a good boy.

'He took care of his children,' the senior Pizarro said. 'He was always nice to me.'

A neighbor also described Pizarro Jr as 'bubbly,' saying: 'Everybody on this block shed a tear' when they learned of his death.

'He was a guy's guy,' the neighbor said, noting that Pizarro Jr liked to ride around on motorcycles and dirt bikes.

'We don't know him as a guy having beef with people.'

And one of his co-workers said Pizarro 'was a great guy,' who was 'always laughing or making somebody laugh.'

The co-worker said he had heard a 'pop' early in the morning when Pizarro was shot.

'It was crazy,' the shaken colleague of the victim told The New York Post.

'I didn't hear an argument or nothing. It was quiet, early morning,' he added.

'It was just a pop, and the [suspect] ran up towards Nassau [Avenue]. I only heard one bang, but I don't know how many shots.'

Christopher Meloni is seen at the film set of the Law and Order: Organized Crime in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, on Tuesday, the same day a parking enforcement crew member was killed

In the show - which is currently in its second season - Christopher Meloni reprises his role as beloved Detective Elliot Stabler from Special Victims Unit. Meanwhile, Dylan McDermott portrays Richard Wheatley - a Mafia-related businessman and a suspect in the murder of Stabler's wife

But a flier tied to a lamp pole on the street where Pizarro was killed was titled 'Stop Film Shoots Around McGolrick Park,' and urged residents to complain to their local representatives about 'how the filming of our neighborhood is displacing your family.'

'The area around McGolrick Park has had a weekly film shoot for MONTHS taking away DOZENS of blocks for parking and displacing THOUSANDS of Greenpoint residents while over 600 parking spots were recently REMOVED underneath the BQE for the construction of a bike lane that no ne uses,' the flier bemoans.

Still, Greenpoint resident Ian Oberholtzer, 35, said it was unlikely Pizarro had been targeted because he was reserving parking spots.

'I can't imagine it was related to parking,' Oberholtzer said. 'There's plenty of parking spots at 5am.'

He said the murder had shaken the very safe neighborhood.

'It's not the kind of thing you'd expect on the block,' he added.

'I never feel threatened or endangered. I'm concerned but also pretty confused by it.'
Authorities have launched an investigation after Qantas pilots were forced to declare a mid-air emergency after almost running out of fuel due to runway delays at a Western Australian airport.

Qantas Flight 933 from Brisbane to Perth was several hundred kilometres away from its destination on Monday when pilots declared a 'mayday' call to air traffic control while in queue to land.

The Boeing 737 entered Perth's airspace with an additional 20 minutes' worth of fuel, but was instructed to maintain a holding pattern due to an influx of inbound planes, The Age reports.

With the wait time standing at 16 minutes, air traffic controllers told the pilots they would need to declare a mayday to be given priority to touch down.

A Qantas flight was forced to declare a mid-air emergency as it descended into Perth airport on Monday

The plane was several hundred kilometres east of Perth when it encountered trouble. Pictured: Qantas flight 933's flightpath

The aircraft eventually landed safety under a 'fuel mayday on descent' - an emergency situation rarely encountered by pilots.

Under legal requirements, planes must land with certain fuel reserves intact, which may have been breached if the pilots had not issued the mayday.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau are now investigating the 'low fuel event', which took place 335km east of the city, above Wave Rock.

'During descent, the crew declared an emergency due to the amount of fuel on board and proceeded to land at Perth. The aircraft landed with reserves intact,' it said.

'A final report will be released at the conclusion of the investigation.

With the wait time standing at 16 minutes, air traffic controllers told the pilots they would need to declare a mayday to be given priority to touch down. Pictured: A Qantas Boeing 737

'However, should a critical safety issue be identified during the course of the investigation, the ATSB will immediately notify relevant parties so appropriate safety action can be taken.'

Qantas chief pilot, Captain Dick Tobiano, said the pilots loaded the aircraft in accordance with the airline and Australian air-safety requirements.

'On approach into Perth, Air Traffic Control requested the aircraft hold for longer than our pilots had previously been advised, and that to be given priority to land our pilots needed to make a fuel mayday call.

'The aircraft landed with 40 minutes of fuel in the tank, which is well above the minimum requirements,' he said in a statement.

'Our pilots followed the correct procedures and there was no safety issue with the flight.'

It is understood the aircraft had 40 minutes of fuel left.
An alleged killer had been in the UK five months when he murdered a woman from the same village in Pakistan and dumped her body in a suitcase, a court heard.

Muhammad Arslan, 26, is accused of killing Hina Bashir, 21, whose body was found in a ditch in Folkes Lane, Upminster, in the early hours of Sunday July 17.

Appearing today at the Old Bailey via video-link, he spoke only to confirm his name, identity and nationality before being remanded into custody.

Ms Bashir was living in Ilford and working at Queen Mary University, after moving from Pakistan on a student visa to study business.

Hina Bashir's body was discovered in a remote area of Upminster three days after she was last seen having travelled to Muhummad Arslan's home in Upminster

At the end of her shift on July 11 she travelled to Arslan's home in Ilford with a friend and was never seen alive again.

On July 14, her father went to her home and called the police after she failed to turn up for work or answer the door of her home.

On Sunday, officers found her body in a remote area of Upminster.

Prosecutor Ben Holt said: 'They located the suitcase in a small ditch and a police dog gave an indication.

'The bag was opened at 1am on July 17, and Ms Bashir's decomposing body was found inside in a foetal position.'

A post-mortem examination has yet to make a preliminary finding on the cause of Ms Bashir's death.

Ms Bashir was a Pakistani national who had come to live in the UK in November last year.

She had travelled on a student visa to study business management at Coventry University London.

She had been in a relationship with Muhammad Arslan, 26, who came from the same village in Pakistan and had moved to Britain around six months ago.

He appeared for a preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey by video link from Thameside prison on Wednesday

On July 18, Arslan, who lived in a multi-occupancy property in Ilford, was charged with the murder of Ms Bashir between July 10 and July 13.

He appeared for a preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey by video link from Thameside prison on Wednesday.

Wearing a grey sweatshirt, the defendant spoke only to confirm his identity and was represented in court by a solicitor.

Judge Mark Dennis QC set a plea and case management hearing for October 5 with a provisional three-week trial from June 5, 2023.

The judge went on to remand the defendant into custody.

Meanwhile, Scotland Yard issued an appeal for more information.

Detective Chief Inspector Dave Whellams said: 'My thoughts are with Hina's family who have suffered a terrible loss. We will provide them with whatever support we can.

'We are continuing our work to develop a full understanding of what happened to Hina, not just in recent days but in the weeks prior to this terrible incident.

'I know that Hina hadn't been in the UK for too long. I would urge anyone who may have known her to come forward. Any information that you hold could be important to the investigation.'

Chief Superintendent Simon Crick, who leads the police unit that covers Upminster, said: 'Hina lived in the Manor Park area of London.

'She was a Pakistani national who was studying at university in London. She also worked part-time for a security company.

'She was reported missing to police when, out of character, she did not arrive at work. A missing person investigation was launched which, very sadly, became a murder investigation after a body was found.

'I know that local people will be distressed to hear that another woman has lost her life in a shocking and violent incident in east London. My deepest condolences go out to Hina's family at this incredibly difficult time.

'I will be engaging with local community leaders to offer my support and to reassure them that we are doing all we can to keep our communities safe.'

Anyone with information can call police on 101 quoting the reference 2674/14JUL or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A relentlessly loyal black Border Collie led rescuers 200 yards to his 53-year-old owner, who had broken his hip and several ribs during a hike in a California forest on July 13.

The Nevada County Sheriff's Search and Rescue team has hailed good boy Saul as a 'real-life Lassie,' after the pet showed rescuers where his owner was, stranded and injured.

Twenty-five rescuers searched the area, which is inaccessible by vehicle, for seven hours before they came across Saul.

One of the rescuers said the pet seemingly made eye contact with the team before heading off to where his owner would be found, Sergeant Dennis Haack told The New York Times.

Saul started spinning around in circles and then ran 20 feet ahead of them, eager to bring help to his ailing owner.

Sergeant Haack told the Times that one of the rescuers said by radio, 'Hey, I think this dog is trying to lead us somewhere ... So we're going to follow him.'

Saul the Border Collie led rescuers 200 yards to his 53-year-old owner, who had broken his hip and several ribs during a hike in a California forest

The man fell 70ft off a ridge, breaking his hip and multiple ribs. Thankfully, Saul and the Nevada County Sheriff's Search and Rescue team came to the rescue

Saul and his human, who lives 'somewhat of a secluded life,' had gone on a hike near Tahoe National Forest in early July (picture)

The man fell off a 70-feet ridge near the forest

Initially, Haack did not put a lot of faith in it, he trusted that his team would be able to find the man because they are very good at it, he told the Times.

Saul and his human, who lives 'somewhat of a secluded life,' had gone on a hike near Tahoe National Forest in early July.

But things went south when the man fell 70ft off a ridge, breaking his hip and multiple ribs.

He managed to get to an area with cell phone service, with man's best friend by his side, and called 911 for help.

One of the rescuers said that the pet seemingly made eye contact with the team before heading off to where his owner would be found, Sergeant Dennis Haac said

A friend of the injured man had anticipated that Saul would be leading rescuers to his owner and had shown pictures of the pet to the rescue team, telling them, 'look for Saul'

A friend of the injured man had anticipated that Saul would be leading rescuers to his owner and had shown pictures of the pet to the rescue team, telling them, 'look for Saul.'

'They started following him. They went somewhere between 150 and 200 yards and took them right to the victim,' Haack told NBC.

The 53-year-old victim was then found lying in a bed of dirt and covered by a camouflage tarp. His injuries were described as traumatic by authorities.

After he was rescued, Saul was briefly taken to a nonprofit where he received plenty of praise for his loyalty.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, the grateful owner repeatedly requested to be reunited with his rescuer and best friend, Haack said.

When human and dog were finally reunited, Saul was rewarded with a well-deserved beef jerky stick.

'He is very lucky that his dog directed our search personnel to him,' Haack told NBC.
A detective constable has been charged with four counts of rape and multiple child sex offences, two years after the force received a report on him.

Stephen Hardy, 45, who works for Greater Manchester Police at the force's Stockport division, has been suspended.

He has been charged with four counts of rape, two counts of causing/inciting a girl aged over 13 to engage in sexual activity and one count of causing a girl aged over 13 to engage in sexual activity.

Stephen Hardy, 45, who works for Greater Manchester Police at the force's Stockport division, has been suspended

He is also accused of one count of causing a child to watch an image of a sexual act, five counts of sexual assault and three counts of assault by penetration.

The officer is further charged with two counts of possession of extreme pornography and two counts of making/taking an indecent image of a child.

He is set to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court on August 10.

Greater Manchester Police has confirmed the force received a report about Hardy in June 2020.
A rare kitten born with two faces in northern Thailand has died after defying all odds and surviving for four days.

Named 'Tung Ngern' (bag of silver) and 'Tung Tong' (bag of gold), the kitten born on Sunday in the county's northern Lampang province is reported to have passed away in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Posting on social media, the kittens devastated owner said: Little Tung and Ngern Tung Tong has died, everyone.

She has left this world. I dont know what was wrong. She started struggling to breathe at 1am and I put the blanket over her.

I opened the blanket at 5:30am and she wasnt breathing anymore. She was born on July 17 and died on July 20,' he wrote.

'Feline fine': A rare kitten born with two faces in northern Thailand is now happily drinking milk after it defied predictions it would die within a couple of hours of its birth (Pictured: the kitten born on Sunday)

Sleep well, Little One. You dont need to suffer. Please be born again. We did everything we could. #HaveFunInCatHeaven.

Two-faced kittens, which are known as Janus cats after the two-faced Roman god Janus, rarely live more than a couple of hours.

After seeing the two-year-old mum cat give birth to one kitten on Sunday, owner Anuwat saw she was struggling with the second.

Taking her to a local animal hospital in Hang Chat where vets performed a Caesarian Section, the 29-year-old was stunned when they removed the two-faced kitten.

He later told local media he was convinced they were going to die.

But after seeing the kitten 'fight for its life' he said he spent the next two days caring for it.

He said: 'I've hardly slept at all since it was born because it cannot hold its head up and needs constant attention.

Two-faced kittens, which are known as Janus cats after the two-faced Roman god Janus, rarely live more than a day (Pictured: Guinness World record-breaking two faced cat Frank and Louie)

He later said the kitten was doing well and was drinking milk from both its mouths.

Although Janus kittens rarely survive for more than one day, in 1999 a grey two-faced kitten named 'Frank and Louie' born in Massachusetts lived for an incredible 15 years.

In 2012, the cat made the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest surviving Janus cat.
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Disgraced legal heir Alex Murdaugh arrived at a South Carolina court Wednesday for a hearing over last year's brutal murders of the scion's wife and son, which saw the scion plead not guilty to the grisly double slaying.

The hearing also saw Murdaugh, 54, denied bond for the alleged crimes - with cops now claiming they have a 'mountain of evidence' against him, including cell phone and video footage of him talking to his wife moments before she was killed.

Asked how he pleaded to the felony murder charges, Murdaugh, who sported a jail-style buzzcut for the court appearance, confidently asserted: 'Not guilty.'

When questioned by a prosecutor on how he will be tried, Murdaugh maintained, 'By God and by country.'

The once prominent lawyer looked gaunt during the court appearance, which was held to decide whether Murdaugh should be awarded bond for the double murder, which transpired on June 7 of last year.

Both sides agreed that a bond should not be awarded to the suspected killer, due to the fact that he is already in jail on a $7 million bond for 74 other criminal charges - the lion's share being an array of financial scams.

Murdaugh was filmed leaving Colleton County jail for the hearing before being carted back to jail Wednesday - more than a year after the lifeless bodies of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh on his estate in Hampton, Colleton County.

Disgraced legal heir Alex Murdaugh arrived at a South Carolina court Wednesday for a hearing over last year's brutal murders of the scion's wife and son - as cops now claim they have a 'mountain of evidence' against him

Murdaugh, 54, was filmed briefly leaving jail for a bond hearing over the two first-degree murder charges - more than a year after the lifeless bodies of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh on the family's sprawling hunting estate in Colleton County

Murdaugh is pictured during his bond hearing at Colleton County Courthhouse Wednesday, during which the scion pleaded not guilty and was denied bond for the grisly double slaying

Murdaugh was denied bond by Judge Clifton Newman, the same judge who previously denied bond for him last October when the family of his former housekeeper accused him of stealing insurance money after her death

The hearing - which was held at 10 am and lasted less than a half hour - saw Murdaugh denied bond by Judge Clifton Newman, the same judge who previously denied bond for him last October, when the family of his former housekeeper accused him of stealing insurance money after her death.

The once prominent lawyer was pictured leaving the Colleton County Courthhouse in chains - after being indicted last week on two counts of murder for the slayings.

Cops say Murdaugh shot Maggie, 52, with a rifle, and Paul, 22, with a shotgun at their Moselle property in June 2021. A motive for the slayings had yet to be determined.

Murdaugh, sporting a jail buzzcut, is pictured shortly after being denied bond for the two felony murder charges. The once prominent lawyer looked to have lost a great deal of weight since being incarcerated in October for unrelated financial crimes

A handcuffed Murdaugh is pictured inside the Colleton County Courthhouse shortly after he pleaded 'not guilty' to the murders

Murdaugh is led away in cuffs after being denied bond. When questioned by a prosecutor on how he will be tried, Murdaugh said, 'By God and by country'

Murdaugh, 54, wore a wrinkled, white-button down and khakis for the hearing - his first in relation to the June 2021 murders

Murdaugh took off his mask to crack what seemed like a smirk while lawyer deliberated over the bond hearing

It is not known how police linked Murdaugh to the deaths after more than a year of investigation, but a law enforcement source with close knowledge of the case said police have a multitude of damning evidence against the ex attorney

It is not known how police linked Murdaugh to the deaths after more than a year of investigation, but a law enforcement source with close knowledge of the case told People police have a multitude of damning evidence against the ex attorney.

The source told the outlet Wednesday, shortly before the hearing, that investigators had proved that Murdaugh was at the house when the murder took place due to blood spatter allegedly found on the then-lawyer's clothes after cops arrived on the scene.

The evidence, if legitimate, contradicts claims from Murdaugh that he had been visiting his father at a nearby hospital at the time of the murder, returning to find their bodies.

The source also said that Murdaugh's cell phone, watch, and vehicle GPS also contradict those claims, People reported.

The outlet also added that investigators are adamant that Murdaugh lured his wife to the scene, under the guise he wanted her to accompany with her to visit his ailing father, with whom she was close.

The sources said that the couple - who had been influential figures in the South Carolina legal scene -had hit a rough patch in their marriage prior to the killings, and that Maggie at the time was staying at the family's beach house on Edisto Island, roughly an hour away from the family's estate.

The insider reportedly told People that Maggie at first declined requests from Murdaugh to meet at the family home, suggesting instead they meet at the hospital. After some convincing, however, she consented to meet at the home, saying she would follow Alex to the hospital in her car.

Bond denied for Alex Murdaugh. We will await the proposed orders for a possible gag order and request for a speedy trial. pic.twitter.com/fCcOGY76MQ  Lisa Weismann (@LisaLive5) July 20, 2022

On her way to the home, Maggie allegedly messaged a friend to tell her she felt uneasy about the arrangement, and that she was worried that Murdaugh was 'up to something.'

The texts, People reported, saw Maggie theorize that something about her husband's behavior felt 'fishy,' with one of the messages flat-out declaring: 'He's up to something.' The identity of the recipient of those texts was not identified at Wednesday's hearing.

However, the most damning piece of evidence in lawmen's possession, allegedly, is cell phone audio and video that the source said places Murdaugh at the crime scene 'moments' before the murder, talking with Maggie just before she was killed.

Murdaugh is pictured leaving the Colleton County Courthhouse in restraints immediately after the hearing, before being brought back to a local jail

The once prominent lawyer was pictured leaving the Colleton County Courthhouse in chains - after being indicted last week on two counts of murder for the killing

Murdaugh - who reportedly struggled with a debilitating opioid addiction in the months building up to the murder - was officially charged with their murders last week. The one-time legal scion was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

He is already behind bars on separate charges relating to embezzlement and fraud.

It has taken police roughly 13 months to level charges against Murdaugh- who is already behind bars on separate charges relating to fraud and embezzlement charges relating to the money he stole from his law firm and a failed attempt to stage his own murder as part of a $10million life insurance scam for his son in September.

Mere months after his wife and son were murdered, Murdaugh tried to stage his own death so that Buster, his 26-year-old surviving son, could reap the sum, but was criminally charged when the suicide-for-hire plot fell apart after the attempt failed and his hired hit man was arrested.

The incident, which transpired on September 4, was Murdaugh shot three times by 61-year-old Curtis Smith - one of the former legal eagle's many clients - however, according to police, he only suffered a 'superficial gunshot wound to the head'

Smith has since been charged with assisted suicide, aggravated assault, and battery related to the shooting. He is awaiting trial on those charges.

Murdaugh, meanwhile, was charged with conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and jailed the following month. His trial is also pending.

Murdaugh, whose father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were also top prosecutors South Carolina for nearly a century, 'believed ending his life was his only option,' his lawyers said at the time, citing his spiraling opioid addiction, which they said evaporated the blue blooded jurist's net worth over the course of 20 years.

In the months following, investigators looking into Maggie and Paul's deaths also uncovered a litany of crime and insurance fraud that have seen them reopen two suspicious deaths linked to the family

Thirteen months ago, Murdaugh told police he 'found' the bodies of his youngest son and wife outside a series dog kennels on the family's 1,700 square feet hunting estate around 10pm on June 7, 2021.

In audio of the 911 call that he placed at 10:07pm that night, Murdaugh can be heard telling the dispatcher in a high-pitched screech: 'I need the police and an ambulance immediately. My wife and child were just shot badly.'

Paul, 22, was shot twice with a shotgun  once in the head and once in the chest. Maggie had been shot multiple times with an assault rifle. Their gunshot wounds were believed to be consistent with 'execution-style' killings, reports said.

According to several sources, Paul's body was found partially inside one of the kennels, while his mother's was several feet away, leading investigators to believe that she ran from her killer before being gunned down.

At least two of her gunshot wounds were believed to have been inflicted while she was on the ground.

In audio of the 911 call, Alex Murdaugh, pictured with Maggie, Paul and surviving son Buster (far left) can be heard telling the dispatcher in a high-pitched screech: 'I need the police and an ambulance immediately. My wife and child were just shot badly'

According to several sources, Paul's body was found partially inside one of these dog kennels outside the family's Hampton home, while his mother's was several feet away, leading investigators to believe that she ran from her killer before being gunned down

Pictured: A gated entrance to the Murdaugh hunting lodge. The disgraced attorney had originally told investigators that he was visiting his dying father and his mother about 11 miles away at their home in Varnville at the time of the murders

In the immediate aftermath of the discoveries, Murdaugh's family and attorneys vehemently defended the lawyer, who they asserted had a 'ironclad alibi' and that his marriage with Maggie was 'full of love.'

However, Murdaugh's 'alibi' was far from airtight, and has changed significantly since his initial claims that he was nowhere near the property between 9 and 9:30pm - the time the coroner gave the approximate time of death.

In the immediate aftermath of the crime, Murdaugh told investigators that he was visiting his dying father and his mother about 11 miles away at their home in Varnville at the time of the murders.

Two weeks later, his brothers John Marvin and Randy Murdaugh told Good Morning America that he had in fact dropped his father at a hospital in Savannah before going to visit his mother, who has dementia.

Now, according to an account given by Murdaugh's lawyer Jim Griffin to The State newspaper, Murdaugh claims to have left the property around 9pm to make the 20-minute drive to his mother's house and returned to Moselle as originally claimed around or shortly after 10pm.

It is an account that places him squarely on the scene within the timeframe of the killings.

It has been speculated that audio and video data gleaned from Paul's cellphone found by his body, but only recently unlocked by law enforcement, is what prompted Murdaugh's dramatic change of tune.

Independent local news website FITSNews has reported that not only does this audio and video data show Murdaugh speaking with Maggie, but that 'high velocity impact spatter' of blood found on his clothing that night places him at the scene of the murders when at least one of the victims was killed.

The Murdaugh family's sprawling South Carolina property, where his wife and son were killed, was listed for sale in March. The massive Colleton County property is known as Cross Swamp Farm and houses two buildings, two waterfowl reservoirs, and has over 2.5 miles of river frontage that can be used for kayaking and fishing

The 1,700-acre hunting estate, which was in Maggie's name at the time of her death, was recently sold for $3.9million, probate records seen by DailyMail.com reveal

When DailyMail.com put these claims to South Carolina Law Enforcement Department (SLED) last week, officials would neither deny nor confirm them.

Meanwhile, the marriage described by Harpootlian as 'full of love' was, according to multiple sources, anything but.

One source familiar with the household told DailyMail.com that Maggie and Murdaugh's marriage was a union in crisis.

Rumors that Murdaugh was having an affair with a fellow attorney have been widely circulated both locally and online.

And according to the source who spoke with DailyMail.com, there was 'no love lost' between the once loving couple.

In fact, the source said, in the months before her violent death, Maggie and Murdaugh had argued heatedly over finances.

Maggie, a stalwart of the South Carolina charity scene, had been socially embarrassed when a check written by her at a charity luncheon bounced.

It was just one of many incidents that saw her not only asking questions about the family's finances but demanding answers.

The mysterious double murder, which sparked the beginning of the end for the prominent legal family, seems to be on the cusp of being resolved with Alex - who is already facing embezzlement charges relating to the money he stole from his law firm and a failed suicide-for-hire attempt as part of a $10million life insurance scam - expected to be charged in connection to the slayings this week

Murdaugh's only surviving son, Buster, was photographed being comforted at the funeral for his mother and brother on June 11 last year

FITSNews also reported that Maggie was living separately from Murdaugh at the family's home in Edisto Beach and that she had only gone to Moselle on the night of her death 'reluctantly' and on Murdaugh's request.

Maggie was also reported to have had gone to see a divorce lawyer in the weeks before her murder, sparking speculation that she was threatening to call in a forensic accountant, according to People magazine.

At the same time, Murdaugh was under extreme pressure to cough up his financial records as part of a wrongful death suit being brought against him and his older son, Richard 'Buster' Murdaugh, Jr, by the family of Mallory Beach  the teenager killed in an horrific boat crash in 2019.

Paul was drunk and at the wheel of the boat when it slammed into pilings on Archers Creek with six teens  all underage, all drinking heavily  aboard.

Murdaugh's attorney had insisted his client had a 'ironclad alibi' and that his marriage with Maggie was 'full of love,' however, a very different picture has emerged casting doubt on both claims in recent months

Beach, 19, was thrown from the vessel and her body found by two fishermen one week later, five miles from the site. Her cause of death was blunt force trauma and drowning.

Legal documents seen by DailyMail.com show that lawyers for Beach's family had repeatedly pressed Murdaugh for financial disclosure and set a court deadline of June 9  just two days after Maggie and Paul's murders - for him to hand over all relevant paperwork.

Back then, only Murdaugh knew that he was neck-deep in debts and, what prosecutors allege, was a multi-million-dollar insurance fraud scheme and criminal enterprise.

In the months following, investigators looking into Maggie and Paul's deaths uncovered a litany of crime and insurance fraud that have seen them reopen two suspicious deaths linked to the family  former housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, 56, who fell after a 'trip and fall' at Moselle in 2018 and local teen, Stephen Smith, 19.

Satterfield's sons said they were defrauded out of a $4.3million wrongful death suit brought against Murdaugh on his own advice and with the promise that they would be taken care of.

Instead, Murdaugh syphoned off the funds for himself, allegedly with the help of Corey Fleming, a former USC roommate and fellow attorney whom he recommended the Satterfield brothers use.

Fleming has also been charged for his part in the scheme.

SLED recently announced that it has received permission from Satterfield's family to have her body exhumed.

Hampton County Coroner, Angie Topper, asked investigators to look at Satterfield's death again due to 'inconsistencies.'

These included the fact that her office was never informed, meaning no autopsy was conducted, and that the manner of death given on the death certificate  'natural'  was not consistent with a trip and fall.

The unsolved case took a twist last September when Murdaugh claimed he had been shot in the head in a drive by shooting on this rural South Carolina road

It would later emerge that Murdaugh had hired Curtis Smith (left) as a hit man to kill him as part of a staged murder plot that would allow his surviving son Buster to collect $10million in life insurance money

Similarly, the manner of Smith's death is once again the subject of investigation. The 19-year-old's body was found on a road in Hampton County in July 2015 with a head wound so devastating that investigators first thought he had been shot.

DailyMail.com revealed that the incident was in fact initially investigated as a homicide but recategorized as a hit and run in the face of strong opposition from the lead investigator who was one of the first officers on the scene and found no evidence of any vehicular involvement.

In addition to this, 15 state grand jury indictments containing 79 charges have come down against Murdaugh with prosecutors claiming he defrauded a staggering $8.4million from victims.

The truly dire state of his financial affairs may go some way to explaining one of the most bizarre twists in this entire saga  Murdaugh's failed 'suicide-for-hire' plot just three months after Maggie and Paul's deaths, and one day after he resigned from the family's Hampton-based law firm.

The firm, formerly known as Parker, Murdaugh, Parker, Elztroth & Detrick, or PMPED, stripped the Murdaugh name from their masthead in January and has since rebranded as the Parker Law Group.

The firm later claimed that Murdaugh misappropriated company funds and at least one of Murdaugh's former colleagues is among the many bringing suits against him.

Then on September 4 last year, Murdaugh made his second frantic 911 call, this time to report that he had been shot while attempting to change a tire by the side of the road not far from Moselle.

From the start the story seemed odd, his injuries unconvincing and his description of the man so vague and contradictory that SLED chose not to release the artist's impression that Murdaugh helped generate.

Once a prominent legal scion, Alex Murdaugh resigned from the family's Hampton-based law firm in September. The firm later claimed that Murdaugh misappropriated company funds and at least one of Murdaugh's former colleagues is among the many bringing suits against him

The South Carolina law firm (pictured) formerly known as Parker, Murdaugh, Parker, Elztroth & Detrick, or PMPED, stripped the Murdaugh name from their masthead in January and has since rebranded as the Parker Law Group

At the time of Paul's death, the Murdaughs were facing a wrongful death lawsuit by the family of Mallory Beach, 19, (right) who was killed in an horrific boat crash in 2019. Paul was drunk and at the wheel of the boat when it slammed into pilings on Archers Creek with six teens  all underage, all drinking heavily  aboard

Within two weeks, the whole affair had unraveled with Murdaugh claiming that he had hired a friend and distant relative Curtis 'Eddie' Smith, 61, to shoot him in the head so that his surviving son, Buster, could receive a $10million pay out form his life insurance.

He claimed that he had been in the throes of opioid addiction and had been for more than two decades and checked himself into rehab in Florida.

He was charged with insurance fraud and false reporting while Smith was charged on several counts including conspiracy.

He too has since been slapped with other charges relating to his relationship to Murdaugh, financial wrongdoing and drug trafficking.

Murdaugh is currently being held in Alvin S Glenn detention center in Richland County on a $7million bond.

He remains the only person ever named a person of interest in his wife and son's death though, with murder charges apparently imminent, it is unclear whether they will be considered by a state grand jury in Columbia, or one in Colleton County, where Moselle, the scene of the crimes, sits.
Sen. Josh Hawley wrote a letter asking Democrats to hold a hearing on banning stock trading for lawmakers and their spouses after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband recently made a questionable purchase in a semiconductor firm.

The Missouri Republican wrote to Sen. Gary Peters, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, calling for a hearing on lawmaker stock trades to mark up legislation to ban them.

'This issue of whether and how Members of Congress engage in various financial transactions deserves scrutiny by the Committee,' Hawley wrote to Peters.

Hawley hinted in the letter, obtained by DailyMail.com, that Peters had previously expressed a 'willingness' to discuss a stock ban with him before.

The letter pointed to Paul Pelosi's recent purchasing of 20,000 shares in Nvidia, worth between $1 million and $5 million, ahead of a Senate vote on a bill that could inject $52 billion in the semiconductor manufacturing industry and give tax incentives for production.

Hawley said that Paul Pelosi's 'inappropriate' stock trading was nothing new.

'In 2020 Speaker Pelosi and her husband outperformed the S&P 500 by a whopping 14.3 percent,' Hawley said. Ninety percent of actively managed investment funds fail to beat the market, according to a report.

The Pelosis are one of the wealthiest couples in Congress and Paul Pelosi has been dubbed one of the most prolific stock traders of all time. The speaker's office frequently notes that Nancy herself does not own any stock.

The document from the Clerk of the House of Representatives show the stock trades that Paul Pelosi made in 2022 that also include shares he sold from Apple and Visa

'The Speaker does not own any stocks. As you can see from the required disclosures, with which the Speaker fully cooperates, these transactions are marked 'SP' for Spouse. The Speaker has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions,' Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hamill said in a statement after the purchase drew fire.

After initial resistance, Pelosi changed tune in February and said she would get behind a stock ban if it was not just aimed at Congress but all of government.

'It has to be government-wide,' the California Democrat told reporters. 'The judiciary has no reporting. The Supreme Court has no disclosure. It has no reporting of stock transactions, and it makes important decisions every day.'

A mugshot of Paul Pelosi after he was arrested for drunk driving in Napa County, California

The Pelosi's (pictured) in a photo at The Kennedy Center Honors are among the wealthiest congressional couples, according to reports

Members on both sides of the aisle have brought forth bills to ban Congressional stock trades after the Pelosis' trades have drawn attention.

Hawley pointed to the Banning Insider Trading in Congress Act he introduced, the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, introduced by Sens. John Ossoff, D-Ga., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., the Ban Conflicted Trading Act, by Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and the Bipartisan Ban on Congressional Stock Ownership Act, introduced by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Steve Daines, R-Mont. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the STOCK Act 2.0.

'This suggests that there is a clear interest from our colleagues in taking action to address unethical stock trades. An oversight hearing would provide an opportunity to debate these various proposals and determine points of consensus in order to move forward,' Hawley wrote.

'Despite these efforts, Speaker Pelosi and her husband remain undeterred from cashing in,' he said, noting a poll showing 70 percent of Americans support banning congressional stock trades.

Paul Pelosi, owner of Financial Leasing Services, has amassed a personal fortune of around $135 million.

In 2021, the House Speaker is ranked as the 14th wealthiest member of Congress with an estimated net worth of at least $46,123,051, according to Insider.

Paul Pelosi's prolific stock trades have prompted social investing app Iris allows users to track the couple's trades and be notified every time Paul makes a purchase so that they can do the same.

And popular Twitter account @NancyTracker, which tracked Pelosi's investments, was banned from the social media network.

The 2012 STOCK Act bans members of Congress from using 'any nonpublic information derived from the individual's position ... or gained from performance of the individual's duties, for personal benefit.'

It also required lawmakers to report any publicly disclose any transaction of stocks, bond, commodities futures, and other securities within 45 days, rather than once per year.

Pelosi is far from alone in her husband's stock trades - more than 220 other representatives and senators, around 40% of Congress, held together at least $225 million in stock assets during 2020, according to an Insider investigation.

An Insider investigation found that 49 members and 182 congressional staffers were late to disclose trades from January through September 2021, violating the STOCK Act.
Spotify podcaster Joe Rogan suggested the United States is an 'authoritarian state' after CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden fled to Russia in 2013 after revealing the U.S. government was spying on its citizens.

Rogan, 54, was joined on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience by comedian Tom Segura when he mentioned Snowden, 39, who leaked U.S. intelligence information and fled to Russia where he has since lived in exile.

'Isn't it ironic that Edward Snowden exposes the United States, exposes this like, this deep underlying surveillance system that is essentially monitoring everybody violating our constitutional rights,' Rogan said. 'He gets kicked out of the country and goes to Russia, and Russia takes him in. He's happy over there. Fine in Russia.'

Segura responded, 'That's of course deliberate on their part.

'The way they treated him, the way they treat Julian Assange, you could absolutely make the argument that this is an authoritarian state - and he leaves here to a far worse one, and there, he's protected,' Rogan said.

Joe Rogan, 54, smokes a cigar on his podcast while joined with comedian Tom Segura. Rogan suggests the United States is an 'authoritarian state' after CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden was forced to leave the country after revealing the government was spying on it's citizens

Edward Snowden is wanted in the U.S. after he leaked information showing the NSA was spying on citizens in 2013. He fled to Russia where Rogan claims he is welcomed

Snowden is wanted in the U.S. on espionage charges after he leaked information showing that the National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting telephone, internet, and email records of millions of citizens.

Similarly, Rogan pointed to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, 51, who is wanted by U.S. authorities for leaking documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in 2010 and 2011.

Assange is an Australian native that awaits extradition to the U.S. while imprisoned in max-security Belmarsh Prison.

In the same episode, Rogan joked about shooting homeless people in Los Angeles after claiming the city's 'woke' prosecutors don't care about violent crime.

'When you see stuff like that on the streets at least in Los Angeles or maybe in California that's protected property,' Segura said about homelessness on the streets.

He added, 'If you were to go and try to move that or take that...'

Rogan interrupted, 'You'd get arrested.'

'Yeah,' Segura responded.

'Hilarious,' Rogan said. 'They wouldn't arrest you if you shot somebody. Maybe you should just go and shot the homeless people.'

Segura responded, 'I like your ideas.'

'I mean nobody does anything about violent crime in LA anymore,' Rogan continued. 'It's a f**king joke.'

Joe Rogan (left) came under fire for recent comments on his podcast when he joked that homeless people in Los Angeles should be shot because 'nobody does anything about violent crime in LA anymore.' Above, a homeless man is seen seated near a tent in Los Angeles

Crime in Los Angeles is up 8.2 percent. LA's District Attorney George Gascon has been widely criticized for his soft on crime that has lessened sentencing for convicts and prohibited minors from being charged as adults.

Gascon was elected by residents in 2020 with promises of sweeping criminal justice reforms that critics say neglects public safety.

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon has been widely criticized for his progressive policies, which some say has heightened crime

The progressive prosecutor faces a potential recall as activists attempt to put his name on the November ballot to remove him from office.

The 'Recall District Attorney George Gascon' campaign has collected more than 717,000 signatures that are currently being verified by the Los Angeles County Registrar's office for the effort to proceed.

If at least 10 percent of the signatures are verified, Los Angeles voters will be able to vote on whether they want to oust Gascon.
A group of 17 boys in Western Australia have been moved from youth detention to an adult prison with no timeline set for their return.

WA's justice department confirmed the boys, aged as young as 14 and mostly Indigenous, had been relocated on Wednesday from Perth's Banksia Hill detention centre to a standalone facility at the nearby Casuarina maximum-security prison.

Officials say the detainees have been destroying property, escaping from their cells, assaulting staff and harming themselves.

A group of 17 boys in Western Australia have been moved from youth detention to an adult prison with no timeline set for their return

They have promised the boys will be kept away from adult prisoners in safe and secure units while repair works are completed at Banksia Hill.

But advocates have called for urgent reform amid a spate of self-harm incidents and after an independent inspector found some boys were spending as little as one hour per day outside of their cells in violation of their human rights.

The grandmother of one of the transferees, whose time at Banksia was described by a judge as one of 'prolonged, systematic dehumanisation and deprivation', has said she fears the 15-year-old will take his life at the adult prison.

Department of Justice director-general Adam Tomison said authorities were 'left with no option' amid unprecedented destruction and attacks on staff.

'We have been managing emergency conditions at Banksia Hill since September last year, leading to a recent escalation in extreme behaviour and numbers of critical incidents, including detainees breaching their sleeping quarters,' Dr Tomison said.

Authorities claim the boys caused extensive damage to Banksia Hill detention centre (pictured) and were proving uncontrollable in its confines

'The number and severity of incidents over several months has seen an increase in lockdowns while staff respond to what has become a co-ordinated and unparalleled attack on the centre's infrastructure.'

The department said detainees would be regularly assessed and return to Banksia Hill 'as soon as practicable'.

It promised the boys would have access to education, secure recreation facilities and cultural, medical and psychological services.

About 600 past and present detainees have signed up for a planned class action led by Levitt Robinson Solicitors, alleging they suffered inhumane treatment, were excessively restrained and denied access to education.

Officials say the detainees have been destroying property, escaping from their cells, assaulting staff and harming themselves at Banksia Hill youth detention centre in Perth (pictured)

The case is before the Australian Human Rights Commission, the first procedural step involved in filing a class action in the Federal Court.

First Nations-led advocacy group Change the Record said it was appalled by the decision of the WA Labor government to relocate the detainees.

'Children do not belong in prison, they do not belong in maximum security adult prisons, and they should not be punished for the failures of adults to keep them safe,' national director Sophie Trevitt said.

For confidential 24-hour support in Australia call Lifeline on 13 11 14. People aged five to 25 can call Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800.
The Government's new 420,000 drone which has been hailed as the answer to the migrant boat crisis has fallen into the English Channel where it was found by a fisherman.

It is believed the drone is a Tekever AR3 drone, which Boris Johnson proudly posed with at Lydd Airport in Kent in April while pledging 50million to stop the number of migrant dinghies entering the UK.

A confused fisherman found the 11-foot wide device floating in the water on July 5 and dragged it back to port in Dover on the back of his boat, according to The Sun.

The blunder, which allegedly happened due to a 'malfunction', will leave the Home Office red faced as the latest complication in attempts to conquer people smugglers getting migrants over the Channel.

Pictured: A drone was found in the English Channel

More than 15,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year on small boats. Pictured are a group of migrants on a Border Force boat in Dover, July 18

Some 15,000 migrants have already made the trip this year, 1,600 of whom came in the last ten days.

A Dover local told the publication: 'It's an embarrassment for the Government and just adds to the chaos in the Channel right now.'

The Home Office said: 'We are aware of the incident involving a Tekever drone on July 5, it was recovered and the malfunction has since been corrected.

'Our ability to operate drones in the Channel has not been impacted. Evil criminal gangs are putting profit over people by facilitating dangerous and illegal small boat crossings and we are committed to stopping them.'

A drone package that includes parts, training and ground facilities can cost around 420,000, according to Reuters.

It is believed the drone is a Tekever AR3 drone, which Boris Johnson proudly posed with at Lydd Airport in Kent in April (pictured) while pledging 50million to stop the number of migrant dinghies entering the UK

The AR3 is designed to be launched by a catapult and can remain in the air for 16 hours before returning to the ground with a parachute

Tekever chief operating officer Paul Webb told The Sun: 'During a routine drone operation, a technical malfunction was detected on one of our drones.

'We followed the necessary protocol and landed the drone safely for collection. The cause of malfunction has been identified and corrected.'

A total of 15,107 people have travelled on the water from France in dinghies and cobbled-together boats so far this year, compared to 7,735 at the same time in 2021.

With the sweltering weather bringing calmer waters, the numbers show no signs of slowing down - with boat crossings for the last 12 days straight amid weeks of calm seas.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) says migrants have made the journey every day for the last 12 days, with 2,411 doing so between July 8 and July 18.

More than 400 migrants have arrived in Dover in the last two days as the country is in the grip of its worst ever heatwave. Pictured: A woman and child are spoken to by a member of the armed forces on arriving in Dover, July 18

It came as MPs told the government yesterday there was 'no clear evidence' its controversial plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda will deter people from crossing the Channel.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee said 'much more clarity' was needed on the plan, including how much it will cost, and urged the government to look at alternative solutions.

The worsening migrant crisis has seen tens of thousands of people cross the Channel in recent years.

A total of 28,526 people made the crossing in 2021, compared with 8,466 in 2020, 1,843 in 2019 and 299 in 2018, official Home Office figures show.

The highest daily total so far in 2022 was recorded on April 13 when 651 people made the crossing in 18 boats.

The following day Home Secretary Priti Patel signed what she described as a 'world-first' agreement to send migrants deemed to have arrived in the UK 'illegally' to Rwanda. Since then 9,839 migrants have crossed the Channel.

A confused fisherman found the 11-foot wide device floating in the water on July 5 and dragged it back to port in Dover on the back of his boat

The Home Office came under fire on Tuesday from the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, who said he is becoming 'increasingly frustrated' over delays in publishing his report on small boat crossings.

The findings were submitted to Ms Patel in February and should have been made public by the end of April, David Neal said, adding: 'There is a strong public interest that it is published. I fear that, unless it is laid before Parliament this week, there will be yet further delay over the summer recess.'

Members of the cross-party committee said the number of people attempting to make the journey had gone up since the Rwanda scheme was announced in April.

'There is no clear evidence that the policy will deter migrant crossings,' the committee said in a report on the 'small boats' phenomenon.

It attributed the rise to 'scaremongering' by people-smuggling gangs warning migrants about the change in the law.

Most people who arrive in the UK this way claim asylum but the government says the costs involved in the application process - more than 1.5 billion  are unsustainably high.

The committee pointed out that there were a total of 48,450 asylum applications in Britain in 2021  a similar number to every year since 2014 and 'far less' than in the early 2000s.

But it said the current asylum caseload of more than 125,000 was a result of 'antiquated IT systems, high staff turnover and too few staff'.

The first flight carrying asylum seekers was due to take off for Rwanda in mid-June but was grounded due to legal challenges.

The Home Affairs Committee said there was 'no magical solution' to deal with irregular migration.

But it said 'close cooperation with international partners, particularly those in France' stood more chance of success in deterring Channel crossings.

A Government spokesperson said: 'The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable.

'Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws, but they risk lives and hinder our ability to help refugees who come to the UK through safe and legal routes.

'The Nationality and Borders Act will enable us to crack down on abuse of the system and the evil people smugglers, who will now be subject to a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

'Under our new Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda, we are continuing preparations to relocate those who are making dangerous, unnecessary and illegal journeys into the UK in order for their claims to be considered and rebuild their lives.'
The last person to speak to a missing grandmother before she mysteriously disappeared has revealed she looked 'ill' and was 'laying' in her car parked on the side of the road.

Colleen South, 58, drove her Hyundai Getz from her home in Renown Park SA across the Victorian border on July 1 and was spotted stopped on the side of the Calder Highway on July 2.

'When we got back there she was just laying in the car with her head back. She looked really, really tired or a little bit ill I thought, her eyes were very glassy,' Mary Headon, who pulled over to check on her told A Current Affair.

The next day a farmer noticed the vehicle travelling along nearby Jeruk River Road about 3:30pm.

But later that evening on July 3, her car was found abandoned in a ditch at Bunguluke about 545km from her home back in the Adelaide suburbs.

Now her family are desperately seeking answers and are calling on the police to treat the case as suspicious.

Veronica South (pictured right with her mum Colleen) insists her mother's disappearance is out of character and should be treated as suspicious

Ms South's niece actress Farah Mak said she is holding out hope the family 'will find her together' (pictured)

None of the surrounding farmers or any of the 600 people in the nearby town of Wycheproof have seen or heard from Ms South.

Her belongings including a bag and journal were found metres from her car, which had the airbags deployed, but her mobile phone has not been located.

About 10 worried relatives have visited Wycheproof as the family searches for any clues.

Her daughter Veronica has made the five hour drive from SA repeatedly in the last two weeks; liaising with police, chatting to locals and putting up missing persons posters.

'Mum, if you see this, we just hope you're safe and we're not giving up on finding you, we're here searching as much as we can and that we're not going to give up,' Veronica said.

Ms South's actress niece Farah Mak has also been trying to uncover what really happened saying she 'keeps visualising that we'll all find her together, which would be incredible'.

'There's this eeriness, like you're following in your footsteps and wondering, what were her steps? What was she thinking? What was she doing?

'We're looking around looking for clues, for evidence of where she might've walked, where she might've been.'

Veronica sent a message to her mum telling her they are 'not giving up' on finding her (pictured with her aunt and Ms South's sister)

After previously critiquing the police response, the family said they were pleased to see a large number of officers out searching on their latest visit.

About 40 specialist officers have joined the search.

'We've had our mounted branch on horses. We've had our special solos on motorbikes. We've had our canine police with their dog squad here,' Inspector Gerard de Vries said.

'We've got a number of police on foot both some police from Melbourne, Swan Hill, Mildura.

'We've got the location that the vehicle was discovered, and we've broadened that, but that's reviewing our maps and GPS tracking about what we've done previously and broaden that out into areas that we feel need to be looked at.'

Veronica said he is holding out hope the family will find Ms South soon.

One relative of Ms South previously claimed her uncle found 'spent shotgun shells at the scene', but detectives 'have not followed up on this, nor reported it'.

While 'out of character', Victoria Police said they were not treating the grandmother's disappearance as suspicious.

Medication found by Veronica South and her friends in the area where her mother disappeared

Ms Mak, previously hit social media to slam Victoria Police over allegations it had bungled the investigation.

'My cousin found footprints and a lit out fire nearby - @victoriapolice said there was no footprints found,' she wrote.

'Photos taken by @victoriapolice show that there are tyre trucks of a vehicle pulling right up next to my Aunty's personal belongings where she would have been sitting - no crime scene investigation. My cousin and her friends were told 'this could've been from anything'.'

Victoria Police issued a statement on Monday afternoon dismissing the family's claims that Ms South may have become a victim of a crime.

It also hit back at claims a proper investigation had not been conducted.

'Victoria Police commenced a comprehensive search of dense bushland in the surrounding area conducting Air Wing and Drone searches along with Mounted Branch, Canine Unit, officers on foot and in vehicles along with SES,' the statement read.

'Local farmers were also asked to check buildings and sheds on their properties.'

Detectives claim the only fears they hold for Ms South stem from a known medical condition and her 'disappearance was out of character'.

Her journal found in her abandoned belongings contained a handwritten note with the words 'help me please'.

It's been almost three weeks since Colleen South (pictured) was last seen by loved ones

A concerning note asking for help was found inside Ms South's journal near her abandoned car

'Our hope is that we get action and outcome from Victoria Police by treating this as a crime and investigating accordingly to find Colleen ASAP,' Ms South's niece Farah Mak (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia

Veronica told Daily Mail Australia she had made the five-and-a-half hour trip from Adelaide at least three times in the last week to conduct her own searches in Wycheproof.

She believes her mother's disappearance is suspicious because her belongings were left behind with the car door locked.

'Also ... there's no trace of my mum, or footprints where she has walked, and no scent detected from the dogs.

'Also my mum didn't go to the farmers for help. The house is right next door to where her car was found, so she would have definitely gone there for help but there has been no record of anyone seeing her which I think is odd.'

A Facebook page called Bring Colleen Home set up by Ms South's family has grown to more than 500 members.

Her daughter took to Facebook on Sunday night to provide an update on her harrowing ordeal.

'It's been two weeks since you've been missing Mum,' Veronica wrote.

Ms South was last seen by a witness in her Hyundai Getz (pictured) on July 3. The car was found abandoned an hour later

Ms South's personal items, including bags and keys, were found 20 metres from her car

'Although, it feels like a really long time but I'm just getting started with this search. Spoke to locals today and have been meeting with farmers, there was no luck of getting any new evidence today.

'I am praying we find you soon and everyday feels like I'm getting a step closer to finding you. It hasn't been easy. I am missing you every day.

'Tomorrow we may have an update from the police of where to go with the search from here. We are thinking positive and hopefully we will get a positive outcome.'

CCTV footage captured Ms South visiting a Liquorland at St Agnes at about 11.50am on July 2, with police believing she then made her way to rural northern Victoria.

The last reported sighting was made the following day, when a witness spotted her behind the wheel of her Hyundai Getz in Ninyeunook, 267km north of Melbourne.

Around an hour later, a farmer noticed Ms South's car abandoned parked under a tree off the side of Mackies Road, 26km away in Bunguluke.

Two days later, the farmer called police after realising the car had crashed into a ditch and sustained damage, with airbags deployed.

Ms South's belongings were found about 20 metres from the car, including her handbag, purse, keys and a journal.

On Saturday, the group found Ms South's essential medication, downtrodden grass, a pen, footprints and a recently lit campfire.

Ms South is described as 154cm tall with a heavy build, green eyes and brown hair. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, black and white striped shirt.

Anyone who sees Colleen or has any information is urged to contact police.
The Biden administration continues to assure that the southern border is 'secure' despite record-setting numbers of illegal crossings and proliferation of the crisis over the last few months.

'Look, the border is secure,' Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Matorkas insisted during remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Tuesday.

But he added that the administration is still 'working to make the border more secure.'

'That has been a historic challenge,' Mayorkas said, adding that there is a difference between the words 'safe' and 'secure.'

But insistence that the border is secure comes amid a prevailing rise in crossings as well as complaints from New York City and Washington, D.C. that the crisis is finally hitting home after Arizona and Texas starting busing migrants to the city hubs to deal with them.

Crossings are at an all-time high at this point in the year with nearly 1.75 million crossings in Fiscal Year 2022 with the release of June figures last week  and there are still three more months left to go before a total roundup for the year is counted.

The last quarter's figures show that 200,000 migrants passed through the southern border every month for the last three months.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas repeated Tuesday that the southern border is 'secure' but made sure to clarify that does not mean it is 'safe'

Comments come as figures for June show that CBP encountered 239,416 migrants last month alone. It means that in the last three months there have been 200,000 crossings each month

Both Democratic Mayors Muriel Bowser of D.C. and Eric Adams of New York City recently denounced the influx of migrants to their cities due to the busing initiative from Governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona.

Adams asked President Joe Biden for 'additional federal resources immediately' to deal with the spike.

'If we do not get these urgently needed resources, we may struggle to provide the proper level of support our clients deserve, while also facing challenges as we serve both a rapidly growing shelter population and new clients who are seeking asylum,'the Democratic mayor said in a prepared statement.

The demand is similar to the pleas from officials in border states ever since Biden took office and the migration crisis surged exponentially with the administration's message that the border was open to all  a juxtaposition to Donald Trump's four years of hardline immigration policies.

Homeless shelters in the nation's capital are also starting to cap out with asylum-seekers bused there.

'Well, this is a very significant issue,' Bowser told CBS News program Face the Nation on Sunday morning. 'We have for sure called on the federal government to work across state lines to prevent people from really being tricked into getting on buses.'

'I fear that they're being tricked into nationwide bus trips when their final destinations are places all over the United States of America,' she added.

A child asylum-seeker pours water on his head to cool down after waiting on the U.S. side of the southern border wall to be transported to a processing center by CBP

New York City and Washington, D.C. are now feeling the effects of the border crisis as Texas and Arizona started busing migrants to the cities in the spring. The mayors of the respective cities claims that their homeless shelters are becoming overwhelmed with the influx of migrants and are calling for more federal resources to help

A bus full of migrants carried from the southern border in Texas is pictured dropping them off in front of the U.S. Capitol in D.C. earlier this summer

At least 4,000 migrants have arrived in D.C. Texas started busing migrants there in April and Arizona followed their neighboring state's lead in May. Another 3,000 have arrived in NYC in recent weeks.

'I have said to a number of legislators who expressed to me that we need to address the challenge at the border before they pass legislation and I take issue with the math of holding the solution hostage until the problem is resolved,' Secretary Mayorkas said on Tuesday.

'There are smugglers that operate on the Mexican side of the border and placing one's life in their hands is not safe,' he added.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released numbers last week for June showing that there were 207,416 encounters with migrants last month alone compared to the 189,034 in June of last year.

The last year of Trump's presidency, there were 33,049 encounters in June 2020.

With the latest June figures, Fiscal Year 2022 has now seen 1,746,119 total encounters at the southern border, which already outpaces the previous year when 1,734,686 migrants were encountered by CBP.

There are still three months left in the fiscal year.
Ukrainian troops have saved a cat that was abandoned on Snake Island when Russian troops retreated last month.

Soldiers from Kyiv's military intelligence branch found the feline when they were dispatched on a recent mission to clear away evidence of the occupation.

Among shell holes and the ruins of Russian vehicles, they found landmines, weapons, documents - and a small black cat hiding inside a concrete bunker.

Video shows the cat being rescued, and also documents the moment troops lowered Russia's flag and raised their own over the island instead.

This is the moment Ukrainian troops sent to clear Snake Island after Russia retreated found and rescued a cat that had been abandoned there

The footage shows a squad of at least seven men patrolling the island after the Russian troops had left.

Two of the troops can be seen walking over to a larger group standing in the mouth of a concrete bunker that forms part of Snake Island's military base.

As the men arrive, their comrades hand over a cat they found abandoned inside.

'A Ukrainian cat, which had lived for several months under occupation, was found and evacuated to allied territory,' the GUR said.

Additional footage shows the men crossing the island to a flag pole, where they take down Russia's emblem and raise their own in its place.

That suggests the mission may have taken place two weeks ago, when images first revealed Ukraine's blue and yellow colours flying on the Black Sea outcrop.

Ukraine has also published footage of the moment Russia's flag was lowered over the island and their own emblem was raised in its place

Though Kyiv did not say when the mission took place, Ukraine's flag was first pictured flying over Snake Island two weeks ago

However, footage of the mission was released for the first time today.

The GRU said: 'Research and reconnaissance of the territory and underground fortifications of Snake Island were carried out.

'Mine clearance engineering works have been completed. Samples of the enemy's weapons and equipment were identified and seized.

'In particular, guidance and control systems, Orlan-10 [Russian drone], MANPADS systems, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, small arms, combat logs, personal documents of the Russian military, and electronic media.

'The Ukrainian flag was installed on the island instead of the Russian "tricolor".'

Snake Island is a tiny but strategically important spit of land that sits around 90 miles off the Ukrainian coast from its main port of Odesa.

Russia captured the island on the first day of the war after the Ukrainian defenders memorably told Moscow's warship to 'go f*** yourself'.

Russia captured the small but strategically important Snake Island on the first day of fighting, but was forced to retreat last month after heavy Ukrainian shelling

Putin's army had been stationing missile batteries there, in order to provide air cover for its Black Sea fleet and to threaten Odesa in the event of an assault.

However, after weeks of heavy shelling and attacks from Ukrainian jets and bombers, troops stationed there were forced to retreat.

Though recapturing the island does little to shift the overall balance of the war, it makes an assault on Odesa - feared since the first day of the war - very unlikely.

It also provided Kyiv with an important morale boost at a time when its forces in the east of the country were flagging.

Russia's offensive in Donbas is now at a standstill after Putin's troops were mauled taking Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.

American-made HIMARS systems given to Ukraine have also been devastating Russian ammo dumps and command posts, limiting their ability to fight.

Meanwhile a Ukrainian counter-attack is underway towards the city of Kherson which has met with heavy losses but some territorial gains.
A senior instructor at the prestigious Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst drowned in a stream on the base after drinking too much at a function on the Army base, a coroner has heard.

Colour Sergeant Alexander Street had been told to leave the party by an Army Captain who warned him he had drunk too much alcohol.

It was believed he was making his way to his married quarters at the RMA when he fell into the stream. His body was found submerged by a police search team the next day.

Colour Sergeant instructor Street was reported missing the day after he attended the on-site party in February this year, an opening inquest was told.

Colour Sergeant Alex Street had been missing since attending a dinner at Sandhurst in February. Pictured: With wife Juliana on their wedding day

Colour Sergeant Street, pictured with Juliana, left, was returning to the married quarters at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, Berkshire, when he fell into a stream

The 31-year-old soldier, who had been posted to the RMA from the Irish Guards and previously had served in Afghanistan, was found submerged in the stream on the Army campus after he was advised to sleep off the alcohol by his Captain.

Assistant Berkshire coroner Alison McCormick said during the opening of the inquest into his death at Reading Coroner's Court: 'Alexander Street was born on February 28, 1990, and passed away on February 6, 2022 at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, Berkshire.

'The circumstances surrounding the death are that Alex was a Colour Sergeant instructor and lived in the married quarters with his wife Juliana. On February 4 this year, Alex attended a function at the main clock tower building.

'He was advised to leave the function by a Captain due to the level of his intoxication at around 2am the following day - February 5. He saw him leave and he was seen heading to his home in the Royal Military Academy grounds.

'Juliana woke up at around 4am and noted that Alex had not returned and later that morning she realised he had still not returned. An informal search took place and later his absence was noted and a report was made to the police.

The soldier had been ordered from the party by his Captain as he had drank too much. An inquest into Street's death will determine what happened to him on the way to the married quarters at Sandhurst. Pictured: Cadets at the Royal Military Academy on parade

'Various inquiries to locate Alex - his last known location was around 23sqm of the academy. At 17.10 the police found him submerged below the water in Churchill House stream.

'His body was pulled from the water on February 6. However, no life-saving opportunities were available. His identification was verified by Search and Rescue teams.

'An officer attended the scene and found Alex clothed, bar his trouser fly open and police concluded there was no sign of any third party involvement.'

A pathologist's post-mortem examination revealed the cause of death as drowning due to disorientation due to the level of ethanol in the blood.

The assistant coroner then adjourned the inquest until February 21, next year to allow the Army - which is undertaking an inquiry - to conclude.
Two men have been sentenced to 37 years in prison for the 2017 murder of a British woman in South Africa, who died after she and her husband were tortured.

Masked raiders tied up and brutally attacked Susan Howarth, 64, and Robert Lynn, 66, on their farm in Dullstroom, in South Africa's eastern Mpumalanga province.

The couple were shot, stabbed and tortured with a blowtorch by three men who broke into their home. Ms Howarth - originally from Southsea, Hampshire - died during the attack in February 2017 after suffering horrific injuries.

Her husband miraculously survived, with his account being used in court. In his victim impact statement, he told the court: 'I am in my own prison of fear and total sadness,' five years on from the ordeal.

Brothers Meshack Nkosinathi Yika, 28, and Themba William Yika, 38, were originally charged along-side a third man - Lucas Makau - who died during the trial.

The assailants were from Bergendal farm, near Belfast in South Africa. According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in Mpumalanga, they were both sentenced on June 30 to 37 years in prison for the attack.

'The three broke into farmhouse of Marchlands in Dullstroom, in the district of Belfast and found the couple sleeping,' NPA spokeswoman Monica Nyuswa said.

'They attacked them with a blowtorch, and shot Susan in the head who later succumbed to injuries.'

Masked raiders tied up and brutally attacked Susan Howarth, 64, and Robert Lynn, 66, (pictured ) on their farm in Dullstroom, in South Africa's eastern Mpumalanga province

Brothers Meshack Nkosinathi Yika (centre), 28, and Themba William Yika (left), 38, were originally charged along-side a third man - Lucas Makau (right) - who died during the trial. The brothers were sentenced to 37 years in prison on June 30 over the attack and killing

Nyuswa described how the home invaders shot Mr Lynn once in the neck and dragged the couple to the living room where the demanded money from them.

'They continued to assault the complainant until he opened the safe and took an amount of R320, two cellphones and a camera,' the spokeswoman said.

'They further burnt him with blowtorch several times on his body. He gave them his bank card and the PIN number with the hope that they would leave him.

'Instead, they covered his face with a plastic bag and forced both the deceased and the surviving victim in their van and drove away.

'They then threw them out along the road. The matter was reported to the police and the investigations led to their arrest,' Nyuswa said.

During the trial, prosecutor Adv Eric Sihlangu shared Mr Lynn's account of what happened during the terrifying 2am home invasion, which saw the three men enter in through a window and tie the couple up.

It revealed that Mr Lynn was stabbed once in the shoulder, taken from his home and forced to kneel down in scrubland. He was then shot another time in the neck.

But incredibly retired Mr Lynn survived the brutal attack and managed to free himself and find his terribly injured wife nearby after being left for dead.

Police said at the time she was unrecognisable from her injuries and was in a coma. Her husband raised the alarm she was rushed to hospital but died 48 hours later.

At the time, close friend Claire Taylor invited local paper the Middleburg Observer into the hospital to photograph Sue in bed to show the full horror of what local farmers are going through. She said: 'She would have wanted the world to see what happened to her'

During the trial, prosecutor Adv Eric Sihlangu shared Mr Lynn's account of what happened during the terrifying 2am home invasion, which saw the three men enter in through a window and tie the couple up. Pictured: The couple's bungalow

It was reported in 2017 that she had multiple fractures to her her skull, gunshot wounds and horrific burns from the blowtorch to her breasts.

Judge Lineo Liphoto at Mpumalanga High Court found the brothers guilty of six offences: murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, housebreaking, robbery and possession of an unlicensed firearm - for a total of more than 50 years.

However, the court ordered that some of their sentences would run concurrently, meaning they will each serve a maximum of 37 years in prison.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Mr Lynn said before the sentencing that he 'will never have peace again' after the attack.

'Due to the trauma of the incident, I had to pack up my whole life and leave the country because I no longer felt safe,' his letter said, according to Maroela Media.

'I will never have peace again. Our friends and family are just as traumatized as I am. I am in my own prison of fear and absolute sadness because of the acts of violence against me and Sue.'

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Mr Lynn (pictured) said before the sentencing that he 'will never have peace again' after the attack

He said ahead of the sentencing that he hoped those responsible will be sentenced to live in prison without the possibility of parole.

'They have proven that they are professional criminals. I myself will be in prison for the rest on my life without a chance of parole.'

Ms Howarth moved to Dullstroom in 1996 and started the Dullstroom Stables before the farm Marchlands - where she was attacked - became her home.

After her funeral in 2017, her ashes were set be flown to Southsea in England where she would be buried with her parents. She was an only child.

The attack sparked anger in South Africa, which has a high rate of violent crime, with attacks on farmers in relatively isolated areas fuelling anger in the community.
A man has been shot dead by armed police in France after he took several members of his family hostage and killed five of them, including his father.

The shocking incident began to unfold last night when a 22-year-old man barricaded himself in a house with his father, stepmother and three children in the small eastern town of Douvres about 30 miles east of Lyon.

Local reports said negotiators descended on the scene overnight and set up a perimeter around the town, before they 'attempted in vain to remain in contact with the suspect throughout the night'.

Earlier today the man, armed with a firearm and a large katana, began executing his family members.

Armed police officers stormed the house and killed him, but not before all five hostages, including the three children, had been executed.

Neither the police nor the local prosecutor's office confirmed the identity of the victims, but French outlet Le Progres reported that the shooter's father was the head of a building company in the Ain region, of which Douvres is a part.

The killer's other victims included his mother-in-law, originally from Gironde, his 17 -year-old sister, his 15-year-old half-brother and his 5-year-old half-sister.

French gendarmes stand guard near a deviation sign to block the road leading to the house in which a man is suspected of having shot five people before being shot himself by the GIGN (National Gendarmerie Intervention Group) in Douvres, eastern France, on July 20, 2022

Town mayor Christian Limousin said the family had moved into the house where the murders took place in July of 2020 and 'began to invest in the village'.

A family acquaintance who visited the scene told Le Soir that the killer worked at a local fast food restaurant, but gave no indication to his physical or mental condition prior to the attack.

Having set up a perimeter during the night to close off the town, authorities told local business and shops not to open while they continued their attempts to negotiate with the hostage taker.

The owner of the village bar, which sits in the town square, said she was told around 8:30am local time by gendarmes not to open the premises and said the town of roughly 1,000 inhabitants were constantly calling the bar to find out what had happened.

A French gendarmerie car blocks the road leading to the house where the shocking murders occurred

The shocking incident began to unfold last night when a 22-year-old man barricaded himself in a house with his father, stepmother and three children in the small eastern town of Douvres

French police are yet to release a statement on the fatal incident, while the scene as of 4pm was still heavily guarded by officers.

The slaughterhouse in Douvres is the latest mass crime scene in France which also saw a triple murder in the provincial town of Angers at the weekend when a Sudanese refugee stabbed three young rugby players to death after an argument in the street.

Elsewhere in France, a police officer in the town of Dreux west of Paris shot dead a man who lunged at her with a sword following a domestic dispute on Saturday evening, prosecutors said.

Fear of crime was one of the leading campaign issues during presidential and parliamentary elections in France this year which saw the anti-immigration and far-right National Rally party make historic gains.
Western politicians politicize COVID-19 origins tracing to conceal inability to handle pandemic

Xinhua) 09:08, July 20, 2022

BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Since a World Health Organization (WHO) panel released a preliminary report on COVID-19 origins tracing in June, some Western politicians and media outlets renewed their attempts to smear China by playing up the so-called lab-leak theory in tracing the origins of COVID-19.

Experts worldwide have pointed out that COVID-19 origins tracing should be treated in a scientific and objective manner, adding that the politicization of the coronavirus origins probe is a ploy to cover up some Western politicians' botched pandemic response, and has seriously hindered the global source tracing and anti-pandemic process.

POLITICIZATION UNSCIENTIFIC

COVID-19 origins tracing is a scientific matter, which should be conducted by scientists worldwide with a rigorous approach.

A China-WHO joint study report released in 2021 has reached an authoritative scientific conclusion based on field studies by experts from many countries that a lab leak of COVID-19 is "extremely unlikely."

Such a crystal-clear scientific conclusion has not only received wide support from the international scientific community, but also laid a solid foundation for future global virus-tracing work.

The first expert group that visited China on a mission to better understand the origins of the pandemic "largely discounted the idea of the virus having escaped from the laboratory," said Kenya-based international relations scholar Cavince Adhere.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Adhere noted, some Western countries have failed to take effective measures to protect their citizens from contagion, but politicized the pandemic, which has impeded global cooperation and response towards containing the health crisis.

Stanley Perlman, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa, told Xinhua that it is necessary to have a thorough investigation of the COVID-19 origins, and that it is key to avoiding political hype.

The attempt to politicize and stigmatize the origins and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 "is not acceptable in scientific grammar and culture," Mushtuq Husain, an adviser to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research under the Bangladesh's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"That attempt to do so will only complicate the WHO investigation and global preparation against future pandemic threat," said the Bangladeshi health expert.

"It is utterly unscientific to blame any particular country, region, group of people for infectious disease origin and transmission," Husain noted. "It is a natural process."

BLAME-SHIFTING UNACCEPTABLE

In fact, China is by far the only country that has invited more than once WHO expert groups to come for a joint SARS-CoV-2 origins study. It is also the only country that has shared research progress multiple times on origins tracing with the WHO. China has shared more data and research findings on SARS-CoV-2 origins study than any other country.

China's open, transparent and responsible attitude towards this matter has been highly recognized by the international community.

In an attempt to shift blame to others to downplay the political, economic and social contradictions caused by the adverse response to the pandemic at home, some Western politicians and media outlets have been fabricating various lies and rumors against China on COVID-19 origins tracing.

Trsar Ziga, a Slovenia-based economics scholar, told Xinhua that China has always been open and transparent in sharing information on origins tracing with the WHO and the international community, and has provided urgently needed supplies to many countries.

In contrast, the United States played down the severity of the pandemic and did not take effective prevention and control measures at the early stage, which led to the number of cumulative confirmed cases and deaths in the country continuing to rank first in the world, Ziga added.

In order to divert attention from problems at home, the economist said, the U.S. government has been politicizing the pandemic and manipulating public opinion to smear China.

During an interview with Xinhua, Gennady Onishchenko, the first deputy chairman of the Committee on Education and Science of Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said, "topic of the lab origin of the coronavirus has been constantly raised."

"First, (Donald) Trump started it, then (Joe) Biden supported it, obviously, the purpose is to blame China, all this is being done in order to politicize the topic of COVID-19 origins," said Onishchenko.

ORIGINS TRACING COMPLICATED

Overseas experts and scholars stressed that the process of COVID-19 origins tracing is very complicated and may take years.

In fact, according to historical records, the place a pandemic was first detected and reported often turned out not to be the birthplace of the virus.

The 1918 Spanish influenza, for instance, is believed to have started with the infection of a U.S. soldier at a barracks in the U.S. state of Kansas, although it was first reported in Europe and named after Spain.

For the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have found traces of the coronavirus in human and environmental samples retained before December 2019 in many countries such as Italy, Spain, Brazil, with some dating as far back as the autumn that year.

Therefore, COVID-19 origins tracing needs to unfold in multiple localities worldwide, which requires countries to openly carry out scientific research cooperation and share the results.

"The U.S. government, notably the U.S. National Institutes of Health, has not been transparent or honest with the public and the world community about the research that the United States was funding," U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs, also head of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission, told Xinhua.

Sachs said the United States should have worked closely and honestly with China and other countries to identify the source of the virus. On the contrary, the U.S. government "blamed China, and hid the possible role of advanced U.S. biotechnology."

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
A family on a fishing trip off the coast of Alabama witnessed a rare 400-pound spotted eagle ray leap onto their boat and give birth to four pups.

April Jones, 34, her husband, father-in-law, and son were participating in the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo Saturday, but the mom-of-one was not having much luck catching anything.

'We were trying to get a fish for me to catch. So I told them I was ready to leave and head to a different spot,' Jones told Fox.

'We packed everything up, and as we were pulling away, there was a hard hit and a water splash.'

The giant ray was flopping around on the back of the boat. Jones said she thinks the sea creature was jumping due to a remora, or suckerfish, being stuck to her belly.

'This thing was beautiful but 400+ lbs jumping in a boat and hitting you doesn't feel good (er trip for me) and absolutely scary,' April wrote about the experience in a Facebook post.

April Jones, 34, did not expect her fishing day off the waters of the Sand Island Lighthouse, near Dauphin, to end up with a trip to the hospital and the sea lab

The gorgeous animal gave birth to four pups. Sadly, the babies did not survive as they were born under stressful conditions, the sea lab told the Jones

Jones, her husband, father-in-law, and son were participating in the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo Saturday, but the mom-of-one was not having much luck catching anything

Jeremy Jones told local news station WSPA that he heard his wife screaming but did not immediately realize what was going on.

'I hear stuff breaking and flopping, [grandpa] falls into me. I look back, this ray is laying in the back of the boat,' he said.

The Jones' made calls and tried to figure out what to do. Meanwhile, the ray was weighing down the boat and water was coming inside the back of the boat.

Their attempts to get the 400-pound animal out of the boat were fruitless so they decided to get back to the shore and get some help to keep her alive.

The situation quickly turned mesmerizing as the mama ray birthed four adorable pups. Sadly, the babies did not survive as they were born under stressful conditions, the sea lab told the Jones.

The Dauphin Island Sea Lab told the Jones that if eagle rays are in any type of stressful situation, they will give birth.

'It's not uncommon for wild animals to release their young when they feel their life is in danger, curator of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Brian Jones told Fox.

'This is surely an adaptation that gives the parents a better chance at producing offspring and passing along their genes in the population.'

The babies were donated to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab for educational purposes

By the time they had help from staff at the sea lab, the ray had already delivered four tiny pups who did not survive the stressful conditions of their birth

The family of three had an eventful day out off the coast of Alabama when a giant eagle ray decided to join them

The Dauphin Island Sea Lab plans to show the baby rays show kids how rare it is to see the animal

'[We] just wanted to make sure she was kept alive, so we were dumping water on her and it was about a 15- or 20-minute boat ride back to shore,' April Jones told Fox.

The family drove to the closest boat lunch, where the lab was.

But by the time they had help from staff, the ray had already delivered four tiny pups who unfortunately did not survive the stressful conditions of their birth.

'We had no idea when she did it. They were not moving,' April Jones told Fox.

The babies were donated to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab for educational purposes.

'They said they would use them to show kids and tell the story about [the] mom, and how rare it was to see an eagle ray,' she added.

Eagle rays are not an endangered species but are near threatened.

'Eagle rays, unlike stingrays, tend to live in the open ocean rather than on the bottom of the sea,' according to Scuba.com.

'Compared with other rays, their tails are quite long and they are a well-defined rhomboidal shape featuring distinct wings. The spotted eagle ray is one of the most beautiful rays and is also known as the bonnet ray'

On Facebook, Jones said that it took multiple men to get her out and that they estimated the ray was over 7ft when fully flat.

April said that the family was devastated the adorable pups could not survive, and that they had done everything possible to keep all the animals safe.

'It was sad when the babies were found but there was nothing we could have done as we didn't know she was a mama and couldn't move her,' she wrote.

'We are at least thankful she survived.'

The very interesting experience left Jones with a sprained shoulder and a sore collarbone.

'When we got it out of the boat, I wasn't as scared. It was kind of cool,' her eight-year-old son, Gunner told WSPA.

As for their boat, the shade cover was broken during the ordeal, and the power poles aren't working. Jones, however, said the unique experience was worth it.

'Expect the unexpected. You will probably only have something like this happen once in your lifetime,' she told WSAP.
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It was a packed beach yesterday with thousands of sunseekers who had flocked to the Dorset coast to sit on the sand or swim in the sea and make the most of what turned out to be Britain's hottest day on record.

But Lyme Regis was a very different sight today, with the beach almost deserted and low numbers of people walking along the promenade wearing coats and taking cover under umbrellas as the resort faced heavy rain.

Downpours and thunderstorms will hit much of England throughout this afternoon and evening - with the Met Office issuing a warning until 10pm for the possibility of flooding, lightning strikes and power strikes.

Forecasters said spray and sudden flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and some road closures, while delays and cancellations to train and bus services were possible as well as the chance of power cuts.

The Met Office warned of 'slow-moving torrential downpours' for parts of England with up to 1.2in (30mm) of rain in an hour and more than 2in (50mm) in three hours, adding that lightning was possible in southern areas.

And conditions were also significantly cooler today with highs of 30C (86F) in the East, 27C (81F) in the South East, and just 21C (70F) in the South West - a stark contrast to the unprecedented 40.3C (104.5F) yesterday. The Met Office said temperatures were about 15C lower this afternoon than they were at the same time in areas yesterday.

 Slide me  TODAY AND YESTERDAY: The seaside resort of Lyme Regis in Dorset is almost deserted on a wet and dreary day today (left) one day after sunseekers flocked to the beach to enjoy the record-breaking heat yesterday (right)

 Slide me  The Met Office said temperatures were about 15C lower this afternoon (left) than they were at the same time yesterday (right)

Visitors to Lyme Regis wear coats and shelter from the rain under umbrellas as they walk along the seafront today

But Network Rail said downpours on dry ground following the extreme heat could cause flooding and overwhelm track drainage this afternoon and evening  just as operators try to get services back up and running again.

It comes after the searing heat set a new record for the hottest day ever in the UK of 40.3C (104.5F) at Coningsby in Lincolnshire yesterday, beating the previous record of 38.7C (101.7F) in Cambridge set in July 2019.

Passengers stranded for more than 24 hours after heatwave grinds rail services to a halt: Chaos at King's Cross, Euston and St Pancras on day THREE of disruption Rail bosses have warned services could be further delayed by heavy rain today with passengers already stranded after almost every service in and out of London King's Cross was axed following the UK's hottest day on record. Network Rail said downpours on dry ground following the extreme heat could cause flooding and overwhelm track drainage this afternoon and evening  just as operators try to get services back up and running again. Passengers wait for information at London Euston today after mass cancellations of services to the North West and Scotland Thunderstorms will hit much of England this afternoon and evening, with the Met Office issuing a warning from noon until 10pm saying flooding and lightning strikes could result in 'delays and some cancellations' to trains. LNER - which operates trains between King's Cross and Edinburgh via York and Newcastle - issued a 'do not travel' warning today and urged people to not even go to the London hub. Two other operators who run services from King's Cross - Lumo and Hull Trains - said they were told by Network Rail to cancel all services today. Passengers trying to head north from London Euston also continued to face major delays following damage to overhead electric lines in four different locations. At St Pancras, there were almost no services and East Midlands Railway warned of 'overcrowding' at stations with trains and crew out of place after line closures. Advertisement

But the UK was today counting the cost of the extreme heat, with dozens of homes destroyed in wildfires that raged in the conditions after the mercury climbed above 40C (104F) for the first time in the country.

Major fire incidents were declared in London, Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and South Yorkshire amid the tinder-dry conditions.

Sadiq Khan said the London Fire Brigade had received more than 2,600 calls throughout the day - seven times the usual number.

The London Mayor added that there were more than a dozen simultaneous major fires and that 41 properties including homes and warehouses were destroyed in the capital.

He also urged Londoners not to have barbecues because conditions continued to be very dry.

In Wennington, East London, a devastating blaze destroyed two rows of terraced houses, four other homes, as well as outbuildings, garages, stables and cars and affected 40 hectares of grassland.

And in Dagenham, a grassland fire destroyed and damaged houses and vehicles.

Elsewhere, a serious blaze occurred in Barnsley when a row of houses in the Moorland Avenue area was consumed by flames, with crews continuing to battle fires elsewhere in the area.

Doncaster Council said a major blaze in Clayton also spread to three residential properties and there were reports of houses on fire in the Kiverton Park and Maltby areas of Rotherham.

Firefighters in Norfolk were called to more than 80 incidents on Tuesday, including one that started in a field in the village of Ashmanhaugh and spread to two homes.

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service said it had been called to more than 60 incidents, 38 of which were fires in the open, describing the situation as 'unprecedented'.

London Ambulance Service said it had taken 13,400 calls to 999 over the two days, the equivalent of a call every 13 seconds.

Early data shows that yesterday, the service saw a ten-fold increase in incidents related to heat exposure compared to last week, and an 8 per cent increase in people fainting, it said.

Simon Clarke, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told Sky News that the fires were a 'warning sign' about the impact of climate change.

'This is a remarkable, unprecedented event and something which obviously, because people have been saying, we are not used to seeing in this country,' he said. 'What we've seen in recent days is not normal and it is a warning sign.'

Also today, protesters from Just Stop Oil climbed motorway signs on the M25 and caused disruption over what they describe as the Government's 'inadequate preparations' for climate change.

The Met Office has issued a thunderstorm warning from 12pm until 10pm today saying flooding and lightning strikes could hit

A very wet day on the Dorset coast at Lyme Regis today, one day after record-breaking heat brought people to the beach

A couple walk along the promenade under an umbrella at Lyme Regis today as the conditions turn on the Dorset coast

Their actions were causing nine-mile tailbacks on the M25 anti-clockwise, with the National Highways website warning of delays of more than an hour.

On the railways, National Rail told customers to check before setting off on their journeys and to only travel if absolutely necessary, as teams worked to fix problems with tracks and overhead wires caused by the heat.

More than two dozen services departing from London King's Cross and Euston were cancelled or delayed, while there were also major issues for passengers at St Pancras hoping to travel to the East Midlands.

Services on the East Coast Main Line, the main rail artery connecting London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York and Newcastle, were hit after a fire spread on to the track near Sandy in Bedfordshire yesterday.
He said the former president was not mentioned at all at the meeting

Bacon was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for Jan. 6

'People said they hope he's going to be a big voice in 2024,' Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told reporters after the meeting outside of the Capitol Hill Club

Mike Pence's defiance of Donald Trump on January 6 earned him a standing ovation from Republican lawmakers at a meeting on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas apparently praised Pence for continuing to count Electoral College votes to certify President Joe Biden's victory last year even after a mob of Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol in a bid to stop the process.

That move elicited applause from Pence's fellow Republicans, a source familiar told DailyMail.com

Some GOP lawmakers at the meeting even 'encouraged' Pence to run for president, one congressman said - a move that Pence has not yet ruled out, even if it means going head-to-head against Trump in a contentious primary race.

'People said they hope he's going to be a big voice in 2024,' Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told reporters after the meeting.

'I'm a fan of him. I'm not here to push him one way or the other, but I like Vice President Pence's character, I like what he stands for.'

Pence spoke at a Republican Study Committee gathering in Washington, DC, the day after attending a fundraising dinner hosted by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a Republican Study Committee meeting in Washington, DC on Wednesday morning

Ramped-up public appearances, sit-downs with Republican officials and a number of high-profile endorsements in this year's midterm elections have all fueled rumors that Pence is considering a run for the White House.

Asked by DailyMail.com how Pence took the encouragement, Bacon said the ex-veep 'smiled.'

Rep. Don Bacon, who voted to impeach Donald Trump over the Capitol riot, said lawmakers at the meeting 'encouraged' Pence to run for president in 2024

'I think he appreciates the positive feedback,' the Nebraska Republican said.

Trump was not mentioned during the meeting, he said. Bacon was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the ex-president over the January 6 Capitol riot.

'[Pence] was thanked in there for his courage on January 6, and I think people embraced his message and it was very positive,' he added.

Another RSC member, Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky, affirmed that lawmakers voiced their appreciation for his actions in defiance of Trump's plot.

'The vice president is a real moral force within our party, he's a true leader, he's earned respect from Republicans and other Americans all over this country,' Barr told the media.

However he declined to affirm whether his colleagues were pushing Pence to run for president.

'I think the vice president said it best - he's focused on 2022. He's always been an advocate for House Republicans, an advocate for the Republican Study Committee, and as he said, his focus is 100 percent on helping us regain the majority,' Barr said.

Pence arrived at the Capitol Hill Club for the meeting early on Wednesday morning, but managed to evade cameras by leaving through a connected exit at the Republican National Committee headquarters.

A video of Pence's arrival was shared with DailyMail.com by the Tennessee Star, taken by staff photographer Anthony Peltier

His top aide, Marc Short, was also present, though he did not stop to speak with reporters.

Pence shared photos of himself on Twitter addressing the Republican lawmakers

'He's always been an advocate for House Republicans, an advocate for the Republican Study Committee, and as he said, his focus is 100 percent on helping us regain the majority,' one lawmaker said of Pence

A source also confirmed to DailyMail.com that Pence received a standing ovation for counting Electoral College votes on January 6 despite pressure from Trump

Despite neither formally declaring their candidacy yet, the growing furor around a Trump-Pence primary challenge is serving to further fracture the relationship between the former running mates.

It ruptured when Pence refused to go along with Trump and his allies' plan to overturn the 2020 election, which the ex-vice president has since said he had no Constitutional right to do.

The growing number of Congressional candidates Pence is backing in the 2022 midterm elections is already testing the strength of Trump's hold over the GOP.

Both Republican leaders are set to host dueling Friday events in Arizona for their respective gubernatorial candidates.

Pence is appearing on behalf of Karrin Taylor Robson, a former Reagan administration staffer who also served on the Arizona Board of Regents.

Trump meanwhile is holding his second rally of the year on behalf of Kari Lake, an ex-local news anchor who endeared herself to the former president by promoting his false 2020 election fraud claims.

Robson is also backed by Arizona's term-limited Republican Governor Doug Ducey, who infuriated Trump when he refused to overturn Biden's narrow victory in the state.
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The attorney representing the family of two young girls he claims were ignored by a Sesame Place actor dressed as Rosita is calling for the performer to be fired.

B'Ivory Lamarr, the family's attorney on Wednesday rejected the firm's explanation that the costume prevented the actor from seeing the two girls, calling it 'bogus.'

'We reject any notion that the performer's actions were not short of intentional,' he said, asking: 'How come they could see everybody else?'

'The only acceptable action is for this performer to be terminated.'

Throughout the news conference on Wednesday, Lamarr claimed 'this is not about money,' noting: 'We don't want these kids dragged through a lawsuit' as he pointed at young Nylah, one of the 6-year-old girls who was filmed reaching toward Rosita as the character walked past last weekend.

But, he said: 'No other kid should go through what these kids went through.'

He said he has now reached out to representatives at Sesame Place to start a dialogue, and warned that if they do not issue an apology showing 'acceptance of wrongdoing,' he will release further evidence showing that Rosita embraced a white child next to them after the nine-second clip ends.

In fact, Lamarr noted, he has received evidence from 25 to 30 other black families of similar incidents at the Sesame Street-based theme park over the years.

One of the young girls, Nylah Brown, stood silent as the press conference continued

B'Ivory Lamarr, an attorney representing the family of two young black girls they say were ignored by Rosita at Sesame Place last weekend, is calling for the employee to be fired

He is also calling for the theme park to pay for the girls' mental health treatment, as Jodi Brown, pictured, says her daughter is in isolation following the incident

Sesame Street family press conference. Tamika Mallory, Mother of the two little girls seen in the Sesame Place video, along with community activists and others is expected to hold a press conference in front of Sesame Street workshop. MORE: https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now Posted by The National Desk - TND on Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Meanwhile, activist Tamika Mallory is threatening to start a boycott of SeaWorld, the parent company of Sesame Place, saying: 'If [any theme park is] found to be participating in discriminatory behavior, we will drag your name through the mud.'

She noted that the aquarium-themed theme park will soon experience the height of its tourism season, and said Sesame Street was meant to empower young black children in inner cities and show integrated neighborhoods when it first aired in 1969.

'The history of what this place is supposed to be has been denigrated,' Mallory claimed.

'The company needs to be telling the nation about all the things it's doing to correct discrimination,' she said, saying it needs to 'do more.'

The case has even garnered the attention of famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who said the actor's 'disgusting behavior' was 'absolutely heartbreaking.'

Both Lamarr and Mallory explained that the incident comes at a time of heightened racial tensions, referencing apparent inequities in the health care industry - and noting that the press conference comes on Jaylen Walker's birthday.

Walker was killed by police in Akron, Ohio earlier this year.

Activist Tameka Mallory, of Until Freedom, called for a boycott of SeaWorld at the news conference Wednesday

Both Lamarr and Mallory explained that the incident comes at a time of heightened racial tensions, referencing apparent inequities in the health care industry - and noting that the press conference comes on Jaylen Walker's birthday

The theme park has already issued several statements about the incident since the video was posted over the weekend by Jodi Brown - who took her daughter Skylar and niece Nylah, both 6, to the park on Saturday.

In a statement on Sunday, theme park officials called the now viral moment a 'misunderstanding,' saying the mascot likely did not see the girls due to limited vision in the costume's unwieldy mask.

'Our brand, our park and our employees stand for inclusivity and equality in all forms,' the statement read. 'That is what Sesame Place is all about and we do not tolerate any behaviors in our parks that are contrary to that commitment.'

'We also are, and always have been, committed to making sure every family and every child has the best possible experience at our parks and we are incredibly disappointed when that does not happen.'

'We spoke to the family and extended our apologies and invited them back for a special meet-and-greet opportunity with our characters,' the statement read.

The park said the actor portraying Rosita - who was not named - 'did not intentionally ignore the girls and is devastated about the misunderstanding.'

The statement alleged Rosita was gesturing 'no' to another guest who had requested they hold hold their child for a photo, 'which is not permitted.'

The park also said the mascot likely did not see the girls due to limited vision in the costume's unwieldy mask, which 'sometimes make it difficult to see at lower levels' leading actors to occasionally 'miss hug requests from guests.'

'We apologize to these guests for not delivering the experience they expected and we commit to do our best to earn their and all guests' visit and support,' the statement concluded.

Video shows the girls reaching out for Rosita as the character makes her way through the Sesame Place amusement park in Philadelphia

Rosita is seen high-fiving another guest while the girls stick their hands out towards her

Rosita gestures 'no' towards the girls - a motion the park says was actually being made towards another guest

Sesame Workshop - which was careful to explain that Sesame Place is a licensed partner - then posted another statement on its social media Monday night.

'What these children experienced is unacceptable,' it wrote. 'We have been in contact with Sesame Place, our licensed park partner, and they have assured us that they will conduct bias training and a thorough review of the ways in which they engage with families and guests.

'We will continue working with our long-term partner Sesame Place to ensure that appropriate actions are taken and that incidents like this do not happen in the future.'

Moments later, Sesame Place posted a new statement on Twitter reading: 'We sincerely apologize to the family for their experience in our park on Saturday; we know that it's not OK.

'We are taking actions to do better. We are committed to making this right. We will conduct training for our employees so they better understand, recognize and deliver an inclusive, equitable and entertaining experience to the guests.'

Sesame Place confirmed the incident occurred in a statement posted to Instagram on Saturday, but said it was a 'misunderstanding'

But by Wednesday, Jodi Brown - who took the now infamous video - said the statements do not go far enough.

'I just feel like the apologies were not genuine,' she said, with Mallory saying the statements 'gaslighted' and 'let us know that the apple does not fall far from the tree.'

Jodi also revealed she is now isolating her daughter, Skylar, saying she 'suffered embarrassment' and 'racism.'

'My daughter was just sad,' she previously told CNN. 'She asked "Mom what did I do? What happened?" and I said, "You didn't do anything, some people are just mean people."'

Jodi now says this may continue to affect her daughter well into the future, and has explained that she decided to isolate Skylar with her grandmother to shield her from publicity.

The family is also said to be looking to get the two girls therapy to help them cope with the apparent snub.

Sesame Workshop - which was careful to explain that Sesame Place is a licensed partner - then posted another statement on its social media Monday night

Moments later, Sesame Place posted a new statement on Twitter

Jodi posted the nine-second clip of the apparent snub online over the weekend after she allegedly tried to address the interaction with park staff.

'Im going to keep posting this, because this had me hot,'__jodiii__ wrote.

'We were on our way out of sesame place and the kids wanted to stop to see the characters. THIS DISGUSTING person blatantly told our kids NO then proceeded to hug the little white girl next to us!

'Then when I went to complain about it, they looking at me like Im crazy. I asked the lady who the character was and I wanted to see a supervisor and she told me SHE DIDNT KNOW!! I will never step foot in @SesamePlace ever again!

She encouraged her followers to repost the video, before adding: 'Actually run me my money back.'

The mom said she was 'so mad' she stopped recording the video so soon, but attributed the abrupt stop to her anger.

'So mad I stopped the video but it got me so mad when he blatantly told them no,' she concluded.

The park has since succumbed to an outpouring of social media vitriol.

Earlier this week, Leslie Mac also posted a video on TikTok in which she revealed the incident came at her four-year-old great niece's birthday party

She said she spoke to Jodi, 'and they're doing OK and hanging in there, and also really pissed - as they should be'

Earlier this week, Leslie Mac also posted a video on TikTok in which she revealed the incident came at her four-year-old great niece's birthday party.

'Hi Friends,' Mac - who is pals with left-leaning politicians such as AOC and Elizabeth Warren - starts off the self-recorded clip saying, sleepily adding that she has just taken sleep medication before recording.

'I just wanted to come on - as my Ambien is going to kick in - to just give a small recap of what's been going on on the internet streets around sesame place and their piss poor behavior toward black children,' Mac said before recapping the situation.

She then said she spoke to Jodi, 'and they're doing OK and hanging in there, and also really pissed - as they should be,' Mac said in the clip, in which she accused the park of engaging in 'systemic racism' - citing other instances of supposed racism from the mascots.

'I wanted to put all of you charlatans, especially in the New York area, on notice,' Mac, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, said. 'This is not a theoretical thing for me.'

She then appeared to threaten those critics with violence, telling them 'I will fly to Brooklyn to beat your a**, if you try and take advantage of my family - so I just wanted to make sure that's very clear.

'I'm from Flatbush and I travel deep, so please don't try me,' she added.

'The next thing I wanna address is the fact that more videos have come out since this video went viral,' Mac went on, referring to other similar clips that have surfaced seemingly showing Rosita and other mascots at the park appearing to ignore non-white kids.

'I think we're up to like six videos that show blatantly performers at Sesame Place ignoring black children and non white children while giving attention to white children.'

The incident apparently happened as the girls gathered for four-year-old Paige's birthday. She is pictured here

She went on to cite one video that showed one of the costumed characters slapping a young black child in the head instead of giving him a high-five.

'In one instance, one of the characters slapped a little black boy in the head instead of giving him a high-five,' the activist said, sarcastically adding, 'seems systemic - but that's just me.'

Mac - who in 2019 founded Safety Pin Box, a subscription service designed to instruct white people on how to be allies to black people - went on to say those who do not believe the family's claims were engaging in white supremacy.

'I wanna address all of you white devil's advocate-heada**es,' Mac said, keeping a playful tone through the clip. 'The devil does not need any advocates.'

She then questioned why anyone would doubt the family's claims.

'Unless you are a stakeholder in Sea World, which owns Sesame Place, I do not know why you feel the need to invalidate the experiences of young black children who frankly were traumatized by this instance.

'Your dismissal of their experience is white supremacy,' she then declared, adding, in a somewhat condescending tone, 'Don't do that - do better,' while authoritatively wagging her finger.

'I do not have any next steps to share with you - feel free to do what you want. Our family has retained a lawyer, and we'll be pursuing things that way - so you won't be hearing much from me except for what you already know.'

'This aggression will not stand,' she added.
Netflix stock rose on Wednesday after the company reported losing fewer subscribers than expected in the spring quarter, and projected gains in the coming months.

Shares of the streaming giant were up as much as 6.6 percent at $214.82 in midday trading, following the upbeat earnings report after markets closed on Tuesday.

The move added to recent gains for Netflix stock, which is up 21 percent in the past week. Still, the shares remains well below their all-time high of $700 and are trading down 65 percent since the beginning of the year.

In its second quarter earnings report, Netflix posted a loss of 970,000 global subscribers, versus the company's prior forecast of a loss of 2 million.

The streaming giant also projected that it will add 1 million subscribers in the current quarter, a sign that the business is not in terminal decline after suffering a post-pandemic contraction.

Netflix stock rose on Wednesday after the company reported losing fewer subscribers than expected in the spring quarter

Analysts who had anticipated the smaller subscriber losses pointed to the streamer's popular series Stranger Things (above), which released a new season in two parts

Analysts who had anticipated the smaller subscriber losses pointed to the streamer's popular series Stranger Things, which released a new season in two parts -- one at the end of the second quarter, and one at the end of the third.

The staggered release strategy was widely seen as a means of preventing users from subscribing just to watch the show and quickly cancelling their membership.

Netflix also reported that quarterly revenue grew 9 percent from a year ago, to $7.97 billion, missing expectations. Profits of $3.20 per share were up 7 percent from a year ago and beat expectations.

The company also revealed that it plans to unveil its cheaper ad-supported option by early next year. Microsoft was recently tapped as a partner in the ad-supported offering.

'We'll likely start in a handful of markets where advertising spend is significant,' Netflix explained in a statement.

'Like most of our new initiatives, our intention is to roll it out, listen and learn, and iterate quickly to improve the offering.'

Though Netflix stock jumped on the latest earnings results, the company's shares remain down more than 66 percent from the beginning of the year.

Netflix remains the dominant global streaming platform and reported a total of 220.67 million paying subscribers at the end of the second quarter.

This graphic shows the net number of new Netflix subscribers each quarter in recent years. Netflix experienced a boom during the pandemic, but its net number of new accounts went negative in the first two quarters of 2022

'The stock is up because (analyst) downgrades all made a big deal out of slowing growth,' Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said, noting that Netflix was cutting costs and expected free cash flow to grow substantially next year.

After years of red-hot growth, Netflix's fortunes changed as rivals including Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and Apple invest heavily in their own streaming services.

In a letter to shareholders on Tuesday, Netflix said it had further examined the recent slowdown, which it had attributed to a variety of factors including password-sharing, competition and a sluggish economy.

'Our challenge and opportunity is to accelerate our revenue and membership growth by continuing to improve our product, content and marketing as weve done for the last 25 years, and to better monetize our big audience,' the letter said.

One way it plans to earn more from members is by cracking down on password-sharing. The company recently announced that it is testing solutions to the issue in Latin America.

Among its rivals, Netflix remains the most popular streaming service

Reed Hastings, co-CEO of Netflix, is seen above. The company plans to earn more from members by cracking down on password-sharing

The streaming service will ask subscribers in five Latin American countries to pay an additional fee if they are consistently using the platform in a different household.

Users in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina will receive a notification on their account if it has been used for more than two weeks outside of their primary residence.

They will be asked to fork over an additional $2.99 ($1.70 in Argentina) on top of their regular subscription for the ability to continue watching at that different location.

The additional fee will not apply to users watching on mobile devices, including laptops, phones, and tablets.

The move has the potential to make or break Netflix, which has been struggling to find a way to shore up its plummeting profits while maintaining its subscription based revenue platform.

Analysts have said that Netflix is doing everything it can to avoid subjecting users to advertisements or selling their data, but many predict it is only a matter of time before the firm is forced to turn to that.
Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska made an emotional plea for the U.S. to provide air missile defense systems to save 'children in strollers' from being killed by Russian rockets in an address before Congress Wednesday.

'Those are Russia's hunger gameshunting for peaceful people,' Zelenska said as she displayed of a three-year-old now using prosthetic limbs after being caught in one of Russia's indiscriminate attacks.

'They will never broadcast this on their news. That's why I'm showing it to you here,' Zelenska said.

Married to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the first lady is the first spouse of a foreign leader to address the U.S. Congress directly at the Capitol.

Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska made an emotional plea for the U.S. to provide air missile defense systems to save 'children in strollers' from being killed by Russian rockets in an address before Congress Wednesday

'Those are Russia's hunger gameshunting for peaceful people,' Zelenska said as she displayed of a three-year-old now using prosthetic limbs after being caught in one of Russia's indiscriminate attacks

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, left, House Minority Leader Kevin McCaerthy, center left and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi listen via headphone translation to Zelenska's address

'I want to address you not as a first lady but as a daughter and a mother,' Zelenska said. 'An unprovoked invasive terrorist war is being waged against my country.' 'Russia is destroying our people,' she added.

After highlighting the atrocities her nation faces, she turned to a plea for more weapons.

'While Russia kills, America saves,' Zelenska said. 'I'm asking for something now that I would never want to ask. I am asking for weapons ... air defense systems. In order for rockets not to kill children in their strollers.'

She said the weapons would not be used to 'wage a war on somebody else's land' but to 'protect one's home and the right to wake up alive in that home.'

'I know that you [legislators] will be leaving for the traditional congressional recess in a week ... I hope you heard me today. And I hope that your decisions will be speedy.'

Zelenska shakes hands with U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

Five months into Vladimir Putin's invasion, the U.S. has doled out billions in humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. The U.S. has committed $8 billion in direct security assistance to Ukraine, including $2.2 billion in the last month, and Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin said that the U.S. is sending four more high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine, bringing the total up to 16.

Russian forces are crushing through the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine and now control about a fifth of the country. Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier this week ordered his army to prioritize destroying Ukraine's long-range missile and artillery weapons after the Western-supplied weapons were used to shoot down Russia's supply lines.

Earlier this week a bipartisan group of six senators wrote a letter to Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley asking them to hurry shipments of medium- and long-range air defense systems to Ukraine as appropriated by Congress in May.

On May 19 Congress passed a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine, which included $20 billion for the Ukrainian military.

The speech before Congress and meeting with lawmakers was the last leg of Zelenska's foray into Washington - on Tuesday Zelenska met with President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill after meeting with Sec. of State Antony Blinken on Monday.

Zelenska also met Monday with Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Power's agency has given billions of dollars to support Ukraine's government and to humanitarian needs, and is working to ease a global food shortage aggravated by Russia's war.

Her husband meanwhile back at home has been cleaning house suspending top officials he accuses of collaborating with Russia.

As Russians and Ukrainians tire of five months of war, both Zelensky and Putin know that efforts to undermine their fight permeate to the very top of government.

Over the past few days he has dismissed his intelligence chief, the chief of Ukraines Security Service (SBU), Ivan Bakanov, and his Prosecutor General, Iryna Venedikotva over concerns they represented an element of Ukraine's security forces that is sympathetic to Russia.

Zelenska, 44, who during peace times focused on female empowerment, literacy and culture in Ukraine, is now tasked with raising global awareness and support for her nation in a war as her husband presses forward in the nation's defense back at home.

She met her husband when they were both students at different universities in their hometown, Kryvyi Rih. She later became a script writer at Kvartal 95, the production company her husband founded before he transitioned from comic acting to the presidency. The family also has two children, ages 9 and 17.
Laman was one of the 287 people who were injured during Cruz's rampage

Laman managed to escape Cruz, but would go on to have four surgeries and it would take a year for his ankle to heal

After hiding in a cupboard near the bathroom, he looked at his ankle and said 'obliterated.' He said: 'I looked down and see my ankle blown off to bits'

Laman said when he moved 'left and right' to decide what to do, he a 'very strong paintball shot' hit his ankle

'I saw the gunman come and I blinked and everything went bad,' he said

Kyle Laman recalled at Wednesday's sentencing trial of being in a crowded hallway when it cleared in 'seconds' after Cruz started shooting in February 2018

A Parkland shooting survivor recalled looking down and seeing his ankle 'obliterated' after Nikolas Cruz shot him once, then fired at him again as he tried to flee.

Kyle Laman recalled at Wednesday's sentencing trial of being in a crowded hallway when it cleared in 'seconds' after Cruz started shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018.

'I saw the gunman come and I blinked and everything went bad,' he said on the stand. Laman said when he moved 'left and right' to decide what to do, he a 'very strong paintball shot' hit his ankle. 'I didn't even recognize it at the time, I just felt it and went to the cutouts where the bathrooms are.'

Once inside the cupboard near the bathroom, he suddenly realize he felt 'something wet on my foot.'

'I looked down and see my ankle blown off to bits. Obliterated,' he said. 'I stood there, what felt like an hour, just staring at it.'

As the teen managed to collected himself as he was surrounded by gunshots and screams, he looked at his friend Tyler and said: 'We're going to die, what do we do?'

Kyle Laman recalled looking down and seeing his ankle 'obliterated' after Nikolas Cruz shot him in February 2018 at Wednesday's sentencing trial

Laman grew emotional during his testimony as he recalled the tragic event

When Laman 'peeked around the corner' he saw Cruz shooting into a classroom of students. Once Cruz stop momentarily, Laman took it as his chance to get closer to the exit, only to find the door closest to him locked and for him to be the only one alive inside the hallway.

'Since I was running, he targeted me,' he told the audience. As he 'hit the wall' he noticed 'four or five rounds of debris' sprinkling around him.

When Cruz ran out of ammunition again, Laman was able to escape through a second door and took off run, despite his injury, toward the football field.

Laman, who shot a scathing look toward Cruz on his way out of court, would go on to have four surgeries on his foot after the bullet took a 'softball-sized' chunk out of his foot. It would take a year to heal and he still suffers from the injury.

Almost 300 people were injured in the shooting.

Shooter Nikolas Cruz (above) previously plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings

A former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School teacher broke into tears as she recalled the moment Cruz opened fire into her classroom, killing two of her students in the middle of her Holocaust studies class, on Wednesday.

Ivy Schamis continued to tear up, with her voice trembling at times, as she testified about what should have been an average day at school.

Schamis said one of her students, star swimmer Nick Dworet, had just answered a question correctly in class when Cruz began his rampage.

It was then that they heard the initial gunshots in the first-floor hallway of the three-story building, and Cruz began firing his semi-automatic rifle through the glass on her classroom door near where he entered.

'It was really seconds later that the barrel of that AR-15 just ambushed our classroom,' Schamis said of the terrible shock, wiping her eyes with a tissue.

'It came right through that glass panel and was just shooting everywhere. It was very loud,' she added. 'Very frightening. I kept thinking about these kids who should not be experiencing this at all.'

She said the students scrambled to find safety behind furniture, but didn't panic and acted with bravery and maturity as they waited to be rescued. Three students were wounded in her class and two were killed: Dworet and Helena Ramsay, both 17.

When shown their portraits, she began to weep.

'That's my girl, Helena Ramsay,' she said as she broke down crying. 'Nicholas Dworet, handsome boy.'

Former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School teacher Ivy Schamis describes the carnage in her classroom during the rampage at the school. Two students in her class were killed, Nicholas Dworet, and Helena Ramsay

Two students in her class were killed, Nicholas Dworet, and Helena Ramsay

Nicholas Dworet (left) and Helena Ramsay (right), both 17, were gunned down inside Schamis' classroom. Three other classmates were injured in the shooting

Dworet's brother Alexander was grazed by a bullet in a classroom across the hall, where three students were killed and several more wounded.

Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder for the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre.

The jury must decide if the former Stoneman Douglas student should be sentenced to death or life without parole for the nations deadliest mass shooting to go before a jury. The trial is expected to last through at least October.

Nine other gunmen who killed at least 17 people died during or immediately after their shootings, either by suicide or police gunfire. The suspect in the 2019 slaying of 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, is awaiting trial.

Schamis' testimony was followed by that of Ronit Reoven, who was lecturing her advanced psychology class about Sigmund Freud when Cruz started firing into her neighboring classroom, also through the door's window.

'There were multiple gunshots,' she said. 'They were incredibly loud. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! I froze for a moment and the students jumped out of their seats. Of course, they were startled and scared.'

Reoven said she and the students crouched on the floor around her desk and wounded students were moaning and crying.

'The kids were on top of each other and hugging each other and holding each other,' she said. 'We were trying to hush each other, there was some whispering. The shots got louder and louder.'

She used a blanket that normally covered her coffee machine as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from a boy's arm. Another boy used a jacket to stanch the bleeding from a girl's chest. A girl shot in the knee appeared to be stable.

But 16-year-old Carmen Schentrup was lying facedown in a pool of blood.

'I knew that she was probably gone,' Reoven said.

Annika Dworet and Mitch Dworet listen as teacher Ivy Schamis describes the shooting in her classroom that claimed the life of their son

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School teacher Ronit Reoven describes when one of her students, Carmen Schentrup, was killed in the shooting

On the third floor, Stacey Lippel was teaching creative writing and Ernest Rospierski was supervising study hall when Cruz's shots on the first floor triggered the fire alarm.

Not realizing a shooting was happening below them, they led their students into the hallway to evacuate.

That's when screaming students began coming back up the stairwell and they could hear gunshots.

Lippel said she and the teacher from the neighboring room, Scott Beigel, quickly reopened their doors and started getting students back inside.

It was then that Cruz emerged from the stairwell, 'splaying the rifle back and forth, shot after shot after shot,' she said. 'It never stopped.'

Lippel said she got inside her room and closed the door, but Beigel was fatally shot.

Beigel's student, Veronica Steel, testified that his body kept the door from closing, leaving the students in the room fearful Cruz would come inside.

'It was scary. We didn't know what to do,' she said.

Rospierski's head and hip were grazed by bullets, but he helped students flee down a stairwell after Cruz passed.

Cruz will be sentenced on all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings

The testimony came a day after jurors saw surveillance video showing victims being gunned down at point-blank range. Cruz also killed some of the wounded by firing on them a second time as they lay on the floor.

When jurors eventually get the case, they will vote 17 times, once for each of the victims, on whether to recommend capital punishment.

For each death sentence, the jury must be unanimous or the sentence for that victim is life. The jurors are told that to vote for death, the prosecutions aggravating circumstances for that victim must, in their judgment, 'outweigh' the defense's mitigators.

A juror can also vote for life out of mercy for Cruz. During jury selection, the panelists said under oath that they are capable of voting for either sentence.
Americans aren't convinced that President Joe Biden didn't know anything about his son Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, a new poll shows.

Nearly seven in 10 voters surveyed by Rasmussen Reports think that the president is at least somewhat aware of Hunter's overseas business.

Forty-nine percent of respondents from the poll published on Tuesday think it's 'very likely' Biden is aware of his son's business despite the president's persistent claims to the contrary.

Another 20 percent of voters polled on July 14 and 17 say it's 'somewhat likely'.

A combined 22 percent say that it's either 'not very likely' or 'not at all likely' that the president knew about Hunter Biden's business dealings in foreign countries.

Ten percent of respondents said they are still not sure what to believe on the matter.

The poll follows revelations earlier this summer from DailyMail.com of a 2018 voicemail recording from the junior Biden's leaked harddrive where the president discussed his son's deal with Chinese oil giant CEFC.

Reports involving Hunter are followed by two-thirds  or 66 percent  of likely U.S. voters, while the other third claim they are not following news about the president's son.

A whopping 69% of voters think that President Joe Biden is at least somewhat aware of his son Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings despite claims to the contrary

President Biden has repeatedly claimed during his 2020 presidential campaign and after taking office that he is not at all aware of or involved with the overseas business his son conducts. Pictured: Joe Biden waves to those gathered for the July 4 at the White House earlier this year as Hunter Biden (left) stands and applauds his father and the fireworks spectacle

During a July 5 White House press briefing, Biden's spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre refused to comment on the voicemail to reporters.

'From this podium, I am not going to talk about alleged materials from the laptop,' Jean-Pierre repeatedly shot back at Fox News ' she said during her daily briefing earlier this month.

When further pushed on the contents of voicemail and if the administration is being open with the American people, she said, 'I cannot comment on any materials from the laptop,' this time dropped the 'alleged.'

It is not clear if Jean-Pierre is saying that she cannot comment on the issue for legal reasons or otherwise or if she is strategically choosing not to speak on the matter.

Jean-Pierre insisted that Biden's silence on the matter is not an indication that he isn't being honest with Americans.

Biden has consistently claimed he has no involvement with his 52-year-old son's international business, despite the voicemail clearly showing otherwise.

Even though voters polled by Rasmussen claim that they think President Biden knew about his son's business, they do not think that any of the federal investigations will lead to criminal charges against his son.

Only 16 percent say it's 'very likely' there will be some sort of criminal charge against Hunter, while another 16 percent say it's only 'somewhat likely.'

Thirty-five percent, however, think that it's 'not very likely' and 21 percent think it's 'not at all likely'

Twelve percent say they are not sure.

The online and over-the-phone survey was taken among 1,000 U.S. likely voters on two nonconsecutive days last week  July 14 and July 17. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Allies of Penny Mordaunt today lashed out at 'hostile' briefings against the international trade minister as she was knocked out the Tory leadership contest.

Ms Mordaunt dropped out the battle to replace Boris Johnson this afternoon after coming third in the final round of voting among Tory MPs.

She garnered the votes of 105 MPs, but was beaten by both Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (113 votes) and ex-Chancellor Rishi Sunak (137 votes).

Both Ms Truss and Mr Sunak will now go forward to a head-to-head vote among the wider Conservative Party membership.

Meanwhile, supporters of Ms Mordaunt were left reflecting on a bruising campaign following what one ally branded the 'dirtiest' Tory leadership contest they'd ever seen.

A Whitehall investigation has been launched into allegations that material was leaked from within the civil service to supposedly damage Ms Mordaunt.

The past fortnight has seen the Portsmouth North MP depicted as 'woke' by critics for her stance on transgender issues.

And those in rival camps have publicly questioned her work ethic as a Government minister, which saw her dubbed 'part-time Penny' as the Tory contest unfolded.

She was accused of having ignored her ministerial duties - leaving other ministers to 'pick up the pieces' - while she concentrated on her leadership bid over the last few months.

Even Ms Mordaunt's boss, Internationational Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, moaned about how the Tory contender had 'not been available' at various times.

Penny Mordaunt dropped out the battle to replace Boris Johnson this afternoon after coming third in the final round of voting among Tory MPs

The international trade minister, pictured with her campaign manager Andrea Leadsom, was beaten by both Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and ex-Chancellor Rishi Sunak

Allies of Ms Mordaunt today lashed out at 'hostile' briefings against her during the past fortnight of the Tory leadership race

After Ms Mordaunt was knocked out the leadership race, senior Conservative backbencher Sir Charles Walker hit out at the 'hostile and unpleasant' attacks.

Admitting he was 'absolutely gutted' by Ms Mordaunt's defeat, he told the BBC: 'She was subject to some really hostile and unpleasant briefing - way over the top.

'She met that with a smile and good grace. I'm disappointed but not surprised that some of my colleagues and some in the media chose to behave in that way. That's modern politics.'

Sir Charles suggested Ms Mordaunt had become the victim of vociferous attacks as she was the surprise candidate in the Tory contest.

He added: 'She hadn't figured in many of my colleagues plans and therefore they were frightened they might not figure in her plans.

'If she won, maybe they wouldn't get the job they were looking for, or the preferment, or the ministerial position.

'That's politics - people thinking often, not always, but often about which of the candidates will be best for my career.'

A fellow supporter of Ms Mordaunt, the former Brexit Secretary David Davis, had already branded the Tory leadership contest the 'dirtiest campaign I've ever seen'.

'The truth is we are selecting the next Prime Minister of the UK,' he told LBC radio last night.

'That ought to be done on rationality and democracy, not on dirty tricks.'

Mr Davis wrote to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case over the weekend to raise his concerns that information had been leaked to damage Ms Mordaunt's campaign.

Mr Case, the most senior civil servant in the country, today confirmed that an inquiry has been launched into allegations of leaking.

In reply to Mr Davis, the Cabinet Secretary wrote: 'Unauthorised disclosure of Government information to the media is clearly inappropriate.'

Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant said he was sad Ms Mordaunt had not made it onto the final Tory leadership ballot, and announced he was now backing Ms Truss.

He posted on Twitter: 'It was close. Im sad Penny didnt make it. I now back Liz Truss. She stayed loyal to the end and didnt plot and scheme against #Boris.'

In a statement after her elimination from the leadership contest, Ms Mordaunt congratulated Mr Sunak and Ms Truss.

'I pay tribute to anyone who puts themselves forward for such a demanding role,' she said.

'Politics isnt easy. It can be a divisive and difficult place. We must all now work together to unify our party and focus on the job that needs to be done.

'I am a One Nation, proud Brexiteer. My campaign put forward a positive vision for the country I love so much, remembering who we are here to serve.

'Our mission is not only to deliver on what we promised but to win the fight against Labour at the next general election. I hope to play my part in both.'
Half of Americans expect to see a second U.S. civil war within years and nearly a fifth say they could one day be toting guns at a political face-off themselves, according to an alarming new study about the nations deepening divisions.

Researchers at University of California, Davis uncovered worrying levels of alienation, mistrust and a growing tendency to turn to violence in their recently-conducted survey of 8,620 adults across the country.

More than two-thirds of respondents said they saw a serious threat to our democracy and 50.1 percent agreed with the statement that in the next few years, there will be civil war in the U.S.

More than 40 percent said having a strong leader was more important than democracy and that native-born white people are being replaced by immigrants  a racist belief known as the great replacement theory.

Researchers also uncovered a growing inclination to settle political rows with violence.

Nearly a fifth of respondents said it was likely they would be armed with a gun at a political flash point in the coming years, while 4 percent said it was likely they would shoot someone with a gun.

Garen Wintemute, a university public health expert who warns of growing gun ownership rates and led the study, said his findings were 'pretty grim' and 'exceeded our worst expectations'.

Two men argue alongside the 'Black Lives Matter' mural in front of the Trump Tower in New York last July. Researchers say Americans increasingly see violence as an answer to political differences

Still, there was 'ground for hope' as most respondents 'rejected political violence altogether', added Wintemute.

The study was a wake-up call for people to 'recognize the threat' and respond, he added.

The 42-page document described a 'continuing alienation from and mistrust of American democratic society and its institutions'.

Substantial minorities of the population endorse violence, including lethal violence, to obtain political objectives, it said.

It comes in the wake of mass shootings, including the killing in May of 10 black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, allegedly by a white gunman who wrote a screed endorsing great replacement theory.

Other key moments in Americas violence-tinged culture wars include the January 6 Capitol riot, Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shooting two people at an anti-racism protest in Wisconsin in August 2020 and the frequent clashes between cops and Black Lives Matter activists.

A similar study by Tulchin Research and the Southern Poverty Law Center last month found that 44 percent of Americans said the U.S. was headed toward another civil war.

A YouGov survey last week highlighted growing calls for a break-up of the U.S.

A third of former president Donald Trump's fans living in Republican states said they would be better off if their state split and became an independent country. Another 29 percent of Trump fans said such a secession would leave them worse off.

More than 600,000 soldiers lost their lives during the American Civil War from 1861-1865, when southern states fought to break from the union and maintain their slave-driven plantation economies.

Armed homeowners Mark and Patricia McCloskey famously stood in front of their house confronting anti-racism protesters in St. Louis in June 2020  a notable example of America's increasingly fractious politics

Protestors rally against police killings of unarmed black men outside the Police Department in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, in April 2021  one of a series of anti-racism demonstrations in a polarized nation
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Melania Trump attended the funeral of Ivana Trump amidst speculation that she would skip the ceremony of her husband's ex-wife over spats they shared in the past.

Photos from the funeral showed Melania, 52, in attendance at the Upper East Side church and looking stony-faced along with the rest of the Trump family.

Her decision to pay her respects came as a surprise to some, as before Ivana's death at 73 the two not-so-quietly feuded for years, with Ivana once declaring that because she was then-president Trump's first wife that she was the real first lady of the United States.

'Melania is there and I don't want to cause any kind of jealousy or anything like that because I'm the first Trump wife,' Ivana said during a 'Good Morning America interview in October 2017, 'I'm the first lady, OK?'

Melania Trump is seen standing next to the former president while he comforts his daughter Ivanka

Melania Trump has attended the funeral of Ivana Trump amidst speculation that she would skip the ceremony of her husband's ex-wife.

Melania is seen walking to the church ahead of Ivana's funeral

Melania Trump (right) attended the funeral of Ivana Trump amidst speculation that she would skip the burial ceremony of her husband's ex-wife

Ivana made the comments on the morning show while promoting her memoir, 'Raising Trump.'

She also said she shared a close relationship with her ex-husband, which apparently included a direct number to the White House she didn't use because she didn't want to cause any issues between Donald and Melania.

Her comment infuriated Melania, who quickly issued a statement through her spokesman calling Ivana an 'attention seeker.'

'Mrs. Trump has made the White House a home for Barron and the president. She loves living in Washington, DC and is honored by her role as First Lady of the United States. She plans to use her title and role to help children, not sell books.

Donald and Melania standing side by side at Ivana Trump's funeral in New York City on Wednesday afternoon

Donald and Melania Trump speaking to each other on the steps outside of the Upper East Side church where Ivana's funeral was held

Melania and Donald Trump walking together at Ivana Trump's funeral in NYC on Wednesday

Melania and Donald Trump watch as Ivana's golden casket is carried away

Melania and Donald Trump watching as Ivana Trump's casket is carried off

Melania Trump hides her eyes behind a pair of sunglasses at Ivana Trump's funeral in New York City

'There is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex. Unfortunately only attention seeking and self-serving noise,' the statement read.

Ivana, the mother of three of Trump's children, passed away Thursday in her home in New York City's Upper East Side after suffering cardiac arrest.

Melania remained noticeably absent from photos of the Trumps as they returned to New York City for Ivana's funeral, leading to speculation that the Trump wives' previous spats led Melania to shirk the engagement.

Melania was finally spotted at the funeral on Wednesday, laying to rest - in addition to her husband's ex-wife - speculation about any remaining grudges.

Melania stands between her husband Donald and her son Barron at Ivana Trump's funeral

Melania stands between her husband and son at Ivana Trump's funeral in New York City on Wednesday afternoon

Melania and Donald Trump standing side by side at Ivana Trump's funeral

Melania watching the casket of Ivana Trump pass by at her funeral on Wednesday afternoon

Donald and Melania Trump outside the church after Ivana Trump's funeral in New York City

Melania and Donald Trump converse during the funeral of his ex-wife, Ivana Trump

In an interview with CBS' 'This Weekend,' conducted around the time of her first lady comments, Ivana revealed her ex-husband had offered her the ambassadorship to the Czech Republic, but she said she turned it down so she could keep up her jet-set lifestyle and summers in Saint-Tropez, France.

She made headlines again in April 2019 when she diverged details about her daughter's relationship with the then-first lady.

She claimed Ivanka, now 40, liked her father's third wife 'fine.' adding she didn't like his second wife, Marla Maples.

Ivana refused to even name Maples - whom she says contributed to the downfall of her marriage to Donald - as she discussed her daughter's relationship with her stepmother.

'She likes her [Melania] fine, because she didn't cause me to break up the marriage like the other one - I don't even want to pronounce her name,' Ivana said of Maples in an interview with The Atlantic.

Ivana was a 28-year-old model from Czechoslovakia in 1977 when she married Donald, now 76.

The couple was married for 13 years and had three children - Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric - before splitting in 1990 after the real estate mogul had an affair with Maples.

The two got divorced in 1992 after an ugly public battle between Ivana and Maples, who was 15 years her junior.

Maples married Trump in 1993, two months before their daughter Tiffany was born.

The couple announced they were separating in 1997. They divorced two years later.

Donald began a relationship with Melania shortly after the pair met in 1998. They married in 2005 and Barron, Trump's youngest son, was born in 2006.

Before Ivana's (left) death at 73, she and Melania (right), 52 not-so-quietly feuded for years, with Ivana once declaring that because she was then-president Trump's first wife that she was the real first lady of the United States.

A tale of two first ladies: Ivana Trump (left) called herself the real first lady because Donald's first wife, while Melania (right) served as the actual first lady of the United States

Donald with Melania - then his girlfriend - and then-ex-wife Ivana at an NYC gala in 2000
An Indiana 'superhero' pizza delivery man who dashed into a burning building and brought five children to safety has shared that he was scared during the deed, but did it anyway.

Nicholas Bostic, 25, said the sight of flames and smoke halfway up the staircase of the Lafayette home he entered around midnight on July 11 did not deter him from risking his life to save others.

The Good Samaritan said that at a decisive point, he feared he would not be able to get to the top of the stairs to Seionna Barrett, an 18-year-old who was herding her three younger siblings and one of their friends.

The courageous delivery man, determined to save as many lives as possible, took Barrett and three of the children to safety. But Seionna's six-year-old sister Kaylani, nicknamed 'Baby K,' was still trapped in the inferno upstairs.

Hearing Baby K's cries, Bostic abandoned his fear and went to her rescue.

'When I saw the smoke, it was already halfway up the staircase. It scared me a lot, but then I started hearing Kaylani's cries,' Bostic told Fox News.

'I doubled my shirt over and put my hands in front of me and with my ears wide open. I found her and I carried her snug fit in my arms up the stairs.'

'And I did fall over the last step. We fell and we got back up,' he added.

Bostic then jumped out of a window with Kaylani, breaking her fall with his body.

He met the family for the first time since the harrowing night at a church service on Saturday.

The children's father, David Barrett, told his daughters' rescuer he is now 'officially part of the family.'

Bostic finally met the family in their entirety for the first time at a church service on Saturday, where David Barrett told his daughters' rescuer he is now 'officially part of the family'

Nicholas Bostic, 25, said the sight of flames and smoke halfway up the staircase of the Lafayette home he entered around midnight on July 11 did not deter him from risking his life to save four children and a teenager

The courageous delivery man was determined to save as many lives as possible

When he was assisted by paramedics outside of the burning structure, Bostic had only one concern in mind.

'Is the baby ok?' Bostic, who suffered severe smoke inhalation, asked first responders.

Bostic's remarkable bravery has touched the heart of millions of Americans in awe of his selflessness.

After the story gained national attention, a GoFundMe to help the family replace their belongings and pay for Bostic's medical care raised more than $470,000.

Bostic told Fox he had no training whatsoever in rescue techniques, but that he was an avid viewer of series such as Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, and Blue Bloods.

Bostic is pictured on a ventilator after suffering severe smoke inhalation in the incredible rescue

Nicholas Bostic, 25, was driving through a neighborhood in Lafayette, Indiana around midnight on July 11 when he saw a house engulfed in a raging fire

Bostic was driving through the neighborhood on July 11 when he saw the house engulfed in a raging fire.

He pulled up outside intending to call 911 but realized he had left his phone at home and dashed inside with no regard for his own safety.

Bostic said he could not see or hear anyone through the smoke and flames and was about to turn back when he saw the outline of a terrified teen at the top of the stairs, herding a bunch of children.

He managed to bring Seionna, Shaylee, 13, Kaleia, 1, and Shaylee's friend Livian Knifley, 13 - through the brutal blaze to safety out on the street. Seionna then told him Kaylani, 6, was still trapped inside.

'I ran inside and looked under beds and closets, but I couldn't find her,' Bostic said. 'But when I got to the stairs, I heard some faint crying.'

'I thought, ''I don't want to die here,'' he said, but knew he was the only chance Baby K had of escaping alive.

Police bodycam footage shows the Bostic carrying a child out of the house completely engulfed in flames

Bostic is pictured sitting on the curb recovering from his efforts as a fire truck pulls up at the scene

Bostic suffered severe smoke inhalation, burns and a laceration to his arm after breaking the window and jumping out of the house. He is pictured collapsed on the ground as a police officer checks on him following the incident

Holding his breath, Bostic scooped up the crying child and felt his way back up the staircase, unable to see anything through the thick black smoke other than a small rectangle of light coming from the rooms upstairs.

Once back upstairs, the heroic pizza delivery man broke open a window, wrapped the girl around his left side and leapt into the air, tumbling two stories and breaking the girl's fall with his own body.

Bostic was severely injured in the outrageous rescue and collapsed immediately afterwards, having suffered smoke inhalation, burns to several parts of his body and a major laceration on his arm after the window break and subsequent fall.

He was being taken to hospital when the children's parents, David and Tiera Barrett, arrived at the scene, having received a call from Seionna that their house was on fire - the cause of which is not yet known and is under investigation.

Bostic has won plaudits from the children's parents, law enforcement officers and local government officials for his incredible efforts. He is pictured here being greeted by the mayor of Lafayette after recovering from his injuries

Nicholas Bostic, right, of Lafayette, Indiana was honored by local officials for rescuing five children from a house fire on July 11, 2022. Mayor Tony Roswarski, left, greets Bostic in a photo posted by the City of Lafayette

Four of the five children meanwhile miraculously escaped with no injuries whatsoever - only Baby K sustained minor injuries from the fall and was treated by first responders at the scene.

'We feel very blessed for what Nick did,' their father told The Washington Post.

'He's a real hero, and my daughter's a real hero for waking the kids up. I don't like to think about what might have happened if Nick hadn't shown up. I'm grateful beyond words.'

Meanwhile, Lafayette Police Department's Lt. Randy Sherer said: '[Bostic's] selflessness during this incident is inspiring. What he doesn't understand is his actions weren't ordinary, they were extraordinary.

'He went down those stairs to save that little girl when he thought it was impossible just moments before... There's only one way to define that: courageous and heroic.'
A widower whose home burned down yesterday on the hottest day of the year only has revealed the one picture he has left of his late wife is a tattoo of her on his arm.

Keith Gant was married to his wife Olwyn for 40 years before she died aged 64 in 2019 and the couple had lived in their house for three decades.

As the mercury soared to almost 40C in Norfolk a field fire in Ashmanhaugh spread to Mr Gant's house, as well as the home of his neighbour.

He said there were 'a lot of memories' in the home he and his wife shared and he was 'devastated' to lose it.

'My wife and I had a lot of happy days here,' he told ITV Anglia. 'Everything is gone.'

This is the only surviving picture Keith Gant has of his late wife after every other photo of her was burnt in their home. Olwyn Gant died aged 64 in 2019

The house they had lived in together for around 30 years burned down yesterday

A field fire spread to two houses in Ashmanhaugh, Norfolk, on the hottest day of the year

Mr Gant said there were 'a lot of memories' in the home he and his wife shared and he was 'devastated' to lose it

Mr Gant had been watching TV with his blinds drawn in a bid to keep the house cool when the fire took hold.

He only realised his home was on fire when his smoke alarm sounded.

'Smoke was blowing and flames were up the trees,' he said.

The blaze was one of 280 across the county yesterday as UK temperatures peaked at 40.3C in Coningsby, Lincolnshire. Pictured: A fire engine in Ashmanhaugh after two homes burned down yesterday

This map shows scale of damage across the UK after wildfires tore through homes from Wennington and Dagenham to Norfolk and Barnsley leaving villages 'looking like warzones'

Every photograph of his wife was burned, the windows of his home melted and the roof completely destroyed.

The widower said he was distraught and had lost the place where he made memories with his wife of four decades.

The blaze was one of 280 across the county yesterday as UK temperatures peaked at 40.3C in Coningsby, Lincolnshire.
Prince Charles will not be probed by the Charity Commission over a 2.5million cash donation 'stuffed into a suitcase and carrier bags' from the former Qatari Prime Minister.

The watchdog said it has looked at the information and has decided against intervening following allegations Charles was reportedly given three million euros by a former Qatari PM, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al Thani.

The heir to the throne, 73, faced criticism after it was claimed he was presented with three donations of nearly 900,000 a time  said to be in 500 euro notes  that was stuffed in carrier bags and a holdall between 2011 and 2015.

While it is legal to both hand over and accept cash in the millions, concern about huge ready-money transactions has arisen in recent years.

They can be used to help launder ill-gotten gains, and potentially give enormous benefits to tax avoiders.

A royal source insisted last month that the future king operates on advice and such incidents have not happened in the past half decade and would not happen again.

Prince of Wales visits HMS Queen Elizabeth in Portsmouth today to mark the 40th anniversary of the Falkland conflict by meeting with veterans and representatives from HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales

The watchdog said it has looked at the information and has decided against intervening following allegations Charles was reportedly given three million euros by a former Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al Thani

A Charity Commission spokeswoman said on Wednesday: 'We have assessed the information provided by the charity and have determined there is no further regulatory role for the Commission.'

Clarence House said the donations were 'passed immediately' to one of the prince's charities and that 'appropriate governance' was carried out.

'Charitable donations received from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim were passed immediately to one of the prince's charities who carried out the appropriate governance and have assured us that all the correct processes were followed,' a statement said.

According to the Sunday Times, a donation of one million euros was handed over during one meeting at the prince's residence, Clarence House.

The charity, which was founded in 1979 with a mission to transform lives and build sustainable communities, awards grants to UK registered non-profit organisations to deliver projects in the UK, the Commonwealth and overseas.

Last month, a supporter of Charles admitted that while 'the optics are unhelpful', 'no rules were broken', and the unusually packaged donations were likely to have been accepted to 'avoid causing offence' to the sheik.

Prince Charles's long-term confidante Michael Fawcett (pictured) resigned as head of the Prince's Foundation at the same time  following claims he promised to help donor Dr Bin Mahfouz get not only British citizenship but a knighthood too

But a spokesman for the Charity Commission said in June: 'We're considering whether there's a role for the commission to investigate these matters.'

It is only a few months since the Metropolitan Police and Charity Commission launched inquiries into allegations of a different nature surrounding links between Charles's Prince's Foundation  a different body to the PWCF  and Saudi billionaire Mahfouz Marei Mubarak Bin Mahfouz's foundation.

Prince Charles's long-term confidante Michael Fawcett resigned as head of the Prince's Foundation at the same time  following claims he promised to help donor Dr Bin Mahfouz get not only British citizenship but a knighthood too. Prince Charles has said he had 'no knowledge' of any cash-for-honours offers.

The donations from Sheikh Hamad, 62, who was prime minister of Qatar from 2007 to 2013, were reportedly personally accepted by Prince Charles.

The donations from the sheikh, who was prime minister of Qatar from 2007 to 2013, were said to have been personally accepted by Prince Charles

On one occasion around 900,000 was said to have been handed over in carrier bags from luxury shop Fortnum and Mason.

Another time, the sheikh was said to have been in a private meeting with the prince at Clarence House, in 2015, when he gave him 850,000 in a holdall.

The meetings with the sheikh were not in the official Court Circular cataloguing royal engagements.

There was no suggestion of any wrongdoing by anyone involved.

The sheikh has a personal fortune of up to 10billion and is said to consider Britain his second home.
An ambulance rushing a patient to hospital skidded of a wet road and flung into the air before crashing into a toll booth in Karnataka, India, killing the driver and three others.

In shocking CCTV footage shared on Twitter, the vehicle is seen attempting to slow down at the barrier, only to end up colliding with the booth.

Employees of the toll booth are seen racing against time to remove barricades as the ambulance approaches at high speed, presumably after hearing sirens blare in the distance.

In shocking CCTV footage shared on Twitter, the vehicle is seen attempting to slow down at the barrier, only to end up colliding with the booth

At full force, the ambulance hits the employee (pictured) who could not remove the barricade in time

One employee successfully removes some of the obstacles, but the vehicle swerves in before another could remove the rest.

At full force, the ambulance hits the employee who could not remove the barricade in time.

The footage shakes and discolours as the CCTV camera is impacted by the crash.

The final devastating shot is of the employee lying face down and limp amid the debris, seemingly unconscious.

The accident happened in the coastal region of Udupi, which has been hit by heavy rains as India struggles to battle floods across the country.

Employees of the toll booth are seen racing against time to remove barricades as the ambulance approaches at high speed, presumably after hearing sirens blare in the distance

One employee successfully removes some of the obstacles, but the vehicle swerves in before another (pictured) could remove the rest

Just days ago, at least 12 people were killed when a passenger bus travelling to the Indian state of Maharashtra plummeted 100ft into a river after skidding off a wet road and crashing through a bridge barrier.

The bus fell off a National Highway into the waters of the fifth largest river in India near Dhar in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, breaking into several parts on impact.

Footage from the scene showed authorities using cranes to fish out the vehicle, while Disaster Management personnel rushed to the spot as locals used boats to try and rescue survivors.
A 'killer' yoga teacher who went on the run after allegedly murdering a love rival has pleaded not guilty to murder charges as she appeared in court for the first time.

Kaitlin Armstrong, 34, appeared in court in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday afternoon where she denied killing her love-rival Anna Moriah 'Mo' Wilson.

Wilson was discovered dead in a friend's apartment on May 11 with two bullet holes in her head and another in her chest.

Armstrong reportedly flew into a jealous rage after discovering pro-cyclist Wilson, 25, was seeing her boyfriend, Colin Strickland.

She has been charged with first-degree murder, and US Marshals also obtained a warrant for her arrest on a charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Armstrong fled Texas in May, travelling to Costa Rica from Newark Airport, in New Jersey, before she was arrested at a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach.

A federal judge has dismissed the charge of unlawful flight against Armstrong, but she may face the charge again in future if prosecutors deem it necessary.

Armstrong's attorneys have filed a motion for a speedy trial, telling the hearing she 'wants her day in court' with her docket call set for October 19.

It is expected that the trial will take place the following week, despite a state attorney claiming Travis County has more than 100 murder cases backlogged.

He told the hearing that Armstrong should waive her ineffective assistance of counsel claims if the trial goes ahead, adding: I don't know what kind of privilege this particular defendant has to cut in front all of these people who have been waiting for trial.

I know Armstrong's legal team haven't seen all the evidence because we don't have all the evidence to give to them.

Her legal team questioned who vandalized Armstrong and Strickland's home on the night of Wilsons death.

She is currently being held in Travis County Jail on $3.5 million bond.

Kaitlin Armstrong, 34, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges after cops say she gunned down a love rival. The yoga teacher is pictured before the attack, left, and after fleeing the country, right, after officers claim she underwent plastic surgery

Armstrong was captured in Costa Rica where she had dyed her hair and changed her appearance after 43 days on the run

Anna Moriah 'Mo' Wilson, 25, killed inside an apartment minutes after returning from an outing with Armstrong's boyfriend

She spent 43 days on the run before authorities tracked her down, and was extradited back to the US to face charges.

Police arrested the yoga teacher after an anonymous tip and surveillance footage outside of Wilsons apartment shows the yoga instructors car.

They used her open misdemeanor warrant on theft of services to quiz her about Wilsonss death after receiving an anonymous tip that she had flown into a rage in January.

Armstrongs car, a black Jeep Grand Cherokee, was spotted driving past Wilsons friends home, where the gravel bike champion had been staying.

Search warrants have revealed that Armstrong visiting a gun range with her sister before the killing, and was given $450,000 by Strickland.

He also admitted to purchasing two firearms between the end of 2021 and start of 2022 for himself and Armstrong.

Shell casings from the gun, labelled '9mm JAG' were found in the room where Wilson was shot, just moments after returning from an outing with Strickland.

Authorities have revealed that the yoga teacher paid for a nose job and dyed her hair brown after fleeing the US, using her sisters passport to fly from the US.

Armstrong also used several aliases while on the run, using the name Ari to woo a man she met in a tattoo shop while on the run.

She told Teal Akerson she'd been through a 'traumatizing break up' after they met in Costa Rica in June.

Armstrong reportedly told a man she met in Costa Rica that she had been through a 'traumatizing' break up. He only realized the woman he had been hanging out with was the fugitive after he saw her post-surgery pictures released by police

A photo of Kaitlin's passport was obtained by Inside Edition following her arrest on June 30

Wilson and Strickland went for a swim at a local swimming pool and then stopped by the Pool Burger (pictured) restaurant for dinner. Strickland then dropped Wilson home just minutes before she was shot dead

Timeline of Kaitlin Armstrong's movements since the murder of her boyfriend's lover May 11: Cyclist 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 20: Armstrong pleaded not guilty to the murder of Moriah 'Mo' Wilson Advertisement

Armstrong told him that she hadnt healed from a recent break up when he tried to kiss her, and wasnt ready to get closer to him, Akerson said.

Teal also revealed that the pair had been on several dates in the time that Armstrong had been on the run before her capture on June 29.

Akerson said he was stunned to see old photos of Armstrong after she was arrested, after she allegedly underwent plastic surgery to change her appearance.

Speaking to the Austin American Statesman, Teal explained that he was aware of the case but the change in her appearance meant he didnt put any of it together.

He initially spoke to her outside of a tattoo shop, saving her in his phone as Ari Tattoo, before the pair smoked cannabis and spent time together  speaking up until three days before she was arrested.

Teal said: Ari was a strange person. I met her outside the tattoo shop, her friends were getting tattoos and she was awaiting out there on the bench and I was having a beer in the lounge.

We went on a bunch of dates but she said that she had been through a real traumatizing breakup, and she hadnt healed from it yet and wasnt ready to get close at all so we were just being friends.

We wanted to go out to different place we went to a bunch of different spots but most of the time she wanted to be at a secluded spot not a lot of people.

I didnt put any of it together, you wouldnt t imagine it. After it all happened, and I heard what she was really doing and running from it made sense why she didnt want to be seen.

Why she wanted to go to secluded places and it all kind of made a little more sense.

He added that Armstrong had a bandage on her nose, which she claimed was from a surfing accident, and he didnt recognize the pictures put out by police.

After her arrest Armstrong admitted that she had been going as Ari, and was deported to Houston.

Other Costa Rican locals said that Armstrong had seemed normal, and spent most of her time working part-time at the front desk of the hostel where she stayed and teaching yoga.

She reportedly stayed at Don Jons Surf and Yoga Lodge for less than $20 a night, and partied at a barbecue restaurant founded by a former New York lawyer.

Police found two passports inside her hostel lockbox when they arrested her on an immigration violation.

Teal Akerson, pictured, went on several dates with a Armstrong, who called herself 'Ari'. He was shocked to discover that she was actually wanted for murdering a love rival

The couple met outside of the Good Life Tattoo store in Costa Rica before swapping numbers. Akerson had contact with the yoga teacher up until three days before her arrest

During an interview with US police in May, they found passports belonging to Armstrong in her purse along with two iPhones.

Texas Deputy Marshal Brandon Filla previously told the New York Post in May that Armstrong flipped houses and 'may have the funds to continue to hide.'

He added: '[Armstrongs escape] wasnt something that was abrupt, this was something that was methodical, that was timed. She had somewhat of a plan.

Strickland reportedly asked Armstrong to return the money he lent to her for an investment account, but she kept it before heading to Costa Rica on May 18.

He admitted the affair with Wilson to the police, telling them that he had changed her name on his phone so Armstrong didnt know who he was speaking to.

Strickland added that he had also deleted previous messages, so his girlfriend was unable to find them, despite her suspicions.

Armstrong was linked to Wilson's death after her car was seen in the area around the time of the incident, leading officials to believe she killed the cyclist out of jealousy.

Police later discovered Wilson had gone to dinner with Armstrong's boyfriend the night of the murder.

Strickland told police the two of them took a swim at Deep Eddy Pool before eating, and he dropped her off at 8.36pm.

He stopped briefly to text Armstrong that he had visited a friend and that his phone had run out of battery.

Armstrong was allegedly tracking Wilson using the app for cyclists and runners, Strava.

Police arrested the yoga teacher after an anonymous tip and surveillance footage outside of Wilsons apartment shows the yoga instructors car.

They used her open misdemeanour warrant on theft of services to quiz her about Wilsonss death after receiving an anonymous tip that she had flown into a rage in January.

Armstrong reportedly discovered that Strickland had been involved with Wilson prior to their relationship.

US Marshals discovered Armstrong used her sister Christine's passport to flee to Costa Rica after allegedly murdering Wilson

Armstrong's car was spotted again that night after Strickland dropped off Wilson

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 at

During questioning on May 14, police showed Armstrong video surveillance of her SUV coming to a stop outside of the apartment Wilson was found dead on May 11.

The footage was stamped a minute after Wilson entered the building following her time 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.'

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.

Officers confiscated two of Armstrong's cell phones and noted she had passports inside her purse before she was released.

Five days before she fled the country, and before she was quizzed by police, Armstrong sold her black Cherokee in Austin for more than $12,000.

She then reportedly flew from Newark Liberty International on May 18, on her sister Christines passport.

It's unclear whether Christine knows her passport was taken by her sister.

Armstrong then flew to Costa Rica where she stayed for about 43-days until she was arrested on June 30.

Police launched a country-wide manhunt for Armstrong, focusing on Texas, New York, and New Jersey before she was arrested.

They tracked her down after going door to door at San Jose hostels for six weeks, with the yoga teacher using three aliases to hide her identity.

As well as going by Ari Martin, she also claimed she was called Beth Martin and Liz Martin to unsuspecting locals.

Officers managed to identify her by showing a pre-surgery photo of her, and when they arrested her it was discovered she had cut her hair and dyed it brown.

Armstrong also reportedly underwent a nose job to change her appearance, with officers finding a $6,000 receipt for cosmetic surgery in her belongings.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused certain Republicans of wanting to 'criminalize birth control' during a press conference on Wednesday, while unveiling legislation aimed at protecting access to contraceptives.

She also mocked anti-birth control GOP lawmakers by claiming they were out-of-touch with intimate relations within their own households - prompting laughter from those in the room.

'It is clear that their attempts to roll back the clock on contraception is, again, another plank of the extreme agenda - their extreme agenda - for America's women,' Pelosi said.

The Speaker pointed to red-stage legislatures that had worked or were working on laws banning certain forms of contraception.

'In Idaho and Louisiana, Republicans are putting this plan in action removing, moving to ban or criminalize birth control,' she said before jabbing: 'Do you wonder if they even know what's going on in their own homes?'

The House of Representatives will vote on the Right to Contraception Act on Thursday, the Speaker said, after earlier this week passing a bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriage.

House Democrats are rushing to protect rights that they fear are now on the line after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, sending the issue of abortion back to the individual states.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a group of Democratic women in her chamber to unveil legislation to protect birth control access, which she said will be voted on on Thursday

Pelosi and other left-wing leaders have been under fire from their voter base for failing to codify abortion access in the five decades that Roe stood as precedent.

An effort to do so passed the Democrat-controlled House last week but has dim prospects in the evenly divided 50-50 Senate.

And on Tuesday evening, 47 Republicans joined Democrats to pass the Respect For Marriage Act, which ensures federal protections for same-sex and interracial couples to preempt those rights being rolled. back.

The bill would also repeal the controversial Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law by Bill Clinton and defined a legal marriage as between a man and a woman.

That legislation's fate is still unclear in the Senate - while it's reportedly being backed by Republican Senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Susan Collins of Maine, it's not clear if the bill can get the 60 votes necessary to move forward. GOP Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida are reportedly opposing the measure.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, which rolled back Roe, specifies that the ruling only applies to the issue of abortion.

However, Justice Clarence Thomas set off alarm bells across the country when he wrote in a concurring opinion that the high court could revisit the landmark cases that legalized same-sex marriage, same-sex intimacy and contraceptives access for married couples.

'As you all know, three weeks ago, a radical, Republican-stacked Supreme Court erased precedent and privacy by overthrowing Roe v. Wade,' Pelosi said on Wednesday.

'In doing so, they put even more of our cherished freedoms on the chopping block, including the right to contraception.'

Pelosi went on to accuse Republicans of always being against contraceptive use.

At the end of the press conference, she claimed GOP lawmakers had even stood in the way of legislative progress on the 'rhythm system,' which is a form of family planning without medical aid in which women track their ovulation cycles.

She fumed at 'the hypocrisy of it all,' before adding: 'But I'm told not to talk about their hypocrisy.'

'It's about control. They don't like birth control, but they want to control women. And we cannot let that happen,' Pelosi said.

'For decades, I have fought them  they wouldn't even support the rhythm system when we tried to make adjustments. They wouldn't even support that. They insist on gag rules in terms of conversations about this.'

She also closed out the press conference calling on Republicans to cross the aisle in a bipartisan show of unity around the bill.

'We want this legislation to pass in a bipartisan way. But if not, the American  we will remember in November,' Pelosi warned.
Is there anything that symbolizes smug elitism more than a Starbucks coffee cup?

The green logo stands out like a badge that proves the drinker is part of the club.

Club members are enlightened and progressive. Not like those knuckle-draggers drinking Dunkin' Donuts.

They know that Republicans are heartless and that they have all the answers.

That's why it's so surprisingly to hear Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz  one of the wokest of American executives  announce that he's shuttering more than a dozen Starbucks stores, because the liberal cities they're in have become uninhabitable.

Well, well, well haven't the progressive chickens have come home to roost!

In newly-released video leaked from a company meeting, Schultz derides the nation's leaders  from the White House on down  saying, 'America has become unsafe.'

'In my view,' he says, 'at the local, state, and federal level, these governments across the country and leaders, mayors, and governors and city councils have abdicated their responsibility in fighting crime and addressing mental illness.'

'It has shocked me,' he continued, 'that one of the primary concerns that our retail partners have is their own personal safety Starbucks is a window into America, we have stores in every community... we are facing things in which the stores were not built for. We're listening to our people and closing stores, and this is just the beginning. There are going be many more.'

That's why it's so surprisingly to hear Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz (above)  one of the wokest of American executives  announce that he's shuttering more than a dozen Starbucks stores, because the liberal cities they're in have become uninhabitable

Is it too soon to say I told you so?

Conservatives, like me, have been shamed and harassed for years by members of the liberal media and woke-elected class for being cruel, because we advocate for law and order.

But wanting one's family to feel safe is normal.

It doesn't make you an unevolved person with no compassion for the most vulnerable in society to feel that way.

It is also normal to believe that there is no justification of any kind for violence or theft.

And up until a few years ago, those were commonly held beliefs in America.

Then came the notorious 2020 summer of hell after the murder of George Floyd.

The mindset shifted among a growing number of increasingly vocal Americans, as radical progressives gaslit many into believing that 'law and order' was wrong.

Just type my name and 'George Floyd riots' into Google and see what comes out.

See how well my criticism of the looting and rioting went over with the mainstream media and one particularly outraged former neighbor, who works for fringe late night host Samantha Bee.

At the time, it seemed like so many Americans had gone made.

Hard-left progressives advocated for everything from defunding the police to relaxing penalties for people who commit crimes.

If a building was set on fire by a protester that's the sign of a ''fiery but mostly peaceful protest.' (Google that to see the infamous CNN graphics)

In newly-released video leaked from a company meeting, Schultz derides the nation's leaders  from the White House on down  saying, 'America has become unsafe.'

'We are facing things in which the stores were not built for. We're listening to our people and closing stores, and this is just the beginning. There are going be many more,' said Schultz

If someone steals less than $1,000 worth of merchandise from Walgreens or Target, it is fine.

We should look the other way because clearly the people committing the crime need to because America is a wretched place.

The criminals are victims, you see.

And the victims? Well, they are privileged.

Is all of this sounding familiar yet?

Starbucks was an early adopter of these short-sighted policies.

In 2018, the chain opened their bathrooms to customers and non-customers alike, after a Starbucks employee called the police on two Black men, who refused to leave the store after they were denied access to the restroom.

I'm not passing judgement on those men. But didn't Schultz suspect that his policy  maybe, just maybe  might backfire?

Now it's not uncommon to go into a Starbucks and see a homeless person doing drugs or passed out on the floor.

And make no mistake, Schultz is no hero for finally calling out progressive leaders and policies that have destroyed cities.

He has only spoken out after the lawlessness started impacting his bottom line.

I don't recall hearing his influential voice as homicides spiked in cities across the country.

Yeah Howard, it sucks when you want to make money and enjoy the blessings of a free and law-abiding society, but instead your neighborhood descends into mayhem

And it's not just Starbucks feeling the pinch --- its entire city governments.

On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (above) demanded the federal government help pay for what he said was a flood of asylum seekers pouring into the Big Apple

In New York City and Washington D.C., social services are being strained by the influx of illegal immigrants.

Border states leaders, who have grown sick and tired of fighting a tidal wave of immigration without the help of the federal government, have decided to bus these people north.

On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams demanded the federal government help pay for what he said was a flood of asylum seekers pouring into the Big Apple.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser appeared on television Sunday morning to say her city's homeless shelters are filling up because of the busloads of desperate people.

Part of this is obviously due to the relaxed immigration policies of the Biden Administration and the progressive demand for seemingly open borders.

But again -- Democratic mayors didn't sound the alarm until it became a blue state problem, instead of an issue that only impacted my home state of Arizona and other border states.

It turns out not everything in life is as simple as it sounds in a political science class at Oberlin College.

This is real life we are talking about.

Conservatives and independents (heck everyone except these wild progressives) are not cruel.

We are realistic.

It didn't take much to look into the future and see that allowing crime to go unpunished and allowing the border to go unsecured would lead to problems.

So here we are  CEOs and liberal leaders are looking around at each other dumbfounded. They thought that simply believing in a utopian society  would make it happen.

It's a bitter cold brew blast of reality.

Progressivism drags society backwards.

Full stop.

Don't look at me though, I'm just the big, bad conservative who wants your family to feel safe when you're buying a cup of coffee.
Gun control was yet again a key focus on Capitol Hill Wednesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee debated mass shootings and the House Judiciary marked up an assault weapons ban for the first time in two decades.

The Democratic-controlled House panel debated legislation that would ban certain assault-style rifles like the ones used in a recent spate of mass shootings while their Republican colleagues argued doing so would make communities less safe by leaving law-abiding citizens unarmed in dangerous situations.

The House Judiciary is also debating a second bill that would lift immunity for gun manufacturers, allowing them to be sued for unlawful misuse of firearms.

Even if both bills clear the House, they are unlikely to make it through the Senate.

'Will our Republican colleagues choose to defend the weapons of choice for mass murderers?' Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., asked.

Meanwhile in the Senate Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering pleaded lawmakers to enact a federal assault weapons ban. Her community faced seven deaths and dozens of injuries when a gunman opened fire on a 4th of July parade.

Rotering outlined the horrific moments she witnessed that day.

'A photo of a teary-eyed toddler clutching a blanket flashed on my phone. Whose child was this? People were hiding in an underground garage wondering why nobody was looking for this missing child. Later we learned that it was two-year-old Aidan McCarthy dried blood on his legs, socks and his Tiger sneaker. He had been found under his father's body and carried to safety. No one was frantically looking for him because both his father and mother had been murdered a the parade.'

'Will our Republican colleagues choose to defend the weapons of choice for mass murderers?' Committee chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., asked

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee use charts to press their defense of the Second Amendment during a markup on the Assault Weapons Ban of 2021

'You must instate a federal assault weapons ban. Today is the day to start saving lives,' Rotering said.

In defense of gun rights, Sen. Ted Cruz pointed to the Greenwood Mall shooting Sunday evening where 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, who was legally armed while shopping with his girlfriend, took down 20-year-old Douglas Sapirman, who killed three and wounded two by firing 24 rounds from an AR-15-style rifle.

'It's not complicated why when you disarm law abiding citizens, the result is the criminals don't follow the laws. They have the guns and the law abiding citizens are unable to defend themselves,' Cruz said. 'Many more lives would have ben lost in Indiana that day if Mr. Dicken had not been there had not exercised his Second Amendment right.'

Incidents where an armed bystander neutralizes a mass shooter are rare, according to data from the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training at Texas State University.

Of the at least 434 active shooter attacks between 2000 and 2021, an armed bystander shot the attacker in 22 incidents.

Rotering said 'a good guy with a gun would have had no impact on the shooter' in Highland Park, where the gunman was hidden on the roof of a building.

Meanwhile in the Senate Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering pleaded lawmakers to enact a federal assault weapons ban

'And we had good guys with guns on site who are trained, who got there within seconds, and it was just too hard to see where he was,' the Highland Park mayor added.

Meanwhile on the House side, gun control activist and Stoneman Douglas shooting survivor David Hogg was escorted out of the hearing after interrupting with a fiery diatribe.

Meanwhile on the House side, gun control activist and Stoneman Douglas shooting survivor David Hogg was escorted out of the hearing after interrupting with a fiery diatribe

'You are reiterating the points of a mass shooter,' Hogg shouted

'Guess what ?those guns are coming from the United States! They aren't coming from Mexico, you are reiterating the points of a mass shooter. You are perpetuating this violence,' he said as security grabbed his elbow and dragged him out

Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Chip Roy, R-Texas, descended into talks about how the 'open' southern border was leading to gun fire in communities in South Texas and that cartels were becoming 'increasingly armed and dangerous.'

'You are reiterating the points of a mass shooter,' Hogg shouted. 'Guess what ?those guns are coming from the United States! They aren't coming from Mexico, you are reiterating the points of a mass shooter. You are perpetuating this violence,' he said as security grabbed his elbow and dragged him out.

Rep. Jim Jordan, senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, replied that the Democrats' ban would make 'millions of guns in the homes of law-abiding citizens' illegal. He advised them to instead try to repeal the Second Amendment, a process certain to fail.

A 10-year assault weapons ban expired in 2004 and efforts to renew it have thus far come up short.

At the end of June President Biden signed into law Congress' most sweeping gun reform bill in 30 years. Though too narrow for the liking of many Democrats, the bill included incentives for states to pass so-called red flag laws and closed the so-called 'boyfriend loophole,' allowing those convicted of domestic abuse, even for dating partners not just spouses or live-in partners, to be banned from owning guns.

The bill also expanded background checks on those seeking to buy weapons between the ages of 18 and 21, but did not ban the sale of assault-style weapons to those under 21 as many in Congress had wanted.
Former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon managed to catch a break in his ongoing criminal trial for defying a January 6 committee subpoena on Wednesday, when the presiding judge allowed his legal team to use a letter from his old boss as evidence.

District Judge Carl Nichols allowed Bannon to inform jurors about Trump's dispatch to him earlier this month, where the ex-president wrote he was waiving his claim to executive privilege over Bannon's testimony to Congress.

The right-wing activist's legal effort got off to a shaky start before the trial even began, when Nichols last week barred the Trump confidante from asserting several potential defenses - prompting his exasperated lawyer to ask 'what is the point of going to trial here' under those circumstances.

But the admittance of the letter could be a potential boost for his case, which rests on Bannon's lawyers arguing that he did willfully ignore House investigators' subpoena.

He had abruptly reversed-course earlier this month, offering to sit for a public hearing before the committee roughly 10 months after being subpoenaed. Bannon's attorneys sent the House a copy of Trump's letter as proof.

Jurors were not in the room when Nichols made his decision on the second day of trial testimony, but they were present on Tuesday when prosecutor Amanda Vaughn accused Bannon of thinking he was 'above the law.'

Bannon 'didn't get stuck on a broken down Metro car,' Vaughn said of the defendant's refusal to comply with the subpoena, referring to the Washington area's subway system.

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon is seek speaking to reporters as he arrives for the third day of his trial for contempt of Congress charges and second day of testimony

The presiding judge allowed Bannon's defense to use a letter sent to him by Trump that waives the ex-president's executive privilege claims that supposedly kept him from testifying

Instead, the case is about 'the defendant thumbing his nose' at the normal process of government, Vaughn added.

Defense attorney Evan Corcoran had countered that the normal 'process' involved negotiations between both parties that often resulted in meetings after the scheduled subpoena date.

Kristin Amerling, the committee's general counsel, was the first prosecution witness on Tuesday.

'When the committee issues subpoenas with deadlines, is it important to the committee for people to comply with the deadlines?' Vaughn asked Amerling.

'Absolutely,' Amerling replied. 'The select committee is looking at a violent assault on the United States Capitol, on law enforcement, on our democratic institutions. We have a limited amount of time.'

Amerling said the committee's authority expires at the end of 2022.

In explaining the panel's interest in hearing from Bannon, Amerling noted that he had told a podcast the day before the riot that 'all hell is going to break loose tomorrow' and that the committee wanted to learn whether he had advance knowledge of the attack.

He's also reached out to the January 6 committee to request an in-person hearing, though trial prosecutors have dismissed the effort as a last-ditch bid to avoid accountability

Bannon's lawyer followed up with cross-examination on Wednesday, pressing Amerling on what role Committee Chair Bennie Thompson played in drafting the subpoena and setting its deadlines - an apparent attempt to suggest political motivations.

'What human set that deadline?' Corcoran asked Amerling.

She testified that deadlines were formulated by senior committee staff including her, but that the ultimate decision rested with Thompson, who possessed the legal authority to sign the subpoena.

Bannon is on trial for two misdemeanor counts of criminal contempt, to which he pleaded not guilty.

He was indicted in November after failing to comply with House lawmakers' order to cooperate in their ongoing investigation into the Capitol riot.

Justice Department prosecutors blasted his latest outreach effort as an attempt to dodge accountability at the last minute.

It's also highly unlikely that the committee will take Bannon up on his offer, given their usual process of beginning with a closed-door deposition.
The high-level mission views the solar-powered medical oxygen plant in Dhushamareb, Somalia in June 2022. Photo credit: WHO Somalia.

Mogadishu, 26 June 2022 From 13 to 17 June 2022, the Federal Ministry of Health and Human Services and the World Health Organization (WHO) country office for Somalia hosted a technical mission from WHO headquarters and Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, comprising experts from the new Innovation Hub team, as well as the Environment, Climate Change, and Health team. The mission aimed to bring together key partners, including United Nations agencies, nongovernmental organizations and donors, to explore and advocate for ways to reinforce the Somali health system using climate-friendly solutions, such as the use of solar power for delivering oxygen and electrifying health facilities, especially in remote and hard-to-reach locations.

The global climate crisis, identified as the single largest health crisis facing humanity today, has resulted in an extreme phenomenon of droughts and floods occurring on an annual basis in Somalia. Meanwhile, the ongoing drought has left Somalia on the brink of famine, with a sobering 6.1 million people food insecure and 1.7 million people suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

Coupled with high rates of indoor air pollution, caused by the use of fossil fuels in households, and air temperatures which are estimated to be rising every year, these conditions are brewing an inescapable health storm in an already fragile country.

WHO has installed 3 solar-powered medical oxygen systems in Dhushamareb, Baidoa and Kismayo. The first plant, set up early in 2021 in Dhushamareb, paved the way for replication and possible expansion, as there was a survival rate of 96% in children who were admitted in this hospital with birth asphyxia, pneumonia and other medical conditions that required immediate oxygen therapy. These children may have otherwise lost their lives without access to high-grade medical oxygen provided by this innovative system.

During our innovative journey to improve medical oxygen access, we discovered that the necessity for a reliable source of electricity can be met using solar power. Innovation can make this feasible and sustainable in Somalia. Therefore, we are now considering the possibility of using solar power to provide enough electricity to power entire health facilities  from medical oxygen and refrigerators for vaccines, to incubators, lighting and operating theatres, said HE Dr Fawziya Abikar Nur, the Minister of Health and Human Services, the Federal Government of Somalia.

After a visit to the solar-powered oxygen plant in the Hanano Hospital in Dhushamareb, the Director a.i., Department for Digital Health and Innovation and Unit Head, at the WHO Innovation Hub, Louise Agersnap, urged partners to reflect on the situation in Somalia. What makes a pregnant woman travel for hundreds of miles to deliver a baby that she can hold? It is that lighthouse of a hospital that has reliable, solar-powered electricity that can secure a safe birth, she said. Innovation is a tool to solve problems, and in this case, we solved many in one shot. Somalia is leading the way, and we at the WHO Innovation Hub are proud to collaborate with the Government and WHO country team. Their innovative use of solar power is bringing multiple wins to the country  it is saving lives; saving health care costs; and saving the environment as it uses green, renewable energy.

Delaying action would be denying action, said Salvatore Vinci, WHO Sustainable Energy Advisor. We must act now to support more health facilities to access power through solar energy. Somalia makes the best case for investment in solar energy in health centres  with hours of sunshine, limited and expensive electricity, as well as hospitals without reliable power."

While explaining how the electrification of facilities could be useful, WHOs Technical Lead and Unit Head of Air Quality, Energy and Health, Heather Adair-Rohani, said, Electrifying health care facilities with solar energy can ensure access to quality essential services for women and children, promote the uptake of health care services, cut health care costs, all the while protecting our climate.

Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik, WHO Representative to Somalia and Head of Mission emphasized, "There is no alternative for oxygen. Pneumonia is one of the most common causes of child deaths in Somalia. Every child and every human have the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water and access good-quality health services. It is incumbent on us all to ensure every Somali has access to these basic human rights, using innovative and climate-friendly solutions.

For additional information, kindly contact:

Khadar Hussein Mohamud, Head of Coordination and Communications, Ministry of Health, Federal Government of Somalia, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Abdirahman Ahmed Ali, Communication Officer, Ministry of Health, Federal Government of Somalia, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Fouzia Bano, WHO Somalia Chief of Staff ai, Communications Officer, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Kyle DeFreitas, WHO Somalia External Relations Lead, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Note to editors

The Global Action Plan for SDG3 (SDG3-GAP), comprising 13 agencies, Grand Challenges Canada, and an innovator, Dr Michael Hawkes, provided support to the first solar-powered oxygen plant in Dhushamareb.

Please visit the following links for additional information:

Counting every breath: leveraging the COVID-19 response to increase access to medical oxygen in Somalia

WHO EMRO | WHO and EU hand over life-saving medical oxygen plant to Somalia: a landmark achievement in bridging gaps in oxygen supply in the country | News | Somalia site

Solar-powered medical oxygen systems saving lives in Somalia: using innovation to accelerate impact in a fragile setting

How a gloomy night brought a bright light in the fight against COVID-19

Counting every breath: a data-driven strategy to improve access to medical oxygen for COVID-19 patients in Somalia

Every breath counts: utilizing the COVID-19 response to increase access to oxygen

Survival analysis of critically ill patients with COVID-19 admitted to hospital in Somalia: how important was oxygen?

Solar-powered oxygen delivery in Somalia: the vital need beyond COVID-19

Historical moment for Somalia as COVID-19 vaccines arrive through COVAX Facility

WHO EMRO | Quarterly technical programme updates | Information resources | Somalia site
Liz Truss today vows to beat Labour by 'governing as a true tax-cutting, freedom-loving Conservative'.

The Foreign Secretary last night surged into the final run-off against Rishi Sunak in the race to become prime minister, knocking out rival Penny Mordaunt.

Writing in the Daily Mail today, Miss Truss sets out an agenda that will see her pursuing Boris Johnson's freedom-loving instincts while reversing Mr Sunak's high-tax agenda.

In an attack on the former chancellor's record, she says the Government has been 'going in the wrong direction on tax, with the tax burden at its highest in 70 years'.

She pledges to hold an emergency budget to push through immediate tax cuts to ease the cost of living and encourage enterprise.

'We cannot have business-as-usual managerialism on the economy,' she writes.

'I am the tax-cutting candidate who will help squeezed families by reversing April's national insurance rise and suspending the green levy on energy bills.'

Miss Truss also promises to take on the 'Whitehall Blob' to drive through 'tax-cutting, enterprise boosting, business-friendly Conservative policy'. And she signals that she will take on the Left in the 'culture wars'.

Favourite: Liz Truss, pictured in the House of Parliament after she saw off Penny Mordaunt to make the final two in the Tory leadership contest

Ballot winner: Rishi Sunak leaves an office building in London on Wednesday as tops the MPs vote on who will go to the Conservative members final vote to choose the nation's next PM

'The British people can trust me to govern as a Conservative,' she writes. 'I won't apologise for Britain or who we are as a nation and will stand up to people who talk down our country, our history and our values. I reject dehumanising identity politics, cancel culture and the voices of decline.'

Miss Truss's comments came as bookmakers installed her as odds-on favourite to claim the Tory crown.

Mr Sunak topped yesterday's final ballot of MPs with 137 votes, but he faces a frantic few weeks to convince Tory party members to back him. His final tally was well short of the 200-mark once predicted by allies and means he enters the second phase of the contest without an indisputable mandate from Tory MPs.

Multiple polls have suggested he will trail behind Miss Truss when the party faithful cast their ballots.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pictured during his last PMQs on Wednesday before parliament breaks up and a new Tory leader and PM is expected to be elected in September

The former chancellor, whose resignation triggered Mr Johnson's downfall, claimed he was the only candidate who could beat Labour at the next election.

'We need to restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite our country,' he said. 'I'm confident we can do that and we've got a really positive message to take out to all our members now  crucially, who is the best person to beat Keir Starmer and the Labour Party at the next election? I believe I'm the only candidate who can do that.'

The clash came as:

Miss Mordaunt was knocked out of the contest by eight votes;

Boris Johnson hinted at a comeback, declaring his 'mission largely accomplished  for now';

More than 4,000 Tory members signed a petition calling for him to be in the final run-off;

Sources said Mr Sunak's team protested over the issue of ballot papers in early August, limiting his campaigning time;

Mr Johnson took a parting shot at Mr Sunak, saying major projects would not have been built 'if we'd always listened to the Treasury';

Tobias Ellwood, a Mordaunt supporter, had the Tory whip temporarily restored to allow him to vote in the final ballot.

The three candidates spent the final 24 hours scrabbling for votes from Kemi Badenoch's supporters after she was knocked out of the contest on Tuesday.

Miss Truss leapfrogged Miss Mordaunt into second place, securing the backing of 113 Tory MPs  up 27 on the last round.

Liz Truss, the current Foreign Secretary, says she would fight Sir Keir Starmer (pictured the Labour leader at PMQs today) as a 'freedom-loving Conservative'

Penny Mordaunt, a Minister of State at the Department for International Trade, looks down as she is announced out of the Tory leadership race today

Trade minister Miss Mordaunt was second in all earlier rounds of voting but her campaign hit the buffers and she slipped into third place with 105 votes. She said: 'We must all now work together to unify our party and focus on the job that needs to be done.'

Her allies later attacked the media for highlighting her changing views on issues like trans rights and claims that she failed to pull her weight as a minister.

Mr Sunak and Miss Truss will now campaign to win the votes of up to 200,000 Conservative Party members. Ballot papers will begin to land on doorsteps from August 1, and the ballot closes on September 2. The first of 12 regional hustings for party members will be held in Leeds next Thursday.

The result of the contest will be announced on September 5, and the winner is expected to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister the following day.

I'll beat Labour by governing as a true tax-cutting, freedom-loving Conservative

By LIZ TRUSS, Foreign Secretary

In these tough times, the Conservative Party is rising to the moment. I am proud to have attracted a broad base of support among my parliamentary colleagues for the leadership. Every candidate who stood has contributed enormously. I am now looking forward to making my case to Conservative members across our great country, and also to the wider public.

Over the next few weeks, I will be setting out a bold new plan that I will have ready to go from day one in Downing Street.

I will hit the ground running by immediately cutting taxes, growing our economy and unleashing the potential of everyone in the United Kingdom. This is a key part of my mission to build an aspiration nation, where people from all parts of Britain, from all backgrounds, can succeed on the basis of their talent and hard work alone.

That is how I got to where I am today, and that is what I want for everyone in our country.

Liz Truss greets British Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng

Miss Truss' supporters cheer as she makes the final two in the Tory leadership contest

I didn't come from a traditional Conservative background. I grew up in Paisley and went to a comprehensive school in Leeds. I remember the lip service paid to equality, only for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to be let down.

I entered politics to stop this 'soft bigotry of low expectations' and bring equality of opportunity for all. My approach is rooted firmly in Conservative values of aspiration, enterprise and freedom, which I know are shared across the country.

As prime minister, I will work night and day to deliver on my promises. I will be relentlessly focused on the people's priorities, from the cost of living to seizing the opportunities of Brexit, to making the streets safer. The central issue at the next election is going to be the economy. We have been going in the wrong direction on tax, with the tax burden at its highest in 70 years. The central battleground will be about whether we go for growth and cut taxes, or carry on with business as usual and tax rises.

Liz Truss addresses her supporting Conservative MPs as she make the final two

We cannot have business-as-usual managerialism on the economy. I am the tax-cutting candidate who will help squeezed families by reversing April's national insurance rise and suspending the green levy on energy bills. I will move to bring in an emergency budget to get on with doing this quickly, and announce a spending review to find more efficiencies in government spending.

I will drive tax-cutting, enterprise-boosting, business-friendly Conservative policy through the Whitehall Blob to help working families.

The British people can trust me to govern as a Conservative. I won't apologise for Britain or who we are as a nation and will stand up to people who talk down our country, our history and our values. I reject dehumanising identity politics, cancel culture and the voices of decline.

I am determined to win the fight for freedom at home, namely the freedom for people to live the lives they want. The economy isn't just about numbers on a spreadsheet but livelihoods, hopes and ambitions. That is why I would drive decisive reforms to unleash people's potential and advance equality of opportunity.

I believe in Global Britain's great potential as a sovereign nation.

Sir Graham Brady (third from left) chairman of the 1922 Committee, announces the results of the ballot giving the final two candidates, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak

As prime minister, I will accelerate our regulatory divergence from the EU and create new low-tax opportunity zones to drive growth and investment across the country.

I will help Britain lead the world in tackling aggressors and in advancing and defending freedom and democracy, continuing to take as tough a position on Vladimir Putin as prime minister as I have as Foreign Secretary.

This is a defining moment for the country. The global economy is in difficulty, we face a cost of living crisis here at home, and our enemies are emboldened abroad. To steer our way through the storm, we need strong leadership and a bold approach that takes our economic policy in a new direction.

I will beat Labour in 2024 by governing as a true tax-cutting, freedom-loving Conservative. We know Conservative principles of low tax, equality of opportunity and a strong national defence are what the majority of the British people want. That is exactly what I will deliver.

As prime minister, I will lead us to economic growth, remain true to my Conservative philosophy and deliver for families up and down the country.

The British people can trust me to do what is necessary and right.
Neighbours don't blame the little girl's mum and claimed authorities failed her

It has been revealed Charlie had been diagnosed with coeliac disease

Charlie, 6, was found unresponsive at her family's Adelaide home last Friday

Friends and neighbours have rallied around the grieving mum of a little girl who died from suspected malnutrition to claim she was let down by the authorities when she needed help.

Six-year-old Charlie was found unresponsive at her family's housing commission home in Munno Para, in Adelaide's northern suburbs, in the early hours of Friday morning.

It's since been revealed been Charlie had been diagnosed with coeliac disease, a severe immune disorder in which the digestive system reacts to gluten.

Her shattered mum was seen publicly for the first time since her daughter's death on Wednesday as police arrived at the home to continue inquiries.

Neighbours who have spoken to Charlie's mother say she is 'distraught' after watching her youngest child take her last breaths.

They defended the mother and claimed she was failed by child protection authorities, who they say should have done more to help her.

Pictured: This, the last known photo of Charlie, taken two weeks before her tragic death

Charlie's mum (pictured) has been seen publicly for the first time in five days since her daughter's tragic death

'She watched her child die  any mother who has gone through that would be traumatised and scared and confused and just heartbroken that her child, her baby that she carried for nine months, is gone,' one told the Adelaide Advertiser.

Several neighbours explained they don't blame the mother for Charlie's death, and claim authorities did nothing to support her in the ways she needed help as they revealed plans to launch a #justiceforcharlie campaign.

'It's just another step in the process of getting answers for Charlie, and that's what we really want,' one said.

'There are no words to describe the amount of anger all of us on the street here have for the family.'

A school counsellor recently visited the home due to the non-attendance of two of the children, one of whom was Charlie.

Charlie's death - which has been officially recorded as malnutrition - sparked a major crimes investigation by police and has led her five siblings to be taken into the care of the state as their mother is investigated for alleged criminal neglect.

Just two weeks ago, Charlie - dressed in a baby-pink tracksuit and broad-brimmed hat - posed for a photo at her family home hunched over with her eyes closed.

It's believed to be the last ever photo of her.

It comes after Wednesday's revelations that authorities allowed Charlie to stay at the home despite being exposed to drug abuse and domestic violence.

Charlie (pictured) was raced to Lyell McEwin Hospital in the early hours of Friday morning in Adelaide's north

Court documents show the family was already known to at least three government agencies, including the Department of Child Protection.

In January last year, Charlie and her siblings watched their 'drug-fuelled' father stab their mother multiple times - including to the neck - at their home.

But despite the children witnessing the horrifying attack - and their father's history of domestic violence and drug use - authorities did not remove them.

Neighbours claim they contacted the department eight times over a three-week period in the lead-up to Charlie's death, with the agency reportedly having more than 500 case notes in relation to the little girl.

They believe the department was responsible for Charlie's death for not taking any action.

'It wasn't her (Charlie's mother), it was the state that failed,' one said.

Acting Premier Susan Close has announced a government review will investigate interactions between Charlie's family and the state's human services, child protection, education and housing agencies and if 'lessons' could have been learned.

The chief executive of the Department of Premier and Cabinet will determine which services were engaged, how they collaborated, how effective they were, and what changes might be required.

Charlie (pictured) died on the floor of her mother's house in an alleged case of criminal neglect

Charlie's aunt visited the home on Tuesday wearing a pink hoodie with a slogan that read: 'But did you die? #mumlife (pictured, left)

Outside the home on Tuesday, Charlie's aunt - wearing a pink hoodie with a slogan that read 'but did you die? #mumlife' - lashed out at media when asked how the six-year-old's mother was feeling.

'How do you think she's feeling? Her daughter just died in her arms! Of course she's upset.'

One neighbour, Bec, told Daily Mail Australia the girl's mum had raised the alarm late at night - leading her to do everything she could to try and save Charlie's life.

'It was about 1 am and we were about to go to sleep, and we heard this banging on the door. Charlie's mum was screaming, 'Charlie isn't breathing!' so we raced over there.

'She was on the floor in a nappy, and she was paper white ... and when I touched her, she was stone cold, and her eyes were open and fixated on the ceiling.

'We did everything to try and get Charlie to breathe.'

Paramedics arrived soon after and worked on Charlie for half an hour, but the six-year-old was pronounced dead at the hospital.

When asked about the cause of death, Bec said she didn't know whether she choked to death or whether there were health issues going on that no one knew about.

However, she noted that no one saw Charlie for the last few weeks of her life because she was suffering from a mystery illness.

The house Charlie died in was surrounded by junk - old toys, a tent, bikes and a disused freezer

The cause of death is still unknown, but a neighbour said Charlie had something in her throat when she died (family home, pictured)

She also said the girl and her siblings never looked healthy. They often had head lice, which Bec tried her best to help with.

'After a while, she came over less and less and then she wasn't allowed to come over and play with my two-year-old daughter, and she wasn't allowed to leave the house,' Bec said.

Bec remembered Charlie as a 'beautiful' girl who was shy, but always smiling happy, and carried around a pink teddy bear.

Eighteen months ago, police were also called to the home after Charlie's father attacked her mother, his partner of 18 years, during a fight while he was under the influence of methylamphetamine.

During a sentencing hearing in February, the court heard he had been a habitual user of the drug for many years and, after quitting for a while, relapsed on the night of the attack.

The fight started in the bedroom before moving to the front yard, where the mother was stabbed three times.

'It (the attack) occurred in front of the house and was witnessed by at least one civilian, who had to pull the defendant away from the victim not once, but twice,' a prosecutor told the District Court.

Pictured: The front of the house Charlie died in, which has a single swing out the front

Debris, including an old mattress, bedding, and unused rabbit hutch, were seen scattered around the yard of the home on Tuesday

'Had he not been pulled away there can be no doubt far more serious consequences could have flowed.'

The prosecutor told the court the mother wished to return to her partner despite the stabbing.

'I think it would be fair to say the victim is probably lacking in insight into the preservation of her own safety,' the prosecutor said.

'I can tell you that the Department of Child Protection has an interest in this matter and certainly should the defendant return to that home, I would anticipate the department would get involved again.'

The father was initially charged with attempted murder before pleaded guilty to the downgraded offence of causing harm with intent.

He was sentenced in March this year to five years and six months in jail with a non-parole period of three years and six months.

The grass was overgrown and the yard littered with kids toys and miscellaneous items

Investigators will now probe what other interactions they had with the family in the years leading up to Charlie's death.

SA Deputy Police Commissioner Linda Williams said the six-year-olds living conditions were 'poor' and said it was too early to determine if her death could have been prevented.

She could not confirm the last time Charlie had been seen or even attended school.

A special task force has been formed to investigate her death and the circumstances behind it.

Task Force Prime will investigate possible criminal neglect charges relating to her five siblings living in the same house.

Child Protection Minister Katrine Hildyard said these were 'absolutely tragic and heartbreaking circumstances' and offered her sympathies to Charlie's family.

'The family were known to multiple government agencies who were actively involved with them over the past couple of years,' she said, adding it was a 'horrible and heartbreaking time'.

'It's tragic a six-year-old girl has lost her life.'
Immigration barristers have delayed the first asylum seekers' flight to Rwanda until November  and possibly next year.

A number of charities, a trade union, and individual migrants who crossed the Channel by dinghy or hidden in lorries, are together contesting the policy of deporting 'irregular' refugees to Rwanda.

Those who arrive by clandestine means are supposed to be flown to Africa to seek asylum there.

But a ruling in June by a single night duty judge at the European Court of Human Rights halted the first flight.

Yesterday, the High Court judges hearing the case at London's Royal Courts of Justice ruled that the challenges to the flights will be heard at two hearings, the first in September and the second in mid-October. Pictured: Protesters against deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda outside the Royal Courts of Justice in June

A judicial review of the policy was due to conclude today but barristers fighting the Home Office successfully adjourned the hearing after raising fresh concerns over human rights.

Yesterday, the High Court judges hearing the case at London's Royal Courts of Justice ruled that the challenges to the flights will be heard at two hearings, the first in September and the second in mid-October.

The judgments will be delivered together, possibly weeks later.

Even if the rulings are in favour of the Government scheme, appeals could then push back the first flight to 2023.

The Border Force is 'escorting' illegal migrants to the UK, a report found yesterday. Alexander Downer, the former Australian immigration minister, reviewed the British security body and found it is 'effectively rescuing' migrants in small boats. His 60-page report said the Government should turn boats around 'when it is safe and legal to do so'.

People thought to be migrants crossing from France to Dover in small boats that were picked up in the Channel by the British Border Force in June
Reps. Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson raised 'concerns' about a potential violation of law that led to subpoenaed Secret Service texts being deleted after an apparent system migration.

Many Secret Service text messages sent around the time of the riot were 'erased as part of a device-replacement program,' the agency confirmed Tuesday in a letter sent in response to a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee.

Secret Service phones were migrated to a new system in the weeks after the 2021 attack. The agency left it up to individual agents to decide what electronic records to keep and what to delete during the process.

'We have concerns about a system migration that we have been told resulted in the erasure of Secret Service cell phone data,' Thompson, Jan. 6 committee chair, and Cheney, ranking member, wrote in a statement. 'The U.S. Secret Service system migration process went forward on January 27, 2021, just three weeks after the attack on the Capitol.'

'Four House committees had already sought these critical records from the Department of Homeland Security before the records were apparently lost,' the lawmakers wrote.

'Additionally, the procedure for preserving content prior to this purge appears to have been contrary to federal records retention requirements and may represent a possible violation of the Federal Records Act,' they added. 'Every effort must be made to retrieve the lost data.'

The lawmakers worry that the lost evidence could shed further light on then-President Donald Trump's actions during the insurrection, particularly after former aide Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony about his confrontation with security as he tried to join supporters at the Capitol.

The agency claims 'the insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false.'

The National Archives on Tuesday requested more information about the 'potential unauthorized deletion' of texts and has given the agency 30 days to reveal which records were purged and the circumstances under which they were lost.

'We have concerns about a system migration that we have been told resulted in the erasure of Secret Service cell phone data,' Thompson, Jan. 6 committee chair, and Cheney, ranking member, wrote in a statement

Secret Service texts sent around the time of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol (pictured) were deleted despite requests from Congress and federal investigators that they be preserved

"The Secret Service adamantly denied that they were either stonewalling... or that the text messages were lost, and then when we subpoenaed those text messages, we have now received additional info. It...leaves us with a lot more questions" - @RepStephMurphy w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/TZZAK6gR0n  Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) July 19, 2022

Investigators subpoenaed the Secret Service last week for text messages sent on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021. They were given until Tuesday to comply with the request.

'The Select Committee seeks the relevant text messages, as well as any after action reports that have been issued in any and all divisions of the USSS pertaining or relating in any way to the events of January 6, 2021,' Jan. 6 panel Chairman Bennie Thompson wrote in a letter to Secret Service Director James Murray.

The committee also specifically requested 'all documents and communications related to actual or attempted conversations between any DHA official and President Trump and/or any other White House official' about the Jan. 5 rally and Jan. 6 riot.

Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a Democratic member of the Jan 6. panel, claims the agency produced an 'initial set of documents' to the House select committee, but excluded the requested texts.

'We received a letter today that did provide us with a lot of documents and some data. However, we did not receive the additional text messages that we were looking for,' she told MSNBC on Tuesday.

'They moved ahead with their efforts to migrate the devices and the data, and their process, as explained to us, was simply to leave it to the agent to determine whether or not there was anything on their phones worth saving that was necessary to save for federal records.'

'And as a result, today they did not receive any texts from their agents when they made that transition that was flagged for preservation.'

The Secret Service acknowledged the erasure in a letter Tuesday, the Inspector General confirmed in his own letter to the Jan. 6 Committee (pictured)

Congress told the Secret Service on Jan. 16, 2021, that it needed to preserve documentation related to the Jan. 6 attack, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN. The agency was reportedly given the same instruction on Jan. 25.

The insider also claimed the Secret Service phone migration - which Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said was 'part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration' - did not begin until Jan. 27, 2021.

'Nobody along the way stopped and thought, "well, maybe we shouldn't do the migration of data and of the devices until we are able to fulfill these four requests from Congress,"' Murphy said on MSNBC.

Secret Service agents were supposed to manually back up their texts before the migration, sources allege. If an employee failed to do so, their messages would've been permanently deleted during the process.

'Any message that was not uploaded by the employee as a government record would have been lost during the migration,' a Secret Service official told CNN Tuesday.

The agency claims it is working to recover the lost messages.

Investigators subpoenaed the Secret Service last week for text messages sent on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021. They were given until Tuesday to comply with the request

Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (right on July 12) sent a letter to Secret Service Director James Murray (left in July 2019) requesting 'all documents and communications related to actual or attempted conversations between any DHA official and President Trump and/or any other White House official' about the Jan. 5 rally and Jan. 6 riot

Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy (pictured Tuesday), a Democratic member of the Jan 6. panel, claims the agency produced an 'initial set of documents' to the House select committee, but excluded the requested texts

'What they have also said is that they are going to continue to see if there are other ways in which they can secure the required and subpoenaed text messages that we have asked for,' Murphy said. 'My hope certainly is that they do find a way to find those texts and respond to the subpoena.'

She added: 'The Secret Service adamantly denied that they were either stonewalling the Inspector General or that the text messages were lost, and then when we subpoenaed those text messages, we have now received additional info.'

'It just basically leaves us with a lot more questions and the need to continue to work with the agency to see if we can't get to the bottom of this.'

Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari notified the panel of the Secret Service's response to the subpoena in a letter Tuesday.

'First, the Department notified us that many US Secret Service text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021, were erased as part of a device-replacement program,' Cuffari wrote. 'The USSS erased those text messages after OIG requested records of electronic communications from the USSS, as part of our evaluation of events at the Capitol on January 6.'

'Second, DHS personnel have repeatedly told OIG inspectors that they were not permitted to provide records directly to OIG and that such records had to first undergo review by DHS attorneys.'

'This review led to weeks-long delays in OIG obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced.'

Many Secret Service texts sent around the time of the riot were 'erased as part of a device-replacement program,' the agency claims. Secret Service agents are pictured on Jan. 6, 2021

Investigators were hoping to obtain 'real-time communications and reactions' from agents who directly interacted with Trump on Jan. 6 or helped coordinate his plans before and during the riots (pictured). However, people familiar with the Secret Service communication system claim even if those messages once existed, they are 'unlikely to ever be recovered'

The National Archives, which is in charge of government record-keeping, asked the Secret Service to investigate the possible erasure of the messages and report back within 30 days

The Secret Service's response to the committee came the same day the National Archives requested that the agency investigate 'the potential unauthorized deletion' of the texts.

The agency has been the target of heavy scrutiny following a letter sent last week by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General that told lawmakers that Secret Service messages between Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, were erased 'as part of a device-replacement program.'

The Secret Service has said all procedures were followed and pledged 'full cooperation' with the Archives' review.

'The United States Secret Service respects and supports the important role of the National Archives and Records Administration in ensuring the preservation of government records,' Guglielmi argued.

'We continue to scrutinize our records, databases, and archives to ensure full compliance with the Committee's subpoena,' he added in a statement. 'We are taking all feasible steps to identify records responsive to the subpoena, to include forensic examinations of agency phones and other investigative techniques.'

The National Archives, which is in charge of government record-keeping, asked the Secret Service to investigate the possible erasure of the messages and report back within 30 days.

'Through several news sources, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has become aware of the potential unauthorized deletion of United States Secret Service (Secret Service) text messages,' Laurence Brewer, the chief record keeper for the US, said in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security.

If it is determined any text messages were deleted, the agency must detail what records were affected, a statement on the reasoning for deletion, plan for establishing safeguards to prevent future loss as well as 'details of all agency actions taken to salvage, retrieve, or reconstruct the records,' the letter read.

'In fact, the Secret Service has been fully cooperating with the OIG in every respect - whether it be interviews, documents, emails, or texts,' Guglielmi said.

Donald Trump speaks at the Stop The Steal rally on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson (pictured June 28) testified last month that Trump wanted to lead the mob of rioters to the Capitol and that he physically attacked a Secret Service agent who told him he could not go to the federal building

The nine-member House Jan. 6 panel has taken a recent, renewed interest in the Secret Service following the dramatic testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson about Trump's actions on the day of the insurrection.

She testified last month that Trump wanted to lead the mob of rioters from the Ellipse to the Capitol, knowing they were armed.

The ex-aide also claimed a Secret Service team member told her Trump also physically attacked an agent who told him he could not go to the Capitol. However, she noted that she was not a witness to the alleged assail.

Another former aide testified that Trump was informed by Secret Service ahead of the insurrection that his supporters were armed, but insisted they be permitted into his rally on the Ellipse regardless.

When agents protested against following the mob, Hutchinson said she was told by Former Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato that Trump 'lunged' for the steering wheel - and then for a Secret Service agent.

'Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing, we're not going to the Capitol,' Hutchinson was told Secret Service agent Robert Engel said.

'Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel,' Hutchinson recalled.

Ornato 'motioned toward his clavicle,' she added, as a sign the president went for his security detail's throat.

Both Ornato and Engel have reportedly denied Hutchinson's account, as as Trump.

Investigators were hoping to obtain 'real-time communications and reactions' from agents who directly interacted with Trump on Jan. 6 or helped coordinate his plans before and during the riots, likely to try and confirm the aides' allegations.

Two people familiar with the Secret Service's communication system told The Washington Post that even if those messages once existed, they are 'unlikely to ever be recovered.'
The federal investigation into Hunter Biden has reached a 'critical juncture' and investigators are weighing whether to charge the president's son, according to a report on Wednesday night.

The Department of Justice probe in Delaware has intensified in recent weeks over whether to bring charges on tax violations or making false statements on purchasing a gun, sources told CNN.

There are also concerns about DOJ guidelines which suggest avoiding updates in major, politically sensitive cases so close to the election.

The report states that no decision has been made, with just over four months until the midterms and the Democrats and White House nosediving in the polls.

It adds mounting pressure on the Biden family with Republicans already saying Hunter will be a target of their congressional investigations if they retake the House.

The GOP are seeking answers on whether the president knew about his son's foreign business dealings, even though he has constantly denied any knowledge.

Hunter would have been prohibited from buying a gun at the time because of his well-documented struggles with drug addiction.

The federal investigation into Hunter Biden has reached a 'critical juncture' and investigators are weighing whether to charge the president's son, according to a report on Wednesday night

The Department of Justice probe in Delaware has intensified in recent weeks over whether to bring charges on tax violations or making false statements on purchasing a gun. Hunter is pictured with his father during the July 4 White House fireworks

David Weiss, the US Attorney in Delaware, is leading the probe, which dates back to as early as 2018. President Biden kept in on after Trump left office to continue the investigation.

Hunter has not been charged with any crimes and has denied criminal wrongdoing.

The report also stated the president is not being investigated as part of the probe into his business activities.

The FBI and IRS' criminal division are among the agencies who have been involved in moving the investigations and there have also been discussions over whether his past drug abuse could weaken their case, CNN reported.

Hunter could argue that he wasn't aware of his actions because he was high on drugs.

Earlier this summer, DailyMail.com revealed a 2018 voicemail recording from the junior Biden's hard drive stating the president did know about the dealings.

Joe called Hunter on December 12, 2018 saying that he wanted to talk to him after reading a New York Times story about Hunter's dealings with the Chinese oil giant CEFC.

Files on Hunter's abandoned laptop previously disclosed by DailyMail.com show that he struck a deal with the Chinese company worth millions of dollars after touting his family connections.

The Times' 2018 story pointed out CEFC's chairman Ye Jianming had been arrested in China and his top lieutenant Patrick Ho had been convicted in the US for bribing African officials to help Iran evade oil sanctions.

It revealed that Ye had met with Hunter at a Miami hotel in 2017 to discuss 'a partnership to invest in American infrastructure and energy deals.'

The Times reported that when Ho was arrested, he called Joe's brother Jim Biden  who told the newspaper that he believed the call was meant for Hunter.

The Gray Lady said it was 'unclear whether Hunter Biden struck any business deals with CEFC', not knowing at the time the depths of his connections with his Chinese business partners.

After seeing the story online, Joe called Hunter and left a voicemail.

'Hey pal, it's Dad. It's 8:15 on Wednesday night. If you get a chance just give me a call. Nothing urgent. I just wanted to talk to you,' he said.

'I thought the article released online, it's going to be printed tomorrow in the Times, was good. I think you're clear. And anyway if you get a chance give me a call, I love you.'
A single case of foot and mouth disease could halt Australia's export industry overnight, the agriculture minister has warned.

Murray Watt on Wednesday announced further biosecurity measures after viral fragments of the disease and African swine fever were detected in pork products, believed to be imported from China, at a Melbourne retailer.

It's the first time viral fragments have been detected in a retail setting, Senator Watt said.

Mr Watt said an immediate three-day standstill on livestock movements would be implemented if the disease entered Australia.

'The reason this would be such a devastating blow is that the rest of the world would treat Australia as having foot and mouth disease, which would pretty much shut down our livestock export industry overnight,' he told the ABC.

'But there is a comprehensive plan that's been developed over a number of years between federal and state governments about how we manage outbreaks (including) movement controls.'

Murray Watt (pictured) announced further biosecurity measures after viral fragments of the disease and African swine fever were detected in pork products at a Melbourne retailer

A single case of foot-and-mouth disease could stop Australia's export industry. Watt said a three-day cow lockdown would be implemented if the disease were to reach Australia

A compensation scheme would also be put in place, the minister said.

'But as much as we are thinking about what we would do if the outbreak gets here, my number one focus at the moment is making sure it never gets here,' Senator Watt said.

'I feel very confident that Australia's world-leading biosecurity system stands us in very good stead to resist this outbreak arriving.'

An outbreak could cost the economy up to $80billion and affect most Australians by raising the prices of everything from a morning coffee to a takeaway burger and the weekly grocery shop.

The detection comes as sanitation mats are set to be rolled out at international airports in an effort to stop the disease entering Australia on travellers shoes.

Indonesia has been grappling with the spread of the disease which was recently detected in Bali, a popular holiday destination for Australian travellers.

Sanitation mats are set to be rolled out at international airports in an effort to stop foot and mouth disease entering Australia on travellers' shoes

Senator Watt said the mats would add another layer of defence against an outbreak.

But Australians returning from the region [Bali and Indonesia] should still clean their shoes and clothing, or leave their footwear overseas if possible, he said.

'There is no biosecurity silver bullet,' Senator Watt said in a statement on Wednesday.

What is foot and mouth disease? It is a highly infectious and contagious 'zoonotic' disease that infects cattle, sheep, pigs, goat and deer with blisters, they also drool and limp

The meat of infected animals is not safe to eat

Exports from any country with infection are banned

Milk production stops as humans can catch the disease from drinking milk

Healthy animals must be killed and burned inside a quarantine zone

The disease was detected in Indonesia in May 2022 and has spread to Bali

People can spread the disease from contact with animals including on shoes, thongs and luggage

The estimated threat to the Australian economy is $80billion

Over six million cattle had to be destroyed during an outbreak in the UK in 2001 Advertisement

'Our biosecurity controls rely on a multi-layered approach to mitigate the risk of FMD (foot and mouth disease).'

The mats will be rolled out this week, starting at Darwin and Cairns airports.

They are intended to be a physical reminder to travellers about the risk of the disease, Senator Watt said.

The mats contain a citric acid solution, designed to dislodge any dirt from the sole of the shoe and cover it in the acid.

Other biosecurity measures include passenger declarations, profiling of all travellers entering from Indonesia, real time risk assessments, questioning and shoe cleaning.

The $14million biosecurity package was announced by the government last week for more frontline defences in airports and mail centres as well as support for Indonesia and neighbouring countries to combat the spread.

But there has already been criticism the measures don't go far enough, with calls for travellers to face severe consequences for not telling the truth on travel documents.

One of the main measures includes 18 new biosecurity officers to be stationed at Australian airports and mail centres and biosecurity detector dogs reintroduced to Darwin and Cairns airports.
President Joe Biden threw cold water on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plans to visit Taiwan as he returned to the White House Wednesday from Massachusetts.

'The military thinks its not a good idea right now,' Biden told reporters on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews early Wednesday evening when asked about Pelosi's planned trip.

He also said he would talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping 'in the next 10 days.'

For months, Biden has said a decision on what he would do about Trump-era tariffs on Taiwan would be forthcoming.

China was threatening retaliation Tuesday if Pelosi pressed forward with the Taiwan trip.

A visit by Pelosi would 'severely undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, gravely impact the foundation of China-U.S. relations and send a seriously wrong signal to Taiwan independence forces,' Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijiang said at a daily briefing.

'The military thinks its not a good idea right now,' President Joe Biden said of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's planned trip to Taiwan, while taking questions from reporters upon his return from Massachusetts Wednesday

'If the U.S. were to insist on going down the wrong path, China will take resolute and strong measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity,' Zhao said.

Zhao demanded the U.S. 'adhere to the One China principle.'

Pelosi is second in line to the presidency and would be the highest-ranking American lawmaker to visit Taiwan since former Speaker Newt Gingrich traveled there 25 years ago.

The trip is reportedly planned for August, according to multiple news outlets.

The speaker was originally scheduled to visit in April but postponed after testing positive for COVID-19.

A trial date for Pelosi's husband Paul's DUI charge is scheduled for Aug. 3.

China has ramped up its aggression toward Taiwan in recent months as Biden's administration has sent conflicting messages on whether the U.S. would come to the island democracy's defense in a war with China.

China threatened retaliation on Tuesday if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi presses forward with a planned tripped to Taiwan

A visit by Pelosi would 'severely undermine Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity, gravely impact the foundation of China-U.S. relations and send a seriously wrong signal to Taiwan independence forces,' Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijiang said at a daily briefing

Beijing has threatened to annex Taiwan by force if necessary, and has flown warplanes near Taiwanese airspace and held military exercises in the South China sea as a show of such force.

During a visit to Asia in May, Biden was asked: 'You didn't want to get involved in the Ukraine conflict militarily for obvious reasons. Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, if it comes to that?'

'Yes,' Biden said. 'That's a commitment we made,' Biden responded when asked about the hot button diplomatic issue.

Biden reiterated that the U.S. agrees to the so-called 'One China' policy - that only the People's Republic of China is 'China,' thus the U.S.'s diplomatic relationship with Taiwan is unofficial.

'But the idea that it can be taken by force, just taken by force, is just not appropriate,' Biden said. 'It will dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine.'

Additionally, Biden said: 'My expectation is it will not happen, it will not be attempted.'

The U.S. has for decades pursued a policy of strategic ambiguity, intentionally not saying what kind of military involvement it would have in a conflict between Taiwan and Beijing.

China meanwhile has mounted a fresh attack campaign on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, demanding the cancellation of a deal worth $108 billion arms deal.

'The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army ... will resolutely thwart any form of interference by external forces and separatist plots of `Taiwan independence,'' the Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on its website Tuesday.

China has the world's largest standing army, with an increasingly sophisticated navy and a huge inventory of missiles pointed across the 100 mile -wide Taiwan Strait.

The Financial Times first reported that Pelosi could take a delegation to Taiwan next month on a visit that would also include stops in Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and at the headquarters of US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii.

Pelosi's office has not officially confirmed the trip.
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of two people in a light aircraft crash in Co Down, Northern Ireland.

Two people members of the Ulster Flying Club were pronounced dead at the scene after a crash at Newtownards Airport on Tuesday evening.

One eyewitness of the crash told the Belfast Telegraph the plane crashed into hedges located near the Cloud 9 restaurant after the pilot tried to land at the airfield.

Emergency services attended the incident at the airport at 8.20pm on July 19.

'I was at the scene last night. Police were preventing anyone from getting access to the airport but you could see that a number of emergency vehicles were there,' said Alliance Party councillor Vicky Moore, who lives near the airport.

'This is a very rare occurrence bearing in mind the amount of activity there is at the airport.'

Specialist investigators from the Police Service of Northern Ireland are probing the deaths alongside a separate investigation by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.

Police and emergency services attending Newtownards Airport in County Down

The names, gender and ages of those killed have not yet been released by the authorities.

In a statement the club expressed 'great sadness and regret' over the loss.

Local political representatives described shock in the community at the tragedy.

DUP MLA Harry Harvey said his thoughts are with the two grieving families and all those associated with the flying club.

'The airfield is part of daily life in Newtownards. It is a valuable and busy facility used by people from a wide area.

'People are shocked by what has happened and the thoughts are with all those affected.

'There will obviously be a detailed investigation carried out and that will help shed light on what exactly occurred in this particular incident.'

Ulster Unionist MLA Mike Nesbitt said: 'The airfield is a fixture of the town, situated right on the edge of the urbanisation, not miles and miles from the town centre.

'So on a daily basis we are all used to seeing light aircraft and helicopters overhead.

'This is, above all, a human tragedy and our thoughts are with the family members and friends who have lost loved ones.'

Moore lives near the airport and visited the scene following the crash on Tuesday evening.

Police and emergency services attending Newtownards Airport in County Down, following a crash involving an aircraft

She said: 'It is a huge shock to the community and obviously all our thoughts are with the families of those who have been affected and particularly those that have died in the accident.

'Really the airport here in Newtownards is part of the community, it is very busy, it has been a fixture in the town for a very, very long time.

'Local people are used to the activity at the airport and this will be a terrible shock to them.'

She added: 'I live under the flight path, probably about 10-15 minutes' walk away.

'It is mostly flying schools who use it, pleasure flying, small, independent and private aircraft use it.

'The airfield is so popular, it is not expected that something like this would happen.'

A police spokesperson said enquiries are continuing on behalf of the coroner.

They have appealed to anyone who was in the area at the time, or who may have any dashcam or other kinds of footage, or any information which could assist us with enquiries, to contact 101 and quote reference number 1932 of 19/07/22.
Princess Diana's bodyguard nicknamed 'Rambo' believes she would still be alive if he was on duty the night she died - as he would insist on seatbelts
A third of homeowners saw the asking values of their homes rise more than 50,000 during the pandemic, the equivalent of 48 a day, according to new research.

It means the total value of British homes surged by 1.3trillion from February 2020 to 10trillion in April this year as strong demand and a lack of supply continues to push house prices higher.

However, some 800,000 homeowners saw a fall in the value of their homes by more than 5 per cent, the findings by Zoopla revealed.

A third of homeowners saw the asking values of their homes rise more than 50,000 during the pandemic, says Zoopla

VALUE OF HOUSING BY COUNTRY AND REGION - APRIL 2022 AND FEB 2020 Value of housing April 2022 (bn) Value of housing pre-pandemic Feb-2020 % change 2020-2022 Average property value (Apr 22) London 2,398 2,248 6.6% 516,000 South East 1,879 1,633 15.1% 394,000 Eastern 1,109 964 15.0% 350,000 South West 965 803 20.3% 320,000 North West 765 636 20.2% 192,000 West Midlands 671 573 17.3% 225,000 East Midlands 569 476 19.5% 235,000 Yorkshire and the Humber 547 460 19.0% 186,000 Scotland 493 435 13.3% 164,000 Wales 335 274 22.1% 201,000 North East 213 182 16.8% 144,000 Northern Ireland 143 125 14.8% 158,000 UK 10,088 8,809 14.5% 266,000 Source: Zoopla

The property website used its popular valuation estimates found on its website.

It monitors the rise and fall of asking prices of advertised properties and claimed that 32 per cent of its listings have grown in value by more than 50,000.

Home buyers are witnessing property asking prices soaring in many parts of the country

PRICE CHANGES - FEB 2020 TO APRIL 2022 Price change - Feb 2020 to April 2022 Number of homes (millions) % homes Unchanged or lower 1.7 6% Higher by up to 25k 8.8 30% Higher - 25k to 50k 9.4 32% Higher - 50k to 75k 4.6 16% Higher - 75k to 100k 2 7% Higher - over 100k 2.9 10% Source: Zoopla

Wales has seen the greatest increase in asking values, up 22 per cent, followed by the North West and South West, both up 20 per cent.

It is in contrast to London, where the increase is 7 per cent, less than half the national average.

Affordability issues and the impact of the pandemic and working from home dented the demand for homes, especially in high value inner areas of London and flats.

The greatest value of homes are located in London and the South East - where prices tend to be higher - accounting for 23.5 per cent of all homes in Britain.

But weaker growth means the share of housing wealth has fallen from 26 per cent before the pandemic struck.

The South West region contains 1.9 million homes that grew by more than 50,000, the most for any area.

An additional 9.4 million homes grew by between 25,000 and 50,000.

When the Zoopla estimate proves incorrect - by 225,000 One home seller sold their one-bedroom city flat for 225,000 less than the Zoopla estimate displayed on its website, despite being well presented with a new kitchen and bathroom. The seller wished to remain anonymous after receiving two abusive emails from neighbours with identical flats accusing them of 'devaluing' their own properties as a result. The homeowner explained: 'My neighbours thought I was selling my flat cheap and that they would not be able to achieve the much higher asking price as suggested on Zoopla when they came to sell in the future. 'My flat went to a bidding war, so I'm confident that I achieved the best price possible. 'However, it is clearly disappointing that I was initially led to believe from Zoopla that I would have got much more - something that has also clearly irked the neighbours. 'The problem is that the Zoopla estimate proved to be out not only by a couple of grand or even a few tens of thousands. It was out by a couple of hundred thousand pounds.' In a statement, Zoopla responded, saying: 'The Zoopla house price estimates are updated every month based on the information we receive from regulated data sources including address data from Royal Mail and Ordnance Survey. 'It does not take into account factors like renovations and recent extensions. We recommend using the estimates as a starting point, while also using other tools on Zoopla like current listings in your area, sold prices, as well as advice from your local agent to understand the potential value of your home. 'We're constantly striving to further improve the accuracy of our estimates and they will also get more precise as more properties are sold in an area.' Advertisement

Not everyone has seen gains during this period with the value of 1.6 million homes - the equivalent of 5.7 per cent - currently the same or lower than pre-pandemic.

Half of these homes - the equivalent of 800,000 - have seen a value decline of 5 per cent or more with most concentrated in inner London where the impact of the pandemic has hit travel, working patterns and demand for homes.

A total of 28 per cent of the homes declining by more than 5 per cent were in London - of which half were in the central London boroughs of Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Islington, Hammersmith & Fulham, Tower Hamlets and Southwark.

Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, where the economy has been hit from the historic decline in oil prices accounted for a further 6 per cent of homes declining in value.

Richard Donnell, of Zoopla, said: 'The boom in demand for homes created by the pandemic has pushed the value of homes higher. The gains in the last year are the largest since 2006 but they are far from uniform.

'Every homeowner experiences the impact of the market through the changing value of their own property.

'Rising home values unlock new opportunities for homeowners considering their next move. An exodus of older workers from the labour market during the pandemic, together with more working from home, is driving more households to look further afield for their next home to get greater value for money.'

He added: 'Not everyone has seen home values increase. Affordability is holding back prices in London and southern England and our analysis reveals the centre of gravity of the housing market is shifting northwards.

'The largest gains in value are being seen in more affordable areas where there is further room for price growth, even with modest increases in mortgage rates.'
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A Medieval shipwreck discovered off the coast of Dorset has been declared the UK's oldest and has been granted the highest level of protected status.

First discovered in the waters of Poole Bay in 2020, it is known as the 'Mortar Wreck' because it was found carrying mortar bowls used for grinding grain into flour.

Tree-ring dating of the ship's timbers revealed it is at least 750 years old, making it the oldest known wreck where the remains of the hull are still visible.

No other wrecks of seagoing ships have ever been found in English waters from the 11th to the 14th century.

The Mortar Wreck has today been granted the highest level of legal protection by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Two other sites near the Isle of Wight, dating from the 16th and the 17th century, have also been given protected status under the advice of Historic England.

Diver viewing a decorated Purbeck stone gravestone on the 13th century Mortar Wreck in Poole Bay, Dorset. It has today been granted the highest level of legal protection by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)

The Mortar Wreck was first located by diver and skipper Trevor Small, who has operated diving charters from Poole for the past 30 years, on the edge of the Swash Channel in Poole Bay, Dorset

It is known as the 'Mortar Wreck' because it carried mortar bowls used for grinding grain

Numerous artefacts were found onboard the Mortar Wreck, including cauldrons, cups, pottery and kitchen objects (pictured)

Two other sites near the Isle of Wight, dating from the 16th and the 17th century, have also been given protected status under the advice of Historic England. A bronze canon (pictured) was found at the site of the Shingles Bank Wreck NW68. The arms are of Phillip IV of Spain and the gun was made near Brussels for his army

The year 1628 was engraved on the cannon found at the site of the Shingles Bank Wreck NW68. It was used to help date the NW68 vessel to the mid to late 17th century

WHAT IS THE MORTAR WRECK? The Mortar Wreck is a 750-year-old shipwreck that was discovered in Poole Bay, Dorset in 2020. It is the oldest known wreck found in English waters where the hull is still visible. The trees used to construct the ship were of Irish oak and were felled between 1242 and 1265, during the reign of King Henry III. Mortar bowls and pre-carved gravestones made from Purbeck stone were discovered at the site of the wreck. It is still not known where the vessel was headed or why it sank, but one theory is that it may have been lost on its way out from the Dorset coast. Today it has been designated a protected wreck site under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. Advertisement

The Mortar Wreck was first located by diver and skipper Trevor Small, who has operated diving charters from Poole for the past 30 years, on the edge of the Swash Channel.

He said: 'I was born into a seafaring family. I've skippered thousands of sea miles looking for shipwrecks from my home port of Poole.

'In summer 2020, I discovered what I believed to be an undetected wreck site. Recent storms had revealed something unknown on the seabed. I was granted permission to dive the wreck.

'The rest is history. I've found one of the oldest shipwrecks in England.'

The vessel is known as a clinker ship in its design, is made from overlapping planks of wood.

The trees used to construct the ship were of Irish oak and were felled between 1242 and 1265, during the reign of King Henry III.

The first artefacts discovered on the 65x49ft (20x15 metre) site were the mortar bowls, but shortly after so were two pristine pre-carved gravestones made from Purbeck stone.

Purbeck stone is a form of limestone made from densely packed shells of freshwater snails

One depicts a wheel headed cross and the other has a splayed arm cross  both of which were common 13th century styles.

Chisel marks can still be seen left by the highly skilled stonemasons who crafted their designs.

These types of gravestones were a mark of high status and are found in churchyards across the south coast.

The slabs remain unpolished, suggesting that the polishing would have occurred when they reached their intended destination.

It is still not known where the vessel was headed or why it sank, but one theory is that it may have been lost on its way out from the Dorset coast.

Provisional main site plan of the Mortar Wreck drawn by the Maritime Archaeology Trust and Wessex Archaeology in 2021

It is still not known where the Mortar Wreck vessel was headed or why it sank, but one theory is that it may have been lost on its way out from the Dorset coast. Pictured are artefacts recovered from the site of the wreck

A cauldron (left) and fragment of pottery (right) recovered from the 13th century Mortar Wreck off the Dorset coast. The vessel is known as a clinker ship in its design, is made from overlapping planks of wood

Mug (left) and grinding stone (right) recovered from the Mortar Wreck. Maritime archaeologist Tom Cousins, from Bournemouth University, said: 'Very few 750-year-old ships remain for us to be able to see today and so we are extremely lucky to have discovered an example as rare as this, and in such good condition'

Experts at Historic England and Bournemouth University archaeologists are continuing to investigate the wreck.

Irish oak was widely exported for shipbuilding during the Medieval Period, and Purbeck marble gravestone slabs were used across the south of England as well as sent to Ireland and continental Europe.

This wreck thus reveals the web of maritime trade and contacts in the Channel and Irish Sea in this period.

Maritime archaeologist Tom Cousins, from Bournemouth University, said: 'Very few 750-year-old ships remain for us to be able to see today and so we are extremely lucky to have discovered an example as rare as this, and in such good condition.

'A combination of low-oxygenated water, sand and stones has helped preserve one side of the ship, and the hull is clearly visible.'

The Mortar Wreck has been designated a protected wreck site under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973, along with the two other Isle of Wight vessels.

This means that divers need to request a licence from the DCMS before diving on the sites in order to protect the structures and the artefacts within them.

Diver viewing a decorated Purbeck stone gravestone on the 13th century Mortar Wreck, Poole Bay, Dorset. Purbeck stone is a form of limestone made from densely packed shells of freshwater snails

The Mortar Wreck vessel is known as a clinker ship in its design, is made from overlapping planks of wood. The trees used to construct the ship were of Irish oak and were felled between 1242 and 1265. Pictured are planks of wood found from the wreck

The other two protected sites are the 16th century Shingles Bank Wreck NW96 and 17th century Shingles Bank Wreck NW68, that were found off Needles Channel in 2020.

The NW96 site was dated by the over 50 large lead ingots discovered there, which were cast using a technique that fell out of use around 1580.

The ingots were of fixed size and weight and would have been used as a currency for trading purposes.

They would have also been melted down to make products including bullets, lead flashing on roofs and pipes, Historic England said.

Stone cannonballs were also present at the site which were replaced with iron shot by the end of the 16th century, placing the ship in the 16th or very late 15th century.

Along with these artefacts, several cannons and a large anchor have also been recovered by divers at the NW96 wreck.

The NW96 site was dated by the over 50 large lead ingots discovered there, which were cast using a technique that fell out of use around 1580. Pictured are markings on cargo from the NW96 wreck

Archaeologists believe the vessel of the NW68 wreck could have participated in the Battle of Portland in 1653, when the fleet of the Commonwealth of England was attacked by the Dutch Republic during the First Anglo-Dutch War.

It is believed that both the NW68 and NW96 vessels became stranded on the Shingles Bank in the channel before sinking. Pictured is a 3D model of a small part of the NW68 wreck site

The NW68 vessel was dated to the mid to late 17th century, as its cargo includes a canon that was cast in Amsterdam between 1621 and 1661.

Archaeologists believe it could have participated in the Battle of Portland in 1653, when the fleet of the Commonwealth of England was attacked by the Dutch Republic during the First Anglo-Dutch War.

The two sides were locked in a struggle for supremacy over the Channel.

It is believed that both of these vessels became stranded on the Shingles Bank in the channel before sinking.

The finds are being investigated by archaeologists from the Maritime Archaeology Trust and Wessex Archaeology, along with the finders Martin Pritchard and Dave Fox.

Surviving wrecks dating pre-1700 is extremely rare, Historic England said, as is finding previously unrecorded wrecks in the Solent, which is a busy shipping route.

With the addition of these three wreck sites, there are now 57 Protected Wreck Sites in English waters.

Heritage Minister Nigel Huddleston said: 'These fascinating shipwrecks can reveal so much to us about our national history and it is right that we protect them for future generations.'

Martin Pritchard, co-finder of the Shingles Bank wrecks, added: 'I am very pleased that these shipwrecks dating to the 16th and 17th centuries have been granted the highest level of protection. They are a remarkable find.'
Taking the train can be a great way to cut your emissions compared to travelling in a car or boarding a flight.

But as it stands, train travel isn't carbon neutral, with journeys accounting for 0.4 ounces (14 grams) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per passenger mile.

However, that could be set to change with a new train that actively removes CO2 from the air as it moves.

A US-based startup called CO2Rail Company has been working with engineers at the University of Sheffield and University of Toronto to develop huge vents that take in air while the train moves.

The CO2 can then be separated from the air, converted to a liquid and stored within the carriage until it can be emptied.

The researchers believe this is a more cost efficient than other direct air capture (DAC) solutions, as the carriages can be retrofitted to trains already in service.

They claim that each car could remove up to 3,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year in the near term.

The technology also requires less land than stationary DAC facilities, and will help countries reach their net zero emission goals.

Illustration of the CO2Rail train car that can actively remove carbon dioxide from the air as it moves. The carbon dioxide (CO2) can then be separated from the air, converted to a liquid and stored within the carriage until it can be emptied

Schematic of a Rail DAC car. Air passes through intakes extending up into the slipstream of the moving train, through DAC contactors mounted within the cylindrical collection chamber. Captured CO2 is liquefied, stored, and then off-loaded at stations during crew change or fuelling stops. Solar panels and the regenerative braking system charge a large battery array contained in the undercarriage and power the processes

HOW DOES THE TRAIN CARRIAGE WORK? As a train fitted with a CO2Rail car moves, the air that extends up into the slipstream pushes ambient air into a cylindrical CO2 collection chamber. The air is then moved through a chemical process that separates its CO2, before the CO2-free air travels out the back or underside of the car and into the atmosphere. After a sufficient amount of CO2 has been captured in the collection chamber, it is concentrated and stored in a liquid reservoir. The liquid can be emptied from the train at a crew change or fuelling stop to be transported into the circular carbon economy or to nearby geological landfill sites. Advertisement

Professor Peter Styring, Director of the UK Centre for Carbon Dioxide Utilisation at the University of Sheffield and co-author of the research, said: 'The direct capture of carbon dioxide from the environment is increasingly becoming an urgent necessity to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.

'The technology will harvest meaningful quantities of CO2 at far lower costs and has the potential to reach annual productivity of 0.45 gigatons by 2030, 2.9 gigatons by 2050, and 7.8 gigatons by 2075 with each car having an annual capacity of 3,000 tonnes of CO2 in the near term.'

In a paper published today in Joule, the researchers outline the design for the CO2Rail carriages.

They are an example of a DAC technology, that removes carbon dioxide from the air and compresses it for storage or utilisation purposes.

As a train fitted with a CO2Rail car moves, the air that extends up into the slipstream pushes ambient air into a cylindrical CO2 collection chamber.

The air is then moved through a chemical process that separates its CO2, before the CO2-free air travels out the back or underside of the car and into the atmosphere.

After a sufficient amount of CO2 has been captured in the collection chamber, it is concentrated and stored in a liquid reservoir.

The liquid can be emptied from the train at a crew change or fuelling stop to be transported into the circular carbon economy or to nearby geological landfill sites.

Each freight train and passenger train will have the capability to harvest approximately 105 and 75 tonnes of CO2 each day respectively by way of the Rail DAC system

Each of the processes inside the CO2Rail car are powered exclusively by onboard solar panels, or by energy generated from the regenerative braking system.

When regenerative brakes are applied, the current in the electric motors is reversed and begins converting the vehicle's forward momentum into electrical energy.

On current electric trains, this energy is dissipated in the form of heat and discharged out of the top of the locomotive during every braking manoeuvre.

'That is wasted energy,' says lead author Eric Bachman, founder of CO2Rail.

'Every complete braking manoeuvre generates enough energy to power 20 average homes for a day, so we're not talking about a trivial amount of energy.

'Multiply this by every stop or deceleration for nearly every train in the world and you have about 105 times more energy than the Hoover Dam produces within that same period, and that was a hydro-electric construction project that took six years and cost $760 million (634 million) in todays dollars.'

The researchers say that an average freight train with these CO2Rail cars could remove up to 6,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

The researchers found each direct air capture car can harvest about 6,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air per year and more as the technology develops. Moreover, since trains are capable of hosting multiple CO2Rail cars, each train will harvest a corresponding multiple of CO tonnage

Stationary DAC facilities require large areas of land to house their equipment and construct the renewable energy sources required to support them.

Obtaining the permits to operate them can also be difficult, and many residents are opposed to the construction of these large facilities in their towns and cities.

Geoffrey Ozin, a carbon dioxide utilisation chemist from the University of Toronto and study co-author, said: 'It's a huge problem because most everybody wants to fix the climate crisis, but nobody wants to do it in their backyard,

'Rail-based direct air capture cars would not require zoning or building permits and would be transient and generally unseen by the public.'

The stationary DAC technologies also use large, energy-intensive fans to move air into them for carbon sequestration.

The purpose-built train carriages eliminate the need for these as they use large vents to take in air as they move.

Each carriage can also be retrofitted onto existing rail systems, significantly reducing any potential set-up cost.

As its sustainable-energy needs are being supplied by on-board sources, the price per tonne is also significantly lower than that of other DAC systems.

'The projected cost at scale is less than $50 (42) per tonne, which makes the technology not only commercially feasible but commercially attractive,' Bachman said.

The team are also working on a similar system that can remove the CO2 emissions from the exhaust of diesel-powered locomotives rather than electric. A locomotive emissions transfer array (pictured) will funnel diesel exhaust in to a locomotive emissions mitigation car for point-source locomotive CO2 emissions capture on diesel rail lines

The researchers hope the technology could encourage more passengers to use railways, therefore creating a positive feedback loop of carbon removal.

Bachman added: 'Imagine stepping onto a train each morning, seeing the CO2Rail cars attached, and knowing that your commute to work each day is actually helping to mitigate climate change.

'It will work the same with freight, if there is a choice between rail and another mode of transportation, I think this technology will sway many shippers.

'Rail is about five or six times more efficient than trucks. By increasing rail utilisation, you increase the efficiency of the entire transportation system.'

The team, which also includes researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton, are working on a similar system that can remove the CO2 emissions from the exhaust of diesel-powered locomotives rather than electric.

With the growth of sustainably-sourced rail electrification systems, this point-source capability on diesel lines would make rail the worlds first carbon-neutral mode of large-scale transportation.
Future rates of warming threaten marine life in more than 70 percent of the most biodiverse parts of Earth's oceans, new research reveals.

The researchers used a new technique to compare past and future extremes of ocean warming, which allowed them to map worldwide exposure to future climate change and determine distances that species would need to move to find better climate conditions.

'Our research shows that locations with exceptionally high marine biodiversity are the most exposed to future oceanic warming, making them particularly vulnerable to 21st century climatic change,' said lead author Dr. Stuart Brown from the University of Adelaides Environment Institute in a statement.

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Some of Earth's most biodiverse ocean area are under threat from climate change, new research reveals. Pictured: A caretta caretta is observed during a diving near Liman region in Kas district of in Antalya, Turkiye on September 21, 2021

'Our research shows that locations with exceptionally high marine biodiversity are the most exposed to future oceanic warming,' the study's lead author said. Pictured: A group of grey reef shark (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) and blacktip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) swimming near Tahiti, French Polynesia, in the Pacific Ocean

'This is because species living in these biodiverse regions are generally ill-equipped to respond to large changes in temperature.'

Some of the most vulnerable areas contain a majority of the world's reef-building corals, while other vulnerable regions are home to marine megafauna including manatees.

'In many cases this will require moving distances beyond the oceanic regions that these species evolved in and are adapted to, at rates of movement rarely seen for marine life,' explained Brown.

'While we have known for some years that recent human-induced climate change is affecting marine life through shifts in species distributions and abundances, the spatial pattern of exposure to past and future fast rates of ocean warming has been unclear,' said the University of Adelaides Associate Professor Damien Fordham, also from the Environment Institute.

'In many cases [the warming] will require moving distances beyond the oceanic regions that these species evolved in and are adapted to, at rates of movement rarely seen for marine life,' explained Brown. A southern stingray, Dasyatis americana is pictured above resting in groups on sea mount off shore Isla Mujeres Mexico Caribbean sea

'By showing that areas of high marine biodiversity are disproportionately exposed to future warming, our results provide important new information for deriving and strengthening conservation actions to safeguard marine biodiversity under climate change,' Fordham explained

'The persistence of these richest areas of marine biodiversity will require many species to move well beyond the biogeographic realm where they are endemic, at rates of redistribution not previously seen,' researchers stated in the study's abstract.

'By showing that areas of high marine biodiversity are disproportionately exposed to future warming, our results provide important new information for deriving and strengthening conservation actions to safeguard marine biodiversity under climate change,' Fordham explained.

'Actions that strengthen ecological and evolutionary resilience to climate change should be a priority. These could include improving fisheries management, assisting the movement of species, and the expansion of well-managed, climate-smart marine protected areas.'

The scientists research was published this month in the journal Global Change Biology.

A separate study, published in the journal One Earth, found that more than a quarter of the Earth's oceans need protection in order for marine species to live without impact from humans.

Researchers in that study said that millions of square miles of ocean should be prohibited from any human activity - such as fishing, commercial shipping and restricting pesticide runoff in waters.

'This science shows that governments must act boldly, as they did for the Paris Agreement on climate change, if we are to stop the extinction crisis facing many marine species,' James Watson, director of science at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said.

Virtually every component of Earth's climate system underwent large-scale change from the end of the Last Glacial Maximum to the early Holocene (approximately 19,000 to 11,000 years ago, according to researchers
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NASA's release of the first images from the James Webb Telescope captivated the world last week, but another picture has surfaced showing the purple spiraling arms of a phantom galaxy 32 million light years from Earth that some say bears a striking resemblance to the Doctor Who vortex.

Gabriel Brammer, an astronomer at the Cosmic Dawn Center in the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, created the image of the 'phantom galaxy' - formally known as NGC 628 or Messier 74 - by analyzing raw data from the James Webb Telescope that NASA makes publicly available.

Webb captured the image of NGC 628 on July 17 and sent the data back to Earth where it was stored in the Barbara Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, (MAST), an archive that holds data from 16 NASA telescopes, including current missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope and Kepler, a space-based observatory hunting for planets around other stars.

The purple swirling arms shown in the image, however, are not truly that stunning shade of purple, they appear that color because the molecules making up the galaxy give off emissions of radiation.

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Gabriel Brammer, an astronomer, created this image using processed raw data NASA makes available to the public. The galaxy isn't necessarily purple, but the color comes from the wavelengths emitted from radiation within the galaxy's molecule

James Webb Telescope's (JWST) Christine Pulliam confirmed to DailyMail.com that the image is from actual Webb data and explained that while some of the Webb programs keep data secret for a year for NASA scientists to analyze, other raw information is released publicly into an archive for experts to look at.

The purple coloring comes from the wavelengths emitted from radiation within the galaxy.

These wavelengths are at a part of the spectrum dominated by emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) molecules.

'For a tiny bit more context, the purple color cast here is actually 'real' in the sense that emission from interstellar cigarette smoke (PAHs molecules) makes the filters used for the blue and red channels brighter relative to the green,' Brammer wrote in a tweet.

The archive holds data from 16 NASA telescopes, including current missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope and Kepler, a space-based observatory hunting for planets around other stars. Another space enthusiast created a version of the galaxy with the same data

The spiral arms of NGC 628 have been imaged before, but they were snapped in visible light by the Hubble Space Telescope (pictured)

The spiral arms of NGC 628 have been imaged before, but they were snapped in visible light by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Some say the galaxy bears a striking resemblance to the Doctor Who vortex

Dr Janice Lee, Gemini Observatory chief scientists, commented on Brammer's image in a tweet: 'We are drinking from a firehouse.

NASA shared the first collected of James Webb images with the world on July 12.

Millions of people tuned into the American space agency's livestream, waiting with anticipation to see the first official deep-space pictures.

The gallery included a 'stellar nursery', dying star cloaked by dust and a 'cosmic dance' between a group of galaxies.

One of the five jaw-dropping pictures released shows a planetary nebula caused by a dying star  a fate that awaits our sun some time in the distant future.

Nearly half a light-year in diameter and approximately 2,500 light-years away from Earth, the Southern Ring Nebula can be seen in incredible never-before-seen detail.

Another image is of Stephan's Quintet, which is located in the constellation Pegasus and is notable for being the first compact galaxy group ever discovered in 1877.

Four of the five galaxies within the quintet are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters.

Sea of stars: Dazzling, unprecedented images of a 'stellar nursery', dying star cloaked by dust and a 'cosmic dance' between a group of galaxies have been revealed to the world by NASA's new super space telescope. Among them is an image revealing baby stars in the Carina Nebula (pictured), where ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds shape colossal walls of dust and gas

One image is of Stephan's Quintet, which is located in the constellation Pegasus and is notable for being the first compact galaxy group ever discovered in 1877

Another picture captures a planetary nebula caused by a dying star  a fate that awaits our sun some time in the distant future

Two cameras aboard Webb captured the latest image of this planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 3132, and known informally as the Southern Ring Nebula. It is approximately 2,500 light-years away. One image was taken in the near-infrared (left) and another in the mid-infrared (right)

This enormous mosaic is Webb's largest image to date, covering about one-fifth of the moon's diameter. It contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files.

NASA said the information provides new insights into how galactic interactions may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe.

Webb also revealed a sparkling image of baby stars in the Carina Nebula, where ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds shape colossal walls of dust and gas.

The 'cosmic cliffs' of the Carina Nebula  a star-forming region located roughly 7,600 light-years from Earth in our own Milky Way galaxy  were previously pictured by Hubble.

However, the new view offers a rare glimpse of stars in their earliest, rapid stages of formation, including hundreds that were previously completely hidden from our view.
Elon Musk's SpaceX has been awarded a NASA launch services contract for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission that will explore the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter, as well as look for new exoplanets.

The contract is considered an indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity contract because the mission itself currently targeted to launch in 2026 on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA'S Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The total cost for NASA to launch the Roman telescope is approximately $255 million, which includes the launch service and other mission related costs.

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The total cost for NASA to launch the Roman telescope is approximately $255 million, which includes the launch service and other mission related costs. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy, pictured above, takes off from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on February 6, 2018, on its demonstration mission

The telescopes program will include dedicated investigations to grapple with a range of outstanding questions in cosmology, including the effects of dark energy and dark matter, which scientists know very little about, and exoplanet exploration - NASA explained in a blog post.

Roman also includes a general investigator program to enable further studies of astrophysical phenomena to advance other unspecified science goals.

The telescope, previously known as the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST), was later renamed in honor of Dr. Nancy Grace Roman for her extraordinary work at NASA, which paved the way for large space telescopes.

Nancy Grace Roman was the first female executive at NASA and was the agency's first chief of astronomy in the 1960s and 70s, playing a foundational role in the planning process for the Hubble Space Telescope.

The contract for SpaceX is considered an indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity contract because the mission itself currently targeted to launch in 2026 on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA'S Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Pictured is a high-resolution image of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope against a starry background

As a scientist, she was well published, including one paper about the fundamental structure of the galaxy that was cited by the Astrophysical Journal as one of the 100 most important papers in the last century.

During her tenure at NASA, Roman developed and prepared the budgets for a range of programs and she organized their scientific participation.

In fact, prior to the introduction of peer review which brought in outside expertise, Roman was the sole individual accepting or rejecting proposals for NASA astronomy projects based on their merit and her own knowledge.

In 1963, when entry to the astronaut corps was restricted to men, Roman said in a speech that 'I believe that there will be women astronauts some time, just as there are women airplane pilots,' according to the Annual Review of Astronomy and Physics.

NASAs Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch vehicle program management of the SpaceX launch service.

SpaceX, which is averaging more than a launch per week, has already matched last year's record of total successful launches as of this month - with its Falcon 9 rocket set to deliver another batch of Starlink broadband satellites to orbit this week. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will also hunt for new exoplanets

SpaceX, which is averaging more than a launch per week, has already matched last year's record of total successful launches as of this month - with its Falcon 9 rocket set to deliver another batch of Starlink broadband satellites to orbit this week.

Musk's company also revealed in filings with the Federal Communications Commission that it may attempt a risky maneuver - using 'chopstick arms' and a launch tower to catch its returning Starship booster - during the massive rocket's first orbital launch.

The Roman Space Telescope project is managed by NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

NASA's next space telescope, named after NASA pioneer Nancy Grace Roman, will capture an area of the sky that's 100 times wider than what Hubble saw
After enduring two days of record-breaking temperatures, Brits are now having to brace for an onslaught of thunderstorms and possibly even flooding.

The Met Office has issued a yellow thunderstorm warning for much of southeast England from this afternoon, including London, East Anglia and the East Midlands.

A yellow storm warning means the weather will cause some 'low level impacts', including road closures and possible train cancellations.

Britain has only just experienced the hottest day in recorded history this week, with temperatures pushing past 104F (40C) for the first time.

Yesterday, Met Office registered a provisional reading of 40.3C (104.5F) at Coningsby in Lincolnshire at 3pm  a record high.

 Yellow weather warning updated 



Thunderstorm warning extended further north



Today 1200 - 2200



Latest info  https://t.co/QwDLMfRBfs



Stay #WeatherAware pic.twitter.com/PEyUypdge4  Met Office (@metoffice) July 20, 2022

Met Office issued a yellow warning for thunderstorms in much of southern England on Wednesday afternoon and evening

WHAT IS A YELLOW WARNING? On Wednesday, the Met Office issued a yellow warning for thunderstorms in much of southern England this afternoon and evening. The Met Office issues colour-coded weather warnings when severe weather has the potential to impact people in the UK. A yellow storm warning means the weather will cause some low level impacts, including some disruption to travel in a few places. What to expect: - Spray and sudden flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and road closures - Where flooding or lightning strikes occur, there is a chance of delays and some cancellations to train and bus services - A slight chance that power cuts could occur and other services to some homes and businesses could be lost Advertisement

Overall, Wednesday will be cooler  around 25C in many locations  but accompanied by thunder, lightning and heavy showers, which could result in flooding.

Members of the public have already captured some stunning photos of thunderstorms that took place throughout Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

But a yellow warning means storms could cause 'low level impacts', starting Wednesday afternoon and lasting into the evening.

Thunderstorms tend to occur after hot weather, such as an extreme heatwave, because the atmosphere is 'unstable', according to the Met Office.

It defines an unstable atmosphere as when warm air exists underneath much colder air, as is the case directly after a heatwave when there's much heat near the ground.

'The atmosphere is currently unstable, which is fairly normal at the end of a heatwave such as this,' a Met Office spokesperson told MailOnline.

'Thunderstorms are often associated with the end of a hot spell, as during this time the ground is very warm or hot and colder air is moving over the top of it.

'This colder air on top of a warmer layer of air near the surface creates an unstable atmosphere.

'In this situation the air rises rapidly, cools, and big towering thunder clouds called cumulonimbus clouds can form.'

As the warm air continues to rise, the water droplets combine to create larger droplets which freeze to form ice crystals.

Eventually, the droplets become too heavy to be supported by the upward movement of air of air and they fall as hail.

As hail moves within the cloud, it picks up a negative charge by rubbing against smaller positively charged ice crystals, the Met Office explains.

Thunderstorms have three stages in their life cycle. In the first stage a cloud is pushed upward by a rising column of air (an updraft). Next, precipitation begins to fall out of the storm, creating a downdraft (a column of air pushing downward). When the downdraft and rain-cooled air spreads out along the ground it forms gusty winds. This second stage is the most likely time for hail, heavy rain, frequent lightning, strong winds, and tornadoes. Eventually, a large amount of precipitation is produced and the updraft is overcome by the downdraft

'A negative charge forms at the base of the cloud where the hail collects, while the lighter ice crystals remain near the top of the cloud and create a positive charge,' it says.

'The negative charge is attracted to the Earth's surface and other clouds and objects.

'When the attraction becomes too strong, the positive and negative charges come together, or discharge, to balance the difference in a flash of lightning, sometimes known as a lightning strike or lightning bolt.'

It's the rapid expansion and heating of air caused by lightning produces the accompanying loud clap of thunder.

We hear this clap comes seconds after the flash of lightning for the simple reason that light travels faster than sound.

Warm air naturally rises, and as it does so, it cools and condenses, forming small droplets of water and a dense, towering vertical cloud called a Cumulonimbus cloud (pictured)

In the UK thunderstorms are most common over the East Midlands and the southeast, but they're a common occurrence globally.

They are most common in areas of the globe where the weather is hot and humid, such as the southeastern US states, including Florida.

Met Office also lists ways to stay safe during thunderstorms, as a strike of lightning can be fatal.

If stranded outside, people should avoid water and find a low-lying open place that is a safe distance from trees, poles or metal objects.

If in your car, wind up the windows and stay inside, because the metal frame will act as a conductive cage, passing the current around the passengers inside and on to the ground.

Drivers should also keep their speed down when possible, as this will lower the distance you travel when buffeted around by the wind.

'Vulnerable' road users, including cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians  should also be given more room than usual as they're more likely to be blown around.

It's also a myth that lightning never strikes the same place twice  it often does, especially if it's a tall and isolated object, like the Empire State Building.

Met Office says: 'Lightning strikes the best conductor on the ground whether it has been struck before or not.'
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Hyundai has revealed a sneak peak of what it will look like inside its new flying car concept  with plant-based leather seats, overhead 'light therapy' and built-in charging stations.

The South Korean carmaker, which created a new spin-off company called Supernal to design the butterfly-inspired aircraft, could make it available to the public as early as 2028.

It revealed its initial eVTOL vehicle cabin concept at the Farnborough International Airshow.

Hyundai and Supernal have previously said the S-A1 flying taxi under construction is a 'personal air vehicle' that could carry up to four passengers on journeys across cities.

The all-electric aircraft will initially be piloted, but could be flown autonomously in the future, at which point passenger capacity could potentially increase to six.

It is expected to be able to fly around 60 miles at speeds of up to 180 mph, while cruising at up to 2,000 feet.

Sneak peak: Hyundai has revealed a glimpse of what it will look like inside its new flying car concept  with plant-based leather seats, overhead 'light therapy' and built-in charging stations

The cabin features ergonomically contoured seats  to offer a cocoon-like environment for passengers  and deployable seat consoles which mimic those seen in cars

It is made from reinforced thermoplastic, durable plant-based leather, recycled plastic fabric and 'responsibly sourced woods', according to Hyundai

Hyundai's Supernal S-A1 flying car concept Hyundai's enormous Supernal S-A1 flying car concept could carry up to four passengers on journeys across cities. The aircraft will initially be piloted, but could be flown autonomously in the future, at which point passenger capacity could increase to six. The all-electric aircraft is expected to be able to fly around 60 miles at speeds of up to 180 mph, while cruising at up to 2,000 feet. However, it's likely going to be a while before we see it take to the skies, with Supernal claiming that it will be ready in 2028. Advertisement

A team of engineers and designers took a leaf out of the automotive industry's book to create the light-weight interior cabin.

It is made from reinforced thermoplastic, durable plant-based leather, recycled plastic fabric and 'responsibly sourced woods', according to Hyundai.

The cabin also features ergonomically contoured seats  to offer a cocoon-like environment for passengers  and deployable seat consoles which mimic those seen in cars.

These provide a charging station and stowage compartment for personal items.

Grab handles built into the cabin doors and seatbacks help passengers climb in and out of the flying car, while a combination of lighting  including overhead lights inspired by car sunroofs  adjusts with the various stages of flight to emulate a 'light therapy' effect.

'The Supernal eVTOL vehicle draws on the competence of the Hyundai Motor Group and the skillset of experienced automotive designers, which allowed us to develop a new air mobility concept that is not only safe and rational but also highly emotional,' said Luc Donckerwolke, chief creative officer of Hyundai Motor Group.

US-based Supernal hopes the battery-powered eVTOL vehicle, which is designed for intra-city passenger journeys, will hit the market in 2028.

On top of that, it is also developing a hydrogen-powered mid-sized vehicle for regional  city-to-city  cargo and passenger journeys, which it hopes will be operational in the 2030s.

Supernal also said it will be working to integrate the planned craft into existing transit networks and create necessary infrastructure.

This might include so-called vertiports  transport hubs for flying taxis.

Such a hub became a reality in the UK in April, with the opening of the Air-One site in Coventry.

Air-One is a centre for drones and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, including flying cars and taxis, and will serve as a blueprint for more than 200 vertiports planned worldwide over the next five years, according to Urban-Air Port, the UK-based developer of Air-One.

Hyundai's enormous Supernal S-A1 flying car concept has previously been put on display, giving the public a sneak preview of what the futuristic vehicles could look like

MailOnline attended the opening of the Air-One vertiport (pictured) in April for a look at what the future of transport could be

Located in a car park next to Coventry Station, the Air-One vertiport isn't exactly in the most glamorous location. But stepping inside the 17,000 square-foot radial tent-like structure, you're transported into what could be the future of transport

Hyundai first revealed its concept for a flying taxi, the S-A1, at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The firm also announced at that time a partnership with rideshare app Uber, which has forged links with several other companies to work on developing air taxis.

'Hyundai Motor Group is working to leverage synergies between automotive's high-rate manufacturing capabilities and aerospace's high certification standards to build the foundation for everyday use of passenger and cargo air vehicles,' said Jaiwon Shin, president of Hyundai Motor Group and CEO of Supernal.

'In order for Advanced Air Mobility to become a wide-spread mode of transportation, every detail  from the passenger experience to regulations and infrastructure  needs to be addressed from the start and work in lockstep with one another.

'Leveraging Hyundai Motor Group's mobility capabilities, Supernal is investing time and resources upfront to ensure the industry can scale to the masses in the coming decades and reach its exciting potential.'
Warm-bloodedness is a key trait of mammals, but a new study shows the first creatures to produce their own body heat and regulate body temperature were part of the late lizard lineage.

Researchers from the University of Witwatersrand (Wits University) determined this evolutionary event arose during a time of climatic instability some 233 million years ago. This was when averagely cold regions became extremely warmer.

The discoveries were made by analyzing the inner ear of hundreds of fossils. This area was chosen because it consists of small tubes for a fluid to run through that helps with balance and navigation.

High temperatures cause this fluid to become runnier and warm-blooded creatures evolved to have smaller ear canals to make use of the less viscous liquid.

The study also notes that true mammals did not walk the Earth until 30 millions after the first warm-bloodedness creates evolved.

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The team found the key trait at determining a warm-blooded animal (left) from a cold-blooded (right) is the size of the inner ear. A warm-blooded animal will have a much smaller inner ear

Senior Researcher at Wits University Dr Julien Benoit said in a statement: 'For the first time, we are able to trace through evolution the direct consequence of the origin of endothermy on the skeletal anatomy of our pre-mammalian ancestors.

The inner ear houses tubes that are filled with fluid as the head moves, which also activates receptors to tell the brain where to position the head and body so you do not fall over as you move.

Some 230 million years ago, the climate dramatically changed and many animals lived in regions of intense heat.

The researchers compared semicircular canals in 341 animals, 243 extant and 64  a majority of the fossils in this study were found in South Africa.

The team determined that warm-bloodedness evolved during a time of climate instability. Pictured is a warm-blooded mammal ancestor breathing out hot hair in a frigid night

Benoit explained that it was colder in South Africa, so the change in inner ear fluid viscosity could only have been caused by a warming body temperature.

When the temperatures rose, the fluid became runny and in a large inner ear it would not have the ability to tell the brain what to do and this is when the inner ear shrunk in size.

Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Natural History Museum and Lead Author on the paper Dr Romain David explained that until this study, the inner ear was only used to study the movement of fossil organisms.

Endothermy emerged relatively quickly, in perhaps less than a million years, rather than a longer, gradual process, David continued.

An early example was a vaguely weasel-like species, Pseudotherium argentinus, in Argentina about 231 million years ago. The later true mammals were the ancestors of today's three mammalian groups: placentals, marsupials and monotremes.

Mammals played secondary roles in ecosystems dominated by dinosaurs before taking over after the mass extinction event 66 million years ago. Among today's animals, mammals and birds are warm-blooded.

Co-author Ken Angielczyk of the Field Museum in Chicago told Reuters: 'It is maybe too far-fetched, but interesting, to think that the onset of endothermy in our ancestors may have ultimately led to the construction of the Giza pyramids or the development of the smartphone.

'If our ancestors would have not become independent of environmental temperatures, these human achievements would probably not be possible.'
Google will begin testing AR glasses a decade after its previous effort in the space, dubbed Google Glass, flopped.

The tech giant announced that a small group of select 'trusted' testers and company employees will begin to use the new augmented reality devices next month in order to see how they impact peoples' everyday lives.

Google hopes the AR glasses could help with a range of different tasks, including how to get from point A to point B or translating a menu that's right in front of into a different language.

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Google hopes its new AR glasses could help with a range of different tasks, including how to get from point A to point B or translating a menu

'These prototypes will include in-lens displays, microphones and cameras  but theyll have strict limitations on what they can do,' the California-based tech giant said in a blog post.

The AR prototypes do not support photography and videography, though image data will be used to enable experiences like translating menus or giving you directions to a nearby location.

'Its early, and we want to get this right, so were taking it slow, with a strong focus on ensuring the privacy of the testers and those around them,' Google product manager Juston Payne wrote in the blog post about the new product.

'These research prototypes look like normal glasses, feature an in-lens display, and have audio and visual sensors, such as a microphone and camera,' Google said in a support page about the testing.

'These prototypes will include in-lens displays, microphones and cameras  but theyll have strict limitations on what they can do,' the California-based tech giant said in a blog post

'The magic will really come alive when you can use them in the real world without the technology getting in the way,' Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at the announcement in May

Alphabet-owned Google, which still makes the majority of its revenue from Search, first revealed the AR glasses at its May developers conference.

Google is locked in an ongoing battle with Apple, Meta and Microsoft to build augmented reality glasses that actually become widely adapted.

'The magic will really come alive when you can use them in the real world without the technology getting in the way,' Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at the announcement.

Google's first effort, Glass, was not adapted by consumers and was panned by some experts who tried to wear it - as such, it's no longer available as a retail product.

'I think it was the wrong way to put out a product,' one source told the New York Times. 'I think a lot of people saw [the end of Glass] coming. People just weren't ready to wear this thing on their face. It didn't normalize the way they anticipated.'

Apple is apparently set to announce a mixed reality headset sometime this year, although it comes years after its competitors in the space have released their own versions.

The Apple product is rumored to be a 'mixed reality' wearable device, which would enable users to see virtual items overlaid on the real world in front of them.

Mixed reality describes experiences that combine elements of both a physical and virtual environment, allowing real and digital elements to coexist and interact.

Meta has announced a new mixed reality headset that is also forthcoming.
NASA announced Wednesday it selected three potential dates for its Artemis I mission  the first stage of its historic operation to send the first woman and person of color to the moon.

The American space agency is targeting August 29 to launch the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center.

And September 2 and 5 are marked down as backup launch dates.

James Free, associate administrator at NASA's Washington DC headquarters, said the exact date will be determined about a week before launch.

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The American space agency is targeting August 29 to launch the Space Launch System (SLS) (pictured) rocket and Orion spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center. And September 2 and 5 are marked down as backup launch dates

Artemis I, which has experienced several delays over the past two and a half years, will finally launch an uncrewed Orion capsule that will soar around the moon and splash back down in the Atlantic Ocean.

The news of the official launch comes weeks after NASA conducted a final 'wet dress rehearsal' that it deemed successful.

Catherine Hamilton, NASA office of communication, said during a press briefing: 'Artemis I will be an unscrewed flight test that will provide a foundation for human exploration in space and demonstrate our equipment and capabilities and human systems to the moon and eventually Mars.'

The rehearsal included fueling and countdown simulation for about 50 hours straight  it started June 20 and ended June 23.

Artemis I, which has experienced several delays over the past two and a half years, will finally launch an uncrewed Orion capsule that will soar around the moon and splash back down in the Atlantic Ocean

Pictured is an artist impression of the Orion craft soaring through space

Although it was deemed successful, there was a moment when hydrogen was leaking from the rocket.

However, NASA determined the issue was not crippling to the mission.

NASA'S SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM ROCKET IS THE LARGEST EVER MADE AND WILL LET HUMANS EXPLORE THE SOLAR SYSTEM Space Launch System, or SLS, is a launch vehicle that NASA hopes will take its astronauts back to the moon and beyond. The rocket will have an initial lift configuration, set to launch in the early-2020's, followed by an upgraded 'evolved lift capability' that can carry heavier payloads. Space Launch System Initial Lift Capability - Maiden flight: Mid-2020's - Height: 311 feet (98 metres) - Lift: 70 metric tons - Weight: 2.5 million kilograms (5.5 million lbs) Space Launch System Evolved Lift Capability - Maiden flight: Unknown - Height: 384 feet (117 metres) - Lift: 130 metric tons - Weight: 2.9 million kilograms (6.5 million lbs) Advertisement

'NASA has reviewed the data from the rehearsal and determined the testing campaign is complete. The agency will roll SLS and Orion back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy next week to prepare the rocket and spacecraft for launch and repair a leak detected during the most recent rehearsal,' agency officials shared on June 23.

'NASA plans to return SLS and Orion to the pad for launch in late August,' they added. 'NASA will set a specific target launch date after replacing hardware associated with the leak.'

Artemis I has been delayed several times  it was initially schedule for November 2020.

The first pause came after the coronavirus gripped the world two and a half years ago and then Hurricane Ida hit the US, which also grounded the rocket even longer.

The SLS rocket has also been plagued with its own issues  from mechanical to software.

The Artemis I mission will see the Orion spacecraft, the SLS and the ground systems at Kennedy combine to launch the Orion 280,000 miles past Earth around the moon over the course of a three-week mission.

This spacecraft, primarily built by Lockheed Martin, will stay in space 'longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before,' NASA has said previously.

If Artemis I is a success, then in 2024 NASA will send Artemis II on a trip around the moon, this time with a human crew on board.

The Artemis II mission plans to send four astronauts in the first crewed Orion capsule into a lunar flyby for a maximum of 21 days.

Both missions are tests flights to demonstrate the technology and abilities of Orion, SLS and the Artemis mission before NASA puts human boots back on the moon.

The Artemis mission will be the first to land humans on the moon since NASA's Apollo 17 in 1972. With the first woman and first person of color expected to step foot on the surface at some point in 2025.

At an estimated $1 billion per launch, the space agency wants to ensure any issues or errors are picked up before the single-use rocket leaves the Earth.

NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the moon in 2025 as part of the Artemis mission Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the moon in Greek mythology. NASA has chosen her to personify its path back to the moon, which will see astronauts return to the lunar surface by 2025 - including the first woman and the next man. Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the moon and Mars. Artemis 1 will be the first integrated flight test of NASAs deep space exploration system: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Artemis 1 will be an uncrewed flight that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration, and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human existence to the moon and beyond. During this flight, the spacecraft will launch on the most powerful rocket in the world and fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown. It will travel 280,000 miles (450,600 km) from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the moon over the course of about a three-week mission. Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the moon and Mars. This graphic explains the various stages of the mission Orion will stay in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before. With this first exploration mission, NASA is leading the next steps of human exploration into deep space where astronauts will build and begin testing the systems near the moon needed for lunar surface missions and exploration to other destinations farther from Earth, including Mars. The will take crew on a different trajectory and test Orions critical systems with humans aboard. Together, Orion, SLS and the ground systems at Kennedy will be able to meet the most challenging crew and cargo mission needs in deep space. Eventually NASA seeks to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon by 2028 as a result of the Artemis mission. The space agency hopes this colony will uncover new scientific discoveries, demonstrate new technological advancements and lay the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy. Advertisement

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Angry citizens of Uvalde, Texas, approached the school board Monday night, with speakers demanding that district police chief Pedro 'Pete' Arredondo be removed and questioning what safety measures will be put in place when schools reopen.

The pain from the May 24 tragedy at Robb Elementary that murdered 21 people weighed hard on the attendance, and some parents claimed their children aren't ready to return to school.

Uvalde School Shooting's Preliminary Report Released

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District board met on Monday, one day after a Texas House investigation committee issued a preliminary report revealing a series of errors by law enforcement authorities in their reaction to the killing. The 77-page interim assessment highlighted an overall lax approach by almost 400 local, state, and federal law enforcement personnel who attended the institution as students.

State officials claimed Arredondo was the incident commander and blamed him for the terrible law enforcement response, and it was heavily criticized in part because cops delayed more than an hour to enter the classroom, CNN reported. The discovery that Border Patrol agents and state troopers made up more than half of the 376 law enforcement personnel who hurried to the South Texas school on May 24 distributed blame for a sluggish and bungled response considerably broader than prior versions that stressed Uvalde cops' faults.

The study made it obvious that authorities' egregiously bad decision-making extended beyond Uvalde's local law enforcement, who were eventually overwhelmed more than 5-to-1 by state and federal officials on the site. Other local cops from the Uvalde region also reacted to the incident.

The research sheds fresh light on the responsibilities of state and federal agencies, whose leaders, unlike local officials, have not had to go through sessions where enraged parents of the victims faced them. Only two policemen are now known to be on leave pending an inquiry into their actions: Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde Consolidated School District police chief, and Lt. Mariano Pargas, a Uvalde Police Department officer who served as the city's acting police chief throughout the massacre.

State police earlier stated that no troopers on the site had been suspended. On Monday, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the report's conclusions were beyond alarming, but he did not call out any one agency. The Texas DPS did not specify when the review would be completed. Every trooper, state police agent, and Texas Ranger on the site will be investigated "to establish if any breaches of policy, law, or doctrine occurred."

Col. Steve McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has already thrown much of the responsibility for the reaction at Arredondo, naming him as the incident commander and condemning him for treating the event with indifference, as per CBS News.

Read Also: Democrats Urge President Joe Biden To Take Aggressive Approach on Domestic Agenda as Manchin Shrinks Reconciliation Package

Angry, Heartbroken Uvalde Parents Flood School Board Meeting

Following the report, many people demanded that members of Uvalde's school district police force who were present during the shooting be fired, that an independent investigation into the Robb Elementary School failures is conducted, and that they be given answers and transparency about their specific concerns.

On Monday night, parents decided to pull their children from Uvalde schools in September, and some demanded the resignation of Uvalde CISD Superintendent Dr. Hal Harrell. The community also wanted to know whether or not the Robb Elementary School door was secured.

Participants at the event also demanded an impartial probe into the massacre. The gathering was unified, repeatedly asking everyone to stand up together, be bold, and speak their truth.

After apologizing in his introduction for not holding a forum like this sooner, Harrell, who was seated on stage with the entire school board, opened the floor to questions. Cross was referring to a news briefing conducted on Sunday by the special committee report on the poor police reaction to the shooting that murdered 19 children and two teachers.

Sunday, relatives were welcome to attend and ask questions, and those invited, including the media and families, were expected to fill out the documentation necessary by the committee to ask a question. Many people in the community did. However, they were unable to ask their questions owing to time limits.

Before the discussion began on Monday, community members wearing similar "Uvalde Strong" shirts placed images of the victims on the chairs in the front row facing the school board members, according to ABC7.

Related Article: Indiana Mall Shooting: Gunman Who Killed 3 Identified, 2 Rifles and 1 Piston Recovered in Crime Scene

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Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has praised the effort Oleksandr Zinchenko has always shown for his team as the Ukraine international closes in on a move to Arsenal.

Zinchenko is set to join the Gunners, who like City are on a pre-season tour in the United States, with the formalities of the transfer expected to be completed shortly.

A fee of around 32million is reported to have been agreed for the versatile 25-year-old, who can operate at left-back and in midfield.

Pep Guardiola says it was 'nice' to say goodbye to Oleksandr Zinchenko after six years

Zinchenko has been training with the City squad ahead of his imminent departure to Arsenal

Ahead of City's pre-season friendly against Club America in Texas, Guardiola revealed Zinchenko would depart with the club's best wishes for the next chapter in his career, as he reunites with his former team-mate Gabriel Jesus in north London.

'On behalf of the club (I would like to express) gratitude for the effort, how they behave on and off the pitch. It was nice with Alex yesterday because we could say goodbye properly,' Guardiola said at a press conference.

'Unfortunately with Raheem (Sterling) and Gabriel we could not do it because it was the summertime, but yesterday we could say goodbye to him and (he can) move on to Arsenal.'

Zinchenko, joined City during 2016 from Russian side Ufa, will work again with manager Mikel Arteta, who was assistant to Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium.

Guardiola said he could not properly say goodbye to Raheem Sterling or Gabriel Jesus

Zinchenko will reunite with former Man City assistant manager Mikel Arteta at the Gunners

The Ukrainian had been with City at their base in Houston, but has now headed off to complete a medical and join up with the Gunners.

Arsenal are in Florida, where they play Orlando City on Thursday before facing Premier League rivals Chelsea at the Camping World Stadium on Saturday.

Brazil forward Jesus joined from Manchester City in a reported 45m deal, and Arteta continues to look at further strengthening the group.

Speaking ahead of Thursday's friendly, the Gunners boss said: 'We are in the market to keep improving the squad, but there are so many parties involved and sometimes things don't happen as quickly as you want.'
Howard Jacobson checks into our travel Q&A

This week author Howard Jacobson checks into our travel Q&A.

He reveals his how he was nearly shot in New Mexico, his dream destination, and more...

Can't go without?

A support belt for my back, lozenges for when my voice gives out, and blood thinners for when my heart gives out.

Fallen foul of the law on your travels?

I was nearly shot on a road in New Mexico when I made the mistake of getting out of the car to see why a cop was following me.

'I'm English,' I explained. 'We're polite over there.'

He nearly shot me a second time.

Dream destination?

Howard reveals that his dream destination is Positano on Italy's Amalfi Coast (pictured)

Positano, on Italy's Amalfi Coast. But those hairpin bends terrify me.

What's your earliest holiday memory?

Middleton Towers Holiday Camp in Morecambe with my parents. I sulked the whole week. My father entered me into a Just William competition. I came last.

First trip abroad?

Barcelona with the school when I was 14. I fell in love with paella, churros, Gaudi and a girl I met at a bullfight. Nothing came of the romance, but I still love paella, churros and Gaudi.

Did you enjoy living down under?

Jacobson was based in Sydney for a number of years and said it was 'paradisal'

Yes, I lectured at Sydney University in the mid-1960s. After growing up in wet Manchester, the bright heat of Sydney was paradisal. I took a flat overlooking the harbour, watched the Opera House go up, and went to work on a ferry.

Where next?

I'm off to Rhodes, in Greece, to dine to the music of a bouzouki under the Acropolis at Lindos.
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Meet Finnian, a medical alert service dog who has abseiled, kayaked and ice-skated his way to over 54,000 Instagram and 74,000 TikTok followers.

Heartwarming photos and videos of his antics form entries in digital diaries - under the user name 'finnianthegoldie' - that document his travels around the world. The two-year-old golden retriever has visited Gibraltar, France, Spain, Andorra, Iceland and Canada  as well as half of America's states  so far.

The service dog, whose main job is cardiac alert, has been with his owner  who has a form of dysautonomia, which impacts the nervous system - since he was just two months old and they have formed a particularly special relationship through their travels together.

She said: 'Being able to travel together makes our bond as a service dog team much stronger. It builds our trust every time we travel somewhere because I know I can rely on him to help me when I have medical episodes and I feel safer when I'm with him.'

One video of Finnian abseiling down slot canyons in Utah has had over two million views, with his owner revealing that she was surprised at how much he loved it. 'I've never seen him so excited. He was running around in circles,' she said. The adventurous pup also loves to lie on her lap whilst she is kayaking and recently visited a frozen lake in Colorado where his owner, a keen figure skater, taught him how to ice skate.

Finnian's family also include the owner's husband, a software engineer, and two other dogs, a six-year-old Pomeranian called Lacey and a four-year-old Goldendoodle called Keegan. They are based in Massachusetts but travel around the U.S in a converted 1991 GMC van. Scroll down to see pictures and videos from Finnian's adventures...

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Pictures and videos of medical alert service dog Finnian have amassed him over 54,000 Instagram and 74,000 TikTok followers. He's pictured here in Massachusetts

Finnian, who is two years old, is pictured here in Cannon Beach, Oregon

This picture of Finnian was taken in Gunnison National Park, Colorado

Finnian's owner is a keen figure skater and took him to Golden Gate Canyon State Park in Colorado for some skating lessons

Finnian is pictured on the left holding a Union Jack flag in Gibraltar, a British overseas territory on Spain's southern coast. He's pictured on the right in Madrid

After touring around Mackinac Island in Michigan, Finnian enjoys a well-deserved rest, complete with some novelty headgear

The golden retriever loved his trip to Utahs slot canyons, where he could explore at his leisure

While in Utah, Finnian was kitted out with a special harness that allowed him to abseil down the narrow rocks (left). A video of him in action has garnered more than two million views on TikTok. The picture on the right shows him posing in front of Delicate Arch during a sunrise hike in Arches National Park, Utah

While in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, Finnian went about modelling a trendy pair of pooch-sized goggles

Finnian smiles for the camera in his service dog vest at Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

While hiking through remote terrain Finnian, shown here in West Virginia, carries a backpack with a number of essential supplies including a first aid kit, boots and water

Here, Finnian has the beach at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, all to himself

Finnian proves he has sturdy sea legs during a kayaking trip in Massachusetts

The pooch strikes a pose in front of British artist Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture (aka The Bean) in Chicago

LEFT: The avid traveller strikes a pose with a French flag in his mouth while on a jaunt in Collioure, France. RIGHT: When he's not jet-setting around the world, Finnian travels around the U.S. with his owners in their converted 1991 GMC van, stopping off for activities along the way

Finnian's family includes a six-year-old Pomeranian called Lacey (pictured) and a four-year-old Goldendoodle called Keegan

Finnian in Collioure. His owner said he loved the trip because everywhere was so dog friendly

The service dog during a trip to the Park of Maria Luisa in Seville, Spain. His owner said: 'Being able to travel together makes our bond as a service dog team much stronger'

To follow Finnian's adventures, visit www.tiktok.com and www.instagram.com/finnianthegoldie.
Yazmin Oukhellou reportedly fears being banned from her boyfriend Jake McLean's funeral over tensions with his family.

The TOWIE star, 31, was a passenger in the car which plunged 70ft off a cliff in Bodrum, Turkey on Sunday July 3 which killed Jake.

It has been claimed that the couple had a blazing row at a nightclub shortly before the car crash, something which Jake's mum Anita Walsh told Turkish authorities she believed could have played a role in her son's death.

Ordeal: Yazmin Oukhellou reportedly fears being banned from her boyfriend Jake McLean's funeral over tensions with his family

However Yazmin, who was seriously injured, has insisted there was no argument.

A source told The Sun: 'It has become difficult for all involved. Yaz's biggest fear is being asked not to go to the funeral and not getting to say goodbye to Jake.

'It has been a devastating time for Jake's family. His death is still so raw for everyone involved.

Crash:The TOWIE star, 31, was a passenger in the car which plunged 70ft off a cliff in Bodrum, Turkey on Sunday July 3 which killed Jake (pictured last month)

'With time it's hoped they can come together and mourn their loss. But for now it is a fractured relationship.'

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Yazmin for further comment.

Last week, Yazmin told how she's 'scarred for life' following the horror car crash.

The reality star suffered serious injuries to her arm with doctors telling Yazmin it's a 'miracle' she's still alive.

Couple: Yazmin and Jake had been dating on and off since May 2021

Upset: Breaking her silence following her arrival back home, Yazmin admitted: 'This will live with me forever' as she processed what happened (pictured last month)

Breaking her silence following her arrival back home, Yazmin admitted: 'This will live with me forever' as she processed what happened.

In an interview with The Sun, an emotional Yazmin told how she struggled to comprehend how she survived the crash and Jake didn't, with medics telling her that she's an 'angel' as people do not tend to survive the 'notorious' crash location.

The traumatised star is also unable to sleep without her mother Lisa by her side since her ordeal.

She said: 'I severed an artery and a nerve, that's why I bled so much. The doctors called me an angel, a miracle, because it's a notorious spot and people have never survived. Now I'm just wondering how the hell did my partner die while I've survived? It's made me look at life totally differently.

Yazmin continued: 'I am definitely going to need therapy for a while, and I'm going to try some in-patient treatment too. I know this will live with me forever, I need to take it slowly.'

In addition to therapy, Yazmin may also need plastic surgery as she's been left with 'permanent scarring', with UK doctors warning she may never have the full use of her right arm.

The TV personality deliberately broke her trapped arm to escape the crash and rush for help - while Jake lay unconscious.

Traumatised: Breaking her silence following her arrival back home, Yazmin admitted: 'I am definitely going to need therapy for a while, and I'm going to try some in-patient treatment too'

She said of the prospect: 'I could have been like Jake and not survived so I'm just very grateful and lucky that if that's the worst case scenario, I will deal with it as best I can. The scarring that I have is awful so I will always have that as a reminder. But at least I'm still alive.'

As she continues to recover from the terrifying experience, Yazmin told how her emotions are 'very up and down' as she processes the grief of losing Jake.

She detailed how she had lost relatives in the past, including her beloved Nan last year, but no one who she's loved in an 'intimate way', admitting it's 'very difficult'.

Amid her recovery, Yazmin is staying clear of 'social settings' and will not be logging on to social media, while she's also changed her phone number.

Shocking: Jake McLean died after crashing his car off a road near the party resort of Bodrum, in Turkey

She emphasised that her 'focus' is just to get herself well again and to deal with what happened to her and Jake, adding that her on-off beau was the only person she felt 'a love like that for'.

The beauty went on to say that the ordeal will 'stay with me for life' before remarking that she loved Jake, whom she travelled across the world to be with, 'so hard'.

Following the crash, Yazmin was forced to break her own arm to escape the car and find help, admitting she had 'no choice' but to take the drastic action.

At the time Yazmin didn't realise she had opened an artery but revealed she was covered in blood as she lay upside down in the car.

Tragic: Emotional Yazmin told how she struggled to comprehend how she survived the crash and Jake didn't, with medics telling her that she's an 'angel' as people do not tend to survive the 'notorious' crash location

Yazmin said she convinced herself that Jake was still alive as she ran to the top of the bank they has rolled down and screamed for help.

Luckily, a man walking his dog found her instantly and rushed down to the car to help, but sadly it was already too late as Yazmin said she couldn't feel Jake's pulse.

Yazmin said the grief and shock have left her needing therapy and she hasn't left her mother Lisa's side since the accident.

The reality star also confirmed that the couple were currently off, but she flew out to Turkey in the hope they could reconcile and recalled how the trip made things 'perfect' between them.

The television personality had been on holiday with Jake in the resort of Bodrum where the terrifying incident took place.

Injury: In addition to therapy, Yazmin may also need plastic surgery as she's been left with 'permanent scarring', with UK doctors warning she may never have the full use of her right arm

Jake and Yazmin were driving in a blue Mercedes E class saloon along a windy, mountainous road between the coastal city of Bodrum and the seaside town of Yalikavak as they returned from a night out.

The crash took place at around 4.30am and investigators have established that the car hurtled around 70 feet over a left turn bend and landed in a ravine almost 30 feet below.

Jake was pronounced dead at the scene while Yazmin was rushed to hospital, where she underwent treatment for her injured arm.

After the crash, she clambered through thick, thorny bushes to stop a passing motorist for help.

Heartbreak: Jake and Yazmin are thought to have got together in May last year before she revealed their relationship on Instagram in December in a clip that showed the pair kissing

A source told MailOnline last week that Yazmin has been left heartbroken: 'Yaz is unable to feel any sense of relief because her heart has been ripped in two over Jake's death.

'She still can't come to terms with what has happened.'

Jake, 33, - who has previously dated former TOWIE star Lauren Goodger - was driving at the time of the crash.

Yazmin suffered serious injuries but pulled herself from the wreckage to get help.

Her mother flew out to support her daughter during her recovery at Bodrum's Acibadem Hospital in the days after the crash before bringing her home.

Meanwhile MailOnline understands that Yazmin could face a police quiz in upcoming days amid reports about the moments leading up to the crash.

According to reports yesterday she was arguing with Jake as their car crashed.

The claims were made by his mum, Anita Walsh, who raised her concerns with prosecutors investigating the crash that killed her son in Bodrum, Turkey.

Anita told prosecutors that Jake would not have lost control of the car as it flew off a bend on a mountainous road because of his driving expertise.

An Assistant Prosecutor who cannot be named under Turkish Law told MailOnline on July 6: 'We have spoken with Jake's mother and she has told us that something was going on in the car that distracted him.

'She does not believe that this accident was caused by his poor driving. She said that he is a very skilled and experienced driver and would not have lost control of the car like this.'

Prosecutors are investigating whether Jake was drink-driving. The on-off couple argued outside a club at 3am, shortly before Sunday's crash.

Jake and Yazmin are thought to have got together in May last year before she revealed their relationship on Instagram in December in a clip that showed the pair kissing.

But she split from him just a month later after he was reportedly caught 'acting single' while on a holiday in Dubai and leaving a club alone with Love Island ex Ellie Jones.

The pair were still thought to be split up when the crash happened on Sunday. Friends say they are unsure what the pair were doing together in Turkey, but may have been there to sign some kind of business deal.

A source told MailOnline: 'It's a complete tragedy and a total loss of life. Everyone is in shock and hoping Yazmin makes a full recovery.
After months of speculation, it looks like a Kath & Kim reboot may be happening after all.

Stars Gina Riley, Jane Turner and Magda Szubanski have reunited for a project that is being filmed 'in secret' in Melbourne, reports TV Tonight.

There's no word yet on whether the new project is a revival of Kath & Kim, or whether original co-stars Glenn Robbins and Peter Rowsthorn are involved.

Kath & Kim stars Gina Riley (right) and Jane Turner (left) have reunited for a project that is being filmed 'in secret' in Melbourne

The news follows reports that a Kath & Kim special and full series are under way.

According to Woman's Day, a new season was already in pre-production in May.

And in June, The Daily Telegraph claimed a special 'celebrating the much loved characters' and 'memorable moments' was in the works.

The special, which does not yet have an airdate, is an entirely different project to the speculated reboot.

The beloved sitcom originally aired on the ABC and Channel Seven from 2002 to 2007

The Aussie sitcom originally aired on the ABC and Channel Seven from 2002 to 2007.

The show followed the misadventures of cheerful Kath (Turner) and her hard-to-please daughter Kim (Gina Riley) in the fictional Melbourne outer suburb of Fountain Lake.

Magda Szubanski played fan favourite Sharon Strzelecki, Kim's 'second best friend'.

Magda Szubanski (pictured) played fan favourite Sharon Strzelecki, Kim's 'second best friend'

Last month, Magda addressed the speculation surrounding a Kath & Kim revival.

She said she couldn't comment on the rumours during an interview with TV Week.

'I'd have to kill you and your publishers and everyone else,' she told said on the Logie Awards red carpet.

For years, the stars of Kath & Kim have knocked back suggestions of a reboot

She added: 'It would be a bloodbath!'

The Kath & Kim reboot is expected to air on a streaming platform, not a free-to-air TV channel, sometime next year.

The series also spawned the television movie Da Kath & Kim Code in 2005 and the feature film Kath & Kimderella in 2012.
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Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz are finally sharing a glimpse inside their new cocktail lounge Schwartz & Sandy's ahead of Tuesday night's grand opening party hosted by DailyMail.com and TMX.

The Vanderpump Rules stars  who are currently shooting season ten of the hit Bravo show  have spent over a year renovating their new LA hotspot, which is nestled in the base of the iconic Hollywood Hills.

In DailyMail.coms exclusive pictures, the interior of the cozy cocktail lounge looks heavily inspired by vintage motels and is described by the pair as 'delightfully kitschy.'

New venture: Tom Sandoval (L) and Tom Schwartz (R) are finally sharing a glimpse inside their new cocktail lounge Schwartz & Sandy's ahead of Tuesday night's grand opening party hosted by DailyMail.com and TMX; pictured Tuesday at the opening celebration

Sandoval and Schwartz both channeled 1980s men's style with their striking suits. Sandoval opted for a double-breasted white silk suit with peaked lapels and chunky white loafers, which he wore over a coral patterned shirt while sporting a dark mustache.

Schwartz was attired in a double-breasted pink suit and a black-and-white tropical print shirt, along with black sneakers and blue-tinted aviator sunglasses.

The entrepreneurs and reality stars showed off their striking neon sign for the lounge, which featured tropical plants and Schwartz's name in block letters, while Sandoval's was written in a playful cursive scrawl.

The menu promises shareable cuisine and plant-based options, and the mixologist offers playful interactive drinks lovingly created by the owners.

The pair battled Covid delays and supply chain issues but were able to fulfill their creative vision for the venue, which includes an iconic 'starry night' ceiling inspired by the night sky in Joshua Tree National Park.

Sandoval quips: 'It's the only place in LA where you're guaranteed to see stars.'

There is also an art installation inspired by James Turrells Skyspace, which is a virtual portal to the sky.

Looking good! Sandoval and Schwartz both channeled 1980s men's style with their striking suits. Sandoval opted for a double-breasted white silk suit with peaked lapels and chunky white loafers, which he wore over a coral patterned shirt while sporting a dark mustache

Colorful style: Schwartz was attired in a double-breasted pink suit and a black-and-white tropical print shirt, along with black sneakers and blue-tinted aviator sunglasses

Humble origins: Sandoval and Schwartz, both 39, first met via a Craigslist advertisement and went on to become roommates in Los Angeles

Period appropriate: The entrepreneurs and reality stars showed off their striking neon sign for the lounge, which featured tropical plants and Schwartz's name in block letters, while Sandoval's was written in a playful cursive scrawl

Sandoval and Schwartz, both 39, first met via a Craigslist advertisement and went on to become roommates in Los Angeles.

In 2013, the pals and their close circle of friends became stars of the hugely popular reality series Vanderpump Rules while working at Lisa Vanderpump's SUR restaurant.

The pair went into business together in 2017 when Vanderpump offered Sandoval and Schwartz a chance to invest $50,000 each for five-percent stake in her new West Hollywood bar, Tom Tom.

Rise to fame: In 2013, the pals and their close circle of friends became stars of the hugely popular reality series Vanderpump Rules while working at Lisa Vanderpump's SUR restaurant

Taking the plunge: The pair went into business together in 2017 when Vanderpump offered Sandoval and Schwartz a chance to invest $50,000 each for five-percent stake in her new West Hollywood bar, Tom Tom

Getting ready: Sandoval and Schwartz are seen preparing for the opening party

Last year they also released a new small batch bourbon and rye called Toms' Good Lovin'.

For Schwartz & Sandy's, the duo are also paying tribute to their Midwestern roots, as Schwartz hails from Minnesota, while Sandoval was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

At an NBCUniversal upfront presentation in May, Sandoval shared that the two are 'Going to do some toasted ravioli from St. Louis.' They will also be adding some 'St. Louisstyle pizza [with] Provel cheese' to their menu.

Schwartz added that they might pay honor his roots with a Juicy Lucy, a burger with melted cheese inside of the patty, which is believed to have originated in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Stylish: The lounge ceiling was decorated with wooden beams and featured cozy booth-backed tables adjoining a small bar

Seating: Larger booths were tucked away under elegant arches and featuring hypnotizing diamond-shaped patterns on the seats and walls with striking elephant and giraffe designs

Eye-catching: Comfortable blue velvet chairs were set aside in a corner, which was decorated with blue brick and pink wallpaper decorated with mythical winged cats

At ease: The rug and animal-themed throw pillows created an inviting atmosphere, as if guests were dropping by an old friend's home for a drink

Having a laugh: The wall above the yellow velvet sofa was decorate with several humorous paintings

Funny: One featured a satirical portrait of a goat dressed in a woman's dress, while other paintings featured a woman with a tattoo on her thigh reclining on a sofa and one next to it showed a closeup of a poodle's face

The interior of the lounge featured plenty of small booth-backed tables, which were next to an adjoining bar where patrons could socialize.

Larger booths were tucked away under elegant arches and featuring hypnotizing diamond-shaped patterns on the seats and walls with striking elephant and giraffe designs.

Comfortable blue velvet chairs were set aside in a corner, which was decorated with blue brick and pink wallpaper decorated with mythical winged cats.

The rug and animal-themed throw pillows created an inviting atmosphere, as if guests were dropping by an old friend's home for a drink. The wall above the yellow velvet sofa was decorate with several humorous paintings.

One featured a satirical portrait of a goat dressed in a woman's dress, while other paintings featured a woman with a tattoo on her thigh reclining on a sofa and one next to it showed a closeup of a poodle's face.

The small marble end table between the seats was topped off with a retro lamp with a fringed shade.

Animal lovers: One throw pillow depicted a tiger skin rug, while another velvet pillow was decorated with colorful parrots

Old school: The small marble end table between the seats was topped off with a retro lamp with a fringed shade

Fierce: The spacious interior included included hexagonal stone floor tiles and a row of golden velvet-covered booths decorated with a tiger-stripe pattern

Shimmering: Hanging above the booths was a lovely golden peacock decoration

The spacious interior included included hexagonal stone floor tiles and a row of golden velvet-covered booths decorated with a tiger-stripe pattern.

'The reality is that we're very, very close,' Sandoval said during an interview in March 2022. 'We text numerous times throughout pretty much every single day. We're very, very, very close.'

'We help balance each other out,' he continued. 'And we have a great working relationship. He gets fired up, I calm him down. It's the same. It's a very loving, conducive relationship together.

'We really have this friendship of "no idea is a bad idea." Let's take it for a spin. Let's see what happens. Let's go for it, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.'

Great connection: 'The reality is that we're very, very close,' Sandoval said during an interview in March 2022. 'We text numerous times throughout pretty much every single day. We're very, very, very close'

Opposites attract: 'We help balance each other out,' he continued. 'And we have a great working relationship. He gets fired up, I calm him down. It's the same. It's a very loving, conducive relationship together'

Whatever works: 'We really have this friendship of "no idea is a bad idea." Let's take it for a spin. Let's see what happens. Let's go for it, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work,' Sandoval added

Doubters: But when the pair first introduced the name of their new bar, not everyone was a fan

But when the pair first introduced the name of their new bar, not everyone was a fan.

'I think it's horrible,' Schwartz's now ex-wife Katie Maloney said on season nine of Vanderpump Rules. 'You wanna make it like psychedelic, funky, fresh, lights, textures, and then you want to call it f***ing Schwartz and Sandy's? Ugh. I lost my boner.'

But the name ended up sticking.

'We're committed,' Schwartz said during a recent interview. 'We've heard people say, "Oh, it sounds like a Jewish deli," or whatever. But you know, Red Hot Chili Peppers to me, when I first heard that name, sounded like a mariachi band. But now you have a different association. So when you go into our place, the name will become the place, the place will become the name. That will be the association.'

'With TomTom, it's like, Tom and Tom could essentially be any other two Toms, but Schwartz and Sandy's? There's only one Schwartz and one Sandy, and that combination, you know what I mean?' Sandoval said. 'You're getting to know us even a little bit more, because this is more of our love child.'

Schwatz & Sandys is located at 1917 N Bronson Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90068 and will open to the public in the coming weeks.

That figures: 'I think it's horrible,' Schwartz's now ex-wife Katie Maloney said on season nine of Vanderpump Rules

Lack of vision: 'You wanna make it like psychedelic, funky, fresh, lights, textures, and then you want to call it f***ing Schwartz and Sandy's? Ugh. I lost my boner,' she complained at the time

A winner: But the name ended up sticking

Times change: 'We're committed,' Schwartz said during a recent interview. 'We've heard people say, "Oh, it sounds like a Jewish deli," or whatever. But you know, Red Hot Chili Peppers to me, when I first heard that name, sounded like a mariachi band. But now you have a different association'
Love Island Australia star Anna McEvoy opened up on Tuesday about her private relationship with boyfriend Michael Staples.

The blonde bombshell, 30, revealed she had finally found 'that person' after being unlucky in love over the years.

Anna said she and Michael had been an item for almost 12 months, which made 'all the s**t situations' from her past 'worth it'.

Love Island Australia star Anna McEvoy (left) opened up on Tuesday about her private relationship with boyfriend Michael Staples (right)

Anna, who is on holiday in Greece with Michael, discussed their relationship during an Instagram Q&A.

She said they'd just attended a friend's overseas wedding, which made her think about her own plans for the future.

'I've always wanted a destination wedding and to see one in action made me want to do it even more!' she wrote.

Anna, who is on holiday in Greece with Michael, discussed their relationship during an Instagram Q&A

Anna rose to fame on season two of Love Island Australia, and won the show with Josh Packham.

The couple split in December 2020.

She said on Instagram at the time: 'It has been quite hard... It's extremely difficult to break up with someone who you still love but it is the right thing to do.'

Anna went public about her new relationship in October last year

She went public with her new boyfriend in October last year.

Anna went into detail about the romance on her podcast Where's Your Head At?, which she hosts with her Love Island co-star Matt Zukowski.

'I was, like, the happiest person alive. I still am. I feel like I'm beaming,' she gushed.
Jane Fonda was sprightly as ever when she was spotted in Times Square this week headed into Good Morning America.

The 84-year-old slid her impressively trim physique into a summery ensemble that included fitted white trousers.

She buttoned herself into a pastel floral blouse and tucked it into her slacks, emphasizing her enviably trim waistline.

Stepping out: Jane Fonda was sprightly as ever when she was spotted in Times Square this week headed into Good Morning America

The workout tape icon, who once remarked that she 'bought myself a decade with plastic surgery,' could be seen smiling and waving.

Jane cut a fit and youthful figure during her latest outing, demonstrating excellent posture as she made her way around Midtown Manhattan.

While promoting her animated feature Luck on Good Morning America that day, Jane shared her own mindset about life's changing fortunes.

She fell back on an old adage attributed to Seneca and noted that 'this is not original to me, but luck is preparation meeting opportunity.'

Off she goes: The 84-year-old slid her impressively trim physique into a summery ensemble that included fitted white trousers

Jane elaborated: 'You know, opportunity can come along and there are people who don't know - they can't even see it, much less seize it and use it. In a way, you have to prepare yourself to take advantage of opportunity and turn it into luck.'

She went on: 'I also believe, and this is kind of the theme of the movie, that it's not a binary. It's not all good luck and bad luck and the two ne'er shall meet.'

Jane argued: 'They're the same. It's like silence makes no sense without noise, life makes no sense without death - well, good luck makes no sense without bad luck.'

When host George Stephanopoulos played a snatch of footage from the film, she cheerfully said: 'I haven't seen the movie yet so it's fun to look at these little clips.'

Publicity rounds: While promoting her animated feature Luck on Good Morning America that day, Jane shared her own mindset about life's changing fortunes

Luck comes after the end of Jane's long-running Netflix sitcom Grace And Frankie, which reunited her with her 9 To 5 co-star Lily Tomlin.

Grace And Frankie, whose co-creator Marta Kauffman also helped create Friends, dropped its last batch of episodes this April.

Jane and Lily star as diametrically opposite women - an elegant martini-swilling martinet and a relaxed New Age type - who wind up living together.

Chitchat: She fell back on an old adage attributed to Seneca and noted that 'this is not original to me, but luck is preparation meeting opportunity'

They find themselves having to stay in the same house after their husbands (Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston) leave them for each other.

The seventh and final season featured an appearance by Dolly Parton, who had led the cast of 9 To 5 alongside Jane and Lily.

Jane's upcoming films include a sequel to her hit 2018 comedy Book Club about four older women who read Fifty Shades Of Grey and revitalize their lives.

In recent months Jane and her co-stars Mary Steenburgen, Diane Keaton and Candice Bergen have been seen shooting Book Club 2 in Italy.
Love Island Australia star Cassidy McGill has shared her humourous account of travelling through Paris as a single woman.

The 27-year-old took aim at fellow influencers who like to emphasise the 'romantic' side of the French capital, saying it isn't what it's cracked up to be.

Cassidy sampled various tourist activities, like visiting Disneyland and ordering steak and fries near the Eiffel Tower, but soon became disillusioned.

Love Island Australia star Cassidy McGill has shared her humourous account of travelling through Paris as a single woman

She began her series of videos on Instagram by saying how 'forward' French men are and joked she was on high alert for 'stranger danger'.

'My stranger danger is sky high in Europe... the second a man comes up to me, I picture Taken and am like, "Not today, Satan,"' Cassidy said, referring to the 2008 action film about human trafficking starring Liam Neeson.

'Hot girl Euro summer probably isn't going to happen!' she added.

She began her series of videos on Instagram by saying how 'forward' French men are and joked she was on high alert for 'stranger danger'

Cassidy, who is staying in a hostel, said she found a popular steak restaurant near the Eiffel Tower, but influencers who had dined there before clearly weren't honest about their experience.

'I googled good steak frites and Entrecote came up, it's near the Eiffel Tower. So I went all the way there, it's a 70-person line to wait and I'm like, "I've seen influencers come to these places and they don't f**king talk about waiting in line for a steak and fries,"' she said.

'Did I go there? F**k no. I went to the place next door,' she added.

Cassidy said she found a popular steak restaurant near the Eiffel Tower, but influencers who had dined there before clearly weren't honest about their experience

Cassidy then visited Disneyland, but said seeing loved-up couples everywhere reminded her of being single.

'Spending the day at Disneyland Paris with the love of your life is so special... oh wait,' she captioned a video of a couple at the amusement park, before panning the camera back to herself.

'Just kidding. If anyone knows me I don't give a f**k. I'm going to find myself a hot dog cause I'm a slut for a hot dog,' she joked.

Cassidy finished her day by going to a Coldplay concert.

Cassidy then visited Disneyland, but said seeing loved-up couples everywhere reminded her of being single

Cassidy is seen here in front of the Eiffel Tower

However, it seems Cassidy is still loving her travels, sharing pictures of Paris on her feed and captioning them: 'BON BLOODY JOUR.'

She also said Disneyland Paris 'really is the happiest place on earth'.

Cassidy rose to fame on season one of Love Island Australia in 2018.

Cassidy rose to fame on Love Island Australia in 2018. (Pictured with Grant Crapp)

Her departure came after the then-23-year-old showed off her ruthless side when she tried to steal former love interest Grant Crapp away from Tayla Damir.

Tayla and Grant ending up winning the show.

However, they split shortly after the finale when she found out he had a 'secret girlfriend' outside of the villa.
Heather Rae Young revealed that her husband Tarek El Moussa bravely stopped a heated alteration between a passenger that went 'crazy' on an airplane.

While detailing their 'travel day from hell' to her more than 2.9 followers on Monday night, the Selling Sunset star, 34, praised her 40-year-old spouse's courage.

'My husband did something very heroic when a man went crazy on our flight and verbally attacked and physically got in flight attendants and pilots faces,' the TV personality, who is pregnant with her first child, captioned a video on her Instagram.

Long day: Heather Rae Young revealed that her husband Tarek El Moussa bravely stopped a heated alteration between a passenger that went 'crazy' on an airplane

While the mom-to-be sweetly called the Flip or Flop alum a 'hero' as he laid by her side in a dimly-lit hotel room, El Moussa sheepishly replied: 'Oh, geez! Oh, my gosh.'

Young promised to elaborate on the drama, but admitted she was 'too tired' from over nine hours of travel delays to share the details.

Earlier in the day, the lovebirds documented their 'travel Armageddon' that included standing in a two-hour line at security at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Draining: While detailing their 'travel day from hell' to her more than 2.9 followers on Monday night, the Selling Sunset star, 34, praised her 40-year-old spouse's courage

'My husband did something very heroic when a man went crazy on our flight and verbally attacked and physically got in flight attendants and pilots faces,' the TV personality, who is pregnant with her first child, captioned a video on her Instagram

Things only got worse as their flight, which ultimately got cancelled, repeatedly got delayed.

After nine hours, three gates changes and boarding the plane, El Moussa called the experience 'mayhem' and even said he witnessed a 'fist fight.'

Once they finally made it on the plane, passengers all had to deboard because their pilot 'timed out.'

Awful: Earlier in the day, the lovebirds documented their 'travel Armageddon' that included standing in a two-hour line at security at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York

On Wednesday, Heather and Tarek announced they were expecting their first child together.

Heather shared the news via People, showing off her baby bump in a silky dress; soon after she shared behind the scenes snaps from the shoot.

She told the outlet: 'It was a huge shock. We just weren't expecting this. We had just gone through IVF. We had embryos on ice. We had a plan.'

Cute: On Wednesday, Heather and Tarek announced they were expecting their first child together

Baby joy: The star posted a snap of the sonogram on her Instagram

Tarek has two children from his previous marriage to Christina Hall, 39: daughter Taylor, 11, and son Brayden, six.

Heather and Tarek started dating in 2019 and tied the knot in 2021.

She explained to the outlet that she was happy to be a 'bonus mom' to Tarek's kids and didn't think they would try to have kids.

In her latest post, on Tuesday, she raved about her 'miracle baby' with her 'dream man.'

'If you know us, you know our journey has been far from normal so of course our pregnancy story is the same.  Ive been really open about my pregnancy journey-weve been doing IVF and went from having 7 frozen eggs to being told we were only supposed to get 2 follicles to then being able to get 8 to having an all natural pregnancy,' she gushed. 'You just never know what life has in store for you.'

The beauty added: 'You can plan and try to make things happen all you want but whats meant to be will be so to me, our baby is a miracle baby - the odds were definitely against us but all that matters is that it happened I just cant wait to hold her/him in my arms .'
Russian authorities deny the Vinnitsa missile strike targeted civilian areas that Kyiv used as military quarters. The Ukrainian military has been using civilian structures for cover and other purposes to shield them from attack.

Precision Missile Attack

Moscow said the Ukrainian army resorted to its usual tactic of hiding in civilian structures, which Kyiv denied, reported RT.

Three high-ranking officers and two UAF colonels were slain in the bombardment on July 14. The Kremlin promised Zelensky that anything military would be demolished.

According to the Minsk Suvorov Military Academy in Belarus, which reported the incident on its website, Oleg Makarchuk, a former cadet from Ukraine, was killed in the hit.

The academy claims that Makarchuk previously oversaw maintenance and logistics for the Ukrainian Air Force. President Volodymyr Zelensky recognized Makarchuk in April this year for defending Ukraine's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, noted the Press United.

Other casualties include Konstantin Puzyrenko, who was reported dead by both the news website Zhitomir Online and the local Berdichev, Ukraine, officials.

The Facebook post mentioned the casualties of the July 14 missile attack, including Ukrainian Air Force Colonel Dmitry Burdiko.

Based on reports, the officer's passing was posted by his son Konstantin on an Instagram post; that was deleted later, citing the CSMTimes.

Kyiv Denies Officers Were Killed

As the Ukrainian government spun the deaths of its officers, who were targeted by the Russian aerospace forces in the Vinnitsa missile strike. The Zelensky regime is using it to generate alleged fake news of another Russian attack; Russian officials said they never targeted civilian areas.

Read Also: Volodymyr Zelensky Children: Does the Ukraine President Have Kids?

Now Kyiv is flooding western media outfits reporting the real deal uncritically; instead, the Ukrainian government has not reported any military casualties resulting from the strike, but Vinnitsa Governor Sergey Borzov said on Tuesday that 25 have died from the attack.

Unverified reports from Ukrainian media said that the victims were doctors from a nearby clinic and small children, not backing up the claims.

The Ukrainian government has not reported any military casualties resulting from the strike, but Vinnitsa Governor Sergey Borzov said on Tuesday that 25 have died from the attack.

Unverified reports from Ukrainian media said that the victims were doctors from a nearby clinic and small children, not backing up the claims.

Ukrainian Air Force argued that it was a civilian performance venue and home to cafes and other enterprises, the structure not military-owned. Later, Zelensky prattles on with his usual repetitive diatribe.

For every tactical assault by the Russian army and aerospace forces that have decimated Ukraine's forces, structures, and even US weaponry, Kyiv called it otherwise.

On February 24, the special operation rolled out to protect the DPR and LPR from Ukrainian attacks before they even began. Kyiv denies the implementation of the Minsk Agreement.

Conflict rages as Kyiv's forces are routed and defeated in many engagements despite claims it won. Even western arms have failed in the hands of the Ukrainians left with conscripts. Many of their soldiers have died fighting against the Russian juggernaut; Kyiv's fall is a matter of time.

The Vinnitsa missile strike is an example of the Ukrainian forces hiding among structures so they can claim targeted civilian areas; Russian denies the claim.

Related Article: Moscow Thrashes Blinken's Allegations of Ukrainian Abuse as False American Propaganda

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Khloe Kardashian looked as if she was on cloud nine on Tuesday when she shared an adorable photoset featuring her daughter True Thompson to Instagram.

The 38-year-old Kardashians star revealed her incredible figure in a sleek one-piece bathing suit while enjoying the cool water in a tropical spot as she prepares to welcome a second child with her ex Tristan Thompson via surrogate.

But even as she and her four-year-old daughter were enjoying bonding time, Tristan was across the globe in Mykonos, Greece, where he was seen holding hands with a mystery women in the wee hours of the morning.

Family time: Khloe Kardashian, 38, soaked up the pristine sun and enjoyed cool blue tropical waters with her daughter True Thompson, four, in photos she posed on Tuesday

'Me and my best girl making the best memories. I will forever have your back my angel girl,' she wrote lovingly, adding a heart to cap off her caption.

In her photos, Khloe was giving True a piggyback ride through the gorgeous pale blue water, while a grove of trees could be seen in the background.

She showcased her astounding fit figure and a bit of side boob in her high-cut one-piece suit, which was decorated with a green-and-brown camouflage pattern.

The Revenge Body star also blocked out the sun with a chunky set of black rectangular black sunglasses, and she wore her bleached blond hair tied back and with a middle part.

In one photo, she spread her arms out, revealing her impeccable long white nails, while True wrapped her arms around her neck.

Curves ahead: Khloe showcased her astounding fit figure and a bit of side boob in her high-cut one-piece suit, which was decorated with a green-and-brown camouflage pattern

Cute: In her photos, Khloe was giving True a piggyback ride through the gorgeous pale blue water, while a grove of trees could be seen in the background

Like mom: True wore a cute one-piece with a frilly back and a tie-dyed pink-and-white pattern. Her raven curls were styled naturally and tied up in a bun

The little girl wore a cute one-piece with a frilly back and a tie-dyed pink-and-white pattern.

Her raven curls were styled naturally and tied up in a bun.

Both mother and daughter showed off their infectious smiles while enjoying time in gorgeous nature.

Khloe didn't specify where she was or if the photos were new. Earlier this month, she vacationed with her sister Kim Kardashian and her children in Turks and Caicos, though it wasn't clear if her newest snaps were from the same spot, or if she was still there.

Last week, she posted a fun snap of herself and True sticking their tongues out while posing with a beaming Dream Kardashian, who is the daughter of her brother Rob Kardashian and his ex Blac Chyna.

In paradise: Khloe didn't specify where she was or if the photos were new. Earlier this month, she vacationed with her sister Kim Kardashian and her children in Turks and Caicos, though it wasn't clear if her newest snaps were from the same spot, or if she was still there

Family: Last week, she posted a fun snap of herself and True sticking their tongues out while posing with a beaming Dream Kardashian, who is the daughter of her brother Rob Kardashian and his ex Blac Chyna

But while Khloe was focused on parenting her young daughter, her ex Tristan Thompson was living it up on vacation in Greece.

The 31-year-old Chicago Bulls player was seen in Mykonos in the early hours of Sunday morning as he left a nightclub with an unidentified woman after hours of partying.

The athlete and his mystery brunette were spotted holding hands as they walked through the streets.

Tristan, who will soon be a father of four, was also seen in the Mediterranean country on Friday, where he enjoyed the sun and a lunch before visiting the same club and smoking hookah.

Having his fun: But while Khloe was with True, her ex Tristan Thompson, 31, was seen partying in Mykonos, Greece, while holding hands with a mystery brunette; seen in 2019 in Toronto

In addition to True, he also shares his five-year-old son Prince with his model ex Jordan Craig, and he shares six-month-old Theo with the fitness model Maralee Nichols.

It was reported in December that Nichols had given birth to his son, but it wasn't until January that he owned up to the child in a statement that also included an apology to Khloe.

A rep for the KUWTK star confirmed to DailyMail.com on Wednesday that she was expecting a second child with Tristan via a surrogate.

The child was conceived in November, shortly before news broke of his son with Nichols.

Baby number two: Khloe's rep confirmed last week that she's expecting a second child with him via surrogate, which is due any day now; seen in 2018 in La
Former The Project panelist Meshel Laurie has taken aim at the Channel 10 show for replacing embattled host Lisa Wilkinson with 'three white women'.

Radio host Rachel Corbett, former ABC presenter Georgie Tunny and Studio 10 anchor Sarah Harris will rotate as fill-ins for Wilkinson, 62, as she takes time off following her disastrous Logies speech.

Laurie, 49, who was sacked from The Project in 2019, reacted to the news with derision, branding the move to hire 'three more white women' as 'hilarious' in a now-deleted Instagram post on Tuesday.

Former The Project panelist Meshel Laurie (pictured) has taken aim at the Channel 10 show for replacing embattled host Lisa Wilkinson with 'three white women'

'@Channel10au and @theprojecttv [love] diversity. I love these women individually, but I find it kind of hilarious that they're replacing [Wilkinson] with THREE more white women,' Laurie wrote next to a photo of Corbett, Tunny, Harris and Wilkinson.

'I know we are a legion but even I'm starting to wonder where they keep finding us! I know they are aware of non-Anglo women, but they are very determined to hide them!'

Laurie's post comes a week after she claimed Channel 10 executives found her political views 'too left' for the notoriously left-leaning current affairs show.

Radio host Rachel Corbett (bottom left), former ABC presenter Georgie Tunny (bottom right) and Studio 10 anchor Sarah Harris (top left) will rotate as fill-ins for Wilkinson, 62, (top right) as she takes time off following her disastrous Logies speech

Laurie, who was sacked from The Project in 2019, reacted to the news with derision, branding the move to hire 'three more white women' as 'hilarious' in a now-deleted Instagram post

Laurie's post comes a week after she claimed Channel 10 executives found her political views 'too left' for the notoriously left-leaning current affairs show. (Pictured with Waleed Aly)

While Laurie did not explicitly state she was sacked for her views, she says concerns were raised about her politics not long after former Today host Wilkinson joined the panel in 2018.

Laurie, who now runs her own successful podcast company, also alleges she 'tried for years' to get Channel 10 to hire more Indigenous presenters but her requests were apparently ignored.

She spoke bitterly of her years working for the network in a series of Instagram posts, telling her followers she has 'emails to prove' her explosive claims.

While Laurie did not explicitly state she was sacked for her views, she says concerns were raised about her politics not long after former Today host Wilkinson joined the panel in 2018

Laurie also shared screenshots of emails she allegedly sent to executives at The Project urging them to hire more Indigenous panelists and even pitching a 'mentoring program' to develop First Nations talent.

The Australian reported on Tuesday that Wilkinson will be replaced by Corbett, Tunny and Harris on The Project, as she remains off the air in the aftermath of her controversial speech at the Logie Awards last month.

The three women will reportedly fill in for Wilkinson on alternate nights, alongside regular hosts Waleed Aly, Carrie Bickmore and Peter Helliar.

Laurie, who now runs her own successful podcast company, also alleges she 'tried for years' to get Channel 10 to hire more Indigenous presenters but her requests were apparently ignored

Wilkinson isn't expected to return to the Channel 10 current affairs show until August, despite previous reports she was coming back in July.

The former Nine presenter has been absent from live broadcasts since June, but she has filed pre-recorded segments for The Sunday Project.

Wilkinson was 'quietly and securely whisked out' of Australia recently and will be based in Los Angeles for the coming weeks.

Laurie also shared screenshots (pictured) of emails she allegedly sent to executives at The Project urging them to hire more Indigenous panelists and even pitching a 'mentoring program' to develop First Nations talent

She will spend time in 'Hollywood and New York' where she will interview 'musicians and A-list film stars' for upcoming packages for The Project.

'She'll be dialling in from her new-found Hollywood base as The Project's roving reporter,' The Australian reported on Sunday.

The trip will be combined with annual leave Wilkinson already had planned.

On Tuesday, The Australian reported that Wilkinson will be replaced by Corbett, Tunny and Harris on The Project, as she continues to take time off air following her controversial speech at the Logie Awards last month

Wilkinson was originally scheduled to be back on the live panel in mid-July, but will now remain away for at least a month longer.

Wilkinson was taken off the air after she spoke of an upcoming court case during her acceptance speech at the Logie Awards last month.

The trial in question was rescheduled until October as a result.
Gogglebox star Stephen Webb has issued an apology after reportedly pulling an unsuspecting woman into a swimming pool during a row at an exclusive club in Brighton.

The TV personality, 50, who stars on the Channel 4 show with husband Daniel Lustig, was said to be furious after being pushed into a pool fully clothed, before retaliating by dragging the woman into the water.

Following the incident at Brighton Beach House, Stephen has told how it was 'never his intention' to hurt the woman, adding that he was in 'good spirits' over the prank.

Shocking: Gogglebox star Stephen Webb has issued an apology after reportedly pulling an unsuspecting woman into a swimming pool during a row at an exclusive club in Brighton

The Sun reports that the woman was chatting to Stephen's husband Daniel, 47, with her legs dangling in the pool when he was pushed into the water while fully clothed.

As everyone roared with laughter, Stephen is then said to 'shouted and screamed' at the woman before proceeding to grab her and pull her into the water, with the lady seen floundering in the water.

A source told the publication: 'She was chatting to Daniel with her legs in the pool when Stephen was pushed in. She started laughing like everyone else, which seemed to anger Stephen.'

Wow: The TV personality, 50, who stars on the Channel 4 show with husband Daniel Lustig, was said to be furious after being pushed into a pool fully clothed, before retaliating by dragging the woman into the water

They went on to add that for 'some reason', Stephen was 'furious' with the lady and began 'shouting' at her before coming over and 'pulling her into the pool'.

Regretting his actions, Stephen later said sorry for his prank, telling the publication that he believed his actions were 'was all part of the fun'.

He said; 'I am very sorry if she felt upset or hurt by my actions. That was never my intention. Id been swimming and having dried and got fully dressed, a friend pushed me back into the pool.

Sorry: Amid the incident at Brighton Beach House, Stephen has told how it was 'never his intention' to hurt the woman, adding that he was in 'good spirits' over the prank

'I took it in very good spirits and everyone was laughing and joking so seeing his friend sat on the edge of the pool, pulled her round her waist into the water with me. Wed enjoyed a really good time together and I felt it was all part of the fun.'

MailOnline have contacted Stephen's representatives for comment.

Stephen first appeared on Gogglebox in 2013 with former partner Chris Ashby-Steed, who's husband Tony recently claimed he was 'bullied off' the reality show by Stephen.

Incident: Stephen is then said to 'shouted and screamed' at the woman before proceeding to grab her and pull her into the water, with the lady seen floundering in the water

Tony blasted production staff on the Channel 4 series in September, where he alleged in a string of tweets that Stephen's behaviour was perpetuated by behind-the-scenes bosses.

Having enjoyed a run on the reality show between 2013 and 2018, Chris was swiftly replaced by Stephen's now-husband Daniel Lustig.

In September, Tony blasted production staff on the Channel 4 series in a string of tweets which tagged Paige Deville, 24, following her then-recent claims of having an unpleasant experience as a contributor as well.

'Our hearts go out to you @Paige_deville. The studio stood by and watched Stephen bully my husband Chris off the show and did nothing to stop him,' he began.

'The helped him get his mum on the show behind Chris's back without even telling him and then a couple of weeks before filming, Stephen through [sic] one of his usual diva strops and refused to film with Chris, and would only film with his mum.

Way back when: Stephen first appeared on Gogglebox in 2013 with former partner Chris Ashby-Steed, who's husband Tony recently claimed he was 'bullied off' the reality show by Stephen (pictured with Chris in the 2010s)

'They did NOTHING! Chris was devastated then they didnt contact him once after he was forced off, and I was left to deal with Chriss shattered mental health.

'Even a year later when the story partly came out, the Daily Mirror and the BBC were too scared to allow the whole truth to come out for fear of being sued.

'The studio imposed a kind of gagging order on him to stop the story coming out. Awful people the lot of them. Youre better off away from it, hun xxx,' he concluded.

An original couch potato since its 2013 debut, Chris was removed from the show and replaced with Stephen's mum in 2018, a move he admitted left him suicidal. He married Tony a year before the event took place.
She may be an Oscar-winning actress, but Nicole Kidman isn't afraid to poke fun at herself.

On Tuesday, the Hollywood star made light of her bizarre walk at the Balenciaga couture show during Paris Fashion Week.

Nicole, 55, took to Instagram to share a fan-made clip by Newman Parker, in which he joked about getting on a flight like The Hours star.

On Tuesday, Nicole Kidman made light of her bizarre walk at the Balenciaga couture show during Paris Fashion Week earlier this month

'Boarding a flight but in a Nicole Kidman Balenciaga couture show kind of way,' Newman captioned the comedic video.

The Australian actress was only too happy to laugh at herself, reposting the clip and writing: 'Nailed it. I'm taking tips.'

Nicole made headlines earlier this month when she walked the runway show at Paris Fashion Week in a one-shouldered silver gown with detailing across the midriff.

Nicole, 55, took to Instagram to share a fan-made clip by Newman Parker (pictured), in which he joked about getting on a flight like The Hours megastar

She finished the look with a set of opera gloves as she strutted down the runway alongside reality star Kim Kardashian and supermodel Naomi Campbell.

However, it was the Stepford Wives star's stilted, robotic walking style that really made headlines on the runway.

Nicole was roasted by fans shortly after the runway walk.

The Australian actress was only too happy to laugh at herself, reposting the clip and writing: 'Nailed it. I'm taking tips'

'I could have sworn I've seen Nicole Kidman walk like a human before, but you wouldn't know it from that Balenciaga runway she just did,' one critic tweeted.

'Why [are] they walking as if they just rose from their graves,' another added, referring to both Kidman and Kardashian.

'If you think Kim's walk was awkward, please go and see Nicole Kidman's [crying emoji],' someone else tweeted.

'Why [are] they walking as if they just rose from their graves,' a critic wrote of Kidman in the show, also referring to Kardashian

Several users pointed out the marked difference between the catwalk technique of seasoned model Naomi Campbell versus Kidman, who had never set foot on a runway.

'That's Nicole Kidman. She's a phenomenal actress and very tall. She does walk like a statue that just came to life [laughing/crying emoji]. The only 'model' in this is Naomi Campbell,' one user said.

'Now, why would they go and dress Nicole Kidman in a space blanket for a fashion show? Space blanket meets toga party, actually,' one Twitter user quipped.

'That's Nicole Kidman. She's a phenomenal actress and very tall. She does walk like a statue that just came to life [laughing/crying emoji]. The only 'model' in this is Naomi Campbell,' one user said

'Can't believe Nicole Kidman made foil look good,' another added.

However others rushed to Kidman's defence, with one tweeting: 'Everyone talking about Nicole and Kim's walks, like hello, they aren't models like Naomi is'.

Kidman was joined by the likes of Kim, Naomi, Dua Lipa and Bella Hadid on the star-studded catwalk.

Fans poked fun at Kidman's outfit, comparing the metallic frock to an emergency blanket or a sheet of crumpled tin foil

The Hours star's eyebrow-raising catwalk appearance comes five years after she was ridiculed for her now-infamous 'seal clap' at the Oscars in 2017.

Footage from the ceremony went viral after fans noticed her unusual clapping style.

Kidman's fingers were oddly outstretched as she applauded the winners, with only the heels of her hands appearing to make contact.

Kidman's eyebrow-raising catwalk appearance comes five years after she was ridiculed for her now-infamous 'seal clap' at the Oscars in 2017

Speaking to The Kyle and Jackie O Show weeks later, the Moulin Rouge! star laughed off the incident and explained why she hadn't wanted her fingers to touch.

Kidman said she didn't want to damage the 119 carats' worth of diamonds on her hands, including a 13.58-carat pearl-shaped diamond ring set in platinum.
Former Supercars driver Renee Gracie is arguably Australia's biggest OnlyFans star, while Hayley Vernon was recently crowned Australia's best new porn star.

But these two adult industry titans are now at war after Renee accused Married At First Sight bride Hayley of copying one of her business ideas.

The drama started when Renee, 27, booked a commercial to promote her new Instagram account so that she could boost her followers.

EXCLUSIVE: Australia's OnlyFans queen Renee Gracie (pictured) jas accused Married At First Sight bride Hayley Vernon of copying one of her business ideas

Renee ran the ads on Radio Metro, where Hayley works as an announcer, and told Daily Mail Australia that the venture was a 'great success'.

'I only had about fifty or sixty thousand people, and I grew it to about 130,000 in three months, so it obviously worked really well,' she explained.

After seeing how successful her idea was, Renee claims Hayley then copied her by running ads for her own Instagram page in the same slot.

'It was something I was obviously going to continue with, and unfortunately Hayley had the idea to do the exact same thing at the exact same radio station and the exact same program that I was running mine on,' Renee explained.

The drama started when Renee (left) took out radio ads to promote her Instagram page, only for Hayley (right) to do the exact same thing at the exact same station on the same program

'Obviously it was a bit of a shock to the system. And then I found out she'd also posted it on her Instagram page claiming that it was her idea and she's the first person to do it and she's making money moves.

'I thought it was pretty disappointing seeing that we're in the exact same industry, to have no clarification or communication from her.'

Renee also said Hayley had contacted her two years ago for financial advice when she first joined OnlyFans.

Hayley (pictured) works at Radio Metro where Renee took out the ads, and was quick to run commercials for her own Instagram account once Renee's stopped running

'Hayley called me asking for money advice and tax advice and just help generally,' she said.

'That was pretty much the only time we had ever interacted and I never really crossed paths with her since.'

Responding to Renee's claims, Hayley told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday she was simply taking advantage of a good business opportunity.

'Renee's advertisements had stopped and I saw an opportunity and took it,' she said defiantly.

Renee has emerged as Australia's biggest star performer ever since swapping her Supercars career for porn back in 2019

'My ad is raunchier than Renee's. She merely asked men to talk to her. We are different, do different things and have different markets,' she continued.

Hayley also said that Renee was being 'calculated' by making their feud public in order to gain publicity.

'She's not dumb, nor am I. We will both win from this,' she said.

Back in May, Hayley won Best Newcomer Female Porn Star at the prestigious Adult Industry Choice Awards in Sydney.

'I saw an opportunity and took it,' said Hayley, who has no regrets about her decision to copy Renee's commercials

She's now believed to be making around $600,000 a year doing hardcore porn on OnlyFans, and is set to appear at Brisbane Sexpo this weekend.

Meanwhile, Renee has emerged as Australia's biggest OnlyFans performer ever since swapping her Supercars career for porn back in 2019.

She now rakes in more than $1million a year, and has started working over in Los Angeles after dominating the Australian industry for the last two years.
Married At First Sight lovebirds Kerry Knight and Johnny Balbuziente just bought their first home together in Brisbane for an estimated $1.3million.

The couple, who got engaged in Sydney earlier this month, announced the news on Monday, sharing a photo to Instagram of themselves in front of their new house.

'Sold! Our home sweet home. It's been a huge few weeks for us,' Kerry, 30, wrote.

Married At First Sight lovebirds Kerry Knight and Johnny Balbuziente just bought their first home together in Brisbane for an estimated $1.3million

'Thank you for all of your kind messages and well-wishes. Our cheeks hurt from smiling,' she added.

The family-sized Queenslander sits on a 607sqm block and features three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The home still has most of its original design, including a clawfoot bathtub with exposed pipes in one of the bathrooms.

The family-sized Queenslander (pictured) sits on a 607sqm block and features three bedrooms and two bathrooms

The home still has most of its original design, including a clawfoot bathtub with exposed pipes in one of the bathrooms (pictured)

The residence had stayed within the same family for 30 years before Kerry and Johnny snapped it up last month.

The reality TV couple announced their engagement last week.

Johnny, a musical theatre actor, proposed to the occupational therapist during a romantic cruise on Sydney Harbour.

The residence had stayed within the same family for 30 years before Kerry and Johnny snapped it up last month

Johnny, a musical theatre actor, proposed to occupational therapist Kerry during a romantic cruise on Sydney Harbour last week

Kerry later took to Instagram to flaunt her stunning Nicholas Haywood engagement ring, worth approximately $50,000.

The pair captioned the image, 'Forever,' alongside a ring emoji.

Johnny and Kerry were paired up on season eight of MAFS, which aired in 2021, and have been going strong ever since.
Weekend Today's co-host Richard Wilkins has listed his apartment in Mosman, Sydney for $850,000.

He purchased the 93.5sqm unit back in 2013 for $591,000, along with three more investment properties.

The unit is located on the ground floor of a mid-1960s building and will go under the hammer on Thursday at 5pm.

Weekend Today's co-host Richard Wilkins (pictured) listed his investment apartment in Mosman, Sydney with an auction guide of $850,000

It features a chic modern design and two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

There have only been two other sales in the building in the last seven years, both two-bedroom homes receiving $820,000 and $900,000 in 2020.

This will be the second Mosman property the radio presenter, 68, has sold in the last two months.

He bought the 93.5sqm unit back in 2013 for $591,000, along with three more investment properties

The apartment is on the ground floor of a mid-1960s building and will be auctioned off on Thursday at 5pm

Richard currently owns two more investment homes in Cremorne, Sydney which he bought for $530,000 and $664,000, as well as his own $2M home acquired in 2004 in the same area.

He recently celebrated his 35-year milestone working for Channel Nine by hosting a poolside party at his Cremorne home.

Several of his television star friends attended, including Sylvia Jeffreys, Lauren Phillips, Ben Fordham, Jayne Azzopardi and Tim Gilbert.

Richard currently owns two more investment homes in Cremorne, Sydney which he bought for $530,000 and $664,000, as well as his own $2M home acquired in 2004 in the same area

Sylvia, 36, took to Instagram to congratulate Richard on his incredible career milestone.

Alongside a group photo from the party, she wrote: 'Dickie is the kind of friend who makes you feel like family.

'I'm so proud to call him a mate and to celebrate his 35 years at Channel Nine. We love you Dickie Bird.'
Love Island fans were left furious on Tuesday evening convinced that show's producers forced Dami Hope and Luca Bish to apologise to fellow contestant Tasha Ghouri after a game on the show got out of hand.

Fans accused the pair of 'bullying' the blonde beauty with tensions boiling over during the 'snog, marry, pie' challenge.

Tasha was the left visually upset after both boys pushed cream pies into her face during the supposedly light hearted game, with fellow Islanders later agreeing things went 'too far'.

'Producers told them to!': Love Island viewers have claimed that Luca and Dami were told to apologise to Tasha by producers after she broke down following the 'Snog, Marry Pie' game

Forced to give reasons why they were choosing to pie her, Dami claimed that the bikini clad stunner 'rides on Andrew's coattails'.

Viewers rushed to Twitter to accuse the two men of ganging up on Tasha with one writing: 'Dami and Luca are actual bullies'.

While another added: 'Dami and Luca are bullying Tasha made me remember my own bullies and now I can't watch the show without being traumatised'.

Splat: Forced to give reasons why they were choosing to pie her Dami claimed that the bikini clad stunner 'rides on Andrew's coattails' (Luca pictured 'pieing' Tasha)

Two! Both men decided to splat a cream pie in the bikini clad stunners face

And a third wrote: 'That was disgusting what the bully boys did to Tasha, I worry for her mental health, they think they are so big and funny, they need binging down, get them out'.

Later in the show, two men apologised to Tasha with Brighton based fishmonger Luca admitting he was 'out of line'.

He said: 'I do actually genuinely feel bad right now for what I said and I'm sorry'. Luca said.

Unimpressed: Viewers rushed to Twitter to accuse the two men of ganging up on Tasha with one writing: 'Dami (pictured) and Luca are actual bullies'

Bullying: Another wrote: 'Dami and Luca are bullying Tasha made me remember my own bullies and now I can't watch the show without being traumatized'

Echoing his words Dami agreed saying: 'I do support you and Andrew and obviously we have our opinions about everything that happened'.

He continued: 'I have said to you I thought you always get away with everything so I just thought it would be funny to say 'you always get away with everything well you're not getting away with this pie'.

Before adding: 'I don't want it to be like I'm ganging up on you. I actually want us to be friends.'

Sorry: Later in the two men apologised to Tasha with Brighton based fishmonger Luca (pictured) admitting he was 'out of line

Hugging it out: Tasha hugged both men and they agreed to draw a line under the situation, however fans were left unconvinced the apologies was genuine

Tasha hugged both men and they agreed to draw a line under the situation, however fans were left unconvinced the apologies was genuine.

Saying that bosses intervened to avoid a 'bullying scandal' one wrote: 'Producers told Dami and Luca they needed to change the narrative QUICK'.

While another added: 'These apologies from Dani and Luca, deffo the producers' [sic].

And third commented: 'Dami and Luca only said sorry to Tasha because the prodcuers told them to'.

No way: Tasha hugged both men and they agreed to draw a line under the situation, however fans were left unconvinced the apologies was genuine

While fourth said: 'Luca isn't sorry, he's just aware it makes him look like a bully'.

And a fifth agreed: 'Well I'm sure you know from the last episode producers have told Dami and Luca to apologise'.

And a sixth added: 'Convinced Love Island producers told Luca and Dami to apologise to Tasha'.

MailOnline have contacted representatives for ITV and Love Island for comment.

Quick: Saying that bosses intervened to avoid a 'bullying scandal' one wrote: 'Prodcuers told Dami and Luca they needed to change the narrative QUICK'

It comes after Luca's family took to Instagram Stories on his account on Monday to say they don't condone his behaviour towards partner Gemma Owen.

Fans had called for Gemma to break off her relationship with the fishmonger, after he raged at her for 'flirting' with Billy Brown on Sunday night's show.

And his family have said that while he would be 'embarrassed' by his actions and will no doubt apologise, he doesn't deserve the abuse he has been getting.

'We don't condone his behaviour': Luca family took to Instagram on Monday to address the Love Island star's reaction to Gemma Owen 'flirting' with Billy Brown the night before

They say his behaviour is not reflective of the boy they 'know and love at home' but noted that his Love Island experience is an intense one.

They wrote: 'I want to apologise on behalf of Luca for his insensitive reaction on last night's episode. I know that when he watches it back, he will be embarrassed and deeply apologetic.

'We as his family don't condone his behaviour last might, but we do understand he is in an intense environment where his actions are heightened. Last night was not reflective of the boy we all know and love at home.

Addressing: Luca's family urged people to note that he is in an intense environment and doesn't deserve to receive abuse but were aware that his behaviour towards Gemma was not acceptable

'Please be aware death threats and nasty comments totally overstep the mark and something we has a family should not have to ensure, for this reason we have turned off the comments and messages.

'For all those who have sent messages checking in on us, we would like to thank you very much and we see you.'

Luca was left seething after watching Gemma have a chat with Billy during Casa Amor, prompting him to question the strength of their relationship.

Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITV Hub.
Ana de Armas has given her two cents on the question of whether there should be a female Bond role.

Speaking to The Sun, the 34-year-old actress said, 'There's no need for a female Bond.'

The Cuban-born entertainer's opinion on the matter is particularly noteworthy, as she starred in last year's No Time to Die.

Her opinion: In a new interview Ana de Armas said, 'There's no need for a female Bond'

'There shouldnt be any need to steal someone elses character, you know, to take over,' she explained to the outlet.

De Armas continued, 'This is a novel, and it leads into this James Bond world and this fantasy of that universe where he's at.'

Rather, the movie star said she'd like to see roles with more substance for women.

'What I would like is that the female roles in the Bond films, even though Bond will continue to be a man, are brought to life in a different way,' Ana said to the publication.

Starring role: The Cuban-born entertainer's opinion on the matter is particularly noteworthy, as she starred in last year's No Time to Die

The performer, who played the role of Paloma in the latest Bond installment, added that her hope is future women will be 'given a more substantial part and recognition. Thats what I think is more interesting than flipping things.'

Fans took well to her part in 2021's film, which was Daniel Craig's last run as James Bond.

After the movie debuted, fans sang her praises online, hoping that she'll return to reprise the role.

Outspoken: The performer, who played the role of Paloma in the latest Bond installment, added that her hope is future women will be 'given a more substantial part and recognition'

Fan favorite: Fans took well to her part in 2021's film, which was Daniel Craig's last run as James Bond

Ana's latest project is The Gray Man, the action-packed Netflix feature starring Ryan Gosling.

In the movie she stars as CIA agent Dani Miranda and had to undergo intense training to perform the stunts.

A recently shared video showed her in a black crop top and skintight leggings, as she demonstrated a fight scene with a gun.

In a tweet she said, 'I still run like a chicken. But, I wanna thank the incredible stunts team who helped me train and get ready for this incredibly demanding role.'
Daisy Ridley cut a stylish figure as she returned to her swanky London hotel on Tuesday evening.

The Star Wars actress, 30, looked gorgeous in a bright floral dress as she was joined by her rumoured fiance Tom Bateman, 33.

The stylish ensemble featured two clashing prints with a large Peter Pan collar and split which revealed a glimpse of her toned legs.

Stylish: Daisy Riley, 30, cut a stylish figure in multicoloured floral dress as she returned to her hotel with rumoured fiance Tom Bateman in London on Tuesday

The star strutted her stuff in brown ankle boots as she showed her new brunette cropped tresses.

The brunette beauty was joined by beau and rumoured fiance Tom, who she has been dating since 2017.

Love birds: The brunette beauty was joined by beau and rumoured fiance Tom, who she has dated since 2017

Printed: The stylish ensemble featured two clashing prints with a large Peter Pan collar and split which revealed a glimpse of her toned legs

The Murder On The Orient Express actor cut a dapper figure in a slate wool blazer which he layered over a simple white t-shirt and dark trousers.

Sporting a beard the actor wore his chestnut tresses in natural curls as he completed the look with two silver earrings.

The couple returned to their swanky hotel after a night on the tiled with Tom guided his love by the hand through the crowd of fans into their hotel.

We love you! The Star Wars actress stopped to sign autographs for the crowd of waiting fans

Claims: Rumours of the couple's engagement swirled when Tom was spotted wearing a ring on his wedding finger back in 2019

Rumours of the couple's engagement swirled when Tom was spotted wearing a ring on his wedding finger back in 2019, though neither star has confirmed whether they are set to wed.

MailOnline contacted representatives for the couple at the time for comment.

It comes after the actress made her long-awaited return to social media after a nearly six-year hiatus in April.

The actress was less than a year removed from her first major film role as Rey in 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, where she played Rey, when she deactivated her Instagram in August 2016.

She made quite the surprising return sharing new snaps, with her first post already amassing nearly 50K likes in just under a day.

Her first post was seemingly from a posh hotel as she relaxed in a white robe while sipping a hot beverage, wearing unique 'glasses' that emitted a red glow on her face.

'Coming out of social media hibernation refreshed, recharged, and ready for what Im calling my Year of Yes. (And thats the tea),' Ridley said.

She added that the photo was, 'courtesy of my <3 glam @lipstickkelly and @dayaruci' in her post.

Daisy returns: It comes after the actress made her long-awaited return to social media after a nearly six-year hiatus in April

The actress shared even more photos in her second post, which featured digitally-painted backdrops, and her mimicking two famous paintings - Edvard Munch's The Scream and Johannes Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring.

'Trying to remember how to use this app. Maybe its a good thing I didnt have Insta during quarantine, or else I would have posted these. Oh, well, still posting them,' Ridley said.

Her first post back included a comment from her co-star on 2017's Murder on the Orient Express, Leslie Odom Jr.

'Welcome back. Take your breaks when you need em! x,' Odom Jr. told her in his comment.
At least 16 Democratic lawmakers were among the people arrested by Capitol Police during abortion rights protests on Tuesday afternoon that were held outside of the Supreme Court.

The members of Congress and protesters wore specially made green bandanas that had "Won't Back Down" written on them. They then marched from the Capitol to the Court, which has been fenced off for several weeks after the leak of the draft majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

Democrats Arrested

After two minutes since the protesters arrived outside the Supreme Court, capitol police began ordering them to "cease and desist." Instead, the demonstrators sat on the street, forcing law enforcement personnel to arrest them one by one as they continued to chant, "The people, united, will never be divided."

In a Twitter post, the U.S. Capitol Police said that protesters were starting to block First Street, NE, noting that it was against the law to block traffic. This was the reason that officers were giving the standard three warnings before they start making arrests, as per CNN.

Later, police also revealed that they arrested a total of 34 people, including 16 members of Congress, These include, Katherine Clark, Ayanna Pressley, Barbara Lee, Jackie Speier, Sara Jacobs, Ilhan Omar, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Andy Levin, Rashida Tlaib, Jan Schakowsky, Madeline Dean, Cori Bush, Carolyn Maloney, Nydia Velazquez, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Alma Adams.

Read Also: Biden Signs Executive Order Boosting Abortion, Contraception Access: Here's What's In It

The press secretary for Pressley tweeted a video that showed the second-term congresswoman being escorted away by police, adding that she was "arrested protesting on the steps of the Supreme Court for abortion rights."

Just now, @RepPressley arrested protesting on the steps of the Supreme Court for abortion rights pic.twitter.com/Lh0US0BvbX  mae |  (@maeldahshoury) July 19, 2022

According to Yahoo News, Omar also tweeted a video of the arrests that were made in front of the Supreme Court. In a Twitter post, Kee said that everyone has a moral responsibility to push back against unjust laws, noting that she was standing up for reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy in solidarity with the millions who have had their rights stripped away by inhumane policies.

Today I was arrested while participating in a civil disobedience action with my fellow Members of Congress outside the Supreme Court.



I will continue to do everything in my power to raise the alarm about the assault on our reproductive rights! pic.twitter.com/rpFYOGBDf4  Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 19, 2022

Abortion Rights

On the other hand, Bush said that she introduced legislation to protect reproductive freedom, adding that her colleagues and herself put their bodies on the line. Rep. Judy Chu was arrested last month outside the Supreme Court for protesting abortion rights in the United States.

The protests come after the Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade, allowing states to enforce their own abortion laws. Many regions already had dormant policies in place and have already started enforcing strict policies against the procedure.

Democrats were angered by the ruling which prompted House Democrats to pass a pair of bills protecting access to abortion in the country. However, those measures have little chance of clearing the evenly divided Senate due to Republican opposition.

In a statement on Tuesday, Maloney said that there is no democracy if women do not have control over their own bodies and decisions about their own health, including reproductive care. She noted that the Republican party and the right-wing extremists behind the majority decision were not pro-life, but pro-controlling the bodies of women, The Hill reported.



Related Article: Roe v. Wade: US Abortion Restrictions Prompt Discrimination, Privacy Concerns

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Kim Kardashian was spotted deplaning her private jet after visiting boyfriend Pete Davidson in Australia.

The blonde bombshell, 41, was dressed in all black as she stepped off the aircraft she dubbed Kim Air.

She covered her eyes in large dark sunglasses and took a phone call as she arrived back in Los Angeles.

Kim Kardashian was spotted deplaning her private jet after visiting boyfriend Pete Davidson in Australia

The media mogul pulled her locks back into a low, loose bun with a center part.

She wore a swishy black jacket with a tall collar that covered her neck and paired it with baggy pants.

Kim wore a pair of black and white sneakers as she traveled and carried a plush blanket while stepping down the plane's ladder.

The blonde bombshell, 41, was dressed in all black as she stepped off the aircraft she dubbed Kim Air

Once back on the ground the reality TV star walked across the tarmac with her personal pilot in tow.

The Kardashians personality spent time down under with her man, where he's currently shooting a film.

Kim and Pete's unexpected relationship seems to be going the distance as the SKIMS founder warms up to sharing more bits of their life together.

She covered her eyes in large dark sunglasses and took a phone call as she arrived back in Los Angeles

Behind the scenes: Kim and Pete's unexpected relationship seems to be going the distance as the SKIMS founder warms up to sharing more bits of their life together

Earlier this month Kardashian turned to Instagram - where she regularly engages more than 300 million followers - to post unseen photos with the former SNL star.

The couple appeared to be spending casual quality time together inside her Calabasas home.

Pete went shirtless, showing off his display of various tattoos, and wore grey sweatpants.

A peek at their romance: Earlier this month Kardashian turned to Instagram - where she regularly engages more than 300 million followers - to post unseen photos with the former SNL star

The mom-of-four dressed in an black, rocking a fitted crop top and black sweatpants with a drawstring waist.

She wore a light face of makeup while relaxing on a cream-colored couch and going barefoot.

In one photo featured in the carousel she rested her nude-pedicured feet on the comedian's chest as he gazed at her with a grin.
Channel Seven has announced the newest cast member on Home and Away.

Perth-raised actress Juliet Godwin will play Dr Bree Cameron, with the character set to arrive in Summer Bay 'very soon'.

A promo photo released on Wednesday shows Juliet, in character as Bree, wearing a blue wetsuit and carrying a surfboard on her hip.

Channel Seven has announced the newest cast member on Home and Away. Actress Juliet Godwin will play Dr Bree Cameron, with the character set to arrive in Summer Bay 'very soon'

'Just what the doctor ordered! Bree, our new doc, is here to make some waves in Summer Bay very soon!' read a post on Home and Away's official Instagram account.

Juliet commented: 'So excited to be here! Thank you for having me.'

She was first pictured filming her introductory scenes on location in Palm Beach, Sydney, on Monday, March 28.

This promo photo released on Wednesday shows Juliet, in character as Bree, wearing a blue wetsuit and carrying a surfboard on her hip

In an interview with PerthNow, the 28-year-old said landing the role of Bree was a 'dream come true'.

'The fact that I'm able to wake up and go to set every day and do what I love is such a gift,' she said.

'I'm really grateful for this opportunity. Everyone there is so lovely. I get to work with really talented actors, and it's always a fun vibe.'

It's unclear why Juliet's character has moved to Summer Bay, but she hinted Bree has a 'heart of gold' and is 'ready for a fresh start'.

In an interview with PerthNow , the up-and-coming actress said landing the role of Dr Bree was a 'dream come true'. (Juliet is pictured with partner Sam Masters)

'And so when she sees that there's a job vacancy in Summer Bay, she definitely jumped on that because it's the perfect laid-back town where she can continue to help those in need whenever she wants,' Juliet said.

It's possible the Zimbabwe-born star could be filling the 'job vacancy' Harley Bonner's character Dr Logan Bennett left in the emergency department.

Harley, who previously starred in Neighbours as Josh Willis, exited the series after Seven Productions required all cast and crew to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

It's possible the Zimbabwe-born star could be filling the 'job vacancy' Harley Bonner's character Dr Logan Bennett left in the emergency department
Sami Sheen was spotted wearing a summery casual ensemble when she was spotted stepping out for a bit of shopping in Calabasas this week.

The 18-year-old daughter of Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards teamed a simple grey crop top with a fluttery white pair of trousers.

Her latest sighting comes after she dished that her father still does not support her having an OnlyFans account but her mother does.

Stepping out: Sami Sheen was spotted wearing a summery casual ensemble when she was spotted stepping out for a bit of shopping in Calabasas this week

Sami chatted with TMZ this past Thursday at the Beverly Hills restaurant Il Pastaio, where she was asked about the reception from her parents to the account.

'I'm super grateful, I have a supportive mom on my side,' Sami said, adding that her father 'hasn't' particularly come around on the idea, 'not too much.'

Asked about the lack of support from Charlie, 56, of having the account, Sami said, 'I don't really mind, it's totally fine,' later adding that it was a 'personal' issue she'd prefer not to go into detail about.

Sami said she was 'happy for' her mother also starting a page on the site, adding, 'I don't mind at all ... I'm super happy, she's doing really well.'

Off she goes: The 18-year-old daughter of Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards teamed a simple grey crop top with a fluttery white pair of trousers

Sami said there is more of a 'stigma around' bikini pics posted to OnlyFans as opposed to on Instagram.

'Everyone thinks it's just for like, raunchy stuff, but you can post whatever you want on there,' she said. 'I'm just kind of doing my own thing, seeing if people like it or not. I just like the creative side of it and being able to make my own choices and be my own boss.

The Two and a Half Men alum and Richards, 51, were married from 2002 until 2006 and are also parents to daughter Lola, 17, while Richards is also mother to adopted daughter Eloise, 11.

Daddy dearest: Her latest sighting comes after she dished that her father still does not support her having an OnlyFans account but her mother does

Charlie has issued mixed messages about his feelings about Sami having the page, as he told E! News last month in a statement, 'I do not condone this, but since I'm unable to prevent it, I urged her to keep it classy, creative and not sacrifice her integrity. She is 18 years old now and living with her mother. This did not occur under my roof.'

Sheen later clarified his remarks, telling Us Weekly in a statement that he was supportive of Sami's efforts.

'Denise has illuminated a variety of salient points, that in my haste, I overlooked and dismissed,' he said. 'Now more than ever, its essential that Sami have a united parental front to rely upon, as she embarks on this new adventure. From this moment forward, shell have it abundantly.'

Richards, pictured in NYC in 2019, is 'doing really well' with her account after starting it, Sami said

Earlier this week, Richards spoke with E! News' Daily Pop, explaining how she feels there is an unnecessary stigma applied to OnlyFans as opposed to other social media sites.

'A lot of us have posted pictures of ourselves on Instagram in a bikini or something that might be perceived as risque,' Richards said. 'And if my daughter chooses to post a picture of herself in a bathing suit on OnlyFans, why would she get backlash on that but not on Instagram?'

She said that criticism raised toward Sami was 'very unfair,' as she's 'able to do what she wants to do' as an adult.
Cesar Millan found himself in a slight run-in with a cop in Redondo Beach, California on Tuesday.

The professional dog trainer, 52, was stopped by an officer after he brought his four dogs onto a pier, which does not allow canines per city ordinance.

After he approached by law enforcement, the 'dog whisperer' complied and was only given a warning, according to an Instagram post from RBPD.

Whoops: Cesar Millan found himself in a slight run-in with a cop in Redondo Beach on Tuesday after bringing dogs onto a pier where they weren't allowed

The police force took the incident as an opportunity to tell its 20k followers what not to do while in Redondo.

'We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that dogs are not allowed on the Redondo Beach Pier!' read the post.

It accompanied a photo of the trainer smiling alongside an officer as he held up a peace sign.

The caption continued, 'Cesar was given a warning and promptly complied with the law prohibiting dogs on the pier. Thanks for understanding sir!'

Entrepreneur: Cesar is a best-selling author and earlier this year he launched a hi-tech collar for canines

Cesar, who regularly works with celebrities and their pets, wore a grey hooded sweatshirt that said 'Human Nation' in white letters.

He paired it with black joggers, finishing the look with black Nike sneakers with a white and yellow sole.

The post received over one thousand likes and fans took to the comments to show their excitement.

One user on the app wrote, 'Whaaaaaaaa?!?!? When?!?!?! Dang i missed out on this guy my favorite!!!!!!!!'

And another joined in to add, 'Very cool! Love the dog whisperer, Cesar Milan!'

Distinguished: The world-renowned dog behaviorist has worked alongside various celebrities and their pets

Cesar illegally immigrated the United States at the age of 21 from Mexico and later became a citizen in 2009.

He started his journey into US life as a dog groomer, eventually starting an academy called Training Cesars Way.

After accruing a host of prominent clients, he starred on the reality series The Dog Whisperer, which demonstrated his use of 'calm-assertive energy' to train dogs.
Michael Anthony Baltimore, who appeared on 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? in 2019, was just added to the U.S. Marshals Service's 15 Most Wanted list.

The reality star, 43, allegedly killed his former employer, Kendell Jerome Cook, and injured another man in May 2021 at GQ Barbershop in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

He is currently wanted for assault, homicide and parole violation charges, according to a release from the U.S. Marshals.

Dangerous: Michael Anthony Baltimore, who appeared on the TLC series' 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? in 2019, was just added to the U.S. Marshals Service's 15 Most Wanted list

Baltimore, who worked for Cook until 2019, was featured in several episodes of the hit TLC reality series, that follows couples who have applied for or received a K-1 visa, available for foreign fiances of U.S. citizens.

The Marshals also claim that Baltimore has an extensive criminal history and 'should be considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached.'

'Michael Baltimore poses a serious threat to the community. By placing him on the 15 Most Wanted list, we have made his capture a top priority of the U.S. Marshals Service,' said U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis in a statement.

Coworkers: The reality star (right), 43, allegedly killed his former employer, Kendell Jerome Cook (left), and injured another man in May 2021 at GQ Barbershop in Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Most Wanted: He is currently wanted for assault, homicide and parole violation charges, according to a release from the U.S. Marshals

The agency is also now offering up to $25,000 for information leading to the capture of Michael Anthony Baltimore, 39, who is alleged to have shot to death Kendell Jerome Cook and injured another man at the GQ Barbershop on North Hanover Street in Carlisle on May 22, 2021. Cook was the shop's owner.

During their stint on the show, the two barbers informed cast member Ashley Martson that her then-husband, Jay Smith, cheated on her in the barbershop bathroom.

This comes just months after another former 90 Day Fiance star, named Geoffrey Paschel, was convicted of kidnapping and assaulting his ex-fiancee.

Disturbing: This comes just months after another former 90 Day Fiance star, named Geoffrey Paschel, was convicted of kidnapping and assaulting his ex-fiancee

In February, Paschel received an 18-year prison sentence without the chance of parole in a Knoxville, Tennessee court, in connection with his conviction of aggravated kidnapping, domestic assault and interference with emergency calls.

Paschel, 44, was found guilty of the multiple charges last October in connection with a June 9, 2019 incident with his former fiancee Kristen Wilson, US Weekly reported.

In the incident, Wilson told Knox County Sheriff's Office deputies that Paschel had attacked her, grabbed her neck and struck her head into a wall multiple times. Wilson told authorities that Paschel had thrown her body on the ground and dragged her on the floor.

Wilson told authorities that Paschel would not let her have her phone or leave the property in the incident, as she was able to escape when he went to sleep and she went to a neighbor's house to contact authorities.
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Vanderpump Rules stars ruled the red carpet at the Schwartz & Sandy's grand opening party in Los Angeles hosted by DailyMail.com and TMX.

Lala Kent, Scheana Shay, and Katie Maloney certainly led the glam parade as they celebrated the new cocktail lounge launched by castmates Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz.

The trio of ladies put on leggy displays in short dresses at the gala event attended by their Bravo reality series co-stars, Bling Empire's Kevin Kreider and Leah Qin, and of course Lisa Vanderpump herself.

Leggy ladies: Lala Kent, Scheana Shay, and Katie Maloney certainly lead the glam parade at the Schwartz & Sandy's grand opening party in Los Angeles hosted by DailyMail.com and TMX

Lala, 31, looked stunning in a rather avant-garde look as she donned a mini dress which was half black blazer and half golden sequins.

The outfit had a satin belt around her midriff, and she complemented her blazer side with a black sequined clutch.

Lala towered in open-toe heels, and she wore her blond locks parted down the middle while wavy strands rested across her chest.

Scheana highlighted her curves with an off-the-shoulder mini dress covered in dark green horizontal stripes. She complemented it with neon green square-toed heels.

Scheana's fiance Brock Davies wore a sheer black shirt with an intriguing ruffled collar and black trousers.

Katie was on the same page as Lala, and she wore a lustrous spaghetti-strap dress with a high slit, along with brown open-toe heels and a boxy silver handbag.

Bold look: Lala, 31, looked stunning in a rather avant-garde look as she donned a mini dress which was half black blazer and half golden sequins

Striking: The outfit had a satin belt around her midriff, and she complemented her blazer side with a black sequined clutch

Glamorous: Lala towered in open-toe heels, and she wore her blond locks parted down the middle while wavy strands rested across her chest

Seeing green: Scheana highlighted her curves with an off-the-shoulder mini dress covered in dark green horizontal stripes. She complemented it with neon green square-toed heels

Low-key: Scheana's fiance Brock Davies wore a sheer black shirt with an intriguing ruffled collar and black trousers

Elegant: Scheana wore her raven hair in a fanned out ponytail which framed her enormous hoop earrings. Katie was on the same page as Lala, and she wore a lustrous spaghetti-strap dress with a high slit

All put together: She wore brown open-toe heels and carried a boxy silver handbag

The stars of the evening, Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz, made sure that they were unmissable thanks to their brightly colored suits, which paid tribute to 1980s fashion.

Sandoval looked suave in a white silk double-breasted suit with peak lapels, which he wore over a pink-and-white patterned shirt while sporting a mustache.

Schwartz rocked a double-breasted pink suit with a black-and-white tropical-print shirt and a close-cropped beard.

The duo wouldn't have been there without the woman who helped them get their start, Lisa Vanderpump.

She matched Schwartz's outfit with a playful pink sequined blazer over a low-cut black blouse and more reserved black slacks, along with a matching black clutch.

Joining Lisa at the event was her husband Ken Todd, who wore a black suit and shirt and carried their adorable clothed Pomeranian.

Old school: The stars of the evening, Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz, made sure that they were unmissable thanks to their brightly colored suits, which paid tribute to 1980s fashion

Tropical vibes: Sandoval looked suave in a white silk double-breasted suit with peak lapels, while Schwartz wore a pink double-breasted suit. Both had on tropical-print shirts

Where it all started: The duo wouldn't have been there without the woman who helped them get their start, Lisa Vanderpump

Old friends: She matched Schwartz's outfit with a playful pink sequined blazer over a low-cut black blouse and more reserved black slacks, along with a matching black clutch

Family: Joining Lisa at the event was her husband Ken Todd, who wore a black suit and shirt and carried their adorable clothed Pomeranian

Raquel Leviss proved herself to be a master of the little black dress as she made her grand entrance on the red carpet.

The Vanderpump Rules star glowed in a plunging black dress covered in sequins. The look had thin straps that were tied together with a bow over her exposed back.

She stood tall in black open-toe heels that strapped around her ankles, and she wore her gorgeous brunette bobbed swept to the side to reveal her dangling diamond-encrusted earrings.

The reality star kept the awkwardness to a minimum as her ex-boyfriend James Kennedy  who was DJing the celebration  hit the red carpet with his new girlfriend Ally Lewber.

James wore a black patterned shirt left unbuttoned at the top to show off a bit of his chest hair, along with blown-out jeans that were rumpled at the top of his black combat boots.

Ally, who got a sweet kiss from James on the red carpet, wore a lovely tiered black mini dress with a sleek black Prada handbag.

Back in black: Raquel Leviss glowed in a plunging black dress covered in sequins. The look had thin straps that were tied together with a bow over her exposed back

Stunner: She stood tall in black open-toe heels that strapped around her ankles, and she wore her gorgeous brunette bobbed swept to the side to reveal her dangling diamond-encrusted earrings

Cute couple: The reality star kept the awkwardness to a minimum as her ex-boyfriend James Kennedy  who was DJing the celebration  hit the red carpet with his new girlfriend Ally Lewber

Casual: James wore a black patterned shirt left unbuttoned at the top to show off a bit of his chest hair, along with blown-out jeans that were rumpled at the top of his black combat boots

On point: Ally, who got a sweet kiss from James on the red carpet, wore a lovely tiered black mini dress with a sleek black Prada handbag

Bling Empire star Leah Qin was unmissable in a tiny off-the-shoulder ruched dress with striking cutouts over her bust. She wore the black ensemble with white platform heels.

Leah posed with her costar Kevin Kreider, who rocked distressed black jeans and an illustrated shirt with a woman's face on it.

Shahs Of Sunset star Mercedes 'MJ' Javid looked chic in a sleeveless pale pink pinstriped blazer over a mesh bra. She arrived with her husband Tommy Feight, who wore a blue Oxford shirt, khakis and red sneakers.

Chanel West Coast highlighted her pregnant tummy as she arrived in a pink mini dress with circular cutouts over her cleavage.

Her boyfriend  and the father of her forthcoming baby girl  Dom Fenison rocked geometrically patterned black-and-white pans and a black sweater with the sleeves rolled up.

Reality star: Bling Empire star Leah Qin was unmissable in a tiny off-the-shoulder ruched dress with striking cutouts over her bust. She wore the black ensemble with white platform heels

Pals: Leah posed with her costar Kevin Kreider, who rocked distressed black jeans and an illustrated shirt with a woman's face on it

Coupled up: Shahs Of Sunset star Mercedes 'MJ' Javid looked chic in a sleeveless blazer. She arrived with her husband Tommy Feight, who wore a blue Oxford shirt, khakis and red sneakers

Intriguing: Her pale pink pinstriped blazer exposed her mesh bra, and she also had on beige open-toe platform heels

Lovebirds: Her boyfriend  and the father of her forthcoming baby girl  Dom Fenison rocked geometrically patterned black-and-white pans and a black sweater with the sleeves rolled up

DailyMailTV LA correspondent Caitlyn Becker glowed in a red ruched stress with colorful open-toe heels and a black tasseled clutch.

Celebrity fitness trainer Joshua Lipsey kept it casual in a white snake-print -shirt with pale blue ripped jeans and high-top trainers.

The interior designer Lucinda Pace showed off her winning smile and vibrant yellow dress, which was decorated with tropical tree and leaf designs, while posing with Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz.

Rounding out the Vanderpump Rules cast members were Peter Mardrigal, who wore a graygreen shirt with black jeans and white sneakers, and Ariana Madix, who shimmered in a busty blue stain dress with cutouts over her sides.

Woman in red: DailyMailTV LA correspondent Caitlyn Becker glowed in a red ruched stress with colorful open-toe heels and a black tasseled clutch. Celebrity fitness trainer Joshua Lipsey kept it casual in a white snake-print -shirt with pale blue ripped jeans and high-top trainers

Standing out: The interior designer Lucinda Pace showed off her winning smile and vibrant yellow dress, which was decorated with tropical tree and leaf designs, while posing with Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz

The whole gang: Rounding out the Vanderpump Rules cast members were Peter Mardrigal (L) and Ariana Madix (fourth from the left)

After making it past the red carpet, the guests all got a chance to warm up the Toms' new lounge.

Katie Maloney and Ariana Madix were seen chatting and enjoying green drinks, while Raquel and Scheana caught up in a tiger-striped booth over cocktails.

Lala Kent was also spotted at one of the tables next to Lisa Vanderpump's husband Ken Todd, who carried their cute Pomeranian, who was dressed in an adorable pink outfit.

Blue mood: Ariana showed off her plunging blue stain dress, which had eye-catching cutouts over her sides, while catching up with Katie inside the lounge. Meanwhile, Raquel and Scheana enjoyed cocktails in one of the tiger-striped booths

Too cute! Lala Kent looked glamorous while relaxing with Ken Todd and his and Lisa Vanderpump's adorable Pomeranian, who was dressed in a cute pink outfit

Bravo family: The Vanderpump Rules stars had a Bravo reunion as they caught up with MJ from Shahs Of Sunset

Beaming: Chanel West Coast showed off her winning smile as she and Dom Fenison chatted with Tom Schwartz

The evening had plenty of entertainment thanks to James Kennedy providing music.

He took some time off from the celebration to man the DJ booth to help get the party bumping, and he seemed to be grooving along to the tunes.

Later, James and Scheana's fiance Brock cooled down with Tom Sandoval, who wrapped his arms around them and flashed a wide grin.

Man of the hour: The evening had plenty of entertainment thanks to James Kennedy providing music

All bangers all the time: He took some time off from the celebration to man the DJ booth to help get the party bumping, and he seemed to be grooving along to the tunes

Great night: Later, James and Scheana's fiance Brock cooled down with Tom Sandoval, who wrapped his arms around them and flashed a wide grin

The boss: After his DJ set, James unwound with Lisa Vanderpump. He also proved that he and Ally made a cute couple while they made their rounds

Too cool for school: MJ and Lala compared their avant-garde ensembles at the party

He did it: Tom Schwartz celebrated the successful evening while chatting with his costar Scheana

Popular spot: The lounge was absolutely packed with guests at the height of the celebration

Earlier in the day Sandoval and Schwartz finally shared a glimpse inside their new cocktail lounge Schwartz & Sandy's ahead of Tuesday night's grand opening party hosted by DailyMail.com and TMX.

The Vanderpump Rules stars  who are currently shooting season ten of the hit Bravo show  have spent over a year renovating their new LA hotspot, which is nestled in the base of the iconic Hollywood Hills.

In DailyMail.coms exclusive pictures, the interior of the cozy cocktail lounge looks heavily inspired by vintage motels and is described by the pair as 'delightfully kitschy.'

Sandoval and Schwartz both channeled 1980s men's style with their striking suits. Sandoval opted for a double-breasted white silk suit with peaked lapels and chunky white loafers, which he wore over a coral patterned shirt while sporting a dark mustache.

Schwartz was attired in a double-breasted pink suit and a black-and-white tropical print shirt, along with black sneakers and blue-tinted aviator sunglasses.

The entrepreneurs and reality stars showed off their striking neon sign for the lounge, which featured tropical plants and Schwartz's name in block letters, while Sandoval's was written in a playful cursive scrawl.

New venture: Earlier in the day Schwartz (left) and Sandoval finally shared a glimpse inside their new cocktail lounge Schwartz & Sandy's ahead of Tuesday night's grand opening party hosted by DailyMail.com and TMX

The menu promises shareable cuisine and plant-based options, and the mixologist offers playful interactive drinks lovingly created by the owners.

The pair battled Covid delays and supply chain issues but were able to fulfill their creative vision for the venue, which includes an iconic 'starry night' ceiling inspired by the night sky in Joshua Tree National Park.

Sandoval quips: 'It's the only place in LA where you're guaranteed to see stars.'

There is also an art installation inspired by James Turrells Skyspace, which is a virtual portal to the sky.

Looking good! Sandoval and Schwartz both channeled 1980s men's style with their striking suits. Sandoval opted for a double-breasted white silk suit with peaked lapels and chunky white loafers, which he wore over a coral patterned shirt while sporting a dark mustache

Colorful style: Schwartz was attired in a double-breasted pink suit and a black-and-white tropical print shirt, along with black sneakers and blue-tinted aviator sunglasses

Humble origins: Sandoval and Schwartz, both 39, first met via a Craigslist advertisement and went on to become roommates in Los Angeles

Period appropriate: The entrepreneurs and reality stars showed off their striking neon sign for the lounge, which featured tropical plants and Schwartz's name in block letters, while Sandoval's was written in a playful cursive scrawl

Sandoval and Schwartz, both 39, first met via a Craigslist advertisement and went on to become roommates in Los Angeles.

In 2013, the pals and their close circle of friends became stars of the hugely popular reality series Vanderpump Rules while working at Lisa Vanderpump's SUR restaurant.

The pair went into business together in 2017 when Vanderpump offered Sandoval and Schwartz a chance to invest $50,000 each for five-percent stake in her new West Hollywood bar, Tom Tom.

Rise to fame: In 2013, the pals and their close circle of friends became stars of the hugely popular reality series Vanderpump Rules while working at Lisa Vanderpump's SUR restaurant

Taking the plunge: The pair went into business together in 2017 when Vanderpump offered Sandoval and Schwartz a chance to invest $50,000 each for five-percent stake in her new West Hollywood bar, Tom Tom

Getting ready: Sandoval and Schwartz are seen preparing for the opening party

Last year they also released a new small batch bourbon and rye called Toms' Good Lovin'.

For Schwartz & Sandy's, the duo are also paying tribute to their Midwestern roots, as Schwartz hails from Minnesota, while Sandoval was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

At an NBCUniversal upfront presentation in May, Sandoval shared that the two are 'Going to do some toasted ravioli from St. Louis.' They will also be adding some 'St. Louisstyle pizza [with] Provel cheese' to their menu.

Schwartz added that they might pay honor his roots with a Juicy Lucy, a burger with melted cheese inside of the patty, which is believed to have originated in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Stylish: The lounge ceiling was decorated with wooden beams and featured cozy booth-backed tables adjoining a small bar

Seating: Larger booths were tucked away under elegant arches and featuring hypnotizing diamond-shaped patterns on the seats and walls with striking elephant and giraffe designs

Eye-catching: Comfortable blue velvet chairs were set aside in a corner, which was decorated with blue brick and pink wallpaper decorated with mythical winged cats

At ease: The rug and animal-themed throw pillows created an inviting atmosphere, as if guests were dropping by an old friend's home for a drink

Having a laugh: The wall above the yellow velvet sofa was decorate with several humorous paintings

Funny: One featured a satirical portrait of a goat dressed in a woman's dress, while other paintings featured a woman with a tattoo on her thigh reclining on a sofa and one next to it showed a closeup of a poodle's face

The interior of the lounge featured plenty of small booth-backed tables, which were next to an adjoining bar where patrons could socialize.

Larger booths were tucked away under elegant arches and featuring hypnotizing diamond-shaped patterns on the seats and walls with striking elephant and giraffe designs.

Comfortable blue velvet chairs were set aside in a corner, which was decorated with blue brick and pink wallpaper decorated with mythical winged cats.

The rug and animal-themed throw pillows created an inviting atmosphere, as if guests were dropping by an old friend's home for a drink. The wall above the yellow velvet sofa was decorate with several humorous paintings.

One featured a satirical portrait of a goat dressed in a woman's dress, while other paintings featured a woman with a tattoo on her thigh reclining on a sofa and one next to it showed a closeup of a poodle's face.

The small marble end table between the seats was topped off with a retro lamp with a fringed shade.

Animal lovers: One throw pillow depicted a tiger skin rug, while another velvet pillow was decorated with colorful parrots

Old school: The small marble end table between the seats was topped off with a retro lamp with a fringed shade

Fierce: The spacious interior included included hexagonal stone floor tiles and a row of golden velvet-covered booths decorated with a tiger-stripe pattern

Shimmering: Hanging above the booths was a lovely golden peacock decoration

The spacious interior included included hexagonal stone floor tiles and a row of golden velvet-covered booths decorated with a tiger-stripe pattern.

'The reality is that we're very, very close,' Sandoval said during an interview in March 2022. 'We text numerous times throughout pretty much every single day. We're very, very, very close.'

'We help balance each other out,' he continued. 'And we have a great working relationship. He gets fired up, I calm him down. It's the same. It's a very loving, conducive relationship together.

'We really have this friendship of "no idea is a bad idea." Let's take it for a spin. Let's see what happens. Let's go for it, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.'

Great connection: 'The reality is that we're very, very close,' Sandoval said during an interview in March 2022. 'We text numerous times throughout pretty much every single day. We're very, very, very close'

Opposites attract: 'We help balance each other out,' he continued. 'And we have a great working relationship. He gets fired up, I calm him down. It's the same. It's a very loving, conducive relationship together'

Whatever works: 'We really have this friendship of "no idea is a bad idea." Let's take it for a spin. Let's see what happens. Let's go for it, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work,' Sandoval added

Doubters: But when the pair first introduced the name of their new bar, not everyone was a fan

But when the pair first introduced the name of their new bar, not everyone was a fan.

'I think it's horrible,' Schwartz's now ex-wife Katie Maloney said on season nine of Vanderpump Rules. 'You wanna make it like psychedelic, funky, fresh, lights, textures, and then you want to call it f***ing Schwartz and Sandy's? Ugh. I lost my boner.'

But the name ended up sticking.

'We're committed,' Schwartz said during a recent interview. 'We've heard people say, "Oh, it sounds like a Jewish deli," or whatever. But you know, Red Hot Chili Peppers to me, when I first heard that name, sounded like a mariachi band. But now you have a different association. So when you go into our place, the name will become the place, the place will become the name. That will be the association.'

'With TomTom, it's like, Tom and Tom could essentially be any other two Toms, but Schwartz and Sandy's? There's only one Schwartz and one Sandy, and that combination, you know what I mean?' Sandoval said. 'You're getting to know us even a little bit more, because this is more of our love child.'

Schwatz & Sandys is located at 1917 N Bronson Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90068 and will open to the public in the coming weeks.

That figures: 'I think it's horrible,' Schwartz's now ex-wife Katie Maloney said on season nine of Vanderpump Rules

Lack of vision: 'You wanna make it like psychedelic, funky, fresh, lights, textures, and then you want to call it f***ing Schwartz and Sandy's? Ugh. I lost my boner,' she complained at the time

A winner: But the name ended up sticking

Times change: 'We're committed,' Schwartz said during a recent interview. 'We've heard people say, "Oh, it sounds like a Jewish deli," or whatever. But you know, Red Hot Chili Peppers to me, when I first heard that name, sounded like a mariachi band. But now you have a different association'
Seal was spotted in Beverly Hills this Tuesday sharing a sweet embrace with his 18-year-old daughter Leni.

The 59-year-old crooner, who raised Leni with his ex-wife Heidi Klum, was the picture of fatherly affection as he drew the teenager into his arms.

He cut a summery figure in head-to-toe white, while Leni went for California casual in a crop top and a pair of complementary blue jeans.

All that sweet affection: Seal was spotted in Beverly Hills this Tuesday sharing a sweet embrace with his 18-year-old daughter Leni

Heidi and Seal were married from 2005 until 2014 and they welcomed three children together biologically - Henry, 16, Johan, 15, and Lou, 12.

Meanwhile Leni resulted from Heidi's previous relationship with Italian businessman Flavio Briatore, but in 2009 Seal legally adopted her as well.

'Leni is my natural daughter, but the three of us calmly agreed that it made the most sense that he adopt her, because a child needs to grow up in a family,' Flavio told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera in 2016.

Flavio, 72, who eventually married a drastically younger Wonderbra model and welcomed a son called Nathan with her, added: 'Leni is Seal's family, Nathan mine.'

Out and about: He cut a summery figure in head-to-toe white, while Leni went for California casual in a crop top and a pair of complementary blue jeans

By the way: Leni has followed her mother's footsteps into the modeling profession and just last week could be spotted on the Dolce & Gabbana catwalk in Sicily

At the moment Heidi is married to her fellow German Tom Kaulitz who rose to fame as the guitarist for the band Tokio Hotel.

Seal hit the headlines last year when he spoke candidly in public about the difficulties of co-parenting his children with Heidi.

'It can be challenging. It requires teamwork. If you are a team, if both parents are a team, then it's really easy and that's not a real challenge at all But you have to be a team. And if you're not a team, then it can all fall to pieces,' he told Us Weekly.

Making it happen: Heidi was seated supportively in the audience, filming her daughter's appearance to post proudly to her Instagram page

Spot the resemblance: Heidi and Leni are seen posing up together off the catwalk at the Dolce & Gabbana - with Leni still in her runway gear

Seal then explosively claimed that he and Heidi 'never had that teamwork' with one another when it came to bringing up their children.

Their differences hit the headlines in 2020 when she wanted to take the children to her native country so she could film Germany's Next Top Model there.

Seal objected on the grounds that the children might be exposed to coronavirus, but an emergency court hearing was held and Heidi prevailed.

The way they were: Heidi and Seal were married from 2005 until 2014; they are pictured attending the Grammys together in 2010

Although she was permitted to take them to Germany he was given 'expanded time' with them before and after the trip.

Leni has followed her mother's footsteps into the modeling profession and just last week could be spotted on the Dolce & Gabbana catwalk in Sicily.

Heidi was seated supportively in the audience, filming her daughter's appearance to post proudly to her Instagram page.
Married At First Sight star Jackson Lonie has revealed a sex tape he filmed with his partner and TV bride Olivia Frazer and posted on OnlyFans was sent to his mother.

The reality star said it was a 'f***ing disgusting' thing for someone to do and it made his mum 'very upset'.

The former stripper, 31, told Yahoo Lifestyle: 'If you're the type of person who sends that to somebody you need to take a good, hard look at yourself.'

Married At First Sight star Jackson Lonie has revealed a sex tape he filmed with his partner and TV bride Olivia Frazer and posted on OnlyFans was sent to his mother

He continued: 'The amount of s*** that Liv and I have copped. I understand that we've put ourselves in a position where we'll get a bit of heat, but then you get people who think it's okay to [get] our families involved?

'That's not okay. Don't send one of my OnlyFans videos to my mum.'

Olivia and Jackson have been in a long-distance relationship following a cheating scandal.

Jackson was busted kissing another woman in a Melbourne nightclub at the end of May.

On Friday, Olivia, who is in the UK, revealed she is finally missing her man.

The 28-year-old posted a video of the pair kissing to Instagram alongside a telling caption.

'Missing my darling now' she wrote in the caption, alongside a yellow heart emoji.

Olivia fled Australia in June, bound for Scotland, without Jackson, 31, by her side, after he was caught cheating on her.

'The amount of s*** that Liv and I have copped. I understand that we've put ourselves in a position where we'll get a bit of heat, but then you get people who think it's okay to [get] our families involved?' he said

'So this week I'm going to Scotland alone to meet up with my best friend Malcolm,' she explained on Instagram.

'I will be seeing my friends and family throughout the UK. I don't know how long, as it's a one-way ticket. I'm hoping Jack will come at some point,' she added.

Olivia said she'd been desperately trying to convince Jackson to come with her, but he didn't want to interrupt his workout routine.

A confident Olivia said the couple will maintain their relationship wherever they are in the world.

Olivia joined OnlyFans after appearing on Married At First Sight and Jackson quickly joined her

'I don't know if you've heard of this thing... apparently millions of people do it every day. It's called a long-distance relationship, and it's only temporary,' she added.

When asked if she would ever consider being in an open relationship, Olivia said: 'Absolutely not... and not just with Jack  with anybody. Nope.'

Olivia told Daily Mail Australia she'd spontaneously decided to buy a ticket overseas after Jackson was caught kissing another woman at a nightclub in May.

'When your boyfriend cheats on you, you buy a single ticket out of the country,' she laughed.

But she was quick to clarify she'd been hoping to travel to the UK for a long time, and Jackson was well aware of her plans.

Olivia and Jackson have been in a long-distance relationship following a cheating scandal
Nelson Aspen has responded to rumours he quit Sunrise after 19 years on air due to health reasons.

An article published online has claimed the 59-year-old made a decision to leave the breakfast show due to illness.

'For the record, NOT sick. But getting my cholesterol checked tomorrow after I see my trainer,' he wrote on Instagram.

Sunrise host Nelson Aspen (pictured) responded to rumours he quit the Channel Seven show due to health reasons

Friday was Aspen's last day on Sunrise, Australia's most-watched breakfast show.

He revealed live on air earlier this month he was quitting the Channel Seven program after almost two decades.

He announced his resignation after delivering his morning showbusiness news bulletin live from New York City.

'After 19 and a half years with Sunrise, I am giving you my two weeks' notice,' Aspen told Barr and co-host Michael Usher, who seemed surprised by the news.

An article published online has claimed the 59-year-old made a decision to leave the breakfast show due to illness

'For the record, NOT sick. But getting my cholesterol checked tomorrow after I see my trainer,' he wrote on Instagram

He is leaving Sunrise to finish his new book, Your Home Is Your Castle.

'I am going to go and finish up my new book... and I'll be doing a book tour, a Q&A show that will include Australian cities,' he said.

An upset Barr replied: 'Nelson, it's been a wonderful ride. We are going to miss you, but it's not goodbye as we have two weeks to say that.'

Aspen has been a fixture of Sunrise for almost 20 years, reporting to a series of hosts including Barr, Samantha Armytage and Melissa Doyle.

He was based in Los Angeles when he first joined the team, and remained Sunrise's 'man in Hollywood' even after moving to New York City.

Friday was Aspen's last day on Sunrise, Australia's most-watched breakfast show

Aspen marked 15 years on Sunrise back in 2018, saying he was grateful for 'having the opportunity to interview so many stars'.

'Just having the experience of being a part of the Sunrise family and coming to Australia and meeting you guys and the fans... these are opportunities that are extraordinary,' he added.

He was recently presented with the International Media Journalist of the Year award by the Publicists Guild of America in 2020, by none other than Jennifer Aniston.

Throughout his career, Aspen has interviewed the likes of Julie Andrews, Harrison Ford and Rose Byrne, and has covered all the major awards for Sunrise, including the Oscars and Golden Globes.

Aspen has been a fixture of Sunrise for almost 20 years, reporting to a series of hosts including Barr, Samantha Armytage and Melissa Doyle (left)
Lisa Vanderpump posed up with Vanderpump Rules stars Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval at Tuesday's opening night party for their new bar Schwartz & Sandy's.

Hosted by DailyMail.com and TMX, the dazzling party welcomed a fleet of stars to the new nightspot, which is nestled in the base of the iconic Hollywood Hills.

Making her presence felt at the big event, Lisa, 61, wowed in a hot pink blazer over a simply elegant basic black ensemble.

On the town: Lisa Vanderpump posed up with Vanderpump Rules stars Tom Schwartz (right) and Tom Sandoval (left) at Tuesday's opening night party for their new bar Schwartz & Sandy's

Lisa turned up the party's glitz factor, opting for a jacket covered in sequins that glittered under the lights.

Wearing her luxurious dark hair down with a black headband, the Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills alum sharpened her unmistakable features with makeup.

She selected a soft pink shade of lipstick that exuded a summertime air and happened to match her blazer.

The reality TV icon, who before her showbiz fame was a nightlife entrepreneur in London with her husband Ken Todd, brought the look together with a black clutch.

Looking fab: Making her presence felt at the big event, Lisa, 61, wowed in a hot pink blazer over a simply elegant basic black ensemble

Radiant: Wearing her luxurious dark hair down with a black headband, the Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills alum sharpened her unmistakable features with makeup

Coordination: She selected a soft pink shade of lipstick that exuded a summertime air and happened to match her blazer

Legend: The reality TV icon, who before her showbiz fame was a nightlife entrepreneur in London with her husband Ken Todd, brought the look together with a black clutch

Family business: Ken and one of the couple's dogs could also be spotted mingling with the Toms on the young businessmen's big night

Lisa's outfit strikingly complemented Tom Schwartz' as Lisa and the Toms posed up together for the cameras at the event.

Tom Sandoval gave off a vibe of 1980s Miami, wearing a glinting off-white suit over an floral shirt and leaving a few of his top buttons undone.

He heightened the effect with a handlebar mustache and wore his hair in an attractive coiff at the launch party for his latest professional venture.

Meanwhile Tom Schwartz wore a coral suit over a monochrome floral shirt, allowing an attractive touch of scruff to grow in over his matinee idol features.

Aglow: Lisa's outfit strikingly complemented Tom Schwartz' as Lisa and the Toms posed up together for the cameras at the event

Heartthrob: Tom Sandoval gave off a vibe of 1980s Miami, wearing a glinting off-white suit over an floral shirt and leaving a few of his top buttons undone

Sizzling sensation: He heightened the effect with a handlebar mustache and wore his hair in an attractive coiff at the launch party for his latest professional venture

Meanwhile: Tom Schwartz wore a coral suit over a monochrome floral shirt, allowing an attractive touch of scruff to grow in over his matinee idol features

Wow: In one huge Vanderpump Rules group shot to remember, the trio got together with Peter Madrigal, Lala Kent, Raquel Leviss, Ariana Madix, Katie Maloney-Schwartz, Scheana Schay, Brock Davies, James Kennedy and Ally Lewber

In one huge Vanderpump Rules group shot to remember, the trio got together with Peter Madrigal, Lala Kent, Raquel Leviss, Ariana Madix, Katie Maloney-Schwartz, Scheana Schay, Brock Davies, James Kennedy and Ally Lewber.

The Toms shared a glimpse inside their new cocktail lounge Schwartz & Sandy's ahead of Tuesday night's grand opening party.

The Vanderpump Rules stars  who are currently shooting season ten of the hit Bravo show  have spent over a year renovating their new LA hotspot.

In DailyMail.coms exclusive pictures, the interior of the cozy cocktail lounge looks heavily inspired by vintage motels and is described by the pair as 'delightfully kitschy.'

New venture: Tom Sandoval (L) and Tom Schwartz (R) are finally sharing a glimpse inside their new cocktail lounge Schwartz & Sandy's ahead of Tuesday night's grand opening party hosted by DailyMail.com and TMX; pictured Tuesday at the opening celebration

Sandoval and Schwartz both channeled 1980s men's style with their striking suits. Sandoval opted for a double-breasted white silk suit with peaked lapels and chunky white loafers, which he wore over a coral patterned shirt while sporting a dark mustache.

Schwartz was attired in a double-breasted pink suit and a black-and-white tropical print shirt, along with black sneakers and blue-tinted aviator sunglasses.

The entrepreneurs and reality stars showed off their striking neon sign for the lounge, which featured tropical plants and Schwartz's name in block letters, while Sandoval's was written in a playful cursive scrawl.

The menu promises shareable cuisine and plant-based options, and the mixologist offers playful interactive drinks lovingly created by the owners.

The pair battled Covid delays and supply chain issues but were able to fulfill their creative vision for the venue, which includes an iconic 'starry night' ceiling inspired by the night sky in Joshua Tree National Park.

Sandoval quips: 'It's the only place in LA where you're guaranteed to see stars.'

There is also an art installation inspired by James Turrells Skyspace, which is a virtual portal to the sky.

Looking good! Sandoval and Schwartz both channeled 1980s men's style with their striking suits. Sandoval opted for a double-breasted white silk suit with peaked lapels and chunky white loafers, which he wore over a coral patterned shirt while sporting a dark mustache

Colorful style: Schwartz was attired in a double-breasted pink suit and a black-and-white tropical print shirt, along with black sneakers and blue-tinted aviator sunglasses

Humble origins: Sandoval and Schwartz, both 39, first met via a Craigslist advertisement and went on to become roommates in Los Angeles

Period appropriate: The entrepreneurs and reality stars showed off their striking neon sign for the lounge, which featured tropical plants and Schwartz's name in block letters, while Sandoval's was written in a playful cursive scrawl

Sandoval and Schwartz, both 39, first met via a Craigslist advertisement and went on to become roommates in Los Angeles.

In 2013, the pals and their close circle of friends became stars of the hugely popular reality series Vanderpump Rules while working at Lisa Vanderpump's SUR restaurant.

The pair went into business together in 2017 when Vanderpump offered Sandoval and Schwartz a chance to invest $50,000 each for five-percent stake in her new West Hollywood bar, Tom Tom.

Rise to fame: In 2013, the pals and their close circle of friends became stars of the hugely popular reality series Vanderpump Rules while working at Lisa Vanderpump's SUR restaurant

Taking the plunge: The pair went into business together in 2017 when Vanderpump offered Sandoval and Schwartz a chance to invest $50,000 each for five-percent stake in her new West Hollywood bar, Tom Tom

Getting ready: Sandoval and Schwartz are seen preparing for the opening party

Last year they also released a new small batch bourbon and rye called Toms' Good Lovin'.

For Schwartz & Sandy's, the duo are also paying tribute to their Midwestern roots, as Schwartz hails from Minnesota, while Sandoval was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

At an NBCUniversal upfront presentation in May, Sandoval shared that the two are 'Going to do some toasted ravioli from St. Louis.' They will also be adding some 'St. Louisstyle pizza [with] Provel cheese' to their menu.

Schwartz added that they might pay honor his roots with a Juicy Lucy, a burger with melted cheese inside of the patty, which is believed to have originated in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Stylish: The lounge ceiling was decorated with wooden beams and featured cozy booth-backed tables adjoining a small bar

Seating: Larger booths were tucked away under elegant arches and featuring hypnotizing diamond-shaped patterns on the seats and walls with striking elephant and giraffe designs

Eye-catching: Comfortable blue velvet chairs were set aside in a corner, which was decorated with blue brick and pink wallpaper decorated with mythical winged cats

At ease: The rug and animal-themed throw pillows created an inviting atmosphere, as if guests were dropping by an old friend's home for a drink

Having a laugh: The wall above the yellow velvet sofa was decorate with several humorous paintings

Funny: One featured a satirical portrait of a goat dressed in a woman's dress, while other paintings featured a woman with a tattoo on her thigh reclining on a sofa and one next to it showed a closeup of a poodle's face

The interior of the lounge featured plenty of small booth-backed tables, which were next to an adjoining bar where patrons could socialize.

Larger booths were tucked away under elegant arches and featuring hypnotizing diamond-shaped patterns on the seats and walls with striking elephant and giraffe designs.

Comfortable blue velvet chairs were set aside in a corner, which was decorated with blue brick and pink wallpaper decorated with mythical winged cats.

The rug and animal-themed throw pillows created an inviting atmosphere, as if guests were dropping by an old friend's home for a drink. The wall above the yellow velvet sofa was decorate with several humorous paintings.

One featured a satirical portrait of a goat dressed in a woman's dress, while other paintings featured a woman with a tattoo on her thigh reclining on a sofa and one next to it showed a closeup of a poodle's face.

The small marble end table between the seats was topped off with a retro lamp with a fringed shade.

Animal lovers: One throw pillow depicted a tiger skin rug, while another velvet pillow was decorated with colorful parrots

Old school: The small marble end table between the seats was topped off with a retro lamp with a fringed shade

Fierce: The spacious interior included included hexagonal stone floor tiles and a row of golden velvet-covered booths decorated with a tiger-stripe pattern

Shimmering: Hanging above the booths was a lovely golden peacock decoration

The spacious interior included included hexagonal stone floor tiles and a row of golden velvet-covered booths decorated with a tiger-stripe pattern.

'The reality is that we're very, very close,' Sandoval said during an interview in March 2022. 'We text numerous times throughout pretty much every single day. We're very, very, very close.'

'We help balance each other out,' he continued. 'And we have a great working relationship. He gets fired up, I calm him down. It's the same. It's a very loving, conducive relationship together.

'We really have this friendship of "no idea is a bad idea." Let's take it for a spin. Let's see what happens. Let's go for it, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.'

Great connection: 'The reality is that we're very, very close,' Sandoval said during an interview in March 2022. 'We text numerous times throughout pretty much every single day. We're very, very, very close'

Opposites attract: 'We help balance each other out,' he continued. 'And we have a great working relationship. He gets fired up, I calm him down. It's the same. It's a very loving, conducive relationship together'

Whatever works: 'We really have this friendship of "no idea is a bad idea." Let's take it for a spin. Let's see what happens. Let's go for it, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work,' Sandoval added

Doubters: But when the pair first introduced the name of their new bar, not everyone was a fan

But when the pair first introduced the name of their new bar, not everyone was a fan.

'I think it's horrible,' Schwartz's now ex-wife Katie Maloney said on season nine of Vanderpump Rules. 'You wanna make it like psychedelic, funky, fresh, lights, textures, and then you want to call it f***ing Schwartz and Sandy's? Ugh. I lost my boner.'

But the name ended up sticking.

'We're committed,' Schwartz said during a recent interview. 'We've heard people say, "Oh, it sounds like a Jewish deli," or whatever. But you know, Red Hot Chili Peppers to me, when I first heard that name, sounded like a mariachi band. But now you have a different association. So when you go into our place, the name will become the place, the place will become the name. That will be the association.'

'With TomTom, it's like, Tom and Tom could essentially be any other two Toms, but Schwartz and Sandy's? There's only one Schwartz and one Sandy, and that combination, you know what I mean?' Sandoval said. 'You're getting to know us even a little bit more, because this is more of our love child.'

Schwatz & Sandys is located at 1917 N Bronson Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90068 and will open to the public in the coming weeks.

That figures: 'I think it's horrible,' Schwartz's now ex-wife Katie Maloney said on season nine of Vanderpump Rules

Lack of vision: 'You wanna make it like psychedelic, funky, fresh, lights, textures, and then you want to call it f***ing Schwartz and Sandy's? Ugh. I lost my boner,' she complained at the time

A winner: But the name ended up sticking

Times change: 'We're committed,' Schwartz said during a recent interview. 'We've heard people say, "Oh, it sounds like a Jewish deli," or whatever. But you know, Red Hot Chili Peppers to me, when I first heard that name, sounded like a mariachi band. But now you have a different association'
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Turkish and Iranian leaders in Tehran, his sole overseas travel since launching the invasion of Ukraine in February.

Unblocking Ukrainian grain shipments across the Black Sea was high on the agenda, with Putin claiming success. The Syrian civil conflict was also covered, with Turkey and Russia traditionally supporting opposite sides.

Putin Visits Iran

The conference provided Putin with an opportunity to demonstrate that he still had foreign friends. Following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Tehran and Moscow should deepen ties and implied that the West was to blame for the Ukraine conflict.

"If you had not taken the initiative, the other side would have started the conflict on its own," Khamenei said to Putin. The US claimed the Russian leader's travel to Iran demonstrated Russia's isolation in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine.

Invading your neighbor, a sovereign independent country, usually means losing friends. And Russia has suffered a great deal as a result of its invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has become a pariah state in the West.

However, the Kremlin is eager to demonstrate that international sanctions have failed to isolate Russia, the world's largest country and that some of its allies remain. As in Turkey and Iran, Russia will use the three-way Syria conference to demonstrate that it still has important friends and geopolitical influence, according to BBC.

Read Also: France, UAE Sign Deal on Energy Cooperation Amid Crisis Due to Potential Russian Shutdown

Meeting Comes as Europe Faces Shortages

The discussion took place amid fears that if Putin decides to stop the Nord Stream One project, Europe might suffer severe gas shortages this winter. After a 10-day repair period, the pipeline was reopened for pressure testing on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian missile blasted a vital bridge connecting the Russian-occupied city of Kherson to the heavily militarized Crimean peninsula on Tuesday, amid concerns that Kyiv is preparing to retake conquered territory in the south.

The blasted bridge might stymie Russian reinforcements, as senior Ukrainian officials announced last week that they were planning to raise a million-man army to free the occupied south. A crater from a shell was seen in the center of the Antonovsky bridge, which spans the Dnipro River, as per The Telegraph via MSN.

Warmongering Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched two supersonic Tu-160 nuclear missile bombers over the Barents Sea, north of Norway, Finland, and Sweden, in yet another display of might. Putin and other Russian officials urged Finland and Sweden, who had long remained militarily neutral until they decide to aspire for NATO membership, on multiple occasions not to join forces with the Western security bloc in the event of armed action.

The deployment of two planes capable of carrying and unleashing nuclear weapons, however, serves as a vivid reminder of Moscow's hostility to NATO expansion near Russia's northern border. MiG-31 fighter fighters accompanied the Tu-160 aircraft, dubbed as "White Swans," during a seven-hour trip. The flyover comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in Tehran, Iran, for only his second visit outside Russia since the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict, Daily Mail reported.

Related Article: Vladimir Putin Humiliated After Russia Appears To Shoot Down Their Own SU-34 Bomber in Ukraine

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Joe Keery didn't think his character, Steve Harrington, would make it past season one of Stranger Things.

In an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the 30-year-old actor disclosed his fears about the guy who became a fan favorite.

When the Netflix series first kicked off, the Massachusetts native explained he thought of Steve as the 'jerky boyfriend, kind of like James Spader in Pretty in Pink.'

Survive: Joe Keery, 30, said he didn't think his character would survive past season one of the hit Netflix show Stranger Things

'I read one, maybe, episode of the show  two episodes,' Joe explained. 'And it was kind of like a  we read three episodes, and then they had two more. It was really, they were building it out as we were going. It was day to day.'

Season four of the sci-fi series received 13 Emmy nominations, including outstanding drama series.

However, none of the 22 actors whose names were submitted for nominations received one. This is the second time the Television Academy voters have shut out the popular series.

Jerky boyfriend: Joe says he originally thought of Steve Harrington as a 'jerky boyfriend' but 'they were building it out as we were going. It was day to day'

Thanks to the two part season finale, viewership of Stranger Things reached a cumulative 1.15 billion hours for the nine episodes which comprised season four.

The program has already been renewed for season five.

Viewers are expected to have to wait until 2024 at the earliest to find out what's happening next in Hawkins, Indiana, where the show is set.

Emmys: Stranger Things season four received 13 Emmy nominations, including outstanding drama series

In the meantime, Joe is planning on taking his band, Djo (pronounced Joe,) to Lollapalooza to perform in Chicago later this month.

'I'm going to be definitely nervous,' he admitted. He describes the group's persona as 'a Devo sort of thing. Everyone dresses up.'

The group has a new record, Decide, coming out in September.
Channel Seven will no longer allow regional stations Prime7 and GWN7 to broadcast news under their own brands.

From Monday July 25, the broadcaster's bulletins will feature the 7News logo.

The change comes just in time for the Seven network's coverage of the Commonwealth Games which starts July 28, reports TV Blackbox.

Channel Seven will no longer allow regional stations Prime7 and GWN7 to broadcast news under their own brand. From Monday July 25, the stations will carry the 7News logo. Pictured: Prime7 anchor Madelaine Collignon

According to the publication, the change comes after Seven acquired its affiliates earlier this year.

Moving forward, however, the stations will continue to produce their own news casts.

GWN7 broadcasts a regular half-hour bulletin dedicated to the regional news in Western Australia, outside Perth.

Meanwhile, Prime7, which has a head office in Canberra, airs a 6pm bulletin with anchor Madelaine Collignon.

It has five local editions for viewers in the Central West, North West, North Coast, Wagga Wagga and the Border regions.

The change comes just in time for the Seven network's coverage of the Commonwealth Games which starts July 28, reports TV Blackbox

Meanwhile, the network recently unveiled its latest reality TV offering.

The new series, titled Heartbreak Island Australia, will see 16 singles from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US arrive in Fiji to find love and compete to win $100,000.

A new trailer for the upcoming series reveals 'things are about to get saucy' as the pretty, young things put their hearts on the line in paradise.

The series will be hosted by New Zealand television personality Clinton Randell, who previously co-hosted Dancing With The Stars

The series will be hosted by New Zealand television personality Clinton Randell, who previously co-hosted Dancing With The Stars.

Randell recently told TV Tonight he was over the moon about hosting the new series.

'I couldn't wait to start shooting Heartbreak Island Australia, this time with our first-ever global cast,' he told the publication.
Madeline Holtzngel looked totally different without her glamorous make-up as she stepped out in Double Bay, Sydney on Wednesday.

The model, 26, opted for a dressed-down designer look, wearing a navy blue Christian Dior sweatshirt with a pair of skintight black leggings.

Fashionista Madeline, who is dating billionaire businessman Justin Hemmes, 49, carried a Balenciaga handbag and a bright pink Frank Green water bottle.

Keeping it casual: Madeline Holtzngel, 26, looked totally different without her glamorous make-up as she stepped out in Double Bay, Sydney on Wednesday

She wore a comfortable pair of white trainers and completed her look by shielding her eyes behind a pair of dark sunglasses.

Madeline looked relaxed as she sat outside a cafe in Double Bay, browsing on her phone as she waited for her refreshments.

It comes after she took to Instagram on Saturday to share a racy mirror selfie before heading to the Coogee Pavilion in Sydney.

Dressing down: The model opted for a dressed-down designer look, wearing a navy blue Christian Dior sweatshirt with a pair of skintight black leggings

She posed up in her outfit and showed off her long legs in the snap before meeting her friends at the venue, owned by boyfriend Justin.

The brunette beauty looked chic in a miniskirt and white shirt, which she teamed with knee-high boots.

She accessorised with a black puffer jacket, sunglasses and a beige Fendi handbag.

Me time: Madeline looked relaxed as she sat outside a cafe in Double Bay, browsing on her phone as she waited for her refreshments

Glitterati: Madeline often shares pictures of herself with a full face of make-up and primped and preened hair on her Instagram page

She recently enjoyed a relaxing break on Justin's private Haggerstone Island, sharing a picture of herself as she flaunted her figure in a tiny two-piece bikini.

Justin is part owner of Haggerstone Island, which lies off the tropical coast of Cairns.

The private island costs a whopping $7,000 a night to rent.

Snap happy: On Saturday, Madeline showed off her long legs in miniskirt and knee-high boots in a mirror selfie before stepping out with friends

Fun in the sun: It comes after she enjoyed a relaxing break on her 49-year-old boyfriend Justin Hemme's private island in Queensland, Haggerstone Island

Previous guests include the late Bob Hawke and his wife Blanche d'Alpuget, as well as Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch.

While it's not known exactly how long they've been dating, they have been publicly together for about two years.

However, Madeline previously hinted they'd known each other for much longer.

Loved-up: While it's not known exactly how long they've been dating, they have been publicly together for about two years

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald in October 2020, she said they'd actually met two years before reports emerged of their relationship.

'We have known each other for two years and met when I was modelling in Singapore,' she said at the time.

It was also reported that Madeline was living in a penthouse apartment owned by Justin in the beachside Sydney suburb of Coogee.

She added that while the majority of her family was yet to meet her boyfriend, her older sister Simone Holtznagel was a fan.

Simone, 28, was a finalist on the 2011 season of Australia's Next Top Model.
Vanderpump Rules blonde Raquel Leviss glowed at Tuesday's opening night party for the new Los Angeles nightspot Schwartz & Sandy's.

Hosted by DailyMail.com and TMX, the fete was for the launch of a new cocktail lounge founded by Vanderpump Rule stars Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval.

And Raquel, 27, cut a stylish figure as she attended the glittering, star-studded party in support of her pals and colleagues.

Radiant: Vanderpump Rules blonde Raquel Leviss glowed at Tuesday's opening night party for the new Los Angeles nightspot Schwartz & Sandy's

The sizzling sensation slid her impressively svelte figure into a sleek black cocktail dress that emphasized her petite frame.

In a flourish of showbiz glamour, her ensemble was covered in sequins that shimmered under the lights.

Raquel brought back memories of the flapper era of the 1920s by wearing her hair in a short little wavy bob for the evening's revelry.

Accentuating her screen siren features with makeup, she lent the ensemble an extra touch of sparkle with a pair of drop earrings.

Hosted by DailyMail.com and TMX: The fete was for the launch of a new cocktail lounge founded by Vanderpump Rule stars Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval

Wow: In a flourish of showbiz glamour, her ensemble was covered in sequins that shimmered under the lights

Raquel balanced expertly on a pair of sky-high heels and turned this way and that to reveal to the shutterbugs that her dress was backless.

She shot to fame on Vanderpump Rules as the girlfriend of DJ James Kennedy, whom she was even engaged to before they split in December 2021.

James was also on hand for the Schwartz & Sandy's opening on the arm of his latest girlfriend Ally Lewber, whom he confirmed his romance with this March.

Raquel and James were reunited for a dazzling group shot of Vanderpump Rules personalities, though there were several people between them.

Taking the plunge: Her ex James Kennedy was on hand for the Schwartz & Sandy's opening on the arm of his latest girlfriend Ally Lewber, whom he confirmed his romance with this March

Note the placement: Raquel and James were reunited for a dazzling group shot of Vanderpump Rules personalities, though there were several people between them

All together now: Peter Madrigal, Lala Kent, Raquel, Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval, Lisa Vanderpump, Tom Schwartz, Katie Maloney-Schwartz, Scheana Shay, Brock Davies, James and Ally all got together for a sensational picture

Peter Madrigal, Lala Kent, Raquel, Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval, Lisa Vanderpump, Tom Schwartz, Katie Maloney-Schwartz, Scheana Shay, Brock Davies, James and Ally all got together for a sensational picture.

As the festivities got going, Raquel could be spotted mingling over drinks with Scheana, who sidled up to her in one of the attractive booths.

Scheana had encased her showstoppingly svelte figure in a skintight strapless dress, sharpening her femme fatale features with makeup.

The duo appeared to be thoroughly enjoying one another's company, as Raquel was seen beaming whilst sat beside Scheana.

Having a ball: As the festivities got going, Raquel could be spotted mingling over drinks with Scheana, who sidled up to her in one of the attractive booths

Making it happen: Scheana had encased her showstoppingly svelte figure in a skintight strapless dress, sharpening her femme fatale features with makeup

Such fun: The duo appeared to be thoroughly enjoying one another's company, as Raquel was seen beaming whilst sat beside Scheana

Living it up: They could also be spotted hobnobbing across reality show lines with Mercedes 'MJ' Javid, who became a known name on Shahs Of Sunset

Cocktail conversation: Raquel shared a chat and a laugh with MJ, who showcased her ample assets in a plunging ensemble for the cocktail lounge's launch party

They could also be spotted hobnobbing across reality show lines with Mercedes 'MJ' Javid, who became a known name on Shahs Of Sunset.

Raquel shared a chat and a laugh with MJ, who showcased her ample assets in a plunging ensemble for the cocktail lounge's launch party.

The Toms a glimpse inside their new cocktail lounge Schwartz & Sandy's ahead of Tuesday night's grand opening.

The Vanderpump Rules stars  who are currently shooting season ten of the hit Bravo show  have spent over a year renovating their new LA hotspot, which is nestled in the base of the iconic Hollywood Hills.

In DailyMail.coms exclusive pictures, the interior of the cozy cocktail lounge looks heavily inspired by vintage motels and is described by the pair as 'delightfully kitschy.'

New venture: Tom Sandoval (L) and Tom Schwartz (R) are finally sharing a glimpse inside their new cocktail lounge Schwartz & Sandy's ahead of Tuesday night's grand opening party hosted by DailyMail.com and TMX; pictured Tuesday at the opening celebration

Sandoval and Schwartz both channeled 1980s men's style with their striking suits. Sandoval opted for a double-breasted white silk suit with peaked lapels and chunky white loafers, which he wore over a coral patterned shirt while sporting a dark mustache.

Schwartz was attired in a double-breasted pink suit and a black-and-white tropical print shirt, along with black sneakers and blue-tinted aviator sunglasses.

The entrepreneurs and reality stars showed off their striking neon sign for the lounge, which featured tropical plants and Schwartz's name in block letters, while Sandoval's was written in a playful cursive scrawl.

The menu promises shareable cuisine and plant-based options, and the mixologist offers playful interactive drinks lovingly created by the owners.

The pair battled Covid delays and supply chain issues but were able to fulfill their creative vision for the venue, which includes an iconic 'starry night' ceiling inspired by the night sky in Joshua Tree National Park.

Sandoval quips: 'It's the only place in LA where you're guaranteed to see stars.'

There is also an art installation inspired by James Turrells Skyspace, which is a virtual portal to the sky.

Looking good! Sandoval and Schwartz both channeled 1980s men's style with their striking suits. Sandoval opted for a double-breasted white silk suit with peaked lapels and chunky white loafers, which he wore over a coral patterned shirt while sporting a dark mustache

Colorful style: Schwartz was attired in a double-breasted pink suit and a black-and-white tropical print shirt, along with black sneakers and blue-tinted aviator sunglasses

Humble origins: Sandoval and Schwartz, both 39, first met via a Craigslist advertisement and went on to become roommates in Los Angeles

Period appropriate: The entrepreneurs and reality stars showed off their striking neon sign for the lounge, which featured tropical plants and Schwartz's name in block letters, while Sandoval's was written in a playful cursive scrawl

Sandoval and Schwartz, both 39, first met via a Craigslist advertisement and went on to become roommates in Los Angeles.

In 2013, the pals and their close circle of friends became stars of the hugely popular reality series Vanderpump Rules while working at Lisa Vanderpump's SUR restaurant.

The pair went into business together in 2017 when Vanderpump offered Sandoval and Schwartz a chance to invest $50,000 each for five-percent stake in her new West Hollywood bar, Tom Tom.

Rise to fame: In 2013, the pals and their close circle of friends became stars of the hugely popular reality series Vanderpump Rules while working at Lisa Vanderpump's SUR restaurant

Taking the plunge: The pair went into business together in 2017 when Vanderpump offered Sandoval and Schwartz a chance to invest $50,000 each for five-percent stake in her new West Hollywood bar, Tom Tom

Getting ready: Sandoval and Schwartz are seen preparing for the opening party

Last year they also released a new small batch bourbon and rye called Toms' Good Lovin'.

For Schwartz & Sandy's, the duo are also paying tribute to their Midwestern roots, as Schwartz hails from Minnesota, while Sandoval was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

At an NBCUniversal upfront presentation in May, Sandoval shared that the two are 'Going to do some toasted ravioli from St. Louis.' They will also be adding some 'St. Louisstyle pizza [with] Provel cheese' to their menu.

Schwartz added that they might pay honor his roots with a Juicy Lucy, a burger with melted cheese inside of the patty, which is believed to have originated in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Stylish: The lounge ceiling was decorated with wooden beams and featured cozy booth-backed tables adjoining a small bar

Seating: Larger booths were tucked away under elegant arches and featuring hypnotizing diamond-shaped patterns on the seats and walls with striking elephant and giraffe designs

Eye-catching: Comfortable blue velvet chairs were set aside in a corner, which was decorated with blue brick and pink wallpaper decorated with mythical winged cats

At ease: The rug and animal-themed throw pillows created an inviting atmosphere, as if guests were dropping by an old friend's home for a drink

Having a laugh: The wall above the yellow velvet sofa was decorate with several humorous paintings

Funny: One featured a satirical portrait of a goat dressed in a woman's dress, while other paintings featured a woman with a tattoo on her thigh reclining on a sofa and one next to it showed a closeup of a poodle's face

The interior of the lounge featured plenty of small booth-backed tables, which were next to an adjoining bar where patrons could socialize.

Larger booths were tucked away under elegant arches and featuring hypnotizing diamond-shaped patterns on the seats and walls with striking elephant and giraffe designs.

Comfortable blue velvet chairs were set aside in a corner, which was decorated with blue brick and pink wallpaper decorated with mythical winged cats.

The rug and animal-themed throw pillows created an inviting atmosphere, as if guests were dropping by an old friend's home for a drink. The wall above the yellow velvet sofa was decorate with several humorous paintings.

One featured a satirical portrait of a goat dressed in a woman's dress, while other paintings featured a woman with a tattoo on her thigh reclining on a sofa and one next to it showed a closeup of a poodle's face.

The small marble end table between the seats was topped off with a retro lamp with a fringed shade.

Animal lovers: One throw pillow depicted a tiger skin rug, while another velvet pillow was decorated with colorful parrots

Old school: The small marble end table between the seats was topped off with a retro lamp with a fringed shade

Fierce: The spacious interior included included hexagonal stone floor tiles and a row of golden velvet-covered booths decorated with a tiger-stripe pattern

Shimmering: Hanging above the booths was a lovely golden peacock decoration

The spacious interior included included hexagonal stone floor tiles and a row of golden velvet-covered booths decorated with a tiger-stripe pattern.

'The reality is that we're very, very close,' Sandoval said during an interview in March 2022. 'We text numerous times throughout pretty much every single day. We're very, very, very close.'

'We help balance each other out,' he continued. 'And we have a great working relationship. He gets fired up, I calm him down. It's the same. It's a very loving, conducive relationship together.

'We really have this friendship of "no idea is a bad idea." Let's take it for a spin. Let's see what happens. Let's go for it, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.'

Great connection: 'The reality is that we're very, very close,' Sandoval said during an interview in March 2022. 'We text numerous times throughout pretty much every single day. We're very, very, very close'

Opposites attract: 'We help balance each other out,' he continued. 'And we have a great working relationship. He gets fired up, I calm him down. It's the same. It's a very loving, conducive relationship together'

Whatever works: 'We really have this friendship of "no idea is a bad idea." Let's take it for a spin. Let's see what happens. Let's go for it, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work,' Sandoval added

Doubters: But when the pair first introduced the name of their new bar, not everyone was a fan

But when the pair first introduced the name of their new bar, not everyone was a fan.

'I think it's horrible,' Schwartz's now ex-wife Katie Maloney said on season nine of Vanderpump Rules. 'You wanna make it like psychedelic, funky, fresh, lights, textures, and then you want to call it f***ing Schwartz and Sandy's? Ugh. I lost my boner.'

But the name ended up sticking.

'We're committed,' Schwartz said during a recent interview. 'We've heard people say, "Oh, it sounds like a Jewish deli," or whatever. But you know, Red Hot Chili Peppers to me, when I first heard that name, sounded like a mariachi band. But now you have a different association. So when you go into our place, the name will become the place, the place will become the name. That will be the association.'

'With TomTom, it's like, Tom and Tom could essentially be any other two Toms, but Schwartz and Sandy's? There's only one Schwartz and one Sandy, and that combination, you know what I mean?' Sandoval said. 'You're getting to know us even a little bit more, because this is more of our love child.'

Schwatz & Sandys is located at 1917 N Bronson Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90068 and will open to the public in the coming weeks.

That figures: 'I think it's horrible,' Schwartz's now ex-wife Katie Maloney said on season nine of Vanderpump Rules

Lack of vision: 'You wanna make it like psychedelic, funky, fresh, lights, textures, and then you want to call it f***ing Schwartz and Sandy's? Ugh. I lost my boner,' she complained at the time

A winner: But the name ended up sticking

Times change: 'We're committed,' Schwartz said during a recent interview. 'We've heard people say, "Oh, it sounds like a Jewish deli," or whatever. But you know, Red Hot Chili Peppers to me, when I first heard that name, sounded like a mariachi band. But now you have a different association'
CoolSculpting - the brand name for cryolipolysis, which uses cold temperatures to reduce fat deposits - is also known as body contouring

Linda had sought $50million in damages, alleging she was 'brutally disfigured' by Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc's CoolSculpting procedure

This week, she also returned to modelling with her first job, a Fendi fashion shoot, since she stopped working in 2016

The supermodel, 57, said she is 'happy' to put the case behind her and is looking forward to 'a new chapter' in her life

Linda Evangelista has settled her CoolSculpting lawsuit after claiming a rare reaction to a fat-reduction procedure left her 'deformed'

Linda Evangelista has settled her $50million CoolSculpting lawsuit after claiming a rare reaction to a fat-reduction procedure six years ago left her 'deformed'.

The supermodel, 57, said she is 'happy' to put the case behind her and is looking forward to 'a new chapter' in her life, thanking her friends and family for their support.

In her suit, the runway icon had sought $50million in damages, alleging that she had been left 'brutally disfigured' by Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc's CoolSculpting procedure, which she claimed 'did the opposite of what it promised.

The method, also known as body contouring, uses cold temperatures to reduce fat deposits and has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

This week, Linda also returned to modelling with her first job - a Fendi fashion shoot - since she stopped working following the procedure in 2016.

Case: Linda Evangelista (pictured in June) has settled her $50million CoolSculpting lawsuit after claiming a rare reaction to a fat-reduction procedure six years ago left her 'deformed'

After settling the case, she told her 1.2million Instagram followers in a statement posted on Tuesday: 'I'm pleased to have settled the CoolSculpting case.

'I look forward to the next chapter of my life with friends and family, and am happy to put this matter behind me.

'I am truly grateful for the support I have received from those who have reached out.'

In her suit, Linda had sought $50million in damages, alleging that she had been left 'brutally disfigured' by Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc's CoolSculpting procedure, which she claimed 'did the opposite of what it promised.

CoolSculpting - the brand name for cryolipolysis, which uses cold temperatures to reduce fat deposits - is also known as body contouring, and has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Statement: The supermodel, 57, said she is 'happy' to put the case behind her and is looking forward to 'a new chapter' in her life, thanking her friends and family for their support

Back to work: This week, the runway legend also returned to modelling with her first job - a Fendi fashion shoot - since she stopped working following the procedure in 2016

During the procedure, a device that's set below freezing temperature is applied to fat deposits, which causes cell death in the tissue.

Zeltiq - which is a subsidiary of Allergan - markets and licenses devices used for such procedures.

MailOnline has contacted Allergan for comment.

This week, Linda officially returned to the spotlight after barely being seen since 2016, posing for a brand new Fendi ad while promoting the brand's upcoming fashion show.

She shared a snap from the stunning campaign to Instagram on Saturday. She wore a gray sweater and three pink caps stacked on her head, as well as a pair of brown sunglasses and gloves.

She carried a few Fendi purses while looking away from the camera in the glamorous shot.

Lawsuit: The supermodel (pictured in 1990 and 1989), 57, said she is 'happy' to put the case behind her and is looking forward to 'a new chapter' in her life

'On September 9 2022 @Fendi will host a special fashion show in New York City to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the #FendiBaguette, designed by @silviaventurinifendi, and two years since @mrkimjones joined the Maison as Artistic Director of Couture and Womenswear,' she captioned the post.

The modeling gig was monumental for the runway star, since it marks her return to the industry after taking a six-year break from modeling.

Throughout the '90s, Linda was one of the biggest models in the industry, posing for numerous well-known magazines like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Elle, and Marie Claire, and strutting her stuff in runway shows for big brands including Chanel, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, and Giorgio Armani, to name a few.

However, she stopped working in 2016, and back in September, Linda revealed in a shocking Instagram post that the reason she had decided to retreat from the public eye was because she had developed a rare reaction to a cosmetic procedure.

At the time, Linda announced that she had filed a lawsuit suing CoolSculpting's parent company Zeltiq, claiming she was left 'permanently deformed' by the procedure.

Procedure: In her suit, Linda (pictured in 2005) had sought $50million in damages, alleging that she had been left 'brutally disfigured' by Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc's CoolSculpting procedure

She said in an Instagram statement at the time: 'Today I took a big step towards righting a wrong that I have suffered and have kept to myself for over five years.

'To my followers who have wondered why I have not been working while my peers' careers have been thriving, the reason is that I was brutally disfigured by Zeltiq's CoolSculpting procedure which did the opposite of what it promised.

'It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed even after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries. I have been left, as the media has described, "unrecognisable".'

Linda also said she had developed paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), a 'very rare but serious side effect' of the fat-freezing procedure', according to Healthline.

The rare adverse effect of cryolipolysis has been reported in of 0.0051 per cent of the 1.5million CoolSculpting procedures performed worldwide.

With this condition, the treated area becomes larger, rather than smaller. It can leave a 'painless, visibly enlarged, firm, well-demarcated mass' underneath the skin.

Referencing a lawsuit, she continued: 'I have developed Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia or PAH, a risk of which I was not made aware before I had the procedures.

'PAH has not only destroyed my livelihood, it has sent me into a cycle of deep depression, profound sadness, and the lowest depths of self-loathing.

'In the process, I have become a recluse. With this lawsuit, I am moving forward to rid myself of my shame, and going public with my story.

'I'm so tired of living this way. I would like to walk out my door with my head held high, despite not looking like myself any longer.'

Speaking to People magazine in an interview months later, the former runway star detailed how she thought she was going crazy and 'stopped eating' when growths started to appear on her chin, thighs, and bust area - and how she now 'dreads running into someone she knows' after spending decades as a catwalk sensation.

However, at the time, she said she was 'done hiding', telling the outlet: 'I can't live like this anymore, in hiding and shame. I just couldn't live in this pain any longer. I'm willing to finally speak.'

Fat-reduction: In September, Linda (pictured in 2003) said she had filed a lawsuit suing CoolSculpting's parent company Zeltiq, claiming she was left 'permanently deformed'

She detailed how within three months, she noticed bulges forming on her body, with the targeted areas growing rather than shrinking - before hardening and becoming numb as she experienced a rare side effect of the procedure.

She told People that she had filed a lawsuit last September suing CoolSculpting's parent company, Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc, for $50million in damages, claiming at the time that she has been unable to work since the procedures.

The star alleged that CoolSculpting offered to pay for liposuction for her to correct the damage caused by PAH after her doctor contacted them. However, she said that on the eve of her liposuction, Zeltiq said they would only pay for the procedure if she signed a confidentiality agreement - which she refused.

In June 2016, Linda underwent a full body liposuction procedure, which she claims she paid for. She then underwent liposuction again in July 2017, and it's unclear who covered the cost.

Linda said she had to wear girdles, a chin strap, and compression garments for eight weeks after the liposuction to prevent the PAH coming back - but said the condition did return after her second liposuction.

The model told the outlet that she can no longer bear to look at herself in the mirror as 'it doesn't look like her,' explaining that her identity as 'Linda Evangelista, supermodel' is now 'gone' due to the condition.

Low profile: Linda (pictured in June 2015) has hardly been seen since undergoing the procedure and stopped working as a model

She added: 'If I walk without a girdle in a dress, I will have chafing to the point of almost bleeding.

'Because it's not like soft fat rubbing, it's like hard fat rubbing. [I can't] put my arms flat along my side. I don't think designers are going to want to dress me with that sticking out of my body.'

A CoolSculpting representative told People at the time: 'The procedure has been well studied with more than 100 scientific publications and more than 11 million treatments performed worldwide.'

They added that rare side effects such as PAH 'continue to be well-documented in the CoolSculpting information for patients and health care providers.'

Linda has hardly been seen since undergoing the procedure. In February, she stepped out for the first time without covering her face, while shopping at Manhattan's trendy Chelsea Market.

She was also seen on a rare outing earlier this month. The Canadian fashionista was spotted keeping it casual as she stepped out in New York City in a pair of sweatpants and an oversized jacket.
Kim Kardashian went to great lengths to avoid being spotted during her trip to Far North Queensland to visit her boyfriend Pete Davidson over the weekend.

Daily Mail Australia can reveal the American reality star's elite security team was working around the clock to ensure she went undetected after she touched down in Cairns on Saturday morning on her private jet.

Sources close to Kim have revealed she 'didn't want anyone knowing she was in Australia' and went to her best efforts to ensure she wasn't photographed.

Kim Kardashian, 41, went to extreme lengths to avoid being spotted during her trip to Far North Queensland while visiting boyfriend Pete Davidson over the weekend. Pictured arriving back in LA on Tuesday

'This is the one per cent of time that she doesn't want to have to worry about getting glammed up and just wants to switch off,' they said.

'She's just here to spend time with Pete and has no plans on leaving the hotel. It's a very low-key trip and she doesn't want to be bothered,' the source added.

'Kim is happy to say "hi" to you if you bump into her, but she definitely doesn't want to get her photograph taken on this trip.'

Daily Mail Australia can reveal the US reality star's elite security team were working around the clock to ensure that she went undetected after she touched down in Cairns, Queensland on Saturday morning on her private jet. Pictured with Pete Davidson (right)

Kim was originally set to meet Davidson at the Silky Oaks Lodge in Mossman, but is said to have relocated to the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Port Douglas for extra privacy.

Before checking in hotel employees were asked to sign NDAs with the production company working on Pete's new film.

Resort employees were also instructed not to ask the Hollywood stars for selfies or autographs and not to post anything to their social media accounts.

Kim was originally set to meet Davidson at the Silky Oaks Lodge in Mossman, but is said to have relocated to the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Port Douglas (pictured) for extra privacy

On the rare trips Kim did make out of Port Douglas, Kim used decoy cars to avoid detection and would enter and leave through the hotel's loading dock not accessible to resort guests.

Kim was chauffeured around in a very unglamorous 2020 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport Wagon, valued at around AUD $42,990 (USD $29,650).

The car, which features tinted windows, was parked nearby to Kim's private villa at the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Port Douglas, on Tuesday, and was splattered in mud and dirt.

On the rare trips Kim did make out of Port Douglas, Kim used decoy cars to avoid detection and would enter and leave through the hotel's loading dock not accessible to resort guests

Her security detail are even further downgraded, riding in 2020 Kia Carnival Wagons, valued at AUD $47,480 (USD $32,718)

Her security detail are even further downgraded, riding in 2020 Kia Carnival Wagons, valued at AUD $47,480 (USD $32,718).

The American star 'wasn't pleased' with the car choice but happily 'settled' because of the limited amount of cars available to rent in Cairns, a source told Daily Mail Australia.

She was hoping for a tinted black Mercedes Benz van but nothing was available.

Davidson has been in Cairns to film the comedy Wizards! with Orlando Bloom. Sources close to Kim tell Daily Mail Australia that Kim 'didn't want anyone knowing she was in Australia' and went to her best efforts to ensure that she wasn't photographed

Should any eagle eyed paparazzo catch onto the car Kim was traveling in her security detail would drive slow through the towns narrow roads, and circle roundabouts several times to avoid people following her.

Kim and Pete needed a vehicle that was able to get them over steep hills and though the jungle to Pete's film set in Cape Tribulation, Far North Queensland.

Davidson has been in Cairns to film the comedy Wizards! with Orlando Bloom.

'It's a short visit but she's really excited to go,' a source told DailyMail.com this week.

'They've both been so busy with work commitments so this is a much needed break and they are looking forward to time together,' the insider added.

The loved-up duo have been apart for four weeks, as he's been filming a new project with Orlando Bloom.
Russell Crowe left social media users unimpressed when he revealed he had taken photos inside the Sistine Chapel during a private tour.

The actor, 58, is currently in Rome filming the movie The Pope's Exorcist and paid a visit to the Vatican during his trip where he shared several photos from inside the world-famous chapel while on a private tour.

Photography is not allowed inside the Sistine Chapel to prevent camera flashes from damaging the artwork, with some appearing to suggest Russell's celebrity status may have been part of his flouting the rules.

Rules: Russell Crowe left social media users unimpressed when he revealed he had taken photos inside the Sistine Chapel during a private tour

Taking to Twitter, Russell shared his snaps from the tour and wrote: 'I'm not sure there's a more special privilege in the world than to hold the key for the Sistine Chapel and to experience it's glory in silence.'

Discussing his trip to the Vatican in further detail, he added: 'A very special experience as a family yesterday. Got to walk through the Vatican Museum by ourselves. Amazing.

'My mum had walked these corridors with my father 20+ years ago with the thousands of tourist that flock here daily and make it the third most popular museum globally.

'We were given access to rooms, perspectives and parts of the collection you don't get to see as a regular tourist.

Snaps: The actor, 58, paid a visit to the Vatican during his trip where he shared several photos from inside the world-famous chapel where he received a private tour

'As we squeezed into a tiny private elevator and ascended to a balcony few get to see, she squeezed my hand and said 'I wish your father was here.

'We stepped on to the balcony, a majestic sweeping view of Rome. From somewhere in the Vatican we could hear the Swiss Guard band rehearsing.'

Several Twitter users responded to Russell's post, asking how he managed to get away with taking photos inside the chapel.

One wrote: 'No photos allowed though,' while another said: 'You can take photos where the rest of us mere mortals aren't allowed.'

Another added: 'Did you get special permission to take photos at Sistine Chapel?'

One user wrote: 'I was there last month but it was so packed and strictly no photos allowed. I suppose we are not all gladiators.'

Russell wrote: 'I'm not sure there's a more special privilege in the world than to hold the key for the Sistine Chapel and to experience it's glory in silence'

Reaction: Several Twitter users responded to Russell's post, asking how he managed to get away with taking photos inside the chapel

Russell will play a priest battling demons in the upcoming supernatural thriller The Pope's Exorcist.

Based on Gabrielle Amorth's published memoirs, the film will be directed by Julius Avery, who is best known for the 2018 horror film Overlord.

Russell portrays Father Gabrielle Amorth, a real-life figure who was based at the Vatican and is said to have performed 60,000 exorcisms.

His death prompted national mourning in Italy, where an estimated 500,000 people visit an exorcist each year.

'It's been a goal of mine to work with Russell,' young Australian filmmaker Avery told The Hollywood Reporter.

Memories: Gladiator star Russell shared a snap on his Twitter account on Monday as he took his kids on a tour of the Colosseum which he called his 'old office'

'To collaborate with him on the Pope's Exorcist is a dream come true.'

On Monday, Russell took his kids on a tour of his 'old office', the Colosseum in the Italian capital.

The actor, who famously starred as Maximus in Sir Ridley Scott's iconic film Gladiator in 2000, returned to his roots two decades later with his sons in tow.

Sharing a group snap to his Twitter account, Russell posed with his girlfriend Britney Theriot, 31, and his sons Charles, 18, and Tennyson, 16, outside the ancient amphitheatre.
Louis Tomlinson took a swipe at The Project hosts Peter Helliar and Carrie Bickmore when they referred to Liam Payne's recent interview about his time in One Direction during an appearance on the show on Wednesday.

Liam hit the headlines when he appeared on Logan Paul's Impaulsive podcast last month when he discussed his strained relationships within the group and other infamous moments.

And during Louis' appearance on Channel 10's The Project this week, Peter asked Louis if there was any 'beef' with the other boys, prompting the star to accuse the hosts of trying to stir things up.

Trouble? Louis Tomlinson took a swipe at The Project hosts Peter Helliar and Carrie Bickmore when they referred to Liam Payne's interview about his time in One Direction on Wednesday

Peter asked: 'There's been a bit of 1D beef recently thanks to Liam who's been speaking out about the band a little bit. When you look back on your experience about the band, how do you feel about your experience of those days?'

A suspicious Louis replied: 'Oh, so the fishing's begun already! Yeah, I see what you're doing. No, listen, I'm immensely proud, as I know Liam is, I'm immensely proud of those days, obviously.

'It was an incredible thing to do, especially at such a young age and I have amazing memories, amazing memories.'

Mixing it up: During Louis' appearance on The Project this week, Peter asked Louis if there was any 'beef' with the other boys, prompting the star to accuse the hosts of trying to stir things up

Pushing Louis further, Carrie asked if he ever gets fed up that he's still linked to One Direction despite their split in 2016.

She asked: 'Louis, when you say, "Aw, the fishing's begun," I imagine it is so annoying having to answer retrospective questions like that. Do you want to talk about that time in your life to the media versus how much you never have to want to talk about it again?'

Louis responded: 'I'm more than happy to talk about it in every interview. It's something I'm immensely proud of, as I'd already said, it's just when you mentioned the beef before, it sounded like you were getting ready to stir some s**t up, that's all I'm saying.'

Deep dive: Pushing Louis further, Carrie asked if he ever gets fed up that he's still linked to One Direction despite their split in 2016

Peter chimed in: 'No, I'm not a s**t stirrer Louis, do I look like a s**t stirrer?'

During his appearance on The Impaulsive podcast last month, Liam and the host discussed former bandmate Zayn Malik's headline-making online feud with Logan's brother Jake Paul in 2020, which ended with Zayn's then-girlfriend Gigi Hadid slamming Jake as 'irrelevant' and defending her beau as 'a respectful king'.

Liam gave his thoughts on the drama, saying: 'She tweeted something about get yourself a respectful man or something. That one didnt age very well.'

Stirring up trouble: Liam appeared on Logan Paul's podcast last month, discussing his additions and mental health issues while in 1D and strained relationships within the group

Liam continued to talk about Zayn, saying there were 'many reasons why I dislike Zayn' but that he will 'always be on his side' because of Zayn's alleged tough upbringing.

He said: 'Theres many reasons why I dislike Zayn and theres many reasons why Ill always, always be on his side.

'If I had had to go through what he went through, through his growth and whatever else. You know are your parents very supportive?

'My parents are overly supportive to the point where its annoying at times and they dont even mind me saying that. And Zayn had a different upbringing in that sense.'

He continued: 'You can always look at the man for where he is and say, "Oh, yeah, whatever that guys a d*ck." Right? But at the end of the day, once you understand what hes been through to get to that point, and also whether or not he even wanted to be there

'Im so misunderstood by myself more than anyone, like I dont know what Im doing or why Im here. Its like, I cant sit here and d*ck on him because of whatever.'

Louis is currently in Australia to perform as part of his world tour which was delayed for two years due to Covid.

Bringing it all back up: Liam and Logan discussed former bandmate Zayn Malik's headline-making feud with Logan's brother Jake in 2020, which ended with Zayn's then-girlfriend Gigi Hadid (pictured) slamming Jake as 'irrelevant' and defending her beau as 'a respectful king'

He first announced delays in 2020 before announcing new 2022 dates after his rescheduled 2021 tour wasn't able to go ahead.

Promising to return to Australia this year, he wrote on Instagram when announcing his new tour dates in May last year: 'Let's try this one last time! All shows on my world tour will be moving back to 2022 and Im excited to announce the first wave of new dates. I can't wait to see you all soon, it's going to be special.'

Louis is set to take to the stage on another five dates in Australia, performing in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth this month.
Robert Irwin has shared a sweet birthday tribute to his mother, Terri, for her 58th birthday.

The 18-year-old took to his Instagram on Wednesday to share a gallery of never-before-seen photos alongside his mum with his followers.

'Happy birthday mum! Thank you for taking us all on so many adventures and for inspiring me every single day. You are the strongest person I know. Love you,' he wrote.

Robert Irwin, 18, has shared a sweet birthday tribute to his mother, Terri, for her 58th birthday on Wednesday

In one photo, the pair were seen smiling in their backyard, while another saw them posing together on a recent trip to Tasmania.

Robert's older sister Bindi was quick to comment underneath the photo.

'These photos and memories are so wonderful,' she wrote.

'Happy birthday mum! Thank you for taking us all on so many adventures and for inspiring me every single day. You are the strongest person I know. Love you,' he wrote

In one photo, the pair were seen smiling in their backyard, while another saw them posing together on a recent trip to Tasmania

Over on her own channel, Bindi, 23, shared a series of photos of the entire Irwin clan.

The famous family were seen posing on the couch at their home at Australia Zoo, flashing the camera their picture perfect smiles.

'Mum, I couldnt wait to wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! So excited to celebrate your birthday tomorrow and the amazing, beautiful, inspiring person you are. Thank you for being born. ,' she wrote.

'I love you more than I could possibly describe and every day Im grateful for your kind heart and strong soul. Of all the good things in this world, youre the most wonderful.'

Noticeably missing from the photo is the Irwin patriarch, Steve Irwin.

Robert's older sister Bindi was quick to comment underneath the photo. 'These photos and memories are so wonderful,' she wrote

Over on her own channel, Bindi, 23, shared a rarely-seen portrait of the entire Irwin clan, including daughter Grace Warrior

Crocodile Hunter Steve tragically died in September 2006 at the age of 44, after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming a wildlife documentary in Batt Reef, Queensland.

Last month, Terri marked her 30th wedding by sharing a touching tribute to her late husband Steve.

The mother-of-two shared a touching photo to Twitter of herself and Steve on Saturday standing together and smiling while he gently touched her arm.

Steve in his iconic Khaki uniform while Terri wore a beige rain jacket.

Last month, Terri marked her 30th wedding by sharing a touching tribute to her late husband Steve

'I married this incredible bloke 30 years ago today,' she wrote

'What an adventure! Love and legacy live on.'

Terri has been open about her romance with iconic Steve who tragically passed-away in 2006.

Sweet: 'I married this incredible bloke 30 years ago today,' she wrote. 'What an adventure! Love and legacy live on'

Speaking to Anh Do on his Brush With Fame program, she recalled the moment she met Steve and wondered whether he was single.

'I wasn't even dating, I wasn't even looking,' Terri, who was then 27, said of Steve, 29, when they met in 1991.

'I was 27-years-old, and figured my life was going to be my work, and met Steve and fell instantly in love,' she added.

Love story: Terri has been open about her romance with iconic Steve who tragically passed-away in 2006. On special occasions, she often speaks of their deep love for each other

Terri said she was impressed by how cool and calm Steve was while feeding a crocodile for a show.

'I thought this man is the most incredible guy I have ever seen. He's probably married. He's gotta be taken,' she said.

It was then she plucked-up the courage to talk to him - but to her dismay Steve immediately said he wanted to introduce her to his 'girlfriend'.

'I wasn't even dating, I wasn't even looking': Speaking to Anh Do on his Brush With Fame program, she recalled the moment she met Steve and wondered whether he was single

'I just felt utterly crushed, and then he called out, 'Hey, Suey!' And here comes this little dog, Suey. I went, 'Boom! No girlfriend!''

Steve and Terri tied the knot in 1992 in her home state of Oregon.

Terri never remarried following the death of her husband.

The couple welcomed two children - daughter Bindi, 23, and son Robert, 18.
She arrived in Corfu on Monday for her second wedding ceremony to husband Max Darnton after they previously delayed her overseas nuptials due to Covid.

And Binky Felstead appeared bridal ready as she wowed in a white bikini teamed with a floral lace length kimono as she enjoyed a boat trip on Wednesday.

The reality star, 32, looked a vision in the stunning ensemble as she was joined by fellow guests including her Made In Chelsea bestie Millie Mackintosh.

Wedding ready: Binky Felstead wowed in a white bikini teamed with a lace floor length kimono as she enjoyed a boat trip on Wednesday in Corfu ahead of her second ceremony

Millie made sure she joined the wedding party in style, looking incredible in a plunging nautical swimsuit.

The 32-year-old took to her Instagram account to share the stunning mirror selfie from her hotel room.

The reality personality looked radiant in the lace-up number which complemented her sun-kissed skin.

Stunner: Meanwhile, her pal Millie Mackintosh looked incredible in a plunging nautical swimsuit which she uploaded to her Instagram on Wednesday from her Corfu hotel room

The TV favourite wore her brunette tresses in soft waves as she got ready to join Binky and the rest of the wedding party.

Also on the guest list was jewellery designer and friend of the couple Rosie Fortescue.

The businesswoman, 32, sent temperatures soaring as she posted a slew of sensational snaps to her social media account.

Ready for her close-up: Binky looked a vision in the stunning floor length ensemble which she teamed with a fedora hat

Rosie displayed her jaw-dropping figure as she donned a barely-there string bikini.

The TV personality confidently flaunted her sensational toned physique as she got ready in a bathroom before joining the rest of the crew.

She accentuated her trim waistline with a Chanel belly chain.

Her collage of images also included an image of her and Binky as they took a break from celebrations and posed for a snap on board the boat.

Sizzling: Rosie Fortescue sent temperatures soaring as she posted a slew of sensational snaps to her social media account

It comes after Binky boarded a plane to Corfu for her wedding on Monday morning as she carried her bridal gown in a garment bag.

The TV personality faced her back to the camera as she held onto a weaved tote bag and wore a breezy black co-ord set with a button-up and shorts.

Posting the photo to her 1.4 million followers, she simply captioned it with a series of emojis, including one of a bride and another of the sun.

Flawless: The TV personality confidently flaunted her sensational toned physique as she got ready in a bathroom before joining the rest of the crew

Binky also shared Stories of her trip, including clips of a bartender pouring glasses of champagne and orange juice at Heathrow Airport, while enjoying a breakfast of boiled eggs and soldiers before her departure.

On Sunday, the bride-to-be shared a behind-the-scenes snap as she got ready for her big day with a spray tan.

Battling with the scorching heat in the UK, a bronzed up Binky - real name Alexandra - shared a sweaty selfie.

Besties: Rosie's collage of images also included an image of herself and Binky as they took a break from celebrations and posed for a snap on board the boat

'My fan is blowing warm air at me,' she wrote. 'Tips for not melting with a spray tan welcome.'

Binky's best friend Ollie Locke shared some heartfelt words ahead of the second wedding ceremony this week.

The Made In Chelsea star, 35, took to Instagram, saying he could not wait to celebrate his former co-star's marriage.

Having also travelled abroad for her Ibiza hen party earlier this year, Ollie shared a number of throwback pictures of the pair and wrote: 'This is a HUGE week for you @binkyfelstead.

'After so many memories we finally get to celebrate your heavenly wedding with a week abroad in the sunshine.

'I honestly believe the boat day at the hen party of was one of my favourite days of life and I can only imagine what this week will hold! Expect a lot of emotional holiday/wedding content this week!!

'This is your week my angel Bink and I'm going to be holding yours and India's hand all week with a thousand cuddles!! I CANT WAIT!!!! And I love you Xxxxxx.'

It's happening! It comes after Binky boarded a plane to Corfu for her wedding on Monday morning as she carried her bridal gown in a garment bag

Binky and Max, 32, tied the knot during an intimate civil ceremony at Chelsea Old Town Hall in July last year but will have a larger celebration with their loved ones this week.

The couple are proud parents to son Wolfie, 13 months, while Binky has daughter India, five, with her former Made In Chelsea co-star and ex-boyfriend Josh Patterson, 32.

Binky and Josh met while co-starring in Made In Chelsea in 2015 and dated on and off until September 2018, when they confirmed their split.

The pair previously spoke of their plans to host a bigger ceremony in Corfu this summer, with Max telling HELLO! magazine that they plan to have a BBQ on the beach and go snorkelling.

Wow: Binky and Max revealed they tied the knot during intimate ceremony at at Chelsea Old Town Hall on Friday July 23, 2021, but will soon have a second ceremony

They have hired a 'big boat to sail around the coves' and have also secured a cliffside venue for their wedding.

They've also rented a private beach where they can enjoy a meal after the ceremony with their loved ones.

Binky and Max have been dating since January 2019 after first meeting at private members' club Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire.

Businessman Max popped the question with a 50,000 statement Art Deco-inspired engagement ring in September 2020 during a romantic weekend in East Sussex.
Europeans are fearing a potentially long and cold winter season as Russia continues to cut off its natural gas supply to the region as international tensions continue to rise over the invasion of Ukraine.

The situation comes as Europe is currently experiencing scorching heat waves as leaders are trying to secure new gas suppliers to ensure the heating stays on this coming winter. Analysts have warned that new gas sources will not solve the problem, which means Europeans may have no choice but to cut their energy consumption.

Supply of Natural Gas in Europe

Europeans can soon expect to be urged to restrain their use of air conditioning amid the searing heat so that they can keep warm this coming winter. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron warned of a "scenario where we have to manage completely without Russian gas" due to Moscow taking advantage of it as a "weapon of war."

The issue became acute in mid-June when Russia's state-run energy firm Gazprom opted to cut gas supplies in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to only 40% of capacity. The pipeline is a crucial source of Russian gas to Germany that flows through the Baltic Sea, as per France24.

The crisis comes as Germany still gets 35% of its gas from Russia, which is a decrease from the 55% before Russia's war on Ukraine. On the other hand, France is less dependent on Moscow but still relatively exposed, with 17% of its gas coming from Russia.

Read Also: Vladimir Putin Humiliated After Russia Appears To Shoot Down Their Own SU-34 Bomber in Ukraine

Russia has already opted to stop sending gas supplies to Finland, Poland, and Bulgaria over their refusal to pay in rubles. Now, there is a very "strong risk" that Moscow will continue with the same strategy across the continent and cut off gas supplies completely before the winter season, warned Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow in economics and trade at the German Marshall Fund Brussels bureau.

According to Reuters, Gazprom put out a statement telling its customers in Europe that it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of "extraordinary circumstances." The company's letter said that it was retroactively declaring force majeure on supplies from June 14.

Cutting Off Gas Flow

The company's letter added to fears circulating in Europe that Moscow may not restart the pipeline at the end of the maintenance period in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Russia. Force majeure, which is known as an "act of God," is standard in business contracts and defines extreme circumstances that release a party from their legal obligations.

Gazprom's declaration does not necessarily mean that it would stop deliveries, rather that it should not be held responsible if it fails to meet contract terms. Russian gas supplies have been on the decline via major routes for several months due to the invasion of Ukraine and sanctions.

Berlin officials have already declared a "gas crisis" and triggered an emergency energy plan in response to dwindling supplies. Landlords, schools, and municipalities have begun to lower their thermostats to conserve energy. They have also started to ration hot water, close swimming pools, turn off air-conditioners, dim streetlights, and exhort the benefits of cold showers, the New York Times reported.



Related Article: Russia-Ukraine War: Volodymyr Zelensky Reveals 'Significant' Blow to Russian Forces, Thanks to Advanced Western Weapons

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Brad Pitt appeared to be having an excellent time as he larked around with his co-stars at the Bullet Train photocall at The Corinthia Hotel in London on Wednesday.

The Hollywood actor, 58, put on a very animated display as he was lifted in the air by his co-stars and photobombed other snaps during the event.

In one picture, Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry, who also star in the new action movie, stood on either side of Brad as he threw his arms around them and leapt into the air.

Hilarious: Brad Pitt appeared to be having an excellent time as he larked around with his co-stars at the Bullet Train photocall at The Corinthia Hotel in London on Wednesday

High energy: The Hollywood actor, 58, put on a very animated display as he was lifted in the air by his co-stars and photobombed other snaps during the event

In another snap, Brad energetically dived in front of the camera with his hair flying as Aaron, 32, and Brian, 40, posed on the picturesque balcony.

The star, who plays Ladybug in the thriller film, was also seen flashing grins at the camera and giving a thumbs-up as he larked around with his pals.

Brad also gave a flash of his rarely-seen stomach tattoos beneath his forest green ensemble, one of which spelled out 'omega' while the other was also made up of a series of letters.

He cut a trendy figure in dark green jogging bottoms and a T-shirt, which he wore beneath a colour coordinated blazer.

Ink: Brad also gave a flash of his rarely-seen stomach tattoos beneath his forest green ensemble, one of which spelled out 'omega' while the other was also made up of letters

Good form: The star, who plays Ladybug in the thriller film, was also seen flashing grins at the camera and giving a thumbs-up as he larked around with his pals

He kept comfortable in a pair of white loafers and shielded his eyes from the bright sunshine with a pair of aviator sunglasses.

The Fight Club actor styled his windswept golden locks loosely in a straight fashion as he seemed to have the time of his life larking around during the photocall.

His co-star Aaron looked dapper in black jeans, a beige and orange striped button-up cardigan and black loafers.

Pals: In one picture, Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry, who also star in the new action movie, stood on either side of Brad as he threw his arms around them

Edgy: Brad cut a trendy figure in dark green jogging bottoms and a T-shirt, which he wore beneath a colour coordinated blazer

Having a laugh: The Fight Club actor styled his windswept golden locks loosely in a straight fashion as he seemed to have the time of his life larking around during the photocall

He accessorised his smart outfit with an array of chunky rings, a chain bracelet and a gold pendant necklace.

Aaron, who is married to director Sam Taylor-Johnson, 55, swept his dark curled locks in a slicked-back style and sported a pair of aviator sunglasses.

Meanwhile, Brian looked equally suave in black trousers and a monochrome checkered blazer, which he styled with a pair of black loafers.

Smart: His co-star Aaron looked dapper in black jeans, a beige and orange striped button-up cardigan and black loafers

Energetic: In another snap, Brad energetically dived in front of the camera with his hair flying as Aaron, 32, and Brian, 40, posed on the picturesque balcony

Fun: Brad's co-star Joey King also got involved in the high energy antics as she was seen striking playful poses

Strike a pose: The Kissing Booth star Joey, 22, was seen posing with her hands on her head as she stood directly in front of Aaron, Brad and Brian while they had their pictures taken

Brad's co-stars Joey King, Kelly McCormick and David Leitch also got involved in the high energy antics as they were seen striking playful poses.

The Kissing Booth star Joey, 22, was seen posing with her hands on her head as she stood directly in front of Aaron, Brad and Brian while they had their pictures taken.

She also posed with her hands on her hips in front of the trio as she joined in with the playful antics.

Flying! Brad was full of energy as he leapt into his air while being held up by Aaron and Brian

Wow! Joey flaunted her incredible physique in a black mini dress with a sheer bodice and a daringly low neckline

Eye-popping: She gave herself a few extra inches in a pair of chunky black heeled boots and swept her fringed tresses back into a chic up-do

Joey flaunted her incredible physique in a black mini dress with a sheer bodice and a daringly low neckline.

She gave herself a few extra inches in a pair of chunky black heeled boots and swept her fringed tresses back into a chic up-do.

The star accentuated her striking features with lashings of mascara and a slick of pink lipstick, while she accessorised with red droplet earrings.

Producer Kelly and director David were also keen to get involved with the fun-filled photocall, as Kelly was seen leaping into the air and diving into David's arms.

Movie: Bullet Train centres on five assassins find themselves on one fast moving train, soon discovering their missions are not unrelated. Pictured: Stars Aaron, Brad, Brian and Joey

Suave: Aaron, who is married to director Sam Taylor-Johnson, 55, swept his dark curled locks in a slicked-back style and sported a pair of aviator sunglasses

Cast: Kelly McCormick, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brad Pitt, Brian Tyree Henry, Joey King and David Leitch attend the Bullet Train photocall

Bullet Train centres on five assassins find themselves on one fast moving train, soon discovering their missions are not unrelated.

The film, which also features Sandra Bullock and Bad Bunny, was slated for an April 2022 release but several delays pushed it to the new August release date.

And the cast have been making their way across Europe to promote the flick, before they arrived in the UK to make the rounds.

Amusing: Producer Kelly and director David were also keen to get involved with the fun-filled photocall, as Kelly was seen leaping into the air and diving into David's arms

Dapper: Meanwhile, Brian looked equally suave in black trousers and a monochrome checkered blazer, which he styled with a pair of black loafers
Bradley Cooper and Huma Abedin are reportedly dating and keeping their relationship under wraps.

The star, 47, and the political staffer, 45, are not in a rush to get serious, with their romance 'still in the earlier stages' and 'casual,' according to People.

The duo, who were introduced to each other by Vogue editor Anna Wintour, 'are dating but it's not a full-speed-ahead type thing yet.'

The latest: Bradley Cooper and Huma Abedin are reportedly dating and keeping their relationship under wraps. The star, 47, and the political staffer, 45, are not in a rush to get serious, with their romance 'still in the earlier stages' and 'casual,' according to People; seen February 27, 2022 in Santa Monica at the 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

The insider revealed that 'Bradley is fascinated by her. Huma is very international and has seen and one so much.'

'He finds this intriguing and challenging,' the source told the outlet.

Huma, who has been an advisor and an aide to Hillary Clinton for 25 years, was previously married to Anthony Weiner, the former congressman who in 2017 pleaded guilty to sexting with a minor.

She shares son Jordan, 10, with the disgraced congressman.

News: The duo, who were introduced to each other by Vogue editor Anna Wintour, 'are dating but it's not a full-speed-ahead type thing yet;' seen June 29, 2022 at the Mr. Malcolm's List NY premiere at DGA Theater in NYC

Bradley has a daughter named Lea De Seine, five, with ex partner Irina Shayk, 36.

On their romance: 'They are both serious-minded people dedicated to their work and doing the right thing. Huma is smart and a straight-shooter.'

Adding: 'They make an interesting pair.'

Romance: The insider revealed that 'Bradley is fascinated by her. Huma is very international and has seen and one so much;' seen May 2, 2022 at the Met Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC

The outlet's source said that both Bradley and Huma 'want to keep good relationships with their former partners because of the kids.'

The duo 'have private dates and they are still getting to know one another,' the insider said.

Bradley is currently filming and directing the movie Maestro while Huma's memoir Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds is currently in the works to being a television series starring Frieda Pinto.

Careers: Bradley is currently filming and directing the movie Maestro while Huma's memoir Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds is currently in the works to being a television series starring Frieda Pinto; seen on June 14, 2022 in NYC at the Forbes' Queens of Culture: Legends of Business at Forbes
Heidi Klum was strutting her stuff in Florida on Tuesday when with her husband, 32-year-old German rocker Tom Kaulitz of Tokio Hotel fame.

The 49-year-old iconic Vogue model was showing off her stunning body in a black mini dress as her spouse went shirt free, revealing a toned torso.

The supermodel and the musician were also seen stopping to share a romantic kiss.

Hand in hand: Heidi Klum was strutting her stuff in Florida on Tuesday when with her husband, 32-year-old German rocker Tom Kaulitz of Tokio Hotel fame. The Vogue model was showing off her stunning body in a black mini dress as her spouse went shirt free, revealing a toned torso

They have been staying on Miami Beach for the past week as her kids - Leni, 18, Henry, 16, Jonah, 15 and Lou, 12 - seem to be nowhere around.

The 49-year-old supermodel and TV host was walking hand in hand with her rocker husband.

Heidi looked youthful in a black dress with black sandals as she had a woven purse over her shoulder with a pink scarf tied to it.

Klum also looked chic in ombre sunglasses as she added layers of necklaces.

Tom opted for a black and white shirt, which was both on and off, with black slacks that showed off her Calvin Klein underwear.

Kissing time: The supermodel and the musician were also seen stopping to share a romantic kiss on the walkway

The lovebirds smiling and looking every inch in love.

The same day Klum posted images of herself in an orange mini dress and gold sandals as she prepared for a date night with her man.

Heid's long blonde hair was slightly damp and styled in loose layers.

The Queen of Drags judge later simulated a walk of shame down a long corridor, taking a series of selfies and posing provocatively.

The model and the musician have been married for three years, depending on which wedding they celebrate.

Orange crush: The same day Klum posted images of herself in an orange mini dress

Metallic mama: The siren had on gold sandals and was carrying a silver purse as she prepared for a date night with her man. Heidi's long blonde hair was slightly damp and styled in loose layers

The couple said 'I do' in a private ceremony in February 2019, and then had a larger wedding on a yacht in Italy in August of the same year.

In 2019 Tom cast his wife in the music video for the band's song Chateau.

The Project Runway host is the mother to four children whom she shares with her ex-husband, Seal, 59.

Showing her sexy side is nothing new to the versatile artist who has been working in front of the camera since she won a modeling contest in her native Germany in 1992.

The actress and producer has been quoted in an archived 2016 interview with Ocean Drive Magazine that she's as comfortable without her clothes on as she is without. 'I grew up going to nude beaches with my parents, so Im a nudist.'

'As much as I love wearing beautiful lingerie and clothes, I also love not wearing too much, she admitted.
Kim Kardashian was in full mom mode as she shared adorable snaps that showed her putting her three kids to bed.

The reality TV star, 41, matched with her daughter Chicago, four, and sons Saint, six, and Psalm, three - whom she shares with ex-husband Kanye West, 45 - in cozy black SKIMS pajamas.

'Last Nite Bedtime,' the businesswoman captioned the sweet pictures of her cuddling and kissing her brood, which were taken on Tuesday night.

Bedtime: Kim Kardashian was in full mom mode as she shared adorable snaps that showed her putting her four kids to bed

Not pictured in the photographs was her eldest daughter North, nine, who recently accompanied her mom on a trip to Turks and Caicos.

Kim had her platinum blonde tresses pulled back into a bun for the night, with two front strands left out to frame her face.

The Kardashians star was fresh-faced in the photos, letting her natural beauty shine through.

Matching: The reality TV star, 41, matched in black SKIMS pajamas with her daughter Chicago, four, and sons Saint, six, and Psalm, three, whom she shares with ex-husband Kanye West, 45

In the first snap Kim was seen posing with her mini-me Chicago, who sported two adorable buns atop her head and had two thin braids in the front.

The mother and daughter duo were seen flashing peace signs at the camera while lounging in Kim's spacious bed, which was surrounded by a ceiling-high white marble headboard, and featured a built-in slot for water.

Matching the light aesthetic were her cozy white blankets and white and tan silk pillows.

Mini-me: 'Last Nite Bedtime,' the businesswoman captioned the sweet pictures of her cuddling and kissing her brood, and flashing peace signs with her mini-me daughter Chicago

Smooches from mom: The little one also gave her mom a sweet smooch goodnight, while her rambunctious brother Saint was less cuddly as he put his foot on Kim's cheek

Chicago also gave her mom a sweet smooch goodnight, while her rambunctious brother Saint was less cuddly as he put his foot on Kim's cheek.

Kim's youngest daughter continued to cuddle her mom as her brothers got ready for bed.

Kim is back in Los Angeles, after a brief trip to Australia. She and her boyfriend Pete Davidson, 28, were reunited over the weekend after four long weeks apart on different continents.

The beauty touched down in Cairns on Saturday to spend time with the comedian as he took a break from filming his new movie in Far North Queensland.

Adorable: Kim's youngest daughter continued to cuddle her mom as her brothers got ready for bed

She began dating Pete after divorcing Kanye and guest hosting an episode of Saturday Night Live in October 2021.

They shared their first kiss in an SNL sketch parodying Disney's Aladdin.

Since striking up their romance, Pete has gotten 'Jasmine' and 'Aladdin' tattooed over his collarbone, along with an infinity symbol between the names, as a reference to their first kiss on the show.

Pete will also finally be making his debut on her family's new Hulu reality show The Kardashians next season.
Uncut Gems alum Julia Fox flashed her pert posterior while scantily clad in black pleather Daisy Dukes in New York City on Monday night.

The Italian-born, Manhattan-raised 32-year-old tucked denim pant legs over a pair of knee-high black boots and wore a black pleather zip-up vest selected by stylist Briana Andalore.

Julia no longer had the Pat McGrath-bleached brows but she wore winged eyeliner and styled her natural brunette shoulder-length locks in crimped waves for her outing.

The new cleavage? Uncut Gems alum Julia Fox flashed her pert posterior while scantily clad in black pleather Daisy Dukes in New York City on Monday night

That same night, Fox - a former dominatrix - posed for topless pics on a rooftop while rocking 10in platform kinky boots.

The Vogue Czechoslovakia cover girl - who boasts 1.4M Instagram/TikTok followers - also modeled a black backless leotard and knee-high black boots for the night shoot.

Last Thursday, Julia hopped in a yellow cab to promote the 'Whenever Wherever Bodywear' campaign for controversial designer Alexander Wang, who settled a slew of sexual assault allegations last year.

DIY queen: The Italian-born, Manhattan-raised 32-year-old tucked denim pant legs over a pair of knee-high black boots and wore a black pleather zip-up vest selected by stylist Briana Andalore

Back to brown brows! Julia no longer had the Pat McGrath-bleached brows but she wore winged eyeliner and styled her natural brunette shoulder-length locks in crimped waves

Ankle breakers! That same night, Fox - a former dominatrix - posed for topless pics on a rooftop while rocking 10in platform kinky boots

Fetish wear: The Vogue Czechoslovakia cover girl - who boasts 1.4M Instagram/TikTok followers - also modeled a black backless leotard and knee-high black boots

In a TikTok video, Fox invited seven New Yorkers inside the cab to win pieces from the collection if they could answer trivia questions, which all had the same answer: 'Bodywear.'

At one point, the Forbidden Fruits podcaster got a bit hot and bothered with a bicep-baring gentleman, gushing: 'Sorry, I got a little... you're so sexy and I'm like [tongue out]!'

Julia repped Wang's line by wearing the $30 white 'Bralette in Ribbed Jersey,' matching $30 'Boxer Brief in Ribbed Jersey,' and $950 'Viola 65 Slouch' boots.

'Welcome to the Julia Fox show!' Last Thursday, Julia hopped in a yellow cab to promote the 'Whenever Wherever Bodywear' campaign for controversial designer Alexander Wang, who settled a slew of sexual assault allegations last year

In a TikTok video, Fox invited seven New Yorkers inside the cab to win pieces from the collection if they could answer trivia questions, which all had the same answer: 'Bodywear'

At one point, the Forbidden Fruits podcaster got a bit hot and bothered with a bicep-baring gentleman, gushing: 'Sorry, I got a little... you're so sexy and I'm like [tongue out]!'

Brand ambassador: Julia repped Wang's line by wearing the $30 white 'Bralette in Ribbed Jersey,' matching $30 'Boxer Brief in Ribbed Jersey,' and $950 'Viola 65 Slouch' boots

On the personal front, Fox is mother to 17-month-old son Valentino from her three-year marriage to Brooklyn private pilot Peter Artemiev, which ended last year.

The No Sudden Move actress' former flame Kanye 'Ye' West will not appear in her upcoming memoir-style 'masterpiece' book, which is 'halfway done' and should hit shelves 'in about a year.'

Julia has several acting projects including Tony Kaye's dark comedy The Trainer, the Carrie White biopic Upper Cut, and she's the frontrunner to play Debi Mazar in Madonna's self-directed Universal Pictures biopic.

'We made this baby!' On the personal front, Fox is mother to 17-month-old son Valentino from her three-year marriage to Brooklyn private pilot Peter Artemiev (L, pictured January 25), which ended last year

Hitting shelves 'in about a year!' The No Sudden Move actress' former flame Kanye 'Ye' West (R, pictured January 23) will not appear in her upcoming memoir-style 'masterpiece' book, which is 'halfway done'
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Chloe Green displayed her growing bump in a summery maxi dress as she exited dinner with her boyfriend Manuele Thiella on their sunny break to Italy on Wednesday.

The heiress, who is expecting her second child, was seen leaving the swanky dinner hand-in-hand with her beau before heading back to her luxury yacht.

Chloe, whose pregnancy first came to light last month, covered her bump in a loose-fitting summer dress with a plunging black lace front and a multicoloured print, going barefoot as she exited the restaurant.

Enjoying the sun? Chloe Green displayed her growing bump in a summery maxi dress as she exited dinner with her boyfriend Manuele Thiella on their sunny break to Italy on Wednesday

Tenderly holding her boyfriend's hand as she left the eatery, Chloe displayed her bump in the loose-fitting dress which boasted a mixture of different prints and colours, along with a black lace trim.

She was seen making her way out of the restaurant after enjoying dinner before heading back to the luxurious yacht with her businessman beau.

Chloe was accompanied by her businessman father Phillip as she climbed into a small boat to take her back to the yacht where she has been soaking up the Italian sunshine.

Couples outing: The heiress, who is expecting her second child, was seen leaving the swanky dinner hand-in-hand with her beau before heading back to her luxury yacht

Chic: Tenderly holding her boyfriend's hand as she left the eatery, Chloe displayed her bump in the loose-fitting dress

Stylish: Her dress boasted a mixture of different prints and colours, along with a black lace trim, with Chloe lifting up her skirts as she made her way down the steps

Don't fall over! Chloe enlisted Manuele's help, with the businessman holding her hand as they navigated the stone steps

Baby on the way! Chloe is expecting her second child, though it will be her first with boyfriend Manuele

The heiress has remained mainly out of the public eye as of late, with a brief appearance at Cannes Film Festival the only recent public sighting of her.

Last month, Chloe revealed her pregnancy as she unveiled a baby bump for the first time while on holiday in St Tropez.

Revealing the news, the TV personality stepped out in a pink beach kaftan with a tree patterned design, as she walked barefoot under the French sun.

Helping her out! Chloe lifted up the skirts of her dress as she made her way back to her lavish yacht

Family trip: Chloe was accompanied by her businessman father Phillip as she climbed into a small boat

Low-key: The heiress has remained mainly out of the public eye as of late, with a brief appearance at the Cannes Film Festival the only recent public sighting of her

Surprise! Last month, Chloe revealed her pregnancy as she unveiled a baby bump for the first time while on holiday in St Tropez

Glowing: Revealing the news, the TV personality stepped out in a pink beach kaftan with a tree patterned design, as she walked barefoot under the French sun

Announcement: Chloe unveiled her previous pregnancy in a similar way back in 2018, showing off her first bump as she enjoyed a day on her father's superyacht in Monaco

Chloe unveiled her previous pregnancy in a similar way back in 2018, showing off her first bump as she enjoyed a day on her father's superyacht in Monaco.

She shares her son Jayden with convict-turned-model Jeremy, who was a former member of Crips street gang and served time in prison.

Going viral as the 'world's hottest felon', Chloe's ex-beau quickly secured a six-figure modelling deal after his release.

Motherhood: She shares her son Jayden with convict-turned-model Jeremy, who was a former member of Crips street gang and served time in prison

Viral star: Going viral as the 'world's hottest felon', Chloe's ex-beau quickly secured a six-figure modelling deal after his release

But Chloe and Jeremy called it quits in 2019, as she and Manuele were revealed as a couple in 2020 - after they were spotted abroad.

Back in 2020 when she initially began seeing the businessman, a source told MailOnline: 'Chloe has known Manuele for months and they have always been very close friends.

'They have a lot in common; they're both parents and are from similar worlds, Chloe is very happy with him. He's very much been accepted into her family.'
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Kate Garraway has pulled out of presenting Good Morning Britain and Smooth Radio this week to be at her husband Derek Draper's bedside as he remains 'very unwell' in hospital.

Sources close to the presenter, 54, told the Daily Mail that the mother of two 'has a lot on caring for him', and has decided to step back from her TV and radio roles following his admittance to hospital a few week ago.

Kate revealed at the time that Derek was back in hospital after suffering a 'downturn', but added she was 'keeping her fingers crossed' that his health could improve, two years after contracting Covid.

Earlier this month Kate revealed that she was taking things 'day by day' after Derek was re-admitted to hospital, telling The Sun: '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.'

On July 6 Kate revealed 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'.

Scary: Kate Garraway has pulled out of presenting Good Morning Britain to be at husband Derek Draper's bedside after he took a 'very serious' turn (pictured on Love Your Garden)

Ordeal: Sources close to the presenter, 54, said that the former political lobbyist remains 'seriously unwell,' as he continues to recover from Covid (pictured in Caring For Derek)

Last month Kate admitted she was feeling 'exhausted and fretful' as Derek continued to go in and out of hospital.

In May, she also missed a week of hosting Good Morning Britain following 'urgent' issues at home.

Kate previously detailed how her children Darcy 17, and William, 12, have had to 'relearn' how to be around their dad amid his continued health struggles.

Derek returned home from hospital in April 2021 after a year-long battle and still requires round-the-clock care in the midst of his lengthy recovery.

Pulling out: Kate (pictured on GMB on July 7) is also thought to have pulled out of hosting her mid-morning show on Smooth FM

United: Derek has required round-the-clock care since leaving hospital in April 2021, after first contracting Covid in March 2020 (pictured with Kate in 2007)

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.'

Speaking to Good Housekeeping, Kate said: 'When you nearly lose someone, it certainly brings everything into sharp focus

Worrying: On July 6 Kate revealed that Derek had returned to a medical facility after suffering a 'downturn'

'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.'

Kate previously admitted that if left unaided for over three days, Derek could die.

He is bed-stricken, with Kate doing much of the caring herself as she insists she won't 'ever give up on him'.

Ongoing process: The Good Morning Britain host as previously detailed how her children Darcy 17, and William, 12, have had to 'relearn' how to be around their dad

Elsewhere in the chat, the presenter also spoke about trying to find the joy in the little moments in life after everything that's happened.

She explained: 'I try to live in the moment more than ever before. I'll send an email and think, 'Okay, I've sent the email. I can't do anything more about that now, so I'm just going to look out the window and notice how pretty the sky is.'

'I really try to seize those moments because when you do, you realise that life is just a collection of moments  and finding more good ones than bad ones is probably the secret to it all.'

Struggles: Derek returned home from hospital in April 2021 after a year-long battle and still requires round-the-clock care in the midst of his lengthy recovery
Yara Shahidi showcased her chic style in a nautical-inspired ensemble as she arrived for a taping of Good Morning America in New York City.

The 22-year-old Grown-ish star donned a black pinstripe mini blazer dress that she wore over a long sheer white blouse.

The recent Harvard University graduate beamed and flashed a peace sign as she headed into the studio in Times Square.

Trendy: Yara Shahidi showcased her chic style in a nautical-inspired ensemble as she arrived for a taping of Good Morning America in New York City

Yara's short-sleeved double-breasted mini dress featured gold buttons and front pockets.

The Black-ish alumna's blouse was buttoned up to her neck and hung down past her knees.

The Minnesota native sported mismatched long socks with one solid black sock and one white-striped black sock.

Stylish: The 22-year-old Grown-ish star donned a black pinstripe mini blazer dress that she wore over a long sheer white blouse

The performer had on studded black and white pointed toe ankle boots that had gold buckles.

Yara accessorized with delicate jewelry including small gold hoop earrings and gold rings.

The beauty wore her long raven locks parted in the center and down in several braids.

Good mood: The recent Harvard University graduate beamed and flashed a peace sign as she headed into the studio in Times Square

She rocked a glamorous palette of makeup including a glossy maroon lipstick, shimmery gold eyeshadow, a cat eye and long lashes.

Yara rose to fame when she starred as 14-year-old Zoey Johnson on the hit ABC family sitcom Black-ish.

In 2017, ABC announced that the actress would be headlining a Black-ish spinoff titled Grown-ish.

Big role: Yara rose to fame when she starred as 14-year-old Zoey Johnson on the hit ABC family sitcom Black-ish

The show, which began airing on ABC's sister network Freeform in January 2018, follows Zoey as she heads off to college and makes new friends.

After Black-ish concluded in April 2022, the network announced that Marcus Scribner, 22, who played Zoey's younger brother Andre Johnson Jr. would become a regular cast member on Grown-ish.

Marcus joined Yara for her appearance on GMA as they both shared details about what fans can expect from the upcoming fifth season of Grown-ish.

On-screen siblings: After Black-ish concluded in April 2022, the network announced that Marcus Scribner, 22, who played Zoey's younger brother Andre Johnson Jr. would be joining the cast of Grown-ish. Marcus joined Yara for her appearance on GMA as they both shared details about what fans can expect from the upcoming fifth season of Grown-ish

Reunion: Yara explained that she had been calling for Marcus to eventually join Grown-ish since season one

Life imitating art: Yara also discussed her recent college graduation and the differences between her real-life college experience and Grown-ish, joking, 'Fortunately, Yara never had that kind of Adderall moment in her college career

Yara explained that she had been calling for Marcus to eventually join Grown-ish since season one.

'So, I got my favorite thing about Black-ish with me,' she said.

She added, 'He was such a fan favorite part of the show and it was fun to have the sibling dynamic back.'

Stunning: Yara changed up her look later in the day

Mauve over: She donned a dark purple dress

Yara also discussed her recent college graduation and the differences between her real-life college experience and Grown-ish, joking, 'Fortunately, Yara never had that kind of Adderall moment in her college career.

'Also Zoey wears a new outfit every day and I wear the same Harvard track suit,' she quipped. 'I'm just a walking ad for the university.'

She continued, 'But honestly, it really toward the end begin to mimic each other. Because Zoey was figuring out how to juggle her career and school while I was flying back and forth between school and set.'

All smiles: She grinned from ear-to-ear

'And so I'm really grateful to be able to fulfill two things that I love to do.'

Marcus explained that he currently had no plans go to college and work on Grown-ish simultaneously.

'I'll probably pull an Anthony Anderson and graduate at college at 50,' he joked.

The fifth season of Grown-ish premieres July 20 on Freeform.
Coleen Nolan was left with the 'ick' after Christine Lampard revealed she was the perfect student on Tuesday's episode of Loose Women.

Christine, 43, couldn't contain her smile as she told Coleen, 57, and panelists Denise Welch, 64, and Janet Street Porter, 75, that she was a star student in school.

The Irish presenter, who donned a beige dress, held up a large head girl badge to her chest as she nodded her head proudly.

'Why am I not surprised': Coleen Nolan (pictured) was left with the 'ick' after Christine Lampard revealed she was the perfect student on Tuesday's episode of Loose Women

Janet said: 'Why am I not surprised'.

Before Coleen, who looked radiant in bright pink, quickly jumped in and told ITV viewers: 'That gives me the ick'.

Christine laughed as she added: 'I know I am an absolute melt aren't I'.

As schools broke up for summer holidays the panelists took a look back at their time in school from old photos to report cards.

Smug: Christine, 43, (pictured) couldn't contain her smile as she told Coleen, 57, and panelists Denise Welch, 64, and Janet Street Porter, 75, that she was a star student in school

Janet revealed she was so badly behaved she was made the monitor who put out the pens to keep out of trouble.

She posed alongside a black and white throwback snap as the presenters were compared to their younger selves.

Meanwhile Coleen defended her hair cut as a picture of her in school appeared on viewers screens.

Schools out! As schools broke up for summer holidays the panelists took a look back at their time in school from old photos to report cards

She said: 'My dad cut it! There was eight of us and we couldn't afford a hairdresser.

This summer Christine and Ranvir Singh will replacing Lorraine Kelly on her self-titled morning show while she takes her usual summer break from presenting duties.

The duo, who will be presenting separately, promised to make a distinctive mark on the show.

Oh dear: Janet revealed she was so badly behaved she was made the monitor who put out the pens to keep out of trouble

Ranvir said: 'I'm quite sarcastic and enjoy a bit of banter. My favourite stories are the quirky ones and I embrace chaos."

Mother-of-two Christine added: 'I get a weird thrill when something doesn't go to plan. Throughout the summer we'll be like the naughty prefects and when the new term starts in autumn the head girl will return.

'Until then I feel a sense of responsibility looking after Lorraine's "baby".'
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Joey King ensured she was the centre of attention in an edgy white bodysuit that flashed plenty of sideboob as she joined her co-stars Brad Pitt and Aaron Taylor-Johnson for the premiere of Bullet Train in London.

The actress, 22, set pulses racing in the edgy fitted top which she teamed with leather gloves and a 70s-inspired skirt as she posed on the white carpet at Cineworld in Leicester Square.

Joey appears alongside Brad and Aaron in the upcoming action film Bullet Train, which focuses on a team of five assassins who all find themselves trapped on a high-speed train, motivated by the same mission.

Star-studded: Joey King ensured she was the centre of attention in an edgy white bodysuit that flashed plenty of sideboob as she joined her co-stars Brad Pitt and Aaron Taylor-Johnson for the premiere of Bullet Train in London

Joey certainly sent temperatures soaring with her racy outfit which consisted of a form-fitting white bodysuit with a polo neck top and a completely open back.

Posing for eye-catching snaps at the launch, the Kissing Booth star teamed the top with a flowing brown skirt that boasted a 70s-inspired circular print.

Having ditched the pastel pink crop she'd sported for Bullet Train's previous red carpet in Berlin, this time Joey styled her brunette tresses into a slicked-back style on top with the dip-dyed tresses then flowing into a simple straight style.

Jovial: The cast were in high spirits as they posed together on the white carpet at Cineworld in Leicester Square

Sizzling: Joey set pulses racing in the edgy fitted top which she teamed with leather gloves and a 70s-inspired skirt as she posed on the white carpet at Cineworld in Leicester Square

Showing it off! Joey certainly sent temperatures soaring with her racy outfit which consisted of a form-fitting white bodysuit with a polo neck top and a completely open back, teamed with a vintage-style brown printed skirt

Revealing! Joey's sexy top boasted an open back, offering plenty of view of her svelte physique

In disguise: In the action movie Joey plays The Prince, a British assassin posing as a schoolgirl on a high-speed train from Tokyo to Kyoto

Elsewhere Brad, who takes centre stage in the film, opted for a dapper brown trouser suit and a relaxed matching top as he put on an animated display with his co-stars.

The Oscar winner donned a pair of his signature sunglasses as he posed solo before joining his co-stars for a selection of group images.

Having previously posed for a series of fun snaps, during a photocall earlier in the day, Brad and Joey were once again seen putting on a playful display as they promoted the film.

Simple: Elsewhere Brad, who takes centre stage in the film, opted for a dapper brown trouser suit and a relaxed matching top as he put on an animated display with his co-stars

Casual: The Oscar winner donned a pair of his signature sunglasses as he posed solo before joining his co-stars for a selection of group images

Cheeky! Having previously posed for a series of fun snaps, during a photocall earlier in the day, Brad and Joey were once again seen putting on a playful display as they promoted the film

They're happy! The stars were all seen sharing a laugh together at the premiere

Looking sharp! Aaron Taylor-Johnson also put on another dapper display in a smart black trouser suit with a matching shirt covered in a white spotted print

Here he is! The Avengers: Age Of Ultron star was in high spirits as he arrived solo for the red carpet event

Friendly: Aaron was seen chatting to his co-star Joey as they prepared to pose for group snaps on the red carpet

What an entrance! The star, who is married to director Sam Taylor-Johnson lapped up the attention from fans at the premiere

Bullet Train centres on five assassins find themselves on one fast moving train, soon discovering their missions are not unrelated.

The film, which also features Sandra Bullock and Bad Bunny, was slated for an April 2022 release but several delays pushed it to the new August release date.

And the cast have been making their way across Europe to promote the flick, before they arrived in the UK to make the rounds.

Beaming: Bullet Train's director David Leitch was joined by his wife, and the film's producer Kelly McCormick, with the happy couple posing for snaps together at the premiere

Making a statement! Kelly opted for a boho-inspired cream maxi dress adorned with frills and a kaleidescope-inspired print, teamed with sparkly gold heels

Here they are! The cast then posed together one the white carpet (L-R producer Kelly, stars Brian Tyree Henry, Joey, Brad, Aaron and director David)

Alongside the Bullet Train cast, a slew of other stars were also seen arriving for the premiere, including Made In Chelsea beauty Sophie Hermann.

The reality TV star nailed sartorial chic in a fitted white military-style jacket and matching trousers, teamed with a racy orange bustier.

Slicking her blonde tresses into a sleek ponytail, Sophie was in high spirits as she posed for snaps at the film event.

Sensational! Alongside the Bullet Train cast, a slew of other stars were also seen arriving for the premiere, including Made In Chelsea beauty Sophie Hermann, who nailed sartorial chic in a fitted white military-style jacket and matching trousers

Here she is! Slicking her blonde tresses into a sleek ponytail, Sophie was in high spirits as she posed for snaps at the film event

Posing up a storm! Joining Sophie on the red carpet was photographer Luca J Peterson, with the pair certainly making a picture-perfect duo

Brad stars in the David Leitchdirected film as a hitman with the codename Ladybug who is looking to go straight, until he's lured back to retrieve a special briefcase on board the moving train.

The thrilling movie also includes appearances by Sandra Bullock, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Logan Lerman, Michael Shannon, Zazie Beetz and Bad Bunny.

Bullet Train was originally slated for an April 2022 release, but several delays have pushed it back to an August 5 release date.

Lady in red! Kimberley Garner also brought the glamour in a plunging scarlet gown that showcased her ample cleavage as she posed solo at the launch

Beautiful: Kimberley looked flawless in her sexy red dress as she arrived for the occasion

Simple: She completed her look with dainty gold jewellery

Ab-tastic! The Originals star Maisie Richardson-Sellers flashed a hint of her toned abs in a black bralet and a matching trouser suit as she posed at the premiere

The film's bright trailer suggests it will be a candy-coloured affair, in contrast with the dark and violent subject matter.

The film is about five assassins who all end up on a bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka. There are only a few stops in between which makes fleeing impossible.

But over time the assassins realize their jobs are intertwined as they are all going after a strange silver briefcase and they eventually go on the hunt to find out who is behind the plan.

Here come the boys! AJ Tracey (left) and Michael Page (right) were also among the stars in attendance for the premiere

Sizzling! Model Victoria Clay also put on an edgy display in a black and yellow floral gown that contrasted with her magenta shaded tresses

Exciting: Bullet Train centres on five assassins find themselves on one fast moving train, soon discovering their missions are not unrelated

In the meantime, no one trusts each other and everyone is looking over their shoulder in case they become a target.

Director David Leitch has previously shown off his action bona fides by working as an uncredited co-director on the first John Wick films, while going solo to direct Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 and the Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw.

He has a special connection to Brad, as he served as the Once Upon A Time In Hollywood star's stunt double in several films before moving behind the camera.

Later Brad was spotted leaving swanky night club LouLou's following the film's star-studded after party.

Home time: Later Brad was spotted leaving swanky night club LouLou's following the film's star-studded after party.
On Tuesday, China warns to retaliate if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi goes forward with her scheduled trip to Taiwan.

With its frequent provocations in the Taiwan Strait, the US is a manufacturer of security threats, China's military issued a warning on Wednesday, as another US vessel transited the crucial waterway. According to the US Navy's 7th Fleet, the destroyer USS Benfold transited the Taiwan Strait in international seas in compliance with international law.

US Ship Sails Near South China Sea

The US has been making similar journeys roughly once a month, which has enraged China, which sees them as a show of support for Taiwan, the democratically ruled island that Beijing considers to be Chinese territory.

In a statement, the People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command stated that its soldiers had followed and warned the ship throughout. According to the US Navy, the ship traveled through a gap in the Strait that is outside the territorial sea of any coastal State.

As reported by Taiwan's Defense Ministry, the US ship went north across the strait and the situation in the waterway was as usual. The Benfold has been conducting Freedom of Navigation Operations in the disputed South China Sea for the last week, Reuters via MSN reported.

Meanwhile, China vowed punishment on Tuesday if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi goes ahead with her trip to Taiwan. Pelosi is the second-in-line to the president and would be the highest-ranking American legislator to visit Taiwan since former Speaker Newt Gingrich visited 25 years ago.

Following various news sites, the trip is scheduled for August. The speaker was supposed to come in April, but he had to cancel after testing positive for COVID-19.

The trial for Pelosi's husband Paul's DUI offense is set for August 3. A visit by Pelosi would severely undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, have a major impact on the foundation of China-US ties and send a very erroneous signal to Taiwan independence forces, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhao Lijiang said at a regular briefing.

Read Also: Bernie Sanders Condemns Joe Manchin for "Intentionally Sabotaging" Joe Biden's Agenda That Democrats Negotiate for Months

China Ramps up Aggression Toward Taiwan

China has escalated its aggressiveness toward Taiwan in recent months, while President Biden's administration has provided contradictory signals about whether the US would defend the island democracy in the event of a confrontation with China.

Beijing has promised to take Taiwan by force if necessary and has flown airplanes close to Taiwanese airspace and performed military drills in the South China Sea to demonstrate its resolve. Biden underlined that the United States supports the so-called One China policy, which states that only the People's Republic of China is 'China', and that the United States' diplomatic connection with Taiwan is thus unofficial.

For decades, the US has adopted a strategy of strategic ambiguity, refusing to indicate how much military participation it would have in a fight between Taiwan and Beijing. China possesses the world's largest standing army, as well as the most modern fleet and a massive arsenal of missiles aimed across the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait, according to Daily Mail.

Jean-Pierre stated that the US remains "rock solid" in its support for Taiwan while underlining the US's longtime commitment to the "One China" policy, which recognizes Beijing as China's government but allows for informal interactions and defense links with Taipei.

While Washington retains a policy of strategic ambiguity about whether it would defend Taiwan in a conflict with China, US law requires it to ensure the island has the means to defend itself and consider threats to its security as matters of grave concern.

Zhao did not specify what steps China may take in retaliation to Pelosi's visit, but Beijing has often utilized military flights and war simulations to express its displeasure. Chinese pilots have also been accused of taking aggressive action against the US and allied surveillance planes flying in international airspace off the Chinese coast, as well as employing lasers and other tactics to harass Western vessels in the South China Sea.

China's greatest significant threat to Taiwan came in 1995-1996, when it conducted military drills and launched missiles into waters north and south of the island in reaction to then-President Lee Teng-visit hui's to the United States, as per Republic World.

Related Article: Russia-Ukraine War: Volodymyr Zelensky Reveals 'Significant' Blow to Russian Forces, Thanks to Advanced Western Weapons

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Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval got real about just how difficult it was for them to launch their new bar Schwartz and Sandy's.

Speaking with DailyMail.com at the opening of their establishment on Tuesday, Schwartz, 39, admitted the grueling venture tested their friendship.

'We sat down before we started this venture and we're like 'this is going to put our friendship to the test.' And it did. Nothing would ever come between us but, honestly, it was strained. I think at some point it got stretched so thin it became transparent. [laughs] That's some quote from a book. It put us through the f**king gauntlet.'

'It put us through the f**king gauntlet': Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval got real about just how difficult it was for them to launch their new bar, Schwartz and Sandy's

'Yeah, it did. Everybody has their own ways of dealing with stress and frustration. I feel the best part about it is, we really just sort of leaned on each other even more. Being in the trenches with somebody, like really being in the trenches, putting everything on the line. You really get to know somebody,' Sandoval added.

'Literal blood sweat and tears,' Schwartz said. Sandoval then showed his fingers, which were cut and bled onto his suit. Fortunately, he was able to get the stain out.

Now, the duo are just taking it all in.

'I feel spellbound,' Schwartz told DailyMail.com. 'I'm in a state of mini shock, not to be melodramatic. Because we've just been, you know, at it for so long.'

'Literal blood sweat and tears': Schwartz said of the work they put into the endeavor

Raising the bar! The duo beamed with pride on opening night of their new establishment

Yum! Drinks were flowing throughout the night

Soaking it all in: 'I feel spellbound,' Schwartz told DailyMail.com. 'I'm in a state of mini shock, not to be melodramatic. Because we've just been, you know, at it for so long'

'We loved learning the hard way with this one. This has been a full collaborative effort. One of the greatest and hardest parts is having to rely on other people and being there waiting, like our booths were so late  like seven months late,' Sandoval admitted.

The dynamic duo definitely put in plenty of work, from the design to the food and drinks.

The Toms were very involved in the menu.

Schwartz's favorite drink on the menu is a banana old fashioned, and he made the banana syrup himself. He even juiced all the cucumbers for their Fresh Start cocktail.

Hands on approach: The dynamic duo definitely put in plenty of work, from the design to the food and drinks

Sandoval, on the other hand, made the pistachio syrup for their espresso cocktail shots.

'I want people to be able to escape and relax and settle in. Go on a first date, meet up with friends  meet up with new friends, make some friends,' Sandoval said.

Schwartz also expressed his appreciation for the neighborhood where they have set up shop.

'We know this is a very sacred special neighborhood. I love Franklin Village, it's a neighborhood cocktail lounge, but it's also a destination spot, you know? And it's just like I when I first moved to L.A., I fell in love with West Hollywood, first, I fell in love with this man [Sandoval]. And the second place I fell in love with was Franklin f**king Village and now we're opening a bar here. We have a bar, West Hollywood. I mean, the rest of my life is trash, I'll be honest.'

'A long time': Sandoval's girlfriend Ariana Madix also weighed in just how difficult it was for them to launch the bar

Girls night! Madix posed with fellow Vanderpump pal Katie Maloney

Sandoval's girlfriend Ariana Madix also weighed in just how difficult it was for them to launch the bar.

'I feel like I have to be very careful not to take on a lot of the stress because I tend to do that. I have to draw the line. I take it on emotionally,' she told DailyMail.com.

'I am so happy and I'm so happy for them because it's just been a long time of them working so hard. Even when there were delays, that mental load that you're carrying [stays.] So, I'm excited for them to be able to kind of see the fruits of their labors.'

She also dished on what fans can expect from season 10 of Vanderpump Rules.

Sneak peek! Scheana Shay also said fans should expect to see a 'different dynamic' to their relationships in season 10

Music maker! Meanwhile, music for the evening was provided by Vanderpump favorite DJ James Kennedy

'What I can say is that it feels very different. Obviously, it feels fun and fresh. There's like so much stuff that I think - even just behind the scenes - it's slightly different. And, also, being around people like Schwartz and Katie who I only really knew as a couple  and James and Raquel  they're in such different places than they were even a year ago,' she said.

Scheana Shay also said fans should expect to see a 'different dynamic' to their relationships in season 10.

'I think you'll see a different dynamic to relationships. Like a lot of us have gotten so much closer in the past year and even since the reunion. So I think you'll see a different dynamic,' she told DailyMail.com.

Tuned in! Kennedy pictured behind the DJ booth

Living it up! Guests celebrated the launch of the newest bar joining Franklin Village

Stunning: Velvet chairs and colorful wallpaper added to the magical ambiance

'We know this is a very sacred special neighborhood. I love Franklin Village, it's a neighborhood cocktail lounge, but it's also a destination spot, you know?' Schwartz said of the area

She also discussed her newly repaired relationship with Lala Kent. Their friendship was fractured after Lala blasted Scheana's fiance Brock Davies over his past.

But now, they are in a much better place.

'I feel like we just finally figured out how to communicate with each other, and we're just in a really good place. Our kids were together for the 4th of July and it was so much fun,' she said.

Scheana also said Lala now sees Brock for who he is: 'I think she's seen the amazing man that he is and they've gotten a lot closer.'

Meanwhile, music for the evening was provided by Vanderpump favorite DJ James Kennedy.

Kennedy also performed at the opening of Tom Tom in 2018, but was forced to DJ next to packets of toilet paper.

'The grand opening of TomTom, they didn't have a DJ booth at all for me. This one is still a little bit small for my liking but upstairs [at TomTom] I was DJing in the manager's office. I had to sit on a f**king 18 pack of Charmin Ultra,' he explained.

Still, James is incredibly happy for the success of his friends.

'I'm like one of the closest guys to them, you know, outside of their work bubble. I'm just so happy for them both. All Tom's talked about for the last two years was this bar. So, I'm kind of excited to talk about something else.'
Arnold Schwarzenegger was spotted filming scenes for his upcoming Netflix spy series UTap on Monday.

The 74-year-old Austrian-American actor was seen smoking a cigar and drinking a bottle of Budweiser beer while standing on a docked boat in Toronto, Canada.

The Terminator star was joined by his co-stars Travis Van Winkle, Fortune Feimster, and Milan Carter as they toasted with their beers for the scene.

Lights, camera, action! Arnold Schwarzenegger was spotted filming scenes for his upcoming Netflix spy series UTap on Monday

The former governor of California donned a pale blue button-down short-sleeved shirt.

The Predator performer paired the shirt with tan-colored trousers and white sneakers.

Arnold shielded his eyes from the sun with gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses and accessorized with a large silver watch.

Relaxing: The 74-year-old Austrian-American actor was seen smoking a cigar and drinking a bottle of Budweiser beer while standing on a docked boat in Toronto, Canada

He wore his short brunette hair in a slightly disheveled style and sported a light salt and pepper beard.

Travis (You) was clad in an olive green and white Polo shirt with khaki pants, a brown leather belt and brown shoes.

Milan (Warped!) had on a periwinkle blue shirt while Fortune (The Mindy Project) donned a plaid shirt with blue jeans and brown sneakers.

Ensemble: . The Terminator star was joined by his co-stars Travis Van Winkle, Fortune Feimster, and Milan Carter as they toasted with their beers for the scene

Aparna Brielle (A.P. Bio) was also seen on set though she did not appear to be a part of the boat scene.

Travis, Aparna, Milan and Fortune were cast as series regulars in April along with Gabriel Luna (Terminator: Dark Fate), Jay Baruchel (This Is the End), Fabiana Udenio (Jane the Virgin), Barbara Eve Harris (Station 19) and Andy Buckley (The Office).

In addition, Devon Bostick (Oppenheimer), David Chinchilla (Reacher), Stephanie Sy (Seance), Scott Thompson (Hannibal) and child actress Rachel Lynch will play recurring characters.

New medium: UTap marks Arnold's first foray into live-action television in his storied career

UTap marks Arnold's first foray into live-action television in his storied career.

The project, which is based on the hit 1994 movie True Lies that starred Arnold and Jamie Lee Curtis, was first unveiled back in August 2020.

Schwarzenegger was tapped to star in the series from Skydance Television and creator Nick Santora (Scorpion).

Monica Barbaro was later brought on to star, with her and Schwarzenegger playing a father and daughter who have both worked for the CIA for years... though they have kept their jobs a secret from one another this whole time.

Remake: The project, which is based on the hit 1994 movie True Lies that starred Arnold and Jamie Lee Curtis, was first unveiled back in August 2020

After learning they're both part of the spy agency, they are forced to work together as partners... and learn who each other really are.

Schwarzenegger also confirmed in March that he still plans on moving ahead with his Twins sequel Triplets with Danny DeVito and Tracy Morgan.

The project had been moving forward last year, though the death of Twins director Ivan Reitman - who was slated to direct Triplets - put the project on hold.

Co-star: Monica Barbaro was later brought on to star, with her and Schwarzenegger playing a father and daughter who have both worked for the CIA for years... though they have kept their jobs a secret from one another this whole time. Seen in May 2022

The actor revealed in March they are going to, 'wait a little bit until this whole thing cools down and then we're gonna readdress it.'

Schwarzenegger is also attached to star in The Legend of Conan, where he will return as the aging King Conan, though it's unclear when that will move forward.

He has also been set to star in the Western TV series Outrider, though it's also unclear what the status of that project is.

The actor is also starring as The President in Kung Fury 2, which is currently in post-production.
She was last seen soaking up the sun in Ibiza with a mystery man.

However Kimberley Garner was back on home turf on Wednesday, to attend the London premiere of Bullet Train at at Cineworld Leicester Square.

The swimwear designer, 31, looked seriously glamorous in a plunging red gown as she arrived on the red carpet at the star-studded event.

Sizzling! Kimberley Garner was back on home turf on Wednesday, to attend the London premiere of Bullet Train at at Cineworld Leicester Square

Kimberley's low-cut number showcased her ample assets while the slim-fitting garment clung to her incredible gym-honed frame.

The former Made In Chelsea star wore her blonde locks in a loose, straight style and opted for a striking pallet of make-up with heavy brows and a pink pout.

Kimberley added subtle accessories to her look, including a simple gold bangle, studded earrings and a selection of rings.

Wow: The swimwear designer, 31, looked seriously glamorous in a plunging red gown as she arrived on the red carpet at the star-studded event

Lovely: Kimberley's low-cut number showcased her ample assets while the slim-fitting garment clung to her incredible gym-honed frame

The socialite certainly knew how to work her angles as she posed for the cameras before heading inside to watch the screening.

Earlier this week, Kimberley was seen soaking up the sun on the White Isle with an unknown man as they holidayed together in the luxury location.

The film Kimberley was about to see stars Brad Pitt in the David Leitchdirected film as a hitman with the codename Ladybug who is looking to go straight, until he's lured back to retrieve a special briefcase on board the moving train.

The thrilling movie also includes appearances by Sandra Bullock, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Logan Lerman, Michael Shannon, Zazie Beetz and Bad Bunny.

Bullet Train was originally slated for an April 2022 release, but several delays have pushed it back to an August 5 release date.

Glowing: The former Made In Chelsea star wore her blonde locks in a loose, straight style and opted for a striking pallet of make-up with heavy brows and a pink pout

The film's bright trailer suggests it will be a candy-coloured affair, in contrast with the dark and violent subject matter.

The film is about five assassins who all end up on a bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka. There are only a few stops in between which makes fleeing impossible.

But over time the assassins realize their jobs are intertwined as they are all going after a strange silver briefcase and they eventually go on the hunt to find out who is behind the plan.

Pretty: The socialite certainly knew how to work her angles as she posed for the cameras before heading inside to watch the screening

In the meantime, no one trusts each other and everyone is looking over their shoulder in case they become a target.

Director David Leitch has previously shown off his action bona fides by working as an uncredited co-director on the first John Wick films, while going solo to direct Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 and the Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw.

He has a special connection to Brad, as he served as the Once Upon A Time In Hollywood star's stunt double in several films before moving behind the camera.
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Christine Lampard cut a stylish figure on Wednesday evening as she rubbed shoulders with some of ITV's biggest stars at their annual summer party at the swanky Mandrake hotel in London.

The television host, 43, was joined at the star-studded event by Oti Mabuse, 31, Rachel Stevens, 44, and Ferne McCann, 31.

Christine looked gorgeous in a sleeveless mocha summer dress which extenuated her toned arms and sun kissed skin.

Style: Christine Lampard (2nd left) looked effortlessly chic in a mocha dress and 1960 YSL bag as she joins Oti Mabuse ( left), Ferne McCann (right) and Rachel Stevens (far right) at ITV's star- studded Summer Party in London on Wednesday

The annual event is a celebration of the main channel as well as it's sister stations success over the last twelve months.

Christine's effortlessly chic frock featured crossed ribbon detailing along the bodice as well as a full crepe skirt.

Slipping her feet into black strappy heels, the television personality opted for a simple palette of make-up with a metical shades at her eye and a simple nude nude lip.

The raven haired beauty wore her locks to one side in a gentle curl as she toted a nude Yves Saint Laurent shoulder bag costing an eye watering 1960.

Chic: The effortlessly chic frock featured crossed ribbon detailing along the bodice as well as a full crepe skirt

Style: The raven haired beauty wore her locks to one side in a gentle curl as she toted a nude Yves Saint Laurent shoulder bag costing an eye watering 1960

Party time: The annual event is a celebration of the main channel as well as it's sister stations success over the last twelve months

Happy days: Christine looked in great spirits as she headed home

The former Daybreak host appeared in high spirits as she exited her taxi before heading inside to enjoy the party.

Dancing On Ice judge Oti put on a very leggy display in a violet mini skirt which she teamed with a cropped blazer and sparkly bralette in which she flashed her toned midriff.

Carrying the colour story into her accessories the former Strictly star slipped her feet into purple platform heels as she carried her belongings in a matching mini messenger bag.

Perfection: Former Strictly professional Oti put on a very leggy display in a violet mini skirt which she teamed with a cropped blazer and sparkly bralette in which flashed her toned midriff

Legs in the air: Carrying the colour story into her accessories the Dancing On Ice Judge slipped her feet into purple platform heels as she carried her belongings in a matching mini messenger bag

Incredible: Newly-single Helen Skelton looked amazing in a red dress that had a daring thigh-split

She was joined outside the venue by reality star Ferne McCann who set pulses racing in a black down with racy cut outs.

The sultry ensemble featured a halter neck and a gold ring detailing with a thigh-high split that flashed a glimpse of her long elegant pins.

Strutting her stuff in towering gold heels, Ferne wore her blonde tresses in a high ponytail as loose curls framed her perfectly contoured face.

Sultry: She was joined outside the venue by reality star Ferne McCann who set pulses racing in a black down with racy cut outs

Head turner: The sultry ensemble featured a halter neck and a gold ring detailing with a thigh-high split that flashed a glimpse of her long elegant pins

Leggy display: She flashed a glimpse of her toned and tanned pins in the black dress

Gift: Ferne was seen heading home with an ITV pillow

Opting for a more demure look was former S Club 7 star Rachel Stevens who looked chic in a flowing floral number.

The oversized silk outfit featured bell sleeves and a boat neck, as well as being embellished with a gorgeous rose and lily print.

Rachel, who recently announced her divorce from husband Alex Bourne after 13 years of marriage, pounded the pavement in a pair of beige suede heels.

Effortless: Rachel's oversized silk outfit featured bell sleeves and a boat neck, as well as being embellished with a gorgeous rose and lily print

Beautiful: Rachel looked in great spirits for the event after her marital split

Wow: Elsewhere former Love Island star Liberty Poole, 22, showcased her enviable assets in a plunging lime dress

The pop star let her high lighted hair cascade to her shoulders in a gentle wave as she carried her essentials in a cream handbag.

Elsewhere Love Island's Liberty Poole, 22, showcased her enviable assets in a plunging lime dress.

The eye-popping ensemble also featured a thigh high split and she completed the look with a pair of patent white heels.

Runway ready: The eye-popping ensemble also featured a thigh high split and she completed the look with a pair of patent white heels

Flirty: She later left with TOWIE star Roman Hackett

Dressed to the nines: GMB's Laura Tobin opted for a show stopping dress alongside Vanessa Feltz (centre) Helen Skelton (right) and Lisa Snowden (far right)

Summer Sun: This Morning's Alison Hammond, 47, took the summer theme to heart as she arrived donning a fedora and shades

TOWIE star's Chloe Brockett, 21, and Chloe Meadows, 30, demanded attention in their stylish outfits.

Chloe Brockett, showcased her curves in a chartreuse frock which was completed with ostrich feathers at the hem.

Meanwhile Chloe Meadows chose a more ethereal ensemble in a chiffon outfit with a semi sheer tiered lower half.

Two for the price of one: Chloe Brockett (right) and Chloe Meadows (left) demanded attention in their stylish outfits

Runway ready: Chloe Brockett, showcased her enviable curves in a chartreuse frock which was completed with ostrich feathers at the hem

Sheer lovely: Meanwhile Chloe Meadows chose a more ethereal ensemble in a chiffon outfit with a semi sheer tiered lower half

Keep dancing: Former Strictly stars Ranvir Singh (left) and Ed Balls (right) showcased their moves

This Morning's Alison Hammond, 47, took the summer theme to heart as she arrived donning a fedora and shades.

The presenter displayed her recent weight loss in a white blouse which she teamed with a black cardigan and matching trousers.

Gordon Ramsay, 55, also made an appearance as he arrived hand-in-hand with his wife of 27 years Tanya, 47.

Love birds: Gordon Ramsay, 55, also made an appearance as he arrived hand-in-hand with his wife of 27 years Tanya, 47

This Morning: ITV stars Dermot O'Leary and Charlotte Hawkins were also in attendance

Happy days: Dermot looked in great spirits

Summer: Denise Welch, 64 (centre) opted for comfort in a leopard print playsuit as she was joined by her fellow Loose women Kaye Adams, 59 (right) and Katie Piper, 38 (left)

Loose Women: Frankie and Kaye were spotted arriving together

Careful: Frankie Bridge, 33, risked a wardrobe malfunction in a strapless black gown as she joined her fellow Loose Women panellists at the event

Wow! Frankie looked absolutely stunning in her black dress

Pals: The Chase's Mark Labett and Anne Hegerty appeared in high spirits

Suave: TOWIE star James Lock looked great in a black co-ord for the event

Frankie Bridge, 33, risked a wardrobe malfunction in a strapless black gown as she was joined her fellow Loose Women panellists Kaye Adams, Denise Welch and Katie Piper.

Reality star Jessica Wright, 36, didn't disappoint in the fashion stakes as she stunned in a oversized brown blazer which she layered over a black mini dress.

Flaunting her long legs the star wore a glamorous palette of make-up as she slicked her chestnut tresses back into a bun.

Stylish: Reality star Jessica Wright, 36, didn't disappoint in the fashion stakes as she stunned in a oversized brown blazer which she layered over a black mini dress

Expecting: Billie Faiers (right) who is expecting her third child stunned in a figure hugging bubble-gum pink mini dress and was joined by husband Greg Shepard

Expecting: Billie showed off her baby bump in a pink tight dress

Pals: Billie was later seen with close friend Ferne

Looking good: She enjoyed her night out with Ferne and husband Greg

The boys: Danny Jones (left) cut a casual figure alongside fellow ITV stars Bobby Norris (centre) and Celebrity Juice's Keith Lemon (right) and Pete Wicks (far right)

Billie Faiers, 32, who is expecting her third child, stunned in a bubblegum pink mini dress alongside her husband Greg Shepard.

Love Island's Faye Winter, 26, showcased her unique sense of style in a cut out dress that mixed numerous animal prints.

She was joined by her dapper beau Teddy Soares, also 26, who opted for a smart jacket which he layered over a simple t-shirt and dark trousers.

The Ladies: Amber Turner flashed her toned midriff alongside actress Katherine Kelly and GMB's Charlotte Hawkins

Pals: Amber (left) was joined by pal and fellow reality star Chloe Green (right)

Stunning: Love Island's Faye Winter, 26, showcased her unique sense of style in a cut out dress that mixed numerous animal prints (pictured with beau Teddy Soares)

Stunning: Newly-engaged Vick Hope put on a leggy display in a blue dress

Busty: Ella Rae Wise wore a plunging white dress

Pals: Denise Welch and Tom Allen left together and seemed happy

Bleary eyed: Bobby Norris looked casual in his jeans

Pins: Love Island star Chloe Burrows wore a leggy orange dress

Girls! Antigoni Buxton and Millie Court both looked great as they left

Busty: Frankie showed off her ample assets in the black dress

TOWIE stars: Dani and Ella looked as glamorous as ever

Gals: The Loose Women crew were all seen hanging out together including Katie Piper and Denise

Looking lovely: Charlotte looked as glamorous as ever in her gold dress

Racy! Antigoni wore a daring white dress and matching heels

Glowing: Oti beamed for the cameras and wore a brown suit

Abs: Amber Turner wore an orange co-ord

Here he is: Bobby (left) and Keith (right) looked great

Tongue out! Ferne put on a cheeky display on her way home

Animated display: Denise and Tom looked like they'd had a great time

New hair! Catherine Tyldesley debuted her new blonde bob on the night

Fun times: Bobby and Saffron left on a motorbike together

Heading home: Rachel and Judge Rinder left in a car together

Good night: Frankie hopped into a taxi to take her home

ITV stars: Lucrezia Millarini, Mark Labbett and Martin Roberts all were in attendance too

The Chase: Mark Labbett and Anne Hegerty posed for the cameras together

Couple: Dan and Amber left together after the star-studded event

Beauty: Helen looked fantastic in her red and white dress

Time out: Denise sat on the side of the road after the long night

Taxi! Ferne headed home in the back of a cab

Fun times: The TOWIE crew put on an animated display on the motorbike

Motorbike: Saffron Lempriere, Bobby and Dani posed on the motorbike

Pregnant: Billie is expecting her third child with Greg

Chic: Katie looked great in her light pink co-ord

Bleary-eyed: Saffron was on the motorbike with Bobby behind her
Jennifer Lopez showed off her famous curves in a pair of patterned pants at a dance studio in Los Angeles, just days after tying the knot to Ben Affleck, on Wednesday.

While putting her pert derriere on full display in her figure-hugging bottoms, the 52-year-old also flashed a glimpse of her incredibly toned midriff in a white tee, which read: 'LOVE > FEAR.'

She completed her sporty ensemble with a pair of oversized black shades, a large Birkin bag and chunky white sneakers.

Sporty: Jennifer Lopez showed off her famous curves in a pair of patterned pants at a dance studio in Los Angeles, just days after tying the knot to Ben Affleck, on Wednesday

For her laid-back outing, the mom-of-two wore her glossy brown locks in a sleek top knot and a delicate gold necklace.

The Selena actress confirmed they said 'I do' on her newsletter On The JLo, where she shared details of their intimate wedding held at the Little White Wedding Chapel.

The newsletter was signed 'Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck' and included candid selfies of the newlyweds and video of the couple preparing for their special day, including one of Ben getting ready inside the chapel's bathroom and photos of J.Lo in her wedding dress.

Just married: While putting her pert derriere on full display in her figure-hugging bottoms, the 52-year-old also flashed a glimpse of her incredibly toned midriff in a white tee, which read: 'LOVE > FEAR'

Looking good! She completed her sporty ensemble with a pair of oversized black shades, a large Birkin bag and chunky white sneakers

Casual: For her laid-back outing, the mom-of-two wore her glossy brown locks in a sleek top knot and a delicate gold necklace

'We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient,' she wrote in her post.

'Exactly what we wanted. Last night we flew to Vegas, stood in line for a license with four other couples, all making the same journey to the wedding capital of the world. Behind us two men held hands and held each other. In front of us, a young couple who made the three hour drive from Victorville on their daughters second birthdayall of us wanting the same thing for the world to recognize us as partners and to declare our love to the world through the ancient and nearly universal symbol of marriage.

'We barely made it to the little white wedding chapel by midnight. They graciously stayed open late a few minutes, let us take pictures in a pink Cadillac convertible, evidently once used by the king himself (but if we wanted Elvis himself to show, that cost extra and he was in bed).

Cool girl: As she prepared to hit the studio, she wore a comfortable pair of white sneakers

Fit as ever: The star was back to work less than a week after walking down the aisle

Exciting: The Selena actress confirmed they said 'I do' on her newsletter On The JLo, where she shared details of their intimate wedding held at the Little White Wedding Chapel

'So with the best witnesses you could ever imagine, a dress from an old movie and a jacket from Bens closet, we read our own vows in the little chapel and gave one another the rings well wear for the rest of our lives. They even had Bluetooth for a (short) march down the aisle. But in the end it was the best possible wedding we could have imagined. One we dreamed of long ago and one made real (in the eyes of the state, Las Vegas, a pink convertible and one another) at very, very long last.

'When love is real, the only thing that matters in marriage is one another and the promise we make to love, care, understand, be patient, loving and good to one another. We had that. And so much more. Best night of our lives. Thank you to the Little White Wedding chapel for letting me use the break room to change while Ben changed in the mens room.

'They were right when they said, all you need is love. We are so grateful to have that in abundance, a new wonderful family of five amazing children and a life that we have never had more reason to look forward to. Stick around long enough and maybe youll find the best moment of your life in a drive through in Las Vegas at twelve thirty in the morning in the tunnel of love drive through, with your kids and the one youll spend forever with. Love is a great thing, maybe the best of things-and worth waiting for.'

Heartfelt: The newsletter was signed 'Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck' and included candid selfies of the newlyweds and video of the couple preparing for their special day, including one of Ben getting ready inside the chapel's bathroom and photos of J.Lo in her wedding dress

The content included a video of Ben preparing for their nuptials inside the chapel's pink bathroom.

'And this was my wedding changing area!' Ben, wearing a white suit, declared as he held the camera up to a scratched-up mirror.

Jennifer, however, had more luxurious accommodations. She wore a chic yet simple chic dress with her hair styled in waves as she got glammed up inside an elegant bathroom.

Just married! Lopez and Affleck seen at their Las Vegas wedding

Newlywed bliss! The newsletter was signed 'Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck' and included candid selfies of the newlyweds and video of the couple preparing for their special day, including one of Ben getting ready inside the chapel's bathroom

'And this was my wedding changing area!' Ben, wearing a white suit, declared as he held the camera up to a scratched-up mirror

'I feel amazing, excited,' Jennifer said before doing several twirls in her dress.

The bride appeared to be wearing two different white dresses in her post - the sleeveless frock and a more traditional lace garment which flashed some cleavage. She tucked a veil into her cascading waves.

The couple collectively known as 'Bennifer' obtained a marriage license in Clark County, Nevada on Saturday and exchanged vows in a 'super small' ceremony.

Jennifer will also be taking Affleck's last name. The Clark County Recorder's Office shows the pop star will be changing her name to 'Jennifer Affleck.' The marriage certificate, however, has yet to be filed.

Blushing bride! JLo wore a quaint white dress in video posted to her newsletter. She appeared to be wearing two different white dresses in her post

Mr and Mrs: JLo shared details of their special day and signed the statement from 'Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck'

Marriage officiants have 10 calendar days to submit the certificate to their office for filing, according to the Clark County Clerk's Office.

DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Jennifer and Ben for comment.

TMZ reported Sunday morning that the license was taken out on Saturday and is in their legal names, Benjamin Geza Affleck and Jennifer Lynn Lopez.

A source close to the on/off couple - who previously dated between 2002-2004 - confirmed to the site: 'They did, indeed, get hitched and the license is a signal they are now man and wife.'

Here comes the bride! JLo did several twirls as she showcased her white dress

VIP! Jennifer's 14-year-old Emme looked thrilled to be attending the nuptials

ET Online reports the couple exchanged vows in Las Vegas over the weekend.

'Jen and Ben got married in Vegas. They have so much fun together and thought this would be a fun idea too. Ben is absolutely in love with Jen and feels loved by her too. They both feel so comfortable with each other and like they share history and know each other so well,' an insider told the site.

The nuptials were 'super small' and attended by Jennifer's children and mother, according to People.

'It was super, super small. [Jennifer's] mom and kids were there. They just wanted to be married so they got married,' a source told the site.

'All you need is love': The couple were the picture of happiness on their special day

The wedding news comes exactly one week until the Bronx-born pop diva celebrates her 53rd birthday and less than a month before the Berkeley-born, Cambridge-raised actor will turn the big 5-0.

'They both are so comfortable with each other and make each other so happy, so they don't want to wait any longer,' the insider told US Weekly on Sunday.

'They both thought it was a fun and casual way to tie the knot.'

The Gigli castmates 'intentionally' chose to elope in Las Vegas after having to call off their lavish 2003 Santa Barbara nuptials (with 400 guests) days before ceremony.

Jennifer will also be taking Affleck's last name. The Clark County Recorder's Office shows the pop star will be changing her name to 'Jennifer Affleck.' The marriage certificate, however, has yet to be filed

Marital bliss: Lopez shared a shot of herself lying in bed to her Instagram Story on Sunday and added the Barbra Streisand track Sadie, Sadie in the background

'Due to the excessive media attention surrounding our wedding, we have decided to postpone the date,' their reps said in a joint statement at the time.

'When we found ourselves seriously contemplating hiring three separate "decoy brides" at three different locations, we realized that something was awry.'

It's the second time down the aisle for Ben, who has three children - daughter Violet, 16; daughter Seraphina, 13; and son Samuel, 10 - from his decade-long marriage to Jennifer Garner, which ended in 2018.

Jennifer has 14-year-old fraternal twins - daughter Emme Maribel Muniz and son Maximilian David Muniz - from her third marriage to Marc Anthony, which ended in 2011 after seven years.

They do! The couple collectively known as 'Bennifer' obtained a marriage license in Clark County, Nevada (her engagement ring pictured May 31)
'War is afoot' in the new trailer for Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon - which dropped Wednesday - as Iron Thone-hungry characters conspire to rule after the death of people-pleasing King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine).

Viserys planned on having his first-born child - Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) - become the Seven Kingdoms' first queen regnant.

But Viserys' hell-raising brother Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and a slew of other men in power have other ideas in the series, which has a decade time jump halfway through.

Dropped Wednesday! 'War is afoot' in the new trailer for Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon as Iron Thone-hungry characters conspire to rule after the death of people-pleasing King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine)

Princess Rhaenys Velaryon (Eve Best) - who was passed over as queen by her cousin Viserys - warns Rhaenyra: 'A woman would not inherit the Iron Throne because that is the order of things.'

Rhaenyra defiantly replies: 'When I am queen, I will create a new order.'

Meanwhile, Rhaenyra's childhood BFF Lady Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) - whose character is described as 'a bit more sympathetic than Cersei Lannister' - weds Viserys to become queen so she can also vy for the Iron Throne.

In a climactic near-assassination scene in the preview, Alicent lunges at the grown-up Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) with a dagger exclaiming: 'Where is duty? Where is sacrifice?'

'Do you think the realm will ever accept me as their queen?' Viserys planned on having his first-born child - Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) - become the Seven Kingdoms' first queen regnant

'I'm your heir': But Viserys' hell-raising brother Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and a slew of other men in power have other ideas in the series, which has a decade time jump halfway through

Princess Rhaenys Velaryon (Eve Best) - who was passed over as queen by her cousin Viserys - warns Rhaenyra: 'A woman would not inherit the Iron Throne because that is the order of things'

Rhaenyra defiantly replies: 'When I am queen, I will create a new order'

'Have you never imagined yourself on the Iron Throne?' Rhaenyra's (R) childhood BFF Lady Alicent Hightower (L, Olivia Cooke) - whose character is described as 'a bit more sympathetic than Cersei Lannister' - weds Viserys to become queen so she can also vy for the Iron Throne

Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) defiantly holds Alicent back and whispers: 'Now they see you as you are.'

As for the 17 different dragons featured in the show, Viserys believes 'They're a power man should never have trifled with.'

The two-and-a-half-minute preview shows a dragon egg ready to hatch from a coal-fueled incubator.

Also seen in the new teaser is Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon, the husband of Rhaenys and most famous seafarer in Westerosi history.

In a climactic near-assassination scene in the preview, Alicent lunges at the grown-up Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) with a dagger exclaiming: 'Where is duty? Where is sacrifice?'

The grown-up Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) defiantly holds Alicent back and whispers: 'Now they see you as you are'

As for the 17 different dragons featured in the show, Viserys believes 'They're a power man should never have trifled with'

Baking: The two-and-a-half-minute preview shows a dragon egg ready to hatch from a coal-fueled incubator

When the 57-year-old Englishman was originally cast as the Sea Snake - making history as the first black actor in a Thrones lead role - he received a lot of racist abuse on social media.

'Yeah, that s*** happened. I was just like, "Oh wow." And then I thought, "Okay, so this means a lot to some people, but I can't allow that to bother me,"' Toussaint told THR on Wednesday.

'I loved Game of Thrones, but my only caveat was, "Where's everybody else in this world?" Because it's a diverse world [George R.R.] Martin has created if you look [beyond Westeros], and I think this show comes closer to that.'

'Sea Snake': Also seen in the new teaser is Steve Toussaint (2-L) as Lord Corlys Velaryon, the husband of Rhaenys (2-R) and most famous seafarer in Westerosi history

'Yeah, that s*** happened. I was just like, "Oh wow!"' When the 57-year-old Englishman made history as the first black actor in a Thrones lead role, he received a lot of racist abuse on social media

Toussaint told THR on Wednesday: 'And then I thought, "Okay, so this means a lot to some people, but I can't allow that to bother me." I loved Game of Thrones, but my only caveat was, "Where's everybody else in this world?" Because it's a diverse world [George R.R.] Martin has created if you look [beyond Westeros], and I think this show comes closer to that'

Making it right: House of the Dragon showrunners Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal attempted to make their show a more diverse one 'in a way that feels organic to the world and doesn't feel like pandering or tokenism'

House of the Dragon showrunners Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal attempted to make their show a more diverse one 'in a way that feels organic to the world and doesn't feel like pandering or tokenism.'

The 73-year-old author and executive producer certainly approves, and he believes the small-screen adaptation of his Fire & Blood series is 'powerful, visceral, and dark 'like a Shakespearean tragedy.'

'There's no Arya [Stark] - a character everybody's going to love,' Martin warned his audience.

Creator's approval: The 73-year-old author and executive producer certainly approves, and he believes the small-screen adaptation of his Fire & Blood series is 'powerful, visceral, and dark 'like a Shakespearean tragedy'

Martin warned his audience: 'There's no Arya [Stark] - a character everybody's going to love. They're all flawed. They're all human. They do good things. They do bad things. They're driven by lust for power, jealousy, old wounds - just like human beings. Just like I wrote them'

Ready to roar! The $200M-budget House of Targaryen origin tale - set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones - will unveil all 10 episodes beginning August 21 on HBO Max

'They're all flawed. They're all human. They do good things. They do bad things. They're driven by lust for power, jealousy, old wounds - just like human beings. Just like I wrote them.'

The $200M-budget House of Targaryen origin tale - set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones - will unveil all 10 episodes beginning August 21 on HBO Max.

The ensemble cast also includes Rhys Ifans, Emily Carey, Gavin Spokes, John Macmillan, Theo Nate, Sonoya Mizuno, and Fabien Frankel.
In every culture, there is various kind of music that we got to see. Every culture has its significant music which represents a unique kind of music. Just like that, every kind of music influences the other ones. In the Nigerian music industry, we get to experience profound music that has represented its culture in the international music culture. There is a lot of Nigerian music that has amazed all the music enthusiasts. Apart from this, collaborations are a huge part of the music industry.

Ghana and Nigerian Music collaboration hold a very special part in the industry. They have contributed a lot to the music industry. With these outstanding traits, they have taken their culture of music to another level. There are a lot of songs that have created a buzz among music lovers. There are a lot of musical collaborations between these two musical cultures. Here are 5 unforgettable collaborations are-

5. Becca- No Away ft M.I Abaga, 2012:

Becca, one of the top vocalists of the Ghana music industry collaborated with the Nigerian rapper M.I Abaga for the song No Away. This song has taken the level of Ghana and Nigerian collaboration to another level. The musical exchange in this song has stunned everyone. With the excellent performance, these two artists have made the song to its fullest. This duo has made a song that has lasted within everyone. The prolific soundscape has shown a very unique aspect of Ghana and the Nigerian music industry.

4. Kiss Your Hand- R2Bees ft. Wande Coal, 2009:

Collaboration between Ghana and Nigerian musicians has always been worth listening to. The collaboration among R2Bees and Wande Coal for the soundscape Kiss Your Hand is an exemplary piece of music. This profound song is known for its iconic music. We got to see the exchange of culture through this song, which is an outstanding way of showcasing talent from two different music industries. It is an absolute pleasure to listen to this song. With the brilliant lyricism and music, this song is considered one of the unforgettable collaborations between these two music genres.

3. Two Women- Tony Tetuila ft VIP, 2006:

The Ghana artist VIP has always been one of the most promising artists in the industry. When artists like VIP and Tony Tetuila comes together then nothing less we can expect. Just like that Two Women by them has created a sensation among all the listeners. The spark of this song has taken everyone stunned. These two masterminds have created a chartbuster song, which is still famous in the international music industry. With this song they have talked about being in love with two women and presenting it in a different way has intrigued the listeners more. Its huge impact on the listeners has kept the song alive among everyone.

2. My Love- Tuface, now 2Baba and VIP, 2006:

2Baba, previously known as Tuface has ruled the Nigerian and African music culture once. The song My Love featuring the Ghana artist VIP has captivated the hearts of a lot of audiences. 2Baba has immense popularity in the music culture that has showcased his talent in various aspects. The wholehearted soundscape has reached out to a lot of musicians from all around the world. This one song still feels as fresh as it was at the time of release. In the beginning, it instantly captivated the listeners in the region of Ghana and Nigeria. Later on, it reached out on an international scale and represented it worldwide.

1. Fefe Na Fe- Tic Tac ft. Tony Tetuila, 2004:

The word Fefe Na Fe, which means it is the beauty of a woman is a song by the Ghanaian artist named Tic Tac featuring Tony Tetuila. This prolific collaboration holds a very special part among everyone. The evergreen and refreshing traits of them are very different than any other song. The thematic and rhythmic flow of them has mesmerized listeners from all around the world, which is why it is considered one of the unforgettable collaborations of all time.

There are more songs that Ghana and Nigerian musicians have given to everyone. Their amazing presentation has made a lot of iconic pieces of music, which have represented these two industries of music to the audience at the international level. There are a lot of soundtracks that are considered unforgettable collaborations of all time. The music industry has shown a very different side of hip-hop music, which has helped to shape the genre in a lot of aspects. With all their brilliant traits, these songs will always remain unforgettable.

Also Read: Top 10 Nigerian Richest Female Musicians of 2022

Check out For More News Updates on Google News.
China's top legislator calls for enhanced parliamentary exchanges with Bangladesh

Xinhua) 09:22, July 20, 2022

Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, holds talks with Bangladeshi parliament speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury via video link at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, July 19, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Li Zhanshu on Tuesday held talks with Bangladeshi parliament speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury via video link, with both sides vowing to enhance parliamentary exchanges.

Li, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said that China and Bangladesh are traditional friendly neighbors, and under the guidance of the two countries' leaders, the relationship between the two countries has entered a new stage of rapid development, with political mutual trust deepened, economic and trade exchanges steadily advanced, and anti-epidemic cooperation achieving fruitful results.

He said China is willing to work with Bangladesh to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and promote greater development of bilateral relations.

Li pointed out that China values developing the strategic cooperative partnership with Bangladesh, adding that China appreciates Bangladesh's support on Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, human rights and other issues, and will continue to support Bangladesh in exploring a development path that suits its national conditions.

He said China stands ready to promote the docking of the development strategies of the two countries, promote cooperation on infrastructure, economy and trade, clean energy, and green technology, and enhance exchanges in education, culture, youth and sports.

Noting that security and development are the common concerns of all countries, Li said the Global Security Initiative and the Global Development Initiative are important international public goods provided by China to address global challenges, and China welcomes Bangladesh to actively support and participate in the initiatives to jointly promote global peace and prosperity.

Li said the NPC of China is willing to deepen exchanges with the parliament of Bangladesh at all levels and in various fields, expand mutual learning in legislative and supervisory work, and promote the implementation of relevant laws and regulations.

Chaudhury said Bangladesh firmly supports China's core interests and major concerns. On the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, the Bangladesh-China strategic cooperative partnership has continuously achieved new development.

The Bangladeshi parliament is willing to work with the NPC of China to contribute to promoting cooperation between the two countries in various fields, expanding people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and enhancing friendship between the two peoples, Chaudhury said.

Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, holds talks with Bangladeshi parliament speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury via video link at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, July 19, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
On July 18th, the once venerable news magazine Newsweek published another story about a Christian university as a top headline, marking the fifth time it has gas-lit government officials, accreditors and the general public in pursuit of a series of "trafficking probe" articles on Olivet University.

The Monday story is the latest public attack against the University after Newsweek's Indian-born CEO Dev Pragad vowed a "nuclear attack" against the school and those associated with it in an escalating battle of fraud and lies as he futilely vies to take control of the company.

Their story, purporting to go inside the genesis of a visit to the school by authorities, brings no new substance to light and instead corroborates an HNGN report that Pragad, the CEO, personally reached out to Indian nationals as sources to assist his newsroom.

The piece fails to disclose its CEO's personal ties to the sources while feigning newsroom "independence," one in a multitude of ethical infractions that reveal Newsweek's deep bias, ultimately undermining the series and exposing it as fake news, and destroying Newsweek's credibility in the process.

More Questions than Answers

The latest Newsweek report focuses on events that happened in 2018, 4 years into the past, and on information no other publications deemed worthy of reporting, then or even now. This, coming on the heels of pieces from 2021 and 2019 also against the same subject, raises the question about why the Newsweek newsroom continuously chooses to headline stories from the past. Newsweek claims, without irony, that this was a matter of "national security."

While the affairs of a Bible school with several hundred annual graduates hardly rises to the level of national security, Newsweek Editors Nancy Cooper and Naveed Jamali have yet to acknowledge that weeks before the series began, their CEO Pragad threatened Johnathan Davis, the Newsweek shareholder, with this very coverage. Pragad said "I'll go to media about Olivet raid by DHS for human trafficking" if Davis didn't comply with Pragad's demands. Cooper did not include this important disclosure about its management's influence on the story. Instead, the Newsweek editors stated in April, they were unable to reach their own CEO for comment and "could not verify" alarming evidence Davis sent them. Since April, they have failed to receive any comment from CEO Pragad.

Pragad's own comments entwine his personal motives with the newsroom clearly, however. Pragad told a source before the series of articles began that "in no uncertain terms" he wanted the "shares of Newsweek... owned by the husband of the former president of the Christian university." If he didn't get his way, Pragad warned he would "detonate a nuclear bomb and kill [Davis and his associates]."

In April, after Davis refused to hand over his ownership to Pragad, the first Newsweek "trafficking" piece was published. Facts again skew deeply against Newsweek's "newsroom independence" because days after the first "nuclear" story was published, Pragad sent personal messages to former Olivet students from India, asking for information about troublesome students. He was interested in one student in particular, Rebecca Singh -- a coed who flunked out of the school after numerous infractions including theft, falsifying documents, and noise violations -- who incidentally would later become the main source for future Newsweek stories.

Meanwhile, as the CEO reached out to sources, Newsweek continued undeterred in its "trafficking" series of hit pieces against the school, tapping Editor-at-large Naveed Jamali, a former FBI double-agent who speaks about Muslim issues in the media, to agitate sources with the aim of publishing negative news on the Christian school. Jamali plowed ahead with the exact article series Pragad had weeks earlier threatened. Out of all news publications, only Newsweek published a story about this one-year-old raid under Jamali's byline, using anonymous sources. Homeland Security itself had not even released information about the raid nor its results -- nor even acknowledged the existence of the raid to the public. This gave rise to further questions about the sources of the "trafficking" allegations and their credibility, which Newsweek needed to answer.

With the burden of proof of the allegations falling squarely on Newsweek's editors, the magazine's headline story yesterday answered the question of the "trafficking" story source, confirming the identity of the 911 caller who "triggered" the investigation as Rebecca Singh -- the problem student Pragad personally sought -- with the extortion network of ex-students connected to her.

Singh is the very same girl Pragad was found to be digging up information about while in the midst of his legal battle against the Newsweek owner, Davis. This pattern of making threats that are carried out by the newsroom, and the active involvement of management in sourcing stories, raises alarming questions about Newsweek's dangerous CEO and his unethical newsroom.

First, what caused Newsweek to fail to investigate Pragad, his threats to mow down opponents like "puppies before a machine gun", and most critically, his direct outreach to troubled ex-students of Olivet University? Why is Pragad not held accountable for these actions? Why is the newsroom not asking him any of these serious questions, and what benefit are they receiving from him in response for being his cover up artists?

The onus is on Nancy Cooper to get to the bottom of this. Cooper recently published a statement declaring Newsweek's special obligation to investigate stories related to Newsweek itself, and yet has absolutely failed to produce a single meaningful response to such critical questions as these about her own boss throughout the duration of this entire series.

The statement goes on to express its commitment to "standard ethical practices," and mentions that Cooper and one "Dayan" committed to stay at Newsweek after they were promised they would have freedom to publish as they liked. It can be concluded that this "Dayan" is Dayan Candappa, a married man who was terminated from Reuters after a reporter complained to management that he demanded sexual favors in exchange for career promotions.

Meanwhile, Cooper and Pragad have given reporters like Jamali and Alex Rouhandeh free reign to omit and downplay key information in their stories, publish defamatory statements against Olivet University and others, and repeatedly threaten and instigate sources against Olivet and Davis.

Second, given its recent reporting bias against Olivet, Newsweek's usage of yet another anonymous source -- under the pseudonym "Kevin" for the July 18th story -- must be deeply scrutinized. If this "Kevin" had a legitimate complaint, he could go to the police to file a report -- but Newsweek does not claim that he did so. This anonymous young man instead became the sole accuser for Newsweek's world-headline story. It appears as though Newsweek is not vetting these sources, but instead exploiting these young men and women to hype Newsweek's narrative about Olivet University having a problem when this is simply not true.

Inflammatory Language

Newsweek has repeatedly employed the technique of using inflammatory language in its series of attacks targeting Olivet University.

For example, Olivet's New York State Education Department (NYSED) permit was simply not extended -- and therefore was allowed to expire. But why did Newsweek exaggerate the truth by saying NYSED "shut down" Olivet University in New York?

Olivet University officials stated that their original purpose for appealing NYSED's decision was to correct the official record to reflect that NYSED based its decision on faulty and inappropriate reasoning. However, when the final decision was made to allow Olivet's permit to expire, Olivet embraced the decision. The university had already released a press statement expressing gratitude to NYSED for the opportunity to operate in New York over the past decade. Furthermore, Olivet's statement communicated that after investing over $70 million into the campus and making it debt-free, Olivet officials believed the property should be more than just a single university's branch campus in New York. Instead, it should serve a greater purpose, the university stated. The school viewed the NYSED decision as an opportunity to expedite the decades-long dream of Olivet to serve worldwide evangelicals in a single campus at the Evangelical Center.

This was not a "shutting down" in any sense of the phrase. Newsweek's usage of the words "shut down" betrays its newsroom bias and non-neutrality in reporting about Olivet. These words distort the actual facts, taking a simple expiration of permission to operate and making it sound like a bigger problem at Olivet, which actually is not the case.

Newsweek similarly attacks Olivet University for the already resolved Manhattan DA issue. Olivet University received two misdemeanors and paid its fine. Yet Newsweek repeatedly trumpeted this fact that Olivet paid a fine, as though it were national headline news. In comparison, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs have paid enormously high fines -- in the billions of dollars. Yet Newsweek does not report on those fines as vehemently as they do Olivet's. Newsweek has not criticized Bank of America and Goldman Sachs for legal proceedings and paying fines to such an extent, but repeatedly highlights Olivet's roughly $1 million dollar fine as national headline news -- a "national security" issue. Newsweek's stark contrast in choosing the frequency and tone of its articles for Olivet versus actual newsworthy issues and companies belies the real and dangerous bias in the Newsweek newsroom against the Christian university versus those secular companies.

Additionally, Newsweek has repeatedly claimed that the arrest of a former student named "Frank Lan" back in 2019 was related to Olivet Assembly USA, a denomination led by Olivet University graduates. This is another of Newsweek's false, blatantly biased, and repeatedly weaponized allegations. Olivet Assembly USA's statement on its website makes clear that the Assembly was not related to the matter. Newsweek also broke its own code of journalistic ethics when it did not reach out to Olivet Assembly USA for comment, which it is required to do when making a serious charge. Neither has Newsweek referenced the Assembly's statement for fairness and balance.

Olivet Assembly's Statement on Mischaracterizations in Newsweek's Article on June 27 The following is Olivet Assembly USA's statement in response to an article posted in Newsweek on June 27, 2022. Olivet Assembly USA (OAUSA) has not been charged with any crime nor was it party to any investigation, nor linked to any criminal accusation, ever in its history, despite the false innuendo of Newsweek attempting to paint the picture as such. The piece ropes OAUSA into an article about an incident that happened three years ago about a church that has been long dissolved. While we are not surprised that the piece is written to benefit their CEO, Dev Pragad, we were very surprised that they did so by forgoing the integrity of basic journalism. The piece written on June 27 by Newsweek as the top headline suggests that OAUSA was contacted but did not comment. This is simply not true. OAUSA did not receive any questions from any reporters from Newsweek on this matter. If they had reached out to us, as any journalist would have done, we would have corrected the numerous errors in their article. OAUSA is not the "mother church" of Deer Park Community Church. Newsweek received inaccurate information from their source. OAUSA is not connected to the incident involving Mr. Frank Lan. OAUSA has not authorized nor does it condone the sale of counterfeit items and such activity is a violation of the guidelines set forth in our Book of Order. There are no e-commerce businesses in China working for OAUSA. Mr. Lan does not work for OAUSA. Deer Park Church was not formed by Rev. Chiu's wife. It was incorporated by Mr. Lan's wife. Rev. Chiu's quote on the unrelated mission between OAUSA and Olivet University has been taken out of context. The two organizations indeed have their distinct missions, board of directors, and operations, unrelated to each other. The two organizations may share the same statement of faith coming from the same evangelical root, but they are two independent organizations. It is regretful that Newsweek would mischaracterize OAUSA, a denomination in the Presbyterian tradition whose faith stands on the Westminster Confession of Faith, as a sect, and a senior pastor as a cleric. This sensationalism would appear more like tabloid journalism than serious reporting. The article contains numerous other errors not mentioned in this statement. This kind of reporting raises serious questions about Newsweek's credibility and editorial integrity. For any media inquiries, please contact Olivet Assembly at media@olivetassembly.org.

In its series of articles against Olivet, Newsweek has also recklessly published outrageously false and reprehensible claims such as that students are "imprisoned" at the campus. This claim is completely fabricated as verified by overwhelming evidence indicating happy and peaceful students, including Rebecca Singh, at the campus.

The reporters even chose a city as far away as San Diego, 90 miles away, to portray Olivet's campus as "isolated." Nearly every city in California is far away from San Diego. Newsweek fails to mention that Olivet's campus is inside the town of Anza, and only 17 miles from the fast-growing city of Hemet, not to mention its proximity to Temecula and Palm Springs. Newsweek also failed to note that many happy and satisfied students study at Olivet University today, and many have graduated into successful Christian ministry work. That's because these facts would get in the way of the narrative that Newsweek has been pushing at the behest of its dangerous CEO.

Newsweek Credibility Already Disqualified

The public statements of Newsweek's CEO that vowed to use the newsroom to accomplish his goals should be a red flag to any reader, and anyone in its own newsroom that had integrity. But to make it crystal clear and beyond any doubt, on the 8th of July, weeks before the current article, Newsweek filed a lawsuit against Olivet University, seeking millions of dollars in an attempt to link it to debts that have nothing to do with the school.

The frivolous lawsuit has apparently been in the works for months and further highlights the lengths that Pragad will go to harm Davis, the school and other associates in pursuit of his selfish ambitions. The fact that the company has been preparing a lawsuit, apparently for months, seeking money against the same organizations its newsroom is writing negative articles about on a regular basis, disqualifies it completely as an impartial outlet.

On top of this, Cooper and others who feel they need to cover news about Newsweek's management and ownership, however, have repeatedly failed to uncover and report even the most basic facts about its CEO Pragad. The newsroom has been unable to contact him for any comment, though it is apparent he does send information and sources to the newsroom. It also failed to mention that Pragad was a dean at the very school he is using Newsweek to sue and to write articles against.

Newsweek Pushes Fake News Narrative about Olivet While Also Suing Olivet

The main issue with Newsweek's July 18 report is that it contained nothing "new" at all. The article, stripped of its inflammatory attacks, would read as follows: "One-and-a-half years ago, there was a raid on a Christian school based on false accusations. After finding no issue with the school, officers apologized for the raid, and no further action was taken." Comparing this neutral summary with the actual Newsweek story lays bare the influence that Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad's personal vendetta has had on the newsroom.

Newsweek's own failures reveal the extent to which the newsroom is being exploited by Newsweek's CEO. It has failed to investigate Pragad's personal contact with the sources of its series after his explicit threats to "kill" his enemies in the media. Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper failed to write a single word about this problem. Meanwhile, she issued a statement containing hundreds of words touting the newsroom's neutrality and freedom from management's influence, while publishing a series of articles that attack a Christian university for the benefit of Newsweek's CEO, including the most recent article based on a single anonymous source.

The Newsweek narrative appears designed to accomplish one goal, which is to declare a huge problem with Olivet University when there is none, while also trying to sue it for money in a frivolous lawsuit -- another conflict of interest that Newsweek fails to mention in its articles.

Newsweek Incites Accreditors Against a Christian University, Abandons Basic Journalistic Mandate

Newsweek reporters have also been contacting the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), the accreditor of Olivet University. According to the latest article, Newsweek reporters have asked ABHE what "action" it would take against Olivet regarding the federal raid that happened over one year ago. This kind of questioning is beyond premature -- the Department of Homeland Security needs to go through its process of examining the veracity of allegations and publish a report as a result. Until that time, ABHE cannot help but wait for the government report, maintaining a neutral stance with the presumption of innocence. These two elements, the report and the presumption of innocence, are necessary for ABHE to make a fair decision. But Newsweek's reporters have repeatedly pressured ABHE through inappropriate and aggressive questions and phone calls to take action prematurely before seeing the result of the government's report. Furthermore, Newsweek's racketeering-like conduct, threats, and dangerous bias -- insinuating that Olivet has a problem and putting pressure on its accreditors, without any proof and before any report from the government -- could constitute criminal conduct.

Instead of trying to influence the government and accrediting agencies against Olivet University, Newsweek should criticize the fact that a federal raid was carried out on a Christian school based on false information. But Newsweek has utterly disposed of its basic journalistic mandate by taking the side of government power abuse, instead of criticizing it. In the case of the NYSED story, Newsweek took the side of state bureaucracy instead of chastising a decision made with false reasoning against a Christian school. A normal media publication would have criticized these acts of injustice, but not Newsweek. And churches are already paying careful attention to Newsweek's articles deliberately attacking a Christian university with bias and discrimination.

Newsweek Vilifies a Christian School, Needs Real Integrity to Investigate Newsweek CEO

The law requires that complaints go through a government agency to be evaluated fairly. Newsweek has intentionally hijacked these processes and distorted their results, through its articles about Olivet University following Pragad's threats and in furtherance of his lawsuit. The past Manhattan DA case was concluded with a clear resolution; the NYSED permission's expiration inspired Olivet to more quickly activate its longstanding plan to offer its New York campus for a greater purpose; and the raid that happened at Olivet's campus over one year ago was based on false information. Newsweek's articles about these matters do not take into account both sides in a balanced way, but falsely hype each of these as a big problem to pressure Olivet University's accreditors to take negative action against a healthy school. Readers must ask why Newsweek deliberately vilifies a Christian school this way.

There is no balance or fairness in the Newsweek articles about Olivet. Conclusively, the series has been debunked as agenda-driven fake news. Worse yet, by attacking a Christian university with unbalanced articles, Newsweek has proven itself cowardly. The real story is the lawsuit against Newsweek's CEO Dev Pragad, and the extreme steps Pragad has taken to exploit the newsroom for his personal benefit. But will the Newsweek newsroom ever breed the integrity and courage it needs to stand up to its own dangerous CEO?

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@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Maine police published updated photographs Monday as they continue to beg the public for information or sightings of a missing mom, her ex, and their 2-year-old daughter, who went missing about three weeks ago.

Jill Sidebotham, 28, Nicholas Hansen, 38, and their baby Lydia set out on a three-day camping vacation on June 27. The clothing they were wearing on June 29 at the campground is shown in newly released security photographs.

Missing Maine Parents, Daughter Seen on Security Footage

On June 29 and July 2, police verified two sightings, the latter at a Walmart shop in Mexico, Maine, some 100 miles from Sidebotham's home in Sanford.

Sanford Police Lt. Matthew Gagne told Fox News Digital that detectives traveled to Mexico on Friday to look into certain leads. Store employees who approached the parents and youngster noted nothing out of the ordinary and no signs of anxiety.

Despite claims that Hansen was aggressive, authorities believe Sidebotham went on the trip freely and that she was not in distress. Hansen has no violent offenses on his state criminal record, as per Fox News.

The couple, who are divorced, and their daughter, who lives with Sidebotham, were meant to return on June 30. According to The Boston Globe, Sidebotham's phone has been shut off since June 28, while Hansen's has been without a signal since June 29.

Since then, police have confirmed two CCTV sightings of the family: first on June 29 at the Coos Canyon Campground and again on July 2 at a Walmart shop in Mexico, Maine, nearly 100 miles from Sidebotham's home in Sanford.

They have also increased search operations around the state, including utilizing fixed-wing aircraft to look for the automobile they were in near where they were reported to be camping.

Read Also: South-Central US Faces Dangerous, Record-Breaking Heat; More Than 100 Million People At Risk

Police Ask For Public Cooperation To Locate Missing Family

There have been no additional sightings of the family, and authorities are asking the public for assistance in locating the missing three. A ground search has not been coordinated since it has been difficult to pinpoint where they could be right now.

Police surveillance photos published on Monday show both parents carrying their daughter. Hansen is dressed in a red tank top with a white pattern on the back and gray shorts, while the mother is dressed in a black T-shirt with a green design, spectacles, and light-colored shorts.

Police said they do not suspect foul play in the disappearance and are hopeful that they will be found safe. However, numerous members of Sidebotham's family have stated that Hansen may have abducted his child's mother.

According to the mother's relatives, Hansen persuaded Sidebotham to embark on an unplanned camping trip just before the trio vanished. Sidebotham is also the mother of a 10-year-old boy who has been 'hurting fairly severely' since his mother and half-sister disappeared, according to his grandfather Ron Sidebotham, 61, on July 9.

Ron believes Jill's ex-partner, Nick Hansen, 39, is a domestic abuser and that if he is cornered, he would damage or possibly murder his ex-partner and their kid. Jill walked left with Nick over two weeks ago while Ron was at work, and when he got home to the apartment he shares with his wife, daughter, and her two children, he was notified Jill had taken off, Daily Mail reported..

Related Article: Indiana Mall Shooting: Gunman Kills Multiple People, Injures Others Before Being Shot by Armed "Good Samaritan"

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A total of eight persons who were arrested by the She Teams for molesting women during the Bonalu celebrations were prosecuted and sentenced by the court on Monday. Representational image/DC

HYDERABAD: A total of eight persons who were arrested by the She Teams for molesting women during the Bonalu celebrations were prosecuted and sentenced by the court on Monday.

All the convicts were caught red-handed in separate incidents by the She Team personnel deployed in mufti during Bonala celebrations in Golconda and Ujjaini Mahankali temple in Secunderabad.

They were caught taking pictures of women coming to the temple without their knowledge, treating them indecently and touching them, said A. R. Srinivas, additional commissioner, She Teams.

We produced them before the court, and after examining the cases, the court sentenced the accused to imprisonment depending on the intensity of the case, Srinivas said.

S. Nagaraju, Mahamud Khan, P. Kiran and Shaik Arjad Ali were sentenced for two days imprisonment. Srikanth, Khaja Maseeriddin and Y. Sailu were sentenced for three days imprisonment whereas Abdul Mamud Khan was sentenced to 10 days imprisonment. Srinivas warned that serious action will be taken if anyone misbehaved with women and caused trouble.
HYDERABAD: The factors that caused the recent floods in the Godavari basin that threatened the existence of the Kadem dam in Nirmal district, resulted in the flooding of two major pump houses of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, and floodwaters rampaging through several north Telangana districts, including Bhadrachalam town, appear to have left the Telangana government in a perplexed state.

One thing, however, appears to have become clearer concerning the flooding of Bhadrachalam, as special chief secretary (irrigation) Rajat Kumar on Wednesday told media that the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh on the Godavari did not necessarily cause flooding of the temple town in Khammam district.

I am not saying this (episode of) flooding is because of Polavaram, he told reporters following a review meeting with senior irrigation department officials.

Earlier on Tuesday, minister Ajay Kumar Puvvada said that the latest flooding in Bhadrachalam over the past few days took place because the Andhra Pradesh government raised the height of the Polavaram dam structure, which, in turn, resulted in a larger volume of backwater accumulating on the Telangana side of the river and resulting in the flooding.

Rajat Kumar made it clear during his chat with reporters that Telangana had been repeatedly asking the Centre for a thorough backwater impact study of the Polavaram project, which could result in flooding of Bhadrachalam, Parnasala, and around one lakh acres of cropland in the state.

The Government of India feels it is a resolved issue, we feel concerned, he said.

There will be an impact of increased height of the Polavaram project, and more areas will be submerged. It is not that the Polavaram project proposal has not been studied, it is a national project. We feel concerned that its impact will be felt in our area, he said.

On the rains, Rajat Kumar said that cloudburst was not a technical term, and heavy rain events are a result of changing climate, adding that the IMD and Eurosat were unable to predict (how heavy the rains would be). Something is there behind it.

It may be recalled that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao said that the heavy floods were a result of a possible international conspiracy causing cloudburst deliberately in Telangana.

Rajat Kumar said the Kadem project withstood heavy floods because of repairs taken up at the dam, and added that there was no truth in those criticising the state government over the submergence of two Kaleshwaram project pump houses and the projects planning and construction.

It will not cost a few hundred crores but around Rs 20-25 crore for repairs, and the construction company has the maintenance contract, he said, adding that the pumps would be brought back to working condition within 45 days.

He said that each aspect of the project was vetted and cleared by the Central Water Commission.
Hyderabad: The state government on Wednesday estimated losses incurred on account of recent heavy rains in the state and the resultant floods in the river Godavari at Rs 1,400 crore and is expected to submit a report to the Centre shortly. The government plans to seek Rs 1,000 crore as immediate financial assistance from the Centre to undertake relief measures. According to a media statement issued by the Chief Ministers Office on Wednesday, various departments have submitted preliminary estimates to the state government on the losses from recent heavy rains and floods.

The roads and buildings department stated that it suffered losses of Rs 498 crore due to damage caused to roads. The panchayat raj department incurred Rs 449-crore loss, the irrigation department Rs 33 crore, the municipal administration department Rs 379 crore and the energy department Rs 7 crore, the release stated.

The damage caused to houses and expenditure incurred to evacuate people from these houses was pegged at Rs 25 crore.

Meanwhile, Central teams will arrive on Thursday to assess the damage caused by floods. Official sources said the teams comprising six members will tour for two days and submit a report to the Centre. The teams will also visit Bhadrachalam, Kaleshwaram and Kadem projects which witnessed flood fury.
VIJAYAWADA: AP High Court on Tuesday heard a petition on Andhra Pradesh governments move to designate mahila karyadarsis (women protection secretaries) as women police. The court directed the government to submit a report in this regard and posted the next hearing to August 18.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice D.V.S.S. Somayajulu heard the petition filed by a student leader, Umamaheswara Rao of Visakhapatnam, challenging AP Mahila Police Rules, 2021; designating women protection secretaries as women police.

Petitioners counsel Balaji Yelamanjula argued that Mahila Police Rules, 2021, are unconstitutional under Article 309 of Constitution of India. He contended that the state government, without having any statutory power, is making rules that are impermissible under provisions of the Indian Constitution.

The counsel further argued that AP government insisting on these staff to wear khaki uniform is against Article 21 of Constitution of India. He maintained that right to life also includes right to wear dress of choice. It should be left to the will and wish of individuals to wear or not to wear the khaki uniform.

Advocate general S. Sriram, appearing on behalf of the state government, asked the court time for one month before the government could come up with a new legislation through legislature with regard to Mahila Police Rules, 2021.

However, Balaji Yelamanjula intervened and pointed out that the government had initially issued a government order specifying certain conditions for the job. But when the petitioner challenged these conditions, the government came up with Mahila Karyadarsi Rules, 2019. As these rules have been further challenged, state government came up with Mahila Police Rules, 2021.

Balaji Yelamanjula argued that when even 2021 rules too got challenged in court, the state government is planning to come up with a new legislation. He submitted that such a move is not permissible for the reason that state government is intending to legalise an illegal act by bringing in a new law.

The petitioners counsel maintained that insisting on wearing a uniform is illegal. He sought that the employee be given choice to wear or not to wear the khaki uniform.

The attorney general submitted that they are ready to give an option. The court then posted the matter to August 18.
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday stayed the disqualification of Nagarkurnool district zilla parishad chairman Peddapally Padmavathi, a TRS member, on an order issued by the election tribunal of Nagarkurnool.

The election tribunal, in an order dated July 14, disqualified Padmavathi from the post on the grounds that she had three children, on complaints filed by the BJP and Congress.

As per the Panchayat Raj and Election Commission Rules, a person cannot contest to become a peoples representative if they have three children.

Padmavathis counsels Dammalapati Srinivas and Rohit Pogula argued in the High Court that the tribunal issued the orders without considering the merits of the response presented by the representative.

They contended that Padmavathi had given birth to twins during her second delivery. Also, her husband was previously elected as an MPTC official and a petition seeking his disqualification was disposed of by the courts, they said, citing it as a precedent.

They submitted to the court that the material evidence placed on record was also not considered, following which Justice Annireddy Abhishek Reddy issued an interim suspension order.
Rishi Sunak narrowly leads the fractious race to replace Boris Johnson as Britain's prime minister after the latter resigned from his position amid several controversies.

The race entered an unpredictable endgame on Tuesday as the top three candidates for Conservative Party leader were left battling for the two spots in a run-off vote. A previously little-known lawmaker, Kemi Badenoch, was eliminated from the race after receiving the fewest votes from Conservative lawmakers in their fourth round of voting.

Race To Succeed Boris Johnson

With Sunak's lead after the vote that knocked Badenoch out, he all but guaranteed his place in the final two slots. Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, the two candidates who were trailing Sunak, will now have to scramble to gain the trust of Badenoch's supporters before a final elimination vote on Wednesday.

The final three candidates are racing to succeed Johnson, who was forced to resign this month after snowballing ethics scandals that sparked mass resignations in his government. When the two finalists are determined, they will go to a runoff vote by all 180,000 members of the Conservative Party, with a winner expected to be announced on Sept. 5, as per the Associated Press.

On Tuesday, Sunak got 118 votes, which was only two short of the number that would guarantee he is one of the two candidates Conservative members will choose from. On the other hand, Mordaunt received 92 votes as Truss got 86 votes.

Read Also: UK PM Boris Johnson Accused of Lying About the Evacuation of Animals From a British Charity in Afghanistan

All remaining candidates are still courting supporters of Tom Tugendhat, an influential lawmaker who was eliminated from the contest on Monday. Badenoch and Mordaunt tweeted praise for Tugendhat after the vote on Monday. On the other hand, Truss promised to increase military spending from 2% to 3% of the GDP, which is a key issue for Tugendhat.

According to Aljazeera, unlike in 2019 when Johnson was a clear favorite going into the contest, the result this time around is more difficult to forecast. This comes as polls of party members suggest that Sunak would lose to whoever is chosen to face him.

Britain's Prime Minister

Candidates who are looking to succeed Johnson have become part of an increasingly ugly contest as the trade barbs and challenge records. In a statement, Mordaunt said that she was excited to put her case to members across the country and win.

On the other hand, a Truss spokesperson said it was "time for the party to unite behind a candidate who will govern in a Conservative way and who has shown she can deliver time and again.

The three remaining candidates have presented policy offerings to add momentum to their campaigns, trying to move the focus away from pledges of tax cuts, at a time when the region's flagging economy has left citizens with the tightest squeeze on their finances for decades.

The forecast that Sunak will lose the final round comes as a poll shows that he is 19 points behind Truss and 14 points behind Mordaunt. This has forced the official to spend the last few days appealing directly to the Tory party base in order to shore up more support for his campaign, the Times of India reported.



Related Article: Boris Johnson Resigns from UK Prime Minister Post; What Happens Now?

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Hyderabad: A young woman, donning a top and ripped jeans, amused commuters of Metro rails and passersby at Metro stations in the city by dancing to a Telugu song for creating a social media reel.

The vlogger, taking a cue from trending videos, mostly from Delhi  where people can be seen dancing inside Metro rails in viral Instagram reels and social media posts  clocked around 50,000 views on Twitter.

However, now she is set to face action from the Metro authority for her video post.

Officials told Deccan Chronicle that the HMRL will be initiating action. The HMRL MD, N.V.S. Reddy has directed to identify and initiate action against them, an official said.

A few netizens termed it as a nuisance and tagged the Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited, questioning why such actions were allowed on public transport. What kind of nuisance is this ?? Are you guys giving permission for this on metro trains ? (sic), asked Twitter user Krishna Murthy on July 17.

In the past, Metro authorities encouraged social media users to remain interactive.

Last Friday, the Metro authorities welcomed a travel vlog by Youtube personality Benjamin Jenks, better known as American in India, who posted videos of his travels.
NIA officials with the help of Vijayawada police raided the residence of Duddu Prabhakar (in T-shirt) near Luna centre. His wife and daughter can also be seen in the picture.  DC Image/C. Narayana Rao

VIJAYAWADA: The National Investigation Agency conducted searches in the residence of Duddu Prabhakar, state president of the Kula Nirumulana Pooratta Samiti, at Ajit Singh Nagar here on Tuesday.

Prabhakar is suspected to have connections with Maoists and arranging funds to the banned Maoist party.

The police did not allow anyone into the house and the searches were continuing. Some civil society organisations condemned the searches.

NIA officials with the help of Vijayawada police raided the residence of Duddu Prabhakar near Luna centre. Prabhakar lives in a rented house in Ajit singh Nagar with his wife and daughter for the past four years.

The searches continued till evening and the local people and media were not allowed into the house.

Swathi, daughter of Prabhakar, said the police had conducted raids on their residence on three occasions. Civil society organisation leaders vowed to fight against the fascist policies of the Union government and its draconian laws.

Wife of top Maoist leader Ramakrishna alias RK (late), Sirisha, who came to Vijayawada, staged a protest with other leaders, against the NIA raids on the leaders of peoples organisations.
India is set to bring cheetahs from Namibia for reintroduction into the wild  decades after the fastest land animal of the world went extinct in the country.

Bhupender Yadav, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India, and Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Deputy Prime Minister of Namibia, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Wildlife Conservation and Sustainable Biodiversity Utilization in New Delhi on Wednesday. The MoU will pave the way for translocation of a few cheetahs from Namibia to India.

The cheetahs brought from Namibia will be released into the wild at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh in India. Cheetah reintroduction in India has a larger goal of re-establishing ecological function in Indian grasslands that was lost due to extinction of Asiatic cheetah. This is in conformity with the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) guidelines on conservation translocations, Yadav posted on Twitter. 

This unique intercontinental translocation (of cheetahs) would be the first of its kind project ever and therefore has global attention, High Commissioner of India to Namibia, Prashant Agarwal, said. It will reaffirm our shared commitment to (wildlife) conservation.

The cheetahs went extinct in India by 1952.

The Department of Forest of the Government of Madhya Pradesh has been working on the project for reintroduction of cheetahs in the Kuno National Park of the state for the past few years. The Indian Oil Corporation Limited is supporting the project.

The first batch of cheetahs are expected to fly in from Namibia to India within the next few months. They will be first kept in a special five square kilometre enclosure set up within the Kuno National Park itself for regular health check-ups and monitoring for six months before being released into the wild.

The Kuno National Park at present can accommodate a maximum of 21 cheetahs, but, once restored, the larger landscape can hold about 36 of them. The carrying capacity can be further enhanced by including the remaining part of the Kuno Wildlife Division (1,280 sq km) through prey restoration, according to a press-release issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

A team of forest officials of the Madhya Pradesh government visited Namibia earlier this year for training in monitoring cheetahs in the wild. A team of wildlife experts from Namibia will also visit India and spend nearly six months at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh to train local officials.

The MoU India and Namibia signed on Wednesday will promote sharing of good practices in technological applications and livelihood generation for local communities living in wildlife habitats. It will facilitate exchange of personnel for training and education in wildlife management, said Agarwal, New Delhis envoy to Windhoek. India will also help wildlife conservation personnel of Namibia in smart patrol, population estimation techniques and for surveillance and monitoring.

These cheetahs would be the goodwill ambassador of Namibia (to India) and this friendly gesture on part of Namibia is deeply appreciated by the people of India, Agarwal said in a statement issued in the capital of Namibia on Wednesday.

Nandi-Ndaitwah, who is also the Minister for International Relations and Cooperation of Namibia, had a separate meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. The two sides also signed another agreement for cooperation in forensic science.

Our relationship extends to cooperation in political, economic, defence & (and) security, educational, health, development cooperation & capacity building domains. Discussed expanding it to energy, digital and health sectors as well, Jaishankar tweeted after meeting his counterpart in the Government of Namibia. Agreements signed today on reintroduction of Cheetahs and Forensic Sciences cooperation were notable.
The government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Centre on Tuesday used an all-party meeting on the situation in Sri Lanka to underline the importance of exercising fiscal prudence and to caution, the states against indulging in the practice of distributing freebies or the revri culture as Prime Minister Narendra Modi described recently.

The representatives of the opposition parties, including the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), raised objections when the officials of the Ministry of Finance made presentations on the financial health of some states, particularly the budgeted and non-budgeted borrowings by some state governments.

The government sources, however, later justified using the all-party meeting on the economic crisis in Sri Lanka for highlighting the financial situation in the state and for underlining the importance of practicing fiscal prudence.

The TRS, TMC and the DMK are in power in Telangana, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu respectively.

The YSR Congress Party, which is in power in Andhra Pradesh and has often been friendly to the Modi Government at the Centre, also expressed its displeasure over the move by the Ministry of Finance to use the forum to preach fiscal prudence to the State Governments.

So did Congress, the principal opposition party in parliament and the ruling party in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. The BJP and some other political parties however supported the governments move to highlight the lessons India should learn from the economic downturn in Sri Lanka.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi briefed the representatives of all political parties on the situation in Sri Lanka. He later told journalists that the lessons India should learn from the economic crisis in the neighbouring island nation were very important and included the importance of practicing fiscal prudence and responsible governance as well as the importance of avoiding a culture of freebies.

The government apparently sought to cite the economic crisis in Sri Lanka to caution the state governments in India, particularly the ones ruled by the opposition parties, against resorting to distributing freebies and thus jeopardizing the fiscal health of the states in order to win elections.

The prime minister, himself, recently cautioned against the practice of distributing freebies to win elections. He termed it revri (sweet) culture, while addressing a rally at the inauguration of Bundelkhand Expressway in Jalaun in Uttar Pradesh.

P Chidambaram and Manickam Tagore of the Congress, Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), T R Baalu and M M Abdulla of the DMK, M Thambidurai of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Saugata Ray of the TMC, Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference, Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party and Keshava Rao of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi attended the all-party meeting, which was held on the second day of the monsoon session of Parliament.

Jaishankar said that India was worried over the very serious and unprecedented economic crisis in Sri Lanka. He, however, termed as a misinformed comparison the speculation over India also experiencing a crisis like the one in Sri Lanka.

New Delhi has so far provided assistance worth over $ 3.8 billion this year to help cash-strapped Sri Lanka and also sent consignments of food, fuel, medicines, fertilizers and other essentials.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has warned the Shiv Sena rebels to watch their tongues while criticising its party President Sharad Pawar and senior leader Ajit Pawar, or "it will be difficult for them (rebels) to move around," here on Tuesday.

NCP Chief Spokesperson Mahesh Tapase, NCP Youth President Suraj Chavan, and MLC Amol Mitkari strongly slammed former minister Ramdas Kadam, who was sacked as a Deputy Leader by Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on Monday.

At a media briefing, Kadam, weeping uncontrollably before the mediapersons, alleged that he was "deeply grieved" to witness the Sena collapsing in this manner and squarely blamed NCP's Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar for its decimation.

Kadam claimed that it was the machinations of the Pawars that has led to the current scenario and demanded to know "why Thackeray still wants their support" or remains with the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance.

Read | Impose Presidents Rule in Maharashtra till SC decides, says Sanjay Raut

Reacting to this, Tapase said the whole state and country knows "what are the compulsions, whose files were pending where, the investigations they were apprehending, the allurements or who is behind the Sena rebellion".

In a sharp retort, Chavan warned the Sena leaders supporting Chief Minister Eknath Shinde group to 'mind their language' before speaking anything ill about the Pawars.

"They should be careful what they speak... Otherwise, it will become difficult for them to move around," Chavan warned, even as the state government and the Centre beefed up security for around a dozen Sena MPs who are all set to join the Shinde Group.

Mitkari hit out at Kadam, asking him what he was doing in the party for so long that he is now hurling allegations at the NCP accusing it of destroying the Shiv Sena and asked them to watch out before targeting the Pawars.

The NCP leaders have slammed the rebels, especially the senior leaders who "grew big with the support of Balasaheb Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray" but now have dumped the Shiv Sena overnight.

Certain leaders of the Shinde Group have launched an attack on the NCP and the Pawar uncle-nephew duo, and charged them with ruining the 56-year-old Shiv Sena.
Five women were arrested on Tuesday in Kerala for forcing girl students, who appeared for NEET, to remove their innerwear while the National Testing Agency (NTA) constituted a fact-finding committee to look into the alleged incident.

The five women were arrested after interrogation by the police team probing the case, a police official told PTI. While three women worked for an agency hired by the NTA, two worked for the private educational institution at Ayur in Kollam where the incident happened.

Explained: The NEET dress code controversy

The state police earlier registered a case based on the complaint of a girl, who alleged that she was asked to remove her bra before she could be permitted to appear for the eligibility test. The NTA, which conducts the test, set up the panel after the Kerala government took up the issue with the Centre seeking strong action.

The arrest follows protests that began on July 18. Such protests intensified and turned violent on Tuesday in Kerala's southern region of Kollam. Demanding action, the stir is against NEET frisking personnel who allegedly nudged girl students to remove their innerwear.

The personnel reportedly objected to the metallic hook in the innerwear. Taking note of the allegation, the Union Ministry of Education (MoE) said that it has been brought to its notice through various media reports that an incident allegedly happened in one of the Centres of NEET (UG)-2022 in Kerala. Accordingly, the Ministry said, a fact-finding committee has been constituted by the NTA to ascertain the facts in detail.

"Further action will be taken based on the report of the fact-finding committee which will visit Kollam," a senior MoE official said. The Kerala Women's Commission, on its part, also registered a case based on complaints it received. An agency hired by NTA, in Kollam, for purposes including carrying out frisking, allegedly asked the girl students to remove their innerwear.

The complainant was a 17-year-old girl. Several other girl students have made similar allegations, though they have not separately filed police complaints. Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu, in a letter to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, expressed "dismay and shock" at the news of "naked assault on the dignity and honour of the girl students."

Bindu sought action to prevent future occurrences of a similar nature and sought the Union Minister's intervention in the matter. A section of agitators, who took out protest marches, vandalised the education institution at Ayur, where the complainant girl was allegedly asked to remove her innerwear before appearing for the test. Student activists allegedly entered the college premises breaking the police cordon, leading to vandalism. Some student activists suffered injuries in police action.

A senior NTA official, however, said: "No complaint or representation has been received by us. On basis of claims in media reports, an immediate report was sought from the centre superintendent and observer. They have informed that no such incident took place and the complaint is fictitious and has been filed with wrong intentions."

The NEET dress code does not permit any such activity as alleged by the parent of the candidate. The code provides for ensuring sanctity and fairness of exam while observing sensitivity towards gender, culture and religion during frisking of candidates, the NTA official added.

Based on the girl's complaint, police registered a case. IPC Sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) have been invoked, police said. In a statement, the Kerala Women's Commission said based on the two complaints received, it was convinced that prima facie these were actions that insulted women. The chairperson of the commission also asked the NTA, to take action against those responsible for the incident.
Four people were killed when a speeding ambulance hit the Shiroor toll gate in Byndoor police station limits in Karnataka's Udupi district on Wednesday.

The deceased have been identified as Gajanana, Lokesh, Manjunath and Jyoti. All of the deceased were in the ambulance.

Byndoor PSI informed DH that there were eight persons in the ambulance, including the driver. The ambulance was travelling from Honnavar to Udupi with a patient, Gajanana. The patient was undergoing treatment at Sridevi Hospital in Honnavar and was later referred to a hospital in Udupi.

While the toll gate employees were removing the plastic caution boards kept as barriers that were blocking the path, the speeding vehicle lost control and crashed into the toll gate plaza.

All the injured were taken to a hospital for treatment.

While one of the injured is critical, three have sustained serious injuries, including a toll gate staff Shambhaji Gorpade.

The driver of the ambulance, Roshan Rodrigues, has escaped miraculously.

Byndoor police have visited the spot and the investigation is in progress.
Irelands most recently acquired youth development tall ship will arrive in Ireland for the very first time from Sweden this Thursday where it will take its place at the Foyle Maritime Festival

On it's arrival to Ireland, it passes Greencastle to travel along the east side of Inishowen and up Lough Foyle towards Derry.

Grace OMalley, a 164ft long schooner, left Sweden on July 15 with 20 crew onboard.

The ship is captained by experienced and renowned Irish captain Gerry Burns for its maiden voyage across the North Sea, North of Scotland and then on to Derry.

Boats from Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle yacht clubs, along with other local vessels, will meet Grace OMalley to accompany her up Lough Foyle on Thursday.

The ship will dock along Derrys quay during the Foyle Maritime Festival, which runs to July 24.

The vessel is named after Grainne Ni Mhaille, or Granuaile, the 16th-century historical figure who had a power base in Connacht and became known as the Pirate Queen.

Its a stunning ship and even people who arent sailing enthusiasts will be very interested in seeing it, said Fahan-based Catherine Noone from the Atlantic Youth Trust.

We hope as many people as possible can come on board over the five days and see what a tall ship looks like for themselves.

Brian OMalley from Clare Island, Co. Mayo is onboard Grace OMalley heading for home.



Brian, who is a highly qualified and experienced shipping Engineer, has been in Sweden for months working to make Lady Ellen (Grace OMalley) ready for the crossing to Ireland  pic.twitter.com/IgMEqlHdqK  Atlantic Youth Trust - Grace OMalley (@atlanticyt) July 16, 2022

The Grace OMalley is a youth development ship for all of the young people of the island of Ireland.

"Young people will experience sailing, teamwork, a change of perspective and also create a pathway to a wide range of maritime careers. This is a project that can truly change lives.

We want the ship to be as accessible as possible and that is why events such as this are so important in reaching out to young people and giving them their first introduction to life on board a ship.

For further information on visiting Grace O'Malley, go to foylemaritime.com.
Three bereaved fathers who raised nearly 1 million for a suicide prevention charity after their sponsored walk went viral have announced plans for a UK-wide challenge.

Mike Palmer, Andy Airey and Tim Owen, known as 3 Dads Walking, caught the attention of Hollywood stars Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, among others, with their 300-mile sponsored walk between their respective homes last year, discussing mental health and raising awareness of suicide prevention.

The trio  who had all recently lost daughters to suicide  now plan to walk to the Parliaments of the UK during a month-long, 600-mile fundraising mission, which they hope will help encourage people to quash the taboo and get suicide awareness on the school curriculum.

Mr Palmer said he was partly motivated to do something positive due to his own regrets over the death of his 17-year-old daughter, Beth, in March 2020.

He told the PA news agency: Id never talked about suicide before, I never had the conversation with Beth.

Why should I? Beth and suicide never went in the same sentence.

I look back now and I feel I missed signs, and I will carry that with me for the rest of my life. I took my eye off the ball.

People say it sounds like I am blaming myself but I am just being realistic.

So I guess my advice is just for people to reach out  and for others to be aware of the signs, not ignoring them, and not being afraid to have difficult conversations. Bring it up  be open, honest and supportive.

We want to quash the stigma.

Mr Palmer, from Sale in Greater Manchester, said they were absolutely overwhelmed by the reaction to their first walk, having set themselves a modest target to raise around 10,000.

They eventually earned nearly 900,000 in sponsorship, thanks in part to donations from the likes of film stars Ms Kidman and Mr Craig, and hope their next challenge will take them past the 1 million milestone.

They were joined along the route between their family homes in Cumbia, Greater Manchester and Norfolk by many bereaved parents keen to talk about their own experiences.

We needed to do something positive, Mr Palmer said.

We had no idea that it would take off like it did. But it shows you what is going on in the world.

People are affected by mental health and suicide and they dont feel comfortable talking about it, but hopefully the stigma is being broken down bit by bit.

People with just heart-breaking stories came to find us on the route because they said they had not been able to speak about their bereavement properly before; for some this was going back decades, others had lost someone a couple of weeks earlier.

The fundraisers, who did not know each other before being bereaved, said they want the school curriculum to include compulsory age-appropriate lessons on suicide awareness, in an attempt to encourage children to talk about their emotions and reach out.

The three men will visit Stormont in Belfast on September 9 as a prelude to starting their walk from Holyrood in Edinburgh on September 10, World Suicide Prevention Day.

They will then head down to the Senedd in Cardiff, before completing their trek to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster on October 10, World Mental Health Day.

They have been offered free accommodation by bereaved families, supporters and businesses along the route, and will be joined by a support team throughout.

Mr Palmer said: We are three ordinary old dads, probably not in the best nick, which is why we are walking and not running the route.

Losing Beth nearly destroyed me, but this is giving me a purpose.

We had some sore feet, but there was never a day when we woke up and thought Oh god, not this again.

We wanted to walk, to speak with people, raise awareness and a bit of money.

Ged Flynn, chief executive of suicide prevention charity Papyrus, praised the trio for channelling their energy to help save young lives.

He said: They have already helped to start conversations in homes where families were unwilling to discuss suicide.

It is remarkable that these proud fathers, who are each trying to deal with their own grief in their own way, have found a positive path forward together.

Details of the charity walk are available at https://www.3dadswalking.uk/

 For practical, confidential suicide prevention help and advice contact Papyrus HopelineUK on 0800 068 4141, text 07860 039967, or email pat@papyrus-uk.org
Turmoil in Westminster politics underlines the need for the restoration of powersharing in Northern Ireland, a Stormont minister has said.

Justice Minister Naomi Long said the absence of devolved institutions and the political uncertainty in the rest of the UK was the worst of both worlds for the region.

Powersharing in Northern Ireland is in limbo after the DUP blocked the formation of a devolved executive following Mays election in protest at the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Unionists and loyalists are enraged at trade arrangements that have resulted in new checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and have demanded that the UK Government introduce changes.

A contentious Bill that would empower ministers to override aspects of the arrangements is currently moving through its stages at Westminster as the Conservative Party are voting for a new leader and Prime Minister.

Asked what the political uncertainty at Westminster meant for Northern Ireland, Mrs Long said: I dont think we need to be a priority at Westminster, we need to be a priority here.

Locally elected politicians need to get back into the chamber and back around the Executive table, we can make those choices for ourselves. We dont need Westminster to hand-hold us.

I am not going to off-load our problems onto Westminster.

Referring to the DUP, Mrs Long added: I think those who are reliant on Westminster to solve all our problems and who are hanging all of their hopes on that particular route may well find themselves frustrated and disappointed.

Irrespective of the protocol and irrespective of what happens in the UK Government and irrespective of the turmoil that we are seeing at Westminster, or even because of those things, it is all the more important that we have functioning devolved Government here in Northern Ireland.

The idea that we are in a situation where we have no devolution and turmoil at Westminster, so no oversight there either, to me is the worst of both worlds for the people that we represent.

The sooner we have a functioning Assembly and Executive, the better I think for everyone.

Mrs Long is also the leader of the cross-community Alliance Party which emerged as the third largest party after this years Stormont elections.

She has suggested that the right to nominate a first or deputy first minister should pass to the next largest group if a political party refuses to participate.

The party is also proposing restricting the use of petitions of concern, where Assembly votes have to be conducted on a cross-community basis.
South Korea's KF-21 Boramae stealth fighter is the newest member of the 5th generation club that includes the US, China, and Russia. It looks stealthy but can its specifications equal characteristics as good as the J-20, F-35, or the Su-57 Felon.

Stealth Fighter's First flight

The Korea Aerospace Industries stealth fighter took its first flight on July 19. It represented a significant milestone for South Korea's defense sector and made it the first country other than China, Russia, or the United States to accomplish such a feat, reported Military Watch Magazine.

KF-21 is anticipated to be the first fifth-generation fighter developed outside of the three industry leaders. While current versions carry their weapons externally, restricting stealth technology and deterring them from being considered "fifth generation," future Block 2 variants might carry their weapons from within, classifying them as fifth-generation jets.

Internal weapon carriage is essential to improving stealth capabilities and lowering radar cross-section. The KF-21 Boramae Stealth Fighter excels against opponents such as the Russian Su-35, French Rafale, and pan-European Eurofighter, all of which are 4+ generation designs and are presently the only fighter in the world with the ability to convert between the fourth and fifth generations.

One noticeable drawback is that the aircraft's engines rely on the American F404, which, though providing affordable operational and maintenance expenses and cutting production costs, are significantly less potent than the sophisticated engines propelling rival fifth-generation designs.

It will go into production in 2026, with 40 planes delivered in two years and 120 planes produced by 2032.

Read also: Xi Jinping Net Worth 2022: How Wealthy Is China's President

The South Korean Air Force's size enables it to acquire many fighters from significant programmers, rendering the KF-21 viable despite the lack of export breakthroughs.

South Korean Air Force

The F-5E/F and F-16C/D, The first and second most extensively fielded aircraft in the Korean fleet, will likely be replaced by the KF-21. Another fifth-generation fighter replaces the third-generation F-4E Phantoms, the F-35, bought from the United States.

South Korea will be one of the few countries in the world to operate two distinct fifth-generation fighter classes, with the KF-21 expected to have better flight characteristics, lower maintenance requirements, and access to more powerful weaponry than the F-35 despite being less stealthy.

The South Korean stealth fighter can potentially make South Korea the world's largest operator of stealth fighters outside of China and the United States, with Russia's rival aircraft being procured in small numbers and European programmers for post-fourth generation fighter development lagging far behind.

South Korea and Russia appear to be the only powers ready to transition into the fifth generation by employing indigenous fighters. China and the United States fight in a league of their own to build more capable sixth-generation fighters.

KF-21 Boramae Stealth Fighter has made its first flight and has made shockwaves in the 5th generation to 4.5- generation; there is a lot to do before its performance is known.

Related Article: Indian, Japanese Next Generation Fighters To Challenge the J-20 Mighty Dragon in the Indo-Pacific

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Health Minister Robin Swann has warned that he does not want to go back to the 2019 situation in which Northern Ireland health workers went on strike over pay.

It came as Mr Swann said pay increases recommended for health workers in Northern Ireland could not be implemented without an agreed Stormont budget.

The Health Minister said he had accepted the recommendations made by pay review bodies but was unable to move forward with them.

He said the situation now reminded him of December 2019, during the last Stormont suspension, when nurses took industrial action over pay.

On Tuesday, an independent review body recommended that health service staff should be awarded a pay increase of 1,400 for 2022/23.

There is a separate recommendation of a 4.5% increase for doctors and dentists.

Health unions have already signalled their discontent over the offers.

The DUP has blocked the formation of a powersharing Executive as part of its protest against Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol.

The Health Minister has said he will accept the recommendations made by the pay review bodies for HSC Agenda for Change and Medical and Dental workforces but is unable to move forward without an agreed budget.  https://t.co/GLYMczV4tC pic.twitter.com/S81E5Xlzrg  Department of Health (@healthdpt) July 20, 2022

A planned multi-year budget which would have prioritised spending in health has not been progressed due to the collapse of the powersharing institutions.

Ministers remain in position in caretaker roles but are operating with limited powers.

Mr Swann said he had accepted the recommendations of pay awards by the NHS Pay Review Body and Review Body on Doctors and Dentists Remuneration.

Speaking at Stormont, he said: I have accepted the recommendations that have been made by both of our independent bodies in regard to where we need to be.

There is an Executive commitment for our health workers for pay parity with their colleagues in England and Wales.

My biggest problem, and we are almost back to where we were in December 2019, January 2020, is that unlike my colleagues in other parts of the United Kingdom I am unable to announce the immediate implementation of those pay awards because in Northern Ireland we still dont have an agreed Executive budget and until we get to that point we cant move forward.

Mr Swann added: I issued a statement to all MLAs at the beginning of last month warning and cautioning about where we were going in regards to health and the implications that would have with regards to that continuing budgetary uncertainty.

Unfortunately that is where we now are specifically with the recommendations with regards to the increase in pay.

We have been here before unfortunately, in December 2019 to January 2020 without a functioning Executive, without a functioning Assembly.

Then we actually saw our health workers take to the picket lines.

I dont want to go back to there, so I think there is an onus now on all politicians to get round the table and to get the negotiations in place to get this place functioning.

Mr Swann added: Equally, I welcome and support the recent letter from the three devolved finance ministers asking the Chancellor to increase budgets to address pay and other pressures, including in the health service.

Earlier this week, Stormont Finance Minister Conor Murphy joined with his counterparts in Wales and Scotland to call on Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi to develop a fair approach to public sector pay and ask for an increase in devolved budgets to deal with emerging pressures, including in the health service.

DUP MLA Pam Cameron said it was clear the Health Minister would require additional support to fund the pay recommendation for health staff.

She said: The Government should move quickly to allocate additional resources and we will continue to make the case for Westminster to provide adequate funding as well as for a future local executive to tackle waiting lists and reform our health system.

In order to have a solid foundation for successful devolution those issues that have eroded confidence need to be dealt with once and for all.

It is a further welcome development that the NI Protocol will now complete its Commons stages before the Westminster summer recess.
TOKYO, Japan, July 20, 2022  Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the completion of the acquisition of Reality Analytics, Inc. (Reality AI), a leading provider of embedded AI solutions, as of July 19, 2022, following Reality AI shareholders and required regulatory approval.

Headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, U.S., Reality AI offers a wide range of embedded AI and Tiny Machine Learning (TinyML) solutions for advanced non-visual sensing in automotive, industrial and commercial products. Combining Reality AIs best-in-class AI inference technologies with Renesas extensive MCU and MPU product portfolios will enable seamless implementation of machine learning and signal processing. The acquisition will allow Renesas to expand its tool suite and software offerings for AI applications and increase its in-house capability to provide highly optimized endpoint solutions that combine both hardware and software.

Renesas will continue to accelerate the delivery of end-point intelligence in a vast array of IIoT (Industrial IoT), consumer and automotive applications. Renesas MCU/MPU platforms with machine-learning algorithms will significantly enhance system development, providing customers with unmatched developer experience to make their applications AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) ready and help them get to market faster.

With the completion of the acquisition, Reality AI has become an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Renesas. Renesas now possesses Reality AI's team of AI experts and an AIoT R&D center-of-excellence in Maryland, U.S. As a leading provider of AIoT solutions, Renesas will continue to meet the needs of customers seeking to implement AI solutions with the expanded global talent network of software engineers.

About Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) empowers a safer, smarter and more sustainable future where technology helps make our lives easier. A leading global provider of microcontrollers, Renesas combines our expertise in embedded processing, analog, power and connectivity to deliver complete semiconductor solutions. These Winning Combinations accelerate time to market for automotive, industrial, infrastructure and IoT applications, enabling billions of connected, intelligent devices that enhance the way people work and live. Learn more at renesas.com.






Parametrix

Willis

Grandstrom

Craig Grandstrom, PE, has joined Parametrix as a senior consultant based in Seattle. He has over 20 years of experience providing transportation and transit engineering and planning services to municipalities and agencies throughout the Puget Sound region. Grandstrom joins Parametrix from Jacobs Engineering where he served as a senior transportation manager. His experience includes bus and light rapid transit, multi-modal corridor studies and design, highway and interchange studies, traffic analysis and forecasting, and providing guidance on Federal Transit Administration-funded projects. He has worked with clients such as Sound Transit, the City of Seattle, King County Metro, and the Washington State Department of Transportation.

At Parametrix he joins the firm's transportation team providing engineering and planning services to clients throughout the Puget Sound region.

Parametrix has also selected John Willis, PE, as president, transitioning into the chief executive officer role in early 2023. Willis is succeeding the current CEO, Jeff Peacock, PE, who has served in the capacity since 2008. Willis joined Parametrix in 2017 and has served as the senior vice president overseeing the operations in Oregon and Southwest Washington prior to being appointed as president. Under his leadership, the Oregon and Southwest Washington regions of the firm have grown significantly. He has over 25 years of experience in the A&E industry in a variety of leadership roles and has managed some of the region's most significant infrastructure projects including the Interstate Bridge Replacement, TriMet's Portland to Milwaukie Light Rail, and the Dreamlifter Operations Center for Boeing.




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By ADAM BEAM

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California  After putting off routine health care for much of the pandemic, Americans are now returning to doctors offices in big numbers  a trend thats starting to show up in higher insurance rates across the country.

Health insurers in individual marketplaces across 13 states and Washington D.C. will raise rates an average of 10% next year, according to a review of rate filings by the Kaiser Family Foundation.





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Work begins on $376M link to Port of Tacoma



Journal Construction Editor By BENJAMIN MINNICK Journal Construction Editor

Images from WSDOT [enlarge] Atkinson last year opened the new Wapato Way East Bridge and a roundabout connecting to SR 99.





The Washington State Department of Transportation earlier this month broke ground on a segment of an important new freight connection between state Route 167 and the Port of Tacoma. Next week, motorists will begin to feel some impact from that as crews from Guy F. Atkinson Construction mobilize on the next stage of the $1 billion SR 167 Completion Project.

Atkinson will set up its work zone for the project along Interstate 5 between Wapato Way East and Porter Way in Fife. This will require closing four of the five northbound lanes of I-5 from 7 p.m. on Monday to 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Crews will also close the 54th Avenue East northbound on-ramp at 10 p.m. Monday and reopen it at the same time as the northbound lanes.

Next, Atkinson will repeat this work on southbound I-5, closing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and reopening by 6 a.m. Wednesday. Both closures will involve temporary lane striping on I-5.

Atkinson was awarded a $376 million design-build contract earlier this year for the new 2-mile expressway between I-5 in Fife and state Route 509 near the Port of Tacoma. Atkinson was shortlisted for the job along with Graham Contracting and Kiewit Infrastructure West.

[enlarge] The new four-lane expressway will be electronically tolled at two points. It will connect SR 167 in Puyallup to SR 509 in Fife.





A big part of Atkinson's work involves construction of a diverging diamond interchange over I-5 and state Route 99 in Fife. This eventually will connect to a future 4-mile extension of state Route 167 from Puyallup, which will be the third and final segment of the SR 167 Completion Project. That final segment is now being designed.

The diverging diamond interchange will be built where the now-closed 70th Avenue East Bridge spans I-5. Atkinson will have to remove this bridge first. There was no word on when this will happen.

Atkinson's contract includes rerouting Hylebos Creek to improve flooding during storms that can reach I-5.

Motorists and truckers won't be the only ones that will benefit from this project. Bicyclists and pedestrians will be able to use a new shared-use path that will run parallel to the new expressway. The project also will restore about 150 acres, including wetlands and streams, to improve fish runs and encourage the return of wildlife to the area.

Atkinson's current contract is expected to wrap up in fall 2026.

Atkinson also built the SR 167 Completion Project's initial stage, which included a new four-lane bridge over I-5 carrying Wapato Way East. This bridge replaced the old two-lane 70th Avenue East Bridge, which was closed to vehicles last summer.

Route 167 will be tolled using automated systems. Rates will be determined closer to project completion, with fares likely higher during peak periods.

The SR 167 Completion Project is part of the $2.38 billion Puget Sound Gateway Program, which also extends state Route 509 in King County. Funding for the program includes $2 billion from Connecting Washington, $180 million in future tolls, $130 million in local contributions and a $74 million federal INFRA grant.





Benjamin Minnick can be reached by email or by phone at (206) 622-8272.




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Photo by Rise Properties Trust [enlarge] The apartments were developed in two phases, west to east, during the late 1980s.





The Park South apartment complex, at 10102 Eighth Ave. S., recently sold for a bit over $78.2 million, according to King County records. The seller, via three LLCs, was Jackson Square Properties of San Francisco, which acquired the property in 2014 for over $29.7 million.





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SEATTLE  The corner site of long-dormant apartment project, at 9510 Stone Ave. N., sold last month for $3.2 million, according to King County records.

The seller was Oriental Development LLC, which acquired the property in 2016 for over $2.3 million. It now has a small old tear-down building on a 15,095-square-foot lot.





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SEATTLE  The Dolores, at 3818 S. Edmunds St., sold last month for a bit over $3 million, according to King County records.

The seller was The Dolores Apartments LLC, which acquired the property in 2011 for about $1.2 million.





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BOTHELL  A commercial property at 10027 Main St. in Bothell sold last month for $3.1 million, according to King County records.

The seller was Limestone Court of Bellevue LLC, which acquired the property in 2016 for $1.5 million.





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YouTube is expanding its e-commerce feature.

The video sharing company has released new additional shopping features that would benefit both the viewers and the creators.

At the same time, YouTube is also partnered with the ecommerce platform Shopify. Creators who meet the requirements can now connect their Shopify stores to their respective YouTube channels as they partner.

The company's partnership with Shopify will enable content creators and online retailers to promote their products.

YouTube Shopping Features

YouTube has announced a few new features to improve its shopping features and options on the platform.

According to TechCrunch, YouTube rolled out a new shopping feature in its platform's Explore tab. The new shopping page will provide viewers in these countries with relevant shoppable content that can be accessed on their devices.

For now, this feature will only be made available to viewers in selected countries, such as Brazil, India, and the United States.

Although the company stated that the feature would be available in various countries by the end of the year,

Another YouTube shopping feature is the new option to access live shopping. All eligible YouTube creators can now have the option to add products to a live stream directly from the Live Control Room.

Furthermore, the video sharing platform is adding more tools in the YouTube Studio's "Shopping." The company aims to release features that would allow the creators to manage how their products are tagged and how they appear on their own channel.

YouTube stated that they are well aware of the time and effort that creators have invested in releasing their own products.

With that, the company wants to help these creators by launching tools that will help them manage their brands on the platform and showcase their products directly to their subscribers.

Also, by doing this, YouTube provides a better user experience for both the creators and the viewers.

Read Also: 'Stranger Things' Causes Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' to Surpass 100 Millions, Earn $2.3 in Revenue

YouTube and Shopify Shopping Tab

YouTube is taking its shopping features to the next level as it partners with Shopify.

Through this partnership, both companies hope to make it easier for YouTube content creators and merchants to showcase their products on their respective channels and in their videos.

Creators will have a tool to link their Shopify store and their YouTube channel. With this partnership, creators will have the ability to take advantage of Shopify's real-time inventory syncing feature.

This will help merchants to assure that their products are not out of stock. Creators based in the United States can use Shopify to enable onsite checkout, allowing customers to complete their purchases without having to leave YouTube.

According to Variety, VP of shopping product at YouTube, David Katz, stated that, "creators spend a lot of time building a business and developing their products, so we want to make it even easier for them to connect and manage their stores on YouTube and bring their products directly to their audience."

Shopify has entered into this partnership in an effort to utilize the increasing number of content creators who are opening their own online shops.

Additionally, VP of product at Shopify, Kaz Nejatian, stated, "We believe creators are the next generation of merchants, and YouTube has been a longtime leader in powering this new cohort of entrepreneurs."

Related Article: Instagram Users Can Now Do Their Shopping via DMs: Here's What You Have to Know
Netflix subscriber count is down by 1.3 million in the United States and Canada in the last three months or the second quarter of 2022.

The giant streaming service disclosed its latest subscription numbers in its recent earnings call.

But despite the dwindling number of Netflix subscriptions, it turns out that the actual figures are significantly smaller than the initial forecast of the streamer.

Netflix Subscription in the US, Canada

As per a news story by The Verge, the second quarter earnings report of Netflix shares a bleak reality for the streaming service. It has lost a whopping 1.28 million users in two massive markets, the US and Canada, from April to June.

It comes after the streaming service reported in the first quarter of 2022 that it lost its subscribers for the first time after its growth streak of more than a decade.

And as such, the streaming giant states that it now only has 73.28 million paid subscribers in the US and Canada.

Netflix Subscriber Count Globally

On top of that, Netflix is also shrinking its subscriber count on a global scale, wherein it lost roughly 1 million paying users in the last quarter.

So in total, the streaming firm shares that its subscribers globally are down to 220.67 million after it has shredded about a million in the last three months.

Netflix Subscription Forecast

However, despite the shrinking numbers of subscribers, the latest figures from the second quarter of the year are still better than what was initially predicted.

According to the latest report by Forbes, the shares of the streaming service surged on July 19, Tuesday, even if the tech giant confirms that it has lost more than a million customers.

The Verge reports that the projected subscribers lost in the second quarter were around 2 million globally. So it appears that the real-world numbers are significantly lower than what investors were expecting.

Meanwhile, Forbes notes that other analysts estimated that the giant subscription service is going to lose around 4 million paying users. However, the latest earnings report shows otherwise.

It is worth noting that Netflix debuted the highly anticipated season four of the phenomenal Stranger Things, which ended up being the most watched English show on the service.

Read Also: Is Netflix Considering Selling Its Original Shows to Other Networks

Ads on Netflix?

The top brass of Netflix is exerting maximum effort to turn around the downtrend of its users by introducing a cheaper tier and cracking down on its prevalent problem of password sharing.

The streamer says in its earnings call that an ad-supported plan might help with its growth moving forward.

Related Article: Netflix vs. Password Sharing: New Plan Charges Additional Homes in Latin America
Australia's ANZ to buy Suncorp's banking arm for $3.3 billion

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) on Monday announced the signing of an agreement to buy Sincorp Bank, the banking arm of insurer Suncorp Group, for A$4.9 billion ($3.33 billion), in a move that would accelerate the growth of its retail and commercial businesses while also expand its geographic presence in Australia.

The acquisition will boost ANZ's retail presence in a fast-growing domestic region and increase its assets in mortgages, the most lucrative business for Australian banks, by nearly a fifth, helping it to overtake National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB) for third spot in the business.

Acquisition includes $47 billion of home loans with strong risk profile, $45 billion in high-quality deposits and $11 billion in commercial loans.

The buyout, which is subject to regulatory approval, will boost ANZ's mortgage book by A$47 billion to A$307 billion.

The acquisition will be funded by a fully-underwritten 1 for 15 pro rata accelerated renounceable entitlement offer to raise ~$3.5 billion of ordinary equity and by existing capital.

Suncorp Bank will continue to be led by CEO Clive van Horen who will report to ANZs chief executive officer and join ANZs executive committee post completion.

Suncorp Bank will initially operate under its existing Authorised Deposit-taking Institution licence with no changes to the total number of Suncorp Bank branches in Queensland for at least three years from completion.

The acquisition is subject to a minimum completion period of 12 months and to certain conditions. Completion is expected in the second half of calendar year 2023.

ANZ has proposed allocation of A$15 billion of new lending as part of ANZs existing renewable lending commitments to support Queensland renewable projects and green Olympic Games infrastructure as well as $10 billion of new lending for energy projects particularly those targeting bioenergy and hydrogen over the next decade.

The acquisition of Suncorp Bank will be a cornerstone investment for ANZ and a vote of confidence in the future of Queensland, ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott said.

ANZ is committed to making a meaningful contribution to the economic and social prosperity of Queensland and todays announcement will see ANZ increase its presence, and we believe improve competition, in one of Australias most important regions, he added.

ANZ had previously expanded rapidly in Asia, which it has been unwinding over the past few years. ANZ, the smallest of Australia's major lenders seeks to revive growth at home after falling behind rivals.

It lags Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Westpac Banking Corp (WBC) and NAB by market value and some other metrics.
New enhanced rates for Irish organic farmers are due to come into effect in 2023.

The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett, today (Monday July 20) announced the new rates, which are subject to approval by the European Commission.

This is part of the ongoing discussions on approval of Irelands CAP Strategic Plan, and would apply from 1st January 2023.

Announcing the news, Minister Hackett said, "The budget proposed for this scheme under the next CAP is a five-fold increase on what was previously available. This is my commitment to growing and investing in the Irish organic sector.

"Feedback from the CAP consultative committee, the reconvened Organic Strategy forum and interested stakeholders has made it clear that enhanced payment rates are needed to support farmers converting to and maintaining organic farming."

She added: Organic farmers incur additional expenses on an annual basis such as attending training and constantly upskilling themselves in soil health and animal management.

"In recognition of these costs I am proposing an annual participation payment which will be 2000 in the first year of conversion and 1400/year thereafter. This will support farmers as we achieve the targets set out in the Programme for Government of farming 330,000 ha organically."

A payments calculator has also been developed to allow farmers to assess the value of converting to organic and the increased level of support the new payments will bring.

The minister noted: "I have engaged with stakeholders and industry and there is broad acceptance that the environmenal and socio-economic benefits of Organic farming are needed now more than ever.

"The new enhanced rates are reflective of my commitment to ensure that our Programme for Government target of 7.5% of farmland to be under organic production by the end of the CAP cycle of 2027, is achieved. I am confident that these new rates will entice in many new farmers to organic farming and I would encourage every farmer to consider it and be ready for when the new scheme opens this autumn.

The Agricultural Consultants Association President Noel Feeney also commented and said, "ACA welcome the very positive news on the increased payments for organics. ACA have commenced our National advisory training programme and in the forthcoming months our members will have significant contact with Irish farmers. The discussions and promotion of organics with our clients are greatly helped with this announcement and we look forward to assisting Minister Hackett and her officials with the sectoral objectives."

Teagasc Director Professor Frank OMara welcomed the news, stating, "Organic farming offers a viable farming option for many farmers around the country. Todays announcement will make it more attractive. Teagasc are increasing the staff resource allocated to the team providing organic advice, through the recruitment of a number of additional advisers and a specialist.

"This enhanced team will support existing organic farmers, those converting to organic, and those farmers considering the option in the future.
A complaint that the playing of Christmas hymn O Holy Night on RTE Radio One stigmatised non-Christians has been rejected by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI).

The BAO published its latest list of decisions on complaints, one of which raised the broadcast of the hymn on The Ronan Collins Show on 8 December 2021.

The complainant noted that lyrics in the hymn refers to people as pining in sin and error. The complainant said that accusations of sin and of error are "stigmas, grievous insults and egregious religious taunts that disparage persons and groups in society on the basis of religion".

The complaint summary states:



"The complainant states that repeated playing of this hymn damages the complainants good standing in society and condones discrimination against non-Christians."

"The complainant is of the view that the hymns lyrics which refer to a dear saviour having brought a new and glorious morn to some people stigmatises non-Christians."

"The complainant states that the lyric fall on your knees is disrespectful of human dignity because it is a posture of humiliation and to order someone to their knees is an abuse of power."

The summary concluded: The complainant believes that the broadcaster, by repeatedly playing this hymn, is actively condoning and sponsoring the lies, false promises, stigmatisation and abuse of power contained in the lyrics.

RTE Radio, in its response, said it does not accept that the broadcasting of O Holy Night constitutes stigmatisation of non-Christians, or that it is harmful or unduly offensive.

It said the hymn "is well embedded in popular culture", as evidenced by the "many artists from diverse genres who have recorded a version of it".

"The broadcaster notes that it is mindful of its responsibility to serve the interests and concerns of a diverse audience and that Christianity is a predominant part of Irish culture.

"The broadcaster notes that, in serving a diverse audience, there may be times when some content gives offence, but that offence is subjective and can vary from person to person."

The BAIs Executive Complaints Forum rejected the complaint on the grounds that it disagreed with the complainants claim that the hymn was offensive to non-Christians, and the constitutional right to freedom of expression.

"The Forum acknowledged the complainant found some of the lyrics insulting and offensive for non-Christians but found no basis to believe that the broadcast of this hymn would cause harm."

"The Forum was of the opinion that the broadcast of this hymn was in keeping with a programme of this nature and with audience expectations of the programme, particularly during the Christmas period. Considering the broadcast as a whole and in context, the Forum concluded the broadcast did not cause undue offence."

"The Forum noted that many different religions feature followers adopting supplicating poses, such as kneeling or bowing. As noted earlier, the Forum acknowledged that some non-Christians may be offended by the meaning of some of the hymns lyrics, but the Forum did not believe that any of the broadcast content could reasonably be regarded as stigmatising non-Christians or supporting or condoning discrimination against nonChristians".
Humanity's dream of exploring what the moon contains is being put on hold.

NASA recently announced it is delaying the launch of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative by a year to allow for further tests that would reduce the likelihood of the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) being damaged during transit.

NASA originally scheduled the delivery of the CLPS and VIPER to the moon in November 2013 to acquire information on the potential payloads that advance capabilities for various sectors.

CLPS - VIPER Launch Delay Details

NASA mentioned in its announcement that it is delaying the delivery of the two moon explorers to give Astrobotic of Pittsburgh more time to adjust VIPER'S delivery to the moon's south pole.

The robotics company requested NASA to delay the launch to gain more time to conduct further tests to reduce the overall risk of VIPER being damaged during its journey to the moon.

Astrobotics and NASA didn't provide further information about the delay on social media or in a news release, per Space.com.

Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said that NASA, through the CLPS initiative, has tasked US companies to perform a "very challenging technological feat," which is to successfully land and operate a rover on the moon.

Read More: Amazon Files Lawsuit Against 10,000 Facebook Admins For Fake Product Reviews

He also added that VIPER is the space agency's largest and most sophisticated science payload that would be delivered to the moon through CLPS and that it implemented enhanced lander testing for this delivery.

Simply put, Astrobotic will soon be undergoing a never-before-done technological feat, and it is willing to give more time and enhanced lander testing to make the delivery of NASA's largest and most sophisticated science payload a success.

This sentiment is evidenced by not only the additional one year but also NASA's granting of $67.8 million to Astrobotics through its CLPS contract to complete the additional NASA-mandated tests.

What Is The CLPS?

The CLPS initiative is an important component in NASA's Artemis lunar exploration plans. It involves ending the VIPER to the south pole of the moon to collect information that could help lay the foundation for human missions in and around the moon.

This foundation can be built using the data VIPER will collect, which could provide the reason to send payloads that advance capabilities for science, exploration or commercial development of the moon.

You may remember that the Artemis missions also involve building a base camp on the moon's surface and the Gateway in its orbit to allow robots and astronauts to explore the moon, Mars, and deep space, per NASA's official Artemis page.

To reach this end, NASA made seven task order awards to CLPS providers for lunar deliveries in the early 2020s. As such, there would be more deliveries similar to VIPERS' from then until 2028.

Due to NASA delaying VIPER's delivery, it is expected to reach the moon by November 2024.

Related Article: The James Webb Space Telescope Photo Shows Damage Done by a Micrometeoroid  How Bad is It?
Some Google Play apps are infiltrated with numerous malwares.

For those who are using an Android device all over the world, usually the Google Play Store will be the go-to location to download numerous apps of different kinds for different needs since it offers a wide plethora of options.

However, cybersecurity researchers from Zscaler, an IT security company, discovered that there are numerous malware families residing in the Play Store.

Zscaler's ThreatLabz found three malicious malware families in the Google Play apps. These malwares are named: Joker, Facestealer, and Coper.

Malwares Hidden on Google Play Apps

Security researchers in the field have uncovered three families of Android malware that have infiltrated and are spreading throughout the Google Play Store.

The group of malware is reported to be concealing its dangerous payloads among a large number of applications that appear to be harmless on the outside.

According to BleepingComputer, Android users who install these types of apps that contain malware will have a high possibility of being subjected to a variety of malicious cyberattacks.

These attacks might take form in different ways, such as data theft, the takeover of their social media accounts, the interception of their SMS communications, and the addition of exacerbated charges to their mobile numbers.

The malicious apps were swiftly deleted from the Google Play Store after the ThreatLabz team promptly informed the Google Android Security team of these newly found risks.

After Google was informed, the Google Android Security team took the necessary actions and subsequently removed all of those that had been reported.

The Joker Malware

The family of malware known as Joker is used to obtain data from devices that have been compromised. This data can include text messages, contact lists, and mobile numbers that can be subscribed to premium wireless application protocol (WAP) services.

There are over fifty distinct Joker apps that have been found on the Play Store by ThreatLabz. These applications have been downloaded more than 300,000 times. Some of these applications are categorized as:

Communication

Health

Personalization

Photography

Tools

According to data from Zscaler data, tools and communication apps were two of the most targeted types of apps. This accounts for the vast majority of programs infected by the Joker virus.

This seems reasonable for communication apps since they naturally demand users allow access to some rights and permissions.

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The Facestealer Malware

Facestealer is a malware that steals Facebook accounts from unsuspecting users by concealing bogus login forms over the real ones seen in reputable apps.

After the user's smartphone has been infected, they will be required to log in to Facebook in order to continue using the app. After a successful login, the malware creator takes the opportunity to steal the credentials as well as the auth tokens.

The investigators discovered one program that concealed a particular family of malware in its source code. On the Google Play Store, the app is named "cam.vanilla.snapp." It has been reportedly downloaded around 5,000 times.

Coper Malware

Another type of malware found on the Play Store is Coper. This malware is capable of stealing information from the device once it has been infected. It is capable of hacking a device's SMS text messaging, sending malicious text messages, and much more.

This malware was discovered to be prominent in Australia, South America, and Europe, as it disguises itself as a banking app in Google Play.

The result of these activities ultimately leads to attackers gaining information and access that they can leverage to steal money from victims. According to Zscaler, the app they found that contained this malware is named "Unicc QR Scanner".

Related Article: iPhone Users are Urged to Remove These 84 Scam Apps
A lone sailor was rescued in West Cork on Tuesday, by the RNLI, while taking part in a race.

The sailor was single-handedly managing a catamaran when his yacht capsized, around 70 miles off the coast of Baltimore.

Baltimore RNLI responded to the incident following a request from the Coast Guard.

The volunteer lifeboat crew launched their all-weather lifeboat at 5.50pm and they arrived at the casuality vessel at 9.08pm.

The sailor was on the upturned hull of the catamaran in which he had been racing in single handedly. The Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 117 was also on scene.

Due to the conditions at sea, the RNLI team, led by Coxswain Aidan Bushe, decided the best course of action was to launch their small inflatable Y-Boat from the all-weather lifeboat with two RNLI crew members on board.

Brendan Cottrell and Brian McSweeney were able to manoervre the Y-Boat alongside the casualty vessel to rescue the sailor from the upturned hull.

RNLI crew members assisted the sailor up on to the lifeboat from the Y-Boat and Rescue 117 winched the casualty from the lifeboat into the helicopter.

Baltimore RNLI crew members recovered their Y-Boat and the lifeboat made its way back to Baltimore, arriving back at the station at 1.30am.

There were seven volunteer crew onboard the lifeboat, Coxswain Aidan Bushe, Mechanic Nigel Kehoe and crew members Brendan Cottrell, Eoin Ryan, Brian McSweeney, Jim Griffiths and Emma Lupton.

Conditions at sea during the call were challenging with a north to north westerly force 6-7 wind and a 3 to 4m sea swell.

Speaking following the call out, Kate Callanan, Baltimore RNLI Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer said: "This is a great example of a joint-agency rescue working together under difficult conditions to save a life. We wish the sailor a speedy recovery and thank our colleagues in the Irish Coast Guard for all assistance provided during this callout. Please remember, if you get into difficulty at sea or on the coast, call 999 or 112 and ask for the Coast Guard."
Eimear Dodd

A man who carried out a spate of shop hold-ups over an eight-week period has been handed a six-and-a-half-year jail sentence.

In one raid on a city centre adult store Patrick Fahey (47) took 400 in cash, while in a hold up of a vintage clothes shop he left with fruit and a chocolate bar.

Fahey of Druid Court, Ballymun, Dublin, pleaded guilty to seven counts relating to robberies and attempted robberies which took place on dates between August 22nd, 2019 and October 15th, 2019 at various locations in Dublin.

He also pleaded guilty to robbery at Spar, Rathbourne on April 26th, 2021 and robbery at the St Vincent de Paul shop on Main Street, Finglas on September 30th, 2021.

Judge Martin Nolan imposed a total sentence of six and a half years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday.

He said the incidents were similar, involving robbery or attempted robbery. While there had been "no real violence", Judge Nolan said the victims would have been in fear during each incident.

Fahey has 18 previous convictions and has been on remand in relation to these charges since October 2021.

Hammer

The court heard a man, later identified from CCTV as Fahey, entered a shop on Dorset Street on August 22nd, 2019 with a hammer and told staff to open the till, stealing 30 in cash.

In another incident, Fahey and another man entered Soho adult shop on Capel Street on September 10th, 2019. Fahey jumped on the counter and took 400 from the till.

Fahey was also identified as one of two males who stole 350 from Londis on Nassau Street on October 5th, 2019.

On October 8th, 2019 Fahey was seen carrying a small knife when he entered a vintage clothes shop on Thomas Street, the court heard.

He asked for the money from the till and a female member of staff showed him the purse used to store cash was empty. Fahey left the store with a tote bag containing fruit and a chocolate bar.

The court heard six days later Fahey stole 700 cash and also caused 500 of damage to a cash register at a cafe.

Evidence was heard that staff at Spar Rathbourne were serving a customer when a man entered the shop on April 26th, 2019. The man, subsequently identified as Fahey, jumped over the counter and took a hammer from a bag.

He demanded money from the till and stole a till drawer containing between 200 and 300.

Identified himself

When questioned by gardai on separate occasions about the individual robberies, Fahey made full admissions and accepted his involvement. In some incidents, he identified himself from CCTV footage. He also apologised for his behaviour and expressed remorse.

Michael Hourigan BL, defending, said Fahey was extremely remorseful and had managed to stay out of trouble for 20 years before coming back on the gardai's radar due to these incidents, the majority of which occurred between August and October 2019.

He said the father of two found himself at the "bottom of the hole". Counsel said his client had a difficult family background and issues with drugs.

Mr Hourigan said Fahey had suffered an injury prior to this offending, and was taking opiates for this injury.

Judge Nolan said Fahey had previously shown that he could make changes and that the court hoped he could do so again. He backdated the sentences to October 3rd, 2021 when Fahey entered custody.
High Court reporters

The High Court has extended an injunction preventing an alleged former owner of lands in Co Wicklow earmarked for a data centre from trespassing on the property.

Mr Justice Tony O'Connor granted the order in favour of Fane Investments Limited restraining Mr Brian McDonagh, which it says is a former owner of lands it owns at Mount Kennedy, Kilpedder in Co Wicklow, from trespassing and interfering with the 82-acre property.

The judge also dismissed a separate pre-trial motion brought by Brian McDonagh and his brothers Maurice and Kenneth McDonagh against Fane, a related company called Quanta Capital Investments Ltd, and Mr Mel Sutcliffe who is a director of the firms, that also concerns the site.

The McDonaghs have sued those parties where they seek damages and various reliefs including an order requiring the defendants to specifically perform a 2017 agreement to enter into a 50-50 partnership.

Under that arrangement the brothers claim that the parties would develop a data centre on the lands through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).

However, they claim that the defendants failed to comply with their obligations under the agreement. The defendants deny the claims.

Represented by Frederick Gilligan Bl, instructed by solicitor Carrie McDermott of MDM Solicitors, the defendants claim that the agreement never became legally binding because the McDonaghs failed to perform certain conditions included in the proposed partnership deal.

Injunction

In their pretrial motion the brothers sought orders including an injunction preventing the defendants from marketing, leasing or disposing of the lands in question, pending the outcome of the full hearing of their claim.

In his submissions to the court seeking the injunction Brian McDonagh told the court that it was their cases that he and his brothers had been "cheated" by the defendants, and that they would suffer irreparable damage if the lands were sold before the dispute has been resolved.

Mr Gilligan said that the injunction against his clients should not be granted.

The court heard that the lands at the centre of the dispute are currently green fields used for grazing animals, planning permission for a data centre has been obtained for the site.

In his rulings on Wednesday Mr Justice O'Connor said he was not prepared to grant the orders sought as part of the McDonaghs' claim.

While he was not making any final determination in the matter, the judge said he was satisfied that damages would be an adequate remedy should the McDonaghs succeed in their action.

In its motion Fane, which says it acquired the lands from Ulster Bank in 2021, claimed that Mr Brian McDonagh, Drummin, Delgany, Co Wicklow, had been changing locks on the gates and have impeded Fane, and its agents from accessing the lands.

In June the High Court granted Fane a temporary injunction restraining Brian McDonagh from trespassing on or interfering with the lands.

Mr McDonagh opposed the application and denied any wrongdoing. He said that he had accessed the lands where his wife has kept two horses for some 15 years, and that they have grazing rights.

Ruling on Fane's motion the Judge said he was satisfied to continue the injunction Fane sought.

He was satisfied from the evidence that Brian McDonagh was not the owner of the lands, and at best had an interest in the property through an SPV.

Horses

In regard to the horses on the lands, which he said were innocent parties, the judge said the parties should make arrangements between themselves for their removal.

If nothing could be agreed, then the Judge said Fane had the court's permission to bring fresh proceedings seeking to have them removed from the lands.

The judge also made directions in respect of both actions and set out a timetable for the exchange of documents and pleadings in the disputes.

The judge said he was doing this with a view of having the matters before him resolved by the courts as soon as possible. The matter was adjourned by the judge to a date later this month

The court previously heard that the McDonagh brothers have been involved in lengthy proceedings concerning the lands with Ulster Bank and receivers it had appointed over the lands.
By Rebecca Black, PA

Victims of a series of bombs that exploded across Belfast claiming nine lives in 1972 have been remembered by Boris Johnson during his final Prime Minister Questions.

Speaking on Wednesday  the 40th anniversary of bomb attacks in Regents Park and Hyde Park in London  and looking ahead of the 50th anniversary of Bloody Friday on Thursday, Mr Johnson described the actions of the Provisional IRA as barbaric and shameful, bringing untold grief to countless families.

Our thoughts are with all those that lost loved ones during the Troubles, he said.

Boris Johnson speaks during Prime Ministers Questions (House of Commons/PA)

We as a Government remain determined to build a better, shared future for all the people of Northern Ireland.

More than 130 people were injured when the Provisional IRA exploded 22 bombs across the city in 80 minutes on July 21st, 1972

Two soldiers, Stephen Cooper, 19 and Philip Price, 27, and four Ulsterbus workers, Jackie Gibson, 45, Thomas Killops, 39, William Irvine, 18, and William Crothers, 15, were killed at Oxford Street bus station.

A mother of seven, Margaret OHare, 34, Brigid Murray, 65, and Stephen Parker, 14, died in a blast close to shops on the Cavehill Road.

The day has become known as Bloody Friday.

On July 20th, 1982, 11 military personnel died in two attacks which occurred within hours of each other in Regents Park and Hyde Park in London.

The aftermath of a car bomb blast near Hyde Park barracks (PA)

The 50th anniversary of Bloody Friday is set to be marked with events on Thursday

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie described the attacks as typical of the cruel and barbaric nature of the Provisional IRA, deliberately targeting innocent civilians to instil fear in the population.

He warned against attempts to whitewash the crimes of the IRA and rewrite the history of the Troubles.

The modern-day Sinn Fein leadership cannot lecture anyone about truth and justice as long as they venerate the perpetrators of crimes such as Bloody Friday, Hyde Park and Regents Park, and attempt to justify their actions, he said.

The families of the victims of the IRA murdered in those cowardly attacks deserve truth and justice.

The so-called republican movement holds the truth about many murders and maimings including those responsible for Bloody Friday, Hyde Park and Regents Park.

Victims of barbaric IRA atrocities on Bloody Friday in Belfast, and in Hyde Park and Regents Park in London deserve truth and justice



Doug Beattie MC MLA has paused to remember the victims of the IRA as we approach the 50th anniversary of Bloody Fridayhttps://t.co/KhV9chsDpj pic.twitter.com/aJLndpurj0  Ulster Unionist (@uuponline) July 20, 2022

They may want the world to forget about the crimes of the IRA and focus instead on the actions of the security forces, who were battling desperately to prevent even greater loss of life and prevent a full-scale civil war from breaking out, but they will not be allowed to succeed.

We pause to remember the innocent victims the IRA murdered on Bloody Friday, in Hyde Park and Regents Park, as they went about their daily business.

SDLP South Belfast MLA Matthew OToole said it was one of the darkest days of our troubled past.

For the families of those killed and those left with serious and life-changing injuries, the decades since Bloody Friday have been a nightmare, he said.

When events like this take place, the real number of victims is immeasurable. The events of that terrible day will have reverberations that have left many people suffering, behind closed doors and unseen.

While we can rightly be proud of how far weve come, Bloody Friday should stand as a reminder that we can never allow ourselves to slip back to the past.

The events that day were unjustified and unjustifiable, and remain a stain on our history.

TUV South Belfast spokesperson Andrew Girvin described Bloody Friday as a reminder of both the brutal legacy of Republican terrorism and true heroism of ordinary people in the face of terrorism.

He particularly highlighted how Stephen Parker warned others of the bomb he spotted before he died.

The 14-year-old was posthumously awarded the Queens Commendation for Bravery after he tried to warn people about a device he spotted in a car outside a row of shops on Cavehill Road, he said.

At a time when there are strenuous attempts to rewrite the past and lionise men of violence it is all the more important that true heroes like Stephen Parker are remembered.
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

If you were to dive 148 feet below the oceans surface  into the twilight mesophotic zone  you would see corals glowing green or orange around their mouths or on the ends of their tentacles.

Scientists have long known that corals glow fluorescent in the deep, but, until recently, they didnt know why. Now, a new study published in Communications Biology last month has an answer: to attract prey.

The study proves that the glowing and colorful appearance of corals can act as a lure to attract swimming plankton to ground-dwelling predators, such as corals, and especially in habitats where corals require other energy sources in addition or as a substitute for photosynthesis (sugar production by symbiotic algae inside the coral tissue using light energy), study co-author and research supervisor Professor Yossi Loya from the School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University said in a press release.

Biofluorescence is the ability of living organisms to give off light after absorbing energy in some way, The Times of Israel explained. It differs from bioluminescence, which is a glow created by a reaction between an enzyme like luciferase and a molecule that releases light. However, the two properties can have similar purposes such as attracting prey or mates or camouflaging from predators.

Fluorescence in corals is well documented, but mysterious. Scientists have developed various hypotheses to explain the phenomenon, according to ScienceAlert. These include the sunscreen hypothesis that the fluorescence helps protect corals from heat or light after bleaching and the suggestion that the fluorescence aids photosynthesis. But when researchers tested these hypotheses on the corals that live between 98 and 492 feet below sea level, they found no evidence to support either.

[C]oral fluorescence in deeper habitats creates a gap in our understanding of the widespread phenomenon, the study authors wrote.

The University of Tel Aviv-led research team, with help from the Steinhardt museum of Natural history and the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat, suspected that the corals might be using their glowing abilities to lure prey, as the press release explained. To test this, they conducted the study in three steps.

First, they tested in the lab whether common coral prey were attracted to fluorescence. They used the crustacean Artemia salina and found that it preferred a green or orange fluorescent target to a clear target. When presented with two clear targets, the animal showed no preference. The results were the same with a different Red Sea crustacean, but fishwhich are not known coral preystayed away from the fluorescent targets.

Next, the researchers tested the plankton at a depth of around 40 meters (approximately 131 feet), which is the corals natural habitat. In this environment, the creatures were also more attracted to green or orange fluorescent traps, which caught twice as many of them as the clear traps.

Finally, the researchers gathered corals from 45 meters (approximately 148 feet) in the Gulf of Eilat in the Red Sea. They found that the corals displaying green fluorescence caught 25 percent more prey than corals displaying yellow fluorescence.

Despite the gaps in the existing knowledge regarding the visual perception of fluorescence signals by plankton, the current study presents experimental evidence for the prey-luring role of fluorescence in corals, study leader Dr. Or Ben-Zvi of Tel Aviv University said in the press release. We suggest that this hypothesis, which we term the light trap hypothesis, may also apply to other fluorescent organisms in the sea, and that this phenomenon may play a greater role in marine ecosystems than previously thought.

The research findings come as coralsincluding deep reef coralsare under a myriad of threats. Deep corals in particular are vulnerable to bottom-trawl fishing, offshore oil and gas production, the possibility of deep sea mining and the climate crisis, as Sandra Brooke of Florida State University wrote in The Conversation.

Ocean currents circulate around the planet, transporting warm surface waters into the deep sea. Warming temperatures could drive corals deeper, but deep waters are naturally higher in carbon dioxide than surface waters. As their waters become more acidified, deep-sea corals will be restricted to an increasingly narrow band of optimal conditions, Brooke wrote.
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

The UK has recorded a temperature higher than 40 degrees for the first time.

A thermometer at Heathrow Airport picked up a provisional reading of 40.2 degrees Celsius at 12:50 p.m. Tuesday, the Met Office reported, potentially breaking the previous record of 38.7 degrees Celsius set in 2019. The 12:50 p.m. record broke another record set earlier the same day of 39.1 degrees Celsius at Charlwood in Surrey, The Guardian reported.

This record temperature is a harbinger of things to come, Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics said, as The Associated Press reported. The increase in the frequency and intensity of heat waves and other extreme weather events is the result of climate change, and these impacts will continue to grow.

 For the first time ever, 40 Celsius has provisionally been exceeded in the UK



London Heathrow reported a temperature of 40.2C at 12:50 today



 Temperatures are still climbing in many places, so remember to stay #WeatherAware #heatwave #heatwave2022 pic.twitter.com/GLxcR6gjZX  Met Office (@metoffice) July 19, 2022

Its possible that the final record will be even higher. At the end of the day on Tuesday, the Met Office tweeted that at least 34 sites across the country had breached the 2019 record and that the village of Coningsby in England had recorded a provisional temperature of 40.3 degrees Celsius.

Here are the highest temperatures across the country today 



At least 34 sites have exceeded the UK's previous national record of 38.7C #heatwave2022 #heatwave pic.twitter.com/QwwfzLWZpc  Met Office (@metoffice) July 19, 2022

Other records set include the hottest night on record Monday night and the highest minimum temperature in a 24 hour period, The Guardian reported. Scotland provisionally broke its heat record Tuesday with a temperature of 34.8 degrees Celsius in Charterhall, according to the Met Office.

 Charterhall in the Scottish Borders has provisionally set a new maximum temperature record for #Scotland today



 The temperature rose to 34.8C earlier this afternoon, exceeding the previous record of 32.9C recorded in Greycrook on 9th August 2003#heatwave #heatwave2022 pic.twitter.com/hZXMvOIRGA  Met Office (@metoffice) July 19, 2022

The record comes as a deadly heat wave continues to bake the UK and the rest of the European continent. At least six people have died in the UK trying to cool themselves in bodies of water while almost 750 people have died due to the heat in Spain and Portugal, The Associated Press reported. In France, a wildfire that ignited in the Gironde region July 12 has consumed more than 70 square miles and forced nearly 40,000 people to flee their homes.

Fires have sparked in the UK as well, where England and Wales have recorded at least 24 wildfires since Sunday, which is double the total for all of last July, The Independent reported.

Everything is just tinder dry right across the country, wildfire lead for the National Fire Chiefs Council Paul Hedley told The Independent. Its certainly a lot more than[] well be expecting to get on a daily basis.

In Kent, meanwhile, the villages of Challock and Molash lost water on Saturday through a one-two punch of excessive demand and a power outage at a water treatment center, The Guardian reported.

Water companies are seeing unprecedented peak demand for water during this extreme hot weather event. We are urging everyone to carefully consider the amount of water they are using at this time, a Water UK spokesperson said, as The Guardian reported.

Britain is expected to see some relief as temperatures return to a more usual summer range during the rest of the week, the Met Office predicted. However, the high heat is itself a sign of the climate crisis and could signal the weather of the future. A recent Met Office study found that the chances of a 40 degree day like Tuesday could be around 10 times higher than they would be if fossil fuels had never been burned en masse, warming the climate. Such a day is currently a 100-to 300-year event, but could become a one-in-15-year event by 2100 even if current emission-reduction goals are met. If nothing is done to reduce emissions, then the country could see 40-degree-Celsius temperatures every 3.5 years by 2100.

This is not the new normal, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg said in response to the European heat wave. The climate crisis will continue to escalate and get worse as long as we stick our heads in the sand and prioritise profit and greed over people and planet. We are still sleepwalking towards the edge.
Netflix is expanding its animation team and to move further, the streaming platform acquired the Australian animation studio Animal Logic.

Animal Logic is responsible for the films "Happy Feet," "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole," "The Lego Movies" and "Peter Rabbit."

Last year, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that the company is strengthening its animation unit with the "hope to compete against Disney in family animation," according to Deadline.

Netflix's animation films includes "Over the Moon," Academy Award-nominated "Klaus" and the recently released "The Sea Beast."

Netflix's Aims to Build World-Class Animation Studio

Animal Logic is located in Sydney, Australia, and for over 30 years, the studio has been producing design, visual effects and animation. In 2015, it put up a second studio in Vancouver, Canada.

Netflix already partnered with Animal Logic on "The Magician's Elephant," which is set for a 2023 release. The two companies are also working on "The Shrinking of Treehorn," a film by Ron Howard.

"Netflix has been investing in animation over the past few years and this furthers our commitment to building a world-class animation studio," said Amy Reinhard, Netflix Vice President of Studio Operations.

Reinhard added that Animal Logic, as a leading animation studio with innovative technology, will help strengthen Netflix's existing business. The animation studio will also increase the streaming platform's long-term capacity in the animation space.

The animation studio is run by CEO Zareh Nalbandian. Accordingly, its teams will keep on operating under its existing brand.

Nalbandian said that after 30 years of producing great animation, partnering with Netflix is the "perfect next chapter" for Animal Logic.

She added that the company's values and aspirations are aligned with Netflix as both companies believe in working with "diverse content makers, producing innovative and engaging stories for audiences around the world."

Read Also: 7 Best Horror Movies on Netflix You Can Watch in 2022

Netflix Strengthens its Animation Team

The acquisition of Animal Logic put Netflix in an advantageous position to compete against Disney+ and the family-friendly animated films that it produced.

Strengthening the Netflix animation team is the company's means to improve the buildout of its "end-to-end animation production capabilities."

In April, Netflix announced that it will have an upcoming series based on the "Exploding Kittens" card game.

Unfortunately, the company stopped the production of some animated projects in May, such as "Wings of Fire," "Antiracist Baby," "With Kind Regards from Kindergarten" and Meghan Markle's "Pearl".

However, the two companies continue with the production of the "The Magician's Elephant." It is based on two-time Newbery Award winning author Kate DiCamillo's classic novel.

The film follows the story of Peter, who crosses paths with a fortune teller while searching for his long lost sister. He is then set on an journey looking for a mysterious elephant and the magician.

Another film that Netflix and Animal Logic are working on is "The Shrinking of the Treehorn." It is an animated musical film set in New York City during the holidays, directed by Howard and written by Rob Lieber.

Netflix's acquisition of Animal Logic is still subjected to regulatory approvals. It is expected to close later this year, according to Tech Crunch.

Netflix is quiet on the acquisition price for Animal Logic but said it will be funded by the cash on hand.

Related Article: Netflix Issues Extra Charges for Password Sharing Beyond Household
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

A library at the top of one of Londons oldest skyscrapers; the rainforest, mountains and coastline of Peru; a Canadian island in the Labrador Current.

All of these are weather stations, but they wont necessarily be reporting temperature changes or barometric pressure. Instead, they are among the 28 international locations from which writers and artists will work to make sense of the climate crisis as part of a first-of-its kind collaboration called the World Weather Network.

We want to see what happens when artists and writers start to use their imagination and lateral kind of abilities to think through something which is difficult to think about, project organizer Michael Morris of Artangel in the UK told EcoWatch.

The World Weather Network

The World Weather Network is a coalition of 28 arts organizations from the Philippines to Nigeria to Utah that believe artists and writers should be a larger part of the dialogue surrounding climate change. The idea is that the creative team at each weather station will both conduct local programming on the ground and post weather reports on the network website over the course of the year.

The website and programming launched on the summer solstice and will continue until June 2023. Early weather reports included a livestream of the sunrise on the longest day of the year from Enoura Observatory in Japan by famed photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto and audio and visual recordings by the Breath of Weather Collective from wind harps placed at eight locations in the Pacific and Aotearoa/ New Zealand that are vulnerable to climate change.

Morris said the weather motif was chosen because it has been a subject of art and literature throughout history.

Piers Plowman is all about the weather, Beowulf is all about the weather, he said.

But the rise in heat waves and other unusual or extreme events because of the human burning of fossil fuels has forced us to see weather in a new way.

In recent years, those inspirations of the pastwhich are to do with how the weather makes us feel, what the weather does to ushave really been replaced by a concern about what were doing to the weather, Morris said. Theres been  an inhibition to really relate to the weather were experiencing now, the extreme weather in many parts of the world, and artists and writers are somehow keeping away from it.

The purpose of the World Weather Network is to invite them in, and, so far, it seems to have succeeded. New York-based artist Liam Gillick, who designed a weather station on Fogo Island, Canada, told EcoWatch in an email that he was drawn to the project because it brought so many people and organizations together.

It is truly global and offers the chance to access an enormous variety of original approaches through one portal, he said. Thats never been done before as far as I know. Certainly nothing on this scale.

Participating artist Luz Maria Bedoya of Peru agreed.

I decided to participate in the WWN because it is an opportunity to work together, despite the fact that we are in different and distant places, and to generate the strength that the network can produce when we are gathered around the same key issue of today, the climate crisis, Bedoya said in an email.

The project is climate-friendly in execution as well as theme.

One of the other things about this project is that its a huge international collaboration that hasnt involved any flying around the world at all, Morris told EcoWatch.

It grew out of digital conversations during the coronavirus lockdown, and Morris said he wasnt sure if the project would exist in its current form without the pandemic. Perhaps because of the projects virtual evolution, it is important for the organizers that the weather reports posted to the website arent mere reproductions of whats happening in situ, but rather specifically tailored for what online art can do.

[O]ne of the things that each partner is having to grapple with is that theyre doing two things, Morris said. Theyre putting on something locally, which is physical and can be visited, and theyre also thinking of how that would be best manifested on a digital platform.

Weather Station: London, UK

Senate House Library, London. Commissioned by Artangel  Photography by Francesco Russo

Artangel has commissioned two London-based projects that exemplify the difference between the place-based and online offerings. The first is a sound installation called A Thousand Words for Weather that launched on the solstice in Londons Senate House Library, an iconic Art Deco building completed in the 1930s that is considered one of Londons first skyscrapers.

Taiwanese-Canadian writer Jessica J. Le asked ten poets to write and define ten words for weather in their native languagesEnglish, Arabic, Bengali, Spanish, French, Polish, Urdu, Mandarin, Turkish and German. Each of the ten words was then translated into the other languages for a total of 1,000 words. Next, Composer and artist Claudia Molitor turned this dictionary into a sound installation in a building which is governed by silence, as Morris put it. The recorded words are controlled by live weather reports from the UKs Met Office.

[T]he weather outside the building actually alters the mix and the velocity and the volume, so that on any day youll hear something completely different, Morris explained.

The installation will run through March 25 of next year, giving Londoners a chance to hear three seasons worth of weather words. For those who cant make it to the Senate House Library before then, Chinese-born spatial and visual designer FeiFei Zhou will create a living, animated dictionary for the web, according to the website.

A second London project will exist entirely online. This is called Abi Palmer Invents the Weather. The writer and artist will film her Siberian forest cats Lola Lola and Cha-u-Kao playing in four boxes that correspond to each season, as she brings the outside weather inside to her felines.

Weather Station: Fogo Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Fogo Island, Canada

The weather station on Fogo Island took the assignment a little more literally. Gillick has designed a sculpture called A Variability Quantifier (aka The Fogo Island Red Weather Station) that will actually record weather data that can be used by the local community as well as scientists and artists abroad.

I wanted to do something that would be properly maintained for a number of years and have the support structure to really gather concrete accurate data, Gillick said. Historically, weather stations have taken many forms. It is only in the contemporary period that they have become so functional. I wanted to reintroduce an artistic element to the siting of a scientific structure.

In designing the sculpture, Gillick was inspired by the culture and architecture of Fogo Islandspecifically, the fishing stages that are common on the island. The sculpture is a nearly full-scale model of the frame of such a stage to which scientists and community members can attack instruments for measuring weather.

The sculpture is aesthetic and functional, Gillick said. It is a tribute to the history of the island and a useful site for the collection of data. It is also important that the wood is local and milled by local fishers and [virtually] neutral in regard to the local ecosystem.

Fogo Island is an evocative location from which to consider the climate crisis because it sits in the Labrador Current, the iceberg alley along which melting ice travels. Gillick told EcoWatch he thought it was important that artists participate in framing the collective understanding and imagination of global heating.

Artists have something to offer, he said. We can add new ways to imagine and visualize the world around us. We have to go beyond the cliched imagery that has often accompanied climate consciousness. Thats what this project is about. We are not starting afresh, we are here to support, refine and transcend the visual literacy required to further the good work already being done by climatologists, activists and researchers.

The project was commissioned by Fogo Island Arts and the National Gallery of Canada. It will remain in situ until October 2026.

Weather Station: Coastline, Andes and Rainforest, Peru

Atalaya, Peru. Maurice Chedel

If the Fogo Island weather station is focused around one structure, the Peruvian station incorporates three different ecosystems. Bedoya is presenting two projects commissioned by the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI) that involve the different ways that water flows by and past the country.

The first is called All the Lighthouses of the Peruvian Coast. Bedoya created a graphic score based on the codes of the 56 lighthouses that dot Perus Pacific Coast. This score was then interpreted by around 40 musicians and authors. Bedoyas second projectcalled Other Scores of Watergrows out of her first. It will consist of three films made in the Andes and the Peruvian Amazon, focusing on the different forms that water takes from snow to river. Bedoya will work with local communities, academics, musicians and other artists to produce her weather reports.

In focusing three distinct Peruvian ecosystems, Bedoya also hopes to illuminate the social complexity of a country that is home to many different languages and cultures, as well as racial and economic inequalities inherited from colonialism.

I am trying to ensure that my projects offer a reading of the local climate that goes beyond the purely meteorological, and do not allow themselves to be enraptured by the grandeur of our landscapes, which is always a temptation in a geography such as this, she told EcoWatch. Taking as a basis some of the different expressions of water in Peru (ocean, snow-capped mountains, rivers, cloud forests, subsoil waters), I hope that they will serve as guidelines that account for the social and cultural fabric of the environments in which they are found.

In choosing to make art around the climate crisis, Bedoya is globally minded as well. She said the human species as a whole is living a limit moment, and its the very liminality of the moment that makes it important for artists to respond.

We are used to thinking of meteorology and climatology as devices that allow the statistical measurement of atmospheric phenomena, however what we call climate in an extended sense escapes statistical rationality, she told EcoWatch. This is where art may have something to contribute. It will probably not be definitive solutions (in fact, there are no definitive solutions for our climate crisis), but it may allow us to modify the ways in which we encounter our present and bring us closer to making forms of life that we would not have imagined.




Mowi's Japanese business stays robust in face of challenges

Mowi's Japanese operations remain robust, despite recent supply-chain challenges and an increasingly competitive marketplace, according to Mowi Japan sales and marketing director Michinori Hoshijima.

While Mowi did not disclose its sales in Japan for 2021, overall, the entire Japanese market consumed 64,400 tonnes of salmon in 2021, meaning the Japanese market represents a relatively small percentage of the company's overall sales, which reached 4.2 billion (US$4.5 billion) last year.

According to customs data from Japan's Ministry of Finance, the country's imports of fresh Atlantic salmon from Norway in 2021 amounted to 13.3 million kilogrammes, valued at 14.2 billion (US$123 million). Atlantic salmon represents close to 20% of the Japanese salmon market, and close to 90% of the fresh Atlantic salmon is Norwegian.

Salmon volumes sold in Japan have been fairly flat in recent years due to a declining population and stagnant wages, and the market was heavily impacted by Japan's intensive response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has since evolved in a more segmented direction, according to Hoshijima, with imported farmed Atlantic salmon primarily being used for sashimi and sushi due to its superior quality to locally-available wild-caught salmon. Japan's domestic coho, which is mostly sold frozen, is now primarily used for cooked dishes, such as the popular kirimi, which uses thin slices of grilled salmon.

Just as the pandemic's impact on salmon sales was beginning to fade in the beginning of 2022, the twin challenges of rising prices and limited availability have harmed Atlantic salmon sales in Japan in the first half of 2022. The Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) announced on July 14 that Norway's fish exports in the first half of 2022 reached kr70.1 billion (US$6.84 billion), the highest first-half-year value on record.

But exports to Japan, which also include shipments of mackerel, decreased by 20%, largely because chilled air-freighted Atlantic salmon had to be rerouted due to the closure of Russian airspace. After Russia's move, which came in response to Japan's condemnation of its invasion of Ukraine, Mowi's shipments to Japan were rerouted. Much is now sent via Dubai in the United Arab Emirates or Doha in Qatar, where the cargo is transferred to another plane to continue on to Japan, according to Hoshijima.

To save weight on shipping, most of Mowi's exports to Japan are in the form of pinbone-in fillets, which weigh 25% less than the head-on gutted (HOG) form. The ratio of fillets to HOG has been increasing annually, and fillets now represent around 70% of Mowi Japan's total sales by volume, with HOG sales accounting for much of the remaining sales.

Besides saving on shipping costs, the fillets, which are deboned in Norway, keep quality better than HOG. The major fillet form in Japan is trim C, pinbones out, skin-on, scales off. Hoshijima said Atlantic salmon have thick scales compared to trout and coho, and since Japanese consume the skin on cooked salmon, it is important to remove scales.

"The fillets are mostly to retail at fixed prices for six months or one year," Hoshijima said. "If the price is good, we'll offer more HOG."

Hoshijima said Mowi Japan's HOG salmon goes mostly into the markets for foodservice at spot prices.

He said that in contrast to Japan, the Chinese market is still about 90% foodservice, so prices in China respond faster to changes in spot prices, which he said have undergoing bigger swings due to supply-chain challenges and the cost of production.

"Next year, I expect another increase on raw material costs," Hoshijima said.

Prices that Mowi charges in each country are mainly based on the production situation, the Norway spot price and transportation cost, rather than being adjusted to the local demand situation to capture more market share, Hoshijima said. Japan used to have about a 10% share of Norway's exports, and at that time, Japanese buyers had more leverage on price, but now it has only about a 2.5% share, reducing its bargaining position, he said.

Prices for Atlantic salmon rising to unprecedented levels globally over the past year have accelerated Japan's salmon market segmentation, with farmed salmon going through a premiumisation. While Mowi has competition in Japan from fresh coho from the country's Tohoku region, there is a two-month gap in supply of wild-caught Japanese salmon that Mowi is still able to take advantage of, Hoshijima said.

"There is a June-July gap when supplies are short and so prices are often a little higher. However, generally we can supply year-round  that's why [our] salmon has been so popular," Hoshijima said.

Hoshijima said Mowi's main competition in the Atlantic salmon market in Japan comes from Australia and other Norwegian companies. But Hoshijima said he is keeping his eye on land-based projects under development in the country.

"I think our main competitor will be land-based in the future," he commented. "Japan has a high concentration of land-based projects, though there are still some problems, and no land-based salmon project has been profitable so far."

- SeafoodSource




US pork exports increase to Mexico and the Dominican Republic



The US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) said US pork exports to the Dominican Republic is expanding dramatically, with May exports more than doubling from a year ago and year-to-date shipments running 40% faster than last year's record pace, even though Mexico remains the top market for American pork, DRGNews reported.

USMEF also said pork exports in May 2022 were the highest this year in both volume at 224,677 metric tonnes, and value at US$655.1 million.

Lucia Ruano, the USMEF representative in Central America and the Dominican Republic, said while there is a high demand for pork in the Dominican Republic, domestic production there has been affected by African swine fever (ASF), which was first identified in the country last summer.

In the Dominican Republic, there is an increasing demand for premium pork cuts. USMEF promotes American pork as a cost-effective option for hotels and restaurants, which are benefiting from a significant uptick in tourist traffic, with the help of USDA and the National Pork Board. Additionally, US pork is a popular product in the Dominican Republic's retail industry, which is expanding quickly.

- DRGNews




Philippine lawmaker highlights quality of chicken, not supply, as key problem



Amid reports that chicken dishes are unavailable in restaurants in the Philippines, a local lawmaker expressed a need to boost the production of corn as an essential feed source for poultry.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said the woes of fast-food chains over chicken seem to be a problem with the "quality" of chicken being produced.

The lawmaker said he had talked with chicken suppliers and broiler raisers, who said the problem is "not a shortage of headcount, but quality of chickens being produced."

"Broiler raisers have brought to my attention the fact that they are not meeting the standards set by their buyers," Salceda said. "That, I attribute the nearly 50% increase in the prices of corn feed year-on-year. As much as 60% of costs to broiler raising costs are attributable to corn. So you would expect some broiler raisers to cut back on corn feed, leading to weight issues in produce."

Referring to fast food restaurant Jollibee's famous "Chickenjoy" fried chicken, he added: "The result is chickens are basically malnourished  ChickenSad'. Essentially, they are ChickenJoyless'. So supermarkets and restaurants don't want to serve them."

Salceda suggested a "stronger and more aggressive national corn programme" since corn is an essential feed source for poultry.

For starters, local production of corn should be beefed up during the corn season that began this month and will end with a harvest in September.

"We should ensure delivery of services under the National Corn Program within the peak crop season this July to September. That will be extremely essential to solving the poultry supply quality problem," Salceda said.

"Fertiliser will be the most crucial assistance. Any pending fertiliser assistance programmes will also have to be released in strategic corn-producing locations within this peak season. The fastest way to do that is through fertiliser discount coupons. The effect will be immediate on yield."

Salceda also said the enactment of a livestock, poultry and dairy development law will help address the structural constraints within the livestock and poultry sectors.



- Inquirer
Volkswagen (VW) is a recurrent underperformer in the U.S., despite being the second-largest automaker globally. Its reputation only got worse after it admitted in 2015 that it had been violating the rules around diesel emissions, according to Axios.

It's a great opportunity for VW to regain the trust of Americans by introducing a new series of sporty electric pickups and SUVs under the revived Scout brand.

Currently, during a historic move to electric vehicles (EVs), VW sees a chance to reestablish contact with American consumers by providing EVs in the markets they care about most: pickup trucks and large SUVs.

VW Electric Truck and SUV Spinoff Scout

Scout, which formerly produced an off-road SUV to rival Jeep in the 1960s, has been revived as a brand that can thrive independently of VW in order to compete with the electric SUVs and trucks that are still a popular category in the U.S., as per The Verge.

Through a 2020 merger of its commercial trucking subsidiary Traton with Navistar, which the German automaker initially purchased a portion of in 2016, VW acquired the Scout brand.

VW is hoping that Scout will be the solution to increase its current 5% market share of EVs in the U.S. A quarter million electric off-road vehicles will be sold yearly under the Scout brand starting in 2026, according to a May report from VW Group, which is prepared to invest $1 billion on the new Scout brand.

The manufacturer encountered a road block this year when all of its EV products, including the ID.4 and Audi E-trons, sold out for the 2022 model year.

Read More: Volkswagen Faces Another Lawsuit Over Diesel Emissions, Missouri Joins 16 Other US States

Changes in the Leadership

The Verge mentioned that on Sept. 1, Scott Keogh, the current CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, will take over as the next CEO of Scout.

Meanwhile, VW's management team in Chattanooga, Tennessee, gave existing South American VW head Pablo Di Si full responsibility for all VW North American operations now that Keogh is in charge of Scout.

What Kind of Car Can We Expect From Scout

According to Barrons, the Scouts would compete with any other well-known vehicle that can be used for off-roading, such as a few Jeep models sold by Chrysler parent Stellantis, the electric F-150 created by Ford, or perhaps against a Ford Bronco when an electric one eventually gets made.

How Competitive Is the Truck Industry

Barrons also noted that VW needs to understand that it's hard to compete in the truck market. Even Toyota is aware of this.

Mid-2000s saw a significant push for the Toyota Tundra. Despite all of the automotive achievements, the Tundra never gained traction. At around 197,000 units, U.S. sales reached their peak in 2007. Toyota sold roughly 82,000 Tundras in 2021, fewer than half the number in 2020. In the previous year, Ford sold more than 726,000 F-series trucks.

As a rule of thumb, auto manufacturers will make less money with decreased volumes.

Related Article: Volkswagen Fans, Their EVs are Pretty Much Sold Out for the Year Already
Dead seabirds tested for bird flu



Fleshwick Bay / A Copyright Rude Health

People are asked not to touch sick or dead birds after a significant number were found washed up on beaches in the Isle of Man.

The Governments vets have collected more than 20 carcases along the south and west coast since the first finding on Fenella Beach in Peel last Thursday.

The dead birds, which are mainly guillemots, have also been found at Fleshwick, Spaldrick, Niarbyl and Kirk Michael, with further reports in Port Erin and near the Calf of Man.

Last month bird flu was confirmed at some of the UK's most important seabird colonies at Bass Rock in Scotland, the Farne Islands in northeast England, and the Norfolk coast, so samples have been sent to the UK for testing.
Chinese court upholds ruling that Dutch collector should repatriate mummified Buddha

Xinhua) 09:29, July 20, 2022

FUZHOU, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The provincial higher people's court of east China's Fujian on Tuesday rejected the appeal of a Dutch collector, upholding the original judgement that the collector should return a stolen millennium-old Buddha statue to local villagers.

The statue is of Zhanggong Zushi, a Song Dynasty (960-1279) monk who gained fame for curing diseases and spreading Buddhist beliefs. When he died at 37, his body was mummified according to his wishes and placed inside a statue.

The statue had been housed in a temple in what is today known as Sanming City of Fujian, where it was worshipped by locals for over 1,000 years before it was stolen in 1995.

The villagers searched for the lost statue until they found it on exhibition in Hungary in 2015. They later unsuccessfully negotiated for its return with Dutch national Oscar van Overeem, the then holder of the statue.

The Sanming Intermediate People's Court registered the case in 2015 and held two court hearings in 2018. On Dec. 4, 2020, the court ordered that the Dutch collector return the statue to the plaintiffs, the villagers committees of Yangchun and Dongpu, within 30 days.

Yangchun Village and Dongpu Village co-own the temple that stored the ancient statue.

Van Overeem appealed the result soon after the first trial.

During the second trial, the provincial higher people's court of Fujian maintained the original verdict, which held that the statue is a collectively owned relic, handed down in the area for generations, and thus its collective ownership by Yangchun and Dongpu residents is protected by law. Van Overeem, who claimed to have bought the statue in 1996, did not provide transaction documents as evidence.

In the appeal, the higher court classified the statue as an illegally exported stolen cultural relic that has a unique emotional connection with the villagers and reflects local customs and history, and said it should be returned based on law, sense and sentiment.

In 2016, a Dutch court registered the lawsuit filed by the two villagers committees, and the first public hearing in Amsterdam was held the following year. However, the court rejected the case in December 2018, ruling that the villagers committees were not legal entities and ineligible to file a claim.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

These were the words of one brave and fortunate astronaut to take humanity's first step towards exploring space, the final frontier.

That iconic moment happened on this day 63 years ago. Since then, we've landed rovers and flew aircraft on Mars, saw Pluto, and even taken a picture of the supergiant black hole in the center of the milky way galaxy.

However, all of these would not have been possible without the brave engineers and rocket scientists at NASA and the astronauts that went to space for the first time on behalf of humanity.

Here is their story:

The Apollo 11 Mission In A Nutshell

On July 16, 1969, NASA sent three brave astronauts to space on a mission to safely land and explore the moon - a feat that was unheard of before, even in the overarching space race happening at the time.

The astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin flew to space through NASA's Saturn V rocket from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. They came to space with cameras so that people on Earth could tune into their progress and eventual landing on the moon.

The lunar module the three astronauts were in landed safely on the moon on July 19, at 4:17 pm, on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. He then declared that "the Eagle has landed," giving people back on Earth a sign that they made it safely on the moon, per History.

The act alone is an achievement in and of itself. Back then, Soviet and American space agencies were racing to outdo one another in the space race, with the Soviets being at the lead due to Sputnik's success.

Sputnik I, more commonly known as Sputnik, the first artificial satellite that went to space courtesy of the Soviet Union.

Read More: 10 Things to Know About the Mary Rose, the Warship of Henry XIII That Sank on This Day in 1545

That aside, most landings on the moon before were hard landings, meaning that the spacecraft, which were thankfully unmanned, was crashing instead of landing on the surface of the moon.

Meanwhile, in America's case, it eventually earned its first soft landing in 1966 through Surveyor 1 - the first safe landing on the moon, per the Smithsonian.

As such, most if not all of the people in the world witnessed Neil Armstrong be the first to step and walk on the moon. It was at this point that Armstrong said his most famous quote.

However, Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins may have been stranded on the moon if not for Aldrin's ingenious solution to the broken switch to a vital circuit breaker needed to send electrical power to the lunar module's ascent engine, per a separate History report.

Thanks to Aldrin's quick thinking of using his felt-tipped pen as a substitute for the broken switch, they were able to get back to Earth without any cause of concern.

The three astronauts safely got back to Earth on July 24, per NASA

Apollo 11's Legacy

During the three astronauts' one-day stay on the moon, they were able to collect what would be the first geologic lunar samples, according to the Lunar and Planetary Institute, as well as pictures of the moon's surface.

These discoveries inspired more lunar missions, with five of them being successful. The last time man was on the moon was on December 14, 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission.

However, astronomers' fascinations with the moon and space continued to fester within Earth's confines.

Eventually, these curiosities would be unleashed with the launching of the SLS rocket as part of the Artemis missions, which aims to bring humanity back to the surface of the moon.

Related Article: Japanese Researchers Develop Gravity-Defying Sapce Habitats for Moon, Mars
Over 50s to be offered COVID-19 booster and flu jab this autumn

All Island residents aged 50 and over, along with individuals in further at-risk groups, will be among those offered a COVID-19 booster and a seasonal flu jab this autumn.

The booster announcement follows on from the interim advice from the UKs Joint Commission on Vaccination and Immunisation in May.

This year the flu vaccination rollout will again be extended to all adults aged 50 and over, pre-school and primary school children and those in secondary school years 7-9, as well as those in clinical at-risk groups.
Microsoft is giving select PC gamers free access to four classic games by Bethesda and id Software, which it acquired as part of its $7.5 billion ZeniMax purchase in 2020. And three of them wouldn't have been released if the tech giant isn't acquiring Activision Blizzard, as well. In a post on the Xbox blog, Microsoft has revealed that Xbox Insiders on Windows PC can now preview Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, HeXen: Beyond Heretic, HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, The Elder Scrolls: Arena and Quake Champions.

It's not surprising that the offer is only available for PC users part of Microsoft's Insider program  as Ars Technica notes, the first four games in the list were originally released in the mid-90s and run via DOSBox emulation. DOSBox runs software for MS-DOS compatible games, but it's a pretty inelegant solution for making old titles playable.

The Elder Scrolls: Arena is an open-world action RPG published by Bethesda, with a first person perspective and features melee combat and magic. Meanwhile, Heretic, its sequel HeXen: Beyond Heretic and the latter's expansion pack, HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, are all first-person dark fantasy shooters. They were built using a modified version of the Doom engine, and though they were published by id Software, they were developed by Raven Software. Activision acquired the rights to those games when it purchased Raven in 1997.

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Microsoft first announced that it's purchasing Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in January this year and expects the deal to close no later than June 2023 if regulators give it their approval. It's an all-cash deal that values Activision at $95 a share. Microsoft plans to add Activision Blizzard games to the Xbox Game Pass as part of the acquisition, and some of those games may be like the Heretic-HeXen series, which Activision doesn't fully own.
When Netflix's cheaper ad-supported tier launches next year, subscribers may find themselves unable to access some of the service's titles available on its regular plan. As Deadline notes, Netflix co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has admitted during the company's most recent earnings call that the upcoming subscription option will not include all of its licensed content at launch. It will be missing shows and movies from both US and international studios and distributors, unless the company can successfully (and quickly) convince them to change the deal they originally agreed to.

Netflix is in talks with studios to amend their deals and be able to make their shows available for streaming alongside ads. Based on a previous Wall Street Journal report, Netflix is renegotiating its deals with Warner Bros. (the studio behind You), Universal (the producer of Russian Doll) and Sony Pictures Television (producer of Cobra Kai). The service will reportedly have to renegotiate the terms for some of the older shows it carries, as well, including Breaking Bad.

Sarandos said during the earnings call:

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"Today, the vast majority of what people watch on Netflix, we can include in the ad-supported. Theres some things that dont and were in conversations with the studios on, but if we launched the product today, members in the ad-tier would have a great experience. We will clear some additional content but certainly not all of it but dont think its a material holdback for the business."

In the same call, Netflix also admitted that it lost nearly 1 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2022. It still turned a $1.44 billion net profit and expects to add a net 1 million subscribers in the next quarter, but it's hoping that some of the measures it's taking will help it grow its userbase yet again. The ad-supporter tier it's launching with Microsoft early next year could help Netflix grow in markets where there's strong ad spending.
President Biden is still unveiling measures to combat climate change, and his newest efforts are aimed at preventing environmental crises. The President has outlined a string of executive actions that, notably, include the first "Wind Energy Areas" in the Gulf of Mexico. The 700,000 acres will allow for enough potential offshore wind power to supply over 3 million homes, according to the administration. The Secretary of the Interior, meanwhile, will further work on wind power along the mid-to-southern Atlantic Coast as well as the Florida Coast.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has unveiled $2.3 billion in funding to bolster resilience against heat waves, wildfires and similar climate change-related disasters. New guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services expands the use of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program for air conditioning, community cooling centers and other resources to fight extreme heat.

As in the past, Biden characterized his efforts as useful for the economy, not just the environment. The wind power projects should create jobs, while the FEMA and Health Department initiatives could minimize the damage from natural disasters. These events disproportionately hurt minorities and underserved communities, he said, and they also put critical infrastructure at risk.

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Biden has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. The White House has also devoted billions of dollars to clean energy projects, planned a national EV charging network and fought to reverse the purchase of gas-powered Postal Service vehicles.

This isnt as extensive a response as some expected. The Washington Post reported that Biden considered declaring a climate emergency this week, though press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed he is still open to the idea. Biden is far from alone in failing to treat the warming climate with urgency, though. Congress has struggled to pass climate-related legislation given Senate opposition from Republicans and Democrat holdout Joe Manchin. These executive moves could help Biden advance elements of his climate agenda despite the legislative roadblock.
The end is nigh for DSLR cameras. Nikon is reportedly halting the development of new SLR cameras, marking the end of a 63-year run. Canon already confirmed its final flagship DSLR. Sony, which jumped onto the mirrorless train early, moved to selling only mirrorless cameras last year.

Until recently, reflex cameras were regarded as a better option than mirrorless for action photography, so what happened? Mirrorless models improved so dramatically  and so quickly  that they rendered DSLRs moot. Having said that, many pro photographers are holding onto their DSLRs, with the main reason being speed. But in the future, even that might be bested by future mirrorless cameras. Engadgets Steve Dent explains more.

-Mat Smith

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The biggest stories you might have missed

After you mold some tips to your ears, a custom-made set arrives in 2-4 weeks.

Ultimate Ears, best known for its Bluetooth speakers, is having another attempt at custom-fit buds, only this time the company is making the process more like how youd order a set of in-ear monitors (IEMs) with the UE Drops.

The main attraction of UE Drops is the custom fit, which is coordinated via the company's FitKit. Once you place your order, Ultimate Ears will ship you a FitKit that the company says includes the "technology and information" to guide you through the process of taking your "earprint."

Continue reading.

Slide open the front panel to reveal a pop-up gaming room scene.

Lego

Atari is marking its 50th anniversary with a Lego collaboration: a piece-by-piece recreation of the Atari 2600, which debuted in 1977. The Lego kit includes a little 80s gaming diorama inside the computer case, and is made up of 2,532 pieces. It will be available on August 1st and costs $240/240. Lego says the movable joystick included even feels like the original.

Continue reading.

You may not get a huge payout, however.

Apple could soon compensate MacBook owners for their troubles with faulty "butterfly" keyboards. The company has agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that it knew about and concealed the unreliable designs of keyboards on MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models released between 2015 and 2019. Apple eventually began reverting to more conventional keyboards starting with the 16-inch MacBook Pro from late 2019. Attorneys said they expected a $395 payout for people that had to replace multiple keyboards, $125 for one full replacement and $50 if you only replaced keycaps.

Continue reading.

A report showed that 'at least' 13 percent of online discourse was generated by bots.

Warner

The campaign that helped pave the way for the "Snyder Cut" version of Justice League was boosted by a large number of bots and fake accounts, according to a report from Rolling Stone. An investigation commissioned by WarnerMedia said that: "At least 13 percent of the accounts that took part in the conversation about the Snyder Cut were deemed fake."

Continue reading.

Twitter's lawsuit will head to court in October.

Twitter has scored an early victory in its lawsuit against Elon Musk over his attempted exit from a $44 billion takeover deal. In an initial hearing, Delaware Court of Chancery chancellor Kathaleen McCormick has granted Twitter's request for an expedited, five-day trial beginning in October. The company originally sought a four-day trial in September as part of its effort to make Musk "honor his obligations." Musk's lawyers wanted the court to delay the trial to February 2023.

Continue reading.
Hyundai Motor Europe's marketing director said the business would introduce an all-electric entry-level car to Europe.

European Market may Soon Get Hyundai's $20,000

The cost of electric vehicles continues to be one of the main criticisms. Even with subsidies, the majority of consumers cannot afford them.

Hyundai has acknowledged that it has entered the competition to create a brand-new compact electric vehicle for under $20,000. But it seems that only European markets may get access to it.

Hyundai Motor Europe's marketing director, Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, claims that the company has committed to eventually introducing an all-electric entry-level vehicle to the European market. Hofmann explicitly stated that the "battery-powered minicar" would take some time to evolve into a form that can go into production.

In the $20,000 price bracket, there are very few, if any, electric car possibilities. A number of manufacturers have said that they are aiming toward that price range, including Volkswagen with the I.D. Life initiative, which the German carmaker claimed would be less than $25,000.

Hoffman said that the Hyundai i10, a little four-door hatchback sold by the company in Europe, India, and Latin America, will be replaced.

Hyundai hopes the new electric model will help it maintain its market position in Europe as restrictions compel automakers to switch to electric cars more and more.

Similar laws are weaker in North America, where there is less demand for compact cars, whether electric or not. Many manufacturers, like Honda with the Honda E, have chosen not to introduce some smaller city EVs in the U.S.

Read Also: Nintendo Confirms Shut Down Date of its 3DS, Wii U eShops

Contract for $5.5B Hyundai Factory in Georgia is almost Approved

The local economic development agency that helped persuade Hyundai Motor Group to build a $5.5 billion electric vehicle facility near Savannah authorized its sections of the deal Tuesday. Details of tax reductions and other incentives have not been published.

The joint development authority approved the pact that represents four southeast Georgia counties that will lose hundreds of millions in taxes for the 8,100 jobs Hyundai has promised. The incentives package's details won't be released until the state and Hyundai sign the deal, which might happen this week.

The project was unveiled two months ago in Bryan County, where Hyundai aims to establish its first U.S. electric car manufacturing. The company wants to start building next year and produce 300,000 cars annually by 2025.

State officials said the incentive package would be similar to the $1.5 billion offered to Rivian Automotive, which plans an electric vehicle manufacturing east of Atlanta.

An estimated $213 million in income tax credits will be a significant win for Hyundai. That is based on Georgia's credit for its most significant development projects, which is $5,250 per job over five years. Georgia would instead pay Hyundai the personal income taxes it had received from Hyundai employees if Hyundai didn't owe that much state corporate income tax.

Hyundai will probably save hundreds of millions of dollars because of exemptions from sales taxes on building supplies and equipment.

Related Article: Hyundai's Ioniq 6 E.V. Sedan: Here's What You Have to Know
Orphanages in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo are bearing the brunt of the economic crisis prevailing in the country as the children residing there are facing food shortages amid drying funds.
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The Texas electric grid is broken and undoubtedly needs more generation, but in a bid to boost the fossil fuel industry over renewable sources, Republican officials are employing lies, damned lies and statistics.

The dirty tricks are expected in an election year and when billions of dollars are at stake.

Texans are reminded of the 2021 blackouts every time the Electric Reliability Council of Texas calls for conservation or asks businesses to shut down operations. People are angry that hundreds of people died due to a faulty grid.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: Electricity bills are so high you may wish for a blackout

No one wants to spend a 105-degree afternoon without air conditioning.

The current forecast suggests the worst is yet to come for the grid, as temps remain high, and generation struggles to keep up. Savvy politicians want to focus the popular anger on their opponents.

GOP elected officials appear determined to make wind energy the bugaboo, while promoting natural gas as a savior. In fact, the opposite is true.

Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian, State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst and State Rep. Jared Patterson have been declaring wind energy a failure based on how much power they produce on a hot afternoon compared to the nameplate capacity.

For example, last week between the hours of 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., wind was only expected to produce 12 percent of its installed capacity, compared to thermal sources producing 84 percent of installed capacity.

The fossil fuel industry shills say this demonstrates wind energys failure. But this is tantamount to expecting solar power plants to produce electricity at 2 a.m.

People living in West Texas have known for millennia that the air is often still on sunny summer afternoons. No one ever suggested wind would meet peak demand in the summer, but it blows like the dickens at night and the rest of the year.

From January to June, wind provided 30 percent of the states power, compared to 38 percent for conventional and combined-cycled natural gas facilities, according to ERCOT data. Coal provided 17 percent, nuclear 10 percent and solar 6 percent.

Do you know what is more reliable and cheaper than a new natural gas power plant in the summer? A solar power plant.

Unlike a natural gas plant, which can generate close to 100 percent of nameplate capacity on demand, no one ever suggested a wind facility would operate at 100 percent. Texas wind generators typically operate at around 40 percent capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. To expect more is to be dishonest.

Disclosure time: Ive been writing about climate change and clean energy since my undergraduate thesis in 1992. My wife has worked on clean energy for more than 20 years, developing projects of all kinds around the globe. Today, she provides her expertise to an international private equity firm.

I have never, nor will I ever write about a company or project in which my wife or her employer has an interest. If you think my columns about clean energy affect the industrys profitability more generally, you have an exaggerated sense of my influence.

Texas frequently has excess renewable electricity, and companies are developing new ways to store that energy economically by charging batteries, converting water to hydrogen, lifting weights to use gravity or by compressing air.

Fossil fuel companies know if they dont get new projects built soon, they will never happen. Energy company employees and political action committees are the biggest donors to Texas Republicans, and they expect protection.

Texas Democrats and environmentalists, meanwhile, exaggerate the short-term potential of clean energy resources and the negative impact of natural gas.

Several studies have shown how ERCOT can add more wind and solar to the grid, but once you get above the 50 percent level, things get complicated. Offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico could provide power on hot summer days, but it remains expensive.

S.A. VOTES Voter Guide: What to know for the Texas runoff election A breakdown of key state and local races and candidates in the May 24 primary runoff.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: If Texas electric grid operator wants energy conservation, it should pay more for it

ERCOT does need to add more natural gas power plants for the hours when the wind slows before the sun has fully risen, and when the sun sets while the wind is weak. We also need natural gas backup plants for when its still and dark.

Scientists have enough weather data to accurately calculate the right mix. But Texas has chosen to allow supply and demand curves to drive those decisions. We would be wise to draw from both science and market forces to guarantee reliability.

But not as much as some would suggest.

Lastly, Republicans and Democrats are justified in decrying how subsidies distort Texass energy market. All forms of generation receive government subsidies, and Ive frequently called for eliminating all of them.

We need an all-of-the-above strategy informed by climate science and pragmatism. What we dont need is more disinformation from state officials and politicians designed to benefit their campaign donors.

Tomlinson, named 2021 columnist of the year by the Texas Managing Editors, writes commentary about money, politics and life in Texas. Sign up for his new "Tomlinsons Take newsletter at HoustonChronicle.com/TomlinsonNewsletter .

twitter.com/cltomlinson

chris.tomlinson@chron.com
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A visit to a panaderia begins in the parking lot. Its the colorful paint on the walls, the hand-drawn lettering on the signs, the bright decorations hanging in the windows. But most importantly, its the intoxicating aroma of sugar, flour and yeast inviting customers to sit for a spell with a fresh pastry and cup of coffee or grab a couple dozen sweet treats to bring home and share with family.

That heavily scented scene plays out daily as sugar fiends stock up on the conchas, empanadas and marranitos that fuel our lives at the near-countless Mexican bakeries sprinkled across the city.

To identify the best of those sugar shops, I have visited more than 30 panaderias and sampled more than 200 pastries over the course of the last four months. I started with the panaderias on the West Side, followed by the North Side, then the South Side, before concluding with a trip to the East Side.

This week Ill wrap up this spectacularly sweet undertaking by naming the top 5 panaderias in the San Antonio, as well as the best conchas, empanadas, orejas and more from the bakeries we visited.

Top 5 panaderias

5. Alebrije Bakery

Paul Stephen / Staff

The selection at this Government Hill newcomer isnt huge, often just a half-dozen items sitting in the display case. But those pastries are baked to perfection and among the best in the city.

In addition to fluffy conchas, marranitos topped with a colorful sugary crust and cream-filled doughnuts, the creamy concoctions tres leches cake and chocolate flan at this bakery are particular standouts. But the best was the pay de queso  and its the best in the city. This creamy Mexican-style cheesecake has a slim, crusty base topped with a jiggling layer of cheesy goodness sporting fresh fruit and an ideal balance of flavors and textures with blistered pockets of deeply browned sugar.

Alebrije Bakery, 1931 N. New Braunfels Ave., 210-551-1771, alebrijesa.com, Facebook: Alebrije

4. El Folklor Bakery

Paul Stephen / Staff

With one of the largest and most diverse selections of well-executed pastries available in San Antonio, this bakery just north of Windcrest will satisfy just about any sweet tooth.

El Folklor has mastered all of the traditional staples, and serves up airy and nicely spiced conchas, chewy marranitos with a tingling gingerbread bite and snappy orejas that deliver irresistible crunch in every bite. The bakery also has less common items in stock such as the orange-flavored pound cake called ojo de buey (steers eye) and a homemade version of Hostess cupcakes.

El Folklor Bakery, 5663 Randolph Blvd., 210-437-4207, Facebook: @elfolklorbakeryrandolph

On ExpressNews.com: Mike Sutters top 10 best coffee shops in San Antonio

3. Panaderia Jimenez & Coffee Shop

Paul Stephen / Staff

This bright and airy Deco District bakery expertly balances the offerings of a traditional panaderia with the hip vibe of a modern coffee shop, with customers queuing up for lattes and pastries in equal numbers.

The baked goods are intensely flavored, with conchas that deliver a potent nose of cinnamon and anise, turnovers filled with decadent Nutella and glazed doughnuts that taste strongly of fresh fruit. Panaderia Jimenez also has the best and most inventive selection of empanadas in the city.

Panaderia Jimenez & Coffee Shop, 1846 Fredericksburg Road, panaderiajimenez.com, Facebook: Panaderia Jimenez & Coffee Shop

2. Panifico Bake Shop

Paul Stephen / Staff

Conchas are king at this West Side favorite, but theres so much more on tap than those domed, shell-shaped breakfast buns, from empanadas loaded with generous quantities of fruit or cream cheese and remarkably chewy, well-spiced marranitos. The orejas are outstanding, crunchy and with a nutty aroma, and almost took the top spot.

But Panifco does make the best conchas in the city, and they have a devoted following. So be sure to arrive early, particularly on weekends and holidays, if you hope to leave with a full array of sweets.

Panifico Bake Shop, 602 NW 24th St., 210-434-9290, panifico.com, Facebook: @panificobakeshop

1. La Panaderia

Paul Stephen / Staff

No panaderia in San Antonio better represents both tradition and modernity than this celebrated business which earned co-owner David Caceres a semifinalist spot for Outstanding Baker in the 2022 James Beard Foundation Awards.

La Panaderia serves one of the most distinctive conchas in town, with a remarkably airy crumb and a slight aroma of sourdough. The empanadas have a light and crispy chew as they are made with laminated dough normally used for croissants  which are outstanding here, too.

This is also the only bakery in the city where customers dont have to wait until Christmas for rosca de reyes (three kings bread) or until Dia de los Muertos for pan de muerto (similar to a concha) as its stocked year-round.

La Panaderia,(multiple locations) 8305 Broadway, 210-375-6746; 301 E Houston St., 210-592-6264; 17030 Fiesta Texas Drive, Suite 105, 210-600-4460, lapanaderia.com, Facebook: @lapanaderia

On ExpressNews.com: The 7 best panaderias, Mexican bakeries, on San Antonios West Side

Individual pastry bests

Best bolillos: Mayras Bakery

Paul Stephen / Staff

A good bolillo is simple. Its just flour, yeast and very little else. But it requires a real mastery over those ingredients to achieve the perfect razor-thin crust over a delicate and tender crumb of pale bread to both blanket the ingredients in a torta and provide a contrasting crunch.

Mayras in Kirby pulls it off with panache, creating the best bolillos in town, bolillos so perfect, theyre worthy of eating on their own.

Mayras Bakery, 3155 Ackerman Road, 210-310-0100, Facebook: Mayras Bakery

Best conchas: Panifico Bake Shop

Paul Stephen / Staff

Concha convention meets a modern Instagram-friendly style at this West Side bakery. The bready base of the conchas here is tender, buttery and lightly spiced  perfect for soaking up coffee or hot cocoa. But on weekends, holidays and for special orders, the flaky sugar crust on top of those buns comes in a psychedelic range of camera-ready hues.

Panifico Bake Shop, 602 NW 24th St., 210-434-9290, panifico.com, Facebook: @panificobakeshop

Best doughnuts: Chicas Bakery y Mas

Paul Stephen / Staff

This South Side bakery generally has at least a half-dozen playful doughnuts in its display case, ranging from chubby chocolate-glazed pillows filled with vanilla pastry cream, sparkly things covered in pastel sprinkles to fruity cake-style doughnuts rarely found in area panaderias. Grab a dozen and make everyone at the office grin for the rest of the day.

Chicas Bakery y Mas, 9155 S. Zarzamora St., 210-922-4793, Facebook: Chicas Bakery y mas

On ExpressNews.com: The 5 best panaderias, Mexican bakeries, on San Antonios South Side and downtown

Best empanadas: Panaderia Jimenez & Coffee Shop

Paul Stephen / Staff

There are a lot of good empanadas in San Antonio, but few panaderias push the flavor boundaries with as much whimsy and technical excellence as this Deco District bakery. Sure, youll find excellent pineapple, apple and pumpkin options, but the cherry and cream cheese, blueberry and cream cheese and cajeta and guava options will keep you coming back for more.

Panaderia Jimenez & Coffee Shop, 1846 Fredericksburg Road, panaderiajimenez.com, Facebook: Panaderia Jimenez & Coffee Shop

Best marranitos: Bedoys Bakery

Paul Stephen / Staff

This midtown San Antonio institution has been a go-to for decades, and its perfectly formed marranitos are a good example of why. They have a spot-on balance of chewy texture and warm cinnamon and ginger spice throughout.

Bedoys Bakery, 803 W. Hildebrand Ave., 210-736-2253, bedoysbakery.com, Facebook: @BedoysBakery

Best orejas: La Esmeralda Bakery

Paul Stephen / Staff

Its all about deep, chocolaty caramelization on these crunchy curlicues. This South Side shop leaves left its orejas in the oven long enough to develop a well-burnished rich and nutty finish with an intense flavor and aroma balanced with a crisp coating of sugar over light and flaky pastry.

La Esmeralda Bakery, 739 New Laredo Highway, 210-922-3063, Facebook: La Esmeralda Bakery

Best pan de muerto: La Panaderia

Paul Stephen / Staff

La Panaderia is one of very few Mexican bakeries in town to keep pan de muerto in regular, year-round supply, and its the best youll find in San Antonio. This tender, almost briochelike bun delivered all of the anise and orange flavors youd expect in a roll with a restrained level of sweetness.

More Information Types of Mexican pastries Bolillo: A small white bread loaf similar to a baguette, with a crunchy exterior and a tender inside. Often used to make sandwiches. Campechana: A crunchy, flaky, rectangular pastry often sweetened with a bit of sugar sprinkled on top before baking. Concha: A dome-shaped sweet roll with a sugary crust fashioned to look like a seashell. Cono de nieve: Puff-pastry rolled into the shape of an ice cream cone and filled with pastry cream. Cuerno: A croissant-shaped sweet pastry often topped with a sugary crust. Empanada: A pastry with a shell-like pie dough stuffed with a wide range of fruit preserves and other sweet fillings. Marranito: A dense, pig-shaped cookie spiced in a manner similar to gingerbread. Nino envuelto: A jelly-roll style cake often filled with fruit jams and sprinkled with coconut. Ojo de buey: An orange-flavored pound cake wrapped in a ring of flaky pastry dough. Oreja: Puff pastry curled into an ear shape, sprinkled with sugar and baked until crisp. Pay de queso: A type of cheesecake popular in Mexico typically made from milk, cream cheese, eggs and vanilla. Piedra: A dense, craggy, irregularly shaped pastry resembling a rock often made from leftover conchas. Pierna: A pastry made of tender sweet dough rolled into the shape of a leg and filled with fruit preserves. Yoyo: Two sweet breads sandwiched together with jam and often sprinkled with coconut. The result resembles a yo-yo. See More Collapse

La Panaderia, 8305 Broadway, 210-375-6746, lapanaderia.com, Facebook: @lapanaderia

pstephen@express-news.net | Twitter: @pjbites | Instagram: @pjstephen
Bob Owen, Staff Photographer / Staff photographer

There is still time to help San Marcos residents combat this summers brutal heat.

San Marcos is accepting donations of new, 12-inch or larger multi-purpose pedestal fans and 20-inch box fans. The fans can be dropped off at any of seven locations. People can also donate cash and checks, though cash will only be accepted at the San Marcos Electric Utility Office, according to a city news release.
A Black family received racist, threatening letters on their doorstep just days after moving into a Kingwood subdivision earlier this month, prompting a police investigation and disgust from community members.

The woman, her daughter and a roommate moved into the Woodland Hills Village subdivision on July 2. By July 8, they had received two threatening handwritten letters telling them to leave, according to Houston Police Department spokesman Shay Awosiyan.

That same day, the woman heard noise outside her home and saw four men running away from her SUV. Her two rear tires had been slashed, Awosiyan said.

Awosiyan said HPD is currently investigating the incident as a terrorist threat or an act of criminal mischief. Neighbors on the womans block said they turned over their doorbell camera footage to the police, but no arrests had been made as of Tuesday.

No one was home Wednesday at the rental property in the 2000 block of Shadow Rock Drive where the woman, her daughter and their roommate were living. They could not be reached for comment.

ABC13, which first reported the story, said the trio were taking some time away from their new neighborhood.

Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer A street in the Woodland Hills Village subdivision, pictured on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, in Kingwood, where police are investigating an incident in which racist notes were left on the doorstep of a Black familys home. / A sign in the Woodland Hills Village subdivision, pictured on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, in Kingwood, where police are investigating an incident in which racist notes were left on the doorstep of a Black familys home. (Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer) A street in the Woodland Hills Village subdivision, pictured on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, in Kingwood, where police are investigating an incident in which racist notes were left on the doorstep of a Black familys home. / A sign in the Woodland Hills Village subdivision, pictured on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, in Kingwood, where police are investigating an incident in which racist notes were left on the doorstep of a Black familys home. (Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer)

Residents of the quiet, leafy subdivision described the incident as horrible and noted that other African American families had lived on the block for years without incident. They expressed disgust that their new neighbors, who they described as friendly people, were targeted for the color of their skin.

Its horrible, it doesnt matter what color you are. Its so frustrating to hear that this is going on today still. Just leave people alone, said India Brady, 61, who has lived on the block for 14 years.

Kingwood, a mostly white, conservative neighborhood near Humble, was annexed by the city of Houston in 1996. Black people make up just about 5 percent of the census tract where Woodland Hills Village is situated.

This months incident is not the first act of racism to befall the area in recent months. A series of racist acts against Black students at Creekwood Middle School in April prompted the principal to send a schoolwide email and bring in an educational speaker. In February, someone littered an Atascocita subdivision with antisemitic flyers.

Black Lives Matter Houston founder Ashton Woods said the incident was not surprising.

Things are only going to get worse because of the danger that (former President Donald) Trump has stoked with his racism, not just the (Capitol) insurrection but with his language and emboldening people to do what they want, Woods said.

We know this is a hate crime  and what were dealing with here speaks to the idea that racism has never gone away. We dont live in a post-racial society, and people need to understand this is the reality we live in, Woods said.

Susana Martin, 85, lives down the street from the family that was targeted and said the incident has prompted her family to consider moving.

It makes me feel very insecure, Martin said. I love this place, its very calm, but behind that there are other things going on.

sam.kelly@chron.com

twitter.com/sgonzalezkelly
Thirty-six years ago, a serial killer began his 13-year murder spree in Bexar County.

Angel Maturino Resendiz, a Mexican citizen who was also known by the alias Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, has been linked to at least 15 deaths across the United States, including in Texas, California, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois and Georgia. Three of his murders were committed in Bexar County.

Resendiz was known as The Railroad Killer because he would ride the rails and jump off to kill his victims. He used rocks, a pickaxe and other blunt objects to kill the victims inside their homes. Some of his female victims were also raped.

On ExpressNews.com: 48 years ago, a drug lord from San Antonio started the longest prison siege in U.S. history

According to officials, Resendiz would linger in the homes and usually eat. . He would also often take sentimental items and lay them out with the victims drivers licenses to learn about their lives.

His first identified victim was 22-year-old Michael White, of San Antonio, who was found in the front yard of an abandoned downtown home bludgeoned to death with a brick on July 19, 1991. Resendiz told authorities that he had killed White because he was gay.

However, the convicted murderer's killing spree began five years earlier. In 2001, he confessed to killing a Bexar County homeless couple in 1986 and dumping their bodies in the San Antonio area. The couple have never been identified.

He told authorities he killed the woman for disrespecting him. Her body was found on March 23, 1986, with four gunshot wounds in an abandoned farmhouse in Bexar County.

On ExpressNews.com: The slaying of a 12-year-old Texas girl was solved after 43 years through DNA evidence

He also confessed to killing the woman's boyfriend because he said he was involved with black magic. Resendiz said he dumped the man's body between San Antonio and Uvalde. The man's body has never been found and not much is known about him, according to the Department of Justice.

After the 1991 White murder, it is believed Resendiz did not kill again until 1997, when he murdered a young couple  19-year-old Jesse Howell and his 16-year-old fiancee Wendy Von Huben  in Ocala, Florida. Howell was killed with an air hose coupling and dumped beside railroad tracks, while Von Huben was discovered 40 miles away in a shallow grave. She had been raped, strangled and suffocated, authorities said.

In 1998, he beat to death 97-year-old Leafie Mason in Huges Springs, Texas. Later that year, he killed Houston doctor, Dr. Claudia Benton, who was sexually assaulted and beaten to death.

San Antonio Express-News archives

Police were able to match fingerprints found on Bentons Jeep to Resendiz, who had a lengthy criminal history. Officials said he was deported numerous times but would return to the U.S. to commit the brutal murders.

Within a few months, investigators had linked Resendiz to three murders in Texas and Kentucky, and a federal warrant was issued for his arrest.

While police were searching for him, he killed four more Texas residents: In May 1999, 46-year-old Norman Sirnic and 47-year-old Karen Sirnic, both from Weimar, were bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer in the parsonage of the United Church of Christ; a month later, 26-year-old Noemi Dominguez was killed with a pickaxe in her Houston apartment; and 73-year-old Josephine Konvicka was killed with the same pickaxe in her Dubina farmhouse.

On ExpressNews.com: DNA evidence links Texas man to decades-old homicides in California, officials say

Resendiz remained at large until he surrendered to Texas authorities on July 13, 1999. He was briefly put on the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List before his surrender.

He was tried and sentenced for Bentons murder in May 2000. Despite multiple appeals, he was executed in Huntsville on June 27, 2006, by lethal injection.

"I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me," he said in his final statement before dying. "You don't have to. I know I allowed the devil to rule my life. I just ask you to forgive me and ask the Lord to forgive me for allowing the devil to deceive me. I thank God for having patience with me. I don't deserve to cause you pain. You did not deserve this. I deserve what I am getting."

taylor.pettaway@express-news.net
Rumkicks / Courtesy of Rumkicks



By Jon Dunbar



One week ago, the three members of Korean punk band Rumkicks were covering "England Belongs to Me" by U.K. band Cock Sparrer in a Seoul basement venue. A little over a week later, they'll be playing the same song on stages across the U.K.





The all-girl band has been invited to this year's Rebellion Fest , where they'll be appearing alongside punk legends including the Buzzcocks, Bad Religion, the Boys, Billy Brag and  yes  Cock Sparrer.



It's about as much as any Korean underground band can ever hope for, so how are they doing now?



"I've been preparing for it for a long time, but unexpected things keep happening, so I'm actually running around a lot. Almost nothing is going as planned," laughed Yeawon, guitarist and vocalist of the band.





Rumkicks plays at Club SHARP in Mangwon-dong, western Seoul, June 20. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar



Rumkicks has been ubiquitous in the local scene for the last little while, as the band seems to be emerging out of the pandemic as the next exciting indie act hailing from Korea. The band sticks out like a sore thumb in the local scene, where the norm for punks has become muted fashion and dark colors. Meanwhile, Yeawon and bassist Dorothy go the other way, often putting their brightly dyed hair up in liberty spikes and proudly wearing leather jackets sporting the patches of their all-time favorite bands.



"As the times changed, it seems most people's fashion in the streets have become more unified, and it seems this influence has affected the music scene," drummer MJ said. "It's just the genre of music that most people do, and it's the same with fashion. I think the personality is disappearing."



Their physical appearance has gotten them quite a lot of attention, both positive and negative.



"It is children who react most purely and their parents who are most afraid of us," Yeawon said. "Many times I've seen children get pulled away from us after saying something like 'Mom, that hair is weird.'"





Members of Rumkicks pose for a selfie with a friend outside Club SHARP in Mangwon-dong, western Seoul, June 20. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar



Sometimes the Rumkicks members get more attention than they'd like, and the internet has certainly magnified that.



When a Facebook page titled "PUNK is everywhere" with over 125,000 followers worldwide began sharing images of the band last year  without any advance notification  the members suddenly found themselves the center of attention, as well as facing heightened scrutiny and even being confronted by internet bullies.



"It would be a lie to say that there was no mental harm," admitted Yeawon, who is also a member of the legendary Korean punk band Rux as well as skatepunk band About Jane. "I cried all night watching the increasing number of comments. I hope everyone dies."



In response, she came up with the song " PUNK is nowhere " released last month, composed of hate comments the band received.



"Too neat! No filth! Too fashion! Cosplay! Listen Avril songs!" the song goes. Then Yeawon retorts in Korean, "I won't do what you want me to! I won't wear what you want me to wear! I won't live how you want me to live! Until I die you won't be satisfied!"



"I don't really care about those haters," MJ said. "There's both interest and envy, and our popularity is growing. I think there are various people because the internet world is infinite. I don't take it very personally. The one who keeps going is the winner."



That wasn't the first time Rumkicks turned a bad experience into a great song.



In March 2021, they released " Don't Touch My Head ," about a fight Yeawon got into once.



"'Don't Touch My Head' is a song I wrote that night because I was so angry," she said. "A few years ago, I was waiting in front of the bathroom door after a gig and felt someone touching my hair. I turned around in surprise and found a drunk man. He suddenly moved like he'd been trying to swat a mosquito, and claimed there was a mosquito on my head. A fight broke out on the spot."



Although she did not say exactly how the fight ended up, only that "everyone in the audience and the bands came out to help," this reporter would not want to be in the other guy's shoes.



Early this year, Rumkicks released " Proud of Madness ," a tribute song for Mad Pride Seoul, a festival started in 2019 by ANTICA to raise awareness of mental health and destigmatize neurodivergent people. The song features guest vocals by Christmas Kwon and SAAE, two members of local punk band 18Fevers.



"We are proud of our madness, and our identities as mentally divergent people," the band said in a statement released with the song. "In 2019, the only mentally diverse people portrayed in Korean media were criminals. However, on Oct. 26, 2019, the representatives of mental diversity proudly stood at Gwanghwamun Square. Many media outlets had a lot of interest and covered the event. The way that mainstream media portrayed mentally ill people began to change."



"'Proud of Madness' was written with the hope that it could help improve the perception of people with mental health issues," Yeawon said. "Korea is a country where not only the mentally handicapped but also the physically handicapped struggle to live."



MJ added, "When you go abroad, you can meet various kinds of people, but Korea seems to be a country that does not want to admit change and difference because it is made up of people who are so uniform."



And so Rumkicks will go overseas, to a country where they might be better known than in their home country. But first, they'll play one more show this Saturday at Club Steel Face.





Rumkicks plays at The Studio HBC in Seoul, May 22. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar
Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer

A male lion, formerly of the San Antonio Zoo, killed the Birmingham Zoo's female lion, Akili, during a meeting between the two on Monday, officials said.

The two lions were being slowly introduced after Akili, who was born at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado, lost her mate, Kwanza, in 2021. Josh, the new male lion, was transferred to the Birmingham Zoo from San Antonio in April.
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An off-duty Bexar County sheriffs deputy was driving 80 mph on Interstate 10 West and swerved out of his lane before officers pulled him over, San Antonio police said.

A San Antonio police officer tasked with spotting DWI drivers saw a white 2016 Buick Encore heading toward downtown and traveling above the 60-mph speed limit at 2:20 a.m. July 1 in the 2600 block of I-10 West, a police report states.

The deputy, identified by the Bexar County Sheriffs Office as Ernesto Garza, 32, also was changing lanes improperly, the report states.

The officer activated his emergency lights, signaling Garza to pull over. When Garza failed to pull over, the officer turned off his emergency lights and followed Garzas SUV, calling for help from San Antonio Police Departments helicopter, according to the report.

Police said Garza took Interstate 35 North and exited at New Braunfels Avenue. He then ran a red light at New Braunfels and Lamar Street, the report states. Shortly afterward, Garza came to a stop.

On ExpressNews.com: Consequences will be swift and severe: Bexar County deputy accused of DWI, evading arrest

Garza refused to perform a field sobriety test or to take a breath test, according to the report.

Police filed a warrant to draw his blood for testing before he was booked into the Bexar County jail. He was released the same day after posting bond. His bail had been set at $11,000.

A Sheriffs Office spokesman said Tuesday evening that Garza was undergoing the disciplinary process.

Garza has been with the department for eight years. He was an investigator with the law enforcement bureau when the incident occurred.

jbeltran@express-news.net
Texas truck driver Homero Zamorano and co-defendant Christian Martinez worked together on three previous smuggling trips before they were arrested in connection with an abandoned 18-wheeler containing dozens of migrants who died from the heat in Southwest San Antonio, a federal agent said.

Zamorano, 46, of Palestine in East Texas, is charged with illegally transporting undocumented immigrants on June 27 after 53 people died in what authorities have called the worst smuggling catastrophe in the United States.

Martinez, 28, of Palestine, also known as Gordito or Gordo, allegedly worked with at least two other drivers  one caught at the Border Patrol checkpoint north of Laredo with 107 immigrants in his trailer and another caught with 98 immigrants this spring, according to testimony from Homeland Security Investigations agent Nestor Canales and court documents.

On ExpressNews.com: Its a new slavery: San Antonio archbishop condemns immigration injustice, apathy

This defendant (Martinez) was a part of an egregious and outrageous case in which 64 people were in a tractor-trailer without air conditioning for hours, and 53 of those individuals have died, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Spears said at the hearing in San Antonios federal court. Some are still in the hospital. This defendant helped coordinate that incident, and not only did he do it on one occasion, this defendant has done it on multiple occasions, according to his own admission.

Courtesy Anderson County Courtesy Anderson County Homero Zamorano from an unrelated arrest in 2020 in Anderson County. Zamorano is charged with illegal transportation of undocumented immigrants resulting in death. (Courtesy Anderson County) Homero Zamorano from an unrelated arrest in 2020 in Anderson County. Zamorano is charged with illegal transportation of undocumented immigrants resulting in death. (Courtesy Anderson County)

Martinez, who Spears said is homeless but has relatives in Palestine, is charged with conspiring with Zamorano. Both men face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted. Zamorano remains jailed without bond after he waived his bail and probable cause hearings in early July.

A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted Zamorano and Martinez on additional charges of conspiracy to transport immigrants resulting in death and serious bodily injury.

Canales testified that Martinez drove Zamorano from Palestine to a truck stop south of San Antonio and gave him instructions on where to pick up the load in Laredo. Court records show more than 200 migrants were smuggled in the same way by other drivers from Laredo before Border Patrol intercepted the loads  one trailer registered a temperature of 98 degrees. Other trailers connected to Martinez made it to their intended destinations in or near San Antonio with hundreds of migrants, according to court records.

Agents are investigating whether any of the migrants were held in a Laredo warehouse before being loaded into trailers.

Authorities have said Zamorano made it past the Border Patrol checkpoint with his load, and it has not been determined if the trailers cooling system was working at any point during the two-hour trip from Laredo to San Antonio.

The day of the incident, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said the cooling system of the refrigerated trailer did not appear to be working when the 18-wheeler was found along Quintana Road. The immigrants did not have any water, Hood said. Temperatures hovered at around 100 degrees, and experts have said it could have been more than 140 degrees in the trailer.

On ExpressNews.com: Before human smuggling disaster in San Antonio, 5 rigs caught illegally ferrying immigrants this year

Survivors have said the trailer appeared to have bullion or a spice sprinkled in it, and former agents said that is a common tactic used by smugglers to throw off police dogs from discovering the human cargo.

Michael Gross, who was appointed to represent Martinez, suggested that his client might have been coerced into speaking with agents. Martinez, Gross said, attended special education classes and cant read or write.

At best, Gross said, the governments allegations paint his client as a middle man.

I do not mean to downplay the significance of the death of the 53 individuals, Gross told U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad. However, Mr. Martinez was not present when either the air conditioner went out or when the decision to abandon those people was made.

Bemporad determined prosecutors had established probable cause and denied Martinez release on bond, finding him a flight risk.

This is an extremely serious case, Bemporad said. Its a serious case because many people died, but its a serious case whether or not people had died. Transporting people in bulk in tractor-trailers is about as dangerous an offense as we see in terms of the danger to life.

Martinez allegedly worked with another driver, Daniel Chavez, 29, of San Antonio. Chavez was caught about 8:45 p.m. on March 30 at the Border Patrol checkpoint north of Laredo when a police dog reacted to an 18-wheeler he was driving. Agents opened up the trailer and found 107 immigrants inside. They also noted the temperature in the trailer was 98 degrees.

Chavez pleaded guilty June 2  before the deadly San Antonio incident  to conspiracy to transport undocumented migrants and faces up to 10 years in prison when hes sentenced later this year. He said he would be paid $5,000 when he arrived with his load in San Antonio.

Laredo lawyer Roberto Balli, who represents Chavez, said hed heard federal authorities had connected some of the people involved in Chavezs case to the abandoned trailer.

Mr. Chavez had no connection with the deaths or organizing of that, Balli said. He was just a driver who was recruited.

One migrant from Guatemala who was in Chavezs trailer told agents he arranged to pay $19,000 to be smuggled from the border to New York. He was among immigrants moved from a stash house to a warehouse in Laredo before they were loaded onto the trailer.

Agents also linked Martinez to the case of Othell C. Brown, 46, of Palestine, who was caught driving an 18-wheeler with 98 immigrants on April 29. Brown, who pleaded guilty June 28 to conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants, initially claimed he was told he was hauling frozen chicken wings, but he later admitted he had been recruited by Gordo to transport immigrants. Brown was going to be paid between $800 and $1,000 to drive the rig to San Antonio, according to court documents.

Brown said it was his third trip driving an 18-wheeler with immigrants for Gordo  the other two were successful.

Two immigrants from Mexico who were in the trailer told agents that they were among 182 migrants smuggled across the U.S. border and stored in a Laredo warehouse until some of them were put on Browns trailer. They were paying $5,000 to $6,000 to be taken to Dallas.

Balli, who does not represent Brown but did represent one of the migrants in Browns load, has been involved in many smuggling cases in his 26 years of criminal defense. He said drivers are generally recruited and treated as independent contractors, but they play a small role in the overall smuggling operation. By the time drivers pick up the loads, five to 10 people have been involved just getting the immigrants across the border, into stash houses and the trailer.

All are in it for the money, Balli said. Some, like Chavez, dont even have commercial drivers licenses.

He added that smugglers are cramming trailers with larger loads of migrants.

This is the year Ive seen the most immigrants smuggled in large numbers in tractor-trailers, Balli said. Anything close to 100 was rare, something you almost never really see. Now, theyre not rare anymore.

guillermo.contreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland
A meteorologist for the National Weather Service in San Antonio and Austin took over the agency's Twitter feed early Wednesday to detail their overnight duties.

"This midnight shifter is getting lonely and craving human interaction," the meteorologist wrote in the tweet.

Judging by the Twitter thread, the early morning hours are just as busy as the daytime hours, but with the added obstacle of staying awake.

Mack Morris, a meteorologist with the NWS, would not identify who was responsible for the early morning Twitter thread but said they work in pairs overnight.

"You work with another colleague; there's always another person there with you," Morris said. "I wouldn't call it lonely, just tiring."

Meteorologists usually work seven straight overnight shifts every two months, Morris said, "just to get them out of the way." Some meteorologists prefer to work the overnight shifts and may do more than others. The overnight shifts come with extra pay.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio weather: Whats 'normal' these days anyway?

The eight-hour shift typically begins at 11 p.m. Morris said one of the highlights of starting work at that time are the chance wildlife encounters.

"Occasionally we'll see a raccoon or a skunk, those nocturnal animals," Morris said. "We have cameras set up all over the office. In the middle of the night, you'll see a skunk, just hanging out. They're much smaller than you think they are. Possums, fox, just about anything you think of that comes around at night."

With two kids at home, Morris said he usually goes straight to bed after work and wakes up around 3 or 4 p.m., depending on the day. When school starts, he may have to go pick up one of the kids around that time.

On ExpressNews.com: A bobcat was caught roaming in the backyard of a home near Shops at La Cantera

"It's funny; whenever I tell my 5-year-old that I'm going to work (during a midnight shift), he'll say, 'you work all night?'" Morris said. "I'll say, 'yep,' and he'll say, 'you're awake all night? Wow.'"

While the work is very similar to the day shift, staying awake can be tough if you're not used to it. Morris used to work a 12-hour overnight shift for a different company. He said it was easier than the eight-hour shift with NWS because he would start around dinner time.

"When I go in, it's kind of harder to get adjusted," Morris said. "Once you get in a couple of days in a row, you'll get adjusted."

On ExpressNews.com: Working the graveyard shift at San Antonio International suits parking supervisor

Morris said he sometimes eats as soon as his shift begins to "prep the brain," although overnight forecasters "just eat whenever."

Overnight work can be "pretty busy," Morris said, as meteorologists work to confirm details for the morning's weather, get necessary training done and put out news items for the media and for city governments like Austin and San Antonio, including heat advisories and excessive heat warnings.

That information is vital for governments to know whether to open cooling and warming centers, Morris said.

Further work goes into ensuring the Del Rio Weather balloon makes it off the ground safely, with the auto launcher preparing for the day's lift around 5:30 a.m. and the balloon released around 6:05 a.m.

The overnight shift is also critical to the weather service's operations in Texas, as the local NWS is charged with backing up fellow offices like those in Brownsville and Corpus Christi.

"We always have to be on our toes," Morris said. "If something goes wrong, if something went wrong for them, we'd have to be ready to back them up. Things like that can happen at any time."

shepard.price@express-news.net
A Bexar County sheriffs detention officer arrested Tuesday is accused of choking his ex-girlfriend after they met to try patching up their relationship.

Cpl. Leroy Molina Martinez Jr., 23, is charged with assault of family by choking or strangulation, according to court records. He was released from the Bexar County jail after posting bond. Bail had been set at $20,000.

On Monday, the woman called San Antonio police to report that she was assaulted. A detective investigating the alleged assault described her injuries, including a busted lip, a scratch on her cheek, petechiae around both eyes and a busted blood vessel on the inside of her left eye, according to an affidavit supporting Martinezs arrest.

The woman told police that she and Martinez broke up following a relationship of several years, but they were trying to work things out.

On Sunday, they exercised together and went back to his place. She told police that Martinez questioned her about a man she had spoken to while they were apart.

She told him she did not want to discuss personal matters, that she wanted to go home and began crying.

Martinez told her to be quiet and moved his arm to cover her mouth. He then said she bit him and smacked her on the face, causing her bottom lip to bleed, according to the affidavit.

He moved his arm down to her neck and squeezed her to the point she said she couldnt see or hear for several seconds, but remained conscious, the affidavit states.

She continued to cry and he grabbed her once more, choking her for several seconds, the affidavit states.

She told police she is in fear of retaliation and did not want to pursue charges. She refused to give a formal statement, but sought a protective order, police said.

The woman told police that Martinez has done this at least three times in the past.

Photos taken of her revealed injuries to her neck and mouth where Martinez grabbed her, the affidavit states.

After the woman identified Martinez by name, investigators called the Sheriffs Office and verified his rank as a detention corporal.

The Sheriffs Office said in a statement Tuesday that Martinez was served termination paperwork and is on unpaid administrative leave.

jbeltran@express-news.net
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Seven Oaks Apartments tenants and Texas Organizing Project representatives have been meeting since last month to push back against what they see as inhumane living conditions and unjust evictions.

And now, they are turning to San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, seeking time to speak with him and asking that he meet a list of demands, including relocation assistance and a statement of support for the tenants.

A couple of dozen residents and TOP organizers gathered under a pavilion at the Northwest Side complex for their weekly tenants union meeting in Tuesday evenings sweltering heat. They hoped that Nirenberg would attend and hear their concerns. But at the start of the meeting TOP organizers announced they were told the mayor was unavailable. So they rolled out a large poster with a photo of the mayors face  and the words Mayor Ron Nirenberg Listening?  and addressed it instead.

Several tenants faced the poster and described experiences with broken air conditioning, water leaks, mold and other problems that many said have gone unaddressed for months.

On ExpressNews.com: Tired of settling: Seven Oaks Apartments residents, Texas Organizing Project push back against poor living conditions, eviction notices

In her speech, Claudia Nega called upon the mayor to help. Nega, 49, lives at Seven Oaks Apartments with her husband. She has lived there for almost a year and is co-secretary of the tenants union, which formed about a month ago.

Nega said she does not have working air conditioning, her toilet wont flush properly, and her carpet is moldy due to a water leak.

As the mayor, youre supposed to be supporting us; were supposed to trust in you, Nega said, calling for the mayor to meet the groups demands. She also extended an invitation for him to come to future meetings.

As she was leaving the meeting, Nega said she was devastated at Nirenbergs absence.

We need help, Nega said.

The tenants want the mayor to sign a statement of support for them and issue a public statement toward the same end. They want him to call and email the complex owners to demand repairs and relocation assistance. And they want a guarantee of $6,000 in relocation assistance for every tenant who wants to leave.

We need him to open up the purse strings for the tenants here to ensure that everyone here can live in safety and in dignity, TOP organizer Ashton Condel said.

Nirenberg told the Express-News via email that city staff has been working with residents of Seven Oaks to address their problems, meeting with them to help with relocation assistance, legal referrals and utility assistance.

All San Antonio residents deserve fair treatment as well as safe, sanitary living conditions, his statement reads. City staffs efforts are one attempt to achieve that goal, and well be taking a look at how we can better support tenants as we approach our (fiscal year 2023) budget process.

On ExpressNews.com: I can die. ... And they dont care: Vista Del Rey residents form union, demand fixes from management

The requests of the mayor come after the tenants and TOP organizers made several demands of Seven Oaks Apartments last month. In a letter to management that they taped to the door of the leasing office, they called for maintenance requests to be fixed within 72 hours, for no tenant to be forced to move before Dec. 23, and for $6,000 in relocation assistance, among other items.

TOP organizer Marco Acuna said that though some tenants have spoken with management about their individual complaints, management and ownership have not tried to connect with tenants or TOP as a whole to address the demands.

But in the past month, city leadership has taken note.

District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval used campaign funding to pay for 15 motel rooms for five days so that people without air conditioning could have a place to stay in recent triple-digit heat while their units were repaired. The city and county are funding a few more days of motel stays for those still waiting on repairs.

They needed to be in a place that was safe for their health, and they had already been enduring those temperatures for so long, so I decided to go ahead and make sure that was covered, Sandoval said. Something terrible could happen in the heat. We know people are dying all over the world from these temperatures we are having.

Moving ahead, Sandoval said she wants to look into ways to ensure that more San Antonians dont get stuck in these negligent conditions.

On ExpressNews.com: Code violations dog large Leon Valley apartment complex; latest owner works through list of improvements

Acuna said that in recent weeks, San Antonio Code Enforcement has levied $6,600 in fines against Seven Oaks for code violations, many of which are related to broken AC units that he said the apartment now has started repairing.

Debra Watts, 59, is one of the several tenants staying in a motel room because of broken air conditioning. She has lived at Seven Oaks for five years.

Its been a blessing over there at the motel because we got air and were not hot in there, Watts said. We have all been hanging mostly together, like a family, because were in the same boat.

Tenants union president Peair Richardson, 29, said he is hopeful about finding solutions for Seven Oaks residents, and he is encouraged by how many people are coming together for the cause.

Tenants and TOP organizers at the meeting said they plan to keep up the pressure on the mayor for assistance, and they are looking into connecting with legal services to hold Seven Oaks Apartments accountable.

Achieve Investment Group, which Acuna said owns the complex and has not responded to the tenant and TOP efforts to communicate, did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

Theyve been a brick wall, Acuna said of the company owners. And that's why we are pushing the mayor as this indirect target ... because hes someone that Achieve might feel they have to answer to.

megan.rodriguez@express-news.net
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Relatives and friends wept Tuesday at courtroom video that showed Dominga Minga Irene Pesqueda Estrada, 33 being run over by a pickup on the side of a road early on Sept. 5, 2020.

David James Estrada Jr., then 30, was behind the wheel, authorities said, and is now on trial for murder in her death.

San Antonio police found her unresponsive and mortally injured  with Estrada at her side  near a bus stop in a grassy area beyond a curb in the 7400 block of Spur Valley Street on the Southwest Side.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio man accused of running down ex-wife with pickup is indicted on murder charge

At the time, witnesses told authorities they saw a pickup run her over about 2:30 a.m. as she walked along the street. Authorities questioned Estrada, who goes by James. They charged him with murder after determining that the pickup was his, accusing him of intentionally killing Minga Estrada.

Estrada has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers, in an opening statement, said the death was an accident.

Testifying for the state Tuesday on the second day of the trial, San Antonio police Det. Maria Salazar, a traffic investigator at the time of the crash, walked the jury through surveillance video that was taken from a nearby home.

Of three videos collected that night, one captured a dark pickup moving alongside a woman walking by the road, Salazar said. When the vehicle pulled up beside her, she walked away from it. The pickup then veered left toward her, accelerated and struck the woman. After a few minutes, it sped off in the opposite direction.

Relatives and friends of Minga Estrada gasped and wept as prosecutors Kristen Mulliner and Oscar Pena showed the video in court. James Estrada looked down at the defense table and wiped his eyes as he sat with his attorneys, Alex Scharff and Adrian Flores.

The couples friends, Maria Gamboa and her brother, Raul Gamboa, testified earlier that the Estradas had been together that night, socializing at the Gamboas house on Spur Valley. James Estrada came back minutes after they left, without Minga, and appeared freaked out in the front yard, as Raul Gamboa put it.

I said, Wheres Minga? but he couldnt respond, like he was in a daze, Raul Gamboa testified. Then he takes off, running down the street, away from the house.

Gamboa said he told his sister to get her SUV and they drove a short distance to find James Estrada cradling his ex-wife in his arms between some shrubs and the curb on Spur Valley.

She was just lying there, breathing heavily, Gamboa said. He was telling her, Dont leave me.

Scharff questioned both Gamboas about the demeanor of James and Minga Estrada at their home. Each said the couple seemed fine and were not arguing. They said the Estradas drank and played pool with Raul Gamboa and his girlfriend hours before the crash, but left before 2:30 a.m. because Minga had to go to work that morning.

Later Tuesday, San Antonio police Det. Paul Davila described crime scene photographs taken of the front drivers side bumper of the blue pickup that James Estrada drove. One image was of a hand print, another of blood. A third showed blood on the underside of the pickup on the oil pan skid plate.

Other images showed blue paint on a speed bump near where the body was found, and the victims broken cellphone near a puddle of blood in the grassy area near a damaged street sign.

At the trials opening Monday, jurors were shown video from police body cameras that showed Minga Estrada struggling to breathe as James Estrada hovered over her and called her baby. He became angry when EMTs would not allow him to accompany her to the hospital.

She never regained consciousness while en route to University Hospital and was pronounced dead at 3:15 a.m.

If convicted, Estrada, now 32, faces up to life in prison.

Staff photographer Kin Man Hui contributed to this report.

ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863
Discouraged with Texas politics, a Texan penned a lengthy post on Reddit expressing his understanding as to why people want to leave the state.

"I can't blame you," the Reddit user who goes by seamus_mcfly86 wrote in his post that appeared Tuesday.

"Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Texas. I was born here, raised here, I'm a summer heat type of guy, and I love BBQ. However, we all see the direction this place is headed. The values I was raised on (love your neighbor, Southern hospitality, etc.) have vanished," the post continued.

The Redditor then expressed concern that the state is headed for the "beginning of real Christian Fascism" after the state's restrictive abortion laws passed last year.

By Wednesday, the post was one of the most popular in the state and follows a trend of popular posts on the social media platform about residents wanting to leave the state.

On ExpressNews.com: Texas 1 of 6 states significantly undercounted during 2020 U.S. census

Reactions to Tuesday's post were mixed, although most tended to agree with the post's sentiments:

"I lived in Texas for Eight years. ABSOLUTELY loved it. Especially the people. It's sad the way our Country has become. GOD BLESS TEXAS," user notanenabler wrote.

"I wish you were wrong but I feel the same way," Wendellberryfan_2022 wrote, agreeing with the post.

"Please, if you don't like it here, leave," user roctoss wrote. "Keep it really simple."

"Whenever I see the posts talking about fleeing Texas, my little tinfoil hat comes out and I think about how it's possible a lot of the people encouraging others to leave are the ones furthest to the right trying to convince those that disagree to leave," user YeMajorNerd wrote. "I hope people don't leave en masse."

On ExpressNews.com: Is San Antonio able to support our aging population?

Data shows that people are moving to Texas. According to a Pew Research study, Texas' population grew by 1.06 percent between July 2020 and July 2021. The state's population increased by 1.49 percent between April 2010 and April 2020, the third-highest increase over the decade, trailing only Idaho and Utah.

However, according to the 2021 Texas Relocation Report issued by Texas Realtors, Texas was second in all relocation activity in 2019, welcoming between 537,000 and 582,000 new residents, but losing 435,000 to 471,000 residents to other states, the second-most in the country. The highest number of new Texans moved from California and Florida, while the highest number of departures were to California, Colorado and Oklahoma.

shepard.price@express-news.net
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A newly established state broadband office has published a plan detailing how grants, partnerships and tracking efforts can help Texas families in need have access to broadband.

Students in rural and low-income neighborhoods have been without internet at home for years, but it wasnt until the pandemic started that Texas focused on how to expand access.

When campuses suddenly shuttered and students were sent home to learn, school districts brainstormed how to get the internet into homes without service. They opened campus parking lots so students could connect to the schools internet to do classwork from their cars and even deployed buses equipped with Wi-Fi into neighborhoods.

The 134-page plan highlighted the ongoing struggles of disconnected Texans, such as kids who cant access the internet from hot spots in rural areas and job seekers who cant apply to jobs that are only posted online.

The high-need regions identified in the report include South Texas as well as Southeast and Northeast areas. The regions highlighted tend to have larger populations of older or low-income residents.

The states new broadband office could potentially tap into up to an estimated $4 billion in federal dollars to implement the plan as Texas works to build infrastructure in unserved areas and improve access by offering free or low-cost plans to those in need.

Texas lawmakers approved the a new state broadband office and charged it with developing a plan to guide future efforts. Then Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, making billions available for such work.

I would consider March 2020 the turning point when certainly we had a lot more momentum to close the digital divide, said Jennifer Harris, who serves on Gov. Greg Abbotts Broadband Development Council. Night and day between February 2020 and March of 2020.

Still, advocates worry one-time investments  without an eye toward sustainability  could mean the gap eventually will widen again as new infrastructure becomes outdated.

The state of Texas will need to step up eventually to sustain the level of connectivity that all Texans have, Harris stressed.

In the meantime, local districts are investing in homegrown solutions to help the students who are still without strong or affordable internet access.

Homegrown solutions

What began as a pilot project to quickly boost school internet signals into nearby homes has become Dallas Independent School Districts long-term bet.

Three out of every 10 Dallas County homes dont have access to the 2010 standard of broadband, a recent survey revealed.

DISD has 10 cell towers on campuses throughout the district. The internet signal gets boosted a little over half a mile from the sites, giving access to nearly 9,000 students who can log into the Wi-Fi from their homes.

But in some areas, even that signal is too weak, so the district is buying additional technology to help students pick up the internet service better.

To fully address the needs of students who dont have broadband at home, the district likely would need an additional 100 towers, staff members previously told trustees.

DISD also is connecting families via hot spots, though that is largely going by the wayside. That method was popular in the early days of the pandemic as a quick option, but it was unreliable and dependent on the existing service in the area to receive a connection. At one point, DISD rolled out 40,000 of the devices in the 145,000-student district. Now, those hot spots will be distributed by campuses, similar to how students check out library books.

Statewide ambitions

Hot spots are not a long-term solution for those without internet access, said Greg Conte, the director of the states new Broadband Development Office.

If you dont have service, those hot spots are nothing more than just paperweights, Conte said.

In many communities that still dont have adequate infrastructure, students are trekking to McDonalds or public libraries at night to use their internet, he said.

Thats why the broadband office is working on statewide options  such as creating a grant program to help with affordability  that rely less on spot fixes community by community.

Contes team met with residents during the past several months, gathering feedback for the overarching plan. The office was required to publish the document by mid-June and then get to work on an even more intensive five-year plan, required by the federal government in order to access billions in new money.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law created a new  and immense  pot of funding to help states expand their broadband. Maps that detail where internet access is lacking, address by address, will determine how much money states get.

Even though the maps are not yet available, experts believe Texas stands to gain between $1 billion to $4 billion, though it likely will not be available until 2024. Texas will probably receive the largest portion from all the other states, Conte said. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Not a special thing

Ector County schools Superintendent Scott Muri sits on the board that oversees Contes office. When the pandemic hit, almost 40 percent of his students didnt have access to high-speed broadband or any internet at home. Many lived in rural areas where hot spots were useless.

While his community implemented some solutions, not everyone had the support or resources to do the same. He hopes the work of the state office will establish broadband as a universal utility, rather than a special thing that some people have.

Advocates emphasize this is a long-term task that will extend years beyond the pandemic and well after federal funds expire.

If this is the only tranche of federal dollars we get, if the federal government says this is it, this is the last time were spending money, were still going to have broadband challenges in Texas, said Harris, who works as the state program director for Connected Nation Texas.

Infrastructure needs to be replaced as it becomes outdated, she emphasized, and state money will be needed to sustain internet access throughout Texas.

Were going to need to be able to tackle this issue for years and years and years into the future to keep infrastructure up to date, to keep affordability in mind, she said.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Labs journalism.




By Yoon Ja-young







Hana Bank has been selected as the best lender in the country in terms of customer contact in this year's Korean Service Quality Index released by Korea Management Association Consulting (KMAC), the bank announced Wednesday. It has been in the top spot for seven consecutive years.







The annual index aims at objectively measuring the quality of corporate services as through customers' eyes. Its service assessment team evaluates service quality of 135 companies and institutions in 34 industries by visiting them in a "mystery survey" format.







In this year's index, Hana was evaluated especially highly in the way staff greet customers and listen to their needs, politeness, enthusiasm and how they explain services to customers.







The bank has been operating a range of programs to satisfy customer needs, including a seniors' advisory program to better serve older customers who are often left out due to digitalization of financial services.







"I think our continuous efforts to protect customers paid off as we have been named as the best lender in the service quality index for seven consecutive years. We will continue serving each customer with sincerity," Hana Bank CEO Park Sung-ho said.


The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District board will consider firing its police chief, Pete Arredondo, on Saturday after weeks of public outcry at his performance during the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School that killed 19 students and two teachers.

Parents have demanded Arredondos dismissal, and the agenda for a special meeting, posted early Wednesday, is the first indication from the school district that it might happen  and that Superintendent Hal Harrell has recommended it.

Such an outcome might not mollify the school districts angriest critics.

They drew fresh outrage this week from a Texas House committees investigation that found critical security lapses by the district before and during the shooting, including doors left unlocked and an allegedly casual attitude toward safety protocols.

The district placed Arredondo on paid administrative leave days after the shooting, when Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw singled him out for blame. As the incident commander at the scene, McCraw said, Arredondo delayed the storming of two classrooms containing dead and dying victims and the gunman, Salvador Ramos, 18.

But other police commanders in charge of hundreds of officers at the school came in for similar criticism in Sundays release of the House committees report, which said none of them took charge during more than an hour of confused hesitation to confront Ramos, who was finally killed by Border Patrol agents.

Arredondo, who was sworn in as a newly elected City Council member shortly after the shooting, has said he didnt consider himself the incident commander. He unsuccessfully sought a leave of absence from the council and finally stepped down after two of its meetings were disrupted by strident public calls for his removal.

Attempts to contact Arredondos lawyer Wednesday were unsuccessful. Arredondo has not appeared in public nor spoken to news media for weeks, and it was unclear if he would attend Saturdays meeting, which includes a hearing in executive session regarding his contract.

The closed session also is to include a discussion of legal and procedural issues related to recommended termination of the police chief, according to the agenda, with action possible afterward.

On ExpressNews.com: As big questions and anger swirl, Uvaldes school district tries to prepare for fall opening

District officials have steadfastly refused to comment on Arredondos employment status.

At a special meeting of the school board Monday night, parents renewed demands for the chiefs ouster but also called for more sweeping changes, including the resignation of the superintendent, board members and other top district administrators.

Fierce Madres, a group of mothers in the community advocating for justice for the children who died, believe firing Arredondo isnt enough  they want criminal charges brought against him, said Angela Villescaz, the organizations founder.

Im pleased at the progress, she said Wednesday. It took a long time. I wish he had manned up and just done the right thing the first week and just resigned, but he didnt.

Villescaz said the group was worried that Arredondo, if he resigns before Saturday, might be able to collect a pension.

And then you have the problem of him going to some other school district or agency in the state and hes a bad cop, she said. We want him to be fired.

Tina Quintanilla-Taylor, whose 9-year-old daughter attends Robb Elementary, agreed that giving Arredondo a window to resign means he could take his badge and utilize it anywhere, and I think his badge needs to be stripped.

I almost feel like he was an accomplice or an accessory to the murder, because instead of assisting and protecting our young he directed crowd control, Quintanilla-Taylor said of officers who forced back or detained people who wanted to intervene during the standoff.

The crisis for the school district might affect enrollment, several parents at Mondays meeting said.

In one early sign, the number of students registering for the coming year at the citys only Catholic school, Sacred Heart Uvalde, has doubled since last year, from 55 to 111. Administrators think the unprecedented increase is because of the tragedy at Robb, said Beverly Duke, who oversees grants and the fundraising arm for Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

At times when your faith is shaken, coming back to your roots and your faith is a comfort, she said. I imagine a number of these families are wanting to show their child something positive, to bring light into a really dark situation.

The archdiocese has been raising funds to help provide tuition assistance, a full-time school counselor, bullet resistant windows and other safety measures at the campus, which teaches up to sixth grade.

Superintendents at nearby school districts, Knippa and Sabinal ISDs, said they havent noticed a sharp increase of students from Uvalde, but there are some every year and registration will continue for a few more weeks.

Tom Garcia, a grandparent of four children who attend Uvalde CISD schools, said most parents are holding public officials and Arredondo responsible. Hes sympathetic to calls for his firing and predicted it would happen to appease the community.

If they dont, we are on the verge of having riots, Garcia said.

But the crime was committed by an 18-year-old, not Arredondo, he said.

I dont see where the board is grossly negligent. I think our gross negligent is our elected legislators that do not move on gun safety, Garcia said. Everyone is very angry.  They are past the mourning (of) their deceased relatives, and now they are very angry.

Saturdays meeting will be held at 9 a.m. in the Benson Board Room, located at 601 Dean St. in Uvalde. It will include a 15-minute public comment period at its start, where members of the community can speak for a maximum of three minutes each.

claire.bryan@express-news.net
It was only by chance that Moises Sandoval was visiting the archives at Our Lady of the Lake University on the same day I did.

Sandoval, whose vibe is very much a Chicano version of Albert Einstein, wasnt doing research.

The 90-year-old retired physicist was there to view the papers of his late wife, Chicana poet, publisher, songwriter and activist Angela de Hoyos, who died in 2009.

He donated them to the universitys Center for Mexican American Studies and Research .

The archive isnt easy to find.

You must be guided through a labyrinthine series of doors to get to the ultra-refrigerated room where new generations of scholars someday will learn about de Hoyos extraordinary talent.

Theyll find it in five carefully preserved boxes.

De Hoyos, a San Antonian whose work was internationally known, became a recluse in later life. From time to time, new readers and journalists have rediscovered her genius.

Sandoval was married to her for 55 years, and it sounds like hes still discovering her, too. He speaks of her in awe.

She was a self-taught writer and artist, he says, graduating only from high school. Her name was Angela, or Angelina, he says.

Some details of her life remain a mystery. Her year of birth has been listed as 1923 or 1940. She didnt like being called a wife or referring to Sandoval as her husband.

She designed Fiesta gowns for the Order of the Alamo but was loathe to be associated with that work.

What counts are those boxes that reflect a full breadth of her literary achievements.

The university describes the collection as a body of work that features feminism, gender and Chicana philosophy as prominent themes.

She liked to be known as a cultural activist, a label that resonated with her.

The late Chicano poet Raul R. Salinas, known as raulrsalinas, called her the spiritual den mother of Chicano letters. He was referring to wolves, not scouts.

She was called one of our giants and grande dame of Chicano poetry by the godfather of Chicano literature Rodolfo Anaya and fellow poet Sheila Sanchez Hatch.

Arte Publico Press founder Nicolas Kanellos included de Hoyos in Hispanic Firsts: 500 Years of Extraordinary Achievement, writing that in 1966 she earned international recognition by winning the Bronze Medal of Honor in poetry from Centro Studi e Scambi Internazionale in Rome, later receiving its Silver Medal of Honor, according to San Antonio Express-News archives.

In 2014, Arte Publico published Selected Poems of Angela de Hoyos, noting that her work was translated into more than 15 languages and had won awards in Argentina, Italy, India and Germany.

A master of code-switching between English and Spanish, de Hoyos is also considered foundational for the Chicano writers who followed.

She was born in Coahuila, Mexico, and arrived in San Antonio at age 2. She said, San Antonio does not belong to me, but I belong to it.

As a publisher, she and her husband produced some of the earliest works by Chicana poets, including that of former Texas poet laureate Carmen Tafolla.

De Hoyos also co-edited a seminal anthology, Daughters of the Fifth Sun, published by Riverhead Books/G.P. Putnams Sons.

Many of her poems and essays were published in the 1960s and 70s, at the height of the Chicano movement, but she wrote lyrics for musicians Emilio Caceres and Los Tres Reyes decades before that.

Copies of her meager royalty checks are part of OLLUs collection, which also contains her drawings. Her subjects included her family, flowers and nature and Spanish-style architecture.

Her archive contains digitally scanned images of her paintings, sculptures and block prints as well as audio and video saved to CD and DVD.

Together, the items span a career that began in the 1940s and continued to the 2000s.

While Sandoval speaks in reverence about his wife, he was every bit her match.

He was born on the South Side, grew up on a farm and was in the Air Force. Thats where his IQ was tested at 139. He said his wifes was probably just as high.

He studied physics at St. Marys University and worked in a quality control laboratory as a physicist at Kelly AFB, he said. He had top security clearance.

It was post-Sputnik, when the Air Force decided it had to hire physicists, he said, calling the work a complete waste of time.

In their garage, he and his wife operated a small publishing house, M&A Editions. He was the technician.

For all thats known about de Hoyos, she remains a little elusive.

That makes it all the more important that her records were preserved by her husband and donated to OLLU, whose holdings include the papers of another formidable woman, Maria Antonietta Berriozabal, the first Mexican American woman to be elected to San Antonios City Council.

eayala@express-news.net
In this searing summer, Texas grid has held  so far. While we are grateful for this, it also shouldnt be viewed as an accomplishment.

Barely keeping the lights on warrants reflection about how the grid has held and why so many Texans lack confidence in it.

The lack of confidence begins with Winter Storm Uri, during which millions of Texans (including members of this Editorial Board) went without power amid freezing temperatures in February 2021 and hundreds of people died. And yet meaningful grid reform did not follow.

Since then, when extreme weather has arrived, be it winter or summer, Texans have found themselves wondering if such a catastrophic outage will happen again.

It hasnt, yet, despite blazing heat and a long run of triple-digit days. But we have come perilously close. To avoid outages this summer, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, has ordered power plants to defer routine maintenance in order to keep the lights on and the air conditioning flowing.

As many experts have observed, this has helped sustain the grid in the short term while flirting with longer-term problems.

If you put off preventative maintenance because its needed for reliability, it increases the chances youll need a more comprehensive outage in the future, Michele Richmond, executive director of Texas Competitive Power Advocates, told Bloomberg News.

ERCOT has also asked residents and businesses to dial back energy usage to ease grid demand. While reducing energy consumption is a noble principle at all times, its use as a frequent emergency measure feels akin to duct tape. Quite simply, Texans deserve a reliable grid, one they have confidence is sustainable even through severe weather.

On this front, Texas has significant work to do.

For example, a report card from the Environmental Defense Fund in February, one year after Uri, gave Texas low marks on grid reform.

Texas received an F- for failing to expand energy efficiency, a low-hanging fruit that would ease demand during extreme weather. It gave the state a D on considering connecting the Texas grid to other regions. And it gave the state an F in reducing outage inequities.

But lets zoom out: There are a number of forces at play that make it imperative for Texas to bolster its grid.

Texas population is booming  the state added roughly 4 million people between 2010 and 2020  and with that growth has come greater energy consumption. Climate change is leading to more and more severe weather: 2021 was the worlds sixth-warmest year on record, and 2013-2021 all rank among the 10-warmest years on record.

And yet most Texas Republicans have resisted efforts to mitigate climate change, be it through regulation or a fee-and-dividend proposal to limit carbon dioxide emissions. The state has utterly failed to address flaring and venting of natural gas. And, as we have experienced this summer, the grid remains shaky, at best.

A widespread outage would further put lives at risk in extreme weather, but it would also be detrimental to the Texas economy. State leaders should be promoting energy efficiency, offering incentives, not just pleas, for residential and commercial users to reduce power consumption at peak hours. But these are the same state leaders who have failed to give serious consideration to connecting the Texas grid to other parts of the country and often pit emerging renewable energy against traditional energy sources.

How many Texas truly have confidence in the grid?
Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. Albert Einstein is tied to the previous assertion. Was the quote apocryphal? If so, so what? Its something someone wise like Einstein at least would have said. When it comes to savings, time is the most crucial driver of wealth. If you doubt this, read up on Warren Buffett. Always rich, the vast majority of his staggering wealth accrued from the age of 60 and beyond. Buffett knew from a young age what a popular quote says Einstein similarly knew.

Please think about this in terms of the Federal Reserve, Congress, and the never-die notion of price-controlled pharmaceutical drugs. Theres a connection here. Consider it first through the prism of zero rates of interest.

The above rate is what the Fed retreats to in times of turmoil, and frequently when there isnt. A more ridiculous conceit than a zero rate would be hard to find. That is so because the most crucial  by far  driver of wealth accumulation is time. See Einstein, and see Buffett if youre still scratching your head. Then think again about the Feds attempts to decree costless credit. It cant, nor could it ever do any such thing. The mildly sentient know this based on the truth about compound interest and other returns. Why loan out for nothing the very wealth that can be multiplied over time if merely put to work in conservative fashion?

Its all a reminder that when it comes to the Feds efforts to control the price of credit, its doing no such thing. A price control with zero is a unicorn, interest-rate edition. Put as simply as possible, if the Fed could decree lending at a zero rate, there wouldnt be any lending to speak of.

All of this is a useful jumping off point to the childish notion of pharmaceutical price controls. Theyre a sad reminder that abjectly foolish ideas frequently refuse to die.

By now, most readers are familiar with the basics of this. Year in and year out politicians promise inexpensive access to drugs produced by what is often described as Big Pharma. Supposedly the pharmaceutical companies gouge those in need of drugs, and since they allegedly do, politicians grandstand with promises of affordable access to the fruits of Big Pharmas genius. Up front, politicians are superfluous here.

To see why, consider Silicon Valley. Technologists in northern California have for decades been relentlessly pushing down the prices of everything  think computers, smartphones, broadband access, etc.  not out of benevolence, but because investors reward with high valuations the corporations that produce the most for their customers at the lowest cost. To then pretend that the pharmaceutical sector is somehow different, and that theres no market reward attached to producing brilliant life and health savers at lower costs, is just naive. In other words, if there were a way to bring down drug prices, entrepreneurs would have already done it. No decrees needed.

Which reminds us that the source of expensive drugs is the gargantuan amount of costly trial and error that goes into their creation. Figure that it took over 40 tries for Rocket Chemical Company to create something as prosaic as WD-40, so imagine the amount of time and pricey experimentation that goes into advances meant to vastly improve our health. Drugs are frequently expensive as a consequence of the nosebleed costs that precede their creation. Kind of basic stuff.

Thought of in terms of price controls, its no insight to point out that if government caps prices on pharmaceutical drugs, the drugs capped will soon be scarce. Really, what corporation is going to bring to market drugs meant to improve health and elongate life if there will be no financial reward for doing so?

More important, what corporation can bring brilliant drugs to market if politicians are decreeing what they create affordable? The answer is none. See the early discussion of zero rates and compound interest once again. Its worth stressing yet again that the most important factor when it comes to wealth accumulation is time, which means no investor is going to put wealth to work in pursuit of negative returns.

The simple truth about attempts at pharmaceutical price controls is that underlying what vandalizes reason is an attempt to force drugmakers to lose money on what they produce. Sorry, but its not happening. Corporations work for shareholders. Shareholders require returns. Theyre what enable impressive wealth accumulation over time. When something is decreed costless, or unprofitable based on artificially enforced pricing, the obvious result is scarcity.

In the real world theres no such thing as zero rates of interest, and for the same reason theres no such thing as a pharmaceutical price control. Theres only scarcity if whats mindless is actually imposed. Lets call price controls what they are: donut holes. Theyre there, but theyre not really there.
The effect of spiralling costs on Welsh farmers ability to produce food has been laid bare in a new survey of farmers intentions.

The poll of over 700 farmers across Wales, covering all sectors, shows that 71% intend to reduce production next year as a consequence of increased costs and other factors.

According to NFU Cymru's poll, just over half (54%) of beef farmers will be reducing stock numbers in the next 12 months, averaging out at an estimated 10% cut in cattle numbers.

Meanwhile, in the sheep sector, 46% of farmers will be reducing their flock with an estimated average 7% reduction in stock numbers.

And four-in-ten (40%) dairy farmers said they would be reducing milk production in the next 12 months, with 39% of arable farmers saying their crop production levels would reduce over the next year.

A minority (21%) of poultry producers said they would be reducing bird numbers.

Of those Welsh farmers who said they planned to reduce production next year, 79% said it was due to increased costs imposed on their business.

Other issues leading to a reduction in production included insufficient returns from the market (53%), the impact of Welsh governments Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) regulations (44%) and other government regulation (41%).

Much of the reason for the increased costs farms are having to swallow is due to hikes in the prices of feed, fuel and fertiliser  commodities that are essential to the day-to-day running of farms that ensure farmers can maximise production.

With costs in fertiliser having risen at least three-fold in many instances, 83% of farmers said they would be using less of this vital nutrient over the coming 12 months.

The anticipated drop in production levels is also demonstrated by 33% of farmers saying they will be making less forage this year and 53% stating it is their intention to buy in less feed.

Given the global food crisis and the fact that escalating costs are forcing many farmers to reduce production and, in some instances, even consider whether they will be able to continue farming, NFU Cymru is calling on Welsh government to focus on food security.

It follows the Welsh government's proposals for a new Sustainable Farming Scheme, released this month, with NFU Cymru saying they needed to be reassessed to ensure domestic food production was protected.

And the Agriculture (Wales) Bill, to be introduced this autumn, must include mechanisms to ensure levels of domestic food production are maintained.

The union's president Aled Jones said: "For many months we have been hearing the struggles that our members are facing with rising costs at the farm gate.

"However, seeing those collective intentions in the results of this survey paints a worrying picture on the effect this is going to have on Wales food producing capacity.

Given the concerns around food security across the globe, the findings of this survey show that doing nothing is simply not an option."
MPs will examine the governments progress in rolling out its new farm payment system, the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS).

The EFRA Committee will look at how the rollout of the ELMS scheme is going, and whether the government has listened to farmer feedback from the pilot schemes.

The post-Brexit system will pay farmers for delivering a range of public goods including improved environment, better climate outcomes and improved animal health and welfare.

The government launched the strand of the policy aimed at farmers - the Sustainable Farming Initiative (SFI) - in June 2022, with other schemes due to be piloted later this year.

MPs who sit on the committee will look at how well Defra is communicating the changes to farmers and other affected groups.

They will also explore whether the ELMS aims and timescales need to change to respond to pressures facing farming such as increased fuel and fertiliser costs, as well as changing food prices.

The committee has looked at the Defra's plans for ELMS before and published a report on it in October 2021, Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition.

Chair of EFRA, Sir Robert Goodwill MP said As we are now starting to see the detail of the governments plans, we want to hear farmers and landowners views on the new system and how well they think Defra's rollout is going."

Dr Neil Hudson MP, member of the EFRA Committee added: "I represent a large rural area in Cumbria where farming is the lifeblood of the community.

"I know first-hand that farmers are very concerned at the challenges ahead with the changes in the way they are funded now we have left the EU and the pressures facing them with increased costs and international trade policy.

"That is why I was keen that our committee looked at where we are at with the uptake and rollout of the new ELMS schemes so we can make recommendations to government if any urgent remedial action is needed to help our farmers moving forward.

What will be asked at the inquiry?

The Terms of Reference for the forthcoming committee inquiry are:

 What progress has the ELMS programme made since January 2022 (when the government responded to the first committee report on ELMS)?

 What have farmers experiences been of applying to the SFI since its launch on 30 June 2022? How effectively has the scheme used the feedback from the SFI pilot? What are the timescales for launching additional standards under the SFI?

 Is the government on track to get 70% of farmers, covering at least 70% of farmland, to take up SFI agreements? How have recent changes in global food prices impacted on the attractiveness of the financial incentives in the schemes?

 Is ELMS on track to start piloting the Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery schemes in 2022?

 How effectively is the government communicating and engaging with farmers and other landowner groups about the progress of ELMS?

 Should the government change the focus on the ELMS scheme and/or the timescales for implementation given the current pressures on farmers and UK food security?
Defra must push forwards in reforming farm payments for ambitious environmental delivery or risk undermining long-term food security, says a new report.

The Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) has set out why farm payments for improvements to soil health, biodiversity and climate mitigation would ensure viable food production.

But the group is calling for a rethink of systemic issues within food systems that weaken the industry's transition to widespread sustainability,

At a time of global food insecurity resulting from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, its new report [PDF] argues that these fragilities in the food system have long been present.

The report, part of the NFFNs Rethink Food campaign, highlights that these systemic issues include food waste, extractive supply chains and diminishing farm returns in the face of increasing input costs.

Current research predicts that the land's overall productive capacity will reduce due to climate change, increasing supply and demand pressure, and making on-farm adaptation through nature-friendly systems a priority.

Martin Lines, NFFN UK chair said farmers were already battling extreme heat that was putting crops and harvest under threat.

"Many are up against the wall with soaring input prices for products that will be increasingly unavailable in the future," he explained.

"Moving to nature-friendly farming systems with fewer inputs means more resilient landscapes and food production that is less hindered by market or environmental stresses.

"The soil is healthier and able to bounce back from extreme heat or drought without relying on extensive use of fertilisers.

The report sets out seven areas for achieving change, including prioritising the right outputs in the right areas, harnessing opportunities for producing a wider diversity of foods and improving the link-up between strategies for food, agriculture, trade and land use.

It recommends that payment schemes support farmers in creating greater ecological and agricultural diversity, including wider crop choices and livestock breeds, to help farms manage natural or economic shocks with less reliance on inputs.

With the right incentives in place, farming can be the backbone of a resilient food-secure future that effectively safeguards nature, improves soil health and helps achieve net zero.

Mr Lines added that current research predicted the land's productive capacity would reduce due to climate change, threatening farmings ability to produce food in the near future.

"Moving to farm systems that restore the natural environment and adapt to a changing climate, while mitigating the worst impacts, wont delay achieving genuine food security, but hugely  and undeniably  contribute to it.

Right now, our food system is inherently inefficient. It pushes short-sighted and often damaging intensive production at the expense of farmings dependency on expensive inputs while wasting considerable volumes of food and drink along the way.
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Prosecutors raided local cryptocurrency exchanges on Wednesday as part of an investigation into a fraud case in connection with the collapse of Terraform Labs' digital coins, TerraUSD and Luna, officials said.







A team of investigators from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office began seizing transaction records and other material from Upbit and other local exchanges around 5 p.m., they said.







Investors in TerraUSD and Luna filed complaints against Terraform Labs' CEO Do Kwon and co-founder Daniel Shin in May, accusing them of fraud over the loss of billions of won following the crash of both coins earlier that month. (Yonhap)


Sri Lanka has registered an impressive growth inin the first five month of this year despite the ongoing economic and political crisis.from the island nation stood at $2,206.6 million in January-May 2022 registering an increase of 16.7 per cent over exports of $1,890.9 million in the same period of previous year, according to the statistics released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan textile exports increased by 17.9 per cent year-on-year to $149.2 million during the same period. However, exports of other made-up textile articles stood at $52.7 million during January-May 2022, registering a decline of 3.2 per cent year-on-year, according to the central banks report External Sector Performance  May 2022.

Textiles and garments exports accounted for 56.40 per cent of all industrial exports from Sri Lanka during the five-month period of this year, the report showed.

Sri Lanka has registered an impressive growth in garment and textile export in the first five month of this year despite the ongoing economic and political crisis. Garment exports from the island nation stood at $2,206.6 million in January-May 2022 registering an increase of 16.7 per cent over exports of $1,890.9 million in the same period of previous year.#

On the other hand, imports of textiles and textile articles rose by 19.6 per cent to $1,404.7 million, while clothing and accessories imports were up by 21.4 per cent to $109.7 million during January-May 2022.

During the month of May 2022, garment and textile exports from the South Asian nation registered a growth of 29.9 per cent year-on-year. Category-wise, garment exports increased by 30.4 per cent to $436.7 million, textile exports rose by 34.4 per cent to $37 million. Exports of other made-up textile articles were up by 1.7 per cent to $10.1 million.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)
About 90 per cent of respondents belonging to the fashion industry expect their sourcing value or volume to grow in 2022, according to a recent survey. Close to 77 per cent feel at least somewhat optimistic about the next 5 years, despite the current short-term challenges, and nearly all respondents97 per centplan to increase hiring over the next 5 years.

Increasing sourcing and production costs remain a top concern for the US fashion industry, according to United States Fashion Industry Associations (USFIA) ninth annual Fashion Industry Benchmarking Study, a survey of executives from over 30 leading fashion brands, retailers, importers and wholesalers.

For the first time in the nine-year history of the Benchmarking Study, 100 per cent of respondents expect their sourcing costs to increase in 2022. US fashion companies continue to adopt a more diverse sourcing base, to handle supply chain disruptions and growing sourcing risks. Reducing China exposure is one crucial driver of US fashion companies sourcing diversification strategy. One-third of respondents report sourcing less than 10 per cent of their apparel products from China this year. In addition, a new record of 50 per cent of respondents source more from Vietnam than China in 2022.

About 90 per cent of respondents belonging to the fashion industry expect their sourcing value or volume to grow in 2022, according to a recent survey. Close to 77 per cent feel at least somewhat optimistic about the next 5 years, despite the current short-term challenges, and nearly all respondents97 per centplan to increase hiring over the next 5 years.#

Asia remains the dominant supplier of apparel. This key finding has been consistent over the last nine years. Almost all the top ten most-utilised apparel sourcing destinations in 2021 are Asia-based, led by China (91 per cent), Vietnam (88 per cent), Bangladesh (84 per cent), and India (72 per cent). However, there is considerable excitement about increasing apparel sourcing from the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) region. Over the next two years, 60 per cent of respondents plan to increase sourcing from CAFTA-DR. Improving textile raw material supply will be critical to encouraging more US apparel sourcing from the region.

US fashion companies strongly support another ten-year renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Meanwhile, Ethiopias loss of AGOA benefits is negatively impacting the region. No respondent plans to move sourcing orders from Ethiopia to another AGOA beneficiary country. This highlights the uncertain future for sourcing when supply chains are disrupted, as per the study.

Respondents represent companies with headquarters or major management offices in the US. This year, around 75 per cent of respondents also have headquarters or major management offices outside the US, including China, Asia other than China, Europe, Eastern and Central America, and Mexico, among others. In addition to 100 per cent selling products in the US, over half of respondents also sell products in Canada, Western Europe, Mexico, and Asia. These patterns reflect the global nature of the fashion business today and the ever-closer connection of the US fashion industry with markets and supply chain partners worldwide.

The study was conducted in conjunction with Dr. Sheng Lu, associate professor in the University of Delaware Department of Fashion & Apparel Studies.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)
Hailing from the small town of Jalandhar, Vishwas Kini embarked on his acting career with his debut film Punjab 1984. Immediately after, the spotlight shone on him when the movie won a National Award for Best Regional Feature Film in 2014. The actor has once again come to the limelight essaying the role of Jason Fernandez, a stern police officer in the web series SHE. Filmfare sat down for an interview with the actor, where Kini discussed his experience shooting for SHE, how Sonam Kapoor Ahuja would encourage him on the sets of Veere Di Wedding, his journey as an actor and much more.

You Have Started Playing Really Complex Characters, Especially With She, How Has That Experience Been For You?



Its been a learning experience. Every time I try to do a character, I end up learning something new about myself. As an actor, there are new areas to be explored and that is very rewarding.

You Got Your First Big Break With Veere Di Wedding, Tell Us About Your Experience Working With Kareena Kapoor Khan And Sonam Kapoor Ahuja?



It was a bit overwhelming initially in the first couple of days because I was very new on set, and everyone knew each other. But they were very cool, they did not take a lot of time to make me feel involved and soon I was one of them. They would come up to me and be like dont stress so much yaar take it easy. Sonam once came and told me Tu Sonam Kapoor ka boyfriend bana hai yaar, terko kis baat ka stress hai? So, things like these made me feel that I was having fun. Sumeet and I gelled a lot on that set, he is still a very good friend.

The Second Season Of She Premiered Recently. What Do You Think Is The Biggest Compliment You Have Received Now That It Is Out?



Last week, Imtiaz Ali texted me and said, You have shone as Fernandez. It took a while for the mechanism to adjust and project your strength correctly which was, I feel like coming from him was a big compliment. Also, my mother really liked it, she initially said, Yeh toh tumhare jaisa lag hi nahi raha hai, so that was a very big compliment for me. The public really likes it. The general response of the audience is that there is a slight difference in how I played Fernandez in the second season as compared to the first one. I was much more comfortable with him this time and I also came in relaxed. I was a bit more comfortable with the general aspects, so I had the courage to go deeper. So that is something that the audience noticed. Like the kind of fan response that I am getting, people really like how human he is in this season.

What Part Of Jasons Character Do You Think Was Most Difficult To Pull Off Onscreen?



He is constantly thinking, conspiring. In the evening when you have to play Jason with this immense mental energy where he is constantly trying to figure things out and his mind is not resting at all, that sometimes becomes very challenging. Especially after these lockdowns, I have sort of become relaxed in life. I take work when it comes, and I dont overthink things but at the same time when you are playing Fernandez, he is always on his toes. This time the obsession had to be really on point. Getting this whole part of Fernandez right was my main mission as an actor and that is what the most difficult part was.

Could You Shed Light On Your Journey As An Actor?



In 2009, I was at home in Jalandhar, watching a film late at night called Michael Clayton. I used to love watching films, I was not inclined towards Bollywood, but watching the movie I thought to myself that I could do the same work, it seemed very interesting to me. The last scene in that film is when he sits in a taxi, gives the taxi driver 50 dollars, and says, Give me a ride worth 50 dollars and then the end credits roll in. He is just sitting in the car but there is so much going on in his mind and somehow, I still remember that is the first time I ever thought that this looks like a profession I want to do. Then I was in my second year of college. I was very confused as to what I should pick up, and where should my life go. I always knew that I wanted to do something of my own, I didnt want a regular job and I was clear about that. But like every college student I was confused. Then I came to Bombay to do theatre, and after that, I did a few ads. In 2014, I did my first film Punjab 1984 and it was a very interesting experience. It was a very subject-driven movie, I really enjoyed it and got hooked on it. This is a profession you get hooked on to.

Which Are Your Favourites On Ott? What Are You Currently Watching?



I am currently watching SHE. (laughs) I am not watching any thrillers right now because of all this, there is so much happening in my life because of the release that my life has become a thriller right now. I can barely sit down and watch something, so I am watching a lot of comedies to unwind and keep myself calm. The show I am currently watching is Curb Your Enthusiasm.

What Are Some Of Your Favourite Thrillers?



I really love Se7en and Mindhunter. David Fincher is my all-time favourite director and mostly all his films are my favourite. I love Zodiac, and Se7en. Then I really love True Detective, The Silence of the Lambs. My sister is also a big thriller watcher, so we are always sending each other names of the new thrillers that are coming up. And then we sit and watch them together.

How Do You Select Your Movies Or Series From The Scripts That You Receive?

I select them like I select friends. You meet someone and you dont know you're going to be friends with them but after some random conversation and a couple of days later you realise that you are friends. Similarly, when I get something to read or a part to test for, I just read it and there is something in me that feels like I just know this person. I just let the whole script and the character I play really speak to me. It is completely based on gut feeling.

Are There Directors You Are Looking Forward To Working With?

I love Zoya Akhtars work, I really like the kind of filmmaker she is. Anurag sir is another favourite. Anubhav Sinha, Shoojit Sircar. I love their films. One lifetime is not enough to work with all the great directors we have but these are some of my favourites.

How Was The Experience Working With Aditi Pohankar Who Has With Time Also Become A Great Friend?



There is a very deep trust and understanding that you develop with your co-actor. It is very important while you are doing scenes. For me to play the mentor, there cant be just lines, there must be a sort of trust even when she is fighting with me. She should be fighting with me like she is family and for that to be honest on screen, there must be love and respect on screen. I try to develop that with all my co-actors. For example, with Out of Love, I developed such a nice relationship with Rasika. She is slightly senior and comes with a lot of experience and I learned a lot from her. Both me and Aditi were very nervous in the first season, it was all very new for us. We were comparatively new but roaring to go, full of energy and full of ambition. So, we really connected on these terms. We really wanted each other to do well. So that is how we developed a nice relationship.
Today, Ireland's Prime Minister Micheal Martin will visit Japan to meet Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to renew collaboration agreements and further increase economic relationships between the two countries. Key among the discussions is likely to be challenges and opportunities in energy markets for island nations.

The energy market in Japan is becoming more dynamic and complex, but this is creating significant opportunities for businesses to support the grid and change how they power their operations. During his visit, Mr. Martin will meet with GridBeyond representative Shunsuke Amanai to discuss the global energy crisis and to share lessons learned on how island markets can best manage volatility in a high renewables' future.

Japan's energy system is changing due to rising levels of renewable power and ongoing electricity market reforms. The result is a growing need for flexible resources to help balance the intermittency of renewables and help match demand and supply. In addition, like many markets across the globe, Japan is experiencing extreme tightness of electricity supply and demand. As a result, the government has been requesting power conservation. While action on the demand side of the market is relatively new in the Japanese market, this is a mature and proven industry in Ireland and the UK with C&I businesses able to gain revenues and make significant cost savings, provided they have the right technology in place.

Using artificial intelligence and data science, GridBeyond's solution enables businesses to participate in grid services and wholesale markets using their energy generation, storage and industrial load.

GridBeyond started activities in the Japanese market nearly a year ago. Last year, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chiyoda Corporation to roll out flexibility solutions for the Japanese electricity market and it is currently getting ready to open an office in the country later this year.

Michael Phelan, GridBeyond's CEO commented:

"Japan has a strong sustainable focus and aims to become carbon neutral by 2050. As renewable energies, energy storage, decentralised solar PV and EV mobility become more present in the energy landscape, services as the Demand Side Response become critical to support business and the grid operators to balance supply and demand of power, increase resilience and enable further integration of renewables into the energy mix."

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220719006029/en/

Contacts:

Gabriella Di Salvo

pressoffice@gridbeyond.com
NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - NexBloc today announced that Ankit Sahni (www.linkedin.com/in/ankitsahni/), leading Indian intellectual property counsel will join NexBloc's Advisory Board as a Strategic Advisor.Aditya Walia (www.linkedin.com/in/aditya-walia-23aab8a2/), Co- Founder of NexBloc, stated that, "Ankit is highly respected in Indian and international business circles for his contribution to IP and technology laws. We are honored to have him on our Board of Advisors as we look to make the new internet a safe and user-friendly area that builds upon the advances of Web 2.0.NexBloc is developing infrastructure for the decentralized web with their domain naming system (dDNS) to make Web 3.0 a usable ecosystem of connected websites and applications. They use an omnichain approach by creating root domains on core blockchains and then interconnecting any blockchain for use of a consistent naming path.With NexBloc's strong development and investor relations group in India, Mr. Sahni will help drive Private Label partnerships as NexBloc expands its offering for specific regions."About NexBloCNexBloc is building the next generation of the internet with decentralized DNS at the core. Digital entities tied to the decentralized web are the future of personal data protection and use.Founded as a USA company in 2020, NexBloc uses technology stacks to create custom deployments of dDNS systems. NexBloc has a deep history of development in India and continue to expand in the region. They currently have over ten private decentralized top-level domains (dTLD) in various forms of deployment.Domain Website: https://domain.nexbloc.com/Website: https://www.nexbloc.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/80164369Medium: https://medium.com/nexblocTwitter: https://twitter.com/nexblocTelegram: https://t.me/nexblocIf you think a custom, decentralized top-level domain would benefit your enterprise, please visit this page: NexBloc Top-Level Domain Request Form (bit.ly/3ojbmAR)Press or Partner inquiries please send to pr@nexbloc.comSource: NexBlocCopyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - MKS Enterprise LLC is recalling Dose Vital VIP Vital Honey citing the presence of undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredient Tadalafil, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said. The FDA last week had warned four companies, including MKS Enterprise, for illegally selling honey-based products with hidden active drug ingredients, including tadalafil and sildenafil. Tadalafil, which is a phosphodiesterase type-5 or PDE-5 inhibitor, is the active ingredient in an FDA-approved prescription drug, used to treat erectile dysfunction or ED. The recalled product comes in a black box and contains 12 sachets of 15 grams of honey with different expiration dates stamped on the back side. The product was sold through the company website, wholesaleonline1.com from March 2022 to July 2022. The recall was initiated after FDA laboratory analysis confirmed that Dose Vital VIP Vital Honey contains the undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredient Tadalafil. Tadalafil may interact with nitrates found in some prescription drugs such as nitroglycerin and may lower blood pressure to dangerous levels. Men with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart disease often take nitrates. However, wholesaleonline1.com has not received any reports of adverse events related to the recall to date. Consumers who have purchased Vital Honey on wholesaleonline1.com are urged to immediately discontinue use and return the recalled product for a full refund. The FDA last week also warned Thirstyrun LLC, also known as US Royal Honey LLC; Shopaax.com; and 1am USA Incorporated dba Pleasure Products USA for illegally selling honey-based products with hidden active drug ingredients. Separately, Loud Muscle Science, LLC last week called back certain Launch Sequence products in the U.S. and Canada for undeclared Tadalafil. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.




TOKYO, July 20, 2022 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, Ltd. (MHIENG), a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group, has received 2022 Engineering Commendation Awards from the Engineering Advancement Association of Japan (ENAA) for three overseas projects. The representatives of the projects attended the awards ceremony held at the Dai-ichi Hotel Tokyo on July 19.The ENAA Engineering Commendation Awards are presented to groups (teams) or individuals whose activities have contributed significantly to the advancement of the engineering industry. MHIENG received two awards for its engineering activities in the "International Contribution" category and one "Engineering Advancement" award given for technology advances in the engineering industry, development of new engineering fields, etc.MHIENG's Award-Winning ProjectsManila MRT-3 Rail Line Maintenance and System Rehabilitation Project(International Contribution Award)This project, conducted by MHI Group (MHIENG, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Transportation and Construction Engineering, Ltd. and TES Philippines Inc.) in partnership with Sumitomo Corporation, was implemented in response to a request from the Philippine Government. It called for rehabilitation and maintenance of the Metro Rail Transit System Line 3 (MRT-3), which has suffered a decline in operating rate due to aging. The rehabilitation work consisted mainly of repair of age-deteriorated railway vehicles, power equipment, signals and communications equipment, plus rail replacement. MHI Group successfully completed the rehabilitation work within the contractual period without disruption of regular operation of the rail system. By rehabilitating the MRT-3, which functions as a major transportation in Metro Manila, this project contributed to providing a safe and comfortable social infrastructure to the people in the region. Furthermore, in addition to the rehabilitation, MHI Group is steadily implementing a subsequent maintenance service. This seamless service by continuous export of expertise helps boosting the system reliability, which was enhanced by the rehabilitation, and it was recognized as a new form of international contribution.Uzbekistan Fertilizer Plant Project(International Contribution Award)This project, the first large-scale Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) undertaking in Uzbekistan by a Japanese company, was large-scale ammonia and urea fertilizer production plant in the city of Navoiy, central Uzbekistan. MHIENG formed a consortium with Mitsubishi Corporation, and MHIENG was responsible for the EPC of the plant and commissioning. Project execution was an imposing task due to the difficulty of transporting the equipment to Uzbekistan, one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world. Delivery of the new plant, which adopts today's most advanced technologies for reducing environmental load, cut energy consumption by approximately 50%, making a significant contribution to the development of Uzbekistan's economy and chemical industry.Large-scale Polyethylene Plant Construction Project(Engineering Advancement Award)This project scope was construction of one of the largest polyethylene plants, which forms part of largescale ethylene complex in Texas, USA. MHI Group formed a consortium with Zachry Group, and handled the design details, supply and procurement of equipment, and building of the modules. For cost optimization and risk management at site, this project was planned as the world's first full modularization of the world-scale polyethylene plant and the construction was completed successfully. MHIENG also achieved the shortest delivery time, which was shorter than traditional methods. In addition, the project was completed without injury during the entire project period, garnering outstanding praise from the customer.MHIENG will further enhance the cutting-edge environmental technologies and project management skills cultivated from its abundant experience, to provide solutions that will contribute to economic development in countries worldwide and also respond to regional needs such as improving transportation convenience. In addition, by manifesting its engineering strengths MHIENG will make solid contributions to realizing MHI Group's goal of achieving a carbon-neutral society.Source: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.Copyright 2022 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Anglican priest Min-Kim Jong-hun, left, and Rev. Lim Bo-rah, a pastor of Sumdol Presbyterian Church, pose during an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul, July 15. The two religious leaders are members of the Korean Translation and Publication Committee of "The Queer Bible Commentary," which provides LGBTQ-based and feminist interpretation of scripture. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



Anglican priest and Presbyterian pastor discuss Seoul's pride celebration, Korean translation of 'The Queer Bible Commentary'



By Park Han-sol



Seoul Queer Culture Festival (SQCF) traces its history back to 2000, when less than 100 members of the LGBTQ community first gathered in solidarity in the central Seoul neighborhood of Daehangno for a few rainy days in September.



While the annual festival has grown significantly in size since then  relocating eventually to Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall in 2015  so have the rallies led by conservative Christian groups in protest of the event.



SQCF's 23rd edition, which returned for just a single day on July 16 following a two-year pandemic-induced hiatus, was no different.



Surrounding the rainbow-colored venue and its tens of thousands of revelers were fervent Christian opponents of sexual minorities, armed with banners, whistles, microphones and vans with loudspeaker systems installed to make their opposition load and clear.



Some common sights of such rallies are a prayer vigil held under the slogan "Homosexuality is sin. Repent! Return to Jesus"; small children dressed in camouflage "ROK Jesus Army" uniforms chanting "Let's eradicate same-sex marriage"; and campaigners collecting signatures to "prevent Korea from turning into another Sodom and Gomorrah."





A demonstrator holds up a banner that reads, "Philip Goldberg U.S. Ambassador No! We condemn the American Embassy for destroying the alliance of both countries!" during a rally organized by conservative Christian groups in opposition to the Seoul Queer Culture Festival in central Seoul, July 16. Korea Times photo by Park Han-sol



This year, many also expressed their disapproval of Philip Goldberg, the new U.S. ambassador to Korea who gave a speech supporting LGBTQ rights at SQCF, claiming that his appointment would "break down sacred U.S.-Korea alliance."



However, in the cloudy afternoon of July 16, the voices of Christian believers and clerics could be heard not only outside Seoul Plaza but also in the heart of the festival venue  from booths run by LGBTQ-affirming churches and organizations.



Among them were Anglican priest Min-Kim Jong-hun, or Father Zacchaeus, and Rev. Lim Bo-rah, a pastor of Sumdol Presbyterian Church.



"We speak of the SQCF as a kind of a holiday for the LGBTQ community and their allies  a day of liberation and visibility that comes once a year," Min-Kim, who has taken part in SQCF as a clergyman since 2014, told The Korea Times in a recent joint interview with Lim.



For this year's Queer Parade, which marks the highlight of the festival, the group marching right up at the front in solidarity amid the heavy downpour was a coalition of religious leaders and members of Catholic, Protestant and Anglican churches, as well as believers of Buddhism and Won Buddhism.



"The image of such a coalition all marching together in the parade changes the dynamics of the conflict. This is no longer an issue of 'religion versus LGBTQ people' but that of supporters of sexual and gender minorities' rights and their opponents," he said.





A coalition of religious leaders and members of Catholic, Protestant and Anglican churches, as well as believers of Buddhism and Won Buddhism, march during this year's Seoul Queer Parade, July 16. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin



Both Lim and Min-Kim have been publicly recognized for years as staunch religious supporters of LGBTQ rights, irking Korea's more conservative Christian denominations.



For Lim, a fateful encounter came in 2007, when she learned that the bill for an anti-discrimination law  which bans discrimination on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, nationality and disability  was proposed but later thwarted due to strong opposition from some Christian organizations. After 15 years, the bill is still stuck in legal limbo.



"That was when I began to question the arguments launched to trample on homosexuality on the basis of the so-called teachings of the scripture," she said.



The Bible, written, compiled and translated by multiple contributors over millennia, inevitably becomes open to differing interpretations, according to the two religious leaders.



Obsessing over biblical literalism while ignoring the scripture's interpretive possibilities could result in limited or selective understanding of the text and perpetuate distorted views in the context of present-day reality, they stated.



"As a pastor, based on my faith and theological background, I felt that the issue of sexual minorities  just like that of women and social minorities in general  should be a matter of interest to everyone," Lim noted.



Her Sumdol Presbyterian Church in Seoul remains as one of few LGBTQ-affirming churches in the country.



For Min-Kim, the spirit of solidarity with the LGBTQ community first stemmed from his childhood in the 1970s, as he was raised by his mother who was an impoverished, young divorcee.



"We were never a part of a so-called 'normal' family, pushed to the fringes of society by the heteronormative and patriarchal values that prevailed at the time."



It was the church that provided young Min-Kim a chance to experience a new, inclusive form of family that transcends blood ties.



"That was why I could not stand some of the Korean churches' attempts to push away or persecute other marginalized groups, when in fact, it should be their job to walk alongside them," he said.



The priest recalled one sentence uttered by a queer Christian believer who asked him a decade ago: "Would God ever love a person like me?"



The encounter prompted him to turn his eyes to the community of LGBTQ Christians, who have been battered by the church's discriminatory rhetoric and yet continued to hold on to their faith  but for how long?



Such a question is what motivates him to continue his religious mission to this day, as he runs Yongsan Nanum House of the Anglican Church of Korea, which is dedicated mainly to promoting the rights of sexual minorities and undocumented immigrants.





Anglican priest Min-Kim Jong-hun, left, and Rev. Lim Bo-rah, a pastor of Sumdol Presbyterian Church, speak during an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul, July 15. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



7-year-long journey of translating 'The Queer Bible Commentary' into Korean



As they carried on with their fight against mainstream conservative Christian groups over the years, Lim and Min-Kim continued to witness a series of church-backed efforts to thwart the anti-discrimination law and shut down the annual SQCF, and in some cases even physical confrontations.



Because such Christian organizations claimed time after time that they were acting solely on the basis of "the teachings of the scripture," Lim, along with her like-minded colleagues, came to the realization that it was time to bring the wind of change within Korean Christian communities through the translation of "The Queer Bible Commentary" (QBC).



Originally published in English in 2006, the one-volume text compiles unorthodox works of scholars and pastors, whose mission was to analyze the biblical text by drawing on "feminist, queer, deconstructionist, utopian theories, the social sciences and historical-critical discourses."



Due to the sheer length and layered complexity of the content, translating the work was a daunting task for the Korean pastors.



Soon, at the initiative of Lim, the organizers decided to recruit volunteers willing to join their project.



The Korean Translation and Publication Committee of the QBC was formed in 2015, tasked with translating each chapter of the original text into two separate volumes: the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.



While the original QBC already boasted more than 30 writers of diverse academic backgrounds, it is notable that the Korean committee consisted of even a greater number of contributors who became involved in the processes of translation, proofreading and publication.



According to Lim, over 50 professors of theology, clerics and Christian believers of different gender identities and sexual orientations became a part of the project, turning it into a truly communal effort.



As expected, it was a journey full of trials and tribulations. The rough draft translation took years to complete, with many volunteers dropping out  for various reasons  and new ones picking up where the previous left off.



In 2017, years before the QBC even went into print, the General Assembly of Presbyterian Churches in Korea accused Lim of heresy for endorsing LGBTQ rights and coordinating the translation of the unorthodox biblical commentary.



The books, upon their release, should be "forbidden" within its congregations and both public and private meetings of church youth groups, its statement read.



The Korea Institute of Rainbow Theology, founded by Kim Joon-woo, a former professor at the Methodist Theological University, received threats from other denominations following his decision to publish the books.



Such an atmosphere explains why the majority of the Korean translators chose to be credited with aliases rather than their real names.



But the translated QBC volumes were successfully published after all  first the Hebrew Bible in 2021 and then the New Testament this year.



"I would like to say that the books were brought to life only because each and every one of our members decided to accept risks, in whatever form they may be," Lim said.





"The Queer Bible Commentary" has been translated into two Korean volumes  the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament  by the Korean Translation and Publication Committee of the QBC. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



The publication of the two volumes was achieved via crowdfunding, led mainly by Min-Kim and other activists.



While financial factors indeed played a role in this decision, a crowdfunding campaign was also launched in the spirit of continuing the "communal experience" that lasted throughout the translation and proofreading processes.



But the organizers never expected how overwhelming the community's support was going to be.



Much to everyone's surprise, in less than two hours after the crowdfunding campaign for "QBC: The Hebrew Bible" was launched online, it reached its goal amount.



Ultimately, they were able to raise over 60 million won from more than 1,300 supporters in the two separate campaigns.



Although the two volumes were intended mainly for theology experts and clerics, the supporters of the books included both believers and non-believers, who were either members of the LGBTQ community or their allies.



"This isn't a book intended for light reading. But I was very much moved to see the supporters purchasing the volumes for themselves or as gifts for others purely because of their life stories," Min-Kim said.



"The Korean churches are increasingly becoming something like an isolated empire that exists for select members of society. I believe that the desire for change coming from other Christians, which was reflected in our crowdfunding campaign, carries significant symbolic meaning."



With tears in his eyes, the priest recalled one particular comment he received from a campaign backer.



"They told me that they had already abandoned the church and God, with no intention of ever going back," he said. "But they decided to purchase the book anyway, solely because they don't want anyone else to experience what they've gone through."



The two religious leaders stated that the translated QBC can play several remarkable roles within the context of Korean Christianity.



One is to offer some comfort to queer Christians.



"I hope that when LGBTQ Christians come across sentences within the pages that can help them positively reaffirm their identity, they'll be able to let out a breath and perhaps bandage their wounds," Lim said.



Another role that the book can play is to challenge the conservative Christian denominations' one-sided, selective readings of the Bible, especially in terms of their distorted views toward certain social minorities.



Referring to the words of the original book, Lim said the QBC provides strategic "counter-interpretation" that aims to actively question the dominant religious narratives upheld for centuries.



It's not about coming up with one "accurate" interpretation, as the scriptures contain many other interpretive possibilities. Rather, it's about "queering" the text in the original sense of the word  to turn something that was accepted without question into something "strange and peculiar" that invites deeper consideration, she continued.



That is why Lim welcomed feedback from participants in a book-reading session, who argued that some of the contents found within the pages sound "forced" and even "contrived."



"The whole point of the book is to help set off a flood of questions that challenge or take issues with the biblical verses, making them as subjects of open discussion, instead of passively accepting them as the ultimate truth," she said.



In other words, it's creating a crack into the centuries-old practices and beliefs  a crack that could ultimately lead to fundamental change.





Participants of the Seoul Queer Parade wave to conservative Christian protesters across the street, who hold banners that read, "No! Anti-Discrimination Law," July 16. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar



"I think that generally speaking, Korean Christianity is currently in a state of inertia," Min-Kim noted. "While it's good to uphold the good side of tradition embodied in the religious canon, churches should not confine themselves within prejudices and their limited definitions of what is constituted as taboo."



For the two religious leaders, the QBC is a meaningful attempt for believers to critically reexamine their faith-based views and equip themselves with an "alternative" mindset.



They added that the changes made in the church's institutionalized system is reflective of  and also impacts  the changes taking place in society.



"That's why I think it's important for institutions like Sumdol Presbyterian Church and Yongsan Nanum House to continue to send signals to others that we will serve as a community for safe and equal relationships for all minorities," Min-Kim said.



"We the churches should not suffocate those fighting for changes by spewing words of hate and discrimination."




GREVIE, Sweden, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- During the second quarter, Lindab reported its highest quarter ever in terms of sales, driven by organic and acquired growth. Both business areas, Ventilation Systems and Profile Systems, reached record sales and profit levels. German Felderer and Dutch R-Vent were acquired during the quarter, corresponding to a total annual sales of SEK 1,200 m.

As of 2022 Lindab's business consists of business area Ventilation Systems and Profile Systems. Unless otherwise stated the comparative numbers exclude the divested business area Building Systems, which was divested in December 2021.

Second quarter 2022

Net sales increased by 27 percent to SEK 3,171 m (2,501). Organic growth was 14 percent. Structural changes contributed positively by 10 percent.

(2,501). Organic growth was 14 percent. Structural changes contributed positively by 10 percent. Adjusted 1) operating profit increased by 17 percent to SEK 402 m (344).

operating profit increased by 17 percent to (344). Operating profit increased to SEK 402 m (344).

(344). Adjusted 1) operating margin amounted to 12.7 percent (13.8).

operating margin amounted to 12.7 percent (13.8). Operating margin amounted to 12.7 percent (13.8).

Profit for the period increased to SEK 300 m (268).

(268). Earnings per share before dilution increased to SEK 3.92 (3.51) and after dilution to SEK 3.91 (3.51).

(3.51) and after dilution to (3.51). During the quarter, Felderer AG and R-Vent Netherlands B.V. were acquired, corresponding to an annual sales of SEK 1,200 m . In June, Lindab signed an agreement to acquire Muncholm A/S. The acquisition was completed in July.

The comparable numbers for the following key figures include the business divested in previous year.

Profit for the period increased to SEK 300 m (278).

(278). Earnings per share before dilution increased to SEK 3.92 (3.64) and after dilution to SEK 3.91 (3.64).

(3.64) and after dilution to (3.64). Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 161 m (227).

January - June 2022

Net sales increased by 28 percent to SEK 5,904 m (4,600). Organic growth was 18 percent. Structural changes contributed positively by 7 percent.

(4,600). Organic growth was 18 percent. Structural changes contributed positively by 7 percent. Adjusted 1) operating profit increased by 34 percent to SEK 742 m (552).

operating profit increased by 34 percent to (552). Operating profit increased to SEK 723 m (552).

(552). Adjusted 1) operating margin increased to 12.6 percent (12.0).

operating margin increased to 12.6 percent (12.0). Operating margin increased to 12.2 percent (12.0).

Profit for the period increased to SEK 536 m (425).

(425). Earnings per share before dilution increased to SEK 7.01 (5.56) and after dilution to SEK 6.99 (5.56).

The comparable numbers for the following key figures include the business divested in previous year.

Profit for the period increased to SEK 536 m (418).

(418). Earnings per share before dilution increased to SEK 7.01 (5.47) and after dilution to SEK 6.99 (5.47).

(5.47) and after dilution to (5.47). Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK -52 m (287).

1) Adjusted operating profit/operating margin does not include significant one-off items and restructuring costs.

Lindab's President and CEO, Ola Ringdahl, comments:

"Lindab delivers a very strong second quarter. Sales exceeded SEK 3 billion for the first time in a quarter. Operating profit reached a new record level, thanks to high growth and efficiency. The pace of operations has been high throughout the period and we expect stable demand for the rest of the year. The acquisitions of Felderer and R-Vent create a strong platform for Lindab in the strategically important ventilation markets Germany and the Netherlands."

Strategic acquisitions in Germany and the Netherlands

The acquisition of German Felderer was completed in April after approval by the anti-trust authorities. In June, R-Vent was acquired and Lindab thus establishes its own presence in the Netherlands. These two ventilation companies have a total annual turnover of SEK 1.2 billion and they strengthen Lindab's market position and growth opportunities in two of Europe's most important ventilation markets. During July, Lindab also completed the acquisitions of Muncholm and Girovent. We look forward to welcoming more well-managed companies to Lindab in the future.

A strong company with a clear future direction

Since 2018, Lindab has undergone a thorough transformation with increased focus on the core business. Unprofitable units have been restructured or divested. Investments have been made to increase capacity, efficiency and safety. Responsibilities have been moved closer to the customer, which has made Lindab more agile and customer-oriented. Since 2020, we have completed 15 acquisitions, which have contributed with more than SEK 2 billion in annual sales. At the same time, business with a total of SEK 1.2 billion in sales have been divested. Overall, these measures have resulted in a doubling of profitability. We will continue to build on Lindab's strengths and grow the business both organically and through acquisitions. We have an organisation that can make fast decisions and adapt the business when the world around us changes. Lindab has proven itself during the corona pandemic and its aftermath with raw material shortages and increasing prices, and now also after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Increased focus on energy saving

In the long term, we see an increased demand for energy-efficient ventilation due to high energy prices and the green transition. Ventilation, heating and cooling account for a large part of a building's operating costs and high energy prices should increase the pace of the renovation wave required for the EU to meet its climate goals.

Stronger demand for sustainable solutions

We notice an increasing demand for sustainable products. The highest tightness class is becoming increasingly important when choosing ventilation system, and the larger customers are actively selecting suppliers with strong sustainability profiles. This benefits Lindab, which has a competitive offering in this area. During the quarter, one of our partners in fossil-free steel, H2 Green Steel, came one step closer to starting its production. Lindab is a volume guarantor for both SSAB and H2 Green Steel and plans to launch a green product line when fossil-free steel becomes available in a few years.

Lindab has an experienced and motivated organisation, strong presence throughout Europe and a stable supply chain. We are well positioned to continue to develop the business in a positive direction in the future."

Press and analyst meeting:

A live webcast will be held at 10:00 am (CEST) on July 20. The Interim Report will be presented by Ola Ringdahl, President and CEO, and Jonas Arkestad CFO.

To access the webcast, please call:

Phone +46 (0) 8 505 163 86

Alternatively phone +44 203 198 4884

Pin code 3914322#

The webcast can be followed live at: https://tv.streamfabriken.com/lindab-q2-2022

This disclosure contains information that Lindab is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU nr 596/2014) and the Swedish Securities Markets Act (2007:528). The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person, on 20-07-202207:40 CET.

CONTACT:

Ola Ringdahl

President and CEO

E-mail: ola.ringdahl@lindab.com

Phone: +46 (0) 431 850 00

Jonas Arkestad

CFO

E-mail: jonas.arkestad@lindab.com

Phone: +46 (0) 431 850 00

Catharina Paulcen

Head of Corporate Communications

E-mail: catharina.paulcen@lindab.com

Mobile: +46 (0) 701 48 99 65

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/lindab/r/lindab-s-interim-report-january---june-2022--record-strong-sales-and-earnings,c3603350

The following files are available for download:
Wavestone announces it has signed a conditional agreement to acquire a UK-based consulting firm.

The company is an independent consultancy which specialises in business and digital transformation programmes for major clients. Over the last three fiscal years, it generated a revenue in the range of 15m to 20m.

Building a leading UK consultancy, focused on transformation challenges

The project fits perfectly with Wavestone's Impact strategic plan: accelerate the firm's external growth in its target geographies.

This acquisition would be a great opportunity to enrich Wavestone's value proposition in the UK with management consulting skills. The combination of these skills with Wavestone's technological expertise would offer a first-class proposition to clients to help tackle their transformation challenges.

Terms of the operation

The transaction would take the form of the acquisition by Wavestone of 100% of the company's share capital.

The purchase price would be based on an enterprise value representing circa 1.5 times 2021/22 annual revenues. Approximately 25% of the consideration would be subject to the firm's performance in the 18 months following completion.

The acquisition would be financed out of Wavestone's own funds.

The acquisition is conditional on obtaining some clearances allowing to proceed with pre-completion steps. The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks.

The company's leadership team would play a key role in the merged practice to be formed at the end of the integration period.

Next events: Q1 2022/23 revenue, Wednesday, July 27, 2022, after Euronext market closing; and the Shareholders' Annual General Meeting, Thursday, July 28, 2022, at 9:00am.

About Wavestone

In a world where knowing how to drive transformation is the key to success, Wavestone's mission is to inform and guide large companies and organisations in their most critical transformations, with the ambition of a positive outcome for all stakeholders. It's an ambition anchored in the firm's DNA and embodied in the signature "The Positive Way."

Wavestone draws on about 4,000 employees across Europe - where it is a leading independent player in consulting, the United States and Asia.

Wavestone is listed on Euronext Paris and recognised as a Great Place to Work.

Wavestone

Pascal Imbert

CEO

Tel.: +33 (0)1 49 03 20 00

Benjamin Clement

Financial Communication

Tel.: +33 (0)1 49 03 20 00 Actus

Mathieu Omnes

Investor and Analyst Relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 92

Deborah Schwartz

Press relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 35

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Redde Northgate Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

20 July 2022

REDDE NORTHGATE PLC

("Redde Northgate" or the "Group" or the "Company")

Transaction in Own Shares

Redde Northgate plc (LSE:REDD) announces that on 19 July 2022 it purchased the following number of its own shares to be held in treasury:

Class of shares : Ordinary shares of 50p ("shares") Number of shares purchased : 26,862 Weighted average purchase price paid : 354.8956 pence per share Highest purchase price paid : 358 pence per share Lowest purchase price paid : 350.5 pence per share

Following the above transaction, the Company's issued share capital consists of 246,091,423 ordinary shares of 50p each, of which 6,416,189 ordinary shares are held in treasury, and 1,000,000 preference shares of 50p each which do not carry any rights to vote. Therefore the total number of voting rights in the Company is 239,675,234, which may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation) as incorporated into UK domestic law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, the schedule below contains detailed information about the purchases made by Numis Securities Limited on behalf of the Company as part of the Company's buyback programme.

Schedule of Purchases - Individual Transactions (all of 19 July 2022)

Number of shares

purchased Transaction price

(GB pence per share) Time of transaction Transaction reference number Venue 1813 351.50 08:34:35 00060094328TRLO0 LSE 175 351.50 08:34:35 00060094330TRLO0 LSE 911 351.50 08:34:35 00060094329TRLO0 LSE 1955 350.50 08:43:06 00060094592TRLO0 LSE 460 352.00 09:11:14 00060095449TRLO0 LSE 1647 352.00 09:11:14 00060095450TRLO0 LSE 1807 354.50 09:54:03 00060096574TRLO0 LSE 1841 354.50 09:54:03 00060096575TRLO0 LSE 2541 354.00 09:54:06 00060096576TRLO0 LSE 1157 354.00 10:02:32 00060097478TRLO0 LSE 700 354.00 10:02:32 00060097477TRLO0 LSE 1798 357.00 11:07:27 00060099656TRLO0 LSE 2121 356.50 11:15:02 00060099863TRLO0 LSE 135 357.50 12:02:20 00060101354TRLO0 LSE 699 357.50 12:04:19 00060101413TRLO0 LSE 289 357.50 12:04:19 00060101414TRLO0 LSE 910 357.50 12:04:19 00060101415TRLO0 LSE 1866 358.00 12:51:30 00060102403TRLO0 LSE 138 358.00 12:51:30 00060102404TRLO0 LSE 2124 358.00 12:51:30 00060102405TRLO0 LSE 519 357.50 12:52:04 00060102416TRLO0 LSE 1256 357.50 12:52:04 00060102415TRLO0 LSE

Notes

This announcement is made in accordance with the requirements of Listing Rule 12.4.6.

For further information contact:

Buchanan

David Rydell/Jamie Hooper/Tilly Abraham +44 (0) 207 466 5000

Notes to Editors:

Redde Northgate is the leading integrated mobility solutions platform providing services across the vehicle lifecycle. The Company offers integrated mobility solutions to businesses, fleet operators, insurers, OEMs and other customers across seven key areas: vehicle rental, vehicle data, accident management, vehicle repairs, fleet management, service and maintenance, vehicle ancillary services and vehicle sales.



The Company's core purpose is to keep its customers mobile, whether through meeting their regular mobility needs or by servicing and supporting them when unforeseen events occur. With its considerable scale and reach, Redde Northgate's mission is to offer a market-leading customer proposition and drive enhanced returns for shareholders by creating value through sustainable compounding growth. The Group aims to achieve this through the delivery of its strategic framework of Focus, Drive and Broaden.

Redde Northgate services its customers through a network and diversified fleet of over 120,000 owned and leased vehicles, supporting over 600,000 managed vehicles, with more than 170 workshop, body shop and rental locations across the UK, Ireland and Spain and a specialist team of over 6,000 automotive services professionals.

Further information please visit the Company's website:

www.reddenorthgate.com
Eighty percent believe AI will improve employee or customer experiences, but fewer than one in five are taking an enterprise-wide approach to deployment

SambaNova Systems, the company delivering the industry's only comprehensive software, hardware, and solutions platform to run AI and Deep Learning applications, today announced the results of its global research on AI adoption within enterprise organizations. It found that business leaders are increasingly deploying AI and progress could be further accelerated by moving beyond a fragmented proliferation of small models. Enterprise leaders are placing AI at the core of a multiyear technology strategy and two-thirds (67%) believe it will be transformational or significantly change how they do business in 12 to 24 months.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005308/en/

(Graphic: Business Wire)

The Changes That AI Will Deliver

When asked about the types of changes that AI will deliver, global business leaders cited their top three:

80% think that AI will improve the employee or customer experience by streamlining processes and decreasing response time

think that AI will improve the employee or customer experience by streamlining processes and decreasing response time 68% think AI will cut costs by automating processes and initiating a better use of head count

think AI will cut costs by automating processes and initiating a better use of head count 51% will use AI to increase profit through better use of data or opening new revenue streams

There is another reason behind adoption of AI it is increasingly becoming a competitive asset. The research found that almost three-quarters (72%) of business leaders believe their competitors are using AI, and of those almost two-thirds (63%) are concerned their competitors will use AI to gain an advantage over their own business.

Marshall Choy, SVP Product at SambaNova, commented on the findings: "Enduring enterprises always keep a sharp eye on technology as a way to rise above competitors. Just like railroads, radio, and the internet have done for previous generations, AI is reshaping business as we know it and over the next decade, early investors and adopters stand to yield the greatest benefits."

Businesses need to consolidate models creating an enterprise-wide strategy based on large models

One of the biggest challenges enterprises face is the number of AI models currently deployed in production. Only 18% of organizations utilizing AI are deploying it as a large-scale enterprise-class initiative. The rest 82% are introducing it across multiple programs, which can create unexpected hurdles and a less coherent AI strategy.

However, in the era of general-purpose large language models, there is now a better way.

Choy elaborated on the benefits of large language models: "You'll be hard-pressed to find an enterprise that runs more than a handful of relational databases. Most organizations have consolidated their databases, which means they are well understood, maintainable, secure, and auditable. This hasn't happened with AI models yet."

"Most organizations that have a significant AI footprint have been left with a myriad of hundreds or even thousands of disparate models," stated Choy. "They are not easily manageable, and certainly not auditable. This is where a single foundation model for language can be the firms' AI backbone at enterprise scale as the basis for all AI applications and workflows for the next decade."

Notes to editor: SambaNova interviewed 2149 enterprise and IT leaders based in the U.S., U.K., and Germany between 19th May and 6th June 2022. The study of global enterprise leaders sought to understand the challenges of delivering AI-based solutions during a time of accelerating change and transformation.

About SambaNova Systems:

AI is here. With SambaNova, customers are deploying the power of AI and deep learning in weeks rather than years to meet the demands of the AI-enabled world.

SambaNova's flagship offering, Dataflow-as-a-Service, is a complete solution purpose-built for AI and deep learning that overcomes the limitations of legacy technology to power the large and complex models that enable customers to discover new opportunities, unlock new revenue and boost operational efficiency.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, SambaNova Systems was founded in 2017 by industry luminaries, and hardware and software design experts from Sun/Oracle and Stanford University.

Investors include SoftBank Vision Fund 2, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Intel Capital, GV, Walden International, Temasek, GIC, Redline Capital, Atlantic Bridge Ventures, Celesta, and several others.

For more information, please visit us at sambanova.ai or contact us at info@sambanova.ai. Follow SambaNova Systems on Linkedin.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005308/en/

Contacts:

Tom Fry

Resonance for SambaNova Systems

sambanova@resonancecrowd.com

+44 208 819 3170

Virginia Jamieson

SambaNova Systems

virginia.jamieson@sambanovasystems.com

011-650-279-8619

Erin McDermott

Walker Sands for SambaNova Systems

sambnovapr@walkersands.com

831-251-1188
BAMAKO, Mali, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Robex Resources Inc. (TSXV: RBX) and Vivo Energy (LSE: VVO) are pleased to announce completion of the hybrid solar power plant at the Nampala gold mine in Mali. The two groups have also signed an exclusivity agreement for Vivo Energy to provide a further hybrid solar and thermal power solution to the Kiniero gold mine in Guinea, owned by Sycamore Mining and currently in the process of merging with Robex following completion of the closing conditions and approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange.



Vivo Energy now supplies carbon free power to the Nampala mine through its equity funded solar hybrid project. This project required zero capital injection by Robex Resources, while reducing the carbon footprint of the mine by around 60,000 tonnes over ten years, while making a material reduction in the mine's cost of energy.

The mining industry is keen to reduce its carbon footprint and Vivo Energy is proud to contribute to this with its innovative partner Robex.

Commenting on the project, Stan Mittelman, CEO of Vivo Energy said: "A world-class team comprising Vivo Energy, Robex Resources, and our EPC contractor, Sterling and Wilson overcame the challenges, restrictions and logistical complexities brought by the pandemic and the socio-political situation to deliver this project on budget."

Vivo Energy Mali has supplied fuels and lubricants to the Nampala mine since it reached commercial production in 2017. Robex Resources is a key customer of Vivo Energy in Mali.

Benjamin Cohen, CEO, Robex Resources said: "We are proud to have introduced solar power into our Nampala mine, and have been thrilled with the professionalism and dedication of our partners at Vivo Energy. We continue to work on closing the Sycamore Mining merger and, following the success of the Nampala project, the two groups have signed an agreement with Vivo Energy to develop a hybrid solar energy solar solution that will provide in excess of 40% of the power requirements for the Kiniero mine in Guinea, displacing 27,000 tonnes of CO 2 per year. Through these actions Robex Resources continues to contribute to the modernisation of mining practices."

Alistair Jessop, Head of Power, Vivo Energy added: "We are delighted to have successfully completed the Nampala project with Robex Resources. The greatest endorsement of our work is Robex's desire to work with us on a new and significantly larger project. Vivo Energy's Power business delivers innovative equity funded solutions that displace up to 50% of a mine's thermal generation load, significantly reducing the mine's carbon emissions and cost of energy. Vivo Energy's commercial operations in the 23 African countries where we operate greatly reduce our power projects' execution and operational risk through our local on-the-ground teams' expertise, gained over many years."

Khadidiatou Fall, Managing Director, Vivo Energy Mali added: "Our mining customers are always looking for ways to reduce their operational costs and increase their sustainability. I am proud of the huge contribution my team made to the successfully completion this hybrid solar / fuel solution to help our customer Robex Resources achieve their objectives."

Notes to editors:

VIVO ENERGY CONTACTS:

Rob Foyle

Head of Communications

Vivo Energy

+44 7715 036407

Email: rob.foyle@vivoenergy.com (mailto:rob.foyle@vivoenergy.com)

www.vivoenergy.com (http://www.vivoenergy.com) Moctar Toure

Communications and Marketing Manager

Vivo Energy Mali

+223 98 09 96 85

Email: press-mali@vivoenergy.com (mailto:press-mali@vivoenergy.com)



ROBEX RESOURCES INC CONTACTS:

Benjamin Cohen, CEO

Aurelien Bonneviot, Investor Relations and Corporate Development

Robex Resources Inc.

+1 581 741 7421

E-mail: investor@robexgold.com (mailto:investor@robexgold.com)

www.robexgold.com (http://www.robexgold.com)

RENMARK FINANCIAL COMMUNICATIONS INC.

Robert Thaemlitz

Account Manager

+1 (416) 644-2020

or +1 (212) 812-7680

E-Mail: rthaemlitz@renmarkfinancial.com (mailto:rthaemlitz@renmarkfinancial.com)

www.renmarkfinancial.com (http://www.renmarkfinancial.com)



ABOUT VIVO ENERGY

With a vision to become Africa's most respected energy business, Vivo Energy operates and markets its products in countries across North, West, East and Southern Africa. The Group has a network of over 2,500 service stations in 23 countries operating under the Shell and Engen brands and exports lubricants to a number of other African countries. Its retail offering includes fuels, lubricants, card services, shops, restaurants and other non-fuel services. It provides fuels, lubricants and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to business customers across a range of sectors including aviation, marine, mining, construction, power, transport, and manufacturing.

The Company employs around 2,700 people and has access to over 1,000,000 cubic metres of fuel storage capacity. The Group's joint venture, Shell and Vivo Lubricants B.V., sources, blends, packages and supplies Shell-branded lubricants at plants in six countries.

ABOUT ROBEX RESOURCES INC.

Robex Resources Inc. is a TSX-V listed Canadian mining company with an operating mine in Mali and a development project in Guinea. The group also owns exploration properties in Mali on the Senegalo-Malian shear zone. The group has a robust business model, which demonstrated great results with the Nampala mine. With this experience, Robex is now striving to grow in West Africa by acquiring and/or developing new mines.

Forward looking Statement

This news release contains statements that may be considered "forward looking information" or "forward looking statements" in terms of security legislation. These forward-looking statements are subject to uncertainties and risks, some of which are beyond the control of Robex. Achievements and final results may differ significantly from forecasts made implicitly or explicitly. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of assumptions, factors and risks. These assumptions and risks include, but are not limited to, assumptions and risks associated with the ability of the Company to complete the planned funding to undertake its future work programs, and results of future exploration activities by the Company. There can be no assurance that the circumstances set out in these forecasts will occur, or even benefit Robex, if any. The forecasts are based on the estimates and opinions of the Robex management team at the time of publication. Robex makes no commitment to make any updates or changes to these publicly available forecasts based on new information or events, or for any other reason, except as required by applicable security laws. The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 20, 2022 / Rockland Resources Ltd. (the "Company" or "Rockland") (CSE: RKL) is pleased to report that the Company has recently staked an additional 464 lode claims on the Lithium Butte Property in Juab County, Utah, USA. Including the original 60 claims, the Property now comprises a total of 524 claims with an area of 10,670 acres (4,320 ha). On June 29, 2022, the Company reported grab samples that contained up to 4,080 ppm lithium in claystones derived from rhyolite tuff-breccia on the Property (see Rockland June 29, 2022 press release). Rockland has initiated a soil sampling program to follow up on the grab sample results to determine the areal extent of claystone lithium mineralization and define additional exploration targets. The Lithium Butte Property is in the Basin and Range geological province of west-central Utah and is well situated 185 km southwest of Salt Lake City.

Figure 1. Location map of the Lithium Butte property

As reported on June, 29, 2022, Rockland obtained five grab samples of clay altered rhyolite tuff breccia from the property that assayed from 4,080 ppm lithium to 1,200 ppm lithium with an average of 2,142 ppm lithium. The soil sampling program will cover the 10,670 acre property with an estimated 995 soil samples taken at 150 m intervals on east-west lines spaced at 300 m for a total of 145.5 line-km of sampling. Samples will initially be analyzed in the field by handheld Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) capable of light metal detection. Results of the survey are anticipated in early autumn and expected to generate lithium exploration targets for follow up drilling. Work on the property by previous operators including Redhill Resources Corp. in 2011 and Anaconda Copper Mining Company did not focus on lithium.

In addition to the soil sampling program, Rockland will channel sample the outcropping exposure of clay altered tuff-breccia where the previously reported grab samples were obtained. The exposure has a stratigraphic thickness estimated to be greater than 20 m and contains at least two intervals of claystone mineralization, each of which is several meters in thickness. Samples will be analyzed for Li and other elements at an independent assay laboratory using sodium peroxide fusion and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).

Dr. Richard Sutcliffe, Rockland's President stated "Although this project is at an early stage, we are extremely pleased with the results to date and the progress that we are making at Lithium Butte. Rockland has been an early mover in the Utah Basin and Range Province for claystone lithium exploration and we have assembled an exciting property package. Our early stage sampling has returned significant lithium assays and Lithium Butte has many of the hallmarks of successful lithium claystone projects including: volcanic source rocks with elevated lithium content; geothermal fluid activity; containment basins; clay altered horizons; and favourable structure. We look forward to reporting new results on this promising project."

Rockland can acquire an initial 90% interest in the original Lithium Butte property (60 claims - 1,200 acres) by covering the staking and filing costs (paid), with the remaining 10% interest held by an arms-length third party. The additional claims that have been staked by Rockland are owned 100% by the Company. There is a 1.5% Net Smelter Royalty ("NSR") payable to the same arms-length third party on both the original Lithium Butte property and all claims being acquired in the area. Rockland has the right to buy back a half percent of the NSR to reduce it to 1% at any time for $1,000,000 Cdn. A finder's fee may be payable on the Lithium Butte acquisition, with any share compensation subject to a four-month-and-one-day hold period."

Program QA/QC - Initial grab sampling at Lithium Butte was carried out by Dr. Richard Sutcliffe, P. Geo., a Qualified Person as defined in NI43-101, who is also responsible for reviewing and approving the geological contents of this news release as they pertain to the Lithium Butte Claystone Property. Samples were transported in sealed bags by the QP to Activation Laboratories ("Actlabs") in Ancaster, Ontario. Actlabs is an independent ISO/IEC 17025 certified laboratory. Li analysis was performed using sodium peroxide fusion and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).

About Rockland Resources Ltd.

Rockland Resources is engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets for the benefit of its shareholders. In addition to the Utah Lithium Property, the Company is acquiring the 41,818-hectare Elektra project concessions that are contiguous with Gangfeng Lithium's Sonora Lithium Clay Project located in Sonora, Mexico. The Company also holds and option to earn a 100-per-cent interest in the Cole Gold Mines property, located in Ball township, Red Lake mining division, Ontario. The Cole Property hosts high-grade gold mineralization in a classic Red Lake-type structurally controlled gold deposit environment.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Dr. Richard H. Sutcliffe, P.Geo.

President and Director

For further information, please contact:

Mike England

Email: mike@engcom.ca

Neither the Canadian Stock Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at WWW.SEDAR.COM).

SOURCE: Rockland Resources Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/709170/Rockland-Resources-Expands-Lithium-Butte-Claystone-Property-Utah-and-Initiates-Exploration-Program
New Nurse-1-1 Technology Increases Patient Adherence by Nearly 60 Percent

BOSTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / July 20, 2022 / Nurse-1-1 , the first conversational marketing company for healthcare, today announced the availability of the Nurse-1-1 widget for immediate access to a trusted nurse through live chat . As the first HIPAA-compliant platform for digital conversations between nurses and patients, Nurse-1-1 allows at-home testing, pharmaceutical, and digital health companies of all sizes to easily embed the Nurse-1-1 live chat directly onto their website and at any point in their patient journey.

Studies have shown that both medication and testing adherence significantly increases with access to a provider who can answer questions and alleviate concerns. With this new, easily implemented technology, Nurse-1-1 fills the gaps between patient research and clinical care, improving adherence and patient outcomes.

Early adoption has shown a 57% increase in patient adherence after implementing the Nurse-1-1 widget, indicating that the adoption of conversational marketing within the digital healthcare journey significantly impacts medication and testing adherence. With the Nurse-1-1 live nurse chat, patients instantly receive the information they need to make the best healthcare decisions while they're already proactively looking for help within their digital health or online pharma solution.

"Since launching Nurse-1-1, our mission has been to increase the accessibility of healthcare," said Michael Sheeley, co-founder and CEO of Nurse-1-1. "We are truly bringing nurses to the front lines of digital health, with companies embedding our live nurse chat with just a few clicks. Now, patients will have immediate access to a trusted nurse, helping to improve patient engagement and drive increased adherence."

Embedding the HIPAA-compliant live chat widget into any digital health experience allows Nurse-1-1's network of nurses and advanced practice providers to proactively engage and influence patients to make the right health decisions and properly utilize digital health offerings throughout their healthcare journey. Similar to an in-person visit, the Nurse-1-1 widget stays with the patient while they browse the web and navigate from page to page to ensure they have help along the way. Alongside the live widget technology, the Nurse-1-1 data analytics platform helps to derive insights to better grasp patient concerns, identify their needs, and improve adherence.

Through a nationwide network of nearly 3,000 NPs, RNs, PAs, and MDs and a complete customer service platform, Nurse-1-1 educates patients and drives adherence at all patient touch points within the digital health and pharma markets. In 2021, Nurse-1-1 had over 10,000 patient consultations through its partnerships with digital health, at-home testing, and pharma companies, and on average, a patient was connected to a nurse in less than eight seconds.

To learn more about conversation marketing for healthcare, download the Nurse-1-1 eBook: https://nurse-1-1.com/ebook

To get started with Nurse-1-1, visit: https://nurse-1-1.com/widget-product

About Nurse-1-1:

Nurse-1-1 is a conversational marketing company for healthcare that is bringing nurses to the front lines of digital health. Through a nationwide network of nurses and a HIPAA-compliant complete customer service platform, Nurse-1-1 offers a live nurse chat tool that can be embedded directly into other digital platforms, which helps patients make better decisions leading to increased adherence. At-home testing, pharmaceutical, and digital health companies of all sizes rely on Nurse-1-1 to improve education, increase adherence and increase patient satisfaction. Drive greater adherence at nurse-1-1.com .

Media Contacts:

Bailey Carroll

Nurse-1-1

bailey@nurse-1-1.com

Meaghan McGrath

York IE

meaghan@york.ie

SOURCE: Nurse-1-1

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/709111/Introducing-the-New-Era-of-Healthcare-Technology-with-the-Nurse-1-1-Live-Nurse-Chat-Widget
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - AbbVie (ABBV) on Wednesday said it signed an alliance with iSTAR Medical SA, a Belgian medtech firm, to further develop and commercialize iSTAR's MINIject, a minimally invasive glaucoma surgical device. As per the agreement, iSTAR will receive a $60 million in non-dilutive upfront payment. iSTAR will continue to develop and commercialize MINIject until completion of the STAR-V clinical research, a premarket approval study to enable commercialization of the device in the U.S. In addition, AbbVie will hold the exclusive right to acquire iSTAR and lead subsequent global development and commercialization of the MINIject device. If AbbVie exercises the right to buy iSTAR, the shareholders of the medtech company would also be eligible to receive extra contingent payments of up to $475 million as a closing payment. The latest financing will boost the continued development and commercialization of MINIject, including ongoing clinical studies and further enhancements to the technology, among others. The collaboration is also an opportunity to expand AbbVie's eye care business, building on its glaucoma portfolio which includes drops, sustained release implants, and stent offerings. In 2021, MINIject obtained Conformite Europeenne (CE) marking approval to commercialize it in European countries and launched commercially in select European countries in early 2022. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
HONG KONG, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On 19 July 2022, the signing ceremony of the strategic cooperation agreement between Fosun International Limited and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Shanghai Branch was held at ICBC Shanghai Branch. ICBC and Fosun will conduct in-depth cooperation in high technology, advanced manufacturing, biopharmaceuticals, happiness industry and other fields to foster development.

Fu Jie, President of ICBC Shanghai Branch and Guo Guangchang, Chairman of Fosun International attended the signing ceremony through video conferencing. On behalf of the two parties, Zhang Houlin, Senior Vice President and Co-CFO of Fosun International, and Wang Rui, Vice President of ICBC Shanghai Branch, formally signed the comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement, with Fu Jie, Guo Guangchang, Zhang Xiaoqi, Vice President of ICBC Shanghai Branch, and Wang Qunbin, Co-Chairman of Fosun International acting as witnesses. Wang Qunbin delivered a speech at the ceremony, and Gong Ping, Executive President and CFO of Fosun International, attended the meeting online.

President Fu Jie said, as a representative of Shanghai's private economy and a leader in Zhejiang business enterprises, Fosun has developed and transformed in the wave of reform and opening up, and played an important role in the prevention and control of the epidemic and the resumption of work and production. The signing of the agreement is an important move for ICBC to thoroughly implement the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and ICBC's head office, committed to the role of a major bank, and enhance service level to help stabilize economic growth, and promote the high-quality development of private enterprises. On the basis of long-term solid and sound cooperation, ICBC and Fosun will take this signing as an opportunity to further leverage their respective advantages, deepen the connection between industries and finance, and join hands to make new and greater contributions to economic and social development.

Guo Guangchang, Chairman of Fosun International, who is on a business trip overseas, said that Fosun, which has been strengthening its presence in the four major business segments of Health, Happiness, Wealth, and Intelligent Manufacturing, has developed into a global innovation-driven consumer group with global operation capabilities and profound technology and innovation capabilities. In the future, Fosun will continue to improve its products and services in high technology, biopharmaceuticals, happiness industry and other fields to better meet the happiness needs of global families. Guo Guangchang expressed his gratitude to ICBC for its long-term trust and support to Fosun, and believes that the two parties will make greater contributions to economic and social development through this deepening of cooperation.

The signing ceremony was presided over by Yu Jin, President of ICBC Shanghai Luwan Sub-branch. Chen Yue, Senior Assistant to the President of Fosun, Co-CFO of Fosun, Co-General Manager of the Treasury Management Department of the Group, and representatives of Fosun's member companies such as Yuyuan Inc. and Fosun Pharma attended the signing ceremony.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates--(Newsfile Corp. - July 20, 2022) - The Cryptoverse aims to accelerate cryptocurrency adoption by providing all kinds of cryptocurrency services to individuals, communities, and businesses in the UAE.

With the mission to help accelerate cryptocurrency adoption, The Cryptoverse is the first All-in-One cryptocurrency solutions company in the UAE. The core vision of the company is to offer services to assist individuals, communities, and organisations to accept & adopt crypto in Dubai and the UAE.





Crypto-verse

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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With an extensive background in the industry and an eye on the future, The Cryptoverse is specialised in many services such as OTC services, Real Estate via Crypto, Marketing, NFTs and more. Prospective clients can choose to get consultations from a range of services allowing them to pick the service that suits their needs. The company consists of a diverse team of cryptocurrency experts that aim to make advancements and support the inevitable adoption of cryptocurrency.

Being one of the companies that buy and sell USDT in Dubai, they have since partnered with trusted cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance to provide P2P exchange services to customers. Interested clients can also visit The Cryptoverse in their office in Dubai for a further personalised service.

Cryptocurrencies have been a topic of significant interest in the business world. The Cryptoverse, through their service, helps businesses accept cryptocurrency as a payment method, as well as train and educate staff on how to operate a fully verified corporate wallet on the blockchain. The dedicated team also helps businesses exchange all cryptocurrency received to fiat.

Besides, the company also provides crypto marketing services in Dubai to new, innovative and authentic cryptocurrency projects. The main advantage of Cryptoverse when it comes to marketing is a collection of the right audience in one place. Serving the Cryptocurrency space for years in the UAE, the company has a large network of clients, investors, and business owners that are always looking forward to new projects, products and services that would improve businesses and the cryptocurrency space.

"Customers looking to buy real estate with cryptocurrency can begin a free consultation with experts in Dubai's Real Estate," said Zaid Al Nasseri, the COO of the company. "The Cryptoverse team will then present properties that suit the customer's requirement. Once the customer has chosen the property of their liking, The Cryptoverse will help take care of all the paperwork and legal documentation. The payment will then be completed through cryptocurrency."

Customers looking to learn more about what The Cryptoverse team can offer can get in touch with them through their website.

Watch the insights of The Cryptoverse here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5wnVUuer0o





Cannot view this video? Visit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5wnVUuer0o

About The Cryptoverse

The Cryptoverse is on a mission to help accelerate cryptocurrency adoption. The company consists of a diverse team of curious and ambitious individuals that undoubtedly believe that crypto is the future. With years of experience in the crypto space, they pride themselves in being the first All in One cryptocurrency solutions company in the UAE, providing the best services with knowledge and competence.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+Cryptoverse/@25.102935,55.176432,16z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x59a7680c8be1af23!8m2!3d25.1029345!4d55.1764319?hl=en.

Social links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Youtube | TikTok | Twitter

Contact Info:

Name: The Cryptoverse

Email: support@thecryptoverse.ae

Organization: The Cryptoverse

Address: 208 Al Ameri Tower, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAE

Phone: +971529766077

Website: https://www.thecryptoverse.ae/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131249
A group of students and faculty from Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business pose after their visit to The Korea Times as part of their international study tour, Wednesday. They had a session to discuss K-pop and Korean culture with the newspaper's staff. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul.
Kelowna, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 20, 2022) - Strathmore Plus Energy Corp. (NEX: SUU.H) (OTC: SUUFF) ("Strathmore Plus" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce it has entered into an amending agreement dated July 19, 2022, to the shares-for-services agreement dated January 13, 2022 (collectively, the "Shares for Services Agreement") between the Company and Mr. John Dejoia. Mr. DeJoia acts as technical advisor to the Company in respect of its proposed acquisition of Wyoming Uranium LLC and its 131 lode mining claims totaling 2,706 acres in the Beaver Rim area of the Gas Hills District, Wyoming, USA (the "Acquisition"). The Acquisition remains subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange.

Subject to regulatory approval, and pursuant to TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V") Policy 4.4, the Company proposes to pay Mr. Dejoia 500,000 common shares of the Company (the "Common Shares") at a deemed price of $0.29 per Common Share and equivalent in value to $145,000 (the "Consideration") based on the closing price of the Common Shares on January 12, 2022 (the last trading day preceding the date of the Shares for Services Agreement). Mr. Dejoia rendered services to the Company beginning in October 2021 by identifying, evaluating and facilitating the Acquisition and, subject to the Consideration, will receive no other compensation for such services. Mr. DeJoia is at arm's length to the Company within the meaning of the policies of the TSX-V, and the value of the Consideration was established through arm's-length negotiation.

Mr. DeJoia, P.Geo, is an experienced geologist having explored and mined through much of the United States, and has extensive experience in the Gas Hills. Dev Randhawa commented; "We are happy to have John on board with his vast exploration and mining experience."

About Strathmore Plus Energy Corp.

Strathmore Plus is a uranium exploration company, focused on in-situ recoverable uranium deposits in the State of Wyoming.

Strathmore Plus Energy Corp.

Contact Information:

Investor Relations

Telephone: 1 888 882 8177

Email: info@strathmoreplus.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Dev Randhawa"

Dev Randhawa, CEO

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This press release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, the issuance of the Consideration, the consummation and timing of the Acquisition, and the timing and receipt of regulatory approvals. Forward-looking information is frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or "should" occur or be achieved. These forward-looking statements may also include statements regarding perceived merit of mining claims; timelines; strategic plans; market prices for precious and base metals; or other statements that are not statements of fact.

Forward-looking information involves various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include failure to receive the required regulatory approvals to effect the Transaction; changes in laws, regulations and government practices; risks pertaining to the outbreak of the global pandemics, including COVID-19; government regulation of mining operations; environmental risks; and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators and in other Company reports and documents filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time. The Company's forward-looking information reflects the beliefs, opinions, and projections on the date the statements are made. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information or beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131357
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 20, 2022 / The joint venture team of Cushman & Wakefield and Greystone announced that they arranged the sale of and provided acquisition financing for The Lumiere , a 336-unit multifamily community located in Metairie, Louisiana, a sub-metro region of New Orleans. The multifamily property was sold by LURIN to buyer Onyx Partners.

Cushman & Wakefield's Mike Kemether, Christian Schedler, Larry Schedler, and Cheryl Short represented the seller in the $55.8 million transaction. Greystone's Judah Rosenberg originated a $40 million non-recourse Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) loan featuring a 10-year term and fixed rate below 5%, with 60 months of interest-only payments.

"The seller, LURIN, is a vertically integrated investment firm out of Dallas that has a proven track record in implementing comprehensive renovation programs," said Mr. Schedler.?"Through an interior/exterior upgrade, LURIN was able to drive rents significantly. The purchaser, Onyx Partners, led by Jeremy Y. Rieder, is well poised to further grow revenue in the supply constrained, high-demand Metairie market. Onyx continues to grow their Louisiana footprint, making Lumiere their third acquisition in the state."

Located at 3301 W. Esplanade Ave N., The Lumiere is a 336-unit luxury apartment community situated on a 7.34 acre site comprising 20 buildings. Amenities at the property include a swimming pool, BBQ grill area, package center, clubhouse, and fitness center. The property received a Green Building Certification in May 2022.

"We are thrilled to have secured attractive financing for this acquisition and buyer as a result of our close working relationship with Cushman & Wakefield," added Mr. Rosenberg, Vice President at Greystone. "We look forward to working with Onyx on future transactions as they grow their portfolio in the Metairie market and beyond."

About Cushman & Wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield is a leading global real estate services firm that delivers exceptional value for real estate occupiers and owners. Cushman & Wakefield is among the largest real estate services firms with approximately 50,000 employees in over 400 offices and approximately 60 countries. In 2021, the firm had revenue of $9.4 billion across core services of property, facilities and project management, leasing, capital markets, and valuation and other services. To learn more, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com or follow @CushWake on Twitter.

About Greystone



Greystone is a private national commercial real estate finance company with an established reputation as a leader in multifamily and healthcare finance, having ranked as a top FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac lender in these sectors. Loans are offered through Greystone Servicing Company LLC, Greystone Funding Company LLC and/or other Greystone affiliates. For more information, visit www.greystone.com .

Press Contact:

Karen Marotta

Greystone

karen.marotta@greyco.com

917.902.7073

SOURCE: Greystone & Co

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/709120/Cushman-Wakefield-and-Greystone-Close-Sale-and-Financing-of-Louisiana-Multifamily-Property


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A judge has set October to start a trial in Twitter's lawsuit against Elon Musk regarding their $44 billion acquisition deal, reports said.



At the end of the first hearing on Tuesday over whether to expedite the proceedings, the judge overseeing the case Delaware Court of Chancery chancellor Kathaleen McCormick has ruled that there would be a five-day trial in October.



Twitter last week had filed a motion to expedite the proceedings and requested a four-day trial in September. Twitter said the expedition is necessary to ensure the deal can be completed prior to the 'drop dead' date of October 24 that the two sides previously agreed to close the deal. The company said it will help protect Twitter and its stockholders from the continuing market risk and operational harm resulting from Musk's attempt to bully his way out of an airtight merger agreement.



Musk's legal team opposed the motion, and proposed that the dispute should go to trial early next year. They asked that a 10-day trial be scheduled for on or after February 13, 2023.



At Tuesday's hearing, Twitter's lead counsel William Savitt, who argued in favor of a speedy trial, reportedly said the continued uncertainty hanging over the company from the outstanding deal and litigation inflicts harm on Twitter everyday, and every hour.



Savitt said that Musk has been and remains contractually obligated to use his best efforts to close this deal, but what he's doing is the exact opposite; it's sabotage.



Meanwhile, Musk lawyer Andrew Rossman stated that the billionaire remains one of Twitter's largest shareholders and that he doesn't have an incentive to keep this hanging for a long time.



While announcing the scheduling plan, McCormick said that Musk's side underestimates the ability of this court - to quickly process complex litigation. The reality is that delay threatens irreparable harm to Twitter, the longer the delay, the greater the risk, she added.



According to her, few cases warrant a trial longer than five days, and if necessary, she would entertain a request from either side to extend the trial.



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.



Later, Musk's legal team said it is backing off from the deal as the social media company has not complied with its contractual obligations, and did not provide relevant business information.



Responding to Musk's notice of planned termination of the merger deal, Twitter Board had insisted that it expects to close the deal on the price and terms agreed upon with Musk. The Board also filed the motion in the Delaware Court of Chancery.



In a 60-plus-page lawsuit, Twitter alleged that it was Musk who has violated the agreement, and asked the court to compel Musk to complete the deal to buy the company.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



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BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - The State Department has introduced a new risk indicator, the 'D' indicator, to its travel advisories to inform U.S. travelers of the risk of wrongful detention by a foreign government.



'D' indicator is the most serious Travel Advisory level of 4, which means 'Do Not Travel.'



Announcing this in a video address, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Americans to check the travel advisories before heading to other nations.



At a news conference Tuesday, a senior administration official said, 'We're making this change to highlight the elevated risk of wrongful detention in particular countries whose governments have engaged in that practice.'



And on Day One of its introduction, the State Department added six countries to that travel advisory category. They are Myanmar, China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela.



Travel Advisory for these nations were reissued Tuesday with updates to wrongful detention information.



The latest Travel Advisory for Russia urges U.S. citizens to leave the country immediately. 'Do not travel to Russia due to the unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials, the singling out of U.S. citizens in Russia by Russian government security officials including for detention, the arbitrary enforcement of local law, limited flights into and out of Russia, the Embassy's limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, COVID-19-related restrictions, and terrorism,' it adds.



Travel Advisory for Iran says, 'Do not travel to Iran due to the risk of kidnapping and the arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens. Exercise increased caution due to wrongful detentions'.



U.S. citizens visiting or residing in Iran have been kidnapped, arrested, and detained on spurious charges, it noted. The State Department has determined that at least one U.S. national is wrongfully detained by the Iranian government.



The State Department issues travel advisories for every country around the world offering standardized levels of advice based on established risk factors. The advisories are based on the risk factors SUCH AS crime, for which a 'C' indicator is used; health, for which an 'H' indicator is used; and or kidnapping or hostage taking, for which 'K' indicator is used.



State Department Travel Advisories are continuously revised and updated based on a comprehensive review of all available safety information and ongoing developments.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



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SEATTLE, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Data Bridge Market Research has added a new report titled Global Digital Health Monitoring Devices Market with analysis provides the insights which bring marketplace clearly into the focus and thus help organizations make better decisions. The data and the information regarding the industry are taken from consistent sources such as websites, annual reports of the companies, and journals which is then checked and validated by the market experts. Digital Health Monitoring Devices Market report has been structured with transparent research studies which makes it of supreme quality. By exactly understanding customer requirement, one or more methods are used to construct this finest market research report. The report provides with CAGR value fluctuation during the forecast period of 2022-2029 for the market.

Data Bridge Market Research analyses that the digital health monitoring devices market is expected to reach the value of USD 15.35 billion by the year 2029, at a CAGR of 18.87% during the forecast period. The rising prevalence of neurological disorders, increased emphasis on research and development capabilities in medical devices and on the adoption of advanced healthcare technologies, rising rates of pregnancy, and rising expenditure for the development of healthcare infrastructure development, particularly in developing economies, are the major factors driving the growth of the digital health monitoring devices market.

Download Exclusive Sample Copy of this Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-digital-health-monitoring-devices-market

The market analysis and insights covered in this Digital Health Monitoring Devices Market business document offers key statistics on the market status of global and regional manufacturers and is an imperative source of guidance which provides exact direction to the companies and individuals interested in the industry. This report contains a bottomless knowledge and information on what the market's definition, classifications, applications, and engagements are and also explains the drivers and restraints of the market which is derived from SWOT analysis. The important highlights of this market report are key market dynamics, current market scenario and future prospects of the sector.

In recent years, due to the world's rapidly growing population and the prevalence of chronic diseases, there has been a growing need to expand healthcare access infrastructure, as well as the cost benefits of telehealth and remote patient monitoring technology. Chronic diseases account for 90 percent of total healthcare costs in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These costs can be significantly reduced by implementing remote patient monitoring systems, which is expected to propel market growth.

Major Players: Digital Health Monitoring Devices Market

Medtronic ( Ireland )

) Boston Scientific Corporation (US)

NEVRO CORP (US)

Cyberonics, Inc. (US)

Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. (US)

SPR Therapeutics (US)

ALEVA NEUROTHERAPEUTICS SA ( Switzerland )

) Bioness Inc. (US)

ReShape Lifesciences, Inc. (US)

LivaNova PLC (UK)

NeuroPace, Inc. (US)

Synapse Biomedical Inc. (US)

Soterix Medical Inc. (US)

Accellent Technologies, Inc. (US)

Abbott (US)

Bioventus (US)

Soterix Medical Inc. (US)

Integer Holdings Corporation (US)

Access Full Report with Complete Graphs, Charts and Figures @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/checkout/buy/enterprise/global-digital-health-monitoring-devices-market

Recent Development

Philips and BioIntelliSense announced a strategic collaboration in July 2020 to improve remote patient monitoring solutions. Philips incorporated the latter's BioSticker device into its portfolio of remote patient monitoring (RPM) devices, which monitor chronic conditions.

a strategic collaboration in to improve remote patient monitoring solutions. Philips incorporated the latter's BioSticker device into its portfolio of remote patient monitoring (RPM) devices, which monitor chronic conditions. BioTelemetry acquired the On.Demand remote patient monitoring (RPM) platform operated by Envolve People Care Inc., a Centene Corporation subsidiary, in July 2020 . This acquisition adds chronic remote patient monitoring solutions to BioTelemetry's current portfolio of acute care connected health products and services, with a focus on diabetes, hypertension, and chronic heart failure.

Digital health monitoring devices Market Dynamics

Drivers

Wearable patient monitoring devices are becoming increasingly popular.

Wearable patient monitoring devices, biosensors, and smart implants are used for a variety of purposes, including continuous glucose monitoring, temperature monitoring, blood pressure monitoring, and pulse oximetry. The Internet of Things technology is built into next-generation wearable devices. Wearable biosensors measure vital signs such as blood pressure, weight, blood sugar, and electrocardiography (ECG), which are then transmitted to a central server via mobile wireless networks.

Quality healthcare at home

RPM technologies enter the picture, detecting small changes in the patient's physiological data and encouraging self-monitoring. As a result, it reduces readmissions and avoidable hospitalizations. Furthermore, these technologies reduce the number of unnecessary trips to the doctor's office as well as the travel-related expenses required to receive quality medical care. RPM technologies, when properly implemented, can increase access to quality healthcare while saving time and money in the short and long term.

Highlights of the Study

To strategically profile key players and comprehensively analyze their market position in terms of ranking and core competencies, and detail the competitive landscape for market leaders To describe and forecast the market, in terms of value, for various segments, by region North America , Europe , Asia Pacific (APAC), and Rest of the World (RoW) Key parameters which are driving this market and restraining its growth What all challenges manufacturers will face as well as new opportunities and threats faced by them. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations

Restraints/Challenges

Shortages of healthcare industry professionals, as well as unfavourable reimbursement policies, are expected to impede market growth during the forecast period.

This digital health monitoring devices market report provides details of new recent developments, trade regulations, import-export analysis, production analysis, value chain optimization, market share, impact of domestic and localized market players, analyses opportunities in terms of emerging revenue pockets, changes in market regulations, strategic market growth analysis, market size, category market growths, application niches and dominance, product approvals, product launches, geographic expansions, technological innovations in the market.

To View Detailed Report Analysis, Visit @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-digital-health-monitoring-devices-market

Segmentation: Digital Health Monitoring Devices Market

Product type

Device

Software

services

others

End User

Hospitals

Clinics

Ambulatory surgical centres

Homecare settings

Others

Type

Tele-health

EHR/EMR

M-health

Wireless health

Others

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Market Segmentation

3. Market Overview

4. Executive Summary

5. Premium Insights

6. By Component

7. Product Type

8. Delivery

9. Industry Type

10. Geography

10.1. Overview

10.2.North America

10.3.Europe

10.4.Asia-Pacific

10.5.South America

10.6.Middle East & Africa

11. Company Landscape

12. Company Profiles

13. Related Reports

For More Insights Get Detailed TOC @https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-digital-health-monitoring-devices-market

Browse Related Reports:-

North America Digital Health Monitoring Devices Market - Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/north-america-digital-health-monitoring-devices-market

Europe Digital Health Monitoring Devices Market - Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/europe-digital-health-monitoring-devices-market

Asia-Pacific Digital Health Monitoring Devices Market - Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/asia-pacific-digital-health-monitoring-devices-market

Middle East and Africa Digital Health Monitoring Devices Market - Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/middle-east-and-africa-digital-health-monitoring-devices-market

Digital Health Technologies Market - Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-digital-health-technologies-market

Digital Health Market - Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-digital-health-market

Women's Digital Health Market - Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-womens-digital-health-market

About Data Bridge Market Research:

An absolute way to forecast what future holds is to comprehend the trend today!

Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavours to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process. Data Bridge is an aftermath of sheer wisdom and experience which was formulated and framed in the year 2015 in Pune.

Data Bridge Market Research has over 500 analysts working in different industries. We have catered more than 40% of the fortune 500 companies globally and have a network of more than 5000+ clientele around the globe. Data Bridge adepts in creating satisfied clients who reckon upon our services and rely on our hard work with certitude. We are content with our glorious 99.9 % client satisfying rate.

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Fidelity China Special Situations PLC

Results of Annual General Meeting

At the Company's Annual General Meeting held on 20 July 2022, all resolutions were duly passed. The resolutions passed as special business were as follows:

- to renew the Directors' authority to allot a limited number of currently unissued ordinary shares (or sell any ordinary shares which the Company holds in Treasury) for cash;

- to issue such shares (including Treasury shares) without first offering them to existing ordinary shareholders pro-rata to their existing holdings; and

- the Company's authority to purchase up to 76,965,549 of its own ordinary shares for immediate cancellation or for retention as Treasury shares at the determination of the Board. This represents approximately 14.99% of the number of ordinary shares in issue on 30 May 2022.

Voting results will shortly be available online at www.fidelity.co.uk/china

Contact for queries:

Name:Natalia De Sousa, FIL Investments International, Company Secretary

Telephone: 01737 837846
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - July 20, 2022) - US-based healthcare training platform 'Advanced eClinical Training' (ACT) has launched its immersive and experiential on-demand virtual training courses for pre-health students. The initiative is aimed at providing pre-health students with certification courses and comprehensive clinical training by perfectly combining physical experience and online learning. ACT, while offering an affordable, accessible and convenient alternative to otherwise expensive and lengthy courses, provides the opportunity to complete it in as little as eight to twelve weeks.

The training courses intend to make medical education and clinical experience more efficient and safe. One of the major challenges faced by health education and medical training is ensuring the safety and security of the patients. It also poses the challenge of medical negligence and errors in surgical procedures. ACT is committed to changing training programs by providing secure and safer methods. Several studies reveal that immersive and experiential learning platforms in the metaverse can help overcome the challenges in pre-health education and medical training. The experiential learning platform provided by ACT tries to overcome these challenges by providing an immersive platform where students can practice and repeat their skills without affecting patient care and safety.

Advanced eClinical Training ensures that the students are provided with the opportunity of virtually communicating with their patients. It also provides them with the opportunity to expand their clinical knowledge and skills in an immersive and interactive platform. It gives them consistent and personalized feedback which helps them to spot their strengths and weaknesses. The aim is not just to build qualifications but also to develop competency among the students. They are also provided with a well-qualified and experienced instructor throughout their learning process. The instructor guides and advises them through their interactions with the patients. It gives the opportunity for self-reflection exercises to maximize the efficiency of the training program.

ACT believes that utilizing the possibilities of immersive learning in the training courses for pre-health students will equip them with efficiency and competency, especially in nursing education, as suggested by research. Therefore, its interactive learning platform, provided for the students to talk and communicate with the patients through virtual reality, intends to help them improve their practical knowledge. In addition, it gives the students a new experience by combining traditional physical experience with modern online learning.

"We are on a mission to transform the way we educate and train our pre-health students in their training journey. Our training courses are normalizing distance learning concepts by incorporating modern technological avenues into them. For example, we are combining our traditional tools like textbooks, PowerPoint presentations, and e-books with artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality to provide the students with an immersive and experiential learning experience. Our aim is to make pre-health training more accessible and convenient to students across the globe," Shabnam Safarzadeh and Shaghayegh Safarzadeh, the Co-Founders of the 'Advanced eClinical Training' share their vision.

'Advanced eClinical Training' is headquartered in New York and was established by its Co-Founders, Shabnam Safarzadeh and Shaghayegh Safarzadeh. Its 8-12 week self-paced online training courses provide a nationally accredited certification that is helping pre-health students to obtain direct patient care job opportunities across the country.

Media Contact:

Name: Shaghayegh Safarzadeh

Email: info@advclinical.org

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131405
Australian technology company Snobal is an established VR enterprise Metaverse SaaS cloud provider. Snobal will use funds raised to accelerate product development and market growth, with a focus on North America, Europe and APAC regions.

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 20, 2022) - With the increase in remote and hybrid working and the challenge of remote collaboration and workplace training across a dispersed workforce, the last two years has seen growth in adoption by organisations of digital worktools including Virtual Reality (VR) based collaboration. Today, Altaverse Technologies Corp. announces that it has entered into a share exchange agreement with Snobal, an enterprise metaverse company, with a goal to complete a Canadian public listing on the NEO Exchange, Canada's tier 1 stock exchange for the innovation economy.

Founded in 2014, Snobal's VR workplace platform makes it easy for organisations to manage and scale their virtual workplaces from anywhere. The software enables organizations to provide their employees, customers or students with virtual workplaces where they can meet, discuss, present and collaborate in VR regardless of their physical locations.

The Company's customers include global companies across a diverse range of industries spanning education, maritime, manufacturing, engineering, telcos, professional services and firms, workplace training, energy and resources.

Snobal Co-founders Murray James and Ann Nolan will continue to serve as the core leadership team following the transaction, with a focus on accelerating the growth and global expansion of the Company, growing and strengthening the leadership team and furthering R&D and product development.

Snobal believes that its history as a self funded business working in enterprise VR has given it heightened commercial focus and adaptability. Through the transaction, the Company will be taking its first significant investment in nearly eight years to help continue to accelerate its growth globally.

"We set out to build a platform to make it easy for organisations to manage and scale VR experiences. This has naturally evolved over the years but our mission remains the same. Being nearly entirely self funded up until this year has meant that from the beginning we had to think and operate differently from venture-backed companies. We had to be efficient and tenacious. Our growth has been all about a focus on commercial acumen and efficiency of execution, which is something we are really proud of," said Murray James, Co-founder & CEO of Snobal.

"We've grown Snobal with our customers. They are our most important collaborators. But now, with a solid market validated product under our belts, and the heightened market appetite given the rapid adoption of remote and hybrid working, we felt it was time to take the reins off Snobal. The team behind Altaverse has the vision and opportunity, and we are excited to partner with them on this next stage of Snobal's journey," he said.

Altaverse director and partner of Altus Capital Partners, Zayn Kalyan, said, "It is uncommon to find a best-in-class enterprise software company working in VR that has achieved the success Snobal has to date with almost no external investment. Snobal has flown under the radar and impressed us in how it has consistently punched above its weight on the global stage since founding. We are excited to partner with the Company for this next phase of its growth."

The public listing is also expected to position the Company as one of the leading global technology companies working in the enterprise metaverse.

About Snobal

Snobal was founded in 2014 with a vision to make it easy for organisations to meet, collaborate and work together using VR/AR. Now, Snobal is the virtual workplace platform of choice for global organisations powering their virtual workplace from anywhere.

Snobal's enterprise platform enables organisations to easily create content, manage users and collaborate in virtual remote experiences. A key to Snobal's enterprise adoption is the company's philosophy of interoperability which is reflected through its stance on remaining device and software agnostic, available SDK and APIs.

For more information on Snobal, visit snobal.io

Contact

Josh Thillagaratnam

+ 613 6145 0103

media@snobal.io

About Altus Capital Partners

Altus Capital Partners is a venture finance and corporate advisory firm based in Vancouver, Canada, that partners with hyper-growth businesses. Altus has a track record of helping companies access both public and private venture capital in Canada, in a variety of market sectors, from blockchain and security software/hardware, mining to energy metals.

Contact

Zayn Kalyan

+1 778 938 3367

zayn@altuscapital.ca

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "projects", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or result expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including statements respecting: the Transaction; the Company's public listing; the use of proceeds from the concurrent financing to be conducted; the functionality of the Company's platform; the Company's next phase of growth; the Company taking its first significant investment in nearly eight years; and the Company continuing to accelerate its growth globally. Although forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon what management of Company believes are reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The forward-looking statements may also be affected by risks and uncertainties in the business of the Company. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131409
20 July 2022

ANANDA DEVELOPMENTS PLC

("Ananda" or the "Company")

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Ananda announces that Notice convening the Company's Annual General Meeting ("AGM") for 10.00 on Wednesday, 17 August 2022 at the offices of Shakespeare Martineau LLP, 6th Floor, 60 Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V OHR, has been sent to shareholders in the Company.

In addition to the usual resolutions at the AGM, resolutions will also be proposed to approve an Enterprise Management Incentive ('EMI') Plan and an Unapproved Share Option Plan. Details of these plans are available within the Notice of Meeting, available at https://anandadevelopments.com/publications/ under the Notices and Meetings tab, and the rules of the schemes will be available at https://anandadevelopments.com/publications/ under the Company Documents tab. The EMI plan is intended to be used in order to allow the operational team currently undertaking the Company's genetic stabilisation research programme and commercial trials to participate in the Company as shareholders. The Unapproved plan is being established in order to allow any Senior management excluded from participating in the EMI to still be afforded the same opportunity.

The AGM will also consider, pursuant to section 656 of the Companies Act 2006, whether any, and if so what, steps should be taken to address the fact that the net assets of the Company have fallen to half or less of its called-up share capital. This is a technical accounting outcome and the Directors do not believe that this will otherwise impact the Company.

-Ends-

The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

ANANDA DEVELOPMENTS PLC

Chief Executive Officer

Melissa Sturgess



Investor Relations

Jeremy Sturgess-Smith +44 (0) 7463 686 497

ir@anandadevelopments.com PETERHOUSE CAPITAL LIMITED

Corporate Finance

Mark Anwyl



Corporate Broking

Lucy Williams

Duncan Vasey +44 (0)20 7469 0930

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

About Ananda Developments

Ananda is an AQSE-listed medical cannabis company creating UK-based operations to grow and provide carbon zero, consistent, medical cannabis for the UK and international markets.

The UK medical cannabis market is predicted to be worth 450m by 2025 and the European market is predicted to be worth USD4.2bn by 2027.

For more information, please visit: https://anandadevelopments.com/
ABB to spin off Accelleron and list the company on SIX Swiss Exchange

The transaction will allow both ABB and Accelleron to focus on their respective core strategies and long-term value creation for their stakeholders ABB's shareholders can realize the full value of Accelleron while allowing ABB to focus on its core portfolio in the areas of electrification and automation Accelleron as the market-leader in heavy-duty turbocharging can focus on reaching its full potential in the large engine industry

Accelleron is a profitable and cash generative business targeting an attractive dividend policy

ABB shareholders to receive 1 Accelleron share for every 20 ABB shares they hold

The spin-off is subject to approval by ABB's Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) scheduled for September 7, 2022, and subsequent listing planned for October 3, 2022

Following a decision by its Board of Directors, ABB today announces its intention to spin off Accelleron (formerly ABB Turbocharging), its market-leading turbocharging division, by way of a dividend in kind of Accelleron Industries Ltd's shares to ABB's shareholders. Accelleron's listing on SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich is planned for October 3, 2022, and is subject to, among others, approval by ABB's shareholders at an Extraordinary General Meeting scheduled for September 7, 2022.

The proposed spin-off of Accelleron represents a unique opportunity for both companies, allowing them to focus on their respective core strategies and create long-term value for their stakeholders. ABB's shareholders will be able to realize the full value of Accelleron, while ABB continues to simplify its portfolio and focus on the megatrends of electrification and automation. Accelleron will be able to concentrate exclusively on reaching its full potential in the large engine industry where the company is known as the market leader in heavy-duty turbocharging, with a compelling growth profile, high cash generation and an attractive expected dividend policy.

Bjorn Rosengren, Chief Executive Officer of ABB, commented: "After careful consideration involving a dual-track process, we have concluded that spinning off Accelleron is the best way forward for Accelleron itself and for ABB's shareholders. This decision also forms a key part of ABB's active portfolio management, while allowing our shareholders to actively participate in the future growth of this Swiss champion."

Global market leader in the turbocharging sector

Accelleron's potential is driven by its position, built on its very long track record, as a global market leader in heavy-duty turbocharging for mission-critical applications.

Accelleron develops, produces and services turbochargers and large turbocharging components for engines, which enhance propulsion and increase fuel efficiency while reducing emissions. Its leading products support clients in sectors including marine, energy and rail, helping to provide sustainable and reliable power and highest efficiencies. Accelleron has an installed base of over 180,000 turbochargers globally and delivers around 10,000 turbochargers every year.

The turbochargers are produced, sold and serviced by Accelleron's ~2,200 employees across its network of 100 service stations in approximately 50 countries. The business has a significant and increasing presence in key established and growth markets in Asia.

Accelleron is considered best-in-class when it comes to reducing fuel consumption and improving the emissions and green profile of its clients' applications. The company's outstanding technological competence is increasingly important as pressure grows on its clients to decarbonize, and will remain so, as its turbochargers can also be implemented in alternative and low-carbon fuel applications and drive systems.

Strong financial profile to invest for growth and reward shareholders

Accelleron's technological pre-eminence is underpinned by market leading investments in research and development, representing approximately 7 percent of its 2021 revenues. Following the spin-off, the company expects that its strong financial profile will allow it to remain at the forefront of innovation by continuing investing in R&D and strengthening partnerships with OEM's and end users as well as to offer attractive returns to its shareholders.

In 2021, Accelleron generated revenues of $756 million with an operating margin of 25 percent. These results are comprised of resilient service revenues accounting for about 75 percent of 2021 revenues. Accelleron has a profitability above sector average with robust cashflow generation with Cash Flows from Operating Activities of $163 million in 2021. This will allow Accelleron to adopt an attractive dividend policy.

Daniel Bischofberger, CEO of Accelleron, commented: "Through the spin-off, we will have an even greater focus on our own operations, meeting the critical high-power propulsion needs of our customers while enabling them to achieve their environmental targets. Our strong track record and financial profile position the business to be a leader in the energy transition, developing cutting-edge products and services both now and far into the future; all while remunerating our shareholders."

Accelleron leadership

Following the spin-off, Accelleron will be served by an experienced leadership team with deep and long-lasting expertise in the turbocharging field.

Daniel Bischofberger as Chief Executive Officer and Adrian Grossenbacher as Chief Financial Officer are part of the Executive Committee. The designated Board of Directors of Accelleron will be chaired by Oliver Riemenschneider, who contributes over 35 years industry experience and has previously served as CEO of ABB Turbocharging since 2011. He will be complemented by a diverse and highly experienced group of directors namely Monika Krusi, Gabriele Sons, Bo Cerup-Simonsen, Stefano Pampalone and Detlef Trefzger.

Transaction structure

Provided that the spin-off is approved at the EGM and the conditions precedent for it are met, ABB will distribute to its shareholders, on a pro rata basis, as a dividend in kind, 1 Accelleron share for 20 ABB shares held. Further information on the transaction structure and other important dates in connection with the spin-off will follow in the invitation to the EGM and in the Shareholder Information Brochure prepared by ABB in relation to this process.

On August 31, 2022, ABB has scheduled a Capital Markets Day focusing on Accelleron in order to provide further information on the company and the transaction.

ABB has retained Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs International as exclusive financial advisors on the transaction. Credit Suisse will be acting as listing agent.

Accelleron is a global leader in turbocharging technologies and optimization solutions for 0.5 to 80+ MW engines, helping to provide sustainable, efficient and reliable power to the marine, energy, rail, and off-highway sectors. Through its innovative product offerings and research leadership, the company accelerates the decarbonization of the industries it operates in. Accelleron has an installed base of approximately 180,000 turbochargers and a network of more than 100 service stations across 50 countries worldwide. www.accelleron-industries.com

ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Exchange) is a leading global technology company that energizes the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future. By connecting software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels. With a history of excellence stretching back more than 130 years, ABB's success is driven by about 105,000 talented employees in over 100 countries. www.abb.com

This press release and the information contained herein are for information purposes only and do not constitute a prospectus or an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for any securities in the United States of America ("U.S."), Switzerland, Sweden or in any other jurisdiction. Any securities to be distributed in connection with this transaction have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the laws of any state of the U.S. Neither ABB Ltd nor Accelleron Industries Ltd intends to register any securities referred to herein in the U.S.

Important notice about forward-looking information

This press release includes forward-looking information and statements which are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the factors that may affect our future performance, including the economic conditions of the regions and industries that are major markets for ABB. These expectations, estimates and projections are generally identifiable by statements containing words such as "anticipates", "expects", "believes", "estimates", "plans", "targets", "aims" or similar expressions. However, there are risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information and statements made in this press release and which could affect our ability to achieve any or all of our stated targets or anticipated transactions. Some important factors that could cause such differences include, among others, business risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the volatile global economic environment and political conditions, costs associated with compliance activities, market acceptance of new products and services, changes in governmental regulations and currency exchange rates, the impact of the financial performance of Accelleron, and such other factors as may be discussed from time to time in ABB Ltd's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Reports on Form 20-F. Although each of ABB Ltd and Accelleron Industries Ltd believes that its expectations reflected in any such forward-looking statement are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that those expectations will be achieved. The foregoing list of factors is not exclusive and undue reliance should not be placed upon any forward-looking statements, including projections, which speak only as of the date made. ABB Ltd and Accelleron Industries Ltd do not undertake to update, and expressly disclaim any duty to update, any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of circumstances or events that arise after the date they are made, new information, or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005580/en/

Contacts:

ABB Ltd

Affolternstrasse 44

8050 Zurich

Switzerland



Media Relations

Phone: +41 43 317 71 11

Email: media.relations@ch.abb.com



Investor Relations

Phone: +41 43 317 71 11

Email: investor.relations@ch.abb.com
A North Korean flag flutters at the propaganda village of Gijungdong in North Korea, in this picture taken near the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, South Korea, July 19. Reuters-Yonhap



North Korea denounced the United States on Wednesday for the release of an updated human trafficking report, calling the move "absolute nonsense."



In an article posted on its website, Pyongyang's foreign ministry slammed the State Department's publication of the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report, which kept the country in Tier 3, the lowest category, for the 20th straight year.



It argued that the U.S. should place itself "on the operating table first" before meddling in other country's affairs and hiding its own "ills."



"That the U.S., which still follows its nasty human trafficking history, issues the 'Trafficking in Persons Report' every year and assesses the 'human trafficking situation' of other countries at its will is absolute nonsense and an insult to the human rights," the article read.








Press release

Sustained organic growth of +50% in H1 2022

London, July 20, 2022 - Invibes Advertising, an advanced technology company specialising in digital advertising, recorded revenues of 13.1m in the first half of 2022, with sustained organic growth of 50% compared to the first half of 2021.

Breakdown of consolidated turnover

Unaudited consolidated

data, in K H1 2022 H1 2021 ? Existing countries (1) 9 978 7 061 +41 % Scale-up (2) 2 926 1 633 +79 % New countries (start-ups) (3) 196 20 x10 TOTAL 1STHALF 13 100 8 714 +50 %

(1) France, Spain, Switzerland and ML2GROW

(2) Germany, UK, Italy and Belgium

(3) Sweden, Norway, Denmark, South Africa, Netherlands, UAE, Poland and Czech Republic

This strong organic growth is even more notable as it builds up on an exceptional performance in the first half of 2021.

All existing countries (France, Spain, Switzerland and ML2Grow) as well as those in the scale-up phase (Germany, UK, Italy, Belgium) contributed to this performance in the first half of the year.

To support this strong momentum, Invibes Advertising has continued to invest over this period in order to increase its salesforce in all these countries. In addition, the 6 countries opened in 2021 that are currently in the 'start-up' phase, are gaining momentum, with established operational teams that have been further strengthened by new talent during these first six months, enabling them to rapidly and significantly contribute to the Group's overall growth.

Finally, the international expansion on which the company's development has been built since its inception continues in 2022 with the recently announced opening of two offices in Central and Eastern Europe (Warsaw in Poland and Prague in the Czech Republic).

This very sustained growth rate that the Group is recording half-year after half-year could be temporarily slowed by the current macro-economic environment if it deteriorates further in the coming months. Nevertheless, Invibes Advertising's management remains confident as the Group's development is based on solid fundamentals such as the continued digitisation of the advertising market, the increase in its international activities and its capacity to adapt to market changes. These factors have already enabled the Group to demonstrate resilience in difficult environments in the past.

Next publication: half-yearly results, 7 September 2022, after closing of trade

About Invibes Advertising

Invibes Advertising is an advanced technology company specialising in digital advertising. Its innovative solutions are based on an in-feed format, integrated into media content.

Invibes is inspired by social media advertising and develops its own technology to help brands better communicate with consumers. Its technology is optimised for delivery on a closed network of media groups, including Bertelsmann, Hearst, Unify, Groupe Marie Claire, Axel Springer, and many others. Clients include major brands such as Mercedes, Samsung, Levi's, and IBM.

Founded in 2011, Invibes Advertising is a listed company on Euronext Stock Exchange (Ticker: ALINV - ISIN: BE0974299316). Visit www.invibes.com for more information.

Find our latest press releases on:

https://www.invibes.com/uk/en/investors.html

Follow live the latest news from Invibes Advertising:

LinkedIn @Invibes AdvertisingTwitter @Invibes_adv

Financial & Corporate Contacts:

Audrey Mela, VP Investor Relations

audr e y.mela@invibes.com

Attachment
BREA, California, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ViewSonic Corp., a global leader in education technology solutions, held its first annual certified teachers' conference in Taiwan: Post-Pandemic Era/New Learning Life. At the conference, over 100 certified trainers discussed the development of digital teaching, and primary and secondary school teachers shared their experiences using myViewBoard for digital education and creating digital interactive materials.

"We are delighted that our industry partners and teachers are at ViewSonic's annual teachers' conference to discuss new teaching models in the post-pandemic era and to brainstorm how to develop education in the coming years," said James Chu, Chairman, and CEO of ViewSonic. "ViewSonic continues to develop education technology solutions that integrate software, hardware, and services. By collaborating with partners, we continue to help teachers carry out student-centric lessons and embrace new teaching models."

"Market investigation showed that over half the teachers faced three main challenges when teaching digitally - a lack of interaction during lessons, a lack of comprehensive software, and a frequent switch in digital teaching platforms," said Ho, Chi-Yu, CEO of CommonWealth Education Media and Publishing company. "The paradigm for how teachers learn and train on-the-job has shifted completely. Teachers seek information through online videos, livestream courses, and other online platforms. They also engage with other teachers through online communities to improve their teaching capabilities."

Alex Wang, the founder of Dream N, a well-known self-learning community for teachers in Taiwan, shared his post-pandemic teaching experience. "Before the pandemic, teachers focused primarily on explaining and simplifying concepts of the lesson to their students. In the post-pandemic era, teachers have had to be more flexible in their teaching style. Teachers need to switch between physical and online platforms constantly. Therefore, teachers must also be digitally literate in addition to their knowledge of the lesson. They must understand how to use new technologies and design lessons according to their student's needs, all while maintaining the quality of their lessons."

Ms. Mei Yu Wen, the founder of Teacher Wen's Lesson Preparation Party, talked about how she used technology to turn learning into a fun experience. "Games are the best way to stimulate learning, and myViewBoard is the best tool to implement this. Through games, students are motivated and willing to participate actively. For example, by using technology, students can receive instant feedback when learning how to write essays. In addition, teachers can adjust the difficulty of their classes according to the students' levels, making their classes more lively and interesting."

"As a multimedia content producer, Taiwan Bar Studio is committed to creating high-quality educational content for children. With this, Taiwan Bar Studio created 'BEERU Kids', a series of culture and literacy educational videos," said Thomas Hsiao, CEO of Taiwan Bar Studio. "This cooperation with ViewSonic turned our digital content into interactive teaching materials, accelerating the development of digital education in Taiwan."

Teachers from different elementary and junior high schools also shared how they used myViewBoard to increase interactivity in their classes. From planning efficient essay-writing lessons to developing good reading habits by reading interactive newspapers, teachers demonstrated how to use digital teaching tools to implement physical, online, and hybrid classes to better engage students and enhance learning outcomes.

About ViewSonic

Founded in California, ViewSonic is a leading global provider of visual solutions and conducts business in over 100 countries worldwide. As an innovator and visionary, ViewSonic is committed to providing comprehensive hardware and software solutions that include monitors, projectors, pen displays, commercial displays, All-in-One LED displays, ViewBoard interactive displays, and myViewBoard software ecosystem. With over 35 years of expertise in visual displays, ViewSonic has established a strong position for delivering innovative and reliable solutions for education, enterprise, consumer, and professional markets and helping customers "See the Difference." To find out more about ViewSonic, please visit www.viewsonic.com.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1862877/Image_1__ViewSonic_invited_partners_and_educational_experts_to_join_its_First_Annual_Certified_Train.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1587181/Logo.jpg
Almere, The Netherlands

July 20, 2022, 6 p.m. CET



ASM International N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) today reports its second quarter 2022 operating results (unaudited).

Record high orders and revenue in Q2 with continued revenue growth expected for the rest of the year

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

EUR million Q2 2021 Q1 2022 Q2 2022 New orders 515.7 705.7 942.7 YoY change % as reported / at constant currencies 73% / 86% 72% / 65% 83% / 73% Revenue 411.7 516.9 559.5 YoY change % as reported / at constant currencies 20% / 29% 31% / 25% 36% / 30% Gross profit margin % 48.1% 47.8% 47.5% Operating result 118.4 143.0 147.6 Operating result margin % 28.7% 27.7% 26.4% Share in income of investments in associates (excluding amortization intangible assets resulting from the sale of ASMPT stake in 2013) 19.3 23.7 26.9 Amortization intangible assets (resulting from the sale of ASMPT stake in 2013) (3.0) (3.2) (3.4) Net earnings 108.4 142.5 160.4 Normalized net earnings (excluding amortization intangible assets resulting from the sale of ASMPT stake in 2013 and result from sale of ASMPT shares) 111.4 145.7 163.8

Record high new orders of 943 million for the second quarter 2022 increased by 73% at constant currencies compared to the same period last year (83% as reported).

Year-on-year revenue growth for the second quarter 2022 was 30% at constant currencies (36% as reported).

Gross profit margin of 47.5% in the second quarter 2022 was slightly lower compared to 48.1% in the same quarter last year which had a stronger mix.

Operating result for the second quarter 2022 improved from 118 million last year to 148 million this year driven again by strong revenue growth, which was partly offset by an increase in operating expenses.

Normalized net earnings for the second quarter 2022 were 164 million and included a translation profit of 26 million compared to a translation loss of 2 million in Q2 2021 and a translation gain of 9 million in Q1 2022.

COMMENT

"ASM again delivered a very strong quarter, with record high orders, revenue and results," said Benjamin Loh, President and Chief Executive Officer of ASM International. "In the second quarter, revenue increased by 30% at constant currencies to 560 million, at the higher end of the guided range of 540-570 million, as our team, in close cooperation with suppliers and customers, demonstrated again solid execution in the face of continued difficult supply chain conditions.

While parts of the semiconductor end-markets, mainly PCs and smartphones, recently slowed down impacted by weakening macro-economic trends, the overall demand for wafer fab equipment continues to be strong and broad based. Our order intake surged by 73% at constant currencies to a new record high of 943 million in Q2. Our orders were boosted by robust new node spending in the logic/foundry segment and our recent wins in memory, particularly for ALD gap-fill in 3D-NAND and continued adoption of HKMG in DRAM.

R&D and SG&A further increased in Q2 as we continue to invest in the growth of our company and prepare for substantially higher expected revenue levels, evidenced by the increases in order intake. At the same time, operating profits improved by 25% and free cash flow amounted to a healthy level of 121 million in Q2.

Finally, we are very excited with the recent announcement that we reached an agreement to acquire LPE, which will add another high-growth business to ASM's portfolio."

OUTLOOK

Supply chain conditions have improved at a slower pace than previously projected and, as a result, are expected to remain challenging in the third quarter. For Q3, at constant currencies, we expect revenue of 570-600 million. Supported by a record high order backlog, we still project an improvement in our sales in the second half compared to the first half. Assuming some improvement in the supply situation towards the end of the year, we expect revenue in Q4 to be higher than in Q3. As supply constraints will limit the extent of the increase in our shipments in the second half, we expect our order backlog to remain at an elevated level as we exit 2022.

We remain confident to outperform the earlier communicated expectation of mid to high teens percentage increase for wafer fab equipment (WFE) spending in 2022, although it is likely that WFE growth this year will be more towards the lower end of this range due to the industry-wide supply chain constraints.

AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE LPE

On July 18, 2022, ASM announced an agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of LPE S.p.A. ("LPE"), a manufacturer of epitaxial reactors for silicon carbide (SiC) and silicon, based in Italy. The acquisition will complement ASM's leading position in silicon epitaxy solutions for the power electronics, analog and wafer markets with LPE's offering of advanced SiC epitaxy tools.

ASM will finance the transaction using a combination of cash and shares, representing an enterprise value of 425 million, on a cash and debt free basis, at the date of signing. An additional amount of up to 100 million will be paid by way of an earn out based on certain performance metrics over a two-year period after the closing of the transaction. The earn outs are to be paid out exclusively in cash.

The transaction is subject to FDI and anti-trust approval in a limited number of countries and other customary closing conditions which are expected to be met by the long stop date of November 10, 2022. Further reference is made to the press release issued on July 18, 2022.

INTERIM FINANCIAL REPORT

ASM International N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) today also publishes its Interim Financial Report for the six month period ended June 30, 2022.

This report includes an Interim Management Board Report and condensed consolidated interim financial statements prepared in accordance with IAS 34 (Interim Financial Reporting). The Interim Financial Report comprises regulated information within the meaning of the Dutch Financial Markets Supervision Act ("Wet op het Financieel Toezicht") and is available in full on our website www.asm.com.







About ASM International

ASM International N.V., headquartered in Almere, the Netherlands, and its subsidiaries design and manufacture equipment and process solutions to produce semiconductor devices for wafer processing, and have facilities in the United States, Europe, and Asia. ASM International's common stock trades on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: All matters discussed in this press release, except for any historical data, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, economic conditions and trends in the semiconductor industry generally and the timing of the industry cycles specifically, currency fluctuations, corporate transactions, financing and liquidity matters, the success of restructurings, the timing of significant orders, market acceptance of new products, competitive factors, litigation involving intellectual property, shareholders or other issues, commercial and economic disruption due to natural disasters, terrorist activity, armed conflict or political instability, changes in import/export regulations, epidemics and other risks indicated in the Company's reports and financial statements. The Company assumes no obligation nor intends to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future developments or circumstances.

This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.





ASM International will host the quarterly earnings conference call and webcast on Thursday, July 21, 2022, at 3:00 p.m. CET.

Conference call participants should pre-register using this link to receive the dial-in numbers and a personal PIN, which are required to access the conference call.

A simultaneous audio webcast, and replay will be accessible at www.asm.com/investors/webcasts-presentations/2022/second-quarter-earnings .

CONTACT

Investor and media contact:

Victor Bareno

T: +31 88 100 8500

E: investor.relations@asm.com

Attachment
LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / JULY 20, 2022 / Tego Cyber Inc. (OTCQB:TGCB), a technology company focused on the development and commercialization of an intelligent cyberthreat hunting application that integrates with leading security information and event management (SIEM) platforms, today released a summary of achievements and milestones met during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022.

"During this last fiscal year, we completed the first version of our cyberthreat intelligence application, developed then began implementing the path-to-market strategy to monetize our technology, and continued development of a second and third version," stated Mrs. Shannon Wilkinson, President & CEO of Tego Cyber Inc. "We are now entering the revenue phase for the first version of our application," continued Mrs. Wilkinson.

What is SIEM platform?

SIEM stands for security information and event management. A SIEM platform collects log data and cyber events from an enterprise's systems, applications, devices, and networks, then provides an analysis of the data for use in security monitoring, compliance and auditing purposes. SIEM platforms provide a centralized place for cyber security teams to review cyber events. SIEM solutions can reside either in on-premises or cloud environments. All larger companies, organizations and governmental agencies now utilize SIEM software solutions.

The Application

Tego Guardian is a proactive intelligent cyberthreat hunting tool that gives macro enterprises the ability to quickly track threats throughout their SIEM platform, mapping out exposures and expediting remediation saving security operations teams time and money. What makes Tego Guardian different from other cyberthreat intelligence applications, is that it is the first commercially available solution that directly integrates into a user's existing SIEM platform. It operates within the platform environment, so security operations teams do not have to exit to a different application to complete a specific task or research a cyber threat. Tego Guardian cross-correlates threats in real time and not only looks forward but back to see if the organization's network has been previously exposed. The first version of Tego Guardian integrates with the industry leading Splunk SIEM platform. Tego Guardian is now available for download through Splunk's app store and is compatible with Splunk Enterprise versions: 8.0.X, 8.1.X, 8.2.X and 9.0. Tego Guardian is also undergoing compatibility verification for Splunk Cloud.

"The biggest issue we hear from potential customers, is that it's extremely difficult to diagnose and research cybersecurity events because of the large volume of low-level data and the high number of alerts a typical SIEM platform will generate," stated Chris White, CISO for Tego Cyber Inc. "Users will get an alert, but this often lacks clarity and context. It requires additional research which then takes time which ultimately costs money and adds potential risk. This is where Tego Guardian comes in. Tego Guardian provides that additional clarity and context in real-time, assisting security operations teams with expediting remediation thereby saving time and money," continued Mr. White.

Future Versions of Tego Guardian

The Company is now completing development of a version of Tego Guardian for integration with the Elastic Security SIEM platform. The Company is planning to commercially launch this version in the fall of 2022. The Company is also in the planning phase of a third version for integration with the Devo SIEM platform. The Company plans to develop versions of Tego Guardian for integration with other leading SIEM platforms including: IBM QRadar, AT&T Cybersecurity, Exabeam, and Google Chronical.

"What makes Tego Guardian unique is the scalability of the application," stated Brent Watkins, Director of Business Development for Tego Cyber Inc. "Tego Guardian is an add-on to an existing SIEM platform. It was purposely designed not to be a stand-alone product. The first commercially launched version integrates with the Splunk SIEM platform. Splunk currently has over 22,000+ enterprise clients using their products and solutions. The second version of Tego Guardian, which is now completing development, will integrate with the Elastic Security SIEM platform. Elastic has 16,000+ enterprise clients using their products and solutions. With each new integration released, there is an established user base already using the SIEM platform which provides our sales team with a clearly identifiable market to target," continued Mr. Watkins.

Commercialization

Since Fall 2021, the Company has been developing the path-to-market and monetization strategy for the first version of Tego Guardian. It has been a challenge due to the uniqueness of the application and the sensitivity of the environments it integrates with. The Company has assembled an inhouse sales team of veteran cybersecurity experts who are contacting cybersecurity leaders and security operations teams using the Splunk SIEM platform to introduce Tego Guardian and the benefits it adds to their existing platform. The Company also recently launched a channel partner program to supplement the inhouse sales initiatives. Channel partners will offer Tego Guardian as an upsell to their existing clients using the Splunk SIEM platform. The channel partner program was developed in partnership with Vation Ventures. Since the launch of the channel partner program, the Company has signed six channel partner agreements.

Additional Revenue Streams

The Company is currently exploring opportunities to leverage its technology and underlying platform. One potential spin-off revenue stream is the reselling of the cyberthreat intelligence data used by the Tego Guardian application. The management team is currently working on a framework for this revenue stream, identifying potential markets, and a developing the path-to-market strategy.

Material Agreements

On September 7, 2021, the Company entered into a Master Services Agreement with IONnovate, LLC, a premier application development firm based in Las Vegas, Nevada, to supplement the current development team with additional resources to assist with the development of new integrations of the Company's threat intelligence application. IONnovate currently is working on the integration of Tego Guardian for the Elastic SIEM platform. On February 2, 2022, the Company entered into a marketing services agreement with Vation Ventures to support and accelerate the path-to-market strategy and assist in the implementation of the channel partner program.

Trade Shows & Conferences

As part of the overall sales strategy and to help build the Tego brand, during the last 12 months, the Company presented at or attended a number of investment and cybersecurity industry conferences both in-person and virtually including:

Maxim Group Investor Summit (Virtual)

Microcap Rodeo Winter Wonderland Best Ideas Conference (Virtual)

Benziniga All Access Event (Virtual)

Q4 Investment Conference (Virtual)

LD Micro Main Even XIV (Virtual)

Microcap Rodeo's Fall Harvest Investor Conference (Virtual)

H.C. Wainwright 23 Annual Investment Conference (Virtual)

Small Cap Growth Investor Conference (Virtual)

Access to Giving Investment Conference (Virtual)

RSA Conference (San Francisco)

Splunk .conf22 (Las Vegas)

SEC Reporting Status

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022, the Company filed an 8A-12G to transition from a voluntary to mandatory reporting issuer with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company did this in preparation of a future listing on a senior stock exchange.

Outlook

For the next 12 months the Company has set the following goals:

Complete path-to-market for the first version of Tego Guardian for Splunk;

Enter revenue phase of the business model for the first version of Tego Guardian;

Complete development of the version of Tego Guardian for Elastic SIEM platform;

Implement and complete path-to-market to monetize Tego Guardian for Elastic SIEM platform;

Complete development of a version of Tego Guardian for Devo SIEM platform;

Monetize Tego Guardian for the Devo SIEM platform;

Commence development of a version of Tego Guardian for Exabeam SIEM platform;

Retain investment banking partner to assist with uplist to NASAQ or NYSE with a senior financing.

"We anticipate fiscal 2023 to be a transformational year for Tego Cyber as we realize revenue from the initial version of our technology while continuing to develop new versions of our application for new markets," stated Mrs. Wilkinson "As our revenue grows, it is our intention to list our common shares for trading on a senior stock exchange which will add credibility, open the door to larger fundings, global expansion and acquisition opportunities," continued Mrs. Wilkinson.

About Tego Cyber Inc.

Tego Cyber Inc. (OTCQB:TGCB, "the Company") was created to capitalize on the emerging cyber threat intelligence market. The Company has developed a cyber threat intelligence application that integrates with top end security platforms to gather, analyze, then proactively identify threats to an enterprise network. The Tego Guardian Threat Intelligence Platform takes in vetted and curated threat data and after utilizing a proprietary process, the platform compiles, analyzes, and then delivers that data to an enterprise network in a format that is timely, informative, and relevant. The threat data provides additional context including specific details needed to identify and counteract threats so that security teams can spend less time searching for disparate information. The first version of the application will integrate with the widely accepted Splunk SIEM to provide real-time threat intelligence to macro enterprises using the Splunk architecture. The Company plans on developing future versions of the Tego Guardian app for integration with other established SIEM systems and platforms including: Elastic, Devo, IBM QRadar, AT&T Cybersecurity, Exabeam, and Google Chronical. For more information, please visit www.tegocyber.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

The statements contained in this press release, those which are not purely historical or which depend upon future events, may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements regarding the Company's expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future constitute forward-looking statements. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements because of various factors. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on information available to the Company on the date hereof and the Company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. Prospective investors should also consult the risks factors described from time to time in the Company's Reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and Annual Reports to Shareholders.

Tego Contact:

Tego Cyber Inc.

8565 S Eastern Avenue, Suite 150

Las Vegas, Nevada 89123

USA

Tel: 855-939-0100 (North America)

Tel: 725-726-7840 (International)

Email: info@tegocyber.com

Web: tegocyber.com

Facebook: facebook.com/tegocyber

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/tegocyber

Twitter: twitter.com/tegocyber

SOURCE: Tego Cyber Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/709200/Tego-Cyber-Inc-Releases-2022-Fiscal-Year-End-Review
ST. LOUIS, MO / ACCESSWIRE / July 20, 2022 / Kennedy Capital Management, Inc. (KCM), a specialist in small and mid-cap investment management services, announced that its Kennedy Capital ESG SMID Cap Fund (KESGX) has received an initial 5-Star1 overall Morningstar RatingTM, and its three-year performance ranks in the top 7%. These total return achievements are measured against 576 funds in Morningstar's Small Blend Category as of June 30, 2022.

Kennedy Capital ESG SMID Cap Fund (KESGX)

KESGX is managed by Christian McDonald, CFA, a 16-year veteran of KCM. "We are pleased to be rated as a top performer in our Morningstar Category," said McDonald. "We believe that small and mid-cap companies often have greater potential to provide investors more focused exposure to commonly desired environmental and social priorities due to their targeted product or service offerings. As a result, we have seen these smaller companies become innovators in the domain of ESG-related opportunities."

Since inception, KESGX has committed to at least an 80% reduction in carbon emissions and at least a 15% better governance score than its benchmark. Furthermore, small and mid-cap (SMID) portfolio constituents frequently align with one or more climate action, societal, or governance themes. KESGX employs the same investment approach as the Kennedy Capital ESG SMID Cap strategy, established in January 2017. The strategy is fossil fuel free (no companies with carbon reserves) and excludes producers of tobacco, civil firearms and controversial weapons.

Fund Launches - Building on the success of this fund, KCM also announced the launch of two additional open-end mutual funds, each with their own style tilt:

Kennedy Capital Small Cap Value Fund (KVALX)

KVALX, managed by Frank Latuda, Jr., CFA, and McAfee Burke, CFA, utilizes the same approach as the Kennedy Capital Small Cap Value strategy, established nearly 40 years ago in January 1983. The strategy seeks to identify companies across the value spectrum with compelling return on invested capital profiles.

Kennedy Capital Small Cap Growth Fund (KGROX)

KGROX, managed by Jean Barnard, CFA, and Ryan Dunnegan, CPA, utilizes the same approach as the Kennedy Capital Small Cap Growth strategy, incepted in January 2008. The strategy seeks companies with durable business models able to deploy assets into growing sets of opportunities with the potential to generate superior rates of return.

"With investor demand in mind and considering the success of KESGX, we are excited to establish KVALX and KGROX," said Donald Cobin, CFA, Chief Executive Officer of KCM. "All three funds seek capital appreciation and are designed to be accessible, cost-effective vehicles for institutions or individuals seeking exposure to our well-established investment approach."

The Kennedy Capital ESG SMID Cap Fund (KESGX) shares are currently available for purchase at Fidelity, Pershing, Schwab and UMB. Shares of the Kennedy Capital Small Cap Value Fund (KVALX) and the Kennedy Capital Small Cap Growth Fund (KGROX) are available for purchase at UMB.

About Kennedy Capital Management, Inc.

Founded in 1980, St. Louis-based Kennedy Capital Management, Inc. delivers investment strategies to corporate and public pension funds, endowments, foundations, multi-employer plans and high-net-worth individuals. As of June 30, 2022, KCM managed $3.7 billion in assets. The privately-held 100% employee-owned registered investment adviser specializes in the management of small and mid-cap strategies across the growth-value spectrum. KCM integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into its research process and has nearly 20 years' experience managing socially-responsible client accounts. For more information, visit www.kennedycapital.com or email funds@kennedycapital.com.

1Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Rating reflects fee waivers in effect; in their absence, the rating may have been lower.

Investors should consider the Funds' investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. This and other important information is contained in the Funds' full prospectuses and summary prospectuses, which can be obtained by visiting www.kennedycapital.com or by calling (833) 737-7788. Please read carefully before investing.

Important Risk Information: Mutual fund investing involves risk, including loss of principal. Equity securities (stocks) are generally more volatile and carry more risk than fixed income securities (bonds) and money market investments. The net asset value per share of a mutual fund will fluctuate as the value of the securities in the portfolio changes. Common stocks and funds investing in common stocks generally provide greater returns over long-time periods than fixed-income securities. The Funds are comprised primarily of equity securities and are subject to market risk. Stocks may decline due to general market and economic conditions or due to company-specific circumstances. The Funds are comprised of small-mid capitalization ("SMID cap") stocks. SMID cap stocks typically carry additional risk since smaller companies generally have a higher risk of failure and historically have experienced a greater degree of volatility. Small-mid capitalization companies generally have a greater risk of failure, and their stocks generally have greater volatility than large companies.

Risks specific to KESGX: ESG criteria may affect the Fund's exposure to risks associated with certain issuers, industries and sectors which may impact the Fund's investment performance. The Fund may forgo some market opportunities available to funds that do not use these criteria.

Risks specific to KVALX: Value investing is subject to the risk that the market will not recognize a security's inherent value for a long time or at all. The Fund is newly organized and thus has no track record of its own on which to base an investment decision.

Risks specific to KGROX: Growth securities may be particularly sensitive to market conditions. The Fund is newly organized and thus has no track record of its own on which to base an investment decision.

Index definitions and technical terms: The Russell 2500 Index is used as the benchmark for the Kennedy Capital ESG SMID Cap Fund and strategy. The Russell 2500 Index measures the performance of the small to mid-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe, commonly referred to as "smid" cap. The Russell 2500 Index is a subset of the Russell 3000 Index. It includes approximately 2500 of the smallest securities based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership. You cannot invest directly into an index.

Carbon Emissions (Scope1 Wtd. Avg., mt.) is a weighted average of companies' reported or estimated Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions measured in metric tons. Scope 1 emissions are those from sources owned or controlled by the company. The assessment is sourced from MSCI's Carbon Metrics database. Companies not included in the MSCI Carbon Metrics database are not included in the weighted average calculation for the portfolio or the benchmark. The Fund is assessed quarterly compared to the weighted average emissions (reported or estimated as sourced from the MSCI Carbon Metrics database) of the Russell 2500 index. The Fund's weighted average emissions will be at least 80% lower than that of the index.

The Governance Score refers to the ISS Governance QualityScore, which is derived from publicly disclosed data on a company's governance practices and for which a lower score is preferable. The Score is calculated as a weighted average for the Fund and compared to the weighted average score for the Russell 2500 Index. Companies not included in the ISS Governance QualityScore database are not included in the weighted average calculation for the portfolio or the benchmark. The QualityScore provides an indication of relative governance quality supported by factor-level data. The Fund's weighted average QualityScore will be at least 15% lower (better) than that of the index. Companies receive an overall QualityScore and a score for each of four categories: Board Structure, Compensation/ Remuneration, Shareholder Rights and Audit & Risk Oversight. A score in the 1st decile indicates relatively higher quality governance practices and relatively lower governance risk, and conversely, a score in the 10th decile indicates relatively higher governance risk.

 2022 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information.

The Morningstar RatingTM for funds, or "star rating", is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The Morningstar Rating does not include any adjustment for sales loads. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. As of 6/30/2022, KESGX was rated against 576 Small Blend funds for the 3-year period. KESGX received 5 stars for this period. The Small Blend Category includes funds that invest in stocks of small companies where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. Stocks in the bottom 10% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as small cap.

Morningstar Category % Rank is a fund's total-return percentile rank relative to all funds in the same category. The highest (or most favorable) percentile rank is one and the lowest (or least favorable) percentile rank is 100. As of 6/30/2022, KESGX ranked in the top 30% among 605 Small Blend funds for the 1-year period based on total returns. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Kennedy Capital Management, Inc. is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the adviser to the Funds.

The Funds are distributed by IMST Distributors, LLC.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the laws of such state or jurisdiction.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements that may include "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are "forward-looking statements." Although Kennedy Capital Management, Inc. believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Fund's reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Other than as required by law, Kennedy Capital Management, Inc. does not assume a duty to update this forward-looking statement.

Contact:

Maggie Zastrow

mzastrow@kennedycapital.com

(314) 743-8221

SOURCE: Kennedy Capital Management, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/709190/KCM-Announces-5-Star-Morningstar-Rating-for-ESG-Fund-and-Launch-of-Two-Small-Cap-Funds
TUCSON, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / July 20, 2022 / Western Alaska Minerals (the "Company" or "WAM") is pleased to announce additional visual observations of core from its ongoing drilling at the Waterpump Creek carbonate replacement deposit ("CRD"). Visual observations for WPC22-01 thru 13 were released previously (See News Release of July 5, 2022). Assay results from WPC22-07, 08, 11 and 13 are pending and expected shortly.

New Visual Drill Results

Ongoing exploration drilling focused on extending the Waterpump Creek bonanza carbonate replacement mineralization has intersected 101.7 and 47 meters of massive sulfide and banded dolomite sphalerite mineralization in drillholes WPC22-018 and WPC22-017, respectively. Both holes are vertical drill holes.

The 47-meter thick WPC22-17 intercept lies just over 200 meters south and 30 meters west of WAM's 2021 discovery drillhole WPC21-09 (See News Release of November 15, 2021). The 101.7-meter intercept in WPC22-18 was drilled another 50 meters south of WPC22-17 and is the thickest to date at the Waterpump Creek deposit. True thickness of the WPC22-18 intercept is not determinable at this time but the exceptionally long interval may indicate high-angle chimney-style mineralization linking the manto-form mineralization encountered previously. This relationship is commonly seen in CRD's but additional drilling is needed to understand the geometry encountered in these two holes and their relationship to earlier massive sulfide intercepts.

Photos 1 and 2 show the mineralized core encountered in WPC22-17.

Photo 1. WPC22-17: 125.5-172.5 - 47.0 meters

Portion of WPC22-17 showing massive reddish-brown sphalerite

intergrown with argentiferous galena

Photo 2. WPC22-17: 125.5-175.5 - 47.0 meters

Portion of WPC22-17 showing massive replacement dolomite

with banded sphalerite and argentiferous galena

Photos 3 and 4 show mineralized core encountered in WPC22-18.

Photo 3. WPC22-18: 147.2-248.9 - 101.7 meters

Portion of WPC22-18 showing

lead-dominant mineralization with abundant

argentiferous galena in a matrix of dolomite

Photo 4. WPC22-18: 147.2-248.9 - 101.7 meters

Portion of WPC22-18 showing high-grade massive galena

in a dolomite matrix along with thick zones of intermingled massive pyrite

While the Company finds these visual results to be encouraging, it cautions that the significance of the observations reported here will not be known until assays are received and reviewed. There is not a resource estimate for Waterpump Creek and the presence or absence of an economically viable orebody cannot be determined until significant additional work is completed.

The mineralized intervals encountered in 2022 drilling to-date show zones of massive sphalerite and argentiferous galena in a matrix of secondary dolomite alternating with banded dolomite-rich replacement mineralization. In some drill holes, internal zones of oxidized gossan with small voids are present.

Multiple phases of mineralization are apparent, and zones of lead-dominant and zinc-dominant mineralization are intermingled throughout sections of the core. Silver cannot be determined visually, but handheld XRF analyzer indicates the galena carries significant silver. Historic assays show a strong correlation between silver and lead with each 1% lead associated with approximately 1 oz/tonne silver.

Table 1. Updated Interval Summary of Massive Sulfide/Replacement Mineralization and Gossan encountered at Waterpump Creek

Drill hole From (meters) To (meters) Thickness (meters) Estimated True Thickness (meters) This Release WPC22-17 Massive Sulfide 125.5 172.5 47.0 Length of Mineralized Interval 125.5 172.5 47.0 38.5 WPC22-18 Massive Sulfide 147.2 151.6 4.4 Internal Gossan 151.6 155.2 3.6 Massive Sulfide 155.2 168.1 12.9 Internal Gossan 168.1 190.0 21.9 Massive Sulfide 190.0 248.9 58.9 Length of Mineralized Interval 147.2 248.9 101.7 Indeterminate at this time Previously Released WPC22-07 Massive Sulfide 138.0 142.5 4.5 Length of Mineralized Interval 138.0 142.5 4.5 4.5 WPC22-07 Massive Sulfide 150.4 164.4 14.0 Length of Mineralized Interval 150.4 164.4 14.0 12.1 WPC22-08 Massive Sulfide 114.6 123.1 8.5 Length of Mineralized Interval 114.6 123.1 8.5 7.7 WPC22-11 Massive Sulfide 139.1 150.6 11.5 WPC22-11 Internal Gossan 150.6 152.7 2.1 WPC22-11 Massive Sulfide 152.7 156.3 3.6 Length of Mineralized Interval 17.2 16.8 WPC22-13 Massive Sulfide 150.8 151.9 1.1 WPC22-13 Internal Gossan/Void 151.9 158.4 6.5 WPC22-13 Massive Sulfide 158.4 161.4 3.0 Length of Mineralized Interval 150.8 161.4 10.6 9.6

*samples are being processed at ALS Vancouver.

2022 WAM Exploration Strategy and Current Implications

The 2022 WAM field program is structured to achieve two major goals:

1) Identify ore controls and the trends of the bonanza high-grade sulfide mineralization encountered in discovery hole WPC21-09, and begin expansion drilling based on those results; and

2) Using CSAMT geophysics develop a deeper understanding of the Waterpump Creek mineralization within the structural framework of the very large-scale exploration opportunity presented by Illinois Creek District. CSAMT (controlled-source audio magneto-tellurics) is a deep- sounding resistivity method that can be extremely effective in helping to understand continuity and potential fluid paths at depths far greater than most geophysical methods.

Waterpump Creek Drilling Discussion

Initial 2022 drilling in 2022 was undertaken at 25 meters spacings to better define the trend and tenor of mineralization surrounding the bonanza grade 2021 WPC drill results. The approach was successful, so drilling has now moved to sections spaced 50-meters apart, and to date has tracked the replacement body over 250 meters in length with mineralization open in several directions.

The mineralization forms an elongate body roughly 30-60+ meters wide plunging gently to the south in the footwall dolomite adjacent to the WPC Creek 'structure'. The overall architecture defined in the 2022 CSAMT profiles indicates this structure is the western margin of a graben-like depression roughly 500 to 600 meters wide that down-drops and drapes the overlying chlorite and graphite schist package onto underlying dolomite section. Current drilling is focused on following the dolomite along this western margin as it continues south and folds into the depression.

Qualified Person

The qualified person who reviewed and approved the technical disclosure in this release is Stuart Morris, P. Geo., a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Morris is an independent consultant and has verified the data disclosed, including sampling, analytical and QA/QC data underlying the technical information in this news release, including reviewing the reports of ALS, methodologies, results, and all procedures undertaken for quality assurance and quality control in a manner consistent with industry practice. All technical matters were consistent and accurate according to his professional judgement.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control

Quality Assurance/Quality Control of drill sample assay results are independently monitored through a quality assurance/quality control ("QA/QC") protocol which includes the insertion of blind standard reference materials, blanks, and duplicates at regular intervals.

All logging and sampling is completed at WAM's core handling facilities located at the Illinois Creek mine camp in Alaska. Drill core is logged under an established procedure using Geospark commercial logging software, then diamond sawn on site. Half drill-core samples are then securely transported to ALS facilities in Fairbanks, Alaska from Illinois Creek under a strict chain of custody protocol. Sample pulps are then sent to ALS's lab in Vancouver, Canada, for analysis. Gold content is determined by fire assay of a 30-gram charge with ICP finish. Silver, lead, copper, and zinc along with other elements are analyzed by ICP methods utilizing a four-acid digestion. Over-limit samples for silver, lead, copper, and zinc are determined by ore-grade titration analyses. ALS Inc. is independent of Western Alaska Minerals and its affiliates.

ALS also performs its own internal QA/QC procedures to assure the accuracy and integrity of results. Parameters for ALS' internal and WAM' external blind quality control samples are acceptable for the elements analyzed. WAM is unaware of any drilling, sampling, recovery, or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data referred to herein.

About WAM

WAM began trading on the TSX-V in November, 2021, and maintains corporate offices in Alaska and Arizona. WAM fully controls all claims in the historic Illinois Creek Mining District located in western Alaska near the Yukon River, covering 55,360 acres (86.5 square miles or 22,403 hectares). The District was originally discovered by Anaconda Minerals Co. in the early 1980's. Since 2010, WAM and its private precursor company Western Alaska Copper & Gold Company has reassembled the Anaconda property package and been engaged in exploring the District. The District encompasses at least five deposits containing gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc.

On behalf of WAM

"Kit Marrs"

Kit Marrs

Chairman & CEO

Phone: (520) 200-1667

For further information please contact:

Vanessa Bogaert, Director of Corporate Communications/IR at vanessa@westernalaskaminerals.com

Or visit our website at: www.westernalaskaminerals.com

Forward Looking Information

Certain statements made, and information contained herein may constitute "forward looking information" and "forward looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. These statements and information are based on facts currently available to the Company and there is no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking statements and information may be identified by such terms as "anticipates", "believes", "targets", "estimates", "plans", "expects", "may", "will", "could" or "would". Forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the realization of resource and reserve estimates, metal prices, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes and other matters. While the Company considers its assumptions to be reasonable as of the date hereof, forward-looking statements and information are not guaranteeing of future performance and readers should not place undue importance on such statements as actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or information except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Western Alaska Minerals Corp

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/709196/Western-Alaska-Minerals-Intercepts-47-And-1017-Meters-Of-Massive-Sulfide-Replacement-Mineralization-In-Drill-Holes-WPC22-17-And-18
Regulatory News:

Latecoere (Paris:LAT), a "tier 1" partner of the world's major aircraft and spacecraft manufacturers, is proud to announce its contribution to Airbus' UK-led "Wing of Tomorrow" programme.

The "Wing of Tomorrow" R&T programme tests new technologies for wing architecture and explores how wing manufacturing and industrialisation can be improved to meet future demands as the sector emerges from the pandemic.

As a partner of the programme, Latecoere has brought considerable experience in the design and manufacture of Electrical Wiring Interconnection Systems to the project, developing two demonstration systems which will be delivered to Airbus before the end of the year. Further to this work, Latecoere will be delivering the Folding Wing Tip electrical wiring system.

Latecoere is managing its contribution to "Wing of Tomorrow" from its Interconnection Systems offices in Bristol, UK, with support from the sites of Hamburg, Germany, and Toulouse, France. This project also benefits from the financial support of Innovate UK, the UK's national innovation agency.

"True to its purpose to serve aerospace with innovative solutions for a sustainable world, Latecoere supports the world's major aircraft manufacturers on the path to decarbonation. In this context, we are proud to bring our latest Interconnection Systems industrial innovations to our long-term partner Airbus with the goal of making aviation more efficient and sustainable", said Serge Berenger, Chief R&T and Innovation Officer of Latecoere.

_____________________________________________________

About Latecoere

As an international group and "Tier 1" partner of the world's leading aircraft manufacturers (Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Dassault, Embraer), Latecoere serves the aerospace sector with innovative solutions for a sustainable world. The Group operates in all segments of the aerospace industry (commercial, regional, business and military aircraft), in two business areas:

Aerostructures (46% of sales): fuselage sections and doors.

Interconnection Systems (54% of sales): wiring, electrical furniture and onboard equipment.

As of December 31, 2021, the Group employed 4,764 people in 14 countries. Latecoere, a public limited company with a capital of 133,912,589.25 divided into 535,650,357 shares with a par value of 0.25, is listed on Euronext Paris Compartment B, ISIN Code: FR0000032278 Reuters: AEP.PA Bloomberg: AT.FP

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005802/en/

Contacts:

Taddeo

Antoine Denry Relations Investisseurs

+33 (0)6 18 07 83 27

Thibault Gential Relations Media

+33 (0)6 76 21 42 05

teamlatecoere@taddeo.fr
MHI RJ Aviation Group (MHIRJ) has announced today at the Farnborough Air Show the signing of an agreement with Air Nostrum Engineering and Maintenance (ANEM), appointing them as a MHIRJ Authorized Service Facility (ASF) in Europe. This agreement marks an important step in expanding MHIRJ's service network internationally, allowing MHIRJ to extend, in collaboration with ANEM, the same levels of service that customers in North America receive through its wholly owned service centers.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005641/en/

MHIRJ Announces Authorized Service Facility Agreement with Air Nostrum (Photo: Business Wire)

This agreement expands MHIRJ's existing ASF support structure in Europe, introducing diversity and additional capacity to the existing network. ANEM's addition will serve to meet the growing demands of the market, offering a wider array of availability and options for the European sector as well as for MHIRJ customers worldwide.

Based in Valencia (Spain), ANEM is part of the group of companies fully owned by the same shareholders of the airline Air Nostrum. ANEM currently serves as MRO and aircraft maintenance services provider for multiple airlines based in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Air Nostrum has been operating CRJ Series aircraft since the year 1998 and currently operates the largest CRJ Series fleet in Europe, accounting for 37 CRJ Series aircraft. Air Nostrum is a ten-time MHIRJ Customer Reliability Award winner and a multiple time winner of the ERA Airline of the Year. Their vast operational experience will provide a first-rate base to support the CRJ Series fleet in Europe and across the world. Combining the strengths of ANEM and MHIRJ will bring forth our world-class Aftermarket network to the next level, providing our customers the full suite of MRO services.

Hiro Yamamoto, President and CEO of MHIRJ, commented "We are extremely proud to announce this agreement with Air Nostrum which will benefit customers in the European region, allowing them to access strong MRO support close to home. Reliability has always been the CRJ Series fleet's strong suit; this agreement maintains that reliability and ensures an even stronger commitment to our customers."

"ANEM brings a versatile set of capabilities that substantially enhances the CRJ Series MRO support for our European and International customers. As the maintenance arm of the largest CRJ Series carrier in Europe; our strategic collaboration with ANEM favorably positions us to collectively grow and expand support outside of North America," commented Ismail Mokabel, Senior Vice-President and Head of Aftermarket at MHIRJ.

Amel Belkhamsa, Head of Aftermarket Commercial Services and Spare Parts Operations at MHIRJ, added "This is the first step in broadening our relationship with Air Nostrum to provide support to MHIRJ's customers outside of North America. We wanted to find an MRO with a large range of capabilities to open the door to even more potential future collaboration, such as in the areas of material support and field response services, to ensure that all our international customers receive the best support available."

Miguel Falcon, Vice Chairman of Air Nostrum and ANEM, said: "We are delighted to strengthen our cooperation with MHIRJ via this ASF agreement as its next Authorized MRO. We have 24 years of experience with the CRJ Series and have provided exceptional reliability for our customers, and this is due largely to the great relationship that we have with MHIRJ."

Fermin Tirado, General Manager of ANEM, commented: "Thanks to the dedication and exceptional skills of our team members at ANEM, we're quite pleased to sign this ASF agreement with MHIRJ that enhances our long-established partnership, allows us to increase the number of employees in ANEM, and grow our capacity for our airline customers."

About Air Nostrum Group

Air Nostrum Group comprises different companies related to air transport and mobility including airlines, high speed railway transportation and firefighting, as well as related services companies: maintenance, training, flight support etc. The Group flagship, Air Nostrum Lineas Aereas, based in Spain, operates over 70,000 flights carrying more than 4,7 million passengers each year, being the leading regional aviation company in Spain and one of the largest in Europe. It operates for the Iberia Group under the Iberia Regional Air Nostrum brand, has sales over 500 million euros and employs more than 1,400 people.

About ANEM

ANEM is a PART 145 MRO (ES.145.060) and CAMO (ES.CAMO.059) company that arises from the split of AIR NOSTRUM's business activities. ANEM performs the whole maintenance of the Air Nostrum's Group fleets, including Air Nostrum, Hibernian, Melair, Paranair and PLYSA. These fleets are: CRJ200, CRJ900, CRJ1000, ATR72-600, and THRUSH S2R-T660. ANEM has a modern Hangar in Valencia Airport in order to cover all maintenance phases of the Air Nostrum's Group and other operators' fleets.

About MHI RJ Aviation Group

MHI RJ Aviation Group (MHIRJ) provides comprehensive critical operational, engineering and customer support solutions including maintenance, refurbishment, technical publications, marketing and sales activities for the global regional aircraft industry. Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, and bolstered by an Aerospace Engineering Centre, MHIRJ's network of service centers, support offices and parts depots are positioned in important aviation hubs in Canada, the U.S. and Germany. A wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., MHI RJ Aviation Group includes MHI RJ Aviation ULC (Canada), MHI RJ Aviation Inc. (U.S.A.) and MHI RJ Aviation GmbH (Germany).

WE ARE HIRING. Visit mhirj.com/en/careers to know more.

For more information about MHI RJ Aviation Group, please visit: mhirj.com or follow our insights and stories on wingspan.mhirj.com

About MHI Group

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group is one of the world's leading industrial groups, spanning energy, logistics infrastructure, industrial machinery, aerospace and defense. MHI Group combines cutting-edge technology with deep experience to deliver innovative, integrated solutions that help to realize a carbon neutral world, improve the quality of life, and ensure a safer world.

For more information, please visit www.mhi.com or follow our insights and stories on www.spectra.mhi.com

*CRJ, CRJ Series and MHIRJ are trademarks of MHI RJ Aviation ULC or its affiliates.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005641/en/

Contacts:

PRESS CONTACTS:

Ross Mitchell

Vice President, Business Development, Strategy, Marketing, Communications and Business Operations

MHI RJ Aviation Group

+1-416-276-8348

ross.mitchell@mhirj.com
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 20, 2022 / Lithoquest Resources Inc. (TSXV:LDI) ("Lithoquest" or the "Company") today announced assay results from the 2022 spring drill program on its Miminiska Property located in northwestern Ontario, Canada. Three zones with significant gold mineralization were encountered, including 27.6 g/t Au over 0.59m starting from 115m.

"This is a significant development at the Miminiska Prospect," commented Bruce Counts, President and CEO of Lithoquest Resources Inc. "These results extend the high-grade gold mineralization in the folded iron formation along the strike of the central limb and underscore the importance of testing other higher-priority target areas in the north, central and south limbs."

"These results also highlight the potential of the broader Miminiska Property," continued Mr. Counts. "Particularly when they are viewed in context with the historical high-grade drill results from the Frond Prospect, 12km to the east, and the under-explored banded iron formation that lies between them."

Key Points

Consistent with the highest-grade results obtained on the Miminiska Prospect to date

Holes targeted areas previously untested by drilling

130m lateral extension to the high-grade gold mineralization

Multiple high priority target areas remain to be tested at the Miminiska Prospect

2022 Spring Drill Program

659m of drill core was recovered from two holes drilled at the Miminiska Prospect in March 2022: DDH 22-01 and DDH 22-02 (see Figure 1). Approximately 800 core samples were collected and submitted for assay. Assays above 0.5 g/t Au are presented in Table 1.

DDH 22-01 was inclined at -55 and drilled at an azimuth of 178 degrees obliquely across the southern limb of the folded iron formation. The drill hole intersected altered iron formation and clastic sediments. DDH 22-01 returned four assays > 1 g/t Au including 2.40 g/t Au over 1.0 meter and 2.39 g/t Au over 0.44 meters.

DDH 22-02 was inclined at -60 and drilled due north to test a coincident structural and conductivity target located on the west side of the central limb. Significant sulphide mineralization, including pyrite, pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite as well as quartz veining was encountered in 2 sections of altered iron formation in the drill hole. Both sections returned significant assays including 27.60 g/t Au over 0.59 meters and 1.76 g/t over 5.72 meters (including 6.73 g/t Au over 0.53 meters and 9.91 g/t Au over 0.37 meters).

Figure 1: Miminiska Prospect 2022 & Select Historical Drill Results

Table 1: Select Assays from 2022 Spring Drill Program

Hole Number From (m) To (m) Core Length (m)+ Au (g/t) DDH 22-01 26.24 27.00 0.76 1.09 28.00 29.00 1.00 2.40 177.53 178.22 0.69 1.64 180.98 181.42 0.44 2.39 DDH 22-02 48.00 48.62 0.62 2.60 49.72 50.25 0.53 6.73 52.71 53.35 0.64 1.59 53.35 53.72 0.37 9.91 60.40 60.92 0.52 2.55 114.28 114.87 0.59 27.60 116.17 116.95 0.78 1.03 116.95 117.55 0.60 0.56 139.44 139.82 0.38 0.69 278.93 279.75 0.82 1.17

+True width unknown

Miminiska Property

The Miminiska Property comprises approximately 5,500 ha of patented and unpatented mineral claims covering abundant banded iron formation. The property includes the Miminiska and Frond Prospects where historical drilling has confirmed the presence of high-grade gold. Exploration work in the project area has identified several gold occurrences between the Miminiska and Frond (see Figure 2). These previous results highlight the potential for additional discoveries of high-grade gold on the project.

Figure 2: Miminiska Property

* Historical results have not been independently verified by Lithoquest; and, there is no guarantee that the Company can reproduce the results in whole or in part. Potential investors should not rely on these historical results when making an investment decision

Update on Consultation with the Eabametoong First Nation

The Miminiska Property is located within the traditional territory of the Eabametoong First Nation (the "EFN"). Lithoquest is engaging with the EFN and is in the process of scheduling a community meeting to hear further direct feedback from EFN members regarding Lithoquest's proposed activities. The outcomes of that meeting will form the foundation of any agreement between Lithoquest and the EFN.

QA/QC Program

The company employs a comprehensive quality assurance/quality control program. Drill core logging and sampling was completed at Bayside Geoscience's office located in Thunder Bay. Sample lengths were typically between 0.5 and 1.0 meter with a minimum sample length of 0.35 meters and a maximum of 1.25 meters. Drill core was cut in half using a rock saw equipped with a diamond blade. One half of the core was put into a sealed polyurethane sample bag and the remaining half returned to the core box for archiving. Once packaged and sealed, the samples were delivered by Bayside Geoscience personnel to Activation Laboratories Ltd. ("Actlabs") Thunder Bay location, a IS0/IEC 17025:2005 accredited laboratory.

As part of the QA/QC program, each sample submission included blanks, duplicates and certified reference materials (CRM's) representing 10% of the total samples analyzed. Duplicate samples were created by cutting core into two quarter core samples, each submitted in a separate polyurethane sample bag with a unique sample identification. Actlabs also performs internal QA/QC analyses as part of their protocols. Gold results were obtained from a 30g homogenized sample analysed by fire assay with atomic absorption spectrometry ("AAS"). For samples that returned > 5000ppb Au from fire assay/AAS, a reassay by fire assay with a gravimetric finish was employed.

Qualified Person

The technical contents of this news release have been reviewed and approved by Bruce Counts, P. Geo., President, CEO and a Director of Lithoquest Resources Inc. and Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

About Lithoquest Resources Inc.

Lithoquest is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the discovery and development of economic precious and base metal deposits on four district-scale projects in northwest Ontario: Miminiska, Keezhik, Attwood and Gold Standard.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) has reviewed or accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Information

This news release includes certain information that may constitute "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, the Company's strategic plans, future operations, future work programs and objectives. Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. All forward-looking information contained in this press release is given as of the date hereof and is based upon the opinions and estimates of management and information available to management as at the date hereof. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

For further information, please contact:

Lithoquest Resources Inc.

+1 (604) 506-2804

bcounts@lithoquest.com

SOURCE: Lithoquest Resources Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/709207/Lithoquest-Intersects-2760-gt-Gold-over-059-metres-at-Miminiska
BENGALURU, India, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sasken Technologies Ltd. (BSE: 532663) (NSE: SASKEN), a leading product engineering and digital transformation solutions provider, today announced the appointment of Abhijit Kabra as Chief Executive Officer reporting to Chairman & Managing Director, Rajiv C Mody. Abhijit will work towards significantly scaling business, both organically and inorganically.

His proven track record of building business that leverage technology as a growth enabler will be of immense value to accelerate Sasken's business transformation journey.

"Abhijit is a leader admired by all stakeholders for his proven ability to build and execute business at scale. He has essayed senior management roles at some of the biggest global corporations. His wide-ranging experience spans multiple industries, technologies, and geographies. He is known for his strategic thinking, customer management, commercial acumen, and business ethics. As a rainmaker, he has delivered incredible growth in the product engineering and digital service arenas spanning a plethora of industries," said Rajiv C Mody. "The Board of Directors and I are excited to have Abhijit join Sasken. This will bring momentum and velocity to our transformational journey, to firmly entrench us a market leader in the 'Chip-to-cognition' space," added Rajiv C Mody.

"The timing is perfect for Sasken to capitalize on the immense growth opportunities in what has been described by NASSCOM as the tech-decade. I am committed to this vision and will endeavor to leverage the strong foundation built by Sasken over the last three decades. Sasken is unique and respected for its world class global talent and marquee customers. I am delighted with the opportunity to unlock value for all stakeholders," said Abhijit Kabra. "Sasken has deep expertise in cutting edge technologies including 5G, IoT, Industry 4.0, Semiconductors, edge computing, Autonomous vehicles, etc. I see significant opportunities for fueling growth in these areas which are key differentiators for Sasken," he added.

About Sasken

Sasken is a specialist in Product Engineering and Digital Transformation providing concept-to-market, chip-to-cognition R&D services to global leaders in Semiconductor, Automotive, Industrials, Consumer Electronics, Enterprise Devices, SatCom, Telecom, and Transportation industries. For over 30 years and with multiple patents, Sasken has transformed the businesses of 100+ Fortune 500 companies, powering more than a billion devices through its services and IP.

For further information contact:

Swami Krishnan

Email: swami.krishnan@sasken.com

M: +91 974397924

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1863233/Abhijit_Kabra.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/820857/Sasken_Technologies_Limited_Logo.jpg




National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han met with the new U.S. ambassador to Seoul on Wednesday and expressed hope for further development of bilateral ties, the presidential office said.







Kim told Ambassador Philip Goldberg he hopes the envoy's arrival will serve as an opportunity to further accelerate the two countries' efforts to realize the vision of a global comprehensive strategic alliance agreed by President Yoon Suk-yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden during their summit in Seoul in May.







Kim also asked the ambassador to strive to develop the two countries' ties, not only in the traditional sphere of foreign policy and security, but also in economic security and to engage with the public, according to the presidential office.







Goldberg said he felt honored to take office as the U.S. ambassador to Seoul and that he would actively work for the development of the global comprehensive strategic alliance between the two countries, given that the alliance is the cornerstone for stability not only on the Korean Peninsula but within the region.







Goldberg arrived in the country on July 10. (Yonhap)


SEATTLE, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --According to Coherent Market Insights, the global molecular diagnostics market is estimated to be valued at US$ 14,772.2 million in 2022 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 11.6 % during the forecast period (2022-2030).

Key Trends and Analysis of the Global Molecular Diagnostics Market:

Increasing product launches by market players is expected to drive the global molecular diagnostics market over the forecast period. For instance, On May 24, 2022, Illumina, Inc., a global company of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing and array-based technologies, announced the addition of a companion diagnostic (CDx) indication to its Conformite Europeenne (CE)-marked in vitro diagnostic TruSight Oncology (TSO) Comprehensive (EU) test. This single test kit, was launched across Europe and it assesses multiple tumor genes and biomarkers to reveal the specific molecular profile of a patient's cancer. The CDx pan-cancer indication would allow identification of cancer patients with solid tumors who are positive for neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) gene fusions including NTRK1, NTRK2 or NTRK3.

Request Sample Copy of this Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/1545

Key Market Takeaways:

Global molecular diagnostics market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 11.6% during the forecast period due to increasing adoption of inorganic growth strategies such as agreements by market players. For instance, on January 5, 2022, DiaCarta Inc., a precision molecular diagnostics company had announced that the company was under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), for development of DiaCarta's proprietary xeno-nucleic acid (XNA) molecular clamping technology. NCI and DiaCarta would collaborate on the following project such as the investigation of low frequency mutation events in cancers and rare diseases using DiaCarta's proprietary xeno-nucleic acid (XNA) molecular clamping technology, and the development of XNA probes for in situ cancer cell detection.

Among Application, the Oncology segment holds a dominant position, owing to increasing inorganic activities such as partnership among market players. For instance, On January 10, 2022, Illumina, Inc., a biotechnology company had announced a multi-year partnership with Agendia N.V., a manufacturing company in precision oncology for breast cancer, to co-develop in vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests for oncology testing. The partnership is intended to advance the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) for decentralized oncology testing and aligns with Illumina's approach to IVD partnerships in oncology. Agendia joins Illumina's growing portfolio of more than 30 IVD partners developing over 40 sequencing-based solutions for cancer prognosis, therapy selection and other applications.

Key players operating in the global molecular diagnostics market include Hologic,Inc., Grifols, S.A., Abbott Laboratories, Qiagen N.V., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Siemens Healthineers, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Agilent Technologies, Inc., Meridian, Cepheid, and Beckman Coulter, Inc.

Request for Customization @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-customization/1545

Detailed Segmentation:

Global Molecular Diagnostics Market, By Product Type:

Reagents & Kits



Instruments

Global Molecular Diagnostics Market, By Application:

Oncology



Genetic Testing



Microbiology



STDs



Blood Screening



Virology



Tissue Typing



Prenatal Diagnosis



Others

Global Molecular Diagnostics Market, By End User:

Hospitals



Diagnostic Laboratories



Academic and Research Labs



Others

Global Molecular Diagnostics Market, By Region:

North America

By Country:



U.S.



Canada

Europe

By Country:



U.K.



Germany



Italy



France



Spain



Russia



Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

By Country:



China



India



Japan



ASEAN



Australia



South Korea



Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

By Country:



Brazil



Mexico



Argentina



Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

By Country:



GCC Countries



Israel



South Africa



Rest of Middle East & Africa

Buy this Complete Report Now @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/buy-now/1545

Find related trending report below:

U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific Molecular Diagnostics Market, by Product Type (Reagents and Kits & Instruments), by Technology (PCR-based (Liquid Biopsy Testing, Tissue Testing) and NGS-based (Liquid Biopsy Testing, Tissue Testing)), by Application, (Genetic Testing, Oncology, Microbiology, STDs, Blood Screening, Virology, Tissue Typing, Prenatal Diagnosis, Others), by End Users, (Hospitals, Clinics, and Ambulatory Surgery Centers), and by Region (U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific) - Size, Share, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2022 - 2028

About Us:

Coherent Market Insights is a global market intelligence and consulting organization focused on assisting our plethora of clients achieve transformational growth by helping them make critical business decisions. We are headquartered in India, having sales office at global financial capital in the U.S. and sales consultants in United Kingdom and Japan. Our client base includes players from across various business verticals in over 57 countries worldwide. We create value for clients through our highly reliable and accurate reports. We are also committed in playing a leading role in offering insights in various sectors post-COVID-19 and continue to deliver measurable, sustainable results for our clients.

Contact Us:

Mr. Shah

Senior Client Partner - Business Development

Coherent Market Insights

Phone:

US: +1-206-701-6702

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WISTON, England, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Every year more than US$6 trillion of cargo is transported by air, accounting for around 35% of world trade value. The majority of this cargo is made up of everyday items, such as food and medicines. However, aircraft are also used to carry some crazier consignments. Here, the experts at Artemis Aerospace look at some of the weird and wonderful items to have been transported by air.

Yoda from Star Wars

Finding the perfect Christmas gift can be fraught with difficulties. However, one generous individual, not to be outdone sourcing the gift of their recipient's dreams, arranged for a Lego store in Tennessee to fly a pre-built Lego Star Wars Yoda statue across the US. This isn't the first time that Lego creations have been shipped - master builders at Lego regularly fly their creations to destinations all over the world.

Pieces from the Titanic

The infamous and ill-fated ship is known worldwide for sinking in the Atlantic after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. After many years trying to locate the wreck, the site was discovered in 1985 with portions of its hull and other relics being brought to the surface in 1987 - much of which can now be viewed as part of a travelling exhibition. These precious artefacts are regularly flown between museums and displays around the world, helping to keep the story of the Titanic and its passengers alive.

The musical Evita

When this award-winning musical about Evita Peron's life went on tour to the UAE, a Boeing 777 transported the entire set and costumes from Schiphol in Amsterdam to the Middle East. According to the handlers who loaded the aircraft, due to the size and shape of the pieces, it proved to be quite a challenge to fit everything into a single plane.

Human organs

In 2020, there was a total of 129,681 life-saving human organs transplanted worldwide. These include kidneys, lungs, eyeballs, corneas, hearts and bone marrow. Time is of the essence for this precious cargo with some organs only remaining viable for transplant outside the body for as little as four hours. It is estimated that as many as 10 organs for transplant are carried on aircraft every day.

Poisonous snakes

The action film Snakes on a Plane might seem like a ludicrous and unlikely scenario, but venomous snakes are shipped daily from airports all over the world. However, unlike the film's plot, snakes are unlikely to break free and roam the cabin aisles terrifying passengers. Proper containment of these creatures requires them to be securely placed inside two knotted pillowcases that are then put inside a Styrofoam container, all of which is eventually packed firmly into a wooden box that is secured to the floor - phew!

Sources

https://www.alaskaaircargo.com/shipping/5-weird-things-shipped-by-air/

https://www.iata.org/en/publications/newsletters/iata-knowledge-hub/what-types-of-cargo-are-transported-by-air/

https://khn.org/news/how-lifesaving-organs-for-transplant-go-missing-in-transit/#:~:text=The%20traveling%20public%20may%20not,move%20this%20way%20every%20day

https://list25.com/25-strangest-cargo-ever-carried-by-plane-train-or-automobile/

https://www.fodors.com/news/travel-tech/curious-cargo-20-strange-things-you-didnt-know-were-flying-with-you

Artemis Aerospace offers an innovative approach to component solutions for the aviation sector. Established in 1999, the company has earned a reputation for outstanding customer service by solving problems and providing a range of realistic options that offer customers the flexibility and freedom to choose a solution that suits their timescale and budget. Its services include component supplies, component repairs, lessor support, flight simulation hardware support, consignment stock management and global aircraft logistics.

With decades of expertise in global aviation logistics, the expert team works with trusted MROs, OEMs, and aftermarket suppliers around the world to offer 24/7 support to its global customer base.

Website: www.artemisaerospace.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1863154/Artemis_Aerospace.jpg
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 20, 2022) - Green Environmental Technologies Inc. (the "Company") is pleased to report that all proposed resolutions at its Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders (the "Meeting") held on July 20, 2022, were duly passed.

At the Meeting, the number of directors were set at four and all director nominees, Mr. Dominique Monardo, Mr. Salvatore Monardo, Mr. Steven Glaser and Mr. Jon Bridgman, were elected as directors of the Company. Shareholders voted in favour of appointing Wasserman Ramsay, Chartered Accountants as auditors as well as approving a name change, stock consolidation, and change of registered office from Guelph, Ontario to Toronto, Ontario.

The Company does not have any definitive plans in place for the operation of the business at this time. However, the Company will proceed in a search for a business reverse take-over, merger, amalgamation or other form of combination.

For more information, please contact

Green Environmental Technologies Inc.

Dominique Monardo, CEO

sheriquestion@gmail.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131429
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Macy's (M) Wednesday announced that it will open four new off-mall, small-format stores this fall. The locations will include Market by Macy's as well as the first-ever dual Market by Macy's and Macy's Backstage off-price location. 'At Macy's, we thrive on retail being a dynamic business requiring continuous analysis, reinvention and innovation. As customer preferences and buying behaviors change, we continue to evolve to deliver the experience our customers expect,' said Marc Mastronardi, Chief Stores Officer at Macy's. 'As exciting brand extensions, Market by Macy's and Macy's Backstage each offer unique shopping experiences - one celebrates discovery and convenience, while the other appeals to the customer who loves the thrill of the hunt for a great value.' Market by Macy's will open in Suwanee, GA, and in St. Louis. The first dual Market by Macy's and Macy's Backstage store will open this fall in Evergreen Park, IL. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Springfield, Oregon--(Newsfile Corp. - July 20, 2022) - FPW Media, an Oregon-based creative studio, is on track to continue its years-long streak of growth after being named one of the fastest-growing brands in 2020. FPW Media serves clients through three mediums-brand, film, and merchandise-to help grow and market their name and image effectively to consumers. The studio has seen significant growth in the years since 2019, and the trends seem like they're on track to continue for 2022.





FPW Media



Cannot view this image? Visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8668/131426_e9099c7924a3daa9_001full.jpg

Cohesive and Streamlined

FPW provides clients and businesses with the tools to bring them to the spotlight and allow them to communicate all the professionalism, dynamism, and initiative of their brand. The original idea for the company was simple: what if several creative studios were combined under one name? Through handling work in several different creative sectors, FPW Media allows brands to enjoy streamlined processes to promote themselves through branding, film, and merchandising. Working with FPW allows one to cohesively communicate and market themselves with consistent messaging otherwise not available when working with multiple creative studios.

Merchandising Services and Products

One of the most important sectors of FPW Media's operations is its merchandising department. In 2021, FPW brought in house fully automated screen printing and can produce about 8,000 garments a day. FPW added in house fleet graphics in 2022, as well as vehicle wraps and other products for commercial clients. Whether a customer needs branded apparel for employees - such as uniforms - or specialty merchandise for giveaway events, FPW's in-house printing and embroidery services guarantees a quality product that exemplifies the essence of a client's brand. FPW has two facilities in Eugene and Portland, equipping them to provide large quantities of merchandise with a quick turnaround. FPW also offers water-based, plastisol, and discharge ink options with direct to garment (DTG) and heat transfer printing services. With their state of the art Barudan sewing machines, with updated SmartHead technology SH Sewing Head and Servo Motors, FPW is well-equipped to handle high quantities of sewing tasks that maintain consistent quality through the process.

FPW also offers design services for clients hoping to curate and sell from tradeshow booths. They select materials and colors that embody its client's company's personality with a balanced use of space and design. It strives to bring a harmonious system of backdrops, flags, signage, lighting, and furniture to introduce a client's world to their consumerbase.

Dedicated to Raising the Standard

FPW Media's founder and CEO, Owen Garitty, believes the business's success is less about luck and more about dedication and rising to a challenge. "I have always focused on outworking my competition. I may not be able to control being best at something, but I can control how much effort I put in," Garitty says. "So many of our competitors tell their clients or customers no and, to put it simply, we say yes." FPW was founded in 2013 and has served countless clients by providing assistance through advertising and merchandising

FPW Media was named one of the fastest-growing agencies in 2020, seeing over 300% growth in a period of three years. The company has continued to enjoy constant growth, seeing over 120% growth from 2018-2021. For a company that is entirely self-funded and founder-driven, it's needless to say that this rate of growth is significant. FPW Media thinks that a major key to its success is its ability to serve clients and bring tangibility to their businesses that's both physical and digital. "Our three divisions-brand, films, and merch-allow us to approach the marketing needs of our clients from a holistic perspective, ensuring that their company's vision remains intact throughout every aspect of their branding," FPW Media says.

FPW Media's Future

FPW Media has a bright future, and the company holds a clear perspective on what challenges it faces in its industry and what's viable at the moment. "We've come to realize the digital experience should be a seamless extension to the rest of any brand experience. It appears that a true metaverse is farther away from mass adoption than was previously thought. Retail is not dead but bad retail is dead," the company says. "Luxury hospitality experiences are going to continue to be in high demand for the foreseeable future. There is a vast opportunity for brands that can consistently execute high-end hospitality experiences at scale."

As FPW Media pushes further into 2022, the company shows no signs of slowing down and is excited about any opportunity for growth. "Opportunity is all around us. Every interaction has the potential to lead to something great, the trick is to recognize what it is and then put in the work to capitalize on it."

FPW Media is a creative studio based in the Eugene-Springfield area. With three divisions-Brand, Films, and Merch-FPW is much more than a mere marketing agency. FPW describes itself as an "un-agency" that rises above the noise in a Fast Paced World. FPW is defined by a client-first mentality, a commitment to producing superior content, an in-house guarantee of brand consistency, and unprecedented access to leadership and design specialists.

To learn more, visit fpwmedia.com or contact Jessica at press@garitty.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131426
SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - Coffee retail giant Starbucks (SBUX) might close more stores over safety concerns. After announcing last week that it will be closing 16 Starbucks stores due to safety concerns, CEO Howard Schultz in a leaked video said that more store closures were coming. 'We are beginning to close stores,' because of safety issues, Schultz says in the video, in which he apparently addresses a group of employees. 'This is just the beginning. There are going to be many more.' The news was reported by Insider and Starbucks also confirmed the authenticity of the footage. Last week, the coffee retailer revealed plans to close 16 locations across Los Angeles, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon, as well as in other cities by the end of July. The company cited 'challenging incidents,' including drug use and instances of disturbed patrons. A Starbucks spokesperson told Insider that the chain was 'closing some stores in locations that have experienced a high volume of challenging incidents that make it unsafe to continue to operate, to open new locations with safer conditions.' Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
BigHat Biosciences, a San Mateo, CA-based biotechnology company developing antibody therapies for patients using machine learning and synthetic biology, raised a $75m Series B funding round.

The round, which brings total funding to date to $100m, was led by Section 32, with participation from new investors Amgen Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb, Quadrille Capital, Gaingels, GRIDS Capital,as well as prior investors Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, and AME Cloud Ventures. In conjunction with the funding, Steve Kafka, PhD, Managing Partner of Section 32, joined BigHat s Board. Longtime Alphabet executive and Section 32 Managing Partner, Andy Harrison, co-led this Series B financing and will join as a Board Observer.

The company intends to use the funds to scale the capacity of MillinerTM, an integrated AI/ML- wet lab platform, advance therapeutic programs toward human clinical trials, hire drug discovery and development talent and to accelerate strategic collaborations with flagship partners.

Founded in 2019 by CEO Mark DePristo, a University of Cambridge biochemistry Ph.D., former Head of Genomics for Google.AI, and Co-director of Medical Genetics at Broad Institute, with CSO Peyton Greenside, a Stanford biomedical informatics Ph.D. and 2018 Schmidt Science Fellow, BigHat Biosciences leverages an AI-enabled antibody design platform, Milliner, to design antibody therapies to treat some of the worlds most intractable conditions, from chronic illnesses to life-threatening diseases. At BigHat, every therapeutic program starts with a design blueprint and antibodies generated in its discovery engine or supplied by a partner. These initial molecules are then iteratively transformed into therapies on the Milliner platform through sequential design-build-test cycles. BigHats machine learning models design hundreds of variants that are built and tested in its lab using the latest synthetic biology technologies in each cycle. These measurements include biophysical properties and impact on disease activity for every variant using cell-based or other functional assays that replicate in vivo disease processes. This new data is used to update the AI/ML models so that over multiple cycles, these models learn to create antibodies that match our design blueprint.

BigHat has active therapeutic programs spanning multiple domains of human health, including inflammation, oncology, and infectious diseases in preclinical studies.

FinSMEs

20/07/2022
CAMP4 Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA-based biotechnology company harnessing the power of RNA to restore healthy protein expression, closed a $100m Series B funding round.

The round was led by Enavate Sciences, a portfolio company created by Patient Square Capital, with participation from a large national managed care organization and the Gaingels, an LGBTQIA+/Allies investment syndicate supporting diversity in venture capital, along with other unnamed investors, as well as existing investors 5AM Ventures, Polaris Partners, Northpond Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, The Kraft Group, and others. In conjunction with the financing, James Boylan, Chief Executive Officer of Enavate Sciences, will join CAMP4s Board of Directors.

The company intends to use the funds to advance its lead regRNA programs and accelerate the expansion its regRNA Actuating Platform.

Led by Josh Mandel-Brehm, CEO, CAMP4 is pioneering a novel approach to programmable therapeutics.

The companys approach targets regulatory RNAs (regRNAs), considered to be part of the Dark Side of the Genome, the 98% of our genome that does not encode proteins. Through breakthroughs in molecular biology, it is now known that regRNAs control the expression of nearby protein-encoding genes. CAMP4s RNA Actuating Platform (RAP) maps regRNAs associated with every protein-coding gene in any cell type, and its programmable antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapeutics target the controlling regRNAs to upregulate gene expression to treat disease. This approach is applicable to a range of genetic diseases in which tunable increases in gene output can lead to meaningful therapeutic outcomes.

The company expects to enter the clinic with its lead candidate to treat Dravet syndrome by mid-2023. The financing round will further support the advancement of CAMP4s drug candidates, including progressing its urea cycle disorder program into the clinic and continuing to build an expansive pipeline of RNA actuators. While the company is initially focusing on treating diseases of the central nervous system and liver, its platform has the potential to address a broad range of genetic indications across multiple tissues, with a focus on haploinsufficient diseases.

FinSMEs

20/07/2022
Crunchbase, a San Francisco, CA-based prospecting platform powered by proprietary data, secured $50 million in Series D funding.

Alignment Growth led the round, with participation by existing investors OMERS Ventures, Mayfield Fund, and Emergence. Alex Iosilevich, Partner at Alignment Growth, will also join the Crunchbase board of directors.

The company plans to use funds to accelerate product innovation and deepen relationships with dealmakers in sales, marketing, finance, recruiting, and executive leadership roles. Upcoming product improvements will include third-party integrations that embed Crunchbase in existing prospecting workflows, enhancements to actionable machine-learning powered recommendations, new data that delivers insights only available on Crunchbase, and reporting tools to quantify customers ROI.

Led by Jager McConnell, CEO, Crunchbase provides account-based prospecting software that enables prospectorsin sales, recruiting, business development, and financeto find and engage with qualified accounts, while simultaneously creating awareness for companies that want to be discovered. The platform attracts more than 75 million unique visitors annually and recently surpassed 60,000 paying customers with over half of the Fortune 500 and thousands of SMBs represented.

Crunchbases platform has evolved since its last funding round and now offers features to guide prospectors throughout their workflow. New product capabilities include:

Account discovery: Find companies that meet your ideal customer profile with territory filters, AI-powered recommendations, similar company suggestions, CRM data in search, and 6 billion new data edits in the last year.

Find companies that meet your ideal customer profile with territory filters, AI-powered recommendations, similar company suggestions, CRM data in search, and 6 billion new data edits in the last year. Account qualification: Focus on growing companies that have buying power using new growth and contraction signals, layoffs and hiring filters, Chrome extension, and Salesforce integration.

Focus on growing companies that have buying power using new growth and contraction signals, layoffs and hiring filters, Chrome extension, and Salesforce integration. Account tracking: Stay up-to-date on changes at priority accounts with email alerts, saved searches and lists, as well as searchable user-generated notes and tags.

Stay up-to-date on changes at priority accounts with email alerts, saved searches and lists, as well as searchable user-generated notes and tags. Prospect engagement: Connect with the right leads at the right time directly on Crunchbase with newly added contact data, contact search, Outreach integration, Gmail integration, and auto-generated email templates.

FinSMEs

20/07/2022
SHS Gesellschaft fur Beteiligungsmanagement, a Tubingen, Germany-based healthcare growth equity firm, received capital commitments of over 220 million euros for its sixth fund at the first closing.

More than 60 investors are already invested in the SHS VI Fund. These investors come from the areas of funds-of-funds, insurance companies, pension funds, foundations, family offices, banks, healthcare groups, church investors and entrepreneurs. The largest investors include, for example, the European Investment Fund, the Scandinavian foundation Realdania, the Swiss Helsana HealthInvest, the L-Bank Baden-Wurttemberg and larger family offices. Furthermore, the SHS investment team itself has invested significantly.

Investors can still participate in SHS VI until the final closing.

Led by Hubertus Leonhardt, partner and managing director responsible for fundraising, and Uwe Steinbacher, Managing Partner, the fund aims to make majority and minority investments in the healthcare sector. A total of 12-15 investments are planned. It focuses on corporate transactions of up to  250 million. The fund can refinance the corresponding equity tranches with up to  50 million from its own resources. In the case of higher equity requirements, SHS increases the volumes by co-investments from investors invested in the fund or syndicates with cooperating private equity houses. Expansion and innovation financing, succession situations and shareholder changes represent the focus of the investments sought.

FinSMEs

20/07/2022
Air Force Maj. Ahn Jun-hyun speaks during an interview. Courtesy of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration



By Kang Seung-woo



Air Force Maj. Ahn Jun-hyun, who successfully conducted the maiden flight of the nation's first domestically developed fighter jet, Tuesday, admitted that he felt substantial psychological stress right before takeoff.



But ultimately, he was able to shake off the pre-performance jitters and complete the historic flight, making Korea the world's eighth country to develop an advanced supersonic warplane.



The KF-21 Boramae, developed by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), took to the skies for the first time  21 years after the KF-X program was initiated to manufacture an advanced multi-role fighter plane with higher capabilities than a KF-16 fighter. The Air Force plans to secure 120 KF-21s by 2032.



"Although I did not express it, I felt a lot of psychological pressure until right before the takeoff," Ahn of the 52nd Test and Evaluation Group said in an interview released by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) to the media, Wednesday.



"However, after taking off and soaring above the sky over Sacheon, I flew comfortably and smoothly in accordance with the preset route."



In another interview with the joint press corps, Ahn said he felt a sense of relief after getting a better feel for the aircraft while operating it.



"I think the flight test is not the end but a new beginning," the pilot added.



The KF-21 took off at the third Flying Training Wing of the Air Force in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, where KAI is also based. According to DAPA, the aircraft, armed with four Meteor air-to-air missiles, traveled at a speed of about 400 kilometers per hour, or 215 knots, for 33 minutes, without reaching supersonic speeds.



The 40-year-old said he has a strong recollection from when the KF-21 was taking off.



"It is the most memorable moment as well as the most stressful," he said. "When pulling the control stick, enabling the aircraft to lift off the ground, I felt great emotion," he said.



"After landing, I received congratulations from so many people and I give credit to those who worked hard to develop and test the KF-21."



According to the Air Force, Ahn began to prepare for the KF-21 flight test in February 2021.



"While preparing for the flight test for over a year, I went through a lot of training, including flight and cockpit simulations, which helped me complete the maiden flight successfully," Ahn said.



Until the first flight test, the KF-X program had experienced a series of twists and turns, such as a dispute over whether it should have a single or double engine, refusal by the United States to transfer a core technology and a major modification to the fuselage layout. In 2015, DAPA signed a fighter development contract with KAI, the nation's lone aircraft maker.





A KF-21 Boramae takes off at the third Flying Training Wing of the Air Force in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday, for its first flight test. Courtesy of Defense Acquisition Program Administration
ZeroAvia, a Farnborough, UK-based leader in hydrogen-electric, zero-emission aviation, raised $30 million in funding.

Backers included Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, NEOM and AENU, with International Airlines Group (IAG) adding to prior investment from the Group, bringing the Series B round to $68 million.

The company intends to use the funds for building infrastructure at airport sites, which will support live demonstrations of its Hydrogen Airport Refueling Ecosystem (HARE), in preparation for routes carrying passengers and cargo in the next handful of years. The investment will further advance ZeroAvias 2-5MW hydrogen-electric powertrain development program, which aims to power 40-80 seat aircraft with zero-emission engines by 2026.

Led by Val Miftakhov, founder and CEO, ZeroAvia is a leader in zero-emission aviation, focused on hydrogen-electric aviation solutions to address a variety of markets, initially targeting a 300-mile range in 9-19 seat aircraft by 2024, and up to 700-mile range in 40-80 seat aircraft by 2026. The companys expanding UK operations are supported by grants from UKs Aerospace Technology Institute and Innovate UK, and ZeroAvia is part of the UK Governments Jet Zero Council.

FinSMEs

20/07/2022
Painstaking efforts needed to stabilize overall Chinese economic performance: Premier Li

Xinhua) 09:35, July 20, 2022

BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Tuesday that the Chinese economy on the whole has withstood the downward pressure and stabilized and rebounded, but painstaking efforts are still needed to stabilize overall economic performance as the recovery is not yet firmly established.

Li made the remarks at the Special Virtual Dialogue with Global Business Leaders hosted by the World Economic Forum.

Under the impacts from a new round of COVID flare-ups and other factors beyond expectation, downward pressure on the Chinese economy rose steeply, and major economic indicators tumbled in April, Li said.

China responded with resolute action, put stable growth higher on the agenda, worked to front-load the policies that have been set, and introduced and implemented a package of policy measures for stabilizing the economy, to ease corporate burdens and catalyze vitality, he added. "These policies have delivered results fairly quickly."

According to the premier, in May, the decline in major economic indicators slowed. In June, the economy stabilized and rebounded. Major economic indicators picked up fairly fast and returned to the positive territory. The surveyed urban unemployment rate notably fell. As a result, GDP registered a positive growth year-on-year in the second quarter, and expanded by 2.5 percent in the first half of the year.

"This is no easy accomplishment," he said.

Li pointed out that the fairly quick stabilization and recovery of the enormous Chinese economy in the first half of the year after a short downturn is mainly attributable to the strong efforts in supporting market entities to keep employment stable and maintaining price stability to ensure livelihoods. These efforts have provided important buttresses for the economy.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)




The family of a South Korean government official killed by North Korea in 2020 filed a lawsuit Wednesday with the aim of unsealing classified documents of former President Moon Jae-in related to the death.







Earlier, the Presidential Archives rejected the request by the family of the late fisheries official, Lee Dae-jin, to look into sealed documents to determine why the Moon government announced he was shot and killed while attempting to defect to the North.







Lee was killed by North Korea's military near the western sea border on Sept. 22, 2020.







The official's brother, Lee Rae-jin, and his lawyers launched the litigation against the agency with the Seoul Administrative Court, demanding its earlier decision be revoked.







"(We) demand the Presidential Archives be unsealed to know what the government and the president did during the six hours of time referred to as the presidential time," Lee told reporters.







Documents, designated by presidents, are sealed for up to 30 years from the end of presidencies, with a legal exception for their disclosure if they are considered vital evidence in an investigation. The documents can be opened upon parliamentary approval from two-thirds of lawmakers or a warrant issued by a high court in the jurisdiction.







After President Yoon Suk-yeol took office in May, the Coast Guard and the defense ministry revisited the case and overturned their previous conclusion on the alleged defection attempt of Lee. (Yonhap)






It was a reunion two years  and for some, decades  in the making, a gathering of blood cancer patients young and old, all of whom had survived a blood or bone marrow transplant at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, many while it was still an experimental technique.

Originally planned for 2020 but delayed due to the pandemic, the Hutchs eighth Blood and Marrow Transplant Reunion was held Saturday on the Hutch campus with nearly 250 people gathering beneath a partly cloudy sky to commemorate their collective achievement.

Were all here to reconnect with the Hutch, to reconnect with other survivors and their families, and to remember the patients and families not as fortunate, said former patient and attorney Marc Smith, 71, in his keynote speech. Im from the graduating class of 1990.' Now, I feel like Im returning to my alma mater for a commencement speech at graduation.

The reunion, open to any Hutch transplant patient five years or more post-transplant, is an event unique to the cancer center, whose physician-researchers pioneered a lifesaving procedure that has since led to more than 1.5 million transplants around the world for people with leukemia and other blood disorders. Every five years, former patients from around the country  and the world  gather in Seattle with their families to commemorate survival and the science that saved them.

Saturdays event was Smiths first return to Seattle since his transplant in 1990, the same year Hutch founding faculty member Dr. E. Donnall Thomas received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for developing the procedure.




A 41-year-old mother was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for murdering her two young sons due to financial constraints.







The Seoul Southern District Court found the mother, whose identity has been withheld, guilty of murdering her children  aged 8 and 7  at their home last April.







The mother attempted suicide after the murder but failed, court documents showed.







"The defendant went through difficulties and suffered anxiety, but the court cannot accept whether the level was serious enough for her to take this extreme choice," the court said in the ruling.







The court also cited the lack of efforts by the mother to overcome such difficulty, such as searching for a job or seeking help to receive psychotherapy. (Yonhap)






Seoul Metropolitan Government's poster for a transport expenses support fund for pregnant women / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government



By Lee Hae-rin



The Seoul Metropolitan Government came under fire for its allegedly discriminative transportation subsidy program. An initiative for pregnant women designed to ultimately help in efforts to boost the birthrate.



The city government unveiled the subsidy program that has gone into effect from this month. Under the scheme, all pregnant women having lived in the capital for six months or more are eligible for the 700,000 won ($535) voucher for public transportation or fueling personal vehicles.



An estimated 43,000 women are entitled to the benefit.



The birthrate policy, however, has been accused of discrimination as many foreign women who are married to Korean men, are not eligible for the program.



Foreigners with a Korean spouse can acquire Korean nationality if they have lived in the country as a married person for more than two years, or if they have been married for more than three years and lived here for over a year. In most cases, such families have children before they meet these conditions. So, the chances are that many of them are not eligible for the subsidy program.



According to Statistics Korea's latest report on the country's multicultural families, only 19.9 percent of the country's 16,421 births to such families in 2020 were from naturalized Korean mothers. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority  67 percent  are from foreign nationals without residence registration.



The report also shows that 2,609 children were born in multicultural families in Seoul in 2020. The number is 14.5 percent lower compared to the year before and takes up 15.9 percent of the country's total figure.



Regarding the discrimination allegation, the city government said that under the current law, foreign spouses who don't meet the requirement are not eligible for the program, noting that revision of the law is necessary for them to benefit from the subsidy program as well.


Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong / Yonhap



President Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday declined to comment on whether he would grant a presidential amnesty for Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong, who is currently on parole after serving time for bribery and embezzlement.



Yoon made the remarks upon arrival at his office in response to a question about speculation he is mulling wide-ranging pardons on the occasion of the Aug. 15 anniversary of Liberation Day marking the 1945 end of Japan's colonial rule of Korea, and the Samsung chief could be one of the beneficiaries.



"Since the past, it has been a principle to make no mention at all on the issue of pardons, such as to what extent it will be carried out," Yoon told reporters when asked about business circles' appeal for pardoning Lee to help overcome economic difficulties.



Lee, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison by the Seoul High Court in a retrial of a bribery case involving former President Park Geun-hye. He was released on parole in August last year.



Even after his prison term ends on July 29, he would still be subject to some post-prison restrictions, and local business circles have called for a pardon to set him free from all such restrictions as well.



Yoon has hinted that the government may use force to break up the prolonged strike by subcontract workers at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), saying that he believes the country has "waited long enough" for the strike to end.



Asked whether he reviews the possibility of using force to break up the strike, Yoon replied that he will not give an answer any more to the matter.



Subcontract workers at DSME have been striking since June 2, leading to a standstill in shipbuilding operations and causing up to trillions of won in losses for the company.



The workers have demanded higher wages and occupied the firm's shipyard on Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province. (Yonhap)




DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, July 19, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As per the latest study published by Future Market Insights, the global chromatography accessories and consumables market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 4.7% during the forecast period between 2022 and 2032, in comparison to 5.2% CAGR registered from 2015 to 2021. By the end of the said period of assessment, a valuation worth US$ 6.7 Billion is expected for the market. The rising demand for quality and virtue of different synthetic concoctions and dynamic pharmaceutical fixings (APIs) is enhancing the market development of chromatography accessories and consumables market.



Different utilizations of chromatography procedures are crosswise over ventures, for example, pharmaceutical medication disclosure (pharma organizations, life science look into, CROs, and so on.), sustenance and drink, crime scene investigation, oil and gas, synthetic substances, sports, polymers, and drugs. Based on technology, liquid chromatography is likely to be most preferred.

Request a Sample PDF @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-15204

Liquid chromatography is further segmented into high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), ultra-pressure liquid chromatography (UPLC), low-pressure liquid chromatography (LPLC), flash chromatography, and other LC technologies. The large share of this segment can be attributed to the wide use of HPLC techniques and the growing demand for UPLC systems.

Key Takeaways from the Market Study

Global chromatography accessories and consumables market to grow 1.6x from 2022-2032

Based on technology, liquid chromatography to emerge as a key beneficiary, registering a 4.3% CAGR

Column accessories and consumables to be most sought after product category, registering a 4% CAGR

U.S to emerge as the most opportunistic market, registering a CAGR worth 4.5% until 2032

China to be a significant contributor to market growth, reaching US$ 461.1 Million by 2032

Japan & South Korea to yield absolute $ opportunities worth US$ 122.5 Million and US$ 68.3 Million respectively

Growing use of chromatography techniques for research activities in the fields of proteomics, medicine, genomics, and metabolomics and rising number of chromatography seminars and conferences that increase awareness regarding new chromatographic techniques are the high impact rendering drivers for the growth of the market, remarks an FMI analyst.

For critical insights, request for PDF Brochure @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/brochure/rep-gb-15204

Competitive Landscape

Players in the global chromatography accessories and consumables market focus on expanding their global reach through various strategies, such as; partnerships, collaborations, and partnerships. The players are also making a significant investment in R&D to add innovations to their products which would help them in strengthening their position in the global market. Some of the recent developments among the key players are:

In January 2022, RotaChrom announced the launch of its long-term strategic partnership with leading cannabinoid manufacturer Red Mesa Science & Refining . The companies will start by working on methods development, sharing, and perfecting their existing methodologies. Their first goal is creating new and profitable operations using RotaChroms centrifugal chromatography solution.

The companies will start by working on methods development, sharing, and perfecting their existing methodologies. Their first goal is creating new and profitable operations using RotaChroms centrifugal chromatography solution. In May 2022, Sartorius, a leading international partner of life science research and the biopharmaceutical industry, extended its global production capacity with the expansion of its manufacturing site in Tunisia. Enabling the Germany-based company to increase the production of fluid management technologies, it invested more than 20 million euros for a new 10,000 square-meter building and corresponding operation equipment at its existing M'Hamdia location. The extension includes clean rooms totalling around 2,400 square meters with adjacent warehouse and logistics facilities, among others. Sartorius currently has almost 800 employees in M'Hamdia and anticipates job growth at the site in the future.

Know More about What the Chromatography Accessories and Consumables Market Repost Covers

Future Market Insights offers an unbiased analysis of the global chromatography accessories and consumables market, providing historical data for 2015-2021 and forecast statistics from 2022-2032.

To understand opportunities in the chromatography accessories and consumables Market, the market is segmented on the basis of component, endpoint interface, organization size, and vertical across five major regions.

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Key Players:

Some of the leading chromatography accessories and consumables device manufacturers include Agilent Technologies, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Shimadzu Corporation, and PerkinElmer, Inc., Merck KGaA, Restek Corporation, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Scion Instruments, DANI Instruments S.p.A., GL Sciences, Valco Company Instruments, Inc., SRI Instruments, GE Healthcare, JASCO, Inc., Hamilton Company, Gilson, Inc., Falcon Analytical Systems & Technologies, Chromatotec, OI Analytical, Centurion Scientific, Orochem, Trajan Scientific, Hitachi, and Phenomenex, among others.

Key Segments of Chromatography Accessories and Consumables Industry Survey

Chromatography Accessories and Consumables Market by Product Type:

Column Chromatography Accessories and Consumables Pre-Packed Columns Empty Columns Heaters & Ovens Guard Holders Other Column Accessories and Consumables

Autosampler Chromatography Accessories and Consumables Autosampler Syringes/Sample Needles Vials Septa

Chromatography Flow Management Accessories and Consumables Flowmeters Flow Splitters Pumps

Chromatography Fittings and Tubing Accessories Tubing Ferrules and Nuts Valves and Gauges Liners and Seals

Chromatography Detectors LC Detectors GC Detectors

Mobile Phase Chromatography Accessories and Consumables Mixers and Mixing Chambers Degassers Other Mobile Phase Accessories and Consumables

Mobile Phase Accessories and Consumables Fraction Collectors Pressure Regulators Other Accessories and Consumables



Chromatography Accessories and Consumables Market by Technology:

Liquid Chromatography Accessories and Consumables High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography Ultra-Pressure Liquid Chromatography Flash Chromatography Low-Pressure Liquid Chromatography Other LC Technologies

Gas Chromatography Accessories and Consumables

Other Chromatography Technology Accessories and Consumables

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Table of Content

1. Executive Summary

1.1. Global Market Outlook

1.2. Summary of Statistics

1.3. Key Market Characteristics & Attributes

1.4. Analysis and Recommendations

2. Market Overview

2.1. Market Coverage / Taxonomy

2.2. Market Definition / Scope / Limitations

3. Market Risks and Trends Assessment

3.1. Risk Assessment

3.1.1. COVID-19 Crisis and Impact on Chromatography Accessories & Consumables Demand

3.1.2. COVID-19 Impact Benchmark with Previous Crisis

3.1.3. Impact on Market Value (US$ Mn)

3.1.4. Assessment by Key Countries

3.1.5. Assessment by Key Market Segments

3.1.6. Action Points and Recommendation for Suppliers

3.2. Key Trends Impacting the Market

3.3. Formulation and Product Development Trends

4. Market Background and Foundation Data Points

4.1. Chromatography Accessories & Consumables Market, By Key Countries

4.2. Chromatography Accessories & Consumables Market Opportunity Assessment (US$ Mn)

4.2.1. Total Available Market

4.2.2. Serviceable Addressable Market

4.2.3. Serviceable Obtainable Market

TOC continued..!

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Pune, India, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global agricultural microbials market size was USD 5.27 billion in 2021 and reached USD 6.00 billion in 2022. The market touched USD 15.71 billion by 2029, exhibiting a CAGR of 14.74% during the forecast period. The functional superiority of microbials and the rising emphasis on organic agriculture will enhance the market growth. Fortune Business Insights presents this information in its report titled Agricultural Microbials Market,2022-2029.





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List of Key Players Profiled in the Report

Certis USA LLC (U.S.)

ChemChina (China)

Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (U.S.)

Koppert Biological Systems (Netherlands)

Varsha Bioscience and Technology Pvt. Ltd. (India)

Andermatt Biocontrol AG (Switzerland)

BASF SE (Germany)

Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., (Japan)

Novozymes (Denmark)

Bioceres S.A. (Argentina)

Report Scope & Segmentation:

Report Attribute Details Market size value in 2022 USD 6.00 Billion Revenue forecast in 2029 USD 15.71Billion Growth Rate CAGR of almost 14.74% during 2022-2029 Base Year 2021 Historic Years 2018-2020 Forecast Years 2022- 2029 Segments Covered By Type, By Formulation , By Application Forecast Units Value (USD Billion), and Volume (Units) Quantitative Units Revenue in USD million/billion and CAGR from 2021 to 2028 Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa, and Rest of World Countries Covered Unites States, Canada, Mexico, Unites Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, GCC Countries, and South Africa, among others Number of Companies Covered Certis USA LLC (U.S.), ChemChina (China), Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (U.S.), Koppert Biological Systems (Netherlands), Varsha Bioscience and Technology Pvt. Ltd. (India), Andermatt Biocontrol AG (Switzerland), BASF SE (Germany), Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., (Japan), Novozymes (Denmark), Bioceres S.A. (Argentina) Report Coverage Market growth drivers, restraints, opportunities, Porter's five forces analysis, PEST analysis, value chain analysis, regulatory landscape, market attractiveness analysis by segments and region, company market share analysis, and COVID-19 impact analysis. Customization Scope Avail customized purchase options to meet your exact research needs.

COVID-19 Impact:

Disruptions in Supply Chain Impeded Market Growth

This market was negatively affected during the COVID-19 pandemic due to disruptions in the supply chain. Border closures and restricted movements are the main reasons responsible for this disruption. Furthermore, these disruptions also led to transportation delays and a decline in agricultural commodities. However, the strong biostimulants sales performance elevated the industry's growth. For example, Syngenta and BASF SE experienced growth despite the pandemic. Syngenta reported a 2% rise in sales in 2020. These factors may allow for industry growth during the pandemic.





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Segments

Bacteria Segment to Dominate Owing to Extensive Adoption of Bio-stimulants

By type, the market is segmented into bacteria, fungi, virus, and others.

The bacteria segment is expected to dominate the market due to extensive adoption of biostimulants, biofertilizers, and biopesticides. It performs several growth-promoting functions, and some are termed as protective bacteria responsible for subduing root-fungus disorders.

Liquid Formulation to Hold Dominant Market Share Owing to its Compatibility and Usage with Modern Irrigation Systems

Based on formulation, the market is bifurcated into dry and liquid.

The liquid segment is expected to dominate the market share owing to its ease of application. It can be directly used as root dips, sprays, and drenches due to the requirement of the mixing procedure to avoid spoilage.

Soil Amendments Segment to Hold Dominant Share Owing to High Nitrogen Content and Enhanced Production

By function, the market is classified into soil amendment and crop protection

The soil amendment segment is expected to dominate due to its high nitrogen content and enhanced production. Further, the extensive adoption of agricultural microbials to protect crops may control several diseases and plant disorders. Its cost-effective and sustainable nature is expected to enhance segmental growth.

Foliar Spray to Dominate Attributable to its High-Effectiveness in Improving Overall Plant Health

Based on application method, the market is divided into foliar spray, soil treatment, seed treatment, and others.

The foliar spray segment may dominate the market share due to its benefits over other applications. The adoption of the spray enhances the soils nutrient uptake and rapidly absorbs all the nutrients.





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Fruits & Vegetables Section to Dominate Owing to Strong Demand for Organic Fruits & Vegetables

By crop, the market is categorized into cereals, oilseeds & pulses, fruits & vegetables, and others.

The fruits & vegetable segment is expected to dominate the market share due to the high remuneration factor associated with the crop. Furthermore, the strong demand for vegetables and fruits is expected to enhance the industry's growth.

Regionally, it is clubbed into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and the Middle East & Africa.

Report Coverage

The report provides a detailed analysis of the top segments and the latest trends in the market. It comprehensively discusses the driving and restraining factors and the impact of COVID-19 on the market. Additionally, it examines the regional developments and the strategies undertaken by the market's key players.

Driving Factors

Increasing Awareness Regarding the Bad Effects of Synthetic Chemicals on Crops to Bolster Market Growth

Agricultural microbials consist of fungi, viruses, and bacteria beneficial for agricultural activities such as soil improvement and crop protection. The rising demand for eco-friendly crops is expected to enhance the product adoption. The increasing awareness regarding the detriments of synthetic fertilizers is expected to enhance the adoption of natural fertilizers. For example, as per the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization, synthetic fertilizers are responsible for approximately 13% of greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the rising demand for organic foods and farming may boost the adoption of organic fertilizers. These factors may drive the agricultural microbials market growth.

However, the lower demand for organic fertilizers than their counterparts is likely to restrain the market growth.

Regional Insights

Rising Awareness Regarding the Environmental Benefits of the Fertilizer to Fuel Growth in North America

North America is expected to dominate the agricultural microbials market share due to the rising awareness regarding the environmental benefits of the fertilizer. The market in North America stood at USD 2.09 billion in 2021 and is expected to gain a huge portion of the global market share. Further, policies and regulations regarding the adoption of organic farming practices of the microbials are expected to enhance product adoption. The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) promote research and development of fertilizers to achieve diversity.

In Europe, strict government norms regarding the adoption of non-synthetic fertilizers are expected to promote industry growth. Furthermore, the steady adoption of organic farming in Germany, Spain, Italy, and Denmark is likely to enhance industry progress.

Competitive Landscape

Companies Announce Novel Operating Units to Expand its Activities

Prominent companies operating in the market announce novel operating units to expand their activities globally. For example, Valent BioSciences LLC announced the opening of a novel operating unit in February 2022 to expand its biostimulant product line-up. This strategy may allow the company to expand its operating units. Furthermore, companies devise research and development, partnerships, mergers, acquisitions, and automated production techniques to satisfy goals and enhance their market position globally.





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Key Industry Development

May 2021- Lesaffre declared the acquisition of the U.S.-based Advanced Biological Marketing (ADM). ADM specializes in bio-nutrition products, and this acquisition may allow for market penetration in the U.S.

Detailed Table of Content:

Introduction Research Scope Market SegHouseholdtation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities Emerging Trends

Key Insights Overview of Agricultural Biologicals Market Key Market Trends of Agricultural Microbials Research, Developments, Supply Chain & Regulatory Analysis Recent Industry Developments: Policies, Partnerships, New Product Launches, and Mergers & Acquisitions Qualitative Analysis (in-relation to COVID-19) Impact of COVID-19 on the market Supply chain challenges Potential opportunities due to COVID-19

Global Agricultural Microbials Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2018-2029 Key Findings / Summary Market Size Estimates and Forecast By Type (Value) Bacteria Fungi Virus Others By Formulation (Value) Dry Liquid By Application Method (Value) Foliar Spray Soil Treatment Seed Treatment Others By Function (Value) Soil Amendment Crop Protection By Crop Cereals Oilseeds & Pulses Fruits & Vegetables Others By Region (Value) North America Europe Asia Pacific South America Middle East & Africa

North America Agricultural Microbials Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2018-2029 Key Findings / Summary Market Size Estimates and Forecast By Type (Value) Bacteria Fungi Virus Others By Formulation (Value) Dry Liquid By Application Method (Value) Foliar Spray Soil Treatment Seed Treatment Others



TOC Continued!





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Read Related Insights:

Agricultural Micronutrients Market Size, Growth & Report [2028]

Agricultural Biologicals Market Size, Share & Forecast 2026

Biofertilizers Market Size, Share, Growth | Global Analysis [2029]

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A.I.S. Resources Limited (TSX.V: AIS, OTCQB: AISSF) (the Company or AIS) an innovative and advanced stage lithium and gold exploration company provides an update on the development of its projects. With the large number of activities AIS is currently participating in, the Company is providing this summary for shareholders.



Our company focus is on discovering and adding value to exploration projects in the lithium and gold mining sectors, stated Martyn Element, Chairman of AIS.

Phil Thomas, President of AIS also commented, With our current exploration activities at the Bright Gold Project and ongoing development of our three lithium projects in Argentina and three additional Australian gold projects we expect to make several positive announcements over the next six months.

Fig. 1  A NI43-101 has been completed based on the 2021 drilling progress at Incahuasi Salar in Argentina.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bd7f8276-cfd3-453b-bf56-ce750991424d

LITHIUM PROJECTS IN ARGENTINA

AIS is the lead partner driving the exploration and development in three lithium projects in the world-renowned Lithium Triangle in Argentina. With the current very active lithium market the Company is looking forward the developing these projects.

Cauchari Salar Lithium Project

AIS has completed a 43 page environmental impact statement for Yareta XIII, which is located on the southern tip of Cauchari Salar where Allkem Limited (AKE - market cap 6.41B AUD) and Exar Inc have their large lithium project. AIS is inviting joint venture proposals to develop the project.

Pocitos Salar Lithium Project

In 2018 AIS explored Pocitos 7 and Pocitos 9, completing a VES geophysics survey, and 20 x 5m trenches that were sampled for lithium. There are a number of other explorers drilling nearby, including Chengxin Lithium Group Co., Ltd. a large lithium producer (market cap 51.28B CNY). The Company is actively seeking joint ventures proposals on both these properties.

Pocitos One Lithium Project

Recharge Resources optioned Pocitos One from Spey Resources, which originally optioned the property from AIS Resources. In 2018 significant brine flows were recorded and with lithium assays up to 125 ppm. The brine flow rate before it was choked was in excess of 50,000 litres a minute (investors should note that this brine release value is not NI43-101 compliant). In 2018 the magnesium to lithium ratio was too high to process using technologies available at the time. The new Ekosolve Direct Lithium Extraction system has shown it can manage up to 50:1 or even higher Mg:Li ratios and it recovers more than 95% of the lithium from low concentration brines. Recharge Resources will be drilling a production well in August, and if they exercise their option, AIS will receive a 15% royalty and proceeds from the sale of the 800 hectares.

Incahuasi Salar Lithium Project  20% Interest

AIS has a 20% interest in the Incahuasi project. The Company sold an 80% interest in Incahuasi to Tech One Lithium a subsidiary of Spey Resources (Spey) for a payment USD$1 million received in March 2022 and exploration expenditures totalling USD$500,000 completed by Tech One. Spey has completed a NI43-101 written by Montgomery and Associates regarding drilling in 2021 on Incahuasi. When Spey Resources resumes trading, the company will drill two production wells and three exploration wells with the view to producing a NI43-101 mineral resource estimate. Spey has an option to acquire AIS Resources 20% interest for USD$6M by March 23, 2023. Spey Resources has signed a licence agreement with Ekosolve .

GOLD PROJECTS IN AUSTRALIA

AIS has four significant advanced stage exploration projects in Australias two major gold-rich regions including Victoria near the Fosterville Gold Mine and in the Lachlan fold belt in New South Wales.

Bright Gold Project

This month, AIS Resources started drilling the Bright property at the Reliance reef/mine site. The program includes 7 drill holes in a fan pattern from one point above the Reliance adit to intersect the reef. AIS has contracted with the driller to drill a minimum of 1500 m and each hole will be 50-100 m in depth depending on lithology.

The next drill program will be in the Golden Bar area. Further work is being done on the Rose, Thistle & Shamrock mine for drill pad locations and best approach to drill from Landtax reef area. A detailed community engagement program is being put in place concurrent with our exploration work.

The Bright Gold Project and surrounds comprises many major historical workings and recorded production of over 730,0001 oz from both alluvial and rock mining. The largest producers on the Project were the Rose, Thistle and Shamrock mine @ 22.2g/t Au for 140,000 oz and the Oriental Mine @ 28g/t for 6,194 oz. The Bright Project is in a premium location and only 6km from E79s Happy Valley Project. The EL006194 contains more than 250 historical gold mines, reefs (quartz veins) and gold occurrences dating back to the 1890s. Historically the EL006194 yielded 341,000 oz gold at grades ranging between 7-992 3g/t, averaging 22 g/t Au.

Fig. 2  A.I.S. Resources preparing to commence the July 2022 drill program on Bright Gold Project.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dd9a7160-43c5-4594-b11a-f1c37125ff87

Toolleen Fosterville Gold Project

For the Toolleen Fosterville project, AIS has engaged with the landowners to walk the drill hole locations in the next few weeks. A 10-hole program is planned when the ground becomes sufficiently dry to bring in a drill rig.

The Fosterville Toolleen Gold Project is located 12 km east of Kirkland Lakes Fosterville gold mine  currently one of the richest gold mines in Australia.

Kingston Gold Project

Intensive soil sampling has been completed as well as a detailed structural geology review. This has changed the modelled mineralization to a more northerly direction. Connor Coote that have a prospectors licence within the AIS Exploration licence area, have sunk a 50m shaft and are preparing to start mining the lode. Any gold won outside their prospectors licence on our EL will result in a 15% royalty share for AIS.

From 1900 to 1903, hard rock gold mining occurred at the Old Kingston Mine with production estimated by the then Mining Surveyor to be 2,762ozs of gold from 11,764 tonnes of ore, at an average grade of 7.3g Au/t.

In January 2012 Navarre Minerals Limited which held the concession at the time announced diamond drill results of 16.9m at 5.5g Au/t from a depth of 65.7m down-hole, including 3.1m at 29.5g Au/t. Visible gold was identified between 65.7m and 65.9m down-hole within a quartz breccia on the hanging wall side of a quartz lode structure.

HQ Diamond Drilling was undertaken in four holes in March 2019 near the Old Kingston Mine site. Holes SWK001 to 4 were drilled by Starwest Drilling contractors to a depth of 70 to 80m. There was a range of results up to 24.27g/t Au.

Yalgogrin Gold Project

The landowner sold the property where our EL was located, and the new owners are pro-mining. During the fall 2021 drilling program an intercept of 83m at 1.5gm/tonne of gold was measured. AIS currently holds a 40% interest in Yalgogrin. AIS is evaluating its options to JV or sell its 40% interest or acquire a 100% interest.

The Yalgogrin Gold Project is located in the historic West Wyalong gold corridor of central NSW, Australia which produced 445,700 oz gold mined between 1894-1921. The project had Auger results of 12.5 gm/t and 32.3 gm/t, and 14 DDHs with intercepts ranging from 1.9 gm/t to 1m at 21.5 gm/t.

Technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Phillip Thomas, BSc Geol, MBM, FAusIMM MAIG MAIMVA(CMV) who is a Qualified Person under the definitions established by the National Instrument 43-101 and is President, CEO of A.I.S. Resources Ltd.

About A.I.S. Resources Limited

A.I.S. Resources Limited is a publicly traded investment issuer listed on the TSX Venture Exchange focused on lithium, gold, precious and base metals exploration. AIS value add strategy is to acquire prospective exploration projects and enhance their value by better defining the mineral resource with a view to attracting joint venture partners and enhancing the value of our portfolio. The Company is managed by a team of experienced geologists and investment bankers, with a track-record of successful capital markets achievements.

AIS owns 100% of the 28 sq km Fosterville-Toolleen Gold Project located 9.9 km from Kirkland Lakes Fosterville gold mine, a 60% interest in the 57 sq km Bright Gold project (with the right to acquire 100%), a 40% interest in the 58 sq km New South Wales Yalgogrin Gold Project, and 100% interest in the 167 sq km Kingston Gold Project in Victoria Australia near Stawell and Navarre. AIS has further options to acquire three lithium concessions in the Pocitos and Cauchari Salars in Argentina and also has 20% joint venture interest with Spey Resources Corp. in the Incahuasi lithium brine project in Argentina and Pocitos Salars.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,

A.I.S. Resources Ltd.



Phillip Thomas,

President & CEO

Corporate Contact

For further information, please contact:

Phillip Thomas, Chief Executive Officer

T: +1-323 5155 164

E:pthomas@aisresources.com



Or

Martyn Element Chairman

T: +1-604-220-6266

E:melement@aisresources.com

Website:www.aisresources.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

ADVISORY: This press release contains forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligations to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

_____________________

1 Victorian gold deposits. Philps N and Hughes M. AGSO Journal of Australian Geology & Geophysics, 17(4), 1996. pp.215

2 Ibid

3 Recorded from mines of greater than 1,000 oz of production.
Dublin, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "US Military Laser Designator Market (2022-2027) by Type, End-User, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The US Military Laser Designator Market is estimated to be USD 18.01 Bn in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 26.84 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 8.31%.



Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the US Military Laser Designator Market stakeholders. These forces create pricing signals which result from the changes in the supply and demand curves for a given product or service.

Forces of Market Dynamics may be related to macro-economic and micro-economic factors. There are dynamic market forces other than price, demand, and supply. Human emotions can also drive decisions, influence the market, and create price signals.



As the market dynamics impact the supply and demand curves, decision-makers aim to determine the best way to use various financial tools to stem various strategies for speeding the growth and reducing the risks.

Company Profiles

Some of the companies covered in this report are Boston Electronics, Ekspla, Fianium , Genia Photonics, Hamamatsu Photonics, IMRA America, IPG Photonics, etc.

The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitors in the market. It covers the financial performance analysis for the publicly listed companies in the market. The report also offers detailed information on the companies' recent development and competitive scenario.



Competitive Quadrant

The report includes Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Ansoff Analysis

The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the US Military Laser Designator Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company.

The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach.



The analyst analyses the US Military Laser Designator Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position.



Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, The analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth.

Report Highlights:

A complete analysis of the market, including parent industry

Important market dynamics and trends

Market segmentation

Historical, current, and projected size of the market based on value and volume

Market shares and strategies of key players

Recommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the market

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Increasing Demand for UAVs Across the Globe

Use of Unmanned Electronic Warfare Systems Aids in Eliminating the Risks Related to the Pilot or Operators

Restraints

Laser-Based Systems Suffer from Numerous Technical and Operational Issues

Opportunities

Extreme Military Expenditure and Technological Advancements

Progressively Focus on Incorporating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with Laser Designator Systems

Challenges

Weather Conditions Affect the Infrared Laser Beam's Power and Range

Company Profiles

Boston Electronics

Ekspla

Fianium

Genia Photonics

Hamamatsu Photonics

IMRA America

IPG Photonics

Menlo Systems

Photonics Industries International

Quantronix

Rofin-Baasel

Spectra-Physics

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Toptica Photonics

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/cv6s2z

Attachment




A planned policy briefing by the gender ministry to President Yoon Suk-yeol was postponed due to an adjustment of briefing schedules, presidential officials said Wednesday, spurring speculation about whether the postponement is related to Yoon's campaign pledge to abolish the ministry.







Yoon had been scheduled to receive the policy briefing from Gender Equality and Family Minister Kim Hyun-sook on Wednesday afternoon, but the briefing was abruptly delayed earlier in the day. Yoon began receiving policy briefings from each ministry earlier this month.







A presidential official said the gender ministry's briefing was rescheduled because of an adjustment of schedules with ministries, which have yet to brief Yoon on their policies.







"Given the possibility of ministers' attendance at the National Assembly next week, (the presidential office) decided to adjust the overall schedule of the remaining ministries' policy briefings, including the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family," another presidential official said.







A new date for the gender ministry's policy briefing has not been set and the presidential office will notify reporters of the new date when it is confirmed, officials said.







Yoon, who took office in May, had pledged to abolish the gender ministry during his election campaign.







However, the ministry has remained in place for now, along with the rest of the current government layout, as the Yoon administration seeks to avoid clashing with the National Assembly, where the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea holds a whopping majority. (Yonhap)






Dublin, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Production, Processing and Preserving of Red Meat in South Africa 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The red meat industry has still not completely recovered from droughts, which led to a red meat shortage, and is struggling with significant increases in input prices including fuel and feed. The slowing economy has seen consumers switch from lamb and beef to cheaper meat products such as pork and poultry, while some are reducing their red meat intake. Beef and veal production has doubled since 2001, while the production of pork has almost tripled. The livestock value chain is dominated by big commercial producers that have linked production activities with distribution and processing.



Key Issues

Input costs of items such as fuel and feed have risen significantly, driven by the Russia-Ukraine war, and are reducing profitability in the sector. Exports are being affected by disease outbreaks and logistics issues such as port congestion, poor roads and attacks on rail infrastructure. Red meat exporters could significantly ramp up exports if they increase traceability. Uncertainty about land reform, expropriation without compensation and attempts to expropriate productive land continue to weigh on the industry.



Meat Alternatives

Retailers report a significant increase in demand for alternative meat products, but the industry is small as most South Africans remain big meat eaters. Some consumers have reduced meat consumption over concerns regarding the sustainability of meat production and to cut costs. Retailers have responded to increased demand by increasing the range of vegan and plant-based products in their stores.



Report Coverage

The report focuses on the production, processing and preservation of red meat and red meat products, with a specific focus on cattle (beef and veal), sheep (lamb and mutton), pigs (pork), game and goats and additional information on meat-alternative vegan products. It includes comprehensive information on herd sizes, production, producer and consumer prices and consumption, key trends and the latest developments.

There are profiles of 43 companies including large integrated players such as Karan Beef, Sparta Beef, Sernick and Beefmaster, abattoirs including Cavalier and Doornplaat, and processors such as Eskort and Famous Brands





Key Topics Covered:



1. INTRODUCTION



2. DESCRIPTION OF THE INDUSTRY

2.1. Industry Value Chain

2.2. Geographic Position

2.3. Size of the Industry

2.4. Key Success Factors and Pain Points



3. LOCAL

3.1. State of the Industry

3.2. Key Trends

3.3. Notable Players

3.4. Trade

3.5. Corporate Actions

3.6. Regulations

3.7. Enterprise Development and Social Economic Development



4. AFRICA



5. INTERNATIONAL



6. INFLUENCING FACTORS

6.1. COVID-19

6.2. Economic Environment

6.3. Labour

6.4. Environmental Issues

6.5. Technology, Research and Development (R&D) and Innovation

6.6. Government Support

6.7. Input Costs

6.8. Health and Diseases

6.9. Herd Rebuilding

6.10. Cyclicality

6.11. Crime, Predation and Stock Theft



7. COMPETITIVE ENVIROMENT

7.1. Competition

7.2. Ownership Structure of the Industry

7.3. Barriers to Entry



8. SWOT ANALYSIS



9. OUTLOOK



10. INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS



Appendix - Summary of Notable Players



COMPANY PROFILES

Agriqua Livestock (Pty) Ltd

Agriqua Pecan Nuts (Pty) Ltd

Agriqua Processing (Pty) Ltd

Beefmaster Kimberley (Pty) Ltd

Bloemfontein Abattoir (Pty) Ltd

Bluff Meat Supply (Pty) Ltd

BMS Foods Properties (Pty) Ltd

Brickhouse Trading (Pty) Ltd

Bullhill Ontwikkeling (Pty) Ltd

Cape Deli (Pty) Ltd

Cavalier Abattoir (Pty) Ltd

Cavalier Feeders (Pty) Ltd

Cavalier Foods (Pty) Ltd

Cavalier Livestock (Pty) Ltd

Chalmar Beef (Pty) Ltd

Doornplaat Abattoir (Pty) Ltd

East London Abattoir (Pty) Ltd

Eskort (Pty) Ltd

Excellent Meat Market (Pty) Ltd

Fabvleis (Pty) Ltd

Famous Brands Ltd

Frey's Agriculture (Pty) Ltd

Frey's Food Brands (Pty) Ltd

Fry Group Foods (Pty) Ltd

Gen4foods (Pty) Ltd

Good Hope Meat Supply CC

Herbivore Earthfoods (Pty) Ltd

Hessequa Abattoir (Pty) Ltd

HKFT Properties (Pty) Ltd

Holstein Meats (Pty) Ltd

Irvin and Johnson Ltd

Kalahari Kid Corporation (Pty) Ltd

Karan Beef (Pty) Ltd

Kaya Grain Limpopo (Pty) Ltd

KYTO Operations (Pty) Ltd

Lentaba Meat (Pty) Ltd

Lexis Central Kitchen (Pty) Ltd

Lexis Eatery Rosebank (Pty) Ltd

Lexis Flamingo (Pty) Ltd

Lexis Healthy Eatery (Pty) Ltd

Lexis Seapoint (Pty) Ltd

Lexis Waterfall (Pty) Ltd

LIVEKINDLY Collective Africa (Pty) Ltd

Molare (Pty) Ltd

Morgan Abattoir (Pty) Ltd

Mzansi Meat Co (Pty) Ltd

New Style Pork (Pty) Ltd

On the Green Side (Pty) Ltd

Oos Vrystaat Kaap Bedryf Ltd

Orange River Popcorn (Pty) Ltd

Q-Meats CC

QK Meats SA (Pty) Ltd

RFG Foods (Pty) Ltd

Rica Meats (Pty) Ltd

Roelcor Malmesbury (Pty) Ltd

Sauce Advertising (Pty) Ltd

Seemanns Quality Meats (Pty) Ltd

Sernick Group (Pty) Ltd

Sinethemba Mafama (Pty) Ltd

Sparta Foods (Pty) Ltd

Stonecreek Meat (Pty) Ltd

Triotrade Gauteng (Pty) Ltd

Upington Abattoir (Pty) Ltd

UPT Meat (Pty) Ltd

Vereeniging Abattoir (Pty) Ltd

VGK Beleggings (Pty) Ltd

Watsons Baconeries (Pty) Ltd

Watsons Piggeries (Pty) Ltd

Winelands Pork (Labelle Street) (Pty) Ltd

Zodar Properties No 12(Pty) Ltd

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/wxahft

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ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
ROME, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ITA Airways' press conference with ENAC was held yesterday, 19 July 2022, at the Airbus Pavilion Auditorium at the Farnborough International Airshow (FIA).



During the event, were presented the results achieved in the first nine months, as well as the commitment to sustainability. Sustainability is a topic of central importance for the Italian carrier, which aims to become the greenest airline in Europe with 75% of new generation aircraft in its fleet by 2025.

Therefore, the absolute star of the event was the ITA Airways Sustainability Manifesto, a symbol of the company's commitment to the planet and its people. The company's sustainable strategy roadmap combines business growth with the creation of long-term sustainable values. The Manifesto demonstrates the importance of this pillar in the company's strategy.

The press conference was chaired by Fabio Lazzerini, CEO of ITA Airways, and Pierluigi di Palma, President of ENAC, the Italian Civil Aviation Authority.

A highly regarded Italian illustrator - Emiliano Ponzi - collaborated on this occasion, turning ideas into images. Ponzi was able to interpret ITA Airways' growth strategy, the propulsive aspect of a start-up with the desire to 'touch the sky with one finger'. And the blue of ITA Airways' livery harmonising with the sky in full respect of the environment: flying and integrating the ecosystem simultaneously.

Thanks to ENACs support, ITA Airways follows its initial goal: to make the Italian national airline an example of sustainable business. With the Manifesto, the company's Sustainability Plan takes shape.

Furthermore, last April ITA Airways signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Airbus regarding collaboration in the field of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) in Italy. ITA Airways will in fact collaborate with Airbus to develop the ecosystem around the launch of the CityAirbus NextGen electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The aircraft, is currently under development. ITA Airways and Airbus are identifying strategic use cases for zero emission mobility solutions and demonstrating the added value it can bring to communities.

At the end of the conference, all guests and the press were able to visit the Airbus A350 parked in the centre of the show. The new A350, dedicated to the excellence of Italian sport Enzo Bearzot, is distinguished by the flag carrier's new contents, including the new interiors designed by Walter De Silvia, which combine elegance and sustainability. The A350 is lighter, quieter and more efficient than the previous generation aircraft. Innovative aerodynamics and a high-efficiency Rolls-Royce aircraft engine (the Trent XWB) optimise range and payload for the benefit of efficiency. Thanks to the new aircraft, ITA Airways benefits from a reduction of more than 25% in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions per passenger.

Also joining the fleet will be other new generation aircraft, such as the Airbus A220-300, scheduled to arrive in the autumn.

For more information:

LaPresse SpA Communication and Press Office Director

Barbara Sanicola - barbara.sanicola@lapresse.it

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3c66491f-aa86-4978-9a46-a337e7f5804c

The photo is also available at Newscom, www.newscom.com, and via AP PhotoExpress.
Dublin, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Anti-money Laundering Market (AML) by Component, Solution (KYC/CDD & Sanctions Screening, Transaction Monitoring, and Case Management & Reporting), Organization Size, Deployment Mode (On-Premises, Cloud), End User & Region - Forecast to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global AML market size is expected to grow from an estimated value of USD 2.8 billion in 2022 to USD 5.8 billion by 2027, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.9% from 2022 to 2027.



Some of the factors that are driving the market growth includes monetary penalties, regulatory sanctions, and reputational loss due to non-compliance with regulations, growing focus towards digital payments, and necessity to create a 360-degree view of data in the financial landscape. However, lack of skilled AML professionals with in-depth knowledge and lack of awareness related to government regulations and deployment of AML solutions are expected to hinder the market growth.



By Solutions, Insurance to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecasted period



Insurance includes life insurance, health insurance, travel insurance, corporate insurance, and vehicle insurance. Insurance firms offer flexible policies and investment products and services. These products and services allow customers to deposit and withdraw a large amount of money in terms of cash.

These flexible offerings and the massive flow of funds in the Life Insurance business has made this industry vulnerable to money laundering and other illegal activities in the insurance industry. Authorities have imposed AML regulations on insurance covering the transaction monitoring and sanction screening obligation. In the US, the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) has imposed regulations related to transaction monitoring on insurance firms to track cash flows.To keep a track of money coming in and out of the systems, government and financial bodies implement guidelines specific to the insurance industry, which are expected to fuel the adoption of AML solutions. Thus the Insurance sector is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecasted period.



By Organization, Large enterprises to account for a larger market size during the forecasted period



By organization size, Enterprises are categorized into Large and Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Enterprises with more than 1,000 employees are considered large enterprises. Large enterprises are the early adopters of AML solutions, as they use many business applications susceptible to fraudulent attacks.

As these enterprises are large, with different types of IT infrastructure, they face the difficult task of effectively managing the security of their applications. Unlike SMEs, large enterprises are well-equipped with technical skills, have higher investment capabilities, and are more exposed to incidents of fraud. This has led to higher awareness levels among large enterprises. Large enterprises are rich with resources and offer a number of options for money transactions to customers worldwide. Due to this, large banks, casinos, and insurance companies are more vulnerable than SMEs, due to which large enterprises account for a larger market share than SMEs.



By Region, North America to grow at highest market size during the forecasted period



Due to the presence of major vendors of AML solutions and services in the North America region and continuous innovations such as the implementation of AI and ML in AML solutions, North America is expected to hold the largest market size during the forecast period. There are two authorities present in the US: BSA and USA Patriot. These authorities create regulations and policies to combat financial crimes in the country. Such regulatory norms are the major foundations for dependence on AML solutions, which in turn, promote market growth.

Also, the increasing technological advancements and rising money laundering cases fuel the AML market in Canada. AML vendors in this country adopt advanced AI- and ML-based AML solutions to defend their systems against suspicious transactions. Hence, organizations in Canada are taking modern measures against money laundering and applying a risk-based approach to combat financial crimes, thus increasing the market growth.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

4.1 Attractive Opportunities in the Anti-Money Laundering Market

4.2 Market, by Component

4.3 Anti-Money Laundering Solutions Market, by Type

4.4 Market, by Organization Size

4.5 Anti-Money Laundering Market Share of the Top Three End-users and Regions

4.6 Market Investment Scenario

5 Market Overview and Industry Trends

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.1.1 Increased Monetary Penalties, Regulatory Sanctions, and Reputational Loss due to Non-Compliance with Regulations

5.2.1.2 Growth in Focus Toward Digital Payments and Internet Banking

5.2.1.3 Necessity to Create an Infrastructure with a 360-Degree View of Data in the Financial Landscape

5.2.2 Restraints

5.2.2.1 Increased Technological Complexities and Sophistication of Attacks

5.2.2.2 Budgetary Issues in Developing In-House Fraud Detection Solutions

5.2.3 Opportunities

5.2.3.1 Higher Adoption of Advanced Analytics in Aml

5.2.3.2 Integration of Ai, Ml, and Big Data Technologies in Developing Aml Solutions

5.2.3.3 Adoption of Cloud-Based Aml Solutions to Combat Financial Crimes

5.2.4 Challenges

5.2.4.1 Lack of Skilled Aml Professionals with In-Depth Knowledge

5.2.4.2 Lack of Awareness Related to Government Regulations and Deployment of Aml Solutions

5.3 Use Cases

5.3.1 Use Case 1: Fico Helped 4Finance Increase Efficiency while Maintaining Regulatory Compliance

5.3.2 Use Case 2: Nice Actimize Helped a European Bank Improve Insight into Global Operations

5.3.3 Use Case 3: Sas Institute Helped a Bangkok Bank Stay Ahead of Emerging Risks and Changing Regulations

5.4 Tariff and Regulatory Landscape

5.4.1 Introduction

5.4.2 Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

5.4.3 Financial Action Task Force (Fatf)

5.4.4 International Monetary Fund

5.4.5 General Data Protection Regulation

5.4.6 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

5.4.7 Sarbanes-Oxley Act

5.4.8 Regulatory Bodies, Government Agencies, and Other Organizations

5.5 Ecosystem

5.6 Technology Analysis

5.6.1 Anti-Money Laundering and Ai/Ml

5.6.2 Anti-Money Laundering and Data Analytics

5.6.3 Anti-Money Laundering and the Internet of Things

5.6.4 Anti-Money Laundering and Real-Time Authentication

5.7 Patent Analysis

5.8 Value Chain

5.9 Average Pricing Analysis

5.10 Trends and Disruptions Impacting Customers

5.11 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.12 Key Stakeholders and Buying Criteria

5.13 Key Conferences & Events

6 Anti-Money Laundering Market, by Component

6.1 Introduction

6.1.1 Components: Market Drivers

6.2 Solutions

6.2.1 Solutions: Market Drivers

6.2.2 Know Your Customer/Customer due Diligence & Sanctions Screening

6.2.3 Transaction Monitoring

6.2.4 Case Management & Reporting

6.3 Services

6.3.1 Services: Market Drivers

6.3.2 Professional Services

6.3.2.1 Consulting Services

6.3.2.2 Training & Education

6.3.2.3 Integration & Maintenance

6.3.3 Managed Services

7 Anti-Money Laundering Market, by Deployment Mode

7.1 Introduction

7.1.1 Deployment Mode: Market Drivers

7.2 Cloud

7.3 On-Premises

8 Anti-Money Laundering Market, by Organization Size

8.1 Introduction

8.1.1 Organization Size: Market Drivers

8.2 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

8.3 Large Enterprises

9 Anti-Money Laundering Market, by End-user

9.1 Introduction

9.1.1 End-user: Market Drivers

9.2 Banking & Financial Institutes

9.3 Insurance

9.4 Gaming & Gambling

10 Anti-Money Laundering Market, by Region

11 Competitive Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Key Player Strategies

11.3 Revenue Analysis

11.4 Market Share Analysis

11.5 Ranking of Key Players in the Market

11.6 Company Evaluation Quadrant

11.6.1 Overview

11.6.2 Product Footprint

11.7 Company Evaluation Quadrant

11.7.1 Stars

11.7.2 Emerging Leaders

11.7.3 Pervasive Players

11.7.4 Participants

11.8 Startup/Sme Evaluation Quadrant

11.8.1 Progressive Companies

11.8.2 Responsive Companies

11.8.3 Dynamic Companies

11.8.4 Starting Blocks

11.8.5 Competitive Benchmarking for Startups/Smes

11.9 Competitive Scenario and Trends

12 Company Profiles

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Key Vendors

12.2.1 Nice Actimize

12.2.2 Sas Institute Inc.

12.2.3 Bae Systems

12.2.4 Gb Group plc.

12.2.5 Fico

12.2.6 Aci Worldwide

12.2.7 Oracle

12.2.8 Experian

12.2.9 Fiserv

12.2.10 Lexisnexis

12.2.11 Fis

12.2.12 Nelito Systems

12.2.13 Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, Inc

12.2.14 Comarch Sa (Comarch)

12.2.15 Allsec Technologies Ltd.

12.2.16 Dixtior

12.2.17 Temenos

12.2.18 Tcs

12.2.19 Complyadvantage

12.2.20 Featurespace

12.2.21 Feedzai

12.2.22 Napier Ai

12.2.23 Tier1 Financial Solutions

12.2.24 Finacus Solutions Pvt Ltd

12.2.25 Jumio

12.2.26 Friss

12.2.27 Transunion

12.3 Other Vendors

12.3.1 Idmerit

12.3.2 Imtf

12.3.3 Innovative Systems

12.3.4 Sedicii

12.3.5 Trulioo

12.3.6 Namescan

12.3.7 Datavisor Inc

12.3.8 Gurucul

13 Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/xjmpad

Attachment
New York, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In April 2022, Costa Rica, a country in Central America, was attacked by ransomware named Conti. According to Rodrigo Chaves Robles, the president of Costa Rica, the hackers gained access to 27 government organization entities, including local government and state-owned utilities. Online data leaks have exposed over 650GB of stolen information. Further, the Conti ransomware cartel had increased its demand for payment to about USD 10 million from the Costa Rica Government. As of May 9th, Conti ransomware had exposed more than 98 percent of a 670 GB data dump that reportedly comprised of material that was obtained illegally from governmental organizations.

Kenneth Research has released a new report titled  Global Security Appliances Market  that gives a comprehensive analysis of the markets features, including growth drivers, restraints, current market trends, and potential for future growth. In the market research report, which covers the forecast period, i.e., 2022-2030, the influence of COVID-19 and its effects on end-users are both in-depth explored. In addition, the research study examines the product portfolios and market expansion plans of the principal competitors.

In the year 2020, business organizations worldwide were expected to spend more than USD 120 billion on security which is further projected to rise to over USD 170 billion by 2022. Businesses of all sizes are becoming more concerned nowadays about cybersecurity as a result of the disruption caused by the increasingly sophisticated strategies used by cybercriminals. It is predicted that distributed denial- of- services (DDoS) attacks would double from about 7 million in 2018 to over 15 million by 2023. DDoS attacks increased in frequency in 2020, with close to 5 million attacks recorded in the first half of the year. This would stand to around 25,500 attacks daily and about 12 attacks every minute. The WannaCry ransomware outbreak, which debuted in 2017, was among the most destructive in history. More than 231,000 computers in 150 nations were infected by the malware, which resulted in at least USD 4.2 billion in losses. The rise in cyber-attacks and the complexity of network infrastructure are some of the major factors predicted for the expansion of the global security appliances market.

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Organizations are advised to adopt advanced technologies to protect their systems, networks, and users from serious cyber security risks. For instance, a survey indicated that around 20 percent of breaches used some sort of malware, while about 45 percent involved hacking, over 80 percent were financially motivated, and close to 20 percent included phishing or social engineering. In order to store, manage and analyze data, cloud computing refers to the utilization of networks of remote servers, typically accessed through the internet. Cloud computing is expected to bring in about USD 405 billion in revenue as a subset of IT services in 2021. The rising demand for cloud-based services and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) are some of the additional factors predicted to accelerate market growth. The global security appliances market gathered around USD 110 billion in 2021 and is predicted to grow at a CAGR of ~14% over the forecast period.

The global security appliances market is segmented on the basis of region into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. Amongst the market in these regions, the North American region is anticipated to hold the biggest share of the market over the forecast period on the back of having a strong technical advanced infrastructure and for the growing deployment of data centers in the region. For instance, Silicon Valley is the 3rd largest data center in North America with over 300 MW of total inventory. In the year 2021, about 22 megawatts (MW) of capacity was being added in these data centers and over 5 MW were available across the whole Silicon Valley. Additionally, physical infrastructure and connective network components make up the 2 main parts of the Microsoft Azure global infrastructure. The physical components consist of more than 200 physical data centers that are divided into regions and connected by one of the worlds most extensive networks. The advanced infrastructure and the complexity of the network infrastructure are predicted to rise the demand for security appliances and thereby expand the market growth in the region over the forecast period.

To Gain More Insights into the Global Security Appliances Market Analysis, Browse the Summary of the Research Report @ https://www.kennethresearch.com/report-details/global-security-appliances-market/10352155

On the other hand, as a result of the rising demand for security appliances, owing to the rising number of cybercrime incidents, the market in the Asia-Pacific region is anticipated to have the largest growth throughout the forecast period. Nearly, 17 percent of the Chinese population had experienced internet fraud in the recent years. Comparatively, in Japan, about 600 instances of internet banking fraud were reported to the authorities, while online banking fraud-related losses totaled around USD 7 million in 2021. Also, there were over 11.5 thousand cybercrime cases that were successfully prosecuted in 2021. Increasing number of internet crimes that necessitate the need for security appliances is therefore expected to drive the growth of the Asia Pacific security appliances market during the forecast period.

The study further incorporates Y-O-Y Growth, demand & supply forecast future opportunities in North America (U.S., Canada), Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Belgium, Netherlands & Luxembourg, NORDIC [Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark], Poland, Turkey, Russia, Rest of Europe), Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Rest of Latin America), Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Rest of Asia-Pacific), Middle East and Africa (Israel, GCC [Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman], North Africa, South Africa, Rest of the Middle East and Africa).

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The global security appliances market is segmented by type into the firewall, intrusion detection and prevention (IDP), unified threat management (UTM), content management, virtual private network (VPN), and others. Owing to their advanced security features and reliable cloud protection solutions, such as centralized integration and management, rapid detection of incoming security threats, and better network monitoring, the firewall segment is predicted to experience rapid growth in the coming years. The top three exporters of firewalls are Netherlands, India, and China with 3.2 thousand export shipments to the United States. Netherland is the top exporter of firewalls with about 2,400 shipments followed by India with around 220 shipments and China in 3rd place with close to 150 shipments as of March 2022.

On the other hand, the unified threat management (UTM) segment is expected to grow with a significant CAGR during the forecast period, backed by the rising awareness regarding the benefits of UTM and the increasing exports of this type of security appliance. Most of the worlds UTM exporters exported around 11 shipments to Bangladesh, India, and Peru. China, Singapore, and the U.K. are the top 3 countries that exports UTM. With 4 shipments, China was the top exporter of UTM, followed by Singapore with 1 shipment and the United Kingdom in 3rd place with 1 shipment as of July 2022.

The global security appliances market is segmented by end-user into BFSI, IT& telecommunications, energy & utilities, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and, others. Amongst these, the healthcare segment is projected to witness significant growth during the forecast period and also hold a noteworthy share of the market, primarily backed by the rising cases of cybercrimes in healthcare organizations. For instance, amongst the healthcare organizations worldwide, around 52 percent of fraud occurrences involved the theft of consumer data, while close to 40 percent of the attacks specifically targeted financial assets. Moreover, over 90 percent of the stolen personal identification information (PII) were customer records as opposed to employee records. In addition to that there were 24 health networks as victim organizations, 11 healthcare insurance victim organizations, 6 pharmacology centers, and 5 hospital victim organizations in 2019.

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The global security appliances market is further segmented on the basis of deployment mode.

Global Security Appliances Market, Segmentation by Deployment Mode:

Cloud

On-Premises

Some of the prominent industry leaders in the global security appliances market that are included in our report are Cisco Systems, Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Broadcom, Intel Corporation, Palo Alto Networks, Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Fortinet, Inc., Trend Micro Incorporated, Bosch Sicherheitssysteme GmbH, Juniper Networks, Inc., and others.

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New York, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Solar Inverters Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type, System Type, and End User" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295705/?utm_source=GNW

Further, global energy demand had increased by 4.6% in 2021, more than offsetting the 4% contraction in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates. The anticipated growth in investments in 2021 is a mixture of a cyclical response to recovery in economy and a structural shift in capital flows towards cleaner technologies. After staying flat in 2020, global power sector investment had increase by around 5% in 2021 to more than US$ 820 billion, according to the IEA estimates. Renewables energy sector dominates investment in new power generation and is expected to account for 70% of 2021s total of US$ 530 billion spent on all new generation capacity, according to the latest IEA estimates. Renewable energy sector investment has grown in markets due to well-established supply chains and where lenders and financiers that understand these sectors are seeking sustainable projects to support.



Further, investment in the renewable energy sector in India surged more than 125% year-on-year to touch a record US$ 14.5 billion in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), a report released by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) in June 2022. Conglomerates such as Reliance Industries (RIL) and the Adani group have ambitious plans to ramp up their renewable energy capacity.



Thus, with the increasing investment towards renewable energy sector help in cresting opportunities for solar inverters market players because with the rapid development of the renewable energy sector, the solar inverters market will also grow respectively.



Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on North America Solar Inverters Market

The need for solar inverters was prevalent during the pre-COVID-19 era because of the growing urban population.Due to the increasing population, infrastructural development was increasing.



According to the article published by the Journal of Commerce Online, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) allocated grants of ~US$ 856 million to Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) for constructing 20 projects across the US. Thus, the need for developing infrastructure supported the growth of the solar inverters market in North America.



In North America, the US, Canada, and Mexico witnessed a significant rise in COVID-19 patients in 2020.The pandemic resulted in economic challenges due to subsequent lockdowns.



In 2020, the manufacturing industries were severely affected due to a drastic decrease in product demand, falling prices, and storage shortages.A swift decline in manufacturing revenues due to virtually nonexistent manufacturing demand and slow production capabilities has limited the expenditure on installing or upgrading existing solar inverters across the industries in North America.



Moreover, periodic maintenance and discontinuation of operation among existing manufacturing plants have hampered the demand for solar inverters. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the North America solar inverters market.



In 2021, the manufacturing industry started recovering from the significant labor and supply chain challenges that triggered the adoption of solar inverters. In 2022, solar inverters will have a higher demand in North America due to the continued progress in the renewable energy sector.



Based on type, the solar inverters market is segmented into central, string, and micro.The central segment led the market with the largest share in 2021.



Based on system type, the market is bifurcated into on-grid and off-grid.The on-grid segment led the market with a larger share in 2021.



Based on end user, the market is segmented into residential, commercial, and utility.The utility segment led the market with the largest share in 2021.



By geography, the solar inverters market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America (SAM). The APAC segment led the market with the largest share in 2021.



The overall solar inverters market size has been derived using both primary and secondary sources.To begin the research process, exhaustive secondary research has been conducted using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the market.



The process also serves the purpose of obtaining an overview and forecast for the solar inverters market with respect to all the segments.



The study offers the overview and forecast for the market based on all the segmentation provided with respect to 5 major regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Africa, and South America.Also, primary interviews were conducted with industry participants and commentators to validate data and gain more analytical insights into the topic.



Participants in this process include industry experts, such as VPs, business development managers, market intelligence managers, and national sales managers, along with external consultants, such as valuation experts, research analysts, and key opinion leaders, specializing in the solar inverters market.



The key companies operating in the solar inverters market are ABB Ltd; Delta Electronics, Inc.; Enertechups; GOODWE; Power Electronics SL; Powerone Micro Systems Pvt.Ltd; Sineng Electric; SMA Solar Technology AG; Solaredge Technologies Inc.; and Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt Ltd.



Factors such as a rising number of solar installations attributed to government-led incentives & schemes and growing residential solar rooftop installations influence the solar inverters market growth.Further, the increasing investments in the renewable energy sector and technological innovations in solar inverters are among the factors contributing to the solar inverters market growth.



However, the safety risks associated with high DC voltages in solar inverters are restraining the solar inverters market growth.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295705/?utm_source=GNW



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ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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New York, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Security as a Service Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Component, Organization Size, Application, and Vertical" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295698/?utm_source=GNW

To provide better service to their customers, enterprises across all industry verticals have implemented different digitalization levels. It has also increased the amount of data being generated by huge extents, along with the storage of personal information. However, the sudden increase in digitalization and data generation has also attracted new forms of cyber-attacks and crimes.



Globally, several nations have issued strict guidelines for cyber security.For instance, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) India launched the Cyber Surakshit Bharat program to develop a strong cybersecurity ecosystem in India.



This is consistent with the governments goal of creating a "Digital India." This program was supported by the National E-Government Division (NeGD). The need for sound governance has increased because of the Indian governments initiatives on cybersecurity, which have caused the governance structure to change quickly. The program would urge CISOs and front-line IT personnel from all government agencies to educate themselves on cybercrime and develop their self-defense skills. Similarly, the Singapore Cybersecurity Act mandates that businesses create a robust infrastructure to make cyberspace safer while fostering global alliances. It is anticipated that such government policies to reduce potential cyber dangers and attacks will open up new business prospects during the projected period. Such factors are expected to boost the security as a service market growth, during the forecast period.



Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Security as a Service Market Growth

The pandemic forced enterprises to come to a halt.Mounting losses resulted in enterprises from most verticals resuming functioning remotely.



Such trends required makeshift, less secure networks to be accessed by the employees of such enterprises.As such systems are highly compromised and can easily result in a security breach, organizations started to approach market players to remediate the cyber threat to their operations.



The APAC security as a service market is anticipated to experience significant growth due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak because of the rising trend of cyber-attacks involving malware and ransomware in the context of COVID-19.Enterprises are quickly adopting cybersecurity solutions since several employees have switched to remote work environments amid lockdown in various countries.



According to MasterCard Incorporated statistics, South America has been adopting contactless payment options based on cyber security solutions at a faster rate than ever before. As a result of the pandemics seismic effects across numerous industries, the demand for internet platforms has skyrocketed. Remote working, the rise of digital payments to minimize direct human-to-human contact, and changing business strategies are all driving the incorporation of digitalization. Such trends collectively contribute to the security as a service market growth.



China accounts for the largest share in the security as a service market in Asia Pacific due to the countrys strong manufacturing base.The country is the leading producer of consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and industrial electronic components.



Additionally, China is strongly adopting Industry 4.0. Due to the digitalization of the manufacturing sector, there is a growing demand for network security. Moreover, the initiatives by the Chinese government, including Made in China 2025, are expected to boost the countrys manufacturing sector further. These factors are expected to boost the revenue generation for security as a service market players in the country during the forecast period.



Information security has become a significant national security concern in the twenty-first century.Systems for controlling vehicles, signal processing, communications, surveillance, and weapons are all computerized.



A military organization may suffer significant consequences from a cyberattack.The military, along with every other global industry, is collaborating with all stakeholders and experts to raise awareness and provide secure cyberspace by providing resilient and robust cybersecurity technology.



Such factors are expected to promote security as a service market growth.



Telecom fraud is also rapidly emerging as one of the biggest causes of revenue loss, with operators worldwide losing up to US$ 30 billion in uncollected revenue and fraud, according to Infosys Limited data.The emergence of OTT (over the top) data services has severely impacted the number of internet users globally.



In addition, technological innovations such as IoT and 5G in the telecom sector have driven rapid customer uptake.The uptake of artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning, and big data analytics is continuously increasing across various applications in the aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, and military & defense sectors, which has propelled the demand for smart electronics.



All these factors are aiding security as a service market players in generating maximum revenues.



Alert Logic, Inc.; Barracuda Networks, Inc.; Clearswift; Silversky; IBM Corporation; McAfee, LLC; Microsoft Corporation; Radware; Trend Micro Incorporated and Zscaler, Inc. are a few key players operating in the security as a service market.



The overall security as a service market has been derived using both primary and secondary sources.To begin the research process, exhaustive secondary research has been conducted using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the security as a service market.



The process also serves the purpose of obtaining an overview and forecast of the security as a service market with respect to all market segments.Also, industry participants and commentators have conducted multiple primary interviews to validate the data and gain more analytical insights.



Participants in this process include VPs, business development managers, market intelligence managers, national sales managers, and external consultants, such as valuation experts, research analysts, and key opinion leaders, specializing in the security as a service market.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295698/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Dublin, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Medical Ceramics Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global medical ceramics market reached a value of US$ 10.1 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$ 14.0 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.59% during 2021-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic on different end use sectors. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



Medical ceramics, or bio-ceramics, refer to biocompatible materials used for various contact and non-contact medical applications. Some of the commonly used medical ceramics include bio-inert ceramics, which are manufactured using alumina and zirconia, bioactive ceramics manufactured using Hydroxyapatite and glass, and bioresorbable and piezoelectric ceramics.

They are processed through hot isostatic pressure (HIP) and injection molding techniques and exhibit high mechanical strength, inherent stability and advantageous electrical properties. They are commonly used for dental and bone implants, prosthetic dentures, diagnostic and therapeutic medical devices, such as heart valves and pacemaker electrodes and consumables.



The increasing prevalence of dental and medical ailments across the globe represents one of the key factors driving the growth of the market. Furthermore, the rising geriatric population, which is more susceptible to such medical concerns and require a greater number of surgical procedures, are providing a thrust to the market growth.

This has also resulted in the increasing preference for alumina-based medical ceramics, which are extensively used to manufacture shoulder, knee and hip implants for orthopedic procedures. In line with this, the widespread adoption of plastic surgeries and advanced wound healing technologies are favoring the market growth.

Additionally, various technological advancements, such as the development of innovative and novel medical ceramics, are acting as other growth-inducing factors. Product manufacturers are developing minimally invasive (MI) implants for dental, orthopedic and cardiovascular applications that cause negligible discomfort and increase the efficacy of the medical procedures. Other factors, including rising expenditure capacities of the individuals, along with significant improvements in the healthcare infrastructure, are anticipated to drive the market further.

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined with some of the key players being 3M Company, CeramTec GmbH, CoorsTek, Inc., DePuy Synthes, H.C. Starck GmbH, Kyocera Corporation, Morgan Advanced Materials Plc, NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd., Institut Straumann AG, and Zimmer Biomet.



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global medical ceramics market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global medical ceramics market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the application?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end user?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global medical ceramics market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Medical Ceramics Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Type

6.1 Bioinert

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Bioactive

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast

6.3 Bioresorbable

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Market Forecast

6.4 Others

6.4.1 Market Trends

6.4.2 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Application

7.1 Orthopedic

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Implantable devices

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Dental

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 Surgical and Diagnostic Instruments

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast

7.5 Others

7.5.1 Market Trends

7.5.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by End User

8.1 Hospitals and Clinics

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast

8.3 Others

8.3.1 Market Trends

8.3.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by Region



10 SWOT Analysis



11 Value Chain Analysis



12 Porters Five Forces Analysis

13 Price Analysis



14 Competitive Landscape

14.1 Market Structure

14.2 Key Players

14.3 Profiles of Key Players

14.3.1 3M Company

14.3.1.1 Company Overview

14.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.1.3 Financials

14.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.2 CeramTec GmbH

14.3.2.1 Company Overview

14.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.2.3 Financials

14.3.3 CoorsTek, Inc.

14.3.3.1 Company Overview

14.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.4 DePuy Synthes

14.3.4.1 Company Overview

14.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.5 H.C. Starck GmbH

14.3.5.1 Company Overview

14.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.6 Kyocera Corporation

14.3.6.1 Company Overview

14.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.7 Morgan Advanced Materials Plc

14.3.7.1 Company Overview

14.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.7.3 Financials

14.3.8 NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

14.3.8.1 Company Overview

14.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.8.3 Financials

14.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.9 Institut Straumann AG

14.3.9.1 Company Overview

14.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.10 Zimmer Biomet

14.3.10.1 Company Overview

14.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.10.3 Financials

14.3.10.4 SWOT Analysis



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/b5mesf

Attachment
New York, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Product Design and Development Services Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Services, Application, and End User" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295695/?utm_source=GNW



Technological advancements and high demand for quality products in healthcare due to rising health concerns among the geriatric population fuel the overall market growth of product design and development services market.

Technological development has been recognized as a crucial component of business competitiveness.For example, several technological advancements involve artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare products.



AI-based medical devices can automate tasks, synthesize data from multiple sources, pinpoint trends, process and analyze information from wearable sensors, identify disease or the onset of medical conditions, identify risk for infection associated with complications, and research.Moreover, the potential of technologies is limitless in the healthcare sector.



The influx of technology will allow professionals to diagnose, collect data, and treat medical conditions more accurately and less invasively, improving the health and healthcare of people globally, which ultimately fuel the growth of product design and development services market.

Imaging and diagnostic machines are bulky stationary devices requiring patients to visit a particular room in a hospital or physicians office.However, a new generation of compact devices comes directly to a patient.



For example, imaging and diagnostic equipment have significantly improved in the past decade.With costs dropping dramatically and making devices more accessible to smaller medical practices and clinics owing to the technological influx in diagnostic devices.



The technological advent has resulted in innovative features such as computed tomography (CT) machines evolving from a 16-slice scanner to a 256-slice scanner capable of measuring changes in blood flow and detecting the smallest blockages forming in blood vessels.Therefore, improvement in every aspect of technology results in increasing efficiency, functionality, and reliability.



Such aforementioned factors are responsible for stimulating the overall growth of the product design and development services market during the forecast period.

According to the National Council on Ageing report, ~49 million Americans are aged 65 and over, and the population of this age is estimated to reach 98 million by 2060.Good health ensures security, independence, and productivity for the older population.



However, millions in the aging population struggle daily with health challenges such as falls, chronic diseases, physical inactivity, oral health concerns, and behavioral health issues, thus hampering the quality of life.Furthermore, ~80% of the geriatric population possess at least one chronic condition, and 70% of Medicare beneficiaries have two or more.



Demand for quality products with innovative design is rising to overcome such conditions.Moreover, medical device companies are improving clinical outcomes among patient groups through connected products.



For example, Ximedica developed products focusing on data strategies for equipment, customers, and patients with elegant and personalized experiences for clinical users and patients by creating secure, scalable, and compliant digital solutions. Additionally, in November 2021, a Radiological Society of North America show in Chicago was arranged where medical device manufacturers showcased numerous product innovations. For example, GE Healthcare featured a new image-guided X-ray system with robot-like functionalities.

The global product design and development services market is segmented into services, application, and end user.Based on services, the product design and development services market is segmented into research, strategy, and concept generation; concept and requirements development; detailed design and process development; design verification; process validation, manufacturing transfer, and design validation; and other services.



The research, strategy, and concept generation segment is estimated to account for the largest market share from 2022 to 2028.However, the process validation, manufacturing transfer, and design validation segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.



Research and strategy help inspire and inform decisions, providing the cultural and user insight to build notable product strategies and designs.Concept generation is a procedure that begins with a set of customer needs and target specifications and results in an array of product concept design alternatives from which a final design will be selected.



Moreover, this service is used in the early stages of the product development cycle. The service inspires innovation and develops a compelling and executable product vision. It is used for various procedures such as contextual inquiry, user identification, business and design strategy, concept generation, competitive and comparative landscape research, and technology research and assessment. For instance, in 2020, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) published its Strategic Vision, which presents a compendium of ideas and a compelling glimpse that is further creating opportunities in the human genomics for the upcoming forecast period. These factors are responsible for the growth of this segment, which, eventually, is expected to aid the product design and development services market during the forecast period.



Market Opportunities of Global Product Design and Development Services Market

According to the ISO report, medical devices assist in saving the lives of patients and improving their health.In the global market, 500,000 technology-based devices exist.



Additionally, ISO has many international standards and guidance documents to help the healthcare sector ensure product safety and effectiveness by meeting many national, regional, and international regulatory requirements and adhering to product design specifications.For example, ISO 20417 simplifies meeting product information regulations by offering standard generic requirements that are consistent/permanent across all devices across geographies.



Moreover, ISO/TR 20416 post-marketing surveillance for manufacturers offers guidance to effectively monitor the devices safety, performance, and everyday use. Such aforementioned factors would create lucrative opportunities for the growth of the product design and development services market during the forecast period.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Indian National Institute of Metrology Standardization and Industrial Quality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science are among the primary and secondary sources that were referred to while preparing the report on the global product design and development services market.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295695/?utm_source=GNW



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ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Dublin, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Jewelry Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Product (Necklace, Ring, Earring, Bracelet), by Material (Gold, Platinum, Diamond), by Region (North America, Europe), and Segment Forecasts, 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global jewelry market size is expected to reach USD 518.90 billion by 2030. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.5% from 2022 to 2030. The luxury goods industry continues to drive the market for jewelry, amid challenges concerning varying economic trends.



The demand for jewelry is increasing as the world is recovering from a recession and the global financial crisis of 2008. Over the past few years, consumer preference has turned to branded jewelry. This trend is more prominent among the emerging upper middle class or wealthy consumers, particularly in Asia Pacific, for whom branded jewelry is a status symbol. According to the World Gold Council, India and China accounted for more than 50% of the global gold jewelry demand in 2018.



Most consumers buy jewelry from international or established brands as they offer authentic and trustworthy products and unique designs. E-commerce is another important trend in the industry. Most consumers in this market prefer to research online before purchasing any product, and many make purchases from online portals for convenience.



Technological advancements have been transforming the jewel industry, from mining and discovering precious metals to cloud solutions and e-commerce platforms. Computer-aided design (CAD), 3D printing, and augmented reality (AR) are among the most notable technologies that have been prompting the growth of the industry in recent years. From a distribution standpoint, the emergence and popularity of these technologies have been aiding jewelry manufacturers around the world to realize higher profit margins in retail outlets.



A key trend that has been gripping the jewelry industry over the years is the transformation of the shopping experience using technology. For instance, in June 2017, YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP, an Italian online fashion retailer, partnered with Lumyer Inc., a U.S.-based app developing company, to launch an AR camera app designed to enable users to try on jewelry, sunglasses, and handbags in virtual reality.



The rising number of double-income households in emerging economies such as India, China, and Brazil have resulted in increased spending on luxury goods, including jewelry. Spending on luxury products is expanding at a more substantial rate in tier-II cities in India than in tier I cities. According to American Express, high-end spending in tier II cities between 2013 and 2018 grew 30 times faster than that in tier I cities. The rise in luxury spending in tier I and tier II cities is due to strict measures by the Indian government, such as an increase in excise duty on gold and diamond, demonetization, and a rise in taxes on luxury items to curb black money.



Jewelry Market Report Highlights

The ring product segment held the largest revenue share in 2021. The segment stood as the most popular product amongst end users as consumers' interest is growing in the intricate designs and details of the rings. Moreover, they are perceived as elegant and stylish statement-making jewelry among both men and women, which is supporting the growth of the segment

The gold material segment is projected to register the fastest growth rate over the forecast period. In 2020, the jewelry industry used over 1,400 metric tons of gold accounting for more than one-third of all gold demand worldwide

Asia Pacific held the largest revenue share in 2021. Highly populated and developing economies of the region including China and India generate humongous demand for jewelry boosting its consumption and revenue. Additionally, the high significance of jewelry in Indian culture, improving living standards, rising per capita income and spending power, and the rising influence of social media on consumers are fueling the growth of the market in Asia Pacific.

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Methodology and Scope



Chapter 2. Executive Summary

Chapter 3. Jewelry Market Variables, Trends & Scope

3.1. Market Introduction

3.2. Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping

3.3. Impact of COVID-19 on the Jewelry Market

3.4. Industry Value Chain Analysis

3.4.1. Raw Material Trend

3.4.2. Manufacturing & Technology Trends

3.4.3. Sales Channel Analysis

3.5. Market Dynamics

3.5.1. Market Driver Analysis

3.5.2. Market Restraint Analysis

3.5.3. Industry Challenges

3.5.4. Industry Opportunities

3.6. Business Environment Analysis

3.6.1. Industry Analysis - Porter's

3.6.1.1. Supplier Power

3.6.1.2. Buyer Power

3.6.1.3. Substitution Threat

3.6.1.4. Threat from New Entrant

3.6.1.5. Competitive Rivalry

3.6.2. PESTEL Analysis

3.6.3. Major Deals & Strategic Alliances Analysis

3.6.3.1. Mergers & Acquisitions

3.7. Market Entry Strategies



Chapter 4. Consumer Behavior Analysis

4.1. Consumer Trends and Preferences

4.2. Factors Affecting Buying Decision

4.3. Consumer Product Adoption

4.4. Observations & Recommendations



Chapter 5. Jewelry Market: Product Estimates & Trend Analysis

5.1. Product Movement Analysis & Market Share, 2021 & 2030

5.2. Necklace

5.2.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017-2030 (USD Million)

5.3. Ring

5.3.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017-2030 (USD Million)

5.4. Earring

5.4.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017-2030 (USD Million)

5.5. Bracelet

5.5.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017-2030 (USD Million)

5.6. Others

5.6.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017-2030 (USD Million)



Chapter 6. Jewelry Market: Material Estimates & Trend Analysis

6.1. Material Movement Analysis & Market Share, 2021 & 2030

6.2. Platinum

6.2.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017-2030 (USD Million)

6.3. Gold

6.3.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017-2030 (USD Million)

6.4. Diamond

6.4.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017-2030 (USD Million)

6.5. Others

6.5.1. Market estimates and forecast, 2017-2030 (USD Million)



Chapter 7. Jewelry Market: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis



Chapter 8. Competitive Analysis

8.1. Key global players, recent developments & their impact on the industry

8.2. Key Company/Competition Categorization (Key innovators, Market leaders, Emerging players)

8.3. Vendor Landscape

8.3.1. Key company market share analysis, 2021



Chapter 9. Company Profiles

9.1. Tiffany & Co.

9.1.1. Company Overview

9.1.2. Financial Performance

9.1.3. Product Benchmarking

9.1.4. Strategic Initiatives

9.2. Louis Vuitton SE

9.2.1. Company Overview

9.2.2. Financial Performance

9.2.3. Product Benchmarking

9.2.4. Strategic Initiatives

9.3. Signet Jewelers Limited

9.3.1. Company Overview

9.3.2. Financial Performance

9.3.3. Product Benchmarking

9.3.4. Strategic Initiatives

9.4. Pandora Jewelry, LLC

9.4.1. Company Overview

9.4.2. Financial Performance

9.4.3. Product Benchmarking

9.4.4. Strategic Initiatives

9.5. H.Stern

9.5.1. Company Overview

9.5.2. Financial Performance

9.5.3. Product Benchmarking

9.5.4. Strategic Initiatives

9.6. Richemont

9.6.1. Company Overview

9.6.2. Financial Performance

9.6.3. Product Benchmarking

9.6.4. Strategic Initiatives

9.7. Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited

9.7.1. Company Overview

9.7.2. Financial Performance

9.7.3. Product Benchmarking

9.7.4. Strategic Initiatives

9.8. Malabar Gold & Diamonds

9.8.1. Company Overview

9.8.2. Financial Performance

9.8.3. Product Benchmarking

9.8.4. Strategic Initiatives

9.9. Swarovski AG

9.9.1. Company Overview

9.9.2. Financial Performance

9.9.3. Product Benchmarking

9.9.4. Strategic Initiatives

9.10. GRAFF

9.10.1. Company Overview

9.10.2. Financial Performance

9.10.3. Product Benchmarking

9.10.4. Strategic Initiatives

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rn8p0u

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Scottsdale, Arizona, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Emerge, the leading freight procurement platform announced opening its Atlanta, Georgia office, expanding its North America presence. The facility, located on the top floor of the IHG Building, will operate in conjunction with Emerges Scottsdale headquarters and its Boulder, Colorado location to expand coverage for its growing and diversified customer base. The Atlanta office has space for 160 freight tech professionals.

"Opening an Atlanta-area office is an exciting next step in Emerges rapid expansion and growth. We will bring the Scottsdale Emerge culture and focus on Shipper and Carrier experience to this new office, located in the heart of the intersection of freight and technology," said Cameron Ramsdell, COO, Emerge. "This expansion positions our company well for continued growth and demonstrates our commitment to enhancing the shipper and carrier experience within the Emerge marketplace as we expand our 24/7 support offering."

The Atlanta office will include sales, customer service, carrier enablement, and other operational roles.

Five Years of Innovation and Added Value for Customers

Founded by industry leader Andrew Leto in July 2017, Emerge has filled a significant gap in transportation technology for five years by reinventing freight procurement. Emerge is the only platform designed and led by freight experts with decades of direct, hands-on procurement experience, resulting in widespread adoption by shippers and carriers.

With a digital freight procurement platform, streamlined processes for completing bids, and a marketplace directly connecting shippers and carriers, enabling real-time transactions, Emerge has helped customers realize significant savings and gains in efficiency.

More than 1,000 shippers rely on the Emerge Freight Procurement Platform, with over 45K marketplace carriers. Platform growth year-over-year has been exponential at 700 percent from 2020 to 2021.

According to Leto, growth is driven by Emerge's commitment to adding value for its users. "We continuously look at innovative ways to enhance our products and offer greater value to our customers."

To that end, the company recently launched Emerge Benchmarking, an enhancement to its RFP solution. This feature empowers data-driven decision-making by aggregating freight industry data from numerous trusted sources, providing users with vital business intelligence and market insights in real-time so they can quickly evaluate options and make informed decisions.

Emerge has received national and local recognition in the past six months for innovation, exponential growth, and the quality of its products and services. Recent accolades include being recognized as one of America's Best Startup Employers by Forbes magazine, ranked as the 2nd Fastest-Growing Private Company in the Southwest Region by Inc. 5000, listed among Inbound Logistics magazines Top 100 IT Providers, and named a finalist in Fast Company magazines World-Changing Ideas Awards. Emerge is also ranked number 8 in the FreightWaves Freight Tech 25 list.

Team Expertise to Drive Continued Platform Growth for the Next Five Years and Beyond

The Emerge Freight Procurement Platform has continued to experience rapid growth, with interest from the country's most-preeminent shippers and carriers. Emerge has attracted leaders from the supply chain's most recognized brands, including UPS Freight, GlobalTranz, Coyote Logistics, J.B. Hunt, and FreightWaves. The Company has leveraged the expertise of these industry-heavy hitters to scale its operations and create a sustainable competitive position in the dynamic freight technology market sector.

Rethinking Procurement: The Emerge Freight Procurement Platform

With freight procurement and optimization becoming a frequent boardroom conversation, companies are increasingly looking for creative ways to find new efficiency in their supply chains. The premier choice for carriers and shippers within the procurement ecosystem, the Emerge platform inherently creates a powerful "network effect"  opening new opportunities for all participants as the network grows and becomes more robust. With every carrier and shipper added, the Emerge marketplace becomes even more powerful  creating better opportunities and win-win scenarios for all.

Shipper and Carrier Collaboration, Evolved

Since being founded in 2017, Emerge has seen tremendous success. In addition to securing over $150 million in investor funding, the Emerge platform has enabled shippers to procure over $8 billion in freight by leveraging the Dynamic RFP and Spot platform. In September of 2021, Emerge announced its latest Series B funding round of $130 million, led by investment partners 9Yards Capital, Tiger Global Management, and The Spruce House Partnership, with additional participation from existing backers New Road Capital Partners and Greycroft.

"We have been fortunate to have great partners. Financial partners, shipper partners, and carrier partners. Andrew [Leto's] vision has continued to evolve, and we're confident that our partners will regard our platform as the most influential in transportation," said Jack Holmes, Executive Chairman of Emerge and the former President& CEO of UPS Freight.

About Emerge

Transforming the $800 billion freight industry, Emerge empowers meaningful logistics relationships through its award-winning Freight Procurement Platform. Emerge offers solutions that enhance the procurement process built by freight professionals for freight professionals, enabling shippers and carriers to make more empowered, strategic decisions. Founded in 2017 with its headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, Emerge is one of the fastest-growing technology startups in the U.S. Visit www.emergemarket.com to learn more or view current open positions.

Social Media:

https://www.facebook.com/EmergeMarket/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/emerge-market

https://twitter.com/Emerge_Market

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Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the floor leader and acting chairman of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), speaks during a meeting with PPP lawmakers at the National Assembly, Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap





By Lee Yeon-woo







Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the floor leader of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), who is concurrently serving as acting leader of the party after Chairman Lee Jun-seok was suspended for six months for allegedly receiving sexual services as bribery for political favors, offered an apology for his inappropriate remarks about an administrative officer hired at the presidential office.







"I offer my apologies for my previous remarks about the hiring practices of the presidential office. I'm sorry if my words hurt any young job seekers," Kweon said in his social media post uploaded on Wednesday. "It's entirely my fault that my words created a controversy. I should have explained properly what I meant by my words first."







His apology came days after his remarks about the hiring of an administrative officer by the office of the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs caused a stir. Regarding the employment of the officer, surnamed Woo, Kweon admitted that he had recommended the person to the presidential office and that he had "exerted influence" on President Yoon Suk-yeol's confidant, Rep. Chang Je-won, to hire him.







This account drew criticism for the way he described the employment process. Kweon said that he had thought they would have given Woo a higher level of seniority, such as level 7, but he was given the rank of a grade 9 administrative officer, while his payroll is slightly higher than the minimum wage.







Woo is reported to have donated 10 million won to Yoon's campaign during the presidential election period and is also the son of a businessman based in Gangwon, who is close to the president.







Kweon's remarks infuriated young job-seekers who are preparing for the civil service exams. Some denounced the acting PPP leader for belittling civil servants with his remarks, while some claimed that they work hard day and night to pass the civil service exam, but officer Woo was able to get a plum job easily because of his ties with the PPP lawmaker.







Fellow lawmakers were critical of his remarks, too. Rep. Chang openly criticized Kweon for their inappropriateness.







Rep. Kweon's words were likewise a source of criticism from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). DPK lawmakers criticized the president for cronyism in the hiring of the presidential office staff member, calling it a "private hiring" as opposed to the selection of government officials via public competition.







Rep. Ko Min-jung of the DPK, who served as a presidential spokesperson during the previous Moon Jae-in government, staged a one-person protest in front of the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul. She claimed that the presidential office's questionable private hiring practices have lowered the public's trust in the government and that no one has so far taken responsibility for it.







Kweon disputed the DPK lawmakers' criticism of the presidential office's hiring practices. In his original Facebook post, he had justified its hiring practices by writing that the recruitment process of civil servants working for elected officials differs from that of government employees working in ministries.







"Unlike people who became government employees through public exams, those who are working for elected officials share the same fate as the officials because their tenures are not guaranteed," he had written in his social media post.







As Kweon explained, there are two different kinds of government employees in the presidential office: career officials and political appointees. There have been political appointees in the presidential office for a long time. Rep. Ko Min-jung herself was also a political appointee when she worked for the Moon government as a presidential spokesperson.


















English French

MONTREAL, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mason Graphite Inc. (Mason Graphite or the Company) (TSX-V: LLG) (OTCQX: MGPHF) today announced the initial closing of the previously announced transactions contemplated under the investment agreement dated May 15, 2022 (the Investment Agreement) between the Company and Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. (Nouveau Monde) (NYSE: NMG) (TSX-V: NOU).



Pursuant to the Investment Agreement, Mason Graphite has entered into an option and joint venture agreement (the OJV Agreement) with Nouveau Monde. Concurrently with the execution of the OJV Agreement, Mason Graphite and Nouveau Monde have completed the private placement of 5.0 million common shares of the Company (the Initial Shares) to Nouveau Monde at a price of $0.50 per Inital Share for gross proceeds to the Company of $2.5 million. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of the Initial Shares to fund agreed expenses on the Lac Gueret property pursuant to the OJV Agreement. The Initial Shares will be subject to a four-month hold period pursuant to applicable securities laws.

A copy of the OJV Agreement will be made available under Mason Graphites profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About Mason Graphite

Mason Graphite is a Canadian corporation focused on the production and transformation of natural graphite. Its strategy includes the development of value-added products, notably for green technologies like transport electrification. The Company also owns 100% of the rights to the Lac Gueret deposit, one of the richest graphite deposits in the world. The Company is also the largest shareholder of Black Swan Graphene Inc., a Canadian private company focusing on the large-scale production and commercialization of patented high-performance and low-cost graphene products aimed at several industrial sectors, including concrete, polymers, Li-ion batteries and others. For more information: www.masongraphite.com.

About Nouveau Monde

Nouveau Monde is striving to become a key contributor to the sustainable energy revolution. The company is working toward developing a fully integrated source of carbon-neutral battery anode material in Quebec, Canada, for the growing lithium-ion and fuel cell markets. With low-cost operations and enviable environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, Nouveau Monde aspires to become a strategic supplier to the world's leading battery and automobile manufacturers, providing high-performing and reliable advanced materials while promoting sustainability and supply chain traceability. Nouveau Monde is listed on the NYSE under the symbol NMG and on the TSX-V under the symbol NOU.

Additional Information

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information

Mason Graphite Inc.

Paul Hardy, VP Corporate Development

1-416-844-7365 ext. 3030,

phardy@masongraphite.com
New York, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Naval System Surveillance Radar Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type and Application" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295687/?utm_source=GNW

Radar is an essential part of every ship as it ensures the safety of ships at sea and close to the land.Ships use S-band and X-band frequency radar systems for navigation and detection of impending ships or land impediments to avoid a collision.



The naval system surveillance radar market is segmented on the basis of type, application, and geography.Based on type, the naval system surveillance radar market analysis is segmented into X-band and Ku-band, L-band and S-band, and others.



By application, the naval system surveillance radar market is segmented into weapon guidance systems and surveillance. On the basis of geography, the naval system surveillance radar market size is primarily segregated into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), the Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South and Central America.



One of the most widely used equipment systems onboard ships is a radar for operating in a harsh environment.It is made for detecting and tracking targets at long distances.



The proper use of radar and radar plotting helps in restricted visibility and clear weather, which help prevent collisions and ensure the ships security and safety.Accidents can occur if the watchkeeping officer is not fully conversant with the operation of the equipment.



For reliable interpretation, the radar operating controls must be adjusted properly. Additionally, radar requirements for navy applications include strong operational efficiency, user-friendly advanced technologies, platform compatibility, and a wide frequency spectrum, all of which add to the designs complexity.



On the other hand, techniques and fundamental theories limit the size and performance of radar systems.The markets growth is currently hampered by design and development limits in surveillance radar systems.



Radar-equipped systems are used in navy applications, and they operate in harsh environments.Moreover, any equipment failure on the submarine, navigation, detection of incoming ships, and land obstacles result in devastating damage.



Thus, the design constraints and component failure due to environmental conditions hinder the naval system surveillance radar market growth.



North America accounted for the largest global naval system surveillance radar market share in 2021; however, Asia Pacific naval system surveillance radar market is expected to grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period.Based on country, the APAC naval system surveillance radar market share is segmented into Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the rest of Asia Pacific.



The region significantly experienced a rise in military expenditure due to the government initiatives to establish a strong military base across these countries.As per the report published by SIPRI in 2021, the total military spending in the Asia Pacific reached US$ 586 billion in 2021, which accounted for a rise of 3% compared to 2020.



Moreover, it is expected to be on an upward trend in the coming years.China and India are two major economies increasing their military spending, resulting in the rise in manufacturing and procurement of naval ships, boats, radar, surveillance systems, and others.



China and India together accounted for less than 70% of the total military expenditure till 2021 n Asia Pacific region. This rise in the military expenditure by China and India supports the growth of the regions naval system surveillance radar market.



COVID-19 Impact on Naval System Surveillance Radar Market



The COVID-19 pandemic impacted various industries, such as the aerospace & defense industry.The procurement of naval system surveillance radar got adversely affected due to the temporary discontinuation of various production facilities in the naval industries, such as ships, vessels, naval equipment, and naval port.



The lockdown was imposed to minimize the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which significantly disrupted the supply chain activities and reduced the production of components and sub-components.It also impacted the global military ship/vessel manufacturing sectors.



Further, there were restrictions on foreign trades due to the closure of international borders, non-operational distribution channels, and various government norms to take precautionary measures for public health and safety.



Asia Pacific was severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Asian countries experiencing a drop in national GDPs, international trade, and economy.The APAC naval industry was disrupted during the first half of 2020, leading to a massive decline in the revenue of key players operating in the naval system surveillance radar market.



The COVID-19 outbreak resulted in a decrease in naval operations and disruptions of supply chains across the region.Many emerging economies had to cut their defense budget and redirect the funding to fulfill healthcare demands, which further reduced military expenditure.



This enabled the market players to generate revenues and contribute to the naval system surveillance radar market growth. However, the revenue generated in 2020 was comparatively less than in 2019.



A few players operating in the global naval system surveillance radar market profiled in the market study include Leonardo S.p.A., Raytheon Technologies Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Thales Group, and Ultra are prominent players in the naval system surveillance radar market.



The overall naval system surveillance radar market size has been derived using both primary and secondary sources.To begin the research process, exhaustive secondary research has been conducted using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the naval system surveillance radar market size.



The process also serves the purpose of obtaining an overview and market forecast of the naval system surveillance radar market size with respect to all the market segments.Also, multiple primary interviews have been conducted with industry participants and commentators to validate the data and gain more analytical insights into the topic.



The participants typically involved in this process include industry experts such as VPs, business development managers, market intelligence managers, and national sales managersalong with external consultants such as valuation experts, research analysts, and key opinion leadersspecializing in the naval system surveillance radar market.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295687/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________
Boston, Massachusetts, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HYCU, Inc., a pioneering enterprise BaaS company specializing in hybrid and multi-cloud data protection as a service, announced today that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named HYCU to its 2022 Emerging Vendors list in the Storage, including Disaster Recovery, category. This annual list, published during CRNs Emerging Vendors Week, July 18  22, recognizes the fast-rising technology vendors that have exhibited a commitment to driving positive change and continuous growth in the IT channel by delivering innovative, cutting-edge solutions.

The technology vendors featured on CRNs 2022 Emerging Vendorsall six years old or youngerare bringing a fresh approach to solving the IT challenges facing customers today, enabling their partners to deliver unique solutions that will ensure the IT channels continued success.

As an Emerging Vendor in the Storage and Disaster Recovery category, HYCU was recognized for its ability to overcome the challenges caused by the rise of ransomware. Providing cost-effective and efficient protection for both management and recovery options across on-premises and public cloud IT environments has enabled HYCU to support their customers and the ongoing ransomware risks.

The companies featured on this years Emerging Vendors list were selected across nine different categories: Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Tools, Application Development/DevOps, Big Data, Security, Networking & Unified Communications, Data Center & Systems, Storage, Cloud and Edge Computing/Internet of Things.

As part of our 2022 Emerging Vendors list, CRN recognizes technology vendors that are transforming the IT channel by providing revolutionary and innovative products that help customers manage ever-evolving IT demands, said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. As a trusted industry resource, CRNs Emerging Vendors list gives solution providers insight into the latest groundbreaking IT channel technologies.

Following our Series B announcement in June, resulting in $140M total raised in the past year, we have continued to see accelerated interest in our multi-cloud data protection solutions, said Simon Taylor, Founder and CEO, HYCU, Inc. Given the increased risk of ransomware, our partners and their customers recognize the need to protect, manage, and recover their mission-critical workloads, efficiently and with ease. That ability to help enable a safer world makes this latest recognition all the more meaningful. We would not be as successful without the success of our partner community. Our commitment to our resellers and key CSP, MSP, and MSSP partners to address their customers problems with simplicity while delivering a financially rewarding engagement model is incredibly important to everyone at HYCU. Thank you The Channel Company editors for this recognition. And, we cant thank our channel and reseller partners enough for their ongoing support.

The CRN 2022 Emerging Vendors list will be featured in the August 2022 issue of CRN Magazine and online at www.CRN.com/EmergingVendors.

To learn more about the CRN 5-Star PACE (Partners Accelerating Cloud Environments) Global Partner Program, visit: https://www.hycu.com/, or follow @hycuinc and connect with HYCU on LinkedIn.

###

About HYCU

HYCU is the fastest-growing leader in the multi-cloud backup and recovery as a service industry. By bringing true SaaS-based data backup to both on-premises and cloud-native environments, the company provides unparalleled data protection, migration and disaster recovery to more than 3,100 companies worldwide. HYCUs award-winning, purpose-built solutions eliminate the complexity, risk and high cost of legacy-based solutions, providing data protection simplicity in a hyper-connected, multi-cloud world. Customers experience frictionless, cost-effective data backup and recovery, no matter where their data resides. Based in Boston, Mass., the company employs 300 people across the globe. Learn more at www.hycu.com.

About The Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by nearly 40 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com

Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

 2022 The Channel Company, LLC. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

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New York, New York, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- R-Three Technologies (OTC: RRRT) (The Company) (RRRT) ( www.r3tgroup.com ) is thrilled to announce it has appointed FINTECH and Blockchain expert Karla Ballard as CEO for RRRT. Ballards appointment comes in line with a shift into the FINTECH industry, particularly the Gig Economy space in light of immediate opportunities she has brought to the table through her brainchild, YING, a peer-to-peer group skillsharing platform set to launch on a global scale via the IOS and Android app markets.

More information about Ballards experience, expertise and endeavors can be found on her website at www.KarlaBallard.com where investors will find Ballard as a key player in social justice and advocacy, community building, social media enterprises, fintech and blockchain solutions, startup solutions and venture capital for Black, Latino, and Indigenous tech start-ups, and telemedicine, to name a few.

Her bio can be found below, and at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlamballard/

Investors are encouraged to be alert for forthcoming announcements as the Company further details the significance of Ballards appointment in line with immediate acquisition opportunities.

ABOUT KARLA BALLARD:

Mrs. Ballard, most recently ran on the Independent ticket as a VP candidate alongside fintech blockchain mogul and philanthropist Brock Pierce for the 2020 Presidential election. The campaigns mission was fueled with a message of love, unity, and innovation and achieved positioning on 16 ballots throughout the US. Her impact in ensuring young people and disenfranchised voters came out yielded millions of impressions 43k voters.

Mrs. Ballard was also formerly SVP of Participant Medias TAG division, a social-action agency working with brands, foundations and the public sector to ignite compelling campaigns that drove impact in vulnerable communities. Prior to joining Participant Media she was with Ogilvy & Mather as the SVP and lead for The IMPACT Studio working on projects that ranged from the State of California to Sony Pictures Television. Previously Karla worked at One Economy Corporation where she led a vital division of a $51 million BTOP grant focused on broadband adoption and became an appointee to the Federal Communications Committee on Diversity in Media.

In addition, she created and led corporate relationships with partners such as Comcast/NBC, Verizon, Participant Media, Sprint, City Year and others. She is a current advisory board member of Blue Star Families, Philadelphia 250, Shareable, VSchool, Ethtrust Blockchain, and USCs Next Gen Council for Stephen Spielbergs SHOAH Foundation. Shes been a visiting speaker at Harvard, UCLA and Georgetown University and is a former board member of the nations second largest Community College, Northern Virginia Community College. Karla is also the co-founder of the first Urban League in the state of Delaware, The Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, and served as the first female national president of the National Urban League Young Professionals.

In 2012 Karla was awarded in NYC the Keepers of the Dream award from the National Action Network and a 2017 awardee of the FINTECH award presented by the Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council.

ABOUT RRRT: R Three Technologies is an early-stage development company with a success-driven Board which is focused on carefully pursuing several ventures it believes show promise. We are pursuing our options and contacts within the global FINTECH and Blockchain space alongside opportunities the Company has recently identified as having significant potential for growth, expansion, and overall increase in sustainable shareholder value.

CONTACT INFO

info@r3tgroup.com

On behalf of BOD Stan Kolaric, Chair

Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements contained in this release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include but are not limited to statements identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "targets," "projects" and similar expressions. The statements in this release are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences, including, but not limited to, the challenges inherent in new industry development initiatives, the effects of competition, our ability to license and protect our intellectual property, our ability to raise additional capital in the future that is necessary to maintain our business, as well as other risks discussed from time to time in our filings with OTC Markets including, without limitation, our Annual Report recently filed. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statement, or any information contained in this press release or in other public disclosures at any time. Finally, the investing public is reminded that the only announcements or information about R-3 Technologies Inc. which are condoned by the Company must emanate from the Company itself and bear our name as its Source.

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Pune, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global OUTDOOR TV Market Size was estimated at USD 288.80 million in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 618.80 million by 2028, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.50% during the forecast period.

IndustryResearchBiz has published a new report on  OUTDOOR TV Market  with an analysis of such parameters i.e. industry growth drivers, supply and demand, risks, market attractiveness, annual growth comparison, BPS analysis, SWOT analysis, and Porter's Five Forces model. OUTDOOR TV Market report gives an inside and out audit of the Expansion Drivers, Potential Challenges, Distinctive Trends, and Opportunities for Market Players. Our Research experts have carried out detailed checks of the critical environment and have predicted the methodological structure used by market participants. The primary goal of the OUTDOOR TV business report is to supply key insights on competition positioning, current scope, market potential, growth rates, and alternative relevant statistics.

Get a Sample PDF of report @ https://www.industryresearch.biz/enquiry/request-sample/21112611

OUTDOOR TV Market Summary:

Outdoor TV is built to withstand the ever changing temperatures and lighting conditions of the great outdoors. The easy day/night dimming adjustment adapts to any lighting condition, from the brightest mid-day sun by the pool to the darkest night under the cabana. The TV panel offers a scratch resistant, anti-glare surface to provide a bright, crisp picture while reducing the negative effects of unwanted reflections and light sources. The television plays perfectly in a wide operating range from freezing cold 23F to a hot 122F degrees.



The Global OUTDOOR TV Market Size was estimated at USD 288.80 million in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 618.80 million by 2028, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.50% during the forecast period.



Our latest report provides a deep insight into the global OUTDOOR TV market covering all its essential aspects. This ranges from a macro overview of the market to micro details of the market size, competitive landscape, development trend, niche market, key market drivers and challenges, SWOT analysis, Porters five forces analysis, value chain analysis, etc.



The analysis helps to shape the competition within the industries and strategies for the competitive environment to enhance the potential profit. Furthermore, it provides a simple framework for evaluating and accessing the position of the business organization. The report structure also focuses on the competitive landscape of the Global OUTDOOR TV Market.



In a word, this report is a must-read for industry players, investors, researchers, consultants, business strategists, and all those who have any kind of stake or are planning to foray into the OUTDOOR TV market in any manner.

Get A Sample Copy Of The OUTDOOR TV Market Report 2022-2028

List of Top Key Players in OUTDOOR TV Market Report: The survey describes the qualities of the entire company based on an industry-wide analysis.



SunBriteTV

Peerless-AV

SkyVue

Seura

AquaLite TV

MirageVision

Luxurite

Cinios

Samsung

Global OUTDOOR TV Market: Market Segmentation Analysis

The research report includes specific segments by region (country), manufacturers, Type, and Application. Market segmentation creates subsets of a market based on product type, end-user or application, Geographic, and other factors. By understanding the market segments, the decision-maker can leverage this targeting in the product, sales, and marketing strategies. Market segments can power your product development cycles by informing how you create product offerings for different segments.

Based on Product Type, this report shows the creation, income, cost, piece of the pie, and development pace of each kind, principally split into:

70+ Inch

60-69 Inch

55-59 Inch

50-54 Inch

45-49 Inch

40-44 Inch

35-39 Inch

32-Inch

On the Basis of the End-User/Applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications production, revenue, price, market share, and growth rate:

Commercial

Residential

TO KNOW HOW COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR WILL IMPACT THIS MARKET - REQUEST SAMPLE

Geographically, the Major Regions Covered in OUTDOOR TV Market Report Are: To comprehend Global OUTDOOR TV market dynamics in the world mainly, the worldwide OUTDOOR TV market is analyzed across major global regions.

North America (USA, Canada, Mexico)

Europe (Germany, UK, France, Russia, Italy, Rest of Europe)

Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, India, Southeast Asia, Rest of Asia-Pacific)

South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Rest of South America)

Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Rest of MEA)

Key Benefits of This Market Research:

Industry drivers, restraints, and opportunities covered in the study

Neutral perspective on the market performance

Recent industry trends and developments

Competitive landscape & strategies of key players

Potential & niche segments and regions exhibiting promising growth covered

Historical, current, and projected market size, in terms of value

In-depth analysis of the OUTDOOR TV Market

Overview of the regional outlook of the OUTDOOR TV Market

Valuable Points from OUTDOOR TV Market Research Report 2022-2028:

Significant changes in Market dynamics.

Reporting and assessment of recent industry developments.

A complete background analysis, which includes a valuation of the parental OUTDOOR TV Market.

Current, Historical, and projected size of the OUTDOOR TV Market from the viewpoint of both value and volume.

OUTDOOR TV Market segmentation according to Top Regions.

OUTDOOR TV Market shares and strategies of key Manufacturers.

Emerging Specific segments and regional for OUTDOOR TV Market.

An objective valuation of the trajectory of the Market.

Recommendations to Top Companies for reinforcement of their foothold in the market.

Enquire before purchasing this report - https://www.industryresearch.biz/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/21112611

OUTDOOR TV Market Report Gives Answers to Following Key Questions:

What will the growth rate of the OUTDOOR TV market be? What is the analysis of the sales volume, sales, and prices of the leading manufacturers in the OUTDOOR TV market?

What are the key drivers of the Global OUTDOOR TV Market? Who are the major players in the OUTDOOR TV market?

Who are the key market players in the OUTDOOR TV Market? Which Market opportunities, risks, and business strategies were adopted by them?

What are the OUTDOOR TV market opportunities and threats facing suppliers in the global OUTDOOR TV Industry?

What is the regional sales, revenue and price analysis of the OUTDOOR TV industry? Who are the distributors, traders, and resellers in the OUTDOOR TV market?

Which are the major regions for dissimilar trades that are expected to eyewitness astonishing growth for the OUTDOOR TV Market?

What are the regional growth trends and the leading revenue-generating regions for the OUTDOOR TV Market?

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Access to date statistics compiled by our researchers. These provide you with historical and forecast data, which is analyzed to tell you why your market is set to change

This enables you to anticipate market changes to remain ahead of your competitors

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The concise analysis, clear graph, and table format will enable you to pinpoint the information you require quickly

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Indicates the region and segment that is expected to witness the fastest growth as well as to dominate the market

Analysis by geography highlights the consumption of the product/service in the region as well as indicates the factors that are affecting the market within each region

Competitive landscape which incorporates the market ranking of the major players, along with new service/product launches, partnerships, business expansions, and acquisitions in the past five years of companies profiled

Extensive company profiles comprising of company overview, company insights, product benchmarking, and SWOT analysis for the major market players

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Includes in-depth analysis of the market from various perspectives through Porters five forces analysis

Provides insight into the market through Value Chain

Market dynamics scenario, along with growth opportunities of the market in the years to come

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With tables and figures helping analyze worldwide Global OUTDOOR TV market trends, this research provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.

Some Points from TOC:

1 Research Methodology and Statistical Scope

1.1 Market Definition and Statistical Scope of OUTDOOR TV

1.2 Key Market Segments

1.2.1 OUTDOOR TV Segment by Type

1.2.2 OUTDOOR TV Segment by Application

1.3 Methodology & Sources of Information

1.3.1 Research Methodology

1.3.2 Research Process

1.3.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation

1.3.4 Base Year

1.3.5 Report Assumptions & Caveats

2 OUTDOOR TV Market Overview

2.1 Global Market Overview

2.1.1 Global OUTDOOR TV Market Size (M USD) Estimates and Forecasts (2017-2028)

2.1.2 Global OUTDOOR TV Sales Estimates and Forecasts (2017-2028)

2.2 Market Segment Executive Summary

2.3 Global Market Size by Region

3 OUTDOOR TV Market Competitive Landscape

3.1 Global OUTDOOR TV Sales by Manufacturers (2017-2022)

3.2 Global OUTDOOR TV Revenue Market Share by Manufacturers (2017-2022)

3.3 OUTDOOR TV Market Share by Company Type (Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3)

3.4 Global OUTDOOR TV Average Price by Manufacturers (2017-2022)

3.5 Manufacturers OUTDOOR TV Sales Sites, Area Served, Product Type

3.6 OUTDOOR TV Market Competitive Situation and Trends

3.6.1 OUTDOOR TV Market Concentration Rate

3.6.2 Global 5 and 10 Largest OUTDOOR TV Players Market Share by Revenue

3.6.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion

4 OUTDOOR TV Industry Chain Analysis

4.1 OUTDOOR TV Industry Chain Analysis

4.2 Market Overview and Market Concentration Analysis of Key Raw Materials

4.3 Midstream Market Analysis

4.4 Downstream Customer Analysis

5 The Development and Dynamics of OUTDOOR TV Market

5.1 Key Development Trends

5.2 Driving Factors

5.3 Market Challenges

5.4 Market Restraints

5.5 Industry News

5.5.1 New Product Developments

5.5.2 Mergers & Acquisitions

5.5.3 Expansions

5.5.4 Collaboration/Supply Contracts

5.6 Industry Policies

6 OUTDOOR TV Market Segmentation by Type

6.1 Evaluation Matrix of Segment Market Development Potential (Type)

6.2 Global OUTDOOR TV Sales Market Share by Type (2017-2022)

6.3 Global OUTDOOR TV Market Size Market Share by Type (2017-2022)

6.4 Global OUTDOOR TV Price by Type (2017-2022)

7 OUTDOOR TV Market Segmentation by Application

7.1 Evaluation Matrix of Segment Market Development Potential (Application)

7.2 Global OUTDOOR TV Market Sales by Application (2017-2022)

7.3 Global OUTDOOR TV Market Size (M USD) by Application (2017-2022)

7.4 Global OUTDOOR TV Sales Growth Rate by Application (2017-2022)

8 OUTDOOR TV Market Segmentation by Region

8.1 Global OUTDOOR TV Sales by Region

8.1.1 Global OUTDOOR TV Sales by Region

8.1.2 Global OUTDOOR TV Sales Market Share by Region

8.2 North America

8.2.1 North America OUTDOOR TV Sales by Country

8.3.1 Europe OUTDOOR TV Sales by Country

8.4.1 Asia Pacific OUTDOOR TV Sales by Region

8.4.2 China

8.4.3 Japan

8.4.4 South Korea

8.4.5 India

8.4.6 Southeast Asia

8.5 South America

8.5.1 South America OUTDOOR TV Sales by Country

8.5.2 Brazil

8.5.3 Argentina

8.5.4 Columbia

8.6 Middle East and Africa

8.6.1 Middle East and Africa OUTDOOR TV Sales by Region

8.6.2 Saudi Arabia

8.6.3 UAE

8.6.4 Egypt

8.6.5 Nigeria

8.6.6 South Africa

9 Key Companies Profiled

10 OUTDOOR TV Market Forecast by Region

10.1 Global OUTDOOR TV Market Size Forecast

10.2 Global OUTDOOR TV Market Forecast by Region

10.2.1 North America Market Size Forecast by Country

10.2.2 Europe OUTDOOR TV Market Size Forecast by Country

10.2.3 Asia Pacific OUTDOOR TV Market Size Forecast by Region

10.2.4 South America OUTDOOR TV Market Size Forecast by Country

10.2.5 Middle East and Africa Forecasted Consumption of OUTDOOR TV by Country

11 Forecast Market by Type and by Application (2022-2028)

11.1 Global OUTDOOR TV Market Forecast by Type (2022-2028)

11.1.1 Global Forecasted Sales of OUTDOOR TV by Type (2022-2028)

11.1.2 Global OUTDOOR TV Market Size Forecast by Type (2022-2028)

11.1.3 Global Forecasted Price of OUTDOOR TV by Type (2022-2028)

11.2 Global OUTDOOR TV Market Forecast by Application (2022-2028)

11.2.1 Global OUTDOOR TV Sales (K Units) Forecast by Application

11.2.2 Global OUTDOOR TV Market Size (M USD) Forecast by Application (2022-2028)

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New York, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Medical Grade Paper Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Product, Application, and End User" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295680/?utm_source=GNW

However, stringent regulations on manufacturing medical grade paper and the availability of alternative products are hampering the market growth.

Medical grade paper is usually used to pack medical devices as it combines strength and well-balanced porosity and acts as a feasible protective material for medical devices, providing a safe and protective barrier as it is made up of cellulose fibers designed to allow sterilization agent penetration.It is primarily used for packaging and systems, including infusers, catheters, needles, gauges, gloves, bandages, and more.



It is also widely adopted for pharmaceutical packaging purposes due to its capability to possess a high level of peel-ability and heat seal-ability, good effect of bacterial resistance, air permeability, environmentally friendly, and non-toxicity.

Sustainabilityparticularly regulatory and public concerns around single-use packaging wasteis combined with other influential trends to drive significant changes in the packaging operations.With the growing focus of regulators on sustainability, healthcare and medical device companies and retailers are proactively making bold commitments to make their packaging operations sustainable by fundamentally revisiting these operations.



However, for packaging converters, the main focus and innovation capabilities is on the new types, which could offer significant growth and new partnership opportunities to support customers in revising their packaging portfolios. As consumer demand increases and regulatory requirements multiply, converters will have to embrace sustainability issues in the future proactively.

Manufacturers are concerned about the environmental effects of their products and are capitalizing on "reduce, reuse, and recycle." Growing energy and resin costs may make these eco-friendly steps particularly appealing. Further, maintaining a balance between more demanding production schedules and product & package sustainability is a significant challenge for the packaging industry. To overcome this hurdle, healthcare product manufacturers must implement packaging solutions that minimize the environmental impact of expanding product lines, introduce sustainability practices into new delivery systems, seek utility savings in new automation strategies, and leverage serialization.

Combining pharmaceutical products with medical device delivery systems can make the final product simpler and more convenient, ultimately requiring less packaging.Moreover, to ensure sustainability, manufacturers are investing in creating more inventive packaging solutions and using materials such as paper, paperboard, and polymers.



To preserve qualities that are essential for sterile barrier performance, along with sustainable packaging, medical packaging firms are investing in research and development operations for launching next-generation polymers. Therefore, the growing focus on sustainability is providing significant opportunities to the medical grade paper market players.

Asia Pacific is the fastest-growing market for medical grade paper.China is expected to have the largest share of medical grade paper market in the region.



As per a 2018 KPMG report, China is expected to have more than a 25% share of the global medical device industry, with sales exceeding US$ 200 billion by 2030, second only to the US.Medical grade paper is used to pack medical devices and consumables used for medical purposes.



Thus, as the countrys medical industry grows, so will the demand for medical grade paper.Moreover, China has a rapidly aging population.



In 2020, more than 264 million people aged 60 and above, which translates to approximately 18.7% of Chinas population, according to the 2020 census. The countrys aging population faces the increasing burden of acute and chronic diseases. As a result of the growing elderly demographic, the number of surgical procedures performed in China is also projected to increase at a CAGR between 10% and 15% from 2019 to 2022. The growing older population surges the need for sterile medical devices used for diagnostic treatment purposes, which, in turn, will increase the demand for medical paper packaging to protect and pack sterile devices.

The global medical grade paper market is categorized into product, application, and end user.Based on application, the global medical grade paper market is segmented into steam sterilization, ethylene oxide sterilization, formaldehyde sterilization, and irradiation sterilization.



The ethylene oxide sterilization segment is estimated to account for the largest market share and is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.Ethylene oxide (ETO) sterilization is used to sterilize devices sensitive to moisture, heat, and pressure.



Ethylene oxide gas used during the process is highly flammable.The process is performed under gas concentrations from 450 mg/l to 1200 mg/l, temperature from 37C to 63C, relative humidity from 40% to 80%, and exposure time from 1 hour to 6 hours.



The medical-grade paper used to wrap the medical products to be sterilized via this method is designed with PET/PE multilayer copolymer film, as ETO may be absorbed in the paper. Medical devices such as catheters, resuscitation bags, anesthesia masks, fiberoptic instruments, and non-heat sensitive devices are sterilized using this method. The major advantages of ETO sterilization include compatibility with a wide variety of products, especially consisting of polymeric components used in medical devices; material compatibility is described in AAMI TIR 17. Products can be sterilized in their final packaging since ETO can permeate the sealed films or medical grade papers and cartons.

The British Journal of Surgery, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Food & Drug Administration (FDA) are among the primary and secondary sources referred to while preparing the global medical grade paper market report.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295680/?utm_source=GNW



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__________________________
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Latin Metals Inc. (Latin Metals or the Company) - (TSXV: LMS) OTCQB: LMSQF) is pleased to announce results of a recently completed rock sampling program at its 100% own Auquis project (the Property) located in the Coastal Copper Belt, Peru. A total of 234 rock chip samples were collected to follow up on anomalous soil samples collected earlier in the year (see NR22-06, April 2022). Rock chip sampling has highlighted copper grades ranging from 22 ppm to 12.8% copper across the Property (Figures 1 and 2).



Figure 1. Map highlighting areas where recent rock chip sampling was completed over several peak soil anomalies at Auquis Property, Coastal Copper Belt, Peru. Area defined by red square shows very consistent copper mineralization over 1km x 1km extent is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/22d3ff98-e59e-49c3-a351-7ed150fd0405

Keith Henderson, CEO, commented, Our recent follow-up sampling program has outlined a large 1km x 1km area of consistent mineralization where 101 samples returned copper values of up to 2.37% copper and 236 ppm molybdenum, with a mean value of 0.13% copper and 6.4 ppm molybdenum. We are very excited about these initial results, with many areas of this large 4,000 hectare property still unsampled.

This portion of the Coastal Copper Belt is the focus of attention for several major mining companies, such as Newmont and Vale.

Figure 2. Location of the Auquis Property in Peru and within the Coastal Copper belt is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3cc93fb3-062a-4705-9791-5d199bef54f5

Rock Chip Sampling Details

Recently completed rock chip sampling was focused in the highly anomalous areas identified in a previous soil sampling survey. A total of 234 rock chip samples were collected with values up to 4.74% copper and 236 ppm molybdenum. Mean values from the 234 samples are 0.10% copper and 5ppm molybdenum. These results are very encouraging as regional results but looking more closely at the southeastern portion of the Property, mineralization is seen to be very consistent with highly anomalous values of copper and molybdenum. In this large 1km x 1km area, 101 samples returned values with a mean of 0.13% copper and 6.4 ppm molybdenum. This area is characterized by multiple phases of intrusive rocks with porphyritic textures and copper oxide mineralization.

Next Steps

Recent sampling was focused on testing existing soil anomalies. Other areas of the Property are still open for exploration, and the Company will extend the sampling program. Next steps include a property-wide rock chip sampling and geological mapping program in the next months to define the area for an initial ground magnetic survey.

QA/QC

The work program at Auquis was designed and supervised by Eduardo Leon, the Company's Exploration Manager, who is responsible for all aspects of the work, including the quality control/quality assurance program. On-site personnel at the project rigorously prepare and track samples which are security sealed and shipped to the ALS laboratory in Lima. Samples used for the results described herein are prepared and analyzed by multi-element analysis using an inductively coupled mass spectrometer in compliance with industry standards.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this release has been approved for disclosure by Keith J. Henderson P.Geo, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and the Companys CEO. Mr. Henderson is not independent of the Company, as he is an employee of the Company and holds securities of the Company.

Investor Relations and Marketing

The Company has engaged BTV- Business Television (BTV) to improve exposure to Canadian capital markets. The engagement is for an initial period of three months, renewable for an additional three months. As consideration, the Company will pay a total fee of $31,850. BTV produces a half-hour weekly investment show, profiles emerging companies across Canada and the US to bring investors information for their portfolio. On air for 20+years, BTV is broadcast nationally on BNN Bloomberg, FOX Business News, BizTV. With Hosts, Taylor Thoen and Jessica Katrichak, BTV interviews top analysts plus features companies at their location for an insightful business perspective. Services provided under the contract with Latin Metals include digital marketing on well-known financial web platforms BNN Bloomberg, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Seeking Alpha, Financial Post, and Market Watch), Facebook advert campaign, mobile optimized banners, and TV advert for broadcast on BNN Bloomberg. To the Companys knowledge, BTV does not have any direct interest in the Company or its securities.

The Company has also engaged OTCWagon for a one-month market awareness program. As consideration, the Company will pay a total fee of $5,000. To the Companys knowledge, OTCWagon does not have any direct interest in the Company or its securities.

About Latin Metals

Latin Metals is a mineral exploration company acquiring a diversified portfolio of assets in South America. The Company operates with a Prospect Generator model focusing on the acquisition of prospective exploration properties at minimum cost, completing initial evaluation through cost-effective exploration to establish drill targets, and ultimately securing joint venture partners to fund drilling and advanced exploration. Shareholders gain exposure to the upside of a significant discovery without the dilution associated with funding the highest-risk drill-based exploration.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

LATIN METALS INC.

Keith Henderson

President & CEO

For further details on the Company readers are referred to the Company's web site ( www.latin-metals.com ) and its Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

For further information, please contact:

Keith Henderson

Suite 890

999 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, BC, V6C 2W2

Phone: 604-638-3456

E-mail: info@latin-metals.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the negotiation of the Option Agreements and exercise of the Option for the Properties, the anticipated content, commencement, timing and cost of exploration programs in respect of the Properties and otherwise, anticipated exploration program results from exploration activities, and the Company's expectation that it will be able to enter into agreements to acquire interests in additional mineral properties, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves on the Properties, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, market fundamentals will result in sustained precious metals demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in connection with the future development of the Companys Argentine projects in a timely manner, the availability of financing on suitable terms for the development, construction and continued operation of the Company projects, and the Companys ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development and mine development activities at the Properties, including the geological mapping, prospecting and sampling programs being proposed for the Properties (the "Programs"), actual results of exploration activities, including the Programs, estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, the availability of a sufficient supply of water and other materials, requirements for additional capital, future prices of precious metals and copper, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates, possible failures of plants, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays or the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSX-V acceptance for filing of the Option Agreements, any current or future property acquisitions, financing or other planned activities, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, hedging practices, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims limitations on insurance coverage and the timing and possible outcome of pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, risks related to joint venture operations, and risks related to the integration of acquisitions, as well as those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's latest Management Discussion and Analysis and other filings of the Company with the Canadian Securities Authorities, copies of which can be found under the Company's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. Except as otherwise required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking information in this news release or incorporated by reference herein.
LOS ANGELES, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WizarPOS, the trailblazer in Android terminal and payment systems, will exhibit at Money 20/20 Las Vegas on Oct. 23-26, 2022. At WizarPOS booth 1303, the team will introduce the latest product innovations and evolutions in both devices and POS systems. In addition, the WizarPOS onsite members will share their insights into the payment trends impacting most end users, service providers, and merchants.

Kaishen Zhu, the co-founder and CEO of WizarPOS, comments, "We are very excited to be at Money 20/20, one of the most influential FinTech events and networks in North America. After two years of discontinued presence at the show due to the pandemic, our team is more than ready to showcase our new products and offerings to global clients and partners. The post-COVID era presents unparalleled challenges and opportunities across the border and verticals. Evidently, digital and contactless payments are irreversible, compounded by heightened industry compliance and data security. But I'm proud to witness our business expansion on five continents during the past two years, thanks to unwavering support and collaboration with clients. Hope to see many of you soon in Las Vegas."

WizarPOS, celebrating its 10th anniversary in June, is an early member of the White Label Alliance and part of the NEXO Standards community to advocate an open standard and framework in the payment industry. Its innate Android DNA aligns with accelerated digitization and ubiquitous customization demands, fostering 1,500 clients in over 70 countries.

For journalists or analysts looking to schedule a meeting with WizarPOS at Money 20/20, please get in touch with the media contact.

About WizarPOS

WizarPOS, the trailblazer in Android POS terminal technology, is committed to empowering secure, future-proof, and scalable payment solutions worldwide. Carrying Android DNA without legacies, the WizarPOS team debuted the world's first wireless POS device under PCI v1.3 in 2005. Designing and enabling Android merchant payment ecosystems from devices, SDK, and TMS to SaaS solutions, WizarPOS has shipped over two million units worldwide within five years, serving 1,500 clients in 70 countries. Visit www.wizarpos.com for more information.

Media contact

Elaine Lai

Director of Marketing & PR

elaine@wizarpos.com

Phone: +1 818 856 0834

Related Images











Image 1: Money 2020





WizarPOS Showcases at Money 2020









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment
PHOENIX, AZ, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Triumph Real Estate Investment Fund II (Triumph), a Canadian investment fund based in Calgary, Alberta, has acquired 4130 E Van Buren St. Phoenix AZ. Triumph Real Estate Investment Fund was represented by Keri Davies, Jason Reddington, and Jon Rosenberg of LevRose Real Estate/TCN Worldwide in Scottsdale AZ. The Van Buren acquisition closed on June 30, 2022.

We are excited to add a fourth property to the Triumph Fund II portfolio. We believe that the suburban office market in Phoenix will continue its positive absorption, as tenants seek alternative office towers following the pandemic," said David Wallach, President and Founder of Triumph.

The Van Buren property is composed of 31,475 SF, Lot size 60,140 SF with 109 parking stalls. The property at the time of closing is over 83% occupied and was purchased at a significant discount to replacement cost, which provides Triumph a significant value-add opportunity.

About TCN Worldwide

Founded in 1989, TCN Worldwide ranks as one of the largest service providers in the commercial real estate industry. An alliance of top independent brokerage firms serving more than 200 primary and secondary markets worldwide, TCN Worldwide provides complete integrated commercial real estate solutions across North America, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. Offering an extensive range of real estate services coupled with a personal commitment to exceed client expectations, TCN Worldwide represents approximately $47.3 billion in transactions annually across its 60+ offices and more than 1,500 commercial real estate professionals.

For more information on TCN Worldwide, contact H. Ross Ford at 972-769-8701 or visit www.TCNWorldwide.com.

About LevRose Commercial Real Estate/TCN Worldwide

LevRose Commercial Real Estate is a market leader in commercial real estate services in the Greater Phoenix metro area. Since 1992, LevRose has been helping clients with every aspect of leasing, buying, selling and managing Commercial properties. With some of the top professionals in the industry, LevRose takes a higher level of accountability for each client. Commercial Property management is handled through affiliate firm MODE Real Estate Management Services. MODE has a unique, professional approach to the management of office, retail and medical properties.

For further information visit: www.levrose.com.

About Triumph Real Estate Investment Group of Funds (Triumph Funds)

The Triumph Funds are Canadian investment funds that have been created to offer investors the opportunity to strategically invest in multi-tenant industrial, retail and office buildings alongside a strong and experienced management team with over 60 years combined experience.

The Triumph Funds focus on identifying undervalued and undermanaged properties located in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta in Canada, as well as Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington in the United States.

For further information visit www.triumphref.com or contact David Wallach at info@triumphref.com.

Attachment
FRANKLIN, Mass., July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Interactions, LLC , one of the largest standalone artificial intelligence (AI) companies in the world, today announced the addition of Peter Mullen to its executive leadership team, joining as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). This hire comes on the heels of a $50M senior secured term loan from Runway Growth Capital .



Mullen joins at a pivotal moment for Interactions, as the company continues advancing its best-in-class customer experience technology. Mullens addition brings a fresh approach to brand strategy, product marketing, thought leadership and more. Simultaneously, Runways new investment in Interactions future will provide a rich opportunity for research and development efforts, bolstered operational infrastructure and growth with a primary focus on extending the companys product roadmap.

Quality customer experiences are more important today than ever before. No matter the external circumstanceswhether it be a pandemic or economic uncertaintyour technology adapts across industries to meet consumers where they are, said Mike Iacobucci, CEO of Interactions. We have found the right partners both in Peter and in Runway; as we continue to scale to our next level, they will help us realize our vision for deeply human relationships between brands and customers.

Mullen brings more than two decades of marketing leadership to his new role as Interactions CMO. Previously, he was Senior Vice President of Marketing at Payactiv, where he led customer success marketing, lead-gen programming, customer acquisition, product marketing and more. Prior, he held prominent marketing and communications roles at VXI Global Solutions, Comcast and Netflix.

I joined Interactions because of its customer-obsessed approachand because the company has developed incredibly powerful technology to back up that passion, said Mullen. We are changing how the world experiences customer service and delivering real solutions for companies looking for thoughtful ways to retain their customers during these turbulent times.

Interactions has continued actively growing its leadership team, most recently announcing the addition of Daren Gonzalez as Chief Sales Officer. To learn more about Interactions, visit interactions.com ; for a full list of open positions, visit the Interactions careers page .

About Interactions

Interactions provides Intelligent Virtual Assistants that seamlessly assimilate conversational AI and human understanding to enable businesses to engage with their customers in highly productive and satisfying conversations. With flexible products and solutions designed to meet the growing demand for unified, optichannel customer care, Interactions is delivering unprecedented improvements in the customer experience and significant cost savings for some of the largest brands in the world. Founded in 2004, Interactions is headquartered in Franklin, Massachusetts with additional offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.interactions.com .

Media Contact

Lauren Wry

interactions@launchsquad.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/43b09606-2325-47a1-b599-5a092af27626
A North Korean fisherman, who was captured near the eastern inter-Korean sea border, resists as he is handed over to North Korean authorities in the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom in Nov., 2019. Yonhap



Just before South Korea repatriated two North Korean fishermen in 2019, the justice ministry reviewed its legality and found no legal grounds to send them back to North Korea, the ministry said Wednesday.



The revelation is expected to further fuel criticism that the previous administration of President Moon Jae-in deported the North Koreans even though it knew there was no legal ground to do so after they expressed a desire to defect to South Korea.



The Moon government said at the time that it decided to repatriate the North Koreans because they had admitted to killing 16 fellow crew members and their expression of a desire to defect to the South was deemed insincere.



"Around noon on Nov. 7, 2019, the justice ministry was asked by Cheong Wa Dae to conduct a legality review in connection with the repatriation of the North Korean fishermen," the ministry said of the then presidential office.






SAN FRANCISCO, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A leader in revenue operations (RevOps) and data automation, Syncari today announced new business momentum, Syncari Insights and CSV sync capabilities, and key industry awards. Syncari enables customers to align, analyze, and activate hundreds of millions of records and power tens of thousands of RevOps automations. With a wide range of solutions to distribute trusted data and automate workflows across the GTM tech stack, Syncari is now the only platform for RevOps to scale companies efficiently.

During this economic downturn, companies must function more effectively with fewer resources. This means having access to pipeline analysis and predictable forecasting to make informed business decisions. RevOps is critical in achieving this goal by optimizing systems and processes to provide teams with reliable data and insights. Syncari customers have already realized these cost savings and faster time to value. Two years ago, Syncari launched a powerful multi-directional synchronization and data unification platform to help businesses solve costly data inconsistencies. Since then, Syncari has expanded the platform with capabilities to easily access more data sources and manage data across systems.

"In challenging times, companies are looking for ways to do more with less operationally and organizationally," said Neelesh Shastry, CTO and CISO at Syncari. "They need to be able to predict, forecast, and measure business performance across all GTM teams. Rather than investing millions of dollars in data experts and disjointed data stack tools, we encourage organizations to embrace distributed truth and empower their RevOps teams to align, analyze, and activate insights in every departmental source of truth."

Syncari today announced the availability of new capabilities that provide insight into every customer interaction, allowing businesses to grow revenue more predictably.

No-code multi-system analytics, Syncari Insights delivers dynamic, full-funnel visibility into business health and go-to-market (GTM) performance. Unlike other revenue intelligence solutions, Syncari Insights does not require costly investments in data extraction, transformation, storage, and prep. Those are already native capabilities of Syncari's complete data automation platform, which helps businesses become data-driven with unprecedented speed and efficiency.

Key features:

Unified data and shared metrics: Syncari automatically aligns cross-system data to a unified model and calculates metrics using shared logic, ensuring reports are complete and trusted.

Syncari automatically aligns cross-system data to a unified model and calculates metrics using shared logic, ensuring reports are complete and trusted. Pre-built dashboards and reports: Forecast GTM performance and measure business health with visualizations auto-generated by Syncari Insights using clean, multi-system data from the unified data model.

Forecast GTM performance and measure business health with visualizations auto-generated by Syncari Insights using clean, multi-system data from the unified data model. Cross-object reporting: A known limitation of CRM-centric reporting, Syncari Insights handles cross-object queries with zero code.

A known limitation of CRM-centric reporting, Syncari Insights handles cross-object queries with zero code. Insight sync: Calculations, KPIs, and revenue signals can be shared with GTM teams to ensure actionable insights can be acted on in near-real-time.

Additionally, Syncari CSV Import allows CSV file sync and management according to predefined pipeline logic. Many businesses still manually upload CSV files into disconnected systems, which hinders businesses' ability to standardize and normalize data, exacerbating fragmented customer journeys.

Chargebee's 35+ tool tech stack was stretched to the limit as a result of the company's quadrupling in size and its multi-channel marketing operation. As new systems were added, the team's manual mappings and integrations became overburdened. Today, Chargebee has saved 75 percent of its team's time by relying on Syncari to accelerate its data automation, remove duplicates, and correct errors. "With Syncari, I know our data is accurate. This implies that our business choices will have a bigger influence on Chargebee's performance," said Mrigesh Gaurav, Director of Marketing Operations at Chargebee.

Apttus, the leader in quote-to-cash solutions, and Conga, the leader in digital document transformation, announced in May 2022 that they joined forces to create a complete digital transformation solution for commercial operations. To accelerate go-to-market initiatives identified as part of the merger, the operations teams in sales and marketing were tasked to establish a complete view of "The New Conga" within 12 months. With Syncari, Congo's ops pros were able to deliver this new view on a no-code platform that could be governed by IT, but didn't require time-constrained IT resources. "The New Conga" was created by unifying data, processes, and technologies across 37 systems to unlock post-merger hypergrowth. "Syncari has given us the option to not have Salesforce as the center of our data universe. Now, any component can be at the center. And to me, that alone is worth its weight in gold," said Chris Thompson, Head of Marketing Operations, Conga.

As Metadata grew, its revenue operations team faced two bottom line-impacting challenges: customer health score and usage data. Metadata uses customer health scores  which depend on product usage data  to forecast renewals and upsells, as well as to predict churn rates. Unfortunately, the score was usually based on the CSM's "gut feeling." The second challenge was interpreting what customer usage data Metadata had in a meaningful way. With all systems speaking the same language, Syncari generated the same product usage reports in real-time that once took the Metadata engineering team hours to compile. "The quality of life improvements that we've experienced from implementing Syncari has just been phenomenal. We're finding new ways to use the platform every day, and can't wait to see them come to fruition," said Sam Bowley, Sr. Director of Revenue Operations, Metadata.

Dooly wanted to be able to use its critical product usage data to make better business decisions. Due to a lack of data visibility across its systems, Dooly's teams, from Customer Success to Sales to Marketing, were unable to make the data-driven decisions needed to not only better serve the company's existing customers and prospects, but also drive the company's growth. With Syncari, Dooly was able to automate and unify customer data between Salesforce and BigQuery. "Because of Syncari, we have immediate access to customer information that helps us identify churn risks and uncover opportunities to expand revenue with our customers," said Jenna Molby, Head of Revenue Operations at Dooly.

Syncari has earned Leader and High Performer positions in 10 G2 Summer Reports for 2022, outperforming competitors in six key categories (Identification, Correction, Normalization, Preventative Cleaning, Reporting, Automation). Syncari has also received eight G2 Summer 2022 Badges and currently enjoys a  rating.

Syncari has been named one of the "Emerging Big Data Vendors to Know in 2022" by The Channel Company (CRN), as well as a winner of Top Workplaces 2022 by San Francisco Bay Area Top Workplaces.

To learn more about how Syncari works, join the upcoming Syncari 101 session here.

About Syncari

A leader in revenue operations (RevOps) and data automation, Syncari is a VC-backed company founded by revenue leaders from Marketo, MuleSoft, and Workato. Syncari enables RevOps teams to align, analyze, and activate trusted customer data. Through powerful data management, workflow automation, and multi-directional sync, Syncari accelerates the standardization and normalization of data to create a distributed truth across the tech stack. To learn more, visit syncari.com.

Media Contact:

Elise Vue

elise@syncari.com

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Image 1: Syncari Insights





Syncari Insights is no-code multi-system analytics that deliver dynamic, full-funnel visibility into business health and go-to-market (GTM) performance.









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Attachment
New York, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Drip Irrigation Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Component, Emitter Type, Application, and Type" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295662/?utm_source=GNW

With the goal to provide financial assistance to farmers, the Government of India (GOI) initiated an awareness campaign to encourage a maximum number of farmers to switch to drip and sprinkler irrigation methods.



In September 2021, the Government of Madhya Pradesh, India, announced to offer agricultural irrigation equipment to the farmers on a subsidized basis under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana.Subsidies were made available for the Kisan drip system mini, micro-sprinkler set, and portable sprinkler set under the plan.



In November 2021, the Government of Maharashtra, India, decided to increase subsidies to promote the use of micro-irrigation schemes.Netafim, an irrigation equipment manufacturer, offers micro-irrigation subsidy support to farmers through Netafim Agricultural Financing Agency (NAFA); a non-banking finance company offering customized financial solutions to boost the micro-irrigation ecosystem in India.



In Europe, large-scale drip irrigation projects propel the agricultural sector. The agricultural sector in Germany has gradually shifted from conventional irrigation techniques to advanced methods, supported by rising favorable prices and trade policies. Farmers are adopting innovative technologies such as sprinkler irrigation, which significantly drives adoption of the micro-irrigation systems across the country. IRRITEC SpA, Italy, is a world leader in smart irrigation and distributes its products in over 140 countries. The European Unions ambition to become carbon neutral by 2050 encourages European crop growers to adopt climate-smart agriculture by 2030. It is likely to reduce annual agricultural carbon emissions by 6% and improve soil health by 14%. The State Society for Agricultural Infrastructure (Sociedad Estatal de Infraestructuras Agrarias, SEIASA) is an agency that funds irrigation modernization projects across Spain. In the last two decades, SEIASA has facilitated the investment of over ~US$ 2.37 billion in irrigation modernization in the country. The French government is encouraging the deployment of irrigated farming through the progressive removal of direct payments for irrigated crops and rural development funds offering mixed incentives. Most projects in France are focused on improving irrigation efficiency and building compensatory water storage schemes.



Collaborative publicprivate stakeholder actions address the global challenges to create necessary drip irrigation ecosystems. Thus, various governments are delivering infrastructure, incentives, and innovative policies to provide growth capital, which is driving the drip irrigation market growth.



Many manufacturing facilities in the North American drip irrigation market remained operational during fiscal 2021 after witnessing a severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.Supply chain disruptions limited manufactures ability to procure certain commodities for production.



Continued strong demand for drip irrigation systems and equipment during fiscal 2021 forced companies, such as The Toro Company, to increase maintenance, rearrangement, and capital equipment installation services.As economies recover from the COVID-19 crisis, the drip irrigation market players in North America are monitoring the adequacy of commodities supply and are using alternative suppliers when necessary to meet supply commitments.



Companies in the drip irrigation market in North America have entered into loan credit agreements with financial institutions for refinancing their outstanding borrowings in the global financial and commercial markets.Tempus Automation System, a Toro Ag business, was recognized as the 2021 New Product Winner by the Irrigation Association in the agriculture irrigation category.



The cloud-based system helps growers precisely control irrigation valves and monitor field parameters. Strong retail demand for new and enhanced drip irrigation equipment; increased shipments of professional irrigation products; and strong demand for agriculture, horticulture, greenhouse, and landscape equipment due to favorable industry trends would propel the drip irrigation market growth during 20222028.



The overall drip irrigation market size has been derived using both primary and secondary sources.Exhaustive secondary research has been conducted using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the market.



The process also serves the purpose of obtaining an overview and forecast for the drip irrigation market with respect to all the segments.Also, multiple primary interviews have been conducted with industry participants and commentators to validate the data and gain more analytical insights into the topic.



The participants of this process include VPs, business development managers, drip irrigation market intelligence managers, national sales managers, and external consultants, such as valuation experts, research analysts, and key opinion leaders, specializing in the drip irrigation market.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295662/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________
DALLAS, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Integrity Marketing Group, LLC ("Integrity"), a leading distributor of life and health insurance and provider of wealth management and retirement planning solutions, today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire PHP Agency, an industry-leading field marketing organization ("FMO") based in Addison, Texas. As part of the acquisition, Patrick Bet-David, founder and CEO of PHP Agency, will become a Managing Partner at Integrity. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

PHP, which stands for "People Helping People," serves nearly half a million Americans nationwide by offering life and annuity products through its team of more than 27,000 agents. In many ways, Patrick Bet-David, the founder and CEO of PHP, is the embodiment of the American dream. Bet-David came to the United States as an Iranian refugee as a child, then served in the United States Army before joining a large investment and financial services firm. In 2009, he founded PHP Agency, which has experienced exponential growth by investing in technology for agents and focusing on the needs of underserved communities. A leader in diversity and inclusion, PHP Agency is redefining industry norms by recruiting, training and supporting a diverse, dynamic and highly motivated salesforce.

"Patrick Bet-David is the embodiment of the American dream," said Bryan W. Adams, co-founder and CEO of Integrity. "He has inspired thousands of agents to become entrepreneurs, founders and leaders, all while building an agency that is reshaping the face of insurance. This type of leadership is a rare gift, and we're privileged to have Patrick join us in our mission to innovate the industry."

"In order to stay competitive in this space, we know we need to invest heavily in people and in technology," explained Patrick Bet-David, founder and CEO of PHP Agency. "Integrity is much more than a proven leader in insurtech  they also share our core values and vision for a more inclusive future. Together, Integrity and PHP have tremendous resources to empower a new generation of agents who will serve Americans in profoundly innovative ways. This partnership accelerates so much for our business, including adding carriers, technology, support and partners to what we now have access to. When these benefits are combined with our youthful, energetic and diverse workforce, every stakeholder wins. Integrity's success is now our success, and I know we will create something truly special together."

"PHP Agency is inspiring and developing an entire generation of young, energetic and influential leaders who will leave a lasting impact on the industry," added Tom Dempsey, Chief Distribution Officer at Integrity. "Patrick is an inspiration to so many people  I can't think of a better leader who truly understands and represents Integrity's mission to serve others in planning for the good days ahead. We're proud that he will now join our partner network and help us find new ways to innovate insurance together. PHP Agency has already achieved incredible success by empowering its agent network to build relationships and provide solutions to everyone in their communities. The company can now tap into Integrity's state-of-the-art technology, products and relationships to serve even more Americans. I'm eager to see what PHP and Integrity can achieve together, and we welcome them to our fast-growing team."

PHP Agency will reach more customers than ever before by utilizing Integrity's extensive suite of end-to-end offerings. The Integrity insurtech platform encompasses resources such as real-time quoting and enrollment systems, efficient customer relationship management software and robust product development. PHP Agency can also take advantage of Integrity's strong and supportive infrastructure of business services available to all partners, allowing PHP Agency's leaders to redirect valuable administrative time. Included in these shared services are areas such as People & Culture, Technology & Innovation, legal and compliance, and access to a world-class advertising and marketing firm.

"Patrick Bet-David is a best-selling author and popular keynote speaker, as well as a social media icon with millions of followers. His message of hope and success inspires entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world, and we are excited to be able to work with him to fulfill our mission at Integrity," said Anne Wood, Chief Marketing Officer at Integrity. "Together, we're going to reach more people than ever before and deliver solutions that empower consumers to make the most of what life brings."

Bet-David will expand opportunities for his agents and agencies by leveraging opportunities for teamwork and growth through the Integrity partner network. Driven by a core commitment to innovate insurance, this world-class peer group of industry icons has united to shape best practices and strategies that improve insurance and financial services for everyone. Integrity partners are focused on protecting the life, health and wealth of all Americans, helping millions prepare for the good days ahead.

PHP employees will also take part in Integrity's Employee Ownership Plan, which offers employees the opportunity to share in Integrity's success through meaningful company ownership.

"With a culture devoted to 'People Helping People,' Patrick and his team can now use Integrity's platform to expand their influence and diversify the products and services they offer," said Steve Young, Chairman of the Board of Integrity. "We're always thrilled to partner with trailblazing leaders. PHP Agency will be an incredibly valued and esteemed addition to the Integrity family as we work to protect families across the United States."

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to PHP and assisted in initiating, marketing, structuring and negotiating the transaction on its behalf.

For more information about PHP Agency's partnership with Integrity, view a video at www.integritymarketing.com/PHPAgency.

About Integrity Marketing Group

Integrity, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a leading distributor of life and health insurance and provider of innovative solutions for wealth management and retirement planning. Through its partner network, Integrity helps millions of Americans protect their life, health and wealth with a commitment to meet them wherever they are  in person, over the phone and online. Integrity's cutting-edge technology helps streamline the insurance and financial planning experience for all stakeholders. In addition, Integrity develops products with carrier partners and markets them through its distribution network of agencies, brokerages and RIAs throughout the nation. Integrity's nearly 6,000 employees work with more than 450,000 agents and advisors who serve over 10 million clients annually. In 2022, Integrity will help carriers place more than $12 billion in new sales and oversee more than $20 billion of assets under management and advisement through its RIA and broker-dealer platforms. For more information, visit www.integritymarketing.com.

About PHP Agency

Founded in 2009, PHP Agency Inc. is a tech-enabled national field marketing organization (FMO) headquartered in Addison, Texas. With over 27,000 licensed agents nationally in 49 states and Puerto Rico, PHP's agents have educated and served over 450,000 American families. PHP partners with leading insurance and annuity carriers and provides part-time or full-time opportunities to those seeking careers as life insurance agents. For more information, visit www.phpagency.com.

Media Contact:

Rachel Aird, Public Relations Director

Integrity Marketing Group

press@thomasarts.com

801-706-7005

Partnership Inquiries:

Eric Pederson, Vice President of Business Development

Integrity Marketing Group

partnership@integritymarketing.com

866-650-1857

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English French

Blagnac, France, July 20th 2022-5.35 pm,

Montreal, Canada

Consolidated turnover for the 1st half 2022: +14.3% at 67.6M

At constants exchange rate and perimeter*: +11.0%

SOGECLAIR, supplier of innovative solutions with high added value for a safer and less-consuming mobility announces today its turnover for the 1st half 2022, ending on June 30 2022.

* The change variations over the period represent 1.5M against  -1.5M in 2021.

The scope variations over the period represent -0.4M.

The ONE SOGECLAIR strategic plan for a more premium, more attractive and more transversal repositioning has led to the implementation of the new organization on 1st January 2022. For the 2nd consecutive quarter, SOGECLAIR is presenting its turnover according to this new organization. The 2021 comparison is pro-forma.

With a 2nd quarter at +11.9%, this is the 5th consecutive quarter of increased turnover. To be noted over the half-year is the strong rebound of commercial aviation +51%, rail +28% and the good performance of business aviation +3%, which more than compensate for the drop in automotive -24%.

By Business Unit Turnover (M)

H1-2022 Turnover (M)

H1-2021** Variation

(as %)



Engineering

At constants exchange rate and perimeter 36.2







35.3 32.1







32.1 +12.6%







+10.2%



Solutions

At constants exchange rate and perimeter 31.1







30.0 27.0







27.0 +15.2%







+10.9%



Conseil



0.3 - NS



Total



67.6 59.1 +14.3%



International



31.0 28.1 +10.4%

Differences are due to rounding.

**The turnover for the Q1 2021 is reported on a pro-forma basis

The Engineering Business Unit - support activity for manufacturers in the development of their products, processes and product life cycle - (53.5% of turnover) increases by 12.6% over the 1st half of the year, including 10.9% in the 2nd quarter, driven by the growth in commercial aviation. As a reminder, SOGECLAIR has won the EMES3 referencing from Airbus (all entities) for a period of 5 years from 2022 to 2027, has obtained the Diamond supplier label for Bombardier Aerospace and has started manufacturing engineering activities for the Dassault Falcon 10X.

The Solutions Business Unit - equipment manufacturer activity - (46.0% of turnover) grows by 15.2% in the first half, including 11.7% in the second quarter. It progresses in all the aeronautical, rail and defense segments despite the significant drop in the automotive sector (-24.7%).

It should be noted that UTAC has joined the capital of AVSimulation (a subsidiary of SOGECLAIR) with a 15% stake in order to accelerate the development of vehicle tests in a virtual environment. After this operation, Oktal (Sogeclair) still holds 55.25%, Dassault Systemes 15%, UTAC 15% and Renault Group 14.75% of AVSimulation.

The Conseil Business Unit - auditing, consulting and optimization of technologies and processes - (0.4% of turnover  0.6% over the quarter): newly created activity increases (x2.2) compared with the first quarter thanks to orders in the aeronautics and space sectors.





By geographical area H1 2022 Turnover

(M) Impact on Turnover

(as %) Evolution



(as %) France 36.5 54.1%



+17.9% Europe 13.1 19.4% +9.0% America



13.0



19.3%



+4.1% Asia-Pacific 4.6 6.7% +43.0% Rest of the world 0.3 0.5% -9.1%

Differences are due to rounding.

All geographical area are increasing with +8,465k, only the rest of the world (Africa and South America) is decreasing by 9.1% which is equivalent to -34k over the period.

Perspectives

The implementation of the ONE SOGECLAIR plan and the evolution of the organizations underway will support the capacity for growth to reach 250M of activity in 2030.

The 2022 turnover is in line with an expected 2-digit growth.

Next announcement: turnover for Q3 2022, on November 02nd 2022 after closing of the Stock Market

About SOGECLAIR

SOGECLAIR provides consulting services, engineering and technological products to the aeronautical, aerospace, vehicle, railway and defence sectors. Its employees are spread over 4 continents.

SOGECLAIR is listed on Euronext Paris  Compartment C  Indice Euronext Family Business -Code ISIN: FR0000065864 / (Reuters SCLR.PA  Bloomberg SOG.FP)

Contacts : Philippe ROBARDEY, President & CEO / Olivier PEDRON, Operating Chief Officer / +33(0)5 61 71 70 33

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Palmyra, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Palmyra, New Jersey -

TempShield is a trusted HVAC company serving Southern New Jersey, Cherry Hill, and the surrounding areas. The firm is available 365 days a year, with no emergency AC repair fees.

TempShield and its co-owners Josh Gibe and Jared Fisher are pleased to announce that the Cherry Hill HVAC company has more than twenty years of top-quality service. The technicians respond to customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are no after-hours emergency AC repair charges. It can be frustrating and highly uncomfortable when a central heating or air conditioning unit stops functioning correctly. HVAC units are costly and require an expenditure of time to install.

Although heating and cooling equipment must always be available for peace of mind and comfort, it is possible for even the most expensive and modern units can cease operation at times. The team of professionals at TempShield is able to help with any problems which might be encountered with the heating and air conditioning system. TempShield has the knowledge and experience to service all of the top brands of heat pumps, oil heaters, air conditioners, propane boilers, propane heaters, gas boilers, oil boilers, and gas heaters.

Additional details are available at https://hvactempshield.com/.

When an air conditioner or furnace malfunctions, it is impossible to avoid cold or hot temperatures, so it is imperative to find someone who can quickly determine the source of the problem. TempShield has the needed years of experience and training to ensure that the job is done the first time quickly, regardless of the size of the project. The technicians work quickly to restore the comfort and peace of mind of the customer. The professional team provides quality work and uses quality parts when parts are required.

The HVAC team works in Cherry Hill, southern New Jersey, and the surrounding communities. The services include air conditioning maintenance, air conditioning replacement and installation, air conditioning repair, furnace maintenance, furnace replacement and installation, and furnace repairs. The company offers heating and cooling maintenance plans to ensure that customers have reliable and efficient furnaces and air conditioning units all year long.

About the Company

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-VtmCGfoRw

TempShield is an experienced HVAC company serving the Cherry Hill area. The company provides service for all the major brands and models of equipment. Service is available around the clock.

###

For more information about TempShield, contact the company here:



TempShield

Jared Fisher and Josh Gibe

1(856) 344-3424

info@hvactempshield.com

1107 Harbour Dr, Palmyra, NJ 08065, United States
Paphos, Cyprus, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chase Buchanan Wealth Management firm has recently appointed Paul Lanigan as Head of Global Sales, reporting to Group CEO Lee Eldridge.

The new position and appointment is a significant step for the company as they increase international presence with a growing number of global offices.

Bringing a wealth of corporate financial experience, including 22 years at Standard Life, Paul will oversee the current 8 offices and Private Wealth Managers across Cyprus, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Malta, USA and Canada.

Group Chief Executive, Lee Eldridge said: As we move forward into the next stage of our corporate development, the Head of Global Sales position was a key hire. Pauls experience from large corporate finance, provides Chase Buchanan incredible balance during our continued expansion plans, allowing us to strategically align the wealth management team across the world.

Newly appointed Paul Lanigan replied: I am delighted to be at Chase Buchanan and help drive our ambitious growth plans. It is a fantastic business with a great culture and excellent client focus.

In what is often referred to as changing times, UK and foreign nationals living abroad are looking for local qualified advice on a range of financially related topics from a trusted global brand.

With new locations and expansion planned, the remainder of 2022 promises to be a reassuring time as Chase Buchanan answers the client demand for trusted advice made simple.

Chase Buchanan Wealth Management supports British expats and foreign nationals living abroad with trusted financial advice, made simple.

Media Contact:

c/o Natalie Karr- Woya Digital

Chase Buchanan

Cyprus Head Office

+357 2501 0455





Attachment
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Search Minerals Inc. (TSXV: SMY | OTCQB: SHCMF) (Search or the Company), is pleased to announce the exercise of 15,364,015 previously issued common share purchase warrants of the Company (the Warrants) at an exercise price of $0.07 per Warrant in July 2022 for aggregate gross proceeds of $1,075,481. Each Warrant was exercisable into one common share of the Company until July 12, 2022, as further disclosed in the Companys news release dated April 30, 2020, and an aggregate of 654,669 unexercised Warrants have now expired.



The Company anticipates using the proceeds from the exercise of the Warrants for general working capital purposes.

About Search Minerals Inc.

Led by a proven management team and board of directors, Search is focused on finding and developing Critical Rare Earths Elements (CREE), Zirconium (Zr) and Hafnium (Hf) resources within the emerging Port Hope Simpson  St. Lewis CREE District of southeast Labrador. The Company controls a belt 63 km long and 2 km wide and is road accessible, on tidewater, and located within 3 local communities. Search has completed a preliminary economic assessment report for FOXTROT, and a resource estimate for DEEP FOX. Search is also working on three exploration prospects along the belt which include: FOX MEADOW, SILVER FOX and AWESOME FOX.

Search has continued to optimize our patented Direct Extraction Process technology with support from the Department of Industry, Energy and Technology, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, and from the Atlantic Canada Opportunity Agency. We have completed two pilot plant operations and produced highly purified mixed rare earth carbonate concentrate and mixed rare earth concentrate for separation and refining. We also recognize the continued support by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador for its Junior Exploration Program.

Search Minerals was selected to participate in the Government of Canada Accelerated Growth Service (AGS) initiative, which supports high growth companies. AGS, as a one-stop shop model, provides Search with coordinated access to Government of Canada resources as Search continues to move quickly to production and contribute to the establishment of a stable and secure rare earth element North American and European supply chain.

For further information, please contact: Search Minerals Inc. Investor Relations Greg Andrews Pretium Capital Group President and CEO Sherman Dahl Tel: 604-998-3432 Tel: 250-558-8340 E-mail: info@searchminerals.ca Email: info@pretiumcapitalgroup.ca

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.



Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains "forward-looking information "and "forward looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation: statements with respect to the anticipated use of proceeds by the Company. These statements are based on information currently available to the Company and the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. In certain cases, forward-looking information may be identified by such terms as "anticipates", "believes", "could", "estimates", "expects", "may", "shall", "will", or "would".

Forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, change in market prices, the availability of necessary financing, the timing and amount of future exploration and development expenditures, the progress of exploration and development activities, the receipt of necessary regulatory approvals, and assumptions with respect to environmental risks, title disputes or claims, and other similar matters.

Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include: changes in market conditions, unsuccessful exploration results, unanticipated costs and expenses, inaccurate resource estimates, changes in the price of minerals, unanticipated changes in key management personnel and general economic conditions. In addition, mining exploration and development is an inherently risky business. Accordingly, actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements. Reference should be made to the Company's public filings available under its profile on www.sedar.com for further risk factors.

These and other factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by the Company or on its behalf, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
New York, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Global Cardiac Monitoring & Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices Market, By Cardiac Monitoring Devices, By Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices, By End User, By Region, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2027" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06293048/?utm_source=GNW



The global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market is expected to grow at a steady CAGR in the forecast period, 2023-2027.Factors such as the rise in the number of patients suffering from cardiovascular disorders and the growing geriatric population are driving the demand for the global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market.



Emerging economies such as India and China are expected to provide a wide range of growth opportunities for players in the market, which is driven by their large and growing population as well as the increasing number of hospitals and clinics in these countries.

The global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market is segmented into cardiac monitoring devices, cardiac rhythm management devices, end user, company, and regional distribution.Based on cardiac monitoring devices, the market is segmented into ECG devices, implantable loop recorders, mobile cardiac telemetry devices, cardiac output monitoring devices, and others.



ECG devices dominate the market and are expected to maintain their dominance through the next five years.Growing commercialization of novel products, regional expansions, technological advancements, and government initiatives are the primary factors driving the segment demand.



Based on cardiac rhythm management devices, the market is divided into defibrillators and pacemakers.Defibrillators are expected to hold the largest market share in the forecast period, 2023-2027.



The surge in the use of cardiac rhythm management devices in countries such as China and India, among others, is influencing the segmental demand.

Major players operating in the global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market are Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Medtronic PLC, Boston Scientific Corporation, MicroPort Scientific Corporation, GE Healthcare, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc., BIOTRONIK, Asahi Kasei Corporation, Nihon Kohden Corporation, Schiller AG, Alivecor, Inc., Metrax GmbH, Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics, and LivaNova PLC. The companies are focusing on extensive research and development activities to stay competitive in the market.



Years considered for this report:



Historical Years: 2017-2020

Base Year: 2021

Estimated Year: 2022E

Forecast Period: 2023F2027F



Objective of the Study:



 To analyze historical growth in market size of global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market from 2017 to 2021.

 To estimate and forecast the market size of global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market from 2022E to 2027F and growth rate until 2027F.

 To classify and forecast global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market based on cardiac monitoring devices, cardiac rhythm management devices, end user, company, and regional distribution.

 To identify dominant region or segment in the global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market.

 To identify drivers and challenges for global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market.

 To examine competitive developments such as expansions, new product launches, mergers & acquisitions, etc., in global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market.

 To identify and analyze the profiles of leading players operating in global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market.

 To identify key sustainable strategies adopted by market players in global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market.

The analyst performed both primary as well as exhaustive secondary research for this study.Initially, the analyst sourced a list of leading cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management device manufacturers across the globe.



Subsequently, the analyst conducted primary research surveys with the identified companies.While interviewing, the respondents were also enquired about their competitors.



Through this technique, the analyst could include the manufacturers who could not be identified due to the limitations of secondary research. The analyst examined the manufacturers, distribution channels, and presence of all major players operating in the global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market across the world.

The analyst calculated the global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market size using a bottom-up approach, where data for various regions was recorded and forecast for the future years. The analyst sourced these values from the industry experts and company representatives and externally validated them through analyzing historical data of these product types and applications for getting an appropriate overall market size.



Various secondary sources such as company websites, news articles, press releases, company annual reports, investor presentations, and financial reports were also studied by the analyst.



Key Target Audience:



 Cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices manufacturers/ suppliers/ distributors

 Government bodies such as regulating authorities and policy makers

 Organizations, forums, and alliances related to cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices

 Market research and consulting firms

The study is useful in providing answers to several critical questions that are important for the industry stakeholders such as manufacturers, suppliers, end users, etc., besides allowing them in strategizing investments and capitalizing on market opportunities.



Report Scope:



In this report, global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market has been segmented into following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below:

 Cardiac Monitoring & Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices Market, By Cardiac Monitoring Devices:

o ECG Devices

o Implantable Loop Recorders

o Mobile Cardiac Telemetry Devices

o Cardiac Output Monitoring Devices

o Others

 Cardiac Monitoring & Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices Market, By Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices:

o Defibrillators

o Pacemakers

 Cardiac Monitoring & Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices Market, By End User:

o Hospitals & Clinics

o Cardiac Care Centers

o Ambulatory Surgery Centers

o Others

 Cardiac Monitoring & Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices Market, By Region:

o Asia Pacific

China

India

Japan

South Korea

Australia

o Europe

France

Germany

United Kingdom

Italy

Spain

o North America

United States

Mexico

Canada

o South America

Brazil

Argentina

Colombia

o Middle East and Africa

South Africa

Saudi Arabia

UAE

Kuwait



Competitive Landscape



Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in global cardiac monitoring & cardiac rhythm management devices market.



Available Customizations:



With the given market data, we offers customizations according to a companys specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:



Company Information



 Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06293048/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, met with representatives from HP Inc. and the Global Business Coalition for Education, at the Ukraine House cultural center in Washington, D.C. this week, to accept a donation of technology and learning material headed to Ukraine to support thousands of students, teachers, and healthcare practitioners.

HPs "Digital Equity for Ukraine initiative is a $30 million partnership with Global Business Coalition for Education that will put computers and learning materials in the hands of people who need them.

The Ukrainian people have demonstrated incredible courage in the face of unimaginable circumstances, and we are grateful for the leadership of First Lady Olena Zelenska and others seeking to end this war, said Enrique Lores, CEO of HP Inc. HP continues to mobilize resources to support Ukraine. Through our partnership with the Global Business Coalition for Education, we will put personal computers in the hands of students and families who have been displaced from their homes and classrooms. This moment demands that we all take actions to support those in need.

The computers will be distributed to organizations on the ground aiding Ukrainians by partnering with the Global Business Coalition for Education, an initiative of the global childrens charity Theirworld. HP will provide computers to the nonprofit organizations. Additionally, Microsoft will provide software support for the nonprofits receiving the computers.

In coordination with the Ukrainian government, about one-half of the donated computers will go to the many civilians displaced within the country and the other half to Ukrainian refugees displaced outside of Ukraine.

We are very grateful for HPs and the Global Business Coalition for Educations support, said Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine. Their efforts and contribution will help students in Ukraine and beyond continue learning and prepare for the future, like any other youth in the world.

Since February, millions of Ukrainians have had their lives upended by Russias invasion. Nearly one-third of Ukrainians have been forced from their homes, according to the United Nations, often leaving only with what they could carry.

Vulnerable children are caught in the middle of war  fleeing their homes, communities, and schools. The Ukrainian government says more than 2,000 educational institutions have been hit by bombs or shelling. Now, millions of Ukrainian students are learning remotely both inside and outside the country.

"Education is one of the first things lost and last things restored during a crisis, said Justin van Fleet, President of Theirworld and Executive Director of the Global Business Coalition for Education. This is why we are so glad to collaborate with HP and Microsoft to provide resources to Ukrainian students so they can continue learning.

HP has been increasingly vocal on the notion that digital equity is a human right, committing to accelerate digital equity for 150 million people around the world by 2030. And while devices are essential, they are only one piece of the equation. HP is also investing in teacher training and educational materials, including translating the HP Online Teaching Assistant to Ukrainian, to support educators who are now teaching remotely.

To date, the HP Foundation has delivered more than $3 million in grants to provide essential food, clothing, and shelter materials to Ukrainian refugees, and continues to match donations made by HP employees.

About HP Inc.

HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) is a technology company that believes one thoughtful idea has the power to change the world. Its product and service portfolio of personal systems, printers, and 3D printing solutions helps bring these ideas to life. Visit http://www.hp.com.

About the Global Business Coalitions for Education

The Global Business Coalition for Education is a movement of businesses committed to ending the global education crisis and unleashing the potential of the next generation. Established as an initiative of the global childrens charity Theirworld in 2012, the Global Business Coalition for Education is committed to bringing together the expertise and resources of the business community with the campaign for global education and Sustainable Development Goal 4. Visit www.gbc-education.org.

HP Inc. Media Relations



MediaRelations@hp.com www.hp.com/go/newsroom

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5c350c15-fe17-4a07-9a33-641155a6cda1

Copyright 2022 HP Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
Oklahoma City, Okla., July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC) President Dr. Mautra Staley Jones announced that the college has forgiven nearly $4 million in student debt using COVID-19 relief funds for its Fresh Start Initiative, which impacts more than 4,500 OCCC students.



The pandemic affected our students and their families in various ways, and we recognize that many are still facing hardships in the aftermath, Jones said. OCCC is an institution of new beginnings, and this initiative truly gives our students a fresh start. We hope this clears the way for them to continue their educational journey in the fall.



OCCC has already distributed about $17 million from the federal Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) to students in the form of emergency financial aid grants. Even after the distribution of those grants, thousands of OCCC students continued to owe tuition and fees incurred during the pandemic.



The Fresh Start Initiative applies to more than 4,500 students enrolled during any semester between Spring 2020 and Spring 2022 who had an outstanding OCCC student account balance as of July 15, 2022 from any of those semesters. The total debt cleared for this initiative was nearly $4 million.



The goal of the Fresh Start Initiative is to reduce the negative impact of the pandemic on OCCC students and their families, relieve students of enrollment debt, and provide an opportunity to pursue and complete educational goals.



For more details on the Fresh Start Initiative, visit OCCC's website http://occc.edu/fsi.

About Oklahoma City Community College

Celebrating 50 years of providing unique educational opportunities for students in 2022, Oklahoma City Community College serves students preparing for college, working toward a degree or certificate or taking classes for personal enrichment. Approximately 17,000 students take courses offering college credit in more than 60 associate degree or certificate programs that lead to continued education at a four-year institution or entry into the workforce upon graduation. For more information, visit occc.edu.

Attachments
President Yoon Suk-yeol answers reporters' questions as he enters his office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Wednesday. Joint Press Corps



Yoon hopes eloquent Cabinet ministers can convince public with his policy visions: experts



By Nam Hyun-woo



President Yoon Suk-yeol has been stressing the importance of "star ministers" who are not shy of the media spotlight, in what appears to be an effort to give Cabinet members greater discretion and defy negative public sentiment on his administration.



According to the presidential office, Yoon said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that ministers should not feel pressure about media exposure, and he would not mind even if they outshine him.



"I want ministers to be the stars of this administration," Yoon was quoted as saying. He cited the case of late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who relied on star CEOs to run his tech empire, according to the office.



On his way to work, Wednesday, Yoon reaffirmed his position about the role of a star player for a team. "Since I worked for the prosecution, I have been saying that it is important to have star prosecutors rather than making the prosecutor general famous," he said.





President Yoon Suk-yeol and ministers salute during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps
NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brookfield Public Securities Group LLC (PSG) will host a webcast for Center Coast Brookfield MLP & Energy Infrastructure Fund (NYSE: CEN) (the Fund) on Tuesday, July 26, 2022 at 2:00pm ET. PSG will provide an update on the Fund and on general market conditions.



There will be an opportunity to ask questions about the Fund during the call. Questions may also be submitted ahead of the call by sending an e-mail to publicsecurities.enquiries@brookfield.com.

Registration and Webcast Link: https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1559834&tp_key=6a58b03608

Audio Only Dial-In: 800-289-0720 (toll free) or 323-701-0160 (toll)

Event Code: 3091099

A replay will be available via this link shortly following the webcast. A transcript of the call will also be available by calling 855-777-8001 or by sending an e-mail request to the Fund at publicsecurities.enquiries@brookfield.com .

Brookfield Public Securities Group LLC (PSG) is an SEC-registered investment adviser that represents the Public Securities platform of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., providing global listed real assets strategies including real estate equities, infrastructure equities, energy infrastructure equities, multi-strategy real asset solutions and real asset debt. With over $24 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2022, PSG manages separate accounts, registered funds and opportunistic strategies for financial institutions, public and private pension plans, insurance companies, endowments and foundations, sovereign wealth funds and individual investors. PSG is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., a leading global alternative asset manager with approximately $725 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2022. For more information, go to www.brookfield.com.

Center Coast Brookfield MLP & Energy Infrastructure Fund is managed by Brookfield Public Securities Group LLC. The Fund uses its website as a channel of distribution of material information about the Fund. Financial and other material information regarding the Fund is routinely posted on and accessible at www.brookfield.com.

COMPANY CONTACT

Center Coast Brookfield MLP & Energy Infrastructure Fund

Brookfield Place

250 Vesey Street, 15th Floor

New York, NY 10281-1023

(855) 777-8001

publicsecurities.enquiries@brookfield.com

Investing involves risk; principal loss is possible. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

Foreside Fund Services, LLC; distributor.
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fragrance Creators Association (Fragrance Creators) held its Mid-Year meeting today, focusing on stewardship and empowering the unique goodness fragrance delivers to the world and its people. Collectively, the association's membership represents the majority of fragrance manufacturing in North America and reflects the diverseness of the fragrance industry marketplace, from sole proprietors to medium size enterprises, to the largest fragrance houses and consumer products companies in the world. The meeting highlighted the importance of preserving a competitive marketplace which in turn protects access to products and fosters innovation that helps the planet and delivers more good to consumers.

The meeting opened with a grounding in the association's unique purposeto preserve the wellness benefits and generational delight fragrance delivers to billions of people every day. Attendees learned about new, Fragrance Creators-sponsored research, published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications. The first of its kind, this research explores the attraction to scent in household products. Members were encouraged to join the association's Importance & Benefits of Fragrance Committee, which is on track to advance additional research on the essentiality of fragrance in finished products.

"Supporting the success of every size businessfrom large multinational corporations to the independent perfumer businessis what makes our entire industry stronger and better," said Bob Weinstein, Co-Chair of Fragrance Creators and President and CEO, Robertet U.S. "Supplier diversity sits at the heart of our ability as an industry to deliver good for our consumers and the planet."

"The value of an association, like Fragrance Creators, that represents the industry at large, is the collective voice and collective partnership we bring to the table," said Cynthia Reichard, Co-chair, Fragrance Creators and Executive Vice President, Arylessence. "Working in partnership with government and non-governmental stakeholders to develop policies and regulations empowers the fragrance industry to advance real, sustainable benefits for people, perfume, and the planet."

Former Senator Byron Dorgan, Senior Policy Advisor, ArentFox Schiff, headlined the meeting, along with firm colleagues Dan Renberg, Government Relations Practice Co-Leader, and David Loring, Partner. Together, this panel provided updates on the political landscape in Washington, D.C., in the coming years, noting Fragrance Creators' key 2022 policy achievements, and more.

A Fragrance Creators staff panel highlighted the association's preparedness, technical capacity, advocacy impacts, and consumer education assets delivered so far this year. These include:

Breaking new ground by being a first entry trade association to join the metaverse;

Tracking over 90 state bills, the largest number of bills ever tracked in a legislative session, many of which will return in the next session;

Strengthening partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency and the new strides the association has made this year towards approvals of newer, greener chemistries;

Aiding in the passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, securing relief for longstanding maritime shipping challenges;

Publishing research advancing understanding of the benefits and essentiality of fragrance in finished products; and

Adding 500 more fragrance ingredients to The Fragrance Conservatory, bringing the total to 800.

"Reflected in our work is our membership's deep care for people and the planet, which is consistent with a set of values that undergird Fragrance Creators' mission: To advocate for a healthy and dynamic fragrance value chain where all responsible companies can thrive and deliver more good," said Farah K. Ahmed, President & CEO, Fragrance Creators. "This sits at the heart of advancing responsible fragrance industry stewardship."

###

Fragrance Creators Association is the trade association representing the majority of fragrance manufacturing in North America. We also represent fragrance-related interests along the value chain. Fragrance Creators' 60+ member companies are diverse, including large, medium, and small-sized companies that create, manufacture, and use fragrances and scents for home care, personal care, home design, fine fragrance, and industrial and institutional products, as well as those that supply fragrance ingredients, including natural extracts and other raw materials that are used in perfumery and fragrance mixtures. Fragrance Creators established and administers the Congressional Fragrance Caucus, ensuring ongoing dialogue with members of Congress and staff. We are an active participant in IFRA and have a designated representative on the IFRA Board to help ensure the associations' membership is represented in global discussions and the North American perspective is considered in global fragrance positions and policies. Fragrance Creators also produces The Fragrance Conservatory, the comprehensive digital resource for high-quality information about fragrancewww.fragranceconservatory.com. Learn more about Fragrance Creators at fragrancecreators.orgfor people, perfume, and the planet.

MTodd@fragrancecreators.org

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An acorn in front of a shadow of a tree with the quote "a society grows great when old people plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit" - Greek Proverb









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment
GRIMSBY, Ontario, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Andrew Peller Limited (TSX: ADW.A/ADW.B) will issue its financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2022 on:



The afternoon of August 3, 2022

A telephone conference call hosted by John Peller, Chief Executive Officer and Paul Dubkowski, Chief Financial Officer will be held:

Thursday, August 4, 2022 at 10.00 am ET

The telephone numbers for the conference call are:

Local Toronto / International: (416) 764-8659

North American Toll Free: (888) 664-6392

Please tell the operator you are calling for the Andrew Peller Limited conference call. The confirmation number for the call is 58371128.

Following the live call a recording will be available on the Companys web site at www.andrewpeller.com

About Andrew Peller Limited

Andrew Peller Limited is a leading producer and marketer of quality wines in Canada. With wineries in British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia, the Company markets wines produced from grapes grown in Ontarios Niagara Peninsula, British Columbias Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys, and from vineyards around the world.

For more information:

Mr. Paul Dubkowski, CFO and Executive Vice-President, IT

(905) 643-4131
Responsible Investing New sustainable fund comes to New Zealand

Tweet



Edinburgh-based fund manager Stewart Investors launches its sustainable fund in Aotearoa. Wednesday, July 20th 2022, 9:01AM The Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders Sustainability Strategy is the latest international fund to be brought to New Zealand by Implemented Investment Solutions. The strategy holds shares of large and mid-sized companies around the world, in both developed and emerging markets, that have a market cap of at least US$5 billion. It seeks to achieve long-term capital growth for investors through a diversified portfolio of equity or equity-related securities which are listed, traded, or dealt in, on any of the regulated markets globally.



The portfolio team selects companies that are positioned to contribute to, and benefit from, sustainable development. As a result, the strategy has an 85% lower carbon intensity than the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) benchmark.



The fund will aim to exceed the MSCI ACWI over rolling five-year periods (before fees and taxes) but portfolio construction is not limited or constrained by the benchmark. The fund will be able to hold between 40 and 60 investments at any one time.



Managed by Sashi Reddy and David Gait, who are based in Singapore and Sydney respectively, the fund offers New Zealand investors access to Stewart Investors proven global equities and sustainability capabilities.



Stewart Investors launched its first sustainability strategy in 2005 and has since demonstrated that sustainable investing can be a powerful driver of risk adjusted returns over the long term. The team is supported by the heritage of Stewart Investors, dating back to 1988.



The fund will aim to achieve positive social and environmental outcomes by investing in, and proactively engaging with, companies which support positive contributions to the likes of health and wellbeing, financial inclusion, reducing waste, water and energy efficiency, and renewable energy, while avoiding companies that participate in harmful and controversial practices.



The fund is certified by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia.



Sashi Reddy, portfolio manager at Stewart Investors, said: Stewart Investors has a strong track record of sustainable investing, as we launched our first sustainability strategy in 2005 and consistently hold high quality companies in our portfolios for many years  in some cases, for more than 25 years.



We are passionate believers that long term capital can play a productive role in the sustainable development of economies, by allocating capital to productive uses and invest in firms which contribute to a more sustainable future. We do this through our bottom-up assessment approach, which works towards ensuring that all of our investments are best placed to deliver solid absolute returns over the long term.  Sustainable PIEs on menu FMA ratchets up its campaign for better ESG disclosure from fund managers  Special Offers Comments from our readers The portfolio team selects companies that are positioned to contribute to, and benefit from, sustainable development. As a result, the strategy has an 85% lower carbon intensity than the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) benchmark.The fund will aim to exceed the MSCI ACWI over rolling five-year periods (before fees and taxes) but portfolio construction is not limited or constrained by the benchmark. The fund will be able to hold between 40 and 60 investments at any one time.Managed by Sashi Reddy and David Gait, who are based in Singapore and Sydney respectively, the fund offers New Zealand investors access to Stewart Investors proven global equities and sustainability capabilities.Stewart Investors launched its first sustainability strategy in 2005 and has since demonstrated that sustainable investing can be a powerful driver of risk adjusted returns over the long term. The team is supported by the heritage of Stewart Investors, dating back to 1988.The fund will aim to achieve positive social and environmental outcomes by investing in, and proactively engaging with, companies which support positive contributions to the likes of health and wellbeing, financial inclusion, reducing waste, water and energy efficiency, and renewable energy, while avoiding companies that participate in harmful and controversial practices.The fund is certified by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia.Sashi Reddy, portfolio manager at Stewart Investors, said: Stewart Investors has a strong track record of sustainable investing, as we launched our first sustainability strategy in 2005 and consistently hold high quality companies in our portfolios for many years  in some cases, for more than 25 years.We are passionate believers that long term capital can play a productive role in the sustainable development of economies, by allocating capital to productive uses and invest in firms which contribute to a more sustainable future. We do this through our bottom-up assessment approach, which works towards ensuring that all of our investments are best placed to deliver solid absolute returns over the long term. No comments yet Sign In to add your comment Printable version Email to a friend
Rep. Han Ki-ho, who leads a PPP task force on national security incidents involving the previous administration, speaks during a task force meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, July 20. Yonhap



A lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) claimed Wednesday that the preceding Moon Jae-in administration falsely accused two North Korean fishermen of killing 16 fellow crew members before repatriating them in 2019.



The alleged killings were the main reason behind the Moon administration's decision to send the North Koreans back to their homeland, where they could face harsh punishment, even though they had expressed a desire to defect to South Korea.



Rep. Han Ki-ho, who leads a PPP task force on national security incidents involving the previous administration, claimed that the North Koreans had actually planned to help 16 people from five households in the North's northeastern city of Kimchaek flee to South Korea.



"The two were set to guide the 16 people to the South on a fishing vessel but fled when they realized they were being arrested," Han said during a task force meeting at the National Assembly, citing accounts from a North Korean defectors he did not identify.






By Tanya Ogilvie-White





From Aug. 1-26, political leaders and officials from around the world will gather at the United Nations to review the health of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). Much is at stake. Since entering into force in 1970, the treaty has played a crucial role in slowing the spread of nuclear weapons and reducing nuclear dangers. But pressures on the treaty are escalating, and the meeting in New York is likely to be fraught.



There's no point sugar-coating the seriousness of the situation. In Europe, brothers and sisters are at war. Relations between the great powers are the worst they've been in decades. The danger of a nuclear weapons attack is real. Direct and implied nuclear threats between the nuclear weapon states are part of our lives again  something most of us would have considered implausible when the NPT was last reviewed in 2015.



How things have changed. Now, states' nuclear arsenals aren't only being modernized, they're being expanded after years of reductions. New and horrific nuclear weapons systems are being developed and deployed. According to reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin recently announced that by Christmas, Russia will be capable of wiping out the United Kingdom with a single launch.



Other strategic weapons systems and new technologies are proliferating  some of them dual-capable, and with no attempt at control. Some of these pose major risks to strategic stability. Furthermore, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces or INF Treaty (which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons from U.S. and Russian arsenals) is dead, and no one seems to want to talk seriously about arms control anymore.



The situation is also deteriorating here in the Asia-Pacific, despite the region's nuclear-weapons-free zones, the much smaller arsenals of the regional powers, and the no-first-use doctrines of China and India. Nuclear arsenals are growing in size and sophistication, and even beyond the nuclear-armed states, arms racing dynamics are getting stronger and breakout debates are underway. In Japan, there's growing interest in nuclear sharing arrangements.



In South Korea, calls for an indigenous capability have been getting louder. A permissive environment is undermining existing multilateral controls on missiles and related technologies. And although not many people want to admit it, nuclear hedging is well and truly underway. North Korea's nuclear development continues apace and diplomatic efforts to stop it have all but ceased. Tensions over the future of Taiwan and territorial disputes in the South China Sea are incendiary issues that threaten regional conflict.



Amid these worrying developments, political leaders are taking steps that unintentionally feed security dilemmas and undermine the nuclear non-proliferation regime. The AUKUS submarine deal is just one example of many recent defense decisions taken in this region in the name of national security and international stability that could so easily backfire.



Many of these developments are occurring in response to long-term, interrelated trends that go way beyond the NPT and the non-proliferation regime, but which have a powerful impact on it. Three stand out:

Firstly, the ongoing crisis of confidence in the U.N. system, which was exacerbated by the 2003 war on Iraq and continues to reverberate.



Secondly, the uncertainty over the future of the wider rules-based order, and especially over whether and how that order can be upheld and updated as power shifts among the world's most powerful states, a destabilizing dynamic exacerbated by global challenges, such as climate change and energy insecurity are creating new pressures.



Thirdly, the retreat to parochialism that has occurred as political leaders deal with the knock-on effects of these pressures on the domestic front, sometimes resorting to populist policies and false narratives in the process, feeding distrust and uncertainty at all levels, from local communities to international allies and adversaries.



These developments threaten to unravel the international system that has been carefully crafted over several decades, and of which the NPT is part. And the global pandemic, followed by the war in Ukraine, has intensified the pressures in ways that present very real dangers to the non-proliferation regime, including a collapse of confidence in positive and negative security assurances.



That's not the whole story either. There's more, but that's enough. Faced with all these backward steps, it would be easy to become fatalistic. But we mustn't fall into that trap. We can acknowledge the very real difficulties and dangers without generating self-fulfilling prophecies. I strongly believe we can and must stop the nuclear non-proliferation regime from unraveling.



The best way to do that is for states to go into the NPT Review Conference with a determination to practice strategic empathy  to genuinely listen to each other's fears and concerns and to be willing to compromise and prioritize for everyone's sake. It's not about stepping back from or reinterpreting NPT obligations  states should be accountable for the progress or lack of progress in treaty implementation.



However, at the same time, there is a deep, shared fear that needs to be acknowledged and that should help in the immediate task of reaffirming commitments, rebuilding trust, promoting dialogue on strategic stability, creating a plan of action to reduce nuclear risks, and taking steps to keep disarmament alive.



The stakes couldn't be higher as the NPT review conference convenes. The situation is increasingly dangerous, but the meeting offers a genuine opportunity for governments to stop the descent into nuclear arms racing and nuclear war.





Tanya Ogilvie-White is senior research adviser to the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN). Her article is published in cooperation with the APLN (www.apln.network).








Chinese, Finnish FMs hold phone talks

Xinhua) 09:47, July 20, 2022

BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday held a telephone conversation with Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto at the latter's request.

During their phone conversation, Haavisto said that Finnish President Sauli Niinisto attaches great importance to the friendship between Finland and China, and that the friendly relationship between the two heads of state has injected strong momentum into bilateral cooperation.

The joint economic and trade commission between the two countries has carried out productive work, and the Finnish business community has set up a China office and looks forward to expanding business in China, Haavisto said.

Finland continues to adhere to the one-China policy, stands ready to expand economic and trade cooperation with China, resume more flights, and facilitate business and personnel exchanges between the two countries, he said.

Noting that China plays an indispensable role in economic recovery, ecological environment protection and other global issues, Haavisto said Finland is willing to expand cooperation with China in such areas as climate change, green transformation and circular economy.

Finland supports Europe and China in developing a strong relationship and calls for candid dialogue as well as equal and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides, Haavisto said.

He also explained Finland's application for NATO membership and said NATO will remain a defensive alliance.

Wang said that under the guidance of the two heads of state, China-Finland relations have maintained a sound momentum.

The two sides have carried out equal-footed exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation, the China-Finland freight train service, part of the China-Europe freight train service, continues to operate, and the China-Finland Joint Work Plan has achieved important progress, he said.

China is ready to work with Finland to implement the plan in a comprehensive and high-quality way, continue to deepen cooperation in such fields as economy, trade and investment, scientific and technological innovation, green development, connectivity and winter sports, and make good use of cooperative mechanisms like the joint economic and trade commission between the two countries to further release the potential of bilateral cooperation, said Wang.

China is committed to targeted prevention and control measures to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, will resume personnel exchanges in an orderly manner, and speed up the resumption of work and production, Wang said.

He said China is firmly committed to green, low-carbon and sustainable development, will continue to participate in global cooperation on climate change in an all-round manner, and stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination with Finland.

Mutual respect and mutual trust are the key to the development of China-Finland relations, which is at the forefront of China's bilateral relations with Europe, especially with Nordic countries, said Wang.

China appreciates Finland's adherence to the one-China policy, believes the Finnish side will continue to adopt an objective and prudent attitude on China-related affairs, and safeguard the overall interests of bilateral relations, he said.

Wang said the establishment and development of China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership is the result of the concerted efforts of both sides.

Noting that China and Europe have always been partners, not rivals, Wang said it is not in the interest of either China or Europe to play up and even create confrontation between the two sides.

He said China hopes and believes that Finland will continue to play a constructive role in the European Union (EU).

The Chinese and Finnish sides expressed concern over the challenges posed by spillovers from the Ukraine crisis on global food and energy security.

Wang stressed that all parties should work together to cope with global risks caused by the crisis, jointly promote food, energy and financial security, maintain the stability of global industrial and supply chains, and support vulnerable developing countries in overcoming difficulties.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
Seoul, Tokyo have yet to make breakthrough



Foreign Minister Park Jin met with his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi in Tokyo on Tuesday to discuss pending bilateral issues, such as compensation for South Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor. The meeting was the first of its kind between the foreign ministers of the two countries since President Yoon Suk-yeol stepped into office in May of this year. Also, it was the first visit to Tokyo by South Korea's top diplomat since December 2017.



During the meeting, Park explained Seoul's efforts to find a solution to the forced labor dispute and stressed the need for an early settlement. The two ministers also discussed how to lift Japan's export restrictions and reinforce the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) to help improve soured relations between the two countries.



Seoul has been eager to find a breakthrough in the forced labor issue through diplomatic channels, ahead of an imminent forced sell-off of Japanese firms' assets to secure funds to pay compensation to the surviving victims. The new Korean government had expressed hopes for better ties between Seoul and Tokyo following the May 10 inauguration of President Yoon.



Yet the two nations made little progress due to their failure to narrow their differences on the compensation matter. Japan argued that all reparations claims arising from Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula were settled in the 1965 bilateral treaty that led to diplomatic normalization. However, Korea pointed out that the treaty has never covered damage claims by individual victims of Japan's wartime atrocities. Public sentiments of both nations have also hindered a negotiated solution.



Nevertheless, Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been going all out to resolve the issue. For instance, it has been operating a consultative body composed of government officials, experts and representatives of the victims. The body is mulling collecting donations from Korean and Japanese companies so that the Korean government can offer the compensation. Some victims are refusing to take part in the body, calling for sincere apologies from the Japanese government and companies.



Park offered Hayashi some options to solve the problem. He also reportedly told his Japanese counterpart that as most of the victims are too old, it is necessary to resolve the matter as soon as possible. However, the Japanese foreign minister gave no particular response.



Park paid a courtesy call on Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday to convey President Yoon's intent to have a summit meeting at a convenient time. It is time for Japan to take a proactive attitude. It should first open its mind, while refraining from assuming a highhanded manner, demanding that Korea nullify its Supreme Court's ruling that ordered Japanese firms to pay compensation for their wartime forced labor.



Hayashi said Japan will watch closely how the Yoon government responds to the issue and will communicate closely with Korea to put bilateral ties back on track. His remarks were seen as diplomatic rhetoric, lacking real intention to improve ties with Korea. In this regard, Park seemed to return home empty-handed, with no rapprochement in sight. Now the two nations should make more efforts to resolve the history-related issues and move forward toward a better future.


ACWA Power, a leading Saudi developer, investor and operator of power generation, desalinated water and green hydrogen plants worldwide, has signed a memorandum of understanding with POSCO Holdings, the holding company of South Koreas POSCO Group.

The agreement will involve the joint development of green hydrogen and its derivatives such as green ammonia, to decarbonize POSCO Groups power generation and its steel manufacturing processes, along serving other Korean clients of POSCO Group.

Green hydrogen and ammonia produced by the partners through new green field investments will support to meet POSCO Groups targets to produce 500,000 tonnes of hydrogen globally by 2030. POSCO Groups output will be used in applications across diverse industries including the companys own power generation needs, construction, energy, and support other industrial off-takers in South Korea.

As of 2021, POSCO, the steel-making company of POSCO Group, has the capacity to produce 42.9 million metric tonnes of steel, making it the sixth largest steel producer in the world, and the largest in its home country of South Korea.

ACWA Power, alongside Saudi Arabias NEOM and Air Products, is developing the first at-scale green hydrogen project in Saudi Arabia. When complete in 2026, the project will produce 1.2 million tonnes of green ammonia per year for the purposes of decarbonizing industries.
easyJet and Rolls-Royce are partnering to develop hydrogen combustion engine technology capable of powering a range of aircraft, including those in the narrow-body market segment.

Both companies have committed to working together on a series of engine tests on the ground, starting later this year and have a shared ambition to take the technology into the air. The objective of the partnership is to demonstrate that hydrogen has the potential to power a range of aircraft from the mid-2030s onwards.

While Rolls-Royce will bring its expertise in engine development and combustion systems, easyJet will contribute its operational knowledge and experience to H2ZERO and will also directly invest in the test program.

Through H2ZERO, the companies will support an early concept ground test of a Rolls-Royce AE 2100 engine in the UK later this year. This will be followed by a full-scale ground test of a Rolls-Royce Pearl 15 jet enginea range of location options are being assessed for this including the Rolls-Royce test facility in Mississippi. The program will build on initial hydrogen combustion and fuel system rig tests that Rolls-Royce is undertaking with both Cranfield and Loughborough universities.

H2ZERO is inspired by the global, UN-backed Race to Zero campaign that both companies have joined, committing to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The new agreement follows a research project that both companies began in 2021, developing market analysis, driving specifications, investigating infrastructure and regulatory requirements to support the use of hydrogen in aviation.

The H2ZERO partnership has also been created in response to detailed studies and market researchincluding the UK Aerospace Technology Institutes Fly Zero team and Project NAPKIN (New Aviation Propulsion Knowledge and Innovation Network)which both concluded there is market potential for hydrogen-powered aircraft.
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NEW HAVEN  First lady Jill Biden kicked off a three-state tour of summer learning programs funded by her husbands American Rescue Plan with a stop Wednesday at Albertus Magnus College, where about two dozen elementary students were building with Legos, reading books and showing off spirited summer chants.

Biden, a long-time educator, toured a pair of classrooms at the college run by Westport-based nonprofit Horizons, whose programs offer a kind of hybrid summer camp to catch students up on critical reading, writing and math skills while also offering playful activities such as swim lessons.

The learning gap that many children experience over the summer accelerated during the pandemic  especially those with scattered access to online learning  and will serve as a focus for the first ladys trip.

A lot of us missed a lot of time, a lot of days, during the pandemic, the first lady said to a chorus of yeahs from the children. And it was hard to learn over Zoom, dont you think?

Horizons launched the program at Albertus Magnus college last summer with a $140,000 grant from the American Rescue Plan. This year, the program is receiving about half its funding from the federal government, with the other half coming from private donors, according to Jose Oromi, the executive vice president of Horizons National.

The program at Albertus Magnus serves 39 children in kindergarten through 2nd grade, Oromi said. Nationally, Horizons works with about 7,000 children in 20 states and Washington, D.C.

Following her visit to New Haven, Biden will head to a summer academy in Detroit and then to Georgia, where she will visit another Horizon program, according to a spokesman. She is being joined on the tour by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, a former head of the Connecticut Department of Education and assistant schools superintendent in Meriden.

The first ladys plane touched down at Tweed-New Haven Airport around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. Her motorcade of black SUVs arrived at the campus of Albertus Magnus about a half-hour later, where Biden stepped out to embrace an awaiting Cardona, along with Gov. Ned Lamont.

The group then quickly moved out of the sweltering afternoon heat, stopping to meet briefly with parents and educators in Horizons programs before moving on to the classrooms. Neither the first lady nor Cardona took questions from the press during their roughly hourlong visit.

During an assembly that featured a reading of The Deep Blue Sea: A Book of Colors and a racous spirit check, Biden explained her husbands signature legislative accomplishment to the childen sitting criss-cross on the floor.

What my husband did, he said our kids in this country, they need to catch up on their learning, Biden said. So he wrote this plan, The American Rescue Plan that said we are gonna catch up all our kids.

Of the nearly $2 trillion dollars included in the American Rescue Plan Act, the Biden administration set aside $122 billion to reopen schools during the pandemic and to help children struggling with learning loss.

Early research suggests the loss of in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic had a dramatic impact on students education, leading to a decline in academic achievement, particularly for low-income students. One recent study found that the gap in test scores between students in low-poverty schools and high-poverty schools grew by about 20 percent in math and 15 percent in reading during the pandemic.

Connecticut hasnt been immune to this effect. According to a report earlier this year from the state Department of Education, students who learned in person during the 2020-21 school year lost less academic ground than those who learned in hybrid or remote models.

The report also found a decrease in performance on SAT, ACT and advanced placement tests, along with an increase in chronic absenteeism.

The COVID-19 pandemic has broadly affected all areas of human life including education, education commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker said in the report.

For Jacqueline Taylor, a masters student at Albertus Magnus, a friends recommendation for the Horizons program came as a relief last year after she struggled to find an affordable summer camp for her 6-year-old son Bryce. Now in his second year, Taylor said Bryce was excelling in the program while allowing her to go to school nearby.

Everythings so expensive, especially right now, Taylor said. When they said he would be doing swimming lessons, I said This is the place to be.

Bryce was among a group of first graders constructing robots out of Legos Wednesday when the first lady walked into their classroom, kneeling down to listen as the children showed off their creations.

Oromi, the Horizons executive, explained later that after building robots off of a design, the kids were told to construct their own solutions to problems in their communities using the multi-colored blocks. Several incorporated pools into their designs, he said, reflecting their recent swimming lessons.

Aaron Dworkin, the chief executive officer of the National Summer Learning Association, said that programs like Horizon seek to incorporate a focus on academics without the negative stereotypes associated with mandatory programs such as summer school. New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said Wednesday that 4,000 students are enrolled in similar programs across the city this summer.

Summer school, historically, was a real big punishment and punitive and nobody wanted to go, Dworkin said. Meanwhile kids who had more resources got to have great summer experiences, going to camp, going to travel, internships, all these things, we want to combine them both.

The first ladys trip Wednesday marked her third official visit to Connecticut since President Joe Biden was inaugurated, her office said. Her first visit came in March 2021, when she was accompanied by Cardona for a visit to an elementary school in Meriden. Biden also attended a holiday party hosted by the U.S. Submarine Veterans Club in Groton last year.

Later Wednesday, Lamont tweeted a photo of himself, Biden and Elicker eating ice cream at Arethusa Farm Dairy in downtown New Haven.
NEW YORK (AP)  Former Vice President Mike Pence is becoming increasingly brazen in his willingness to counter former President Donald Trump.

The two will hold dueling events in Arizona on Friday as they stump for rival candidates who offer dramatically different visions of the Republican Party in a critical battleground state. Days later, they will once again cross paths as they deliver major speeches on the same day in Washington, D.C.

The encounters mark a more confrontational phase in the fraught relationship between the former running mates and once close confidantes who could soon find themselves competing against one another in the 2024 GOP presidential primary if they both ultimately choose to run.

I think this is a continuation of the larger message that Pence is trying to embody here, which is the Republican Party should look to the future, said Scott Jennings, a longtime party strategist. This is going to be the existential question for the Republican Party: Are we going to listen to a slightly different view than Donald Trumps? Right now, the standard-bearer for this is Mike Pence.

That description marks a striking turnaround for Pence, who spent his four years in the White House as Trumps most loyal defender. But Trump turned on his vice president when Pence refused to go along with his unconstitutional efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, putting Pence in the crosshairs of a violent mob on Jan. 6.

Now Pence, who has repeatedly defended his actions that day, is taking a more active effort to shape the future of the party. This week, Pence endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson in Arizona's Republican gubernatorial primary, pitting himself against Trump, who has endorsed Kari Lake, a former newscaster who has embraced Trump's election lies.

As Arizona Democrats pursue the reckless Biden-Harris agenda, Karrin Taylor Robson is the only candidate for Governor that will keep Arizonas border secure and streets safe, empower parents and create great schools, and promote conservative values, Pence said in a statement announcing his decision.

Pence backed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a top Trump target who easily defeated the former presidents hand-picked challenger this spring. But Pences Arizona move showed a willingness to weigh in on a closer and open race in alliance with the states outgoing GOP governor, Doug Ducey, who also rebuffed Trumps efforts to overturn the election.

Pence is planning to campaign with Robson in Phoenix and southern Arizona Friday  the same day that Trump is set to headline a rally for Lake in Prescott Valley that was rescheduled after the death of his first wife, Ivana Trump. Matt Benson, a Robson campaign spokesman, said Pence would be attending an event at a local employer as well as a briefing on border security while in the state.

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on the events.

Trump and Pence will again cross paths next week as the former president returns to the nation's capital for the first time since leaving the White House. Pence will address the conservative Heritage Foundation on Monday evening and will speak at the Young Americas Foundation's annual National Conservative Student Conference on Tuesday morning. That afternoon, Trump will headline a two-day summit organized by the America First Policy Institute and deliver what organizers said would be a policy-focused speech.

Pence, too, will use his speech before the Heritage Foundation to highlight the policy agenda he released earlier this year and to talk about the future of the party, according to aides. The remarks are expected to offer an implicit contrast with Trump, who has spent much of his energy since leaving office on relitigating the 2020 election.

Pence has urged Republicans to move on, even as he continues to tout the accomplishments of what he often describes as the Trump-Pence administration during his frequent appearances.

Pence also huddled privately Wednesday with the Houses Republican Study Committee, the traditionally conservative caucus he once led as a member of Congress, to discuss his policy agenda. During the meeting, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, thanked Pence for his actions on Jan. 6, according to a person familiar with the exchange who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the closed-door meeting. Pence also committed to helping the GOP in the midterms and in 2024, though he did not explicitly say what role he intends to play.

He then headed to South Carolina for a speech at a Baptist church in South Carolina to discuss the post-Roe world after the Supreme Court overturned constitutional protections for abortions  a position he has long advocated.

Pence's efforts come as Trump is preparing to launch a third campaign for the White House as soon as this summer while he faces a flurry of investigations into his efforts to cling to power. That includes the House Jan. 6 committee, which on Thursday will hold another prime-time hearing, this time spotlighting Trump's refusal to call off the angry mob that stormed the Capitol and sent Pence and other lawmakers into hiding.

While polls show Trump remains the overwhelming favorite in a hypothetical GOP primary, Marc Short, Pences former chief of staff and a top adviser, argued that even if Trump does announce a run, that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be on the ballot two years from now.

As the committee winds down, I'm sure hes looking for a reset that brings attention back on him. And an announcement does not necessarily mean a commitment at the end of that process to continue forward," said Short. I don't think there's any doubt that the president enjoys being the center of attention. And the announcement puts even additional media focus on him."

Trump, meanwhile, has continued to slam Pence for refusing to go along with his scheme to remain in power. At a gathering of Evangelical Christians in Nashville, Tennessee, last month, Trump again said Pence did not have the courage to act," drawing applause.

When it comes to a potential race, Trump does not see Pence as a threat, according to allies, who are much more consumed with Ron DeSantis. The Florida governor is increasingly seen by conservatives as a natural and younger successor to Trump's MAGA movement who can channel the same anger, but with less baggage.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday predicted Trump will face competition in 2024 if he enters the race.

I think were going to have a crowded field for president, he told reporters.

Asked if Pence should run, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, a frequent Trump critic, said it's up to Pence, who has said he'll make a decision after the midterms. The more the merrier," Romney said.

Jennings, meanwhile, praised Pence for being willing to stand up to Trump when so many others in the party still refuse to cross him.

What Mike Pence is doing is extremely valuable. And whether he is a viable candidate for president, I dont know. But hes certainly earned the right to make the case for a post-Trump future," said Jennings.

He may end up being John the Baptist to someone else," he added. "Headless but remembered well.

____

Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Alan Fram in Washington and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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NARVA, Estonia (AP)  For weeks Natalya Zadoyanova had lost contact with her younger brother Dmitriy, who was trapped in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

Russian forces had bombed the orphanage where he worked, and he was huddling with dozens of others in the freezing basement of a building without doors and windows. When she next heard from him, he was in tears.

Im alive, he told her. Im in Russia.

Zadoyanov was facing the next chapter of devastation for the people of Mariupol and other occupied cities: Forcible transfers to Russia, the nation that killed their neighbors and shelled their hometowns almost into oblivion.

Nearly 2 million Ukrainians refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these transfers as forced journeys to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations.

An Associated Press investigation has found that while the picture is more nuanced than the Ukrainian government suggests, many refugees are indeed forced into Russia, subjected to abuse, stripped of documents and unclear about their futures  or even locations.

It starts with a poisoned choice: Die in Ukraine or live in Russia. They are taken through a series of what are known as filtration points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip searches to being yanked aside and never seen again. Refugees described an old woman who died of the cold, her body swollen, and an evacuee beaten so severely that her back was covered in bruises.

Those who pass the filtrations are invited to stay and often promised a payment of about 10,000 rubles ($170) that they may or may not get. Sometimes their Ukrainian passports are taken away, and the chance of Russian citizenship is offered instead. And sometimes, they are pressured to sign documents incriminating the Ukrainian government and military.

Those with no money or contacts in Russia  the majority, by most accounts  can only go where they are sent. The AP verified that Ukrainians have received temporary accommodation in more than two dozen Russian cities and localities.

However, the AP investigation also found signs of dissent within Russia to the government narrative that Ukrainians are being rescued from Nazis. Almost all the refugees the AP interviewed spoke gratefully about Russians who quietly helped them through a clandestine network, retrieving documents, finding shelter, buying train and bus fare, exchanging Ukrainian hryvnia for Russian rubles and even lugging the makeshift baggage that holds the remains of their pre-war lives.

The investigation is the most extensive to date on the transfers, based on interviews with 36 Ukrainians mostly from Mariupol who left for Russia, including 11 still there and others in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia, Ireland, Germany and Norway. The AP also drew on interviews with Russian underground volunteers, video footage, Russian legal documents and Russian state media.

Exhausted and hungry in the basement in Mariupol, Zadoyanov finally accepted the idea of evacuation. The buses went only to Russia.

Along the way, Russian authorities searched his phone and interrogated him. Zadoyanov was asked what it meant to be baptized, and whether he had sexual feelings toward a boy in the camp.

He and the others were taken to the train station and told their destination would be Nizhny Novgorod, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the Ukrainian border. From the train, Zadoyanov called Natalya in Poland. Her panic rose.

Get off the train, she said. Now.

The transfer of hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine is part of a deliberate, systemic strategy, as laid out in government documents.

Some Ukrainians stay in Russia because while they may be technically free to leave, they have nowhere to go, no money, no documents or no way to cross the distances in a sprawling country twice the size of the United States. Others may have family and strong ties in Russia, or prefer to start anew in a country where they at least speak the language. And some wrongly fear that if they return, Ukraine will prosecute them for going to the enemy.

Lyudmila Bolbads family walked out of Mariupol and ended up taking the 9-day train trip to the city of Khabarovsk, near the Chinese border and nearly 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) from Ukraine.

Bolbad and her husband found work in a factory. Little else has gone as theyd hoped.

They handed over their Ukrainian passports in exchange for promises of Russian citizenship, only to discover that landlords will not rent to Ukrainians without a valid identity document. The promised payments are slow to come, and they have been stranded with hundreds of others from Mariupol in a rundown hotel with barely edible food. But if she returns, Bolbad thinks Ukraine would see her as a traitor, and she plans to stay in Russia.

Were trying to return to a normal life somehow, to encourage ourselves to start our life from scratch, she said.

For Ukrainians trying to escape, help often comes from an unexpected source: Russians.

On a recent day in Estonia, a Russian tattoo artist accompanied a family from Mariupol across the border to a shelter.

The tattoo artist, who asked that his name be withheld because he still lives in Russia, was the last in a chain of volunteers that stretched 1,900 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Taganrog and Rostov to Narva, the Estonian border town. He boards in St. Petersburg a couple of times a week, going to Finland and sometimes Estonia.

He said Russians who help know each other only through Telegram, nearly all keeping anonymous because everyone is afraid of some kind of persecution.

I cant stop it, he said of the war and the deportation of Ukrainians to Russia. This is what I can do."

In May, volunteers in Penza in Russia shut down their efforts to help Ukrainian refugees because of anonymous threats. The threats included slashed tires, the Russian symbol Z painted in white on a windshield and graffiti on doors and gates calling them the likes of Ukro-Nazi helpers.

For Zadoyanov and many others, the lifeline out of Russia was Russians.

Zadoyanov got off the train to Nizhny Novgorod with the other Ukrainians, and church contacts there gave them shelter and the first steps in finding a way out of Russia into Georgia.

He was so emotionally damaged, said his sister, Natalya. Everyone was.

___

Anastasiia Shvets and Elizaveta Telnaya contributed from Lviv, Ukraine. Oleksandr Stashevskyi and Inna Varenytsia contributed from Kyiv, Ukraine. Mstyslav Chernov contributed from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Sophiko Megrelidze contributed from Tblisi, Georgia.
An invitation poster sent from Samsung Electronics on Wednesday shows a new foldable phone to be unveiled online, August 10. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics



By Baek Byung-yeul



Samsung Electronics will soon introduce new foldable smartphones  possibly called the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Galaxy Z Flip 4  in a bid to increase its presence in the premium phone market and solidify its image as a bold trailblazer in the new world of foldable phones, according to the company, Wednesday.



Samsung sent an invitational letter to global media and its partner companies saying it will hold the "Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2022: Unfold Your World" online event on Aug. 10.



"Innovation isn't just about radical ideas; it's about unlocking new experiences that transform our daily lives for the better. Meaningful innovations go beyond the technical and provide a platform upon which our everyday lives become richer and more versatile  opening us up to greater possibilities than ever before," Samsung said in a statement.



"To see how these possibilities will come about, join Samsung Electronics on Aug. 10 to learn how the company is pushing boundaries, defying conventions and opening doors to new experiences."



Though the company didn't reveal the specifics of its new products, it is expected to unveil new crops of the foldable phones at the event. Also, the company looks to introduce new wearable devices such as a smartwatch and wireless Bluetooth earbuds.



The industry view is that Samsung may begin receiving preorders for new devices on Aug. 16 for an official release date of Aug. 26.



The two types of foldable phones will be much more advanced than their predecessors in terms of hardware. Both devices are expected to use Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset as their application processors and they will also support an embedded subscriber identity module (eSIM) feature, which is more advanced than a physical SIM card, enabling users to change networks much faster.



The Galaxy Z Fold 4 will have a wider screen from side to side and the interior screen that appears when unfolding the device will have larger dimensions than the previous models.



The device is also expected to weigh less than its predecessor. Samsung reportedly reduced the weight by applying a single hinge instead of the previous version that used two.



The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is believed to have a similar appearance as its predecessor, but a larger-capacity battery.



Samsung is betting big on the foldable phones as it aims to increase its share in the high-priced smartphone market. The company is reportedly known to have produced around 15 million Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 phones, which is almost double compared to last year's foldable phones.



The bold move comes as the company has to compete with Apple, which has the higher-priced smartphone segment cornered, and Chinese rivals that have released or are preparing to release cheaper foldable phones.



Samsung pioneered the foldable smartphone market in 2019 with the Galaxy Fold.


Qualcomm introduced its new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 flagship chipset and makers are now rushing to refresh their performance-oriented devices. Xiaomi already unveiled the 12S series, and it's also about to give us a Redmi phone with the new top chip.

The brand chief Lu Weibing, also known as William Lu, revealed on Weibo there is a new Redmi K50 flagship in the works and it will come soon with the Qualcomm platform.

Lu reposted an image that Xiaomi shared before, confirming 33% better energy efficiency of the Plus CPU and 30% of the GPU. We expected the phone to be called Redmi K50 Ultra but since the series is still bound to the domestic market, we have heard practically nothing about a follow-up.

Some reports suggest the name will be Redmi K50S, akin to the Xiaomi 12S series. However in the past S has denoted a special member of the Redmi lineups rather than an update.

Source (in Chinese) | Via
Carmen Castro was born in a dark, damp Manenggon concentration camp cave the day before U.S. armed forces stormed the island of Guam and liberated the CHamorus from the Japanese during World War II.

As the island celebrates its 78th Liberation Day, Castro would have already blown out the candles of her 78th birthday as a WWII survivor, a former Franciscan nun, a retired top sales executive at Nikon, and a doting and generous aunt to her sanlagu nieces and nephews.

My mom would joke that the reason why youre dark is because you were born in a cave in mud. I remember my mom would say ai adai haga hu youre so dark youre the darkest in the family, but then my dad would say, but its OK my daughter, because youre the smartest, Castro recalled.

My mom never raised me with the idea that Im a loser even though I am dark. The way I look at it, maybe its the release of tension of what she went through and not wanting to recall the pain, the agony and the suffering (during the war).

My mom always said that I was the one that caused her the most pain and I can see why. I think of what my mother went through when she was pregnant with me and the Japanese were beating up people when they were walking the long walk, Castro said of the wartime Japanese atrocities, which included families forced to leave their homes and march to the Manenggon concentration camp.

My brothers were protecting her so she doesnt fall because the minute you fall on that long walk, theyll beat you up.

Castro is the third youngest of 12 children born to Consolacion Valenzuela Castro, of Chalan Pago-Ordot, and Jose Cruz Castro, familian Chala, of Santa Rita-Sumai and Hagatna.

I grew up in a family where when my dad would come home, you better be home with everybody at the table sitting because if youre not there, youre not going to eat dinner, said the former Chalan Pago-Ordot resident who now resides in San Jose, California.

Growing up with a lot of brothers and sisters I dont remember us fighting. But you know if you want to be heard, you need to speak out. When were eating at a table and you want that fruit, you cannot just be quiet. You have to ask for it, you have to speak up.

He would always stress to me to go to school, learn a lot, as much as you can. Be educated and do it your own way, she said of her father, who passed away in 1957.

A role model

With her husband gone, Tan Chong Chala, as she is known on island, raised her 12 children as a single mother working jobs to support her large family but also very active in island politics.

Carmen Castro said she never heard her mother complain. I grew up with a mother thats very strong-willed and very opinionated. But shes the type that would make a decision and if it backfires and does not work, she bears all the guilt and all the errors. She does not blame anybody else for the decision she makes.

In 1976, Tan Chong Chala was honored as Mother of the Year in a ceremony and Mass at the Hagatna Cathedral. She was mother of the year for the entire island, Carmen Castro said. We were so proud of her, she was involved with culture and government and because she raised all us kids after my father died.

In addition to her mothers strong will, bravery, resilience and determination, growing up in postwar Guam in a large family greatly influenced and forged Carmen Castros passions, work ethic and outlook on life.

A rebellious teen

My family was very shocked when I decided to enter the convent because Im so rebellious. Its not that I got into trouble, but its more I am not a yes child. she said of her decision as a 14-year-old to be a Franciscan nun. I went to public school until I was in the seventh grade and then I was sent to a private school in Sinajana, St. Jude. Thats when I decided then to go to the convent.

We were called aspirants, young ladies that are aspiring to be nuns, she recalled of her time at St. Jude School, which later changed to Bishop Baumgartner Junior High School.

After completing 10th grade at St. Jude School, she moved into the convent and was taught by the nuns. Upon graduation, she enrolled at Viterbo University, which was founded by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

I think more than anything else, it was the unknown and the fact that theres a big world out there to see, she said of her decision. When they were teaching us, they taught us about their experiences, the colleges that they went to, the schooling that they had. I was so into that, to be exposed to a lot of different backgrounds.

After graduating from Viterbo University, she returned to St. Jude School as a Franciscan nun and started teaching civics. I wanted to go back to Guam, to help my people, she said. Bishop Flores was the bishop at the time and I loved going back to the high school where I started at.

She was devoted to her students. I remembered the students Arriola, Schnabel, Cepeda, Bamba and Calvo. These were the group of kids that I was teaching, they are intelligent and a lot became leaders, she added. I love what I do and I put a hundred percent of my knowledge and my skills to educate the people that I have in front of me.

Her passion and zeal got her into trouble, especially the after-school consulting. At 7 oclock in the evening, the doorbell rings in the convent and some of my students are asking to speak to Sister Carmen. And of course, I want to be there for them, so I meet them in the lobby of the convent, she said. Then I was reprimanded because I shouldnt be doing that. The nuns wouldnt let me do it because its against the rules.

I always thought that thats why Im there, to be at their disposal. It doesnt make sense and I never understood it she added. I could not cope with being told by the nuns that I cannot help my people because of rules and regulations. So I told Bishop Flores, I said, I cannot deal with this and I need to get out of here because theyre squelching what I believe I should be doing which is to help my people.

She didnt get any backlash from friends and family after leaving the nunnery. No, I didnt get any pressure leaving the convent, Carmen Castro said. Not that that makes any difference if there was because you know, Im doing my own thing. Its not what people want me to do.

After leaving the nunnery, she started working for Clotilde Gould, who at the time was project director of the Chamorro Language and Culture Program.

She hired me to be her assistant not because of my knowledge of the Guam culture, or my knowledge of CHamoru language, Carmen Castro said.

She said she hired me because I was a teacher by profession and that I would help teach the bilingual teachers in Guam how to teach CHamoru.

Did it her way

A couple of years later she decided to move to California and her mother realized her daughter was just as strong-willed and determined as she was.

If thats what you wanted to do go ahead, but dont come back crying, she recalled her mother telling her. So when I came here, in the early 80s, I would not call home and say I need money because I cannot survive. By God, Im going to go and find a job, and Im not calling anyone to help me.

She found herself struggling to find work. She had no luck finding a teaching job and settled on being a secretary at San Jose companies during the early years of Silicon Valley.

My whole goal is hell or high water, Im gonna stay here, Im going to do it on my own, she said. And then later on, share that with people and with friends that I did it. I did it my way, which is my favorite number one song.

She worked at several companies before she was noticed by a recruiter who offered her a job at Nikon.

Its not camera, its not imaging, its not microscope, its semiconductor, she said of the Japanese companys U.S. subsidiary in Belmont, California. I was like, in sales but lower level, but I built myself up to senior manager. Its a job which I loved dearly and I did a lot of traveling to Japan under Nikon.

During trips to Japan, she would convince her bosses to fly back via Guam so she could have a few days on the island visiting friends and family.

The irony of working for a global Japanese corporation is not lost on Castro. And she playfully teases her Japanese counterparts.

I am so proud of growing up on my island and how dare you Japanese try to take our island, she said with a laugh. Theyre very careful around me because Im very outspoken that way.

Castro has more than thrived living in the Bay Area, she bought her San Jose house on a secretarys salary in 1980, rose through the ranks in Silicon Valley companies investing wisely and spent nearly three decades at a job she loves, rising to the level of senior manager of sale operations at Nikon Precision Inc.

It was my upbringing, that I learned to create in my inner self, the determination that I can actually do it. And develop abilities to cope with any situation that comes up, she said.

I have this strong focus on survival. It was my moms upbringing on me, that you know, the reason why youre dark is because you were born in a cave in mud. And always remember that.

After 27 years at Nikon, Carmen Castro invited a select group of present and former co-workers to her retirement party in June 2021.

Over the past year, she sadly witnessed the passing of a sister, a sister-in-law, a cousin and a niece.

What the hell am I doing working? I should be visiting my family and my friends, she said. Thats when I told my boss Im retiring so that I can spend more time with my family and friends. Because they were all dying. There are only four surviving siblings of the 12 children of the Chala clan of Jose and Chong Castro. Carmen didnt have children of her own, but is a doting and generous aunt to her siblings children.

The nieces and nephews that are here, I get together with them. she said of the stateside family gatherings. If nothing else, to maintain the CHamoru culture and share what it is that makes the Chala family special.

Id like to say with the money that Ive made, its not that Im saving it for myself. I will share it with all my family,  she added. Im here to support my family, my nieces and my nephews. So much so that my email address is appulantodo which for me means I am guarding all my family and friends.
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The Coast Guard is increasing patrols around Guam and crews have turned back three boats carrying Chinese nationals in the last few weeks, according to Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero.

But once migrants reach Guam, the local government is powerless to remove them, and federal officials say they can only get involved if migrants arrive at authorized points of entry  the port or the airport.

Leon Guerrero recently discussed the problem of Chinese contract workers traveling to Guam from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands with Homeland Security officials in Washington, D.C.

They dont do anything about it, the governor said. The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol here does not go out to confiscate them like ... they do in those states. They dont do it here. I have no authority to arrest them. And I have no authority to send them back either. Its pretty frustrating.

On the high seas, the Coast Guard can intercept the boats and prevent them from landing. If foreign nationals find jobs here without proper documentation, the Department of Labor can get involved.

But then when you find them, we cant really send them back, the governor said. She has no authority over immigration enforcement.

She said federal officials told her that even if Guam Police Department were to arrest the migrants, immigration authorities would not remove them unless they committed a crime or that they feel that they are a threat to public safety.

Federal officials said the migrants who are coming to Guam have been legally admitted to the CNMI as contract workers, but they are not supposed to leave the commonwealth and travel to other parts of the U.S.

They assured us that people that are coming in, as they know it, are people who have just overstayed their CW status and overstayed their conditional parole status, the governor said. They dont feel that people are there for nefarious actions.

She said the governor of the CNMI has offered to help, but he also has no power to deport people.

The deputy director of Homeland Security also tells me that even if they do want to send them back, and they have the authority to send them back, the (Peoples Republic of China) doesnt want them back either, Leon Guerrero said.
Emergency talks over legislation for a $500 power rebate to ratepayers began Wednesday at the Legislature with some senators questioning whether federal funds could be used to pay for the $25.3 million program.

More residents will feel the impact of rising global oil costs on their monthly power bill this month, Guam Power Authority General Manager John Benavente said during the emergency session for Bill 325.

Increases to GPAs fuel surcharge, the most expensive part of the power bill, took effect this month, and with another taking effect Sept. 1, the average ratepayer using 100 kilowatt hours will see an $80 increase in their bill, he said.

In addition to the fact that in the summer months their consumption naturally rises. So I could say there are going to be a lot of surprises, and pain that theyre going to see.

Skeptical

But some senators were still skeptical about the ability of Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero to use some of the $300 million in the American Rescue Plan under her authority to pay the cost of Bill 325, instead of the local funds earmarked for the rebate.

Adelup finance heads have informed lawmakers that because of federal rules, the money cant be used without implementing another round of income-based verifications. The rebate would go to every commercial and residential ratepayer, regardless of income.

Sen. Joanne Brown requested that Del. Mike San Nicolas be brought in to clarify whether, based on his time in Congress, the ARP money could be used for the rebate.

We hear the administration telling us what it can or cannot be used for. But Ive also seen a lot of this money being used for advertising and electioneering, she said.

CNMI

Sen. Jim Moylan pointed out that the CNMI government recently used the $7.5 million ARP money to provide $500 rebates to their power customers.

Im sure they got the same rules that we have. But some of their interpretation says they agree they can use this.

Director of Administration Ed Birn said that the CNMI lacked the nearly $100 million revenue surplus Guam was holding this fiscal year to cover a rebate.

He said that the rising oil prices that were driving power bills up were caused by the war in Ukraine and did not have to do with COVID-19  the main reason the ARP funds were distributed.

Maybe somebody else can go through it and point it out to me, but I can find no evidence in the final federal guidance that the power rate offset would be covered, Birn said.

When $15 million of the money went to GPA to prevent a rate hike last year, the ARP was still operating under much less structured rules from the U.S. Treasury, which have since been replaced by a final rule.

Public Auditor Benjamin Cruz agreed that the amount may be found to be more Ukraine-related than it was pandemic.

Federal scrutiny

Cruz cautioned that the federal scrutiny over the billions in federal relief funding that has been flowing to Guam through the course of the pandemic has been increasing.

In 2020, auditors only questioned how $1.3 million out of $837 million in federal funding was spent. In 2021, the questioned costs jumped to $41 million out of roughly $1 billion in federal funding.

About half of the questioned costs were related to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, according to Birn.

Cruz said was glad that the administration was being cautious because I just dont want next years questioned costs to go to $75 million or to $100 million.

Senators were still questioning Cruz, Birn and Benavente as of 5 p.m. Wednesday.

At the request of Sen. Frank Blas, lawmakers recessed until Monday at 10 a.m. to call Del. San Nicolas into the session hall for input on the potential use of the ARP money.
Nicholas Moores attorneys are asking that the court release him into the custody of his mother following his confinement in the Department of Corrections last week.

Moore appeared in the Superior Court of Guam via Zoom call from DOC Wednesday afternoon as his attorneys, William Gavras and Michael Phillips, argued for his release after a fifth reported violation.

In April 2021, Moore was charged in connection to a shooting in Agana Heights and after his first hearing paid a $100,000 cash bail to be placed on electronic monitoring and house arrest.

Since then, he has racked up violations that include two unauthorized stops, two instances of failing to submit drug tests and one positive drug test. Moores most recent violation, which put him in DOC on July 13, was a stop at Days Inn in Tamuning.

Rather than continue with house arrest and electronic monitoring, Gavras and Phillips asked that Judge Alberto E. Tolentino release Moore into the custody of his mother, who would be responsible with supervising him at all times. Additionally, any further violations from Moore would require his mother to report them or face possible incarceration.

(Moore) must remain within 25 feet of her at all times, Gavras said to Tolentino.

Assistant Attorney General Sean Brown opposed Moores release to his mother for several reasons, including concerns that Moores mother may be a witness in the case.

Brown said after the alleged shooting, Moores mother contacted his co-defendant, Eric Salone.

I do know for a fact that she did ask Mr. Salone where they were the night of the shooting in this case, said Brown, who didnt intend to call her as a witness during the trial.

Following arguments, Tolentino announced Magistrate Judge Jonathan R. Quan will make a decision on the matter.
A retired police lieutenant facing terrorizing charges still remains without a lawyer to represent him.

More than a month after it was revealed a former Guam Police Department Lt. Jojo Templo Garcia was charged with terrorizing, reckless conduct and official misconduct, he still has not retained the services of an attorney.

Garcia appeared in the Superior Court of Guam before Magistrate Judge Benjamin C. Sison Jr., where he was scheduled to enter a plea Wednesday morning.

However, Garcia told Sison he didn't think he would be able to afford an attorney, considering he had recently retired.

"Unfortunately, I am indigent," Garcia told Sison.

Last month, GPD spokeswoman Officer Berlyn Savella said Garcia had retired from the department in May.

Garcia said he has a $4,000 a month pension from the government of Guam, which Sison initially thought was too much money to qualify for a court-appointed attorney. Assistant Public Defender Jocelyn Roden then confirmed Garcia did not qualify for her office's services.

Another hearing will be held Aug. 3 to allow Garcia more time to hire an attorney.

Garcia was charged by indictment, which did not reveal much detail of the circumstances surrounding his charges. However, a video that circulated on social media in December 2021 showed Garcia arguing with individuals outside of a residence while carrying what appeared to be a rifle.




Unionized workers of Korea's top carmaker Hyundai Motor voted to approve a wage deal with the management Tuesday, averting a labor strike for the fourth consecutive year, the company said.







Some 61.9 percent of 39,125 workers who cast a ballot voted for this year's wage agreement, which calls for a 98,000 won ($74.92) increase in basic monthly pay, according to the company.







Last week, the management and the union agreed upon the deal following 16 rounds of negotiations, which also includes the construction of a new electric vehicle (EV) factory in Ulsan, some 310 kilometers southeast of Seoul, and more new hires.







It marked the fourth straight year that the two sides reached a wage deal without a labor strike.







Hyundai will begin the construction of an EV factory next year, with a goal to start production in 2025, according to the agreement.







It would be the first construction of a car plant in the country by Hyundai since 1996, when it built one in Asan, 87 kilometers south of Seoul. (Yonhap)






Assistant Attorney General Richelle Canto at the trial of Frank Ko San Nicolas, who is facing sexual assault charges, at the Guam Judicial Center in Hagatna on July 5, 2022. Canto says she is resigning as a prosecutor, effective once the jury in the trial returns with a verdict in the case.
Letter: I have gained a much deeper appreciation of the phrase: We forgive but will never forget
The first media evaluations of Intel's Arc A380 reveal that it is a trainwreck. Intel never seeded any sample, but just made the product available in China, some websites have gotten their hands on a product. And they're not happy.

We'll go by the way of Germany based ComputerBase, The GPU is clashing with AMD's RX 6400 and NVIDIA's GTX 1650. The driver is also a "construction site," the critic notes. The graphical difficulties necessitate several restarts.

Gaming with Intels Arc A380, even with the latest driver, is like living in the middle of a minefield  mind you, playing while drunk. There is no other way to describe the past working days with the Arc A380. You dont even know where to start. In its current state, it is completely incomprehensible how a large and reputable company like Intel can sell such a product to even a single customer. In addition, the Arc A380 likes to struggle with stuttering in games that, for example, make Fortnite unplayable despite sufficient FPS. There are a few other titles that suffer from the problem, The Witcher 3, for example, does not run smoothly either. However, frame pacing is generally still a decent job in everyday life with the Intel Arc A380, many games show minor to major problems.  Wolfgang Andermahr, ComputerBase

As it seems the product is a mess ... is rBAR dependent; on top of that, Arc 380 drivers do not support ReBar on AMD's Ryzen CPUs; the functionality only works with this technology on Intel's own processors. Then it offers bad frametime stutters combined with low-performance and high energy consumption. Outside of China, Intel Arc A380 graphics cards are not currently available for purchase. Arc Alchemist architecture will not be accessible for DIY clients in other locations, according to the business. Below are a couple of screenshots with results courtesy of computer base, as well as a frame time plot from Golem where you can read up on the content.

Geforce GTX 1650 Arc A380 RX 6400 chip TU117 (partially activated) ACM-G11 (full expansion) Navi 24 (partially activated) production TSMC 12FF (DUV) TSMC N6 (EUV) TSMC N6 (EUV) transistors/area 4.7 billion @ 200 mm 7.2 billion @ 157 mm 5.4 billion @ 107 mm shaders 896 (14 SMS) 1,024 (8 XeCs) 768 (12 CUs) TMU's 56 64 48 Ray Units no 8th 12 GPU clock 1485/1665MHz 2,000MHz 2039/2321MHz video memory 4 GB GDDR5 6 GB GDDR6 4 GB GDDR6 interface 128 bits @ 8 Gbps 96 bits @ 15.5 Gbps 64 bits @ 16 Gbps bandwidth 128 GB/s 186 GB/s 128 GB/s + 0.46 TB/s ROPs 32 16 32 L2 cache 1 MB 4 MB 1 MB board power 75 watts 75-87 watts 53 watts PCIe Gen3 x16 Gen4 x8 Gen4 x4










Korea's dependence on Japanese materials and parts fell to an all-time low in the first half of this year, three years after Tokyo's control of exports of key materials bound for Seoul, data showed Wednesday.







Imports of Japanese materials, parts and equipment came to $20.07 billion during the January-June period, accounting for 15.4 percent of Korea's overall purchase of those goods, according to the data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.







It is the lowest figure for any half-year period since the government began compiling related data in 2012.







The comparable figure for the first half of last year came to 24.2 percent.







In July 2019, Japan imposed tighter regulations on exports to Korea of three materials that are critical for the production of semiconductors and flexible displays.







Korea views the Japanese move as retaliation against 2018 Korean Supreme Court rulings ordering Japanese firms to compensate Korean victims of forced labor during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.







Since the curbs, Korea has enacted a special law and extended various supportive measures to help Korean companies boost the competitiveness of the sector.







The rate of imports of 100 key items, such as hydrogen fluoride, fell to 24.9 percent last year from 30.9 percent in 2019, according to the ministry.







"We've seen achievements in several projects meant to domestically produce key items," a ministry official said. "We expect to further reduce our reliance on Japanese items down the road." (Yonhap)






E1 completed the construction of an 8MW-class solar power generation complex in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province. Courtesy of LS Group



By Kim Hyun-bin



LS Group is accelerating its "ambidextrous management" as it wants to expand both current and future growth opportunities amid the uncertain global business environment, according to LS officials, Wednesday. "Ambidextrous management" is an organizational strategy that promotes both main and new business simultaneously.



It has been the management strategy of LS Group Chairman Koo Ja-eun, and aims to maintain a technological gap in fields such as electricity, power and materials, while boosting future growth opportunities such as renewable energy and electric vehicle (EV) charging.





LS Group Chairman Koo Ja-eun




By Kim Jae-heun







Hyundai Motor will take the first step in advancing into the Japanese electric vehicle market by supplying its IONIQ 5 to MK Taxi, the company said Wednesday.







Starting next month, the automaker will supply 50 IONIQ 5 cars to the Japanese taxi firm based in Kyoto. MK Taxi will first operate 50 and then increase the number to 700 over time.







Japan is often dubbed the "graveyard for imported cars." Here, Hyundai revealed its goal to re-enter the Japanese market  after 12 years  with its electric and hydrogen-electric vehicles in February. Hyundai Motor is said to be ahead of Japanese automakers in the green car sector.







The IONIQ 5 is the first electric vehicle developed that is based on Hyundai Motor's electric vehicle platform, E-GMP. It has been recognized worldwide for its quality after it was selected as World Car of the Year at the 2022 World Car Awards in April.







The Korean carmaker expects its electric vehicle to provide Japanese taxi passengers with a comfortable ride with its spacious interior and electric sliding seats.







The IONIQ 5 can drive up to 618 kilometers on a single charge and reduces the fatigue of taxi drivers with its low noise and reduced trembling.







"IONIQ 5 is a car with the best commercial quality that offers long driving mileage with a spacious and pleasant interior. We hope that the model will become Kyoto's representative EV taxi that contributes to the realization of carbon neutrality in the Japanese prefecture," a Hyundai Motor official said.







MK Taxi is well-known for providing high-quality service in Japan. In 1995, it was selected as the World's Best Service Company by U.S. magazine Time.








Shin Hanul nuclear reactors in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province Korea Times file
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, July 18. AP-Yonhap



Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday it is the West's own fault that the flow of Russian natural gas to European customers has dwindled and warned that it could continue ebbing.



Putin's statement further cranked up pressure on the European Union, which fears Russia could cut off gas to wreak economic and political havoc in Europe in the winter.



Speaking to Russian reporters in Tehran, where he attended the talks with the leaders of Iran and Turkey, Putin said the amount of gas pumped through the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany will fall further from 60 million to 30 million cubic meters a day, or about one fifth of its capacity, if a turbine isn't quickly replaced.



He added that Russia could launch the recently completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline that has never entered service, but noted that it would only have half of its designated capacity because the rest has been used for domestic needs.



The Russian leader also warned the West that its plan to cap the prices of Russian oil as part of its sanctions over Ukraine will destabilize the global oil market and make prices soar.



''We are hearing some crazy ideas about restricting the volumes of Russian oil and capping the Russian oil price,'' he said. ''The result will be the same  a rise in prices. Prices will skyrocket.''



Since Russian troops rolled into Ukraine in February, the EU has approved bans on Russian coal and most oil to take effect later this year but did not include natural gas because the 27-nation bloc depends on it to power factories, generate electricity and heat homes.



However, Russia's Gazprom state-controlled natural gas giant reduced gas deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany by 60% last month, citing technical problems after a turbine that Siemens sent to Canada for overhaul couldn't be returned because of sanctions. Canada and Germany made a deal to return the turbine, but Putin said Tuesday that Gazprom still hasn't received the relevant documents.



The Russian leader said that Gazprom was to shut another turbine for repairs in late July, and if the one that was sent to Canada isn't returned by that time the flow of gas will ebb even more.



As another reason for the supply reduction, he pointed out that Ukraine closed a branch of a transit pipeline carrying Russian gas to the West through territory controlled by Moscow-based separatists. (AP)


Looking for a Judaism 101 book to start your Jewish learning?

The most frequent emails we receive at My Jewish Learning are variations of this: Help! I want to learn about Judaism, and I know almost nothing. Where do I start?

Although we joke that we should advise people to read every article on our site, the fact is that Judaism is a huge and overwhelming topic. And the problem is not a shortage of readily available information. Rather, its that there are so many articles, resources and books out there that it is difficult to know where and how to begin. Not to mention that books...
The Farber family, adhering to Jewish tradition even after the murder of their 4-year-old daughter Yocheved, continued used this Kosher cooking pot as a symbol of resistance, inscribed in Hebrew: "in this pot kosher food was cooked in the Vilna ghetto for a girl who was taken to be annihilated."

(New York Jewish Week) - A young child's diary, a favorite doll, a cookbook of family recipes, a report card, a Torah scroll smuggled to the United States and a silver spoon found among the rubble at a concentration camp.

All of these objects are on display in "The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do," an expansive new permanent exhibition at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan that opened over the holiday weekend. The exhibit emphasizes the individual human stories and the Jewish lives lived before, during and after the Holocaust.

The 12,000-square-foot, two-story exhibit attempts to...
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has made demonizing Israel a central component of her platform since emerging on the scene in 2012, when she tweeted that the Jewish state hypnotized the world with its evil doings.

Understandably, the Jewish community has opposed Omar, who has promoted a variety of antisemitic tropes, accusing the U.S. leading pro-Israel advocacy group of paying elected officials to support the Jewish state, promoting the anti-Israel BDS movement, and spreading the dual loyalty canard about American Jews.

While the Jewish community has justifiably opposed...
(JTA)  Ben & Jerrys is not letting go of its West Bank pullout goal without a fight  with its parent company.

The iconic ice cream brand has filed a lawsuit against Unilever over its decision last week to sell the Israeli arm of the business to Israel-based franchise, American Quality Products, Ltd., which will continue to sell Ben & Jerrys in the West Bank.

Ben & Jerrys says that Unilevers decision was made without the brands boards consent, and wrote in a statement on Tuesday that stopping the sale is necessary to protect the social integrity that the ice cream...
(JTA)  For many Britons, Boris Johnson's tenure as prime minister will have been defined by scandals like the one that forced him to resign on Thursday.

For Jewish Britons, the memories might well include a broken menorah.

Elected in 2019, the Conservative Party leader announced Thursday that he would step down after his cabinet collapsed amid his latest scandal - the way Johnson handled the case of a senior official who had been accused of sexual abuse. Johnson has also come under criticism for his violations of the United Kingdom's COVID-19 rules and his alleged failure to report some...
(JTA)  Yair Lapid might only be Israels interim prime minister, but he appears to be determined to maximize the position in the four months he is guaranteed to occupy it.

In a speech delivered Saturday night, Lapid laid out a set of beliefs that he said bind Israelis of all ideologies, as well as his diagnosis for why widespread agreement on fundamental ideas hasnt translated into political harmony.

The answer is politics, he said in the speech, published in English by the Times of Israel and in adapted form in Hebrew by Lapid on Twitter.

In Israel, extremism doesnt com...
Flowers and a message left in memory of the victims at the scene of the shooting.

Kevin and Irina McCarthy were at an Independence Day parade in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Highland Park with their two-year-old son Aiden when a gunman opened fire on the crowd. Kevin died as he shielded Aiden with his body.

Both parents, in their 30s, were among the seven killed. Some 50 others were injured either by gunshots or while fleeing. As of July 6, nine people were still hospitalized.

Police arrested 21-year-old Robert Crimo III, who faces seven charges of first degree murder.

Lauren Silva, daughter of Longwood residents Dr. Steven and Karen Selznick, who had come to the a...
Says Jewish students are targets and dismissed when they see the writing on the wall.

(JNS)  Two months after The Harvard Crimsons editorial staff endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a Jewish Harvard student hit back in the same paper.

The Crimson Editorial Board published an editorial on April 29 titled, In Support of Boycott, Divest, Sanctions and a Free Palestine wherein they declared that they were proud to endorse Palestinian liberation and BDS.

The Crimsons associate editor Gemma J. Schneider responded to the edito...




The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a voluntary target for EU countries to cut their gas use 15 percent until March, which could be made legally binding if Russia cuts off gas supplies to Europe.







The target would be for countries to cut their gas use by 15 percent from August to March, compared with their average consumption in the same period during 2016 to 2021. The Commission could make the target mandatory if it declares there is a substantial risk of severe gas shortages in the European Union.







The proposal needs approval from a reinforced majority of EU countries. Diplomats from EU states are set to discuss it on Friday, with the aim of approving it at a meeting of EU countries' energy ministers on July 26. (Reuters)


You never know when an emergency will happen  but you can count on JFS Orlando to be there for support. Back in April, staff members from the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando and the Roth Family Jewish Community Center were attending a conference at the Michael Ann Russell JCC in South Florida, when suddenly they had to go into lockdown due to a shooting at the pool on campus (Please see article JFGO members witness to shooting at Miami-Dade JCC, April 15 Heritage issue).

Thankfully all JFGO and JCC staff were unharmed, however, the shock of experiencing a real-life, active sho...
Jack Abraham with his family Torah, which has been used by his family and the Jewish community around the world for almost two decades.

(New York Jewish Week) - A family Torah belonging to a New York City jeweler was reported stolen at the Venetian Resort hotel in Las Vegas last month.

Jack Abraham, who has run a jewelry business under his name since 1962 in Manhattan's Diamond District, told the New York Jewish Week that the Torah was taken on Sunday, June 12, during the Luxury JCK trade show at the Venetian Hotel.

"I've been going to the expo since its inception for 25 years," Abraham said. "I organize Shabbat services there. Every year I take my Torah. I left it there, it was in the room [where services were held], I...
(JTA)  More than four months into its devastating war against Russia, Ukraine is sending a new message to the worlds Jews: Dont come here for Rosh Hashanah.

Tens of thousands of Jews flood into Uman, a central city that is home to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, a 18th-century Jewish luminary, annually for the Jewish new year. Even in the first year of the pandemic, when global travel ground to a halt and the gathering was officially banned, Jewish pilgrims sought to make their way to Uman.

This year, their security cannot be guaranteed, Ukraines ambassador to Israel, Yev...
(JNS)  The organized Jewish communitywhether local Jewish community relations councils or national groups like the Jewish Council on Public Affairs, the American Jewish Committee or the Anti-Defamation Leagueand the religious denominations say theyre committed to two positions.

On the one hand, all of them purport to be strong supporters of social justice, which is to say that they are, at least in principle, in favor of helping poor children and families, regardless of their background, race or religion, break the cycle of poverty and succeed by getting an education.

On the oth...
Dear Editor:

The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando website outlines the details of the Jewish Community Relations Council directives. Nothing within those directives mandate a response to the Supreme Courts recent ruling. Specifically, under the Social Action directive, the Supreme Court ruling is hardly an issue that affects global Jewish issues. Under the Issues Advocacy section, neither religious practice nor . support on behalf of Israel and oppressed communities. fall within the scope of the Courts ruling. Perhaps one might stretch to an impact on advocacy for...
(JNS)  The bullet that the Palestinian Authority handed over to U.S. officials may or may not have been the one that killed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin earlier this year.

The bullet may or have been too damaged to determine conclusively whose gun it came from.

The bullet may or may not have been fired by an Israeli soldier.

All that matters is who bears responsibilitylegal and moral responsibilityfor Aklehs death. And it has been indisputably clear from day one who the guilty parties are: the Palestinian Arab terrorists who initiated the gun battle that resu...
(JTA)  For years I worked in an office where, in order to make an outside phone call, you had to dial 9 plus 1 plus your number. At least once a week, the police would show up in the lobby because someone had accidentally dialed 9-1-1. The head of HR would scold us for not being more careful, and I would think, just change the system!

In Jewish law there is a name for rules or actions that would tempt even the innocent to make a mistake  or worse, a sin: lifnei iver. It comes from Leviticus 19:14: You shall not  place a stumbling block before the blind. Beyond its liter...
(JTA)  Agudath Israel of America, the national Orthodox Jewish organization for which I work, welcomed the U.S. Supreme Courts reversal of Roe v. Wade. Predictably, we were immediately cast into an enemy or ally box, depending on who was doing the casting.

The first group assumed that we dont care about women; the second, that we were embracing the Christian evangelical agenda.

Neither is remotely the case. We care about Judaism and embrace only it.

From a Jewish perspective, to be sure, the contention that there can be entirely proper reasons for a woman to seek an...
(JNS)  A disparate group of Islamist clerics has been busily predicting that the State of Israel will disappear in 2022, citing the Koran for support.

The prediction has been circulating in earnest since March, when Muslims around the world marked the holy month of Ramadan. According to an article on the pro-Hamas MEMO website by Mohammad Makram Balawi, a Palestinian writer living in Istanbul, the belief that Israel will be removed from the map at some point this year is widely spread by some Muslim religious scholars, Palestinian and non-Palestinian.

Balawi mentioned two clerics i...
Federal Grand Jury Indicts Accused Tops Shooter on Federal Hate Crimes and Firearms Charges in Buffalo, New York

A federal grand jury today returned a 27-count indictment charging Payton Gendron, 19, of Conklin, New York, with 14 violations of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (Shepard-Byrd Act) and 13 firearms offenses in connection with the mass shooting at the Tops grocery store on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo, New York. The announcement was made by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross for the Western District of New York, and Special Agent-in-Charge Stephen Belongia of the FBI Buffalo Field Office.

The indictment alleges that on or about May 14, Gendron opened fire with a Bushmaster XM rifle and shot multiple individuals in and around the Tops grocery store, which resulted in the deaths of 10 Black people, as well as injury to three others. The indictment charges that Gendron violated the Shepard-Byrd Act by willfully causing the death of the victims because of their actual and perceived race and color.

In total, the 27-count indictment charges Gendron with 10 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, three counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill three injured individuals, and one hate crimes count alleging that Gendron attempted to kill additional Black people in and around the Tops grocery store. The indictment also charges Gendron with 13 counts of using, carrying, or discharging a firearm in relation to the hate crimes, and seeks forfeiture of items, including the weapon used in the shooting. The indictment further includes special findings alleging, among other things, that Gendron committed the offense after substantial planning and premeditation to commit an act of terrorism.

Today, a grand jury has indicted Payton Gendron with hate crime and firearms offenses following the horrific attack on the Black community of Buffalo that killed 10 people and injured three others on May 14, 2022, said Attorney General Garland. The Justice Department fully recognizes the threat that white supremacist violence poses to the safety of the American people and American democracy. We will continue to be relentless in our efforts to combat hate crimes, to support the communities terrorized by them, and to hold accountable those who perpetrate them.

Upon conviction, the charges in the indictment carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment or the death penalty. The Attorney General will decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later time. Should the Attorney General determine that the circumstances of the offense are such that a sentence of death is justified, the law requires that notice be filed with the court at a reasonable time before trial. Gendron is currently in state custody pending state criminal charges.

The indictment is the result of an investigation by the FBI Buffalo and Albany Field Offices; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Buffalo Office; the Buffalo Police Department; the New York State Police; and the Erie County Sheriffs Office. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph M. Tripi, Brendan T. Cullinane, and Brett A. Harvey of the Western District of New York and Trial Attorney Shan Patel of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division.

More information about the Departments hate crimes efforts, including facts and statistics, case examples, and a searchable collection of the Departments resources for law enforcement, community groups, researchers, and others are available at www.justice.gov/hatecrimes.

An indictment is merely an allegation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

This story has been published on: 2022-07-19. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Xi's visit inspires museum workers

China Daily) 09:59, July 20, 2022

Visitors play an interactive game in May featuring the ancient Silk Road at an exhibition at the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum in Urumqi, the regional capital. [Photo/CHINA NEWS SERVICE]

Relics are proof of central authorities' administration of Xinjiang over ages

President Xi Jinping's visit to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum on July 13 has inspired workers at the museum to carry out innovations to ensure that the institution can better tell stories about the region.

The museum, which was established in 1959, has collected around 25,000 sets of historical documents and cultural relics, and plays an active role in strengthening ethnic unity, fostering patriotism and passing on the fine traditions of Chinese civilization.

An ongoing exhibition at the museum chronicles the history of Xinjiang from the Paleolithic periodalso called the Old Stone Ageto the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and displays more than 1,500 sets of cultural relics, among which 500 are making their debut to the public.

Among the exhibits are letters from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), which had been unearthed at the Kiyakkuduk beacon tower site in Yuli county in Xinjiang. In March, the site was listed among the country's top 10 new archaeological discoveries of 2021.

In addition, brocade discovered in the ruins of Niya in Xinjiang, on which there are eight Chinese characters that translate as "five stars rise in the East, benefiting China", is also displayed. It is thought to date from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) and is widely regarded as a national treasure and a testament to the communication between different ethnic groups in ancient China.

"These relics provide strong evidence that the central authorities exercised administration over Xinjiang throughout the ages," said Yu Zhiyong, the museum's curator.

During Xi's visit to the museum, he noted that Chinese civilization, consisting of the fine cultures created by different ethnic groups, is extensive and profound, and has a long history stretching back to antiquity.

"Great importance should be attached to the study of the origins and formation of Chinese civilization," Xi said.

It is necessary to strengthen research on the history of the community of the Chinese nation and the pattern of the pluralistic unity of the Chinese nation, fully excavate and effectively use those historical facts, archaeological objects and cultural relics of the exchanges between various ethnic groups in Xinjiang, and make it clear that Xinjiang has been an inseparable part of the country and a multiethnic area since ancient times, he said.

"All ethnic groups in Xinjiang are important members of the big family of the Chinese nation who are linked by blood and share a common destiny."

Xi's words inspired Yu and his colleagues to keep telling stories about the cultural exchanges among different ethnic groups throughout history, and those stories show that Xinjiang has been in close contact with the Central Plains area since ancient times.

"The cultural relics can help tell the public the stories of Xinjiang," said Yu. "Meanwhile, we're exploring innovative ways to enable visitors from different ethnic groups to better experience the history and cultures of Xinjiang, as well as actively share and interact with what we offer in the museum."

The museum has been upgraded over the past four years. It reopened to the public on May 18 after its total area and number of exhibits had been doubled, and it can now receive up to 2 million visitors annually.

Technologies such as virtual reality and holographic projection are now widely applied in the museum, ensuring its visitors can enjoy an immersive experience that allows them to fully appreciate the historical stories behind each cultural relic.

In a digital exhibition hall, Reyhangul Tursun, a visitor to the museum, used a virtual-reality headset to experience the excavation site of the "Princess of Xiaohe", a naturally preserved female mummy found at the Xiaohe cemetery in Lop Nor, a largely dried-up salt lake in southeastern Xinjiang.

She said she could use the device to also experience a number of other archaeological sites across Xinjiang.

"It's an amazing experience that aroused my curiosity about the daily life of the inhabitants of the Xiaohe site around 4,000 years ago, and how they coped with the harsh natural conditions in and around Lop Nor."

In addition, three-dimensional images of more than 20,000 exhibits have been created for visitors to observe each of them from a 360-degree perspective.

Visitors can zoom in to see the details of the relics, experience the process of repairing an antique and attempt to put the digital items in a certain position in the virtual space according to their own ideas about curating an exhibition.

"If an idea can be approved by experts, we can even make it happen in physical exhibitions. We hope that such kind of interactive activities can strengthen the appeal of our museum," said He Jia, Party secretary of the museum.

Stage performances that tell the historical story behind the exhibits and scenes from the life of ancient people are also regularly performed by art troupes at the museum.

During the five-day holiday of the annual Corban Festival, also known as Eid al-Adha, earlier this month, the museum received an average of more than 5,000 visitors every day.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
Homemakers Furniture is re-imagining the world of digital retail with the launch of its new e-commerce website. Homemakers.com, first launched in 2008, has transitioned from a once static website to the furniture brands first e-commerce site in 2014.

With this new website, launched in April of 2022, customers can expect a seamless browsing and checkout experience, an expansive offering of products, the future integration of shopping technology and quick and easy access to customer support and service.

As a company, we are investing heavily in our e-commerce and digital strategy. This new website gives us the tools we need to make sure were providing the best online shopping experience for our customers, Jason Merschman, Homemakers AVP said.

Homemakers saw a 243% growth in online revenue when looking at the past two years and comparing them to the two years prior. Fueled by the COVID pandemic, the furniture retailer has had to pivot to best serve customers.

For almost 50 years, weve built our business based on excellent customer service, great prices, and a seemingly endless selection of products. As the retail industry changes, this new site will allow us to adapt while staying true to our core values and points of difference, Merschman said.

First opening its showroom doors in 1974, Homemakers has built a reputation for providing a jaw dropping shopping experience to customers visiting the 215,000 square foot showroom. The new homemakers.com was designed to replicate that shopping experience on digital platforms.

Digital innovation is our top priority. Were excited to position ourselves as leaders in the online shopping industry not only to attract new customers but to meet our current customers where they are at, Merschman said.
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IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG), one of the world's leading hotel companies, is proud to announce the signing of InterContinental Athenee Palace Bucharest, marking the return of the InterContinental Hotels & Resorts brand to Romania.

Set to open in January 2023, IHG is working with long-standing business partner ANA Hotels, one of the largest Romanian-based hotel owners, to create a truly iconic hotel in the heart of Bucharest. ANA Hotels has owned and operated IHG's popular Crowne Plaza Bucharest for many years.

With the building dating back to 1914, InterContinental Athenee Palace Bucharest will comprise 283 guest rooms, with many boasting panoramic views of Ateneului Park and the Romanian Athenaeum. The hotel is located in the heart of the city close to Palace of the Parliament, one of the world's largest buildings, and is just a 40-minute drive from Henri Coanda International Airport.

In 2021, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts marked its 75th Diamond anniversary, and currently has 31 open hotels across Europe, the business is continuing to flourish. Recent signings include InterContinental Resort Crete, InterContinental Resort Amma, Canj - Montenegro and InterContinental Rome Ambasciatori Palace.

Facilities at the InterContinental Athenee Palace Bucharest will include Roberto's - a stylish breakfast area and all-day dining space with an outside terrace; Cafe Athenee for dining and The English Bar for drinks and cocktails.

For larger gatherings, such as conferences and weddings, there will be the exquisite Diplomat ballroom, with its stained-glass roof and intricate panelling. There will be an additional 13 meeting rooms of varying sizes which are ideal for business use.

For guests wishing to relax, there will be a wellness area with a well-equipped gym, an indoor swimming pool, Jacuzzi, steam room and sauna, plus two treatment rooms and two beauty salons.

Bucharest is a popular city with over nine million visitors each year. Comprising art nouveau architecture, a thriving cafe culture, parks, al fresco dining, museums, art galleries and vibrant nightlife, there is something to suit every leisure and business traveller.

Hotel website
In Rotterdam, Nicolette Korstanje has joined the Cycas team as it prepares for the European debut of the Motto by Hilton brand this September, with Motto Rotterdam Blaak becoming the operator's first property in the Dutch city. A specialist in the Rotterdam and Amsterdam markets with 12 years' operational and commercial experience, Nicolette previously spent two and a half years as General Manager of the Urban Residences in Rotterdam.

Motto Rotterdam Blaak

Rotterdam

Netherlands, The Website
RobertDouglas announced today that Matthew Dower, a 15-year veteran of the hotel industry, has joined the company as Managing Director in the firm's new Chicago office. In this role, Matthew will be involved in every aspect of the firm's business, from investment sales to structured financing and joint venture equity raises.

Dower joins RobertDouglas from Berkadia, a joint venture of Berkshire Hathaway and Jefferies Financial Group, where he spent the last 7-plus years as Managing Director and Director of Operations for the national Hotels & Hospitality team. During his tenure, he gained niche expertise in handling complicated multi-tranched equity and debt transactions, specializing in specific capital sources for hotel assets. He has structured and closed more than100 transactions representing more than $1 billion of commercial real estate.
Duncan ORourke holds a degree from Cesar Ritz Colleges in Switzerland and a MBA from Reims Management School. With more than 30 years experience within the industry, he held several executive positions in Europe, the US and the Middle East. From 2004, he served as General Manager for Kempinski in various destinations before being promoted to the position of Regional Director overseeing the Operations of the properties in the Middle East. In 2008, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Kempinski Hotels and became part of the Management Board at the same time. Duncan joined Accor in 2016 as COO Europe for the Luxury and Premium segment before taking over his most recent role as COO Central Europe. In his capacity, he has been responsible for more than 470 hotels and 13 brands within Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Duncan became a member of the Groups Executive Committee upon his appointment to CEO Northern Europe in October 2020.
In the midst of overseeing the rebirth of the legendary Orient Express train, the launch of its sister hotel brand and the planning of 15 Raffles properties down the road, Stephen Alden, CEO of Raffles & Orient Express, grants Prestige an exclusive interview during a work trip to Singapore in April. Mavis Teo reports.

In the stately living room of the Sarkies Suite at the Raffles Singapore, the head honcho of the hospitality group is keeping me guessing as to whether Japan or Bangkok will be the birthplace of the first Asian Orient Express hotel.

We are currently in talks with potential partners in both countries, says Stephen Alden, despite being nudged for more clues. Naturally, we are curious. In 2019, Accor announced that the first Orient Express hotel would open in the King Power Mahanakhon Building in Bangkok by end-2019. However, by 2022, the hotel that opened in Thailands tallest building was The Standard hotel.

However, Alden is not here to discuss this. Understandably, he doesnt want to dwell on the subject as he only took office after the event  on May 3, 2021, to be exact  during the second year of the pandemic when no end to the waves of new infections was in sight. It was a time of anxiety and apprehension for many in hospitality. However, after more than 35 years as a hotelier and having weathered some storms in the industry, Alden is unflappable as he leads Accors ultra-luxury brands through unchartered territory.

Alden wants to concentrate only on whats coming up, clear the next hurdle or rather, fence  an appropriate description since Alden is a keen show jumper. This discipline of equestrian sport calls for focus, decisive thinking and calm confidence. Aldens propensity for single-minded focus when hes in the hot seat is also reflected in his love of watching F1 racing.

Read the full article at prestigeonline.com
LG Business Solutions USA announced a groundbreaking alliance with the Marriott Design Lab to jointly develop and test advanced new technologies and solutions for the hospitality industry. The three-year collaboration between LG Electronics USA and Marriott International builds on LG's long history as the leading provider of televisions to Marriott properties across various brands and is expected to enhance LG's role as a hospitality industry technology leader.

"Working with Marriott on groundbreaking R&D supports LG's efforts to bring more innovative technologies to the hospitality industry," said Richard Lewis, vice president of technology and research, LG Business Solutions USA. "This collaboration reflects our shared passion for innovation, customer service and sustainability, and our three-year commitment underscores our common dedication to reimagining hospitality experiences and operations through new technologies."

The Marriott Design Lab will serve as a research and development hub working at the leading edge of design and innovation. The Lab will provide a proving ground for technology products and services that can be integrated into daily hotel operations to save energy, reduce costs, increase operational efficiency, and encourage customer loyalty through enhanced experiences. The LG collaboration exemplifies how Marriott is teaming up with industry leaders to explore new products, technologies and solutions for the hospitality industry.

"LG is a long-time strategic collaborator with Marriott International and is a global innovator in technology," said Jeff Voris, senior vice president, global design strategies, Marriott International. "We look forward to expanding our relationship with LG to help explore ways to deliver better experiences for guests, associates and hotel owners and franchisees."

A number of LG product categories are expected to be involved in the Marriott Design Lab, going well beyond digital displays and consumer technologies to improve multiple facets of hotels from operations to new guest technologies.

As a longtime supplier and partner to the hospitality industry, LG Business Solutions USA is adept at providing game-changing technologies that are designed to integrate seamlessly into daily hotel operations. With the Marriott Design Lab, LG will evaluate early-stage innovations that benefit ownership, associates, and guests and align with the high expectations of modern travelers.

About LG Business Solutions USA
July 20th, Marbella, Spain  Sommet Education, leading worldwide network of first-class higher education hospitality and culinary art schools Les Roches, Glion Institute of Higher Education and Ecole Ducasse, is proudly announcing taking part of Saudi Arabias Ministry of Tourism new program to equip 100,000 young Saudis with the key hospitality skills needed to pursue careers in the Kingdoms flourishing tourism industry.

Launched by His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, Minister of Tourism, Saudi Arabia at the 116th session of the World Tourism Organizations Executive Council in Jeddah, the program, Tourism Trailblazers, aims to train 100,000 Saudis during 2022. The campaign kicked off in late 2020 with the launch of a new human capital development strategy in the Kingdoms burgeoning tourism industry, which aims to attract more Saudi nationals to the sector.

His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, Minister of Tourism, Saudi Arabia, said: The program demonstrates our commitment to empowering young people by providing them with right skills, support and opportunities to shape the future of the tourism industry. It is vital that we invest in our youth now. Creating a skilled workforce with the talent and ambition to support and drive the tourism sector regionally and globally is key to realising the Saudi Vision 2030, a unique and transformative economic and social reform blueprint that is opening Saudi Arabia up to the world.

According to His Excellency, the program has three main objectives that aim to nurture, develop and support talent in the industry. It seeks to spread a culture of professionalism, help nascent professionals gain the knowledge and qualifications needed to break into the industry, and support their success through refinement of their skills. The program will help trainees to secure jobs within the sector, including seasonal, part-time, or full-time opportunities across the Kingdom.

His Excellency further stressed that this and other initiatives are geared towards delivering on the National Tourism Strategy and Saudi Vision 2030 targets, including the creation of one million new jobs in tourism by 2030.

The first group of Saudi students arrived at les Roches Global Hospitality Education on its campus in Marbella, Spain. This short program aims at equipping students with the fundamentals of Tourism Business and Operations from understanding housekeeping Operation to Customer Experience or Sales and negotiation skills.

On the role of Sommet Education institutions, Benoit-Etienne Domenget, CEO of Sommet Education said: We are honored to contribute to the rise of Saudi talents, fully engaged in providing them with the practical and academic skills they will need to embrace a career in such a wide industry at a time where opportunities of growth and development are at their highest for all.

About Sommet Education

Sommet Education is the world's leader in hospitality management education. Its global network of prestigious institutions comprises Swiss originated hospitality business schools Glion Institute of Higher Education and Les Roches, together with culinary and pastry arts school Ecole Ducasse. In April 2021, Sommet Education acquired South African Education leader Invictus Education, adding four new schools to its portfolio: International Hotel School, IHS Gaming dedicated to the gaming industry; SAE Institute specialized in creative media education and Summit focused on B2B training and development. In August 2021, Sommet Education also expanded in India through a majority stake in the Indian School of Hospitality (ISH) with a campus in Gurugram (Delhi NCR).

These institutions offer 400 undergraduate, graduate and technical training programs to 9,000 students from 100 different nationalities and 10,000 learners. Teaching is offered across four continents on 18 campuses, as well as through state-of-the-art remote learning platforms. Between them, the schools have a network of 60,000 influential alumni in hospitality and beyond.

Sommet Education is the only education group with two in the Top 5 globally-ranked institutions for hospitality education and by employer reputation (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022).

www.sommet-education.com

About the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Tourism leads the Saudi Tourism ecosystem.The Ministry sets the Kingdom's tourism sector strategy and is responsible for the development of policies and regulations, developing human capital, gathering statistics, and attracting investment.

It works in partnership with the Saudi Tourism Authority, which promotes Saudi Arabia as a global tourism destination, and the Tourism Development Fund, which executes the Ministry's investment strategy by providing funding for the sector's development.

Headed by His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, the Ministry was founded in February 2020, following the opening of Saudi Arabia to international leisure tourists for the first time in its history in 2019. Saudi Arabia aims to welcome 100 million tourism visits by 2030, increasing the sector's contribution to GDP from 3% to 10%.

Anouck Weiss

Chief Communication Officer Sommet Education

Sommet Education
Traditional culture and beach lifestyle meet designer couture as Dior opens its first retail space in Bali, with a partial buyout of Sundara Beach Club at Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay that reaffirms the islands profile as a destination for discerning travelers and extraordinary events.

Open daily from June 30 to August 12, 2022, the Dior pop-up store and cafe at Sundara is the first major event in Bali since borders opened to international visitors in February 2022. It highlights the unique blend of authentic culture and sophisticated lifestyle that make Bali one of the worlds favorite islands.

The scale and high-profile nature of this event is like nothing Bali has ever seen before, says Nicolas Senes, Resort Manager at Four Seasons Resort Jimbaran Bay. Four Seasons and Dior are icons of luxury sophistication, and we are proud to demonstrate the creativity, craftsmanship and world-class experience we offer. This is super exciting for Bali as a destination.

Working with Diors interior designer Kingsmen Indonesia, Sundaras entire dining and beach club space extending over two-stories and more than 1,300 square meters (approximately 14,000 square feet), has been transformed into a fairy-tale showcase for the new Dioriviera Collection 2022.

The temporary redecoration includes an underwater 57-meter-long (187 foot) artwork installation running the entire length of Sundaras pool. It took scuba divers four days to install the artwork, featuring the Dioriviera logo and toile de Jouy design on the bottom of Balis longest beachfront pool.

A dedicated entrance to the pop-up store on Sundaras Mezzanine level sets the tone for the Dioriviera 2022 Collections lush jungle theme, as life-size sculptures of wild animals pop out from tropical foliage. Sundara stripped its Mezzanine level  removing all furniture, interior wall partitions and 16 chandeliers  to provide a blank canvas for Diors interior designer to install their own themed furniture, merchandising displays, fitting rooms and a cafe. Even the walls, ceilings and poolside daybeds have been covered with Diorivieras toile de Jouy monochromatic tapestry for the duration of the six-week-long event.

Dior Cafe provides a culinary experience that taps into Balis relaxed yet chic resort style. While Sundara continues to serve its modern international and smoky barbecue flavours at the main dining areas on the ground level, the Dior Cafe on the Mezzanine welcomes diners for breakfast, lunch and dinner with 180-degree ocean views, and a private bar. Diors Mediterranean-inspired menu was created by Four Seasons Executive Pastry Chef David Peduzzi and Sundara Chef de Cuisine David Gavin (former Chef de Cuisine at Mozaic Ubud) who drew on their French training and experience to meet Dior Paris culinary guidelines and precise requirements for each dish. The cafe servers are Sundara staff, styled in Dior uniforms to deliver the five-star service for which Sundara is renowned.

The scale of this high-end lifestyle event is a first for Bali, resulting from a landmark collaboration between Dior and Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay based on shared goals of delivering excellence in service and attention to detail, says Mathilde Adam, Senior Director Sales and Marketing at Four Seasons Resorts Bali. The timing is significant: it is the first major event since Bali opened its borders to the world after more than two years. We are thrilled to be selected as the venue for Diors first pop-up store and concept cafe in Indonesia, reflecting the renewed confidence of the international luxury market as Bali re-emerges with optimism, open arms, and the once-in-a-lifetime experiences that our Resorts offer.

This incredible Dior event comes as Four Seasons Resort Jimbaran Bay welcomes new General Manager Randy Shimabuku and unveils the Healing Village Spa and Rossano Ferretti Hair Spa. The culinary team has also been bolstered with the appointment of Executive Chef Liam Nealon, who started his Four Seasons journey as Chef de Cuisine at Sundara and returns "home" to Bali from his most recent position as Executive Chef at Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai.

The Dior showcase at Sundara runs from June 30 until August 12, 2022, 10:00 am to 8:00 pm daily.

The Dioriviera pop-up store is open by appointment only for consultations with Dior stylists.

Guests of Four Seasons Resorts Bali enjoy priority access to Dior Cafe.

About Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts opened its first hotel in 1961, and since that time has been dedicated to perfecting the travel experience through continual innovation and the highest standards of hospitality. Currently operating 119 hotels and resorts, and 44 residential properties in major city centres and resort destinations in 47 countries, and with more than 50 projects under planning or development, Four Seasons consistently ranks among the world's best hotels and most prestigious brands in reader polls, traveller reviews and industry awards. For more information and reservations, visit fourseasons.com. For the latest news, visit press.fourseasons.com and follow @FourSeasonsPR on Twitter.
Germantown, TN- based McNeill Investment Group (MIG), formerly McNeill Hotel Investors, today announced a strategic partnership with Prospect Ridge, a prominent national private equity real estate investor, and Fulcrum Hospitality, a hospitality investment operating partner, advisor, and asset manager. McNeill Investment Group Executive Chairman Phillip H. McNeill, Jr. made the announcement.

McNeill contributed 12 of its wholly owned newer vintage, premium branded select-service and extended stay hotels focused in dynamic University and Medical Center submarkets to the new partnership. McNeill retains property management responsibility of all hotels controlled by the new partnership and is expected to continue to grow its portfolio of owned and third-party managed hotels, including in its current emphasis on Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt-branded select-service and extended stay properties nationwide.

Property management assignments will continue to be organized under McNeill Hotel Company, with the Prospect Ridge joint venture and McNeill Hotel Company units of newly formed McNeill Investment Group (MIG). McNeill also announced that it has successfully concluded its investment and property management relationship with Almanac Realty Investors, a business unit of Neuberger Berman, a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager.

This is a landmark day in the history of our company, said Phillip H. McNeill, Jr. I first want to thank Almanac Realty Investors for an outstanding partnership during a period of robust growth and meaningful positive performance for us, including through the pandemic. When Mark Ricketts and I began McNeill Hotel Company, one of our original goals was to create a company that would be attractive to institutional investors. Almanac was instrumental in helping us to achieve that goal.

We are excited about our new venture with Prospect Ridge, McNeill continued. We know it will be a great fit with respect to investment philosophies and objectives, as well as how we regard our other industry partners, our team members, our guests and our host communities. We look forward to continuing to drive success and grow our best-in-class hotel management and development platform.

Justin Hakimian, Managing Director of Almanac Realty Investors, said: We enjoyed working with the McNeill team, who generated exceptional returns for our investors as together we grew their portfolio from 14 to 21 owned hotels. We respect them highly and wish them continued success.

About McNeill Investment Group

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Germantown, Tennessee, McNeill Investment Group (MIG) is built on a foundation of trust, pursuit of excellence and a philosophy of people serving people. The firm focuses on select-service and extended stay hotels with a growth strategy based on a mix of new hotel development, meaningful acquisitions and third-party management agreements conducted through its McNeill Hotel Company unit.

The company is an approved franchisee for Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt. Phillip McNeill, Jr. and Mark Ricketts, the company's founding principals, are 2nd generation hoteliers with over 60 years of combined institutional experience in the hotel industry, encompassing nearly every discipline of the business. For more information, visit www.mcneillhotels.com.

About Prospect Ridge

Prospect Ridge is a leading investment manager specializing in real estate private equity investing and lending in the U.S. through multiple vehicles. Our highly experienced team of over 40 investment professionals has systematically developed and refined Prospect Ridge's unique and disciplined approach to making investments and loans across multiple asset classes and domestic geographies throughout real estate cycles. Through Prospect Ridge and its predecessor entities, the team has invested in over 300 assets totaling approximately $12 billion of gross cost.

About Fulcrum Hospitality

Fulcrum Hospitality is a hospitality investment operating partner, advisor, and asset manager founded by Steven Angel in 2011. Across its portfolio, Fulcrum Hospitality manages over $6 billion in assets, consisting of over 25,000 hotel rooms spanning across different brands. With a deep understanding of asset management and an arsenal of proprietary investment analysis tools, Fulcrum Hospitality is one of the fastest growing and most innovative asset management and hotel real estate investment companies in the hospitality industry.

About Almanac Realty Investors & Neuberger Berman

Almanac Realty Investors, a business unit of Neuberger Berman, is a leading provider of growth capital to public and private real estate companies. Originally founded in 1981 under the name Rothschild Realty, Almanac Realty Investors partners with established owner-operators in all sectors of the real estate market to accelerate company growth and has committed more than $7.0 billion in capital to 50 real estate companies, both public and private, throughout North America. For more information, visit www.almanacrealty.com.

Neuberger Berman, founded in 1939, is a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager. The firm manages a range of strategiesincluding equity, fixed income, quantitative and multi-asset class, private equity, real estate and hedge fundson behalf of institutions, advisors and individual investors globally. With offices in 25 countries, Neuberger Bermans diverse team has over 2,500 professionals. For eight consecutive years, the company has been named first or second in Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work in Money Management survey (among those with 1,000 employees or more). In 2020, the PRI named Neuberger Berman a Leader, a designation awarded to fewer than 1% of investment firms for excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. The PRI also awarded Neuberger Berman an A+ in every eligible category for our approach to ESG integration across asset classes. The firm manages $447 billion in client assets as of March 31, 2022. For more information, please visit our website at www.nb.com.
WASHINGTON - The United States will challenge Mexico's energy policies as favoring state-owned business in possible violation of the free trade agreement between the United States Mexico and Canada, the Biden administration announced Wednesday.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has requested a dispute settlement consultation to challenge policies she said, "that undermine American companies and U.S.-produced energy" and aid the state-owned oil company Pemex and power utility Comision Federal de Electricidad.

"We have repeatedly expressed serious concerns about a series of changes in Mexicos energy policies and their consistency with Mexicos commitments under the USMCA, Tai said in a statement.. We have tried to work constructively with the Mexican government to address these concerns, but, unfortunately, U.S. companies continue to face unfair treatment in Mexico."

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The move comes almost a decade after Mexico passed constitutional reforms to end the monopoly of state-owned energy companies like Pemex, prompting billions of dollars in investment from U.S. and other foreign companies.

But since the 2018 election of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who campaigned against the decision to open up Mexico's energy sector as harmful to workers and the national economy, those investment have fallen into uncertainty.

Last year Mexico announced that Pemex would lead development of an oil and gas field in the Gulf of Mexico that had been discovered by Houston-based Talos Energy, despite Talos having bought exclusive drilling rights to the field at a government auction..

And the Mexican Legislature has also passed legislation halting plans to open up Mexico's fuel market to retailers other than Pemex and ordering Mexico's power grid to give preference to generation operated by the state-owned utility Federal Electricity Commission - a decision that was upheld by the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice earlier this year.

By some estimates foreign investors, including Texas companies such as the refiners Phillips 66 and Valero, have invested close to $100 billion in the Mexican energy sector since 2013.

On Wednesday U.S. energy companies applauded the Biden administration's announcement. The American Petroleum Institute, the oil sector's largest lobbying group, and the American Clean Power Association, representing wind and solar developers, released a joint statement calling the move a "significant step forward."

"Mexicos alarming energy sector policies (not) only violate the countrys commitments under USMCA, but also undermine the integration of North American energy markets and jeopardize our shared climate goals," the groups said.

Under the USMCA, Mexico has 30 days to resolve the issue with the United States. If not the United States can request the creation of a panel of trade experts, tasked with deciding whether Mexico is in fact in violation of the USMCA.

Were they to find that to be the case, the United States would likely be entitled to impose tariffs on Mexican exports in line the losses incurred by the U.S. energy companies.

Biden, like President Donald Trump before him, has come under increasing pressure from Congress to take action against Mexico.

Last year a bipartisan group of Texas congressmen and senators including Republicans Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, along with Democratic House members Lizzie Fletcher of Houston, Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen, and Henry Cuellar of Laredo, wrote to Biden asking he put pressure on Lopez Obrador to honor the 2013 energy reforms.

"We ask that you address these violations when engaging in diplomatic discussions with President Lopez Obrador," the letter read. "This is necessary to not only establish a level playing field for U.S. companies operating in Mexico, but also to allow for competition in the energy market that will protect American jobs and ultimately drive down consumer cost and greenhouse gas emissions.
Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Cheniere Energy has reached a sales agreement with Chinas state-owned oil and gas company that could foreshadow an expansion in Corpus Christi beyond the seven-train Stage 3 project.

Deliveries in the 20-plus-year deal with PetroChina begin in 2026, ramping up to 1.8 million metric tons per year by 2028, and will continue through 2050, the Houston-based liquefied natural gas company said. Half of the agreed-upon 1.8 million metric tons annually is contingent upon Cheniere expanding its Corpus Christi terminal beyond the expansion project already underway
S&B Modular Operations

A Baytown facility that fabricates pipes and other equipment for the energy industry will close, according to a letter sent by its owner to the Texas Workforce Commission.

MORE ENERGY: Phillips partners with H2 Energy to build 250 hydrogen fueling stations in Europe
In another sign of a cooling housing market, home sellers in Houston are increasingly knocking down their asking price as fewer buyers enter the market.

Recent data from two major real estate brokerages show more home sellers are cutting their asking prices in Houston. The residential brokerage Redfin estimates more than a third (38 percent) of homes on the market in June saw price reductions in the Houston area last month. That compares to about 25 percent of homes that saw price drops in Houston a year earlier, according to Redfin.

Meanwhile, Zillow is showing a more conservative numbers, estimating that 16.8 percent of Houston homes for sale saw price cuts in June, up by about 5.6 percentage points year-over-year.

The data, while differing in magnitude, signal that home sellers may be starting to lose the upper hand they enjoyed throughout the pandemic

Home sellers are contending with a rapidly changing market, especially in places where theyre used to their neighbors homes getting multiple offers and selling for more than asking price, said Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari in a statement. Higher mortgage rates and a potential recession are causing prospective buyers in popular migration destinations to press the pause button. Sellers are adjusting their expectations in real time as they realize they may not get the price their neighbor got two months ago.

RELATED: 400-acre luxury home development coming to small community north of Houston

Houston home sellers, however, appear to be under less pressure to reduce their prices than several other major metros, which arguably saw bigger real estate gains earlier in the pandemic thanks to a rush of pandemic-related migration.

Boise, for example, was one of the most popular pandemic-migration hotspots with typical home prices leaping to $550,000 in May, a more than 60 percent gain from two years earlier, according to Redfin. Last month, Boise saw the greatest portion of price drops nationally in Redfins analysis, with 61.5 percent of homes for sale getting price reductions in June.

Overall, more than 25 percent of sellers in about three quarters of the nations biggest cities cut their asking prices, according to the Redfin analysis.

In Texas, home sellers are seeing the biggest price drops in Austin, where strong migration fueled a meteoric rise in real estate values during the pandemic. About 41.6 percent of homes on the market in Austin had price drops in June, compared to only 14.9 percent the same time last year, according to Redfin. Meanwhile, about 37.5 percent of homes for sale in Dallas and San Antonio had price drops in June, slightly less than Houston.

VALUE TRACKER: The most and least expensive zip codes in Houston

Even though the market becomes less frantic, sales prices are rising, although at a slower pace. Housing markets in most Texas metros are still benefiting from relative affordability attracting strong migration from out-of-state buyers. In California, for example, a typical home sells for more than $1.5 million in many of the state's major metros.

In Houston, the average home price was $436,000 in June, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. San Antonio, Dallas and Houston ranked ninth, tenth and eleventh respectively on Redfins list of top metros where migrants were looking to move.

Those factors, along with more companies giving employees the permanent flexibility to work remotely, are driving a larger portion of buyers to consider homes in other parts of the country, said Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Taylor Marr. "Someone who would have to stretch beyond their budget in Los Angeles may be able to comfortably afford a home in Phoenix or San Antonio.

Marr could have included Houston in that statement, too. Among Redfin users searching for a new home in Houston who don't already live here, Los Angeles, New York City and the Bay Area were the top areas where they were looking to move from in the second quarter.
Workers at a Starbucks store in the Upper Kirby area are hoping to become the first unionized outpost of the global coffee chain in the Houston area.

If the organizing drive proves successful, the store would become only third Starbucks in Texas to become unionized. Since December 2021, when employees at a Buffalo, N.Y. Starbucks became the first the chain to unionize, some 180 stores have followed suit. In June, a Starbucks store in Austin became the first to unionize in Texas, followed shortly after by another Starbucks in Austin.

These efforts have been spurred in part by rapidly rising costs of living that are making it difficult for Starbucks workers to make ends meet, even though the company last year announced plans to raise wages to at least $15 an houra change which will take effect Aug. 1. But beyond that, workers say, they see unionizing as an opportunity to have greater say in their workplace.

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The baristas and shift supervisors and hourly workers within the company they are crucial and pivotal and incredibly important to the success of the company as a whole. said Josh DeLeon, who has worked for Starbucks since 2013 and is one of the lead organizers at the Houston store.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Inflation is getting worse and shows no signs of slowing. Here's what to know this summer

The Houston workers are being backed by Starbucks Workers United, a collective of company employees organizing Starbucks stores across the country with the support of Workers United Upstate, a New York-based affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.

To gain the chance to vote on a union, The Houston organizers must file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board showing they have the support of at least 30 percent of the members of the stores hourly workers.

Starbucks said it views unions as unnecessary, but is listening and learning from the partners in these stores.

From the beginning, weve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed, said a Starbucks spokesperson, adding, We respect our partners right to organize and are committed to following the NLRB process.

In a letter sent to CEO Howard Schultz, however, the Houston workers said the company should welcome a union. We wish to assure you that this decision is one directly in line with Starbucks mission and values that you have established, the employees wrote.

The Starbucks is located on Shepherd Drive at Harold Street, with lots of regulars from the neighborhood. On Tuesday, some customers ordered their beverages using the name Union Strong, in a signal of solidarity.

DeLeon said the decision to organize wasnt easy since it could put jobs at risk. Last week, Starbucks announced plans to close 16 stores, including several that have unionized. The company cited safety concerns as the reason for the closures, but the Starbucks Workers United filed a complaint with the NLRB alleging that the closures are tantamount to retaliation against employees who have unionized, and an effort to intimidate others who might do the same.

Still, DeLeon said, a union would benefit workers and Starbucks, helping the company to keep its employees.

We were told we were essential workers, DeLeon said.

erica.grieder@chron.com
A new report on the shooting that killed 19 children and two adults at an Uvalde elementary school highlighted another issue that affects millions of kids: bullying.

A Texas House committees interim report on the tragedy found that Salvador Ramos had been bullied at Robb Elementary School years before the massacre. The report also found he struggled academically as an at-risk student.

Bullying did not cause the massacre, experts are quick to point out. At the same time, bullying can cause children to feel isolated, said Carla Sharp, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Houston.

FEELING MATTERS: For better and for worse, make a list of what brings you up and of what tears you down

Theres no one-to-one relationship between bullying and school shootings. One is not a direct cause of the other," Sharp said. "However, I would say that an environment in which bullying happens does lead to a higher frequency or higher incidence of young people who feel isolated and misunderstood.

There are many factors that led to the tragedy, including Ramos ability to legally buy a pair of assault rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in the days after his 18th birthday. A Boston University researcher performed an analysis for CNN in 2017 that found the biggest predictor of mass shooting rates in a state was whether the state had a ban on high-capacity magazines.

One out of every five students have reported being bullied, according to a 2019 survey from the National Center for Education Statistics. Yet millions of bullied children are never involved in minor incidents like a schoolyard fight. And researchers that have studied the link between bullying and violence have found that the bullies are more likely to be involved in violent behavior later than life, rather than the children being bullied.

At the same time, seeing media reports that Ramos had been bullied could be a chance to talk to children about the problem. Even if your child is not being bullied, seeing bullying discussed on TV is an opportunity to talk to your child about it, said Melissa Goldberg Mintz, a Houston clinical psychologist and author of a new book about childhood trauma.



What we really want is for them to feel like they can come to you when they are in trouble or when they need help with something," she said. "Thats going to be the biggest protective factor against bullying turning into trauma."



Its also important to be able to recognize the signs a child is being bullied, so you may be able to step in and help. Goldberg Mintz and Sharp spoke with the Chronicle about the effects of bullying and how to address the problem.

How widespread is the problem?

Bullying can take many forms. The NCES survey found 13 percent of the children who reported being bullied were teased or insulted; 13 percent were the subject of rumors; 5 percent were shoved, tripped, pushed or spit on; and 5 percent were excluded from activities. Among students ages 12 to 18, 15 percent were bullied online or by text.

The internet and social media have made the problem more complex, because it's easier for bullying to reach a large number of people, Sharp said.

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Theres always been bullying, she said. Its a very typical and normal social dynamic that we all have to learn to navigate as we age into adulthood.

The reasons the children are bullied include their physical appearance, race or ethnicity, gender, disability, religion and sexual orientation, the NCES survey found.

What are the short-term effects of bullying?

Children who are bullied might feel humiliated or like they don't fit in. That could result in depression or anxiety, affecting their ability to learn.

Some children may exhibit minor misbehavior, or even some major misbehavior, after an adverse event such as bullying, Goldberg Mintz said.

A child's response to bullying will depend on their personality, Goldberg Mintz said. Some may externalize their feelings and act out; others internalize the problem and keep it to themselves.

What are the long-term effects?

Bullying is what is known as an adverse event; trauma is what can develop afterward, Goldberg Mintz said. More than half of children will experience a potentially-traumatic event before they turn 18, but most don't see any long-term effects, she said.

The majority of these children go on to heal naturally after adverse events," she said. "Even without therapy, they can heal naturally. Thats not the case for everyone, though."

A child bullied over a long period of time may become withdrawn and fail to reach their full potential socially, Sharp said. Studies have also found a link between long-term issues such as depression, anxiety and substance use.

How can you tell if your child is being bullied?

Warning signs that your child is having a hard time at school or elsewhere might include complaining of headaches or stomach aches, Goldberg Mintz said. They could also exhibit changes in their eating and sleeping habits, either doing more or less of each. Or they could be spending more time alone in their room.

That might not necessarily indicate bullying, but it might indicate that somethings up, and that would be a great opportunity to just check in with your child, she said.

You should take notice if your child's grades begin to drop, or if they don't want to go to school or extra-curricular activities, Sharp said.

How should you handle it?

If your child is being bullied, you should resist the urge to spring to action and tell a teacher or principal. Some children will just want to talk.

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Listen to your kid and collaborate with them, Goldberg Mintz said. "Figure out how they want to handle it, and what would make them feel the most confident and in control about this.

See if your child is willing to brainstorm how to address the issue on their own, Sharp said. Standing up to a bully, but not fighting back, can show they don't hold power.

But if your child continues to be bullied, talk to someone at their school. If the problem persists and the school doesn't address it, it may be time to change schools, Sharp said.

I dont think it is healthy for a child to remain in an environment that is ineffective at controlling bullying behavior," she said.
MOBILE, Ala. (AP)  An environmental group took the first step Wednesday toward filing suit over plans by Alabama Power Co. to leave millions of pounds of coal ash near a riverside within the vast Mobile-Tensaw Delta, which activists say could be devastated by a spill.

The Virginia-based Southern Environmental Law Center sent the utility notice of its intent to sue on behalf of Mobile Baykeeper, an environmental advocacy organization. Baykeeper wants regulators to force the company to take additional steps to protect against a spill of ash, a waste product from burning coal, at the site of its Plant Barry near the Mobile River. Such notices are required under the law before a lawsuit can be filed.

Mobile Baykeeper contends the ash pond contains 21 million pounds (9.5 million kilograms) of coal ash that is polluting groundwater and could wipe out the lush, biologically diverse region should it be breached by heavy flooding, a hurricane or some other disaster.

The company's plan for the coal ash "jeopardizes so much of what makes coastal Alabama special, Cade Kistler of Mobile Baykeeper said in a statement.

The Mobile-Tensaw Delta is one of the worlds most important resources, and is vulnerable to increasing floods, severe hurricanes, and rising water levels. Leaving millions of tons of coal ash on the banks of the Mobile River is a disaster waiting to happen," said Kistler.

Alabama Power spokeswoman Beth Thomas said the utility had no comment.

Plant Barry opened in 1965 about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Mobile. With federal regulators imposing tougher rules on storing coal ash, the company has been working for several years to close the roughly 600-acre (243-hectare) pond by drying it out, moving material to a smaller site nearby and covering it with a liner.

The company contends moving the material farther away would pose a hazard in itself.

Environmentalists contend the plan doesn't meet regulations and could result in contamination of the sprawling delta wilderness area north of the port city. Utilities in other states are acting to prevent coal ash spills like one that happened in Tennessee in 2008 and Virginia in 2014, they said.

Alabama is an outlier when it comes to leaving toxic coal ash in place," Barry Brock, director of Southern Environmental Law Center's Alabama office, said in a statement. This coal ash should be safely stored in a lined facility away from the rivers edge and out of the groundwater or recycled into cement and concrete, as is being done in other Southeastern states.
Courtesy

Fire Marshals ordered students and staff to leave a private school building in northwest Harris County on Tuesday after the Harris County Fire Marshal's determined the middle school and high school campus had numerous life and safety hazards.

The fire marshal's office called the River Oaks Academy, in a strip mall at 7453 Hollister St., an "unpermitted private school" and said the building didn't have sprinklers or a fire alarm or emergency lighting, according to a press release. There is a second school named River Oaks Academy on Richmond Avenue in Houston. Fire marshals could not confirm whether there is a relationship between the two schools.
Houston Chronicle file

Two days after a gunman entered a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California, and killed 21 people, police were trying to figure out the "how" and "why" behind the tragedy.

Detectives were still investigating the scene, even though the shooter, James Huberty, had been killed by a police sniper 77 minutes after the rampage began.
A man walking his dog found a fatally shot man early Wednesday on a Cloverleaf road, according to authorities.

Deputies responded around 12:30 a.m. to reports of the shooting at the 400 block of White Cedar Street near Hollypark Drive where the neighbor reportedly found the body, according to Harris County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Dennis Wolfford.

District 3 deputies found a man with at least one gunshot wound, Wolfford said. Paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene.

The man's identity is pending verification from the Harris County medical examiner, HCSO stated in a Wednesday morning press release.

HOUSTON CRIME: Person shot outside northwest Houston apartment takes Uber to hospital, HPD says

Investigators are currently attempting to retrieve video surveillance from North Shore High School and are canvassing the area for more information, Wolfford added.

"At this time there are no known witnesses to this that actually observed the shooting," he said. "This is a very dark road and we don't know exactly what occurred or what the motive for this shooting was. The shooting obviously did occur at this location, the evidence supports that."

Anyone with information on this incident should contact the Harris County Sheriff's Office homicide division at 713-308-3600 or CrimeStoppers at 713-222-8477.

No other information is available at this time.

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Joel.Umanzor@Chron.com
Houston Chronicle

Police on Tuesday morning found human remains wrapped inside a sheet bound by duct tape in the roadside ditch in southwest Houston, the Houston Police Department said.

The remains were found in the 8900 block of Brae Acres Road near the BraeBurn Country Club at about 9:05 a.m., police said in a news release.
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Lawyers for the family of Arlene Alvarez took exception to how prosecutors approached the criminal case involving her shooting death, suggesting in the wake of a grand jury choosing to no-bill the accused gunman that there was another way to garner an indictment.

The attorney, Rick Ramos, went as far to say Wednesday that the District Attorney Kim Ogg's office should take the case against Tony Earls to another grand jury  a tactic that Ogg said her prosecutors would not do without new evidence. The comments about the prosecution's work highlighted the Alvarez family's grief in the five months since the 9-year-old girl's death during a Valentine's Day clash between Earls and an armed robber.

During the incident, police said a masked man robbed Earls and his wife at gunpoint as the couple stopped at a Chase Bank in Houston's Gulfgate neighborhood. Earls, believing that the robber at opened fire at him, fired several shots at a vehicle he thought was carrying the fleeing robber, police have said.

Inside the vehicle was Arlene and her family, who had been driving by. The gunfire fatally struck her.

"I do believe that they should go ahead and request a different grand jury and be able to re-present the case, maybe from a different perspective, and then more likely than not, they're going to have a different outcome," said Ramos, who specializes in personal injury law. The same lawyer has sought a lawsuit against Chase Bank on behalf of the family.

"Prosecutors are smart, they learn from their mistakes, and I think they'll be able to clean up maybe what they feel they could have done differently," he continued during a news conference at his office.

A panel of grand jurors heard evidence pertaining to Earls' case on Tuesday and declined to indict him on a charge of aggravated assault, causing serious bodily harm, the charge that led to his arrest in the hours after the shooting. Arlene died the next day.

The district attorney's office declined to reveal what evidence was presented during the grand jury proceedings, citing state law that deems the proceedings confidential.

Our hearts go out to the family of Arlene Alvarez as they endure unimaginable pain and seek justice in her incredibly unfair death," Ogg's spokesman, Dane Schiller, said Wednesday, assuring that "all relevant evidence" was presented to the jurors.

He reiterated Ogg's remarks that new evidence would be required to allow prosecutors to re-present the case to another grand jury.

"While the grand jurors decision may be difficult to accept, we respect it, Schiller said.

Arlene's parents, Wendy and Armando Alvarez, were slated to appear at the news conference but the couple did not appear. The mother addressed reporters in the hours following the no-bill Tuesday and questioned the grand jury's decision that charges against Earls should not proceed.

The child's aunt, April Aguirre, sat alongside Ramos and expressed her worry that prosecutors did not present a "full picture" of Earls' state of mind.

Ramos pointed out that as Earls' criminal case unfolded, it was determined that he had a prior finding of a mental illness or an intellectual disability in the year prior to the shooting.

Ramos believes any finding of a mental illness or an intellectual disability should have precluded any claims of self-defense from Earls.

Earls was not prohibited from owning a firearm, according to state law.

Earls defense attorney, Myrecia Donaldson, said she gave prosecutors a grand jury packet outlining their position on the case and his defenses.

They are making claims that the (district attorneys office) did not properly present the case, Donaldson said. Were not present during the grand jury proceedings but I have full faith that they presented the case  because they wanted to charge him.

Witnesses are allowed during grand jury proceedings and Earls wife was made available to testify, she continued. A statement the wife made about the robbery was included in the defense packet.

We are at the mercy of the state when we submit grand jury packets, Donaldson added.

In the aftermath of the grand jury's decision, the district attorney's office has re-emphasized their focus on the Houston Police Department's investigation into finding the man who robbed Earls and set into motion Arlenes death.

Houston Police investigators worked for months with prosecutors as they turned over every stone ensured a thorough and complete investigation, Schiller continued. Our attention is now laser-focused on capturing the criminal responsible for Arlenes death. Someone out there knows who he is and where he is.

Crime Stoppers of Houston and Houston-area billionaire Tilman Ferttita are offering their own rewards for tips that could lead to an arrest and conviction of that robbery suspect, an amount adding up to $30,000.

nicole.hensley@chron.com
Annie Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Contributor

Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the suspect responsible for the robbery that ended in the shooting death of 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez.

The announcement comes on a Harris County grand jury's decision not to indict Tony Earls, who was charged with aggravated assault, causing serious bodily harm, in February following the fatal shooting.
A 10-year-old Galveston County boy was shot in the head while he and a friend were playing with a handgun on Tuesday, according to the Galveston County Sheriff's Office.

GUN BUYBACK: Houston to host gun buyback program

The boy was flown to a Houston hospital and was in surgery on Tuesday evening, but was expected to survive, Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset said.

Emergency responders were called to the 17700 block of Elizabeth Street, in unincorporated Galveston County near Santa Fe, just after 4 p.m., Trochesset said. Two boys were apparently playing with a 9 mm handgun when it fired. A bullet struck one of them in the side of the forehead, Trochesset said.

The boys were playing in a back house on the property. After the 10-year-old was injured, the children went to a front house and found an adult, who provided first aid and called emergency responders, Trochesset said.

Trochesset said he didn't know the age of the second boy or the adult's relationship child to either child.

The injured boy was conscious and able to talk with EMTs when they arrived, Trochesset said.

LIVES CUT SHORT: These 19 Houston-area kids are a reminder gun violence happens every day

The shooting appeared to be accidental, but the sheriff's office was investigating which of the boys fired the gun, where they obtained the weapon and who was supposed to be responsible for it, Trochesset said. No arrests have been made, he said.

john.ferguson@chron.com
Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday unanimously approved a $25 million contract to send jail inmates to the Giles Dalby Correctional Facility, a prison located in Post, a small Texas city near Lubbock. The countys downtown Houston jail has reached capacity, with 10,073 people currently incarcerated in the three-building complex. This marks the second agreement with an outside facility this year  nearly 600 Harris County inmates are now housed at a Louisiana jail.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Hundreds of Harris County inmates headed to private Louisiana jail to prevent overcrowding

Harris County has struggled for years with overcrowding at the downtown jail. In 2015, the county sent inmates to Beaumont. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez managed to eliminate outsourcing inmates early in his first term in 2017, but the county later returned to outsourcing while grappling with a court backlog in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. In 2018, the county housed inmates at both the Fort Bend County Jail and Jackson Parish Correctional Facility in Louisiana at a cost of nearly $1 million per month, over the objection of defense attorneys who said the 300-mile distance to the Louisiana facility interfered with their ability to represent their clients.

In a 2020 letter to members of Commissioners Court, Elaine Borakove, president of the Virginia-based Justice Management Institute, advised: The accelerated jail population is clearly an indication that your criminal justice system is quickly faltering.

The Justice Management Institute worked with Harris County for years to reduce the jail population, as part of the MacArthur Foundations Safety and Justice Challenge.

Even if the county added more district attorneys, court clerks and public defenders, the backlog of criminal cases would still take years to go away, Borakove wrote in 2020.

Currently, 8,136 inmates at the jail are awaiting trial. The median length of stay is 100 days, according to the sheriffs department.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Defense lawyers urge Harris County to stop jailing inmates in Louisiana

The outsourcing agreement with the Dalby facility is intended to alleviate overcrowding at the downtown Houston jail. In May, Garza County Judge Lee Norman announced that Dalby would transition from a privately-managed federal prison to a county jail, with plans to offer the 1,096-bed facility as a place to hold other counties inmates, Lubbocks KBCD 11 reported. Tarrant County could join Harris County in sending inmates to Dalby.

The $25 million contract does not include funding to help Harris County families make the eight-hour drive to visit their loved ones who will be incarcerated at the facility, which is 475 miles from Houston.

Rather than increasing the number of jail beds, the county needs to spend money on solutions to eliminate the case backlog, Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis said in a statement Monday.

Using taxpayer dollars to add even more capacity to the third largest jail in America doesnt make us safer, Ellis said. It just makes us more reliant on a system that is failing. Instead, we must ramp up the systemic changes that weve made in Harris County, like our Violence Interruption Program and Holistic Assistance Response Teams, which are game-changing efforts to reduce the likelihood of residents engagement with the criminal legal system and makes our community safer.

David Cuevas, president of the Harris County Deputies Organization, said criminal judges are to blame for the court backlog, while people who are incarcerated are responsible for the distances their families may need to travel to visit them.

The offenders that are in our jail are there for a reason, Cuevas said. If Commissioner Ellis is...concerned about whether or not these offenders families are having to travel so far to visit them, maybe these offenders should have thought about that before they committed these crimes.

Inmates transferred to the Post facility would be able to visit with family members via video conferencing, according to the sheriffs department.

jen.rice@chron.com
A series of dog attacks across the Houston region in recent weeks has left people wondering about rules surrounding canines and what to do in certain situations.

A 71-year-old man was mauled to death Monday by a pack of seven pit bulls in Fort Bend County. The attack was the second in days in the area.

REPORT: Houston is No. 1 in the US for dog attacks on postal workers

In Huffman, 51-year-old man attacked by dogs last month died after 10 days in critical condition at a hospital. A 16-year-old running away from dogs Tuesday night in west Harris County was fatally struck by a truck, authorities said.

While there is no statewide requirement to leash your dog, you have to leash or keep dogs in an enclosure in Houston.

Here are answers to some common questions:

What happens if my dog attacks a person in Texas?

You can be held civilly or criminally liable.

Civilly, an owner can be held liable if they knew the dog had bitten someone before and did not use "reasonable care" in restraining the dog, said Fran Ortiz, a professor at South Texas College of Law Houston who teaches animal law among other topics.

Under state statute, a person commits an offense if they fail with criminal negligence to secure their dog that attacks a person and causes serious bodily injury or death at a location that is not their own property, motor vehicle or boat. Additionally, it is an offense if the dog has been declared dangerous before an attack.

VIDEO: 'He caught a piece of me': Delivering mail in the dog attack hotbed of Houston

"In either case, if the attack causes serious bodily injury, the offense is a third-degree felony," Ortiz said. "If it causes death, the offense is a second-degree felony."

If found guilty, according to the state code, "the court may order the dog destroyed."

In the city, BARC officials investigate the case for possible rabies exposure. The dog will be held until a judge can hear the case if they caused serious bodily injury or death.

What happens if my dog attacks another dog in Texas?

You may be held liable, as stated above. You can be sued for damage caused by the animal and local authorities can cite you depending on the attack, according to BARC officials.

Who is liable for a dog bite in Texas?

The owner of the dog can be held liable, as might an individual who is "keeper" of the dog, Ortiz said.

What can you do if your neighbor's dog attacks your dog?

State code says "any person witnessing" an attack by a dog or coyote on livestock, domestic animals or fowls can kill the dog or coyote.

"However, this provision does not exempt a person from the animal cruelty law or from laws relating to discharge of a weapon, for example, so criminal liability might result if the dog is killed, depending on the circumstances," Ortiz said.

TRAGIC UPDATE: Huffman man has both legs amputated after dog attack, remains in critical condition, sheriff says

You can also call animal control. Houston police animal control can be contacted at 713-884-3131, but 911 should be called in emergencies.

What is the current dog bite law in Texas?

The state does not have a civil dog bite statute.

What happens if a stray dog bites?

You can call animal control to have the dog impounded.

Do dog bites need to be reported in Texas?

Yes, according to Ortiz and BARC.

DANGEROUS HEAT: Yes, it's illegal to leave your dogs outdoors during Houston's summer heat wave

Individuals aware of a dog, or any animal, bite are supposed to report it to their local animal control agency. City residents can call 311.

Does a dog have to be quarantined after biting someone?

Yes, if it may have transmitted rabies. Local municipalities have different quarantine requirements.

alejandro.serrano@chron.com
Residents of a Northeast Houston-area apartment complex say they are tired of living in deplorable conditions, and they allege management is not doing enough to fix it.

Video captured by KPRC2 shows overflowing trash dumpsters, plus roaches and mildew in one resident's unit at Timber Ridge Apartments located at 12000 Fleming Drive in the Northshore area, just east of downtown. Residents say despite countless complaints to management, nothing is being done to resolve their ongoing issues.

Its so nasty and the cockroaches are huge, Yolaine Toledo, a resident who's lived there for three years and has moved to three different apartments to attempt to escape pest infestations, told KPRC 2.

Toledo also told the station that she can't sleep because shes up all night killing rats  up to eight in her apartment nightly  that eat through her pantry, contaminating food, according to the report.

A former resident who recently left an anonymous one-star review about the complex on apartments.com, warned people to "avoid at all costs."

In addition to rats and other pests, they also indicated repeated incidents where there wasn't hot water.

"This place is not worth the money," the review read. "Rats and roaches a consistent issue. Several incidents of no hot water or water in general."

ALSO AT TIMBER RIDGE: Officer, suspect killed as gunfire erupts at north Harris County apartment; second cop hospitalized

Timber Ridge offers one to three bedroom units at prices ranging from $520 to $1,000 per month, according to its listing on apartments.com.

Residents' outcry also caught the attention of The Texas Organizing Project, an organization that works to improve the living conditions of tenants in Harris, Dallas, and Bexar counties year-round. In early July, members stood in solidarity with tenants in their call for action from management to address their demands.

Management at Timber Ridge Apartments could not be reached for comment after several attempts as phone numbers associated with the complex appear to be disconnected.

A spokesperson for The Houston Health Department confirmed to the Chronicle that the department is looking into several active complaints about Timber Ridge apartments.

"Over the past year there has been a total of 17 complaints made for various issues, 10 complaints have been resolved (all 10 cases were resolved after the apartment management fixed the issue by hiring pest control or making repairs identified by Houston Health Department investigators,)" spokesperson Fabian Gutierrez said in an emailed statement.

"(Two) were canceled, and (five) are still pending. Our investigators are working with management to ensure these repairs are made in a timely manner. We encourage the community to report any possible health and safety complaints to 311 in order for the City to investigate."

The remaining five pending complaints are concerning pest control issues, Gutierrez confirmed.
Stop us if youve heard this one. Guy walks into an unsuspecting public venue  this time, the Galleria  clad in black, baggy clothing, toting a Bible, a long gun, semi-automatic handgun, 120 rounds of ammo and donning a shirt emblazoned with the vigilante Punisher skull logo. A security guard spots him walking purposefully toward the Westin Galleria area where hundreds of young girls are competing in a dance competition.

These could easily have been the makings of another tragic Texas massacre. Perhaps the only reason were not referencing the body count at this point and telling you about all the young victims and their grieving Houston families is because one brave officer tackled the suspect before any shots were fired.

In a merciful foil to the deadly law enforcement delays in Uvalde, Kendrick Simpo, a 42-year-old Houston Police Department sergeant working his Saturday job at the Galleria, didnt hesitate to pursue the suspect, Guido Herrera, trailing him swiftly but conspicuously without drawing his service weapon for fear of injuring bystanders, and taking him down within 10 feet of the dance competition in less than two minutes.

The incident happened in February. Were just learning of Simpos courageous response because apparently, he viewed the incident as just another day at the office and didnt talk about it much until he had to testify last week in Herreras trial. What kind of person potentially saves hundreds of lives and doesnt try to grab credit? A damn hero. We were beginning to feel after Uvalde that they didnt exist. Thank you, Sgt. Simpo, for reminding us they do.

Very likely because of his quick actions, the disturbing part of this tale isnt bloodshed, the young lives lost or brutal crime scene descriptions of small bodies rendered unrecognizable by killing machines that have no place in civilian society.

No, the disturbing part is that, if Herrera did intend to kill people that day, nearly everything he did in preparation is apparently sanctioned by Texas gun-worshipping, NRA-fearing, Second Amendment-misconstruing absolutist gun culture. So much so that prosecutors struggling to hold him accountable in court had to rack their brains over what to charge him with so hed serve any time at all.

In the end, as the Chronicles Nicole Hensley reported, Herrera stood trial last week for misdemeanor disorderly conduct, a Class B misdemeanor charge that left even the liberal judge who presided scratching his head. Herrera had also accepted a plea agreement on an unlawful carry charge related to a later incident when he showed up with a weapon at the FBIs Houston field office. He received a stacked sentence of six months for the Galleria ordeal and one year for the FBI stunt.

We have a genuinely dangerous situation with a genuinely dangerous person, Criminal Court of Law No. 8 Judge Franklin Bynum said in court. This situation, where someone is roaming around a federal building and malls with loaded firearms  and youre in front of me? Why?

Herreras defense attorney Armen Merjanian was happy to explain: Hes a gun-loving Texan. He has a right to possess these weapons whether we like them or not.

Dont be mad at the lawyer for that comment; hes just doing his job. Be mad at the legislators who passed the permissive gun laws hes citing to get his client off.

We cannot think of a clearer example of the cognitive dissonance muddling the debate over guns and safety in Texas. A deadly mass shooting at the Galleria, had it happened, could have been a crime punishable by death. But because Herrera didnt so much as point a gun at anybody, all steps leading up to that point  buying the assault-style weapon, nonchalantly toting a long gun in a family venue that bans firearms, donning 120 rounds of ammo  were legal and even theoretically championed by pro-gun activists as an expression of Second Amendment righteousness.

Indeed, because Texas doesnt necessarily restrict who can carry a long gun, the only way prosecutors were able to charge Herrera with anything in the Galleria incident was by proving he carried his weapons in a manner calculated to alarm.

Think about this, Harris County misdemeanor bureau chief Nathan Beedle told the editorial board this week, If I have the intent to do something  deadly conduct, aggravated assault, murder people  how long am I in a manner calculated to alarm? Its in those briefest of moments that we avoid a tragedy.

Why on earth do we let it get so close?

The Legislature has passed so many exceptions to gun laws over the past 20 years that Beedle says a two-paragraph statute has grown to five pages.

How is this rational? Its not. How is this allowed? Politics.

This editorial board supports the uniquely American constitutional right to keep and bear arms for personal protection, for sport, even for hunting deer for sausage and quail for dinner.

We simply believe in common sense restrictions that make it harder for people intent on killing others, or even themselves, to succeed.

Houstonians have a courageous police officer to thank for stopping a man who very well could have been planning mass murder that day. We have Texas lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott to blame for the fact he got so close.

Next time, we may not be so fortunate. Every parent in Uvalde knows that. By now, every Texan should, too.
More than 70 Republican state lawmakers have signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief siding with Attorney General Ken Paxton in arguing that a nearly century-old law imposing criminal penalties against those who help a patient obtain an abortion is enforceable now that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

A decision on whether that pre-Roe measure is enforceable is expected in the near future from the Texas Supreme Court, which has temporarily allowed the statute to be enforced civilly but not criminally. The pre-Roe law, like the existing six-week ban and the near-absolute ban soon to go into effect, does not carry any penalties for the patient.

The lawmakers, in a filing penned by state Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park, argue the Texas Legislature has repeatedly and emphatically affirmed the existence and continued enforceability of the old laws in recent legislation.

They note both the states anti-abortion trigger law, which will go into effect 30 days after the decision overturning Roe is certified, and its previous six-week abortion ban included language to that effect.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs  seven abortion clinic groups throughout Texas  point to legislative and judicial treatment of the old laws that they say proves they are no longer considered to be in effect, including a 2004 5th Circuit opinion that said the old laws were repealed by implication. The old statutes were also removed from copies of the states criminal and civil codes online.

ALSO READ: Architect of Texas abortion ban says he wouldnt support outlawing patient travel or Plan B

In court records filed Monday, the Republican lawmakers argue that a state court can now make its own decision in the case, no matter how federal courts have ruled in the past.

They add that the Texas and U.S. Supreme Courts both disfavor repeals by implication and defer to it only when statutes cant be harmonized. The lawmakers argue the laws could work in tandem.

The June ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court upended 50 years of legal precedent protecting the right to an abortion and sparked confusion about what Texas law allows.

Texas never removed abortion bans from the books after the 1973 Roe ruling, and the criminal penalties have been a point of contention. The trigger law carries a potential life sentence, whereas the old law carries a maximum of five years imprisonment.

RELATED: Rep. Lizzie Fletcher leads bill to protect patients who travel for abortions amid Texas crackdown

Cain and the rest of the members of the conservative Texas Freedom Caucus have shown a dedication to enact even more restrictions beyond banning the procedure once the Legislature reconvenes this January.

The caucus earlier this month sent a letter to Dallas law firm Sidley Austin LLP saying the firm was exposing itself and each of its partners to felony criminal prosecution and disbarment for reimbursing travel costs for employees who leave Texas to murder their unborn children.
WFO ALBANY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Albany NY

228 PM EDT Tue Jul 19 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TO 8 PM EDT

WEDNESDAY...

* WHAT...Heat index values of 95 to 100 expected.

* WHERE...Portions of northwestern Connecticut and east central

and eastern New York.

* WHEN...From noon to 8 PM EDT Wednesday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat

illnesses to occur.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out

of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young

children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles

under any circumstances.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when

possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent

rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone

overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO BOSTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Boston/Norton MA

310 PM EDT Tue Jul 19 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM TO 8 PM EDT

WEDNESDAY...

* WHAT...Heat index values up to 99 expected.

* WHERE...Northern Connecticut, much of Rhode Island and portions

of western, central and eastern Massachusetts.

* WHEN...From 11 AM to 8 PM EDT Wednesday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat

illnesses to occur.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out

of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young

children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles

under any circumstances.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when

possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent

rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone

overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
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The Classical 'High Season' Approaches its Zenith

During late-July, the classical music festival "high season," anchored by concerts at Tanglewood and at other regional venues approaches its zenith, with both sure-fire and innovative programming. Offerings this week include Boston Symphony performances of both classic and rarely heard works by Berlioz, Chopin, Wagner, Brahms, Mahler and Rachmaninoff, as well as by two of today's prominent composers  Richard Danielpour and Pierre Jalbert.

Not to be outdone, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams is continuing its ongoing three-week Summer Music Festival of new music, curated by renowned Bang on a Can (BOAC) composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe.

For a charming and musically rewarding country getaway, be sure to check out the performances on Sunday in the historic Academy by the Sevenars Music Festival in charming South Worthington, MA. As always, the place to be for great classical and stimulating new music is right here in our own intimate corner of the world  the Berkshires  a so-

designated "cultural capital," where artistic boundaries are nonexistent. Read on for concert details for all of the above:

Tanglewood

Performances in the Shed

 Friday, July 22, 8 p.m., Karina Canellakis, conductor: Wagner: Prelude to "Lohengrin," Act 1; Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1, with Emanuel Ax, soloist; Rachmaninoff: "Symphonic Dances."

 Saturday, July 23, 8 p.m.: Andris Nelsons conducting the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra with Christine Goerke, soprano, performing Berlioz: "The Death of Cleopatra"; Mahler: Symphony No. 5

 Sunday, July 24, 2:30 p.m.: Andris Nelsons conducting the Boston Symphony, with soloists Latonia Moore, soprano and Seong-Jin Cho, piano performing William Grant Still's "In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy," and George Walker's "Lilacs" for orchestra. The program concludes with Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2. Talks and performances in the Tanglewood Learning Institute and Ozawa Hall

 Wednesday, July 20, 1:30-3:30 p.m., Linde Center, Studio E: Open French horn workshop with Richard Sebring.

 Thursday, July 21, 1-2 p.m.: In conversation  to be determined.

 Thursday, July 21, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Linde Center, Studio E: Pre-concert talk with Richard Danielpour, Rita Dove and Michael Boriskin  artists who created "A Standing Witness."

 Thursday, July 21, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall  Music from Copland House: Music of Aaron Copland, Pierre Jalbert and Richard Danielpour. For tickets for all Tanglewood/BSO concerts (lawn and Shed seating) and for special events call 617-266-1200 or 888-266-1200. TDD/TTY: (617) 638-9289. For local information, call (413) 637-1600. Online: tanglewood.org

Sevenars Music Festival

Founded in 1968, Sevenars Concerts Inc. is showcasing its 54th anniversary season of six summer concerts, held at the Academy in the historic village of South Worthington, located at 15 Ireland St., just off Route 112.

 Sunday, July 24, 4 p.m., will feature Hayan Sun in an all-Schubert piano recital. The program will include an opening "March" in E Major, followed by three sonatas and, after intermission, the great "Fantasie in C Major."

Sevenars' press release announces: "Back by popular demand, powerhouse pianist Hayan Sun regaled Sevenars last season with his tremendous all-Beethoven program, and we are so excited now to hear him playing Schubert, in the 225th anniversary year of Schubert's birth. As Visiting Artist in Piano at Smith College, he has shared his compendious repertoire in recital, presenting in close succession a complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas and eight concerts of Schubert's piano music. We are thrilled to have him back!"

Concerts are presented on six consecutive Sundays at 4 p.m., from July 10-Aug. 14. Phone: (413) 238-5854 (please leave a message for a return call). Online: www.sevenars.org . Email: Sevenars@aol.com . Admission is by donation at the door (suggested $20). Refreshments will be available.

Mass MoCA Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival

If you think that this three-week summer music festival is your typical "high modern," cerebral celebration of head-in-your-hand, academic musical experimentation divorced from our daily lives and popular culture, think again; this is not your father's (or grandfather's) festival of modern music. Instead, it's a joyous, pop inflected, "what if" carnival of musical

merriment, and yes, passion, where caution is thrown to the winds. Think music on the cutting edge and beyond. As the BOAC Festival organizers themselves describe it: "Brilliant musicians and composers inhabit the Mass MoCA campus for three rollicking weeks of innovative, unexpected, and ear-expanding music."

Recitals are held throughout specific MoCA galleries are ongoing most days until July 27 at 1:30 p.m. (BOAC composer/performer Fellows) and at 4:30 p.m. (BOAC music faculty). All daily gallery concerts are free with

paid MoCA admission. Bang on a Can's gallery concerts lead up to LOUD Weekend on July 2830 with a fully "loaded" eclectic super-mix of minimal, experimental, and electronic music over three days throughout the museum's expansive

campus.
Lanesborough Suggests School Look Elsewhere for Boiler Funds

LANESBOROUGH, Mass.  The town's American Rescue Plan Act Committee has discussed a $50,000 request from Lanesborough Elementary School for a boiler replacement, suggesting the school consider looking for another funding source from the town.

Jason McCandless, the school's superintendent, attended the committee's Monday meeting via phone after working with Town Administrator Joshua Lang to get the request on the agenda. Last week, McCandless shared the boiler issue with the School Committee, which will need repairs to work through the winter.

"It was one of those things that somebody could have foreseen it, maybe, but not necessarily ... We do have a plan that looks at all of our equipment, all of our facilities and all of our physical plans, [the boiler] was not a part of that." he told the ARPA Committee.

Multiple committee members asked McCandless why the school did not ask for money sooner in the ARPA process, at the annual town meeting, or in the school's own budget. The boiler cost would use most, if not all, of the town's remaining non-appropriated ARPA funds.

"Our committee has met, and we've pretty much earmarked most of the money now," said committee member and Department of Public Works Director William Decelles. "And we've been modifying it here, so there isn't a lot of access at this point."

McCandless apologized for not coming to the town sooner and said nobody involved with the school had anticipated the problem before now. A replacement boiler, he told the School Committee last week, would likely not be ready until February.

"This is something that should have been planned for," he said. "I think we've got the right team in place to work to make sure these things don't happen again in the future."

Lang suggested free cash as another potential funding option for the boiler. A special town meeting, where the request is on the warrant, would be needed to approve the use of the free cash.

"It seems to me that's where something like this should come from," said committee member and Fire Chief Jeffery DeChaine said. "It's a last minute thing; we didn't plan for it for whatever reason. But that's what that money should be for."

In other business, an all-terrain vehicle that was to be paid for with ARPA money will be purchased and donated to the Fire Department by the Fireman's Association. DeChaine said he was also able to lower the cost of several other budgeted items.

"I think the idea [of the committee] was to take these things as they come and then reshuffle the list and come up with a new bottom line," he said. "And then, as we move forward through the months, as things come up, we adjust."
Vermont Drops SteepleCats

MONTPELIER, Vt.  Santino Rosso and Stephen Ditomaso each homered in a 16-hit attack for the Vermont Mountaineers as they beat the North Adams SteepleCats, 12-4, on Tuesday night.

Cedric Rose hit his fifth home run of the summer for the Cats, who got a double and a triple from Hunter Pasqualini.

North Adams (8-27) is back at Joe Wolfe Field on Wednesday against the Valley Blue Sox.
St. Anthony's Municipal Parking Lot has more than 100 spaces. It's been free on weekends but this year, the city charged $40 a day for Solid Sound parking, pulling in $11,000.

North Adams Traffic Commission Advises Parking Fees After Solid Sound Success

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The Traffic Commission is recommending a parking event fee of $40 a day after Solid Sound Weekend in May pulled in some $11,000 for the city.

Chair MaryAnn King said the focus would be on St. Anthony's Municipal Parking Lot and for events at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. But the ordinance can't single those out and has to be broader in terms language.

"I don't think you're going to see us do it for other events," she said at Tuesday's commission meeting. "It's unfortunate, I really think in the ordinance it's going to have to say events, but I don't foresee us charging for downtown events. I really see, you know, like concerts."

Officials have talked on and off over the years about how to tap into the thousands of vehicles that descend on the city for Mass MoCA concerts and festivals. Eric Rudd, in a run for mayor nearly a decade ago, had argued for parking fees, including in the museum lot, as an untapped source of revenue.

King, longtime parking enforcement officer and dispatcher, put the talk into action at the last minute this year after conferring with Mayor Jennifer Macksey.

"It was kind of like a short notice and we had a week to plan this," King said. "[The mayor] did bring it to the council, mentioned it to them because unfortunately, we didn't have an ordinance for it at the time. ...

"I just couldn't see just throwing that money away."

The city alerted the museum director, who had no issues with it, and King and her husband, Leon, volunteered to run the parking lot. Private individuals and organizations have also been charging for parking spaces during the festivals, with St. Elizabeth's Church charging $35.

"We didn't want to undercut the church," King continued. "The church was charging $35 a spot. We charged $40. We didn't want to take any of the parking away from them. We figured let them fill up first, then the overflow, if they want, can come to us."

She reported the lot was at capacity on Saturday, and less so on Friday night and Sunday. The festival ran May 27-29 and brought in around 8,000 people.

King said three spots were reserved for the permitted overnight parkers and spots under the Veterans Memorial Bridge for Marshal Street customers.

They also tried to run some parking spots in the Center Street lot by blocking off permitted areas with signs and horses but it was difficult to do with just two people and some help from the mayor.

"We're going to have to sit down and think what we're going to do there in order to do it the right way," King said. "We have to have someone police it."

Commissioner Paul Markland, highway foreman, said perhaps the city could partner with organizations or youth groups. King said it was possible but noted the amount of money involved and how that could be handled.

"When you bring the groups in, I mean, when you're looking at $11,000 plus dollars, you have to really have checks and balances," she said.

King said the weekend worked out well. They used a handheld credit card reader and took down license plates and phone numbers. People who wanted to leave and come back were able to keep their spots. In one instance, the festivalgoers were so excited they took off with their car still running. Luckily, they also left the vehicle unlocked so police shut it off and locked it up for them. King said they left a note in the car explaining what happened.

"The only complaints we really got about the price we charged were some locals," King said. "We had such a great group of people. They were so friendly."

Other commissioners agreed that the price was right for "prime parking" compared to other communities. Commissioner Marie T. Harpin said she'd paid $40 for spot near a beach in Connecticut.

The City Council isn't expected to take up the ordinance until its August meeting.

The commission also voted to recommend the east side of Central Avenue be a no-parking zone. King said Police Chief Jason Wood had asked for this to be put on the agenda.

Apparently a new resident on the street, which runs between Franklin and Barth streets, has been parking on the street and making it difficult for vehicles to get through. King said all of the homes on the street have driveways and off-street parking.

"He's been asked not to do it, one of the officers went up and spoke with him. I believe the chief did also and it just continues," she said.

Harpin brought up a complaint from a resident of Highland Avenue who said it was often difficult to back out of their driveway because of cars parked along the street.

Highland runs from Davenport down to Hoosac Hall on the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts campus. Employees and students often park along the street.

Markland and King said it was legal to park on the street, except overnight during the winter. Harpin asked about parking close to driveways but that also is not in ordinance, they said.

King said they had put a 5-foot setback on a section of Church Street to accommodate houses that had stairs that ended on the street so people could get out of their houses without being blocked by cars. Harpin said she would speak with the residents again.

She also brought up the odd placement of the "no right on red" signs at the bottom of Eagle near St. Joseph's Court and resident Alan Horbal said tractor trailers were coming down narrow, winding East Main Street and questioned what happened to a sign warning it was closed to commercial trucks.

Markland said he would look into both issues.
Voting Groups Sponsoring District Attorney Forum

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The NAACP, Berkshire County Branch, the League of Women Voters of Central Berkshire County, League of Women Voters of Williamstown, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts will host the forum "What a Difference A DA Makes" at their next general meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 3, at 6 p.m. via Zoom.

The forum is part of ACLUM's public education initiative in Massachusetts that seeks to highlight the key role that the commonwealth's district attorneys play in determining the effectiveness and fairness of the criminal legal system  and to inform and educate Massachusetts residents so they are more aware and engaged in their local district attorney elections.

Through public education campaigns like "Know Your Sheriff" and "What a Difference a DA Makes," ACLUM hopes to educate and empower community members in Massachusetts to demand safer communities and a more just criminal legal system.

After the presentation, those in attendance will be able to ask questions to the two candidates running for Berkshire County district attorney: incumbent Andrea Harrington and Tim Shugrue

This event is free and open to all but attendees must register via Zoom for the link, which can be found here. For more information, visit naacpberkshires.org or, for the education campaign, aclum.org
Aimee Dowling of Stamford, Vt., is awarded the Biomedical Engineering Department Award for Outstanding Senior at Western New England University on May 21.

College Notes: Summer 2022

Aimee Dowling of Stamford, Vt., was awarded the Biomedical Engineering Department Award for Outstanding Senior at the 2022 College of Engineering Senior Awards Ceremony held on May 21 at Western New England University. This award, presented by Robert Gettens, department chair and professor of biomedical engineering, is presented to a senior biomedical engineering student who has demonstrated academic success with an outstanding grade point average and has demonstrated professionalism in their studies. Dowling was also welcomed into Tau Beta Pi National Honor Society at the chapter's annual induction ceremony. Tau Beta Pi is a national honor society for engineering students. To be elected, students must demonstrate outstanding scholarship and professional integrity. Dowling graduated with a bachelor of science in engineering in biomedical engineering.

Two Dalton students who are juniors at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have completed research projects. All undergraduates are required to complete a research-driven, professional-level project that applies science and technology to addresses an important societal need or issue. The project-based curriculum offers students the opportunity to apply their scientific and technical knowledge to develop thoughtful solutions to real problems that affect the quality of people's lives-and make a difference before they graduate.

Jacob Borowsky, majoring in aerospace engineering, completed the project titled "Evaluating Gender-Based Disaster Response Training," and James Scalise, majoring in architectural engineering, completed "Developing a BYOD Pilot Application for Tower Bridge."



Eva Myers, left, poses with other orientation group leaders at Western New England University. Western New England University in Springfield. Eva Myers of Pittsfield was selected to serve as an orientation group leader for the 2022 Summer Orientation and Registration (SOAR) program atin Springfield. These leaders are students who have consistently modeled solid citizenship and active participation in the university community. They are selected for their strong communication skills, their leadership qualities, and their ability to build relationships with students and families. The help new students transition by providing students and parents with information and structure. SOAR helps set the stage for academic readiness and successful community integration to Western New England University.

Graduations

Michaela Defoe of Becket and Abigail Tynan of Pittsfield have graduated from the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Conn. Penny Ankamah and Paul Torra, both of Pittsfield, graduated on June 2 from Springfield Technical Community College. Jamie Boyle of Pownal graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of arts in multidiscipinary studies from Castleton (Vt.) University on Saturday, May 14. This year marked the first in-person, university-wide commencement in three years. Mia Schultz, president of the Rutland Area Branch of the NAACP, encouraged students to become leaders in their communities and push for positive change whenever they can. Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., awarded nearly 800 degrees at its spring commencement in May, including two local students: Nathaniel Aaron Beaupre of Pittsfield, bachelor of science with distinction in mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering minor and DiMaggio Anthony Paris of Lanesborough, bachelor of science with great distinction in mathematics, computer science. Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., held its commencement ceremony in May. The class of 2022 included Ellie Field of Adams, bachelor of science in public health; Sierra Jamros of Adams, magna cum laude, bachelor of science in legal studies; and Emma Smith of Dalton, magna cum laude, bachelor of arts in psychology. The College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y., conferred degrees and certificates to more than 1,600 graduates of the class of 2022. They include Celene Koperek of North Adams, who earned a master of science in education communication sciences and disorders and Julia Esoldi, also of North Adams, who earned a bachelor of science human resource management. The following Williamstown students received bachelor of arts degrees with departmental honors from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., on Sunday, May 22, in a commencement ceremony concluding the college's 210th year: Jacob Hane, classical languages, magna cum laude; Samuel Dils, literature; William Budington, Africana studies; and Isabelle Bote, art history. Teresa Hiam of Dalton has earned a bachelor of science, cum laude, in business administration from University of Maryland's Global Campus. The Global Campus enrolls some 90,000 students annually, offering degree programs and certificates in more than 125 fully online, hybrid and face-to-face programs and specializations. Pittsfield residents Valerie Goly and Michael Kays have graduated this spring from American International College in Springfield. Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology conferred more than 4,300 degrees at all of its campuses in the 2021-2022 academic year. The following local residents received degrees: Ashley Martsen of East Otis, bachelor of science in physics, and Thomas Gorski of Pittsfield, master of science in computing security.

Academic Lists & Awards

Jack Pudlo of Dalton, Madeleine Soudant of Great Barrington and Donovan Sawyer of Monterey were named to honors lists for the spring 2022 semester at Nichols College in Dudley.

Plymouth (N.H.) State University has named Emma Nardi of Ashley Falls, Michaela Larkin of Cheshire and Troy Brainerd of Dalton to the president's list for the spring 2022 semester.

Mary Hines of Pittsfield, who is studying in media and culture, political science, was named to the dean's list at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, for the spring 2022 semester.
Biden's 1st Mideast visit only leaves hollow promises: Israeli experts

Xinhua) 10:05, July 20, 2022

JERUSALEM, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Joe Biden's first visit to Israel and Palestine as U.S. president left only hollow commitments and could not resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli experts said.

Tovah Lazaroff, deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post, wrote in an article that, though Biden spoke of a future of peace, he didn't take any steps during his visit to advance an end to the conflict and the Jewish settlement expansion in East Jerusalem and West Bank still continues.

Meanwhile, according to Biden's announcement, the U.S. funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) would drop 15 percent from last year, he said.

"The statement by U.S. President Joe Biden in Bethlehem on Friday didn't provide a groundbreaking U.S. position on anything related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," said Jack Khoury, political corespondent with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

He said that Biden positioned himself somewhere between his predecessor Donald Trump, who strived to shatter the Palestinians' dream for a homeland, and former Democratic President Barack Obama, who pushed for a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians but abandoned the bid after failing to achieve a breakthrough in 2014.

"The Palestinian side realizes that the Biden administration isn't about to present guidelines for a permanent solution or convene an Israeli-Palestinian peace conference," a senior Palestinian official who attended the meeting with Biden was quoted as saying by Khoury.

Besides the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the outlook of Israel's relations with Arab countries and integration into the region is also believed to be grim, experts said.

Ben Samuels, also from Haaretz and the only Israeli journalist that flew with the White House press delegation from Israel to Saudi Arabia, wrote in his analytic article that "the United States has all but uncoupled Israel from the Palestinians, following in President Donald Trump's footsteps and centering Israeli policy around Arab normalization and regional integration."

Samuels argued that the "dreams of a new Mideast reality in the immediate future were met with the stark realization that the Palestinians are not going anywhere."

Eytan Gilboa, an expert on the U.S.-Israel relations at the Bar-Ilan University and a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, believed "Biden wants to demonstrate that he has learned the lessons of the past."

The Obama administration had a different approach as Obama's first two visits to the Middle East bypassed Israel, Gilboa noted, saying that Obama's aim was to "distance Israel in favor of reconciliation with the Muslim world."

"Biden's visit to Israel aims to please, but may alienate all parties instead," read the title of an opinion piece published in the Israeli newspaper Hayom.

Zvi Bar'el, a research fellow at the Truman Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, believed "the Middle East wasn't waiting for Biden, who returns home with not much but hope."

"Biden presented Israel's integration into the Middle East as one of the main objectives of his visit. Yet here, too, he received a cold shoulder. Peace and normalization with Israel --- these are not identical terms," Bar'el said, citing Saudi officials' remarks that the two countries will not establish diplomatic relations as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not resolved.

The Arab leaders attending the Jeddah summit with Biden "did not mention Israel at all there," he noted.

"They only agreed on the need to cooperate. No details were provided regarding operational plans, nor on any establishment of coordination or schedules for continued talks, and perhaps there are none to provide," he added.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
Like most of us, Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami is just getting used to international travel. He took the hotseat of the datacentre disruptor in December 2020 but, when we meet recently in central London, he tells me this is his first trip out here. A soft spoken and courteous man, he still has plenty to share and for me to catch up on, so we jump straight in

First is the fairly recent news that Broadcom agreed to buy virtualisation behemoth VMware, Ramaswamis former employer and now his competitor. Was this a surprise and might this open up new opportunities, especially given public statements and the template example of Symantec, where Broadcom doubled-down on its largest customers?

I hadnt necessarily anticipated [the sale], he says, but VMware is a great company with great products and a great customer base. I do think that over time there will be more customers looking at alternatives. When a company goes through an acquisition, customers ask what does that mean for me? Broadcom has indicated it is going to be more focused on profitability. Its a different model [to VMwares previous direction].

Ramaswamis exit from VMware led to a legal spat but adds that he is optimistic that the pair can work together sensibly, given the crossover in their respective customer bases and need to integrate and interact.

Dealing with the Great Resignation

Another opportunity could be to recruit from VMwares numbers at a time when many in the tech sector (and outside it) are weighing their career options. Nutanix recently cited issues with retaining sales staff as having a disruptive effect on its performance as some saw greener pastures among pre-IPO companies.
Police arrested Jharkhand-based independent journalist Rupesh Kumar Singh on July 17, accusing him of supporting Maoist groups. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Indian Journalists Union (IJU), condemn the arrest and call for the journalists immediate release.

According to Singhs wife, Ipsa Shatakshi, at 5:25 am on July 17 Saraikela Kharsawan district police conducted a 9-hour raid at their home, seizing a bed sheet, a nine-page notebook, a tax invoice for a motorcycle, two mobile phones, one hard-disk, the retail invoice of a car and two laptops, among other personal items.

Immediately following the raid, the police arrested Singh and charged him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Police searched for nine hours but didnt disclose that they had an arrest warrant, too. Only five minutes before the arrest, the police showed us the warrant, Shatakshi said.

Singhwas arrested in connection with a 2021 case for his alleged links with leaders of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), including Prashant Bose. Police claim the journalist was involved in organising funds for the Maoist members.

Singh has frequently covered the rights of tribal communities, known as Adivasis, and other marginalised communities for the news publications Janchowk and Media Vigil.

He was associated with the student wing of the CPI (Leninist) during his time at college and was arrested in June 2019 for alleged links with Maoists. The journalists wife said that the journalist is being targeted for his investigative work surrounding human rights violations.

The IJU said: IJU expresses serious concern at the arrest of Rupesh Kumar Singh, an independent Journalist of Jharkhand, under UAPA act. IJU raised its voice against wanton arrests of journalists under UAPA after the Supreme Court's order to not use the sedition law 124(a) of the IPC. Such action of the government will throttle the free press and help establish an authoritarian regime in the country.

IFJ said: Journalists must be able to report independently and critically without fear of detainment, harassment, or intimidation. The IFJ condemns the arrest of journalist Rupesh Kumar Singh and urges the Indian authorities to immediately drop all charges against him.
Welcome to Inc.'s Founders Project podcast with Alexa Von Tobel, where we bring you tales of guts, inspiration , and drive that define the entrepreneurs building the future. Each week, we dig into a founder's professional playbook and uncover what makes them tick. On this week's episode:

How to Plan for Success, With Amol Deshpande of Farmers Business Network

Family farmers are growing fast and looking to innovate. That's why Amol Deshpande left his career as an investor to start Farmers Business Network (FBN), the global farmer-to-farmer network and AgTech company which supports over 43,000 farmers responsible for over 80 million acres in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Deshpande shares why -- despite the stereotype -- farmers are tech-forward, how his upbringing instilled an appetite for risk-taking, and why it's critical to invest time with your children as consistently as you show up at work.
Prevent Unauthorized Transactions in your demat / trading account Update your Mobile Number/ email Id with your stock broker / Depository Participant. Receive information of your transactions directly from Exchanges on your mobile / email at the end of day and alerts on your registered mobile for all debits and other important transactions in your demat account directly from NSDL/ CDSL on the same day." - Issued in the interest of investors.

KYC is one time exercise while dealing in securities markets - once KYC is done through a SEBI registered intermediary (broker, DP, Mutual Fund etc.), you need not undergo the same process again when you approach another intermediary.

No need to issue cheques by investors while subscribing to IPO. Just write the bank account number and sign in the application form to authorise your bank to make payment in case of allotment. No worries for refund as the money remains in investor's account."

www.indiainfoline.com is part of the IIFL Group, a leading financial services player and a diversified NBFC. The site provides comprehensive and real time information on Indian corporates, sectors, financial markets and economy. On the site we feature industry and political leaders, entrepreneurs, and trend setters. The research, personal finance and market tutorial sections are widely followed by students, academia, corporates and investors among others.
The travel industry in Europe is in chaos due to strikes, lost luggage, rising rates, and thousands of cancelled flights. Thousands of flights have been cancelled by airlines because of harsh weather phenomenon, crew shortages, and strike actions.

Unsplash/Representational Image

Several airlines advise passengers to arrive at check-in four to five hours early.

What is the current situation?

Travel demand has surged following two years of pandemic restrictions, but airlines and airports that slashed staff during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis are finding it hard to keep up. As Europe's busy summer travel season gets under way, travellers are experiencing chaotic airport scenes, including long delays, cancelled flights, and concerns over lost luggages.

According to media reports, strikes by the cabin crew, a lack of workers, an unusually high demand, and other intense pressures paralysed European air transport in June.

AFP

According to reports, the number of flights cancelled to some of the major tourist destinations in the European Union has more than tripled. Nearly twice as many cancellations occur in the EU as do so in the US.

According to data from Cirium, 15,700 flights were cancelled by airlines throughout Europe for August, which represents 60% of all cancellations worldwide.

In an effort to reduce the chaos at security lines and check-in, London Heathrow Airport has attempted to reduce the number of passengers that fly out of its terminals from 104,000 to 100,000 each day until September.

On Sunday, July 17, 500 flights were cancelled in Italy due to strikes by low-cost airline workers and air traffic controllers demanding higher wages.

Pilots are increasingly issuing warnings that aviation travel in Europe is reaching a breaking point and may never be the same. According to Bloomberg, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, which are located further north in Europe, curtailed the sale of their low-cost tickets and Deutsche Lufthansa opted to cancel one-fifth of its trips from Frankfurt and Munich.

Pressure on the workers?

The European Cockpit Association (ECA), a group of pilots and aviation industry professionals, claims that the pandemic's mass layoffs severely impacted the industry and cost it many of its experienced employees.

AFP

Staff members will be stretched to the maximum in the summer of 2022 as a result of these layoffs and the extraordinary demand for cheap flights. Because of the perceived risk of working in the unstable business during the pandemic, airlines are finding it difficult to hire new employees and pilots.

Pilots and cabin crew are now hired more frequently through agencies, on zero-hour contracts, and as independent contractors. As a result, working conditions, remuneration, and representation have become substantially more uncertain.

AFP

Striking Ryanair employees complained unfair working conditions and remuneration, even alleging that they occasionally went short supplies such as water and other necessities. These new circumstances were labelled as "social dumping" by the ECA.

According to the ECA, a significant portion of the employment shortages currently plaguing Europe could have been prevented during the pandemic. The current aviation crisis has been beneficial for airlines that have kept workers, many of whom have years of expertise managing busy flight periods.

Low-cost Airlines to blame?

The European travel crisis has not affected all airlines. Some more expensive, flag carrier airlines have performed better than more budget-oriented, cost-conscious airlines.

In recent ECA ranking of social commitments for airlines, traditional low-cost carriers are obviously near the bottom of the list, whereas airlines such as Air France and KLM typically score higher for their treatment of staff and working conditions.

AFP

Cost-cutting, maximum efficiency, and other cost-saving techniques are prioritised by low-cost airlines. This frequently comes at the expense of the workforce, who are the first to experience pay cuts and worsening circumstances.

The future of low-cost airlines is uncertain, according to several senior pilots. There is an obvious trade-off between pricing and employee welfare under the current fuel cost and demand conditions.

Heatwaves and COVID-19 made travel hazardous

According to Forbes, heatwaves, wildfires, and rising Covid-19 infection rates across Europe make the travel appear to be the easy part.

AFP

This week, many regions of Europe, including the U.K. and France, are predicted to experience record-breaking temperatures of 40 degrees.

Spain and Portugal have been suffocated by extreme temperatures. Since July 10, at least 360 fatalities occurred in Spain, while 659 have suffered in Portugal, where temperatures hit 46 degrees Celsius.

In the Gironde area of southwest France, a wildfire nearly the size of downtown Paris is raging, forcing 16,000 residents to flee on Monday, July 18. It's one of many wildfires now burning in France, and experts are facing difficulties containing it.

In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified Europe as the region at the centre of a recent wave of international Covid-19 infections, according to Bloomberg. The WHO's Health Emergencies Programme's executive director, Michael Ryan, told the media that "we are seeing a considerably more intense wave of the disease sweeping through Europe again."

People were reportedly "passing out" at Gatwick Airport in the UK on Saturday after being forced to wait at their gate "without air conditioning" because of the heat.

According to experts, it might be preferable to avoid checking bags and stay local (at least to roads and rail, rather than air). Travelers are advised to at the very least have as much insurance as possible and to give themselves ample extra time to account for delays, the heat, and crowds.





For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News.
In what could become yet another flashpoint between India and China, newly released satellite images have shown a Chinese village east of Doklam, on the Bhutanese side.

The satellite images released by US-based Maxar Technologies showed the village, which China calls Pangda is located some 9 kms away from the Doklam tri-junction, where India and China were involved in an intense standoff in 2017 that lasted for more than two months.

China has built a new village in Doklam! India is happy in bulldozing Muslim houses. pic.twitter.com/S3UcjBo2W5  Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) July 19, 2022

The standoff was triggered by the Chinese attempts to extend a road in the area Bhutan claimed belonged to and is of strategic importance to India.

A fully inhabited village constructed by China

The new satellite image suggests that the Chinese village is fully inhabited and has cars parked at the doorstep of almost every home.

BCCL/ File

Alongside the village was a neatly marked all-weather carriageway, which was part of China's "extensive land grab" in Bhutan. The road could give China access to a strategic ridge in Doklam.

In October last year, Bhutan and China signed an agreement on a "three-step roadmap" to expedite negotiations to resolve their festering boundary dispute.

Bhutan shares an over 400-km-long border with China, and the two countries have held over 24 rounds of boundary talks in a bid to resolve the dispute.

The two countries also held ten rounds of negotiations at the 'Expert Group' level.

The Doklam tri-junction is considered important from the point of view of India's security interests.

Wikipedia

Doklam stand-off 2017

The India-China stand-off in the Doklam plateau in 2017 triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Bhutan said the area belonged to it, and India supported the Bhutanese claim.

India vehemently opposed the road construction at the Doklam tri-junction as it would have impacted its overall security interests.

The India-China face-off was resolved following several rounds of talks.

BCCL

What happened to the talks?

Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday questioned the government on its recently concluded 16th round of talks with China on the border dispute and pointed out that the Chinese media does not even mention the talks.

"Does the government of India still maintain the PM's statement that no foreign soldiers had intruded into Indian territory and there are no foreign soldiers on Indian territory?" the Congress leader asked.

While Indian media reports 'no breakthrough in talks', Chinese media does not even mention the talks



Does the Government of India still maintain the PMs statement that no foreign soldiers had intruded into Indian territory & there are no foreign soldiers on Indian territory?  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) July 20, 2022

The government had said previously that it keeps an eye on all the activities along its border.

China has been ramping up border infrastructure in several sensitive locations, including along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, where the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been locked in an over two-year standoff with the Indian Army.

For more on news, sports, and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
Kashmiri Pandit employees recruited in government services per the Prime Ministers job scheme in the valley have completed 67 days on Tuesday of continuous absence from work in protest against the targeted killings by militants.

Basit Zargar

The staffers have been demanding relocation to Jammu since May 12 after a Kashmiri Pandit employee Rahul Bhat was killed by militants inside a government office in central Kashmirs Budgam district.

67 days of protest completed

A Kashmiri Pandit employee told The New Indian Express that they had completed 67 days of protest on Tuesday.

He said employees have been staging protests in the transit accommodations in the Valley, besides Jammu.

Basit Zargar

About 5,500 staffers have been urging the government to move them to Jammu till the security situation improves in Kashmir.

They have been citing danger to their lives after Bhat was shot dead inside his office.

Relocate to Jammu

Our only demand is that they all should be attached with the Relief department and relocated to Jammu till the situation improves in the Valley. We dont think the security situation is fine and feel we are caged here, the Pandit employee said.

He added that their childrens education has been hit as they have not been going to school for over two months.

Basit Zargar

The employees have rejected the governments decision to shift them to district and tehsil headquarters within the valley and are sticking to their demand for relocation to Jammu only.

They have appealed to the government for relocation at least for three years till the security situation improves in the valley.

Another Pandit employee, Ranjan Kumar, said in a bid to force them to resume work, the government has withheld the salary of 8-10 per cent of the Pandit employees who were recruited under the PMs job package.

Invite for talks

He said that Lt Governor Manoj Sinha should invite them for talks.

Basit Zargar

The government has appointed a nodal officer, but no efforts have been made to reach out to the protesting employees, he said.

The status quo continues. If talks had been held, a middle path would have been found by now, he added.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.


After Penny Mordaunt was eliminated from the race on Wednesday, former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss were left as the final two candidates for the Tory leadership.

Instagram

In Conservative legislators' last round of voting, International Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt was ousted. According to Xinhua, Truss garnered 113 votes in the final round, while Rishi Sunak received 137.



The Top Two:

Grateful that my colleagues have put their trust in me today.



I will work night and day to deliver our message around the country.



Join the team at https://t.co/3cXn1rFhca pic.twitter.com/ro612xDAcL  Ready For Rishi (@RishiSunak) July 20, 2022

The two will now face a postal vote this summer among the approximately 200,000 members of the Conservative Party.

Instagram

The winner, whose name will be revealed on September 5, will automatically succeed in departing Prime Minister Boris Johnson as UK leader.



Who is Rishi Sunak?

BBC

Rishi Sunak, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, topped the first round with 88 votes, according to Graham Brady, chair of the Conservative Backbench 1922 Committee.



Wikipedia

The other five survivors were International Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt (67 votes), Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (50 votes), former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch (40 votes), backbench lawmaker Tom Tugendhat (37 votes), and Attorney General Suella Braverman (32 votes).



Tom Tugendhat, House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, was knocked out of the race as he received the fewest votes.

The four survivors were former Sunak (115 votes), Mordaunt's (82 votes), Truss (71 votes), and Badenoch (58 votes). In the fourth round of voting on Tuesday, Indian-origin former UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak retained the lead in the fourth round of voting on Tuesday to succeed Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister, while one candidate was eliminated.

Sunak came on top with 118 votes, followed by Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt with 92 votes and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss with 86. According to the 1922 Committee of Conservative Party backbenchers, Kemi Badenoch was eliminated from the contest, reducing the number of contestants to three.

AP

Boris Johnson replaced Theresa May as prime minister in 2019 and announced on July 7 that he was stepping down as prime minister and leader of the UK Conservative Party.



A total of 58 ministers quit the government following an ethics scandal that ultimately forced the UK premier to resign.

Johnson, 58, managed to remain in power for almost three years, despite allegations that he was too close to party donors, that he protected supporters from bullying and corruption allegations, and that he misled Parliament and was dishonest to the public about government office parties that broke pandemic lockdown rules.

Johnson would remain in office until October as caretaker prime minister until a new Tory leader is elected.

AFP

Johnson, who won a landslide victory in the general elections in 2019, lost support after he was caught in a string of scandals, including the Party Gate scandal and the Pincher scandal involving his appointment of a politician accused of sexual misconduct.



(With ANI Inputs)

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NBIF president Peter D. Thompson commented in a statement that the partnership with Hub would provide the organizations plan sponsor clients with a broader range of products and services, as well as a larger pool of resources and experts to tap into.

Read more: Hub International enters strategic partnership with NBIF in Quebec

The deal comes months after Hub and NBIF had made a similar transaction in March, which saw NBIF transfer its group insurance activities in Quebec to Hub. According to Hub president and CEO Stephen Blais, NBIFs group insurance services will be a major asset for the brokerages growth strategy.
Quick to react, insurance broker and risk consultant NFP Canada has since launched a new business, NFP Captive Management (Alberta) Corp., which can form and administer Alberta-domiciled captive insurance companies for clients.

In the face of rising costs and challenging coverage access  two key characteristics of a hard insurance market  industries in The Energy Province have called on the provincial government to provide more efficient and cost-effective solutions.

Alberta has listened to industry and this new legislation has opened up lots of opportunities, said Sam Jackson (pictured), VP of captive management at NFP Canada. Alberta has set up a captive regime, NFP Captive Management is open for business, and were here to support any business that wants to evaluate and execute a captive structure.

Jackson joined NFP Canada in April 2022, bringing over two decades of industry experience to the firms Complex Risk Solutions Group (CSRG). He joined NFP from Rogers Insurance, where he served as a senior broking advisor evaluating alternative risk financing opportunities. Before Rogers, he spent over a dozen years at the Energy Insurance Group, where he oversaw all operations for their energy clients insurance programs.

His primary tasks at NFP Captive Management will be to guide clients through the complex processes of filing a captive application, securing a license, setting up a captive corporation, and then helping clients to manage their captive corporation by facilitating regulatory submissions and reporting, underwriting and claims, investment policies, actuarial and audit reports.

Read next: NFP acquires wealth management firm Newport Private Wealth

First things first, clients must conduct a feasibility study to determine whether a captive is the right choice for them. Jackson explained: A captive is another tool in the toolbox for a company to evaluate and manage their risks. Most companies look at their risk exposures and say: We can take this much risk, but we want to buy insurance to cover unexpected events. Once they start thinking: Hold on, Im spending a lot of money on insurance, and Im making very few claims. Is there a better way to manage this?  a captive is a tool they can evaluate.

It depends on a clients risk profile and their insurance spend. Often, companies dont have the insurance spend to justify setting up a captive on their own, but they can look at group captives, reciprocals, and other structures [with similar, well risk-managed companies] who are looking for tools to help manage their risks. If they have the risk appetite and the capital required to manage and own their own captive insurance entity, we can then help them out with that process.

Some industries and risk classes are more eager to form captive structures than others. In Alberta, the energy industry has faced significant insurance challenges in recent years, with insurers pulling back due to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) pressures. Captives are an alternative risk solution for energy companies to secure coverage they can no longer access from traditional markets.

According to Jackson, many large energy companies in the province already have captives in other jurisdictions like Bermuda or Barbados, and they use third-party captive managers to run those corporations. With the enactment of the Captive Insurance Companies Act, they can now form captives locally and work with local experts to manage their risks.

Captive solutions meet the needs of lots of industries, Jackson added. The condominium and residential real estate marketplace has seen some substantial rate increases in recent years, and this legislation opens the door for them to evaluate other options. Theres also an opportunity for commercial transportation companies, taxi companies  basically in all industries where companies have substantial risks and theyre looking to manage those risks more effectively. Sometimes, it makes more sense to set up a captive insurance entity than to self-insure risks.

Read more: NFP taps new surety leader for Canada

Now that the Captive Insurance Companies Act has come into force, theres an opportunity for local insurance brokers to get familiar with the legislation, what it means for clients, and when it makes sense to go down the captive route.

Were happy to have that conversation with any broker, said Jackson. While we are NFP Captive Management, we have set up as a separate company so that we can work with other brokers and their clients to manage their captives and help them out. Ive had conversations with other independent brokers, and Im happy to support them in meeting the needs of their clients and trying to set up their captives.

NFP Captive Management already has its first captive insurance application in with the Alberta regulators. If approved, this will be the first captive officially established in Alberta.
As digital threats grow more sophisticated and malicious, we keep enhancing our underwriting approach to help our clients manage cyber risks, said Jeremy Gittler, head of cyber insurance in the Americas for AXA XL. These new roles will help us direct more focus on our growth strategy and find innovative ways to address our clients more complicated cyber and tech E&O risks.

In her new role, Rossini will lead the companys go-to-market strategy in the US cyber insurance market. Rossini began her insurance career in 2014 as a graduate trainee at Hiscox and quickly gravitated toward cyber underwriting. She joined AXA XL in 2018 and most recently served as cyber underwriting manager for the companys West Zone.

Suckerman has nearly 20 years of cyber insurance experience and 30 years of E&O underwriting experience. In his new role, he will take the lead on underwriting accounts with the most complex E&O and cyber exposures and build appropriate insurance program structures. Suckerman joined AXA XL in 2012.

Read next: AXA XL confirms stalwarts comeback

Our market leadership is the result of our strong bench of cyber underwriting talent, Gittler said. As Rachel and Vern take on these new roles, were pleased to announce some well-earned regional management promotions and to welcome back a former team member.

Greg Chambers has been promoted to Suckermans former role as underwriting manager for AXA XLs Central Zone. Chambers has nearly 20 years of industry experience. He joined AXA XL in 2015 after stints at Marsh and CNA.

Adam Jaffer has rejoined the company to assume Rossinis former role as underwriting manager for the West Zone. Jaffer returns to the company after a brief tenure with Corvus. He previously spent five years with AXA XLs cyber team. Jaffers began his career as an IT technician before applying his IT expertise to cyber underwriting.

Erik Barnes has been promoted to underwriting manager for the Northeast Zone. Barnes began his underwriting career at Ironshore and joined AXA XL in 2018. He joined the insurance industry in major accounts support at Conner Strong & Buckelew in Philadelphia.
Knight said he joined Liberty for the genuine culture, as well as the growth trajectory of the agency.

Read next: Liberty Company swoops for N.J. firm

I love how The Liberty Company truly embodies the culture from the top down, he said. I completely resonate with the idea that serving and caring for people well will lead to joy, fulfillment, and profitability in our work.

The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers is among the fastest-growing privately held insurance brokerages in the nation.
Further, the carrier has alleged that this is not the only attempt by the man, to claim over the STD  and that he had sought to claim against multiple insurers including Travelers Home and Marine Insurance Company, Acuity Insurance, and Progressive.

GEICO filed a motion for summary judgment in late June, arguing that its policy terms, as interpreted by Kansas law, demonstrate that MOs alleged injury is not covered.

In accompanying court documents seen by Insurance Business, filed in the Western District of Missouri Western Division  Kansas City, GEICO argued that there are numerous reasons why the claimant and the insured cannot recover anything from it.

The claimant and the insured are a formerly engaged couple who admitted to sexual activities in locations well beyond the vehicle prior to [MOs] HPV diagnosis, GEICO alleged. This included unprotected sexual activities at the insured and claimants houses prior to the October 2018 diagnosis, according to GEICOs legal team.

The carrier further claimed that their relationship lasted two years and seven months, with the claimant first having asserted a potential tort claim against the man over the STD after May 2020  when their engagement was called off.

The man submitted two homeowners claims  to Travelers and Acuity  and one motor claim with Progressive Insurance in addition to the GEICO claim, the carriers court documents alleged. This followed counsel for MO requesting all applicable insurance policy details from the insured in November 2020, without any mention of the Hyundai Genesis in which it was later claimed the STD had been contracted, GEICO alleged.

However, GEICO set out that there is no reason the court ever [needs] to reach those issues when considering the case.

This, the carrier argued, is for the simple reason that the policy does not provide cover for the HPV transmission solely based on the allegation [that this] occurred during sexual activity in a parked car.

GEICO looked to past case precedent, including Garrison v State Farm Mutual and Farm Mutual Ins Co v Evans, to argue that the STD was not passed on due to the use of a vehicle as intended within an automobile policy.

Further, it pointed to an unpublished  and non-precedential  decision in DeWitt that had found there was no cover for a woman who allegedly caught a venereal disease during consensual sex on a yacht.

In light of the auto policys clear language and this authority, GEICO respectfully requests that this court grant summary judgment on this threshold coverage question, before the parties and the court expend valuable resources on unnecessary discovery and motion practice in a case that fails as a matter of law, GEICO requested.

MO and the man were not immediately available for comment. GEICO said that any payments and insurance coverage for this matter will be determined by the case.

The arbitration case

Following an appeal court ruling against GEICO on arbitration, the claim hit global headlines in June and spread across the internet with the force of an unfettered viral infection. Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk weighed in on the Show-Me State entanglement.

Read more: Teslas Elon Musk slams "crazy" GEICO STD claim

The issue at large in the headline hitting case, however, was not necessarily that the insurer had been found to be on the hook for the womans unfortunate encounter. Rather, the crux of this case lay in arbitration rules, and insurers in the state may have less to fear from these looking forwards. This is according to Michael Young, partner at Missouri law firm Reichardt Noce & Young.

If you look at the appellate courts opinion, its actually a highly technical opinion that doesnt necessarily address insurance coverage issues at all and doesnt have a whole thing that says GEICO has to pay, Young told Insurance Business.

What the case really is, is an example of how bodily injury and wrongful death cases that had coverage issues in them from a liability perspective were handled under the 2017 version of our statutes.

Missouri updated rules on arbitration, or RSMo 537.065, in 2021, but the GEICO case was handled under the 2017 version, according to Young.

The problem for insurers with the 2017 version was that it had loopholes, Young said.

Based on various timing strategies, and so forth, plaintiffs and insurance could effectively in many cases defeat the insurance companies right to intervene or at least practically defeat it, Young said of the 2017 process.

This case is an example of that, where they [the insured and the claimant] did an arbitration to have some of these issues decided, and then filed a lawsuit  and so by the time the insurance company intervened, the court under prior case law said that the insurance company essentially couldnt contest any of the findings and so forth, at least in that proceeding.

In the case in question, GEICO, which was not a party to the arbitration and has claimed it did not give consent, argued in its appeal that the proceedings had violated its rights to due process  and set out that the ruling was unenforceable. It also levelled allegations of collusion and fraud.

The claimant had initially sought $1 million for unknowingly catching the STD, but it was the arbitrator that settled on the multi-million-dollar figure.

Under the latest version of the statute, arbitrations are no longer binding on insurance companies without consent, according to Young. The update also sought to close timing loopholes, which Young said were being used against carriers to defeat their right to intervene.

We think under the new version of the statute, this result wouldnt necessarily occur, Young said.

Even under the old version of the statute, the way that this case played out, Im not convinced that GEICO ultimately will have to pay for this judgment that was entered against the insured.
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A Florida law firm that has made a lucrative business out of the Medicare Secondary Payer Act  and disrupted the auto insurance industry in the process  has scored another victory at the federal appeals court level.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided this week that a lower court had erred when it dismissed a lawsuit brought by MSP Recovery against Metropolitan General Insurance Co. and its sister companies. The defendants are auto and liability insurers and subsidiaries of MetLife Inc.

We hold that at this procedural stage, MSP Recoverys complaint plausibly alleged that defendants had a demonstrated responsibility to pay the claims, and we therefore reverse and remand this case to the district court for further proceedings reads the opinion, written by Judge Barbara Lagoa.

MSP Recovery was founded by Coral Gables attorney and entrepreneur John Ruiz, who has become something close to a billionaire, according to news reports. It is a law firm that acts as a collection agency, working on behalf of health insurers who provide Medicare Part C plans, also known as Medicare Advantage, to Medicare beneficiaries. As the court explained, the Medicare Secondary Payer Act was enacted in 1980, as a way to save money for the government health plan that covers older Americans.

When Medicare beneficiaries are injured in a car crash, the law requires that their no-fault auto insurer pay its share for the medical care. Until the Act was adopted, Medicare had often paid for everything, even if the auto insurance policy obligated the insurance company to cover much of the treatment.

Although the law has been in effect for more than four decades, it has only been in recent years that MSP and Ruiz have figured out a way to earn large fees by suing auto insurers after Part C insurers said they werent getting reimbursed properly for the medical costs. The Medicare Secondary Payer Act allows private causes of action lawsuits and double damages as a way to enforce the law.

Insurers have said that most of the unpaid obligations are relatively small amounts and that Ruiz and his firm are piling up large fees  and legal costs for defendants  for no great benefit to Medicare or Medicare Advantage health insurers.

But the appeals court has been seeing things MSPs way. In the last five years, the 11th Circuit, which hears appeals from federal district courts in Florida and much of the Southeast, has upheld MSP Recoverys claims, overturning 12 lower court dismissals of the lawsuits, MSP said in a statement.

The latest decision could have a lasting impact on the auto insurance industry, the law firm said.

MSP Recovery believes that the decision rendered by the 11th Circuit in Metropolitan has broader implications because several other Southern District Court judges have dismissed, or partially dismissed, claims asserted by MSP Recovery in several other pending lawsuits that remain on file, the company said in a news release. MSP Recovery believes that this latest ruling from the 11th Circuit will likely impact the scope of the claims being litigated in those actions.

In December, a Florida state court in Miami also found in favor of MSP, sanctioning an insurer for failing to turn over data that could show it was shifting costs to Medicare.

The secondary payer law notes that plaintiffs must show that auto insurers had a demonstrated responsibility as primary payer for the Medicare beneficiaries medical costs. The 11th Circuit has held that can be shown through various means, including auto insurers policies, which are contractual obligations, or settlement agreements with their insureds who are Medicare recipients.

In the Metropolitan General case, MSP said it identified thousands of instances in which the defendant insurers failed to pay or pay timely, forcing the Medicare Advantage organizations to cover the bills. The firm did this by comparing the Advantage plans claims data with the insurers own filings with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the court opinion explained.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 2020 found that MSP Recovery had not proved its case, largely because the specific instances of non-payments by auto insurers were listed in an exhibit, not in the actual lawsuit complaint. Metropolitans attorneys also argued that the insurance policies, contractual obligations and settlements were insufficient to demonstrate that the insurers had a responsibility to pay first.

Judge Lagoa and the other judges in the three-judge panel disagreed, noting that MSP said the examples were too numerous to allege in the complaint.

We concluded that the district court erred in failing to consider whether the complaint and Exhibit A, taken together, plausibly allege that defendants responsibilty to pay had been demonstrated, the court wrote.

Quoting from its own 2019 decision in another MSP case, the court noted that the Medicare Secondary Payer Act as a whole is remarkably abstruse, (but) the private cause of action is remarkably simple.

Topics Carriers Auto
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A North Carolina-based insurance magnate whose convictions on corruption-related counts were overturned by a federal appeals court has been released from prison.

Greg Lindberg was let out of a minimum-security prison in Montgomery, Alabama, on Friday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website. That was the day after U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn agreed to Lindbergs release in light of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacating his convictions last month and ordering a new trial.

Lindberg, who entered prison in October 2020, was sentenced to more than seven years after being convicted of attempting to bribe North Carolinas insurance commissioner to secure preferential regulatory treatment for his insurance business. Lindberg had become a large political donor in North Carolina politics.

A 4th Circuit panel declared June 29 that Cogburn had erred by giving jurors in Lindbergs trial misleading instructions before they began deliberations. John Gray, a Lindberg consultant convicted at the trial of the same two counts as Lindberg, also had his convictions vacated for the same reasons.

Cogburns order last week retained the conditions from Lindbergs pretrial release, which included an unsecured bond and electronic monitoring.

A July 11 filing by the U.S. Attorneys Office for western North Carolina lodged no objections to Lindbergs release based on the pretrial conditions. Theres nothing to indicate yet whether prosecutors will attempt to retry Lindberg and Gray or end their efforts.

Gray received a 2 1/2-year sentence but has been serving his time from home since December, according to a July 8 motion from Grays attorney. The attorney is also seeking his clients release based on pretrial conditions.

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

Topics North Carolina
Evidence indicates that a helicopter that crashed in northern New Mexico after helping fight a wildfire over the weekend descended at a fast rate, with the craft ending up mangled and in pieces after first hitting the ground upright, the National Transportation Safety Board said this week.

The agency has completed its initial documentation of the deadly crash, but it will likely take weeks for investigators to determine the cause. Authorities were in the process of removing the wreckage from a remote area south of the community of Las Vegas to a secure location where it could be examined further.

The helicopter was carrying three people with the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office and a county firefighter when it went down Saturday evening while returning from its firefighting mission. County officials on Monday called the four men heroes.

It is with a sad and broken heart that we think of the heroes we lost this weekend, Sheriff Manuel Gonzales and Fire Chief Greg Perez said in a joint statement. The reality is that we will likely grieve this loss forever. Each of these heroes died doing what they loved, serving others. They paid the ultimate price, and we are forever grateful to these men for the love and passion they had as first-responders.

Gonzales and Perez both spoke at a news conference Monday afternoon, sharing details about the men and saying their focus now is on supporting the mens families and their grieving employees.

Its with a heavy heart that we stand in front of you. This is has been a tragic 48 hours for Bernalillo County, and we all are at a loss, Perez said. Im trying to put words together to sum up what were feeling, what were experiencing. Its not possible.

Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the NTSB, said there is flight track information that investigators will review to get a better understanding of the path the helicopter was taking on its way back to its home base in Albuquerque. He also said there may have been witnesses, so authorities are asking anyone with information to come forward.

While its common for afternoon and evening thunderstorms to circle New Mexico during monsoon season, it didnt appear there was any adverse weather at the time of the crash, Knudson said.

But we will look at everything as part of the investigation, he said.

The weekend proved to be a deadly one for air travel. The NTSB reported numerous fatal accidents over recent days, including one Sunday in Nevada in which four people were killed when two small planes collided at North Las Vegas Airport.

In New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered flags to fly at half-staff through sundown Friday in honor of the first-responders killed in Saturdays crash.

Among them was Undersheriff Larry Koren, a veteran pilot who had been with the the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office for more than two decades. He was part of a New Years Day mission to rescue employees and a tram operator who got stuck while descending in the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway. He is survived by his wife and two sons.

Lt. Fred Beers also helped with that winter rescue and was among those killed in Saturdays crash. Beers, who had been with the sheriffs office for 13 years, left behind a wife and son.

Also killed were Deputy Michael Levison, who had been with the sheriffs office since 2017 and had served in the New Mexico Air National Guard, and Bernalillo County Fire Department rescue specialist Matthew King, who was a husband and father of two children.

Fellow law enforcement officers and firefighters lined highway overpasses as the mens bodies were brought to Albuquerque on Sunday. Many saluted as others held their hands over their hearts. Some also talked about how the men were always ready to serve beyond their jurisdiction.

They went out there willingly and that takes a very special person to be that brave, Gonzales said Monday, adding that the air support team never turned down requests for help.

The crew had spent a few hours Saturday afternoon making water drops and moving equipment for firefighters battling a blaze south of Las Vegas. They departed the Las Vegas Airport around 6:30 p.m. just after refueling and it was less than 45 minutes later that they dropped off the radar.

Authorities did not say whether there was any radio traffic from the helicopter immediately before the crash.

Two New Mexico State Police officers were the first on the scene and attempted to render aid. Authorities did not say whether any of the crash victims were conscious when the officers arrived.

It has been a particular severe start to the fire season, with the Bernalillo County crew just one month ago helping drop water on a wildfire that was sparked in a rugged area on the eastern edge of Albuquerque. With resources wearing thin across the region, municipal firefighters and first responders often have been assigned to help with the wildfire effort.

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

Topics Mexico New Mexico
A first-of-its-kind proposal in the California Legislature aimed at holding social media companies responsible for harming children who have become addicted to their products would no longer let parents sue popular platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

The revised proposal would still make social media companies liable for damages of up to $250,000 per violation for using features they know can cause children to become addicted. But it would only let prosecutors, not parents, file the lawsuits against social media companies. The legislation was amended last month, CalMatters reported.

The bills author, Republican Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham, said he made the change to make sure the bill had enough votes to pass in the state Senate, where he said a number of lawmakers were nervous about creating new types of lawsuits.

They get afraid it will open the floodgates to frivolous claims, Cunningham said. They seem to be more comfortable letting this be handled by the public prosecutors, who already end up taking the lead on this kind of consumer protection type stuff.

While the revised bill might win more votes in the state Legislature, it hasnt won over social media companies, many of which are based in California and remain opposed. TechNet, a group of technology CEOs and senior executives, says it is nearly impossible to separate social media content  words, photos and videos uploaded by people  from the features companies use to deliver that content, including things like push notifications, newsfeed and the ability to scroll endlessly through posts.

I think that violates our First Amendment rights and the editorial discretion that we have, said Dylan Hoffman, TechNets executive director for California and the Southwest. It doesnt make sense to identify the feature when its the content underlying it that may cause the problem.

Hoffman said social media companies have introduced lots of new features to address what he called the a really difficult and complex issue of childrens use of social media. Many platforms let parents set time limits for their children or disable certain features.

There is a lot of innovation in this space to make sure that parents and kids are able to better control their social media usage, Hoffman said.

The bill would exempt social media companies from these lawsuits if they conduct quarterly audits of their features and remove any harmful products within 30 days of learning they cause children to become addicted.

Hoffman says that would offer companies little protection because advocates claim nearly everything about a social media app or website is addictive, including the newsfeed and algorithms suggesting content.

He said companies would have to dismantle their entire websites within 30 days to avoid liability  something Hoffman said would be impossible.

Cunningham scoffs at that argument, saying the legislation would give social media companies an incentive to police themselves to avoid penalties. He said most other products are covered under consumer protection laws that allow people to sue companies for selling products they know to be dangerous.

We just havent extended it to social media platforms yet because they are new, and we didnt really know that they were conducting this social experiment on the brains of our kids, Cunningham said. They dont have any incentive to change.

The bill is one of several proposals in the Legislature this year targeting social media companies.

A bill by Democratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel would require social media companies to publicly disclose their policies for removing problem content and give detailed accounts for how and when they removed it.

A bill by Sen. Tom Umberg would let Californians who were targeted in a violent social media post seek a court order to have the post removed.

And a bill by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks would require companies to meet certain standards when marketing to children online.

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

Topics Lawsuits California
The Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, the Justice Minister, and Garda Commissioner have all paid tribute to researcher and former Policing Authority member Dr Vicky Conway following her unexpected death.

Ms Conway's death was announced on Wednesday morning by the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University, where she was an associate professor.

She was well known for her work in academia as well as for her work in the area of police accountability.

As well as being a member of the Policing Authority on two occasions, she served on the Commission on the Future of Policing from May 2017 to September 2018.

Sinead Gibney, chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, said Dr Conway was hugely loved, hugely respected and deeply committed to pursuing some of the most challenging issues facing our society around policing, ensuring peoples dignity and peoples access to justice.

She added: She was someone we in the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission had the huge pleasure to work with and to learn from. Our deepest sympathies to her family and friends.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee said Dr Conway made an important contribution to Irish society through her academic and professional work, including her contribution to developing the oversight of policing in Ireland.

Her voice has been a prominent one in relation to policing and criminal justice, and was at all times one of conviction and challenge. Her deep commitment to the human rights of the most vulnerable was evident in all of her work.

She said the death has shocked and saddened us all and expressed her condolences to her family.

In a statement, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said Ms Conway had made a significant contribution to policing in Ireland and in the UK through her academic research, publications and lectures, as well as her membership of both the Policing Authority and the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland.

He added: Vickys passion for human rights-focused policing was evident in all her engagements with myself and my Garda colleagues. She was a strong and dedicated advocate for vulnerable members of society and minority communities.

The Sex Workers Alliance of Ireland also paid tribute to her, saying: Vicky was a strong supporter of sex workers' rights. She adhered to and promoted the idea that sex workers knew what was best for themselves and the reality of their lives.

She used her various platforms as a lecturer, an activist, a Twitter user, and a podcaster to engage in respectful discussions about what sex workers needed to be safe. And she spoke to sex workers directly about this, something that is sorely lacking in Ireland still.

Her podcast, Policed in Ireland, attracted many listeners.

Vicky Conway: Her death comes just days after she was awarded a commission by the Policing Authority for research on the experience of policing in Ireland by diverse and minority communities.

Her death comes just days after she was awarded a commission by the Policing Authority for research on the experience of policing in Ireland by diverse and minority communities.

Chairperson of the Policing Authority, Bob Collins, said: Vickys contribution to policing was rooted not only in academic curiosity but in a genuine desire to ensure that everyones engagement with the Garda Siochana, in particular those most vulnerable in our society, was rooted in a respect for their humanity and a vindication of their human rights.

"Her contribution to, and impact on the work of the authority and the oversight of policing is an important legacy for which we should all be very grateful.

"Those of us who worked very closely with Vicky witnessed not only her passion for oversight but her strong appreciation of the challenging work that police officers perform on our behalf and a desire to improve things on the ground for them."

She was first appointed to the Policing Authority board in January 2016 and briefly left the authority to sit on the Commission on the Future of Policing in 2017 before being reappointed to the Policing Authority in 2018.

Ms Conway will be reposing in Temple Hill Funeral Home, Boreenmanna Road of Jerh. O Connor Ltd. on Friday from 9.30am to 11am, and her cremation will take place privately.
Boris Johnsons plans to effectively tear up parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol are expected to clear the Commons on Wednesday following a last-ditch timetable switch.

Deputy Commons leader Peter Bone announced the time available to consider the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill will be extended by an hour to enable it to complete the remaining stages.

MPs were planning to spend up to six hours on Wednesday finishing the Bills committee stage, which involves line-by-line scrutiny.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted his departure from Downing Street will not be the end of Brexit (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

But Mr Bone said time will be added on to allow the Bill to receive a third reading, clearing the way for it to be sent to the House of Lords.

Peers are expected to contest parts of the Bill when they consider it after the summer recess, setting up a lengthy showdown between the two Houses.

Mr Johnsons Government has said the measures to remove checks on goods and animal and plant products travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland are necessary to safeguard the Good Friday Agreement and peace and stability.

But the plans have been widely criticised by the EU while Tory former prime minister Theresa May has questioned the legality of the Bill.

Mr Bone, raising a point of order following the conclusion of the Bills second day of committee stage, told MPs: Given the progress of the committee of the whole House we will now take the Third Reading of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill tomorrow.

A supplementary programme motion will be tabled tonight to provide for an extra hour of debate tomorrow.

Outgoing British prime minister Mr Johnson has denied his departure from Downing Street will be the end of Brexit, claiming some people believe Labour and the deep state will prevail in its plot to haul us back into alignment with the EU as a prelude to our eventual return.

The Bills second day of committee stage in the Commons saw Alliance MP Stephen Farry warning that chaos would be created in many sectors of the Northern Ireland economy if the new dual regulatory is introduced.

The North Down MP put down an amendment, which would have imposed conditions before the option to choose between dual routes could be implemented, but it was rejected by 293 votes to 201, majority 92.

Cabinet Office minister Michael Ellis said: If a Northern Ireland-based business trades north-south on the island of Ireland then they can continue, as now, to follow EU rules and sell their products in the EU and across the UK because of the Governments commitment to unfettered access.

But if their business model is UK focused they can choose to follow UK rules and benefit from the opportunities afforded there.

Mr Ellis also told MPs: No business will be worse off as a result of UK action.

The Bill before this House forces no change on any sector, but allows ministers to respond to any specific asks from each sector, if appropriate. And I have heard strong views of what sectors of the Northern Ireland economy think, particularly dairy as I say, and this is why understanding such concerns is at the heart of our work.

And why we are engaging with stakeholders and have been doing so and will continue to do so.

Earlier, Mr Farry said: If this dual regulation was implemented, it would bring major consequences, it would create chaos in many sectors of the Northern Ireland economy, and we would increase risk of economic crime, including smuggling.

Even the Bill itself entails uncertainty for investment decisions, never mind the implications when it comes to full application.

It would mean that North Ireland would lose access to the single market for goods, both in practice, as companies in the Republic of Ireland or the rest of Europe (would) see Northern Ireland products as risky and also as a matter of law.

The DUP did not support any amendments to the Bill, with the partys leader and Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson saying: We do not believe they are necessary in order to achieve the objectives that are required.

MPs also voted voted 293 to 205, majority 88, to defeat the amendment put forward by Labour, which would have required an economic impact assessment to be carried out before a minister could make any provisions for the dual regulatory regime.
Burma Dozens of Myanmar Border Police Killed in Fighting With Arakan Army

Detained regime security forces, and seized weapons and ammunition, are seen after the fighting on July 18. / AA

Dozens of the Myanmar military regimes border guard police were killed in fighting with the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine States Maungdaw Township on Monday, the Rakhine ethnic armed group said.

The two sides engaged in fierce clashes for the whole day on Monday after the AA launched an attack on a combined force of Myanmar military troops and border guard police between Saung Pyinnyar and Sankarpinyin villages in northern Maungdaw around 9 a.m.

After the regime sent in reinforcements, another clash broke out between Donekalar and Wetkyein villages around 10.30 a.m. The Myanmar military continuously fired artillery from six outposts until 6 p.m., the AA said.

The AA said dozens of border guard police were killed and 14 others including a police major were captured when it ambushed the junta reinforcements. The ethnic armed group released a video file of the attack that shows several border guard police being killed or wounded on a military truck and several others being captured.

The Irrawaddy was unable to contact AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha for comment about the fighting, but he told Rakhine-based media that the attack was in retaliation for a junta air raid on an AA outpost in Karen State, in an area controlled by the Karen National Union. Six AA fighters were killed when Myanmar junta aircraft bombed the AA outpost near the Thai border on July 4.

The road linking Maungdaw and Taungpyo was deserted following Mondays clash, said local residents.

The AA has warned local people in Rakhine that clashes could break out at any time in Rakhine State as the regime has stepped up its military preparations there.

The Myanmar military conducted a five-day naval exercise earlier this month in the seas off Rakhine State with the participation of naval ships, its two submarines and helicopters. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing observed the exercise, which Rakhine politicians said was targeted at the AA.

Tensions have been escalating in Rakhine for months and an informal ceasefire reached between the Myanmar military and the AA ahead of the November 2020 general election after two years of heavy fighting is on the brink of collapse.

The AA took advantage of the lull in fighting while the Myanmar military was distracted by fallout from its coup last year and now controls most rural areas in the center and north of Rakhine. It has set up a parallel judicial system and police force, which operate independent of junta institutions.

Last month, the AA abducted more than a dozen junta personnel in Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun, Mrauk-U and Sittwe townships. The regime also detained dozens of residents in those towns and charged some of them.
Burma Myanmar Junta Kills Child and Parents in Shan State

Where the family was killed. / SSPP Info

Myanmars regime troops killed a six-year-old boy and his parents in Mong Hsu Township, southern Shan State, on Monday, according to residents.

Sai Thiha, Nan Seng Lu and their son were shot near a junta outpost on the Mong Hsu-Tangyan road while they were driving back to their village from Mong Hsu town, a resident told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity.

Residents think they were killed by Light Infantry Battalion 524, which is based in Hui Lut village near the site.

The mother and the son died immediately and Sai Thiha died in Mong Hsu Hospital.

Another Mong Hsu resident said there have been several civilians shot dead by armed groups in Mong Hsu but no organizations claim responsibility for the killings.

Mong Hsu is known as a black area in junta terms. White areas are under regime control, brown areas are contested and in black areas regime forces face repeated attacks and commit acts of violence against civilians.

There is no safety for residents. It is the people who suffer. No one takes responsibility for civilian deaths, said the resident.

The Shan State Progress Party has three bases in Lwel Nai in the north of Mong Hsu and the regime has demanded their removal by July 21.

The armed group has refused and tensions are rising in the north of the township.
Burma Myanmars Last Foreign Telecom, Ooredoo, to Leave Country

An Ooredoo outlet in Yangon / The Irrawaddy

Myanmars last foreign telecoms operator, Ooredoo, will leave the country, as the Qatari firm is planning to sell its Myanmar unit, according to Reuters.

Citing two sources familiar with the case, the news agency reported on Wednesday that Doha-based Ooredoo is now in talks on the sale after informing Myanmars Posts and Telecommunications Department (PTD), the countrys regulator, of its intention to sell the unit.

Ooredoo, Myanmars third-biggest operator, had nearly 15 million users in 2020.

The announcement follows the withdrawal from the country in March of Norways Telenor, which sold its Myanmar unit to junta-affiliated firm Shwe Byain Phyu, with a minority stake purchased by Lebanese investment firm M1. The local units name has since been changed to ATOM.

The Norwegian firm said it sold the Myanmar company to avoid European Union sanctions after continued pressure from the military junta to activate intercept surveillance technology.

Myanmar has been under military rule since a coup last year that has sparked social and political turmoil in the Southeast Asian country. The countrys telecom sector has been under pressure from the regime, in particular to track the data of those involved in anti-regime resistance activities. Mobile services remain shut down in some parts of the country where the resistance movement is active.

The reason behind Ooredoos withdrawal is not yet known. Reuters said the main potential buyers for the company include Myanmar conglomerate Young Investment Group, Singapore-headquartered network infrastructure operator Campana Group, and SkyNet, a broadcast company owned by Myanmar group Shwe Than Lwin.

Other telecom service providers in the country are MPT, a large state-backed operator run as a joint venture with a Japanese company, and Mytel, a venture between the Myanmar military and Viettel, owned by Vietnams Defense Ministry.
Burma Resistance Mine and Drone Attacks on Myanmar Junta Convoys Kill 17 Troops

A video screenshot of an attack on a junta convoy in Myinmu.

At least 17 Myanmar regime troops were reportedly killed on Tuesday in peoples defense force (PDF) mine and drone attacks in Myinmu Township, Sagaing Region.

An alliance of resistance groups ambushed a junta convoy with two mines on the Monywa-Mandalay highway near Pyaw and Nabaekyuu villages. More than 10 vehicles departed Sagaing Town and were attacked in Myinmu Township and at least five soldiers were killed, many others injured and a vehicle was destroyed, according to Myinmu PDF.

The PDFs said the convoy was carrying around 100 reinforcements to Monywa or Myaung townships.

Myinmu is centrally located. Although we cant fight soldiers face to face as we havent enough weapons, we try to cut off reinforcements, said a Myinmu PDF spokeswoman.

The convoy was later attacked again with 10 mines by four resistance forces between Nabaekyuu and Kanpyar villages, about 10km from Myinmu Township.

Moe Nyo Revolution Force and its allies said it attacked the convoy twice and a vehicle was destroyed by a mine.

They should be scared when they pass through our area. If they want to die, they should come, said a representative of the Moe Nyo Revolution Force.

Another convoy carrying copper from western Monywa was attacked near Nabaekyuu village on Tuesday.

Two of the convoys 13 vehicles were destroyed in mine blasts, the group said.

Seven soldiers were killed in the two attacks, the representative told The Irrawaddy.

Around five troops were reportedly killed and many others injured when resistance forces used drones in Myinmu Township on Tuesday.

Around 20 soldiers looted homes and detained a traveler on the Sagaing-Monywa highway near Htee Soung and Kan Pyar villages, Myinmu PDF said. The group claimed to have bombed the troops with drones.

Myinmu is a resistance stronghold in Sagaing Region and groups from Myinmu and Myingyan have frequently crossed the border into Mandalay Region to ambush junta troops.
Burma Six Myanmar Regime Troops Reportedly Killed in Sagaing Ambush

Resistance fighters during a firefight on Tuesday with the military flotilla in Kani Township, Sagaing Region. / KLG-PDF.

At least six Myanmar junta soldiers were reportedly killed on Monday and Tuesday in Kani Township, Sagaing Region, when a combined group of Peoples Defense Forces (PDF) launched daring attacks on a military flotilla of 13 motorboats traveling the Chindwin River.

On Tuesday, a combined force of seventeen PDF groups attacked nine military motorboats and a gunboat escorting two barges on the river, said Kyauklonegyi-PDF, who coordinated the ambushes.

The flotilla, escorted by an estimated 200 junta soldiers, is reportedly transporting ammunition, explosive chemicals, military equipment and food to Upper Myanmar from the port of Monywa.

The Kyauklonegyi-PDF spokesperson told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that they attacked the flotilla from four locations.

PDF groups used improvised heavy weapons in the ambush.

Two military regime soldiers armed with a machinegun and heavy explosives were gunned down by PDF snipers, while three other junta troops were killed in the intense clashes, the PDF spokesperson said.

A resistance fighter suffered minor injuries in the battle.

PDF videos show a heavy firefight between the resistance groups and the flotilla.

As of Wednesday, the flotilla had stopped at the port of Kani.

On Monday, the flotilla and an additional two combat boats was attacked by another Kani-based resistance group in the south of the township.

After the clash, the PDFs seized ammunition and military equipment dumped by the flotilla in the river.

On Wednesday, local residents found the body of a regime soldier floating in the Chindwin River. He is believed to have been killed in Mondays ambush.

Kani is one of the strongholds of armed resistance to the regime, having started rebelling against the junta in April last year.

Currently, junta forces face daily attacks by PDFs and ethnic armed organizations across the country.
Burma Six Myanmar Soldiers Killed in PDF Ambush in Monywa

The entrance of Monywa University of Economics / Monywa University of Economics Students Union

Around six Myanmar regime troops were reportedly killed in an ambush at Monywa University of Economics by an alliance of Peoples Defense Force (PDF) groups based in the countrys northwest on Tuesday.

The alliance of nine PDF groups with more than 100 members attacked regime soldiers and police officers stationed at the university at around 1:30 a.m.

The resistance fighters fired 40-mm grenades at the soldiers, who fired back with heavy weapons. However, no resistance fighters were injured. The fighting lasted for around 30 minutes.

These soldiers and police have tightened security and checks on the people in Monywa Town. So, we attacked their location. There may be at least 60 at this university, a spokesperson for the PDF alliance said.

Monywa University of Economics is located east of Monywa Town.

Families of soldiers and police have moved into the universitys employee housing, according to locals.

Many soldiers and police are now based not only at Monywa University of Economics, but also at Monywa University, as they are good places from which to conduct missions, a Monywa resident told The Irrawaddy.

The spokesperson for the alliance of northwestern PDFs said, We know there are a lot of soldiers at Monywa University. The two universities are not too far apart. However, there are a lot of civilian houses to the west of Monywa University, so we are avoiding that area.

Monywa is the capital of resistance stronghold Sagaing Region.

Residents of Monywa have been holding anti-junta protests every day. Earlier, the alliance of local resistance forces attacked regime troops at Monywa University of Economics in April and May this year, and heavy casualties were reported.
As people, including Key Biscayne residents, enjoy summer vacations, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody shares ways to avoid summer scams.

Moody has kicked off the series with a Consumer Alert with the goal of educating and warning Floridians about vacation rental and summer employment scams.

These scams involve fake postings offering vacation rental properties. The scammers behind these ads often request an application fee or security deposit. Once payment is made, the rental listing may disappear along with the consumers money.

Families may also show up on the day of vacation and find that the actual owners of the property have no record or intention of renting.

Moody said, Florida is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the nation. Scammers will take advantage of this by creating fake vacation rental listings in hopes of stealing personal information and money. Whether you are traveling within the state or from out of state, make sure to take extra precautions when renting a vacation home to avoid being burned this summer vacation season.

Tips to avoid vacation rental scams:

 Know that listings requiring consumers to leave the online platform or website to pay is a major red flag

 Check to see if photos of the rental property are affiliated with other listings by using a reverse image search

 If something seems suspicious, ask for additional photos of the listing

 Use a reputable rental website that offers protection in the event of fraud or offers payment transfer options

 Make payments through a payment portal on the listing website to ensure money is held in escrow until keys are in hand

 Do not rely solely on email to contact the landlord and be wary of listings with foreign telephone numbers

 Check for reviews and, if possible, visit the property to ensure everything is up to par

 Pay for a rental with a credit card since it is easier to dispute a fraudulent charge.

The series also includes tips for students looking for a summer job to avoid falling for summer employment scams. With so many job opportunities being posted online, it is easier than ever for a scammer to steal victims' personal information by creating a fake job posting and pretending like the applicant was hand-picked to receive the job.

You can watch the video on student scams here.

If you suspect, or have been the victim of scam, report it to local law enforcement and file a complaint online with the Florida Attorney Generals Office at MyFloridaLegal.com or call 1 (866) 9NO-SCAM.
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For a century, tens of thousands of Indigenous, Inuit and Metis children in Canada were forcibly enrolled in state boarding schools, isolated from their families, language and culture as part of a failed policy of assimilation.

Canada has been grappling with the reality of this brutal past for some time, but the discovery last year of children's remains buried in hundreds of unmarked graves at one former school catapulted it back into the national consciousness, prompting shock and soul-searching.

Here's a timeline of those events:

- Government apology, 2008 -

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially apologizes in June 2008 to Indigenous peoples for "failing them so profoundly."

"We are sorry," he says in the House of Commons, flanked by residential school alumni, adding that "the treatment of children in Indian Residential Schools is a sad chapter in our history."

- Truth and reconciliation, 2015 -

A truth and reconciliation commission, after spending six years interviewing more than 6,500 former students and others, creates a historical record of the residential school experience, concluding in 2015 that it amounted to "cultural genocide."

Many of the children were physically and sexually abused by teachers and headmasters, say commissioners who determined that at least 4,100 children died of disease, malnutrition or neglect. They estimate the actual toll to be much higher.

The commission also blames the schools policy for a high incidence of poverty, alcoholism and domestic violence, as well as high suicide rates in Indigenous communities.

- Unmarked graves found, May 2021 -

Tk'emlups te Secwepemc chief Rosanne Casimir announces in May 2021 the discovery, using ground-penetrating radar, of 215 unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia province.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau orders Canadian flags atop federal buildings to be lowered to half-mast -- saying they would stay that way until Indigenous communities say it is ok to raise them again

They remain lowered for nearly six months.

In June, the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan announces that as many as 751 unmarked graves have been discovered near the former Marieval Indian Residential School.

The Lower Kootenay Band also says it found 182 unmarked graves at the St. Eugene's Mission School in British Columbia.

Over the coming months, several more searches begin, eventually bringing the total number of unmarked graves found to more than 1,300.

- No celebrating Canada, July 2021 -

Victoria and other cities cancel Canada Day celebrations on July 1, 2021 to allow for "thoughtful reflections" on the nation's colonial past.

Police, meanwhile, report a wave of vandalism of churches and statues of monarchs splashed with red paint and torn down.

Mary Simon is named Canada's first Indigenous governor general.

- Truth and reconciliation day, September 2021 -

Canada marks its first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, 2021.

"The tragic locating of unmarked graves at former residential school sites across the country has reminded us of not only the impacts of colonialism and the harsh realities of our collective past, but also the work that is paramount to advancing reconciliation in Canada," Trudeau says.

- Papal apology, April 2022 -

Pope Francis issues an apology on April 1, 2022 for abuses at church-run schools and the harms caused to generations of Indigenous peoples.

The Vatican also announces that the pontiff will travel to Canada to offer his apology in person on lands sacred to Indigenous peoples.

- Prince Charles acknowledges suffering, May 2022 -

Prince Charles acknowledges the suffering of Canada's Indigenous peoples, speaking during an official visit to Canada on behalf of the queen in May 2022.

"We must find new ways to come to terms with the darker and more difficult aspects of the past. Acknowledging, reconciling and striving do to better, it is a process that starts with listening," he says.

- Papal visit, July 2022-

Pope Francis, despite cancelling numerous events in recent months due to pain in his knee that has forced him to use a wheelchair, is scheduled at the end of July to visit Edmonton, Iqaluit and Quebec City.

There he will meet with Indigenous survivors of abuse committed at residential schools.
Ukraine's army is putting up fierce frontline resistance against Russian troops, but President Volodymyr Zelensky's shock dismissal of two top law enforcement officials has revealed another front in the war closer to home -- against spies and Kremlin sympathisers.

His dismissal of SBU security chief Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend of President Zelensky, and of prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova, is unprecedented since the start of the invasion.

The decision was announced Sunday and approved by parliament on Tuesday, with Zelensky berating the pair for their failure to counter the activities of Russian spies and collaborators in Ukraine.

In his daily video address, he said there were over 650 cases involving officials suspected of treason and aiding Russia, including 60 "working against our state" in Russian-held areas of the country.

"Everyone was expecting... more tangible results" from Bakanov and Venediktova in "fighting collaborators and traitors", said Andriy Smyrnov, deputy head of the presidential administration.

- 'The last straw' -

"The president and his cabinet were not pleased with the work of Bakanov and Venediktova" even before the Russian invasion, Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko told AFP.

In the last few months, at least three top SBU officials have been accused of high treason.

One of them, Oleg Kulinich, who was sacked in March and was arrested on Sunday, had been based in the southern region of Kherson.

Situated close to the Crimean peninsula which was annexed by Moscow in 2014, the region was quickly taken over by Russian troops at the start of the invasion -- a significant setback for which the government was heavily criticised.

"This man was collaborating with Russian secret services. It is a very serious blow. In my view, it was the last straw for Zelensky," Fesenko said.

Zelensky had already sacked the regional head of the SBU for Kherson, Sergiy Kryvoruchko.

Another SBU official is suspected of having shared with Russian troops top secret maps of minefields intended to hamper their advance.

Zelensky on Monday said there would be a "review" within the SBU, pointing out that 28 agents could be sacked for "unsatisfactory" work.

One of Bakanov's deputies has also been sacked.

- Prisoner exchanges at risk? -

Venediktova was heading up the high-profile investigations into atrocities committed by Russian forces, particularly in the town of Bucha, which became a symbol of the alleged Russian war crimes.

According to the influential news site Ukrainska Pravda, she incurred the wrath of the presidency by attracting excessive media attention and for rushing through trials of captured Russian soldiers.

According to the report, the trials angered Moscow and made negotiations over prisoner swaps -- a priority for Zelensky -- more difficult.

For many observers in Ukraine, the reshuffle appears to have been a move to reinforce presidential control over law enforcement.

The interim replacements of both Bakanov and Venediktova -- their respective deputies -- are considered to be more politically docile.

"It is clear" that these men "will execute all the political orders" of the presidency, said Tetyana Shevchuk, an expert from the Centre for Action Against Corruption, a non-governmental organisation, cited by Forbes Ukraine.
Blue Dragon Series Awards 2022 successfully slated the first ever ceremony honoring K-contents and shows released on various platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, seezn, WATCHA, Apple TV+, Kakao TV, Coupang Play, wavve, and TVING.

Stars lit up the red carpet with their dazzling and dashing looks flaunting their charm.

Blue Dragon Series Awards 2022 Red Carpet

Jung Hae In, Goo Kyo Hwan, and Ahn Bo Hyun opted for the classic black tuxedo while Lee Jung Jae chose to strut the red carpet with a silver gray tuxedo.

Meanwhile, Girls' Generation's YoonA, Roh Jeong Eui, and "All of Us Are Dead" stars Cho Yi Hyun and Park Ji Hu stunned the crowd with their stunning white ensembles.

Hosted by Girls' Generation's YoonA and Jun Hyun Moo, the ceremony took place on July 19, 7 pm KST at Paradise City in Incheon.

The first award was given to Goo Kyo Hwan for winning Best New Actor for his performance in Netflix's "D.P" while his counterpart, the Best New Actress for this year's 1st Blue Dragon Series Awards was given to Jung Ho Yeon for her portrayal of Kang Sae Byeok in "Squid Game."

Meanwhile, EXO's Kai and "SNL's" Joo Hyun Young took home Best New Entertainers at the Blue Dragon Series Awards 2022.

Interestingly, #NewWorldStarKAI and #CongratulationsKai became trending topics on Twitter as the South Korean heartthrob accepted the award.

As for the major awards, Netflix's "D.P" took home the Best Drama Award and was accepted by director Han Jun Hee.

Another most-awaited award is Best Actor which went to none other than Lee Jung Jae of "Squid Game" for his impressive portrayal of debt-ridden Song Gi Hoon a.k.a player number 456.

Meanwhile, Kim Go Eun, seemed surprised after the presenter called her name as the winner of Best Actress at the 1st Blue Dragon Series Awards.

During her acceptance speech, the actress expressed her gratitude for choosing her to play the titular character of Yumi adding "I sincerely thank the actors and staff, including Ahn Bo Hyun and Park Jin Young, who worked with me."

Blue Dragon Series Awards 2022 Winners

For the complete list of winners, here's a rundown of stars and shows who scored achievements at the first-ever Blue Dragon Series Awards.

Best Drama: "D.P"

Best Actor: Lee Jung Jae (Squid Game)

Best Actress: Kim Go Eun (Yumi's Cells)

Best New Entertainers: EXO Kai and Joo Hyun Young

Best New Actor: Jung Ho Yeon (Squid Game) and Goo Kyo Hwan (D.P)

Best Supporting Actors: Lee Hak Joo (Going To Blue House Like This) and Kim Shin Rock (Hellbound)

TirTir Popularity Award: Jung Hae In, Han Hyo Joo, Kang Daniel, Lee Yong Jin, Park Jae Chan, Park Seo Ham

Best Entertainers: Kang Ho Dong and Celeb Five

Best Variety Program: "Ex-Change" TVING

Congratulations to all the winners!



KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
Jung Hae In spilled the beans about the highly anticipated season 2 of Netflix's "D.P." During his appearance at the 1st Blue Dragon Series Awards on July 19, held in Paradise City, Junggu, Incheon, the actor spoke about updates regarding the second season's production. Keep on reading for all the details.

As Jung Hae In accepted his award for TIRTIR Popularity together with fellow winners Han Hyo Joo, Lee Yong Jin, Kang Daniel, DKZ's Jaechan, and Park Seoham, the South Korean heartthrob gave viewers what to look forward to in "D.P" season 2.

'D.P' Season 2: Jung Hae In Reveals Changes in his Character

In his acceptance speech, Jung Hae In revealed the progress of filming the action-packed series.

As obtained by a media outlet, the actor shared that he has been busy with the production of "D.P," adding "I worked hard to film this morning too, I have finished about one-third of it."

1st Blue Dragon Series Awards host Jeon Hyun Moo was curious about the upcoming season and asked Jung Hae In to reveal more secrets.

"As suggested in the title of 'D.P,' the series will continue to follow the different stories of military deserters. I hope you will watch each episode carefully," he said.

In addition, the lead star says that his character, Ahn Jun Ho, will have a class change and become a private soldier.

Interestingly, the 6-part episode series bagged Best Drama at the Blue Dragon Series Awards 2022, beating Kim Nam Gil's "Through the Darkness," fellow Netflix series "Squid Game," Kim Go Eun's "Yumi's Cells," and "Political Fever."

Moreover, "D.P" star Goo Kyo Hwan took home the Best Rookie Actor award.

'D.P' Season 2: What to Look Forward To in the Upcoming Sequel

"D.P" follows the story of Ahn Hun Ho, who joins the military and becomes a member of the military defector arrest team or Deserter Pursuit with Corporal Han Ho Yul, played by Goo Kyoo Hwan.

In the six-part episode series, it featured how the duo tracked down soldiers who have escaped from military service.

Goo Kyo Hwan and Jung Hae In are joined by talented stars, including Son Seok Koo as Captain Im Ji Sup and Kim Sung Kyun as Sergeant Park Bum Goo.

Besides the cast lineup, the K-drama also gained attention because of how it shed light on brutal military practices, exposing its dark side.

Helmed by Han Jun Hee of "Coin Locker Girl" and "Hit-and-Run Squad," the Netflix series gained overwhelming praise and was renewed for season 2.

As for the upcoming sequel, Netflix unveiled who will reprise their roles.

Viewers will get to see the main characters portrayed by Jung Hae In, Goo Kyo Hwan, Son Seok Koo, and Kim Sung Kyun, as well as the new characters played by Ji Jin Hee and Kim Ji Hyun of "Thirty-Nine."

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
At the recent Blue Dragon Series Awards 2022, many celebrity interactions happened on and off the camera. However, it was Ahn Bo Hyun's genuine reaction towards his former drama co-star that went viral! Keep on reading for all the details.

'Yumi's Cells' Lead Stars Ahn Bo Hyun & Kim Go Eun Reunite at the BDSA

Many were delighted to see "Yumi's Cells" co-stars Ahn Bo Hyun and Kim Go Eun again on live events. The two were at the 1st Blue Dragon Series Awards on July 19 at Incheon's Paradise City.

They teamed up in "Yumi's Cells" Season 1 and now Ahn Bo Hyun's character Woong made his appearance again in the current episode broadcast of the drama's season 2.

As their story continues in the series, Yumi and Woong shippers were overjoyed to have seen the genuine gesture of Ahn Bo Hyun towards Kim Go Eun at the recent prestigious awarding ceremony.

Kim Go Eun won Best Actress at this year's Blue Dragon Series Awards. Her co-labelmate and friend Han Hyo Joo gave her a warm hug before she went to the stage and received the trophy. Before receiving the award, the "My Name" actor congratulated the Korean star before receiving the award.

Congratulations #KimGoEun (#YumisCells) for winning Best Actress at the 1st Blue Dragon Series Awards  #BlueDragonSeriesAwards



OUR KIM YUMI pic.twitter.com/e2zzVN3J0C  kdrama tweets (@iconickdramas) July 19, 2022

Ahn Bo Hyun Teary-Eyed Because of 'Yumi's Cell's' Former Partner Kim Go Eun

In her acceptance speech, the "Goblin" female lead star thanked "Yumi's Cells" leading men and co-stars Ahn Bo Hyun and GOT7's Jinyoung. When she returned to her spot, the camera panned to Ahn Bo Hyun. The actor's short but genuine expression towards Go Eun went viral.

Only your costars know how much youve been through & the commitment you gave. Ahn Bo Hyuns respect and admiration towards Kim Go Eun is so sweet! #KimGoEun #YumisCells #BlueDragonSeriesAwards pic.twitter.com/7BlQquMmW2  CUA  (@yocuayyaj) July 19, 2022

The actor got teary-eyed and emotional while listening to Kim Go Eun's speech. At the same time, he looked proud of Kim Go Eun for winning the award. After the ceremony ended, the "Military Prosecutor Doberman" lead star made an Instagram update, sharing a photo of himself with former onscreen partner Kim Go Eun, the "Yumi's Cells" webtoon owner, and the series' director.

Love and support for the two actors remained consistent. They never failed to show their close friendship.

Furthermore, Kim Go Eun also got emotional during her speech and admitted she didn't expect to win, but hearing her name to receive an award tore her up.

Catch "Yumi's Cells" Season 2 every Friday on TVING.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Han Hyo Joo's Interaction With THIS Actor Creates Buzz

What are your thoughts about Ahn Bo Hyun and Kim Go Eun's interaction at the 1st Blue Dragon Series Awards? Share your comments with us!

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars.

Kdramastars owns this article.

Shai Collins wrote this.
17 members of U.S. Congress arrested at abortion rights demonstration outside Capitol

Xinhua) 10:10, July 20, 2022

WASHINGTON, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Seventeen members of U.S. Congress were arrested outside the Capitol at an abortion rights rally on Tuesday.

The Capitol Police tweeted that demonstrators were blocking First Street, NE, and that "it is against the law to block traffic."

"We have already given our standard three warnings. Some of the demonstrators are refusing to get out of the street, so we are starting to make arrests," they wrote.

A total of 35 people were arrested, reportedly including members of the Democratic Women's Caucus.

The demonstration came more than three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade, which eliminated the constitutional protection of abortion rights for women.

Abortion has been one of the most divisive issues in the United States, with the ruling further splitting the nation.

Without Roe v. Wade, states are allowed to impose their own legislation on the medical procedure.

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a pair of bills aimed at protecting access to abortion but they face little chance of clearing the evenly-divided Senate.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
Victoria McIntosh, standing, holds a sweater she wore on her first day of school as supporters perform a ceremony and drum outside court in Powerview, Man., on Wednesday, July 20, 2022. McIntosh alleges 92-year-old priest Arthur Masse assaulted her when she was a student at a former residential school. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods
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With many health care systems around the world an elaborate mess, real estate can be an efficient strategy for doctors to ensure their financial future after retirement. They can benefit from long-term appreciation and tax breaks by investing in real estate.

As economies and technologies continue to evolve, many physicians have started buying real estate for investment purposes. Some doctors choose to invest their money in real estate to diversify their portfolios.

Doctors are investing in real estate by purchasing office buildings or commercial real estate investment funds (REITs). It can be a lucrative investment for doctors to snag a few great deals on office buildings to own, lease, or manage their properties.

Real estate may also be an attractive investment option for doctors because of its low-risk profile. Its a good way to capitalize on otherwise stale money while still keeping it all accessible. Plus, it is tax-free if and when certain requirements are met.

Tax-free real estate is any property owned by a doctor, therapist, psychologist, or physician and used for medical purposes. If you own a building and use it to treat patients and provide therapy services, you may be able to exclude the entire value of the building from your taxable income. This tax-free treatment doesnt apply to other types of real estate such as land, homes, commercial buildings, or office buildings.

There are also other reasons why doctors may want to invest in real estate. Some doctors view real estate as an investment opportunity for the long term. Long-term real estate investment might be one of the most profitable methods to bolster savings. Investing in a property with long-term potential makes you more likely to profit in the long run.

Doctors are interested in real estate to accumulate wealth and improve their financial status. There are many ways for doctors to make extra money by buying, selling, or renting out real estate.

One of the main advantages of investing in real estate is that it can be a productive use of your time outright. Real estate investing is a good way to supplement income while learning new skills at home. They can work from home, meaning they dont have to squander every waking hour at the office. Many doctors also enjoy the social facet of being part of a community, which can bring them closer to other members of their family or community.

If youre a doctor interested in investing in real estate, do your research first. Its important to keep in mind that there are many different types of properties to choose from. Youll want to find out what type of property is most suitable for your needs before investing money in it.

By learning as much as possible about real estate investing, you can ensure that youre making the right decision for your situation.

However, this all requires a lot of capital and real estate expertise. It is also important to remember that real estate isnt for everyone. In addition to being risky, it can also be time-consuming and requires a high level of dedication and commitment beyond medical practice. If youre a doctor and considering investing in real estate, you might want to catch all of the above before making any moves on the fly.

Naheed Ali is a physician and medical journalist.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
The parents of Nora Quoirin, a French-Irish schoolgirl from London whose body was found near a Malaysian jungle resort during a family holiday, have settled a case against Facebook.

Lawyers for the social media giant, trading as Meta, read out an agreed statement in the High Court in Dublin on Wednesday.

Sebastien and Maebh Quoirin, who were in court, had initiated proceedings against Facebook and retired solicitor Anne Brennan over posts made on Facebook in 2019 and 2020.

Both proceedings were settled and Facebook has expressed its sympathies to the Quoirin family.

Declan Doyle, senior counsel for Mr and Mrs Quoirin, told the court that a series of allegations had been made on the platform in 2019 and 2020 which he described as grossly defamatory.

The action has been settled, Mr Doyle told the court, adding that the terms of the settlement were confidential.

Ms Brennan was not in court for the hearing.

Nora, 15, was discovered dead nine days after she went missing from an eco-resort in Malaysia in August 2019. Her family believe she was abducted.

She was born with holoprosencephaly  a disorder which affects brain development  and her family have said she would not have wandered off on her own.

Meta lawyers said in a statement: During what was a distressing time for the Quoirin family in the course of Noras disappearance and in the aftermath of her subsequent discovery, a Facebook user posted a series of allegations that were disturbing and offensive to Noras parents on the Facebook platform.

Meta Platforms Ireland Limited appreciates that the users allegations were distressing to the Quoirin family and takes this opportunity to express its sympathy for the distress and trauma arising from that users allegations.

Meta Platforms Ireland Limited will continue its efforts in preventing the misuse of its platform and ensuring the safety of its users.

The hearing took place before the President of the High Court, Mr Justice David Barniville, who expressed his sympathy to Mr and Mrs Quoirin and thanked them for travelling from the UK for the proceedings.

Speaking outside court, Noras mother said the family are satisfied the matter has been concluded.

Today marks the end of another chapter in the quest for truth, she said.

We are satisfied this matter is now concluded.

We will continue our efforts in Malaysia in order to bring justice for our beloved Nora.

We wish to thank our legal team for all their support.

The teenager, whose mother is from Belfast and father is French, had poor motor skills, needed help to walk, and her mental age was about five or six, her parents previously said.

The family were staying at Dusun eco-resort near Seremban, about 40 miles south of the capital Kuala Lumpur, and reported Nora missing the day after they had arrived.

Her naked body was discovered beside a small stream about 1.6 miles from the resort on August 13, 2019.

Police previously said there was no sign the teenager had been abducted or raped, with a preliminary post-mortem investigation showing she succumbed to intestinal bleeding due to starvation and stress.

An inquest was held in Malaysia and a coroner ruled in January 2021 the death was accidental rather than criminal, and said there was no third-party involvement.

Her family branded the findings incomplete at the time.

But in June last year a court in Malaysia overturned an inquest verdict of misadventure in her death.

At the time Mrs Quoirin said it was the only reasonable outcome after it was changed to an open verdict.

Overturning the original ruling, the judge said it would not have been been probable for the teenager to venture out on her own and navigate challenging terrain in and around the location she was found.
The US State Department said it has noted significant efforts made by Ireland in combatting human trafficking, according to a statement that was recently released by the Department of Justice.

Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee TD, of Fine Gael, welcomed Irelands upgrading in the Trafficking in Persons (TiPs) Report 2022. The announcement has been acknowledged and reflected in the report from the US State Department which saw Irelands ranking upgraded from the Tier 2 watch-list; a change from Ireland's downgrade in 2020 and last year.

In the case of the 2021 report, Dept of Justice said that it was disappointed that Irelands ranking was not upgraded in the 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report.

Developments in 2021 taken into account by the US State Department when assessing Ireland include:

The first convictions, in September of last year, for human trafficking;

Government approval for the creation of a revised National Referral Mechanism to make it easier for victims

of trafficking to come forward, be identified and access support;

The development of a new National Action Plan on Human Trafficking; and

An increase in funding dedicated specifically to supporting victims of trafficking, and for public awareness and prevention efforts.

'A SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCE'

In addition, Minister McEntee observed that work being advanced by her Department over the past 12 months progressing the revised National Referral Mechanism and the new Action Plan on Human Trafficking, and which is nearing completion, 'will make a substantial difference to the identification and protection of human trafficking victims in Ireland.'

According to the Dept, the National Referral Mechanism refers to a procedure that will 'make a significant difference to Irelands capacity to identify and support harder-to-reach human trafficking victims', while the new Action Plan on Human Trafficking 'sets out how the multi-agency work to combat this criminal activity will be taken forward.'

She elaborated: "Human trafficking is an exploitive crime that preys on the vulnerable: I have been clear that there is no place for it in our society."

"We know vulnerable people are trafficked into Ireland for exploitation reasons, including sexual exploitation, forced labour and forced criminality.

ENCOURAGEMENT TO REPORT

"We are confident that the victim-centered policy approach we are taking will, most importantly, encourage more victims to come forward and get help and support, but this in turn, should help us gather the information and evidence needed to strengthen prosecutions and convictions."

She continued: "There are two further areas in particular that my officials are progressing, and which we hope to see reflected in the next TiPs rating.

"The first is work ongoing in relation to a proposed new National Referral Mechanism. Next week I will seek Government approval to publish the General Scheme of the Criminal Justice (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2022, which, among other things will put a revised National Referral Mechanism on a statutory footing. This will also provide a formal role for civil society groups that support victims to be part of the formal identification process.

"This new approach will make it easier for victims of trafficking to come forward, be identified and access advice, accommodation and support.

"Work is also advancing on the development of a new National Action Plan on Human Trafficking. Following a further round of stakeholder consultations, the plan will be finalised and submitted to Government for approval in the autumn.

FURTHER STEPS

In addition, to engaging with the TiPs process, the Dept said that Ireland continues to work actively with all its partners in multilateral international organisations who are active in tackling human trafficking, including the Council of Europes Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking (GRETA), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the UN and the European Union.

Furthermore, the Dept also said that the enactment of the legislation to establish the revised NRM on a statutory footing and the implementation of the draft commitments for action in the Action Plan on Human Trafficking should help improve Irelands ranking further in future reports.

The TiPs Report is the US Governments principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign governments on human trafficking and it rates States in a three-tier system based on their perceived efforts to acknowledge and combat human trafficking.

Among the areas highlighted are the increased number of convictions secured, the increased number of potential trafficking victims identified during inspections, and work on the expungement of convictions for selling sex, many of which may have involved victims of trafficking.

THE FISHING INDUSTRY

The Minister notes the references to the fishing industry in the 2022 report: "All allegations of human trafficking in the industry are fully investigated by An Garda Siochana (AGS) and files submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

"AGS report that the DPP has so far decided not to prosecute in all cases, deeming the necessary threshold of evidence to show human trafficking  as distinct from exploitative work practices - has not been met."

CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING

"The Minister notes with concern the statement in the 2022 TIPs report that Traffickers subject Irish children to sex trafficking within the country.

"The Minister is not aware of any evidence of this, either from the report or otherwise, but would point out that under Children First legislation and guidance Ireland has mandatory reporting for certain classes of persons to report child abuse concerns, and Tusla and AGS have an agreed Protocol and reporting procedures for child protection and exploitation matters.

"Any suspicions of child trafficking for sexual abuse  including any evidence that comes to the attention of any voluntary organisation - should be reported immediately to AGS."

Minister McEntee added: "We are united in our commitment to supporting victims, and to prosecuting those who take advantage and profit from their misery.

"The mass movement of people across Europe over the past four months has served only to concentrate minds and deepen our resolve to help.

"Ireland is determined to play its full part in providing safe refuge for the people fleeing from Ukraine and the Irish people have afforded a warm welcome to more than 40,000 people so far. However, we are also mindful that some will view it as an opportunity to deceive and exploit."

She concluded: "The Zero Tolerance strategy, the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence which I launched last month contains an action to identify linkages between the implementation plan accompanying the Strategy, and the National Action Plan on human trafficking, as well as ensuring actions to prevent prostitution and combat trafficking for sexual exploitation are addressed in an integrated manner."

If you have been affected by this article, you can find resources to help you by contacting Women's Aid at 1800 341 900.

Additionally, you can email Samaritans Ireland at jo@samaritans.ie or ring 116 123, or visit the Rape Crisis Centre at drcc.ie.
Uvalde police chief Pete Arredondo speaks at a press conference following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, May 24. Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District officials are in discussions on the process to remove school system police chief Pete Arredondo over his role in the response to the Robb Elementary School shooting, two sources close to the process told CNN on July 19.




South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Kim Kyou-hyun has made an unannounced visit to the United States amid concerns over the possibility of North Korea conducting a nuclear test or other provocative acts.







Kim was spotted walking out of Dulles International Airport on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday morning (Washington time) as his staff members held large umbrellas apparently to conceal the movement of the country's top intelligence official.







His visit came as Seoul and Washington have been cranking up security coordination amid speculation Pyongyang could further ratchet up tensions by carrying out what would be its seventh nuclear test.







His detailed schedule remains unknown, but he is expected to meet top U.S. intelligence officials like Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, and William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency.







The NIS refused to confirm Kim's visit to the U.S.







"Our principle is not to confirm where the intelligence agency chief is," an NIS official told Yonhap News Agency over the phone, requesting anonymity.







While in the U.S. capital, Kim is expected to focus on reinforcing deterrence against a provocative North Korea.







North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reaffirmed his regime's principle of "power for power and head-on contest" during last month's key ruling party session  a move that stoked concerns about Pyongyang's future provocations. (Yonhap)










President Yoon Suk-yeol met with visiting Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud on Wednesday and emphasized the need to step up cooperation in the fields of nuclear energy, infrastructure and construction, Yoon's office said.







"Saudi Arabia is our country's largest supplier of crude oil, and our economic and energy security partner," Yoon was quoted as telling the Saudi minister, according to the presidential office.







"As this year marks the 60th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations, let's take the relationship to a higher level by expanding future-oriented cooperation, such as energy, including nuclear plant, construction, infrastructure, culture and human exchanges," Yoon was quoted as saying.







Yoon also said the two nations need to bolster cooperation in the fields of culture and tourism.







The Saudi minister told Yoon that Korean companies and workers have significantly helped the oil-rich kingdom improve its infrastructure.







Saudi Arabia seeks to deepen cooperation with Korea for its Vision 2030 reform plans to build nuclear power plants and reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. (Yonhap)










The annual Ulchi civil defense exercise will kick off in full scale next month for a four-day run nationwide after the drills were held in a scaled-back manner in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the interior ministry said Wednesday.







The upcoming 54th Ulchi exercise will kick off on Aug. 22, involving some 480,000 officials from about 4,000 city, county and ward governments, public institutions and others across the nation to inspect their readiness for war and other contingencies.







This year's event marks the first full-scale Ulchi drill in years after the annual exercise had been scaled down due to the pandemic.







The Ulchi exercise was launched in 1969 following a raid of North Korean commandos on the presidential residence in Seoul the previous year,







This year's exercise will include mock emergency summons, a drill to restore facilities, telecommunication and waterworks in the event of a North Korean missile attack, and training to counter GPS jamming in tandem with a combined South Korea-United States military exercise, the ministry said. (Yonhap)






Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon speaks during a presentation promoting the city's bid to host World Expo 2030 at the Bureau International des Expositions' headquarters in Paris, June 19. Courtesy of Busan Metropolitan Government





By Ko Dong-hwan







Not being fluent in English might not mean the end of the world. But for those representing a city with an unprecedented bid to host a mega-scale international event in less than eight years, it could be a shame.







It's a concern of the officials of Busan, which is betting on being selected a host city for World Expo 2030 in Paris next year.







They rolled up their sleeves last year to campaign for the bid, having pulled off two preliminary rounds of self-promotional presentations in front of the more than 160 member states of the Bureau International des Expositions. The southern port city is up against Riyadh, the rival Saudi city in the bid, which had started its campaigning almost a year earlier.







With both cities determined to host the event that they both see as having the potential to provide a major economic boon, some top-tier government officials in Busan have taken the challenge rather personally. Their common goal is as straightforward as it is difficult to implement: to use English more fluently and encourage other city officials and members of the public to do the same. The bold initiative could draw leverages from the city government's 18 bureau chiefs, 12 of whom have studied, worked or received vocational trainings outside Korea.







Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon is an ambitious go-getter. Having been re-elected as mayor in the June 1 local elections this year, he said that, as he has been governing the southeastern coastal metropolitan area of more than 3.3 million residents since then, Busan is more global than he had expected.







"I meet people from overseas at least once a day, usually those who are here for investment relations or envoys from other countries," Park, 62, told The Korea Times. With one of the city's top goals being to make Busan an ideal educational hub for English learners, the mayor, who has never studied nor lived outside the country, realized he had to do something not to embarrass himself with his poor language skills. "I didn't want to use my old age as an excuse anymore."







Busan Metropolitan City spokesperson Na Yun-bin talks to journalists in a press room at city hall, November 2021. Courtesy of the Busan Metropolitan Government





From late last year, Park started waking up early in the morning to video-chat with a native instructor in English on a smartphone app.







"I didn't reveal myself as the mayor of Busan to the instructor at first. When I did later, it surprised him. He also said he sort of felt proud to be my teacher," he said.







Park said that talking to people of foreign nationality through interpreters lacks a sense of "intimacy." "I want to express my willingness and passion to whomever I talk to in English. They also like it more when I directly talk to them instead of through interpreters."







Na Yun-bin, the mayor's spokesperson who also never studied abroad, is spending time outside the office to learn English as well. She talks to Filipino instructors three times a week on KakaoTalk, the country's most popular smartphone messaging app. It's been six months since this practice became part of her routine.







"Someday I will go abroad and test my English," Na told The Korea Times. "When I found out that the mayor was also privately learning English, I was really psyched."







Some officials of the city have already proven that hard work does not lie. Kim Byoung-ki, the vice-head of Jin District, the central district of the city, and a senior policy maker specializing in Smart City and Blockchain technology, is one of the city government's busiest public speakers. His credentials gained traction by having delivered presentations to foreign nationals on various occasions in English about how the city has realized the Smart City concept. But before reaching his current English level, the 50-something experienced self-mortification and despair countless times.







"I discovered my knack for reading and writing in English in high school," Kim told The Korea Times. "But my listening and speaking skills were just hopeless."







Feeling pressured, he kept challenging himself, as he studied at the country's state-run Korea Development Institute School and later, the Syracuse Maxwell School in the United States. While working for the Korean Embassy in Singapore for over two years, he found it depressing that his fluency in English didn't catch up as he expected, and he started lagging behind his children who had come to Singapore with him. He almost gave up on the language back then.







Kim Byoung-ki, vice-head of Busanjin District, the central district of Busan / Courtesy of Jin District Office





But when he got back to Busan and headed the city government's bureau in charge of new growth industries in 2017, he was unwillingly tasked with giving English presentations for public events. After catering all by himself to the African Development Bank Forum held in the city in 2018, to public officials from Southeast Asian countries in a video conference, and being interviewed by American TV network CNBC, he found his confidence in English slowly getting better.







He still remembers nerve-wracking moments ahead of showing up in front of a crowd during a large-scale Smart City summit at Washington, D.C. in 2019, as one of the speakers for a panel discussion. He at first tried to give up the opportunity given after the city government granted him time to study abroad at University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute. But his superior at the school urged him to stick to the chance, using what he called, "a typical American pep talk."







"I practiced for the big day with an old American friend of mine who helped me memorize a list of possible questions from the audience that ran for 50 pages," said Kim. "I read it out loud. That got me to realize that speaking it out loud actually helped me listen better as well."







Kim still hones his English by reading aloud scripts of English news reports from Korea's English TV channel, Arirang TV, or articles from The Korea Times.







Kim believes that the metaverse could be a key to helping Busan's young students learn English better by exposing them to people from other countries more often. He thinks such virtual studies should be employed at the city government's level to push the initiative more.







"Busan Metropolitan City and the city's office of education could form partnerships with many American schools, which could lead to our Korean students meeting many native instructors through their avatars," suggested Kim. He also envisioned using virtual reality (VR) equipment that could enable students to talk to people in other countries.







"If such practices persist for 10 years or so, there will be many in Busan who can use the language comfortably. I disagree with Busan going the same path as Singapore or Hong Kong where English was designated the national language alongside Chinese," he said.


By Diana Clarke



AUCKLAND, New Zealand  When I lived in the United States and people learned I was from New Zealand, the immediate response was always something about "The Lord of the Rings" films, which were shot here, but I've never seen any of them. People also asked, "Why would you leave there to come to the U.S.?" with the same emphasis as one might ask, "Why would you leave Disneyland to come to the dentist?"



As captured onscreen, New Zealand exists as a coveted, isolated elsewhere in the American imagination. That extends to the country's political image as a woman-led liberal bastion. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is known for giving birth while in office, containing the spread of COVID-19 and passing gun control laws. But when "New Zealand" trends in the U.S., it's rarely because of New Zealand at all. Instead, it's usually because something has happened in the States that feels apocalyptic, and then Americans panic and Google how to move to New Zealand.



Some noticeable peaks in "New Zealand" as a search term include November 2016, when Donald Trump won the presidential election, and then last month, with the overturn of Roe v. Wade. When Americans look up New Zealand residency applications, it's not because they want to live in Christchurch. It's because they want to move elsewhere. Anywhere. As far away from where they do live as possible.



It might not be such a bad thing if everyone repelled by the recriminalization of abortion were to migrate Down Under, if it weren't for all of the billionaires who are already here. You see, if American liberals idealize New Zealand as a remote island of 5 million environmentally ethical social progressives that they could fit into, then the American superrich see it as a remote island of environmentally ethical social progressives that they could take over.



Billionaires have been buying luxury bunkers here for years in order to invest in what they perceive to be their best possible chance at surviving Armageddon. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel raised eyebrows in New Zealand in 2017 when news of his under-the-radar residency became public, and in recent months, he has faced resistance from local government planners over his proposal to build a five-star guest lodge in the South Island.



Meanwhile, he's backing right-wing U.S. congressional candidates who align with President Trump and advocate for stricter U.S. border laws, despite his bending of New Zealand residency restrictions to suit himself.



Not that Thiel seems eager to claim being Kiwi, so why pay the high price for our passport? On the one hand, the country's geographic isolation makes for a promising haven in the event of war or disease. On the other, the sea level is rising, New Zealand is sinking, and we're so quake-prone that the whole place shakes like an aging chihuahua. We've got high road fatalities, barely any military presence, and one of the biggest threats to our national well-being is a possum infestation.



Why is it, then, that the rich have their money on us to survive the apocalypse? They don't, is the answer. They don't anticipate New Zealand as it stands, nor its people, surviving the end of the world, but that's part of the charm. For them, we're an easy conquest if the rest of the world goes to hell.



Known for having more sheep than people and, until recently, having a publicly funded wizard, New Zealand's publicity team works harder than Kris Jenner to position the country as unintimidating and placid  Australia's harmless sidekick. We cash in, every year, on being named one of the happiest countries in the world and one of the least corrupt countries in the world.



New Zealand also touts its racial diversity and support of Maori, including in government representation. In reality, we're more than 70 percent white and our youth suicide rate is high. As for corruption, New Zealand has no taxes on capital gains or inheritances, and it doesn't tax existing wealth either. Public scrutiny of company property ownership is minimal, and there is little to no public registration of trusts. And, as Thiel made so clear, if you're wealthy enough, you can buy your way across the border.



I wonder whether the superrich would consider New Zealand to be the best locale for their doomsday bunker if it really were, in fact, one of the least corrupt countries in the world and they had to spend 1,350 days here to obtain a right to citizenship, like other newcomers.



Don't get me wrong. There's no nuclear power, abortions are legal, guns are highly regulated in New Zealand, and you're never more than 80 miles from the sea. It's beautiful, but it isn't Disneyland and it isn't your elsewhere.



The country you're imagining, the one you've been sold, it doesn't exist. We're as sad, racist and corrupt as the rest of the world, and, nowadays, there are a bunch more billionaires to boot.





Diana Clarke is a writer and teacher based in New Zealand and author of the recent novel "The Hop." This article was published in the Los Angeles Times and distributed by Tribune Content Agency.


Theres no need to worry, Mr. Happy is still smiling in the new Pokagon State Park Nature Center. A program on turtles is being presented on July 28 at the Nature Center at 2 p.m.
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Producer and artist ZICO raised anticipation for his new album with the pre-release song "SEOUL DRIFT."

ZICO's 4th mini-album "Grown Ass Kid" is slated for release on July 27.
Kang Daniel has found himself in hot water for his sexist remarks about "Street Woman Fighter" (SWF) when he was comparing it to its male spin-off "Street Man Fighter" (SMF). Continue reading to know what he said that made fans upset.

Kang Daniel Faces Backlash for Sexist Remarks About 'Street Woman Fighter'

Kang Daniel has had a successful run as a host in the past few years, fronting various Mnet survival shows such as "Produce 48," "Street Woman Fighter," "Street Dance Girls Fighter," and now "Street Man Fighter."

But his recent comments comparing SWF with SMF angered many. Basically, fans asked Kang Daniel about the filming for "Street Man Fighter," but the male idol gave a response that fans felt was sexist and belittling.

Kang Daniel said, "To be honest, it was so comfortable because they were all men. I'm happy. Because my energy doesn't get sucked out of me. I was very scared in the beginning actually. But 'Street Woman Fighter' was scarier and I like [what I'm doing] now more."

ALSO READ: Kang Daniel Avoids Being Caught in a Political Controversy by Doing This

He went on to say, "No, but what's wrong with saying I was scared? Try to picture one man standing in front of 60 people. It was scary, right? Even my hands were shaking from holding those cue cards at first."

Fans weren't happy about this message of his as he used the term "energy-sucking" in Korean, which is often used to pertain to situations involving cliques of women in Korea. It is typically used to patronize and subtly place women under the stereotype that women are cattier than men.

When fans pointed this detail out, Kang Daniel continued to upset fans by blocking people who tried to educate him.

READ MORE: Kang Daniel Confesses He Was a Victim of School Bullying

"They're noonas who do their eyeliner and makeup fiercely too," Kang stated. "What do you mean I'm being sexist? I'm at loss for words... I'll just skip through it. Blocking them beep boop. Wheee goodbye."

He added, "Such people would be the ones who get angry when they attend stand-up comedy shows. Just live comfortably. Life is already too difficult."

The "Street Man Fighter" host then tried to save the situation by saying that he is familiar with many of the "Street Woman Fighter" dancers as he was previously in the underground dancing scene too. He also claimed that trained in the same underground scene.

"I'm not lying but I know almost all of them," Kang Daniel said. "All of them are like close dancer dongsaengs of hyungs that I know. Me too, I was someone who honed my skills in the underground scene. That's why I could become the MC. LOL."

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Screenshots of Kang's messages were shared on social media and an online community, and left netizens surprised and displeased with his comments.

A few of the comments are as follows:

"This is the typical man who tries to bring down impressive women LOL."

"Can't he think for a while before writing, why is he like that?"

"But there's probably 99% of women attending his concert, I bet he was so scared performing in front of them. How is he even able to perform?"

"The fact that he could say that to the fans is shocking and dumbfounding. Just why did he feel the need to say this?"

"Talking behind the participants of SWF and SMF? Seriously, he lacks manners and principles."

What are your thoughts on Kang Daniel's messages? Share with us in the comment box below!

Kang Daniel to Hold Offline, Online Concert in Seoul

In other news, Kang Daniel is scheduled to hold an online and offline concert in Seoul, titled "FIRST PARADE IN SEOUL."

It will take place for two days, from Aug. 13 to 14, at Jangchung Arena. The show starts at 6 p.m. KST on the first day, while the second concert will begin at 5 p.m. KST.

For more K-pop news, follow and subscribe to KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article

Written by Maria Scott
A ceremony for BTS' ambassadorship for the World Expo 2030 Busan was held. However, officials angered many for their rude treatment to the members. Keep on reading to know more.

BTS Allegedly Treated Rudely During World Expo 2030 Busan Ceremony

Recently on July 19, a ceremony was held to officially announce BTS as the honorary ambassador for the upcoming World Expo 2030 Busan. The ceremony took place at HYBE's building, where the Bid Committee made a visit to award plaques to each of the seven BTS members for being the honorary ambassadors.

As the ambassadors for the World Expo 2030 Busan, BTS will be working to promote the Korean culture, beginning with a global concert held in Busan this coming October.

In light of the ceremony, a live broadcast was held where fans from all over the world can tune in to watch BTS become officially appointed as the World Expo 2030 Busan ambassadors. However, many fans couldn't help but criticize the officials and politicians for their rude treatment to the members.

Many have pointed out that when each of the members would step up to receive their individual plaques, the officials would pose for a photo by lifting up the members' arms without any warning. As a result, the members' arms were lifted and twisted at an uncomfortable angle.

In the photos shared, the members can be seen looking uncomfortable as they were not expecting their arms to be lifted in the air awkwardly. Especially V, who looked surprised at the sudden action and was even looking at his arm.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'Raper': BTS J-Hope Fan-Sponsored Advertisement Draws Attention for Disastrous Billboard

Officials Draw Criticism for Rude Treatment to BTS

This treatment of BTS was shared on the online community forum TheQoo, which has since then amassed more than 106,700 views. In the comments, many have criticized the officials and politicians for doing such a thing without consulting the members first. Others have even begun to criticize the current administration of President Yoon Seok Yeol.

Some comments from netizens read:

"Why is everyone in Yoon [Seok Yeol]'s administration acting like that? Why do they all act so vulgar, one and the other? It makes me wonder if they are doing it on purpose at this rate."

"Seriously what the hell are they doing? I want to erase this memory of them deteriorating the national prestige, but I can't. They don't even know how to keep basic manners. Don't they see the members' taken aback expressions and feeling uncomfortable? Or are they just pretending?"

"You can't even tell from the pose that this is what they were planning to do. At least consult with [the members] first? Why would you randomly lift someone's arm like that. The members must have been so shocked. Just looking at them makes me embarrassed and uncomfortable. They are ambassadors for the World Expo, where everyone around the world is watching, can they at least do it right?"

"Ah I am freaking pissed off. You can clearly see what they are thinking right now. Those f*ckers are freaking rude. They are ignorant and vulgar, I seriously hate them so much."

"Wow, that is so rude. Why are they lifting up their arms like that?"

What are your thoughts on the issue?

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: BTS Jimin Dating Actress Song Da Eun? Here Are Pieces of 'Evidence'

For more K-pop news, follow and subscribe to KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Robyn Joan
HYBE and Source Music have terminated Kim Garam's exclusive contract, thus ending her short-lived promotions with LE SSERAFIM.

Keep on reading to know more.

HYBE Announces Kim Garam's Termination of Exclusive Contract and Withdrawal From LE SSERAFIM

On July 20 KST, HYBE and Source Music announced that LE SSERAFIM member Kim Garam will no longer be part of the rookie girl group, and that they have terminated their exclusive contract with the idol.

The announcement was made through a notice on LE SSERAFIM's Weverse page. The statement, which was shared in English, Korean, and Japanese confirms that the group would continue promoting with five members instead.

HYBE and Source Music said in their statement:

"Hello. This is HYBE/SOURCE MUSIC. We would like to provide you with information on the decision made in regards to LE SSERAFIM member KIM GARAM and plans for the future activities of LE SSERAFIM. Our company has decided to terminate the exclusive contract with KIM GARAM. We extend our sincerest apologies to our fans and to those who have shown love and support to the group for causing you concern over the controversy involving the member. LE SSERAFIM will continue their activities as a five-member group, and we will spare no effort to support the group to grow further as artists through their music and performance. Thank you."

Prior to LE SSERAFIM's debut, Kim Garam became embroiled in school bullying accusations after a post on an online community forum claimed such. The accusations quickly spread, and more individuals, who claimed to be the idol's former schoolmates, stepped up to share alleged evidences of Kim Garam being a perpetrator of school violence.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: #KimGaram_Withdrawal Trends as Idol's School Violence Controversy Continues

HYBE and Source Music initially denied these accusations and announced their intention to take legal measures. However, due to the continuous onslaught of alleged evidences being shared online against Kim Garam, the company ultimately announced that Kim Garam would be going on a hiatus from group activities.

Since May, LE SSERAFIM has been promoting as five members. And despite the uncertainty surrounding Kim Garam's status within the group, HYBE and Source Music had stated that they had no plans of removing the controversial idol from the group at the time.

LE SSERAFIM Fans Have Mixed Reactions Over Kim Garam's Removal

While a member leaving a group usually saddens fans, Kim Garam's removal brought mixed reactions.

Following the announcement of Kim Garam leaving the group, numerous fans took to social media to express both their happiness and sadness over HYBE and Source Music's belated decision.

Many fans were happy that the company finally made a decision, as they deemed Kim Garam's school bullying controversy negatively impacts LE SSERAFIM as long as she was still an official member.

While other fans were saddened over the lost potential, especially as Kim Garam is still a young idol. As people didn't take too kindly with her controversy, many are hoping that she receives the guidance and help she needs following her departure.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: LE SSERAFIM 'FEARLESS' Performance Without Kim Garam Garners Praise

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Written by Robyn Joan
The Walworth County Sheriffs Office has confirmed that a crash on Wednesday morning, July 20, just outside Burlington was fatal.

The crash occurred in the Town of Spring Prairie at approximately 9 a.m. where Highway 11 meets Highway JS at the start of the Burlington bypass. It was initially called in as a two-vehicle crash.

Officials from the Lyons Township Fire Department were the first emergency responders on the scene. Fire department officials said CPR was in progress.

When representatives from the fire department arrived, they noticed two vehicles with extensive damage. Mutual aid was requested for the City of Lake Geneva paramedics, City of Burlington ambulance, Rochester ambulance and Flight for Life.

One accident victim was pronounced dead at the scene, and two other patients were transported to area hospitals.

Representatives from the Lyons Township Fire Department said they appreciate the mutual aid companies that assisted with the incident.

The Walworth County Sheriffs Office was not able to immediately provide any additional information other than confirming there was one victim who died.

Based on recent information from the Walworth County Sheriffs Office, this would be the ninth traffic-related fatality for 2022.

On Tuesday morning, July 19, a pedestrian was killed in Lake Geneva crossing George Street on the citys Northside. The man was 81-years-old.
RACINE  No charges are to be filed against Racine Police Officer Zachary Brenner for the May 20 shooting death of DaShontay King.

The decision was intended to be announced Tuesday evening during a meeting between the Racine County District Attorneys Office and members of Kings family. But Tuesday afternoon, District Attorney Patricia Hansons decision appeared online briefly before being taken down, WISN-TV and WTMJ-TV both reported.

According to WISNs review of the decision that was posted and taken down, Hanson wrote: My review of the facts and circumstances of this case lead me to the conclusion that Officer Brenner is immune from criminal liability in this case as the death of Mr. King was a direct result of Mr. Kings conduct that posed a reasonable and imminent threat to Officer Brenner, under the circumstances as they existed at the time. Mr. King was armed with a firearm, therefore, his intentional use of a firearm was reasonable and necessary under the circumstances.

According to authorities, just after 1 p.m. on May 20, Brenner attempted a traffic stop against the vehicle King was driving and, following a brief vehicular chase, King fled on foot. The initial traffic stop was attempted because King was wanted as a felon in possession of a firearm, according to Wisconsin court records, and had an upcoming jury trial.

King allegedly had a handgun on his person as he fled and, according to Racine Police Chief Maurice Robinson, King took an action with the firearm while ignoring orders to stop running that led to Brenner opening fire.

It has not yet been said publicly what that action was.

According to investigators, there is body camera footage of the shooting. As of press time, that footage has not been publicly released. Hanson previously said it is up to the family whether the video will be released publicly.

The shooting occurred in a grassy lot on the citys south side, just west of Center Street near Carroll Street in what is sometimes called the Midtown neighborhood.

A photo from the scene shared by the Racine Police Department shows a Springfield XD handgun lying in the grass.

The Wisconsin Department of Justices Division of Criminal Investigation initially investigated the shooting. The DOJ reported that its investigation concluded in mid-to-late June, although Hanson said that her investigation was slightly delayed because of delays at the (state) crime lab have me waiting on additional evidence.

Brenner joined the Racine Police Department in January 2018. He has been on paid administrative leave since May 20.

King was 37. He had four children.

It was during Kings June 2 funeral that an active shooter situation occurred, with two women being shot during his burial at Graceland Cemetery by multiple individuals in multiple cars, eyewitnesses said. Both women survived, one with minor injuries and the other with serious injuries.

Decisions and days

Tuesdays decision came 60 days after the shooting.

That was a much faster turnaround than in two other relatively recent decisions from the Racine County District Attorneys Office in relation to the deaths of other young black males following fatal interactions with law enforcement.

After 18-year-old TyRese West was shot twice in the head  after falling to the ground while fleeing a Mount Pleasant police officer who had intended to stop West for riding a bike without a light in the early morning hours of June 15, 2019  the decision to not charge the officer was issued Sept. 18 of that year. Thats a gap of 95 days.

There are conflicting reports around West's final moments.

The Mount Pleasant Police Department officer who shot the teenager reported that it appeared West was reaching for a gun he had been carrying but dropped prior to the fatal shots being fired. But in police radio audio from the seconds around the shooting, a voice can be heard saying "OK" multiple times. West's family believes the "OK" heard in audio was West complying with the officer's commands. The "OK" was not addressed in the DA's Office's final report but the officer's recollection of the intense scene were included.

27-year-old Malcolm James died after he stopped breathing in Racine County Jail on June 1, 2021, where he was held amid a multiday mental health crisis. James stopped breathing as multiple officers for several minutes pressed their weights onto his body while other officers struggled to remove Taser barbs from James back. It was not until Jan. 6 that the District Attorneys Office rendered a decision not to criminally charge any of those involved. Thats a gap of 219 days.

Tuesdays decision did come about as fast comparatively to the one rendered four years ago in the Racine Police shooting of Donte Shannon. Shannon, 26, was shot and killed as he fled on foot while armed from two Racine Police officers on Jan. 17, 2018. Hanson announced no charges would be filed against the officers involved 62 days later on March 20, 2018.
BURLINGTON  Members of the Burlington Area School Board will not be charged with violating an open meeting law on Aug. 9, 2021.

Racine County District Attorney Patricia Hanson wrote in an email that the investigation revealed no violation of the open meetings law. No charges will be filed.

Attorney Tom Kamenick, president and founder of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, confirmed that Hansons office decided not to file charges.

Kamenick filed the civil complaint with Hansons office on June 2 on behalf of Adrianne Melby whose husband, Aaron Melby, unsuccessfully ran for BASD Board in April. The Melbys children previously attended Burlington public schools.

Kamenick said Adrianne Melby is reviewing her options regarding other legal action against the school board.

The complaint alleged that the BASD board acted improperly in two ways during an Aug. 9, 2021, meeting that ended in chaos:

By moving its meeting to an undisclosed location that it did not provide advance notice of.

By having that portion of the meeting unavailable to be attended by the public.

Peter Turke, BASD Board President, told The Journal Times last month that he believes the boards actions were lawful after a crowd of area residents largely opposed to mask mandates became unruly. After the board suspended the meeting that day and minutes later reformed behind closed doors elsewhere within Burlington High School, the crowd searched through the schools hallways for the board before being stopped by police officers who had responded to the scene.

If charges had been filed, each of the seven school board members could have been fined up to $300.
Hopes were running high among state and local dignitaries last year when Gov. Tony Evers and Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes announced that Holland, Mich.-based Grand Craft Boats, LLC, a legacy 42-year builder of fine mahogany runabouts, was relocating its headquarters and production operations west to Wisconsin, Walworth County and the Village of Genoa City.

As part of the relocation package, WEDC authorized up to $125,000 in state income tax credits over three years, the actual amount of tax credits to be released contingent on the number of jobs created and capital invested in the project.

Wisconsins thriving manufacturing industry and world-class workforce continue to attract businesses from around the world, Evers said at the time. Were excited that Grand Craft has decided to relocate to Wisconsin. The company joins a long list of exceptional craftsmanship and manufacturing in our state and they will assuredly be a strong addition to our state economy and the southeastern Wisconsin community.

But the ultimate litmus test of any big economic development announcement lies in the delivery on the promises made  the rubber-meets-the-road factor. Or, in the case of Grand Craft, the boat-meets-the-water factor.

Celebrating a major milestone in its ambitious and high-profile relocation to the Badger State and its retail alliance with Williams Bay-based Gage Marine, Grand Craft kicked off the prime Geneva Lake boating season on June 30 with a gala lakefront launch party at Gages headquarters at PIER 290, 1 Leichty Dr. in Williams Bay.

There, Grand Craft president and chief executive officer Patrick Gallagher introduced the companys newest addition to its expansive line of luxury boat offerings  Grand Crafts all-mahogany 26-foot Burnham flagship, which retails for $389,000 and blends retro style with contemporary flair and mechanical components.

This model has not been seen here on the Lake and its an opportunity for some of the Whos Who of The Lake to get a glimpse of it and a shot at buying one of the two existing models available, Gallagher said of Grand Crafts launch party for the Burnham.

One Burnham, equipped with an upholstered sun pad bed, was on display on shore. The other Burnham was docked on Geneva Lake at PIER 290.

Theyre not only incredibly sleek with a contemporary style, they also have the latest technology, such as a 430 horsepower V-8 Ilmor engine with a bow-thruster, premium sound system, courtesy lighting, Gallagher said. The construction of it is a triple-planked hull made of African mahogany and its comprised of thousands of man hours, yet we are also embracing the most modern technology to computer-design the boat. The boat has been drawn up in CAD and many of the critical structural components of the hull are CNC-cut from the CAD drawings. What that means is its a really well engineered boat from bow to stern. From the beginning to the end, its really a marriage of the old world craftsmanship being utilized by our skilled carpenters, and our marine technicians working with the latest technologies.

Gallagher and his wife Rose, who serves as Grand Crafts executive vice president, acquired Grand Craft from owner Jeff Cavanagh in February 2021, enamored with the companys craftsmanship and the timeless appeal of its classic 20s and 30s styled runabouts. Grand Crafts new executive team is rounded out by Jeff Podhajsky, who serves as vice president of operations.

The reason these boats are so appealing to our customers is that it appeals to their unique sense of style and attention to detail, Gallagher said. These folks are very persnickety in what theyre looking for. They have an eye for the finer things. They dont want their boat to look like everyone elses. And theyre looking for a deeper connection with their boat  They know that their boat was really built by skilled craftsmen and NOT mass produced, which also allows them to put their unique fingerprint on the boat a bit in choosing some amenities and features. The common thread  we hear this constantly  is that boat is a work of art. Even our advertising talks about how these arent just boats, theyre heirlooms. For many of these folks, they keep it in the family. They create memories that are tied directly to experiences of being on their boats.

Premium partners

Gallagher said he wasnt looking for just any boat dealer as a retail partner as Grand Craft relocated its headquarters and production to Genoa City last summer. With deep family ties to the Lake Geneva area since the mid-1970s, Gallagher said he had only one heritage marine dealer in his sights  Gage.

Hands down for me  it made sense on a lot of levels, Gallagher said. It (Gage) was the first and last call I made for a dealer to represent Grand Craft on Geneva Lake.

For third-generation Gage Marine owner Bill Gage, Jr., Grand Craft is a good fit for the companys line of top-quality luxury boat offerings.

Gage Marine, which traces its history back to 1873 through two previous owners, came into the Gage family fold when Bill Gages grandfather, Russell, bought company in 1958.

We sell only the premium and our four lead brands are best-in-class  ChrisCraft, Boston Whaler, Bennington and MasterCraft, Gage said. As a premium dealership, we look for partners that are best-in-class. Grand Craft should be a good partnership. We help people enjoy their free time, the most valuable commodity you have.

A good move

Grand Crafts relocation to a nearly 25,000-square-foot southeastern Walworth County manufacturing facility at 1021 Williams Rd. in Genoa City has been a positive move for the companys reinvigoration according to Gallagher, citing the areas deep pool of talent not only for marine technicians, but also for very skilled finish carpenters who have a really keen eye.

I admire and respect what was accomplished in Holland, Mich. the first 42 years of Grand Crafts existence, but Rose and I felt like if we were going to acquire and put all weve got into revitalizing Grand Craft, we needed to replant it, Gallagher said. It was a no-brainer to take a hard look at Walworth County and our mind was made up rather swiftly after talking about it. Weve been really happy with the decision to move here and the folks were hired since moving here.

Grand Craft currently employs nine and has hired Laughlin Constable, of Chicago and Milwaukee, as the firms advertising and public relations agency. Gallagher said the company anticipates adding another 10 employees to its roster over the next 1-2 years as it ramps up production to a target sweet spot of 20-25 handcrafted luxury boats annually.

Producing two boats under its new ownership in 2021 as the company relocated its operations, Gallagher said Grand Craft expects to complete five boats this year and ten next year as the company gets its sea legs in Wisconsin.

Among the boats currently under construction in Genoa City is a 36-foot commuter-style Winchester water limousine for a high-end resort in Florida. Gallagher said Grand Craft expects to start production on a second Winchester for the same customer in the third quarter.

Grand Craft president and CEO Patrick Gallagher with company founder Steve Northuis Joining Grand Craft Boats, LLC president and CEO Patrick Gallagher (left) at the companys June 30 boat launch party at Gage Marine and PIER 2

Among those attending the June 30 launch party was Steve Northuis, who founded Grand Craft in 1979. Northuis sold the company in 1984 to Richard Dick Sligh, who sold Grand Craft to Cavanagh in 2010.

Northuis said he expects great things with Patrick Gallagher at Grand Crafts helm as president and CEO, calling the companys relocation Michigans loss and Wisconsins gain.

Hes phenomenal, the right guy to own this company, Northuis said. Hes doing everything perfect. The Gallaghers are really passionate. I think this is going to be best chapter of Grand Craft yet.

Out on the PIER 290 dock, Grand Craft senior marine technician Tim Williams, a longtime former Gage Marine veteran, was offering Burnham rides on Geneva Lake, calling the runabout an unbelievable ride.

The product were putting out speaks for itself, Williams said. We really put in a lot of effort and engineering to deliver a superior product with attention to detail.

About Grand Craft

Grand Craft currently produces five models of runabouts with varying lengths from 20-40 feet, all of which can be customized  The Burnham, Dearborn. Roosevelt, Winchester and Wrightwood. Grant Craft also creates unique one-off custom boats to order.

Grand Craft customers include Jennifer Lopez, Robert Redford, Kid Rock, Tim Allen and more.

For more information, visit www.grandcraft.com.
The Riviera renovation project recently received some awards.

Mayor Charlene Klein announced during the July 13 Lake Geneva Business Improvement District Board meeting that she was informed by representatives from MSI General Corp., contract managers for the project, that the Riviera renovations received a bronze award for interior design from the American Society of Interior Designers.

They sent me a replica of the ASID award, and its a crystal obelisk, Klein said. It weighs about 50 pounds.

The project also recently received a top award from the Wisconsin Historical Society Board of Curators for restoration project costing more than $1 million. The project cost about $4.6 million to complete.

In a press release, the Wisconsin Historical Society Board of Curators stated:

The restoration and preservation of the Riviera not only repaired the historic fabric of the building, but it also correctly restored numerous historic features and reversed previous work that hid or did not respect the buildings historic character. Large restoration projects like the Riviera not only have to repair the historic building but correct previous work that was out of step with a historic building, while also meeting modern standards and ADA requirements.

Dimitri Anagnos, vice president of the Business Improvement District Board, said he is pleased with the renovation work that has recently been completed to the Lake Geneva Public Library and the Riviera building.

Were taking care of our historic town and keeping the beauty of it, Anagnos said.

The Riviera renovation project was completed in two phase.

The first phase, which was completed in 2020, focused on exterior renovations to the building including roof replacement, tuckpointing work and installing new windows in the upper level of the building.

The second phase, which was completed in 2021, included interior renovations to the first and second floors of the building.

First-floor renovations included installing larger restrooms near the north entrance of the building and a family restroom near the south entrance, as well as renovating the vendor space area.

Second-floor renovations included installing a new ballroom ceiling, upgrading the lighting system, renovating the ballroom restrooms and installing new dance floor tiles.

The project also included installing a new elevator, updating the buildings plumbing and mechanical systems and installing a fire-suppression sprinkler system.

The Riviera, 812 Wrigley Drive, was constructed in 1932. The second-floor ballroom is used to host weddings, corporate outings and community events. The first floor features shops where people can purchase food, T-shirts and jewelry.
Eight Republicans are running in the Aug. 9 primary for lieutenant governor. The winner will face the Democratic primary winner on Nov. 8. The term is four years.

David King

Age: 60

Address: 2939 S. 38th St., Milwaukee

Family: Married with 15 children

Job: Founder and CEO of Wisconsin God Squad

Prior elected office: None

Other public service: Pastor at Kingdom Resurrection Power Ministries

Education: Doctorate in Theology from South Carolinas Grace Theological Seminary

Will Martin

Age: 55

Address: 500 College Ave., Racine

Family: Single with no children

Job: CEO of Wisconsin Diversified Investments

Prior elected office: None

Other public service: Deputy director for the office of Gov. Tommy Thompson, 1993-94; business and community engagement director, Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, 2016-18; strategic workforce initiatives director, Department of Workforce Development, 2018-19

Education: Bachelors degree in economics and management, Beloit College

Roger Roth

Age: 44

Address: 1024 E. Overland Road, Appleton

Family: Married with five boys

Job: Captain and 17-year member of the Wisconsin Air National Guard, residential home builder and state senator

Prior elected office: State Assembly, 2007-11; State Senate since 2015

Other public service: 17 years in the Wisconsin Air National Guard

Education: Bachelors degree in history, UW-Oshkosh; Officer Training School, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama

Patrick Testin

Age: 34

Address: 5369 Fairview Drive, Stevens Point

Family: Married with no children

Job: State senator for the 24th District and sales for M Shiraz Distributing

Prior elected office: State Senate since 2017

Other public service: None

Education: Bachelors degree in political science, UW-Stevens Point

David Varnam

Age: 43

Address: 705 E. Elm St., Lancaster

Family: Married with two children

Job: Former mayor of Lancaster

Prior elected office: Mayor of Lancaster, 2016-22; Alderman, Lancaster, 2013-16

Other public service: Analyst, Focus on the Family, 2001-03; aide, U.S. Rep. Gary Miller, 2003-08

Education: Bachelors degree in Christian studies, California Baptist University

Cindy Werner

Age: 62

Address: 8809 W. Tripoli Ave., Milwaukee

Family: Widow with seven children

Job: State ambassador, Fredrick Douglass Foundation-WI

Prior elected office: School board trustee

Other public service: None

Education: Attended Temple University and U.S. Army School of Administration

Jonathan Wichmann

Age: 36

Address: P.O. Box 320064, Franklin

Family: Married with no children

Job: Small-business owner

Prior elected office: None

Other public service: None

Education: Bachelors degree in business administration with a minor in marketing, Ottawa University Brookfield Campus

Kyle Yudes

Age: 46

Address: 626 Hobart St., Eau Claire

Family: Married with five children

Job: Insurance agent

Q&As

Why are you the best candidate for the job?

King: First, Im an agitator. Im not looking to be best friends with the Madison political class. I am going to do the job I was hired to do by the voters. Second, Im the only candidate who has created a God-centered organization designed to provide connections to jobs and transportation for people primarily from challenging backgrounds, including homeless persons, former addicts and ex-convicts.

Martin: I am a reformer who knows how to get things done in state government. I am not a politician, but an experienced executive serving in the Thompson and Walker administrations in addition to owning a small business for over 20 years. I am the only candidate with the executive branch and private-sector experience to hit the ground running from day one in helping the governor reform state government to create greater economic opportunity and personal freedom for all people of Wisconsin.

Roth: Im the one candidate with the experience for Lieutenant Governor. Im a third-generation homebuilder, spent the last 17 years serving in the WI Air National Guard and the State Senate for the past eight years. Ive got a young and growing family, and my wife and I raise our five young boys in the Fox Valley.

Testin: With the Lieutenant Governor having few constitutional duties, Wisconsinites only get out of the position what the officeholder puts into it. I am the only candidate with a proven conservative record, a proven ability to work hard for Wisconsin families, and the only Republican candidate who has proven they know how to beat an incumbent Democrat. Wisconsinites know we are on the wrong track, but there is A Better Way Forward starting in 2023.

Varnam: I have a unique background that includes being a former federal legislative analyst for Dr. James Dobson at Focus on the Family, a former Congressional Aide for housing, water and transportation issues for a U.S. Congressman, and a former rural mayor. My endorsements include Dr. James Dobson, Wisconsin Right to Life PAC, Pro-Life Wisconsin Victory Fund PAC, and Wisconsin Family Action PAC.

Werner: The only candidate in the race as a private citizen was part of a lawsuit that focused to hold accountable the five cities that took monies from Mark Zuckerberg in the 2020 election. The lawsuit was about the integrity of the election. I have over 30 years of experience focused on promoting conservative policies that have helped individuals become more self-sufficient, championing universal school choice, and served in the United States Army (only candidate that is endorsed by Veterans for America First), Pro-Life endorsement, law, and order (only candidate endorsed by former Sheriff David Clarke).

Wichmann: I am the best candidate for the job because of the economic vision I have for Wisconsin, my ability to anticipate future problems, and the solutions I present to overcome those problems. We need a business owner mindset inside of Madison and that is something we dont have right now.

Yudes: I believe in action not words. My goals are simple. Restore liberty. Bring accountability and rule of law back and give government back to the people. I have educated, empowered and inspired people to run for local and state office and educated thousands of Wisconsinites to stop giving consent to those who are violating their liberties.

What unique experience/expertise do you bring to the office?

King: I have built a reputation as a problem-solver. Ive worked with some of the top employers around Wisconsin, including Roundys and BuySeasons, to connect hard to employ people with hard-to-fill jobs, which has been a win-win for everyone involved. Ive worked with everyone from entry level to executive suite, small business to corporate, and have a track record for bringing diverse entities together.

Martin: Under Gov. Thompson, I helped implement the nations most ambitious welfare-to-work reform, assisting tens of thousands of parents entering the workforce, and saving the state tens of millions of dollars in the process in the first two years alone. I led the effort under Gov. Walker to finalize 120 federally recognized, tax-advantaged investment zones to accelerate business startups, job creation and housing development. In the private sector, I advised foreign governments in Europe and the Middle East to implement reforms to expand the workforce and improve the economy.

Roth: The Governors office directs Wisconsins National Guard. My unique experience as a captain makes me suited to be the principal adviser in the executive branch. Im also a blue-collar candidate that can swing a hammer and works for a living as a homebuilder. I understand Wisconsin families challenges in paying the grocery bills, putting gas in the car and raising our kids right.

Testin: I grew up in Marinette and had a job before I could drive. Ive worked on factory lines, overnight shifts, and it wasnt abnormal to see cut-off notices from utilities on our door growing up. Hard work and perseverance are the foundations of the American Dream, though, and is how I got here today. I think its time for Wisconsinites to have a lieutenant governor that works as hard as they do.

Varnam: I am the only candidate to serve as a chief executive in government, serving six years as mayor of a rural city that is very dependent on agriculture. I also have experience working as a legislative analyst for a nonprofit organization and as a housing, water and transportation aide for a U.S. Congressman. This has given me experience in rural, urban and suburban issues as well as knowledge of agriculture, broadband, housing, water and transportation issues.

Werner: Born in rural America, raised in the projects of Philadelphia and serving in the U.S. Army taught me the importance of understanding the struggles of those of us who have grown up poor, how to work with a diverse group to bring about one common goal and/or solutions and experiencing the benefits of being born in a country that still offers tremendous opportunities. Over 20 years plus executive experience in compliance, administration and leadership.

Wichmann: I bring bold leadership along with fiscal responsibility to the office. In 2020, I made a stand against lockdowns and COVID mandates because of the long-term impact I knew it would have on the supply chain, jobs and our economy. Also, soon after the Kenosha riots I went and supported the business owners impacted regardless of their political affiliation because it was the right thing to do.

Yudes: One of my greatest accomplishments was helping to expose extortion happening within the Wisconsin Assembly perpetrated by Speaker Robin Vos and his use of RAC dues, intimidation and coercion of the representatives. My expertise lies in simple, commonsense solutions to problems. This was demonstrated countless times during the pandemic and continues today.

What goals would you bring to the office of Lieutenant Governor and how would you work to accomplish those?

King: Parental rights have been eroded  in school, in the home, in society as a whole. I will push to return to parents the rights they once had in raising their children. I will agitate to eliminate Common Core, ESL, and the backdoor implementation of CRT. I will advocate to have the School Superintendent election moved to the fall to get a conservative candidate elected. I will listen to the business owners and CEOs, and fight for a more business-friendly climate in Wisconsin.

Martin: I will work with the next governor to: 1) reduce state governments size, costs and taxes by offering specific budget recommendations within the first 30 days to consolidate overlapping state agencies and sell empty state buildings; 2) end taxation of retirement income by advocating incorporation into budget and; 3) support law enforcement and increase public safety by advocating for passage of bail and sentencing reform.

Roth: Ive been a vocal leader in the Legislature  authoring and leading on the essential issues to conservative voters. Im the author of Universal School Choice and the Parental Bill of Rights, the leader of the movement to eliminate the state income tax, and wrote and passed the Born Alive Protection Act. So I can step in on day one and lead.

Testin: Our states workforce is quickly aging, and we will soon face staggering worker shortages in our manufacturing and agriculture industries. As Lt. Governor, I hope to begin addressing this by helping create education pipelines to connect students with industries where they can have a good-paying job, without a four-year degree. Additionally, I hope to serve as an ambassador to recruit recent graduates across the country to come make their home in Wisconsin.

Varnam: My top priorities will be more protections for the unborn, universal school choice, protecting the 2nd Amendment, lowering taxes for our businesses, families and individuals, repealing the Personal Property Tax and representing all of Wisconsin, including being a voice for rural Wisconsin. I would work with the governor and Legislature to be bold on these issues.

Werner: Working with the legislators on elections and personhood for the unborn.

Wichmann: I want to see small businesses grow and prosper in Wisconsin. This means making sure government policies dont favor one business size over another, but rather have a fair playing field for healthy free-market competition. We also need to stop the brain drain and retirees from leaving our beautiful state. This can be accomplished by eliminating state income tax on retirement income after age 65 and offering incentives to graduates in high-demand professions and trade careers.

Yudes: My five-point plan includes goals to reform the education system, address 2020 election discrepancies, secure schools, make government servants accountable, and end the SARS-CoV-2 emergency declarations by invoking the 10th Amendment. We have the right to hold responsible those who committed the crimes and violations of our constitutional rights over the last two years and receive remedy for these injustices.
Elections officials from across the country meeting under heightened security were urged Tuesday to prepare for supply chain issues that could lead to shortages in paper used for everything from ballots to "I voted" stickers for years to come.

The summer meeting of the National Association of State Election Directors brought together nearly 200 people, including elections directors from 33 states, experts in election security, interest groups that work with elections, vendors and others.

Election security experts told the directors to be prepared for possibly years of supply chain issues affecting paper, computer hardware and other things.

The supply chain as it affects elections may not return to normal until 2026, said Ed Smith, a longtime election technology and administration veteran who chairs a federal government-industry coordinating council that works on election security issues.

The lead time to obtain election hardware is two- to three-times longer than the norm, a delay not seen since 1999 or 2000, Smith said. Costs are also higher and elections officials should be prepared for spotty and unpredictable problems due to transportation and pandemic-related shutdowns, he said.

The supply chain issues are largely sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by worldwide closures of factories and a drop in people in the workforce. They have been felt by a wide array of industries.

Elections officials preparing for the November midterm are also bracing for their own problems that could make it difficult to get paper needed to print ballots, informational inserts and other materials needed to run an election.

"Certainly, the paper supply has been the leanest it's ever been," said Jim Suver, co-chair of a federal election security working group that focuses on supply chain issues. The biggest crunch will start in September, when all states are working toward the same November election, he said.

Suver said that hoarding was not an issue.

"There's not enough paper to hoard," he said. "It is not happening."

Elections officials were urged to order their supplies early and be prepared for shortages and delays.

The biggest risk is having an urgent request, like the need for a large number of reprints, 10 days or 15 days before an election, Suver said. It will be crucial for jurisdictions to be extremely careful in proofreading ballots so they don't have to place reorders, Smith said.

Printing errors already have occurred during this year's primaries. In Oregon, election workers in Clackamas County had to transfer the votes from tens of thousands of ballots that had blurry bar codes and had been rejected by ballot-counting machines. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a printing company mailed thousands of ballots with the wrong ID code, which meant they couldn't be read by scanning machines.

The three-day meeting, which also covered issues such as insider threats to running elections and how to connect with hard-to-reach communities, comes as elections officials are facing increasing threats amid false claims by former President Donald Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election was stolen.

Amy Cohen, executive director of NASED, cautioned meeting attendees to wear their name tags when at the event so that security could see they belong there, but to take them off when out and about in the city.

"Don't advertise who you are and exactly why you're here," she said.

Cohen said meeting organizers coordinated with federal, state and local law enforcement for the event. The group was not live tweeting or livestreaming the event, but there was no prohibition on attendees posting about it on social media.

"Please do be thoughtful about what you post and remember that some of the people in this room are dealing with serious security concerns and we need to be respectful to keep everyone safe," Cohen said.
Chinese envoy outlines propostions to address global food crisis

Xinhua) 10:17, July 20, 2022

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, delivers the joint statement by the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative (GDI) at a General Assembly high-level special event entitled "Time to Act Together: Coordinating Policy Responses to the Global Food Crisis" at the UN headquarters in New York, July 18, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie E)

UNITED NATIONS, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Monday stated the joint propositions to address global food crisis on behalf of the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative (GDI), calling for enhancing policy coordination in the long run.

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, delivered the joint statement by GDI Group of Friends at a General Assembly high-level special event, which was entitled "Time to Act Together: Coordinating Policy Responses to the Global Food Crisis."

"We are deeply concerned of the current state of global food insecurity, especially in developing countries," Zhang said.

GDI Group of Friends called on the international community to urgently support countries affected by the food crisis, including through coordinated actions and enhanced partnership among countries and other relevant stakeholders, in such areas as food production, storage, transport, food loss and waste reduction, increasing public and private investments in the agriculture sector, and improving food self-sufficiency, he said.

It also urged all stakeholders, including developed countries, to strengthen cooperation and keep a strong focus on the transformation of the global agrifood system towards its fairness and sustainability, Zhang added.

The statement also underscored the importance of keeping food and agriculture supply chains functioning, and ensuring trade channels and markets open for food, fuel, fertilizer and other agricultural products, by promoting a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"We must eliminate any unilateral and protectionist measures that run counter to the spirit and rules of the WTO," he stressed.

The GDI Group of Friends was launched by China's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in January 2022.

Zhang's speech was the first joint statement delivered by the Group of Friends of the GDI since its establishment, marking a new and significant step in the implementation of the GDI and the cooperation of the group which now has 60 countries.

In delivering Monday's statement, Zhang pointed out that food security is a key area of the GDI and the Group of Friends is determined to work with all parties to address the global food crisis on the basis of unity, solidarity, multilateralism, and people-centered approach.

GDI Group of Friends will spare no efforts to continue to work with UN member states, to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and make sure that no country and no one is left behind, Zhang said.

"We strongly encourage more member states to join our Group," he said.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
In the latest fight over voting procedures in Wisconsin, a powerful Republican-controlled committee on Wednesday struck down a recently created rule authorizing election clerks to correct or fill in missing information on absentee ballot envelopes before the ballots are accepted.

The committees decision created new confusion for local clerks as they process absentee ballots three weeks out from the Aug. 9 primary. Republicans say the decision means clerks cannot lawfully fill in the missing information, but a Democratic member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission noted the guidance that clerks may fill it in remains in place.

The move follows multiple efforts by the GOP Legislature this year to overhaul the elections system, all of which Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed because he said they would make voting harder. Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled absentee ballot drop boxes were illegal. That action led to renewed calls from former President Donald Trump for the Legislature to overturn the states 2020 election results, something it cannot do.

Republicans said the Wisconsin Elections Commissions emergency rule authorizing clerks to correct ballot envelopes, which took effect last week, conflicts with state law. But Democrats on the GOP-controlled committee that struck down the rule called the action a form of voter suppression. The committee voted 6-4 to suspend the rule, along party lines.

Not satisfied with trying to undermine faith in elections via baseless claims of voter fraud, Wisconsin Republicans are now actively trying to throw out valid ballots, Rep. Gary Hebl, D-Sun Prairie, said in a statement.

The commission originally issued nonbinding guidance allowing clerks to fill in or correct address deficiencies on absentee certificate envelopes in 2016. Voters must have a witness sign a certificate, typically printed on the back of an absentee ballot envelope, for the ballot to be valid. The witness has to include his or her address information on the certificate, but under the guidance, election officials were able to fill in missing or incorrect pieces such as the state or ZIP code.

This January, the Legislatures Republican-controlled rules committee told the elections commission to withdraw that guidance or resubmit it as an administrative rule.

The majority of the bipartisan Elections Commission then voted in favor of using the existing guidance as the basis for an emergency rule stipulating what errors clerks can fix on the certificates.

But the Elections Commission does not have the authority to codify that guidance in a formal rule, according to a letter sent to the rules committee last week by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester; Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostberg; and Rep. Tyler August, R-Lake Geneva.

The rule, the Republicans said, conflicts with state law stating, If a certificate is missing the address of a witness, the ballot may not be counted.

The law doesnt say what constitutes an address for the purpose of voting absentee, and its unclear from state law alone whether a ballot missing a ZIP code or state, for example, would be automatically disqualified.

At the committee hearing Wednesday, co-chair Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said under state law clerks must either send any ballot with errors back to the voter so the witness can correct it or set it aside and not count it.

The commission rule the committee struck down on Wednesday required clerks to either fix absentee ballot certificate envelope mistakes themselves or attempt to contact the voter so the voter could correct the deficiencies or provide clerks with the information needed to make the certificate complete. Under the rule, the voter also had the option to request a new ballot.

2016 guidance

The commission guidance issued in 2016, however, didnt set forth a requirement for the clerk. Instead, it said the clerk should attempt to resolve any missing witness address information prior to Election Day if possible, clarifying it could be done through personal knowledge, voter registration information or calling the voter or witness.

WEC is trying to define ... what can be done with the clerk, Nass said. You cant do that; its in the statute.

Nass and other Republicans said its the Legislatures job to set such policies, not the commissions.

Arguing that the commissions rule instead was solving a problem, Hebl said the committees actions Wednesday was absolute absurdity.

When the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules suspends a rule, the rule is temporarily waived and cant be enforced by the agency, Wisconsin Legislative Council senior staff attorney Margit Kelley said. But because the suspension is temporary, the Legislature must approve and the governor must sign legislation supporting the suspension. If that effort fails, the rules committee can suspend the rule again.

Ann Jacobs, a Democratic member of the Elections Commission, noted Wednesday the rule that was struck down went into effect last week, but added clerks CAN still fill in missing witness address info per WEC guidance issued in 2016.

Pettiest approach

The matter will likely have to be resolved in court. The Waukesha County Republican Party has asked a judge to declare that clerks and election officials cannot fix errors on absentee ballot certificates.

To prohibit this (rule), as the Republican leaders of the Legislature have asked you to do, would be to disenfranchise a voter for the pettiest of reasons: because the voters witness has failed to completely fill out their address on the absentee ballot return envelope, Matthew Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said Wednesday.

But Lucas Vebber, deputy counsel for the conservative group Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said the law is clear, and that the committees action affirms that state law provides clerks with two options when a ballot has missing information: return the ballot to the elector to correct, or dont count the ballot.

The nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau last year reviewed 14,710 absentee ballot certificates in 29 municipalities and found that 1,022 certificates (6.9%) were missing parts of witness addresses, 15 (0.1%) did not have any witness address at all, eight (less than 0.1%) did not have a witness signature, and three (less than 0.1%) did not have a voter signature. At the time, clerks corrected 66 (about 0.4%) of those certificates.
When you are driving or walking around Geneva Lake, its easy to take it for granted.

As locals, we get to see its beauty 365 days a year, the fun it provides in the summer for swimming and boating as well as the serenity in the winter when it freezes over and the ice fishers converge on its surface.

But a recent column by the Water Alliance for Preserving Geneva Lake is a reminder that we cannot take the lake for granted.

In the keeping it blue column, which runs in the Lake Geneva Regional News throughout the summer, the alliance talked about how phosphorus levels have been going up.

In 2021, this value was 0.0138 mg/L, and the 5 year average from 2017-21 was about 0.0124 mg/L. The previous 5 year average from 2012-16 was 0.0109 mg/L, according to Robertson.

These numbers show phosphorus levels in Geneva Lake are continuing to rise and are nearing the 0.015 level when algae blooms are more likely to occur.

Algae blooms are not only unpleasant to look at, they can cause serious health issues in humans, pets and aquatic life.

To learn more about algae blooms we only have to look north a little to Delavan Lake, which had a swim warning out earlier this month because of its algae blooms. The swim warning has since been lifted, but unfortunately it was in effect for over the July 4 holiday. Just imagine a similar warning for Geneva Lake, resulting in people not being able to swim in the lake  especially over a busy holiday like the Fourth of July.

While the lake is beautiful to look at, what is the point if you cannot jump in and cool off especially during a hot summer day?

People who swim in or touch blue-green algae can experience irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, throat or lungs. Toxins from algae blooms also can make animals very sick or even kill them, according to the CDC. Algae blooms are also harmful to fish and other aquatic life and can contaminate fish and shellfish, making them unfit for consumption and doing economic damage to water bodies frequented by fisherman.

Instead of waiting for beach closures and swim advisories, its better if proactive steps are taken.

The Water Alliance has said residents who live in the Geneva Lake Watershed can help lower phosphorus levels by repairing or replacing old septic systems, planting native plants along the lakefront and tributaries to Geneva Lake to minimize erosion, avoiding use of fertilizers and lawn chemicals, refraining from using soap for bathing and washing pets, boats and cars near the lake and ensuring leaves and lawn waste do not enter the lake.

Those seem like pretty easy steps  steps that would add up if everyone does their part.

Its in all of our best interests to protect the lake. Even though its easy to take Geneva Lake for granted, we cannot. We must do our part to take care of the lake.
Thane, Jul 20 (PTI) Maharashtra's Thane district has reported 151 new COVID-19 cases, taking its infection count to 7,32,799, a health official said on Wednesday.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh Shocker: 7-Year-Old Kid Sexually Assaulted & Killed in Fatehpur.

With the addition of the latest cases on Tuesday, the district currently has 1,132 active cases, he said.

Also Read | Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022: Over 500 Workers of NSUI, Student Wing of Congress, Likely To Join BJP Ahead of Polls.

One death was also reported on Tuesday, raising the COVID-19 fatality toll in Thane to 11,922, he said.

The recovery count in the district has gone up to 7,19,594, the official added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Itanagar, Jul 20 (PTI) Arunachal Pradesh reported 54 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, two less than the previous day, pushing the tally to 65,034, a senior health official said here.

The COVID-19 death toll remained unchanged at 296, with no new fatality recorded in the past 24 hours, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said.

Also Read | Karnataka Shocker: 3 Arrested for Killing Youth Over Indecent Comment on Social Media.

Arunachal Pradesh, which remained virus-free for the last couple of months, had been witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases since July 1, much like some other parts of the country, the SSO said.

The Capital Complex Region reported 25 new cases, followed by five in Upper Siang, four in West Kameng, three each in Papum Pare, Kamle, Lohit, Lower Siang, Namsai and Lower Subansiri districts respectively. East Siang district also reported two new cases.

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The state currently has 257 active COVID-19 cases, while 64,481 people have recuperated thus far including, 45 on Tuesday, the official said.

The COVID-19 recovery rate now is 99.15 per cent, while the active ratio is 0.39 per cent, Dr Jampa said.

The Capital Complex Region comprising, Itanagar, Naharlagun, Nirjuli and Banderdewa areas, has the highest number of active cases at 74, followed by Namsai (39), Lohit (37), East Siang (16) and West Kameng with 13 cases.

A total of 12,78,983 samples have been tested for Coronavirus in the state thus far, including 229 on Tuesday, Jampa added.

So far over 17.75 lakh people have been inoculated with Coronavirus vaccines in the state, State Immunisation Officer (SIO) Dr Dimong Padung informed.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ahmedabad, Jul 20 (PTI) Congress leaders in Gujarat on Wednesday urged the members of the Muslim community to support the party in the upcoming state polls in order to defeat the "devious" agenda of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Also Read | NEET Innerwear Row: Kerala Police Arrest 5 Women, NTA Panel To Reach Spot.

They also urged the minority community not to get carried away by the propaganda of the new entrants in the fray - All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which they termed as the BJP's "B and C teams", saying that doing so would divide its votes and ultimately help the ruling party.

Also Read | Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot Asks Police Officers To Take Strict Action Against Illegal Mining.

They were speaking at a function to felicitate Kadir Pirzada, the newly-appointed working president of the party's Gujarat unit, and other leaders.

Assembly elections in the BJP-ruled Gujarat are due by the end of this year.

Speaking on the occasion, state Congress president Jagdish Thakor urged Muslim leaders, including Pirzada, to frame a time-bound programme targeting 60 Assembly seats with sizable Muslim population. He also called for an election manifesto for the minority communities.

"All of us know who are behind the communal riots happening in the country, and how they benefit from it. We know and still fall prey to it. We should stay cautious about not falling into the trap," he said.

Thakor said the Congress has always stayed with the minorities and never changed its ideology, irrespective of whether it occupies power or not.

"A Congress prime minister used to say with confidence that minorities have the first right on the country's treasury. Congress knows how much saying so has hurt the party, but it will still not compromise on its ideology," Thakor said, addressing the function organised by the party's state minority department.

Remembering late Congress leader Ahmed Patel on the occasion, party veteran Arjun Modhwadia said that as the head of the family, Patel kept the party leaders united. "But when he is not with us, it is our responsibility to remain united," he said.

He also cautioned the Muslim voters to stay united and not to get swayed by the two parties that have entered the fray "to divide votes".

"The two parties have come once again, and we are all concerned. It is because we are ourselves not confident of our unity. But we should defeat these A and B teams," he said.

"We have to ensure that our complaints with each other are resolved and in 2022 (election), the A team does not return to power with the help of B and C teams," he said.

Jignesh Mevani, who has also been appointed as a working president of Gujarat Congress, remembered arrested social activist Teesta Setalvad and her struggle "for justice to the Muslims of Gujarat."

He said he always stood with the minorities and struggled for them. Mevani said the 2002 Assembly election is crucial for the future of the country, and will have implications on the country's Constitution.

During his address, Pirzada demanded representation for the community, and claimed that the Congress formed the government with the help of the Muslim votes.

"If a community with 3-4 per cent population demands its representation, then why should we, being 1 crore in the population of 6.5 crore, not demand our representation?" he asked.

"The community is at times at a loss as to who it should talk to. On the one hand, we have no government, while on the other there is no representation. You ran after Hardik (Patel, the former Congress leader who joined BJP), and forgot that these (Muslims) are the people who formed the Congress government," he said.

The party leaders urged the Muslim community to step out in large number to cast their votes during the Assembly polls.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bhopal, Jul 20 (PTI) Counting for the second phase of urban local body elections in Madhya Pradesh began at 9 am in the state on Wednesday, a poll official said.

Also Read | Meta Platforms & Google Reportedly Agree To Abide by New Indonesian Tech Rules.

Under the second-phase, polling was held on July 13 in five municipal corporations, 40 nagar palikas and 169 nagar parishads.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh Shocker: 7-Year-Old Kid Sexually Assaulted & Killed in Fatehpur.

The elections were held on party lines in these local bodies spread in 43 districts for the posts of mayor and corporators.

The BJP and Congress are locked in direct contests in Katni, Ratlam, Dewas, Rewa and Morena for the mayoral and corporator posts.

Initially, postal ballots will be counted followed by votes recorded in the Electronic Voting Machines, the poll official said.

The two-phase local body elections in the state for a total of 413 municipalities, including 16 Nagar Palika Nigam, 99 Nagar Palika Parishads and 298 Nagar Parishads were held on July 6 and July 13.

Under the first-phase, polling was held in 11 municipal corporations, 36 nagar palikas and 86 nagar parishads.

The counting for the first-phase was held on July 17.

The BJP had managed to retain seven out of the total 11 mayoral seats in MP that went to polls in the first phase, while the Congress wrested three seats from the saffron party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) bagged one.

The Congress had on Sunday termed the results as "encouraging", while the BJP hailed its own performance in the elections as "historic".

(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 20 (PTI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday conducted searches at 22 locations of Tamil Nadu in connection with operations of narco mafia of Sri Lanka operating in collusion with Pakistan-based drug and gun runner Haji Salim for the revival of LTTE, officials said.

The searches were conducted at the premises of accused in Tiruppur, Chengalpattu and Thiruchirappally districts, in Tamil Nadu, they said.

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It is alleged that the drugs and arms traffickers have been operating in India and Sri Lanka and working for the revival of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and to further its violent activities, the NIA said in a statement.

The NIA had registered a case on July 8 on the basis of intelligence gathered by it.

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"The searches conducted today have led to recovery and seizure of digital devices and various incriminating documents," the agency said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI) Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari addressed the Eastern Air Command's personnel on the Agnipath scheme during the last two days, the Indian Air Force (IAF) said on Wednesday.

The IAF had conducted the online registration process under the scheme from June 24 to July 5 and it received 7.5 lakh applications.

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Under the Agnipath scheme, those aged between 17-and-a-half and 21 years would be inducted into the armed forces for a four-year tenure and 25 per cent of them will be inducted for regular service subsequently.

"Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari was on a two-day visit to all major IAF bases in Eastern Air Command AoR (Area of Responsibility). During the visit, he addressed all Air Warriors on the Agnipath Recruitment Scheme," the IAF said on Twitter.

Also Read | NEET Innerwear Row: Kerala Police Arrest 5 Women, NTA Panel To Reach Spot.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Nagpur (Maharashtra) [India], July 20 (ANI): The Maharashtra government on Wednesday deployed the Indian Army in the flood-hit areas of Virdarbha region to support the evacuation and rescue of the villagers.

The army team from Guards Regimental Center (GRC) Kamptee under command of Major Bhuvan Shah with necessary equipment reached the affected area on the night of July 19, 2022, at 10:30 pm.

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According to reports, the army rescue operation started at the village Mangaon, District Chanderpur, during the wee hours of 20 July 2022. The village is completely cut off due to flood. The Army rescue team is continuously operating in conjunction with the civil authorities and disaster management teams.

"113 villagers were rescued to the safer areas on July 20. One team is kept at standby at Kamptee Cantonment to respond in case of any further requirements depending on flood situation, stated."

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Brigadier Deepak Sharma, Commandant, GRC visited the sites to oversee the operations carried out by Army.

Incessant and heavy rainfall in Vidarbha region since last few days and release of water from irrigation projects has resulted in flood-like situation in Chandrapur district of Nagpur Sub Division. Teams of NDRF and SDRF were operating in the region. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 20 (ANI): Jio Institute welcomed its founding batch of students at an inaugural programme held on Wednesday.

Speaking on the occasion, Nita M Ambani, Founder Chairperson, Reliance Foundation Institution of Education and Research, said that the institute endeavours to create an environment that is fertile ground for intellectual discovery and development, encourages curiosity and robust exchange of ideas besides enabling practical experimentation for real-life solutions.

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Jio Institute is commencing academic sessions with two inaugural post-graduate programmes in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science and Digital Media and Marketing Communications. The classes will begin on July 21, 2022.

Jio Institute said the first cohort of its postgraduate programmes has a healthy mix of geographic and gender diversity. The cohort hails from 19 Indian states and four countries outside India - South Africa, Bhutan, Nepal and Ghana.

Also Read | RBI Working on Phased Implementation of Central Bank Digital Currency, Says Executive Director Ajay Kumar Choudhary.

The batch comprises students from academically diverse disciplines like engineering, science, arts, commerce, mass media and management studies and business administration.

The founding class possess an average work experience of about four years in diverse fields such as advertising, automotive, banking, construction, digital media, edtech, fintech, healthcare, information technology, logistics, microfinance, oil and gas, pharma, telecom, government, NGO and others.

It said both the one-year post-graduate programmes are being taught by renowned faculty from top global institutions and industry.

"In both programmes, Jio Institute is focusing on cultivating essential life skills through its holistic learning module in addition to Foundation, Core and Elective Courses," a release said.

It said Jio Institute has planned for a study abroad module during which students will get exposure to a renowned global university. Alongwith these, the institute will lay emphasis on application-based learning throughcapstone projects.

Welcoming the founding class of 2023, Nita Ambani said, "we are delighted to have all of you with us, on this journey of excellence."

"Today marks a new beginning. An important milestone for Jio Institute, and for each one of you. Every batch of an institution is special, as they contribute to the growth and cultural fabric of these institutions. But the first one is always extra special. They do not just contribute, they help envision, and imagine an infinite possibility. As the first batch of Jio Institute, you will take the first-ever step, into an extraordinary future that we hope to build together," she said.

"Jio Institute was born out of a dream I shared with my husband Mukesh, to redefine higher education in India and carry forward the legacy of our Founder, my father-in-law Dhirubhai Ambani. Mukesh is a true patriot.

"And it is his vision to build an institution that will empower young Indians, and young people from across the globe, to develop solutions for a sustainable and better future for mankind, an institution that will prepare the next generation of global leaders who will significantly contribute to the advancement of India and the world " she added.

Nita Ambani said students will experience a unique learning environment, with a focus on research and innovation, and a global community of academicians and industry leaders.

She urged students to learn with passion, imagine without fear, make use of state-of-the-art labs and libraries and world-class sporting facilities.

"Stay active, healthy, and happy! And treasure the lifelong bonds of friendship that you make here! Mukesh and I believe in each and every one of you," she said.

The programme was attended by students, their parents, Jio Institute leadership and staff, faculty, members of the Reliance family and leaders from industry and academia.

Jio Institute is a multi-disciplinary higher education institute set up as a philanthropicinitiative by Reliance Industries Ltd and Reliance Foundation. (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 20 (PTI) The weather department has issued a yellow alert, warning of moderate to heavy rain in Delhi on Wednesday.

Generally cloudy sky, moderate rain or thundershowers are predicted in the city over the next three days.

Also Read | Karnataka Shocker: 3 Arrested for Killing Youth Over Indecent Comment on Social Media.

The national capital recorded a minimum temperature of 28.2 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal. The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 33 degrees Celsius.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted "enhanced rainfall activity" over northwest India for two-three days.

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The Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi's primary weather station, has recorded 189.6 mm of rainfall against a normal of 201 mm since the start of the monsoon season on June 1.

After a relatively dry June, the capital has logged 165.1 mm of precipitation against a normal of 126.9 in July so far.

But most of the rains in July came on the first day (117.2 mm). The Safdarjung Observatory recorded 30 mm of rainfall between 8:30 am on Saturday and 8:30 am on Sunday.

However, other weather stations have recorded light to moderate rainfall on several occasions this month.

The IMD uses four colour codes for weather warnings: green (no action needed), yellow (watch and stay updated), orange (be prepared) and red (take action).

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], July 20 (ANI): The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday conducted searches at nine locations in Jammu and Kashmir in the Chanapora arms recovery case.

Of the nine places searched by the NIA, four were in Srinagar district and five in Pulwama district.

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The searches conducted on Wednesday at the premises of the accused and suspects in the case have led to the recovery and seizure of digital devices and other incriminating materials, the NIA said.

The case is linked to a case related to the conspiracy of carrying out terror activities in and around Srinagar, in which four accused persons were arrested and 15 pistols, 30 magazines, 300 rounds and an SUV were seized.

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The case was registered initially at Chanapora Police Station in Srinagar and was re-registered by the NIA on June 18. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], July 20 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with the Indian contingent bound for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022 on Wednesday through video conferencing.

The interaction by the Prime Minister is a part of his continuous endeavour to motivate athletes ahead of their participation in major sporting events.

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Last year, Modi interacted with the Indian athletes' contingent bound for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as well as the Indian para-athletes' contingent for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Even during the sporting events, the Prime Minister took a keen interest in the progress of the athletes. On many occasions, he personally rang up athletes to congratulate them on their success and sincere efforts, while motivating them to do better.

Also Read | Jharkhand Shocker: Specially-Abled Youth Thrashed, Burnt With Hot Iron at School in Dhanbad.

Further, also upon their return to the country, the Prime Minister has also met and interacted with the athletes.

The CWG 2022 is scheduled to be held in Birmingham from July 28 till August 8. A total of 215 athletes, participating in 141 events across 19 sporting disciplines, will represent India in the CWG 2022. (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, Jul 20 (PTI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday conducted searches at nine locations in the Kashmir valley in connection with a case related to the recovery of a huge cache of arms and ammunition here, an official said.

Two local "hybrid" militants of proscribed terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were arrested in the Chanapora area of Srinagar on May 23, and 15 pistols, 30 magazines, 300 rounds and a silencer were seized from them.

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Two more accused were arrested later, and a vehicle was seized.

A spokesperson of the NIA said the searches were conducted at nine locations in Kashmir  five in Pulwama district of south Kashmir and four in Srinagar district  in the case related to a conspiracy of carrying out terror activities in and around Srinagar.

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The case was registered initially at the Chanapora police station on May 23 and re-registered by the NIA on June 18 for a thorough investigation.

The NIA said the searches were conducted at the premises of the accused and other suspected persons, leading to the recovery and seizure of digital devices and other incriminating materials.

"Further investigations in the case are in progress," the spokesperson said.

"Hybrid" militants is a term coined by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir to describe those ultras who carry out a subversive task assigned to them by their handlers before slipping back into normal life.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hyderabad, Jul 20 (PTI) Multi-lingual social media platform -- Koo on Wednesday said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Telangana government to open a development centre here.

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With Hyderabad being an IT hub, boasting access to a robust technology ecosystem and a large pool of IT talent, Koo envisions its presence in the region to grow in a significant manner, it said in a release.

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As part of this MoU, the Telangana government will work jointly with Koo on the use of Telugu to increase reach among non-English speakers in the state.

The collaboration will also promote the rich legacy and heritage of Telugu as a language, in addition to the unique culture of Telangana, it said.

The development centre will tap into local talent and promote synergies with stakeholders in the state, it said.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao said, "By collaborating with Koo, we are hopeful that our efforts to connect and engage with citizens for disseminating information and services of Telangana government will be augmented further."

Aprameya Radhakrishna, co-founder and CEO, Koo, said, "Language-based social media is the need of the hour, especially in a multi-lingual country like India. We are truly honoured and privileged to collaborate with the Telangana government to further our cause of empowering voices with digital freedom of expression. The development centre in Hyderabad will be a key enabler in this mission."

Koo, a multi-lingual, micro-blogging platform was launched in March 2020 and currently it is available in 10 languages. The platform's speciality include a translation feature which enables real-time translation of a post across the slew of languages, while retaining the sentiment and context of the original text, the release said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Canberra [Australia], July 20 (ANI): The Chinese Communist Party information operations are successfully silencing governments, businesses and civil society organisations globally and deterring them from criticising the CCP's human rights record and actions in Xinjiang.

Albert Zhang, an analyst and Tilla Hoja, a researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's (ASPI) International Cyber Policy Centre said that China's information operations are silencing and influencing global audiences on Xinjiang.

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The CCP is projecting its preferred narratives about Xinjiang and influencing unwitting audiences around the globe, instead of improving its treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities.

The CCP is responding to critiques of its human rights record by coordinating its state propaganda apparatus, security agencies and public relations industry to influence and even silence governments, businesses and civil society at home and abroad, reported Zhang and Hoja.

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The new ASPI report, assessing the impact of CCP information operations related to Xinjiang, collected and analysed a vast amount of multi-language data, including Chinese government documents and speeches, government statements made to the UN Human Rights Council, corporate responses to Chinese state-affiliated consumer backlashes (regarding Xinjiang-related forced labour), 613,301 Facebook posts, 6,780,809 tweets and retweets, and 494,710 media articles.

The findings come on the back of President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Xinjiang--his first since 2014. Despite almost a decade of repressive and discriminatory policies, including the arbitrary detention, mass sterilisation and cultural degradation of minorities in Xinjiang, reporting from Xi's visit showed Uyghurs and other Muslim minority residents apparently waving and cheering the draconian policies they have been forced to live under, reported ASPI.

However, CCP online information operations deny, distract and deter voices critical of CCP policies by flooding social media with positive depictions of Xinjiang and whitewashing evidence of human rights abuses. These activities are coordinated with other coercive tactics such as state-affiliated trolling campaigns, cyber surveillance operations and offline harassment, reported Zhang and Hoja.

Xinjiang-focused CCP propaganda and information operations were more effective on Facebook than on other platforms such as Twitter, the report found.

For example, of the top 400 Facebook posts with the most interactions (including reactions and shares), 60.3 per cent were posted by Chinese state media and diplomats. Of the top 1,000 tweets with the most interactions (including likes and retweets), only 5.5 per cent were posted by Chinese state media and diplomats, and 4 per cent were from accounts suspended by Twitter for platform manipulation.

Social media data collected in this report also confirmed that the CCP and state-affiliated entities are likely deploying coordinated inauthentic accounts to amplify their online public diplomacy and disseminate disinformation.

News articles in different languages varied significantly in the tone of their reporting about Xinjiang and reflected differences in global public opinion about the CCP's policies in the region, reported ASPI.

Of 494,710 articles analysed in more than 65 languages, Chinese-language articles were more likely to convey positive assessments of Chinese state policy and action in Xinjiang. Statistically similar results came from analyses of articles published in Urdu, Japanese, Thai and Turkish.

Moreover, the analysis of government statements at UNHRC sessions found that most countries that have supported CCP policies were based in Africa or the Middle East, which are emerging markets for US-based social media companies, while countries that have condemned CCP policies were mostly democratic nations in Europe and elsewhere. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
United Nations, Jul 20 (PTI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is expected to address the annual high-level UN General Assembly session in September, according to a provisional list of speakers released by the UN here.

The General Debate of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly will commence on September 20, with US President Joe Biden scheduled to address world leaders at the 193-member UN General Assembly.

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The high-level week will run through September 26.

Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegation and address the high-level session on the afternoon of September 24, according to the first provisional list of speakers released by the UN.

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Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the high-level UN General Assembly session.

The high-level session will take place against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war and the ongoing COVID19 pandemic. Global leaders are expected to focus on these and other security and humanitarian challenges confronting the world.

As per the list, Afghanistan, where the Taliban took control last August, is not listed to speak at the high-level session. Afghanistan's former Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ghulam Isaczai stepped down from his role as the Kabul envoy in December 2021.

On December 6 last year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to delay a decision on who will represent Afghanistan and Myanmar at the world body. The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, as well as the military rulers in Myanmar, had sought to replace the UN envoys, who were appointed by democratically-elected governments that were deposed in the two countries last year.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Islamabad [Pakistan], July 20 (ANI): Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday criticised the Shehbaz Sharif government for the free fall of the Pakistani Rupee against the US dollar and the worsening economic crisis in the country.

Taking a dig at Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Imran Khan said that the economic crisis in the country shows that Sharif never had any expertise in running the economy or administration, adding that their only expertise includes looting, money laundering and getting NROs, the Dawn newspaper reported.

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"When US regime conspiracy's VoNC [vote of no-confidence] was tabled, USD was at PKR 178. Today it is PKR 224 and in freefall despite IMF agreement. The economic meltdown shows Sharifs never had any expertise in running economy or administration. Their only expertise is looting, money laundering and getting NROs," the PTI chief said in a tweet.

"The nation will hold accountable all those responsible for regime change conspiracy and bringing Pakistan to this sorry state of affairs," he added.

Also Read | Pakistani Passport Remains Fourth-Worst in the World; Japan, Singapore top list.

Meanwhile, Asad Umer, ex-minister and general secretary of PTI, said that the 'imported' government has failed to prevent the fall of the Pakistani currency against dollar after it slumped to an all-time low for two days in a row.

The general secretary further said that "irreparable damage" could take place if steps were not taken to get rid of the "imposed system," local media reported.

Umer added that there was a need to take "timely decisions" to control the economic crisis and the depreciation of the currency.

The Pakistani rupee on Tuesday surpassed all prior records against the US dollar after hitting a fresh record low of PKR 221 against the US dollar in the interbank market.

The currency fell by PKR 5.80 in the interbank market on Tuesday after it closed at PKR 215.20 on Monday, Geo News reported citing the data released by Tresmark, a platform for treasury markets.

The currency witnessed the highest day-on-day depreciation since March 26, 2020.

A day earlier, The Pakistani rupee had dropped to PKR 212 against the US dollar.

The political uncertainty in the country due to the by-elections in Punjab and the import payment pressure took the currency to its new low, Pakistan-Kuwait Investment Company Head of Research Samiullah Tariq said.

Pakistan's ruling PML-N party is set to lose its provincial government in Punjab province, after a decisive win by Imran Khan's PTI in the byelections to 20 seats held on Sunday. The Khan-led PTI won 15 seats while PM Sharif's PML-N managed to secure just 4 seats. One seat went to an Independent. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
United Nations, Jul 20 (PTI) India was among the top three host countries of international migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the South-East Asia region in 2020, a global report by the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.

The first WHO World report on the health of refugees and migrants said that today about one in eight people in the world, some one billion, are migrants.

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This report is the first to offer a global review of refugee and migrant health; it calls for urgent and collective action to ensure they can access health care services that are sensitive to their needs. It also illustrates the pressing need to address the root causes of ill health and to radically reorient health systems to respond to a world increasingly in motion, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

The report said that India, Bangladesh and Thailand were the top three host countries of international migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the South-East Asia Region in 2020.

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In India, international migrants at 4,878,704 constituted 0.4 per cent of total population. Of this percentage of international migrants in India, 4.2 per cent were refugees and asylum seekers (207,334).

The report added that migration towards North America remains prominent, mostly from other parts of the Americas, as well as from Asia (notably China, India and the Philippines).

The United States of America is the largest recipient of migrants worldwide, with 18 per cent of total global migrants (51 million) in 2020.

"The largest migration corridor in the world is between the United States and Mexico, which is a key country of origin, transit and destination, it said.

The report also said that the South-East Asia region sends migrants to other areas, particularly to North America, Europe, countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, and Australasia.

Flows of international migration include movement from Myanmar to Thailand, from Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan to India and from many of the region's countries to the Maldives.

Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are the biggest refugee group, with close to 1 million living in Bangladesh. There are smaller groups of refugees from Myanmar on the ThailandMyanmar border, Sri Lankans in India, and Bhutanese in Nepal, with diverse refugees in Indonesia waiting to go to Australia.

The report added that a study in the United Arab Emirates found that the prevalence of hypertension among migrant workers from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan (30.5 per cent) was much higher than that for the local population (14.0 per cent); further, 76 per cent of migrants classified as hypertensive were not aware of their condition.

Another study conducted in the United States among a diverse sample of migrants found that those from south-east Asia and the Russian Federation had the highest prevalence of hypertension.

It said migrants from India and from Caribbean and Central American countries had the highest prevalence of overweight/ obesity; migrants from Africa and the Middle East had the highest prevalence of diabetes; and migrants from Europe had the lowest prevalence of all three conditions, demonstrating the importance of tailoring interventions for migrants with different countries of origin and ethnic diversities.

It added that Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India live in remote and rural camps that are distant from health services; they also reported delays in receiving benefits from health coverage schemes because of complicated application procedures.

The report reiterates that the experience of migration and displacement is a key factor in a person's health and wellbeing, especially when combined with other determinants.

For example, a recent meta-analysis of more than 17 million participants from 16 countries across five WHO regions found that, compared with non-migrant workers, migrant workers were less likely to use health services and more likely to have an occupational injury.

Evidence also showed that a significant number of the 169 million migrant workers globally are engaged in dirty, dangerous, and demanding jobs and are at greater risk of occupational accidents, injuries, and work-related health problems than their non-migrant counterparts, conditions exacerbated by their often limited or restricted access to and use of health services.

It is imperative that we do more on refugees and migrants' health but if we want to change the status quo, we need urgent investments to improve the quality, relevance and completeness of health data on refugees and migrants.

We need sound data collection and monitoring systems that truly represent the diversity of the world population and the experience that refugees and migrants face the world over and that can guide more effective policies and interventions, said Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO's Deputy Director-General.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], July 20 (ANI): India and Maldives on Wednesday signed MoU for judicial cooperation to accelerate court digitization and boost prospects for IT companies & start-ups in both countries.

"In another reaffirmation of our #NeighbourhoodFirst policy, today the Cabinet approved signing of an MoU for Judicial Cooperation between India & Maldives. Will accelerate court digitization and boost prospects for IT companies & start-ups in both countries," tweeted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

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Earlier in June, Jaishankar interacted with the President of Maldives, Ibu Solih and underlined the broad-based cooperation between India and Maldives that continues to grow at Kigali while he was there to attend the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

India was among the first to recognise the Maldives after its independence in 1965 and to establish diplomatic relations with the country.

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India and Maldives share ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious and commercial links steeped in antiquity and enjoy close, cordial and multi-dimensional relations. Relations between India and Maldives have been traditionally warm. However, during Abdulla Yameen's presidency (2013-18), bilateral relations frayed, especially with Maldives' economic and strategic relations with China growing rapidly.

Despite its small size, the Maldives is currently being wooed by a number of developed and developing countries. Because of the Strategic Importance of the Geographic Location of the Maldives with respect to key International Shipping Lanes (ISLs).

The Indian Ocean is a key highway for global trade and energy flows. The Maldives is geographically positioned like a 'toll gate' between the western Indian Ocean chokepoints of the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Hormuz on the one hand, and the eastern Indian Ocean chokepoint of the Strait of Malacca on the other.

It is extremely important for India's strength in the blue economy through sustainable management and utilisation of marine resources.

Maldives is important for political stability and security in the Indian Ocean Neighbourhood and the protection of Indian trade and investment.

They have a clear responsibility in maintaining peace and security in the Indian Ocean. India to see Maldives supporting the Pacific strategy of the Quad -- a strategic arrangement between India, US, Japan and Australia.

India being a net provider of security, is also our responsibility to maintain peace and security in the region. So these two are complementary approaches that India is working on.

It is key that Male treats India as the "first among equals" when it comes to China. When Solih came to power, he categorically said India First policy is my foreign policy.

In 2016, an Action Plan between India and the Maldives was signed for 'defence cooperation' to enhance the "shared strategic and security interests of the two countries in the Indian Ocean region".

This potential must be realised through imaginative foreign policy and maritime-security initiatives. While the recent 'India-First Policy' of the Maldives and India's 'Neighbourhood First Policy' are intuitively complementary, the challenge lies in implementing these policies with cultural, geo-economics, and geostrategic sensitivity. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kathmandu, Jul 20 (PTI) A 25-year-old Indian national was arrested by the Nepalese authorities on Wednesday for carrying more than Rs 41.55 lakh in cash without any supporting documents, police said.

He was arrested by a special team of police while heading towards Nepal.

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The police confiscated from him bank notes worth Rs 41,55,000. In Nepal it is illegal to carry more than Rs 25,000 cash without any supporting document, a senior police official said.

The person was hiding the bank notes inside a petrol tank beneath the seat of the motorbike.

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The police have initiated legal action against the man under Bank and Financial Institution Act.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington, Jul 20 (AP) Jill Biden and Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, met again Tuesday, this time at the White House, following up after their first-ever meeting in eastern Europe on Mother's Day.

President Joe Biden, who has said the United States will support Ukraine in its fight against Russia for "as long as it takes, helped his wife welcome Zelenska, the wife of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as her black SUV rolled to a stop on the driveway. He gave her a bouquet that included sunflowers, Ukraine's national flower.

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The women embraced and posed for press photos before going inside, where the administration briefed Zelenska on how the U.S. is trying to help Ukrainians who are suffering mentally and emotionally from the war.

Zelenska is on a high-profile visit to Washington this week.

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It's so nice to see you again, since I last saw you, Jill Biden said. She recalled their May 8 meeting, held when the U.S. first lady was traveling in eastern Europe and drove from Slovakia into western Ukraine to meet with Zelenska, who at that point had not been seen publicly since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his attack on Ukraine in late February.

Biden visited Romania and Slovakia in May in a public show of support for Ukrainians, mostly women and children, who had fled to those countries after Russia's invasion.

When I came back, one of the things that I said was you cannot go to a war zone and come back and not feel the sorrow and pain of the people that I met, Biden said, recalling that Zelenska had introduced her to many refugees.

You asked me then to talk about mental health issues, and so I came back and I talked to my team, Biden said. She said she had sent Zelenska a letter outlining what we're doing to help with mental health for the mothers and the children who have really, clearly suffered such tragedy, and the atrocities."

Biden, joined in the Blue Room by Linda Thomas Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and other administration officials, said they would take turns updating Zelenska on how their agencies are helping. Doug Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris' husband, participated.

Zelenska did not speak while American and Ukrainian journalists were in the room.

When Jill Biden concluded her brief opening remarks, she remembered Zelenska's translator and asked, Is that too long?

Before she arrived at the White House, Zelenska accepted a human rights award Tuesday on behalf of the Ukrainian people in recognition of their fight for freedom. The Dissident Human Rights Award was presented by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

It is an honor to be here and accept this award in the name of every Ukrainian man and woman fighting Russian aggression today, Zelenska said through a translator.

Zelenska's White House visit followed meetings Monday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

On Wednesday, she is scheduled to address members of Congress in an auditorium at the Capitol, following a similar appearance by her husband at an earlier point in the war.

Zelenska had largely disappeared with the couple's two children during the war's opening months, and has been raising her public profile since she emerged from seclusion for the Mother's Day meeting with Biden. (AP)

(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 20 (PTI) The anti-government protesters in Sri Lanka, who forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and quit, on Wednesday demanded the resignation of his successor Ranil Wickremesinghe who has been elected as the new President.

The 73-year-old Acting President and six-time former prime minister secured 134 votes in the 225-member House while his nearest rival and dissident ruling party leader Dullas Alahapperuma got 82. He will take the oath of office on Thursday.

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The anti-government protesters had called for the resignation of Wickremesinghe, who was appointed prime minister in May. The protesters burnt down his private home and also stormed his prime ministerial office in Colombo in demonstrations against his leadership early this month.

"He has been elected against the will of the people. The Rajapaksas have brought him in," Father Jeewantha Peiris, a spokesman for the protest group Aragalaya', told reporters.

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"We will continue our protest campaign until Wickremesinghe resigns, he stressed.

Meanwhile, Colombo Fort Magistrate Thilina Gamage issued an order barring people from entering or gathering within a 50 meter radius of the Bandaranaike Statue located in Galle Face in the heart of Colombo.

Sri Lanka Police told the court that there is a possible attempt being made to cause harm to the statue of the former prime minister which is situated closer to the protest site near the office of the president.

The protesters had blocked one entrance to the presidential office on April 9. Although the protesters did vacate three other key government buildings after Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned last week they continue to be at the presidential office gate.

Wickremesinghe did refer to the demands of the protesters after accepting his office and called for bipartisanship to address the issues raised by them including the handling of the economy.

Rajapaksa was ousted for his mishandling of the economy when the island suffered its worst meltdown since 1948.

The economic crisis also sparked a political crisis in the country after a popular uprising against the government.

Sri Lanka needs about USD 5 billion in the next six months to cover basic necessities for its 22 million people, who have been struggling with long queues, worsening shortages and power cuts.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Islamabad [Pakistan], July 20 (ANI): The safety of Pakistani dissidents is a major concern even in well-governed democracies as they are pursued by local killers and conspirators, mainly with roots in Islamabad.

The recent killing of Saqib Karim, a young dissident from Balochistan, under mysterious circumstances in distant Azerbaijan in Central Asia, is a fit example of political exiles being hunted down. He was reportedly being targeted by Pakistan's intel agencies, Islam Khabar reported.

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Baloch National Movement (BNM) has urged the Azerbaijan government to investigate the Saqib case.

Pakistani dissidents have been targeted in various countries including the US, the UK, the Netherlands and France, Islam Khabar reported.

Also Read | Pakistan National, Who Crossed Over to India via International Border To Kill Nupur Sharma, Held in Rajasthan.

Is it to be noted that in 2020, the body of Banuk Karima Baloch, a political refugee and a BNM leader was found in Ontario Lake Toronto harbour front in Canada.

Amnesty International had called for a thorough investigation into Karima Baloch's suspicious death. She was strong-spirited, and her determination was to apprise the world about Baloch human rights abuses carried out by the Pakistan army.

She moved to Canada to save her life but death threats chased her all along and finally, she met a mysterious death fate what her family and friends believe is a heinous act of murder.

Baloch has publicly stated that she was critical of Pakistan's intelligence agency which is notorious for abducting human rights activists inside Pakistan.

Meanwhile, there are reports that missing Baloch people are being executed in the custody of Pakistani security forces in the country.

A statement was issued by Baloch human rights activist Mama Qadeeroch against the genocide of Baloch people which stated that the missing people are being killed in the custody of Pakistani security forces, local media reported.

With a spike in the number of enforced disappearances in Balochistan in the past few months, there is not even a single family in the province whose member or a relative has not been forcibly disappeared, reported a Canada-based think tank, International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS) earlier this month.

Enforced disappearances are used as a tool by Pakistani authorities to terrorize people who question the all-powerful army establishment of the country or seek individual or social rights. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Los Angeles, Jul 20 (AP) Federal authorities are offering a USD 5,000 reward for information about the man who allegedly shot Lady Gaga's dog walker last year in Hollywood and stole two of the pop star's French bulldogs. He was mistakenly released from custody in April and remains missing.

James Howard Jackson, 19, was one of five people arrested in connection the violent robbery in February 2021. He was facing an attempted murder charge when he was released from Los Angeles County's jail due to a clerical error.

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Detectives do not believe that the thieves initially knew the dogs belonged to the pop star, who was in Rome filming a movie at the time. The motive was supposedly the value of the French bulldogs  which can run into the thousands of dollars.

US Marshals, in a statement Monday, said Jackson should be considered armed and dangerous. The reward is for information that leads to his arrest.

Also Read | Pakistani Passport Ranks 4th Worst in the World, Says Henley Passport Index Report.

Representatives for Lady Gaga did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday. (AP)

(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 20: The Supreme Court on Wednesday, while granting interim bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, declined to impose harsh bail conditions, which included that he should not tweet.

As Uttar Pradesh's Additional Advocate General Garima Prasad submitted before a bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud that Zubair should not tweet after the court granted him interim bail, Justice Chandrachud said: "It is like telling a lawyer that you should not arguea..How can we tell a journalist that he will not write?" Mohammed Zubair Case: Supreme Court Grants Bail to Alt News Co-Founder, Says Power of Arrest Should Be Used Sparingly

Prasad said Zubair was not a journalist and cited the order passed by a vacation bench of the Supreme Court, granting interim bail to Zubair in the Sitapur FIR, and a condition was imposed that he will not post tweets.

In response, the bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and A.S. Bopanna, said: "We cannot stop him from tweeting. We cannot anticipatorily interdict him from exercising his right of free speech. He will be answerable as per the law..."

Justice Chandrachud said: "If there are any tweets against law, he will be answerable. How can we pass any anticipatory order that someone will not speak?" As Prasad contended that there should be a condition that Zubair will not tamper with evidence, he replied: "All the evidence is in public domain."

Justice Chandrachud reiterated: "We can't say that he won't tweet again".

The top court, in its order, said: "The bail bonds... shall be presented before the Chief Judicial Magistrate at the Patiala House Courts, Delhi. Immediately upon the presentation of the bail bonds, the Superintendent at the Tihar Jail shall take necessary steps to ensure that the petitioner is released from judicial custody no later than by 6 p.m. today."

The top court also clubbed the 6 UP FIRs with the Delhi Police FIR. The bench noted that Delhi Police investigation is comprehensive and extends beyond the gamut of tweets, and Zubair was granted regular bail in the Delhi Police FIR on July 15 but Zubair is embroiled in successive FIRs in diverse police stations in UP.

The top court observed that Zubair has been subjected to a fairly sustained probe by Delhi Police. "We don't find a reason for his deprivation of liberty to persist further. We direct Zubair to be released on bail on each of the FIRs in UP... existence powers of arrest must be distinguished from the exercise of powers of arrest... power of arrest should be used sparingly," it said.

The top court clarified that Zubair will be entitled to bail in future FIRs in connection with tweets, which are already under investigation. The bench also granted him liberty to approach the Delhi High Court for seeking quashing of all the FIRs.

During the hearing Prasad argued that Zubair gets paid for the tweets and the more malicious the tweets, the more payment he gets. The counsel added that Zubair had got close to Rs 2 crore and he is not a journalist.

In response, Zubair's counsel, advocate Vrinda Grover called the cases an orchestrated investigation for stifling dissent.

The top court said: "No justification to keep him in continued custody and subject him to endless rounds of custody", and added that SIT constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government, to investigate the UP FIRs, is rendered redundant and is disbanded.

Zubair had moved the apex court seeking a direction to quash the six FIRs registered against him by the UP Police in Hathras, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Lakhimpur Kheri, and Sitapur.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 20, 2022 06:49 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
A video of Democratic New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went viral online on Tuesday after she pretended to be handcuffed as she was arrested by a police officer during the abortion rights protests outside the Supreme Court.

According to Newsweek, AOC was detained for blocking traffic during the demonstrations.

.@AOC has just been escorted by police away from the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/F9DOoLq8yJ  Douglas Blair (@DouglasKBlair) July 19, 2022

A video uploaded by "Daily Signal" News Producer Douglass on Twitter showed AOC being escorted by a police officer, along with another protester at the site of the demonstrations.

The New York representative placed both her hands behind her back, appearing as if she was handcuffed by the police officer. Demonstrators shouted as she was escorted by the police, with one protester being heard shouting: "the abortion rights are under attack."

At the end of the video, Ocasio-Cortex was seen raising her right hand in defiance of the police who escorted her out of the abortion rights protest.

The said video uploaded by Douglass on social media gathered at least 4.4 million views, over 11 thousand likes, and 2,269 retweets as of this writing.

READ NEXT: Texas' Greg Abbott Desires 'Critical Changes' Following Release of Uvalde Shooting Report

AOC Under Fire After Pretending to Be Handcuffed in the Abortion Rights Protest

Ocasio-Cortez was then mocked on Tuesday after the clip of her being escorted out of the abortion rights protest, with netizens enraged at how she acted when she was arrested. In a statement, Republican commentator Matt Whitlock said that what AOC did while she was arrested was "too much."

The Capitol Police must have put invisible handcuffs on @AOC!



pic.twitter.com/MurQjbAeGF  Camryn Kinsey (@camrynbaylee) July 19, 2022

Political Analyst Carmyn Kinsey said the Capitol Police put "invisible handcuffs" on Ocasio-Cortez.

Businessman Jason Howerton also hopped in to criticize the New York Representative for what she did during her arrest.

.@AOC is such an expert at getting attention and narrative building that she PRETENDED to be handcuffed just so she could have this image on social media.



There are no handcuffs on her lmfaoooo pic.twitter.com/DJBsH2Z5lv  Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) July 19, 2022

". @AOC is such an expert at getting attention and narrative building that she PRETENDED to be handcuffed just so she could have this image on social media. There are no handcuffs on her lmfaoooo," Howerton underscored. The Post noted that the first group of lawmakers and activists were released by the authorities around 2:30 p.m.

Roe v. Wade Overturned: Other Officials Arrested on Abortion Rights Protest

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was not the only one arrested during Tuesday's abortion rights protests outside the Supreme Court. The Capitol Police confirmed that they made 35 arrests as of Tuesday, per Washington Examiner. Seventeen of those arrested were from Congress, with violations against crowding, obstructing, or incommoding.

Among the Congress members who were arrested were Barbara Lee of California, Ayana Pressley of Massachusetts, Andy Levin of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Cori Bush of Missouri.

California Representative Jacki Speier, who was also arrested, took to Twitter to express how she felt after participating in the protest.

Proud to march with my Democratic colleagues and get arrested for womens rights, abortion rights, the rights for people to control their own bodies and the future and our democracy! #BansOffOurBodies #WeWontGoBack https://t.co/E4qjDEvNhu  Jackie Speier (@JackieSpeier) July 19, 2022

Speier noted that she was proud to march and get arrested for the rights of women, rights to abortion, and rights to control one's body.

The arrests on Tuesday took place as a demonstration outside Supreme Court occurred over frustrations when the 1973 case Roe v. Wade, which established the right to abortion, was overturned.

READ NEXT: Gas Prices in the US Falling Back to $4 Per Gallon, But It's Still Expensive in California

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Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Video Captures Moment AOC, Ilhan Omar Arrested At Abortion Rights Protest - From Newsweek
A judge has ruled that Twitter's lawsuit against billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk can go forward with a 5-day trial. This is regarded as a small victory for the social media company, as it derails Elon Musk's attempts to delay the lawsuit. The judge ordered that the trial will begin in October this year.

The judge made the decision at the end of the first hearing about whether to expedite the proceedings. The lawsuit came about a few days after Elon Musk announced he will not be moving forward with his $44 billion acquisition agreement with Twitter. The company then filed a motion to expedite the proceedings and requested a four-day trial.

Legal Battle Between Elon Musk and Twitter Promises To Be a Contentious One

According to CNN, both sides had some sharp words in their arguments last Tuesday. One of Twitter's attorneys referred to the Tesla CEO as a "committed enemy," while lead counsel William Savitt argued for a speedy trial.

He said the continued uncertainty that Musk has brought with the deal and the litigation inflicts harm on the company every day. Savitt also points out Musk's continued disparagement of the company and its social media platform. He also argued that Musk was contractually obliged to close the deal, yet he is doing the exact opposite.

However, one of Musk's attorneys, Andrew Rossman, countered, saying his client does not have an incentive to keep this hanging for a long time. He pointed out that Musk remains one of the company's largest shareholders and added that Twitter did not sue Musk until his client moved to invalidate the deal. This suggested that the company's wait invalidated its desire for a speedy process. They then asked the judge to move the trial to next year.

READ NEXT: Elon Musk Twitter Deal No More? Tesla CEO Backs Out of $44 Billion Buyout

Delaware Judge Agrees To Fast-Track Proceedings

Unfortunately for Elon Musk's camp, the judge said in her comments that Twitter's timing in filing the lawsuit was not "unreasonable," as they claim.

Delaware Court of Chancery chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick said that Musk's camp underestimated the ability of the court to quickly process the litigation. The judge added that, in reality, the delay adds more harm to Twitter the longer it goes. She then determined that the trial would go for five days, though she added that she will entertain requests from either side to extend the trial if necessary.

Following her decision, Judge McCormick said she has confidence that both sides will rise to the occasion, according to The Verge.

NPR reported that while they initially wanted a 4-day trial in September, it is a win for Twitter's legal team, as Musk's team wanted a longer one next year. According to the Musk legal team, they wanted more time to investigate their client's concerns over Twitter.

Legal experts largely agree that Musk is facing an uphill battle with this case. The Delaware Court of Chancery is known to frown upon those who back out of huge merger deals, and one of the lead counsels on Twitter's side was also a chancellor for the Delaware Court of Chancery.

READ MORE: Elon Musk's Twitter Drama Takes New Twist: Tesla CEO Might Be Forced to Complete $44 Billion Purchase

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Judge grants Twitter fast track in legal battle versus Elon Musk - Yahoo! Finance
The San Diego Comic-Con 2022 is finally returning after two-years of virtual celebration!

After two years, the San Diego Comic-Con 2022 is finally coming back to the San Diego Convention Center.

But with the recent coronavirus surge in the state of California, the San Diego Comic-Con organizers are strengthening their COVID-19 guidelines for the sake of its attendees.

San Diego Comic-Con 2022 COVID-19 Guidelines

More than 100,000 attendees are expected to swarm San Diego Convention Center this upcoming weekend after two years of virtual conferences because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now returning to a face-to-face set up, Comic-con organizers are upping their COVID-19 safety guidelines, as reported by Los Angeles Times.

Face Masks

Like most physical events mandate, All San Diego Comic-Con attendees are required to wear face masks, regardless of their vaccination status.

For those who would be cosplaying or dressing up, mesh coverings, neck gaiters, and damaged or torn face coverings with breathing valves are still not accepted.

Organizers pointed out that masks must "completely cover" one's nose and mouth and should fit "snugly" against the side of the face without any visible gaps.

READ NEXT: Top 5 Zoe Saldana Movies Outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Proof of Vaccination

More so, fully vaccinated attendees must present proof of their inoculation. Alternatively, they could provide a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours before the date of entry.

Comic-Con organizers have the right to remove guests who would not be complying with the newly announced COVID-19 guidelines.

On the other hand, ticketholders who tested positive for the COVID-19 virus within 72 hours of their ticket date can request a full refund via refunds@comic-con.org.

Children under 12 years old who will be attending shall also need a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 72 hours before entry to the venue.

"We are excited to gather again after such a long hiatus. But we want to be sure everyone who attends is as safe as possible. We will continue to update our website as new information becomes available, so be sure to check this page often for the most up-to-date protocols," the Comic-Con organizers promised in a statement.

The San Diego Comic-Con 2022 will take place at the San Diego Convention Center starting Jul. 21 until Jul. 24, 2022.

California COVID-19 Cases

As of this writing, the state of California has reported a daily average of almost 19,500 cases from May 16, 2022 - July 10, 2022.

Recently, California State officials have warned that the current coronavirus surge in the state may even surpass the Omicron wave that hit last winter.

For Los Angeles County alone, around 6,900 COVID-19 cases are reported, which doubled last Summer. This is because many who test positive do not report the results for fear that the actual numbers will skyrocket.

"The number of cases now probably is not all that dissimilar to what we saw during the massive surge in December and January," UC San Francisco Department of Medicine Chair Dr. Robert Wachter cautions.

READ MORE: Anya Taylor-Joy and Malcolm McRae Secret Wedding: Here's What We Know so Far

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Written by: Ivan Korrs

WATCH: Here's Everything You Need To Know About San Diego Comic-Con 2022 - From IGN
The contempt trial for former Donald Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon has begun, revealing details that Bannon willfully ignored the law. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Rose Vaughn told jurors in her opening statement that Bannon "decided he was above the law."

The Washington Post reported that Vaughn also argued that Bannon chose to show his contempt for Congress by willfully refusing to comply with his subpoena. In her opening statement, the Assistant U.S. Attorney said that the subpoena was not optional, nor was it a request, nor was it an invitation. It was mandatory. This meant that by law, Bannon must comply with it, but he did not.

Defense Says Bannon Did Not Ignore Subpoenas

On the other hand, Bannon's lawyer, Evan Corcoran, told jurors that they should question whether the trial was affected by politics. He also declared that his client was innocent and that the two subpoenas delivered to Bannon were still subject to negotiation.

Corcoran argued that the dates on the subpoenas were not fixed and were flexible. The Associated Press reported that one of Bannon's previous attorneys, Robert Costello, contacted an attorney for the January 6 House Committee. Costello expressed his concerns about Bannon testifying, and he negotiated because "that is what lawyers do."

Because of this, the Bannon defense team argues that their client did not ignore any subpoena and that they were still negotiating. CNBC noted that the case all boils down to whether Bannon purposely ignored the subpoenas or was just negotiating.

Once outside the courthouse, Bannon went on an extended tirade against January 6 Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi). He called the hearings a "Show Trial" and repeated discredited claims that Trump won the election.

READ MORE: January 6 Hearings: Steve Bannon Willing to Testify Before Panel

January 6 Committee Chief Counsel Explains Why Steve Bannon's Testimony Was Important

During the first hearing last Tuesday, the prosecution called in their first witness, Kristin Amerling, the chief counsel for the January 6 Committee. There, she gave a detailed explanation about the House Committee and its role in determining the role of Donald Trump in the January 6 Capitol Insurrection.

She also stated how vital Steve Bannon's testimony was to the investigation. She said that the former White House chief strategist made public statements that suggested he may have had some advanced knowledge in the lead-up to the events of January 6. She also said that there were several indications that Bannon might have discussed and planned the events of January 5 with several individuals within the White House. This included then-President Donald Trump himself.

Bannon, together with Trump, argued that he cannot be subpoenaed because of "executive privilege." However, a judge struck that argument down.

Before Tuesday's proceedings, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols ruled that several major elements of Bannon's defense were irrelevant and could not be used in court. He said that Bannon could not be covered by Trump's executive privilege at that time because he was not an official adviser anymore. He also could not claim to be covered by that privilege, nor can he say that he was acting on the advice of his attorneys.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Wednesday morning.

READ MORE: January 6 Hearings: Former Aide Says Donald Trump Tried to Join the Crowd, Grab the Steering Wheel From Secret Service Agent

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Judge Denies Request To Delay Steve Bannon's Trial Over Admissible Evidence Arguments - MSNBC
A van crashed on a highway in northern Mexico on Tuesday, killing at least three migrants and injuring a dozen.

Mexico's National Immigration Institute said the three dead migrants included a girl from Honduras, while the nationalities of the two migrants remained unclear, the Associated Press reported.

It was also unclear if the vehicle's driver were among the dead. The van the migrants were riding had reportedly crashed in Mexico's northern border state of Nuevo Leon.

Authorities did not provide details of how the van crashed in the said area.

The 12 injured migrants were reportedly from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Mexico's National Immigration Institute said they would be given humanitarian visas.

The institute added that the bodies of the deceased migrants would be returned to their home countries. According to AP, victims of crashes involving migrant smuggling are usually considered crime victims in Mexico. Thus, they are eligible for such visas.

READ NEXT: AOC Faked Being Handcuffed? Dems Arrested in Abortion Rights Protest Outside Supreme Court

Other Crashes in Mexico That Also Killed Migrants

A bus crash was reported in northern Mexico in May. Seven migrants died, and 24 were injured after the bus plunged down an embankment in San Luis Potosi state.

Reports said one of those killed was a pregnant woman, while an eight-year-old child and a six-month-old baby were among those injured.

Those who survived the bus crash in Mexico included 11 Salvadorans, seven Hondurans, and four Cubans. A Mexican and Panamanian were also injured.

Local media reported that the bus departed from an area near Mexico City and was heading toward the U.S. border.

Immigrants and activist groups claimed that the crackdown on migrant crossings contributed to why illegal immigrants use riskier routes to the U.S.

Immigrant activist Irineo Mujica noted that more individuals who want to seek asylum in the U.S. take more dangerous routes, and the number of people who die trying to cross Mexico is increasing.

According to reports, migrants usually wade, swim, or take rafts in crossing the Mexico river in an attempt to reach the U.S.

Migrant Encounters Reach 2 Million Mark

The U.S. recently recorded two million migrant encounters that have already surpassed all of last year's total.

According to Border Report, new U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data showed that the agency recorded 2,002,604 migrant encounters since October 1.

A total of 1,956,519 migrant encounters were recorded in the fiscal year 2021, which ended September 30.

Despite surpassing last year's total migrant encounters, CBP noted that the monthly migrant encounters dropped 10% from May (274,831) to June (247,163). It was the first time the numbers fell since a 14% drop from December to January.

The CBP data also revealed that Mexicans continue to make up the highest nationality of migrants encountered at the border, with 66,557 Mexican nationals in June.

Guatemalans were second with 24,765 encounters nationwide, followed by Hondurans with 24,143 encounters.

READ MORE: Alex Rodriguez's True Feelings on Jennifer Lopez Marrying Ben Affleck, Revealed

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Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Migration Surges at the U.S.-Mexico Border Days Before Presumed End of Title 42 - From NBC News
After experiencing several major setbacks, Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is racing against time to complete his landmark Maya Train project.

Lopez Obrador wanted the project to be completed before his term ended in two years. However, critics of the project are saying that this may cause harm to the environment.

They said it might also threaten one of Mexico's most important archeological sites. These sites hold some of the oldest human remains ever found in North America, and the train project may restrict access to these underground sites.

Maya Train Project in Mexico May Collapse Undiscovered Caverns; Relics May Be Lost Forever

Critics and activists are campaigning to help preserve the ancient remains found in underwater caves. According to the Associated Press, these caves are made of fragile limestone, and the high-speed rail project will be running above the roofs of these caves, known as cenotes.

These caves are often flooded, twisty, and narrow, which complicates exploring them. Activists said that it might take decades to explore these caverns, many of which have laid undisturbed for millennia.

The government is planning to sink beams and cement columns through the roofs of the caves. However, experts argued that this might lead to the collapse of these caves.

It may also further complicate the exploration of these sites, or worse, the collapse will mean that invaluable relics may be lost forever. According to the Washington Post, archaeologists have found an almost fully preserved Mayan temple inside a cave near the train's path.

One government archeologist ruled out trying to change the train's path. He argued that the relics in the train's path could just be moved before the train was built. However, it is not going to be as simple as that, argued one environmentalist who has worked on the Caribbean coast for decades.

The caves along the Caribbean coast have reportedly provided treasures like Naia, the nearly complete skeleton of a young woman who died some 13,000 years ago.

According to environmentalist Urbina Bravo, the government is making decisions without the support of science and the backing of specialists. Lopez Obrador dismissed the criticisms as he said they were just acting on behalf of his political opponents.

READ NEXT: Maya Train Project: Cost of Northern Quintana Roo Stretch Nearly Double Than Original Estimate, Mexico Government Says

Maya Train Project Did Not File Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

Activists have warned that the Mexican president's pet projects have ignored environmentalists' warnings. This includes the Maya Train project, which cuts across northern Quinta Roo state and the Caribbean coast.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has issued a decree stating that priority government projects no longer needed any environmental impact statement (EIS). The decree noted that the government could cut down trees, excavate, and then submit an EIS later.

According to The Globe And Mail, Bravo and other environmentalists successfully challenged that in court. They previously won an injunction, stopping the jungle rail line between Cancun and Tulum.

However, authorities overcame that speed bump by immediately submitting a hastily-drafted EIS on May 19, which Mexico's Environment Department approved soon after.

The president invoked his national security powers to fast-track the construction. However, critics like Bravo have said it was a violation of the law. They fear that the railway line construction could do "irreversible damage to the jungle."

READ MORE: Infamous Drug Lord Rafael Caro Quintero May Be Extradited to U.S. Over Killing of DEA Agent

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: 'Ecocidal': Mexico's 'Maya Train' Divides Communities - From FRANCE 24 English
Rafael Caro Quintero is one of the founders of Guadalajara Cartel along with Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, who all hailed from Mexico's Sinaloa state.

Caro Quintero reportedly started growing marijuana on a small scale as a teenager at his brother's ranch. He eventually obtained other ranches in the neighborhood in less than five years and started to earn larger sums of money and influence.

Rafael Caro Quintero then started working for drug trafficker Pedro Aviles Perez, who taught Caro Quintero and Fonseca Carrillo about drug trafficking.

Perez also took policeman Felix Gallardo and the young Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera under his wing. Perez, who was affiliated with the Guadalajara Cartel, was El Chapo's uncle and mentor.

READ NEXT: Mexico's Infamous Drug Lord Rafael Caro Quintero Arrested After Release in 2013

Rafael Caro Quintero Net Worth

Rafael Caro Quintero was considered a pioneer in Mexico's drug underworld during the 1980s. He allegedly managed operations for the Guadalajara Cartel at a huge marijuana plantation in Mexico's state of Chihuahua called the Rancho Buffalo.

According to InsightCrime, the marijuana plantation had an annual production value of roughly $8 billion. The Guadalaraja Cartel was the only drug trafficking organization in Mexico at the time.

The Guadalaraja Cartel was reportedly responsible for forging the ties to Colombian drug trafficking networks that exist up to this day.

By the age of 29, Rafael Caro Quintero had reportedly racked up a fortune of $500 million, with 36 houses and some 300 companies in the Guadalajara area.

The U.S. Treasury Department has named money laundering companies affiliated with Caro Quintero. Some of them include real estate ventures, gasoline retailers, and agricultural businesses.

Caro Quintero is also described as a "shrewd young entrepreneur" when he managed to turn Mexican marijuana into a perfect seedless variety.

While he was not the first to do it, Caro Quintero perfected it, which is why he was credited with creating seedless marijuana. His innovation resulted in the organization's rise and sold tons of it in the United States, Mexico, and Europe, MARCA reported.

According to reports, Caro Quintero now has an estimated net worth of $650 million. He continued to earn his fortune by selling drugs and other criminal activities.

The Case of Guadalajara Cartel Founder Rafael Caro Quintero

Rafael Caro Quintero had already spent 28 years in prison for the brutal murder and torture of former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar.

Mexico's relations with the U.S. were widely affected when the drug kingpin allegedly ordered Camarena to be kidnapped, tortured, and killed.

Caro Quintero was allegedly angry about a raid at Rancho Buffalo by Mexican authorities at Camarena's demand. Mexican authorities seized the plantation.

Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara on February 7, 1985. A month later, his lifeless body was discovered, with signs showing that he was tortured.

Caro Quintero, who was arrested in Costa Rica in the same year, has denied involvement in the killing of Camarena. In 2013, he was released by a Mexican judge on a technicality.

The ruling left many wondering why it took more than 20 years to determine that the drug kingpin was improperly tried in court for a crime that should have been treated as a state offense.

After his release, Caro Quintero reportedly resumed his role as a violent drug trafficker. U.S. officials, who put him on the FBI's Top 10 most wanted fugitives list and put a $20 million bounty on his head, said he allied with the drug trafficking organization Sinaloa Cartel.

Last week, Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested again in Sinaloa. The U.S. government hailed the arrest and said it would waste no time requesting his extradition.

The Guadalajara Cartel is one of Latin America's most powerful drug trafficking organizations during the 1980s. The group started to split apart in the late 1980s, partly due to the murder of Camarena. The Sinaloa Cartel and Tijuana Cartel assumed control of what remained of the Guadalajara Cartel.

READ MORE: Sinaloa Cartel Founder 'El Guero' Is Still in Custody of Mexican Authorities

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WATCH: Mexico Captures Infamous Drug Lord Rafael Caro Quintero - From WFAA
A 23-year-old California woman has impersonated a nurse in her attempt to abduct a newborn baby from a hospital room.

According to People, Jesenea Miron allegedly tried to abduct a newborn baby from a patient's room. In a press release, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said that Miron entered the Riverside University Health System - Medical Center in Moreno Valley, California on Thursday morning.

Police noted that Miron gained access to the medical unit "where newborn infants were present" as she pretended to be a newly hired nurse.

READ NEXT: California Woman Dismembered, Killed by 'Snapchat' Guy Who Googled 'How to Be a Serial Killer'

California Woman Tries to Abduct Newborn Baby

The sheriff's department said Jesenea Miron entered a patient's hospital room and identified herself as a nurse. Police added that the California woman tried to take the patient's newborn infant while she was in their room, San Francisco Gate reported.

Miron fled without the infant after she was confronted by hospital staff, who informed the security about the incident. Police eventually tracked her down in her home in Moreno Valley. Police said they also found other items of "evidentiary value" inside Miron's home.

In a statement, the hospital's CEO, Jennifer Cruikshank, said the medical facility has "multiple layers of security" for the protection and safety of patients and staff.

Cruikshank noted that they were thankful that those systems and their vigilant staff were able to stop Miron. The hospital's CEO said an investigation is underway to determine how the suspect was able to enter the patient's room and "interacted with the family."

Cruikshank added that they were also working with the family to address their concerns and ensure their emotional well-being.

Jesenea Miron was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center. Her bail has been set at $1 million. It was still unclear if Miron had already entered a plea to the charge against her or if she had managed to get herself an attorney.

Kidnapping of Another Child in California

A 3-month-old baby was allegedly kidnapped from his family's apartment last April as his grandmother was unloading groceries from her car.

But the San Jose Police Department immediately found Baby Brandon after several hours, and he was taken to a local hospital for an evaluation. NBC News reported that three suspects were arrested.

One of the suspects was identified as 43-year-old Yesenia Guadalupe Ramirez, who is a friend of the family, according to San Jose Police spokesman Sgt. Christian Camarillo. She became a person of interest after her story changed several times during the interview process.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), 327 missing infants under six months of age related to healthcare occurred in the U.S. from 1964 to November 2020.

Of those abducted children, NCMEC noted that 140 were taken from healthcare facilities, 142 from homes, and 47 were kidnapped in other locations.

READ MORE: California Family Killed Toddler by Performing Horrifying Church Exorcism Together, DA Says

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Woman Impersonated Nurse to Try to Kidnap Infant at Moreno Valley Hospital - From News2Vid
An Oregon foster mom is now facing charges after she was seen physically abusing her six-month-old baby during a Southwest flight.

News 8 Now reported that the incident occurred on July 12 after 6:30 p.m. on a Southwest flight to Las Vegas from Oregon.

According to Crime Online, Las Vegas police received a call about a passenger identified as Tiffany Brooks, whom witnesses claimed they saw abusing an infant girl. Citing the witnesses' statements, police said Brooks became upset at her daughter's crying.

Witnesses reportedly saw the Oregon foster mom shaking the baby violently and slamming her legs against the plane's seat and wall.

Witnesses also said that Tiffany Brooks tried to stop the baby's crying by putting a blanket over her face. When the infant would still not stop crying, the Oregon foster mom began shaking the baby up and down and side to side.

READ NEXT: AOC Faked Being Handcuffed? Dems Arrested in Abortion Rights Protest Outside Supreme Court

Oregon Foster Mom in Southwest Flight Arrested

The baby is now in child protective custody. Tiffany Brooks was apprehended and charged with felony child abuse.

Jail records showed that she was taken to the Clark County Detention Center but has since been released on bail. The Oregon foster mother is set to appear in court on August 10.

Last month, a minor girl was also harassed by an elder during a Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles to Orlando. According to The News & Observer, Brian Patrick Durning, a 51-year-old California resident, was accused of allegedly groping a minor seated next to him.

The girl said Durning allegedly touched her inner left thigh, moved her thigh toward him, and then sexually abused her "over her clothing."

A woman seated by the window next to the child confirmed seeing Durning quickly moving "his right hand away." The woman then offered to switch seats with the girl and told the man that he was "scaring" the child.

When the girl's mother looked at her daughter and saw her mouth saying, "He touched me," she approached Durning and saw his pants "unzipped." A flight attendant then moved Durning to another seat for the remainder of the trip.

Federal agents arrested the man upon landing at Orlando International Airport and was charged with abusive sexual contact of a minor and committing a crime on an aircraft in flight. He was also directed to turn over his passport.

Child Abuse on Flights Not a 'Gray Area'

Travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt told Fox News in 2017 that abusing a child during flights was a very unpleasant situation that is full of "gray areas" as opposed to a "black-and-white type of situation."

Harteveldt noted that separating a parent and child during flights, in time of the abuse, can cause anxiety between the two, especially if the child sees his parent restrained by a flight attendant.

However, Stephanie Villafuerte of childprotectionpolicy.org noted that child abuse on planes does not create a "gray area." Villafuerte said state and federal child abuse laws clearly state that it is a crime to physically or emotionally cause harm to a child, whether in a home, a park, a local bus, or in an airplane.

She added that the airline's employees had a duty to protect a child the same as they would do to their adult passengers.

"It is not complicated, and it certainly is not 'gray'," she noted.

READ MORE: Alex Rodriguez's True Feelings on Jennifer Lopez Marrying Ben Affleck, Revealed

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Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Hidden Camera Shows How Strangers Can Get Close To Unaccompanied Minors on Planes - From Inside Edition
A 71-year-old Texas man died after he was viciously mauled by a pack of seven pit bulls near his home on Monday.

According to Houston Chronicle, Freddy Garcia was walking to a convenience store at around 1:30 p.m. when the seven pit bulls with mixed-breed offspring attacked him in the 4300 block of Mark Terrace Lane in the Fresno area of Fort Bend County.

According to Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, Garcia was taken via Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital but still died from his injuries later that day.

Fort Bend County Sheriff Eric Fagan said the Texas man was not confronting the dogs in any way, ABC News reported.

READ MORE: Mexico: Police Save Big Cats, Others From Animal Rescue After Reports of Mistreatment

Seven Dogs Who Mauled to Death the Texas Man Now Captured

According to the victim's brother, Jorge Garcia, it was his brother's habit to walk to a convenience store near his Fresno area home almost daily.

Jorge said they always saw the dogs out, but there were never any problems. He noted that a passerby called 911 after the incident and an ambulance took his brother.

"He was in bad shape. They tried to save him. Somebody was driving by and the saw what was happening and called 911," Jorge told the Houston Chronicle.

Jorge noted that the animals belonged to one of his brother's neighbors. Fagan said in a press conference that four dogs were captured after the fatal mauling.

On Tuesday afternoon, it was reported that animal control officers seized the last three dogs involved in the deadly attack. Authorities are still investigating the incident and searching for the dogs' owners. If found, they could face criminal charges.

A 2005 law makes dog owners responsible if their pets harm anybody. That means the owners could face a second-degree felony that can lead to a 20-year prison sentence if convicted.

Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton warned dog owners that they are responsible for keeping their dogs secure. Middleton said his office would hold them accountable if they failed to do that. He added that his office is now "considering charges against those who may be responsible for this attack."

Another Texas Man Killed by Pit Bulls

A 51-year-old man in Harris County, Texas also died after he was attacked by three dogs last month. Nicolas Vazquez of Huffman city died in a local hospital after 10 days in critical condition, and both legs were amputated below the knee.

The Texas man was reportedly walking home on the night of June 9 when three dogs attacked him at the intersection of Harvard Road and Knoll Lane. Vazquez was bitten in the hands, legs, and head.

Calvin Stoy told NBC affiliate Click 2 Houston that he tried to rescue Vasquez, and he managed to scare off the dogs. However, he said he was too late as one of the victim's legs was torn down to the bone.

Stoy said the dogs who attacked Vasquez were "pit bull mix." He noted that he knew the dogs because they lived right beside him. Like the Fresno incident, animal control also seized the dogs.

Last week, a man in St. Louis County in Missouri also died after he was viciously attacked and eaten alive by a pack of pit bulls near his home.

Dennis Moore's wife told NBC 5 that she did not see his husband's body as "the dogs ate him up to the point where his body was decayed."

Moore's wife, Melvina Moore, noted that authorities did not show his husband's body because the attack was "so gruesome" that only the head was not eaten.

St. Louis Animal Control said three pit bulls were tracked after the attack, and they were being housed at the animal shelter.

READ MORE: Missouri Husband Eaten Alive by 3 Pit Bulls; Louisiana Toddler Mauled to Death by Family Dog

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Man Killed in Dog Attack Remembered as 'Joyful' and 'Full of Life' - From ABC 13 Houston
A Laois Offaly training body is leading the way nationally with the announcement of a new hub for construction that will be part of the aim to tackle the housing shortage.

To be located at the National Construction Training Centre in Offaly, the announcement of the National Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) Demonstration Park, was made on the same day by Minister Simon Harris who launches the new National Scaffolding Apprenticeship in Mount Lucas.

The Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB) is spearheading the new Park. It welcomed Minister Harris to the national training centre on Monday, July 18.

Phase One of the Demonstration Park will consist of a street of 10 building pads with additional space available for future development. An Open Competition will be held inviting construction companies to build on the pads exhibiting the latest construction technologies and innovative methods in residential construction.

A Project Management Group has been established and will provide inter-departmental oversight of the development of the National Demonstration Park.

The Government's Housing For All strategy sets out a number of measures to support and promote the development of MMC in Ireland, including the establishment of a National Demonstration Park which it is claimed will be an accessible and interactive built resource for applied research, training, and demonstration.

Joe Cunningham is the Chief Executive of LOETB

"The expansion of facilities at Mount Lucas, including the Scaffolding Apprenticeship and the National MMC Demonstration Park will ensure that LOETB and Mount Lucas continues to meet the current and future skills needs of the construction sector.

"The cross-Government approach, and continued collaboration with SOLAS and the CIF will make an important contribution to successfully meeting the Housing for All targets," he said.

Minister Harris said he was delighted to formally launch the Scaffolding Apprenticeship and to announce the new Modern Methods of Construction Demonstration Park.

Im also happy to share the news the Centre will be expanding as Ive approved our first project under the Strategic Investment Upgrade Fund for the NZEB Centre. The Governments Housing for All (HfA) Strategy provides a commitment to promoting a culture of compliant, good quality sustainable innovation in residential construction through development of

Modern Methods of Construction (MMC)," he said.

Minister Harris added: We need up to 51,000 more workers to deliver on the Government Climate Action Plan and Housing for All. Thats why centres like this are critical for all of us.

"So this is a good day. But its also a really important day not just for Mount Lucas and LOETB, but for your country.

Put in the simplest terms, our country needs you, the work you do and the skills you develop, in order to overcome our biggest challenges," he said.

Former Laois Offaly TD Tom Parlon is now the Director General of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF). He welcomed the development.

The CIF welcomes the launch of the Housing for All Demonstration Park, and the advanced training facility for Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). This denotes a significant investment by the Department through SOLAS and should help to drive further awareness, technical capability, and increase the capacity in our sector towards the use of MMC. Housing for All demands a new approach to housing delivery and these facilities will be instrumental in driving the utilisation of modern technologies to achieve our housing goals.

"We wish to acknowledge the rapid steps being taken to deliver this centre, while also flagging the need for a national Modern Methods of Construction Centre, that truly supports the wider construction sector, he said.

Andrew Brownlee, CEO of SOLAS added praise for LOETB.

"The announcement serves to highlight the excellent work that the team at Laois Offaly ETB is doing here at the Construction Training Centre, across a diverse range of critical construction, retrofit and NZEB skills provision - all of which ladders directly

up to key national priorities and targets in the Governments Housing for All plan.

"All of the exciting innovation happening here at Mount Lucas will work towards achieving our shared goal of supporting the entrance of skilled learners to the workforce, and in doing so, support industry partners in reinvigorating and modernising the construction trade we have here in Ireland, he said.

The new Scaffolding Apprenticeship, which was officially launched by Minister Harris, was developed with the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) as consortium lead along with Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB). The Consortium Steering Group (CSG) comprised of the National Association of Scaffolding & Access Contractors (NASAC), SIPTU, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and had representation from the scaffolding contractors from the Scaffolders

Together Association.

The Scaffolding Apprenticeship is a QQI Level 5 accredited programme run over two years with 20 weeks training on site in The National Construction Training Centre at Mount Lucas. The aim of the apprenticeship is to provide a national standard for the construction industry, improve health and safety and recognise scaffolding as a craft. Modules cover all elements of Scaffolding from design to dismantling. Elements included range from BIM for Scaffolders, to Toolbox Talks and Working on

Complex Structures.




The story of colonisation of Laois is set to be told in proposed new outdoor signs that Laois County Council wants to install around Portlaoise.

Laois County Council has invited companies to bid for tenders to manufacture the directional totems, lane interpretation panels, banners, character panels and Map Boards to the specifications.

Most of the signs are directional on brown background with a easy to ready font.

Others try to tell the story of the colonisation of Laois which was directed from the Fort Protectorate in Portlaoise.

The text on one sign dates to 1530 when colonisation commenced.

"Our ancestors have been living in Laois for centuries. I celebrate the rich stories of our community by playing music and reciting poetry. We speak Irish and have our own laws and customs. The English are threatening our way of life and are

imposing their own language and rules. But our land is protected by the OMore family who fight fiercely against this foreign control," it says.

Another quote from 1599 tells the of the impact and the role played by the Fort Protectorate in Portlaoise in oppressing the indigenous Irish.

My family were massacred and driven from their homes by English troops. I am determined to fight them. This Fort is protected well by soldiers, but we have besieged it a couple of times already.



"Further south, our men, under our leader Owny McRory OMore, have defeated the Earl of Essex at the Pass of the Plumes. There is hope we can stop the English in Laois, but they are setting up colonies like this all over Ireland and even the New World," it says.

The colonisation of Laois and Offaly was part of the famous beyond the pale strategy to occupy lands outside Dublin that were in control of Irish chieftains. The process was notoriously bloody but also saw the two counties named Queens County and Kings County.

The council hopes to award the contract in September 2022. TAP NEXT TO SEE MORE PICTURES OF THE SIGNS PLANNED.

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A waiter who was told "go, there is the door" after a disagreement with his manager at a restaurant has been awarded 34,560 by the Workplace Relations Commission for unfair dismissal.

Stephen Ng received a further four weeks' pay and 960 for his employer's failure to provide him with terms of employment or to give him a notice period after ending his employment.

He had worked since 2016 as a senior waiter at the Orchid Restaurant on Pembroke Road in Dublin 4 before he was dismissed in February 2019.

Adjudicating officer Caroline Reidy, in her decision, wrote that there was "no process, natural justice or procedural fairness or paperwork in place regarding this dismissal." She awarded him 18 months pay, totalling 34,560.

The employer, MCF Catering Limited Orchid Restaurant, maintained Mr Ng was not dismissed but resigned his employment  and denied the other breaches he had alleged. Ms Reidy found that Mr Ng's evidence was credible and noted that the employer had not given any oral evidence to back up its claim that Mr Ng resigned without notice.

Mr Ng told the commission that his manager Moanne Chow, who he understood to be his employer, was expecting seven members of her family for a meal and that he set the table for them.

After they arrived, he said he was accosted by Ms Chow who not unusually," shouted at him.

He said the manager accused him of not saying hello to her family which he objected to, stating that he had said hello. Mr Ng told Ms Chow he was not a slave and had done nothing wrong.

He then asked her what more was expected of him, "to bow? Mr Ng said in evidence.

In response, Ms Chow banged the table and told him: Go, there is the door, he said.

He said he came in to collect his wages the following day, but had never received payslips or a P60 during his employment.

Mr Ng said he was upset not only about his dismissal but because he got the run around from his employer over the two and a half years up to the hearing date.

After noting that the company had presented no oral evidence to back up its claim that Mr Ng left of his own accord, Ms Reidy added: "The complainant, however, gave very specific and credible oral evidence. Therefore I find his evidence that he was summarily dismissed on that day to be an accurate account of what actually happened."
The number of people who have fled to Laois from Russia's invasion of Ukraine has risen by nearly 8% since the middle of June according to the official latest figures.

Central Statistics Office figures to July 10 show that 551 Ukrainians have been given refuge in Laois from Putin's war against their homeland.

The number is up on the 511 recorded as being living here on June 19. A similar county up to June 5 also revealed that 551 people had moved to Laois. The first count carried out by the CSO showed that 487 people from Ukraine had arrived in Laois up to May 22 this year.

The latest figures show that 281 Ukrainians are living in the Portlaoise Municipal District while 144 people from the country are residing in the Borris-in-Ossory Mountmellick Municipal District area which takes in the west and south of the county.

The Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District has the smallest number of refugees. It is accommodating 126 people seeking safe haven from Russia.

Extensive efforts have been made in Laois to support those arriving. Numerous offers of accommodation were also made in the early days of Russia's attack.

There were 43,256 arrivals from Ukraine in Ireland by the week ending 10 July 2022, an increase of just under 4,500 in three weeks previously. Every Local Electoral Area in Ireland has some refugees. North Inner City in Dublin had the highest number of associated arrivals from Ukraine at 1,410.

Women aged 20 and over account for 47% of arrivals to date, while individuals aged 0-19 (both male and female) account for 37%.

The highest percentage of those arriving (39% or 17,034 individuals) were categorised as 'One parent with children' under the broad relationship classification headings used. Note that spouses/partners may have stayed in Ukraine.

As of 10 July 2022, of the arrivals that attended employment support events arranged by Intreo Public Employment Services, 66% were noted with English language proficiency being a challenge in securing employment.

Of the 13,514 arrivals who attended an Intreo event, 9,645 had recorded previous occupations with "Professionals" being the largest group at 33%. Of the 9,744 persons where the highest level of education was recorded, 69% had achieved an NFQ level equivalent to 7 or higher.

Based on administrative data currently available to the CSO, of the arrivals from Ukraine aged 18 and older, 91% showed activity in administrative data after 31 May 2022.
The Portal exhibition, by award-winning bog wildlife photographer Tina Claffey has found its first permanent home in Lullymore Heritage & Discovery Park.

Every visitor to Lullymore Heritage & Discovery Park can now enjoy the Portal exhibition as part of the range of activities on offer. The exhibition is housed in the Parks Purple Heather Cafe and is an immersive visual exploration through the realms of unique flora and fauna within Irelands bogs, wetlands and eskers, revealing the hidden gems that have lived and evolved for millennia.

Ray Stapleton, manager of Lullymore Heritage & Discovery Park said: We are so proud to have the first permanent exhibition of Tinas work and feel the Park is a great home for it. For many years, the Heritage Park has been actively involved in rewilding our peatland area and telling the story of its stunning wildlife and how the peatlands have shaped local culture and history to people from all around the world.

This resonates with visitors and is more important than ever given our need to increase biodiversity and mitigate climate change. For us, this starts with people appreciating what we have and wanting to protect it. Tinas work reflects the natural treasure that these peatlands are better than anyone weve seen before and the exhibition will greatly assist us in raising awareness and giving more to customers of the Park.

Tina Claffey, photographer said: Lullymore Heritage & Discovery Park is a wonderful place to celebrate our beautiful peatlands and I am so grateful and honoured to have my exhibition here in this special venue.

According to Tina, the title Porta l  is a reference to portach (bog) and more importantly, for its reference as an entrance/gateway to another world.

In recent times, we have all been forced to slow down and truly appreciate the world around us. This is very true for photography, I specialise in-macro photography.

In order to truly see and capture these wonders, I slow down to the hum of life within the bogs & wetlands, and only then does Mother Nature reveal her gems to me.

Lichens become enchanted forests, caddisflies weave magical houses to house their soft aquatic bodies, mystical lichen goblets appear that are fit for otherworldly kings and queens. Tentacles of carnivorous sundews poise like a cobra ready to strike, while wondrous sphagnum mosses lay in frozen waters in suspended animation, their feathery limbs outstretched surrounded by magical bubbles .

Tina has just released the book Portal  Otherworldly Wonders of Irish Bogs, Wetlands and Eskers and it is available in Lullymore Heritage & Discovery Park and all major bookshops or to order online at www.currachbooks.com.

You can view more of Tinas images on www.tinaclaffey.com and find out all about Lullymore

Heritage & Discovery Park on www.lullymoreheritagepark.com.
PICTURED ABOVE: Brian Fallon (Director of Into Kildare); Paul Lenehan, (President, Restaurant Association of Ireland and Kildare Restauranteur); God Knows horse trained by Dick Brabazon with jockey, Robyn Lynch; Evan Arkwright (The Curragh Racecourse) and Aine Mangan (CEO, Into Kildare) at the launch of Taste of Kildare.

Into Kildare, the tourism body for County Kildare has launched Taste of Kildare which will be held at the Curragh Racecourse during the Autumn Festival of Racing on September 24 to 25.

The home of the classics, The Curragh will be transformed into a foodie heaven with racegoers being offered the opportunity to taste some of the countys best food.

Taste of Kildare will be run by Into Kildare who have invited an eclectic mix of well- known Kildare chefs, restaurants, food producers and artisan food innovators to showcase their produce.

The two-day event wwill allow racegoers the chance to sample delectable dishes from restaurants and hospitality outlets including, Killashee Hotel, Barberstown Castle, Fallons of Kilcullen and Hartes of Kildare among many more.

The first day of Taste of Kildare, Saturday 24th of September will run on the same day as the prestigious Goffs Millions, Europes richest race for two-year-olds. It will be themed Born and Bred in Kildare and will feature food stands and food trucks who will showcase the best locally produced products. Racegoers will have the chance to sample and purchase artisan products while also having the opportunity to taste signature dishes prepared by Kildares best known food outlets.

Day 2 of the festival will run on The Friends of the Curragh Irish Cesarewitch race day, Sunday, 25th of September. A unique opportunity awaits racegoers and food lovers as the premier Leger Suite will set the scene for a magnificent culinary experience. Guests can enjoy a truly memorable lunch as seven of Co. Kildares best known and loved restaurants will prepare a 7-course tasting menu. Each of the dishes will reflect the personality and style of the food outlet and will offer guests the chance to sample dishes created by multi award winning chefs. Located on the 3rd floor of the iconic Aga Khan Grandstand, The Leger Suite enjoys superb views of the parade ring, finish line and panoramic views across the Curragh track and famous Curragh plains.

Aine Mangan (CEO, Into Kildare) said, We are much looking forward to the return of the Taste of Kildare as a live event this year. After two years of various lockdowns and restrictions its wonderful for people to have the chance to gather again and to enjoy delicious food and drink. Into Kildare is delighted to support local food and hospitality outlets by staging and promoting this event which aligns with our Thoroughbred County Tourism Destination plans. 37% of the overall visitor spend in Ireland is on food and drink and we are very lucky in this county to have so many great restaurants and hospitality providers for both our domestic and international visitors to enjoy. Kildare has multiple award-winning restaurants, various microbreweries, several cookery schools, traditional cheese makers, elegant cocktail bars, lively traditional pubs, and some of the best gastro pubs in the country. The event will offer local restaurants, hotels, and food producers a great opportunity to showcase their products and services to a large audience and will offer them a chance to promote their brand to an engaged clientele.

Taste of Kildare is being sponsored by the Kildare Local Enterprise Office (LEO) who are a big supporter of the food and drink industry in County Kildare. Jacqui McNabb, Head of Enterprise, LEO, Kildare County Council said, Kildare County Councils Local Enterprise Office are delighted to support Taste of Kildare 2022. Through our Flavours of Kildare Network, we are very focused on helping small and medium sized food businesses to reach their full potential. Taste of Kildare is firmly aligned with our Kildare 2025 Economic Development strategy to support, promote, mentor, and assist food businesses and producers to reach their goals and grow their business. We wish the team at Into Kildare the very best in their preparations and congratulate them on this great initiative which will be a great way in which to promote Co. Kildares great food heritage.

Brian Kavanagh, CEO of the Curragh Racecourse said, Taste of Kildare will be a wonderful addition to our Autumn Festival of Racing. Racegoers will have the chance to see some of the worlds best thoroughbreds in action on the track while also having the opportunity to sample some of the best cuisine in the county. The weekend features two premier race days The Goffs Million taking place on Day 1 and the Friends of the Curragh Irish Cesarewitch as the feature on Day 2, the most valuable race over two miles in Europe. We look forward to welcoming everyone to what promises to be an unmissable weekend in Kildare of great racing, fun and delicious food.



Tickets for Taste of Kildare are priced from 15 and include race day entry (children under 18 are free, accompanied by an adult). Tickets for the Ultimate Taste of Kildare Experience in the Leger Restaurant will launch soon.

For more information and to buy tickets see www.tasteofkildare.ie If you are a food producer, hotel or restaurant and want to take part in Taste of Kildare please email info@intokildare.ie
AIB's latest decision to some of its branches cashless, including two in Kildare, has been met with criticism by a local TD, as well as two local Senators.

The banking giant yesterday announced that its branches in Athy and Celbridge will lose their ATMs, as well as Edenderry.

Overall, 70 of the bank's 170 branches across the country will be converted into cashless outlets.

However, the bank insisted that it would also host a series of Digital Advice Open Evenings for communities across Ireland in Autumn.

'BAILING'

Sinn Fein's Reada Cronin, TD, has called the downgrading of AIB Celbridge to a cashless facility 'a blow to vulnerable customers and rural communities.'

She said: "A bailed-out AIB was bailing now on many of its North Kildare loyal customers."

"These are basic banking services that people had the reasonable expectation of relying on as loyal customers of AIB. Now therell be no ATM, no cash, no cheque, no foreign exchange at these branches.

Ms Cronin continued: "This is a big blow to people who dont bank online and are finding it hard enough to keep up with rapid change in banking services. AIB has tried to justify reducing services on the grounds of reduced use by the public... but the same AIB has a short memory because it was bailed out by that same public only around a decade ago.

"Equally, the ongoing pandemic had a major impact on face-to-face bank use and should not be used a cynical excuse by AIB to cut its services.

'THIS IS NO WAY TO TREAT CUSTOMERS'

"The Central Bank has already noted the importance that cash continues to play in our economy and for social inclusion, many people still use and rely on cash for perfectly good reasons of accessibility and keeping an eye on spending."

"This is no way to treat customers: yes, AIB is expanding their relationship with An Post but this is clearly not a solution in itself.

She concluded: "We, the public, bailed the banks and we need to talk now about what we expect from them, in return, especially our vulnerable people or those isolated by old age or location in a rural area or by not doing things online."

Reada Cronin TD (Sinn Fein) and Senator Mark Wall (Labour Party)

Labour Party Senator for Athy, Mark Wall, also harshly criticised the move, calling it 'a disgrace.'

The Athy representative added: "AIB are ignoring the most vulnerable in our societys and blaming it on cost at the same time as their profits soar is simply reprehensible.

"I agree with my colleague and Labours Finance spokesperson Ged Nash TD, who described this as: 'This tone deaf decision taken by executives of a majority State-owned bank who appear to be accountable to nobody is another nail in the coffin for relationship banking in Ireland.'"

Senator Wall also called on the Minister for Finance to immediately intervene and 'stop this discrimination, which is just another blow to rural Ireland.'

He added: "Since this announcement, Ive been contacted by many older people who are questioning what they will now have to do now, This is no way to treat vulnerable people.

"It is no way to treat loyal customers and potential new customers who may look at AIB in the wake of other banks departing this county; businesses too in towns like Athy will now have to travel to other towns to deposit cash, simply no way to treat customers.

"Towns like Athy are turning a corner, with long awaited infrastructural development, that will make the town a more attractive place for investment... the removal of cash services from one of the pillar banks in the town is a retrograde step and Government must intervene," Senator Wall concluded.

Furthermore, Fianna Fail Senator Fiona O' Loughlin told the Leader that she has written a letter to the CEO of AIB in relation to the bank's recent decision.

In an excerpt from her letter, the Newbridge politician said: "To deprive the local people in our communities in South Kildare the option to use and access cash is wrong in my view, and will have negative impacts on many elderly persons, many of whom may not have the mobility to travel further afield to access cash services."

RESPONSE

In response to the critiques, a spokesperson for the bank told the Leader: "AIB has announced a national investment programme of over 40 million, which includes support for the banks deepening relationship with An Post, while maintaining its full complement of 170 branches nationwide, including seven in Kildare.

"AIB confirms that 70 of these branches, including two in Kildare, will be repurposed to focus more on account opening, financial planning, mortgages, loans, savings and investments.

"With digital usage soaring, the cost of providing cash services has become increasingly unsustainable.

"As a result, cash, ATM and cheque services will be removed from these branches but customers will continue to have efficient access to cash in their communities through their local post office, ATM and point of sale locations. Two branches are unchanged, having been repurposed last year."

"The repurposing will enable the bank to provide additional account-opening facilities as Ulster Bank and KBC leave the market, while also ensuring that its branch network has a sustainable future in the community."

In particular, the spokesperson also said that customers could still avail of three services:

Continued cash access through AIB at An Post, at any of the countrie's 920 post offices.

AIB customers will continue to have access to cash in over 4,000 ATMs nationwide.

Continued cash access at up to 25,000 point of sale locations nationwide.

DIGITAL ADVICE OPEN EVENINGS

The spokesperson elaborated that, in order to support customers wishing to familiarise themselves more with online and mobile banking, AIB will also host a series of Digital Advice Open Evenings for communities across Ireland including in Kildare.

They said that these details will be advertised in local media.

"The changes we are announcing will take effect from September," the spokesperson added.
Boris Johnsons plans to effectively tear up parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol are expected to clear the Commons today (Wednesday July 20) following a last-ditch timetable switch.

Deputy Commons leader Peter Bone announced the time available to consider the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill will be extended by an hour to enable it to complete the remaining stages.

MPs were planning to spend up to six hours today finishing the Bills committee stage, which involves line-by-line scrutiny.

But Mr Bone said time will be added on to allow the Bill to receive a third reading, clearing the way for it to be sent to the House of Lords.

Peers are expected to contest parts of the Bill when they consider it after the summer recess, setting up a lengthy showdown between the two Houses.

Mr Johnsons Government has said the measures to remove checks on goods and animal and plant products travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland are necessary to safeguard the Good Friday Agreement and peace and stability.

But the plans have been widely criticised by the EU while Tory former prime minister Theresa May has questioned the legality of the Bill.

Mr Bone, raising a point of order following the conclusion of the Bills second day of committee stage, told MPs: Given the progress of the committee of the whole House we will now take the Third Reading of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill tomorrow.

A supplementary programme motion will be tabled tonight to provide for an extra hour of debate tomorrow.

Outgoing Prime Minister Mr Johnson has denied his departure from Downing Street will be the end of Brexit, claiming some people believe Labour and the deep state will prevail in its plot to haul us back into alignment with the EU as a prelude to our eventual return.

The Bills second day of committee stage in the Commons saw Alliance MP Stephen Farry warning that chaos would be created in many sectors of the Northern Ireland economy if the new dual regulatory is introduced.

The North Down MP put down an amendment, which would have imposed conditions before the option to choose between dual routes could be implemented, but it was rejected by 293 votes to 201, majority 92.

Cabinet Office minister Michael Ellis said: If a Northern Ireland-based business trades north-south on the island of Ireland then they can continue, as now, to follow EU rules and sell their products in the EU and across the UK because of the Governments commitment to unfettered access.

But if their business model is UK focused they can choose to follow UK rules and benefit from the opportunities afforded there.

Mr Ellis also told MPs: No business will be worse off as a result of UK action.

The Bill before this House forces no change on any sector, but allows ministers to respond to any specific asks from each sector, if appropriate. And I have heard strong views of what sectors of the Northern Ireland economy think, particularly dairy as I say, and this is why understanding such concerns is at the heart of our work.

And why we are engaging with stakeholders and have been doing so and will continue to do so.

Earlier, Mr Farry said: If this dual regulation was implemented, it would bring major consequences, it would create chaos in many sectors of the Northern Ireland economy, and we would increase risk of economic crime, including smuggling.

Even the Bill itself entails uncertainty for investment decisions, never mind the implications when it comes to full application.

It would mean that North[ern] Ireland would lose access to the single market for goods, both in practice, as companies in the Republic of Ireland or the rest of Europe (would) see Northern Ireland products as risky and also as a matter of law.

The DUP did not support any amendments to the Bill, with the partys leader and Lagan Valley MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson saying: We do not believe they are necessary in order to achieve the objectives that are required.

MPs also voted voted 293 to 205, majority 88, to defeat the amendment put forward by Labour, which would have required an economic impact assessment to be carried out before a minister could make any provisions for the dual regulatory regime.
About three years ago our son, Christopher, began to research our family history in Ireland.

We knew very little about the origins of the Travers family, but within a very short time we located a long-lost, Irish cousin, Paddy Travers, who was able to give us quite a bit of information.



Paddys grandfather, Thomas, was a brother to our great-grandfather, Patrick Travers. They were born and lived in a home just outside of the beautiful village of Dromahair in County Leitrim.



Paddy encouraged us to visit, and offered to show us around the area, including a stop at the family home, which is still standing, but no longer owned by a member of the family.

We were a large group, consisting of me and my husband, son Christopher with this wife, Allyson, and their six children, ranging in age from nineteen years to eight.



Christopher reserved the entire Mill Masters Guest House in Dromahair for our stay. It is a newly-restored building on the edge of town. It has four modern bedrooms, each with its own sparkling, clean bathroom, wi-fi and flat screen television. Plenty of room for all of us.



Upon our arrival, we received a warm welcome from Ruth Kelly.

Ruth and her husband, John, own not only the Guest House, but also the Clubhouse Gastro Pub, which is directly across the parking lot. Our delicious, full Irish breakfast was served there in the mornings, and in the evenings we enjoyed Irish music and recitations until well past our bedtime.

Another benefit to the Mill Masters Guest House is its location directly across the street from a beautiful greenway that has been constructed along an abandoned rail line.



A morning stroll or bike ride on the greenway takes you through the verdant woods and pastureland, where chirping birds and abundant wildlife are your constant companions.

If youre feeling energetic, you can continue beyond the end of the greenway and follow a paved county road to Creevelea Abbey.

Even though our group did this on a somewhat rainy afternoon, we all accomplished this easily, as the way is well-marked and takes you through the gently-rolling hills that surround the town of Dromahair.

Creevelea Abbey is an abandoned Franciscan Friary and national monument that was founded in 1508. It was in use until the seventeenth century, when Henry VIII dissolved all monasteries in use in England and Ireland.



Our family had a great adventure wandering through the ruins, perusing the many headstones, and climbing the old bell tower.

After our visit to the Abbey, we followed a shady and charming footpath along the Bonet River, which led us directly into the heart of Dromahair. We took a short break for some refreshments at the old J. Stanford pub, before heading back to the Mill Masters Guest House.



There are also two other lovely bars in the village - Fowleys and The Blue Devon. Paddy regaled us with many stories about cozy evenings swapping stories with the locals in these two establishments.

Bright and early the following day, we took a short ride to the shores of beautiful Lough Gill.



Cousin Paddy had arranged for our family to take a cruise on The Rose of Innisfree tour boat. We were delighted to discover that the boat not only has an upper deck for outdoor seating, but also a fully-enclosed lower level with a nice bar, should the weather turn blustery.

We took full advantage of both levels, and particularly enjoyed hearing a bit about the history of the area, mixed with some fine Irish poetry. This is William Butler Yeats territory, and its easy to imagine him gazing over the beautiful low mountains that surround the lake as he was composing his poems.

The Rose of Innisfree] has been cruising beautiful Lough Gill since 1992, when George and Tina McGoldrick decided to provide this wonderful adventure to families with children, as well as to anyone who wants to take time out amid these stunning surroundings to make some memories to cherish.



Recently, their son, Alan, has become the new skipper, and he has continued to provide entertaining and informative commentary during the tour, pointing out places of interest, the varied wildlife and telling a few of the myths and legends associated with the landscape.

After our cruise, which lasted about an hour and a half, we were ready to begin our tour of Parkes Castle, which overlooks the lake just above the boat dock.

Siobhan at the reception was very

efficient and welcoming. Our guide, Dara, gave concise explanations that were of interest to everyone. The castle has a nicely-renovated interior with clean, accessible restrooms. We were able to walk along the top of the castle walls, which have a beautiful view of the lake.

From the castle we went directly to Carrickatemple Cemetery, where our Travers family ancestors are buried. I do believe we are the first family members to return to Leitrim from the States, so a photo was definitely in order.



At the end of the day, once again, we returned to the Clubhouse Gastro Bar for a wonderful dinner, followed by more music and singing. And the best thingour cozy cottage was just across the parking lot, where our comfy beds were waiting.



We hope to return to Dromahair. It certainly exceeded our expectations in every way, and I recommend it highly to anyone looking for a peaceful, genuine, Irish village experience!
A well attended Treasure Leitrim organised public meeting in Manorhamilton's Bee Park Community Centre took place on Monday night to discuss the granting of gold mining prospecting licences to Flintridge Resources.



The public meeting's Chairperson Brian Smith told those gathered, We can learn from the gold mining experiences in the Sperrins and not let it happen here.



Local farmer, James Gilmartin, Pullboy, told the meeting that he first learned on October 7 last year that a prospecting licence for mining had been applied for in his own townland and 46 other townlands nearby from a friend, who had read it in the Leitrim Observer.



James believes that everyone has to take a role in opposing mining. He also added that Minister Eamon Ryan had granted prospecting licences to Flintridge Resources despite 2,500 objections from local people as well as from all from the Leitrim County Councillors and all local TDs.

Members of the Treasure Leitrim Group, local politicians and guest speakers at the mining information meeting at the Bee Park Community Centre on Monday night

Mr Gilmartin encouraged all residents in the 47 townlands to put up Treasure Leitrim signs that state No Access for Mineral Prospecting.

Landowners have to give Flintridge Resources permission to enter their land for the mining companies representatives to go onto that land for the purpose of carrying out mining prospecting.



Dr Fidelma O'Kane from Omagh, who was representing the Save Our Sperrins campaign, told the meeting that Dalradian Gold, a Canadian mining company, had got prospecting licences for 300,000 acres in Tyrone and Derry.

Ms. O'Kane said that gold mining has caused a lot of friction and splits in the local community



Addressing Monday night's meeting engineer, Gordon Dunne from Omagh stated it is absolutely sickening to see how the area's landscape has been damaged by mining, which is open cast as well as underground.

Local farmer and IFA Environmental and Rural Affairs Committee member, Eddie Mitchell, said farmers will play a big role in preventing mining here since the mining companies will need permission to come onto their land.



Mr Mitchell, who played a major role in having fracking banned in Ireland, stated Pullboy and Faughery are two townlands where it is highly probable there are gold deposits. But Eddie confidently added at the end of the meeting this is going to end well for Leitrim and gold mining will be stopped.



Emma Mincks from Rapid City, South Dakota, near the Black Hills, informed the meeting of her personal experience of gold mining near where she lives and encouraged everyone in North Leitrim to strive to prevent gold mining starting in the area.

Aris Klaras from Greece said at the meeting that gold mining has caused serious communal conflict in Northern Greece.



Jacintha Van Roij and her partner, Thomas Lightwood, from Tulla, Co Clare, came along to Manorhamilton to back the local people who are trying to stop gold mining starting in Leitrim.

Thomas said we are here to support you from Clare, where gold mining prospecting licences have also been granted.

Councillor Mary Bohan told the meeting that all Leitrim Councillors had backed a motion to stop gold mining starting in Leitrim.



TDs Marian Harkin and Martin Kenny explained how they had both raised the issue of preventing gold mining starting in Leitrim on a number of occasions in the Dail.



Dromahair Green Party member, Johnny Gogan, said he was very disappointed that Minister Eamon Ryan had granted prospecting licences to Flintridge Resources to start mining prospecting in Leitrim.

He assured the meeting that all local Green Party members would do everything possible to prevent gold mining going ahead.
From the end of September only two bank branches in the county will offer full cash services to customers and both of those will be based in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Yesterday, (Tuesday, July 19) AIB made the shock announcement that it was changing 70 of its 170 branches to cashless operations. Included in the list of branches set to change is Ballinamore.

From September 30, Ballinamore's AIB branch, the only bank in the town, will no longer offer cash and cheque services at the counter, or through machines inside the branch.

This means that, from this date, the Ballinamore branch will not have notes, coins, cheques, offer foreign exchange, bank drafts; and will remove any drop safes and night safes.

The ATM outside the branch, the only on-street facility in the town, will also be removed as part of the changes.

The move has attracted widespread condemnation, coming on the heels of closures of Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank branches.

Last year Bank of Ireland shut its branches in Manorhamilton and Drumshanbo resulting in the loss of both town's only on-street ATMs. Both of the ATMs have since been replaced following intervention by local credit unions.

In December last year Manorhamilton's only remaining bank, AIB, ceased operating its cashier counter service, but unlike Ballinamore's branch, Manorhamilton's AIB customers can still use the bank's cash and cheque lodgement machines to deposit cash and cheques and withdraw money.

But it isn't just Leitrim affected by the changes, they also impact our neighbouring counties Longford and Donegal.

In Longford town the AIB branch on Main Street is going cashless from October 21. AIB note the nearest branch with full cash services will be Roscommon.

In Donegal, Ballyshannon branch will see changes introduced from September 30. From that date the nearest branch with full cash services will be Donegal Town.

Announcing the changes AIB said the decision has been based on falling levels of cash usage and cheque transactions, and a rise in the popularity of non-cash alternatives such as digital and card payments.

The cost of security and handling cash has also risen, they noted.

They point out that, in branches changing to cashless facilities, staff will still be available to answer questions and help customers open an account, buy a new home, take out a business or personal loan, or save or invest their money.

Kiosk Banking and Phone Banking services will still be available at branches.

AIB also points to the expansion of a range of day-to-day banking services available through post offices.

Under the An Post deal, AIB customers will be able to withdraw up to 1,500 cash per day and lodge up to 5,000 cash per week, while businesses will be able to lodge up to 50,000 by prior agreement with the post office, while all customers will be able to lodge euro cheques into their accounts. Paying bills and foreign exchange will also be available through An Post.

However local politicians have described the changes as a 'terrible blow' for customers.

Cathaoirleach of Leitrim County Council, Cllr Ita Reynolds-Flynn said that she was shocked by the news and deeply concerned about the impact of the changes in towns like Ballinamore.

Cllr Caillian Ellis said it was a terrible blow pointing out that these banks were saved by the taxpayers and now they are taking away services at their branches. This is simply not good enough, he said.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said opposition parties need to stop playing politics on climate change while Europe burns.

Speaking at St Vincents University Hospital on Wednesday, Mr Donnelly hit out at the opposition, in what appeared to be a reference to Sinn Fein calling on the Government to scrap an increase to the carbon tax.

Asked by the PA news agency if the Government had done any work to prepare hospitals for extreme weather events such as heatwaves, Mr Donnelly said: Can I just say one of the characteristics of this Dail is a Government that has brought in  by any yardstick  what is an incredibly ambitious climate change plan.

Weve never done anything like it. And yet, in opposition, theyre against climate change, but theyre also against the carbon tax.

So the first thing Id say is if were going to take climate change seriously, which we must, then the opposition need to stop playing politics with it and say, Oh, yes, were for all of these climate measures, but not now, while Europe burns.

If not now, then when?

So the first thing Id say, the opposition needs to stop playing politics with climate change, step up, and support what are difficult decisions. This is not easy.

Returning to the original question, Mr Donnelly said much of the HSE estate was old and energy inefficient.

Were working to reduce the carbon footprint of the buildings, so we have some wonderful facilities like (St Vincents University Hospital), which are already a pretty good space.

The reality, though, is if you look at the HSE estate across the country, a lot of it is old. A lot of it is not energy efficient.

And so theres a big piece of work going on and a lot of money required, first of all to reduce the carbon footprint around health care.

Mr Donnelly said the Government also needed to look at emergency plans for if Ireland ends up dealing with the temperatures experienced this week in southern England.

Secondly, yes, we do need to look at surge plans, he said. We need to look at emergency plans.

We need to look at different models of care that might be required, if we end up in Ireland dealing with what theyre dealing with, not only in Spain and France, but now in England.

You know it is getting much closer.
The Annual Aughnasheelin 5km/10km May Walk in aid of Cancer Research / North West Hospice took place on Sunday May 29.

It was great to be back walking together again with the one aim of raising funds for Cancer Research and North West Hospice.

Well done everyone, what a great day. 200 people turned out to walk, run or join in for a cuppa. Such a wonderful community of people coming together to raise funds for Irish Cancer Society North West Hospice. Thank you so much. .together we raised 10260.



The presentation of cheques took place in Aughnasheelin on Tuesday July 6.

Ena Barrett, Cancer Research Community Fundraiser  Ulster Connaught North accepted the cheque on behalf of the Irish Cancer Society. Ena paid a sincere word of thanks to the Sammon family and the Aughnasheelin Community for hosting the May walk again this year. We truly appreciate your amazing support. Thank you to all involved.



Nuala OBeirne, NWH accepted the cheque on behalf of the North West Hospice.

Nuala sincerely thanked the organisers and all involved for the generous contribution which goes towards providing home care for those living with cancer. The North West Hospice will have a new unit built later this year but still rely on funding raised by events like this as 1m is required each year to provide home services to the terminally ill in the North West.

Pictured at the presentation of a cheque for 5,130, half of the proceeds from the recent May Walk held in Aughnasheelin on May 29, (back, l-r) Brendan Sammon, Sharon Flynn, Ann Sammon Gallogly, Brendan Meehan, Mary Mulvey, Cait Cullen, Gary, Ashling and James Prior. Front (l-r) Maura Mulvey, Mary Sammon Quinn, Ena Barrett, Community Fundraiser for Irish Cancer Society, Bernadette Prior, Donohue's Super Valu, Ballinamore, one of the sponsors of the walk and Detta McNiffe



Nuala complimented the Sammon and the Aughnasheelin Community for continuing to hold this event each year and all who supported the event and are aware of the need for funds and the services provided by North West Hospice and Irish Cancer Society.



Speaking at the presentation Cait Sammon Cullen thanked the organising committee and all who continue to work on this fundraiser, the Aughnasheelin Community, local businesses for your support and contributions. Thank you to friends, colleagues, business associates and all who contributed so generously to the fund.



A big thank you to all who came out to the presentation and to Willie Donnellan, photographer supreme!

Main Picture: Pictured at the presentation of a cheque for 5,130, half of the proceeds from the recent May Walk held in Aughnasheelin on May 29 to North West Hospice (back, l-r) Seamus Prior, Ann Sammon Gallogly, Sharon Flynn, Breda Mulvanerty, Mary Mulvey, Philip Roddy, Maura Mulvey and Jerome McWeeney. Front: Leah and Lorraine Keegan, Mary Martin, Board Director North West Hospice, Nuala Ginnelly, manager North West Hospice, Mary Sammon Quinn and Cait Cullen Pictures: Willie Donnellan




Elon Musk has lost a fight to delay Twitters lawsuit against him as a Delaware judge set an October trial, citing the cloud of uncertainty over the social media company after the billionaire backed out of a deal to buy it.

Delay threatens irreparable harm, said Chancellor Kathaleen St Jude McCormick, the head judge of Delawares Court of Chancery, which handles many high-profile business disputes.

The longer the delay, the greater the risk.

Twitter had asked for an expedited trial in September, while Mr Musks team called for waiting until early next year because of the complexity of the case.

Ms McCormick said Mr Musks team underestimated the Delaware courts ability to quickly process complex litigation.

Twitter is trying to force the billionaire to make good on his April promise to buy the social media giant for 44 billion dollars (36.6billion)  and the company wants it to happen quickly because it says the ongoing dispute is harming its business.

Mr Musk, the worlds richest man, pledged to pay 54.20 dollars a share for Twitter, but now wants to back out of the agreement.

Its attempted sabotage. Hes doing his best to run Twitter down, said attorney William Savitt, representing Twitter.

The hearing was held virtually after Ms McCormick said she tested positive for Covid-19.

Mr Musk has claimed the company has failed to provide adequate information about the number of fake  or spam bot  Twitter accounts, and that it has breached its obligations under the deal by firing top managers and laying off a significant number of employees.

Mr Savitt said the contested merger agreement and Mr Musks tweets disparaging the company were inflicting harm on the business and questioned Mr Musks request for a delayed trial, asking whether the real plan is to run out the clock.

Hes banking on wriggling out of the deal he signed, Mr Savitt said.

But the idea the Tesla CEO is trying to damage Twitter is preposterous. He has no interest in damaging the company, said Mr Musks attorney Andrew Rossman, noting he is Twitters second largest shareholder with a far larger stake than the entire board.

Mr Savitt emphasised the importance of an expedited trial starting in September for Twitter to be able to make important business decisions affecting everything from employee retention to relationships with suppliers and customers.

Mr Rossman said more time is needed because it is one of the largest take-private deals in history involving a company that has a massive amount of data that has to be analysed. Billions of actions on their platform have to be analysed.
THE LIMERICK branch of Birdwatch Ireland are asking people to report activity of swift birds in their local area.

The organisation say there may be many unreported sightings and it is important that these be submitted and followed up.

They say that sometimes swifts can be confused with swallows, swifts are shaped slightly like a boomerang.

Swift activity has been reported from Askeaton, Adare, Bruff, Clondrinagh, Rathkeale, Ballingarry, Newcastelwest, UL area, Raheen, Clarina, Murroe, Kilfinnane and Galbally.

The Birdwatch Ireland Swift field worker wishes to thank those who have reported sightings so far, most of which have been followed up.

If your town, area or estate is not mentioned above and you have noticed swift activity such as swifts flying overhead, screechings or entry into nest sites you can send an email to limerickbranchbwi@gmail.com with an exact location

Birdwatch Ireland have said there is not much time left before swifts nest, some already have and this is the best time to note nest sites as they enter and exit at speed.
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The European Union rolled out a detailed contingency plan calling for member nations to step up their energy-conservation campaigns and prepare for possible rationing of natural gas amid rising concerns that Russia is about to tighten its squeeze on the continents supply.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut has been summoned again for questioning today by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case. He was questioned last on July 1 for about 10 hours in a case linked to alleged irregularities in the re-development of a Mumbai 'chawl' and related transactions involving his wife and 'associates'.

The Rajya Sabha MP, who is in the Uddhav Thackeray camp, had denied any wrongdoing and alleged that he was being targeted due to political vendetta.

He has been questioned once in this case on July 1 during which his statement was recorded under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Raut's wife Varsha Raut was also questioned in connection with the PMC bank fraud.

In April, the ED provisionally attached assets worth over 11.15 crore of Raut's wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates as part of this investigation.
IT minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar says the government is examining the power of big tech companies on digital advertising, spurring speculation that India may seek to regulate their relationship with news publishers. What could be the way forward? Mint explains:

Is this the first time this has come up?

No. Earlier this year, the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) and the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) approached the Competition Commission of India (CCI) accusing Google of abusing its market dominance. In March, the anti-trust authority decided to club the two allegations and ordered a probe into Google on the matter. INS had written a letter to Google in February last year, asking the technology giant to compensate newspapers for using content published by them on its platform. It also sought a larger share of online advertising revenue.

Why are publishers sparring with Big Tech?

Publishers worldwide are dealing with business models facing digital disruption. The bone of contention is two-fold. The first is that tech giants such as Google and Facebook serve content owned by publishers on their newsfeed and pages and directly or indirectly monetise the resulting traffic, while the publisher who incurred the cost of generating that content get little or inadequate share. The second is that big tech has cornered so much of digital advertising (more than 90% of the share in most markets) that they exercise unfair pricing power and other advantages of scale that put publishers at a disadvantage.

View Full Image Photo: Mint

Is India the only one considering such curbs?

Australias News Media Bargaining Code, passed last year, is widely seen as the blueprint for regulating the relationship between news media and Big Tech. It requires firms like Google to pay publishers to show links on their platforms. Google also licenced content from publishers in Europe earlier this year, under the European Copyright Directive.

Are Indian laws able to tackle the problem?

The Information Technology Act is not particularly equipped to deal with such problems, experts said. They said the proposed Digital India Act -- essentially an amendment to the IT Act -- will likely be the one that will regulate the Big Tech-News relationship. Besides, CCI probes could also help regulate the market if it sees proof that Big Tech is predatory towards publishers. The Central Consumer Protection Authority, formed in 2019, could also seek to regulate the relationship between platforms and Big Tech.

What steps have Big Tech taken?

Big Tech has already made moves to license content from publishers. Google announced an initiative called News Showcase back in 2020, and has licensed content from publishers worldwide, including India, under this. After initially resisting Australian laws, Facebook eventually decided to abide by the law. While such laws work in favour of large news publishers, experts have noted that they may be crippling for smaller media houses, or may lose access to platforms if they choose not to license their content.

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Petrified Forest National Park, in northeastern Arizona, is known for  and named in honor of  its extensive deposits of petrified wood. So impressive and picturesque is the forest that it was used as the backdrop for the 1936 romantic thriller "The Petrified Forest," starring Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart.

But what, exactly, is petrified wood? How is it made, and how long does it take to form?

"Petrified wood is essentially mineralized wood," David Sunderlin, a professor of geology who specializes in paleontology and paleoecology at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, told Live Science in an email.

How does petrified wood form?

For wood to become petrified, it has to be buried quickly under mud, silt or volcanic ash before any rotting can set in. It needs to be buried within this sediment for an extended period of time  usually, millions of years  and if the ground in which the wood is buried is particularly well compacted, it won't be able to interact with oxygen or organisms, so will be unable to decay. In such instances, the organic material becomes fossilized. During this process, known as mineralization, groundwater rich in minerals flows through the sediment and the dead tree, whose woody remains are replaced over time by the water's minerals. In the case of petrified wood, these minerals tend to be silica, calcite, pyrite or another inorganic material, such as opal, according to the Quekett Microscopical Club (opens in new tab), one of the world's oldest organizations dedicated to microscopy.

Related: When did Earth's first forests emerge?

So, although the material is called petrified "wood," it is actually not wood at all; rather, the minerals have replaced and taken on the appearance of the wood that was once there.

"The mineralization can be from either  or, much more often, both  mineral precipitation in or between the wood's cellular structures, or mineral replacement of the actual organic material that once made up the cell walls of the wood," Sunderlin said. "The former process is called permineralization, while the latter is simply called replacement."

How long does it take for wood to become petrified?

"[It] can take a very long time on a human time-scale, but sometimes we see cases of amazingly quick wood preservation by these mineralization processes," Sunderlin said. "There are some incipient petrified wood pieces being formed in fallen logs in mineral hot springs, such as those at Yellowstone National Park. These accumulate substantial mineral deposits in their woody tissues year after year. Much of the petrified wood we see in the rock record, though, formed over longer timescales of thousands to millions of years and, sometimes, re-mineralization in multiple stages."

The exact amount of time needed for wood to become petrified depends on the conditions  the main one being how rich the groundwater is in minerals such as silica  but generally ranges from hundreds of thousands of years to millions of years.

Where does petrified wood form?

Those long timescales mean petrified wood forms better in some environments and locations than in others.

"Many of the world's most famous petrified wood localities are in exposed sedimentary rocks that were deposited in fluvial-lacustrine paleoenvironmental conditions," Sunderlin said. These are areas that were once ancient floodplains or lake systems where low dissolved oxygen levels prevented microbial decay. Once the wood was buried in these locations, groundwater supplied the sediments needed to petrify the wood and eventually remove all of the tree's original organic matter.

"We have petrified wood in the fossil record in these and other paleoenvironmental settings ever since the Devonian Period, more than 350 million years ago," Sunderlin said.

So, what about petrified wood's scientific value? Can studying it provide any valuable insights?

"Much like the study of growth rings in modern wood, petrified wood can be very useful in learning about the growing conditions a tree experienced in the ancient past," Sunderlin said. "When the preservation is right, petrified wood can tell of ecological and climatological conditions of an environment long ago."

Scientists can look for signatures of abundant rainfall or drought reflected in characteristics of the wood rings and may even be able to spot evidence of wildfires or insect infestation, Sunderlin said. In some cases, wood anatomy is so well preserved that, by comparing it to modern examples, researchers can learn more about "particular aspects of that lineage's evolution , biogeography, and ecology," he added.

While it tends to take millions of years for petrified wood to form in the natural world, scientists have found ways to replicate the necessary processes in the lab and can now artificially create petrified wood in days.

As Live Science reported back in 2005 , scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) recreated, under laboratory conditions, the conversion of wood into a ceramic. The process involved cutting the wood into small cubes, soaking the pieces in hydrochloric acid for two days, and then submerging them in silica solution for another two days. Once air-dried, the pieces were placed into a furnace filled with argon gas, heated to about 1,550 degrees Fahrenheit (1,400 degrees Celsius) and baked for two hours.

According to a PNNL statement (opens in new tab) celebrating the results, "[the] method yields an identical, positive reproduction of the wood."

Originally published on Live Science on Nov. 30, 2012 and rewritten on July 20, 2022.
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British music exports soared 13.7% to a high of 590.8 million ($709 million) in 2021, the highest total on record, per the latest analysis from British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the trade body for independent and major record labels in the U.K.

The 2021 total is the highest since the BPI began its annual survey of record label overseas income in 2000 and was driven by a record number of U.K. artists, nearly 400, each achieving 100 million-plus global streams. These include superstars like Adele, Dua Lipa, Dave and Ed Sheeran, and several emerging artists, including Glass Animals, PinkPantheress and Rex Orange County. More than 600 U.K. artists achieved at least 50 million audio streams, while over 1,500 surpassed 10 million audio streams.

The analysis reveals that physical and digital download sales, streams and other consumption of British music increased in Europe by 17.6%, North America by 11.0% and Asia by 11.1%. Ten of the U.K.s 20 biggest music export markets experienced double-digit percentage growth on the previous year, led by China with a 61.2% year-on-year increase, the U.S. (up 10.4%), Germany (up 31.3%), France (up 20.1%) and Canada (up 18.%). U.K. music exports to Latin America rose 12.7% overall, including a 19.2% year-on-year increase in Mexico.

However, the U.K.s share of the global market is under pressure from established markets that are consolidating their share of the world market, such as the U.S. and Europe, and from fast-growing domestic music markets that are achieving greater international success such as Latin America and South Korea, the analysis notes.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive BPI, BRIT Awards and Mercury Prize, said: These record-breaking figures once again highlight the extraordinary popularity of British music internationally. This is not just about our much-loved superstars, but new artists and bands from all over the U.K. who, with their labels investment and expertise, are able to successfully navigate the competitive streaming landscape.

Recent market estimates suggest the global recorded music industry could double in size by 2030, meaning theres ample opportunity for more artists to achieve international success and for music to deliver for U.K. PLC, Taylor added. But continued success isnt guaranteed, as competition increases from international markets, making it harder to cut through and putting pressure on our global market share. The Music Exports Growth Scheme provides vital funding to help independent labels and artists expand their businesses overseas, and with sustained support from Government, British music will continue to thrive all around the world.

More than 60 U.K. artists whose music was streamed at least 20 million times worldwide last year received funding through the Music Export Growth Scheme, an export support scheme for independent music companies, administered by the BPI and joint funded by industry and the U.K. government.

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In his never-ending quest to sell his viewers white supremacist talking points, Tucker Carlson spent a significant portion of his show Tuesday evening railing against the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, claiming the piece of legislation has contributed to the downfall of society by changing America completely and forever.

The bizarre observation came as Carlson took aim at the Biden administrations recent $172 million grant to a George Soros-linked organization which exists to help young border crossers avoid deportation.'

Why is some foreign-born billionaire allowed to change our country fundamentally? Carlson asked. Thats the big question.

Actually, Tucker, the bigger question is whether or not you remember who signs your paychecks.

Tucker: Why is some foreign born billionaire allowed to change our country fundamentally? pic.twitter.com/3PVAHGIxIJ  Acyn (@Acyn) July 20, 2022

A quick refresher: Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch is a literal Succession-esque media magnate currently worth an estimated $18.3 billion born and raised in Australia  which, unless theres some strange overlooked period of American history in which the Oceanic country became the 51st state, makes Murdoch one of Carlsons foreign-born boogeyman. Lest we forget, Murdoch only ditched his Australian citizenship in 1985 to circumvent a U.S. law which prohibited a foreign national from owning more than 20% of a broadcasting license. (At the time, Murdoch was in negotiations to purchase a group of independent television stations.) Spooky George Soros, like Murdoch, is a naturalized American citizen, having gone through the process in 1961.

Carlsons pearl-clutching over the rise of non-white American citizens and residents is nothing new, as the Fox News host is an unabashed evangelist for the so-called replacement theory, which suggests Democrats are keen to bring would-be liberal voters into the United States in an effort to silence white conservatives. The great replacement? Its not a conspiracy theory, Tucker said Tuesday when discussing Democrats diversity and immigration initiatives. Its their electoral strategy  and we know that because they say it all the time. (Carlsons proof of Democratic politicians pushing replacement theory ideals included a clip of Georgia political figure Stacey Abrams stating the Blue Wave is African-American. Its white. Its Latino. Its Asian Pacific Islander and former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro discussing Texas shift from a solidly red state to a purple state and, possibly, a blue state due to changing demographics  an undeniable fact as the non-white population of the southern powerhouse is now almost equal to its white population.)

Murdoch and his News Corp media empire have a long history of knowingly promoting and peddling quasi-news to the American public  much of which has, especially in recent years, helped stoked the fears of conservatives, driving discourse away from discussions of actual policy into wild conspiracy theories and fear-mongering. Through Fox News alone, Murdoch and his goons helped perpetuate a laundry list including, but definitely not limited to: airing thinly veiled pro-Putin propaganda; blaming marijuana for the rise in mass shootings; refuting former president Donald Trumps 2020 election loss on mass instances of voting machine fraud; suggesting the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol was a false flag operation; contributing to widespread anti-vaxx hysteria during the COVID-19 pandemic; sounding white supremacist dog whistles on the regular; and perpetuating debunked theories around the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. These sensationalized and often untrue Fox News talking points, packaged as legitimate and fact-based reporting at the behest of a foreign-born billionaire, have undeniably altered the American political landscape  or, to put it into Carlsons words, changed our country fundamentally.

Funny how that works, Tucker.
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Two-time Palme dOr winner Ruben Ostlund will receive an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award at the 28th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival, which will open Aug. 12 with the Swedish directors 2022 Cannes winner Triangle of Sadness.

Ostlunds English-language debut, which earned a rowdy eight-minute standing ovation in Cannes, is a provocative social satire starring Harris Dickinson as a male model struggling with his shallow industry and the unchecked capitalism he benefits from, and Woody Harrelson as the rabid Marxist captain of a cruise for the super-rich. The film was acquired by Neon for North American distribution.

Ostlund will be presented with the award during the festivals opening ceremony on Aug. 12, which will be followed by a screening of his latest feature. Last week the festival announced it would also be giving an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award to U.S. director and screenwriter Paul Schrader.

Swedens leading contemporary filmmaker and producer, Ostlund has been a fixture on the festival circuit since his feature debut, The Guitar Mongoloid, won the Fipresci Award at the Moscow Film Festival in 2005. Since his sophomore effort, Involuntary, bowed in the Cannes Film Festivals Un Certain Regard sidebar in 2008, the director has been a regular on the Croisette, where he won the Jury Award in Un Certain Regard for Force Majeure in 2014 and the Palme dOr for his art world satire The Square in 2017.

This years triumph landed the Swedish filmmaker in rarefied company with other two-time Palme winners such as Francis Ford Coppola, Emir Kusturica, Ken Loach and Michael Haneke.

Varietys chief critic Peter Debruge described Triangle of Sadness as wickedly funny, writing: Theres a meticulous precision to the way [Ostlund] constructs, blocks and executes scenes  a kind of agonizing unease, amplified by awkward silences or an unwelcome fly buzzing between characters struggling to communicate.

Written by Ostlund, the ambitious pan-European co-production was made as part of a joint project of Sarajevos Obala Art Center and Turkish public broadcaster TRT, with Sarajevo Film Festival founder and former director Mirsad Purivatra and current director Jovan Marjanovic both claiming credits as associate producers.

After two stripped-down editions, the leading film industry event in the Balkan region expects to return to pre-pandemic heights in 2022, with cinemas and open-air theaters operating at full capacity.

Ostlund, who was last in Sarajevo as jury president for the main competition in 2019, will no doubt be encouraged by the return of movie-goers. Speaking to Variety in Cannes about the experience of sharing his films with a live audience, the director said: Theres one thing that I love about the cinema and that youre watching things together in the same room. Basically, it creates a certain kind of reflection to the content that you have just watched. It fits my feelings so well. I want people to reflect on what they have seen. I want them to have a discussion afterwards.

The 28th Sarajevo Film Festival runs Aug. 12-19.

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SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in Marvel Studios Thor: Love and Thunder, currently playing in theaters.

When Jennifer Kaytin Robinson first got a call from Marvel Studios, it wasnt about writing the script for Thor: Love and Thunder with director Taika Waititi.

I actually pitched to write Captain Marvel 2,' Robinson tells Variety. And off of that pitch, they were like, So were not giving you this job. Were going to pair you with Taika and youre going to help him on Thor.

At the time, Waititi was in the throes of awards season for 2019s Jojo Rabbit, which won the filmmaker the Oscar for best adapted screenplay, and needed a partner to work through the films delicate tightrope walk of a story: Thor (Chris Hemsworth) battles the existential threat of Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) with his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), whos become the superhero the Mighty Thor through the mystical hammer Mjolnir  which also erases the effects of the stage 4 cancer ravaging her body.

Robinson talked with Variety about the responsibility of navigating Janes storyline, what its like working on a set with Waititi, her trust in Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, and why she suspected Hercules was the big reveal in the movies post-credits scene  even if she didnt know who would play him. (One thing Robinson wouldnt discuss: Who Lena Headey played in her deleted scenes in the movie: Youll never know. Unless Taika or Kevin tell you.)

When you started working with Taika Waititi on the script, did you have a specific area you were focusing on, or was it more all over?

I would say all over. It was really like: There was a really amazing blueprint. Then it was just about digging into the blueprint. It was pulling back the layers and really getting into the character stuff. Janes story was something that I had a big hand in. That was kind of where I was the most useful, I think, to the process.

How did the storyline with Janes cancer evolve from your perspective?

It was always there. Obviously, its in the comics, and it was in Taikas first draft. And then it was just about, you know, what does this mean? We had a lot of conversations, especially with Natalie, about, you know, we have a responsibility here. What an amazing thing to be able to show a superhero with cancer and really not shy away from the ugliness of it and the things that are hard about it, but also really being able for this character to shine. A lot of the conversations were like, How do we do this justice and how do we put something on screen thats going to mean something and resonate with cancer survivors?

Before the film opened, everyone, including Natalie, avoided confirming that Jane had cancer, but her first scene in the film is during her chemotherapy treatment. Was that always the case?

Yeah. I dont know if Im allowed to say this, but I think its fine: In the original draft, it was actually before the Marvel [Studios logo]. It was even earlier in Taikas original draft. That always was a moving piece  ultimately, it did become [the origins for] Gorr and I think its awesome. But [Janes cancer] was never going to be a gotcha moment. It was always, like, this is the story of this woman. This is her arc. And this is where it starts.

How did you navigate including this real and painful storyline within a giant, fantastical superhero movie?

I think we just always tried to look for the truth and the emotion behind it, and really come from a human place. And not a general human place  its a Jane human place. Its thinking how would Jane handle this, how does Jane move through her diagnosis? Specificity, I think, is what makes the best story and something feel universal. And this was specifically Janes story. Because yeah, most cancer survivors dont have a magic hammer that they can access thats gonna make them a superhero and give them huge arms. Theres definitely a lot of really fantastical things, and then you have a scene where she just tells her boyfriend she has cancer, and shes very nervous to do that. Thats a very human, real scene  on a boat in space. (Laughs)

It felt at times like there was more to Valkyries story than we ended up seeing on screen. Was there a version where we saw more of her life on New Asgard?

No. The New Asgard part of Valkyries story is maybe a little bit condensed, but it really was what was in the earlier drafts. You know, the script was very long and the movie is not as long as the script. But those choices were really more on the Kevin/Taika side than on the me side.

When I interviewed Natalie Portman for Varietys cover story, she talked about how Taika shoots very unconventionally  that hell essentially throw out the script on the day.

Thats right.

You also worked on those pages, of course  what was it like when youd be on set and that would happen?

We worked on them together. He threw out his own work! We really sat in rooms and Zooms together for months and months and months, and then we would get there, and we would rehearse it, and  throw it out is the wrong word. I mean, he does throw it out, but the core is still there. I would say he pluses  he cant help but always try to plus. I cant imagine Taika is ever going to write something and be like, Its done and well shoot it.

So how would he approach that part of the process?

There were different versions. We would read what we were shooting the next day around a table, and it would be like, idea, idea, idea. I would sit with my laptop and listen and just close my Heimdall eyes and write something and then turn my computer around to him and say, This? So that was one version of it. Another version is in the first blocking rehearsal, things would start to change, and I would just have my computer and be typing with one hand, following Taika around as he moved things and changed things. Theres a bit that is not in the film, but it was Hemsworth and Pratt walking through this trench, and I just remember it was such an out-of-body experience, as Im like walking behind Taika, Chris and Chris with a laptop in this literal trench that they built that looks like youre in a planet. And Im just like, What the fuck? How did I get here? It was very bizarre.

And then I would say, the third version of the way that Taika directs is he literally stands behind the monitor, and I would stand next to him, and it would just be shouting things. I was never shouting. I would always pitch to Taika and then Taika would choose what he liked. But I had a lot of time where I had a mini monitor next to Taika, and we were just writing the movie almost in real time as they were shooting it. So there were all different kinds of versions of putting together this film. Taikas brain just moves at a pace that should not be allowed. Its like, the way that he kind of thinks or looks at things and like his capacity to kind of play, but also have total control is really astounding.

Was there ever a time where you felt like you had accidentally rewritten yourselves into a corner based on other stuff that youd shot before?

No, I think that Taika and I were a good team, in that I was kind of a person who was there to remind him, Oh, get this line. Oh, get that. He was able to lean on me in that and be able to go off in all these different places, knowing that he had a person there who was able to bring it back if it needed to be. When you get into the edit, you know, the whole thing kind of blows up anyway. So I always tried to kind of be there to make sure that the thing that was needed was said. Usually, in a Marvel movie, those are very small things.

Were you involved at all with the post-credit scene, where we learn Brett Goldstein is playing Hercules?

I saw that at the premiere with everybody else. In the same way that I guess Taika didnt know Thor was coming back, I did not know that Roy Kent was Hercules. Im a huge Marvel fan, so I was delighted to have one moment in the movie where I was truly surprised.

You didnt know about any of it?

I knew there was talk about Hercules. The name Hercules was not not said in conversations that I definitely, probably wasnt supposed to overhear, but did. So the minute I saw the beginning of the scene, I knew he was gonna be talking to Hercules. I didnt know who they cast. But I was like, is this gonna be Hercules? I just knew that it was a thing that they were like, Were gonna want leeway with this, so stay away from it.

Working with Marvel Studios can be an experience unto itself. Were there any big surprises for you working on this film?

Not really. The job was to write with and for Taika. The job was to write for Marvel. I understood the job. And so I wasnt going into it with any preconceived notions of like, what the job was going to be, needed to be, should be. I just kind of was on the ride. If you just give yourself over to the ride of working for Marvel, its really exciting. Its really fun. You have the biggest toy box in the world to play in and with. For me, especially coming from my first show, Sweet/Vicious, I already kind of had a brain where this was a place that I wanted to go in my career. So to get here, I was just like, Hell yeah, Im in for whatever this is. Every job, there are days when its really challenging, where youre beating your head against the wall. But there are also days where youre in a trench with two Chrises and Taika on a stage in Australia, youre like, This is insane. So I think its just riding the waves of having a very high stakes job that is also incredibly fun.

Are you anticipating working with Marvel again?

I dont know. At this point, Im very open to wherever life takes me. Something that Ive learned in this business is that you can try to plan and plans will be thrown back in your face and youll be laughed at. So I have stopped planning. If I get a call and they want me to come in and pitch on something, and its something that I feel like I would be right for, yeah, I would work with Marvel again. The one thing Ill say is Kevin really understands putting together writers and directors and executives and projects  creating that creative soup. So if Kevin feels that I am right for something, I really trust him, because I think I would be set up for success.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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AKRON, Ohio (AP)  An attorney for the family of Jayland Walker, the 25-year-old Black man killed in a hail of police gunfire last month in Ohio, on Wednesday joined the national NAACP and its Akron branch in calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Walker's death.

Attorney Bobby DiCello made the call while questioning the integrity of the current investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which was asked by Akron officials to examine the June 27 shooting.
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A pair of two-day-old North Texas wildfires continued to resist containment Wednesday after destroying 21 homes, officials said.

The Chalk Mountain Fire near Glen Rose, Texas, destroyed 16 homes and damaged five others as it remained on the move Wednesday after scorching almost 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) of mostly short grass, brush and juniper as of midday Wednesday, said Alexandra Schwier, a Texas A&M Forest Service spokeswoman. The fire about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth was 10% contained Wednesday with embers from burning tree crowns flying up to 200 yards (183 meters).

The fire at Possum Kingdom Lake destroyed five homes as it spread along its western shore, charring 500 (200 hectares) acres about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Fort Worth. That fire was 15% contained Wednesday, the Forest Service said.

Temperatures approaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius), combined with a relative humidity near 20% and 10-mph (16-kph) winds gusting to 20 mph (32kph), resisted efforts to contain the fiery spread beyond 10% containment, the Forest Service said.

In these fuels, resistance to control is often high and makes suppression efforts challenging for firefighters," said Luke Kanclerz, a Forest Service fire analyst, in a statement.

Ninety firefighters worked around the clock on the Chalk Mountain Fire, focusing on protecting structures and digging a containment line around the fire's northeastern leading edge. A no-fly zone was declared for the area as air tankers operated overhead. Airdrops of fire retardant began Wednesday morning with a special DC-10 called a Very Large Air Tanker and a C-130 transport and MD-87 jet called Large Air Tankers dropping 60,000 gallons of retardant near that leading edge by midafternoon, Schwier said.

The fire extended into Hood County from neighboring Somervell County, where County Judge Danny Chambers said all 16 destroyed and five damaged homes were located. Chambers had issued a disaster declaration because of the possibility of evacuations and said most residents of the county's rural northwestern quadrant heeded a voluntary evacuation notice given for the county's rural northwestern quadrant.

No injuries were reported from that fire.

Crews were also fighting the Possum Kingdom Lake fire around the clock by air and on the ground. Fire crews used bulldozers to dig containment lines around the fire's leading edge, the Forest Service said. Two crew members were treated for minor heat injuries and returned to service.

The Forest Service said that 99% of the state was experiencing some level of drought Wednesday.
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BANGKOK (AP)  Scattered pro-democracy rallies were held across military-ruled Myanmar on Tuesday to mark the 75th anniversary of the assassination of the independence hero and father of the countrys civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in last years military takeover.

The protests generally dispersed within a short time to avoid confrontations with security forces. Since the army took power and detained Suu Kyi and thousands of supporters, 2,091 civilians including poets, activists, politicians and others had been killed in the crackdown, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The opposition National Unity Government, which was established by elected lawmakers and considers itself the countrys legitimate administration, broadcast a livestream of the commemoration ceremony on social media.

Mahn Winn Khaing Thann, the shadow prime minister of the government that the ruling military considers a terrorist organization, promised to fight until freedom is restored in Myanmar.

I would like to reiterate that the entire population, including monks, students, and youth, can only exercise their freedom of choice and fully enjoy their rights after ending the military dictatorship and restoring democracy, he said.

Gen. Aung San was 32 when he was gunned down by a group of armed men in uniform in Yangon, the countrys biggest city. A political rival, former Prime Minister U Saw, was tried and hanged for plotting the assassination less than six months before the country, then called Burma, achieved its independence from British colonial rule.

In Yangon, neighborhoods heard wailing sirens and car horns bellowing out for one minute at 10:37 a.m., the time of the 1947 attack that also killed six Cabinet members and two other officials.

Photos and videos showed protesters carrying banners and chanting Eradicate racism, there are more than nine martyrs in Yangon.

An annual official ceremony was held at Martyrs Mausoleum in Yangon, near the foot of the famous Shwedagon Pagoda.

Neither Suu Kyi, who is under arrest, nor Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who heads the ruling military council, attended the event. The highest-ranking official there was Vice-Senior Gen. Soe Win, vice chairman of the military council. An official of the ceremonys subcommittee laid a wreath on behalf of Suu Kyis family.

Suu Kyi, 77, has not been seen in public apart from one photo shown on state television in May 2021, taken inside a court at the start of criminal proceedings against her.

Suu Kyi has been sentenced to 11 years in prison and was transferred from a secret detention location to a custom-built solitary facility at a prison in the capital Naypyitaw last month.

She is being tried on a slew of legal cases brought by the military. Her supporters and independent analysts say the charges are politically motivated and an attempt to discredit her and legitimize the militarys seizure of power.

The historic secretariat office building where the 1947 attack took place, and Bogyoke Aung San Museum, the last residence of Aung San and his family before his assassination, were reopened to the public under strict safety protocols after being closed for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Residents who live near the sites said security was tight and few visitors were seen on nearby roads coming to pay respects.
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  Sri Lankan lawmakers on Wednesday elected the unpopular prime minister as their new president, a choice that risked reigniting turmoil in the South Asian nation reeling from economic collapse and months of round-the-clock protests.

The crisis has already forced out one leader, and a few hundred protesters quickly gathered after the vote to express their outrage that Ranil Wickremesinghe  a six-time prime minister whom they see as part of the problematic political establishment  would stay in power.

While the choice invited more protests, lawmakers apparently considered Wickremesinghe a safe pair of hands, a politician with deep experience who could lead Sri Lanka out of the crisis. He has spent 45 years in Parliament and led recent talks seeking a bailout for the bankrupt island nation.

Sri Lankans have taken to the street for months to demand their top leaders step down as the country spiraled into economic chaos that left its 22 million people struggling with shortages of essentials, including medicine, fuel and food. After demonstrators stormed the presidential palace and several other government buildings last week, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled and then resigned.

Much of the protesters' ire is focused on Rajapaksa and his familys political dynasty, which ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades. But many also blame Wickremesinghe for protecting Rajapaksa. During demonstrations last week, crowds set his personal residence on fire and occupied his office.

Wednesday's vote means Wickremesinghe  who was also Rajapaksas finance minister and became acting president after the leader fled  will finish the presidential term ending in 2024. He can now also appoint a new prime minister.

I need not tell you what state our country is in," Wickremesinghe, 73, told fellow lawmakers after his victory was announced. "People are not expecting the old politics from us. They expect us to work together.

He pleaded for the country to move on: Now that the election is over, we have to end this division.

But protesters flocked to the presidential residence instead, chanting, Ranil, go home.

We are very sad, very disappointed with the 225 parliament members who we elected to speak for us, which they have not done, said Visaka Jayawware, a performance artist in the crowd. We will keep fighting for the people of Sri Lanka. We have to ask for a general election.

Wickremesinghe has wide experience in diplomatic and international affairs and oversaw the bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund.

But many voters view him with suspicion since he was appointed prime minister by Rajapaksa in May, in hopes he would restore stability.

The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful family of siphoning money from government coffers and of hastening the countrys collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but the former president acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lankas meltdown.

The struggle will continue until our demands are met. Wickremesinghe "doesnt have a mandate to rule the country, said Nemel Jayaweera, a human resources professional. We will oppose him.

Still, the ruling party's majority in Parliament swept Wickremesinghe to victory with 134 votes. Populist Dullas Alahapperuma, a longtime ally of Rajapaksa and also a minister in his government, secured 82 votes. A Marxist candidate netted three votes.

The vote, shown on national television, was a decorous, solemn affair. While the balloting was secret, as the results were announced, lawmakers thumped their tables in support of their candidates.

After the vote, some supporters celebrated Wickremesinghes win in the streets. He will be sworn in Thursday.

Only a few lawmakers had publicly said they would vote for Wickremesinghe given the widespread hostility against him. But dozens loyal to Rajapaksa had been expected to back him because he had assured them he would severely punish protesters who burned politicians homes in the unrest.

On Monday, in his role as acting president, Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency that gave him broad authority to act in the interest of public security and order. Authorities can carry out searches and detain people, and Wickremesinghe can also change or suspend any law.

The political turmoil in Sri Lanka has only worsened the economic disaster. But Wickremesinghe said Monday that negotiations with the IMF were drawing close to a conclusion, and talks on help from other countries had also progressed. He also said the government has taken steps to resolve shortages of fuel and cooking gas.

Hours before Wednesday's vote, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told financial magazine Nikkei Asia that the organization hoped to complete the rescue talks as quickly as possible.

As prime minister, Wickremesinghe delivered weekly addresses in Parliament cautioning that the path out of the crisis would be difficult, while also pledging to overhaul a government that increasingly has concentrated power under the presidency.

Presidents in Sri Lanka are normally elected by the public. The responsibility falls to Parliament only if the presidency becomes vacant before the term officially ends.

That has happened only once before in Sri Lanka, in 1993, when then-Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga was chosen by Parliament uncontested after former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, father of the current opposition leader, was assassinated.

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Associated Press writer Bharatha Mallawarachi contributed to this report.

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Find more of APs Sri Lanka coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/sri-lanka
DOHUK, Iraq (AP)  Turkish artillery strikes killed at least eight tourists, among them a small child, in northern Iraq and wounded over 20, officials from the Iraqi Kurdish government, a hospital and the army said Wednesday.

At least four artillery shells struck the resort area of Barakh in the Zakho district in the semi-autonomous Kurdish-run region, District Mayor Mushir Mohammed told The Associated Press. All the casualties were Iraqi citizens.

Iraq's military said eight were killed in the attack. Health workers at the Bidar Hospital in Dohuk province, which received patients, said nine were killed. The incident will test Iraq-Turkey relations. The two countries share deep economic ties but don't see eye-to-eye on security issues related to Kurdish insurgents operating in Iraq, oil trading with the Kurdish region and water-sharing.

Dozens of wounded people sat outside the hospital. Critically injured patients, including young children with stunned faces, were transferred in gurneys. Inside, a toddler was pronounced dead along with her mother.

The Iraqi Kurdish region's Health Ministry said all the dead were young people and children, including a 1-year old. The ministry said 26 people had been taken to the hospital with moderate to severe injuries.

Turkeys Foreign Ministry released a statement expressing condolences to the Iraqi people and government over the deaths and a speedy recovery to those injured.

The statement said Turkey carries out its operations by showing utmost sensitivity to the protection of civilians, infrastructure, historical and cultural assets and the environment.

Turkey is ready to take every step to reveal the truth, the ministry said.

Among the wounded was Yousef, a tourist from Baghdad. He said many tour groups were vacationing in the area at the time of the attack.

Iraq's government condemned the attack, calling it a flagrant violation of Iraq's sovereignty, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

This attack led to the deaths and injuries of civilians, most of whom are women and children, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said in a statement.

This brutal attack underscores the fact that Turkey ignored Iraq's continuous demands to refrain from military violations against Iraqi territory and the lives of its people, he said.

Al-Kadhimi convened an emergency meeting of the Ministerial Council for National Security. The council directed the Foreign Affairs Ministry to prepare a report on Turkeys repeated attacks on Iraqi soil and submit an official complaint to the U.N. Security Council, while also summoning Turkeys ambassador to Baghdad.

It also ordered a pause in dispatching a new Iraqi ambassador to Ankara.

The U.N. mission in Iraq called in a statement for a thorough investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding the attack.

Separately, six federal police personnel were killed and five were wounded in the northern province of Salahadin after Islamic State militants attacked their units at dawn on Wednesday, according to two officials in the Iraqi army who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Hundreds of Iraqi tourists come to the Kurdish region from the south during the peak summer months because the weather is relatively cooler. The touristic sites in Zakho is nearby military bases set up by Turkey.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi dispatched a delegation to the area lead by Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and ordered an investigation into the incident.

Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes into northern Iraq and has sent commandos to support its offensives targeting elements of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party or PKK.

Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish-run regional administration, said the ongoing attacks hurts Iraqi Kurds and must stop."

Our region has been repeatedly dragged into violence by the infighting between Turkey and the PKK. It has cost our citizens unnecessary pain, suffering and anxiety. This has to end," he said in a statement.

Wednesday's attack marked the first time that tourists had been killed in the frequent attacks by Turkey in the area, the officials said. Turkish strikes in the area are common and have killed civilians, mostly local villagers, there before.

In April, Turkey launched its latest offensive, named Operation Claw Lock, in parts of northern Iraq - part of a series of cross-border operations started in 2019 to combat the outlawed PKK who are based in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq.

The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, and has led an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984 which has killed tens of thousands of people.

Ankara has pressed Baghdad to root out PKK elements from the northern region. Iraq, in turn, has said Turkey's ongoing attacks are in breach of its sovereignty.



Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukrainian forces on Wednesday damaged a bridge that is key to supplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine, where Russias foreign minister said Moscow will consolidate its territorial gains.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state-controlled RT television and the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia plans to retain control over broader areas beyond eastern Ukraine, including the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south, and will make more gains elsewhere.

Lavrov's remarks and the Ukrainian missile attack on the strategically important Kherson region bridge indicated the nearly five-month war could broaden after unfolding mostly in eastern Ukraine since April.

Russia's top diplomat noted that when Russia and Ukraine in March discussed a possible deal to end the fighting, Our readiness to accept the Ukrainian proposal was based on the geography of March 2022.

Now its a different geography, Lavrov said, repeating Moscow's claims that the United States and Britain were encouraging Ukraine to expand the hostilities.

With Western countries providing Ukraine with longer-range weapons, Lavrov said Russia's geographical tasks will be pushed even further from the current line because we cannot allow the part of Ukraine under control of Zelenskyy or whoever comes to succeed him, to have weapons that will pose a direct threat to our territory and the territories of those republics that have declared their independence.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 and quickly seized territory, but withdrew from the capital region and north to concentrate on seizing Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, which pro-Moscow separatists have partly controlled since 2014.

As Russian forces captured more of the two provinces, which together make up Ukraine's industrial Donbas region, Ukrainian officials planned a counter-offensive to retake Russian-occupied areas in the south.

The Ukrainian strike on the Dnipro River bridge, the second in as many days, appeared intended to loosen Russia's grip on the southern Kherson region.

Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of a temporary, Russian-installed administration running the region, said the Ukrainian military struck the Antonivskyi Bridge using U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers. The 1.4-kilometer (0.9-mile) bridge is the main river crossing in the Kherson region, and the Russian military uses it to supply its forces. Stremousov said that because of the bridge damage, pontoons would be constructed over the river, also known as the Dnieper.

The head of the Moscow-appointed Kherson administration, Vladimir Saldo, said cars could continue driving across the bridge but trucks couldn't and instead could use a dam 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

Early in the war, Russian troops overran the Kherson region just north of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. They have faced Ukrainian counterattacks, but have largely held their ground.

Kherson  site of ship-building at the confluence of the Dnipro River and Black Sea  is one of several areas a U.S. government spokesman said Russia is trying to take over.

White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence officials have evidence that Russia wants to annex Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and all of the Donbas through referendums, as soon as September.

In Zaporizhzhia, Russian-installed authorities claimed Wednesday that Ukraine's military had used drones to attack the local nuclear power plant, Europe's largest. Vladimir Rogov, a local Moscow-appointed official, said three Ukrainian attack drones had hit the plant's territory with explosives but not its reactor area. All normal operations continued, and no release of radiation was detected, he said. Russia's state news agency Tass reported 11 plant workers were injured, four seriously. The news agency later quoted a Russian military official as saying the attack had occurred Monday.

Ukrainian authorities, who have over the past months reported Russian missiles almost hitting the plant, did not immediately comment on the report.

The bulk of Russia's forces are fighting in the Donbas, where they have made slow gains facing Ukrainian resistance. The Russian military has used long-range missiles to strike targets across Ukraine, killing hundreds of civilians.

Ukraine's presidential office said at least 13 civilians were killed and 40 wounded in Russian shelling across the country in a 24-hour period between Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Wednesday, at least three more people died when Russia bombarded the northeastern city of Kharkiv with Hurricane salvo rocket systems. The victims, who were waiting at a bus stop, included a 69-year-old man, his wife and a 13-year-old boy.

The boys 15-year-old sister was injured, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutors Office. Video showed the boy's father, apparently in a state of shock, praying above his son's uncovered body and holding his hand.

Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of launching cross-border attacks. Another such report came Wednesday, when Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had fired on two Russian border villages.

Most villagers were previously evacuated under a state of emergency, but Gladkov said the latest attack killed a man, and damaged homes and a village club.

In other developments Wednesday:

 An Associated Press investigation has found that many refugees from Ukraine are forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that Ukraine has been using U.S-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers effectively and would provide four more, bringing the total to 16. The truck-mounted HIMARS launchers fire GPS-guided missiles that can reach targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

 Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, appealed to American lawmakers during a speech at the U.S. Capitol for more air defense systems to protect her countrys skies. In her unsparing Capitol address, Zelenska shared images of blood-stained baby strollers and small crumpled bodies left after Russian missile attacks.

 The European Unions head office proposed that member states cut their natural gas use by 15% over the coming months to ensure that any full Russian cutoff of natural gas supplies will not cause unmanageable winter disruptions. While the initial cuts would be voluntary, the European Commission also asked for the power to impose mandatory reductions across the bloc in the event of a severe gas shortage or exceptionally high demand.

Zelenskyy, in a Wednesday night video address, said Europe should have reduced its dependence on Russian gas previously. If our position had been listened to earlier, he said, "we would not have had to look for emergency ways to fill the deficit that Russia is artificially creating on the European market."

 In a sign of the crippling economic impact of the war, the Ukrainian government said it would ask investors to allow the country to postpone foreign debt payments for two years. Leaders of a group of creditors said they agreed to the delay and urged bondholders to do the same.

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Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Food, Wine, & Dining

By Ls Cohen Published: July 20 2022

Signs at the stores say they are temporarily closed as of this morning.

Reports are pouring in that Hale and Hearty Soup, the soup and sandwich chain shop, has shuttered all its locations in New York and Long Island. Signs on the door greeted patrons saying that the stores are all temporarily closed, according to a report in the New York Post.

The restaurant has 16 locations in New York City and Long Island. A Google search shows all locations as either closed or temporarily closed.

The social media pages for the company have no statement regarding the closings as of the publishing of this story, with the last postings on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram from February 15.

The cause of the sudden closure is unknown at this time but the New York Daily News reported in a tweet that a person claiming to be a longtime staffer said that the company faced financial hurdles.

We will update this story as more information about the closure becomes available.
Photo of what seems to be China's new submarine revealed in official report

By GT staff reporters (Global Times) 10:26, July 20, 2022

A submarine attached to a submarine flotilla with the navy under the PLA Northern Theater Command bears off a port and heads out for maritime training on May 6, 2022. Photo:China Military

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy recently revealed in an official report what seems to be a new type of conventionally powered submarine that foreign media speculated could offer enhanced stealth capabilities thanks to its new sail design.

Posted by the official WeChat account of the PLA Navy on Monday, the report introduced new upgrades in sailors' canteen services. One of the photos attached to the report particularly attracted military observers - in the background of the photo was a large screen showing a docked submarine, with sailors lining up on the submarine's back in what seems to be a ceremony of some sort.

This is the first time the PLA Navy has revealed this type of conventionally powered submarine in commission, Shanghai-based news website eastday.com reported on Monday.

Believed to be a new entry to the Type 039 family, possibly called the Type 039C, the new submarine is different from the Type 039A and Type 039B in appearance in terms of its unique, angled sail, eastday.com reported.

In 2021, foreign media including navalnews.com and thedrive.com reported on a new submarine when it underwent tests after launch. These reports speculated that the angled sail design could reduce the radar cross-section and make the submarine stealthier above water, provide hydrodynamic advantages and house new systems.

With the new submarine, China became the second country in the world to develop a submarine with an angled sail design after Sweden's A26-class submarine. Foreign reports drew comparisons between the Chinese and Swedish submarines with some analysts claiming China copied the Swedish design.

But the first A26 just had its keel laying ceremony a few weeks ago, meaning it still has a long way to go before commissioning, while the Chinese submarine has seemingly already entered service, the eastday.com report said.

Although the two submarines both use angled sail designs, the details are very different. China's shipbuilding industry has made fast strides and is fully capable of making independent, innovative designs, an expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Tuesday.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
(Alliance News) - Centaur Media PLC on Wednesday reported it swung to a half-year profit as its Flagship 4 brands bring in more revenue.

Pretax profit in the half-year ended June 30 was GBP1.0 million versus a loss of GBP451,000 a year prior. Revenue rose 8% to GB19.8 million from GBP18.3 million, the London-based business information, events and marketing provider said.

Centaur declared a dividend of 0.5 pence per share, unchanged from a year ago.

Revenue growth was primarily driven by the firm's Flagship 4 brands, which are Econsultancy, MW Mini MBA, Influencer Intelligence and The Lawyer. The first three belong to the firm's Xeim portfolio, which grew by 9% to GBP16.1 million from GBP14.8 million while The Lawyer's half-year revenue climbed 6% to GBP3.7 million from GBP3.5 million.

The Flagship 4 brands represent 68% of the company's revenue, Centaur explained.

"We are positioning Centaur to deliver targeted connectivity with timely and deeper insight and are developing our learning and consultancy expertise in a market consistently characterised by change. These underlying trends and our focus on the Flagship 4 are driving our revenue and give us a platform for growth. Meanwhile, our resilient revenue streams and balance sheet strength will ensure that Centaur is well positioned to withstand any wider macroeconomic uncertainty," said Chief Executive Officer Swag Mukerji.

Centaur Media shares were unchanged at 45.00 pence each in London on Wednesday midday.

By Tom Budszus; tombudszus@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Gemfields Group Ltd - London-headquartered gemstones supplier - Says operations of Montepuez Ruby Mining Limitada, in which it holds a 75% interest, continue with heightened "vigilance" amid insurgent activity in Mozambique.

It says an attack, attributed to the Cabo Delgado insurgency last Wednesday, occurred at a closer proximity to the operations of Montepuez Ruby Mining Limitada than prior incidents. The attack reportedly took place in the Muaja village area. A large number of people are reportedly relocating to Nanhupo and Namanhumbir, where the mining operations are located.

Johannesburg current stock price: ZAR3.00, unchanged on Wednesday

12-month change: up 54%

London current stock price: 14.20 pence, down 2.1%

12-month change: up 34%

By Artwell Dlamini; artwelldlamini@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Steven Adams, the toughest guy in the NBA, left a fan stunned after his humble act in the Auckland Airport.

Tim Alpe, an NZ businessman, was waiting in the Air New Zealand Koru Lounge when the 2.11 metre tall Adams sat next to him.



Alpe said that Adams was smashing back a huge breakfast, fitting someone of his size."



You've earned that mate.
The two had a ten-minute hearing over Zoom with Judge Herman Marable Jr.



Jordan was largely silent during the whole hearing, apart from telling the judge he thought the whole thing was a waste of time.

To be honest with you sir, I thought this was just going to be thrown out, he said.

We had a date, one date, nothing else after that, and now Im being sued for $10,000.

I dont see how this is going to any further. I think its a waste of your time, he finished.

Hes probably got a point there ay?
On Saturday, the Guardia Civil arrested a British tourist, who had been accused of raping a British woman at a hotel in Magalluf.

On Friday night, the two, both aged around 20, met at a bar on the C. Punta Ballena. As well as drinking, they took drugs. They went to the hotel where the man was staying. The woman told the Guardia Civil that she couldn't remember anything once inside the hotel room until she regained consciousness and found the man on top of her.

He appeared in court in Palma on Monday and told the judge that the relations had been consensual. The prosecutor, based on evidence from investigators, did not request imprisonment and the court released him.
A former Mexican beauty queen and a Romanian-Dutch accomplice have been arrested in Croatia over the theft of $1.7 million worth of prestige bottles of wine in Spain after a nine-month chase across Europe, police said today.

In a statement, Spanish national police said that on Oct. 27, 2021 in the western city of Caceres, 45 wine bottles worth a total of 1.65 million euros, including one "unique" 19th-century vintage worth 310,000 euros, were spirited out in a meticulously planned theft from the cellars of the famous hotel-restaurant El Atrio.

Police investigators believe the woman, a 29-year-old Mexican, who according to Spanish daily El Pais had competed in a beauty pageant in her homeland, distracted El Atrio waiters by ordering room service from the Michelin-starred restaurant after its kitchen had closed.

Meanwhile, her 47-year-old male accomplice slipped down to the wine cellar, opened it with a master key he had stolen during a prior visit, and filled three backpacks with the bottles, wrapping them in hotel room towels for protection, according to the police statement.

The next day, hotel CCTV captured the pair, who had checked in with false Swiss identity documents, checking out at 5.30 a.m. and leaving on foot with no forensic trace of their presence left at the hotel, it said, leading police to initially believe an organised gang was behind the heist.

The two suspects had visited El Atrio three times before the robbery, the police statement said, and had, like many customers, been given a tour of the wine cellar.

Among the stolen items of wine was a bottle of prestigious French Bordeaux Chateau d'Yquem from 1806, which had an "incalculable" value, said sommelier Jose Polo, a co-owner of El Atrio.

"That bottle was part of my personal history, almost part of me, of the history of Atrio, but also of Caceres, of its citizens, of wine lovers all over the world," Polo said in a letter to local media quoted by El Pais.

The two suspects left Spain within days and were pursued for months across Europe before being identified by Croatian border guards as they crossed from Montenegro, police said.

Spanish police worked with counterparts in the Netherlands, Croatia and Romania as well as Interpol to catch the pair, who have not been identified pending extradition and formal charges being filed.

The stolen wine has not been recovered and the investigation is continuing, according to Spanish media outlets.
The presence of Robert Lewandowski continues to cause a furor throughout Miami with every step he takes in Barcelona's preseason in the United States.

This Tuesday, in one of the previous training sessions against Inter Miami at DRV PNK Stadium, the fans already gave a warm welcome to the Polish player.

Robert Lewandowski reveals his reasons for joining FC Barcelona AP

Lewandowski only came out onto the field and the fans gave him a standing ovation, to which he responded with a quiet greeting, then touched a ball and did some exercises to continue preparing for the start of the match.

Lewandowski supported the team from the stands

As part of Tuesday's match between Barcelona and Inter Miami, Lewandowski was attentive to his new team's 6-0 thrashing.

The broadcast cameras captured the moment of a calm and thoughtful Lewandowski alongside other stars like Gerard Pique, as they enjoyed Barcelona's first game in the United States in 2022.

On the other hand, we can say that Lewandowski really enjoyed the match, after seeing that his team is effective on offense and maybe he will have a season at the level to which we are accustomed.

Knowing his characteristics and knowing that he is hungry for goals in every game, we can say that Lewandowski will not lower his arms to continue scoring on the field.

Will Lewandowski play against Real Madrid in Las Vegas?
Hello everybody and welcome along to this MARCA in English live blog of Robert Lewandowski's presentation as a Barcelona player.

The Polish forward completed his move to the Catalans this week after spending most of his summer forcing his way out of Bayern Munich, where he had won everything on offer in his eight-year spell after joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2014.

Lewandowski's presentation as a Barcelona player is set to get underway at 18:00 CEST, making that a 17:00 BST start. For those of you joining us from the United States, you can follow along from 12:00 ET / 09:00 PT.

LIVE: Robert Lewandowski's Barcelona presentation

Update narration See full narration

Barcelona had spent a lot of the summer trying to get their finances in order so that they could sign Lewandowski, so fans of the Catalans would have been delighted to see his arrival confirmed this week, following Raphinha, Franck Kessie, and Andreas Christensen in joining the club this summer.

Lewandowski had made it clear to Bayern that he wanted to leave this summer, and even showed up late for training on each of their first three days back afte the summer break. In the end, he got his way and has joined Barcelona.

What number will Lewandowski wear at Barcelona?

Lewandowski is a classic No.9, but he might need a favour if he is to take that iconic number at the Camp Nou. As things stand, Memphis Depay is the owner of the No.9 shirt, so the Polish forward may have to ask the Dutchman to give it up, although Memphis is thought to be for sale this summer.

A video surfaced this week of the Barcelona store being unable to print their new signing's name on shirts, as they had run out of their supply of the letter W.
Tonight for the first time in Inter Miami's short history they'll face a roaring giant like Barcelona, a catalonian side that's had a rough past season with Lionel Messi's departure for PSG, but hope this year is different. They look inspired after hometown favorite Xavi Hernandez took the reigns of the team and is trying to bring the club back to its most recent glory days.

DRV PNK Stadium will host the five time Champions League winners as they take on their second preseason game after drawing 1-1 with Olot, a spanish division two team on July 13.

Robert Lewandowski is finally 'blaugrana'

The polish striker has been seen in the Barcelona jersey and smiling these days after his signing was officialized, mentioning he wants to take on new challenges and praising his good communication and relationship building with Xavi.

Update narration See full narration

Phil Neville's team wants to keep the win streak going

Inter Miami on the otherside is trying to make a run towards the MLS Playoffs after their win over Charlotte this past weekend.

David Beckam's team is currently sitting in 9th place, just two points behind Cincinnatti who has the last spot to compete for the title.

"My team and myself think it's the biggest match in the club's history," manager Phil Neville told reporters this week.

Neville will went on to say that this marks the first time since the club was founded in 2018, that they will have a sold out game.
Vladimir Putin waited 50 seconds for Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan at their meeting in Tehran on Tuesday. It was Putin's first meeting with a NATO member since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In a video published by the Turkish press, the Russian leader can be seen to be fidgeting and making numerous facial grimaces during the meeting.

Allegedly suffering from bone cancer

These facial movements could be symptoms of Putin's alleged illness. According to Aleksei Arestovich, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Putin is reportedly suffering from bone cancer.

"[Putin] has had cancer since 2020, something like sarcoma. He still has a number of serious problems with his spine and other organs," said Arestovich.

Restlessness as a symptom

One symptom of this is the restlessness of his legs at public events. At a meeting with Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon, Putin kept moving his left foot up and down and twisting his knee.

At the meeting in the Iranian capital, Putin's symptoms could be seen in the form of a grimace, only adding to rumours of a possible serious illness.
Position Title: Program Manager EOC-Malaria Project.

Department: Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases

Location: Kinshasa, DRC

Duration: 1 year

Direct supervisor: Malaria Program Lead

Background

PATH is a global organization that works to accelerate health equity by bringing together public institutions, businesses, social enterprises, and investors to solve the world's most pressing health problems. With expertise in science, health, economics, technology, digitalization, advocacy, and dozens of other specialties, PATH develops and scales solutions-including vaccines, medicines, devices, diagnostics, digital tools, and innovative approaches-to strengthen health systems worldwide.

PATH collaborates with Ministries of Health in Africa and Asia to strengthen disease surveillance, including malaria and polio, through the creation or revitalization of Public Health Emergency Operations Centers.

Emphasis is placed on strengthening the functionality and coordination of PH-EOCs, increasing the availability of quality data to all relevant actors through the adoption of a basic information infrastructure and integration platform, improved efficiency, and effectiveness of the management of malaria Program activities through the identification, integration and use of data via the PH-EOC, improved management of polio epidemics through the use of an integrated INSP/PHEOC information platform.

In the DRC, over the past five years, the health sector in the DRC has made substantial progress in deploying digital tools such as DHIS2 (the national health management information system [HMIS]), disease elimination platforms and health financing information systems. The increased digitalization of the health sector is leading to new data sources that are both an opportunity for real-time monitoring and a challenge for data management integration and analysis.

Considerable efforts by the DRC Ministry of Health (MOH) to develop and implement a digital health strategy have resulted in, for example

The adoption of the National Health Informatics Development Plan and the Digital Health Investment Roadmap

The definition of the role of ANICiis as the anchor for all investments in digital health.

The adoption of a decree on the creation, organization and functioning of a National Institute of Public Health (INSP), in order to support the DRC Government's vision of universal health coverage (UHC) in the DRC, etc.

These efforts form the policy basis for putting in place the fundamental pillars necessary for effective and sustainable management of disease threats, but they require careful understanding and coordination of all relevant stakeholders and other initiatives to avoid duplication of efforts and fragmentation of solutions.

Thus, PATH-DRC aims to support the DRC Ministry of Health's efforts to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of INSP/PHEOC in prioritizing and managing multiple public health emergencies and their impact through an INSP/PHEOC intelligence platform.

To contribute to this effort, PATH-DRC will focus its support on the following:

Malaria surveillance: through a strengthened PH-EOC, ensure increased availability and use of high-quality data to inform decision-making within the PNLP to increase the impact of malaria interventions

Polio surveillance: strengthening the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) so that it is able to identify and respond adequately to polio outbreaks and that the polio response continues to be a priority for the MOH.

As part of its support to the Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Prevention through its growing malaria portfolio in the DRC, PATH is currently recruiting a Technical Program Manager who will be based in the PATH-DRC office in Kinshasa to support this effort of the Ministry of Health in monitoring epidemics of diseases such as malaria and poliomyelitis through the EOC.

Under the supervision of the Malaria Program Lead based in Kinshasa, the successful candidate will manage the EOC-Malaria Project to support the efforts of the Ministry of Health in carrying out the following tasks under his responsibility:

Responsibilities:

Collaborate with relevant authority in DRC to maintain an effective early detection and timely, coordinated response to public health emergencies, including malaria and polio, through established Institut National de Sante Publique/Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (INSP/PHEOC) in the DRC.

Represent the PATH-DRC program in strategic and technical coordination meetings relating to disease surveillance through the PH-EOC.

Manage effective collaboration with key stakeholders including the Ministry of Health, including ANICiis, other specialized programs and departments such as PNLP, PEV, EPI, DSE, DGLM, etc.

Plan and coordinate INSP/PHEOC capacity building initiatives in close partnership with the Ministry of Health and all stakeholders involved.

Participate and provide technical inputs to meetings of the MoH thematic groups related to the epidemiological surveillance of polio and malaria in the DRC

Supported improving the efficiency and effectiveness of INSP/PHEOC in prioritizing and managing multiple public health emergencies and their impact using an INSP/PHEOC intelligence platform.

Support malaria program efforts through the identification, integration and use of data, including data from the private sector.

Contribute to improving the management of poliomyelitis epidemics through the use of the integrated INSP/PHEOC intelligence platform, multiple public health emergencies and their impact using an INSP/PHEOC intelligence platform.

Support the Ministry of Health in the effort to digitize surveillance tools to strengthen the effectiveness of the PHEOC

Provide the necessary technical assistance to the MoH whenever necessary for the optimal implementation of INSP/PH-EOC in the DRC, both at national and provincial level according to the validated needs of the MoH.

Monitor the activities of the EOC-Malaria project and share monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual reports with whom it may concern.

Contribute to strengthening project sustainability strategies for the DRC MoH

Experience required

Minimum of a masters degree or equivalent in the relevant fields of public health, epidemiology, epidemiology, statistics, health security, tropical medicine, international health, etc.

Mid-level professional with at least seven years of relevant experience in the implementation and management of health projects focusing on health security, disease surveillance including poliomyelitis, malaria, including at least five years in technical assistance, innovation or high-level consulting projects in favor of specialized departments or programs of the Ministry of Health, preferably the PNLP, the EPI, the DSE in the field of epidemiological surveillance and/or monitoring and evaluation. Experience in operational research on the epidemiological surveillance of malaria and/or polio would be an asset.

Excellent knowledge of the DRC health system, the organization of the DGLM, the DSE and national disease surveillance strategies.

In-depth knowledge of global health security, epidemiological surveillance and monitoring and evaluation, ideally in the field of malaria and polio in particular.

Knowledge in in data management software (DHSI2, STATA, EpiInfo or Tableau Software) and the Office pack (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)

Proven ability to work and collaborate with staff and partners, to provide technical assistance and to participate in a relevant way in malaria control implementation activities.

Ability to work as a team player in a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary environment, while being able to work independently without close supervision

Strong experience in health policy management and health policy advocacy.

Available to travel and Strong negotiation and communication skills

Strong experience in stakeholder management

Ability and flexibility to adapt to changing or new Project priorities.

Ability to work under pressure, priorities and meet tight deadlines

Ability to work in French and English required.

PATH is dedicated to building an inclusive workforce where diversity is valued.

PATH is an equal opportunity employer. Every qualified applicant will be considered for employment. PATH does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or orientation, genetic information, age, national origin, marital status, disability status, political ideology, military or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

*PATH has become aware of scams involving false job offers. *

Please be advised:

PATH will never ask for a fee during any stage of the recruitment process.

All active jobs are advertised directly on our career's page

Official PATH emails will always arrive from an @path.org or @silkroad.com address.

Please report any suspicious communications to careersitehelp@path.org
Page Content

The McGowan Government to establish new investment and trade office in Chennai

Deputy Premier Roger Cook announced the new office at an Invest and Trade WA event in Chennai

Chennai is the last stop on successful Government-led Invest and Trade Mission to India 2022, which also included Delhi, Mumbai and Visakhapatnam



The 'Gateway to South India', Chennai is the newest location in Western Australia's network of international offices.

Announced by Deputy Premier Roger Cook at an Invest and Trade WA event in the South Indian port city, the new office will help strengthen business and people-to-people ties with the region.

With International Education Minister David Templeman, the Deputy Premier has led WA's largest ever business delegation on an eight-day mission across four Indian cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and Chennai.

The mission has attracted significant government, industry and media attention as the delegation pursued different streams of WA's diversification strategy to create investment, trade and jobs.

This was the first trade delegation to visit India by any Australian State since the signing of the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement to eliminate or reduce tariffs.

The capital of Tamil Nadu, Chennai is a thriving centre for manufacturing, software development and finance.

The new office will provide a vital trade link between the State and South India, supporting WA businesses pursuing opportunities within the region.

Chennai will be a spoke office within the India-Gulf Hub of the WA International Investment and Trade Office Network, which also includes Mumbai and Dubai.

The setup and operations of the Chennai office will be overseen by the Investment and Trade Commissioner for India-Gulf, Ms Nashid Chowdhury.

Established more than 25 years ago, Mumbai was the first investment and trade office opened by the WA Government on the sub-continent.

WA has always maintained a strong relationship with India, and the WA Government is committed to fostering these close economic and cultural ties.

In 2021, India was WA's seventh largest trading partner with total trade valued at AUD $4.6 billion, accounting for more than 17 per cent of total trade between Australia and India.

WA exported $3.2 billion of goods to India in 2021, above the annual average of $2.4 billion over the past 10 years.

Chennai is one of four new spoke offices to be established by the WA Government in 2022-23 to strengthen investment and grow opportunities within the State's key markets. The network currently has offices located in London, Singapore, Jakarta, Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai, Tokyo and Seoul.

Comments attributed to State Development, Jobs and Trade Minister Roger Cook:

"The mission to take Western Australia's largest ever business delegation to India has been an outstanding success.

"The reception and engagement we have received in every city has been phenomenal.

"We have been strengthening friendships and opening doors which will lead greater investment and collaboration between India and Western Australia.

"Our message that WA is open for business, students, workers, trade, investment and tourism was loud and clear.

"It is fitting and timely that we are opening a new office in Chennai to build on the success of the mission.

"A thriving port city and the capital of Tamil Nadu, India's second largest economy, Chennai is the perfect fit for a new investment and trade office.

"Home to an economy known for innovative manufacturing, Chennai is already well regarded within the WA business community as an advanced engineering hub.

"The new Chennai office will help grow the mutually beneficial trading relationship between WA and India.

"The McGowan Government is committed to growing the strong relationship with India, which is underpinned by common values, strong people-to-people connections, and substantial trade and investment links."

Minister's office - 6552 6500






Photo provided/Alex Wong/Getty Images

Chick-fil-A plans to open three new restaurants this fall in the metro Detroit area, an addition to the 10 restaurants serving southeast Michigan.

The new locations are in Southfield, Monroe and Livonia, according to a press release issued Tuesday by the company, and are expected to bring around 300 jobs to the area. Five more locations are expected to follow in the next three to five years.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP)  An American Airlines plane bound for Nashville, Tennessee, with 56 people from Tampa, Florida, was diverted Wednesday to an Alabama airport after hitting severe turbulence, and at least eight minor injuries were reported, authorites said.

Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service responded at 3:15 p.m. to the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, fire Capt. Orlando Reynolds told news outlets. The plane hit unexpected turbulence over the Pensacola area of the Florida Panhandle and was diverted, officials said.
FORT GORDON, Ga. (AP)  A lightning strike at an Army post in Georgia left one soldier dead and nine others injured Wednesday as a thunderstorm moved through the area, authorities said.

The extent of the injuries to the survivors wasn't immediately known.
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NARVA, Estonia (AP)  For weeks Natalya Zadoyanova had lost contact with her younger brother Dmitriy, who was trapped in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

Russian forces had bombed the orphanage where he worked, and he was huddling with dozens of others in the freezing basement of a building without doors and windows. When she next heard from him, he was in tears.

Im alive, he told her. Im in Russia.

Dmitriy Zadoyanov was facing the next chapter of devastation for the people of Mariupol and other occupied cities: Forcible transfers to Russia, the very nation that killed their neighbors and shelled their hometowns almost into oblivion.

Nearly 2 million Ukrainians refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these journeys as forced transfers to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations of war victims who already speak Russian and are grateful for a new home.

An Associated Press investigation based on dozens of interviews has found that while the picture is more nuanced than the Ukrainian government suggests, many refugees are indeed forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are.

The abuses start not with a gun to the head, but with a poisoned choice: Die in Ukraine or live in Russia. Those who leave go through a series of what are known as filtration points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip searches to being yanked aside and never seen again. Refugees told the AP of an old woman who died in the cold, her body swollen, and an evacuee beaten so severely that her back was covered in bruises.

Those who pass the filtrations are invited to live in Russia, and often promised a payment of about 10,000 rubles ($170) that they may or may not get. Sometimes their Ukrainian passports are taken away, and the chance of Russian citizenship is offered instead. And sometimes, they are pressured to sign documents denouncing the Ukrainian government and military.

Those with no money or contacts in Russia  the majority, by most accounts  can only go where they are sent, eastward, even to the sub-Arctic. More than 1,000 are as far away as Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, a 10-day train journey to the edge of the Pacific Ocean, according to people the AP spoke with who saw multiple trains arrive over the weeks of the war.

However, the AP investigation also found signs of clear dissent within Russia to the government narrative that Ukrainians are being rescued from Nazis. Almost all the refugees the AP interviewed spoke gratefully about Russians who quietly helped them escape through a clandestine network, retrieving documents, finding shelter, buying train and bus fare, exchanging Ukrainian hryvnia for Russian rubles and even lugging the makeshift baggage that holds all that remains of their pre-war lives.

The investigation is the most extensive to date on the transfers, based on interviews with 36 Ukrainians mostly from Mariupol who left for Russia, including 11 still there and others in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia, Ireland, Germany and Norway. The AP also drew on interviews with Russian underground volunteers, video footage, Russian legal documents and Russian state media.

The story of Zadoyanov, 32, is typical. Exhausted and hungry in the basement in Mariupol, he finally accepted the idea of evacuation. The Russians told him he could board a bus to either Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine or Rostov-on-Don in Russia.

They lied. The buses went only to Russia.

Along the way, Russian authorities searched his phone and interrogated him on why he was baptized and whether he had sexual feelings toward a boy in the camp. A man from Russian state television wanted to bring him to Moscow and pay him to denigrate the Ukrainians, an offer he declined. People with video cameras also asked arriving children to talk about how Ukraine was bombarding its own citizens.

It was 100 percent a tactical pressure, Zadoyanov said. Why children? Because it is much easier to manipulate them."

Then he, five children and four women were taken to the train station and told their destination would be Nizhny Novgorod, even deeper into Russia, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the Ukrainian border. From the train, Zadoyanov called his sister Natalya in Poland. Her panic rose.

Get off the train, she told him. Now.

_____

A DELIBERATE STRATEGY

The transfer of hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine is part of a deliberate and systemic strategy, laid out in Russian government documents.

An emergency mass order describes the distribution of 100,000 Ukrainians to some of the most remote and impoverished regions of Russia. None was to be sent to the capital, Moscow.

The AP verified through interviews with refugees, media reports and official statements that Ukrainians have received temporary accommodation in more than two dozen Russian cities and localities, and were even taken to an unused chemical plant in the Bashkortistan region, 150 kilometres (100 miles) from the nearest major town. One refugee, Bohdan Honcharov, told the AP that about 50 Ukrainians he traveled with were sent to Siberia, so far away that they effectively disappeared with little chance of escape.

A Ukrainian woman also said her elderly parents from Mariupol were sent to Russia and told to move to Vladivostok, at the other end of the country. Russian border authorities did not let her father out of Russia because he still had Soviet citizenship from the old times, along with Ukrainian residency documents.

Many Ukrainians stay in Russia because while they are technically free to leave, they have nowhere to go, no money, no documents or no way to cross the distances in a sprawling country twice the size of the United States. Some fear that if they return, Ukraine will prosecute them for going to the enemy  a fear encouraged by Russian officials.

Others speak Russian, with family there and ties that they feel are stronger even than their links to Ukraine. One woman told the AP that her husband was Russian and she felt more welcome in Russia.

Lyudmila Bolbads family walked out of Mariupol and ended up in Taganrog in Russia. The family speaks Russian, and the city of Khabarovsk, nearly 10,000 kilometers from Ukraine, was offering jobs, special payments for moving to the Far East and eventual Russian citizenship. With nothing left to lose, they took the 9-day train trip across some of the worlds most deserted territory to a city far closer to Japan than Ukraine.

Bolbad and her husband found work in a local factory, much as she was doing in the Azovstal steel mill back in Mariupol. Little else has gone as theyd hoped.

They handed over their Ukrainian passports in exchange for promises of Russian citizenship without hesitation, only to discover that landlords would not rent to Ukrainians without a valid identity document. The promised payments to buy a home are slow to come, and they are stranded with hundreds of others from Mariupol in a rundown hotel with barely edible food. But Bolbad plans to stay in Russia, and thinks Ukraine would label her a traitor if she went back.

Now we are here ... were trying to return to a normal life somehow, to encourage ourselves to start our life from scratch, she said. If you survived (the war), you deserve it and need to move forward, not stop.

Russias reasons for deporting Ukrainians are not entirely clear, according to Oleksandra Matviichuk, the head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. One goal appears to be to use the refugees in propaganda to sell Russians on the Ukraine war by pressuring them to testify against Ukraine.

(Ukrainians in) the Russian Federation are extremely vulnerable, she said. Russia tries to use these people in a quasi-legal war against Ukraine to collect some testimonies from people who have no right to say no because they are afraid for their safety.

The deportation of local civilians from occupied territories also clears the way for Russians to replace them with loyalists, as was the case in Crimea, Matviichuk said. And Russia may want Russian-speaking Ukrainians to populate its own isolated regions with depressed economies.

Ivan Zavrazhnov describes the terror of being in Russia and not knowing where he would wind up. A producer for a pro-Ukrainian television network in Mariupol, he made it through filtration only because officials never bothered to plug in his dead cell phone. He managed to escape, and ended up on the docked ferry Isabelle in the city of Tallinn in Estonia with about 2,000 other Ukrainians.

This is some kind of incomprehensible lottery  who decides where and what, he said. You understand that you are going, as it were, into the mouth of a bear ... an aggressor state, and you end up on this territory. ... I did not have the feeling that I was safe in Russia.

_____

STOPPED FOR FILTRATION

Refugees on the way to Russia are interrogated at multiple stops, in what both Russians and Ukrainians call filtration. Each time, some are weeded out.

They are fingerprinted and photographed, which the Ukrainian government calls the collection of biological information. Some are stripped of their clothing, and those with tattoos, wounds or bruises from munitions come under special scrutiny. Phones are confiscated and sometimes connected to computers, raising fears that tracking software is installed.

The Kovalevskiy family left Mariupol after eating cold scraps of food in an unlit basement and watching sores fester on their unwashed skin. At their first filtration, they held their breaths and thought fearfully of the photo and video the eldest daughter had transferred from her phone to a flash drive hidden among their belongings.

It never crossed her mind to delete her contacts. When a Russian soldier searched her phone, he stopped at the one listed as Commander and pulled her aside.

She explained that the commander was not a military connection but the head of the youth camp where she worked for two years. The explanation was satisfactory  this time. But they did not know how many more times they would be interrogated  Human Rights Watch has identified 14 filtration points in Ukrainian territory controlled by Russian forces.

The next stop was Vynohradne, named for its vineyards but now one of the mass grave sites established by Russia for Mariupol's thousands of dead. The tent there was freezing and suffocatingly crowded, and the smell of rotting flesh clung to their nostrils. An old woman died overnight in the minus 9-degree (15 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures, her body swelling.

The mother, Viktoria Kovalevska, peered outside to the tent next door and saw a wooden crate that a soldier had dropped to the ground. Inside were severed limbs.

Finally, the family reached the Russian city of Taganrog. When questioned by Russian officials about why they had left their hometown, the mother could no longer restrain herself.

We did not leave; we were deported, she replied testily. We were loaded into cars by the military and taken away.

Dozens of people from Mariupol were then given free train passage to two Russian cities: Volgograd, about 600 kilometers (370 miles) to the east, or Penza, twice as far.

You go where youre told, they heard.

The Kovalevskiy family was among the lucky ones  they made it through the filtrations.

At an interrogation in Donetsk, a Mariupol policewoman was blindfolded and taken to Yolonevska, she told the AP. There, she saw military personnel and civilians taken for reasons that ranged from taking photographs of military equipment to running down the street in a panic. Some were beaten, and one woman's back was covered with bruises. She heard others died.

She was blindfolded again, handcuffed and taken to the Rostov region in Russia. She asked where they were going. Somewhere, they said, and ordered her to be silent.

She was told that evacuees in Russia would be seen as traitors and get a prison term of 10 years if they returned to Ukraine. She was finally set free in a prisoner exchange, and found her way back to Ukraine anyway.

They psychologically influence people, she said. Many of the detainees who are released are simply afraid to return to Ukraine after hearing such stories.

___

IDENTITIES IN QUESTION

The Ukrainian refugees in Russia sometimes lose their identities along with their homes.

Some leave their Ukrainian documents behind. Others have their Ukrainian passports confiscated and are offered Russian citizenship or refugee status. Many end up in limbo without paperwork, and only 55,502 have received temporary asylum, according to Russias human rights ombudsman, Tatiana Moskalkova. The others have uncertain legal standing in a country where they are often seen as the enemy.

Along with giving up their own documents, Ukrainian refugees are sometimes pressured to sign papers holding the Ukrainian government or military responsible for the war.

Eighty-year-old Valentina Bondarenko still doesnt know what she signed. When soldiers in white armbands burst into the Mariupol basement, she climbed out of the window, kicking over the cup holding her dentures.

She was taken with a few other elderly women on a bus through filtration in three Ukrainian towns, and then to Taganrog in Russia. Her next stop, she was told, would be Perm, 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) away.

There were only enough Ukrainian passengers that day to fill four of the trains 10 cars. So the train was cancelled. She ended up in a town near the Georgia border that her family had never heard of, in a dormitory with 50 others from Mariupol.

She called her adult children still in Ukraine, coughing every few minutes. They were frantic. Increasingly distraught, Bondarenko asked migration officials how she could get out.

Theres only one way open, which is to apply for Russian citizenship, submit an application, receive all the documents and when you get your passport you can go wherever you want, they told her.

They asked everyone with Ukrainian passports to hand them over to start the process. So she did. Then came a residency application and a document that an official would not let her examine.

Theres nothing to read here, and were running late, he told her.

What is written here? Bondarenko persisted.

Everything we talked about, came the reply. She signed. Her passport was returned to her a few days later.

Many evacuees dont realize they have the right to refuse to sign documents and the right to leave Russia, according to Tanya Lokshina, author of an upcoming Human Rights Watch report on forced deportations. HRW and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties documented multiple cases where Ukrainians like Bondarenko were pressured into signing paperwork, including documents accusing Ukraines military of war crimes.

When you are there and they have the power and youre basically in their hands, you dont know whats going to happen, Lokshina said. So many people sign just because they are afraid.

___

ANGELS WHO CAME FROM HEAVEN

For Ukrainians trying to escape, help often comes from an unexpected source: Russians.

On a recent day in Estonia, a Russian tattoo artist easily hefted the suitcases of a Mariupol family into the trunk of a waiting car. The matriarch sat in front, seemingly oblivious to the cars Russian license plates or unsurprised at underground help from another Russian.

The tattoo artist, who asked that his name be withheld because he still lives in Russia, was the last in a chain of volunteers that stretched 1,900 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Taganrog and Rostov to Narva, the Estonian border town. He boards in St. Petersburg a couple of times a week to accompany refugees to Finland and sometimes Estonia. There is always at least one Ukrainian family that needs an extra pair of strong arms, if nothing else.

They are disoriented. ... You need to meet them at one station and take them to another station, because otherwise people get lost, he said. Its clear theyre not psychologically equipped.

He said Russians involved in helping Ukrainians leave know each other only through Telegram, nearly all keeping anonymous because everyone is afraid of some kind of persecution. Some of the loose groups are set up with chatbots to protect identities.

I cant stop it, he said of the war and the forcible transfers of Ukrainians to Russia. This is what I can do. ... Shooting at people, this is normal in the 21st century, with old Soviet pieces of iron? This is utter nonsense.

The volunteers face a slew of challenges. Those in Penza in Russia shut down their efforts because of anonymous threats that included slashed tires, the Russian symbol Z painted in white on a windshield and graffiti on doors and gates calling them the likes of Ukro-Nazi helpers.

Another Russian volunteer, who also communicated with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said they faced logistical and bureaucratic hurdles thrown up by the Russian government, such as travel documents lost or taken by administrators.

They had organizational problems, but they created an amazing chain to help Ukrainian refugees, she wrote in a message to AP.

Leaving Russia is still often dependent on luck and an officials whims. Some Russian border guards let people through with just their Ukrainian national identity; others insist upon an international passport. In at least one case, a family wasnt allowed to travel without a Russian passport. Armed men search the refugees in a final filtration and disembark a passenger or two.

For Zadoyanov, Bondarenko, Kovalevska and many others, the lifeline out of Russia was Russians.

After talking with his sister Natalya, Zadoyanov got off the train to Nizhny Novgorod. Natalya Zadoyanova found local people through church contacts inside Russia to take her brother and the others away from the station. They ended up at a church where they got food, shelter and eventually the first steps in finding a way out of Russia. Zadoyanov is now in the country of Georgia.

For Bondarenko, the elderly woman from Mariupol who signed unknown papers, her children in Ukraine found volunteers to help. One arrived at Bondarenkos dormitory and demanded her release, saying the law protected a refugees freedom of movement. He took her to a hotel, with the room pre-paid for two nights. The third night, she stayed at the home he shared with his Ukrainian wife.

The couple bought her sneakers, clothes and food for the trip to come.

We are against the war, against Putin, they told her.

In St. Petersburg, another volunteer met her at the train, took her to his apartment for the night and helped her get to the bus station.

At the Russian border, no matter what, do not tell them you want to return to Ukraine, he warned her. Say you are going to Estonia to visit family.

It took about 90 minutes to pass the Russian side of the border. At one point, guards checked passports. Bondarenkos noted Mariupol as her hometown, and they pulled her aside and asked what her destination was.

I wont lie. I want to return to Ukraine, to my children, she answered, torn between defiance and fear. She was asked to wait and imagined the worst.

She didnt know it, but she was already in Estonia. The guard returned with a giant smile and an even bigger box filled with food and water.

Bondarenko finally joined her children in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod on May 20, having paid nothing for a 4,300-kilometer (2,600-mile) journey organized from start to finish by volunteers.

Viktoria Kovalevska persuaded a bus driver at a detention center in Russia to hide the family on board.

We sat like mice. ... I closed the curtains, she said.

After about an hour, the driver said, Lets go. When the family emerged from their hiding spot in Rostov, two taxis arrived for them and their bags. They were given hot soup and a way to finally wash their stained, charred clothes, and stayed up until 3 a.m. doing laundry.

Train tickets materialized to St. Petersburg, where other volunteers bought a suitcase to replace their fraying bags. Then it was a near-seamless trip to Estonia. Kovalevska warned her daughters to say nothing when they were roughly asked at the crossing why they wanted to leave Russia.

You can get a bullet in the forehead and not tell the whole truth about what happened, or you can wait and later say everything as it was, she told the girls.

The whole journey took four days.

Her memories of Mariupol are a nightmare  the torso of a woman in the street, her daughter stepping in human brains smeared on the ground, the hunger and cold that she feared would kill them more painfully than bombs. But her memories of Russia are laced with the unexpected, surreptitious kindness they received from Russian volunteers.

I would love to say their names, said Kovalevska, her face lighting up. And I would tell them all, you are like angels who came from heaven and sheltered us with your wings. ... Because there was no hope. None.

___

Anastasiia Shvets and Elizaveta Telnaya contributed from Lviv, Ukraine. Oleksandr Stashevskyi and Inna Varenytsia contributed from Kyiv, Ukraine. Mstyslav Chernov contributed from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Sophiko Megrelidze contributed from Tblisi, Georgia. Cara Anna reported from Kviv and Sarah El Deeb reported from Beirut, Lebanon.
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LONDON (AP)  Britains record-breaking heatwave has spurred calls for the government to speed up efforts to adapt to a changing climate, especially after wildfires created the busiest day for London firefighters since bombs rained down on the city during World War II.

The country got a break Wednesday from the dry, hot weather that is gripping much of Europe as cooler air moved in from the west. Forecasters predict London will reach a high of 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, down from the national record 40.3 C (104.4 F) set Tuesday at Coningsby in eastern England.

Even so, travel was disrupted for a third day as rail operators repaired damage caused by the heat, and firefighters continue to mop up hotspots at the scene of Tuesdays fires.

Britain needs to prepare for similar heatwaves in the future because manmade carbon emissions have already changed the climate, said Professor Stephen Belcher, chief scientist at the Met Office, the U.K.s national weather service. Only aggressive emissions reductions will reduce the frequency of such events, he said.

Everything is still to play for, but we should adapt to the kind of events we saw yesterday as an occasional extreme event, Baker told the BBC.

Climate scientists have been surprised by the speed at which temperatures in Britain have risen in recent years and the widespread area affected by this weeks event. Thirty-four locations around the U.K. on Tuesday broke the countrys previous record-high temperature of 37.8 C (100 F), set in 2019.

The weather walloped a country where few homes, schools or small businesses have air conditioning and infrastructure such as railroads, highways and airports arent designed to cope with such temperatures. Thirteen people, including seven teenage boys, are believed to have died trying to cool off after getting into difficulty in rivers, reservoirs and lakes.

Fifteen fire departments declared major incidents as more than 60 properties around the country were destroyed on Tuesday, Cabinet Office Minister Kit Malthouse told the House of Commons.

One of the biggest fires was in Wennington, a village on the eastern outskirts of London, where a row of houses was destroyed by flames that raced through tinder-dry fields nearby. Resident Tim Stock said he and his wife fled after the house next door caught fire and the blaze rapidly spread.

It was like a war zone,'' he said. Down the actual main road, all the windows had exploded out, all the roofs had caved, it was like a scene from the Blitz.

The London Fire Brigade received 2,600 calls Tuesday, compared with the normal figure of about 350, Mayor Sadiq Khan said, adding that it was the departments busiest day since the World War II. Despite lower temperatures on Wednesday, the fire danger remains high because hot, dry weather has parched grasslands around the city, Khan said.

Once it catches fire it spreads incredibly fast, like wildfires like you see in movies or in fires in California or in parts of France, Khan told the BBC.

Phil Gerigan, leader of the National Fire Chiefs Councils resilience group, said wildfires are an emerging threat tied to climate change that is stretching the capacity of fire departments. Britain may need to expand its capacity to fight wildfires, adding more aerial tankers and helicopters, he told the BBC.

As we look towards the future, its certainly something that the U.K. government and fire and rescue services need to consider, he said. Have we got the capability, the assets, to be able to meet what is a significantly emerging demand?

Wildfires continue to spread destruction in other parts of Europe. Nearly 500 firefighters struggled to contain a large wildfire that threatened hillside suburbs outside Athens for a second day as fires burned across a southern swath of the continent.

A respite from the severe heat helped improve conditions in France, Spain and Portugal, countries that have battled blazes for days.

Britains travel network also suffered during the hot weather, with Luton Airport briefly shut down by a heat-damaged runway and trains forced to run at reduced speeds because of concerns the heat would warp rails or interrupt power supplies.

Some disruptions remained Wednesday as crews worked to repair power lines and signaling equipment damaged by fire. Passengers were advised to check before traveling and only travel when necessary.

Among those struggling was Lee Ball, 46, who was trying to travel with his wife, Libby, and 10-year-old daughter, Amelie, from Worcestershire to London to get to Brussels for an Ed Sheeran concert. Their train was cancelled with less than 30 minutes notice, so they drove to another station  and waited.

Ive been up since 4:30 a.m., anxious, trying to get an answer from anywhere we can, he said.

Communication from the train companies has been appalling, he said.

__

Follow APs climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  A woman accused of killing professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson as a romantic rival pleaded not guilty to a murder charge on Wednesday, as her lawyers pressed for a quick trial that the judge then scheduled to start in late October.

Wilson, 25, was found shot to death on May 11. Kaitlin Armstrong, 34, fled the country after her initial interviews with investigators, prompting a 43-day manhunt that ended with her arrest at a beachside hostel in Costa Rica on June 29.

Authorities said she had tried to change her appearance and used several aliases as she moved around Costa Rica while trying to set herself up as a yoga instructor in that country.

A competitive gravel and mountain bike racer and Vermont native known as Mo, Wilson had been in Austin for a race she was among the favorites to win. Police have said Wilson had previously dated Armstrongs boyfriend, cyclist Colin Strickland, who they say has cooperated with investigators and is not a suspect.

According to investigators, Armstrongs SUV was seen on surveillance video outside the home where Wilson was killed. Armstrong faces up to 99 years in prison if she's convicted. She is being held on $3.5 million bond.

Prosecutors questioned whether the quick trial setting amounted to a privilege for Armstrong, as it would put her case in front of other murder trials that have waited for two years or longer because of pandemic slowdowns. They also noted that investigators are still gathering evidence that prosecutors and defense attorneys have yet to receive.

If they chose to indict without evidence, thats the district attorneys problem, Armstrongs attorney, Rick Cofer, told District Judge Brenda Kennedy before she granted the request to set a trial date and scheduled it to begin Oct. 24.

After the brief court hearing, Cofer suggested that Armstrongs defense will challenge the evidence gathering and conduct by Austin police investigators, and whether they didnt follow leads that could have led to a different suspect.

Ms. Armstrong wants her day in court, Cofer said, without taking questions. Simply put, there is a lot more to this story that has yet been heard.
The former Connecticut man charged with the slaying of his mother at sea and who authorities believe killed his grandfather years before was polite, quiet and respectful with friends and local clergy, according to letters submitted to a federal judge seeking his release on bond.

Nathan Carman was charged by federal authorities in May with four counts of wire fraud in connection with his grandfathers shooting death in 2013 and murder on the high seas for the death of his mother Linda Carman who disappeared in 2016 while the two were on a fishing trip off Block Island.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been held without bond since his arrest. In a bid to seek his release, Carmans public defenders filed a 42-page motion this month asking a federal court to vacate a previous detention order. Vermont U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford will hold a hearing on the motion on Aug. 2.

Federal prosecutors contended in court filings that the 26-year-old committed the crimes to gain access to the family fortune, which is still hung up in probate court to prevent him from accessing his mothers share of $42 million, and is a flight risk and threat to the community.

Carman has not been charged with killing his grandfather, John Chakalos, whose death remains under investigation by a Connecticut State Police cold case unit.

Carmans alleged conduct clearly illustrates danger to the community: The evidence shows that he killed not once, but twice, Vermont U.S. Attorney Nikolas Kerest stated in his motion. Moreover, the individuals Carman killed were his own family members. For an individual to kill his own family members, nothing is off the table.

Kerest contends that Carman was treated for mental health disorders as a child, including social difficulties and explosive rages when he can become aggressive, according to the court filing. Carman has been mostly untreated and off medication since he was 17, Kerest said, based on available mental health records.

But his federal public defenders, clergy and family friends portrayed Carman as a responsible adult who was pleasant and often sought the solace of religion after his grandfather died.

He came to our church because it is a traditional Latin rite service, the closest he could find to the Greek Orthodox rite he enjoyed so much with his grandfather, Middletown businessman Richard Sabato wrote in a June 15 letter to a Vermont U.S. District Judge. While in the church, Nathan was quiet, respectful and prayerful.

Sabato said he met Carman years ago when he was in the Boy Scouts. He also knew Carmans mother and grandfather who had allowed the scout troop to stay at his Vermont home to work on their merit badges, Sabato said.

Years later, he ran into Carman who was then a young man at his church prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sabato said in the letter. The interactions he saw between Carman and his grandfather were warm, Sabato said.

It is my opinion based on my interactions with the family that Nathan had not motive to kill his grandfather who provided for him, loved him and whom Nathan cared for very much, Sabato said.

Chakalos paid to have Carman receive riding lessons in Glastonbury and the stable would bring his pony to his school to show his classmates, said Renee Scarpantonio, president of Hunters Run Stable Inc. He loved the animals and was distraught when his horse died, but was never prone to outbursts or aggressive behaviors, Scarpantonio wrote in a letter to the judge dated June 12.

Carmans grandfather paid for his horses and riding lessons for years, Scarpantonio said.

I see no financial motive for Nathan to have killed his grandfather because he seemed to give Nathan everything he wanted, she said. He and Nathan seemed to have a very special relationship.

Carmans attorneys contend in the motion seeking his release that he has been held for the first time in his life and despite the strong allegations listed in a Vermont U.S. Attorneys motion to keep him detained, even they concluded he didnt need a competency exam.

He was relentlessly bullied as a child because he had Aspergers syndrome, a form of autism, and was naturally introverted, his attorneys said in the motion. He was an avid equestrian who was well cared for by his grandfather who gave him a credit card and paid for an apartment when he graduated from high school, the motion said.

Carman ate dinner with Chakalos every night and would often help his grandfather listen to voicemails since he was hard of hearing, his attorneys said.

His grandfathers death in December 2013 changed his life and not for the better, the attorneys said.

He went from having a close relationship and full and complete support, both financial and emotional, from his grandfather, as well as housing and a fast track to a job at his grandfathers company, to none of those things, the motion said.
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  Leaders of Indianas Republican-dominated Senate on Wednesday proposed banning abortion with limited exceptions  a move that comes amid a political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who came to the state from neighboring Ohio to end her pregnancy.

The proposal will be taken up during a special legislative session that is scheduled to begin Monday, making Indiana one of the first Republican-run states to debate tighter abortion laws following the U.S. Supreme Court decision last month overturning Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The Indiana proposal would allow exceptions to the ban, such as in cases of rape, incest or to protect a womans life.

Republican state Sen. Sue Glick, who is sponsoring the bill, said the proposal would not limit access to emergency contraception known as the morning-after pill or limit doctors from treating miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies.

The bill would prohibit abortions from the time an egg is implanted in a woman's uterus.

Being pro-life is not about criminalizing women, Glick said. Its about preserving the dignity of life and helping mothers bring new happy, healthy babies in the world.

Planned Parenthoods Indiana affiliate criticized the bill, saying in a news release that a complete ban on abortion is on its way to Indiana.

Even the bills limited exemptions would leave providers risking investigations, and even criminalization, making them exceptions in name only, said the organization, which operates four abortion clinics in the state.

Ohios so-called fetal heartbeat law, which bans abortions after cardiac activity can be detected  typically in around the sixth week of pregnancy  led the 10-year-old rape victim to go to Indiana to get a medication-induced abortion on June 30, according to the girl's doctor.

Indiana Republicans have pushed through numerous anti-abortion laws over the past decade and the vast majority signed a letter in March supporting a special session to further tighten those laws. But legislative leaders and Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb had been tightlipped since the Supreme Court decision over whether they would push for a full abortion ban or allow exceptions.

The proposal unveiled Wednesday faces at least a couple of weeks of debate. Republican House Speaker Todd Huston didn't endorse the bill, saying in a statement that, Our caucus will take time to review and consider the details of the Senate bill, and continue to listen to thoughts and input from constituents across the state.

Current Indiana law generally prohibits abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and tightly restricts it after the 13th week. Nearly 99% of abortions in the state last year took place at 13 weeks or earlier, according to a state Health Department report.

Elsewhere Wednesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court and said Georgias restrictive 2019 abortion law should be allowed to take effect. The law bans most abortions once a detectable human heartbeat is present, though it does include some limited exceptions.

The appeals court also rejected arguments that a personhood provision in the law is unconstitutionally vague. The provision grants a fetus the same legal rights that people have after they're born.

In Michigan, meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday vetoed portions of a state budget proposal that would have sent nearly $20 million in state funding to anti-abortion causes, including groups that run pregnancy resource centers focused on persuading pregnant women to give birth.

Before Indiana lawmakers announced their proposal, the leader of the states most prominent anti-abortion group told reporters that the group would pressure legislators to advance a bill that affirms the value of all life including unborn children while not taking questions on whether any exceptions would be acceptable.

Indiana Right to Life President Mike Fichter said the vast majority of Indiana lawmakers have campaigned as pro-life, theyve run multiple election cycles as being pro-life.

This is not the time when legislators should be drafting legislation that would appear that Roe versus Wade is still in place, Fichter said. Roe is no longer in place. The Roe shield is no longer there.

The states debate comes as an Indiana doctor has been at the center of a political fracas after speaking out about the 10-year-old Ohio rape victim.

A 27-year-old man was charged in Columbus, Ohio, last week with raping the girl, confirming the existence of a case that was initially met with skepticism by some media outlets and Republican politicians. The pushback grew after Democratic President Joe Biden expressed sympathy for the girl during the signing of an executive order aimed at protecting some abortion access.

Indiana Republicans have passed several laws on social issues in recent years that made headlines. In May, they overrode a veto by Holcomb of a bill that banned transgender women and girls from participating in school sports that match their gender identity.

That came seven years after Indiana faced a national uproar over a religious objections law signed by then-Gov. Mike Pence that opponents maintained could be used to discriminate against gays and lesbians. The Republican-dominated Legislature quickly made revisions blocking its use as a legal defense for refusing to provide services and preventing the law from overriding local ordinances with LGBTQ protections.

___

Associated Press writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta and AP/Report for America writer Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.
An advocacy group told a House panel on Wednesday that a church alleged to have scammed veterans out of millions of dollars in service benefits should be a wake-up call for regulators of GI Bill education payments.

The testimony by the Veterans Education Success advocacy group was part of a House Veterans Affairs panel that delved into which schools are eligible to receive the benefits. Lawmakers are also considering new legislation to better protect veterans, which could signal coming changes as the House of Prayer activities come to light.

House of Prayer's leader Rony Denis operates a chain of church locations near Army installations in the U.S., with its headquarters right outside Fort Stewart, Georgia. Former members told Military.com that the church collected GI Bill payments for classes that were little more than Bible study and never resulted in degrees. Overall, the church has collected $7 million in GI Bill payments since 2013.

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Veterans often believe they are going to a school that has been adequately vetted and will have a good return on investment, including strong career opportunities, Will Hubbard, vice president for veterans and military policy at Veterans Education Success, testified to the House panel.

"For too many student veterans, that turns out to not be the case," Hubbard said. "As we saw [with] House of Prayer, there were hundreds of students that ended up in a cult, as they described. That's certainly not what I think any American wants to see as an outcome for our veterans."

Military.com found that Denis and the church slowly isolated its flock over two decades, pressuring troops and veterans into taking classes, donating much of their military pay, and taking out Department of Veterans Affairs home loans to buy properties that the church would flip or rent out.

The FBI raided the church's locations in June. The church may now represent one of the most egregious recent cases of veteran education benefits abuse, according to the allegations from former members -- and could push lawmakers and regulators to take a second look at how to protect taxpayer dollars.

Lawmakers were already aiming to better protect veterans from being scammed out of their GI Bill benefits by bogus schools. New proposals could erect safeguards around the margins.

The Student Veteran Emergency Relief Act, sponsored by Reps. Mike Levin, D-Calif., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., was introduced in June and seeks to create more uniformity in how schools are approved for GI Bill payments by standardizing required forms.

Another omnibus bill, passed into law last year, aims to improve oversight of schools by establishing a public-facing searchable database. That could allow veterans to see potential red flags with a school, including complaints, veteran completion rates and any rapid increases to tuition and veteran enrollment. But that provision does not go into effect until August.

"The biggest challenge we see is that fraud is unfortunately quite pervasive. When a student veteran applies to use their GI Bill, the expectation is there's an implied stamp of approval at VA," Hubbard told the House panel.

The GI Bill benefit is one of the federal government's most cherished programs, serving as a direct path to the middle class for millions of service members and a key recruiting tool for the military services.

The VA delegates oversight over some 4,000 GI Bill approved schools to contracting State Approving Agencies, or SAAs -- all of which enforce different levels of scrutiny on education institutions.

In 2019, the VA stripped the California SAA's contract after disputes over its aggressive policing of for-profit schools. However, the VA under the Trump administration was criticized for its cozy relationship with for-profit universities.

Last year, Military.com reported that Howard University lost its GI Bill eligibility after a series of clerical errors. The problems were quickly resolved, but advocates at the time pointed to the incident as an example of the VA having more serious GI Bill issues to tackle

The House of Prayer churches were able to continue collecting GI Bill payments for years despite public warnings from service members and former members, as well as a warning from at least one base to stay away from several businesses tied to church leadership.

The church appears to have hit the jackpot in 2013 when at least five of its Bible schools became GI Bill-approved. After that, the cost of the school rose from roughly $300 a semester to $3,000, Arlen Bradeen, the school's former director, told Military.com. The schools were described as loosely organized Sunday school classes with no promise of a diploma or any career skills.

Meanwhile, the church allegedly coerced members to move out of barracks and pay rent to live in the church, where they would do chores. The alleged scheme to isolate active-duty troops and veterans went as far as what amounted to arranged marriages, to quell any outsider threats.

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon

Related: How a Church Allegedly Scammed Millions in VA Money from Vets
Harris Jewelry, a New York-based national jewelry outlet that catered to military bases across the country, agreed on Wednesday to pay $34.2 million to settle claims that the firm targeted service members using shady credit transactions and "misleading" sales tactics, according to court filings.

"Today's settlement resolves allegations that Harris Jewelers targeted military service members with dishonest sales and financing tactics at now-shuttered stores located near military bases across the country," said a press release from the California attorney general's office.

The retailer, which shut down nationwide during the pandemic, boasted of its service to service members and families in marketing materials.

Read Next: US Air Force Chief of Staff Says Officials Considering Training Ukrainian Pilots

"For over 65 years, Harris Jewelry has been providing military personnel and their families exceptional customer service," the company's website said. "That remains its mission to this day."

California's Department of Justice claimed that Harris Jewelry violated several federal and state laws, including the Military Lending Act, a regulation meant to protect service members from predatory sales practices, in part by requiring lenders to provide "written and oral disclosures" to troops seeking a loan, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

"Harris Jewelers targeted active duty service members with the sales pitch that purchasing from them on credit would, regardless of their credit history or subsequent payments, improve service members' credit scores," the press release said.

The settlement requires Harris Jewelry to cease collecting millions of dollars of outstanding debt from thousands of service members, to include providing refunds of almost $12.9 million to 46,204 service members who paid for jewelry and gifts with loans.

Harris Jewelry is also banned from marketing its jewelry, according to the press release, "including ceasing operation of its businesses."

The settlement and the subsequent ban spans 17 other states, including Georgia, Kansas, Virginia, North Carolina and Hawaii -- locations of prominent military bases.

In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission reported that military service members, veterans and their families accounted for 153,850 reports of fraud or identity theft at significantly higher rates than their civilian counterparts, with credit or lending-related scams constituting about 20% of those reports.

"Today's settlement should serve as a warning to any businesses thinking of engaging in shady practices to make an extra buck," said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. "We will not stand idly by."

-- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @df_lawrence.

Related: New Partnership Battles Cybercrime Targeting Military and Veterans
The military would be barred from considering state laws in deciding where to station service members under an amendment that was included in the Senate's version of the annual defense policy bill.

The amendment comes after Military.com reported in May that the Army was drafting a policy that could allow soldiers to request a move if state or local laws discriminate against them based on gender, sex, religion, race or pregnancy.

During a closed-door meeting last month, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted 18-8 to prohibit the Pentagon from using the "agreement or disagreement of a member of the Armed Forces with the State laws and regulations applicable to any duty station when determining the duty assignment of the member."

Read Next: Navy Would Test Saving Money by Offering Meat Alternatives Under House Bill

"Allowing our service members to veto the needs of the service because they disagree with state or local laws could lead to a sorting of the military along ideological lines that would devastate readiness, unit cohesion, and the American people's respect for their military," a spokesperson for Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, the amendment's sponsor, said in an emailed statement to Military.com.

The amendment is meant "to preemptively tell the Department of Defense that individual service members should not have veto power over their duty station assignment because they disagree with laws and regulations in the state or community in which they are being assigned," the spokesperson added.

The vote added the language to the committee's version of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA. While the committee released a summary of the bill last month, it did not release the full text until Monday.

The bill must still be voted on by the full Senate and then reconciled with the House's version of the NDAA before becoming law.

The House Armed Services Committee last month rejected a similar amendment that was offered by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., during the committee's consideration of its NDAA in a largely party-line, 28-30 vote.

The draft Army policy, which would tweak the service's existing compassionate reassignment policy meant to help in family emergencies or similar hardships, was spurred by a raft of state laws targeting LGBTQ people, such as Florida's so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill that bans public school teachers from mentioning sexual orientation or gender identity at all in kindergarten through third grade and "in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate" in grades beyond that.

The Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force have pointed to existing policies on requesting transfers they say service members who feel discriminated against could use, though there has been no evidence transfers have been used that way.

The proposed Army policy could also help women worried about abortion access as many states ban or severely restrict abortions following a Supreme Court ruling last month, though the length of time it takes to transfer duty stations would make it difficult for a woman to relocate between finding out she's pregnant and having the pregnancy come to term.

After the Supreme Court ruling, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the department was "evaluating our policies to ensure we continue to provide seamless access to reproductive health care as permitted by federal law."

Because the Senate Armed Services Committee is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, and tie votes fail, most controversial amendments were voted down during the committee's consideration of the NDAA.

But five senators on the Democratic side of the dais voted for Sullivan's amendment, along with every Republican on the committee, giving it enough support to pass.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he supported the amendment because troops need to be stationed wherever they are most needed for the defense of the country.

"Members of the US military frequently express a preference for assignments based on multiple factors. As the father of a Marine, I know that a primary factor is family considerations," Kaine said in an emailed statement to Military.com. "These considerations are important, and I'm glad military personnel officials consider these preferences. But ultimately military personnel officials make the decisions best for the defense mission. That is as it should be."

Spokespeople for Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich.; Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; and Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, did not respond to Military.com's requests for comment on why they supported the amendment or whether they wanted to block the draft Army policy.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., who opposed Sullivan's amendment, told Military.com he did not think Congress should weigh in while the department continues to review the effects of state laws.

"DoD is trying to work out what their authority is, what they can do and what they should do," Reed said. "So we should wait for that first before we make a conclusion."

-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel.

Related: Soldiers Facing Discrimination from State Laws Could Request Transfers Under Draft Army Policy
Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chief of staff of the Air Force, said that U.S. officials are considering training Ukrainian pilots as that country continues to fend off Russia's invasion.

Brown's comments at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Wednesday come as House lawmakers recently approved $100 million as part of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act to train Ukrainian pilots to fly U.S. fighter jets as the campaign against Russia rolls into a fifth month.

"I do believe that we have an aspect and a responsibility, like we do with all our allies and partners, to be prepared to train them in various capabilities and capacities," Brown said. "Part of this is understanding where Ukraine wants to go, and how we meet them where they are."

Read Next: Ukrainian Forces Strike Key Bridge in Russian-Occupied South

Brown told Reuters during his flight to Aspen that allies and the U.S. are discussing Ukraine's "long-term plan on how do you build their air force and the air force that they're going to need for the future?"

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, also spoke about the possibility of training Ukrainian pilots during a press conference at the Pentagon on Wednesday, but did not confirm any details.

"On the flight training, as you know, we look at all kinds of options to present [to] the secretary [of defense] and the president, and there's been no decisions on any of that," Milley said. "But we do examine a wide variety of options to improve pilot training."

Ukraine has not been shy about asking for U.S. fighter jets in its war against Russia. In March, the country's air force tweeted about wanting F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets and claimed its pilots "can learn to fly these with just 2-3 weeks of training."

Defense experts have previously told Military.com that it would take significantly longer than a couple of weeks to successfully train Ukrainian pilots to fly U.S. jets.

Earlier conversations this year between Poland and the U.S. focused on supplying Ukraine with Russian MiG-29 jets because Ukrainian pilots are already trained on flying that aircraft, but the talks broke down over the complexities of delivering the aircraft amid concerns that NATO air bases could be deemed targets if the planes were allowed to fly into Ukraine from those runways.

Brown didn't say which aircraft the Ukrainians could be training on or flying in the future, pointing to U.S. planes, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the French Dassault Rafale jets as possibilities.

He did add that it was unlikely the Ukrainians will be using Russian MiGs.

"There's a number of different platforms that could go to Ukraine," Brown said. "Probably not MiGs. I think it'll be tougher to get parts in the future from the Russians, so it'll be something non-Russian -- I could probably tell you that."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's wife, first lady Olena Zelenska, appeared in-person in front of U.S. lawmakers Wednesday where she thanked them for the billions of dollars in aid and military equipment sent to her country, but also asked for more air defense systems.

"We want no more airstrikes. No more missile strikes," Zelenska told congressional members. "Is this too much to ask for?"

The U.S. has been providing the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, to the Ukrainians. It has a range of about 50 miles and allows strikes deep into Russian-held territory.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday, speaking alongside Milley, that the U.S. plans to announce another shipment of four more HIMARS this week, on top of 12 already delivered, as well as rockets. The American aid has also included Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and howitzers.

Austin and Milley, who spoke Wednesday with officials from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine's war effort, have pointed to the HIMARS as a key weapons system giving Kyiv a fighting chance on the battlefield in the Donbas region, where it has been locked in bloody conflict for months.

"Today, the Ukrainians are effectively employing these HIMARS strikes against Russian command-and-control nodes, their logistical networks, their field artillery and air defense sites, and many other targets," Milley said. "These strikes are steadily degrading the Russian ability to supply their troops, command and control their forces, and carry out their illegal war of aggression."

Milley described the fighting in eastern Ukraine as a "grinding war of attrition" with tens of thousands of artillery rounds being fired each day, resulting in a high number of casualties and little progress by either side.

"In terms of actual ground gained, [there's been] very, very little by the Russians, relative to all of Ukraine," he said.

-- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.

-- Travis Tritten can be reached at travis.tritten@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @Travis_Tritten.

Related: Ukraine Aims High with Request for F-15 and F-16 Jets. Here's Why It Probably Won't Happen
As Monk Eastman lay in a field hospital, he learned his infantry division was preparing to breach the Hindenburg Line -- the Germans' last line of defense on the Western Front during World War I. Despite being sidelined with leg injuries and the victim of a gas attack, Eastman didn't come this far to be a bystander.

Half-naked and with bare feet, Eastman fled the hospital under the cover of night to join his company. He helped the Allies penetrate the Hindenburg Line on Sept. 29, 1918, six weeks before an armistice agreement was signed.

It wasn't surprising that Eastman did not follow doctor's orders. Following rules was not in his DNA, for Eastman had been a gangster before he enlisted in the New York National Guard in 1917.

Born Edward Osterman, Edward "Monk" Eastman led a collection of criminals that, at one point, numbered nearly 1,200. The infamous Eastman Gang's illegal enterprises including larceny, running brothels, dealing opium (Eastman became an opium addict) and rigging elections for Tammany Hall.

Eastman -- dubbed the "first real New York gangster" -- served several prison sentences, including at Sing Sing. After he was convicted for stealing silver, Eastman served about three years in another prison and was released in October 1917. By that time, his gang had disbanded, and the United States was embroiled in WWI.

Keeping his past secret, Eastman -- in his early 40s at the time -- enlisted under the alias William Delaney. When Army medical examiners in Brooklyn saw his scar-covered torso, misshapen ears and a nose that had taken its share of punishment, they wondered what had happened.

"Oh, just a lot of little private wars around New York," Eastman told them, according to a story on warhistoryonline.com.

Eastman saw no reason to elaborate, and the doctors -- finding that answer sufficient or perhaps deciding they didn't want to know more -- didn't inquire further. Eastman passed his physical and joined the 106th Regiment of the 27th Infantry Division of the New York National Guard.

The division became known as O'Ryan's Roughnecks, named after its commander, Maj. Gen. Frank O'Ryan. Unaware of Eastman's background, others in the unit teased him. They called him "Pop," but it didn't take very long for Eastman to gain the Roughnecks' respect during training at Camp Wadsworth in South Carolina.

"The old man could outrun anybody in the unit," according to this story from 2016. "When Eastman hit a bayoneting dummy, he nearly tore it in half. Delaney's secret came out and the taunting ended: Pop was Monk Eastman, the infamous Bowery desperado."

The son of a Civil War veteran, Eastman seemed a natural for the military despite his advanced age and checkered past. He sometimes led nighttime missions into no man's land -- that area separating the front lines of opposing armies.

Stories emerged of Eastman rescuing troops, eliminating machine gun nests and continuing fighting after being shot in the hand. When German fire pinned his regiment at Vierstraat Ridge in Belgium, Eastman hurled bombs at the enemy.

"The German gunners caught sight of him," The New York Tribune reported. "They could not depress their gun sufficiently to hit him and Monk crawled forward and blew them up."

New York National Guard soldiers of the 27th Division celebrate the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I on Nov. 11, 1918. The division had suffered heavy casualties while attacking through the Hindenburg Line as part of the British Fourth Army. (U.S. Army Signal Corps via National Archives)

Eastman's bravery led to his hospitalization, during which he learned about the plan to break through the Hindenburg Line -- a defensive barrier that the Germans had constructed in 1917 and so far had been impregnable.

Eastman and the rest of the 106th led the initial charge on a tunnel, where German reinforcements were positioned nearby. In the process, the regiment helped establish a foothold for Allied forces, despite coming under heavy attack.

When the unit retreated to the rear after the position was secured, Eastman asked to stay behind. He wanted to be a stretcher bearer, so he could help carry wounded soldiers to safety.

After a 56-hour engagement, the Allies broke through the Hindenburg Line.

Despite his accomplishments, Eastman apparently was not especially impressed with his military service, once boasting: "There were lots of dance halls in the Bowery tougher than that so-called 'Great War' of theirs."

In May 1919, New York Gov. Al Smith pardoned Eastman. Given a second chance, Eastman didn't take advantage of it. He went to work for a mob boss and died on Dec. 26, 1920, when he was shot to death by a corrupt Prohibition agent.

-- Stephen Ruiz can be reached at stephen.ruiz@military.com.

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New Xinjiang-focused poverty relief film demonstrates Chinas ethnic unity

By Ji Yuqiao (Global Times) 11:28, July 20, 2022

Promotional material for The Sun Shines on TashkurganPhotos: Courtesy of Kashi Jia Lu Film &Media

"Our country never forgets any of its people or regions. No matter how remote, they have received support from the motherland to alleviate poverty," filmmaker Lin Tao told the Global Times, explaining why his new film focuses on the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The remote county lies on the Pamirs Plateau and shares a border with the countries of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

To narrate the poverty-relief stories of the Tajik ethnic group in the region, Lin together with his crew spent more than a month filming in the county in 2018. Since shooting ended, the team has worked tirelessly to polish the film to perfection, so they could bring a vivid story about Chinese volunteer officials in Xinjiang to the big screen for audiences, especially those who have never been to the region.

The film The Sun Shines on Tashkurgan, set for release on Saturday, paints a harmonious picture of different Chinese ethnic groups uniting together. The film's lead actress Gulimire Duoerbing, a Tajik school teacher making her acting debut, told the Global Times that in her eyes the film is a true-to-life portrayal of the Tajik people's efforts to overcome poverty.

Breath of fresh air

The premiere of the movie was held in Beijing on Monday. The hundreds of people in attendance were able to appreciate Lin's sentiment that summer was a good time to watch the film as the cool images on screen were a calming balm for the rising heat outside the theater.

Herds of horses splashing through clean streams on the flat plateau as snowy mountains quietly stand on the horizon surrounded by clouds and mist were just some of the images that stunned the audience and brought the refreshing atmosphere of the plateau to the theater thousands of kilometers away.

Following the steps of Peng Guangliang (played by Li Chenhao), a university graduate from Beijing who volunteers for a program to support Xinjiang tourism, the audience gets to know Yang Xinda (played by Cao Li), a Party secretary who has worked in the county for over 19 years as a supporting official, and Talaiguli (Duoerbing), a kindergarten teacher. When Peng arrives at the village of Pile, it has no roads to the outside world, no running water and no internet. At first, the young man refuses to stay in the village because of these conditions, but he is quickly touched by the kindness and optimistic spirit of the villagers and decides to stay and help them lift themselves from poverty.

Through the efforts of these officials from different generations and despite a major tragedy, a paved road connecting the village to the rest of the county is built, clean running water is brought into people's homes and internet access is made available to all local residents.

The story of Peng and Yang was adapted from the real stories of six officials who traveled to Xinjiang to support the region, the film's producer Jia Lu told the Global Times.

Real Tajik stories

Besides the stories of officials, many of the details about local people were adapted from the real lives of local Tajik residents, such as that of Duoerbing, who was teaching at a local primary school when she was chosen for the role.

Lin said that Duoerbing was chosen just two days before shooting began and that it was a happy accident that his team met the teacher who had never performed before the camera.

"The resulting movie proves that I made the correct decision at that time," Lin noted.

Duoerbing told the Global Times that she teaches Chinese at school and due to poverty alleviation efforts her students are now able to watch education videos on the internet just like children living in other regions.

The teacher in her 20s began to notice changes in her hometown starting in 2014 as flat and convenient roads that reached each household meant local children no longer needed to tramp over hill and dale to get to school.

As education is one of the main priorities of poverty alleviation efforts, each village in the county now has its own kindergarten and a school for first to third grade students, while fourth graders and above have to go to county schools.

The production team said the ethnic unity on display in Xinjiang while they shot the film was palpable. The producer noted that every Monday, more than 500 Tajik people would voluntarily gather at the small village square to raise the Chinese national flag and singing the national anthem.

"Our team is also an example of ethnic unity," Li said.

The crew's interpreter was a young Tajik man whose father named him "Hongkong" as he was born on July 1, 1997, the day Hong Kong returned to the motherland. "We still often send messages to each other and Hongkong talks about his current life on WeChat," Li added.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
The Giants recently signed right-hander Kyle Tyler to a minor league contract, according to the transactions tracker at MLB.com. He elected free agency after being outrighted off the Padres roster for the second time earlier this month.

Tyler, 25, has had a tumultuous past few months. A former Angels draftee, he reached the big leagues with the Halos late last season. Los Angeles designated him for assignment coming out of the lockout, kicking off a series of transactions. Tyler went to the Red Sox, Padres, back to the Angels then back to the Padres on waivers within a span of three weeks. He finally stuck on the Friars 40-man roster for a couple months, but he was again designated for assignment in early June.

After passing through waivers unclaimed, Tyler was assigned outright to Triple-A El Paso. San Diego reselected him to the majors a few days later but eventually DFA him again. Tyler again cleared waivers, and the second outright afforded him the right to head to free agency rather than return to El Paso. He did so and will now try to pitch his way back to the big leagues in San Francisco.

Tyler has seven MLB appearances under his belt: five with last years Angels, two with the Padres this season. Hes allowed only four runs through 16 1/3 innings, but he owns a mediocre 8:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio and has averaged just 91 MPH on his fastball in that time. To his credit, Tyler has typically posted excellent numbers in the minors, a big reason he reached the majors only three-plus years after falling to the 20th round in the draft. He posted a 3.38 ERA with a solid 24.3% strikeout rate and a modest 7.3% walk percentage through 15 appearances (12 starts) in Double-A last season.

This year, Tyler has run into some uncharacteristic control woes at the minors top level. Hes walked more than one-fifth of opponents through 21 2/3 frames in El Paso. Strike-throwing had been a strength before this season, however, and the Giants will see if he can get on track in a new environment. Tyler has worked mostly in relief this season but has a fair bit of pre-2022 starting experience, so San Francisco can keep him as a depth option in either role.
20.07.2022 LISTEN

Fast-rising Afrobeat sensation DJ Azonto says the allegation being levelled against him by rapper "One Blow" is false and should be annulled by his fans.

One Blow earlier in the week made some wild allegations against DJ Azonto, saying that his recently released song "Fa Ne Fom" belonged to him, having released the track a few months ago.

One Blow took to Snapchat to accuse DJ Azonto of song theft, but DJ Azonto responded by claiming he was the originator of the song.

"The song belongs to me and I wrote the song myself. The allegations being made by One Blow are false and I urge my fans to ignore it," DJ Azonto said in an interview.

DJ Azonto is currently in Dubai to shoot the "Fa Ne Fom" music video featuring some top dancers from around the world.
Ghanaian gospel music diva, Empress Gifty, on Saturday, July 16, 2022 attended the 37th edition of Stellar Awards in the United States of America.

The Stellar Awards Gospel Music Show is the first and oldest televised awards show honoring Gospel Music artistes for over 37year.

This years event was held at Cobb Energy Performing Art Centre at Atlanta, LA brought together heavyweights in the music industry around the world and saw global gospel brands like Kirk Franklyn, Travis Greene Wande, Rudy Currence, Chrisette Michele, Ricky Dillard, Kelontae, Giving, Jason Nelson, James Fortune, Doe, and Tyte Tribbett among others thrill the audience.

It was followed by the presentation of awards and honour to deserving industry players.

This edition saw the Ghanaian gospel gem Empress Gifty take part, as she observed proceeding after a wonderful encounter with one of the hosts for the night, award winning Jekalyn Carr.

Empress Gifty as part of attending the event also engaged international gospel music dynamos for possible projects together.

The five times Grammys nominee and Dove Award winning American musician, Jekalyn Carr recently followed multiple Ghanaian gospel musicians Empress Gifty on Instagram.

Interestingly the renowned gospel artiste has been commenting on post by Empress Gifty, expressing her admiration for her.

Empress Gifty is currently on vacation in the United States of America and also making positive moves for her career and gospel music in general.
20.07.2022 LISTEN

Exactly 20 years ago, one of the finest brains in broadcasting was unearthed in Cape Coast, Ghana.

For those experiencing a whiff of change in radio programming in Cape Coast through Asaase 100.3 MHz, Jimmy Kutin is one of the major brains behind the revolution.

For the past few weeks, he has injected some buoyancy into the radio terrain in the Central Region by parading the best talents for the radio station, since they started programmes in earnest.

Jimmy Kutin is Branch Manager of Asaase 100.3 FM in Cape Coast

Jimmy Kutin has risen through the ranks from being a DJ and a presenter, to a programmes manager and a business manager. He further climbed to the height of a manager of various radio stations in Cape Coast, Accra and Takoradi.

How Jimmy got into radio

Jimmy Kutin, a doyen of broadcasting in Ghana, started his radio journey on July 19th 2002, with Radio Valco, a campus-based radio station at the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

He told ghanaweekend.com that when he started radio, Radio Valco was the best station in Cape Coast, even though it was a student-led effort.

I had completed secondary school and was fast developing my DJing and MC skills with social groups in Cape Coast at the time. I got in touch initially with Eddie Ray (now at Kasapa FM) who put me in touch with other senior presenters at the station to see if I would be considered, he said.

According to Jimmy, because of his relatively young age (he was still in his teens), nobody was ready to give him a chance.

Eventually, Mr Daniel Dadson, the station manager at the time, gave me the opportunity to prove myself with a 2 am to 3 am hip-hop show on Tuesdays. The rest, they say, is history, he added.

The number of radio stations hes worked with:

1. Jimmy worked with Radio Valco from 2002 to 2006. He was a DJ, Presenter for Brunch, Drive, Weekend Jam, and other shows and became the head of events before leaving.

2. ATL FM (2006 to 2010) - Drive-time host

3. Pluzz FM (2011) - Programmes Manager

4. Beach FM (2012) General Manager

5. Pluzz FM (2013) General Manager

6. Cape FM (2015) General Manager

7. Focus 1 Media (2016) Programmes Director for Beach FM, Spice FM and Radio Maxx and Drive host for Radio Maxx.

8. Darling FM (2019 to 2022) Business Manager

9. Asaase Radio (2022) Branch Manager

Jimmy Kutin at Radio Maxx

Mentorship

In his 20 years of impactful broadcast journalism and as a talent manager, Jimmy has contributed to the careers of media personalities such as Richard Kojo Nyarko of Joy News, actor James Gardiner, Candyman Lucas Mensah, among others.

He said: Basically anyone who matters in Radio in Cape Coast has passed through my hands.

Education

Jimmy Kutin attended Mfantsipim School, the University of Cape Coast (UCC) for his undergraduate degree, the University of Ghana for his Master's, UCC again for his second master's and is currently pursuing a PhD programme at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

Aside from his radio business, Jimmy Kutin is also a lecturer. He taught various courses at GIMPA (Takoradi campus) since 2014 and was awarded the Best Lecturer in 2020.

Jimmy Kutin won Best Lecturer award at GIMPA.
The deaths of 21 young people at a South African tavern more than three weeks ago remains a mystery as a preliminary toxicology report was inconclusive, provincial authorities said Tuesday.

Tests conducted by a Cape Town lab found alcohol and carbon monoxide in the victims' blood but not at deadly levels, said Dr. Litha Matiwane from the Eastern Cape provincial department of health.

"What we found was for blood alcohol levels, levels ranged from 0.05 grams to 0.26 grams per 100 millilitres, which itself is not conclusive for lethal toxicology," Matiwane told a televised media briefing from East London.

The lab also found methanol in the blood of all the victims, and further testing is underway to determine the levels, Matiwane said.

Twenty-one people aged between 14 and 20 were found dead on June 26 at the Enyobeni tavern in Scenery Park, a township in the coastal city of East London.

Survivors described a mad dash to escape the jam-packed premises and at least one person reported a suffocating smell.

Thirty-one people were hospitalised with symptoms ranging from backache and tight chests to vomiting and headache.

A stampede has been ruled out as the cause of death.

Eastern Cape provincial leader Oscar Mabuyane said the government was working with families of the victims to ensure they had every support, and insisted the cause of the tragedy would be found.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has blamed the deaths on the "scourge of underage drinking" and vowed to crack down on "unscrupulous" bar keepers who flout regulations.

Since then, the bar's 52-year-old owner and two employees aged 33 and 34 have been arrested for allegedly breaching alcohol sale regulations, police had said.

The owner is expected to appear court on August 19 while the two employees have each been fined 2,000 rand ($118).
Phone numbers of freelance reporter Luc Abaki (left), LAlternative director Ferdinand Ayite (middle), and LIndependant Express and LExpress International director Komlanvi Ketohou (right), all appeared on the Pegasus Project list of contacts allegedly selected for spyware surveillance. (Photo credits: Abaki, Ayite, Ketohou)

19.07.2022 LISTEN

One year after news broke about a list of over 50,000 phone numbers allegedly selected for surveillance with Pegasus spyware, journalists around the world continue to live and work with the fear that their phones can be used to track their conversations and penetrate all the personal and professional data stored on their devices.

The Pegasus Project, an investigation by Amnesty International and a consortium of media outlets coordinated by Forbidden Stories, revealed in July 2021 that at least 180 journalists were among those from over 50 countries who may have been targeted with the sophisticated surveillance software.

Three journalists from the West African country of Togo were included on the Pegasus Project list. They told CPJ at the time about how the revelations had caused nightmarish nights and damage to their personal as well as professional lives. Twelve months on, they say the prospect of being monitored still generates pervasive paranoia and hinders their communications with sources.

Since I heard this news until today I can no longer easily communicate with my phone, Ferdinand Ayite, director of LAlternative newspaper, recently told CPJ about the implications of his phone number being listed. There is a kind of permanent fear that forces me to change my means of communication.

That fear is aggravated as Togolese authorities intensify their crackdown on independent press since the Pegasus Project revelations.

NSO Group, the Israeli company that sells the Pegasus spyware, has denied any connection to the Pegasus Project list and has said it only sells spyware to governments to fight terrorism and crime. However, research shows that journalists and those close to them have been targeted, along with activists and politicians, around the world.

Citizen Lab, a University of Toronto-based research group, found Togolese clergy had been selected for Pegasus surveillance in 2019. Similarly, Amnesty International reported that a Togolese human rights defender, who requested anonymity for security reasons, had been targeted with a different, Indian-made spyware in late 2019 and early 2020.

Ayite, like other journalists whose phones were reportedly listed for potential surveillance in countries ranging from Morocco to Mexico to India to Hungary, said the disclosures had affected their ability to work. Sources treat us differently. Several people are reluctant to take our phone calls, and we are forced to proceed otherwise, he said. Personally, I no longer call certain sourcesTo this day I continue to think that my communications are always followed and listened to and this has a negative impact on the work.

Ayite and two other journalistsKomlanvi Ketohou and Luc Abakiwhose contacts featured among the over 300 Togolese phone numbers on the Pegasus Project list, have not confirmed if their devices were ever infected with the spyware. But they told CPJ how the threat of surveillance shaped their broader concerns about freedom of expression in Togo. Spyware was just one of the reasons the Togolese Press Patronage (PPT), a local association of media owners, called 2021 the darkest [year] of the democratic era in Togo in terms of press freedom.

Days after he learned that his number had been listed, Ayite told CPJ he was not surprised and described himself as a journalist on borrowed time. Less than six months later, in early December 2021, police arrested Ayite and Fraternite newspaper director Joel Egah, and detained them for over 20 days on accusations of contempt of authorities and propagation of falsehoods. Ayite said authorities retained his passport until mid-June; Egah died of a heart attack in March.

In May, Ayite and his newspaper lost their appeal of a separate defamation case. The ruling they sought to reverse had ordered them each to pay 2 million West African francs (US $3,703) in damages over a June 2020 report accusing a local official of embezzlement. Ayite said he and his legal team were preparing to appeal again to Togos Supreme Court.

Ketohou, who also uses the first name Carlos, told CPJ that even a year after learning his number was listed, people still worried about being in contact with him.

They have fear to speak with me, Ketohou said. Fear that what they say will be listened to by Togolese authorities.

Even when people do agree to speak with him over the phone, Ketohou said they often request a video call to be able to see that its really him on the other end of the line. Ketohou recognized that this would not necessarily protect against spyware that can grant remote access to a phones microphone and camera, but people were looking for ways to build confidence in their communications with him.

Reached by phone on July 15, Togo communication minister Akodah Ayewouadan said the government had no connection with the NSO Group, has not used that [Pegasus] spyware and we have not communicated on it. Ayewouadan requested that he be sent questions in writing, but as of Monday, July 18, CPJ had not received any response to those written questions.

Months before learning his number was listed, Ketohou was arrested by Togolese police and detained for several days over a report published by his LIndependant Express newspaper alleging corruption by government ministers. That paper was barred from publishing following his release and he fled the country amid ongoing threats against him and his family, setting up the LExpress International news site in exile.

Living outside Togo, Ketohou told CPJ that he has remained worried about the transnational reach of the Togolese government. He said in recent months he had received video calls from numbers he did not know, which he refused to answer. Even without evidence to suggest the callers wished to harm him, Ketuhou said he feared they sought to confirm visually that it was his phone and to collect information about his location.

Luc Abaki, who works as a freelance reporter, told CPJ that while being listed in the Pegasus Project leak didnt significantly change his private life, certain people, especially close to power carefully avoid my calls, in particular telephone. This means that I no longer have access to certain information that is sometimes essential for the work that I do as a journalist.

I work conscientiously with the main objective of aiming for the common good, Abaki said. I always observe prudence.
A council has approved a plan to pay pregnant women 400 to quit smoking.

The Cheshire East Council health committee was told about 10% of the areas expectant mothers were smokers and a pilot scheme paying them over six instalments would cost about 116,000.

It was also told other smokers in their households would receive 200 to give up.

The areas public health director Dr Matt Tyrer said it could lead to healthcare savings of about 450,000

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said Dr Tyrer told councillors that in Cheshire East, there was 10.8% of pregnant women smoking at the time of delivery and that is higher than the England average.

NHS figures show 9.6% of pregnant women were known to be smokers at the time of delivery in 2020-21.

The pilot scheme was supported by all but one of the committees members.

Robust processes

Congleton East Liberal Democrat councillor Denis Murphy said that while he was all in favour of supporting smoking cessation, he was fundamentally opposed to paying people to stop something that they voluntarily choose to do.

If you want to crunch numbers and say that you spend 116,000, the return will be 450,000, the maths speak for themselves, but I am fundamentally opposed to providing financial incentives, he added.

Conservative councillor Andrew Kolker, who represents Dane Valle, said smoking was catastrophic to the health of an unborn child, so he was absolutely 100% behind anything that is proven to reduce smoking.

However, he added that he was concerned about how the council could prevent fraud.

If word got round that the council are giving you 400 quid if you tick the box and say you are a smoker, then I would suspect that a lot of people would say yes, I am a smoker, but Im desperately trying to give up, he said.

He said such a system would mean statisticians would be ecstatic because it proves their case that payments do indeed stop smoking and the women involved would be delighted, having received her 400 but, in reality, she had never been a smoker in the first place.

Dr Tyrer said robust processes to determine somebodys eligibility, which will include breath testing so that you cant have somebody whos never been smoking before come in and say yes, Im a smoker.

Source: BBC Sport
The brother of late President John Evans Atta Mills has accused the Atta Mills Institute and the Coastal Development Authority of tampering with the tomb of the ex-president without recourse to the family.

The brother, Samuel Atta Mills says the act is culturally offensive.

He added that the family does not recognize the act by the institute with regard to the remains of the late president at the Asomdwee Park. In a few days, 10 years after the passing of the late President will be marked.

Samuel Atta Mills, who is also the Member of Parliament for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo Abirem, has been addressing the press in Parliament.

A group calling itself Atta Mills Institute that the family doesnt even recognize, and Coastal Development Authority, have gone to break the grave of President John Evans Atta Mills. They have removed the tomb, and they claim that they are rebuilding it.

Ghana's first Presidential mausoleum and burial ground of Ghana's late President John Evans Attah Mills, the Asomdwee Park, is currently in a deplorable state.

There are reports that the park was no longer secure as its security had been left in a sorry state and no longer a secured place at least befitting enough for former leaders worth celebrating.

The condition of the park and the late President's tomb is nothing to write home about, as some parts of the fencing protecting it have broken down.

My question is that, we have a family tradition. Now that they have touched someones grave, is the body still in there? Who has the body? Why will you touch the body without informing the family head? Under whose authority? Why do they want us to always go through grief? This is a former president, why will the government allow this to happen? This is an insult to the family and the nation, Samuel Atta-Mills added.

Professor John Evans Atta Mills previously served as Vice-President from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry Rawlings, and he stood unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He is the first sitting Ghanaian head of state to die in office and was subsequently laid to rest at the Asomdwee Park.

John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills was a Ghanaian politician and legal scholar who served as President of Ghana from 2009 to 2012.

---citinewsroom
Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler director Tshepo Sethibe appears on July 14 at the Village Magistrate Court in Gaborone, Botsowana after police charged him under a law barring 'alarming publications.' (Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler)

20.07.2022 LISTEN

Botswana authorities should immediately drop the criminal charge against Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler director Tshepo Sethibe, return devices seized from the outlet, and refrain from harassing the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

On July 13, about 25 law enforcement officers arrested Sethibe at his home in the town of Mogoditshane, northwest of the capital Gaborone, and charged him under a law barring alarming publications, according to news reports, a Facebook post by his outlet, and the journalist and his lawyer, Obonetse Jonas, both of whom spoke with CPJ via messaging app.

After arresting Sethibe, police seized two laptops, three mobile phones, a desktop computer, and passwords from Moeladilotlhoko News Boilers offices in the town of Kumakwane, Sethibe told CPJ. As of July 19, police have not returned the equipment.

Sethibe appeared in the Village Magistrate Court in Gaborone on July 14 and was released on a bail of 2,000 pula (US$156), according to Jonas and a police statement reviewed by CPJ, which said his next court date is set for September 6.

If convicted of spreading alarming publications, Sethibe could face up to two years imprisonment and an unstipulated fine, according to Section 33 of the penal code.

Botswana authorities should immediately drop the criminal charge against Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler director Tshepo Sethibe and return all devices seized from the publication, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator, in Durban, South Africa. Censorship and criminal prosecution should never be the antidote for journalism that authorities disagree with.

The charges against Sethibe stem from a July 8 Facebook post by Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler, a privately owned outlet that publishes on Facebook and has nearly 344,000 followers about a missing 6-year-old child, which alleged that police had found the childs remains and would cremate them without holding a funeral or releasing them to the family, according to a chargesheet reviewed by CPJ. Police maintain that the remains belong to the missing child although the family has refused to collect them for burial, according to a news report.

Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler has published several posts about the child since his March 2022 disappearance.

They arrested me because the government is trying, by all means, to intimidate me from revealing the truth about the whereabouts of a 6-year-old boy, the journalist told CPJ.

Near Bagali, assistant of the Botswana police service public relations officer, told CPJ by messaging app that he could not comment, as the matter is before court.

Sethibe was previously arrested with four other Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler staff members on criminal trespassing charges in January 2021, as CPJ documented at the time. The state withdrew the case on February 15, 2022, as Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler reported.
Israel and Morocco strengthened military ties during meetings Tuesday between the Jewish state's army chief and Moroccan defence officials in the kingdom, amid tension with Rabat's rival Algeria.

Israeli army chief Aviv Kohavi, who arrived Monday, met with the Inspector General of the Royal Armed Forces Belkhir El Farouk, an Israeli army statement said.

He also met with Morocco's minister delegate in charge of defence administration, Abdellatif Loudiyi, and intelligence chief Brahim Hassani, it added.

It is the first official visit of an Israeli army chief to the North African kingdom.

During the discussions, the Moroccan side noted its "interest in jointly setting up industrial defence projects in Morocco", the kingdom's army chief said in a statement.

"The meetings discussed opportunities for military cooperation, both in exercises and training, as well as in the operational and intelligence fields," a statement said.

Morocco cut relations with Israel in 2000 following the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, but re-established ties two decades later in a deal that saw Washington recognise Rabat's sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara.

Since then, a steady stream of Moroccan and Israeli officials have visited each others' countries and signed cooperation deals in various fields.

They have included Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz, who on a visit to the kingdom in November last year signed a security agreement making it easier for Rabat to acquire high-tech exports from Israel's defence industry.

Last month, Israeli military observers for the first time attended the annual "African Lion" military exercise -- vast drills involving thousands of personnel from several nations, co-organised by Morocco and the United States.

And in March, an Israeli army delegation met with Moroccan officers in Rabat, in the first visit of its kind since the 2020 normalisation deal, signing a military cooperation agreement.

The North African kingdom's mending of relations with Israel re-ignited its long-standing rivalry with Algeria, which in August last year cut diplomatic ties with Rabat.

Algiers cited "hostile acts" and Morocco's relations -- including on military and security issues -- with "the Zionist entity", referring to Israel.

Morocco considers the Western Sahara an integral part of the kingdom, while the Algeria-backed Polisario Front has long demanded an independence referendum there.
20.07.2022 LISTEN

Sex is a dangerous blessing and a universal test for adults, but teenagers can rush in? How to maximize the blessings and minimize the dangers is not easy, even to many adults. Age of Consent, Age of marriage with parental consent, Age of marriage as Adults, Age of recommendation for sex vs marriage, vs having children can all be very different. We have passed the cultural era and the age of Religion is largely gone, but our secular governments have both cultural and religious influence often times. Science and Nature should largely guide our personal sexual standing and collective leaning. Many Western governments have abandoned Religion, but re-picking up culture in a new shape, and sometimes imposing such revamped cultures on poorer countries, especially Africa. These ages are message bearers, but the politics can be one eye or totally blind.

'Age of Consent' really means age of responsibility, partial or full. Most of Europe had it around thirteen to fifteen. North Carolina and perhaps few states differ from the questionable u.s federal age of consent of eighteen. It does not mean age to have sex, but that you should know better at that age and must take responsibility for your choice. I am of the opinion that children, teenagers, and adults are different and should be treated differently. Accordingly, I will demand responsibility from my thirteen year old nieces or nephews, and will prefer a state that concurs with conscientious parents. Nature, science, and common sense agree that teenagers should learn responsibilities, including sexual responsibilities. Nature is challenging, but it is part of life that should never be dismissed. The 'can' and 'want' through nature does not always mean 'should'. We are obligated to mildly resist nature at times, or we may dangerously fail at times. Those who wrongly want the age of consent to be around eighteen are sending a dangerous message to early and mid teenagers. Science can confirm over 95% of teenagers can understand the dangers of sex, if rightly taught, and this must never be mistaken as science recommends sex for teenagers. To protect the babies from teenagers, we cannot say teenagers are children. They are neither adults, nor children, but closer to adults on sexual matters. Beside protecting babies, the secular laws can try to over protect teenagers, but nature can brutally punish guilty teenagers, even decades after their crimes. Memories are part of life and sometimes people selectively lie about memories, further self hurting. We cannot over punish Teenagers for irresponsible sex, but telling them they are victims or cannot be partial culprits is shameful and dangerous. To me, The just age of consent is thirteen, but fourteen or fifteen is tolerable, especially where the state under educate on sexual affairs.

Age of marriage with parental consent is best from fifteen to nineteen, but thirteen and fourteen can be tolerable. Marriage does not mean sex and certainly not having babies. Your fifteen year old in most secular governments are prone to have sex, so do you want it inside or outside marriage? A marriage from religious perspective can be very simple and religious parents should fight for this right for teenagers. If your fifteen year old daughter is lucky to be in marriage, she can continue schooling and not have babies until twenty or when she wants to. The state can even make it 'ratifiable' marriage at age twenty and easy divorce for teenagers. Remember this marriage can be between teenagers or with an adult, but must get the parental consent of the teenager. Parents can agree to house teenagers, or separately, to help guide them... Parents can consider conditions like temporal womb reversal until age twenty...

Age of marriage without parental consent is best at twenty, but eighteen, nineteen, or twenty one is tolerable . Regardless of what your religion or culture claims, parents should teach well for up to twenty years, but stop ordering even biological offspring at twenty. You can advise at any age, but the state should never allow adults dictate adults, including parents on some issues on even teenagers...

Your parents brought you to this world, but should not give you sex and your may need it. Great parents/society educate and help you find a good partner without imposing. You are doing the parents favor by satisfying the sexual needs and wants of their adult offspring. You can certainly marry any twenty year old or above without the permission of the parent(s). Best to negotiate and get permission for cordial family extension, but do not allow unnecessary barriers.

Age of Recommendation is the most crucial term, and should be based on science, nature, and conscience. Recommended age of sex can be twenty and inside marriage. Since human nature are very different, we cannot punish a teenager who cannot resist sexual urgings. The fact is sex can be good or bad, even for teenagers. Partly because sex is addictive, mysterious, unpredictable on emotional stability, and can dangerously include having a baby, no state or person should take sex lightly. Beside sex, recommended age for marriage can be twenty one, while for having a baby at around twenty eight or more. The actual figures are hard to get, but many teenage marriages went successful, so the unsuccessful ratio must be gauged with unsuccessful adults and studied. Late marriage tends to have different problems, because experience and expectations can clash...

Guardianship: Whereas we recommend responsibility from teenagers, but Guardians at home or school should not be allowed to have sex with teenagers, including adopted children. The reason is simply due to pressure or constant pressure are harder to resist. So we can punish Guardians of teenagers who get sexually involved, but not reward the teenagers who participate where they can record and report.

Special Protection for Teenagers: We should arm teenagers with body cameras and make harassing teenagers double the penalty of that of adults. When a teenager says 'no', respect it above that of adults, or we will fine you double and gave her a chunk of the fine. The good teenagers deserve big timely reward, but never reward bad teenagers. At that age, some claim they love money and cannot resist wealthy adults, but if we reward her+ for timely resistance, then we all win. If the teenager ask you out, record it, and no one should punish you for mutually helping a teenager.

Once s/he is no longer virgin, stop all false protection by a state and start urging for rescue service, s/he needs it. A questionable state make recruiting teenagers easy for pimps? 'Baby, you can make money as teenager and later cry foul?' Then every deceptive smile with the 'R. Kellies' may hunt decades later. The expectations may not be met, and the memories can be brutal. The state may tempt you to further lie and fight in anger, but nature and memories know deceptive teenagers deserve punishment. There is a big difference between ignorant teenager and a deceptive or lying teenager+. Advise your teenagers, especially your daughters to avoid even reckless tempting or attempted mental enslavement. The madonnas or 'material girl' must respect learning and working for material gains. Also teach her love is greater, and God may punish the liars, cruel, and indifferent ones, including teenagers. Seek love, let it conquer your potential fears, greed, and arrogance. May God bless Showlove Trinity: let's learn, let's work, let's have fun.

By Jarga Kebba Gigo.

An Activist and Transformer

Twitter: [email protected]

Optional Note: God controls a big chunk of our sexual blessings and/or curse, so let the wise think morality, not just legality. Even Religion tries to punish only part of sexual cruelty on earth; but God cares and can judge sexual lies , sexual ignorance, and the part of sexual cruelty humans cannot judge. The problem is the religious leaders try to go way beyond what humans should judge, and inadvertently create more problems.

Our Generation is lucky to have under utilized cameras, DNA tests, birth control options, and others, but we must honestly tell the people the state still have lot of limitations and humans must take more personal responsibilities on sex. We over glorify sex from music, movies, to TV and even newspapers. Plus social media make sexual temptations unavoidable, so we are better at educating and having fulfilled sexual service to resist the temptations. Conquering sexual fears is becoming easier, but conquering sexual greed and sexual arrogance can be hard to the ungodly. Nature have a soft sexual test even for children, but gradually raise the hardness of the test as you grow. If you closely observe even six year old boys, they tend to have erection of the penis, about every morning. They are young and that erection seems to be for health, not due to sexual thoughts. Then around teenage years, the test or questionable favor is raised to different levels and frequencies of wet dreams. We also have stupid doctors recommending masturbation, but thankful that some doctors are advising against masturbation and pointing to evident scientific observations. Masturbation or sex toy industry is a rising multi billion dollar industry, so they may lobby against facts that may affect their businesses. Growing up these days is hard, sexually, and we should educate, pray, help people access quality sex or they may glorify even pornography as 'blessing'. The states are largely about money, including sexual laws and policies.

Allowing semi pornography of teenagers on the streets, and jailing someone for having a nude picture of a seventeen year old is not protection at all. Teenage user is different from child abuser; so the terms used and charges should differ. Child pornography should be strongly banned and it means under thirteen. Teenage pornography should be smartly banned, but differently; Any thirteen to nineteen year old who willingly have nude pictures or sex tapes should be measurably punished with the producers, not the purchaser or at least not as child pornography. Failing to punish such teenagers is a big part of not just the pornography problem, but tempting weak men against children and tempting weak and greedy teenagers to go underground against society, and fear no reprisal?

If we over focus on the dangers of sex until they discover the blessings, they may never trust us again. We must be truthful to all, especially teenagers. The blessings of sex are real, but hardly exclusive through sex. So we must generally tell teenagers to avoid sex, focus on education. Certain health problems can be solved through sex, from certain types of persistent headaches to muscle problems that hardly affect teenagers. Suppose a teenager is an exception and frequently have such, it will be brutal for society to refuse helping such, sexually. Also sex seems to require regularity for maximum blessings, so starting it with whom you cannot continue with regularly seems unwise. Sexual powers can knock off even adults, so we must caution teenagers from themselves and from hurting babies. The sexual lies are sins between creatures, and God hates lying to protect any on some sins. Children should be punished over any sexual act, even stupidity. Teenagers should be mildly punished on sexual cruelty, including simple assault. We must educate teenagers lot more about sex and that God and nature will hold them to account, even where state laws or cultures call them 'victims', where they may be partial or total culprits. Gambling babies cannot be lighten. None of us prefer a child or teenager as mother or parent. Marriage is not everything, but I rather be born in marriage, so why not do as or better than your parents? I will never oppose teenage marriage, especially where teenage sex is legal and/or probable. Partnership courses can help, it is not just strong emotions some called love. Many lie to their spouse or even lie with them, so I know lot better than over adoring marriage. However, if kids are to be made, marrying is good and the contracts be above state norms in details. Marriage is a contract that must know reciprocal law from the contract and what it may miss. The ex factor experience do contribute to many divorces, so having least ex lovers may help. Where as some learn from experiences to further help, some leave with anger and may commit avenge as revenge. The good things you had with your ex may require teaching and patience on your present or next. We tend to want a kind partner, but a truthful partner is vital and may be the most sincerely kind one.

The Koran wants us to punish only arrogant adultery+ for a reason and we must avoid obsession with punishment beyond sex. It tells us let the male fornicator marry the female fornicator, but should that be forced or optional to avert human punishment? It says the adulterous should marry, and recommend hard punishment on the shameless adulterers? Demanding four witnesses is a sign, it means enough evidence, squarely, no room for doubt before we punish. Rape and adultery are different, but they are all sexual signs... Spousal adulterous testimony needs imprecatory vows before we even ask the accused to vow similarly, or defer to God. Well, God may judge even here on earth, wait decades, or much more. Many ignore Koranic signs and rush to questionable hadiths and so called human intelligence. A conscientious person or society should never be obsessed with punishment, but strong in educating and punishing evident sins between creatures, not far fetched cowardly possibilities. We should not over protect women or teenagers, especially against babies and children.

Where as most human beings avoid rape compare to animals, we have no idea how we fare on lying for sex and about sex, many may be worse than average animals. Sexual stupidity is a male problem than female. Males also tend to lie for sex, while females often lie about sex. The secular western world is sexually confused beyond LGBTQ. When a married partner can legally deny you sex for one year and legally have adultery, then such marriage becomes a super dangerous joke. You need a reason to get into marriage, but once in you have sexual obligations to each other, or divorce physically within three months after emotional divorce. The state starts as nice witness, but how the state becomes unnecessary delayer, a judge or biased judge? Divorce do not have to be bitter like the hard winters of the west, or did the winters changed them so?

How forgiving is God on sex? He made us sexual and through sex, so if we avoid sexual lying and cruelty, may He forgive the rest. How are you to your partner, your children, others' children, etc are largely choices between creatures and a just God cannot do much forgiving on such. He may inspire, but still probably justly. No matter how much you need or seemingly need sex, it is not worth lying or cruelty. Once you find a good partner, try to keep each other as if you are competing before a just God. Sex may be one big thing, but God judges other choices, so pass the subject and try on others even more. May God legalize marijuana worldwide and end all sexual bias against men and babies...
Eighteen years of ministry and actively running a Church with an average attendance of about 2000 people is definitely not for greenhorns nor for someone who immerged out of the shadows, it represents several years of hard work, consistency, dedication, disappointments and victories.

Indeed, if one knows not the name Prophet Kpegah Tamakloe, founder and leader of Breaking Yoke Ministry International, it is not because of a lack of longevity in ministry nor exposure but due to a humble attitude he has towards the work of God.

At 40 and with the people he has impacted, locally, and internationally, it is fair to say that he would have earned some qualification to attempt imposing himself as the nation's gatekeeper as many appear to do in their attempt to chase clout.

He could have used any means to be in the news, be it in the area of election predictions, dooms prophesy or anything outrageous that would make him the talk in the media space with some regularity.

After all, the blueprint is there, it is the modus operandi of many who identify themselves in the prophetic ministry so it would by no means have been unheard of.

However, akin to true followers of Jesus, Prophet Kpegah has chosen the path of decreasing so that Christ increases. It is this attitude of his that inspired this article, a piece to celebrate positive Church leadership and also let people know that the good things are done in the closet to advance God's work get God's brightest light shining on them when the time is due.

In an era when the Church has been commercialized and moneycracy dominating to the point where people take the option of being home instead of fellowshipping with other believers due to lack of money, the anthem of Prophet Kpegah the few time I decided to visit the Church has been that "don't let the lack of money keep you away from coming to Church". To make this practically possible, buses are provided free of charge for members from far to come to church and also go back home without much hindrance.

The structure of the Church service does not intimidate the don't haves nor make the haves feel superior. While giving is encouraged, not having is not shamed nor the least attempt made to make such people feel alienated

In an era when some take money for consultation, sell oils and other stuffs at cutthroat prices in exchange for promised miracles which mostly don't exist, the man I am celebrating has decided to do things differently, he has decided to be a great example to many people who want to walk with the Lord.

The Church in Ghana has reached the point where those closing the door to greed and taming the natural desire for excessive wealth have to be celebrated and shown to young aspiring leaders that indeed, amidst the noise, there are silent voices showing the way.

Such quality virtues have to be highlighted to serve as an example to others that resorting to sensationalism and making wild claims is not the right way to succeed in ministry but that sticking to a modest approach in the light of scripture is the way to go.

On my last visit to the Church, I had the privilege of meeting him and asking him a few questions about his journey. To him, the key to his growth has been obedience to the word of God and reliance on wise counsel from seniors in the ministry, both in and outside of the country.

He noted that journeying and learning from people of that stature places on him the burden to do things right and be guided by proven best examples.

It is not surprising that the humility to be mentored is one of the most highlighted themes in the Church, Prophet Kpegah believes that being guided helps people avoid repeating the same mistakes made in the past by those leading and aids in faster growth.

The second part of this article features his take on how Church Administration provides the perfect blueprints for political leadership and also how adhering to such principles could turn the fortunes of Ghana around.
From careers in banking to roles in globe-spanning agencies, social media in Africa is awash with lucrative job offers.

But investigators with AFP Fact Check have found that many of these ads are bogus -- they are scams designed to extract cash or steal personal data.

Fresh out of college in Kenya -- a country with more than 1.6 million young unemployed -- Job Mwangi believed he had been shortlisted for field assistant at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), a position advertised on LinkedIn.

After passing two online tests, he was asked to pay 2,000 Kenyan shillings (about $17) in "facilitation fees" in order to secure an interview.

"Everything about the job posting seemed legit," Mwangi told AFP Fact Check in an interview.

"I was asked to pay 1,000 Kenyan shillings ($8.5) for medical and radiology tests... but the tests didn't happen since I was told that they would be done at the UN offices on interview day."

A shuttle bus that was supposed to transfer Mwangi and more than 30 other job-seekers to the UN office never showed up.

"We waited for about one hour for the UN bus but it did not arrive, so we decided to take a bus on our own.

"On arrival at the gate, we mentioned that we had been invited for interviews with UNEP and the security officers manning the gate laughed at us, telling us that we'd been scammed."

Mwangi filed a police report but says he has heard nothing since.

Promise of easy money

This particular hoax is far from uncommon in Africa -- indeed, UN agencies regularly warn job seekers about fake ads.

"The United Nations Environment Programme does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, processing, training) or other fees, or request information on applicants' bank accounts," UNEP says on its website.

Keyword searches on Facebook reveal dozens of pages featuring bogus vacancies cleverly crafted to lure hopefuls.

Many of the pitches have the same telltale signs: they have short deadlines, promise high salaries and often include a hyperlink to an external online platform requesting personal information.

Scammers also use logos of reputable organisations and companies to lend credibility to spoof emails.

Code for Africa, a data journalism and civic technology initiative, found that in 2020 -- when job losses soared during the Covid-19 pandemic - some 30 Facebook accounts, groups and pages with over 184,000 followers targeted unsuspecting job hunters in Kenya with sham ads.

Analysts say those behind these scams rely on the desperation of job seekers, who often fail to check whether the postings are genuine.

Many of these applicants send money without hesitation, hoping this will help them in the race to get the position.

"Most online job scams aim to con unsuspecting people into sending money and once this money is sent the scammer disappears," Kenyan cybersecurity expert Anthony Muiyuro told AFP Fact Check.

LinkedIn said it was investing in ways to tackle the problem.

"Our teams use automated and manual defences to detect and address fake accounts or suspected scams. We also encourage members to report anything that doesn't seem right so we can investigate," the company told AFP Fact Check.

Africa-wide problem

Other countries targeted in Africa include Nigeria, the continent's most populous nation, where more than 23 million are unemployed.

Victims include Ayobambo Taiwo, a 29-year-old from the southern state of Ondo who lost her job in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She spotted a vacancy with the Nigerian Customs Service, advertised on Facebook, and jumped at the chance.

She said she paid 25,000 naira ($60) to a purported customs agent to secure employment.

"The man demanded an additional 92,000 naira ($222) for training kits, which I told him I couldn't afford. When he asked me how much I had, I sensed foul play and told him to refund my money but he stopped picking up my calls since then."

A common scam in Kenya involves fictitious government job offers. By Tony KARUMBA (AFP)

Job cons are a frequent hazard in South Africa, whose unemployment rate is the highest on the continent -- more than a third of its labour force are without work.

Bogus adverts there typically claim to offer relatively good, entry-level wages of up to 10,000 rand ($630) and do not ask for qualifications.

Facebook posts, often poorly written, are continuously recycled to promote thousands of supposed work opportunities, often with national retailers, the police or military.

Money & data

Lockdowns imposed during the coronavirus pandemic, which caused many Africans to be thrown onto the job market, made for especially rich pickings.

AFP Fact Check debunked dozens of false job claims in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa at the peak of the crisis.

In the anonymous, shadowy world of job scamming, thieves stand a good chance of getting away with their crime.

But one notable success was a conviction in South Africa in 2020 -- a man who was jailed for eight years for defrauding job seekers of 95,000 rand ($6,000).

Kenyan police last year arrested four suspects for allegedly swindling victims out of millions of shillings with fake offers from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) -- a major human-resources agency in the education sector.

The suspects, thought to belong to a crime ring, had opened several fake Facebook accounts in the name of TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia, and duped people into forking over fees in exchange for jobs that didn't exist.

Watchdogs say a common ploy is to get the job-seeker to fill out forms giving personal information -- a clear opportunity for blackmail or identity theft.

Muiyuro advises simple but thorough precautions: check the official organisation or company website or LinkedIn page to verify the job opening, "or reach out to friends or acquaintances who work in the organisation."

jok-burs/bh-gfa/nla/txw/ri
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said, although some cases of the Marburg virus have been recorded in Ghana, there is no need to impose a travel restriction.

Ghana and Guinea have recorded fresh cases of the deadly virus, putting other West African countries on red alert.

The WHO Country Representative, Dr. Francis Kasola urged Ghanaians to observe COVID-19 safety protocols in order to prevent the spread of the Marburg virus.

We are not recommending any travel restrictions. There will be no cause for alarm as long as people follow the advice we have given, particularly the COVID-19 prevention protocols; washing of hands, among others.

Two cases have so far been recorded in the country.

One case was a 26-year-old male who checked into a hospital on 26 June 2022 and died on 27 June. The second case was a 51-year-old male that reported to the hospital on 28 June and died on the same day.

Marburg Virus Disease is a rare but severe haemorrhagic fever that affects both humans and non-human primates.

It is caused by the Marburg virus. It is transmitted by infected persons or animals from direct contact with body fluids, blood, and other discharges from the affected person/animal. The incubation period for the disease is two (2) to twenty-one (21) days. Treatment is symptomatic. There is currently no vaccine available.

Prospective cases may present with fever, bloody diarrhoea, bleeding from gums, bleeding into the skin, bleeding into eyes, and, bloody urine.

citinewsroom
The Effutu Municipal Assembly has planned to partner with the Forestry Commission to give a facelift to the famous Winneba Ramsar Site to enable tourists appreciate the processes involved in the deer hunting expedition.

The Ramsar Site provides a hunting ground for the Asafo Companies in Winneba to hunt for deer during the Aboakyir festival.

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Alhaji Zubairu Kassim made the revelation at the Jophus Anamoah Mensah Conference Center on Tuesday during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Youth in Tourism Festival (YOTOFEST) themed "The Youth, Tourism, and Sanitation".

The week-long event, which is the first of its kind in the region, was organised by the Tourism Society of Ghana in collaboration with the University of Education, Winneba.

The MCE, Alhaji Zubairu Kassim in his speech indicated that prioritising youth participation in tourism would ensure the potential of enhancing youth empowerment and engagement in tourism and create tourism business incubation hubs and partnerships for the youth.

He stressed the need to improve the sanitation situations at the various tourist sites across the country to drive in investors as well as commercialize them for profit to boost the local economies.

He said "This Municipality can boast of two enviable festivals that drive people from all walks of life to congregate in Winneba to experience the rich culture and artistry exhibited during the period. The Aboakyir and Masquerading festivals are events which continue to give a boost to the economy of Effutu".

YOTOFEST was designed to allow young participants to be part of a unique experience aimed at promoting youth engagement in the tourism sector and empowering younger generations to initiate more sustainable domestic tourism promotions.
Heatwaves, like the one that has been stifling western Europe this week, are becoming more frequent, and the trend is set to continue until at least the 2060s, the United Nations warned.

"[Heatwaves] are becoming more frequent and this negative trend will continue... at least until the 2060s, independent of our success in climate mitigation efforts," Petteri Taalas, head of the UN's World Meteorological Organisation, told a press conference in Geneva Tuesday.

"Thanks to climate change we have started breaking records... In the future, these kinds of heatwaves are going to be normal, and we will see even stronger extremes."

Europe's heatwave this week should act as a wake-up call for countries continuing to pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, he said at a joint press conference with the World Health Organisation. about the fierce heatwave hitting western Europe.

"Emissions are still growing and therefore it's not sure that we would see the peak in the 2060s if we are not able to bend this emission growth development, especially in the big Asian countries which are the largest emitters".

The heatwave in Europe has fuelled ferocious wildfires and has pushed temperatures in the north of the continent over 40 degrees Celsius for the first time ever.

"The question everybody's asking, looking ahead, when will this end?" said Robert Stefanski, the WMO's applied climate services chief, who predicted a peak on Tuesday for France, the UK and possibly Switzerland.

Though models show an end to the heatwave "possibly not until the middle of next week."

Europe's heat record was broken last year when the temperature hit 48.8 degrees Celceus in Sicily in southern Italy.

"Our concern is that this is happening with shorter time periods between these records," Stefanski said.

Greece's record temperature had stood since 1977 before it was broken in 2021, and similar temperatures were being reached this year, he said.

Maria Neira, the WHO's environment, climate change and health director, recalled how the 2003 European heatwave cost more than 70,000 lives, between 15,000 and 19,000 of them in France.

"This heat will compromise the capacity and the ability of our bodies to regulate our internal temperature. And this can result in a cascade of illnesses, starting obviously with heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heatstroke, hyperthermia."

(with AFP)
20.07.2022 LISTEN

The MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, in a statement to mark Nelson Mandela International Day has called on African leaders amending constitutions to extend their stay in power and intoxicated by power to learn from the late South African president and have a change of heart.

Here is an extremely popular leader who could have become a life president of South Africa but instead chose to voluntarily step down after just one term to pave way for others, he said.

In doing so, he became more loved and even more influential out of office, particularly, with his charity causes and his work in creating awareness about the dreaded HIV/AIDS disease, Mr Ablakwa added.

Below is Mr Ablakwas full statement:

COMMEMORATIVE STATEMENT TO MARK NELSON MANDELA INTERNATIONAL DAY BY HON. SAMUEL OKUDZETO ABLAKWA, MP FOR NORTH TONGU AND RANKING MEMBER ON THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE OF PARLIAMENT.

Right Honourable Speaker, I am grateful to you for the opportunity to make this commemorative statement on Nelson Mandela International Day.

Mr. Speaker, in November 2009, the United Nations General Assembly by Resolution A/RES/64/13 declared 18th July each year  that is Nelson Mandelas birthday as a UN commemorative day to be known as the Nelson Mandela International Day.

Mr. Speaker, that unanimous UN resolution is an enduring testament of the profound inspiration Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela represents to the people of the world.

Nelson Mandela has become the symbol of justice, the conscience of a fair and equitable world, the icon for the oppressed, the oracle for the marginalized and the example for selfless leadership.

When Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 into the Thembu royal family, he grew up with the firm belief that no human being deserved to live under a brutal apartheid regime.

His study of the law at the University of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand offered him the legal compass to navigate that era of gross human right violations and to emerge as the defender of voiceless victims.

Mr. Speaker, Nelson Mandela was not an accidental hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, his entire life was dedicated to liberating his people. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1943 and co-founded its Youth League by 1944. He was later appointed President of the ANCs Transvaal branch and became a prominent leader of the 1952 Defiance Campaign which was the first massive multi-racial political mobilization against unjust laws imposed by the apartheid National Party after its discredited 1948 electoral victory. His work at the 1955 Congress of the People where the famous Freedom Charter was drafted and ratified is well documented.

As a young Marxist and member of the South African Communist party, he actively participated in mass actions and protests aimed at crippling the apartheid regime.

Mr. Speaker, at the iconic Rivonia Trial between October 9 1963 and June 12 1964 following the 1962 arrest of Nelson Madela, the world witnessed at first hand what courageous leadership looks like when Nelson Madela authored the following surreal words: During my lifetime, I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. [20th April, 1964]

Mr. Speaker, as we all know, Mandela was sentenced to life in prison, however, the 27 years he spent in jail as a prisoner of conscience only helped in transforming him into a global hero. In other words, the brutal apartheid regime could not imprison the ideals and principles he stood for.

Mr. Speaker, we remember the solidarity campaigns across the world, and we can never forget the sacrifices of our own Ghanaian soldiers who fought in that landmark battle of Cuito Cuanavale between August 14, 1987 and March 23,1988 on the side of the Peoples Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola, UNITA, the Cubans, the USSR, the Vietnamese, SWAPO and the ANC where the forces of apartheid and imperialism were defeated. Historians agree that the defeat of the cowardly apartheid forces on those hallowed battle grounds which was the biggest conventional battle after World War 2, served as the final nail in the coffin of those oppressive apartheid forces.

Mr. Speaker, we celebrate Nelson Mandela on this day because he was an effective and inspirational leader who courageously confronted the most pressing challenge of his generation  apartheid.

Our generation has its own unique challenges, and the story of Nelson Mandela must motivate and reinvigorate the current crop of African leaders to rise up to our contemporary challenges. The challenges of conflict, youth unemployment, climate change, racism, corruption, despotism, violent extremism, the absence of real political continental unity, and the lack of economic empowerment for the African people.

Nelson Mandela international day should lead to urgent introspection on how we can deploy effective tools to challenge the current unfair global world order and erect a new fair and just system in which trust in selfless political leadership shall be restored.

Mr. Speaker, in this era of many leaders in the sub-region amending constitutions to extend their stay in power  Nelson Mandelas awesome example offers an opportunity for those intoxicated with power to have a change of heart. Here is an extremely popular leader who could have become a life president of South Africa but instead chose to voluntarily step down after just one term to pave way for others. In doing so, he became more loved and even more influential out of office, particularly, with his charity causes and his work in creating awareness about the dreaded HIV/AIDS disease.

Mr. Speaker, we shall always be inspired by the almost saintly story of Nobel Laureate Nelson Mandela; and we shall always salute all those who worked with him to defeat apartheid; especially Winnie Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Steve Biko, Solomon Mahlangu, Moses Mabhida, Hector Pieterson and the victorious warriors of Cuito Cuanavale.

I am thankful to you, Mr. Speaker.

Source: Classfmonline.com
Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor

20.07.2022 LISTEN

The Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor has expressed his disgust over the unlawful charges by personnel of the Ghana Ambulance Service before rendering services to Ghanaians.

Speaking to Joy News on the AM Show on Wednesday, the Parliamentarian stressed that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Ambulance Service Prof. Ahmed Zakaria must resign.

The CEO of the ambulance service must resign immediately. You cannot come to the committee and say this thing has been happening for 16 years. It is against the law. This should not be happening, he indicated.

The CEO of the Ghana Ambulance Service is hot after revelations that personnel has been charging Ghanaians some fees before transporting relatives in distress contrary to the law.

Appearing before a committee set up to investigate the death of a mother of two, Prof. Ahmed Zakaria used the need to fuel the ambulances as justification for the demand for GHS600 before transporting the patient to Korle Bu.

According to him, although the practice has not been sanctioned by parliament it has been in place for the past 16years.

Furious about the charges and the death of the mother, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor has appealed to the committee investigating the matter to seek criminal prosecutions against the personnel of the Ghana Ambulance Service.
On Tuesday, July 19, Mr Samuel Atta Mills, the younger brother of the late President Fiifi Atta Mills who is also the Member of Parliament for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo Abirem expressed disappointment in the government for allowing Koku Anyidoho to touch the grave of the late President.

At a press briefing, Mr. Atta Mills stated that the family of the late President weren't informed about the new development, which is a breach of their Akan belief and also a disrespect to the late President and his family.

A group calling itself Atta Mills Institute that the family doesnt even recognize, and Coastal Development Authority, have gone to break the grave of President John Evans Atta Mills. They have removed the tomb, and they claim that they are rebuilding it, he said.

Mr. Mills adds My question is that, we have a family tradition. Now that they have touched someones grave, is the body still in there? Who has the body? Why will you touch the body without informing the family head? Under whose authority? Why do they want us to always go through grief? This is a former president, why will the government allow this to happen? This is an insult to the family and the nation.

Soon after, the founder of the Atta Mills institute, Koku Anyodoho, on his various social media pages debunked the allegations.

He says it's very shameful on the part of Mr. Mills to attack him for doing what should have been his responsibility.

He alleged that the money that was supposed to be used to renovate the grave was used by Mr. Mills for his political ambitions.

Mr. Anyidoho stated, I will NOT use Asomdwee Park for partisan politics. It is a big shame that Samuel Atta-Mills has neglected the burial place of his brother, and is using the work the State is doing for dirty politics  in support of John Dramani Mahama.

He quizzes Is it a crime to remove the dirty black cardboard that used to shamefully cover the grave of President Atta-Mills, and replace it with, granite stones?
The West African Network for Peace Building (WANEP) has warned that extremist threats are occurring very close to Ghana borders.

The National Coordinator for WANEP, Mr Albert Yelyang said these activities are expanding in the Sahel area, a situation that calls for extra vigilance in Ghana

There is that expansion of extremism in the Saharian area, he said on 3FM Tuesday July 19.

He added We have some in Burkina Faso towards the northern sector. Many of the incidents have occurred very close to Ghana.

Recently, the Deputy National Security Coordinator, Mr Edward Kweku Asomani said Ghana is definitely not insulated from terror attacks.

Clearly, he said, Ghana is a target.

He explained that the terrorists have been targeting mostly resource-rich countries therefore, since Ghana is endowed with natural resources, it exposes the country to miscreants.

Addressing a press conference on the measures that have been put in place to prevent the attacks from happening in the country, on Sunday, May 22, he said We are not insulated from those attacks therefore, we think Ghanaians should be aware. Why are we involving Ghanaians? The nature of the threats is such that it is not conventional warfare, they don't come in with the APCs and fighter jets. They come in all forms, it could be your pastor in the church, cleric in the mosque, or individuals coming in as CSOs purporting to do community work.

That means that we all have to be vigilant. Also, we know that the terrorists want access to the sea, the nature of the various attacks we have all seen in the subregion indicates that wherever they go there is some form of mineral or natural resource there particularly gold.

So the question therefore is, if they attack cities and towns in Burkina Faso that has gold deposits, clearly, Ghana will be an interest.

We are clearly therefore a target that is why we are here today to seek the support of Ghanaians.

Some security analysts believed the terrorists had already arrived in the country.

For instance, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Institute for Security, Disaster and Emergency Studies, Dr Ishmael Norman said Ghanaians must act in ways as though the terrorists were already here in the country.

In his view, some may have been married to Ghanaians.

Speaking in an interview with TV3 on Saturday, May 21 in relation to the caution given by the National Security against the potential attack on Ghana, he said they are not just near Ghana, they are in Ghana.

He added Some of them will even marry Ghanaian men or women. We have to assume that they are already here. The National Security warning is a good one, I believe the terrorists are already in Ghana.

Following the activities of terrorist groups in neighbouring West African countries, Ghana's National Security has cautioned churches against possible similar attacks.

The National Security said measures have been instituted in order to forestall these attacks however, the churches must also be on alert.

The measures instituted include the installation of Closed-Circuit Televisions (CCTVs) in churches, as well as engaging the services of accredited private security agencies.

In view of the growing threats of terrorism from the subregion and the expansionist drive of terrorist groups towards Coastal West African states, with a renewed modus operandi of targeting public gatherings including places of worship, it is imperative that precautional measures are taken by all stakeholders, a statement issued on Friday May 13 said.

It is recalled that a report released by the West Africa Centre for Counter Extremism (WACCE) released recently said Ghana has managed so far to stay safe from terrorist attacks on home soil, yet the country has been so close to terrorism.

Already, the report said, more than 13 Ghanaians are believed to have travelled to fight with terrorist groups since 2015. Up to twenty three (23) others have been dissuaded from leaving to join extremist groups.

Ghana's first recorded case was Nazir Alema Nortey3 , a young university graduate, who shockingly left the country in august 2015 to join ISIS before sending a message back to his parents to announce his new found cause.

He was killed in Syria by April 2016. Professor Kofi Awoonor, a renowned Ghanaian poet and academic, was killed in the West Gate Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya when Al Shabab fighters besieged the mall in 2013, the report said.

The threat has been menacingly and quickly spread, occurring through a spillover phenomenon, has ravaged the Northern borders of not only Burkina Faso but also of Ivory Coast, Benin and Togo recently. With all its direct neighbors under attack, Ghana has descended from the Sahel towards the Coastal States in the last five years.

Even though the fatality numbers are presently down from the peak of over 7,200 in the region in 2014, the threat has increased in complexity and geographical spread. Today 53% of all ECOWAS now been encircled by the threat. These developments are dangerous for Ghana.

Ghana's proximity to these countries (Burkina Faso to the North, Benin and Togo to the East and Ivory Coast to the West) exposes the country to extremist recruitment or attacks or both, it added.

It further stated that the unending Bawku chieftaincy conflict, the ethnic tensions in Northern Ghana and the unresolved challenge of Western Togoland separatists in the Eastern border regions amplify the risks.

---3news.com
The 27-year-old Madam Josephine Panyin Mensah standing trial for deceiving a public officer, and publication of false news, on Tuesday, told a Takoradi Circuit Court that she never gave any statement to the Police when she was found and brought to the Police Station.

Josephine is at the centre of the controversial pregnancy and kidnapping saga in Takoradi.

It would be recalled that after the accused was found, she was later sent to the Takoradi Central Police station where the police claimed her statement was taken.

However, during a cross-examination at Takoradi Circuit Court A, Josephine maintained that she never gave any statement to the personnel of the Ghana Police Service.

Meanwhile, Police Inspector Robert Yawson, the prosecutor 0told the court that her statement had been tendered as an exhibit in court without any objection.

According to him, she also told the court that she did not have any interaction with the doctors of the Axim hospital when she was sent there, as was alleged.

The prosecutor then queried: "Didn't you inform the medical team at the Axim hospital that you faked your kidnap and pregnancy?", to which she responded no.

She confirmed that from the Axim Government Hospital she was taken to the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi where she was examined.

She, however, denied that she interacted with a medical officer called Dr. Samuel Agyeman or any of the doctors at the Regional Hospital.

The prosecutor further asked: "Do you know that before medication is issued at the hospital the medical personnel would interact with the patient?

The accused answered in the affirmative but said in her case no interaction took place.

The prosecutor then wanted the accused to read a statement which he claimed was borne out of the interaction she had with the doctors which has also been tendered in court and marked Exhibit "AA8'

But counsel for the accused, Mr Fiifi Buckman objected and said the document was not produced by the accused and asked why she should read what she did not produce.

The court upheld the objection and asked the Prosecutor to continue.

The case has been adjourned to August 11, 2022.

Josephine Panyin Mensah is in court on two counts of deceiving a public officer contrary to section 251 (B) of the Criminal Offences Act and publication of false news with intent to cause fear and panic contrary to section 208 (1) of the Criminal Offences Act but had maintained a position of kidnap and pregnancy contrary to doctors' report stating otherwise.

GNA
The West African state of Benin says it will auction off art, luxury furniture and a Rolls-Royce limousine seized from an opposition tycoon who lives in exile in Paris.

On August 9, auctioneers in Cotonou, the country's economic hub, will put under the hammer 140 items belonging to Sebastien Ajavon, who has been handed a 20-year sentence on drugs charges.

The sale includes a Rolls-Royce whose starting price is 80 million CFA francs ($122,339), the judicial branch of Benin's finance ministry said in a statement late Tuesday.

The property was taken from Ajavon's home in central Cotonou on July 1 by tax agents, who cleared out the premises working under a heavy police and military escort.

Ajavon made a fortune in agribusiness before entering politics.

He ran in the March 2016 presidential elections as an independent, arriving in third place in the first round of voting.

In the runoff vote, Ajavon threw his support behind another successful businessman, Patrice Talon, who eventually won.

Ajavon's electoral foray caused relations with Talon -- who was already a competitor in business -- to go quickly downhill

In October 2016, Ajavon was arrested after around 18 kilogrammes (39.6 pounds) of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $14 million, was discovered in a freight container that was being shipped to one of his companies.

He was discharged several months later for lack of evidence.

But in 2018 a special court handed him a 20-year jail term in absentia.

The conviction was branded illegal by the African Court on Human and People's Rights, but Benin has refused to overturn it.

Ajavon was handed a second conviction, with a five-year jail sentence, in March 2021 for alleged fraud and use of fake documents.

Talon, who made his fortune in the cotton industry, was re-elected last year on the back of a campaign that touted his record of economic reform.

But critics say his economic success has gone hand-in-hand with iron-fisted rule that has devastated one of the region's most vibrant political cultures.

Some opposition figures have fled the country while others have been disqualified from running in elections or targeted for probes, they say.
Ghanas economy is going through tough times resulting in general economic hardship in the country.

The situation compelled government to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Amidst the hardship, Prophet Amoako Atta, who is the founder and leader of Parliament Chapel International, has revealed God's redemption plan for the people of Ghana in the next two weeks.

Ghanaians, he said, should be overjoyed claiming God has plans to bring economic relief and alleviate their sufferings.

Speaking to the Accra-based Angel TV on Tuesday, July 19 monitored by Modernghana News, Prophet Amoako Atta disclosed that God will redeem Ghanaians from extreme hardship yet to come.

I'm afraid of what's ahead of us. This is why God is bringing relief to the people of Ghana in the coming days. Fuel prices and other items will and must come down before July comes to an end, he prophecised.

He continues This is a good news to the president. It has started happening in the spiritual realm and it has also started in the physical world.

The man of God further urged President Akufo-Addo to implement good policies that are consistent with God's economic redemption plan as soon as possible.

Watch the prophet below:
20.07.2022 LISTEN

The Ranking Member on Parliament's Roads and Transport Committee, Governs Kwame Agbodza is alleging that the attack on the Member of Parliament for the area, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu at Suame on Monday, July 18 was staged.

Some angry residents threw various items at Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and hooted at him, over the poor road network in the area.

It took police to calm tension and shield the MP from angry residents after he attempted to address them.

According to the Member of Parliament for Adaklu, this was all a ploy by the NPP to fast track the approval of millions of euros to build a 4-tier interchange at Suame.

Meanwhile, barely 24 hours after residents almost attacked the Majority Leader over the poor nature of roads, government laid a commercial agreement in Parliament for the construction of the Suame Interchange and ancillary works.

The agreement has been referred to the Finance Committee of Parliament for consideration after it was laid by Deputy Minister for Finance, Abena Osei-Asare on Tuesday.

The state of the road prompted a hostile reception for Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu on Monday.

The residents last week organised a demonstration and called on authorities to ensure work resumes on the stretch.

---citinewsroom
Israel's army chief made the first ever official visit to Morocco this week to strengthen military ties as the two countries continue to grow closer following a normalisation deal in 2020 that has alienated Morocco's neighbour, Algeria.

Israeli army chief Aviv Kohavi met with the Inspector General of the Morocco's Royal Armed Forces Belkhir El Farouk on Monday, as well as the country's minister delegate in charge of defence administration, Abdellatif Loudiyi, and intelligence chief Brahim Hassani,

During the discussions, Morocco noted an "interest in jointly setting up industrial defence projects in Morocco", the kingdom's army chief said in a statement.

"The meetings discussed opportunities for military cooperation, both in exercises and training, as well as in the operational and intelligence fields," a statement said.

Encouraged by the United States, Morocco re-established ties with Israel in 2020, after cutting them off two decades earlier during the second Palestinian intifada in 2000.

As part of the deal, the US agreed to recognise Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara, a disputed territory, where the Algeria-backed Polisario Front has long demanded an independence referendum, but which Rabat considers an integral part of the kingdom.

The decision inflamed a long-standing rivalry between Morocco and Algeria, which in August last year cut diplomatic ties with Morocco.

Algeria says the decision was based on hostile acts by Morocco, and its relations with the Zionist entity, referring to Israel.

Military ties

Since the normalisation, a stream of Moroccan and Israeli officials have visited each others' countries and signed cooperation deals in various fields.

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz, on a visit to Morocco last year, signed a security agreement making it easier for Rabat to acquire high-tech exports from Israel's defence industry.

Last month, Israeli military observers for the first time attended the annual "African Lion" military drills involving thousands of personnel from several nations, co-organised by Morocco and the US.

(with wires)
US preacher Creflo Dollar has admitted that he has taught wrong things about tithing in the past but now working to correct them.

In one of his recent teachings, he told the congregation that the church has been using Malachi 3: 8  10 to put a lot of fear and guilt into Christians in order to get them to give one-tenth of their monthly earnings to the church.

Admitting his own wrong teachings, Creflo Dollar said: Im still growing, adding: The teachings that Ive shared in the past on the subject of tithing were not correct and today, I stand in humility to correct some things that Ive taught for years and believed for years but could never understand it clearly because I had not yet been confronted with the gospel of grace, which has made the difference.

However, he said: I wont apologise because if it wasnt for me going down that route, I would have never ended up where I am right now but I will say that I have no shame at all in saying to you: throw away every book, every tape and every video I ever did on the subject of tithing unless it lines up with this [the corrected version].

He noted: I have done some corrective teaching in the last ten years but not to the degree of what we are getting ready to do now.

Dollar said it was important for him to correct his own false teachings because religion is sustained by two factors: fear and guilt.

And, if there is one subject that the church has used for a long time to keep people in fear and guilt, it is that subject of tithing and it has to be corrected and its got to be corrected now, he declared.

According to him, his new teachings about tithing, which goes against the grain, will cost him friends and invitations.

I may lose some friends, preachers may never invite me anymore but I think Ive already been through that so it doesnt matter, Dollar told his church.

The American preacher said pastors all over the world keep using fear and guilt to put pressure on their congregation to tithe but that was wrong.

To buttress his point, he referred to 2 Corinthians 9:7, which says: You must each decide in your own heart how much to give. And dont give reluctantly or in response to pressure.

The tithing teaching always pressured me, he confessed, noting: It gave me fear.

You should never give in response to pressure and fear, he told the congregation.

Im not suggesting that we water down our giving but lets admit, tithing is an Old Testament teaching. The New Testament contains a theme that overrides it, he taught the church.

The New Testament, according to him, says Christians no longer live under the requirements of the Mosaic Law but under the grace of Jesus Christ and, thus, sin was no longer their master since Christ came to fulfil all those requirements on their behalf.

Creflo Dollar said the oft-quoted Bible verse used by pastors to scare Christians into tithing is Malachi 3:8  10, which says: Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

However, he noted: We equated the church with the storehouse [but] the church and the storehouse are not equal. The storehouse was something that was built because the temples didnt have enough room to store all the tithes, so, they built granaries. The church is not a storehouse for granaries.

He said pastors love quoting and misinterpreting Malachi 3: 8  10 because it is laden with fear and guilt, which keep religion alive.

Dollar said a lot of pastors are spreading the same false teachings about tithing all over the world because theres an unwritten convention that compels them to stay within the same boundaries.

God forgive me but in the preachers circles, you cant say anything that is too off from what everybody else is saying; you got to stay right there in the boundaries of what everybody is saying, he explained.

How do you even use this [Malachi 3: 8  10] if you are no longer under the law but under grace? And Galatians says that Jesus has taken  he became a curse for us that the blessing of Abraham, of knowing that he is the possessor of heaven and earth; he gave us His son and hell give us everything else   the curse from us.

Dont let anybody tell you you are cursed. You are not cursed, you are blessed, you have Jesus in your life, he told the congregation.

Source: Classfmonline.com
Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - The Beninese government has already disbursed more than 80 billion CFA francs to clear the salary debts of workers, sources close to the Ministry of Economy and Finance said on Wednesday
The Minister of Transport, Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiama, on Tuesday, July 19 inspected ongoing works on the Sunyani Airport rehabilitation project that started in 2018.

Mr Asiama was led by the MPs for Sunyani East and West constituencies, Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, who is also the Board Chairman for the Bui Power Authority; and Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, who is also the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, respectively.

Speaking to the media, Mr Asiama explained the closure of the airport in 2015 by the Ghana Airports Company Limited, saying it was for safety reasons, due to the dilapidated nature of the runway and the absence of key logistics to monitor flights.

At the inception of the NPP government in 2017, some MPs stressed the need for the airport to be rehabilitated.

The Akufo-Addo-led government awarded the contract in 2018 for a two-phased rehabilitation exercise with the first phase encapsulating the extension and rebuilding of the runway, refurbishing of the terminal; stocking the airport with flight display gadgets, X-ray machines, and a fire post among others.

The second phase, which is expected to commence immediately after the inauguration of the first phase, would also see mini-airport city facilities, and a new terminal among others.

Mr Asiama said: Today, we have come here with the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Ghana Airport Company Limited, Ghana Airforce and the consultant to evaluate the completion of phase one for inauguration by the President.

You are witnessing this huge investment made here by this government to bring this airport back to life, of which commercial activities are expected to commence within the year, he remarked.

The two Sunyani MPs held that it is part of their duty to push for projects such as the airport in both constituencies since the infrastructure strides across both Sunyani East and Sunyani West.

They also stated how serious they were about their town roads and that soon, all ongoing roads would be completed.

Source: Classfmonline.com
The people of Anlo State in the Volta region will be celebrating the annual Hogbetsotso festival this year in November.

According to a release from Awadada of Anlo State signed by Togbe Zewu IV, Fiagah of Anloga, the Hogbetsotso festival which has been suspended since the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic will resume at the usual ground at the Hogbe park at Anloga on November 5, 2022.

Togbe Zewu IV also noted that, due to some sacrifices and purifications that needed to be done before the commencement of the festival, an embargo has been placed on certain areas for the activities.

He said Gbeku Forest ground which is popularly known as "Hogbe Park" and "elio Well" and its environs will undergo traditional cleansing from August 7 to August 31, 2022.

H added that the above areas are banned from any public gathering during the period of the purification rituals.

He stated that all persons are to go accordingly to avoid any further punishment from the Anlo State and the gods.

"All the citizens of the 36 States of Anlo land that includes some major areas such as Anloga, Keta, Abor, Kedzi, Konu, Anyako, Anlo-Afiadenyigba, Alakple, Atsito, Atorkor, Tsiame, Atiavi among others are to abide by the regulations," he stated.

The Awadada of Anlo State, Togbe Agbesi Awusu ll, is also calling on Anlo people to abide by customs for a successful Hogbetsotso festival this year.
Mr Samuel Atta Mills, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo Abirem and brother of the late President John Evans Atta Mills has accused the Coastal Development Authority (CODA) and the Atta Mills Institute led by Mr Koku Anyidoho, of desecrating the tomb of the late President.

A group calling itself Atta Mills Institute that the family doesnt even recognise, and Coastal Development Authority, have gone to break the grave of President John Evans Atta Mills".

"They have removed the tomb, and they claim that they are rebuilding it, the late Presidents brother told the Parliamentary press corps.

The brother of the late President described the action by the group as culturally offensive.

He also bemoaned the groups disregard for the family of the late President.

"My question is that: why will you touch someones grave without the familys permission?"

"We have traditions. Now that they have touched someones grave, is the body still in there? What did you put in that grave? What kind of rituals did you perform over there? Why will you go and touch the grave without informing us? Who has the body now? Coastal Development Authority under whose authority did you do this? Why do you always make us go through grief every time?" he asked.

"And you allow that Koku Anyidoho, that buffoon working with Atta Mills Institute, so-called, to go and touch this grave without informing our family head. This is a former president. Why will the government allow this to happen?"

"This is an insult to the family. This is an insult to [us], the Akans. This is an insult to the nation he added.

The Asomdwee Park, where the late president was buried, had been in a poor state due to lack of maintenance.

The Coastal Development Authority (CODA) and the Atta Mills Institute have renovated the park and are scheduled to inaugurate it on Sunday, July 24, 2022, to mark the 10-year anniversary of the death of Prof Mills.

John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills served as President of Ghana from 2009 until his death in 2012. He was previously the Vice-President from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry Rawlings.

He Is the first Ghanaian head of state to die in office.

Source: Classfmonline.com
Major challenges lie ahead for African leaders seeking to breathe new life into the G5 Sahel anti-jihadist force.

The five-nation mission began operations in 2017, showcased as an unprecedented example of cooperation in one of the world's troubled regions.

But the force -- originally gathering Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger -- has achieved meagre results and the Sahel's security crisis continues to deepen.

Added to this have been two hammer blows, delivered in quick succession this year.

In April, 1,200 Chadian soldiers based in Niger left in secret for N'Djamena, according to G5 and French military officials.

The following month, Mali announced it would leave the group over a dispute with France, forcing all the force's commanders to abandon their base in Bamako and relocate to the Chadian capital N'Djamena.

"They left overnight, leaving everything behind, even the cars," a G5 official told AFP.

"The G5 is dead," Niger's president, Mohamed Bazoum, told the French newspaper La Croix in May.

Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum and Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby have announced a meeting between the G5 force's remaining members. By Djimet WICHE (AFP)

But last week, he and President Mahamat Idriss Deby of Chad sounded a different tone, announcing an upcoming meeting between the force's four remaining members to "ensure that the G5 is viable."

"We have not yet considered that it is over for the G5 Sahel -- we will fight," Bazoum said. "Let's remain optimistic."

An immense task

The regional grouping began with an ambitious idea to create a joint military force that would go hand in hand with development projects.

The force was largely financed by the European Union (EU) and its operations were supported by France.

It represented, in the eyes of international partners, a solution in a region plagued by jihadist violence.

Its eight battalions comprised about 5,000 troops, based in their own countries, with the exception of a Chadian battalion deployed in Niger. They were tasked with coordinating operations in the hotspot border areas.

There are numerous reasons for its decline, two G5 officials told AFP.

These include chronic underfunding, disparate political will among member countries and regional politics.

Mali has undergone two coups in two years, and there have been military takeovers in Burkina Faso and Chad.

In 2021, Chad was meant to hand the G5 presidency over to Mali but did not -- a move that Bamako interpreted as French interference.

Paris is reputedly close with N'Djamena, and Mali's ruling junta, led by Colonel Assimi Goita, lashed the G5's "instrumentalisation" before slamming the door.

"It would be hard not to see the French hand behind this refusal to transfer the presidency," said Malian researcher Boubacar Haidara.

The G5 Sahel "has been perceived since the beginning as being controlled by Paris," said Ornella Moderan, from the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

But, she said, it has above all "suffered from variable political support from one member state to another."

Since the creation of the G5, "there have been no joint operations between Burkina and Mali, let alone between Niger and Mali," Niger's foreign minister, Hassoumi Massoudou, said last week.

A 'necessary tool'

In Burkina Faso, people are questioning "the survival of the G5," according to a source close to the authorities, although no departure is in sight.

Despite the force's travails, Burkinabe troops in the G5 have continued to operate with the Nigeriens in recent months.

"There is no other option than to work together," said a member of the joint force.

"Can the G5-Sahel pull through?" asked Mahamat Saleh Annadif, a senior UN official.

"I can't say, but in any case, by design, it remains a necessary tool."

But how can the remaining four states be convinced to stay without the participation of Mali, whose territory is the epicentre of the conflict?

Mali's ruling junta, led by Colonel Assimi Goita, decried the G5's "instrumentalisation" before slamming the door. By OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT (AFP)

"Being a member of the G5 brings money and logistical support from partners -- the states know that," said an African diplomat in Bamako.

The diplomat said the UN provides G5 contingents with fuel and food -- things that are always needed for troops, whether or not they are wearing the G5 badge.

For Massoudou, the G5 Sahel's future lies with Bamako.

"When Mali has democratically elected authorities who normalise relations with its neighbours, we could revive this organisation," he said.

Mali's military junta has bust up with France and its relationship with the UN peacekeeping mission is also suffering friction.

And it has only just turned the page on a political tussle with the regional bloc ECOWAS over its return to civil rule. Delayed elections are now scheduled for February 2024.
Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, Vice President of the Republic, outlined the benefits of the Ghana card at the official launch of the collaboration between Accra Business School and South East Technological University Ireland in Accra, Ghana, on Thursday, July 14.

He said the Ghana card has received certification from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to be used as a travel document from the outside world to the country.

People could not understand how the Ghana Card, certified by ICAO, could be used as travel document and they mocked the idea. But today, it is a reality and our diasporans should get the Ghana card before they leave Ghana. When they get the Ghana card, they can travel to Ghana without applying for a visa at any embassy abroad, Dr. Bawumia said.

However, On the Accra-based Joy FMs News Night on Tuesday, July 19, monitored by Modernghana News, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ningo Prampam constituency, Sam Nartey George challenged the Veep.

The vocal legislator dared the Vice President to use his Ghana card to travel as an example before Ghanaians can take his word serious.

He claimed no airport would recognize the Ghana card at the moment arguing that currently, the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) does not have an office to serve that purpose.

He does not understand the issues. You need to use the Ghana Card as a travel visa if it can allow you to embark and disembark. As we speak today, when you get to the Kotoka International Airport, for departures, there is no desk for Ghana cards. There is only a desk for Ghana cards for arrival and so it is only for citizens of this country returning home.

"And even for citizens returning home, if you are returning from London for example, at London Heathrow, you will not be allowed to board any plane by showing only your Ghana Card. You must show a passport and show that either that passport is a Ghanaian passport that allows you to fly back to Ghana without a visa, or if it is of any other country, show a Ghanaian visa, he challenges.

Sam George stressed that Dr. Bawumia himself, as Vice President, cannot travel from Ghana with his Ghana card. I am challenging Dr. Bawumia to embark on a foreign trip from Ghana, using his Ghana card alone. This level of deception of the public by a public officer of the rank of Vice President is unbecoming.
The presidential spokesperson for the late professor, Mr Koku Anyidoho is asking former President John Dramani Mahama to lower his head in shame for failing to build Asomdwee Park, the resting place of the late President John Evans Atta Mills.

Mr Mahama, as Vice-president, inherited the last five months of his late boss' presidency after Prof Mills' death while in office.

Following a recent attack on Mr Anyidoho by the late president's brother, Mr Samuel Atta Mills, who described him as 'that buffoon' because he collaborated with the Coastal Development Authority (CDA) to build and renovate the Asomdwee Park, which is billed for inauguration on 24 July 2022 to mark the 10th-anniversary of Prof Mills' death, the president of the Atta Mills Institute, took to social media platform Twitter to respond thus: "Sammy Atta Mills says I have stolen the body of President Atta Mills?"

"Is it a crime to remove the dirty black cardboard that used to shamefully cover the grave of President Atta Mills and replace it with granite stones?"

"Is Sammy Atta-Mills talking about curses? The curses shall be upon his ugly head", Mr Anyidoho tweeted.

Concerning former President Mahama, Mr Anyidoho said: "John Dramani Mahama should bow down his head in shame for not building Asomdwee Park".

Mr Anyidoho added: "I will not use Asomdwee Park for partisan politics. It is a big shame that Sammy Atta Mills has neglected the burial place of his brother and is using the work the State is doing for dirty politics  in support of John Dramani Mahama."

"I am happy that President Akufo-Addo has built Asomdwee Park. John Mahama deliberately refused to build it."

"Sammy Atta Mills has never celebrated his brother; he wants me to tell the story of his wickedness toward his brother? I am happy that Sammy Atta Mills has opened the can of worms that I have been trying very hard not to open".

Source: Classfmonline.com
Brother of late President Atta Mills has questioned "Is there no sensible person in the government to have at least remind them of our cultural and traditional values regarding the respect and dignity of the dead?"

According to Samuel Atta Mills, the family visited the Asomdwee Park on Wednesday morning as part of preparation towards the 10th anniversary commemoration and wreath laying only to be met with shock at the level of desecration and dishonour done to the tomb of the late President, J.E.A Mills.

"We visited the Asomdwee Park this morning as part of our preparation towards the 10th anniversary commemoration and wreath laying and we were shocked at the level of desecration and dishonour done to the tomb of our Late President, J.E.A Mills," brother of the late President, Samuel Atta Mills.

There have been several commentaries from government through the Coastal Development Authority (CODA) and the opposition NDC as the family of the late president complain bitterly of being left out of the preparations.

Below is the post of Samuel Atta Mills:

We visited the Asomdwee Park this morning as part of our preparation towards the 10th anniversary commemoration and wreath laying and we were shocked at the level of desecration and dishonour done to the tomb of our Late President, J.E.A Mills.

Renovation by government through CODA and a so-called Atta Mills Institute has led to the opening and vandalising the tomb that holds the remains of our illustrious late leader without the consent, notice and authority of any member of the family.

We were struck with utter awe that the government could allow Koku to mislead them to commit such a sacrilegious act. Our Ghanaian culture and practices frowns on such desecration of graves of our departed without the knowledge, authority and presence of close family members. Is there no sensible person in the government to have at least reminded them of our cultural and traditional values regarding the respect and dignity of the dead? Ghana has indeed been killed by this unfortunate government.
20.07.2022 LISTEN

A former National Organizer of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Yaw Boateng Gyan has called on Ghanaians to blame the leadership of the NDC for failing to fix the burial grounds of the late president John Evans Atta-Mills while in government.

He said the failure on the part of the party to maintain the burial grounds is what has led to the recent confrontations between the late presidents family, the NDC and Mr Koku Anyidoho of the Atta Mills Institute.

The family has accused Mr Anyidoho and the government represented by the Coastal Development Authority (CODA) of tempering with Prof Mills grave without recourse to the family.

Meanwhile, CODA and the Atta Mills institute said they only renovated the place to make the place befitting for the burial of Ghanaian presidents.

With barely a week to mark the 10th anniversary of his passing, Mr Boateng Gyan said this ought not to characterise the celebration of the anniversary of the man revered by many.

The blame can best be laid on the leadership of the party while in government, he noted stressing that had the party fixed the park located at Castle Drive near the former seat of government, Osu Castle these problems of tampering with the tomb would not have arisen.

He said these in an interview on the Ghana Yensom morning show hosted by Kwame Obeng Sarkodie on Accra 100.5 FM on Wednesday, July 20, 2022.

The NDC was in government after the passing of the late president but failed to do the needful by renovating the park. I know Koku Anyidoho with his Atta-Mills Institute has been passionate about the way the park was left to rot after his burial hence his collaboration with the Coastal Development Agency (CODA) to have the park renovated, he stated

Source: Classfmonline.com
20.07.2022 LISTEN

The question, Why are you so much concerned about what goes on in Ghana since you dont live there but abroad?, has severally been posed to the writer. Many Ghanaians who come across as caring friends or enemies have many a time asked Rockson Adofo, a native of Ghana, and specifically the proud and fearless son of Kumawu, patrilineally, and Asiampa (Juaben - Ashanti), matrilineally, why he cares so much about issues affecting, or are prevalent, in Ghana?

They are of the viewpoint that Ghanaians and Africans living in Ghana, and Africa, respectively, are of a different mentality; reasoning differently as though, they live on a different planet many light years away from the earth. That being the factual case, why should any serious person living outside Ghana in the civilized white mans country worry about them instead of concentrating on bettering your own life and the country of your residence, they argue?

My answer to them has always been, if the back of your teeth is bitter, it is there that you lick and no matter how hard and best you try to assimilate into the culture and your adopted white mans country, your skin colour gives you away. You, as an individual black person, no matter how super rich or learned you are, will never be accorded any true respect and recognition by our white contemporaries unless you are linked up with the total civilization of Ghanaians in Ghana or black people in Africa.

Until continental Africans become generally civilised, as it is in the song by Peter Tosh, Dont care where you come from, as long as you are a black man you are an African; no matter your riches, level of your education, status in society, you will not be given the due respect and recognition by a white man as long as the majority of your black compatriots reason and behave worse than their pet dogs. This is my belief hence always seeking to be concerned about what goes on in Ghana that need to be streamlined to make my people behave as rational human beings to help better the country for their collective and worldwide interests.

Why should we as Ghanaians allow selfishness, jealousy, corruption, greediness, love of money and sheer stupidity to rob us of the very foundational cardinal pillars on which a successful society is built, only to reduce us to fools and impoverished persons always looking up to the white contemporaries for crumbs falling off their tables to survive?

For the avoidance of self-denigration as black people, and the quest to see black people behave us proper human beings contributing their quota to the success of the world, I will forever be concerned about Ghana, although I dont live there. For that reason, I shall offer advice, suggestions and contribute to making Ghanaians behave rationally to do away with all the vanities we so much love but which are all the very things militating against our collective prosperity as a nation and a people.

I am often motivated by the actions of those people who have/had helped to bring about prosperity in a way or the other, to humanity and their country.

The following poetic words by John Donne really inspire me and hope you will let it inspire you also, to think about Ghana, if not Africa, to do meaningful selfless acts to bring about the general prosperity of Ghana for the collective interests of all.

In his poem titled, No man is an island, John Donne says,

Any man's death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

By inference from the above, be informed that whatever affects the generality of Ghanaians in Ghana, or black people in Africa, does affect you wherever you are, being a black person yourself. Subsequently, we should make it our aim to seek the betterment of Ghana by being concerned about the disgraceful things that go on in Ghana to dehumanise all Ghanaians no matter where you live in the world as long as you are a black Ghanaian.

We should I sit on the fence while the abundance of ongoing infatuation with corruption rob us of the dignity of being God-created human beings?

Ghanaians, please behave as rational beings. Your insatiable love of money and readiness to kill your compatriots because of money and power is disgraceful, and amounts to stupidity that tarnishes the image of black people worldwide.

Please, be concerned about the general good of your African countries. Desist from pursuing your selfish interests as an individual for your singular prosperity will never acquire you the respect you crave in the world, although in the eyes of those in your country or town, you are a highly respected person.

Be wise. Be broadminded. Be concerned about Ghana and stop being selfishly individualistic to the detriment of Ghanaians and or, black race.

Rockson Adofo

Tuesday, 19 July 2022
Western Regional Youth Wing led by George Dadzie Junior held a Regional Youth Retreat over the weekend.

Leaders of Regional Youth Wing, Members of the Regional Working Committee, Constituency Youth Organizers and their Deputies as well as representatives of Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) participated in the Retreat on Saturday, 16th July, 2022 to review their activities of our tenure of office.

The retreat amongst other things looked at the successes, challenges and prospects of the Regional Youth Wing. Constituency Youth Organizers gave updates on success stories including comparative Analysis between 2016 and 2020 results, logistics and resource allocation, challenges facing the Constituency Youth Wing and Prospects as well as the way forward.

Those who graced the occasion include Lawyer George Opare Addo, the National Youth Organizer, Ruth Delah Seddoh, a Deputy National Youth Organizer, Nana Kojo Toku, the Regional Chairman, Gladys Agyin, the Regional Women Organiser, and Richard Kirk-Mensah, the Regional Communication Officer.

The Host was the Member of Parliament of Amenfi East, Hon. Nicholas Amankwah and the Constituency Youth Organizer, Raymond Nana Ebbah. The rest were Emmanuel Okai Mintah, Eastern Regional Youth Organizer, Eric Dadson, the Central Regional Youth Organizer and Ebenezer Essien, the Deputy Regional Communication Officer, etc.

The retreat was chaired by Nana Toku, the Regional Chairman. The retreat ended with a number of resolutions:

1. The youth wing reaffirms its unflinching support for the social democratic agenda of the NDC as the viable ideological orientation to resolving the myriad of problems that have bedevilled this country. And that self-aggarandisement associated with the Property Owning Democratic Agenda has no place in Ghanaian politics.

2. The party's performance in the Western Region was satisfactory, winning eight (8) parliamentary seats in 2020 from four (4) seats. We want to underscore the point that this feat could have been achieved without the significant role of the youth wing.

3. They also expressed confidence in the work of the eight (8) Members of Parliament from the region. The youth urge them to continue to defend the interest of the masses in parliament. We salute our gallant Members of the NDC Group in parliament.

4. The Western Regional Youth Wing has resolved to work extra hard in conjunction with all stakeholders to increase our parliamentary strength from eight (8) to fourteen (14) in the 2024 general elections. We shall ensure that the parliamentary seats of NPP is reduced to three (3) out of the seventeen (17) in the region.

5. The Western Regional Youth Wing believes that the youth wing is the engine to the success of the party in the forthcoming elections. They therefore, call for attention to be paid to the youth wing by all stakeholders and resources provided to the grassroot of the party to enable them deliver a resounding victory in 2024 general elections. It also reiterates the importance of youth working committees at the branch, Constituency and Regional levels, calling their effective use in the grassroot mobilization of members.

6. On the issue of the forthcoming elections of branch executives, the Regional Youth Wing emphasizes the need to elect competent people to man the activities of the polling stations across the country. We appeal to the youth of the party to get themselves ready for leadership roles at all levels of the party. As a basic unit of the party, the NDC should resolve to make the branches ready to deliver an emphatic mandate to the party in 2024 general elections.

7. We stand in solidarity with the suffering people of Ghana and call on Nana Akufo Addo government to work hard to ameliorate the excruciating economic hardships in the country. The worsening economic condition is as a result of your ineptitude, maladministration and extravagance. The strain on the national economy is unprecedented in the history of Ghana. Something must therefore be done immediately to halt the cost of living crisis in the country.

8. We request the Akufo Addo-led administration to, as matter of urgency, reconstitute "the Economic Management Team and find a suitable Chairman to replace Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia who has proven helpless in the face of daunting economic challenges. The Youth Wing also supports the call by John Dramani Mahama for Mr. Ken Ofori Atta to resign as the Minister of Finance or be given the sack by the president.

9. The Western Regional Youth Wing appeals to all young members of the party to take active interest in the forthcoming internal elections and take up positions at the branches, constituencies, regions and national level. Arise Ghana Youth for your country!

The Western Regional Youth Wing also used the opportunity to award certificates to our hard working Constituency Youth Organizers, Deputy Constituency Youth Organizers, Regional TEIN Coordinators and Members of Regional Youth Working Committee for their dedication and commitment to the sustenance and growth of NDC in Western Region.

Citations were presented in honour of three distinguished personalities: Mr. Kofi Totobi Quakyi, a founding member of NDC, Lawyer George Opare Addo, the National Youth Organizer and Mr. Raymond Nana Ebbah, Amenfi East Constituency Youth Organizer for their meritorious service and support to the Regional Youth Wing. Other awards will follow soon.

Signed

George Dadzie Junior

Regional Youth Organizer

Western Region
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Thousands of chiefs in Mali are to receive badges and symbols of authority to further strengthen their role in the management of public affairs at the grassroots
20.07.2022 LISTEN

Brazzaville, 20 July 2022Administered COVID-19 doses rose by 74% in June 2022 compared to the previous month after a sustained three-month decrease between March and May. This is due to mass COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in 16 countries in June. Nineteen mass vaccination campaigns are being implemented in July.

The dramatic rise in vaccines doses administered has pushed six countries beyond the critical benchmark of having more than 10% of their total population completing their primary series of vaccine doses. This has reduced the number of countries in the below 10% category from 14 to eight. Among countries that stepped-up vaccination campaigns in June are Tanzania where vaccination coverage for a completed primary series rose from 1.8 to 15.8% while South Sudan rose from 2% to 11%.

As of 10 July 2022, 282 million people on the continent had completed their primary series, representing 21.1% of Africas population. This is an increase in vaccinations by 10% since the beginning of the year. More than 892 million vaccines have been delivered to Africa, 64% of which are from the COVAX Facility.

This uptick in vaccination coverage shows that African countries remain committed to COVID-19 vaccination, said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa. This is encouraging because vaccination remains the most effective tool in our response to COVID-19 on the continent.

Several countries that struggled to get their COVID-19 vaccination responses off the ground in 2021 have made notable progress in scaling up coverage for their primary series in the last six months. Coverage in Ethiopia jumped from 3.5% to 33%, Cote dIvoire, from 9% to 25.8%, Zambia, from 3.5% to 25.2%, and Uganda, from 4.4% to 25.5%.

WHO is providing technical support to countries to implement mass vaccination campaigns or to conduct routine immunization activities more frequently in the next six months, targeting high-priority groups, including health workers, people older than 60 years and people with co-morbidities. It is working closely with countries to review lessons learnt, including sustainability of different mass vaccination campaign strategies deployed by countries to improve coverage over the past two months.

COVID-19 vaccination in Africa remains focused on adults older than 18 years; only 7% of doses administered in 23 countries were given to children and adolescents younger than 18. The median coverage among adults older than 18 years who have completed their primary series is 34%.

Across the continent, there are ongoing efforts for the integration of the COVID-19 vaccination into primary health care services, said Dr Moeti. Primary health care facilities currently function as one-stop shops for a range of health services. We are building on the experience garnered to ensure an all-inclusive primary health care approach is implemented for COVID-19 vaccination.
Samuel Atta-Mills, brother of late President John Evans Atta-Mills is raising questions as to why the Inspector General of Police (IGP); Dr George Akuffo Dampare look on for the grave of his former boss to be desecrated by the "so-called", Atta-Mills Institute, headed by Koku Anyidoho and the Coastal Development Agency (CODA).

According to him, the IGP was an Aide-De-Camp (ADC) to the former late president "and he looked on for the body of his former boss to be disrespected and desecrated?"

"IGP..., if somebody goes to the Osu cemetery to desecrate a grave wouldnt you go to arrest that person? You sit down and a former presidents grave, somebody goes to destroy it...this is a disgrace," he said.

He queried whether national security was aware of this and further questioned who authorized the exercise.

"They have removed the tomb and they claim that they are rebuilding it, the late Presidents brother told the Parliamentary press corps on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

The brother of the late President described the action by the group as culturally offensive.

He also bemoaned the groups disregard for the family of the late President.

"My question is that: why will you touch someones grave without the familys permission?"

"We have traditions. Now that they have touched someones grave, is the body still in there?

"What did you put in that grave?

"What kind of rituals did you perform over there?

"Why will you go and touch the grave without informing us? Who has the body now?

"Coastal Development Authority under whose authority did you do this?

"Why do you always make us go through grief every time?" he asked.

"And you allow that Koku Anyidoho, that buffoon working with Atta Mills Institute, so-called, to go and touch this grave without informing our family head.

"This is a former president. Why will the government allow this to happen?"

"This is an insult to the family.

This is an insult to [us], the Akans.

This is an insult to the nation he added
The former central regional chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Benard Allotey Jacobs has admonished Ghanaian politicians to serve and treat their members well while in power.

He asked them to use the shocking defeat of the immediate past NPP General Secretary as an example not to mismanage their office.

Speaking on the Accra-based Peace FM's Kokrokoo discussion segment, the experienced politician said John Boadus defeat may be a result of his ill-relationship with the party members.

"It's a thesis or test case for politicians or political students, he stated.

He continues John Boadu maybe might have hurt some people. Maybe John might have been one of those guys who don't pick calls. John might have been maybe somebody who doesn't get to meet in the office. I realized it was a project that we needed a change to revive the grassroots. We needed a change to bring government closer.

He further noted that John Boadu may not have imagined this coming, which to him is the main reason why politicians need to play their cards very well to avoid such painful and shocking exit.

Maybe John Boadu didn't see and manage his weaknesses because for a person to send a party twice to an election to win elections when he loses an election, then there might be something wrong somewhere, he said adding that he wished John Boadu had retained his seat.
Vivo Energy Ghana, the exclusive marketer, and distributor of Shell branded fuels and lubricants has launched the second phase of its Community Digital Literacy Project in the Tamale Metropolitan area to expand the scope and reach out to more school children with relevant educational content and improve their reading skills.

This is in line with the companys commitment to fuelling the growth of its operational areas and playing its part as a responsible corporate entity in complementing the governments efforts toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Four which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

The second phase of the project was launched in collaboration with the implementing partners, Worldreader Ghana and the Northern Regional Library.

Under phase one, twenty-five (25) households within the Tamale Metropolis were selected, trained and assigned BookSmart Tablets which provided the households unlimited access to Ghana Education Service-approved reading books for children of school-going age.

Since the inception of the programme in September 2021, over 4,900 books have been read and completed across all 25 households with an average number of 29 books being completed per day.

Following an assessment of phase one, the company can confidently say that the project has made a significant impact and it is only right that we make more resources available to expand the scope in the second phase", says Mrs. Shirley Tony Kum, Corporate Communications Manager of Vivo Energy Ghana on behalf of Mr. Kader Maiga, Managing Director of Vivo Energy Ghana.

She announced that phase two of the project will be an outreach to the schools with the support of a Mobile Library Van, fuelled by Vivo Energy Ghana, and a Lending option where heads of schools will request for the tablet to be used for a period and returned to the library for use by other schools.

Additional Booksmart tablets, funded by Vivo Energy Ghana were also presented to the Northern Regional Library to expand the scope by enrolling more pupils on the programme.

Beneficiaries of the project were also given branded backpacks with educational items to motivate and recognise their commitment to reading.

Speaking on behalf of the Northern Regional Minister, the Chief Director of the Regional Coordinating Council, Mr. Gilbert B. Nuuri-Teg, commended Vivo Energy Ghana for demonstrating a sense of commitment toward community development beyond its core business.

Many would have thought that being an energy company, the company would only focus on their main business, but the thought of going the extra mile of improving the reading skills and knowledge base of our children is highly commendable. I would also like to applaud the Northern Regional Library, Worldreader Ghana, and all the facilitators for collaborating to ensure the success of the first phase of this very important project he added.

The Northern Regional Director of the Ghana Library Authority, Mr. Aaron Kuwornu lauded the initiative and called on parents and facilitators to encourage their children to make good use of the tablets. He also stated that, the library continues to find innovative ways for people to access books of their choice to read regardless of their location.

The Metro Director of Education, Tamale, Dr. Peter Attefuah, was impressed with the impact of the first phase of the project and encouraged all stakeholders to give off their best in the second phase to help the children develop an interest in reading and enhance their ICT skills.

The project has changed the normal after-school and weekend activities of the children in a positive way. Instead of the children saying, we are going to play, the narrative now has changed to we are going to read. Parents have seen much improvement in the academic work of their children since the last trimester, Fred Mensah a representative of the facilitators disclosed this while sharing some impact stories at the event.

The Programmes Manager of Worldreader Ghana, Alhassan Abdul Kahad, encouraged heads of schools and households to take full advantage of the second phase of the project and emphasized the benefits of reading to the growth of societies and the country.

Source: Vivo Energy Ghana
Barring all odds, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will commission the Sunyani Airport for domestic flight operation to begin this year, Mr. Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, the Minister of Transport has announced.

The Minister said the first phase of the rehabilitation and expansion of the airport was virtually completed, saying the president would also perform a ground-breaking ceremony for work to begin on the project's second phase.

Mr. Asiamah gave the announcement when he inspected the progress of work on the facility in Sunyani on Tuesday.

He was accompanied by Mr. Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr. Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sunyani East and some senior officials of the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) and the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).

Mr. Asiamah said he was highly impressed with the work done so far, particularly on the runway, and commended the contractors for the good work.

He expressed worry about the level of encroachment on the airport's land, saying discussions were ongoing between the GACL, GACC, traditional authorities and the encroachers to help resolve the situation.

Mr. Asiamah cautioned estate developers, individuals, and all potential land buyers to be vigilant in order not to encroach on the remaining land at the Airport.

Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister explained the commissioning of the facility would open up the region and spur rapid socio-economic growth and development.

She said it was always hectic for people in the region to travel long hours to Accra, and expressed the hope that the people would patronize the facility to enhance domestic air transport.

The Regional Minister said she was optimistic that the facility would be commissioned for commercial flight operation in the next two weeks, saying Passion and other domestic airlines were all ready to commence operations in Sunyani.

She emphasized the Bono Region had huge economic prospects, saying flight operations would open up the regional capital, boost economic activities, and spur rapid socio-economic growth and development.

The Sunyani Airport was originally constructed as an Airstrip and later upgraded into an airport in 1969. It currently has a total runway length of about 1,520.

In 2015, GACL and the GCAA shut down the airport as a precautionary measure to forestall any disaster.
Rehabilitation works have commenced on the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and Memorial Park in Accra.

A ceremony was held at the park on Tuesday, 19 July 2022, to commence the rehabilitation and modernisation of the park.

The park will be modernised to include a Presidential library, a freedom wall, an arboretum, a well-lit up musical fountain among others.

This is the first face-lift that the park will see, since it was constructed in 1992.

The World Bank is providing funding for rehabilitation work.

The park is being renovated as part of the Ghana Tourism Development Project.

The tourism development project forms part of efforts to re-grow the Ghanaian economy.

The tourism sector is the 3rd largest contributor to the countrys GDP.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Kwesi Ofori, outgoing Director-General, Public Affairs Directorate, has urged Ghanaians to support the Police to combat lawlessness and ensure everyone's safety.

He also advised his compatriots to eschew acts of lawlessness so that their communities could develop and grow.

You are the reason why we do what we doto serve you and protect life and property. The truth is that we will always do our job better when we do it side-by-side with you since policing is a shared responsibility. We all have a part to play in crime fighting and the general maintenance of law and order, he added.

DCOP Ofori made the comments on Wednesday during his Pull-Out and Farewell Ceremony in Accra.

He said Police personnel enlisted to make a difference for communities, families, victims of crime, the helpless, and for the struggling souls that stumbled through the very worst of their lives.

It was never about the pecuniary benefit, power or fame. It was for the adventure and for the painful privilege of venturing into the hurting cruel places where we want to restore calm, cast aside all fears and protect life and safeguard humanity.

And I want you to know, that in spite of our very evident limitations and the imperfection of humans, the majority of men and women I have been privileged to work with over the years are just about as extraordinary as people can ever be: people of great courage and compassion, people of heroism and humanity; people of bravery and brilliance; people of determination, and that precious, old-fashioned thing called duty. To your safety, these gallant men and women, have laid their lives.

He said in as much as the media expected much from the Police, they should also never grow tired of talking about the everyday bravery and heroism of personnel.

Theirs too, are stories that demand to be told. They are real heroes who stand in the gap between you and the enemy, he added.

He thanked Dr George Akuffo Dampare, Inspector-General of Police, and his colleagues for their unflinching support during his tenure of office.

In an exaltation, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Reverend Father George Arthur, Chaplain General, Ghana Police Service, praised DCOP Ofori for his professionalism throughout his years of service.

Indeed, Mr Ofori, you have made your mark. Your reportage and press releases are clear to all readers and viewers. You projected the image of the Service and the commitment of serving officers of our times. Your human relations have been positive and attractive. You have been the spokesperson for the Service for many years and you performed creditably.

Your assuring words to the public at any crime scene or riot control setting, 'the Police is in control; the Police administration will do all it takes to bring the perpetrators to book' portray your professionalism and the hard-working spirit, the zeal and determination of the Police administration and its officers, he said.

He therefore advised personnel to work hard and make a remarkable impact before exiting active service.

DCOP Kwesi Ofori started his police career over 35years ago and rose through the ranks to Deputy Commissioner of Police.

He worked as an investigator and obtained his Diploma in Public Relations from the Ghana Institute of Journalism in 1988.

DCOP Ofori obtained his first degree and a Master's degree from the same Institute in 2015. He also holds a Master's degree in conflict, peace and security from the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPKTC)

He was the Deputy Director, Public Affairs, became Director and Director-General.

DCOP Ofori has served as District Commander-Adabraka, District Commander. Dodowa, Divisional Commander- Dodowa/Tema, the Deputy Commander, VVIPU, office of the President of Ghana and Accra Regional Operations Commander.

He has attended several courses both local and international and served in the peacekeeping mission in Liberia as well.

He gave direction to police public relations and mentored majority of the Public Relations Officers presently in the Ghana Police Service.

He conceived so many programmes which improved the image of the service. These programmes include, You and the Police, Crimefighters, Police Cadet Corps in Second Cycle Institutions.

GNA

Photojournalist: Nii Martey M. Botchway
The Lands and Natural Resources Ministry has set up a committee to probe the alleged military brutalities on some miners in Obuasi.

Reports indicate that some miners under the governments community mining scheme encroached on a concession currently being mined by AngloGold Ashanti.

The Concerned Small Scale Miners Association and the Minority have called for a probe into the incident .

The association has said a legal team is currently working to get bail for the over 40 miners who were apprehended on the day of the incident.

Speaking on the subject today, the sector minister, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, said a committee has been tasked to investigate further and subsequently present a report.

The committee is being chaired by George Mireku Duker, the sectors Deputy Minister.

They began work earnestly, and they have gone very far with their work, Mr. Jinapor said.

We will produce a report, and we will act on the report, he assured further.

Mr. Jinapor admitted that the efforts to sanitise the small-scale mining sector can sometimes be complicated.

What is important is for us to assemble the unimpeachable facts first, the minister added.

The Lands and Natural Resources Ministry will be collaborating with the Ministry of Defence and Ghana Armed Forces to deal with the issue in the event soldiers are found culpable.

By Citi Newsroom
20.07.2022 LISTEN

An Accra High Court has adjourned the trial of Mr James Gyakye Quayson, awaiting a Supreme Court date to hear a Certiorari application filed by Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, his Counsel.

Mr Tsikata told the Court presided over by Justice Mary Maame Ekue Yanzuh that the accused person had filed Certiorari application at the Supreme Court to quash a ruling of the High Court in respect of some portions of the witness statement of Mr Richard Takyi-Mensah, a teacher.

The High Court overruled an objection raised by Mr Tsikata against tendering of the witness statement, saying that Mr Takyi-Mensah had no personal knowledge of the issue raised in the statement.

But the Court thought otherwise, indicating that it was presumed that the witness had knowledge as said in the witness statement.

The Court then said it could only be determined whether the witness had personal knowledge of the matter through cross-examination, but Mr Tsikata disagreed.

The Counsel for the accused person said the application was filed on Monday, July 18, 2022, after they were able to obtain the corrected version of the ruling.

He said they would have produced a given date, but the Registrar of the Supreme Court said they were awaiting a date for hearing from the Chief Justice.

He said the application was significant in respect not only to Mr Takyi-Mensah's witness statement but also to subsequent witnesses scheduled to testify.

Mr Tsikata said they, therefore, request from the Court to await the determination of the application at the Supreme Court on the matter, especially in order not to prejudice against the accused person.

Mrs Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), said in view of the application, the prosecution might have to take a date until the matter was determined by the Apex Court.

She told the Court that the prosecution had not even seen a copy of the application but for her understanding, it was still waiting for a date, and it was not clear when the copies would be ready for service.

The Judge, in granting the request, indicated that Mr Tsikata had not shown the Court any evidence but the Court would take his word for it

The Case has been adjourned to October 18, 2022.

The Assin North MP is facing counts of deceit of public officer and forgery of passport or travel certificates.

He has pleaded not guilty to all five charges and granted GHS100,000 bail with a surety to be justified.

GNA
20.07.2022 LISTEN

An Accra Circuit Court has granted bail to six persons who allegedly stole 353 bags of fertilizer valued GHS147,333.38 belonging to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).

Charles Adavlo, Sadick Abubakar, Daniel Asante and Eric Twum are on a GHS40,000.00 bail with two sureties each, to be justified.

Somalia Mustapha and Haruna Ajaililu, on the other hand, were granted a GHS110,604.38 bail with two sureties each, all to be justified.

They have all denied conspiring to steal the items.

The Court presided over by Mrs Ellen Offei Ayeh ordered them to come back to the Court on August 8, 2022.

Prosecuting, Police Inspector Wisdom Alorwu told the Court that the Complainants were Policemen from the Accra Regional Police Headquarters whilst Al Charles Adavlo and Abubakar were drivers, and both resided at Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region.

He said Asante was a Mason and Twum, a dispatch rider and that both lived at Jamasi in the Ashante Region. Prosecution said Mustapha and Ajaililu were also a driver and a driver's mate, respectively and both resided at Techiman in the Bono East.

Inspector Alorwu said on June 30, 2021 the Accra Regional Police Command had information that the accused persons and other accomplices yet to be arrested, had stolen COCOBOD fertilizers meant for cocoa farmers. They culprits were transporting the fertilizers from Accra through Dadeso to Burkina Faso.

The Court heard that a team of Policemen was dispatched to track the suspects and apprehend them.

The team, prosecution said, monitored the accused persons from Accra and arrested Adavlo, Twum, Asante and Abubakar at Jamasi on July 01, 2022 together with a Hyundai Mighty Truck with the registration number GR 521-12 loaded with 88 bags of the fertilizer valued GHS36,729.00.

He said Adavlo led the team to Dadeso where Mustapha and Jalilu were also arrested together with a KIA RHINO Truck, registration number AS 8049-18 loaded with 265 bags of fertilizer valued GHS110,604.375.

The accused persons mentioned the names of other accomplices who are yet to be apprehended, prosecution said, adding that they were escorted to the Accra Region Police Headquarters and the trucks with the 353 bags of the exhibit fertilizer, valued GHS147,333.375 were impounded.

Inspector Alorwu said a man-hunt was arranged for the other accomplices and that the accused persons after investigations were charged with the offences.

GNA
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The US embassy in Libya has welcomed the progress made in the process of unifying the Libyan military institution, it said in a series oF tweets here Wednesday
20.07.2022 LISTEN

Ghana lost approximately GHS5 billion in cash through the payment of bribes to public officials in 2021, the Ghana Integrity of Public Services Survey (GIPSS) has disclosed.

This is equivalent to almost one-third of the 2021 budget of the Ministry of Education, which is implementing one of the Government's flagship programmes, Free Senior High School (free SHS).

The Government is currently racing against time to raise about GHS4.5 billion through the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy)  a domestic revenue mobilisation enhancement measure to support national development.

The maiden national survey, titled: Corruption in Ghana  people's experiences and views also disclosed that more than 17.4 million bribes were paid in the same period.

The survey was conducted by the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in collaboration with the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

It collected evidence-based information from 15,000 households across the country involving people who were 18 years and older on the forms of corruption affecting the population of Ghana.

This is to determine the prevalence of the situation and its prevailing typologies, give benchmark indicators that can be used to inform relevant policies to curb administrative corruption in various public institutions in the country.

Apart from the cash payment, which contributed 84.8 per cent of the forms of bribe paid, 13.3 per cent of the bribes paid were food and drinks; 9.7 per cent, exchange for other services; 5 per cent valuables, and 2.2 per cent animals.

The bribes were paid by 33.6 per cent citizens to speed up procedures; 15.8 per cent, as a sign of appreciation; 13.8 per cent, to avoid the payment of fine; 10.8 per cent to avoid problems, and 3.1 per cent, to avoid the cancellation of public utilities.

Speaking at the launch of the report in Accra on Wednesday, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician, said that more than a quarter of the country's adult population (26.7 per cent) paid bribes to a public official in 2021.

Prof Annim also noted that most of the bribes were paid at the direct request of the public officials involved, as six out of 10 bribes paid (59.4 per cent) were directly requested by those officials.

Findings from the survey showed that the Ghana Police Service, Immigration Service and the custom officers of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) were the three top institutions that received bribes.

They were followed by the Lands Commission, Driver and Vehicle Licencing Authority (DVLA), Passport Agency officials, and prosecutors, judges and magistrates, with elected government officials being the least recipients.

In his remarks, Justice Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi, a Justice of the Supreme Court, who stood for the Chief Justice, said that corruption was the most dangerous threat to the country's democracy, development and national security.

He said that: If we fail to prevail in our fight against corruption, it is fast draining the public purse, creating barriers to economic development, decreasing the effectiveness and efficiency of public services, increasing transaction costs, undermining legal rules and eroding the legitimacy of government and will ultimately bring down our democracy.

Justice Kulendi noted that the report provided verifiable attempt to validate the prevalence of corruption in Ghana, therefore, offer scientific measures to tackle corruption for development of tailored anti-corruption interventions.

Mr Richard Quayson, the Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ, said that: In order to fight corruption more effectively, it is critical to improve society's understanding of its different manifestations and to make regular, scientifically-based efforts to measure its occurrence, which the survey provided.

He noted that GIPSS would support achievement of the goals of the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP), SDG 16 and the United Nations Convention against Corruption Article 61.

Ms Jennifer Sarvary Bradford, a Crime Prevention and Criminal Officer at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, also said that the report would help Ghana produce an evidence-based policy to fight corruption.

The report called for stakeholder engagement at both the national and sub-national levels, publication of analytical reports, institutionalisation of GIPSS, and the anti-corruption implementation roadmap to address the situation.

GNA
The Energy Commission has begun a nationwide enforcement exercise to close down all uncertified electrical shops in the country.

The exercise is aimed at helping to eliminate fake and inferior electrical wires, gadgets and appliances in the Ghanaian market.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani on the sidelines of an energy conservation and efficiency forum, Mr Fred Agyei-Brobbey, a Senior Officer of the Commission, explained that the enforcement of the Electrical Wiring Regulations 2008 would control domestic fire outbreaks.

The Commission organised the day's forum to sensitize the participants, including hairdressers, dressmakers, tailors and shop owners on energy conservation and efficiency to empower them to use electricity wisely.

We can't sit back and watch people's lives and properties destroyed due to the use of fake electrical wires and appliances, Mr Agyei-Brobbey said, and advised the general public to engage the services of qualified and certified electricians and inspectors.

He said more than 100,000 electricians in the country, the Commission had registered and certified only a little over 11,000 of them, and advised those whose two-year license had expired to renew them.

Touching on electricity coverage, Mr Agyei-Brobbey said Ghana's electricity coverage stood about 86 percent, and the second widest in Africa after Gabon which had about 91 percent coverage.

Ghana had, however, been unable to achieve 100 per cent electricity coverage because it was extremely difficult to reach out to and cover some island communities.

GNA
The Coastal Development Authority (CODA) has allayed fears of the family of late President John Evans Atta-Mills over concerns that his body has been desecrated.

According to CODA, at no point during the recent renovation of the Asomdwe Park was his grave opened.

In a press release signed by Jerry Ahmed Shaib who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Authority, it says, We wish to state that the grave was not opened and therefore no desecration of the body of the former President, H.E John Evans Atta Mills, has taken place.

The release noted, We, therefore, assure all well-meaning Ghanaians that the project, which continues to be a top priority for CODA, is well on schedule and will be handed over to the Office of the President for official commissioning, once completed.

The issuance of the press release became necessary after the brother of the late president, Sammy Atta-Mills expressed anger at Samuel Koku Anyidoho for his role in the renovation of the resting place of his brother without informing his family.

He vowed to take on Mr. Anyidoho while labelling him as a buffoon over suspicion that the grave of late President Mills may have been desecrated.

Read the press release from CODA below for more information on the renovation of the Asomdwe Park:

July 20, 2022

PRESS RELEASE

REDEVELOPMENT OF ASOMDWEE PARK

The Coastal Development Authority, acting upon a directive from the President Akufo-Addo, prioritised the renovation of the burial grounds of the late Professor Atta Mills, former president of the republic.

The Authority liaised with relevant state institutions in charge of state monuments before embarking on the renovation works.

For the avoidance of doubt, the scope of works funded by CODA includes the following:

1. Redesign and construction of ICT lab, library, cafeteria and artifact buildings (completed)

2. Construction of a concrete shed and replacement of alucobond panels over tomb of the Late President. (completed)

3. Construction of fence wall and two restrooms for security staff (completed)

4. Construction of entrance for General Public & VIPs (completed)

5. Paving of 50-metre walkway to and around the tomb with porcelain tiles (completed)

6. Asphalting of driveway to general entrance (ongoing)

7. Landscaping of general area around the tomb (ongoing).

We wish to state that the grave was not opened and therefore no desecration of the body of the former President, H.E John Evans Atta Mills, has taken place.

We therefore assure all well-meaning Ghanaians that the project, which continues to be a top priority for CODA, is well on schedule and will be handed over to the Office of the President for official commissioning, once completed.

Thank you.

-SIGNED-

JERRY AHMED SHAIB (ESQ)

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Renowned Ghanaian journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has said for things to change for the better in Ghana, Ghanaians must be involved and demand change.

Speaking at a public lecture organised by Arise Ghana in Accra on Wednesday, July 20, the managing editor of the Insight Newspaper indicated that the citizenry must not sit and expect that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will discipline the officials of government.

He argued that with sovereignty lying in the hands of the Ghanaian people, they must be the ones to dish out any kind of discipline to leaders who continue to fail the country.

We should not expect the IMF to discipline our leaders. If our leaders are reckless it is up to us to throw them out of office. If our leaders are indisciplined, it is our responsibility to discipline them, Kwesi Pratt Jnr said at the Public Lecture while speaking on the theme, Ghanas Socio-economic Outlook, the Prospects of an IMF Programme.

The veteran journalists added, The answer to Ghanaian problems is in Ghana and not at the IMF. Lets solve our own problems here. The answer to Ghanaians' problem is with Ghanaians and certainly not the IMF and not the World Bank.

According to him, the Ghanaian people must rise and compel leaders to think and bring the needed change that will set the country on the path of growth and development.

During his lecture, Kwesi Pratt Jnr said the current state of the collapsing Ghanaian economy requires fundamental restructuring.

He proposes that the country immediately focus on producing what it needs and cut down on excessive imports.

What the country needs is a fundamental restructuring of the Ghanaian economy. Which makes sure Ghanaians can rear their own Guinea fowls, an economy which will ensure we eat what we grow, Kwesi Pratt Jnr added.
Health 4 You, a Non-Organization based in Germany with a branch in Ghana has donated medical equipment to Oblogo Health Centre in the Weija-Gbawe Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.

The donation forms part of Health 4 You Charities and Humanitarian Services which is to improve health care support for inhabitants in local communities.

The equipment includes three hospital beds, mattresses, examination couches, drips wheelchairs, drugs among others.

Alhaji Jalali Yunusah a representative of Health 4 You said the donation forms part of their welfare service to humankind.

He added that as a resident of the community there is a need for him to begin his donation at the Oblogo Health Centre adding that the donation is not a one day show but a continuous one.

He said similar donations would be extended to other health facilities in the municipality.

He called on other NGO's, Chiefs and Philanthropists to support health facilities in the Municipality with the needed health equipment.

This he said will encourage the medical staff to work their hearts out by treating patients properly since there are enough equipment.

Alhaji Jalali urged the medical director and the hospital staff as well as the community members to make good use of the items as more donations are in the pipeline.

The officer in charge of Oblogo Health Centre, Mary Mensah commended Health 4 You for the donation which she said will help improve health care delivery in the community.

She said the donation was necessary because the hospital need more of such equipment to provide health care to patients.

The head of the facility assured that the donation will be put to good use to benefit the habitants in the communities.
Bubs Australia [ASX:BUB] reported record Q4 gross revenue, which rose 278% year-on-year, and 174% quarter-on-quarter, to hit $48.1 million.

The June quarter revenue was so strong it surpassed BUBs FY21 total revenue.

The quarterly results saw BUB shares rise over 6% on Wednesday.

Despite the spike today, the infant formula stock is down 10% in the past month.

Source: Tradingview.com

Bubs quarterly activities  the numbers

Today was not another BUB supplier announcement.

Nor did Bubs notify the market of another plane stocked with bottles of infant formula.

Today, the toddler nutrition producer released its Q4 FY22 results and the market could finally see the impact of its emergency supply arrangement with the US.

Bubs reported record gross revenue for the quarter, a total of $48.1 million.

For the half year gross revenue turned over $65.7 million, an increase of 168% year-on-year.

For the financial year, gross revenue totalled $104.2 million, up 123% year-on-year.

But what would a Bubs update be without mention of its ongoing success in America?

Bubs announced that 540,000 tins of its baby formula has been delivered since May.

The company affirmed that its infant formula products now appear on shelves in over 5,400 stores in 34 US States.

22 of those States have allowed families to purchase Bubs baby products under the subsidised WIC Program.

Despite the record revenue, the infant formula stock still ended the quarter and the year with negative free cash flow.

In the June quarter alone, net cash outflows totalled $6.7 million as receipts from customers ($30 million) could not outweigh operating costs (product manufacturing costs alone came in at $28.2 million).

Bubs share prices outlook

CEO Kristy Carr commented on BUBs strong sales:

The last quarter has seen the business reach critical mass following exceptional growth across Australia, China, and rapid expansion in the USA with our involvement in the Biden-Harris Administrations Operation Fly Formula initiative aimed at helping to mitigate the ongoing infant formula shortage crisis. This business diversification and increased scale of our most profitable products and channels has flowed through to our operating margins, delivering profitability for the full year (excluding non-cash equity compensation expenses). The quarter demonstrates initial success of our comprehensive business strategies, led by our clean label infant formula products experiencing high growth in all three key market segments. This was achieved despite a challenging macro environment. We are confident of the long-term growth prospects for the USA now that the Food and Drug Administration has committed to a framework for suppliers like Bubs, who have already been approved to import infant formula products, to remain on shelf beyond November 2022. As a result, we envisage the USA will become a lead export market opportunity on par with China in the future.

Now, despite BUBs revenue growth success this year, it has been quite challenging for many stocks out there.

Rising costs and slowing consumption are hurting margins.

Volatility is unsurprisingly high, and any rally is quickly snuffed out by a string of red days as the market digests the uncertainty surrounding the global economic outlook.

But the stock market is not homogenous  opportunities can still present themselvesprovided you know where to look.

Our small-cap expert, Callum Newman, has a knack for sniffing out under-the-radar opportunities.

His latest report focuses on three battery stocks he believes have the potential to be the next chosen ones for leading battery mineral supply partners.

You can find out more by reading the report Elons Chosen Ones.

Regards,

Kiryll Prakapenka,

For Money Morning
July 20, 2022 Lavrov - Extended Range Weapons In Ukraine Will Lead To More Loss Of Its Land Today the foreign minister of the Russian Federation, Sergei Lavrov, announced the extension of the land in Ukraine that Russia intends to capture. It will depend on the maximum weapon range of the systems the Ukraine will have under its control. Via RIA Novosti (machine translation): Lavrov: deliveries of long-range weapons to Kyiv will expand the geography of the special operation MOSCOW, July 20 - RIA Novosti. If Ukraine receives long-range weapons from Western countries, then the geographical tasks of the special operation of the Russian troops will change, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT and the Rossiya Segodnya media group. "The President said very clearly, as you quoted him - denazification, demilitarization in the sense that there are no threats to our security, military threats from the territory of Ukraine, this task remains," the minister stressed. At the same time, he recalled that during the meeting of the negotiators in Istanbul at the end of March, the situation on this issue was significantly different. "Now the geography is different. It is far from being only the DPR and LPR, it is also the Kherson region, the Zaporozhye region and a number of other territories, and this process continues, and continues consistently and persistently," the head of Russian diplomacy added. He pointed out that as the West, in impotent rage or in a desire to make the situation as bad as possible, pumps more and more long-range weapons into Ukraine, for example, HIMARS, the geographical objectives of the special operation will move even further from the current line. Because we cannot allow the part of Ukraine that Zelensky will control or whoever replaces him to have weapons that will pose a direct threat to our territory and the territory of those republics that have declared their independence, those who want their future decide for yourself," he concluded. Note to Washington: If you deliver HIMARS missile to Ukraine with an extended (300km instead of 80km) range, Russia will have to move further into Ukraine to secure its own and the Donbas republics borders. This comes after calls in Ukraine to hit the bridge over the Kerch street that connects Crimea with Russia with extended range HIMARS missiles. The nearest point of the area which the Ukraine still holds is some 260 kilometer away from the bridge.

bigger There are also rumors that the Ukraine has already received such missiles. Via Naked Capitalism: Zelensky Orders Troops to Hold Siversk Despite Heavy Losses, Purges More Officials; Putin in Tehran - Alexander Mercouris. Note in particular starting at 10:10, Mercouris reports that DPR official Eduard Barsurin has stated that Ukraine has received the 300 km missiles for the HIMARS. Ukraine has made clear it intends to hit targets in Crimea, which Russia regards as Russian territory, particularly the Kerch bridge. Mercouris thinks it would take an awful lot of missiles to do that, as in more than Ukraine has now, but any strikes at Crimea would lead to very forceful retaliation by Russia. Ukraine is smoking something strong if it thinks that will lead the West to do meaningfully more for Ukraine than it is doing now. Mercouris is wrong when he claims that the long range HIMARS missile would only have a small warhead as it must be fired out of one of the 6 tubes of the regular HIMARS canister. The long range missile is the ATACMS. It comes in a different canister which has only one tube for a missile with a diameter of 610 mm. It can be fired by all systems that usually fire the 6 missile canister.

bigger The version of the MFM-140 ATACMS missile that would most likely be used is the M57 (ATACMS TACMS 2000): It carries the 500 lb WDU-18/B penetrating high explosive blast fragmentation warhead of the US Navy's Harpoon anti-ship missile, which was redesignated as WAU-23/B when used in ATACMS. It is not the ideal warhead to attack a hard target but it is significant enough to at least heavily damage the Kerch bridge. If it should be used Ukraine will lose all land that is within 300 kilometer of Crimea, the Donbas and Luhansk oblasts and Ukraine's northern border with Russia. Odessa is only 180 kilometer from Crimea and Kiev some 200 kilometer from the nearest Russian border. If we take Lavrov's words seriously those cities would come under Russian occupation should an extended range HIMARS missile be used. Lavrov named several Ukrainian oblasts that are already on Russia's wish list: It is far from being only the DPR and LPR, it is also the Kherson region, the Zaporozhye region and a number of other territories, .. The number of other territories will have to include the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts to protect the border of Donetsk and Luhansk from longer reaching weapons. Mykolaiv and Odessa may have to be taken to protect Russia's oil and gas installations west of Crimea. The Ukraine has already attacked those with longer range weapons.

bigger If I were a Ukrainian decision maker I would take Lavrov's threat very seriously. The longest reaching weapon that the U.S. and Great Britain have delivered to Ukraine so far is the Harpoon anti ship missile with a range of 124 kilometer which is near to the 120 kilometer range that Ukrainian Tochka-U missiles have. The Russian defense ministry had previously claimed that at least two Harpoon launchers had been destroyed. According to its daily report another one was eliminated yesterday near Usatovo in the Odessa Region. Posted by b on July 20, 2022 at 13:18 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  An Indianapolis doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio took the first step Tuesday toward suing Indiana's attorney general for defamation.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist who gave the girl a medication-induced abortion on June 30, filed a tort claim notice over what she says are false statements that Attorney General Todd Rokita has made about her and her work.

Bernard received widespread attention after she gave an interview to the Indianapolis Star about the child, who traveled to Indiana from Ohio for the abortion. A so-called fetal heartbeat law took effect in Ohio last month after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Such laws ban abortions from the time a fetus' cardiac activity can be detected, which is typically around the sixth week of pregnancy.

A 27-year-old man was charged last week in Columbus, Ohio, with raping the girl, confirming the existence of a case that was initially met with skepticism by some news outlets and Republican politicians.

Bernard's lawyer, Kathleen DeLaney, filed the tort claim notice against Rokita just days after she sent a cease and desist letter. The claim starts a 90-day period for the state to settle it. If it's not settled, Bernard could file a lawsuit. The claim didn't say how much money Bernard is seeking, noting that the harm is ongoing.

"Mr. Rokitas false and misleading statements about alleged misconduct by Dr. Bernard in her profession constitute defamation," the claim reads. The statements have been and continue to be published by or on behalf of Mr. Rokita and the Office of the Attorney General.

After the news of the 10-year-old's abortion broke, Rokita told Fox News that he would investigate whether Bernard violated child abuse notification or abortion reporting laws. He also said his office would look into whether anything Bernard said to the Indianapolis Star about the girl's case violated federal medical privacy laws. Rokita offered no specific allegations of wrongdoing.

Records obtained by The Associated Press and local news outlets show that Bernard submitted her report about the girl's abortion on July 2, which is within Indianas required three-day reporting period for an abortion performed on a girl younger than 16.

A spokesperson for Rokita said Bernard's claim is baseless and attempts to distract from the important work of the office.

Attorney General Rokita and the Office of Attorney General are leaders in the pro-life movement, spokesperson Kelly Stevenson said via email. His historic work has further distinguished Indiana as a protector of unborn life and women.

The Indiana Democratic Party criticized Rokita for the impact the lawsuit would have on taxpayers.

Hoosier taxpayers will now have to pay for Attorney General Todd Rokitas national smear campaign against a doctor who helped a 10-year-old rape survivor attain a legal and safe abortion, party spokesperson Drew Anderson wrote in an email.

___

Arleigh Rodgers is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/arleighrodgers
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP)  Dan Cox, a far-right state legislator endorsed by former President Donald Trump, won the Republican primary for Maryland governor on Tuesday, defeating a moderate rival backed by outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan.

Cox will face the winner of the highly competitive Democratic primary in the November general election. Wes Moore, a bestselling author backed by Oprah Winfrey, had an early lead Tuesday night, with the focus starting to turn to mail ballots that wont be counted until later in the week.

Despite being a win for Trump, Coxs victory over former Hogan Cabinet member Kelly Schulz could be a blow to Republican chances to hold on to the governor's mansion in November. Hogan, who was prohibited from running for a third consecutive term, was a rare two-term Republican governor in a heavily Democratic state, and he had endorsed Schulz as the successor to his bipartisan style of leadership.

Cox has been a thorn in Hogan's side over the last few years, suing over the governor's stay-at-home orders and regulations in the early days of the pandemic and seeking unsuccessfully to impeach him for COVID-19 orders Cox called restrictive and protracted.

Cox alluded to his fight with Hogan in his victory speech Tuesday night, telling a cheering crowd: We will never again give over our bodies, our churches and our businesses to a lockdown state.

The Republican primary was viewed as a proxy battle between Trump and Hogan, who offered vastly different visions of the partys future as they consider 2024 campaigns for the White House. Hogan, one of Trumps most prominent GOP critics, urged the party to move on from his divisive brand of politics, while Trump spent much of his post-presidency elevating candidates who promote his lies about a stolen 2020 election.

One of those candidates was Cox, who organized busloads of protesters to Washington for the Stop the Steal rally that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Cox has also said President Joe Bidens victory shouldnt have been certified and tweeted that former Vice President Mike Pence was a traitor." Cox later deleted the tweet and apologized.

Democrats were likely giddy over Cox's win in the Republican primary. The Democratic Governors Association plowed more than $1 million behind an ad intended to boost Cox, seeing him as an easier opponent in November.

Trump, too, was gleeful, saying in a statement shortly before the race was called: "RINO Larry Hogans Endorsement doesnt seem to be working out so well for his heavily favored candidate. Next, Id love to see Larry run for President!

Cox joins Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania and Darren Bailey in Illinois as ultraconservative state legislators endorsed by Trump who have gone on to win their Republican nominations for governor. All three fought against their governors' COVID-19 policies, staunchly oppose abortion rights and raised questions about the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

In Maryland, it could potentially take days, or even longer, to determine the winners in the most closely contested races, including the Democratic primary for governor. Maryland law prohibits counties from opening mail ballots until the Thursday after election day.

In one of the earliest called races of the night, Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen beat back a primary challenge just months after suffering a minor stroke. He is favored in November to win a second term against Republican Chris Chaffee, who launched a failed congressional bid in 2014.

Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who is awaiting trial on federal criminal charges, was trailing in early returns in her three-way Democratic primary as she seeks a third term.

Mosby is charged with perjury and making false statements on loan applications to purchase properties in Florida. She rose to national prominence in 2015 when she pursued criminal charges against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who suffered a spinal injury after police handcuffed, shackled and placed him head-first into a van. None of the officers was convicted.

In the Democratic primary for governor, the top candidates included Moore, the former CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, an anti-poverty organization; Tom Perez, a former U.S. labor secretary and former Democratic Party chair; and Peter Franchot, the state's four-term state comptroller.

Laura Kretchman, a 41-year-old high school teacher, said she voted for Moore, swayed in part by his endorsement from the state's teachers union. She said she's impressed by Moore's accomplishments after rising above childhood challenges and being raised by a single mom.

I teach children at a school that also come from difficult upbringings, so Id like to see maybe what he can bring to helping those students that are struggling and challenged, said Kretchman, an Annapolis resident.

Other voters said they preferred a long resume of government service. That's why Curtis Fatig, 67, voted for Perez. Hes not a newcomer, Fatig said.

Cox's victory on Tuesday serves as a win for Trump, who has a mixed endorsement record in this year's midterm elections. But in such a heavily Democratic state, his candidate faces an uphill battle heading into the fall.

Some Republican voters said Trump's endorsement persuaded them to vote for Cox. Others said it didn't matter.

David Gateau, 63, said he voted for Cox because he believes Maryland is extremely liberal and we need to get back to some values. Trumps endorsement, he said, wasnt really a factor.

I think Hogan was more of a RINO than he was a Republican governor, and I think our state reflects that," Gateau said.

Cameron Martin, 22, said Trump's endorsement was the main reason he voted for Cox, but added that he feels like Cox shares his Republican values and that "he will best represent me.

Maryland's only open congressional seat was in the 4th Congressional District, a heavily Democratic Black-majority district. Former county prosecutor Glenn Ivey won the Democratic primary, defeating former Rep. Donna Edwards, who previously held the seat.

The incumbent in the 4th District, Rep. Anthony Brown, left his seat to run for attorney general. He won the Democratic primary on Tuesday night, defeating Katie Curran O'Malley, the former first lady, a former Baltimore judge and the daughter of former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. Brown was Gov. Martin O'Malley's lieutenant governor.

Candidates were on the ballot for all 188 seats in the Maryland General Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats.

The Maryland primary was delayed by three weeks because of lawsuits challenging the states congressional and state legislative maps.

___

Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics.

___ Associated Press writer Michael Kunzelman in Silver Spring contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to show the spelling of the Republican Senate candidates name is Chaffee, not Chafee.
This file photo shows the gymnasium at the College of Micronesia in Pohnpei, capital of the Federated States of Micronesia, which has confirmed its first cases of community spread of Covid in Pohnpei and Kosrae. Pohnpei authorities called for residents to avoid public gatherings and wear face masks.
PITTSFIELD  Illinoisans have been experiencing pain at the gas pump since prices accelerated in January, but Pittsfield Mayor Gary Mendenhall is trying to find out why the pain is more acute in his city.

"I have been receiving a lot of questions about gas prices from the citizens," Mendenhall said. "Complaints were centered not only on why gas was cheaper in Jacksonville and Quincy, but also in nearby towns in Pike County. People ask, 'Why do they have cheaper gas than us?'"

Mendenhall didn't like not having an answer, so he decided to write letters to the owners of gas stations within Pittsfield and ask them for an explanation of why gas prices are the way they are.

"I wrote them to get answers for the citizens who were complaining," Mendenhall said. "Why is this happening when we are so close geographically."

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, gasoline prices vary over time and among states and regions. In addition to differences in state and local taxes, other factors contribute to regional differences in gasoline prices, including distance from supply, supply disruptions, retail competition and operating costs.

The GasBuddy app showed the price of regular gas to be more than $5 per gallon in Pittsfield on Tuesday, with it ranging from $5.09 to $5.19. The mayor noted at least one station was down to $4.89 Tuesday afternoon.

During the same period, gas in Jacksonville ranged from a low of $4.04 per gallon to $4.95. In Milton, a village that is 12 miles from Pittsfield, gas was $4.24 at the Milton Fast Stop Express.

So far, Mendenhall has not received any responses. He said one station told him they received the letter, but they had no answers for him. He hopes to have a conversation with them soon.

Besides trying to find out what is behind the price discrepancies, Mendenhall is letting citizens know there is "no secret tax the city gets on top of the taxes being charged by the state of Illinois" that is causing Pittsfield prices to be higher.

The federal tax on gasoline is 18.40 cents per gallon. Illinois tax is higher than the national average. The state gas tax was doubled from 19 cents to 38 cents in 2019 as part of a $45 billion infrastructure plan pushed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Beyond the price of gas, Mendenhall is concerned the higher prices are driving people out of Pittsfield to buy gas and shop in other cities.

"Some people have the ways and means to drive 20 miles to get gas, but some people cant drive that far to save money," Mendenhall said. "Thats my concern. There are people leaving town to get gas  even driving to Missouri. They are killing two birds with one stone  they go shopping elsewhere and buy gas because it is cheaper."

By leaving town and shopping outside of Pittsfield, Mendenhall said, it is costing the city money in lost sales tax revenue.

"I just want to find answers to why they prices are so different and let the community know what's going on," Mendenhall said.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate unexpectedly launched a new push Wednesday to protect same-sex marriage in federal law after a surprising number of Republicans helped pass landmark legislation in the House. Some GOP senators are already signaling support.

The legislation started as an election-season political effort to confront the new Supreme Court majority after the court overturned abortion access in Roe v. Wade, raising concerns that other rights were at risk. But suddenly it has a shot at becoming law. Pressure is mounting on Republicans to drop their longstanding opposition and join in a bipartisan moment for gay rights.

This legislation was so important, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said as he opened the chamber Wednesday.

The Democratic leader marveled over the House's 267-157 tally, with 47 Republicans  almost one-fifth of the GOP lawmakers  voting for the bill late Tuesday.

I want to bring this bill to the floor, Schumer said, and we're working to get the necessary Senate Republican support to ensure it would pass.

Political odds are still long for the legislation, the Respect for Marriage Act, which would enshrine same-sex and interracial marriages as protected under federal law. Conservatives, including House GOP leaders, largely opposed the bill, and the vast majority of Republicans voted against it.

But in a sign of shifting political attitudes and a need for an election-year win, some Republicans are signaling there may be an opening. Few Republicans spoke directly against gay marriage during Tuesday's floor debate in the House. And Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was notably silent when asked about the bill, saying he would take a look if it comes to the Senate.

I'm going to delay announcing anything on that issue, McConnell said, adding he would wait to see if Schumer brings it forward.

President Joe Biden wants Congress to send him the bill to sign as soon as possible.

This is something thats personal to the president, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters traveling with the president.

Biden is a proud champion of the right for people to marry whom they love and is grateful to see bipartisan support for that right, she said. He believes it is non-negotiable and that the Senate should act swiftly to get this to the presidents desk. He wants to sign it, so we need this legislation and we urge Congress to move as quickly as possible.

So far, the legislation has just two Senate Republican co-sponsors, Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina are among others closely watched for possible support.

In all 10 Republican senators would need to join with all Democrats to reach the 60 vote threshold to overcome a GOP filibuster.

Were seeing progress on this, and Ill take progress, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the bills chief sponsor, told reporters at the Capitol.

The No. 2 Republican, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, was doubtful Tuesday, calling the proposed legislation little more than a political message.

Social issues including same-sex marriage and abortion have sprinted to the top of the congressional agenda this summer in reaction to the Supreme Court's action overturning Roe v. Wade, a stunning ruling that ended the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion access. It set off alarms that other rights conservatives have targeted could be next.

While Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, insisted the Roe v. Wade ruling pertained only to abortion access, it demonstrated the new conservative muscle with three Trump-era justices tipping the court's balance. A concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas, who has gained stature in the new majority, raised questions about gay marriage and other rights.

"We take Justice Thomas  and the extremist movement behind him  at their word," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the House debate. This is what they intend to do.

Both Pelosi and Schumer criticized Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who said over the weekend that the Supreme Courts 2015 Obergefell vs. Hodges decision upholding gay marriage was clearly wrong.

The Respect for Marriage Act was rushed to the House floor in an election year with polling showing a majority of Americans favor preserving rights to marry, regardless of sex, gender, race or ethnicity, a long-building shift in modern mores toward inclusion.

A Gallup poll released in June of 2021 showed broad and increasing support for same-sex marriage, with 70% of U.S. adults saying they think such unions should be recognized by law. The poll showed majority support among both Democrats (83%) and Republicans (55%).

Approval of interracial marriage in the U.S. hit a six-decade high at 94% in September, according to Gallup.

McConnell, the Republican leader, is eager to regain control of the Senate, now evenly split 50-50, and his views on whether his party should support or oppose the same-sex marriage protections will almost certainly be viewed through that political lens.

Unlike the abortion issue, where views are deeply held with little room for Congress to find common ground, attitudes toward same-sex continue to evolve and shift among lawmakers.

Incumbent Republican senators seeking to win reelection and GOP candidates running for office may want a chance to support the gay marriage issue that is popular with many voters. Strong Republican-led opposition could be seen as detrimental to the party's candidates in swing states that McConnell needs to win to regain control.

One Republican hopeful, Joe O'Dea, who is challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado, said he was glad to see the same-sex marriage bill pass in the House.

Youve got a lot of politicians in both political parties who spend way too much time trying to tell people how to live their lives. Thats just not me. I live my life. You live yours," O'Dea said. "Lets get on with solving the huge challenges facing the American people.

Still, some vocal leaders in the Republican Party, including Cruz and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, both potential presidential candidates, have indicated likely opposition to the legislation.

The Respect for Marriage Act would repeal the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act, which put into federal law the definition of marriage as a heterosexual union between a man and woman. That 1996 law was largely overshadowed by subsequent court rulings, including Obergefell vs. Hodges in 2015, legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

___

Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri, Mary Clare Jalonick and Darlene Superville in Washington and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

This story was first published on July 20, 2022. It was updated on July 26, 2022 to clarify that the Gallup poll was released in June of 2021. A Gallup poll released in June 2022 showed similar results, with 71% of U.S. adults saying they think same-sex unions should be recognized by law.
LONDON (AP)  Britain's government on Wednesday gave the green light to a new nuclear power station that's expected to generate enough low-carbon electricity to power 6 million homes.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said development consent was granted for the building of the plant, called Sizewell C, on eastern England's Suffolk coast.

French energy company EDF, which will partly fund the project, has said the plant will generate electricity for at least 60 years and will employ 900 people. The plant will reportedly cost 20 billion pounds ($24 billion).

Authorities say the plant will make a substantial contribution toward Britain's target of making up to a quarter of the power consumed in the country come from nuclear by 2050.

Julia Pyke, financing director for the project, said the benefits to consumers in the long term will outweigh the costs of construction.

Sizewell C will give a big boost to jobs and skills in nuclear supply chain companies across the country. It will strengthen the U.K.s energy security and play a key role in our fight against climate change," she said.

But critics have said nuclear plants are far more expensive and slow to build compared with renewable energy options such as solar and wind power. Environmental groups have also argued Sizewell C will damage local nature reserves that host wildlife like otters and marsh birds.

The U.K. wants to reduce its dependence on imported oil and gas, especially in light of soaring energy prices amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and generate cheaper, cleaner power domestically.

The government has said it wants 95% of British electricity to come from low-carbon sources by 2030. In an energy security strategy document published April, authorities also said they want Britain to lead the world once again in nuclear power, a technology the British once pioneered.

Nuclear currently provides about 15% of the U.K.'s electricity, but five of the country's six existing nuclear plants will be decommissioned within the decade. Sizewell C will be among two new nuclear plants in construction  the other plant, Hinkley C, is expected to open in mid-2026 after a series of delays.

The activist group Stop Sizewell C said it will consider appealing the government's decision to approve the plant.

Whether it is the impact on consumers, the massive costs and delays, the outstanding technical questions or the environmental impacts, it remains a bad project and a very bad risk, the group said.

Britain's government has committed 100 million pounds to developing the project and negotiations on raising funds for it are ongoing.

___

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Retail giant Walmart signed an agreement with an automotive startup company called Canoo to purchase 4,500 all-electric delivery vehicles.

The deal starts with the Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle, a compact van expected to go into production in the fourth quarter of this year, with the option to purchase up to 10,000 of the vans, Walmart explained in a recent press release. The vans will be driven by Walmart employees and used to deliver online orders. They will also contribute to Walmart's goal to achieve zero emissions by 2040.

While the vans are expected to hit the road in 2023, Canoo plans to send some pre-production vans to Walmart in the coming weeks to "refine and finalize vehicle configuration" in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to the release.

Both companies declined to disclose what the deal cost, but Canoos Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle retails for $34,750 each.

"We are proud to have been selected by Walmart, one of the most sophisticated buyers in the world, to provide our high-tech, all-electric, American-made Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle to add to their impressive logistics capabilities," Tony Aquila, investor, chairman and CEO of Canoo said in the release. "Our Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle has the turning radius of a small passenger vehicle on a parking-friendly, compact footprint, yet the payload and cargo space of a commercial delivery vehicle. This is the winning algorithm to compete in the last mile delivery race, globally."

Aquila called Walmart's massive store footprint "an unmatched opportunity for growing EV demand, especially at today's gas prices" in the release. Walmart provides same-day delivery to 80% of the U.S. population, according to the release.

Canoo stock jumped 53% on July 12 after the deal was announced. Walmart was granted a warrant that gives it an option to buy 61.16 million shares of Canoo, or more than a fifth of the company's outstanding shares, at an exercise price of $2.15 per share, per Canoos official 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The agreement also prohibits Canoo from selling EVs to Amazon.com. Amazon was previously aligned with electric truck maker Rivian Automotive in 2019 but signed a deal to buy electric vans from rival automaker Stellantis, formerly known as Fiat Chrysler, in January.

Rivian said in a January statement that Amazons deal with Stellantis was "good news for the industry" because it helps further reduce carbon emissions by using more electric vehicles. "Amazons scale is globally unprecedented, and we expect them to purchase vehicles from many providers," the company said. "Our own partnership with them is intact, thriving and growing."

Both companies insisted in January that the deal was still on. Rivian is supposed to deliver 10,000 delivery vans to Amazon by the end of this year.

Many automakers beyond Rivian, Stellantis and Canoo have detailed plans to electrify large portions of their fleets over the next decade, with some announcing goals for fully electrified lineups within five years.
China warns of consequences if US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan region

(People's Daily App) 13:43, July 20, 2022

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday warned of consequences if U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits the Taiwan region.

At a regular press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the Chinese side has stated on many occasions that it is firmly opposed to any form of official interaction between the United States and the Taiwan region.

"The US Congress is part of the US government and supposed to strictly adhere to the USs one-China policy,Zhao said.

Zhao said that it would gravely violate the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiques, seriously undermining Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity, having a severe negative impact on the political foundation of China-US relations and send a gravely wrong signal to Taiwan independence separatist forces, should Pelosi visit the island of Taiwan.

China firmly opposes such a visit and urges the US to abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiques by drawing back Pelosis visit to Taiwan, suspending official contact with the Taiwan region, stopping creating factors that could lead to tensions in the Taiwan Strait, and follow through on the USs commitment of not supporting 'Taiwan independence',  Zhao added.

Zhao said that the US must assume full responsibility for any ensuing consequences.

(Compiled by Chen Rui)

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
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For just one day this summer  and if youre planning a vacation, its Aug. 4  entrance fees are waived at the 110 national parks that normally charge admission. These include top tourist favorites such as the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Zion National Park, each of which collects $35 per vehicle or $20 per pedestrian.

With so many Americans eager for post-pandemic travel, but with gasoline prices high, wouldnt this be a great time to give citizens free access to the parks that they do, after all, own? And not just on one weekday in August, but all summer long?

To be clear, the nations national parks need all the money they can get. Most locations have what the Parks Service calls an extensive maintenance backlog, with repairs and upgrades deferred year after year. The annual budget for all 423 park properties is a modest $3.5 billion  and the contribution from entrance fees is a pittance, totaling less than $250 million a year.

Visits to national parks fell slightly during the pandemic, but are expected to surge this summer. While $35 per car doesnt seem like a lot, its a regressive fee whose greatest impact is on those least able to afford it. Waiving admission these fees  at least during this period of economic, medical and emotional stress  would boost Americans spirits while also stimulating business.

New government figures indicate that in 2021 park visitors spent $20.5 billion in communities within 60 miles of the venues. The lodging sector gained $7 billion while restaurant operators took in $4.2 billion. Its estimated that these expenditures directly supported a total of 190,700 full and part-time jobs.

Not surprisingly, half of all visits to national parks occur at the 25 most popular locations, and thats where the highest admission prices are charged  with one notable exception.

The most popular national park, according to 2021 statistics, is Great Smoky Mountains National Park, stretching through portions of Tennessee and North Carolina, with just over 14 million admissions last year. Yet, this spectacular park charges no entry fee  not because the Parks Service doesnt want to, but because a tangle of local and federal laws prohibits it. The facility manages just fine, contributing $1.3 billion to the local economy.

This would seem to confirm the eagerness of Americans to visit a major park if no fee is required. When fees are charged, attendance drops dramatically. The next most popular location is Zion National Park in southwest Utah, which had roughly 5 million admissions last year.

Admission to all national parks is free for active U.S. military and their dependents as well as for veterans. Fees are also waived for the disabled. Seniors over age 62 can purchase a $20 annual pass or an $80 lifetime pass and, in an interesting educational program, all fourth grade students may enter for free. For the rest of us, the best deal is an $80 annual pass.

There are only five fully free days each year. In 2022 the dates are Jan. 17 (MLK Day); April 16 (the start of National Park Week); Aug. 4 (anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act); Sept. 24 (National Public Lands Day), and Nov. 11 (Veterans Day).

I find visiting National Parks not only breathtaking but also inspirational. If we really want people to love and appreciate our country, making it easier for them to visit its vast natural treasures seems like a no-brainer.

The tab for annual free admissions would be under $250 million. By way of comparison: This year the federal government is spending $250 million on something called The Restoring Brand USA Act. Its goal is to attract international visitors and support local tourism businesses. Sounds like a nifty program.

But I cant think of a better way to spend that $250 million than by throwing open the gates at our national parks and saying, Come on in. This land is your land.
The mouth of a bear: Ukrainian refugees sent to Russia View Photo

NARVA, Estonia (AP)  For weeks Natalya Zadoyanova had lost contact with her younger brother Dmitriy, who was trapped in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

Russian forces had bombed the orphanage where he worked, and he was huddling with dozens of others in the freezing basement of a building without doors and windows. When she next heard from him, he was in tears.

Im alive, he told her. Im in Russia.

Dmitriy Zadoyanov was facing the next chapter of devastation for the people of Mariupol and other occupied cities: Forcible transfers to Russia, the very nation that killed their neighbors and shelled their hometowns almost into oblivion.

Nearly 2 million Ukrainians refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these journeys as forced transfers to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations of war victims who already speak Russian and are grateful for a new home.

An Associated Press investigation based on dozens of interviews has found that while the picture is more nuanced than the Ukrainian government suggests, many refugees are indeed forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are.

The abuses start not with a gun to the head, but with a poisoned choice: Die in Ukraine or live in Russia. Those who leave go through a series of what are known as filtration points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip searches to being yanked aside and never seen again. Refugees told the AP of an old woman who died in the cold, her body swollen, and an evacuee beaten so severely that her back was covered in bruises.

Those who pass the filtrations are invited to live in Russia, and often promised a payment of about 10,000 rubles ($170) that they may or may not get. Sometimes their Ukrainian passports are taken away, and the chance of Russian citizenship is offered instead. And sometimes, they are pressured to sign documents denouncing the Ukrainian government and military.

Those with no money or contacts in Russia  the majority, by most accounts  can only go where they are sent, eastward, even to the sub-Arctic. More than 1,000 are as far away as Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, a 10-day train journey to the edge of the Pacific Ocean, according to people the AP spoke with who saw multiple trains arrive over the weeks of the war.

However, the AP investigation also found signs of clear dissent within Russia to the government narrative that Ukrainians are being rescued from Nazis. Almost all the refugees the AP interviewed spoke gratefully about Russians who quietly helped them escape through a clandestine network, retrieving documents, finding shelter, buying train and bus fare, exchanging Ukrainian hryvnia for Russian rubles and even lugging the makeshift baggage that holds all that remains of their pre-war lives.

The investigation is the most extensive to date on the transfers, based on interviews with 36 Ukrainians mostly from Mariupol who left for Russia, including 11 still there and others in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia, Ireland, Germany and Norway. The AP also drew on interviews with Russian underground volunteers, video footage, Russian legal documents and Russian state media.

The story of Zadoyanov, 32, is typical. Exhausted and hungry in the basement in Mariupol, he finally accepted the idea of evacuation. The Russians told him he could board a bus to either Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine or Rostov-on-Don in Russia.

They lied. The buses went only to Russia.

Along the way, Russian authorities searched his phone and interrogated him on why he was baptized and whether he had sexual feelings toward a boy in the camp. A man from Russian state television wanted to bring him to Moscow and pay him to denigrate the Ukrainians, an offer he declined. People with video cameras also asked arriving children to talk about how Ukraine was bombarding its own citizens.

It was 100 percent a tactical pressure, Zadoyanov said. Why children? Because it is much easier to manipulate them.

Then he, five children and four women were taken to the train station and told their destination would be Nizhny Novgorod, even deeper into Russia, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the Ukrainian border. From the train, Zadoyanov called his sister Natalya in Poland. Her panic rose.

Get off the train, she told him. Now.

_____

A DELIBERATE STRATEGY

The transfer of hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine is part of a deliberate and systemic strategy, laid out in Russian government documents.

An emergency mass order describes the distribution of 100,000 Ukrainians to some of the most remote and impoverished regions of Russia. None was to be sent to the capital, Moscow.

The AP verified through interviews with refugees, media reports and official statements that Ukrainians have received temporary accommodation in more than two dozen Russian cities and localities, and were even taken to an unused chemical plant in the Bashkortistan region, 150 kilometres (100 miles) from the nearest major town. One refugee, Bohdan Honcharov, told the AP that about 50 Ukrainians he traveled with were sent to Siberia, so far away that they effectively disappeared with little chance of escape.

A Ukrainian woman also said her elderly parents from Mariupol were sent to Russia and told to move to Vladivostok, at the other end of the country. Russian border authorities did not let her father out of Russia because he still had Soviet citizenship from the old times, along with Ukrainian residency documents.

Many Ukrainians stay in Russia because while they are technically free to leave, they have nowhere to go, no money, no documents or no way to cross the distances in a sprawling country twice the size of the United States. Some fear that if they return, Ukraine will prosecute them for going to the enemy  a fear encouraged by Russian officials.

Others speak Russian, with family there and ties that they feel are stronger even than their links to Ukraine. One woman told the AP that her husband was Russian and she felt more welcome in Russia.

Lyudmila Bolbads family walked out of Mariupol and ended up in Taganrog in Russia. The family speaks Russian, and the city of Khabarovsk, nearly 10,000 kilometers from Ukraine, was offering jobs, special payments for moving to the Far East and eventual Russian citizenship. With nothing left to lose, they took the 9-day train trip across some of the worlds most deserted territory to a city far closer to Japan than Ukraine.

Bolbad and her husband found work in a local factory, much as she was doing in the Azovstal steel mill back in Mariupol. Little else has gone as theyd hoped.

They handed over their Ukrainian passports in exchange for promises of Russian citizenship without hesitation, only to discover that landlords would not rent to Ukrainians without a valid identity document. The promised payments to buy a home are slow to come, and they are stranded with hundreds of others from Mariupol in a rundown hotel with barely edible food. But Bolbad plans to stay in Russia, and thinks Ukraine would label her a traitor if she went back.

Now we are here  were trying to return to a normal life somehow, to encourage ourselves to start our life from scratch, she said. If you survived (the war), you deserve it and need to move forward, not stop.

Russias reasons for deporting Ukrainians are not entirely clear, according to Oleksandra Matviichuk, the head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. One goal appears to be to use the refugees in propaganda to sell Russians on the Ukraine war by pressuring them to testify against Ukraine.

(Ukrainians in) the Russian Federation are extremely vulnerable, she said. Russia tries to use these people in a quasi-legal war against Ukraine to collect some testimonies from people who have no right to say no because they are afraid for their safety.

The deportation of local civilians from occupied territories also clears the way for Russians to replace them with loyalists, as was the case in Crimea, Matviichuk said. And Russia may want Russian-speaking Ukrainians to populate its own isolated regions with depressed economies.

Ivan Zavrazhnov describes the terror of being in Russia and not knowing where he would wind up. A producer for a pro-Ukrainian television network in Mariupol, he made it through filtration only because officials never bothered to plug in his dead cell phone. He managed to escape, and ended up on the docked ferry Isabelle in the city of Tallinn in Estonia with about 2,000 other Ukrainians.

This is some kind of incomprehensible lottery  who decides where and what, he said. You understand that you are going, as it were, into the mouth of a bear  an aggressor state, and you end up on this territory.  I did not have the feeling that I was safe in Russia.

_____

STOPPED FOR FILTRATION

Refugees on the way to Russia are interrogated at multiple stops, in what both Russians and Ukrainians call filtration. Each time, some are weeded out.

They are fingerprinted and photographed, which the Ukrainian government calls the collection of biological information. Some are stripped of their clothing, and those with tattoos, wounds or bruises from munitions come under special scrutiny. Phones are confiscated and sometimes connected to computers, raising fears that tracking software is installed.

The Kovalevskiy family left Mariupol after eating cold scraps of food in an unlit basement and watching sores fester on their unwashed skin. At their first filtration, they held their breaths and thought fearfully of the photo and video the eldest daughter had transferred from her phone to a flash drive hidden among their belongings.

It never crossed her mind to delete her contacts. When a Russian soldier searched her phone, he stopped at the one listed as Commander and pulled her aside.

She explained that the commander was not a military connection but the head of the youth camp where she worked for two years. The explanation was satisfactory  this time. But they did not know how many more times they would be interrogated  Human Rights Watch has identified 14 filtration points in Ukrainian territory controlled by Russian forces.

The next stop was Vynohradne, named for its vineyards but now one of the mass grave sites established by Russia for Mariupols thousands of dead. The tent there was freezing and suffocatingly crowded, and the smell of rotting flesh clung to their nostrils. An old woman died overnight in the minus 9-degree (15 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures, her body swelling.

The mother, Viktoria Kovalevska, peered outside to the tent next door and saw a wooden crate that a soldier had dropped to the ground. Inside were severed limbs.

Finally, the family reached the Russian city of Taganrog. When questioned by Russian officials about why they had left their hometown, the mother could no longer restrain herself.

We did not leave; we were deported, she replied testily. We were loaded into cars by the military and taken away.

Dozens of people from Mariupol were then given free train passage to two Russian cities: Volgograd, about 600 kilometers (370 miles) to the east, or Penza, twice as far.

You go where youre told, they heard.

The Kovalevskiy family was among the lucky ones  they made it through the filtrations.

At an interrogation in Donetsk, a Mariupol policewoman was blindfolded and taken to Yolonevska, she told the AP. There, she saw military personnel and civilians taken for reasons that ranged from taking photographs of military equipment to running down the street in a panic. Some were beaten, and one womans back was covered with bruises. She heard others died.

She was blindfolded again, handcuffed and taken to the Rostov region in Russia. She asked where they were going. Somewhere, they said, and ordered her to be silent.

She was told that evacuees in Russia would be seen as traitors and get a prison term of 10 years if they returned to Ukraine. She was finally set free in a prisoner exchange, and found her way back to Ukraine anyway.

They psychologically influence people, she said. Many of the detainees who are released are simply afraid to return to Ukraine after hearing such stories.

___

IDENTITIES IN QUESTION

The Ukrainian refugees in Russia sometimes lose their identities along with their homes.

Some leave their Ukrainian documents behind. Others have their Ukrainian passports confiscated and are offered Russian citizenship or refugee status. Many end up in limbo without paperwork, and only 55,502 have received temporary asylum, according to Russias human rights ombudsman, Tatiana Moskalkova. The others have uncertain legal standing in a country where they are often seen as the enemy.

Along with giving up their own documents, Ukrainian refugees are sometimes pressured to sign papers holding the Ukrainian government or military responsible for the war.

Eighty-year-old Valentina Bondarenko still doesnt know what she signed. When soldiers in white armbands burst into the Mariupol basement, she climbed out of the window, kicking over the cup holding her dentures.

She was taken with a few other elderly women on a bus through filtration in three Ukrainian towns, and then to Taganrog in Russia. Her next stop, she was told, would be Perm, 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) away.

There were only enough Ukrainian passengers that day to fill four of the trains 10 cars. So the train was cancelled. She ended up in a town near the Georgia border that her family had never heard of, in a dormitory with 50 others from Mariupol.

She called her adult children still in Ukraine, coughing every few minutes. They were frantic. Increasingly distraught, Bondarenko asked migration officials how she could get out.

Theres only one way open, which is to apply for Russian citizenship, submit an application, receive all the documents and when you get your passport you can go wherever you want, they told her.

They asked everyone with Ukrainian passports to hand them over to start the process. So she did. Then came a residency application and a document that an official would not let her examine.

Theres nothing to read here, and were running late, he told her.

What is written here? Bondarenko persisted.

Everything we talked about, came the reply. She signed. Her passport was returned to her a few days later.

Many evacuees dont realize they have the right to refuse to sign documents and the right to leave Russia, according to Tanya Lokshina, author of an upcoming Human Rights Watch report on forced deportations. HRW and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties documented multiple cases where Ukrainians like Bondarenko were pressured into signing paperwork, including documents accusing Ukraines military of war crimes.

When you are there and they have the power and youre basically in their hands, you dont know whats going to happen, Lokshina said. So many people sign just because they are afraid.

___

ANGELS WHO CAME FROM HEAVEN

For Ukrainians trying to escape, help often comes from an unexpected source: Russians.

On a recent day in Estonia, a Russian tattoo artist easily hefted the suitcases of a Mariupol family into the trunk of a waiting car. The matriarch sat in front, seemingly oblivious to the cars Russian license plates or unsurprised at underground help from another Russian.

The tattoo artist, who asked that his name be withheld because he still lives in Russia, was the last in a chain of volunteers that stretched 1,900 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Taganrog and Rostov to Narva, the Estonian border town. He boards in St. Petersburg a couple of times a week to accompany refugees to Finland and sometimes Estonia. There is always at least one Ukrainian family that needs an extra pair of strong arms, if nothing else.

They are disoriented.  You need to meet them at one station and take them to another station, because otherwise people get lost, he said. Its clear theyre not psychologically equipped.

He said Russians involved in helping Ukrainians leave know each other only through Telegram, nearly all keeping anonymous because everyone is afraid of some kind of persecution. Some of the loose groups are set up with chatbots to protect identities.

I cant stop it, he said of the war and the forcible transfers of Ukrainians to Russia. This is what I can do.  Shooting at people, this is normal in the 21st century, with old Soviet pieces of iron? This is utter nonsense.

The volunteers face a slew of challenges. Those in Penza in Russia shut down their efforts because of anonymous threats that included slashed tires, the Russian symbol Z painted in white on a windshield and graffiti on doors and gates calling them the likes of Ukro-Nazi helpers.

Another Russian volunteer, who also communicated with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said they faced logistical and bureaucratic hurdles thrown up by the Russian government, such as travel documents lost or taken by administrators.

They had organizational problems, but they created an amazing chain to help Ukrainian refugees, she wrote in a message to AP.

Leaving Russia is still often dependent on luck and an officials whims. Some Russian border guards let people through with just their Ukrainian national identity; others insist upon an international passport. In at least one case, a family wasnt allowed to travel without a Russian passport. Armed men search the refugees in a final filtration and disembark a passenger or two.

For Zadoyanov, Bondarenko, Kovalevska and many others, the lifeline out of Russia was Russians.

After talking with his sister Natalya, Zadoyanov got off the train to Nizhny Novgorod. Natalya Zadoyanova found local people through church contacts inside Russia to take her brother and the others away from the station. They ended up at a church where they got food, shelter and eventually the first steps in finding a way out of Russia. Zadoyanov is now in the country of Georgia.

For Bondarenko, the elderly woman from Mariupol who signed unknown papers, her children in Ukraine found volunteers to help. One arrived at Bondarenkos dormitory and demanded her release, saying the law protected a refugees freedom of movement. He took her to a hotel, with the room pre-paid for two nights. The third night, she stayed at the home he shared with his Ukrainian wife.

The couple bought her sneakers, clothes and food for the trip to come.

We are against the war, against Putin, they told her.

In St. Petersburg, another volunteer met her at the train, took her to his apartment for the night and helped her get to the bus station.

At the Russian border, no matter what, do not tell them you want to return to Ukraine, he warned her. Say you are going to Estonia to visit family.

It took about 90 minutes to pass the Russian side of the border. At one point, guards checked passports. Bondarenkos noted Mariupol as her hometown, and they pulled her aside and asked what her destination was.

I wont lie. I want to return to Ukraine, to my children, she answered, torn between defiance and fear. She was asked to wait and imagined the worst.

She didnt know it, but she was already in Estonia. The guard returned with a giant smile and an even bigger box filled with food and water.

Bondarenko finally joined her children in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod on May 20, having paid nothing for a 4,300-kilometer (2,600-mile) journey organized from start to finish by volunteers.

Viktoria Kovalevska persuaded a bus driver at a detention center in Russia to hide the family on board.

We sat like mice.  I closed the curtains, she said.

After about an hour, the driver said, Lets go. When the family emerged from their hiding spot in Rostov, two taxis arrived for them and their bags. They were given hot soup and a way to finally wash their stained, charred clothes, and stayed up until 3 a.m. doing laundry.

Train tickets materialized to St. Petersburg, where other volunteers bought a suitcase to replace their fraying bags. Then it was a near-seamless trip to Estonia. Kovalevska warned her daughters to say nothing when they were roughly asked at the crossing why they wanted to leave Russia.

You can get a bullet in the forehead and not tell the whole truth about what happened, or you can wait and later say everything as it was, she told the girls.

The whole journey took four days.

Her memories of Mariupol are a nightmare  the torso of a woman in the street, her daughter stepping in human brains smeared on the ground, the hunger and cold that she feared would kill them more painfully than bombs. But her memories of Russia are laced with the unexpected, surreptitious kindness they received from Russian volunteers.

I would love to say their names, said Kovalevska, her face lighting up. And I would tell them all, you are like angels who came from heaven and sheltered us with your wings.  Because there was no hope. None.

___

Anastasiia Shvets and Elizaveta Telnaya contributed from Lviv, Ukraine. Oleksandr Stashevskyi and Inna Varenytsia contributed from Kyiv, Ukraine. Mstyslav Chernov contributed from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Sophiko Megrelidze contributed from Tblisi, Georgia. Cara Anna reported from Kviv and Sarah El Deeb reported from Beirut, Lebanon.

By LORI HINNANT, CARA ANNA, VASILISA STEPANENKO and SARAH EL DEEB

Associated Press
Serbia, Egypt agree to boost cooperation amid war in Ukraine View Photo

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  Egypt and Serbia on Wednesday agreed to boost political, economic and other cooperation as the two countries look for ways to deal with the global impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was in Serbia on a three-day visit this week  the first in more than three decades by an Egyptian president. His host, Serbias President Aleksandar Vucic, said the visit had a historic character.

It will bring so much in the future, Vucic said at a joint press conference with Sissi. This is just a beginning.

The two leaders signed a partnership declaration, Vucic awarded el-Sissi a state decoration and announced plans for a free trade agreement by the end of the year. A business forum was held as officials signed a series of deals focusing on fields of cooperation.

Both our countries should cooperate for better economies in relation to the global events, said el-Sissi. Egypt expects stronger cooperation in all fields.

Vucic said Serbia will export grain, primarily wheat, to Egypt, which has been hit hard by the price hikes caused by the war in Ukraine. Egypt is among the worlds largest importers of wheat, with much of that from now-blocked Ukrainian ports.

Serbia, a candidate country for European Union membership, has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia and has maintained friendly relations with Moscow despite the war. Both leaders said the war in Ukraine was among the topics discussed at their meeting Wednesday.

Egypt is a country that wishes to see everything resolved peacefully and through agreements, said el-Sissi, who met with U.S. President Joe Biden in Saudi Arabia last week.

El-Sissi and Vucic also evoked during their press conference the decades-old ties of Belgrade and Cairo as founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement of nations outside the opposed blocs during the time of Cold War divisions.

By IVANA BZGANOVIC

Associated Press
Greece: Hundreds evacuated as fire nears mountain suburbs View Photo

DRAFI, Greece (AP)  Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes late Tuesday as a wildfire threatened mountainside suburbs northeast of Athens. Firefighters battled through the night, struggling to contain the blaze which was being intensified by strong gusts of wind.

The Fire Service said 15 planes and nine helicopters were involved in the firefighting effort on the slopes of Mount Penteli, 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of Athens before being grounded at nightfall.

Police officers and firefighters carried elderly residents out of their homes to safety as the flames approached.

Huge clouds of smoke from the blaze was visible in central Athens.

Local officials said homes had been burned or damaged but there were no reports of injuries or stranded people. A childrens hospital in the area was also evacuated, officials said.

Greece has been spared the heat wave conditions currently plaguing countries in western Europe, but fire officials say that hot and dry conditions persisting for weeks as well as longer term temperature rises have increased the overall risk of forest fires.

More than 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of land was damaged by wildfires in Greece last year, the worst damage recorded since 2007.

Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios said four separate evacuation orders had been issued Tuesday, with push alerts sent to mobile phones in the affected areas.

Itss been a tough day, the spokesman said, adding that more than 400 firefighters had been deployed. Some 300 police officers were also on duty to enforce traffic bans and patrol evacuated areas to prevent looting, officials said.

Evangelos Bournous, mayor of Rafina, a town near the fire, said firefighters were trying to protect property until planes and helicopters could again be used at first light.

The flames get between the hills and form a tunnel of fire. Thats very difficult to stop and its not affected by the wind, Bournous told state-run television. At night time, its essentially an uncontrollable situation. ___ Gatopoulos reported from Athens, Greece

By THANASSIS STAVRAKIS and DEREK GATOPOULOS

Associated Press
Adventist Health Sonora View Photo

Sonora, CA  The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors are weighing in about the ongoing contract dispute between Anthem Blue Cross and Adventist Health.

We reported earlier that Anthem and Adventist Health are negotiating over reimbursement rates. Anthem Blue Cross was planning to no longer include Adventist Health Sonora, as an in-network hospital, effective July 18. That move would have county employees, and many other local residents, paying higher out-of-pocket expenses, or seeking healthcare elsewhere. The contract termination date has now been pushed to August 1st, as the two sides continue negotiations.

Board Chair Anaiah Kirk stated, People are stressed out, and I feel like our constituents, or our people, are being used as negotiation chips.

The board discussed sending a letter to both Anthem and Adventist Health advocating for immediate successful contract negotiations to minimize impacts to county employees and local residents.

The letter would also ask both parties to collectively work together.

CAO Tracie Riggs noted that Superintendent of Schools Cathy Parker also reached out to the county about potentially doing a joint letter involving the various school districts as well. The board of supervisors agreed it would be beneficial to collaborate on the document, indicating there is power in numbers. The county may also reach out to other large employers, citing the US Forest Service, specifically.

The Supervisors collectively voted in favor of moving forward with a collaborative letter to the healthcare entities, and voicing concerns. It will also be sent to Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and other elected representatives.
DOHUK, Iraq (AP)  Turkish artillery strikes killed at least eight tourists, among them a small child, in northern Iraq and wounded over 20, officials from the Iraqi Kurdish government, a hospital and the army said Wednesday.

At least four artillery shells struck the resort area of Barakh in the Zakho district in the semi-autonomous Kurdish-run region, District Mayor Mushir Mohammed told The Associated Press. All the casualties were Iraqi citizens.

Iraqs military said eight were killed in the attack. Health workers at the Bidar Hospital in Dohuk province, which received patients, said nine were killed. The incident will test Iraq-Turkey relations. The two countries share deep economic ties but dont see eye-to-eye on security issues related to Kurdish insurgents operating in Iraq, oil trading with the Kurdish region and water-sharing.

Dozens of wounded people sat outside the hospital. Critically injured patients, including young children with stunned faces, were transferred in gurneys. Inside, a toddler was pronounced dead along with her mother.

The Iraqi Kurdish regions Health Ministry said all the dead were young people and children, including a 1-year old. The ministry said 26 people had been taken to the hospital with moderate to severe injuries.

Turkeys Foreign Ministry released a statement expressing condolences to the Iraqi people and government over the deaths and a speedy recovery to those injured.

The statement said Turkey carries out its operations by showing utmost sensitivity to the protection of civilians, infrastructure, historical and cultural assets and the environment.

Turkey is ready to take every step to reveal the truth, the ministry said.

Among the wounded was Yousef, a tourist from Baghdad. He said many tour groups were vacationing in the area at the time of the attack.

Iraqs government condemned the attack, calling it a flagrant violation of Iraqs sovereignty, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

This attack led to the deaths and injuries of civilians, most of whom are women and children, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said in a statement.

This brutal attack underscores the fact that Turkey ignored Iraqs continuous demands to refrain from military violations against Iraqi territory and the lives of its people, he said.

Al-Kadhimi convened an emergency meeting of the Ministerial Council for National Security. The council directed the Foreign Affairs Ministry to prepare a report on Turkeys repeated attacks on Iraqi soil and submit an official complaint to the U.N. Security Council, while also summoning Turkeys ambassador to Baghdad.

It also ordered a pause in dispatching a new Iraqi ambassador to Ankara.

The U.N. mission in Iraq called in a statement for a thorough investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding the attack.

Separately, six federal police personnel were killed and five were wounded in the northern province of Salahadin after Islamic State militants attacked their units at dawn on Wednesday, according to two officials in the Iraqi army who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Hundreds of Iraqi tourists come to the Kurdish region from the south during the peak summer months because the weather is relatively cooler. The touristic sites in Zakho is nearby military bases set up by Turkey.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi dispatched a delegation to the area lead by Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and ordered an investigation into the incident.

Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes into northern Iraq and has sent commandos to support its offensives targeting elements of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK.

Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish-run regional administration, said the ongoing attacks hurts Iraqi Kurds and must stop.

Our region has been repeatedly dragged into violence by the infighting between Turkey and the PKK. It has cost our citizens unnecessary pain, suffering and anxiety. This has to end, he said in a statement.

Wednesdays attack marked the first time that tourists had been killed in the frequent attacks by Turkey in the area, the officials said. Turkish strikes in the area are common and have killed civilians, mostly local villagers, there before.

In April, Turkey launched its latest offensive, named Operation Claw Lock, in parts of northern Iraq  part of a series of cross-border operations started in 2019 to combat the outlawed PKK who are based in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq.

The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, and has led an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984 which has killed tens of thousands of people.

Ankara has pressed Baghdad to root out PKK elements from the northern region. Iraq, in turn, has said Turkeys ongoing attacks are in breach of its sovereignty.



Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad.

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and RASHID YAHYA

Associated Press
Frequent lockdowns may have contributed to Uvalde tragedy View Photo

UVALDE, Texas (AP)  Teachers and students at Robb Elementary School knew the safety protocols when an 18-year-old with an AR-15 style rifle entered the building in May. Dozens of times in the previous four months alone, the campus had gone into lockdown or issued security alerts.

Not because of active shooter scares  because of nearby, often high-speed pursuits of migrants coming from the U.S.-Mexico border.

An entire generation of students in America has grown up simulating lockdowns for active shooters, or worse, experiencing the real thing. But in South Texas, another unique kind of classroom lockdown occurs along the states 1,200-mile southern border: hunkering down because Border Patrol agents or state police are chasing migrants who are trying to evade apprehension.

The frequency of lockdowns and security alerts in Uvalde  nearly 50 between February and May alone, according to school officials  are now viewed by investigators as one of the tragic contributors to how a gunman was able to walk into a fourth-grade classroom unobstructed and slaughter 19 children and two teachers. Although a slow and bungled police response remains the main failure, a damning new report by the Texas House says recurring lockdowns in Uvalde created a diminished sense of vigilance.

With a new school year now just weeks away in heavily patrolled South Texas, there are worries the lockdowns will resume and deepen the trauma for scarred students in Uvalde, as migrant crossings remain high and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott continues expanding a massive border security operation.

Thats what it probably was, just complacency, because it does happen on a frequent basis, said Uvalde County Justice of the Peace Eulalio Lalo Diaz Jr., who had to identify the bodies of the dead at Robb Elementary.

The new findings that a culture of lockdowns in Uvalde played some role in the failures on May 24 reflects how one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history intersected with immigration policies and thousands of Border Patrol agents, National Guard members and state police assigned to apprehend migrants and stop drug traffickers. Of the nearly 400 law enforcement officers at the scene of Robb Elementary, more than half were Border Patrol agents or state police, according to the report.

On Tuesday, over the span of just 20 minutes, eight state police vehicles and Border Patrol SUVs cruised through Uvaldes central square, less than a mile from Robb Elementary.

Uvalde is about an hours drive from the border with Mexico, located at the crossroads of two major state highways. Nearby are the cities of Pearsall, Dilley and Karnes  all of which have immigration detention centers with some of the nations highest populations. More than 4,500 detainees in total were at the three facilities as of June 2022, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Jazmin Cazares, whose 9-year-old sister Jacklyn was among the students killed, told Texas lawmakers in June that no one in the school district took lockdowns seriously until that day. She said she is now terrified to return for her senior year in the fall.

Am I going to survive it? Unbelievable, Cazares said.

Even the first officers on scene at Robb Elementary wondered whether the threat was a so-called bailout  the term used by law enforcement along the border to describe suspected migrants or drug traffickers who have fled. Pete Arrendondo, the embattled Uvalde school police chief who has become the target of angry demands by parents to resign or be fired, told the House committee the thought crossed his mind since it happens so often.

The gunman entered Robb Elementary at 11:33 a.m. One minute earlier, according to the report, a fourth-grade teacher in Room 105 received a lockdown alert and made sure her classroom door was locked. That teacher also told the committee she saw a teacher across the hall locking the door in Room 112, one of two adjoining rooms where the shooting occurred.

The shooter is believed to have entered the classroom through Room 111, which was known to have trouble locking properly.

The signal the schools alert system sends out does not specify the potential threat. And because of the prevalence of lockdowns in recent months, according to the report, many teachers and administrators assumed it was another bailout.

Bailouts has become an increasingly common part of Uvaldes vernacular in the last year as the area has become extraordinarily busy with migrants crossing illegally, largely from countries outside Mexico and northern Central America.

The Border Patrol sector based in Del Rio, Texas  one of nine along the Mexican border  was the most transited corridor for illegal crossings in June, replacing Texas Rio Grande Valley. For much of the year, the two South Texas sectors have posted similar numbers of border encounters, well ahead of the others in California, Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas.

While many migrants turn themselves in to the Border Patrol in the border towns of Del Rio and Eagle Pass  each about an hours drive from Uvalde  many seek to elude capture for hours or days, hiding in stash houses or in tall fields of corn and other crops for smugglers to pick them up at a previously agreed location for the drive to San Antonio.

The committee report said there had been no incidents of bailout-related violence on Uvalde school campuses before the shooting. High-speed driving sometimes crossed school parking lots, according to the report, which also said some pursuits involved firearms in surrounding neighborhoods.

Diaz, the Uvalde justice of the peace, serves as a magistrate when police make arrests in the area as part of the governors massive border mobilization known as Operation Lone Star. He sets bail for people taken into custody for alleged human or drug smuggling, but also for crimes unrelated to national security, like minor drug charges.

He said Abbotts operation hasnt made Uvalde safer.

These people who are coming through dont want to be in Uvalde, said Diaz. They are looking to get away from the border and were too close.

Over the last decade, many police departments have shifted away from having officers engage in car chases because they are a danger to the public. A 2017 report from the Justice Department found that between 1996 and 2015 police pursuits killed an average of 355 people annually, with nearly a third of those killed in vehicles not involved in the chases.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, who said he has not spoken to Abbott for nearly a month, has called on the governor to do even more on the border to curb migrant crossings. With classes set to re-start in less than two months, he worries about the bailouts by the schools and so forth and said it needs to stop.

Angie Villescaz, who grew up in Uvalde and after the shooting founded the Latina mothers advocacy group Fierce Madres with local moms, said the border rhetoric is a distraction from the most pressing issue.

Theyve always wanted to keep the narrative about securing the border, Villescaz said, and now they cant because its about securing our schools.

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Coronado reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

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More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting

By JAKE BLEIBERG and ACACIA CORONADO

Associated Press
Alex Murdaugh pleads not guilty to murdering wife and son View Photo

WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP)  The once-powerful and now disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he murdered his wife and son 13 months ago, with one of his defense attorneys calling for a speedy trial to clear his name and prod authorities to go for the real killers.

Wearing a white face mask beneath his shaved head and ankle chains above shiny leather shoes, the 54-year-old Murdaugh made his first court appearance in Colleton County since being indicted in the murder case last week. Despite his not guilty plea, he agreed to remain jailed without bond.

One of his lawyers, Dick Harpootlian, said the defense team wanted to avoid a bond hearing that might reveal new information about the killings and risk prejudicing potential jurors when the case goes to trial. He also said Murdaugh, already saddled with $7 million in bond on unrelated criminal charges, cant afford to put up cash for his release pending trial.

Murdaugh has been behind bars since October, charged with financial crimes and several other misdeeds that were uncovered after the killings of his wife Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, at the familys Colleton County hunting estate in June 2021.

Harpootlian told a judge Wednesday that Murdaugh wants to stand trial within the next three to four months to show that investigators from South Carolinas State Law Enforcement Division targeted the wrong man.

He believes that the killer or killers are still at large and this would allow SLED to put this behind them and go for the real killers, Harpootlian said.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters, a deputy state attorney general, replied that trying the case by January or sooner would be very aggressive.

The evidence in this case is substantial and it all points back to Alex Murdaugh, Waters said. There is forensic evidence as well as other evidence of his guilt of these murders.

Circuit Judge Clifton Newman made no rulings in court other than denying bond for Murdaugh. He said he would issue written orders later on the speedy trial request as well as a request for a gag order to prohibit lawyers and investigators in the case from speaking to news outlets.

Murdaugh is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of possessing a weapon during a violent crime. The indictment alleges that he fatally shot his wife with a rifle and used a shotgun to kill his son.

Authorities have released no evidence of how police linked Murdaugh to the deaths after 13 months of investigation. And the hearing Wednesday provided no clues as to why a man who had no criminal history and was part of a wealthy, well-connected family that dominated the legal community in the tiny town of Hampton might have wanted to kill his own family members.

Authorities have been tight-lipped since the start of the investigation. Last year, they released the late-night 911 call in which Murdaugh reported finding the bodies of his wife and son outside by the dog kennels on his estate. The coroner said both victims had been shot multiple times.

Newman, the judge who presided over Murdaughs hearing Wednesday, had previously denied bond for Murdaugh on the financial crimes charges. A different judge later set bond at $7 million but Murdaugh was unable to pay it and has remained in jail. His lawyers have complained several times that the bond was set too high, and said that because of lawsuits and frozen assets Murdaugh couldnt even afford to buy underwear from the jail store.

If convicted of murder, Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison without parole. Under state law, prosecutors could also choose to seek the death penalty because more than one person was killed.

The four new indictments connected to the slayings added to a pile of 80 other charges lodged against Murdaugh by investigators who have scrutinized every part of his life over the past year. No trial dates have been set for any of the cases.

Prosecutors said the once-prominent attorney stole more than $8 million in settlements and other money from clients, committed fraud and lied to police by trying to arrange his own death so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy. Murdaugh was also charged last month with co-running a $2 million money laundering and drug ring.

The murder charges and other cases are being prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney Generals Office because of links Murdaugh has to the local 14th Circuit Solicitors Office. The offices jurisdiction includes Colleton County and Hampton County, where Murdaughs father, grandfather and great-grandfather were the elected prosecutors for 87 consecutive years.

By RUSS BYNUM

Associated Press
California board OKs parole of ex-Mexican Mafia killer View Photo

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  California parole officials have approved the release of a notorious former Mexican Mafia prison gang leader who has been cooperating with law enforcement for nearly 20 years.

Two consecutive governors previously blocked parole for Rene Boxer Enriquez in part based on the argument that he is safer in prison than on the streets, where he may be targeted as a snitch by his old cronies.

They cant deny him parole based on, He might be in danger. Thats kind of his risk to take, his attorney, Laura Sheppard, said Tuesday.

Authorities have taken extraordinary steps to protect him over the years, once booking him into custody under a false name on a bogus charge of possessing a swordfish without a license.

In 2015, the Los Angeles Police Department used SWAT officers and a police helicopter to secure a downtown building so Enriquez could speak to a group of police chiefs and business leaders about the gangs growth and operations. Just last week, prison officials refused to provide his current photograph, citing security concerns.

With his knowledge of the mafia, its his belief that if he stays out of their way  that hell be fine, Sheppard said. He doesnt believe theyre going to chase him down like you see in the movies, hunt him throughout the world.

Yet Enriquez plans to keep cooperating with federal authorities as they are again prosecuting the leadership of the prison-based gang that began in the 1950s in a juvenile jail and has since grown into an international criminal organization.

Its how he makes amends, Sheppard said. Hes probably prevented more crimes than he was ever involved in.

He has been in prison since 1993, serving a life sentence for two second-degree murders, multiple assaults and drug trafficking conspiracy.

Enriquez joined the Mexican Mafia  nicknamed the Black Hand or La Eme, its Spanish language initial  in 1985 while serving an earlier prison stint for rape and armed robbery, according to parole records. He spent nearly the next two decades building a reputation within the gang through murder, drug-running and terror, both in and out of prison.

Gov. Gavin Newsom turned over the final decision on the fate of Enriquez, now age 60, to a hearing by a 12-member panel of the 21-member parole board.

He cited in part the unique security threats. Enriquez has revealed the inner workings of large-scale gang associations, and informed on individual gang members. He testified for the prosecution in numerous cases, Newsom wrote.

Officials including a retired assistant director for the California prison system told the parole panel during a hearing Monday that Enriquez is a changed man who will continue contributing to law enforcements battle against the gang.

Ive seen the worst of the worst and I know that he has definitely changed his world, said retired San Diego Police detective and gang expert Felix Aguirre.

But relatives and friends of Cynthia Figueroa Gavaldon lined up to argue that he is still dangerous and they fear for their safety upon his release. She was a 27-year-old mother of two young children when Enriquez ordered her killed on Christmas Eve 1989.

Enriquez has nothing to offer the community. All he ever has known and touched has died, said her father, Raymond Figueroa, referring to Enriquez as a monster.

He had two gang associates, including Figueroas daughter, killed for violations such as stealing drugs and money. In the second case, he and an accomplice first forcibly overdosed their victim with heroin before driving him to a remote area where Enriquez fatally shot him.

He and another man also stabbed Mexican Mafia leader Salvador Mon Buenrostro 26 times with inmate-made weapons in 1991 in an interview room in the Los Angeles County Jail, though Buenrostro survived.

Enriquez has said he quit the gang in 2002 when he discovered its members were killing children and innocent relatives of gang members who fell into disfavor. He has said that he would have help from a witness protection program if he is released.

And over the years, Enriquez has had dozens letters of support for his parole from the FBI, local law enforcement officials, multiple state and federal prosecutors, and a deputy state attorney general.

Newsom previously blocked Enriquezs parole twice, in 2019 and 2020, and then-Governor Jerry Brown blocked it three times, in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

He personally molded and shaped the Mexican Mafias expectations of its members and expanded the gangs reach outside the prison, Brown wrote in 2016. He said that included pioneering the gangs control of a vast network of drug dealers and gang members outside the prison walls.

Newsom this time said he was leaving a decision to the parole board because of its unique procedural and appellate history and other unusually complex factors. He asked parole officials to consider both Enriquezs particularly violent criminal history and his singular rehabilitative record.

A Los Angeles County judge overturned Newsoms 2020 parole reversal in August, saying the governor hadnt shown proof that Enriquez is still dangerous. The Second District Court of Appeal had blocked Enriquezs release while it considers Newsoms appeal.

Sheppard said she hopes the appeals court still rules on the case, even with Enriquez paroled, to set a legal precedent that the governor cant just make a decision based on speculation and historical issues.

Commissioners late Monday separately ordered new parole hearings for two inmates of some renown.

Donald Bohana, 85, is serving a life sentence for the 1994 murder of Delores Dee Dee Jackson. She is the ex-wife of Tito Jackson, a member of the Jackson 5 musical group.

Curtis Wall Street Carroll, 43, is serving a life term for a robbery-murder in 1996, when he was 17. He helped start a financial literacy program in San Quentin State Prison where he, other inmates and volunteers taught money management. He gave a TEDx talk in 2016 that has more than 4.1 million views.

Both men were denied parole in March, Carroll for the first time and Bohana for the sixth time.

By DON THOMPSON

Associated Press
Welcome Guest! You Are Here:
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  Sri Lankan lawmakers on Wednesday elected the unpopular prime minister as their new president, a choice that risked reigniting turmoil in the South Asian nation reeling from economic collapse and months of round-the-clock protests.

The crisis has already forced out one leader, and a few hundred protesters quickly gathered after the vote to express their outrage that Ranil Wickremesinghe  a six-time prime minister whom they see as part of the problematic political establishment  would stay in power.

While the choice invited more protests, lawmakers apparently considered Wickremesinghe a safe pair of hands, a politician with deep experience who could lead Sri Lanka out of the crisis. He has spent 45 years in Parliament and led recent talks seeking a bailout for the bankrupt island nation.

Sri Lankans have taken to the street for months to demand their top leaders step down as the country spiraled into economic chaos that left its 22 million people struggling with shortages of essentials, including medicine, fuel and food. After demonstrators stormed the presidential palace and several other government buildings last week, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled and then resigned.

Much of the protesters' ire is focused on Rajapaksa and his familys political dynasty, which ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades. But many also blame Wickremesinghe for protecting Rajapaksa. During demonstrations last week, crowds set his personal residence on fire and occupied his office.

Wednesday's vote means Wickremesinghe  who was also Rajapaksas finance minister and became acting president after the leader fled  will finish the presidential term ending in 2024. He can now also appoint a new prime minister.

I need not tell you what state our country is in," Wickremesinghe, 73, told fellow lawmakers after his victory was announced. "People are not expecting the old politics from us. They expect us to work together.

He pleaded for the country to move on: Now that the election is over, we have to end this division.

But protesters flocked to the presidential residence instead, chanting, Ranil, go home.

We are very sad, very disappointed with the 225 parliament members who we elected to speak for us, which they have not done, said Visaka Jayawware, a performance artist in the crowd. We will keep fighting for the people of Sri Lanka. We have to ask for a general election.

Wickremesinghe has wide experience in diplomatic and international affairs and oversaw the bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund.

But many voters view him with suspicion since he was appointed prime minister by Rajapaksa in May, in hopes he would restore stability.

The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful family of siphoning money from government coffers and of hastening the countrys collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but the former president acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lankas meltdown.

The struggle will continue until our demands are met. Wickremesinghe "doesnt have a mandate to rule the country, said Nemel Jayaweera, a human resources professional. We will oppose him.

Still, the ruling party's majority in Parliament swept Wickremesinghe to victory with 134 votes. Populist Dullas Alahapperuma, a longtime ally of Rajapaksa and also a minister in his government, secured 82 votes. A Marxist candidate netted three votes.

The vote, shown on national television, was a decorous, solemn affair. While the balloting was secret, as the results were announced, lawmakers thumped their tables in support of their candidates.

After the vote, some supporters celebrated Wickremesinghes win in the streets. He will be sworn in Thursday.

Only a few lawmakers had publicly said they would vote for Wickremesinghe given the widespread hostility against him. But dozens loyal to Rajapaksa had been expected to back him because he had assured them he would severely punish protesters who burned politicians homes in the unrest.

On Monday, in his role as acting president, Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency that gave him broad authority to act in the interest of public security and order. Authorities can carry out searches and detain people, and Wickremesinghe can also change or suspend any law.

The political turmoil in Sri Lanka has only worsened the economic disaster. But Wickremesinghe said Monday that negotiations with the IMF were drawing close to a conclusion, and talks on help from other countries had also progressed. He also said the government has taken steps to resolve shortages of fuel and cooking gas.

Hours before Wednesday's vote, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told financial magazine Nikkei Asia that the organization hoped to complete the rescue talks as quickly as possible.

As prime minister, Wickremesinghe delivered weekly addresses in Parliament cautioning that the path out of the crisis would be difficult, while also pledging to overhaul a government that increasingly has concentrated power under the presidency.

Presidents in Sri Lanka are normally elected by the public. The responsibility falls to Parliament only if the presidency becomes vacant before the term officially ends.

That has happened only once before in Sri Lanka, in 1993, when then-Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga was chosen by Parliament uncontested after former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, father of the current opposition leader, was assassinated.

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Associated Press writer Bharatha Mallawarachi contributed to this report.

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Find more of APs Sri Lanka coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/sri-lanka
NARVA, Estonia (AP)  For weeks Natalya Zadoyanova had lost contact with her younger brother Dmitriy, who was trapped in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

Russian forces had bombed the orphanage where he worked, and he was huddling with dozens of others in the freezing basement of a building without doors and windows. When she next heard from him, he was in tears.

Im alive, he told her. Im in Russia.

Dmitriy Zadoyanov was facing the next chapter of devastation for the people of Mariupol and other occupied cities: Forcible transfers to Russia, the very nation that killed their neighbors and shelled their hometowns almost into oblivion.

Nearly 2 million Ukrainians refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these journeys as forced transfers to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations of war victims who already speak Russian and are grateful for a new home.

An Associated Press investigation based on dozens of interviews has found that while the picture is more nuanced than the Ukrainian government suggests, many refugees are indeed forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are.

The abuses start not with a gun to the head, but with a poisoned choice: Die in Ukraine or live in Russia. Those who leave go through a series of what are known as filtration points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip searches to being yanked aside and never seen again. Refugees told the AP of an old woman who died in the cold, her body swollen, and an evacuee beaten so severely that her back was covered in bruises.

Those who pass the filtrations are invited to live in Russia, and often promised a payment of about 10,000 rubles ($170) that they may or may not get. Sometimes their Ukrainian passports are taken away, and the chance of Russian citizenship is offered instead. And sometimes, they are pressured to sign documents denouncing the Ukrainian government and military.

Those with no money or contacts in Russia  the majority, by most accounts  can only go where they are sent, eastward, even to the sub-Arctic. More than 1,000 are as far away as Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, a 10-day train journey to the edge of the Pacific Ocean, according to people the AP spoke with who saw multiple trains arrive over the weeks of the war.

However, the AP investigation also found signs of clear dissent within Russia to the government narrative that Ukrainians are being rescued from Nazis. Almost all the refugees the AP interviewed spoke gratefully about Russians who quietly helped them escape through a clandestine network, retrieving documents, finding shelter, buying train and bus fare, exchanging Ukrainian hryvnia for Russian rubles and even lugging the makeshift baggage that holds all that remains of their pre-war lives.

The investigation is the most extensive to date on the transfers, based on interviews with 36 Ukrainians mostly from Mariupol who left for Russia, including 11 still there and others in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia, Ireland, Germany and Norway. The AP also drew on interviews with Russian underground volunteers, video footage, Russian legal documents and Russian state media.

The story of Zadoyanov, 32, is typical. Exhausted and hungry in the basement in Mariupol, he finally accepted the idea of evacuation. The Russians told him he could board a bus to either Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine or Rostov-on-Don in Russia.

They lied. The buses went only to Russia.

Along the way, Russian authorities searched his phone and interrogated him on why he was baptized and whether he had sexual feelings toward a boy in the camp. A man from Russian state television wanted to bring him to Moscow and pay him to denigrate the Ukrainians, an offer he declined. People with video cameras also asked arriving children to talk about how Ukraine was bombarding its own citizens.

It was 100 percent a tactical pressure, Zadoyanov said. Why children? Because it is much easier to manipulate them."

Then he, five children and four women were taken to the train station and told their destination would be Nizhny Novgorod, even deeper into Russia, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the Ukrainian border. From the train, Zadoyanov called his sister Natalya in Poland. Her panic rose.

Get off the train, she told him. Now.

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A DELIBERATE STRATEGY

The transfer of hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine is part of a deliberate and systemic strategy, laid out in Russian government documents.

An emergency mass order describes the distribution of 100,000 Ukrainians to some of the most remote and impoverished regions of Russia. None was to be sent to the capital, Moscow.

The AP verified through interviews with refugees, media reports and official statements that Ukrainians have received temporary accommodation in more than two dozen Russian cities and localities, and were even taken to an unused chemical plant in the Bashkortistan region, 150 kilometres (100 miles) from the nearest major town. One refugee, Bohdan Honcharov, told the AP that about 50 Ukrainians he traveled with were sent to Siberia, so far away that they effectively disappeared with little chance of escape.

A Ukrainian woman also said her elderly parents from Mariupol were sent to Russia and told to move to Vladivostok, at the other end of the country. Russian border authorities did not let her father out of Russia because he still had Soviet citizenship from the old times, along with Ukrainian residency documents.

Many Ukrainians stay in Russia because while they are technically free to leave, they have nowhere to go, no money, no documents or no way to cross the distances in a sprawling country twice the size of the United States. Some fear that if they return, Ukraine will prosecute them for going to the enemy  a fear encouraged by Russian officials.

Others speak Russian, with family there and ties that they feel are stronger even than their links to Ukraine. One woman told the AP that her husband was Russian and she felt more welcome in Russia.

Lyudmila Bolbads family walked out of Mariupol and ended up in Taganrog in Russia. The family speaks Russian, and the city of Khabarovsk, nearly 10,000 kilometers from Ukraine, was offering jobs, special payments for moving to the Far East and eventual Russian citizenship. With nothing left to lose, they took the 9-day train trip across some of the worlds most deserted territory to a city far closer to Japan than Ukraine.

Bolbad and her husband found work in a local factory, much as she was doing in the Azovstal steel mill back in Mariupol. Little else has gone as theyd hoped.

They handed over their Ukrainian passports in exchange for promises of Russian citizenship without hesitation, only to discover that landlords would not rent to Ukrainians without a valid identity document. The promised payments to buy a home are slow to come, and they are stranded with hundreds of others from Mariupol in a rundown hotel with barely edible food. But Bolbad plans to stay in Russia, and thinks Ukraine would label her a traitor if she went back.

Now we are here ... were trying to return to a normal life somehow, to encourage ourselves to start our life from scratch, she said. If you survived (the war), you deserve it and need to move forward, not stop.

Russias reasons for deporting Ukrainians are not entirely clear, according to Oleksandra Matviichuk, the head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. One goal appears to be to use the refugees in propaganda to sell Russians on the Ukraine war by pressuring them to testify against Ukraine.

(Ukrainians in) the Russian Federation are extremely vulnerable, she said. Russia tries to use these people in a quasi-legal war against Ukraine to collect some testimonies from people who have no right to say no because they are afraid for their safety.

The deportation of local civilians from occupied territories also clears the way for Russians to replace them with loyalists, as was the case in Crimea, Matviichuk said. And Russia may want Russian-speaking Ukrainians to populate its own isolated regions with depressed economies.

Ivan Zavrazhnov describes the terror of being in Russia and not knowing where he would wind up. A producer for a pro-Ukrainian television network in Mariupol, he made it through filtration only because officials never bothered to plug in his dead cell phone. He managed to escape, and ended up on the docked ferry Isabelle in the city of Tallinn in Estonia with about 2,000 other Ukrainians.

This is some kind of incomprehensible lottery  who decides where and what, he said. You understand that you are going, as it were, into the mouth of a bear ... an aggressor state, and you end up on this territory. ... I did not have the feeling that I was safe in Russia.

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STOPPED FOR FILTRATION

Refugees on the way to Russia are interrogated at multiple stops, in what both Russians and Ukrainians call filtration. Each time, some are weeded out.

They are fingerprinted and photographed, which the Ukrainian government calls the collection of biological information. Some are stripped of their clothing, and those with tattoos, wounds or bruises from munitions come under special scrutiny. Phones are confiscated and sometimes connected to computers, raising fears that tracking software is installed.

The Kovalevskiy family left Mariupol after eating cold scraps of food in an unlit basement and watching sores fester on their unwashed skin. At their first filtration, they held their breaths and thought fearfully of the photo and video the eldest daughter had transferred from her phone to a flash drive hidden among their belongings.

It never crossed her mind to delete her contacts. When a Russian soldier searched her phone, he stopped at the one listed as Commander and pulled her aside.

She explained that the commander was not a military connection but the head of the youth camp where she worked for two years. The explanation was satisfactory  this time. But they did not know how many more times they would be interrogated  Human Rights Watch has identified 14 filtration points in Ukrainian territory controlled by Russian forces.

The next stop was Vynohradne, named for its vineyards but now one of the mass grave sites established by Russia for Mariupol's thousands of dead. The tent there was freezing and suffocatingly crowded, and the smell of rotting flesh clung to their nostrils. An old woman died overnight in the minus 9-degree (15 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures, her body swelling.

The mother, Viktoria Kovalevska, peered outside to the tent next door and saw a wooden crate that a soldier had dropped to the ground. Inside were severed limbs.

Finally, the family reached the Russian city of Taganrog. When questioned by Russian officials about why they had left their hometown, the mother could no longer restrain herself.

We did not leave; we were deported, she replied testily. We were loaded into cars by the military and taken away.

Dozens of people from Mariupol were then given free train passage to two Russian cities: Volgograd, about 600 kilometers (370 miles) to the east, or Penza, twice as far.

You go where youre told, they heard.

The Kovalevskiy family was among the lucky ones  they made it through the filtrations.

At an interrogation in Donetsk, a Mariupol policewoman was blindfolded and taken to Yolonevska, she told the AP. There, she saw military personnel and civilians taken for reasons that ranged from taking photographs of military equipment to running down the street in a panic. Some were beaten, and one woman's back was covered with bruises. She heard others died.

She was blindfolded again, handcuffed and taken to the Rostov region in Russia. She asked where they were going. Somewhere, they said, and ordered her to be silent.

She was told that evacuees in Russia would be seen as traitors and get a prison term of 10 years if they returned to Ukraine. She was finally set free in a prisoner exchange, and found her way back to Ukraine anyway.

They psychologically influence people, she said. Many of the detainees who are released are simply afraid to return to Ukraine after hearing such stories.

___

IDENTITIES IN QUESTION

The Ukrainian refugees in Russia sometimes lose their identities along with their homes.

Some leave their Ukrainian documents behind. Others have their Ukrainian passports confiscated and are offered Russian citizenship or refugee status. Many end up in limbo without paperwork, and only 55,502 have received temporary asylum, according to Russias human rights ombudsman, Tatiana Moskalkova. The others have uncertain legal standing in a country where they are often seen as the enemy.

Along with giving up their own documents, Ukrainian refugees are sometimes pressured to sign papers holding the Ukrainian government or military responsible for the war.

Eighty-year-old Valentina Bondarenko still doesnt know what she signed. When soldiers in white armbands burst into the Mariupol basement, she climbed out of the window, kicking over the cup holding her dentures.

She was taken with a few other elderly women on a bus through filtration in three Ukrainian towns, and then to Taganrog in Russia. Her next stop, she was told, would be Perm, 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) away.

There were only enough Ukrainian passengers that day to fill four of the trains 10 cars. So the train was cancelled. She ended up in a town near the Georgia border that her family had never heard of, in a dormitory with 50 others from Mariupol.

She called her adult children still in Ukraine, coughing every few minutes. They were frantic. Increasingly distraught, Bondarenko asked migration officials how she could get out.

Theres only one way open, which is to apply for Russian citizenship, submit an application, receive all the documents and when you get your passport you can go wherever you want, they told her.

They asked everyone with Ukrainian passports to hand them over to start the process. So she did. Then came a residency application and a document that an official would not let her examine.

Theres nothing to read here, and were running late, he told her.

What is written here? Bondarenko persisted.

Everything we talked about, came the reply. She signed. Her passport was returned to her a few days later.

Many evacuees dont realize they have the right to refuse to sign documents and the right to leave Russia, according to Tanya Lokshina, author of an upcoming Human Rights Watch report on forced deportations. HRW and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties documented multiple cases where Ukrainians like Bondarenko were pressured into signing paperwork, including documents accusing Ukraines military of war crimes.

When you are there and they have the power and youre basically in their hands, you dont know whats going to happen, Lokshina said. So many people sign just because they are afraid.

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ANGELS WHO CAME FROM HEAVEN

For Ukrainians trying to escape, help often comes from an unexpected source: Russians.

On a recent day in Estonia, a Russian tattoo artist easily hefted the suitcases of a Mariupol family into the trunk of a waiting car. The matriarch sat in front, seemingly oblivious to the cars Russian license plates or unsurprised at underground help from another Russian.

The tattoo artist, who asked that his name be withheld because he still lives in Russia, was the last in a chain of volunteers that stretched 1,900 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Taganrog and Rostov to Narva, the Estonian border town. He boards in St. Petersburg a couple of times a week to accompany refugees to Finland and sometimes Estonia. There is always at least one Ukrainian family that needs an extra pair of strong arms, if nothing else.

They are disoriented. ... You need to meet them at one station and take them to another station, because otherwise people get lost, he said. Its clear theyre not psychologically equipped.

He said Russians involved in helping Ukrainians leave know each other only through Telegram, nearly all keeping anonymous because everyone is afraid of some kind of persecution. Some of the loose groups are set up with chatbots to protect identities.

I cant stop it, he said of the war and the forcible transfers of Ukrainians to Russia. This is what I can do. ... Shooting at people, this is normal in the 21st century, with old Soviet pieces of iron? This is utter nonsense.

The volunteers face a slew of challenges. Those in Penza in Russia shut down their efforts because of anonymous threats that included slashed tires, the Russian symbol Z painted in white on a windshield and graffiti on doors and gates calling them the likes of Ukro-Nazi helpers.

Another Russian volunteer, who also communicated with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said they faced logistical and bureaucratic hurdles thrown up by the Russian government, such as travel documents lost or taken by administrators.

They had organizational problems, but they created an amazing chain to help Ukrainian refugees, she wrote in a message to AP.

Leaving Russia is still often dependent on luck and an officials whims. Some Russian border guards let people through with just their Ukrainian national identity; others insist upon an international passport. In at least one case, a family wasnt allowed to travel without a Russian passport. Armed men search the refugees in a final filtration and disembark a passenger or two.

For Zadoyanov, Bondarenko, Kovalevska and many others, the lifeline out of Russia was Russians.

After talking with his sister Natalya, Zadoyanov got off the train to Nizhny Novgorod. Natalya Zadoyanova found local people through church contacts inside Russia to take her brother and the others away from the station. They ended up at a church where they got food, shelter and eventually the first steps in finding a way out of Russia. Zadoyanov is now in the country of Georgia.

For Bondarenko, the elderly woman from Mariupol who signed unknown papers, her children in Ukraine found volunteers to help. One arrived at Bondarenkos dormitory and demanded her release, saying the law protected a refugees freedom of movement. He took her to a hotel, with the room pre-paid for two nights. The third night, she stayed at the home he shared with his Ukrainian wife.

The couple bought her sneakers, clothes and food for the trip to come.

We are against the war, against Putin, they told her.

In St. Petersburg, another volunteer met her at the train, took her to his apartment for the night and helped her get to the bus station.

At the Russian border, no matter what, do not tell them you want to return to Ukraine, he warned her. Say you are going to Estonia to visit family.

It took about 90 minutes to pass the Russian side of the border. At one point, guards checked passports. Bondarenkos noted Mariupol as her hometown, and they pulled her aside and asked what her destination was.

I wont lie. I want to return to Ukraine, to my children, she answered, torn between defiance and fear. She was asked to wait and imagined the worst.

She didnt know it, but she was already in Estonia. The guard returned with a giant smile and an even bigger box filled with food and water.

Bondarenko finally joined her children in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod on May 20, having paid nothing for a 4,300-kilometer (2,600-mile) journey organized from start to finish by volunteers.

Viktoria Kovalevska persuaded a bus driver at a detention center in Russia to hide the family on board.

We sat like mice. ... I closed the curtains, she said.

After about an hour, the driver said, Lets go. When the family emerged from their hiding spot in Rostov, two taxis arrived for them and their bags. They were given hot soup and a way to finally wash their stained, charred clothes, and stayed up until 3 a.m. doing laundry.

Train tickets materialized to St. Petersburg, where other volunteers bought a suitcase to replace their fraying bags. Then it was a near-seamless trip to Estonia. Kovalevska warned her daughters to say nothing when they were roughly asked at the crossing why they wanted to leave Russia.

You can get a bullet in the forehead and not tell the whole truth about what happened, or you can wait and later say everything as it was, she told the girls.

The whole journey took four days.

Her memories of Mariupol are a nightmare  the torso of a woman in the street, her daughter stepping in human brains smeared on the ground, the hunger and cold that she feared would kill them more painfully than bombs. But her memories of Russia are laced with the unexpected, surreptitious kindness they received from Russian volunteers.

I would love to say their names, said Kovalevska, her face lighting up. And I would tell them all, you are like angels who came from heaven and sheltered us with your wings. ... Because there was no hope. None.

___

Anastasiia Shvets and Elizaveta Telnaya contributed from Lviv, Ukraine. Oleksandr Stashevskyi and Inna Varenytsia contributed from Kyiv, Ukraine. Mstyslav Chernov contributed from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Sophiko Megrelidze contributed from Tblisi, Georgia. Cara Anna reported from Kviv and Sarah El Deeb reported from Beirut, Lebanon.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukrainian forces on Wednesday damaged a bridge that is key to supplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine, where Russias foreign minister said Moscow will consolidate its territorial gains.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state-controlled RT television and the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia plans to retain control over broader areas beyond eastern Ukraine, including the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south, and will make more gains elsewhere.

Lavrov's remarks and the Ukrainian missile attack on the strategically important Kherson region bridge indicated the nearly five-month war could broaden after unfolding mostly in eastern Ukraine since April.

Russia's top diplomat noted that when Russia and Ukraine in March discussed a possible deal to end the fighting, Our readiness to accept the Ukrainian proposal was based on the geography of March 2022.

Now its a different geography, Lavrov said, repeating Moscow's claims that the United States and Britain were encouraging Ukraine to expand the hostilities.

With Western countries providing Ukraine with longer-range weapons, Lavrov said Russia's geographical tasks will be pushed even further from the current line because we cannot allow the part of Ukraine under control of Zelenskyy or whoever comes to succeed him, to have weapons that will pose a direct threat to our territory and the territories of those republics that have declared their independence.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 and quickly seized territory, but withdrew from the capital region and north to concentrate on seizing Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, which pro-Moscow separatists have partly controlled since 2014.

As Russian forces captured more of the two provinces, which together make up Ukraine's industrial Donbas region, Ukrainian officials planned a counter-offensive to retake Russian-occupied areas in the south.

The Ukrainian strike on the Dnipro River bridge, the second in as many days, appeared intended to loosen Russia's grip on the southern Kherson region.

Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of a temporary, Russian-installed administration running the region, said the Ukrainian military struck the Antonivskyi Bridge using U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers. The 1.4-kilometer (0.9-mile) bridge is the main river crossing in the Kherson region, and the Russian military uses it to supply its forces. Stremousov said that because of the bridge damage, pontoons would be constructed over the river, also known as the Dnieper.

The head of the Moscow-appointed Kherson administration, Vladimir Saldo, said cars could continue driving across the bridge but trucks couldn't and instead could use a dam 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

Early in the war, Russian troops overran the Kherson region just north of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. They have faced Ukrainian counterattacks, but have largely held their ground.

Kherson  site of ship-building at the confluence of the Dnipro River and Black Sea  is one of several areas a U.S. government spokesman said Russia is trying to take over.

White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence officials have evidence that Russia wants to annex Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and all of the Donbas through referendums, as soon as September.

In Zaporizhzhia, Russian-installed authorities claimed Wednesday that Ukraine's military had used drones to attack the local nuclear power plant, Europe's largest. Vladimir Rogov, a local Moscow-appointed official, said three Ukrainian attack drones had hit the plant's territory with explosives but not its reactor area. All normal operations continued, and no release of radiation was detected, he said. Russia's state news agency Tass reported 11 plant workers were injured, four seriously. The news agency later quoted a Russian military official as saying the attack had occurred Monday.

Ukrainian authorities, who have over the past months reported Russian missiles almost hitting the plant, did not immediately comment on the report.

The bulk of Russia's forces are fighting in the Donbas, where they have made slow gains facing Ukrainian resistance. The Russian military has used long-range missiles to strike targets across Ukraine, killing hundreds of civilians.

Ukraine's presidential office said at least 13 civilians were killed and 40 wounded in Russian shelling across the country in a 24-hour period between Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Wednesday, at least three more people died when Russia bombarded the northeastern city of Kharkiv with Hurricane salvo rocket systems. The victims, who were waiting at a bus stop, included a 69-year-old man, his wife and a 13-year-old boy.

The boys 15-year-old sister was injured, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutors Office. Video showed the boy's father, apparently in a state of shock, praying above his son's uncovered body and holding his hand.

Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of launching cross-border attacks. Another such report came Wednesday, when Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had fired on two Russian border villages.

Most villagers were previously evacuated under a state of emergency, but Gladkov said the latest attack killed a man, and damaged homes and a village club.

In other developments Wednesday:

 An Associated Press investigation has found that many refugees from Ukraine are forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that Ukraine has been using U.S-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers effectively and would provide four more, bringing the total to 16. The truck-mounted HIMARS launchers fire GPS-guided missiles that can reach targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

 Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, appealed to American lawmakers during a speech at the U.S. Capitol for more air defense systems to protect her countrys skies. In her unsparing Capitol address, Zelenska shared images of blood-stained baby strollers and small crumpled bodies left after Russian missile attacks.

 The European Unions head office proposed that member states cut their natural gas use by 15% over the coming months to ensure that any full Russian cutoff of natural gas supplies will not cause unmanageable winter disruptions. While the initial cuts would be voluntary, the European Commission also asked for the power to impose mandatory reductions across the bloc in the event of a severe gas shortage or exceptionally high demand.

Zelenskyy, in a Wednesday night video address, said Europe should have reduced its dependence on Russian gas previously. If our position had been listened to earlier, he said, "we would not have had to look for emergency ways to fill the deficit that Russia is artificially creating on the European market."

 In a sign of the crippling economic impact of the war, the Ukrainian government said it would ask investors to allow the country to postpone foreign debt payments for two years. Leaders of a group of creditors said they agreed to the delay and urged bondholders to do the same.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
WFO LAKE CHARLES Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Tuesday, July 19, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Lake Charles LA

248 PM CDT Tue Jul 19 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING...

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM TO 7 PM CDT WEDNESDAY...

* 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...Portions of central, southwest and west central

Louisiana and southeast Texas.

* WHEN...For the first Heat Advisory, until 7 PM CDT this

evening. For the second Heat Advisory, from 11 AM to 7 PM CDT

Wednesday.

* 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 108 expected.

* WHERE...In Louisiana, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis, Acadia,

Lafayette and Upper St. Martin Parishes. In Texas, Jefferson

and Orange Counties.

* WHEN...From 11 AM to 7 PM CDT Wednesday.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
Toys R Us and its mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe are trying to make another brick-and-mortar comeback ahead of the holiday season, after the brand filed for bankruptcy and shuttered all of its 800 U.S. stores four years ago.

From this month through mid-October, the brand is opening shops inside every Macy's store in the United States, Macy's said in a news release Monday. The Toys R Us shops will start at 1,000 square feet and can be 10,000 square feet at flagship locations in Atlanta, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Francisco and San Jose.

But the industry trends that contributed to Toys R Us's initial downfall are still in place. Although consumers have been buying more and more toys every year in terms of dollars since 2019, according to a June report by NPD, a research firm, purchases increasingly happen online.

Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy in 2017, worn down by nearly $8 billion in debt and growing competition from online rivals. Two years later, it tried to come back, reviving its website and opening two physical stores in Houston and Paramus, N.J. But the pandemic had other ideas. By January 2021, the two reopened stores were closed, though online stores were kept open. Last December it opened a new flagship store at the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, N.J., but the mall has run into financial distress.

In August, under the new ownership of WHP Global - a brand management company that bought a controlling stake in Toys R Us in March - the toy seller embarked on a new e-commerce partnership with Macy's. At the time, Macy's pledged to open brick-and-mortar Toys R Us shops at 400 of its locations in 2022.

The marriage between Macy's and Toys R Us resulted in increased toy sales for Macy's and new life for Toys R Us.

"Macy's cannot wait to bring the Toys 'R' Us experience to life in our stores," Nata Dvir, Macy's chief merchandising officer, said in a statement, adding that the customer response has been "incredible."

In 1987, the best-paid CEO in the United States was Charles Lazarus, the founder and leader of Toys R Us, receiving $60 million. After serving in the Army during World War II, the District native started a baby-furniture store, reasoning that an ensuing baby boom would make child-related retail a success. He soon found out selling toys made for better business.

Lazarus lived long enough to see Toys R Us file for Chapter 11 protection, dying in 2018 at the age of 94.
If culture was a cocktail, Aaron Pena would be the expert many San Antonians would trust to make it. Pena, an industry veteran and vinyl DJ, co-owns two bars in two of San Antonio's most-popular drinking districts. The Squeezebox, an ode to San Anto soul, opened on the St. Mary's Strip in July 2016. Amor Eterno, an intimate cocktail bar in Southtown, rounded out 2020 with a New Year's Eve opening.

San Antonio is on full blast at each of Pena's bars, whether it's an anniversary night headlined by the legendary Sunny Ozuna at Squeezebox or throwing back throwback-inspired shots like El Camaroncito (if you know, you know) at Amor Eterno. Pena's commitment to authenticity at each of his bars foster scenes that'll make a San Antonio savant swoon.

If hearing legends like Joe Bravo on vinyl and running into friends you haven't seen since high school on any given Saturday night wasn't enough to drive home the authentic at-home feel, Pena recently launched a donation-based concept called The Fajita Lounge at The Squeezebox. True to the tio vibes he's playfully mastered, the every Sunday tradition is Pena's way of sharing with the community he's built by offering chicken and beef tacos for free. Like any good carne asada, friends and patrons are invited to pitch in protein or monetary donations.

We'll share a proper introduction to the new  but already beloved  Fajita Lounge soon. But for now, get to know San Antonio from Pena's lens. The bar owner and proud San Antonian is helping our culture team launch My San Antonio, a new series spotlighting city figures known in their industries, neighborhoods, and spaces as highlighting the city in its truest form.

Want to show off your San Antonio? Reach out to us at mysa@mysa.com.

Catch up with Pena below.

What do you find in your part of town that you dont find anywhere else?

Im from the Southside, you dont really find the hustle that we have in many other parts of town. We have tire shops that also do taxes and sell pinatas, the hustle is unmatched.

Where is your third place that you enjoy spending time at when youre not at home or work?

I like to travel as much as I can. New Orleans is always my home away from home happy place," but if I cant get there I just like to sit by myself on a porch, have a cigar, and be quiet.

If you had two hours to show a visitor around, where would you take them?

Beers at Sanchez Ice House (#2), MK Davis for crispy dogs, a Southtown stroll to a couple of bars, and probably the original Nichas for a cheese enchilada plate. Maybe Rays for a puffy taco if we have time.

Whats your ideal day look like in your part of San Antonio?

The ideal day is when its not 100 degrees out, I get up at a decent hour, crush some breakfast tacos, go to my favorite coffee shop (Gold Coffee), and chop it up with some friends before handling only a few work related things and then realizing its too nice of a day to accomplish anything. Then I take a nice cruise in my Bel Air around the city windows down, bumping oldies. Perfect.

Are there any businesses or projects youd like to see introduced to your area?

So Im from the Southside, but currently live in Government Hill. Government Hill needs more walkable places for food and beverage options, the Southside needs more Southsiders to invest in their community and open up more locally owned small businesses. That community is underserved and wants to support each other, it just needs more options.

Whats one word youd use to describe your part of town?

Home.

How has your San Antonio changed?

It has changed drastically and obviously starting to attract outside interest from other places and people moving here to try and capitalize on a growing city, but theres still those pockets of the city that have stayed frozen in time that remind me of being a kid.

Whats your go-to breakfast taco order and from where?

Country sausage and egg and a bean and cheese from Rosies Cafe.

How does San Antonio inspire you?

It inspires me because Im rooted here, so I feel a connection to the city, the people, and a duty to represent them with everything I do. Im inspired by where Im from because I want to inspire others who can see that its possible, you can be successful if you really want it and work hard enough.

What's your favorite street in San Antonio. Why?

I love S Flores leaving S Alamo and headed to the Southside because you can see all the old buildings and a lot of that area has remained unchanged for the most part. My dad and me take that drive often and he starts to reminisce and I always enjoy hearing about the old days."

Pretend you have a hot date this week. Which local haunts would you take them to?

Dinner at Bar Loretta with some cocktails, S.P.L.A.C.H for some beers after, and to see how cool my date is with the vibe change, nightcap at El Weinecero for a hot dog.

What's your San Antonio pet peeve?

Yall dont use your blinkers, and the current state of the Spurs.

If you're from here, have you ever lived somewhere else? What brought you back? If you're a transplant, what keeps you here?

Ive always lived here, but Im fortunate Ive been able to travel and I always love the feeling of coming home inspired from the road, and knowing my city and my community are always here waiting for me.

What do you think the AT&T Center should be renamed as?

The Tim Duncan Center.

Is there an underrated SA artist/place/thing that you'd like to shoutout?

So many! Just off the top of my head shoutout to El Weinecero, The Lighthouse Lounge, El Ojo, Puro Handsome Barber Shop, Angie Splits Wigs (my barber), Qualitees etc LLC (for all your screen printing needs), Crispy Bao Gang, Tonys Siesta, Gemini Vato for always coming clean with the art designs for our establishments, Los Otros (Shek Vega, Southside familia) EKOSR (artist and fellow Southsider) Gold Coffee, The Twang family, and Pattys Taco House.
Aiessa Ammeter for MySA.com

It's our time to shine, emoheads. Get out the eyeliner and black clothing because there are plenty of emo opportunities coming up in San Antonio. No, it's not a phase. It's a lifestyle.

For those unaware, emo is a genre of music and a lifestyle where many reminisce and listen to their favorite bands from the 90s, 2000s, and today, such as My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, and Senses Fail. No, emo doesn't mean we are sitting in the corner of a room crying all the time...just sometimes.
Josie Norris/Staff photographer

Those keeping up with the latest on our endangered corpse flower at the San Antonio Zoo might want to turn their noses. The spadix for "La Llorona" has reportedly completely collapsed as of Wednesday, July 20, afternoon.

A tweet from the San Antonio Zoo explains that the corm continues to be very much alive and will continue to function as the root and support structure for the leaf or spadix. As time passes, and energy rebuilds within the corm, the plant will produce another leaf and ultimately another spadix, according to the San Antonio Zoo's post.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk lost his fight to delay Twitters lawsuit against him as a Delaware judge on Tuesday set an October trial, citing the cloud of uncertainty over the social media company after the billionaire backed out of a deal to buy it.

Delay threatens irreparable harm, said Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, the head judge of Delawares Court of Chancery, which handles many high-profile business disputes. The longer the delay, the greater the risk.

Twitter had asked for an expedited trial in September, while Musks team called for waiting until early next year because of the complexity of the case. McCormick said Musks team underestimated the Delaware courts ability to quickly process complex litigation.

Twitter is trying to force the billionaire to make good on his April promise to buy the social media giant for $44 billion  and the company wants it to happen quickly because it says the ongoing dispute is harming its business.

Its a very favorable ruling for Twitter in terms of moving things along, said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. She seemed very concerned about the argument that delay would seriously harm the company, and I think thats true.

Musk, the worlds richest man, pledged to pay $54.20 a share for Twitter, but informed the company in July that he wants to back out of the agreement.

Its attempted sabotage. Hes doing his best to run Twitter down, said attorney William Savitt, representing Twitter before McCormick on Tuesday. The hearing was held virtually after McCormick said she tested positive for COVID-19.

Musk has claimed the company has failed to provide adequate information about the number of fake, or spam bot, Twitter accounts, and that it has breached its obligations under the deal by firing top managers and laying off a significant number of employees. Musk's team expects more information about the bot numbers to be revealed in the trial court discovery process, when both sides must hand over evidence.

Twitter argues that Musks reasons for backing out are just a cover for buyer's remorse after agreeing to pay 38% above Twitters stock price shortly before the stock market stumbled and shares of the electric-car maker Tesla, where most of Musks personal wealth resides, lost more than $100 billion of their value.

Savitt said the contested merger agreement and Musks tweets disparaging the company were inflicting harm on the business and questioned Musks request for a delayed trial, asking whether the real plan is to run out the clock.

Hes banking on wriggling out of the deal he signed, Savitt said.

But the idea the Tesla CEO is trying to damage Twitter is preposterous. He has no interest in damaging the company, said Musk attorney Andrew Rossman, noting he is Twitters second largest shareholder with a far larger stake than the company's entire board of directors.

Savitt emphasized the importance of an expedited trial starting in September for Twitter to be able to make important business decisions affecting everything from employee retention to relationships with suppliers and customers.

Rossman said more time is needed because it is one of the largest take-private deals in history involving a company that has a massive amount of data that has to be analyzed. Billions of actions on their platform have to be analyzed.

Tobias said its still possible that Musk and Twitter will settle the case before it goes to trial, since both might find a drawn-out fight or the judge's final decisions costly to their businesses and reputations. One option is that Musk could pay the $1 billion breakup fee both he and Twitter agreed to if either was deemed responsible for the deal falling through. Or Twitter could push for him to pay more to make up for damages  just not the full $44 billion acquisition.

Does Musk really want to run that company? Do they really want Musk to run that company? Tobias said. They could always settle somewhere in between.
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  The Mississippi abortion clinic that was at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade ended a lawsuit Tuesday in which it had sought to block the state from enforcing a law that bans most abortions.

Jackson Women's Health Organization dropped its litigation a day after clinic owner Diane Derzis told The Associated Press that she sold the facility and had no intention to reopen it, even if a state court allowed her to do so.

If the clinic is not in a position to reopen in Mississippi, it no longer has a basis to pursue this case in the courts, Rob McDuff, a Mississippi Center for Justice attorney who was among those representing the clinic, said in a statement. Derzis said the clinics furniture and equipment have been moved to a new abortion clinic she will open soon in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Court battles over access to abortion are playing out in multiple states following the Supreme Court's June 24 ruling, which gave states the authority to set their own laws on abortion. On Tuesday, West Virginias only abortion clinic resumed scheduling patients for abortions, after a judge ruled in its favor. And new restrictions on some abortions were in effect in Indiana after a judge lifted a hold on them.

The Mississippi clinic  best known as the Pink House because of its bright paint job  stopped offering medication-induced and surgical abortions July 6, the day before Mississippi enacted a law that bans most abortions. Mississippi was one of several states with a trigger law that went into effect after the Supreme Court ruling.

The Mississippi trigger law, passed in 2007, says abortion is legal only if the pregnant womans life is in danger or if a pregnancy is caused by a rape reported to law enforcement. It does not have an exception for pregnancies caused by incest.

On July 5, a state court judge rejected a request by the clinic's attorneys to block the trigger law from taking effect. The clinic appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court, citing a 1998 ruling that said the state constitution invokes a right to privacy that includes an implied right to choose whether or not to have an abortion."

Because the clinic is dropping its lawsuit, the Mississippi Supreme Court will not issue a new ruling.

In West Virginia, Women's Health Center began scheduling patients for abortions for as early as next week after a judge on Monday blocked enforcement of the states 150-year-old abortion ban. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Tuesday that his office had filed a motion to the state Supreme Court asking for a stay to keep the ban in place while his office proceeds with an appeal.

We believe its critical to file for an immediate stay in light of this flawed decision and seek this emergency measure to prevent immediate loss of precious life," he said in a statement, adding that when life is in jeopardy, no effort can be spared to protect it.

West Virginia's law, dating back to the 1800s, makes performing or obtaining an abortion a felony punishable by up to a decade in prison. It provides an exception for cases in which a pregnant persons life is at risk. Women's Health Center argued in court that the law was void because it had not been enforced in more than 50 years, and has been superseded by modern laws, including a 2015 law that allows the procedure until the 20th week of pregnancy.

Katie Quinonez, Women's Health Center's executive director, called the judge's decision to block the law a sigh of relief. The clinic has been posting on social media and is sending out information in an emailed newsletter to let people know they can once again schedule abortions.

But Quinonez said operations wont simply go back to the way they were before the clinic had to shut down. She said the staff has been telling patients: Its a moving target, things could change.

Anti-abortion activists from Mississippi, Texas and elsewhere rallied a crowd in Las Cruces on Tuesday evening and took donations for a new clinic that will provide fertility and pregnancy support services next door to the planned abortion clinic.

In Indiana, a law that bans abortions based on gender, race or disability was in effect Tuesday, a day after a federal judge lifted an order that blocked its enforcement. The law includes a ban on abortions sought because a fetus has a genetic abnormality such as Down syndrome. It was adopted by Indianas Republican-dominated Legislature in 2016 and signed by then-Gov. Mike Pence. The law allows doctors who perform abortions in such cases to be sued for wrongful death.

Another federal judge has lifted similar blocks on abortion restrictions in recent weeks. The Indiana Legislature is expected to take action on additional abortion restrictions during a special session that starts Monday.

Meanwhile, an Indianapolis doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio took the first step Tuesday toward suing Indianas attorney general for defamation. Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist who gave the girl a medication-induced abortion on June 30, filed a tort claim notice over what she says were false statements made about her and her work. The notice starts a 90-day period for the state to settle.

After the girl's abortion was in the news, Attorney General Todd Rokita told Fox News that he would investigate if Bernard violated any laws, though he made no specific allegations of wrongdoing.

A 27-year-old man was charged last week in Columbus, Ohio, with raping the girl.

___

Willingham reported from Charleston, West Virginia. Associated Press writers Tom Davies and Arleigh Rodgers in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to show that West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morriseys office has filed a motion to the state Supreme Court asking for a stay to keep the states abortion ban in place while his office proceeds with an appeal.
A Sesame Street-themed amusement park has apologized and promised more training for its employees after a video showing a costumed character waving off two 6-year-old Black girls during a parade went viral online.

The nine-second video, posted to Instagram on Saturday by Jodi Brown, the mother of one of the girls, showed the character Rosita high-fiving a white child and woman, then gesturing no and walking away from the two girls who had their arms stretched out for a hug and high-five during the parade at Sesame Place in Langhorne, outside Philadelphia.

I will never step foot in @sesameplace ever again, Brown said online.

The familys lawyer, BIvory LaMarr, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the family is appalled and disturbed by the incident and the injuries propagated to their children.

Jodi Brown/AP

In an initial statement Sunday, Sesame Place said the park and its employees stand for inclusivity and equality in all forms. The statement also noted that performers sometimes miss requests for hugs because the costumes they wear make it difficult to see at lower levels.

The Rosita performer did not intentionally ignore the girls and is devastated by the misunderstanding, the statement said.

However, many people expressed outrage online and some called for a boycott of the amusement park.

The park issued a second statement Monday, apologizing again and promising that it was taking action to do better. Among those efforts would be inclusivity training for employees.

Both statements and the video triggered a stark response on social media, which LaMarr said helped shed a light on the existence of these issues.

A lot of African Americans tend to become very passive because we unfortunately are accustomed to dealing with this type of racism in various spaces, he said.

Sesame Place has been the official Sesame Street theme park for more than four decades. It opened in 1980.

You would expect a reputable organization the one as well revered as Sesame Street and Sesame Place to stand on those principles and values in which they portray, LaMarr said. Instead, what this family saw was a company that comes out and theyre very dismissive of the harms that were caused.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Sesame Place is in Langhorne, which is outside Philadelphia, not a neighborhood of Philadelphia.
Gov. Greg Abbott did not attend a single funeral for any of the 19 children or two teachers killed mass shooting at Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, according to his schedule, which was obtained through an open records request by ABC News.

Abbott's schedule from May 25 to June 14 indicates that his last visit to Uvalde was on June 5 to attend a community worship event at the Uvalde County Fairplex. However, missing from the schedule is any mention of Uvalde victim funerals. The last funeral held in Uvalde for victims was on June 16, when 11-year-old Layla Salazar was laid to rest.

In a Monday interview with MSNBC, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, criticized Abbott for not returning to the South Texas town, and alleged that Abbott has not been back since May 29 when President Joe Biden also visited a public vigil in Uvalde, rather than June 5 as the governor's schedule suggests.

"I don't want this to sound like some political assault on him, but at the end of the day he hasn't been there since Day 5, when the president came... We had a failed response on giving resources to families," Gutierrez said. "He did not go to one single funeraland quite honestly, many of the families didn't want him there."

Gutierrez's statements align with recent statements from some of the shooting victims' families. During a July 13 news conference, Angel Garza, father of 10-year-old victim Amerie Jo Garza, alleged that "since this happened, Gov. Abbott has yet to reach out." Garza added that Sen. Ted Cruz, who also attended some prayer vigils for victims, similarly failed to reach out to victims' families.

"We've had Sen. Gutierrez in our living room, willing to come and talk to us," Garza said. "We've had Beto O'Rourke coming to our private meeting to fight with us. He marched with us. That means something to us. The fact that you're reaching out just to see how we're doing means something to us."

Representatives for Cruz said the senator planned to meet with families of the Uvalde shooting victims this past Thursday, but that the families ultimately canceled the meeting.

Garza continued in a direct appeal to Texas voters: "Everybody that's getting ready to vote, I want you guys to know that. These guys don't have compassion for us. They don't care. [Abbott] doesn't care that all these children were murdered and these teachers were murdered. Y'all need to realize that."

In recent interviews, Uvalde Mayor Don McLauglin said that he has repeatedly called on Abbott to return to Uvalde to speak with grieving family members. During a press conference Sunday, McLaughlin said he had not heard from the governor in four weeks.

During a July 14 press conference, when asked whether he planned to meet with grieving families soon, Abbott responded, "I've been there multiple times to Uvalde for multiple purposes. Sometimes for public presentations, sometimes for grieving events and different things like that and I will be going many more times."

In an emailed statement, Renae Eze, spokesperson for Abbott, wrote: "Governor Abbott has been to the community multiple times, visiting with every family who requested a meeting and joining his fellow Texans to grieve and worship at events into June. Many families requested private funerals, and the Governor and First Lady instead sent flowers and condolences to let the loved ones know they remain in their prayers."

Eze said Abbott and his office have remained in "regular contact" with McLaughlin and Uvalde leaders, adding they speak "on almost a daily basis" to ensure the Uvalde community is receiving support and resources. "Every request made so far by the victims' families and local leaders have been met, including providing a $5 million grant to be used at the discretion of local leaders for the long-term Family Resiliency Center," Eze wrote.

Correction: Governor Abbott visited Uvalde, Texas on June 5 for a 6 p.m. community worship event at the Uvalde County Fairplex, per his official schedule. A previous version of this story stated that the governor's last visit to Uvalde was May 29.
Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune

Some people are spending big bucks to help unseat Gov. Greg Abbott. Progressive billionaire George Soros has contributed $1 million to Democrat Beto O'Rourke's campaign for Texas governor. An Austin-area couple also donated $1 million to O'Rourke, according to the candidate's latest finance report.

While Texans have given $14.5 million to the Democrat's campaign, nearly half of O'Rourke's record-breaking $27.6 million fundraising haul came from out-of-state donors. According to the Texas Tribune, O'Rourke reported raising $27.6 million from late February through June, which is the most a candidate for state office in Texas has ever raised in a single reporting period.
ATU Images/Getty Images

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office has served termination paperwork to one of its deputies after he was arrested this afternoon and charged with domestic violence occurring over the weekend, a July 19 release from the department says.

Corporal Leroy Martinez, 25, is a 4-year veteran of BCSO and is assigned to the Detention Bureau. The arrest happened after he allegedly choked a female family member, restricting her airway, a BCSO statement reads. He is currently on unpaid administrative leave.
Cary Clack | San Antonio Express-News

After struggling with low enrollment and financial issues, St. Gerard Catholic High School on the Eastside has closed its doors before the 2022-23 school year, right as parents were getting school supplies for their kids. The Archdiocese of San Antonios Department of Catholic Schools informed St. Gerard's on Friday, July 15, that it will close the school after 95 years, according to a statement on the school's website.

The school is funded by tuition revenue, donations, and fundraising, and subsidy from the archdiocese. Only 35 students were enrolled in the upcoming school year, which would have led to a projected deficit of more than a half-a-million dollars. The archdiocese gave large subsidies to the school that were unsustainable.
SAPD

The San Antonio Police Department is seeking information on the fatal hit-and-run that occurred on Loop 410 on July 13. According to a Wednesday, July 20 news release from Crime Stoppers, the victim was identified as Pedro Sepulveda, 43.

Officials said the crash happened just before 1 a.m. in the 9600 block of Southeast Loop 410 access road, near Southton Road. Police said a driver of a vehicle failed to stop and render aid after fatally striking Sepulveda.
Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer

A former lion from the San Antonio Zoo killed a female lion while being introduced to each other at the Birmingham Zoo in Alabama, officials said on Tuesday, July 19. According to its Instagram post, Josh was brought in from the San Antonio Zoo in April as a replacement for another male lion, Kwanza, that died in 2021.

Akili, who was born in 2005 in Colorado Springs and had been at the Birmingham Zoo since 2007, couldn't be saved after being injured by Josh. The zoo had begun the slow process of introducing the two lions to each other, the zoo said in a statement, but Akili was badly injured within minutes of a meeting on Monday, July 18. She died after being fatally injured.
/Bill Montgomery /Staff

Nancy Salinas, 26, is suing a Luby's restaurant in Pharr, in The Valley, after she fell off the curb and sustained multiple injuries. Her attorneys are claiming that the sidewalk curb at Luby's is at an illegal height by city development standards, according to the lawsuit filed in Hidalgo County.

Salinas fell off the sidewalk curb at the Luby's located at 1900 W Expressway 83, Pharr, TX 78577 in February and received fractures in her left ankle and feet, as well as other injuries to her body, according to a news release from the Law Offices of Alex Martinez, the law firm representing Salinas.
Associated Press

Body camera footage from Uvalde police is making the rounds online showing law enforcement in Robb Elementary School holding back Officer Ruben Ruiz, whose wife Eva Mireles was a teacher still inside the classroom with the gunman on May 24. Mireles is one of the two teachers and 19 students killed in the massacre.

The 11-second clip posted to Reddit on Tuesday, July 19, shows what appears to be other Uvalde Police Department officers and Border Patrol Agents standing in the school hallway. Another officer can then be heard saying Ruiz's name multiple times as he walks into the hallway with his handgun drawn.
Dario Lopez-Mills/AP

The Uvalde CISD school board is expected to discuss the termination of Police Chief Pete Arredondo at a special meeting this Saturday, July 23, at 9 a.m., according to an agenda posted to the district website.

The agenda item says board members will discuss in a closed session and then take action on the "termination for good cause" of Arredondo's contract. The move comes after a heated school board meeting on Monday, July 18, where families of the victims killed in the May 24 mass shooting called for Arredondo to be fired.
After the hottest June and July on record, people across South-Central Texas are beginning to question their Lone Star State residency. On Monday, July 18, a question was posed in the Reddit forum r/Austin, specifically to those who recently moved here. "Is the heat starting to make you want to move out of state again?" the instigator asked, sweat presumably dripping down their anonymous face.

Populated with over 600 comments, the thread is filled with transplants and homegrown residents alike, weighing the pros and cons.

"I've lived in Texas my whole life and Austin for 15, and consistent weeks of 105+ makes me want to move away," one user wrote.

With so much happening in Texas on the socio-political front, it does feel grim that something like the weather can cause such a stir. In the spirit of sunburns and unrelenting heat, the region is continuing this streak of triple-digit temperatures this week with even hotter temperatures.

Dangerously, Bexar County, the I-35 corridor, and parts of the Hill Country, are currently under an "excessive heat warning," which is the worst hot weather sentence a town can get from a meteorologist. The excessive heat warning will extend into Wednesday, July 20. You better hope your A/C doesn't give out.

Eric Platt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, explains that these warnings are not exactly typical for the area. While still dangerous, San Antonio is accustomed to receiving heat advisories. When these occur, air temperatures may rise to greater than or equal to 103 with a heat index of greater than or equal to 108.

However, excessive heat warnings are more seldom occurrences. "I've been here for ten years and an excessive heat warning is pretty rare," shares Platt. The last one that hung over Bexar County took place July 12, just last week.

"Under an excessive heat warning, we're looking at an air temperatures greater than or equal to 105 degrees and then the heat index greater than or equal to 113," says Platt, who encourages residents to "take this seriously."

The meteorologist advises those under the warning to check in on friends and family, especially elderly relatives, and to be mindful of leaving children and pets unattended in the heat. If you're at all thinking about heading north, know that the blazing temperatures aren't ending anytime soon.

"It's been hot for a while and looking at the forecast, it's not really going to change anytime soon," Platt says. "So we're going to be right back in the eat tomorrow. There's really not going to be much in the way of relief as we head through the week."
Walmart

Theres no better way to spend summer days than being outside, whether hiking, camping, heading to the lake, or hanging out at the park. But one of the main problems with outdoor excursions is not being able to take as many things with you as youd like.

Theres where a utility wagon designed for camping comes in, just like this Ozark Trail one from Walmart. Plus, its currently on sale for $59 (regularly $80).
My Nashville Post role has evolved since 2000 when I joined the now-defunct The City Paper. TCP became a Post sister publication in 2008 (when I began doing some Post work) and folded in 2013. I have been managing editor of the Post since late 2011.

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KateLynn White graduated from Tennessee State University, where she was an editor of the student newspaper. She interned for The Tennessean and The Tennessee Tribune before joining the Nashville Post in 2022. She also contributes to the Nashville Scene.

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(Natural News) Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler huffed and puffed on Tuesday about The misplaced outrage over Hunter Biden and U.S. oil reserves bought by China. One of the liars in this outrage was the Washington Free Beacon. In an editorial titled Fact Checkings Final Frontier, they replied We at the Washington Free Beacon love the fact-checkers. When theyre fact-checking us, we know we must be doing something right.

(Article by Tim Graham republished from NewsBusters.org)

They called Kesslers article a master class in the lefts crusade to conflate objective truth with Democratic spin.

Kessler didnt find anything in the Free Beacons reporting that was a lie. Its just that simple facts were turned nefarious. He didnt like the impression they were pushing:

This is an example of how simple facts  SPR oil was sold to a subsidiary of a Chinese company and Hunter Biden once has a business relationship with that company  are turned into something nefarious. The contract was awarded to the highest bidders in a competitively bid process and Hunter Biden was many steps removed from the U.S. trading arm of the Chinese firm. Moreover, theres no reason for outrage. Oil prices are determined by global supply and demand. The Biden administration is seeking to lower the global price of crude oil by bolstering supply around the globe. Selling crude oil to traders, whether based in the United States, Europe or Asia, is part of that effort. Anyone who suggests the Biden administration is doing something wrong here  as opposed to following the rules  earns Three Pinocchios.

Anyone who suggested Team Biden looks bad earns Pinocchios. Any outrage about the Bidens is misplaced outrage. Thats an interesting way of fact checking. You cant say using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to sell oil to our biggest geopolitical adversary is.not strategic. Kessler & Co. have a bad habit of absolving the Biden team on energy policy.

The Free Beacon noted Biden adviser Ian Sams was happily waving Kesslers assessment around on Twitter, accusing Republicans of pushing false conspiracies about the President. This prompted their conclusion:

Our last run-in with the fact-checking community was over our massively viral video that plainly shows President Joe Biden shaking hands with thin air. Not true! they said, having studied the footage like the Zapruder film in order to conclude that what any viewer can see with his own eyes is entirely misleading. Before that, it was our report on the Biden administrations plan to fund the distribution of crack pipes to drug addicts as part of its harm reduction approach to drug addiction. Fact checks, including Kesslers, relied entirely on the ass-covering say-sos of Biden administration officials to undermine our shoe leather reporting, which has now been corroborated by us and others. Your condemnation is the metric of our success, every Pinocchio and Pants on Fire another notch on our belt.

Read more at: NewsBusters.org
(Natural News) While the national media is busy playing politics, protecting Joe Biden, screaming the world is ending because of climate change, and basically performing activism and the hell with actual journalism, America is heading in a direction that leads to hunger and fighting for survival.

(Article by Susan Duclos republished from AllNewsPipeline.com)

Before moving on to the multitude of issues affecting the supply chain here in the U.S., I would like to point to what is described by Forbes as a harbinger of larger things to come around the rest of the world in the months and years ahead.

Sri Lanka: The first paragraph in a piece from July 10, 2022, titled Rising Social Unrest Over Energy, Food Shortages Threatens Global Stability, pretty much says it all.

The nation of Sri Lanka has an almost perfect ESG rating of 98.1 on a scale of 100, according to WorldEconomics.com. But the government which had forced the nation to achieve that virtue-signaling target in recent years collapsed over the weekend because it led the country into self-declared bankruptcy, leaving it unable to purchase adequate supplies of fuel and feed its population. Thousands of angry Sri Lankans stormed the presidential residence on Saturday, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down and reportedly flee the country.

Next I point readers to the portions put in bold and underlined above.

Collapsed over the weekend. That ladies and gentlemen is how fast a nation, even one with such a high sustainability rating, can fall.

When the food is gone, the rioting begins.

Many Americans still believe that it cant happen to or in America, and that is arrogance, hubris, and a massive failure on the part of the MSM to inform the public of how fast it can happen and to give them adequate warnings to prepare for the possibility, which is looking more likely with each new report of events that affect the food supply in America

Gas prices, a lack of fertilizer, food prices, and increasingly empty shelves, are the result of many factors, including trucker shortages, war, mysterious fires and explosions of food plants across America, and as Stefan Stanford recently pointed out, an upcoming strike by those that run our trains, but when a family is hungry, they truly arent thinking of why, just how are they going to feed themselves and their families.

Another strange set of events was reported by Steve Quayle as this SQ alert tells us:

We recommend reading the entire alert, but the gist of it is that multiple stores in Montana had suspicious freezer failures, causing tens of thousands of tons of foods to be brought to landfills and disposed of.

Readers have been letting us know about shortages in their local stores, and some recent news articles, which seem hard to find on the search engines because those that are actually reporting on the shortages, downplay it, or bury their stories under their activism very quickly, all show the food supply issues steadily getting worse, while the prices get higher, even as shrinkflation (same price, less product in packaging), hits more products.

Deplorable Susie:

Busy day in NE Ohio  observations: Gas=$4.40. Diesel=$5.85. Silver rounds=$25. One store did not have my smokes :-(yes, I know. WM: NO  Tylenol, wall paint, creme cheese, Am. Cheese slices. Some baby formula is back. Low stock/reduced shelf space  Campbell soups, pork-n-beans (other canned beans as well  holiday??), pasta, eggs. Just for fun  Nice looking, medium thick, Rib Eye Steak = $16/lb.  T-bone steak = $12/lb

Betty:

I just had a bad trip to the grocery store. Eight items I couldnt get. The vegetables and fruits are extremely low, no blueberries, strawberries, nor melons. Red Meat is disappearing but we did have more expensive chicken. Dairy is low, no peanut butter, low on bottled water

Others have been sharing when they can find good deals, along with some sharing links to help others find more resources, and we thank everyone that is keeping us updating as to how things are looking in their part of the country.

Read more at: AllNewsPipeline.com
(Natural News) Germany is set to revive its Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) mask mandates, even though the recent wave in the country has already lost momentum.

Marco Buschmann, the countrys justice minister, announced the return of mandatory face coverings in September. He remarked that Germans and foreign tourists alike have to mask up this fall and that the mask mandates would be in place throughout the winter. The proposal for the mandate, which will be submitted to the German parliament that month, will be likely approved by lawmakers and take effect in October.

The effectiveness of masks for individuals indoors is undisputed, said Buschmann, adding that a form of mask requirement indoors will certainly play a role in our concept. The justice minister admitted that while the COVID-19 wave in the summer is starting to flatten, mask mandates would still be necessary as a response to a possible onslaught in the fall and winter.

German news outlet Die Welt confirmed the return of mask mandates, adding that the proposal is being debated on the Bundestag floor. It noted that such a measure would be necessary, given the increased social mixing in poorly-ventilated enclosed areas.

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has not issued any comment on the eventual return of face masks. However, his latest recommendations pointed to bolstering mask mandates. Despite admitting that current data does not justify making mask use a legal requirement, the health minister reiterated the need for the public to adhere to mask-wearing.

Germany has twice backtracked on its reopening plans, before finally dropping all COVID-19 entry requirements in early June. The European nation is one of the worlds most visited tourist destinations.

But according to analysts, the mask mandate only sends the message that preservation of personal freedoms is no longer guaranteed even if Berlin has already dropped all pandemic rules. Visitors would be required to wear face masks in a majority of settings  such as bars, restaurants and shops  throughout the fall and winter if the Bundestag approves the mask mandate.

Countries returning mask mandates, but studies show theyre ineffective

Almost three years into the pandemic, the world is back to square one as mask mandates make a return. This is in spite of growing evidence stating that face coverings are ineffective in curbing COVID-19 transmissions. (Related: Studies show how mask mandates, lockdowns, and COVID vaccines have failed to deliver.)

Aside from Germany, Ireland is also considering a mask mandate to be reinstated in the event of a possible emergency in winter. Irish Health Minister Stephen Donnelly will be drafting a new order in relation to a nationwide mask mandate, as per an Irish Times report.

Prior to this, Ireland permitted all laws concerning mask usage to expire as it moved to fully reported. However, sources from Dublin confirmed that Donnelly seeks to draft legislation that could be passed quickly if the need arises.

Dr. Colin Axon, an adviser for the British governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, dismissed masks as mere comfort blankets entrenching bad behavior. He commented that masks do virtually nothing as the SARS-CoV-2 virus particle is up to 5,000 times smaller than the holes in the mask.

The small sizes are not easily understood. But an imperfect analogy would be to imagine marbles fired at builders scaffolding. Some might hit a pole and rebound, but obviously, most will fly through, said Axon.

Meanwhile, a study in Denmark involving 6,000 participants found that there was no statistically significant difference between those who wore masks and those who did not when it came to being infected by COVID-19. According to the findings of the Danmask-19 study, 1.8 percent of participants who masked up caught the virus compared to 2.1 percent in the control group.

Any effect masks have on preventing the spread of the disease in the community is small. But overall, there is a troubling lack of robust evidence on face masks and COVID-19, said a report by Spectator about the Danmask-19 study.

Visit MedicalTyranny.com for more news related to mask mandates.

Watch the below video that talks about the science that destroys the mask mandate.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Study: Wearing a mask INCREASES risk of covid death.

Study reveals mask mandates are NOT linked to lower COVID-19 transmissions in Spain.

The Sentinel Report: Florida judge overturns COVID mask mandates  Brighteon.TV.

Medical professionals, students decry mask mandates and other Covid measures in schools.

Magical ONE-WAY Covid masks protect the mask-wearer and nobody else, according to fake news spreader CNN.

Sources include:

InfoWars.com

Politico.eu

TravelOffPath.com

Summit.news

Spectator.co.uk

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Melissa Red Pill talked about how to deconstruct the Deep State during the July 13 episode of Freedom Force Battalion on Brighteon.TV.

Red Pill showed a video clip of Mike Davis, founder and president of Article III Project (A3P), during an interview with War Room host Steve Bannon. In the interview, Davis gave an interesting explanation about how to deconstruct the administrative state, more popularly known as the Deep State.

She noted that the Deep State is made up of unelected people who want to make all the rules and decisions for the American people.

Melissa Red Pill cited as an example the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which was recently struck down by the Supreme Court. She said, according to the Supreme Court the EPA does not have the power to do all these regulations and all the enforcement related to air quality. (Related: Melissa Red Pill lauds Supreme Court over recent decisions  Brighteon.TV.)

EPA officials are not elected and Congress cannot delegate these powers to them because it would not go through all of the checks and balances that the Legislative and Executive departments are doing. Red Pill pointed out that this administrative state is not part of the government and they dont have any legal authority and constitutional authority to rule over the American people.

In the interview, Davis discussed the three-part process of deconstructing the administrative state. The first part is the courts need to look at the enabling statutes that Congress gave to these agencies when they were set up.

Davis said the EPAs claim that they had the statutory power to make regulations and enforce them was not true because they didnt have the power when the Supreme Court clarified it under their statute. He also mentioned the decision made by Florida State Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who junked the mask mandate of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on airplanes.

The CDC never had the power to mask us or to tell us to do anything, to jab us, to lock us down. They dont have that authority. This is the kind of thing that has to go through Congress in a vote and signed by the President, Red Pill said.

Congress cannot delegate its legislative powers to the Executive branch

Davis also explained during his War Room interview that Congress cannot delegate its legislative powers to the Executive branch. Thats the focal point of the second part of deconstructing the administrative state.

The A3P founder and president said these agencies dont have the constitutional constraints of legislation, which means they didnt have to go through both Houses of Congress and get the presidents signed approval.

The third part of deconstructing the administrative state involves the Constitution, which only gives the federal government specific and enumerated powers.

According to Davis, the judges need to step up and say that the federal government doesnt have this power in the first place and that Congress doesnt have the power to delegate it to the Executive branch. Davis said the Founding Fathers perfectly understood that giving power to some could lead to tyranny.

Red Pill agreed and said tyranny is exactly what the Deep State is trying to achieve.

This is the whole point of tyranny, with the government wanting to control every little aspect of a persons life and do all kinds of things.

The people can address that by choosing the right candidates during elections.

Watch the July 13 episode of Freedom Force Battalion below. Freedom Force Battalion airs every Wednesday at 11-12 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Melissa Red Pill celebrates the injunction against Bidens vaccine mandate for employees of federal contractors  Brighteon.TV.

Steel Truth: World globalist regime is running the US government  Brighteon.TV.

The deep state is planning to cut off health coverage for people with wrong beliefs.

Delingpole: From climate change to coronavirus, we are all victims of Deep State hysteria.

Ann Vandersteel calls on the MAGA movement to focus on fighting the Deep State  Brighteon.TV.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

Article3Project.org
(Natural News) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that nearly a hundred people were hospitalized and hundreds more got sick after consuming the French Lentil & Leek Crumbles from Daily Harvest, a well-known vegan food and meal delivery service company.

As of July 14, 96 hospitalizations and 277 illnesses around the country had been reported to the FDA. The federal agency is currently investigating complaints of gastrointestinal illness and abnormal liver function associated with the Daily Harvests lentil and leek frozen products.

Lawsuits have been filed against the food company, including one on behalf of an infant. The agency said the last report of someone becoming ill was July 9.

The delivery service already initiated a voluntary recall of the product last month after complaints of becoming sick emerged. Some customers reported elevated liver enzymes, hospitalizations and even gallbladder removal.

Updated as of July 12, 2022, the companys founder and CEO Rachel Drori wrote on their website: As we have shared, comprehensive testing to date has ruled out several potential root causes, including Hepatitis A, Norovirus; a range of mycotoxins, including aflatoxins; food-borne pathogens, including Listeria, E. Coli, Salmonella, Staphylococcus Aureus (Staph), B. Cereus, and Clostridium Species; and major allergens including egg, soy, milk and gluten. Tests have also confirmed that there are no pesticides.

She added they have not done testing yet as thorough scientific processes require extensive laboratory analysis.

We are committed to finding answers and we remain confident that this issue is isolated to French Lentil + Leek Crumbles and does not impact any of our other 140+ items, she stated.

On the FDA website, the agency wrote in the recommendations section to not eat, sell or serve recalled products from Daily Harvest as they have an ongoing investigation.

Consumers who may still have the recalled product in their freezers should throw it away, FDA said.

Bill Marler, a lawyer who represents nearly 100 people with potential claims against the company, said that the victims are relatively young and healthy, and all of them are having essentially the same symptoms, the same liver dysfunction and the same pain.

And yet the precise cause of the ailment remains a medical mystery.

The symptoms for this are just not typical of what we would see with your traditional type of hazards in food, stated Martin Bucknavage, a senior food safety extension associate at Penn State University. He added that its not something he has ever seen.

Daily Harvest customers have resorted to social media to air their concerns about being hospitalized and having severe stomach pains. One is Luke Tashie, who shared his recall email from Daily Harvest. According to him, he doesnt believe the company is taking a serious or speedy enough approach to the situation. He had extreme liver pain and was hospitalized after he consumed the product. He added that he is concerned about long-term liver damage.

Meanwhile, two lawsuits were filed this week on behalf of two children, including a four-month-old, who was said to have gotten sick from the product. According to a case filed in the State of New York Supreme Court, the baby and her mother were hospitalized after the mother ate the product. On May 25, the infant suffered vomiting and diarrhea and excreted dark urine after her mother consumed the product and breastfed her. After consuming the product again in June, the mother was hospitalized with extreme abdominal pain and gastrointestinal distress from June 8 to 15, the lawsuit said.

Around the same time, the infant had a fever and gastrointestinal distress and started vomiting, as the mother continued to breastfeed during her hospitalization on the advice of her doctors, who did not know the cause of her illness.

Meanwhile, the vegan food company is committed to cleaning up the mess and reviving its credibility and reliability. But it seems to be taking so much time.

Back in June, Driori expressed her vexation on the issue. Despite consulting with numerous experts, cooperating with FDAs investigation, working with our supply chain, and conducting extensive testing, we have not yet identified a cause, she said. I recognize this is so frustrating. I am incredibly frustrated.

Food safety: Check labels and buy only from trusted sellers

Over the years, people have started becoming more aware that organic foods could best benefit ones health. Healthy food manufacturers thrived and modern means of purchasing these followed suit. The rise in the popularity of healthy food products has been rapid as consumer value drivers play a significant role in this important shift in healthy eating.

Though organic and healthy, food safety should not be sacrificed. Consumers are advised to read the labels not just for the unique selling points, but most importantly their nutritional facts, as marketing strategies could conceal unhealthy ingredients and even processes.

Consumers must be able to detect which products have heavy metals and toxic elements that could jeopardize health. It is also important to buy healthy food from trusted sources only and make sure that the suppliers test their products routinely.

Although FDAs Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition seeks to ensure that these foods are safe, sanitary, nutritious, wholesome and honestly and adequately labeled, consumers are still advised to double check as this federal agency arm could be influenced by motivated politics or business.

Watch the below video that talks about the importance of food safety.

This video is from the yummy goodies! channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

USA food safety resembles a third world country, says the Health Ranger.

Health Ranger reminds us that U.S. food safety regulators are running on corruption.

Food safety review: Experts review the risks of different foods.

Sources include:

NBCNews.com 1

Daily-Harvest.com

FDA.gov

News.Yahoo.com

NBCNews.com 2

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Health freedom fighter Pam Popper talked about the importance of people coming together as one during the July 12 episode of Lawfare with Tom Renz on Brighteon.TV.

Popper is the co-founder of Make Americans Free Again (MAFA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating medical tyranny, restoring freedom to Americans and rebuilding the country. Renz serves as the organizations lead counsel.

The Ohio attorney described MAFA as a group focused on health freedom and related issues, but clarified that it is not political. He added that the group welcomes everybody, as long as they believe in health freedom and bodily integrity.

Popper said MAFA is working to make life livable for Americans who are suffering. It also seeks to rebuild American society in a certain way, through people who help each other.

The MAFA co-founder recounted that she was very inspired when she began the group, especially during the period when people were not allowed to congregate. Through the organization, Popper and others were able to build a parallel society that deals with the issues of the day. These issues include mask mandates, capacity limits on gatherings, getting children out of public schools, the transgender agenda, small business rescue and food independence.

MAFA is built around the idea of people getting together and supporting each other

According to Renz, people can do universal things such as getting involved and becoming active in their communities. A person does not have to be great at everything to do something. (Related: Holly Jones tells Tom Renz: Every American can do something for America  Brighteon.TV.)

The lawyer remarked that the group stems from a very consistent idea of people getting together, supporting each other on issues and fighting effectively.

Popper agreed, telling Renz that every person can make life tolerable as the current situation in America is not correct and not right. While the precarious situation is not going to occur for a long time, she said Americans have a long road ahead.

According to the MAFA co-founder, her group has been raising huge amounts of money for their legal assistance fund and for lawsuits against any form of tyranny.

Popper said that with discipline, 80 million people can become an immovable force fighting for bodily integrity and freedom from medical tyranny. No government force in the world could interfere with 80 million people woven together by a common cause, she added.

There is nothing sustainable to hold the people together, but I believe that everyone needs a local community connection where each person is helping one another.

Renz also lauded his guests organization for doing a wonderful job of disciplining and organizing itself. Its been a very concerted effort on everybodys part to build this organization and see it grow, he said.

Its the training that you do on a consistent daily basis that makes you win or lose that fight. MAFA is that training. Its that foundation. Its the stuff that you build from and allows you to have that great day where you go do the fight because you, then, have that support and that backing.

Follow Patriot.news for more news about Americans fighting for unity and freedom.

Watch the July 12 episode of Lawfare with Tom Renz below. Catch Lawfare with Tom Renz every Tuesday at 11:30 a.m.-12 p.m. and every Saturday at 12:30-1 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related articles:

Atty. Tom Renz to sue Big Pharma, hospitals for harmful COVID-19 treatments.

Dr. Patrick Johnston tells Dr. John Diamond: American people and the states must resist tyrannical leaders  Brighteon.TV.

We will not comply: A campaign against medical tyranny.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

DrPamPopper.com
(Natural News) A study by researchers in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar revealed that natural immunity is 97 percent effective against the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), even after 14 months have passed since the primary infection.

The pre-print paper posted July 7 in medRxiv analyzed three studies conducted on the unvaccinated Qatari population between February 2020 and June 2022. It sought to answer questions regarding the duration of natural immunity when faced with the B11529 omicron variant and prior SARS-CoV-2 strains.

The study authors from Qatar University found that unvaccinated Qataris who survive a bout of COVID-19 had outstanding protection against severe COVID-19 disease or death caused by it.

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 of waning. Similar results were found in sub-group analyses for those [less than] 50 years of age, they wrote.

Despite waning protection against reinfection, strikingly, there was no evidence for the waning of protection against severe COVID-19 at reinfection. This remained [at around] 100 percent, even 14 months after the primary infection, with no appreciable effect for omicron immune evasion in reducing it.

Prior to the emergence of omicron, natural immunity against COVID-19 dropped to only 70 percent after 16 months  which the study authors attributed to a genuine waning in biological immunity.

Furthermore, the Qatari researchers emphasized the superiority of natural immunity over vaccine-induced immunity in their pre-print study. Vaccine immunity may last for only a year, but natural immunity  may last for three years, they stated. (Related: STUDY: Natural immunity to covid never wanes, but fully jabbed are developing AIDS.)

Immune evasion of omicron subvariants reduced overall protection of pre-omicron natural immunity and accelerated its waning  mirroring the effect of omicron on vaccine immunity, but at a slower rate.

Even the CDC has acknowledged natural immunity

The paper by the Qatari researchers discussed natural immunity in the context of omicron, which first emerged in late November 2021. While much more infectious than earlier strains, omicron caused milder symptoms in infected individuals. The BA4 and Ba5 subvariants of omicron are now the most dominant strain of SARS-CoV-2 as of writing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also acknowledged the superiority of natural immunity early this year. In the Jan. 28 edition of the CDCs Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the public health agency said natural immunity was at least three times as effective as COVID-19 vaccines in preventing people from being infected and hospitalized. The CDCs findings applied to the earlier B16172 delta variant known to cause breakthrough infections.

The CDC referenced an earlier study that looked at four categories of people in California and New York  unvaccinated and vaccinated people who survived a bout with COVID-19, and both groups who had never contracted SARS-CoV-2  between May 2021 and November 2021.

Unvaccinated individuals with natural immunity had infection rates almost 15 to 30 times lower than those without any immunity whatsoever. In contrast, vaccinated people with no prior SARS-CoV-2 exposure only had around 4.5 to 6.2 percent lower infections than those without any immunity whatsoever. Similar results were found when it comes to hospitalizations, with naturally immune people two to six times less likely to be hospitalized than those with immunity stemming from the COVID-19 shots.

Before delta became the predominant variant in June [2021], case rates were higher among persons who survived a previous infection than persons who were vaccinated alone. By early October, persons who survived a previous infection had lower case rates than [vaccinated] persons, said the MMWR.

Visit ImmuneSystem.news for more news about natural immunity against COVID-19.

Watch Del Bigtree and Jefferey Jaxen below talking about the superiority of natural immunity against COVID-19 on The HighWire.

This video is from The HighWire with Del Bigtree channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

CDC finally admits natural immunity is SUPERIOR to vaccines.

Study: Natural immunity to COVID remains strong at 20 months post-infection.

STUDY: Surviving covid produces lasting natural immunity (unlike fake vaccine immunity.)

Researchers show that children are much safer developing natural immunity to COVID-19 than getting vaccinated.

Bombshell Israeli study finds natural immunity from previous COVID-19 infection vastly superior to vaccination.

Sources include:

TheStarNewsNetwork.com

medRXiv.org

CDC.gov

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) While much of the world has looked away from the ongoing war in Ukraine following Russias Feb. 24 invasion, the United States and our NATO allies have been doing all they can to make a bad situation there much worse.

In addition to supplying the Ukrainian armed forces with sophisticated long-range weapons that are inflicting major damage on Russian assets and troops, the alliance has quietly shifted massive amounts of troops throughout the European continent and especially in countries that border Russia.

But now the situation threatens to get way out of hand.

The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv has just issued a warning to all Americans inside Ukraine to leave immediately by the quickest, safest route and method possible.

The security situation throughout Ukraine continues to be violent and unpredictable due to ongoing military attacks by Russia, with active fighting in country and uncertain safety conditions, the embassy announced.

Avoid large gatherings and organized events as they may serve as Russian military targets anywhere in Ukraine, including its western regions. The U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens in Ukraine to depart now using privately available ground transportation options if it is safe to do so, the warning stated.

The security situation throughout Ukraine is highly volatile, and conditions may deteriorate without warning. U.S. citizens should remain vigilant and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness, the embassy added.

Know the location of your closest shelter or protected space. In the event of mortar and/or rocket fire, follow the instructions from local authorities and seek shelter immediately. If you feel your current location is no longer safe, you should carefully assess the potential risks involved in moving to a different location, it said.

The warning also advised U.S. citizens to regularly monitor local and international news and social media news channels; ensure travel documents are valid and easily accessible; and review personal security plans and always have a contingency plan in place that does not rely on U.S. government assistance.

The statement from the embassy comes on the heels of a warning of another sort  from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, as reported by Russia Today.

The leadership of Ukraine would meet their maker should they attack Crimea, as Russia would retaliate with a massive strike, the countrys former president has warned. Speaking with Second World War veterans on Sunday in the city of Volgograd, Dmitry Medvedev, Russias president from 2008 to 2012 and currently deputy chairman of the countrys Security Council, issued a dire warning to the authorities in Kiev, who had earlier said that a strike against Crimea was on the cards, the outlet reported.

Some exalted bloody clowns that are periodically popping up over there with some statements, and are even trying to threaten us  I mean an attack on Crimea and so on, said Medvedev, who rotated through as prime minister and president with current President Vladimir Putin for years.

In case something like that happens, the Day of Judgement will come to them all simultaneously  a swift and hard one, he added ominously.

The former president added that it will be very difficult to hide if Russia decides to launch such a massive strike, noting that despite these risks, the Ukrainian leadership is continuing to provoke the overall situation with such statements.

And we will achieve the set goals in the name of our countrys development and so as not to let our dear veterans down, who defended our motherland during the Great Patriotic War, Medvedev concluded after blasting Ukraines leaders for continuing to fight.

A previous report from Russia Today claimed that Ukraine was considering striking Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Kyiv in 2014, using U.S. missiles. That is likely why the American embassy is warning Americans to get out now because they wont be safe anywhere in the country if that happens.

Sources include:

UA.USEmbassy.gov

RT.com
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
(Natural News) Speak even one sentence about vaccine-induced injuries and most allopathic believers will dismiss your conspiracy theory immediately. These same folks will complain and confess all their health problems to you, and talk about autistic children, kids with severe allergies and unexplainable immune system disorders, but they wont talk about the deadly toxins in vaccines for even a minute. Why is that?

For 60 years, the CDC has propagated vaccines as the holy grail of medicine, like a magic pill that keeps everyone from dying of scary infectious diseases that nothing else on earth can save anyone from. Yet, billions of people survive without having any vaccines at all their whole lives, and on average, these folks are much more healthy than the fully vaccinated droids and zombies who seem to be fighting mysterious disorders most of their lives.

Did you know that children are not born with autism? The spectrum develops as kids get more and more vaccines, from birth to age 6, when more than 60 toxic injections are shot into their blood, containing everything from abortion cells to genetically modified viruses and bacteria, not to mention latex, peanut oil, dairy, MSG, formaldehyde and infected African green monkey kidney cells.

If you or a loved one are suffering from CNS disorders, digestive disorders or learning disabilities, its time to investigate the most dangerous vaccines

Got health problems the medical doctors and pediatricians just cant seem to solve by slinging those prescription drugs? Most likely, its VTSvaccine toxin syndrome. The more vaccines you get, the worse the problems become, and theres nary a US doctor who can or will point the finger at the cause, even though most severe food allergies directly coincide with the ingredients in many vaccines.

Whats worse, is that the COVID-19 vaccines arent even vaccines at all. They are spike protein injections (clot shots) that clog the blood and exacerbate current health issues, including central nervous system disorders, heart beat irregularities (myocarditis), cognitive function and motor skills. Thats why the most dangerous vaccines on planet earth are the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, because theyre not even really vaccines at all, but every person who gets them thinks that they are. So here they comeshocking statistics that reveal the 4 most dangerous VACCINES ever created.

#1. COVID-19 Vaccines

Nobody whos been injected with billions of spike proteins, or the technology (mRNA) that mutates your cells into creating them, knows a lick about the real science behind it, or the injury and fatality statistics, or they would never get them in the first place. The Fauci Flu jabs are 300 times deadlier than all other FDA-approved vaccines ever manufactured and distributed. That means you could add up all the injuries and deaths that were induced by the 70 vaccines invented and approved by the FDA over the past several decades, and no other jab comes close to being as dangerous.

According to VAERS data (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System), more than 12,000 vaccine-induced deaths have already been reported in the USA. That system lags far behind real time, and only represents a fraction of the percentage of actual cases, since most people dont even believe it was the vaccine toxins, namely billions of virus-mimicking spike proteins, that sent their loved ones to the hospital or an early grave. That means the Fauci Flu jabs are more deadly than atomic bombs.

#2. MMR Vaccine

Most parents would be shocked to find out how much more dangerous getting the measles vaccine is than actually catching the measles virus. One side effect thats listed on the measles vaccine warning insert lets you know that the jab itself can cause a fever so high the victim can experience a seizure. This happens to one in every 3,000 people injected. Plus, the link between the MMR jab (measles, mumps, rubella) was revealed by the head scientist at the CDC himself, Dr. William Thompson.

Why is the MMR so toxic? It contains bovine cow serum thats extracted from cow skin, and when injected, causes connective tissue disorders, arthritis and lupus; also shortness of breath, low blood pressure, chest pain and skin reactions. The MMR jab also contains recombinant human albumin and WI-38 human diploid lung fibroblasts, which is the protein portion of blood from pooled human venous plasma, and when injected causes fever, chills, hives, rash, headache, nausea, breathing difficulty and rapid heart rate.

#3. Polio Vaccine

If every American knew that up to 98 million Americans were exposed to hidden cancer viruses when they got injected with the polio vaccine, how many would still believe vaccines are the holy grail of modern medicine? If every American knew that oral polio vaccines increase polio cases of paralysis for children, how many would still believe in the safety and efficacy of those jabs?

The IPV, or inactivated polio vaccine, developed by Jonas Salk, uses dead cells of poliomyelitis, whereas the OPV, or oral polio vaccine, developed by Albert Sabin, runs the virus through multiple animals in order to weaken the strain, but that doesnt kill it. So kids who are already struggling with compromised immune systems from all the other toxic jabs cant effectively fight off the weakened live virus, and they end up shedding it to others. This obliterates the old herd theory and actually helps spread polio, rather than prevent it.

#4. Rotavirus Vaccine

The RotaTeq rotavirus vaccine contains a deadly porcine (pig) virus that has no business being in any medicine anywhere, ever, yet its inside the a vaccine given to very young children, twice. Its so deadly, it can cause a childs intestines to tangle (called intussusception) and coil up into themselves like a telescope. This can kill a child. The inventor of the jab, Paul Offit, pocketed millions of pharma dollars from the dirty jab. The irony of it all is that the vaccine supposedly protects against rotavirus infection that causes fever, vomiting and diarrhea, leading to loss of body fluids, dehydration, hospitalization and death, but the vaccine itself commonly causes diarrhea, vomiting, fever, wheezing, coughing, ear infection, severe stomach pain, blood in the stool. Go figure.

Bookmark Vaccines.news to your favorite independent websites for updates on experimental vaccines that cause blood clots, myocarditis and severe, chronic inflammation.

Sources for this article include:

Pandemic.news

SteveKirsch.substack.com

NaturalNews.com

TruthWiki.org

NaturalNews.com

CDC.gov/vaccines
(Natural News) A key member of President Donald Trumps Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) task force now admits that she basically did her own thing throughout the plandemic, possibly illegally, without the knowledge or permission of the administration.

Deborah Birx, the infamous scarfed lady who often appeared alongside Tony Fauci and Trump himself during briefings, says she took it upon herself to manipulate data and publish her own agenda on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Birxs insubordination ultimately guided horrific covid policies such as testing, lockdowns, and masking.

I devised a work-around for the governors reports I was then writing, Birx admits in her new book, which is little more than a confessional grift.

Instead of including those recommendations in the common bulleted list, Id include them in the pandemic summary and state-specific recommendations in the governors reports, where they wouldnt be so obvious.

Birx goes on in her memoir to explain in detail how she would go through covid documents and manipulate the information in such a way as to make it minimally detectable by her superiors.

After the heavily edited documents were returned to me, Id reinsert what they had objected to, but place it in those different locations, she admits.

Id also reorder and restructure the bullet points so the most salient  the points the administration objected to most  no longer fell at the start of the bullet points. I shared these strategies with the three members of the data team also writing these reports.

Birxs Saturday and Sunday report-writing routine, she brags, soon became: write, submit, revise, hide, resubmit, a strategic sleight-of-hand that she says worked as planned.

Republican Matt Mowers helped Birx street the covid agenda without Trump and his close confidants knowing about it

It turns out that Birx had help  from a Republican, no less  who covered for her while she quietly and secretly steered the covid agenda in favor of Faucis vision rather than Trumps.

While the Trump administration wanted to do away with testing, for instance, Birx, with the help of Matt Mowers, her former Chief of Staff in the State Department, was able to keep it in place as a key component of the multi-year plandemic.

After discovering that former CDC director  appointed by Trump  Robert Redfield agreed with her that Trumps efforts to do away with testing was the wrong route, Birx conspired with Redfield to quietly rewrite the guidance and post it to the CDC website without Trump and his closest people knowing about it.

We would not seek approval, Birx admits. Because we were both quite busy, it might take a week or two, but we were committed to subverting the dangerous message that limiting testing was the right thing to do.

Meanwhile, Mowers, who is currently running for Congress in New Hampshires 1st Congressional District, was running cover for Birx on Twitter, praising her for her leadership in this response.

We are in good hands, Mowers tweeted on March 13, 2020, along with a video of Birx speaking on behalf of the Trump administration.

At one point, then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reamed Birx out for her insubordination, to which she doubled down in defense of it.

I did what I needed to do, Birx told Meadows at the time.

What Birx did was probably illegal, which means she now needs to face justice for her crimes. The same is true of Mowers, whose campaign in New Hampshire deserves to crash and burn, followed by a full investigation into these two.

The latest news about the Chinese Virus plandemic and the key players like Birx, who made it work, can be found at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheNationalPulse.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) US Freedom Flyers co-founder Josh Yoder believes the issue about Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine injuries is going to get worse.

This is an issue that we dont see going away. I believe its only going to get worse. And I think we all really need to band together all the people in the medical community, organize organizations like ours and we need to make sure were all pulling in the same direction to get these people help, Yoder told Dr. Bryan Ardis during the July 13 episode of The Dr. Ardis Show on Brighteon.TV.

Yoder said the vaccine injuries are absolutely atrocious not only for crew members from the airline industry but also for the passengers.

The veteran airline pilot noted that many people have come forward to US Freedom Flyers and some are not even associated with the airline industry.

There is a giant cover-up happening. Concerned people must expose it and do something about it because it is going to end in catastrophe for a lot of people, he said.

Yoder related that the US Freedom Flyers started by pushing back for personal rights and freedoms, standing up against the vaccine mandates and supporting acceptance of religious and medical exemptions. Now, the organization is focused on the accountability side of the matter.

FAA allowed airlines to enforce COVID vaccine mandates without safety studies

The pilot slammed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for allowing the airlines to enforce the COVID vaccine mandate without long-term safety studies, which he said is something that has never happened before in the history of the FAA.

According to Yoder, the FAA just allowed the airlines to push pilots into taking an experimental shot without knowing what the side effects are going to be.

It was obviously a politically driven decision. So what were going to do now is hold these people accountable. We absolutely have to stop this at the FAA level. And the reason thats important is because many civil aviation authorities around the world base their rules, policies and procedures off of what the FAA is doing in the United States, Yoder said.

The US Freedom Flyers co-founder added that by targeting a specific regulatory agency, people can make a change by proving that these vaccines are bad for pilots, which will also prove that it is bad for other people. He believes that this is going to have ripple effects.

Yoder asked the help of the American public, saying that this is not something they can do on their own. This is going to make a fundamental difference, especially when it comes to regulations and the type of things within transportation that directly affect peoples safety.

He said pilots have lost their lives in the flight deck and that this is something the airline industry has been quiet about. (Related: After vaccines killed so many, U.S. airlines have run out of pilots and are now canceling flights.)

They dont care about this because the companies and the regulatory organizations that are supposed to oversee flight safety and transportation safety have completely dropped the ball here and theyre liable, Yoder explained.

But the number one issue here, according to Yoder, is freedom or the loss of it.

Ardis agreed, noting that Americans should be fighting for freedom of choice. Gods greatest gift to humanity is the freedom to make choices and anyone who tries to strip that from a person is anti-God, Ardis said.

The CEO of ArdisLabs stressed that freedom of choice is what Americans should be fighting for regardless of what their personal issues are.

Watch the July 13 episode of The Dr. Ardis Show below. The Dr. Ardis Show airs every Wednesday at 10-11 a.m. and every Saturday at 11-12 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Dr. Jane Ruby: Airline pilots were offered incentives to get COVID-19 vaccine  Brighteon.TV.

Pilots fear for safety of passengers as airlines continue to impose COVID-19 vaccine mandate  Brighteon.TV.

United Airlines pilot who refused to take COVID vaccine stuck on unpaid leave.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

TheDrArdisShow.com
(Natural News) Public health bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. are now encouraging people to put their faith in the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines through the Faith in Vaccine program. The move, incidentally, sounds similar to state-sanctioned, cult-like behavior.

The District of Columbia Department of Health (DC Health) launched the program in 2021 by partnering with places of worship in the federal capital to host pop-up vaccine centers in their establishments. The program sought to convince the community that the vaccines were safe and effective, and provide support for residents wanting to be injected. To this end, DC Health partnered with the Leadership Council for Healthy Communities and the Black Coalition against COVID.

The whole goal of Faith in Vaccine is to bring vaccines into the community for easy access, where folks feel comfortable and have confidence in the community, explained DC Health spokesman Dr. Ankoor Shah. (Related: Joy Behar demands Black people trust COVID vaccines because the experiment has been done on White people.)

According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Faith in Vaccine clinics are hosted at local churches where residents can receive information about the COVID-19 vaccine, ask questions, and be vaccinated on-site. The program is an example of information interventions recommended by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security to promote equity in vaccine distribution.

The Faith in Vaccine program has often advertised free perks to new parishioners, such as free backpacks and free masks to children who get injected with the COVID-19 clot shot at places of worship.

However, Faith in Vaccine  which centers mainly on Christian churches  is not the first religious, faith-based initiative to combat COVID-19. Back in 2020 before the vaccines were developed, the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) joined forces with different world religions to launch the Global Multi-Religious Faith-in-Action COVID-19 Initiative. The initiative commenced in April 2020 aimed to raise awareness of the impact of the pandemic on children.

The UNICEF initiative reflected on the unique and critical roles played by religious leaders and actors, in influencing values, attitudes, behaviors and actions that affect the development and well-being of children, and expressed commitment to strengthening multi-religious actions and community mobilization in countering the pandemic.

Predominantly Black Washington, DC hounded by racial disparities in vaccination

The Faith in Vaccine initiative was incidentally launched in the federal capital, often referred to as Chocolate City due to its historically high percentage of Black residents.

According to the NAACP, Blacks made up three-fourths of all COVID-19 deaths in Washington, D.C. even though they comprise 45 percent of the city population. It mentioned that the 30 percent gap is the largest compared to all other states and territories in the United States. Michigan followed with a mere 10 percent gap, while both New York and Louisiana had a seven percent gap.

Even though three-quarters of the D.C. residents who have lost their lives to the COVID-19 pandemic are Black  [they] have received a little over a quarter of the vaccines distributed in D.C. thus far. In contrast, White D.C. residents have received vaccinations three times their rate of deaths from COVID-19, said the civil rights group.

The NAACP continued that Black residents of the federal capital experience different barriers to access the vaccines, including the heavy reliance on internet access to register, insufficient call center capacity due to limited phone access, and a website that lacked the overall capacity to handle incoming requests.

Ultimately, independent journalist Jordan Schachtel noted that the COVID-19 vaccines do not work as promised, regardless of the ethnicities of people who get injected with them.

Theres no evidence that the vaccines are working, and thats why its important to have faith, he remarked

Visit Vaccines.news for more updates about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout worldwide.

Watch the video below to learn more about churches opening to push vaccines.

This video is from the Raymond7779 channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Archbishop Vigano denounces Catholic Churchs endorsement of dangerous COVID-19 vaccines.

Being a vaccine heretic against the church of big pharma; Co-opting scientific research.

Coalition of Austrian clergymen denounces Viennas COVID vaccine mandate.

YouTube bans covid prayer videos, only vaccine worship allowed.

Sources include:

GlobalResearch.ca

NAACPLDF.org

UNICEF.org

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) New environmental regulations in The Netherlands threaten to decimate the countrys cattle industry.

One dairy farmer by the name of Martin Neppelenbroek says the government expects him to cull his herd by 95 percent, leaving him with too few head to survive.

I cant run a farm on five percent, Neppelenbroek stated in a July 7 interview with The Epoch Times. (Related: Neppelenbroeks plight is why thousands of Dutch farmers are protesting with their tractors.)

Neppelenbroek says the new green rules will probably force him to sell his family farm  that is, if anyone is willing to buy it.

In view of the regulations, I cant sell it to anybody, he laments. Nobody wants to buy it. [But] the government wants to buy it. And thats why they [have] those regulations, I think.

EpochTVs Roman Balmakov, host of Facts Matter, took a trip to The Netherlands recently to see for himself the situation. Then he spoke to Neppelenbroek about how the new rules are affecting his farm.

Dutch minister of nature and nitrogen policy Christianne van der Wal could seize property of farmers who dont comply with herd depopulation demands

One very small silver lining in all this is that not every farm faces the same restrictions as Neppelenbroeks. Others, depending on the situation, may be allowed to keep a larger percentage of their herd.

People living further from areas protected under Natura 2000, a European Union (EU) agreement for species and habitat preservation, can own more cattle, the Times reports.

Thats because the Dutch governments regulations on nitrogen oxides and ammonia emissions are tied to sites proximity to those protected areas.

Even so, the new rules are ridiculous and unscientific. Mankind has been raising cattle since the beginning of time, without issue, but all of a sudden we are supposed to believe that most cows need to die in order to stop the planet from warming?

Even in an already green economy like the one The Netherlands currently has, citizens are starting to realize that the climate change narrative they have been fed throughout their lives is a ploy to eliminate meat, strangle the economy and ultimately depopulate their country and the world.

This is what is meant by a great reset, meaning large amounts of people will need to have their lives ended in order to cool the planet and make everything sustainable.

According to reports, Dutch farmers who refuse to comply with the new rules could see their property seized by Christianne van der Wal, the countrys minister of nature and nitrogen policy  a title that in and of itself is ridiculous.

There is not a future for all [Dutch] farmers, warned the Dutch government.

Neppelenbroeks 70-acre-plus property is currently home to just 130 milking cows. It has been in his family for half a century, but is now slated for destruction at the hands of the greenies.

Im the second generation, he says.

Keep in mind that The Netherlands, despite its relatively small size, is a major producer of food and other agricultural products. The country is currently one of the worlds top 10 food exporters, having ideal climate conditions for a variety of agricultural outputs.

Its a delta, and the climate is not too hot, not too cold, Neppelenbroek says. Its an ideal place to grow.

You cant blame just one small group in your country for polluting the environment, he adds, referring to farmers who are merely doing something that farmers have been doing for thousands of years: growing and raising food for human consumption.

More of the latest news about the governmental assault on food and energy can be found at GreenTyranny.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheEpochTimes.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) After losing access to Russian gas due to its own sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, Germany is now scrambling to try to produce its own energy with coal. This is proving difficult, however, as Rhine River levels continue to drop, leaving Germany with nothing but the coming prospect of a very cold and dark winter.

According to reports, Germany is finding it increasingly difficult to source coal now that the Rhine River is at its lowest level since 2007 for this time of year. The Rhine, by the way, handles an enormous amount of supplies for Europe, one report explains, including fuel and coal.

The global supply chain is already in shambles, and now this: a main transportation route that is no longer as usable as it once was. Coupled with bottlenecked rail, spiking diesel prices and prolific supply shortages, the German economy is now on its last legs.

Two German power plants in particular  one in Mannheim and the other in Karlsruhe  no longer have enough coal to operate. Normally, these two plants would receive coal via the Rhine, but that is no longer possible, we are told.

In the coming months, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights, Germany will only be able to access about 65 percent of its coal supply due to these and other transportation issues.

The Rhine might have been Germanys last shot at surviving

A few key chokepoints on the Rhine are seeing even sharper declines in the transportation of commodities as barges are no longer able to get through them without becoming lodged or wrecking.

Until water levels return to where they should be  and that may not happen before the upcoming winter season  the Rhine will become largely unusable. This is the last thing Germany needs right now in order to survive everything else it currently faces.

The level of difficulty also means that barge operators charge higher rates for cargo owners, suggesting further increased prices for consumers for oil products, grain, and other commodities shipped on the Rhine, one report explains.

Overall, the Rhine has become an even more important transit route for commodities in Germany and Switzerland since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Had Germany taken a much different approach to Russias special operation in Ukraine, all of this likely could have been avoided. The European powerhouse refused to play ball, though, and now it is paying a huge  and likely irreversible  price.

Germany seems to have lost its direction in energy policies, wrote a commenter at OilPrice.com. It wanted to project itself as the greenest country in Europe so under pressure from the Green parties and environmental activists it decided to de-commission its nuclear and also end the use of coal-powered electricity plants at a later date.

German-led EU (European Union) followed hasty policies to accelerate energy transition at the expense of fossil fuels and decided to end long-term contracts for the supply of gas preferring to buy its needs in the spot market which is at best unreliable.

This same commenter went on to explain that the short-sightedness of Germany politicians, coupled with their lust for a total green conversion, is creating the largest energy crisis for Germany and Europe at large since the end of World War II.

Mind you, there was already a problem before Vladimir Putin decided to pull the trigger on Ukraine. The invasion only amplified what was already snowballing into a death knell for Germany and the European Union  and it is only a matter of time until it culminates into a final death blow for what was once one of the most prosperous areas of the world.

The latest news about the collapse of the global economy can be found at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

OilPrice.com
(Natural News) As Republicans and Democrats argue about the future of abortion and human rights, there exists a force of evil far greater in scope, threatening the unborn and the generations to come. This force is stealthily destroying the fertility of an entire generation and spontaneously aborting the next generation  without humanitys consent.

A historic reduction in birth rates is occurring around the world. Taiwan, Sweden, the UK, the US and Germany are all reporting an improbable drop-off in their countrys respective birth rates. In the first quarter of 2022, Germanys birth rate consistently fell by an improbable 11 percent!

Taiwans birth rate also saw an improbable 27.66% drop-off in June 2022. Something catastrophic is taking place, threatening human reproductive organs around the globe. Are people deciding not to conceive in record numbers, or is something more sinister keeping pregnancies from coming to term?

There is a 1 in 12.5 billion chance birth rates would have randomly fallen at such a rate

Germany just released its birth data for April 2022, and the depopulation trend continues unabated there. Germanys birth rate has fallen an improbable 11 percent across the first four months of 2022. This 11 percent drop is compared to the seven-year average and represents a 6.6 sigma event. This means that there is a 1 in a 12.5 billion chance that this drop-off in births would happen randomly. The drop-off in birth rate is even greater (13 percent) when its compared to the 2021 statistics alone. The total number of live births in April of 2021 was 63,601. The previous three-year average hovered around 62,000 live births throughout the month of April. In April 2022, the live births dropped significantly, to 55,994.

These statistics could mean several things. Conception across Germany may have dramatically fallen from March to June 2021, when the covid-19 vaccines were rolled out en masse. Miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies could have occurred in greater numbers during the vaccine rollout. Whether fewer people were deciding to conceive or whether fewer pregnancies were making it full term, the end result is the same: depopulation is happening today. If the correlation between covid-19 vaccine programs and infertility is true, the appalling drop-off in births will continue in the months ahead.

There is already evidence of this for the month of June. A further drop-off in birth rate is already being observed in Taiwan, with their June 2022 birth rate falling by 27.66% compared to the previous year, same time. The May drop-off in births between 2021 and 2022 in Taiwan was 23.34%, so the situation is getting worse there.

In Great Britain, the corporate media is celebrating the reduction in live births. The iNews channel published an opinion piece on July 7, 2022, titled, A decline in birth rates is a cause for celebration  it shows how far we have come. For years, schoolchildren have been taught that the world is overpopulated, so articles like these are expected to show up more. Just as vaccine side effects and sudden adult death syndrome were normalized in 2021, cratering birth rates will also be normalized in 2022 and beyond.

Vaccine-induced spike proteins proliferate in reproductive organs, and shed to others through inhalation and skin contact

During the clinical trials for the BioNTech/Pfizer mRNA vaccine, scientists warned about exposure during pregnancy. The vaccinated study participants were told to report any secondary environmental exposure to pregnant women or breastfeeding mothers. This included exposure to the study intervention by inhalation or skin contact especially at time of conception. Basically, Pfizer warned that a pregnant woman who is unvaccinated could also pick up the spike proteins from her doctor/midwife or another family member who was vaccinated.

A male family member or healthcare provider who has been exposed to the study intervention by inhalation or skin contact then exposes his female partner prior to or around the time of conception, the documents state. With evidence of vaccine-induced spike proteins proliferating to various organs in the body, the threat to reproductive organs becomes magnified. Moreover, this proliferation of spike proteins and reverse transcription of SARS-CoV-2 RNA into the genome also makes the threat of viral shedding even greater than previously imagined.

Today, the covid-19 vaccine may be the greatest threat to the unborn, whether the mother is vaccinated or is exposed to the recently vaccinated. The vaccines implications for infertility affects both males and females, because the engineered spike protein is expressed in both the testes and the placenta.

Sources include:

ExposeNews.com

Ris.gov

INews.co.uk

NaturalNews.com

DPBH.gov [PDF]

21A86.com [PDF]

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Americas public health and regulatory bodies are so controlled by corrupt politics that many of the scientists who work or used to work, on them are finally coming forward to speak out.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are all making decisions not based on science but on what the current regime is telling them to do.

Its like a horror movie Im being forced to watch and I cant close my eyes, one senior FDA official says. People are getting bad advice and we cant say anything.

That official pointed to two recent developments at the FDA of major concern, one of them being the agencys authorization of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines for infants and toddlers, including those who already tested positive for covid.

A few months before this, the FDA did the same thing by authorizing so-called booster shots for young children, who have a zero percent chance of dying from COVID.

The NIH, which way up top is headed by Tony Fauci, is seeing a mass exodus of workers and extremely low morale. Many senior scientists have departed over the past year as COVID jab injuries and deaths continue to mount.

They have no leadership right now, one NIH scientist is quoted as saying. Suddenly theres an enormous number of jobs opening up at the highest level positions.

The CDC is facing the same situation with a large amount of turnover and low morale.

Things have become so political, so what are we there for? a CDC scientist said. I used to be proud to tell people I work at the CDC. Now Im embarrassed.

If Americas public health agencies want to retain or gain back any credibility, they need to embrace real science

The reason why so many top-level scientists at these government agencies are quitting or avoiding telling others where they work these days is because of the blatant pseudoscience that they are being told to peddle.

Politics, not science, is what drives public health policy in the United States. And people are getting sick of it, especially those who have worked at these agencies for some time now and have seen their steady decline.

All three of these agencies supported the universal masking of children at school, as another example of the pseudoscientific garbage posing as public health these days.

Compelling studies later found schools that masked children had no different rates of transmission, report Drs. Marty Makary, MD, MPH, and Tracy Beth Heg, MD, PhD, on their Common Sense news page.

And for social and linguistic development, children need to see the faces of others.

The closure of schools is another bad policy that came out of these three agencies, a move that resulted in the poorest and most vulnerable children missing out on educational development.

Poor and minority children suffered learning loss with an 11-point drop in math scores alone and a 20 percent drop in math pass rates, the doctors further write. There are dozens of statistics of this kind.

Perhaps the biggest error in judgment was ignoring natural immunity in favor of the vaccines. Some would argue that this was intentional, while others say it was just more politics catering to the vaccine industry  so, basically, it was intentional either way.

CDC failed to balance the risks of COVID with other risks that come from closing schools, another CDC scientist lamented about the failed science at her agency.

Learning loss, mental health exacerbations were obvious early on and those worsened as the guidance insisted on keeping schools virtual. CDC guidance worsened racial equity for generations to come. It failed this generation of children.

The latest news about Fauci Flu shots can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources include:

CommonSense.news

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Doctors Lee Merritt and Ben Tapper slammed health authorities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for waiting two years to admit that masks and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are scientifically nonsensical.

Merritt and Tapper both stood out for this viewpoint during a council meeting back at the start of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. They faced experts from the University of Nebraska saying that the masks are clearly proven.

Well, the funny thing is the only study that they used was the salon study that was clearly doctored. They said that the only lady that caught COVID was the only hairstylist that didnt have a mask on, Tapper recounted during his appearance on the July 13 episode of Merritt Medical Hour on Brighteon.TV.

But a CDC analysis found that mask mandates were associated with an average of just 1.32 percent decrease in the rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths during the first 100 days of implementation.

The said council meeting at the start of the pandemic leaned toward the enforcement of mask mandates because cases were rising at the time. COVID-19 infections had been detected in a large number of people through the RT-PCR tests.

They were relying so heavily on a test that does not correlate to subjective or objective findings in a clinical setting. It should have been thrown out, Tapper said. (Related: CDC, WHO admit RT-PCR tests ineffective in detecting COVID-19 virus.)

Merritt said she discovered the genetic sequence that the so-called experts claimed was on these tests through the blast program, which looks at the human genome. This means that the kits werent testing for anything that was different from humans own genetic sequence  so the result will be positive.

Reports also emerged that the World Health Organization and the CDC have unequivocally confirmed that the RT-PCR tests are flawed and invalid.

We know that Big Pharma has zero integrity. Our government is showing that they have zero integrity in this whole thing. And on the market, this mRNA type is the most dangerous vaccine in the world ever in history, Tapper said.

Epidemiology professor scoffs at claims that mask mandates are based on science

Dr. Harvey Risch, a professor of epidemiology at Yale University, scoffed at the claims by Anthony Fauci, the CDC, FDA and other experts that mask mandates are based on science.

To understand science, you have to go back to the evidential studies that bear on your theories about how things work, Risch told Refounding America host Dr. Peter Breggin on Brighteon.TV.

He said that reading original studies on whether or not masks work  whether by reducing the spread to other people or protecting those that wear them  allows people to decide whether or not theyre done validly and whether the conclusions are appropriate.

Weve been told what science was without actually being told the science itself. Thats not science, thats plausibility, the professor said.

Learn what science really says about face masks and COVID vaccines at CensoredScience.com.

Watch the full July 13 episode of Merritt Medical Hour below. Catch new episodes of the program every Wednesday at 7-8 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Major airlines to allow passengers banned for mask mandate violations back onboard.

Victims share stories of INJURIES caused by COVID PCR test.

New Jersey state senators argue mask mandate for children is NOT supported by science.

FDA document admits covid PCR test was developed without isolated covid samples for test calibration, effectively admitting its testing something else.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com 1

CDC.gov

SovereignMan.com

GlobalResearch.ca

Brighteon.com 2
Professor Israel Hershkovitz Emeritus in Anatomy and Anthropology of the Tel Aviv University (TAU) shows a fossil fragment of a jaw at a TAU lab in the eponymous Israeli coastal city, on June 27, 2021. - The remains that were uncovered at the site of excavations in the quarry of a cement plant near the central city of Ramla, consisted of bones belonging to a "new type of early human" previously unknown to science, researchers said on June 24, claiming to have shed new light on human evolution. (Photo : Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images)

An archaic upper mandible unearthed in Spain exhibits the different morphological traits of a person who may be Europe's earliest documented primitive ancestor.

1.4-Million-Year-Old Jawbone

The specimen was discovered in June by a team of paleontologists at Sima del Elefante (Spanish for "Pit of the Elephant"), an ancient area in the Atapuerca Mountains near Burgos in northern Spain noted for its rich evolutionary history, Science Alert reported.

The segmented skull is thought to be the eldest child of its kind already discovered in Europe, and it contains part of the topmost jawbone (maxilla) and a tooth from a 1.4-million-year-old hominid, according to the scientists in a transcribed declaration.

As per The Australian Museum, the morphological category contains all extant and historical representatives of the humanoid as well as giant ape genealogy, encompassing humans and our prehistoric homo cousins, along with chimps and apes.

Previously to this find, the oldest documented humanoid remains discovered in Europe (at Sima del Elefante in 2008) were dated to 1.2 million years ago while as per 2012 research released in the British Dental Journal, the discovery comprised a part of a mandible, or lower jawbone, and many skeletal remains.

The latest current finding surprised experts, who had not expected to discover remains earlier than those previously discovered at the location. Furthermore, as claimed by El Pas, a broadsheet in Spain, the top jawbone was found around 6.5 feet further in the soil sample than the remains recovered in 2008. It was recovered by edgar Tellez, a doctorate candidate at the National Center for Research on Human Evolution in Burgos.

Evolutionary scientists think that, like the last petrified discovery, the higher jawbone demonstrates the ongoing trend of the facial expression. There is also a perpendicular protrusion in this upper jaw, like in the mandible discovered in [2008], which might imply that this contemporary face had been established at this period.

Also read: Fossils of Jurassic Insect Shows It Wore Eggs Dangling Off its Leg

The Earliest Recognized Ancient Human

Tellez and his colleagues hypothesize that the tooth belonged to a person who was more intimately relevant to current Europeans than to more ape-like apes, like Homo habilis, an evolutionary divergence of hominins from Africa going all the way back to the Pleistocene epoch.

And as shown a 1999 article released in the Journal of Human Evolution, the scientists suggest the specimen came from Homo antecessor (Latin for "pioneer man"), whose placement in the human genealogy is debatable but may be a close relation of contemporary humans and Neanderthals. (The first fossilized remains of Homo antecessor were discovered in 1994 in Atapuerca.)

In an exclusive talk by Live Science with John Hawks, an archaeologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the latest excavations, the stated that the recent revelation provides perspective into the electorate that originally populated this neighborhood.

Expert still don't know precisely where this element of the upper jaw is going to fit, and that unit is trying to do a great deal of work and correlation to figure that out.

However, they ascertain it, this is connected to a location with proof of actions, and every item that experts have that's linked to a premises with evidence of behavior, such as creating primitive tools or scavenging, tells researchers about the psychosocial aptitudes of the forefathers and kin.

The experts at the discovery stated that more investigation is necessary to pinpoint the specific antiquity of the upper jawbone and whether it is connected to the previous remains discovered there.

Related article: Scientists Traced Origin of World's Oldest Martian Meteorite Formed 4.5 Billion Years Ago
An approaching solar storm is expected to affect the magnetic field of Earth. If the slow-moving solar particle cloud reaches Earth later this week, Earth may suffer a few mild geomagnetic storms.

Solar Updates

Spaceweather.com, a website that utilizes sun-monitoring data to provide space weather updates, made the prediction.

When charged particles from the Sun interact with the Earth's magnetic field, it causes changes that lead to geomagnetic storms. These storms can disrupt electrical grids and communication networks if they are powerful enough.

Direct Collision

The prospective forthcoming storm, however, is only predicted to be a G1-class storm-the mildest category-according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) space weather scale; therefore, it seems doubtful that this would be the case.

According to the SWPC, G1-class storms might have a minimal effect on satellite operations and mild power grid fluctuations. Additionally, auroras can be visible in the sky at lower latitudes than usual, such as above the northern states of Maine and Michigan in the United States.

Also Read: Blackout-Causing Solar Flares from Enormous Sunspot Threatens Earth

Reaching the Planet

According to spaceweather.com, a cloud of particles blasted from "an unstable filament of magnetism" on the Sun on July 15 will be the reason for the potential storm, which is predicted to arrive between July 20 and July 21.

A NASA prediction model also showed what solar scientist Tamitha Skov described as a "direct strike" from a solar ejection on July 15, but with an earlier impact date of July 19. If this is the same expulsion, it's unclear.

The solar ejection is also visible in a video taken that day by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which begins with a very short flash of material speeding away from the Sun's surface in the middle of the day.

Coronal Mass Ejections

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are frequent occurrences of these particle clouds. However, one only travels toward Earth about once every few weeks.

CMEs can carry an embedded magnetic field and billions of tons of solar atmospheric material. Twisted magnetic field lines abruptly reorient themselves, releasing them from the Sun.

According to the SWPC, the pace of CMEs can vary greatly, with some reaching Earth in as little as 15 to 18 hours. The ejection from July 15 is expected to impact Earth between five and six days after leaving the solar, although it is moving remarkably slowly.

No Advisories

As of Monday, the SWPC has not issued any alerts or advisories. In any event, even if it does strike Earth, there won't likely be any issues for the general population.

Should we worry?

Some scientists are concerned that the most recent solar explosion wave might cause an Earth-bound geomagnetic storm. The flareup turned out to be modest, so for the time being, the Earth is secure. But these storms are unpredictable, and researchers are still puzzled as to why the Sun flares up during these storms.

The magnetosphere, the region around our planet that is controlled by our magnetic field, is significantly disturbed by geomagnetic storms. The storms frequently produce stunning auroras in the night sky, but they may also seriously disrupt the planet's electrical infrastructure and navigational systems.

Related Article: Can We Survive a Catastrophic Solar Storm? What to do When a Solar Flare Hits Earth

For more cosmic news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
BAD BERLEBURG, GERMANY - MAY 05: A herd of European bison roams through a forest in the Rothaargebirge mountain range on May 5, 2014 near Bad Berleburg, Germany. The herd is a project of Wisent Welt Wittgenstein, a government-funded initiative which last year released the herd in an effort to restock the bison in the wild. European bison were once plentiful across Europe and Russia, though their numbers were decimated to near extinction by hunting and habitat encroachment. (Photo : Photo by Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)

Bisons have been absent in the UK wild for thousands of years, but these "gentle giants" have returned, thanks to a special project called the Wilder Blean project.

The pioneering scheme aims to reintroduce these mammals to one of south-east England's largest areas of ancient woodland, and "transform a dense commercial pine forest into a vibrant natural woodland," as per The Guardian.

It is also considered an experiment to see how well they can act as natural "ecosystem engineers" and restore wildlife.

Four European bison have been released this morning into an ancient woodland in Kent, marking the first time the giant herbivores have been introduced to the wild in the UK. This is a major milestone for proponents Tom Gibbs and Donovan Wright, Britain's first bison rangers, of rewilding UK landscapes.

A Tool to Tackle Climate Crisis

The Wilder Blean project near Canterbury is a 1,575,000 "very special" project and collaboration between the Wildwood Trust and the Kent Wildlife Trust to bring bison back to Britain. The species came "within a hair of extinction" less than a century ago, saved only by captive breeding and rewilding in Poland, the Netherlands, Romania and elsewhere, according to Discover Wildlife.

Today, their gene pool has "dwindled to a puddle", so establishing new herds reduces inbreeding and improves the species' resilience. "Because of the genetic bottleneck, we've got to be quite careful with them," says Don. "They were downgraded from Vulnerable to Near Threatened [IUCN Red List status] in 2020, but still need to be protected."

But more importantly, the project may restore a centuries-old wildlife habitat and help tackle climate crisis.

"The restoration of naturally functioning ecosystems is a vital and inexpensive tool in tackling the climate crisis," said Evan Bowen-Jones, CEO at Kent Wildlife Trust (KWT). "We want Wilder Blean to mark the beginning of a new era for conservation in the UK. We need to revolutionize the way we restore natural landscapes, relying less on human intervention and more on natural engineers like bison, boar and beaver."

Paul Whitfield, director general of Wildwood Trust, added that it will also give people in the UK a chance to experience bison in the wild, for the first time in over a thousand years.

Also read: Firefighters Struggle to Contain Wildfires Due to Heatwave Across Southwest Europe

Return of the Bison

According to Paul, the project gives a really powerful, emotional, visceral experience on something "we've lost in this country", after the bison have gone almost extinct in the wild a century ago, but are recovering through reintroduction projects across Europe.

The bison will come from wildlife parks where they have experienced more human interaction and less space to roam freely: an older female from the Highland wildlife park in Scotland, which will be the matriarch of the herd, plus two young females from Fota wildlife park in Cork, Ireland.

"We could not have asked for a better matriarch," said Donovan. "She's very, very calm, she's very confident." Tom added that they cannot wait to see how the three female bison start to shape the Blean over a five-20-year period as they settle into their new home and start throwing their weight around.

Related article: More than 30 Sea Turtles Found Injured or Dead with Stab Wounds on a Remote Island in Japan
In a heat wave, bees are ejaculating themselves to death. This week's extreme heat may cause bees to perish across Europe, causing them to ejaculate violently as they do so.

U.K. Heat

 Red Extreme heat warning issued 



Parts of England on Monday and Tuesday



Latest info  https://t.co/QwDLMg9c70



Stay #WeatherAware  pic.twitter.com/YHaYvaGh95  Met Office (@metoffice) July 15, 2022



In the U.K., during one of the worst heat waves ever recorded, temperatures recently climbed to 104 degrees Fahrenheit in portions of continental Europe and the Middle East. While this heat is hazardous for humans and animals, it might negatively impact the honey bee colonies on which we rely so heavily.

Bee Incident

According to various accounts that have gone viral, male honey bees might suffer a horrific destiny under intense heat: they would start convulsing, ejaculate violently, and ultimately perish. Half of the male honey bees are thought to perish this way at temperatures exceeding 107 degrees Fahrenheit within six hours, with more delicate ones dying in only two or three hours.

Dr. Alison McAfee, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia's Michael Smith Laboratories, stated in a statement that when drones die from shock, they spontaneously ejaculate. They have an extensive endophallus that protrudes from their body and is around the size of their abdomen.

The hives are naturally cooled by the bees, who maintain a temperature of around 95 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the delicate balance is upset during heat waves, and the males start to perish.

Also Read: Rapid Decline of Insect Population Causes Scientists to Worry About Earth's Future

Losing Control

According to a study published in the February issue of Communications Biology, these poor male bees often have a higher sensitivity to environmental stresses like temperature. According to the study, this may result from male honey bees being haploid drones, which means they have half as many DNA chromosomes as female worker bees. It was previously believed that this made the men more susceptible to biotic hazards like pesticides, and it now appears that the temperature may also have a greater impact on males.

Although males do not produce honey like female worker bees, they are vital to the hive's social structure.

According to the Communications Biology research authors, "High-quality male honey bees are crucial for enabling appropriate mating of queens, whose lifespan depends on the volume and quality of sperm collected during nuptial flights."

Observing Honey Bees

If honey bee colonies start to fail, there may be serious effects on the economy and biodiversity. As one of the primary pollinators of more than 100 food crop kinds in the United States, honey bees play a crucial role in the agricultural sector. The market for honey worldwide was estimated to be worth $8.58 billion in 2021.

McAfee and a beekeeping colleague named Emily Huxter have been researching ways to keep the hive cool to stop these mass male fatalities. The researchers discovered that covering hives with two-inch polystyrene covers reduced the interior temperature by about 4 degrees Celsius compared to control hives and that feeding syrup to the hives also reduced the temperature by roughly 1 degree.

Increased heat wave frequency brought on by climate change may harm bumblebees as well.

According to Dave Goulson, a bee ecologist and professor of biology at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, "their large size and furry coat are adaptations to thriving in cool conditions-bumblebees are most common in temperate, montane, and polar regions, and few can survive in the [Mediterranean]."

Impacts of Climate Change

Modeling indicates that many popular U.K. species won't be able to live in the U.K. under anticipated future climate scenarios because they overheat in hot weather and cannot fly (picture attempting to flap your arms 200 times per second while wearing a fur coat).

The impacts of climate change brought on by carbon dioxide emissions have made heat waves and droughts more frequent.

Related Article: One of the World Largest Mass Extinctions May Have Been Triggered by Volcanic Winter

For similar news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
At 12:50 today, a tentative temperature of 40.2C was recorded at Heathrow, breaking the previous record of 38.7C from 2019 by 1.5C.

We will have to wait to find out what the real new record will be because the temperature is expected to rise during the day.

Scotland and Wales may potentially set new temperature records.

Record-breaking heatwave in the UK

Both the first-ever Amber Extreme Heat warning and the first-ever Red Extreme Heat warning are still in effect throughout much of England, Wales, and southern Scotland.

Thunderstorms are possible today because of the severe heat, especially in certain areas of the southwest and later in the northeast of England.

Tomorrow, there is a Yellow Thunderstorm Warning for a portion of the Southeast.

The previous highest daily minimum record of 23.9C was set in Brighton on August 3, 1990.

Last night, temperatures stayed above 20C in many places, and overnight temperature records are anticipated to have been broken with 25.8C provisionally recorded in Kenley, Surrey, and 24.5C in Aberporth, Wales.

Neil Armstrong, the head of the Met Office, said that the UK is experiencing extreme temperatures today and advised people to make plans for the heat and think about altering their habits.

Health problems may result from exposure to this amount of heat.

The probability of thunderstorms is now rising along with the high heat, especially in the Northeast of England this afternoon (Tuesday) and in the south tomorrow (Wednesday).

The alert level was raised to red last week to coincide with the UK Health Security Agency's raising of the existing Heat Health Warning for England to Level 4.

Also Read: UK Temperatures Drops to 38C but More Likely To Increase on Tuesday

Huge surge in fires

Data indicated that 40.3C was recorded in Lincolnshire on the first day the UK ever saw temperatures exceeding 40C, as per The Guardian.

This came after the warmest night ever recorded when temperatures in certain areas failed to drop below 25C.

The forecaster predicted relief will soon be on the way in the form of thunderstorms on Wednesday.

According to preliminary Met Office data, Charterhall in the Scottish Borders achieved Scotland's hottest temperature ever, hitting 34.8C. It broke the previous record of 32.9C set on August 9, 2003, at Greycrook.

During the heatwave, at least 13 people perished after entering open water, and at least four of them were under the age of 17.

Water safety organizations fear that once schools are out for the summer, the death toll will rise.

In reaction to a significant increase in fires occurring around the capital, the London fire department declared a major incident.

Firefighters called the fires blazing through houses and buildings in London "total horror," with victims being rushed to hospitals and residents being evacuated. In the east London suburb of Wennington, residents were forced to flee their houses as flames tore down structures and decimated neighboring fields.

Following a fire in Dagenham, two further patients were transported to the hospital with smoke inhalation.

The moorland behind Dovestones reservoir is the subject of a Greater Manchester police information request regarding fires that are thought to have been intentionally lit.

British railway standards must be "driven up," according to the transport secretary.

The Victorian-era infrastructure, according to Grant Shapps, "wasn't meant to endure this sort of temperature." It would take decades to modify old lines to be more durable, he continued, and similar occurrences will happen more frequently.

The 999 and 111 services are consistently in demand at London's ambulance service.

The agency claimed that due to "an upsurge in the number of people experiencing heat exposure," it was responding to 400 calls each hour.

Related article: Places in UK Receives an Amber Warning as Hottest Temperatures Recorded This Year
A group of researchers have identified three new species of black-bellied salamander.

Based on the findings, the new salamanders originated from black-bellied populations that were previously thought to be a single species and are now found in the southern Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States.

New species of salamander in the Appalachian Mountains

The finding clarifies "cryptic" species, which are defined as those without evident variations between populations that have undergone an evolutionary change, as per ScienceDaily.

The researchers claimed that although black-bellied salamanders have been classified as a single species for more than a century, there are small distinctions between them.

According to Pyron, black-bellied salamanders have been extensively researched for more than a century.

A cryptic dwarf species was identified in 2002, and by 2005, DNA data started to point to the existence of more species.

Scientists couldn't sequence genome-scale data until the NSF-funded study in 2020, when they discovered that there were in fact five species with comparable appearances.

Desmognathus quadramaculatus, a salamander species with a patchy historical record, was seen by the researchers to start.

They discovered that the specimens varied in size, shape, and color pattern, among other morphological, genetic, and geographic characteristics.

Following the sequencing of the D. quadramaculatus, the researchers found five distinct species, three of which constitute uncharted territory for scientists.

Now referred to as D. gvnigeusgwotli, D. kanawha, and D. mavrokoilius, the new species have new names.

Also Read: Salamander Strut Sheds Light on Evolution From Sea Dwelling to Land Dwelling [VIDEO]

New species on Gulf Coast

One-third of the 750 salamander species that have been identified by science are found in North America, as per GWToday.

Currently, a research group headed by R. In the swampy Gulf Coastal Plain of southeast Mississippi and southwest Alabama, Alexander Pyron, the Robert F. Griggs Associate Professor of Biology at the George Washington University Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, has identified a new species of dusky salamander.

The discovery broadens understanding of the biodiversity in the coastal plain in the southeast of the United States, an area that satisfies the international standards for a biodiversity hotspot.

Despite hundreds of years of rigorous study, the area still holds a wealth of unexplored variety, according to academics.

This discovery demonstrated how much more scientists can learn right in our own backyards, according to Pyron.

The well-known naturalist E.O. Wilson referred to this area as "America's Amazon," where red wolves and ivory-billed woodpeckers previously roamed.

While learning how much biodiversity there was initially, humanity is losing it at a spectacular rate.

Salamanders are among the species that are most in danger of extinction globally, yet experts don't fully comprehend their richness.

Desmognathus pascagoula, a new species of salamander, was found to be similar to Desmognathus valentinei, a different newly discovered species, according to the researchers.

But the new species differs in certain physical, genetic, and geographical ways.

Many of these dusky salamanders are cryptic, which means it is difficult to tell them different with the unaided eye, which is one reason they remained unknown for so long, according to Pyron.

Only via genome sequencing can we truly understand how different they are.

Then, exact measurements of preserved specimens showed minute variations in features like head breadth that would otherwise go undetected.

To shed light on both D's biology and its biology in general, more research will be required. Academics have discovered information on pascagoula's historical and present-day geographic boundaries.

In order to see "portholes," postocular stripes, and snouts, Pyron advised other field researchers and citizen scientists looking for the species to concentrate on photographs of the lateral surfaces of the body and head.

Related article: Fossil and Extinct Amphibian: Dominican Republic Salamander in Amber
Multi-cloud networking software (MCNS), which is available from industry stalwarts like Cisco and VMware, as well as a slew of startups, is designed to address the challenge of how to safely and efficiently connect networks and applications across multiple public cloud environments.

Traditional approaches to network architecture and operations are untenable in todays multi-cloud world, says Brian Casemore, vice president of research, datacenter and multi-cloud networking at IDC.

And the cloud service providers have come up short in their ability to effectively integrate multiple clouds, says Ron Howell, managing enterprise network architect at IT consulting firm Capgemini Americas. He says that each public cloud service tends to focus on its own cloud as if it were the only one an enterprise would ever need, which is far from the truth or reality. "This is where multi-cloud networking software adds value," Howell says.

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What is multi-cloud networking software?

MCNS aims to ensure consistent networking governance, policy, security, and visibility across multiple cloud environments via a single point of management.

"Multi-cloud networking provides automated, policy-based networking that offers connectivity and network services for distributed workloads in and across multiple clouds," explains Casemore.

Enterprises currently address multi-cloud networking in various ways, Some organizations follow a do-it-yourself approach, often involving manual configuration of routers and virtual routers, Casemore says. That manual configuration is sometimes aided by scripting or open-source automation tools.

"Meanwhile, organizations that have adopted a datacenter software-defined networking (SDN) platform often look to extend SDN policy and control to cloud environments," he adds.

MCNS, whether supplied as network software or as a service based on underlying software, is declaratively managed, on demand, elastically scalable, highly available, and secure. "In other words, it conforms to the core attributes of cloud environments," Casemore states.

Who offers multi-cloud networking software?

Gartner's Andrew Lerner has identified several vendors, including Alkira, Aviatrix, Arista, Cisco, F5 Networks and VMWare as active MCNS market participants. IDC has recognized other market players such as Prosimo, Arrcus, Isovalent, and Nethopper.io.

Vendors are offering software that delivers both advanced capabilities for single cloud environments, and operational consistency for multi-cloud operations. "These new cloud software products both replace native cloud software and leverage native cloud provider APIs to meet enterprise requirements," says Rod Stuhlmuller, Aviatrix's vice president of strategic customer and analyst relations.

What are the benefits of multi-cloud networking software?

Enterprises are adopting multi-cloud architectures because it allows them to distribute workloads across various cloud services providers, shared colocation facilities, and on-premises data centers by establishing common foundational baselines in the underlying services, says Joe Hielscher, product manager, cloud networking software, with Arista Networks.

Here are some of the benefits of multi-cloud networking software:

Speed: MCNS promises to dramatically accelerate cloud deployments by eliminating the need to juggle multiple networking silos, all with different tooling and capabilities. "With the right MCNS, organizations no longer require specialized cloud knowledge or have to employ error-prone manual configurations to unify their clouds," says Amir Khan, Alkira's founder and CEO. "As a result, work that used to take months to complete can instead be done in hours."

MCNS promises to dramatically accelerate cloud deployments by eliminating the need to juggle multiple networking silos, all with different tooling and capabilities. "With the right MCNS, organizations no longer require specialized cloud knowledge or have to employ error-prone manual configurations to unify their clouds," says Amir Khan, Alkira's founder and CEO. "As a result, work that used to take months to complete can instead be done in hours." Performance: According to Casemore, MCNS offerings include abstractions or low-code optimizations that are designed to simplify networking in and across disparate clouds. The abstractions mitigate the complexity, operational burden, and associated costs of contending with and managing discrete and disconnected cloud APIs and cloud-specific network constructs. "These solutions can also help optimize network performance in and across clouds," he notes.

According to Casemore, MCNS offerings include abstractions or low-code optimizations that are designed to simplify networking in and across disparate clouds. The abstractions mitigate the complexity, operational burden, and associated costs of contending with and managing discrete and disconnected cloud APIs and cloud-specific network constructs. "These solutions can also help optimize network performance in and across clouds," he notes. Staffing Costs : Having a consistent network and security infrastructure spanning an entire multi-cloud environment promises to free enterprises from having to recruit, hire, build, and retain teams with expertise in disparate cloud environments. "Multi-cloud networking software makes building and managing network and security the same in every public cloud environment," Stuhlmuller explains. "In large enterprises, this benefit alone can translate to a reduction of millions of dollars in human resource costs annually."

: Having a consistent network and security infrastructure spanning an entire multi-cloud environment promises to free enterprises from having to recruit, hire, build, and retain teams with expertise in disparate cloud environments. "Multi-cloud networking software makes building and managing network and security the same in every public cloud environment," Stuhlmuller explains. "In large enterprises, this benefit alone can translate to a reduction of millions of dollars in human resource costs annually." Operational Efficiency: MCNS also promises to bridge the gap that currently exists between NetOps, DevOps, and SecOps teams by providing a common controller and management framework to discover cloud application intent and then implement it across the cloud and non-cloud infrastructure in a secure and seamless manner, says JL Valente, vice president, product management, enterprise routing and SD-WAN, at Cisco. "MCNS should enable organizations to cultivate collaboration between DevOps and NetOps teams for operational efficiency and also drive faster application deployment," he notes.

Is multi-cloud networking software right for your enterprise?

Valente believes that MCNS will be most beneficial to organizations that have migrated or are migrating their workloads to one or more clouds, that build their own cloud native applications, and are looking for a consistent experience and architecture across cloud environments.

Aristas Hielscher sees MCNS primarily attracting large global enterprises. "However, many medium enterprises in industry verticals such as healthcare, state and local governments, education, and federal government institutions have unique requirements for an MCNS solution as well," he says. "Since smaller enterprises can generally self-select a single public cloud for their applications, MCNS is not as common a reality for them as it is for the larger or more complex enterprises."

Evaluating the leading vendors by features, compatibility, and ease of use is step one for any enterprise considering MCNS adoption. "Leaders should select their top two or three MCNS vendors and move on to the second round, where deeper comparison testing should be performed," Howell advises.

What are the adoption challenges?

Contrary to general perception, Hielscher argues that many enterprises do not voluntarily choose to operate within a multi-cloud environment. In many cases, the environment is thrust upon them through a merger, acquisition, or an isolated departmental choice that preceded a decision to consolidate architectures.

"This results in organizational gaps, skill-set gaps, and contractual and spending overlaps," he explains. "As with any IT strategy, the first step is to establish which goals are to be addressed and the timeframes to address them in."

Potential adopters should be prepared to spend both time and money when evaluating and comparing MCNS products. "For example, organizations should plan costs associated with staffing a team of engineers to see them through the evaluation process," Howell says.

While virtually all large cloud-focused enterprises, and many smaller organizations, can benefit from the right MCNS, it's important to keep an eye on service and the bottom line. "Benefits to the enterprise must be greater than the cost of the solution," Howell warns.

While few observers doubt MCNS's long-term benefits, getting the software up and running can be both costly and time consuming. Training costs, for instance, need to be factored into the purchasing decision. "The complexity of the [MCNS] solution will require the enterprise to re-train their teams to support the product," Howell says.

Casemore warns that multi-cloud architectures typically require extensive modernization of the entire IT infrastructure, including the network, "to ensure adequate end-to-end performance and security."

Adopters taking a do-it-yourself approach to MCNS and cloud networking in general must possess a deep understanding of the nuances that lurk inside each cloud provider, Khan cautions. "Unfortunately, on-prem networking is very different from cloud networking, so your existing networking resources are often not equipped to set up cloud or multi-cloud networks," he notes.

Adding to the challenge is the fact that hiring cloud experts can be exceptionally difficult in the current labor market. "If you're lucky and can hire an AWS networking expert, for example, you must realize that they won't be able to apply the same skills to GCP or Azure," Khan explains. "Each of the cloud providers have different capabilities, different terms, and different ways of doing things."

Additionally, enterprises pursuing multi-cloud often encounter a range of visibility challenges, including intermittent or partial visibility across clouds, leading to the potential for blind spots. "To speed the process of troubleshooting and remediation, and to help IT operations achieve a more proactive approach to availability and performance, multi-cloud networks must possess pervasive, real-time visibility and observability," Casemore says. "This also ensures that control is not sacrificed for agility."

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing potential MCNS adopters is the tendency for cloud service providers to hold onto their customers for dear life, taking the position that their native services provide the absolute best approach and enterprise leaders' natural tendency to believe them. "This leads enterprises down a path that creates less than optimal network and security architectures that bind them to a single public cloud provider," Stuhlmuller says.

Casemore advises that enterprises plan as far ahead as possible to ensure that their multi-cloud networks will align with and facilitate digital-business outcomes, "allowing the network to assume its place as an integral element of modern digital infrastructure."
Young Chinese artists create magnificent wall paintings to beautify hometown in border region of SW Chinas Yunnan

People's Daily Online) 14:47, July 20, 2022

Photo shows a person posing for a picture with a wall painting created by several young people of the Dai ethnic group in Dashuijing village, Gengma county, southwest Chinas Yunnan Province. (Photo/Yan Wenjiao)

Several young people of the Dai ethnic group in Dashuijing village, Gengma county, southwest Chinas Yunnan Province have created three-dimensional paintings on the walls of residential buildings in their village, such as the images of millstones, spinning tops, a cockfight, pumpkins, corn and cows, all of which are closely associated with the daily life of local residents. The wall paintings, which have added color to the village, have come together to create a scenic spot in the locality.

Currently, seven border villages in Gengma county are building their own cultural brands, including Dashuijing village.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming)
Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse journalist and staff writer for the Illinois Times. He can be reached at sreeder@illinoistimes.com.
One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
Led by Regenstrief Institute Research Scientist Kristin Levoy, PhD, MSN, R.N., a meta-analysis of findings from 54 studies (involving more than 31,000 individuals) confirms that caregiver engagement across healthcare transitions (for example from hospital to home) of chronically ill adults is instrumental in preventing rehospitalizations, and holds potential for enhancing other patient outcomes.

The work adds compelling empirical evidence of the value of caregivers in facilitating care transitions when the healthcare team actively partners with them to support the patient's healthcare following discharge. This not only included engaging caregivers in needs assessments and education (e.g., disease and medication management, red flag recognition) prior to discharge, but also telemedicine follow-up post-discharge to support caregivers in care coordination with other healthcare providers or supportive services.

"In my own clinical practice, I have had multiple experiences of caregivers coming to me after a healthcare crisis of their loved ones to reflect on how they didn't feel adequately prepared to support their loved ones' care," said Dr. Levoy, who is also an assistant professor at Indiana University School of Nursing. "These caregivers felt blindsided by how much care they had to provide and ill-equipped for the weighty healthcare decisions they were involved in.

"Caregivers play a critical role in enhancing patient outcomes and we can do a better job of supporting these unrecognized members of the healthcare team," she added. "Caregivers often feel abandoned, particularly in times of healthcare crises, like an unexpected hospitalization, and we need to set them up for success, which includes addressing their unique needs. And these needs only grow greater as the chronic illness advances and the patient's disease and treatment complexity increases."

As adults age with chronic illness, negative changes in health status may result in frequent and often sudden transitions across healthcare settings, such as from home to hospital and back to home or to a skilled nursing facility. On average, older adults will experience between two and five healthcare transitions in the year following a hospitalization.

Dr. Levoy calls for further study of healthcare delivery models that make caregivers actual partners in the healthcare process by supporting the care they provide to keep a chronically ill loved one from boomeranging back to the hospital.

"Caregiver Engagement Enhances Outcomes Among Randomized Control Trials of Transitional Care Interventions -- A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis" is published in Medical Care, a peer reviewed journal of the American Public Health Association. Authors, in addition to Dr. Levoy, are Eleanor Rivera, PhD, R.N., University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing; Alexandra Hanlon, PhD, Virginia Tech College of Science; and Molly McHugh, BSN, R.N.; Karen B. Hirschman, PhD, MSW; and Mary D. Naylor, PhD, R.N., all of University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

The authors wrote, "Increasing support for caregiver engagement during care transitions may require the development of value-based reimbursement models that reward health care systems for the adoption of caregiver-engaged principles, creating an environment for systemic change in the way health care systems conduct business, which may also increase the capability of caregivers to provide care in the home over time, thus, delaying institutionalization."

They conclude, "Whether in research or clinical practice, transitional care should not be conducted without careful consideration of where and how caregivers will be incorporated and supported as active partners in optimizing patient care across health care transitions."

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Nursing Research award T32NR009356.
Although infection with the monkeypox virus is considered an endemic disease in certain African countries, it has now caused several outbreaks in multiple regions throughout the world. In a recent interview with the American Medical Association, scientists working with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide the latest information about monkeypox in the U.S.

Study: Monkeypox numbers, treatment and prevention with two CDC experts. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock.com

These experts included Caroline Schrodt, MD, and Jennifer McQuiston, DVM, both of whom work with the CDCs Division of High-Consequence Pathogens & Pathology.

Dr. Schrodt is an emergency physician and the co-lead on the clinical guidance team as part of the Clinical Task Force for the CDC Multi-National Monkeypox Response. Dr. McQuiston is the incident manager of the Response initiative. Both are officers in the U.S. Public Health Service.

The current outbreak

To date, over 600 probable and confirmed cases have been estimated across 47 U.S. states and territories. This indicates an actively spreading infection that is part of a worldwide outbreak that now includes over 10,600 confirmed cases in 65 countries.

The vast majority of these cases are in non-endemic countries. Dr. McQuiston adds, that this number is probably an undercount because of the difficulty of identifying cases.

Thus, physicians need to include monkeypox in their list of differential diagnoses and order tests for its diagnosis. Furthermore, patients with suspicious symptoms are advised to meet with their physicians for a potential diagnosis.

The monkeypox case curve is rapidly increasing in the U.S. to a similar level to that which has been reported in Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. This type of pattern has been observed throughout the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic; thus, the monkeypox outbreak in the U.S. may be several weeks behind that in Europe.

In response to this surge in cases, the CDC has made testing for the virus available at a number of commercial laboratories and is promoting greater testing for patients with symptoms suggestive of this disease.

With probable community spread occurring, the outbreak is not likely to end soon.

Symptoms

Monkeypox is an orthopoxvirus like smallpox and vaccinia viruses that were used to create the smallpox vaccine. The symptoms of monkeypox infection are similar to those of smallpox; however, they are often milder and associated with a much lower death rate.

There are two monkeypox virus clades. One clade is primarily identified in central Africa or the Congo basin and causes death in about 11% of cases, though these were largely in people unvaccinated against smallpox. Conversely, the second clade, which is presently circulating worldwide, is called the West African clade and is associated with less than 1% mortality.

The first phase of the disease with the monkeypox virus lasts two to four weeks. Typically, the disease begins with a flu-like illness, fever, and lymph node enlargement that is referred to as the prodromal period.

Subsequently, the patient breaks out in a rash that can either be generalized or localized. These rashes usually occur at the same time until they ultimately scab and fall off. These are deep lesions, sometimes with a central dimple, and clearly demarcated from the surrounding skin.

The scabbed lesions are often itchy, with some patients developing severe pain when the rashes first develop. Notably, the rash may arise before other symptoms in some patients.

In a few patients, lesions occur only in the anogenital area, while others have so few lesions that they can be misdiagnosed as pimples, ingrown hairs, or blisters.

Diagnosis

Due to the multiplicity of presentations, a complete examination of the skin, including the mouth, vagina, and anus, is recommended for anyone who is at high risk for monkeypox infection. This is required to detect any suspicious lesions.

Monkeypox may also accompany other infectious lesions, such as those associated with sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Therefore, it is essential to differentiate these lesions from each other to ensure an accurate diagnosis.

The clinical presentation of monkeypox may be similar to that of STIs like syphilis, herpes, lymph granuloma, venereum or other etiologies of proctitis.

Risk factors for monkeypox infection include a history of close/intimate contact with a confirmed or probable case of monkeypox within the three weeks preceding the onset of symptoms of being exposed to multiple monkeypox infections during this period.

During the current outbreak, most confirmed cases have been among men who have sex with men (MSM). Some of these individuals also have a history of travel to a country with confirmed monkeypox cases, endemic monkeypox, or contact with animals, animal carcasses, and/or products that are known to be endemic for the virus.

Testing

Asymptomatic monkeypox transmission is now becoming a debated issue, which has led the CDC to increase access to testing. Currently, over 10,000 specimens can be tested each week in over 60 Laboratory Response Network (LRN) laboratories throughout the U.S.

An untested monkeypox patient is an uncounted monkeypox patient and is someone who might be continuing to spread the virus.

Both testing capacity and awareness of testing are currently being expanded.

For example, the CDC assay is being extended to five commercial laboratories, which is expected to increase testing capacity to 60,000 each week. Other laboratories are also setting up their own assays.

The CDC is also issuing Health Alert Network Notices (HANNs) on the monkeypox virus, which allows the agency to provide important information on public health issues. Furthermore, the CDC is participating in COCA calls, which is where clinical features and management practices are discussed. COCA calls similarly spread awareness of how to prevent infection after exposure, treatment approaches, and testing.

Testing for the monkeypox virus involves a minimum of four swabs, with two swabs used to culture two different locations or different-appearing lesions. Sterile containers or viral transport media are subsequently used to freeze and/or store samples.

Early testing allows individuals to be advised on how to limit further spread of the virus and for health workers to trace recent close contacts of the patient. Importantly, as testing capacities increase, a surge in cases is probable.

We need to be cognizant that these cases have probably been happening and this is our chance to detect them and then get prevention measures in place.

Management of monkeypox

Monkeypox in humans is mostly self-resolved. However, severe disease may occur in some patients, especially those with many rashes, children below the age of eight, pregnant women, immunocompromised people, or those with atopic skin conditions.

Antivirals

Antivirals including TPOXX or tecovirimat, cidofovir, and brincidofovir are currently being used to manage monkeypox infection. However, only tecovirimat and cidofovir are currently available in the national stockpile, with TPOXX being preferred for its safety and oral bioavailability.

Moreover, since few monkeypox patients have received TPOXX during the current outbreak, the CDC is expanding access to investigational new drug protocols that allow TPOXX to be used for this condition.

Vaccinia immune globulin

The intravenous administration of vaccinia immune globulin is also approved for treating patients with complications arising from vaccinia infection and is being repurposed for monkeypox cases. The strategic national stockpile is sufficient to provide doses for the treatment of all patients who need it.

Vaccines

Two vaccines, including JYNNEOS and ACAM2000 are also available in the U.S. national stockpile and are associated with 85% efficacy against monkeypox infection. This has been estimated from the cross-reactivity of the vaccine with other orthopoxviruses.

Due to the lack of data on its efficacy following exposure to the virus, new information is still needed on ACAM2000. Nevertheless, this vaccine is considered to be safer in exposed but asymptomatic individuals who are at a greater risk for severe disease.

The JYNNEOS vaccine requires two subcutaneous doses at an interval of 28 days, while ACAM2000 requires a single dose with a specialized needle. Notably, vaccination with ACAM2000 induces an infectious lesion, which can cause transmission of the virus to other parts of the body and/or other people.

Presumed or close contacts are encouraged to take the vaccine pre-exposure in phases. It is not currently advised to vaccinate everyone, nor to vaccinate healthcare workers or laboratory staff unless they are involved in testing for this virus.

Vaccine-related adverse events should be reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System at https://vaers.hhs.gov/.

Prevention

Medical professionals should follow the CDC protocol to prevent the spread of the infection. If these clinicians encounter patients who may have the condition, they should counsel them to be tested and then stay at home until the results are available. Furthermore, any rashes should remain covered, and the individual is advised to avoid intimate contact with others during this time. Contact with pets should also be avoided.

Patients with suspected or confirmed monkeypox infection should avoid close contact, sexual or otherwise, avoid sharing dishes and bedding and use soap and water or sanitizer to reduce their risk of transmission. Furthermore, such individuals should avoid events where there is a risk of skin or sexual contact until the lesions have healed and new skin has formed.

Conclusions

The current monkeypox outbreak represents the first time that monkeypox is spreading through sexual activity networks. This raises concerns that the virus may now spread extensively from person to person.

Before the current outbreak occurred, the monkeypox virus primarily affected travelers from endemic regions who had contact with infected wild. These individuals would subsequently bring the pathogen back home, thus instigating a small outbreak.

In the background of the current outbreak, the CDC and other scientists are now examining older samples to try and determine how and when this epidemic began and spread.

Because of its pattern of spread within sexual networks, healthcare providers must emphasize that the entire world is now at risk of monkeypox, not just MSM. This is because infectious diseases spread across all boundaries, as evident by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, MSM should be informed of their increased risk to allow for them to take steps and use available tools to protect both themselves and others.

Monkeypox numbers, treatment and prevention with two CDC experts | Moving Medicine Play
A group of children's hospitals from across the country will coordinate on the response to future pandemics and other disasters through a new $29 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The group, known as the Pediatric Pandemic Network (PPN), will focus on the unique needs and challenges to children during pandemics and disasters, ensuring that health equity is at the forefront of emergency planning.

The five hospitals are:

Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. (lead institution)

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Pediatrics at Children's of Alabama

Children's Mercy Kansas City

Seattle Children's

As the current pandemic has proven to the world, pandemics and public health crises magnify pre-existing environmental, health, social and economic inequities. Communities of color not only feel the impact of pandemics and disasters far more severely than others, but also have more difficulty obtaining aid and assistance. If the needs of vulnerable populations are not addressed in emergency planning, the national disaster preparedness strategy could fail for all." Joelle Simpson, M.D., M.P.H., principal investigator of this grant and division chief of Emergency Medicine and medical director of Emergency Preparedness at Children's National

The hospitals recognize that while the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for the entire world, the pediatric population in particular has been challenged by a lack of established coordination among pediatric care providers. In addition to addressing health equity, the funding facilitates the following:

Establishing pathways to gather and disseminate research-informed insights into how to care for children in a future pandemic to both medical providers and community organizations.

Developing a telehealth infrastructure to support the care of acutely ill children and expand mental health access.

Expanding pediatric-focused emergency preparedness and planning with a focus on behavioral health, social support, and educational services, all of which are typically provided by community organizations.

The hub for this grant will be located at the newly opened Children's National Research & Innovation Campus  the site of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Work will take place in the renovated Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, where past investigators made seminal discoveries in infectious diseases and pandemics. The former campus was named after Walter Reed because of his work around discovering the cause and prevention of outbreaks of yellow fever. This modern-day team of physician researchers intends to make equally important contributions to future pandemics and other disasters to help preserve the health of our nation's children.

In September 2021, HRSA launched the Regional PPN by funding five pediatric hospitals to support the planning and preparation of children's hospitals to respond to a global health threat. This new grant doubles the size and reach of the network in order to benefit all children in the nation.


External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday said that India is among the top five countries that have invested in the African continent. "With cumulative investments at $73.9 billion from 1996-2021, India is among the top five investors in Africa," Jaishankar said while addressing the 17th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Growth Partnership.



He said that India's bilateral trade with Africa has now reached $89.5 billion in 2021-22 compared with $56 billion the previous year. "Notably, through the Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme that extends duty free access to 98.2 per cent of India's total tariff lines, India has opened its market to African countries. So far 33 LDC African nations have been entitled to get benefits under this scheme."



"We hope that the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) which was commenced in 2021 would be helpful to Indian companies to enhance and intensify the business footprint in Africa," he said.



Jaishankar noted that in India, there is a growing recognition of the need of Atma Nirbharta (self-reliance). "Responsible governance today requires that critical needs of people are not held hostage by the vagaries and uncertainties of international markets. Food security and energy security have come into special focus in the context of the Ukraine conflict. Here too, India and Africa can work together for mutual benefit," the minister added.




Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch have achieved success with a new vaccine developed to fight Lassa Virus, a pathogen that causes Lassa fever. Lassa fever is lethal in humans and nonhuman primates with a mortality rate as high as 70% in hospitalized cases. As many as 500,000 people are infected each year in West Africa. Lassa fever may also induce serious long-lasting effects in survivors. As many as one third of those infected suffer hearing loss or other neurological complications.

The study, "A recombinant VSV-vectored vaccine rapidly protects nonhuman primates against heterologous lethal Lassa fever," was published July 19 in Cell Reports.

Dr. Robert Cross, one of the lead researchers on the study, said the single injection vaccine elicited protection against observable disease in 100 percent of subjects when administered seven days prior to exposure and prevented serious disease with full recovery in 100 percent of subjects vaccinated three days prior to exposure. The vaccine also worked against different strains/lineages of the virus, which Cross says is critically important given the diversity of the disease.

Different countries have different lineages of Lassa virus, and a fast-acting vaccine that can prevent the disease is a major goal when dealing with an outbreak. Several vaccine candidates to treat Lassa have been under development since 2005, but most require multiple injections and can take up to four weeks to become effective. There are no vaccines currently licensed for the prevention of Lassa fever." Dr. Robert Cross, University of Texas Medical Branch

The vaccine is delivered through a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus platform, a similar technology as used to develop the now licensed Ervebo vaccine that prevents Ebola virus disease. Ervebo was widely and successfully distributed during the 2013-2016 Ebola virus epidemic and the more recent Democratic Republic of Congo outbreak with protection rates of 97.5  100 percent. Work on Ervebo also was completed in the maximum containment labs at UTMB's Galveston National Laboratory.

"While Lassa is endemic in West Africa, imported cases have occurred in both Europe and the United States as a result of commercial air travel. Besides Dengue, Lassa Fever is the viral hemorrhagic fever that is most often exported by travel to other parts of the world. This is possibly due to a long incubation period," said Dr. Courtney Woolsey, co-lead author of the study.

LASV is categorized as a category A priority pathogen by several United States government agencies because of the concern for deliberate misuse. LASV also was recently included on the World Health Organization's (WHO) Blueprint List of Priority Pathogens, as well as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) list of Priority Diseases.

Lassa virus is an acute viral infection that originates and spreads through contact with a common African rat. Symptoms typically appear one to three weeks after exposure. While the majority of infections (80 percent) are mild or even asymptomatic, in 20 percent of cases the disease can progress to more serious symptoms including hemorrhaging, severe respiratory distress, repeated vomiting, facial swelling, pain in the chest, back, and abdomen, and shock. Spontaneous abortion is a serious complication of infection with an estimated 95% mortality in fetuses of infected pregnant mothers.

"This vaccine prevented signs of overt disease and showed remarkable effectiveness in rapidly clearing the virus which prevented development of severe or even lethal disease," Cross said.

Future studies will look at shorter windows between vaccination and exposure and will test immunity to the virus over longer periods of time (up to one year).

Because of its lethality and the lack of licensed countermeasures, LASV must be studied at maximum containment (BSL4), making UTMB's Galveston National Laboratory one of the few laboratories in North America that can safely work with the pathogen.
Scientists have found that non-coding 'junk' DNA, far from being harmless and inert, could potentially contribute to the development of cancer.

Their study has shown how non-coding DNA can get in the way of the replication and repair of our genome, potentially allowing mutations to accumulate.

It has been previously found that non-coding or repetitive patterns of DNA  which make up around half of our genome  could disrupt the replication of the genome.

But until now scientists have not understood the underlying mechanism, or how it could contribute to cancer's development.

In the new study, scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, reconstituted the entire process of DNA replication in a test tube in order to understand it more completely.

The researchers were able to describe how repetitive patterns of DNA are copied during replication and how they are able to stall replication entirely  increasing the risk of errors that can be an early driver of cancer. This vital knowledge may eventually lead to better drugs and treatments.

The researchers believe the work could also help to improve the diagnosis and monitoring of some cancers, such as bowel cancer, where common errors in copying the repetitive sequences of DNA indicate whether cancer is progressing.

The study, published in Nature Communications, was funded by Wellcome and the Royal Society, with additional support from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) itself.

Scientists at the ICR  a charity and research institute  found that when the DNA replication machinery encountered repetitive DNA, it was able to unwind the DNA strands, but it sometimes failed to copy the opposite DNA strand. This error could cause replication to stall, resulting in collapse of the replication machinery in a manner similar to that induced by DNA damage.

The findings lead scientists to believe that repetitive DNA sequences could trigger a damage response signal indicating that errors in DNA replication have occurred and require repair.

DNA damage and ensuing genome instability are known to promote cancer formation and progression, so the research strengthens the link between junk DNA and cancer.

It was scientists at the ICR who, in the 1960s, provided the first conclusive evidence that DNA damage is the fundamental cause of cancer. In the early 2000s, ICR researchers then showed that drugs called PARP inhibitors could be genetically targeted against cancers with DNA repair mutations.

Our researchers now hope that improved understanding of DNA replication, and how it can go wrong, might lead to new ways of treating the disease.

Study leader Dr Gideon Coster, Team Leader in Genome Replication at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:

"We wanted to understand why it seems more difficult for cells to copy repetitive DNA sequences than other parts of the genome. Our study suggests that so-called junk DNA is actually playing an important and potentially damaging role in cells, by blocking DNA replication and potentially opening the door to cancerous mutations.

"We now believe that repetitive DNA sequences trigger a response that is very similar to the one induced by DNA damage, which we know can lead to cancer. Our study therefore fundamentally advances our understanding of cancer, and I'm hopeful it will help us come up with new treatments in the future."

This study helps to unravel the puzzle of junk DNA  showing how these repetitive sequences can block DNA replication and repair. It's possible that this mechanism could play a role in the development of cancer as a cause of genetic instability  especially as cancer cells start dividing more quickly and so place the process of DNA replication under more stress. Understanding the mechanisms underlying genetic mutation and instability is critical if we are to find innovative new ways to treat cancer that exploit fundamental weaknesses in cancer cells." Professor Kristian Helin, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, London
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a general perception that children and teenagers were much less likely to get COVID-19 than adults. It was fueled by early data from across the globe that found very low rates of COVID in adolescents (defined as ages 10-19) and youth (15-24). But the data was mixed and some questioned its validity.

New research highlights teens COVID risk. Image Credit: Touro University

Now new research published this week in JAMA Open has found that adolescents and youth in the U.S. actually had a greater relative risk of getting COVID than older adults in the fall of 2020, before vaccines were available.

The study, conducted by researchers at Touro University and its affiliated New York Medical College, found that in 16 of 19 states examined, the rate of infection was significantly higher in adolescents and youth than in older adults, age 65+ and in some cases, it was twice as high.

The researchers wanted to address some of the shortcomings of the older studies, for example, some were conducted while schools were still closed, when adolescents and youth likely had reduced exposure to the virus compared to adults. Also, there was a bias against testing young people at the start of the pandemic because of the perception that they were not catching it, so data may have underreported rates of infection.

This study looked at data in states that had a surge of the original SARS-CoV-2 strain (a 75% increase in cases) in the fall of 2020, before vaccines were available. The fact that vaccines were not yet available is important because it means that the findings could not be attributable to the effects of vaccination, said Dr. Barbara Rumain, associate professor at Touro University and corresponding author on the study.

The higher rates were probably due to social-behavioral differences such as lack of masking and lack of social distancing in adolescents and young adults, continued Rumain. On the other hand, older adults likely felt vulnerable and adhered to masking and social distancing guidelines.

The authors believe that the risk in young people may be even greater than was reported here. Thats because adolescents and youth are less likely to show symptoms and be tested, leading to underreporting of COVID in these age groups.

As of May 19, 2020, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that there were 13,253,639 cases of COVID in children younger than 18 and at least 1,032 deaths.

Contrary to popular perceptions, adolescents are more likely than older adults to contract COVID. And even though the infections could be milder in adolescents, getting long COVID is a real possibility. Dr. Barbara Rumain, Associate Professor, Touro University

The authors believe that this information can inform decision-making on the personal and state level. For example, the Florida Department of Health recommended against vaccination in children 5 to 17, which the authors said, seemed to go against the data from this study and the documented number of deaths in children (1000+). According to a meta-analysis published in the journal Nature, the prevalence of long-COVID in children up to age 18 years old is about 25%. The greater the number of infections to start with, the greater the number that will end up as long COVID.

In addition, the increased risk of young people, likely because of greater levels of socializing, may inform policies in schools and personal mask-wearing choices.

The authors recommended that efforts should be made to reduce exposure in young people, with masking and social distancing in schools and other social settings. They also recommended public health messaging more targeted at young people.

People, especially adolescents, need to wear masks and social distance, says Rumain. The pandemic is not over.
Recently, Ghana announced the countrys first Marburg virus disease outbreak, after receiving a confirmatory report of the disease from the World Health Organizations (WHO) Collaborating Centre Laboratory.

What is Marburg virus disease (MVD)?

MVD is caused by the Marburg virus, a genetically unique zoonotic virus that can infect both human and non-human primates. This RNA virus belongs to the filovirus family that causes rare but severe hemorrhagic fever. Other members of this family include the Ebola virus.

Marburg virus was first discovered in 1967, when the hemorrhagic fever outbreak occurred in laboratories in Germany (Marburg and Frankfurt) and Serbia (Belgrade). During this outbreak, many laboratory workers and their family members contracted the disease, and seven of them lost their lives.

Scientists reported that the African fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) is the reservoir host of the Marburg virus. Fruit bats infected with the Marburg virus do not exhibit any indicative symptoms.

Transmission of MVD

Previous studies have indicated that infected African fruit bats transmitted the disease to the human host. These studies have reported that in 2008, two tourists contracted MVD in Uganda after being exposed to infected bat feces or aerosols, which are the possible routes of infection. After the initial crossover of the virus occurred from the zoonotic host to humans, the infection was transmitted via person-to-person contact.

Scientists reported that MVD spread through blood or body fluids (semen, saliva, tears, etc.) of the infected person to a healthy individual. Contaminated surfaces and materials can also transmit infection. The virus remains viable in certain body fluids, such as semen, even after the patient recovers from MVD and does not exhibit any symptoms.

MVD outbreak in Ghana and WHO

According to the WHO report, the Institut Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal, received two samples from patients from the southern Ashanti region of Ghana. Both the patients were unrelated and deceased. Before death, these patients reported symptoms such as fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea.

The laboratory analyzed the samples and their results were similar to the reports of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, which confirmed that both the patients were infected with MVD. Both the patients were male, one patient was aged 26 years, and the other was 51 years of age. Both patients were admitted, almost at a similar time, to the same hospital and were provided with similar treatments.

WHO has been associated with a research team in the Ashanti region and Ghanas health authorities. WHO supports them by boosting disease surveillance, tracing contacts, providing personal protective equipment, and educating them about the risks and dangers involved with the disease.

Under the current scenario, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, stated that the health authorities have efficiently responded to the possibility of an MVD outbreak. This swift response was necessary because MVD could transmit at a higher rate. As the Ghana government has announced the MVD outbreak, WHO continues to provide full support with resources to combat the situation.

Around 90 individuals have been identified with MVD and are being monitored. Previously, sporadic MVD outbreaks have been reported in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola. WHO has also alerted the neighboring countries at a high risk of MVD outbreaks.

MVD treatment

Researchers informed that many MVD patients can develop severe hemorrhagic symptoms within seven days of contracting the infection. Although there are no proper vaccines or medicines available for MVD treatment, rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids and treatments of specific symptoms improve the survival rate. At present, several potential treatments, such as immune and drug therapies and candidate vaccines, are being evaluated under phase 1 clinical trials.
In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers assessed the impact of vitamin D supplementation on the efficacy of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination has played a critical role in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. However, studies have reported the waning of vaccine effectiveness and efficacy in the months after vaccination, particularly among elderly individuals. Hence, there is an urgent need to identify immunomodulatory adjuvants that can improve SARS-CoV-2 vaccine immunogenicity.

About the study

In the present study, researchers explored three sub-studies that investigated the impact of vitamin D replacement on the efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

The team performed three sub-studies conducted within the CORONAVIT randomized controlled trial. Among these, sub-study 1 performed vaccine efficacy analysis to assess the effect of vitamin D supplementation on the risk of breakthrough COVID-19 infection among immunocompetent participants vaccinated with two SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses. Sub-study 2 performed a dried blood spot analysis that assessed the impact of supplementing vitamin D on combined immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgA, and IgM (IgGAM) antibody responses to the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein. Furthermore, sub-study 3 conducted a venous blood analysis that revealed the impact of vitamin D supplements on cellular responses and neutralizing antibodies.

The study involved 6200 individuals residing in the UK who were aged 16 years and above who were randomized to be treated with a postal vitamin D test, which was followed by a lower dose or higher dose supplementation. All the participants who were vaccinated with a minimum of two SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses provided a postal dried blood spot sample which was used to assess the combined IgGAM antibody responses to the SARS-CoV-2 S protein. Moreover, 101 participants also provided venous blood samples to assess the cellular responses and levels of neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.

The inclusion criteria for the vaccine efficacy analysis were participation in the CORONAVIT trial and vaccination with a minimum of two SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses. On the other hand, the participants eligible for dried blood spot analysis were included in sub-study 1, had consented to participate in the serology study performed after vaccination, and had anti-S titer results available after the second vaccination and before the booster dose administration. The venous blood analysis included participants eligible for sub-study 1, consented to post-vaccination participation and provided valid neutralizing antibody and cellular response data.

The eligible participants were subsequently randomized before determining the concentrations of 25(OH)D in their capillary blood. Participants who had a 25(OH)D concentration of less than 75 nmol/L were given a six-month supply of capsules comprising either 800 IU or 3200 IU vitamin D 3 . In comparison, those having 25(OH)D concentrations of 75 nmol/L or above were treated with a second postal vitamin D test two months after the first test.

The primary outcome of sub-study 1 was breakthrough COVID-19 infection which was followed up two weeks after the administration of the second vaccine dose for up to six months thereafter or until the diagnosis of a breakthrough infection, whichever was earlier. The team obtained details related to vaccination and breakthrough infection through online questionnaires answered by the participants at monthly intervals.

Results

The study results showed that among the 6200 CORONAVIT trial participants, 45.3% were immunized with the primary SARS-CoV-2 vaccination program, including 69.3% who were vaccinated with two doses of ChAdOx1 vaccine, while 30.7% were vaccinated with two BNT162b2 vaccine doses.

For the participants whose baseline vitamin D concentrations were assessed, the average 25(OH)D level was 39.9 nmol/L. On the other hand, participants that were assessed for end-study vitamin D concentrations showed that the follow-up 25(OH)D concentrations were higher among the participants who were treated with lower-dose supplements as compared to the untreated participants. Furthermore, follow-up 25(OH)D concentrations were higher among the participant cohort that was treated with higher dose supplements as compared to the untreated cohort.

Breakthrough COVID-19 infections were observed in 174 participants from sub-study 1. The team also observed no variations between the vitamin D-supplemented and non-supplemented cohorts concerning combined anti-S IgGAM in average post-vaccination titers. Furthermore, the participants who provided blood samples showed no substantial differences between the treated and untreated participants with respect to average neutralizing antibodies titers.

Overall, the study findings showed that daily supplementation with 800 IU or 3200 IU vitamin D 3 effectively increased the concentrations of circulating 25(OH)D. However, neither of the doses impacted the efficacy of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

*Important notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Malaria is the deadliest mosquito-borne parasitic infection of humans. In 2021, after a century of research, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved the world's first malaria vaccine. That vaccine reduces the incidence of malaria infections in young children aged 5-17 months by only 30 percent, meaning that it remains critical to continue developing and testing more effective vaccines.

WHO's goal is to find a vaccine that prevents infection as well as cases of severe malaria. However, testing vaccines in the field is challenging and requires large number of volunteers and long periods of follow-up. This process increases the expense and reduces the number of trials that researchers can perform.

Now, scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine's (UMSOM) Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) and the UMSOM Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD), and their collaborators report a new way to test vaccines that may be as rigorous and stringent as exposure to field strains of malaria. Their study was published in the June issue of Nature Communications.

Their method has two key aspects. First, they expose vaccinated volunteers to malaria in a controlled clinical environment. Secondly, for this testing, they use a strain of malaria that is genetically very different from the one used in the vaccine, as well as from strains in the geographic region to which the vaccine is intended.

This technique allows scientists to test how well the vaccine works in small numbers of volunteers under controlled settings and in a rapid fashion and predicts how well the vaccine may perform in the field. This lets researchers select the best vaccines for larger studies in the field. This method will increase the efficiency of vaccine testing and should accelerate malaria vaccine development.

The standard for many investigators has been to test vaccines with a strain similar to the one used in the vaccine's development. Using a strain that is both genetically distant from the one in the vaccine -- as well as from the strains circulating in the area where malaria is rampant and the vaccine will be used is a more stringent way to test vaccine effectiveness." Joana Carneiro da Silva, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Maryland

Researchers are studying the effectiveness of a vaccine (PfSPZ Vaccine) made by the company Sanaria, Inc, based in Rockville, Maryland. This vaccine uses the West African parasite strain known as PfNF54. One objective is to use this vaccine to protect individuals with little or no previous exposure to malaria, including those living or traveling in Africa. The long-term goal is to use the vaccine in mass vaccination programs to eliminate malaria from specific regions in Africa.

For the study, researchers infected mosquitoes with a Brazilian malarial strain and then exposed U.S. volunteers who had been vaccinated with the Sanaria vaccine (as well as those who received a placebo) to the bites of infected mosquitos in a controlled clinical setting.

They also vaccinated research participants in Mali with the same dose of the vaccine to compare observed vaccine efficacy in the field with that in the clinic. Through genomic sequencing, researchers had shown that the Brazilian strain differed greatly from 700 strains previously collected from across Africa, including the one used to make the vaccine.

The researchers looked at about 200 volunteers in four trials  two in the United States and two in Mali. In all four, they observed how many people became infected with malaria, as well as how long it took for them to become infected, comparing clinic to field. At the end of six months, they found the vaccine was just as effective in both populations.

In addition, previous comparisons had shown that those volunteers who had never been exposed to malaria developed more antibodies than those in the field, proving that it would work well in first-time travelers to the area.

The research team included scientists from Sanaria Inc.; the Naval Medical Research Center; University of Tubingen in Germany; the Malaria Research and Training Center in Bamako, Mali; and the Laboratory of Malaria Immunology and Vaccinology at NIAID, NIH.

The World Health Organization estimates that in 2020, 241 million cases and 627,000 deaths worldwide were due to malaria, including 2,000 cases diagnosed in the United States from travelers and immigrants who were exposed elsewhere. The variety of malarial strains globally makes vaccine development particularly difficult.

"Given the diversity of malaria strains worldwide, this research demonstrates that the Brazilian strain is as diverse as any strain detected in Africa," said Kirsten E. Lyke, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Malaria Vaccine and Challenge Unit at the CVD and an author of the paper.

Dr. da Silva noted this new model can be used in the future in selecting challenge strains to test the efficacy of vaccines against other parasitic diseases, using carefully controlled clinical settings to compare against field studies.
Nurses experience workplace violence daily, but new research has found nurses say there is a lack of adequate support systems in the aftermath of violent incidents.

Stock photo: Getty Images

A qualitative study by researchers from Flinders University and the University of Southern Queensland has investigated nurses perceptions of the support they receive after incidences of workplace violence.

Hospital support following a violent incident was perceived by the interviewed nurses as being inadequate, and the nurses felt unsupported immediately following an incident.

Nurses said they also felt exposed to litigation by violent patients who may press charges against nurses who had defended themselves in incidents.

"What the nurses told us in these interviews reflects the lack of support that nurses experience from their organization following an incidence of workplace violence," says author Dr Hila Dafny from Flinders University's College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

Support is needed immediately to empower nurses to be able to continue their caring role. We found that often support was not provided, nor were nurses aware of the support services available. Although personal family and friends were a valuable support, most nurses were reluctant to disclose their experiences to protect them.

The researchers conducted focus group interviews with 23 nurses working in a regional Queensland Hospital, which found that the primary source of support for nurses after a violent incident was from other nurses.

Previous studies into violence in nursing and midwifery have found that nearly half (48%) of participants who experienced a workplace violence incident in the preceding 6 months were dissatisfied with their employers response. About two thirds (67%) were not provided with adequate information, support or follow up.

The new research found that strong support came from fellow nurses during and after a violent incident, but acknowledge that this is not a formal process. One study participant said we have to support each other because that is all we have, especially senior staff members.

The nurses says they are looking for strong support from their managers, but those who are working in disjointed teams say there is minimal interaction between management and frontline nurses.

The findings from this study with regional nurses demonstrates a lack of adequate support required to cope with workplace violence incidences. Dr Hila Dafny, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University

The studys authors say that Nursing Management must address problems immediately after any incidence of workplace violence.

They need to provide appropriate effective support, which may mitigate the enduring impacts of experiencing violence, says Dr Dafny.

There is a need for hospital management to provide effective support services and improve staff awareness of available support services.
A team of scientists from France has recently described the epidemiological and clinical consequences of a bat sarbecovirus infection in humanized mice. The study, which is currently available on the Research Square* preprint server, provides useful information about the possible origin of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Background

SARS-CoV-2, the causative pathogen of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, is an RNA virus belonging to the human betacoronavirus family. The virus is believed to have a zoonotic origin, given the presence of many SARS-CoV-2-like viruses in animals.

BANAL-236 is a bat sarbecovirus that shows high sequence similarity with SARS-CoV-2. The virus can efficiently infect human cells via its interaction with angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). However, it is less pathogenic and transmissible in humans because of the absence of a furin cleavage site, which is believed to play a vital role in SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis.

In the current study, the scientists have investigated whether BANAL-236 like viruses silently circulate in human populations even before the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, they have investigated whether the viruses have acquired adaptive mutations during silent circulation to become more transmissible and pathogenic strains.

Bat sarbecovirus replication in humanized mice

Bat sarbecovirus BANAL-236 was found to infect transgenic mice expressing human ACE2. However, BANAL-236 infection in mice caused lower pathogenicity than SARS-CoV-2 infection in weight loss and lung viral load. Moreover, BANAL-236 infection-induced antibodies showed higher neutralizing efficacy against the homologous strain than SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced antibodies.

Importantly, mice primed BANAL-236 developed full protection against lethality and weight loss that might be otherwise induced by the more pathogenic D614G mutation-containing SARS-CoV-2.

Furthermore, no changes in the dynamics of BANAL-236 infection in the lungs or overall viral pathogenicity were observed after six serial passaging of the virus in human ACE2-containing transgenic mice.

Bat sarbecovirus replication in non-human primates

Non-human primates infected with either BANAL-236 virus or SARS-CoV-2 showed completely different replication dynamics. While SARS-CoV-2 infection was predominantly associated with lung tropism and respiratory shedding, BANAL-236 infection largely showed intestinal tropism and fecal shedding.

In contrast to SARS-CoV-2 infection, BANAL-236 infection caused only mild pulmonary lesions in non-human primates. A transient lymphopenia was observed following BANAL-236 infection. The antibodies induced by BANAL-236 infection showed significant cross-reactivity against SARS-CoV-2.

Acquisition of mutations

Considering the low pathogenicity of BANAL-236 virus, there remains a possibility of its silent circulation in human populations. This condition was mimicked in the study by serially passaging the virus in human cells and humanized mice.

The genome sequencing analysis of various viral isolates identified a set of mutations not present in the original BANAL-236 strain. However, no detectable mutation within and around the furin cleavage site was observed.

Among identified mutations, the most prominent one was a missense mutation (V391I) in the spike receptor binding domain (RBD) that was positively selected during the passages. This mutation was associated with other identified mutations that appeared during viral passages in human cells and non-human primates. These mutations were located in different genomic portions, including non-structural protein (NSP) 10, NSP 15, open reading frame (ORF) 3a, NSP 14, and spike N-terminal domain (NTD).

Some mutations appeared in the BANAL-236 genome during its passages in humanized mice. These mutations were located in the spike protein, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, ORF6, and ORF3a.

Considering the distinct mutational landscape of BANAL-236 virus in human cells and humanized mice, the scientists suggest that these mutations may not influence the infection pathways shared by human cells and humanized mice.

Furthermore, the functional aspects of spike mutations were determined using molecular dynamics simulations. The findings revealed that the RBD V391I mutation is not associated with any alteration in RBD stability or affinity for human ACE2.

The P627L mutation that appeared in the spike S1 subunit caused minor conformational changes in the spike protein without affecting its overall structure and function. Similarly, the S52R mutation appeared in the NTD did not influence the overall dynamics of spike protein.

Prevalence of sarbecoviruses in human populations

The sarbecovirus seropositivity survey conducted in the study could not detect any antibodies targeting bat sarbecoviruses in human populations that are highly exposed to bats. This indicates that bat sarbecovirus infection is a rare event in humans.

Study significance

The study rules out the possibility of acquiring a furin cleavage site in bat sarbecoviruses during their silent circulation in human populations. As suggested by the scientists, specific identification of a furin cleavage site in animal sarbecoviruses is crucial to determine the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

*Important notice

Research Square publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers assessed the prevalence of orthopoxviruses among the general populations of Bolivia, France, Laos, and Mali.

The recent emergence of the monkeypox virus (MPVX) infections has raised concerns regarding the limited knowledge about the immunities of the general populations to orthopoxviruses. To prevent the further spread of MPVX infections, research is needed to understand the magnitude of immunity displayed by different populations.

About the study

In the present study, researchers presented large-scale epidemiological research performed based on the presence of neutralizing antibodies elicited against the cowpox virus and the vaccinia virus.

The team assessed four distinct populations belonging to Bolivia, France, Laos, and Mali by testing the populations for the presence of neutralizing antibodies against the vaccinia virus. Additionally, a majority of the French population was analyzed for the presence of neutralizing antibodies against the cowpox virus.

The French population comprised 4876 voluntary blood donors who provided serological samples in 2012, 2013, and 2019. These participants resided in four different areas of metropolitan France namely Auvergne-Loire, Corsica, Midi-Pyrenees, and Provence-Alpes Cote d'Azur (PACA). The donors were asked to answer a questionnaire that queried them about their birth year, gender, as well as information regarding their lifestyle, general environment, and exposure to any zoonotic diseases.

The Bolivian population comprised 601 voluntary blood donors who provided serum samples in 2017 and resided in major cities such as Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Beni, Cochabamba, Tarija, and La Paz. Furthermore, the Laos population included 657 donors who donated serum in 2003, 2004, 2015, and 2018 in Vientiane. Lastly, the Mali population included 257 donors who provided serum samples in 2019 and resided in the villages of Bougoudale, Komana, Leba, Tliemba, and Soloba.

Additionally, the team employed the Western Reserve vaccinia strain and the Compiegne strain of the cowpox virus. Subsequently, viral productions utilized for the sero-neutralization assay were adjusted to estimate low and comparable ratios corresponding to the non-infectious to infectious particles.

Results

The study results showed that the 4448 samples collected from the French populations displayed 98.8% similarity in the antibody titers for the cowpox and vaccinia viruses. Among these samples, the sex ratio was 1.17 while the average year of birth reported was 1966  13 years. Furthermore, the difference estimated between the seroprevalence values corresponding to the vaccinia neutralization test was used to estimate the orthopoxvirus neutralization titer (ONT). The ONT was the geometric mean of smallpox and vaccinia neutralization titers while samples having ONT of 20 or more were deemed positive for that virus.

The team noted that the global seroprevalence of the orthopoxviruses was 8.18% while the same among persons born before 1970 was 10%, persons born during the 1970s was 5%, and after 1980 was 1%. The geometric mean of ONT for the entire study sample was 12.8. The team also observed considerable variations based on the age groups while an overall proportional increase was observed in the number of positive samples with respect to age.

Furthermore, the correlation between the presence of neutralizing antibodies against orthopoxviruses and gender varied based on the decade of birth of the person. Until the 1950s, seroprevalence was found to be higher among males which reduced to levels comparable to those in females in the 1960s which reduced to levels lower than those observed in women in the 1970s. From the 1980s onwards, no significant differences were noted between the participants with respect to seroprevalence.

The team also found few differences between the four French regions based on the percentage of positive samples and titers of neutralizing antibodies. Notably, the seroprevalence was higher in Midi-Pyrenees and Corsica as compared to that in the PACA region. The Auvergne-Loire region displayed the lowest seroprevalence among the French regions assessed for each decade of birth. Overall, the study showed that the only parameter that showed a direct association with the neutralizing titers against orthopoxviruses was age.

Conclusion

The study findings showed that the different populations residing in Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe were significantly vulnerable to orthopoxvirus infections. This indicates that there exists no population immunity that could serve as a barrier against the spread of orthopoxviruses. Furthermore, the study indicated that the cessation of smallpox vaccination could potentially facilitate orthopoxvirus transmission as is evident in the increasing number of monkeypox infections observed in Europe.

*Important notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung (second right) and Singaporean Head of Civil Service Leo Yip (centre) meet at the Central Government Offices.

Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung today met Singaporean Head of Civil Service Leo Yip.

Welcoming Mr Yips visit, Mrs Yeung said the civil services of Hong Kong and Singapore have been maintaining close ties. While reciprocal visits could not be materialised in the past two years under the COVID-19 epidemic, she looked forward to resuming and enhancing exchanges and co-operation in the future.

Permanent Secretary for the Civil Service Clement Leung and Civil Service College Head Oscar Kwok also held a meeting with Mr Yip on enhancing training and co-operation between the two civil services.

The Singaporean official also attended a roundtable meeting with Hong Kong's senior officials from various government bureaus and departments. During the session, both sides exchanged views and shared experience on issues including education and youth, culture and sports, and transport and logistics.
In a large-scale functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, neuroscientists from MIT and Harvard University evaluated the claim of language universality with respect to core features of its neural architecture.

Approximately 7,000 languages are currently spoken and signed across the globe.

These are distributed across more than 100 language families  groups of languages that have descended from a common ancestral language, called the proto-language  which vary in size from two to over 1,500 languages.

Certain properties of human languages have been argued to be universal, including their capacity for productivity and communicative efficiency.

However, language is the only animal communication system that manifests in so many different forms.

The worlds languages exhibit striking diversity, with differences spanning the sound inventories, the complexity of derivational and functional morphology, the ways in which the conceptual space is carved up into lexical categories and the rules for how words can combine into phrases and sentences.

To truly understand the nature of the cognitive and neural mechanisms that can handle the learning and processing of such diverse languages, scientists have to go beyond the limited set of languages used in most psycho-linguistic and neuro-linguistic studies.

To foster inclusivity in language research, Dr. Saima Malik-Moraleda and her colleagues from MIT and Harvard University examined whether there are shared brain responses across 45 languages in 12 language families: Afro-Asiatic, Austro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Japonic, Koreanic, Atlantic-Congo, Sino-Tibetan, Turkic, Uralic and an isolate, Basque, which is effectively a one-language family.

For each language, the researchers examined brain responses in one or two native speakers who listened to an excerpt of Alice in Wonderland translated into their native tongue.

All native languages activated large areas of the left frontal, temporal and parietal cortex in the brain.

The responses of this language-related network were stronger and more correlated in the left hemisphere of the brain than the right hemisphere as subjects listened to different stories in their native languages.

The network was more responsive during listening to native languages than when performing a spatial working memory or an arithmetic task, suggesting that this common network was selective for language processing.

This finding is a first step in deeper examinations of the neural processing of different languages, which will require larger groups of native speakers for each language, the authors said.

Their paper appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

_____

S. Malik-Moraleda et al. An investigation across 45 languages and 12 language families reveals a universal language network. Nat Neurosci, published online July 18, 2022; doi: 10.1038/s41593-022-01114-5
(Newser)  Update: A Utah man pleaded guilty Tuesday to fatally shooting his mother and three siblings in early 2020, when he was 16 years old. Colin Jeffery Haynie, now 19, killed his mother and one of his sisters as they returned from her school pickup, then waited for two more siblings to arrive home and killed them, prosecutors said. Authorities have said they dont know his motive. Haynie, who was charged as an adult, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder on Tuesday, the AP reports. He will be sentenced on Dec. 7. With the death penalty not an option because he was under 18 at the time of the crime, he faces a prison sentence of 25 years to life for each aggravated murder conviction. Our original story from Jan. 23, 2020 follows:

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with the murders of his mother and three siblings in what's believed to be Utah's biggest mass shooting in 13 years. Authorities say Colin Jeffery "CJ" Haynie sought to kill everyone in his Grantsville home except himself and nearly succeeded Friday. Consuelo Alejandra Haynie, 52, and her daughter Milan (12 or 14; also reported as Maylan) were fatally shot around 1pm, per USA Today. Alexis, 15, and Matthew, 14, were killed after arriving home separately later in the afternoon. Father Colin Haynie was shot in the leg after arriving around 6pm but was then able to wrestle a handgun from his son, police say. Coverage:

"He said that the defendant told him that his mother and his other siblings were dead and that his intention was to kill everyone in the home except himself," says Tooele County Attorney Scott Broadhead.

A neighbor called 911 before driving the father and son to a hospital around 7pm, per KUTV. The boy was then taken into custody on suspicion of four counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted aggravated murder, and multiple counts of discharging a firearm; he will be tried as an adult.

He's so far refused to speak with investigators, per the AP. "The biggest question for everyone here is why," Police Cpl. Rhonda Fields tells ABC News.

Fields says the roughly 12,000-person town hasn't seen a homicide "of this magnitude" in 20 years. It's Utah's largest mass shooting since 2007, when a gunman killed five people and himself at a mall in Salt Lake City.

ABC News points out it's also the first mass shooting in America in 2020, based on the FBI's definition for such a shooting as one in which there are at least 3 victims, excluding the shooter.

"They were a really, really nice family. Its just shocking that it happened," a neighbor tells KSL.

KSL reports the family's eldest son, a Utah Valley University student, learned of the tragedy on Facebook. "Anyone in Grantsville know (what) is going on??? I cant get ahold of my family and they live on the street where the shooting happened," he posted on Facebook. In a subsequent comment he reported that officials hadn't provided him with any info, so he "pretty much had to piece it together."

(Read more mass murder stories.)
(Newser)  Shocking, grim, dire, depressing  thats what readers are saying about all 2,000 pages of Australias latest State of the Environment survey. Things werent great five years agothe last time they conducted the surveybut conditions have deteriorated rapidly. Per the BBC, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the report "tells a story of crisis and decline in Australia's environment, and of a decade of government inaction and willful ignorance." Severe drought, record floods, devastating bushfires, and a half-dozen "mass bleaching events" on the Great Barrier Reef have left 19 distinct ecosystems on the brink of collapse. Hundreds of plant and animal species are threatened, including many unique to Australia like the iconic koala, which faces extinction.

Climate change isnt the only culprit. Pollution, mining, invasive species, and habitat loss are all contributing to an imminent environmental breakdown. Per the Guardian, nearly half the country is now used for livestock grazing, while logging and farming threaten much of the rest. Urban development has intensified in recent years, thus increasing pollution, waste, and stress on unstable water systems, per the Washington Post. According to Al Jazeera, the report also "pays special attention to indigenous heritage and culture," which is also being destroyed at a steady place, as in the Juukan Gorge, where mining giant Rio Tinto literally blew up several sacred sites in 2020.

In addition to widespread calls for immediate action, the report has spurred plenty of finger-pointing among politicians, with the Labor Party and newly seated Prime Minister Anthony Albanese blaming his Liberal Party predecessors for mismanagement and poor stewardship. As environmental threats have increased in recent years, government spending on sustainability efforts has dropped, and the country lacks a cohesive, national framework for managing environmental issues. The report quotes the World Economic Forum, which says environmental degradation is a threat to humanity that could "bring about societal collapses with long-lasting and severe consequences." (Read more Australia stories.)
(Newser)  Nikki Haley dropped what supporters saw as a big hint at a 2024 White House bid in a speech at a pro-Israel event Monday night. The former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the UN criticized President Biden's efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal and added: "No deal is better than a bad deal. And if this president signs any sort of deal, Ill make you a promise. The next president will shred it on her first day in office." The line got a standing ovation from the crowd at the Christians United for Israel summit, the Hill reports. "Just saying, sometimes it takes a woman," Haley added.

This isn't the first time Haley has hinted at a White House run, though she has said she will stay out of the race if former President Donald Trump decides to seek another term, which he is widely expected to do, the State reports. Earlier this month, Haley said she will run "if there's a place for me." Haley has also recently attended a few events in Iowa, which holds the first caucuses in the presidential election calendar. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted Tuesday that there will be a "crowded field for president," Business Insider reports. Others believed to be considering a 2024 bid include former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Mike Pompeo, Trump's former secretary of state. (Read more Nikki Haley stories.)
(Newser)  A transformer exploded at the Hoover Dam Tuesday morning, causing a fire that authorities say was quickly extinguished with no interruption to the flow of power from the massive hydroelectric plant. Authorities say nobody was injured in the explosion and fire around 10am and the power grid was never at risk, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the dam and powerhouses, tweeted that it was able to extinguish the fire by 10:30am. The transformer is one of 15 at the facility on the Arizona-Nevada border.

The explosion and fire sent plumes of smoke into the air. Tourists said they heard an alarm and felt the ground rumble. William Herro, a 13-year-old visitor from, San Francisco, tells the AP that he saw the blast from a viewing bridge and heard a "big boom. "A ton of black smoke just exploded in the air. It looked almost like a mushroom and then a fire followed," he says. "I was really surprised and I started filming." Authorities saying they are trying to determine the cause of the blast and the extent of the damage. (Read more Hoover Dam stories.)
Qikiqtania wakei closely resembles Tiktaalik roseae  the important transitional animal considered a missing link between fish and the earliest limbed animals  but has features that made it more suited to life in the water than its famous cousin.

Qikiqtania wakei lived in what is now the Canadian Arctic some 380 million years ago (Devonian period).

It was a type of early elpistostegalian, an order of prehistoric lobe-finned fishes which lived during the Late Devonian epoch.

Qikiqtania wakei is estimated to be a standard length of 75 cm (30 inches), making it smaller than other described elpistostegalians.

Its fossilized remains were collected 1.5 km (0.9 miles) east of the site that yielded Tiktaalik roseae, but from a slightly earlier layer in the Fram Formation of southern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada.

The specimen includes partial upper and lower jaws, portions of the neck, and scales, said Dr. Neil Shubin, a paleontologist in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, and his colleagues.

Mostly importantly, it also features a complete pectoral fin with a distinct humerus bone that lacks the ridges that would indicate where muscles and joints would be on a limb geared toward walking on land.

Instead, Qikiqtania wakeis upper arm was smooth and curved, more suited for a life paddling underwater.

The uniqueness of its arm bones suggest that Qikiqtania wakei returned to paddling the water after its ancestors began to use their appendages for walking.

At first we thought it could be a juvenile Tiktaalik, because it was smaller and maybe some of those processes hadnt developed yet, Dr. Shubin said.

But the humerus is smooth and boomerang shaped, and it doesnt have the elements that would support it pushing up on land. Its remarkably different and suggests something new.

According to the paleontologists, Qikiqtania wakei is slightly older than Tiktaalik roseae but not by much.

Their analysis of where it sits on the tree of life places it, like Tiktaalik roseae, adjacent to the earliest creatures known to have finger-like digits.

But even though Qikiqtania wakeis distinct pectoral fin was more suited for swimming, it wasnt entirely fish-like either.

Its curved paddle shape was a distinct adaptation, different from the jointed, muscled legs or fan-shaped fins we see in tetrapods and fish today.

Tiktaalik is often treated as a transitional animal because its easy to see the stepwise pattern of changes from life in the water to life on land, said Dr. Tom Stewart, a paleontologist in the Department of Biology at the Pennsylvania State University.

But we know that in evolution things arent always so simple.

We dont often get glimpses into this part of vertebrate history. Now were starting to uncover that diversity and to get a sense of the ecology and unique adaptations of these animals. Its more than simple transformation with just a limited number of species.

The findings appear today in the journal Nature.

_____

T.A. Stewart et al. A new elpistostegalian from the Late Devonian of the Canadian Arctic. Nature, published online July 20, 2022; doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04990-w
(Newser)  The Indiana doctor who has become the center of a firestorm after performing an abortion on a 10-year-old girl from neighboring Ohio will sue the state's attorney general for defamation over his comments about her. Dr. Caitlin Bernard's lawyer released a statement Tuesday saying the lawsuit against AG Todd Rokita is being prepared, the New York Times reports. Rokita claimed Bernard had "a history of failing to report" and that she would be investigated to determine whether she failed to report the 10-year-old's abortion. Threats against her and her family have followed, Politico reports.

News outlets have confirmed Bernard did indeed report before the legal deadline, the Washington Post reports, but Rokita said the probe would continue. He also cast doubt on the veracity of the story that the girl had been raped, but police eventually arrested a 27-year-old man in the alleged crime. Rokita specifically mentioned investigating Bernard's licensure, and in the statement, Bernard's lawyer says the state licensing registry clearly shows the doctor's license is "active with no disciplinary history." So Rokita "either knew the statements were false or acted with reckless disregard of the truth or falsity of the statements," according to the tort claim notice sent Tuesday to Rokita, the first step in the process of suing for defamation.

A Rokita spokesperson says of the suit, "This is part of a divisive narrative and an attempt to distract from the important work of the office, including the duty to determine whether practitioners have violated the standards of practice in his or her profession, as well as federal and state laws." The rep also says Rokita and his office are "leaders in the pro-life movement." The state has 90 days to settle the claim, then a lawsuit can be filed. Separately, a complaint against Rokita was also filed by the former dean of the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University, who has requested the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission investigate his conduct. If he is found to have acted improperly, he could be disbarred. (Read more Indiana stories.)
(Newser)  A man drove his vehicle into a family as they walked near Glacier National Park then got out and began shooting at them with a shotgun, killing one man and mortally wounding a toddler before one of the victims managed to kill the assailant after he ran out of ammunition, authorities said Tuesday. Killed in the attack on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana were David Siau, 39, of Syracuse, New York, and Siau's 18-month-old daughter, McKenzie, the AP reports. The assailant, Derick Amos Madden, 37, had been in a prior relationship with the woman who killed him and had mental health issues, according to the Glacier County Sheriffs Office.

Madden drove his vehicle into the Siau family just before 9pm Sunday as they walked along a roadway in the small town of East Glacier Park, hitting some of them before crashing into a tree, the sheriff's office said. As members of the family tried to run, Madden shot and killed David Siau and mortally wounded McKenzie. The young girl was being held by her mother, Christy Siau, 40, who was shot and wounded. After running out of ammunition, Madden used a knife to attack and critically wound Christina Siau, 30. But she fought back and fatally wounded Madden, who died at the scene, authorities said. Two minor children who were present were able to run away and escaped injury.

Christina Siau was originally from New York and had been living in East Glacier, where her family was visiting, Jody Hickey, a spokesperson for Glacier County Sheriff Vernon Napi" Billedeaux, said. It was not clear what provoked Sundays attack beyond the prior relationship between Madden and Christina Siau. The sheriffs office described the tragedy as an isolated...incident with a clear nexus between the victims and Madden and said the investigation was continuing. Local authorities did not know of any previous interactions that Madden had with law enforcement. He had been working recently in East Glacier, a tourist town and gateway to the mountains in Glacier National Park, according to Hickey.

(Read more Glacier National Park stories.)
(Newser)  Chipotle has permanently closed a restaurant where the staff was seeking to hold a vote on forming a union. The company emailed the news to employees at its Augusta, Maine, store Tuesday morning, 2 hours before a National Labor Relations Board meeting was to begin on workers' petition to hold a vote, the Wall Street Journal reports. "We have been unable to adequately staff this remote restaurant with crew," a company statement said, "and continue to be plagued with excessive call-outs and lack of availability from existing staff." Recruiting managers also has been difficult, the statement said.

Union organizers suspect another motive, per CNN. Calling the closure "union busting 101," an attorney for the independent union attempting to organize the store said "it's meant to discourage not just the workers here, but ... other Chipotle organizing efforts elsewhere." Jeffrey Young said Augusta workers wrote a letter to the company and walked off the job last month to protest unsafe working conditions and inadequate staffing. Chipotle said it closed the store on June 17 to retrain workers and hire more. An executive said a team was dispatched to Maine to assess the situation, and the burrito chain said it thought the issues could be resolved.

But on Tuesday, the company said "there is no probability of reopening in the foreseeable future." Workers, who filed their petition on June 22, said their effort isn't over. They filed an unfair labor practice charge against the company Tuesday with the NLRB. "I was so angry," said Brandi McNease, a union organizer. "Chipotle slapped us in the face." None of the chain's nearly 3,000 US stores is unionized. Companies may close stores whose staffs are trying to form a union, a Cornell University analyst said. But Cathy Creighton said Chipotle appears to be trying "to quash the union movement, not only in this store but nationally." (Read more Chipotle stories.)
(Newser)  It's being called the "theft of the century," at least in the vinophile sphere. But authorities appear to have finally caught their suspects after a long-haul chase across Europe that involved both Interpol and Europol law enforcement agencies. Police say that a man and woman were arrested in Croatia nine months after 45 bottles of rare French wines worth more than $1.6 million were lifted from an esteemed eatery in Caceres, Spain, reports the Guardian. Police say the couple stayed in October 2021 at the boutique hotel Atrio, which houses a two-Michelin-star restaurant, and planned their heist in "millimetric detail," per the Times of London.

According to authorities, the woman used a phony Swiss passport to book them a room at the hotel, and then they visited the restaurant at least three times to get the lay of the land, even touring the restaurant's wine cellar. On their final visit to the restaurant, the woman allegedly chatted up a kitchen staffer and requested a meal, even though the kitchen was closedbut that was merely a distraction, police say, so that the man could reenter the wine cellar using a previously stolen key and fill three backpacks with wine bottles. The backpacks were "stuffed with hotel towels to protect the bottles," Spain's national civilian police force says, per the Guardian.

They were said to have fled the hotel in the early morning hours with the wine in tow, and then spent the next few months traveling around Europe "so much that it was hard for officers to keep up," the Guardian notes. Thanks to cooperative policing, however, the suspects were finally cornered this month near the Croatia-Montenegro border, where it was discovered the man also had two outstanding arrest warrants against him out of Madrid. One of Atrio's co-owners, meanwhile doesn't believe they worked alone: He says that he thinks a rich private collector must have been behind the heist, as one of the stolen wine bottles was so renowned that a sale would've sent up a red flag to the authorities. (Read more wine stories.)
(Newser)  A 14-year-old boy traveled to New York City's East Harlem neighborhood on Tuesday to bid adieu to friends following his family's move to Plainfield, New Jersey, some 40 miles away. He had no idea it would be goodbye for good. Justin Streeter was shot in the head in broad daylight while exiting a deli near East 128th Street and Lexington Avenue just before 4:30pm, police said, per NBC New York. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition before police confirmed his death on Wednesday morning. A 15-year-old boy who was with Streeter was also shot but is expected to survive.

Police said a male opened fire as the pair walked toward Park Avenue after a short visit at the deli, where they had picked up some snacks, per NBC. "A male emerges on the corner and fires a volley of gunshots at the two young men," who tried to take cover between two cars, NYPD Chief of Patrol Jeffrey Maddrey said at a Tuesday press briefing, per WPIX. Seven shell casings were recovered from the scene, per NBC. Streeter, struck in the head, fell to the ground. The older teen was shot in the leg but was pulled to safety by a good Samaritan who called 911, police said. The teen is now hospitalized in stable condition.

A friend of Streeter tells NBC that his family had just "moved out to New Jersey to create a new life and get out of the ghetto, and they came to say goodbye to their loved ones and friends. And sure enough it was the last goodbye." Officers described the shooting as targeted but did not describe a motive. The suspect, said to be wearing a grey sweatshirt and blue jeans, fled west on 128th Street and has yet to be found. Maddrey appealed for anyone with information to come forward. "We cannot allow our young people to fall victim to gun violence, so please any help that we can get, I implore this to New York," he said. (Read more shooting stories.)
(Newser)  A border collie in California was treated to a fine dinner and extra beef jerky after helping a search and rescue team locate his ownera hiker who took a very hard fall in Tahoe National Forest last Wednesday. According to KCRA, the 53-year-man tumbled 70 feet off a ridge, breaking his hip and several ribs. Authorities say it happened at night, and it wasn't until noon the next day that he was able to scramble back to his camp. He managed to place an emergency call, but the signal was weak and the call dropped. Per KPIX, "search-and-rescue was able to contact the victim's friend, who pointed them toward the man's campsite. He also told them to "look for Saul," per KCRA.

The area was inaccessible by vehicle, per the New York Times, and it took about seven hours for rescuers to reach the man's vicinity. Sgt. Dennis Haack of the Nevada County Sheriff's Office said rescuers were approached by a black border collie, the aforementioned "Saul," who was jumping up and down and spinning in circles. "One of the guys said it made eye contact," Haack said, and they decided to follow him. After a few feet, Saul turned to make sure the people understood, and he then led them about 200 yards to the victim, whose injuries were described as "traumatic," per KCRA. The man was airlifted to the hospital, and Saul was taken to a local nonprofit for VIP treatment while his owner was in the hospital.

Authorities are now praising Saul for acting in "true Lassie fashion." The man hasn't been identified, and authorities described him as living "somewhat of a secluded lifestyle." A day later, the man was reunited with Saul, who then received an additional stick of beef jerky for good measure. Not to put a damper on the story, but Sgt. Haack noted that rescuers would have eventually found the man without Saul. Furthermore, also per the Times, "the science is not yet settled on whether dogs can intentionally seek out other humans to help their distressed owners." (Read more uplifting news stories.)
(Newser)  A woman forgot to declare one half of a Subway sandwich after flying home to Australia and now has to pay a nearly $2,000 fine. Jessica Lee took to TikTok to describe what she calls "the most expensive sandwich ever," which is somewhat accurate considering Guinness World Records bestows that title on a $214 grilled cheese, per the Washington Post. The 19-year-old content creator said she was jet-lagged on a layover in Singapore following a vacation in Greece when she purchased the 12-inch sandwich "because I was a hungry girl after my 11-hour flight." She ate half the sandwich at the airport, then brought the other half on her final flight, intending to eat it before landing back home.

She didn't. As the Post reports, the "brain-fogged" traveler forgot all about the sandwich stashed in her purse, even as she filled out a declaration card asking about imported plant and animal products. "So I didn't tick 'chicken' and I didn't tick 'lettuce,'" Lee said in the video, making a checkmark gesture. That turned out to be a violation of Australia's Biosecurity Act, a strictly-enforced law designed to protect the country from invasive pests and diseases. As a rep for the country's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry tells News.com.au, "all meat products and vegetables must be declared on the Incoming Passenger Card," which is relayed in a video shown to incoming passengers on all airlines.

Lee only realized her mistake when her purse was checked in Australia. "When the officer looked at us and said, 'Yeah, this is going to be close to three grand,' I just started crying and crying," Lee said. She was fined 2,664 AUD or $1,844 and shared the video discussing the ordeal in the hope that others would avoid such a penalty. It's been viewed more than 1.3 million times. Now Lee jokes that she's all over the internet "for being an absolute idiot." There's some consolation, however. Subway Australia sent Lee a gift card for $1,844 worth of sandwiches. "We hope this covers all your chicken and lettuce needs," read the note. The company tells Food & Wine, "if there's a lesson to be learnt from all of this, it's to always finish a Footlong in one sitting." (Read more Subway stories.)
(Newser)  The rollout of a new logo for an Atlanta area elementary school has been paused after parents noted similarities to a Nazi symbol, though a school district said the design was based on a US Army colonel's eagle wings. The Cobb County School District said Tuesday that it has halted distribution of the new logo for East Side Elementary School in Marietta after it drew condemnation on social media. The logo depicts an eagle, the school's mascot, over the school's initials ES, reports the AP. The Nazi eagle, which was developed in the 1920s and later became a symbol for white supremacists, depicts an eagle holding a swastika in its talons.

A message to parents on Monday notified them of the new logo, saying it was chosen to "represent the eagle soaring into excellence and to honor the history of our great school." The district has been working with all schools to create logos, the message added. The design drew a swift backlash on social media, and Georgia's second-largest school district announced plans to delay the new logo while "immediately reviewing needed changes." East Side Elementary is across the street from a synagogue; Rabbi Amanda Flaks told WSB-TV the logo sickened her. She said she contacted the school and got an apology from the principal, along with pictures of what the school district said the logo was based on.

Stacy Efrat said that as a parent and a member of the Jewish community, she was outraged. "I want to see the logo not only taken away I want a direct apology to our community. Not just the Jewish community but the entire community," she said. The logo controversy is only the latest related to antisemitism in Cobb schools. Graffiti depicting swastikas was found in two Cobb County high schools during the Jewish High Holidays. Several Cobb middle school students were disciplined earlier this year for sharing antisemitic imagery on social media. (Read more logo stories.)
(Newser)  Alex Murdaugh, the disbarred South Carolina lawyer charged with murdering his wife and son last year, appeared in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty. In answer to a prosecutor's question on how he wanted to be tried, he said, "By God and my country," the State reports. One of the 54-year-old's attorneys told the judge that Murdaugh wants a speedy trial, starting within three or four months, to prove that South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division has the wrong man, reports the AP. "He believes that the killer or killers are still at large and this would allow SLED to put this behind them and go for the real killers, Dick Harpootlian said.

Murdaugh has been in jail since November and is charged with nearly 90 other crimes, most of them financial. His wife Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, were shot dead at their hunting lodge estate in Colleton County on June 7 last year. Murdaugh was in deep financial trouble at the time and prosecutor Creighton Waters told the judge Wednesday that the "financial material provides motive and background." Waters said he agreed with a motion from Murdaugh's lawyers to block investigators and lawyers from publicly discussing evidence in the case, potentially "polluting the jury pool." Murdaugh was denied bond at Wednesday's hearing. Waters said the evidence in the case, including forensic evidence, is "substantial" and it "all points back to Alex Murdaugh."

Law enforcement sources tell People that there is a "mountain of evidence" against Murdaugh, including phone and GPS evidence that contradicts his claim that he was with his dying father in the hospital at the time of the killings. The sources say Murdaugh allegedly convinced his estranged wife to drive home from their beach house so she could also visit his father; during the hour-long drive the source alleges she messaged a friend to say something seemed "fishy." The evidence allegedly includes video of Murdaugh talking with his wife just before she was killed, according to People's sources. (Read more Alex Murdaugh stories.)
(Newser)  Between April and June 2020, Los Angeles man Robert Benlevi applied for COVID aid for eight companies he owns, saying they had 100 employees each and business had been affected by the pandemic. But while the companies existed, at least on paper, the employees were fake, which is why Benlevi will be spending the next 11 years in federal prison. The 53-year-old has been sentenced to 135 months for trying to scam the Paycheck Protection Program for $27 million in forgivable loans, the AP reports.

In March, Benlevi was found guilty of bank fraud, making false statements to a financial institution, and money laundering. Prosecutors say he submitted 27 loan applications to four banks. Most of the applications did not succeed, but three of his companies received a total of $3 million in PPP funds. Evidence shows that instead of using the funds for payroll and other business expenses, Benlevi used the money "for personal expenses, including cash withdrawals, payments on his personal credit cards, transfers to other personal and business accounts he controlled, and renting an oceanfront apartment in Santa Monica," the Department of Justice said in a statement.

The companies that received loans had what SFist calls "somewhat suspicious/goofy-sounding names"1Stellar Health LLC, Bestways2 Health LLC, and Joyous-Health4U LLC. Prosecutors say that in his fraudulent applications, Benlevi claimed the companies had an average annual payroll of $4.8 million,"even though he knew that the companies did not have any employees or payroll expenses." The DoJ says the case was handled in part by its C OVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which has pursued around 1,000 defendants and recovered more than $1 billion. (Read more fraud stories.)
Rua Bioscience (NZX: RUA ) Chief Executive Officer Rob Mitchell has advised the Board of his intention to retire from his role effective from 1 September 2022.

Rua Chair Trevor Burt said that Rob Mitchell has built on the companys solid foundations, leading Rua through significant milestones and developing new strategic partnerships.

Since his appointment in February 2020 Rob has been instrumental in building a world-class team and growing new strategic partnerships. Under Robs leadership Rua has gained the certifications and licences needed to achieve New Zealand market entry and develop new market opportunities, said Burt.

The Board would like to thank Rob for his leadership of Rua. Rob has continued to deliver on the vision of Ruas co-founders, keeping kaupapa and community at the heart of the business.

Rob Mitchell said he is proud of what Rua has achieved, transforming Rua into a pharmaceutical company with the tools needed to deliver on its global strategy and social mission.

Im proud of the milestones Rua has achieved in recent years, in particular the successful transition from a co-founder led business to a NZX listed company, developing and launching Ruas first product and establishing New Zealands first compassionate access programme, said Mitchell.

It has been an honour to work for a company with an explicit mission to benefit its founding community, the social mission of Rua attracted me to the company, and it was a privilege to continue to deliver on the companys kaupapa. I remain confident that the commercial success of Rua Bioscience will enable the founding vision to be realised.

The past two and a half years have been exciting and full on at Rua, retirement will be too, but with the fish biting and my DIY project list shortening.

While the Board looks to appoint a new Chief Executive Officer, Rua Director Anna Stove will lead the business as Managing Director.

Anna joined Rua Biosciences Board in 2019 with a successful track record in leading and driving transformational change within the pharmaceutical sector. She has held various senior executive roles within New Zealand, the Asia Pacific and Europe, most recently as NZ General Manager for GlaxoSmithKline. Anna is also the Deputy Chair of TAB NZ & an Independent Director of Pacific Edge Ltd.

The Board would like to thank Anna for stepping into the role of Managing Director. Her expertise in the pharmaceutical sector and deep knowledge of the company and the domestic and global medicinal cannabis sector will enable Rua to maintain momentum, said Trevor Burt.

ENDS

Rua Bioscience CEO Rob Mitchell to retire - Anna Stove appointed Managing Director

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(Newser)  After five rounds of voting, the race to replace Boris Johnson is down to the final two candidates: Rishi Sunak, whose resignation as finance minister helped trigger an avalanche of resignations that led to Johnson's downfall, and Liz Truss, the Johnson administration's foreign minister. Trade minister Penny Mordaunt was in third place in the final ballot of Conservative Party lawmakers and therefore eliminated; ballots will now be sent to party members nationwide, the Guardian reports. The approximately 180,000 party members will cast their votes in the coming weeks and the new party leaderwho automatically becomes prime ministerwill be announced on Sept. 5, reports the AP.

Both Sunak and Truss have ruled out calling an early election, arguing that the public chose the Conservative Party's manifesto in the 2019 election, when Johnson led the party to a landslide victory, the BBC reports. In the weeks of campaigning ahead, Sunak is expected to present himself as a "responsible steward of the nation's finances during a period of extreme stress," reports the New York Times, while Truss is expected to focus on her hardline positions on Brexit and the war in Ukraine.

Labour Party lawmaker Iain Murray described both Sunak and Truss as "stooges" of the Johnson government, though Sunak's resignation made him very unpopular with Johnson loyalists. Murray described them as "continuity Johnson" and "Johnson lite" and said the public should be given a chance to decide who the next prime minister is, reports the BBC. Johnson made his final appearance in Parliament as prime minister Wednesday. He said his legacy would include the country's COVID response and support for Ukraine against Russia, "and frankly, that's enough to be going on with," per Reuters. "Mission largely accomplished," Johnson said, adding: "Hasta la vista, baby." (Read more United Kingdom stories.)
(Newser)  CNN calls the celebrity's "breezy" linen skirt its look of the week, and you'd be forgiven for not immediately realizing that the network is talking about Brad Pitt. The actor has been grabbing headlines for the red-carpet outfit he donned Tuesday while promoting Bullet Train in Berlin: a brown linen jacket, rose-colored button-down shirt, and, yes, a matching skirt with combat boots.

The Today Show notes it was specifically a "raw-edge, asymmetrical skirt," and describes Pitt as "really killing it, fashion-wise." The sentiment was divided on Twitter, with tweets for ("So like, Brad Pitt wears a skirt on the red carpet and still looks manly AF. Clothes dont have genders people. Just ask the Scottish"), against ("Whoever convinced Brad Pitt to wear a skirt should be flogged"), and unimpressed ("I love guys in skirts, but I think Brad Pitt officially crossed over into #CoastalGrandmother"). CNN points out this isn't exactly a first for Pitt. (Read more Brad Pitt stories.)
(Newser)  Defeated presidential candidates pressuring the vice president to reject the results will not become a regular feature of American elections under bipartisan legislation introduced Wednesday. One of the two bills clarifies the 1887 law that Donald Trump tried to exploit to stay in power, the Washington Post reports. The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act makes it clear that the vice president's role in proceedings is "solely ministerial" and they do not have the unilateral power to reject electors, as Trump urged Mike Pence to do on Jan. 6, 2021, reports NBC. The bill also clarifies that a state's governor submits the slate of electors to Congress and allows expedited judicial review of challenges.

The legislation, led by Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, also raises the threshold for objections during certification of election results from one senator and one House member to a fifth of each chamber. The bill amends the 1963 Presidential Transition Act to ensure candidates from both parties can access transition resources "when the outcome of an election is reasonably in doubt." Collins and Manchin are among a group of 16 lawmakers from both parties who released the legislation after months of negotiations. In a statement, they urged colleagues to "support these simple, commonsense reforms."

A second bill, the Enhanced Election Security and Protection Act, doubles the maximum penalty for people who intimidate poll watchers, election officials, or candidates to two years in prison, Politico reports. It also includes guidance on the handling of absentee ballots but does not address voter access, which had been a Democratic priority. Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, chair of the Senate Rules Committee, tells NBC that she hopes to hold a hearing on the proposals before the August recess. "We'd like to get it done and move on this as soon as possible," she says, (Read more presidential elections stories.)
(Newser)  A judge in New York has ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta that's investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia, the AP reports. New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber on July 13 issued an order directing Giuliani, a Trump lawyer and former New York City mayor, to appear before the special grand jury on Aug. 9 and on any other dates ordered by the court in Atlanta, according to documents filed Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began her investigation early last year, and a special grand jury with subpoena power was seated in May at her request. In a letter requesting the special grand jury, she said her team was looking into "any coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections in this state." Earlier this month, she filed petitions to compel seven Trump associates, including Giuliani and Sen. Lindsey Graham, to testify before the special grand jury. Because they don't live in Georgia, she had to use a process that involves getting a judge in the state where they live to order them to appear.

Giuliani had been summoned to appear in court in New York on July 13 to present any reasons why a subpoena should not be issued for him to testify in Atlanta, but he failed to show up for the hearing, Farber wrote in his order. In the petition for Giulianis testimony, Willis identified him as both a personal attorney for Trump and a lead attorney for his campaign. There is evidence that Giuliani's appearance at a state Senate subcommitee hearing, where he presented video he claimed showed election fraud but was soon debunked, "was part of a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere," the petition states. (Willis is considering subpoenaing Trump himself.)
(Newser)  A Memphis man is accused of murdering his bride while on their honeymoon at a luxe Fiji resort that featured in the 1980 movie The Blue Lagoon. Authorities say Christe Chen Dawson was found dead in her room at Fiji's Turtle Island Resort on July 9. The 36-year-old's cause or manner of death have not been revealed, but husband Bradley Robert Dawson, 38, has been charged with her murder, reports the Fiji Sun. It adds that police sought a court order to obtain Bradley Dawson's DNA sample after he apparently refused to provide one. His lawyer says he maintains his innocence.

The Daily Beast notes the two married on Feb. 18 after a whirlwind romance. The resortwhich was the honeymoon destination for former couples Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey and Britney Spears and Kevin Federlinesaid in a statement to People, "We can confirm that an incident took place between a couple at the Island on July 9th, which has resulted in a tragic outcome and charges being laid. We cooperated fully with the police who conducted a thorough investigation and have now left the Island." FOX13 reports Christe Chen Dawson was a pharmacist at Kroger; her husband works as an IT specialist. He has a July 27 court date. (Read more honeymoon stories.)
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The Department of Legal Affairs & Legislation organized a two-part lecture on: The Role of Small Island Developing States in the Formation of Fair Taxation as Customary Law and another on: Development in EU-OCT Relations for St. Maarten.





These topics are important because there are issues that affects and influences and impacts the country and its citizens.





Before Covid-19, the Department of Legal Affairs & Legislation organized 3-4 times per year a lecture about a legal topic on the Legal Platform. The reason for this lecture is to provide policy officers/policy advisors/legal advisors/lawyers information about legal topics, said Ramona Ismail, Legal Policy Advisor of the department.





The two lectures were Professor Dr. Flora Goudappel and Germaine Rekwest, both of the University of Curacao.





Dr. Goudappel spoke about the relation and the development of the European Union and the Netherlands and St. Maarten, as OCTs, Overseas Countries and Territories. Indicating that there are several aspects to the relationship, from the environmental to the social to the trade and development.





St. Maarten can benefit more and take advantage of the opportunities as a member to the EU, which ranges from having access to the European market to applying for EU funds to develop social and environmental projects. There is more to being a partner in this partnership, Dr. Goudappel said. A professor of European law and dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Curacao, Goudappel specializes in the relation of the overseas countries and territories to the European Union.





There is a new instrument, Prof. Dr. Goudappel said, the Decision on the Overseas Association underpinning the political/institutional, trade and financial cooperation framework for the EU-OCT partnership for 2021-27. The new Decision on the Overseas Association unifies the rules for the partnership with all Overseas Countries and territories (OCTs), which St. Maarten and other OCTs can take advantage of.





With an ever-changing world, from 25 OCTs down to 12, there are many changes thats happening in this developing world. The aim of the new regulations are to strengthening competitiveness, increasing resilience and reducing vulnerability, and promoting cooperation and integration between the OCTs and other partners and neighboring regions. In addition, there are financing options with regard to Disaster Risk Reduction, Multiannual program funding, and emphasis on UN 2030 Agenda and Environmental Protection.





The other speaker was Germaine Rekwest (LL.M) who provided information on the concept of Fair Taxation as it relates to an international standard and contextually to global developments, as well as exploring the topic of Fair Taxation, from the different angleseconomic, legal/judicial, political, and philosophical.





The central question in this lecture is whether the implementation of Fair taxation by the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) contributes to the formation of Fair taxation as a principle of customary international law, said Rekwest, who is a researcher and lecturer in tax law at the University of Curacao and is currently finalizing her PhD at Leiden University.

The Government is dealing with (the implementation of) international tax standards, so it is relevant for civil servants to learn more about this. The same applies to the new OCT decision. In addition, there has to be the considerations for not complying with certain EU stipulations as it regards this topic of fair Taxation.





The Department JZ&W is very thankful that Professor Dr. Flora Goudappel and Germaine Rekwest (LL.M) have given the lecture on the Legal Platform.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG) 2022, a prestigious exam conducted by the National Testing Agency, Government of India, was successfully held as per the guidelines at the Indian School Bahrain (ISB) on July 17.

This was the first ever NEET UG exam conducted in Bahrain with the ISB as the only centre chosen in Bahrain. Around 128 candidates had opted for Manama, Bahrain as the examination centre for the NEET UG 2022 exam, and 123 candidates appeared for the exam, which was held in pen and paper mode from 11.30am to 2.50pm at the Indian School Isa Town.

Though the NEET was conducted in the middle of the summer holidays, the Indian School staff and administrative team had made all the arrangements meticulously as per the guidelines of the National Testing Agency (NTA).

The exam was conducted under the direct supervision of the Indian Embassy in Bahrain with the Embassy Second Secretary Ravikumar Jain overseeing the entire pre-exam preparations, exam conduct and post exam arrangements. ISB Principal VR Palaniswamy was the City Coordinator and the Centre Superintendent to synchronise and ensure the fair conduct of the NEET exam.

The NTA had conducted a series of orientation sessions and briefings for the observers, coordinators, centre superintendents and invigilators who were alert and careful in following the instructions. The NTA officials were available all days running up to the exam. Around 25 teaching and non-teaching staff were involved in the smooth conduct of the examination at the school.

ISB Hon. Chairman Prince S Natarajan expressed his happiness on the successful completion of the first ever NEET exam at the Indian School Bahrain, which is one of the prime centres in the Gulf for Indias National Eligibility Entrance test 2022.

Im thankful to the National Testing Agency and the Indian Embassy for considering the Indian School Bahrain as the centre of the exam which is indeed an honour for the reputation of the ISB, Natarajan said. ISB Hon. Secretary Saji Antony said: Im happy and proud that the Indian School Bahrain was designated as the first ever centre for the conduct of NEET exam as the exam venue was ideal due to its strategic location and eminence.

EC Member-Academics Mohammad Khursheed Alam said the Indian School had selected and trained the faculty and administrative staff which resulted in the smooth conduct of this professional medical entrance exam. Hon. EC Members appreciated successful completion of the exam with the embassy officials closely monitoring the arrangements adhering with the health and safety protocols.

Principal VR Palaniswamy said it was an excellent learning experience for the school as it was a great honour to be part of the NEET UG 2022 which is a prestigious examination conducted by Indias National Testing Agency.

In view of the current situations, it would have been extremely difficult for students from Bahrain to travel to India and physically appear for this entrance test. Now, with the Indian School officially named as a test centre, students in Bahrain are able to appear for the test without having to travel to India.
Going on a trip requires an extensive amount of planning. You have to book your accommodations, research what attractions to go to, and plan your itinerary thoroughly.

However, theres one very important detail that many travellers often miss: their luggage. Specifically, a lot of people end up overpacking because they dont properly plan what to bring with them.

That said, downsizing luggage doesnt come easy for everybody. If you struggle a lot with overpacking, here are a couple of handy tips to keep in mind the next time you prepare for a trip:

Avoid Overstuffing Your Luggage

The first tip is the most straightforward. Stick with the essentials, and dont try to stuff your bags and suitcases with too many items. If you see any leftover room in your suitcase after youve packed your essential items, let that free space be.

Unfortunately, many travellers struggle with this practice. If they leave any unused space in their suitcase, they may feel as if theyre not maximising their tickets baggage allowance. While this feeling is valid, looking at it from another perspective may provide you with some comfort.

To be specific, dont think of it as wasting luggage space. Instead, view it as allocating free space for future purchases and souvenirs. For example, if youre heading to Singapore, the extra baggage space will give you enough room to store any mementoes youve acquired from Changi Airport shopping. By thinking ahead and allotting luggage space for souvenirs and other holiday purchases, you can feel more at ease about not overstuffing your suitcase from the get-go.

Get a Smaller Suitcase

If you find it difficult to pare down what items to bring, you can downsize your suitcase instead. With less room to fill up, youll have to sift through your belongings and carefully consider which ones to bring.

For a rough idea of how small your suitcase should be, use your tickets carry-on baggage allowance for reference. Airlines usually allow around seven to 12 kilos for carry-ons. While some items may be heavier than others, this should give you a good baseline of how many things you can bring with you.

Stop Thinking of What If Situations

Its important to be prepared for emergencies, but theres a fine line between being prepared and overpacking. Unless youre going to a place where some products arent readily available, theres usually no need to add too many items to your luggage. Instead, you can just bring your essentials (the things that you cant easily buy) and purchase everything else you need once you arrive at your destination.

One of the most effective ways to stop thinking about what if situations is to do your due research on your destination. Check if there are any local shops and see what they usually have on sale. You can also get this kind of information from other people whove already gone to your destination. They can give you an idea of what you should absolutely bring and what you may have trouble finding in your destinations local stores.

Prepare a Capsule Wardrobe

A capsule wardrobe is a term that refers to a small set of curated clothes, accessories, and footwear. Such a wardrobe is usually comprised of no more than 10 base items: specifically, eight articles of clothing and two pairs of footwear. Accessories are optional.

Indeed, preparing a capsule wardrobe for your trip will meet both your fashion and minimalist packing needs. This is because the clothing items chosen for this type of wardrobe complement each other, which means you can mix and match pieces without worrying about anything looking out of place. In fact, not only will you be saving on luggage space, but youll also save a lot of time when it comes to styling your outfits.

Avoid Last-Minute Packing

Based on the tips above, its clear that packing for a trip requires a lot of thought and consideration. That said, its difficult to carefully consider your options if you tend to pack at the very last minute. If you dont have a lot of time left to prepare your luggage, youre likely to begin panicking and start tossing random items into your suitcase without really thinking about it. This increases your chances of bringing along items that you wont even end up using during your trip.

So, while packing the night before may be feasible if youre going on a quick overnight trip, its still best to start planning and packing your luggage at least a few days before you have to leave.

Getting your packing list right can be challenging, but its more than doable as long as you follow the tips above. By making more deliberate choices about what to add to your luggage, you can rest assured that you wont leave anything important behind and that you wont be bringing anything superfluous with you.
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A North Texas wildfire continued to grow Tuesday amid sweltering temperatures and dry conditions after burning at least a dozen structures, officials said.

The Chalk Mountain Fire about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth was the largest active Texas wildfire as of Tuesday afternoon after blackening 6,000 acres (2,400 hectares), an increase from 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares) Tuesday morning, the Texas A&M Forest Service said. The fire, which began Monday afternoon, was just 10% contained, and crews using bulldozers were digging containment lines while fire trucks and aircraft worked to extinguish the flames, the Forest Service said.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Hood County Judge Ron Massingill ordered the mandatory evacuation of a rural area south of Tolar, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth.

It was not yet clear how many, if any, of the 12 structures lost as of Tuesday afternoon were residences or businesses, Forest Service spokeswoman Mary Leathers said.

Meanwhile, crews continued to battle a wildfire that has burned at least 10 structures, five of them homes, around a lake in North Texas, authorities said.

The fire at Possum Kingdom Lake about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Fort Worth, which began Monday afternoon, had burned about 500 acres (202 hectares) and was 10% contained Tuesday, Forest Service spokesman Adam Turner said. Firefighting crews were working around the clock, focusing on protecting threatened homes in resort subdivisions along the lakes western shore.

The area remained under a voluntary evacuation notice, the Forest Service said.

No injuries have been reported from the fires, and their causes were under investigation. A combination of near-record- and record-high temperatures approaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) combined with breezes gusting as high as 30 mph (40-50 kph) and drought conditions leave the region ripe for fire, the forest service said.

The National Weather Service has issued a red flag fire warning for northern and central Texas and western and eastern Oklahoma for Tuesday.

We are experiencing dry fuels to a level that we havent seen in the past 10 years, Turner said. Any spark that lands in tall grass or even lands in some short grass right now is liable to spark.

Wildfires and intense heat in Texas and some other parts of the United States come as unusually hot, dry weather has gripped large swaths of Europe since last week, triggering wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans and leading to hundreds of heat-related deaths.
According to recent satellite pictures, a Chinese hamlet that was built 9 km east of the Doklam plateau, where Indian and Chinese forces clashed in 2017, is now entirely populated, with automobiles parked at almost every residence.

The village, which Beijing refers to as Pangda, is notable since it is entirely within Bhutanese territory.

Part of Chinas huge land grab in Bhutan is the perfectly delineated all-weather highway that runs beside Pangda. This crosses the Amo Chu river, which flows quickly, for 10 kilometres into Bhutanese territory.

Construction along the Amo Chu puts Indian forces at risk of Chinese forces gaining access to a strategic crest on the nearby Doklam plateau. They would have a clear view of Indias sensitive Siliguri corridor, a tiny sliver of land connecting the northeastern states to the rest of the nation, thanks to this.

Chinese workers had been physically barred from reaching the Jhamperi ridge in Doklam by Indian military in 2017. There are currently worries that China is attempting to use this alternative axis to approach the same ridge in order to avoid Indian defences to the west.

Lt. General Praveen Bakshi (retired), who was in charge of Indias Eastern Army at the time of the Doklam conflict in 2017, claims that Pangda village and the ones to its north and south are classic examples of the Chinese trying to establish their legitimacy over the Jhamperi ridge and the Doklam plateau. Chinese plans to build numerous communities along disputed borders are basically a way of adding credibility to its territorial claims, according to one scholar.

Army Headquarters sources said to sources, The Army keeps a close eye on all border-related operations, especially those that threaten the countrys territorial integrity and sovereignty. In order to do this, the essential safeguards and systems are in place.
Sanjay Raut, a Shiv Sena leader, has received a new summons from the Enforcement Directorate, requiring him to appear before it on Wednesday for questioning in connection with a money laundering investigation involving alleged irregularities in the redevelopment of a Mumbai chawl and transactions involving his wife and associates, according to officials.

On July 1, he was questioned once in relation to this matter, and the investigating officer spoke with him for almost 10 hours. During that time, his statement was recorded in accordance with the penal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). I provided complete cooperation and responded to all of their inquiries. If they contact me, Ill show up again, Raut had assured the media as he left.

He claimed that because he has not done anything wrong in life, he is fearless and undeterred. The development occurs in the midst of a mutiny within the Shiv Sena, where Uddhav Thackeray, a former chief minister of Maharashtra, and Eknath Shinde, the current chief minister, are at odds over the partys emblem and leadership of the organisation.

As part of this inquiry, the ED temporarily attached assets belonging to Rauts wife Varsha Raut and two of his acquaintances in April totaling more than Rs 11.15 crore. The properties are land that Pravin M Raut, Sanjay Rauts assistant and a former director of Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd, owns in the towns of Palghar, Saphale, and Padgha (in Thane district).

The ED had said that among these assets were a flat owned by Varsha Raut in the Mumbai district of Dadar and eight plots at Kihim Beach in Alibaug jointly owned by Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar, the wife of Sujit Patkar, a close colleague of Sanjay Raut.

Sanjay Raut is being sought out by the agency in order to learn more about his business and other relationships with Pravin Raut and Patkar as well as the real estate transactions involving his wife. The ED had claimed that Pravin Raut appeared to be operating as a front or in cooperation with some powerful person after his arrest in February.

According to the agency, it was discovered that he made payments to a number of politically exposed persons during the investigation.

The agency had claimed that cash payments were made to the sellers in the Alibaug land purchase in addition to the registered value.

The ED detained Pravin Raut as part of an investigation into an alleged Rs 1,034 crore land fraud involving the redevelopment of the Patra chawl in Mumbais Goregaon neighbourhood. He is currently being held by authorities.
Personnel from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) on Tuesday saved residents of the flood-affected villages of Ghugus, Belsani, and Soit in Warora in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra.

Notably, this seasons torrential rains have left their mark on various Maharashtra districts, prompting the state government to send 13 NDRF and three SDRF teams to the affected areas.

Despite persistent rain and overflowing dams, the flood situation in some areas of Maharashtras Wardha district remained dire on Monday.

The Regional Meteorological Centre in Mumbai had issued an Orange notice for the districts of Gadchiroli and Gondia, anticipating a thunderstorm and lightning along with severe to very heavy rain in isolated areas.

The lives of people have been severely damaged as the flood crisis persists in the Sironcha town of Maharashtras Gadchiroli district and significant areas of land are still covered in water.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel worked in Gadchirolis flood-affected districts on Sunday to provide aid and distribute basic necessities to the locals.

A report from the Maharashtra State Disaster Situation Report Index on Saturday stated that since June 1, 102 people had died as a result of rain- and flood-related occurrences in Maharashtra.

According to the SDMD, 189 animals have already passed away. According to the Maharashtra SDMD report from July 16, about 11,836 people had to be evacuated, and 73 relief camps had to be established in the state.

In the state, there have been heavy downpours that have reportedly affected at least 28 districts, including Pune, Satara, Solapur, Nashik, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Beed, Latur, Washim, Yavatmal, Dhule, Jalna, Akola, Bhandara, Buldhana, Nagpur, Nandurbar, Mumbai Sub, Palghar, Thane, Nanded, Amravati, Wardha, Ratnagiri
Sri Lanka is getting ready to hold elections to choose a new president as it struggles with a historic economic and governance crises. Who is running and how did the nation get to this point are listed below.

The island nation of Sri Lanka is preparing to hold elections to select its ninth President to follow outgoing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the economic crisis and subsequent violence intensify.

When protests forced Gotabaya Rajapaksa to leave the country on July 13, he sent his resignation late that day, and Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena accepted it on July 15. The same day, Rajapaksas hand-selected acting president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, assumed office.

Former education minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake, former information and mass media minister Dullas Alahapperuma, and acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe have all submitted their candidacy for the position.

Earlier, Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the opposition, withdrew his nomination and supported Alahapperuma. I officially withdraw my candidacy for the role of President for the better interest of my nation, which I adore, and the people I cherish, he declared.

For the greater good of my country that I love and the people I cherish I hereby withdraw my candidacy for the position of President. @sjbsrilanka and our alliance and our opposition partners will work hard towards making @DullasOfficial victorious.  Sajith Premadasa (@sajithpremadasa) July 19, 2022

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), which has 100 MPs and is the largest bloc in the 225-member Parliament, has endorsed Wickremesinghe (73) as its candidate.

Dullas Alahapperuma, a 63-year-old SLPP dissident and former minister of education, will be Wickremesinghes fiercest rival. Anura Dissanayake, 53, is the third contender and is backed by the Peoples Liberation Front.
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NEW YORK (AP)  Ivana Trump, the 1980s style icon and businesswoman who helped Donald Trump build the empire that put him on a road toward the White House, lived a beautiful life, the former president recalled as loved ones paid final respects to her Wednesday.

The ex-president joined all his children, an array of other relatives and friends at a Manhattan church for Ivana Trump's funeral Mass.

A very sad day, but at the same time a celebration of a wonderful and beautiful life, he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, before he, former first lady Melania Trump and their son Barron headed to St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church, located just a few blocks from Ivana Trump's home near Central Park.

Ivana and Donald Trump's three children  Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric  stood with their father and their families as the gold-toned casket was carried from the church. Eric Trump briefly put an arm around his sister's shoulders as she held the hand of one of her small children, who clutched a red flower.

Tiffany Trump, the daughter of the former president and his second wife, Marla Maples, also attended the service, as did family friends including Jeanine Pirro, co-host of Fox News' The Five, and Charles Kushner, a real estate developer and the father of Ivanka Trump's husband, Jared Kushner. Fashion designer Dennis Basso, a longtime friend of Ivana Trump's, was also among the mourners.

The Mass was an elegant, wonderful send-off for Ivana Trump, another longtime friend, R. Couri Hay, said as he emerged.

Trumps family announced Thursday that the 73-year-old had died at her home. Authorities said the death was an accident, with blunt impact injuries to her torso as the cause.

Ivana and Donald Trump met in the 1970s and were married from 1977 to 1992. In the 1980s, they were a power couple, and she became well known in her own right, instantly recognizable with her blond hair in an updo and her glamorous look.

Ivana Trump also took part in her husband's businesses, managing one of his Atlantic City casinos and picking out some of the design elements in New York City's Trump Tower.

Their very public divorce was ugly, but in recent years, they were friendly. Ivana Trump was an enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and said they spoke on a regular basis.

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  Gov. Mike Parson and first lady Teresa Parson will travel to Germany and the Netherlands next week for a trade mission to promote Missouri businesses and trade.

Missouri exported nearly $679 million in goods to Germany last year and more than $223 million to the Netherlands, according to the governor's office.
Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media /

HAMDEN  Police are investigating after shots were fired during an altercation Tuesday, according to the department.

Officers responded to Manila Avenue for a report of a dispute and shots fired at approximately 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Detective Sean Dolan said in an email.
BRIDGEPORT  A Stratford man, who was released from prison in 2011 after serving 25 years for a home invasion, was sentenced Tuesday to 60 years for fatally shooting a Bridgeport man during a drug deal in 2017.

In May, after a day and a half of deliberations, a 12-member jury found 57-year-old Lonnie Mebane guilty of murder with a firearm, criminal use of a firearm and carrying a pistol without a permit for the 2017 fatal shooting of 19-year-old Eric Diaz.

The (initial) 25-year-term just wasnt enough and did not deter Mr. Mebane from committing vicious crimes, Superior Court Judge Alex Hernandez said. There is a need to protect the public from Mr. Mebane.

During the sentencing hearing Tuesday Diazs mother began to speak and then left the courtroom sobbing.

I wasnt the greatest father, the victims father, Eric Diaz Sr., told Mebane, but you totally ruined any future I had with my son.

Supervisory Assistant States Attorney Colleen Zingaro, who prosecuted the case with Edward Lee Miller, told the judge that the death of Diaz was a premeditated, deliberate act.

Its easy to say that the young man was involved in drug dealing and doesnt have value but he had a family that loved him dearly, she said.

Mebane was accused of shooting Diaz on Sept. 14, 2017 during a drug transaction in Mebanes car at Newfield Avenue and Beardsley Street.

Police said Mebane arranged to buy heroin from Diaz. Shortly after 10 p.m., he drove up to the intersection in his fathers Nissan sedan and waited. Diaz approached the car and got into the front passenger seat. Police said witnesses heard a single gunshot and saw Diaz roll out of the car and struggle to walk away before collapsing onto the sidewalk.

In 2011, Mebane was released from prison after serving a 25-year prison term.

A mother and her two young sons had been asleep in their McPadden Drive home in Stratford on Oct. 20, 1985, when police said Mebane burst into the home carrying a knife in each hand.

He repeatedly stabbed the 6-year-old boy and when the mother tried to intervene, police said Mebane grabbed her, threw her onto a bed, ripped her pajamas and bit her breast. When the 11-year-old boy tried to protect his mother, Mebane stabbed him. He then fled the home, police said.

Mebane was convicted of numerous burglary and assault charges.

Following his release from prison, police said Mebane moved in with his 90-year-old father in Stratford. In August 2017 Mebane took his father to a local store where the elder man purchased two handguns, police said.

Police said acquaintances of Mebane told detectives that Mebane was intent on robbing someone.
ARISS contact is scheduled with students at Kitaogura Elementary School, Uji, Japan

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and Japanese students at the Kitaogura Elementary School located in Uji, Japan.

ARISS conducts 60-80 of these special amateur radio contacts each year between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses aboard the ISS.



Kitaogura Elementary School (about 207 students) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and will mark it by hosting this ARISS contact for their students who are also interested in amateur radio. Their students enthusiasm for the hobby includes fifth grade students who, in 2020, operated a ham station (callsign 8J3YAA/3) that introduced amateur radio to the surrounding community. Members of the amateur radio clubs (KANSAI ARISS PROJECT & JARL Kyoto Club) are supporting the school for this ARISS contact.



This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio and allow students to ask questions of Astronaut Kjell Lindgren, amateur radio call sign KO5MOS. Local Covid-19 protocols are adhered to as applicable for each ARISS contact. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHZ and may be heard by listeners that are within the ISS-footprint that also encompasses the ground station.



The amateur radio ground station for this contact is in Uji, Japan. Amateur radio operators, using call sign 8N35K, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.



The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for July 21, 2022 at 5:38:43 pm JST (Uji, Japan) (8:38:43 UTC, 4:38 am EDT, 3:38 am CDT, 2:38 am MDT, 1:38 am PDT).





As time allows, students will ask these questions:



1. Why did you want to become an astronaut?

2. How can I become an astronaut?

3. What was the most difficult part of your training before going into space?

4. How did you feel during launch?

5. How long does it take to get from Earth to the ISS?

6. Is it hot or cold in space?

7. How large is the ISS?

8. Do you have your own room in the ISS?

9. What is something you wanted to take to space but couldn't?

10. How do you eat and drink in space?

11. Do you have any space food that you eat on special occasions such as your birthday or the last day of a mission?

12. Is there a bath in the ISS?

13. How do you sleep in zero gravity?

14. How do you wash your clothes after changing?

15. How do you spend your free time?

16. How do you enjoy amateur radio on the ISS?

17. What is the most difficult thing to do in space?

18. What kind of view can you see from the ISS?

19. When will you come back to the Earth?

20. If you get used to weightlessness, do you have any problems when you return to Earth?



About ARISS:

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers, Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) and NASAs Space communications and Navigation program.

The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics. ARISS does this by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities take part in hands-on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org.



Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR



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The All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, has disclosed why he must win the 2023 election. Tinubu said he mus...





The All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, has disclosed why he must win the 2023 election.





Tinubu said he must win the presidential election for the sake of job creation.





He assured that his victory would bring about quality education for Nigerians and the elimination of poverty.





The APC presidential candidate spoke on Wednesday while unveiling Kashim Shettima as his running mate.





Tinubu said his victory would eliminate religious and ethnic division among Nigerians.





He also harped on the need for Nigerians to be united.





We must win this election so that we can bring jobs, eliminate poverty, educate our children, bring up our grandchildren without thinking of religious division or ethnic division.





We are one, our passport is one; greenback is one. One nation, one destiny, he said.
The Vice Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Kashim Shettima, is currently meeting behind closed doors with the Presi...

The Vice Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Kashim Shettima, is currently meeting behind closed doors with the President, Muhammadu Buhari, at the State House, Abuja.

Our correspondent spotted the former Borno State Governor and his successor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, being ushered in to see the President at minutes before 04:00 pm on Wednesday.

The meeting comes hours after Shettimas official unveiling as the running mate to the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.

Visiting the President at his Daura home on July 10, Tinubu had revealed that he chose Shettima because he is competent, capable and reliable.

At the time, he disclosed that he was yet to inform Shettima about his emergence as running mate.

The Muslim-Muslim ticket floated by the standard bearer has drawn harsh criticisms from various groups nationwide.

Shettima did not speak to journalists after the meeting. Instead, he was ushered out of the Villa premises through a different route.
The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TCN, has asked that the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Prac...





The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TCN, has asked that the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, to investigate governors owing salaries and pensions





The TUC president, Quadri Olaleye made the call at the 12th Triennial National Delegates Conference on Tuesday in Abuja.





He expressed worry over the huge number of states owing pension, salaries and allowances in arrears after collecting refund, bailout funds, budget support fund and the Paris debt refund.





We condemn it and demand that the EFCC and ICPC investigate and bring the governors to book.





Its our thought that paying retirees their entitlement will assist to curb corruption because when people know that they will get their entitlements when they retire, it will check stealing.





Olaleye noted that the governors who claimed that they had no money to pay, have money to pay their predecessors and also fund their reckless lifestyle.





For those of them withholding the contributory pension deductions from workers salaries without remitting same to their Pension Fund Administration (PFAs), we warn that it is illegal and attracts some penalties, Olaleye said.
Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land, Iba Gani Adams has again deplored Nigerias insecurity, declaring that Yorubas are ready to defend themsel...

Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land, Iba Gani Adams has again deplored Nigerias insecurity, declaring that Yorubas are ready to defend themselves against terrorists.

The traditional leader warned gunmen to stop testing the will of the region and the indigenes to prevent additional atrocities.

Adams said the Southwest Security Stakeholders Group (SSSG), comprising the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and others, will henceforth resist attacks.

The Aare spoke on Tuesday during a visit to the Olowo of Owo kingdom, HRM Oba Ajibade Ogunoye.

In a statement by his spokesman, Kehinde Aderemi, Adams assured that efforts were underway to forestall a repeat of the June 5 massacre.

More than 40 worshippers died after gunmen opened fire at the St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State.

The Federal Government announced that the Islamic States West Africa Province (ISWAP) was responsible.

Adams said the incident remained the most devastating experience of terrorism in Yoruba modern history.

The chief recalled issuing a statement to console the king and the people, reiterating his support to make the town safe.

I also wrote a letter informing the United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Antonio Guterres of the need to prevent further calamity capable of destroying Nigeria, like what happened in Bosnia, he said.

Adams added that the memo was addressed to the international community and the State Security Departments across the world.

This time around, the Yoruba are more united; we are not cowards. In Yoruba land, we have never lost any war.

Therefore, we are not going to relent or relax until we get rid of terrorists across the Southwest, he vowed.

Oba Ogunoye thanked Adams for the struggle to defend the region and blamed the high rate of insecurity on the federal system of government.

The monarch stressed that the establishment of State police would ensure internal security of the country.

Owo people are prepared to defend themselves against external aggressors, he asserted.
Emmanuel Osodeke, president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says the unions strike would have been addressed earlier ...

Emmanuel Osodeke, president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says the unions strike would have been addressed earlier if politicians children attend public universities in the country.

Osodeke spoke on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television.

ASUU has been on strike since February 14 over the federal governments failure to honour an agreement on issues bordering on funding of universities, as well as salaries and allowances of lecturers.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, gave Adamu Adamu, minister of education, two weeks to resolve issues of contention regarding the ASUU strike.

Reacting to Buharis directive, the ASUU president said the two-week ultimatum is too long, and that the union can suspend its strike in less than two days if the federal government honours its agreement with the union.

Two weeks is too long. The issue of renegotiation has been completed by both sides, which means that one is gone. They should just come back to us and say we have agreed, sign it. That should not take two days, Osodeke said.

If you have a crisis in your house, you will source for money to resolve that crisis  the way they are sourcing for money to do all kinds of things.

We were told they spent billions to feed children in schools. Is that correct? How many children have you seen being fed. They released N200 billion for entrepreneurship programme.

Your universities are closed for five months, you did not release N100 billion, but you released money to share in villages because election is coming. It is the priority you place on education.

Government should prioritise education as number one priority in the country, because all of us here, wherever you are, you must pass through the school. Now that you have killed it, we are wasting our money on foreign countries.

Last year, according to CBN, Nigerians spent N1.6 trillion as school fees to other countries. N1.6 trillion will turn around all the universities in Nigeria and bring them to standard and people will come from outside. We go outside; nobody comes in.

For this strike, universities are shut down. Those who run the affairs of Nigeria  national assembly and executive arm  they do not have any problem. Their children are not here. If the children of all the ministers and senators are all in our public universities, this will not last two days.

When the aviation people wanted to shut down, the national assembly called them immediately and settled them overnight because fear could not allow them pass through roads. They quickly resolved it.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Generally cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 84F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Overcast. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable.
Today, its a largely overlooked parking lot, and not a very picturesque one, despite its prime location between the Mississippi River and the French Quarter.

Tourists, revelers and passers-through alike simply park their vehicles there, walk away and dont give it much of a second thought.

It wasnt always that way, though.

Once upon a time, starting in the 1830s and continuing for the better part of a century, the corner of Bienville and North Front streets was among the sweetest spots in New Orleans  in a very literal sense.

Representing the epicenter of the citys then-booming sugar trade, that section of the riverfront  stretching from roughly Canal Street to Toulouse Street, on what is today Woldenberg Park  was referred to as the sugar landing (or, for the more poetically inclined, the sugar levee).

There, the white gold from plantations throughout south Louisianas so-called sugar bowl region was unloaded, processed, stored and loaded back up again for distribution throughout the country and the world.

It was anything but sweet for the enslaved people who were forced for many years to do the hard part  that is, harvesting all that sugar cane.

Their labor, however, made fortunes many times over for the regions plantation owners, many of whom abandoned popular crops such as indigo and tobacco once Etienne De Bore in 1795 worked his granulated magic to improve the portability  and thus the profitability  of sugar.

A new venue

For decades, most sugar trading in New Orleans was done in the open air on the sugar levee. But as the end of the 19th century approached, planters decided they needed somewhere proper for all that commerce to play out.

Enter the Louisiana Sugar Exchange, the brainchild of the Louisiana Sugar Planters Association, which in 1883 announced plans to construct a suitably eye-catching temple to their cash crop.

Their location: the corner of Bienville and North Front streets, which put them smack in the middle of the sugar district. With the land in hand, the association hired noted New Orleans architect James Freret to design a building that would stand out amid the warehouses and wharves dominating the area.

What he came up with was a two-story Beaux Arts beauty with a main hall along Bienville Street and, on the buildings northeast side, a wing of offices that included conference rooms, a telegraph office, a reading room and a museum of sugar-making machinery.

A sugar palace

The exterior of the main hall featured massive floor-to-ceiling windows, each with cantilevered panes to let the river air blow through. Stained-glass panes added a touch of color to the lowest section of each. Inside, rosewood, mahogany and cypress furniture added a touch of elegance.

In this hall the main business of the Exchange will be transacted and the floor be covered with about forty sample tables where sugar will be sold by sample, The Daily Picayune reported.

The main entrance was at the middle of the buildings northwest side, on the no-longer-existing Clay Street, which has since been incorporated into the parking lot occupying the site today.

That entrance was marked by a stone canopy supported by two-story-tall columns adorned with a vegetation motif. The North Front Street entrance on the buildings opposite, river-facing side included a prominent clock.

A dome, columns and a park

Crowning it all was a rooftop dome, rising 65 feet high and boasting a skylight to flood the main hall with natural light. Supporting the dome were four columns rising from the floor of the hall, each adorned with additional interpretations of tropical foliage.

A derelict triangle of land on North Front Street separating the new exchange building from a row of sugar sheds was cleaned up and dubbed Sugar Exchange Park.

Construction of the building, overseen by builder Joseph R. Turck, began around early July 1883. Less than a year later, at noon on June 3, 1884  and after the obligatory droning by assorted muckety-mucks  the doors to this domed palace of trade, as one speaker eloquently described it, were thrown open.

Visitors were then invited inside to toast the promise of the future with Champagne.

Changing times

Probably no city in the world has its dealers in sugar housed as handsomely as New Orleans, wrote The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, a trade journal, in its edition of July 7, 1888. A magnificent structure of plate glass, iron, brick and stone, built in semi-tropical style, and facing the sugar landing of the great Mississippi river, its beautiful main floor is now the head-centre for the sale of the crop in Louisiana.

For decades, the exchange building stood as a riverfront landmark serving as a brick-and-mortar testament to the central role of sugar in the regions economy.

But times change. Over the years, the citys sugar business found itself absorbing blow after blow  from tariffs, from World War I, from the redirection of sugar shipments to refineries built downriver  until it could absorb no more.

By 1940, the leaders of the exchange  then officially the Louisiana Sugar and Rice Exchange  sold their former crown jewel on Bienville Street to a local labor union, which used it primarily as a meeting place.

Finally, the demise

In 1963, it was torn down. Photos taken shortly before its demolition show the hands of its river-facing clock stopped at 12:33  almost precisely the time it had been opened 79 years earlier.

Today, precious few traces of the old sugar district can be found.

Among them, right around the Bienville Station streetcar stop  squeezed between the old exchange site and the riverfront train tracks  can be found the triangle of land once dubbed Sugar Exchange Park.

It, too, is now a parking lot.

Sources: The Times-Picayune archive; Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps; Preservation in Print, February 2018; The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, July 7, 1888.

Know of a New Orleans building worth profiling in this column, or just curious about one? Contact Mike Scott at moviegoermike@gmail.com.
Rendered image of the project



On July 18, with the roar of construction machinery, the first pile foundation of the NingguoNan High-speed Railway Station Square and supporting infrastructure EPC project, which was designed and constructed by the China Railway No.4 Engineering Group Co., Ltd, was successfully drilled and poured. It marks the official start of the station square construction project.

NingguoNan High-speed Railway Station Square and supporting infrastructure EPC project is located in the southwest of Ningguo City, covering an area of about 64,316 square meters, with a total contract value of 453.94 million yuan (about 67.27 million U.S. dollars). It is scheduled to be completed in December 2023.

The main construction works include the upper ramp bridge, passenger drop-off platform, passenger transportation center, station square, bus station, bus parking lot, long-distance bus station (including the tourist bus and the rural shuttle), public parking lot, taxi parking lot, pedestrian tunnels, equipment and management rooms, commercial and supporting facilities, etc.

It is currently the largest comprehensive municipal project under construction in Ningguo and a people's livelihood project carrying the "high-speed rail dream" of 400,000 Ningguo people.

As a new representative image of Ningguo City, the unique sunken plaza design echoes the Zen spirit brought by Ningguo since ancient times. At the same time, it integrates functions such as high-speed rail, plaza, commerce, public transportation, and tourism service center. It will become a forward-looking transportation complex building group in Ningguo, creating a good image for the development of the city.

The first pile foundation was successfully drilled and poured



Reported by Liu Yucai

Edited and translated by Zheng Chen
NEW YORKIvana Trump, the 1980s style icon and businesswoman who helped Donald Trump build the empire that put him on a road toward the White House, lived a beautiful life, the former president recalled as loved ones paid final respects to her Wednesday.

The ex-president joined all his children, an array of other relatives and friends at a Manhattan church for Ivana Trumps funeral Mass.

A very sad day, but at the same time a celebration of a wonderful and beautiful life, he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, before he, former First Lady Melania Trump, and their son Barron headed to St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church, located just a few blocks from Ivana Trumps home near Central Park.

Ivana and Donald Trumps three childrenDonald Jr., Ivanka, and Ericstood with their father and their families as the gold-toned casket was carried from the church. Eric Trump briefly put an arm around his sisters shoulders as she held the hand of one of her small children, who clutched a red flower.

Tiffany Trump, the daughter of the former president and his second wife, Marla Maples, also attended the service, as did family friends including Jeanine Pirro, co-host of Fox News The Five, and Charles Kushner, a real estate developer and the father of Ivanka Trumps husband, Jared Kushner. Fashion designer Dennis Basso, a longtime friend of Ivana Trumps, was also among the mourners.

The Mass was an elegant, wonderful send-off for Ivana Trump, another longtime friend, R. Couri Hay, said as he emerged.

Trumps family announced Thursday that the 73-year-old had died at her home. Authorities said the death was an accident, with blunt impact injuries to her torso as the cause.

Ivana and Donald Trump met in the 1970s and were married from 1977 to 1992. In the 1980s, they were a power couple, and she became well known in her own right, instantly recognizable with her blond hair in an updo and her glamorous look.

Ivana Trump also took part in her husbands businesses, managing one of his Atlantic City casinos and picking out some of the design elements in New York Citys Trump Tower.

Ivana Trump was an enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign and said they spoke on a regular basis.
When this Kentucky woman won the lottery, she wasnt the only one who benefited.

Crystal Dunn won $146,351.74 seconds after making a $20 Instant Play wager, according to a July 14 news release from the Kentucky Lottery.

I never thought I would win something like this, but this goes to show it can happen, she said, according to the release.

After picking up and depositing her check on July 8, Dunns next stop was Meijer, a supermarket chain, where she bought $2,000 in gift cards.

And then she started handing them out to strangers in the store.

A few were taken back, thinking I was wanting something in return, Dunn said, according to the release.

But Dunn said she got a gift and believes in paying it forward and I wanted to pass it along.

She added: Ive worked hard for everything Ive had. This is a pretty amazing gift.

Dunn said she plans to use the rest of her winnings to buy a car and pay off her bills.

The-CNN-Wire

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LONDON/DUBAIRussian President Vladimir Putin had talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran on Tuesday, the Kremlin leaders first trip outside the former Soviet Union since Moscows Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

In Tehran, Putin also held his first face-to-face meeting since the invasion with a NATO leader, Turkeys Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss a deal that would resume Ukraines Black Sea grain exports as well as the conflict in northern Syria.

Putins trip, coming just days after U.S. President Joe Biden visited Israel and Saudi Arabia, sends a strong message to the West about Moscows plans to forge closer strategic ties with Iran, China, and India in the face of Western sanctions.

Khamenei called for long-term cooperation between Iran and Russia, telling Putin that the two countries needed to stay vigilant against Western deception, Irans state TV reported.

He said Putin had ensured Russia maintained its independence from the United States and that countries should start using their own national currencies when trading goods.

The U.S. dollar should be gradually taken off global trade, and this can be done gradually, Khamenei said during the meeting, in a spartan white room with an Iranian flag and a portrait of late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini.

Despite the suffering endured by ordinary people in war, Khamenei said Moscow had little alternative in Ukraine. If you had not taken the initiative, the other side (West) would have caused a war on its own initiative, he told Putin.

Washington said Putins trip to Tehran showed how isolated Russia had become in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.

Under Sanctions

For Iran, also chafing under Western economic sanctions and at loggerheads with the United States over Tehrans nuclear program and a range of other issues, Putins visit is timely.

The Islamic Republics clerical leaders are keen to strengthen strategic relations with Russia against an emerging, U.S.-backed Gulf Arab-Israeli bloc that could shift the Middle East balance of power further away from Iran.

Emboldened by high oil prices since the Ukraine war, Iran is betting that with Russias support it could pressure Washington to offer concessions for the revival of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

However, Russias increased tilt towards Beijing in recent months has significantly reduced Iranian crude exports to Chinaa key source of income for Tehran since then-U.S. President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions in 2018.

In May, Reuters reported that Irans crude exports to China had fallen sharply as Beijing favored heavily discounted Russian barrels, leaving almost 40 million barrels of Iranian oil stored on tankers at sea in Asia and seeking buyers.

Ahead of Putins arrival, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and Russian gas producer Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding worth around $40 billion.

Syria, Ukraine

Putin, Erdogan, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also weighed efforts to reduce violence in Syria, where Turkey has threatened to launch more military operations to extend 30-kilometer (20-mile) deep safe zones along the border. Moscow and Tehran oppose any such action by Turkey.

Maintaining the territorial integrity of Syria is very important, and any military attack in northern Syria will definitely harm Turkey, Syria and the entire region, and benefit terrorists, Khamenei told Erdogan before the three-way meeting.

Russia and Iran are Syrian President Bashar al-Assads strongest backers, while Turkey supports anti-Assad insurgents.

Any Turkish operation in Syria would attack the Kurdish YPG militia, a key part of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls large parts of north Syria and is regarded by Washington as an important ally against ISIS terrorists.

It is impossible to expect Turkey to remain inactive, unresponsive, as this terrorist organization continues its separatist agenda, Erdogan said, referring to the YPG.

I hear from you, my dear friends, that you understand Turkeys legitimate security concerns. I am thankful for this, but words alone are not a cure for wounds.

Speaking at the end of the talks, Putin said the three presidents agreed to continue consultation on Syria and were committed to maintain efforts to normalize the situation there after a decade of conflict.

Putin, who turns 70 this year, has made few foreign trips in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then the Ukraine crisis. His last trip beyond the former Soviet Union was to China in February.

Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the United Nations are expected to sign a deal later this week aimed at resuming the shipping of grain from Ukraine across the Black Sea.

With your mediation we have moved forward, Putin told Erdogan after their bilateral meeting. Not all the issues have been resolved yet, but the fact that there is movement is already good.

By Guy Faulconbridge and Parisa Hafezi
INDIANAPOLIS  An Indianapolis doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio took the first step Tuesday toward suing Indiana's attorney general for defamation.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist who gave the girl a medication-induced abortion on June 30, filed a tort claim notice over what she says are false statements that Attorney General Todd Rokita has made about her and her work.

Bernard received widespread attention after she gave an interview to the Indianapolis Star about the child, who traveled to Indiana from Ohio for the abortion. A so-called fetal heartbeat law took effect in Ohio last month after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Such laws ban abortions from the time a fetus' heartbeat can be detected, which is typically around the sixth week of pregnancy.

A 27-year-old man was charged last week in Columbus, Ohio, with raping the girl, confirming the existence of a case that was initially met with skepticism by some news outlets and Republican politicians.

Bernard's lawyer, Kathleen DeLaney, filed the "tort claim notice" against Rokita just days after she sent a cease and desist letter. The claim starts a 90-day period for the state to settle it. If it's not settled, Bernard could file a lawsuit. The claim didn't say how much money Bernard is seeking, noting that "the harm is ongoing."

"Mr. Rokita's false and misleading statements about alleged misconduct by Dr. Bernard in her profession constitute defamation," the claim reads. "The statements have been and continue to be published by or on behalf of Mr. Rokita and the Office of the Attorney General."

After the news of the 10-year-old's abortion broke, Rokita told Fox he would investigate whether Bernard violated child abuse notification or abortion reporting laws. He also said his office would look into whether anything Bernard said to the Indianapolis Star about the girl's case violated federal medical privacy laws. Rokita offered no specific allegations of wrongdoing.

Records obtained by The Associated Press and local news outlets show that Bernard submitted her report about the girl's abortion on July 2, which is within Indiana's required three-day reporting period for an abortion performed on a girl younger than 16.

Rokita did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Indiana Democratic Party criticized Rokita for the impact the lawsuit would have on taxpayers.

"Hoosier taxpayers will now have to pay for Attorney General Todd Rokita's national smear campaign against a doctor who helped a 10-year-old rape survivor attain a legal and safe abortion," party spokesperson Drew Anderson wrote in an email.
RENSSELAER  The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration has awarded a $1.8 million grant to the city of Rensselaer to make streetscape infrastructure improvements in the citys downtown. The grant is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.

The federal money will pay the bulk of a project to build new sidewalks and pedestrian/bicycle paths, improve American with Disabilities Act-related accessibility, make stormwater improvements, add new lighting and trash receptacles and renovate brick streets on Van Rensselaer and Harrison streets.

The EDA investment will be matched with $795,300 in local funds.

The grant is intended to bring more visitors to downtown Renssalaer. The DOC estimates the effort will create 50 jobs, retain 69 jobs and generate $200,000 in private investment.

The Economic Development Administration plays an important role in supporting community-led economic development strategies designed to boost coronavirus recovery and response efforts, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Alejandra Castillo said in the department's announcement of the grant. The upgrades to downtown Rensselaer will help attract visitors to the area and bolster the business district that was hit hard by the pandemic.

The grant comes from EDAs $240 million competitive American Rescue Plan Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation program. EDA awarded $510 million in grants to recipients in all 50 states and to U.S. territories in 2021. Grants will continue to be awarded through September, though the EDA has closed applications for grants from the $3 billion program.
Indiana landed $99.1 million to invest in small businesses and startups.

The Hoosier State will get the $99.1 million in federal funds through the State Small Business Credit Initiative.

The State Small Business Credit Initiative is meant to improve access to capital for entrepreneurs and the owners of startups and small businesses all across Indiana, as well as to spark more private investment in such entities.

As a state, Indiana is strategically focused on creating the economy of the future and investing in the jobs of tomorrow and taking Indiana's Top 40 Global Entrepreneurship Ecosystem to a Top 5 Ecosystem is an essential goal of that initiative, said Indiana Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers.

This SSBCI award will inject critical funding and resources into our ecosystem of current and future entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses who are solving global challenges, creating new technologies, and positively impacting Hoosier communities statewide, Chambers said.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury picked Indiana as one of the first 14 states for this round of funding for a program first created in 2010 and then funded by The American Rescue Plan Act.

The state will get at least $86 million in federal funding and up to an additional $13 million if it meets all the targets set for it.

An estimated 37% of the federal funds will go toward underserved small businesses to encourage more equity in access to capital.

The program aims to leverage $10 in follow-up private investment for every $1 of federal funds so as to provide entrepreneurs and the owners of startups the capital they need to grow, scale up and expand their operations.

Indiana plans to spend about $70 million by investing directly in early-revenue startups through its venture development partner Elevate Ventures.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation said it will "significantly expand Indianas ability to support pre-seed and seed funding rounds, increasing access to working capital for innovators, entrepreneurs and startups."

Indiana-based startup companies such as in tech or biotech will be able to seek the federal funds as seed stage financing before bringing products to market, such as when getting ready for clinical trials or the regulatory approval process.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation also plans to create a new small business loan fund investment program.

Entrepreneurs and the owners of small businesses, especially those that have been historically underserved, can get a portion of their loans for debt capital purchased by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.

Any remaining funds will go toward administrative costs to support entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses across the state.
Steel Dynamics, the largest steelmaker headquartered in Indiana, plans to build a $1.9 billion aluminum flat-rolled mill, diversifying its product mix to encompass new markets.

The Fort Wayne-based steelmaker, a competitor to U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs, plans to invest a total of $2.2 billion in the 650,000-ton aluminum flat-rolled mill and two slab centers that will feed it with recycled material.

We are incredibly excited to announce this meaningful growth opportunity, which is aligned with our existing business and operational expertise, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Mark D. Millett said. We have intentionally grown with our customers needs, providing efficient sustainable supply-chain solutions for the highest quality products. Thus far, this has primarily been achieved within the carbon steel industry  however, a significant number of our carbon flat-rolled steel customers are also consumers and processors of aluminum flat-rolled products."

Steel Dynamics plans to build the new mill at a yet-to-be-determined location in the southeastern United States. It will recycle aluminum scrap to make a variety of aluminum flat-rolled products.

The steelmaker expects the aluminum mill will generate about $650 million to $700 million in Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization a year. The capital project will be funded with the company's cash on hand and cash flow.

It's meant to meet the increasing demand for aluminum from automakers and the beverage can industry. It's estimated there's currently a supply deficit of 2 million tons a year, with imports capturing more than 25% of the existing market share in North America.

Steel Dynamics will pursue a joint venture with Unity Aluminum but own 94% of the rolling mill, which is expected to begin manufacturing in the first quarter of 2025. The operation will include finishing lines such as annealing, continuous coating, slitting and packaging.

It will be fed by about 900,000 tons of aluminum slab a year, including from new slab centers Steel Dynamics plans to build in the southwestern United States and North Central Mexico. Steel Dynamics will own 100% of the satellite slab centers, which will collectively cost about $350 million to construct.

"We are announcing our plans to broaden our ability to serve our existing and new customers by adding high-quality, low-carbon flat rolled aluminum to our product portfolio," Millett said. "We are also excited to further diversify our end markets with plans to supply the sustainable beverage can industry."
Multiple employers will be hiring at a job fair in Merrillville Thursday.

The town's second annual job fair will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday at the Dean & Barbara White Community Center at 6600 Broadway in Merrillville.

Job seekers should dress professionally, bring copies of their resumes and be ready to be interviewed on the spot.

Employers that plan to be present include AARP, Albanese, Avison Young, BJ's Restaurant, Bosak Auto Group, Chicago Magnesium, Chick-fil-A, Cleveland-Cliffs Steel Inc, Commercial In-Sites, CVS Pharmacy, Denmark College, Donson Machine, Downing Plumbing, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Haire Group, Heart Health Ed services, Hire Quest, Indiana State Police, Indiana Tech, Keough Mechanical Corp. and the IBEW Lake County Electrical Training Center.

Other employers that will meet with job applicants there include Mental Health Awareness, Merrillville Community School Corp., Merrillville PD, Midwest Truck and Auto Parts, Mike Anderson Chevrolet, Modern Forge, MSI Express, Nexus Employment Solutions Plus, Inc, NIPSCO, IKORCC JATF-Merrillville Campus, Pawn King, Phlen Leadership Academies, Polycon Industries, Primerica, Quality Pasta, Respite Care Services, Route DDL, LLC, Spring Mill Health Campus, State Farm Insurance Company, Superior Ambulance, Towne Centre Assisted Living, Precision Turbo & Engine/Wabtec, the U.S. Army, Valparaiso University, Wallace Consulting, Webb Automotive Group and WorkOne.

Domino's Pizza also will be hiring for its new $50 million pizza dough production and warehouse in the Ameriplex at the Crossroads business park just off Broadway. It plans to hire up to 140 workers at the 110,000-square-foot facility that will supply pizza dough to Domino's pizzerias in several states.
CROWN POINT  The Lake County commissioners believe voters should elect Lake Superior Court judges instead of continuing to rely on a state-mandated merit selection process that ends with the governor appointing new judges for the county.

The Democratic-controlled Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 along party lines Wednesday to adopt a resolution urging the Republican-controlled General Assembly to terminate Lake County's status as one of four Indiana counties whose voters are not permitted to elect all their judges.

The two commissioners favoring the resolution, Mike Repay, D-Hammond, and Kyle Allen Sr., D-Gary, said they don't have any issues with Lake County judges, past or present, who secured their spot on the bench through merit selection.

Rather, they simply believe Lake County's 40-year experiment with merit selection should come to an end and Lake County voters be given the same opportunity as nearly all other Hoosiers to choose their judges through elections.

"It's time for the people of Lake County to have the same rights as the people of Jasper and Porter and almost every other county in the state," Repay said.

Commissioner Jerry Tippy, R-Schererville, opposed the resolution. He said that ending merit selection likely would eliminate the court's partisan balance that largely has served Lake County well.

The resolution adopted by the commissioners follows similar action by the Democratic-controlled Lake County Council, which voted 5-2 along party lines in March to call for elected superior court judges in Lake County.

During debate on that measure, Councilman David Hamm, D-Hammond, noted that 85% of Indiana's Black population lives in the counties where voters aren't allowed to elect their judges: Lake, St. Joseph, Allen and Marion.

"I'll call it for what it is. I think it's racism," Hamm said. "It appears to me the African American community is being slighted."

The General Assembly earlier this year did not take up legislation that would have authorized elected judges in Lake County in place of merit selection.

In fact, the Legislature last year gave Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb more say over the five finalists recommended to him for appointment by Lake County Judicial Nominating Commission, in addition to continuing to allow Holcomb to select the county's new superior court judges.

House Enrolled Act 1453 (2021) shrunk the nominating commission to seven members from nine and eliminated the members previously chosen by Lake County lawyers and judges in favor of members selected by the governor.

That prompted Democratic Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. to file a still-pending federal lawsuit challenging the state mandate that Lake Superior Court judges continue to be chosen through merit selection instead of by voters.

Lake County voters this year actually will get the opportunity to elect one judge because the Indiana Constitution mandates the single circuit court jurist be elected to the bench in all 92 counties in the state.

Seven Lake Superior Court judges appointed by the governor also will be on the Nov. 8 general election ballot seeking voter approval to retain their seats for another six years.
CROWN POINT  A Lake Criminal Court judge dismissed charges last week against a Dyer man and his brother, who were accused of beating the man's adult son so badly he suffered a traumatic brain injury and paralysis.

Miguel Luna, 39, and his brother Jose Luna, 42, were accused of hitting Miguel Luna's son Anthony Luna in the head with an object, beating him and throwing him down a set of stairs in April 2018 at a home in the 6100 block of Hendricks Street in Merrillville.

Anthony Luna permanently lost vision in his left eye, had partial paralysis in his left arm and lost control of his left leg, according to Lake Criminal Court records.

During several different interviews, Anthony Luna told police he took shoes from a friend so his father and uncle beat him.

Miguel and Jose Luna each were charged in March 2019 with four felony counts and one misdemeanor count of battery. Jose Luna also was charged with two misdemeanor counts of false informing.

In a motion to dismiss charges in the Lunas' cases, Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Douglas Shaw wrote his office lost contact with the alleged victim and the "only identifiable witness" had died.

"Due to these reasons, the state of Indiana cannot successfully prosecute this matter," wrote Shaw, who took over the case after the departure of a previous deputy prosecutor.

It was unclear why the prosecutor's office was unable to locate Anthony Luna.

During a hearing in June 2019, Anthony Luna asked Judge Natalie Bokota to grant the state's request for a no-contact order prohibiting his father from communicating with him.

"He beat me half to death and left me for dead," Anthony Luna testified. "My life is ruined."

Defense attorney John Cantrell, who represented Miguel Luna, said his client wasn't involved in Anthony Luna's beating.

"I feel so relieved that the charges have been dismissed," Cantrell said. "It took quite awhile to get to the bottom of it, but my client is completely innocent."

Jose Luna was represented by attorney Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez.
The 2-year-old Kouts boy, who was rushed to a Chicago hospital Sunday after reportedly shooting himself, has died, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Officer is reporting.

Wyatt Luczak was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, the report shows.

The agency listed in association with his case is the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network.

Porter County police were notified of the shooting at 11:06 a.m. Sunday and the child was initially taken to Franciscan Health Crown Point, Porter County Sheriff's Cpl. Ben McFalls had said.

The child was then transferred to the University of Chicago Medicine hospital, he said.

"This investigation is ongoing and we have no further information or comment regarding this case at this time," McFalls said.

He confirmed early Wednesday the case remains under investigation.

Porter County Prosecutor Gary Germann said Wednesday his office has not yet been presented with the findings of the investigation and thus he is unable to say whether criminal charges will be filed.

"Please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time," McFalls said.
VALPARAISO  A pedestrian was in stable condition Wednesday morning after being struck by a vehicle the night before along Calumet Avenue and then flown out by helicopter for medical care, police said.

The crash occurred around 9:19 p.m. Tuesday in the area of Wall Street, Valparaiso police Capt. Joe Hall said.

A couple vehicles were northbound on Calumet Avenue when the first pulled into the left turn lane and the one following struck the pedestrian, he said.

Drugs and/or alcohol are not suspected with the driver, Hall said.

Valparaiso police had warned motorists to avoid the area while the investigation was underway.

"The investigation is on-going and will result in Calumet Ave. being closed for an extensive amount of time in both directions," Hall had said. "The intersection of Calumet Ave. and Wall St. may also be affected due to the investigation."
A Democratic elected official originally from Portage is urging Hoosier women to tell their abortion and pregnancy stories to state legislators as soon as possible so Indiana lawmakers will understand the potential real-world impact of their upcoming policy decisions.

Ali Brown, a member of the Indianapolis City-County Council, recently said during an event in Griffith that politicians do in fact listen to their constituents, and their minds can be changed if their eyes are opened to the experiences of people they might not normally encounter in everyday life.

Brown said LGBTQ Hoosiers sharing their stories with state lawmakers in 2014 helped derail Indiana's proposed anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment. She's confident Hoosier women likewise can prevent the General Assembly from enacting a stringent abortion ban when it convenes Monday in special session.

"Abortions will not stop just because they're made illegal. They will become dangerous procedures that will lead to the deaths of women who cannot afford to travel outside of the state for a safe and legal abortion," Brown said.

Brown said the overwhelmingly male and overwhelmingly Republican membership of the Indiana House and Senate generally have little personal experience with the risks of pregnancy and the need for access to abortion.

"Pregnancy is difficult, it's complicated and it's one of the hardest things that a woman may do," Brown said. "Politicians are wading into an issue they are not smart enough to understand outside of their Washington talking points."

For example, Brown noted 98.8% of the 8,414 Indiana abortions last year were completed prior to 14 weeks of gestation. Also, she said state records show 63% of Indiana women who had an abortion last year previously gave birth to one more children.

"Republicans are violating women's right to privacy if they ban abortions. What happens between my doctor and me is my business; it's no one else's. The only politician in that office should be me," said Brown, a first-term council member representing Indianapolis' northeast corner.

GOP legislative leaders so far have been mum on what abortion restrictions they plan to consider enacting during the special session set to begin one month and one day after the U.S. Supreme Court repealed the constitutional right to abortion established by its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

The Indiana Republican Party platform adopted at last month's state convention declares the party believes an unborn child "has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed."

However, the most recent, publicly available polling on the subject  the 2019 Hoosier Survey conducted by Ball State University  found just 17% of Indiana adults favor a total abortion ban.

Among the few Republicans to publicly comment on potential abortion legislation, state Sen. Kyle Walker, R-Indianapolis, said he favors allowing women to decide on their own whether to abort a pregnancy in the first trimester, or roughly prior to 15 weeks gestation.

"I have given this a significant amount of thought and I've listened to women and parents of all ages about their views on the issue. Their stories, some heartbreaking, have helped shape my position," Walker said.

Brown said she's discovered in her formerly Republican-dominated council district that many Republican women, and Hoosier women in general, support abortion rights "because we never know whether it's going to be us or somebody we care about."

That fact was driven home during Brown's pregnancy five years ago when she was forced to undergo an emergency Caesarean section without medication or sedation after doctors broke her water to induce labor on account of her high blood pressure.

"What we didn't know was the placenta attached to my uterus that was keeping my son alive was only being held up by the water that was in my body. So once that left me, the placenta ripped off the uterus, I lost consciousness and starting losing blood, and they lost the heartbeat on my son," Brown said.

"They started to cut me open, and that was the most incredible pain I ever felt in my whole life until I heard the doctor say, 'He's blue and not breathing.'"

Brown said she was put under anesthesia soon after and when she awoke four hours later she was certain her son was dead because that was the last thing she remembered.

"I was screaming and I was sad and my husband could not convince me, no matter how many pictures he showed me, that he was alive and in the neonatal intensive care unit," Brown said. "As hard it was for me, my husband was left standing in the hallway hearing me scream and then hearing silence. They had to revive me while my insides were still outside. Luckily, they were able to bring me back and save my son."

"Afterwards, talking with my doctors, they told me I had placental abruption. It's not something they could plan for or they knew about, but if I were to get pregnant again there's a good chance I would lose my life."

As a result, Brown said, even though she would love to give her son a sibling, if she ever gets pregnant again she will go wherever she needs to go to terminate the pregnancy  "because my child deserves the best mom he can have, and that's a mom who is alive."

Brown acknowledged she's privileged to have that option. She said if abortion access is eliminated in Indiana, most Hoosier women will not have the money, or the time, or the access to child care needed to travel to another state to obtain a safe, legal abortion.

"I want to ask the Republicans in this state if they're really willing to force a woman to go through a pregnancy with a rapist's child? Are they willing to force a girl to go through a pregnancy after being raped by a family member? And are they really willing to tell me, and thousand of other women in this state for whom pregnancy is a death sentence for us, to just go off and die?" Brown asked.

"Because that's what they're saying. Republican politicians, especially the men, need to pay attention and need to be careful on how they answer those questions. Abortion is not a Democratic or Republican issue. It is women's issue, and it affects all of us," she said.

How to contact Indiana legislators Lawmakers can be reached at the Statehouse in several ways: Mail  Lawmaker's name, chamber, 200 W. Washington St., Indianapolis, IN 46204 Telephone  Republican state representatives: 800-382-9841; Democratic state representatives: 800-382-9842; All state senators: 800-382-9467 Email  Find the lawmakers representing you at iga.in.gov/legislative/2022/legislators. Click the "Send Email" link on the lawmaker's page to send a message. The General Assembly website, listing pending legislation and other information, is at iga.in.gov.
CROWN POINT  Veterans, active military members and their families will be able to get help with various resources available to them at a Thursday veterans event sponsored by Indianas two U.S. senators.

The "one stop shop" event, sponsored by the offices of U.S. Sens. Mike Braun and Todd Young, will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Crown Point location of Ivy Tech Community College Lake County, 9900 Connecticut Drive.

Attendees will be able to get individualized assistance navigating issues they may be having with the Veterans Administration and Social Security Administration, as well as learn about resources available from various agencies. Groups represented will include the Veteran Health Administration, the Lake County Veteran Service Office, Operation: Job Ready Veterans and Ivy Tech Lake Countys veteran services office, among others.

For more information, contact Jacob Harkin, Military and Veteran Outreach Manager and Constituent Services Specialist for U.S. Sen Mike Braun, at Jacob Harkin@braun.senate.gov.
The ayatollah met with Putin in Iran during a rare international trip by the Russian leader, a meeting that Tehran viewed as an honor. There, Khamenei repeated Putins argument that the U.S. and Europe had left the Kremlin no choice.

In the case of Ukraine, if you had not taken the helm, the other side would have done so and initiated a war, Khamenei told Putin, according to his office, though he expressed distaste for war. Here areupdates.

Analysis: Khameneis public proclamation on war appeared to go beyond the much more cautious support offered by another ally, China. It also signaled that the long-tense relationship between Moscow and Tehran was strengthening into a true partnership, cemented partly by the Western sanctions both countries face.

Region: In Iran, the leaders also met with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, who has become a middleman in negotiations. They discussed Syria, where Turkey has been threatening a new military incursion. Khamenei appeared to discourage Turkeys plans.

Fighting: Long-range artillery from the U.S. is helping Ukraine on the battlefield. But Russia continues to advance in the east. And Kharkiv residents fear that a new offensive is imminent.
10. And finally, the burger even J. Kenji Lopez-Alt cant improve.

Oklahoma onion burgers were invented during the Great Depression to maximize a small portion of beef without sacrificing flavor. The result, our columnist writes, is a creation so perfect in its simplicity that it cannot be improved upon, only tweaked. (That is saying a lot for Lopez-Alt, who analyzes the science of recipes to create the perfect dishes.)

The volume of onions is part of the equation, he writes, but its also how theyre cooked. A small ball of ground beef is placed atop a griddle, topped with a haystack of very thinly sliced onions and aggressively smashed into the griddle. Let him walk you through his process.

Have a savory night.

Brent Lewis compiled photos for this briefing.

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Yet many skeletal remains came to the West, as yours probably did, from poor countries, and even if the families received money for handing over the bones, they probably agreed to the deal only out of desperate financial need. (Today, the export of such remains is banned in India and China.) Most of us now fear that such transactions are exploitative: Whatever the funerary customs in a place, few are likely to think that this is the best way to honor a dead relative. Even if the body was taken legally from a morgue where it had remained unclaimed, we can worry about what the person whose body it was, or their family, would have wanted. In short, the discomfort you feel about this object seems justified.

We respect people only if we continue to treat their bodies with respect once they are dead. Now, we can be levelheaded about what this tenet entails. Respecting the remains of long-vanished cultures can be consistent with exhibition in museums; in those cases, nobody alive has a close genealogical link to the remains, and the remains do not have importance to a community that is substantially continuous with the one the decedent belonged to. But your skull isnt in that category; it could well be someones grandmother or great-grandmother.

Whose? Theres no reason to think youll ever know. Even if you had usable DNA, I doubt that close relatives would be in the online databases  people from richer nations are far better represented there than the global poor. DNA could tell you something about the likely place of origin of the person whose skull you have, but the descendants of this person lost track of the skull more than half a century ago. If it came from a cadaver abandoned at a morgue, there may be no living descendants. You are, as I suggest, extremely unlikely to be able to find them. Even if you could, they may not welcome being contacted: They are almost certainly not expecting to find it and probably are no longer concerned about it.

It doesnt make much sense, then, to keep the skull at the lab in the hope that techniques of DNA collection or analysis will improve. And giving it to a school endorses the idea  one you have correctly reconsidered  that this was a proper use for the skull.

Instead, give it what you would consider a dignified interment. (Check to see whats permitted where you live; three states outlaw home burial.) All human communities have their own mortuary practices; not knowing the origin of your skull, you should go with your own sense of whats respectful  and put your disquiet to rest along with the skull.

I live in a small condo building. Each condo has a private entrance. One of the residents disclosed to me that he tested positive for Covid and would be staying home. Other residents and I helped with errands and checked in, without going into his unit. Several times, men who were scheduled to do work for him knocked on my door by mistake. I felt as if he was using this down time to get projects done, putting them at risk. Was I complicit by redirecting them to a known Covid household? What should I have done? Name Withheld
An Indianapolis doctor who provided abortion care to a 10-year-old rape victim is preparing to sue Attorney General Todd Rokita of Indiana for defamation after he said he would investigate her actions in the case, according to a statement released on Tuesday by her lawyer.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard earned the ire of conservative lawmakers and pundits after she told The Indianapolis Star about her patient, a 10-year-old girl who crossed state lines from Ohio to receive an abortion. Ohio is one of nearly a dozen states with abortion restrictions that do not make exceptions for rape or incest.

The case drew national attention after President Biden mentioned it this month while signing an executive order in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Prosecutors in Atlanta have informed 16 Trump supporters who formed an alternate slate of 2020 presidential electors from Georgia that they could face charges in an ongoing criminal investigation into election interference, underscoring the risk of criminal charges that Donald J. Trump and many of his allies may be facing in the state.

The revelations were included in court filings released on Tuesday in an investigation being led by Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County. They showed that while much attention has been focused on the House hearings in Washington into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and the extent to which the Justice Department will investigate, it is a local prosecutor in Atlanta who may put Mr. Trump and his circle of allies in the most immediate legal peril.

This is a sign of a dramatic acceleration of her work, said Norman Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first Trump impeachment. He added that prosecutors typically work their way up the food chain, so usually the first wave of target letters is not the last.
On Dec. 5, 1975, an aunt and uncle of Lindy Sue Biechler went to her apartment in Manor Township, Pa., eager to exchange recipes with their 19-year-old niece, who had returned from getting groceries about two hours earlier. On her front door, they saw blood.

Inside, they were startled by bloodstains near the entranceway hall and splotches of blood on the carpet, the authorities said. Between the living room and dining room was Ms. Biechler, lying on her back and bleeding from multiple parts of her body, a kitchen knife protruding from the left side of her neck. Someone had stabbed Ms. Biechler, a recently married flower shop clerk, 19 times, killing her, the authorities said that day.

The identity of the killer would elude them for 46 years. But on Monday, the Lancaster County District Attorneys Office and the Manor Township Police Department said they had arrested David Sinopoli, 68, of Lancaster County, Pa., a day earlier on homicide charges, closing a case that had haunted the county for more than four decades and frustrated local detectives who had investigated dozens of tips over the years to no avail.
WASHINGTON  After weeks of legal wrangling and heated speeches on the courthouse steps, the criminal trial of Stephen K. Bannon, a onetime aide to former President Donald J. Trump, opened on Tuesday as prosecutors told the jury they would have to answer a simple question: Did Mr. Bannon defy the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by blatantly ignoring a subpoena?

Mr. Bannon, who left the White House in 2017, was indicted in November on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with the committees formal demand for records and testimony concerning the Capitol riot. The filing of charges was widely seen at the time as a litmus test for whether the Justice Department would take an aggressive stance against one of Mr. Trumps top allies as the House seeks to develop a fuller picture of the actions of the former president and his inner circle before and during the attack.

Prosecutors insisted that Mr. Bannon had clearly violated the law. It wasnt optional, it wasnt a request and it wasnt an invitation  it was mandatory, Amanda Vaughn, a federal prosecutor, said of the subpoena Mr. Bannon ignored. The defendant decided he was above the law and didnt have to follow the governments orders like his fellow citizens.
Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol, announced on Tuesday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and would not appear in person at what could be the committees last hearing of the summer.

But the absence of Mr. Thompson, who said he would isolate for several days as he recovers from mild symptoms, is not expected to affect plans for a prime-time hearing on Thursday. A committee spokesman, Tim Mulvey, said Mr. Thompson had instructed the panel to move forward with its schedule after he tested positive on Monday.

While Chairman Thompson is disappointed with his Covid diagnosis, he has instructed the select committee to proceed with Thursday evenings hearing, Mr. Mulvey said. Committee members and staff wish the chairman a speedy recovery.
Marylands contest may have broader implications for 2024 presidential politics. Mr. Hogan has sought to present himself as a potential alternative to Mr. Trump, who has been considering an early 2024 announcement, but the governors failure to help his handpicked successor win the nomination in his home state will raise questions about his political clout.

The list of Mr. Coxs false claims about elections is long. In December, he said that Mr. Trump was the only president that I recognize right now and argued that Mr. Biden had been installed in the White House. Earlier, he had baselessly claimed that widespread voter fraud had occurred in Frederick County, where he lives, and had called on Mr. Trump to seize federal vote machines in states where fraud was overwhelmingly rampant after the 2020 election.

Mr. Cox also chartered three buses from his home county to the pro-Trump rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

Mr. Cox, whose campaign raised little money, was the beneficiary of more than $1.16 million in television advertising from the Democratic Governors Association, which tried to help his primary campaign in hopes that he would be easier to defeat in the general election. Democrats across the country have employed similar strategies to aid far-right candidates in G.O.P. primaries this year, despite the risk that it could backfire.
Even former leaders expressed concern about the current, tumultuous period for an agency that has been thrust into political turmoil.

I dont know if theres ever been one quite like this, said W. Ralph Basham, a former Secret Service director, referring to the current period of controversy for the agency. Never a situation that would measure up to this kind of pressure.

The request for the text messages by the inspector general, Joseph V. Cuffari, stems from the offices broad investigation into decisions made on Jan. 6 by the Homeland Security Department.

That review by the Homeland Security Department is divided into three parts: an examination of the intelligence sharing by the department, the departments preparation and law enforcement response to the riots and a separate audit specifically examining actions taken by the Secret Service, according to the inspector generals office.

What we consider before using anonymous sources. How do the sources know the information? Whats their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source. Learn more about our process.

The Secret Service has previously said that before the inspector general asked for the text messages, agents were told to upload phone records related to their work ahead of an agencywide system update that would erase them. A Secret Service official said the employees had first been told of the forthcoming update in December 2020. Congress also told the Homeland Security Department to ensure that records related to actions taken by any of its agencies during the riots were preserved, on Jan. 16, according to a person familiar with the House committees investigation. The Secret Service has informed the committee that on Jan. 25, the agency instructed its employees on how to save information that they were obligated or desired to preserve so that no pertinent data or federal records were lost. Two days later, the system update went through, and the texts were lost.

Most of the documents provided to Congress on Tuesday were previously provided to the inspector general, according to the Secret Service. Secret Service officials indicated that they were doubtful that the purged texts could be recovered. The agency said the erased records were not related to Jan. 6 or any related inquiries.
In one indication of just how much traction Trumps claims still hold over the G.O.P. base, 72 percent of voters who picked Trump in 2020 said the election had been stolen from him. Thats about a third of all voters.

And when the survey is broken down between those who said that Biden won fairly and those who espoused the false view that the election was stolen from Trump, a remarkable symmetry emerges: Supermajorities on both sides express concern that elected officials will attempt to overturn the will of the people, for instance, but of course each group is worried about the other team subverting the true results  and each group differs on what those are.

Ellen Kurz, the founder and president of iVote, has been focused on secretary of state races for nearly a decade, she said in an interview. In 2018, the group spent $7 million helping elect Democrats in Arizona and Michigan who later became important players in the 2020 election.

This year, iVote has a budget of more than twice that amount  $15 million, which it plans to spend on broadcast, cable and digital advertising to bolster its candidates.

Kurz argued that Republicans had been trying to suppress the votes of people of color and other key Democratic blocs since well before Trump took the national stage  but that his obsession with election fraud and claims of a stolen election have turbocharged those efforts.

I believed it was really bad before, but this is a different level, she said. Its at a next level of danger.
I ask for Mr. Jackson to turn himself over to the authorities, Mr. Fischer wrote, so resolution to the crime committed against me runs its course, whatever the courts determine that outcome to be.

The Los Angeles Sheriffs Department Major Crime Team requested the help of the U.S. Marshals Service to find and arrest Jackson, the service said Monday.

In addition to Mr. Jackson, four other people are charged in connection with the attack. Jaylin White, 20, and Lafayette Whaley, 28, were involved in the robbery and shooting, the authorities said, and Harold White, 42, and Jennifer McBride, 51, were accused of being accessories after the shooting.
But the Russian invasion of Ukraine changed the calculus.

Increasingly cut off from Western markets, Russia is looking to Iran as an economic partner, as well as for expertise in skirting sanctions.

Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, has signed a nonbinding $40 billion deal to help develop gas and oil fields in Iran, according to Iranian reports. And, American officials say, Russia is looking to buy much-needed combat drones from Iran for use over Ukraine, a matter that was not addressed publicly in Tuesdays meetings.

Ahead of Mr. Putins visit, Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlins spokesman, told an Iranian broadcaster that Iran and Russia could soon sign a treaty on strategic cooperation that would expand their collaboration in banking and finance. He evoked the 16th-century diplomacy between Russia and Persia to set the scene for what he promised would be a new era of friendship between Tehran and Moscow.

The courtship between the two countries started even before the war began on Feb. 24, as Russias tensions with the West were escalating. In January, Mr. Raisi, the Iranian president, went to Moscow. Then last month, the two men met again at a regional summit in Turkmenistan, where the Russian leader sought to cement support from countries on the Caspian Sea.

On Tuesday, as he and Mr. Raisi met for the third time this year, Mr. Putin said the two countries relations were developing at a good pace in economic, security and regional affairs. He said he and Mr. Raisi had agreed to strengthen cooperation in energy, industry and transportation, and to increasingly use national currencies  rather than the U.S. dollar  to denominate their trade.
Another 142 purloined Italian antiquities seized in the last year by Manhattan investigators are on their way to the new Museum of Rescued Art in Rome after they were handed over to Italian officials on Wednesday during a ceremony in New York.

Among the repatriated objects, valued at about $14 million, is a fresco stolen from the famed archaeological site at Herculaneum, a town that was buried under volcanic ash after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Known as the Ercolano Fresco, it depicts the infant Hercules strangling a snake and was seized from the collection of Michael H. Steinhardt, the hedge fund pioneer, last year.

The fresco, valued at $1 million, was among 180 items given up by Mr. Steinhardt after Italian and Manhattan investigators determined the pieces had been stolen and illegally placed on the art market. Mr. Steinhardt, 81, had bought it from a dealer, Robert Hecht, who has been accused of illicit trafficking. Mr. Steinhardt agreed to a lifetime ban from acquiring antiquities as part of the cases resolution.
The former head of programming, Brian Ackerman, was quietly fired in May after more than 20 years of service. Though the film center did not publicly announce the dismissal, it had decided, it later said, that he had become a bully at work, menacing staff and unable to control his temper.

Two people  one longtime employee and another person who worked at the center part time for years  then stepped away in protest and Mr. Ackerman drew multiple letters of support.

It was completely inconsistent to me that he would be working with someone who felt threatened by him in a way that they had to insist on him being removed from his position, Karen Goodman, who worked with Mr. Ackerman on programming at the Burns for years, said in an interview. Its almost laughable its so insane.

But the film center has held firm, shedding its initial reticence to discuss a personnel matter by responding with a statement that said Mr. Ackermans dismissal had been based on multiple episodes of bad behavior.
On June 22, workers filed a petition to hold a union election. The labor board requires at least 30 percent of workers to indicate their support before it will order one.

The hearing scheduled for Tuesday was meant to consider arguments from the two sides about the proposed election. Chipotle had asserted in filings that the election should not go forward, partly because the store was understaffed and so the workers eligible to vote would not be fully representative of its eventual work force.

Mr. Young, the lawyer representing the workers, said the closing could chill organizing efforts at other stores in the chain, including those underway in Lansing, Mich., where workers have also filed for a union election, and New York City.

By closing the Augusta store, its signaling to Chipotle workers elsewhere who are involved in or contemplating nascent organizational drives that if you organize, you might be out of job, Mr. Young said.

Ms. Schalow, the Chipotle official, said in her statement that closing the store has nothing to do with union activity. The company said it had closed 13 locations out of about 3,000 because of staffing issues, performance, lease agreements and other business reasons over the past 18 months. Most of the closings appear to have come in the first half of last year.

Chipotle has offered the Augusta workers four weeks of severance pay based on their hours over the past two weeks, which have typically been lower than before the restaurant closed to the public. It has not offered to place the workers at other locations in Maine, the nearest of which is roughly an hour away, according to the company.
Harris Jewelry, a now-defunct jewelry retailer that government officials said had preyed on military families by selling them overpriced baubles using high-interest loans, will pay millions in refunds and stop collecting on its loans in a settlement deal announced on Wednesday by the Federal Trade Commission and 18 state attorneys general.

The company ran a small chain of stores near military bases and specialized in selling service members jewelry and commemorative items with financing that often left the buyers mired in debt, according to prosecutors. The company also made false claims, they said, such as promising to donate the proceeds from some items to charity but failing to follow through.

Todays action will help thousands of service members get back on their feet after falling victim to Harris Jewelrys schemes, said New York States attorney general, Letitia James, whose office sued Harris Jewelry in 2018. Predatory lenders and businesses harming service members should be warned that their actions will not be tolerated.
Mr. Lichts priorities at CNN, and the team he might put in place, have been the focus of widespread speculation since he succeeded Jeff Zucker, who abruptly stepped down in February after failing to disclose a relationship with a close colleague. Mr. Licht has told CNN employees that he wants more nonpartisan journalism and less televised political combat.

Among the business-side appointments Mr. Licht announced on Wednesday were two other executives who worked under Mr. Zucker. Johnita Due will be the networks executive vice president of integrity and inclusion, responsible for CNN standards and practices in addition to her duties overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion. Ramon Escobar, CNNs senior vice president of talent recruitment and development, will be in charge of the networks contributors.

Mr. Licht also named Chris Marlin, a friend for decades who worked for the Florida-based home constructor Lennar, as the executive vice president of strategy and business operations. Mr. Marlin will be in charge of finding new revenue for the network, a priority necessitated, in part, by the inevitable decline of the traditional TV business.

The memo also said that Kris Coratti would be the networks chief communications officer, replacing the interim head of communications, James Anderson. Ms. Coratti has been at The Washington Post.
Sean Kelly, a wry master of literary and musical parodies who helped infuse National Lampoon with the sharp-edged and often crude humor it became known for, died on July 11 in Manhattan. He was 81.

His wife, Patricia Todd, said the cause of death, in a hospital, was heart and renal failure.

Mr. Kelly began writing for the Lampoon soon after it started in 1970, as it was developing a reputation for unrestrained irreverence toward politics, sex and popular culture, advancing humor for baby boomers beyond the boundaries set by Mad magazine. He later became an editor and, in 1975, was named editor in chief.

The first five years at the Lampoon, nobody ever told anybody else, No, thats not funny or Thats going too far, Mr. Kelly said in an interview at the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan in 2013 with Ellin Stein, author of Thats Not Funny, Thats Sick: The National Lampoon and the Comedy Insurgents Who Captured the Mainstream.
What the Taliban leadership says is not in line with how the lower-level Taliban act toward the media, so the situation is getting worse, with a lot of censorship, said Susanna Inkinen, an Afghanistan adviser for International Media Support, a nonprofit.

She said the amount of freedom that journalists had was dependent on the province and the local Taliban. People are much more careful what they report, how they report, she said. There are issues people dont cover anymore.

Ms. Inkinen said she wasnt aware of any other case in which a reporter had been forced to publicly walk back reporting.

In one of the coerced tweets, posted on Tuesday, Ms. ODonnell wrote: l apologize for 3 or 4 reports written by me accusing the present authorities of forcefully marrying teenage girls and using teenage girls as sexual slaves by Taliban commanders. This was a premeditated attempt at character assassination and an affront to Afghan culture.

In another, she said: These stories were written without any solid proof or basis, and without any effort to verify instances through on-site investigation or face-to-face meetings with alleged victims.

Ravi Agrawal, the editor in chief of Foreign Policy, said the publication stood by Ms. ODonnells work and its continuing coverage of Afghanistan.
Officials at the Office of the United States Trade Representative told reporters on Tuesday that Mexicos actions appeared to violate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. That free-trade deal, which went into effect two years ago, bars the countries from adopting policies that discriminate against the others and requires them to curtail their use of state-owned enterprises.

The officials said the United States had raised its objections to Mexicos energy policy with Mexican officials on multiple occasions over the last 18 months. In 2021, Mexico passed a law giving CFE priority access to the electrical grid over other private power providers, including those that offer cleaner sources of energy like wind and solar.

We have repeatedly expressed serious concerns about a series of changes in Mexicos energy policies and their consistency with Mexicos commitments under the U.S.M.C.A., Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, said in a statement. We have tried to work constructively with the Mexican government to address these concerns, but, unfortunately, U.S. companies continue to face unfair treatment in Mexico.

Last week, Mr. Lopez Obrador prodded President Biden on the issue of energy prices during a visit to the White House. He told Mr. Biden that he hoped Congress would approve proposals to lower gas prices, and noted that Americans had been crossing the border to buy gas in Mexico, where, he said, it was a dollar cheaper. He did not elaborate on the reason that Mexican gas prices are cheaper: The government subsidizes them.
BERLIN  When the main natural gas artery between Russia and Germany, the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, was taken off-line last week for 10 days of scheduled maintenance, European leaders began bracing for the possibility that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would not switch it back on as retaliation for opposing Moscows invasion of Ukraine.

But Mr. Putin has suggested that the gas will resume flowing to Europe after the work on the pipeline  controlled by Russias state-owned energy giant Gazprom  finishes on Thursday, though he warned that supplies might be further curtailed.

The European Commission called on the blocs 27 members to immediately begin taking steps to reduce gas consumption by 15 percent. Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the commission, told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday.
At a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Dr. Califf defended the agency but said there was still room to examine the structure, funding and leadership of its food safety division that had oversight authority of consumer goods like infant formula.

We have the safest food in the world, Dr. Califf told members of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee. Every expert Ive talked with  the C.D.C. monitors this carefully  said that our food is as safe as its ever been. So to say its not working is, in my view, just incorrect. That doesnt mean it cant be a lot better and that there arent major problems. So, you know, thats why were doing this top-down review and plan to make significant changes.

Dr. Califf said that the countrys food system was being challenged by supply chain problems and climate change and that it could better embrace the revolution in technology.

The agency is also seeking an examination of its tobacco division and enforcement operations as it faces an increasing number of novel products that could potentially have significant consequences for public health, according to a statement. They included highly potent cannabis products, including vapes, that are being tied to addiction and psychosis in teens.
As for Boomerang, seen 30 years later the womens big hair and shoulder-pad suits make it seem dated, while Marcuss sexism and the films slapstick homophobia are jarring. But I was also reminded why my 17-year-old self was so drawn to the film in the first place. When Harry Met Sally might have modernized the rom-com gender dynamics for my generation, but Jacqueline was an outlier. Her work ethic, confidence, intellect and medium-brown complexion were rare in a Hollywood that hardly ever cast African American women as romantic leads.

And that was all Robin Givens. I first became enamored with her when she played Darlene Merriman, the well-dressed, sharp-tongued, hypercompetitive student in the mainly white honors class on the ABC sitcom Head of the Class. As an awkward Black girl at a predominantly white high school myself, I overly identified with characters in similar situations like Darlene or Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies) from the sitcom Saved by the Bell. But unlike Lisa, who never seemed to have a love interest, Darlene always seemed in command, making me want even more to emulate her fashion sense and the ease with which she flashed her wit and smile.

Despite Givenss popularity on that show, when Boomerang premiered in 1992, it was her comeback vehicle. The star, a prodigy who had matriculated to Sarah Lawrence College at 15 and planned to go to medical school before pursuing acting full time, had married the heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson in 1988, only six months after meeting him, at the height of her career. When she ended their yearlong marriage, she was publicly caricatured as a golddigger seeking fame and wealth.

I remember the moment that stereotype really took hold. I was 13, and watching the 20/20 interview that Givens and Tyson did with Barbara Walters in September 1988. Sitting next to a conspicuously subdued Tyson, Givens disclosed that he was a manic depressive who had repeatedly physically abused her. Her admission that her time with him had been torture, pure hell, worse than anything I could possibly imagine garnered little public sympathy in that pre-#MeToo era.

After their divorce a few months later, Givenss career was never the same. Robin was a very controversial piece of casting, Hudlin said in the audio commentary that commemorated the films 10th anniversary. A lot of people were nervous that there was a lot of dislike in public because of her past with Mike Tyson. But, I thought that actually made her perfect for the role, that she was this formidable person and a match for Eddie Murphy, who also had an intrepid reputation as a ladies man. He added, I wanted the audience to feel like this would be a fair fight.
This months off-the-grid recommendations at your subscription streaming services run the gamut from a tender coming-of-age story to a pair of pitch-black comedies to an unexpectedly affectionate action picture, plus three documentaries concerning influential artistes of fashion, music and sleaze.

The Beta Test (2021)

Stream it on Hulu.

The writer, director and actor Jim Cummings established his onscreen persona (a fumbling, insecure but ultimately big-hearted Everyman) in his breakthrough film Thunder Road, and moved the character into genre territory in The Wolf of Snow Hollow. For this third feature  working this time with PJ McCabe, his co-writer and co-director  Cummings takes that character into a decidedly darker direction, playing a hotshot Hollywood agent whose career (and impending nuptials) are put into jeopardy when someone makes him a sexual offer he cant refuse. Cummings and McCabe slip into darker corners than you might expect, yet the comic and thriller aspects commingle with ease, and the results are thrillingly unpredictable.
The frenetic caper The Gray Man, from the directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, boasts more vibrant color than the typical globe-trotting shoot-em-up about the C.I.A., a distinctly drab organization. The Russos lead, an agent known as Six (Ryan Gosling), wears a snazzy red suit with matching fingernail polish to his first onscreen assassination. Six works for his freedom, not his 401(k): He is a convicted murderer who was plucked from prison by a government suit (played by Billy Bob Thornton) and placed in a secret kill squadron. He seems to be OK with the deal, despite showing a light layer of fatigue that Gosling wears like a rain poncho.

The Russos more-is-more filmmaking ethos leaves little room for Gosling to explore Sixs complexities. Sixs opening hit goes askew, shattering his job security. And as this extravagant adventure sprints across 10 countries, including Thailand and Azerbaijan, Six remains unflappably blase. I get it, youre glib, Thorntons character says to him. So is every other person in the movie, a funny, if indistinguishable, blitz of quipping colleagues, snarky villains (including the main bad guy, a heavy played by Chris Evans) and a hardened cancer patient (Alfre Woodard) who glowers, If you say anything even remotely sympathetic, I will shoot you.
Mustafa Hussain for The New York Times

I think about what happened every day as I wake up and every night as I go to sleep. Im trying to be strong for my little girls.  YAHnia McReynolds, 20, Tops Friendly Market cashier manager

Black people and white people suffer different. As an African American woman, Ive never been this close to such a tragedy. You cant tell me, Suck it up and Its time to go back to work.  Naomie Jean-Pierre, 42, cashier

Im back now, and its not too bad. But Im undecided whether or not to leave, because I have to worry about myself and my family.  Curt Baker, 57, night manager
Some of my favorite Mexican restaurants are in the Bronx, so when I visit, I try to take advantage of my time and hit a few spots. My top pick is La Morada, a casual restaurant run by the Saavedra family that serves homey, delicious Oaxacan cuisine, has a poet-in-residence and is involved in advocacy work for undocumented immigrants. The spots pambazo torta is a fantastic lunch sandwich with plenty of spice.

A few years ago, I covered the history of pizza as a beloved New York food and had to taste through about a dozen places all over the city with my husband (to his absolute glee). Id truncate that route a bit to fit it into a day and focus on Brooklyn: Start at LIndustrie with a margherita slice or Williamsburg Pizza for a plain cheese slice before bouncing over to Robertas in Bushwick for a pie (my favorite is the Bee Sting: soppressata, hot honey and basil) and a cocktail. Id finish the night at Ops with a calzone and some red wine, which would promptly send me to bed for the evening.

Another way to see a neighborhood in a different light is to take a tour with an expert. There are plenty of fantastic food tours available, including the Little Caribbean Food Tour in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and a tour of Queens sprawling Chinatown with Culinary Backstreets.
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said Wednesday that she did not anticipate schoolchildren would need to wear masks when they return to school in September, but that she was keeping the statewide mask mandate on public transportation for now.

We are trying very hard to encourage people to come back to work, use the subways, but they have to feel safe and secure, she said of her choice to continue the mandate on trains, buses and other public transportation. So we are going to continue to monitor it, but the numbers will have to be lower than they are right now and consistently lower to lift it.

As coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths in the state tick up as a result of the rapidly spreading Omicron subvariant known as BA.5, Ms. Hochul held her first Covid briefing in months. She tried simultaneously to reassure the public that Covid levels are manageable for the moment and do not require a change of course, and to make the case that she needed to extend her pandemic emergency powers into the fall in case serious disease and hospitalizations spike higher.
How do you calculate a loss 10 times as high? How can you reckon with that level of dying, each year, going forward? According to Celine Gounder, an infectious disease epidemiologist and a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation, that figure is actually the low end  the ballpark, she says, runs from 100,000 to 250,000. Thats not her estimate of this years toll but of the annual continuing mortality burden rolling forward indefinitely into the future. And the question I have is, how much death are we OK with? she asks. Have we decided this is OK? And if so, why?

For most of the pandemic, it has been hard to see the trajectory of the disease other than through the lens of partisanship and policy. Questions like Gounders often suggest particular sets of interventions others have opposed or deemed unrealistic. Those living relatively normal lives have been labeled Covid minimizers; those calling for continued precautions are described as hysterical alarmists.

And yet, if you could look past the culture-war contestation, each of the first two years of the pandemic had, for all their brutality and human suffering, an intuitive narrative form. In 2020, the story was, below the death and panic, one of state capacity and behavioral response  which governments and communities mobilized most quickly and most effectively to intervene to flatten the curve and, in some cases, temporarily eradicate the disease domestically. You could plausibly have blamed local leadership and lack of community vigilance for the level of infection and dying around you, even if those narratives often overstated national differences in pandemic outcomes. If you were satisfied with the response  as those in, say, Taiwan and New Zealand tended to be  you probably felt some civic pride about those outcomes. You might have felt you had done your part, or found yourself in that prosocial spirit, leaning out your window to applaud the emergency medical workers for doing theirs. On the other end of the spectrum, you might have found yourself yelling on social media about people spending Thanksgiving with their families, even with a negative test result in hand.

Then came the vaccine year, 2021, in which the spread of the disease and its relative severity were explained primarily by, first, the distribution of shots and then by the eagerness of certain populations to be vaccinated. You might have regarded the relative level of sickness and death around you as a grotesque, ungenerous vaccination morality play  even if, say, the phenomenon of Red Covid was never that much larger than the vaccination gaps defined by income, education and race. Liberals often discounted deaths among the unvaccinated, and when people used the phrase vaxxed and done, they were expressing a desire for normalcy but also a widespread epistemological view of the virus: All that mattered was how many people had gotten their shots (or how many of the elderly had gotten their shots and, later, how recently).

The experience of the pandemics third year has been much muddier, narratively, almost everywhere in the world.
The list of the composers awarded Pulitzers for music in the 1960s is interesting: Elliott Carter, Walter Piston, Robert Ward, Samuel Barber, Leslie Bassett, Leon Kirchner, George Crumb and Karel Husa. I would venture that Carter and Barber would be familiar to many. Maybe Piston and Crumb, too, for classical music buffs. But here in 2022, how reasonable does it sound that Ellington was denied membership in that pantheon at that time? One need not be especially committed to our times quest for reckoning to conclude that something wasnt right.

Those awardees are all white, and it strikes me as unlikely that racism wasnt part of why the Pulitzer board disregarded the jurys decision in Ellingtons case. Something was blowing in the wind  as Theodore Strongin reported for The Times in 1965, two members of the three-person jury resigned in protest against the Pulitzer advisory boards ignoring of the jurys unanimous recommendation. Ellington was diplomatic, saying that fates being kind to me because it doesnt want me to be too famous too young.

It seems to me that part of the problem, at least back then, is that in evaluations of musical merit, were often dealing in different languages. Take Stevie Wonders Innervisions. Is it lesser art than, say, Tchaikovskys Pathetique?

When Tchaikovskys second movement switches into its cold, creepingly gorgeous middle section  I recall working it out laboriously on the piano after I first heard it as a teen because I just wanted to touch it  we remember why we are alive. When Wonders Living for the City opens with its deep, slow, funky groove and progresses into, well, everything that happens in that song, we think: What is this? Who did this? Both works are brilliant. Attention must be paid to both, the same way that it should have been paid in the 60s to Carter, Barber  and Ellington.

The rapper Kendrick Lamar, a Black man working in a Black genre, won the 2018 music Pulitzer for DAMN. The Pulitzer website describes that album as a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African American life. A sensibility well expressed, but for Ellington, perhaps, too late.

So lets fix this. In 1999, the Pulitzer Prizes did award Ellington a Special Citation, bestowed posthumously, commemorating the centennial year of his birth, in recognition of his musical genius, which evoked aesthetically the principles of democracy through the medium of jazz and thus made an indelible contribution to art and culture. OK, but that was too late. The snub was so egregious that it needs to be undone more directly. The award given in 1999 was a fine gesture, but it was a safe move by then, when audiences and white cultural power brokers had long come to understand and acknowledge the glory of Ellingtons work.
One of the biggest myths of evolution is that it is a relentless march of progress. In fact, evolution is not a linear track, but a branching tree. New species do not arise as part of some long-term goal; they adapt to new opportunities in their surroundings.

On Wednesday, paleontologists unveiled a fossil that proved a potent antidote for the march-of-progress myth. It was a fish that lived about 375 million years ago, when our ancestors were scaly creatures vaguely resembling giant eels, walking across mud flats with four limbs complete with elbows, knees, wrists and ankles. The newly discovered fossil, called Qikiqtania wakei, belonged to this lineage.

But its anatomy suggests that its ancestors, unlike ours, did not continue the move to land. Instead, they gave up walking to swim again.
Timothy Hale had high hopes for this summer.

Last summer was a tease, said the 29-year-old hairstylist and freelance photographer, who goes by Tim Hell professionally. I was hoping this would be the summer I could finally have fun.

After moving to New York City from Baltimore in February 2021, then finding himself cooped up in his Brooklyn apartment amid the Delta variant of the coronavirus, Mr. Hale spent this winter dreaming of rooftop parties at Le Bain in the meatpacking district and Mr. Purple on the Lower East Side.

I wanted to just be out, enjoying New York City, he said. But it wasnt meant to be.

For him, the first bad sign came in April, when there was a shooting on the N train, the same line he takes on weekends to his job at a barbershop.
Mr. Abouammo was charged in 2019 along with another former Twitter employee, Ali Alzabarah. The Justice Department said the men had used their Twitter access to dig up information about thousands of users and shared the information with Ahmed Almutairi, who the department said had served as their go-between with Saudi officials. Mr. Almutairi previously ran a social media marketing company that did work for the Saudi royal family.

What we consider before using anonymous sources. How do the sources know the information? Whats their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source. Learn more about our process.

The men gathered private user data, such as device identifiers, phone numbers, IP addresses, all of which could have been used by the Saudi government to identify and locate the individuals behind the accounts, including political dissidents, the Justice Department said in a court filing.

When Twitter management confronted Mr. Alzabarah, he fled to Saudi Arabia, the Justice Department said. He and Mr. Almutairi remain wanted by U.S. law enforcement. Mr. Abouammo, who worked briefly at Amazon after leaving Twitter, was arrested in Seattle in 2019. He is free on bail but traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area for the trial.

In recent years, the Justice Department has cracked down on lobbyists and others who work to further the interests of foreign governments but do not disclose it. For years, prosecutors had largely ignored such cases; from 1966 until 2015, the Justice Department pursued only seven cases under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires lobbyists to disclose their work on behalf of foreign governments.

One of the 6,000 Twitter accounts that Mr. Alzabarah is accused of looking at on behalf of Saudi officials in 2015 belonged to Omar Abdulaziz, a prominent Saudi dissident and confidant of Mr. Khashoggi, people familiar with the case said. Mr. Abdulaziz has sued Twitter over the breach; the case is in mediation, according to his lawyers and court records.

The problem is bigger than Abouammo, said Behnam Gharagozli, a lawyer for Mr. Abdulaziz. The problem is systemic here. The problem is the way the data was handled back then.
Reflecting on the richness of the productions images, he added: If movies are 4K, and really good-looking movies are 8K, this is up to four times that.

During a recent rehearsal at IDEAL, the cast was practicing Whos Crazy/My Psychopharmacologist and I, a song about adjusting Dianas medication. At first, the actors practiced their blocking in a completely empty space. Then the wall-to-wall screens lit up, and the actors were transported to a surrealistic world with ticking clocks, larger-than-life-size neurons floating like jellyfish, and pills resembling colorful raindrops falling from the sky. We need more pills! Halbach exclaimed at one point.

The other element flooding the space was Ripleys achingly emotional voice.

When we first made [Diana], I didnt know what it was going to be  the audience watched me figuring it out live, Ripley said, reflecting on the musicals Off Broadway run at Second Stage Theater in 2008. She drew from that same feeling of adventure in tackling this new production, though she said she found the experience disorienting at first.

We actors are told never to give our backs to the audience, she said, and here all of those rules are gone.

The team behind the immersive production figured it was a no-brainer to bring back Ripley, who won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Diana, even in the wake of a 2021 report in The Daily Beast in which she was accused of having sexual conversations with a girl as young as 13 and puppeteering a cult-ish, obsessive fan base of vulnerable youngsters. Ripley later denied the accusations in a statement to The New York Posts Page Six. It is a misinterpretation of my actions to say I manipulated anyone, and more shockingly, that there was abuse, she wrote in a statement.

During a break from rehearsals last month, Ripley said she had no further comment about the accusations.
Those of us whove had to squeeze our way through crowds at national parks recently can attest how hugely  and annoyingly  popular the parks have become. The pandemic turned a Klieg light on natures allure, so much so that 44 parks set visitation records in 2021, according to the National Park Service. And, given the upward trajectory of 2021s visitation numbers, its safe to say greater numbers are likely to be seen in many parks this year.

In some cases, reservation systems or timed entries for vehicles at peak hours have been implemented to deal with the crowds.

But even the most popular parks have hidden gems and entrances that arent clogged with traffic. With a little planning, those hitting the road to see the misty inlets of Maines Acadia National Park or the plunging waterfalls in Californias Yosemite should be able to find some serenity to go along with those heavenly sights.
A California woman was arrested on kidnapping and child-stealing charges after she posed as a nurse, gained access to a hospital maternity ward and tried to steal a baby from a patients room, the authorities said.

The woman, Jesenea Miron, 23, was taken into custody on July 15, a day after the episode took place at the Riverside University Health System Medical Center in Moreno Valley, Calif., the Riverside County Sheriffs Department said in a statement.

Deputies were summoned to the medical center on July 14 after employees notified them of an individual impersonating a nurse on campus, the authorities said.
A new stash of documents obtained by Congress has confirmed that the Trump administration pushed to add a citizenship question to the census to help Republicans win elections, not to protect peoples voting rights, a House committee report concluded on Wednesday.

The report from the Committee on Oversight and Reform, the culmination of a yearslong investigation, detailed new findings based on drafts of internal memos and secret email communications between political appointees at the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, and counterparts in the Justice Department.

The documents provided the most definitive evidence yet that the Trump administration aimed to exclude noncitizens from the count to influence congressional apportionment that would benefit the Republican Party, the report concluded, and that senior officials used a false pretext to build a legal case for asking all residents of the United States whether they were American citizens.
A Georgia judge ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to testify in Atlanta next month in an ongoing criminal investigation into election interference by former President Donald J. Trump and his advisers and allies, according to court filings released on Wednesday.

Some out-of-state witnesses in the case have gone to court to challenge subpoenas or other legal filings seeking to compel their testimony. But after Mr. Giuliani failed to show for a hearing last week in Manhattan, where the matter was to have been adjudicated, Judge Robert C. I. McBurney of the Superior Court of Fulton County ordered him to appear before a special grand jury in Atlanta on Aug. 9.

Mr. Giuliani, who spearheaded efforts to keep Mr. Trump in power as his personal lawyer, has emerged as a central figure in the Georgia criminal investigation into efforts to overturn Mr. Trumps 2020 electoral loss in the state. Fani T. Willis, the prosecutor in Fulton County leading the investigation, has indicated that she is considering conspiracy or racketeering charges, which could take in a broad spectrum of people engaged in multiple efforts to sway the election results.
The authorities said the two women and the 18-month-old were taken to a hospital in Browning, Mont., which is about 13 miles northeast of East Glacier Park. The child was pronounced dead at the hospital, and the two women were flown elsewhere to receive more intensive care for critical injuries, they said.

The attack was isolated to this incident, the sheriffs office added, with a clear nexus between the victims and Madden. The investigation is ongoing, the sheriffs office said.

On Wednesday night, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a video statement from John Siau, the father of David and grandfather of McKenzie. He recounted what he said he had told his other children.

Grieve, be sad, but dont harbor anger about what has happened, he said, because what we have seen is actually the result of somebody who has harbored anger in his own life and allowed it to fester and allowed it to grow and develop into something very terrible and unspeakable. He went on to quote passages from the Lords Prayer and said, Our goal is to forgive.

Mr. Madden was formerly a member of the Oklahoma National Guard, but left around 2013 and had no further contact with the organization, said Lt. Col. Geoff Legler, a spokesman for the guard.

Colonel Legler said that Mr. Madden was a chemical operations specialist and had been trained in how to identify dangerous chemicals and render some of them inert. Colonel Legler said he did not know Mr. Madden personally.
Mr. Graham repeated a common refrain among Republicans that it would be foolish for the United States, historically the country that has emitted the most carbon dioxide, to reduce its pollution unless other big polluters like China and India do the same.

The point to me is to get the world to participate, not just us, he said.

So it has gone with the Republican Party, where warnings of a catastrophe are mocked as hyperbole, where technologies that do not exist on a viable scale, such as carbon capture and storage and clean coal, are hailed as saviors. At the same time, those that do, such as wind and solar power and electric vehicles, are dismissed as unreliable and overly expensive. American leadership on a global problem is seen as a fools errand, kneecapping the domestic economy while Indian and Chinese coal bury Americas good intentions in soot.

How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Learn more about our process.

When China gets our good air, their bad airs got to move, Herschel Walker, a former football star and now a Republican candidate in Georgia for the Senate, explained last week. So it moves over to our good air space. Then now weve got to clean that back up.

The partys political attacks often center on the symptoms of the climate crisis as they point to Central American climate refugees massing at the southern border, poor forest management as wildfires burn, and environmentalists who deprive farmers of water in record droughts.

For decades, Republicans and the fossil fuel industry denied the science of climate change. That has slowly started to change as the evidence that the Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate has become undeniable, and started to resonate with moderate and independent voters.
The bills were announced on the eve of a prime-time hearing by the House committee investigating the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack, including Mr. Trumps multilayered effort to invalidate his defeat. They also came as an investigation intensified into efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to have Georgias presidential election results reversed. A Georgia judge has ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani, who spearheaded a push to overturn election results on behalf of Mr. Trump, to appear before a special grand jury in Atlanta next month.

The legislative effort in the Senate began in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack, which unfolded as Congress met for the traditionally routine counting of the electoral ballots that is the last official confirmation of the presidential election results before the inauguration. In the run-up to the riot, Mr. Trump tried unsuccessfully to persuade Vice President Mike Pence  who presided over the session in his capacity as president of the Senate  to unilaterally block the tally, citing false claims of election fraud.

The new legislation focuses on the handling of electoral votes and does not incorporate wider voting protections sought by Democrats after some states instituted new laws seen as making it more difficult for people to vote following Democratic victories in 2020. Senate Republicans have previously blocked those voting measures.

Though there may be disagreement on specific provisions, there is widespread sentiment in Congress that some steps need to be taken to bolster the Electoral Count Act, which Mr. Manchin said on Wednesday had been weaponized on Jan. 6.

How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Learn more about our process.

The backers of the legislation were optimistic that they could win passage this year, viewing that time frame as their best opportunity given the prospect that Republicans, many of whom backed challenges to electoral votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr., could control the House next year.

The Electoral Count Act does need to be fixed, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, told reporters on Tuesday. He said that Ms. Collins had kept him apprised of the bipartisan negotiations and that he was sympathetic to the aims of those working on the legislation.
That event followed an appearance Tuesday night at a Young Guns fund-raising dinner hosted by Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, at Del Friscos Double Eagle Steakhouse in Washington. Mr. Pences appearance there was described by an attendee as akin to a homecoming for him. Mr. Trump was mentioned only in the context of discussing the Trump-Pence accomplishments.

Most Republican officials will need people who like and support both men, Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said of Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump. I think that it would be difficult to win most elections with supporters of just one or the other. He added, We rise above our cognitive dissonance.

Mr. LaHood, who has been endorsed by Mr. Trump, was one of more than 120 House Republicans who signed a lawsuit led by the attorney general of Texas that sought to have the Supreme Court essentially nullify the election results in major swing states. The congressman ultimately voted on Jan. 6 to affirm Joseph R. Biden Jr.s victory.

But Representative Jim Banks, the Indiana Republican who invited Mr. Pence to appear this week, voted against certifying the election results, in line with the majority of G.O.P. members of the House. Still, in the weeks after the storming of the Capitol, Mr. Banks and a group of other conservative lawmakers who had supported Mr. Trumps effort to invalidate his defeat in Congress met with Mr. Pence. Mr. Banks thanked the vice president for the role he played that day certifying the election results, even as a mob of violent protesters threatened to hang him.

At the time, Mr. Banks said that Mr. Pence was uniquely positioned to unite Republicans after the violence and that the former vice president needed to become the partys standard-bearer, according to people in the room who described the private session on the condition of anonymity.

But a few months later, Mr. Banks posted a picture from Mr. Trumps Bedminster, N.J., golf club, in which he flashed a thumbs up alongside the former president.
Chief Arredondo already had resigned a seat he had recently won on the City Council, and had been placed on administrative leave from his job with the school district police force.

In a letter addressed to the city when he stepped down, he said the decision to give up his council seat was in the best interest of the community and made in order to minimize further distractions. He went on to say that the mayor, the City Council and the city staff must continue to move forward to unite our community, once again.

Families in Uvalde have also been demanding that other officers who responded to the shooting scene, some of whom are seen on video idling in the school hallway, are also held to account.

This week, the Texas state police announced that they have opened an investigation to determine whether any of the scores of officers who responded to the scene, which included state troopers and Texas Rangers, broke any laws or department policies by not confronting the gunman more quickly.
With nonbinary people, language is just the tip of the iceberg, said Rodrigo Borba, a professor of applied linguistics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. What they are questioning on a deeper, ideological level is that gender is not connected to your genitalia and that it does not only come in pairs.

Argentina is a surprising place for such a heated debate on gender-neutral language because the country has largely embraced transgender rights. In 2012, it became one the first countries in the world to pass a law allowing people to change their gender on official documents without requiring the intervention of a doctor or a mental health therapist.

Last year, the federal government adopted a measure requiring that 1 percent of all public sector jobs be set aside for transgender people. Those who identify as nonbinary are allowed to mark an X on official documents, rather than check off male or female. One of the presidents children is a nonbinary drag queen.

Even the ruling coalition  Front for All  has changed its logo to avoid using the masculine form of todos by replacing the second o with a sun.

In Buenos Aires, the citys education minister, Soledad Acuna, said the new rule on inclusive language is not intended to be a ban. Language itself is neither more nor less inclusive, she said in an interview. It all depends on how people use it.
Local officials in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou have issued a rare apology after community workers broke into dozens of homes to look for people who had tested positive for the coronavirus and others deemed close contacts, prompting harsh criticism on social media.

The government of the citys Liwan district said in a statement that the workers had picked locks to enter 84 units in an apartment complex. They had been searching for residents they believed were hiding to avoid being sent to quarantine centers. Under Chinas zero-tolerance approach to Covid, all positive cases and close contacts must be sent to centralized quarantine facilities for a number of days.

Photos on social media showed broken locks in front of apartment doors, and the government said the locks were later replaced. It added that the head of the neighborhood had apologized to the residents individually and had promised unspecified compensation.
TOKYO  The stabbings of endangered sea turtles on the pebbled coastline of Okinawa has shocked Japan.

But it has also drawn sympathy for the frustrated fishermen who often have to tussle with the hefty sea creatures when they get ensnared in their nets.

Last Thursday, at least 10 green sea turtles were found scattered across a beach in Kumejima, Okinawa, dead with stab wounds in their short, wrinkled necks. Approximately 20 others were tangled in fishing nets or flipped over on their backs on the beach, some dead with stab wounds, others barely alive. How and why the attacks happened remains a mystery.
The cousins stopped speaking after Mr. Wijesinha joined the opposition in 2015.

Mr. Wickremesinghe was marred in a corruption scandal during a previous term as prime minister, when the central bank chief he had appointed was accused of sharing classified information on government bonds with entities that made large profits.

Politics is more than chess. Its teamwork like cricket, Mr. Wickremesinghe said in an old interview, recently resurfaced on social media. Its a hard game like rugger and its a blood sport like boxing.

Recently, as prime minister, he said he would resign to make way for a new all-party government. He never did.

He also declared his support in May for amending the Constitution to curb the powers of the presidency, one of the protesters main demands. Protesters, diplomats, and political leaders are watching whether he will follow through, now that such a measure means cutting down his own powers.

Elected with 134 out of 219 valid votes, Mr. Wickremesinghe will take over a country in crisis.

Once a vibrant economy with a solid middle class, Sri Lanka, an island nation of 22 million people, has been decimated. Government mismanagement and poor policy decisions, compounded by the loss of vital tourism revenue during the pandemic and rising global prices, have essentially bankrupted the country. People spend days in line to buy fuel, while store shelves have run low of food and essential medicine.
The parties did not even bother to take part in a confidence vote that Mr. Draghi had called. Mr. Draghi, for months an object of respect, suddenly on the Senate floor became target practice for the sniping of the upcoming campaign. His supporters said it revealed that Italian politics had reverted to its usual chaos, and that his time had come to move on.

Italians are looking with dismay at their institutions, Parliament and the Senate and the political forces that basically put their own interests first and start an electoral campaign, Enrico Letta, the leader of the Democratic Party, which supported Mr. Draghi, said on Italian television Wednesday night. I believe that we will go to elections quickly and that Italians will choose between those who decided to sink this government and those who, beyond their own partisan interests, had opted to continue.

The decisive blow to Mr. Draghi seemed to come not just from the Five Star Movement, the weak and splintering party that withdrew its support in last weeks vote, but also from the League party, led by the nationalist Matteo Salvini, and his center-right allies.

Mr. Salvini, an effective firebrand, had seen his support erode as he joined the governing coalition and watched as a rival right-wing leader, Giorgia Meloni, gobbled up his support from her position in the opposition. Ms. Meloni is also critical of the European Union, though she has made a point to move away from her past admiration of Russia as a defender of Christian values to strongly condemn its military aggression and support arms shipments to Ukraine. Mr. Salvini, who has had a harder time distancing himself from his public veneration of Mr. Putin, was eager to return to campaign mode to challenge her as the favorite to be Italys prime minister.

Already in his partys Wednesday night address excoriating Mr. Draghi, the League brought up old campaign battle horses, including crimes committed by illegal migrants.
The main argument to get all E.U nations on board, despite their different levels of vulnerability, is that the blocs economies are so interconnected that a blow to one is a blow to all.

The choice we have today is triggering solidarity now or waiting for an emergency that will force solidarity upon us, said Frans Timmermans, a senior Dutch politician who is the commissions energy and climate czar.

He said savings in gas around the E.U. would create spare capacity to direct to the countries most in need in the wintertime, ensuring that no member state goes into economic shock because of the lack of power.

Ms. von der Leyen, putting a political spin on a seemingly economic issue, said this approach would deliver a blow to Mr. Putin, who wants to sow discord within the European Union, undermining the bloc and its most powerful countries economically and politically. Determined to make that backfire on him, European leaders have drawn closer together since the war began and have taken the first step toward possibly making Ukraine an E.U. member  something Mr. Putin set out to prevent.

Putin is trying to push us around this winter and he will dramatically fail if we stick together, Ms. von der Leyen said.

With Russia having slashed or completely cut gas supply to a dozen E.U. countries already, and the looming threat that it will not fully reconnect an important pipeline on Thursday that has been offline for maintenance, the blocs alternatives are few. Mr. Putin suggested late Tuesday that natural gas would resume flowing to Europe through the pipeline, but warned that supplies may be severely curtailed.
One of the big problems that we still have with climate change is that its always talked about as if its something happening in the future, to someone else, Otto said. And for Europeans, someone else is the Global South.

But it remains an open question whether extreme weather events like this months heat wave and fires will change that mind-set.

For Germany, I think last years floods were a bit of a wake-up call, insofar as, Oh, weather can actually be deadly in Germany, Otto said. But she expressed skepticism that the heat wave would have a similar effect. People dont die dropping dead in the street in heat waves. People die quietly, in their poorly insulated homes. And, she noted, those who do tend to be older adults and the poor and sick  groups for whom the impact of heat can be easier to dismiss. Its the same people who already die of air pollution, and nobody cares, she said.

Anna Walnycki, a researcher on adaptation to climate change at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, was more hopeful about extreme weathers ability to draw attention to the immediate human cost of climate change.

These few days have actually allowed people to see, you know, their gran suffering in the heat, the N.H.S. is actually buckling under the strain of heat, she said, referring to Britains National Health Service. By shifting away from abstract discussions of net carbon emissions toward local impacts with a human face, she added, the heat wave could make a difference to public perceptions of how much countries like Britain stand to lose from a changing climate  and how quickly that might occur.

It is true, of course, that poorer countries in the Global South, and the poorest people within them, will bear the brunt of climate change. In May, I was in India toward the end of its own record-breaking heat wave, when temperatures climbed far higher than in Europe. The effect on peoples livelihoods and survival was far more extreme than anything happening here.
Iran warned Turkey on Tuesday against launching a new military operation in Syria just before the leaders of both countries attended a three-way summit meeting with Russias president.

Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered the warning to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey soon after he arrived in Iran for the trilateral talks, the supreme leaders website said. The Iranian leader told Mr. Erdogan that a military attack in northern Syria would be harmful for Turkey, Syria and the entire region, the site said.

Iran and Russia have been staunch international allies of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria during more than a decade of civil war, while Turkey has backed armed groups fighting to topple Mr. Assad and has mounted incursions into northern Syria. Turkey already controls several swathes of territory inside Syria along the border between the two countries.
With Western sanctions having a colossal impact on Russia, in Mr. Putins own words, Moscow needs places to do business, especially as the sanctions bite harder over time. Iran, isolated by even tougher American economic sanctions over its nuclear program, is happy to do business with Russia, Mr. Kupchan said.

Russia also needs more surveillance of the battleground in Ukraine, and Washington has revealed Moscows interest in buying both armed drones and observation drones from Tehran.

Russia and Iran have a long and complicated history. Ties and trade improved after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was the first country to recognize the Islamic Republic after the countrys 1979 revolution, though Moscow went on to back Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. In general, the two countries have had a mutual interest in pushing back American power in places such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Relations improved with the deterioration of Russias ties to the West and the steady imposition of sanctions on Russia after its annexation of Crimea in 2014. In 2021, mutual trade hit record levels, though at a relatively modest amount of about $3.5 billion.
The heat will continue across much of Europe.

For some of Europe, forecasters were predicting that relief would come for the rest of the week, with more moderate temperatures and some rain beginning on Wednesday.

In London, forecasters said that the rest of the week was expected to more closely resemble a typical British summer. Wednesday was expected to bring a high of 27 degrees Celsius (81 Fahrenheit) in London, with the high dropping to 23 Celsius (73 Fahrenheit) on Friday, according to the Met Office, Britains national weather service.

La Teste-de-Buch, a small town in southwestern France that has battled wildfires for more than a week, was under a moderate thunderstorm warning for Wednesday, with forecasters predicting a high of 26 Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) during the day.

Amsterdam, which reached a high of 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, remained under a warning for extreme high temperature on Wednesday, with a high of 26 Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) and the possibility of thunderstorms. But the high was expected to fall to 21 Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) with some showers on Thursday, according to AccuWeather, a forecasting service.

Unusually hot weather was expected to continue this week in the southern and eastern portions of the continent, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather. Relief from the heat will likely arrive in Germany on Thursday and Poland on Friday, while its expected to persist this week in Portugal, Spain, southern France and northern Italy, he said.

We continue to caution people that this is going to be extreme heat, and many people will continue to be threatened in the coming days, he said.
Ukraines first lady met her future husband, Volodymyr Zelensky, when they were still students at different universities in their hometown, the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih. She later became a script writer at Kvartal 95, the production company that Mr. Zelensky founded before he traded comic acting for the presidency  and then became a wartime president.

Before Russias invasion of Ukraine, Ms. Zelenska, 44, focused on issues of female empowerment, literacy and culture in Ukraine. But the war has thrust her into the global spotlight. In recent weeks, she has stepped forward more on social media, and has used her profile to raise awareness about Russian crimes against children and older citizens.

During her speech, she also described a 4-year-old girl killed in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, in a missile attack that left 25 people dead; a 5-year-old who died in a shopping mall attack; and a 3-year-old boy who lost his legs and is learning to use a prosthesis.

She asked members of Congress for more weapons, including air defense systems, before they leave for their August recess, so that our kids are not going to be killed.
Ukraine and its Western partners may have a narrowing window of opportunity to support a Ukrainian counteroffensive into occupied Ukrainian territory before the Kremlin annexes that territory, said the spokesman, John Kirby.

Since April, Ukrainian forces have effectively been locked into a defensive posture as they gradually retreated from an onslaught of Russian artillery in the eastern Donbas region. The Russians have not seized new territory in weeks, and the Ukrainians say their defensive positions have stabilized.

But the purpose of the longer-range missile systems that Ukraine has been pleading for, and that Western countries have increasingly started to supply to its government, is not just to forestall Russias advance, but also to win back lost territory.

We all strive to liberate Ukraine from the enemy, the spokeswoman for Ukraines southern forces, Natalia Humeniuk, said on Tuesday. We have a single goal.
It was chaos  tourists hands and legs were detached from their bodies, said Ahmad Tahseen Ali, 30, from Babil Province, who said he was standing about 20 meters from one of the strikes, which wounded his brother and sister, Ban al-Humnrani, 42, who is a U.S. citizen and was visiting from Sacramento, Calif. We are used to hearing sounds of war, but I have never seen a horrific scene like this, said Ms. al-Humnrani, who suffered a leg wound.

The P.K.K. has been waging a separatist campaign against the Turkish government in Ankara since the 1970s. The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, most of them in Turkey. The P.K.K. is regarded as a terrorist group by the United States and Europe.

A U.S. State Department spokesman, Ned Price, emphasized in a briefing that military action in Iraq should respect Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity. The State Department, he said, would continue to monitor the situation closely as additional information emerges.

Many P.K.K. fighters and much of the groups leadership take refuge in the mountains where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey meet. While the fighting inside Turkey has diminished in ferocity, the Turkish military has continued to cross into Iraq to strike P.K.K. targets.

Iraqi leaders do not formally give sanctuary to P.K.K. fighters, but only rarely take action against them. In April, Turkey began an offensive, named Operation Claw Lock, in northern Iraq. Turkish officials typically invoke Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which recognizes a states inherent right of individual or collective self-defense against attack, without seeking approval from the Iraqi government first.

The Turkish side is carrying out continuous violations that are not based on any legal basis or agreement between the two countries, Ahmed al-Sahaf, the spokesman for Iraqs Foreign Ministry, told the Iraqi News Agency in April.

The Turkish airstrikes came as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey responded to criticism of his decision to launch a new military offensive against Kurdish fighters in Syria. In that case, Mr. Erdogan said the operation was part of an effort to keep Turkeys border with Syria secure from Kurdish militants and to create a safe zone for some of the millions of Syrian refugees who have fled the civil war in their own country in recent years.

Falih Hassan contributed reporting from Baghdad.
Marylands biggest contest is the race to succeed the term-limited governor, Larry Hogan, a moderate Republican who opposes former President Donald J. Trump. Read more
Now that the United States Supreme Court has returned the power to regulate abortion to the states, every election has implications for access. In the first big electoral test of the abortion issue since the court overturned Roe v. Wade, Kansas voters rejected a constitutional amendment on Aug. 2 that would have removed the right to an abortion from the State Constitution.

Four other states have put abortion rights directly on the ballot in November with measures to amend their constitutions: California, Michigan and Vermont will ask voters whether to affirm the right to abortion, while Kentucky will ask voters whether to reject it.

In other states, the outcomes of competitive races for the legislature and the governors mansion in November could pave the way either for protections or for restrictions and outright bans. Races further down the ballot matter, too, giving Americans more opportunities to vote on abortion, some with more lasting effects.

Ballot measures Allow voters to amend the state constitution to say abortion is or is not protected. State supreme court Judges can rule whether a states constitution recognizes abortion rights. State legislators Can pass laws to ban or protect abortion, and vote to put measures on the ballot. Governors Can sign or veto bills to ban or protect abortion. Some can appoint high-court judges. Attorneys general Can choose to enforce or ignore abortion bans or protections.

In most states, the position on abortion is clear, and the midterms are unlikely to affect the status quo. But in at least seven states, highly competitive races within one or more branches of government could tip the balance in support of either access to abortion or further restrictions.

Advocates and opponents of abortion rights are strategizing for wins up and down the ballot. And opponents and conservative groups in particular have been investing heavily in lesser-known races. Heres a guide to the elections they see as most critical.

Arizona

Current status Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General No ruling Restrictive Restrictive Restrictive With Republican control of the State Legislature and the governors office, Arizona has enacted a ban on abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy, set to take effect this fall. The attorney general wants an older ban on nearly all abortions to go into effect. The State Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether the states Constitution protects the right to abortion. To protect abortion reject Flip Flip Flip Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Abortion rights advocates see opportunities to flip control of the State Senate or State House, in which Republicans have just a two-seat margin in each chamber. And they are backing Democrats for governor and attorney general. Voters could reject up to three judges who are up for re-election on the court but could not change its Republican control. To restrict abortion hold hold hold hold Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Abortion opponents are aiming to maintain the State Legislatures Republican majority and to fill open seats for governor and attorney general with anti-abortion candidates.

Georgia

Current status Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General No ruling Restrictive Restrictive Restrictive Georgia Republicans have enacted a ban on abortion at six weeks of pregnancy. Competitive races for governor and attorney general could challenge lawmakers plans to further restrict abortion. To protect abortion No election Flip Flip Flip Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Abortion rights advocates are endorsing Stacey Abrams and Jen Jordan, both Democrats who staunchly oppose the states ban, for governor and attorney general. They are also hoping to flip several legislative seats currently held by Republicans, though the midterms are unlikely to change partisan control of either chamber. To restrict abortion No election hold hold hold Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Abortion opponents are rallying voters to maintain the status quo. The State Supreme Court, which has a majority of judges appointed by a Republican governor, held elections in May.

Kansas

Current status Ballot Measure Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Protective Protective Restrictive Protective Restrictive Voters rejected an Aug. 2 ballot measure that would have removed abortion protections from the State Constitution. The vote, which affirms a 2019 State Supreme Court ruling, makes it hard for Republicans in the Legislature to enact restrictions, even though they have a large enough majority to override a veto from Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat. To protect abortion Rejected Aug. 2 hold Flip hold Flip Ballot Measure Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Abortion rights advocates are aiming to protect two judges who supported the 2019 ruling. Flipping three seats in the State House and State Senate could remove the Republican supermajority. To restrict abortion Rejected Aug. 2 reject hold Flip hold Ballot Measure Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Passing the ballot measure, which would have denied the right to abortion and could have been undone only by passing another ballot measure, had been a top priority for abortion opponents. Voters can choose to reject six of seven judges on the Democrat-led State Supreme Court who are up for re-election.

Michigan

Current status Ballot Measure Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General To protect No ruling Restrictive Protective Protective Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, has blocked the Republican-controlled Legislatures efforts to restrict abortion. Her re-election effort and several races in the State House and State Senate are some of the most competitive in the country. A pending ballot measure would enshrine abortion rights with a constitutional amendment. To protect abortion pass hold Flip hold hold Ballot Measure Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Passing the ballot measure is critical for abortion rights advocates, who also see opportunities to overturn Republican control of the Legislature by flipping three seats in the House or four in the Senate. To restrict abortion reject Flip hold Flip Flip Ballot Measure Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Abortion opponents are seeking to defeat the ballot measure and flip the Democratic-majority court, as well as the offices of governor and attorney general.

North Carolina

Current status Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General No ruling Restrictive Protective Protective Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, has been a firewall against Republican efforts in the General Assembly to restrict abortion. The governor is not up for election this cycle, but Republicans would need to pick up just a few legislative seats to win a veto-proof majority. The State Supreme Court could lose its Democratic majority with the flip of a single seat. To protect abortion hold Flip No election No election Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Abortion rights advocates are rallying voters to maintain the Democratic majority on the court and to keep Democratic seats in the General Assembly to prevent a veto-proof majority for Republicans. To restrict abortion Flip hold No election No election Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Opponents of abortion see an opportunity to flip the courts Democratic majority and to give Republican legislators the power to override a governors veto by winning three seats in the House and two seats in the Senate.

Pennsylvania

Current status Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General No ruling Restrictive Protective Protective The states Democratic governor, Tom Wolf, has vetoed abortion restrictions proposed by the General Assembly, but he is not running again. The governors race is competitive, and a win for the Republican candidate, Doug Mastriano, would most likely lead to bans from a Legislature that is likely to keep its Republican majority. To protect abortion No election Flip hold No election Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Supporters of abortion rights are backing Josh Shapiro, a Democratic candidate for governor who would be a firewall against restrictions. Advocates also see a chance to flip a chamber in the General Assembly for Democrats, though voters would need to overturn five Republican seats in the Senate and 12 in the House. To restrict abortion No election hold Flip No election Supreme Court State Legislature Governor Attorney General Abortion opponents are rallying voters to strengthen the Republican majority in the General Assembly and elect the Republican candidate for governor.

Wisconsin
Christian Weyand

Brunswick Group names Christian Weyand managing partner, Germany, a newly created position. Weyand has been head of Brunswicks Frankfurt office since 2002. He has advised clients on major M&A and capital market transactions, restructuring, crisis and change management, and positioning and reputation campaigns targeting multiple stakeholders. In his new position, Weyand will work closely with European managing partner Paul Scott, and colleagues across the Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich offices to foster greater connectivity among those teams and with the rest of the firm. Christian is well-placed to take Germany to the next level. He has been instrumental to the growth of the region as Head of the Frankfurt Office and is an exceptional client advisor, said Brunswick Group CEO Neal Wolin. Sabine Morgenthal will succeed Weyand as head of the firms Frankfurt Office. Morgenthal leads the firms financial institutions group in Germany

George Felix

Chilis Grill & Bar hires Tinder CMO George Felix to serve as its marketing leader. Before joining Tinder, Felix was CMO for Pizza Hut US and director of marketing for KFC Global. He has also been a global brand manager at Procter & Gamble. At Chilis, Felix will be tasked with providing overall vision, leadership, strategy and execution of all marketing programs and initiatives. "George has a track record of driving sales quickly and rebuilding big brands over time," said Kevin Hochman, president and CEO of Brinker International, which owns Chilis. "He is also a servant leader with a focus on growing people  which makes him a perfect fit for our Chili's culture.

Melanie Lombardi

Global cybersecurity firm Mandiant promotes Melanie Lombardi to VP of communications. Lombardi joined the company last year as senior director, corporate communications. She manages the company's global external communications programs and corporate thought leadership. Before coming to Mandiant she led corporate communications at computer and network security company FireEye. She was previously a partner at TEAMLEWIS and an account executive at Porter Novelli. In her new role, Lombardi will continue to manage the company's global communications efforts in key regions: North America, the Middle East & Europe, and Asia-Pacific Japan.
The fifth National Inpatient Experience Survey is now underway in Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore.

This annual survey  the largest of its kind in Ireland  offers patients the opportunity to share their experiences of healthcare and tell us what is working well and what improvements they believe are necessary. This provides a clear picture of the safety and quality of care in Irish hospitals, as seen through the eyes of patients.

Almost 26,000 patients are eligible to participate in this years survey. Since 2017, over 50,100 patients have completed the survey nationally, making over 86,000 comments on the care and treatment they received in hospital. Last years response rate of 41% from patients who attended Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore indicates the strong desire of patients to talk about their experiences in hospital in order to bring about meaningful change.

The National Inpatient Experience Survey contains a total of 67 questions on topics such as admission to hospital, care and treatment on the ward, trust in hospital staff, respect and dignity, and care during the pandemic. All patients aged over 16 years-of-age who spent 24 hours or more in hospital and were discharged during the month of May are eligible to participate in the survey.

HIQAs Director of Health Information and Standards Rachel Flynn said: I would like to encourage all eligible patients to tell us about their recent experiences of care in Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore. By sharing your views, you will provide us with invaluable information on the improvements that are necessary to deliver a more person-centred health service in your area. It is by listening and learning from your experiences that we can bring about effective and sustainable changes across the healthcare sector.

General Manager of the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore (MRHT), Catriona McDonald said: The staff of MRHT are constantly working to improve patient experience through listening, responding and improving. This survey for 2022 will provide us with a clear insight into what we are doing well and where we need to introduce new practices and measures to improve things. I am urging all patients who receive a form to complete it, so we can continue to deliver an excellent standard of care.

To find out more visit the website yourexperience.ie and follow on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Young country music star Alex Roe will be among the special guests joining the legendary Margo on her forthcoming Tullamore visit. Margo, known affectionately as 'the Queen of Country and Irish', brings her 70th Birthday Celebration Concert Tour to the Tullamore Court Hotel on July 20, with Trudi Lalor, Mick Foster,and Moyra Fraser also set to perform on the night.

Although still only in his early twenties, Roe's star has already been on the ascendancy in the Irish country music scene for some years, with a couple of Hot Country Award wins to his name, a brilliant run to the final of TG4's long-running show Glor Tire, and even a recent feature in RSVP Country, the new magazine edited by his former Glor Tire mentor, Trudi Lalor.

But even with all of that experience already in the bank career-wise, the Clara man admits to being humbled and excited at the prospect of being part of Margo's big night in Tullamore.

"Listen, for me, the chance to be on one of Margo's shows, and for it to be in Tullamore - which is kinda like a home-town gig for me being so close to Clara - that's something I'm so grateful for. To be honest, it's right up there on that list of career moments that make you feel like your dreams are coming true, and your hard work is paying off. Thinking back to my first single, that was a moment like that. Doing Glor Tire with Trudi was another. Recording one of Billy Morrissey's songs, that was one too. Picking up a Hot Country Award as well. And to be one of Margo's guests for a night that's as big as this for her, it's an honour for me."

When Roe appeared on Glor Tire in 2020, judge Caitriona O' Sullivan remarked that his early performances showed him to be "a king of the stage. Meanwhile, his mentor, Trudi Lalor, described Alex as someone who, "...is a star already, and will be an even bigger one in years to come."

Trudi's prediction of two years ago certainly seems to be on course to come true, with Roe collecting his second Hot Country TV Award earlier this year, adding the trophy for Rising Male Country Music Artist of the Year to his Larry Cunningham Music Inspiration Award which became an addition to the family mantlepiece back in 2019.

With a new single in the works, and some big announcements to come before the year's end, fans can soon look forward to hearing new music from the man who took the unique step of releasing three original songs right at the very beginning of his country career. This completely bucked the trend of new artists taking the much safer option of covering a well-known classic or recent smash. His fourth single, his first cover, was In The Middle, a hit by American country artist Rodney Atkins, but a song that had never been released in Ireland. That followed his 2017 debut single All I Need Is You (written by Chris Kavanagh), and We'll Walk Hand In Hand and Summer Time (both written by Jim Roberts).

Since then, Roe has released songs like From Time To Time (written by Nashville songwriting great Max T. Barnes with another Music City songsmith Kendall Marvel), No-One Will Ever Love You (Like I Do) (from the pen of renowned Irish songwriter Billy Morrissey), Where The Boat Leaves From, and I Loved Her First, all achieving chart success on iTunes and - more importantly - gaining significant airplay on top of that.

Asked about the influence Margo has had on him, Roe pinpointed her authenticity as being a trait that has always stood out for him...

"Whenever I see Margo interviewed on television, I believe every word she says. And that's because her personality is so real, you just know she's being sincere, and that she wouldn't be able to be anything else. I have so much respect for her for that reason. And she brings that same honesty to her performances, too. When she sings, you believe every word of the song as if Margo was telling you a story from her own life. That's not easy to do. Many try, and many fail! But never Margo. The girl from Donegal is one of a kind."

~ Alex will be one of Margo's special guests at her 70th Birthday Celebration Concert Tour at the Tullamore Court Hotel on July 20th. Tickets are available now from hotel reception and/or by calling 05793-46666.
Progressive Offaly farm Ken Gill farms full time on his own in Clonbullogue.

A few years back he change over to a limited company status and now trades as Ballydermot Organic Farm Ltd.

A full symbol organic producer, Ken operates a suckler to beef system with 70 Autumn calving suckler cows. All progeny are brought to beef with the aim to slaughter at 24 months. 100% A.I. is used to avail of the best genetics available.

Being organic means that crop rotation is vital to ensure the continued health of the soil and to aid weed suppression in new swards. Oats are grown for sale into the organic breakfast market. Red clover for quality silage and Winter fodder crops are also sown in certain areas of the farm. The farm is 95 hectares in one large block all of which is owned. Soil type on the farm is grey brown podzolic and soil texture is silty clay loam. Ken's farm has a stocking rate of 133 Kgs/Ha.

Grass measuring took place as part of the Better Beef programme. A number of additional paddocks were added at this time also. This has improved both the quantity and quality of the forage available, especially for the weanlings/stores.

Ken's farm has a mix of older buildings and some recently converted housing, ample slurry and FYM storage.

There is currently 22 Ha of forestry on his farm. 12.5 Ha of semi-natural woodland that was under planted with oak, 4.85 Ha of oak planted in 1998, 3.3 Ha under the Native Woodland Scheme and some native woodland under the ESB power lines. There is also 4.8 Ha of short rotation coppice willow used to supply the nearby power station.

Breeding Performance

No. of cows: 70

Cow replacement index: 108

Heifer replacement index: 113

Calves per cow per year: 1.03

Ken's Plan

The plans for the future are: to continue to improve the quality of the cows using 100% AI; to improve the grass swards by both reseeding as part of the rotation and by using an Einbock grass harrow to stitch in grass/clover mixtures on the old pastures. The only change to the current system may be a slight reduction in cow numbers and some additional tillage.

Signpost Programme

Ken is one of two drystock organic farmers in the country who are part of the Future Beef initiative within the wider Signpost Programme and as such various reports including regular updates on his farming business is available to be viewed by the public via the Teagasc website.

Kens farm was the location for the recent farmer launch of the Future Beef Programme. The programme was officially launched by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue last December on Oliver OHaras farm in Co. Leitrim, but due to Covid restrictions the farmers and their advisors were unable to attend.

Farmers in the programme travelled from all around the country to learn more about Kens system with insights from Organic specialist Elaine Leavy and Nicky Byrne from Teagasc Grange among others.

The two main focus areas for the day on Kens farm were his production system and the red clover silage that he is producing on farm.
A leading figure behind an organised crime gang based in the Midlands, who is currently serving a three and a half year jail term for 'making shreds' of another man in a vicious feud related stabbing, has been convicted of handling stolen property following a high profile Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) raid two years ago.

Denis Hannifin (42), of Curry, Athlone Road, Longford, was brought before a sitting of Longford District Court on Tuesday charged with the possession of a stolen Cosmos Lunar caravan at Curry, Athlone Road, Longford on July 6, 2020.

That came after a huge CAB led operation backed up by local gardai in July 2020, led to cash totalling over 100,000, 11 vehicles, three caravans and designer watches, handbags and clothing being seized as part of a major search operation.

The operation, which had been planned for weeks, saw 12 properties being searched, one of which included Hannfins home address at Curry, Athlone Road, Longford.

Hannifin, who sat impassively in the custody suite throughout the hearing, pleaded guilty to the incident as Detective Sergeant Kenneth Holahan gave evidence of how CAB officers carried out a search of Hannifins home on the date in question before later arresting and charging the father of six under section 18 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001.

It was also revealed the incident occurred while Hannifin was on bail.

Defence counsel Andrea Callan BL, said her client had collected the stolen caravan from a ferry a week after it had been stolen in the UK.

She said the accused was instructed by his brother in law to take charge of the mobile home before selling it on as part payment for what he believed was a bona fide transaction.

Ms Callan said the Longford man had been cooperative with the ensuing CAB investigation which followed, insisting there was no mal-intent on her clients part to profit from the incident.

Judge Bernadette Owens said given the caravans very substantial value and given how Hannifin was on bail at the time, there was an even greater onus on the accused to ensure all necessary checks were carried out.

She consequently sentenced him to two months in prison, directing the term to run concurrently to the prison sentence Hannifin is currently serving.

Hannifin,who is not due for release until November 2024, was sentenced to a total of 52 months in jail in May, with eight suspended after causing serious injury to his second cousin Denis McGinley in December 2018.

Hannafin was convicted by a jury of assault, affray as well as possession and production of a knife at Longford Shopping Centre following a week long trial in February.
THE Taoiseach has agreed in the Dail last week to a request by Deputy Michael Lowry to visit Roscrea to meet with members of the local Action Group who have been staging a long-running battle to maintain long-stay beds at the Dean Maxwell Community Nursing in Roscrea.

The Tipperary Deputy has requested that this visit take place in the immediate future and will also be attended by Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD and Minister for Older People, Mary Butler TD.

The announcement by Deputy Lowry has been warmly welcomed by Roscrea Community Development Council (RCDC), who have been campaigning vigorously for the full retention of the Dean Maxwell Home in Roscrea.

During Leaders Question in the Dail on Wednesday, Deputy Lowry said he will not give up on the fight to maintain long-stay care for the elderly people of Roscrea. The people of Roscrea deserve the security and comfort of knowing that their own and their family members lives can be lived out in their own town. This has been the case for generations. We have one last opportunity to redeem the future of Dean Maxwell. It can only be saved through political intervention and direction, stated Deputy Lowry.

Taoiseach, I am requesting your personal intervention to remedy this injustice. I suggest that you Taoiseach, Minister Donnelly and Minister Butler would meet with representatives of the local Action Group. At that meeting the local Committee will outline the footprint of an alternative viable proposal to protect and enhance services and supports for the elderly population of Roscrea.

We have been through all the glib explanations and excuses. The truth is that the 25 long-stay beds were covertly transferred from Roscrea to justify the building of a new 50 bed Nursing Home unit in Nenagh. The elderly patients from Roscrea were just used to make up numbers. The human cost was irrelevant.

The HSE has never engaged in a transparent fashion. Queries were met with evasive responses. The HSE stonewalled approaches for information and refused point blank to admit the true position. The HSE has been implementing a policy of closure by stealth. They had neither the courage nor honesty to admit it.

As I speak, a group of elderly people are worried and anxious about what the future holds for them. Older men and women are being reduced to tears of despair at the thought that the place they call home will be snatched away from them. They are troubled and unsettled at the idea of being moved to a different town. To a place that is some 20 miles away from family and friends. To a place that will end their lifelong connection with their home town. The voices of these people have remained unheard since all this began. They have no desire to move to a Unit in Nenagh. They seem to be irrelevant to the HSE.

Loyal and committed staff have been kept in the dark. The HR Department have convened a meeting of staff for next Wednesday presumably to advise them on their options on redeployment.

The voices of those who have spoken out for Dean Maxwell and petitioned their case, feel ignored and abandoned. They are now ready to take to the streets in protest and solidarity with the patients and staff of Dean Maxwell. Government and the HSE will see the true community spirit and fierce loyalty that Roscrea is renowned for. The people of Roscrea are united in defiance, Deputy Lowry told the Taoiseach.

The Taoiseach acknowledged that Deputy Lowry has been consistently raising this issue and also that he is aware of the depth of feeling amongst the people of Roscrea. He said that the Dean Maxwell does serve the community very well, its in the centre of the town which facilitates people to visit those who live in the facility and this is important to residents. I know that Minister Butler has put a lot of work into this and we will engage with the HSE as well to get a workable solution.

Deputy Lowry emphasised that time is of the essence. I accept that Minister Butler has been working on this. What is on offer in the latest proposal is very welcome, but it stops short of what we want. The nub of the issue is that we want to retain a complement of long-stay community Nursing Home beds. If that was added to the additional plan we could move forward, he said.

The Chairman of Roscrea Community Development Council (RCDC), John Lupton, has welcomed with gratitude, the fact that Deputy Lowry has again brought the matter of the Dean Maxwell to the floor of Dail Eireann and requested that the Taoiseach together with the Ministers for Health and Older People meet with a delegation of those lobbying for the Dean Maxwell in Roscrea to include the continuation of the long term stay facility. The Taoiseach acceded to Mr Lowrys request, acknowledging also Mr Lowrys work on behalf of the long term stay facility at Roscreas Dean Maxwell Home.

I, my fellow members of RCDC, and, I know, the Dean Maxwell Action Group, are very pleased and also grateful to the Taoiseach for agreeing to meet with our delegation, said Mr Lupton. Michael Lowry in his presentation to the Dail today welcomed facilities proposed by Minister for Older People, Mary Butler, for Roscrea, but explained that there must be included a provision for those requiring long term stay. This very principle is the kernel of what we in RCDC seek, and we know, the people of Roscrea seek.

Roscrea people have a right to live out their twilight years in their own place of belonging. With the facilities of the Dean Maxwell Home that basic principle was upheld in Roscrea, for its people, but without the long term stay facilities of the Dean Maxwell Home being secured, the people of Roscrea, of our generation, and of all future generations, will be denied that basic principle of human rights and justice, expected of a developed society, which we claim to be, Mr Lupton added.
LOBAMBA  Ndzingeni Member of Parliament Lutfo Dlamini has asked whether the new owner of the Ezulwini hotels will pay the retrenched employees whose monies were still owed.

It was during the debate of the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs first quarter performance report, when the legislator raised the issue of the new owner. MP Dlamini submitted that regardless of the fact that they were underpaid, these hotels which were now sold had previously employed emaSwati. He mentioned that since they were retrenched, no one tackled the matter. Instead, he said they were looking for more culprits, because everyone who had run the hotels had never been successful with employees.



Dlamini said it was discovered that 90 per cent were casuals yet the ministry claimed to be promoting the hotel industry. Now I need to know; what is happening and who knows? The selling and buying of the hotel cannot be an executive issue; who is buying the hotel, and at how much? he asked.

The MP wondered how one could buy a hotel which had become a sore sight and was abandoned.

Why was the hotel not advertised, did you hear that emaSwati could not afford it? We only see buyers and wonder who they are. We need to know, Dlamini reiterated.

Further, he questioned if the Ministry of Labour and Social Security quantified how much was owed to the employees who were retrenched, so that the buyer could start paying. He said this would ensure that employees went to work motivated.

Quality

Meanwhile, he also made mention that the investor was not important if he could not take care of emaSwati. He expressed that the country needed quality jobs for its people. The MP stated that there were universities such as the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, which produced graduate chefs but were treated as casuals.

While the MP did not name the hotels, the three hotels under Sun International have been sold to an international company.

Meanwhile, he asked how much was spent on the Dubai Expo and if the money was budgeted for. He asked how many went there and where the money to attend was received from.

In response, Minister Moses Vilakati said the Ezulwini Hotel was a private hotel. He said the ministry was often briefed on developments. Vilakati stated that it had once revealed that there were issues with liquidators. The minister highlighted that reports proved that there was progress. However, he declared that the ministry was not certain about the background of the bidders.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were met with protestors when they arrived at the U.N. in NYC on July 18.
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Rishi Sunak, a British politician, is narrowly leading the race to succeed Boris Johnson, who resigned amid controversies that forced many in his government to resign. The other two remaining candidates are Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
Washington DC (UPI) Jul 19, 2021



The threat of extinction to all species on Earth may be much higher than previously thought, a new study suggests, after a biodiversity survey found that about 30% of species have been globally threatened or driven to extinction since the year 1500. An international team of researchers surveyed a "large and diverse group" of biodiversity experts from around the world "who collectively s
MATSAPHA - Photocopiers worth about E6 million were damaged during the supposed arson attack at UNESWA.

This was revealed by the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Justice Thwala yesterday when the Prime Minister (PM) Cleopas Dlamini toured the damages at the rooms and offices that were affected during the fire incident which took place on Monday morning at the institution of higher learning. Dr Thwala said there were five photocopiers inside the strong room which was affected and each of them were worth about E1.2 million. It is worth noting that other things that were damaged included computers, office furniture and walls, which would need to be repainted, among other things. The vice chancellor said they were still trying to compute the total damages.

Examination

He said the examination papers which were kept in part of the strong room which was extensively burnt, were not affected because the metal doors prevented the flames from getting inside. Meanwhile, after touring the damaged rooms and offices, the PM said the fire almost wiped out one of the buildings which were in the history books of the country. He said he was among the first students to enrol at the university as when they were admitted, the contractor was still on site, constructing it.

Graduating

He said the university did not belong to government or current students, but was for all emaSwati as the scholars who were enrolled at the institution, would leave it after graduating. In that regard, he said; emaSwati, including tertiary students should stop being selfish. He said some people might feel like they do not need the institution because they had completed or were completing and decide to burn it down. He said this was not good because more emaSwati would need it. Again, to students, the premier said they should not be misled that they could wear graduation gowns and hoods without sitting for an examination. He said they should know that in education, there was no short cut. He said even if the examination papers were burnt during the fire incident, the examination would not have been cancelled, but postponed while other examination scripts were being printed. If you do not sit for the examination, no one will consider hiring you because the value of the degrees you attain will be affected, the PM said.

Warned

He warned students to differentiate things which were part time and full time. He said they should know that learning was full-time, not part-time, like toyi-toying. He warned them against prioritising toyi-toying over learning. He said even if there were those who did not want to learn, they should not disturb their colleagues who put education first. On top of that, he said students who would keep on failing would end up losing their scholarship as government did not have enough money. In fact, he said there were many students who needed government support for their studies. He said since they had seen the damage, government would try to fix it and also provide security for those who wanted to learn. He urged the students to take good care of the institution so that it could benefit the next generations.Stop vandalising the property. If you have grievances, raise them through proper channels as there are structures for that, the PM said. On another note, the cause of the fire was still being investigated by the police, but the PM mentioned that if it was indeed set alight by people, the long hand of the arm would catch them.
London (AFP) July 19, 2022



A punishing heatwave fuelling ferocious wildfires in western Europe pushed temperatures in Britain over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time on Tuesday and regional heat records tumbled elsewhere. Grassland fires erupted on the edge of London, with one forcing the evacuation of 14 people as farm buildings, houses and garages were consumed by the flames. "I was s
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Net fund inflows during the year reached $2,152 billion (US$277 billion), up 6% from 2020. The AUM of the asset management and fund advisory business conducted by licensed corporations and registered institutions increased 8% to $25,888 billion (US$3,320 billion).

"The survey findings underscore the core strengths of the asset and wealth management industry in the fast-changing, challenging environment," said Ms Christina Choi, the SFC's Executive Director of Investment Products. "The SFC will continue to support the development of Hong Kong as a premier global asset and wealth management centre and preferred fund domicile."

Other highlights of the survey include:

- Assets held under trusts increased 5% to $4,719 billion (US$605 billion).

- The AUM of the private banking and private wealth management business decreased 6% to $10,583 billion (US$1,357 billion). Respondents reported that the decrease was mainly due to changes in the values of underlying investments held by clients.

- Non-Hong Kong investors remained a major source of funding for the asset and wealth management business, accounting for 65% of AUM.

- The total number of staff in the asset and wealth management business increased 12% to 54,003.

Press release Bg

Survey here:

Article source - Opalesque is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
MBABANE  There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel in the recruitment exercises of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) and His Majestys Correctional Services (HMCS) after a long wait.

Yesterday, the police announced that it would be conducting aptitude tests related to the ongoing police recruitment and selection exercise.

The aptitude test writing would be held in the four regions of the country on Saturday. The police service announced the venues where the exercise would be held and it shall commence at 8:30am in all the venues. In the Hhohho Region, the tests will be held at the Hhohho Police Regional Headquarters while in the Manzini Region it will be held at the Manzini Regional Headquarters.

Exercise

In the Lubombo and Shiselweni Regions, the exercise will be held in the regional headquarters respectively. The police service advised applicants to bring their National Identity Cards (ID) along with a pencil-led strictly HB type, rubber or eraser and a blue pen. It is worth noting that cellphones and calculators will strictly not be allowed inside the writing centres. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed the announcement, stating that the applicants invited to the aptitude tests were all those who applied or registered during the application phase of the recruitment.

The application phase started in October 21, 2021 where aspiring police officers submitted their applications to their nearest police headquarters.

Meanwhile, HMCS announced that it would be conducting interviews on Saturday as well. According to the announcement issued by the Correctional Services, applicants who submitted their applications at the HMCS Headquarters and Sidwashini Correctional Centre will have their interviews at St Marks High School. Those who submitted their applications at the Piggs Peak Correctional and Bhalekane Correctional Centres will have their interviews at Mhlatane High School. Those who applied at Matsapha, Manzini Remand Centre, Mankayane, Staff College, Malkerns, Mawelawela, Vulamasango and Criminal Health Centre will write their interviews at Matsapha Correctional Staff College.

Submitted

It was further stated that those who submitted their applications at Nhlangano Correctional Centre will have their interviews at Nhlangano Central High School. Those who forwarded their applications at Big Bend Correctional Centre will have their interviews at Lubombo Central High School.

HMCS Public Relations Officer Senior Superintendent Gugulethu Dlamini advised all applicants to bring their IDs, the coupons which they were given on submission of their applications as well as a pen. She further advised them that cellphones will not be allowed in the interview rooms.

All applicants are expected to be settled by 8am in readiness for interviews and must adhere to COVID-19 regulations, said Dlamini. On June 6, 2022, the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF) started its recruitment exercise as well and it ended last week. In all the three security forces recruitment exercises, hundreds of emaSwati youth participated in their bid to secure jobs. The number of young people who showed up during the recruitment/application exercises further revealed the high unemployment levels in the country more especially on the youth. According to the latest Eswatini National Skills Audit, the national unemployment rate stands at 33.3 per cent while youth unemployment is at 58.3 per cent.
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CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  A five-year government report found Australia's environment continues to deteriorate due to climate change, resource extraction and other causes, prompting leaders on Tuesday to promise new laws and enforcement of them.

The State of the Environment report also adds political pressure on the government to set a more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target when Parliament resumes next week for the first time since May 21 elections.

The previous conservative government received the report in December but decided against making it public before the elections.

The center-left Labor Party won on pledges including greater action on climate change.

It wants a target to reduce emissions by 43% below 2005 by the end of the decade enshrined in law when Parliament sits on July 26.

Several unaligned lawmakers want a more ambitious target. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the report sent a very strong message that we need to do better, but she rejected calls for deeper emission cuts.

On the 43% target, we made a promise to the Australian people. Were going to keep the promise we made to the Australian people, Plibersek told the National Press Club.

She said she would introduce new environmental protection laws to Parliament next year and the government would create an agency to enforce them.

The government will also set a target of having 30% of Australias land and surrounding sea declared protected areas. It wants to create an east Antarctic marine park.

I am optimistic about the steps that we can take over the next three years. Legislating strong action on climate change is a great start, Plibersek said.

The wide-ranging report found the number of Australian species listed as threatened had increased by 8% since the 2016 report.

That number will increase substantially after wildfires in 2019 and 2020 destroyed vast tracts of southeast Australian forests, the report said.

Kelly OShanassy, chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, an environmental organization, said land clearing was the major cause of habitat loss.

Theres nothing in this report we dont know. This is the fourth State of the Environment Report and every time its told us that the environment is getting worse and worse and worse because were not taking the type of action we need, OShanassy told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

She welcomed the governments commitment to law reform.

Thats what we need to do pretty quickly, otherwise these endangered species will go extinct and theyll do that in our lifetimes, O'Shanassy said.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  When fugitive 1980s Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested in Mexico last week, it stirred up old, terrible memories for Lannie Walker, the daughter of American writer John Clay Walker.

While Caro Quintero was only ever sentenced in Mexico for the killing of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Kiki Camarena and Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar in 1985, his gang apparently killed as many as six U.S. citizens in the western city of Guadalajara around the same time.

John Clay Walker, then 36 and a writer who had moved to Guadalajara to finish a book, was one of them.

We were both very glad to hear that (Caro Quintero) had been captured, and it also brought back a lot of trauma for us, said Lannie Walker. My sister and I have lost almost 40 years with our father, there is nothing that can make up for that.

The U.S. writer and his friend Alberto Radelat, a dental student from Fort Worth, Texas, had walked into The Lobster, a high-end Guadalajara seafood restaurant, to celebrate Walkers planned return to the United States.

They did not know that Caro Quintero and his companions were holding a private party in a back room of the restaurant.

Our father was an American citizen with no involvement in the Mexico-United States drug war, he was an innocent bystander that unwittingly became caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous drug cartel, said Lannie Walker. They began questioning my father and Al, asking them what they knew about the drug enforcement agents in Mexico, what they knew about the investigation. My father knew nothing, he was an innocent writer. They tortured him with an icepick for hours.

Mike Vigil, the DEAs former chief of international operations, said Caro Quintero was one of those individuals that because he now had power, he had wealth, he crossed the line many times in terms of the people that he killed."

Describing what occurred at the restaurant, Vigil said they looked out and they saw the two Americans and they immediately through their paranoia as well thought that they were DEA agents. They took him into the back and stabbed to death.

The bodies of Radelat and Walker were found wrapped in carpet in June 1985, nearly five months after they disappeared.

In December 1984, two young American couples were walking door to door in Guadalajara, trying to spread their faith as Jehovahs Witnesses. The four were abducted and never seen again.

Two state police officials later said that they helped kidnap and kill the couples on the order of Caro Quintero and fellow capo Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo. They apparently inadvertently knocked on Fonseca Carrillos door as they proselytized.

Vigil, who was in Mexico and worked on Camarena's case at the time, explained why the investigation focused on the killing of the DEA agent.

I think that the DEA concentrated on the Kiki Camarena case and then the drug trafficking charges. I dont think that the DEA, it was not that they werent interested in the other murders, but, you know, that probably would have fallen into the jurisdiction of maybe another agency, Vigil said.

One of the things that we were really focused on was bringing these individuals to justice simply because the DEA is committed that if one of the agents is murdered, we will hunt these people down to the end of the earth and not spare any expenditure, any resources or any activity that we have to do to get the job done, he said.

Lannie Walker says that if Caro Quintero is extradited to the U.S. and is convicted and punished here, that would be a small amount of justice."

They likely will not come quickly. Caro Quintero's lawyers filed measures with the court - and the judge agreed - that would ensure he goes through the full extradition process and will have the possibility of the corresponding appeals if necessary. Extradition for former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin El Chapo Guzman took a year.

We do have hope," she said. "But we are very aware of how the Mexican government and the Mexican judicial system has worked, you know, as far as our fathers case is concerned up until now. So we do have hope but we are nervous that what happened in 2013 could happen again.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Lannie Walker said her father was tortured for hours.
MBABANE - With the increase in the killing of police officers, officers from Lobamba Police Station on Monday afternoon reportedly declined to go and attend to an incident at the homestead of Senator Mkhululi Dlamini in fear of their lives.

According to an insider, the senator went to the police station in the afternoon on Monday to report a burglary and attempted arson at his place. This was after he had received a message from his mother while he was in Parliament, that there were people who had broken into his house and were also attempting to burn the homestead which is situated at Hhukwini. In Parliament, the senator was making submissions on the killing of State security agents.

Confirmed

In an interview yesterday, the senator confirmed to have visited the police station only to be told by the law enforcers that he should return the following day since they would not be able to attend to the incident on Monday as it was late. This was in the evening. Dlamini said the officers he found at the police station told him that they would not be able to go to his homestead to attend to the matter as it was already late and that they feared that they might be shot in the event they went there. He said the police told him that, Sekuhlwile, besaba kutsi batabadubula nabehla baya lekhaya. The senator said the law enforcers then told him to return to the police station the following day.

It was reported that the police then called someone they knew in the area to look into the matter. Dlamini went on to refute the reports that his homestead at Hhukwini was burnt. Instead, he said there was an attempt to burn it by some burglars. The politician narrated that he was in Parliament going about his duties when he received a message from his mother that there were people who were attempting to burn their homestead.

I was going to the toilet when I saw the message sent by my mother. I then went to the police station to report the matter. It is not true that I left Parliament in a rush after having been told that my homestead has been burnt, he said.

Invaded

Dlamini said the people who invaded his homestead were six and they stole, among other things a microwave and other household items. He said after having committed the offence the burglars attempted to burn the homestead, possibly to conceal evidence but their attempts were unsuccessful as only firewood within the homestead was burnt. He said one of the intruders was caught by community members who then assaulted him but he stopped them. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that the senator reported a case at the Lobamba Police Station on Monday. Vilakati said the police officer who attended the senator communicated with some people at Hhukwini leading to the apprehension of one of the suspects, through community policing, after the others escaped. She said there was collaboration between the community and the police. We attend to the scenes at night where possible, we also consider the security measures, said Vilakati.

Answers

The incident happened at a time when Senator Dlamini (Mkhululi) and other senators demanded answers on what action government was taking to condemn the killing of security agents and restore order in the country. It was before Senate proceedings on tabling of reports and Bills began when Senator Dlamini raised a point of urgency, stating that there was a predicament that befell emaSwati, affecting the very core of livelihoods. I would like to hear; without compromising issues of national security, what is government doing to condemn the killing of security forces members? he queried.

Dlamini further asked government what it was doing to ensure that order was restored. He went on to ask what assistance and assurance government was providing to ensure that those who were affected while on duty continued to go to work. Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Themba Masuku said what was happening was a culture of violence and atrocity. This is an unfortunate culture of extreme violence. Nothing can exceed what is happening. We are talking about attempts and killings of security forces, he submitted.

Killings

The DPM added that it was becoming a norm to read in newspapers about the killing of men, women, and children alike. He said it was a bad spirit. Senator Prince Hlangabeza asked when the premier would organise a caucus for politicians to come up with strategies to deal with the violence. He asked to what extent and whose death would make them realise that this was a serious issue that required parliamentarians to caucus. Senator Isaac Magagula was of the assertion that there was a group of people who were hellbent on lunging the country into an abyss. Despite being told that the environment was not conducive for dialogue, Magagula said they continued with attacks unabated.He asked what plans were there to capacitate intelligence structures to ensure that they were ahead of these people, who he referred to as bobhabuli.

Senator Ngalonkhulu Mabuza said he was tempted to believe that the culprits were not emaSwati. He also mentioned that at this rate, no one was safe from the violent attacks. He said it was disheartening that the security agents who had died left behind small children. He emphasised that something ought to be done. Meanwhile, government said it believed that the firearms used in the killings came from outside the country. It is also believed that they come from a liSwati who resides in neighbouring South Africa.

Disclosed

Prime Minister (PM), Cleopas Dlamini disclosed this to senators after he was asked where the increasing number of weapons used in killing emaSwati, including security forces, came from. It was Senator Chief Zabeni Shiba who raised a concern on the rise in the use of firearms in the country. The senator mentioned that as an authority in his area, he was bestowed with the responsibility to grant constituents permits to own gun licences. He asked the PM if it were the people in the areas who they granted permits to, who were contributing to the abuse of weapons in the country, leading to the loss of lives.

Tell us, honourable prime minister, if it is these people so that we stop granting them the licences, he submitted. In response, the premier said: Some of the guns came from outside the country. There is reason and information to that effect. We know how they were taken inside the country; from who; and how. This is available information but the names will not be revealed. Nonetheless, there are others whose names will be revealed and they are wanted. It is only a matter of time that they are told that they are thugs.

Security

Meanwhile, the PM stated that the kingdom was governed through a Constitution. He pointed out that if he had all the answers then he would be lying.

Nonetheless, the premier noted that this issue raised had security aspects and, therefore, he could not divulge in a public forum, how security forces were capacitated in things such as dogs. He said this could only be revealed in a caucus. On strategies that government had to capacitate intelligence, the PM stated that he could not outrightly state but he was aware something was being done. He said although nothing seemed to have been done, he assured the senators that something was being done.

Dialogue

The premier added that dialogue could not be forced by violence. Instead, he said it was negotiated. The PM also highlighted that they were not certain even if when the dialogue was organised under the current situation, if those in attendance would be those who were terrorising and killing people. Even then, he said it was unknown what the people would say, as statements would be recorded and they would be victimised and terrorised for their differing points of view. Unless we call the culprits, there is nothing that the nation can say, he told the senators.
UVALDE, Texas (AP)  Teachers and students at Robb Elementary School knew the safety protocols when an 18-year-old with an AR-15 style rifle entered the building in May. Dozens of times in the previous four months alone, the campus had gone into lockdown or issued security alerts.

Not because of active shooter scares  because of nearby, often high-speed pursuits of migrants coming from the U.S.-Mexico border.

An entire generation of students in America has grown up simulating lockdowns for active shooters, or worse, experiencing the real thing. But in South Texas, another unique kind of classroom lockdown occurs along the state's 1,200-mile southern border: hunkering down because Border Patrol agents or state police are chasing migrants who are trying to evade apprehension.

The frequency of lockdowns and security alerts in Uvalde  nearly 50 between February and May alone, according to school officials  are now viewed by investigators as one of the tragic contributors to how a gunman was able to walk into a fourth-grade classroom unobstructed and slaughter 19 children and two teachers. Although a slow and bungled police response remains the main failure, a damning new report by the Texas House says recurring lockdowns in Uvalde created a diminished sense of vigilance."

With a new school year now just weeks away in heavily patrolled South Texas, there are worries the lockdowns will resume and deepen the trauma for scarred students in Uvalde, as migrant crossings remain high and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott continues expanding a massive border security operation.

Thats what it probably was, just complacency, because it does happen on a frequent basis," said Uvalde County Justice of the Peace Eulalio Lalo Diaz Jr., who had to identify the bodies of the dead at Robb Elementary.

The new findings that a culture of lockdowns in Uvalde played some role in the failures on May 24 reflects how one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history intersected with immigration policies and thousands of Border Patrol agents, National Guard members and state police assigned to apprehend migrants and stop drug traffickers. Of the nearly 400 law enforcement officers at the scene of Robb Elementary, more than half were Border Patrol agents or state police, according to the report.

On Tuesday, over the span of just 20 minutes, eight state police vehicles and Border Patrol SUVs cruised through Uvaldes central square, less than a mile from Robb Elementary.

Uvalde is about an hour's drive from the border with Mexico, located at the crossroads of two major state highways. Nearby are the cities of Pearsall, Dilley and Karnes  all of which have immigration detention centers with some of the nations highest populations. More than 4,500 detainees in total were at the three facilities as of June 2022, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Jazmin Cazares, whose 9-year-old sister Jacklyn was among the students killed, told Texas lawmakers in June that no one in the school district took lockdowns seriously until that day." She said she is now terrified to return for her senior year in the fall.

Am I going to survive it? Unbelievable, Cazares said.

Even the first officers on scene at Robb Elementary wondered whether the threat was a so-called bailout"  the term used by law enforcement along the border to describe suspected migrants or drug traffickers who have fled. Pete Arrendondo, the embattled Uvalde school police chief who has become the target of angry demands by parents to resign or be fired, told the House committee the thought crossed his mind since it happens so often.

The gunman entered Robb Elementary at 11:33 a.m. One minute earlier, according to the report, a fourth-grade teacher in Room 105 received a lockdown alert and made sure her classroom door was locked. That teacher also told the committee she saw a teacher across the hall locking the door in Room 112, one of two adjoining rooms where the shooting occurred.

The shooter is believed to have entered the classroom through Room 111, which was known to have trouble locking properly.

The signal the schools alert system sends out does not specify the potential threat. And because of the prevalence of lockdowns in recent months, according to the report, many teachers and administrators assumed it was another bailout.

"Bailouts has become an increasingly common part of Uvaldes vernacular in the last year as the area has become extraordinarily busy with migrants crossing illegally, largely from countries outside Mexico and northern Central America.

The Border Patrol sector based in Del Rio, Texas  one of nine along the Mexican border  was the most transited corridor for illegal crossings in June, replacing Texas Rio Grande Valley. For much of the year, the two South Texas sectors have posted similar numbers of border encounters, well ahead of the others in California, Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas.

While many migrants turn themselves in to the Border Patrol in the border towns of Del Rio and Eagle Pass  each about an hours drive from Uvalde  many seek to elude capture for hours or days, hiding in stash houses or in tall fields of corn and other crops for smugglers to pick them up at a previously agreed location for the drive to San Antonio.

The committee report said there had been no incidents of bailout-related" violence on Uvalde school campuses before the shooting. High-speed driving sometimes crossed school parking lots, according to the report, which also said some pursuits involved firearms in surrounding neighborhoods.

Diaz, the Uvalde justice of the peace, serves as a magistrate when police make arrests in the area as part of the governor's massive border mobilization known as Operation Lone Star. He sets bail for people taken into custody for alleged human or drug smuggling, but also for crimes unrelated to national security, like minor drug charges.

He said Abbotts operation hasnt made Uvalde safer.

These people who are coming through dont want to be in Uvalde, said Diaz. They are looking to get away from the border and were too close.

Over the last decade, many police departments have shifted away from having officers engage in car chases because they are a danger to the public. A 2017 report from the Justice Department found that between 1996 and 2015 police pursuits killed an average of 355 people annually, with nearly a third of those killed in vehicles not involved in the chases.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, who said he has not spoken to Abbott for nearly a month, has called on the governor to do even more on the border to curb migrant crossings. With classes set to re-start in less than two months, he worries about the bailouts by the schools and so forth and said "it needs to stop.

Angie Villescaz, who grew up in Uvalde and after the shooting founded the Latina mothers advocacy group Fierce Madres with local moms, said the border rhetoric is a distraction from the most pressing issue.

They've always wanted to keep the narrative about securing the border, Villescaz said, and now they can't because it's about securing our schools.

___

Coronado reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

___

More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting
Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - The Beninese police arrested 27 people, including two women, last weekend in the town of Seme-Kpodji, in the south-east of Benin, during an operation as part of the fight against cybercrime in the country, police sources told PANA on Wednesday
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The spokesperson for the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), Olivier Salgado, has 72 hours to leave the country, a statement from the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said here Wednesday
Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Millions of refugees and migrants face poorer health outcomes than their host communities, which could jeopardize reaching the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for these populations
"The List" is PAPER's definitive roundup of the biggest fashion and art news, launches, capsules and collaborations of the month. Scroll through, below, to see July's newest arrivals.

Tiffany Atrium: New Social Impact Platform See on Instagram On Wednesday, Tiffany & Co. announced a new social impact platform called Atrium, whose mission is to create a more diverse and inclusive jewelry industry by advancing opportunities for historically underrepresented communities. The jeweler marked the launch by commissioning a new artwork from Baltimore-raised artist Derrick Adams called I Shine, You Shine, We Shine which the Tiffany Atrium logo is derived from. It will be auctioned by online art marketplace Artsy July 27 - August 10, with 100% of proceeds benefiting The Last Resort Artist Retreat.

Bernard James Summer 2022 Family Portraits Photography: Cesar Buitrago The next group featured in Bernard James' ongoing Family Portraits series includes designers Christopher John Rogers and Aisling Camps, photographer Quil Lemons and stylists Becky Akinyode and Matthew Henson. Each subject works in the fashion, music, arts and media fields and is a close friend of the jewelry designer. This year's theme is "talent behind talent" and focuses on industry tastemakers who work behind the scenes.

Austin James Smith x Planet i Courtesy of Planet i

Mixed media artist, jewelry designer and NYC nightlife fixture Austin James Smith, known via his social media handle Empty Pools, teamed up with eyewear brand Planet i to create the Spinal Sunglasses, an archive motif from Austin James Smith's Splice collection. It comes in three colors  Shadow, Sport, and Sunrise  and contrasts with reciprocal white, gold and black spinal design of the temple sides. Available now at austinjamessmith.com and planeti.world

SKIMS Swim Campaign With Bella Poarch, Paris Jackson and Madison Bailey Photography: Cobrasnake/ Courtesy of SKIMS

So far, the swim campaigns for SKIMS have had its founder Kim Kardashian front and center, including the most recent one where she channeled an '80s bombshell for its metallics line. But for its latest swim ads, the shapewear brand enlisted a trio of next-gen muses: Paris Jackson, Bella Poarch and Madison Bailey, all of whom star in the LA pool party-inspired campaign shot by alternative party photographer Cobrasnake. The new swim collection is available starting July 28 at SKIMS.com

Brandon Blackwood Launches First Men's Bag Courtesy of Brandon Blackwood Brandon Blackwood has added another bag to his accessories range: the Jordanis Trunk, their first bag designed for men. The boxy style is made of smooth black leather and comes with zipper pockets and an adjustable strap. Available now at BrandonBlackwood.com

Armani Exchange Gets the SmileyWorld Treatment Courtesy of Armani Exchange

SmileyWorld's iconic yellow smiling symbol is all over Armani Exchange's new feel-good capsule collection, part of the SmileyWorld's 50th anniversary celebrations (the company has teamed up with everyone from Moschino to Dior to Loewe). For this collab, Armani Exchanged swapped the eyes with its signature A|X logo, and they also referenced Giorgio Armani's recognizable glasses and smile for the other emoji. Available now at ArmaniExchange.com

ASHYA x t.a. New York Campaign photographer: Myesha Evon Gardner

ASHYA's Shema Slingback, the street-style It-bag that launched exclusively with t.a. New York in 2020 in a bold, red shade, is being released in another exclusive color with the fashion-favorite luxury concept store. The bag, the second collaboration between ASHYA co-founders Ashley Cimone/Moya Annece and t.a.'s Telsha Anderson, now comes in a brushed vegetable-tanned leather style named Trilogy while keeping its signature ring handle and compact, travel-friendly shape. Available now at shop-ta.com

Mr. Porter x Throwing Fits Courtesy of Mr. Porter James Harris and Lawrence Schlossman, founders of menswear podcast Throwing Fits (its tagline is "two grown dirtbags just tryna navigate the male zeitgeist"), have collaborated with Mr. Porter on a new capsule collection featuring 13 brands and over 70 pieces of clothing, shoes and accessories, all handpicked by the duo. There's also an edit of exclusive Throwing Fits merchandise. "Whether we've earned this privilege or it's simply karmic justice for a lifetime spent shopping and thinking more about men's clothing than anyone else on the planet is up to interpretation," the pair said of the partnership. "Either way, consider the bucket list checked. Finally garnering the respect of our friends and loved ones is just icing on the cake. Available now at Mr. Porter.com

Tommy Hilfiger Is Returning to NYFW After Three Years NYFW just got a big boost this season. Tommy Hilfiger will show its next see-now-buy-now collection on September 11 in New York City, its first show during New York Fashion Week in three years. It will also be live-streamed on Roblox with avatars dress in virtual pieces from the collection. "This season is all about the collision of my favorite archival inspirations with new live event concepts and virtual worlds," Hilfiger said. "Its the perfect expression of what we stand for as we pay homage to our roots with a return to NYFW."

Anyone Can Attend Diesel's Next Runway Show For the first time, Diesel is opening its upcoming Spring 2023 show to the public, inviting fashion enthusiasts, students, friends, and fans of the brand to attend. Registration to attend the live show in Milan is on a first come, first serve basis starting September 1 at Diesel.com.

Opening Ceremony Launches Collaboration With LUAR Courtesy of Opening Ceremony

New Luar bags just dropped! Well, in new colors anyway. The brand's popular It-bag, the Ana Mini, seen on everyone from Dua Lipa to Troye Sivan, is releasing two exclusive new colorways thanks to a collaboration with Opening Ceremony  ini tobacco pony hair-effect leather and black-and-cream snakeskin-embossed vegan leather. There's also a sweatshirt with artwork from Bony Ramirez's Feeding a Child of the Ocean." The collab is part of OC's 20th anniversary celebrations, which have included collabs with designer Peter Do and punk-rock band The Linda Lindas. Luar's Raul Lopez and OC's designers Humberto Leon and Carol Lim go way back, when the retailer first stocked Hood by Air (which Lopez co-founded) and then Luar. When I started to take my first steps as a designer, OC was the first store to believe in me and support me, Lopez said. OC will forever be family to me.'' Available starting July 12 at OpeningCeremony.com and Farfetch.com

Acne Studios Musubi Bag Campaign by Talia Chetrit Photography: Talia Chetrit/ Courtesy of Acne Studios

Acne Studios tapped New York-based photographer Talia Chetrit, known for her still lifes and nude portraiture, to shoot a new campaign for their Musubi bag. She shot the bags on male dancers bodies which she chose because they resembled the figurative qualities in the bags.

Eckhaus Latta Launches Shoe Collection Courtesy of Eckhaus Latta/ Thomas McCarthy

Eckhaus Latta's first footwear collection, first seen on the brand's Fall 2022 runway, is here and features a mix of silhouettes (all made in Portugal), heel shapes and colors including the Mike boot and Zoe clog. The range builds upon previous collaborations with UGG and Camper Available now at EckhausLatta.com, Farfetch and Nordstrom

Givenchy Launches 101 Dalmations Capsule Courtesy of Givenchy
Photo: (Photo : pen_ash from Pixabay )

A four-month-old baby boy was allegedly wrenched from the arms of his parents and tossed to his death by a raging troop of monkeys last week in India, according to the Daily Mail.

The tragic incident occurred in the rural village of Dunka, located close to Bareilly in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Nirdesh Upadhyay was standing on the terrace of his three-story house with his wife and their young son.

The family of three was enjoying a lazy Friday evening up on the terrace of their home when several monkeys suddenly clambered onto the roof and surrounded them. After futile efforts to bat the primates away, the new parents ran toward the stairs in an attempt to escape from the monkeys. Nirdesh, who was carrying his son, stumbled and dropped the baby.

Monkey grabs infant and tosses him off the roof

In a split second, before either mom or dad could react, one of the monkeys grabbed the kid by his hand and hurled him off the roof, much to the parents' shock. The distraught parents managed to get back inside their house and went downstairs as fast as possible to save their son, but the baby reportedly died at the scene.

Authorities at the Shahi police station are now investigating the incident. Bareilly City's conservation chief, Lalit Verma, told PTI News that his team was dispatched to investigate the involvement of monkeys in the infant's death.

The state of Uttar Pradesh is home to a huge population of rhesus monkeys, which roam freely throughout many of its cities and towns. Although the monkeys generally live in relative harmony alongside the humans who reside in these areas, there are several documented cases of the primates attacking people, particularly kids.

Read Also: Red Alert for Child Health as 25 Million Kids Missed Routine Vaccinations Due to COVID Pandemic

Cases of primates attacking kids rising in India

A five-year-old girl grabbed the headlines in February when she was killed by a troop of monkeys in the village of Bichpuri, located in the Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh. According to the Times of India, Narmada Kishore was playing with her friends near Nakatiya River when the monkeys set upon her and began biting her all over her body.

Narmada's father, Nand, told the newspaper that the monkeys were quite aggressive and had bitten his daughter almost everywhere. He added that when he reached the spot, she was crying for help. The young girl was rushed to the community health center but died from major blood loss.

There are even incidents of monkeys hijacking vehicles from unsuspecting motorists in Bareilly, including one report of a primate stealing and crashing a bus. One monkey managed to start the bus's engine back in 2015 as it sat in a garage in the city while the driver was taking a nap.

The monkey turned the ignition key and reportedly smashed the bus into two other vehicles parked in the garage before the driver regained control.

Related Article: Mental Health Crises Soaring Among Children and Teens in the United States
Photo: (Photo : cottonbro from Pexels)

Children experience feelings and emotions before they're old enough to understand their meaning, how to manage them, or when something is wrong. Although school provides primary mental health education, it's often not enough to help students develop the emotional maturity they need to sustain a healthy lifestyle. If mental health isn't discussed and prioritized in the household, children face an uphill battle as they strive to navigate everyday life.

As reports of children, teens, and young adults struggling with mental health problems increases, the need to discuss emotional wellness at home becomes apparent. If you want to talk to your kids about mental health but aren't sure where to start, continue reading for advice.

Start Early

It's never too soon to begin talking with your kids about mental health. As children of all ages can experience emotional exhaustion, confusion, and trauma, educating them early on can help them navigate challenges and prevent mental illnesses.

Age Appropriateness

You can't expect a five-year-old to understand the same concepts and terminology as a teenager. When you begin discussing mental health with your children, you must find age-appropriate methods to ensure they comprehend what you're trying to teach. For example, reading a book about feelings and discussing the story afterward may be ideal for younger children. On the other hand, older children might understand real-life examples, experiences, or educational materials.

Educate Yourself

When discussing mental health, you want to give your children the most accurate information possible. While you have the best intentions, if your knowledge of emotional wellness is outdated, irrelevant, or based on myths, societal misconceptions, or an unhealthy upbringing, you will ultimately pass this down to your children.

There's nothing wrong with educating yourself on mental health. Whether you want to know what mental health is, how to take care of your emotional well-being, or something more specific like BPD vs bipolar disorder, you can find a wealth of information from reputable sources online. Along with personal research, you can also talk with your doctor or therapist for more advice and understanding.

Tap Into Resources For Support

Parents have an abundance of resources at their fingertips that they can use to talk to their children about mental health. If having a straightforward conversation seems intimidating, tapping into supportive resources can make things easier. Books, television shows, movies, games, and mobile apps cater to children, teens, and emotional health. Using these resources as a "starting point" can introduce a general concept that parents can follow up with more specific and sometimes complicated conversations.

Talk Often

Mental health isn't one of those things you can talk about once and forget. As it is significant in everyday life, it's a topic you want to speak on frequently. After having an initial conversation, make it a regular practice. You don't need to have everyone sit down and talk about emotional wellness for an hour a day, but finding unique ways to bring it up in conversation is ideal.

For instance, ask your kids to discuss one high point and one low point in their day. Then, ask them how the low point made them feel and what they did to improve their mood. Celebrate when your kids handle uncomfortable situations with care and advise when they need assistance.

Be An Example

More than talking to your kids about mental health, you must be an example. Parents are the first teachers. As you likely know, kids often pay attention to your actions more than your words. Demonstrate how to express yourself, deal with triggers, pay attention to red flags, and even get help when needed. Adopt a lifestyle that supports positive mental health, including eating healthy, exercising, getting rest, doing things you enjoy, and taking a break when necessary. As your children see you follow these practices, they are more inclined to do the same.

There are life lessons and subject matters that you can put off until your child is older, but mental health isn't one of them. If you want your children to lead healthier and happier lives, you must educate them on the significance of mental health. Fortunately, this doesn't have to be a chore. As you can see from above, there are plenty of tips and resources to make teaching your kids about emotional wellness easier to manage.
Photo: (Photo : bensoneye/Pixabay)

A tiny baby who came into the world three times smaller than her twin sister had beaten the odds despite doctors expecting a tragic outcome.

Reagan Lambert, who celebrated her 6-month birthday with twin sister Mila Lambert in June 2022, has been called a miracle baby by their mother, Audrieanna Lambert.

Audrieanna and her doctors grew concerned during the 20th week of her pregnancy that one of the twins had stopped growing. According to Daily Mirror, her doctors at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh expected the worse. They thought that Reagan, the smaller twin, would not survive in the womb.

Read Also: Euphoric Mom Gives Birth to Twin Girls, But One is Not Her Biological Daughter

Reagan lives!

In December 2021, Audrieanna underwent a C-section for the twin's birth. The babies were born 11 weeks early, with Reagan just weighing a pound while Mila weighed 2lb 13oz.

Audrieanna could not believe that Reagan lived after all the medical projections. However, the babies were still not in the clear because Mila needed to get stronger and healthier in the hospital for 45 more days. On the other hand, Reagan had to be hospitalized for 118 days because she also battled sepsis.

The mother and her husband, Chase Lambert, have been waiting to have their baby for some time after years of struggling to conceive. In June 2021, the couple was overjoyed to learn that they were expecting their first child after only one round of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

On the sixth week of the pregnancy, the Lamberts were told by their doctor that they would have fraternal twin babies, but one of the fetuses had a smaller gestational sac. According to UT Southwestern Medical Center, smaller fetuses at the age of six to eight weeks of gestation may run the risk of a miscarriage. The experts said this abnormality is more significantly associated with pregnancies through IVF.

The Lamberts briefly had good news when Reagan "caught up" with her expected growth at 15 weeks of gestation, but by the 20th week, it was downhill again as she was 18 percent smaller than Mila. Doctors were worried for the twins and the mother again; thus, Audrieanna's pregnancy was constantly monitored.

Saving Reagan, welcoming the twins

Upon the mother's 24th-week scan, Reagan was suffering issues with her umbilical cord flow, which meant she was not getting enough nutrients. At this point, the doctors were sure, based on all medical accounts, that the baby would die in the womb in the next two weeks.

But she defied what the doctors said and was still thriving with a strong beating heart at 26 weeks. The doctors were also determined to save her.

So, on the 27th week, Audrieanna was scheduled for a C-section. The mother heard Mila cry when she came out of the womb but could only hear a whimper from Reagan.

"I knew she was going to be tiny but she was still so much smaller than I had imagined," the mother said, per Metro. "Mila was three times the size."

After the twins fought to improve, the Lamberts were ecstatic to share their antics on TikTok, where Audrieanna has documented everything from her IVF treatments to the babies' current milestones.

Related Article: Florida Mom and Babies Survive Rarest Form of Twin Pregnancy; What are Mono Mono Twins?
Photo: (Photo : Pixabay)

Police arrested the mom of a two-year-old boy, Maya Jones, 28, and her boyfriend, Jermaine Robinson, 37, on Tuesday for first-degree murder and obstruction of justice. The body of Ezekiel Harry was stuffed in a black duffel bag and dumped in the trash. An autopsy revealed that the boy was killed by severe blunt force trauma to the head.

Police said that Jones gave the police officers false information as she initially told them that Ezekiel and her three children were walking when a truck passed by and abducted the child. The search for the boy lasted for hours, involving helicopters and boats along the bayou before officers suspected foul play, WBRZ said.

Stuffed in a duffel bag

Harry was stuffed in a black duffel bag six hours after he went missing on July 12, following a police tip-off. Authorities also found surveillance footage of the child's mother and her partner leaving the area of their Louisiana home carrying the same black duffel back where the toddler was found.

Jones initially told the police that Harry was abducted by someone driving a gray truck near the 100 block of Mahler Street. However, police sensed that the information was inaccurate after they found numerous inconsistencies in the mom's abduction story.

Terrebonne Parish District Attorney Joseph Waitz Jr. expects a grand jury indictment on first-degree murder charges for both Jones and Robinson, saying that the case could potentially have a death penalty sentence.

Waitz also noted that the toddler had been a victim of abuse in his short life, per The Sun.

Read Also: Jury Hears Arguments Against Fabian Gonzales for the Horrific Death of 10-Year-Old Victoria Martens in 2016

Remembering Ezekiel Harry

Residents on Houma held a vigil for the boy on Wednesday night. Sarah Plaisance, a neighbor, reported that the yelling at Harry's house would get so aggressive that she feared for the safety of the children. She noted that she does not see the kids often as they are always inside the home. She called the police when the shouting got so bad, asking them to send "somebody out there because he's going to kill somebody in this house."

On Friday night, hundreds gathered to remember the two-year-old Harry, who was taken from the Houma community too soon. Cynthia Harry, Ezekiel's grandmother, fondly remembered her grandson, who likes Spiderman, running around the house, touching everything, knocking on doors, and loved playing with the keys.

Houma residents struggled to come to terms with the shocking death of the toddler. Clark Nixon, a neighbor, struggled to understand how anybody could think of doing "something like that."

Adrienne Frances shared that she met Harry at the Haven, a domestic violence shelter in Houma. She said she rocked the toddler to sleep on nights when he had nightmares and was crying. She added that Harry's two sisters and brother meant the world to her.

Jones' other kids are now in the custody of their father. Frances added that Harry was like her child. When she came to work at night, he would throw his arms around her and stay in her arms. She said that the boy needs his mother's love, 4WWL says.

Related Article: Mom Charged with 1999 Murder of Her 6-Year-Old Son After a 23-Year Breakthrough Call from Family Friend
Photo: (Photo : MasterTux from Pixabay )

A San Antonio mom and her teen daughter were shot inside a Bronx bodega while visiting New York on Sunday, July 17.

Beatriz Jimenez and her 13-year-old daughter Jehieli Duran had just arrived from San Antonio, Texas, when bullets suddenly struck them on the corner of Southern Boulevard and Jennings Street during a dispute around 9 p.m.

In an interview, the injured teen told the New York Post that she was very excited to visit New York. That excitement has now disappeared, as the incident that met her on her first day in New York changed her perspective on the city that never sleeps.

Family traumatized by New York shooting experience

She added they just never expected it to happen in New York. A bullet tore through the teenager's hand and grazed her neck, while a bullet also nicked her mom's chest after the gunfire erupted on the street outside.

Duran recalled it was terrifying, saying that she had just heard a bullet, and suddenly her mother pulled her down and ran to the back of the store. The 46-year-old mom thought she had lost her child, saying it was scary because she saw her daughter bleeding from her neck and thought the bullet had gone in. Jimenez said that as a mother, she thought her child would die.

Duran's dad and her two siblings were also inside the bodega when the shooting happened. She said both of her siblings were crying because of the incident. Cops said that just moments before the mom and daughter were struck, a 22-year-old woman, who was walking her dog, was also shot in the leg with a stray bullet blocks away from the bodega.

Authorities believe both shootings are linked, but no arrests have been made by the police yet, according to CBS News. Sources told the media outlet that two armed men on Citibikes were firing guns at a fleeing vehicle when the three innocent females got caught in the crossfire.

Read Also: Baby Formula Shortage Getting Worse in the US Despite President Biden's Operation Fly Formula Airlifts

12 people shot in a bloody six-hour stretch in NYC

Jimenez and Duran were treated at the Jacobi Hospital before being released early on Monday. Police said the other injured woman was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital and is now in stable condition.

According to police, the three innocent bystanders were among 12 people who were shot across New York City in a bloody six-hour stretch on Sunday night. Spectrum News reported that five people were shot in as many incidents on Saturday, compared to seven people being shot in six incidents in 2021. Friday saw nine people shot in six separate incidents, compared to the same number of victims in seven incidents on that day in 2021.

Related Article: Cleveland Star Jose Ramirez Credits Mom as Part of Motivation to Join 2022 MLB Home Run Derby
Photo: (Photo : Pixabay)

Adrian Rodriquez, 17, a resident in Chula Vista, California, found a purse left in a grocery store parking lot. He decided to drive to the owner's home and return the bag.

The young man found the green bag in a shopping cart at Ralph's parking lot in Chula Vista two weeks ago. When the young man opened the bag, he looked for identification and decided to find where the owner lived.

According to Aleteia, when he arrived at the house, the bag's owner, Eliana Martin, was not there, so he left the purse to the aunt of a former roommate of Martin. The woman thanked him for the gesture, and Adrian left. The home's ring camera was later used to track the high school graduate to show him gratitude for his honesty.

Tracking down Adrian

Martin was pleasantly surprised that her purse was returned and nothing was missing. She wanted to thank the young man but did not know anything about him. She realized the young man would have been recorded by the video camera at the house entrance when he returned the purse. She sought the help of social media to help in locating the kind teenager.

In a short time, Rodriguez was identified, and many people were so moved by his honesty that they expressed intent to reward him. To help raise the award money, Melina Marquez, Martin's friend, created a GoFundMe account to ask for donations for his reward. The initiative has now raised more than $17,000 from 764 donors, Good News Network. Org says.

On the GoFundMe Page, Marquez wrote that they believed he deserved great compensation, and many people expressed that they wanted to help, thus the fund drive. She urged everyone to share as wonderful parents raised the young man and his actions need to be known.

She added that every parent right now hopes that their children will grow up to be just like the young gentleman.

Read Also: Dylan Kuehl: First Graduate with Down Syndrome Makes History at 51-Year-Old Evergreen State College

The motivation to return the bag

Rodriguez said he woke up to messages like, "Oh, is this you? It was weird," he smirked.

When the young man was asked why he went out of his way to return the bag, the boy told NBC News that he was just doing what his mom always told him when he was little: to do the right thing when nobody is watching. He added that he honestly did not expect anything back.

The ladies invited the young man to Marquez's house so Martin, the bag owner, could say thank you in person. Rodriguez said he truly feels good and appreciates everything everybody did for him.

He said he was not sure what to do with the thank you gift but mentioned he first needed to get gas for his car.

Related Article: 16-Year-Old Mom Takes Toddler as Prom Date After Failing to Find Baby Sitter
Photo: (Photo : moerschy from Pixabay )

A Wallkill family devastated by the drowning of an eight-year-old boy is now also mourning the loss of his dad, who died after trying to save his young son in a backyard pool.

Yaw Addae died in the days after he tried to save his son, Lucas, from drowning at their home on Fair Oaks Road on July 3. Both victims had been taken to Garnet Health Medical Center, where Lucas was pronounced dead on arrival and Addae was placed in critical condition.

Christiana Duodu, Addae's wife and Lucas' mom, said in a statement that her husband died due to his efforts to save their son. According to Town of Wallkill police, they had responded to Addae's home around 8 p.m. on July 3.

Dad jumped into the water fully clothed to save drowning son

Duodu said her family, which had moved there from New York City just four months earlier, had been having a wonderful day that Sunday. She went in to feed her youngest child when she suddenly heard some commotion.

Duodu saw her husband in the water, fully clothed. She described the scenes at the time as nothing but chaos happening. Other family members told her that Lucas had sunk to the bottom of the pool, and her husband was trying to do his best to save him.

The distraught mom also jumped in, and they all tried to save her drowning son. Her husband went down to rescue their kid but, unfortunately, never returned in his attempt. Duodu told the Times-Herald Record that her niece called 911 to report the incident; the rest was history.

Relatives were able to pull young Lucas out of the pool, and first responders who arrived on the scene were able to get Addae out. Services will be held this coming August when Addae's parents, both out of the country, can attend. Funeral arrangements are being made through Ortiz Funeral Home in the Bronx.

Read Also: Red Alert for Child Health as 25 Million Kids Missed Routine Vaccinations Due to COVID Pandemic

Important tips for pool and swimming safety

With a particularly hot stretch of weather affecting the Hudson Valley at the moment, here are some tips for swimming and pool safety from the Office of Children and Family Services. First and foremost, parents should never leave a child unattended in a pool or spa and always watch kids closely around all bodies of water.

A designated water watcher should supervise the children in the pool or spa. This person should not be texting, using a smartphone, reading, or otherwise distracted. Adults can take turns in being water watchers.

It is also important to keep children away from pipes, pool drains, and other openings to avoid entrapments. The family should have a telephone close by when they are using a pool or spa in case of an emergency, as well as lifesaving equipment such as floats and life rings.

Related Article: Mental Health Crises Soaring Among Children and Teens in the United States
Photo: (Photo : Edgar Gonzalez)

When a father's mental health is not prioritized or acknowledged, the quality of parenting relationships will be affected.

Overlooking the paternal mental health will result in the decline of their emotional wellbeing.

Household with fathers who struggle with mental health issues, specifically during early childhood, tends to have children with more difficulties handling their emotions and behaviors.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMU), a father plays a vital role in the family. If they are having difficulty managing their emotions, it will affect the quality and stability of the family.

Psychological research mostly fails to recognize or incorporate dads. The entire spectrum of fatherhood from the perinatal period throughout all the significant milestones of being a dad is largely absent from psychological research.

Giving importance to the father's mental health

Dr. Chuck Schaeffer, a strength-focused psychologist, puts supporting new fathers in the Dark Ages as Paternal Mental Health is a new field of study, and there are a lot of data advising that the transition impacts a father's mental health just as much as mothers.

Men are affected by the cultural ideas about masculinity and how they are supposed to act and behave. Boys are told to man up and walk it off at a young age and are taught that showing emotions is a sign of weakness. Thus, when they grow up and become fathers, they strive to acknowledge, communicate, and manage their own emotions.

Some evidence shows that approximately 10 percent of new fathers experience depression, and most do not understand why so they get insufficient support. Many new mothers treat fathers as a crucial source of support. Poor paternal support can worsen maternal mental health problems.

On the other hand, most fathers feel alienated and lack knowledge on how they can support their partners when needed, per BMC Series Blog.

Read Also: Depression Among Fathers During The Pregnancy May Cause Premature Birth Risk

Assessing the mental health of fathers

Kenn Harris, National Institute for Children's Health Quality Senior Project Director, said that many things shape the concept of masculinity, from social norms to cultural influences.

Fathers sometimes find it difficult to reconcile such expectations as they also face additional structural barriers, such as employment, economic challenges, and residing in a different house than their child, which disrupts their ability to connect with their kids during the early years of life.

Daniel Singley Ph.D., of the American Board of Professional Psychology, said that barriers must be navigated to generate internal stress as it worsens a father's situation in terms of nurturing and establishing interactive relationships with their children.

One out of 10 fathers obtains Paternal Postpartum Depression (PPPD), and 16 percent suffer from an anxiety disorder during the perinatal period.

Singley emphasizes that the result of data are significant numbers from a public health perspective, and men are far less likely to seek help specifically for their mental health during the perinatal period.

A common sign of paternal depression is when a mother is experiencing postpartum depression. Thus, always have the father screened if the mother is depressed, per NICHQ.

Related Article: Forgotten fathers: New dads also at risk for postpartum depression
Photo: (Photo : Jan Vasek from Pixabay )

A family of four missed a much-anticipated Disney cruise after Air Canada delayed and canceled their flights over Independence Day weekend. They were among hundreds who have seen their vacation plans dashed by the unfortunate travel chaos this summer.

Distraught dad Nathan Morris told the Insider that their kids are devastated. He said they had planned the trip many months ago and had talked about it almost every day since. The $5,500 week-long cruise to the state of Alaska was a birthday gift for the family's ten and six-year-old kids, who spent the holiday weekend in multiple airports instead.

The family's first flight from the American city of Baltimore to the Canadian city of Toronto took off two hours later than scheduled. According to Morris, the plane sat on the tarmac for over one hour as they waited for baggage personnel. This caused the family to miss its connecting flight to Vancouver, where the Disney cruise was docked.

Family misses Disney cruise after flight delays and cancellations

According to flight documents, Air Canada then rebooked the Morris family's flights for early the next morning with an additional layover in Montreal. Morris said that one person at customer service even told them that had they been watching the news, they would have known this was going to happen.

To make matters worse for them, Morris said the airline did not offer them hotel accommodations. The couple and their two young kids had to sleep on benches underneath escalators in the Toronto airport.

According to Morris, the nightmare did not end there, as the flight from Toronto to Montreal was delayed the next morning. According to documents, the connecting flight from Montreal to Vancouver was then delayed three and a half hours due to an unforeseen aircraft maintenance issue. The flight to Vancouver was canceled entirely by noon.

The next available flight would not leave until the next day, meaning the Morris family would be unable to reach the port in Vancouver before the Disney cruise departed. Much to their disappointment, the couple decided to book the next flight home after two full days of traveling with their children.

Read Also: Tragedy in India as Monkey Throws Four-month-old Baby Boy to His Death

Morris blasts Air Canada for the poor treatment they received

Morris said that throughout the rebooking process, they were herded around like cattle from one customer service desk to another without so much an apology from the airline. The family then got more bad news as they got a notification stating they were exposed to someone with COVID on their return flight.

Sure enough, their daughter tested positive a couple of days after visiting the emergency room due to a high fever that they could not control and constant vomiting. A spokesperson for Air Canada said last week that the industry is currently challenged due to issues with airports and third-party providers of such services as customs, air navigation, and passenger screening.

Related Article: Long Wait is Finally Over for US Parents as CDC Approves COVID Vaccines for Youngest Children
Digital compilation of 25 lakh legacy records to complete by mid-August: Delhi govt

New Delhi, July 20 (UNI) Delhi Government has set a deadline to completely digitalize 25 lakhs of the legacy records by mid-August. 20 lakh among them have been already converted while the process is underway for the rest of the document, officials at the Revenue Department said on Wednesday.

A meeting in this regard was convened on July 8 which Revenue Minister Kailash Gehlot chaired. A follow-up meeting was convened on Tuesday.

"The emphasis of the meeting was on digitization of all legacy certificate records/data (roughly 25 lakh certificates) at all district offices in Delhi. This has been a perennial issue for citizens who often raised grievances for being unable to get certificates issued by the revenue department due to their inability to verify legacy records to issue new certificates," a senior official said.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has cautioned Ghanaians against the deadly Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease.



Ghana confirmed two cases of the Ebola-like virus on 7th July. So far, 98 persons have been isolated and quarantined.



Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye, the Director General of the GHS speaking in an interview on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo' said 13 out of the 98 have tested negative.



"So far there's not been any more new cases. GHS is working to reduce any risk of the virus spreading, none of whom have developed any symptoms so far," he indicated.



Treatment



Dr Kuma-Aboagye has further indicated that "there's no treatment or vaccine" for the virus and that the only way is to "manage the situation until the patient recovers".



"9 out of 10 infected persons die and so we will urge everyone to be careful. Avoid contact with anyone with symptoms, bush meat should be well processed and cooked but if you can even avoid it," he added.







Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Health experts have raised concerns over the prevalence of high blood pressure and diabetes among residents in Koforidua Zongo.



The situation has been attributed to a shift in healthy eating and regular physical exercise in form of walking which was characteristic of Muslims in Zongo communities.



This was observed during a free health screening exercise organized by the Eastern Regional Queen Mother of Zongo Communities, Magajiya Hajia Rabiyatu Ahmed Zakaria.



The health screening saw some Medical Doctors and other clinicians from Ridge Hospital in Accra and Koforidua deliver quality healthcare to the residents.



Participants were screened for high blood pressure, Malaria, typhoid, COVID-19, glucose among others.



Hypertension and diabetes were identified to be prevalent among the populace.



The medical team dispensed medications for the patients and referred others with severe to critical conditions to the hospital for further treatment.



Dr Fati Ahmed, a medical doctor at Ridge Hospital in Accra who led the medical team was worried that some hypertensive and diabetic patients had blatantly defaulted on their medications.



We have a lot of people with hypertension and diabetes. There are a lot of people who are known diabetic and hypertensive who are none complaint. They are not taking their medications, some people have gone to the hospital before but theyve been told, given medication for a month instead of them to go for follow-ups and review, they did not go. So we have representatives from Ghana Health Service and Nurses who will make sure they do follow-ups. We have provided first aid for those with very high Bp as well and referred a couple of them to the hospital, and those who had to go immediately because their Bps and Sugars were very high, she said.



Moro Mamunatu public health nurse at Health Center at Koforidua Zongo said the facility will monitor residents diagnosed with High blood pressure and diabetes to ensure they take their medications.



She is worried that many residents of the Zongo community are reluctant to go to the hospital for checkups.



Organizer of the program Hajia Rabiyatu Ahmed Zakaria  the Eastern Regional Queen Mother of Zongo Communities (Magajiya) said she was motivated to organize the health screening to improve the health of the people in Zongo Communities, particularly at this difficult economic situation to relieve the people.



She said similar exercises including free registration onto the National Health Insurance Scheme will be held in other Zongo communities in parts of the Eastern region including Kibi, Asamankese.



Some of the beneficiaries hailed the medical intervention.





Source: starrfm









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Bayport Savings and Loans, working through the Brogya Foundation, has presented a state-of-the-art incubator and phototherapy equipment to the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital in the Ashanti Region.



The Brogya Foundation is a charity organisation that was founded by Nana Bediako Brogya Sarpong who is the Dompiahene of the Asante Akyem Agogo Traditional Area.



The donation will advance the treatment of and care for pre-term babies specifically, and broadly help prevent infant mortality at the hospital which is a critical referral health facility in the region.



Bayports chief commercial officer, Mr. Allen Jubin, told journalists that the contribution to Agogo Hospital is in line with the companys environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments, which seek to bring real benefits to the communities in which it operates.



Bayport chose to support the Agogo Hospital through the Brogya Foundation because it aligns very much with our ESG agenda for the next five years that focuses on health  as were seeing today  and education. The latter takes the form of scholarships for gifted but needy students, he said.



Mr. Jubin indicated that pre-term care remains a critical aspect of healthcare delivery in the quest to significantly reduce cases of infant mortality in the country. Bayport hoped that the donated equipment will assist the hospital to save the lives of both babies and mothers.



We intend to continue with donations such as this to ensure that the communities in which we operate can benefit from more than our financial services as we empower and grow with them, he added.



Dompiahene of Agogo and founder of the Brogya Foundation, Nana Bediako Brogya Sarpong, upon whose request the donation was made to the hospital, expressed appreciation to Bayport for heeding to the call of the foundation to reach out to the health facility.



Its my prayer that other companies will support the Brogya Foundation to improve the lives of children in Agogo and surrounding communities; we are an open and transparent organisation and will continue to lead a good cause by ensuring that whatever support that we get goes to the right place, he indicated.



General manager of the Agogo Hospital, Mr. Alex Kesse, said that the equipment will help the facility to operate at the optimum level in taking care of pre-term babies and their mothers.



He indicated that the facility, which serves the Asante Akyem area and surrounding communities, has only six phototherapy machines and five incubators.



Mr. Kesse stated: The equipment we currently have is old and breaks down very often and sometimes the pre-term babies have to be placed in the available incubators in shifts. This is not very good for their health as it keeps them in hospital longer than necessary.



He expressed the hope that the donation would serve as an eye-opener for other benefactors to support the facility.

I want to thank Bayport for this donation. We hope this will be the start of a very cordial relationship with them through the Brogya Foundation, he added.



The Bayport team also paid a courtesy visit to the Paramount Chief of the Agogo Traditional Area, Nana Kwame Akuoko Sarpong, who commended them on the decision to support the towns healthcare facility.



He further applauded his Dompiahene for bringing development to the township and surrounding communities through his charitable foundation, whilst appealing for more support from Bayport and other organisations seeking to support the growth and advancement of the Agogo state.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Mr. Opoku Ahweneeh-Danquah, is leading a high-powereddelegation to attend a meeting of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of National Oil Companies (NOCs) of African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO) in Abuja, Nigeria.



The African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO) is an intergovernmental energy organization created to serve as a platform for African petroleum producing countries to cooperate, collaborate, and share knowledge and competences, with a view to maximizing the developmental and welfare benefits accruable from petroleum exploitation activities in its member countries.



APPO currently has sixteen (16) member countries which includes Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Cote dIvoire, Egypt, and Gabon. The rest are Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana.



It will be recalled that Mr. Opoku Ahweneeh Danquah took over as the Chief Executive Officer of GNPC about three months ago and is fervently seeking strategic partnerships to reposition the Corporation considering the global energy transition. His vision is to leverage on the competencies of GNPC into becoming a strategic partner in the paradigm shift from fossil fuels to renewables.



Commenting on his expectations prior to his departure, Mr. Opoku Ahweneeh Danquah saidthe time has come for policy makers and operators to work in harmony to find a solution to the threat posed by the energy transition. At a time when traditional financiers of oil and gas are threatening to discontinue, do we leave all natural deposits untapped?, he asked.



He added that GNPCiscontinuously looking for strategic partnersin financing Ghanas oil and gas projectsand is seeking forinvestors who will commit greatly to research and financing renewable energy projects in the country.



Speaking specifically about the conference, Mr. Opoku Ahweneeh Danquah noted that the seriousness of the energy transition calls for a complete rethink of the oil and gas industrys operational model in Africa. He stated that for Africa to maximise returns from our fossil fuel, it behoves on us to collaborate in cross border oil and gas projects, the development of cross border oil and gas infrastructure and the creation of regional energy markets. I believe this begins with the commitment of the CEOs of all the NOCs and thus the significance of this conference.



Theconference is being hosted by the CEO of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Mele Kolo Kyari and the keynote address will be given by Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, the Secretary General of the APPO.





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Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has stated that the Ghana Card at present can only serve citizens internally.



This is in contrast to claims made by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia who said diasporans could use the Ghana Card as a travelling document.



Speaking during the launch of the E-pharmacy platform on Monday, Dr. Bawumia maintained that diasporans could travel into the country without visas once they obtain the Ghana Card.



People could not understand how the Ghana Card, certified by ICAO, could be used as a travel document and they mocked the idea. But today, it is a reality and our diasporans should get the Ghana Card before they leave Ghana. When they get the Ghana Card, they can travel to Ghana without applying for a visa at any embassy abroad, he said.



But addressing journalists at the installation of the e-visa system at missions abroad and at the Ghana Immigration Service on Tuesday, July 19, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey indicated that the Ghana Card was not yet a travel document.



Like many other countries, They dont issue E-Visas and for very good reasons. What we are starting with is the security visas, the biometric visas. At a later date Im sure that at some point in time the issue of E-visas will be considered, she said.



Asked how close the initiative of installing the e-visa system brought Ghana to issuing E-visas, she responded saying: I see it as a first step towards eventually [issuing E-visas]...when we have a good database when we have people who are frequent visitors and we know them. At some point, the decision will be made.



Speaking further on the role of the Ghana Card in the rollout of the project Madam Ayorkor Botchey said Ghana Card is internal. It is for those of us here. But in the event that the Ghana Card is extended to Ghanaians outsideBasically, Visas are for people who are not Ghanaians who want to enter our country but for those who have Ghana Card they can come without any problem. These are basically for visitors entering who are not Ghanaians...they are for non-Ghanaians, they need visas to come into the country.



This is the second time the Foreign Affairs Minister has contradicted Dr. Bawumia.



Responding to questions in Parliament on whether or not the Ghana Card was an E-passport in June, Madam Ayorkor Botchwey emphasized that it could not be used for travelling to other countries as it was subject to bilateral agreements.



At the moment, the Ghana Card cannot be used to travel to other countries either within or outside of ECOWAS as that would require bilateral agreements with those countries for their authorities to accept the card as a travel document," she said.



Meanwhile Ningo Prampram MP, Sam Nartey George has dared the Vice President to embark on a foreign trip using his Ghana card as a travel document.



Dr. Bawumia himself, as Vice President, cannot travel from Ghana with his Ghana card. I am challenging Dr. Bawumia to embark on a foreign trip from Ghana, using his Ghana card alone. This level of deception of the public by a public officer of the rank of Vice President is unbecoming, he said in an interview on Accra-based Joy FM on July 19.







Source: ghanaweb.com









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Ghana has been ranked second most peaceful country in the sub-Saharan Africa region only behind the island nation of Mauritius.



This is according to the 2022 edition of the Global Peace Index, GPI, report released this week.



The country's overall score was 1.759 as compared to 1.715 in 2021, the score also placed Ghana as the 40th most peaceful country on the global ranking of 163 countries.



The global rank means Ghana dropped two steps from the 38th spot in 2021. Per the 2021 global scores, Ghana is sandwiched between Kuwait and Albania.



Completing the top five most peaceful African countries are The Gambia (45th globally), Botswana (48th) and Sierra Leone (50th) in that order.



Ghana is currently dogged by an economic downturn that has seen government turn to the International Monetary Fund for an economic rescue programme. Government partly blame the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia Ukraine war.



Some of the security challenges that Ghana has faced in the past few months have been clashes between protesters and Police, with the most recent being the clash between Arise Ghana protesters and the Police in late June.



There is however a looming threat of terrorist violence being imported from across the Sahel, more so with neighbouring countries having recorded attacks in recent months.



As of last year, the report came out at amid rising insecurity with most citizens expressing grave concerns about rising insecurity following the murder of a bullion van police escort and a hawker in Jamestown plus a series of robbery incidents across the country.



About the GPI report



This is the 16th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness.



Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GPI is the worlds leading measure of global peacefulness. This report presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis to-date on trends in peace, its economic value, and how to develop peaceful societies.



The GPI covers 163 countries comprising 99.7 per cent of the worlds population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources,

and measures the state of peace across three domains: the level of societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation.



In addition to discussing the findings from the 2022 GPI, the report includes an analysis of the military conflict in Ukraine. It covers likely increases in military spending, new and emerging uses of technology in the war, its impact on food prices and global shipping routes.



The report also contains a deeper analysis on violent demonstrations around the world.



This years results found that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.3 per cent. Although slight, this is the eleventh deterioration in peacefulness in the last fourteen years, with 90 countries improving, 71 deteriorating and two remaining stable in peacefulness, highlighting that countries tend to deteriorate much faster than they improve.

Source: ghanaweb.com









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Former Member of Parliament for Mampong in the Ashanti Region, Francis Addae-Nimo, has called on the Ghana Police Service to be more proactive and help the court to establish the truth in the murder of the Abuakwa North MP, JB Danquah Adu.



According to him, six years is quite a long time and the trial should have ended by now for justice to prevail.



Speaking on Angel FMs Anopa Bofo Morning Show on Tuesday, July 19, Mr. Addae Nimo described the killing of JB Danquah Adu as a sad event and called on the law court to fast track its processes to bring finality to the case.



Six years have passedwe should have been done by now. In my opinion, everything about the case should have been revealed by now for us to know the consequences. It has kept long and that shouldnt be the prosecutors [Ghana Police Service] handling the case should be proactive with their investigations, Mr. Francis Addae Nimo told host of the show, Kofi Adoma Nwanwani.



The aspiring flagbearer for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) added that regarding the delays in the court processes, I know they know what can be done to fast track the process and establish the truth because that is someones life that has been taken



Remembering his former colleague in parliament, he described JB Danquah as a lively person who cannot be forgotten.



He recounted that the then MP for Abuakwa North Constituency was very knowledgeable and had respect for everyone.



JB was a very lively personhe was fun and respected everyone. We can never forget Honourable Joseph Boakye Danquah.



The late JB Danquah Adu, then MP for Abuakwa North Constituency was killed in his residence at Shiashie in 2016.



Pieces of Audio-visual recordings of the first accused person, Daniel Asiedu, reconstructing the crime scene to the police on how he allegedly killed the late MP, have been admitted in evidence on Monday.





Source: ghanaweb.com









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The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) had underscored the need for the government to input pragmatic measures to ensure the compliance of the asset declaration law in Ghana.



For a more effective asset regime, it said there was the need to apply stiffer sanctions to significantly, serve as deterrent to officials who under-declare or do not declare their assets and liabilities.



The coalition explained that the lack of explicit punishments coupled with other factors in the countrys current asset declaration regime as captured in Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution were the major reasons for the non-compliance with the Act.



Mr. Samuel Harrison-Cudjoe, Consultant with GACC in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday, said the Conduct of Public Officers bill introduced in 2018 did not sufficiently address key issues concerning asset declaration.



He said clause 44 left out the Office of the Special Prosecutor whose mandate included the prosecution of corruption-related offences.



The Consultant said the bill when passed into law, would determine the grounds for disqualification from holding public office, declaration of assets, what constituted improper enrichment, solicitation and the forfeiture and disposal of prohibited gifts.



He said citizens had the right to lawfully approach Government so that leaders could be held to account.



The asset declaration regime could have helped reduced corruption , but nobody is ensuring its enforcement, we as citizens could be watchdogs, ensure that public officers do the needful because our voices could be heard he indicated.



He called for the 2018 bill to be passed into law because it seeks to provide regulation for the behavior of public officers with specifics on what they had legal rights to do, though there are parts that needs modification, he noted .



Speaking on Government appointments, Mr. Cudjoe said appointees were not national in character because politicians had an upper hand in their job, influencing decisions and indirectly controlling affairs.



He said the time had come for systems to be structured to allow the Ghanaian Populace to vote freely to elect who they would want their leaders to be.



He said GACC had no stance in the recent call for constitutional review yet it believed that governance must meet the dire needs of the people.



Finally, he said he said corruption was a national canker that affected all and gave advantages to culprits, though temporary, each of us has a crucial role to play in curtailing corruption for the national good.





Source: GNA









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Work has commenced on the rehabilitation and modernisation of the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra.



Expected to be completed in nine months, the $3-million project entails the building of a new Presidential Library, a training centre, a new restaurant and a VVIP lounge.



Others are an artistic freedom wall and a music and light fountain to boost night tourism at the park.



Funding for the rehabilitation was provided by the World Bank under the Ghana Tourism Development Project.



Although the park is supposed to be a tourist attraction, maintenance of the facility has not been encouraging, resulting in its poor state.



On May 27, this year, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture closed the park until further notice for major renovation works.



During the launch of Destination Ghana, one of the governments flagship projects in the tourism sector, in London, United Kingdom, on April 3, 2022, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had announced that this year alone the government would spend about $25 million to upgrade some of the countrys iconic sites, including the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park.



Historical background



Built in 1991 by the Jerry Rawlings-led Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) government, the park, which sits at the Old Polo Grounds and covers an area of 5.3 acres, is where Ghanas first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, flanked by his comrades in the Convention Peoples Party (CPP)  Kojo Botsio, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, Archie Casely- Hayford and Krobo Edusei  declared Ghanas independence on March 6, 1957 before a huge ecstatic crowd.



It is the final resting place of the ex-President and his wife, Fathia Nkrumah, and hosts rare artefacts relating to Ghanas independence.



The remains of the ex-President, which were originally interred in his home town, Nkroful in the Western Region, were moved to the mausoleum that was constructed at the park.



Additional jobs



The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, who cut the sod for the official commencement of work yesterday[July 19, 2022], said when completed, the project was expected to create an additional 50 direct jobs.



Furthermore, he said, it would help boost domestic and international tourism and improve the country rating as an investment and trade destination.



He indicated that tourism, arts and culture had the potential to contribute significantly to national development and job creation.



Other founding fathers



Dr Awal explained that the rehabilitated park would befit the status of Dr Nkrumah and also give apt recognition to the countrys other founding fathers, namely: Edward Akufo-Addo, Ako Adjei, Obetsebi-Lamptey, William Ofori-Atta and Dr J.B. Danquah.



It will further concretise the Pan-African Triangular Centre  the George Padmore Library, the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre for Pan-Africanism and the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park  thereby consolidating Ghanas position as the foremost centre of Pan-Africanism and Diaspora research, he said.



The minister gave an assurance that the works would be done expeditiously, so that the park would be opened by March 2023 to coincide with the countrys independence anniversary.



The arts, culture and heritage must no longer be viewed as limited to the expression and display of customs, practices and values passed on from generation to generation but also seen as a powerful set of tools and forces of creativity, skills and talents with the potential to create wealth and prosperity that can bring about the realisation of economic power for the people, he said.



Visits



Dr Awal indicated that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park was registering an average of 98,000 visitors annually.



We anticipate that the number of visitors to the park will increase from the current figure to 400,000 after the rehabilitation.



This requires that we put in place a strategic plan to promote the park locally and internationally, he said.



He said the launch of the Year of Return, Beyond the Return and Destination Ghana events helped to position Ghana as the destination of choice among the historical and African Diaspora.



He said with the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and the resumption of international travels, it was anticipated that the country would have about one million international arrivals this year, with a corresponding tourism receipt of over $2 billion.



The country, he noted, needed to have customer care orientation, which required that players along the tourism value chain be customer-focused to reap the benefits because a delighted tourist, whether local or international, will not only visit again but also encourage others to visit.



Dr Awal noted that since Ghana could not rely on the export of cocoa and gold alone to support national development, there was an urgent need to diversify the export earnings, saying in that case tourism and the creative arts came in handy.



Economic activity



The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said the government, with the support of the World Bank, decided to undertake the rehabilitation of many tourist sites in the country, even in the face of global economic challenges, as a deliberate exercise aimed at achieving a specific purpose.



Tourism is the third largest contributor to economic activity in Ghana. If people will get jobs and earn income, the third largest part of our economy that ensures that that happens is the tourism sector, he added.



He said to ensure that the sector blossomed, it was important to invest in developing the infrastructure and sites to attract people from all over the world.



Charge on media



The Information Minister also used the occasion to charge the media to employ innovative programmes that would promote and market the newly refurbished tourist centres in the country to attract a lot more Ghanaians and people from around the world.



He said that had become necessary particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted patronage of the tourist centres and revenues that accrued to the state from the sector due to restrictions on mobility.



To our colleagues in the media, our charge to you is that you develop innovative programmes that attract thousands of people, not just to this site, but the National Museum that was just refurbished and opened for example, and the many other tourist sites that we are investing in to bring a lot of Ghanaians and people from all over the world to visit these sites and together, we will be able to bring the Ghanaian economy back to where we want it to be, he said.

Source: graphiconline.com









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GoI recognizes 15 Unsung Heroes from Arunachal, says Dy CM Chowna Mein 16 Aug 2022 | 9:28 PM Itanagar, Aug 16 (UNI) Arunachal Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein on Tuesday said that 15 Unsung Heroes from Arunachal Pradesh have been recognized by the Government of India, following completion of year-long celebration of the 75th anniversary of Independence. see more..

BJP minister backs incumbent state president, optimists BJP to lead govt in Meghalaya 16 Aug 2022 | 9:21 PM Shillong, Aug 16 (UNI) BJP minister in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, Sanbor Shullai on Tuesday backed Ernest Mawrie to continue as president of the State BJP, even as exuded confidence that the BJP will lead the government in Meghalaya in 2023. see more..

Leaders with criminal antecedents find berths in Nitish cabinet: Modi 16 Aug 2022 | 9:12 PM Patna, Aug 16 (UNI) Within hours of cabinet expansion of the newly formed Grand Alliance government, Rajya Sabha member of BJP Sushil Kumar Modi alleged that several leaders having criminal antecedents found berth in the cabinet headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. see more..

Hirakud Dam to open 40 gates to discharge flood water 16 Aug 2022 | 9:02 PM Sambalpur, Aug 16 (UNI) The Hirakud Dam Project (HDP) authority has decided to open 14 more gates to discharge more flood waters from the dam. see more..
The Right Reverend Felix Odei-Annancy, Anglican Bishop of Koforidua, has urged churches to strengthen their internal security to detect suspicious characters.



One of the ways to strengthen and be security consciousness at our various congregations is to train our ushers who are the first point of call and always at the entrance to be able to detect unusual occurrences, he noted.



The recent terrorist attack in neighbouring country Nigeria where scores of worshippers were massacred in a church is a wake-up call for all of us as a church and people to be conscious of our security, Rev Odei-Annancy said.



According to him, what happened in the neighboring country some weeks ago was a wake call to all citizens to be conscious of ourselves.



The Anglican Bishop made the call at the opening ceremony of the 14th Synod and ordination service of the diocese in Koforidua on the theme "40 years as a diocese moving forward towards discipleship and spirituality."



He said the Church had been a strong partner of Government in development over the years, adding that the church must be given the needed support to rise to call of the moment as terrorism had become a visible threat.



Mr Seth Kwame Acheampong, Eastern Regional Minister, said the trend of terrorism in the Sub-region was of great national security concern to President Akufo-Addo who is chair of ECOWAS and urged all to join the See something, say something campaign and be each others keeper.



Four priests, including Rev. Father Yeboah Adjei-Twum, Rev. Fr Louis Asare, Rev. Fr Adolf Frimpong and Rev.Fr Dr. Isaac Sarfo Acheampong were later ordained into the priesthood of the Church.





Source: GNA









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A Russian court has fined Google 21 billion rubles ($360 million) for failing to remove content concerning Russias military intervention in Ukraine, the nations telecommunications regulator has revealed.



The Moscow court said the Google-owned video platform YouTube had failed to block false information on the offensive in Ukraine, extremist and terrorist propaganda and content calling on minors to participate in unauthorised demonstrations.



The regulator, Roskomnadzor said that as this was a repeat conviction for Google hence the huge fine.



Russian authorities have increased pressure on Western social media firms in recent years with repeated fines and threats in a bid to remove criticism from the internet, the only source of free speech in Russia.



Like most of its Western rivals, Google recently quit the Russian market in protest against Russias military intervention in Ukraine.

According to Vladimir Zykov, an expert cited by Russian news agency Ria-Novosti, the fine is the largest ever imposed on a Western tech firm by a Russian court.



Russian authorities can impose on Google as many fines as they wish, they wont receive the money as the firm has pulled out of the country, he said.



Russia's internet regulator, Roskomnadzor branded the activities of Google and YouTube with the terrorist label in March, opening up the possibility they would be blocked in Russia, as have Twitter, Instagram and many independent media following the start of the military operation.



In Russia, the legal penalties for speaking out against the conflict has been increased with thise found guilty of spreading false information about the Russian military facing up to 15 years in jail.



Several journalists, some politicians and citizens have already been jailed on such charges.









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Students from a university in the Bangkok's Nong Khaem district are under investigation after footage on Twitter shows three men dancing naked in front of women during a hazing ritual.



Photos and a video clip emerged on Twitter of the electrical engineering students, from a private university in Bangkoks Nong Khaem district, carrying out the ritual off campus.



The freshmen were allegedly forced to dance naked as women looked on, Matichon newspaper said.



Twitter user @RedSkullxxx who initially shared photos of the ritual on the platform said: "This month there were orientation ceremonies both on campus and off it."



The account user added: "Within the campus it was all normal but outside the university there were some freshmen who striped fully even though there were women there.



"But photos were not taken. There were those who had not completed their studies also joining in."



The video showed three men dancing naked to music amid cheers, with the women seated on chairs looking on.



Southeast Asia University has now issued a statement on this video clip saying it has a clear policy on organising creative orientation ceremonies.



"It is forbidden to hold activities to welcome junior students outside the premises with violation of the rights of junior students being strictly prohibited," it said.



"Senior students guilty of misconduct will be heavily punished for violating discipline and the law.



"The university has been continuously notifying both students and their parents via SMS.



"In this regard, the faculty will expedite investigation of the facts and will take disciplinary and legal action against senior students who organised or were involved in the non-constructive orientation activities."

Copy and paste link below (twitter) in browser to watch video:-



https://twitter.com/RedSkullxxx/status/1548207371159146497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1548207371159146497%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lindaikejisblog.com%2F2022%2F7%2Funiversity-students-performed-naked-dance-ritual-in-front-of-women-video.html















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Minister for Communications, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has said over 12 million Ghanaians have so far linked their Ghana cards to their SIM cards.



Speaking at a consumer forum on telecommunications services organized by National Communications Authority in Kumasi today, Tuesday, 19 July 2022, she said the July 31, 2022 deadline for the sim registration will not be extended.



Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, therefore, urged the public to use the opportunity to get their SIM cards registered.



She also said 2016 cell sites are being provided across the country as part of the Rural Telephony Project to meet the telecom needs of rural communities by the end of 2023 to connect to 3.5 million more Ghanaians.



She said since the inception of the project in November 2020 at Atwereboano in the New Edubiase constituency, 769 sites have been built.



Out of the sites built, she said, 360 are on air and delivering voice and data services to over 120,000 subscribers daily as of May 27, 2022.











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Most of the challenges facing the country are the result of a weak Parliament, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has said.



He said much of the waste, mismanagement and corruption that had led to economic downturns in the country could have been averted if Parliament had been strengthened to play its oversight responsibility effectively.



Mr Bagbin said this when the Editor, Graphic, Kobby Asmah, paid a courtesy call on him at his office at Parliament House in Accra last Friday.



Mr Asmah was accompanied by the Political Editor of the Daily Graphic, Albert Kwesi Salia.



The visit was to deepen the existing cordial relationship between Parliament and the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) and also seek the support of the Speaker in the production and sale of the 2023 Ghana Year Book (GYB), a publication of the GCGL.



Ghana Year Book (GYB) is an annual publication that takes stock of very important developments of the preceding year in the country.



In addition to improved content, it captures the nations events as they unfolded in the previous year.



Strengthening Parliament



The Speaker said his first year in office had focused on strengthening Parliament, while, in the second year, the emphasis had been on solidifying its oversight function.



That, he said, was to strengthen Parliament to enable it to hold the Executive arm of government and state institutions accountable to the people for the power, trust, resources and hope reposed in them.



"My first year in office as Speaker was used to strengthen Parliament and my second year is focused on ensuring that Parliament becomes more assertive and the government and state institutions account for their stewardship to the people," he said.



He indicated that when Parliament was strengthened and it played its oversight functions effectively, it would help deliver the goods to the people and consolidate the democratic culture of the country.



That, Mr Bagbin said, would gradually shift the public perception from the belief that Parliament was a weak institution and a rubber stamp for government policies.



Touching on his duties as Speaker, he said he did not only preside over proceedings on the floor of Parliament but also performed some administrative functions.



He explained that he had to go through all the questions that MPs had filed for each week's sitting to be asked of Ministers of State on the floor of Parliament, as well as the statements to be presented by members of the House, to ensure that they were "politically correct" before he admitted them, adding that every motion moved on the floor must come to the Speaker.



"That is the administrative role I play as Speaker, apart from presiding," he said.



Composition of Parliament



Mr Bagbin noted that the current composition of Parliament, with each side of the House  Majority and Minority  having the same number, required a lot of consensus building in the interest of the nation.



He noted that the era of majoritarian rule in Parliament was no more and so it was time all came to terms with that reality to work together to enhance democracy for the good of the people.



He explained that the sitting arrangement of the House, which was of the horseshoe order, meant that deliberations should not be confrontational on the floor of the House but dialogue, respect and candour.



The Speaker said most of the misunderstandings that had occurred on the floor of the House in the recent past of the Eighth Parliament happened in his absence but he had to take responsibility for them, since he was the presiding officer.



Applying the rules



Mr Bagbin indicated that he had tried as much as possible to be fair and firm in his rulings anytime he presided.



On the issue of absenteeism, he said the work of MPs was not limited to only the chamber but included committee meetings, work in the constituencies and parliamentary duties outside the country.



He, therefore, noted that the issue of MPs being absent from the House was a tricky one, as some members went to the chamber, and once they were captured, they did not sit through but left, while others attended committee meetings.



However, he said it was the responsibility of every MP to sign the attendance book once he/she was within the precincts of Parliament.



Legacy



The Speaker indicated that plans were underway to institute an annual Parliamentary Week to engage with the public to deepen understanding of how Parliament worked.



In addition, plans were in place to set up an electronic archive at Parliament House to bring the institution of Parliament closer to the people, where every information on legislature, both past and present, could be easily obtained or accessed, he added.



Touching on the independence of Parliament, Mr Bagbin said Parliament was a tenant on the land it occupied, as it had to write to the Executive for permission anytime it wanted to use the park at the forecourt of the State House.



He explained that since the space was also open to the public, any member of the public could have access to it, while events such as funerals and other public functions were also held there.



The situation, he said, posed a security threat to MPs, some of who, on many occasions, have had their vehicles broken into.



Appreciation



For his part, Mr Asmah expressed appreciation to the Speaker for the warm reception, as well as taking him through some of the challenges facing Parliament and also its workings.



He described the visit as educative and insightful, given the thoughts the Speaker had shared.



Mr Asmah gave an assurance that the Daily Graphic would continue to provide adequate coverage on Parliament for its cherished readers.



Ghana Year Book



Touching on the GYB, the Editor, Graphic, said the 2022 edition had articles written by the Speaker and some MPs.



He explained that the visit was also to solicit the Speakers support for the 2023 publication of the GYB, as well as see if a space could be created within the precincts of Parliament for MPs to own copies.

Source: graphiconline.com









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The Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo has reiterated her commitment to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration in the face of what she describes as a "political witchhunt" from within the party.

Adwoa Safo, also Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months over her absence from her official duties in Parliament.



She and two other MPS have been investigated for absenting themselves from Parliament without permission for more than the stipulated 15 sitting days during the first meeting of the second session of the 8th Parliament.





In a Facebook post congratulating newly-elected executives of the party, the Gender Minister said she had "become the victim of a sustained political witchhunt by certain elements in the NPP and in Parliament to achieve their own parochial goals".



"This has left me asking myself if this is happening because I am a woman who for just this one time needed some time off to deal with a few personal issues which were too dear to share with the larger publics. In the face of all these, I have questioned why I have had to be treated differently by not enjoying the famous support of our party leadership both in Parliament and at the party level in my most difficult moments these past few months," she posted.



"As a member of the party, I have served with utmost diligence (both in opposition and in government) and have at all times put the fortunes of my family at the disposal of the party. At no point in time have myself nor my family withheld anything of ours from our great Party, yet today, I am conveniently being called a traitor and all manner of names with several schemes being put to play and employed to oust me from my position as MP and Minister.



"I conclude by reiterating that, in the face of clear political hounding and vendetta by certain elements within the party and parliament against me, I have never wavered in my commitment to the ideals and creed of the New Patriotic Party and the Government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, to whom, I am eternally grateful".



Read the entire post below;



Four years ago, together with colleague Members of Parliament, Party Leaders and the rank and file of the New Patriotic Party, we converged in Koforidua to elect new Leaders for the party. This was on the heels of an emphatic Victory by the Party in 2016 and thereafter securing another victory for the party in the 2020 elections.

The theme for this years Conference, Holding Together, Working Together resonates so much with my current circumstances and brings back memories of my time as the Deputy Majority Leader in the 7th Parliament where, as Leader of the Womens Caucus, together with the Leadership of the Majority did our very best to protect a colleague female Member of Parliament who had to be away in London for close to two years to take care of family issues. We did this on compassionate grounds because it involved Children and didnt go round making hue and cry about her absence. This is just one example of how we protected one of our own as Leaders in Parliament.

In the last few months that I have been away from official duties albeit not intentionally, I have become a victim of a sustained political witch hunt by certain elements in the NPP and in Parliament to achieve their own parochial goals. This has left me asking myself if this is happening because I am a woman who for just this one time needed some time off to deal with a few personal issues which were too dear to share with the larger publics. In the face of all these, I have questioned why I have had to be treated differently by not enjoying the famous support of our party leadership both in Parliament and at the party level in my most difficult moments these past few months.

As a member of the party, I have served with utmost diligence (both in opposition and in government) and have at all times put the fortunes of my family at the disposal of the party. At no point in time have myself nor my family withheld anything of ours from our great Party, yet today, I am conveniently being called a traitor and all manner of names with several schemes being put to play and employed to oust me from my position as MP and Minister.

This years conference theme perfectly embodies what we must do, and stand for, as members of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo Tradition. There is the need for us to stay United. Every single person and vote are needed in our singular quest to break the eight. We cannot give up on anyone.

As we have brought this conference to a successful end, with the election of a new set of result oriented National Executives, we have been presented with a huge opportunity to consolidate our gains and efforts towards creating a United Front and a party that is empathetic and responsive to the needs and aspirations of its membership. Leadership is very important in every endeavor, most especially in a mass organization like the NPP. The onus lies on the new Leadership to ensure we hold on to each other and work together to break the eight.

I conclude by reiterating that, in the face of clear political hounding and vendetta by certain elements within the party and parliament against me, I have never wavered in my commitment to the ideals and creed of the New Patriotic Party and the Government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, to whom, I am eternally grateful.

Lastly, I congratulate the Newly Elected National Executives and wish them the very best in their quest to lead the charge in 2024 to achieve the unprecedented feat of Breaking the Eight.

God Bless.

#HOLDINGTOGETHER

#WORKINGTOGETHER

Source: graphiconline.com









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Featured Video
National Organiser of the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joshua Akamba, has answered some questions pertaining to John Boadu losing the General Secretary position.



According to him, John Boadus surprising defeat was due to his posture within his party.



He told NEAT FMs morning show, 'Ghana Montie', in an interview that, the widely known John Boadu was a ghost in his party.



He was only popular on social media and in the media, he said  explaining that, he had no connection with the grassroot members of the party.



Adding that, he was arrogant within the party.



NPP held its National Delegates Conference last weekend to elect national officers for the next four years as it looks forward to breaking the 8-year power cycle jinx in Ghanas politics.



One position which was of keen interest to many was the General Secretary position, which was highly contested between the then incumbent, John Boadu and eventual winner, Justin Frimpong Kodua.



Justin Frimpong Kodua aka JFK gave John Boadu a good contest and eventually emerged as a winner.



John Boadu before the election had overwhelming support from some regional Chairmen which gave him the confidence of a victory  but the majority of the delegates already had their plans of voting him out.



However, Joshua Hamidu Akamba claims the support of the regional Chairmen led by the Ashanti regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako popularly known as Chairman Wontumi was a wrong move.



The Chairmen were even arrogant when declaring their support for him, you cannot tell the delegates what to do. They are the kingmakers, he added.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah has disclosed that he no longer has a close relationship with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo because the president is no longer listening to God.



In an interview posted on the YouTube channel of RTV Ghana, the preacher known as The Nations Prophet, is heard lamenting how Akufo-Addos countenance towards matters of God has dipped.



Asked whether he was mistaken to have backed the President spiritually in his days in opposition, Bempah insisted that he did what was told to him by God at the time.



He likened his current relationship with the president to that of Saul and Samuel in the Bible, positing that he was Samuel  a man simply directed by God to anoint His chosen one. While Akufo-Addo was Saul  the chosen one who disobeyed God and was visited with hard times.



Samuel was asked to anoint Saul to become King, things did not go well, things went rough and that was because Saul became stubborn and was not listening to God and Samuel, so Samuel distanced himself from Saul.



When Samuel tried to intervene at a point, God asked him to stay off because Saul had showed disobedience and so I see that the pure heart Akufo-Addo for which God chose him, has changed.



He doesnt listen to God anymore, and the prayers that clergymen used to say for him, he doesnt allow it any longer. So, if you like him to Saul, it is the same thing, Samuel was only instructed by God to anoint Saul because he was Gods own choice, Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah stressed.



Listen to his full views on current happenings





Source: ghanaweb.com









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The Member of Parliament(MP) for Ningo Prampram constituency, Sam George has dared Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia to prove that the Ghana Card can indeed be used as a travel document.



It may be recalled that Dr Bawumia speaking during the launch of the E-pharmacy platform on Monday, opined that diasporans could travel into the country without visas once they have the Ghana Card.



People could not understand how the Ghana Card, certified by ICAO, could be used as travel document and they mocked the idea. But today, it is a reality and our diasporans should get the Ghana card before they leave Ghana. When they get the Ghana card, they can travel to Ghana without applying for a visa at any embassy abroad.



Speaking in an interview on Joy FMs News Night on Tuesday, Sam George who is a member of the Communication Committee of Parliament said the Vice President is 'at sea'.



He does not understand the issues. You need to use the Ghana Card as a travel visa if it can allow you to embark and disembark. As we speak today, when you get to the Kotoka International Airport, for departures, there is no desk for Ghana cards. There is only a desk for Ghana cards for arrival and so it is only for citizens of this country returning home.



"And even for citizens returning home, if you are returning from London for example, at London Heathrow, you will not be allowed to board any plane by showing only your Ghana Card. You must show a passport and show that either that passport is a Ghanaian passport that allows you to fly back to Ghana without a visa, or if it is of any other country, show a Ghanaian visa.



Dr. Bawumia himself, as Vice President, cannot travel from Ghana with his Ghana card. I am challenging Dr. Bawumia to embark on a foreign trip from Ghana, using his Ghana card alone. This level of deception of the public by a public officer of the rank of Vice President is unbecoming.



Foreign Ministry contradiction



Meanwhile, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has contradicted Bawumia's statement.



According to her, Like many other countries, They dont issue E-Visas and for very good reasons. What we are starting with is the security visas, the biometric visas. At a later date, Im sure that at some point in time the issue of E-visas will be considered . . . I see it as a first step towards eventually [issuing E-visas] . . . when we have a good database when we have people who are frequent visitors and we know them. At some point, the decision will be made.



Ghana Card is internal. It is for those of us here. But in the event that the Ghana Card is extended to Ghanaians outside . . . Basically, Visas are for people who are not Ghanaians who want to enter our country but for those who have Ghana Card they can come without any problem. These are basically for visitors entering who are not Ghanaians . . . they are for non-Ghanaians, they need visas to come into the country," she added.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Actress Akuapem Poloo is undoubtedly one of the biggest fans of American rapper Cardi B. No wonder she went crazy when they first met in Ghana back in December 2019.



Poloo's friendly gesture earned her a secure spot in the rapper's heart.



Akuapem Poloo on Sunday took to her Instagram page to promote Cardi B's latest single 'Hot Shit' which features Kanye West and Lil Durk.



Her post read: "I love Cardi B. Bardi #HOTSH*T."



In no time, Cardi, who Poloo describes as her 'Spirit Twin' reacted to the post with heart emojis.



The two have maintained a friendly relationship on social media, with the American superstar offering her financial support.



Back in 2021, the Ghanaian actress revealed that Cardi sent her $30,000 during her court case involving the publication of obscene material about herself and her son.



Cardi supported me, she gave me $30,000.00 which I used during my court case and advised me all the time, she said.



Soon after Cardi's reaction to her post, Poloo pinned and screenshotted the comment to prove that their friendship is still growing strong.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rosemond Alade Brown (@akuapem_poloo)

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rosemond Alade Brown (@akuapem_poloo)









Source: instagram/ghanaweb









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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Minorities suffer from lack of trust due to grouping in Bangladesh

Dhaka, July 20 (UNI) Minorities suffer from lack of trust due to grouping in Bangladesh. They are in conflict as to who belongs to which group. Hence, a section of opportunity seekers has infiltrated into various minority groups.

As a result, various types of attacks on minorities are gradually increasing. Recently, such information was revealed over the construction of a temple of ISKCON. Hindu organizations clashed against each other.

A group called Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad is working in Bangladesh.
RTHK: US lawmakers arrested over Supreme Court protest

At least 17 Democratic lawmakers, including prominent progressives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, were arrested at an abortion rights protest outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Tuesday, police said.

The US Capitol police said on Twitter that the demonstrators had blocked traffic on a nearby road and were been given three warnings before officers made the arrests.

"We made a total of 35 arrests for Crowding, Obstructing or Incommoding," the police said. "That arrest number includes 17 Members of Congress."

The small demonstration came three weeks after a controversial ruling by the Supreme Court that overturned the 1973 landmark decision of Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed women's access to abortion.

"Today I was arrested while participating in a civil disobedience action with my fellow Members of Congress outside the Supreme Court," Omar, representative from Minnesota, said on Twitter.

"I will continue to do everything in my power to raise the alarm about the assault on our reproductive rights!" she tweeted.

Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York was also arrested, and issued a statement saying, "There is no democracy if women do not have control over their own bodies and decisions about their own health, including reproductive care."

"The Republican Party and the right-wing extremists behind this decision are not pro-life, but pro-controlling the bodies of women, girls, and any person who can become pregnant."

Footage from the protest showed Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and others being led away, not in handcuffs, and waving to supporters. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2022-07-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Moscow, July 20 (UNI/Sputnik) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia is grateful to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for offering their mediation in resolving the situation in Ukraine.

"Regarding Turkey's efforts, as well as the proposals of other countries  for example, Saudi Arabia offers its mediation [in Russia-Ukraine negotiations], the United Arab Emirates, and they have such opportunity  we are grateful to all our friends who are interested in resolving this crisis for offering their opportunities. Even a desire to make some kind of a contribution is a noble thing," Putin said after the trilateral summit.

UNI/SPUTNIK ACL
Pablo Silva Takes Down His First GGPoker Super MILLION$

July 20, 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor

Pablo Silva went into the final day of the $10,300 Super MILLION$ as the chip leader and he emerged two and a half hours later with the $260,765 top prize in tow. Silva had navigated his way to the final table on seven other occasions but always came up short. July 19 was the Brazilian's time to shine.

Super MILLION$ Final Table Results

Place Player Country Prize 1 Pablo Silva Brazil $260,765 2 Nick Maimone Canada $203,647 3 Rodrigo Sirichuk Brazil $159,040 4 Patrick "chrisbenoit" Brooks Mexico $124,203 5 Jans Arends Austria $96,997 6 Daniel Dvoress Austria $75,751 7 Volodymyr "Leonardo23" Palamar Ukraine $59,158 8 Pedro Garagnani Brazil $46,200 9 Mehdi "Carence en L" Chaoui Morocco $36,080

There was a big double-up for Silva's fellow Brazilian, Rodrigo Sirichuk, on the first hand of the final table's action. Daniel Dvoress was first to act from the small blind and he open-shoved for 16.6 big blinds effective with king-five of diamonds. Sirichuk called with ace-queen, spiked and ace on the flop, and faded a flush draw to double his stack.

Morocco's Mehdi "Carence en L" Chauoi was the first of the nine finalists to lose their stack. Sirichuk min-raised to 70,000 from the cutoff before calling the three-bet all-in from Chauoi which the Moroccan made with ace-trey of hearts. Sirichuk flipped over the dominating ace-king, which held courtesy of a king on the flop.

Pedro Garagnani was the next player heading for the showers. Garagnani open-shoved for slightly more than 6.5 big blinds from early position with pocket three in the hole, and Dvoress looked him up with king-queen from the small blind. Dvoress flopped two pair and they proved enough to reduce the player count by one.

Seventh-place was decided when Ukraine's Volodymyr "Leonardo23" Palamar crashed out. Palamar lost all but 2.5 big blinds when his ace-king lost to the jack-ten of Jans Arends, with Arends turning trip jacks. The rest of Palamar's micro-stack went into the middle of the virtual felt with ace-nine, which ultimately lost to the jack-six of Nick Maimone, who hit a Broadway straight on the river.

Daniel Dvoress

Dvoress' title challenge ended in a sixth place finish when he shipped in 15.5 big blinds from the button with king-ten, and Sirichuk came over the top with the dominating ace-ten. An ace on the flop stopped Dvoress in his tracks.

The final table lost a dangerous player in fifth place when Arends bowed out. Sirichuk min-raised to 120,000 under the gun, and Arends called from the big blind. The flop fell six-four-seven, Arends checked, Sirichuk bet 78,000, and Arends jammed for 674,688. Sirichuk called and showed pocket jacks, which had the jack-seven of Arends crushed. Game over for Arends.

The first five-figure prize went to Patrick "chrisbenoit" Brooks, who had done incredibly well laddering up because he had been nursing a short stack for most of the final table. Brooks finally came unstuck when he ripped in his last 11 big blinds from the small blind with jack-eight suited only for Maimone to call with jack-ten suited. A ten on the turn sent Brooks to the rail.

Heads-up was set when Sirichuk crashed out in third. Sirichuk's exit came as a surprise because he was the chip leader going into three-handed play. Maimone voiced some concerns about Silva and Sirichuk being close friends, and Sirichuk offered to share his hand history with Maimone. As it happens, Silva and Sirichuk clashed several times during three-handed play, and it was Silva who sent his fellow countryman to the rail.

Silva shoved from the small blind with king-queen and Sirichuk called off his 24 big blind stack with ace-queen of clubs. Sirichuk was an 88.64% favorite on the turn thanks to holding two overcards and a flush draw, but a non-club king completed the community cards to send Sirichuk home in third place.

Silva held a near three-to-one chip lead over Maimone going into heads-up and it proved too much of a gap to bridge. Maimone couldn't close the gap but Silva could not really extend his lead either. Something had to give eventually and it did when Maimone min-raised to 240,000 on the button, Silva three-bet all in, and Maimone called off the 2,262,657 chips he had behind. It was king-ten of spades for Maimone and pocket sevens for his Brazilian opponent. The flop fell with two spades but both the turn and river were kind to Silva's sevens, and he became the latest superstar to take down the GGPoker Super MILLION$.
PokerStars UKIPT Makes Long-Awaited Return to Dusk Till Dawn From July 23

July 20, 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor

The PokerStars United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) makes it long-awaited return to the home of British poker, Dusk Till Dawn, from July 23 and everything points towards it being a UKIPT stop to remember. Fifteen events and satellite adorn the bustling UKIPT Nottingham festival, with buy-ins ranging from 120 to 5,300.

2022 UKIPT Nottingham Schedule

Date Time Tournament Sat 23 Jul 3:00 p.m. 250 UKIPT Mini Day 1a Sun 24 Jul 3:00 p.m. 250 UKIPT Mini Day 1b Wed 27 Jul 12:00 p.m. 250 UKIPT Mini Day 1c 1:00 p.m. 550 Satellite to Super High Roller 6:00 p.m. 5,300 Super High Roller Day 1 7:00 p.m. 250 UKIPT Mini Day 1d 8:00 p.m. 120 Satellite to UKIPT Main Event Thu 28 Jul 12:00 p.m. 1,100 UKIPT Main Event Day 1a 1:00 p.m. Super High Roller Day 2 2:00 p.m. 120 Satellite to UKIPT Main Event 5:00 p.m. 250 No-Limit Hold'em 8:00 p.m. 120 Satellite to UKIPT Main Event Fri 29 Jul 12:00 p.m. 1,100 UKIPT Main Event Day 1b 12:00 p.m. 120 Last Chance Satellite to UKIPT Main Event 5:00 p.m. 250 Pot Limit Omaha Double Chance 8:00 p.m. 230 Satellite to High Roller Sat 30 Jul 12:00 p.m. UKIPT Main Event Day 2 12:00 p.m. 340 UKIPT Cup Day 1a 2:00 p.m. 2,200 UKIPT High Roller Day 1 8:00 p.m. 340 UKIPT Cup Day 1b Sun 31 Jul 12:00 p.m. UKIPT Main Event Final Day 12:00 p.m. 230 No Limit Hold'em Knockout 12:30 p.m. UKIPT Cup Final Day 1:00 p.m. UKIPT High Roller Final Day 2:00 p.m. 1,100 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Max

Luxon Pay Announces the Inaugural Mediterranean Poker Party

UKIPT Nottingham kicks off on July 23 with the first of three flights in the 250 UKIPT Mini. These lower buy-in tournaments are a great way to start a festival because they get bums on seats and those who finish deep into the money places then have the bankroll to compete in the other scheduled events.

July 27 is when the first of the big buy-in UKIPT Nottingham tournaments shuffles up and deals. Expect some of the biggest names in British poker and further afield to descend on Dusk Till Dawn for the 5,300 buy-in Super High Roller. If you fancy your chances of playing in this tournament, there is a 550 buy-in satellite feeding into it at 1:00 p.m. on July 27.

There is also a 2,200 buy-in High Roller that is sure to be well-attended, but it is the eagerly anticipated UKIPT Nottingham Main Event that has everyone super excited.

PokerNews Becomes the Official Media Partner of Dusk Till Dawn

500,000 Guaranteed 2022 UKIPT Nottingham Main Event

The 2022 UKIPT Nottingham Main Event commands a 1,100 buy-in but for that you get to play for a share of a guaranteed 500,000. Every Main Event player sits down with a generous helping of 30,000 chips and plays to a 40-minute clock where the blinds start at 100/100 and a 100 big blind ante.

Late registration remains open until the completion of the tenth level, during which time players are permitted to purchase a maximum of two re-entries. Each Day 1 ends when only 15% of the field remains, with those top 15% advancing to Day 2 safe in the knowledge they have locked up at least a min-cash. The Main Event crowns its champion on July 31.

Previous UKIPT Nottingham Main Events

Season Buy-in Entrants Prize pool Champion Prize 1 (2010) 560 650 325,000 Andrew Couldridge 80,000 2 (2011) 560 1,058 529,000 Gareth Walker 97,700 3 (2012) 770 1,625 1,137,500 Robert Baguley 210,400 4 (2013) 1,100 458 500,000 Ben Mayhew 72,840 4 (2013) 1,100 1,223 1,223,000 Duncan McLellan 202,372

UKIPT Nottingham has produced some fantastic Main Events in its time. The inaugural Main Event took place in 2010 when the tournament came with a 560 buy-in. Andrew Couldridge outlasted a field of 650 to bank 80,000.

Newcastle's Gareth Walker triumphed in 2011, besting 1,057 opponents on his way to reeling in 97,700, before Robert Baguley got his hands on the largest-ever UKIPT Nottingham Main Event prize, namely 210,400. Baguley came out on top of a 1,625-strong crowd in what was a 770 buy-in event.

Two UKIPT Nottingham Main Events took place in 2013: a six-max and a standard affair. Both cost 1,100 to enter, and Ben Mayhew won the six-handed version for 72,840 while Duncan McLellan won the standard event for 202,372.

McLellan is, therefore, the reigning UKIPT Nottingham champion, a title he has held since 2013. Will it be you who wins the 2022 UKIPT Nottingham Main Event?
Tunica Poker Legend & WSOP Bracelet Winner Galen Kester Passes Away

July 20, 2022 Chad Holloway Executive Editor U.S.

Earlier this week, the poker community learned the sad news that Galen Kester, a well-known player in Tunica, Mississippi, passed away.

Galen Kester was a legend in Tunica, and played in enormous cash games with a great cast of characters, Johnny Grooms posted on social media.

In 2001, Kester won a World Series of Poker gold bracelet when he topped a 145-player field to win Event #8: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha for a career-high $167,035. He did so by defeating Poker Hall of Famer David Devilfish Ulliott in heads-up play and besting a final table that included Freddy Deeb and Jay Heimowitz, as well as deep runs by Erik Seidel (10th place) and Johnny Chan (14th place).

According to the Hendon Mob, Kester amassed just over $1.2 million in lifetime tournament earnings dating back to 2001. That put him fifth on Mississippis all-time money list at the time of his passing.

Kester also won the 2012 Gold Strike World Poker Open $3,000 Main Event in Tunica for $165,000, took down the Fourth Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open $1,060 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament for $152,096 in 2003, and was victorious in the 2006 Gold Strike World Poker Open $2,070 NLH event for $101,212. He also had a deep run in the 2006 WSOP Main Event finishing in 173rd place for $47,006.

The Poker World Remembers

Friends and fellow poker players were quick to offer either a kind word or a story about Kester.

I was talking to Galen about running bad one day, I said the problem is I leave the poker table and go to the craps table because I am running bad, but its me running bad not the cards, I lose more money there, Kevin OHarra shared. Galen said, Tell me about it, I got up from the Omaha game, went to the craps table and lost $100k, they thought I went to the bathroom.

Galen Kester

Todd Tucker also shared a story:

The Horseshoe held a freeroll tournament in 2003 for players who logged a certain number of hours within a certain timespan. The winner got a WSOP main event seat and some travel cash. 2nd place got zilch. Galen and I got heads up and he had me out chipped about 3-1. Bad spot for me, being against a better player with a big chip advantage, but I decided if I was going down, I was going down swinging. I played fast and Galen was card dead and next thing I knew we were even in chips.

He limped his button and I looked down at AA and for some reason I still don't understand, I just checked. Flop was dry and we both checked. Turn was a brick and I bet a little. He shook his head and showed me AK before he mucked. He was trapping preflop. All I had to do was say the word "raise" and all the chips go in and it's over. I showed him the AA and I think that gave him some momentum because I never won another pot. He was nice enough to trade a small piece when we got heads up, even though he shouldn't have. I enjoyed playing with Galen and dealing to him.

Teresa Sommerfeld added: He was something else!! Always very sweet to me but I know some dealers who could tell a different story!! One thing I can say is he Loved his son, Dex. Never seen a prouder daddy!! Prayers for his boy and the family!!

PokerNews offers its condolences to the friends and family of Galen Kester.

Galen Kester's Top Five Tournament Cashes

Date Tournament Place Prize April 2001 WSOP $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 1st $167,035 August 2012 Gold Strike World Poker Open $3,000 Main Event 1st $165,000 January 2003 4th Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open $2,070 NLH 1st $101,212 January 2006 Gold Strike World Poker Open $2,070 NLH 1st $101,212 July 2006 WSOP Main Event 173rd $47,006

Sharelines Galen Kester, a well-known player in Tunica, Mississippi, and a @WSOP bracelet winner passed away.
The Aiken County representative on the South Carolina House of Representatives ad hoc committee tasked with making a recommendation on the state's abortion laws chose life when she was 16, pregnant and feeling pressure to get an abortion.

S.C. Rep. Melissa Oremus, R-Graniteville, shared her story Tuesday afternoon before the committee voted to recommend language of a bill that would prohibit abortions except for in cases where the life or bodily health of the mother was in danger.

She spoke to the committee four days after the death of her father.

"Knowing him, he would tell me to go to work and just forget about him," Oremus told the committee before she shared her story. "It's kind of hard to do; but if it [her father's death] has done anything, it's reminded me how precious life really truly is."

The story she shared begins when she was 16 years old and pregnant.

"It was not the ideal situation," Oremus said. "It was kind of an oops moment, and I was faced with that decision. Do I abort? Or do I keep going as life and the status quo?"

Oremus said her friends and those around her encouraged her to get an abortion so she could "go on and live" her life.

"I was super smart, top of my class, had a lot going for me, had scholarships to college," Oremus continued. "I was angry. I was angry at myself that I allowed this to happen to me. I say allowed this to happen to me, because I was very much aware of the consequences of having unprotected sex. I made that decision."

Oremus said she thought she would be one of the teenagers who could have unprotected sex and get away with it.

But she wasn't.

And she chose life when she had the choice.

"I can tell you that my beautiful, 26-year-old daughter is happy to be here," Oremus continued. "She's happy to be alive. She's happy to live through the hard times that we had. It made her a better person, a strong woman."

On the proposed bill, Oremus also said she was happy to see that the bill protected alternative reproductive therapies and in-vitro fertilization. She said her twins were conceived through IVF.

She called for an expansion of programs to explain the potential consequences of unprotected sex to appropriately aged minors. She added she has had conversations of that nature with her own children.

Oremus said society can't be scared to have those conversations at school and at church. Oremus said children need to understand if they're going to make adult decisions, they will face adult consequences.

"I'm one of those women who got pregnant," Oremus said. "Nobody forced me to do it. And I had a decision to make. When do we start taking responsibility for our actions? When do we start saying (we) need to educate our young women?"

She called for putting money that would go to abortions into crisis pregnancy centers echoing a suggestion from S.C. Rep. Heather Crawford, R-Horry.

Oremus also said she would like to see a father's clause added to the language in the proposed bill that would allow a father wanting a child to have the mother carry the child to term, give birth and then give the child to the father.

She said last time she checked, it took two people to create a child; and that the father should have options, too.

Oremus also said she was angered by the slogan used by pro-choice advocates, "My body, my choice." She said the slogan drives her crazy.

"Once there is another life growing in you, then it's another body; and it's not their choice," Oremus said. "They're looking to their parent to protect them, to carry them through so that they could be born. Just like Rep. [Jeff] Johnson said, so they could have the opportunity to live their life."

She said abortion shouldn't happen because someone has an oops moment.

Oremus said all the women she knows who have had an abortion are haunted by it, whether they did so because they were forced to do it by a parent, a friend, a boyfriend or a boyfriend looking to cover up a rape.

"I can tell you that I've heard those stories from so many women, and I can tell you that they mourn the loss of that child," she continued. "For those that don't [feel that loss] and they use abortion as a form of birth control, I'm sorry for your soul; and I'm sorry that you feel no remorse for it."

Her voice shook as she discussed the most recent abortion statistics released by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The most recent information from the department says there were over 5,000 abortions performed in South Carolina in 2021.

"I have to think about that 5,000 kids that we killed last year," Oremus said. "What are they doing? Are they rejoicing in heaven watching their parents fight for more murder?"

Oremus said she couldn't understand how a person could have a child and then opt for an abortion when pregnant again. She said she would pray for those people that the abortion would be another blip in their radar.

She said she rejected the argument that the committee needed to address the concerns of the people protesting outside the committee's meeting location and not God. She said she slept well knowing she answered to the almighty.
Colombo, July 20 (UNI) Acting President and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was on Wednesday elected the eighth Executive President of Sri Lanka to succeed the deposed Gotabaya Rajapksa and immediately called for national unity to overcome the country's worst economic crisis since 1948.

Wickremesinghe secured 134 votes in a secret ballot held in Parliament as all but two of the 225 MPs voted keeping in mind three contenders: Wickremesinghe, SLPP's Dullas Alahapperuma and JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

While two MPs, both Tamils, abstained, 219 votes were found valid and four votes invalid. Alahapperuma got 82 votes and Dissnayake just three.

The newly elected Wickremesinghe thanked his contenders and urged all MPs to work together in a new manner, the Daily Mirror reported.

"The people are not asking for old politics. I request Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and other opposition parties including former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena to work together, he said in a speech after the victory.

We were divided for the last 48 hours. That period is now over. We have to work together now, he added.

Wickremesinghe, who has previously lost two presidential elections and even his MP seat, was picked as the Prime Minister by then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after his brother and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned on May 9 amid widespread violence in the island ntaion.

After President Rajapaksa fled to The Maldives following a mass revolt on July 9, Wickremesinghe was appointed the Acting President. As per the Constitution, a secret ballot was held on Wednesday to elect a new President to complete the remaining tenure of the former President.

Sri Lanka is battling its worst economic meltdown since independence, leading to widespread shortages of even essential goods like food, fuel and medicines as Colombo is left with no foreign exchange to import these.

UNI MR
Boeing Co. notched another order for its North Charleston-based 787 Dreamliner program with Azerbaijan Airlines signing an agreement July 20 to purchase four of the locally built wide-bodies.

The deal at this week's Farnborough International Airshow in England would add to the carrier's current fleet of two 787-8s, the first and smallest Dreamliner variant. It plans to operate 10 of the jets by 2030.

"Azerbaijan Airlines was the first airline in the Caspian and Central Asia region to operate the 787-8 Dreamliner," Jahangir Asgarov, the carrier's president, said in a written statement. He said the agreement "is the evidence of joint efforts to scale up the mutually beneficial partnership between Azerbaijan Airlines and Boeing."

The planes have a list price totaling $494.6 million, although Boeing typically provides undisclosed discounts to customers.

Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing's commercial aircraft business, said the agreement "extends our long-term partnership with Azerbaijan Airlines as they renew their fleet to capitalize on the growing long-term travel demand that we are seeing globally."

Deal said the 787-8 model "has been the most-utilized wide-body during the market downturn and we are confident in the proven performance capabilities of this airplane."

In addition to its Dreamliners, Azerbaijan Airlines has single-aisle 757s and twin-aisle 767s and 777s in its fleet.

Dreamliners are built with lightweight, composite materials that save fuel and allow carriers to make direct connections between cities that previously weren't feasible. The 787-8 can carry up to 250 passengers and has a range of up to 13,500 nautical miles.

It's the second Dreamliner order announced at Farnborough, where the biennial airshow runs through July 22.

AerCap Holdings, the world's biggest aircraft leasing company and Dreamliner owner, said on July 19 it will buy 787-9 models with a sticker price totaling $1.46 billion. The deal will give AerCap a total of 125 Dreamliners in its fleet.

Dreamliner deliveries have been sidelined for nearly two years because of production defects, although Deal said this week he expects the Federal Aviation Administration to sign off on new deliveries soon.

The extended pause has held back sales of the South Carolina-based program. The Azerbaijan Airlines deal would bring the number of Dreamliner orders by all carriers to 37 over the past 18 months. Boeing snapped a nearly eight-month drought in May when Germanys Lufthansa Group booked seven 787s.
Imagine you're out on the water, skimming along with sea salt spray cooling your sun-kissed cheeks and marshland surrounding you.

An egret takes flight from an oyster bank. A dolphin fin emerges just yards away with a bright splash. A sea turtle pops her head from behind a hunk of floating driftwood and then dives deep after a school of fish.

You're on the Bulls Island Ferry, an eco-tour excursion that takes you from a dock in Awendaw to the uninhabited wildlife refuge with 16 miles of trails, 7 miles of coastline, and the breathtaking Boneyard Beach marked by skeletal limbs and sprawling trunks clawing from the sandy shore.

On the ride there, Capt. Nick Johnson and First Mate Annie Owens spew out a series of facts about the landscape. They point out the snowbird yachts heading up to Boston, pelicans spiraling into the sea in pursuit of lunch.

On a table in the middle of the ferry sits a pile of ocean artifacts: an alligator skull, horseshoe crab shell, giant conchs, wave-lapped bark. You can't bring driftwood back with you from the island, though there's more than a lot of it, the captain cautions. It's considered a living thing.

Once the engine idles and docks ashore, journeyers are left to their own devices, with a map of the island in hand and water bottles strapped to their backpacks. By the shoreline, breezes tickle palm fronds and rush through undergrowth with a summoning whistle.

Cicadas, just about bigger than anywhere else, buzz in sync. Down Sheepshead Ridge Road is Alligator Alley and an observation tower out over the swamp. Across Beach Road awaits a private oceanfront oasis with whole sand dollars and a spattering of angel wings underfoot.

Summerhouse Creek trickles into the unscathed wilderness on the right, while a pathway blazed through cattails and palmetto tree forests beckons in the opposite direction. An ancient oak draped with Spanish moss offers a shady refuge before the more than 2-mile-long trek to Boneyard Beach.

After a half-day of exploring, it's time to bid adieu to the refreshment of an afternoon escape and cruise back home.

The Bulls Island Ferry, which holds up to 49 passengers and departs twice daily on four days of the week in the summertime, is an option offered by Coastal Expeditions, the same company that sells Shem Creek kayak and paddleboard tours. There's also the St. Phillips Island Ferry that arrives at Hunting Island State Park in Beaufort.

"You need to commute to the wild places and not just the workplaces," said Coastal Expeditions owner Chris Crolley.

While East Coast ferries up north deliver cars across waterways, ferries down south follow in the tradition of self-powered vessels that have been shortcutting around the Charleston peninsula for centuries.

A recently discovered prehistoric canoe, buried in pluff mud in the Cooper River and dating back 4,000 years, tells us a little more about that history  of how Native people traversed the Lowcountry landscape.

"You can't leave out the history of how it started," said Crolley.

History, albeit a more modern history, also ties in to another popular local ferry, the Fort Sumter Ferry.

It's a must-do tour if you live in the area, with a compact history lesson of the start of the Civil War and then an up-close-and-personal view of where some of the first shots were fired.

There's also a barbecue dinner cruise option if you're looking to combine some newfound knowledge with recreation and good eats.

The Coastal Expeditions and Fort Sumter ferry boats are just some of a few Charleston area vessels that will get you from point A to point B (with some fun and discovery in between) via Lowcountry waterways.

These adventure options allow time for nature and history exploration, while other more practical endeavors are all about cutting out highway traffic snarls by sailing instead.

The Charleston Water Taxi and Daniel Island Ferry, for instance, have been used as commuting options, especially when the James B. Edwards Bridge over the Wando River was suddenly closed for repairs in May 2018.

"We pivoted quickly and started offering people a commute from Daniel Island to downtown and vice versa," said Daniel Island Ferry owner Colby Hollifield.

Hundreds of local employees who worked at Blackbaud, the Medical University of South Carolina and College of Charleston took advantage. COVID-19 then derailed plans to make that commute trip more permanent, though Hollifield plans to revisit the idea.

Now, a ferry does run between Daniel Island and downtown, but at nighttime, allowing residents to make dinner reservations "across the pond" and then arrive back home without having to put the keys in the ignition.

The new Kingstide restaurant on Daniel Island has drawn more people away from the peninsula, as well. And an upcoming restaurant destination at Sea Breeze Marina will be available as a stop soon, too.

Beer and wine are served onboard the ferry, initiating happy hour as the open water melts away tension from the workday and waterway views allow for a much-needed respite.

"There's nothing like a 20-foot walk to dinner and starting off the evening with a beer in hand," said Hollifield.

Dolphin watches, sightseeing tours and sunset cruises are also popular uses for these ferries.

The sunset views with the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge somehow are even more impressive from the water.

For all you non-boat owners out there, hop aboard the ferry train this summer. For as little as $12 for a water taxi day pass, you can enjoy a splash of the salt life and maybe gain an experience or two along the way.
COLUMBIA  Stealing Kia and Hyundai cars has become a social media trend so popular that law enforcement agencies in South Carolina have reported an uptick in thefts involving the vehicles from the South Korean-based car maker.

Just after school let out last month, the Richland County Sheriffs Department saw a significant rise in Kia and Hyundai thefts, particularly models with a key ignition. Since June 26, there have been 10 Kias and 8 Hyundais reported stolen, according to the department.

It was just one after the other just about everyday, Capt. Chris Lindler said, noting that the reports have gone down after the arrest of three teenagers last week.

The Columbia Police Department has seen several incidents since June of auto-breaking, vehicle tampering and theft of Kia and Hyundai cars. Many have been 2011 to 2021 Kia models and 2013 to 2020 Hyundai models.

The department said the thefts of the Korean automakers' vehicles have been on the rise after social media posts showed how to steal those cars. The Columbia Police Department said they contacted Kia about the recent thefts in the city

Of the 18 stolen Kia and Hyundai vehicles thefts investigated by the county Sheriff's Department, all have a key ignition rather than the push to start system. Lindler said those models are simple to steal.

Its something they learned on TikTok, said investigator Elise Ambos from the Sheriffs Department.

Through a quick search on TikTok, teenagers can learn a simple trick to starting the engines.

Both Kia and Hyundai officials said new models will have an engine immobilizer, which is an anti-theft system where electronic devices inside the vehicle need to match with a small transponder in the ignition key to start the engine.

Kia America is aware of the rise in vehicle thefts of certain trim level vehicles as reported in the area. From the 2022 model year, all Kia vehicles will have an engine immobilizer fitted as standard, Kia America wrote in a statement.

Of the 18 stolen Kia and Hyundai vehicles in Richland County, all but two, which were both reported stolen over the past day, have been recovered. A Kia Rio was reported stolen this morning from a home in Rosewood and a 2014 Kia Optima was reported stolen from a business off Broad River Road.

Since the July 15 arrests of three teenagers, reports on vehicle thefts have gone down to a more standard level, Lindler said. The Sheriffs Department is still investigating the thefts, along with the Columbia Police Department, to determine what groups, if any, are involved in the crimes.

The teenagers, ages 13, 15, and 17, were found in a 2018 Hyundai Tucson that had been stolen from the Hampton Courts apartment complex. The teenagers allegedly tried to drive away from Richland officers, but crashed the SUV by the Garners Crossing apartments. The teenagers were charged with possession of a stolen vehicle and unlawful carry of a pistol.

The Sheriffs Department also has a warrant out for a 19-year-old man who allegedly stole a 2020 Hyundai Elantra. Officers recovered the vehicle after a chase. The driver crashed the sedan and ran off.

The Columbia Police Department recently arrested a 15-year-old was arrested on charges of grand larceny of a motor vehicle and auto-breaking, the Police Department announced yesterday.

He allegedly stole a 2018 Kia Optima from Creekside at Greenlawn Apartments on June 27 after damaging the ignition column, according to the Police Department. Officers reviewed surveillance camera footage and found the car the next day at an auto repair shop off Millwood Avenue.

The Columbia Police Department also noted that the teenager was charged with sexual assault with a minor in January after he allegedly sexually assaulted an 8-year-old girl at a South Columbia home.

Across the Congaree River in Lexington County, officers say they havent seen an uptick. Out of the more than 50 reports of vehicle thefts in West Columbia since January, only three have been Kia models and one was a Hyundai model, according to West Columbia public information officer Matt Devas.

The Lexington County Sheriffs Department also has not reported a significant number of Kia and Hyundai thefts.

To prevent vehicle theft, local law enforcement officers recommend using steering wheel locks. The Columbia Police Department also recommended parking in a secured garage when it is an option and using a security alarm.

If your vehicle has been stolen or damaged, immediately report it to local police. Columbia police note that photos of the vehicle, along with information on the make, model, vehicle identification number and license plate are useful to police when trying to locate the stolen vehicle.
Hicks: Whatever the list, you can bet that Charleston is probably on it
The Charleston County School District board of trustees has slowed the process of divvying up district policies after concerns emerged from parents and advocates about giving the superintendent more power.

Approved 6-3, the motion kicks off a plan to split the district's policy manual in two  one on board policy and another on district policy.

The restructuring was recommended by the Council of the Great City Schools, a national education coalition the district hired to improve governance structure and center district strategy on student outcomes, according to the boards agenda.

The restructuring will create a more streamlined governmental process, said board member Kristen French. She added the review will also clean up unnecessary language in the current bloated manual and return the administrative information outlined in the boards policy manual back to the responsibility of the superintendent.

Its not yet clear how those policies will be divided, and what either party's respective responsibilities will be.

The original motion, which would have split the manual and given Superintendent Don Kennedy control over the district manual, was changed the morning of the board meeting after criticism from school board candidates and activists about how much power the board was granting the superintendent. The amended motion passed July 18 slows down the timeline and allows the superintendent to have a first review of policies and make recommendations to the board.

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After former Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait abruptly resigned in December, Kennedy was named interim superintendent. The board voted June 27 to remove interim from his title but made clear Kennedy was a temporary replacement. The board interviewed five search firms in early June.

In a press conference on July 18 ahead of the board meeting, several activists and school board candidates came together from both sides of the aisle to condemn the original proposal.

We're here to bring light to this corrupt and self-centered attempt to change board policy, former board member Kevin Hollinshead said at the press conference. The question to the three inexperienced board members that proposed this today, my question is, What's the rush?

The rush is the election, according to A.J. Crabill from the Council of the Great City Schools, based in Washington, D.C.

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In an email inadvertently shared with The Post and Courier, Crabill expressed concerns about the boards communication and planning of the policy change in internal correspondence with the CGCSs communications team.

They are just rushing because theyre trying to meet a November redesign of the board, the email reads. Thats got problematic aspects which are appropriately being called out.

The message also contained thoughts on how to present the restructuring, which were read at the meeting by board member Lauren Herterich. French, along with Herterich and board Vice Chairwoman Courtney Waters, are the originators of the plan, according to board documents. Board Chairman Eric Mack and board members Cindy Bohn Coats and Erica Cokley voted against the motion.

Bohn Coats agreed that the process was being expedited because of the upcoming November election, in which all board seats will be up for grabs. Parents and advocates have expressed similar concerns.

I am heartened to hear that he said that, but he's the one that sent the trainers down here to tell us to do it, Bohn Coats said in an interview following the meeting.

French said during the meeting that the motion was never intended to abdicate the board of their responsibilities. After learning of Crabills email, she said she was also concerned about the original timeline.

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Separating the policy manuals, especially as we were getting all the feedback, I realized how bad the original wording was, she said.

A document provided in the meeting packet that outlines the restructuring timeline says the board aims to approve its policy manual on Oct. 31, 2022, days before the upcoming school board election.

The district policy manual is not mentioned. October is the last time a policy item is named on the board's restructuring timeline, which continues with evaluations and check-ins until June 2023.
Two women  a current professor at the University of South Carolina Beaufort and a former professor of the university  have sued the Lowcountry school for allegedly failing to protect them from the harassment of a male professor.

Attorneys for Cynthia Flowers and Kasia Pawelek filed the lawsuit this month in which they allege USC Beaufort violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

Both women worked in the math department under Akira Iwasa, a tenured associate professor, according to the court filing. In their lawsuit, the pair detail how they allegedly faced bullying, threatening comments, excessive critiques, retaliation and more from Iwasa, dating as far back as 2009.

An unlawful hostile environment was created and maintained which caused severe emotional distress and humiliation to the plaintiffs, the lawsuit reads.

The women claim the university knowingly allowed the two women to be subjected to such treatment.

In a request for comment, Carol Weir, USC Beauforts spokesperson, first said the issue had been resolved in March when the S.C. Human Affairs Commission dismissed the complaint.

In a second email to The Post and Courier, Weir said the school was unaware of the lawsuit, filed July 5.

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On multiple occasions, the university assigned an armed guard to accompany Flowers on campus after she requested assistance with the situation, according to the complaint.

Flowers, a full-time instructor, said she endured inappropriate and uncomfortable comments from Iwasa when she was pregnant in 2009 that left her fearing for her well-being. In a later incident, one of Flowers superiors asked her to leave campus out of concern that Iwasa might physically harm her, the lawsuit states.

Flowers said she wrote a letter to the schools management but saw no action taken. The court filing did not specify who among the school's management received the letter. In 2013, she declined to renew her contract.

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In 2019, Flowers allegedly participated in an investigation into Iwasa and was told by a USC Beaufort school official that Iwasa was being terminated and banned from the schools campuses. The university offered Flowers another job, which she accepted.

Shortly upon returning to USC Beaufort, Flowers claims she saw Iwasa on one of the campuses. Flowers said she learned from a department chair that Iwasa had never been terminated or banned.

Following Flowers complaints of Iwasas presence, even after he was later banned on the days she was on campus, she said she was informed that her position would not be renewed for the following spring 2020 semester.

Pawelek, who is now a tenured professor at USC Beaufort, said Iwasa began harassing her in 2015 by obsessively reviewing, editing, challenging, and critiquing Paweleks research papers. When Pawelek reported this to superiors, they wrote a letter to Iwasa asking him to stop.

Pawelek alleged that Iwasa retaliated by writing to editors, collaborators and other experts in her field to discredit her work. She then submitted a complaint to the USC Equal Employment Opportunity Office, which issued a finding in 2019 that Iwasa had discriminated and retaliated against her, according to the court filing.

Still, Pawelek said little was done about Iwasa and added she was initially denied promotion to full tenured professor. She alleged that rejection stemmed from her complaints about Iwasa.

By failing to stop Iwasas harassment, Flowers and Pawelek alleged that USC Beaufort deprived them of a safe workplace and equal employment opportunities and neglected its duties in supervising Iwasa. They also claimed that the university retaliated against them for reporting Iwasa.

The university system does have its problems, and I hope that they'll do the right thing and resolve these claims, said Ashley Twombley, one of the lawyers representing Flowers and Pawelek in the case. And more importantly, take steps to make sure things like this don't happen again in the future.

As a result of USC Beauforts responses, the two women said they have suffered severe emotional distress.
MOUNT PLEASANT  There wasnt an open indoor table in sight on June 29 at Philosophia, a 3-month-old Greek restaurant located in a strip center anchored by Whole Foods.

As a cast-iron skillet of pan-fried kefalograviera cheese, flambeed with brandy and lemon, whizzed by, the chatter between servers and diners felt warm and intimate, as if the restaurant had been there for years.

Other Philosophia dishes dotting the tables inside the slim 40-seat dining room arrived with a side of nostalgia, even for those who didnt grow up in Greek households: meatballs floating in a lemon dill beurre blanc bath (keftedes), lemon chicken rice soup (avgolemono) and baked ziti with whipped ricotta (pastitsio), among others.

Its family-style food with a chefs touch, which makes sense given chef and co-owner Justin Hunts culinary background.

The chef started working in restaurants while attending the College of Charleston. After completing culinary school at the Art Institute of Charleston, Hunt found success in local kitchens, later earning an executive chef role at celebrity chef Bobby Flay's Bar Americain in New York City and a stint at Thomas Kellers famed California restaurant, The French Laundry.

Philosophias story, however, starts years before that at a Long Island, N.Y., elementary school, where Hunt met his close friend and Philosophia co-owner Dimitri Hatgidimitriou. As the two friends grew close, Hunt started joining Hatgidimitriou on his annual pilgrimage to visit family in Karpathos, Greece, an island in the Aegean Sea.

For a while there it was an every-year thing, Hunt said. It was something that I fell in love with pretty quickly.

In Greece, Hunt spent time in the kitchen with Hatgidimitrious family, learning techniques for making seafood like Philosophias octopus, served with a chickpea salad and lemon-scented olive oil.

Philosophias simple less is more preparation relies on quality products, Hunt said. The octopus is braised in a nice glug of white wine and finished on the grill, giving the thick tentacles a tender chew thats bursting with bright seafood flavor.

The octopus has been an early favorite among diners, but other seafood selections jump off the page, including the 1-pound chargrilled whole branzino. The menu  featuring soups, salads, spreads, sides, small plates (mezethes) and main courses  is filled with dishes that are meant to be shared.

Dining with a group of four-plus is the best way to experience Philosophia, especially considering the generous portions. A bite of lamb here, a bite of feta-brined roasted chicken there, and youll have the chance to eat as Hunt and Hatgidimitriou did on their trips to Greece.

When you visit, try starting your meal with one or two mezethes like spanakorizo, tender spinach- and cheese-stuffed risotto cakes that melt into a velvety wild mushroom sauce.

When it comes to main courses, the lamb porterhouse  served with tender skin-on potatoes  was slightly overdone on this outing, but Hunts pastitsio, reminiscent of lasagna, should not be missed. Chunks of ground beef intertwine tender cylinders of pasta and rich bechamel, with a large dollop of whipped ricotta floating on top. A hint of sweetness from cinnamon carries throughout, adding a warmth that is emblematic of Greek cuisine.

Those notes are complemented by a predominately Greek wine list featuring bottles you wont find at most restaurants in Charleston. Philosophias list features nearly 20 wines from Greece and Macedonia, the majority of which are in the $40 to $60 range.

The wine list was the real big surprise because we went pretty Greek, Hunt said. The clientele has been really eager to try, so its been fun with that.

Working in restaurants can take its toll on chefs. While leading the flagship restaurant at Meeting Street hotel The Mills House, Hunt could feel his passion for innovation slowly waning, until Hatgidimitriou moved to Charleston. The two worked together at The Mills House for months, invigorating both and reminding them of discussions they had about opening their own restaurant.

Before long, Hunt and Hatgidimitriou started looking for restaurant space, eventually landing on the 909 Houston Northcutt Blvd. venue that housed Ichiban for more than 20 years.

Hunt took a long, winding path to opening his own restaurant with his best friend, making it that much more surreal to be serving their take on Greek food to Mount Pleasant.

I had kind of forgotten this dream for a while, Hunt said. He kind of nudged at me a little bit and it didnt take much. To work with him, hes a pro in every sense of the word.

Philosophia is open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday. The restaurant also serves Sunday brunch, with options like a Greek omelet, benedict and braised lamb hash, along with a fried chicken gyro that is only served during the midday Sunday meal.

As mentioned, Philosophia was full when we visited, but a quick glance at resy.com shows several available bookings. The restaurant has evidently already become a place that locals wander into at their leisure.
GEORGETOWN  Without referring to the group by name, Georgetown County School District Superintendent Keith Price responded July 19 to accusations by the Georgetown NAACP that the district's recent pay raise for classified staff is insufficient.

The Georgetown NAACP Branch No. 5520 held a press conference in front of district headquarters on July 16 at which branch president Marvin Neal said district hiring practices and wages are detrimental to the rural communities in Georgetown County, in particular the Black, working class who make up the majority of custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and support staff.

The Georgetown County school board voted in June to increase the starting minimum pay for classified staff to $13 per hour, while the Georgetown NAACP appealed for an increase to $15 per hour.

Speaking at the end of the board's July 19 meeting, Price commended members of the board for helping the district keep pace with teacher salaries before discussing the classified pay raise.

"I would also like to reiterate an appreciation for the board's approval at our last meeting for our custodians, cafeteria workers and bus drivers to get a pay raise," Price said. "It may not be to the ideal level, but in the last two years, we have increased pay for our entry-level cafeteria workers and custodians by 14.5 percent and bus drivers by 10 percent."

Price noted the state minimum for bus drivers is $9.12 per hour, compared to the district minimum of $15.02 per hour. He also said a survey of South Carolina school districts, which has thus far yielded 42 of 80 possible responses, showed only three of those 42 responding districts had higher pay rates for their lowest-paid hourly employees compared to Georgetown County.

"These numbers are sure to change as more districts finalize their budgets and complete the survey, but I wanted to share current standings as a comparison with where we stand with the 42 districts that have responded thus far," Price said. "All of our employees are critical to the success of our school district, and your ongoing support for them is very appreciated."

Neal told the crowd at the July 16 press conference that a recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study suggests a living wage for an adult living in Georgetown County with no children is $16.35.
MYRTLE BEACH  Kingston Resorts is finishing a $65 million renovation of two of its oceanfront properties located on the north end of the Grand Strand between Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach.

The Hilton Myrtle Beach Resort and the Embassy Suites by Hilton Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort recently received updates to guest rooms, suites, event spaces and other amenities. The renovations come after Kingston Resorts was purchased in 2019 by New York-based EOS Hospitality.

The updates weve made to Kingston Resorts and are finalizing this summer completely enhance the offerings travelers can now choose from when visiting Myrtle Beach, said Bob Barenberg, managing director of Kingston Resorts. There truly isnt another resort experience like ours in the destination and were proud to be a leader here.

Updates to the 385-room Hilton Myrtle Beach Resort include new furniture, flooring and interiors painted in cool gray and warm neutrals accented by wood textures. The hotels outdoor pool and dining space, Wet Whistle Pool Bar and Beachcombers, have been remade into an island theme and its 56,579 square feet of meeting space spanning 24 rooms have equally been renovated.

The 255-room Embassy Suites Myrtle Beach also recently completed updates of its guest suites and 61,165 square feet of event space. Additionally, the resort plans to introduce a new dining concept, Black Drum Brewing, to the Grand Strand.

Scheduled to open in October, the oceanfront restaurant will feature a Carolina-inspired menu and 40 beers on tap from local North and South Carolina brands. An updated pool deck next to the restaurant with 28 cabanas, 350 lounge chairs, and water slides is scheduled to be finished in early August.

Renovations almost complete

A popular South Strand Chick-fil-A, closed since May for renovations, has a new target date for its reopening.

The fast-food restaurant located at 4400 Highway 17 in Murrells Inlet recently announced on its Facebook page that it hopes to open on Aug. 4 after being closed since May 19 for remodeling.

Were just as excited as you are to get back into our restaurant, the company said in a social media post. Unfortunately, weve had a small delay with our remodel.

Well be sure to keep you updated if anything changes. We appreciate your patience.

The owners said back in May to expect a brand new and more efficient Chick-fil-A Murrells Inlet. Some of the restaurants employees have worked at other area locations during the remodel and it recently held a career fair before the upcoming reopening.

New hire

Anderson Brothers Bank, with 25 branches in the Pee Dee, Coastal and Low Country regions of South Carolina, recently announced a new hire for its Myrtle Beach office.

Eric Moore will work out of the Myrtle Beach office, located at 1136 44th Avenue North, as a mortgage loan officer, according to a news release.

Moore resides in Horry County with his wife and four children and is a Coastal Carolina University graduate with a masters degree in educational leadership.

We feel very fortunate to be able to hire a professional like Eric Moore, said Tim McCoy, Vice President of Mortgage Lending. Erics leadership skills, involvement and commitment to his community make him a great fit for Anderson Brothers Bank. We have extreme confidence that Eric will be another valuable asset to our mortgage department and Anderson Brothers Bank.

Have any Myrtle Beach/Georgetown business news to share? Reach Richard Caines at rcaines@postandcourier.com.
Semifinalists Chosen for Sweetwater County Innovation Launchpad

Semifinalists in the inaugural Sweetwater County Innovation Launchpad include, from left: front row, Cody Gray, Brittany Gray, Mindy Reddon, Ivory Bug Tippy, Bonnie Tippy and Susie Anastos; back row, Lizzie deMedici, Amanda Finch, Dylan Covington, Joaquin Barrera, Justin Hood, Joseph Skimehorn, Amber Marie Hunt, Erik Hamm, Nick Walrath, Pete Rust and Barry Tippy. (UW Photo)

Nine semifinalist companies have been selected to move on to the next stage of the inaugural Sweetwater County Innovation Launchpad, a startup competition. The contest is administered by IMPACT Sweetwater, a partnership between the University of Wyomings IMPACT 307 and Western Wyoming Community College.

The semifinalists were chosen from among 28 applicants. The semifinalists will receive mentorship from IMPACT 307 and are participating in an IMPACT 307 multi-session business boot camp. Four additional companies also were invited from the applicant pool to participate in the boot camp.

The Sweetwater County Innovation Launchpad is an IMPACT 307 regional startup challenge that is supported by local donors, the Rock Springs Chamber of Commerce, the Green River Chamber of Commerce, the Rock Springs Main Street/Urban Renewal Agency, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Wyoming Innovation Partnership and the Wyoming Business Council.

The semifinalists were chosen from applications that followed the Lean Launchpad methodology. Each company had to define a customers problem and propose a solution for that problem. They also had to discuss the ideal customers for their product or service. Tiffany Kindel, of Commerce Bank of Wyoming, participated in the judging.

The business boot camp kicked off June 23. Each company presented an elevator pitch, and companies received training from Anne Mason, of Relative Theatrics, on how to give an engaging presentation. Bonnie and Barry Tippy, of Red White Buffalo, discussed their firsthand entrepreneurial experiences. Monica Patten and Fred Schmechel, of IMPACT 307, presented on business models and innovation.

Companies will give pitch presentations to compete for a spot in the final round. All semifinalists then will receive additional mentorship and boot camp sessions. The competition will culminate in a Pitch Day competition at the Broadway Theater in downtown Rock Springs Sept. 13.

Seed funding will be provided to the winning companies, made possible by State Bank and Commerce Bank of Wyoming.

Here are the semifinalists, listed by the applicants names:

Laurie Carollo, Nick Walrath, Pete Rust, Stacey Dolinar, James Chaves, Aaron Slaton, Megan McComas and Chelsie Naylor -- Wild Sage Market is a Green River food co-op; www.wildsagegreenriver.com/.

Dylan Covington -- A woodworker focusing on custom cabinetry and built-ins.

Elizabeth Lizzie deMedici -- Sweetwater Sage is a cruelty-free, vegan, handmade soap business; www.sweetwater-sage.com/.

Amanda Finch -- She leads a functional nutritionist business that also provides light therapy and physical training.

Cody and Brittany Gray -- The Grays are developing an innovative solution to improve the safety of recreational vehicles.

Justin Hood -- Wyoming Apparatus is a company that tests and repairs emergency vehicles and fire trucks to keep them in compliance and working properly; www.wyomingapparatus.com/.

Amber Marie Hunt and Joseph Skimehorn -- They are leading a company to develop skin art products that have less of a chance of inducing allergic reactions.

Melinda Mindy and Glen Reddon -- The Reddons are starting a meat processing facility in Farson.

Braids Roberts and Joshua Dulaney -- They are developing new wood pellets that burn cleaner and more efficiently.

The four additional companies chosen to attend the boot camp are:

Susie Anastos -- She started an indoor childrens playland in Green River; www.ggplayland.com/.

Joaquin and Rosaura Barrera -- Great Microgreens is a local microgreen company; www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100081954505475.

Mark Branson -- He has a local rescue shelter for fish; www.facebook.com/ugliestIvan.

Erik Hamm and Lori Kizzire -- They are starting a company to livestream local events.
GEORGETOWN  The Georgetown County School Board voted unanimously July 19 to accept an additional $1.9 million in state education funding to go toward special education teachers, retirement matches and teacher salary increases.

The district initially approved a $2,000 raise for teachers at its June 28 meeting. Following first reading of the district budget, the South Carolina state government's approval of its fiscal 2023 budget provided the district with extra funding for teacher salaries.

Now, Georgetown County public school teachers will go up one salary step and see a $4,000 pay increase, said Lisa Johnson, district associate superintendent for finance and technology.

The district will also spend a further $58,000 on three new special education teachers, bringing the total for that expenditure to $261,000.

"They're more expensive, it's harder to find them," Johnson told Georgetown Times. "Usually they have a lot of experience, and sometimes we even have to contract with them."

The district will also double the amount it is paying on an increase in employer retirement matches, from $115,000 to $230,000, which Johnson said is due to the salary increases.

At the meeting's end, district Superintendent Keith Price commended other members of the board for helping the district keep pace with teacher salaries.

"Teachers are in high demand, so salary adjustments will help us in our retention and our recruitment efforts," Price said. "I'd like to commend our principals and our human resources department for their help in filling vacancies."
GREENVILLE  A 17-year-old is accused of suffocating his 4-year-old half-sister, who was found dead inside a plastic bin.

William Micah Hester, of Pelzer, stood shackled on July 20 in a Greenville County Detention Center courtroom as a magistrate judge advised him of his rights on a charge of murder.

The day before, Greenville County Sheriff's deputies responded to the home just off Augusta Road in the southwest portion of the county that Hester shared with his half-sister, Joanna Lockaby, who had been reported missing, sheriff's Lt. Ryan Flood said in a release. The search began after authorities arrived about 2:20 p.m. July 19 and ended 25 minutes later when they found the girl's body inside the bin in the woods behind the home.

The arrest warrant charging Hester with murder stated that authorities "documented evidence" and Hester's confession that he suffocated the girl "with malice aforethought."

Later in the afternoon following the hearing, the sheriff's office announced an additional charge of kidnapping that claimed Hester seized and confined the girl in the bin and she couldn't escape.

The motive is under investigation, Flood said.

During the hearing, Hester's parents along with other family watched the proceedings from the other side of a glass barrier.

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His father spoke on his behalf. His mother broke into tears when the judge informed the family that he will be transferred to a juvenile detention center in Columbia until he can have a bond hearing before a circuit judge.

The father, William Hester, said he doesn't know the circumstances of the death but that his son loved his half-sister.

I know in my heart that Micah would not do anything like this on purpose  not premeditated, nothing on purpose," he said. "If he did, he was out of his mind, crazy. I dont know."

When the judge asked if he had anything to say, Micah Hester apologized to his family.
Greenville County Council will consider an ordinance that would prohibit picketing outside of private residences.

Councilman Steve Shaw introduced the measure, which was referred to the councils Public Safety Committee to workshop. Per its rules, the council didnt debate the ordinance July 19 when it was introduced.

Shaw said after the meeting he was inspired to bring the ordinance because of the protests that have taken place outside the homes of U.S. Supreme Count justices, particularly the Chevy Chase, Md., home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in the weeks following the controversial decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Theres no need to be bringing public arguments to peoples houses, Shaw said. Its just unfair intimidation.

Greenville County residents spoke both in favor of and against the proposal during the council meeting.

Terry Thacker spoke in favor of the ordinance and said there is precedent in Greenville for protests outside the homes of local public officials. He cited an instance where protesters showed up at the home of former Councilman Scott Case for his stance against making Martin Luther King Jr. a paid county holiday.

Bruce Wilson, a Black activist who has led protests against discrimination in and around Greenville, called the proposed law an infringement on his First Amendment right to free speech and urged the council to abandon its effort to pass the measure.

We cant start picking and choosing which part of the Constitution were going to allow, Wilson said. Creating a law that will limit my constitutional right to protest I think is a dangerous situation.

Wilson, who recently ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for state House District 25, said he would challenge the law if passed by the county.

Hannah McSherry of Simpsonville told the council shed like the county to add language that would also prevent protests outside health care facilities and local schools, adding that it would eliminate hundreds of police responses to issues outside the Greenville Womens Clinic, the only local health care facility that performs abortions.

McSherry said the ordinance is a good first step to protect certain members of our community but that the county could expand its protections to safe access to health care as well as to educational opportunities.

Shaw said he hadnt spoken to most council members on their position on the issue but thought it may get support to pass a countywide ban on protests outside residences.

I havent heard anything negative about it, he said.

He said he patterned his ordinance after one passed in Florida and signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 16. That law bans protests outside homes in residential communities.

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Shaw said there are a number of controversial cultural issues that he expects will crop up in the coming months in the county and he hoped to contain those protests to the public square. Locally, he expects the Greenville County Library Board of Trustees to consider changes to eliminate highlighting themes inside library branches after some libraries created, pulled, then reinstated Pride Month displays in June celebrating LGBTQ rights.

He claimed out-of-state protesters swoop in to stir up residents on controversial matters and wants to limit those expected protests to public spaces.

You just cant go to somebodys residence, he said. Its got a provision that police have to come and tell you to leave. Theyre not just going to go lock you up. I see it as a tool if things get really out of hand.

Shaw said he first presented his proposed ordinance to the county attorneys office for clearance and he thought it would stand up to a First Amendment challenge.

The First Amendment is always time, place and manner, he said. Its never unlimited.

If it proceeds with a debate at the committee level, the ordinance would require two more readings by the council before it would go into effect.

If passed as written, the prohibition would make it unlawful for a person to picket or protest before or about the dwelling of any person with the intent to harass or disturb that person in his or her dwelling.

A violation would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine and up to 30 days in jail.

The ordinance requires a law enforcement officer to first warn protesters to peaceably and immediately disperse before making any arrests.

The introduction of the ordinance came on the same night the council was set to debate an ordinance that would prohibit trespassing or loitering at the Greenville County Detention Center. That ordinance was held until a future meeting. It would make it a misdemeanor offense to loiter inside or outside of the detention center and refuse to leave after being instructed to leave the premises.

Wilson and Jack Logan each spoke against the ordinance, calling it unneeded because of existing trespassing laws. Logan said its difficult for some people who have just been released from the detention center to find somewhere to go.

In other action, a proposal on how to spend the remainder of the countys federal American Rescue Plan Act funds was referred to the council's Finance Committee. It proposes to use the money to relocate the countys emergency services headquarters to McAllister Square and reopen a closed emergency room at North Greenville Hospital. Councilwoman Liz Seman requested the referral and Council Chairman Willis Meadows sent it to committee.

The council also finalized a six-month building moratorium on a section of Augusta Road. County planners are working to create an overlay district to plan future growth in the corridor that leads from Interstate 85 toward the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center.
HILTON HEAD  The Beaufort County Sheriffs Office is searching for an unidentified Asian man accused of sexually assaulting a woman during a massage last month at a massage parlor.

The subject is described as 5-foot-5, 180 pounds, with black or gray hair and brown eyes. He is believed to be in his 60s.

At roughly 5 p.m. on June 8, a woman visited Sunny Spa, located in the Port Royal Plaza at 95 Mathews Drive, where she received a 90-minute, deep-tissue massage from the suspect, according to a redacted incident report.

The following day, the woman reported to deputies that she was sexually assaulted during the massage.

Investigators learned from the massage parlor's owner that the man who provided the massage was not an employee of the business, according to a news release.

The suspect was requested to give the massage as a trial to become hired as a masseur at Sunny Spa  a newly opened massage parlor in Hilton Head, the release states.

Authorities said the suspect did not provide any form of identification, nor was he asked to, prior to providing the massage, but the owner of the parlor denied that in an interview.

Sunny Spa owner Chun Mei Zhang said that she does not remember the suspect, but she said she always asks prospective hires to show identification and verification of a massage therapy license.

Major Bob Bromage responded that there was no evidence that identification was provided by the suspect.

Bromage said the sheriffs office notified the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

But current state law limits how much the department can do.

A panel of seven people overseen by the department can investigate a licensed massage therapist for alleged misconduct and take disciplinary action, which includes a fine and revocation of their practicing license, according to the statute.

If an unlicensed person is practicing massage therapy, the panel can issue a cease and desist to that individual.

The panel, however, does not have the legal authority to license or investigate a massage establishment, according to Lesia Kudelka, the spokeswoman for the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

That will soon change. An amendment to the South Carolina Code of Laws Massage Therapy Practice Act effective May 2023 will require all massage establishments to apply to the department for a license and subject them to examination.

The panel could then deny  or later revoke  an establishment's license if it is found in violation of statutes.

Anyone who knows the identity of the suspect can contact Cpl. Zachariah Cushman at 843-255-3722. Anonymous tips can be made by calling Crime Stoppers of the Lowcountry at 843-554-1111.
Kingstree, SC (29556)

Today

Cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 81F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mainly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds light and variable.
COLUMBIA  A Republican candidate for the state House of Representatives who lost in the June 28 primary runoff election has filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court to challenge the results.

Brian Sweeney, a Surfside Beach insurance agent who sought the State District 106 seat in the GOP primary, has filed a petition with the state Supreme Court asking the justices to void the June 28 primary runoff election and order a new primary election be held.

Sweeney has based his challenge on a Horry County-wide error in which Republican voters received Democratic absentee ballots prior to the June 28 primary runoff election.

Sweeney lost to opponent Val Guest, an attorney from Murrells Inlet, by only 294 votes in the runoff. Guest received 1,856 votes (54 percent), and Sweeney received 1,562 (46 percent).

Sweeney filed his initial protest of the runoff results to the state Republican Party on July 5, the Tuesday after the June 28 election.

During the state hearing that took place in Columbia on July 7, the S.C. Republican Party Executive Committee voted to deny his appeal. Sweeney then recently filed a petition with the Supreme Court.

On June 24, four days before the primary runoff election, Horry County election officials announced that Republican voters in the county mistakenly received Democratic absentee ballots for that upcoming election.

Upon examination, it was determined that 1,377 Republican runoff voters in Horry County were incorrectly issued Democratic runoff ballots due to an error in the ballot printing and mailing process. The issue was reported to the State Election Commission.

In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Sweeney alleged that 306 of those absentee voters in Horry County were eligible to vote in the District 106 runoff but were mailed the wrong absentee ballot. When replacement ballots were eventually mailed out, the voters were given three days or less to return their ballots.

Sweeney added that any voter who did not receive his replacement ballot on June 25 would receive his ballot the day before the election at the earliest, due to an intervening Sunday.

Sweeney said he believes it is not possible for all 306 absentee ballots to have arrived on time through the mail, due to reported nationwide delays in the U.S. Postal Service.

"While 20 replacement ballots purportedly did arrive in time to be counted, 286 Horry County citizens were deprived of the right to vote," Sweeney alleged in his petition. "While the mailing of the 306 replacement ballots was well-intentioned, it was simply too late to provide for a functional legal election. The result of this primary is unknowable."

According to the petition, Horry County voter data found that 20 mail-in ballots arrived by the June 28 deadline. Another 58 mail-in ballots arrived after the June 28 deadline, but before June 30.

Sweeney's petition alleges that, if it were assumed that all 306 misdirected ballots voted in Sweeney's favor, then he would have lost by only eight votes, since he officially lost by 294 votes. An eight-vote margin, less than 1 percent of the vote, would trigger a mandatory recount.

"Thus, it was still possible for Sweeney to win this election," the petition stated.

The reason for the S.C. GOP's Executive Committee's denial of Sweeney's appeal was not provided. Discussions took place during executive session.

Sweeney's attorney declined to provide additional comment on the pending litigation.

Guest said that he believes the incorrect ballots would not have changed the outcome of the election. This is because county Republicans who received the incorrect ballots had two options to vote on Election Day  voting in-person or voting absentee.

"Just based on his numbers, it wouldn't have changed the outcome," Guest said. "I believe that's what the Republican Party, when we had our hearing, that's what they saw. And that's why they voted to deny his appeal."

During the June 14 primary election, Guest won with 2,632 votes, and Sweeney came in second place, receiving 2,185 votes. A runoff election was required because no single candidate received 50 percent or more of the vote.

Barring a do-over runoff election, Guest will face Democratic candidate Ryan Thompson for the District 106 seat in November.

Mark Lazarus, Republican candidate for Horry County Council chairman, also attempted to challenge the primary runoff election results based on this countywide error. He lost to incumbent Johnny Gardner by a margin of only 260 votes, after leading with 37 percent of the vote in the June 14 primary election.

The Horry Republican Party Executive Committee voted July 7 to deny Lazarus' challenge of the June 28 runoff election results in the county chairman race. The committee decided Lazarus did not file his protest in a timely manner and denied his challenge.

The deadline for filing was the Monday after the election, which was July 4, a holiday. Lazarus filed his appeal on July 5, the same day that Sweeney allegedly filed his appeal.

Per State Statute Section 7-17-520, a protest against the election results must be filed by the following Monday after the runoff election.

The committee ruled (40-5, two abstentions) that Lazarus' protest should not be considered because it was not filed by the Monday after the date of the runoff election, as required by state statute.

Lazarus finally conceded to Gardner on July 12.
WALTERBORO  Alex Murdaughs defense attorneys on July 20 pushed a judge for a speedy trial on charges accusing the disbarred lawyer of fatally shooting his wife and son. They also announced an agreement with state prosecutors to seek a gag order limiting public information on the high-profile case until that trial begins.

Columbia lawyer Dick Harpootlian asked Circuit Judge Clifton Newman for a trial by November, saying his client wants to clear his name so state police can find Maggie and Paul Murdaughs real killer or killers.

Creighton Waters, a prosecutor for the S.C. Attorney Generals Office, pushed back on that request, saying a trial in January might be more realistic. He asked a judge to allow discovery to proceed and wait a few weeks before setting a trial date.

Waters offered few clues about what evidence investigators have tying the once-prominent trial lawyer to the 2021 grisly double homicide at his familys Colleton County hunting lodge. The July 14 indictments allege that Murdaugh killed Maggie, 52, with a rifle and Paul, 22, with a shotgun. Yet the documents provided no indication of Murdaugh's alleged motive.

But before a packed Colleton County courtroom July 20, Waters hinted the states case against Murdaugh, 54, is substantial," includes forensic evidence and is connected to the more than 80 other charges prosecutors have brought against him.

"It all came back to one person, and that is Alex Murdaugh," Waters said of the evidence in the case.

Earlier charges allege Murdaugh flexed his legal muscle and powerful family name to discreetly pocket some $8.5 million meant for his legal clients, law partners and others who trusted him. Murdaugh also has been charged with enlisting a hitman, Curtis Edward Smith, to shoot him in a botched $10 million life insurance scheme in September. And he has been charged with money laundering as part of an alleged drug trafficking scheme with Smith.

"A lot of that provides the background and the motive for what happened on June 7, 2021," Waters told the judge.

Both Waters and Harpootlian repeatedly expressed their desire to limit leaks about the case and try the case before a Colleton County jury  not the media.

Newman denied Murdaugh bail at the close of the 20-minute hearing. The ruling will have little practical effect. Murdaugh has already been detained for nine months  unable to afford his $7 million bail on a slew of financial charges.

The murder charges carry a penalty of 30 years to life in prison, though Attorney General Alan Wilsons office could also seek the death penalty.

The proceedings marked Murdaughs first public appearance in months, a brief respite from the Richland County jail where the former volunteer prosecutor has been held since October.

Murdaugh, the scion of an influential family of Hampton lawyers, arrived at the courthouse in a navy two-piece jumpsuit and bright red-orange Nike sneakers, his trademark strawberry-blond hair buzzed to the scalp. He changed into a white button-down shirt and khaki pants before entering the courtroom.

A stark reminder of his precipitous fall from grace lingered not far behind where he sat.

A portrait of Buster Murdaugh Jr., Alexs grandfather and the longtime elected prosecutor for the 14th Judicial Circuit, hung on the back wall of the courtroom as his grandson raised a handcuffed right hand and pleaded not guilty to the double-murder charges.

"How shall you be tried?" Waters asked him.

"By God and my country," Murdaugh responded.

If convicted in the shooting deaths of his wife and son, Murdaugh  whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather served for 86 straight years as the elected local solicitor  would go down as one of the most notorious criminals in South Carolina history.

The slayings have gripped the worlds attention, combining with Murdaughs personal unraveling to spawn a wave of headlines, true-crime podcasts, book deals and cable news documentaries.

Murdaugh had been the only known person of interest in the State Law Enforcement Divisions investigation into the deaths of Maggie and Paul. Murdaugh himself reported finding their bodies shortly after 10 p.m. June 7, 2021, telling the 911 dispatcher in a hysterical voice that his wife and son were shot badly.

Murdaughs defense attorneys, Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, have criticized SLEDs investigation, arguing that state police narrowly focused on their client and didnt give serious consideration to other possible suspects.

The pair have vowed to fight the charges. They maintain Murdaugh had nothing to do with his wife and sons deaths and loved them more than anything in the world.

Prosecutors and Murdaughs defense attorneys huddled for some 15 minutes before the bond hearing began. When Newman arrived, the lawyers disclosed they had agreed to request a gag order and to seal any pre-trial motions discussing evidence.

Harpootlian said he would officially submit the request to Newman in the coming days.

Yet the judge seemed skeptical.

Its a public matter and a public trial, and certainly matters that need to be sealed can be sealed to preserve the rights of all parties, Newman said. The court understands that, but at the same time, wants to make it clear we will not have any private motion  public matters will be public.

Pete Strom, a Columbia lawyer and former U.S. attorney for South Carolina from 1993-96, said such gag orders are typically used to ensure jurors don't read or hear about potential evidence that isn't introduced and vetted in the courtroom. Pre-trial stories can limit the pool of eligible jurors in a given county who haven't yet made up their minds about a case, Strom said. They also can taint a jury pool, which would warrant a request for a retrial, he said.

"Nobody wants to go through the time and expense of trying this case multiple times," Strom said.

The 2021 slayings came as the Murdaugh family faced another crisis.

At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was headed toward trial in a wrongful death lawsuit that blamed the then-underage boy of drunkenly driving a boat into a Beaufort County bridge piling, ejecting all six passengers and killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

An attorney for the Beach family was seeking access to Alex Murdaughs financial records, disclosures that could have revealed his hefty debts and drawn attention to his money-shifting practices.

But a hearing on those financial records, scheduled for mid-June 2021, was canceled after Paul Murdaugh's death.
A school on the East Side that once educated Charleston's Black students before desegregation will see new life as an affordable senior living complex.

Mayor John Tecklenburg called the effort a "gentrification-buster," meant to help longtime residents of the once predominately Black neighborhood age in place.

"It allows folks who have grown up in this neighborhood to be able to afford to live here," he said at a groundbreaking ceremony July 20.

Two of those residents attended the celebration. Roslyn Edwards Gilchrist and her sister Mary Edwards brought diplomas and degrees earned by their cousin, Mabel Pinckney, an alumni of the soon-to-be repurposed school.

Although she died at the age of 26, they credit her with inspiring the rest of their family to stay in school and pursue higher education.

If she were here today, Edwards said she could see Pickney living at her former school.

"I'd say to her, 'Mabel, we love you and your dream is now true,' " Edwards said.

Although construction has been ongoing for about a month, the project has been discussed for years.

The Humanities Foundation has helped spearhead the $42 million rehabilitation effort. The former Henry P. Archer School on Nassau Street will be redeveloped into 89 residential units for seniors at or below 60 percent of the area median income.

Work on the one- and two-bedroom Archer School Apartments is expected to be completed by early 2024.

Tecklenburg said he hopes the quality of the project will help break the stigma around affordable housing.

"This is going to be first-class. This is going to be an example for the United States of America for how a city can build beautiful affordable housing," he said.

The Humanities Foundation purchased the property from the Charleston County School District in 2020 using funds from the city's affordable housing bond fund, which also provided additional financial assistance with predevelopment costs.

The city considered buying the old school in 2018 but abandoned the effort after determining renovation would be too costly and complicated since it must be retrofitted structurally to make it more resilient to earthquakes.

The school district discovered in 2010 that a number of downtown school buildings couldn't withstand a 5.0-magnitude earthquake.

The project ended up getting support from a combination of financial institutions, nonprofits and government agencies. Those include the Charleston Housing Authority, South Carolina Housing, The Climb Fund, Red Stone Equity, Sugar Creek Capital, Chase Bank and Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust.

The Archer site, which was costing taxpayers $18,000 a year to maintain by 2017, was unused at the time and has remained vacant since.

Having a large vacant building posed a safety hazard for the area, said Councilman Robert Mitchell, who represents the East Side.

"This area was a blighted area for a long time, so we need to have these changes done for the community," he said.

The original 18-room schoolhouse was built for Black children nine decades ago at a cost of $135,000 under the Roosevelt administration's New Deal public works program and was expanded over the years.

For decades, it was one of three elementary schools for Black students in the city. Civil rights icon Septima P. Clark was a teacher there in the 1950s, until she was fired from the school district for working with the NAACP.
A new business district for Charleston's iconic King Street has its ground rules.

The corridor, known as the King Street Business Improvement District, imposes a fee on all commercial businesses on King between Broad and Line streets.

For a $1 million commercial property, which under South Carolina law is assessed on 6 percent of its value, the new tax would amount to $678 per year.

Charleston City Council unanimously approved a memorandum of agreement July 19 between the city and the Charleston Downtown Alliance, the nonprofit entity that will operate the BID. The finalized agreement is the result of months of feedback and a council workshop last week.

"We have spent a lot of time with council and staff redrafting this so that everybody is clear on what we are getting into and what the expectations are," said Doug Warner of Explore Charleston. "I think we are in really great place."

Board makeup

One of the concerns raised at the July 12 workshop was the makeup of the Downtown Alliance board.

A draft of the agreement presented at the workshop stated that a majority of the nine-person voting board must reside within Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties.

The draft required one City Council member to serve as a voting member of the board, which automatically meant at least one member would be a city resident. Councilman Peter Shahid said those requirements did not go far enough to ensure that city residents had a voice on the board.

"Were dealing with public finds from the city of Charleston, and I just think it's unconscionable to have just one guaranteed city resident on this board," Shahid said at the July 12 workshop.

As a result, the approved agreement states that at least two voting members of the board must be city residents.

It also includes requirements that at least one voting member be a woman and at least one be a racial or ethnic minority. The board must also include a business owner who rents, rather than owns, their commercial space.

The Charleston Downtown Alliance has already been established as a way to get the BID process off the ground. Now the current board of directors will go through a selection process for choosing fellow voting members according to the city's parameters.

"We are not telling them who their members should be, but their voting members have to be within these guidelines," Charleston Planning Director Robert Summerfield told the Post and Courier.

Impact on renters

The impact of increased fees on business owners who rent their space has been a concern of opponents of the BID.

The improvements funded by the district are aimed at keeping the street clean and attractive for both visitors and business owners, proponents say. It may also fund an "ambassador" program that includes paid monitors who walk the street offering directions and guidance to visitors and also respond to reported concerns about the homeless population. But such efforts, opponent say, can also attract high-end chains that drive property values up and local businesses out.

To address this concern, the agreement states that the downtown alliance must issue an annual survey to business owners within the district. The survey will include a question about how the fee has affected rents for commercial tenants within the district.

"We'll do a full-blown survey every year before we come back to council for approval of the budget," Warner said.

Out of the 467 properties included within the BID, about half will pay less than $500 per year, the Downtown Alliance estimates.

Transparency

An early proposed budget from the Charleston Downtown Alliance shows an annual income of about $1 million to spend on services for the district. Roughly 60 percent of that, or $600,000, would come from a new tax on commercial property owners. The rest would come from contributions from the public sector, fundraising, grants and income from programs.

Some opponents at the July 19 meeting took issue with the idea that public funds would be controlled by a nonprofit, instead of elected officials who residents can hold accountable in the voting booth.

Its your job to do this, not some sort of secret, vest-wearing collection of folks who are turning Charleston into private property, local activist Tamika Gadsen said.

Joel Sadler, co-owner of the Sightsee retail and coffee shop, said he wanted the agreement to limit how much outside funding the alliance could accept.

That will create a financial juggernaut of a monster that will be well beyond your control, said Sadler, whose business is adjacent to the district.

Those suggestions were not worked into the agreement, but Downtown Alliance Chairman Chris Price said the BID is the result of close collaboration between the city and the nonprofit. When City Council approved the creation of the BID earlier this year, the alliance had collected written approval from business owners who represented 55 percent of the street's property value.

"We feel very good about this process and the two years of work behind this. From the mayor to City Council, to the city teams to our teams this is a perfect example of public-private partnership," he told The Post and Courier.

Commercial property owners will see the fee on their county tax bills this fall and the BID will see its first revenue from the tax in 2023.
A federal grand jury has indicted former Palmetto State Bank chief executive Russell Laffitte on charges alleging that the veteran banker meddled with customer accounts to help his friend, disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh, steal from their mutual clients.

The five-count indictment charges Laffitte with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, and misapplication of bank funds  an array of alleged criminality that began in July 2011 and carried on for a decade. The charges carry up to 30 years in prison.

The July 20 indictment represents the first charges federal authorities have filed in their secretive probe of the alleged financial crimes of Alex Murdaugh, a prominent Hampton County lawyer who earlier this month was charged with two counts of murder in the June 2021 fatal shootings of his wife and son. They likely wont be the last.

The new indictment echoes felony charges that state investigators brought against Laffitte on May 4. The state grand jury accused the 51-year-old banker of helping Murdaugh steal more than $1.8 million from accounts he controlled at the Hampton-based bank, including to pay back loans Laffitte had issued Murdaugh from a clients account.

But federal charging documents reveal new details about how Laffitte and Murdaugh's alleged financial conspiracies worked and how crippling money problems might have motivated a prominent, well-respected trial attorney to begin stealing vast sums from his own clients.

The indictment details Laffitte's personal involvement in Murdaugh's alleged theft. Charging documents reveal several cases in which Laffitte allegedly drained nearly $2 million in settlement funds from Murdaugh's legal clients. He then used a flurry of wire transfers, money orders and deposits to repay loans and route the money to relatives, associates and personal bank accounts of Murdaugh and Laffitte, the indictment states.

Bart Daniel, one of Russell Laffitte's defense attorneys, told The Post and Courier, "We intend to vigorously fight the charges at trial." He declined to comment further.

Efforts to reach Palmetto State Bank's attorney for comment were unsuccessful.

A close relationship

The federal grand jury alleged Laffitte was Murdaugh's personal contact at Palmetto State Bank, handling nearly all of his banking needs. Laffitte served as the personal representative or conservator for several of Murdaugh's clients and collected nearly $392,000 in fees for safeguarding the high-dollar settlements or judgments they won in court, charging documents state.

But Laffitte did anything but protect his customers' money, the grand jury alleged. Instead, charging documents indicate:

Laffitte loaned Murdaugh nearly $1 million from their accounts and loaned himself another $355,000.

Laffitte knew Murdaugh was using the money to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in overdraft charges on his account, making the loans risky investments.

Laffitte also knew Murdaugh was stealing heaps of money from his clients in order to pay back those loans  and helped him do it.

Laffitte also misspent Palmetto State Bank funds, charging documents allege. On Oct. 28, and without the bank's permission, Laffitte sent $680,000 to a Hampton law firm to pay back money he had fraudulently transferred to Murdaugh, according to the indictment.

Months earlier, in July 2021, Laffitte misused $750,000 in bank funds by extending Murdaugh an unsecured commercial loan to "pay an attorney and to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars" in overdraft charges on Murdaugh's account, the indictment states.

The new federal charging documents don't mention Murdaugh, 54, by name. But Murdaugh matches the indictment's description of Laffitte's alleged co-conspirator: a Palmetto State Bank customer who worked as a personal injury lawyer in Hampton and maintained a close relationship with Laffitte. The allegations also track closely with those spelled out in previous state indictments and civil lawsuits.

More charges are expected as state and federal investigators continue to untangle a decadelong web of transactions in which Murdaugh allegedly pilfered more than $8 million from legal settlements owed to his clients and associates.

Laffitte was long suspected to be a target of the federal Murdaugh investigation.

In January, his own relatives on the Palmetto State Bank board fired him as CEO as law enforcement agents probed Laffittes dealings with Murdaugh.

Laffitte hired two pricey defense attorneys, former prosecutors Daniel and Matt Austin, to represent him in the investigation. They insisted Laffitte was no co-conspirator of Murdaugh, but rather had been deceived by the since-disgraced lawyer.

Laffitte has been on house arrest since his May 6 bond hearing on the state charges, when Circuit Judge Alison Lee released him from jail on a $1 million surety bond.

A bond hearing has not been announced on his new federal charges.

'Personal slush fund'

Laffitte's schemes date back to July 2011, when he extended himself the first of eight loans totaling $350,000 from the conservatorship account of a young girl, charging documents state. Months later, he would begin loaning Murdaugh money from the same account  ultimately issuing the lawyer 14 loans worth nearly $990,000. Murdaugh needed the money to fill five-digit overdrafts on his personal accounts, the charging documents indicate.

According to the indictment, Laffitte never sought formal permission for the loans and failed to notify his client or probate court of their existence.

But when his client turned 18 and Laffitte had to pay back the loans, he didn't have the money, the indictment states. Laffitte had to take out a $245,000 loan to make her account whole, the charges state. Laffitte is still paying off that loan.

Murdaugh stole more than $663,000 from at least four of his own clients to pay back his loans from the conservatorship account, charging documents state.

In a written statement released shortly after Laffitte's indictment was unsealed, trial attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter said that conservatorship belonged to their clients, Hannah Plyler and Alania Spohn. The money stemmed from a legal settlement Murdaugh won for the pair of sisters after their mother and brother were killed in 2005 auto accident.

"The girls viewed Russ Laffitte as a father figure and trusted him to navigate the waters ahead for them and to guide them," the lawyers wrote. "It is difficult to express the emotions and disappointment of learning years later that those who had sworn to protect the Plylers chose instead to prey upon them. Russ Laffitte and Alex Murdaugh plundered their conservator accounts and treated it like their own personal slush fund."

In other cases, Laffitte directly facilitated the theft of mounds of money owed to Murdaugh's clients, the grand jury alleged.

At Murdaugh's direction, the banker misdirected a $1.3 million legal settlement meant for a single client, charging documents state. Among a series of transfers, Laffitte used $482,000 of the settlement to pay back loans from the Plylers' conservatorship account, sent $75,000 to Murdaugh's father, directed $7,500 to Murdaugh's wife and deposited nearly $251,000 in Murdaugh's personal accounts, the indictment alleges.

In another case, Laffitte divvied up nearly $635,000 owed in settlements to a pair of victims who were severely injured in a 2009 car crash, charging documents state. The banker sent $10,000 to Murdaugh's wife, paid more than $4,000 toward Murdaugh's boat loan, directed $100,000 to Laffitte's father to pay off a personal loan and spent more than $50,000 to pay back loans from the Plylers' conservatorship account, the indictment states.

Birds of a feather

Laffitte and Murdaugh share more than their alleged financial schemes. Both grew up in wealthy families that wielded great social and political influence in the rural southern corner of South Carolina. And both went into the family business.

Murdaughs father, grandfather and great-grandfather served as the elected solicitor of the 14th Judicial Circuit, a five-county region covering the states swampy southern tip. The family also ran the high-powered Hampton-based Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, Detrick law firm in Hampton.

Murdaugh was a badge-carrying volunteer prosecutor for the solicitors office and worked as a trial attorney at PMPED.

Laffitte, meanwhile, went to work at the century-old bank his family purchased for $250,000 in 1955. He joined the bank as a teller in 1997, won a promotion to chief operating officer in 2015 and became CEO in 2020.

His father had led Palmetto State Bank for decades, helping to expand it into a Lowcountry institution with offices in three counties and more than $700 million in assets. Other relatives ran branches of the bank and sat on its board. They rose to prominence within S.C. banking circles, winning tours as chairmen of trade groups like the S.C. Bankers Association and Independent Banks of South Carolina.

One of South Carolinas oldest state-chartered banks, Palmetto State Bank had enjoyed a sterling reputation until last fall, when it was dragged into the Murdaugh saga.

Another of the banks executives, Vice President Chad Westendorf, was named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging Murdaugh had stolen millions from a pair of settlements owed to the sons of his late housekeeper.

According to that September lawsuit, Murdaugh had advised the sons of housekeeper Gloria Satterfield to bring a wrongful death claim against him after her death from a 2018 fall at his familys hunting lodge. Then Murdaugh recruited Westendorf to serve as the sons personal representative and watch over any money they received from the claim.

But Westendorf didnt do that  not well, at least. Despite accepting a $30,000 fee as personal representative, he neglected to tell the Satterfield family that their attorney later won some $4.3 million for them in settlements from Murdaughs insurance carriers.

On Westendorfs watch, Murdaugh ultimately stole more than $3 million from those settlements, prosecutors have charged.

In a February deposition that has fueled scrutiny of Palmetto State Banks practices, Westendorf testified that he never met or interacted with Satterfields sons during that case. He also swore he didnt know specifics about their wrongful death claim or his responsibilities as the estates personal representative.

Palmetto State Bank denied any wrongdoing in the matter, claiming Westendorf represented the Satterfield estate in a personal capacity. But it then reached an undisclosed settlement with Satterfields family in November. Westendorf was dismissed as a defendant after reimbursing the Satterfield family his $30,000 fee.
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.
When the murder indictments finally came, they were almost anti-climactic

Thirteen months after Alex Murdaugh told a 911 operator in a hysterical voice that he had arrived at the familys Colleton County home to find that his wife and youngest son had been shot and werent breathing, the charges seemed somehow inevitable.

After all the allegations about elaborate frauds and shady conspiracies, after lawsuit after lawsuit revealing a new scheme just a little more unbelievable than the one before, after a year of increasingly uncomfortable questions about our judicial systems ability to protect the public from the few attorneys who prey on others, it was hard to muster much more than: Oh, yes. That.

It wasnt that we were convinced that he must have been the killer. It wasnt even that we expected it. We had simply lost the capacity to be shocked or surprised about anything involving the name Murdaugh. There was simply no more room for either.

Mr. Murdaughs great-grandfather, grandfather and father had been the most powerful men in the southeastern corner of South Carolina for nearly a century: the elected solicitors who put others behind bars  not men who faced the prospect of spending the rest of their own lives behind bars. Simultaneously, they built a powerful law firm that profited from their elected positions and vice versa, turning tiny Hampton County into what one business group once dubbed the nations third-worst judicial hellhole because of the eye-popping verdicts that the family business kept pulling down in lawsuits against railroads and other deep-pocketed, out-of-state defendants.

Alex Murdaugh never became solicitor, but he held a bizarre position as a volunteer solicitor, which kept him close to the power of his forebears, and he was known for winning massive lawsuits  enough to more than pay for the most lavish lifestyle anyone could manage to live in rural South Carolina. Which made it seem inconceivable that he would steal money from widows and orphans, and family and friends  as a growing string of lawsuits and now 81 criminal charges allege he did, to the tune of $8.4 million.

Yet when we step back from the soap-opera-style unraveling of Mr. Murdaughs life, it looks less like the proverbial fall from grace than a simpler, more commonplace tragedy  one that hundreds of thousands of American families find themselves plunged into every year. Assuming the narrative his defense attorneys have laid out is true, its the story of a man whose life was turned inside out by an opioid addiction.

Of course, an addiction doesnt excuse whatever crimes Mr. Murdaugh might have committed. He made the choice last summer to admit himself to a drug rehabilitation center; he could have done that at any point over the previous two decades. If the evidence supports some or all of the charges against him, our judicial system will have the responsibility to ensure that he is punished appropriately  and we must insist that it do that, in spite of his name, prestige and wealth.

But as we think about this high-profile tragedy  or atrocity  we should realize that addictions are destroying many other lives every day, though in a much less spectacular way.

Realize, too, that addiction isnt limited to the weak or the lazy, to the poor or the uneducated, or to any of those people. Addiction doesnt care about race or income or education or social status.

And realize that addiction doesnt just hurt the addicted. It hurts everyone it comes into contact with: It creates heartache and pain, and the personal tragedy of suicide. It leads the addicted to commit crimes to feed their habits, from petty thefts to violent street crimes to white-collar crimes and, yes, even to murder. It sucks billions of dollars out of our economy every year.

Even though punishment is necessary and appropriate when addicts commit crimes, well never punish our way out of addiction. And well never stop opioid addiction, any more than well stop alcohol addiction or nicotine addiction or food addictions. But we can do a better job of treating opioid addictions. We can do a better job of preventing them. And we must.
The argument for installing metal detectors in every school building is pretty straightforward: Bad guys cant shoot up schools if they cant sneak in undetected with their weapons and ample ammunition.

So it makes a lot of sense to arm our schools with metal detectors, court and prison style.

If were willing to install them at every entrance.

And if were willing to monitor every entrance all the time, and search or turn away anyone who sets off an alarm.

And if were willing to make sure no one ever lets anyone walk around the metal detector, no matter how long its taking to get everyone through.

And if were willing to make the penalty for leaving an exterior door open so severe that no teacher, administrator, volunteer or student would ever dare do that.

And if were willing to lock our children inside of armed fortresses and forego all the other protective measures we could purchase with the money it would take to pay for that.

Of course, none of that would stop bad guys from changing their tactics and coming in guns blazing and shoot up all the kids waiting in line to go through the metal detector.

Unfortunately, too, as we saw at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in 2018 and at Uvalde, Texas, this spring, we also cant prevent mass school shootings by assigning a school resource officer to every school. Or even a few hundred armed police.

The problem isnt that metal detectors dont work; you dont need a study to understand that they do. The problem is that we arent disciplined enough to use them effectively. That means, as The Post and Couriers Hillary Flynn and Devna Bose report, they can give us a false sense of security. And they do little if anything to protect us from the more commonplace threats to our children at school, which come from students in the classroom with them rather than from gun-toting terrorists storming their schools.

Fortunately, there have been no mass school shootings in South Carolina since mass shootings became a common part of our lexicon. In this century, a total of two students have been shot to death at S.C. schools, in 2016 and in March of this year; four other students and a teacher have been wounded. Yet in 2021 alone, The Post and Couriers Education Lab reports, schools recorded 13,095 violent disciplinary incidents involving students; only about 500 of them involved weapons.

We dont mean to downplay the horror of mass school shootings. The still blessedly small number of them is growing, and in any event one is too many. But we do need to keep the threats in perspective, and we need to engage in a cost-benefit analysis whenever we spend public money and make public policy  perhaps especially when were making those decisions in response to horrific but still very-out-of-the-ordinary events such as, most recently, the Uvalde massacre.

If the only acceptable policy is one that results in zero deaths in our schools, then we need to close our schools, because one student is going to get a concussion on the playground and die. One student is going to catch COVID or the flu or some other communicable disease and die. More significantly, hundreds are going to die every year in traffic accidents, some of them on the way to or from school. And those deaths are just as tragic as if they had been killed by an armed gunman. In many cases, the agony is even greater for their parents, who were at the wheel when the wreck occurred.

Ms. Flynn and Ms. Bose found a lot of support for softer programs, particularly those that improve the relationships between students and school officials so officials are more likely to recognize when students are on a path to harm themselves or others, and so students are more likely to report when they see or hear warning signs.

Yes, its easy to find a lot of experts who tout touchy-feely solutions that dont always make a lot of sense  and some of the ones they found fall into this category. But its also hard to dismiss the idea that were a lot safer when students are willing to trust responsible adults, and when responsible adults are watching out for warning signs in kids.

And its too easy to overlook the fact that mass school shootings are less a product of our schools than of a sick society, where rage has become a perfectly acceptable response to the slightest provocations and where even angry young men who have displayed numerous red flags can get their hands on all the guns and ammunition they want. Those are problems that will only be solved when those of us outside the schools are willing to confront them.
State Rep. Wendell Gilliard plans to pre-file a bill in November banning military-style weapons throughout South Carolina.

The bill would not only outlaw the future sale of such weapons but also require current owners to surrender them, said Gilliard, D-Charleston.

"I have never been more driven than I am today to continue my fight for gun control," Gilliard said at a July 20 press conference in downtown Charleston.

Gilliard has proposed similar legislation in previous sessions of the Legislature with little success. He admitted his effort would face an uphill climb in the GOP-dominated, pro gun-rights General Assembly.

Still, he's hopeful the bill will gain traction this time around in light of such weapons being used in a run of mass shootings across the U.S.

A representative of South Carolina's most visible National Rifle Association group called Gilliard's effort a stunt and an attempt to "stir the pot."

Gilliard "needs to look at the number of Democrats in the House and Senate before he starts wasting time on stuff he knows will go nowhere," said Gerald Stoudemire, president of Gun Owners of South Carolina, the NRA affiliate here.

Stoudemire said some of the guns Gilliard wants to confiscate are owned by the lawmaker's fellow members of the General Assembly, so going after them would be futile, he said.

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"There are millions of AR-15s in this country that cause no harm," he added.

The semi-automatic, AR-15-style rifle is a civilian version of weapons favored by militaries. The rifles can accept high-capacity magazines to fire dozens of high-powered rounds without being reloaded.

The weapons are also a common feature of mass shootings. A gunman used an AR-15-style rifle May 24 to kill two teachers and 19 students at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The gun fired about 100 rounds in the space of three minutes, according to a report released July 17 by a Texas House committee.

Gunmen used similar weapons in other recent tragedies, including the mass shooting at a July 4 parade in Highland Park, Illinois, and the May 14 shooting inside a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y.

A ban on AR-15-style rifles will not fix the entire "gun problem," Gilliard said, but it would put barriers in place to "slow down the intentions of evil people."

Schuyler Kropf contributed to this report.
COLUMBIA  After moving from Atlanta to Greenville and then to Charleston, the case of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham's appearance in front of a grand jury investigating election tampering is moving back to Georgia.

A day before Graham's lawyers were scheduled to appear with Georgia attorneys at the federal courthouse in Charleston, the case took an abrupt turn July 19 as all sides agreed the case is better off being argued within the boundaries of the Peach State.

"There's just no issue in front of the South Carolina courts," said attorney Chris Adams, who is representing Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis on this side of the border.

"The proper place for this to be litigated is in Atlanta," he added.

The agreement between the sides includes wording in which Graham, R-S.C., agrees to appear in Atlanta but that he still isn't waiving his right to challenge the subpoena Willis filed earlier this month naming him as an important witness into potential election tampering following the November 2020 presidential count there.

The case dates to the post-2020 presidential election period when Graham phoned Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and, according to prosecutors, he along with several members of former President Donald Trump's legal team allegedly sought to produce a more favorable outcome in the state for Trump.

Graham and his attorneys have disputed Georgia prosecutors' account of the calls, saying Graham, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was within his right to investigate election processes in individual states, and that he is neither a subject nor a target of the investigation.

Trump narrowly lost in Georgia by 11,779 votes.

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Graham has since called Willis' grand jury probe a politically motivated "fishing trip" meant to advance the political goals of a U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

"I never suggested to anybody that they discount ballots for any political reason," Graham told Fox News' Brian Kilmeade in a July 12 interview. "The bottom line here is the January 6 committee is not designed to get to the truth. It's designed to create a narrative that Donald Trump shouldn't run again, to literally charge him with a crime."

"We all saw what happened on January 6, it was a terrible day," he added. "But this committee is set up in a fashion that's dangerous. Everybody on the committee has one goal. They want to get Trump."

A date for the next hearing in the case has not been set, but Adams said Georgia court officials would be receptive to working around Graham's duties as a U.S. senator.

The venue will be either Fulton County Superior Court or the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Schuyler Kropf contributed to this report from Charleston.
Fund another round of direct financial aid, like Prugraman Salappe''

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LONDONTheres an upside of arriving in London right in time for a record-breaking heat wave that was pathetic by California standards. It only lasted two days, and temps are already back to normal, whereas every Californian will tell you that any self-respecting heat wave lasts at least five days. In any case, 104 degrees yesterday meant that I got more time to spend in pubs quaffing cold local brews, which was high on the agenda to begin with. Right now my favorite stop for a pint is The Coal Hole, which is right next to the Savoy Hotel, and has fabulous air conditioning, which youd rightly expect of a place named for Britains primary fuel for several centuries. In fact The Coal Hole used to be the colliery for the famous hotel, and good to see that while Britain wants to end all coal usejust not yetit has not banned the mention of the word coal.

So the heat wave was convenient, and besides, the New York Post reports this week that Beer can help you survive a heatwave, doctors say, though Ive been practicing this form of preventive medicine for more than 45 years now, so who needs doctors. Take no chances I say, and order than next pint.

Along with the heat, Ive managed to arrive just in time to catch the hotting up of the race to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister. Ive watched a couple of the televised debates among the field, and they seem a dispirited and mediocre lot, with the exception of Kemi Badenoch, who was booted from the field yesterday in the latest winnowing by Tory MPs. She was by far the best and most interesting of the field. And we took note of Badenoch here on Power Line two years ago, wishing that we could amend the Constitution so she can come to the United States and run for President. Badenoch, the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, is supremely anti-woke (the only one of the field), who as a junior cabinet minister under Boris directly attacked critical race theory and issued an official report that denied Britain is institutionally racist, which infuriated the cultural left. Shes also the most open (though imperfect) critic in the field of Boriss Net-Zero energy madness, which means a Badenoch government would have offered the sublime virtue of annoying the two most vocal segments of leftist opinionenvironmentalists and race-mongers. She also supported Brexit! Can it get any better than this? She is popular with the Tory rank-and-file, and survived the first several rounds of party MP voting.

Were down to three (and I think the final two by this afternoon, though one nice thing about British pubs is that they dont have CNN or the BBC or Pravda on their TVs, so you dont have to put up with any blather with your suds, or yell sod off at Britains equivalent of Don Lemon). The final three are Rishi Sunak (former chancellor of the exchequer), Penny Mourdant (who is doing her best imitation of Margaret Thatcher, but it isnt very good), and foreign secretary Liz Truss. All three make you yawn. And snap polls out this week show all three of these aspirants to 10 Downing Street would lose in a landslide to Labours Keir Starmer. Way to go, Tories!

Meanwhile, it is good to take in the London tabloids, which remind us of what real news coverage is like. From Metro this morning (no linkIm going from hard copy in the pub):

Indignant hotel guests pavement protest falls flat A drunken guest lay down in front of a Premier Inn when staff refused to let him into his roomonly to find he was protesting at the wrong hotel. Police were called after the man refused to end his lie-down demonstration on a Bournemouth pavement early hours of Sunday. An intoxicated man was trying to gain entry to a hotel where he didnt have a booking, Dorset police later tweeted.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. Noit wasnt me! (Though I am staying in a flat right across the street from a Premier Inn.) Now, time for another pint.

Chasera reminder that summer comes once a year, and is quite predictable:
Everyone expects Republicans to recapture the House of Representatives in November, and I have no reason to disagree. This raises the question: assuming Republicans do control the House, should they impeach Joe Biden?

That Biden has committed impeachable offenses seems beyond dispute. He has deliberately opened the Southern border, in defiance of our immigration laws, and has compounded the offense by distributing illegal aliens around the country. Most recently, Biden has stopped prosecuting those who cross the border illegally.

The presidents most basic duty under Article II of the Constitution is to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed. As to our immigration laws, Biden has not only failed to execute them faithfully, he has openly and wantonly flouted and negated them. I dont see how it can be argued in good faith that this is not an impeachable offense. It presents a far stronger case for impeachment than the charges that were brought against Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton, let alone the laughable charges that the Democrats brought against Donald Trump.

But, as we have seen, impeachment is a political act. Joe Biden has committed impeachable offenses, but will it be smart for Republicans to impeach him? Probably not, at least not early in the new Congressional term.

The new Congress will meet in an atmosphere of dire decline in the nations fortunes. Citizens who vote Republicans into office will be waiting anxiously for concrete actions: to restore production of American oil and gas, to do everything possible to close the Southern border, to restore sanity to federal spending, to stop the woke virus that has infected even the armed forces. These are urgent needs, and voters will be displeased, to say the least, if Republicans are seen as wasting time and energy on an essentially political retribution against Biden.

After Republicans have moved decisively to reverse the decline that the Biden administration has precipitated, it might make sense to proceed with impeachment. But by that time Biden may well have passed away or resigned, and if he is still on the scene, the optics of impeaching a pathetic old man may not be favorable.

Thus, Biden eminently deserves to be impeached and convicted, probably more so than any president since James Buchanan. Of course he would not, in any event, be convicted by the Senate and driven from office, but political considerations likely will militate that Biden not endure the impeachment he so richly deserves.
Steve Hayward has observed the sudden blast of stories regarding President Bidens age-related decline. Most recently, Robert Reich has piled on in the Guardian. The theme of the stories is that Biden will be too old to run for office again in 2024 and ought to make his intentions clear after the midterm elections.

If Biden is seen to be too old now to run for office in two years, he must have been too old in 2020. Thus the nineteenth-century style basement campaign his team ran for him and all the rest of the charade. Everyone around him knew he was out of it.

In his Wall Street Journal column Daniel Henninger places the blame for Bidens failing presidency on the Democratic Party. He offers this assessment:

For this mess, I blame the Democrats, notas many of them have put itMr. Bidens alleged unwillingness to fight. To be blunt: The reason most Americans dont want Mr. Biden to run is that its clear by now that he has cognitive problems unacceptable in a person responsible for conducting the presidential office. Since Inauguration Day, every public statement he has made to the American people, large or small, has been written by someone else for him to read by rote from a teleprompter. His off-the-cuff followups are painful. Mr. Bidens condition didnt begin on Inauguration Day. Those around him knew there was a problem, but the needs of the party prevailed. Concerned that a progressive such as Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren couldnt win the general election, the Democrats fashioned a faux moderate candidacy out of Mr. Biden.

We commented on Bidens mental infirmity many times during the course of the campaign. Some news rating service even sent us a questionnaire to evaluate our reliability as a news source that asked for a citation to support our judgment. We were apparently to be docked for relying on the evidence of our senses.
In the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine, Western businesses abandoned Russia in droves. There was little pain, since investments in Russias economy have generally been modest. But the London Times asks a good question: what if China invades Taiwan? The headline is, Western companies face existential crisis as fears grow of Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Days after the Ukraine conflict erupted, Apple, BMW, McDonalds and other Western giants lined up to announce they were quitting Russia in protest. This moment calls for unity, it calls for courage, declared Tim Cook, Apples chief executive. That it only caused a relatively small financial hit must also have helped. The decision reportedly cost the iPhone maker less than 1pc of its global sales, while some foreign businesses, including Frances Renault, chose to sell off their Russian operations for a symbolic one rouble. Oil giant Shell, which made almost $300bn (254bn) in sales last year, said its losses would not top $5bn.

But what if China invades Taiwan?

Yet experts fear another diplomatic crisis will soon be looming where the calculation will not be so simple: a forced Chinese subjugation of Taiwan.

***

Whether attempted with military force or other means, this would pose a nightmare scenario for boardrooms who have spent years  and vast sums  trying to woo the dragon. Many of the Wests biggest businesses take a huge chunk of their profits from China, dwarfing what was at stake in Russia, and will be far more reluctant to give them up. Apple made $68bn or 19pc of its revenues in Greater China last year, while one in three German cars are reportedly sold in the mainland. AstraZeneca, the British drugs giant, now relies on China for 16pc or $6bn of its annual sales. Taiwan itself has also become a lynchpin of global supply chains, particularly in digital technologies, with the islands foundries producing half of the microchips used in everything from smartphones to washing machines and cars.

That is a stunning fact.

It means that a standoff over Taiwan between the West and Beijing threatens far more collateral damage than the confrontation with Russia.

That is putting it mildly:

Most companies that have been doing business in Russia have been able to take the hit, write off their investments and walk out of Russia, [Dr Michael Reilly, a senior fellow and China expert at the University of Nottingham] adds. To write off their investments in China would have a much, much bigger impact. It is not for nothing that China is known as the workshop of the world, with many foreign businesses relying on the factories in the country for part of their production process. A sprawling complex run by Foxconn in Zhengzhou, dubbed iPhone city, employs more than 300,000 people and produces half of the worlds iPhones on behalf of Apple. Pegatron, a Taiwanese company with operations in Shanghai and nearby Kunshan, separately assembles around one quarter of the handsets. Apple also relies on a long list of China-based suppliers for components  as do other tech giants such as Microsoft, Google and Intel. Meanwhile, a host of fashion retailers, including H&M, Zara, Gap and Calvin Klein, rely on a string of material suppliers in the country, which is the largest producer of cotton in the world. Many Western companies have gone even further and invested in having their own operations in China, or created joint ventures with a domestic company  long a condition for entry into some industries. Nike has 102 factories in China, employing more than 123,000 workers, while JCB, the British manufacturer of tractors, diggers and other machines, operates a plant in Pudong, near Shanghai. German car makers including BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz all have joint ventures that produce and sell millions of cars each year. VW, by far the biggest and the first foreign manufacturer to set up shop in China four decades ago, sells a car in China every 10 seconds and reportedly relies on the country for around half of its profits. It has 33 Chinese plants spread across the country, employing more than 100,000 workers and producing five million vehicles per year.

So if China does move against Taiwan, whose side will big business be on? Based on what we have seen in recent years, my guess is that kowtowing to the CCP will continue. And that can only impact American and European policy, especially if the party of big business, the Democrats, are in power in Washington.

Some are sanguine that the deep economic connections between China and Western powers will keep Taiwan safe. But realistic calculations may suggest otherwise:

[T]he amount of Western capital tied up [in China] remains enormous  and for some companies there is simply too much at stake. A crisis over Taiwan akin to Ukraine would cause an existential crisis for German car makers, an adviser to the firms told the Financial Times earlier this year. Former diplomat Parton says this will complicate the response taken by the West, particularly if Chinas actions cannot be easily categorised. Instead of invading or blockading the island, he believes Beijing will use smarter tactics that blur the lines of acceptability  making it harder to establish whether red lines have been crossed. And so there will be foreign companies putting a lot of pressure on their home governments, saying Are you really going to make a stand here, with all the losses it will entail?, he adds.

And we all know how steadfastly Western governments stand up to their countries corporate interests. Perhaps the most optimistic scenario is that Western corporations disengage from China over the next few years, so that when the CCP starts to apply serious pressure to Taiwan, Western governments will feel free to resist. Is that scenario too optimistic? Your guess is as good as mine.
The latest cause celebre for leftists in Minnesota is the case of Tekle Sundberg. Sundberg tried to murder a young woman, Cassandra Yarbrough, whom he apparently did not know. Police were called, Sundberg fired repeatedly from within an apartment, there was a standoff that lasted for hours, officers tried to negotiate with Sundberg and brought in family members to try to persuade him to surrender. Under circumstances that are not yet clear, officers eventually shot and killed Sundberg. My colleague David Zimmer, a veteran of 37 years in law enforcement, has a sober and unbiased review of the facts as we know them so far.

Unfortunately, the usual race hustlers have gotten involved. The detestable Benjamin Crump has turned up, purporting to represent Sundbergs family. And yesterday a group of mostly-white leftists protested at the apartment building where the incident took place. No doubt they were surprised to be confronted by Cassandra Yarbrough, the woman whom Sundberg was trying to kill. She expressed strong disapproval of their demonstration. Her reminders that Sundberg tried to murder her, in front of her two small children, were greeted with shouts of liar!somewhat ironic, since she was there, and they werentand shut up, the main liberal argument these days:

Things boiled over during Saturdays rally and march for Tekle Sundberg, when the 24 year old woman who says he was shooting into her apt. showed up voicing her frustration with those gathering in front of her building on Sundbergs behalf. @kare11 * video contains profanity * pic.twitter.com/qdi1vbgO7k  Deevon Rahming (@DeevonRahming) July 16, 2022



I commend this young woman for having the courage to stand up to the mob on behalf of herself and her children.

The story has generated quite a bit of Twitter activity, including this from Benjamin Crump:

This is Tekle Sundberg. Minneapolis Police Department killed this smart, loving & artistic 20-year-old after an hours-long standoff while he was experiencing a mental health crisis. We need ANSWERS from MPD as to why Tekle's mental health crisis became a death sentence! pic.twitter.com/MuxrzxcHL0  Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) July 16, 2022



Crumps take has not been well received. This, for example, comes from Matt Walsh:

Sunberg was trying to murder a woman and her two children, you soulless lying asshole  Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) July 17, 2022



Another, with a more realistic view of Sundberg:

The would-be murder victim comments:

Jim Treacher also replied to Crump:

Liberals have gone stark, raving mad on crime. It is obvious, even without recent election results, that other than felons, liberals speak for only a tiny fraction of the population on this issue. Least of all do they speak for the victims of black crime, who are overwhelmingly black themselves. Kudos to Ms. Yarbrough for standing up against the liberals.
Legendary Nigerian musician and songwriter Onyeka Onwenu has announced her membership with the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN).

The septuagenarian, who has a lengthy and successful music career which kicked off in 1981 while working with NTA, announced her membership at a media briefing at the MCSN corporate office, Ikeja, Lagos, on Tuesday.

She told PREMIUM TIMES that her decision to rejoin MCSN was born out of alleged mismanagement of funds by the leadership of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON).

The music star lamented how COSON collected her music rights and royalties on her behalf but never remitted them to her.

She said: Since 2011, Ive never gotten any kobo from music. After a series of efforts, why would a collecting society withhold my sweat?

COSON has a music rights collection agency that is unfortunately roughly managed. COSON is no longer a CMO recognised by the government. There is nothing like COSON.

Speaking on why she has decided to join MCSN, Ms Onyeka noted that MCSNs experience as a collecting society is vast. Explaining that the collecting agency is internationally recognised and should be left behind or not recognised and not allowed to keep doing what they are doing well is wrong.

COSON, MCSN war

COSON has now been embroiled in a lingering crisis for years.

The ongoing confusion started after an impromptu meeting of COSON on December 7, 2017, declared Efe Omoregbe as the successor of former chairman Tony Okoroji.

At a press briefing in June 2018, Mr Omoregbe, widely known as 2babas manager, decried what he described as Mr Okorojis access to and abuse of funds belonging to members.

The body has been divided regarding leadership, with Mr Omoregbe and Mr Okoroji crying infringements and treachery, respectively.

The crisis took a new dimension on May 5, 2018, when the Nigerian Copyright Commission suspended COSONs operating licence.

In the last decade, MCSN has also been inundated with several challenges.

The most prominent being a longtime battle with its fierce rival, COSON, over royalty collections.

In January 2019, the Supreme Court affirmed the legal status of MCSN to operate as a collective management organisation for music (musical work) and sound recordings in Nigeria.

MSCN leadership responds

The CEO of the Music Society of Nigeria, Mayo Agilaran, affirmed the pleasure of having Mr back at MCSN.

He said: Today is one of my happiest moments. Our sister is back to where she belongs. Onyeka Onwenu is one of the founding mothers of today Nigerias Music Industry. She was and is a founding member of MCSN.

When MCSN was at the founding stage, when we were trying to understand the collection society, she was ably present with us. It brings so much pleasure to have her back on board today.

During an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Agilaran said the collecting society now has an app that can be used to monitor radio, television and their use of music intellectual property.

He said the initiative dubbed GoCreate would make the collection and tracking seamless.

This applies to both the organisation in question and the music artists, producers, songwriters and all other resource persons who worked on a particular project.
May, the first wife of actor Yul Edochie, on Tuesday opened up about how she fell into depression when her husband married his colleague, Judy Austin.

In April, the 40-year-old Actor threw his fans, colleagues and social media into a frenzy after sharing pictures of his baby boy and new wife on his Instagram page.

The actor said it was high time the world met his son, Star Dike Munachimso Yul Edochie, whom he loves much as his other children.

Almost immediately, the actor cum politician said he married a second wife because he could not let go of his colleague, Ms Austin.

In a clip posted on her Instagram, May said despite her battle with depression, she chose to pick up the pieces of her shattered world.

It is the first time the reserved entrepreneur openly addressed her husbands decision to marry a second wife.

She said: Depression is accurate, and there are different stages of depression. Rather than dwell in depression, I decided to pick up the pieces of my beautiful world.

A wonderful world. An amazing world that suddenly shattered. That suddenly crashed. I decided to pick up the pieces and try to move on rather than dwell in depression.

Depression

She noted that its not been easy, although she appears happy and robust.

Im glad that I look happy, and I appear strong to you all. Im pleased that I am delighted. Im so excited I can go out there and do stuff.

Im even amazed and surprised at some things I do, but its all because of love. Its the support from my family. Its the support from you guys. You guys have been amazing. The love is massive. These are the things that have kept me going. Honestly speaking, she added.

Rationale

May, whom Yul married 18 years ago, also said contrary to popular opinion, she is not making money off her marital woes.

A few days back, she announced via her Instagram page that she had launched a YouTube page which would be all about May Yul-Edochie.

This angered some of her fans and followers on social media, who expected that she would have dropped her husbands last name, Edochie, by now.

The fans suggested that she intended to draw sympathy and traffic to the page to earn some income from the streaming platform.

Reacting to the comments, in a video on Instagram, Ms Edochie said that it was untrue and that she does not wish what she is going through even on her enemies.
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, to hands off negotiations with the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Mr Buhari, who gave the directive during a briefing by the heads of the various concerned ministries, departments and agencies of government on Tuesday in Abuja, also okayed the suggestion by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to take over the negotiations.

Mr Adamu was said to have complained to the gathering the reason behind his prolonged silence on the matter, saying his labour and employment counterpart had since 2016 argued that only the labour ministry has the mandate to negotiate with striking workers unions in Nigeria.

ASUU has also blamed Mr Ngige for allegedly complicating the crisis and making resolution difficult.

ASUU stated the position on Tuesday at a media briefing on the status of the negotiations. The union said the position became necessary as part of its efforts to clarify conflicting positions allegely linked to the union.

Adamu versus Ngige

A highly-placed source, who was at the meeting and spoke with PREMIUM TIMES in confidence, said earlier reports that President Buhari ordered the education minister to address the ASUU crisis within two weeks is inaccurate.

The source said; The President never directed the education minister to end the strike in two or three weeks. It was the minister himself who hinted of a possibility of an end to the crisis between two and three weeks.

But the education minister said he distanced himself from the negotiations following the position taken sometime in 2016 or thereabouts when a similar issue arose and the labour minister said it was his duty to take over negotiation and quoted some ILO provisions.

The source said Mr Adamu expressed surprise that when his labour counterpart made the argument at a cabinet meeting at the time, none of the cabinet members contradicted him and that the President maintained silence.

So the education saw the Presidents silence as an approval of Mr Ngiges position at the time, the source added.

History of controversies

The latest conflict between the minister of education and his labour and employment counterpart is not new.

The labour minister had in the past criticised his education counterpart, accusing him of not doing enough to resolve the labour crises in Nigerias higher institutions.

In April, while meeting the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement renegotiation committee headed by Nimi Briggs, a professor, Mr Ngige explained his challenges with the education ministry.

In a statement distributed to the media by his ministry after the meeting then, Mr Ngige said in the December 2020 agreement, he gave the government side a timeline to return to the university unions who are their employees to sort everything out.

He said; I started pushing to see that things were done. What the Munzali committee came up with is a proposal. Both Munzali and ASUU did not sign. At our last meeting in February before ASUU proceeded on strike, we said everyone should go back to his principal.

As a conciliator, I have to make use of the labour instruments at my disposal. The bosses in the Federal Ministry of Education do not feel the strike. There are things that are above me. I am not minister of education.

I cannot go to the education minister and dictate to him how to run his place. But I told ASUU that you should be bombarding them at the Federal Ministry of Education for this to be moved forward. There are many ways to do so.

This was confirmed on Tuesday by ASUU, which said Mr Ngige had once directed the union to picket the education ministry.

Tuesdays meeting

At Tuesdays briefing, the concerned ministries, agencies and departments of government gave the status of the negotiations to the President.

Those at the meeting with the president were the ministers of education, finance, labour, and communications and digital economy, Adamu Adamu, Zainab Ahmed, Mr Ngige and Isa Pantami respectively.

Others were the Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan; Chairman of the National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta, and the Director-General of Budget Office, Ben Akabueze.

A source at the meeting told our correspondent that the President directed that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and Mr Ngige should only serve as observer and conciliators at the resolution meetings.

Education ministers plan

The source further explained that the education minister has promised to immediately begin a series of meetings with ASUU to resolve the crisis as soon as possible.

The source said: The minister has consistently explained that the agreement reached with the previous administration on the release of about N1.3 trillion to the university system is not realistic but that something around a quarter of such can be worked out.

Also, in the salary structure being negotiated, the minister is open to paying a professor a salary not less than N1 million. That will be tabled before relevant agencies of government to arrive at implementable proposals so that the unions can take them to their members for consideration.

The source said because the minister believes the lecturers are patriotic Nigerians, the matter could be resolved.

So the President, agreed to this and asked him to take immediateaction. 

Ministry keeps mum

Meanwhile, the education ministry has declined comment on the matter but pledged to make a statement available to the public on Wednesday.

In a telephone interview with our reporter on Tuesday evening, the Director of Press in the Ministry of Education, Ben Goong, said he would not speak on the matter.

I believe that you know this is a sensitive matter, you wouldnt expect me to just speak to you. But I can assure you that the ministry will make a statement on Wednesday, Mr Goong said.

ASUU maintains stand

Meanwhile, in a statement Tuesday the President of ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke, berated the labour and employment minister.

The union expressed reservation about Mr Ngiges claim of being a conciliator, accusing him of taking sides.

The union said; ASUU has always had serious reservations about the claim of conciliation by someone (Mr Ngige) who has taken sides in the dispute, or by an unabashed protagonist in the crisis such as the current Minister of Labour and Employment. It is antithetical to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions (98, 151 & 154) on collective bargaining and tripartism.

The Trade Dispute Act, the principal legislation for labour relations, does not empower the Minister to assume the office of conciliator. This is to guarantee the principle of good faith in negotiations, which implies making every effort to reach an agreement, conducting genuine and constructive negotiations and applying them in good faith.

It is against the principle of natural justice and the doctrine of equality for Dr. Ngige who carries himself as if he has personal scores to settle with ASUU and shoots down the Union everywhere it matters to assume the role of conciliator.

He said nothing concrete came out of the endless deliberations with the minister as the conciliator as he kept approbating and reprobating.

The ASUU president said: It appears that Dr. Ngige has deliberately misrepresented the International Labour Organisations (ILO) convention on the collective bargaining agreement and the roles of a conciliator to serve his propagandist interest in this matter.

For instance, he would declare that he fully supported our demand that the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU be speedily concluded within six weeks while at the same time creating an unrealistic pathway to arriving at a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), Mr Osodeke said.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the minister claimed that ASUU sat down to fix its members salary after asking representatives of the governments ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) to recuse themselves from the meeting with the Nimi Briggs-led committee on renegotiation of the 2009 agreement.

ASUU strike

ASUU embarked on an initial four-week strike on February 14 but has continued to extend the strike as the union and the Nigerian government have failed to reach an agreement.

The university teachers are requesting the implementation of the renegotiated 2009 agreement that contains its members conditions of service as well as the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS) to replace the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) currently in use.

ASUU alleged irregularities in the IPPIS, adding that the salary payment platform has stripped universities of their autonomy.
The Kano State Ministry of Health says five people have died from 189 cholera cases recorded in the state from April this year.

The states Commissioner for Health, Aminu Ibrahim, disclosed this during a press briefing on Tuesday.

On the 16th April 2022, a case of watery diarrhoea and vomiting suspected to be due to cholera was reported in Dambatta (Local Government Area) which was promptly investigated.

Since then, we had a total of 189 cases in 20 LGAs out of which 184 have fully recovered, 0 active case and 5 deaths, the commissioner said.

You may wish to note that, Nigeria is still affected by cholera especially during the rainy season due to poor personal and environmental hygiene, sanitation, poor waste management and open defecation all of which promote feco-oral transmission of the causative agent of the disease, he said.

He said the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has recorded a total of 2,339 cholera cases in more than 30 states from January to June 2022.

Mr Ibrahim said the prompt and multi-sectoral collaborative response by the State has greatly contained the spread of the disease.

It will interest you to know that last year by now we (Kano) recorded 12,116 cases across the State with 329 deaths, the official said.

He said cholera outbreak is seasonal and is a bacterial infection of humans caused by v.cholerae, which is a Gram-negative bacillus.

The official said any resident of a community under investigation aged two years and above with acute watery diarrhoea with or without vomiting should be immediately evaluated for suspected cholera disease.

According to the official, risk factors for cholera transmission are poor personal and environmental sanitation, food and water contamination, poor waste disposal, and open defecation, amongst others.

He said the ministry under the leadership of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje is fully committed to providing adequate and qualitative health care services to the good people of the State to eliminate cholera outbreaks and other diseases in the state.

We also wish to call on the general public to ensure good personal and environmental hygiene and sanitation, avoid open defecation, ensure hand washing with soap, safe preparation and safe storage of food and safe disposal of the faeces of children as well as instituting measures for open defecation, Mr Ibrahim said.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says it is on a high alert following the first outbreak of the Marburg virus in the countrys neighbouring Ghana.

The NCDC director-general, Ifedayo Adetifa stated this in a statement Tuesday, noting that no case of Marburg virus has been reported in Nigeria but several measures are being put in place to prevent its outbreak

On Monday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed the outbreak of the virus in Ghana after blood samples from two patients in the southern Ashanti region, both of whom later died, tested positive.

The current outbreak in Ghana is the second time the virus will be detected in West Africa, after the 2021 experience in Guinea.

Mr Adetifa revealed in the statement that given the proximity of Ghana to Nigeria as well as the WHO alert, the NCDC-led multisectoral National Emerging Viral Haemorrhagic Diseases Working Group (EVHDWG) has conducted a rapid risk assessment to guide in-country preparedness activities.

Based on available data, the NCDC DG said, the overall risk of both importations of the disease and its potential impact on the Nigerian population is said to be moderate.

He noted that this was assessed by NCDC experts and partners considering the proximity and high traffic from Ghana and countries that share borders, the incubation period of 21 days of the virus, and heightened surveillance at the point of entry.

It added that they also considered Nigerias capacity to respond to the outbreak in the country and the fact that persons with MVD transmit the virus when they become symptomatic unlike for SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 that can also be transmitted by infected persons without symptoms.

Testing

The NCDC boss also noted that Nigeria has the capacity to test for the virus presently at the National Reference Laboratory in Abuja and the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital Laboratory Centre for Human and Zoonotic Virology.

Diagnostic capacity can be scaled up to other laboratories if required. Nigeria has the resources (human, technical and laboratory) for prompt identification and management in the event of a single imported case, he added.

Mr Adetifa assured that the risk of importation may be further reduced as the current situation in Ghana is under control and active case finding is ongoing while there is heightened surveillance in Togo and Benin.

He also disclosed that many of the contacts under follow-up in Ghana will soon exit the 21-day quarantine period and so far, there have been no secondary cases reported.

Preventive measures

To prevent the outbreak of the Marburg virus in Nigeria, the NCDC highlighted measures that Nigerians should strictly adhere to.

It urged Nigerians to avoid: non-essential travel to locations where the outbreak is reported, for now, direct contact with blood, saliva, vomit, urine, and other bodily fluids of people suspected or confirmed to have the virus, and reservoir for fruit bats and other sick animals.

ALSO READ: Ghana quarantines 98 contacts over Marburg virus disease

It further said: Ensure all persons with the symptoms described above are promptly taken to healthcare facilities for diagnosis and initiation of supportive treatment.

In suspected and/or confirmed MVD cases, direct physical contact should be avoided by ensuring strict isolation, the use of protective gowns, masks, gloves and safe disposal of needles, bedding, and other contaminated materials.

Strict practice of infection prevention control in the healthcare setting for all suspected patients.

NCDC added that male survivors of Marburg virus disease should practise safer sexual practices and hygiene for 12 months from onset of symptoms or until their semen tests negative twice, for the virus.

About Marburg Virus Disease (MVD)

The Marburg virus causes a rare, highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever and is in the same family as Ebola, both members of the Filoviridae family (filovirus).

It is another example of zoonoses such as Lassa fever, etc. Marburg is transmitted to people from fruit bats as a result of prolonged exposure to mines and caves that have Rousettus bat colonies. It is not an airborne disease.

The virus spreads through human-to-human transmission via direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials contaminated with these fluids.

NCDC said; The initial symptoms of the disease include sudden onset of high fever, chills, headache, body aches which may be accompanied by a rash, most prominent on the chest, back and stomach, nausea/vomiting, chest pain, sore throat, abdominal pain by the fifth day of illness.

Increase in severity of the illness can be heralded by the appearance of severe watery diarrhoea, jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, bleeding from multiple areas, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive haemorrhaging, and multi-organ dysfunction and/or failure.

In fatal cases, death occurs often between 8 and 9 days after symptom onset. The case fatality rate for MVD is estimated to be 24 to 88 per cent.

It added that the Marburg virus is known to persist in the body  placenta, amniotic fluid, the fetus of infected pregnant women, breast milk of women who were infected while breastfeeding and semen  of persons who have recovered from MVD.
After decades of modest livelihood improvements, Africas fortunes started turning around in the mid-1990s. But the gap in crucial indices, such as average incomes in Africa and those in the rest of the world, continues to widen.

A new Institute for Security Studies (ISS) website explores the reasons for Africas slow development beyond the historical impact of slavery, imperialism, colonialism and the Cold Wars proxy battles.

Because of its large youthful population, Africa will only enter a potential demographic dividend in the middle of this century  several decades later than other regions. Instead of a boon to development, Africas large, youthful population is a significant drag on improvements in income and poverty reduction.

With most people still living in rural areas and engaged in subsistence farming, the continent is not benefiting from the dynamic contribution that urbanisation makes to development. Instead of labour moving to jobs in urban factories  the traditional route to rapid growth  most Africans urbanise to escape destitution in rural areas. So rather than benefiting from more productive livelihoods in towns and cities, they merely survive in a growing informal, low-end services sector.

As a result, urbanisation is making only a modest contribution to improved productivity in most African economies. And instead of industrialising, Africa is deindustrialising from the relatively small role that manufacturing plays in its economies. At low levels of development, a services-led growth path delivers minor improvements in productivity and mediocre economic growth.

Despite all the talk about its agricultural potential, Africa has not experienced an agricultural revolution; average yields per hectare are less than half the average in the rest of the world. Farmland is communally owned and not bankable. Fertiliser is expensive, and surplus produce cannot get to the market because of poor infrastructure.

Instead of catching up, the gap in yields per hectare in Africa compared to global averages is increasing. The continent is becoming less food secure with each passing year, as evidenced by the impact of Russias invasion of Ukraine on food availability, hunger and malnutrition.

Then there is Africas large health burden. Rates of communicable diseases on the continent are more than four times higher than the average worldwide. Although Africas non-communicable disease burden is only half that of the rest of the world, rates are increasing.

By 2024, the death rate from non-communicable diseases in Africa will overtake that from communicable diseases. This early epidemiological transition  given low levels of development  translates into a veritable double burden of disease on a continent with exceptionally poor health infrastructure and low ratios of medical personnel to population.

Ironically, levels of democracy in Africa are quite high given its lagging development and burden of instability. And military expenditure on the continent is generally below the average in the rest of the world.

So what can be done? On 22 June, the ISS African Futures and Innovation (AFI) programme unveiled an ambitious website with long-term forecasts of each African country. The site assesses why Africa is trailing behind the rest of the world and presents scenarios two decades into the future. It also tracks the effect of positive pathways in 11 separate sectors, ranging from infrastructure to leapfrogging and climate change and energy.

Africa can start closing the gap with the rest of the world, but there are no quick fixes. Rather, countries must pursue good political and economic management, and match interventions to their specific circumstances, natural endowments and levels of development.

The AFIs rich datasets and forecasts provide unparalleled insights into likely future trends. They enable a mapping of Africas development challenges and the huge potential of the continental free trade area, more aid and foreign direct investment, better education and health.

At the launch last month, South Africas President Cyril Ramaphosa commended the ISS for lending its weight to the pan-African drive for unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity.

With progress across all sectors, the growing gap between income levels in Africa and the rest of the world can be closed. It will take time though, and the number of extremely poor people in Africa will likely increase over the next decade. Improving incomes and reducing extreme poverty will take several decades to achieve.

Jakkie Cilliers, Head, African Futures and Innovation, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Pretoria

Research for this article is funded by the Hanns Seidel Foundation, SIDA and the government of the Netherlands.

(This article was first published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish).
The Emir of Yandoton Daji, Aliyu Marafa, in Zamfara State, was on Sunday suspended after he turbaned a wanted terrorist, Ada Aleru, the Sarkin Fulani (the leader of the Fulani) of the emirate.

The Governor of the state, Bello Matawalle, created the Yandoton Daji emirate out of Tsafe emirate on May 18.

While creating the emirate, the governor charged the new emir to use the new opportunities at their doorstep to foster more unity and instil more cohesion and discipline in the society as inherited from our forefathers,

The area of influence in the new emirate consists of Yandoton Daji, Keta, Kizara, Bawa Kwanga, Kwaren Ganuwa, Danjibga, and Kuncin Kalgo districts with Headquarters at Birnin Yandoto.

But two months after the creation of the emirate, Mr Marafa was suspended after he conferred a traditional title on the wanted terrorist, Mr Aleru.

But he was not the first traditional ruler that has come under the hammer of the state government for allegedly aiding the activities of terror gangs in the state.

Since 2019, the governor has been accusing traditional rulers in the state of collaborating with the terror gangs that attack communities, educational institutions, and government offices in the state. These gunmen also specialise in kidnapping travellers for ransom.

Subsequently, the governor has deposed or suspended some of the emirs for allegedly aiding the activities of the terror gangs. However, none of those deposed has been charged with any wrongdoing.

The following are some of the traditional rulers suspended or deposed for allegedly supporting the terrorists in the state.

The Emir of Maru

The governor Mr Matawalle, in August 2019 removed the Emir of Maru, Abubakar Cika, for allegedly supporting gunmen accused of attacking communities and killing several people in his constituency.

The removal of the emir was announced by the then deputy governor, Mahdi Aliyu.

The Emir was originally suspended in June following protests by his subjects amidst allegations he was working with terrorists and cattle rustlers in Maru council area.

The government set up a committee headed by the former Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, to investigate the emir.

The committee found the emir wanting and recommended his removal. The emir was deposed in August 2019. He was, however, never prosecuted.

The Emir of Zurmi

In June 2021, the governor suspended the Emir of Zurmi, Atiku Abubakar, for allegedly being complicit in the activities of bandits in his domain.

Mr Abubakar was suspended after gunmen attacked Kadawa village; 61 people were killed in that attack.

After the suspension of Mr Abubakar, the governor handed over the reins of the emirate to a top chief, Bello Suleiman, pending the report of a committee set up to investigate the incident and the deposed emirs involvement.

Though the committee has reportedly submitted it the report of its investigation, the government has not made the report publicly available. The suspect was not charged for his alleged crime.

The Emir of Dansadau

Also in June 2021, Mr Matawalle suspended the Emir of Dansadau, Hussaini Umar, for aiding terrorists

The government set up a committee chaired by the states Commissioner for Security Affairs, Mamman Tsafe, a retired deputy Inspector general of police, to investigate the connection between the emir and criminal gangs in the area.

Like his colleagues, the emir of Dansadau was never charged to court.

The removal of district heads

The district head of Kanoma in Maru emirate, Lawali Ahmad, was removed in 2019, alongside his emir, Abubakar Chika, for the same alleged offence.

In January 2020 the governor suspended the district heads of Kanwa and Burmi, Garba Kanwa, and Bello Yusuf, from Zurmi and Bakura, local governments respectively for allegedly aiding banditry.

They were also accused of insubordination. Both men were accused of opposing the governments peace programs and for political interference.

Keeping with the trend of removing traditional rulers for allegedly supporting or conniving with the terrorists, the district head of Nasarawa Mailaya, in Zurmi council area, Bello Wakkala, was also removed alongside the emir of Zurmi in 2021.

In the same year, the government also removed the District Head of Birnin Tsaba in Zurmi Emirate, Suleiman Danyabi, for the same reason.

None of the dismissed traditional rulers has been charged despite the enormity of the accusations for which they were removed from office.

The governors spokesperson, Zailani Baffa, did not respond to calls to comment on why the suspects are yet to be charged in court.

Katsina State

In May 2021, the District Head of Kankara, in Katsina State, Yusuf Lawal, was suspended for alleged complicity in terrorism.

The Secretary of the Katsina Emirate Council, Bello Ifo, said the district head was found guilty by a committee that investigated his alleged association with bandits.

The committee said it found Mr Lawal guilty of aiding and siding with criminals including kidnappers operating in the Kankara axis and recommended his removal.

However, residents said some of the traditional rulers side with the gunmen out of fear for their own lives because security agents seldom respond to distress calls or act on intelligence reports passed over to them by these traditional rulers.

ALSO READ: Inside story of how Zamfara Emir turbaned notorious terrorist Aleru

Kankara was in the news last year for the abduction of over 300 students of the Government Boys Science Secondary School in the town.

The mastermind of the abduction, a notorious bandit called Auwalun Daudawa, was a few months later killed in a clash with a rival group in a forest between Katsina and Zamfara states.

The known phone contact of Abdu Labaran, the spokesperson for Governor Masari, did not connect Tuesday evening when our reporter reached him for comment.
The Super Eagles defender, Calvin Bassey, has officially signed a five-year deal with Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam.

Ajax confirmed the signing of Bassey from Scottish club, Rangers, on Wednesday via an official statement on their website.

The Dutch giants revealed they paid about 23 million euros to Rangers FC in order to sign Bassey who was also attracting interest from a number of other clubs; especially in the English Premier League.

The club statement read: Ajax has reached an agreement with Rangers FC and Calvin Bassey for the transfer of the defender to Amsterdam.

The English-Nigerian player has signed a contract with Ajax that will take effect immediately and will run for five seasons, until June 30, 2027. Ajax will pay a transfer fee of EUR 23 million to Rangers FC. Including variables, that amount could increase to EUR 26.5 million.

Calvin Bassey was born on December 31, 1999, in Modena, Italy. The Nigerian international was under contract with Rangers FC until mid-2024. He arrived in Austria today to join the first teams training camp.

Bassey made only 15 appearances during his debut campaign with Rangers when they won their first top-flight title in a decade.

He was however more involved the last term; racking up 50 games as the Ibrox club reached the Europa League final and won the Scottish Cup.

With Basseys exit, the leading Nigerian trio have all now departed from Rangers with Joe Aribo now with Southampton and Leon Balogun also out of contract at Ibrox.

While Bassey will be counting down to August 6 when his Amsterdam club kicks off the defence of their Eredivisie title against PSV, he will be keen to make a mark like his compatriots who all did well with Ajax in past.

That rich list includes the likes of Kanu Nwankwo, Finidi Geroge Sunday Oliseh and Tijani Babaginda.
Nigerias ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has unveiled Kashim Shettima as the running mate to Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 election.

Mr Shettima, a former governor of Borno State and serving senator, was unveiled at the YarAdua Centre in Abuja on Wednesday.

The unveiling comes despite fierce criticisms trailing his choice as the vice presidential candidate of the ruling party on July 10 in Daura in Katsina State.

Both Messrs Tinubu and Shettima are Muslims.

Some members of the party criticised the choice, tagging it as Muslim/Muslim.

Among those who fiercely opposed it were a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Mr Tinubus ally, Babachir Lawal, and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

However, the pair received approval from others.

Mr Tinubu had earlier announced Ibrahim Masari as his running mate in placeholding capacity,

Despite the criticisms Mr Shettimas pick, Mr Tinubu, at the event, said his recruitment and political decisions have always been on certain principles that are non-negotiable.

All my life, my decisions regarding the team I am around and those I work with is guided by the principle of competence, innovation, compassion, integrity and adherence to excellence. In politics, those principles are non-negotiable. Without them, there cannot be victory, there can be no joy, he said.

Speaking on the controversy over his faith, Mr Shettima said some persons also dispensed similar bigotry ahead of the APC primaries in June but the outcome showed that Nigerians are rational people.

We all witnessed the decisive blows dealt the bigotry dispensed by a hopeless minority, ahead of the APC presidential primaries, last June. The futility of their propaganda, showed that Nigerians arent the unthinking robots some are quick to call them. Nigerians are rational beings with the capability to tell an invidious agenda apart, from sincere concern for them.

They are not the uncritical consumers of clickbait and falsehoods, as some of us think they are. They see through the bigots, masquerading as patriots and, very importantly, they know those who represent their interests, even in the quietest and darkest of meeting rooms, Mr Shettima said.

Also speaking, the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Adamu, said even though the choice of running mate is an exclusive right of the presidential candidate, he consulted stakeholders and President Muhammadu Buhari.

He noted that the party will wholly and unconditionally accepts his choice.

Mr Adamu also appealed to those that contested the APC ticket with Mr Tinubu to purge themselves of the loss at the recent APC convention.

It is time to purge ourselves of the bitterness arising from our individual losses in the party primaries. It is time to submit ourselves to the will of God and the party and do nothing to sabotage its well-laid plans for victory.

The other political parties want what we want, and that is, to win and form the next government. If by any acts of omission or commission we give in to bitterness and pettiness or fail to see the larger picture or take any of the political parties for granted, we would constitute an obstacle to the victory of our party, he said.

Mr Tinubu defeated 13 other aspirants, including the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to emerge the presidential candidate of the ruling party in June.
Major Nigerian cities including the Federal Capital Territory were thrown into darkness on Wednesday when the countrys electricity grid collapsed.

Electricity distribution companies announced Wednesday that the collapse occurred at about 11:00 a.m.

Wednesdays incident is the sixth reported collapse in 2022.

The government blames poor management and low gas supply as the major causes of the repeated breakdown of the grid, which is managed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

The electricity distribution companies across Nigeria get their electricity supply from the national grid.

The Eko Electricity Distribution Plc informed its customers of the grid collapse via Facebook.

Dear Customers, we regret to inform you of a system collapse on the National grid at precisely 11:27am today, Wednesday July 20th. We are in talks with the Transmission Company of Nigeria to ascertain the cause of the collapse and a possible restoration timeline. We will keep you updated on the situation, it wrote.

The head of corporate communications at Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, Abdulazeez Abdullahi, announced the incident on behalf of the company in a statement published on Facebook.

We regret to inform our customers that the power failure currently being experienced is as of the collapse of the National Grid which occurred by 11:28 this morning, he wrote.

We hereby assure our esteemed customers of restoration of normal power supply as soon as TCN restores supply to us. We sincerely regret the inconveniences caused by the system failure,.

Also, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company in a statement said, Please be informed that the current power outage is due to a system failure from the National Grid.

The system collapsed at about 12:23 p.m. today, 20 July 2022, causing the outage currently being experienced. We appeal for your understanding as all stakeholders are working hard to restore normal supply.

Restructuring DisCos

Wednesdays electricity collapse occurs at a period the electricity distribution companies are being restructured.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how five of Nigerias eleven energy distribution corporations are undergoing restructuring.

Distribution companies in Port Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna, Ibadan, and Benin are among the impacted businesses.

Since the government privatised the distribution companies in 2013, they have not been efficient as citizens and businesses groan.

But through the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), the government still holds a 40 per cent stake in the businesses.

Nigerias power system has mostly remained dysfunctional, producing and distributing an average of 4,000 megawatts to around 200 million people.

According to the government, Fidelity Bank has exercised its right to take over the five DISCOs since they were unable to repay loans they received from the bank to buy their assets during the 2013 privatization.

Editors Note: Our earlier report stated that Wednesdays was the seventh grid collapse. The story has been updated to show that it is the sixth.
Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) mounted pressure on the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, asking him to seek to be the vice presidential candidate of the party.

This was disclosed Wednesday by the APC vice presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima, during a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Shettima told the president to appreciate Mr Zulum for spurning recurring mention of him and pressure from his governor colleagues to bid for the vice presidential ticket.

Details of the closed-door meeting between Messrs Buhari and Shettima were disclosed by the presidents spokesperson, Garba Shehu.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Mr Shettima visited the president after the former Borno governor was officially unveiled Wednesday in Abuja as the running mate to the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.

Mr Shettima was accompanied on the visit by Mr Zulum and the Minister of State, Agriculture, Mustapha Shehuri.

The former governor was recently announced by Mr Tinubu as the APC vice presidential candidate. He was one of those who were considered for the position alongside others like Mr Zulum and Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

At the meeting on Wednesday, Mr Buhari expressed optimism that the APC would win the 2023 presidential election and he would hand over to Messrs Tinubu and Shettima in 2023.

Read Mr Shehus full statement on what was discussed between the two men below.

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE

PRESIDENT BUHARI TO KASHIM SHETTIMA: I WILL RESPOND TO YOU WHEN I AM HANDING OVER TO YOU AND YOUR BOSS

President Muhammadu Buhari struck a chord of humour on Wednesday at the State House while responding to a flowery speech by Senator Kashim Shettima, the Running Mate and Vice Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, saying, I will respond to your speech when I am handing over to you and your boss. God willing, you are going to win.

President Buhari, who received the VP candidate shortly after he was unveiled by the leadership of the party and Bola Tinubu, said he is very happy with the choice of the former governor of Borno State as running mate.

I wish you the best. Your consistency in the party is very respectful. You served your two terms as governor and finished well. You have kept touch with your base. At every important occasion or event, you are maintaining support for the one who succeeded you. This is commendable, he said.

The president expressed strong optimism that the APC ticket will emerge victorious in 2023.

In his remarks, the vice presidential candidate thanked the president for his empathy, support and positive role, leading to his emergence as running mate to the APC presidential candidate.

He praised the president for having a special place in your heart for Borno and North-east, adding, I can cite 20-30 instances of support you have rendered, for which you will be remembered.

He mentioned the establishment of the North East Development Commission, NEDC, and the Independent Power Plant for Maiduguri by the NNPC, after many years of darkness, saying that words cannot describe our appreciation of your support. We will remain eternally grateful.

The former governor of Borno State requested the president to appreciate his successor, Babagana Zulum, who was in his company, along with the Minister of State, Agriculture, Mustapha Shehuri, for spurning recurring mention of him and pressure from his governor colleagues to bid for the vice presidential ticket.

The candidate pledged to remain loyal and devoted to the president, promising that his vice-presidency will not be for the troika of Hausa, Fulani and Kanuri, but for all Nigeria, irrespective of ethnicity, religion or geographical place of origin.

Garba Shehu

Senior Special Assistant to the President

(Media & Publicity)

July 20, 2022
A Federal High Court in Abakaliki has again declared the rescheduled Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries in Ebonyi, invalid.

The Judge, Fatun Riman, Tuesday, recognised Ifeanyi-Chukwuma Odii as authentic governorship candidate of the party for the 2023 polls.

Justice Riman said the repeated primaries in the state were invalid because it was not monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The rescheduled primaries were not done in line with the law.

We, therefore, recognise the primaries of May 28 and 29 that elected Odii as governorship candidate in Ebonyi and that is our judgment.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the party rescheduled and conducted fresh primaries on June 4 and 5, which produced Obinna Ogba as the gubernatorial candidate.

The party thus disregarded the outcome of the May 28 and 29 primaries.

NAN also recalls that the Court of Appeal in Abuja had earlier on Tuesday ordered for a fresh trial of the suit by the Federal High Court, Abakaliki.

READ ALSO: Court nullifies rescheduled Ebonyi PDP primaries

The order was made to enable the appellant to be heard, pursuant to the principle of natural justice.

The counsel for Mr Odii, Mudi Erhenede, thanked the court for the judgement.

The court has revisited the suit for fair hearing and ruled that the rescheduled PDP primaries remain invalid, he said.

The PDP in Ebonyi State has been torn into two factions over the struggle for the control of the party structure in the state.

(NAN)
A total of 266 ecological projects have been completed across the country in the last seven years (2015-2022), President Muhammadu Buhari declared Wednesday in Abuja.

This was made known in a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity), Femi Adesina, on Wednesday.

Speaking at the launch of a compendium of ecological projects undertaken by this administration, the President said 332 ecological projects were approved during the period in review, out of which 266 were accomplished while the remaining 66 are at different stages of completion.

The President, who launched the publication before the commencement of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, commended the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Management Team of the Ecological Project Office (EPO), for the judicious use of available resources for the effective implementation of approved projects, as well as the initiative for the publication.

In order to leverage the benefits accruable to government from the commendable efforts of the EPO, and the effective communication of these efforts through the publication, the President directed Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) which have not done so, to showcase their performance and achievements to the public.

The enormity of Nigerias ecological problems and inherited infrastructural deficit in general, has the tendency, like the proverbial drop in the ocean, to always drown our achievements in addressing ecological challenges and infrastructural deficit at large.

It is against this background that publications like the one being launched today, become very important and a useful tool in correcting the negative public perception, that government has not done anything in addressing these challenges.

The documentation and publication of these achievements in our modest effort to tackle ecological problems is therefore predicated on our quest to improve communication in governance, as a tool for keeping citizens well-informed and helping them to hold government accountable.

This is the most significant implication of the Ecological Project Offices initiative in publishing this compendium.

The President noted that the Compendium, which is for the reading pleasure and knowledge of Nigerians, would bridge the information and communication gap between Nigerians and the real-time performance of this Administration by portraying the specific locations of ecological projects, with pictorial evidence as well as proofs of handing over the projects to the beneficiaries.

President Buhari urged States and Local Governments to judiciously use their shares of the ecological fund, strictly for ecological projects towards addressing the ecological problems in their areas.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, told the President that the 554-page publication supervised by the Permanent Secretary, EPO, Dr Habiba Lawal, is aimed at keeping the public abreast of the efforts of the administration in addressing verified ecological problems in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.

He thanked the President for promoting the culture of accountability and for approving the change of name of Ecological Fund Office to EPO, for its mandate not to be misconstrued by the public.

The Office was established through the Federation Account Act in 1981, primarily to carry out intervention projects nationwide with the Federal Government share of the ecological funds, to address critical ecological problems to supplement States and Local Government shares of the fund.

On the federal government share of the Ecological Fund, the SGF explained that the latest sharing formula of the Ecological and Derivation Fund (EDF) as modified allocates 1.00 per cent to the Federal Government, 0.72 per cent to States while the Local Governments get 0.60 per cent.

He added that out of the 1.00 per cent of the Federal Government share, monthly the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) gets 20 per cent, National Agency for Great Green (NAGGW) Wall 5 per cent, North East Development Commission (NEDC) 10 per cent while the National Agricultural Development Agency (NALDA) receives 10 per cent.

Femi Adesina

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

July 20, 2022
The police in Cross River State have confirmed the abduction of a student of Arthur Jarvis University, Akpabuyo, near Calabar.

The police spokesperson in the state, Irene Ugbo, confirmed the incident in a telephone interview with the News Agency Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Calabar.

NAN gathered that some students were returning to their hostels from where they had gone to read when gunmen accosted them around 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

While one of the students was seized by the gunmen, others ran for their lives, and sustained various degrees of injury.

Ms Ugbo, a deputy superintendent of police, said the Commissioner of Police in Cross River, Aminu Alhassan, has drafted the Anti-kidnapping and the Dragon Units of the police to forestall the breakdown of law and order and to effect the release of the abducted student.

She said the police have commenced investigation into the incident.

Acting Registrar of the university, Ngozi Ughas, said in a statement that the school management was on top of the situation.

All students and staff are please requested to remain calm and go about their normal duties. Kindly desist from circulating false information capable of causing panic, she said.

Akpabuyo Local Government Area, where the school is, is about 20 minutes drive from Calabar, the Cross River capital, according to NAN.

Abduction-for-ransom is a prevalent crime in many cities across Nigeria.

(NAN)
The House of Representatives has called for the deployment of more troops in Ussa Local Government Area of Taraba State in a bid to dislodge terrorists and restore normalcy in the area.

This followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance by Rimamnde Kwewum (PDP-Taraba) at the plenary on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said that terrorists who murdered six soldiers of the 93 Army Battalion of the Nigerian Army in Takum had continued destruction of settlements there unabated.

Mr Kwewum further said that in the past weeks, over 30 people have been killed, adding that scores of settlements and villages have been attacked and are still vulnerable to further attacks.

He noted that in the latest attacks, the terrorists waylaid innocent and defenceless people and they freely moved from Takum to Ussa, shooting at motorists and pedestrians.

The lawmaker said the killings and destruction have become daily occurrences and in several of the communities, adding that crops and houses have been destroyed.

He said the communities appeal and several patriotic resolutions of the House for a stronger intervention by both the state and federal government, had gone unheeded.

Mr Kwewum added that agricultural activities have virtually been disrupted in the area which produces a significant percentage of the food needs of the country.

According to him, given the proximity of the area to the Ambazonia/Cameroon conflict, the bandits will in no distance future internationalise the crisis.

He added that they would also link easily and collaborate with Boko Haram sect across the Nigerian border.

The House, therefore, urged the intelligence agencies and the operational security agencies to identify the routes and camps of the terrorists and their local collaborators to bring them to book.

The House also urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other organisations to intervene in providing relief materials to the affected communities.

The House mandated the Committees on Defence, National Intelligence and Human Rights to interface with the armed forces and ensure compliance and report to it within 14 days for further legislative action.

(NAN)
Workers under the aegis of the Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PTECSSAN) on Wednesday picketed MTN Nigeria PLC plaza in Falomo, Lagos to drive home some demands.

They held placards with inscriptions such as Workers Rights are Human Rights; Unionism is a Right and not a Privilege and chanted solidarity songs.

Some of the unions grievances include MTNs alleged resistance to workers right to freedom of association, freedom to organise and collective bargaining.

The union also accused MTN of paying exit packages to its management staff but refusing to do the same to the lower cadre.

PTECSSANs General Secretary, Okonu Abdullahi, accused MTN management of not giving the union the opportunity to negotiate the working conditions of workers in the organisation.

He said that every effort made to reach the management by way of communication through correspondence by emails proved abortive.

When you have a trade union, there must be a collective bargaining agreement, which is a pointer to the existence of the union in any organisation.

But, MTN is running away from negotiating the CBA: the procedural agreement was signed and as a result of this, it escalated to the Ministry of Labour.

A very good example which the management is running from is the exit benefits: how can workers be working for several number of years and you are not giving them terminal benefits

ALSO READ: MTN Nigeria to raise fresh debt of N200 billion for network expansion

We insisted as a responsible union that there must be an exit benefit. In the procedural agreement. It was agreed that no item should be exempted, but now to come to the table to start negotiating, MTN took off, he said.

The secretary said that the picketing exercise would be a continuous one unless MTN negotiated and agreed on the collective bargaining agreement within the shortest possible time.

Mr Abdullahi said: Ultimately if they are still refusing like they have always been doing to sit down with us and negotiate, we can assure them that their network will have to be disrupted.

Meanwhile, a source in MTN, who pleaded anonymity, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the issues raised were still pending before the Ministry of Labour.

Since February, MTN has filed a trade dispute with the Ministry of Labour, which statutorily is obligated to look into the dispute, which is still pending, the source said. (NAN)
The Court of Appeal in Akure, Ondo State, on Wednesday threw out the appeal by a governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State, Dotun Babayemi, seeking to upturn the nomination of governor-elect, Ademola Adeleke.

The judgment puts to rest the contention over the validity of the nomination of Mr Adeleke as the PDP candidate for the July 16 governorship election.

The dispute came from the governorship primaries held by two factions of the party in the state.

While a faction produced Mr Adeleke, the other faction elected Mr Babayemi as its candidate.

However, after a High Court decision, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recognised Mr Adeleke as the authentic candidate of the party.

Not satisfied with the decision of the lower court, Mr Babayemi proceeded to the Appeal Court to press further his prayers.

Mr Adeleke won the July 16 governorship election, defeating incumbent governor, Gboyega Oyetola, in the contest.

The court of appeal in its judgment on Wednesday upheld the verdict of the high court and consequently dismissed Mr Babayemis appeal.
At least 700 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power last August, the United Nations announced on Wednesday.

Another 1,406 were wounded during the same period, the UN diplomatic mission in the country said, in a new report outlining the human rights situation in Afghanistan over the past 10 months.

According to the report, the civilian casualties were mainly caused by improvised explosive device (IED) attacks attributed to the Islamic State (IS) and unexploded ordnance.

IS attacks targeted ethnic and religious minority communities, setting off explosives close to places where people go to school, worship, and go about their daily lives.

A number of civilians killed in a U.S. drone attack ahead of their chaotic withdrawal in August, plus airstrikes by Pakistani military forces in eastern Afghanistan in April, are also included in the report.

ALSO READ: Prominent Afghan academic detained for criticising Taliban policies

Alongside civilian casualties, the UN also documented hundreds of cases of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and detentions, as well as torture and ill-treatment, carried out by the Taliban, the de facto authorities.

The Taliban mainly targets former Afghan government officials and individuals accused of affiliation with political opponents such as the Islamic State or an anti-Taliban National Resistance Front, the UN said.

The report also highlights the Taliban crackdown on journalists, freedom of speech as well as severe restrictions on women, and the harsh human rights situation.

(dpa/NAN)
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Wednesday, issued certificate of return to Osun State governor-elect, Ademola Adeleke, after his nephew and popular musician, David Adeleke, aka Davido, questioned its reluctance to do so.

The musician, on Tuesday, questioned the delay by the electoral body to issue certificate of return to the winner of the July 18 governorship election 48 hours after the exercise.

Mr Adeleke, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was announced winner of the election on Sunday.

With 403,371 votes, the PDP candidate emerged winner of the July.

His closest contender, the incumbent governor of the state, Gboyega Oyetola, of the All Progressives Congress, polled 375,027 votes.

There were 13 other governorship candidates in the election.

Having justified its reason for the delay, INEC, barely 24 hours after Davidos allegation, presented Mr Adeleke with the certificate.

The governor-elect and the deputy governor-elect, Kola Adewusi, received their certificates of return on Wednesday from Kunle Ajayi, the INEC National Commissioner, Supervising Osun, Ogun and Oyo states.

The presentation was done in Osogbo, the Osun state capital.

Davido, in his reaction to the presentation of the certificate, said it was a long battle where their family name among other things were put on the line.

Its been a long battle fought !! We put our Family name on the line, I put my career on the line ! But we had faith!! This was God testing us if we really believed in him!! I feel victorious! Congrats ! Your excellency @AAdeleke_01 ! As for me its back to the studio! , he shared on his Twitter handle
Suspected gunmen reportedly kidnapped ten police officers of the Nasarawa State Command in Kogi State on Sunday.

The police personnel were returning from Osun State, where they were posted as part of the police contingent in the just concluded governorship election in the state, The Guardian newspaper is reporting.

They were reportedly kidnapped in Obajana area of the state, an unnamed source told the newspaper.

On July 17, 2022, about 11:05 a.m., information was received from the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Obajana that gunshots were heard along New By-Pass Road, close to Trailer Park, PTI Obajana.

The DPO immediately mobilised patrol teams to the scene, where they met one white 18-seater passenger bus with registration number: GWA 295 YR, driven by one Usman Abdullah with six occupants.

The seven persons identified themselves as officers from Nasarawa State Police Command returning from the Osun governorship election.

They narrated that their vehicle developed a mechanical fault, and while trying to fix the vehicle, armed men emerged from the bush and kidnapped 10 officers, the newspaper reported.

An anti-kidnapping squad has reportedly been deployed to the area to track the criminals, it added.

Kogi State, in central Nigeria, is increasingly becoming a haven for criminal elements. Kidnap-for-ransom gangs target travellers.
The senator representing Akwa Ibom North East, Bassey Akpan, has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Young Peoples Party (YPP).

Although Mr Akpan announced his decision to leave the PDP last week, his letter, dated July 18, was officially received at the Senate on Wednesday.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, read out the letter during the plenary on Wednesday.

His defection, Mr Akpan said, took effect from July 15 and is due to agitations amongst members of the party who were dissatisfied with the absence of a level playing field during the governorship primaries in the state.

While he acknowledged that the PDP offered him opportunities to serve in several capacities, he said the centre can no longer hold in the Akwa-lbom State chapter of the PDP since the party hierarchy decided to adopt and favour only one preferred candidate before and during the governorship primaries.

The determination of the state chapter of the party to support the preferred candidate could not even be halted by every attempt to call for a level playing field and its associated controversies, he explained.

In view of the foregoing, the agitations have led to serious rancor and some steep differences in the ranks of the party and this had presented me with a compelling reason to consult my people on our future in the PDP.

The lawmaker also said his supporters had encouraged him to contest for governor but events leading to the party primaries for the governorship made it impossible to participate in the primaries.

As a result of the foregoing, I resigned my membership of the PDP and now joined the Young Progressives Party (YPP) which now becomes my new party, the letter read.

Although, he nutured a governorship ambition, Mr Akpans aspiration in the PDP was a threat to Governor Udom Emmanuels preferred successor, Umo Eno.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how some PDP members in the state, mainly Mr Akpans supporters, had challenged the conduct of an ad hoc delegates election held on April 30, which they said contravened the partys constitution.

While the Federal High Court in Abuja directed parties in the suit to maintain status quo antebellum pending the hearing and determination of the suit, the PDP went on to conduct the primaries in the state.

The lawmaker, however, refused to take part in the primary, citing the order of the court.

The judge, Obiora Egwuatu, had ruled that the plaintiffs, having not participated in the delegates election, lacked the locus standi to institute the suit.

The court also held that the suit lacked merit.
The Ogun State government has come under severe criticism after photos of students of a secondary school in the state showed them on the bare floor while sitting their examination.

The photos of the students, from St. Kizito Senior Secondary School, a government-owned school in Iwopin in Ogun Waterside Local Government Area, were shared on social media on Tuesday.

Several social media users expressed anger and pilloried Governor Dapo Abiodun over the situation.

I still find it difficult if Ogun waterside is still part of Ogun state, because the past administration betrayed us, as a result of this we trooped out in masses and voted for this present administration believing that DA is our messier, Moyor Salami said on Facebook.

Tee Yomi said, The Good People of Ogun State deserve the best. This is appalling and totally unacceptable!

Kabiru Abass, the chairman of the schools alumni association, confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that they posted the photos on social media.

He lamented the state of the school while appealing for the urgent renovation of the facilities by the state government.

This is an issue that has been ongoing for a very long time now, he said.

At the alumni level, we have done a lot. We are the ones that renovated the whole laboratory for the students. We ensured that the laboratory has all the necessary facilities to provide a conducive learning environment for the students.

We (alumni) were also responsible for the renovation of the Corpers Lodge, where National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members are lodged when they come here for national service.

We are also currently doing some desks and chairs, but not in large quantities due to funding. Members of the alumni made pledges according to their ability.

Mr Abass said the association had met the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of the school about three times and has urged them to help provide a conducive learning environment for the students.

He said the school is the largest in the area and has produced several successful persons, including the Deputy Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly.

According to Mr Abass, the school has over 1,000 students but 14 teachers.

Nurudeen Adesanya, who lives in Iwopin, described the living condition in the entire local government as poor and pitiable.

He said basic amenities like potable water and primary healthcare centres are unavailable in the community.

Our situation is terrible here. It is not just about the school, almost everything here is not normal. We are living here like refugees in this state, he said.

Because of our location in the state, Ogun State government seems to have forgotten that we are part of the state.

Another resident of Iwopin, Lukman Omoye, told PREMIUM TIMES that he had pushed for the community to stop claiming to be a part of the state, insisting that the government has forgotten the local government.

Government responds

The Special Assistant to the Governor on Youth Matters, Lamide Lawal, blamed the situation on the last administration.

Mr Lawal, however, noted that although the Abiodun-led government has renovated over 1,000 schools in the state, the state government cannot do it all.

As an administration, the honest truth is, we cant fix all the deplorable roads and other public infrastructures, like dilapidated schools which were left unattended to by the immediate past administration, given the paucity of funds and time factor, he said.

What we have promised is to leave Ogun State better than we met it, and that is what we are doing.

Efforts to reach the Commissioner for Education, Abayomi Arigbabu, were unsuccessful as his number wasnt reachable at the time of filing the report.
President Muhammadu Buhari has met behind closed doors with the All Progressives Congress Vice Presidential candidate, former Governor Kashim Shettima, at the State House, Abuja, on Wednesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the APC vice presidential candidate was accompanied to the State House by Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State.

The APC Presidential candidate for the 2023 General Elections, Bola Tinubu, had on July 10 officially announced Mr Shettima as his running mate.

Mr Tinubu made the announcement while briefing journalists after a closed-door meeting with Mr Buhari at Daura, Katsina State, Buharis home state.

The APC presidential candidate was in Daura to pay Sallah homage to Buhari as well as inform him of his decision to pick Mr Shettima as his running mate.

Mr Tinubu had on Wednesday officially unveiled Shettima as his Vice-Presidential running mate to the public.

Mr Shettima, a former two-term governor of Borno, is currently a Senator representing Borno Central in the National Assembly.

At the unveiling of Mr Shettima, Mr Tinubu said: I remain steadfast in my belief in the selection of Sen. Shettima.

I am unwavering in my belief that he is the very best person to run for office and to, hopefully, govern by my side.

Mr Tinubu thanked Mr Buhari and members of APC National Working Committee (NWC), saying he considered it an honour and privilege to be the party`s 2023 presidential candidate.

(NAN)
Some men in cassocks on Wednesday attended the unveiling of Kashim Shettima as the vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 presidential election.

The affiliations of the men, dressed in different attires representing various Christian denominations, remained unclear.

The presence of the cassock-wearing participants suggested some Christian leaders are in support of APCs Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket in spite of opposition by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

But CAN swiftly disowned the men, saying they were impostors hired by the APC to fake a Christian-community support for the Tinubu-Shettima ticket.

Mr Tinubu had on July 10 in Daura, Katsina State, named Mr Shettima, a former Borno State governor and serving senator, as his running mate.

The choice of the former governor sparked criticisms from those who believe Mr Tinubu, a southern Muslim, should have picked a Christian as running mate.

CAN said the unidentified Christian clerics at Wednesdays unveiling of Mr Shettima were not its members.

A spokesperson for the association, Bayo Oladeji, told PREMIUM TIMES the priests at the venue were fake. He did not say how he determined that the men were not genuine.

He accused the Tinibu Campaign Organisation of consistently peddling lies to justify the choice of Mr Shettima.

They are fake, Mr Oladeji said. They are not our members. CAN was not represented there. Anybody can wear a cassock, anybody can buy it in the market and claim to be anything.

Were you not in this country, when they exhumed a four-year old interview, published it in Trust (Daily Trust), claiming that was the Chairman of CAN in Borno endorsing Shettima? Were you not in this country when they presented a photograph from 2017 saying CAN officials visited Shettima?

Were you not in this country when they said Baba Adeboye has endorsed Muslim/Muslim ticket. The Redeemed Christian Church of God had to come out to say no? CAN was not there. Is that how to introduce CAN? The media should have asked them questions, not me, Mr Oladeji said.

Twitter storm

Twitter users have been commenting on the attendance of the clergymen at the political event.

A user, Kelvin Odanz, described the parade of the men as representatives of CAN as a disrespect to the Christian community in Nigeria.

What Kashim Shettima did gathering those charlatans parading as priests is hugely disrespectful to Christians in Nigeria, he said.

If a Christian politician down south gathers a group of charlatans, dresses them like Imams, I am sure lots of Muslims wont find it funny.

Going with a Muslim-Muslim ticket is already disrespectful of the religious sensitivity of this country, especially Christians who are being told they dont matter in the grand scheme of things. Then Shettima adds salt to injury by disrespecting priesthood. Its disgusting.

The spokesperson of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation, James Faleke, did not answer or return calls seeking comments. He also is yet to respond to a text message sent to him.

Also, Felix Morka, the spokesperson of the APC, did not respond to a text message and calls placed to his mobile telephone.

EDITORS NOTE: This post has been reedited updated to provide additional context to the event.
The presidency has described as untrue media that the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, was given two weeks to resolve the lingering face-off between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the government.

The government criticised the unnamed sources who fed false information to the media, saying the matter ought to be beyond spin-doctoring and conjectures.

In a statement Wednesday, the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed PREMIUM TIMES exclusive report which detailed how Mr Buhari ordered the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige to withdraw from the ongoing negotiation with ASUU.

The statement reads in part; The outcome of the meeting held by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday with relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to end the agitations by university unions ought to be beyond spin-doctoring and conjectures. It is a pity that almost all media houses allowed themselves to be deceived by interested sources that are not the authorised spokesmen of the government.

Neither during nor after the meeting was any ultimatum given to the Minister of Education. During the meeting, the Minister of Education requested that the Minister of Labour hands off the negotiation to allow him lead and conclude what he had earlier on started with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). And he promised that he could get an agreement within the shortest possible time, possibly two to three weeks.

Mr Shehu added that Mr Adamu would carry along other relevant ministries and agencies with statutory functions and duties relating to the issues involved.

Appeal

Meanwhile, the government has said it is optimistic that the matter would be resolved soon, even as it appealed to all concerned to be open minded.

Mr Shehu added; The Presidency is optimistic that agreements can be reached in an even shorter period if all parties/stakeholders are not unrealistically obstinate. We appeal to the parties to work together to end the strikes.

On the part of the administration, all doors remain open for dialogue and the resolution of the issues.

The government also urged the media not to try to spread misinformation on the ASUU crisis

The orchestrated media narratives seeking to present an entirely different picture, attributed to sources, in the last 24 hours are not helpful at all, the statement said.

Minister urges aviation workers not to join NLC protest on ASUU

Meanwhile, ahead of the planned two-day nationwide protest by the Nigeria Labour Congress in solidarity with ASUU, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has appealed to the countrys aviation workers not to join the protest.

The minister, who spoke after the weekly federal executive council meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday, said the civil aviation sector should be seen as a critical national security enterprise.

Mr Sirika said his ministry has consistently engaged the aviation workers union and that the recent threat to join the protest is also being discussed.

He said; Im naturally concerned about this if the aviation union will shut down in support of ASUU. I would say they have no need to. I will also say that we should begin to look at civil aviation as a critical national security enterprise. It has all the implications.

We should not contemplate or think about an aviation disaster. We should also think about the general activity of the economy of Nigeria without civilisation. Its okay. This is democracy, you can push for demands, but in pressing for demands you should be reasonable in doing so. Where, the life that youre trying to promote, would be seriously affected and hampered. Where lives can be lost because of your own activity. I think it should be reconsidered. So, civil aviation workers, I think, should not be part of this.
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) said it has commenced mobilisation of students across the country ahead of the planned nationwide protest by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the prolonged strike by Nigerian university workers.

NLC announced it was embarking on a two-day protest on Tuesday and Wednesday to ensure that the government quickly reaches an agreement with the striking workers of Nigerian universities.

A statement issued by the President of NANS, Sunday Asefon, directed all the subdivisions of the association to begin mobilisation to join the NLC in the protest.

I am pleased to inform all Nigerian students and her structures, SUG, JCC, ZONAL and National Executive Council to commence immediate mobilisation to partake in the rescue mission of NLC, he wrote.

The statement said the take-off point for those in Abuja will be the secretariat of the NLC and the Labour House Abuja, saying the union hopes the efforts will yield the desired result.

The strike by the university workers including the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), among others, is currently in its sixth month without an end in sight.

President Muhammadu Buhari has, however, asked the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to take over negotiations from his Labour counterpart, Chris Ngige, whom ASUU has accused of being a clog in the wheel of its negotiations with the government.

Mr Adamu reportedly said he could resolve the crisis in two to three weeks at a meeting with the president on Tuesday.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday ordered the Nigerian Customs Service to pay N5 million to Chikaosolu Ojukwu as damages for violating his fundamental rights.

Mr Ojukwu, accused the customs service of unlawfully detaining him and seizure of his personal effects  four iPhone 13 Pro phones.

He said upon his arrival at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos from the United Kingdom on February 20, 2022, operatives of the Customs service accosted him and seized his iPhone.

The service compelled the plaintiff to pay N404,417 as import duties on the four iPhones that were in his possession upon arrival at the airport in Lagos from the UK.

Subsequently, Mr Ojukwu filed a suit at the Federal High Court, urging the judge, Ahmed Mohammed, to declare the action of the customs service unlawful and a gross violation of his fundamental rights.

Judgement

Delivering his judgement in the suit, the judge held that Nigerians who have not been outside Nigeria for at least nine months are not required by law to pay import duties on their personal effects not meant for sale, exchange or barter.

Mr Mohammed said Mr Ojukwus case was unchallenged and ought to be deemed admitted, as the affidavit evidence of the customs service amounted to hearsay evidence having not been given by a person who witnessed the transaction.

The court acknowledged that the plaintiff proved his case against the Nigerian Customs Service and its board who were the 1st and 2nd defendants.

Mr Ojukwu, through his lawyer, Segun Fiki, tendered documentary evidence, including the debit alert receipt and bank statements, before the court.

In its ruling, the court held that it was satisfied that Mr Ojukwus four iPhone 13 pro phones were personal effects which should attract import duties, being items not meant for sale, exchange or barter.

I am of the firm view that the seized items are the personal effects of the plaintiff and not for sale and barter and ought not to be paid duty on. I award the sum N5million against the 1st and 2nd defendants, the judge said.

Customs ordered to return seized phones, money

The court further ordered the Nigerian Customs Service to release the four phones that were seized from Mr Ojukwu and to refund the N404,417 (Four Hundred and Four Thousand, Four Hundred and Seventeen Naira) being the import duty, value-added tax (VAT) and other levies which were unlawfully collected from the plaintiff.

The court, however, exonerated the 3rd defendant in the suit, First Bank Plc, as not being culpable having been a mere tool through which the VAT was paid.

Background

The plaintiff, Mr Ojukwu, in April 2022 sued the Nigerian Customs Service Board, the Nigerian Customs Service and First Bank Plc over the breach of his fundamental rights.

Mr Ojukwus lawyer, Segun Fiki, prayed the court for a declaration that the client was not liable to pay import duties, value added tax and other levies in respect of his personal effects.

He based the suit on the provisions of section 8 of the Customs, Excise Tariff, etc. (Consolidation) Act and paragraph 7 of the Second Schedule to the Act.

The plaintiff also prayed for an order directing the defendants to refund the total sum of N 404, 417. 00 (Four Hundred and Four Thousand, Four Hundred and Seventeen Naira) being the import duty, value-added tax (VAT) and other levies which were unlawfully demanded and collected from him by the Nigerian Customs Service through a First Bank Point-of-Sale (POS) Terminal upon his arrival at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on the 20th February 2022.

He also asked the court to declare his detention by the Nigerian Customs Service who restrained him from leaving the airport premises to take his medications until he paid the import duties.

Mr Ojukwu asked the court to declare his arrest and detention unlawful and sought damages in the total sum of N 160 million.

The defendants had in their defence asked the court to dismiss the suit for lacking in merit.

Ikechukwu Emeto, counsel for the customs service, argued that the plaintiff had not shown any cause of action against the defendants.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a contract worth N6 billion as augmentation for the Chochi irrigation project in Adamawa State as well as N1.4billion for procurement of aviation equipment.

Ministers of Water Resources, Sulieman Adamu, and Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said this while briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday.

Mr Adamu said: As you know the trend with us since the inception of this administration has been to lay emphasis on completion of ongoing projects that we inherited.

This project started in 1988 during Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) era to provide 1,200 hectares of irrigation in Chochi in Yola, Adamawa State; unfortunately, it has suffered a lot of setbacks.

According to him, following the dissolution of PTF, the project was transferred to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.

It was kept in the cooler for about eight years before it finally emerged in 2006 and was re-awarded to the same company, Impresit Bakolori.

But in subsequent years, it has suffered so many things.

There has been a lot of encroachment in the area because its outside the Yola town, in between Yola and Jimeta.

Buildings have sprung up, filling stations and so on and so forth. So, which of cause is at several points to redesign the project.

Now, we are poised to complete it. And one of the key issues is that the project is based on pumping.

The Minister explained that the present high cost of diesel and foreign exchange was responsible for the review of the contract sum.

At the time it was awarded, diesel was very cheap, but now diesel is so expensive.

So, we provided a solar component to provide energy for the pumps, to irrigate the land and this is one of the reasons in addition to the variation of prices, foreign exchange fluctuation that calls for a review of this project, seeking for augmentation of about N6 billion and an extension of time to complete the project.

At the same time, we felt the need for strengthening the technical, financial, and managerial capacity of the company, which has dwindled over time.

Contractors of the company have been there on the site for like 24 years and theyve lost quite a lot of experts along the way.

And therefore, we have now been able to reinforce the original contractor.

Rather than terminate the contract, we feel its better to just continue by reinforcing the efforts of the contractor through a joint venture with another company which is a Nigerian company., he said.

According to him, the augmentation of N6 billion takes the project to N11.026 billion with an additional extension period of 24 months, plus 12 months effect liability period, making a total of 36 months.

On his part, Mr Sirika said N1.4 billion was approved for the procurement of surveillance equipment for Kaduna and Port Harcourt Airports.

He said: The approval is for the award of contracts for the design, supply and maintenance of mobile surveillance observation systems with remote-controlled licence and these are for the airports of Port Harcourt and Kaduna and it will continue to other airports progressively.

We are beginning with the first two but it will continue with the remaining airports in the future and the contract sum for this particular procurement is N1, 499, 603, 500 including the 7.5 per cent value-added tax and it will be delivered within 30 weeks.

Mr Sirika also announced that the Council approved a bilateral air service agreement between Nigeria and Canada.

He explained that the agreement was in accordance with the Chicago convention, to which both Nigeria and Canada were signatories.

The approval we got was for the signing of bilateral air service agreement (BASA) between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the government of Canada and this is in accordance with the Chicago convention, to which both Nigeria and Canada are signatories.

According to him, the highlights of the BASA involve the granting of rights and privileges as well as the designation of airlines authorisation, withholding, revocation, suspension and limitation of authorisation, and application of national laws and regulations.

Other components are safety standards certificate and licences, aviation security, custom duties and other charges, statistics pricing and general terms and conditions of carriage, availability of airports and aviation facilities and services, capacity and airline representatives.

Others are: ground handling, sales and transfer of funds, consultations, amendments therefrom, settlement of disputes, entry into force among others.

Council approved that we should go ahead and sign the BASA between us and Canada for all of the benefits to be driven therefrom, mutually, he said.

(NAN)
Yola will be aglow this weekend as the American University of Nigeria (AUN) Academy holds its 15th graduation and awards ceremony. The occasion will also coincide with the celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the founding of the American University of Nigeria (AUN) Schools.

The AUN Academy is the flagship of the AUN Schools. It comprises the Nigerian/British track and the Charter School (American Track).

Attaining two decades will be considered a milestone for any institution under any circumstance, but this occasion is significant in many tangible ways. The AUN Schools offer the best insight in terms of content and context into the legacy and philosophy of the Founder, Adamawas most illustrious son, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, GCON, former Nigerias Vice President. The success of the AUN Schools also lends credence to the Atiku Abubakar legacy, encapsulated in cosmopolitanism, diversity, inclusion, uncompromising pursuit of excellence, global outlook, service to the local community and investment in the future of youths from Nigeria and Africa, irrespective of background.

The Principal of AUN Schools, Mrs. Nkem Uzowulu, said the students graduating on Saturday are worthy ambassadors, having distinguished themselves in character and learning. At AUN Schools, we have built and sustained a reputation for academic excellence, discipline, high moral conduct, critical thinking, and respect for culture, Mrs. Uzowulu stated.

One recalls with a mix of nostalgia and abiding curiosity the lessons in The Personal is Political, the core theme in Carol Hanischs essay of the 70s, which became a motivational theme for the progressive student movement of that era. As a slogan, The Personal is Political presumes a correlation between a persons humble origins, struggles, beliefs, ideas, and the actions they take when they are able to make an impact. As a belief, however, The Personal is Political underscores the values and convictions that motivate a change-agent.

At any given opportunity, thankful alumni of the American University of Nigeria School system in Yola take pride in pouring encomiums on Atiku Abubakar as the gift that keeps giving, a phrase expressed in appreciation of his generosity which made their education possible. There is also global recognition. At its 50th anniversary celebration in 2011, the United States National Peace Corps Association honoured Atiku Abubakar with the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award with the citation: No private businessman in Africa has worked harder for democracy or contributed more to the progress of higher education than Atiku Abubakar, For Atiku Abubakar, promoting education is the passion of his life, The Personal is Political in his narrative, the single most motivational factor in a life he has dedicated to philanthropy.

Explaining this philosophy to a global audience in the United Kingdom, Atiku Abubakar said:

Education, I thought, would be my best gift to society. To some people trying to build a world-class university in Yola might seem irrational. To run the university, we had to provide access roads, provide our own water through boreholes, build, and run our own power plant, provide our own telephone and internet infrastructure, pay for a private security force, and so on.

You might wonder whether it would not be more cost-effective to use that money to provide scholarship funds for students to study elsewhere. With the money now being used to run our AUN power plant, construct our buildings, and pay our security force and the like, many more students could be sent here to study.

He reassured his audience of his commitment and readiness to develop his country in deeper and more holistic ways as it would be counter-productive to facilitate the brain drain out of Africa.

We need these bright young people in Africa. We need them to understand the problems in Africa. We need them to contribute towards Africas development. And we need them to be able to tell the stories of their accomplishments in the face of enormous odds.

The seeds of Atiku Abubakars education philanthropy have been sown and watered in the AUN Schools. Every single student who passes through the AUN Schools system is on Atiku Abubakars scholarship; parents pay less than half of the total cost of their world-class education. Whether on full or partial scholarship, the system he has put in place offers opportunities to Nigerians and non-Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic, racial, or religious persuasion. Students from Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Niger, ivory Coast, Ghana, and Cameroon have benefited and continue to benefit from the educational opportunities provided through the AUN School system.

The past twenty years have been an unbroken success story of young dreamers taking advantage of the excellent facilities and first-class learning infrastructure in the schools to realize their life ambitions. Through their testimonies, the Atiku Abubakar legacy lives.

AUNs Class of 2022 Valedictorian, Mr. Emmanuel Funsho Olakunle, was a full-scholarship student who hails from Oyo State. Ambitious but extremely humble, Emmanuel studied Natural and Environmental Sciences, majoring in Biomedical Science, as he wants to proceed to medical school to qualify as a Medical Doctor. As a member of the AUN Honour Society, Emmanuel volunteered to tutor pupils in neighbourhood Elementary and Secondary Schools in Yola, an experience he described as mind-blowing. Immaculata Onuigbo, from Enugu State, was the 2017 AUN Class Valedictorian. A graduate of Petroleum Chemistry, she was on full scholarship from the Shehu YarAdua Foundation, funded by Atiku Abubakar. The Foundation seeks out brilliant, ambitious, but indigent kids from all corners of Nigeria and provides them with the best available education up to the university level. In the words of another AUN Schools graduate, Ms. Aliya Usman Wuro-Chekke: AUN has taught us, not through words alone, but through actions, that being in school is not just to study, but rather to empower oneself and others. Ms. Aliyah Wuro-Chekke, a law graduate, was a member of the Honour Society; she and her brilliant siblings, all eight of them, come from the Wuro-Chekke community in Yola, and each graduated through the AUN Schools system with flying colours. The AUN educational Community is truly cosmopolitan, hospitable, and diverse, a true reflection of the personal outlook and modernistic philosophy of the Founder, Atiku Abubakar.

As a rule, Community Service is a compulsory requirement for all students in the AUN Schools  the University, and the Academy. Community service is a defining feature of the type of education directly influenced by Atiku Abubakars utilitarian vision and problem-solving approach to education; finding solutions to the challenges of the local community; and as a catalyst for national development. It is an education that is need-focused and relevant for human progress. For example, through the Students Empowered through Language, Literacy, and Arithmetic (STELLAR) project, students from the American University of Nigeria Schools have successfully intervened in local community schools through a combination of one-on-one, after-school tutoring, the creation and dissemination of reading materials, and the use of technology to enhance learning outcomes. AUN students authored more than 70 original childrens books in English, translated a dozen titles into Hausa, Fulfulde, Yoruba, Igbo, and other languages, and created a pilot-tutoring program using tablets along with free educational apps, storybooks, and videos. In due course, STELLAR was upgraded to the Technology Enhanced Learning for All (TELA), where at the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency, AUN students, faculty, and staff doubled down to extend literacy and numeracy to 22,000 boys and girls from vulnerable communities in Adamawa State. In the last twenty years, students in the AUN Schools have volunteered over 35,000 hours in the local Yola and Jimeta Communities helping to raise literacy and numeracy standards, rebuilding and repainting dilapidated public school and healthcare buildings, and planting trees to protect the environment. The Feed and Read program for out-of-school children from the most vulnerable segments of the community has become a popular national program well-received by the locals. Atiku Abubakar is indeed the gift that keeps giving  especially in education.

Not a man to grandstand on any issue, Atiku Abubakar is an unrelenting advocate for the cause of educating the youths and empowering them with life skills; he belongs to the elite caste of solution providers, men who match words with action. In August 2013, he sponsored an essay competition for students in higher institutions on the topic: More Learning to More People: How can Nigeria be more innovative in bridging its literacy and skills gap? Winners were Kenechukwu Nneka and Lily Nwagbo (joint first prize) and Emeka Chigozie Ezekwesiri.

The AUN Schools are one of Nigerias leading full-boarding co-educational cradle-to-doctorate level institutions and by far the most prominent in the northern region. They include the Early Learning Center for formative ages, the elementary, the Charter School, the Academy to the prestigious American University of Nigeria, which has made its mark as Nigerias most technology-intensive tertiary institution. They draw students, teachers, staff, and volunteers from all the corners of Nigeria, the African Continent, and the Diaspora. Parents in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Enugu, Gombe, Kaduna, Ibadan, Kaduna, Uyo, and all regions of Nigeria feel comfortable sending their kids to the Schools because they are guaranteed academic excellence, qualitative residential life, and preparation to study abroad. The AUN Schools offer a globally themed education and prepare students to study in Nigeria and overseas. Students are prepared to write SAT 1 and 2 for those seeking admission into schools in the United States and Canada; the British Cambridge-administered International General Certification of Secondary Education (IJCSC), IELT, TOEFL, WASCE, NECO, and JAMB.

The AUN Schools are reputed for producing students who excel in academics in universities in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Asia. Experienced teachers, expatriates and Nigerian, with international leadership exposure, run the schools.

The roll runs from the first three Principals  the Britons Mr. D.J. Hooper, Dr. D.E. Shaw, and Mr. Thompson to the charismatic, plain-speaking Ms. Krista McKee from Texas, the United States, to the incumbent, the longest serving head of the institution, Mrs. Uzowulu, a former Principal of Federal Government College, Ijanikin, Lagos and an educational administrator par excellence.

Why Atiku Abubakar invests enormous personal resources in this educational project represents his life philosophy and penchant for matching words with action. Atiku Abubakar is not satisfied with identifying problems. He provides the solution. He creates a pathway for others to offer solutions to societal problems. He gives young people the opportunity to pursue their dreams and become part of the tribe of problem solvers. Through the AUN Schools, Atiku Abubakar cements his place in history as Africas foremost supporter of education, youth innovation and empowerment.

Daniel Okereke contributed this piece from Yola and can be reached at: danokereke@gmail.com
Cross River Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has condemned the burning of a recently constructed nine-classroom block at St Joseph Primary School, Bansara, Ogoja Local Government Area.

Stephen Odey, the chairman of the states SUBEB, in a statement on Tuesday in Calabar, described the act as nefarious, adding that the board would do everything within its power to fish out the culprits.

He said such actions had created a setback to the governments efforts in tackling accommodation challenges facing schools despite the states lean resources.

I am sad that despite all our efforts to make sure that basic education is given priority in Cross River, some people are still out to frustrate the good intentions of the government and SUBEB.

The state government is spending huge resources, yet people are destroying school facilities and carting away equipment and learning materials.

There have been reported cases of vandalism, stolen computers, books and other facilities in some schools across the state, including the man arrested for stealing roofing sheets in a primary school in Asu Egbe, Ikom, Local Government Area, he said.

The SUBEB chairman reiterated the need for communities to complement governments efforts by taking ownership of schools to guard against theft and vandalism.

He warned that communities that did not protect infrastructure, learning materials and equipment provided by the government, would not benefit from future interventions.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Cross River SUBEB has been going round the state to fix infrastructure in schools in the 18 local government areas of the state.

A nine-classroom block was burnt in Okoja.

A suspect was arrested, while investigation is still ongoing.

(NAN)
The Anambra State Government has threatened to terminate contracts of waste management companies engaged to collect and dispose refuse across the state, if they underperform.

The Commissioner for Environment, Felix Odumegwu, said this in Awka on Tuesday while reacting to the complaints of poor waste collection in the capital city and other areas.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that 31 companies had been contracted by the state government to manage waste collection and disposal since July 1.

Mr Odumegwu said the contractors who had three months probation period were assigned to manage each of the 30 state constituencies with an additional one for Idemili North.

He said the emergency on waste evacuation declared by Governor Chukwuma Soludo was still in force and that the ministry was monitoring activities of contractors closely to ensure they met the demands of the job.

According to him, government will not take under performance from anybody, noting that it was conscious of the three months probation.

We are looking at the performances of the contractors handling Awka South, Onitsha South, Idemili North, Ogbaru. We are working to get them to improve on the job they have applied and have been employed to do.

With effect from July 1, the contractors moved to site and evacuation has begun, so steadily and progressively, the heaps of garbage have started disappearing.

The governors intention is to ensure that every part of the state is clean, he said.

Mr Odumegwu admitted that the situation was not yet perfect and urged residents of Anambra to exercise patience, noting that the journey to a clean and smart city was a continuous one.

Meanwhile, some residents of Awka have expressed worry over the slow pace of waste evacuation.

NAN reports that some of the roads where refuse was causing obstruction include Meloch Road, off First Market, Second Market on Ifite Road, Tipper Garageneva Hotel Junction, and Y-junction, all in Okpuno, among others.

A resident, George Nnebedum, said the increase in population was putting pressure on waste generation and urged the state government to revisit the model used by the previous administration for waste management.

He said Awka is dirty, not much change has been seen. Some of the roads are being blocked by heaps of garbage. I pray an epidemic doesnt break out.

We need more action, the collections should be daily. Scavengers are not helping the matter, they always come around to scatter the dustbins, so there should be strong monitoring, he said.

(NAN)
Breadmakers, under the aegis of Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria (PBAN), have begun a four-day warning strike over the rising cost of baking materials.

The duration of the strike action will be extended if the government fails to intervene, Babalola Thomas, the associations spokesperson said in a statement sent to PREMIUM on Tuesday.

Mr Thomas said their bakeries are incurring a huge loss due to the continuous increase in baking materials and diesel.

He added that operating in an environment such as this is no longer sustainable.

Bread is a staple food and one of the cheapest grab and go food that is available for both the poor and rich. It, therefore, behoves the federal government to be mindful of this and ensure the survival and sustainability of the industry, he said.

In a move to ensure the survival of the Premium bread making industry in Nigeria, we have decided to embark on a withdrawal of services beginning from Thursday 21st July 2022 for four days in the first instance and where no intervention from the government, we shall escalate the duration of the withdrawal.

Requests

The association sought the governments intervention to stop the 15 per cent Wheat development levy on wheat import.

READ ALSO: Prices of bread to increase further as bakers prepare for strike

Request NAFDAC to review downwards the 154,000 naira penalty charged bakeries on late renewal of certificates, Mr Thomas said.

Grant members access to grants and soft loans being given by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Minor, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs).

Stoppage of multi-agencies regulation of the breadmaking industry.

Mr Thomas further said that multiple meetings with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Abuja (FMITI) in 2021 have not yielded any result.

Therefore, the withdrawal of service is the only way we believe we can use to get to the Federal Government and Nigerians and let them know our plight and how difficult it has been with the breadmaking industry in Nigeria, he said.
The Police Command in Osun on Wednesday confirmed the release of a baker, Sikiru Ayinde, who was kidnapped at Ifewara on Sunday.

The commands spokesperson, Yemisi Opalola, in a statement, said the baker was released by his abductors on Tuesday night.

One Sikiru Ayinde, who was kidnapped on Sunday when going to distribute bread to his customers at Ifewara Area, has been released.

He was released at about 9.30 p.m. on Tuesday and has gone for treatment at an undisclosed hospital, she said.

ALSO READ: Bakers in Ebonyi to withdraw services

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the baker was abducted by gunmen in the Oke-Ado area of Ifewara while driving his Sienna bus to supply bread to his customers.

The abductors were reported to have contacted his family demanding N5 million but later reduced the amount to N500,000.

(NAN)
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has commended the Court of Appeal judgment, which affirmed the party governorship primaries that produced Osun Governor-Elect, Ademola Adeleke, as its candidate.

The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba on Wednesday, said that it received with delight, the judgment affirming Mr Adeleke as the party rightful candidate for the July 16 governorship election in the state.

He said the judgement had put to rest all contestations regarding the validity of the candidacy.

Mr Ologunagba said the judgment further validated the will and aspiration of the people of Osun which they overwhelmingly expressed on July 16.

The judgment is a firm confirmation that the Osun governorship primaries was transparently conducted by the Sen. Iyorchia Ayu-led National Working Committee (NWC).

It also affirmed that it was conducted in strict compliance with the provisions of the PDP Constitution and Electoral Guidelines as provided by the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended)

Mr Ologunagba, who commended the judiciary for its courage, added that the judgment had further restored the confidence of Nigerians on the judicial system and the processes of the PDP.

He said the PDP again congratulated the people of Osun and charged all party stakeholders in the state to remain united.

He urged them to remain behind Mr Adeleke in his determination to institute a transparent, people-oriented and development-based government that would rebuild the state.(NAN)
The African low-cost carrier will benefit from a new network and ancillary marketplace to reach new audiences and drive incremental revenue

TEL AVIV, Israel, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fly540, East Africa's premier low-cost airline, has partnered with AeroCRS, a travel solutions company focused on helping airlines expand their regional sales reach, to improve the carrier's distribution and retailing strategy as it prepares to expand its route network throughout Africa.

AeroCRS and Fly540 partnership

The successful migration to the AeroCRS Passenger Service System (PSS) and the AeroCRS Network will enable Fly540 to broaden its international footprint. With AeroCRS, Fly540 can drive incremental revenue through online travel agencies, meta-search engines, and other aggregators, and can enhance how it manages its passenger relationships.

"Fly540 is moving to AeroCRS because it is a comprehensive solution that supports all the different functions of the airline's operation. In addition, AeroCRS provides access to an online distribution platform comprised of 20+API integrations to leading distributors. "As Fly540 moves back into regional flights following the disruption of Covid-19, we see AeroCRS as a strategic partner to improve our distribution and retailing strategies," said Don Smith, Fly540 CEO.

Fly540 believes their passengers should enjoy affordable, safe and comfortable air travel and provide consistent and excellent customer service. The implementation of the AeroCRS travel solutions will allow the airline to achieve these goals.

"We welcome Fly540, one of the leading low-cost airlines in East Africa, to our growing airline network. During the past few years, we have provided our flexible solutions to Fly540's affiliate company Eastafrican.com, and I'm confident that Fly540 will enjoy the same success by using our innovative and out-of-the-box solutions and services," said Meir Hadassi Turner, Founder & CEO of AeroCRS.

The AeroCRS suite of travel solutions focuses on finding ways to free airlines from the constraints of their legacy systems, which typically lack the modern and flexible code base that airlines need to implement cross-functional processes, adapt to constantly evolving consumer needs, and open revenue channels beyond conventional ancillaries. AeroCRS's PSS system is a one-stop-shop that is ideal for growing airlines to efficiently service their passengers' needs, while the AeroCRS Network enables airlines to distribute more broadly to new audiences and drive incremental revenue.

For more information about the AeroCRS and Fly540 partnership or to speak with company executives, please contact Vanessa Horwell at vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com.

About Fly540

Fly540 was established in 2005 and took to the skies in 2006. Fly540 is East Africa's premier low-cost airline offering low fares on scheduled flights all year round to destinations within Kenya, South Sudan, and Zanzibar with plans to expand their routes network to more countries.

About AeroCRS

AeroCRS provides technology services and distribution connectivity to more than 90 travel companies worldwide since 2006. Its technology solutions include inventory management, yield & revenue management, fares & classes management, open API, B2C & B2B platform, fares branding, FFP, BI platform, reporting center, and many more technology services. In addition to the core software services, AeroCRS invented the AeroCRS Network. The Network is an online distribution platform for airlines based on API integrations globally to over 20 distribution channels. Any airline using the AeroCRS Network can increase sales and grow distribution reach no matter which Passenger Service System (PSS) solution it uses.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1862336/AeroCRS___Fly540.jpg

SOURCE AeroCRS
New Women's Digital Financial Inclusion Advocacy Hub to Champion Equal Access to Digital Financial Services for Women; Initial Efforts to Support Local Coalitions in Indonesia and Ethiopia; as well as Encourage Others to Join the Coalition

NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Women's World Banking and the UN Capital Development Fund today announced the launch of the Women's Digital Financial Inclusion (WDFI) Advocacy Hub, a new global coalition to catalyze collective action to increase women's digital financial inclusion. The coalition aims to close the gender gap in access to digital technology, skills, and digital financial products for women entrepreneurs  particularly in developing countries.

Women's World Banking

"Three quarters of a billion women around the world are excluded from the formal financial system," said Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women's World Banking. "Imagine the possibilities if those women had equal access to technology, skills, and financial services. The WDFI Advocacy Hub is a groundbreaking global collaboration that will make those possibilities a reality and close the financial inclusion gap."

The launch comes shortly after the release of the 2021 World Bank Global Findex, which shows the gender gap beginning to narrow, though the time it will take to close has only decreased by four years. And even though COVID-driven digital usage, especially payments, may have accelerated inclusion in the short term, unequal access to technology  specifically smartphone and mobile internet  imperils this progress and could drive further exclusion.

"The gap may have narrowed, but not fast enough. In some countries it will take over 100 years to reach full inclusion without intervention," said Iskenderian. "The WDFI Advocacy Hub will accelerate that progress through coordinated advocacy to help women grow their businesses and secure their financial future."

There are more than 6 million women-owned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries, with nearly 20% of working-age women owning a business. These businesses create additional income for their families and provide women with autonomy and agency. Many MSMEs operate outside the formal economy and lack access to financial products and services that enable businesses to thrive. Despite these challenges, women-owned MSMEs are a significant driver of emerging economies and must have equal access to the same technology, skills and financial products and services as men, in line with the UN Principles for Responsible Digital Payments.

"As the world attempts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating consequences, it is fundamental that women's digital financial inclusion is a priority among national, regional, and global decision-makers," said Preeti Sinha, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Capital Development Fund. "Too many women are left behind in this transition to the digital economy. We see many opportunities to accelerate change to ensure women are not left behind."

The WDFI Advocacy Hub has two interconnected components: Local coalitions in Indonesia and Ethiopia made up of civil society, public and private sector organizations who will advocate for priority women's digital financial inclusion issues in their markets, as well as the Global Advocacy Hub which will drive coordinated, global advocacy. The WDFI Advocacy Hub's first priority is building a diverse global coalition, and adding new partners to the hub over the coming weeks.

"By championing women's digital financial inclusion on the ground in developing countries, we can see proof of concept  the opportunities and economic benefits digital financial inclusion can create for communities and for women's overall economic mobility," said Sinha.

The use of digital financial products and services were accelerated during the pandemic. Although women's use of mobile phones and apps increased, their use has not remained consistent, and women are now 16 percent less likely than men to use the mobile internet, which equates to 264 million fewer women than men using mobile internet according to GSMA's Mobile Gender Gap Report.

"Women entrepreneurs urgently need equal access to digital technology and digital financial services as well as the confidence and skills training to use them both to their fullest potential," said Iskenderian. "The WDFI Advocacy Hub can bring together all the research, knowledge and actors, in one place, to turbocharge these three critical elements: technology, finance and know-how."

Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the WDFI Advocacy Hub is a collective of diverse stakeholders, including financial service providers, FinTechs, civil society, and bi- and multi-lateral organizations. Led by Women's World Banking and the UN Capital Development Fund, initial partners include the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), FinEquity convened by CGAP, GSMA, International Finance Corporation, The World Bank Gender Group, Better Than Cash Alliance, and Kaleidofin.

For more information on how to become a partner of the WDFI Advocacy Hub, visit www.itshereconomytoo.org or search #ItsHerEconomyToo on Twitter.

About Women's World Banking

Women's World Banking designs and invests in financial solutions, institutions, and policy environments in emerging markets to create greater economic stability and prosperity for women, their families, and their communities. With a global reach of 62 partners in 35 countries serving more than 138 million women clients, Women's World Banking drives impact through its scalable, market-driven solutions; gender lens private equity fund; and leadership and diversity programs. To learn more visit womensworldbanking.org.

About UNCDF

The UN Capital Development Fund makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world's 47 least developed countries (LDCs). With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers "last mile" finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, in support of households, localities and small enterprises that are underserved, where development needs are greatest and where resources are scarcest.

Media contact:

Kelsey Thompson

kelsey.thompson@porternovelli.com

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SOURCE Womens World Banking; United Nations Capital Development Fund
SELBYVILLE, Del., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Prominent players operating in the healthcare analytics industry are IBM Corporation, OptumHealth, Inc, McKesson Corporation, Allscripts Healthcare Solution, Inc, Cerner Corporation, Athenahealth, Inc, Inovalon Holding, Inc, Computer Programs and Systems, Inc, Change Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, GE Healthcare, Evolent Health, Influence Health Inc, and Health Catalyst.

The healthcare analytics market value is expected to reach USD 32.7 billion by 2030, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights Inc.

Healthcare Analytics Market GMI

Big data analytics is increasingly gaining prominence in the healthcare sector. It has significantly changed the ways in which healthcare data is managed, analysed, and leveraged across the entire healthcare value chain. Healthcare analytics holds the potential to reduce the treatment cost, predict disease outbreaks, avoid preventable diseases, and enhance the quality of life. Until recently, gathering such massive data for medical use was expensive and time-consuming. With technological advancements and modernization in healthcare analytics, it has become simple and easy to collect such data and create comprehensive healthcare reports.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1400

Healthcare analytics market from prescriptive analytics segment exceeded USD 2 billion in 2021. Prescriptive analytics holds the potential to make assessment about patients preexisting health condition, risk for developing future health conditions and can develop preventive treatment plans. It helps organizations to avoid a negative circumstance. It requires smooth and integrated data analytics infrastructure. As there will be advances in internet of things, and machine learning, prescriptive analytics has potential of becoming future of healthcare and big data. The healthcare industry holds enormous opportunity to take advantage of decision-making abilities of prescriptive analytics.

Some major findings of the healthcare analytics market report include:

Increasing demand for advanced data analytics in healthcare is driving the market expansion.

Great potential of creating revolutionary changes in healthcare system is fueling the business landscape.

The need for effective clinical analytics systems in population healthcare management is accelerating the market trends.

The huge benefits associated with healthcare analytics in hospitals is fostering the market demand.

Industry players are focusing on various strategies such as acquisition, business expansion and novel service launches to consolidate their market presence.

Browse key industry insights spread across 163 pages with 173 market data tables & 16 figures & charts from the report, "Healthcare Analytics Market Analysis By Product (Descriptive Analytics, Predictive Analytics, Prescriptive Analytics), Application (Operations Management, Financial Management, Population Health Management, Clinical Management) End-Use (Hospitals, Clinics), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook, Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2022  2030" in detail along with the table of contents:

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/healthcare-analytics-market

Population health management segment is anticipated to expand with a healthy CAGR of 11.9%, surpassing USD 8.4 billion by 2030. Population health management plays vital role in improving community health. Data analytics can assist population health management in enhancing patient results, improving patient care management, and to mark community determinants of health. For growth of population health management in the healthcare system, systems are required to gather data from various sources, apply analytics to it and manage the care for population. The population health management process starts with gathering key demographic and clinical data about patients, frequently from electronic health records. It depends on data analytics to identify populations needing care, calculate the care provided to them, and provide care to the right people.

Healthcare analytics market from hospitals segment accounted for 71% revenue share in 2021 and is set to register a significant CAGR through 2030. Hospitals are required to treat large number of patients daily. Any emergency situations come up unknowingly for which hospitals must be well prepared at any hour. It is not an easy task to stay updated with various aspects that contribute to preparedness. Nevertheless, healthcare analytics has huge potential to benefit the hospitals in such times. Modern healthcare analytics is enables hospitals by offering data governance without hindering usability by setting specific user and dataset permissions.

Asia-Pacific healthcare analytics market is estimated to show robust CAGR of 10.7% during the forecast period. The rising geriatric population along with the increasing burden of patients with chronic diseases and complex health conditions, demand for healthcare systems with extensive care. This requires excellent coordination between multidisciplinary healthcare providers to reduce division of existing care and implement effective changes in funding and policy models. In developed nations, like China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, major worries are associated with the aging population, declining birth rates, increasing costs, and rising rates of non-communicable diseases.

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A few notable companies operating in the healthcare analytics market include IBM Corporation, OptumHealth, Inc, McKesson Corporation, Allscripts Healthcare Solution, Inc, Cerner Corporation, Athenahealth, Inc, Inovalon Holding, Inc, Computer Programs and Systems, Inc, Change Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, GE Healthcare, Evolent Health, Influence Health Inc, and Health Catalyst, among others.

About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology.

Contact Us:

Arun Hegde

Corporate Sales, USA

Global Market Insights Inc.

Phone: +1-302-846-7766

Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688

Email: sales@gminsights.com

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SOURCE Global Market Insights Inc.
BANGUI, Central African Republic, July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The world was taken by surprise when the President of CAR , Faustin-Archange Touadera, made his announcement regarding the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender on the 21th of April and then with the following implementation of the SANGO Coin ( https://sango.org/ ) on the 3rd of July.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click:

https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/9070251-sango-first-national-digital-monetary-system-built-by-central-african-republic/

Sango - The First National Digital Monetary System built by the Central African Republic powered by Blockchain

In this regard, the Central African Republic, a country located in the heart of Africa, a region with untapped growth potential, is working on a new structure for its economy, paving the way to a digital future:

"There is already a vision for Africa: a common cryptocurrency and an integrated capital market that could stimulate commerce and sustain growth." Faustin-Archange Touadera, president of the Central African Republic.

The Central African Republic plans to raise a total of $1 Billion by issuing the first national digital currency, called SANGO. Once raised, the capital will be used to tokenize the country's resources, offering worldwide investors the opportunity to contribute, benefit from it, and to build the entire digital infrastructure, based on Sango blockchain, a novel Layer-2 Bitcoin sidechain.

With more than $2.2 Trillion in Iron ore and a further $60 Billion in each individual resource of Gold, Oil, Diamonds and Lithium, CAR is leading the way to the democratisation of access to resources. Tokenization allows access to global capital in a democratic and transparent way, allowing investors of all sizes to buy fractionalized assets representing the country's resources.

From the decentralisation and tokenization of its resources, to offering citizenship, e-residency and land through locking the newly issued coin, Sango will govern the whole economic ecosystem of the Central African Republic. It already appears that other African countries are showing significant interest in finding similar digital solutions.

The initiative has already gone mainstream as it is backed by the country's administration and also applauded by big names in the industry and Africa. Changpeng Zhao (Binance), Michael Saylor (MicroStrategy), Ricardo Salinas Pliego (Salinas Group) and Reuben Abati (Nigerian Presidential Spokesperson) are among those that have shown their support on Twitter since the official announcement.

The official GENESIS PAPER { https://sango.org/genesis-paper.pdf } of Sango has been released together with the Concept Deck for a complete understanding of the technical complexity and benefits of the ambitious Central African project. SANGO, the first national digital currency is also the first currency to be fractionally backed by Bitcoin "digital gold".

Starting from yesterday, the platform is also open for registrations and KYC. The official launch date of the SANGO GENESIS has been set to the 25th of July and it will mark the beginning of a new era for the Central African Republic and perhaps for the entire world.

This new economical approach sheds more light on the integration and potential participation of the entire world in a country's development, with limitless investment possibilities for anyone in the crypto space and beyond it.

For more details about Sango: https://sango.org/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sangoproject

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Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1860551/Sango_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Sango
BANGALORE, India, July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Military Communications Market is Segmented by Type (Communication Equipment, Communication System), by Application (Army, Navy, Air Force): Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222028. It is published in Valuates Reports under the Military Category.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the global Military Communications market size is estimated to be worth USD 11860 Million in 2021 and is forecast to a readjusted size of USD 20060 Million by 2028 with a CAGR of 7.7% during the forecast period 2022-2028.

Major Factors Driving the Growth of the Military Communication Market

The key factors driving the growth of the market include rising security concerns and disputes amongst countries leading to the procurement of military communication solutions.

The growing adoption of wireless communication systems, satellite-based communication, and covid 19 impact will fuel the growth of the market.

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TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GLOBAL MILITARY COMMUNICATION MARKET

Protection of highly confidential information and maintenance of consistent communication is the vital aspects of the defense industry. Defense communication covers everything from monitoring, surveillance, command, the transmission of data, and control. Effective transmission relies on complex hardware and software components to send and receive information to people across geographies. Hence significant military investments are being done to procure advanced communication systems that provide confidential, secure, accurate, and real-time data transmission. These factors will boost the growth of the military communication market during the forecast period.

High frequency and ultra high-frequency wireless communication are replacing traditional wired systems for secure data transmission and network infrastructure. The US military provides its personnel with secure data and voice transmission on the field without the need for network infrastructure. Furthermore, the military is developing an interoperable wireless unified networking system known as Joint All Domain Command and Control( JAC2). The system runs on 5G. It integrates all the sensors from Army, Navy, Airforce, Space, and Marine Corps on a single network. Thus the adoption of such technologies will fuel the growth of the military communication market in the coming years.

The battlefield is getting more network-centric. SATCOM technology provides effective communication channels on air-to-ground, air-to-air, ship-to-ship, and ship-to-shore platforms. Military Satellite solutions are deployed across a range of defense applications including military aircraft, portable terminals, and vessels. Ramies rely on SATCOM technology as it has the ability to traverse long distances and bypass obstructions. These factors will boost the growth of the military communication market in the forthcoming years.

Many government authorities and armed forces were involved in humanitarian and medical assistance operations to tackle the ongoing pandemic. A robust communication network is essential for increasing situational awareness. Activities ranged from setting up field hospitals to providing protective equipment and enforcing lockdowns. They primarily relied on military communication networks. This in turn is expected to fuel the growth of the military communication market during the forecast period.

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MILITARY COMMUNICATION MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

Based on type, the communication equipment segment is expected to dominate in the military communication market share with 68%.

Based on application, the army segment held the largest market share at 42%.

Based on region, North America is expected to dominate in the military communication market share due to rapid technological advancements. While the APAC will grow with the highest CAGR due to increased border security threats from neighboring countries.

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Key Companies:

Raytheon

BAE Systems

Thales Group

L3Harris

R&S

Rockwell Collins

Shaanxi Fenghuo Electronics Co.,Ltd.

Guangzhou Haige Communications Group

CETC

Ysinghua Tongfang

Tianjin 712 Communication & Broadcasting Co.,Ltd

712 Communication & Broadcasting Co.,Ltd Nanjing Panda Electronics Company Limited

Tongyu Communication Inc.

Wuhan Zhongyuan Electronic Group Co., Ltd.

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SIMILAR REPORTS:

- The global 5G in Defense market is valued at USD 551 million in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 76,014.6 million in 2030, registering a CAGR of 67.7%.

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- The global Military Battery market size is estimated to be worth USD 2113 Million in 2022 and is forecast to a readjusted size of USD 2751.7 Million by 2028 with a CAGR of 4.5% during the review period.

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- The global Anti-Drone market size is estimated to be worth US$ 1323.8 million in 2022 and is forecast to a readjusted size of US$ 5098.4 million by 2028 with a CAGR of 25.2% during the review period.

- The global Perimeter Security market size is estimated to be worth US$ 124860 million in 2022 and is forecast to be a readjusted size of US$ 186330 million by 2028 with a CAGR of 6.9% during the review period.

- The global Military Laser Systems market size is projected to reach USD 5441.6 Million by 2028, from USD 3267.9 Million in 2021, at a CAGR of 7.1% during 2022-2028.

- The global Military Antenna market size was US$ 3827.3 million and it is expected to reach US$ 5353.3 million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 4.8% during 2021-2027.

- The global Military Shelter market was valued at US$ 265 million in 2020 and it is expected to reach US$ 354.3 million by the end of 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.3% during 2021-2027.

- Global Military GNSS Anti-Jamming and Anti-Spoof Solutions Market Size, Status and Forecast 2021-2027

- Global LTE Communication Market Insights and Forecast to 2028

- Global Satellite Communication Subsystems Market Insights, Forecast to 2028

- Global and Japan Military Jammer Market Insights, Forecast to 2026

- Global Military Aircraft Actuation Systems Market Insights and Forecast to 2028

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Click here to see related reports on Military Communication Market

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DUBLIN, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Freeze-Dried Food Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global freeze-dried food market reached a value of US$ 2.35 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach a value of US$ 3.8 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 8.34% during 2021-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic on different end use sectors. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



Freeze-dried or lyophilization refers to a low-temperature, dehydration technique that involves freezing of various food products in the vacuum chamber. It aids in preserving food commodities by eliminating the risk of contamination and decomposition caused by microbial growth in the presence of air, light, and moisture. This, in turn, assists freeze-dried food in retaining its quality, maintaining nutritional values, extending shelf-life and reducing water quantity from the product for making it lightweight. At present, freeze-dried food is commercially available in varying forms, such as powders, granules, chunks, pieces, and flakes.



The widespread adoption of freeze-dried food in the food and beverage (F&B) and hospitality sectors for preserving various food products, such as fruits, vegetables, bakery, meat, dairy, and snacks, is one of the prime factors driving the market growth. In line with this, rapid expansion in the food processing sector and the increasing demand for non-perishable, ready-to-eat (RTE) meals or convenience food products due to the rising on-the-go trend, hectic working schedules, and evolving lifestyles are acting as other growth-inducing factors.

Additionally, the sudden outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the consequent implementation of lockdowns across the globe have led to the massive employment of online and e-commerce distribution channels for purchasing and ordering frozen food, which, in turn, is contributing to the market growth. The extensive utilization of freeze-dried techniques for enabling the safe transportation of food products, along with its large-scale incorporation in pet food segment to enable longer preservation and convenient consumption is further considerably propelling the market growth.

Other factors, such as strategic collaborations between top players, rising consumer awareness regarding the harmful effects of artificial additives, and the continuous investments in research and development (R&D) activities for introducing lightweight, freeze-dried nutritious snacks, are creating a positive outlook for the market.

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being Ajinomoto Co. Inc, Asahi Group Holdings Ltd., Crispy Green Inc., European Freeze Dry ApS, Freeze-Dry Foods Ltd., Harmony House Foods Inc., Kerry Group Plc, LYO FOOD Sp. z o.o., Mercer Foods LLC, Nestle S.A., Nuts.com, SouthAm Freeze Dry S.A. (R. J. Van Drunen & Sons Inc.) and The Kraft Heinz Co.



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global freeze-dried food market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global freeze-dried food market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the distribution channel?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end user?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global freeze-dried food market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Freeze-Dried Food Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Type

6.1 Freeze-Dried Fruits

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Freeze-Dried Vegetables

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast

6.3 Freeze-Dried Beverages

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Market Forecast

6.4 Freeze-Dried Dairy Products

6.4.1 Market Trends

6.4.2 Market Forecast

6.5 Freeze-Dried Meat and Seafood

6.5.1 Market Trends

6.5.2 Market Forecast

6.6 Others

6.6.1 Market Trends

6.6.2 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Distribution Channel

7.1 Supermarkets and Hypermarkets

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Specialist Retailers

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Convenience Stores

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 Others

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by End User

8.1 Hotels and Restaurants

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Household

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast

8.3 Food and Beverage Industry

8.3.1 Market Trends

8.3.2 Market Forecast

8.4 Others

8.4.1 Market Trends

8.4.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by Region

10 SWOT Analysis



11 Value Chain Analysis



12 Porters Five Forces Analysis



13 Price Analysis



14 Competitive Landscape

14.1 Market Structure

14.2 Key Players

14.3 Profiles of Key Players

14.3.1 Ajinomoto Co. Inc

14.3.1.1 Company Overview

14.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.1.3 Financials

14.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.2 Asahi Group Holdings Ltd.

14.3.2.1 Company Overview

14.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.2.3 Financials

14.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.3 Crispy Green Inc.

14.3.3.1 Company Overview

14.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.4 European Freeze Dry ApS

14.3.4.1 Company Overview

14.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.5 Freeze-Dry Foods Ltd.

14.3.5.1 Company Overview

14.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.6 Harmony House Foods Inc.

14.3.6.1 Company Overview

14.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.7 Kerry Group Plc

14.3.7.1 Company Overview

14.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.7.3 Financials

14.3.8 LYO FOOD Sp. z o.o.

14.3.8.1 Company Overview

14.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.9 Mercer Foods LLC

14.3.9.1 Company Overview

14.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.10 Nestle S.A.

14.3.10.1 Company Overview

14.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.11 Nuts.com

14.3.11.1 Company Overview

14.3.11.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.12 SouthAm Freeze Dry S.A. (R. J. Van Drunen & Sons Inc.)

14.3.12.1 Company Overview

14.3.12.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.13 The Kraft Heinz Co.

14.3.13.1 Company Overview

14.3.13.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.13.3 Financials

14.3.13.4 SWOT Analysis



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/yeihng

Media Contact:

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SOURCE Research and Markets
Sales growth of 10.1 percent; organic sales growth of 14.3 percent

GAAP diluted EPS growth of 72.7 percent; adjusted diluted EPS growth of 22.2 percent

Global COVID-19 testing-related sales of $2.3 billion in the second quarter

Continues to strengthen portfolio with new product approvals

ABBOTT PARK, Ill., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Abbott (NYSE: ABT) today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022.

Second-quarter sales of $11.3 billion increased 10.1 percent on a reported basis and 14.3 percent on an organic basis, which excludes the impact of foreign exchange.

increased 10.1 percent on a reported basis and 14.3 percent on an organic basis, which excludes the impact of foreign exchange. GAAP diluted EPS 1 was $1.14 in the second quarter. Excluding specified items, adjusted diluted EPS was $1.43 , which reflects growth of 22.2 percent compared to the prior year.

was in the second quarter. Excluding specified items, adjusted diluted EPS was , which reflects growth of 22.2 percent compared to the prior year. Global COVID-19 testing-related sales were $2.3 billion in the second quarter.

in the second quarter. Abbott is raising its full-year 2022 EPS guidance. Abbott projects full-year diluted EPS on a GAAP basis of at least $3.50 and projected adjusted diluted EPS of at least $4.90 .

and projected adjusted diluted EPS of at least . 2022 guidance includes projected COVID-19 testing-related sales of $6.1 billion , which includes sales of $5.6 billion through June 2022 and projected sales of $500 million over the next few months.

, which includes sales of through and projected sales of over the next few months. In April, Abbott announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its Aveir single-chamber (VR) leadless pacemaker for the treatment of patients with slow heart rhythms. Aveir VR is the world's only leadless pacemaker with a unique mapping capability to assess correct positioning prior to placement and was specifically designed to be expandable and retrievable when therapy needs evolve or the device needs to be replaced.

In May, Abbott announced U.S. FDA clearance of its FreeStyle Libre  3 system, which automatically delivers up-to-the-minute glucose readings and unsurpassed 14-day accuracy 2 in the world's smallest and thinnest 3 wearable sensor.

3 system, which automatically delivers up-to-the-minute glucose readings and unsurpassed 14-day accuracy in the world's smallest and thinnest wearable sensor. In June, Abbott announced breakthrough device designation from the U.S. FDA for its first-of-its-kind glucose-ketone biowearable sensor development program, which will enable people with diabetes to continuously monitor glucose and ketones in one sensor, helping those at risk for developing a life-threatening complication called diabetic ketoacidosis.

"We achieved another quarter of strong growth and are raising our full-year EPS guidance," said Robert B. Ford, chairman and chief executive officer, Abbott. "Our new product pipeline has remained highly productive, and our diversified business has continued to be resilient in a challenging macro environment."

SECOND-QUARTER BUSINESS OVERVIEW

Note: Management believes that measuring sales growth rates on an organic basis is an appropriate way for investors to best understand the underlying performance of the business. Organic sales growth excludes the impact of foreign exchange.

Following are sales by business segment and commentary for the second quarter 2022:

Total Company

($ in millions)

















% Change vs. 2Q21



Sales 2Q22

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total *

4,892

6,365

11,257

36.6

(4.2)

10.1

36.6

2.3

14.3 Nutrition

761

1,192

1,953

(12.9)

(3.5)

(7.4)

(12.9)

1.5

(4.5) Diagnostics

2,469

1,853

4,322

113.8

(11.4)

33.1

113.8

(5.6)

36.9 Established Pharmaceuticals

--

1,223

1,223

n/a

3.7

3.7

n/a

9.2

9.2 Medical Devices

1,660

2,097

3,757

7.9

(1.5)

2.5

7.9

7.1

7.5



* Total Q2 2022 Abbott sales include Other Sales of approximately $2 million.

















% Change vs. 1H21



Sales 1H22

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total *

9,829

13,323

23,152

32.5

0.5

12.0

32.5

6.7

15.9 Nutrition

1,438

2,409

3,847

(15.9)

(1.1)

(7.2)

(15.9)

3.6

(4.4) Diagnostics

5,210

4,398

9,608

86.4

(1.5)

32.3

86.4

4.3

35.9 Established Pharmaceuticals

--

2,370

2,370

n/a

5.3

5.3

n/a

11.2

11.2 Medical Devices

3,176

4,146

7,322

9.9

1.2

4.8

9.9

9.0

9.4



* Total 1H 2022 Abbott sales include Other Sales of approximately $5 million.



n/a = Not Applicable.

Note: In order to compute results excluding the impact of exchange rates, current year U.S. dollar sales are multiplied or divided, as appropriate, by the current year average foreign exchange rates and then those amounts are multiplied or divided, as appropriate, by the prior year average foreign exchange rates.

Second-quarter 2022 worldwide sales of $11.3 billion increased 10.1 percent on a reported basis and 14.3 percent on an organic basis.

Worldwide sales, excluding COVID-19 testing-related sales, decreased 0.3 percent on a reported basis and increased 4.1 percent on an organic basis in the quarter.4 Worldwide sales were negatively impacted by a voluntary recall and manufacturing shutdown initiated in February of certain infant formula products manufactured at one of Abbott's U.S. plants. Excluding COVID-19 testing-related sales and the U.S. sales associated with the recalled products in the current and prior years, total worldwide sales increased 1.6 percent on a reported basis and 6.2 percent on an organic basis in the second quarter. 5

Nutrition

($ in millions)

















% Change vs. 2Q21



Sales 2Q22

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

761

1,192

1,953

(12.9)

(3.5)

(7.4)

(12.9)

1.5

(4.5) Pediatric

413

512

925

(21.6)

(9.5)

(15.3)

(21.6)

(5.8)

(13.4) Adult

348

680

1,028

0.5

1.6

1.2

0.5

7.6

5.2

















% Change vs. 1H21



Sales 1H22

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

1,438

2,409

3,847

(15.9)

(1.1)

(7.2)

(15.9)

3.6

(4.4) Pediatric

751

1,021

1,772

(27.5)

(9.1)

(17.9)

(27.5)

(5.6)

(16.1) Adult

687

1,388

2,075

2.1

5.8

4.6

2.1

11.5

8.3

Worldwide Nutrition sales decreased 7.4 percent on a reported basis and 4.5 percent on an organic basis in the second quarter. Total worldwide Nutrition and Pediatric Nutrition sales were negatively impacted by a voluntary recall and manufacturing shutdown initiated in February of certain infant formula products manufactured at one of Abbott's U.S. plants. On July 1, Abbott restarted partial production at the facility. Excluding the U.S. sales associated with these products in the current and prior years, total worldwide Nutrition sales increased 0.5 percent on a reported basis and 3.8 percent on an organic basis in the second quarter.6

In Adult Nutrition, Ensure, Abbott's market-leading complete and balanced nutrition brand, and Glucerna, Abbott's market-leading diabetes nutrition brand, led to global sales growth of 1.2 percent on a reported basis and 5.2 percent on an organic basis.

Diagnostics

($ in millions)

















% Change vs. 2Q21



Sales 2Q22

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

2,469

1,853

4,322

113.8

(11.4)

33.1

113.8

(5.6)

36.9 Core Laboratory

287

934

1,221

1.3

(8.6)

(6.5)

1.3

(2.0)

(1.3) Molecular

71

141

212

(23.7)

(28.4)

(26.9)

(23.7)

(24.4)

(24.2) Point of Care

101

38

139

3.2

(3.7)

1.2

3.2

0.3

2.4 Rapid Diagnostics

2,010

740

2,750

195.4

(11.2)

81.7

195.4

(5.8)

84.6

















% Change vs. 1H21



Sales 1H22

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

5,210

4,398

9,608

86.4

(1.5)

32.3

86.4

4.3

35.9 Core Laboratory

555

1,850

2,405

0.1

(4.3)

(3.4)

0.1

1.7

1.3 Molecular

243

389

632

(9.4)

(16.9)

(14.2)

(9.4)

(12.4)

(11.3) Point of Care

192

75

267

1.2

(1.7)

0.4

1.2

2.0

1.4 Rapid Diagnostics

4,220

2,084

6,304

136.6

4.9

67.2

136.6

10.9

70.4

Worldwide Diagnostics sales increased 33.1 percent on a reported basis and 36.9 percent on an organic basis in the second quarter. Global COVID-19 testing-related sales were $2.3 billion in the quarter, led by sales of testing products in Rapid Diagnostics.

Sales in Core Laboratory and Molecular Diagnostics were impacted by year-over-year declines in COVID-19 testing-related sales in these businesses. Excluding COVID-19 testing-related sales, Core Laboratory Diagnostics sales decreased 3.1 percent on a reported basis and increased 2.3 percent on an organic basis and Molecular Diagnostics sales increased 17.9 percent on a reported basis and 22.3 percent on an organic basis in the second quarter.7

Established Pharmaceuticals

($ in millions)

















% Change vs. 2Q21



Sales 2Q22

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

--

1,223

1,223

n/a

3.7

3.7

n/a

9.2

9.2 Key Emerging Markets

--

931

931

n/a

1.8

1.8

n/a

7.1

7.1 Other

--

292

292

n/a

10.3

10.3

n/a

16.7

16.7

















% Change vs. 1H21



Sales 1H22

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

--

2,370

2,370

n/a

5.3

5.3

n/a

11.2

11.2 Key Emerging Markets

--

1,833

1,833

n/a

5.6

5.6

n/a

11.8

11.8 Other

--

537

537

n/a

4.5

4.5

n/a

9.2

9.2

Established Pharmaceuticals sales increased 3.7 percent on a reported basis and 9.2 percent on an organic basis in the second quarter.

Key Emerging Markets include several emerging countries that represent the most attractive long-term growth opportunities for Abbott's branded generics product portfolio. Sales in these geographies increased 1.8 percent on a reported basis and 7.1 percent on an organic basis, led by double-digit growth on a reported and organic basis in several geographies and therapeutic areas, including cardiometabolic, respiratory and central nervous system/pain management.

Other sales increased 10.3 percent on a reported basis and 16.7 percent on an organic basis in the quarter.

Medical Devices

($ in millions)

















% Change vs. 2Q21



Sales 2Q22

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

1,660

2,097

3,757

7.9

(1.5)

2.5

7.9

7.1

7.5 Rhythm Management

264

284

548

(2.3)

(4.4)

(3.4)

(2.3)

3.7

0.9 Electrophysiology

226

260

486

8.6

(6.8)

(0.2)

8.6

2.2

5.0 Heart Failure

179

62

241

6.5

4.2

5.9

6.5

13.6

8.3 Vascular

228

425

653

(6.7)

(5.8)

(6.1)

(6.7)

1.2

(1.6) Structural Heart

207

233

440

8.1

0.9

4.2

8.1

11.4

9.9 Neuromodulation

157

40

197

(5.2)

(8.7)

(6.0)

(5.2)

0.2

(4.1) Diabetes Care

399

793

1,192

37.8

3.4

12.8

37.8

12.4

19.4

















% Change vs. 1H21



Sales 1H22

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

3,176

4,146

7,322

9.9

1.2

4.8

9.9

9.0

9.4 Rhythm Management

512

560

1,072

0.3

(2.7)

(1.3)

0.3

4.4

2.5 Electrophysiology

442

529

971

14.0

(0.1)

5.8

14.0

8.0

10.5 Heart Failure

346

116

462

10.6

7.3

9.7

10.6

15.9

11.9 Vascular

437

835

1,272

(6.0)

(3.7)

(4.5)

(6.0)

2.6

(0.4) Structural Heart

397

454

851

10.4

3.4

6.5

10.4

12.8

11.7 Neuromodulation

300

76

376

(3.4)

(9.1)

(4.6)

(3.4)

(0.9)

(2.9) Diabetes Care

742

1,576

2,318

36.8

5.5

13.8

36.8

13.7

19.8

Worldwide Medical Devices sales increased 2.5 percent on a reported basis and 7.5 percent on an organic basis in the second quarter. Sales growth was negatively impacted by reduced cardiovascular and neuromodulation procedure volumes as a result of recent surges of COVID-19 in several geographies, healthcare staffing challenges and lockdowns in China that were implemented to control the spread of the virus.

In Diabetes Care, FreeStyle Libre sales were approximately $1.1 billion in the quarter, which represents sales growth of 18.7 percent on a reported basis and 25.6 percent on an organic basis.

ABBOTT'S EARNINGS-PER-SHARE GUIDANCE

Abbott is raising its projected full-year 2022 diluted earnings per share under GAAP to at least $3.50. Abbott forecasts specified items for the full-year 2022 of $1.40 per share primarily related to intangible amortization, costs related to a voluntary recall, expenses associated with acquisitions, restructurings and cost reduction initiatives and other net expenses. Excluding specified items, Abbott is raising its projected adjusted diluted earnings per share to at least $4.90 for the full-year 2022.

ABBOTT DECLARES 394TH CONSECUTIVE QUARTERLY DIVIDEND

On June 10, 2022, the board of directors of Abbott declared the company's quarterly dividend of $0.47 per share. Abbott's cash dividend is payable Aug. 15, 2022, to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 15, 2022.

Abbott has increased its dividend payout for 50 consecutive years and is a member of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index, which tracks companies that have annually increased their dividend for at least 25 consecutive years.

About Abbott:

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 113,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

Connect with us at www.abbott.com, on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/abbott-/, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Abbott and on Twitter @AbbottNews.

Abbott will live-webcast its second-quarter earnings conference call through its Investor Relations website at www.abbottinvestor.com at 8 a.m. Central time today. An archived edition of the webcast will be available later in the day.

 Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 

A Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Some statements in this news release may be forward-looking statements for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Abbott cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors that may affect Abbott's operations are discussed in Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2021, and are incorporated herein by reference. Abbott undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking statements as a result of subsequent events or developments, except as required by law.

1 All reported amounts relate to continuing operations only as there are no discontinued operations in the periods presented. 2 Data on file, Abbott Diabetes Care. Comparison based on publicly available information. 3 Among patient-applied sensors. Data on file, Abbott Diabetes Care. 4 In the second quarter of 2022, COVID-19 testing-related sales were $2.324 billion. In the second quarter of 2021, total worldwide sales were $10.223 billion, which included COVID-19 testing-related sales of $1.267 billion. 5 In the second quarter of 2022, U.S. sales of certain infant formula products were $116 million. In the second quarter of 2021, U.S. sales of certain infant formula products were $280 million. 6 In the second quarter of 2021, worldwide Nutrition sales were $2.108 billion, which included $280 million of U.S. sales of certain infant formula products. 7 In the second quarter of 2022, Core Laboratory and Molecular Diagnostics COVID-19 testing-related sales were $12 million and $75 million, respectively. In the second quarter of 2021, worldwide Core Laboratory and Molecular Diagnostics sales were $1.306 billion and $290 million, respectively. Core Laboratory and Molecular Diagnostics COVID-19 testing-related sales in the second quarter of 2021 were $58 million and $173 million, respectively.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries

Condensed Consolidated Statement of Earnings

Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2022 and 2021

(in millions, except per share data)

(unaudited)







2Q22

2Q21

% Change

Net Sales

$11,257

$10,223

10.1

















Cost of products sold, excluding amortization expense

4,933

4,947

(0.3) 1) Amortization of intangible assets

507

504

0.7

Research and development

684

654

4.8

Selling, general, and administrative

2,757

2,726

1.1

Total Operating Cost and Expenses

8,881

8,831

0.6

















Operating Earnings

2,376

1,392

70.6

















Interest expense, net

106

123

(14.1)

Other (income) expense, net

(82)

(79)

3.6

Earnings before taxes

2,352

1,348

74.4

Taxes on earnings

334

159

109.2

















Net Earnings

$2,018

$1,189

69.7

















Net Earnings Excluding Specified Items, as described below

$2,542

$2,115

20.2 2)















Diluted Earnings per Common Share

$1.14

$0.66

72.7

















Diluted Earnings per Common Share,













excluding Specified Items, as described below

$1.43

$1.17

22.2 2)















Average Number of Common Shares Outstanding













Plus Dilutive Common Stock Options

1,765

1,793







































NOTES:

See tables titled "Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information" for an explanation of certain non-GAAP financial information. See footnotes on the following below.



1) 2021 Cost of products sold, excluding amortization expense includes approximately $500 million of charges associated with a restructuring plan to align Abbott's manufacturing network for COVID-19 diagnostic tests with changes during the second quarter in projected testing demand.



2) 2022 Net Earnings and Diluted Earnings per Common Share, excluding Specified Items, excludes net after-tax charges of $524 million, or $0.29 per share, for intangible amortization, charges related to a voluntary recall and other net expenses primarily associated with acquisitions.





2021 Net Earnings and Diluted Earnings per Common Share, excluding Specified Items, excludes net after-tax charges of $926 million, or $0.51 per share, for intangible amortization and other net expenses primarily associated with restructuring actions, certain litigation and acquisitions.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries

Condensed Consolidated Statement of Earnings

First Half Ended June 30, 2022 and 2021

(in millions, except per share data)

(unaudited)







1H22

1H21

% Change

















Net Sales

$23,152

$20,679

12.0

















































Cost of products sold, excluding amortization expense

9,920

9,348

6.1 1)















Amortization of intangible assets

1,019

1,013

0.6

















Research and development

1,381

1,308

5.6

















Selling, general, and administrative

5,544

5,509

0.6

















Total Operating Cost and Expenses

17,864

17,178

4.0

















































Operating Earnings

5,288

3,501

51.0

















































Interest expense, net

223

247

(9.9)

















Net foreign exchange (gain) loss

(3)

3

n/m

















Other (income) expense, net

(160)

(140)

14.5

















Earnings before taxes

5,228

3,391

54.2

















Taxes on earnings

763

409

86.5 2)















































Net Earnings

$4,465

$2,982

49.7

















































Net Earnings Excluding Specified Items, as described below

$5,619

$4,483

25.3 3)















































Diluted Earnings per Common Share

$2.51

$1.66

51.2

















































Diluted Earnings per Common Share,





























excluding Specified Items, as described below

$3.16

$2.49

26.9 3)















































Average Number of Common Shares Outstanding





























Plus Dilutive Common Stock Options

1,770

1,792























NOTES:

See tables titled "Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information" for an explanation of certain non-GAAP financial information. n/m = Percent change is not meaningful. See footnotes on the following below.



1) 2021 Cost of products sold, excluding amortization expense includes approximately $500 million of charges associated with a restructuring plan to align Abbott's manufacturing network for COVID-19 diagnostic tests with changes during the second quarter in projected testing demand.



2) 2022 Taxes on Earnings includes the recognition of approximately $27 million of net tax expense as a result of the resolution of various tax positions related to prior years and approximately $32 million in excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.





2021 Taxes on Earnings includes the recognition of approximately $90 million in excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.



3) 2022 Net Earnings and Diluted Earnings per Common Share, excluding Specified Items, excludes net after-tax charges of $1.154 billion, or $0.65 per share, for intangible amortization, charges related to a voluntary recall and other net expenses primarily associated with acquisitions.





2021 Net Earnings and Diluted Earnings per Common Share, excluding Specified Items, excludes net after-tax charges of $1.501 billion, or $0.83 per share, for intangible amortization and other net expenses primarily associated with restructuring actions, certain litigation and acquisitions.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries

Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information

Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2022 and 2021

(in millions, except per share data)

(unaudited)







2Q22



As

Reported

(GAAP)

Specified

Items

As

Adjusted

% to

Sales

















Intangible Amortization

$ 507

$ (507)

$ --



Gross Margin

5,817

563

6,380

56.7 % R&D

684

(32)

652

5.8 % SG&A

2,757

(14)

2,743

24.4 % Other (income) expense, net

(82)

(12)

(94)



Earnings before taxes

2,352

621

2,973



Taxes on Earnings

334

97

431



Net Earnings

2,018

524

2,542



Diluted Earnings per Share

$1.14

$0.29

$1.43







Specified items reflect intangible amortization expense of $507 million and other net expenses of $114 million that includes costs associated with a product recall, acquisitions, and other net expenses. See tables titled "Details of Specified Items" for additional details regarding specified items.





2Q21



As

Reported

(GAAP)

Specified

Items

As

Adjusted

% to

Sales

















Intangible Amortization

$ 504

$ (504)

$ --



Gross Margin

4,772

1,048

5,820

56.9 % R&D

654

(18)

636

6.2 % SG&A

2,726

(90)

2,636

25.8 % Other (income) expense, net

(79)

35

(44)



Earnings before taxes

1,348

1,121

2,469



Taxes on Earnings

159

195

354



Net Earnings

1,189

926

2,115



Diluted Earnings per Share

$0.66

$0.51

$1.17







Specified items reflect intangible amortization expense of $504 million and other net expenses of $617 million, primarily associated with restructuring actions, certain litigation, acquisitions and other expenses. See tables titled "Details of Specified Items" for additional details regarding specified items.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries

Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information

First Half Ended June 30, 2022 and 2021

(in millions, except per share data)

(unaudited)







1H22



As

Reported

(GAAP)

Specified

Items

As

Adjusted

% to

Sales

















Intangible Amortization

$ 1,019

$ (1,019)

$ --



Gross Margin

12,213

1,199

13,412

57.9 % R&D

1,381

(65)

1,316

5.7 % SG&A

5,544

(53)

5,491

23.7 % Other (income) expense, net

(160)

(27)

(187)



Earnings before taxes

5,228

1,344

6,572



Taxes on Earnings

763

190

953



Net Earnings

4,465

1,154

5,619



Diluted Earnings per Share

$2.51

$0.65

$3.16























Specified items reflect intangible amortization expense of $1.019 billion and other net expenses of $325 million that includes costs associated with a product recall, acquisitions, and other net expenses. See tables titled "Details of Specified Items" for additional details regarding specified items.





1H21



As

Reported

(GAAP)

Specified

Items

As

Adjusted

% to

Sales

















Intangible Amortization

$ 1,013

$ (1,013)

$ --



Gross Margin

10,318

1,597

11,915

57.6 % R&D

1,308

(46)

1,262

6.1 % SG&A

5,509

(244)

5,265

25.5 % Other (income) expense, net

(140)

23

(117)



Earnings before taxes

3,391

1,864

5,255



Taxes on Earnings

409

363

772



Net Earnings

2,982

1,501

4,483



Diluted Earnings per Share

$1.66

$0.83

$2.49







Specified items reflect intangible amortization expense of $1.013 billion and other net expenses of $851 million, primarily associated with restructuring actions, certain litigation, acquisitions and other expenses. See tables titled "Details of Specified Items" for additional details regarding specified items.

A reconciliation of the second-quarter tax rates for 2022 and 2021 is shown below:









2Q22 ($ in millions)

Pre-Tax

Income

Taxes on

Earnings

Tax

Rate As reported (GAAP)

$2,352

$ 334

14.2 % Specified items

621

97



Excluding specified items

$2,973

$431

14.5 %





















2Q21 ($ in millions)

Pre-Tax

Income

Taxes on

Earnings

Tax

Rate As reported (GAAP)

$1,348

$159

11.9 % Specified items

1,121

195



Excluding specified items

$2,469

$354

14.4 %

A reconciliation of the year-to-date tax rates for 2022 and 2021 is shown below:









1H22

($ in millions)

Pre-Tax

Income

Taxes on

Earnings

Tax

Rate

As reported (GAAP)

$5,228

$ 763

14.6 % 1) Specified items

1,344

190





Excluding specified items

$6,572

$953

14.5 %

























1H21

($ in millions)

Pre-Tax

Income

Taxes on

Earnings

Tax

Rate

As reported (GAAP)

$3,391

$409

12.1 % 2) Specified items

1,864

363





Excluding specified items

$5,255

$772

14.7 %





















1) 2022 Taxes on Earnings includes the recognition of approximately $27 million of net tax expense as a result of the resolution of various tax positions related to prior years and approximately $32 million in excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.



2) 2021 Taxes on Earnings includes the recognition of approximately $90 million in excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries

Details of Specified Items

Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2022

(in millions, except per share data)

(unaudited)





Acquisition or

Divestiture-

related (a)

Restructuring

and Cost

Reduction

Initiatives (b)

Intangible

Amortization

Other (c)

Total

Specifieds Gross Margin $ 20

$ (6)

$ 507

$ 42

$ 563 R&D (5)

--

--

(27)

(32) SG&A (7)

--

--

(7)

(14) Other (income) expense, net (4)

--

--

(8)

(12) Earnings before taxes $ 36

$ (6)

$ 507

$ 84

621 Taxes on Earnings (d)















97 Net Earnings















$ 524 Diluted Earnings per Share















$ 0.29



The table above provides additional details regarding the specified items described on tables titled "Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information."



a) Acquisition-related expenses include integration costs, which represent incremental costs directly related to integrating the acquired businesses and include expenditures for the integration of systems, processes and business activities. b) Restructuring and cost reduction initiative expenses include severance, outplacement, and other direct costs associated with specific restructuring plans and cost reduction initiatives. The Gross Margin amount includes a credit associated with the charges taken in the second quarter of 2021 for a restructuring plan related to Abbott's manufacturing network for COVID-19 diagnostic tests. c) Other includes costs related to a voluntary recall within the Nutrition segment and incremental costs to comply with the European Union's Medical Device (MDR) and In Vitro Diagnostics Medical Device (IVDR) Regulations for previously approved products. d) Reflects the net tax benefit associated with the specified items and excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries

Details of Specified Items

Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2021

(in millions, except per share data)

(unaudited)







Acquisition or

Divestiture-

related (a)

Restructuring

and Cost

Reduction

Initiatives (b)

Intangible

Amortization

Other (c)

Total

Specifieds Gross Margin

$ 21

$ 510

$ 504

$ 13

$ 1,048 R&D

(3)

1

--

(16)

(18) SG&A

(18)

2

--

(74)

(90) Other (income) expense, net

(3)

--

--

38

35 Earnings before taxes

$ 45

$ 507

$ 504

$ 65

1,121 Taxes on Earnings (d)

















195 Net Earnings

















$ 926 Diluted Earnings per Share

















$ 0.51



The table above provides additional details regarding the specified items on tables titled "Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information."

a) Acquisition-related expenses include integration costs, which represent incremental costs directly related to integrating the acquired businesses and include expenditures for the integration of systems, processes and business activities. b) Restructuring and cost reduction initiative expenses include severance, outplacement, and other direct costs associated with specific restructuring plans and cost reduction initiatives. Restructuring and cost reduction plans consist of distinct initiatives to streamline operations including the consolidation and rationalization of business activities and facilities, workforce reductions, the transfer of product lines between manufacturing facilities, and the transfer of other business activities between sites. The Gross Margin amount includes charges associated with a restructuring plan to align Abbott's manufacturing network for COVID-19 diagnostic tests with changes during the second quarter in projected testing demand. c) Other includes costs related to certain litigation and the impairment of an intangible asset, as well as a gain on the disposition of an equity method investment. d) Reflects the net tax benefit associated with the specified items and excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries

Details of Specified Items

First Half Ended June 30, 2022

(in millions, except per share data)

(unaudited)







Acquisition

or Divestiture-

related (a)

Restructuring

and Cost

Reduction

Initiatives (b)

Intangible

Amortization

Other (c)

Total

Specifieds Gross Margin

$ 41

$ (12)

$ 1,019

$ 151

$ 1,199 R&D

(7)

(1)

--

(57)

(65) SG&A

(18)

--

--

(35)

(53) Other (income) expense, net

(11)

--

--

(16)

(27) Earnings before taxes

$ 77

$ (11)

$ 1,019

$ 259

1,344 Taxes on Earnings (d)

















190 Net Earnings

















$ 1,154 Diluted Earnings per Share

















$ 0.65























The table above provides additional details regarding the specified items on tables titled "Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information."

a) Acquisition-related expenses include integration costs, which represent incremental costs directly related to integrating the acquired businesses and include expenditures for the integration of systems, processes and business activities. b) Restructuring and cost reduction initiative expenses include severance, outplacement, and other direct costs associated with specific restructuring plans and cost reduction initiatives. The Gross Margin amount includes a credit associated with the charges taken in the second quarter of 2021 for a restructuring plan related to Abbott's manufacturing network for COVID-19 diagnostic tests. c) Other includes charges related to a voluntary recall within the Nutrition segment and incremental costs to comply with the European Union's Medical Device (MDR) and In Vitro Diagnostics Medical Device (IVDR) Regulations for previously approved products. d) Reflects the net tax benefit associated with the specified items, excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation and net tax expense as a result of the resolution of various tax positions related to prior years.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries

Details of Specified Items

First Half Ended June 30, 2021

(in millions, except per share data)

(unaudited)







Acquisition or

Divestiture-

related (a)

Restructuring

and Cost

Reduction

Initiatives (b)

Intangible

Amortization

Other (c)

Total

Specifieds Gross Margin

$ 40

$ 529

$ 1,013

$ 15

$ 1,597 R&D

(5)

1

--

(42)

(46) SG&A

(31)

1

--

(214)

(244) Other (income) expense, net

(3)

1

--

25

23 Earnings before taxes

$ 79

$ 526

$ 1,013

$ 246

1,864 Taxes on Earnings (d)

















363 Net Earnings

















$ 1,501 Diluted Earnings per Share

















$ 0.83



The table above provides additional details regarding the specified items on tables titled "Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information."



a) Acquisition-related expenses include integration costs, which represent incremental costs directly related to integrating the acquired businesses and include expenditures for the integration of systems, processes and business activities. b) Restructuring and cost reduction initiative expenses include severance, outplacement, and other direct costs associated with specific restructuring plans and cost reduction initiatives. Restructuring and cost reduction plans consist of distinct initiatives to streamline operations including the consolidation and rationalization of business activities and facilities, workforce reductions, the transfer of product lines between manufacturing facilities, and the transfer of other business activities between sites. The Gross Margin amount includes charges associated with a restructuring plan to align Abbott's manufacturing network for COVID-19 diagnostic tests with changes during the second quarter in projected testing demand. c) Other primarily relates to the costs related to certain litigation, the acquisition of a research and development asset, the impairments of an equity investment and an intangible asset, and the gain on the disposition of an equity method investment. d) Reflects the net tax benefit associated with the specified items and excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.

SOURCE Abbott
FORNEBU, Norway, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Aker BP reports operating profit of USD 1,128 million and net profit of USD 188 million in the second quarter 2022. The acquisition of Lundin Energy's oil and gas activities was completed on 30 June.

Highlights

Acquisition of Lundin Energy's oil and gas activities completed

Launching a decarbonisation plan to be net zero across all operations by 2030

On track to submit Plans for Development and Operations (PDOs) for around 900 mmboe (net) by the end of the year, with concepts selected for all projects

Agreement signed with Equinor to assume operatorship of Krafla following PDO submission

Strong free cash flow of USD 803 million *, net interest-bearing debt of USD 3.8 billion , and cash consideration for the Lundin transaction paid without adding new debt

*, net interest-bearing debt of , and cash consideration for the Lundin transaction paid without adding new debt Credit rating upgrades from Standard & Poor's, Moody's, and Fitch Ratings

Quarterly dividend increased by 11 percent to USD 0.525 per share

* Adjusted for consideration paid in the Lundin transaction

Financial summary



unit 2022-Q2 2022-Q1 2021-Q2 Production mboepd 181.3 208.2 198.6 Total income USD million 2 026 2 291 1 124 EBITDA USD million 1 749 2 007 855 Net profit USD million 188 537 154 Net interest-bearing debt USD million 3 835 877 2 818 Earnings per share USD 0.52 1.49 0.43 Dividend per share USD 0.48 0.48 0.31

The Lundin transaction was completed on 30 June 2022. The transaction and the acquired business have been consolidated in the statement of financial position on a fair value basis per 30 June 2022, and will be included in the income statement as from 1 July 2022.

Comment from Karl Johnny Hersvik, CEO of Aker BP:

"I'm pleased to report that the Lundin transaction has been completed during the quarter, creating the E&P company of the future. The combined company has a more diversified and robust portfolio, with industry-leading low cost and low carbon emissions assets, and is positioned to deliver profitable growth into the next decade."

"Today we are launching a decarbonisation plan to be net zero across all operations by 2030, which fortifies our position as the leading E&P company, also with respect to our environmental footprint. We remain committed to reducing gross emissions across our operations and we have a clear pathway to reduce absolute emissions to close to zero by 2050."

"Financially, Aker BP is very robust. High oil and gas prices have contributed to strong cash flow, allowing us to complete the Lundin transaction without adding new debt while our credit ratings have been upgraded. Consequently, we are now able to further increase the dividend level."

"We continue to focus on the things we can influence and improve today. In the second quarter we produced 181.3 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day, impacted by planned maintenance programmes. For the second half of 2022, we expect to more than double our production as we integrate the Lundin assets."

"I'm also pleased to report strong progress on Aker BP's growth agenda. All the planned PDO projects have now passed the concept select milestone and remain on schedule for PDO submission by the end of the year."

"In conclusion, we remain committed to our mission to maximize value creation for our shareholders, and we have never been in a better position to do so."

Conference call and webcast

The company will host a conference call to present its second quarter 2022 results today, 20 July 2022, at 08:30 CEST. The conference call will be available as a webcast on www.akerbp.com. To participate in the conference call, please use the dial-in numbers and passcode below.

Phone number Norway: +47 2350 0347 Phone number UK: +44 (0) 330 165 3641 Participant passcode: 59 23 27

Attachments

CONTACT:

Investor contacts:

Kjetil Bakken, VP Investor Relations, tel.: +47 91 889 889

Jrgen Torstensen, IR Officer, tel.: +47 95 48 37 07

Media contact:

Tore Langballe, VP Communications, tel.: +47 907 77 841

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/aker-bp-asa/r/second-quarter-2022-results,c3602911

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/1629/3602911/1606017.pdf Release https://mb.cision.com/Public/1629/3602911/b5e75d728a46d87e.pdf Aker BP 2022-Q2 Presentation https://mb.cision.com/Public/1629/3602911/a0782042da8dd086.pdf Aker BP 2022-Q2 Report https://mb.cision.com/Public/1629/3602911/bfbf668f3872994c.pdf Aker BP Strategy Update 20 July 2022

SOURCE Aker BP ASA
The RS Group brand was recognized for its culture of inclusion.

FORT WORTH, Texas, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Electronics & Automation, a trading brand of RS Group plc (LSE: RS1), a global omni-channel provider of product and service solutions, was named one of the 2022 Top 50 Inspiring Workplaces in North America by Inspiring Workplaces .

Inspiring Workplaces annually recognizes 50 organizations that exemplify the elements of culture & purpose, leadership, well-being, inclusion, communication and experience. The 2022 Inspiring Workplaces Awards recognized companies in the EMEA region for the second consecutive year and marked the first annual awards in North America.

Allied ranked 33rd on the list, receiving special recognition for its inclusive practices, which were demonstrated in part by attracting and retaining more LGBTQ+ employees in 2022, and for "harnessing the power of third-party partnerships to improve representation, diversity and overall organizational performance." Allied recently enhanced its employee benefits by adding paid leave for adoptive parents, expanding health insurance coverage to include gender-affirming medical services and extending benefits eligibility to include domestic partnerships.

This June, Allied also unveiled a new hybrid office space and more flexible and supportive work model to optimize the employee, customer and supplier experience. The custom office design highlights Allied's innovative and transparent company culture and commitment to employee well-being. Features include a common working area on every floor surrounded by windows for optimal natural sunlight, a relaxation room and a private mothers' room for employees who are returning to work after maternity leave, and the entire building meets certification standards for wheelchair and mobility assistance device accessibility. In addition, every workstation features a movable sit/stand desk for optimal employee health and comfort, and there are also informal breakout zones where employees can work on sofas or armchairs. Employees can book a desk via a cloud-based reservation system according to their preferences at any time, and all conference and collaboration rooms are outfitted with top-of-the-line conference equipment to accommodate both in-person and virtual hybrid meetings.

"We are proud to be recognized for the inspirational, affirming and collegial environment that we champion here at Allied," said Katie Cartwright, Vice President of People. "Our hiring practices have always reflected our values and aimed to foster a diverse and inclusive environment. Everyone should feel comfortable bringing their authentic self to the workplace. People do their best when they feel their best, and that's how we make amazing happen."

Cartwright continued, "Our leaders are committed to providing all employees  regardless of race, economic background, physical and mental ability, gender, personal identification and sexual orientation  with a conducive working environment that champions success and growth."

To learn more about Allied and view open positions, visit our Careers page .

Allied Electronics & Automation, part of RS Group

Allied Electronics & Automation is a trading brand of RS Group plc (formerly Electrocomponents plc), a leading global omni-channel industrial product and service solutions provider to customers who are involved in designing, building and maintaining industrial equipment and operations, safely and sustainably. RS Group plc stocks more than 700,000 industrial and electronic products, sourced from over 2,500 leading suppliers, and provides a wide range of product and service solutions to over 1.2 million industrial customers. With operations in 32 countries, we trade through multiple channels and ship nearly 60,000 parcels daily.

We support customers across the product life cycle, whether via innovation and technical support at the design phase, improving time to market and productivity at the build phase, or reducing purchasing costs and optimizing inventory in the maintenance phase. We offer our customers tailored product and service propositions that are essential for the successful operation of their businesses and help them save time and money.

RS Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange with stock ticker RS1 and in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2022, reported revenue of $3.3 billion.

For more information about Allied Electronics & Automation, please visit www.alliedelec.com/ or connect with us via social media on Facebook , Twitter and LinkedIn .

Image Download:

https://bit.ly/3OdhJ38

Editorial Contact & Media Inquiries:

Karen Gavenda

Allied Electronics & Automation, part of RS Group

[email protected]

SOURCE Allied Electronics & Automation
Sarah Cossa and Diane Gallagher will serve as senior vice presidents and co-chief people officers

KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- American Century Investments has promoted Sarah Cossa and Diane Gallagher to senior vice presidents and co-chief people officers of the firm. Working from American Century's New York City office, Cossa will serve as the HR representative on the Management Committee and lead talent acquisition, HR business partnerships, HR operations and analytics and compensation and benefits. Gallagher, based at the firm's global headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., will be a member of the Expanded Management Committee and lead employee experience and relations, learning and development and community engagement. Together, Cossa and Gallagher will lead the HR strategy as the firm attracts, retains and energizes its world-class talent and supports the development of strong workplace practices designed to further the global asset management firm's client-centric and impact-driven culture.

Diane Gallagher, Senior Vice President & Co-Chief People Officer Sarah Cossa, Senior Vice President & Co-Chief People Officer

"Sarah and Diane are complementary leaders, independently respected and admired among our colleagues and throughout the industry. Together, their unique backgrounds and breadth and depth of professional experience make them the ideal partners to move our culture forward," said Jonathan Thomas, president and chief executive officer. "After our lengthy interview and selection process with members of our executive and investment leadership, Board of Director representatives, and our external search firm, we came to a resounding, unanimous decision to appoint Sarah and Diane."

Over the last several months, Cossa and Gallagher navigated the firm and its employees through several major milestones, including the reopening of the firm's facilities, the launch of its hybrid "connected workplace" model and the reimagination of the James E. Stowers Award and recognition event for employees.

Sarah Cossa, senior vice president and co-chief people officer

Cossa joined American Century Investments in 2021 as vice president, head of human resources business partnerships. Her 20 years of business and human resources experience in the financial services and investment management industries have included roles at Citigroup, Capital Group, Knight Capital Group and Allianz Global Investors.

Cossa earned her bachelor's in economics from Drew University and holds HR data and finance management certificates from Cornell University. She has held FINRA series 7, 9, 10, 63, 65 licenses and a NJ life insurance license.

Diane Gallagher, senior vice president and co-chief people officer

Gallagher originally joined American Century Investments in 1995, most recently serving as vice president, head of employee experience. Previously, she led product marketing and participant communications and education for J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan Services.

She holds a bachelor's in communication studies from University of Detroit Mercy, where she graduated magna cum laude. She is a Board member of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Children's Mercy Hospital and the Center for Practical Bioethics. She holds FINRA series 7, 63 and 24 licenses.

About American Century Investments

American Century Investments is a leading global asset manager focused on delivering investment results and building long-term client relationships while supporting breakthrough medical research. Founded in 1958, American Century Investments' 1,400 employees serve financial professionals, institutions, corporations and individual investors from offices in New York; London; Frankfurt; Hong Kong; Sydney; Santa Clara, Calif.; and Kansas City, Mo. Jonathan S. Thomas is president and chief executive officer, and Victor Zhang serves as chief investment officer. Delivering investment results to clients enables American Century Investments to distribute over 40% of its dividends to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, a 500-person, nonprofit basic biomedical research organization. The Institute owns more than 40% of American Century Investments and has received dividend payments of $1.87 billion since 2000. For more information about American Century Investments, visit www.americancentury.com.

2022 American Century Proprietary Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved

Contact: Susan Waldron

(816) 340-3792

SOURCE American Century Investments
ARK TRADE AG's Artificial intelligence (AI), powering the ARK TRADE digital trading platform, finds that wheat and soybean prices have higher susceptibility, 30% higher than corn, to 'global crisis' parameter throughout this period.

ROTKREUZ, Switzerland, July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The first six months of 2022 were especially tumultuous for markets dealing in agricultural commodities amidst the war in Ukraine and the current global food crisis; suffering from high volatility and exceptionally cautious business cycles of both funds and futures. All this alongside supply chain disruptions, and sharp rises in fuel and shipping costs.

Findings of ARK TRADE's analysis of the year's first two quarters point to a sharp drop, of up to 28%, in wheat, soybean, and corn prices immediately following the peak prices largely driven by the war in Ukraine.

ARK TRADE, founded by serial entrepreneur Orit Shifman, has developed a unique digital platform powered by AI for global trading of commodities and finished goods. The platform gathers a phenomenal mass of data from around the globe, to include information not readily used by analysts, all bearing varying levels of impact on product prices and availability. Therein, financial data, news reports, weather forecast, global warming, local and international politics, COVID reports, social media posts, are all fused, processed and analyzed. ARK TRADE's recent analysis pointed to the high vulnerability of wheat and soybean prices according to its 'global crisis' parameter, 30% higher than the vulnerability of corn prices to the same parameter throughout this period.

Wheat is the commodity most commonly associated with the current crisis in Ukraine, as both sides of the war are among the world's largest exporters of wheat. The year began with a bushel (1 US bushel = 35 liters of dry goods) of wheat priced at $7.6 (USD). On the eve of the war, as tensions increased between Ukraine and Russia, this price went up to $8.5 a bushel, finally peaking at $12.78 in mid-May. By the close of the first half of 2022 (June 30th), wheat had dropped 27%, to $9.3 per bushel. ARK TRADE's AI estimates that this coincides with general global acceptance of the situation in the region.

Corn (maize) is the world's most prevalent agricultural commodity, and the most ubiquitous crop produced in the US. ARK TRADE points out that between 2014 and 2020, corn futures were traded at a relatively stable price margin of $3.15-$4.3 a bushel. 2021 marked the beginning of a spike, reaching $6 per bushel at the start of 2022, going up to $6.6 at the dawn of war. As the war continued, prices soared even further, amid speculation that corn crops will replace the mass shortages in wheat and sunflower oil, normally supplied by the region.

On May 16th, corn peaked at $8.09 per bushel, then plummeted to $6.5 on June 30th; a 20% drop from the peak price and a full percent less than its price pre-war.

ARK TRADE's AI also indicates that corn prices are also heavily impacted by supply chain disruptions.

Soybean crops are made up of several varieties and are among the world's oldest agricultural commodities. Originating in Southeast Asia, the majority of traded soybean crops are now grown and processed in the US. Soybeans are also widely traded on commodities markets and suffer the losses accrued in margins between the price of soybean futures and final price of product upon delivery. Soybeans, sold for $12.3 at the start of 2022, were climbing steadily to $15.73 per bushel by the eve of the war in Ukraine. The price of soybeans eventually peaked at $17.69 on June 9th. Among the several soybean futures currently sold, most notable is marked for November, selling at $14.7 per bushel. The next future after that is set for August and selling at $15.7 per bushel.

With the prices of these commodities lower in futures (again, as a reaction to the situation in Ukraine) compared to the present market price  otherwise known as high backwardation prices have dropped by 6.5% since the outbreak of the war, at almost a dollar less per bushel.

ARK TRADE's AI Assessment: Current global food shortage and political crises will continue to affect prices of wheat and soybean in the immediate future; Global warming will have little to no affect throughout this time period.

ARK TRADE's AI provides yet further insights. Among the parameters it rates as having the greatest effect on prices, the AI ranks 'Global Crises' highest, contributing to 36% or 31% of soybean and wheat prices, respectively. This is a result of the instability and uncertainty of the situation between Ukraine and Russia, two of the world's largest wheat producers.

The war has also caused the prices of fertilizer to skyrocket, as both Russia and the Republic of Belarus are major players in the world's fertilizer industry. On the other hand, the current crises only seem to have a far lesser impact of 18.5% on future prices of corn as speculations of corn prices weaken. The platform's AI estimates that in the short term, corn prices will be affected mostly by current price levels and subsequent availability.

Conversely, global warming, another important crisis frequently featured in the media, seems to have far less influence on these commodities in the short term. ARK TRADE's AI indicates that weather should only have a negligible impact of 1% on wheat, and a 2.5% on soybean and corn prices.

Agricultural Market shifts  first half of 2022

Product Price January 3rd, 2022 Price at start of war Peak Price Price June 30th, 2022 Wheat $7.6 (USD) $8.5 (USD) $12.78 (USD)

May 17th $9.3 (USD) Corn (Maize) $6.0 (USD) $6.6 (USD) $8.09 (USD) May 16th $6.5 (USD) Soybeans $12.3 (USD) $15.73 (USD) $17.69 (USD) June 9th $14.7 (USD)

It is hereby clarified that the aforementioned information, including, inter alia, the data, analysis, conclusions and details, do not constitute professional recommendations or advice of any kind, nor is this information provided to be used or relied upon as advice or consultation concerning investments, taxes, finances, and/or legal matters. All the above-mentioned does not pertain to include all relevant details and data related to the matters at issue and is subject to change.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1860230/ARK_TRADE_Logo.jpg

SOURCE ARK TRADE AG
LAS VEGAS, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Athena Security , a world-wide Weapons Detection System provider, today announced that the company received approval from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Bureau of Licensing ("Gaming Board") to sell weapons detections systems to casinos in Pennsylvania.

The State of Pennsylvania is home to more than 14 different Licensed casinos with record breaking revenue of $4.873 billion in 2021 and over 1 billion in Internet gambling revenue. By the end of last year, Pennsylvania grew that number to 18 internet casinos and 13 online sportsbooks operating in the state.

Athena Security is on a mission to help all Pennsylvania casinos to secure their entryways for their guests and staff. Athena Security just launched their new entry solution that scans people for weapons, temperature and identifies persons of interest without requiring anyone to stop and sort through their belongings.

"Getting approval from the Pennsylvania gaming commission to provide our weapons detection system to casinos is a big step for the local communities to feel more safe while enjoying these local gaming locations," said Athena Security CEO and co-founder Michael Green.

About Athena Security

Headquartered in Austin, TX and founded by former Revel Systems Co-founders Lisa Falzone and Chris Ciabarra , Athena Security is a cutting edge Apple iPad temperature detection and weapons detection security company. Athena Security's temperature detection is extremely accurate within +-0.2 degrees Celsius. The concealed weapons detection solution, now including Athena's new Entryway Detection System, uses multiple sensors to detect guns and mitigate risk. For more information go to Athena Security's website at http://athena-security.com

Contact:

Jamie Diamond PR Team

+1 (541) 441-4444

[email protected]

SOURCE Athena Security INC
SAN DIEGO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Aya Healthcare, the largest healthcare staffing company in the U.S., was named to Fortune's list of Best Workplaces for Millennials for 2022. Aya was recognized for its focus on employee happiness and promoting a company culture that encourages comradery, personal and professional growth and an overall sense of wellbeing. The organization consistently recognizes hard work with quarterly awards, helps employees build rapport with frequent team-building events and offers a variety of wellness programs, including virtual exercise, meditation and mental health classes.

"Our employees help clinicians live their best lives and help healthcare facilities do their best work," said Amber Zeeb, VP of Employee Experience at Aya Healthcare. "We're obsessed with creating exceptional experiences and fostering an environment that gives our employees meaning and purpose aiding communities in need."

Fortune partnered with Great Place to Work to produce a prestigious list based on more than 1 million employee survey responses and data from companies representing over 6.1 million employees. 90% of Aya employees said it's a great place to work compared to 57% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, millennials will make up 75 percent of the U.S. workforce by 2030. Surveyed millennials were able to share with Fortune and Great Place to Work quantitative and qualitative feedback in a confidential manner about their organization's culture. Questions included camaraderie, credibility, employee experience, fairness, trust, respect and pride.

One Aya survey respondent said, "Everyone is so nice and willing to help and answer any questions. I started in January 2021 and from day one I felt welcomed and a part of the team. At Aya, I truly feel we are a team and we all want each other to succeed. It's amazing to finally have found a company where I feel appreciated and supported in both my work life and personal life."

Aya constantly seeks employee feedback with company-wide questionnaires and surveys throughout the year and utilizes the responses to find new areas for improvement. The company's unique culture has been recognized both locally and nationally, making Aya a highly sought-after employer.

Aya's corporate headquarters are in San Diego, CA. Most of Aya's corporate employees have a choice to work from the office or remotely. Aya is always searching for top talent to join their industry-leading team. If you're interested in a career that allows you to make an impact every day, apply today: https://www.ayahealthcare.com/corporate-careers.

About Aya Healthcare:

Aya Healthcare is a data-driven market leader in healthcare staffing. Through its transformative use of technology and digital engagement, Aya has become the largest healthcare staffing company in the United States. Aya's managed marketplace hosts the largest pool of active job seekers with algorithm-driven personalized touchpoints to drive further engagement and adds transparency and unrivaled efficiency to healthcare systems. While technology drives efficiency and scale, Aya employees power the company to deliver unparalleled accountability and exceptional experiences for clients and clinicians. Aya's company culture is rooted in giving back and supports organizations around food security, education, healthcare, safe shelter and equity. To learn more about Aya Healthcare, visit www.ayahealthcare.com.

Media Contact:

Rebecca Kelley

Public Relations Manager

Aya Healthcare

[email protected]

619.384.5269

SOURCE Aya Healthcare
BOSTON, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Greene LLP announces that the international pharmaceutical company, Biogen, Inc, has agreed to pay $900 million to resolve claims brought by Michael Bawduniak, a client of Greene LLP, that Biogen unlawfully paid kickbacks to physicians and other healthcare professionals. The settlement will be paid to the United States and the Medicaid programs of various states in resolution of the False Claims Act action in which the United States did not intervene.

"We believe this settlement represents the largest recovery in the over 150 years of False Claims Act cases to be secured by a whistleblower without the intervention or participation of the United States," said attorney Thomas M. Greene, who served as Mr. Bawduniak's lead counsel throughout more than a decade of litigation.

We believe this is the largest False Claims Act recovery secured by a whistleblower without United States intervention. Tweet this

In 2012, Mr. Bawduniak disclosed to the United States that he believed Biogen, for whom he was then employed, was improperly paying kickbacks to its largest prescribers to discourage them from prescribing Biogen's competitors' products. Mr. Bawduniak had reported his concerns to Biogen's compliance department, which had not taken any action. Based on Mr. Bawduniak's information, the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation asked Mr. Bawduniak to record conversations with Biogen employees that would substantiate his allegations. These recordings confirmed that Biogen deliberately provided substantial monetary and non-monetary compensation to some of its most important prescribers to influence their prescribing and to ensure that they remained loyal Biogen customers.

Thereafter, in April 2012, Greene LLP, on behalf of Mr. Bawduniak, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts under the federal False Claims Act and the false claims acts of several states. Mr. Bawduniak alleged that Biogen, to prevent its multiple sclerosis drugs from losing market share to newer drugs, knowingly paid its largest prescribers for services Biogen did not need and never intended to use, and which payments served no legitimate business purpose.

For example, Biogen paid hundreds of its customers to provide consulting advice on topics it either could not use, or for which Biogen had all the information it required. Additionally, Biogen also paid hundreds of health care professionals to speak when there was no demand for presentations on Biogen's products and Biogen knew that its prospective speakers would likely never meet their minimum speaking requirements. Mr. Bawduniak also discovered that Biogen knowingly compensated its speakers and consultants a rate significantly exceeding the fair market value for their services. For example, Biogen inflated the amounts paid to most of its speakers and consultants by automatically adding three hours for travel time to their compensation, even when Biogen knew the customers whom it paid did not have to travel or only traveled a minimal distance. And many of Biogen's events were held at sumptuous resorts and restaurants, where Biogen treated its speakers and consultants to lavish meals and free alcohol.

"The excessive consultant meetings always stood out to us as evidence of an improper purpose for these payments to physicians," said Greene. "Over the years, as we learned more and more and gained feedback from nationally renowned experts, we were confident that a jury would agree: the only reasonable explanation for this kind of activity by Biogen was its belief that the prescribers it paid would be more likely to prescribe their drugs."

The Biogen lawsuit was not Greene's first foray into lengthy False Claims Act litigation. In 1996, he brought an action on behalf of a whistleblower alleging that off-label promotion of the drug Neurontin defrauded the United States. That case was resolved in 2004 when Pfizer, Inc. agreed to pay $430 million in civil fines and criminal penalties. Although the United States also elected not to intervene in the Neurontin case, that case became the model that ultimately led to the United States recovering more than $15 billion for unlawful off-label promotion by other drug companies.

The federal False Claims Act and several state statutes allow persons to file qui tam claims on behalf of federal or state governments when they have knowledge of schemes to defraud them. The statutes authorize those governments to intervene in such suits, but also permit the qui tam whistleblowers to pursue their claims if the governments elect not to intervene, which is what happened with Mr. Bawduniak's action.

"Since July 2015, when the United States informed the District Court that it would not intervene in this action, our firm has litigated the case alone, reviewing millions of documents, conducting dozens of depositions, and preparing the case for trial," said Greene. "The settlement with Biogen is a great example of what the False Claims Act is designed to encourage  and taxpayers clearly benefit." As a result of the announced settlement, Mr. Bawduniak will receive an award of between 25% and 30% of the federal portion of the recovery, as well as awards from the states who will share in the settlement.

Michael Bawduniak was represented in the False Claims Act suit by Greene, Michael Tabb, Ryan P. Morrison, Tucker D. Greene, Simon Fischer, Eugenie Reich, and Kiel Green, all members of the Greene LLP firm. Greene LLP is a complex civil litigation firm in Boston specializing in representing qui tam whistleblowers with a low-volume, high-attention approach to litigation.

Contact: Thomas M. Greene

Greene LLP

(617) 261-0040

[email protected]

SOURCE Greene LLP
LOS ANGELES, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop Gold Group (BGG) is proud to celebrate its fifth anniversary with a promotion to new customers. BGG is offering $5000 in free silver with qualified purchases. BGG is one of the nation's largest retailers of gold and silver in 2021. They offer Gold, Silver and Platinum in both bars and coins for physical delivery or inside of a retirement account. This milestone reflects BGG's commitment to guiding their clients towards economic security with superior market knowledge.

Free Silver Promo

Bishop Gold Group has helped many clients by aiding in their education and the diversification of their portfolios with gold, silver and other precious metals. From 2020 to 2021, they have experienced exponential growth and unparalleled increase in sales.

Bishop Gold Group's goal is to help clients make confident and intelligent precious metals decisions and uses our decades of combined experience to do so. BGG knows the value of investing in precious metals, and we optimize our clients' precious metals strategies with a client-first mentality. Dedicated account representatives have the latest training and tools to ensure transparency and best-in-class services to clients. BGG services, including the Precious Metals IRA, Gold IRA Rollover, Silver IRA Rollover and physical delivery of both gold and silver bars and coins, continue to set the industry standard.

About Bishop Gold Group

Bishop Gold Group is one of the nation's largest retailers of gold and silver. They hold an A+ Rating from the BBB and a 5-Star Rating on Trustpilot and Google. BGG offers investment grade gold and silver coins and bars at competitive prices. www.bishopgoldgroup.com

Media Contact:

Norman Lavintman

[email protected]

310-993-0699

SOURCE Bishop Gold Group
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bug Bite Thing , the chemical-free, reusable insect bite relief suction tool, is thrilled to announce its partnership with Dr. Mona Amin, D.O., FAAP.

Based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Pediatrician Dr. Mona frequently treats children experiencing localized reactions from insect bites and stings. As the first member of Bug Bite Thing's Medical Advisory Board, this highly respected expert will provide advice for parents on post-bite treatment and how to use Bug Bite Thing properly on infants and children to maximize its effectiveness.

Medical Advisor Dr. Mona Amin holding Bug Bite Thing

"As a mother and pediatrician, I've been seeking a solution to treat the symptoms that result from mosquito bites, which there is a huge need for in Florida. The first time I used Bug Bite Thing, I noticed the results immediately. I look forward to educating parents and sharing this effective, chemical-free suction tool with my patients and the medical community," says Dr. Mona.

"I want Bug Bite Thing to be everyone's go-to resource for the treatment of insect bites and stings. By establishing the Medical Advisory Board and partnering with Pediatrician Dr. Mona, we'll be able to offer our community access to expert advice on the most effective ways to treat bites and stings," says Bug Bite Thing Founder & CEO Kelley Higney.

About Dr. Mona Amin :

Dr. Mona Amin is a board-certified pediatrician with seven years of experience in private practice. She has written for multiple renowned parenting journals and has been a speaker at multiple conferences. Dr. Mona shares information and education about children's health and wellness across her social media channels, podcast, and YouTube channel, namely how to navigate the first few years to set a healthy parenting foundation for the rest of a child's life. She obtained her degree in psychobiology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2007, her medical degree from A.T. Still School of Osteopathic Medicine in Mesa, Arizona in 2012, and completed her residency at Albany Medical Center in Albany, New York in 2015.

About Bug Bite Thing:

As Seen on Shark Tank, Bug Bite Thing is a chemical-free solution that instantly alleviates the stinging, itching and swelling caused by insect bites and stings. The reusable tool solely uses suction to remove insect saliva or venom from underneath the skin, making it safe for all ages. Bug Bite Thing is Amazon's #1 selling product for insect bite relief with over 49,000 reviews.

The company gained national recognition in October 2019 when Kelley Higney and her mother, Ellen McAlister, appeared on ABC's hit show, 'Shark Tank.' All the Sharks were biting with offers to invest in the business, but it was Lori Greiner's 'Golden Ticket' offer that secured the partnership. Bug Bite Thing is the recipient of 26 prestigious awards including the 2022 American Business Awards Consumer Product Small Company of the Year, 2021 BIG Innovation Award and the 2021 National Parenting Product Award. Based in Port St. Lucie, Florida, Bug Bite Thing is active in community organizations, including St. Lucie County Chamber of Commerce, Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida and Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Lucie County. The company is also a women-owned business certified by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), a weVENTURE Women's Business Center equity partner investor and a member of Cancer Free Economy Network. Bug Bite Thing is available on Amazon.com, BugBiteThing.com and at over 30,000 retailer locations nationwide and in 34 countries. Learn more at Bug Bite Thing , and follow along on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , TikTok and Twitter .

Media contact:

Lauren Bartel

[email protected]

561.748.5587

SOURCE Bug Bite Thing
The solution enables Indian fintech companies to offer investments in foreign listed shares using UPI or Net Banking as a feature to Indian users

Cashfree had piloted the solution under RBI's Regulatory Sandbox for cross-border payments

BENGALURU, India, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cashfree Payments , a leading payments and API banking solutions company, today announced that it has received a go-ahead from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for its cross border payments product. The approval comes upon the company successfully piloting the solution during RBI's Second Cohort under the Regulatory Sandbox on cross border payments. The product will enable Indian fintech companies to offer the purchase of shares, exchange-traded funds (ETF) units and other assets listed on foreign exchanges via UPI/ Net Banking as a feature to Indian investors. The cross border investments will fall under the ambit of RBI's Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS). As per the RBI, the product can be considered for adoption by regulated entities subject to compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.

One of the most tedious steps for Indians looking to invest in foreign stocks has been funding their overseas accounts. Traditionally, this process needs filling up A2 forms, paying high fixed fees, and even visiting a bank branch in many cases. Cashfree Payments' solution makes the process of payments via UPI, Net Banking and LRS compliance integrated, seamless and fully digital. Investors can start investing with small amounts, as little as INR 1000. The solution also offers savings on foreign transaction (FX) fees and faster settlements for access to funds.

With this model, the investors will be able to simply login to an App integrated with the Cashfree Payments, complete their basic KYC to begin transferring in Indian currency (INR). The company will then convert this transferred amount into foreign currency, like USD, and remit it to the foreign broker, allowing investors to successfully buy international stocks.

While US stocks, mostly of large tech and pharma companies, are the most popular with Indian investors, Cashfree Payments is working with multiple Indian fintech platforms looking to offer cross border investing as a feature.

Reeju Datta, Co-founder, Cashfree Payments said, "We are delighted to have successfully completed the test phase of RBI's Second Cohort under the regulatory sandbox on Cross Border Payments. This achievement validates our efforts to constantly build innovative and effective solutions in the payments ecosystem. Our cross-border payments platform intends to make investing in foreign stocks a lot simpler and convenient, allowing retail investors to make payments via local payment methods. The product was evaluated on varying parameters, and clearing the evaluation further reiterates the resilience and agility that is a trademark of the Cashfree Payments systems. We look forward to working with the Indian fintech ecosystem and offer access to international investments to Indian investors."

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1714361/Cashfree_Payments_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Cashfree Payments
NEW YORK, July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Committee for Economic Development, the public policy center of The Conference Board (CED), issued a new Solutions Brief, A Road Map to Achieving Free but Secure Trade with Resilient Supply Chains.

The reportthe latest in CED's Sustaining Capitalism seriesdetails the causes of the supply chain disruptions that have further weakened the global consensus for global trade and economic globalization; looks at the options of reshoring, nearshoring, and friend-shoring, and the implications for trade policy more broadly; and examines the special case of semiconductors. As the report emphasizes, achieving resilient supply chains and free but secure trade will require deeper collaboration between private and public sector leaders, given their interconnected roles in the production and flow of goods and services in the domestic and global economy.

"The US efforts to build resilient supply chains through the options of reshoring, nearshoring, and friend-shoring must be complemented by a trade policy that provides for growth through free but secure trade," said Dr. Lori Esposito Murray, President of CED. "Achieving this outcome, which is essential to both US national and economic security interests, requires close collaboration between leaders in the public and private sectors to identify supply chain priorities and resolve them with the most efficient and effective trade policies."

Key contributors to the supply chain crisis and changes in trading patterns:

Each of these factors would have been significant on its own. But, together, they elevate supply chain adequacy and resiliency to a national crisis. Key factors identified in the new Solutions Brief include:

Changes to the US-China trade and strategic relationship.

China's policies have made it harder for foreign companies to penetrate the country's domestic market, as it increasingly focuses on manufacturing for its own domestic market. China increasingly controls the complete value chain for various products.

policies have made it harder for foreign companies to penetrate the country's domestic market, as it increasingly focuses on manufacturing for its own domestic market. increasingly controls the complete value chain for various products. China and the US remain strategic economic competitors around the globe: China's Belt and Road Initiative, for example, seeks to shift global trade patterns in China's favor. The two countries also compete in resource areas such as rare earth minerals and in geographic areas such as the Pacific.

and the US remain strategic economic competitors around the globe: Belt and Road Initiative, for example, seeks to shift global trade patterns in favor. The two countries also compete in resource areas such as rare earth minerals and in geographic areas such as the Pacific. The uncertainty and tensions surrounding the China / Taiwan relationship, particularly in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine , have only furthered the erosion of trust in China as the world's premier manufacturing hub.

/ relationship, particularly in the wake of invasion of , have only furthered the erosion of trust in as the world's premier manufacturing hub. Globally, even during the height of the pandemic, China was a resilient exporter; its exports fell in Q1 2020 but stabilized by Q2 and rebounded by Q3 of that yeara very different scenario than in many other economies.

The COVID-19 pandemic.

Globally, the pandemic accelerated the trend toward greater regionalization as borders and economies closed and supply chains were disrupted.

More recently, lockdowns in China to combat the Omicron variant have had strong global ripple effects for many goods, from toys to autos to smartphones.

to combat the Omicron variant have had strong global ripple effects for many goods, from toys to autos to smartphones. Examples include:

A shutdown in a Shenzhen port decreased import volumes in southern California ports by 14 percent.

port decreased import volumes in southern ports by 14 percent.

A lockdown that affected a Shanghai factory led to a shortage in New York of Omnipaque, an iodinated contrast medium for medical imaging.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The war forced a rapid disruption and reevaluation of supply chainsmost critically, in energy.

Russia and Ukraine are major producers of other important international commodities such as grains, aluminum, steel, palladium, neon, and platinum. These supply chains have been disrupted by sanctions, war, and maritime blockade in the Black Sea.

and are major producers of other important international commodities such as grains, aluminum, steel, palladium, neon, and platinum. These supply chains have been disrupted by sanctions, war, and maritime blockade in the Black Sea. Such events and the fallout from them are forcing companies to increasingly take geopolitical risks into account, pushing them toward supply chain diversificationin essence, toward a more regionalized system.

A June 2022 global poll of CEOs by The Conference Board found that 83 percent fear the reemergence of competing economic blocs, with 43 percent highly concerned about this development.

The transition to stakeholder capitalism.

Consumers are increasingly demanding to know more about companies' social commitments, including the extent of their commitments to responsible and ethical sourcing.

Additionally, important steps toward developing a greener economy raise significant supply chain issues. For instance, China controls 85 percent of rare-earth refining, making supply chain diversification and resilience difficult in the short term and shifting more emphasis on developing new sourcing from "friends" in the medium term.

Key recommendations:

While the issue of supply chains directly affects the strategy and business models of private sector companies, the challenge can only be solved by collaboration between private and public sector leaders. As detailed in the Solutions Brief, CED's recommendations for achieving free but secure trade with resilient supply chains include:

Establish formal consultation/collaboration groups for leaders in the public/private sectors to fully understand global supply chains and determine priorities for supply chain challenges.

Collaborate more closely with business to identify sources of potential weaknesses in supply chains. Steps include:

Establish criteria of potential risk, including threats to national security, possible predatory pricing, threats to public health, possible economic disruption, and considerations of market strengths and weaknesses of US industries.



Develop practical solutions, including onshoring, nearshoring, and friend-shoring.



Prioritize supply chain challenges for semiconductors and critical minerals, given their significant role in the ability of the US to compete and thrive in the global economy.



Establish formal consultative groups of port authorities and their customers to establish clear priorities for efficient and effective operations.

Improve the feasibility of solutions for each unique, prioritized supply chain risk developed by public and private sector leaders.

Make reshoring more feasible:

Eliminate or streamline unnecessary regulation preventing factories from locating in the US.



Consider tax credits for location of factories here in a way that minimizes market distortions; consider domestic subsidized production for special cases (e.g., semiconductors).



Target investments to improve roads and ports; include a supply chain focus in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law spending; solve the truck driver shortage; train more Americans for careers in logistics.

Expand nearshoring opportunities:

Convene a special "Three Amigos" (US, Mexico , Canada ) postpandemic summit on supply chains, seeking ways to strengthen links and reduce barriers to trade.

, ) postpandemic summit on supply chains, seeking ways to strengthen links and reduce barriers to trade.

Establish a tri-national private sector advisory council under USMCA to advise the three governments on nearshoring opportunities and North American economic integration.



Help the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement countries grow their economies by building their infrastructure for resiliency and integrate more fully into US supply chains.



Reengage with South America to expand US trade relationships.

to expand US trade relationships. Strengthen friend-shoring opportunities:

Build country partnerships with supportive countries. Many countries in Africa , Asia , Europe , Latin America , and the Middle East would qualify.

, , , , and the would qualify.

Find ways to help new countries become "friends" in supply chains; strengthen economic assistance to build links to US supply chains (e.g., helping reach US standards on labor rights), including targeted assistance from USAID, Economic Support Funds, and development finance.



Deepen the mission of the US Foreign Commercial Service to include knowledge of supply chains of US producers. Doing so will help US companies better understand foreign supply chains.

Deepen trade policy engagement: promote supply chain resilience through new trade agreements.

The US should develop a plan for a reformed World Trade Organizationin particular, its dispute resolution mechanismsand continue to promote the benefits of an open global trading system.

The US should consider opening negotiations for additional bilateral and regional trade agreements. It should consider USMCA as a possible model to attract domestic support, given it passed the Congress with bipartisan support and had backing from labor.

The US should launch discussions to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the follow-on agreement to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The US needs to prioritize protection of intellectual property.

Invest in R&D.

Increase government funding of basic research, which has lagged despite the important role this funding has in ensuring US competitiveness.

Such funding should include further investments in critical technologies such as advanced materials manufacturing, biotech, power-storage solutions, semiconductors, AI, quantum computing, and advanced cyber networking.

Increase private sector R&D funding to meet the competitive demands of effectively and efficiently reshoring and nearshoring advanced manufacturing capacity.

Determine alternatives to lockdowns as a response to the next public health crisis.

Economic lockdowns helped trigger the current supply chain disruptions. Important lessons can be drawn that can help avoid a draconian response to the next major public health challenge. Lessons include:

Determine business plans for future disruptions: Businesses should update their business plans/playbooks now with lessons learned for future disruptions. They should also coordinate with state and local officials to ensure that essential business infrastructure that requires public sector support to continue operating in a future public health crisis is addressed.

Businesses should update their business plans/playbooks now with lessons learned for future disruptions. They should also coordinate with state and local officials to ensure that essential business infrastructure that requires public sector support to continue operating in a future public health crisis is addressed.

For additional insights and recommendations, see the CED Solutions Brief, Preparing for the Next Public Health Crisis: Lessons from the Pandemic.



Determine essential businesses: Private sector leaders should coordinate with public sector leaders on the federal, regional, and state levels. They should use the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic to determine and prioritize essential businesses that would need to operate in a public health emergency and the requirements that the workforce would need to operate in person and remotely.

The new Solutions Brief, A Road Map to Achieving Free but Secure Trade with Resilient Supply Chains, can be accessed here.

About CED

The Committee for Economic Development (CED) is the public policy center of The Conference Board. The nonprofit, nonpartisan, business-led organization delivers well-researched analysis and reasoned solutions in the nation's interest. CED Trustees are chief executive officers and key executives of leading US companies who bring their unique experience to address today's pressing policy issues. Collectively they represent 30+ industries, over a trillion dollars in revenue, and over 4 million employees. www.ced.org

About The Conference Board

The Conference Board is the member-driven think tank that delivers trusted insights for what's ahead. Founded in 1916, we are a non-partisan, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States.

www.conference-board.org

SOURCE Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board (CED)
COVINGTON, Ky., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Commonwealth Hotels announced today that Jean-Luc Laramie has been appointed the general manager of the Hyatt Place Portland-Old Port. Mr. Laramie brings over 15 years of hospitality experience to his new role as general manager having previously served as the general manager for the Waterman Hotel in Santa Barbara, California.

Newly Appointed General Manager in at Hyatt Place Portland-Old Port

'We are excited to have Jean-Luc on board at the Portland hotel" Said Jennifer Porter, chief operating officer for Commonwealth Hotels. "His extensive general manager experience and focus on the guest experience will be key to the hotel's success."

Prior to joining The Hyatt Place Portland-Old Port, Laramie served in various leadership roles at the Hotel Chicago West Loop, the St. Jane Hotel, the James Chicago, and Kimpton Hotels. Laramie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in hospitality management from Kendall College in Chicago, Illinois.

About Commonwealth Hotels, LLC

Commonwealth Hotels, LLC was founded in 1986 and is a proven partner in providing hotel management services with superior financial results. The company has extensive experience managing premium branded full service and select service hotels. Commonwealth Hotels currently manages 61 properties with nearly 7,600 rooms. Additional information may be found at www.commonwealthhotels.com.

Contact

Barbara E. Willen Commonwealth Hotels, LLC

[email protected]

859.392-2254

SOURCE Commonwealth Hotels, Inc.
MLOps leader dramatically reduces time from lab to production with new upgrades

SAN FRANCISCO , July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Datatron announced today the latest version of its enterprise-grade MLOps platform. Updates include increased flexibility, a new interface that simplifies data scientists' workflow, and ease-of-use enhancements for the operational teams, resulting in an additional productivity gain of up to 68%.

Datatron Version 3.0 allows enterprises to achieve results with AI and ML by removing the roadblocks that prevent successful deployment. Based on feedback from clients, Datatron is further simplifying the life of data scientists, making it easier to register, iterate and deploy models with just a few simple commands  all from within the user's familiar notebook environment.

Datatron has proven to be one of the most flexible and managed platforms to get AI and ML models out into production rapidly. Unlike most offerings on the market, the Datatron platform doesn't require additional vendor-specific software development kit (SDK) lines of code to operationalize AI and ML models. The vendor/tech agnostic platform integrates with various workflow stacks including via open-source tools, taking away the burden of having to scale to manage the scaffolding of tools that have been layered together.

The latest release further simplifies AI and ML workflows by fully augmenting the operationalization process of AI and ML for test/validation, deployment, and scale without requiring a staff of expensive engineers. Datatron's platform allows customers to avoid "analysis paralysis" with their AI and ML programs, enabling them to get models into production more quickly and allowing teams to rapidly iterate based on real-world data.

With AI/ML models, businesses can experience positive ROI within the first six months of using Datatron, far faster than if they had to build a team, and assemble all the various software or open source components.

Enhancements made to the platform include:

JupyterHub integration: This release significantly simplifies the AI and ML operationalization process with a notebook interface for data or ML scientists, where they can register and deploy models with just a few commands. Furthermore, this integration eliminates the need for context switching between the data scientists' coding environments and the Datatron deployment interface.

This release significantly simplifies the AI and ML operationalization process with a notebook interface for data or ML scientists, where they can register and deploy models with just a few commands. Furthermore, this integration eliminates the need for context switching between the data scientists' coding environments and the Datatron deployment interface. Simpler deployment and management: Powered by SpectroCloud, customers gain a simpler way to deploy and manage Datatron's Kubernetes infrastructure. In addition to supporting AWS, the new capability extends this greater simplicity to Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure. This improved deployment and management capability removes the complexities of enterprises having to learn and manage Kubernetes.

Powered by SpectroCloud, customers gain a simpler way to deploy and manage Datatron's Kubernetes infrastructure. In addition to supporting AWS, the new capability extends this greater simplicity to Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure. This improved deployment and management capability removes the complexities of enterprises having to learn and manage Kubernetes. Enhanced enterprise support: The updated logging and operational dashboard significantly simplifies problem resolution of the platform when the operational team encounters errors. Furthermore, Datatron 3.0 includes Single Sign-on support for the industry's popular identity platforms.

The updated logging and operational dashboard significantly simplifies problem resolution of the platform when the operational team encounters errors. Furthermore, Datatron 3.0 includes Single Sign-on support for the industry's popular identity platforms. Superior cost savings: The Datatron platform is the key to maximizing operational efficiencies and allows customers to realize the ROI on AI and ML investments faster and more easily.

Tenry Fu, CEO, SpectroCloud, said: "We share Datatron's vision of simplifying and making accessible anywhere, cutting-edge technology. With its MLOps platform, teams can easily get models out of the lab and straight into production, and we could not be more excited to contribute to Datatron's success with our Kubernetes expertise, delivering its critical MLOps solution in any environment customers want, taking away all that complexity."

Victor Thu, president, Datatron, said: "Data scientists tend to be skeptical that MLOps tools can handle the complexity of their models, in part because many similar tools force teams to integrate SDKs or packaging mechanisms to operationalize their models. Datatron is committed to providing our customers with full flexibility and capability to get models into production faster, by simplifying and streamlining the operationalization process. In today's uncertain economic times, businesses are facing a host of economic uncertainties. Operationalizing ML models doesn't need to be one of those uncertainties."

About Datatron

Datatron provides an enterprise-grade, cloud-native Reliable AI platform that enables businesses to easily, accurately and rapidly operationalize AI and ML models in production. Its centralized AI ModelOps and Model Governance platform helps organizations in diverse global environments streamline and standardize changes, monitor model performance, and correct for model degradation or decay. Industry leaders across different industries, including retail, banking, and pharmaceutical, rely on Datatron to operationalize and govern AI solutions at scale, producing predictable, rapid and reliable business outcomes. Founded in 2016, Datatron is a privately held, venture-backed company headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. For more information, please visit www.datatron.com or follow on Twitter @datatron .

SOURCE Datatron
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Encompass Health Corporation (NYSE: EHC) today announced that its board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend on its common stock of $0.15 per share, payable on October 17, 2022, to holders of record on October 3, 2022.

The revised quarterly dividend is in response to the recently completed spin off of Enhabit Home Health & Hospice and reflects the Company's continued commitment to a robust de novo hospital strategy. Encompass Health will open 9 de novo rehabilitation hospitals this year and intends to open a similar number in 2023.

About Encompass Health

Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) is the largest owner and operator of rehabilitation hospitals in the United States. With a national footprint that includes 150 hospitals in 35 states and Puerto Rico, the Company provides high-quality, compassionate rehabilitative care for patients recovering from a major injury or illness, using advanced technology and innovative treatments to maximize recovery. Encompass Health is ranked as one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For and Modern Healthcare's Best Places to Work in Healthcare. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com, or follow us on our newsroom, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this press release which are not historical facts, such as the timing and amounts of dividends and the opening of new hospitals, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In addition, Encompass Health, through its senior management, may from time to time make forward-looking public statements concerning the matters described herein. All such estimates, projections, and forward-looking information speak only as of the date hereof, and Encompass Health undertakes no duty to publicly update or revise such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. While it is impossible to identify all such factors, factors which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those estimated by Encompass Health include, but are not limited to, the regulatory review and approval process; the possibility hospital construction will experience unexpected delays or prohibitive cost increases; a hospital's ability to receive and maintain proper local, state and federal licensing; the ability to attract and retain nurses, therapists, and other healthcare professionals in a highly competitive environment with often severe staffing shortages; the continued spread of COVID-19 or another infectious disease, including the speed, depth, geographic reach and duration of the spread, which could decrease our patient volumes and revenues and lead to staffing and supply shortages and associated cost increases; actions to be taken by Encompass Health in response to the pandemic; the legal, regulatory and administrative developments that occur at the federal, state and local levels; Encompass Health's infectious disease prevention and control efforts; Encompass Health's ability to comply with extensive, complex, and ever-changing regulations in the healthcare industry; any adverse outcome of various lawsuits, claims, and legal or regulatory proceedings involving Encompass Health, including any matters related to yet undiscovered issues, if any, at acquired companies; potential disruptions, breaches, or other incidents affecting the proper operation, availability, or security of Encompass Health's information systems, including unauthorized access to or theft of patient, business associate, or other sensitive information; changes, delays in (including in connection with resolution of Medicare payment reviews or appeals), or suspension of reimbursement for Encompass Health's services by governmental or private payors; and other factors which may be identified from time to time in Encompass Health's SEC filings and other public announcements, including Encompass Health's Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2021 and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2022.

Media Contact:

Casey Winger | 205 447-6410

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:

Mark Miller | 205 970-5860

[email protected]

SOURCE Encompass Health Corp.
Automating key healthcare facility and real estate data onto a single platform gives healthcare organizations a simplified way to optimize underused real estate, produce major cost savings, maintain compliance, and enhance patient experience

RALEIGH, N.C., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FM:Systems, provider of the most scalable and intuitive all-in-one workplace management platform, today announced that more than 400 hospital clients across the United States rely on FM:Systems to streamline critical real estate, facilities, space, and asset data using an integrated platform. The footprint of physical space on the FM:Systems platform now supports hundreds of thousands of employees and tens of millions of square feet..

"Despite health systems and hospitals adopting various digital technologies, like electronic health records and more recently telehealth, tracking and reporting healthcare real estate, facilities, space and assets data is still largely dependent on error-prone, time-consuming manual entries," said Kurt von Koch, CEO of FM:Systems. "With increasingly limited resources, staff, and budgets only further combined with the need to maintain compliance, a single, fully scalable workplace management platform like ours eases the transition of key facilities and real estate data to the cloud. This means, executives can more easily access and evaluate good data to make data-driven decisions for their facilities with confidence."

As Alma Mancha, Property Operations Senior Manager of Banner Health stated, "being able to have the analytics and the data to know where the needs are, we really are going to be able to partner with our teams and our leaders to provide the best space at the time they need it. It really focuses on how we work, not where we work."

FM:Systems' all-in-one workplace management platform for healthcare helps organizations:

Standardize space management data for full visibility across their entire real estate portfolio Digitize tracking of facilities, life safety building features (LSBF), preventative maintenance, other high-value assets for easy reporting and maintaining compliance with Joint Commission Regulations Pick and choose which space, asset, maintenance, and room booking application(s) that best address their immediate and future needs Identify significant cost savings opportunities with true occupancy, utilization, and space planning insights Optimize administrative and non-clinical spaces with full-service room and desk booking solution, making healthcare staff and practitioners more productive and improving patient care Replace manual outdated systems and processes with a cloud-based IWMS Platform that improves operational efficiency while providing enterprise wide visibility to Space, Facilities, and Real Estate Data.

In addition to the above, a key part of modernizing many healthcare facilities has been introducing modern workplace facility sensors and building Internet of Things (IoT). FM:Systems has deployed thousands of PIR (passive infrared) sensors into healthcare facilities over the past several years, as well as solutions for hoteling and desk management to address the needs of the modern, hybrid workplace. The company's healthcare clients continue to grow not only in terms of new customers, but also in solutions deployed.

"Many of our healthcare clients now have two and three solutions deployed  a testament to choosing a platform that is both flexible and scalable to suit the organization's most important needs today, with the ability to activate new modules as their real estate and workplace needs continue to change," said von Koch.

Emily Laughton, Principal Architect for Sutter Health stated that, "while some of the vendors with single point-solutions seemed to have really user-friendly platforms, if we ever wanted to add on a different solution, we'd have to go through the painful process to get multiple vendor agreements signed. This undoubtedly would slow us down tremendously. FM:Systems offered us the ability to pick and choose what we wanted now, but also in the future." "The option to use multiple different technologies within the same platform means Sutter Health can move quickly when we're ready to add on a new module. I hope to eventually integrate more FM:Systems hardware because when we do, we'll have even more complex data readily available to easily digest within the same dashboard we're already using."

To learn more about how the FM:Systems all-in-one workplace management platform provides a complete range of genuinely scalable and intuitive solutions for healthcare, visit https://fmsystems.com/healthcare/. Find several relevant case study examples at fmsystems.com/our-resources/customer-success-stories/.

About FM:Systems

More than 1,200 organizations worldwide trust FM:Systems to transform their workplace experience and bring employees together in exceptional, healthy workplaces that enhance productivity and delight occupants. Recognized as a market leader by industry analysts, our suite of digital workplace solutions provides actionable insights to optimize every facet of your real estate portfolio and ensure your ever-ready workplace is prepared for the unexpected. Our market-leading solutions manage over 3 billion square feet across 80 countries for customers representing 40% of the Fortune 50 and seven of the top 15, 40% of top U.S. banks and 30% of top European banks, 150+ government institutions including 10 of the 15 federal government departments, 150+ universities, several top 20 tech companies, more than 200 hospital and healthcare organizations, and half of the top 10 pharmaceutical firms. FM:Systems is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, and conducts business globally. For more information about FM:Systems, please visit www.fmsystems.com.

Contact:

Andrea Oliveira

[email protected]

SOURCE FM:Systems
Additions continue growth of IgniteTech software library

AUSTIN, Texas, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- IgniteTech, the company "Where Software Goes to Live," today announced a transition of two software products from the ESW Capital portfolio to IgniteTech. Two solutions previously managed under the DevGraph Business Unit, FogBugz and ScaleArc, have transitioned to IgniteTech effective immediately.

FogBugz is an easy-to-use project management system for agile development teams. It supports numerous project management methodologies  including Scrum, Kanban, or Scrumban  with a lightweight design and customization to easily integrate with any project management workflow.

"FogBugz has been trusted for decades by hundreds of thousands of developers," said Eric Vaughan, CEO of IgniteTech. "We're excited to be the new home for this legendary solution and diverse customer base."

The second solution transitioning is ScaleArc, a database load balancer that boosts performance and overcomes scaling limits. It simplifies the process of managing databases and database migrations while preventing service outages and downtime. IgniteTech was involved in the initial acquisition of the ScaleArc company on Jan 18, 2018.

"I'm thrilled to welcome ScaleArc customers back to IgniteTech," said Vaughan. "ScaleArc is an incredibly powerful tool, used by customers with the highest performance and reliability demands  including one of the world's largest securities exchanges  and it's exciting to drive innovation forward for the customer base who depends on its performance."

These new additions will continue the Company's record growth in 2021 and 2022, as the IgniteTech software library now houses over 60 solutions across all industries, markets, and technologies.

The transition is also good news for all existing IgniteTech customers because it adds two additional titles available to them at no additional cost under IgniteTech Unlimited  the groundbreaking, Netflix-style licensing model that gives every customer access to the entire IgniteTech enterprise solution portfolio at no additional cost. Watch the video here to quickly understand the incredible value this program offers.

The IgniteTech team will communicate changes directly to customers, if any; however, a smooth and effortless transition should be expected. Any questions regarding this change can be sent to [email protected].

ABOUT IGNITETECH

IgniteTech is one of the world's leading enterprise software companies. Founded in 2010, IgniteTech is an innovative, privately-held company and a member of the ESW Capital group of companies. Building on its corporate vision, "Where Software Goes to Live," IgniteTech grows exclusively through acquisitions. The Company continues to deliver on its promise of revitalizing enterprise software through the three pillars of the IgniteTech corporate vision: 1) to save and stabilize the software and businesses it acquires; 2) to continuously innovate and transition products to the AWS cloud; and 3) to add unlimited value with its one-of-a-kind, Netflix-style software subscription, which provides customers access to all products in IgniteTech's solution suites.

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All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Ignite Enterprise Software Solutions, Inc.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Forklifts Group completed the purchase of a 3.4-acre land parcel located on Haughn Rd, in Grove City, Ohio, conveniently located along Interstate 71.

The purchase of the land acts as the first step to continued growth of Forklifts Group by establishing a top-tier forklift and aerial equipment dealership facility for their new headquarters.

Forklifts Group will start the construction and development of this land over the next year before moving their B&B Forklift location currently in Orient, OH. Planning and permitting for construction have already begun.

"Forklifts Group is excited for our continued relationship with the Columbus community as we continue to grow and for the opportunity to advance our services," says Bill St. John, President of Forklifts Group. "We believe our investment will enable us to expand our capabilities to better serve our existing partners and to build new relationships with those customers who are looking to improve the efficiency of their material handling fleet."

To learn more about Forklifts Group, click here.

About Forklifts Group: Forklifts Group is comprised of full-service dealerships located in Toledo, OH, Columbus, OH, and New York, NY, with over 40 years of experience. Collectively we offer a full range of products to meet our customer's material handling needs. Follow Forklifts Group on social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

SOURCE Forklifts Group
DUBLIN, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Airline Lounge Growth Opportunities" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This research service investigates the trends in airline-branded lounge services as airlines begin to recover from the pandemic-induced shutdowns and travel restrictions.

The report explores airline-branded lounge features and services that can determine passenger loyalty to the airline and discusses the factors driving and restraining the growth of this industry.

The report also identifies the key growth opportunities emerging in this space and the actions airlines can take to benefit from the same.



Key Issues Addressed

How do airline-branded lounges differ from the lounges offered by third-party lounge operators?

What are the advantages associated with airline lounges, airline alliance lounges, and airline partner lounges for passengers and airlines?

What are the different marketing opportunities that airline-branded lounges present for the airline?

What factors do passengers evaluate while opting for an airline and the lounge services offered by the airline?

How can airlines improve the lounge experience of passengers?

Key Topics Covered:



1. Strategic Imperatives

Why is it Increasingly Difficult to Grow?

The Strategic Imperative

The Impact of the Top Three Strategic Imperatives on Airline Lounges

Growth Opportunities Fuel the Growth Pipeline Engine

2. Lounges Ecosystem Overview

Value Chain

Revenue Sources and Attributes of Airline Lounges

3. Airline Lounges

Lounge Features and Marketing Opportunities

Global Best Practices

4. Passenger Factors

Passenger Needs and Satisfaction

Passenger Concerns

Passenger Choice Factors

Passenger Experience - Highlights

Passenger Experience - Best Practices

5. Growth Opportunity Analysis

Growth Drivers

Growth Drivers Analysis

Growth Restraints

Growth Restraints Analysis

6. Growth Opportunity Universe

Growth Opportunity 1: Partnerships with External Service Providers

Growth Opportunity 2: Big Data Analytics

Growth Opportunity 3: Annual Lounge Access Memberships

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/4df4gh

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

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SOURCE Research and Markets
NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Brett Friedman rejoined Ropes & Gray's health care practice as partner in New York today.

Brett returns to the firm after serving as Deputy Commissioner at New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) and the State Medicaid Director. In this capacity, Brett led New York's expansive Medicaid program with an annual budget of over $90 billion and that offers comprehensive health coverage to more than 7.4 million New Yorkers as part of an integrated health insurance marketplace.

Brett first joined NYSDOH in November 2019 as the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Special Medicaid Counsel and was named Deputy Commissioner and State Medicaid Director in June 2021. During his time at NYSDOH, Brett was responsible for a wide range of legal, regulatory and policy issues impacting New York's Medicaid program, including the development and the negotiation of Medicaid 1115 demonstration and 1915 home and community based services waivers, Medicaid innovation initiatives, duals-integration strategies, managed care plan oversight and regulatory approvals, an overhaul of the program's value-based payment roadmap, and New York Medicaid's extraordinary response to the COVID-19 pandemic, among other critical issues.

Prior to his arrival at NYSDOH, Brett was a partner in Ropes & Gray's health care group and co-head of the firm's digital health practice. From the beginning of his career at Ropes & Gray, Brett developed significant experience in advising not-for-profit institutions as well as private and emerging companies on a variety of complex transactional, enforcement and regulatory matters within the health care industry.

"Brett returns to the firm with exceptional knowledge of how complex government health care programs operate, and how to navigate them. His return is a win for our clients and the firm," said Julie Jones, chair.

"Brett's deep understanding of health care regulatory law makes him unique in New York and the nation," said David Djaha, managing partner. "We could not be happier about Brett's return to our New York health care team, broadening our bench and increasing our Medicare and Medicaid offering to clients."

Brett's clients have included not-for-profit providers, hospitals, managed care plans and Medicaid-funded behavioral health providers, as well as pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, e-health and other digital health businesses, investor-owned physician practice management firms and other investor-owned companies.

Brett also advises clients in government investigations, audits, and self-disclosures concerning potential violations of Medicare and Medicaid regulatory authorities and health care fraud and abuse laws. In addition, Brett's transactional experience includes advising private equity, for-profit and tax-exempt clients regarding health care due diligence, regulatory and reimbursement issues.

"Brett's return to Ropes & Gray strengthens our ability to work with payer, provider and health care investor clients on the full spectrum of transactional, regulatory, enforcement and policy matters, with a particular focus on government-sponsored programs like Medicaid and Medicare, accountable care and value-based payment initiatives," said Timothy McCrystal, partner and co-chair of Ropes & Gray health care practice.

"I am excited to return home to Ropes & Gray, where my career began. The firm's award-winning health care practice offers a tremendous opportunity to advise leading health care institutions on navigating strategic and innovative solutions," said Brett.

About Ropes & Gray's Health Care Practice

The health care industry in the 21st century faces tremendous change driven by growing demand, new technologies, shifting business models and intense government scrutiny. Clients benefit from Ropes & Gray's deep experience in health care law, and our intimate knowledge of our clients' industries, which position the firm to preempt and resolve legal issues across the full range of relevant practices.

In 2021, the firm received every major health care award for its work. This includes:

The American Lawyer's "Corporate Legal Department of the Year, Health Care"

The Deal's "Health Care, Pharma & Biotech Law Firm of the Year"

Law360's "Health Care Practice Group of the Year"  the third year in a row

Financial Times' award for the best law firm in "Enabling Business Response to COVID-19"

U.S. NewsBest Lawyers "Best Law Firms", "Law Firm of the Year, Health Care"

Chambers USA recognized the firm as 2021 "Health Care Firm of the Year"

About Ropes & Gray

Ropes & Gray is a preeminent global law firm with approximately 1,400 lawyers and legal professionals serving clients in major centers of business, finance, technology and government. The firm has offices in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul, and has consistently been recognized for its leading practices in many areas, including private equity, M&A, finance, asset management, real estate, tax, antitrust, life sciences, health care, intellectual property, litigation & enforcement, privacy & cybersecurity, and business restructuring.

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Media Contact:

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SOURCE Ropes & Gray
Experts bring a combined 70 years of experience in geriatric and pharmacy healthcare to the board

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthQuest Capital , a growth capital firm focused on companies optimizing value in healthcare, today announced the appointments of Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey and Jon Roberts to its board of advisors to help identify and scale transformative healthcare companies improving patient outcomes and increasing efficiency.

"Together, Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey and Jon Roberts have more than 70 years of experience in healthcare. Their knowledge in specific areas of healthcare policy and operations, as well as insight into how the system and stakeholders work together is incredibly complementary to our team and existing platform," said Garheng Kong, MD, PhD, MBA, HealthQuest Capital's founder and Managing Partner. "We have recently closed our fourth fund and are looking forward to deploying it with the insight and expertise of our Board of Advisors, now with the added expertise from Risa and Jon."

Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey has more than 40 years of experience in government and health policy, having most recently served as the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey also served in the United States Department of Health and Human Services as deputy administrator of the agency for healthcare research and quality, and held numerous leadership roles at the University of Pennsylvania including Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and Health Care Systems and chief of geriatric medicine Listed as one of the most powerful women in the world by Forbes in 2016, Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey was a member of the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform and served as a consultant to the White House on issues of health policy. Dr Lavizzo-Mourey currently serves on the Boards of Directors at Better Therapeutics, GE, Intel and Merck.

"The most exciting aspect of healthcare innovation from the past couple of years is the ability to expand access to quality care, especially for more vulnerable populations " said Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, who is also a specialist in geriatric health. "I'm excited to work alongside HealthQuest to invest capital and expertise into companies that are focused on value optimization, and can lower costs for quality care."

Jon Roberts, who most recently served as chief operating officer of CVS Health, brings more than 30 years of pharmacy healthcare experience. At CVS, Roberts was responsible for overseeing operations for CVS Pharmacy, MinuteClinic and Omnicare, as well as information technology for the company. Prior to assuming the COO role for CVS Health in March 2017, Roberts served as president of CVS Caremark, the company's pharmacy benefit management business, and chief operating officer of the PBM business. Roberts formerly served on the Board of Directors for the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), the National Association of Chain Drug stores (NACDS) and as Chairman of the Board at Red Oak Sourcing (a joint venture between CVS and Cardinal Health for securing generic drug portfolios).

"At CVS Health, we sat in the intersection of a number of exciting healthcare trends including the consumerization of healthcare and the evolution of primary care. I'm excited to join the team at HealthQuest Capital to accelerate transformative high-growth companies that continue to innovate and propel these trends, that ultimately make care so much more convenient for the customer.," said Jon Roberts. "I'm especially excited to work with healthcare care industry leaders on the board of advisors, many of whom have complementary experience to mine. Healthcare is such a complex industry, that in order to identify and develop innovation, you need to work across a multitude of stakeholder types, many of whom are represented on the HealthQuest Board."

Lavizzo-Mourey and Roberts join a board of advisors comprised of current or former CEOs of the most influential healthcare companies in the country, including Johnson & Johnson, Humana, Medtronic, OptumHealth, and a former U.S. Surgeon General. Together, the HealthQuest ecosystem provides portfolio companies multi-dimensional insights that span every sector of healthcare, access, and potential partnership opportunities.

This announcement follows HealthQuest's recent Fund IV close of $675 million . HealthQuest is planning to use the funds to invest in healthcare companies innovating on the clinical/technology side, such as AI-enabled diagnostics and precision oncology, as well as companies innovating on the care model side, including evolving primary care and mobile caregiver solutions. Since the firm's founding in 2013, HealthQuest manages more than $1.6 billion across four funds and has invested in various healthcare startups including Everly Health, Lunit, Thirty Madison and TigerConnect.

About HealthQuest Capital

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, HealthQuest Capital is a growth capital firm investing in commercial-stage companies that are optimizing value in healthcare by improving outcomes and reducing costs. With more than $1.6 billion in capital under management, the firm focuses on fostering innovation across the health care spectrum, including medical technologies, diagnostics, digital health and innovative services. The HealthQuest team combines decades of successful investing experience with deep domain expertise in all aspects of the healthcare industry. For more information, visit www.healthquestcapital.com .

SOURCE HealthQuest Capital
SAN ANTONIO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ICS announced today that it has successfully completed the SOC 2 Type 2 certification process.

SOC 2 reports provide businesses with proof that their third-parties are complying with control requirements laid out by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

ICS has completed the SOC 2 Type 2 certification process.

"The ICS team is proud to have taken this important step in further developing our cybersecurity capabilities," says Jason Simons, Division Vice President, ICS. "In order to confidently secure our Texas clients' businesses and their data, we will continue to grow and evolve our cybersecurity expertise."

In an age when data breaches and ransomware infections are more common than ever before, verified cybersecurity capabilities and expertise are in high demand. SOC 2 Type 2 represents an exclusive tier of cybersecurity and control credentials, verified by a rigorous assessment of ICS's alignment with industry-leading standards.

SOC 2 audits examine five critical factors: data privacy, processing integrity, availability, data security, and confidentiality. A SOC 2 certification is issued by outside auditors, based on an assessment of the extent to which a vendor complies with one or more of these five trust principles based on the systems and processes in place.

By gaining their SOC 2 Type 2 certification, ICS demonstrates its commitment to providing superior cybersecurity services, consulting, and support to businesses throughout Texas. They now offer a standard of cybersecurity expertise limited to a small number of IT companies throughout the state.

About ICS

ICS has been a respected and active IT services company in Texas for over 40 years. They have built their reputation over the last four decades by providing top-notch IT support to businesses of all sizes, across all industries. They provide a range of premier IT services and solutions, including fully outsourced IT support, IT Help Desk Services, Cybersecurity Expertise, Business Phone Solutions, Cloud Hosting & Cloud Solutions, Unified Communications, Surveillance Systems, Video Conferencing, and Data Cabling.

Media Contact:

Jason Simons

[email protected]

(210) 305-4087

www.ics-com.net

SOURCE ICS
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Inca Digital, a digital asset intelligence company that provides data, analytics and expertise to many of the world's leading exchanges, financial institutions, regulators and government agencies, today announced that Anita Nikolich has joined the firm as Lead Research Advisor, and Brian Quintenz has joined Inca Digital's Advisory Board. In these positions they will help design and deploy Inca's industry-leading data analytics and services to the world's leading exchanges, financial institutions, regulators and government agencies, focusing on the regulatory affairs and national security implications of digital assets.

Nikolich is the Director of Research and Technology at the University of Illinois and serves on the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure (ACI). Her experience includes serving as program director for cybersecurity at NSF, executive director of infrastructure at the University of Chicago, and director of global data networking at Aon, the global financial services advisory focused on risk mitigation. She is a former United States Marine cryptologist and was one of the first female marines on the ground in Somalia during Operation Restore Hope. As Lead Research Advisor, she will help lead Inca's new national security projects and set policy and strategy for the firm's expanding national security practice.

Quintenz is a former Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In this position, he helped establish the agency's critical role as a federal regulator with jurisdiction over digital currencies, utility tokens, and other non-security commodities. During his tenure, the CFTC oversaw the listing of the first U.S. regulated Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts on derivatives exchanges, and the rapid expansion of decentralized finance (DeFi). In addition, he led the agency's Technology Advisory Committee, which has hosted the most comprehensive set of public crypto-related policy discussions and briefings of any federal financial regulator to date. As an advisor to Inca Digital, Quintenz will provide high-level counsel on the firm's larger effort to provide world-class data analytics across crypto regulatory matters.

"The timing couldn't be better for Anita and Brian to join Inca," said Adam Zarazinski, Inca Digital's CEO. "With crypto markets facing a tumultuous future in the short term, and some companies in the space either unable or unwilling to act responsibly, it is more important than ever to have market intelligence, compliance tools and robust risk management analytics. Anita and Brian will be invaluable additions guiding our national security and regulatory work, and we know our clients and the wider market will benefit from their expertise."

About Inca Digital

Inca Digital is a digital asset intelligence company that provides data, analytics and expertise to many of the world's leading exchanges, financial institutions, regulators and government agencies. Inca Digital's clients use its unique and comprehensive intelligence to surveille digital asset markets, fight crime, generate alpha and more. With a team of military-trained engineers, analysts and security experts, Inca Digital is on a mission to usher crypto into the mainstream by bringing clarity, safety and stability to the asset class. For more information, please visit www.inca.digital .

Media Contact

Craig Allen

Forefront Communications for Inca Digital

Phone: +1 475 419 4468

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Inca Digital
NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the market research report published by P&S Intelligence, in 2021, the global integrated cloud management platform market was worth around $2,502.2 million, which is predicted to hit an $8,854.9 million value by 2030, progressing at a 15.1% CAGR from 2021 to 2030. This is owing to the shifting workload to cloud environments and rapid acceptance of multi- and hybrid-cloud strategies. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic boosted the market by impelling firms to move to the WFH model from the WFO model, either partly or completely.

Opportunities for Business

Hybrid cloud infrastructure is becoming more widely used, which is allowing businesses to grow. To keep some workload on-premises for data protection, IT businesses are rapidly converting to the hybrid cloud infrastructure.

Operational efficiency can be boosted with the usage of machine learning and AI technologies in integrated AIOps for cloud management; therefore, end users are giving it more attention. This gives startups and established businesses opportunities to deliver integrated cloud management solutions with AIOps technologies.

Get the sample pages of this report: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/integrated-cloud-management-platform-market/report-sample

Outlook of Segments

The BFSI sector is the largest vertical to employ integrated cloud management platforms, accounting for over 30% of the revenue, owing to the adoption of hybrid and multi-cloud models by over 90% of the banking and financial service enterprises.

The second-largest vertical is IT and telecom, since the businesses operating in this industry have a lot of data to handle, both locally and in a cloud environment.

Given the intense competition they face from major organizations, SMEs are expected to see a higher CAGR in the next years, as a result of their growing use of integrated cloud management platforms.

Due to the scarcity of human resources, businesses are rapidly automating their cloud environments, which is why the solutions bifurcation accounted for the larger integrated cloud management platform market share in 2021more than 55%.

The category of services, which includes support and maintenance, education and training, consultancy, and integration and implementation services, is predicted to boost more rapidly.

Geographical Analysis

Due to the large-sale adoption of the private cloud infrastructure by businesses to manage their networks, the North American market, which accounts for 40% of the global solution and service sales, is the largest regional integrated cloud management platform market.

Browse detailed report on Integrated Cloud Management Platform Market Size, Share, Growth and Demand Forecast Report 2030

Owing to the worries about vendor lock-in and the dependability on a single cloud, as well as the increasing need to comply with data security and privacy safety legislation, the APAC integrated cloud management platform market is predicted to advance at the highest CAGR from 2021 to 2030.

Because of the widespread use of cloud computing by enterprises in the region, Europe has the second-largest share. Additionally, this is credited to the incorporation of state-of-the-art technologies, including edge computing and IoT, in cloud-based applications.

Integrated Cloud Management Platform Market Report Coverage

By Component

Solutions

Services

By Enterprise Size

Large Enterprises

SMEs

By Vertical

BFSI

IT and Telecom

Retail and Consumer Goods

Government and Defense

Healthcare and Life sciences

Energy and Utilities

Manufacturing

Regional Analysis

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

Germany



France



U.K.



Italy



Spain

Asia-Pacific

China



India



Japan



Australia



South Korea

Latin America

Brazil



Mexico

Middle East and Africa

and Saudi Arabia



South Africa

Browse More Reports Published by P&S

Customer Engagement Solutions Market Size Analysis and Growth Forecast to 2030

Call Center AI Market Size Analysis and Growth Forecast to 2030

Contactless Biometrics Market Size Analysis and Growth Forecast to 2030

About P&S Intelligence

P&S Intelligence provides market research and consulting services to a vast array of industries across the world. As an enterprising research and consulting company, P&S believes in providing thorough insights on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness. P&S keeps the interest of its clients at heart, which is why the insights we provide are both honest and accurate. Our long list of satisfied clients includes entry-level firms as well as multi-million-dollar businesses and government agencies.

Contact:

Prajneesh Kumar

P&S Intelligence

Phone: +1-347-960-6455

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.psmarketresearch.com

Follow Us: LinkedIn Twitter

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1224988/P_and_S_Intelligence_Logo.jpg

SOURCE P&S Intelligence
CEO Andy Hsu will introduce new ways to overcome 3D NAND flash and DRAM limitations

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NEO Semiconductor, a leading developer of innovative architectures for 3D NAND flash and DRAM memory, today announced its participation at Flash Memory Summit 2022, taking place in person in Santa Clara, California, on August 2-4. The company CEO, Andy Hsu, will deliver a keynote address titled New Memory and Storage Architectures for Enterprise and Consumer Products on August 3 at 11:40 a.m. Pacific Time.

Andy Hsu, Founder and CEO, NEO Semiconductor

Flash Memory Summit is the world's largest storage industry show and draws record attendance, including global enterprises seeking new and powerful solutions. As digital transformation accelerates in all industries and sectors, enterprise and consumer workloads increasingly demand higher-performance memory and storage. Yet, conventional DRAM and 3D NAND flash pose limitations.

In his keynote, Mr. Hsu will address these challenges and how rethinking memory and storage architectures can significantly reduce data latency, lower power, and improve throughput. He will share innovative ways to design sustainable memory architectures that accelerate cloud and enterprise data center performance along with enabling cost-efficient consumer and mobile devices.

"We are a small startup with big ambitions to radically disrupt the industry," says Andy Hsu, Founder and CEO of NEO Semiconductor and an accomplished technology inventor with more than 120 granted U.S. patents. "I'm truly looking forward to sharing our newest groundbreaking architectures at Flash Memory Summit 2022 that create unprecedented value for semiconductor companies manufacturing memory products, and cloud providers and enterprise companies implementing storage solutions."

NEO is the company behind the world's fastest 3D NAND flash and lowest power DRAM memory architectures. In 2020, Flash Memory Summit presented the company with the Most Innovative Flash Memory Startup award for its groundbreaking 3D NAND architecture, X-NAND.

About NEO Semiconductor

NEO Semiconductor is a high-tech company focused on advancing 3D NAND flash and DRAM memory technologies. The company was founded in 2012 by Andy Hsu and a team in San Jose, California, and owns more than 20 U.S. patents. In 2020, the company made a breakthrough in 3D NAND architecture named X-NAND that can achieve SLC performance at TLC and QLC densities to provide high-speed, low-cost solutions for many applications, including 5G and AI. The company presented the X-NAND architecture at Flash Memory Summit 2020 conference and won the Best of Show Award for the Most Innovative Flash Memory Startup.

Additional Resources:

Schedule a meeting with NEO Semiconductor at FMS, contact: [email protected]

Visit the conference website for program details: https://www.flashmemorysummit.com/

Visit the NEO Semiconductor website at: www.neosemic.com

Media and Analyst Contact:

Maya Lustig

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +972 54 6778100

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1862993/NEO_Semiconductor_Andy_Hsu.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1862994/NEO_Semiconductor_Logo.jpg

SOURCE NEO Semiconductor
ST. PETERSBURG Fla., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- US tourists have been plagued with air travel disruptions as the airline industry struggles to meet current demand.

From lost baggage and canceled flights, travel insurance comparison site, Squaremouth.com , shares what travelers are most concerned about.

Air Travel More Concerning Than Ever

71% of travelers report being more concerned about air travel disruptions than previous years

Covid-19 Still Leads Concerns

With lingering impacts on travel, 60% of tourists still want travel insurance coverage for Covid-19

About half of customers on Squaremouth.com are buying travel insurance specifically in relation to current airline issues

Airline Claims Outpace Covid Claims

For the month of July, Squaremouth reports only 22% of travel insurance claims were related to Covid-19

Travel insurance claims are diversifying, with a growing number related to flight cancellations due to flight crew

Travelers Most Concerned About Missed Trip Costs

50% of travelers say being reimbursed for trip expenses that went unused during a delay, like a night at a hotel, is most important

Other in-demand coverage includes reimbursement for expenses during a delay, reimbursement to rebook a missed flight, and reimbursement for lost or delayed baggage, in that order

Travel Insurance Tip for Air Travel Issues

Look for a policy with Travel Delay and Missed Connection coverage with the shortest time requirement, ~3 hours

and Missed Connection coverage with the shortest time requirement, ~3 hours Make sure the policy includes Delay and Missed Connection benefits that cover "any delay" of a common carrier

benefits that cover "any delay" of a common carrier Look for a policy with high Baggage Delay and Baggage Loss benefits

and benefits Understand the Trip Interruption and Trip Cancellation coverage. Most travel insurance policies will only provide reimbursement for airline-related issues due to weather, strike, or mechanical failure, unless Cancel For Any Reason is included

Additional Resources: Live data room

Methodology: Squaremouth.com hosts the largest number of travel insurance providers and policies on the market. Squaremouth Analytics surveyed over 4,000 customers to understand what concerns were driving their travel insurance purchases.

About Squaremouth

Squaremouth is a travel insurance comparison company that helps customers instantly search, compare, and buy travel insurance policies online.

Squaremouth.com hosts the most intuitive travel insurance quoting and comparison engine on the market today. Coupled with over 100,000 verified customer reviews and the largest portfolio of products, Squaremouth allows customers to purchase a travel insurance policy from every major provider in the US.

As a company, we prioritize reputation over profits, with a core goal of helping every customer find the coverage they need for the lowest possible price. Founded in 2003, Squaremouth.com - and our multi-award-winning customer service team - has helped more than 2 million travelers find the best travel insurance policy for their trip.

SOURCE Squaremouth
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- OZY Media, the award-winning news and entertainment company, is announcing that Tim Rogers, a veteran journalist, and editor with 20-plus years of experience, is joining OZY as Deputy Editor.

Award Winning Univision producer Tim Rogers joins OZY Media as new Deputy Editor. Tweet this Tim Rogers joins OZY Media as Deputy Editor

Rogers comes to OZY from Univision, where he won an Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Hard News while serving as producer and senior correspondent for "Real America with Jorge Ramos." Prior to that, he was Senior Editor for Latin America at Fusion Media Group. Earlier in his career, Rogers spent more than a decade living in Central America, where he started and ran several news organizations and worked as a correspondent for more than half a dozen magazines and newspapers, including the BBC, Christian Science Monitor, Miami Herald, and Time. He returned full time to the U.S. for a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2014.

As a longtime editor and Latin American-based foreign correspondent, Rogers brings a passion for surfacing edgy, untold stories from underreported corners of the globe. "I'm excited to join a media company that is authentic in its desire to become a leading platform for the kind of unique stories that help us better understand this big, messy, and beautiful world of ours. OZY is not interested in chasing the news or rehashing tired stories  and neither am I. At a time when many news organizations are retreating from international coverage, I'm grateful to be part of a team that is actively seeking out stories that otherwise fly under the radar."

As Deputy Editor, Rogers will report to Managing Editor Beverly Watson and will play an integral part of building and leading a global team of correspondents who contribute to approximately 50 newsletters each month. "Tim is a star, and I am excited to have him help OZY pursue our 'new and next' mission," Ms. Watson said. "We've always been committed to introducing our curious audience to rising stars, new trends and big ideas before they are household names; and with Tim, we look forward to doing it even more boldly and more broadly."

Rogers is the tenth major team announcement from OZY Media in the last few months. He follows John Squires , IP counsel; Courtney Matthews , former Rodale executive, as Vice President of Marketing; Rebecca Louzan , Director of Client Services; David Lawrence , former Goldman Sachs business intelligence chief and federal prosecutor, who joined the OZY board as Senior Advisor; Michael Safran , former Time Inc., Gannett and Bloomberg executive, as Chief Revenue Officer; Mukul Pandya , former Founding Editor-in Chief of Wharton's online business review, as Senior Editor-at-Large; Aparna Ranganathan as Vice President of Human Resources; attorney and global impact leader Beverly Watson as Managing Editor; and Daniel Kelley as Creative Director. The company continues to add staff and interested parties can contact our HR Team at [email protected] .

ABOUT OZY

Launched in 2013, OZY has built a diverse and unique voice in media, including 5 newsletters , 12 TV shows , 9 podcasts and 4 festivals . In 2020, OZY won an Emmy Award for its groundbreaking television program, "Black Women OWN the Conversation."

SOURCE OZY Media
HARRISBURG, Pa., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey from AARP Pennsylvania reveals that voters, and especially Pennsylvanians age 50 and older, consider issues like Social Security, Medicare, the cost of prescription drugs, and long-term care for seniors top of mind going into the 2022 Mid-Term Elections.

New data from the survey shows vast majorities of voters consider Social Security (76%), Medicare (69%), the cost of prescription drugs (68%) and long-term care for seniors (61%) either "Extremely Important" or "Very Important" this election year.

Pennsylvania Senate Race & Federal Issues Pennsylvania Governor Race & Long Term Care People voting at a polling location

The numbers are even higher among 50+ voters, who often make up a majority of Pennsylvania voters. Eighty-six percent of Pennsylvania voters 50+ believe Social Security is either "Extremely" or "Very" important this year; 78% say the same about Medicare; 73% say so about the cost of prescription drugs; and 69% say long-term care for seniors is "Extremely" or "Very" important to them.

"There's a reason why, on behalf of our 1.8 million members, AARP Pennsylvania has continually advocated for lowering the costs of prescription drugs, protecting programs like Medicare and Social Security, and expanding access to quality, affordable long-term care," says Bill Johnston-Walsh, AARP PA State Director. "They're vital programs that all Americans expect and deserve as they age. It's no surprise these issues showed up so prominently in our latest poll. Pennsylvania voters are always looking for leaders who vow to protect the benefits people have earned and paid into both now and for the long-term."

The survey found these issues are important among voters 50+ for both the Gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races in Pennsylvania.

91% are more likely to vote for a U.S. Senate candidate who supports protecting Social Security from cuts to workers' earned benefits;

92% are more likely to vote for a U.S. Senate candidate who supports protecting Medicare from cuts and ensure America's seniors get the healthcare they need;

90% are more likely to vote for a U.S. Senate candidate who supports allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices;

87% are more likely to support a candidate for governor who will provide funding to allow seniors needing daily support to receive care at home rather than having to enter a costly nursing home; and

69% support fixing the nursing home and home care worker shortage by increasing the minimum wage for all working Pennsylvanians.

AARP commissioned Fabrizio Ward and Impact Research to conduct this survey. The firms interviewed 1,382 likely Pennsylvania voters, which includes a statewide representative sample of 500 likely voters, with an oversample of up to 550 likely voters age 50 and older, and an oversample of up to 332 African-American/Black likely voters age 50 and older. The survey was conducted between June 12-19 via landline, cellphone, and SMS-to-web. The margin of error for the 500 statewide sample is 4.4%; for the 855 total sample of voters 50+ it is 3.3%. View the full survey results .



For more information on how, when and where to vote in Pennsylvania, visit aarp.org/PAvotes.

About AARP

AARP is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With a nationwide presence and nearly 38 million members, AARP strengthens communities and advocates for what matters most to families: health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also produces the nation's largest circulation publications: AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org, www.aarp.org/espanol or follow @AARP, @AARPenEspanol @AARPadvocates and @AliadosAdelante on social media.

CONTACT:

TJ Thiessen,

(202) 374-8033,

[email protected]

SOURCE AARP Pennsylvania
CHARLES TOWN, W.V., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Potomac Bancshares, Inc. (the "Company") (OTC:PTBS), the one bank holding company for Bank of Charles Town (BCT), declared at their July Board meeting a quarterly dividend of $0.09 per share. The dividend is for all shareholders of record on August 4, 2022 and will be paid on August 11, 2022.

About the Company

Founded in 1871, BCT - Bank of Charles Town, also known as The Community's Bank, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Potomac Bancshares, Inc. (OTC:PTBS). With approximately $719 million in assets as of March 31, 2022, the Company conducts operations through its main office, an additional eight branch offices, and two loan production offices. BCT's offices are located in Jefferson and Berkeley Counties (WV), Washington County (MD), and Loudoun and Stafford Counties (VA). The Bank provides various banking products and services including free access to over 55,000 ATMs through the Allpoint network plus online and mobile banking for individuals, businesses, and local governments. The Bank also offers commercial lines and term loans, residential and commercial construction, commercial real estate loans and agricultural loans. The Residential Lending division offers secondary market and portfolio mortgage loans, one-time close construction to perm loans, as well as home equity loans and lines of credit. For over 65 years, BCT Wealth Advisors has provided financial management, investment, trust, and estate services to its clients. In 2019, 2020, and 2021 the Bank was named a "Best Bank To Work For" by American Banker. In 2018, Forbes named BCT a "Best In State Bank" for Maryland.

The Company's shares are quoted on the OTC Pink Sheet marketplace under the symbol "PTBS." For more information about Potomac Bancshares, Inc., and the Bank, please visit our website at www.mybct.bank.

SOURCE Potomac Bancshares, Inc.
HOUSTON, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Quanta Services, Inc. (NYSE: PWR) announced today that it will release second quarter 2022 financial results on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, before the market opens. In conjunction with the press release, Quanta has scheduled a conference call and webcast for 9:00 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. Quanta will utilize a slide presentation to accompany its prepared remarks, which will be viewable through the webcast and available on the Investor Relations section of the Quanta website prior to the conference call (http://investors.quantaservices.com).

What: Quanta Services Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call When: Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022  9:00 a.m. Eastern time How: Live via phone  By dialing (201) 689-8345 or (877) 407-8291 and asking for the Quanta Services Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call at least 10 minutes prior to the start time.

Live via webcast  By logging on to the website through the Investor Relations section of Quanta's website (http://investors.quantaservices.com)

For those who cannot participate live, an archive of the webcast will be available shortly after the call on the Investor Relations section of Quanta's website (http://investors.quantaservices.com) and dial-in information for a replay of the call will be available in the upcoming earnings release. For more information, please contact Kip Rupp at Quanta Services at (713) 341-7260.

About Quanta Services

Quanta is a leading specialized contracting services company, delivering comprehensive infrastructure solutions for the utility, renewable energy, communications, pipeline and energy industries. Quanta's comprehensive services include designing, installing, repairing and maintaining energy and communications infrastructure. With operations throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and select other international markets, Quanta has the manpower, resources and expertise to safely complete projects that are local, regional, national or international in scope. For more information, visit www.quantaservices.com.

Contact: Kip Rupp, CFA, IRC

Quanta Services, Inc.

(713) 341-7260

SOURCE Quanta Services, Inc.
NOIDA, India, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new report published by UnivDatos Markets Insights the Remote Patient Monitoring System Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 18% from 2021-2027. The analysis has been segmented into Product (Vital Sign Monitors and Specialized Monitors); Distribution Channel (Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases, Sleep Disorders, Weight Management & Fitness Tracking, and Other Applications); End-User (Hospitals/Clinics, Home Care Settings, and Others); Region/Country.

Click here to view the Report Description & TOC

The remote patient monitoring system market report has been aggregated by collecting informative data on various dynamics such as market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. This innovative report makes use of several analyses to get a closer outlook on the remote patient monitoring system market. The remote patient monitoring system market report offers a detailed analysis of the latest industry developments and trending factors in the market that are influencing the market growth. Furthermore, this statistical market research repository examines and estimates the remote patient monitoring system market at the global and regional levels.

Request for Sample Pages

Market Overview

The remote patient monitoring system is a subclass of telehealth that is designed to deliver healthcare services at the distance. These are typically medical devices deployed at home that transmits vital signs through a data hub, or a desktop console. The data is stored via server-side systems which are then eventually retrieved by caregivers and providers. The remote patient monitoring system enables the patients to manage various chronic diseases and infectious diseases. They support patients' healthcare journey and provide patients' health data to clinicians and caregivers enabling them to personalize their treatment and meet all the patient's needs to avoid any complications. In addition to this, it also enables patients to take control of their care alongside the physicians and caregivers.

COVID-19 Impact

The recent covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the world and has brought a state of shock to the global economy. The worldwide adoption of virtual and home care health technologies owing to the number of canceled appointments and deferred care amidst the novel coronavirus outbreak has further augmented the worldwide demand for the remote patient monitoring system. For instance, according to the study conducted by American Hospital Association, 4 in 10 adults in the United States deferred their medical treatments and routine checkup due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The global remote patient monitoring system market report is studied thoroughly with several aspects that would help stakeholders in making their decisions more curated.

Based on the product, the market is divided into vital sign monitors and specialized monitors. The vital sign monitors are further segmented into temperature monitor, blood pressure monitor, pulse oximeter, heart rate monitor, respiratory rate monitor, and brain monitor. Among these, the specialized monitor segment holds a major share in the market owing to its ability to monitor important parameters to prevent complications before and after any surgical procedures. However, the vital sign monitors segment is anticipated to grow substantially in the projected timeframe due to the rising awareness of the benefits offered by their regular usage

Based on application, the market has been segmented into diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, sleep disorders, weight management & fitness tracking, and other applications. The diabetes segment held the largest market share of this market owing to the growing prevalence of the diabetic population all over the world. Furthermore, as per World Health Organization, nearly 422 million people across the globe have diabetes, particularly in low and middle-income countries.

Have a Look at the Chapters

Remote Patient Monitoring System Market Geographical Segmentation Includes:

North America ( United States , Canada , and Rest of North America )

( , , and Rest of ) Europe ( Germany , France , Italy , Spain , United Kingdom , and Rest of the Europe )

( , , , , , and Rest of the ) Asia-Pacific ( China , Japan , India , and Rest of the APAC)

( , , , and Rest of the APAC) Rest of the World

For a better understanding of the market dynamics of the remote patient monitoring system market, a detailed analysis was conducted for different regions across the globe including North America (United States, Canada, and the Rest of North America), Europe (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, and Rest of APAC), and Rest of World. Among the regions, North America dominated the market in 2020 owing to the government support for advanced research and development in the field of telehealth solutions and increasing awareness regarding the benefits offered by them. Furthermore, The surging demand for remote patient monitoring systems is due to the growing geriatric population and rise in chronic disease incidences across the region.

The major players targeting the market include

Medtronic

F. Hoffmann-La Roche

GE Healthcare

Abbott Laboratories

Omron Corporation

Johnson & Johnson

American Telecare

Philips Healthcare

Boston Scientific Corporation

Biotelemetry, Inc.

Competitive Landscape

The degree of competition among prominent global companies has been elaborated by analyzing several leading key players operating worldwide. The specialist team of research analysts sheds light on various traits such as global market competition, market share, most recent industry advancements, technological innovations, product launches, partnerships, mergers, or acquisitions by leading companies in the remote patient monitoring system market. The major players have been analyzed by using research methodologies for getting insight views on global competition.

Key questions resolved through this analytical market research report include:

What are the latest trends, new patterns, and technological advancements in the remote patient monitoring system market?

Which factors are influencing the remote patient monitoring system market over the forecast period?

What are the global challenges, threats, and risks in the remote patient monitoring system market?

Which factors are propelling and restraining the remote patient monitoring system market?

What are the demanding global regions of the remote patient monitoring system market?

What will be the global market size in the upcoming years?

What are the crucial market acquisition strategies and policies applied by global companies?

We understand the requirement of different businesses, regions, and countries, we offer customized reports as per your requirements of business nature and geography. Please let us know If you have any custom needs.

About UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI)

Browse Other Related Research Reports from UnivDatos Market Insights

About UnivDatos Market Insights

UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI) is a passionate market research firm and a subsidiary of Universal Data Solutions. We believe in delivering insights through Market Intelligence Reports, Customized Business Research, and Primary Research. Our research studies are spread across topics across the world, we cover markets in over 100 countries using smart research techniques and agile methodologies. We offer in-depth studies, detailed analysis, and customized reports that help shape winning business strategies for our clients.

Contact :

UnivDatos Market Insights

Ankita Gupta

Director Operations

Ph: +91-7838604911

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://univdatos.com/

Logo : https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1225049/UnivDatos_Logo.jpg

SOURCE UnivDatos Market Insights Pvt. Ltd.
BEIJING, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On the mysterious continent of Africa lies one of the deepest rivers in the world, the Congo River. This totemic river marked the emergence of human life on the African continent and cradled one of the world's oldest civilizations.

The Project Deziwa of CNMC has built a world-class modern city of copper and cobalt right in the African jungle where the Congo River borders the Lualaba River.

A modern city of copper and cobalt is springing up out of jungle of Africa. (PRNewsfoto/China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd (CNMC)) CNMC's Wells for the common good in communities around the mining area as part of the Project Deziwa (PRNewsfoto/China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd (CNMC))

On June 13, 2016, representatives of the Gecamines, who had travelled from far and wide to attend the signing ceremony of the Joint Venture Agreement of the Project Deziwa, gathered together with representatives of CNMC in Beijing to discuss the development plans. Two pairs of hands with different skin colors were holding each other tightly to announce the official birth of the Project Deziwa.

CNMC is one of the first enterprises in China's non-ferrous metals industry to implement the "Go Global" strategy with the most fruitful international operations. In recent years, CNMC has actively responded to the Belt and Road Initiative, vigorously implemented the "Go Global" strategy, and formed a full industrial chain of resource development mainly in copper overseas.

On 28 May 2018, CNMC started the construction of the Project Deziwa with a high starting point and according to high standards.

On January 15, 2020, the completion and commissioning conference of CNMC's Project Deziwa was organized.

The conference, which was held 150 days ahead of schedule, has sounded the clarion call to enter the commercial production, and has demonstrated not only the merits of the builders, but also the significant achievements of the "Go Global" development strategy of CNMC.

It is a pleasant surprise that the total investment in the completed Project Deziwa of CNMC is effectively under control, with the equity structure being reasonable, a strong endogenous power and an excellent development environment. A modern city of copper and cobalt comes out now to greet the world.

On 13 May 2022, a signing ceremony "Public Welfare Initiative for Communities" was held in the framework of CNMC's Project Deziwa. Thus, CNMC's Project Deziwa will spend five years to invest in various aspects such as agriculture, infrastructure, education, healthcare and energy, etc. with special funds to aid the communities around the mining area, effectively fulfilling the social responsibility of overseas Chinese central SOEs and allowing the local people in the area to enjoy the wealth and fruits brought by the resource development.

During the promotion of the 14th Five-Year Plan of China's national economic and social development, CNMC's Project Deziwa has taken full advantage of the new development stage, implemented the brand-new development concept and invented a new development pattern, comprehensively promoted the resource development of the East Ore Body of the Project Deziwa Phase II, and helped CNMC strive to build a world-class mining enterprise.

Contact: Meng Xiangxin

Tel: +86-13439841931

E-mail: [email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1863166/CNMC_1.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1863167/CNMC_2.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1863165/CNMC_Logo.jpg

SOURCE China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd (CNMC)
Company demonstrates execution of Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) in real-world mission simulation

ARLINGTON, Va., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Royce Geospatial Consultants (Royce Geo) today announced the successful execution of its multi-domain capabilities in support of Valiant Shield 2022, a U.S.-only, large-scale war game exercise held in the INDOPACOM Area of Responsibility (AOR). The real-world training environment showcased how Royce Geo's solutions better enable the U.S. military and Intelligence Community (IC) to identify, monitor, anticipate and directly address threats to the U.S. and its partners.

Royce Geo is revolutionizing the way commercial and national Intelligence, Sensors and Reconnaissance (ISR) data is tasked, processed, exploited and disseminated through its CURVE Cloud Operational Environment. The company provides a capability for multi-intelligence (multi-INT) and cross-domain operations that automates the delivery of time-sensitive intelligence to the warfighter and IC.

Royce Geo executed several key objectives for U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) in support of Valiant Shield 2022 by accelerating TC-PED workflows through automation. Royce Geo automates repeatable TC-PED processes through its Workbench solution, enabling low-code/no-code data modeling.

Adam Estrada, CTO, Royce Geo, said: "We integrated our CURVE Cloud solution with the existing Army Program of Record (PoR) during the exercise to address several modernization objectives to include gap in collection. Along with our partners Planet and ICEYE, Royce Geo addressed the Army's gap in collection by accelerating commercial satellite tasking orchestration through automation as well as exploited commercial data through machine-driven automation for operational use. Our team automated reporting for monitoring and alerting into a messaging workflow feeding into the Joint Fires Network, which reduced latency in the kill chain process."

Dave Sterling, CEO, Royce Geo, said: "Through participation in Valiant Shield's exercise, our team integrated, demonstrated and fine-tuned our capabilities on the fly in a real-world mission scenario. Being able to verify the adaptability of our technology in the field is essential in ensuring operators across all branches can get the data they need to make critical decisions at a moment's notice. We value the participation and rapid feedback from our Warfighter partners across multiple units and commands. This was the best example of a collaborative effort, building novel solutions that truly integrate and increase capability of our partners' current systems."

Valiant Shield builds an alliance between participating military branches to demonstrate the ability to detect, track and engage units at sea, in the air, and on land west of the International Date Line at a moment's notice, ensuring the U.S. military maintains its competitive advantage. Using Live-Virtual-Constructive training enablers, the exercise simulates live tactical forces with constructive, synthetic opposing forces. An impending exponential increase in the volume of consumable data sets creates a very challenging PED cycle for the limited number of military analysts available in a mission setting. Royce Geo's solution demonstrated how field operators can synthesize oceans of data at mission speed through proven automation tradecraft, created over several years supporting DoD and IC partners, supporting warfighter functions of Valiant Shield 2022.

About Royce Geo

Royce Geo is an advanced intelligence solutions and services company providing support across the Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD), both CONUS and abroad. Royce Geo's core business delivers advanced tradecraft, specifically leveraging advanced Big Data and intelligence methodologies, data automation/visualization, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Computer Vision (CV), Natural Language Processing (NLP), collection management and automated tasking orchestration, exploitation, and dissemination services.

Royce Geo employs experienced Intelligence Analysts, Data Science professionals, Intelligence Tradecraft Instructors, and Intelligence Applications & Data Engineers, who work closely with our Defense and Intelligence Community clients to provide top-quality Multi-INT tradecraft. We are global: Royce Geo delivers superior mission analytic solutions and services at facilities around the continental U.S. and embedded with deployed mission partners, around the globe. For more information on our CURVE Cloud Operational Environment please contact us at www.roycegeo.com.

SOURCE Royce Geo
Carrier scores 100 on 2022 Disability Equality Index

DALLAS, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) today announced it earned the top score on Disability:IN, the leading nonprofit resource for business disability inclusion worldwide, 2022 Disability Equality Index (DEI). The carrier's continued focus on its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives landed a "100" on the score sheet for the third consecutive year.

"Southwest is a People-first employer and a place where diversity is celebrated as every Employee brings unique talents, skills, and perspectives to work every day," said Juan Suarez, Vice President of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at Southwest Airlines. "We focus on ensuring an environment that encourages People to be their authentic selves as they work to connect our Customers to the People and places important in their lives."

The Disability Equality Index is the world's most comprehensive benchmarking tool for the Fortune 1000 and America's top 200 revenue-grossing law firms (Am Law 200) to measure disability workplace inclusion.

"By rethinking traditional hiring processes at Southwest Airlines and providing customized support, we can remove barriers that may otherwise limit individuals from fully showcasing their strengths, abilities, and potential," said Lindsey Lang, Vice President of People at Southwest Airlines. "We're grateful for our recognition as one of the 'Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion,' and committed to ensuring that Employees receive the support they need to bring their whole self to work each day and succeed in their roles."

The DEI was launched in 2015 by Disability:IN and The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and is acknowledged today as the most robust disability inclusion assessment tool in the business. To learn more about the airline's commitment to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace, visit SouthwestOneReport.com.

Southwest Airlines is dedicated to attracting prospective candidates and retaining Employeeskeeping this focus at the forefront of everything it does. It is all about a career with Heart and Purpose. Join the carrier's Talent Community to stay up to date on job opportunities from the Company with Heart.

ABOUT THE DISABILITY EQUALITY INDEX (DEI) The Disability Equality Index (DEI) is a comprehensive benchmarking tool that helps companies build a roadmap of measurable, tangible actions that they can take to achieve disability inclusion and equality. Each company receives a score, on a scale of zero (0) to 100, with those earning 80 and above recognized as a "Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion."

The DEI is a joint initiative of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the nation's largest disability rights organization, and Disability:IN, the global business disability inclusion network, to collectively advance the inclusion of people with disabilities. The organizations are complementary and bring unique strengths that make the project relevant and credible to corporations and the disability community. The tool was developed by the DEI Advisory Committee, a diverse group of business leaders, policy experts, and disability advocates. Learn more at www.DisabilityEqualityIndex.org.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES (AAPD) AAPD is a convener, connector, and catalyst for change, increasing the political and economic power for people with disabilities. As a national cross-disability rights organization AAPD advocates for full civil rights for the 50+ million Americans with disabilities. Learn more at www.aapd.com.

ABOUT DISABILITY:IN

Disability:IN is a global organization driving disability inclusion and equality in business. More than 270 corporations trust Disability:IN to activate and achieve disability inclusion across their enterprise and in the broader corporate mainstream. Through the world's most comprehensive disability inclusion benchmarking; best-in-class conferences and programs; and expert counsel and engagement, Disability:IN works with leading businesses to create long-term business and societal impact. Join us at disabilityin.org/AreYouIN #AreYouIN.

ABOUT SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.

Southwest Airlines Co. operates one of the world's most admired and awarded airlines, offering its one-of-a-kind value and Hospitality at 121 airports across 11 countries. Having celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2021, Southwest took flight in 1971 to democratize the sky through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel and now carries more air travelers flying nonstop within the United States than any other airline1. Based in Dallas and famous for an Employee-first corporate Culture, Southwest maintains an unprecedented record of no involuntary furloughs or layoffs in its history. By empowering its more than 61,0002 People to deliver unparalleled Hospitality, the maverick airline cherishes a passionate loyalty among as many as 130 million Customers carried a year. That formula for success brought industry-leading prosperity and 47 consecutive years3 of profitability for Southwest Shareholders (NYSE: LUV). Southwest leverages a unique legacy and mission to serve communities around the world including harnessing the power of its People and Purpose to put communities at the Heart of its success. Learn more by visiting Southwest.com/citizenship. Southwest is also continuing to develop tangible steps toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, including offering Customers an opportunity to help the airline offset its carbon emissions. To be part of the solution, visit Southwest.com/wannaoffsetcarbon.

1) U.S. Dept. of Transportation most recent reporting of domestic originating passengers boarded

2) Fulltime-equivalent active Employees

3) 1973-2019 annual profitability

SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co.
TORONTO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX: SLF) (NYSE: SLF) will release its second quarter 2022 financial results on Wednesday, August 3, after markets close. Sun Life will hold its earnings conference call and live webcast at 10:00 a.m. ET the following day.

Date: Thursday, August 4, 2022

Time: 10:00 a.m. ET

To listen to the live webcast and view the presentation slides, visit www.sunlife.com/QuarterlyReports 10 minutes prior to the start of the presentation. An archive will be available on the website following the event.

To listen via telephone, please call 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time as follows:

Participant Dial In (Toll Free): 1-833-634-2605, event name: Sun Life Q2 earnings call

Participant Dial In (International): 1-412-902-4130, event name: Sun Life Q2 earnings call

A replay of the conference call will be available from Thursday, August 4, 2022 at 1 p.m. ET until 1 p.m. ET on Thursday, August 18, 2022 by calling 1-855-669-9658 (Canada Toll Free), 1-877-344-7529 (U.S. Toll Free) or 1-412-317-0088 (International), using access code: 2586651.

About Sun Life

Sun Life is a leading international financial services organization providing asset management, wealth, insurance and health solutions to individual and institutional Clients. Sun Life has operations in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of March 31, 2022, Sun Life had total assets under management of $1.35 trillion. For more information, please visit www.sunlife.com.

Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF.

Note to editors: All figures in Canadian dollars

Media Relations Contact:

Krista Wilson

Director, Corporate Communications

T. 226-751-2391

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:

Yaniv Bitton

Vice-President, Head of Investor Relations & Capital Markets

T. 416-979-6496

[email protected]

SOURCE Sun Life Financial Inc.
(Reg S / 144A CUSIP & ISIN: L8915M AA3; USL8915MAA38 / 870880 AA9; US870880AA90)

LUXEMBOURG, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Swiss Insured Brazil Power Finance S.a r.l. a private limited liability company (societe a responsabilite limitee), incorporated and existing under Luxembourg law, having its registered office at 16, rue Eugene Ruppert, L  2453 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, registered with the Luxembourg Register of Commerce and Companies under number B 217648 (the "Company") announced today that it has commenced a solicitation (the "Consent Solicitation") of consents ("Consents") from each registered holder ("Holder") of its outstanding 9.850% Senior Secured Notes due 2032 (the "Notes"), issued under the indenture, dated as of April 12, 2018, among the Company, CELSE  Centrais Eletricas de Sergipe S.A., as guarantor ("CELSE"), and Citibank, N.A., as trustee (in such capacity, the "Trustee"), to permit the Company, as the sole holder of certain debentures issued by CELSE pursuant to an indenture (as amended, the "Debenture Indenture"), dated as of March 28, 2018, among CELSE, Pentagono S.A. Distribuidora de Titulos e Valores Mobiliarios, as fiduciary agent (the "Fiduciary Agent") and Credit Suisse AG, in its capacities as policyholder and policyholder agent (the "Policyholder Agent"), to instruct the Fiduciary Agent to (i) enter into certain amendments, or consent to the entry into certain amendments and waivers and (ii) provide certain consents, in each case, with respect to the Eneva Sale, the Ebrasil Reorganization and the FSRU Transfer (each as defined below and further described in the Consent Solicitation Statement).

The Consent Solicitation is being made by means of the Company's consent solicitation statement, dated July 20, 2022 (the "Consent Solicitation Statement"). Holders are referred to the Consent Solicitation Statement for detailed terms and conditions of the Consent Solicitation. The Consent Solicitation will expire at 5:00 p.m. (New York City time) on July 26, 2022 (the "Expiration Time"), unless extended or earlier terminated by the Company in its sole discretion. Consents delivered may be validly revoked at any time prior to the earlier to occur of: (i) the time at which the requisite Consents are received and (ii) the Expiration Time.

Subject to certain conditions, including, among others, the receipt of the requisite Consents and the consummation of any of the Eneva Sale, the Ebrasil Reorganization or the FSRU Transfer, Holders who validly deliver and not validly revoke their Consents at or prior to the Expiration Time pursuant to the terms of the Consent Solicitation Statement will be eligible to receive a consent payment of R$5.00 per R$1,000 principal amount of the Notes.

CELSE Consent and Amendment Authorization

The ultimate purpose of the Consent Solicitation is to authorize CELSE to enter into agreements that (i) grant the requested consents and waivers in order to consummate each of the Eneva Sale, the Ebrasil Reorganization and the FSRU Transfer, (ii) amend the definitions of "Change of Control" in Annex 1 (Definitions) of the Debenture Indenture and in Annex 1 (Definitions) of the Common Terms Agreement, including such other amendments as may be necessary to effectuate the Eneva Sale, the Ebrasil Reorganization or the FSRU Transfer and (iii) make any other modifications or waivers to the Common Terms Agreement, the Debenture Indenture, the Sponsor Support and Share Retention Agreement or any other agreement or instrument, in each case, for the purposes of effectuating any of the Eneva Sale, the Ebrasil Reorganization or the FSRU Transfer to the extent that such modification or waiver, as the case may be, is approved by the other required parties under the Project Intercreditor Agreement and the Debenture Indenture.

Eneva Sale

On May 31, 2022, certain indirect shareholders of CELSE, including LNG Power Limited, Ebrasil Energia Ltda. ("Ebrasil Energia"), DC Energia e Participacoes S.A. ("DC Energia") and certain other direct and indirect shareholders of Ebrasil Energia (the "DC Energia Sellers") agreed to sell (the "Eneva Sale") 100% of their respective direct or indirect interests, as the case may be, in CELSEPAR  Centrais Eletricas de Sergipe Participacoes S.A., CELSE's direct 100% shareholder (the "Direct Shareholder") to Eneva S.A. In connection with the Eneva Sale, a Change of Control under the Common Terms Agreement and Debenture Indenture will occur because, amongst other reasons, Hygo Energy Transition Limited ("Hygo") and Eletricidade do Brasil S.A.  Ebrasil ("Ebrasil") will cease to collectively control CELSE.

Ebrasil Reorganization

In connection with and to facilitate its portion of the Eneva Sale, Ebrasil intends to effect an internal reorganization prior to the Eneva Sale. The internal reorganization would ultimately result in DC Energia, which currently owns 100% of Ebrasil, to merge with Ebrasil Energia, which currently owns 50% of the equity of the Direct Shareholder, such that (i) DC Energia would directly own 50% of the equity in the Direct Shareholder and (ii) the DC Energia Sellers would directly own 100% of the DC Energia shares (collectively, the "Ebrasil Reorganization"). Following the Ebrasil Reorganization, Ebrasil would no longer own any direct or indirect interest of the Direct Shareholder, but would remain as a "Sponsor" and be subject to the terms of the Sponsor Support and Share Retention Agreement until the consummation of the Eneva Sale. In connection with the Ebrasil Reorganization, a Change of Control under the Common Terms Agreement and Debenture Indenture will occur because Ebrasil will cease to own and maintain, directly or indirectly, at least 44.75% of the equity of CELSE.

FSRU Transfer

On July 5, 2022, New Fortress Energy Inc., which is the parent company and 100% indirect owner of Hygo, and Apollo Global Management, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, "Apollo") announced that NFE and certain funds managed by affiliates of Apollo (the "Apollo Funds") have entered into a definitive agreement with respect to the newly created joint venture (the "Apollo/NFE JV") to create an innovative LNG carrier and FSRU owning/operating platform. The Apollo/NFE JV will be owned approximately 80% by the Apollo Funds and 20% by NFE. In connection with the formation of the Apollo/NFE JV, certain affiliates of NFE and the Apollo Funds have entered into a definitive Equity Purchase and Contribution Agreement (the "Equity Purchase and Contribution Agreement") pursuant to which the NFE sellers agreed to contribute three of its vessels to the Apollo/NFE JV and to sell to the Apollo Funds eight vessels, including the Golar Nanook FSRU (which is the floating storage and regasification unit currently sub-chartered to CELSE (the "FSRU Transfer")), following which the Apollo Funds will contribute such eight vessels to the Apollo/NFE JV. The current charter arrangements related to the Golar Nanook and CELSE will be maintained, as each of the relevant chartering and sub-chartering entities will be owned by the Apollo/NFE JV. Accordingly, NFE Nanook UK Limited (the "Disponent FSRU Owner") will continue to have a head charter of the Golar Nanook FSRU (which, going forward, will be between the Apollo/NFE JV and the Disponent FSRU Owner) and the Disponent FSRU Owner will in turn continue to sub-charter the Golar Nanook FSRU to CELSE pursuant to the existing Golar Nanook FSRU bareboat charter agreement between the Disponent FSRU Owner and CELSE. The Golar Nanook FSRU services agreement previously entered into between NFE Power Latam Servicos Maritmos Ltda. (which entity will also be owned by the Apollo/NFE JV) and CELSE that provides for certain operations and maintenance services will also remain in place. Accordingly, other than to reflect the new ownership of the Disponent FSRU Owner, NFE Power Latam Servicos Maritmos Ltda. and the "Golar Nanook" there will be no changes to the agreements or the parties operating the Golar Nanook FSRU and performing the relevant obligations under the Golar Nanook FSRU charter to CELSE. In connection with the FSRU Transfer, a Change of Control under the Common Terms Agreement and Debenture Indenture will occur because Hygo will cease to own and maintain, directly or indirectly, 100% of the Golar Nanook FSRU.

General

The Company has engaged Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC to act as solicitation agent (the "Solicitation Agent") for the Consent Solicitation. D. F. King & Co., Inc. has been engaged to act as the information and tabulation agent (the "Information and Tabulation Agent") for the Consent Solicitation. Any questions or requests for assistance concerning the terms of the Consent Solicitation may be made to Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC at [email protected], +1 (800) 828-3182 (toll free) or +1 (212) 357-1452 (collect). Questions or requests for assistance relating to the procedures for delivering Consents or additional copies of the Consent Solicitation Statement and any related documents may be directed to D.F. King & Co., Inc. at [email protected], +1 (866) 745-0267 (toll free) or +1 (212) 269-5550 (collect).

The Notes are currently listed on the Official List of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (the "LuxSE") and admitted to trading on the Euro MTF market of the LuxSE.

The Solicitation Agent takes no responsibility for the contents of this announcement. This announcement must be read in conjunction with the Consent Solicitation Statement. This announcement and the Consent Solicitation Statement contain important information which should be read carefully and in its entirety before any decision is made in connection with the Consent Solicitation. If you are in any doubt as to the action you should take, you are recommended to seek your own financial advice immediately from your stockbroker, bank manager, accountant or other independent financial adviser.

None of the Company, CELSE, the Trustee, the Fiduciary Agent, the Policyholder Agent, the Solicitation Agent, the Information and Tabulation Agent or their respective affiliates, makes any recommendation as to whether or not Holders should deliver Consents. This announcement is for informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of Consents. The Consent Solicitation is only being made pursuant to the Consent Solicitation Statement. The Company reserves the right to waive or modify any term of, or to terminate, the Consent Solicitation, for any reason, prior to the Expiration Time.

This announcement is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. The Notes described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and they may not be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act.

Forward-Looking Statements

The Company cautions you that statements included in this announcement that are not a description of historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which may not materialize or prove correct. These include, among others, statements with respect to the terms and timing for completion of the Consent Solicitation, the consummation of the Eneva Sale, the Ebrasil Reorganization or the FSRU Transfer, the receipt of the requisite Consents, and the payment of the consent fee. There can be no assurance that the transactions contemplated in this announcement will be consummated. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement included in this announcement to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date on which it was made.

SOURCE Swiss Insured Brazil Power Finance S.a r.l.
CMA CGM and WHOI have launched the first of two buoys to aid in the monitoring and protection of one of the world's most critically endangered species.

The two organizations will also lead the development of an industry consortium focused on reducing risks to right whales.

Through this new step, the CMA CGM Group strengthens its initiatives to protect the environment and preserve biodiversity in the United States and worldwide.

Click Here for Pictures and Videos

NORFOLK, Va., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The CMA CGM Group, a global player in sea, land, air and logistics solutions, along with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), deployed an acoustic monitoring buoy 33 miles off the coast of Norfolk, Va., to help increase right whale detection efforts along this heavily trafficked route. A second buoy is slated for deployment off the coast of Savannah, Ga., in the coming weeks.

Monitoring and protecting one of the world's most critically endangered species

The deployment of the buoys aims to aid in the survival of the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Although the whales are protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, serious threats to their survival abound, and only approximately 336 of these great whales remain.

Locations off the coast of Norfolk and Savannah were chosen for the new systems because the ports are among the busiest in the United States, which often puts ships directly in the path of migrating right whales. The new buoys will fill a critical gap as they join a monitoring network of six similar buoys along the East Coast, bringing the total number of buoys to eight (see map).

The WHOI-developed acoustic buoys play an important role in protecting marine animals. Each species of whale creates its own unique calls, and the buoys are equipped with an instrument that transmits information about detected sounds to shore every two hours. This WHOI technology can detect, classify, and report the sounds of marine mammals in near real-time, and the data is analyzed by an acoustician to determine which species are present. Results are displayed publicly on Robots4Whales (robots4whales.whoi.edu) and shared with mariners. This enables dynamic protections, including NOAA's Slow Zones for Right Whales, which are areas with voluntary vessel-speed restrictions along the eastern seaboard that are established when right whales are detected.

CMA CGM and WHOI to develop industry consortium for enhanced protection of marine mammals

In addition to the assembly and deployment of the new buoys to alert mariners of the presence of whales near critical U.S. ports, CMA CGM and WHOI will lead the development of an industry consortium focused on reducing risks to right whales from vessels and supporting the continued operation of the WHOI-developed digital acoustic monitoring buoys. This unique collaboration, started in the United States, aims to have a global impact by significantly improving marine mammal protection.

A Group committed to preserving biodiversity in the U.S. and around the world

These buoy launches reaffirm CMA CGM's commitment to preserve marine biodiversity in the United States and worldwide. On the East Coast of the United States and Canada, CMA CGM requires its vessels to reduce their speed to a maximum of 10 knots in certain areas recognized as breeding grounds for cetaceans. On the West Coast, CMA CGM has voluntarily committed to the "Green Flag" speed-reduction program that was introduced in the sanctuary near the Santa Barbara Islands. Wherever possible, the Group strives to lower its speeds and thus limit the risk of collision in these cetacean-protection sanctuaries.

In addition to speed-reduction programs, the CMA CGM Group is participating in a variety of projects designed to revolutionize marine mammal protection through the development of innovative technology. Examples include:

REPCET, a collaborative system based on the density of the mesh created by navigation that allows merchant ships to receive and transmit alerts on whale positions in real time.

SEA DETECT, a European project that tests innovative solutions for detecting cetaceans and floating objects at sea.

CMA CGM has also joined the LIFE-PIAQUO consortium, whose objective is to develop and test various equipment to reduce the noise of maritime traffic and its impact on aquatic biodiversity.

The CMA CGM Group, as part of its sustainability commitment, no longer carries plastic waste on board any of its ships, since June 2022. Through its partnership with WHOI and others, the CMA CGM Group continues to make conserving biodiversity one of the top priorities of its CSR policy and to develop trade that is more responsible and fairer for everyone and for the planet.

Ed Aldridge, President of CMA CGM America and American President Lines, said, "At CMA CGM, we are dedicated to being stewards of the sea and finding BETTER WAYS to do business. We are excited to initiate this first buoy launch near Norfolk, Va., which is home to CMA CGM America's headquarters and is a key location for filling a critical right-whale monitoring gap. We look forward to the next buoy launch in Savannah, Ga., as these deployments further advance our research-driven, technological solutions to responsibly share the ocean with marine life and protect endangered species."

Mark Baumgartner, Project Principal Investigator and WHOI Marine Ecologist, said, "The deployment of these buoys are an important addition to a network of identical buoys along the East Coast that will let industry, government and the public know when whales are nearby. This network will be especially helpful for reducing risks to the North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species that migrates, feeds and gives birth along the East Coast and has only approximately 336 animals left."

About CMA CGM

Led by Rodolphe Saade, the CMA CGM Group, a global player in sea, land, air and logistics solutions, serves more than 420 ports around the world across 5 continents, with a fleet of 580 vessels. The Group transported 22 million TEU containers (twenty-foot equivalent units) in 2021. With its subsidiary CEVA Logistics, a global logistics player which transported 474,000 tons of air cargo and more than 21 million tons of inland freight, and its air cargo division CMA CGM AIR CARGO, the CMA CGM Group is constantly innovating to provide customers a comprehensive and increasingly efficient offering, thanks to new shipping, inland, airfreight and logistics solutions.

Firmly committed to the energy transition in shipping and a pioneer in its use of alternative fuels, the CMA CGM Group has set a Net Zero-Carbon target for 2050.

Each year, via the CMA CGM Foundation, the Group supports thousands of children as part of its efforts to promote education for all and equal opportunities. The CMA CGM Foundation also intervenes in humanitarian crises requiring an emergency response by calling on the Group's shipping and logistics expertise to deliver humanitarian supplies around the world.

Present in 160 countries through its network of more than 400 offices and 750 warehouses, the Group employs 150,000 people worldwide, including 2,900 in Marseille where its head office is located. In the United States, CMA CGM, which is headquartered in Norfolk, Va., employs more than 22,000 people. Its subsidiary, American President Lines (APL), operates a fleet of U.S.-flagged vessels and supports U.S. territories and American military stationed around the world.

cmacgm-group.com

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About Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930, its mission is to understand the ocean and its interactions with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate an understanding of the ocean's role in the changing global environment. WHOI's pioneering discoveries stem from an ideal combination of science and engineeringone that has made it one of the most trusted and technically advanced leaders in fundamental and applied ocean research and exploration anywhere. WHOI is known for its multidisciplinary approach, superior ship operations, and unparalleled deep-sea robotics capabilities. We play a leading role in ocean observation and operate the most extensive suite of ocean data-gathering platforms in the world. Top scientists, engineers, and students collaborate on more than 800 concurrent projects worldwideboth above and below the wavespushing the boundaries of knowledge to inform people and policies for a healthier planet. Learn more at whoi.edu.

SOURCE CMA CGM
SAN ANTONIO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tickets are now on sale for the Tasting Texas Wine + Food Festival hosted by Culinaria and Visit San Antonio and flavored by the James Beard Foundation. October 27-30, San Antonio will host top culinary leaders from the U.S. and Mexico and showcase their talents at events ranging from tastings, intimate dinners, outdoor lunches, hands-on workshops, educational panels, and more. Festival attendees will be able to customize their gastronomic experience by choosing between all-inclusive festival packages or a-la-carte options starting from $100.

Tasting Texas Wine + Food Festival, Oct. 27-30 in San Antonio, tickets and VIP packages are now on sale at TastingTexas.com

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

The Collective: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, noon  6:00 p.m. , Travis Park

The festival's flagship event located at Travis Park featuring over 100 chefs and restaurants, hundreds of beverage brands, a Texas Wine Garden, live fire activations , cooking demonstrations, educational seminars, and a mercantile market.

Southern Hospitality: Friday, 7 p.m.  9 p.m. , Pearl

A mashup of food and beverage celebrating the "Y'all Means All" culture of Texas . From biscuits and gravy to hearty enchiladas and, of course, top-shelf cocktails, in a walk-around tasting event granting guest all-access to a front row seat of hospitality the Texas way.

Celebrate Agave: Saturday, 7 p.m.  9 p.m. , Travis Park

Aged , sipped, neat, or mixed, this walk-around tasting event celebrates all things agave and the cuisines that embrace it.

Lunches and Dinners: Thursday  Saturday

Festivalgoers will have exclusive access to unique chef collaborations at dinner and lunch events held at varying locations across the city.

Seminars and Workshops: Thursday  Saturday

With a theme to satisfy every interest, attendees will be able to sign up for seminars and workshops across a range of topics, including hands-on, small-group activities  from crafting cocktails and smoking meat  to panel discussions on women in the beverage industry, and food and drink sampling.

TICKET PACKAGES

Super VIP  $1,025

Choice of one dinner on Thursday night plus Southern Hospitality, VIP Access to all three days of The Collective, Celebrate Agave, VIP Parties and VIP Only Seminars.

The Weekender  $600

General Admission to The Collective (all three days), Celebrate Agave and Southern Hospitality.

Just the Collective  $300

All three days of The Collective. Enjoy this all-inclusive and immersive experience. All food and beverage are included. You'll only need one ticket to enjoy it all.

To buy tickets and access the full schedule, chef and beverage lineup, hotel partners, travel hosts, and more, visit TastingTexas.com.

SOURCE VISIT SAN ANTONIO
JERSEY CITY, N.J. , July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- InsightAce Analytic Pvt. Ltd. announces the release of a market assessment report on the "Global 3D Bioprinting for Tissue and Organ Regeneration Market By Type (Magnetic 3D Bioprinting, Laser-assisted Bioprinting, Inkjet 3D Bioprinting, and Microextrusion 3D Bioprinting), Application (Clinical Applications, Research Applications, Drug and Medical Research, and Others) - Trends, Industry Competition Analysis, Revenue and Forecast To 2030."

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According to the latest research by InsightAce Analytic, the global 3D bioprinting for tissue and organ regeneration market is expected to reach US$ 424.36 million by 2030, with a CAGR of 15.8% during the forecast period of 2022-2030.

Bioprinting in three dimensions, a process of biomaterials production based on additive manufacturing, is a new and productive strategy in the medical and pharmaceutical areas. This technique has been a pioneer in making artificial multicellular tissues/organs due to its capacity to generate regenerative tissues and organs. 3D printing is a promising method for fabricating implants because it permits the construction of implants with complicated internal structures and high resolution using medical data sets. Pre-bioprinting, Bioprinting, and post-bioprinting are the three primary processes that make up the 3D bioprinting process. The output construct from 3D Bioprinting keeps its cell viability and function, making it suitable for research and development (R&D) in a variety of medical fields.

Increased focus on R&D investment and technological improvements for producing customized products are only a few of the factors anticipated to show considerable growth of the global 3D Bioprinting for Tissue and Organ Regeneration Market over the forecast period. Increased use of 3D printing in aesthetic procedures and advancements in 3D Bioprinting is also anticipated to support the growth of the 3D Bioprinting for the Tissue and Organ Regeneration market throughout the course of the forecast period. Additionally, there is a significant need for organ transplants among patients and medical professionals, and the newly developed 3D bioprinting technologies have a promising future in bridging this gap. Stem cell research is likely to increase, and 3D bioprinting awareness is predicted to rise, providing lucrative potential for industry participants.

A number of pharmaceutical firms are rapidly utilizing 3D bioprinting goods and technologies to find and develop new drugs. 3D Bioprinting enables pharmaceutical companies to test medications more affordably and safely than the conventional drug testing procedure. The use of 3D Bioprinting has increased as people's understanding of this technology has grown, particularly in the cosmetics sector. However, During the forecast period, strict government regulations, high treatment costs, and difficulty obtaining reimbursements and coverage for these therapies are anticipated to restrain the worldwide market growth.

In the forecast period, North America will hold the most significant market share for 3D Bioprinting for the Tissue and Organ Regeneration Market globally. North America has a sizable portion of the global market for 3D Bioprinting for the Tissue and Organ Regeneration Market due to large-scale public and private investments in the development of these technologies, their rapid adoption rates, and the presence of prominent industry participants in the area. A large number of clinical trials in North America may be attributed to the presence of research institutes engaged in the discovery of novel therapies, the presence of leading market participants with significant U.S. presence, and the accessibility of cutting-edge technologies.

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Major market players operating in the 3D Bioprinting for Tissue and Organ Regeneration market include BIOLIFE4D, Organovo, Celllink, Aspect Biosystems, Cyfuse Biomedical, TeVido Biodevices, Digilab, Advanced Solutions Life Sciences, TRS  Tissue Regeneration Systems, Nscrypt, Inc, EnvisionTEC, MedPrin, Nano3D Sciences, Rokit, Cellbricks, REGEMAT 3D, Allevi, Poietis, and T&R BIOFA.

Key developments in the market:

In March 2022 , CELLINK, a BICO Company, introduced the BIO CELLX, a revolutionary technology that automates 3D cell culture operations using pre-validated protocols. The BIO CELLX expands on CELLINK's impressive bioprinting portfolio by combining tried-and-true technologies, such as the patented Clean Chamber, with novel approaches for high-precision dispensing, automatic nozzle priming, and effortless mixing of hydrogels and cells to produce a system for repeatable and high throughput model generation.

CELLINK, a BICO Company, introduced the BIO CELLX, a revolutionary technology that automates 3D cell culture operations using pre-validated protocols. The BIO CELLX expands on CELLINK's impressive bioprinting portfolio by combining tried-and-true technologies, such as the patented Clean Chamber, with novel approaches for high-precision dispensing, automatic nozzle priming, and effortless mixing of hydrogels and cells to produce a system for repeatable and high throughput model generation. In April 2022 , Aspect Biosystems and the global diabetes research and advocacy group JDRF announced a new relationship. As part of the agreement, JDRF has pledged to support Aspect Biosystems' efforts to develop innovative 3D bioprinted tissues for treating type 1 diabetes.

Aspect Biosystems and the global diabetes research and advocacy group JDRF announced a new relationship. As part of the agreement, JDRF has pledged to support Aspect Biosystems' efforts to develop innovative 3D bioprinted tissues for treating type 1 diabetes. In Jan 2022 , Sciperio, the research arm of nScrypt, was given a U.S. patent for a 3D-printed device, circuitry, and sensors for a tailored electronic therapeutic training device. The previous year, nScrypt continued to advance its microdispensing technique by attaining 6-axis 3D printing with their 3Dn-Axis FiT 3D printer.

Sciperio, the research arm of nScrypt, was given a U.S. patent for a 3D-printed device, circuitry, and sensors for a tailored electronic therapeutic training device. The previous year, nScrypt continued to advance its microdispensing technique by attaining 6-axis 3D printing with their 3Dn-Axis FiT 3D printer. In March 2021 , Poietis announced that their laser-assisted 3D bioprinting approach has been granted a third patent. The business has recently invented a 4D bioprinting process in which tissue self-organization is programmed by CAD-designed starting tissue architecture. Thus, the functioning of the 3D bioprinted tissues is enhanced.

Poietis announced that their laser-assisted 3D bioprinting approach has been granted a third patent. The business has recently invented a 4D bioprinting process in which tissue self-organization is programmed by CAD-designed starting tissue architecture. Thus, the functioning of the 3D bioprinted tissues is enhanced. In April 2019 , Orgenesis Inc. stated that it has entered into a partnership agreement with Digilab Inc. to create a technique and system for automating the synthesis of three-dimensional living cellular structures and tissues. Under the terms of the Agreement, Orgenesis had the exclusive right to co-develop the method and systems necessary for its therapeutic cooperation initiatives, as well as the right to utilize, market, and distribute the novel cell printer systems and related goods.

Market Segments

Global 3D Bioprinting for Tissue and Organ Regeneration Market, by Type, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn)

Magnetic 3D Bioprinting

Laser-assisted Bioprinting

Inkjet 3D Bioprinting

Microextrusion 3D Bioprinting

Global 3D Bioprinting for Tissue and Organ Regeneration Market, by Application, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn)

Clinical Applications

Research Applications

Drug and Medical Research

Others

Global 3D Bioprinting for Tissue and Organ Regeneration Market, by Region, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East & Africa

North America 3D Bioprinting for Tissue and Organ Regeneration Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn)

U.S.

Canada

Europe 3D Bioprinting for Tissue and Organ Regeneration Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn)

Germany

France

Italy

Spain

Russia

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific 3D Bioprinting for Tissue and Organ Regeneration Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn)

India

China

Japan

South Korea

Australia & New Zealand

Latin America 3D Bioprinting for Tissue and Organ Regeneration Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn)

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa 3D Bioprinting for Tissue and Organ Regeneration Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn)

GCC Countries

South Africa

Rest of Middle East & Africa

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Why should buy this report:

To receive a comprehensive analysis of the prospects for the global 3D bioprinting for tissue and organ regeneration market

To receive an industry overview and future trends of the 3D bioprinting for tissue and organ regeneration market

To analyze the 3D bioprinting for tissue and organ regeneration market drivers and challenges

To get information on the 3d bioprinting for tissue and organ regeneration market size (Value US$ Mn) forecast to 2030

Major investments, mergers & acquisitions in the 3D bioprinting for tissue and organ regeneration market industry

Other Related Reports Published by InsightAce Analytic:

Global Cardiovascular And Soft Tissue Repair Patch Market

Global 3D Printed Medical Sensor and Biosensor Market

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Global Cell & Gene Therapy Raw Material Testing Market

Global iPSCs Manufacturing Services Market

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SOURCE InsightAce Analytic Pvt. Ltd.
Attendees Can Interview for Openings, Receive Offers on Site

EIGHTY FOUR, Pa., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- 84 Lumber, the nation's largest privately held building materials supplier, is recruiting for nearly 15 immediate openings at its locations in the Buffalo area as the company's business continues to expand nationwide. Interested job seekers can interview for open positions at a hiring event on July 27, 2022, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the company's Depew, NY, store (3317 Walden Ave, Depew, NY 14043).

"At 84 Lumber, we are on the leading edge of the ongoing rise in residential construction across the nation," said Phil Garuccio, divisional vice president at 84 Lumber. "Greater demand for our products means a need for more motivated, dedicated employees who want to take advantage of the phenomenal growth opportunity in our industry. If you have a strong work ethic and are eager for something new, you could be the perfect fit for us."

Hiring event attendees will participate in job interviews and learn more about 84 Lumber's company culture. Some attendees may receive a job offer on site.

Manager trainees (MTs) , who enter an intensive, one-on-one, on-the-job training program that teaches them about the company's business and puts them on a path to become a future leader within the enterprise. Starting compensation for manager trainees is $46,000 to $50,000 per year.

, who enter an intensive, one-on-one, on-the-job training program that teaches them about the company's business and puts them on a path to become a future leader within the enterprise. Starting compensation for manager trainees is to per year. Window/door service technicians are responsible for servicing windows to builders, including installing screens, balancing windows, and replacing glass. These associates also assist on the door pre-hanging assembly line, prep wood materials, operate machinery, and load and unload materials. Applicants may also be responsible for loading/unloading trucks, as well as stocking warehouse inventory. Starting compensation is $20 to $22 per hour. Prior experience is preferred but not required.

are responsible for servicing windows to builders, including installing screens, balancing windows, and replacing glass. These associates also assist on the door pre-hanging assembly line, prep wood materials, operate machinery, and load and unload materials. Applicants may also be responsible for loading/unloading trucks, as well as stocking warehouse inventory. Starting compensation is to per hour. Prior experience is preferred but not required. Truck drivers/Hot shot drivers/Driver helpers are responsible for delivering material to customer job sites, building loads for deliveries, and maintaining a safe, clean, and well-organized lumber yard. Starting compensation is between $15 and $17 per hour.

are responsible for delivering material to customer job sites, building loads for deliveries, and maintaining a safe, clean, and well-organized lumber yard. Starting compensation is between and per hour. Forklift/yard associates. Applicants need no prior experience and perform essential functions behind the scenes  from the management of supply shipments to the operation of forklifts and other equipment. Starting pay is $15 per hour.

"As a family-owned company, 84 Lumber is committed to helping our employees build a long-term career with us. We are proud to say that 95% of our store managers started in our manager trainee program," Garuccio said. "We believe that a wide variety of candidates can find a home with the company and open doors for themselves  a person with no construction experience but a desire to learn, military veterans ready to open their next chapter, or someone simply ready to make a fresh start. We'll give every one of them the tools to grow."

Candidates interested in participating in the Hiring Event should pre-register online and complete the form. Registrants will then receive an email from 84 Lumber with the link to apply for the desired position. To save time, Garuccio strongly encourages candidates to apply for positions online before they attend the event.

On-site pre-employment drug screening will be available for applicants at the hiring event. Candidates who advance in the process will also be required to pass a background check prior to employment.

To learn more about 84 Lumber, follow the company on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

ABOUT 84 LUMBER

Founded in 1956 and headquartered in Eighty Four, Pennsylvania, 84 Lumber Company is the nation's largest privately held supplier of building materials, manufactured components and industry-leading services for single- and multi-family residences and commercial buildings. The company operates nearly 250 stores, component manufacturing plants, custom door shops, custom millwork shops and engineered wood product centers in more than 30 states. 84 Lumber also offers turnkey installation services for a variety of products, including framing, insulation, siding, windows, roofing, decking and drywall. A certified national women's business enterprise owned by Maggie Hardy Knox, 84 Lumber was named by Forbes as one of America's Largest Private Companies in 2018 and one of America's Best Large Employers in 2019. For more information, visit 84lumber.com or join us at Facebook.com/84lumber and linkedin.com/company/84-lumber .

Contact: Jeff Donaldson, BLD Marketing

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (412) 347-8039

Photos: http://www.bldpressroom.com/84lumber/buffalo-hiring-event-2022

SOURCE 84 Lumber
- Alliance will provide opportunity for AbbVie to further expand its diverse eye care portfolio and provide additional treatment options for glaucoma patients

- Collaboration further supports the role of MINIject in the treatment of glaucoma and accelerates goal to bring MINIject to more patients globally

- Deal terms include a $60M upfront payment to iSTAR Medical

- iSTAR Medical to continue development and commercialization of the MINIject device up to completion of the U.S. PMA study

NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. and WAVRE, Belgium, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) and iSTAR Medical SA, today announced a strategic transaction to further develop and commercialize iSTAR Medical's MINIject device, a minimally invasive glaucoma surgical (MIGS) device for patients with glaucoma. This complementary alliance will support iSTAR Medical's development and commercial efforts for MINIject, as well as provide an opportunity to expand AbbVie's eye care business, building on its glaucoma portfolio which includes drops, sustained release implants, and stent offerings.

MINIject received Conformite Europeenne (CE) marking approval to commercialize in European countries in the last quarter of 2021 and launched commercially in select European countries in early 2022. iSTAR Medical is currently enrolling a U.S. Premarket Approval study (STAR-V) to enable commercialization in the U.S.

"As a leading company in eye care with a commitment to a broad and diverse portfolio from the front to the back of the eye, along with our global footprint and infrastructure in glaucoma, we are well-positioned to support bringing this MIGS offering to patients and glaucoma specialists through this strategic alliance," said Michael Robinson, M.D, Vice President, Global Therapeutic Area Head of Eye Care, AbbVie. "This alliance with iSTAR Medical is an important step as we continue to be an innovator in glaucoma by maximizing the value of interventional approaches throughout the treatment paradigm."

"Today's announcement is validation of the transformational role of MINIject in the treatment of glaucoma," said Michel Vanbrabant, Chief Executive Officer, iSTAR Medical. "Our commitment has always been to enable more glaucoma patients globally to be treated effectively in a minimally-invasive manner with our MINIject MIGS device, and this alliance accelerates that goal, especially in the United States. We will benefit from AbbVie's strong global experience and knowledge base already established in glaucoma, and we are excited to be working with such a world class team."

Under the terms of the agreement, iSTAR Medical will receive a $60M non-dilutive upfront payment and will continue to develop and commercialize MINIject until completion of the STAR-V clinical study. AbbVie will hold the exclusive right to acquire iSTAR Medical and lead subsequent global development and commercialization of the MINIject device. If AbbVie exercises the right to acquire iSTAR, the stockholders of iSTAR Medical would also be eligible to receive additional contingent payments of up to $475M in a closing payment and upon achievement of certain predetermined milestones.

iSTAR Medical will remain an independent company through the completion of the STAR-V study. This financing will support the continued development and commercialization of MINIject, including ongoing clinical studies and further enhancements to the technology. SVB Securities LLC acted as financial advisor to iSTAR Medical.

About AbbVie

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, neuroscience, eye care, virology and gastroenterology, in addition to products and services across its Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

About iSTAR Medical

iSTAR Medical is committed to delivering breakthrough eye care solutions. Our most advanced product, MINIject, is approved in Europe for the treatment of open-angle glaucoma  the leading cause of irreversible blindness  and we are aiming to seek market approval in the US. We believe MINIject's distinctive tissue-integrating capabilities unlock a safer, and more effective option for patients. We are building an exceptional team and pipeline of innovative products such as MINIject to establish new treatment paradigms in eye care conditions with the highest patient needs. For more information, please visit: www.istar-medical.com

About MINIject

MINIject is iSTAR Medical's innovative MIGS device for patients with primary open-angle glaucoma. MINIject combines the distinctive porous structure of its proprietary STAR material with the power offered by the supraciliary space. As a result, it is designed to enhance natural fluid outflow, reducing intraocular pressure (IOP) and the need for medication, while bio-integrating with surrounding tissue, limiting inflammation, fibrosis and subsequent complications.

About Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a progressive disease affecting over 100 million people globally, of which primary open-angle glaucoma is the most common form.1,2 IOP reduction, through medication or surgery, helps delay disease progression.3 Medication is generally the first line treatment, but the progressive addition of multiple drops can burden patients with side effects, compliance challenges and costs.1,3 More invasive surgical options can present risks with irreversible complications and often requires long-term patient management.1,3 MIGS is one of the most promising and fastest-growing glaucoma therapies due to the potential for an enhanced safety profile.1

Forward-Looking Statements

Some statements in this news release are, or may be considered, forward-looking statements for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project" and similar expressions, among others, generally identify forward-looking statements. AbbVie cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, failure to realize the expected benefits from AbbVie's acquisition of Allergan plc ("Allergan"), failure to promptly and effectively integrate Allergan's businesses, competition from other products, challenges to intellectual property, difficulties inherent in the research and development process, adverse litigation or government action, changes to laws and regulations applicable to our industry and the impact of public health outbreaks, epidemics or pandemics, such as COVID-19. Additional information about the economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors that may affect AbbVie's operations is set forth in Item 1A, "Risk Factors," of AbbVie's 2021 Annual Report on Form 10-K, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as updated by its subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. AbbVie undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking statements as a result of subsequent events or developments, except as required by law.

1 Market Scope, "2021 Glaucoma Surgical Device Market Report", July 2021. https://www.market-scope.com/pages/reports/267/2021-glaucoma-surgical-device-market-report 2 Jonas JB, Aung T, Bourne RR et al. "Glaucoma". Lancet 2017; 390: 208393 3 "European Glaucoma Society Terminology and Guidelines for Glaucoma", 4th Edition: British Journal of Ophthalmology. 2017;101:1-195 https://bjo.bmj.com/content/101/5/73

SOURCE AbbVie
Two out-of-home advertising leaders partner to automate outdoor inventory selection

LOS ANGELES, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AdQuick.com , the leading out-of-home (OOH) advertising platform in the world, today announces a partnership with Clear Channel Outdoor Americas (CCOA) (NYSE:CCO), one of the world's largest Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising companies, to provide AdQuick customers with real-time printed and digital display availability. This partnership is the first-of-its-kind, and further automates how marketers plan, optimize and execute OOH campaigns more precisely and quicker than ever before.

"The past two years have changed the pace of the OOH marketplace," said Matthew O'Connor, CEO of AdQuick. "Today, marketers must move even faster and embrace new levels of marketing agility. By partnering with Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, we aim to provide marketers with real-time data about media inventory instantly while empowering them to make OOH planning and buying decisions with up-to-the-minute precision."

This is a necessary step forward in workflow automation amongst buyers and sellers as media publishers and others innovate on the RFP response process to better align with the real time decisions marketers are making in media today.

CCOA has been focused on advancing its digital capabilities to meet the demands of its valued clients and this includes the greater agency, buying and planning communities. These innovations to automate its workflow processes internally, as well as building connectivity with external platforms, further integrates OOH into the digital media buying ecosystem.

"Our partnership with AdQuick demonstrates Clear Channel's commitment to using innovative technology and data to enable advertisers to make OOH planning decisions in real time or activate on these plans for immediate messaging to the consumers," said Erika Goldberg, Chief of Business Operations, CCOA. "Our focus remains on meeting our customers' evolving business needs and that includes developing technology-driven solutions that enable marketers and advertisers to make informed decisions about their media planning processes while swiftly executing OOH campaigns, and this partnership will enable that."

To learn more about real-time inventory availability data, please visit www.adquick.com .

About AdQuick, Inc.

Founded in Los Angeles in 2016, AdQuick.com is the leading out-of-home (OOH) advertising platform that makes it easy to plan, buy, and measure every kind of outdoor advertising. With over 1400 media partners spanning all types of OOH media, AdQuick connects advertisers and agencies to OOH media owners anywhere in the U.S. and abroad, including the UK, Canada, Germany, France, and 28 other countries.

AdQuick enables data-led OOH media planning powered by robust datasets and proprietary tools, facilitates fast and efficient campaign execution, and provides accurate measurement across every brand objective and campaign KPI. AdQuick was named in the top ten Best Places to Work in 2020 by Los Angeles Business Journal, recognized as the 74th fastest growing company in Inc. 5000 Regionals, and was honored as one of the Inc 5000 fastest growing companies in 2021. To learn more please visit www.adquick.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn .

Contact: Kristin Hege, Convey Communications Agency

[email protected]

480.540.6496

About Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. ("CCOH") (NYSE: CCO) is at the forefront of driving innovation in the out-of-home advertising industry. Our dynamic advertising platform is broadening the pool of advertisers using our medium through the expansion of digital billboards and displays and the integration of data analytics and programmatic capabilities that deliver measurable campaigns that are simpler to buy. By leveraging the scale, reach and flexibility of our diverse portfolio of assets, we connect advertisers with millions of consumers every month across more than 500,000 print and digital displays in 26 countries.

Contact: Jason D. King, SVP, Corporate Communications & Marketing, Clear Channel Outdoor

[email protected]

212.812.0064

SOURCE AdQuick
BRANDON, MB, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - TorQuest Partners ("TorQuest") and Alberta Investment Management Corporation, on behalf of certain of its clients, ("AIMCo") today announced the signing of a definitive agreement that would see AIMCo acquire a 100% equity stake in Cando Rail & Terminals Ltd. ("Cando" or "the Company"), one of North America's largest owners and operators of first and last mile rail infrastructure.

Cando, founded in 1978 and headquartered in Brandon, Manitoba, serves as a critical and integrated link in the rail supply chain, connecting large industrial shippers to the Class I rail network. The Company operates an inter-connected network of 40+ industrial railyards, nine owned terminals and one short-line railroad. This network, along with 900+ employees and 100+ locomotives, allows Cando to deliver significant benefits to both shipper-customers and Class I partners. The Company, long a proponent of the benefits of broad-based employee ownership, has more than 400 active employee shareholders, who collectively own 25% of the business. There will be no changes to the company's operations or management as a result of the transaction, and Cando remains committed to investing in its rail infrastructure in order to enhance customer service.

Since 2018, TorQuest and Cando management have overseen a dramatic transformation of the business. On an organic basis, revenue more than doubled and EBITDA more than tripled. This growth was enabled by significant capital investments, in support of the Company's shipper- customers and Class I partners, to build out the Company's owned rail infrastructure. In expanding their owned network of rail terminals, today more than 60% of the Company's EBITDA comes from owned assets as compared to less than 40% prior to TorQuest's investment. To support these asset additions, the company had to invest meaningfully in its people and resources, adding over 400 new employees over this period, many of whom also became shareholders in the Company.

AIMCo is a global infrastructure investor with significant experience in the transportation sector including as part of a consortium of institutional investors that acquired the Porterbrook Group of companies in October 2014. Porterbrook has been a stable feature of the U.K. rail network for more than 25 years as the owner of nearly a third of Britain's rolling stock. With the support of AIMCo, Porterbrook has become a recognized leader in innovation and sustainable rail practices, adopting technologies that will reduce nitrous oxide emissions and hydrocarbons, while partnering to develop the low-carbon technologies of tomorrow such as HydroFLEX, the U.K.'s first hydrogen-powered trains.

"Cando is the type of platform investment that has become the hallmark of AIMCo's infrastructure portfolio. With this investment, our clients add one of Canada's most successful rail platforms to their infrastructure portfolios," said Ben Hawkins, Head of Infrastructure, Renewables and Sustainable Investing at AIMCo, "We believe in Cando's incredible potential and look forward to collaborating with their exceptional management to realize a continued track record of growth.

"Our investment in Cando exemplifies TorQuest's strategy of partnering with great people and investing in our businesses to achieve exciting results" said Jonathan Fraser, Partner at TorQuest. "Cando is a wonderful business, with wonderful people, and it has been a pleasure for us to partner with Brian Cornick, Steve Bromley, and all of the employees and employee shareholders of Cando. We have seen first-hand the positive impact that employee ownership can have on business performance and culture. A sincere thank you to every person on the Cando team for helping to achieve a great result for TorQuest and our limited partners in Fund IV."

Brian Cornick, President & CEO of Cando said, "TorQuest has been an excellent partner for us. Their commitment to investing in our business and our people has provided Cando with an exceptional platform for continued growth and success. We are delighted with the success of our partnership with TorQuest and excited about the next chapter of our business evolution in partnership with AIMCo. We look forward to continuing to support our customers and benefitting from AIMCo's considerable experience, relationships and resources."

The transaction, which is subject to customary regulatory approvals, is expected to close in late Q3 or Q4 2022. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Wells Fargo Securities, LLC served as the lead financial advisor to Cando and TorQuest, and Northborne Partners, LLC also served as a financial advisor. Torys LLP and MLT Aikins LLP served as legal advisors to Cando and TorQuest.

RBC Capital Markets served as an exclusive financial advisor to AIMCo on the transaction. Stikeman Elliott LLP, Mayer Brown LLP and Fletcher & Sippel LLC served as legal advisors to AIMCo.

About TorQuest Partners

Founded in 2002, TorQuest Partners is a Canadian-based manager of private equity funds. With more than C$3.5 billion of equity capital under management, TorQuest is currently investing from TorQuest Partners Fund V, a C$1.4 billion fund that closed in March 2020. TorQuest invests in middle market companies and works in close partnership with management to build value. To learn more about TorQuest, please visit www.torquest.com

About Alberta Investment Management Corporation

AIMCo is one of Canada's largest and most diversified institutional investment managers with $168.3 billion of assets under management as at December 31, 2021. AIMCo was established on January 1, 2008, with a mandate to provide superior long-term investment results for its clients. AIMCo operates at arms-length from the Government of Alberta and invests globally on behalf of 32 pension, endowment, and government funds in the Province of Alberta.

For more information on AIMCo please visit www.aimco.ca or follow us on LinkedIn.

About Cando Rail & Terminals

Cando Rail & Terminals is Canada's leading provider of specialized rail operating services that allow industrial shippers to optimize their supply chains and connect to Class 1 railways by leveraging Cando's operating capabilities and network of owned multi-purpose rail terminals. The company provides a wide range of rail services including short line operations, industrial switching, material handling, terminal & transload services, railcar staging, train assembly, and related services. Fully embedded in their customers' supply chain, Cando Rail & Terminals ensure their customers' products get to where they need them, when they want them.

SOURCE TorQuest Partners
Also Unveils Projects with Lamborghini and Czinger Vehicles

MILAN, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcantara S.p.A. recently became an official partner of the German Car of the Year program and has unveiled interior-design projects with Lamborghini and Czinger Vehicles.

The 2022 German Car of the Year (GCOTY) award program kicked off in July with a three-day Summer Fest in Alsfeld, Germany for car makers and journalists. Andrea Boragno, Alcantara's chairman and CEO, hosted an exhibit focused on the company's automotive design applications at the event.

More than 20 leading automotive writers serve on the GCOTY award jury. The Honda E was the 2021 overall winner. Audi, Hyundai, Kia, Peugeot and Porsche were among last year's special award-category winners.

"We are pleased to be partnering with such a renowned panel of automotive journalists," said Boragno. "German auto writers in particular appreciate the high quality of our Italian-born material and our company's commitment to sustainability and the environment."

The new Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica also made its July debut in Valencia, Spain, with specially designed Alcantara interior materials. The car's interior features laser-patterns that echo Lamborghini's signature styling with colors created by Alcantara exclusively for Lamborghini.

The car maker's Ad Personam program allows Lamborghini customers to choose from a wide variety of Alcantara colors. Alcantara is used to upholster the entire range of the Lamborghini's ergonomic seats.

The Huracan Tecnica's steering wheel also is covered in Alcantara with a contrasting front-sight notch at 12 o'clock, a race-car steering-wheel tradition.

Alcantara also partnered with Czinger Vehicles Inc. to create customized interior treatments for Czinger's 21C model that was unveiled in the UK at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed in late June.

Design teams from Czinger and Alcantara worked together to develop a broad range of interior applications for Alcantara's lightweight materials. The 21C's driver's seat, for example, features embossed material in a hexagonal pattern.

Czinger's CEO and Founder Kevin Czinger was on hand for the car's Goodwood Festival debut along Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Operations Lukas Czinger and Alcantara's Chairman and CEO Andrea Boragno.

Alcantara's light weight in comparison to other materials helps reduce overall vehicle weight and contributes to the performance of vehicles such as Czinger's 21C and the Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica. Alcantara also offers maximum grip and breathability which further enhances a customer's overall driving experience.

A leading provider of "Made in Italy" luxury material, Alcantara has maintained a strong commitment to the environment as well. The company has been certified as "Carbon Neutral" since 2009. Its commitment to sustainability and its transparency about the topic are one of its most important assets.

For further information:

www.alcantara.com

twitter.com/alcantaraspa

facebook.com/alcantara.company

youtube.com/alcantaracompany

instagram.com/alcantara_company/

SOURCE Alcantara S.p.A.
NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA) has awarded a $250,000 research grant to The City College of New York to fund new Alzheimer's research which could potentially lead to the development of new medications to treat the disease. The project aims to learn more about the role that disrupting the amyloid precursor protein (APP) plays in causing Alzheimer's.

From left, Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr., AFA President & CEO; Bert E. Brodsky, AFA Founder & Board Chair; Dr. Christine Li, Principal Investigator and CCNY professor; and Dr. Vincent Boudreau, CCNY President.

"Scientists have been working hard and making progress, but there is still more we need to learn and discover about Alzheimer's disease," said AFA Founder and Board Chair Bert E. Brodsky. "We are pleased to support CCNY's research and are hopeful that it will lead to the breakthrough all of us are hoping and praying for."

"Every dollar invested in Alzheimer's research is an investment in hope," said AFA President & CEO Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. "CCNY's research has the potential to unlock some of the mysteries surrounding Alzheimer's disease and hopefully facilitate new treatments, which would be a game-changer in the fight against Alzheimer's. AFA is proud to support their efforts."

The APP gene family is essential for viability in mammals, but its function is unclear. Mutations in the genes for APP and in the enzymes that interact with APP have been found in familial Alzheimer's disease (a form of Alzheimer's disease which is linked to genes and affects at least two generations of a family), suggesting that disruption of APP can lead to Alzheimer's disease.

Led by Christine Li, Principal Investigator and a professor in CCNY's Department of Biology, the project aims to identify the role that APP plays in brain health and Alzheimer's disease using the C. elegans model system. This research can then be translated into discoveries in mammals that could potentially lead to the development of new medications to treat Alzheimer's that do not interfere with APP function.

"We are immensely grateful to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America and its donors for their support of our research," said Li. "Alzheimer's is a devastating disease not only to the individual, but to the family. All different avenues of research must be pursued to identify possible therapies to alleviate symptoms and, ultimately, to find a cure."

"An estimated six million Americas are living with Alzheimer's disease and that number is estimated to almost double within the next few decades. This grant from the Alzheimer's Foundation of America will support the important research being led by Professor Li and her research team," said City College President Vincent Boudreau. "We are grateful to AFA's Board Chairman, Bert Brodsky, CCNY class of 1964, Charles Fuschillo, Jr., AFA's President and CEO and the AFA Board for their support and partnership, which we hope will further the important scientific work being done on our campus and around the world."

AFA is able to award research grants such as this through the generosity of individuals and organizations. To make a donation to support AFA's research efforts, as well as programs and services for families affected by Alzheimer's disease, click here or call AFA at 866-232-8484.

Contact: Jay Mwamba, 917.892.0374

SOURCE City College of New York, Office of Institutional Advancement and Communications
American IV Association announces the launch of its highly anticipated IV Hydration Therapy Business Academy to provide critical support for owners, operators, and providers of IV hydration therapy who want to build and grow a successful business.

LOS ANGELES, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AIVA's one-day academy event will feature leading industry experts providing legal, business, marketing, compliance, and practice management insight. Whether you are interested in adding to an existing practice, opening a new business and/or going mobile, these events are a can't miss!



The American IV Association (AIVA) is a national association for owners, operators, and providers of IV hydration therapy services providing reliable guidance about evolving industry legal requirements, regulations, and best practices. AIVA has announced two 1-day IV Hydration Therapy Business Academy events to assist anyone getting into the IV hydration therapy business, adding IV hydration therapy to an existing practice, or those looking to grow their existing practice.



The first IV Hydration Therapy Business Academy will take place in Los Angeles, on August 20th and the next will be in Delray Beach, FL on September 16th. "Business procedures, marketing focuses, and regulatory compliance are all essential pillars for new and established IV hydration therapy businesses," said AIVA's COO, Gina (Meyer) Hardiman. "Attendees at these programs will learn how to: secure their operational & financial success, optimize client's health, remain compliant with state rules & regulations, and create a sustainable income platform."



For more information on Los Angeles Academy, click HERE and for more information regarding the Delray Beach Academy, click HERE



AIVA is committed to the safe advancement of the IV hydration therapy community and offers essential up-to-date compliance resources for members through training, events, detailed content, and other resources, including state-by-state requirements for licensing and certification, operations, and marketing. AIVA will track government enforcement activity, regulatory guidance, and emerging trends  translating the confusing body of information into practical, actionable steps for AIVA members. The resources provided will enable members to improve their practices, manage risks, and develop effective compliance. Additionally, AIVA provides knowledgeable and specialized resources for training and business development. Their membership and website resources will be launched in the coming weeks, beginning with: Florida, California, Texas, Georgia, Nevada, New York, Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio and Michigan. Interested in exhibiting, sponsorship or vendor opportunities? Email: [email protected] For more information, visit: https://americaniv.com/mpage/home or call 561-455-7700 Ext. 134.



Contact:

Gina Meyer Hardiman

[email protected]

561-455-7700 Ext. 134



Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12925869



Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE American IV Association
The family-friendly hotel brand launches nationwide search for one travel-ready, social-savvy

family eager to help showoff the best of the Midwest

PARSIPPANY, N.J., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Funnel cake. Thrill rides. Snacks on a stick. Every summer, millions head to the Midwest to experience all that its iconic state fairs have to offer. But which has the finest Ferris wheel? The cheesiest cheese curds? The most delicious deep-fried delicacies? AmericInn by Wyndham, the family-friendly hotel brand known for being America's welcoming neighbor, is looking for the one travel-ready, social-savvy family to hit the road this summer and find out. Best of all, the gig comes with a $15,000 payday.

AmericInn by Wyndham has launched a search for its first-ever State Fair Family, a first-of-its kind gig that comes with a $15,000 family payday.

From Kansas to Minnesota, the Midwest's state fairs are a quintessential American summer tradition with each promising a midway of activities, foods, and the nation's top music stars. AmericInn's first-ever State Fair Family will have the enviable task of soaking it all in, visiting a minimum of three iconic state fairs over the course of a week and sharing their insights and experiences via social media along the way. In exchange, the winning family will find themselves on the receiving end of a $15,000 payday, inclusive of a $10,000 travel stipend and $5,000 cash. The job also comes with a suitcase full of AmericInn swag, an upgrade to Wyndham Rewards Diamond membership and bragging rights for what just might be the coolest summer job ever.

"Just like state fairs, AmericInn hotels are a staple of the Midwest, connecting guests to incredible experiences throughout the heartland of America," said Clem Bence, vice president and brand leader, AmericInn by Wyndham. "Our first-ever State Fair Family will create memories of a lifetime as they discover the best that summer fairs have to offer while relishing in the comforts of home at AmericInn."

Now through August 3, families interested in becoming the first-ever AmericInn State Fair Family can submit a written or video application at www.americinn.com/fairfamily or by emailing [email protected]. Submissions should highlight what makes each family the ideal candidate while showcasing personality and social savviness.

About the Role:

This dream job entails road tripping with your family to some of America's most iconic state fairs and creating lasting memories through captured moments on social media. Your family's creative content and experiences will be featured on the AmericInn brand website and social media channels.

Responsibilities:

Attend at least three separate Midwest state fairs over the course of one-week this summer.

Document your adventures in real-time with unique photo and video content.

Contribute to the future AmericInn "Best of the Midwest Fair Guide."

Inspire others by sharing your experiences on your social media channels.

Qualifications:

A social-media savvy family with active social media accounts (TikTok and Instagram preferred).

Parents or guardians must be at least 21 years old.

U.S. resident with a valid federal or state-issued ID and ability to drive to select locations.

Availability to travel between late-August and mid-September.

The Perks:

7 paid nights at AmericInn hotels

$10,000 travel stipend

travel stipend $5,000 cash

cash Wyndham Rewards Diamond level membership

Suitcase full of AmericInn swag

One awesome back-to-school story

How to Apply:

Visit www.americinn.com/fairfamily or email [email protected] by August 3, 2022 to submit a 300-word minimum written entry and family photo or 13-minute video describing what makes your family the ideal candidate for the job. Families should also provide the handles to any public and active social media accounts. Video submissions are highly encouraged to help assess applicants' storytelling skills and social savviness before selecting the family for the job.

by to submit a 300-word minimum written entry and family photo 13-minute video describing what makes your family the ideal candidate for the job. Families should also provide the handles to any public and active social media accounts. Video submissions are highly encouraged to help assess applicants' storytelling skills and social savviness before selecting the family for the job. Applications must be submitted by adults 21 years and older and the entrant must have consent for all parties in the video. Families must be available to travel nationally in late August and September 2022 . Entries must comply with official rules.

AmericInn will select the winning family on or about during the week of August 4, 2022. No purchase is necessary to enter. Approximate retail value of the award package is $16,500. For more information, including official rules, visit www.americinn.com/statefairfamily.

About AmericInn by Wyndham

AmericInn by Wyndham prides itself on delivering quality stays and genuine, neighborly service at more than 200 locations across the United States. Contemporary curb appeal, consistency and guest satisfaction are the brand's specialties, providing a warm retreat complete with hot breakfast, high-speed Wi-Fi, and warm java on the house. For more information, visit www.americinn.com, and like AmericInn on Facebook.

About Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: WH) is the world's largest hotel franchising company by the number of properties, with over 8,900 hotels across over 95 countries on six continents. Through its network of over 813,000 rooms appealing to the everyday traveler, Wyndham commands a leading presence in the economy and midscale segments of the lodging industry. The Company operates a portfolio of 22 hotel brands, including Super 8, Days Inn, Ramada, Microtel, La Quinta, Baymont, Wingate, AmericInn, Hawthorn Suites, Trademark Collection and Wyndham. The Company's award-winning Wyndham Rewards loyalty program offers approximately 94 million enrolled members the opportunity to redeem points at thousands of hotels, vacation club resorts and vacation rentals globally. For more information, visit www.wyndhamhotels.com.

Contact

Stefanie Petropoulos

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

+1 (973) 753-6590

[email protected]

SOURCE Wyndham Hotels & Resorts
WISTON, England, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Every year more than US$6 trillion of cargo is transported by air, accounting for around 35% of world trade value. The majority of this cargo is made up of everyday items, such as food and medicines. However, aircraft are also used to carry some crazier consignments. Here, the experts at Artemis Aerospace look at some of the weird and wonderful items to have been transported by air.

Yoda from Star Wars

Artemis Aerospace looks at the strangest cargo to be carried by aircraft

Finding the perfect Christmas gift can be fraught with difficulties. However, one generous individual, not to be outdone sourcing the gift of their recipient's dreams, arranged for a Lego store in Tennessee to fly a pre-built Lego Star Wars Yoda statue across the US. This isn't the first time that Lego creations have been shipped  master builders at Lego regularly fly their creations to destinations all over the world.

Pieces from the Titanic

The infamous and ill-fated ship is known worldwide for sinking in the Atlantic after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. After many years trying to locate the wreck, the site was discovered in 1985 with portions of its hull and other relics being brought to the surface in 1987  much of which can now be viewed as part of a travelling exhibition. These precious artefacts are regularly flown between museums and displays around the world, helping to keep the story of the Titanic and its passengers alive.

The musical Evita

When this award-winning musical about Evita Peron's life went on tour to the UAE, a Boeing 777 transported the entire set and costumes from Schiphol in Amsterdam to the Middle East. According to the handlers who loaded the aircraft, due to the size and shape of the pieces, it proved to be quite a challenge to fit everything into a single plane.

Human organs

In 2020, there was a total of 129,681 life-saving human organs transplanted worldwide. These include kidneys, lungs, eyeballs, corneas, hearts and bone marrow. Time is of the essence for this precious cargo with some organs only remaining viable for transplant outside the body for as little as four hours. It is estimated that as many as 10 organs for transplant are carried on aircraft every day.

Poisonous snakes

The action film Snakes on a Plane might seem like a ludicrous and unlikely scenario, but venomous snakes are shipped daily from airports all over the world. However, unlike the film's plot, snakes are unlikely to break free and roam the cabin aisles terrifying passengers. Proper containment of these creatures requires them to be securely placed inside two knotted pillowcases that are then put inside a Styrofoam container, all of which is eventually packed firmly into a wooden box that is secured to the floor  phew!

Sources

https://www.alaskaaircargo.com/shipping/5-weird-things-shipped-by-air/

https://www.iata.org/en/publications/newsletters/iata-knowledge-hub/what-types-of-cargo-are-transported-by-air/

https://khn.org/news/how-lifesaving-organs-for-transplant-go-missing-in-transit/#:~:text=The%20traveling%20public%20may%20not,move%20this%20way%20every%20day

https://list25.com/25-strangest-cargo-ever-carried-by-plane-train-or-automobile/

https://www.fodors.com/news/travel-tech/curious-cargo-20-strange-things-you-didnt-know-were-flying-with-you

Artemis Aerospace offers an innovative approach to component solutions for the aviation sector. Established in 1999, the company has earned a reputation for outstanding customer service by solving problems and providing a range of realistic options that offer customers the flexibility and freedom to choose a solution that suits their timescale and budget. Its services include component supplies, component repairs, lessor support, flight simulation hardware support, consignment stock management and global aircraft logistics.

With decades of expertise in global aviation logistics, the expert team works with trusted MROs, OEMs, and aftermarket suppliers around the world to offer 24/7 support to its global customer base.

Website: www.artemisaerospace.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1863154/Artemis_Aerospace.jpg

SOURCE Artemis Aerospace
Avertium's premium MXDR service now available for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Microsoft Sentinel.

PHOENIX, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Avertium announced Fusion MXDR, a new service the security partner is providing for Microsoft Security customers. This threat-informed, managed extended detection and response (MXDR) service from Avertium includes threat intelligence, attack surface monitoring, NIST CSF framework, and vulnerability management as part of a cyber maturity program for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Microsoft Sentinel.

According to Jeff Schmidt, CEO at Avertium, fusing endpoint and event management technology with cyber maturity and professional services is the crux of Fusion MXDR. Companies that invest in Microsoft Security Solutions can maximize those investments by integrating new threat defense intelligence as part of the adaptable MXDR service.

"Companies that rely on Microsoft Security technology for primary threat defense can optimize those investments by fusing that technology with insights from new threat behavior," said Schmidt. "Comprehensive cyber maturity is achieved with an MXDR approach that gets stronger with new intelligence over time."

Schmidt explains Fusion MXDR is built for Microsoft Security customers that want to replace legacy tools, consolidate point solutions, and build a cyber maturity program that is integrated with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Microsoft Sentinel platforms.

"From implementation and optimization to ongoing management and tuning, Fusion MXDR allows Microsoft Security customers to adapt, attack, and evolve with emerging threats," said Schmidt.

For more information, visit www.avertium.com/fusion-mxdr-microsoft-security-solutions.

About Avertium:

Avertium is the security partner that companies turn to for end-to-end cybersecurity solutions that attack the chaos of the cybersecurity landscape with context. By fusing together human expertise and a business-first mindset with the right combination of technology and threat intelligence, Avertium delivers a more comprehensive, more programmatic approach to cybersecurity - one with cyber fusion services that drive action on the ground and influence in the boardroom. That's why over 1,200 mid-market and enterprise-level organizations across 15 industries turn to Avertium when they want to be more efficient, more effective, and more resilient when waging today's cyber war. Show no weakness.

Tommy Smith

865.567.6211

[email protected]

www.avertium.com

SOURCE Avertium
CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America Corporation today announced the Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend on Bank of America common stock of $0.22 per share, up $0.01 from the prior quarter. The dividend is payable on September 30, 2022 to shareholders of record as of September 2, 2022.

The Board also declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $1.75 per share on the 7% Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock, Series B. The dividend is payable on October 25, 2022 to shareholders of record as of October 11, 2022.

Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 67 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,000 retail financial centers, approximately 16,000 ATMs and award-winning digital banking with approximately 55 million verified digital users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and approximately 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more Bank of America news, including dividend announcements and other important information, visit the Bank of America newsroom and register for email news alerts.

www.bankofamerica.com

Investors May Contact:

Lee McEntire, Bank of America

Phone: 1.980.388.6780

[email protected]

Jonathan G. Blum, Bank of America (Fixed Income)

Phone: 1.212.449.3112

[email protected]

Reporters May Contact:

Christopher P. Feeney, Bank of America

Phone: 1.980.386.6794

[email protected]

SOURCE Bank of America Corporation
"Achieving our Purpose of advancing the world of health, requires diversity of thought, various abilities and unique strengths," said Nicole Thompson, vice president of HR  Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Engagement at BD. "We welcome and empower people with differing perspectives and approaches to innovation and problem-solving and create an environment that allows them to speak up, contribute fully and be equitably rewarded for their contributions. Our collaboration with Disability:IN is critical in helping us accomplish our goals. We are honored to receive this award as a reflection of the work we have done to increase our score from 90 to 100, and the progress we continue to make in creating a healthy and impact-driven company powered by associates with diverse abilities."

One of the ways that BD drives disability inclusion is through its Limitless Associate Resource Group. Supported by BD Leadership Team members, it helps foster an environment of belonging that drives innovative thinking, eliminates obstacles, and implements inclusive workplace measures and resources that enables associates with disabilities to bring their full selves to work, participate meaningfully and have equal opportunities to advance their careers. In addition, BD Chairman, CEO and President Tom Polen further demonstrated our commitment to workplace inclusion by signing the "Are You In?" pledge created by Disability:IN.

"Disability inclusion is a rapidly expanding aspect of corporate culture, and it's gratifying to partner with 415 companies on the 2022 Disability Equality Index," said Jill Houghton, president and CEO of Disability:IN. "These top-scoring companies not only excel in disability inclusion, many are also adopting emerging trends and pioneering measures that can move the disability agenda from accommodation to inclusion and ultimately, genuine belonging."

This recognition demonstrates the company's ongoing progress in advancing its environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy  Together We Advance  and efforts to achieve its 2030+ goals for promoting a healthy workforce and communities. These goals encompass maintaining a healthy and thriving workforce that cultivates the company's culture of inclusion, safety, well-being, and contributes to community and company health. In addition to this accolade, BD recently celebrated the following recognitions:

To learn more about the inclusion, diversity and equity systems, processes and tools that drive action and accountability at BD, read the 2021 Global ID&E Report.

About BD

BD is one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world and is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. The company supports the heroes on the frontlines of health care by developing innovative technology, services and solutions that help advance both clinical therapy for patients and clinical process for health care providers. BD and its 75,000 employees have a passion and commitment to help enhance the safety and efficiency of clinicians' care delivery process, enable laboratory scientists to accurately detect disease and advance researchers' capabilities to develop the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics. BD has a presence in virtually every country and partners with organizations around the world to address some of the most challenging global health issues. By working in close collaboration with customers, BD can help enhance outcomes, lower costs, increase efficiencies, improve safety and expand access to health care. For more information on BD, please visit bd.com or connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/bd1/ and Twitter @BDandCo .

Contacts:

Media : Investors : Troy Kirkpatrick Francesca DeMartino VP, Public Relations SVP, Head of Investor Relations 858.617.2361 201.847.5743

[email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company)
PHILADELPHIA, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Berger Montague is investigating securities fraud allegations on behalf of investors who purchased the securities Unilever PLC ("Unilever" or the "Company") (NYSE: UL) between September 2, 2020 and July 21, 2021 (the "Class Period").

If you purchased the securities of Unilever during the Class Period, would like to discuss Berger Montague's investigation, or have questions concerning your rights or interests, please contact attorneys Andrew Abramowitz at [email protected] or (215) 875-3015, or Michael Dell'Angelo at [email protected] or (215) 875-3080 or visit: https://investigations.bergermontague.com/unilever-plc-/

A recently filed lawsuit alleges that, throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and misleading statements and failed to disclose that in July 2020, Ben & Jerry's board passed a resolution to end sales of its ice cream in "Occupied Palestinian Territory," as well as the risks attendant to the board's decision. Additionally, Unilever's description of its legal risks omitted discussion of Ben & Jerry's boycott decision, which risked adverse governmental actions for violations of laws, executive orders, or resolutions aimed at discouraging boycotts, divestment, and sanctions of Israel adopted by 35 U.S. states ("Anti-BDS Legislation").

On July 19, 2021, Unilever and its hand-picked Ben & Jerry's CEO, Matthew McCarthy, finally "operationalized" the Ben & Jerry's board's resolution to boycott Israel. Ben & Jerry's 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 & Jerry's would end sales of its ice cream in "Occupied Palestinian Territory" but Ben & Jerry's would purportedly continue to sell its products in Israel. On this news, the price of Unilever ADRs fell.

Then, July 22, 2021, CNBC reported that the states of Texas and Florida were examining Ben & Jerry's actions in connection with the states' Anti-BDS Legislation. 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. On this news, the price of Unilever ADRs fell more than 5%, further damaging investors.

Ultimately, the states of New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Colorado, and Arizona announced decisions to divest their pension fund investments in Unilever due to violations of their Anti-BDS Legislation.

Berger Montague, with offices in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., and San Diego, has been a pioneer in securities class action litigation since its founding in 1970. Berger Montague has represented individual and institutional investors for over five decades and serves as lead counsel in courts throughout the United States.

Whistleblowers: Anyone with non-public information regarding Unilever is encouraged to confidentially assist Berger Montague's investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under this program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to thirty percent (30%) of recoveries obtained by the SEC. For more information, contact us.

Contacts

Andrew Abramowitz, Senior Counsel

Berger Montague

(215) 875-3015

[email protected]

Michael Dell'Angelo, Executive Shareholder

Berger Montague

(215) 875-3080

[email protected]

SOURCE Berger Montague
Funding announced during BIPOC Mental Health Month helps nonprofit organizations bridge gaps in health equity, advocate for care, and destigmatize mental illness

OAKLAND, Calif., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In recognition of July as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) Mental Health Month, Blue Shield of California announced that it is providing more than $1.1 million to four organizations working to support youth mental health in California. Mental illness is the number one reason children in the state are hospitalized, and half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by the age of 14.

The support is part of Blue Shield of California's BlueSky Initiative, which provides resources and support for youth, families, educators, and caregivers to promote emotional well-being for youth. Launched in 2019, BlueSky works with the California Department of Education and nonprofit and community organizations to improve health and educational outcomes for youth by ensuring access to culturally diverse and responsive mental health resources. With today's announcement, BlueSky has now provided $10 million total to support youth mental health programs throughout the state.

"Our goal is to support youth by helping them develop resilience and emotional well-being to cope with life's challenges in a healthy way," said Paul Markovich, president and CEO of Blue Shield of California. "That is why we created BlueSky  to support, invest in, and work with organizations to bring the needed support for our young people throughout California."

Below are the four organizations receiving support from BlueSky.

DoSomething.org is the largest global organization for young people and social change. With BlueSky support, the group will survey youths to shape a new educational campaign to help students build advocacy skills and provide peer-to-peer mental health resources. The effort follows an earlier collaboration by BlueSky and DoSomething.org to create the New State of Mind Youth Mental Health Guide that includes nearly 75,000 tips from teen-agers to help their peers cope with isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic .

that includes nearly 75,000 tips from teen-agers to help their peers cope with isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic Mental Health California's Brother Be Well program in Sacramento provides wellness support for boys and men of color who are 13 and older. The goals are to reduce disparities in access to mental health services, remove stigma, and improve the mental health and well-being of all program participants. The initiative also includes education for parents and caregivers.

provides wellness support for boys and men of color who are 13 and older. The goals are to reduce disparities in access to mental health services, remove stigma, and improve the mental health and well-being of all program participants. The initiative also includes education for parents and caregivers. Youth Power Fund is a San Francisco Bay Area -based funder collaborative that promotes the role of youth organizing for advancing justice and equity. BlueSky's assistance will support priority outcomes such as providing mental health, wellness and healing for youth and its collaborative staff, uplifting youth voices and decision-making power, and creating safe and welcoming spaces for youth.

-based funder collaborative that promotes the role of youth organizing for advancing justice and equity. BlueSky's assistance will support priority outcomes such as providing mental health, wellness and healing for youth and its collaborative staff, uplifting youth voices and decision-making power, and creating safe and welcoming spaces for youth. Directing Change engages young people throughout California to learn about suicide prevention and mental health, and then educate their peers through creative filmmaking. For the third year in a row, BlueSky will help fund the Directing Change film contest. BlueSky's support will also help fund Directing Change grants to schools that are building student filmmaking programs focused on mental health awareness and suicide prevention. During the 2021-22 school year, Directing Change received 939 film submissions representing nearly 2,500 youth from 135 schools and community-based organizations.

"The pandemic not only shed light on, but exacerbated, a critical epidemic  the alarming decline of mental health of young people, especially those in Black and brown communities," said DeNora Getachew, CEO of DoSomething.org. "Blue Shield's gracious support will help DoSomething equip its members with the tools and resources they need to destigmatize mental health issues and address this epidemic with action."

Over the last year, BlueSky and its programs almost doubled the number of educators it trained to spot warning signs of mental health concerns in youth, conducted more than 4,000 counseling sessions, and supported cultivating a pipeline of diverse youth to work in the mental health field. The new financial support announced today will continue enhancing these mental health supports with a focus on reducing health disparities.

"We share a common mission with BlueSky in serving boys and men of color to improve their well-being," said Kristene Smith, CEO of Brother Be Well. "With Blue Shield's support, Brother Be Well clinicians will be able to expand their reach and normalize conversations about mental health."

Other organizations receiving support since 2019 include:

For more information about BlueSky, go to https://bluesky.blueshieldca.com/

About Blue Shield of California

Blue Shield of California strives to create a healthcare system worthy of its family and friends that is sustainably affordable. Blue Shield of California is a tax-paying, nonprofit, independent member of the Blue Shield Association with 4.7 million members, 7,800 employees, and $22.9 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 in San Francisco and now headquartered in Oakland, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid, and Medicare healthcare service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $192 million to Blue Shield of California Foundation in the last five years to have an impact on California communities.

For more news about Blue Shield of California, please visit news.blueshieldca.com. Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

CONTACT: Mark Seelig

Blue Shield of California

510-607-2359

[email protected]

SOURCE Blue Shield of California
New board president combines history with the organization with a fresh approach

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, known in the MS community as MS Focus, announced today that Eric Schenk, long-time president of the Board of Directors has retired, and Charles Eader, an officer with more than 20 years' experience with the organization, was elected as his successor.

"We're grateful to Eric Schenk for all his years of service and dedication to the MS community," said Natalie Blake, Executive Director of MS Focus," and excited to have Charles Eader step into the role. Charles has a long history with the organization and thoroughly understands our culture, challenges, and goals. But as a long-time activist in his community, he also brings advocacy and community-building skills that are a great asset. It's really the best of both worlds for our organization."

Mr. Eader received his degree in Business Administration from Emory University  Goizueta Business School in 1988. A twenty-six year career at AT&T followed, retiring as a Sr. Project Program Manager. He is very active in community affairs, currently serving as the tax administrator for Somerset County, New Jersey, after more than ten years on the county board of taxation. He also serves as chairperson of the Somerset County Democratic LGBTQ+ Caucus.

"I thoroughly believe in the mission of MS Focus to help improve the quality of life for those challenged by MS. This is why I have actively been involved with the organization for over two decades," said Mr. Eader. "Building on the legacy of Eric Schenk, who welcomed me into the organization all those years ago, I am excited to expand my role and to continue to be an advocate."

Other officers of the Foundation's Board include Mark Shalloway of Shalloway & Shalloway, P.A. in West Palm Beach, Fla. elected to the position of Vice President; Elaine LaFlamme of Gallagher and Basset in Miami, Fla. elected to the position of Treasurer; and retired retail executive John Blackstock of Bradenton, Fla re-elected to the position of secretary.

About Us: MS Focus: Multiple Sclerosis Foundation is a nonprofit organization focused on providing free services that address the critical needs of people with MS, helping them maintain the best quality of life. Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, MS Focus provides services throughout the United States and its territories. Learn more at www.msfocus.org.

SOURCE Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, Inc.
DENVER, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bow River Capital, a Denver-based alternative asset manager, is pleased to announce that its Evergreen Fund ("the Fund") completed the first half of 2022 with a positive return of 4.1%, successfully navigating a very challenging investment environment. For the one-year period ended June 30, 2022, the Fund returned 17.9% and has returned a total of 60.7% since its inception on May 22, 2020.

The Fund provides access to a broad range of private market investments across vintage year, geography, and size. As of July 1, 2022, the Fund had $259 million in net assets and executed more than 50 private market transactions providing exposure to hundreds of underlying private businesses.

"We believe the performance of the Evergreen Fund through a difficult market environment is a testament not only to the diversification potential of private markets but also to the resiliency of our portfolio," said Jeremy Held, Managing Director at Bow River Capital. "Many investors are just beginning to recognize the portfolio benefits of adding private equity exposure and we look forward to being part of that solution."

Investors have also been attracted to the Fund's flexible investment mandate which focuses on a combination of direct investments and secondaries with an emphasis on middle market private equity, an area where Bow River has been investing for nearly two decades. This flexibility has been particularly relevant in the recent market downturn.

"We took several steps during the past year to seek to reduce risk in the portfolio and were able to generate liquidity earlier in the year from some of our best performing positions," said Mike Trihy, the Fund's lead Portfolio Manager. "We have since used some of this liquidity to reposition the portfolio in an effort to take advantage of what we believe will be some very compelling opportunities in the second half of this year."

The Fund's success has not gone unnoticed as assets have grown from $181 million at year-end 2021 to nearly $260 million as of July 1, 2022.

"The concept has really resonated with investors", said Held. "We believe the combination of access to private equity investments along with the shareholder-friendly features of a registered fund will continue to attract interest from investors and the advisors who serve them."

Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results

About Bow River Capital

Bow River Capital is a private alternative asset manager based in Denver, Colorado, focused on investing in the lower middle market in three asset classes, including private equity, real estate, and software growth equity. In addition to its three private fund platforms, the firm launched the Bow River Capital Evergreen Fund (EVERX) in May 2020. Collectively, the Bow River Capital team has deployed capital into diverse industries, asset classes and across the capital structure.

For more information on Bow River, please visit www.bowriverevergreen.com

Distributor: Foreside Fund Distributors, LLC

Investor Relations & Press Contact: Jennifer Levesque*

[email protected]

* Registered with Foreside Financial Services, LLC which is not affiliated with Bow River Asset Management LLC or its affiliates.

An offer can only be made by the prospectus and only in jurisdictions in which such an offer would be lawful. The prospectus contains important information concerning risk factors and other material aspects of the Fund to carefully consider and must be read carefully before a decision to invest is made. Please visit www.bowriverevergreen.com or contact your Financial Advisor to obtain a copy of the prospectus.

Any person subscribing for an investment must be able to bear the risks involved and must meet the suitability requirements of the Fund. Investors could lose all or a substantial amount of their investment. No assurance can be given that the Fund's investment objectives will be achieved. The Fund is speculative and involves a substantial degree of risk. The Fund is a closed-end, non-diversified management investment company that will make periodic repurchase offers for its securities and is highly illiquid. There is no secondary market for investors' interests and none is expected to develop. There are certain restrictions on transferring interests. Fees and expenses will offset the Fund's trading profits. The Fund is subject to conflicts of interest. Other risks include those related to equity securities, fixed income securities, high-yield/high risk bonds, listed private equity, listed infrastructure securities, foreign securities, derivative instruments, leverage, capital calls, investment manager risk, as well as those related to general economic and market conditions, all of which may present significant risks. Please see the prospectus for more information on these and other risks.

SOURCE Bow River Capital
Available on AppleTV+, Cade Tropeano Plays a Young Larry Hall, Displaying Immense Range and Depth of Character

LOS ANGELES, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Every now and then a young actor comes along to usher in a new generation of unmatched talent, effectively shaking up the industry. While decades ago young actors were often overlooked, today's generation is taking their rightful place in the spotlight with fresh skills and new perspectives. The latest to wow audiences around the world is 13-year-old Cade Tropeano. Starring in Episode 4 of AppleTV+'s hit show Black Bird, Tropeano portrays a young version of Larry Hall, the infamous serial killer.

Cade Tropeano Joins Taron Egerton, Paul Hauser and Ray Liotta in Hit Series Black Bird

The hit drama outlines the tragic true story of the life and crime of Larry Hall, played by Paul Walter Hauser. Larry Hall shocked citizens in the 80s and 90s as he is believed to have murdered up to 40 women across dozens of states. Cade Tropeano illustrates the young life of Larry Hall, who grew up next to a cemetery and dug graves as a kid to help out his family. Cade's performance walks viewers through the troubled childhood of the killer and leads viewers down the path of some of the disturbing occurrences of his past that foreshadow the future.

Noted as one to watch in the industry, Tropeano captivates audiences in Black Bird with an astonishing performance that brilliantly displays the bevy of advanced skills, depth of character, and the wide range of the young actor. Cade's role in Black Bird is the most challenging and rewarding to date, pushing him to explore his emotional limits and ability to transport himself to dark places.

Tropeano is best known for his roles in Netflix's Raising Dion, Nickelodeon's Young Dylan, and various voice acting performances across a wide range of industries and projects. He is currently voicing a character in a Disney animated series, and can soon be seen in Paramount's George and Tammy.

"Playing the role of Young Larry Hall was emotionally exhausting but so rewarding in the growth it provided me professionally. It's not often that a young actor gets the chance to play a character with such depth and complexity and so outside of their past experience. In doing that, I was able to experience a range of emotions that I had never faced before. It was powerful."  Cade Tropeano

Through proof of concept, dedication to the craft and unwavering commitment to each and every role he undertakes, Cade Tropeano's purpose-driven vision has come to fruition in his standout performance in Black Bird. Cade's episode can be viewed on AppleTV+ on July 22.

To learn more about Cade Tropeano, please visit: https://www.cadetropeano.com/

About Cade Tropeano

Cade Tropeano is a 13-year-old actor who is shaking up the industry with unparalleled range and depth of character. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Cade has shown a proficiency for entertaining at an extremely young age and captivated audiences in his first role in The Lion King at his local theater. Since then Cade has worked extensively in theater, film, voice acting, and landing roles with notable production companies including Netflix, Disney, Nickelodeon, Apple TV, and many more. Tropeano's most notable roles can be seen on Netflix's Raising Dion and Nickelodeon's Young Dylan. Cade is currently starring in AppleTV+'s Black Bird and voicing a character for a Disney animated series.

PRESS CONTACT

Sherry Lee

323-400-7409

https://www.cadetropeano.com/

SOURCE Cade Tropeano
DECATUR, Ga., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A new agreement has been jointly signed by the Ministry of Public Health in Cameroon and the Mectizan Donation Program (MDP) to renew their commitment to strengthen the partnership to accelerate elimination of onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis (LF) in the country.

Endorsed by President Paul Biya, the agreement was signed by the Honorable Minister of Public Health Dr. Malachie Manaouda and MDP director Dr. Yao Sodahlon.

Minister of Health and the Mectizan Donation Program sign agreement to end Neglected Tropical Diseases

In the agreement, MDP commits to continuing to make available, free of charge, enough Mectizan for Cameroon's river blindness and LF elimination effort until the World Health Organization declares Cameroon to be free of both diseases.

The Government of Cameroon agreed to facilitate fee-free entry of donated Mectizan to the country and to implement the program by providing enough resources for effective distribution of the medicines to those who need them; monitoring and evaluation of progress; and post-intervention surveillance.

This high-level government commitment to success is a powerful development. MDP will be working with other partner countries on similar agreements.

"Ending neglected tropical diseases like river blindness will improve the quality of life for millions of Cameroonians, ensuring their ability to make a living and to contribute to the nation's prosperity," said Dr. Sodahlon. "Taking this important step demonstrates the government's commitment to provide access to all Cameroonians who need treatment."

These diseases are a significant public health problem in Cameroon, with 150 out of 190 health districts designated as endemic for river blindness, LF, or bothcontaining a population of more than 18 million people. An estimated 45,000 volunteer Community Drug Distributors located around the country facilitate the distribution of the necessary medicines along with NGO partners.

Cameroon's river blindness control and elimination program began in 1991 and the LF program was launched in 2007. More than 460 million Mectizan 3mg tablets have already been provided by MDP. As part of its commitment to end these diseases in Cameroon, MDP has also contributed to building capacity for research, monitoring, and evaluation of progress through the creation and development of Pr. Joseph Kamgno's Center for Research on Filariasis and other Tropical Diseases (CRFiLMT) in Yaounde.

The signing of this agreement is an important step to achieving the elimination targets set by the World Health Organization's Neglected Tropical Diseases Road Map 2021-2030. It will also help to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), specifically SDG 3.3to "end the epidemics of HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases" by 2030. "By working closely with the Ministry of Public Health, the World Health Organization, NGOs and other partners," Dr. Sodahlon stated, "we will end these two debilitating diseases in Cameroon."

The Mectizan Donation Program (MDP) oversees the donation of Mectizan by Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey, USA to eligible countries where river blindness and/or lymphatic filariasis are endemic.

Contacts MDP: Joni Lawrence

Yao Sodahlon Program Mectizan Donation Program

Mectizan Donation

[email protected]

[email protected]

+1 (404) 687-5610

+1 (404) 687-5601

SOURCE Mectizan Donation Program
NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Car Rental Services by Top Spending Regions and Market Price Trends " report has been added to SpendEdge's offering.

In-depth analysis and data-driven insights on the impact of COVID-19 on the Car Rental Services, predicts that this market expects a price change of 4%-6% during the forecast period.
Key Market Dynamics:

Market Driver: T he shift toward green initiatives is driving the growth of the market . The use of green energy is effective in combating the negative effects of greenhouse gases (GHG). Green energy is generated with the help of renewable resources. Carbon management software provides organizations with a detailed report on the amount of carbon dioxide generated per unit of production. It helps organizations by monitoring, measuring, planning, storing, and reporting carbon emission data. It also assists in raising awareness about the harmful impact of GHG emissions.

is driving the growth of the market The use of green energy is effective in combating the negative effects of greenhouse gases (GHG). Green energy is generated with the help of renewable resources. Carbon management software provides organizations with a detailed report on the amount of carbon dioxide generated per unit of production. It helps organizations by monitoring, measuring, planning, storing, and reporting carbon emission data. It also assists in raising awareness about the harmful impact of GHG emissions. Market Challenge: The lack of standards, training and development is challenging the growth of the market. Customers are purchasing new products frequently owing to advances in technology and a decline in prices. This is leading to a high generation of e-waste, which is hazardous to the environment. For example, many manufacturers in South America sell electronic products, as the awareness is low. This adds to carbon dioxide or carbon emissions. Developing countries such as India lack sufficient carbon emission standards.

Technavio enables businesses to stay ahead of their competitors by providing the latest drivers and challenges impacting the growth of the carbon software management market. Read our Sample Report right now!

Market Segmentation

The carbon management software market report is segmented by Geography (North America, Europe, APAC, MEA, and South America). North America will be the leading region with 32% of the market's growth during the forecast period. The US is a key country for the carbon management software market in North America.

Learn about the contribution of each segment of the carbon software management market summarized in concise infographics and thorough descriptions. View our Sample Report

Some Companies Mentioned

ENGIE SA

GreenStep Solutions Inc.

Greenstone Ltd

Metrix Software Solutions (Pty) Ltd.

Salesforce.com Inc.

SAP SE

Schneider Electric SE

Simble Solutions Ltd.

Sphera Solutions Inc.

Wolters Kluwer NV

This report provides a full list of key vendors, their strategies, and the latest developments in the carbon software management market. Request a Sample Report

Vendor Landscape

The carbon management software market is fragmented, and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as increasing profitability by offering cost-effective services to compete in the market. Vendors can increase their profitability by offering cost-effective services such as mobile and web services. They should offer value-added services such as consultancy, solution integration, support and maintenance, and staff training to address opportunities and risks. Moreover, to survive and succeed in this highly competitive environment, vendors should differentiate their offerings with a clear and unique value proposition.

Related Reports

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Carbon Management Software Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 14.67% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 8.60 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 4.78 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, MEA, and South America Performing market contribution North America at 32% Key consumer countries US, UK, China, France, and Japan Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled ENGIE SA, GreenStep Solutions Inc., Greenstone Ltd, Metrix Software Solutions (Pty) Ltd., Salesforce.com Inc., SAP SE, Schneider Electric SE, Simble Solutions Ltd., Sphera Solutions Inc., and Wolters Kluwer NV Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Executive Summary

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: Application software

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 Solution

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 15: Solution - Market share 2020-2025 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Solution

Exhibit 16: Comparison by Solution

5.3 Software - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 17: Software - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 18: Software - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

5.4 Services - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 19: Services - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 20: Services - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

5.5 Market opportunity by Solution

Exhibit 21: Market opportunity by Solution

6 Customer landscape

6.1 Overview

Exhibit 22: Customer landscape

7 Geographic Landscape

7.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 23: Market share by geography 2020-2025 (%)

7.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 24: Geographic comparison

7.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Exhibit 25: North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

Exhibit 26: North America - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Exhibit 27: Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

Exhibit 28: Europe - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.5 APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 29: APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 30: APAC - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.6 MEA - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 31: MEA - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 32: MEA - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.7 South America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Exhibit 33: South America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

Exhibit 34: South America - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.8 Key leading countries

Exhibit 35: Key leading countries

7.9 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 36: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.2 Market challenges

Exhibit 37: Impact of drivers and challenges

8.3 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

9.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 38: Vendor landscape

9.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 39: Landscape disruption



Exhibit 40: Industry risks

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 41: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 42: Market positioning of vendors

10.3 ENGIE SA

Exhibit 43: ENGIE SA - Overview

- Overview

Exhibit 44: ENGIE SA - Business segments

- Business segments

Exhibit 45: ENGIE SA - Key offerings

- Key offerings

Exhibit 46: ENGIE SA - Segment focus

10.4 GreenStep Solutions Inc.

Exhibit 47: GreenStep Solutions Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 48: GreenStep Solutions Inc. - Product and service



Exhibit 49: GreenStep Solutions Inc. - Key offerings

10.5 Greenstone Ltd

10.6 Metrix Software Solutions (Pty) Ltd.

Exhibit 53: Metrix Software Solutions (Pty) Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 54: Metrix Software Solutions (Pty) Ltd. - Product and service



Exhibit 55: Metrix Software Solutions (Pty) Ltd.  Key news



Exhibit 56: Metrix Software Solutions (Pty) Ltd. - Key offerings

10.7 Salesforce.com Inc.

Exhibit 57: Salesforce.com Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 58: Salesforce.com Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 59: Salesforce.com Inc. - Key offerings

10.8 SAP SE

Exhibit 60: SAP SE - Overview



Exhibit 61: SAP SE - Business segments



Exhibit 62: SAP SE - Key offerings



Exhibit 63: SAP SE - Segment focus

10.9 Schneider Electric SE

Exhibit 64: Schneider Electric SE - Overview



Exhibit 65: Schneider Electric SE - Business segments



Exhibit 66: Schneider Electric SE - Key offerings



Exhibit 67: Schneider Electric SE - Segment focus

10.10 Simble Solutions Ltd.

Exhibit 68: Simble Solutions Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 69: Simble Solutions Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 70: Simble Solutions Ltd.  Key news



Exhibit 71: Simble Solutions Ltd. - Key offerings

10.11 Sphera Solutions Inc.

Exhibit 72: Sphera Solutions Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 73: Sphera Solutions Inc. - Product and service



Exhibit 74: Sphera Solutions Inc. - Key offerings

10.12 Wolters Kluwer NV

Exhibit 75: Wolters Kluwer NV - Overview



Exhibit 76: Wolters Kluwer NV - Business segments



Exhibit 77: Wolters Kluwer NV  Key news



Exhibit 78: Wolters Kluwer NV - Key offerings



Exhibit 79: Wolters Kluwer NV - Segment focus

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 80: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.3 Research methodology

Exhibit 81: Research Methodology



Exhibit 82: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 83: Information sources

11.4 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 84: List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
CHICAGO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - CIBC today announced it has awarded $350,000 to several affordable housing and small business partners. The Bank hosted its annual Affordable Housing and Entrepreneur Training Program awards ceremonies in Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Louis to honor and recognize the important role these organizations have played in their communities.

"CIBC is proud to partner with organizations that make our communities stronger through affordable housing initiatives, low-cost mortgage options, financial literacy training, job creation, and access to capital for small businesses in our underserved communities." said Michael G. Capatides, Senior Executive Vice President And Group Head, US Region.

CIBC began awarding its affordable housing partners in 2013. The Bank gives grants  used to provide services such as homebuyer education and certification  to Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-certified counseling agencies that work to make affordable housing accessible in their communities. The 2022 recipients of CIBC's Affordable Housing awards include:

Chicago

Brighton Park Neighborhood Council

Chicago Urban League

Great Lakes Federal Credit Union

Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago

Northside Community Development

Northwest Side Housing Center

South Suburban Housing Center

Spanish Coalition for Housing

The Resurrection Project

West Cook Homeownership Center

YWCA

Detroit

National Faith Homebuyers

Wayne Metropolitan Community Agency

Southwest Economic Solutions

Jewish Vocational Services

Milwaukee

Housing Resources

United Community Center

St. Louis

Beyond Housing

The Housing Partnership

Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis

In 2017, CIBC also began recognizing partner organizations that support its Entrepreneur Training Program (ETP), focused on giving entrepreneurs of small business start-ups the skills and training they need to become successful. CIBC's ETP cohorts contribute to the Bank's success in meeting their goals for lending to small, neighborhood businesses. Collectively this year, the following organizations were awarded $150,000:

Chicago

Chicago State University

Greater Southwest Development Corporation

Joseph Business School

Little Village Community Foundation

Mujeres Latinas en Accion

Northwest Side Center

Rogers Park Business Alliance

Sunshine Enterprises

Urban MBA

Waubansee Community College

Women's Business Development Center

Detroit

SWOT

BUILD

Milwaukee

Latino Entrepreneurial Network of SE Wisconsin , Inc.

St. Louis

The Balsa Foundation

Family and Workforce Centers of America

Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis

Over the past nine years, CIBC has awarded $2.2 million to more than 65 organizations.

"When we work together, we revitalize and strengthen our neighborhoods," said Capatides.

About CIBC

CIBC is a leading North American financial institution with 13 million personal banking, business, public sector and institutional clients. CIBC offers a full range of advice, solutions and services in the United States, across Canada and around the world. In the US, CIBC Bank USA provides commercial banking, private and personal banking and small business banking solutions and CIBC Private Wealth offers investment management, wealth strategies and legacy planning. Visit us at cibc.com/US.

Private banking is offered by CIBC Bank USA, Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender. CIBC Bank USA and CIBC Private Wealth Group, LLC are both indirect, wholly owned subsidiaries of CIBC. The CIBC logo is a registered trademark of CIBC, used under license. Investment Products Offered are Not FDIC-Insured, May Lose Value and are Not Bank Guaranteed. All loans subject to credit approval. The Certified Wealth Strategist education and designation are administered by Cannon Financial Institute. The CWS Board of Standards awards credentials to individuals who successfully complete initial and ongoing certification requirements. The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER in the US.

SOURCE CIBC
BOISE, Idaho, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Clearwater Analytics Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CWAN), ("Clearwater Analytics" or the "Company"), a leading provider of SaaS-based investment accounting, reporting, and analytics solutions, will release financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022 after the U.S. financial markets close on Wednesday, August 3, 2022.

In conjunction with this announcement, Clearwater Analytics will host a conference call on August 3, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. ET through a live webcast available on the Company's investor relations website. Participants must visit investors.clearwateranalytics.com in advance to register, download, and install any necessary audio software. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Company's investor relations website, in addition to a press release related to the financial results, related financial tables, and the call transcript.

About Clearwater Analytics

Clearwater Analytics is a global industry-leading SaaS solution for automated investment data aggregation, reconciliation, accounting, compliance, risk, performance, and reporting. Each day, the Clearwater solution reports on more than $5.9 trillion in assets for clients that include leading insurers, asset managers, corporations, pension plans, governments, and nonprofit organizations  helping them make the most of their investment portfolio data with a world-class product and client-centric servicing. Investment professionals around the globe trust Clearwater to deliver timely, validated investment data and analytics. Additional information about Clearwater can be found at clearwateranalytics.com, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

SOURCE Clearwater Analytics, LLC
Helping Americans Access the Dream of Debt-Free Higher Education through the First Searchable Database of 350+ College Promise Programs

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Imagine if college was as universal, free, and accessible as a high school education  for anyone, at any age. To make this a reality, College Promise today released MyPromise ( MyPromiseTool.org ), the first student-centric, comprehensive, searchable database of Promise programs nationwide. We believe data needs to be placed directly in the hands of students, families, counselors, and community organizations that are advising learners and influencing their decisions about pursuing their education beyond high school.

"Students across the country benefit each and every day from Promise programs that not only lower the financial cost of postsecondary education but also provide wrap-around supports such as childcare, transportation, and/or mentors that enable them to thrive in college. MyPromise offers every student the opportunity to learn about their options and choose the Promise program that best meets their needs," said Martha Kanter, CEO of College Promise. "This project builds on our steadfast commitment to increasing equitable access to a high-quality postsecondary education for every American."

MyPromise includes detailed information about the 350+ local and statewide Promise programs across the country. Designed to increase equity, many Promise programs have focused their efforts to support underrepresented populations, including DREAMers, parents, Veterans, first-generation students, and adults with little or no postsecondary education or training. College Promise programs span the nation, with programs available in 48 states and Washington, DC.

Through an interactive map and robust search features, users can learn about all the College Promise programs available to them, bringing together for the first time a wealth of resources to connect students with funding and critical supports needed for success in our nation's colleges, universities, and career-technical programs.

This database includes key aspects of College Promise programs, including funding levels, eligibility requirements, and wrap-around supports. Users can search by program name, school, or city for specific or localized programs. A comparison tool allows students to select multiple programs side-by-side to ensure they find the best option for them. Additional capabilities will be deployed throughout 2022 and 2023.

"MyPromise brings the College Promise movement a step closer to college affordability, equity, and inclusion for all in every corner of the United States," said Rosye Blancas Cloud, senior leader of College Promise. "In order to increase postsecondary education access and attainment, we need targeted solutions that reduce student debt and support 21st century learners in selecting the education and training most relevant to their desired career. This tool is an investment in our nation's talent pipeline by connecting them to Promise programs designed for their success."

The College Promise movement has experienced exponential growth over the last six years, through its focus on opportunity, equity, and supports to drive the economic, social, and civic prosperity of our nation.

For more information, visit MyPromiseTool.org .

About College Promise

College Promise is a national, non-partisan, non-profit initiative that builds broad public support for funding the first two or more years of postsecondary education for hard-working students and ensuring those students have access to quality educational opportunities and supports for their success.

Promise programs are programs that improve affordability, equity, and inclusion for postsecondary education while striving to reduce student debt in order to build a sustainable talent pipeline of Americans for the future.

Learn more about the College Promise movement at www.CollegePromise.org

Media Contact: Ami Neiberger, [email protected], (703) 887-4877

SOURCE College Promise
CHICAGO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE: CAG), one of North America's leading branded food companies, today announced it has been recognized as one of the "Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion" by The Disability Equality Index (DEI), the world's most comprehensive benchmarking tool for the Fortune 1000 and Am Law 20011 to measure disability workplace inclusion against competitors.

The Disability Equality Index (DEI) is a comprehensive benchmarking tool that helps companies build a roadmap of measurable, tangible actions that they can take to achieve disability inclusion and equality. Each company receives a score, on a scale of zero (0) to 100, with those earning 80 and above recognized as a "Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion."

"I am proud of what the Conagra team has accomplished and we remain highly motivated to foster an inclusive and equitable workplace," said Henry Jones, Senior Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Conagra Brands. "We are focused on driving intentional outcomes that reflect our values and have a tangible impact within our workforce and in our communities."

The DEI is a joint initiative of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the nation's largest disability rights organization, and Disability:IN, the global business disability inclusion network, to collectively advance the inclusion of people with disabilities.

"Disability inclusion is a rapidly expanding aspect of corporate culture, and it's gratifying to partner with 415 companies on the 2022 Disability Equality Index," said Jill Houghton, President and CEO of Disability:IN. "These top-scoring companies not only excel in disability inclusion, many are also adopting emerging trends and pioneering measures that can move the disability agenda from accommodation to inclusion and ultimately, genuine belonging."

"There is no single best way to practice disability inclusion, however, the companies taking the DEI share the desire to create a workplace that fosters the concept of bringing your whole self to the office," said Maria Town, President and CEO of AAPD. "We look forward to working with all of the participants to help identify meaningful ways to build upon their current practices as we continue on the disability inclusion journey together."

To learn more about how employees experience inclusion at Conagra, please see the company's Citizenship Report.

1 America's top 200 revenue grossing law firms.

About Conagra Brands

Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE: CAG), headquartered in Chicago, is one of North America's leading branded food companies. Guided by an entrepreneurial spirit, Conagra Brands combines a rich heritage of making great food with a sharpened focus on innovation. The company's portfolio is evolving to satisfy people's changing food preferences. Conagra's iconic brands, such as Birds Eye, Duncan Hines, Healthy Choice, Marie Callender's, Reddi-wip, and Slim Jim, as well as emerging brands, including Angie's BOOMCHICKAPOP, Duke's, Earth Balance, Gardein, and Frontera, offer choices for every occasion. For more information, visit www.conagrabrands.com.

For all media inquiries, please contact:

Tim Wrona

Conagra Brands

(312) 549-5400

[email protected]

SOURCE Conagra Brands, Inc.
The company also appoints VP of Alliances to oversee strategic global Partner relationships

VANCOUVER, BC, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Conexiom, the only intelligent document automation platform that leverages proprietary Touchless Automation technology to ensure data is extracted with 100% accuracy, today announced two new additions to its leadership team: Dayna Rothman as Chief Marketing Officer, and Patrick Finn Vice President of Alliances.

Dayna Rothman, Chief Marketing Officer, Conexiom

"We have been solving the industry's most complex manual transaction-processing challenges for more than 15 years and growing our executive team will allow for more creativity, innovation and scalability to continue providing the best experience for our customers and partners," said Ray Grady, CEO and President at Conexiom. "We welcome our newest additions to the Conexiom team and look forward to a long and successful future together."

As Conexiom's global CMO, Rothman will lead marketing initiatives and will be instrumental in promoting Conexiom's brand, including the development and execution of the company's strategic programs and campaigns. She will be responsible for developing and executing strategies that build Conexiom's position as the only platform to leverage proprietary Touchless Automation technology to extract data from documents with 100% accuracy, while partnering closely with the sales team to drive revenue.

Rothman is joining Conexiom after a successful acquisition as CMO at OneLogin. While at OneLogin, she helped place the company as a Leader, twice, in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Identity and Access Management, which accelerated the business to achieve 50% YOY net-new revenue growth towards the exit. Rothman is the author of Lead Generation for Dummies and a popular LinkedIn Learning instructor on Content Marketing.

Patrick Finn is Conexiom's new Vice President of Alliances and will be leading the company's partner team. Finn will act as a catalyst for scaling Conexiom's partner enablement and accelerating the company's global channel strategy. Finn brings over 25 years of experience and expertise managing and developing channel and strategic alliances, go-to-market planning, and business strategy formulation.

Most recently as Head of Global Channels & Alliances for Bloomreach, Finn was responsible for developing and managing the global technology partner ecosystem with a set of leading partners including Accenture Interactive, Capgemini, Google Cloud, Salesforce, SAP, and Shopify to name a few. Prior to Bloomreach, Finn held the position of Senior Vice President, Global Channel & Partnerships for SAP Customer Experience where he was responsible for developing and managing global technology partnerships with a robust ecosystem of partners.

For more information about the executive team, please visit https://conexiom.com/company/about/

About Conexiom

Conexiom is the only platform that leverages proprietary Touchless Automation technology to ensure that data is extracted with 100% accuracy, transformed with predetermined business rules and logic, and delivered directly to any ERP. Conexiom streamlines the processing of emailed purchase orders, AP invoices, and order acknowledge. Manufacturers and distributors across the globe, such as Grainger, Genpak, Honeywell, and Lonza, trust Conexiom to create resilient operations that scale, drive growth, reduce costs, and build frictionless relationships with their customers and suppliers.

Conexiom is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and has offices in Kitchener, Ontario; London, England; Munich, Germany; and Chicago, Illinois. Visit Conexiom.com.

Media Contact:

Korina Kennedy

[email protected]

SOURCE Conexiom Inc
The most trusted cannabis POS and Tracking software in North America will now support U.S. Dispensaries in accepting modernized payment methods

DENVER, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cova Software ("Cova" or "the Company"), a leading cannabis Point of Sale (POS) software company powering over 2,000 dispensaries across North America, announced the company will now support secure and convenient digital payment options, starting with debit card processing, for its U.S. dispensary customers through Cova Pay .

Cova brings a rare wealth of expertise to the payments space, where complex regulations and unproven solutions have challenged retailers. The company has supported the full range of debit and credit card payments across Canada since federal legalization.

"We support the success of retailers by making the complex simple," said Gary Cohen, CEO of Cova Software. "We know the importance of making payments seamless, secure, and simple for customers. Cova Pay is not only an immediate solution but a payment platform that will allow retailers to pivot as banking laws change. Cova is happy to provide U.S. cannabis retailers access to modern payment options to thrive in a rapidly changing environment."

The new payment options will be available immediately for the company's U.S. customer base and will include ACH payment processing later this year. This addition to Cova's award-winning retail service offerings will aid in dispensaries' success by utilizing Cova's extensive experience, backed by the company's signature reliability and hands-on customer support.

"Cova customers who offer cashless payment options report an increase of 25%-35% in average basket size, and earn higher overall daily sales totals," said Cohen.

Cova's industry-setting standard of 100% uptime during high volume periods enables retailers to take advantage of these modern tools without compromising a store's operational efficiency.

The launch of Cova Pay brings U.S. dispensaries the expertise that has helped Canadian cannabis operators provide cashless services since 2018. The company aims to help retailers boost sales and attract new customers with convenient and familiar payment options.

Cova Pay will always equip retailers with the latest compliant payment methods as evolving regulations, and innovative solutions make cannabis shopping more convenient for customers.

For more information on Cova Pay, visit www.covasoftware.com/payments .

Cova builds innovative software solutions specifically for cannabis retail. Its Award-Winning POS & Inventory Management platform simplifies compliance and streamlines complex operations. Cova's seamless e-commerce and delivery integrations empower retailers to choose best-in-class tech solutions that help build their brand and safeguard customer loyalty. Ease of use, industry-leading support, and enterprise-proven scalability have made Cova the #1 cannabis POS in North America, trusted to power more than 2,000 retail locations.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Trevor Maniscalo

NisonCo PR

[email protected]

(630) 841-1017

SOURCE Cova Software
Major Five Culinary Tourism Companies:

Abercrombie & Kent USA LLC- The company offers small-group journeys, Luxury Tailor Made Travel, Luxury Expedition Cruises, and Private Jet journeys.

The company offers small-group journeys, Luxury Tailor Made Travel, Luxury Expedition Cruises, and Private Jet journeys. Butterfield & Robinson Inc.- The company offers private travel, scheduled trips, Biking, Walking, Hiking, and others.

The company offers private travel, scheduled trips, Biking, Walking, Hiking, and others. Classic Journeys- The company offers domestic and international walking tours, culinary trips, multisport vacations, solo, and family

The company offers domestic and international walking tours, culinary trips, multisport vacations, solo, and family Gourmet On Tour Ltd.- The company offers food and wine lovers hands-on cooking courses, private wine tours, and culinary adventures.

The company offers food and wine lovers hands-on cooking courses, private wine tours, and culinary adventures. Greaves Travel Ltd.- The company offers luxury India holidays and bespoke travel in Bhutan , Sri Lanka , and Nepal .

Find additional highlights on the growth strategies adopted by vendors and their product

offerings, Read Latest Sample Report .

Culinary Tourism Market Segmentation By

Type

Domestic



International

Geography

Europe



North America



APAC



South America



MEA

Europe will account for 31% of market growth. The major markets in Europe for culinary tourism are Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. This region's market will grow more slowly than the markets in any other region. Over the forecast period, the expansion of the culinary tourism market in Europe would be aided by the rising number of culinary tourists visiting the continent and the accessibility of luxury cruise experiences. Technavio's sample reports contain multiple sections of the report, such as the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more. Request a sample report .

The domestic segment will significantly increase its market share. In 2020, the domestic culinary tourism industry will control the global culinary tourism market. Due to consumer familiarity with domestic culinary tourism policies and regulations and the lower financial tax imposed compared to overseas culinary tourism, it will maintain its dominance during the projection period. Government laws that are simple and there aren't any problems with currency exchange drive the domestic market for culinary tourism. During the anticipated period, the market sector is anticipated to increase significantly.

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Culinary Tourism Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 6.53% Market growth 2021-2025 $ 31.42 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 3.45 Regional analysis Europe, North America, APAC, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution Europe at 31% Key consumer countries US, China, Germany, France, and UK Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Abercrombie & Kent USA LLC, Butterfield & Robinson Inc., Classic Journeys, G Adventures, Gourmet On Tour Ltd., Greaves Travel Ltd., International Culinary Tours, ITC Travel Group Ltd., The Travel Corp., and Topdeck Travel Ltd. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, Market condition analysis for forecast period Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table of Contents

1 Executive Summary

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

2.2 Value chain analysis

Exhibit 01: Parent market



Exhibit 02: Market characteristics



Exhibit 03: Value chain analysis - Hotels, restaurants, and cruise lines

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

3.3 Market size 2020

Exhibit 04: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition



Exhibit 05: Market segments

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2020 - 2025

Exhibit 06: Global - Market size and forecast 2020 - 2025 ($ billion)

4 Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five Forces Analysis

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 08: Five forces analysis 2020 & 2025

4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 09: Bargaining power of buyers

4.4 Threat of new entrants

4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 10: Bargaining power of suppliers



Exhibit 11: Threat of new entrants

4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 12: Threat of substitutes

4.7 Market condition

5 Market Segmentation by Type

5.1 Market segments

5.2 Comparison by Type

5.3 Domestic - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 15: Type - Market share 2020-2025 (%)



Exhibit 16: Comparison by Type

5.4 International - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 17: Domestic - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ billion)



Exhibit 18: Domestic - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

5.5 Impact of COVID-19 on type segments of market and recovery from pandemic

Exhibit 19: International - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ billion)

5.6 Market opportunity by Type

Exhibit 20: International - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

6 Customer landscape

6.1 Customer landscape

7 Geographic Landscape

7.1 Geographic segmentation

7.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 23: Market share by geography 2020-2025 (%)

7.3 Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Exhibit 24: Geographic comparison



Exhibit 25: Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ billion)

7.4 North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Exhibit 26: Europe - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

Exhibit 27: North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ billion)

7.5 APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 28: North America - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

Exhibit 29: APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ billion)

7.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Exhibit 30: APAC - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)



Exhibit 31: South America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ billion)

7.7 MEA - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 32: South America - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.8 Key leading countries

Exhibit 33: MEA - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ billion)

7.9 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 34: MEA - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)



Exhibit 35: Key leading countries

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.2 Market challenges

8.3 Market trends

Exhibit 37: Impact of drivers and challenges

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Vendor landscape

9.2 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 38: Vendor landscape

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 41: Vendors covered

10.3 Abercrombie & Kent USA LLC

Exhibit 42: Market positioning of vendors

10.4 Butterfield & Robinson Inc.

Exhibit 43: Abercrombie & Kent USA LLC - Overview



Exhibit 44: Abercrombie & Kent USA LLC - Product and service

10.5 Classic Journeys

Exhibit 45: Abercrombie & Kent USA LLC - Key news



Exhibit 46: Abercrombie & Kent USA LLC - Key offerings



Exhibit 47: Butterfield & Robinson Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 48: Butterfield & Robinson Inc. - Product and service



Exhibit 49: Butterfield & Robinson Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 50: Classic Journeys - Overview



Exhibit 51: Classic Journeys - Product and service



Exhibit 52: Classic Journeys - Key offerings



Exhibit 53: G Adventures - Overview



Exhibit 54: G Adventures - Product and service



Exhibit 55: G Adventures - Key offerings

About Technavio

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.

Contacts

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
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that an employer can be sued for monetary compensation for alleged breaches of its fiduciary duty towards an ERISA beneficiary.

CORAL GABLES, Fla., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In June 2022, the appellate court handed down a decision confirming a fiduciaryin this case an employer may be liable to pay a beneficiary for breaches of its fiduciary duty under ERISA.

Dabdoub Law Firm successfully helped Raniero Gimeno appeal a wrongful partial denial of life insurance benefits under his deceased spouse's life insurance policy.

The employer, NCHMD, did not provide all the necessary information to Gimeno's spouse, Justin Polga, when Polga signed up for life insurance coverage. Following Polga's death, the insurance company denied some of the benefits Gimeno claimed as the policy's beneficiary, alleging he was not properly enrolled because certain forms were not completed. The forms were never provided to Polga.

Dabdoub Law Firm Helped Uphold Gimeno's Right to Equitable Relief in a Case of First Impression

Dabdoub Law Firm brought Gimeno's claim to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The Court of Appeals determined that Gimeno sufficiently alleged that NCHMD was a fiduciary under ERISA and that it breached its fiduciary duties when it failed to provide the required forms to an employee. Under the ERISA  1132(a)(3) statute, Gimeno could sue for relief through "equitable surcharge."

Gimeno's counsel, Edward Dabdoub of The Dabdoub Law Firm, explained how this important ruling sends a message to employers that they can face consequences if they do not provide all necessary information and forms to policy holders during the enrollment process. This case of first impression allows other beneficiaries to sue employers under the ERISA statutes.

About Dabdoub Law Firm

Dabdoub Law Firm is a nationally recognized disability insurance law firm. Their sole focus is to help individuals with disabilities receive the benefits they are entitled to. They have a long track record of successfully submitting claims and appealing wrongful denials or termination of benefits. They have won many cases against the major insurance companies in the United States.

Since federal laws govern disability claims, their attorneys can help you no matter which state you live in. You can visit Dabdoub Law Firm's website at https://www.longtermdisability.net/ to learn more about how they can help you. You can schedule a free consultation by calling (800) 969-0488 or filling out their online contact form at https://www.longtermdisability.net/contact-us/

Media Contact:

Bryn Natland

888-812-0393

SOURCE Dabdoub Law Firm
DataDome's CAPTCHA Revolutionizes User Experience, Stops Bots in Their Tracks, and Keeps Users' Data Private

NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DataDome, a leading provider of AI-powered online fraud and bot management, today announced enhancements to its solution with the launch of its newly integrated and reimagined CAPTCHA.

DataDome's CAPTCHA is the first privacy compliant, secure, and user-friendly CAPTCHA to thwart today's stealthiest bots. Fully compliant with local data privacy laws around the globe, DataDome's CAPTCHA is completely integrated into its detection engine, offering superior protection and an enhanced user experience: DataDome is the first vendor to ensure that 99.99% of real users will not see a CAPTCHA.

DataDome's CAPTCHA is the first privacy compliant, secure & user-friendly CAPTCHA to thwart today's stealthiest bots. Tweet this

"Unlike other CAPTCHAs that frustrate users and often collect personal data without informing them, DataDome delivers an exceptional, and privacy compliant, user experience," says Benjamin Fabre, CEO at DataDome. "And because it was designed with cybersecurity at its core, our CAPTCHA provides the highest security protection against today's sophisticated bots."

Intended for very basic human validation, CAPTCHAs have not historically been coupled with security logic. DataDome is the only solution that is secure by design, protecting companies from bots and online fraud across all endpoints on mobile apps, websites and APIs:

A true security CAPTCHA built by a security company: Current CAPTCHA solutions on the market are easy for bots and online fraudsters to bypass. According to DataDome's aggregate customer data, 50% of "users" that passed other CAPTCHA providers' challenges were actually bots. DataDome combines signals from its CAPTCHA with the 1 trillion other signals it processes each day to identify and react to new bot techniques in real time, effectively ending CAPTCHA farms .

Current CAPTCHA solutions on the market are easy for bots and online fraudsters to bypass. According to DataDome's aggregate customer data, 50% of "users" that passed other CAPTCHA providers' challenges were actually bots. DataDome combines signals from its CAPTCHA with the 1 trillion other signals it processes each day to identify and react to new bot techniques in real time, . Privacy first : DataDome's CAPTCHA only collects information as necessary for security purposes, and it is never shared, resold, or kept longer than 30 days. All data is processed and stored in a localized point of presence (PoP) to ensure compliance with local data privacy regulations. No personally identifiable information (PII) is ever collected.

: DataDome's CAPTCHA only collects information as necessary for security purposes, and it is never shared, resold, or kept longer than 30 days. All data is processed and stored in a localized point of presence (PoP) to ensure compliance with local data privacy regulations. No personally identifiable information (PII) is ever collected. Unmatched user experience: DataDome's CAPTCHA is orders of magnitude faster than Google's reCAPTCHA, and offers unmatched accessibility for the visually impaired, with audio CAPTCHA in 13 languagesmore than any other provider.

"DataDome's CAPTCHA gives us peace of mind. Not only does it block bot traffic, we know that our users' experience remains uninterrupted," says Ivan Delgado, CIO, RealClearPolitics.com. "And because DataDome prioritizes privacy, we likewise don't have to worry about violating compliance regulations."

Other customers agree. "The DataDome CAPTCHA is intuitive and very easy to use. It also protects us better against bot traffic, thanks to the various signals collected on the CAPTCHA page," said Thomas Aligand, Lead Run Manager at SNCF Connect and Tech Services . "We are very happy with the solution and the improvements that this new CAPTCHA brings to our protection and security."

Today's announcement comes on the heels of Aurelie Guerreri's appointment as CMO , the addition of KnowBe4's Lars Letonoff to DataDome's Board of Directors, as well as Benjamin Fabre's appointment as CEO . The company was also recently named a "Strong Performer" in bot management in The Forrester Wave: Bot Management, Q2 2022 report, and has won several industry awards, including the CNP Customer's Choice Award for Best Anti-Fraud Solution , Global Business Technology Award for Best Application of Tech - Security , and the Cybersecurity Excellence Award for Bot Defense .

Follow DataDome on Twitter and LinkedIn for regular updates on threat research, customer case studies , and to ensure your bot protection is ready for the sales season .

About DataDome

DataDome is a global provider of state-of-the-art bot protection for mobile apps, websites, and APIs, against online fraud. DataDome's mission is to free the web from fraudulent traffic, so sensitive data remains safe without compromising user privacy or the user experience. DataDome leverages AI and machine learning to analyze 1 trillion signals each day and beat sophisticated attacks in real time. DataDome protects leading digital commerce businesses , including Axel Springer, AngelList Talent, Australia Post, Patreon, carsales.com Limited, and Foot Locker.

SOURCE DataDome
Music Director for Jordan Peele's NOPE

LOS ANGELES, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Grammy-nominated, award-winning composer, Michael Abels, recently sat down with David Bryan on Bryan's Curiosity Invited Episode 4 appearance. Among the topics they discuss in their 1 1/2 hour conversation is what it is like working with writer/director, Jordan Peele.

As Abels puts it in his Curiosity Invited appearance, "Jordan is the smartest and funniest person in whatever room he walks into. and he has an "uncanny talent for meeting a person and understanding what they ought to be doing."

David Bryan and Michael Abels on the Curiosity Invited Podcast

Bryan, has similar praise for Abels stemming from working together in education years earlier. Before launching Curiosity Invited, career educator Bryan was the Co-Founder and Head of New Roads School in Santa Monica, CA. "When Michael came to interview for a teaching position, his exceptional talent was immediately apparent, even to a non-musician like me. His musical range is astonishing." Equally if not more impressive, "Michael speaks about musical language in ways that reach those of us whose musical ability maxes out at playing the radio." Bryan offered Abels the job of Music Program Director at his school. "One of the best professional decisions I ever made."

He is thrilled to see his former colleague, Abels, being recognized by a large audience. Fans are eager for the July 2022 release of Peele's latest film, NOPE. Peele's first two highly acclaimed films, GET OUT and US (Peele won an Oscar for the GET OUT original screenplay) were outstanding. Among the most acclaimed aspects of both films is the original Abels-composed-music. Smart money suggests that tapping Abels a third time will be similarly charmed.

The Peele - Abels discovery story is the stuff of  well, a Hollywood discovery story. After listening to an Abels' composition, Urban Legends, on YouTube, Peele tracked down Abels to speak with him about working on GET OUT. Seeing Abels' genius across an enormous musical range (Yes, even opera. Abels collaborated with none other than Rhiannon Giddens on OMAR.) Peele invited Abels to create genre-defying magic, first with GET OUT, and then with US.

Other notable artists with New Roads School connections that Bryan hopes will sit down for a chat on Curiosity Invited include actress Dakota Johnson, poet Amanda Gorman, musician/composer/producer, DJ Bander, Austrian filmmaker Katalin Hanappi, and playwright and Artistic Director at PlayPenn, Che'Rae Adams.

To watch the full episode and more, visit www.curiosityinvited.com

Follow Curiosity Invited on Instagram: www.instagram.com/curiosityinvited

Media Contact:

Zach Schnall

3104034964

[email protected]

SOURCE Curiosity Invited
Funding will drive business expansion efforts and the development of Dot Compliance ready-to-use quality and compliance solutions for pharmaceutical and medical device companies

PHOENIX, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dot Compliance, the ready-to-use quality and compliance platform company, today announced it has raised $23 million in Series B funding led by Israel Growth Partners (IGP) with participation from existing investors Vertex Ventures, and TPY Capital. This round brings total funding to $33 million to date.

NYC Team by Dot Compliance Doron Sitbon - Founder & CEO by Natalia Gorji Photography

The round will allow Dot Compliance to continue accelerating hypergrowth driven by demand for its quality management system (QMS). Introducing a true QMS paradigm shift to the life sciences market, Dot Compliance offers the industry's first ready-to-use quality and compliance solution. The company delivers cost-effective out-of-the-box solutions, allowing life sciences customers to quickly deploy flexible and scalable solutions. Powered by the Salesforce.com platform, Dot Compliance solutions include an extensive set of off-the-shelf ready quality and compliance best practice processes that enable life-sciences organizations to deliver life-saving, innovative products faster, safer, and more efficiently by providing them with ready-to-use and end-to-end SaaS solutions to manage their all quality and compliance needs.

"Dot Compliance has shaken up a traditionally slow-moving space, setting a new standard for easy-to-deploy QMS solutions," said Doron Sitbon, the founder and CEO of Dot Compliance. "We are excited about the partnership with IGP and their trust in our vision. The additional funds will allow us to advance our efforts in enabling life sciences organizations to quickly automate their development and manufacturing processes while ensuring compliance."

Rising costs of bringing a product to market, soaring costs of quality, and a stringent regulatory landscape have created an environment where life sciences companies must be able to quickly automate their quality and compliance processes to stay competitive. Traditional QMS solutions no longer address those needs.

"Innovative quality and compliance solutions have become invaluable to the modern life sciences organization," said Yoni Levy, Venture Partner at IGP. "Dot Compliance has positioned itself as the technology-defining industry leader and has rapidly expanded its client roster. We are thrilled to partner with this seasoned team on its mission to make quality easier, faster, and cheaper for life sciences companies  freeing them to do their important work of making us all healthier."

The round is the latest in a series of milestones for the company, including triple digit annual growth over three consecutive years, exceeding 200 customers in more than fifteen countries, and establishing a global network of partners across the life sciences ecosystem.

"Digital transformation has finally reached the life sciences industry, and with it comes a need for companies of all sizes to leverage new technologies in their approach to quality and compliance," said Rosalind Beasely, VP Innovation at Dot Compliance. "Dot Compliance is leading the path with next generation QMS solutions that utilize structured and unstructured data across the entire life sciences ecosystem in ways previously unachievable by legacy solutions."

Dot Compliance will use the funds to meet rapidly accelerating global demand for the company's ready-to-use QMS solutions by expanding their global presence, investing in the company's commitment to delivering affordable, innovative quality and compliance products, and further empowering customers' journey to digitization.

With women comprising more than 50% of the company's headcount, Dot Compliance believes that establishing a diverse, global team encourages innovative thinking and delivering superior products to its customers. Funding will help the company continue to foster and develop an agile, inclusive team around the globe.

"Dot Compliance had the foresight to design and deliver cloud-based, out-of-the-box QMS solutions powered by Salesforce far ahead of its time. Its vision and ability to execute make us excited about Dot Compliance's continued hypergrowth and category leadership," said Aviad Ariel, General Partner at Vertex Ventures.

"Over the course of our investment in Dot Compliance, we've seen Dot Compliance expand its product offering and commercial outreach," said Guy Yamen, Managing Partner at TPY. "The life sciences market is primed to benefit from cost-effective, easy-to-deploy solutions that help get compliant products to market faster."

About Dot Compliance

Founded in 2015, Dot Compliance offers the industry's first ready-to-use Quality Management System powered by the Salesforce.com platform. The Dot Compliance Suite includes an extensive set of off-the-shelf ready QMS and compliance pre-configured best practice processes, enabling customers to deploy quickly and cost effectively. The company's solutions are trusted by life sciences companies, both large and small, worldwide with more than 200,000 users. The solutions are fully compliant with 21 CFR part 11, EU-Annex 11 and support ISO 9001, 13485, 14791 and 27001.

Contact info:

Mickey Landkof

VP Sales and GM

[email protected]

Ph: 480-330-9234

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1862848/Dot_Compliance_NYC.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1862849/Doron_Sitbon_CEO.jpg

SOURCE Dot Compliance
Dutchie Pay solves the biggest payment challenges facing both dispensaries and consumers, increasing average order value by 30%

BEND, Ore., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dutchie  the technology platform powering cannabis commerce  today announced the launch of Dutchie Pay, a fully-integrated digital payment solution that dispensaries and consumers can trust. Dutchie Pay is designed to reduce reliance on cash by providing dispensaries and consumers a convenient and secure way to pay. A closed-loop automatic clearing house (ACH) solution, Dutchie Pay allows consumers to purchase their favorite cannabis products online while automating compliance so that dispensaries can focus on growing their business.

"Cash creates too many safety risks and is inefficient. Our industry cannot meet its full potential without modern payment solutions available at scale," said Dutchie Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder Zach Lipson. "Dutchie exists to create safe and easy access to cannabis. Dutchie Pay advances our mission by integrating a simple and secure product that makes cannabis purchases safer, easier, and more accessible for dispensaries and consumers alike."

Approximately 90% of all dispensary transactions are handled in cash, creating inefficiencies with operations and added safety risks. Providing modern payment solutions is one of the biggest barriers remaining to normalizing the cannabis shopping experience and is essential for the industry to better compete with the illicit market and provide local and state governments with even more critical new tax revenues.

For dispensaries, Dutchie Pay fully integrates with Dutchie's ecommerce and point of sale (POS) solutions, providing businesses with a single-vendor advantage to help streamline operations. Dispensaries no longer need to rely on multiple software providers and with this level of integration, retailers can significantly reduce human error, maximize sales, serve more customers, and generate more revenue. Dutchie Pay is immediately available to Dutchie customers across the United States.

For consumers, Dutchie Pay is a one-click digital payment option for cannabis products online and for delivery via a direct ACH bank transfer. Increasingly, consumers expect cashless, frictionless payment options free of ATM and additional service fees. Dutchie Pay allows consumers to quickly connect their bank account and pay directly at checkout.

Dutchie Pay launched in alpha and beta testing in Q1 and Q2 2022, and is already providing customers with tremendous benefits, including:

On average, order values increased by 30%.

Decreased abandoned cart rates by an average of 32%.

Reduced customers' cash management costs by at least 15%.

No signup fees and no more ATM fees.

Dutchie Pay drives repeat purchases, with 82% of consumers making at least a second purchase since signing up.

"Our customers increasingly want to buy cannabis products without using cash and without paying ATM or other fees. Dutchie Pay has improved their overall shopping experience while resulting in higher basket sizes and customer loyalty," said Joshua Kahn, Owner at Takoma Wellness Center. "With Dutchie Pay, I have a one-stop, one-click solution that is fully integrated with ecommerce and point of sale that provides a seamless shopping experience for my customers, a safer work environment for my team, and accelerated growth for my business."

Dutchie Pay is one of the major products launched out of the company's over $100 million research and development investment announced as part of Dutchie's Series D. Leveraging over 50 years of team experience in the payments industry (from Square to Toast to Paypal and more), Dutchie Pay is available everywhere now for online purchases and will be available for in-store purchases in the fall. Dutchie customers and those interested in benefiting from Dutchie Pay can sign up at: https://business.dutchie.com/payments. To learn more about Dutchie, visit: https://business.dutchie.com/.

About Dutchie:

Dutchie is the cannabis technology platform powering cannabis commerce, streamlining dispensary operations, and providing safe and easy access for consumers. Powering over 5,500 dispensaries throughout the U.S. and Canada and facilitating over $14 billion in sales annually, Dutchie is a one-stop-shop, providing solutions for point of sale, ecommerce, seamless payments, and more.

Dutchie aims to open minds to the positive societal change that cannabis brings to the world. Dutchie's solutions directly serve dispensaries and consumers alike, garnering recognition as one of Fast Company's 10 Most Innovative Companies in North America and LinkedIn's Top 50 Startups for two-years running. To learn more, please visit: https://dutchie.com.

SOURCE Dutchie
BREA, Calif., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Americold Logistics, a temperature-controlled warehousing company for retailers like Smart & Final, has been sued for failure to prevent sexual harassment. Elias Sagastume, an order selector at Americold's warehouse in Brea, California, alleges that Americold allowed widespread sexual harassment to occur. According to Sagastume's attorney, Arthur Kim, Americold does not consider order selectors like Sagastume to be their employees. "Many if not most of the order selectors at the Brea warehouse are supposedly not employees of Americold. This is a harmful fiction that leaves these employees without adequate protection from abusive supervisors. We ask retailers like Smart & Final to demand that this exploitative practice end. If you work at someone's warehouse, you are their employee." The case is Elias Sagastume, et al. v. Americold Logistics, LLC, et al. (Orange County Superior Court Case No. 30-2021-01223068-CU-WT-CJC).

Contact: Arthur Kim

Tel. (866) 582-1057

Email: [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.arthurkimlaw.com

SOURCE Arthur Kim Law Firm
CHICAGO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As a part of its leadership role within the specialty films and flexible packaging industry and furthering its commitment to sustainability and supporting local communities, Charter Next Generation (CNG) recently made a sizable donation to The United Way chapters of Richland County, Delaware County, and Morrow County. These three United Way chapters will act as a steward of CNG's employees by dispersing the donated funds across fourteen different local charities and organizations that were hand-selected by the employees of CNG for their respective roles in revitalizing local neighborhoods and amplifying the growing importance of sustainability inside the communities where CNG's employees live and work.

Charter Next Generation and its employees present $130,000 donation to the United Way

"This is really mind-blowing! The impact that CNG is going to have on our community" said Dan Varn, Executive Director of the United Way of Richland County. "These organizations are impacting lives every day, people throughout Richland County due to the generosity of employees of CNG. These are transformative funds for people you may never know," Varn finished.

Charter Next Generation continues to passionately expand its investment in the communities in which it has manufacturing facilities, specifically earmarking a $130,000 donation to the Central Ohio region with the explicit goals of fostering:

Community Sustainability Efforts through its support of local programs and organizations that actively protect the environment while promoting community resiliency and revitalization.

through its support of local programs and organizations that actively protect the environment while promoting community resiliency and revitalization. Workforce Development through its support of local programs and organizations that focus on education, career readiness, mentoring, and workforce training inside the specialty films industry.

through its support of local programs and organizations that focus on education, career readiness, mentoring, and workforce training inside the specialty films industry. Social & Economic Equity through its support of local programs and organizations that lift up and empower disenfranchised individuals within local communities.

"The best way to describe our Community Giving Funds event is ONE TEAM, ONE FAMILY, ONE COMMUNITY. At CNG, we have always taken pride in making sure we operate as ONE TEAM, ONE FAMILY within our company, and now we are expanding our focus to support our local community even more than before," said Matt DeHart, who is the Director of Operations at Charter Next Generation, as well as a member of the Board of Directors for the United Way of Richland County. "I am proud of all our employees for their effort and consideration while voting on how we will donate our Community Giving Funds. We are thankful to work for a company that allows us all to make decisions as owners of the company." DeHart concluded.

Through its donation, CNG is empowering The United Way to provide financial support to fourteen hand-selected organizations, including The American Red Cross Central & Southern Ohio Region, Catalyst Life Services, Catholic Charities, The Domestic Violence Shelter, Friendly House, Humane Society of Richland County, Mid-Ohio Youth Mentoring, Raemelton Therapeutic Equestrian Center, Third Street Family Health Services, Pathways to Hope, Pacer Pantry, Willis Education Center, Turning Point, and Veteran Companion Animal Services in Morrow County.

This donation represents CNG's ongoing commitment to invest in and create a positive impact on both its employees' lives as well as the communities in which their employees' families live. By working directly with The United Way of Richland County, Morrow County, and Delaware County, CNG is leveraging the United Way's established network of relationships with local charitable organizations within these areas to reach and impact a much larger group of individuals and deliver direct support to a far greater number of households throughout Central Ohio as a whole.

About United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit fundraising affiliates that improves lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities around the world to advance the common good.

About United Way of Richland County The United Way of Richland County is a Non-Profit organization dedicated to serving the community by raising funds through an annual campaign and investing those dollars into 47 critical programs throughout Richland County.

About Charter Next Generation Charter Next Generation is North America's leading independent producer of high-performance, specialty films used in flexible packaging and other end-use markets. Known for sustainable, innovative products and world-class manufacturing capabilities, the company's quality and expertise are unsurpassed. Its sustainability-first mindset and relentless pursuit of excellence make it an ideal partner to help brand owners reach their long-term sustainability goals.

Media contact:

Shelley Hickman

[email protected]

(262) 853-3355

SOURCE Charter Next Generation, Inc.
DUBLIN, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Epigenetic Therapies in Oncology: Analytical Tool" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

In cancer, many aspects of the epigenome, controlled by DNA methylation, chromatin, and nucleosome positioning, are altered and an ever growing pipeline of agents targeting epigenetic regulation are under development and entering clinical trials.



Epigenetic Therapies in Oncology: Analytical Tool is the must have handbook for any business developer, BI/CI operative or clinical developer who needs to be on top of this hot and fast moving area of oncology. This unique product is truly the only tool of its kind and is designed to give you a competitive edge in your epigentic drug surveillance and intelligence, allowing you to power your decision making and advance your own interests.

For 20 years we have supported better decision making across the oncology drug development industry. Your Epigenetic Therapies in Oncology: Analytical Tool is based on two decades of proven methodology and transforms your computer's desktop into a high capacity workbench within your area of choice. Even before launching this tool you have already eliminated the hundreds of hours of work needed to discover, process and piece together the thousands of sources that our team of oncology dedicated and highly experienced contents specialists have done on your behalf.



Your Epigenetic Therapies in Oncology: Analytical Tool covers more than 111 companies plus partners who are today developing 221 epigentic drugs where of 148 are in active development in cancer across 62 different targets. Any data and/or analysis from the Analytical Tool is yours to keep and data/graphs/tables can be easily exported into Excel/PDF and various graphic formats for mixing with your own proprietary information.



Let our expertise work for you

With a simple point and click interface you can navigate the environment of current development, drill down into specific areas such as ongoing combination trials, biomarker analysis, selected scientific abstracts etc. and generate drug profiles, drug target profiles and company profiles (including Business Development & Licensing contacts). Any analysis generated by you is packed with presentation-ready graphs and tables to use in your reports and presentations.



Your key to access development at the world-leading cancer meetings

The Epigenetic Therapies in Oncology: Analytical Tool is continuously updated according to twelve of the world's most influential meetings in oncology (AACR, ASCO, ASGCT, ASH, CMIT, EHA, EORTC-NCI-AACR, ESMO, SITC and BIO (International, Europe and Asia). If you are not able to attend any of the conference(s) in person, this Analytical Tool ensures that you are not missing out on the important take home messages you need to know about.



Run combination therapy analysis like no other

The Epigenetic Therapies in Oncology: Analytical Tool delivers comprehensive combination therapy analysis, allowing you to analyze combination therapies from multiple perspectives; from a single drug to virtually any cross section of oncology drugs of interest.



Unparalleled biomarker surveillance

We also provide an outstanding oncology clinical biomarker surveillance & analysis, highlighting clinical phenotyping and patient stratification in trials. This analysis is based on our monitoring of the presence and usage of more than 1,000 biomarkers across tens of thousands of cancer clinical trials.



Support and inspiration at your finger-tips

You also have access to a great selection of How-to Training Videos showing best practice approaches to aspects such as competitive pipeline analysis right through to many real world case examples put forward by other users of our Analytical Tools.



A tool to grow with and keep you informed

Unlike a static report which just represents a particular snapshot in time, all of the Analytical Tools come with one year of online access to twice-weekly updates in both contents and features, pipeline alerts and online support etc. You can choose to renew your access to these updates and support on a yearly basis or go over to our industry leading full service platform covering all oncology drug development, 1stOncology.

Epigenetic Therapies in Oncology: Analytical Tool achieves this by continuously scanning development in epigentic and reporting:

Deals & Collaborations

New technologies/drugs (emerging from patents, grants, abstracts (see Conference Coverage) etc.)

Funding/Grants/IPOs

Filings & Approvals

Latest Clinical Trial Development & Results

Newly launched clinical trials

Conference Coverage of the world's twelve leading meetings in oncology*

Quarterly & Annual Reporting

This puts you in control of most, if not all, day-to-day developments in your field while also benefiting from one of the most comprehensive commercial pipeline review & competitive assessment tools available on the market today!



Identify, prioritize, and lead scientific assessment of oncology opportunities and competition by multiple factors such as:

Emerging Technologies

Target Novelty

Recent Funding

Early & Late Stage Pipeline

Biomarker/Companion Diagnostic Development (featured below)

Entered Deals & Alliances

Conference surveillance of world leading cancer meetings (featured below)

Combination Therapy Choices (featured below)

Outcome of Clinical Trials

Indication Selection & Expansion Choices

Drug Repositioning Opportunities

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/734cxm

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

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SOURCE Research and Markets
WASHINGTON, July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federation for American Immigration Reform issued the following statement, as well as a deeper dive into the growing border crisis, based on data quietly released late last week by the Biden administration:

"The Biden administration once again set records at the border for malfeasance," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). "Encounters of illegal migrants at our borders last month were the greatest for any June on record. The 207,416 migrants apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in June also mean that encounters for FY 2022 have already exceeded last year's totals, with three months remaining in the fiscal year.

"Yet, in spite of the human toll, the impact on communities all across the country, threats to national security and public health, and the surge of lethal narcotics flowing into the country, the Biden administration steadfastly refuses to secure our borders. Contrary to the First Lady's protestations, the ongoing disaster at our southern border is not a result of unanticipated circumstance, but rather a direct and predictable result of policies that President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas are deliberately inflicting on the American people," Stein charged.

FAIR Border Snapshot for June 2022

Southwest border encounters set the single-month record for the month of June  bringing the current Fiscal Year 2022 total to just over 2 million.

CBP had 207,416 migrant encounters at the Southwest border in June 2022 , including 140,196 single adults, 51,780 family units, and 15,271 unaccompanied minors.

, including 140,196 single adults, 51,780 family units, and 15,271 unaccompanied minors. 9 percent increase from June 2021 (189,034).

(189,034).

527.6 percent increase from June 2020 (33,049).

(33,049).

2 in 3 migrants encountered by Border Patrol were single adults.

Since President Biden took office, there have been over 3.18 million migrant encounters at the southern border alone.

at the southern border alone. In addition, nearly 800,000 gotaways have escaped from Border Patrol.

have escaped from Border Patrol. CBP has encountered more people in just 9 months of FY 2022 than in the entirety of FY 2021.

of FY 2022 than in the entirety of FY 2021. June was the 16th straight month with more than 150,000 encounters.

with The Biden administration continues its crusade to end the Title 42 public health authority , despite extending other COVID-related national emergencies.

, despite extending other COVID-related national emergencies. In June, CBP expelled only 44 percent of illegal aliens using Title 42.

The Drug Epidemic Continues Unabated

CBP seized over 680 pounds of fentanyl at the border, enough to kill 140 million people .

of at the border, enough to . CBP also seized 13,167 pounds of methamphetamine , 9,371 pounds of cocaine , and 104 pounds of heroin .

of , of , and of . In total, CBP seized 63,854 pounds of drugs in June  up from 46,934 pounds in May.

 up from 46,934 pounds in May. Drug overdoses in the United States killed 107,622 people in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Notable Criminal Activity in June 2022

Over 50 men, women and children were left to die in the back of an abandoned tractor trailer in San Antonio by human traffickers connected with Mexican drug cartels.

in by human traffickers connected with Mexican drug cartels. Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector arrested two convicted sex offenders and nine gang members in a single week.

and in a single week. Agents in the Laredo sector seized narcotics worth over $2 million at the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge in a single instance.

sector seized at the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge in a single instance. Agents arrested a child rapist at the Anzalduas International Bridge on June 28 .

Contact: Ron Kovach, 202-328-7004 or [email protected]

ABOUT FAIR

Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group. With over 3 million members and supporters nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced.

SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)
Meridian of Michigan and Faith Redemption Church hosted a community health fair to connect community members with wellness services

DETROIT, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Earlier this week, hundreds of local residents attended the Community Health & Wellness Fair at Faith Redemption Center COGIC in Detroit.

On Sunday, July 17, organizers at Faith Redemption Church and Meridian of Michigan welcomed over 225 people to the community health fair, as part of an ongoing partnership between the health plan and faith community.

Our partnership with Faith Redemption demonstrates the vital role Meridian serves in protecting the health of our local communities by bringing healthcare into familiar, safe spaces like neighborhoods and churches with strong community ties, said Sean Kendall, Plan President and CEO of Meridian. Leaders at Faith Redemption Church and Meridian of Michigan hosted a community health fair to connect community members with health and wellness services.

"We are excited to collaborate and partner with Meridian, as we work together to improve the well-being of the citizens of our communities," Bishop Clyde D. Jones, Jr., spiritual leader of Faith Redemption, said in a prepared statement. "Being a predominately African American, faith-based organization, we welcome, with open arms, the opportunity to initiate and support ongoing efforts to address health disparities that may be caused by factors outside the health sector, such as historic and ongoing racism and discrimination. This partnership with Meridian gives us leverage to have a greater and lasting impact for the good of all."

Over 15 community resources and vendors attended the event, including the Detroit Health Department which provided COVID-19 tests and vaccines, childhood immunizations and other health screenings to attendees. The Health Department completed 51 COVID vaccines including 1st, 2nd, and booster doses. Forgotten Harvest gave out 50 nonperishable food boxes, and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry provided oral hygiene education.

There were also several workshops. Dr. Antonia Jerkins, Medical Director, Meridian, led a COVID-19 Vaccine MythBusters Q&A; Detective Brian Fountain, a 38-year veteran of the Detroit Police Department, provided tips on Active Shooter Awareness; and Dr. Tina Parkman-Fountain, of nonprofit C.O.P.E, X-ITCARE, presented a mental health session called Trauma and A Plan To X-It (Exit). During the session, Dr. Parkman-Fountain addressed how individuals that have experienced childhood trauma and adult-life trauma can go on to lead whole, restored, and productive lives.

"Our partnership with Faith Redemption demonstrates the vital role Meridian serves in protecting the health of our local communities by bringing healthcare into familiar, safe spaces like neighborhoods and churches with strong community ties," said Sean Kendall, Plan President and CEO of Meridian. "The community health fair is another example of how Meridian, through our faith-based partnerships, is working to support healthy minds, bodies, and spirits."

Meridian's commitment to Faith Redemption is further demonstrated by a $17,000 donation towards the purchase of a stair lift for the church, and in August, Meridian and Faith Redemption plan to hold a back-to-school event where backpacks and other supplies will be available for schoolchildren.

A full list of event vendors can be found on Meridian's Facebook page .

About Meridian

Meridian in Michigan provides government-sponsored managed care services to families, children, seniors, and individuals with complex medical needs primarily through Medicaid (Meridian), Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (Wellcare), Medicare-Medicaid Plans (MeridianComplete), and the Health Insurance Marketplace (Ambetter from Meridian). Meridian is a wholly owned subsidiary of Centene Corporation, a leading healthcare enterprise committed to helping people live healthier lives. For more information about Meridian, please visit mimeridian.com.

About Faith Redemption

Faith Redemption Center, Church of God in Christ is a 501(c)(3) organization located in the Cody Rouge district of Detroit. Faith Redemption Center works to meet the needs of the underserved through spiritual guidance and community outreach. The church's mission is to empower others through the teachings of the word of God, through education, through training, and through modeling the lifestyle of Jesus Christ. The church's goal is to reach the community in an effort to meet the needs of the total man; thereby creating change that produces abundant life.

SOURCE Meridian of Michigan
SAN FRANCISCO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global fintech-as-a-service market size is expected to reach USD 949.49 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 17.2% from 2022 to 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The increasing adoption of financial technology-based solutions and platforms globally is anticipated to drive the growth of the market. The increasing adoption of artificial intelligence, cloud-based software, and big data integrated with financial services is expected to drive the growth of the market for fintech-as-a-service.

Key Industry Insights & Findings from the report:

The fund transfer segment is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period. The fund transfers apps and software being introduced such as Meta Pay by some of the major companies worldwide are expected to drive the growth of the segment.

by some of the major companies worldwide are expected to drive the growth of the segment. The artificial intelligence segment is anticipated to witness the fastest growth over the projected period. The segment growth is attributed to the increasing adoption of AI among various small and medium enterprises worldwide for digital payment solutions.

The KYC verification segment is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period The rising fraudulent activities such as ransomware and theft identification is one of the major factors that propelled the growth in 2021.

The insurance segment is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period. To keep up with the consumers' changing preferences, insurers are offering flexible term products and are customizing their offerings according to customer needs. With this changing trend, insurers are adopting the Fintech-as-a-Service platform which is driving the growth.

The Asia Pacific is expected to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period. The growing demand for technology-based payment platforms across the region is expected to play a decisive role in driving the growth of the regional market.

Read 130-page market research report for more Latest Insights, "Fintech-as-a-Service Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type (Payment, Fund Transfer, Loan), By Technology (Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain), By Application, By End-use, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030", published by Grand View Research.

Fintech-as-a-Service Market Growth & Trends

The growing utilization of smartphones for online transactions and fintech-related services through digital platforms is anticipated to drive the growth of the market. For Instance, approximately 44% of the payments were done through a mobile app, according to the statistics provided by Emizentech. In addition, according to a recent study conducted by Tipalti Inc., 64% of consumers worldwide use one or more fintech platforms as a service as of 2021.

The investments made in financial technology companies are estimated to generate opportunities for market growth over the forecast period. For example, an API developer, Railsbank Technology Ltd, raised USD 70 million in a fundraising event headed by Anthos Capital, a U.S.-based investment company, in July 2021. The funds would be used to develop the company's Fintech-as-a-service platform and to provide customers with various product development solutions.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to play a crucial role in driving the growth of the Fintech-as-a-Service platform market over the forecast period. The increasing demand for digital financial services increased drastically during the pandemic. Financial institutions and banks were looking at innovative ways to provide their services online during the pandemic which propelled the growth of the market.

Fintech-as-a-Service Market Segmentation

Grand View Research has segmented the global fintech-as-a-service market based on type, technology, application, end-use, and region:

Fintech-as-a-Service Market - Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2017 - 2030)

Payment

Fund Transfer

Loan

Others

Fintech-as-a-Service Market - Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2017 - 2030)

API

Artificial Intelligence

RPA

Blockchain

Others

Fintech-as-a-Service Market - Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2017 - 2030)

KYC Verification

Fraud Monitoring

Compliance & Regulatory Support

Others

Fintech-as-a-Service Market - End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2017 - 2030)

Banks

Financial Lending Companies

Insurance

Others

Fintech-as-a-Service Market - Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2017 - 2030)

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

Germany



U.K.

Asia Pacific

China



India



Japan

Latin America

Brazil

Middle East & Africa (MEA)

List of Key Players in the Fintech-as-a-Service Market

PayPal Holdings, Inc.

Block, Inc.

Mastercard Incorporated

Envestnet, Inc.

Upstart Holdings, Inc.

Rapyd Financial Network

Solid Financial Technologies, Inc.

Railsbank Technology Ltd.

Synctera Inc.

Braintree

Check out more related studies published by Grand View Research:

Artificial Intelligence In Fintech Market - The global artificial intelligence in fintech market size is expected to reach USD 41.16 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 16.5% from 2022 to 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely used in financial organizations to improvise their precision levels, enhance their efficiency and instant query resolving through digital banking channels.

The global artificial intelligence in fintech market size is expected to reach by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 16.5% from 2022 to 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely used in financial organizations to improvise their precision levels, enhance their efficiency and instant query resolving through digital banking channels. Payment As A Service Market - The global payment as a service market size is expected to reach USD 25.7 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 16.9%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Digital disruption in the money transfer ecosystem, combined with the rise in need for quick money transfer methods, has transformed the payment gateway model.

- The global payment as a service market size is expected to reach by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 16.9%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Digital disruption in the money transfer ecosystem, combined with the rise in need for quick money transfer methods, has transformed the payment gateway model. Payment Processing Solutions Market - The global payment processing solutions market size is expected to reach USD 98.01 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 14.5% from 2020 to 2027, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market growth can be attributed to the emergence of digital technology and customers' demand for immediacy of transactions.

Browse through Grand View Research's Next Generation Technologies Industry Research Reports.

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research Helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead.

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Grand View Research, Inc.

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Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

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SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc.
The African low-cost carrier will benefit from a new network and ancillary marketplace to reach new audiences and drive incremental revenue

TEL AVIV, Israel, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fly540, East Africa's premier low-cost airline, has partnered with AeroCRS, a travel solutions company focused on helping airlines expand their regional sales reach, to improve the carrier's distribution and retailing strategy as it prepares to expand its route network throughout Africa.

AeroCRS and Fly540 partnership

The successful migration to the AeroCRS Passenger Service System (PSS) and the AeroCRS Network will enable Fly540 to broaden its international footprint. With AeroCRS, Fly540 can drive incremental revenue through online travel agencies, meta-search engines, and other aggregators, and can enhance how it manages its passenger relationships.

"Fly540 is moving to AeroCRS because it is a comprehensive solution that supports all the different functions of the airline's operation. In addition, AeroCRS provides access to an online distribution platform comprised of 20+API integrations to leading distributors. "As Fly540 moves back into regional flights following the disruption of Covid-19, we see AeroCRS as a strategic partner to improve our distribution and retailing strategies," said Don Smith, Fly540 CEO.

Fly540 believes their passengers should enjoy affordable, safe and comfortable air travel and provide consistent and excellent customer service. The implementation of the AeroCRS travel solutions will allow the airline to achieve these goals.

"We welcome Fly540, one of the leading low-cost airlines in East Africa, to our growing airline network. During the past few years, we have provided our flexible solutions to Fly540's affiliate company Eastafrican.com, and I'm confident that Fly540 will enjoy the same success by using our innovative and out-of-the-box solutions and services," said Meir Hadassi Turner, Founder & CEO of AeroCRS.

The AeroCRS suite of travel solutions focuses on finding ways to free airlines from the constraints of their legacy systems, which typically lack the modern and flexible code base that airlines need to implement cross-functional processes, adapt to constantly evolving consumer needs, and open revenue channels beyond conventional ancillaries. AeroCRS's PSS system is a one-stop-shop that is ideal for growing airlines to efficiently service their passengers' needs, while the AeroCRS Network enables airlines to distribute more broadly to new audiences and drive incremental revenue.

For more information about the AeroCRS and Fly540 partnership or to speak with company executives, please contact Vanessa Horwell at [email protected].

About Fly540

Fly540 was established in 2005 and took to the skies in 2006. Fly540 is East Africa's premier low-cost airline offering low fares on scheduled flights all year round to destinations within Kenya, South Sudan, and Zanzibar with plans to expand their routes network to more countries.

About AeroCRS

AeroCRS provides technology services and distribution connectivity to more than 90 travel companies worldwide since 2006. Its technology solutions include inventory management, yield & revenue management, fares & classes management, open API, B2C & B2B platform, fares branding, FFP, BI platform, reporting center, and many more technology services. In addition to the core software services, AeroCRS invented the AeroCRS Network. The Network is an online distribution platform for airlines based on API integrations globally to over 20 distribution channels. Any airline using the AeroCRS Network can increase sales and grow distribution reach no matter which Passenger Service System (PSS) solution it uses.

SOURCE AeroCRS
Franchising industry veteran brings 20 plus years' experience to QSR company

ATLANTA, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Focus Brands, parent company of iconic brands including Auntie Anne's, Carvel, Cinnabon, Jamba, McAlister's Deli, Moe's Southwest Grill and Schlotzsky's, announced today that Mike Woodward is joining the company as its new Senior Vice President of Franchise Sales.

Mike Woodward, SVP of Franchise Sales at Focus Brands

"Focus Brands is continuing to build a best-in-class development organization and adding Mike to the team creates an opportunity for us to further advance our leadership in the QSR industry," said Brian Krause, Chief Development Officer at Focus Brands. "With his 20+ years of franchise sales experience at a global company, Mike's leadership, coupled with our already strong sales team, will add value to both prospective and existing brand franchisees."

As Senior Vice President of Franchise Sales, Mike will oversee the franchise sales team, which is primarily focused on promoting brand recognition and strategic geographic growth across all seven brands in the Focus Brands portfolio. The team is dedicated to implementing strategies to drive net unit growth across the system.

Mike joins Focus Brands from Wyndham Hotels & Resorts where he served as Senior Vice President of Franchise Development, leading all aspects of franchise sales and development for 20 brands across the US and Canada. He brings a history of reaching growth records and experience with working closely with independent brand franchisees, as well as teams for sales, brand management and real estate. Prior to joining Wyndham, Mike served in various sales roles at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and Phoenix Life Insurance Company.

About Focus Brands

Atlanta-based Focus Brands is a leading developer of global multi-channel foodservice brands. Focus Brands, through its affiliate brands, is the franchisor and operator of more than 6,400 restaurants, cafes, ice cream shoppes, and bakeries in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and over 55 foreign countries under the Auntie Anne's, Carvel, Cinnabon, Jamba, Moe's Southwest Grill, McAlister's Deli, and Schlotzsky's brand names, as well as the Seattle's Best Coffee brand on certain military bases and in certain international markets. Please visit www.focusbrands.com to learn more.

Contact:

Abby Leary

[email protected]

SOURCE Focus Brands
New advisory board members will help solar steam leader meet the soaring demand for industrial decarbonization

NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, GlassPoint, the leader in decarbonizing the production of materials essential to the energy transition, announced that the 29th Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, and the former COO of Alcoa, Tomas Sigurdsson, have joined its Advisory Board. The new Advisory Board members bring a unique mix of global leadership advancing sustainability in industrial operations. They will play a key role in helping GlassPoint bring its category-defining solar steam solution to help a wide range of industries essential to the energy transition achieve net-zero commitments, with a focus on mining, metals and manufacturing.

Malcolm Turnbull is a former Prime Minister of Australia and a notable advocate for clean energy. Before his term as the 29th Prime Minister of Australia, he held a number of parliamentary positions, including Minister for Environment and Water Resources. Before entering parliament in 2004, Mr. Turnbull was a successful trial lawyer and investment banker, where he led his own investment firm and served as a partner of Goldman Sachs.

New advisory board members will help solar steam leader meet the soaring demand for industrial decarbonization Tweet this

Tomas Sigurdsson is CEO of HS Orka, Iceland's leading private renewable energy company. He was formerly COO and executive vice president of Alcoa, the leading producer of aluminum, alumina and bauxite. He was responsible for the daily operations of global assets of the Company's bauxite, alumina, energy and aluminum segments across geographies. He previously served as president of Alcoa EU and ME.

"Leaders of Malcolm and Tomas' caliber joining our Advisory Board signifies a massive vote of confidence for GlassPoint," said Rod MacGregor, CEO and founder of GlassPoint. "Their expertise and deep understanding of industrial market dynamics and clean energy will be invaluable in serving our mission of decarbonizing process heat at scale. I look forward to working with them to meet soaring demand for a proven solution that helps companies achieve net-zero commitments."

The new advisors join GlassPoint at a time when hard-to-abate industries, like mining and metals, are increasingly seeking ways to cost-effectively reduce carbon emissions and meet net-zero commitments with rapidly approaching deadlines. A recent survey found that one fifth (21%) of the world's 2,000 largest public companies have committed to meeting net-zero targets. These companies together represent sales of nearly $14 trillion.

"The world can't meet its net-zero pledges unless industrial players make enormous leaps in decarbonizing operations," said Turnbull. "Consider that it's common for large industrial plants to require more energy than many cities, much of which goes to thermal processes. Solutions like GlassPoint, which help hard-to-abate industries reduce emissions up to 80% and are available today, will play a major role in combating climate change."

"Decarbonizing industrial processes is incredibly challenging and therefore presents an enormous market opportunity," added Sigurdsson. "GlassPoint is the only proven solution to decarbonize industrial process heat at scale and represents a critical solution for industrial leaders in a range of markets."

This news comes on the heels of GlassPoint signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Saudi Arabian Mining Company (MA'ADEN) to develop the world's largest solar process heat plant at MA'ADEN's Alumina refinery, a 1.5GWth facility in Ras al Khair, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

About GlassPoint

GlassPoint decarbonizes the production of materials essential to the energy transition and makes a substantial impact combating climate change. The company builds, owns and operates large-scale solar steam facilities to reduce carbon emissions in hard-to-abate industries such as mining and metals, chemicals, construction materials, desalination and more. GlassPoint is the only solution proven at scale to reduce carbon emissions from industrial process heat and has built more than half of the solar steam capacity in the world. Learn more at glasspoint.com. To learn more about GlassPoint, visit: https://www.glasspoint.com/

SOURCE GlassPoint
Attendees can find the gaming giant on the show floor at booth #3721 or at the Stern Pop-Up Arcade at the Marriott Marquis



SAN DIEGO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Stern Pinball, Inc ., is back at San Diego International Comic-Con (SDCC) and announced its schedule of activities for attendees to look forward to. Get ready for your chance to meet Ozzy Osbourne, scope out show exclusives, and play the iconic and outrageously fun game of pinball!

Meet Ozzy Osbourne and Todd McFarlane

Ozzy Osbourne will make his SDCC debut on Friday, July 22 at the Stern Pinball & Rebellion Republic booth (#3721). Osbourne and iconic artist Todd McFarlane will be unveiling artwork for the limited-edition McFarlane-designed comic book that will be part of Osbourne's highly anticipated album Patient Number 9. Osbourne and McFarlane will be doing signings at the Stern Pinball booth on Friday, July 22 at 12:00 PM.

Meet El Hijo Del Santo

The king of Lucha Libre is in the house! The biggest name in Mexican wrestling returns to Comic-Con for two days of signings. Son of the iconic Lucha Libre legend, El Santo, El Hijo del Santo is celebrating 40 years as a professional luchador. Come to the Stern Pinball and Rebellion Republic booth on July 21 and July 22 at noon for your chance to meet El Hijo Del Santo. Come for an autograph, stay for the Flying Planchas!

Stern Pinball and Rebellion Republic Show Exclusives

EXCLUSIVE PRE-ORDER: Ozzy Osbourne , Patient Number 9 convention exclusive blue smoke 2-LP vinyl x McFarlane cover variant + foil cover comic book by Todd McFarlane$75 (shipping included)





, Patient Number 9 convention exclusive blue smoke 2-LP vinyl x McFarlane cover variant + foil cover comic book by Todd McFarlane$75 (shipping included) Ozzy Osbourne , Patient Number 9 San Diego "Sold Out" exclusive T-shirt$35





, Patient Number 9 San Diego "Sold Out" exclusive T-shirt$35 Stern Pinball, Glow in the dark exclusive Japanese print T-shirt (limited to 50 pieces)$30





Santo, San Diego 2022 exclusive foil print T-shirt$40





2022 exclusive foil print T-shirt$40 Hijo Del Santo, 40 year anniversary lithograph (limited to 100 pieces)$60

The Nerdist

In their triumphant return to San Diego Comic-Con, Nerdist is ready to take you inside the latest and greatest in pop culture. With live tapings of Nerdist News, interviews with celebrity guests, and a few other surprises, Nerdist will be reporting live from the Stern Pinball Pop-Up Arcade all weekend long!

Toho

Located in Stern's Pop-Up Arcade will be the biggest (literally) star of film, Toho's Godzilla! The iconic film studio from Japan is bringing the King of the Monsters to Comic-Con with a special photo-op area where fans can take their picture with Godzilla and brag about meeting a celebrity at the show. Toho also has an official panel scheduled for Thursday, July 21 at 2:30 PM in room 29CD. Hosted by Toho's Creative Manager, Chris Mowry, the panelists (including Stern's Senior Director of Licensing and New Business Development, Jody Dankberg) will discuss the creation of some of their greatest licensed Godzilla products including the award-winning pinball machine from Stern Pinball. After the panel (and during the show), guests can test their skills with a daily, free-to-play tournament on the Godzilla pinball machines.

Stern's Pop-Up Arcade

Attendees will have their chance to play the hottest titles from Stern Pinball at Comic-Con International's official Pop-Up Arcade located directly next door to the Convention Center at the Marriott Marquis Pacific Ballroom 14-17. Come with friends for the free play games and stay for the daily high-score tournaments with prizes! Earn a special SDCC Insider Connected badge by logging in to any Stern Pinball machine at this year's Con!

Registration for Insider Connected is available at insider.sternpinball.com/ . Players can register at a connected game by scanning a QR code or at the Stern Pinball website. Once a player registers, they are issued a unique QR Code that can be used to identify that player at any connected Stern pinball machine anywhere in the world. When a player logs into the machine, they can track progress, earn new game specific achievements, engage with the player community, and participate in promotions and Challenge Quests.

Free Play

Casual players are encouraged to stop by the Pinball Lounge between 10:00 AM and 7:00 PM on Thursday through Saturday, or between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM on Sunday for free play. The Pinball Lounge is a great place to hang out, relax, and regroup while getting to play arcade-quality pinball with friends.

Giveaways

For more serious players, Stern will be doing daily giveaways at the Pop-up Arcade for the top players who place on selected games' Leaderboards. Launched last month, Stern's new Leaderboards feature is part of its award-winning Insider Connected platform that enables players to compete against each other across connected Stern Pinball machines. Winners will be announced at the end of each day of the Con. Play for your chance to win some exclusive Stern Pinball merch!

Stern will be giving away additional prizes to anyone who stops by the Pop-up Arcade and signs up for Insider Connected, as well as awarding daily prizes to kids under 12!

More Fun in the Pinball Lounge

Twitch pinball superstar, Jack Danger (AKA Dead Flip), will be live streaming all week from the Pinball Lounge. Come down to cheer him on or tune in from home.

Come find Stern Pinball on the show floor at booth #3721 or stop by the Pop-Up Arcade at the Marriott Marquis.

About Stern Pinball, Inc.

Stern Pinball, Inc. is a global lifestyle brand based on the iconic and outrageously fun modern American game of pinball. Headquartered minutes from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in the heart of North America, the company creates, designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, and distributes a full line of technologically advanced terrestrial and digital pinball games, parts, accessories, and merchandise. Stern Pinball serves digital, consumer, commercial, and corporate markets around the globe.

Recent Stern Pinball titles include Rush, Godzilla, The Mandalorian, Led Zeppelin, Avengers: Infinity Quest, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Stranger Things, Elvira's House of Horrors, Jurassic Park, Black Knight: Sword of Rage, The Munsters, The Beatles, Deadpool, Iron Maiden, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Aerosmith, Ghostbusters, KISS, Metallica, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Star Trek, AC/DC, Batman, and Spider-Man. A broad range of players enjoy Stern Pinball's games from professional pinball players who compete in high-stakes competitions around the globe to novice players who are discovering the allure of the silver ball for the first time. To join the fun and learn more, please visit www.sternpinball.com.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Stern Pinball, Inc.
DUBLIN, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Bioinformatics Market (2022-2027) by Bioinformatics Platform, Applications, End-User, Geography, Competitive Analysis, and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Bioinformatics Market is estimated to be USD 12.28 Bn in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 24.85 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 15.14%.



Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Bioinformatics Market stakeholders. These forces create pricing signals which result from the changes in the supply and demand curves for a given product or service. Forces of Market Dynamics may be related to macro-economic and micro-economic factors. There are dynamic market forces other than price, demand, and supply. Human emotions can also drive decisions, influence the market, and create price signals.



As the market dynamics impact the supply and demand curves, decision-makers aim to determine the best way to use various financial tools to stem various strategies for speeding the growth and reducing the risks.

Company Profiles

The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitors in the market. It covers the financial performance analysis for the publicly listed companies in the market. The report also offers detailed information on the companies' recent development and competitive scenario. Some of the companies covered in this report are Agilent Technologies, Applied Biological Materials, BGI Group, Biomax Informatics, Bluebee Holding, Dassault Systems, DNAnexus, DNASTAR, EraGen Biosciences, Eurofins Scientific, Expression Analysis, Gene Network Sciences, Genelogic, Genomatix, Illumina, Partek, PerkinElmer, QIAGEN, SOPHiA GENETICS, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waters Corp, WuXi NextCODE, etc.



Countries Studied

America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas)

, , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA)

and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Ansoff Analysis

The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Bioinformatics Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach.

The report analyses the Global Bioinformatics Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position.

Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, the analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth.

Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Bioinformatics Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's Proprietary competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description

2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Market Dynamics

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Increasing Demand for Nucleic Acid and Protein Sequencing Due to the Reduction in Sequencing Cost and Technological Advancement

4.1.2 Initiatives From Government and Private Organizations

4.1.3 Growing Applications of Bioinformatics in Proteomics and Drug Discovery, Clinical Diagnostics and Personalized Medicine

4.1.4 Increasing Number of Collaborations Between Companies and Research Institutes

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Lack of Well-Defined Standards and Common Data Formats for the Integration of Data

4.2.2 Dearth of User-Friendly Tools at Cheaper Prices

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Blockchain Technology and Cloud Computing

4.3.2 Integration of Machine Learning and AI in Healthcare

4.3.3 Investment Considering the Development of Bioinformatics Solutions

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Lack of Interoperability and Multiplatform Capabilities

4.4.2 Shortage of Skilled Bioinformatics Professionals



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Bioinformatics Market, By Products and Services

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Bioinformatics Platform

6.2.1 Sequence Alignment Platforms

6.2.2 Sequence Analysis Platforms

6.2.3 Sequence Manipulation Platforms

6.2.4 Structural & Functional Analysis Platforms

6.3 Bioinformatics Services

6.3.1 Data Analysis Services

6.3.2 Database & Management Services

6.3.3 Sequencing Services

6.4 Knowledge Management Tools

6.5 Generalized Knowledge Management Tools

6.6 Specialized Knowledge Management Tools



7 Global Bioinformatics Market, By Applications

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Chemoinformatics

7.3 Genomics

7.4 Metabolomics

7.5 Proteomics

7.6 Transcriptomics



8 Global Bioinformatics Market, By End-User

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Academics

8.3 Agricultural

8.4 Animal

8.5 Environmental

8.6 Forensic

8.7 Medical

8.8 Geography



9 Americas' Bioinformatics Market

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Argentina

9.3 Brazil

9.4 Canada

9.5 Chile

9.6 Colombia

9.7 Mexico

9.8 Peru

9.9 United States

9.10 Rest of Americas



10 Europe's Bioinformatics Market

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Austria

10.3 Belgium

10.4 Denmark

10.5 Finland

10.6 France

10.7 Germany

10.8 Italy

10.9 Netherlands

10.10 Norway

10.11 Poland

10.12 Russia

10.13 Spain

10.14 Sweden

10.15 Switzerland

10.16 United Kingdom

10.17 Rest of Europe



11 Middle East and Africa's Bioinformatics Market

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Egypt

11.3 Israel

11.4 Qatar

11.5 Saudi Arabia

11.6 South Africa

11.7 United Arab Emirates

11.8 Rest of MEA



12 APAC's Bioinformatics Market

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Australia

12.3 Bangladesh

12.4 China

12.5 India

12.6 Indonesia

12.7 Japan

12.8 Malaysia

12.9 Philippines

12.10 Singapore

12.11 South Korea

12.12 Sri Lanka

12.13 Thailand

12.14 Taiwan

12.15 Rest of Asia-Pacific



13 Competitive Landscape

13.1 Competitive Quadrant

13.2 Market Share Analysis

13.3 Strategic Initiatives

13.3.1 M&A and Investments

13.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

13.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



14 Company Profiles

14.1 Agilent Technologies

14.2 Applied Biological Materials

14.3 BGI Group

14.4 Biomax Informatics

14.5 Bluebee Holding

14.6 Dassault Systems

14.7 DNAnexus

14.8 DNASTAR

14.9 EraGen Biosciences

14.10 Eurofins Scientific

14.11 Expression Analysis

14.12 Gene Network Sciences

14.13 Genelogic

14.14 Genomatix

14.15 Illumina

14.16 Partek

14.17 PerkinElmer

14.18 QIAGEN

14.19 SOPHiA GENETICS

14.20 Thermo Fisher Scientific

14.21 Waters Corp

14.22 WuXi NextCODE



15 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qgtnlm

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SOURCE Research and Markets
The demand for Heart Pump Devices is primarily attributed to factors such as the rising prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, increased time duration pertaining to heart transplants, and the entrance of key companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Abiomed, Inc., Teleflex Incorporated, SynCardia Systems, LLC, St. Jude Medical Inc., and others in the market. These all factors are directly related to the growth of the Heart Pump Devices market.

LAS VEGAS, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DelveInsight's Heart Pump Devices Market Insights and Forecast report provides the current and forecast Heart Pump Devices Market, upcoming innovations in the devices, individual market shares, challenges, drivers and barriers, market trends, and key competitors in the Heart Pump Devices Market.

Some of the essential takeaways from the Heart Pump Devices Market report:

As per DelveInsight analysis, in terms of revenue share, North America is predicted to register the fastest growth in the Heart Pump Devices market.

is predicted to register the fastest growth in the Heart Pump Devices market. Some of the Global Heart Pump Devices Device companies with access devices in various stages of development include Abbott Laboratories, Abiomed, Inc., Teleflex Incorporated, SynCardia Systems, LLC, St. Jude Medical Inc. CARMAT, CorWave SA, Medtronic Inc., Terumo Heart, Inc., Calon Cardio-Technology Ltd., NovaPump GmbH, Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, Angiodroid srl, Getinge AB , and others.

, and others. DelveInsight analysis states that the Global Heart Pump Devices Market was valued at USD 2.73 Billion in 2021, growing at a CAGR of 15.16% during the forecast period from 2021 to 2027 to reach USD 6.35 Billion by 2027.

in 2021, growing at a during the forecast period from 2021 to 2027 to reach by 2027. In August 2021 , the United States FDA granted breakthrough device designation to Abiomed's Impella ECP expandable percutaneous Heart Pump . The designation means the FDA will prioritize Impella ECP's regulatory review processes, including design iterations, clinical study protocols, and pre-market approval (PMA) application.

, the United States FDA granted breakthrough device designation to . The designation means the FDA will prioritize Impella ECP's regulatory review processes, including design iterations, clinical study protocols, and pre-market approval (PMA) application. On June 30, 2021 , Abiomed's heart pump Impella RP with SmartAssist technology received the United States FDA pre-market approval.

heart pump with SmartAssist technology received the United States FDA pre-market approval. In February 2021 , CARMAT received FDA approval to conduct an Early Feasibility Study (EFS) of its Total Artificial Heart in the US using BlueSync technology.

received FDA approval to conduct an Early Feasibility Study (EFS) of its in the US using In December 2020 , Abbott received FDA approval for the updated labeling for the HeartMate 3 Heart Pump to be used in pediatric patients with advanced refractory left ventricular heart failure.

received FDA approval for the updated labeling for the to be used in pediatric patients with advanced refractory left ventricular heart failure. On February 04, 2020 , Abbott received the Food and Drug Administration's Breakthrough device designation for its Fully Implantable Left Ventricular Assist System (FILVAS), currently under the process of development.

received the Food and Drug Administration's Breakthrough device designation for its currently under the process of development. On February 11, 2019 , Leviticus Cardio and Jarvik Heart unveiled the use of the first FIVAD device for wireless power implanted in humans in Kazakhstan . The device uses coplanar energy transfer for wirelessly providing power to the heart pump, also known as the Ventricular Assist Device (VAD). Thus, owing to such development as product launches, there will be significant growth observed in the Heart Pump Devices market during the forecast period.

To pick on the latest highlights related to the Heart Pump Devices implantable device market, get a snapshot of the key highlights entailed in the Heart Pump Devices Market Sample Report

Heart Pump Devices Overview

Heart failure is a condition wherein the heart is not able to pump an adequate amount of blood to meet the requirements of the body. The cause of heart failure depends on several factors such as pre-myocardial infarction (heart attack), high blood pressure, heart diseases, atrial fibrillation, and others such as a coronary artery. In order to help cardiac circulation, several types of cardiovascular pumping systems are available in the market. The devices are surgically implanted and used in humans suffering from low heart.

Heart Pump Devices Market Insight

Geographically, the Global Heart Pump Devices market is studied for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World. Regarding revenue, North America accounts for the highest revenue share compared with the Global Heart Pump Devices market, which will remain constant during the forecast period. However, the domination of North America will be conspicuously challenged by the European market. This domination is attributed to the increased cardiovascular disease prevalence in the region, the rising number of regulatory approvals, and the favorable refund scheme.

Various Heart Pump Devices market growth opportunities can also be witnessed for other countries, including European countries owing to the rising number of patients suffering from cardiovascular disease and the recent launch of new products in this region.

Moreover, the regional companies are increasing their manufacturing of essential medical device products. For instance, in August 2021, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted breakthrough device designation to Abiomed's Impella ECP expandable percutaneous Heart Pump. The designation means the FDA will prioritize Impella ECP's regulatory review processes including design iterations, clinical study protocols, and pre-market approval (PMA) application.

Click here to understand more about the key players in the Heart Pump Devices Market and their future @ Heart Pump Devices Future Assessment

Heart Pump Devices Market Dynamics

The major factors driving the demand for Heart Pump Devices are the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, the rising geriatric population, technology advances, new product development by the Heart Pump Devices market players. Heart Pump devices were found to be extremely beneficial in heart failure cases in COVID-19, which further pushed the demand for these devices during the pandemic situation. Due to a scarcity of heart suppliers, cardiac pumps are an optimal solution that encourages Global market expansion.

On the contrary, factors such as the high cost of the pump and a low repayment scenario in developing countries are nevertheless projected to inhibit the growth of the Heart Pump Devices market. COVID-19 pandemic has been observed to be an incomparable public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and its long-term effects of it are projected to impact the healthcare market. As for the Heart Pump Devices market, they had observed a period of slow growth because of heart pump device stock-outs, unavailability of the heart pump devices, and closed clinics.

However, the manufacturing companies and clinics are slowly resuming their operations. Patient visits are also gradually increasing after the relaxation given as per the new lockdown guidelines. There is still an increasing amount of research going on regarding the use of Heart Pump Devices in COVID-19 patients. Hence, the devices are slowly gaining normalcy regarding Heart Pump Devices market growth.

To gain a better understanding of the COVID-19 impact on Heart Pump Devices, get a snapshot of the COVID-19 Impact on the Heart Pump Devices Market

Scope of the Heart Pump Devices Market Report

Coverage : Global

Global Study Period: 2019-2027

2019-2027 Market Segmentation By Product - Ventricular Assist Devices- Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVAD), Percutaneous Ventricular Assist Devices (PVAD), Biventricular Ventricular Assist Devices (BIVAD), Right Ventricular Assist Devices (RVAD), and Intra-Aortic Balloon Pumps, Total Artificial Hearts

Ventricular Assist Devices- Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVAD), Percutaneous Ventricular Assist Devices (PVAD), Biventricular Ventricular Assist Devices (BIVAD), Right Ventricular Assist Devices (RVAD), and Intra-Aortic Balloon Pumps, Total Artificial Hearts Market Segmentation By Type - Implanted Heart Pump Device, Extracorporeal Heart Pump Device

Implanted Heart Pump Device, Extracorporeal Heart Pump Device Market Segmentation By Therapy - Bridge-To-Transplant (BTT), Bridge-To-Candidacy (BTC), Destination Therapy (DT)

Bridge-To-Transplant (BTT), Bridge-To-Candidacy (BTC), Destination Therapy (DT) Market Segmentation By End-User - Hospitals, Cardiac Centres, Ambulatory Surgical Centres

- Hospitals, Cardiac Centres, Ambulatory Surgical Centres Market Segmentation By Geography - North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and Rest of the World

- , , , and Rest of the World Key Heart Pump Devices Companies - Abbott Laboratories, Abiomed, Inc., Teleflex Incorporated, SynCardia Systems, LLC, St. Jude Medical Inc. CARMAT, CorWave SA, Medtronic Inc., Terumo Heart, Inc., Calon Cardio-Technology Ltd., NovaPump GmbH, Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, Angiodroid srl, Getinge AB and others.

Abbott Laboratories, Abiomed, Inc., Teleflex Incorporated, SynCardia Systems, LLC, St. Jude Medical Inc. CARMAT, CorWave SA, Medtronic Inc., Terumo Heart, Inc., Calon Cardio-Technology Ltd., NovaPump GmbH, Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, Angiodroid srl, Getinge AB and others. Product Profiles, Case Studies, KOL's Views, Analyst's View

Delveinsight Analysis: The Global Heart Pump Devices Market size was valued at USD 2.73 Billion in 2021, growing at a CAGR of 15.16% during the forecast period from 2022 to 2027, to reach USD 6.35 Billion by 2027.

Know more about which MedTech player is set to emerge as the trendsetter in the Global Heart Pump Devices Market @ Key Heart Pump Devices Companies Analysis

Table of Contents

1 Heart Pump Devices Market Report Introduction 2 Heart Pump Devices Market Executive summary 3 Heart Pump Devices Market Regulatory and Patent Analysis 4 Heart Pump Devices Market Key Factors Analysis 5 Heart Pump Devices Porter's Five Forces Analysis 6 COVID-19 Impact Analysis on Heart Pump Devices Market 7 Heart Pump Devices Market Layout 8 Heart Pump Devices Market Global Company Share Analysis  Key 3-5 Companies 9 Heart Pump Devices Market Company and Product Profiles 10 Project Approach 11 KOL Views 12 DelveInsight Capabilities 13 Disclaimer 14 About DelveInsight

Learn more about the Heart Pump Devices @ Heart Pump Devices Regulatory Landscape

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NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Women's World Banking and the UN Capital Development Fund today announced the launch of the Women's Digital Financial Inclusion (WDFI) Advocacy Hub, a new global coalition to catalyze collective action to increase women's digital financial inclusion. The coalition aims to close the gender gap in access to digital technology, skills, and digital financial products for women entrepreneurs  particularly in developing countries.

"Three quarters of a billion women around the world are excluded from the formal financial system," said Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women's World Banking. "Imagine the possibilities if those women had equal access to technology, skills, and financial services. The WDFI Advocacy Hub is a groundbreaking global collaboration that will make those possibilities a reality and close the financial inclusion gap."

The launch comes shortly after the release of the 2021 World Bank Global Findex, which shows the gender gap beginning to narrow, though the time it will take to close has only decreased by four years. And even though COVID-driven digital usage, especially payments, may have accelerated inclusion in the short term, unequal access to technology  specifically smartphone and mobile internet  imperils this progress and could drive further exclusion.

"The gap may have narrowed, but not fast enough. In some countries it will take over 100 years to reach full inclusion without intervention," said Iskenderian. "The WDFI Advocacy Hub will accelerate that progress through coordinated advocacy to help women grow their businesses and secure their financial future."

There are more than 6 million women-owned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries, with nearly 20% of working-age women owning a business. These businesses create additional income for their families and provide women with autonomy and agency. Many MSMEs operate outside the formal economy and lack access to financial products and services that enable businesses to thrive. Despite these challenges, women-owned MSMEs are a significant driver of emerging economies and must have equal access to the same technology, skills and financial products and services as men, in line with the UN Principles for Responsible Digital Payments.

"As the world attempts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating consequences, it is fundamental that women's digital financial inclusion is a priority among national, regional, and global decision-makers," said Preeti Sinha, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Capital Development Fund. "Too many women are left behind in this transition to the digital economy. We see many opportunities to accelerate change to ensure women are not left behind."

The WDFI Advocacy Hub has two interconnected components: Local coalitions in Indonesia and Ethiopia made up of civil society, public and private sector organizations who will advocate for priority women's digital financial inclusion issues in their markets, as well as the Global Advocacy Hub which will drive coordinated, global advocacy. The WDFI Advocacy Hub's first priority is building a diverse global coalition, and adding new partners to the hub over the coming weeks.

"By championing women's digital financial inclusion on the ground in developing countries, we can see proof of concept  the opportunities and economic benefits digital financial inclusion can create for communities and for women's overall economic mobility," said Sinha.

The use of digital financial products and services were accelerated during the pandemic. Although women's use of mobile phones and apps increased, their use has not remained consistent, and women are now 16 percent less likely than men to use the mobile internet, which equates to 264 million fewer women than men using mobile internet according to GSMA's Mobile Gender Gap Report.

"Women entrepreneurs urgently need equal access to digital technology and digital financial services as well as the confidence and skills training to use them both to their fullest potential," said Iskenderian. "The WDFI Advocacy Hub can bring together all the research, knowledge and actors, in one place, to turbocharge these three critical elements: technology, finance and know-how."

Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the WDFI Advocacy Hub is a collective of diverse stakeholders, including financial service providers, FinTechs, civil society, and bi- and multi-lateral organizations. Led by Women's World Banking and the UN Capital Development Fund, initial partners include the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), FinEquity convened by CGAP, GSMA, International Finance Corporation, The World Bank Gender Group, Better Than Cash Alliance, and Kaleidofin.

For more information on how to become a partner of the WDFI Advocacy Hub, visit www.itshereconomytoo.org or search #ItsHerEconomyToo on Twitter.

About Women's World Banking

Women's World Banking designs and invests in financial solutions, institutions, and policy environments in emerging markets to create greater economic stability and prosperity for women, their families, and their communities. With a global reach of 62 partners in 35 countries serving more than 138 million women clients, Women's World Banking drives impact through its scalable, market-driven solutions; gender lens private equity fund; and leadership and diversity programs. To learn more visit womensworldbanking.org.

About UNCDF

The UN Capital Development Fund makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world's 47 least developed countries (LDCs). With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers "last mile" finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, in support of households, localities and small enterprises that are underserved, where development needs are greatest and where resources are scarcest.

Media contact:

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SOURCE Womens World Banking; United Nations Capital Development Fund
SEATTLE, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Coherent Market Insights, the global molecular diagnostics market is estimated to be valued at US$ 14,772.2 million in 2022 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 11.6 % during the forecast period (2022-2030).

Key Trends and Analysis of the Global Molecular Diagnostics Market:

Increasing product launches by market players is expected to drive the global molecular diagnostics market over the forecast period. For instance, On May 24, 2022, Illumina, Inc., a global company of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing and array-based technologies, announced the addition of a companion diagnostic (CDx) indication to its Conformite Europeenne (CE)-marked in vitro diagnostic TruSight Oncology (TSO) Comprehensive (EU) test. This single test kit, was launched across Europe and it assesses multiple tumor genes and biomarkers to reveal the specific molecular profile of a patient's cancer. The CDx pan-cancer indication would allow identification of cancer patients with solid tumors who are positive for neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) gene fusions including NTRK1, NTRK2 or NTRK3.

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Key Market Takeaways:

Global molecular diagnostics market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 11.6% during the forecast period due to increasing adoption of inorganic growth strategies such as agreements by market players. For instance, on January 5, 2022, DiaCarta Inc., a precision molecular diagnostics company had announced that the company was under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), for development of DiaCarta's proprietary xeno-nucleic acid (XNA) molecular clamping technology. NCI and DiaCarta would collaborate on the following project such as the investigation of low frequency mutation events in cancers and rare diseases using DiaCarta's proprietary xeno-nucleic acid (XNA) molecular clamping technology, and the development of XNA probes for in situ cancer cell detection.

Among Application, the Oncology segment holds a dominant position, owing to increasing inorganic activities such as partnership among market players. For instance, On January 10, 2022, Illumina, Inc., a biotechnology company had announced a multi-year partnership with Agendia N.V., a manufacturing company in precision oncology for breast cancer, to co-develop in vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests for oncology testing. The partnership is intended to advance the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) for decentralized oncology testing and aligns with Illumina's approach to IVD partnerships in oncology. Agendia joins Illumina's growing portfolio of more than 30 IVD partners developing over 40 sequencing-based solutions for cancer prognosis, therapy selection and other applications.

Key players operating in the global molecular diagnostics market include Hologic,Inc., Grifols, S.A., Abbott Laboratories, Qiagen N.V., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Siemens Healthineers, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Agilent Technologies, Inc., Meridian, Cepheid, and Beckman Coulter, Inc.

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Detailed Segmentation:

Global Molecular Diagnostics Market, By Product Type:

Reagents & Kits



Instruments

Global Molecular Diagnostics Market, By Application:

Oncology



Genetic Testing



Microbiology



STDs



Blood Screening



Virology



Tissue Typing



Prenatal Diagnosis



Others

Global Molecular Diagnostics Market, By End User:

Hospitals



Diagnostic Laboratories



Academic and Research Labs



Others

Global Molecular Diagnostics Market, By Region:

North America

By Country:



U.S.



Canada

Europe

By Country:



U.K.



Germany



Italy



France



Spain



Russia



Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

By Country:



China



India



Japan



ASEAN



Australia



South Korea



Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

By Country:



Brazil



Mexico



Argentina



Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

By Country:



GCC Countries



Israel



South Africa



Rest of Middle East & Africa

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Find related trending report below:

U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific Molecular Diagnostics Market, by Product Type (Reagents and Kits & Instruments), by Technology (PCR-based (Liquid Biopsy Testing, Tissue Testing) and NGS-based (Liquid Biopsy Testing, Tissue Testing)), by Application, (Genetic Testing, Oncology, Microbiology, STDs, Blood Screening, Virology, Tissue Typing, Prenatal Diagnosis, Others), by End Users, (Hospitals, Clinics, and Ambulatory Surgery Centers), and by Region (U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific) - Size, Share, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2022 - 2028

About Us:

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SOURCE Coherent Market Insights
DUBLIN, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The 'Sterilization Equipment Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027' report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global sterilization equipment market reached a value of US$ 12.5 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$ 21.4 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 9.37% during 2021-2027.

Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic on different end use sectors. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



Sterilization equipment is used in healthcare facilities to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and spores from a fluid or the surface of an article. It is widely utilized in autoclave machines, clean-in-place (CIP) systems, ultraviolet (UV) chambers, and steam, dry heat and liquid chemical processes to prevent the risk of cross-contamination and ensure the safety of staff and patients.

Nowadays, various medical devices and instruments are made using heat-sensitive materials like plastic. As a result, manufacturers are offering low-temperature sterilization systems, such as ozone, hydrogen peroxide gas plasma, ethylene oxide (EO) gas and peracetic acid immersion, to disinfect these devices.



A significant rise in the hospitalization rates due to the mass spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has increased the need for ventilators to support critically ill patients worldwide. This represents one of the prominent factors influencing the demand for sterilization equipment to prevent the introduction of harmful substances that can lead to infection from artificial airways and internal circuits. Apart from this, the increasing number of surgical procedures is also influencing the market growth.

Additionally, health authorities of numerous countries are introducing stringent policies concerning the sterilization of devices in healthcare facilities, which is further contributing to the market growth. Furthermore, sterilization equipment is gaining popularity in the food and beverage (F&B) industry to disinfect containers and packages. This, in confluence with the growing demand for packaged food products on account of busy lifestyles and the rising trend of nuclear families, is anticipated to drive the market.

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being Belimed AG (Metall Zug), Cantel Medical Corp, E-BEAM Services Inc., Fortive Corporation, Getinge AB, H.W.Andersen Products Ltd., Matachana Group, MMM Group, Sotera Health Company, STERIS plc, Stryker Corporation and Systec GmbH.



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global sterilization equipment market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global sterilization equipment market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the product?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end user?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global sterilization equipment market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Sterilization Equipment Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Product

6.1 Heat Sterilizers

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Key Segments

6.1.2.1 Depyrogenation Oven

6.1.2.2 Steam Autoclaves

6.1.3 Market Forecast

6.2 Low-temperature Sterilizers

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Key Segments

6.2.2.1 Ethylene Oxide Sterilizers

6.2.2.2 Hydrogen Peroxide Sterilizers

6.2.2.3 Others

6.2.3 Market Forecast

6.3 Sterile Membrane Filters

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Market Forecast

6.4 Radiation Sterilization Devices

6.4.1 Market Trends

6.4.2 Key Segments

6.4.2.1 Electron Beams

6.4.2.2 Gamma Rays

6.4.2.3 Others

6.4.3 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by End User

7.1 Hospitals and Clinics

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Medical Device Companies

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Pharmaceutical Companies

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 Food and Beverages Industry

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast

7.5 Others

7.5.1 Market Trends

7.5.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by Region



9 SWOT Analysis



10 Value Chain Analysis



11 Porters Five Forces Analysis



12 Price Analysis



13 Competitive Landscape

13.1 Market Structure

13.2 Key Players

13.3 Profiles of Key Players

13.3.1 Belimed AG (Metall Zug)

13.3.1.1 Company Overview

13.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.2 Cantel Medical Corp

13.3.2.1 Company Overview

13.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.2.3 Financials

13.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.3 E-BEAM Services Inc.

13.3.3.1 Company Overview

13.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.4 Fortive Corporation

13.3.4.1 Company Overview

13.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.4.3 Financials

13.3.4.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.5 Getinge AB

13.3.5.1 Company Overview

13.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.5.3 Financials

13.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.6 H.W.Andersen Products Ltd.

13.3.6.1 Company Overview

13.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.7 Matachana Group

13.3.7.1 Company Overview

13.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.8 MMM Group

13.3.8.1 Company Overview

13.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.9 Sotera Health Company

13.3.9.1 Company Overview

13.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.10 STERIS plc

13.3.10.1 Company Overview

13.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.11 Stryker Corporation

13.3.11.1 Company Overview

13.3.11.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.11.3 Financials

13.3.11.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.12 Systec GmbH

13.3.12.1 Company Overview

13.3.12.2 Product Portfolio



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/1lnp52

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PITTSBURGH, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Steelworkers (USW) today announced the publication of a new groundbreaking guide from its Health, Safety, and Environment Department. The book, "Bargaining for Stop Work Authority to Prevent Injuries and Save Lives," is the first and most comprehensive publication designed to help workers develop programs that allow them to stop unsafe or unhealthy operations and processes until hazards are resolved.

"The United Steelworkers is proud to issue this path-breaking guide," said USW International President Tom Conway. "OSHA does not require stop work authority, so it's up to us. This booklet will be an essential part of protecting workers' lives on the job."

The publication includes information on the importance of well-designed stop work authority programs and the pitfalls of ineffective programs that exist at many sites.

"The unfortunate reality is that flawed stop-work programs exist at many work sites, and this booklet will help to change that," Conway said. "In addition, workers often face challenges, including retaliation, in their efforts to stop unhealthy or unsafe work."

The guide provides model SWA collective bargaining language and checklists to help design the best SWA policies and procedures for industrial workplaces. Stop work authority is a mandatory subject of bargaining under the National Labor Relations Act.

Dr. David Michaels, former Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health in the Obama administration and currently a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health, said the USW's guide can help prevent injuries, deaths and environmental devastation.

"It should be read and used by workers, safety committee members, union leaders, and safety professionals in a wide range of industries," Michaels said.

Debra Coyle, executive director of the New Jersey Work Environment Council, the nation's longest-standing state labor-environmental alliance, said that the guide can help protect workers and communities.

"By applying the guide's lessons and winning stop work authority, unions can better protect both their members and communities from chemical fires, explosions, toxic releases, and other dangers," Coyle said.

The 27-page publication can be found at www.usw.org/stopworkauthority. Users are free to print and distribute the publication for non-profit training and educational programs, providing they credit the United Steelworkers (USW).

About the authors:

Steve Sallman is the director of the United Steelworkers (USW) Health, Safety and Environment Department. Sallman, who has investigated numerous workplace injuries and fatalities, worked at the Bridgestone/Firestone plant in Des Moines, Iowa, for 13 years, where he served as the full-time union safety and health committee chairman for eight years. He also was a safety and health consultant with the Iowa Division of Labor-OSHA. Contact Sallman at [email protected].

Rick Engler served as a member of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board from 2015 to 2020 after being nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He was the founder of the Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety and Health and the New Jersey Work Environment Council. Contact Engler at [email protected].

The USW represents 850,000 workers employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in health care, public sector, higher education, tech and service occupations.

Contact: Steve Sallman, (412) 562-2590, [email protected]

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)
SELBYVILLE, Del., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Prominent players operating in the healthcare analytics industry are IBM Corporation, OptumHealth, Inc, McKesson Corporation, Allscripts Healthcare Solution, Inc, Cerner Corporation, Athenahealth, Inc, Inovalon Holding, Inc, Computer Programs and Systems, Inc, Change Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, GE Healthcare, Evolent Health, Influence Health Inc, and Health Catalyst.

The healthcare analytics market value is expected to reach USD 32.7 billion by 2030, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights Inc.

Healthcare Analytics Market

Big data analytics is increasingly gaining prominence in the healthcare sector. It has significantly changed the ways in which healthcare data is managed, analysed, and leveraged across the entire healthcare value chain. Healthcare analytics holds the potential to reduce the treatment cost, predict disease outbreaks, avoid preventable diseases, and enhance the quality of life. Until recently, gathering such massive data for medical use was expensive and time-consuming. With technological advancements and modernization in healthcare analytics, it has become simple and easy to collect such data and create comprehensive healthcare reports.

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Healthcare analytics market from prescriptive analytics segment exceeded USD 2 billion in 2021. Prescriptive analytics holds the potential to make assessment about patients preexisting health condition, risk for developing future health conditions and can develop preventive treatment plans. It helps organizations to avoid a negative circumstance. It requires smooth and integrated data analytics infrastructure. As there will be advances in internet of things, and machine learning, prescriptive analytics has potential of becoming future of healthcare and big data. The healthcare industry holds enormous opportunity to take advantage of decision-making abilities of prescriptive analytics.

Some major findings of the healthcare analytics market report include:

Increasing demand for advanced data analytics in healthcare is driving the market expansion.

Great potential of creating revolutionary changes in healthcare system is fueling the business landscape.

The need for effective clinical analytics systems in population healthcare management is accelerating the market trends.

The huge benefits associated with healthcare analytics in hospitals is fostering the market demand.

Industry players are focusing on various strategies such as acquisition, business expansion and novel service launches to consolidate their market presence.

Browse key industry insights spread across 163 pages with 173 market data tables & 16 figures & charts from the report, "Healthcare Analytics Market Analysis By Product (Descriptive Analytics, Predictive Analytics, Prescriptive Analytics), Application (Operations Management, Financial Management, Population Health Management, Clinical Management) End-Use (Hospitals, Clinics), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook, Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2022  2030" in detail along with the table of contents:

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/healthcare-analytics-market

Population health management segment is anticipated to expand with a healthy CAGR of 11.9%, surpassing USD 8.4 billion by 2030. Population health management plays vital role in improving community health. Data analytics can assist population health management in enhancing patient results, improving patient care management, and to mark community determinants of health. For growth of population health management in the healthcare system, systems are required to gather data from various sources, apply analytics to it and manage the care for population. The population health management process starts with gathering key demographic and clinical data about patients, frequently from electronic health records. It depends on data analytics to identify populations needing care, calculate the care provided to them, and provide care to the right people.

Healthcare analytics market from hospitals segment accounted for 71% revenue share in 2021 and is set to register a significant CAGR through 2030. Hospitals are required to treat large number of patients daily. Any emergency situations come up unknowingly for which hospitals must be well prepared at any hour. It is not an easy task to stay updated with various aspects that contribute to preparedness. Nevertheless, healthcare analytics has huge potential to benefit the hospitals in such times. Modern healthcare analytics is enables hospitals by offering data governance without hindering usability by setting specific user and dataset permissions.

Asia-Pacific healthcare analytics market is estimated to show robust CAGR of 10.7% during the forecast period. The rising geriatric population along with the increasing burden of patients with chronic diseases and complex health conditions, demand for healthcare systems with extensive care. This requires excellent coordination between multidisciplinary healthcare providers to reduce division of existing care and implement effective changes in funding and policy models. In developed nations, like China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, major worries are associated with the aging population, declining birth rates, increasing costs, and rising rates of non-communicable diseases.

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A few notable companies operating in the healthcare analytics market include IBM Corporation, OptumHealth, Inc, McKesson Corporation, Allscripts Healthcare Solution, Inc, Cerner Corporation, Athenahealth, Inc, Inovalon Holding, Inc, Computer Programs and Systems, Inc, Change Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, GE Healthcare, Evolent Health, Influence Health Inc, and Health Catalyst, among others.

About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology.

Contact Us:

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Corporate Sales, USA

Global Market Insights Inc.

Phone: +1-302-846-7766

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Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE Global Market Insights Inc.
Henry Founder & CEO Discusses 40 Years in the Firearms Industry

RICE LAKE, Wis., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Anthony Imperato, Founder and CEO of one of the country's leading firearms manufacturers, recently made a guest appearance on the Talking Lead podcast to discuss his time at the helm of Henry Repeating Arms and his 40 years in the firearms industry.

Henry Repeating Arms CEO and Founder Anthony Imperato (L) makes a guest appearance on the Talking Lead podcast with host "Lefty" (R).

The 90-minute episode (#445) features an intimate conversation between Imperato and host Marty "Lefty" Holder, with topics spanning from the humble beginnings of Henry Repeating Arms to the company's current 25th anniversary $1,000,000 charity pledge to more personal dialogue about the challenges and issues facing Americans today. As a successful business owner with a decades-long family background in the gun business, Imperato contributes a unique point of view, and listeners will appreciate the transparency from one of America's leading firearm company executives.

Holder says, "In my more than ten years of interviewing people, Anthony Imperato must rank in my top five of the most pleasantly unexpected fun people to interview. His awareness and understanding of current social, political, and economic events keep him and his business ahead of the curve and in tune with his customers and employees." Holder continues, "Anthony's outlook on life, leadership, and generosity explains why Henry Repeating Arms is one of the most popular and respected firearms manufacturers in the USA."

To listen to Anthony Imperato's episode, visit Henry Repeating Arms' latest blog entry or find Talking Lead on the podcast service provider of your choice.

For more information about Henry Repeating Arms and its products, visit henryusa.com or call 866-200-2354 for a free catalog.

About Henry Repeating Arms:

Henry Repeating Arms is one of the leading rifle and shotgun manufacturers in the United States and a world leader in the lever action category. The company motto is "Made in America, or not made at all," and its firearms come with a lifetime guarantee backed by award-winning customer service. The company is also known for its Guns For Great Causes charitable program, which focuses on assisting the families of sick children, children's hospitals, military veteran organizations, Second Amendment advocacy groups, and wildlife conservation organizations. The company currently employs over 550 people and has over 330,000sf of manufacturing space in its Wisconsin and New Jersey facilities. The company is named in honor of Benjamin Tyler Henry, who invented and patented the Henry lever action rifle in 1860  the first practical repeating rifle and America's unique contribution to the international stage of firearms design. Visit Henry Repeating Arms online at henryusa.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/HenryRepeating, and @henry_rifles on Instagram.

About Talking Lead:

Talking Lead is an award-winning podcast and YouTube channel about all things guns, gear, hunting, training, and some other stuff thrown in for fun. Interviews include people, products & companies not only from within but from outside the firearms industry. Visit Talking Lead online at talkinglead.com and subscribe to the podcast on all major podcast distribution platforms. Join Talking Lead on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

SOURCE Henry Repeating Arms
NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MUFG, one of the world's leading financial groups, today announced that Hideaki "Hide" Takase has been appointed to the board of directors for MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation and its U.S. banking subsidiary, MUFG Union Bank, N.A., effective August 2, 2022. Mr. Takase succeeds Takayoshi "Taka" Futae, who has been a member of the board of directors since April 2022.

"On behalf of my fellow board members, we are pleased that Hide has been appointed to the board of directors," said Toby Myerson, lead independent director. "Hide's more than 30 years of successful banking experience in Japan, the U.S. and EMEA will be an important asset to the board and MUFG's Americas operations," Mr. Myerson continued. "Taka has been a trusted partner to me and to the board, and we have benefitted tremendously from his leadership and institutional knowledge. We wish him well with the next chapter of his very successful career."

In addition to serving as a board member, Mr. Takase is Managing Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer  International (COO-I) of MUFG and MUFG Bank, Ltd. and Deputy Chief Executive for the Global Commercial Banking Business Unit, positions he assumed in April 2022.

A seasoned banker with more than 30 years of experience, Mr. Takase has held a series of leadership positions both in Japan and overseas. He began his career in 1991 at The Mitsubishi Bank, a predecessor of MUFG Bank. He was seconded to the Japanese Bankers Association three times in his career to help manage issues related to the entire Japanese financial industry.

Mr. Takase's overseas experience includes more than seven years in the United States, most recently as General Manager of the MUFG Los Angeles Branch, and Head of Asian Corporate Banking (West) of MUFG Union Bank, beginning in 2015.

In June 2017, Mr. Takase returned to Tokyo to serve as Head of the Global Planning Division, and was assigned a leadership role to enhance global governance and business development. He led the team creating MUFG's Medium-Term Business Plan, including the establishment of the current MUFG global governance structure.

He also managed a team tasked with enhancing the alliance with partner banks in Asia, including the acquisition of PT Bank Danamon Indonesia, Tbk. Previously, Mr. Takase served as President of MUFG Bank (Europe) N.V. (MBE) in the Netherlands, and as Deputy Regional Executive for EMEA. As MBE President, he was responsible for enhancing the safety and soundness of MBE's business and operating platforms.

Mr. Takase holds a BA degree in Economics from Hitotsubashi University, and received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2012.

About Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc.'s U.S. Operations including MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation

The U.S. operations of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG), one of the world's leading financial groups, has total assets of $332.4 billion at March 31, 2022. As part of that total, MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation (MUAH), a financial holding company, bank holding company, and intermediate holding company, has total assets of $159.2 billion at March 31, 2022. MUAH's main subsidiaries are MUFG Union Bank, N.A. and MUFG Securities Americas Inc. MUFG Union Bank, N.A. provides a wide range of financial services to consumers, small businesses, middle-market companies, and major corporations. As of March 31, 2022, MUFG Union Bank, N.A. operated 297 branches, consisting primarily of retail banking branches in the West Coast states. MUFG Securities Americas Inc. is a registered securities broker-dealer which engages in capital markets origination transactions, domestic and foreign debt and equities securities transactions, private placements, collateralized financings, and securities borrowing and lending transactions. MUAH is owned by MUFG Bank, Ltd. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. MUFG Bank, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., has offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Canada. Visit www.unionbank.com or www.mufgamericas.com for more information.

Press contact: Daniel Weidman

T: (213) 236-4050

E: [email protected]

SOURCE MUFG
Data show loss of patent and loss of exclusivity are lowering the costs of some drugs in the US, the US continues to lead in inpatient costs across every measured intervention, however outpatient costs in the US are not always higher than other countries.

LONDON, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Federation of Health Plans (iFHP), an executive network of the global health insurance industry based in London, in partnership with the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) in the United States, and iFHP member companies in multiple countries, today published the latest International Health Cost Comparison Report.

The expanded report compares the cost of a selection of inpatient treatments, outpatient treatments and prescribed drugs as reported by iFHP members in eleven countries in 2019.

Figure 1 shows the prices paid for drugs in each country as a percentage of the US price. US& prescription drug prices are average point-of-sale price, which reflects discounts from the wholesale price, but not manufacturer rebates. Figure 2 shows the prices paid for a selection of inpatient procedures in each country as a percentage of the US price. Figure 3 shows the prices paid for a selection of outpatient procedures in each country as a percentage of the US price.

Data in the report demonstrate that where you live continues to have an enormous influence on the cost of your healthcare. Several types of care may be up to ten times more expensive in some countries over others that are otherwise geographically, politically, and economically similar.

"While healthcare in the United States is commonly thought to be among the most expensive in the world, this latest report suggests this may no longer be true for all health costs," said Chris Watney, CEO of iFHP. "Although international comparisons need to be made carefully, it's our hope that strategies employed to challenge the status quo on drug pricing and some outpatient procedures are starting to bring some median US costs in line with, or better than international benchmarks."

Drug Cost Comparison

iFHP and HCCI compared the price of fifteen drugs in 2019 across nine countries worldwide. The drugs were chosen for the relative cumulative cost they represent as a proportion of the overall drug expenditure of private health insurers. Prices represent the median cost per drug.

Key Findings:

While US drug prices remained higher than other countries for many of the drugs studied, a look at generic drugs provides a clearer picture of the price shifts that occur when a drug loses its patent or exclusivity protection in a market.

Drug costs in most countries were less than half the US costs for nearly all of the non-generic administered, and prescription drugs included in this study.

administered, and prescription drugs included in this study. The prices paid for Sertraline (generic Zoloft), an antidepressant, were lower in the US than in any other country surveyed.

Similarly, the price of Escitalopram (generic Lexapro), also an antidepressant, was lower in the US than any country surveyed except Kazakhstan .

Inpatient Procedures Costs Comparison

The study compares the median claims cost of nine inpatient treatments in 2019 across eleven countries worldwide. As in previous studies, the median costs borne by private insurers for health care services in the United States were almost always higher than those reported in the other countries included in the study.

There is significant variability in the costs across countries which can be attributed to several variables. For instance, some of the variability can be explained by international differences in the number of days a patient will stay in the hospital.

Key Findings:

The survey's latest findings are broadly consistent with those of previous studies, with the United States consistently presenting the highest costs for inpatient treatments, and usually significantly so.

Prices in Kazakhstan were the lowest among all countries for most of the services included in the study.

were the lowest among all countries for most of the services included in the study. Outside of the US, prices in Switzerland and New Zealand were often among the highest prices in the study.

and were often among the highest prices in the study. Coronary bypass surgery and gallbladder removal (cholecystectomy) were less than half the price of the US in all the other countries included in the study.

Spain had among the lowest prices for hip and knee replacements with costs less than 25% of the US price. The median cost of a knee replacement in Switzerland was the closest to the US at nearly 70% of the price.

Outpatient Procedure Costs Comparison

iFHP and HCCI compared the median cost of ten outpatient treatments in 2019 across eleven countries worldwide. The treatments were chosen for the relative cumulative cost they represent as a proportion of the overall treatment costs expensed by private health insurance companies. Outpatient procedures may be performed in a hospital/facility setting or in an office/non-facility setting.

The objective of this study is to highlight price disparities internationally. Due to the differences in billing practices, it is not always possible to provide an exact match between what is measured in each claim per country, and those differences are noted in the survey.

Key Findings:

The picture has changed since the report of 2017 data, when costs in the United States outstripped other countries' costs in all but one category (cataract). In 2019, the US data trended more towards the centre of the countries studied, and the US price was not the highest for any procedure.

Outside of the US, prices in New Zealand were often among the highest prices for many of the procedures included in the study.

were often among the highest prices for many of the procedures included in the study. Kazakhstan , Chile and Germany reported the lowest prices for several of the procedures surveyed.

Comparisons across different countries are complicated by differences in market dynamics and fee schedules, and prices may not be representative of prices paid by other plans in that market. The study attempts to minimize these limitations by focusing on services with very specific definitions enabling respondents to match the procedures that are the basis of the US payment system. The drugs costs are taken from claims data and as such they are influenced by both list price and confidential contractual agreements or rebates. All drug prices were adjusted to reflect the most commonly prescribed standard dosage and units.

About the International Federation of Health Plans

Representing 70+ private and statutory health insurers in over 24 countries and 6 continents, covering a total of more than 250 million lives, the International Federation of Health Plans (iFHP) supports equitable access to healthcare for all populations across the world and the sustainability of the private and statutory health insurance industry.

About the Health Care Cost Institute

The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) is an independent, non-profit organization with leading health claims datasets that enable research, policy, and journalism. HCCI stands for truth and consensus around the most important trends in health care, particularly those economic and policy issues that are critical to a sustainable, equitable, and accessible high-quality health care system.

About the Study

The 2022 International Health Cost Comparison Report compares the cost of a selection of inpatient treatments, outpatient treatments and prescribed drugs as reported by iFHP members in ten countries in 2019. (Note: 2019 represents the most complete and recent dataset not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.) The drugs and treatments featured in the study were selected due to the high cumulative cost they typically represent in total claims for health plans around the world. The objective of this study is to highlight cost disparities as a basis for further research into the contributing factors to those disparities.

The full 2022 report is available at https://healthcostinstitute.org/images/pdfs/international_health_cost_comparison_report_2022.pdf

The prior report, published in 2019, is available at: https://healthcostinstitute.org/hcci-research/international-comparisons-of-health-care-prices-2017-ifhp-survey?highlight=WyJpZmhwIl0=

CONTACT: Chris Watney, CEO, International Federation of Health Plans

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE The International Federation of Health Plans
GURUGRAM, India, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

Data Centre facilities likely to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2021 to 2026F.

IT/ITes sector is expected to take over BFSI sector as the major end user for DCs in Indonesia by 2026F due to rapidly growing demand for cloud and IT services in the country.

by 2026F due to rapidly growing demand for cloud and IT services in the country. Upcoming Facilities and Rapid Digitization are likely to be the key growth drivers for the industry in the upcoming future.

Government's 'Making Indonesia 4.0' Plan: The Indonesian Government's program 'Making Indonesia 4.0' will put Indonesia among the top ten global economies by 2030 by implementing digital transformation in different industry verticals such as manufacturing, finance, healthcare, and more resulting in the higher demand for Data Center services by the end users in the country.

Growth of Internet Economy to Drive Data Center Growth: The growth of the digital economy in Indonesia is expected to reach USD 150+ billion in 2025. With the growing internet economy, the demand for data services and infrastructure is expected to increase exponentially in Indonesia.

New Entrants: New entrants will provide a major boost to market growth during 2022-2026, supporting the wholesale needs of local enterprises and cloud service providers in the region. Companies such as Space DC, PureDC and more are currently building their facilities in the country.

Upcoming Smaller Facilities: PT Solusi Sinergi Digital Tbk or Surge is preparing to build edge data centers in train stations and warehouses of village cooperatives (KUD) across Java Island.

Emergence of 5G Technology: The emergence of 5G technology in Indonesia is likely to grow the adoption of IoT-enabled products in the Indonesian market further contributing to the development of data center industry.

Analysts at Ken Research in their latest publication "Indonesia Data Center Market Outlook to 2026- Growing Tech Savy Population, Internet Penetration Rate and Rising Number of Facilities to Drive the Indonesia Data Center market in the near future" believe that the data center industry in Indonesia has been growing and is expected that it will expand further owing to the rising number of data centers, surge in demand for local data centers, attractive investments from hyper scale cloud providers, additional services provided by the companies such as cloud services, data recovery, security services, cross connect and others. The market is expected to register a positive CAGR of 24% in terms of revenue during the forecast period 2022F-2026F.

Key Segments Covered: -

By Type of Data Centers

Co-location Data Center



Retail Co-location





Wholesale Co-location

Managed Data Center

Hyperscale

By End Users



IT/ITes





BFSI





Government





SMEs





E-Commerce





Others (Education, Retail, Manufacturing, Logistics and rest)

Key Target Audience:-

Data Center companies

Cloud providers (Domestic and Global)

Managed data center companies

Co-location data center companies

Private Equity and Venture Capitalist

Industry Associations

Data Center Constructors

Technology providers

Time Period Captured in the Report:-

Historical Period  2015-2021

2015-2021 Forecast Period  2021-2026F

Companies Covered:-

Data Center Companies

Biznet Data Centre



GTN Data Centre



CBN Nusantara (Nex Data Center)



Princeton Digital Group



Moratelindo (Nusantara Data Center)



DCI



Indokeppel



Jupiter DC



Indonet

Key Topics Covered in the Report:-

Demand & Supply Side Ecosystem of Data Center Industry in Indonesia

Indonesia Data Center Overview

Data Center Overview Comparison of Indonesia Data Center Market with other APAC Countries ( Malaysia , India , Thailand , Singapore and Hong Kong )

, , , and ) Indonesia Data Center Market Size

Indonesia Data Center Market Segmentation

Competition Framework in Indonesia Data Center Market

Data Center Market Pricing Analysis of Major Players in Indonesia Data Center Market

Data Center Market End User Analysis

Indonesia Data Center Market Future Outlook and Projections

Data Center Market in Indonesia

Data Center Industry in Indonesia

Managed Data Center in Indonesia

Captive Data Center in Indonesia

Hyper scale Data Center in Indonesia

Enterprise Data Center in Indonesia

Telecom Data Center in Indonesia

Data Center providers in Indonesia

Data Center Companies in Indonesia

Data Center Services in Indonesia

Number of Data Center in Indonesia

Pricing for Data Centers in Indonesia

Emerging Indonesian Data Center Market

Data Center in Indonesia

Cloud Market in indonesia

Domestic Cloud Services providers In Indonesia

Co-location data center companies In Indonesia

For More Info on the Research Report, Click on the below link: -

Indonesia Data Center Market Analysis

Related Reports by Ken Research: -

KSA Data Center and Cloud Services Market Outlook to 2026F  Driven by rising investments in data centers from private sector and government support towards technology and Cloud first policy

KSA is the largest ICT market in the MENA, and it is well-positioned to become a technology service and cloud hub with access to international connectivity through the Red Sea and the Gulf. KSA Data Centre industry is witnessing robust growth in the era of virtualization and cloud computing. Shifts in creative media content towards Content Delivery Networks, IoT, growth of big data and the roll out of 5G is driving the demand for data consumption in KSA. Improvement in network connectivity, government support, and rapid growth in the adoption of big data, and IoT services have been strong enablers for the growth of the KSA data Center market.

KSA Data Center is moderately concentrated market with STC and Mobily are the top player with the greatest number of data centers. Majority of the Data Center operators are in collaborative terms with other market players to expand their business and reach to the rising demand of data usage by end users. KSA Data Center Market is set to grow at a CAGR of 19.5% in terms of revenue generation, over the period 2021-2026F. The KSA government's smart city initiatives, adoption of 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud first policy are driving the demand for Data Centers.

UAE Data Center and Cloud Services Market Outlook to 2026F  Driven by Rapid Digital Penetration along with Increasing Investments to meet the Rising Demand for Data Storage and Cloud Services

UAE Data Centre industry is witnessing robust growth in the era of virtualization and cloud computing. The increased use of data consumption and internet bandwidth in the country is driven by expanding reach of social media, increased use of smart devices, data localization, increased adoption of cloud services and digital transformation journeys of many UAE Data Center companies.

UAE Data Center is highly fragmented market with Etisalat as the top player with most number of data centers. Majority of the Data Center operators are in collaborative terms with other market players to expand their business and reach to the rising demand of data usage by end users. UAE Data Center Market is set to grow at a CAGR of 18.4% in terms of revenue generation, over the period 2021-2026F. The UAE government's smart city initiatives, adoption of 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) are driving the demand for Data Centers.

India Data Center and Cloud Services Market Outlook to 2025- Favorable Government Support and Data Localization Leading to Surge in Data Center Adoption

The India data center market was observed to grow with a stable growth pattern in the review period 2014-2020P. Factors such as data localization law, government's digitization drive, rapid movement from cloud computing to the edge computing surge in outsourcing of data center services and others have helped the data center industry to grow in India in terms of revenue.

Malaysia Data Center Market Outlook to 2022 - by Revenue Streams (Colocation, Managed Hosting and Cloud Services), by End Users (Banking & Finance, Federal Government, Content & Technology and Others)

The data centre market in Malaysia is in the growth stage. The support and encouragement provided by the government along with the efforts to promote the country as a hub for data centres have catapulted development in the market in every aspect. The market is an amalgamation of large-sized and mid-sized players that specialize in colocation and managed hosting services. The market has also witnessed a substantial rise in the demand for public and private cloud services. The Johor area (close to Singapore) in the southern part of the country is growing as an attractive investment opportunity for data centre companies. Malaysia data centre market has witnessed substantial growth in the past few years recording a CAGR of ~% during 2012-2017. The market has grown from USD ~ million in 2012 to USD ~ million in 2017 driven Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) launched in Malaysia which has listed development of Data Centre Market in Malaysia as a key Entry Point Projects (EPPs) under the Business Services NKEAs (National Key Economic Areas). The low cost of the establishment along with the infrastructure development has been the major attractions for DC companies in Malaysia. The market has witnessed double-digit growth in the past five years except in the year 2015 when the growth rate of the market fell to ~% from ~% in 2014. The slowdown in the global market restricted companies from outsourcing their data centre services, this restricted the double-digit growth of the market in 2014 to single-digit growth in 2015.

Contact Us: -

Ken Research

Ankur Gupta, Head Marketing & Communications

[email protected]

+91-9015378249

Logo : https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661352/Ken_Research_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Ken Research
Andrew Volk Promoted to Senior VP of Corporate Development & Strategy

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Infusion Associates (IA), a leading provider of medically prescribed outpatient infusion and injection therapies in the Midwest, today announced the promotion of executive leadership member Andrew Volk from Senior VP of Revenue Cycle to Senior VP of Corporate Development & Strategy.

A licensed pharmacist and board-certified in pharmacotherapeutic specialties, Volk joined Infusion Associates in 2020 to manage the company's supply chain and revenue cycle across all sites of service. In his new role, Volk will use his robust knowledge of the infusion industry and payer landscape to focus on payer relations, mergers and acquisitions, market analysis and strategy development among other key business development activities.

"Andrew's unique combination of skills and experiences cover both revenue and cost sides of our business. His understanding of group purchasing organizations, the FDA pipeline of infusible drugs, health plan priorities, value-based contracting and the value of longitudinal medical data of patient's with chronic diseases has helped define our growth strategies," said Chuck Jett, CEO at Infusion Associates. "I look forward to the ongoing impact he will make as we advance the company in 2022 and beyond."

Volk attended pharmacy school at Nova Southeastern University and has most recently completed his MBA at Cornerstone University. He has worked in pharmacy, supply chain, and infusion services at both Sinai Health System in Chicago as well as Spectrum Health in West Michigan.

About Infusion Associates

Infusion Associates (IA) provides life enhancing therapies for patients with chronic conditions, such as gastrointestinal diseases or autoimmune disorders, in a warm and comfortable environment. Current infusion centers are located in Ann Arbor, Clinton Township, Troy, East Lansing, Okemos, Grand Rapids, Grandville, Grand Haven, and Traverse City, Michigan as well as Plymouth, Minnesota. Infusion Associates provides both a patient and provider-friendly service that delivers high quality patient care while also being the lowest cost provider of infusion therapy. For more information, please visit www.infusionassociates.com.

Contact: Betsy Lipzinski, Marketing Communications Manager

Phone: (616) 954-0600 ext. 133

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.infusionassociates.com

SOURCE Infusion Associates
"When we heard this news, we knew we had to do something," said Mission of Hope President Brad Johnson. "In partnership with Convoy of Hope, we are allocating a large distribution of food to prisons. We do not want overcrowded prisons to run out of food and families to get word that their loved ones have died in conditions that should not be tolerated."

The food crisis is not the only issue Haiti is facing right now. The country has been rocked by the 2021 assassination of its president, earthquakes in the south killing over 2,000 people in 2021, as well as increased gang violence that has halted most people from being able to live their normal lives including going to work, church, school, or even the market for essential goods.

Mission of Hope believes that Haiti can be changed, but it starts with educating the next generation. With over 16,000 students in our education network, Mission of Hope is providing a quality, Christ-centered education, and a daily meal to students who might not otherwise be able to eat that day. By educating students and seeing them graduate, their lives are changing and so are their families.

About Mission of Hope

As an organization following Jesus Christ, Mission of Hope exists to bring life transformation to every man, woman, and child. Mission of Hope currently works in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Key West. We believe nations can be transformed one life at a time by focusing on nutrition, education, medical care, and church advancement.

For more information, visit missionofhope.com.

SOURCE Mission of Hope
DUBLIN, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Healthcare CRM Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global healthcare CRM market reached a value of US$ 12.2 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$ 25.7 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 13.22% during 2021-2027.

Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic on different end use sectors. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



Healthcare customer relationship management (HCRM) refers to a specialized software-based solution designed for medical institutions to manage customer-related processes. It is usually deployed on cloud or on-premises in the form of operational, analytical and collaborative CRM. It includes comprehensive patient management, dashboard and reporting, caregiver management and communication tools.

HCRM records the patient's information, such as medical history, visits, prescriptions and medical bills, into a holistic profile and is also used for scheduling and tracking medical appointments. It aids in maintaining an updated database about the patients with valuable insights and offer quality support to the customers. As a result, they are widely used across hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centers.



Significant growth in the healthcare industry across the globe is one of the key factors creating a positive outlook for the market. Moreover, the increasing requirement for effective solutions to improve patient's treatment and healthcare experience is providing a thrust to the market growth.

Additionally, various technological advancements, such as the integration of the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and cloud-computing solutions with the HCRM platforms, are acting as other growth-inducing factors. These solutions provide high-quality virtual care, home care and remote disease monitoring services to the patient through chatbots and real-time interactions.

These tools also assist in minimizing the human effort that results in enhanced cost efficiency, minimal risk of errors and optimized communications. Other factors, including rising healthcare expenditures of the masses, along with extensive research and development (R&D) activities, are anticipated to drive the market growth.

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being Accenture Plc, AllScripts Healthcare Solutions Inc, Amdocs, Aspect Software Inc, International Business Machines Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Salesforce.com inc, SAP SE and Siemens Healthineers AG (Siemens AG).



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global healthcare CRM market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global healthcare CRM market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the product?

What is the breakup of the market based on the application?

What is the breakup of the market based on the technology?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end use?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global healthcare CRM market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Healthcare CRM Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Product

6.1 Individual

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Referral

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast

6.3 Individual and Referral

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Application

7.1 Community Outreach

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Case Coordination

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Case Management

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 Relationship Management

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by Technology

8.1 Cloud-based

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Mobile

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast

8.3 Social

8.3.1 Market Trends

8.3.2 Market Forecast

8.4 Collaborative

8.4.1 Market Trends

8.4.2 Market Forecast

8.5 Predictive

8.5.1 Market Trends

8.5.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by End Use

9.1 Payers

9.1.1 Market Trends

9.1.2 Market Forecast

9.2 Providers

9.2.1 Market Trends

9.2.2 Market Forecast

9.3 Life Science Companies

9.3.1 Market Trends

9.3.2 Market Forecast



10 Market Breakup by Region



11 SWOT Analysis



12 Value Chain Analysis



13 Porters Five Forces Analysis



14 Price Analysis



15 Competitive Landscape

15.1 Market Structure

15.2 Key Players

15.3 Profiles of Key Players

15.3.1 Accenture Plc

15.3.1.1 Company Overview

15.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.1.3 Financials

15.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.2 AllScripts Healthcare Solutions Inc

15.3.2.1 Company Overview

15.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.2.3 Financials

15.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.3 Amdocs

15.3.3.1 Company Overview

15.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.3.3 Financials

15.3.4 Aspect Software Inc

15.3.4.1 Company Overview

15.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.5 International Business Machines Corporation

15.3.5.1 Company Overview

15.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.5.3 Financials

15.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.6 Microsoft Corporation

15.3.6.1 Company Overview

15.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.6.3 Financials

15.3.6.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.7 Oracle Corporation

15.3.7.1 Company Overview

15.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.7.3 Financials

15.3.7.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.8 Salesforce.com inc

15.3.8.1 Company Overview

15.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.8.3 Financials

15.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.9 SAP SE

15.3.9.1 Company Overview

15.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.9.3 Financials

15.3.9.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.10 Siemens Healthineers AG (Siemens AG)

15.3.10.1 Company Overview

15.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.10.3 Financials

15.3.10.4 SWOT Analysis

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/59c08p

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

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SOURCE Research and Markets
SAN FRANCISCO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global insulin market is expected to reach USD 23.20 billion by 2030, expanding at a CAGR of 1.5% during the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is an oligopolistic space dominated by companies such as Novo Nordisk A/S, Sanofi, and Eli Lilly and Company. The increasing incidence of diabetes and formulation advancements in insulin delivery are the primary factors driving growth. However, the presence of biosimilars and drugs such as GLP-1 RAs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes can slow down market growth to a certain extent.

Key Industry Insights & Findings from the report:

The long-acting insulin segment contributed a significant revenue share of 56.53% in 2021. Factors such as patent protection and high demand due to long-term effects are expected to drive the segment.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus is the largest segment by application in 2021 due to the high insulin dependency of these patients.

Insulin analog segment dominated in 2021. It is due to the higher efficacy of insulin and minimal adverse effects, such as hypoglycemic attacks and lower weight gain, as compared to conventional therapy.

The retail pharmacy segment dominated the distribution channel in 2021 due to the presence of retail pharmacy chains and tie-ups of these chains with hospitals.

North America dominated the market in terms of revenue in 2021, mainly due to the dominance of branded products and the increasing prevalence of diabetes in the region.

Read 150-page market research report, "Insulin Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis By Product Type (Rapid-Acting Insulin, Long-Acting Insulin, Combination Insulin, Biosimilar), By Application, By Type (Type 1, Type 2), By Distribution Channel, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030", published by Grand View Research.

Insulin Market Growth & Trends

Diabetes is one of the fastest-growing chronic diseases in the world. Its prevalence has increased steadily over the past few decades. The prevalence of the disease is growing rapidly in low- and middle-income countries; three in four adults live with diabetes in these countries. According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) data from 2021, approximately 643 million individuals will have diabetes by 2030 and 783 million by 2045. In addition, the increase in geriatric and obese populations is another factor driving growth. The overweight population is at risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus. According to WHO, in 2020, 1.9 billion adults were found to be overweight, accounting for 39% of the population within that age group.

Formulation advancements in insulin delivery systems are being developed, the release of which is likely to propel the market over the forecast period. In December 2019, Tandem Diabetes Care's Control-IQ, an interoperable device, received FDA authorization for marketing in the U.S. It is an automated insulin dosing algorithm that can be used with other interoperable devices.

The top three manufacturing companies, Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk A/S, and Sanofi, hold a monopoly. These companies hold more than 90% of the market share. Owing to the oligopolistic nature of the market and patent protection, the cost of insulin is high. Hence, the high cost of products could impede industry growth.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a detrimental impact on the industry. Individuals with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, have experienced substantial disruptions in emergency and routine medical care. According to an NCBI article, out of ~30 million diabetic patients in America, about 7.5 million are dependent on insulin. Insulin rationing or hoarding has already been a rampant issue, which increased further amid the pandemic due to supply concerns. However, in several countries, the effect of COVID-19 declined to post the third quarter of 2020, which helped the market regain traction.

Insulin Market Segmentation

Grand View Research has segmented the global Insulin market based on product type, application, type, distribution channel, and regions:

Insulin Market - Product Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2030)

Rapid-Acting Insulin

Long-Acting Insulin

Combination Insulin

Biosimilar

Others

Insulin Market - Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2030)

Human Insulin

Insulin Analog

Insulin Market - Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2030)

Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Insulin Market - Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2030)

Hospitals

Retail Pharmacies

Others

Insulin Market - Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2030)

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

Germany



U.K.



France



Italy



Spain

Asia Pacific

Japan



China



India



Australia



South Korea

Latin America

Brazil



Mexico



Argentina

Middle East & Africa

& South Africa



Saudi Arabia



UAE

List of Key Players of Insulin Market

Novo Nordisk A/S

Eli Lilly and Company

Sanofi

Biocon Ltd

Wockhardt

Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH

Julphar

United Laboratories International Holdings Limited

Tonghua Dongbao Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Check out more related studies published by Grand View Research:

Insulin Pump Market - The global insulin pump market size is expected to reach USD 8.3 billion , according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.7% from 2021 to 2028. The key factors driving the growth of the market are the technological advancements and the adoption of pumps over traditional methods.

The global insulin pump market size is expected to reach , according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.7% from 2021 to 2028. The key factors driving the growth of the market are the technological advancements and the adoption of pumps over traditional methods. Insulin Delivery Devices Market - The global insulin delivery devices market size is expected to reach USD 27.7 billion by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 7.4% from 2022 to 2030. Obesity, sedentary lifestyles, and unhealthy food habits, primarily in the young population, lead to the occurrence of diabetes.

- The global insulin delivery devices market size is expected to reach by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 7.4% from 2022 to 2030. Obesity, sedentary lifestyles, and unhealthy food habits, primarily in the young population, lead to the occurrence of diabetes. Smart Insulin Pens & Pumps Market - The global smart insulin pens and pumps market size is expected to reach USD 6.3 billion by 2026, registering around 10.0% CAGR over the forecast period according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Major market drivers include continuous technological advancements in the field of diabetes care along with growing adoption of advanced diabetes management methods.

Browse through Grand View Research's Pharmaceuticals Industry Research Reports.

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research Helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead.

Contact:

Sherry James

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Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

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SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc.
RICHMOND, Va., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2017, Energix began acquiring and developing solar projects in Virginia.

In 2020, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights placed Energix on a list of problematic companies because it operates on Israeli occupied lands for commercial benefit. Energix has built solar utilities in the West Bank and wind turbines in the Golan Heights and uses Israeli police protection in clashes with indigenous groups.

According to data gathered by the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights, ten counties and two state agencies in Virginia have pushed back against Energix's worst practices.

In Wythe County , the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issued an Enforcement Action and fined Energix $68,250 for environmental violations at its Wytheville Solar site.

, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issued an Enforcement Action and fined Energix for environmental violations at its Wytheville Solar site. In Buckingham County , the State Water Control Board issued an Enforcement Action and fined Energix $23,772.50 over environmental violations at its Buckingham Solar II site.

, the State Water Control Board issued an Enforcement Action and fined Energix over environmental violations at its site. In Rockingham County , neighboring landowners sued the BoS and Energix over the planned 30MW Endless Caverns site because the BoS permitted a project that violated newly passed restrictive solar zoning guidelines.

, neighboring landowners over the planned 30MW Endless Caverns site because the BoS permitted a project that violated newly passed restrictive solar zoning guidelines. In Dinwiddie County , the Board of Supervisors voted down Energix's bid to build the 80 MW " Lily Pond " utility over concerns about the environment.

, the Board of Supervisors voted down Energix's bid to build the 80 MW " " utility over concerns about the environment. In Franklin County , Smith Mountain Lake property owners prompted Energix to withdraw the application for a proposed 20MW Westlake Solar project because of concerns over toxic runoff from its Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) solar panels.

, property owners prompted Energix to withdraw the application for a proposed 20MW project because of concerns over toxic runoff from its Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) solar panels. In Buckingham, Caroline , Chesterfield , Madison , Prince George , and Spotsylvania counties, county officials banned or prohibited the installation of CdTe solar panels that contain toxic heavy metals.

Although Energix predicts a sunny future to its minority shareholders and to county officials, at least six solar projects have been withdrawn, have not been permitted, or have not been submitted to county planning departments.

Perhaps in recognition that its potential to grow in Virginia is limited, Energix has quietly taken over development, production and ownership of the 70 MW Adams Solar project, which is to provide 22 percent of electricity for city-owned buildings in Philadelphia.

Jeanne Trabulsi of the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR) presented a March 22 information overview about how Energix is importing its worst overseas practices into the U.S. at the National Press Club in Washington. Her contact is: [email protected].

SOURCE Virginia Coalition for Human Rights
Forbes Nonprofit Council Is an Invitation-Only Community for Chief Executives in Successful Nonprofit Organizations

TRENTON, N.J., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jennifer Thompson, Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers New Jersey and Delaware has been accepted into Forbes Nonprofit Council, an invitation-only community for senior executives in successful nonprofit organizations.

Ms. Thompson was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of her experience. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors.

"We are honored to welcome Mrs. Thompson into the community," said Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, the collective that includes Forbes Nonprofit Council. "Our mission with Forbes Councils is to bring together proven leaders from every industry, creating a curated, social capital-driven network that helps every member grow professionally and make an even greater impact on the business world."

As an accepted member of the Council, Jennifer will connect and collaborate with other respected local leaders in a private forum. She will also work with a professional editorial team to share her expert insights in original business articles on Forbes.com, and to contribute to published Q&A panels alongside other experts.

"I am honored to accept the invitation to join Forbes Council and uplift the voices of social workers and our association. Social workers are the backbone of our communities, making us stronger, driving sound business and policy decisions and creating change daily. I look forward to strengthening the social work voice in these critical spaces and advocating on behalf of the profession and clients we serve."

ABOUT FORBES COUNCILS

Forbes Councils is a collective of invitation-only communities created in partnership with Forbes and the expert community builders who founded Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). In Forbes Councils, exceptional business owners and leaders come together with the people and resources that can help them thrive.

For more information about Forbes Nonprofit Council, visit forbesnonprofitcouncil.com . To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit forbescouncils.com .

SOURCE National Association of Social Workers New Jersey
The Los Angeles-based director brings a strong performance background to her commercial work.

Bhavani Lee Reel

TAMPA, Fla., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Independent production company Kestum Bilt has added Bhavani Lee to its roster, joining award-winning directors Kip Hewitt, Jason Wallis, Pete Guzzo, CHANSE and Ricardo Ceballos.

"We're thrilled to welcome Bhavani to the team. She's a rare talent with an incredibly exciting approach to direction. We can't wait to see what we create together," said Kestum Bilt founder, director, and executive producer Pete Guzzo.

Bhavani Lee, Director. www.kestumbilt.com

Lee is a New York City native who attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before becoming a Cirque Du Soleil performer then highly sought-after movement director for film and television. It was at Cirque when she began to understand that dance and cinema both seek to find poetry in motion.

"It's all about motion for me, whether it's the way the camera moves, or the performer or product moves, or how they work in tandem. Even a small facial gesture during a quiet moment; it can all be choreographed to give the story nuance, fluidity, and grace," said Lee.

Lee has worked on commercial, fashion, and short form narrative videos, and her credits include dance films such as "Lucid" and "Operator," as well as the television pilots "Land of Kings" and "Trailer Park Prophet."

"I'm so inspired by Pete and everyone at Kestum Bilt. I've been living in LA for a while so I immediately connected with their can-do spirit. It's like finding Hollywood in Florida," Lee added.

"There's no one quite like Bhavani in our region," said Guzzo. "She'll find a way to elevate every project with her unique point of view. I think even the most conventional brands will be excited to see what she can do with their projects."

Kestum Bilt is a video, film and digital content production company that represents award-winning directors, and provides script-to-screen production, post production and production service support to ad agencies, brands, filmmakers, nonprofits and more in the U.S. and LATAM markets.

We're known for our egoless approach to problem solving and collaboration; delivering work that is on strategy, on brand and on budget. If it's your goal to create compelling content and experiences to tell your story and grow your business, count us in.

Locations | Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami and Tampa.

Kestum Bilt

www.kestumbilt.com

Media Contact:

Peter Guzzo

8134770003

[email protected]

SOURCE Kestum Bilt
J Schwan is retiring as CEO of global digital transformation consultancy Kin + Carta

Board appoints Kelly Manthey , Group Chief Executive of Kin + Carta Americas, to role

Moves are effective from Kin + Carta year-end, 1 August

LONDON, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kin + Carta , the London Stock Exchange listed digital transformation consultancy, announced today that CEO J Schwan is retiring from the role at the end of July. He will be succeeded by Kelly Manthey , Group Chief Executive of Kin + Carta Americas, from 1st August 2022.

The changes also see Chris Kutsor, Kin + Carta's chief financial officer, take on the additional role of chief operating officer. The rest of the leadership group, consisting of chief strategy officer Richard Neish, and Europe group chief executive David Tuck, remains in place.

The moves are part of a planned succession strategy that sees the global consultancy build on its three-year transformation as the consultancy enters an ambitious growth phase, profitably scaling both organically and through acquisition.

Manthey will take over from Schwan to ensure a seamless execution of the growth strategy, using her operational expertise to drive global scale. She has been in the business of digital transformation for 25 years, with a career that has spanned every role in the business.

Heading up Kin + Carta's Americas region, Manthey has been instrumental in building a growth-minded business with a strong, diverse and progressive culture. The region now accounts for 70% of Kin + Carta's revenue, growing from 400 people when Manthey was appointed as Americas Group Chief Executive, to 1100 today.

She has led Kin + Carta's Americas business as it earned accolades including Fast Company's Best Workplaces for Innovators, Consulting Magazine's Best Large Firms to Work For and Fortune Magazine's Best Places to Work. She has been recognised in The Consulting Report's Top 25 Women Leaders in IT Services, Crain's Chicago Business Tech 50, and is an active advocate for inclusion, diversity and raising the visibility of women in the technology sector.

Her career includes serving as CEO of Solstice, the agency Schwan founded in 2001. Solstice was acquired by St Ives in 2015, and added to its diverse portfolio of digital marketing services agencies. Schwan took over as St Ives CEO in August 2018 and spearheaded its transformation into Kin + Carta, restructuring the legacy portfolio of businesses into a single firm with a common mission of "building a world that works better for everyone."

Schwan has led the consolidation of operations into two core trading regions (Americas and Europe), a globally aligned suite of services that solve the most business-critical digital transformation problems and a culture with social responsibility built into its core. In 2021, Kin + Carta became the first certified B Corporation on the London Stock Exchange and the first publicly traded company in its sector to achieve the certification. The business has also seen a significant acquisition drive including; Spire Digital, Cascade Data Labs, Loop, Melon Group (including Frakton), and Octain AI.

Schwan more than doubled the market capitalization of the company during his four-year tenure as CEO, returning over 115% in total shareholder return, putting Kin + Carta's performance in the top 3% of the FTSE All Share. The company has posted an outlook of 49% growth for FY22.

John Kerr, Chairman, commented: "Kin + Carta is unrecognisable from 2018 when J took over as CEO, a period that delivered total shareholder return (TSR) of 115%. With sterling support from Kelly and Chris among others, J has been the architect of this transformation, and on behalf of the Board, I would like to thank him for his dedication and contribution. J has successfully steered the business through this period of unparalleled change as he shaped a growing pure-play digital transformation consultancy with purpose at the heart of the business.

"The Board is delighted to appoint Kelly Manthey as J's successor. Kelly has been alongside J since 2006, including the evolution of Kin + Carta as Group Chief Executive for the Americas since August 2018. During that time, Kelly has been instrumental in profitably scaling the Americas business, including organic revenue growth of over 110% in addition to four acquisitions in the world's largest and fastest paced digital transformation market. This next phase of Kin + Carta will be defined by continued growth and we are confident and excited that the profitable growth that Kelly has successfully executed in the Americas, evident in the strength of this trading update, will be replicated at a global scale."

J Schwan, said: "Kin + Carta's transformation is now complete and a new, exciting growth chapter is underway. I'm incredibly proud to have played a role in building Kin + Carta and I'm delighted to be handing leadership to Kelly who has been central to our progress. After a fulfilling and rewarding 25-year journey it's time for me to retire from consulting and look at pursuing projects in different domains. I will continue to be a happy and supportive advisor, shareholder and advocate for Kin + Carta during this next exciting phase of growth. I wish Kelly and the business every success as the company scales and I'd like to thank my colleagues for their hard work, drive and belief.

Manthey added: "I am honoured to lead the next chapter of Kin + Carta's growth story as we scale globally, building on strong foundations, with an excellent leadership group, bound by a commitment to using business as a force for good. I am excited to continue serving our valued clients, shareholders and the fantastic Kin + Carta team as we build a world that works better for everyone."

The Board proposes to appoint Manthey as CEO, and to the Kin + Carta Board, effective from 01 August 2022 when she will assume responsibility for the delivery of FY23. Schwan will continue in his current position until this date and will remain with Kin + Carta as a special adviser for six months thereafter to assist with the transition.

About Kin + Carta:



Kin + Carta is a global digital transformation consultancy committed to working alongside our clients to build a world that works better for everyone.

Our 2,000 strategists, engineers and creatives around the world bring the connective power of technology, data and experience to the world's most influential companies, helping them to accelerate their digital roadmap, rapidly innovate, modernize their systems, enable their teams and optimize for continued growth.

As a Certified B Corp, our triple bottom line focus on people, the planet, and profit is at the core of everything we do.

For more information, please visit www.kinandcarta.com.





For further information, please contact:

Tom Ingoldby

E: [email protected]

T: +44 (0) 7825 814 634

Bhavna Mistry

E: [email protected]

T: +44 (0) 7712 836 452

SOURCE Kin + Carta
Kris "Tanto" Paronto, Benghazi Attack Veteran, Army Special Forces, CIA Security Contractor, and Best-Selling Author, has a New Mission as Co-Founder and Principal Trainer at E3 Firearms

MIAMI, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With crime and violence exploding, record numbers of people are concerned about their and their loved one's safety. More people than ever are seeking education and training from the privacy of their own homes on personal safety and buying firearms. E3 Firearms Association launches with Benghazi Attack Veteran, Kris "Tanto" Paronto as Co-Founder and principal trainer.

E3 is a community. It is a gathering place for like-minded people who are serious about their own and the safety and security of their loved ones. Here they find a welcoming environment for people of all experience levels who want to improve their safety and defense skills, both unarmed and armed, and enjoy themselves and the people around them.

E3 Firearms started focusing on women who were buying firearms and applying for concealed carry licenses in large numbers. The goal was to create a place where they would feel comfortable and not intimidated while learning to protect themselves and keep themselves and their families safe.

Although a great place for newcomers to the self-defense and firearms training space, E3 Firearms features some of the most seasoned and respected trainers. Even seasoned professionals will learn new ways of doing things and get better by joining the E3 Firearms community.

About E3 Firearms Association: The mission of E3 Firearms is to Empower, Educate and Entertain responsible gun owners with up-to-date firearm trends, training, self-defense best practices, and events, virtual and on the range while providing an environment that welcomes people of like minds at all experience levels who want to improve their skills and enjoy the company of others who aspire to these same goals. For more information visit https://www.e3firearmsassociation.com/.

MULTIMEDIA:

PHOTO link for media: https://www.Send2Press.com/300dpi/22-0720-s2p-paronto-300dpi.jpg

Caption: Kris "Tanto" Paronto, Benghazi Attack Veteran, Army Special Forces, CIA Security Contractor, Co-Founder and Principal Trainer at E3 Firearms.

This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com

SOURCE Neotrope
HOBOKEN, N.J., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lee Health, one of the largest not-for-profit public health systems in Florida, has partnered with Health Recovery Solutions, to expand its virtual care services. The partnership aims to decrease hospital readmissions and reduce unnecessary emergency room visits.

The virtual health program initially targets patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), hypertension (HTN) and post cardio-thoracic surgery patients with plans to expand to other chronic care and high-risk patient populations by the end of the year.

"Remote patient monitoring allows us to care for patients in the most appropriate care setting based on their personal needs and where they are most comfortable  at home. It allows us to virtually track their health in real time and intervene when needed to prevent worsening health conditions," said Zsolt Kulcsar, D.O., Medical Director of Lee Virtual Health. "Digital health is transforming the way we provide medical care and is giving patients more options in seeking the right care, in the right place and at the right time."

Telehealth patients are identified for the program by their primary care and specialty providers during office visits or prior to hospital discharge. Patients are introduced to the virtual health technology in the physician's office or prior to discharge and are sent a telehealth kit directly to their homes within 48 hours.

Once patients receive their telehealth kit, complete with a 4G tablet and biometric monitoring devices, an HRS Engagement Specialist calls the patients and reviews the virtual care technology once more and helps the patient record their first vital signs. Once the technology is set up, patients begin working with a dedicated registered nurse in the virtual health department for education of their condition and monitoring of their vital signs. Through this additional education, Lee Health aims to increase patients' comfort level with the technology and their long-term engagement.

Lee Health clinicians monitor patients daily, responding to risk alerts based on reported vitals and symptoms. To quickly evaluate patients and address concerns, Lee Health nurses can contact patients directly through the tablet via text messaging, phone call, or virtual visit.

"By leveraging remote patient monitoring to deliver a comprehensive suite of services, Lee Health will be able to ensure their patients incur a significantly reduced volume of avoidable ED visits and unnecessary admissions and readmissions. In addition, Lee Health's virtual health program will make a significant impact on a variety of social determinants of health and barriers to care," said Florence Kariuki, Chief Clinical Officer at HRS.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Lee Health clinicians offered virtual visit to patients undergoing home isolation. The Lee Health telehealth program is continuing to leverage virtual visits to expand access to care, evaluate patients experiencing exacerbations, and augment in-person visits when appropriate.

In the coming months, Lee Health looks to expand their virtual health services further to patients with pre-eclampsia, wound care, and the nephrology space as part of its commitment to discovering new solutions and implementing innovative programs that deliver care to patients at home.

About Lee Health

Since the opening of the first hospital in 1916, Lee Health has been a health care leader in Southwest Florida, constantly evolving to meet the needs of the community. A non-profit, integrated health care services organization, Lee Health is committed to the well-being of every individual served, focused on healthy living and maintaining good health. Staffed by caring people, inspiring health, services are conveniently located throughout the community in four acute care hospitals, two specialty hospitals, outpatient centers, walk-in medical centers, primary care and specialty physician practices and other services across the continuum of care. Learn more at www.LeeHealth.org.

About Health Recovery Solutions (HRS)

Health Recovery Solutions' (HRS) telehealth and remote patient monitoring solutions empower the nation's leading providers and payers to deliver care to patients across the continuumreducing readmissions, optimizing clinician workflow, and improving patient satisfaction. HRS' disease-specific telehealth solutions are customized with educational videos, care plans, and medication reminders while also integrated with Bluetooth peripherals to engage patients in their self-management. HRS' mission is to create a new standard of care by providing advanced telehealth and remote patient monitoring solutions that facilitate behavior change and ultimately improve patient outcomes. To learn more about Health Recovery Solutions, visit healthrecoverysolutions.com or email [email protected].

SOURCE HEALTH RECOVERY SOLUTIONS
Lange Law Firm, Harford, P.C.: Victims infected through airborne transmission, never entered building that was source

NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Two people who contracted Legionnaires' disease in a May Legionnaires' disease outbreak in the Bronx have filed suit against the owners of a building that was identified as the source of the bacteria.

That outbreak killed two people and led to the hospitalization of 28 others. The two plaintiffs in this lawsuit required lengthy hospitalizations, ongoing inpatient rehabilitation, and each suffered permanent injuries.

"It's scary enough to get Legionnaires' disease. It's worse to think our clients got it through the air. They were infected without even stepping foot in the building that caused this," said Jory Lange of the Lange Law Firm, who along with attorney Scott Harford of Harford, P.C. represents the victims. "We're concerned there could be even more infections involving people who have just assumed it was some other illness and never got tested."

According to the lawsuit, investigators believe the source of the infection was the Jerome Avenue Residences in the Highbridge neighborhood. The filing says its owners failed to perform basic maintenance of the building's water-cooling system to prevent the spread of the deadly bacteria. The mixed-use building, which includes apartments and a charter school, is less than two years old.

Legionnaires' disease is a rare form of pneumonia transmitted by breathing water vapors contaminated with legionella bacteria. It is not spread person-to-person. Among the factors that make this outbreak especially concerning:

The disease is airborne and can affect people who live, work, walk, and travel within several blocks from the source of the bacteria.

Many of the common symptoms (cough, shortness of breath, fever, headache, and muscle aches) can be mistaken for the flu or COVID 19.

About the legal team:

Jory Lange with The Lange Law Firm, PLLC is one of the leading lawyers specializing in food and water safety, successfully representing clients across the United States in cases ranging from Salmonella and E. coli-related illnesses to outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease.

Harford, P.C. is a law firm dedicated to helping individuals injured by defective drugs, consumer products, and toxic chemicals. The firm's founding attorney, Scott A. Harford, is an accomplished personal injury plaintiffs' attorney licensed to practice in New York and New Jersey.

Media Contact:

April Arias

800-559-4534

april@androvett.com

SOURCE The Lange Law Firm, PLLC
SAO PAULO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LIVO, the most recognized eye fashion brand in Brazil, will now be expanded to the rest of LATAM through the conversion of the Lentesplus brand to LIVO in Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Argentina. Lentesplus is also backed by Ronaldo Pereira Jr, who led the expansion of Oticas Carol from 170 to 1320 stores in Brazil.

Lentesplus is the leading omnichannel eyecare player in Latin America. Founded by Jaime Oriol and Diego Marino, who met while studying for their MBAs at Wharton, they saw a great opportunity to disrupt the eyecare industry in LATAM where there are more than 360 million possible customers.

Lentesplus' mission is to democratize and facilitate access to visual healthcare. The market is estimated at 11 Bn USD and is expected to grow to 15 Bn USD by 2027, driven by a combination of (i) increased aging population, (ii) increased disposable income, (iii) increased awareness of visual correction problems and (iv) increased screen time.

Already present in Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Argentina, Lentesplus recently acquired the leading independent online contact lens player in Brazil, Newlentes, effectively doubling Lentesplus' addressable market and doubling Brazil sales since its acquisition in less than 6 months.

LIVO is the most recognizable brand for eyewear fashion in Brazil. Founded in 2012, it was Brazil's first Digitally Native Vertical Brand in its sector, with its strong brand awareness and quality products, rapidly drove outsized attention from fashion influencers and press. LIVO currently operates 12 stores located in prestigious shopping areas of Sao Paulo, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. With this acquisition, Lentesplus plans to bring the LIVO brand to the main LATAM markets and expand its current store footprint exponentially in the next four years.

Lentesplus is now at the forefront of the eye care market consolidation in Latam. The acquisition of LIVO will help Lentesplus accelerate its expansion to the glasses and omnichannel strategy which will be the main focus of growth over the next few years, opening 600 stores in the next 4 years. In addition, the Lentesplus brand will be transformed to LIVO not only to maintain its current brand strength in Brazil but also to expand it internationally leveraging more than +400k clients that Lentesplus has.

Ronaldo Pereira Jr, was president of Oticas Carol between 2009 and 2020, and during his management, he expanded the company from a little over 150 stores in the countryside of Sao Paulo and to almost all Brazilian states, with more than 1300 stores. The executive collaborated in the digital transformation process of Oticas Carol, implementing a new organizational culture, valuing the partnership with franchisees and aggressive marketing.

According to Jaime Oriol and Diego Marino, the omnichannel strategy provides a flywheel model to accelerate the consolidation process in LATAM. Not only it provides access to the offline market, but also it provides a frictionless experience to users. The stores provide a showroom where you remove the online barriers and through verticalization, you can receive your product the same day at home without having to wait two weeks.

According to Caco Bartsch, CEO of LIVO, this acquisition will ensure that LIVO's legacy will not only grow inside Brazil but will also conquer new frontiers becoming a success story of a Brazilian brand that becomes international.

Lentesplus shareholders include Ignia, Palm Drive Capital, Alumni Ventures, Fen Ventures, Stella Maris, InQlab, Empire Group, Digital Garage Ventures and Hardy Capital.

SOURCE Lentesplus
WILMINGTON, Mass., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Liberty Defense Holdings Ltd. ("Liberty" or the "Company") (TSXV: SCAN) (OTCQB: LDDFF) (FRANKFURT: LD2A), a leading technology provider of detection solutions for concealed weapons and threats, is pleased to announce that it has finalized plans for the start of the upcoming beta trials of its HEXWAVE walkthrough security detection system, with the first beta unit on track to be delivered to its testing location by the end of August 2022.

The Company will deploy beta units in several settings, including a place of worship, an MLB stadium, a large state university, and in major airports for airline employee screening. Liberty has also expanded the number of planned beta sites to include more locations given the increased level of interest in the HEXWAVE and its ability to screen people efficiently for concealed metallic and non-metallic threats. These testing sites will expand to include more target market verticals including a cruise ship terminal, government buildings, and more. Beta testing will continue over the coming 12 weeks.

Since the last product update, the Company has continued to significantly improve the performance of the HEXWAVE system and has collected over 45,000 scenes incorporating a wide range of threat types, threat orientation, and various body types to train its Artificial Intelligence (AI) software. This improved performance of the walkthrough system will allow for advanced detection of today's evolving threats that include 3D printed guns, as well as liquid, plastic, and powder explosives.

HEXWAVE uses millimeter wave, advanced 3D imaging, and AI for enhanced detection capability, processing over 720 people per hour depending on the concept of operations. The system provides security operators with an automatic go/no-go decision, and a seamless experience for patrons and passengers.

"Liberty has continued to hire the best and the brightest to support building out an extremely robust software and hardware configuration as we prepare to launch the beta," says Liberty Defense CEO Bill Frain. "We are thrilled with the progress and look forward to getting HEXWAVE into real-world testing locations next month starting at our first beta site."

In other news, Liberty Defense will be among a select group of companies presenting in person in Boston, MA, at the Canaccord Genuity 42nd Annual Growth Conference on August 10, 2022, at 3:30 p.m. ET. The presentation can be viewed at the link following the conference: https://wsw.com/webcast/canaccord76/lddff/2613024.

For updates and news, please visit the Company website to subscribe to email alerts or follow Liberty Defense on social channels.

On Behalf of Liberty Defense

Bill Frain

CEO & Director

About Liberty Defense

Liberty Defense (TSXV: SCAN) (OTCQB: LDDFF) (FRANKFURT: LD2A) provides multi-technology security solutions for concealed weapons detection in high volume foot traffic areas and locations requiring enhanced security such as airports, stadiums, schools, and more. Liberty's HEXWAVE product, for which the company has secured an exclusive license from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as a technology transfer agreement for patents related to active 3D radar imaging technology, provides discrete, modular, and scalable protection to provide layered, stand-off detection capability of metallic and non-metallic weapons. Liberty has also recently licensed the millimeter wave-based, High-Definition Advanced Imaging Technology (HD-AIT) body scanner and shoe scanner technologies as part of its technology portfolio. Liberty is committed to protecting communities and preserving peace of mind through superior security detection solutions. Learn more: LibertyDefense.com

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

When used in this press release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. Although Liberty believes, in light of the experience of their respective officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate, that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and information in this press release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the parties can give no assurance that such statements will prove to be correct. Such statements and information reflect the current view of Liberty. There are risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause Liberty's actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements and information. Such factors include, among others: currency fluctuations; limited business history of the parties; disruptions or changes in the credit or security markets; results of operation activities and development of projects; project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses; and general development, market and industry conditions. The parties undertake no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third parties in respect of their securities or their respective financial or operating results (as applicable).

Liberty cautions that the foregoing list of material factors is not exhaustive. When relying on Liberty's forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. Liberty has assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, the list of these factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. The forward-looking information contained in this press release represents the expectations of Liberty as of the date of this press release and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. Liberty does not undertake to update this information at any particular time except as required in accordance with applicable laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

SOURCE Liberty Defense Holdings Ltd.
Strategic acquisition of conventional oil and gas assets from Hibernia Resources III, LLC supports Lodestone's long-term goal | Acquisition funded using local West Texas partners

MIDLAND, Texas, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lodestone Energy Partners II, LP ("Lodestone Energy" or the "Company") today announced it has acquired assets from Hibernia Resources III, LLC ("Hibernia") to be operated by BCP Resources, LLC ("BCP Resources").

Lodestone Energy is a vertically integrated fund focused on opportunities in the conventional oil and gas space. These assets are considered an ideal acquisition for the Company due to an excellent financial profile and top-tier performance in the Midland Basin. The assets span Reagan and Upton Counties, Texas, with 85 conventional and 21 legacy horizontal wellbores comprising over 2,000 MBOE of net PDP reserves with 63% liquids.

"The Hibernia assets are an excellent fit with our strategic objective to expand our footprint of operated conventional assets in the Permian Basin," stated Barry Portman, Lodestone's Managing Partner and BCP Resources CEO. "We're privileged that Hibernia has placed their trust in us and we're thrilled to continue the high-quality operation and expansion of these assets alongside Hibernia as they continue their growth strategy as a leading oil producer in the Midland Basin."

The acquisition was funded by partners local to West Texas, combining private equity placement with a senior energy debt facility. AggieTech Capital ("ATC") based in Midland and Masked Rider Capital ("MRC") based in Lubbock anchored the equity placement and the debt facility was provided by Community National Bank ("CNB") of Midland.

Embry Canterbury, CEO of Hibernia, stated, "The disposition of our legacy assets supports the development of Hibernia's high-quality acreage position, and we were very pleased and impressed by BCP Resources' operational expertise to pursue and close this transaction."

Mark Bales, CEO of AggieTech, stated, "We are delighted to partner with BCP Resources and Lodestone Energy as they have deep roots and experience in the Permian Basin, as well as a talented staff of employees. We are confident this transaction will generate significant returns and future growth to our fund."

Trey Thomason, Chief Investment Officer for Masked Rider Capital, stated, "MRC is excited to be affiliated with both the BCP Resources operating team and the Lodestone Energy Partners. We are certain that both teams value relationships with their partners and, combined with their solid and unique experience, they can pursue substantial growth in this sector."

"Investing in our customers and the local community is our passion." stated Amber Prieto, Vice President of Commercial Lending at Community National Bank. "A local oil and gas operator with significant experience in the area, partnered with West Texas equity sources, is an excellent fit, and we are pleased to support this project and look forward to their future growth."

"This is just the beginning for us, and we are honored to work together with great local partners such as Aggie Tech Capital, Masked Rider Capital, and Community National Bank" added Portman, "Industry trends favor conventional asset roll-ups. Thousands of highly attractive conventional wells are available for the right operator when they can no longer scale with major oil and gas portfolio growth. We are excited about this acquisition and look forward to continuing to aggressively pursue similar opportunities to create value and invest in the local economy."

Red Oaks Energy Advisors represented Hibernia's sale of the assets. Field, Manning, Stone, Hawthorne & Aycock, P.C. and Nixon Legal Group PLLC represented Lodestone Energy and BCP Resources and Mani Little & Wortmann, PLLC served as legal counsel to Hibernia.

About Lodestone Energy Partners II, LP and BCP Resources, LLC

Lodestone is dedicated to acquiring and developing Permian Basin conventional oil and gas assets to unlock value for its investors. BCP Resources is Lodestone's dedicated oilfield operator. These two entities offer over 100 years of combined experience in conventional oil and gas development and production. For more information, please visit www.lodestone-energy.com and www.bcpresourcesllc.com.

About AggieTech Capital, LLC

AggieTech Energy Services ("ATES") was founded 2008 and became the largest privately owned pumping unit service company in the Permian Basin using a variety of fleet equipment, state of the art machine shop, and highly trained and experienced personnel. Utilizing similar top tier industry experience, ATES quickly expanded to include AggieTech Wellhead, and during the growth of these businesses, an energy capital fund was launched to invest in industry projects, AggieTech Capital. For more information, please visit www.aggietechcompanies.com.

About Masked Rider Capital, LLC

Masked Rider Capital, LLC ("Masked Rider Capital" or "MRC") is a multi-family office founded in 2012 focused on acquiring and investing in private companies. Masked Rider Capital proudly serves lower and middle market businesses in West Texas communities and the surrounding areas through innovative capital solutions. MRC provides capital in the form of control and non-control equity, debt and hybrid securities. The firm is industry agnostic and participates in real estate development opportunities. MRC is headquartered in Lubbock, TX. For more information, please visit www.maskedrider.com.

About Community National Bank

Community National Bank, established in 1984, continues to expand upon their original mission to provide a strong, locally owned, independent financial institution. The employees, officers and directors respect the traditional responsibility of a local bank to foster the development of its customers and thereby the community. Their focus on training, technology and service has helped to grow from their original location in south Midland to eleven locations throughout the market area. For more information, please visit www.cnbtx.bank.

About Hibernia

Hibernia is an acquisition and development company focused on the exploration, growth and production of oil and natural gas assets. It is a portfolio company of NGP.

Media Contacts

Gary Covert

Lodestone Energy Partners

Ph 480-720-9551

[email protected]

SOURCE Lodestone Energy Partners
NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LS Power, a leading development, investment and operating company focused on the North American power and energy infrastructure sector, today announced the release of its latest sustainability report covering the year ending 2021.

"Over the past year, our dedicated, passionate people have continued to make the nation's energy system cleaner, more efficient, and more resilient," said LS Power CEO Paul Segal in his letter accompanying the report. "Our 2021 Sustainability Report details our growing Energy Transition Platforms, our decarbonization efforts, our talented team, and the incredible philanthropy work that our people do," Segal said.

The report, entitled "Accelerating the Energy Transition," highlights LS Power's Energy Transition Platforms, which have grown to include nation-leading companies:

CPower Energy Management (demand response and energy efficiency)

Endurant Energy (microgrids)

EVgo (EV charging)

REV Renewables

Rise Light & Power ( New York City's largest energy provider)

largest energy provider) Waste-to-Renewable Fuel initiatives

REV Renewables is the newest member of the LS Power Energy Transition family. Formed in July 2021 out of LS Power's existing assets, REV consists of the largest non-utility owned portfolio of pumped storage hydro in the country, a sizeable lithium-ion battery portfolio, and a wind and solar portfolio that spans 14 states. "With an operating portfolio of more than 2.6 gigawatts and a substantial development pipeline, we see REV and its business model as critical to accelerating the energy transition," Segal said.

LS Power recognizes that identifying and developing a talented team requires unwavering focus. To support this effort and maintain a competitive advantage, LS Power's "Powering Change" initiative expands recruitment to qualified candidates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). Powering Change complements LS Power's ongoing sponsorship programs that encourage women and other underrepresented communities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

In 2021, LS Power's community engagement program contributed nearly $1.7 million to over 250 charities and organizations across 16 states, including food banks, crisis centers, youth and STEM programs, environmental programs, and more.

The report also discusses LS Power's advocacy efforts to support competitive markets and the important role its flexible natural gas generation fleet plays in the energy transition by balancing the grid and avoiding power interruptions when renewable energy resources like wind and solar power are curtailed or offline due to weather conditions. "We recognize a void in the quest toward decarbonization  how to enable it smoothly and responsibly while keeping energy affordable and accessible. With our unique platform of resources, LS Power is driven to help fill that void," Segal said.

As with LS Power's inaugural sustainability report, the new report is informed by the Global Reporting Initiative Standards (GRI) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and accounts for LS Power's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance for the 2021 calendar year.

The LS Power Sustainability Report can be found on LS Power's website at https://www.lspower.com/sustainability.

About LS Power

LS Power is a development, investment and operating company focused on the North American power and energy infrastructure sector. Since its inception in 1990, in addition to its development of more than 660 miles of high voltage transmission, LS Power has developed, constructed, managed or acquired in total more than 45,000 MW of power generation, including utility-scale solar, wind, hydro, natural gas-fired and battery energy storage projects. LS Power actively invests in distributed energy resource platforms, such as CPower Energy Management, Endurant Energy and EVgo, as well as Waste-to-Renewable Generation and Fuel initiatives. Additionally, LS Power invests in renewables and energy storage through REV Renewables. Across its efforts, LS Power has raised in excess of $48 billion in debt and equity financing to support North American infrastructure. For more information, please visit www.LSPower.com.

SOURCE LS Power
Estimated to be largest medical-grade distribution center in U.S. servicing medical facilities throughout the Midwest

NORTHFIELD, Ill., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Medline today celebrated the opening of its 1.4 million-square-foot LEED-certified distribution center in Grayslake, Illinois  estimated to be the largest medical-grade distribution center in the country. To commemorate the opening, Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim, Grayslake Mayor Rhett Taylor, local dignitaries and representatives from Medline, Lake County Partners, major hospitals, nursing homes and healthcare providers in the region gathered on-site for the celebratory ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Medline has opened a 1.4 million-square-foot LEED-certified distribution center in Grayslake, Illinois  estimated to be the largest medical-grade distribution center in the country. The $125 million cutting-edge facility handles the distribution of thousands of individual products and devices shipped to healthcare providers across the continuum of care.

"It's a real honor to celebrate the ribbon cutting of our newest facility with our customers, local officials and partner organizations," said Brian Bevers, senior vice president of operations at Medline. "Medline has been operating in Lake County for nearly 50 years, and we look forward to growing our presence in the community with this latest addition in Grayslake. Thank you to all who have supported us and for joining us on this special day."

The $125 million cutting-edge facility handles the distribution of thousands of individual products and devices shipped to healthcare providers across the continuum of care, such as hospitals, nursing homes, ambulatory surgery centers, hospices and physicians' offices. The Grayslake facility has created 350 new jobs, for a total of nearly 700 when at full capacity, and is expected to handle more than $1 billion in annual orders.

"I think it's significant that Medline is growing their presence in Lake County by choice," said Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim. "Like any small mom and pop that becomes successful, this is a company that began here, grew over decades, and yet continues to give back in the community. It strikes me as unique and important that the hundreds of good jobs at Medline are not only needed during a pandemic but they will be here when times are good or challenging."

Grayslake Mayor Rhett Taylor echoed this sentiment. "This investment highlights the tremendous economic growth that we've seen in recent years, in the village and in the broader Lake County community. The Alter Group's Cornerstone development is one of the largest master-planned projects in the United States, and it was designed to give businesses the opportunity to grow. With Medline as an anchor at this new facility, our vision for the property is becoming an exciting reality."

The Grayslake distribution center is a part of Medline's $2 billion Healthcare Resilience Initiative, a national capital expenditure campaign that included new distribution centers, manufacturing capabilities and information technology (IT) upgrades to further their commitment to delivering superior customer service. Medline supports small businesses and plans to spend approximately $2.5 million annually with local vendors for maintenance, upkeep and operations support of the Grayslake distribution center. Medline currently manages six facilities throughout Lake County that house offices, manufacturing and distribution, and employ more than 3,000 team members.

"Lake County has celebrated extraordinary growth in advanced manufacturing and life sciences, and Medline is really at the intersection of these key industries," noted Lake County Partners president and CEO Kevin Considine. "We strategically invest in local talent and infrastructure to make sure that business leaders can rely on our workforce, location and competitive costs. Medline's success in our community is a testament to favorable business climate."

Medline serves the nation's top healthcare systems, operating over 50 distribution centers and 20-plus manufacturing facilities across North America. Medline distributes 300,000 unique medical products, including 65,000+ manufactured by Medline.

Learn how Medline tailors solutions across the entire continuum of care as a manufacturer and distributor by visiting www.medline.com/supply-chain/.

About Medline

Medline is a healthcare company; a manufacturer, distributor, and solutions provider focused on improving the overall operating performance of healthcare. Partnering with healthcare systems and facilities across the continuum of care, Medline provides the clinical and supply chain resources required for long-term financial viability in delivering high-quality care. With the scale of one of the country's largest companies and the agility of a family-led business, Medline is able to invest in its customers for the future and rapidly respond to a dynamically changing market with customized solutions. Headquartered in Northfield, Ill., Medline has 30,000+ employees worldwide and does business in more than 125 countries and territories. Learn more about Medline at www.medline.com.

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SOURCE Medline
Two new appointees will accelerate the launch of next generation metasurface optics for advanced sensing applications.

BOSTON, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Metalenz, the first company to commercialize meta-optics, today announces the appointment of Lars Johnsson Vice President of Product, Marketing and Business Development and Hao Zhou as Head of Sales in Asia.

"Having launched our breakthrough meta-optics solution as a key enabler of ST Microelectronics' next generation 3D ToF products earlier this year, we've proven we can reach end-users at a massive scale, and demand has only increased," said Metalenz co-founder and CEO Rob Devlin. "Now is the time to add the skill and expertise of Lars and Hao to promote our technology in different regions as we launch a direct line of Metalenz near infrared imaging and sensing products."

Lars will lead all aspects of Metalenz's product strategy and revenue generation, drawing on over 20 years of repeated success bringing new and disruptive products to market, creating ecosystems for innovative solutions, and growing market share, revenue, and profit ahead of the competition. Prior to Metalenz, Lars was VP of Mobile Marketing at Skyworks Solutions, Sr. Director of Product at TDK, and VP of Marketing and Business Development at Cavendish Kinetics and Beceem Communications.

As Head of Sales in Asia, Hao will use his rich insights and connections in consumer electronics to drive consumer engagement and revenue generation in the Greater China Region. He brings decades of experience in the opto-electronic industry selling advanced optical components, modules, and systems. Prior to joining Metalenz, Hao founded Qtech as General Manager, where he led the effort in pushing TSV technology-based wafer level packaging into mass production and developed one of world's first cellphone camera modules.

About Metalenz

Metalenz, founded in 2016, is the first company to commercialize meta-optics. With exclusive worldwide license to the portfolio of foundational intellectual property relating to metasurfaces developed in the Capasso Lab at Harvard University, Metalenz has more than 20 patents on innovations that simplify and improve optical devices across multiple markets. The company's metasurface technology provides complex, multifunctional optical performance in a single semiconductor layer, relocating large-scale production of optics to semiconductor foundriesprinting lenses like computer chips. Metalenz launched out of stealth in 2021 with funding from leading investors including 3M Ventures, Applied Ventures LLC, Intel Capital, M Ventures, TDK Ventures, and Foothill Ventures. Now in market, Metalenz metasurface optics will be in millions of consumer devices this year. To partner with Metalenz and learn more about how they're revolutionizing optical sensing in consumer electronics and beyond, visit: metalenz.com.

Press Contact

Carly Glovinski

Marketing Manager

Metalenz

[email protected]

"This release was issued through WebWire. For more information, visit http://www.webwire.com."

SOURCE Metalenz
RESTON, Va., July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, was recently awarded a follow-on contract to support the Navy's Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems Directorate. The single award, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract holds an approximate value of $291 million. It includes a one-year base period of performance with four additional one-year option periods. Work will be performed worldwide.

"We are honored to continue our long-standing relationship with PEO IWS," said Will Johnson, Leidos Senior Vice President, Logistics and Mission Support. "This award will enable Leidos to accelerate our support of their critical mission through modernization, domain expertise and innovation."

Through this contract, Leidos will perform a range of support services, including shipboard modernization, curriculum development, training conduct, depot support, technical data, maintenance planning and management.

Headquartered in Washington D.C., the Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems Directorate develops, delivers and sustains operationally dominant combat systems for the U.S. Navy.

About Leidos

Leidos is a Fortune 500 technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, civil and health markets. Leidos' 43,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $13.7 billion for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. For more information, visit www.leidos.com.

Certain statements in this announcement constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These statements are based on management's current beliefs and expectations and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. These statements are not guarantees of future results or occurrences. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, further delays in our performance under the DES contract, including due to protests at the United States Court of Federal Claims, costs associated with intervening in and defending against further protests and any delays associated with such protests or any resulting corrective action, loss of the DES contract award, further award delays, including due to protests at the United States Court of Federal Claims, costs associated with defending against protests and any associated delays, loss of the contract award, and the "Risk Factors" set forth in Leidos' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Leidos does not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward-looking statements were made.

Contact:

Melissa Duenas

(571) 526-6850

[email protected]

Thomas Doheny

(571) 474-4735

[email protected]

Jalen Drummond

(571) 992-5046

[email protected]

SOURCE Leidos Holdings, Inc.
Conference Call to be held on the same day at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time/ 3:30 p.m. Israel Time

HERZLIYA, Israel, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nayax Ltd. (TASE: NYAX), a global commerce enablement and payments platform designed to enable retailers to provide consumers with digital, cashless, connected commerce experiences, and enhance consumer loyalty and conversion, today announced that it will release its financial results for the second quarter 2022 on Wednesday, August 17, 2022. Details of the call can be found below.

"Nayax's second quarter results were highlighted by strong recurring revenue growth of 47% over the prior year quarter and the continued growth in connected devices as an additional 42,000 devices were connected during the quarter. Consistent with past quarters, the strong growth was a combination of continued new customer additions and increased transaction processing volume as we expanded our footprint across the world. We added 4,000 new customers, ending the quarter with 38,000, an increase of 58% over the prior year quarter and again saw a significant increase of 70% in the number of transactions processed over prior year quarter. We are very pleased with our strong results in the first half of the year and remain confident of our mid-term and long-term growth targets," said Yair Nechmad, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board.

Revenue for Q2 2022 is expected to be between $40.5 million and $41.5 million , an increase over 30% in comparison to Q2 2021. For all related revenue calculations, the mid-point was taken, for Q2 revenue, at $41.0 million .





Q2 2022 Q2 2021 YoY/ %

Q2 2022 Q1 2022 QoQ/ % Recurring Revenue ($M) (*)

$25.3 $17.2 $8.1/ 47%

$25.3 $22.5 $2.8 / 12% POS Devices Revenue ($M)

$15.7 $13.8 $1.9/ 14%

$15.7 $11.6 $4.1 / 35% Total Revenue ($M)

$41.0 (**) $31.0 $10.0 / 32%

$41.0 (**) $34.1 $6.9 / 20%

(*) Recurring Revenue is comprised of SaaS revenue and payment processing fees.

(**) For all related revenue calculation, mid-point was taken for Q2 revenue, at $41M.

Number of Managed and Connected Devices was approximately 595,000, an increase of approximately 39% over Q2 2021.



As of Jun 30, 2022 As of Jun 30, 2021 YoY/ %

As of Jun 30, 2022 As of Mar 31, 2022 QoQ/ % # Of Managed and

Connected Devices 595,000 429,000 166,000 / 39%

595,000 553,000 42,000 / 8%

Number of Customers grew to approximately 38,000, an increase of 58% over Q2 2021.



As of Jun 30, 2022 As of Jun 30, 2021 YoY/ %

As of Jun 30, 2022 As of Mar 31, 2022 QoQ/ % # Of Customers 38,000 24,000 14,000 / 58%

38,000 34,000 4,000 / 12%

Number of Processed Transactions during Q2 2022 was 316 million, an increase of approximately 70% over Q2 2021.



Q2 2022 Q2 2021 YoY/ %

Q2 2022 Q1 2022 QoQ/ % Processed Transactions Volume (M) 316M 186M 130M / 70%

316M 269M 47M / 17%

Conference Call

Nayax will host a conference call and webcast in English to discuss second quarter 2022 results on August 17, 2022, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, 3:30 p.m. Israel Time and 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Participating on the call will be Yair Nechmad, Chief Executive Officer and Sagit Manor, Chief Financial Officer.

We encourage participants to pre-register for the conference call using the link below. Callers who pre-register will be given a unique PIN to gain immediate access to the call, bypassing the live operator. Participants may pre-register any time, including up to and after the call start time. You will immediately receive an online confirmation, an email with the dial in number and a calendar invitation for the event.

To pre-register, go to:

https://services.choruscall.ca/DiamondPassRegistration/register?confirmationNumber=10019699&linkSecurityString=182969eb8f

For those who are unable to pre-register, kindly join the conference call by using one of the dial-in numbers or clicking the webcast link below.

U.S. TOLL-FREE: 1-855-327-6837

ISRAEL TOLL-FREE: 1-809-458-327

INTERNATIONAL TOLL-FREE: 1-631-891-4304

WEBCAST LINK: https://viavid.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1559099&tp_key=12dda7810e

Participants may also register and join the conference call by visiting the Events section of the Nayax website, found here: Events

A replay of the conference call will be available from August 17, 2022 following the call, until August 31, 2022. To access the replay, please dial one of the following numbers:

Replay TOLL-FREE: 1-844-512-2921

Replay TOLL/INTERNATIONAL: 1-412-317-6671

Replay Pin Number: 10166383

An archive of the conference call will be available on Nayax's Investor Relations website Nayax Investors - Nayax.

ABOUT NAYAX

Nayax is a global commerce enablement and payments platform designed to help merchants scale their business. Nayax offers a complete solution including localized cashless payment acceptance, management suite, and consumer engagement tools, enabling merchants to conduct commerce anywhere, at any time. With foundations and global leadership in serving unattended retail, Nayax has transformed into a comprehensive solution focused on our customers' growth across channels. Today, Nayax has 9 global offices, over 700 employees, connections to more than 80 merchant acquirer and payment method integrations and is a recognized payment facilitator worldwide. Nayax's mission is to improve our customers' revenue potential and operational efficiency. Visit www.nayax.com for more information.

The securities referred to in this announcement have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") or under the securities laws of any state of the United States, and may not be offered, sold, resold or delivered, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act. In the United States, any offer of the ordinary shares will be made only to "qualified institutional buyers" as defined in and in reliance on Rule 144A under the Securities Act or another available exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act. Outside the United States, any offer will be made in accordance with Regulation S of the Securities Act.

Forward looking statement

The information included in this press release contains, or may be deemed to contain, forward-looking statements (as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Israeli Securities Law, 1968). Said forward-looking statements, relating to the initial public offering, are subject to uncertainties and assumptions and the actual results may materially differ. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Nayax on the date hereof. All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to Nayax are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors referred to above. Nayax does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

Investor Relations Contact:

ICR, Inc.

[email protected]

SOURCE Nayax Ltd.
Neuraspace's advanced space debris monitoring and satellite collision avoidance system is already being tested by some the biggest satellite operators.

The product is aimed at Satellite Operators, Insurers, Regulators and Policy Makers.

COIMBRA, Portugal, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuraspace, a Portuguese start-up which is developing an advanced system for monitoring and preventing collisions in space, has announced the market availability of its product starting today.

After having raised 2,5 million euro from investors in Portugal, Neuraspace now takes a decisive step forward with the availability of a solution that is already being used by satellite operators which plan to significantly increase the presence of their satellites in space.

There are currently around 8,000 satellites in orbit. of which only ca. 6,000 are operational. In 2021, 1778 satellites were launched into space. This number will only increase, with space traffic and space debris becoming an obstacle to space technology evolution that becomes inefficient and costly if not addressed. ESA mentions that about 31380 debris objects are currently being regularly tracked, with more than 630 break-ups, explosions, collisions, or anomalous events resulting in fragmentation.

Current solutions for collision probability identification and classification and for avoidance manoeuvre definition rely heavily on manual processes. With the growing number of space objects, both active satellites and debris, the effort that needs to be invested by operators increases exponentially, making operations costly and with an increasing risk of a wrong classification and human error. In addition, an adequate pricing of insurance premiums is increasingly difficult as the assessment of the risk-exposure is complex and subject to many unknowns, making it challenging for insurance providers to adequately address the risk faced by operators.

The traditional approaches face several challenges: insufficient data; a high number of false alerts and a large uncertainty, and the lack of scalability.

This all leads to unnecessary costs that derange operations and business viability. In a Euroconsult report of 2020, it is reported that an emergency manoeuvre in LEO can cost 25k for one satellite alone. A 300-satellite constellation may receive about 580 alerts per year requiring human intervention and satellite manoeuvre, costing 14 M per year in staff costs, analysis work, infrastructure, and more. The same Eurocosult report states that "[a]n Iridium satellite was involved in a collision in 2009, leading to complete satellite loss. A replacement satellite was in orbit, but when two Iridium satellites were damaged in 2014, the full constellation was not operating at full capacity for over 400 days, resulting in over $8 million in revenues being lost." [Commercial Space Surveillance and Tracking, Euroconsult Report, March 2020].

This is where Neuraspace comes in: The Neuraspace platform is a SaaS (Software as a Service) end-to-end automated solution built on three key pillars enabling satellite higher accuracy in detecting high-risk collisions and reducing human intervention by up to 75%:~

(1) Data Fusion: a persistent and reliable data source for better characterization of conjunction events by reducing uncertainties relies on large quantities of data from different sources are collected and fused into a coherent data warehouse. This warehouse includes: space debris images, CDMs, ephemeris files, state vectors from established catalogues and satellite owners, space weather nowcasts and forecasts, as well as information about the assets being managed.

(2) Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML): ML models can automatically detect patterns from complex data, and learn how the data is related. Artificial intelligence leverages big data to provide better predictions for risk mitigation.

(3) Manoeuvring Automation: an end-to-end automated 24/7 AI-enabled collision risk prediction with informative insights and intelligent manoeuvre suggestions based on operator constraints and priorities provides operators full support throughout the full process of risk mitigation

With the space economy growing from more than $300 billion to $1 trillion in the coming years, the system developed by Neuraspace is a cornerstone to secure this growth.

According to Chiara Manfletti, Chief Operations Officer (COO) at Neuraspace, "This is a very important step as we are validating in the market a technology that was developed to help unlock the extraordinary value of the Space economy, which will become more efficient and sustainable. We believe Neuraspace's solution will be a benchmark in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technology in the aerospace market worldwide."

About Neuraspace

Neuraspace was established in 2020 with the goal of combating space debris with Artificial Intelligence. The company has developed an advanced satellite-based space debris monitoring and collision avoidance platform with artificial intelligence.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1773181/Neuraspace_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Neuraspace
SUGAR LAND, Texas, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Noble Corporation (NYSE: NE) today announced plans to report financial results for the second quarter 2022 on Monday, August 8, 2022, after the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The Company's press release will be available on the Noble website at www.noblecorp.com.

Noble will host a conference call related to its second quarter 2022 results on Tuesday, August 9, 2022, at 8:00 a.m. U.S. Central Time. Interested parties may dial +1 929-203-0901 and refer to conference ID 31391 approximately 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. Alternatively, a live webcast link will be available on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website. A webcast replay will be accessible for a limited time following the scheduled call.

About Noble Corporation

Noble is a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. The Company owns and operates one of the most modern, versatile, and technically advanced fleets in the offshore drilling industry. Noble and its predecessors have been engaged in the contract drilling of oil and gas wells since 1921. Noble performs, through its subsidiaries, contract drilling services with a fleet of offshore drilling units focused largely on ultra-deepwater and high specification jackup drilling opportunities in both established and emerging regions worldwide. Additional information on Noble is available at www.noblecorp.com.

Disclosure Information

Investors and others should note that we may announce material information using Securities and Exchange Commission filings, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts, and the "Investor" section of our website. In the future, we will continue to use these channels to distribute material information about the company and to communicate important information about the company, key personnel, corporate initiatives, regulatory updates, and other matters. Information that we post on our website could be deemed material; therefore, we encourage investors, the media, our customers, business partners and others interested in our company to review the information we post on our website.

For additional information, visit www.noblecorp.com or email [email protected]

SOURCE Noble Corporation
MILWAUKEE, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwestern Mutual announced today that the company earned its fourth consecutive perfect score on the Disability Equality Index (DEI)  one of the most trusted and comprehensive national benchmarks for measuring disability inclusion in the workplace.

"Northwestern Mutual continues to take meaningful steps to strengthen its culture of inclusivity  one in which every employee feels celebrated and supported," said Amy Hanneman, vice president, diversity and inclusion at Northwestern Mutual. "Receiving another perfect score on this year's Index validates our efforts and motivates us to continue striving for even greater equity and inclusion in the workplace."

Administered by the American Association of People with Disabilities and Disability:IN, the Disability Equality Index is a comprehensive benchmarking tool used to measure corporate disability inclusion practices and identify opportunities for continued improvement. Northwestern Mutual's DEI recognition exemplifies the company's extensive and ongoing efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion  efforts that continue to generate attention and acclaim, including:

Eight consecutive perfect scores on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index (2015-2022)

Top 50 Company for Multicultural Women in Leadership (2021)

Seramount's Best Companies for Dads (2021)

Military Friendly Award (2021)

Seven Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) ranked in the Top 25 nationally by the Association of ERGs & Councils (2021)

Diversity Best Practices Top 100 Companies for Diversity (2020)

Patriot Award for employer support of the National Guard and Reserve (2017, 2019)

To learn more about Northwestern Mutual's commitment to diversity and inclusion, please visit

https://www.northwesternmutual.com/our-commitment-to-diversity/.

About Northwestern Mutual

Northwestern Mutual has been helping people and businesses achieve financial security for more than 165 years. Through a holistic planning approach, Northwestern Mutual combines the expertise of its financial professionals with a personalized digital experience and industry-leading products to help its clients plan for what's most important. With more than $560 billion in combined company and client assets, $34 billion in revenues, and $2.1 trillion worth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to nearly five million people with life, disability income and long-term care insurance, annuities, and brokerage and advisory services. Northwestern Mutual ranked 97 on the 2022 FORTUNE 500 and was recognized by FORTUNE as one of the "World's Most Admired" life insurance companies in 2022.

Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Milwaukee, WI (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with long-term care benefits) and its subsidiaries. Subsidiaries include Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS) (investment brokerage services), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company (NMWMC) (investment advisory and services), federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC) (long-term care insurance). Not all Northwestern Mutual representatives are advisors. Only those representatives with "Advisor" in their title or who otherwise disclose their status as an advisor of NMWMC are credentialed as NMWMC representatives to provide investment advisory services.

SOURCE Northwestern Mutual
Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of employers are struggling to find talent

62 percent of employers require a degree for entry-level jobs, even though nearly half (43 percent) of employers admit that skills training credentials are more important than a degree when considering a candidate for a position

BOSTON, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- While U.S. employers say they're facing a talent crisis that's threating their business sustainability and growth, the reality is that employers are contributing to the talent crisis with the majority (62 percent) requiring degrees for entry level jobs, and more than a quarter (26 percent) admitting they do so to "filter the candidate pool" or because "that's the way it's always been done."

Cengage Group's 2022 Employability Report found that nearly two-thirds of employers are struggling to find talent, however degree requirements and outdated mindsets may be contributing to the talent crunch.

Exposing this outdated mindset, Cengage Group's 2022 Employability Report (Part 2) of 1,000 U.S. hiring decision makers reveals that one of the biggest drivers causing the talent crisis is the skills mismatch between the current workforce and employers' needs. By requiring a degree and not focusing on a candidate's skills or experience, employers are substantially shrinking their potential talent pool; only 38 percent of U.S. adults have a four-year degree.1 These degree requirements and employers' mixed messages about what's actually needed for job eligibility caused half of all recent graduates not to apply for entry-level jobs because they didn't feel qualified.2

While employers continue to implement outdated degree requirements, they seemingly contradict themselves by ranking skills training credentials (43 percent) and real-world experience (28 percent) more important than a two- or four-year degree (26 percent) when considering an entry-level candidate.

"Employers seem to be stuck in a contradictory cycle, where they recognize that a degree is not an indicator of job readiness, but nonetheless require them as part of their candidate screening process. This outdated mindset and degree stigma is not only widening the labor gap, it's costing businesses time and money and turning away potential talent," said Michael Hansen, CEO of Cengage Group.

And change is slow with just one in 10 employers (nine percent) saying they don't require a degree to apply for entry-level jobs. Nearly half (48 percent) of employers who don't require a degree say it's because they believe candidates can attain the proper skills through life experience, internships, skills training credentials, stackable credentials and hands-on experience outside of an institution.

"For a number of fields, including several in-demand industries like healthcare, technology and skilled trades, the future of work  thanks to the accelerating pace of technological change  will not depend only on a degree. It will instead focus on a candidates' skills, experiences and potential to upskill or train in new fields. Employers need to make changes to hiring practices. However, removing degree requirements is not a simple 'top-down' policy change, it requires a full-blown change effort to make sure hiring managers are actually comfortable overturning a decades-old practice," said Hansen.

Other findings include:

Closing labor gaps while closing gaps in equity. Of those struggling to find talent, two in three (66 percent) believe that removing degree requirements for open roles would help them find qualified talent to narrow staffing gaps. And while the end goal is finding talent to support business growth, one in four employers (22 percent) say they don't require a degree because it's essential to creating fairer employment opportunities.

Of those struggling to find talent, two in three (66 percent) believe that removing degree requirements for open roles would help them find qualified talent to narrow staffing gaps. And while the end goal is finding talent to support business growth, one in four employers (22 percent) say they don't require a degree because it's essential to creating fairer employment opportunities. Employers struggle to evaluate and define the value of credentials. Before a mind shift can happen, employers need a better understanding of credentials and certifications, and the value they offer. Employers are split, nearly half (47 percent) believe it's difficult to measure the meaningfulness of certifications or credentials in their line of work because they're not familiar with them (16 percent) and aren't sure which certifications or credentials have credibility (36 percent).

Before a mind shift can happen, employers need a better understanding of credentials and certifications, and the value they offer. Employers are split, nearly half (47 percent) believe it's difficult to measure the meaningfulness of certifications or credentials in their line of work because they're not familiar with them (16 percent) and aren't sure which certifications or credentials have credibility (36 percent). The hottest hiring industries have cold hiring methods . When reviewing entry-level recruitment across three of the "hottest job markets"  healthcare, technology and skilled trades  technology is one of the biggest degree stalwarts with 81 percent of tech employers admitting they require a two- or four-year degree compared to healthcare (50 percent) and skilled trades (57 percent). Considering that there are 3.85 million unfilled IT jobs in the U.S., the tech industry faces the biggest urgency to modify hiring requirements.

. When reviewing entry-level recruitment across three of the "hottest job markets"  healthcare, technology and skilled trades  technology is one of the biggest degree stalwarts with 81 percent of tech employers admitting they require a two- or four-year degree compared to healthcare (50 percent) and skilled trades (57 percent). Considering that there are 3.85 million unfilled IT jobs in the U.S., the tech industry faces the biggest urgency to modify hiring requirements. Employers as educators  education benefits become a powerful recruitment tool. Today's talent expects employers to invest in their continued learning and career development, and most employers (77 percent) say free employer-sponsored education offerings are a differentiator for recruitment and retention in this tight labor market. Three in four employers (75 percent) offer employer-paid/employer-sponsored education opportunities, with 61 percent offering online education opportunities. Outside of providing education, 78 percent of employers say they offer the flexibility needed to pursue education opportunities.

Click here for more information on the 2022 Employability Report, or join Cengage Group CEO Michael Hansen on Aug. 18 at 3pm EST for our next LinkedIn Live discussion on skills-based education and hiring featuring Maria Flynn, President and CEO of Jobs for the Future, and Matt Sigelman, President of Burning Glass Institute.

To learn more about workforce training and career development at Cengage Group, visit www.cengagegroup.com.

Survey Methodology:

Cengage Group's Employability Report was conducted in May 2022 and polled 1,000 U.S. hiring decision makers. This survey was conducted direct-to-consumer via mobile devices. For the purposes of this survey, "skills training," "skills training program" or "skills training credential" refers to any credential that is recognized by an independent industry association, including but not limited to licensure such as in the skilled building trades, CompTIA certification, pharmacy tech certification, certified information security professional, etc.).

About Cengage Group

With more than 100 years serving learners, Cengage Group is a global edtech company that enables student choice. No matter how, where, when or why someone wants to learn, our portfolio of education businesses supports all students, from middle school through graduate school and skills education, with quality content and technology. Collectively, our three business units -- Cengage Academic, Cengage Work and Cengage Select -- help millions of students each year in more than 125 countries achieve their education and career goals and lead choice-filled lives. Visit us at cengagegroup.com or find us on LinkedIn or Twitter .





1Pew Research, 2022: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/04/12/10-facts-about-todays-college-graduates/

2Cengage Graduate Employability Report, 2022: https://cengage.widen.net/s/kwsvrrpz6z/cg-employability-survey-report---final

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Cengage Group
DUBLIN, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Inhaled Nitric Oxide Market (2022-2027) by Type, Applications, Geography, Competitive Analysis, and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Inhaled Nitric Oxide Market is estimated to be USD 801.21 Mn in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 1179.42 Mn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 8.04%.



Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Inhaled Nitric Oxide Market stakeholders. These forces create pricing signals which result from the changes in the supply and demand curves for a given product or service. Forces of Market Dynamics may be related to macro-economic and micro-economic factors. There are dynamic market forces other than price, demand, and supply. Human emotions can also drive decisions, influence the market, and create price signals.



As the market dynamics impact the supply and demand curves, decision-makers aim to determine the best way to use various financial tools to stem various strategies for speeding the growth and reducing the risks.

Company Profiles

The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitors in the market. It covers the financial performance analysis for the publicly listed companies in the market. The report also offers detailed information on the companies' recent development and competitive scenario. Some of the companies covered in this report are Air Liquide, Bellerophon Therapeutics, Beyond Air, BOC, Geno, Genosys Informatics, Getinge, Halma, Linde, Mallkrodt, Merck KGaA, Novoteris, Nu-Med Plus, Perma Pure, VERO Biotech, etc.



Countries Studied

America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas)

, , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA)

and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Ansoff Analysis

The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Inhaled Nitric Oxide Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach.

The report analyses the Global Inhaled Nitric Oxide Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position.

Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, the analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth.

Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Inhaled Nitric Oxide Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's Proprietary competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Market Dynamics

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Increase in Demand from the Healthcare Sector

4.1.2 Increase in Chronic Diseases

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Strict Application Norms

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Ongoing R&D Activities Leading to New Application Areas in the Healthcare Industry

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 High Cost of Treatment



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Inhaled Nitric Oxide Market, By Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 99.92% Purity

6.3 99.99% Purity

6.4 Other



7 Global Inhaled Nitric Oxide Market, By Applications

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Neonatal Respiratory Treatment

7.3 Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (Copd)

7.4 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (Ards)

7.5 Others



8 Americas' Inhaled Nitric Oxide Market

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Argentina

8.3 Brazil

8.4 Canada

8.5 Chile

8.6 Colombia

8.7 Mexico

8.8 Peru

8.9 United States

8.10 Rest of Americas



9 Europe's Inhaled Nitric Oxide Market

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Austria

9.3 Belgium

9.4 Denmark

9.5 Finland

9.6 France

9.7 Germany

9.8 Italy

9.9 Netherlands

9.10 Norway

9.11 Poland

9.12 Russia

9.13 Spain

9.14 Sweden

9.15 Switzerland

9.16 United Kingdom

9.17 Rest of Europe



10 Middle East and Africa's Inhaled Nitric Oxide Market

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Egypt

10.3 Israel

10.4 Qatar

10.5 Saudi Arabia

10.6 South Africa

10.7 United Arab Emirates

10.8 Rest of MEA



11 APAC's Inhaled Nitric Oxide Market

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Australia

11.3 Bangladesh

11.4 China

11.5 India

11.6 Indonesia

11.7 Japan

11.8 Malaysia

11.9 Philippines

11.10 Singapore

11.11 South Korea

11.12 Sri Lanka

11.13 Thailand

11.14 Taiwan

11.15 Rest of Asia-Pacific



12 Competitive Landscape

12.1 Competitive Quadrant

12.2 Market Share Analysis

12.3 Strategic Initiatives

12.3.1 M&A and Investments

12.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

12.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



13 Company Profiles

13.1 Air Liquide

13.2 Bellerophon Therapeutics

13.3 Beyond Air

13.4 BOC

13.5 Geno

13.6 Genosys Informatics

13.7 Getinge

13.8 Halma

13.9 Linde

13.10 Mallkrodt

13.11 Merck KGaA

13.12 Novoteris

13.13 Nu-Med Plus

13.14 Perma Pure

13.15 VERO Biotech



14 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/k3g40u

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SOURCE Research and Markets
JERSEY CITY, N.J., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- InsightAce Analytic Pvt. Ltd. announces the release of a market assessment report on the " "Global Patient Recruitment and Retention Services Market By Therapeutic Areas (Cardiovascular Diseases, Oncological Disorders, Infectious Diseases, CNS Disorders, Respiratory Disorders, Hematological Disorders, and Others), Patient Recruitment Steps (Pre-screening and Screening), Trial Phases (Phase I, Phase II, Phase III, and Phase IV))- Trends, Industry Competition Analysis, Revenue and Forecast To 2030."

According to the latest research by InsightAce Analytic, the global patient recruitment and retention services market is valued at US$ 3.63 billion in 2021, and it is expected to reach US$ 5.45 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 4.7% during the forecast period of 2022-2030.

Request for Sample Pages: https://www.insightaceanalytic.com/request-sample/1335

Understanding innovative treatment interventions' safety and efficacy profiles require understanding the laborious phase in the drug development process known as clinical trials. Patient recruiting is seen as one of the rate-limiting phases when it comes to getting medicines to market, among other well-known difficulties. In addition, keeping patients on board is a problem, given the general dropout rate in clinical research. It has been demonstrated that using contract service providers can speed up the patient recruitment process. These service providers use a range of outreach techniques, including social media, mobile technology, electronic health records (EHRs), and real-world evidence (RWE). Over time have come to play an essential part in the efficient conduct of clinical research.

The market for clinical trial patient recruitment services is expanding due to a number of factors, including the expanding pharmaceutical and medical industries, the rise in clinical study demand, and the adoption of decentralized clinical trials. Clinical trials and drug development are ensured to go more quickly with improved patient recruiting rates, and this presents a chance for medical enterprises to shorten their time to market. Therefore, patient recruiting and retention services are essential to the medical sector. Many big pharma players have outsourced their patient recruitment operations due to the growing complexity of clinical trials and the demand for niche patient populations for studies evaluating orphan drugs and personalized medicines. More developer companies are likely to follow suit as a result of these factors.

However, delays in product release caused by sponsors' failure to attract/retain patients are prevalent and are thought to cause an average loss. The temporary shutdown has severely affected clinical trials, particularly in the patient recruitment sector. The lockout has limited patients' access to study venues, which has finally resulted in a sizable patient population dropout from a number of scientific trials.

North America dominated the world market with the greatest revenue share in 2021. With the large number of clinical studies being undertaken in the area, this market is most likely to expand. Government funding for clinical trials and large R&D investments are furthering the market's expansion. The growth of the North American clinical trial patient recruitment services market has been attributed to the presence of significant CROs providing support services like patient recruitment and multinational pharmaceutical & biopharmaceutical companies making significant investments in clinical research. With the low research expenses, simple regulatory compliance, growing patient population, and a few elite clinical institutions serving as sites, the area has emerged as a hub for clinical trials.

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Major market players operating in the patient recruitment and retention services market include Acurian, BBK Worldwide, Bright Pharmaceutical Services, ClinEdge, CSSi, CTM, Evolution Research Group (ERG), Integrated Clinical Trial Services (ICTS), MMG, Veristat, WCCT Global, Antidote, Clinical Accelerator, Fidelis Research, Ignite Data, Polaris BioPharma Consulting, Raremark, Clinrol, CROee, Gitzo Medical Technology, Pacific Grove, and TrialWire.

Key developments in the market:

In June 2022 , Evolution Research Group, LLC (ERG) acquired Ohio Clinical Trials (OCT). The purchase of OCT complements ERG's objective of consistently adding personnel and services to diversify further within the brain and pain therapeutic areas and streamline clinical trial execution throughout all phases of development.

Evolution Research Group, LLC (ERG) acquired Ohio Clinical Trials (OCT). The purchase of OCT complements ERG's objective of consistently adding personnel and services to diversify further within the brain and pain therapeutic areas and streamline clinical trial execution throughout all phases of development. In Jan 2022 , Publicis Health announced the acquisition of BBK Worldwide (BBK). BBK allows biotech and pharmaceutical clients to speed R&D programmes by integrating patient-centric services and proprietary technology in a way that advances research, complementing Publicis Health's current CTE capabilities.

Publicis Health announced the acquisition of BBK Worldwide (BBK). BBK allows biotech and pharmaceutical clients to speed R&D programmes by integrating patient-centric services and proprietary technology in a way that advances research, complementing Publicis Health's current CTE capabilities. In September 2021 , Syneos Health a strategic agreement with Ride Health to provide clinical trial participants with non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT). The partnership, which is based on product integration between Ride Health and the Syneos Health patient engagement platform, will make it possible to provide a comprehensive transportation program for Syneos Health trials in the United States to increase access, easing burden, and enhancing patient retention while accelerating clinical trial recruitment for sponsors.

Syneos Health a strategic agreement with Ride Health to provide clinical trial participants with non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT). The partnership, which is based on product integration between Ride Health and the Syneos Health patient engagement platform, will make it possible to provide a comprehensive transportation program for Syneos Health trials in to increase access, easing burden, and enhancing patient retention while accelerating clinical trial recruitment for sponsors. In September 2020 , ICON plc announced that it is launching Accellacare. This global clinical research network will provide patients with quicker access to cutting-edge treatments and give customers the option to set up decentralized trials. The site network includes MeDiNova Research in EMEA and previously purchased PMG Research in the US.

Market Segments

Global Patient Recruitment and Retention Services Market, by Therapeutic Areas, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Bn)

Cardiovascular Diseases

Oncological Disorders

Infectious Diseases

CNS Disorders

Respiratory Disorders

Hematological Disorders

Others

Global Patient Recruitment and Retention Services Market, by Patient Recruitment Steps, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Bn)

Pre-screening

Screening

Global Patient Recruitment and Retention Services Market, by Trial Phases, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Bn)

Phase I

Phase II

Phase III

Phase IV

Global Patient Recruitment and Retention Services Market, by Region, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Bn)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East & Africa

North America Patient Recruitment and Retention Services Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Bn)

U.S.

Canada

Europe Patient Recruitment and Retention Services Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Bn)

Germany

France

Italy

Spain

Russia

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific Patient Recruitment and Retention Services Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Bn)

India

China

Japan

South Korea

Australia & New Zealand

Latin America Patient Recruitment and Retention Services Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Bn)

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa Patient Recruitment and Retention Services Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Bn)

GCC Countries

South Africa

Rest of Middle East & Africa

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Why should buy this report:

To receive a comprehensive analysis of the prospects for the global patient recruitment and retention services market

To receive an industry overview and future trends of the patient recruitment and retention services market

To analyze the patient recruitment and retention services market drivers and challenges

To get information on the patient recruitment and retention services market size (Value US$ Bn) forecast to 2030

TO get information on major investments, mergers & acquisitions in the patient recruitment and retention services industry

Other Related Reports Published by InsightAce Analytic:

Global Clinical Trial Services Market

Global Site Management Organizations (SMO) Market

Global Clinical Trials Software Market

Global Biospecimen Contract Research Services Market

About Us:

InsightAce Analytic is a market research and consulting firm that enables clients to make strategic decisions. Our qualitative and quantitative market intelligence solutions inform the need for market and competitive intelligence to expand businesses. We help clients gain a competitive advantage by identifying untapped markets, exploring new and competing technologies, segmenting potential markets, and repositioning products. Our expertise is in providing syndicated and custom market intelligence reports with an in-depth analysis with key market insights in a timely and cost-effective manner.

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SOURCE InsightAce Analytic Pvt. Ltd.
Inspired by principles that embody the American dream, industry icon Patrick Bet-David and PHP Agency will leverage Integrity's best-in-class resources and technology to help more Americans achieve financial security

DALLAS, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Integrity Marketing Group, LLC ("Integrity"), a leading distributor of life and health insurance, and provider of wealth management and retirement planning solutions, today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire PHP Agency, an industry leading field marketing organization ("FMO") based in Addison, Texas. As part of the acquisition, Patrick Bet-David, Founder and CEO of PHP Agency, will become a Managing Partner in Integrity. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Patrick Bet-David and PHP Agency Joins Integrity to Accelerate Growth and Serve More People

PHP, which stands for "People Helping People," serves nearly half a million Americans nationwide by offering life and annuity products through its team of more than 27,000 agents across 170 offices. In many ways, Patrick Bet-David, the Founder and CEO of PHP, is the epitome of the American dream. Bet-David came to the United States as an Iranian refugee as a child, then served in the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division before joining a large investment and financial services firm. In 2009, he founded PHP Agency, which has experienced exponential growth by investing in technology for agents and focusing on the needs of underserved communities. A leader in diversity and inclusion, PHP Agency is redefining industry norms by recruiting, training and supporting a diverse, dynamic and highly motivated salesforce.

"Patrick Bet-David is the embodiment of the American dream," said Bryan W. Adams, Co-Founder and CEO of Integrity. "He has inspired thousands of agents to become entrepreneurs, founders and leaders, all while building an agency that is reshaping the face of insurance. This type of leadership is a rare gift, and we're privileged to have Patrick join us in our mission to innovate the industry."

"In order to stay competitive in this space, we know we need to invest heavily in people and in technology," explained Patrick Bet-David, Founder and CEO of PHP Agency. "Integrity is much more than a proven leader in insurtech  they also share our core values and vision for a more inclusive future. Together, Integrity and PHP have tremendous resources to empower a new generation of agents who will serve Americans in profoundly innovative ways. This partnership accelerates so much for our business, including adding carriers, technology, support and partners to what we now have access to. When these benefits are combined with our youthful, energetic and diverse workforce, every stakeholder wins. Integrity's success is now our success, and I know we will create something truly special together."

"PHP Agency is inspiring and developing an entire generation of young, energetic and influential leaders who will leave a lasting impact on the industry," added Tom Dempsey, Chief Distribution Officer at Integrity. "Patrick is an inspiration to so many people  I can't think of a better leader who truly understands and represents Integrity's mission to serve others in planning for the good days ahead. We're proud that he will now join our partner network and help us find new ways to innovate insurance together. PHP Agency has already achieved incredible success by empowering its agent network to build relationships and provide solutions to everyone in their communities. The company can now tap into Integrity's state-of-the-art technology, products and relationships to serve even more Americans. I'm eager to see what PHP and Integrity can achieve together, and we welcome them to our fast-growing team."

PHP Agency will reach more customers than ever before by utilizing Integrity's extensive suite of end-to-end offerings. The Integrity insurtech platform encompasses resources such as real-time quoting and enrollment systems, efficient customer relationship management software and robust product development. PHP Agency can also take advantage of Integrity's strong and supportive infrastructure of business services available to all partners, allowing PHP Agency's leaders to redirect valuable administrative time. Included in these shared services are areas such as People & Culture, Technology & Innovation, legal and compliance, and access to a world-class advertising and marketing firm.

"Patrick Bet-David is a best-selling author and popular keynote speaker, as well as a social media icon with millions of followers. His message of hope and success inspires entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world, and we are excited to be able to work with him to fulfill our mission at Integrity," said Anne Wood, Chief Marketing Officer at Integrity. "Together, we're going to reach more people than ever before and deliver solutions that empower consumers to make the most of what life brings."

Bet-David will expand opportunities for his agents and agencies by leveraging opportunities for teamwork and growth through the Integrity partner network. Driven by a core commitment to innovate insurance, this world-class peer group of industry icons have united to shape best practices and strategies that improve insurance and financial services for everyone. Integrity partners are focused on protecting the life, health and wealth of all Americans, helping millions prepare for the good days ahead.

PHP employees will also take part in Integrity's Employee Ownership Plan, which offers employees the opportunity to share in Integrity's success through meaningful company ownership.

"With a culture devoted to 'People Helping People,' Patrick and his team can now use Integrity's platform to expand their influence and diversify the products and services they offer," said Steve Young, Chairman of the Board of Integrity. "We're always thrilled to partner with trailblazing leaders. PHP Agency will be an incredibly valued and esteemed addition to the Integrity family as we work to protect families across the United States."

For more information about PHP Agency's partnership with Integrity, view a video at www.integritymarketing.com/PHPAgency.

About Integrity Marketing Group

Integrity, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a leading distributor of life and health insurance, and provider of innovative solutions for wealth management and retirement planning. Through its partner network, Integrity helps millions of Americans protect their life, health and wealth with a commitment to meet them wherever they are  in person, over the phone and online. Integrity's cutting-edge technology helps streamline the insurance and financial planning experience for all stakeholders. In addition, Integrity develops products with carrier partners and markets them through its distribution network of agencies, brokerages and RIAs throughout the nation. Integrity's nearly 6,000 employees work with more than 450,000 agents and advisors who serve over 10 million clients annually. In 2022, Integrity will help carriers place more than $12 billion in new sales and oversee more than $20 billion of assets under management and advisement through its RIA and broker-dealer platforms. For more information, visit www.integritymarketing.com .

About PHP Agency

Founded in 2009, PHP Agency Inc. is a tech-enabled national field marketing organization (FMO) headquartered in Addison, Texas. With over 27,000 licensed agents nationally in 49 states and Puerto Rico, PHP's agents have educated and served over 450,000 American families. PHP partners with leading insurance and annuity carriers and provides part-time or full-time opportunities to those seeking careers as life insurance agents. For more information, visit www.phpagency.com.

SOURCE Integrity Marketing Group, LLC
WINNIPEG, MB, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Pollard Banknote Limited (TSX: PBL) ("Pollard Banknote") is very pleased to announce that May Scheve Reardon will be joining Pollard Banknote as Vice President, Government Relations, heading up government relations and legislative affairs efforts. Prior to joining Pollard Banknote, Ms. Reardon served as the Director of the Missouri Lottery for 13 years, where she provided exceptional leadership both to the Lottery and within the lottery industry. In 2019, she was elected to the Public Gaming Research Institute ("PGRI") Lottery Industry Hall of Fame in recognition of her outstanding contributions.

As Director of the Missouri Lottery, Ms. Reardon increased the Lottery's annual contributions to public education from $250 million to over $400 million and started many new initiatives including the introduction of cashless sales for lottery, the establishment of a highly successful Million Dollar Retailer Club, and new measures to fight illegal gaming in the state.

Ms. Reardon has also held numerous other leadership positions within the industry including serving as President of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries ("NASPL") and the Multi-State Lottery Association ("MUSL"), which operates Powerball on behalf of its member lotteries. In these roles, her impressive accomplishments include:

Helping to start the industry-wide API initiative to expand lottery distribution including future in-lane lottery sales.

Working to improve industry relations with the National Association of Convenience Stores and the National Gaming Association.

Spearheading national government relations efforts to protect states' rights to utilize the internet for lottery sales.

Leading efforts to develop and implement new strategic plans for NASPL and MUSL that have helped focus the industry on shared priorities that will help preserve lottery integrity and increase profits for beneficiaries now, and in the future.

"After working closely with Pollard Banknote for many years in various roles throughout the lottery industry, I am excited to be joining their organization," said Ms. Reardon. "Pollard Banknote has always proven to be a forward-thinking company that continuously provides outstanding products and services to lotteries around the world, and I look forward to being a part of that."

"We are thrilled to welcome May Scheve Reardon to our team," said Jennifer Westbury, Executive Vice President, Sales & Customer Development at Pollard Banknote. "May's stellar reputation precedes her as she brings an unmatched wealth of knowledge and expertise to this role and will serve as a valuable resource to our customers. Her in-depth understanding of the industry and all facets of the lottery business will ensure that Pollard Banknote continues to offer the best support to our lottery partners in order to maximize funds for the good causes they support."

Ms. Reardon is currently the Chair of the Women in Lottery Leadership ("WILL") mentorship program and serves as Chair of the NASPL iLottery subcommittee.

Prior to entering the lottery industry, Ms. Reardon served in a leadership role on the Joint Committee on Gaming and Wagering and the Ways and Means Committee in the Missouri House of Representatives from 1990-2002. She was the youngest woman elected to the Missouri General Assembly and went on to serve as a Missouri State Representative for 12 years, Chair of the Democratic Party for four years and then became the first woman to run the Missouri Lottery.

About Pollard Banknote

Pollard Banknote is a leading lottery partner to more than 60 lotteries worldwide, providing high quality instant ticket products, licensed games, in-lane ticket options, and sales-driving merchandising solutions from its Schafer Retail Solutions + portfolio. It also offers a full suite of digital offerings, ranging from world-class game apps to comprehensive player engagement and iLottery solutions, including strategic marketing and management services. The company is a proven innovator and has decades of experience helping lotteries to maximize player engagement, sales, and proceeds for good causes. Pollard Banknote also provides pull-tab tickets, bingo paper, ticket vending machines, and its Diamond Game and Compliant Gaming electronic games and devices to charitable and other gaming markets in North America. Established in 1907, Pollard Banknote is owned approximately 64.3% by the Pollard family and 35.7% by public shareholders, and is publicly traded on the TSX (PBL). For more information, please visit our website at www.pollardbanknote.com.

Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking" statements and information, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. When used in this document, such statements include such words as "may," "will," "expect," "believe," "plan," and other similar terminology. These statements reflect management's current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this document. There should not be an expectation that such information will in all circumstances be updated, supplemented, or revised whether as a result of new information, changing circumstances, future events, or otherwise.

SOURCE Pollard Banknote Limited
Burgeoning Construction Activities to Boost Polyurethane Sales at 8.2% CAGR by 2032

The latest study published by Fact.MR provide detailed insights into the global polyurethane market during the assessment period 2022-2032. This study uncovers key dynamics such as driven, restraints, and opportunities across 6 verticals. It also provide a sales forecast in market in term of product type and application for the coming decade.

NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global polyurethane market is expected to total US$ 83.1 Bn by 2022, projecting growth at a robust CAGR of 7% during the forecast period 2022-2032.

Driven by the growing application across packaging, footwear, and furniture & interiors sectors, the demand for polyurethane is expected to exceed US$ 162 Bn by the end of 2032, as compared to the US$ 79.2 Bn registered in 2021.

Due to the rising disposable income of the global population and advent of advanced automotive vehicles, there is a substantial rise in sales of automobiles worldwide. For instance, according to a study by the International Energy Agency, approximately 88 million passenger cars were reported to be sold across the world in 2019.

Polyurethane is widely used in the manufacturing of seats, armrests, upholstery, and others in automotive vehicles. This is anticipated to augment the demand by 2X in the global polyurethane market over the forecast period.

For Critical Insights on this Market, Get A Sample Report!

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With growing inclination towards sustainable infrastructure development, a swift rise in construction activities is being witnessed, especially across emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil, Australia, and others.

Hence, adoption of polyurethane foam, on account of its strength-to-weight ratio, insulation properties, versatility, and durability is surging in construction sector. This is another factor projected to bolster the sales of polyurethane in the global market.

Key Takeaways:

The U.S. is anticipated to continue dominating the market in North America , projecting growth at a CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period.

, projecting growth at a CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period. Germany is expected to emerge as a highly remunerative market, owing to the increasing production and sales of automotive vehicles.

is expected to emerge as a highly remunerative market, owing to the increasing production and sales of automotive vehicles. Sales of polyurethane are forecast to rise at a rapid pace in China , assisting the East Asia market to expand at a CAGR of 7.1% through 2032.

, assisting the market to expand at a CAGR of 7.1% through 2032. India is estimated to account for a significant share in the South Asia & Oceania market, driven by the increasing construction activities in the country.

is estimated to account for a significant share in the & Oceania market, driven by the increasing construction activities in the country. Based on product type, the rigid foam is projected to remain the most sought-after in the market, accounting for 30.9% of the total polyurethane demand by 2022.

Growth Drivers:

Increasing application of polyurethane across the electrical & electronic industry, owing to its excellent insulating properties, low cost, and temperature resistance, is facilitating the sales in the market.

Rising adoption of polyurethane across furniture and interiors for the manufacturing of beds, pillows, covers, and others is accelerating the demand in the global market.

Restraints:

Implementation of several stringent environmental regulations pertaining to the use of polyurethane, due to its non- biodegradability attribute, is restraining the growth in the market.

Rising availability of polyurethane substitutes such as polysiloxane, shellac, varnish, tung oil, lacquer, and others are hindering the sales across the global market.

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Competitive Landscape:

Leading manufacturers of polyurethane are aiming at research and development (R&D) activities for launching new products to enhance their product portfolio and widen their consumer base. Besides this, others players are focusing on expanding their production capacity to expand their market share.

For instance,

In 2022, Huntsman Corporation, an American multinational manufacturer announced launching a new production facility in Taiwan with downstream polyurethane capabilities and a polyol plant.

with downstream polyurethane capabilities and a polyol plant. In 2021, Coverstro, a German plastic manufacturing company announced its plan of increasing its production capacity by opening new thermoplastic polyurethane plants in Shanghai, China by 2023. This will assist the company to expand its revenue share across East Asia market.

Key Companies Profiled by Fact.MR

Covestro AG

The Dow Chemical Company

Huntsman Corporation

Yantai Wanhua Polyurethanes Co. Ltd.

Foamcraft Inc.

Lanxess

Eurofoam Group

Tosoh Corporation

Future Foam, Inc.

Armacell

Saint Gobain S.A

More Valuable Insights on Polyurethane Market

In its latest study, Fact.MR reveal key governing factors influencing the sales in the global polyurethane market during the forecast period. The study offer compelling insights into key opportunities creating growth prospects in the polyurethane market through detailed segmentation as follows:

Polyurethane Market by Product Type:

Rigid Foam

Flexible Foam

Coating

Elastomers

Adhesives and Sealants

Other Product Types

Polyurethane Market by Application:

Construction

Furniture & Interior

Automotive

Electronics and Appliances

Packaging

Footwear

Other Applications

Polyurethane Market by Region:

North America

Latin America

Europe

East Asia

South Asia & Oceania

& Oceania MEA

Interested to Procure The Data? Inquire here

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=EB&rep_id=7359

Key Questions Covered in the Polyurethane Market Report

What is the estimated revenue of the polyurethane market during the forecast period?

Which are the challenges faced in the polyurethane market?

Which region is estimated to exhibit fastest growth rate in the global polyurethane market during 2022-2032?

What is the projected market valuation of the polyurethane market in 2022?

Which are the factors driving the polyurethane during 2022-2032?

What is the expected growth rate of the polyurethane market until 2032?

Explore Fact.MR's Coverage on the Chemical & Materials Domain

Polyacrylates Market: Growing application of polyacrylates across the adhesives & sealant industry, on account of its impressive impact toughness, high transparency, heat resistance, and elasticity is bolstering the demand in the market. In addition, increasing use of polyacrylates in manufacturing artificial teeth, tooth fillings, and jaws in dentistry is favoring the market growth.

Polyester Filament Market: Increasing usage of polyester filament as a substitute for cotton and nylon for production of garments, protective clothing, and other textile products is projected to favor the growth in the market. Driven by this, the sales of polyester filament are anticipated to accelerate at 5.1% CAGR through 2032.

Polyetherimide Market: As the trend of miniaturization continues to create deeper inroad and adoption of lightweight alternatives to aluminum increases across automotive & aircraft components manufacturing, a swift rise in demand for polyetherimide is being witnessed worldwide. Citing this trend, the sales of polyetherimide is forecast to reach US$ 870 Mn by 2027.

Polypeptide Market Report: The future prospects of the polypeptide market are influenced by the emergence of advanced technologies, and it is expected to improve its applications range in the upcoming years. Compilation of authentic and first-hand intelligence, insights offered in the report are based on quantitative and qualitative assessment by leading industry experts.

Polythiols Market Analysis: Polythiols Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking: Global Market Insights 2019 to 2029. East Asia is expected to be the most dominant country in the global market for Polythiols.

Polyolefin Compound Market: Polyolefin Compound Market report Based on the type (PE, PP,FPO) - Global Review 2021 to 2031. The end-use industries, especially the electronics, automotive and packaging, in which the demand for polyolefin compound is high, are expected to grow in the coming years.

Polydimethylsiloxane Market: Polydimethylsiloxane Market Analysis By Type (Barrier Elastomers, Fluids, Resins, Gels & Others), By End-Use (Industrial Process, Construction, Personal Care, Electronics, Transport, Health Care), By Region - Global Mraket Forecast 2020-2029.

Polyetherimide Market: Polyetherimide Market Analysis Repot By Form (Film, Sheet, Tube, Granules, Rod), By Grade(Reinforced, Unreinforced), By End Use Industry, By Region - Global Forecast 2019-2027.

Polydicyclopentadiene Market: Polydicyclopentadiene Market Analysis by Grade (Industrial Grade ,Medical Grade) & By Region - Global Market Insights 2018 To 2026. The demand for polydicyclopentadiene is increasing primarily from companies manufacturing body panels of tractors, trucks and buses

About Fact.MR

Fact.MR is a market research and consulting agency with deep expertise in emerging market intelligence. Spanning a wide range  from automotive & industry 4.0 to healthcare, technology, chemical and materials, to even the most niche categories. 80% of Fortune 1000's trusts us in critical decision making. We provide both qualitative and quantitative research, spanning market forecast, market segmentation, competitor analysis, and consumer sentiment analysis.

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SOURCE Fact.MR
SCARBOROUGH, Maine, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Organic Payment Gateways, a high-risk payment gateway provider, has announced integrations for pre-workout supplement businesses that need payment processing for their Shopify, WooCommerce, or Wix websites.

With many Americans more focused on strength training activities like CrossFit, kettle-bell workouts, and powerlifting, pre-workout supplements are growing in popularity among Shopify, WooCommerce, and Wix e-commerce businesses. This demand is causing interest in affordable, reliable pre-workout supplement payment gateways that are less prone to payment gateway shutdowns or held deposits.

With over 30 percent of Americans under age 80 engaging in strength training, according to data on the American Journal of Preventive Medicine website, the growth potential for pre-workout supplements has never been greater. But, with common payment processors often restricting the sale of pre-workout supplements, the ability to safely process credit cards is a concern for supplement websites.

Alex Roy, the founder of Organic Payment Gateways' parent company, E-Commerce 4 LLC, laid out the challenge that many websites face when selling pre-workout supplements. "Amino acids, testosterone support supplements, and even vitamins can be confusingly considered prohibited or "pseudo-pharmaceuticals" by Stripe, PayPal, or Shopify Payments, which is why you may need "high-risk" payment processing if you want to avoid frozen deposits. With assistance, you can accept credit cards for pre-workout supplements like creatine, nitrates, nitric oxide boosters, L-citrulline, L-theanine, vitamin B12, and beta-alanine, among others. Our team will help you integrate a payment gateway that allows you to accept payments with less stress. Your one-on-one account representative will even help integrate your processing for you if you need help."

Organic Payment Gateways' experience helps them guide pre-workout supplement website owners through the somewhat intricate process of applying for, integrating, and testing a payment gateway and merchant account that allow them to sell their most popular and profitable pre-workout supplements. Each website builder has its own specifications, according to Alex Roy. For example, he explained, "WooCommerce's open-source nature means it can connect to a host of payment gateways, including NMI and AuthorizeNet; Shopify focuses on their in-house solution, Shopify Payments, but also allows AuthorizeNet; while Wix integrations for pre-workout supplementation often require the use of a third-party shopping cart. We work with clients on a one-on-one basis and help them avoid common problems by ensuring that all parties, including the underwriters that are part of the payment processing ecosystem, are fully aware of the exact products and ingredients being sold. This upfront information is essential when the goal is stable, affordable payment processing."

Organic Payment Gateways' internal reporting shows sustained interest in WooCommerce, Shopify, and to a lesser extent, Wix, among pre-workout supplement websites that seek payment processing.

With multiple solutions at their disposal, Organic Payment Gateways aligns internet business owners with the payment gateway and merchant account best suited for an individual website's exact products, adding a steadiness to businesses that are often in a state of flux due to having their deposits held or their payment gateway shut down by previous providers.

As more website owners move into selling pre-workout supplements, Alex Roy wants to be a thoughtful resource for business owners. "We are here to help in any way we can. But, one area we cannot help with is legal advice. Before selling any nutritional supplement, all businesses should speak with a qualified attorney. The laws and regulations can not only be complex but often vary from location to location within the United States."

Visit https://organicpaymentgateways.com/supplements/payment-gateways-workout-supplements/ to learn more about Organic Payment Gateways' pre-workout supplement payment processing for WooCommerce, Shopify, and Wix.

Media Contact:

Alex Roy

800-570-1347

[email protected]

SOURCE Organic Payment Gateways
NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest market research report published by P&S Intelligence, in 2021, the public safety and security market was worth around $411.0 billion, and it is predicted to hit a $1,115.3 billion value by 2030, progressing at an 11.7% CAGR from 2021 to 2030. This is because of the growing crime incidence, increasing implementation of new technologies in smart cities, surging number of catastrophic accidents, and rising count of terrorist attacks globally.

Developed countries are making several attempts to lessen the likelihood of terrorist strikes. For example, the U.S. government invests almost $100 billion annually in homeland security programs that cover federal, state, and local law enforcement services as well as emergency and disaster response.

Get the sample pages of this report: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/public-safety-security-market/report-sample

Key Points of Interest in Public Safety and Security Market Report

Homeland security accounts for over 35% share of all applications. This is mostly because there are a large number of research projects underway and innovations being brought about in technologies for internal security departments.

Globally, the North American public safety and security market is the largest, valuing around $160 billion . This is because there are several companies offering systems and software for the purpose and strong government focus on protecting citizens from external and internal, natural and human-made threats.

. This is because there are several companies offering systems and software for the purpose and strong government focus on protecting citizens from external and internal, natural and human-made threats. Other factors influencing the market include the surge in smartphone usage, increase in internet penetration, and rapid expansion of the e-commerce industry. For example, in the U. S., there were approximately 300 million active internet users in 2021.

Moreover, the APAC public safety and security market is predicted to advance at a 12.0% CAGR over the projected period. This is because of the rapid use of sophisticated surveillance equipment in several APAC nations.

Additionally, the region's large mobile internet user base contributes to the market's expansion. According to specialists in the field, China accounts for around 64% of the 1.5 billion mobile internet connections worldwide, thus witnessing an increasing need for public safety and security services in the nation.

Furthermore, the Indian government is putting in place several policies regarding the use of video surveillance equipment, to enhance public safety and security, which is fueling a rapid enhancement in the public safety and security market growth potential. The government has concentrated on launching several programs, including the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Smart Cities Mission, and Power for All, in recent years to improve infrastructure.

Browse detailed report on Public Safety and Security Market Size, Share, Growth and Demand Forecast Report 2030

Players have recently engaged in mergers and acquisitions to gain a commanding position. These players are Hexagon AB, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., THALES, Siemens AG, NEC Corporation, IBM Corporation, Motorola Solutions Inc., Honeywell International Inc., and Cisco Systems Inc.

Public Safety and Security Market Report Coverage

By Component

Solutions

Services

By Application

Emergency Services

Homeland Security

Critical Infrastructure Security

Logistics & Transportation Systems

Regional Analysis

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

Germany



Italy



Spain



U.K.



France

Asia-Pacific

Japan



India



China



Australia



South Korea

Latin America

Brazil



Mexico

Middle East and Africa

and Saudi Arabia



South Africa

Browse More Reports Published by P&S

Video Surveillance as a Service Market Size Analysis and Growth Forecast to 2030

Embedded Security Market Size Analysis and Growth Forecast to 2030

Cyber Security Market Size Analysis and Growth Forecast to 2030

About P&S Intelligence

P&S Intelligence provides market research and consulting services to a vast array of industries across the world. As an enterprising research and consulting company, P&S believes in providing thorough insights on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness. P&S keeps the interest of its clients at heart, which is why the insights we provide are both honest and accurate. Our long list of satisfied clients includes entry-level firms as well as multi-million-dollar businesses and government agencies.

Contact:

Prajneesh Kumar

P&S Intelligence

Phone: +1-347-960-6455

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.psmarketresearch.com

Follow Us: LinkedIn Twitter

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1224988/P_and_S_Intelligence_Logo.jpg

SOURCE P&S Intelligence
German court rules in favor of RealD, finding LightSpeed DepthQ CineBright system infringed RealD's 3D cinema projection system patents

LONDON, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A district court in Dusseldorf, Germany ruled in favour of global visual technology leader, RealD Inc., finding infringement of both asserted patents by the LightSpeed DepthQ CineBright two-beam system, it was announced today by RealD Inc.

The German court ordered a product recall and awarded injunctions, damages and costs against Lightspeed Inc., and LightSpeed's directors, for infringing on RealD's two-beam 3D cinema projection system patents (pat. numbers EP 2 469 336 and EP 2 067 066).

RealD's patented light-doubling 3D cinema systems deliver the most light efficiency of any other 3D cinema projection technology, and as a result, provide a superior projected 3D image at lower operating costs.

The rulings apply to the European patents and are the latest cases upholding and affirming RealD's patents around the world. Following a strong history of victories for RealD in numerous territories and regions including the United States, Europe, China, Japan, Russia and Australia, where the company's invention patents were successfully asserted, or challenges by infringers such as Master Image and Volfoni, were unsuccessful.

"RealD invests substantial resources in our mission to deliver the perfect visual image. To continue making such R&D commitments, we must hold infringers accountable for copying RealD's patented technologies and are delighted this German court has done just that," said Travis Reid, RealD's Chief Executive Officer.

About RealD Inc.

Named three times as "Most Innovative Company" by Fast Company, RealD's mission is to perfect the visual experience on every screen and on every device. RealD pioneered digital 3D cinema and today has the world's largest 3D cinema platform with well over 2 billion people having experienced a movie in RealD 3D. RealD's network of theaters includes more than 30,000 installed screens in 75 countries with over 1,200 exhibition partners. As the world's premier visual technology innovator, RealD designs and licenses cutting-edge technologies that enable a premium viewing experience in the theater and on mobile and personal devices.

RealD has offices in Beverly Hills, Boulder, London, Moscow, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Tokyo. For more information, please visit our website at www.reald.com

For further detailed information, the rulings from the Landgericht Dusseldorf are publicly accessible, having case numbers 4a O 73/20 and 4a O 15/21. See https://www.lg-duesseldorf.nrw.de/

The asserted European patents EP 2 469 336 and EP 2 067 066 are validated in various European territories.

Media Contact For RealD

[email protected]

SOURCE RealD, Inc.
Texas Waves II, 30 megawatt battery storage project

Project recently completed installation of all inverters on site

Completion expected by end of 2022

AUSTIN, Texas, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

Silvia Ortin, CEO RWE Renewables Americas: "Battery storage solutions like Texas Waves II, with its responsive reserve capability, are a proven proposition for storing energy and improving grid reliability. These types of projects will become increasingly important as renewables form a bigger part of the energy mix as we expand our operating portfolio in the U.S., one of our focus markets."

Texas Waves II, a 30 MW battery storage project with a 1 hour lithium-ion battery, co-located at the existing Pyron Wind Farm in Scurry County, Texas, is under construction. The project is expected to be online by the end of 2022.

RWE continues to expand its storage portfolio with Texas Waves II, a 30 MW battery storage project with a 1-hour lithium-ion battery, co-located at the existing Pyron Wind Farm in Scurry County, Texas.

Texas Waves II is under construction and is expected to be online by the end of 2022. The project recently achieved a major equipment milestone installing all inverters on site, with no lost time injuries and two weeks ahead of schedule.

The project will provide ancillary services to the ERCOT grid as well as participate in the energy market. In addition, Texas Waves II has the potential to reduce the cost of energy to consumers by storing energy when it is readily available from renewable resources and discharging when energy would otherwise have to be provided from more expensive fossil fuel generation.

Texas Waves II is the next phase of a series of energy storage projects, where RWE is able to add a storage facility where it makes the most sense in the existing RWE wind fleet. Texas Waves I, consisting of two 9.9 MW short duration energy storage projects, at the existing RWE Pyron and Inadale wind farms in West Texas, came online in 2018.

By its online date, the project will be RWE's largest AC-coupled battery in the Americas to date. RWE is now significantly increasing its standalone and co-located storage project pipeline, with more and larger projects upcoming in the U.S.

The U.S. accounts for more than one third of the RWE Group's renewables capacity playing a key role in RWE's strategy to grow its renewables business and to become carbon neutral by 2040.

RWE's very experienced U.S. team is driving our expansion plans not only in onshore wind, solar PV and storage, but also in offshore wind, to contribute to RWE's ambitious goal of 50 gigawatts net installed capacity in 2030.

RWE constructs, owns and operates some of the highest performing wind, solar and energy storage projects in the U.S. As a leading renewable energy player, the company has more than 30 projects in operation in the U.S., totalling an installed generation capacity of more than 5,000 MW (4,288 MW pro rata) to date with more to come.

The company, together with its joint venture partner National Grid Ventures, secured area OCS-A 0539 in the New York Bight offshore lease auction in the U.S. with a potential to host 3 GW of capacity, enough to power 1.1 million U.S. homes. In addition, RWE has entered a joint venture, New England Aqua Ventus, focused on floating offshore wind in the state of Maine.

For more information, go to americas.rwe.com.

For inquiries: Matt Tulis Communications Manager RWE Renewables M. +1 512 698 4043 [email protected]



RWE

RWE is leading the way to a green energy world. With an extensive investment and growth strategy, the company will expand its powerful, green generation capacity to 50 gigawatts internationally by 2030. RWE is investing 50 billion gross for this purpose in this decade. The portfolio is based on offshore and onshore wind, solar, hydrogen, batteries, biomass and gas.

RWE Supply & Trading provides tailored energy solutions for large customers. RWE has locations in the attractive markets of Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. The company is responsibly phasing out nuclear energy and coal. Government-mandated phaseout roadmaps have been defined for both of these energy sources. RWE employs around 19,000 people worldwide and has a clear target: to get to net zero by 2040. On its way there, the company has set itself ambitious targets for all activities that cause greenhouse gas emissions. The Science Based Targets initiative has confirmed that these emission reduction targets are in line with the Paris Agreement. Very much in the spirit of the company's purpose: Our energy for a sustainable life.

SOURCE RWE Renewables
-Experienced leader will focus on operational efficiencies, risk management, and ongoing compliance to accelerate company growth

-Locke has a strong track record of driving efficiencies and managing complex processes at law firms and early-stage companies

-His experience as an outside general counsel and corporate attorney brings a new perspective to the SafeLease leadership team and positions the company to effectively manage risk

AUSTIN, Texas, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/-- SafeLease, the leader in self-storage tenant protection, is pleased to announce the appointment of Adam Locke as the company's Chief Operating Officer. Locke will focus on ensuring the company's strategic business objectives are met by increasing operational capabilities and driving efficiencies across all functional departments.

Adam Locke, Chief Operating Officer at SafeLease

Locke worked with SafeLease as an outside advisor prior to joining the company as its COO. During that time, he gained expert knowledge of SafeLease's products, market positioning, and the value the company delivers to its customers.

"SafeLease is excited to bring Adam on board to spearhead new operational initiatives," says Steven Stein, Founder and CEO at SafeLease. "His deep regulatory acumen and cross-functional strengths complement our fast-growing product, sales, and marketing functions."

"SafeLease is well-positioned to redefine risk management solutions for the commercial real estate industry," says Locke. "The space SafeLease is innovating in is ripe for disruption. With such a talented team and tremendous market opportunity, I was thrilled to join. I look forward to working with my new colleagues to ensure the company reaches its full potential."

Prior to joining SafeLease, Locke owned and ran a boutique law firm where he was outside general counsel to tech startups, commercial real estate firms, and investment managers. Locke also owned and operated an advisory firm focused on legal assets. He has advised on transactions totaling over $200 million.

Locke began his career as a litigator and advisor at corporate law firms and clerked for a federal appellate judge. He earned a law degree from Yale.

About SafeLease

SafeLease is a leading provider of self-storage tenant protection and revenue management software. The company leverages technology and a partner-centric business model to create new revenue channels that maximize the value of commercial property assets.

SafeLease is headquartered in Austin, TX and works with commercial real estate owners across the United States. Learn more at safelease.com.

SOURCE SafeLease
Servier's presence in the Seaport has already created nearly 400 jobs and the team has provided life-changing medicines to more than 15 thousand patients living with difficult-to-treat cancers

Campus expansion follows significant growth in oncology in less than four years, including three FDA approvals

BOSTON, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Servier, a leader in oncology committed to bringing the promise of tomorrow to the patients it serves, will inaugurate its new Global research and development (R&D) Center in Boston, Massachusetts, further strengthening and expanding its oncology presence in the United States. Located in the heart of the Seaport Innovation District, the new lab and office expansion will serve as the company's U.S. headquarters, contributing approximately $70 million to the economy over the next few years.

The facilities will officially be opened on Thursday, July 21 at a ribbon cutting ceremony with more than 200 guests, including state and local officials and current and potential academic and industry partners.

"Servier has grown exponentially over the past four years and we are proud to further expand our U.S. presence in Boston's world-class life sciences and research community," said David K. Lee, Chief Executive Officer, Servier Pharmaceuticals. "We remain committed to improving the lives of patients as we expand our leadership in oncology and look forward to ushering in this next chapter of innovation for the patients we serve."

Driven by discovery, Servier has made oncology a priority globally and allocates more than 50% of its R&D budget to cancer research. With a focus in cancer metabolism, immune-oncology and cancer cell targeting, the company continues to build out its robust portfolio of oncology treatments. In the next five years, Servier anticipates seven additions to our portfolio and five FDA approvals.

Under the leadership of Dale Porter, Ph.D., Vice President, Head of Servier's Oncology & Immuno-Oncology Research, the brand new 20,683-square-foot lab already houses more than six projects in drug discovery, reinforcing Servier's commitment to finding solutions that address patient needs across the entire spectrum of disease and multiple tumor types. This includes projects from early discovery research and target identification, all the way through scientifically supporting marketed products.

"The new lab is a critical component of Servier's worldwide R&D network, enabling us to further accelerate the important work we do to discover transformative new medicines," said Claude P. Bertrand, Executive Vice President of Research and Development, Servier Group. "With highly-specialized competencies and a focused approach to drug discovery and development, Servier is redefining how cancer is treated by finding new, innovative ways to target difficult-to-treat cancers with a significant unmet need."

About Servier Pharmaceuticals

Servier Pharmaceuticals LLC is a commercial-stage company with a passion for innovation and improving the lives of patients, their families and caregivers. As a privately held company, Servier has the unique freedom to devote all of its time and energy towards patients who require our treatments, care and innovation in areas of unmet medical need.

As a leader in oncology, Servier is committed to finding solutions that will address today's challenges. The company's oncology portfolio includes innovative medicines designed to bring more life-saving treatments to a greater number of patients, across the entire spectrum of disease and in a variety of tumor types. Servier has significantly accelerated its investment in hard-to-treat cancers with more than 50% of its research and development dedicated to delivering significant advances in areas of high unmet need that may truly move the needle for our patients.

Servier believes co-creation is fundamental to driving innovation and is actively building alliances, acquisitions, licensing deals and partnerships that bring solutions and accelerate access to therapies. With the company's commercial expertise, global reach, scientific expertise and commitment to clinical excellence, Servier Pharmaceuticals is dedicated to bringing the promise of tomorrow to the patients that we serve.

More information: www.servier.us

Follow us on social media: LinkedIn, Twitter

About Servier

Servier is a global pharmaceutical group governed by a Foundation. With a strong international presence in 150 countries and a total revenue of 4.7 billion euros in 2021, Servier employs 21,800 people worldwide. Servier is an independent group that invests over 20% of its brand-name revenue in Research and Development every year. To accelerate therapeutic innovation for the benefit of patients, the Group is committed to open and collaborative innovation with academic partners, pharmaceutical groups, and biotech companies. It also integrates the patient's voice at the heart of its activities.

A leader in cardiology, the ambition of the Servier Group is to become a renowned and innovative player in oncology. Its growth is based on a sustained commitment to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, oncology, neuroscience and immuno-inflammatory diseases. To promote access to healthcare for all, the Servier Group also offers a range of quality generic drugs covering most pathologies.

More information: www.servier.com Follow us on social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter

Press Contacts

Servier Pharmaceuticals (U.S.)

Julia Ferreira

[email protected]

Servier Group (France and worldwide)

Sonia Marques

[email protected]

+33 (0)1 55 72 40 21 / + 33 (0)7 84 28 76 13

SOURCE Servier Pharmaceuticals
SALT LAKE CITY, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SixFifty today announced an automated tool to help companies comply with the patchwork of data privacy laws in the United States. California, Colorado, Virginia, Utah, and Connecticut have all passed data privacy regulations in the past five years. Several other states are expected to pass similar laws soon. SixFifty's first-of-its-kind solution can create a single set of customized compliance documents that cover the requirements of each individual law. The documents include a company privacy policy and website privacy notice. As more laws pass, SixFifty will update the tool and incorporate new regulations into the paperwork.

"Companies are in a tough spot," said Ryan Parker, Chief Legal Product Officer at Sixfifty. "With five states having passed data privacy laws already, the task of drafting and updating compliance paperwork is overwhelming and expensive. With SixFifty, companies can generate the compliance documents they need and keep them up to date at a cost they can afford."

SixFifty's new privacy offering contains four parts:

First, companies can take a free automated assessment to determine which data privacy laws they must comply with.

to determine which data privacy laws they must comply with. Second, companies can generate one set of privacy compliance documents that account for the laws that are applicable to the business.

Third, SixFifty's document library allows companies to draft compliance paperwork that are specific to any one data privacy law in the U.S.

Fourth, SixFifty tracks the law in each state and updates the compliance paperwork accordingly. Companies receive periodic updates about those changes so they are aware of when they need to refresh their documents.

In addition to covering U.S. data privacy laws, SixFifty also has automated products covering the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) in China. In all, SixFifty's privacy tools can help companies cover their bases across the world.

For more information, please visit www.sixfifty.com/usprivacy .

About SixFifty

SixFifty is a technology company that brings the expertise of the world's top legal minds to your fingertips. SixFifty's technology is programmed to take on complex legal issues by providing customized contracts, policies, and documents to people and businesses. SixFifty also continuously monitors the law to update its tools in real time. For more information, please visit www.sixfifty.com .

Media Contact:

sarah thompson

[email protected]

SOURCE SixFifty Technologies
LUBBOCK, Texas, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a major step forward for the sorghum industry, school foodservice providers and American schoolchildren, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently added sorghum, a nutrient-rich, high-protein, gluten-free ancient whole grain, to its Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs. The Food Buying Guide is the primary resource used by school foodservice directors to build menus that comply with USDA nutrition requirements.

"The inclusion of sorghum in the Food Buying Guide is a monumental win for sorghum producers as we continue seeking to develop new markets for our crop," United Sorghum Checkoff Program (USCP) Executive Director Norma Ritz Johnson said. "Sorghum's inclusion in the guide is pivotal in our efforts to increase its visibility and ease of use among foodservice professionals, as well as the students they serve, and the industry is excited to deliver this nutritious whole grain to the plates of America's schoolchildren."

In an effort extending over many months, the United Sorghum Checkoff Program has worked with USDA to add sorghum to the Food Buying Guide.

As of July 1, 2022, USDA has implemented a new requirement stating that at least 80% of the weekly grains in school lunch and breakfast menus must be whole-grain rich, which has resulted in school nutrition providers actively seeking foods that satisfy this requirement. As a nutrient-rich ancient whole grain, sorghum will prove to be the solution for school nutrition professionals for the upcoming school year and beyond.

"The Food Buying Guide is a critical resource on which foodservice professionals rely to formulate meal plans for school nutrition programs that meet USDA nutrition requirements," Sorghum Checkoff Director of Food Innovations & Institutional Markets, Lanier Dabruzzi, MS, RD, LD, said. "As the 2022-23 school year opens, schools are working around a new 80% whole grain requirement. This timely addition will give school nutrition providers a new ingredient to include in bowls, salads, soups, baked goods and more."

The Food Buying Guide provides a roadmap for foodservice professionals to develop well-rounded nutritious menus by defining how certain foods contribute or credit toward federal nutrition guidelines. The inclusion of whole grain sorghum, pearled sorghum and sorghum flour in this Guide is an important acknowledgement by USDA that sorghum is a nutritious addition to the plates of American schoolchildren as a nutrient-rich, high-protein, gluten-free ancient whole grain.

Foodservice professionals who are interested in incorporating sorghum into their school menus as a healthy and gluten-free whole-grain can visit sorghumcheckoff.com, or contact Lanier Dabruzzi at [email protected] to learn more about purchasing and utilizing sorghum in a variety of ways offering a new and nutritious menu option to satisfy students of all ages.

The United Sorghum Checkoff Program is a producer-funded organization that is dedicated to improving the sorghum industry through research, promotion and education. For more information about the USCP and other sorghum promotion projects please visit sorghumcheckoff.com.

SOURCE United Sorghum Checkoff Program
Companies Join Forces to Demo Their Comprehensive, Layered and Proactive Security Solutions

JUPITER, Fla., NASHVILLE, Tenn. and PHILADELPHIA, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Safety equipment supplier ASR Alert Systems, security company HAVEN, and ZeroEyes, creators of the only A.I.-based gun detection video analytics platform that holds the US Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act Designation, have joined forces to provide key components of a Joint Active Shooter Protection and Response Program for a school in Houston, TX to dramatically improve the outcomes of a tragic event - such as an active shooter.

Save Time and Save Lives with ZeroEyes A.I. Gun Detection Solution

Every day, schools and organizations seek solutions to combat the active shooter epidemic that is plaguing our nation. A March 23rd, 2022 report from the FBI demonstrates a more than 50% increase in active shooter incidents from 2020 to 2021. By integrating technologies from these three special ops veteran-owned companies, communities can effectively harden their schools and businesses against crisis situations with additional, proactive layers of security that instantaneously alert on-premise security and local first responders.

The technologies include:

HAVEN Lockdown is a revolutionary, affordable smart door lock that activates in seconds to help prevent an intrusion into rooms and through access points, giving total security control to staff, administrators and authorities. HAVEN Lockdown is ten times stronger than a standard commercial door lock and is code compliant.

is a revolutionary, affordable smart door lock that activates in seconds to help prevent an intrusion into rooms and through access points, giving total security control to staff, administrators and authorities. HAVEN Lockdown is ten times stronger than a standard commercial door lock and is code compliant. ZeroEyes DeepZero is a patented A.I.-based gun detection video analytics platform, and is the only technology of its kind to hold the US Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act Designation. ZeroEyes' proprietary software uses existing security cameras to identify a potential gun as soon as it becomes visible and send alerts to school administrators and safety personnel within 3 to 5 seconds, helping to mitigate gun-related violence before it occurs.

is a patented A.I.-based gun detection video analytics platform, and is the only technology of its kind to hold the US Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act Designation. ZeroEyes' proprietary software uses existing security cameras to identify a potential gun as soon as it becomes visible and send alerts to school administrators and safety personnel within 3 to 5 seconds, helping to mitigate gun-related violence before it occurs. Founded by Navy SEALs and law enforcement professionals, ASR Alert Systems is a patented critical incident response technology allowing for immediate communication directly to emergency first responders and all those within the organization with the simple push of a button.

"A comprehensive security protocol and layered approach are critical to keeping students and faculty safe," explained D. Bruce Dareing, Chief of Police, Spring Branch Independent School District. "These combined cutting-edge solutions provide an alert with detailed information pertaining to the threat and give our security team the ability to make a decision and lock down our location within seconds at the push of a button. This can truly save lives."

HAVEN CEO and founder Alex Bertelli stated, "Veterans have a unique ability to solve some of our nation's toughest problems. Lessons learned from combat coupled with technology can help in preventing active shooter events in the future."

"No one should have to go to school or work worrying about whether or not they'll be shot," added Mike Lahiff, CEO and co-founder of ZeroEyes, Inc. "As veterans who have been in countless active shooter situations, we're uniquely positioned to combat our growing mass shooting problem with real solutions through technology. We're proud to work with HAVEN and ASR to collaboratively apply different approaches and technologies with the common goal of stopping senseless shootings."

ASR Alert Systems CEO and founder Hector Delgado stated, "The ASR, HAVEN and ZeroEyes teams have served our country and now we are all proudly serving to protect our communities."

About ZeroEyes

ZeroEyes delivers a proactive, human-verified A.I. gun detection software solution that integrates into existing security cameras and mitigates mass shootings and gun-related violence by reducing response times, providing actionable intelligence with images and delivering clarity among chaos  ultimately saving lives. ZeroEyes' patented solution has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a promising anti-terrorism technology and is the first video analytics technology to receive SAFETY Act DT&E Designation.

Founded by Navy SEALs and Special Operations military veterans, ZeroEyes delivers accurate and real-time actionable intelligence about the brandishing of a gun near or in an occupied area or building, to local staff and law enforcement with an image of the shooter(s) and location of the threat, within 3 to 5 seconds from the moment the gun is detected. The ZeroEyes team also provides tech consulting, installation assistance and practice drills for active shooter events to enhance safety at schools, corporate and government facilities. Headquartered in the Greater Philadelphia area, the company's affordable and effective gun detection solution has been adopted by the US Department of Defense, leading public K-12 school districts, colleges / universities, commercial property groups, manufacturing plants, Fortune 500 corporate campuses, shopping malls, big-box retail stores and more. Learn more about ZeroEyes at ZeroEyes.com.

About HAVEN

Founded by US Special Operations Aviators, HAVEN is a veteran owned and operated company that has developed a wedge-based door lock concept first witnessed overseas during combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The HAVENLock is a simple solution to provide greater security to homes, schools, commercial and government buildings. Activated by manual or remote means and ten times stronger than a standard lock, HAVEN is proud of their US made product made famous by Shark Tank in 2018. Learn more about HAVEN at https://havenlockdown.com/.

About ASR

Founded with the experiences of career Law Enforcement and Military personnel, ASR provides a solution to alerting authorities in high threat situations. With the press of a button, officers & dispatch are directly notified of the incident, along with the address and location within the building. They know what is happening, where it is happening, who it is happening to and help is on the way immediately. This significantly reduces response time from Law Enforcement while also notifying all those under attack within the organization/building.

The ASR Threat Alert system can be installed and implemented across any vertical market, for any business or school, and can even be utilized for outdoor events. ASR Alert Systems prides itself on providing ADA-compliant technologies to make safety accessible to all. Learn more about ASR at asralertsystems.com.

SOURCE ZeroEyes
Secure.Systems recognized as a Cutting Edge solution provider in Mobile Endpoint Security

RESTON, Va., July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SyncDog, Inc. , the leading Independent Software Vendor (ISV) for next generation mobile security and data loss prevention, today announced that Cyber Defense Magazine (CDM), the industry's leading electronic information security magazine, has named SyncDog a Cutting Edge solution provider in Mobile Endpoint Security in the 2022 CDM Global Infosec Awards. This is Cyber Defense Magazine's tenth year honoring the most innovative and valuable cyber defense companies from around the globe with winners being announced at the annual RSA Conference in San Francisco, CA.

"We are honored to be recognized by the CDM awards program as a leader in the mobile security market," said Brian Egenrieder, CRO of SyncDog. "Our Trusted Mobile Workspace (TMW) is a first-of-its-kind fully integrated mobile endpoint security system that serves as a protective shield over a device landscape. From new and existing data security/privacy regulations, device management, threat defense, and secure BYOD support, our Zero Trust platform truly encompasses all critical components to ensure enterprises maintain compliance, increase productivity and stay protected from growing mobile endpoint-threats."

Permanent remote and hybrid work policies have become the new normal, enabling employees to be essentially Work From Anywhere (WFA). This shift in the workplace has challenged enterprises to balance employee enablement and security without infringing upon employee privacy. SyncDog allows companies to remove workforce limitations, enabling unrestricted, unimpeded, and secure collaboration between mobile employees and their enterprise ecosystem. Through a validated FIPS 140-2 certified, AES 256-bit encrypted application container that stores and protects emails, contacts, calendars, notes, tasks, documents and access to the intranet, SyncDog is able to increase security, user experience, performance and ease of management in a singular holistic solution.

"We scoured the globe looking for cybersecurity innovators that could make a huge difference and potentially help turn the tide against the exponential growth in cyber crime. SyncDog is absolutely worthy of this coveted award and consideration for deployment in your environment," said Yan Ross, Editor of Cyber Defense Magazine.

With SyncDog it no longer matters if the device is iOS or Android, Managed or Unmanaged, Corporate Owned or personal (BYOD)  all can be supported through a single solution. SyncDog protects and manages devices, controls access to apps, defends against phishing and malware, and encrypts and isolates all corporate data, files and apps accessed by or stored on devices, simplifying set-up and management and improving productivity. SyncDog's holistic approach to mobile endpoint security empowers corporations to achieve compliance with new security and privacy laws without a trade-off in productivity.

To stay up to date on all SyncDog news, please visit: www.syncdog.com

About SyncDog Inc.

SyncDog is the leading ISV for building mobile frameworks that extend app functionality to devices while securing corporate and government networks from mobile-endpoint threats. SyncDog's flagship solution, Secure.Systems, delivers a rich and unimpeded mobile experience for employees working remotely, and supports a multitude of enterprise productivity apps within a NIST-certified (FIPS 140-2 cert. #2687) workspace. Secure.Systems is ideal for organizations that want to deliver a rich mobile app experience across BYOD, CYOD (choose your own device), or other endpoint device policy. Secure.Systems is a natural complement to security and compliance auditing initiatives to satisfy the mandates of CMMC, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, GLBA, FISMA, and other laws/standards for data security.

Secure.Systems can be deployed as a managed service from https://secure.systems or as an on- premise solution. Additionally, Secure.Systems can be found on the Microsoft Azure and MobileIron marketplace exchanges, as well as on the App Store (iOS) and Google Play Store (Android).

About Cyber Defense Magazine

With over 5 Million monthly readers and growing, and thousands of pages of searchable online infosec content, Cyber Defense Magazine is the premier source of IT Security information for B2B and B2G with our sister magazine Cyber Security Magazine for B2C. We are managed and published by and for ethical, honest, passionate information security professionals. Our mission is to share cutting-edge knowledge, real-world stories and awards on the best ideas, products and services in the information technology industry. We deliver electronic magazines every month online for free, and special editions exclusively for the RSA Conferences. CDM is a proud member of the Cyber Defense Media Group. Learn more about us at https://www.cyberdefensemagazine.com and visit https://www.cyberdefensetv.com and https://www.cyberdefenseradio.com to see and hear some of the most informative interviews of many of these winning company executives. Join a webinar at https://www.cyberdefensewebinars.com and realize that infosec knowledge is power.

Media Contact

Sara Knott

540-764-0043

LaunchTech Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE SyncDog Inc.
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Future of STEM Scholars Initiative (FOSSI) is pleased to announce 144 new scholarship recipients in 2022, representing 25 states across the nation. These talented students are planning to major in nearly 20 unique STEM majors at 34 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Launched in 2020 by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), The Chemours Company and the HBCU Week Foundation, FOSSI is a national chemical industry-wide program which provides $40,000 scholarships to students pursuing select degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at HBCUs. FOSSI also provides ongoing support and resources for scholarship recipients, connecting students to leadership development, corporate matching and internship opportunities.

"From academic performance to community engagement, these 144 FOSSI scholarship recipients have clearly demonstrated their commitment to excellence," noted FOSSI Chairman, Mark Vergnano. "We are thrilled to support their HBCU education and future career aspirations, helping to eliminate financial barriers and providing mentoring and career development at our 60 sponsoring organizations," he continued.

In accepting a FOSSI scholarship, N'jya Hopkins, a future Chemistry major at Virginia State University, stated, "This scholarship has brought so much joy to my family, and I am happy that I can continue my education as a first-generation college student without any financial worries."

Jayden Christmas, a future Mechanical Engineering major at North Carolina A&T State University, noted, "The FOSSI Scholarship is so much more than a generous financial gift. Having this organization invest in my future makes me want to work harder to achieve my goals. I look forward to the mentoring and other leadership building opportunities, meeting my peers and expanding my network."

To date, FOSSI has raised more than $17 million to support over 350 students. The initiative has an ambitious goal of supporting 1000 scholars through 2025. Applications for 2022 FOSSI scholarships will open September 23.

To learn more, visit FutureofSTEMscholars.org.

About the Future of STEM Scholars Initiative

The Future of STEM Scholars Initiative was founded in 2020 by the American Chemistry Council, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, The Chemours Company, and the HBCU Week Foundation. FOSSI is a national chemical industry-wide program which provides scholarships to students pursuing degrees in relevant science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), helping to eliminate financial barriers for historically under-represented groups. Sponsored by chemical manufacturers and related industry stakeholders, FOSSI provides scholarship recipients $10,000 per year for four years and connects these students to leadership development, mentoring and internship opportunities at participating companies. Learn more at FutureofSTEMscholars.org.

SOURCE American Chemistry Council
DUBLIN, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Aerospace Valves Market (2022-2027) by Product, Material, Application, Aircraft, End Use, Geography, Competitive Analysis, and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Aerospace Valves Market is estimated to be USD 11.84 Bn in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 14.45 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.06%.



Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Aerospace Valves Market stakeholders. These forces create pricing signals which result from the changes in the supply and demand curves for a given product or service. Forces of Market Dynamics may be related to macro-economic and micro-economic factors. There are dynamic market forces other than price, demand, and supply. Human emotions can also drive decisions, influence the market, and create price signals.



As the market dynamics impact the supply and demand curves, decision-makers aim to determine the best way to use various financial tools to stem various strategies for speeding the growth and reducing the risks.

Company Profiles

The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitors in the market. It covers the financial performance analysis for the publicly listed companies in the market. The report also offers detailed information on the companies' recent development and competitive scenario.

Some of the companies covered in this report are Aerospace Controls, Aero Controlex Group, Aerospace Systems & Components, CIRCOR International, Collins Aerospace, Crane Aerospace & Electronics, Crissair, Eaton, Honeywell International, Liebherr Group, Marotta Controls, Meggitt, Moog, NMG Aerospace, Nutek Aerospace, Parker-Hannifin, Precision Fluid Controls, Safran, The Lee Company, Triumph Group, Valcor Engineering, Woodward, etc.



Countries Studied

America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas)

, , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA)

and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Ansoff Analysis

The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Aerospace Valves Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach.

The report analyses the Global Aerospace Valves Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position.

Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, the analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth.

Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Aerospace Valves Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's Proprietary competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Market Dynamics

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Increase in Global Aircraft Fleet Size, Frequent Replacement of Aerospace Valves, And Growing Demand for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

4.1.2 Increasing Globalization of Trades Has Led to an Increase in Cargo Plane Frequencies

4.1.3 Increasing Air Passenger Traffic Across the Globe

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Increasing Electrification of Aircraft Systems

4.2.2 Fluctuating Cost of Raw Materials

4.2.3 Backlogs Related to Aircraft Deliveries, Owing to Inadequate Manufacturing Capacities of Prominent Aircraft Manufacturing Companies

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Introduction of Internet of Things (IoT) In Aerospace Valves

4.3.2 Increasing Technological Advancement in Analytical Systems

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Improving Operational Efficiencies of Aerospace Valves

4.4.2 Increasing Raw Material Costs and Lack of Innovation in Aerospace Valves



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Aerospace Valves Market, By Product

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Butterfly Valves

6.3 Rotary Valves

6.4 Solenoid Valves

6.5 Flapper-Nozzle Valves

6.6 Poppet Valves

6.7 Gate Valves

6.8 Ball Valves

6.9 Others



7 Global Aerospace Valves Market, By Material

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Stainless Steel

7.3 Titanium

7.4 Aluminum

7.5 Others



8 Global Aerospace Valves Market, By Application

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Fuel System

8.2.1 Suction Valves

8.2.2 APU LP Valves

8.2.3 Engine LP Valves

8.2.4 Inlet Valves

8.2.5 Cross-Feed Valves

8.2.6 Others

8.3 Hydraulic System

8.3.1 Flow Control Valves

8.3.2 Isolation Valves

8.3.3 Shut-Off Valves

8.3.4 Pressure Relief Valves

8.3.5 Priority Valves

8.3.6 Others

8.4 Environmental Control System

8.5 Pneumatic System

8.6 Lubrication System

8.7 Water & Wastewater System



9 Global Aerospace Valves Market, By Aircraft

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Commercial Aviation

9.2.1 Narrow-Body Aircraft

9.2.2 Wide-Body Aircraft

9.2.3 Regional Transport Aircraft

9.3 Business & General Aviation

9.3.1 Business Jets

9.3.2 Light Aircraft

9.4 Military Aviation

9.4.1 Fighter Aircraft

9.4.2 Transport Aircraft

9.4.3 Special-Mission Aircraft

9.5 Rotary Wing

9.5.1 Commercial Helicopters

9.5.2 Military Helicopters

9.6 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

9.6.1 Fixed-Wing UAVs

9.6.2 Fixed-Wing Hybrid VTOL UAVs

9.6.3 Rotary-Wing UAVs



10 Global Aerospace Valves Market, By End Use

10.1 Introduction

10.2 OEM

10.3 Aftermarket



11 Americas' Aerospace Valves Market

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Argentina

11.3 Brazil

11.4 Canada

11.5 Chile

11.6 Colombia

11.7 Mexico

11.8 Peru

11.9 United States

11.10 Rest of Americas



12 Europe's Aerospace Valves Market

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Austria

12.3 Belgium

12.4 Denmark

12.5 Finland

12.6 France

12.7 Germany

12.8 Italy

12.9 Netherlands

12.10 Norway

12.11 Poland

12.12 Russia

12.13 Spain

12.14 Sweden

12.15 Switzerland

12.16 United Kingdom

12.17 Rest of Europe



13 Middle East and Africa's Aerospace Valves Market

13.1 Introduction

13.2 Egypt

13.3 Israel

13.4 Qatar

13.5 Saudi Arabia

13.6 South Africa

13.7 United Arab Emirates

13.8 Rest of MEA



14 APAC's Aerospace Valves Market

14.1 Introduction

14.2 Australia

14.3 Bangladesh

14.4 China

14.5 India

14.6 Indonesia

14.7 Japan

14.8 Malaysia

14.9 Philippines

14.10 Singapore

14.11 South Korea

14.12 Sri Lanka

14.13 Thailand

14.14 Taiwan

14.15 Rest of Asia-Pacific



15 Competitive Landscape

15.1 Competitive Quadrant

15.2 Market Share Analysis

15.3 Strategic Initiatives

15.3.1 M&A and Investments

15.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

15.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



16 Company Profiles

16.1 Aerospace Controls

16.2 Aero Controlex Group

16.3 Aerospace Systems & Components

16.4 CIRCOR International

16.5 Collins Aerospace

16.6 Crane Aerospace & Electronics

16.7 Crissair

16.8 Eaton

16.9 Honeywell International

16.10 Liebherr Group

16.11 Marotta Controls

16.12 Meggitt

16.13 Moog

16.14 NMG Aerospace

16.15 Nutek Aerospace

16.16 Parker-Hannifin

16.17 Precision Fluid Controls

16.18 Safran

16.19 The Lee Company

16.20 Triumph Group

16.21 Valcor Engineering

16.22 Woodward



17 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ncaodb

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

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SOURCE Research and Markets
TOKYO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ThinkCyte Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering novel cell analysis and sorting instruments, announced today the launch of their Premier Early Access Program and recruitment of participation from key biopharmaceutical industry partners and leading academic centers. The program will give a select group of innovation-minded life science organizations from across the globe advanced access to ThinkCyte's new label-free platform for cell analysis and sorting. Through a combination of proprietary optical signals and artificial intelligence, the system provides researchers with an entirely new data readout of 'single-cell fingerprints' and enables the isolation of target cells, untouched by external labels, for downstream research and development.

"We have seen tremendous excitement and interest in the early access program for the new system, which lets scientists reach deeper insights into cellular phenotypes and enables isolation of precious target cells truly untouched," said Janette Phi, Chief Business Officer of ThinkCyte. "Currently, the ability to isolate cells with specific functional characteristics is limited to invasive technologies that can alter cellular states. Our new system not only allows scientists to sort cells by traditional fluorescence markers, but also unlocks the critical ability to perform truly label-free cell analysis and sorting. This is a new chapter in the way cellular therapy, tumor profiling, and genomics R&D will be done and we look forward to having our premier early access partners join us on this journey."

The system will provide researchers with a powerful tool to study solid tumor and hematological cancers, isolate live cells with defined phenotypes such as non-exhausted or activated T-cells, and characterize subtle phenotypes that aren't detectable by current approaches. Through the premier early access program, the company will accelerate innovative R&D programs by working with select biopharmaceutical companies and key academic and clinical centers of excellence to develop custom, partner-specific applications prior to the full commercial launch of the system in early 2023. To learn more about the Premier Early Access Program or other partnering opportunities at ThinkCyte, [email protected].

For job opportunities at ThinkCyte, explore our careers page at https://thinkcyte.com/careers/.

About ThinkCyte Inc.

ThinkCyte, founded in 2016 with offices in Tokyo, Japan and San Carlos, California is a biotechnology company that develops innovative instruments based on integrated, multidisciplinary technologies to enable life science research, diagnostics, and therapeutic development. The company pioneered Ghost Cytometry, a proprietary AI-based, label-free cell sorting technology with partners in major global biopharmaceutical companies and leading academic research institutes to drive pioneering research. www.thinkcyte.com.

Media Contact

Janette Phi, 650-844-8296

[email protected]

SOURCE ThinkCyte Inc.
MECCA, Saudi Arabia, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Um Al-Qura Development and Construction Company, owner and developer of Masar Destination has signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Future Investment Initiative Institute to curate the FII Forum's sixth edition, which will take place from October 25-27 in Riyadh under the theme " Impact On Humanity ". This initiative provides a venue for influential local and global world leaders to hold plenary sessions on a variety of themes pertaining to the global economy's future, as well as opportunities for investment collaboration between local and global organizations in various economic sectors.

Masar Destination: A Strategic Partner of Future Investment Initiative Institute (FII)

This partnership demonstrates Um Al-Qura's eagerness on effectively contributing to the foundation's work and its interest in enhancing the positive impact on humanity through supporting various initiatives in four pillar areas: Sustainability, Healthcare, Education, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

Lead by Mr. Richard Attias, the Future Investment Institute (FII) is a new global nonprofit foundation, built on ESG principles with an investment arm and one agenda: Impact On Humanity. They foster great minds from around the world and turn ideas into real-world solutions. Mr. Attias, FII CEO welcomed this strategic partnership, saying, 'we are pleased to welcome all our partners in the Foundation, as everyone represents a qualitative addition with their unique experiences, strategies and intellectual leadership that support our mission. We, in the Foundation, believe in inclusion as a prerequisite. For effective cross-border cooperation to help solve a range of the most pressing issues, our partners are a constellation of leading companies and institutions in both the public and private sectors, all eager to collaborate with us to address challenges and help make a positive impact on humanity.'

Meanwhile, Um Al Qura Development and Construction Company's CEO, Mr. Yasser Abuateek, stated that Um Al Qura is greatly pleased in this partnership whose strategic objectives are in line with the company's aspirations to achieve the highest standards of growth and sustainable development. Abuateek added that this partnership aims to introduce Masar Destination as a giga project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for it further highlights the promising investment opportunities offered by the destination.

Masar Destination is an urban destination with a development and investment strategy that adheres to the greatest environmental and social sustainability standards. Masar will be a modern landmark with multiple capabilities and characteristics and will contribute to enhancing the quality of life for Makkah residents and visitors, as well as providing a diversified integrated system that will attract investment in a variety of essential sectors, supported by the quality of its facilities and services to make Makkah an attractive destination for long-term investment.

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SOURCE Um Al Qura For Development & Construction - Masar Destination
DUBLIN, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "UK Legal Services Market Report 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The UK Legal Services Market Trends Report provides a unique detailed market review and analysis of the UK legal services market, including conveyancing, family law, personal injury, wills, and probate.

After a difficult time in 2020, the UK legal services market (including private practice firms, barristers, patent agents, and other legal services providers) bounced back in 2021 with market value growth at current prices of 12.4%.

For the first time in 2021, the number of law firms in England and Wales dropped below 10,000: at the end of the year, there were 9,809 firms. In England and Wales, the incorporated company model now accounts for a majority of law firms (52%). Only 13% of firms still operate via a traditional partnership model.

Legal advice for business and commercial matters (including commercial property) is the largest specific market segment and it increased its share of the total UK legal services market to over 47% in 2021. The consumer law market value was estimated at almost 22bn and the largest segment in personal injury/accident/medical negligence work was valued at over 4bn.

Family law and employment law are the next largest segments. The various consumer law sectors had mixed fortunes in 2021. Conveyancing, employment law (both for employees and employers), and probate legal advice performed reasonably well while family law was not far behind. Divorce numbers have been falling year-on-year for the last few years but demand in other areas of family law is still healthy.

The personal injury sector is still struggling with claims numbers falling again in 2021 after a large decrease in 2020 although the clinical negligence sector had a better year.

The criminal law sector witnessed a large decline in cases in 2021 and is facing a serious backlog in the courts. After double-digit growth in 2021, revenue growth is forecast to increase by between 7% and 8% in 2022, and growth is expected to continue to be driven by the corporate law market.

Most consumer law sectors should witness steady growth with personal injury again being the exception. The cost of living increases and some weakening of consumer confidence may also have an impact on the conveyancing sector.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive Summary

2. Market Structure

Most Legal Advisors Are Regulated

Law Firm Segments

Law Firm Numbers Decrease In 2021 And Dip Below 10,000

Chamber Numbers Increase In 2020

Licensed Conveyancers

Patent And Trademark Attorneys

Cost Lawyers

Alternative Business Structures (ABS)

Alternative Legal Services Providers

Other Providers Of Legal Services

Personnel Numbers

3. Market Developments

Reshaping Legal Services To Better Meet Society's Needs

Government Drops Plans For Further Reform Of Whiplash Claims

No-Fault Divorce Becomes A Reality In 2022

Spending Review Gives MoJ A 3.2Bn Budget Increase

Extra Investment In Criminal Legal Aid System

Law Society Forecasts Of Legal Services Activity Up To 2028

Some Court Fees Increased In England And Wales In 2021

LSB Refuses To De-Designate ACCA As A Probate Regulator

Lawtech Attracts 674M Of Private Investment Up To End 2020

4. The Key Players

The Top 100

Acquisitions and Mergers

Top 5 UK Law Firms - Profiles

DLA Piper International LLP

Clifford Chance LLP

Hogan Lovells

Allen & Overy LLP

Linklaters LLP

Selected Other Legal Services Providers

Listed Law Firms

DWF

Gateley PLC

The Ince Group PLC

Keystone Law Group PLC

Knights PLC

NAHL Group PLC

RBG Holdings PLC (Rosenblatt)

Consumer Law Firms

Cooperative Legal Services

Irwin Mitchell LLP

Simpson Millar LLP

Slater & Gordon Lawyers

5. Market Size and Trends

Market Revenue Estimated At Over 41Bn In 2021

UK Exports Of Legal Services Reach Almost 7Bn

6. Market Segmentation

Corporate, Financial, And Commercial Law

M&A Activity

Company Formations And Insolvencies

Commercial Courts

International Litigation And Dispute Resolution

Personal Injury

The Number Of Cases Declines Significantly In 2020/21

Claims Dropped By Over 100,000 In Calendar Year 2021

Number Of Pi Claims Reaching Courts Falls For Fourth Year Running

Commercial And Residential Property, Including Conveyancing

Bounce Back In Property Transactions In 2021

Wills, Trusts, And Probate

Increases In Probate Applications In 2020 And 2021

Family Law

Family Court Cases Started In 2021 Around The Same As 2020

Employment Law

Employment Tribunal Cases Increasing Since 2017

Criminal Law

Criminal Trial Numbers Hit A Low In 2020 But Increased In 2021

The Future

Further Growth Expected In 2022 But Driven By Corporate Work

Forecasts

7. Professional Bodies

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/mjxdm

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



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SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "The Market for Rx-to-OTC Switches, 8th Edition" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report, The Market for Rx-to-OTC Switches, analyses recent switches, products that are near switching. It estimates markets for switched products.

More than 700 pharmaceutical products have made the switch from Rx to OTC over the past several decades. The U.S. Rx-to-OTC market has grown into a $13.8 billion market.

This has mainly been due to factors such as patent expirations, increasing competitiveness with the pharmaceutical environment, the FDA willingness to work with industry, brand re-invention, consumer demand, and cost containment strategies.

The U.S. market for Rx-to-OTC Switches encompasses a wide variety of products that have been determined safe and effective as over-the-counter products, once available only by prescription.

Aging baby boomers, many of which are taking greater interest in their health, have created a growing Rx-to-OTC industry in America. This was reinforced by the pandemic, which presented patients with more selfcare due to lockdowns and mandates.

It is anticipated that Rx-to-OTC switch products will continue to grow as interest from both consumers and developers continue to expand. Many of the new products that are on the market may be potential candidates after standing the test of time as a prescription product.

Also, the demand for OTC products is not likely to diminish, giving rise to more possibilities in the switched categories. Over one third of American consumers use an OTC medication at least every other day and the numbers are increasing on a regular basis as more products appear on the OTC market.

The current climate of patient-consumer awareness of health issues is continuing to influence the Rx-to-OTC market. Consumers are more prepared to take responsibility for their own health and are willing to purchase medicines over the counter. An increased focus on cost-savings, coupled with the effects of advertising and promotion, result in a higher rate of OTC purchases.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the regulatory authority supervising both the prescription and over-the-counter drug approvals and Rx-to-OTC switches. Through a process, the FDA decides if Rx medications meet the requirements to become OTC available drugs if and when a petition is filed. The FDA evaluates a drug for OTC use upon several factors within a benefit-to-risk comparison.

The evaluation includes:

Safety - potential overdose or poisoning with possible misuse of the drug and side effects of the drug is determined.

Compliance - understanding of OTC label information for proper dosing and administration and correct use without the direction of a physician or pharmacist.

Effectiveness - effective treatment of symptoms at doses appropriate for OTC use.

Follow up Care - correct diagnosis among consumers for common conditions and follow-up for unresolved symptoms.

Prescription drugs can be introduced for a switch evaluation in one of two ways, either by the manufacturers' submission of additional information to the original drug application for OTC or by a petition by another source for the FDA to evaluate a drug for OTC use.



Submissions to the FDA by a manufacturer are the most common process for an Rx-to-OTC switch. The manufacturer provides information and evidence to support that the drug is safe for self-administration. The submission usually includes data from clinical studies and a preliminary OTC product label, displaying clear instructions for use.

The OTC drug review is a continual assessment of a product by a panel of non-government experts who review a prescription drug's ingredients to determine whether it meets the guidelines for use as a safe drug under OTC marketing regulations. This is a more unconventional process for OTC switches as the manufacturer has not provided data for a formal review of the drug.

Pharmacists Generally Favor Self-Medication

Pharmacists are generally in favor of self-medication and actively promote OTC products. Switches do provide a way for pharmacists to increase profit margins and expand their role as a professional healthcare advisor. In recent surveys pharmacists estimate consumers go on to purchase the pharmacists recommended product at least 85% of the time. It is becoming increasingly important for the health industry to promote the pharmacist-consumer relationship as new OTCs reach the market. However, several barriers to successful relationships have been noted, including:

Workload - busy workloads may prevent noticing consumers struggling with product selections.

Compensation - lack of compensation for counseling, advice, and recommendations to consumers.

Workspace - lack of room to provide adequate consumer counseling.

Embarrassment - consumers may not approach pharmacists due to feeling of embarrassment.

The pharmacist's role is becoming enhanced as new products hit the market and the "behind the counter" approach emerges. Pharmacists should be available to assist consumers with several aspects of OTC selection and use. Changes in the industry could enhance the pharmacist's position and increase the level of consumer interaction with pharmacists. A typical counseling session should follow similarly to the figure below.

This report describes these processes and trends in detail, and provides a comprehensive view of the market in 2022.

Coverage

There are several companies that compete heavily in this market and use the Rx-to-OTC switch as a major part of their life-cycle management arsenal. Companies involved in the Rx-to-OTC switched market include brand, generic, and private label manufacturers. Competition will likely continue to be intense in the OTC market.

Consolidation remains a major factor in this market. Most major players have made a significant acquisition or formed a strategic alliance to increase revenues and drive growth. Product innovation, line extensions and strong promotional support are a few of the top strategies for growth in this industry.

As part of its coverage, this report contains:

Issues and Trends Affecting The Rx-To-OTC Switches Market

Leading Participants

Information on the OTC industry

Overview Of The Over-The-Counter Drug Market

International Trends In Rx-To-OTC Switches

Markets by Category

Allergy, Cough, Cold, and Sinus Products: Recent Switches, Market Size, Forecast, Market Share, Brand vs. Switched Brands vs. Generics (Switched Equivalents), Conditions Information, Overview

Analgesics and Other Pain Relievers Recent Switches, Market Size, Forecast, Market Share, Brand vs. Switched Brands vs. Generics (Switched Equivalents), Conditions Information, Overview

Anti-Infectives: Recent Switches, Market Size, Forecast, Market Share, Brand vs. Switched Brands vs. Generics (Switched Equivalents), Conditions Information, Overview

Gastrointestinal Drugs: Recent Switches, Market Size, Forecast, Market Share, Brand vs. Switched Brands vs. Generics (Switched Equivalents), Conditions Information, Overview

Smoking Cessation Products: Recent Switches, Market Size, Forecast, Market Share, Brand vs. Switched Brands vs. Generics (Switched Equivalents), Conditions Information, Overview

Other Drugs: Recent Switches, Overview, Size, Forecast, Market Share, Brand vs. Switched Brands vs. Generics (Switched Equivalents)

Total Market: Market Size, Forecast, Market Share

Company Coverage

Leading competitors offering key brand products are provided in this report. These companies include:

Bayer

Glaxosmithkline

Johnson & Johnson

Perrigo Company

Prestige Brands

Procter & Gamble

Reckitt Benckiser

Sanofi (Chattem)

Products Discussed In This Report:

Carafate

Protonix

Zofran

Nicorette

Commit

Habitrol

Dimetapp

Dristan

Sudafed

Actifed

Benadryl

Drixoral Plus

Nyquil

Naphcon A

Nasalcrom

Mucinex

Claritin

Zyrtec

Aleve

Allegra

Astepro

Lastacaft

Aciphex

Dexilant

Zovirax

Xofluza

Maxalt

Zomig

Climara

Estraderm

Detrol

Retin-A

Lodine

Relafen

Zetia

Vytorin

TriCor

Proscar

Zithromax

Bactroban

Chantix

Lunesta

Ambien

Flomax

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ds8d05

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

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SOURCE Research and Markets
PHOENIX, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE: UTI), a leading provider of transportation and technical training programs, today announced that it plans to report results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2022 on Wednesday, August 3, 2022, after market close. Jerome Grant, chief executive officer, and Troy Anderson, chief financial officer, will host a conference call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on the same day to discuss the financial results and operating performance.

To participate in the live call, investors are invited to dial (844) 881-0138 (domestic) or (412) 317-6790 (international). A live webcast of the call will be available via the Universal Technical Institute investor relations website at https://investor.uti.edu . Please go to the website at least 10 minutes early to register, download and install any necessary audio software. The conference call webcast will be archived for fourteen days at https://investor.uti.edu . Alternatively, the telephone replay can be accessed through August 17, 2022, by dialing (877) 344-7529 (domestic) or (412) 317-0088 (international) and entering passcode 8868532.

About Universal Technical Institute, Inc.

Founded in 1965 and headquartered in Phoenix, Universal Technical Institute's (NYSE: UTI) mission is to serve our students, partners, and communities by providing quality education and support services for in-demand careers. Approximately 250,000 students have graduated from one of UTI's 15 campuses located across Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Texas. UTI's campuses are accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC), while its employer-aligned technical training programs are offered under four brands: Universal Technical Institute, Motorcycle Mechanics Institute / Marine Mechanics Institute, NASCAR Technical Institute, and MIAT College of Technology. For more information and a complete list of all programs offered, please visit www.uti.edu or follow on LinkedIn @UniversalTechnicalInstitute and on Twitter @news_UTI.

Media Contact:

Alanna Vitucci

Public Relations Director

Universal Technical Institute, Inc.

(480) 710-6843

Investor Relations Contact:

Robert Winters or Davis Snyder

Alpha IR Group

(312) 445-2870

[email protected]

SOURCE Universal Technical Institute, Inc.
Key Market Dynamics and their impact analysis is now available at Technavio, View PDF Sample

Segmentation Highlights

The alloy wheels aftermarket report is segmented by Application (passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles) and Geographic (APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and MEA).

Regional Analysis: 61% of the market's growth will originate from APAC during the forecast period. China and Japan are the key markets for alloy wheels aftermarket in APAC. Market growth in this region will be slower than the growth of the market in MEA regions. The improved and stabilized socio-economic conditions in APAC countries, especially China and India, are contributing to the growth of the automotive industry in the region over the forecast period.

Revenue-generating Segment Insights: The passenger car application segment held the largest alloy wheels aftermarket share in 2020. The segment will continue to account for the highest revenue during the forecast period. The segment's growth is anticipated to be primarily driven by the growing demand for SUV alloy wheels across the world.

Get Segment-based market share contribution and regional insights, as your Request your Sample Report

Competitive Landscape

The alloy wheels aftermarket is fragmented and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as M&A activities to compete in the market.

To make the most of the opportunities and recover from the post-pandemic impact, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

The alloy wheels aftermarket forecast report offers in-depth insights into key vendor profiles. The profiles include information on the production, sustainability, and prospects of the leading companies.

Top Companies Mentioned with their Offerings

ALCAR HOLDING GmbH: The company offers Aftermarket alloy wheels. The company offers alloy wheels through its brands such as AEZ, DOTZ, DEZENT, and DOTZ SURVIVAL, for the passenger vehicle aftermarket sector.

The company offers Aftermarket alloy wheels. The company offers alloy wheels through its brands such as AEZ, DOTZ, DEZENT, and DOTZ SURVIVAL, for the passenger vehicle aftermarket sector.

BORBET GmbH: The company offers products such as BY titan polished matt, BY titan polished matt, and other products.

The company offers products such as BY titan polished matt, BY titan polished matt, and other products.

Enkei Corp.: The company offers products such as GTC02, and PF09 in the racing series category. It offers TS-7 and TSR-6 in the Tuning series category and other products.

The company offers products such as GTC02, and PF09 in the racing series category. It offers TS-7 and TSR-6 in the Tuning series category and other products.

Howmet Aerospace Inc.: The company offers lightweight aluminum wheels. The company offers alloy wheels under the brand, Alcoa.

The company offers lightweight aluminum wheels. The company offers alloy wheels under the brand, Alcoa.

Iochpe-Maxion SA: The company offers steel wheels and aluminum light vehicle wheels.

Some more companies covered in the report are:

RONAL AG



Superior Industries International Inc.



TSW Group



Wheel Pros LLC



YHI INTERNATIONAL Ltd.

Want to know about product offerings and strategic initiatives of the contributing vendors, Download Sample Report

Related Reports:

Automotive Steel Wheels Market Growth, Size, Trends, Analysis Report by Type, Application, Region and Segment Forecast 2020-2024

Aluminum Alloy Wheel Market Growth, Size, Trends, Analysis Report by Type, Application, Region and Segment Forecast 2022-2026

Alloy Wheels Aftermarket Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of almost 0.73% Market growth 2021-2025 $ 100.99 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) -0.55 Regional analysis APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution APAC at 61% Key consumer countries China, US, Japan, Germany, UK, and France Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled ALCAR HOLDING GmbH, BORBET GmbH, Enkei Corp., Howmet Aerospace Inc., Iochpe-Maxion SA, RONAL AG, Superior Industries International Inc., TSW Group, Wheel Pros LLC, and YHI INTERNATIONAL Ltd. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, and market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Key Topics Covered:

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: Automotive Components and Accessories

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 Application

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 15: Application - Market share 2020-2025 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Application

Exhibit 16: Comparison by Application

5.3 Passenger vehicles - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 17: Passenger vehicles - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 18: Passenger vehicles - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

5.4 Commercial vehicles - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 19: Commercial vehicles - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 20: Commercial vehicles - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

5.5 Market opportunity by Application

Exhibit 21: Market opportunity by Application

6 Customer landscape

7 Geographic Landscape

7.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 23: Market share by geography 2020-2025 (%)

7.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 24: Geographic comparison

7.3 APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 25: APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 26: APAC - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Exhibit 27: Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

Exhibit 28: Europe - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.5 North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Exhibit 29: North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

Exhibit 30: North America - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Exhibit 31: South America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

Exhibit 32: South America - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.7 MEA - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 33: MEA - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 34: MEA - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.8 Key leading countries

Exhibit 35: Key leading countries

7.9 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 36: Market opportunity by geography

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.2 Market challenges

Exhibit 37: Impact of drivers and challenges

8.3 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

9.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 38: Vendor landscape

9.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 39: Landscape disruption



Exhibit 40: Industry risks

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 41: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

10.3 ALCAR HOLDING GmbH

Exhibit 43: ALCAR HOLDING GmbH - Overview



Exhibit 44: ALCAR HOLDING GmbH - Product and service



Exhibit 45: ALCAR HOLDING GmbH - Key offerings

10.4 BORBET GmbH

Exhibit 46: BORBET GmbH - Overview



Exhibit 47: BORBET GmbH - Product and service



Exhibit 48: BORBET GmbH - Key news



Exhibit 49: BORBET GmbH - Key offerings

10.5 Enkei Corp.

Exhibit 50: Enkei Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 51: Enkei Corp. - Product and service



Exhibit 52: Enkei Corp. - Key offerings

10.6 Howmet Aerospace Inc.

Exhibit 53: Howmet Aerospace Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 54: Howmet Aerospace Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 55: Howmet Aerospace Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 56: Howmet Aerospace Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 57: Howmet Aerospace Inc. - Segment focus

10.7 Iochpe-Maxion SA

Exhibit 58: Iochpe-Maxion SA - Overview



Exhibit 59: Iochpe-Maxion SA - Business segments



Exhibit 60: Iochpe-Maxion SA - Key news



Exhibit 61: Iochpe-Maxion SA - Key offerings

10.8 RONAL AG

Exhibit 62: RONAL AG - Overview

- Overview

Exhibit 63: RONAL AG - Product and service

- Product and service

Exhibit 64: RONAL AG - Key news

- Key news

Exhibit 65: RONAL AG - Key offerings

10.9 Superior Industries International Inc.

Exhibit 66: Superior Industries International Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 67: Superior Industries International Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 68: Superior Industries International Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 69: Superior Industries International Inc. - Segment focus

10.10 TSW Group

Exhibit 70: TSW Group - Overview



Exhibit 71: TSW Group - Product and service



Exhibit 72: TSW Group - Key offerings

10.11 Wheel Pros LLC

Exhibit 73: Wheel Pros LLC - Overview



Exhibit 74: Wheel Pros LLC - Product and service



Exhibit 75: Wheel Pros LLC - Key offerings

10.12 YHI INTERNATIONAL Ltd.

Exhibit 76: YHI INTERNATIONAL Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 77: YHI INTERNATIONAL Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 78: YHI INTERNATIONAL Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 79: YHI INTERNATIONAL Ltd. - Segment focus

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 80: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.3 Research methodology

Exhibit 81: Research Methodology



Exhibit 82: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 83: Information sources

11.4 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 84: List of abbreviations

About Us

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Addition of respected attorney bolsters already-stout bankruptcy group

DALLAS, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Noted bankruptcy and creditors' rights litigator Mark Castillo has joined Dallas-based Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal LLP as a partner.

Mr. Castillo represents debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, official committees, and trustees in all areas of bankruptcy law, litigation, and corporate matters. He has tried lawsuits involving millions of dollars in bankruptcy-related claims, including fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, turnover, conversion, and contract matters, and has litigated or settled millions more in preference and fraudulent-transfer claims.

"Our firm is dedicated to protecting the interests of our clients and their businesses and has a longstanding reputation for excellence in the bankruptcy arena," says Carrington Coleman's Managing Partner Monica Latin. "We are excited to welcome to the team a colleague of Mark's stature and experience."

A frequent speaker and author on bankruptcy and litigation topics, Mr. Castillo is a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, an honorary society for qualified attorneys dedicated to both high ethical standards and improved training for all attorneys. He is also a Master and Pupilage Group Leader with the Hon. John C. Ford American Inn of Court, and has earned professional honors from Texas Super Lawyers, D Magazine, and the Dallas Business Journal.

Mr. Castillo joins Carrington Coleman from Curtis Castillo PC, along with bankruptcy associate Robert Rowe. Also joining the firm is litigation associate Rae Guyse, formerly of Haynes and Boone.

About Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, LLP

Carrington Coleman is a 52-year-old Dallas-based law firm focused on litigation and transactional services in the real estate, oil and gas, securities, construction, professional services, technology, and health care industries, among others. The firm provides counsel in corporate transactions, corporate governance, banking, bankruptcy/restructuring, intellectual property, litigation and appeals, employment, and family wealth/estate planning. Learn more about the firm at https://www.ccsb.com/.

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Rhonda Reddick

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SOURCE Carrington Coleman
New Milestone in Scalable Provider Enablement Technology That Covers 36 States

NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vim, a leading technology company building a point of care connection platform for U.S. healthcare, has signed its 500th provider organization to use Vim Connect in less than a year since the platform's launch. Vim Connect is the company's flagship technology and is a scalable in-EHR provider enablement platform that powers value-based care models and reduces the administrative burden for physicians and care teams.

Powered by data from health plans, risk-bearing entities, and managed services organizations, Vim Connect and its supported applications integrate seamlessly into existing EHR workflows to drive improved performance on cost, quality, and experience with fewer clicks and less time required from provider teams. Vim Connect powers a suite of value-based and administrative applications that drive in-EHR workflows such as quality and diagnosis gaps and referrals. This platform is now contracted for use by over 500 provider organizations across the country with concentrations in Florida, California, Texas, and New York.

"Our strategy has been straightforward: make it radically simple and fast for providers to connect, save them time in value-based and administrative workflows, and partner with the largest payers and most innovative care delivery organizations in the country as customers so the platform becomes a single multi-payer destination for care teams," shared Jonas Goldstein, VP of Strategy and Commercial at Vim. "Our health plans and other customers want to provide this support and to meet providers where they are in the EHR, and our mission has been to make that possible at scale."

Provider enablement technology is critical to power a new generation of payer-provider partnerships and to accelerate the journey to a high-value healthcare system. Administrative burden among care teams is high and presents one of the industry's most pressing challenges, but historical engagement rates with external technology designed to mitigate this have been low. Vim's market-leading point of care infrastructure is addressing this obstacle in real time in partnership with some of the largest and most progressive health plans and risk-bearing entities in the country.

"The pace at which we see adoption at our provider partners is exhilarating. Physicians and care teams are burdened with using technologies that were not designed to complement the workflows and processes they already have in place. Our experience shows that if you meet them where they are, they'll adopt and engage," said Brigham Hamlin, VP of Provider Growth and Success at Vim. "With engagement rates of over 90% on gap closure workflows for Medicare Advantage populations, we're seeing clear validation of the appetite for in-workflow support that's easy to implement and saves care teams time and effort."

Testimonials from leadership at two provider organizations speak to the power of Vim's EHR-integrated provider enablement platform:

"Vim's platform has been a tremendous addition to our value based care delivery and growth strategy. By engaging our providers directly in their existing EHR workflows, Vim allows us to streamline our processes and save our clinical and operational teams time. This in turn improves our accuracy and allows our providers to focus on the most important part of their day, caring for our patients," said Dillon Moore, CIO at MaxHealth.

Milan Vyas, SVP of Value-Based Care at MyCare Medical, added, "We surveyed the market extensively, and Vim has outperformed by far in terms of ease of deployment, ability to scale, and most importantly provider experience. Vim moves our quality and risk adjustment operations out of spreadsheets and connects our data bidirectionally exactly where it needs to be - in the EHR interface during visit workflows."

Technology advantages have been core to Vim's successful speed to market. "Vim technology is different in two primary ways," said Asaf David, co-founder and CTO at Vim. "First, our platform is scalable, in that we bring new organizations online in a matter of days and can add new capabilities and data sources over the air. Second, we can go deep into workflows beyond interoperability standards to dynamically surface the right data or application at the right time and automate repetitive manual work including writing information directly into charts. That's a powerful combination, and the result is that we can reduce reliance on individual portals, spreadsheets, and emails. As our core platform is EHR agnostic, we are adding compatibility and getting this into the hands of more and more organizations around the country."

Powered by partnerships with two of the three largest health plans in the country, multiple regional Blue Cross plans, and several large innovative risk-bearing delivery organization entities, Vim is poised to have its Vim Connect technology deployed across all 50 U.S. states and over 1,000 provider organizations before the end of 2022.

"I'm proud of the team and excited about the future for this platform," said Oron Afek, co-founder and CEO at Vim. "This accomplishment makes us the fastest growing point of care network in the country, and we have our team, our technology, and our incredible partners to thank for that."

About Vim

Founded in 2015, Vim connects data to workflow at health care's "last mile": within clinical operations at the point of patient care. Health plans, patients, and medical providers of every size  from independent practitioners to integrated delivery systems  use Vim software to connect data and care across the health system. Vim's mission is to power affordable, high quality health care through seamless connectivity. For more information, please visit getvim.com .

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Katlyn Nesvold, Amendola Communications for Vim

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SOURCE Vim
FinancialNewsMedia.com News Commentary

PALM BEACH, Fla., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Currency.com, in 2021, the price of Uranium reached the highest levels since 2014, driven by numerous external factors. As a key component of nuclear energy, investors continue to bet on increasing demand for uranium as the world looks towards alternative energies. Throughout the year, the uranium spot price rose from around $30 to $42.05 a pound, an increase just shy of 40%. According to Yellow Cake, a company listed on AIM that provides investors with exposure to uranium: "Primary production has consistently fallen below market demand for uranium over recent years and the primary supply deficit reached a new record in 2020." The supply deficit is predicted to continue, despite speculative interest in uranium driven by a strong nuclear energy push. The article discussed forecasts for 2022, 2025 and 2030. It said: "InvestingNews.com suggests: "Constrained supply in a sector that was already battling headwinds before the pandemic will likely lead to more uranium price upside in 2022." One analyst commenting on the uranium price forecast for 2022 suggested that the ore's price could head up to as high as $200, before a 50% retraction to the $100 mark. Another analyst has a more conservative estimate of $70 per pound. The 12-month uranium price forecast at Trading Economics is estimated to reach a value of $66.17. Uranium could continue its bullish run, according to Mining.com, partially due to an aggressive buying spree by the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, which increased its holdings by 10% throughout February 2022 alone." Active mining companies in the markets this week include Traction Uranium Corp. (OTCQB: TRCTF) (CSE: TRAC), FISSION URANIUM CORP. (OTCQX: FCUUF) (TSX: FCU), Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE: UUUU) (TSX: EFR), Uranium Energy Corp (NYSE: UEC), Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSE: URG) (TSX:URE).

It continued: "Despite a steadily increasing demand for uranium, supply could fall by 15% in 2025, according to the Financial Times, owing to a lack of investment in new mines. This disequilibrium could lead to an inflated price. However, as reported by Markets Insider, Morgan Stanley "is not yet convinced" that the uranium price forecast can sustain the momentum is has recently seen, making the uranium price forecast for 2025 unclear. Based on the costs of uranium deposits exploitation, Kryzia and Gawlik's research estimated a value of $97.30 for 2025, heading up to $107.70 in 2030."

Traction Uranium Corp. (OTCQB: TRCTF) (CSE: TRAC) BREAKING NEWS: Traction Uranium Expands Technical Research Team and Commences Summer Follow Up Program to Examine Radiation-Induced Quartz Degradation with Hearty Bay Core Samples - Traction Uranium Corp. (the "Company" or "Traction"), a mineral exploration issuer focusing on the development of discovery prospects in Canada, including its two flagship uranium projects in the world-renowned Athabasca Region, is pleased to welcome Ayetullah Tunc and Reza Deevsalar to Traction's research team under the guidance of Dr. Yuanming Pan (Technical Advisor to Traction see June 7, 2022 News Release) and commencement of the summer follow up program utilizing Dr. Yuanming Pan's innovative uranium vectoring technique he pioneered (see Traction July 6th, 2022 News Release).

Ayetullah Tunc is an M.Sc. student under the supervision of Dr. Yuanming Pan in Geological Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan. He is a dedicated exploration geologist and geologic mapper with a strong focus on unconformity-related uranium deposits in the Canadian Athabasca Basin, and phosphate-hosted uranium and thorium deposits, Turkey. Ayetullah's research focuses on using synchrotron X-ray techniques (XANES-XRF) and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) for investigating ore systems with applications in mineral exploration. Ayetullah has performed on-site monitoring of well drilling operations along with surveying and mapping the site layout along with the geologic features associated with uranium mineralization as a field and well-site geologist for the General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration, Turkey (2018-2019).

Reza Deevsalar earned his Ph.D degree in petrology and geochemistry of magmatic systems from the Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran in 2015. In addition to his academic activities in multiple fields, including petrology, geochemistry and isotope geochemistry of magmatic systems, gemology, and magmatic-geothermal systems, Reza has contributed to several mineral exploration programs across Iran (mainly on gold, copper, iron deposits, and associated ore minerals), as a field and exploration geologist from 2009-2017. The most interesting part of geology research to Reza is the application of state-of-the-art analytical techniques and innovative approaches in the production of new data to consolidate and support the underground and surficial geological datasets in the creation of effective mineral prospecting and exploration models. After 4.5 years of doing research in the fields of geochemistry, radiogenic isotopes, and geochronology (Sep 2017 - Mar 2021) at the University of the Ryukyus (Okinawa, Japan), Reza started working on synchrotron-based research projects and EPR-CL-assisted U-exploration with Dr. Yuanming Pan's research team at the UofS.

Lester Esteban, Chief Executive Officer, stated "We are pleased to welcome Dr. Yuanming Pan's research team to our group and are excited to integrate both Ayetullah and Reza into our summer follow up programs at both Hearty Bay and Lazy Edwards. Ayetullah and Reza will be joining Fission 3.0's team in mobilizing to Fond Du Lac this week to commence the summer follow up program executing Dr. Yuanming Pan's vectoring technique by systematically sampling drill cores from the Hearty Bay drill program we completed in April. Results from examining quartz degradation will allow our team to refine drill targets and improve accuracy by focusing our efforts in the right areas, therefore maximizing dollars in the ground for our investors." CONTINUED Read this full press release and more news for Traction Uranium at: https://www.financialnewsmedia.com/news-trac/

Other recent developments in the mining industry of note include:

FISSION URANIUM CORP. (OTCQX: FCUUF) (TSX: FCU) recently announced that it has entered into an engagement and communication agreement (the "Agreement") with the Buffalo River Dene Nation ("BRDN"). Fission's PLS project (the "Project") in the southwest Athabasca Basin region is within the BRDN's Ancestral Lands. Fission commenced an Environmental Assessment in December 2021 and is currently advancing through a Feasibility Study. The company intends to facilitate a comprehensive impact assessment of the project.

Fission wishes to build relationships and engage with Indigenous and local communities and to facilitate their involvement in the assessment of the project and its development. The Agreement formalizes a process for Fission and BRDN to meaningfully engage in respect of the PLS Project, and strengthens the positive, cooperative working relationship that has been established.

Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE: UUUU) (TSX: EFR), the leading uranium producer in the United States, recently announced the results of the election of directors at its annual meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") held virtually on May 25, 2022.

The ten (10) nominees proposed by management for election as directors were elected by the shareholders of the Company, through a combination of votes by proxy and electronic poll. About Energy Fuels : Energy Fuels is a leading U.S.-based uranium mining company, supplying U 3 O 8 to major nuclear utilities. Energy Fuels also produces vanadium from certain of its projects, as market conditions warrant, and is ramping up commercial-scale production of rare earth element ("REE") carbonate. Its corporate offices are in Lakewood, Colorado, near Denver, and all its assets and employees are in the United States. Energy Fuels holds three of America's key uranium production centers: the White Mesa Mill in Utah, the Nichols Ranch in-situ recovery ("ISR") Project in Wyoming, and the Alta Mesa ISR Project in Texas. The White Mesa Mill is the only conventional uranium mill operating in the U.S. today, has a licensed capacity of over 8 million pounds of U 3 O 8 per year, and has the ability to recycle alternate feed materials from third parties, to produce vanadium when market conditions warrant, and to produce REE carbonate from various uranium-bearing ores. Energy Fuels is also evaluating the potential to recover medical isotopes for use in targeted alpha therapy cancer treatments.

Uranium Energy Corp (NYSE: UEC) recently announced that it has filed a Technical Report Summary ("TRS") on EDGAR, disclosing mineral resources for the Company's Anderson Project in Arizona (the "Project").

As a U.S. domestic and domiciled company, UEC is now reporting all mineral resources in accordance with Item 1302 of Regulation S-K ("S-K 1300"); S-K 1300 was adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") to modernize mineral property disclosure requirements for mining registrants and to align U.S. disclosure requirements more closely for mineral properties with current industry and global regulatory standards; The mineral resource estimates set forth in this TRS have not previously been reported under the S-K 1300 format; and The Anderson Project is the largest uranium deposit in the State of Arizonaand ranks among the largest U.S. deposits in states that support uranium mining.

Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSE American: URG) (TSX: URE) has recently filed the Company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml and with Canadian securities authorities at www.sedar.com.

Ur-Energy CEO, John Cash said, "The first quarter of 2022 has been an exciting time for our industry with the long-term and spot uranium prices climbing dramatically in response to a growing recognition of nuclear energy's role in decarbonization, as evidenced by an increasing presence in the industry by financial players. Additionally, threats to the supply of uranium due to geopolitical uncertainty are beginning to overshadow the market. In response to rising uranium prices, and possible supply chain disruptions, we have continued and expanded our drilling and construction program to better position us to quickly ramp up low-cost production from our fully permitted Lost Creek Project when the market improves.

DISCLAIMER: FN Media Group LLC (FNM), which owns and operates FinancialNewsMedia.com and MarketNewsUpdates.com, is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNM is NOT affiliated in any manner with any company mentioned herein. FNM and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security. FNM's market updates, news alerts and corporate profiles are NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities. The material in this release is intended to be strictly informational and is NEVER to be construed or interpreted as research material. All readers are strongly urged to perform research and due diligence on their own and consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks. All material included herein is republished content and details which were previously disseminated by the companies mentioned in this release. FNM is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers. Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks. For current services performed FNM expects to be compensated forty five hundred dollars for news coverage of the current press releases issued by Traction Uranium Corp. by a non-affiliated third party. FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE.

This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and FNM undertakes no obligation to update such statements.



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VT Downing Small & Mid Cap Income Fund manager Josh McCathie says the performance of the fund has been pretty robust this year, considering it hasnt got exposure to the large energy companies that have done so well.

With the UK such a concentrated income market, he says the funds focus on small and mid-cap UK companies offers income investors diversification and also there's potential for hopefully better total return.

McCathie also talks about the other ways in which the fund stands out in the UK equity income funds sector, as well as the investment process that is used.
Royal Mail PLC (LSE:RMG) plans to overhaul its business by changing the name of its listed entity and potentially splitting its more profitable logistics division from its postal service.

The company said in a statement today that it will scrap the title of its public limited company, Royal Mail PLC, and change its longstanding moniker to International Distributions Services plc.

The move reflects its growing reliance on returns from Global Logistics Services, its Amsterdam-based logistics arm, which it bought in the late nineties and rebranded in the early noughties.

While the company said the move would not impact its two brands, the Royal Mail postal service and GLS, it said it is considering separating the two companies if the postal service fails to meet expectations.

In the event that significant operational change within Royal Mail in the UK is not achieved, the board will consider all options to protect the value and prospects of the group, including separation of the two companies, it said in a statement.

The company said its intention is to have clearer financial separation between the two businesses and appears to be seeking to consolidate its international platform.

Just how Royal Mail will achieve a separation with the postal service that once held a monopoly of the UK market and employs one in 175 British citizens remains to be seen.

It did not rule out a possible sale of the postal service, once its core business, after it posted a 92mln adjusted quarterly operating loss for the first quarter.

Analysts suspect that the company will continue to suffer the same old problems even after operating under a new name.

Laura Hoy, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: Royal Mails doing somewhat of an about-face with a new name to reflect increased focus on GLS, its international delivery business.

While this part makes up around a third of revenue, its responsible for two-thirds of operating profit, suggesting this could become somewhat of a life raft as the group struggles to stay afloat in choppy seas. However, it wont be enough to weather a Tsunami, in which case the groups mentioned its open to parting ways.

A split wouldnt necessarily make things any easier, according to Hoy, who said GLSa small fish in a big seacould find it difficult to compete on the international stage.

She said the distinct change in tone by Royal Mails management reflects its failure to gain union approval on this years cost-saving targets.

Royal Mail may continue to struggle for as long as its at odds with the union, she added.

Without backing from the unions, about 100mln of Royal Mails planned 350mln cost-savings plan is under pressure.

UBS analysts said in an analyst note today that the threat of a possible split could put pressure on the union but at the same time provides a valuation support for the shares.

We believe the market will likely take this announcement positively,

UBS said. Applying historical M&A multiples to GLS (high teens EV/EBIT) we calculate the current share price implies the value of the UK business is negative around -1bn.

Revenue at Royal Mail fell 11.5% in the first quarter, weaker than analysts expectations, while turnover at the logistics business increased by 7.8%.

UBS rated the company neutral on a price target of 280p.

Royal Mails shares were trading at about 278.6p by 11:43 today, after falling 2.25% this morning.
The Farnborough International Airshow returned at the start of this week after three years, with some of the biggest companies in the aircraft space dropping news.

Since its debut in 1948, the show is a trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries, and an opportunity for companies like Rolls-Royce and BAE to showcase their latest developments.

Heres a quick round of up who has said what in the first three days of the show.

Air India

Air India is said to be deciding on a US$50bn jet order under its new owners Tata Group, which is said to be split between Airbus and Boeing, although it is unlikely any deal will come to fruition during the 5-day long show.

According to Reuters, which cites industry sources, both plane makers are making a final push with their potential orders.

That includes 70 wide-boy jets, such as the Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s, as well 300 narrowbodies.

Rolls-Royce plans hydrogen fuelled planes

FTSE 100 jet engine maker Rolls-Royce said it will be using the Farnborough Airshow as an opportunity to test hydrogen fuelled engines.

Rolls-Royce said it is doing so to prove the fuel can safely and efficiently deliver power for small-to-mid-size aircraft from the mid-2030s onwards.

Combustion tests are already underway and the plan is to switch to ground testing shortly, according to the engineer.

Rolls-Royce is planning a comprehensive series of rig and engine tests to prove the fuel can safely and efficiently deliver power for small-mid size aircraft from the mid-2030s onwards.

It will run tests on its existing Pearl 15 jet engines which currently power Bombardier 16-seater business jets.

We are making real progress on the hard yards of research and development towards making Net Zero flight a reality, said Chris Cholerton, head of Rolls-Royce civil aviation.

Airbus and Boeing aerial refuelling

Back with Airbus and Boeing, the two announced on Tuesday that it is able to successfully conduct air-to-air refuelling.

Airbus said earlier in the day that its A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport was the first tanker to be certified to conduct automatic air-to-air refuelling boom operations in daylight.

The certification by the Spanish National Institute for Aerospace Technology supposedly came after a collaboration with the Republic of Singapore Air Force.

Later the same day, Boeing said its KC-46A Pegasus, which is the Air Forces newest refuelling tanker has carried out autonomous boom aerial refuelling capability during flight tests.

BAE Systems update on Tempest fighter jet

Now away from the commercial and towards the defence and BAE, with the UK announcing it will work be working with Japan to create the next generation of Tempest fighter jets.

The first demonstrator will be capable of supersonic flight and will fly by 2027 to test features such as stealth capability.

Tempest is currently being developed by BAE Systems, which features on the FTSE 100 alongside Italys Leonardo, while Rolls-Royce is building the engine.

Mondays announcement fell short of a full merger, but rather the UK, Italy and Japan will work together for a joint concept analysis.

Spending on defence has risen since Russias invasion of Ukraine from the UK, and a full partner on Tempest could see costs split between the two, which some analysts believe could be up to 25bn.
EQTEC has acquired, subject to final approval, a dormant 6.5 MWe waste-to-energy gasification plant in Villers-sous-Montrond, France.

The plant, once operational, will transform 45,000 tonnes of mixed waste wood and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) to export clean electricity to the national grid.

EQTEC added that it wants the plant to become its market development centre (MDC) for France and showcase its capabilities with variable feedstock, including a mixture of Grade A waste wood, Grade B waste wood and RDF.

The plant, which originally benefitted from 35mln of investment, is being acquired at a nominal value as an estimated 30mln of further investment is required to recommission the plant using EQTEC's technology.

Letters of Intent from institutional infrastructure investors have been received for the project and construction is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2023.

French quarrying group Bonnefoy originally developed the plant on the site, which is near the Franco-Swiss border, but it was never fully commissioned with the previous SPV going bust.

Once operational using EQTEC technology, the plant is expected to generate in excess of 10mln in annual revenues.

David Palumbo, CEO, said: "As expected, France is proving to be a very receptive market for EQTEC technology solutions.

We earlier this year announced our partnership with SEPS for clean conversion of contaminated plastics into a variety of valuable offtake applications and now we are pleased to announce the France MDC.

This project is special because it will demonstrate EQTEC's capabilities with mixed feedstock, including waste wood and RDF together.

Shares in EQTEC eased 1%.
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Australia punches well above its weight when it comes to resources.

Even back in 2018, according to leading market researcher Statista, Australia rated second in the world for mineral production value; about $211 billion, behind only China ($272 billion) and ahead of the United States ($137 billion).

And it started early; while Australias mid-1800s gold rushes werent the first - gold has been mined by Indigenous cultures for millennia, and the first recognised rushes occurred in America - they were amongst the earliest in the 19th century and were prolific.

The rush for gold

Gold rushes in New South Wales and Victoria in 1851 were monumental, generating significant riches not only for those who found significant amounts of gold but also for the economies of the colonies.

The early gold rush started in NSW near the town of Bathurst, and although the gold proved hard to find, Australia and its hidden riches made the colonies world famous as news spread of vast fortunes being made, says Shaw and Partners director of Corporate Finance Davide Bosio.

This created a wave of immigration with people from many parts of the world making the arduous trek to Australia, to make their fortune.

Over this period, the early explorers had spread their sights on new territories and in 1851 the Victorian goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo were discovered.

These regional outposts are synonymous with Australias gold rush and retain the identification. Drive around Ballarat and youll see numerous references to the word Eureka - a reference to the Eureka Stockade, a rebellion of gold miners against the Victorian government, which took place in the town.

By the end of the decade, Australia was producing approximately 40% of the worlds gold, Bosio says.

From there, the gold rush continued to spread through the country and in 1892, a discovery was made in a small town called Coolgardie in Western Australia.

This sparked the WA gold rush and has led to Kalgoorlie still operating as a producing gold town and being renowned globally as one of the most lucrative and prospective gold mining regions in the world.

Mining development in WA and beyond

Though, as Bosio points out, the WA gold industry began to decline very early on in the 1900s, the economic development the gold rush brought was laying the foundations for a prosperous Australian mining future.

By the mid-20th century, iron ore would begin to dominate Australian exports, with a decision by the federal government to lift an embargo on the sale of iron ore outside Australia sparking a new wave.

This decision ultimately led to the second major resources boom in Australias history and created, what is today, the largest export industry in the country, Bosio says.

The opening of the iron ore market created an enormous opportunity in the Pilbara region of Western Australia as the extent of unmined, high-grade ore became apparent.

This led to a global rush of investment into Western Australia as the American, British and Japanese dominated the scene, looking to position themselves as key players in the growing global steel markets.

The global spotlight was on the west and with the attention came significant funding from groups looking for more than just iron ore. The rush from the 60s led to discoveries in nickel, petroleum, copper and bauxite as well as further success within the gold sector.

- Daniel Paproth
Blue Star Helium Ltd (ASX:BNL, OTC:BSNLF)s Sammons 315310C well pad in Colorado has been constructed and the well is expected to spud next week.

The company was informed by the Sammons Area of Mutual Interest (AMI) operator Vecta Oil & Gas of the development.

Sammons 315310C well is one of four approved helium wells within the AMI agreed between Blue Star (50%, non-operated interest), Prospero Oil and Gas LLC (25%, non-operated interest) and Vecta Oil & Gas Ltd (25%, operated interest).

Within the AMI is Blue Stars Serenity prospect, immediately southeast of its Galactica and Pegasus prospects where it recently announced three significant discoveries.

Read: Blue Star Helium higher on multiple discoveries at Galactica/Pegasus in Las Animas County, Colorado

COGCC hearing delayed

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) hearing to approve the applications for BNLs Oil and Gas Development Plans relating to the State 9, State 16, State 35 and State 36 helium wells at Galactica/Pegasus has been deferred by the COGCC from July 19, 2022, to August 10, 2022.

The State 9, State 16, State 35 and State 36 helium wells are four of a total of 29 helium exploration well locations at Galactica/Pegasus in the permitting pipeline.

These wells follow up Blue Stars recent discoveries in the JXSN#1, JXSN#2 and JXSN#3 wells at the Galactica/Pegasus prospects.
Venture Minerals Ltd (ASX:VMS, OTC:VTMLF) has just received some interesting news on their Thor JV with Chalice Mining Ltd (ASX:CHN, OTCQB:CGMLF).

Rooster Talk Episode 62 is with Venture Minerals managing director Andrew Radonjic.

The Thor JV has been one of the company's assets with an active exploration program. It is an important part of the portfolio of assets which is worked by Chalice Mining. We have had a Coffee with Samso that was dedicated to that topic (Julimar's Twin Brother - The Thor Project - Venture Minerals Limited (ASX: VMS) - Episode 83) as there is a lot of interest riding on what Chalice is doing in the project.

To me, the recent announcement that was published on 13th July has something that is very interesting. The area that they have identified is at a place where I thought was a jog or an area where some extension may have happened. This is fairly observant from the magnetic image where this distinct bend is.

Announcement: 13th July 2022

This is a very early stage target and I am not saying that there is an X on the ground to discover. What is nice to see is the coincidence with the geophysics. The subtle nature of the wording in the announcement is not consistent with my observation.

What I mean is that if they did not find anything geochemically at that spot, I would have been disappointed. I encourage viewers to watch and listen to Andrew Radonjic, Managing Director of Venture Minerals, as todays conversation has some good points for investors to consider with the "tough" times currently on the market.

Chapters

00:00 Start

00:20 Introduction

01:01 Andrew updates.

02:55 The Two Targets.

07:26 Maybe Chalice has found the sweet spot.

12:05 The Western Yilgarn margin.

14:16 Factors that create mineral exploration discoveries.

19:48 Market and Exploration Expectations.

20:36 Other Venture projects.

24:24 The need to understand market sentiment and mineral exploration.

26:40 The need for investors to play the patience game.

27:37 Andrews last words.

29:05 Conclusions

PODCAST

About Andrew Radonjic

Qualifications: BAppSc (Mining Geology), MSc (Mineral Economics), MAus/MM

Mr. Radonjic is a geologist and mineral economist with over 30 years of experience in mining and exploration, with an initial focus on gold and nickel in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Andrew has fulfilled a variety of senior roles which gave rise to three gold discoveries, totalling in excess of 3 million ounces in resources and resulting in 1.5 million ounces being produced. Since 2006 Andrew has been an executive director with Venture Minerals, which he has been co-leading during the discovery of the Mount Lindsay Tin-Tungsten deposit. Andrew is a founder and recently was a director of Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX: BSX).

About Venture Minerals Limited

Venture Minerals Ltd (ASX:VMS, OTC:VTMLF) (ASX: VMS) has refocused its approach to developing the Mount Lindsay Tin-Tungsten Project in northwest Tasmania, already one of the world's largest undeveloped Tin-Tungsten deposits. With higher Tin prices and the recognition of Tin as a fundamental metal to the battery revolution, Venture has commenced an Underground Feasibility Study on Mount Lindsay that will leverage off the previously spent +$35m on completing the open-pit feasibility work.

At the neighbouring Riley Iron Ore Mine, the company moved from a highly successful explorer to producer with completion of the first shipment. In Western Australia, Chalice Mining (ASX: CHN) recently committed to spend up to $3.7m in Ventures South West Project, to advance previous exploration completed by Venture to test the priority 20 km long Thor target, with drilling having commenced.

At the Companys Golden Grove North Project, it has already intersected up to 7% Zinc, 1.3% Copper and 2.1g/t Gold at Orcus and has identified several, strong EM conductors to be drill tested along the 5km long VMS (Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide) Target Zone, along strike to the world class Golden Grove Zinc-Copper-Gold Mine.

Venture recently doubled the Nickel-Copper-PGE landholding at Kulin by securing two highly prospective 20-kilometre long Ni-Cu-PGE targets.

Please let Samso know your thoughts and send any comments to info@Samso.com.au. Remember to Subscribe to the YouTube Channel, Samso Media and the mail list to stay informed and make comments where appropriate. Other than that, also feel free to provide a Review on Google.

For further information about Coffee with Samso and Rooster Talks visit: www.samso.com.au

About

Samso is a renowned resource among the investment community for keen market analysis and insights into the companies and business trends that matter.

Investors seek out Samso for knowledgeable evaluations of current industry developments across a variety of business sectors and considered forecasts of future performances.

With a compelling format of relaxed online video interviews, Samso provides clear answers to questions they may not have the opportunity to ask and lays out the big picture to help them complete their investment research.

And in doing so, Samso also enables companies featured in interviews to build valuable engagement with their investment communities and customers.

Headed by industry veteran Noel Ong and based in Perth, Western Australia, Samsos Coffee with Samso and Rooster Talk interviews both feature friendly conversations with business figures that give insights into Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) companies, related concepts and industry trends.

Noel Ong is a geologist with nearly 30 years of industry experience and a strong background in capital markets, corporate finance and the mineral resource sector. He was founder and managing director of ASX-listed company Siburan Resources Limited from 2009-2017 and has also been involved in several other ASX listings, providing advice, procuring projects and helping to raise capital.

He brings all this experience and expertise to the Samso interviews, where his engaging conversation style creates a relaxed dialogue, revealing insights that can pique investor interest.

Noel Ong travels across Australia to record the interviews, only requiring a coffee shop environment where they can be set up. The interviews are posted on Samsos website and podcasts, YouTube and other relevant online environments where they can be shared among investment communities.

Samso also has a track record of developing successful business concepts in the Australasia region and provides bespoke research and counsel to businesses seeking to raise capital and procuring projects for ASX listings.

Disclaimer

The information contained in this article is the writers personal opinion and is provided for information only and is not intended to or nor will it create/induce the creation of any binding legal relations. Read full disclaimer.
Duncan Wallace, technical director of Chariot Limited joins Proactive London to talk about the independent assessment of its gas resources offshore Morocco.

This incorporates the results of the recently drilled Anchois-2 appraisal and exploration well.

The assessment was carried out by Netherland Sewell & Associates on Anchois and further selected exploration prospects in the Lixus offshore licence and the adjacent Rissana offshore licence with material resource upgrades seen across the portfolio.
Chariot Ltd (AIM:CHAR, OTC:OIGLF) has announced a material increase in its gas resources offshore Morocco, validating its decision to fast-track its field development plans for the Anchois gas project.

Oil & Gas consultant Netherland Sewell & Associates has reviewed the project and upgraded the resource estimates for the Anchois field along with other areas of the Lixus offshore licence and the adjacent Rissana acreage.

Anchois sees an 81% rise in high confidence 1C contingent resources to 365bn cubic feet from 201bn and a 76% rise in 2C contingent resources to 637bn cubic feet, whilst prospective resources covering three undrilled targets at Anchois have been estimated at some 754bn cubic feet.

The fields estimated total remaining recoverable resource now stands at 1.4 trillion cubic feet (Tcf).

Duncan Wallace, Chariot technical director, told investors that the company is fully focused on bringing Anchois into production as quickly as possible.

We are committed to realising the value of this gas field as well as continuing to prove up the significant scope of our wider resource base from the Moroccan portfolio."

Wallace added: This independent assessment report confirms that following the drilling of Anchois-2, we have a growing resource base from which we can fast track our gas development towards material cashflows and provide gas to meet Morocco's growing energy demand.

These resource upgrades across our Moroccan portfolio are a significant step forward.

As well as confirming the increased scale of our discovery at Anchois, this independent assessment has also corroborated the multi Tcf opportunity that sits within the basin in our Moroccan licences and served to de-risk a number of high potential future targets in Lixus.

The untested exploration potential across the other Lixus areas was estimated at around 4.6 Tcf, whilst Rissana was deemed to host more than 7 Tcf of prospective resources in untested targets.
Moudachirou-Rebois has an MBA and is senior vice-president and global chief marketing officer at MAC Cosmetics

The Valens Company (TSX:VLNS, OTCQX:VLNCF) Inc has announced that Aida Moudachirou-Rebois, senior vice-president and global chief marketing officer at MAC Cosmetics, intends to stand for election to the companys board of directors at its annual shareholders' meeting on August 2, 2022.

The company noted that Moudachirou-Rebois has extensive experience leading and developing global brands at major multinational corporations, where she has proven adept at building and sustaining both revenue and profit growth through innovation, new product categories, and defining consumer experiences.

"We couldn't be more delighted to put forward Ms. Moudachirou-Rebois as a director nominee for our board of directors. Her deep brand-building expertise, along with her product development and innovation experience align with the company's most critical priorities today, Valens CEO Tyler Robson said in a statement.

The nomination comes as Valens continues to strengthen its corporate governance policies to support its growth, including separating the chair and CEO roles and appointing an independent board chair, maintaining a majority independent board, and combining fresh perspectives, expertise, and capabilities that reflect the continued progression of the business.

If all nominees are elected, Valens said the board will consist of seven directors, two of whom are female, one of whom is racially diverse and another who self-identifies as LGBTQIA+.

Moudachirou-Rebois brings 20 years of international executive experience, with a focus on consumer-packaged goods and personal care brands including at L'Oreal, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and Revlon (NYSE:REV) Inc in Paris, London and New York.

At MAC Cosmetics, she is responsible for marketing, including product development and innovation, consumer education and brand communication.

Armed with an MBA from ESSEC in Cergy, France, she is an expert in brand-building, global and local brand management, new product development and consumer engagement with an emphasis on modern omnichannel marketing, Valens noted.

Valens CEO Robson is confident that Moudachirou-Rebois will support the companys strategies for its next phase of growth to become the leading global manufacturer of branded cannabis products.

"Ms. Moudachirou-Rebois' perspective and contributions will help us to strengthen and diversify the skillset of our incumbent board and deliver value for all stakeholders, he added.

A leading manufacturer of cannabis products, Valens provides proprietary cannabis processing services, in addition to best-in-class product development, manufacturing, and commercialization of cannabis consumer packaged goods.

The company's high-quality products are formulated for the medical, health and wellness, and recreational consumer segments, and are offered across all cannabis product categories.

It also manufactures, distributes, and sells a wide range of CBD products in the United States through its subsidiary Green Roads, and distributes medicinal cannabis products to Australia through its subsidiary Valens Australia.

Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com
Kwanika and the adjacent Stardust deposit are NorthWest's flagship assets and the 2022 Kwanika program includes holes designed to expand the known resource, add new high-grade zones and to test for new centres of mineralization regionally

NorthWest Copper (TSX-V:NWST) has welcomed the results of the first three holes from ongoing drilling at its Kwanika project in British Columbia, which, it said, have underscored the asset's potential.

All three holes hit "significant" copper-gold grades in the southern part of the deposit, expanding the mineralized footprint and increasing the confidence in the resource estimate.

Kwanika and the adjacent Stardust deposit are NorthWest's flagship assets and the 2022 Kwanika program includes holes designed to expand the known resource, add new high-grade zones and to test for new centres of mineralization regionally.

"These three holes are just the first piece of news from our exciting 2022 Kwanika drill program, where we have already completed 25 holes," Northwest Copper CEO Peter Bell told investors.

"Kwanika continues to deliver high-grades with multiple plus 1 percent copper equivalent intervals. We look forward to more positive drill results from all our projects as we continue to progress the 2022 program," he added.

Bell added that the firm continued to work with the Takla Lake First Nation and other communities of interest at Kwanika.

"Conducting our work in an environmentally and culturally responsible manner is important to NorthWest Copper's commitment to sustainability and reconciliation,"Bell said.

Highlight drill assays included an interval in one hole of 111.10 metres (m) at 0.51% copper and 0.15 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, or 0.63% copper-equivalent starting from 32.35m depth.

That interval included an intercept of 20m starting from 73.95m depth at 0.78% copper and 0.36 g/t gold, for 1.06% copper-equivalent.

NorthWest Copper said it is a new copper-gold explorer and developer with an exciting pipeline of projects in British Columbia.

Contact the writer at giles@proactiveinvestors.com
Highlight assays included one hole, which hit 2.22 grams per ton (g/t) gold over 25.7 metres (m) from 92.3m to 118m depth

Royal Fox Gold (TSX-V:FOXG) Inc has reported encouraging drill results from the northern part of the Arctic Fox zone at its Philibert project in Quebec, which, it says, will further add "significant" near-surface gold ounces to the resource.

The company has released results from eight holes, which tested the northern hanging wall contact of the Arctic Fox Zone over a 400 metre (m) strike length and up to 150m vertical depth.

Three of the best holes sit along a 150m strike length, highlighting the consistency of gold grade and widths of the Arctic Fox Zone, the company said.

"Combined with the recently released results from the southern portion, the Arctic Fox zone continues to demonstrate continuity and consistency just like the overall deposit, and add significant near-surface gold ounces, which are paramount factors as we aim to achieve strong potential economics in the future," said Simon Marcotte, the CEO of Royal Fox, in a statement.

Highlight assays included one hole, which hit 2.22 grams per ton (g/t) gold over 25.7 metres (m) from 92.3m to 118m depth. That included an intercept of 5.7m grading 6.02 g/t gold from 92.3m to 98m depth.

Another hole returned 1.75 g/t gold over 4.7m from 12.3m to 17m depth, which included 7.30 g/t gold over 1m from 13m to 14m depth.

Royal Fox Gold is an explorer focused on the development of the Philibert project near Chibougamau, Quebec. The property lies 60 kilometres (km) southwest of Chibougamau and spans 5,393 hectares of highly prospective ground, 9 km from IAMGOLD's Nelligan gold project which was awarded the 'Discovery of the Year' by the Quebec Mineral Exploration Association (AEMQ) in 2019.

So far, over C$10 million (historical value) has been spent on the project and more than 60,000m of drilling completed.

Royal Fox aims to release a maiden NI 43-101 resource estimate which will incorporate results from both brownfield and greenfield exploration, combined with extensive historical data.

The project is owned by SOQUEM - a subsidiary of Investissement Quebec and Royal Fox is currently undergoing an ownership option process, details of which can be found in the corporate presentation available on the company's website HERE.

Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com
Audacious is a next-generation multi-state operator growing the cannabis industry of tomorrow from the ground up

Australis Capital Inc (CSE:AUSA, OTCQB:AUSAF) (AUSA), doing business as Audacious, said it has met key milestones towards obtaining a full adult-use cannabis license in the state of New Jersey.

To graduate from a provisional to a full adult-use state license, the company said it needed to secure an appropriate building and land, as well as municipal approval for the establishment of a cannabis business on the designated premises.

AUSA said it had entered into an agreement to lease a 105,000-square-foot cannabis grow facility in the municipality of Millville, New Jersey.

The company intends to construct an Achieve Series facility, which is an all-inclusive indoor facility with the industrys most efficient cannabis-proven LED lighting. The planned facility features a mother room, clone room, veg room, and flower rooms capable of producing 43,000-plus pounds of dry flower per year.

The company has also completed the submission of its application to the City of Millville for municipal approval for the establishment of a cannabis operation at the leased premises.

AUSA CEO Terry Booth said the company was confident that by meeting these milestones, it had added significant value.

While industry valuations have come down considerably in the past months, recent transactions have valued New Jersey licenses well above AUSA's current market cap, Booth said.

Audacious is a next-generation multi-state operator growing the cannabis industry of tomorrow from the ground up.

Contact the author Emily Jarvie at emily.jarvie@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow her on Twitter @emilyjjarvie
Jakarta, July 19 : Meta Platforms and Google on Tuesday agreed to abide by Indonesia's new rules for Big Tech which gives authorities the power to block social media applications and online sites.

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have signed up before the Wednesday deadline, according to government records.

The Indonesian authorities had warned to block Big Tech platforms in several days if they fail to register with the country's Ministry of Communications and Informatics.

The digital giants are given time until Wednesday to complete the registration for licensing. Otherwise, the ministry will name them illegal and unlawful in the country.

"We have warned all local and foreign tech companies, including online services, sites, and application providers, many times that they have to register if they do not want to risk being blocked. We have given them time since six months ago," the ministry's Director General for Information Applications Semuel Abrijani told reporters on Tuesday.

The registration is part of the country's new regulation starting from January 2022, saying all tech platforms must secure licenses to be able to operate.

The regulation will allow the authorities to order the platforms to take down any contents considered unlawful, inappropriate and "disturb public order", within four hours if deemed urgent, and 24 hours if not.

The Indonesian government is currently trying to reduce the spreading of misinformation and hoaxes, particularly ahead of the country's general election in 2024, reports Xinhua news agency.
New Delhi, July 19 : There has been a substantial decline in terrorist attacks in the country from 2018 to 2021, the parliament was told on Tuesday.

Replying no to DMK leader A. Ganeshamurthi's question whether the incidents of terror attacks are rising in the country, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha, in a written reply, that "situation has improved significantly in Jammu and Kashmir and that there has been a substantial decline in terrorist attacks from 417 in 2018 to 229 in 2021".

Noting that combating terrorism is a continuous process, he said that the government has taken various steps in this regard including strengthening of the legal framework, streamlining of intelligence mechanism, setting up of National Investigation Agency (NIA) for investigation and prosecution of terror-related cases, having various hubs of National Security Guard (NSG), stepping up the border and coastal security, and modernisation and capacity building of state police forces.

"Due to concerted and coordinated efforts of all the stakeholders, terrorism-related violence has been contained to a large extent in the country," he said.

The minister also said that 244 terrorist incidents happened in Jammu and Kashmir in 2020 while the number decreased to 229 in 2021.

Rai said the government has a policy of "zero tolerance against terrorism and the security situation has improved significantly in Jammu and Kashmir".

Asked when the situation in Jammu and Kashmir would be brought to normal so that democratic process can be started, Rai said the Central government has taken various measures to normalise the situation in the Kashmir Valley.

"These include a robust security and intelligence grid, proactive operations against terrorists, intensified night patrolling and checking at Nakas, security arrangements through appropriate deployment and high level of alertness maintained by the security forces," he said.
New Delhi, July 20 : India is committed towards enhancing capacity building and skill development among African youth, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

"We are committed to enhancing capacity building and skill development among African youth. In this context, you would recall that we had announced 50,000 scholarships during IAFS-III in 2015, out of which more than 32,000 scholarship slots have already been utilised," the minister said while addressing the 17th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Growth Partnership.

The Minister noted that it is a matter of pride for India that several high ranking leaders, ministers, officials from Africa have studied in Indian universities and other institutions. Apart from these, a number of students and officials from Africa have also been trained under the ITEC programme.

"To provide high quality virtual education and medical services to our partners, the e-VidyaBharti and e-ArogyaBharti networks were launched in 2019 for tele-education and tele-medicine respectively," Jaishankar said, adding that under these initiatives, youth from 19 African countries have enrolled for various degree and diploma courses.

"India has helped African countries to promote digital transformation through setting-up of IT Centres, Science and Technology Parks, and Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDC)." "I think there is ample scope in the sphere of technology, and with our emphasis on trust and transparency, India and Africa make natural partners," the minister asserted.
New Delhi, July 20 : The government on Tuesday told the Lok sabha that a total of 13.34 lakh electric vehicles are in use across the country.

"India has a total of 13.34 lakh electric vehicles while the number of non-electric vehicles stood at 27.81 crore," Minister of State for Heavy Industries Krishan Pal Gurjar told the House in a written reply to a question.

He said that the Centre is taking a number of steps to promote use of electric vehicles in India. The minister, in his reply, said that the government introduced the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) scheme in 2015 with an aim to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and address issues of vehicular emissions.

At present, Phase-II of FAME India Scheme is being implemented for a period of 5 years with effect from April 1, 2019 with a total budgetary support of Rs 10,000 crore, he added.

The government approved a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for manufacturing of Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) in the country in order to bring down prices of battery in the country.

As per the report submitted by the minister, Delhi has highest number of electric vehicles with 1,56,393 vehicles, followed by Maharashtra with 1,16,646 electric vehicles.
Jerusalem, July 20 : Israel has warned Lebanon that actions by Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based armed group and party, can spark a regional escalation.

"Israel is prepared to act against any threat," Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said during a tour at the Lebanese border on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement issued by the Prime Minister's office.

Lapid and Defence Minister Benny Gantz took the tour a day after the Israeli army intercepted what it said was a drone sent by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group that crossed into the country from Lebanon.

"We do not seek confrontation but whoever tries to attack our sovereignty or Israeli citizens -- will learn very quickly that they have made a serious mistake," Lapid said.

Gantz warned that Israel is "prepared in all areas -- land, sea, air and cyber," if attempts by Iran or its allies will continue.

"We see the crisis in Lebanon, which is hurting its citizens," he said. "Lebanon and its leaders know very well that if they choose the path of confrontation -- they will be hurt and get burned severely. If they choose the path of stability -- they will be helping the Lebanese people," he said.

Hezbollah has sporadically sent drones into Israeli airspace, defining them as reconnaissance missions.
Khartoum, July 20 : The death toll from the tribal clashes in Sudan's southeastern Blue Nile State has climbed to 105, the state's health authorities has announced.

"Since the beginning of the bloody events in the region, 105 people have been killed and 225 others injured," Omer Adam Omer, head of the Health Emergency and Epidemic Control Directorate at the Blue Nile state's Health Ministry, said in a statement on Tuesday.

He said that 20 of the injured people, who were in critical condition, have been transferred to the capital Khartoum for treatment, adding that the clashes have also displaced 8,470 people, Xinhua news agency reported.

Clashes broke out recently between the Hausa and Berta tribes in many areas in the Blue Nile State following the killing of a farmer in the state's Gisan area.

The violence then extended to other regions of the state, leaving dozens of deaths and injuries and forcing thousands of residents to flee their homes.
Chester-le-street : , July 20 (IANS) South Africa piled more misery on the embattled England white-ball side, thrashing the hosts by 62 runs in the opening One-day International at Chester-le-Street, in a match which was all-rounder Ben Stokes' last outing in the 50-over game.

It would have been the perfect gift for Stokes, who played his last ODI for the country on Wednesday night, but South Africa's Rassie van der Dussen spoilt England's party with a composed century, shorn of extravagant sixes, as the visitors scored a mammoth 333/5 in 50 overs.

Proteas pace bowler Anrich Nortje then came out firing on all cylinders, finishing with figures of 4/53 as the Keshav Maharaj-led side dismissed England for 271 in 46.5 overs to complete a 62-run win.

England's defeat comes on the back of T20I and ODI series losses to India recently.

South Africa, despite losing Quinton de Kock early on, made a steady start with Janneman Malan and Van der Dussen putting together a century partnership for the second wicket.

Van der Dussen took on the role of aggressor in the partnership as Malan held up one end. The partnership set the stage for the visitors to dominate the latter half of the innings. But before Malan could make his good start count, he fell for 57, trying to clear deep mid-wicket against Moeen Ali.

Aiden Markram carried on from where Malan left off while van der Dussen pressed ahead in stifling heat at the venue. England's attempt to slow down the run rate with spin didn't work with Markram and van der Dussen smashing the three home team spinners for runs.

Van der Dussen completed his third ODI hundred in the 38th over and Markram followed suit in the next over by getting to the half-century mark. At 244/2 after 40 overs, South Africa appeared well on course for a 350-run total.

But the visitors fell short of the mark as England turned to spin to restrict the big hitters. Van der Dussen and Markram struggled to time the ball with the latter soon holing out to a Jonny Bairstow off Liam Livingstone to be dismissed for 77. Livingstone put more pressure on the Proteas batting when he had van der Dussen dismissed for 133, dismissed by a flatter delivery.

Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow put on a century stand to begin England's run-chase, but it wasn't an easy task chasing 333. Bairstow compiled a half-century before Roy fell for 43, with skipper Keshav Maharaj sending back the opener.

South Africa turned to part-time off-spinner Markram around mid-innings and the move reaped rewards immediately. Bairstow was trapped in front while attempting a sweep shot off Markram and South Africa had the much-needed breakthrough. Markram struck again two overs later, dismissing Ben Stokes, playing his final ODI, for five.

Brief scores: South Africa 333/5 in 50 overs (Janneman Malan 57, Rassie van der Dussen 134, Aiden Markram 77) beat England 271 in 46.5 overs (Jason Roy 43, Jonny Bairstow 63, Joe Root 86; Anrich Nortje 4/53, Tabraiz Shamsi 2/53, Aiden Markram 2/25) by 62 runs.
Sydney, July 20 : Authorities in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) are calling for stricter and more extensive biosecurity measures to protect its livestock industry from the imminent threat of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

NSW minister for agriculture Dugald Saunders said he would propose the urgent development of mandatory electronic identification tags for sheep and goats during a meeting with all Australian agriculture ministers on Wednesday afternoon.

FMD, which attacks cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs, goats and sheep, is now in the neighbouring nation of Indonesia, raising the likelihood of the infectious virus entering Australia for the first time in more than 130 years, Xinhua news agency reported.

Saunders estimated an outbreak of the crippling disease could potentially cost the national economy 80 billion Australian dollars (about 55.2 billion US dollars) and "send shockwaves through regional communities for years to come." "Individual traceability for sheep and goats will be crucial during an emergency disease outbreak and deliver benefits across the supply chain," he said.

All Australian cattle already have ear tags, but millions of sheep and goats do not, which means that a quickly spreading outbreak among those animals would be harder to trace.

Saunders warned that a national tagging system for sheep and goats would take time to implement, so it is important to start the conversation.

NSW has the nation's largest number of sheep with more than 21 million, while Victoria has 17 million and Western Australia (WA) has 14 million, according to a report on Tuesday from the national broadcaster ABC.

Describing the tagging proposal, Saunders said the NSW government would work with farmers and livestock industry representatives to develop a practical system that works for them.

The scheme has already been endorsed by Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Patrick Hutchinson who said the agricultural industry needed to support such a national program to prevent the spread of exotic livestock diseases.

"To make sure the entire country is prepared for an outbreak like FMD, we need to act now to start the process of developing a national electronic identification system for sheep and goats," Hutchinson said
Bengaluru, July 20 : The Karnataka government has decided to celebrate the signature festival of the state, Dasara, also called as 'nada habba' (festival of the land) in the historical town Mysuru on a grand scale this year.

Dasara has been a simple affair over the last two years due to Covid-19 pandemic. The state government has accepted the popular view to make the Dasara festival a grand celebration this year. The festival attracts global tourists and people from across the country.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the State government has decided to create the 'Mysuru Dasara' brand and go for an international publicity campaign to make it a major global event.

The Commissioner of Information and Public Relations department has been instructed to hold publicity campaigns in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai airports.

The Navarathri Dasara will start on October 26. Nandi Dhwaja Puja, Pushparchane and other traditional rituals would be performed on October 5, Vijayadashami. 'Gaja Paya', the return of the Dasara Elephants to their habitat would be on October 7 and 8.

The government order on Mysuru Tourism Circuit would be issued within a week. Tourism promotion programmes would be formulated by the Tourism department in association with private players. The circuit would include Beluru, Halebidu and other places.

All inclusive single ticket packages covering travel, accommodation and other aspects would be introduced. An exclusive website too is being developed for the purpose. This would complement the initiatives for Mysuru Dasara, according to an official release by the government.

The government has also decided that the Mysuru Dasara emblem should be published in all government advertisements, notifications and social media platforms.

Many traditional rituals and practices associated with this state festival like 'Gaja Payana' would be revived. This would draw greater participation of the rural masses, CM Bommai said.

It has been decided to inaugurate the Dasara Exhibition ahead of the festival this year. A grant of Rs 1 crore each has been provided for Dasara Celebrations at Srirangapatna and Chamarajnagar.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 20 : Under fire over his objectionable utterances against opposition MLA K.K. Rema of the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), veteran CPI-M legislator M.M. Mani on Wednesday tendered an apology and withdrew the remarks in the Assembly.

The Congress-led UDF had taken a strong objection to it in the floor of the House.

The former state minister withdrew the remark after Speaker M.B.Rajesh denounced it.

"As a Communist, I should not have made this remark and I withdraw it," said Mani as he apologised for his insensitive comments.

Rema expressed her happiness at the veteran leader withdrawing the remark.

Incidentally, after making this remark on July 14, Mani stuck to it for next two days and staunchly defended it.

Rema, who won the election with the support of the Congress-led UDF, is the widow of former CPI-M leader Chandrasekheran, who was brutally murdered by a group of attackers near his house in Kozhikode in 2012.

Chandrasekheran had left the party in 2008 and formed his own party, the Revolutionary Marxist Party.

Eleven people, including three local CPI-M leaders, were sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the killing.

Even after the brutal murder of her husband with the alleged knowledge of the CPI-M top brass, Vijayan had called him a 'renegade', a remark that had come under huge attack from numerous quarters.

On Saturday, Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan said it's Vijayan who is supporting Mani.

"Vijayan's continued anger towards Chandrashekeran is becoming more visible and he just cannot tolerate Rema. But we, the Congress-led UDF, will strongly support Rema and will always be there for her," he said.

Notably, last Thursday during an argument, the former State Minister had slammed Rema. In a fit of rage he went to the extent of saying that it was her fate that she became a widow and that the CPI-M or the Left had no role in it.

He came under criticism following the incident.
Amaravati, July 20 : The government of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday formally launched the work for development of Ramayampet Port in Nellore district.

Chief Minister Jagan Reddy laid the foundation stone for the project which is expected to be a boon for overall economic development of the state, especially Nellore and Prakasam districts.

The project, which is estimated to cost Rs 11,000 crore, will be completed in three phases.

The state government will be building the port with its own resources to generate more revenue.

The government has set a target of completing first phase at a cost of Rs 3,736 crore in 36 months.

Four berths will be developed under the first phase. The government expects once completed the port will handle 25 million tonnes a year.

The Nellore district administration has acquired 803 acres of land and handed it over to the Andhra Pradesh Maritime Board (APMB).

Addressing the evacuees, the chief minister said the project would boost economic activity in the state.

He said the port would provide direct employment to thousands of people and indirect employment to lakhs.

He thanked the villagers who came forward to give land and the banks which provided loans. He assured the local people that 75 per cent of the jobs in the port will be given to them.

The chief minister said in addition to the six existing ports in the state, four new ports were being developed. He said nine shipping harbours were also being developed.

The Then chief minister Chandrababu Naidu had also laid the stone for the port on January 9, 2019.

Jagan Mohan Reddy said that Chandrababu Naidu did nothing for five years but laid foundation stone for the port just before elections without any approvals.

Though the setting up of a port at Dugarajapatnam was part of the AP Re-organisation Act, the proposal was put off following objections raised by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

SRO cited security issues because of the proximity of the Spaceport close to Sriharikota, as also ecological issues related to the Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary and Pulicat Lake. NITI Aayog felt that Dugarajapatnam was not viable technically and economically and advised the state to suggest an alternative place.

The YSR Congress government opted for Ramayapatanam and formed an SPV to construct a non-major port in February 2020.

Ramayampet port is coming up not far from Krishnapatnam Port, which is already overcrowded with cargo.

Krishnapatnam Port was last year taken over by Adani Group from Navayuga Engineering Company (NEC).
Colombo, July 20 : Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was elected as the new president of Sri Lanka in an election held in parliament on Wednesday, called on all legislators, including the opposition parliamentarians, to unite and work together with him to pull the country out of the current economic crisis.

Addressing the Parliament after winning the election, Wickremesinghe said, "We are at a critical juncture. There is an economic crisis and the youth want a system change. People want all parliamentarians to come together." "I also want to swear in as president at the parliamentary complex," Xinhua news agency reported quoted him as saying.

Wickremesinghe got 134 votes from parliamentarians in a secret ballot that took place in parliament.

Out of 225 parliamentarians, 223 voted in the ballot and there were four invalid votes.

Another two candidates -- Podujana Peramuna Dullas Alahapperuma, and National People's Power leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake -- got 82 votes and three votes, respectively.

"Regardless of who won, we must ensure that the necessary economic and political changes that people want are met. Overcoming the crisis should be the first and foremost task of parliamentarians," said Alahapperuma.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned from the post of president last week following massive protests amid a severe economic crisis in the South Asian country.

Following his resignation, Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced that Wickremesinghe, who was the prime minister then, was appointed acting president.
New Delhi, July 20 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday stayed the new guidelines of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) restraining restaurants from adding a service charge by default to food bills.

While hearing the plea of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI)challenging the newly issued guidelines, Justice Yashwant Varma remarked: "Don't pay. Don't enter the restaurant. It's a matter of choice." Granting the stay, the Court has also directed that the information regarding levy of Service Charge should be displayed on menu cards and also otherwise displayed so that customer is aware of this charge.

Importantly, the Court also clarified that the Service Charge cannot be levied on any takeaway orders. NRAI is very relieved with the passing of this order because it otherwise had a direct adverse impact on the human capital employed in the trade.

In its response to the verdict, the NRAI said it has always been steadfast in its assertion that there is nothing illegal in levying of Service Charge and it is a very transparent system.

"We are very glad that the Delhi High Court has upheld and confirmed this view. As a responsible Restaurant Body, NRAI will soon send out advisories to all its Members about the conditions spelled out by the Hon'ble Delhi High Court and will urge all Members to comply with them in totality," it said in a statement.

The plea of the NRAI before the court said: "In the absence of due authentication and promulgation of the guidelines, the contents thereof cannot be treated as an order of the government".

"The levying of service charge is a matter of contract and decision of the management. The levying of service charge is displayed at various places in the restaurant. The same is also displayed on the menu cards of the restaurants. Once the customer places the order after being made aware of the terms and conditions there comes into existence a binding contract. No authority can interfere with the binding nature of a valid contract until and unless it is shown and proved to be unconscionable or is an unfair trade practice," it stated.

"The levying of service charge is a universally accepted trade practice. Service charge is being levied in various countries like the UK, Singapore, Japan, and the US with varying percentages between 8 per cent and 12.5 per cent. In the UK, accounting and distribution of service charge is also done through an independent agency through a system called Tronc," it said further.

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), which comes under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, has issued guidelines for preventing unfair trade practices and violation of consumer rights with regard to the hotels and restaurants levying service charge, stating that the consumer may lodge a complaint with the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) against such practice.

The CCPA said that the consumer may make a request to the concerned hotel or restaurant to remove service charge from the bill amount. The consumer may also file a complaint against unfair trade practices with the Consumer Commission.
Mumbai, July 20 : Veteran actor Anupam Kher recently saw R. Madhavan's directorial debut 'Rocketry: The Nambi Effect' and he seems to be mightily impressed. Anupam took to Twitter with a video where he shared his thoughts after watching the film.

The 'Special 26' actor said every Indian should apologise to rocket scientist Nambi Narayanan, who was once wrongly accused of espionage. R Madhavan, who has directed the film, also portrays the lead character of the former aerospace engineer.

Sharing the video on Twitter, Anupam wrote, "Watched @ActorMadhavan's #RocketryTheFilm based on @NambiNOfficial's life. OUTSTANDING! MOVING!!INSPIRATIONAL! Cried my heart out. Every Indian should watch it! And say sorry to #NambiNarayanan sir. That is how we can correct some wrongs done in the past. Bravo dear #Madhavan!" Anupam can be heard saying in the video that he felt both sad and proud on watching the compassion with which R Madhavan portrayed the character. "It is certainly one of the best films that I have seen of late," he said. He also complimented the choice of dialogues and the casting.

Praising Madhavan's performance, the senior actor said, "Your performance is world class, you are phenomenal." The actor urged the youth to watch the film, calling it highly inspirational and encouraging.
New Delhi, July 20 : Delhi metro, which began its operations in the year 2002, has not yet constituted Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA).

Similarly, Gujarat (Surat Ametro), Mumbai, Jaipur and Gurugram (Rapid metro) have also not constituted UMTA so far.

State Governments are required to constitute Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) as a statutory body which would be responsible for preparation of the Comprehensive Mobility Plan for the city.

A Parliamentary standing committee has expressed its displeasure that despite a lapse of more than four years, out of 12 states where Metro rail net work has either commenced or is under construction, six states are yet to constitute UMTA, including NCT of Delhi, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

The Committee recommended the Ministry to take up and encourage setting up of UMTA in the states where its supported metro networks are, either operational or under construction, without any further delay.

The Metro Rail Policy, 2017 provide for an integrated approach in planning and management of urban transport wherein the State Governments are required to constitute Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) as a statutory body which would be responsible for preparation of Comprehensive Mobility Plan for the city, organise investments in urban transport infrastructure, establish effective coordination among various urban transport agencies, manage the Urban Transport Fund (UTF), etc.

The Committee further noted that for all metro rail projects taken up with central assistance it will be mandatory for the State Governments to give commitment to set up and operationalise UMTA in the city within a year and the cities where metro projects are already under implementation, UMTA should be constituted within a year.

The Committee has been apprised that UMTA has been constituted in Bengaluru, Kochi, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kanpur and Agra cities. On the other hand, UMTA for Patna, Bhopal, Indore and Nagpur metros are under process.
Baghdad, July 20 : Six police officers were killed and as many wounded in an attack by militants of the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq's Salahudin Province, north of Baghdad.

The attack took place late Tuesday night when IS militants attacked a base of the federal police in the Mteibijah area in the eastern part of the province, sparking a fierce clash between the two sides, provincial police Captain Yousif al-Zaidi told Xinhua on Wednesday.

There were no immediate reports about casualties among the extremist militants who fled the scene after reinforcement troops arrived, al-Zaidi said.

The security situation in Iraq has been improving since the defeat of the IS in 2017. However, its remnants have since slipped into urban centres, deserts, and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against the security forces and civilians.
Islamabad, July 20 : After landslide victory in the bypolls to 20 constituencies of Pakistan's Punjab province and coming in a commanding position to regain the provincial government through the upcoming elections of the Chief Minister; Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has reiterated his demand for early general elections in the country, a demand rejected by the coalition ruling government under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) government, after detailed consultation with its coalition partners, has unanimously rejected Imran Khan's demand and decided that the general elections in the country would be held on their scheduled time, disposing off the political pressure being inserted by Imran Khan.

The decision was made during a joint meeting of the ruling parties and its coalition partners in Lahore.

"The government has decided that it would complete its tenure," said a source with knowledge of the outcome of the meeting.

It is pertinent to mention here that election for Punjab Chief Minister are to be held on July 22, where, as per statistics, PTI and its partner parties are leading in terms of votes, and are looking in a strong position to have their Chief Minister elected.

The majority was reached after PTI surprised everyone by its performance in the bypolls, in which, it secured at least 15 out of the 20 seats.

Imran Khan, after getting majority in Punjab seems to be in the driving seat in terms of forcing general elections in the country.

Imran Khan's party currently has government in Khyber Pukkhtunkhwa province, Gilgit Baltistan and Kashmir. And after securing the win in Punjab, Khan will be poised to opt for the option of dissolving all the assemblies and forcing the Shehbaz Sharif government to leave the office, bring in a caretaker setup for 90 days and have general elections in the country.

The ruling government, on the other hand, is working towards backdoor meeting with partners of PTI in Punjab and is working towards ensuring that PTI doesn't succeed in electing its Chief Minister and claim majority.

The government's decision to continue with the ruling is bound to attract more political chaos in the coming days as Imran Khan's popular narrative has made strong impression on the masses at large, who are not ready to accept what he calls, an imported government brought into power through a US-led foreign conspiracy.
New York, July 20 : Although Omicron sub-variants have evolved to evade antibody responses from the primary Covid vaccine series, a new laboratory study suggests existing booster doses may elicit sufficient immune protection against severe Covid-19 disease from the highly transmissible strain.

Omicron has greatly diverged from the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain. It consists of several sublineages, including BA.5, which is predicted to soon dominate globally by replacing other variants. The protective immunity generated by the primary vaccine series or prior infection has been severely blunted by Omicron sub-variants.

But a booster dose, regardless of the type of Covid vaccine, brings neutralising antibodies against all the Omicron sub-variants to appreciable levels, according to the findings published in the journal Science.

Researchers from the University of Washington first examined the functional impact of the mutations in the Omicron sub-variants spike proteins.

They found that the ability of the Omicron BA.5 spike to bind with its host receptor (ACE2) was more than 6 times stronger than the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain.

The researchers then evaluated, in human plasma samples, the neutralising activity, elicited by vaccines or by prior infection, against the various Omicron sub-variants. Some of the samples came from individuals who had Covid very early on in the pandemic before vaccines were available.

Only 5 of these 24 early-pandemic individuals had detectable neutralising activity in their plasma against any of the four Omicron sublineages tested. Even then, their response was very weak.

The team also evaluated the subvariant neutralising antibodies elicited by vaccines produced by Moderna, Pfizer, Novavax, Janssen, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, and Sputnik V vaccines. All vaccine primary series consisted of two doses, except for Janssen's vaccine which consisted of a single dose.

"Overall, the data underscores the magnitude of evasion of polyclonal plasma neutralising antibody responses for Omicron sublineages," the researchers said.

They added that there was "a subtle but consistently more marked effect for BA.1 and even more so for BA.4/5 compared to BA.2 and BA.2.12.1".

However, "the marked improvement in plasma neutralising activity for subjects that received a booster dose over those that did not highlights the importance of vaccine boosters for eliciting potent neutralising antibody responses against Omicron sublineages".

Thus, despite the high degree of Omicron subvariant immune escape, the team added booster doses with currently available vaccines will likely offer strong protection against severe disease.
London, July 20 : Describing the scenes at the London airport as 'disgrace and inhumane', actor Hugh Grant has said that he believes the UK "has the worst Home Secretary in British history." Passengers travelling through Heathrow Airport have complained of 'utter carnage' over recent days, with people having to queue for hours and the queue for security stretching 'outside the terminal', reports mirror.co.uk.

Reports have claimed that some travellers have been waiting for two hours at border control and to collect their baggage at the key London airport.

Taking to Twitter on Tuesday night, Grant seemingly revealed he was one of the many caught up in the travel chaos as he slammed current Home Secretary Priti Patel.

Sharing a picture of long queues at Heathrow Airport immigration, the actor wrote to his 8,11,110 followers, "Dear Visitors to the UK, I apologise for the way you are treated on arrival. Terminal 3 Heathrow just now was a disgrace and inhumane. I'm afraid we have the worst Home Secretary in British history." He expanded on his statement when a fellow Twitter user branded him a 'half wit actor' and claimed the long queues are the responsibility of private companies, not the government.

"It's a queue for immigration control. Which is staffed and run by the Home Office," Grant responded to his critic. "We're not allowed to call Brexiteers thick but it's a struggle sometimes." Grant has long been a critic of the current Conservative government and often uses his Twitter platform to share his political opinions.

In August 2019, the dad-of-three even branded Boris Johnson, 57, an 'over-promoted rubber bath toy', ahead of the Conservative Party winning a majority at the general election four months later.

In one of his more scathing attacks on the soon-to-be former Prime Minister, the 'About a Boy' actor warned the then-Conservative Party leader not to 'f**k with' his the next generation's future.

Earlier this month, it was revealed Grant was the man responsible for the Benny Hill theme music playing over a broadcast as Johnson resigned from his position outside 10 Downing Street.

Grant tweeted a message to political activist Steve Bray, who is known for his musical protests outside the House of Commons in Westminster, in order to make things happen on July 7.

'The Notting Hill' actor tweeted: "Morning @snb19692 Glad you have your speakers back. Do you by any chance have the Benny Hill music to hand?" Grant's request was granted, as Steve responded by tweeting a video of the song being played outside the Houses of Parliament.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 20 : In a setback for Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who also handles the home portfolio, a lower court here on Wednesday asked the authorities to file a case against LDF Convenor E.P. Jayarajan, the personal security officer of Vijayan and his personal assistant for the 'brawl' that took place onboard an IndiGo flight on June 13.

The court directed the police station near the airport here to register the case after a petition was filed by two Youth Congress workers, who are presently out on bail after they were arrested in an attempt to murder case for 'plotting' the protest against Vijayan onboard the IndiGo flight.

This directive comes a day after Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan demanded that a case be registered against Jayarajan, which was shot down by Vijayan.

This has come as a double blow to Vijayan after the police registered the arrest of two time former Congress legislator K.N. Sabarinadhan, but he secured bail a few hours later.

The case against Youth Congress vice president Sabarinadhan was that he interacted through the social media with the two Youth Congress workers who sloganeered inside the aircraft against Vijayan and the police registered a case under charges of attempt to murder.

The first blow to Vijayan came on Monday when the internal probe committee of IndiGo Airlines banned Jayarajan for three weeks and the protesters got only a two-week ban.

Jayarajan told the media that registering a case as asked by the court is a normal practise and nothing more needs to be seen into it.

"This is a conspiracy against the Chief Minister and the involvement of state Congress president K. Sudhakaran and Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan cannot be ruled out," said Jayarajan.
Washington, July 20 : Chinese President Xi Jinpings recent visit to Xinjiang signals a new emphasis on the assimilation of the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority group, who the US and other governments say are victims of an ongoing genocide, analysts said, as per media reports.

Xi's visit to Xinjiang was his second in eight years to the region, where Chinese authorities have detained up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in internment camps since 2017, RFA reported.

Locals have reportedly been subjected to severe human rights abuses, torture and forced labour, as well as the eradication of their linguistic, cultural and religious traditions in what the US and several Western parliaments have called genocide and crimes against humanity.

Chinese analyst Ma Ju said Xi went to Xinjiang in preparation for the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) 20th Congress in autumn, where Xi is likely to be reappointed for a third term as party general secretary, and the People's Congress convening next March.

"Xi Jinping's statements made after his visit to the region indicates that he will eradicate the remaining few and careful cultural figures after getting rid of the Uyghur elites," Ma told RFA, adding: "This is an eradication campaign. They will continue this eradication campaign just like getting rid of the civilization of other nations [non-Han peoples] in Chinese history." Rahima Mahmut, UK director of the World Uyghur Congress, said events such as the staged dancing of Uyghurs for Xi's visit was orchestrated for propaganda purposes.

"This happens quite often. It is the same not only for officials from the central government, but also for local officials. The Uyghur students and performers are forced to welcome such officials. The staged dancing of Uyghurs was meant to show the world that Uyghurs enjoy normal happy lives," she said.

But Mahmut also said it was "frightening" to see photos and videos of the Chinese president with mostly elderly Uyghurs around him, and young men nowhere to be seen, RFA reported.

"Where did the Uyghur young men go? The truth is most young Uyghur males have faced enforced disappearance. They are either in the camps or prisons. This is quite clear," she said.
Hyderabad, July 20 : The Telangana government has repeatedly requested the Centre to analyse the problem posed by backwater from Polavaram project being built by Andhra Pradesh across Godavari river, a senior official said on Wednesday.

However, the Centre has not responded to this request and other issues, Special Chief Secretary, Water Resources Rajat Kumar, said.

The official stated this a day after Transport Minister P. Ajay Kumar blamed height of the Polavaram project for recent floods in Godavari at Bhadrachalam and other parts of Telangana's Bhadradri Kothagudem district.

Rajat Kumar said backwaters from Polavaram not only damage crops but also posed a threat to historic places and to inundate Bhadrachalam and adjoining areas.

The official said construction of Polavaram will submerge one lakh acres of land.

Ajay Kumar's demand to lower the height of Polavaram dam and hand over seven mandals back to Telangana which were merged with Andhra Pradesh in 2014 had evoked strong reaction from Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Rajat Kumar also dismissed criticism from some quarters over the damage caused to Kaleshwaram project from recent floods. He told reporters that the project was built after taking approvals from 18 departments in the Central Water Commission.

He also stated that the data from the India Meteorological Department and the European Satellite Agency did not help in anticipating the intensity of the rains.

The official said due to heavy rains and floods Kaleshwaram project suffered a loss of Rs 20-25 crore. He, however, clarified that as per the agreement, the loss will be compensated by the company which executed the project.

He said Kaleshwaram pumphouse repair will be completed in 45 days.

Opposition parties in Telangana had slammed the state government over the damage caused to the project and blamed poor design and faulty planning for the inundation of the pumphouse.
Chennai, July 20 : The new Superintendent of Police of Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi district, R. Pakalavan who assumed office on Wednesday said the police would hunt down all those who were involved in the violence on Sunday.

A mob had vandalized a private residential school in Kallakurichi and burnt the school buses and four police vehicles on Sunday after a protest over the suicide of a plus two student of the school had turned violent.

The incident was a major setback to the Kallakurichi police and the district administration leading to the shunting out of the District collector, P.N. Sridharan and the district superintendent of Police, R. Selvakumar.

The Chief Minister had directed the DGP and home secretary to visit Kallakurichi and assess the situation.

The new Superintendent of Police told reporters on Wednesday that the priority of the police would be to bring the law and order situation back to normalcy.

He said that while the law and order situation was almost back to normalcy, the police would hunt down all those who were involved in the vandalizing and torching of vehicles and would bring them before the law of the land.

He said that the police would take measures to bring confidence among the local people and would interact with the people at the grass root level for ensuring that the situation in the area was under control.

R. Pakalavan said that the investigation of the case regarding the suicide of the girl and the violence in the area was handed over to specific teams.

He said that the Crime Branch, the Special Investigation Team, and the Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID) were conducting the investigation in the case.

He also said that the police were in touch with the family members of the girl who had committed suicide and would do all assistance for her funeral with all due respect. The new Police superintendent also said that the police have already started investigation and those involved in the incidents including local people and outsiders would be brought to book.

The police superintendent also said that a proper handwriting analysis of the suicide note would be conducted properly.

The Madras High court had earlier come down heavily against the police and said that the incidents were not sporadic but instead meticulously planned and executed and called upon the police to bring to book all those involved in the incident.

The court had also said that the violent incidents have brought a bad reputation to the state of Tamil Nadu and the law and order situation in the state.
Anand, July 20 : In a tragic incident a heavy commercial vehicle driver ran over a traffic constable on Tuesday night, who succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday morning. The Anand police is searching for the truck driver who fled abandoning the truck.

Anand District Superintendent of Police Ajit Rajian told the local media that "a truck driver has hit and run away, in which a traffic jawan Kiransinh Raj was injured in Borsad, later the jawan died in the hospital while he was under treatment. The police is searching for the truck driver who fled from the crime scene. A culpable homicide case has been registered against the truck driver." The officer said, "The traffic police was conducting night patrolling and checking on the highway when the traffic constable tried to stop a truck trailer with registration number ARJ - 52 - GA -3908. The driver did not stop and passed the barricade with the intent to flee. To arrest the truck driver, constable Kiransinh Raj chased the truck, when the driver ran the truck over the constable and later abandoned it and fled. Raj was rushed to Karamsad hospital, where he was being treated for fractures in his legs and other injuries, where he died on Wednesday morning." Kiransinh was the father of two children. His wife had died four years ago. He had joined the police force in 2006.

In another incident, the Surat police have arrested two persons for threatening and beating a Traffic Brigade jawan near Sarthana on Tuesday night when he tried to stop the car in which two youths were travelling. The youths got down and started beating the jawan, and when he tried to escape the youths chased him with a knife, the police said.
New Delhi, July 20 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lauded the collective efforts of scientists, doctors and nurses in powering India's vaccination drive.

As Microsoft founder Bill Gates congratulated him for crossing 200 crore vaccine doses mark, the Prime Minister, in his response, said: "India's vaccination drive is big on speed and scale. It has been powered by collective efforts of many, including scientists, doctors and nurses. At the same time, the people of India have shown remarkable faith in science and taken their doses in a timely manner.

Gates had tweeted: "Congratulations @narendramodi for yet another milestone of administering #200crorevaccinations. We are grateful for our continued partnership with Indian vaccine manufacturers and the Indian government for mitigating the impact of COVID19." On July 17, India crossed the milestone of administering 200 crore doses of Covid vaccines.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New York, July 20 : Close Donald Trump aide, media executive, and banker Steve Bannon was accused by prosecutors of thinking that he was "above the law" in not abiding by requests to appear before the Congressional committee investigating Jan 6 "Capitol Hill Insurrection" after several requests and even after being subpoenaed last year in October.

Bannon, who was in close touch with Trump before and after during the Jan 6 riots, had allegedly said in a message that "tomorrow (January 6, 2021) all hell is going to break loose". It's nothing like you ever imagined before, he had said indicating he had advance knowledge of what was going to unfold on January 6 because of being in touch with Trump in those crucial moments and days. He is standing trial for criminal charges for contempt for not obeying the subpoenas served on him.

Prosecutors opened the trial with the simple argument: The Trump ally decided he was "above the law". They said his defiance of the January 6 panel was a "choice." Bannon's lawyer argued that "no one believed" the Trump ally would testify in October 2021. Before opening arguments, Bannon's lawyers tried again to delay the criminal trial but failed, according to various media reports.

Kicking off Bannon's trial, federal prosecutors on Tuesday stressed their view of the case's sheer simplicity: the longtime Trump ally received a deadline to answer a subpoena from the Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. And Bannon just refused to comply.

"This case is about the defendant thumbing his nose at the orderly processes of our government," said Assistant US Attorney Amanda Vaughn, in an opening argument to jurors. "It is that simple," she added.

In a nearly 20-minute argument, Vaughn recounted how the House committee sought to question Bannon about his knowledge of the events leading up to the insurrection at the Capitol and gave him due dates last October to sit for questioning and turn over documents. Bannon then deliberately snubbed the House panel, she said, in spite of warnings that his defiance could result in the very criminal charges he now faces. "It wasn't optional. It wasn't a request, and it wasn't an invitation. It was mandatory," Vaughn said. "The defendant decided he was above the law... and that's why we're here today." "He didn't get stuck on a broken-down Metro car. He just refused to follow the rules," Vaughn was quoted by the media as saying. Vaughn's opening argument seemed to head off Bannon's expected defense: that he considered the House committee's deadlines negotiable and not fixed.

Also, Bannon tried to seek refuge under the President's executive privilege saying he could not testify unless Trump waived it, and surprisingly, Trump waived it. But the Congressional select committee said he was not entitled to the privilege as he was not physically present on the fateful day in the White House.

In his own opening argument, Bannon's defense lawyer Evan Corcoran underscored the Trump ally's time as an advisor to the former President and noted his past involvement with a "media company," in an apparent reference to Breitbart News. "The evidence is going to be crystal clear: No one, no one believed that Steve Bannon was going to appear on October 14, 2021," Corcoran said.

A grand jury indicted Bannon in November, weeks after that deadline, on a pair of contempt of Congress charges - each carrying a maximum sentence of a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. In his opening argument, Corcoran said the charges amounted to a politically motivated attack. "Politics is the lifeblood of the US House of Representatives," Corcoran said. "Politics invades every decision that they make." Following Tuesday's opening arguments, prosecutors called the House January 6 Committee's deputy staff director and chief counsel, Kristin Amerling, who stressed the "urgency" of the congressional panel's inquiry. If Republicans retake the House majority in the upcoming midterm elections (November 8), they are expected to dissolve the January committee. "The select committee is looking at a violent assault on the United States Capitol, on law enforcement officials, on our democratic institutions. And we have a limited amount of time," she said.

The opening arguments and Amerling's testimony unfolded after a bumpy start to the trial, as Bannon's defense lawyers, federal prosecutors, and the judge all reportedly quarrelled over what evidence could be presented to the jury. After multiple failed attempts to push back the trial, Corcoran asked again for a delay, saying the defense team needed a month to adjust its strategy in light of what he called a "seismic shift" in the case. "There are a lot of moving pieces," Corcoran said. "We simply have not done the type of defense preparation we would have." US District Court Judge Carl Nichols however rejected the request. But the judge, a Trump appointee confirmed in 2019, did briefly entertain a one-day delay, while defense lawyers and prosecutors wrangled over to what extent Bannon's correspondence with the House January 6 committee should be redacted - or blacked out - in the evidence shown to jurors.

Ahead of the trial, Nichols handed down a string of rulings that limited Bannon's defenses, preventing him from arguing, for instance, that executive privilege excused his defiance of the House January 6 committee. But Nichols indicated that Bannon could raise a defense that he believed that the deadlines to respond to the House January 6 committee's subpoena were negotiable and not fixed.

However, Judge Nichols said: "I don't think it could have been clearer." Much of the drama of the Bannon trial has been about its timing. Will this trial be short and straightforward (like prosecutors foresee) or long and more complicated (like Bannon hopes)? Would it be delayed for a month or longer, or could it even head to deliberations before the select committee prime-time hearing Thursday night? Only a handful of witnesses have been identified in both sides' plans for the trial, meaning that the proceedings are still on track to take just a few days. The question now is whether Bannon's charges will be deliberated by the jury before Thursday's January 6 committee hearing where press aide Sarah Mathews and Deputy National Security Advisor (NSC) to the then President Donald Trump, Mathew Pottinger are scheduled to depose before the select committee prime time.
HANGZHOU, Feb. 21, 2020 (Xinhua) -- A textile dyeing factory worker has his body temperature taken before entering the factory in Tianmushan Township of Lin'an District in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 20, 2020. Manufacturers and com Image Source: IANS News

Guangzhou, July 20 : Chinese officials have apologised to residents of a locked-down community in Guangzhou for removing the locks on the doors to their homes, media reports said.

A number of people at the apartment complex in the southern Chinese city had recently tested positive for Covid, BBC reported. Officials were searching for close contacts who may have been hiding in an attempt to avoid being moved to a quarantine centre.

China maintains a strict zero-Covid policy and quarantines are common.

Those affected by the break-ins have been told that they will be compensated for the damage, BBC reported.

According to the Tianmu News outlet, the locks were broken on the front doors of at least 84 homes by grassroots officials and community workers.

The incident took place on July 10, soon after several people at the complex had tested positive for the virus.

According to the Global Times, residents were moved to a centralised quarantine facility, but "some close contacts were found hiding in their houses", leading to searches of other homes for "hidden residents".

Videos were captured of some of the break-ins and posted on popular social networks like Sina Weibo.

It sparked an angry outcry, with many calling for those involved to be arrested for illegal entry, given that trespassing falls under China's criminal law, BBC reported.

The district government in Guangzhou's Liwan district apologised on Tuesday, saying the break-ins "deviated from the requirements of epidemic prevention".

It said that an investigation would be carried out, and those involved will be punished.
Itanagar, July 20 : The whereabouts of the 19 workers, belonging to Assam, who went missing last week near the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh's Kurung Kumey district, are not yet known, officials said on Wednesday.

Kurung Kumey Deputy Commissioner Bengia Nighee said that district and police officials have been sent to Damin to know the whereabouts of the 19 workers, engaged by a contractor to work for a road construction undertaken by the Border Road Organisation (BRO).

"The feedback from the officials was awaited. The area is an extremely remote and dense forest. Considering the topography of the area, we have given requisition for an Indian Air Force helicopter and the NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) to undertake an extensive search operation to locate the workers," the DC told IANS over phone from the district headquarters Koloriang.

Nighee said that the reports regarding the recovery of a dead body of a worker was not yet confirmed by the team.

On Tuesday, local officials, quoting villagers, said that the body of one of the 19 missing workers was recovered from nearby Kumey river.

The workers had been engaged by a contractor for the road construction projects of BRO. The incident took place last week but came to light only on Tuesday.

Local villagers and police feared that all the workers might have drowned in the Kumey river.

Villagers reportedly informed the police that the workers left their work site after the contractor refused to grant leave for some days and then the tragedy happened. The workers had taken a shortcut jungle route to return to their homes in Kokrajhar and Dhubri of Assam.
Kolkata, July 20 : A day before Trinamool Congress' Martyr's Day rally in Kolkata, the party's national General Secretary and Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, threatened to make public an audio tape that will reveal the identity of the persons involved in the coal and cattle smuggling rackets in the state.

"I have such an audio tape that will reveal the identity of those who are actually involved in the coal and cattle smuggling cases in West Bengal. I will make that audio tape public very soon. There is something called perfect timing in politics, where important information has to be revealed at the right time. So, I will also make the audio tape public at the right time," he said.

Incidentally, on Tuesday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigating the coal smuggling case had filed its first charge-sheet at a special CBI court in Asansol wherein it named 41 individuals as involved in the scam.

Besides the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also conducting a parallel probe into these scams.

"If I am at fault, I will accept whatever punishment is given to me. I will accept the hanging rope round my neck with a smiling face. The audio tape that I am referring to has detailed conversations of those involved in the coal and cattle smuggling cases. All I can say right now is that those who have been constantly making negative statements against me will find them behind the bars shortly," Abhishek Banerjee said.

Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira Narula Banerjee have been questioned more than once by both the agencies in connection with the scam.

Abhishek Banerjee had been complaining since the beginning that the central agencies' actions against him and his wife were results of vendetta politics by the BJP and the Union government.

However, this is for the first time that he has given a counter threat to reveal the identity of those actually involved in the cattle and coal smuggling cases in the state.
Bengaluru, July 20 : Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has expressed the hope that the Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on the Mekedatu project by next week. Bommai said on Wednesday that work on the project would be taken up after getting the clearance for the Detailed Project Report which has already been prepared by the state.

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have crossed swords over the project, with the latter opposing it on the grounds that it will lead to severe water shortage for its farmers. Tamil Nadu had approached the Supreme Court in this regard.

Speaking to media persons after offering the traditional worship to the Cauvery river at the KRS dam, Bommai said the proposed project would meet the drinking water needs of Bengaluru and Mandya. Action is being taken to get necessary clearances for the project.

Referring to the work being undertaken to modernise the canal networks in the Cauvery basin, Bommai said about 15 lakh acres are under irrigation in the Cauvery basin which can be expanded with the completion of this work.

Expressing happiness that all 4 reservoirs of the Cauvery basin have filled to the brim this year, Bommai said, "Cauvery is the lifeline of the state. It is our duty to make good use of the beautiful waters of Mother Cauvery." He recalled the sacrifice and dedication of the Maharajas of Mysore and Sir M Visvesvaraya in building the KRS dam.

Referring to work on replacement of the 136 crest gates of the KRS dam, Bommai said the work is going on and only 61 gates remain to be replaced. They would be replaced within a year. A KRS festival would be celebrated in a grand way once the work is completed.
Nominated by Brandon Mallo of Fiverr, Chagala was honored for his vision, leadership, and strategic direction. To achieve this recognition is a humbling experience. However, it was made possible by our team of dedicated SEO experts who believe in our business modelone that differs from the norm without money up front or long-term contracts, said Chagala.

The San Diego Business Journal recognized San Diego-based Rank Harvest entrepreneur, Google SEO consultant, and algorithm expert Michael Chagala as one of its 2022 CEO of the Year Finalists. The publication and platinum sponsors City National Bank, PNC Bank, Umpqua Bank, and gold sponsors BCG and RSM hosted the annual awards program on June 30, 2022, at the Burnham Center for Community Advancement.

Chagala brings more than 16 years of experience in enterprise-level search engine optimization to one of San Diegos top SEO and Digital Agencies. Rank Harvest is a premium SEO agency for local and national businesses in competitive markets.

Nominated by Brandon Mallo of Fiverr, Chagala was honored for his vision, leadership, and strategic direction. As an award-winning, 5-star, Top Rated Seller, Chagala is an example of how the freelance platform achieves its mission to change how the world works together.

An independent panel of judges based their selection of winners and finalists on a nominees professional achievements, community involvement, and the companys financial success. Chagalas nomination included the following accomplishments:

 Grew a solopreneur business entity to an LLC with eight full-time employees and five part-time.

 Increased Rank Harvests client base from 25 to more than 1,500 SEO customersmaking it one of San Diegos top five SEO agencies.

 Achieved a year-over-year (YoY) growth rate of 700% for 2020-2021a key performance indicator of Rank Harvests success trajectory.

 Featured on the cover of Fiverrs Q4 | 2021 Shareholder Letter based on Rank Harvests success using the platform. In 2021 it averaged more than $50,000 per month from SEO services provided to Fiverrs 5.5M buyers.

 Launched Build Your Own Custom Package. The online offering allows enterprises to build custom SEO packages and order directly from the website.

 Invested $30,000 in the next-big-thing by purchasing premium virtual real estate in Decentraland, the first-ever blockchain-powered place in the 3D virtual world or metaverse. Rank Harvest is building a walk-in interactive experience and is conducting job interviews virtually. It plans to rent its virtual property out to brands for promotional events.

 Committed to the planet, the company runs on 100% renewable energy 24/7/365 with an off-grid solar plus battery system.

 Recognized as a thought leader in the highly competitive SEO space, he is a sought-after presenter and consultant to other agencies.

 Achieved his dream of work-life balance--with residence in Poway, the family frequently travels in its motorhome. Chagala may take time midday to dune buggy with his kids on any day.

It is a great honor to be selected as one of San Diegos CEO of the Year Finalists, said Michael Chagala. With more than two hundred thousand businesses in the region, to achieve this recognition is a humbling experience. However, it was made possible by our team of dedicated SEO experts who believe in our business modelone that differs from the norm without money up front or long-term contracts.

Before founding Rank Harvest, Chagala was a marketing executive at one of Californias largest renewable energy companies. His choice to leave the corporate world was to create a lifestyle to spend more time with family while working closely with people.

About Rank Harvest

Michael Chagala founded Rank Harvest in 2019. Based in San Diego, it is an Inc. Verified leading SEO agency. It offers premium SEO services to local, national, and global brands in competitive markets, with complex niche ranking challenges, product launches, and repairing damaged SEO. It focuses on driving traffic for brands like the NFL, Sony, AIG, and small- to mid-sized businesses. Chagala was recognized as a San Diego Business Journal 2013 Information Technology Executive of the Year award winner and was a 2015 San Diego Top Tech Exec finalist. In addition, he is a contributor to Forbes, Wired, Greentech, and more. Visit Rank Harvest at https://www.fiverr.com/rankharvest and https://www.rankharvest.com.
During our ownership period SteriPack grew revenue approximately 40% per year by expanding its business lines through both organic investments and two add-on acquisitions. We were fortunate to work with great entrepreneurs and leaders at SteriPack.

Great Point Partners (GPP), a Greenwich-based private investment firm focused exclusively on the health care industry, announced today that it has exited its investment in SteriPack Group (SteriPack or the Company) to Inflexion, a market-leading private equity firm. With facilities in Poland, the United States, and Malaysia, SteriPack is a global contract manufacturer providing integrated solutions for medical device, diagnostic, and pharmaceutical combination products. The Company provides award winning product design & development, human factors research & engineering, design for manufacturing, regulatory, quality assurance, manufacturing, sterilization, and supply chain management.

Bret Tenenhaus, Principal at GPP, commented, In 2019 we were proactively searching globally for an investment in the medical device manufacturing sector. We wanted a platform whose leaders saw the value of both vertical integration of capabilities and geographic expansion. During our ownership period SteriPack grew revenue approximately 40% per year by expanding its business lines through both organic investments and two add-on acquisitions. We were fortunate to work with great entrepreneurs and leaders at SteriPack and look forward to watching the Company prosper for years to come.

When I joined SteriPack, I was excited to partner with Great Point because of their health care expertise, track record of success in life sciences manufacturing services, and trans-Atlantic M&A experience. I am proud of what we have all accomplished together and the bright future ahead, Andrew McLean, Chief Executive Officer at SteriPack, stated.

GPP sourced and led the negotiations of our two U.S. based design & development acquisitions: New Jersey based HS Design and Colorado-based Halleck Willard, Inc., added David Lennon, Chairman of SteriPack. These have exceeded our own expectations and opened doors into several new growth opportunities already.

CMD Global Partners served as financial advisor to SteriPack, and Maples served as the Companys legal counsel.

About Great Point Partners

Great Point Partners, founded in 2003 and based in Greenwich, CT, is a leading health care investment firm with 30 professionals, investing in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. GPP is currently making new minority and majority private equity investments from GPP III. Great Point manages $1.6B of capital (including GPP IV which has been closed but not been activated) in its private funds and public life sciences equity strategy (BioMedical Value Fund). Great Point Partners has provided growth equity, growth recapitalization, and management buyout financing to more than 200 growing health care companies. The private equity funds invest across all sectors of the health care industry with a particular emphasis on biopharmaceutical services and supplies, alternate site care, medical device and information technology enabled businesses. The firm pursues a proactive and proprietary approach to sourcing investments and tuck-in acquisitions for its portfolio companies.

About SteriPack

SteriPack is a flexible and responsive global contract manufacturer providing comprehensive partner solutions for medical device, diagnostic, and pharmaceutical combination products. SteriPack offers a full suite of integrated product lifecycle solutions, including contract manufacturing, contract packaging, and injection molding services. SteriPack supports its customers from initial concept, design & development to product realization, including product lifecycle management solutions such as regulatory, quality, laboratory testing, sterilization, and supply chain management.

Learn more at about: https://steripackgroup.com/
Graham Beasley, Arcitectas Chief Operating Officer, and Craig Vanderborgh, Chief Engineer, will present an array of advanced data management topics and strategies at the RMACC HPC Symposium on Wednesday, August 3, 2022, in Boulder, Colorado.

Arcitecta, a creative and innovative data management software company, today announced that its leadership team members will present at the Rocky Mountain Advanced Computing Consortiums (RMACC) High Performance Computing (HPC) Symposium to be held August 2-4, 2022, at the Wolf Law Center on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. On Wednesday, August 3, Graham Beasley, Arcitectas Chief Operating Officer, and Craig Vanderborgh, Chief Engineer, will discuss an array of advanced data management topics and strategies, highlighting real-world use cases and best practices.

HPC organizations grapple with a myriad of challenges, including ever-growing datasets, siloed data and unfindable and inaccessible data, as they strive to achieve groundbreaking scientific, medical, and technological discoveries. Arcitectas Mediaflux is revolutionizing data management at scale, providing a reliable data management platform that ensures data is securely yet easily accessed in a collaborative environment  one which can harness the explosion of data for rapid scientific breakthroughs.

The RMACC presentations and discussions will feature effective data and storage management strategies to help drive accelerated outcomes while preserving data for future use and analysis. Arcitectas Beasley and Vanderborgh will participate in the following RMACC HPC Symposium sessions:

Session #1:

TOPIC: Data Orchestration Platform

Contemporary data management solutions enable organizations to create automated data processing pipelines that can dramatically increase HPC cluster throughput, reduce human error, minimize storage costs, and increase the reproducibility of numerical experiments.

TIME: 10:50-11:35 am MT, Wednesday, August 3, 2022

LOCATION: Room 205, Wolf Law Center, University of Colorado Boulder

SPEAKERS: Graham Beasley and Craig Vanderborgh (Arcitecta)

Session #2:

TOPIC: Optimizing Data Strategies for Rapidly Scaling Hybrid Research Environments

This session will highlight real-world use cases that exemplify how organizations optimize their data storage, management and growth strategies for more effective and scalable data collection, governance and classification in support of breakthrough research.

TIME: 11:40-12:25 pm MT, Wednesday, August 3, 2022

LOCATION: Room 204, Wolf Law Center, University of Colorado Boulder

SPEAKERS: Steve Paulson, Peter Halpern (Spectra Logic) and Craig Vanderborgh (Arcitecta)

Session #3:

TOPIC: Career Opportunities and Marketing Yourself to Employers

Panel discussion about career opportunities for students entering the workforce and various career paths, including large HPC companies, national labs, or being your own boss.

TIME: 11:40-12:25 pm MT, Wednesday, August 3, 2022

LOCATION: Wittemeyer Courtroom, Wolf Law Center, University of Colorado Boulder

SPEAKERS: Graham Beasley (Arcitecta) and representatives from industry, government and higher education.

Session #4:

TOPIC: Does HPC Really Need Data Management?

This session will address immediate computational needs and long-range archival requirements for data access, management and reservation, using real-world use cases and best practices.

TIME: 2:45 - 3:30 pm MT, Wednesday, August 3, 2022

LOCATION: Room 205, Wolf Law Center, University of Colorado Boulder

SPEAKERS: Graham Beasley and Craig Vanderborgh (Arcitecta) and Steve Paulson (Spectra Logic)

Session #5:

TOPIC: Metadata: The Hidden Champion for Advanced Data Management

The intelligent use of metadata can help organizations reduce storage costs, enabling smarter and better scientific investments. This session will cover the differences between system and user-defined metadata and how they can be used to manage the data lifecycle and reduce the time and expense needed for data management.

TIME: 3:45 - 4:30 pm MT, Wednesday, August 3, 2022

LOCATION: Room 205, Wolf Law Center, University of Colorado Boulder

SPEAKERS: Graham Beasley and Craig Vanderborgh (Arcitecta)

RMACC HPC Symposium Registration

The HPC Symposium registration fee is $150 for non-students and $30 for students and includes all sessions, materials, meals and snacks. To register, learn more about the event and view the August 2-4 program schedule, visit: RMACC HPC Symposium 2022

About Arcitecta

Arcitecta is a creative and innovative data management software company. Founded in 1998, Arcitecta builds the worlds best data management platforms, enabling thousands of users worldwide in some of the most demanding data-driven environments. Arcitectas flagship Mediaflux platform began with the vision to provide organizations with extraordinary technology for handling all forms of data, from small to very large and complex. Today, it forms the foundation for managing the simplest and the most complex data for all sizes of organizations and global enterprises, empowering them to simplify data-intensive workflows and accelerate time to insight from their data to improve business and research outcomes.

About the Rocky Mountain Advanced Computing Consortium (RMACC) HPC Symposium

RMACC HPC Symposium 2022 will be held at the Wolf Law Center on the University of Colorado Boulder campus and provides an in-depth look into the HPC field and current trends, challenges and opportunities. The Symposium offers multi-track presentations by industry and educational leaders, including an array of panel discussions and tutorials, and two keynote speakers University of Wyoming President Edward Seidel, an international leader in the high performance computing field, and Elizabeth Leake, Director of Research Computing at Boise State University and founder of the global nonprofit STEM-Trek. Sponsors include lead Diamond Sponsor: Intel, Platinum sponsors: HPE, DDN, WEKA-IO, AWS and Dell Technologies, meal sponsors: Google, Vast Data and World Wide Tech, and Gold sponsors ARM, Globus, CIQ, Arcitecta, Penguin Solutions, Spectra Logic, PIER Group and Cornelis Networks. https://hpcsymposium.rmacc.org/

The Rocky Mountain Advanced Computing Consortium is a collaboration among academic and research institutions located throughout the intermountain states. Its mission is to facilitate the widespread effective use of high-performance computing. https://rmacc.org/

# # #

Media Contact Information

Arcitecta:

Press@Arcitecta.com

US/EMEA Media Inquiries:

Denise Nelson, IGNITE Consulting

+1 925-858-5198

Australia/APAC Media Inquiries:

Emily King | Arcitecta Marketing and Communications

+61 434 255 022
At a time when the nation faces a looming shortage of caregivers for older adults, one local company is making it faster and easier for families and care companies to connect with qualified caregivers in the greater San Diego area. The new online platform, CaregiverJobsSanDiego.com, eliminates the stress of having to sift through national caregiver matching and recruiting sites and unqualified candidates.

According to AARP, nearly 80 percent of adults 50 and older report a preference to remain in their own homes as they age instead of moving to a residential care facility. The US Census Bureau also predicts that by 2030, Americans 65 and older will comprise 21 percent of the population and by 2060, nearly one in four Americans will be over the age of 65. Experts also predict that next year, a national shortage of 151,000 caregivers will impact access to elder care and the shortage will increase to 355,000 by 2040.

This data points to a critical need to make the process of finding a qualified caregiver faster, more efficient, and locally-driven for families, care companies, and caregiving professionals, says Sterling Miles, creator of CaregiverJobsSanDiego.com. Miles is no stranger to the in-home care industry and serving the older adult population and their loved ones. He owns and operates a highly-rated San Diego home care company and has experienced first-hand the struggle of finding locally-based, qualified caregivers for caregiving job opportunities.

CaregiverJobsSanDiego.com allows families and care companies to easily post opportunities and communicate with top candidates through a secure messaging system. The company collaborates with a local network of CNA, HHA, medical assistant, and nursing schools, making it a magnet for qualified caregivers seeking employment in the San Diego area.

Caregivers can register for free and apply for multiple opportunities, with the ability to search for jobs based on location, shift types, schedule preferences, pay rates, and more. Care companies and families also can register for free, manage listings in one dashboard, repost openings to make them more visible, and contact applicants of interest for a minimal fee.

To learn more or to register as a family, care company, or caregiving professional, visit CaregiverJobsSanDiego.com.
Mployer Advisor announces the 2022 winners of the "Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards" for Kansas. We scored these brokerages utilizing sophisticated, industry-first algorithms, and we applaud the winners demonstrated commitment to service, quality, and positive employer feedback.

Mployer Advisor, the leading independent platform for employers to research, review, and evaluate insurance brokers is pleased to announce the winners of its Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards based in Kansas. Mployer Advisor has named more than 600 winners in over 50 regions as part of its second annual 2022 awards. The class of 2022 winners account for less than 5% of all brokerages nationwide.

Mployer Advisors Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards Program evaluates brokerages based on the breadth and depth of their experience across employer industries, sizes, insurance products, and employer reviews. We recognize esteemed brokers that demonstrate market-leading competencies and a proven track record of success among employers, insurance providers, and peers.

The team at Mployer Advisor is proud to honor this group of top insurance consultants as part of the 2022 class for our second annual Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards, said Brian Freeman, the Founder and CEO of Mployer Advisor. Employer-sponsored healthcare and benefits cover over 150M Americans. Who an employer selects as their benefits advisor has more impact on cost and quality than who they choose as the insurance carrier. We scored these brokerages utilizing sophisticated, industry-first algorithms, and we applaud the winners demonstrated commitment to service, quality, and positive employer feedback.

Mployer Advisor determined the winners of the second annual Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards by analyzing each brokerage based on historical data, online reviews, their M Score rating, and demonstrated business experience.

The Kansas job market is one of the most competitive in the U.S. Mountain-Plains region, employing over 1.4 million people with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Offering competitive employee benefits is a critical factor in hiring top talent for the regions employers. Finding and partnering with a highly rated insurance consultant is imperative to retaining talent in any market.

The recipients of the 2022 Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for Kansas are as follows:



The above winners are a snapshot of Mployer Advisors matrices and proprietary M Score on June 1, 2022. To view a full list of consultants in Kansas, visit MployerAdvisor.com.

To view a complete list of the 2022 recipients of Mployer Advisors Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards, visit https://mployeradvisor.com/best-insurance-brokers.

About Mployer Advisor:

Mployer Advisor is changing the way employers search, evaluate, and select insurance advisors. The intuitive platform connects employers and employees to great benefits and insurance plans by providing employers with actionable data to easily evaluate and select the best advisor for a companys specific needs. Most brokerages have a profile on Mployer Advisor, which provides independent ratings of insurance advisors to support employers. Insurance brokers cannot pay to influence their Mployer Advisor rating. Only highly rated brokerages are allowed to advertise on the platform. To learn more about Mployer Advisor, visit https://mployeradvisor.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: Rankings are dynamic, and this report may not reflect the rankings currently listed on Mployer Advisors website. Because Mployer Advisors research is ongoing, interested companies that want to join next years list are encouraged to claim their free profile on Mployer Advisor.

Media Contact:

Abbey Dean (Head of Content)

Abbey.dean@mployeradvisor.com

###
Mployer Advisor announces the 2022 winners of the "Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards" for Missouri. We scored these brokerages utilizing sophisticated, industry-first algorithms, and we applaud the winners demonstrated commitment to service, quality, and positive employer feedback.

Mployer Advisor, the leading independent platform for employers to research, review, and evaluate insurance brokers is pleased to announce the winners of its Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards based in Missouri. Mployer Advisor has named more than 600 winners in over 50 regions as part of its second annual 2022 awards. The class of 2022 winners accounts for less than 5% of all brokerages nationwide.

Mployer Advisors Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards Program evaluates brokerages based on the breadth and depth of their experience across employer industries, sizes, insurance products, and employer reviews. We recognize esteemed brokers that demonstrate market-leading competencies and a proven track record of success among employers, insurance providers, and peers.

The team at Mployer Advisor is proud to honor this group of top insurance consultants as part of the 2022 class for our second annual Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards, said Brian Freeman, the Founder, and CEO of Mployer Advisor. Employer-sponsored healthcare and benefits cover over 150M Americans. Who an employer selects as their benefits advisor has more impact on cost and quality than who they choose as the insurance carrier. We scored these brokerages utilizing sophisticated, industry-first algorithms, and we applaud the winners demonstrated commitment to service, quality, and positive employer feedback.

Mployer Advisor determined the winners of the second annual Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards by analyzing each brokerage based on historical data, online reviews, their M Score rating, and demonstrated business experience.

The Missouri job market is one of the most competitive in the U.S. Mountain-Plains region, employing nearly 3 million people. Offering competitive employee benefits is a critical factor in hiring top talent for the regions employers. Finding and partnering with a highly rated insurance consultant is imperative to retaining talent in any market.

The recipients of the 2022 Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for Missouri are as follows:



The above winners are a snapshot of Mployer Advisors matrices and proprietary M Score on June 1, 2022. To view a full list of consultants in Missouri, visit MployerAdvisor.com.

To view a complete list of the 2022 recipients of Mployer Advisors Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards, visit https://mployeradvisor.com/best-insurance-brokers.

About Mployer Advisor:

Mployer Advisor is changing the way employers search, evaluate, and select insurance advisors. The intuitive platform connects employers and employees to great benefits and insurance plans by providing employers with actionable data to easily evaluate and select the best advisor for a companys specific needs. Most brokerages have a profile on Mployer Advisor, which provides independent ratings of insurance advisors to support employers. Insurance brokers cannot pay to influence their Mployer Advisor rating. Only highly rated brokerages are allowed to advertise on the platform. To learn more about Mployer Advisor, visit https://mployeradvisor.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: Rankings are dynamic, and this report may not reflect the rankings currently listed on Mployer Advisors website. Because Mployer Advisors research is ongoing, interested companies that want to join next years list are encouraged to claim their free profile on Mployer Advisor.

Media Contact:

Abbey Dean (Head of Content)

Abbey.dean@mployeradvisor.com ###
Mployer Advisor announces the 2022 winners of the "Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards" for Nashville, Tennessee. We scored these brokerages utilizing sophisticated, industry-first algorithms, and we applaud the winners demonstrated commitment to service, quality, and positive employer feedback.

Mployer Advisor, the leading independent platform for employers to research, review, and evaluate insurance brokers is pleased to announce the winners of its Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards based in Nashville, Tennessee. Mployer Advisor has named more than 600 winners in over 50 regions as part of its second annual 2022 awards. The class of 2022 winners accounts for less than 5% of all brokerages nationwide.

Mployer Advisors Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards Program evaluates brokerages based on the breadth and depth of their experience across employer industries, sizes, insurance products, and employer reviews. We recognize esteemed brokers that demonstrate market-leading competencies and a proven track record of success among employers, insurance providers, and peers.

The team at Mployer Advisor is proud to honor this group of top insurance consultants as part of the 2022 class for our second annual Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards, said Brian Freeman, the Founder, and CEO of Mployer Advisor. Employer-sponsored healthcare and benefits cover over 150M Americans. Who an employer selects as their benefits advisor has more impact on cost and quality than who they choose as the insurance carrier. We scored these brokerages utilizing sophisticated, industry-first algorithms, and we applaud the winners demonstrated commitment to service, quality, and positive employer feedback.

Mployer Advisor determined the winners of the second annual Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards by analyzing each brokerage based on historical data, online reviews, their M Score rating, and demonstrated business experience.

The Nashville job market is one of the most competitive in the U.S. Southeast, employing over 1 million people with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state. Offering competitive employee benefits is a critical factor in hiring top talent for the regions employers. Finding and partnering with a highly rated insurance consultant is imperative to retaining talent in any market.

The recipients of the 2022 Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for Nashville, Tennessee are as follows:



The above winners are a snapshot of Mployer Advisors matrices and proprietary M Score on June 1, 2022. To view a full list of consultants in the Nashville area, visit MployerAdvisor.com.

To view a complete list of the 2022 recipients of Mployer Advisors Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards, visit https://mployeradvisor.com/best-insurance-brokers.

About Mployer Advisor:

Mployer Advisor is changing the way employers search, evaluate, and select insurance advisors. The intuitive platform connects employers and employees to great benefits and insurance plans by providing employers with actionable data to easily evaluate and select the best advisor for a companys specific needs. Most brokerages have a profile on Mployer Advisor, which provides independent ratings of insurance advisors to support employers. Insurance brokers cannot pay to influence their Mployer Advisor rating. Only highly rated brokerages are allowed to advertise on the platform. To learn more about Mployer Advisor, visit https://mployeradvisor.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: Rankings are dynamic, and this report may not reflect the rankings currently listed on Mployer Advisors website. Because Mployer Advisors research is ongoing, interested companies that want to join next years list are encouraged to claim their free profile on Mployer Advisor.

Media Contact:

Abbey Dean (Head of Content)

Abbey.dean@mployeradvisor.com

###
ketteQ logo We are excited to be bringing our solutions and services to Canada, said Cy Smith, CEO of ketteQ. With the supply chain challenges that companies have experienced over the last several years, the need for supply chain agility has never been greater.

ketteQ, the only digital supply chain planning and automation platform built on Salesforce and AWS, is expanding its footprint into Canada by establishing its research and development team in the heart of the countrys technology sector  Toronto.

ketteQ helps companies take their supply chain operations to new levels, maximizing visibility, optimizing inventory levels, improving forecasting, demand planning, service, and reducing the time it takes to gather and analyze real-time data that can create a more agile and resilient supply chain. ketteQ is built on Salesforce and Amazon Web Services to simplify deployment and deliver cloud-based solutions that offer regular updates of the latest technology capabilities.

The company is continuing to enhance its technology platform as it expands its footprint in Canada and globally. ketteQs technology team is working on innovative developments in the area of optimization and advancing the ability of companies to automate forecasting, planning and other vital supply chain functions.

We are excited to be bringing our solutions and services to Canada, said Cy Smith, CEO of ketteQ. With the supply chain challenges that companies have experienced over the last several years, the need for supply chain agility has never been greater.

ketteQs Toronto technology team is focused primarily on R&D and implementation services, and the company anticipates further expansion and hiring in sales and services positions to grow its existing Canadian customer base. ketteQ has been working closely with Toronto Global, a team of experienced business advisors assisting global businesses to expand into the Toronto Region.

Investments in technology will continue to play a large role in boosting our regional economy and building supply chain resilience, said Toronto Mayor John Tory. Im thrilled that ketteQ will call Toronto home, create jobs for our talented residents, and fill the need for solutions to the supply chain industrys deepest challenges.

As a digital supply chain planning and automation platform built on Salesforce and AWS, ketteQ is creating the resilient supply chain of the future by equipping companies with the ability to anticipate and prepare for ongoing industry disruptions by delivering an innovative scenario-based approach to optimizing supply chain operations. ketteQ harnesses AI and automation to allow systems to operate at maximum capacity, while keeping planners focused on what they do best.

About ketteQ

ketteQ is dedicated to building a new paradigm for Supply Chain planning and operations management. Built on Salesforce and AWS, ketteQ leverages the strengths in security, scalability, and configurability of these platforms, for delivering advanced capabilities that fill the gaps of legacy systems. For further information: Please contact ketteQ at 470.795.9689, info@ketteQ.com
Dr. Lisa Loury Lomas, 18th Eastern Area Director of The Links, Incorporated As part of my vision, I am committed to uplifting disenfranchised communities, promoting healthy lifestyles physically and mentally, while empowering our youth toward a brighter future. I will uphold the standards of this office with distinction and grace.

On July 3, 2022, Lisa Loury Lomas, Ph.D. became the 18th Eastern Area Director for The Links, Incorporated following the organizations 43rd National Assembly in Baltimore, MD. The Links is one of the nations largest and oldest volunteer service organizations of professional women.

I am truly honored and humbled by the opportunity to serve as Eastern Area Director. I look forward to building on our current successes and working collaboratively to further advance our impactful service in friendship, said Dr. Loury Lomas. As part of my vision, I am committed to uplifting disenfranchised communities, promoting healthy lifestyles physically and mentally, while empowering our youth toward a brighter future. I will uphold the standards of this office with distinction and grace.

Dr. Loury Lomas is a member of the Columbia (MD) Links Chapter and is now the first in the Chesapeake Bay Cluster to hold the highest leadership position for the Eastern Area. The Eastern Area is the largest of the four regional Areas within The Links. The East represents 82 chapters and nearly 5,000 members throughout Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and the United Kingdom.

Loury Lomas demonstrated excellence in leadership and service is extensive. She has successfully served in various Eastern Area key roles and has continued to advance in areas of responsibility, accordingly. Prior to her latest office, she was elected as Eastern Area Vice Director (2019-2022), Eastern Area Secretary (2015-2019), and appointed as the first Eastern Area Mental Health Chair (2011-2015). With her impactful focus, strategic vision, and team execution, mental health was integrated into The Links national programming under the Health and Human Services Facet. Loury Lomas is also an alumna of The Links Scott Hawkins Leadership Institute (Cohort IV). She is also a lifetime associate member of Jack and Jill of America, Incorporated and a 35-year member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated.

Professionally, Dr. Loury Lomas is a licensed mental health clinician with an emphasis in human relations and development, mood disorders, trauma, and grief. Her mental health and wellness expertise spans over three decades with experience in the judicial branch of government, academia, and the private sector. For the past two decades, shes built a leading global brand through her private practice, Lisa Listens, Incorporated. Dr. Loury Lomas clients include individuals, agencies, and corporations who seek her customized counseling, workshop, seminar, and public speaking services.

Loury Lomas' speaking engagements include the NAACP Leadership Summit; the World Diversity Leadership Summit in Vienna, Austria; and DMV Links Red Dress21, the nations largest virtual heart health and wellness event. She has served on Howard Countys Mental and Behavioral Health Task Force and Howard Countys Board of Directors for the National Association of the Mentally Ill.

Dr. Loury Lomas holds a B.S. in psychology, an M.A. in clinical psychology, and a Ph.D. in general psychology. And she is the joyful and proud mother of sons Jeremy Lomas and William Lomas.
xScion Kellys strategic marketing leadership, paired with her in-depth knowledge of our customers needs and the technology community, make her a valuable asset to xScions clients and employees alike," aid Alison Banziger, Founder and CEO of xScion.

xScion Solutions (xScion), a leading technology consulting firm, today announced that it has appointed Kelly Siebold as the Chief Marketing Officer. Siebold, who previously served as xScions Principal of Strategic Marketing, will lead the companys branding, marketing and communications initiatives to drive employee and customer acquisition and retention while elevating xScions brand and driving growth in an increasingly tight labor market. xScion helps Financial Services, Public Sector, Association and Healthcare clients create lasting value from digital transformation initiatives through Agile, Product Management, Business Process Management, Cloud and Risk Management solutions and expertise.

At xScion, we know the value of effective marketing in todays rapidly evolving technology environment and tight labor market, said Alison Banziger, Founder and CEO of xScion. Kellys strategic marketing leadership, paired with her in-depth knowledge of our customers needs and the technology community, make her a valuable asset to xScions clients and employees alike. As xScion continues to focus on delivering value for our customers and Technologists, Kellys leadership, creativity and marketing expertise will be an integral part of growing our overall brand experience.

As companies undergo significant digital transformations, the need for skilled Technologists is higher than ever. xScion's continued focus expands beyond helping companies to operate smarter and better serve their customers to also creating impactful and lasting value for employees. Siebold has more than 20 years of proven expertise developing brand and go-to-market strategies for emerging data and technology consulting companies. Her wealth of knowledge supporting these technology SaaS and consulting firms, coupled with a demonstrated expertise building brand awareness while driving revenue through dynamic marketing strategies, make her invaluable in this new role.

xScions laser-focused commitment to creating lasting value for its clients, employees and communities truly differentiates xScion and our brand, said Siebold. Turn Change Into Value is more than our tagline  it is the heart of our brand, team and client delivery. I look forward to further amplifying xScions story and continuously evolving our client and employee experiences to support todays rapidly changing digital environment.

As Chief Marketing Officer, Siebold will grow xScions brand to stay ahead of market trends, meet evolving customer needs and create a world-class employee experience to attract and retain leading Technologists. Siebold will apply her communications and brand expertise to support xScions values, maintain an inclusive and diverse work environment and continue to deliver valuable change for clients.

About xScion Solutions

xScion is a technology consulting firm that helps companies Turn Change Into Value. As the trusted solutions provider that business and technology leaders turn to for lasting value, xScion helps Healthcare, Financial Services, Association and Public Sector organizations improve through innovative solutions including Agile, Product Management, Business Process Management, Cloud and Risk Management. xScion is a proud WBENC certified and woman-owned business that has been named a Best Places to Work in Virginia for the last six years. Learn more at http://www.xScion.com.
With Antoshak, Gherzi has retained the services of a well-known and respected industry leader to head up our efforts.

The Gherzi Organization strengthened its operations in North America today by joining forces with industry veteran Robert Antoshak as a Partner.

The goal will be to better serve brands and manufacturers in North America's apparel, textile, and fiber industries. In recent years, an uptick in regional sourcing and construction of new operating plants in North America has prompted Gherzi to expand its regional operations.

Previously, Gherzi worked for clients in North America, supported by its Zurich and South America offices.

Antoshak brings over 30 years of experience consulting for companies throughout the textile supply chain, from cotton farmers and fiber companies to spinners, weavers, apparel brands, and retailers. He also has a deep background in government affairs and trade policy.

Gherzi CEO Giuseppe Gherzi said, "We have observed a significant shift in the global textile and apparel industries that favors the expansion of operations in North America. To meet renewed interest in the region, Gherzi has retained the services of a well-known and respected industry leader to head up our efforts."

Antoshak shared his enthusiasm for the project. "It is a unique opportunity and a chance to assist companies in rethinking their sourcing strategies and expand their options in North America," he said.

The Gherzi Organization was founded in Switzerland more than 90 years ago. Gherzi is an independent, global firm of more than 120 consultants, technical specialists, engineers, architects, and planners working across all areas of industrial and infrastructure projects.

To learn more about the Gherzi Organization, visit http://www.gherzi.com.
Isaac Barnes "This is not only about sharing digital artwork but also showcasing how NFTs can serve society in ways we haven't even imagined yet."Isaac Barnes, President of Eminent Future

History-Maker and President of Eminent Future, Isaac Barnes and his business partner Jose Risi, to launch the "Hero Series," a first-of-its-kind NFT Mural collection to honor Ronald V. Dellums the late congressman and former mayor who died July 30, 2018, at age 82, Nelson Mandela, and many others who stood for peace and justice in the US and abroad. The launch is set to feature a breathtaking mural of NFTs created by commissioned digital artists, which will be unveiled on September 9, for Ronald V. Dellums International Day of Peace.

Ronald Vernie Dellums was an American politician who served as Mayor of Oakland from 2007 to 2011. He had previously served thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 9th congressional district. Congressman Dellums began a campaign to end the apartheid policies of South Africa in 1972. Fourteen years later, his bill, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, was passed by The House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support. President Reagan vetoed the bill. However, Congressman Dellums was a master statesman, and he was able to get President Reagan's veto overridden. It was the first override in the 20th century of a presidential foreign policy veto.

The Hero Series is being released in partnership with The Dellums and Davis Legacy Foundation and Truth & Reconciliation Conversations (TRC). "Our team is so excited to be able to use this project as a way of showing others what's possible when they put their minds together and work towards change," said Isaac Barnes, History-Maker and President of Eminent Future. "This is not only about sharing digital artwork but also showcasing how NFTs can serve society in ways we haven't even imagined yet."

We are calling all creative digital artists to help us turn this monumental project into a game-changing one of a kind celebration of life for those that fought for us. More information about the project will be available soon.

About Eminent Future

Eminent Future is a digital product and innovation company focused on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) impact. We focus on helping governments use technology to create societal change. Our work is about shifting culture, shifting society, and changing narratives.

About The Dellums and Davis Legacy Foundation

The Dellums and Davis Legacy Foundation is a charitable organization established to carry on the legacies of Ronald V. Dellums and Howard C. Davis. The Foundation provides global services and charitable support for women's rights, environmental justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and gender equality through education.

About Truth & Reconciliation Conversations (TRC)

TRC is a nonprofit organization committed to promoting racial reconciliation and gender equality. It has organized annual observances of Nelson Mandela International Day and 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence in the US, South Africa, and around the world.

Media Contact


iDynamo 6 Since Quantic uses our Magensa services, they maintain a processor agnostic approach.

MagTek, a leading world supplier of secure payment technology, and Quantic, an omni-channel, processor-agnostic POS solution built for resellers, announce their collaboration between MagTeks iDynamo 6, a secure card reader authenticator, with Quantics multichannel POS for restaurant and retail merchants. Quantic POS, created by software developers and experienced restaurant owners, delivers a cost-effective POS solution to resellers that helps small businesses grow and includes the payment methods customers demand.

Small business retailers and restaurants must deliver the new shopping experience customers expect, with line-busting POS, mobile POS, pay-at-the-table, curbside payments, online ordering, delivery, and contactless transactions. They also need a point-of-sale solution that works reliably. Durable hardware with an Apple Lightning or USB connection is advantageous compared to wireless solutions that can be difficult to connect and configure. Resellers need products that are processor agnostic, so their clients are free to change platforms without cumbersome and expensive recertification or extended downtimes.

Quantic POS delivers a uniquely cost-effective solution built from a restaurateur's wish list. Since the POS takes an agnostic approach to processing, businesses can accept magstripe cards, EMV Contact Chip, EMV Contactless, and most major NFC mobile wallets. Quantic delivers easy ordering with features and functionality including QR codes, customer management, couponing, inventory control, loyalty programs, quicker checkout, and pay-at-the-table.

We knew that our solution needed to be economical while still accepting the variety of payment methods in the industry today, said Vigyan (V) Kaushik, Co-Founder and CEO, Quantic. The MagTek iDynamo 6 offers a sleek form-factor, is ready for iOS and Android systems, integrates easily, accepts classic plastic and digital wallet transactions, and connects directly to the phone or tablet. When we learned we could combine it with the Magensa Payment Protection Gateway and saw our integration time and costs would be so much less than other options, it was an easy choice.

Independent software vendors need to reduce their integration development time. Instead of having to integrate with multiple end points and payment processors; ISVs only need to integrate to Magensa. Magensa Gateway services reduce integration time and cost, giving ISVs the ability to authorize, capture, process, and optimize payments through one interface.

Quantic offers an impressive cloud POS solution that is focused on helping grow small businesses, said Andy Deignan, Vice President of Global Marketing and Strategy. Since Quantic uses our Magensa services, they maintain a processor agnostic approach. Coupled with iDynamo 6 and the MagneSafe Security Architecture, they provide a robust and secure product to their reseller clients that is easy to implement and highly secure.

MagneSafe is a digital identification and authentication architecture that safeguards consumers and their personal data. Designed to exceed PCI regulations, MagneSafe leverages strong encryption, secure tokenization, counterfeit detection, tamper recognition, data relevance and integrity, and dynamic digital transaction signatures, which together validate and protect the entire transaction and each of its components.

To learn more about MagTek and iDynamo 6, please visit http://www.magtek.com or stop by our booth #139 at RSPAs RetailNow event, July 24 -26, at Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention

Center, Orlando, FL, or our table at UE55 MWAA, July 27  28, at the Marriott Magnificent Mile,

Downtown Chicago, IL. For more information about Quantic and Quantic POS, please visit http://www.getquantic.com.

About MagTek

Celebrating 50 years! Founded in 1972, MagTek is a leading manufacturer of electronic systems for the reliable issuance, reading, transmission and security of cards, barcodes, checks, PINs and identification documents. Leading with innovation and engineering excellence, MagTek is known for quality and dependability. Its products include secure card reader/authenticators, Qwantum secure cards, token generators, EMV contact, contactless, barcode and NFC reading devices, encrypting check scanners, PIN pads and distributed credential personalization systems for secure magstripe and EMV enabled cards. These products are used worldwide by financial institutions, retailers, payment processors, and ISVs to provide secure and efficient data privacy, as well as payment and identification transactions.

Today, MagTek continues to innovate. Its MagneSafe Security Architecture leverages strong encryption, secure tokenization, dynamic card authentication, and device/host validation enabling users to assess the trustworthiness of credentials and terminals used for online identification, payment processing, and high-value electronic transactions.

MagTek is headquartered in Seal Beach, CA.

About Quantic

Quantic is an omni-channel, processor-agnostic POS solution. The companys SaaS is designed to support restaurants, retail stores, and professional service providers. Quantics approach to customer acquisition makes them unique in the merchant services market, and the companys partnership sales model helps them distribute their service to more great merchants. Quantics detailed approach to customer onboarding takes the hard work out of the equation for resellers. Their dynamic in-house software development and white labeling capabilities are available for select partnerships.

Quantic POS is just one of the companys diverse products. Quantics mission? To create software solutions that make running a small business easier. Quantic has grown to nearly 40 employees across two continents and is still expanding. As long as people need great business solutions, Quantics influence will undoubtedly continue to grow.
Construction has begun in the Depew area! Were happy to be bringing access to high-speed fiber Internet to members of the community, as well as building out our workforce here, commented Paul Griswold, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and General Manager of New York.

The Buffalo area will soon have a new Internet service provider to choose from. GoNetspeed, a high-speed fiber Internet provider, has begun building their network in portions of Cheektowaga, Depew and Lancaster.

This 100% fiber optic network will offer internet service with symmetrical speeds, meaning that both download and upload are equally fast. GoNetspeed offers no data caps, no throttling, and the fastest residential Internet speeds available, ranging from 250 Mbps to 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps). Unlike cable Internet or DSL, fiber optics provides unlimited scalability by creating a network that is future proof  as the need for speed increases and technology continues to advance, the network can adjust and scale to the need. For businesses, GoNetspeed can customize speeds beyond Gigabit capability if necessary.

We are excited to start this initial round of construction for these communities  and this is just the beginning, commented Paul Griswold, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and General Manager of New York. Were happy to be bringing access to high-speed fiber Internet to members of the community, as well as building out our workforce here.

GoNetspeed has plans to build high-speed fiber Internet in other Buffalo-area communities, including thousands of additional locations in Cheektowaga. The company leases an office space in the Village of Depew and expects to employ as many as 65 people in the region over the next three years.

GoNetspeed offers a free Wi-Fi 6 router (which delivers speeds that are 40% higher than Wi-Fi 5), no installation charges, no contracts, and plans starting at $49.95 a month. The construction, customer service, and technical support teams are based at locations in New York state and have been recognized by many customers for their friendly and responsive nature. The company also participates in the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) which provides eligible households a maximum of $30 per month toward service.

Having GoNetspeed bring both Internet connectivity and additional jobs to our community is a win-win, said Kevin Peterson, Mayor of Depew. Connectivity is so important to our residents who rely on the Internet in their daily life for things like remote work, on-line learning, and telemedicine. The infrastructure and reliability GoNetspeed is bringing to our community is key. We are also pleased they participate in the ACP which will help close the digital divide for some of our residents.

Erie County Legislator Frank Todaro has also expressed excitement for this project. Im thankful for all the public and private coordination that has been done to make this project a reality. Its amazing to see the fiber internet infrastructure being built in our community while more jobs are being created at the same time. This isnt only about access to the Internet; it is an investment in our communitys future.

A ribbon cutting at the new GoNetspeed office is being planned for Wednesday, July 27th 12:00pm-1:30pm with the Mayor of Depew, Cheektowaga and Depew Chambers at 2371 George Urban Boulevard in Depew.

To learn more about GoNetspeed and check availability in your neighborhood, visit GoNetspeed.com.

About GoNetspeed

GoNetspeed, a fiber-to-the-premises Internet Service Provider (ISP), serves residential and business customers in portions of 8 states: null [Alabama, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. __title__ null]GoNetspeed is owned by Oak Hill Capital (Oak Hill) which is supporting the companys expansion plan to build nearly 2,000 miles of fiber and bring fiber to approximately 200,000 locations in its footprint.

In 2021, six legacy companies OTELCO, OTTC, Upstate Fiber Networks, Lantek, GoNetspeed, and Icon combined forces to bring decades of fiber optic technology & experience together, to create something new for your residences and businesses.

With a legacy of innovation and a commitment to unparalleled customer service, we are excited to accelerate the expansion of fiber networks throughout 6 different states. Together, we will deliver more fiber, more access, more speed, and better reliability across our footprint. Together, we are the new GoNetspeed - Connecting Communities one neighborhood at a time.

GoNetspeed, a name with strong recognition where communities have already benefited from its investments in fiber technology and exceptional customer service, fulfills Oak Hills vision to bring together over 100 years of telecom expertise and a passion for customer service to accelerate fiber network deployment throughout their combined footprint.

To date, GoNetspeed serves 60,000 customers and employs a total of 540 individuals in the states it serves. For more information on the company, or to inquire about service at your home, business, or community, please visit https://ny.gonetspeed.com/.

Affordable Connectively Program (ACP)

If a household member participates in one of the following government programs, the household may qualify for the ACP: Lifeline, SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, FPHA, Veterans Pension, Survivors Pension, free and reduced price lunch program, school breakfast program, current Federal Pell Grant, WIC, attends a school that participates in the Community Eligibility Program (CEP), or the household income falls below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. More details about eligibility and enrollment applications are available at http://www.fcc.gov/acp.
Anand Gala, Founder and Managing Partner said, We believe Dunn Brothers is the best kept secret in the coffee segment and we look forward to working with the management team and franchise partners to bring this great product and brand to the rest of the world.

Minnesota-based Dunn Brothers Coffee announces their sale to Gala Capital Partners of Costa Mesa, CA, a highly-accomplished private investment firm with a demonstrated track record of partnering with founders and management teams to grow their brands. By leveraging over 35 years of experience in the franchise, real estate, and software industries, Gala Capital Partners not only provides the capital but also the know-how needed to improve and expand operations, allowing founders and management teams to take their organizations to the next level. Galas philosophy focuses on the success and profitability of the franchisee while investing in franchise development, menu development, technology, marketing, and other infrastructure to strengthen and accelerate brands, such as MOOYAH Burgers and CiCis Pizza.

Anand Gala, Founder and Managing Partner said, We believe Dunn Brothers is the best-kept secret in the coffee segment and we look forward to working with the management team and franchise partners to bring this great product and brand to the rest of the world. Anand and his team are excited to connect with the Dunn Brothers system to build upon their current success and accelerate growth.

Kim Plahn, President of Dunn Brothers Coffee added, Gala Capital Partners aims to add value through their multi-concept portfolio, applying their deep experience as both a franchisee/operator as well as the franchisor. Having been both a franchisee and a franchisor, they understand what makes for a strong, collaborative, and profitable business for both. Were excited for the opportunity to continue to build the Dunn Brothers brand with them.

This announcement comes as Dunn Brothers Coffee celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. Dunn Brothers Coffee was started in St. Paul, MN in 1987 and has 59 franchised locations in 7 states; Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Texas, and Missouri.
It is an honor to be nominated in the company of such incredible women and pillars of our Oklahoma community."

Lauren Mingee, CEO of Quintessa Marketing, has been selected as one of Journal Records 50 Making a Difference nominees. The award recognized Oklahomas prominent women who epitomize leadership in their professional endeavors and in the communities they are a part of for the last 42 years. Journal Records Woman of the Year was created to celebrate the brilliance and success of women across the state of Oklahoma.

Lauren is a successful businesswoman as the founder and CEO of Quintessa Marketing, volunteer, mentor, and longtime advocate for women. One of her most notable accomplishments is building an expansive business and using her resources to give back to her community. She created Quintessa Marketing to bridge the gap between lawyers and people who have been injured in an accident, which generated more than $22 million in revenue last year. She is a firm believer in doing good often and investing in others, which has allowed her to empower others and provide employment opportunities to people from all walks of life.

While Lauren takes pride in her professional achievements, she also makes a point to utilize her resources to help her community. She has donated millions of dollars to nonprofits across Oklahoma City, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Dream Centers, and a global Bible app, YouVersion. Lauren also spends her time volunteering with ReMerge, a program that serves the needs of Oklahoma mothers facing non-violent felony offenses.

When asked about the nomination, Mingee replied, It is an honor to be nominated in the company of such incredible women and pillars of our Oklahoma community. The work and passion of these individuals make a difference in peoples lives.

Previous recipients of this award include Tammy Powell, receiving the honor of Journal Records Woman of the Year in 2021. Tammy is the president of SSM Health St. Anthonys Hospital. She was recognized for being at the forefront of pandemic management during the hardships of COVID-19. Joe Dowd, Journal Record editor, stated that she was the backbone of healthcare during one of Oklahomas most challenging times. During her presidency, OKC has expanded from one emergency room location to five additional freestanding locations.

One woman of 50 will be selected at the 2022 Woman of the Year gala event on October 20th at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Four of the 2022 honorees will also be inducted into the Circle of Excellence at the ceremony, which honors individuals that have been nominated for the third time. Susan Agel will be the keynote speaker at the event.
Hall of Flowers, iconic cannabis trade show, comes to Toronto in September Our goal is to bring 1,000 certified buyers representing 800+ stores and 200 premium licensed cannabis brands together for this elevated experience

Hall of Flowers, the iconic, industry-leading cannabis brand and retail trade show, is pleased to announce the first ever Canadian Hall of Flowers event taking place at the Enercare Centre in Toronto on September 13th and 14th. Hall of Flowers is an industry-only, highly-curated, B2B trade show designed to forge and strengthen the relationships between brands and retailers.

Unlike prior Canadian cannabis trade shows, Hall of Flowers focuses solely on connecting cannabis brands directly with inventory buyers in an environment that reflects the industry and the plant's role within it. Our goal is to bring 1,000 certified buyers representing 800+ stores and 200 premium licensed cannabis brands together for this elevated experience, says Dani Diamond, Hall of Flowers Founder and CEO. By only focusing on the buyers and the brands and offering them a dedicated place to connect, consume and recuperate in our outdoor lounge, weve seen how impactful that is to developing relationships and partnerships between them.

This type of environment enables retail buyers to carve out the space to connect with brands in the right mindset to make inventory decisions, says Krista Raymer, CEO of Vetrina Group and individual who led the charge to bring Hall of Flowers to Canada. We also know the engagement and interest in Hall of Flowers in Toronto so far has been a telltale sign of a maturing market that understands the importance of intimate connections within our domestic cannabis supply chain.

Notable sponsors and attendees include Pure Sunfarms, Canopy Growth Corporation, The Green Organic Dutchman, Heritage Cannabis, Collective Project, BZAM Cannabis, Thrive Cannabis, Sunday Market, PINNRZ, Nextleaf Solutions, Kinloch Naturals, Weed Me, Ayurcann, Medipharm Labs, Puffco, Motif, and Nuveev.

For sponsorship inquiries please reach out to Krista Raymer at krista@vetrinagroup.com or Jay Rosenthal at jayrosenthal@gmail.com with any questions.

About Hall of Flowers

Hall of Flowers delivers an experience that elevates the cannabis industry to a new level of cultural significance. The highly curated B2B trade event facilitates commerce and builds community across an expansive network of premium licensed cannabis brands and retailers annually in Santa Rosa and Palm Springs, California.

Hall of Flowers has offered compliant, onsite dispensary capabilities and open consumption and sampling at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds since 2018. For more information about Hall of Flowers visit http://www.HallofFlowers.com, follow along on Instagram, and stay up to date across LinkedIn.

About Vetrina Group

Vetrina Group is a cannabis retail consultancy that specializes in the consumer experience and retail operations. Drawing on a diverse CPG background, applying retail best practices, and industry-specific insights. Through the use of data, customer experience, and technology their goal is to elevate and destigmatize cannabis, and its retail environments. Learn more at VetrinaGroup.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Satans Devices: a thoughtful discussion of readily available devices in most households. Satans Devices is the creation of published author Aaron Cowgill, B.S., S/OTD, a dedicated husband who obtained his Bachelor of Science in systems and behavioral neuroscience from the Ohio State University in 2018. He is currently working toward obtaining his Doctor of Occupational Therapy from OSU.

Cowgill shares, Have you ever wondered

What does the Bible say about your eyes?

How do screens affect my child with autism?

How does blue light affect my prefrontal cortex?

Does screen time increase anxiety?

How do screens affect my circadian rhythm?

Can someone be addicted to screens?

Can screen time lead to photophobia?

Inside are answers to these and much more!

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Aaron Cowgill, B.S., S/OTDs new book will encourage readers to reflect on the amount of time spent with devices for themselves and those around them.

Cowgills detailed discussion will help raise awareness of the dangers of the temptations that await within the digital world.

Consumers can purchase Satans Devices at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Satans Devices, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Let's save lives. Donate blood now. Every time you donate you help ensure a patients lifesaving treatment doesnt have to be put on hold, said Vitalant Chief Medical and Scientific Officer Dr. Ralph Vassallo.

A coalition of western Pennsylvania hospitals and health care systems are coming together in a campaign to raise awareness about the importance of blood donation and to urge more people to become blood donors as supplies remain critically low at hospitals across the region.

Hospitals and health systems partnering in the campaign, which will include a range of public service announcements, digital media and outdoor promotion, include:



Allegheny Health Network

Butler Health System

Conemaugh Health System

Excela Health

Heritage Valley Health System

Indiana Regional Medical Center

Sharon Regional Medical Center

St. Clair Health

UPMC

VA Pittsburgh Health System

Washington Health System

Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center at Windber

Nationally and locally, blood supplies have dropped precipitously in recent years, due largely to the COVID-19 pandemic, which lead to cancelled blood drives and a general sense of hesitancy among those who previously donated regularly.

While hospital in-house blood banks optimally maintain a four-day supply of blood, current supplies of the most transfused blood type O, as well as platelets, which must be used within seven days of collection, have dangerously dipped to below half that amount in many cases. The diminished blood supply combined with the sharp uptick in patients needing blood transfusions during the summer months, makes for a perfect storm that puts lives at risk, according to health officials.

The months of June, July and August are considered the peak trauma season for hospital emergency departments. More people participating in sometimes risky outdoor activities and traveling during the summer means more traumatically injured patients hitting emergency departments and requiring blood transfusions, said Allan Philp, MD, director of trauma and acute care surgery, AHN, and chief medical officer, Allegheny General Hospital.

According to nonprofit blood services provider Vitalant, the number of new donors is down by 12 percent year over year, with 92,000 fewer donors annually compared to pre-pandemic levels. Just three percent of the population donates blood regularly and a sharp, unexplainable decrease in younger donors has also impacted blood supplies.

Every time you donate you help ensure a patients lifesaving treatment doesnt have to be put on hold, said Vitalant Chief Medical and Scientific Officer Dr. Ralph Vassallo. When patient needs consistently outpace blood donors, chances are higher a leukemia patient wont be able to get their regular transfusion, for example, or a patient will have their surgery delayed.

Dr. Vassallo said blood donation takes about an hour of time to complete and a single donor can save up to three lives.

The multi-media public service campaign will launch in mid-July and run through the end of September, with placements scheduled throughout the region. Additionally, a microsite was created: http://www.givebloodsavelives.org that encourages people to conveniently schedule their donation through Vitalant or the Red Cross online.
Dan Hermann, President and CEO of Ziegler stated, While we are focused on generating financial returns, we are also committed to driving increased society and community benefits, and greater awareness of technologies and services that will advance successful aging.

Ziegler, a leading healthcare investment bank with a significant presence in the senior living, healthcare, and information technology sectors as well as other related investment activities, and LinkAge Ventures, Inc. (LinkAge), a venture firm focused on investing in leading companies that provide products, services and technology to the aging marketplace, are pleased to announce the formation and close of the Ziegler LinkAge Fund III, L.P. (the Fund), the third fund in the Ziegler LinkAge fund family.

The General Partner of the Fund is Ziegler LinkAge Management III, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, which is a 50/50 joint venture between Ziegler Longevity III, LLC, an affiliate of The Ziegler Companies, Inc. and LinkAge Ventures Management III, LLC, an affiliate of LinkAge, (collectively, the General Partner). Amid demographic shifts in the United States (U.S.) where the population of older adults requiring care continues to grow, while the number of eligible caregivers continues to shrink, the General Partner believes the marketplace for technologies and tech-enabled service solutions addressing the health, care and wellness of the aging population is crucially important. The growing aging population is living longer on average, and with a higher prevalence of chronic disease (e.g., heart disease, cancer, diabetes). This combination of factors is expected to increase the burden on many resources needed to provide for this growing demographic, including healthcare, labor, and financial resources, which in turn is anticipated to drive demand for technology and tech-enabled solutions and services that have the ability to alleviate stress on the healthcare system, and help those in all healthcare settings more efficiently support and care for seniors. The General Partner believes these trends present an attractive opportunity to generate investment returns while also supporting development of critical tools to support the industry.

The Fund will target equity and equity-like (including debt and convertible debt), usually minority investments in early to mid-stage, emerging-growth companies that are operating in or developing businesses focused on aging and related care. The profile of companies in which the Fund will invest will typically have reached commercialization stage with a differentiated solution, and are believed to feature prospects for growing revenue.

Key investment themes will include, but are not limited to, the following:



Workforce Solutions;

Emerging Managed Care Models;

Patient and Provider Engagement Solutions;

Coordination of Care;

Telehealth (Telemedicine, Virtual Care, and Remote Monitoring);

Value-Based Care Enablement; and

Social Determinants of Health.

The Fund also provides a unique platform for collaboration and innovation amongst the limited partner investors which consist primarily of organizations across the senior living and care, healthcare, and aging services landscape that have a significant interest in finding innovative solutions to improve the independence, quality and cost of care, and overall lives of the aging population. A key goal of the General Partners investment policy for the Fund is to foster collaboration between these strategic investors and portfolio companies in order to increase awareness of technologies and services they can use in their businesses, to network with like-minded, progressive organizations, and to share best-practices in adopting and implementing new technologies, all while building Portfolio Company momentum to generate a positive financial return. The General Partner seeks to accomplish these goals through a variety of investor-exclusive content and programming including webinars, conferences, and focus groups.

John Hopper, the Chief Investment Officer of the Fund, stated, A silver lining of the pandemic has been a staggering advance in not only acceptance of healthcare technologies, but an overall focus in the healthcare and senior living space on innovation. While many things have slowed in the market and elsewhere of late, one area that continues to increase is the demand for longevity services and technology to improve the quality of life for older adults. We are excited to play a role in funding the high growth innovators providing solutions in this market.

Dan Hermann, President and CEO of Ziegler added, While we are focused on generating financial returns, we are also committed to driving increased society and community benefits, and greater awareness of technologies and services that will advance successful aging. Thus, our goals are aligned with those of our limited partners  to positively impact the lives of seniors and improve the healthcare experience.

Hermann continued, The investments we make advance solutions for older adults by supporting development of new technologies and services, streamlining evaluation and adoption of emerging technologies among senior living and care providers, and fostering connections. As these companies grow and scale, they build the tools and technology senior living providers and older adults need to support healthy aging.

ABOUT LINKAGE VENTURES:

Link-age Ventures leverages deep consumer insights to identify and invest in the aging services of tomorrowproviding you the foresight required to ignite future growth in a competitive marketplace. Our team provides resources, expertise and relationships that seek to deliver above-average investment returns, and help establish a differentiated position for long-term success. To learn more visit http://www.LinkageConnect.com

ABOUT ZIEGLER:

Ziegler is a privately held investment bank, capital markets and proprietary investments firm. Specializing in the healthcare, senior living and education sectors, as well as general municipal and structured finance, enables Ziegler to generate a positive impact on the clients and communities it serves. Headquartered in Chicago with regional and branch offices throughout the United States, Ziegler provides its clients with capital raising, strategic advisory services, equity and fixed income sales & trading and research. To learn more, visit http://www.ziegler.com.

Certain comments in this news release represent forward-looking statements made pursuant to the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This clients experience may not be representative of the experience of other clients, nor is it indicative of future performance or success. The forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, in particular, the overall financial health of the securities industry, the strength of the healthcare sector of the U.S. economy and the municipal securities marketplace, the ability of the Company to underwrite and distribute securities, the outcome of pending litigation and the ability to attract and retain qualified employees.

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This book will also inform you of harmful influences that can affect your spiritual wellbeing, said Clark. As well as, what you need to do to be ready when Jesus returns.

Author Jessie Clark provides readers with valuable, life-enhancing information in What Does God Expect and Require of Christians?: According to New Testament Scriptures ($13.99, paperback, 9781662852411; $5.99, e-book, 9781662852428).

Having lived in several states and cities throughout adulthood, Clark attended many churches. In doing so, he observed that Christians are missing valuable information about the Bible. This ultimately inspired him to share what was on his heart through discussions in a book club, with his wife and a few close friends. Clark hopes that readers of his book will gain a knowledge and understanding of what kind of relationship to have with the heavenly Father and brothers and sisters in Christ; the person each is to be; the life that is to be lived; and what is expected and required of the church body.

This book will also inform you of harmful influences that can affect your spiritual wellbeing, said Clark. As well as, what you need to do to be ready when Jesus returns.

Jessie Clark was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. He is married with 4 children. Clark has a bachelors degree in Business Management and Marketing. He worked for Motorola and Westinghouse for 13 years before serving as a district support administrator in the public school system. Clark is now enjoying retirement including spending time with family and friends and appreciating nature to the utmost.

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Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, is the worlds largest Christian self-publisher, with more than 15,000 titles published to date. What Does God Expect and Require of Christians?: According to New Testament Scriptures is available online through xulonpress.com/bookstore, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.


Customers looking to purchase a versatile Sport Adventure Vehicle should check out the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz at Carter County Hyundai.

Hyundai's first-ever Sport Adventure Vehicle, the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz, was recently added to the inventory at Carter County Hyundai in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The vehicle offers the modern convenience and space of an SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) and a pickup truck's open bed, providing drivers with both flexibility and freedom.

Available in the trim levels SE, SEL, SEL Premium, and Limited, the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz is priced at a starting MSRP of $24,440. The vehicle is powered by a 2.5L Inline-4 cylinder producing 191 horsepower and 181 pound-feet of torque; the higher-end trims possess similar engine specifications but provide 281 horsepower and 311 pound-feet of torque.

Prospective buyers can schedule a test drive of the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz at Carter County Hyundai by visiting the dealership's website at http://www.cartercountyhyundai.com. Customers can also visit the dealership located at 616 Holiday Drive in Ardmore, Oklahoma 73401, or contact the dealership representative at 833-945-0126.

Feel free to reach out to Carter County Hyundai for further assistance.
You will see how Gods Word is alive and relevant for our everyday life and learn ways you can create godly and righteous reactions, instead of reacting sinfully, as if it was a reflex

Author Jesse Posner shares training for the army of God in Soldiers and Their Battle Drills: Spiritual Warfare ($14.49, paperback, 9781662852398; $6.99, e-book, 9781662852404).

Posner served in the U.S. Army for thirteen years, and has come to see how many of the tactics and methods used for training in the military apply to the spiritual warfare that Christians should be preparing themselves for every day. In this book, he offers the wisdom acquired through his unique blend of military and ministry experience to help believers train for victory.

You will see how Gods Word is alive and relevant for our everyday life and learn ways you can create godly and righteous reactions, instead of reacting sinfully, as if it was a reflex, said Posner.

Jesse Posner is a teacher, preacher, and evangelist who served in the U.S. Army and studied at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. He has a B.S. in Religion with a minor in Christian Counseling. He has been a youth leader, young adult leader, youth development pastor, and lead pastor at various churches throughout his ministry.

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Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, is the worlds largest Christian self-publisher, with more than 15,000 titles published to date. Soldiers and Their Battle Drills is available online through xulonpress.com/bookstore, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.
This contract expands our strong and satisfied base of state and local government clients, in whose contract and procurement processes we help revitalize and develop for streamlined, automated, and user-friendly experiences. - Mark Nastasi, President & Founder of CobbleStone

CobbleStone Software, a leading contract management software provider, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded Texas DIR cooperative contract DIR-CPO-5081 for its Software Solutions. The contract will expand on the offering of CobbleStones leading-edge contract management and procurement software platform  CobbleStone Contract Insight.

CobbleStone Software, an acclaimed leader in enterprise contract lifecycle management and eProcurement software solutions, has been in business for more than 20 years and has proven experience in offering ever-evolving contract management and eProcurement tools for digital transformation. They are already trusted by thousands of Texas-based state and local government users.

CobbleStone Contract Insight software offers contract and procurement professionals a user-friendly and low-friction experience.

CobbleStone is the leading contract lifecycle management software dedicated to helping government professionals manage all parts and processes throughout the life of their contracts, making CobbleStone the best option for Texas-based government professionals.

To learn more about CobbleStones cooperative contract with Texas DIR, click here.

We at CobbleStone Software are excited to hold a cooperative contract with Texas DIR, says Mark Nastasi, President & Founder of CobbleStone Software.

This contract expands the offering of our leading-edge contract lifecycle management software to our strong and satisfied base of government clients in Texas, and we know our solutions can play a crucial role in revitalizing the contract and procurement processes of the many state and local government organizations associated with the Texas DIR.

To learn more about CobbleStone Software's leading contract management and procurement software suite, CobbleStone Contract Insight, visit CobbleStone Software.

Contact CobbleStone Software to schedule a free demo and acquire pricing information at Sales@CobbleStoneSoftware.com or call them at 866-330-0056.

About CobbleStone Software:

CobbleStone Software is a celebrated leader in contract management software solutions whose flagship CLM software solution  CobbleStone Contract Insight  expedites contract management, vendor management, eProcurement, and eSourcing processes while offering seamless integrations, ease-of-use, and high scalability. CobbleStone's contract lifecycle management solutions provide simplified contract and vendor tracking, highly configurable email alerts, user-friendly calendar notifications, intelligent contract workflow automation, highly robust security options, streamlined authoring of contract templates with dynamic clauses, centralized revenue/cost management, detailed text indexing and searching, future-minded vendor/client ratings, robust document version control, custom contract management reports, speedy IntelliSign electronic signatures, more intelligent contracts with VISDOM artificial intelligence and machine learning, and more.

Follow CobbleStone Software on social media:

> LinkedIn

> Twitter

> Facebook

> YouTube

To stay up to date on contract lifecycle management industry trends and news, subscribe to CobbleStones Contract Insights blog.
Nearly 1,000 guests attended the Casey Jones Village Festival Saturday, July 9, 2022. The support we received from the community, our sponsors, and guests was outstanding this year. We plan to build on what we started by adding more activities, vendors, and opportunities to showcase West Tennessee talent.

The inaugural Casey Jones Village Festival attracted nearly 1,000 people Saturday, July 9, 2022, making it the first large outdoor event held on its campus since the COVID-19 shut down more than two years ago. The event was also the first since the passing of second-generation owner Clark Shaw following his battle with COVID-19 in late 2020. Third-generation owner Brooks Shaw and his team planned this free event as a day for guests to visit the campus for food, fun and fellowship.

Im very proud of my son, Brooks Shaws Old Country Store co-owner Juanita Shaw said. To watch him where his dad was at one time is such an amazing thing. He plans things like his daddy did. I think Clark would be pleased, and seeing the people here lets us know were on the path to where God wants us to be.

The event was co-sponsored by the Jackson-Madison County Bicentennial Commission, which will hold its grand finale of events Aug. 12 and Aug. 13 (jacksonmadison200.com). Among the many sponsors that made the day possible include WNBJ, Forever Communications, US Foods and Coca-Cola.

The support we received from the community, our sponsors and guests was outstanding this year, Brooks Shaw said. We plan to build on what we started by adding more activities, vendors and opportunities to showcase West Tennessee talent.

Shaw is planning to host the second annual Casey Jones Village Festival in the fall of 2023.

During the festival, some of the most important things happened  people were able to connect, families spent some quality time together and new friendships were formed, he said.

Many of the guests at the festival had their choice of keepsakes from the Jackson-Madison County Bicentennial Commission and received a passport for the day. The goal was to collect four stamps from each area of the village  The Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum, The Farm at Casey Jones Village, Art in the Village Gallery and The Old Country Store  and the sweet prize for visiting all of the areas was a free scoop of Blue Bell ice cream from Miss Annes Ice Cream Shoppe.

Twelve-year-old Jeremiah Alexander, of Paris, Tennessee, chose a scoop of strawberry, as he explained to his grandmother his plans for the new blank canvas he had purchased while visiting the Art in the Village Gallery.

My mom used to paint, and I like painting, Alexander said. He and his younger brother, Jamarion, 10, also enjoyed petting the animals at Susie Coles Playhouse Petting Zoo and Specialty Animals at the festival. Cole brought about 20 animals including a llama, a baby kangaroo named Kansas, several goats and a ring-tailed lemur.

We like to see these kinds of activities in Jackson, Jamie Sprague said. She, along with her husband, Nick, and 8-month-old daughter, Chloe, stopped at the festival Saturday morning. Its great getting to meet local people, and how often can you hold and feed a baby kangaroo?

The Neely familys first stop was the Casey Jones Railroad Museum. Newcomers to Jackson by way of Charleston, South Carolina, Amy Neely decided the festival was a great way to learn about the community.

We moved here to be closer to family, she said. When I heard about this, I told everyone that this is what were doing Saturday morning.

Guests who were in the mood for shopping had their pick of local vendors who were selling handmade jewelry, dog treats, leather goods, clothing and more.

Ive had a good day in sales, Cari Hayes said, of CH Beads out of Lexington, Tennessee. Hayes specializes in handmade earrings and other trinkets. Everyone has been so kind and welcoming.

Social media feedback has also been positive for the inaugural event.

We really enjoyed it; thanks for having the festival! Roanna Gwen Hart wrote in her Facebook post. We let a young man from Georgia, who was by himself, sit with us because we didn't want him to have to wait on a table. He was a fine Christian, and our fellowship with him was great. We consider him a new friend for life. He plans on coming back in September with his new bride and meeting us again at the restaurant. So the festival had a lot of great things, and making new friends was pretty awesome too!

Those interested in seeing photos from this years festival in addition to plans for future Casey Jones Village Festivals can visit and follow http://www.facebook.com/caseyjonesvillagefestival.

Brooks Shaws Old Country Store has been in business for more than 55 years. With about 100 team members employed, they serve more than half a million residents and tourists each year. Built around its expansive Southern-soul buffet, Brooks Shaws Old Country Store serves local, national and international guests in an atmosphere filled with historic charm and modern updates. It also includes Miss Annes Ice Cream Parlor and a Southern Gift Shop. The campus includes Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum, The Farm at Casey Jones Village, Art in the Village Gallery and The Old Country Store. More information is available at facebook.com/caseyjonesvillagefestival, instagram.com/oldcountrystorecjv and caseyjones.com.
Cybereason, the XDR company, and Truvisor today announced a partnership that will protect ASEAN region organizations from sophisticated cyberattacks. As part of the partnership, Truvisor will expand Cybereasons reach with the regions top resellers and MSSPs across Southeast Asia.

Todays sophisticated cyberattacks bypass commonly used legacy security products employed by the vast majority of companies today, leaving gaping holes in network security. The Cybereason Defense Platform analyzes more than 23 trillion security-related events per week, five times the volume of other solutions, providing unparalleled visibility. Using its patented MalOp (malicious operations) detection engine, Cybereason reveals the full attack story from root cause across every device, user identity, application and cloud deployment.

"The partnership between Cybereason and Truvisor is a fit, because they provide complete endpoint security against today's most advanced threats, said Jonathan Juay, Executive Director of Truvisor. Often, the weakest link in an organizations network is its remote workforce because they dont use dedicated VPNs, leaving corporate IP and other critical assets at higher risk of being compromised. By giving our joint customers a complete view across all network connected devices, including IoT devices, Cybereason will enable ASEAN companies to reduce risk and improve their ability to stop attacks in their infancy.

"Cybereason and Truvisor will provide joint customers with the ability to see deep into all connected network devices, dramatically increasing the ability to stop motivated and persistent adversaries from the outset of their attacks, said Eric Nagel, General Manager APAC, Cybereason. Attackers follow the path of least resistance when targeting an enterprise. By preparing in peacetime and deploying the right prevention and detection solutions in addition to having around-the-clock threat hunting, Defenders can send a powerful message to threat actors to look elsewhere.

Cybereason offers a $1 million Breach Protection Warranty, providing enterprises with coverage in the event of a breach. It protects against a variety of attacks, including zero-day, malware and ransomware attacks and is available free to customers. Learn more about our $1 million Breach Protection Warranty.

About TruVisor

Truvisor began its operation in 2008 as a visionary IT distributor that brings together innovators and problem solvers to help the world accomplish more in technology. We offer solutions that focus on Digitalisation & Automation, Cybersecurity, and Cloud Management solutions to end users through our efficient and effective partner ecosystem across SEA. Truvisor's experience working with IT vendors and partners has given us an in-depth understanding of what it takes to be successful  and we've got over 100 transformation projects under our belt. Today Truvisor operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam.

For more information, please visit http://www.truvisor.io.

For media queries, please email marketing@truvisor.io

About Cybereason

Cybereason is the XDR company, partnering with Defenders to end attacks at the endpoint, in the cloud and across the entire enterprise ecosystem. Only the AI-driven Cybereason Defense Platform provides planetary-scale data ingestion, operation-centric MalOp detection, and predictive response that is undefeated against modern ransomware and advanced attack techniques. Cybereason is a privately held international company headquartered in Boston with customers in more than 40 countries.

Learn more: https://www.cybereason.com/

Follow us: Blog | Twitter | Facebook

Media contact:

Bill Keeler

Senior Director, Global Public Relations

Cybereason

bill.keeler@cybereason.com

+1 (929) 259-3261
Law Office of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP For more information about the class action lawsuit against Sunderstorm Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

The San Francisco employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a class action complaint alleging that Sunderstorm Inc. violated the California Labor Code. The Sunderstorm Inc., class action lawsuit, Case No. 22CV001827, is currently pending in the San Francisco County Superior Court of the State of California. A copy of the Complaint can be read here.

According to the lawsuit filed, Sunderstorm Inc. allegedly (a) failed to pay minimum wages, (b) failed to pay overtime wages, (c) failed to provide legally required meal and rest periods, (d) failed to provide accurate itemized wage statements, (e) failed to reimburse employees for required expenses, and (f) failed to pay sick wages, all in violation of the applicable Labor Code sections listed in California Labor Code Sections  201-204, 226, 226.7, 233, 246, 510, 512, 1194, 1197, 1197.1, 2802, and the applicable Wage Order(s), and thereby gives rise to civil penalties as a result of such alleged conduct.

Additionally, Sunderstorm Inc. allegedly failed to fully relieve employees for their legally required thirty (30) minute meal breaks. Employees were also allegedly required, from time to time, to work in excess of four (4) hours without being provided the legally required ten (10) minute rest periods. The California Supreme Court defines off-duty rest periods as time during which an employee is relieved from all work related duties and free from employer control.

For more information about the class action lawsuit against Sunderstorm Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is an employment law firm with offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside and Chicago that dedicates its practice to helping employees, investors and consumers fight back against unfair business practices, including violations of the California Labor Code and Fair Labor Standards Act. If you need help in collecting unpaid overtime wages, unpaid commissions, being wrongfully terminated from work, and other employment law claims, contact one of their attorneys today.

***THIS IS AN ATTORNEY ADVERTISEMENT***
The solution evaluates advisors' independent practices and assesses the business' performance and health against industry standards.

Financial Advocates, LLC (FA), one of the largest Offices of Supervisory Jurisdiction (OSJ) with LPL in the Pacific Northwest, announced today that they have rolled out a performance assessment tool, Truelytics, for its financial advisors. The solution evaluates advisors' independent practices and assesses the business' performance and health against industry standards.

As the financial services industry continues to evolve, advisors and wealth managers need an effective tool that can deliver insight into the strength of their business. Financial Advocates partnered with Truelytics to provide advisors with a better understanding of every aspect of their practice; helping them make informed business plans and decisions.

"The global economy is seeing unprecedented changes and challenges that will impact our financial advisors' business and how they make practice management decisions," said Angela Vlach, President, Chief Executive Officer for Financial Advocates. "Our goal to serve our advisors and help promote the growth of their businesses requires a digital solution that can illustrate where and how their practices can improve. Truelytics is an effective tool that guides the advisors and helps them work towards their practice goals."

With insight and experience from the FA Business Consulting team, Truelytics is delivered to all current and future members of the company's network, enabling business leaders to track the progress and value of their practice while measuring against industry-standard key performance indicators. The solution provides a baseline of performance against areas such as client and revenue stability. Advisors can also evaluate metrics such as firm structure, number of households per advisor and staff, operating expenses, relationships with the next generation, and much more.

To learn more about how Truelytics can grow your independent practice, contact your FA Business Consultant, or visit financialadvocates.com to join Financial Advocates.

About Financial Advocates

Financial Advocates, LLC (FA) and their Hybrid RIA, Financial Advocates Investment Management (FAIM), provide servant leadership in the financial advice market and serves as a financial advisor's primary ally through the transition, growth, and ongoing management of an independent practice. FA's experienced and diverse staff delivers intensive support to advisors as they transition to an Independent Broker-Dealer, a Hybrid RIA, or a pure RIA model to achieve greater independence. Advisors then enjoy concierge-level service in business development, regulatory compliance oversight, operations, IT, marketing, and investment management. Financial Advocates and Financial Advocates Investment Management provide services to more than 320 independent financial advisors, several banks and credit unions, and more than 150 support staff.

Financial Advocates, Financial Advocates Investment Management, and its affiliates have over 40 home office employees with office locations in Olympia, WA, and Tacoma, WA. For more information, please visit http://www.financialadvocates.com.

Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advice and financial planning offered through Financial Advocates Investment Management, a registered investment advisor. Financial Advocates Investment management, Financial Advocates, and LPL Financial are separate entities.
"Greenberg Traurig is committed to Texas and its legal market, and has been for almost 20 years," said Richard A. Rosenbaum, the firm's Executive Chairman.

Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP is strategically expanding in Texas with the addition of Adam Laughton as a Health Care & FDA Practice shareholder in its growing Houston office. Laughton joins the firm from Seyfarth Shaw LLP where he served as a partner in the corporate practice.

"Greenberg Traurig is committed to Texas and its legal market, and has been for almost 20 years," said Richard A. Rosenbaum, the firm's Executive Chairman. "As Greenberg Traurig Houston continues to expand, it is important that we remain true to the spirit and business needs of the city, including the further strengthening of our health care practice and maintaining an environment that is diverse, vibrant and innovative, while collaborating with our national and global practices."

Adding solution-driven and client-centric attorneys to our office is a top priority, as we continue our strategic expansion efforts, said Shari L. Heyen, managing shareholder of the Houston office. Adams knowledge and experience in regulatory and compliance matters will make him a valued asset to our clients and the firm. We look forward to a successful future together.

Laughton guides clients through complex regulations, enforcement, potential investigations, and reimbursement challenges that define the highly regulated health care industry. He also works with providers to develop custom legal strategies for doing business in an ever-changing industry.

Greenberg Traurigs global platform will allow me to better serve my clients in the most effective and efficient way, Laughton said. I look forward to growing my career alongside a dynamic team of highly-regarded legal minds.

During his 14-year career, Laughton has handled dozens of transactions in the health care space, ranging in size up to $1 billion in value. His clientele includes healthcare facilities, physicians, pharmacies, laboratories, and other service providers. He also advises startups, entrepreneurs, and provider joint ventures.

Laughton will be a prominent member of the Health Care & FDA Practice in Houston which includes Shareholder Charles C. Dunham, IV. Laughton earned his J.D. and B.A. from Duke University.

In addition to Laughton, the firms three offices in Texas have recently added strategic hires in various core practice areas, including Shareholders Ashley Aten (Real Estate), Steven E. Bartz (Corporate), Denis Braham (Real Estate), Vernon L. Lewis (White Collar Defense & Special Investigations), and Austin R. Wyker (Tax); and, as Of Counsels, Lauren Harrison (Litigation), Martye Kendrick (Public Finance & Infrastructure), and Jennifer S. Kukla (Real Estate).

About Greenberg Traurigs Health Care & FDA Practice: Greenberg Traurigs multidisciplinary Health Care & FDA Practice provides strategic counsel to a diverse group of companies and other organizations, helping them to respond proactively to the rapidly changing health care marketplace. The group combines dedicated experience in health care regulatory compliance and operational matters with the firms capabilities in corporate & securities, finance, tax, antitrust, ERISA, commercial and governmental litigation, restructuring, intellectual property and biotechnology, in order to provide a wide range of legal services.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP  Texas: Texas is important to Greenberg Traurig, LLP and the firms history. With approximately 140 Texas lawyers in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, Greenberg Traurig has deep roots in the Texas business, legal, and governmental communities. Greenberg Traurig Texas works with clients to address their interdisciplinary legal needs across the state utilizing the firms global platform. The Texas attorneys are experienced in industries key to the states future, including: aviation, chemicals, construction, education, energy and natural resources, financial institutions, health care, hedge funds, hospitality, infrastructure, insurance, media, medical devices, pharmaceutical and biotechnology, real estate, retail, sports, technology and software, telecommunications, transportation, and video games and esports.

About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP has more than 2400 attorneys in 43 locations in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm, often recognized for its focus on philanthropic giving, innovation, diversity, and pro bono, reported gross revenue of over $2 Billion for FY 2021. The firm is consistently among the top firms on the Am Law 100, Am Law Global 100, NLJ 250, and Law360 (US) 400. On the debut 2022 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard, it is a Top 15 firm. Greenberg Traurig is Mansfield Rule 4.0 Certified Plus by The Diversity Lab and net carbon neutral with respect to its office energy usage. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com.
Kemal Hawa, shareholder of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLPs Corporate Practice, will moderate the opening panel discussion titled State of the Denver Market: Is Denver Becoming a Top Regional Data Center Hub? at Bisnows Data Center Investment Conference & Expo (DICE) Denver event August 17 at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora, Colorado.

The panelists include Jason Carolan, Chief Innovation Officer of Flexential; Mitchell Fonseca, Senior VP & GM of Data Center Services at Cyxtera Technologies; and Stephanie Henley, Corporate Economic Development Manager of Xcel Energy. They will discuss the steady growth of the Denver data center marking and capitalizing on the increasing demand, as well as the trends and challenges the providers may face in the region.

Hawa focuses his practice on corporate and securities law with an emphasis on the telecommunications, media, tower, and technology industries domestically and internationally. He regularly advises public and private companies, private equity firms, investment banks, and creditors committees on a variety of matters, including mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies and restructurings, investments, financing arrangements, licensing agreements, and commercial transactions. Hawa assists clients with the negotiation of transactions in the Digital Infrastructure space globally, including transactions involving data centers, fiber, towers, and subsea cables.

About Greenberg Traurigs Corporate Practice: Greenberg Traurigs Corporate Practice comprises more than 550 lawyers in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America who regularly advise public and privately held companies, entrepreneurs and investment funds on global mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, private equity and venture capital, underwritten and syndicated offerings, commercial finance and syndicated lending, cross-border transactions, and general corporate matters. The groups industry experience includes transactions in a wide range of fields, from the pharmaceutical, medical devices, and life sciences fields, to representations involving clients in the aviation, banking, consumer products, energy, food and beverage, health care, manufacturing, media, technology, and telecommunications sectors.

About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP has more than 2400 attorneys in 43 locations in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm, often recognized for its focus on philanthropic giving, innovation, diversity, and pro bono, reported gross revenue of over $2 Billion for FY 2021. The firm is consistently among the top firms on the Am Law 100, Am Law Global 100, NLJ 250, and Law360 (US) 400. On the debut 2022 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard, it is a Top 15 firm. Greenberg Traurig is Mansfield Rule 4.0 Certified Plus by The Diversity Lab and net carbon neutral with respect to its office energy usage. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com.
We are honored that Gull Creek Senior Living Community has been recognized by the readers of Coastal Style magazine as being among 2022s best on the Eastern Shore, says Rod Burkett, Gardant CEO.

Gardant Management Solutions, Inc. is thrilled to hear that out of 532,337 votes casted one of our assisted living communities we manage, Gull Creek Senior Living Community, has won Best Assisted Living Provider of 2022 in Worcester County by the readers of Coastal Style magazine! Winning the Coastal Style Best of Readers Poll is widely regarded as the most popular and prestigious media award in the region. Coastal Style magazine named Gull Creek the top Worcester County assisted living provider in 2021, and The Metropolitan Magazine ranked Gull Creek Senior Living Community as the top assisted living community from Berlin to Ocean City the previous year.

We are honored that Gull Creek Senior Living Community has been recognized by the readers of Coastal Style magazine as being among 2022s best on the Eastern Shore, says Rod Burkett, Gardant CEO. We are committed to our mission of enriching the lives of the residents we serve by providing them with the Love, Compassion, and Dignity they deserve in addition to the personal assistance and support services they need.

Gull Creek Senior Living Community, located in historic Berlin, Maryland, is close to shopping, superior care and cultural attractions, plus beautiful beaches, and state parks, including Assateague Island and its famous wild ponies. Gull Creek Senior Living Community consistently ranks as one of the areas top communities. Gull Creek Senior Living Community is the most sought-after senior living community in the area, and apartments are renting quickly. To learn more about Gull Creek Senior Living Community visit: http://www.gullcreek.com.

Coastal Styles Best Of is a celebration of the very best the Eastern Shore has to offer in the industries of Art, Beauty & Style, Coastal Style Honors, Fitness & Recreation, Food & Beverage, For the Home, Healthcare, Our Community, Pets, Professional, Shopping & Services and Weddings in Sussex, Dorchester/Talbot, Wicomico, and Worcester counties. Nominees, finalists, and winners are determined by the readers of Coastal Style magazine.

Winners are determined when readers nominate their favorites, in dozens of categories, through an online ballot. Nominations were accepted from February 1-28, 2022, as the 1st part of the competition. The businesses that received the most nominations in each category advanced to the 2nd part of the competition: The Voting Round, which runs May 1-31, 2022. The top vote-getter in each category will be crowned as this years Best of Coastal Style winners. For more information visit: https://coastalstylemag.com/best-of-2022/.


US Storage Centers in Raleigh, NC

Invesco, in partnership with Westport, announced that it has acquired eight self-storage properties encompassing 3,844 units in 4 separate transactions in Clarksville (Tennessee), Bend (Oregon), Raleigh-Durham (North Carolina), and Winston Salem (North Carolina). The partnership will rebrand the properties under the US Storage Centers brand with Westport Properties serving as the operator.

Properties include:



Clarksville, Tennessee: 471 units located at 4351 Guthrie Highway

Clarksville, Tennessee: 505 units located at 1280 Parkway Place

Clarksville, Tennessee: 371 units located at 117 Old Excell Road

Raleigh, North Carolina: 686 units and 52 parking spaces located at 6401 Town Center Drive

Durham, North Carolina: 646 units located at 112 W Seminary Avenue

Bend, Oregon: 550 units located at 202030 Powers Road

Bend, Oregon: 124 units located at 3 45 Cleveland Avenue

Winston Salem: 491 units located at 3975 University Parkway

Invesco and Westport represented themselves in the acquisition.

About US Storage Centers

Founded in 1985, Westport Properties (WPI) is an owner-operator of self-storage, multifamily, and industrial properties across the United States. The Company is a fully integrated operator that develops, acquires, and manages its portfolio as well as provides third-party management services. As of January 2022, WPI has approximately 12 million square feet of self-storage space under management and its total assets under management are approaching $2.5 billion with its US Storage Centers brand as well as over 750 multifamily units in two states while employing over 600 people nationwide. WPI is a founding partner of the 501(c)3 Kure-It, a non-profit organization that raises money for underfunded cancer research, and Charity Storage, a 501(c)3 that uses vacant storage units to raise money for local charities. To date, Kure-It has raised over $12M and Charity Storage has raised over $500K.
The Other Side of Communication: a thoughtful exploration of ones connection with others. The Other Side of Communication is the creation of published author Jean Vautoir Paul.

Paul shares, I, Jean Vautoir Paul, was born in Jeremie, Haiti. My mother, two sisters, and I went to Port-au-Prince (the capital of Haiti) on the invitation of our aunt Edele. She introduced us to Ms. Eleanor Louise Snare, a white American lady who adopted our orphan cousin, Jean Fanes Snare, who really needed a mom or a dad at that time. She raised us as a big happy family. Those three women had inculcated in us the best moral principles ever. Ms. Snare couldnt afford to send us to college, so with only my high school diploma, I went to teach English. After a few years, I was blessed to run my own English school, One Way English School, in Thomassin 25. In 1999, I left for Philadelphia; and in 2014, left for Florida and settled here since. I always dreamed to make a difference in other peoples lives. Therefore, in a day-by-day basis, I do my research so I can become a professional writer to bring change, hope, love, understanding, wisdom, compassion, and respect in the lives of so many who need and deserve it. Hopefully, my books do just that so I can form better people, children, societies, and families for a better world. I take pleasure in writing. Its my life. Read my books and get addicted to do the right thing.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Jean Vautoir Pauls new book will challenge and encourage readers as they reflect on the heartfelt guidance found within.

Paul is motivated by a desire to see others live joyful and compassionate lives.

Consumers can purchase The Other Side of Communication at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about The Other Side of Communication, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Lerner & Rowe Injury Attorneys - 2022 Las Vegas Backpack Giveaways Child should have the tools they need to get the education that they deserve.

Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys is supporting vulnerable and underserved youth across Clark County by participating in FREE southern Nevada back to school events. At each event the law firm will give away backpacks stuffed with school supplies in partnership with the Clark County School District Police Department (CCSD PD). Other community services providers and businesses will also be in attendance offering a variety of items and services to help families offset financial expenses associated with preparing for the 2022-2023 school year.

Its an unfortunate truth that some students may not get the education they deserve because of financial obstacles. We believe that every child should have the tools they need to get the education that they deserve. That is why we are thrilled to join forces and partner with the Clark County School District Police Department at various back to school events that will directly benefit at-risk youth across the Las Vegas Valley, shared attorney Glen Lerner.

Backpacks and school supplies are limited and will be handed out on a first-come, first-served basis, while supplies last.

Anyone interested in learning more about Lerner and Rowes involvement at Clark County, Nevada FREE back to school events should contact Guy Williams by email at gwilliams@lernerandrowe.com, by phone at (702) 858-9941, or by visiting LernerAndRowe.com/Free-Backpacks/.

More About Lerner and Rowe

Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys is a powerhouse law firm in representing personal injury clients. Attorneys Glen Lerner and Kevin Rowe have grown their law firm into one of the largest personal injury firms in the country, with over 50 attorneys and nearly 400 support employees located in Nevada, Indiana, Illinois, Arizona, California, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, and Tennessee. The law firms continuous exalted levels of success can be attributed to the high levels of respect and dignity shown to victims and family members hurt in an accident.

For those injured outside one of the previously listed states, Lerner and Rowe has an established network of attorneys across the country, ready to help. The firm takes pride in nourishing these relationships as they know a personal injury attorney can make all the difference in obtaining fair compensation for the pain and suffering inflicted upon the victims of tortious conduct.

For more information about Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys in Southern Nevada, please call 702-877-1500. To connect with the law firm socially, follow Lerner and Rowe on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, or become a fan of its Facebook page. Also, visit lernerandrowegivesback.com to learn more about the many other community services that the lawyers and legal support team of Lerner and Rowe actively support.

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This year, lookthinkmake, an Austin-based, full-service advertising, branding and public relations agency secured two Texas Travel Awards for the City of Marble Falls: Johnson Park for Statewide Parks and Christmas in Marble Falls as the winner for Destination Marketing Campaign, Small Market. Launched by the publishers of Austin Monthly, San Antonio Magazine, and Texas Music, the awards were created to celebrate the top travel destinations and attractions across the Lone Star State.

We are delighted that Marble Falls has been recognized in these categories for the second year in a row; its really great to see the efforts of the City, lookthinkmake, and our local business owners being recognized at the state level, said Erin Burks, Downtown and Marketing Manager of Marble Falls. Its our priority to create fun and meaningful experiences for our residents and visitors, and our outdoor amenities and Christmas in Marble Falls season definitely reflect that.

The City of Marble Falls and lookthinkmake celebrate winning the Destination Marketing Campaign, Small Market two years in a row as the Marble Falls Visitor Guide took the crown in 2021. Johnson Park also boasts its second award in a row, winning the Public Park, Small Market category in 2021.

Lookthinkmake has had the honor to promote Marble Falls for the past four years, said Patricia Buchholtz, Co-Founder and Partner of lookthinkmake. Together the team worked hard to produce an award winning creative design to complement an award winning Texas city. We are excited to continue this partnership and to see the City of Marble Falls receive recognition for years to come.

Perched on the banks of the Colorado River lies Marble Falls  a gateway of the Highland Lakes region of the Texas Hill Country. At once a cultural center and small-town charmer, Marble Falls stands as a premier Hill Country destination, offering enough gorgeous scenery, appealing attractions and surprising amenities to keep travelers returning again and again, while also remaining uniquely suited as a hub to the surrounding regions natural beauty and connection to neighboring towns.

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About lookthinkmake

Founded in 2008, lookthinkmake is an integrated advertising, public relations, and digital marketing agency. As a firm dedicated to the practice of placemaking, lookthinkmake specializes in branding, advertising, public relations, conceptual positioning, identity, and collateral design and production, digital development, and social media. lookthinkmake clients are innovators, businesses, and organizations to brand big ideas and share them with the world, creating momentum to carry them well into the future. For more information about lookthinkmake, visit http://www.lookthinkmake.com
MAST @ SLFS Its the perfect festival for this beautiful piece, which shines when viewed as a narrative workreally a short film that happens to be animated.

Ninety-five Senses tells the story of a man facing his own mortality while reflecting on the grave mistakes of his youth. This is juxtaposed against the beauty of life and how we perceive it. It may be that in the next life, well have ninety-five senses, he muses. The film comprises five scenes, with connective vignettes, animated in six distinctive styles.

The animators were all winners of the inaugural MAST Springboard Voices Seen animation contest. This diverse, international group include Gabriella Badillo, Daniel Bruson, Michael Grover, Dominica Harrison, Dallin Penman, Jared Matthews, and KC Tobey, with their teams consisting of Adriana Arvizu, Tamara Cruz, Melissa Lopez, Cristina Lugo, Ruben Morales, Enrique Sanudo, and Scott McHenry.

HollyShorts, an Academy Award  Qualifying festival, has a history of minting future Oscar winners and nominees, particularly animations. If Anything Happens I Love You, an official selection of the festival in 2020, went on to win the Academy Award that year for Best Short Film (Animated). Other HollyShorts alumni nominated for recent Oscars include animated gems Boxballet (2021), Sister (2019), and Weekends (2018). We are thrilled to be premiering at HollyShorts, says Tori A. Baker. Its the perfect festival for this beautiful piece, which shines when viewed as a narrative workreally a short film that happens to be animated.

Ninety-five Senses is just the beginning, says producer Miles David Romney. The MAST program is designed to create opportunities for up-and-coming filmmakers and animators. Mentor support has been tremendous, including the incredible contributions of Jerusha and Jared Hess, Hubbel Palmer and Chris Bowman, and Tim Blake Nelson. As to what comes next, Romney says, Our next projects are in pre-production. We look forward to many premieres in the future!

The film is innovative in that it features so many different animation styles and techniques worked into just thirteen minutes. "Working with these animators, each with a different style and at a different career stage, was a blast, says director Jerusha Hess. This story makes room for a lot of very different aesthetic visions, and seeing what came out of their heads was amazing." Director Jared Hess says, "The MAST program gave us a chance to mentor some up-and-coming artistsand work with some established prosand it really let us all play in the sandbox and try something kind of wild, artistically and narratively. I can't wait to see what comes next!"

Writers Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer explain, "MAST presented us with an enticing creative challenge: Write a short narrative that can somehow accommodate a half-dozen stylistic shifts without jarring the audience. We conceived of Ninety-five Senses as a simple, almost trivial monologue by a rambling stranger that gradually reveals greater depths. By the end, hopefully we've touched on the nature of regret and redemption, even the morality of capital punishment." The pair adds, "The Hesses, as always, were uniquely inventive in their approach, and watching Tim Blake Nelson and these masterful artists interpret our words has been a true joy."

Producer Tori A. Baker brought Jerusha and Jared Hess to the project. Jerushas and Jareds work is so much fun, and they have been such generous supporters of the Salt Lake Film Society and MAST. And it was the prospect of working with them that attracted these world-class animators.

Producer Miles David Romney was thrilled to get Tim Blake Nelson to voice Coy. Tim has been a favorite actor of mine since his performance in Joel and Ethan Coens O Brother Where Art Thou. Chris and Hubbel delivered the script and said, Tim Blake Nelson has to voice this role. Of course! And lucky for us, Tims a big fan of Jared and Jerusha Hess, and came on immediately.

MAST, based in Salt Lake City, UT, provides grants, training, and mentorship to filmmakers and animators, with a special emphasis on projects that change minds and change the world. Its program includes a fellowship, labs, mentorship, career advocacy, networking, contests, productions, and funding.

More information is available at http://www.MASTStudio.org.


NeuroFlow, the market leader in behavioral health integration, has launched a referral network with a group of initial behavioral health service providers, tele-therapy companies, and telepsychiatry organizations to expand access to care across the healthcare industry. The growing demand for behavioral health support has put a spotlight on the challenges of accessing proper levels of care - this partnership introduces a new standard for navigating the ecosystem.

Joining the referral network will be:



LifeStance Health - One of the nation's largest providers of virtual and in-person outpatient mental healthcare

Array Behavioral Care - The nations leading clinician-centric virtual psychiatry and therapy practice

Brightside Health - Delivers life-changing virtual mental health care across the complexity, acuity, and severity spectrum  up to and including those with suicidal ideation

Marvin - The first mental health platform made for physicians, nurses, and other professionals working within a healthcare setting

Each of these partners provides best-in-class patient care through their available care delivery channels. The partnership will streamline access to timely and appropriate behavioral health care in a seamless manner for patients. NeuroFlow utilizes its triage engine to ensure the right users are referred to the right level of care based on need and severity, and then enables seamless measurement-based care to occur, ensuring quality and consistency in outcomes. NeuroFlows alignment with these like-minded organizations ensures providers and healthcare organizations can support populations with a broad range of needs, from maintenance to severe symptoms, medication management and counseling services. This network will further enhance access to care, engage users throughout their healthcare journey, and assess populations in and out of traditional care settings.

"The impetus for the referral network is to improve access to behavioral health care for all populations, streamlining the relationship between providers and technology platforms, as the adoption of new tools continues to accelerate in the industry, explains NeuroFlow Chief Executive Officer Chris Molaro. The formation of these referral partnerships will complement the needs of the existing  but evolving  healthcare infrastructure. Bottom line: if someone needs to see a licensed mental health care professional, we will ensure that it happens when it's needed, whether in-person or remotely.

Until recently, many of the products and services available to healthcare organizations have been built to solve specific use cases, prohibiting continuity in a patients healthcare experience. The referral network was developed in response to data suggesting that one third of Americans live in areas lacking mental health professionals, and over half of adults with a mental illness do not receive treatment at all. A database on Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) also illustrates access to care disparities across the country, a problem this partnership will directly address.

An early collaboration between NeuroFlow and Marvin highlights the impact of the partnership program, with the two companies working to integrate NeuroFlows self-care app and Marvins tailored on-demand therapy services for hundreds of employees at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia. The approach has furthered the healthcare organizations mission to reduce burnout and increase mental health resources for staff within hospital and academic settings.

NeuroFlows platform, currently utilized by hundreds of leading health systems, payors, and government entities, helps create a digital feedback loop of evidence-based self-service content that addresses a range of needs  from anxiety and depression to social determinants of health. As the company integrates its platform with existing care teams, payors, and providers, this network will increase bandwidth and seek to reduce the time it takes to find mental health support.

If you are a clinical service provider interested in joining this partnership program, visit the partners website or reach out to parker@neuroflow.com.

About NeuroFlow: NeuroFlow integrates behavioral health across the care continuum by assessing and triaging people to get them to the right level of care, providing high-tech and high-touch support for populations that would typically fall through the cracks in todays healthcare system. Proven to drive better clinical and financial outcomes for leading health systems, payors, and the Department of Defense covering 15 million lives, NeuroFlows platform combines consumer engagement with enterprise-level care management software and clinical support services to support integrated behavioral health at scale. To learn more, visit http://www.neuroflow.com.
"Purina is proud to support farmers leadership on sustainability as we continue bolstering our agricultural initiatives across the country," Jack Scott, Vice President of Sustainable Sourcing

Primient, a leading producer of food and industrial ingredients made from plant-based, renewable sources, is pleased to announce that Nestle Purina, a global leader in pet care, has joined its sustainable agriculture program. Through the program, Purina will sponsor 200,000 acres of corn grown in the United States.

Primients sustainable agriculture program supports Purinas net zero commitment by allowing greater visibility of its environmental footprint beyond their facilities, including the practices used by enrolled farms as well as progress reports outlining the impact of the sustainable corn growing program.

The Primient sustainable agriculture program includes nearly 1.5 million acres of corn. It is delivered in partnership with Truterra, LLC, the sustainable solutions business of Land OLakes, one of Americas largest farmer-owned cooperatives, and uses cutting-edge technology to support growers in targeting and measuring the impact of their agricultural practices across the year, allowing them to make more informed decisions around key resource usage as well as actively monitoring crop and soil health throughout the growing season.

Jack Scott, Vice President of Sustainable Sourcing at Nestle Purina, said, Purina is proud to support farmers leadership on sustainability as we continue bolstering our agricultural initiatives across the country. Partnerships with reputable organizations like Primient and Truterra enhance our sourcing of sustainable ingredients critical to feeding 51 million dogs and 66 million cats each year and promote conservation.

Laura Kowalski, Global Sustainability Manager, said, We are thrilled to partner with Purina to achieve our mutual sustainability ambitions: supporting sustainable agriculture, while also supporting Nestle Purinas net zero commitment. We are committed to driving measurable impact at the farm level, which is helping to increase sustainable farming practices throughout the value chain. This partnership is a great example of our principles in action.

Scaling sustainable agriculture truly requires many partners, added Jason Weller, President of Truterra. It takes farmers and their trusted advisors, ag retailers, as well as committed value chain partners such as Primient and Nestle Purina. Truterra is honored to be working alongside these groups to make an impact on sustainable grain production.

For more information on Primient and our Sustainable Agriculture Program please visit: http://www.primient.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Note to editors:

The collaborative sustainable agriculture program leverages the Truterra Insights Engine, an interactive on-farm digital platform that allows growers to adopt conservation practices, building on the work they are already doing to care for the air, land and water and allows the grower to assess return-on-investment in real time, acre-by-acre. Insights from the cutting-edge technology can improve soil health, protect biodiversity, and potentially sequester carbon.

For Primient

Pendulum PR (Media)

Tel: +1 614-448-8703

Chris Herbert

or cherbert@pendulum-pr.com

For Purina

Michael Zerman

Tel: +1 314.982.4875

michael.zerman@purina.nestle.com

Information about Primient:

Primient is a leading producer of food and industrial ingredients made from plant-based, renewable sources. We deliver value through deep technical, commercial, and operational excellence that is backed by our long-standing corn wet milling heritage. Wherever we are in the process, from field to customer, our priorities are focused on ensuring we produce the safest, highest quality products through practices that uphold both our responsibility and commitments to our people and our planet.

Information about Purina:

Nestle Purina PetCare creates richer lives for pets and the people who love them. Founded in 1894, Purina has helped dogs and cats live longer, healthier lives by offering scientifically based nutritional innovations. Purina manufactures some of the world's most trusted and popular pet care products, including Purina ONE, Pro Plan, Fancy Feast and Tidy Cats. Our more than 8,700 U.S. associates take pride in our trusted pet food, treat and litter brands that feed 51 million dogs and 66 million cats every year. More than 500 Purina scientists, veterinarians, and pet care experts ensure our commitment to unsurpassed quality and nutrition.

Purina promotes responsible pet care through our scientific research, our products and our support for pet-related organizations. Over the past five years, Purina has contributed more than $150 million towards organizations that bring, and keep, people and pets together, as well as those that help our communities and environment thrive.

Purina is part of Nestle, a global leader in Nutrition, Health and Wellness. For more information, visit purina.com or subscribe here to get the latest Purina news.

Information about Truterra, LLC

Truterra is a leading sustainability solutions provider, advancing and connecting sustainability efforts throughout the food system at scale  from farmers to ag retailers to value chain collaborators including food and fiber companies. Truterra positions farmers for success by providing them tools and resources to establish a stewardship baseline, track progress on every field they farm, access conservation resources, and prepare for ecosystem services market opportunities. The Truterra network brings together the best in agricultural technology and precision conservation to drive sustainability across the food system, feeding people, safeguarding the planet, and supporting farmer livelihoods. Truterra was launched in 2016 by Land O'Lakes, Inc., a member-owned cooperative that spans the spectrum from agricultural production to consumer foods. To learn more, visit http://www.truterraag.com.
This recognition marks another important milestone in our journey with Google Cloud and affirms our unique positioning in enabling customers to innovate by leveraging native features of the Google Cloud Platform with our AI-first digital engineering approach, - Asif Hasan, Co-founder, Quantiphi

Quantiphi, an AI-first digital engineering company, announced today that it has been rated as a Leader in the ISG Provider Lens for Data Analytics and Machine Learning for Google Cloud Ecosystem in Europe, and a Rising Star in the ISG Provider Lens for Data Analytics and Machine Learning Services, and Integration and Implementation Services for Google Cloud Partner Ecosystem in North America.

We are delighted to be recognized by ISG for our expertise in the Google Cloud ecosystem, said Asif Hasan, Co-founder of Quantiphi. This recognition marks another important milestone in our journey with Google Cloud and affirms Quantiphis unique positioning in enabling customers to continuously innovate by leveraging rich native tools and features of the Google Cloud Platform with our AI-first digital engineering approach.

The report emphasizes Quantiphis strong partnership with Google Cloud at all levels, including joint go-to-market, research and development, and product development teams, and highlights Quantiphis deep ties with Looker, Tensorflow, NVIDIA, Snowflake, SAP, and others.

Quantiphi is honored to be recognized by ISG for our deep-rooted investments in building IP on the Google Cloud Platform, said Saurabh Mishra, Global Head of Google Cloud Business at Quantiphi. "Our cutting-edge industry solutions have made tangible impacts for our customers across industries and continue to accelerate their enterprise-wide innovation objectives."

According to the ISG Provider Lens Quadrant Report, Quantiphis industry-leading data analytics and machine learning services in Europe are functions of its 360-degree relationship with Google Cloud, depth of talent, deep ecosystem, and industry traction, which results from delivering pioneer machine learning projects for many clients in Europe and other continents.

Mark Purdy, Principal Analyst at ISG, said Quantiphis deep expertise makes it a Leader in data analytics and machine learning on Google Cloud.

Tapati Bandopadhyay, Lead Analyst at ISG, said Quantiphi is an award-winning Google Cloud partner for infrastructure transformation in North America. Quantiphis expertise makes it a prominent player in data analytics and machine learning on Google Cloud.

In the report, ISG highlights Quantiphis strong industry-aligned talent base and cross-stack expertise in scaling new programs, products, and services, like Document AI, Vertex AI, and Healthcare Data Engine. It acknowledges Quantiphi as a professional service provider within the Google Cloud partner ecosystem that has enabled large and complex organizations in the US to transform into cloud-leveraged environments, integrating application and data, and re-platforming their legacy and digital apps for a cloud-first service delivery model.

Quantiphis partnership with Google Cloud began in 2016 with only five GCP-dedicated resources focused on custom AI/ML solutions on the US East Coast. Today, Quantiphi has over 2000 dedicated FTEs serving a 360-degree relationship with Google Cloud across the globe. Quantiphi has recently been named the 2021 Breakthrough Partner of the Year - North America by Google Cloud for its innovation and excellence in combining Google Cloud, data analytics, and cutting-edge AI. This marks the sixth award conferred by Google Cloud in six consecutive years. Quantiphi also received the GCP Partner of the Year award for the public sector in the U.S. in 2020-21. Quantiphi has also been recognized as an Enterprise Partner within the Google Cloud ecosystem due to its unique position with respect to its size and category.

About Quantiphi

Quantiphi is an award-winning AI-first digital transformation engineering company driven by the desire to reimagine and realize transformational opportunities at the heart of business. Quantiphi solves the toughest and most complex business problems by combining deep industry experience, disciplined cloud and data engineering practices, and cutting-edge artificial intelligence research to achieve quantifiable business impact at unprecedented speed. We are passionate about our customers and obsessed with problem-solving to make products smarter, customer experiences frictionless, processes autonomous and businesses safer by detecting risks, threats, and anomalies. For more on Quantiphis capabilities, visit http://www.quantiphi.com.

About ISG and ISG Provider Lens

ISG (Information Services Group) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 800 clients, including more than 75 of the worlds top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics, sourcing advisory, managed governance and risk services, network carrier services, strategy and operations design, change management, market intelligence, and technology research and analysis.

The ISG Provider Lens Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISGs global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISGs enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services across multiple geographies globally.
Rear view of the 2023 Mazda CX-50

Customers looking for a compact SUV that aces on all fronts, including performance ratings, interior elements, and driving dynamics, can visit the Hall Mazda dealership in Brookfield, Wisconsin, to glean insights into the new 2023 Mazda CX-50. The 2023 Mazda CX-50 comes with a responsive steering wheel and offers an elegant driving experience that only a few competitors can keep pace with.

The 2023 Mazda CX-50 competes with Hyundai Tucson, Nissan Rogue, and Toyota RAV4 with a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine or a turbocharged version of the same. The former makes 187 horsepower, and the latter generates 256 horsepower. All trims levels of the range come with a six-speed automatic gearbox and an all-wheel drive configuration. On the gas mileage front, the 2023 Mazda CX-50 models with naturally aspirated engines fetch 24 MPG city and 30 MPG highway, and the ones with turbocharged engines get 23 MPG city and 29 MPG highway.

The 2023 Mazda CX-50 has impressed the entire automotive industry regarding safety ratings. Critical safety features of the vehicle include:



Lane-keeping assist.

Adaptive cruise control.

Automatic high-beam headlamps.

Automatic emergency braking.

Lane-departure warning.

A 360-degree exterior camera.

To test drive the 2023 Mazda CX-50, customers are urged to visit the Hall Mazda dealership at 19809 W. Bluemound Road, Brookfield, Wisconsin 53045. Potential buyers can also visit the dealerships website at https://www.hallmazdamilwaukee.com or call (866) 633-2901 to learn more about the 2023 Mazda CX-50 or enquire about ongoing offers.
Heart of the Scarab: a compelling tale of unexpected turns of fate and an adventure of a lifetime. Heart of the Scarab is the creation of published authors Roma Montgomery and Jeannie Evenson.

Montgomery and Evenson share, it was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip for Judith and her two sisters. As the plane circled to land in Istanbul, Turkey, it was like looking at a fairytale come true. There it was, the beautiful Blue Mosque in all its glory, the museums, and the world-famous Grand Bazaar with over four thousand shops.

The sisters were so excited, that little notice was taken of the dark eyes that seemed to be hiding in the gorgeous setting or how a twist of fate would suddenly turn a quiet vacation into a danger zone and leave them in a fight for their lives. How could this have happened?

The small boat moved silently, slicing through the warm water and humid night air. With impeccable planning, the heist had gone well and the stolen treasures were on board. Kamar silently studied the faces of his men as they whispered quietly one to another. Would they continue to fight for the Nobel cause or, in possession of such wealth, be tempted to betray him?

As a cool breeze flowed across his face, he nodded to his true friend, Gursel, who immediately stood caressing the handle of his long-bladed knife, the gleaming clean metal bearing record of the blood of its victims. Suddenly everyone stiffened as faint sounds of another boat motor could be heard closing in. Kamar sensing betrayal, quickly reached for his gun.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Roma Montgomery and Jeannie Evensons new book will have readers racing to see if a dream trip to Turkey will end in celebration or despair.

Montgomery and Evenson pair an exciting storyline with a cast of affable characters within the pages of this enjoyable science fiction work.

Consumers can purchase Heart of the Scarab at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Heart of the Scarab, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Savoy Foundation Board of Directors Carl J. Morelli, Joseph Sciame, Frank J. Desiderio & John Laurent Gelati present grant to Melanie Hartzog, CEO of NY Foundling and Kirkley Strand, VP Development Supporting The New York Foundling's summer camp for inner-city youngsters fulfills the Savoy Foundation's mission - Chivalry for Children's Causes

On July 18, 2022, the American Foundation of Savoy Orders presented a record grant of $150,000 to The New York Foundlings Summer Camp Program for inner-city foster care children from funds raised from the Foundation's 2021 Ballo di Savoia (Royal Savoy Ball) Winter Charity Gala.

More than 200 patrons, benefactors and guests gathered to support the Savoy Foundations 24th Annual white-tie dinner-dance on Saturday, December 11, 2021 in New York City at the Metropolitan Club. The Savoy Ball of New York continues a thousand-year tradition of goodwill and charitable giving under the patronage of the Royal House of Savoy. Their Royal Highnesses Prince Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy and Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia were honored guests at the event that raised funds in support of the Savoy Foundation's philanthropic mission - Chivalry for Children's Causes - and the events primary beneficiary - The New York Foundling Summer Camp Program for inner city foster-care children.

Joseph Sciame, Savoy Foundation President and Carl J. Morelli, Foundation Chairman of the Board with Savoy Foundation Board members Frank J. Desiderio and John Laurent Gelati presented the grant to Melanie Hartzog, President and CEO of The New York Foundling and Kirkley Strand, Vice President of Development and Communications at The Foundlings headquarters in New York City. Ms. Hartzog expressed her gratitude to the Savoy Foundation for the impact that the funds raised at the charity ball would have for more than 150 disadvantaged youths. The New York Foundlings camp is in a new location in Sandyston, New Jersey, offering activities such as swimming, boating, fishing, zipline, rock climbing, ropes course, sports, arts, music, dance, and more.

Messrs. Carl J. Morelli Chairman and Joseph Sciame, President of the American Foundation of Savoy Orders, commented: We are each overwhelmed by the generosity of our supporters who attended the December 2021 Savoy Ball of New York as well as so many others not able to be with us who donated to our GoFundMe efforts. We know our grant will make a major difference in the lives of young boys and girls who can enjoy the outdoors this summer at The New York Foundlings summer camp.

For more information on the philanthropic causes supported by the Savoy Foundation, please click here.

Businesses, individuals and organizations can donate here and find additional information about the Savoy Foundation Programs.

ABOUT THE SAVOY FOUNDATION AND THE AMERICAN DELEGATION OF SAVOY ORDERS

The American Delegation of Savoy Orders, which includes the United States of America, is among 35 delegations of the Savoy Orders located throughout Europe, the Americas and Japan. The Dynastic Orders of the Royal House of Savoy are among the oldest orders of chivalry in the world. Their origins and their principles, traditions and humanitarian goals, like those of the Royal House of Savoy that has the hereditary right to confer them, date back a thousand years. The American Delegation of Savoy Orders through its charitable arm, The American Foundation of Savoy Orders, Incorporated, contributes to humanitarian, hospitaller and charitable projects and initiatives in the United States and abroad, particularly in healthcare and hospice care, disaster relief, education programs and children's causes.

The American Foundation of Savoy Orders, Incorporated, a 501(c) (3) charitable organization headquartered in New York City, has supported local, national, and international charities focusing on medical, educational, social assistance and humanitarian fields, including philanthropy for hospitals, relief agencies, childrens causes and hospice care for the poor, infirm and elderly. The Foundation whose current mission is Chivalry for Childrens Causes is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Roster Consultative Statues with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

For more information on supporting the causes of the American Foundation of Savoy Orders, see below.

CONTACT:

Larissa Van Duser, Executive Director, American Foundation of Savoy Orders

amsavoy@aol.com, +1 212 972 0495

For more information, visit http://www.savoia.org
"What once took days or weeks can be completed in minutes from any computer or mobile device with an Internet connection."

SIGNiX, a leading digital signature and Remote Online Notarization technology company based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, announced its integration with Zoom Video Communications, Inc. SIGNiXs eNotaryDoX provides a secure, convenient, and completely electronic alternative to the traditional in-person notary process using SIGNiXs patented digital signature technology in concert with audio-video technology provided by Zoom.

Notaries and their document signers can meet virtually from anywhere, at any time to perform notarial acts, reducing the time and money it takes to travel and the costs to print, copy and mail important documents back and forth.

Zoom is committed to supporting a high level of security and privacy across our platform. We are thrilled for SIGNiX to join Zooms ISV Partner Program because they share this commitment to deliver a safe and secure solution for notaries and their customers, said Zooms Head of ISV, Steven Li.

With the Zoom integration, SIGNiXs RON solution enables notaries to remain compliant with their states laws that require two-way audio and video communications. Notaries can visually inspect and verify the identification documentation of their signers. The signer is also required to submit their identity document to an electronic examination known as credential analysis. Additionally, the notary must retain an audio and video recording of the notarization session.

Nancy Croix-Stroud, CEO of First Class American Credit Union, stated "Making our members happy is critical. This technology will make it so much easier for them to do business with us. What once took days or weeks can be completed in minutes from any computer or mobile device with an Internet connection."

SIGNiXs integration with Zooms audio-video technology empowers notaries and their signers with a fast, secure, and convenient environment to perform remote online notarizations while complying with legal standards required by their state.

About SIGNiX

SIGNiX provides digital signature and remote online notarization technology to users in highly regulated industries. Our cloud-based platform protects critical documents and contracts from tampering. Since all the necessary legal evidence is contained within the digitally signed document, SIGNiX clients can store their documents on their servers and not rely on a vendor to provide future evidence and verification. SIGNiXs technology ensures document enforceability and independent verification by giving users complete ownership and control of their digitally signed documents. For more information about SIGNiX, visit SIGNiX.com.
Town of Hayden joins the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System The Town of Hayden invites all potential vendors to register online.

The Town of Hayden announced today that it has joined the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, a regional purchasing group that helps local governments post, distribute and manage RFPs, quotes, addendums and awards online. Bidnet Directs Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System provides notification to registered vendors of new relevant solicitations, any addenda and award information from over 325 participating agencies from across Colorado and Wyoming. All potential Town of Hayden vendors are encouraged to register online with http://www.bidnetdirect.com/colorado/townofhayden to access upcoming solicitations.

The Town of Hayden joined the purchasing group in December. In joining, the Town of Hayden has become the 330th participating local government agency utilizing the system to streamline the purchasing process. The Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System is a single, online location for managing sourcing information and activities and provides local Colorado and Wyoming government agencies a method to minimize costs and time delays associated with the procurement process. The Town of Hayden was distributing bids and managing the procurement process manually before joining the system. In joining, the Town of Hayden looks to save time, increase competition and achieve cost savings over the traditional paper-based bid process.

The Town of Hayden now has access to an extensive vendor pool, thereby enhancing competition without increasing distribution costs. In addition to the existing vendors on the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, all vendors looking to respond to bids with local government agencies can register online: http://www.bidnetdirect.com/colorado/townofhayden. The Town of Hayden invites all current vendors not already registered on the purchasing group to do so today. Vendor registration is easy and takes only a few minutes online.

Registered vendors can access bids, related documents, addendum and award information. In addition, the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System offers a value-added service to notify vendors of new bids targeted to their industry, all addenda associated with those bids and advance notice of term contract expiration. A robust NIGP code category list allows vendors registering to find the correct codes and receive matched bids.

By using the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, our valued vendors can now access not only our open bids, but those from other municipalities, counties and school districts throughout the state. In addition to the time savings we anticipate, our vendors will also benefit from registering in one location for all local bid opportunities. We invite all of our current vendors to register or contact the vendor support team with any questions, stated Andrea Salazar, Finance Manager of the Town of Hayden.

Vendors may register on the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System: http://www.bidnetdirect.com/colorado/townofhayden. Bidnet Directs vendor support team is available to answer any questions regarding the registration process or the bid system at 800-835-4603 option 2.

Other local Colorado and Wyoming government agencies looking to switch from a manual bid process, please contact the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System for a demonstration of the no-cost sourcing solution.

About the Town of Hayden:

For those looking for a safe community near outdoor recreation, Hayden Colorado is an attractive option for families, location-neutral workers and outdoor enthusiasts. With a central location near Steamboat Springs and Craig, our attainable housing market and unique small-town culture makes us a great place to establish your family roots.

About Bidnet Direct:

Bidnet Direct, powered by mdf commerce, is a sourcing solution of regional purchasing groups available at no cost to local government agencies throughout the country. Bidnet Direct runs regional purchasing groups, including the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, across all 50 states that are used by over 1,600 local governments. To learn more and have your government agency gain better transparency and efficiency in purchasing, please visit https://www.bidnetdirect.com/buyers
If the bootleg-swapping, DIY-subtitle-making Gen Xer anime fans of the 80s and 90s werent around to see it themselves, they probably wouldnt believe it, but in 2022, people are taking anime seriously. And not just people, but august institutions, which have been putting out retrospectives left and right all year. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures dedicated one of its four floors to the work of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli for the better part of a year starting last September, and the Embassy of Japans Japan Information & Culture Center and the Smithsonians National Museum of Asian Art dedicated more than a week of programming to the filmography of Satoshi Kon earlier this year. And art house cinemas, including the IFC Center and Metrograph in New York and FACETS Cinema in Chicago, are more regularly screening classic works of anime.

At the Japan Society in New York, film programmer Alexander Fee is doing the same, and for him, its a no-brainer. The Society is a broader arts organization, not a dedicated anime outfit by any stretch, but its goal, Fee said, is "to promote Japanese culture" and spread awareness of Japan's cultural heritage and output. In the film realm, it had been doing that for a while with its Monthly Classics series, which tends to attract older audiencesaudiences that have been more hesitant, by and large, to visit theaters since the dawn of the pandemic. Fee saw anime as a way to bring a younger audience, much of which has returned to attending in-person events in full force, out to the movies.

"When you think Japanese film or pop culture in general, anime is really the biggest export," Fee said. "It's really widely loved, and it made sense to me to do a year-long, regular series of programming dedicated to anime."

Hence the debut, this past April, of Monthly Anime, a Japan Society series supported by manga publisher Yen Press that will wrap its first slate of programming on July 22 with a 35mm presentation of Hayao Miyazaki's 1997 masterpiece Princess Mononoke in honor of the films 25th anniversary. Its first three screenings, Fee saidof another classic 1990s anime, Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell, and of two newer film's, 2003's rarely-screened Matrix series companion anthology The Animatrix and Masaaki Yuasa's 2017 experimental favorite The Night Is Short, Walk On Girlwere either mostly full or sold out completely, attended largely, Fee said, by college-aged people through viewers in their late 30s.

This didn't surprise Fee in the slightest. "I came from a background of programming for college students, and Studio Ghibli films immediately brought everyone out on my college campusI always saw such a great love for anime," he said. He was so confident that the series would fill seats that he actively tried to branch out from the Ghibli catalog, hoping to combine "mainstream anime picks" with some deeper cuts and modern classics.

"The main aim of this series is to show the vast expanse of what anime can encapsulate," Fee said. When possible, he added, he wanted to screen films that don't necessarily have U.S. distributionsomething the Japan Society, which works directly with a number of Japanese distributors, can pull off. You don't always get the opportunity to watch these films on the big screen, he said, That's probably the direction we'll be leaning into as we continue developing the lineup.

In the meantime, there are still plenty of opportunities to watch some of the best anime around on the big screen. Here are a few forthcoming screenings and ongoing series where you can catch some of the greatest films in anime history in theaters.

Forthcoming Screenings

Monthly Anime at the Japan Society in New York

Its not very often you get to see Hayao Miyazakis Princess Mononoke on the big screen as it was intended, on 35mm film. But if you live in New York Cityor in commuting distance, its worth ityou can on July 22.

Studio Ghibli Fest 2022 at theaters nationwide

You dont need to live in New York to see anime on the big screen this summer and fall thanks to GKids, the growing distribution powerhouse bringing Ghibli films and other marquee anime to cinemas across the U.S. Theaters everywhere from Morgantown, WV, to Iowa City will screen Hayao Miyazaki's Howls Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Spirited Away, and Isao Takahata's Only Yesterday, on select dates through October.

Animayhem at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, OR

On August 28, Madhouse's adaptation of Osamu Tezukas manga classic Metropoliswhich itself drew inspiration from Fritz Lang's 1927 German silent film of the same name, although Tezuka famously hadn't actually seen itwill screen at the Hollywood in Portland, following up a strong list of previous films including Masaaki Yuasas brain-melting Mind Game and Toyoo Ashida's 1980s cult classic Vampire Hunter D earlier this year.

Anime Essentials at the Loft Cinema in Tuscon, AR

This September, the Loft, celebrating its 50th anniversary, will screen classic anime films including Katsuhiro Otomos Akira and Shinichiro Watanabes Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, along with cult classics like Yoshiaki Kawajiri's 1993 bloodbath Ninja Scroll.
In the short comics story Comics Festival 2016, a limo driver picks up cartoonist Noah Van Sciver at the airport, before sheepishly asking the artist to draw in his sketchbook. I know who you are! the man at the hotels front desk exclaims later, before Van Sciver can get his name out, adding, love your work! Later, after speaking to a packed hall, a group of well-dressed attendees vie for the artists attention, alternatively calling his talk brilliant and sexy. An attractive woman in sunglasses with a stylish hairdo inquires whether hes free that evening.

That was just a fantasy, the artist tells PW with a laugh. Thats not how my life was at all. That year, I made $8,000. It was a terrible, miserable year. So, I drew myself as being more successful than I was as a cartoonist, having fancy dinners with other artists like Ivan Brunetti.

The story appears about one-third of the way into As a Cartoonist, a collection of short autobiographical comics published by Fantagraphics on July 5. Thats also the exact same day Abrams ComicArts released Van Scivers 464-page graphic nonfiction opus, Joseph Smith and the Mormons. Even for a cartoonist as wildly prolific as Van Sciver has been for the past decade, its a lot. The two books, while dramatically different in tone, present a handy microcosm of his body of work.

Joseph Smith offers a sweeping portrait of a 19th century man of faith determined to launch his own church in the face of often violent religious persecution. The book builds on foundations laid in an earlier work of creative biography, Van Scivers graphic novel The Hypo, which told a fictionalized story of Abraham Lincoln as a young lawyer battling depression, decades before he ascended to the presidency.

As a Cartoonist presents the humorous pathos of the artist as a self-deprecating and neurotic young man. In a story named for his first graphic novel, Van Sciver buys a copy of The Hypo from a bookstore bargain cart, noting to himself that he doesnt have one at home. Wracked with guilt that hes robbed a potential shopper of the opportunity to stumble upon the book, he attempts to sneak the book back into the store, attracting the unwelcome of attention of a store employee. This story, too, Van Sciver notes, is fictionalized, but it captures a kind of unquantifiable struggle between artist and art.

Earlier works such as his 2018 graphic memoir One Dirty Tree and various stories that have appeared in Van Scivers sporadically self-published anthology series, Blammo, detail his childhood years as the second-youngest of eight siblings growing up in a poor, comic book-obsessed Mormon household. Despite those early years spent immersed in comics (his older brother, Ethan, would go on to draw superhero comics like The Flash and Green Lantern), Van Sciver stopped making comics, opting instead to become a serious painter. Hes quick to admit that, frankly, It didnt work out.

A pair of films about comics figuresTerry Zwigoffs 1994 Robert Crumb documentary, Crumb, and the 2003 Harvey Pekar biopic, American Splendorbrought him back to comics by introducing a world of comics storytelling outside of the superhero genre. Both the artists presented in those films are published by Fantagraphics and Van Sciver says he sent away for the Fantagraphics catalog before beginning to self-publish Blammo in 2007. His work began to appear in Mad Magazine and, in 2011, his short story, Abbys Road, was selected for Houghton Mifflin Harcourts Best American Comics anthology. The following year, Fantagraphic published The Hypo.

Van Sciver confesses that he wasnt entirely ready to take on such a serious biography. I was real hot-blooded back then, he says. I knew I wanted to be a published cartoonist. I'd never done a graphic novel at that point, but I knew where I wanted to be, and I was very driven to get there. I took on a book about Lincoln, even though I wasn't necessarily artistically prepared to take that on. I just bulldozed my way ahead.

The book was well-receivedPW gave it a starred reviewand while he still believes the art is too cartoony for its subject matter, Van Sciver says hes actually surprised by how well the story turned out after a decade of hindsight.

For years, he kicked around the notion of another historical biography, this time exploring the roots of the Mormon church. I was raised in the church and baptized in it, he says. I felt a strong connection to it. As a child, I felt like I had a whole path set up for me in my life, very early on. And then my parents got divorced. My mother left the church, hates the church, and has nothing to do with it. My brother says, we go so far back in [the church], that were ethnically Mormon.

After several false starts (including one that appears as a short story in Blammo #7 in 2011), Van Sciver says he opted to wait until he had the chops to give such serious subject matter the serious art it deserved. Along the way, his comics finally began to generate enough income to allow him to quit his job in food service.

It was 2015, he says. It was a great year for me. I had done the My Hot Date minicomic and the first Fante Bukowski and St. Cole. All of a sudden, all these opportunities were opening up for me. I got work on a Ninja Turtles comic. People were reaching out, and they all had money. Thats when I was able to quit Panera Bread and take comics seriously.

The next several years found Van Sciver working on a series of graphic novels starring Fante Bukowski, a humorous graphic novel series about an overly-confident (and unaccomplished) writer determined to become a literary great, a story which drew upon his own bravado during his earliest days as a cartoonist. Fante Bukowski is that piece of me that desperately wanted to be taken seriously as an artist, he says. I felt I should be taken seriously as an artist against all evidence to the contrary.

Another graphic biography, Johnny Appleseed, is also a collaboration with comics scholar Paul Buhle, and saw the artist gaining confidence in his ability to draw a serious historical nonfiction work. Published in 2017, the book laid the groundwork for him to begin working on Joseph Smith in earnest.

Around 2016 I felt like I could do it, says Van Sciver. Plus, I happened to be in the Center for Cartoon Studies [In White River Junction, Vermont] at the time. Joseph Smith's birthplace [Sharon, Vermont] was not that far of a drive from the school, so it was the first site that I was able to visit. I felt I could commit to it.

Despite its authors departure from the Mormon church, the work treats its subject with dignity and is a detailed and straightforward retelling of the churchs mystical founding. It's very delicate, he says, Its a faith that holds together a lot of families and keeps people together. For all the bad stuff in it that you can throw out, spirituality and religion can also have a lot of good things for a lot of people too. I want to be considerate of that.

Through researching and writing the story, Van Sciver says he was able to reconcile his own relationship with Mormonism. That process involved taking in the story of the church through my art, he says. I inhabit things through my comics. I could read and watch movies about Joseph Smith, but if Im reading and drawing it, I am Joseph Smith. Thats what comics are: a machine of empathy. To portray characters, you need to empathize with them. I became Joseph Smith, I became his wife, I became [early Mormon and Latter-Day Saint apostle] Oliver Cowdery. I became all the characters.

Once the work was finished, he says, he could step back into being Noah.

In its own way, As a Cartoonist also offers its own bit of reconciliation. Van Scivers earlier works revealed an often difficult and strained relationship with his father, as the cartoonist drifted away from the church following his parents divorce. Near the end of the book, the autobiographical story Beverly, New Jersey, details how the two were able to reconnect . The collection closes with Remy, a one-page comic about the birth of the artists own son.

Van Sciver says that, while the pandemic ultimately had little impact on his prolific publishing schedule, having a child has forced him to be even more productive during the limited amount of time he has to draw. Thats advice I got from [cartoonist] Dan Clowes, he explains. He said, youll never know what you can get done in 45 minutes like you will when you have a child. Its true.

While working on Joseph Smith and the Mormons, Van Sciver also collaborated with writer Chris Miskiewicz on the music-focused nonfiction graphic work, Grateful Dead Origins, which tells the story of the origins of the famous rock band, and was published by Z2 Comics in 2020. He also drew a comic for the publishers Cheech & Chong's Chronicles: A Brief History of Weed, published (appropriately) on 4/20/2022. After scrambling in the wake of a massive project, he says hes  unsurprisingly  got a number of other projects in the works. Though the future depends, in part, on the success of this massive new work on an admittedly sensitive topic.

A couple of fiction stories that I wrote a few years ago, Ive perfected in my head, he explains. Then what I really would like to do, is a sequel to [Joseph Smith] about Brigham Young, and how the church was settled in Salt Lake City. Thats how it became more of the modern church that exists today. I guess it kind of depends on how this book is received.
Andrew Karre at Dutton has acquired Peekaboo, the speculative sophomore YA novel from Charlene Thomas. The tiny town of Peekaboo is firmly dividedwith Have-Lots and Have-Notsand Kady knows all too well which side is hers. But when she meets a stranger at the annual Halloween carnival, Kady gains the power to get everything she wantsuntil her addiction to perfection uncovers Peekaboo's biggest secret of all. Publication is planned for 2024; Ann Rose at Prospect Agency brokered the deal for world rights.



Hannah Hill at Delacorte Press has bought The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven. Pitched as a sapphic retelling of Jekyll & Hyde set at a haunted university, this dark contemporary YA thriller with a supernatural twist follows roommates Lottie and Alice, who must solve an infamous cold case of serial murders on their campus after an arcane soul-splitting ritual gone wrong prompts another death. Publication is scheduled for fall 2023; Juliette Clark at Farshore sold U.S. rights.



Alexandra Sehulster at Wednesday Books has acquired attorney Jessica Parra's YA debut, Rubi Ramos' Recipe for Success at auction. Described as a cross between A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow and You Have a Match, the novel centers on a high school senior who secretly enters a baking competition, and must navigate the weight of her parents' expectations and a newfound romance, and gather the strength to follow her own path. Publication is slated for spring 2023; Jennifer Azantian at Azantian Literary Agency negotiated the deal.



Alice Jerman at HarperTeen has bought Lena Jeong's YA fantasy debut, And Break the Pretty Kings. Inspired by the historical Three Kingdoms of Korea, the book follows a crown princess who receives a divine giftthe ability to switch places with her future selfmaking her a weapon built to destroy an enemy feared by even the gods. But when that enemy kidnaps her brother, she must choose between the fate of the peninsula and those she loves. Publication is set for summer 2023; Holly Root at Root Literary handled the deal for world English rights.



Michelle Frey at Random House/Make Me a World has acquired North American rights to Home Is Not a Country author Safia Elhillo's second YA novel in verse, in an exclusive submission. Bright Red Fruit tells the story of a young poet, feeling trapped within the confines of her loving but strict family, who begins a relationship with a charismatic older poet which gives her everything she thought she wantedbut at what cost? Ammi-Joan Paquette at Erin Murphy Literary Agency did the deal for publication in fall 2023.



Emily Daluga at Amulet Books has bought literary agent Lee Paige O'Brien's A Hundred Vicious Turns and an untitled sequel in the Broken Tower series, following the nonbinary heir to a powerful magical bloodline with the unsettling ability to find doorways that no one else can see, who finds themself drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse at an elite magic university when a malevolent force follows them back through the passages. Publication is planned for fall 2023; Jordan Hamessley at New Leaf Literary and Media brokered the deal for world English rights.



Mark Siegel at First Second has acquired Overlays by Penelope Bagieu, a YA graphic memoir that collects stories from the authors childhood and teen years that paint a portrait of the adult she would become. Robyn Chapman will also edit, and Montana Kane will translate from the French. Publication is scheduled for fall 2023; Gallimard Jeunesse through Sylvain Coissard Agency sold world English rights.



Alyson Day at HarperCollins has bought, in a six-figure preempt, The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall by Ali Standish. The middle grade series was developed by Working Partners with the Conan Doyle Estate and pitched as The Mysterious Benedict Society meets The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. In the books, a young Arthur Conan Doyle is selected to attend Baskerville Hall, a school for the extraordinarily gifted where Arthur and his new friends (including a young James Moriarty) are invited into a powerful secret society; they must pass three tests to be accepted, but along the way, Arthur uncovers a mystery that will lead to grand adventure, and even greater danger. Publication for the first book is set for fall 2023; Chelsea Eberly at Greenhouse Literary Agency negotiated the three-book deal on behalf of Working Partners for North American rights.



Kate Harrison at Dial has acquired Christopher Lincoln's graphic novel, The Night Librarian, in a mid-six figure preempt. Pitched as Night at the Museum at the New York Public Library, it's about a brother and sister swept into an epic adventure with a mysterious Night Librarian (and some famous characters breaking free from classic books) as they battle literature's most dangerous villains to save their beloved library from destruction. Publication is set for spring 2024; Daniel Lazar at Writers House brokered the deal for North American rights.



Sally Morgridge at Holiday House has bought middle grade novel Sweetness All Around by Suzanne Supplee (When Irish Guys Are Smiling). Set in 1974 Tennessee, almost-11-year-old Josephine is not pleased to be moving into the dingy Happy World trailer park with her mother. But as Josephine grows unexpectedly attached to her new neighbors, she gets wrapped up in the mystery of a local kidnapped girl. Publication is slated for fall 2023; Ginger Knowlton at Curtis Brown, Ltd. did the deal for world English rights.



Alison Weiss at Pixel+Ink has acquired middle grade adventure The Sinister Secrets of Singe by Sean Ferrell (I Don't Like Koala; The Snurtch) and a second title in the series, in which a boy raised in isolation with only a robot boy for company, embarks on a quest across the sea to find his exiled father, only to lure trouble back home. Publication is planned for summer 2023; Alec Shane at Writers House negotiated the deal for world rights.



Stephanie Guerdan at HarperCollins has bought world rights to Camp Scream by debut author Sarah C. Yung (l.), a chapter book series about two human kids at a summer camp for monsters and cryptids. Book one will be illustrated by Kelsey Eng (c.), and the remaining books will be illustrated by Laan Cham (r.). Publication is tentatively scheduled for summer 2024; the author represented herself, Kathleen Rushall at Andrea Brown Literary represented Eng, and Jemiscoe Chambers-Black represented Cham.



David Saylor and Jonah Newman at Graphix have acquired world graphic novel rights to Marcia Thornton Jones (l.) and Debbie Dadey's (c.) Bailey School Kids series titles, Ghosts Don't Eat Potato Chips and Dragons Don't Cook Pizza, which will be adapted into graphic novels by Angeli Rafer (r.). The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids series, with more than 30 million titles sold to date, is one of Scholastic's top-selling series of all time. The books are set for summer 2023 and spring 2024; Marie Lamba at the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency represented the authors, and Rafer represented herself.



Elizabeth Lee at Penguin Workshop has bought Home in a Lunchbox by debut author-illustrator Cherry Mo in a six-house auction. This picture book tells the story of Jun, who experiences frustration and helplessness when she moves from Hong Kong to America and cannot speak English; food from home offers solace and connection with her new classmates. Publication is slated for summer 2024; Emily van Beek at Folio Jr. did the six-figure deal for world rights.



Nancy Inteli at HarperCollins has acquired, in an exclusive submission, world rights to Solar Bear by Beth Ferry (l.), illustrated by Brendan Wenzel, a call to action about the dangers of climate change and its devastating effects on endangered species. Publication is planned for winter 2024; Elena Giovinazzo at Pippin Properties represented the author, and Steven Malk at Writers House represented the illustrator.



Denene Millner at S&S/Denene Millner Books has bought world rights to Not My Cat by Stacey Patton (l.), illustrated by Acamy Schleikorn. Based on the author's real-life story that went viral on social media, the book is about Staceypants and the unlikely friend she makes in the cat that visits her every daywho is definitely not her cat, even though she provides it with food, water, and a home. Publication is scheduled for spring 2024; Victoria Sanders at Victoria Sanders and Associates represented the author, and Claire Easton Morance at Painted Words represented the illustrator.



Feather Flores while at Chronicle acquired world rights to The Rise (and Falls) of Jackie Chan author Kristen Mai Giang's (l.) picture book biography Michelle the First: How Action Hero Michelle Yeoh Danced, Acted, and Dreamed Her Own Path, illustrated by Kuri Huang. This true story follows the rise of the Malaysian Chinese movie star from the ballet stage, to the action-packed sets of Hong Kong, to the dazzling lights of Hollywood, as she broke new ground while staying true to her creative selfeven, and especially, in situations where she found she was the "only one." Publication is set for spring 2025; Erin Murphy at Erin Murphy Literary Agency represented the author, and Sally Heflin at Heflinreps represented the illustrator.



Howard W. Reeves at Abrams has bought world rights to A Poem for Dudley Randall, written by Don Tate (l.) and illustrated by Laura Freeman, a picture book biography in verse about Dudley Randall, a poet, poetry publisher, and leader in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. Publication is slated for spring 2025; Caryn Wiseman at Andrea Brown Literary Agency represented the author, and Janet DeCarlo at Storybook Arts represented the illustrator.

Alyson Heller at Aladdin has acquired world rights to Pies from Nowhere author Dee Romito's (l.) Love Is in the Air, illustrated by Vivian Mineker. It tells the story of aviation pioneer Nancy Love, who organized and directed the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron during WWII, the first women to fly military aircraft for the U.S. Publication is planned for fall 2023; Uwe Stender at Triada US represented the author, and Anne Moore Armstrong at the Bright Agency represented the illustrator.



Carolyn Yoder at Astra/Calkins Creek has bought world rights to Hiding in Plain Sight: Kate Warne and the Race to Save President Lincoln by Beth Anderson (l.), illustrated by Sally Wern Comport, a nonfiction picture book about the Pinkerton detective's role in saving Lincoln's life before his first inauguration. Publication is set for spring 2025; Stephanie Fretwell-Hill at Red Fox Literary represented the author, and Tamara Shannon at Shannon Associates represented the illustrator.



Sarah Monroe at Page Street Kids has acquired 108 Fun Yoga Poses for Kids by Lauren Chaitoff, founder of children's yoga and wellness brand Yogi Beans. The book is designed to teach children how to practice popular yoga poses; publication is slated for spring 2023. Liz Nealon at Great Dog Literary negotiated the deal for world rights.



Andrea Hall at Beaming Books has bought world rights to Kaia's Big Felines by Aura Lewis. Kaia relates the big feelings she faces in everyday life to various species of cats. Publication is scheduled for fall 2023; Anne Moore Armstrong at the Bright Agency represented the author-illustrator.

Nicole Fiorica at McElderry Books has acquired, in an exclusive submission, The Reunion by Kit Frick (I Killed Zoe Spanos; Very Bad People). Pitched in the vein of The White Lotus and set at a luxurious Caribbean resort, the YA mystery follows four teens on a family vacation, where too much enforced fun dredges up long-held grudges and dangerous secretsand before the week is over, one member of the reunion party will be dead. Publication is tentatively set for fall 2023; Erin Harris at Folio Literary Management brokered the deal for world English rights.



Hannah Hill at Delacorte Press has bought Wild About You and a second untitled novel by Love from Scratch author Kaitlyn Hill (no relation). In this grumpy-sunshine YA romance, indoorsy theater girl Natalie must team up with surly nature-lover Finn in an Amazing Race-style reality competition show set in the Appalachian wilderness that could earn them a huge college scholarshipif they don't kill (or kiss) each other first. Publication is planned for summer 2024; Laura Crockett at TriadaUS Literary Agency did the deal for world rights.



Nicole Ellul at Simon & Schuster has acquired Deborah Crossland's The Quiet Part Out Loud, a contemporary dual-POV YA novel set in a devastated, post-earthquake San Francisco following Mia, who finds herself racing across the rubble to find the ex she still loves before the rest of the city crumbles, taking oneor bothof them with it. Publication is scheduled for summer 2023; Mollie Glick at CAA negotiated the deal for North American rights.

Carolyn Yoder at Astra/Calkins Creek has bought world rights to Long Time Coming: The Ona Judge to Barack Obama Chronicles by Ray A. Shepard (l.) (The Runaway; Now or Never), illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. This YA collection of creative nonfiction biographies in verse captures the struggles of African Americans over the course of U.S. history. Publication is slated for fall 2023; Caryn Wiseman at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency represented the author, and the illustrator represented himself.



Jen Besser and Luisa Beguiristain at Roaring Brook and Sam Smith at Macmillan Children's UK have jointly acquired at auction middle grade fantasy Vanya and the Wild Hunt by Sangu Mandanna (the Kiki Kallira duology). Pitched as Amari and the Night Brothers meets Nevermoor with a touch of How to Train Your Dragon, the story follows a neurodivergent British Indian girl who is swept away to a magical school where she trains to become a monster hunter and learns to fully embrace her different and wonderful brain. Publication is set for spring 2024; Penny Moore at Aevitas Creative Management brokered the two-book, mid-six-figure deal for world rights.



Bunmi Ishola at WaterBrook Multnomah has bought world rights to two middle grade novels by Her Own Two Feet co-author Meredith Davis. The first book, Minor Miracle, centers on 12-year-old Noah Minor who mysteriously survived a 16-story fall as a baby the night before the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Years later he learns he can manipulate gravity, and has to choose who to trust: a secret government agency, or their most wanted, who happens to be his uncle. Publication is planned for summer 2024; Alyssa Eisner Henkin at Birch Path Literary did the deal.



Mary Kate Castellani at Bloomsbury has acquired world rights to author of the Caldecott-winning We Are Water Protectors Carole Lindstrom's debut middle grade novel, as yet untitled. This historical story features life on the prairie from the perspective of Rose, a Metis girl who assists as a spy against the government in order to save her people's land and way of life. A second historical novel was also signed; publication is scheduled for 2024 and 2025. Natascha Morris and Sarah Fisk at the Tobias Literary Agency handled the deal.



Maggie Lehrman at Abrams has bought The Mighty Bite, a new middle grade graphic novel by Nathan Hale. Pitched for fans of Dog Man and The InvestiGators, it follows a determined trilobite and a band of creatures across the evolutionary spectrum as they compete in a streaming video competition. Publication is slated for spring 2023; Chad W. Beckerman at the CAT Agency negotiated the deal for world rights.



Nancy Paulsen at Penguin/Nancy Paulsen Books has acquired at auction, Amy Noelle Parks' (Summer of Brave) contemporary middle grade novel Averil Frye Has Left the Building. Twelve-year-old Averil has had enough of her parents using a surveillance app to track every detail of her life, so she teams up with a new friend to stop the app's creator from making it even more powerful. Publication is set for spring 2024; Elizabeth Bennett at Transatlantic Agency brokered the deal for North American English rights.



Alexandra McKenzie at Charlesbridge has bought world rights to Wings to Soar, a middle-grade novel in verse by Tina Athaide (Orange for the Sunsets). In the novel, Viva's Indian family has been expelled from Uganda and sent to a resettlement camp in England, where she and her mother and sister must wait for their father to join them. There, a determined Viva forges a community of her own while struggling with the prejudice of those around her. Publication is planned for spring 2025; Andrea Cascardi at Transatlantic Agency handled the deal.



Kate O'Sullivan at Clarion has acquired world rights to Deborah Underwood's (l.) two untitled early graphic novels in a series in which a hardboiled rat-fairy fixer and his mouse sidekick set well-known fairy tales to rights after they come off the rails, illustrated by Jorge Lacera. Publication will start in winter 2025; Erin Murphy at Erin Murphy Literary Agency represented the author, and John Cusick at Folio Jr./Folio Literary Management represented the illustrator.



Michael Buckley at PowKids! has bought The Big Wig Parade by author-illustrator Bryan Ballinger, a picture book about accepting others who are different, standing up for yourself, and the hidden benefits of mange. Publication is scheduled for spring 2023; Lynnette Novak at the Seymour Agency sold world English rights.

Philippe Werck at Clavis Publishing has acquired world rights to Beth and Cloud Won't Change by Ciara Gavin, the story of a small cloud who wanders into Beth's house and discovers he likes being an inside cloud, and Beth, who is starting school and not feeling quite ready. Publication is slated for fall 2023; Anna Olswanger of Olswanger Literary represented the author-illustrator.



Joanna Cardenas at Kokila has bought world rights to Sunshine Cadillac by R.J. Owens (l.), illustrated by Rahmaan Statik. Set during the Bud Billiken Parade that happens every August in Chicago, the picture book follows a father and son as they prep their Cadillac for the parade route, while the energy of the parade and the encouragement of his community help the boy move through his end-of-summer blues and get him excited about the new school year. Publication is planned for summer 2024. Karen Grencik at Red Fox Literary represented the author, and the illustrator represented himself.



Lauri Hornik at Penguin/Rocky Pond has acquired world rights for Under Anna's Umbrella by Amanda Driscoll (l.), illustrated by Luisa Uribe. Anna uses her umbrella to protect her from her grief. But umbrellas also block the sunshine, and with time, healing and help from a friend, Anna learns to lower her umbrella, see the sun and maybe even a rainbow. It's scheduled for spring 2025; Rosemary Stimola at Stimola Literary Studio represented the author, and James Burns at the Bright Agency represented the illustrator.



Sylvie Frank at Disney Hyperion has bought, at auction, world rights to Iggy Who Breathes Fire by Carrie Kruck (l.), illustrated by Erika Meza, a picture book about an ordinary girl with an extraordinary condition, in a magical twist on girl power and a reminder to us all to treasure the fire within. The first book is slated for summer 2024; Ammi-Joan Paquette at Erin Murphy Literary Agency did the two-book deal for the author, and Claire Cartey at Holroyde Cartey Ltd. represented the illustrator.



Erika DiPasquale at HarperCollins has acquired world English rights to Navya Sings for Navarathri by Lakshmi Thamizhmani (l.), illustrated by Avani Dwivedi. In this picture book, an Indian American girl named Navya is empowered to overcome her stage fright while celebrating Navarathri with her female relatives. Publication is set for summer 2024; Sharon Belcastro at the Belcastro Agency represented the author, and Shadra Strickland at Painted Words represented the illustrator.



Carol Hinz at Lerner/Millbrook has bought world rights to Finding Family: The Duckling Raised by Loons by Laura Purdie Salas (l.), illustrated by Alexandra Neonakis. The nonfiction picture book tells the story of an orphaned mallard duckling raised by a pair of loons on a Wisconsin lake, based on observations from loon researchers. Publication is planned for spring 2023; the author represented herself, and Alex Gehringer at the Bright Agency represented the illustrator.



Luana Kay Horry at HarperCollins has acquired world rights to A Name for Sister by Charlotte Cheng (l.), illustrated by Sophie Diao (I Am Golden), a picture book inspired by a centuries-old naming custom and explores how five elemental spirits help a girl and her family find the perfect name for her new baby sister. Publication is scheduled for summer 2024; Karen Grencik at Red Fox Literary represented the author, and Hannah Mann at Writers House represented the illustrator.



Chris Krones at Clarion has bought an as-yet-untitled book by Shelley Rotner (l.) and Gwen Agna, with photography by Rotner. The book features the words and portraits of refugee children from around the world as they talk about their families and tell their stories, expressing love, joy, empathy, and resilience as they adjust to their new homes. Publication is slated for fall 2023; Liz Nealon at Great Dog Literary negotiated the deal for world rights.



Hannah Lambert at Little Simon has acquired world rights to My Love for You by Lisa Varchol Perron (l.), illustrated by Sheryl Murray, a board book with a beachy setting that reassures a child that although all things change or come to an end, a parent's love lasts forever. Publication is set for summer 2023; Tricia Lawrence at Erin Murphy Literary Agency represented the author. and Christy Ewers at the CAT Agency represented the illustrator.



Emma Parkin at Barefoot Books has bought Twice as Many Friends/El doble de amigos, written by Brian Amador (l.) with audio version sung and performed by Sol y Canto, to be illustrated by Vanina Starkoff (From My Window). Emma Parkin and Bree Reyes will edit. This bilingual singalong shows why learning two languages can be so much better than one. Publication is planned for spring 2023; the author and illustrator represented themselves in the deal for world rights.


Gail See, a former bookseller who was a major player in the Twin Cities book world for decades, died in her suburban Minneapolis home on July 15 at the age of 94 after a brief illness. See, who for more than a decade owned the Bookcase in suburban Wayzata that she sold in the early '90s to Peggy Burnet, was also active in the book world on a national level. She served as the American Booksellers Association board president from 1984-1986 and also served on the board of the National Center for the Book at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Closer to home, See played a pivotal role in conceptualizing in 1983 the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts that opened its doors in 1985, and about 15 years later, Open Book, the building complex on the edge of downtown Minneapolis dedicated to the literary arts. In fact, according to a 2016 oral interview conducted by the MCBA with See, the staircase in Open Book leading from the main floor to the second floor that looks like pages in a book is named the Gail See Staircase, in recognition of her commitment to MCBA and to Open Book. Besides serving on the MCBA and Open Book boards, including a stint as MCBAs board chair in 1987-88, See served on The Loft and Graywolf Press boards. She also was one of the founding publishers with David Unowsky of Ruminator Press, which launched in 1994 and published books for the next decade.

In 1999, See received the Kay Sexton Award for her significant contributions to Minnesota's literary community.

Jocelyn Hale, executive director of The Loft from 2007-2015 told PW, "Gail bought an independent bookstore in Wayzata and soon became a leader in the field as president of the ABA board. Her passion, skills and knowledge of the literary arts helped build MCBA, Open Book, The Loft, and Graywolf. She was also deeply committed to libraries. She lived an engaged and vibrant life until the very end."

In an email to PW, Oren Teicher, the former CEO of the ABA, noted: "I had the privilege of working closely with Gail for a very long time. She was an extraordinarily accomplished bookseller; and, a real force for good in the Twin Cities and beyond. She served ABA incredibly well; she helped us launch ABFFE back in the early 1990s, and was the force behind Minneapolis' Open Book. She was very helpful to us when we did the Winter Institute in Minneapolis in 2017. Gail was always thoughtful and provided invaluable advice to me over many, many years. She was also a very fast power walker; you needed every bit of energy to go for a walk with Gail."

Graywolf Presss recently retired publisher Fiona McCrae stated in a release, All of us who worked with Gail See over the years loved her natural radiance coupled with a fierce loyalty and commitment to books, ideas, and the extended literary community. She was a forceful, effective board member and supporter to many local organizations, from the Loft to MCBA." Noting that See served two stints on the Graywolf board, McCrae recalled that during her 28-year tenure as publisher, See headed many committees, as well as served as chair of the board and on the press's national council. "She remained enthusiastically involved as a national council member until her last days," McCrae said. "Gail counted her blessings vociferously, often expressing her gratitude for her friendships. But the generous spirit that she showered on us all was a gift that she could never measure.

This story has been updated with more information.
On July 27, exactly two years to the date since she took over Simon & Schuster's flagship imprint, Dana Canedy will leave her position as senior v-p and publisher to "focus on her writing," S&S president and CEO Jonathan Karp wrote in a letter to staff.

"Over the past two years, Dana Canedy has improved and bolstered the Simon & Schuster imprint in innumerable ways: by attracting incredibly talented authors and editors; by offering us fresh eyes on our practices through her perspective as an award-winning journalist and bestselling author; and by bringing vitality, voice, and humanity to Simon & Schuster," Karp wrote. "Although we will miss working day-to-day with Dana, I fully support her decision to devote herself to this project, which I'm sure will ultimately be a great benefit to Simon & Schuster and multitudes of readers."

The "project" is a sequel to Canedy's memoir A Journal for Jordan, which was adapted by Denzel Washington into a movie last year, which Canedy co-produced. S&S has acquired the rights to the book, which it will publish in 2024. With her departure, Karp, Canedy's predecessor as publisher of the S&S imprint, will retake the reins "for the foreseeable future."

Since taking over the imprint, Canedy, a former New York Times journalist and previous administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes and the first Black person to lead S&S, has made her mark on the editorial department. Her hires included LaSharah Bunting and Mindy Marques as v-ps and executive editors; Tim O'Connell as v-p and editorial director of fiction; and Yahdon Israel and Olivia Taylor Smith as senior editors. In addition, she acquired former vice president Mike Pence's autobiography last year in a move that was criticized both in-house and by other industry members, although S&S has stood by her decision.

Canedy, Karp said, will continue to be available "for consultation on any publishing matters." In addition, she will see through the publication of books by Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Eugene Robinson, as well as the Pence.

"It has been so rewarding to work with the talented, dedicated, and truly collegial staff at Simon & Schuster," she said, adding: I had not quite expected the profound impact that our movie would have on me. And after the overwhelming response to it, prompting daily requests for a follow-up to my first book, I concluded that the time is right to write the sequel to A Journal for Jordan. Knowing as I do the quality and the pride that Simon & Schuster applies to every book it publishes, I can also think of no better home for my next book."
At 9:00 a.m. on a day expected to reach a heat index of 99F, roughly 100 HarperCollins union workers and others were already on the picket line for the first time in decades in front of the publisher's headquarters in Manhattan's Financial District. The union is seeking higher pay, improved family leave benefits, a greater commitment to diversifying staff, and stronger union protection.

In front of 195 Broadway, where HC keeps its offices, union chants rang out, amplified by a block lined with tall, sheer buildings that also helped to keep the marchers in the shade. Down the block, at the entrance to the Cortlandt St. subway station, HarperCollins union reps watched a stash of signs and water to hand out to protestors throughout the day and passed out flyers to passersby.

"It's really devastating that the workers' contribution to the financial success of the institution is not acknowledged in their salaries," said Olga Brudastova, president-elect of Local 2110 United Auto Workers, which represents HC union workers. "We've been arguing since December. We know that HarperCollins reported record-breaking profits in the past three years. We're asking for a decent wage that allows people to exist in a city like New York."

Brudastova said that, over the past eight months, the union has made some progressafter gathering more than 2,000 signatures from HC union workers and other supporters, including such authors as Neil Gaiman, "our petition brought them back to the table, because for a while, they weren't scheduling sessions with us. But unfortunately," she said, "we had to escalate." Part off that escalation was to hold today's one-day strike.

Rachel Kambury, an associate editor at HarperCollins editing nonfiction books at Harper Wave and Harper Business, summed up the reasons for the strike even more succinctly: "I would be so much better at my job if I didn't have to worry about money."

Striking workers are not getting paid for the day, confirmed Laura Harshberger, a senior production editor in childrens books and union chairperson. The union workers had long since set up the infrastructure to start a strike fund, assuming they would be docked pay for the strike day, but "we didn't go live until yesterday because, on Monday afternoon, every manager got an email from HR, letting them know that for anybody who didn't come to work on Wednesday, it would be an unpaid day off and it would be the managers' responsibility to make sure that was reflected in the time sheets."

Reflecting how rare an occurrence this is for the publisher, some managers, who "don't really understand the union," Harshberger said, even told employees to request PTO for the day, despite the HR memo. "Some of them were like, 'Oh, I heard that if you take a PTO day, you get paid, so you can just do that,'" she said. "So we had to remind everybody: this is not paid time off, you're not putting anything in your time sheet. That's your manager's responsibility." At that point, she said, workers got "nervous" about lost wages, but Harshberger expects that the strike fund will "be able to provide at least $150 to cover lost wages to every employee who needs it."

HarperCollins does not comment on negotiations, and a company representative on site similarly had no comment. A person who introduced himself to Brudastova as chief of security said that the situation was fine as long as the strikers did not block the entryways to the building, which he noted they were not doing. A handful of police were on site, including Captain Thomas Smith, commanding officer of the 1st Precinct, which covers an area that consists of a square mile on the southernmost tip of Manhattan island.

Police, Harshberger said, were "sympathetic," noting that Smith told her, "'we are gonna have an officer here monitoring you all day, but we're not gonna get in your way, we're not gonna challenge you on a noise permit for the loudspeaker.' Basically," she said, "he was as nice as he could be about it."

Smith's early estimate for the number of strikers was 95 people. That number, said Harshberger, was about right, if a little low.

"We were anticipating about 115 from Harper alone, plus family, friends, and other supporters from other 2110 unions," she said. "I would say we're a bit over 100 now. It's probably going to fluctuate a bit throughout the day. We're aware that it's gonna get up to, like, 96 degrees today, and we lost a couple people in the past 48 hourswe're still in a Covid pandemic, and people get sickbut I'm proud of this turnout."

That number, Harshberger told PW following the end of the strike, more than held up throughout the day, with "very high participation across the membership, striking in person and remotely." The strike fund, as well, was successful; multiple striking workers said the fund raised nearly 20,000 throughout the day, and Harshberger said that the fund "successfully raised the money we need to provide solidarity payments to every worker who participated in the strike," and is now closed "so we can regroup and take time to disburse payments."

The union, Harshberger noted on Thursday morning, has not yet heard from HC management. "We will plan our next steps based on management's response to yesterday," she said, adding: "the ball is in their court."

This story will be updated as the strike progresses.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/19/2022



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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 Juliana Custodio de Sousa has welcomed her first child with boyfriend Ben Obscura in a natural home birth.Juliana took to Instagram on Tuesday to announce her baby boy, Benjamin James Louis, has arrived."All my friends that have known me for years know how much I waited for this moment, to have my own child, it was my biggest dream to become a mother," Juliana captioned a slideshow of pictures and videos of her newborn, one of which revealed that Juliana had an at-home water birth."Today was the most incredible amazing day of our [lives]. I'm such a lucky woman for having you @ben_obscura in my life, an amazing father and husband to be. I couldn't have asked for a better partner and father to my child, you have been what I expected and more."Juliana continued, "I can't describe the feeling of finally having my baby in my arms and finally feel that I am a mother. With all those feelings comes the fears too. Now it's time to learn and grow with this little one."Juliana said having a son and being a mother is "beyond a dream come true.""I'm so blessed with this beautiful family I have. I can't thank enough all the support I have been having," the model concluded.Juliana's new little bundle of joy was born weighing nine pounds and four ounces in the morning hours of July 19. He measured 21.6 inches long.Juliana also confirmed in her post that she had a "vaginal birth with no epidural."Congratulatory messages poured in from alums -- including Anny Francisco, Yara Zaya David Toborowsky , Miona Bell, and more.After Ben announced Juliana's pregnancy on Instagram, Juliana confirmed the news in November 2021, just one month after she and her ex-husband and former co-star Michael Jessen confirmed their split."So excited for our new adventure. Words aren't enough to tell you how wonderful you are, I'm forever grateful for the happiness and joy you have brought into my life, and for [making] one of my biggest dream come true. We can't wait to meet you," Juliana wrote."I am the luckiest woman to be able to call you mine @ben_obscura. Pls: if you have nothing good to say, please just leave."Juliana first made her relationship known when she commented on one of Ben's Instagram posts on October 7, 2021. Michael -- who appeared on Season 7 of with Juliana -- proceeded to announce his breakup from Juliana on October 12 of last year.Juliana filed for divorce from Michael on Valentine's Day in February 2022 in Bridgeport, CT, and she revealed the sex of her baby that same month.Juliana and Michael's divorce was finalized on May 19 with the dissolution being uncontested by either party, In Touch Weekly reported."Tomorrow two people will be celebrating that I am finally out of their life for good," Michael reportedly wrote on Instagram Stories one day before a judge made the ruling."And they will move on... And will I... Myself, I will not be celebrating, but I will continue to live life with many new lessons learned and much more wisdom gained."Reports swirled in January 2022 that Juliana had cheated on Michael with his ex-wife Sarah Naso's husband Sean Naso, an aspiring hip-hop artist, while the entire family lived together during the coronavirus pandemic in September 2021.A source previously told In Touch that an eyewitness allegedly caught Juliana "making out" with Sean "in the kitchen" of the Connecticut home they had shared with Michael and Sarah and the former spouses' two children, Max and Cece.The alleged kiss reportedly happened during a farewell party for Juliana, who was still married to Michael at the time and was preparing for a trip to Europe.Given Juliana announced her pregnancy with Ben in November 2021, shortly after she and Michael confirmed their split, the In Touch source claimed Sarah had questioned the baby's paternity and whether Ben is actually the father.Sarah "thought the baby belonged to Sean" because of the alleged affair, an insider told the magazine.Juliana allegedly announced her new romance and pregnancy only 24 hours after Michael had attempted to win the Brazilian model back."[Michael] asked her to give their marriage another chance and asked for six months of therapy," the source said, adding that Juliana's public announcements were seemingly "in response" to Michael's phone calls and efforts.Michael was reportedly "in shock and devastated" to find out Juliana had allegedly cheated on him."He didn't want to believe that Juliana would stoop that low and betray his trust," the source said.It also reportedly hurt Michael to have learned about Juliana's pregnancy when "everyone else in the world did" on social media, according to the insider."Michael was physically ill and wept," the source claimed about his reaction to the baby news.And the insider added that Michael was "stunned" and "felt dizzy with confusion and disbelief."However, Juliana has firmly denied both cheating on Michael with Sean and speculation her baby is Sean's child.Juliana told In Touch earlier this year that she has "confirmation" that Ben is the father of her child."It's really sad that this family has nothing to use against me and they are using my baby and making these stories about me," Juliana said in a January statement."I hope I never have to hear or see these people again."When Michael first announced his breakup with Juliana on Instagram and how they were divorcing , he said his heart was "broken.""A quick break from my social media break to say... #HappyAnniversary @julianacustodiooo," Michael began. "Today is only our second wedding anniversary and, sadly, our last."The Connecticut native described his split from Juliana as "a COVID-19 casualty" but said Juliana was emerging "healthier and stronger than ever.""Some of the rest of us will likely be staying in intensive care for quite some time," Michael wrote on social media.Michael complimented his then-estranged wife by calling her resilient, independent and strong, but then he added, "I understand how our situation throughout the pandemic could slowly, and eventually completely, drain you of these qualities.""All of us were completely drained by the end of it and I did not maintain the strength of mind and the fortitude to be the husband that you wanted me to be."Michael admitted he was under great "stress" and "pressure" to take care of his family the previous year and he did not recognize at the time just how much Juliana had been there for him."I do not blame you for wanting to leave and for desiring a new start. You are more suited for the life that you had before we met and I can understand why you would want to return," Michael wrote.Michael insisted Juliana's happiness was "more important" to him than being a part of her "unhappiness.""My love for you remains true and will always be there for you. I am happy that you have moved on and have quickly found someone new," Michael revealed, suggesting Juliana had already found a new boyfriend."I hope that you will have lasting love and happiness and achieve every dream that you set out upon. If anyone can do it, it is you, and I will always be rooting for you. I will remain with you in the wonderful memories that we shared together."Juliana subsequently posted a statement of her own, claiming Michael had lied about why they were divorcing.Juliana insisted she had been the one supporting Michael financially and she "felt like a maid" in their house.Juliana wrote to Michael, "You pointed [out] the COVID-19 as one of the reasons we are [no] longer together, but we all know that there are more than that.""I am grateful for all the lessons and the moments we got to spend together and the beautiful memories with your family. As [you well] pointed out, we went through a lot together, the Covid was a hard time but the hardest part for me was to picture you as someone that would be by my side, and unfortunately, you showed something completely different."Juliana insisted she had done everything to keep Michael's family afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.According to In Touch, the home Michael and Juliana had shared in Connecticut when they were married was under threat of foreclosure prior to their split. Michael was later approved for the Foreclosure Mediation Program in July 2021.As shown on a May 2020 episode of : Self-Quarantined on TLC, Michael and Juliana began quarantining in March 2020 with Sarah, Sean, Max and Cece.Sarah had been diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer in February 2020, and so the blended family decided to support one another -- although the living situation was a little hectic and became overwhelming at times, especially for Juliana, who confessed she was "frustrated" about constantly having to stay home."As everyone, we went through a hard time financially, but it was not a problem for me to help you, the kids, ex wife and her husband financially because I was the only one working at the time, but we all know how the situation wears out," Juliana wrote in October 2021."I wasn't part of the family anymore, I was feeling like a maid. It was toxic to a point. I was not living the life I wanted to live."Juliana, who moved to the United States in Summer 2019 and married Michael in October of that year, apparently lost sight of her own wants and needs in the relationship."I needed to leave because I wasn't recognizing who I am anymore. I left my life in Europe and career to live with you, because I loved you. But I love myself more, to the point to recognize I am important, and I want to be happy," Juliana explained.Juliana, however, refused to acknowledge she had already moved on and begun dating "someone new" at the time."You say I have found 'someone new,' but the truth is, I found happiness within myself. I am happy with the new phase, and I ask you to let me go," Juliana insisted.She continued, "Stop making me feel guilty to put myself as the most important person because this is how we [are] supposed to do [things]. I apologize for the way this happened, but we talked multiple times about it and you never seemed to listen or try to understand me."Juliana went on to tell her followers that you must be happy in a relationship and stand up for yourself."Don't [be] afraid to live your best life because you're afraid of what people will think," Juliana explained."You are the only person that [knows] what you've been through. Everyone deserves respect, protection, understanding, love and kindness. Your value doesn't decrease based on someone's inability to see your worth."Juliana insisted that someone who values you would never put themselves "in a position to lose you," and no one should ever be afraid to start over.On September 30, 2021, Michael posted a picture with his daughter on Instagram and answered a few questions about his relationship status at the time.When an Instagram user asked if it was true Juliana had cheated on him, Michael replied, "I hope not!"And another follower asked Michael, "Did you divorce or not?"Michael firmly replied, "No."Juliana was previously married once before. She said on a episode she had felt pressure to enter an arranged marriage at age 19 and the union only lasted for one year.As for Michael, he had been married to Sarah for 20 years prior to Sarah officiating his wedding with Juliana. For Sarah's part, she tied the knot with Sean in November 2019.Juliana and Sarah ultimately became very close friends and got along well, and they made sure Michael's children were being raised in a loving environment with no hostility or resentment.During an April 2020 broadcast of Tamron Hall , Tamron videochatted with Michael, Juliana, Sarah and Sean, while they were all quarantining under one roof in Greenwich, CT.Sarah said she was planning a move to Los Angeles, CA, with Sean soon, and Michael shared how there was no jealousy or rivalry between Juliana and Sarah.Michael did make it known, however, how COVID-19 had a negative impact on Juliana's blossoming career."Juliana is just on the cusp of getting modeling jobs. She signed with a really great agency in New York City, and then suddenly, this happens and it's frustrating for her," Michael said.But Juliana and Michael agreed at the time their marriage hadn't crumbled under the stress of quarantining because Juliana was being "very patient."When asked to share the most difficult part of self-isolating together, Juliana joked, "Him having to see my face every day.""I love that!" Michael responded with a laugh, before Juliana admitted the hardest part was having to do all the housework solo.Michael appeared in distress based on Juliana's comment, so she kissed him on the cheek and assured him, "I love you. It's okay! I know you do everything, like pay the bills."Juliana also shared at the time how she didn't miss her old life in Brazil."To be honest, not really, because I always wanted to work to have a family in the future," Juliana told Tamron. "And now I have a family, so it's my dream come true."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
90 Day Fiance alum Juliana Custodio is a new mom.

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The television personality welcomed her first child, son Benjamin James, with her fiance, Ben Obscura, on Tuesday.

Custodio shared the news on Instagram alongside photos of herself with her baby boy.

"All my friends that have known me for years know how much I waited for this moment, to have my own child, it was my biggest dream to become a mother," Custdio captioned the post.

"Today was the most incredible amazing day of our life's, I'm such a lucky woman for having you @ben_obscura in my life, an amazing father and husband to be. I couldn't have asked for a better partner and father to my child, you have been what I expected and more," she said.

Custodio said becoming a mom is "beyond a dream come true."

"I can't describe the feeling of finally having my baby in my arms and finally feel that I am a mother. With all those feelings comes the fears too. Now it's time to learn and grow with this little one," Custodio wrote.

"This is beyond a dream come true, I'm so blessed with this beautiful family I have. I can't thank enough all the support I have been having," she added.

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Fellow 90 Day alums David Toborowsky, Yara Zaya, Varya Malina and Miona Bell were among those to congratulate Custodio in the comments.

"Congratulations and best of health and happiness," Toborowsky wrote.

"congratulations on a beautiful and healthy son," Malina added.

"Gorgeous, you look so happy! You deserve it!" Bell said.

Custodio announced in November 2021 that she was expecting her first child with Obscura. She confirmed their engagement in January.

90 Day Fiance is a TLC reality series featuring couples where one partner has or is seeking a K-1 visa. Custodio, who hails from Brazil, appeared in Season 7 with her then-partner, Michael Jessen. The pair confirmed their split in October ahead of their second wedding anniversary.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/20/2022



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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 Alexis feels there aren't many acceptable reasons for her husband Justin being celibate.experts Dr. Pepper Schwartz and Pastor Calvin Roberson matched Alexis, a 29-year-old logistics specialist, and Justin, a 33-year-old digital marketing specialist, for matrimony on Season 15 based in San Diego, CA.Alexis and Justin immediately hit it off when they tied the knot as strangers, but Alexis wouldn't go as far as to say her groom was perfect for her.During the July 13 episode of : Afterparty, Alexis watched back a Season 15 clip of her first dance with Justin as man and wife after their wedding ceremony.Alexis was shown kissing Justin multiple times and asking, "When was the last time you kissed somebody?""A year-and-a-half ago," Justin replies in the clip with a small smile."A year-and-a-half since you've laid your lips on another human being?!" Alexis questions in disbelief.Justin then offers up, "I've also been celibate for a year-and-a-half.""Oh God!" Alexis shouts, before telling the cameras in a confessional, "You don't want to hear your man is celibate, like, whoa!"Alexis continues, "I hope it's not off limits for me, like, I can't get none because I can't get none. I'm gonna be struggling!"Stacia, who joined Alexis on Afterparty, admitted she was shocked when Alexis yelled out to her friends during the wedding dance how Justin hadn't been sexually active for well over a year."They were going to find out anyway!" Alexis said."Oh my God!" Stacia remarked.Afterparty host Keshia Knight Pulliam then asked Alexis to share her first thought upon hearing about Justin's celibacy."What a wholesome -- they gave me a wholesome man!" Alexis playfully declared."You're like, 'I'm about to ruin him!'" Keshia joked."Honestly, my first thoughts in this moment are, 'Why?' That's my initial thought," Alexis said on a serious note."Because typically when people are celibate," Alexis elaborated, "there's an end goal. Like, what is he waiting for? Is he waiting to be married?"Alexis, however, said that if Justin needed "space and time," she'd definitely be willing to give him that."At this point, you're my husband. I'll wait for you," Alexis noted.But Alexis admitted that she immediately "thought the extreme" in that maybe "there was something wrong" with Justin, like "a medical reason."Alexis acknowledged there wasn't much Justin could say to put her mind at ease in the moment. She apparently thought the odds of Justin giving her a good reason for his decision were slim to none."The list [of reasonable explanations] is short," Alexis confessed. "I'm telling you, the list is very short of reasons why it would be acceptable."Alexis explained, "I just don't understand because it's like if it was the long-term 'I'm waiting until marriage' or 'I've never had sex,' that's one thing. But a year-and-a-half as a timeframe, why?"star Lindy, who also appeared on Afterparty, grew up in a conservative and religious Christian household, and she admitted that she'd also be curious and want to know why, if she had been in Alexis' shoes.And Stacia agreed, "I mean, I would also want to know why.""But I don't think the answer would throw me," Stacia added, "unless it was, 'I was addicted to sex and I needed to take a break.' Or a medical reason would be like, 'Oh, okay.'"Stacia said it would totally make sense if her husband said he was waiting for a connection to have sex again or had been waiting for marriage."So after this, when you went and talked to your girls, tell me about this conversation," Keshia asked Alexis.Alexis giggled and replied, "My best friend, she asked me, 'Are you worried that because he's so tall that he might be tall in other areas?'"Alexis said that possibility did not occur to her until her friends brought it up."I don't look at people and say, 'Hmm, I bet he's packing!' That's not something that crosses my mind, personally," Alexis shared. "I never thought about it, I didn't."Since Justin previously said women used to look at him "like a piece of meat," Alexis joked, "Who are these women?! I would like to meet them!"She joked, "There's a lot of meat talk for a vegan!"Alexis also confessed on the Afterparty broadcast that Justin's early prediction at their wedding that he was going to fall in love with her actually rubbed her the wrong way."So, I used to be a mental health counselor, and for me, it's just, like, a red flag to me ," Alexis told Keshia."I just think the concept of us just meeting, we are strangers still, so it just seems superficial a little... You don't know enough about me to fall in love with me."Alexis, dubbed the "Passionate Powerhouse," had been proposed to three times but never got engaged before being set up with a stranger on . She said she's transparent, direct, and a badass dog mom who was afraid of failing at marriage following her parents' divorce.Justin, titled the "The Towering Teddy Bear," is a 6'8" man who was previously engaged to a woman who wanted a much older man.Justin said after that romance ended, he became very cautious and paid attention to red flags when dating different women. Justin, who had been single for five years prior to his wedding, said he was tired of being looked at "as a snack" and wanted the real thing.Justin called Alexis "stunning" when they met at the top of the aisle, and the couple shared a nice kiss after saying, "I do."But after the wedding, Alexis expressed how 6'8" is uncomfortably tall for her partner, adding, "Physically, he's not awful, but he's not my type by looking at him. But as far as his banter, he makes me feel comfortable."Justin, on the other hand, called Alexis the "perfect wife" looks-wise with "a personality out of this world." The pair also agreed they want children."Gosh, how did I get this lucky? Everything about her is perfect. We're only 15 minutes into this marriage and we have so much more to learn, but I am committed and in this forever. I am stuck and I want to be stuck!" Justin gushed in a confessional.Alexis thought her husband was amazing after their first conversation, and the pair agreed marrying each other was "worth the wait." The pair had chemistry while taking wedding photos, and they didn't appear to feel like strangers for long.currently airs its fifteenth season on Wednesday nights at 8PM ET/PT on Lifetime.Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group or click here to view our newspage!And click here for more updates on former cast members and info on where they are now!
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/20/2022



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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 Lindy Elloway has revealed that she was immediately head-over-heels for Miguel Santiago when first meeting him on their wedding day.Lindy, a 29-year-old doctor of physical therapy, was matched to wed Miguel, a 35-year-old associate medical director, on Season 15 of the Lifetime reality series by experts Dr. Pepper Schwartz and Pastor Calvin Roberson.During the July 13 episode of : Afterparty, Lindy watched back a Season 15 clip of her sweet wedding ceremony in San Diego, CA."Need to dig a ditch? He's showing up in the inappropriate footwear but ready to do the work," the officiant reads in the footage of what Miguel's family and friends wanted Lindy to know about her groom."But don't worry, Miguel is actually a doctor with a PhD in neuroscience.""Holy cow!" Lindy shouts. "Okay, Miguel!"Afterparty host Keshia Knight Pulliam pointed out how Lindy looked pretty happy during her wedding."I am sooo smitten in this moment! I'm just, like, head over heels, yes!" Lindy shared.When asked to reveal her first impression of Miguel, Lindy said, "He just seemed to warm. He was embracing me, he's making cute little facial expressions to help calm me, he's handsome.""I mean, I'm immediately attracted to him," she gushed. "It was just a great first impression, for sure."Lindy also clarified what the ditch-digging reference was about."It's just [Miguel]'s character within his friends. It's like, call him any time in the night and he will be there," Lindy explained."Oh, he's the one that if stuff goes down, [he's] going to help you bury the body," Keshia suggested."He is the 'bury your body' friend, for sure!" Lindy confirmed with a laugh. "That's Miguel. He's dependable to all of his friends."star Alexis also joined Lindy on Afterparty and offered her thoughts on the bubbly physical therapist being matched with Miguel."I think they are adorable together. I think just from meeting you that you guys will be a perfect balance," Alexis said. "And I really just love your love!"Lindy -- described as joyful, exuberant, and the "Adventurous Over-Thinker" by the MAFS experts -- was raised in a strict Catholic household and had the tendency to pick emotionally-unavailable men throughout her life.Miguel, dubbed "The Starry-Eyed Scribe," is a medical writer who said on the show he's a dork, jock, lover, fighter, hopeless romantic, poet, and serial monogamist who loves to escape into the world of fantasy and role play.Lindy was hoping her husband was going to be handsome, vulnerable and charismatic, and Miguel had optimism his wife would be open-minded, caring and hopefully come to appreciate his quirky interests and hobbies.Miguel didn't want either of them to feel like they're settling in a marriage.Lindy and Miguel shared a tight hug when they first met at the altar, and Lindy's family and friends told Miguel how Lindy brings out the best in everyone and sees the beauty in everyone and everything.Miguel's loved ones told Lindy that her new husband would bring calmness to chaos and beauty to most situations.Lindy was told Miguel would also invest in her crazy business ideas and makes every bad situation better.In her vows, Lindy promised to be patient and work on facing problems that arise as a team. She also said she'd support him through this challenging time.Miguel complimented Lindy's bravery and sense of adventure in his vows and said he couldn't wait to celebrate having found each other and growing in love.Lindy and Miguel kissed at the altar, and when they finally got to talk to each other, Miguel immediately brought out a stone and mentioned how he likes doing Dungeons & Dragons improv.Lindy actually thought his nerdy hobby was great and adorable, and then both Miguel and Lindy learned their jobs are flexible and remote.The couple therefore looked forward to traveling together, and while Lindy didn't want to use the word "perfect," she thought her match with Miguel was pretty darn close.currently airs its fifteenth season on Wednesday nights at 8PM ET/PT on Lifetime, and the show also stars Alexis and Justin, Krysten and Mitch, Stacia and Nate, and Morgan and Binh.Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group or click here to view our newspage!And click here for more updates on former cast members and info on where they are now!
Netflix is giving a glimpse of the new series School Tales: The Series.

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The streaming service shared a trailer for the anthology horror series Wednesday.

School Tales brings horror comics to life and features Thai actors and directors.

The stories include "a girl jumping to her death; a haunted library; canteen food made from human flesh; a headless ghost in the school warehouse; a devil-infested room; a vengeful demon in an abandoned building; and a classroom where only dead students attend class."

"Prepare to face a new kind of fear. During the day, the school belongs to the students. But at night, it's a different story," an official synopsis reads.

Kay Lertsittichai, Jennis Oprasert and Siwat Jumlongkul star, with James Thanadol Nuansut, Tum Putipong Saisikaew, Songsak Mongkolthong and Mike Phontharis Chotkijsadarsopon as directors.

School Tales: The Series premieres Aug. 10 on Netflix.
As of July 15, the Department of Public Health (DPH) had confirmed 93 cases of Monkeypox in Georgia, a number more than double confirmed cases reported as of July 12, as the state is set to start the the rollout of vaccinations for the illness.
BRATTLEBORO  The Select Board discussed several questions related to a potential statement in support of abortion access, including whether to provide funding for reproductive health care and advocacy.

Board member Jessica Gelter said the resolution is being proposed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe V. Wade decision to raise awareness and acknowledge related issues. She described the potential board action as meaningful and a way of showing solidarity to people who need support.

As a person who can get pregnant, Gelter said, the Supreme Court decision gives me such fear because it undermines my autonomy as a human being to have freedom and choice for how my life rolls out before me.

Gelter proposed that the resolution speak to the health and economic equities at stake when access to abortion is threatened, increased violence and attacks toward family planning providers, the coming closure of five Planned Parenthood locations in Vermont and New Hampshire this year, and the towns opposition to any investigation into abortions.

On Tuesday, the Select Board discussed the resolutions language and tabled it for the next meeting so Town Attorney Bob Fisher could respond to concerns. Board Vice Chairman Daniel Quipp, who said he doesnt believe the state should have authority to intervene in a persons autonomy, wants to know where Vermont law stands on protecting those traveling from other places for abortions.

There are laws in place around this country where people essentially have bounties because theyre coming to seek abortion outside their home state, he said. Im not sure that whats in this resolution would protect someone from that kind of situation.

Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland, who was involved in discussions on the first draft of the resolution with Fisher and Gelter, said the board can express itself through a statement as it did with an unenforceable mask mandate earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic. He noted that the board can direct the town manager to take an action but not the police department.

Board member Elizabeth McLoughlin said she doesnt feel its appropriate as a Select Board member to make a statement related to an issue that will be on the ballot in November. She sees the topic of abortion coming up not only in Proposition 5, which asks Vermonters if it should be protected in the states Constitution, but in every election. She wants to ensure the resolution wont interfere with the vote or other state initiatives.

It was my feeling and still is my feeling that regardless of the jurisdiction or the enforcement opportunities, what we are facing requires you to use your voice as a Select Board, Erica DeLorenzo of Brattleboro said. The decision is not really about abortion. What were facing is fascism.

Brattleboro Common Sense Director Kurt Daims proposed the town provide $50,000 to Planned Parenthoods Brattleboro office, $50,000 to Pro-choice America to support its advocacy of reproductive rights throughout the U.S., and $5,000 for a grant for advocacy of reproductive rights by a Brattleboro resident or group. He recounted how in 2011, the town funded unbudgeted repairs after Tropical Storm Irene.

I think we can do the same kind of thing for the abortion advocacy, he said, adding that $100,000 wouldnt be too much out of the way because the same figure was spent on the first year of hiring a town sustainability coordinator. We need to put our money where are our hearts are.

A serious resolution for abortion rights  Walk the walk We are angry and disgusted with the Supreme Courts recent decision on abortion rights. But 

Gelter said she spoke with staff from Planned Parenthood in Brattleboro and learned the local office operates at a deficit and they do struggle.

I would like to see them empowered to be financially more stable and be able to provide more reproductive health care for folks in our area, especially because of the closures of other Planned Parenthood offices in our regions, she said. To me, that funding piece could be another way to give [the resolution] more teeth.

Gelter suggested the potential for adding language to the resolution that indicates an intention to provide funding. Quipp and McLoughlin said they would like the funding to go through the traditional process in which applications go to the Human Services Review Committee before being voted on at annual Representative Town Meeting (RTM).

RTM could be convened in 30 days, Daims said.

This is important enough to do that, he added.

Bob Oeser of Brattleboro said the current situation might call for immediate funding.

These are dire times, he said. This is an extraordinary situation.
Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Becca Balint delivers a victory speech after being declared the winner in Vermonts Congressional Democratic primary to her supporters that gathered at the Harmony Lot, in Brattleboro, on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. Balint will face off against a Republican challe
Violinist Frank Almond, the caretaker of the 1715 Lipinski Stradivarius violin, will give a talk about the instrument's fascinating history next Tuesday and perform with it July 28.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Partly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 83F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers after midnight. Low 61F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Photographer / Multimedia Editor

Has been working as a photojournalist since 2007, before moving into newspapers, he worked with an NGO called Project HOPE. He then went to work for the Press and Sun-Bulletin in New York, and then in New England working for the Brattleboro Reformer.
BRATTLEBORO  Police in Vermont and Massachusetts want to speak with the ex-boyfriend of a woman found dead in a vehicle on Elliot Street earl
HARTFORD  Two companies originally tapped to develop Dunkin Donuts Park and the surrounding area filed an amended complaint last week seeking damages and to stop another firm from doing the work.

Lawyers for Centerplan Construction Co. and DoNo Hartford LLC filed the amended complaint in Hartford Superior Court, the latest in a long saga of legal battles that have unfolded since the two companies were fired from the project in 2016.

According to the complaint, the plaintiffs are seeking damages and for another company, RMS  which was hired to develop the area after they were removed from the project  to stop its continued development of the area. RMS has already begun construction on a mixed-use development, known as North Crossing.

The city and the developers initially reached an agreement in 2015 to develop the stadium for the Hartford Yard Goats. It was delayed because of several disputes, including a disagreement in December 2015 about the design of the stadium.

The city and DoNo Hartford resolved the dispute the next month through a term sheet that increased the budget and extended the completion deadline to May 17, 2016. The agreement also prevented changes to the project without the citys consent and modified the liquidated damages provision, which Centerplan did not sign, according to a court opinion filed in May.

But the developers did not meet the May 17, 2016 deadline, and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin  who was not in office when the agreement was signed  fired them from the project. The city then hired RMS to finish the project and develop the rest of the area, part of a long-term plan to add mixed-use residential and commercial spaces throughout North Crossing.

A jury initially ruled in favor of the city, but the state Supreme Court in May ordered a new trial.

Howard Rifkin, corporation counsel for the city, said in a statement that the amended complaint was expected after the Supreme Court ruling.

As for Centerplans irresponsible effort to stop the development of the parcels adjacent to the stadium, which was already decided in both Superior Court and Appellate Court, we will be filing a motion to dismiss as quickly as possible, he said.

According to the complaint, the two companies suffered great financial harm and detriment.

All the actions of the city, as set forth herein, were motivated by its self-interest and the political interests of its elected and appointed officials, who sought to conceal the city's inability to meet its obligations under the applicable contracts and avoid political embarrassment, the complaint stated.

Centerplan and DoNo also filed a request for RNS to be added as a defendant in the case. The next hearing is set for Oct. 17, according to court records.

jonah.dylan@hearstmediact.com
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WASHINGTON (AP)  Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska long has made clear she has no personal craving for the spotlight. Yet on Wednesday, she stood in the U.S. Capitol and made the case for more U.S. air defense systems to block Russian missiles.

She showed Americas most powerful lawmakers stark images of the toll of Russian bombardment of cities on Ukraines children  a blood-splattered baby stroller, a small crumpled body.

For Zelenska, spouse of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the appearance capped a week in Washington that marked some of her highest-profile appearances of the five-month war. The visit was also one of the first times most Americans have laid eyes on her.

We want no more airstrikes. No more missile strikes, Zelenska told Republicans and Democrats Wednesday, as an overhead screen displayed the war's youngest victims. Is this too much to ask for?

Zelenska, speaking to an audience that included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, appeared in the same congressional auditorium where her husband drew standing ovations from lawmakers three weeks into Russia's invasion. Her husband had spoken by video.

Zelenskyy has won praise from supporters for staying in Kyiv since Russia attacked, speaking nightly by video address. Zelenska and the couple's two children, meanwhile, went into hiding away from Zelenskyy for security reasons over the first two months of the war.

Zelenska worked as a scriptwriter for her husband, a comedian and actor before he won the presidency in 2019. They married in 2003.

Speaking to Vogue magazine the same year her husband was elected, Zelenska said she herself by nature was no teller of jokes, and a non-public person.

But as first lady, I found for myself arguments in favor of publicity. One of them is the opportunity to draw peoples attention to important social issues, Zelenska said then.

A visit by Jill Biden to western Ukraine in May, when the two first ladies spoke privately and sat alongside displaced children living at a school, marked the start of Zelenska's emergence from her wartime seclusion. Ukrainian officials said it was Jill Biden who invited Zelenska to come to Washington.

The Ukrainian first lady in Washington has spoken  largely away from reporters  with Jill Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Agency for International Development head Samantha Power and others.

She received a blue and yellow bouquet of sunflowers and hydrangea from Joe Biden on arrival at the White House for her meeting with the U.S. first lady.

Until Wednesday's appearance before lawmakers, accounts of Zelenska's conversations with U.S. officials this week focused on the need for mental health care for Ukrainians dealing with the trauma of the war, and a U.S. offer of rehabilitation assistance for children who've lost limbs in the war  humanitarian causes, not strategic or tactical.

But Zelenska also noted in a tweet she had talked with Vice President Kamala Harris's husband, Doug Emhoff, at the White House Tuesday on how "to turn the soft power of the first spouses into a powerful and effective tool.

Her blunt description to lawmakers of the deaths of children turned that soft power into a blunt and forceful instrument.

She showed photographs of a smiling, paint-smeared 4-year-old girl, Liza Dmytrieva, whom the first lady had happened to meet before Christmas.

The screen next showed an overturned baby carriage with blood caking on the sidewalk beneath it, after an airstrike killed the girl and badly injured her mother last week.

Our family represents the whole world for us, and we do everything to preserve it, Zelenska said. We cry when we cannot save it. And we remain completely broken when our world is destroyed by war.

Another photo showed a girl in a pink headband, shot by Russian soldiers with her family as they tried to flee, and who screamed and cried for two hours in their car before dying herself, Zelenska said.

Another showed three generations  grandmother, mother, baby daughter  killed by a Russian airstrike in the port city of Odesa, Zelenska told lawmakers. Yet another showed a 3-year-old boy, learning how to use a prosthetic limb after another airstrike.

Zelenska noted in passing Wednesday the humanitarian needs of the war. Maybe you expected from me to speak on those topics, she told lawmakers, through an interpreter. But how can I talk on all that when an unprovoked war is being waged on our country?

Lawmakers and others gave her standing ovations before her speech. But the photos on the screen had some shaking their heads at the scenes. The unsparing account and her direct appeal to lawmakers for more arms, especially more air-defense systems, echoed her husband's calls throughout the war for more weapons from the U.S. and other allies.

The daily hammering on the U.S. for more support has been effective, but as the war grinds on could risk resentment from government leaders, who as of the start of June have committed $4.6 billion in security assistance for Ukraine.

We've seen from Ukrainian leadership their courage but also their no-nonsense direct appeal and laying out the brutal mentality of Mr. Putin, Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, said as lawmakers walked out.

Pelosi spoke before Zelenska's address to describe U.S. lawmakers as strong supporters of the Ukrainian people and admirers of Zelenskyy's and Zelenska's leadership.

In his nightly video address in Ukraine on the event of his wife's speech, Zelenskyy said she would be speaking to lawmakers on behalf of all Ukrainian mothers, all Ukrainian women, and it will be an important address.

In Kyiv this week, some Ukrainians said they had been following her U.S. visit.

I treat her with great respect, said one, Larysa Logvinova, 63, adding, Oh, Im going to cry now.

Shes the best, Logvinova said. She is fragile, intelligent, and says the right things. As for her visit to the USA, I am very positive about it. And I hope that the result of her mission will be that Ukraine will receive additional aid."

___

Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.
Hong Kong journalists targeted under a citywide crackdown on dissent for their reporting of the Yuen Long mob attacks of 2019 have marked the third anniversary of the attacks with a YouTube documentary.



A group of independent journalists including Bao Choy, who was arrested in November 2020 over her investigative documentary for government broadcaster RTHK about the July 21, 2019 mob attacks on train passengers at Yuen Long MTR, published a 14-minute video to YouTube on Tuesday, ahead of Thursday's anniversary.



Bao's Hong Kong Connection TV documentary titled 7.21 Who Owns the Truth? showed clips from surveillance cameras at shops in Yuen Long and interviewed people who were identified in the footage.



Its airing forced police to admit that they already had a presence in the town, but did nothing to prevent the attacks as baton-wielding men in white T-shirts began to gather in Yuen Long ahead of the bloody attack on passengers and passers-by.



"On the third anniversary of the 721 Yuen Long attack, a group of independent journalists have made this special program about the unfinished investigation ... summarizing clues collected by civil society over the past few years, and following up with a few who have been persevering in seeking the truth," the video description reads.



"We are not affiliated with any media organization and have no news platform, but we sincerely appreciate the willingness of multiple independent journalists to work together on this production," it said.



"We have made this to professional standards despite the lack of salaries or resources."





The video also "pays tribute to the interviewees who dared to comment publicly and on the record," despite an ongoing crackdown on public criticism of the government under a national security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.



"Some of them have been forced to leave [Hong Kong], while others have chosen to stay, but they all want to see the day when the truth is made public," it said.



The HKIJ channel where the video was published had garnered 3,540 subscribers by Wednesday afternoon, and 5,700 likes, with a number of supportive comments from Hongkongers.



"You were the victims, but you bravely stood up and remembered the pain. I sincerely thank you and wish you all peace," one comment read, while another said: "Neither forget nor forgive. Thank you to everyone who stood up."



"Thank you to every citizen who still dares to tell the truth, and every reporter who reports the truth, three years on," another comment said.



Men in white T-shirts with poles are seen in Yuen Long after attacking anti-extradition bill demonstrators at a train station, in Hong Kong, China July 22, 2019. Credit: Reuters Galileo

The video includes interviews with three people who were in Yuen Long MTR three years ago, including Tuen Mun resident "Galileo" who was attacked while trying to rescue journalist Gwyneth Ho, and chef surnamed So who sustained heavy injuries from being beaten with rods, as well as a local businessman who supplied CCTV footage from his premises.



"Galileo" and his wife tell the producers they gave high-definition video and detailed witness accounts to police, but that most of the attackers hadn't been arrested to this day.



Choy was arrested and fined for "road traffic violations" relating to vehicle registration searches used in her RTHK film.



Thirty-nine minutes elapsed between the first emergency calls to the final arrival of police at the Yuen Long MTR station, where dozens of people were already injured, and many were in need of hospital treatment.



At least eight media organizations, including the Hong Kong Journalists Association, the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association and the RTHK staff union expressed extreme shock and outrage at Choys arrest.



Calvin So, a victim of Sunday's Yuen Long attacks, shows his wounds at a hospital in Hong Kong, China July 22, 2019. Credit: Reuters Book fair censored
Chinese analysts warn of unwanted conflict if U.S. vessels continue to transit disputed waters.

A U.S. warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, only three days after two consecutive Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea that drew strong protests from China.

The U.S. Navys Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on July 19 [local time], the U.S. 7th Fleet said in a statement.

The transit was conducted through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State, and was in accordance with international law, it added.

Taiwans Defense Ministry confirmed the transit, saying the Benfold sailed from south to north through the Taiwan Strait and described the situation as normal.

Last Saturday, the Benfold sailed near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in the second FONOP within a week. The first one was near another disputed archipelago in the South China Sea, the Paracels, on July 13.

The two back-to-back FONOPs provoked a strong reaction from Beijing which called such activities illegal trespasses into Chinese waters, an allegation the U.S. rejected.

The ships transit demonstrates the United States commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows, the U.S. Navy said, repeating previous statements.

The guided missile destroyer USS Benfold, homeported in Yokosuka, Japan, has made six FONOPs in the South China Sea since last July, an extensive schedule seen by observers as a message of defiance to Chinas sweeping maritime claims.

Taiwan visits must stop

Chinese state media called the recent U.S. naval activities an escalated provocation and Chinese analysts warned of an unwanted conflict.

China is amongst six claimants to the South China Sea but holds the most expansive one and has been developing artificial islands to defend its claims despite international criticism.

Beijing has also been lashing out at news about visits to Taiwan by U.S. politicians.

Britains Financial Times newspaper reported that U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi is to make a trip to Taipei in August after failing to visit the island in April because she had COVID.

If Pelosi makes the trip it would be the first time since 1997 that a U.S. House Speaker visited the island, which is democratically ruled but claimed by China as its own territory.

However, there are divisions in the Biden administration over whether Pelosi should visit Taiwan, according to two sources quoted by the Financial Times.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday that China firmly opposes any form of official interaction between the U.S. and the Taiwan region.

If Speaker Pelosi visits Taiwan, it would seriously violate the One-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-US joint communiques and harm Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity, Zhao said.

The spokesman warned that such a visit would have a severe negative impact on U.S.-China relations and said China will take strong and resolute measures against it.

The U.S. must not arrange for Speaker Pelosi to visit the Taiwan region and must stop official interactions with Taiwan, Zhao said.

Former U.S. secretary of defense Mark Esper is in Taiwan until Thursday on a three-day visit to exchange views on the security situation in the Indo-Pacific region and Taiwans overall relations with the U.S. and Europe, according to Taiwans Foreign Ministry.
Families in Ryanggang province are banished for having two or more members who fled to South Korea.

North Koreans are transported in a truck at the North Korean city of Hyesan in this file photo.

North Koreans whose family members have escaped the country and resettled in South Korea are being banished to rugged rural areas, in the latest punishment for citizens vilified as traitors by the Kim Jong Il regime, sources in the country told RFA.

Ryanggang province, located along the border with China in the north of the country, meted out the punishment to 30 households in mid-July, shortly after the central government changed escapees designation from illegal border crossers to traitorous puppets.

According to a previous RFA report, the change in terminology coincided with a decision to more fiercely crack down on the families for their relatives escape from the countrys sputtering economy and harsh political system.

On July 13th, The State Security Department selected defectors' families and exiled them to remote mountainous areas, a resident of Ryanggang province told RFAs Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

They selected families who had two or more family members defect to South Korea. Thirty households were simultaneously relocated, the source said.

Both North and South Korea use politically charged terms to refer to escapees, and many international media outlets render these terms as defector in English.

Rights organizations make a distinction between defectors, who were part of the government or military at the time they escaped, and refugees, who were not involved in the countrys power structure and left for economic reasons or to flee persecution.

The latest punishment follows previous anti-escapee campaigns, including when North Korea forced citizens to attend mass rallies to denounce the escapees as traitors, arrested people for speaking positively about escapees in public, and arrested families for having phone contact with, or receiving money from, members of their household who escaped to the South.

In many areas close to the border with China, remittances from escaped family members are an important source of income for many families, and they are usually able to get out of punishment by bribing authorities when they are caught. But it has now become more difficult to avoid the consequences.

In this Monday, June 16, 2014 photo, a propaganda billboard stands in a field south of Samsu, in North Korea's Ryanggang province. The sign reads: "Let's complete the tasks set forth in the New Year's address." Photo: AP

The plan for Ryanggang province to banish refugees families to remote areas had been in the works for several months, the source said.

While the original plan would have punished all families related to escapees, the authorities decided to narrow their net.

They reduced the target size to those families in which two or more members had defected  because too many families would have to be expelled for having just one family member who defected from North Korea. That target population is too large, said the source.

The expelled families went through a joint investigation by the State Security Department and judicial authorities under the presence of the head of their neighborhood watch unit. They confiscated the familys cash and valuable household items, such as electronics, said the source.

The banished families encompass people from all walks of life, according to the source.

A couple in their 70s was selected for exile because two of their grandsons defected. Others included parents whose sons or daughters escaped, or children left behind after their parents fled to South Korea first, said the source.

Those to be exiled did not know where they were being sent until the moment they left. They kept the final orders secret, fearing that if their close neighbors learned where they would be, they might forward that information to their family members in South Korea, the source said.

The relocation order only affected people whose family members escaped after 2010, another Ryanggang resident told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

An industrial truck owned by a company came by in the early morning and transported the exiles somewhere else, and they brought with them only minimal cooking tools, said the second source.

A driver in a shoe factory and forestry machinery business reported that he took a banished family from Bocheon to exile in Pungso, the second source said.

The source said that exiled families are commonly dropped in obscure villages Samsu, Kapsan, Pungso, and Pungsanlying somewhere between 12-75 miles from Hyesan, a city of more than 190,000 people and the administrative center of the province.

These areas have several security guard posts, so it is difficult to wander freely out there, the second source said.

The second source confirmed the earlier RFA report that escapees are now referred to as traitorous puppets, indicating a renewed crackdown on their families. The term "puppet" is often used to refer to the South Korean government, implying its illegitimacy.

The residents blame the authorities for exiling the families, who can just barely make a living with the help of their defector family members, the second source said.

The authorities took this measure to prevent the inflow of external information over the telephone

According to statistics from the South Korean Ministry of Unification, at least 1,000 refugees from the North have arrived in South Korea every year since 2002, peaking at more than 2,900 in 2009.

Under Kim Jong Uns rule, though, refugee arrivals in the South decreased to slightly more than 1,000 in 2019, then dropped off sharply in 2020, likely due to increased border security during the coronavirus pandemic.

Only 229 North Korean refugees made it to South Korea in 2020, 63 in 2021, and 11 through March 2022.

Translated by Claire Shinyoung O. Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Screenshots from a video a video showing water flowing around the Nam Theun 1 Dam in Bolikhamxay province in central Laos. The video was shared on Facebook on July 16, 2022.



People living near a leaking dam in central Laos remained fearful Wednesday, five days after a video of the leak went viral, despite assurances from the government that it is structurally safe and will be fixed in weeks, sources in the country told RFA.

Video of the apparent leak at the Nam Theun 1 Dam in the central province of Bolikhamxay was shared on Facebook on Saturday, a week before the fourth anniversary of the Southeast Asian countrys worst ever dam collapse that killed more than 70 people.

Authorities told RFA on Monday that the video depicted only seepage that would have no effect on operations or safety at the hydroelectric dam on a Mekong River tributary.

On Wednesday, however, the government put out a statement saying that the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines had found two small leaks during an inspection last month, and a second inspection on Sunday after the video circulated determined that the leaks were still the same size.

Our department inspected the dam on June 25, 2022 and found two leaks on the right side of the dam. However, the leaks are small and wont have any impact on the structure of the dam, Bouathep Malaykham, director of the ministrys energy industry safety management department, said in the statement.

We immediately asked the dam developer to look for the source of the leaks and stop the leaks as soon as possible, he said.

The developer is planning to fix the leaks in three weeks and our Ministry of Energy and Mines is closely monitoring the dam every day. Actually, were going to inspect the dam again on July 27, 2022, Malaykham said

The 650 MW Nam Theun 1 Dam is part of Laos controversial development strategy to build dozens of hydropower dams on the Mekong River and its tributaries to become the Battery of Southeast Asia by exporting power to neighboring countries. Critics question rising debt levels and environmental damage as well as safety.

The safety department head acknowledged that footage of the leaks on social media had caused understandable concern.

But he rejected comparisons with the July 23, 2018 disaster, billions of cubic feet of water from a tributary of the Mekong River poured over a collapsed saddle dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy (PNPC) hydropower project following heavy rains. It wiped out all or part of 19 villages, leaving 71 people dead and displacing 14,440 others.

Malaykhams statement reminded residents that the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy dam which collapsed in southern Laos four years ago was a soil dam, while the Nam Theun 1 Dam is a compact concrete dam.

For those who want to post news and pictures of the dam, please think twice, and make sure your information is correct. If not, it might create some misunderstanding among the public, he said.

But the 2018 disaster is still fresh in the minds of people who live downstream from Nam Theun 1, and they remain terrified even with the explanation, a teacher in the provinces Pakkading district said Wednesday.

The dam is leaking now, and sooner or later the leak is going to get worse and finally the dam is going to break, the teacher told RFAs Lao Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons..

Actually, the water is leaking from a dirt wall, not from the concrete wall, so, itll get larger and larger soon, the teacher added.

Another resident of the district told RFA he was not assuaged by government assurances.

History will repeat itself. We experienced the worst dam collapse four years ago, and now this is happening again.

A survivor of the 2018 disaster said the developer has instituted a warning system in the years since it caused what has been described as Laos worst flooding in decades.

The Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Dam developer often issues alerts or warnings to us during the rainy season; but up to now, there has been no drills of an emergency or rescue plan at all, the survivor told RFA Wednesday.

The government recently ordered more inspections on hydroelectric dams, a dam developer in northern Laos Oudomxay province told RFA.

We already do inspections. We coordinate with the local authorities and residents about our dam condition, the developer said.

Dams also warn the public and the local authorities prior to releasing water, an employee of a dam developer in southern Laos Sekong province told RFA.

The Nam Theun 1 hydropower project is 60 percent funded by Phonesack Group, 25 percent by EGAT and 15 percent by Electricite du Laos. When complete, its 650 MW of output will be sold to neighboring Thailand.

Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the landlocked countrys economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers without adequate compensation, and questionable financial and power demand arrangements.

Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Tensions had been building in the region amid arrests on both sides.

Fighting has erupted between Myanmars military and ethnic rebels in western Myanmars Rakhine state, leading to heavy casualties for junta troops, insurgents said Tuesday.

Tensions had been rising in recent weeks as arrests of officers and supporters on both sides of the conflict escalated, threatening the uneasy truce that has existed between the groups for more than a year.

The first clash between a joint force of junta troops border guard police and Arakan Army (AA) fighters took place at around 9 a.m. on Monday in between the villages of Saung Paing Nyar and San Kar Pin Yin, about 20 miles from the seat of Maungdaw township, sources in the area told RFA Burmese. An hour and a half later, a second clash occurred between the villages of Done Ku Lar and Wet Kyein, around 28 miles from Maungdaw.

AA spokesman Khaing Thukha told RFA that the military had suffered heavy casualties during the fighting and said at least 14 soldiers, including a police captain, were taken prisoner.

On the enemy side, there were many dead and wounded, he said. Fourteen of them, including a police captain, surrendered in the fighting.

Khaing Thukha did not clarify how many of the dead and captured were soldiers and how many were police officers, but he said that a lot of weapons and ammunition, including 26 guns, were seized in the fighting. The exact number of casualties is not yet known.

According to Khaing Thukha, the fighting was in retaliation for the deaths of six AA soldiers in an airstrike by two fighter jets on a rebel base camp in Kachin National Liberation Army territory near Myanmars border with Thailand on July 4.

In video footage of the battle in Maungdaw released by the AA via Arakan Princess Media on Monday, at least four policemen appear dead and others wounded in the back of a police car damaged by a landmine. Additional footage shows members of the joint junta forces being detained by AA fighters along a road.

A resident of Myawaddy village in northern Maungdaw township told RFA that gunfire could still be heard on Tuesday from the site of the fighting.

We can still hear gunshots today. I don't know exactly where the shooting is taking place, but gunfire can be heard from time to time and theres no movement of cars or motorcycles in our area, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Its so quiet in the village as people are worried. We don't know where the fighting might spread to. We don't know where to run either, if it comes toward us. We have forests on one side and the river and paddy fields on the other.

He said residents fled to the village school and hid there during Mondays clashes and they remain fearful. People in northern Maungdaw depend mainly on forests and farms for their livelihoods, and if the fighting escalates, he said, life will become difficult for them.

Arakan Army fighters guard one of the 14 junta soldiers captured after a firefight in Rakhine states Maungdaw township, July 18, 2022. Credit: Screengrab from Arakan Princess Media video Trust broken

AA spokesman Khaing Thukha said that trust between the two sides, based on an uneasy truce, has been broken due to the dishonest actions of the military.

If you really want peace, you cant be promoting it on the one hand while launching attacks on the other. These dishonest actions of the junta will not lead to peace in any way, he said.

Repeated attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Minister of Information Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun went unanswered Tuesday.

The AA fought a fierce campaign against Myanmars military from December 2018 to November 2020, demanding autonomy for ethnic Rakhines.

More than 300 civilians were killed and more than 700 injured during the fighting, according to figures compiled by RFA.

The two sides agreed to an informal ceasefire shortly before the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup, and the truce has held for more than a year. However, residents say tensions have risen in Rakhine since May, due to arrests and the arrival of military reinforcements.

Tensions are also simmering in Chin, Kayin and Shan states, where the AA also has a presence.

Maung Kyaw Zan, who represented Maungdaw township in the National Assembly, said the AA is fighting on behalf of the Rakhine people to protect their rights as the predominant ethnic group in Rakhine state and will only lay down its arms if the military compromises.

People in ethnic areas are losing their essential rights, and thats why the Rakhine people are demanding that they be protected, he said.

The AA is only fighting for the rights of the [Rakhine] people on their behalf. If they are assured of the rights they are demanding, the fighting will stop.

Translation by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Authorities ramped up security at official ceremonies, while anti-junta forces marched and held protests.

Myanmars military regime and opposition forces held dueling events Tuesday to mark the countrys 75th Martyrs Day, with heavy security deployed in the commercial capital Yangon for an official ceremony as anti-junta activists marched and held protests in several cities and towns.

The families of the nine assassinated national leaders honored on the holiday laid wreaths at an official ceremony held by the junta at the Martyrs Mausoleum in Yangon. Noticeably absent from the event were the families of independence hero Gen. Aung San, whose daughter Aung San Suu Kyi was thrown in prison following the militarys Feb. 1, 2021 overthrow of her government, and his elder brother Ba Win.

The military closed several of the main roads in the city for the early morning ceremony, which junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing did not attend.

A resident of Yangon told RFA Burmese that the military set up checkpoints throughout the city ahead of the event.

Armed police were placed on pedestrian bridges and there were a lot of junta vehicles patrolling the streets. In addition, there were police and soldiers in front of City Hall, at many intersections and posted at various checkpoints, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

There were soldiers and police in plain clothes too  [The authorities] checked everyone who approached the cordoned areas.

The military also tightened security and carried out inspections along various roads in Myanmars second-largest city Mandalay, where the opposition maintains a strong presence.

Demonstrators march in Kachin state on Martyrs' Day, July 19, 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist Despite the clampdown, people on the streets in many townships, including Yangon, commemorated Martyrs Day by honking their car horns and carrying wreaths honoring the nine leaders.

Even political prisoners in Yangons notorious Insein Prison marked the holiday by writing excerpts of speeches by the nine martyrs on their uniforms.

Meanwhile, anti-junta activists staged protests and hung posters denouncing the military regime in the regions of Yangon, Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway, and Tanintharyi, as well as in Kachin and Kayah states.

A monk in Mandalay told RFA that activists held a march on Monday to commemorate Martyrs Day in anticipation of tight security in the city for the actual holiday.

We were able to lead a protest column  on the eve of Martyr's Day, said the monk, who also declined to be named.

Today, security was tight and we couldnt undertake any activities  But we held a prayer ceremony this evening.

In Mon state, a member of the anti-junta Peoples Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group in Thaton township told RFA that a ceremony was held honoring not only the Nine Martyrs, but all who had died in the struggle for democracy.

[They] are also martyrs who deserve to be remembered, he said.

They fought and sacrificed their lives for the sake of the country and people, for the truth and for justice, so we also must salute them.

Martyrs Day activities were also observed in Sagaing regions Budalin, Chaung-U, Kani, Khin-U, Yinmarbin, Salingyi, Tamu, and Shwebo townships; Magway regions Pauk, Gangaw, and Tilin townships; Tanintharyi regions Launglon and Thayetchaung townships; Bago regions Bago and Letpadan townships; Kachin states Hpakant township; and Kayah states Phekon township.

Vice-Senior Gen. Soe Win (front), vice-chairman of the junta, salutes with officials at the tomb of Myanmar's independence hero Gen. Aung San during a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of his 1947 assassination, at the Martyrs' Mausoleum in Yangon, July 19, 2022. Credit: Myanmar Ministry of Information via AP Abandoned goals

Nan Lin, a member ofUniversity Students Unions Alumni Force in Yangon, told RFA that the junta had abandoned the goals of the Martyrs, so it was not strange that the family members of Aung San and Ba Win did not attend Tuesdays official ceremony.

The number one thing they wanted was independence and the formation of a federal union, followed by the flourishing of democracy and human rights in our country, he said.

However, what the military has been doing is totally against the aspirations of the martyred leaders.

On July 19, 1947, nine of Myanmars independence leaders were gunned down by members of a rival political group while holding a cabinet meeting in Yangon. The victims were Prime Minister Aung San, Minister of Information Ba Cho, Minister of Industry and Labor Mahn Ba Khaing, Minister of Trade Ba Win, Minister of Education Abdul Razak, and Myanmars unofficial Deputy Prime Minister Thakin Mya.

The nine played key roles in Myanmars independence movement and, following the end of British rule less than six months later, the date of their assassination was designated a national holiday.

Speaking to RFA in Yangon on Tuesday, youth protester Myat Min Khant said that Martyrs Day is now a day to commemorate all those who have sacrificed their lives for the nation.

There may have been nine martyrs in the past, but presently there are many more than nine, he said.

There were martyrs in the urban clashes, in the street protests, and in the liberated areas [of Myanmars remote border regions]. We must recognize the brave warriors who died in battle [against the junta].

The military seized power from Myanmars democratically elected government last year, claiming voter fraud led to a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the countrys November 2020 election. The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently suppressed nationwide protests calling for a return to civilian rule.

According to Thailands Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the military has killed at least 2,092 civilians and arrested nearly 15,000 since the takeover, mostly during peaceful anti-junta demonstrations. The group acknowledges that its list is incomplete and says the numbers are likely much higher.

Translation by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Locals fear those still being held will be murdered by junta troops and allied militia.

Nearly 70 villagers have been arrested at a village in Saigaing regions Yinmabin township.

They were taking refuge in a monastery in Ban Bwe village. Junta forces moved in and arrested them at around 1 p.m. last Saturday, according to locals.

The arrested include 10 children aged between three and eight and five people in their 70s and 80s.

The older people had to pay a total of MMK 2.5 million, or U.S.$ 1,345, and were released the same day. The rest are still being held by the military, according to a local woman who declined to be named for safety reasons.

Soldiers and members of a military-affiliated militia have been deployed in the village for the past six months.

There are about 100 soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee, the woman told RFA. The detainees were sheltering in the Pepin Tawya monastery in the southern part of Ban Bwe village. The military forces and its affiliate, the Pyu Saw Htee, ordered the people to return home but then they arrested about 70 of them and held them at the village school. We had heard about what happened at Mon Taing Pin village in the past, and we are worried that those arrested will be killed.

Last May, more than 30 villagers were arrested and tied up by the army at a school in Mon Taing Pin, also in Sagaing region, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting between junta forces and Peoples Defense Forces (PDFs). The military killed 29 of them, in many cases chopping up nd burning their bodies.

The woman said she was trying to find out who had been detained in Ban Bwe. RFA and locals have identified 14 of the adults and all 10 children so far.

Calls to the military councils spokesman by RFA went unanswered on Wednesday.

Ban Bwe village. CREDIT: Google Earth





Nearly a thousand people from more than two hundred households lived in Ban Bwe, which is also known as Ywa Ma village.

When junta troops and Pyu Saw Htee entered the village in January locals fled due to battles between the troops and local PDFs.

Apart from those who were hiding in the monastery, some have moved to nearby cities and some are hiding in a forest near the village.
Family members say the men have no connections to the rebel army in western Myanmar.

Ethnic Rakhine civilian Kyaw Win Hlaing recovers from a beating his family says he received during an interrogation by authorities about alleged connections to the rebel Arakan Army, at Yangon General Hospital in Yangon, Myanmar, July 2020.

UPDATED at 8 A.M. EDT on 2022-07-21

Thirty ethnic Rakhine civilian men arrested in June for allegedly having connections to Arakan Army rebels in western Myanmars Rakhine state have been charged with harming public interest, relatives of those arrested and people assisting the men told RFA on Wednesday.

They were arrested by the Myanmar military around the same time that soldiers and the Arakan Army (AA) were arresting each others personnel amid rising tensions in the area, which was engulfed in war between the two forces from 2018-20, the sources said.

Tensions between the two sides intensified in May when some civilians with ties to the AA were hunted down by the military. The AA retaliated by capturing junta soldiers. Neither side has released those it is holding.

As part of the ongoing hostilities, the military arrested more than 40 civilians, but later freed 10 and has opened cases against the remaining 30, sources told RFA.

Among those charged under Section 505(a) of Myanmars Penal Code are nine men from Sittwe, six from Ponnagyun township, three from Kyauktaw township, eight from Mrauk-U township and four from Kyaukphyu township.

After the AA arrested three soldiers in Mrauk-U on June 21, the military, in turn, arrested no less than 10 civilians. Some were released, but eight people, including Kyaw Win Hlaing, were charged in the Mrauk-U District Court under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code.

Kyaw Win Hlaing, a 30-year-old tricycle driver, was arrested the following day, said a family member who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. On July 4, he was taken from a military interrogation center to Yangon General Hospital in the commercial hub Yangon.

Though military authorities claimed that Kyaw Win Hlaing had kidney disease, the man had to receive medical treatment because he was severely beaten during the interrogations, his relative said.

The military lied to us that his kidneys were not good, but we noticed that he was badly beaten, said the family member. There were many injuries and wounds. He was beaten in the groin and belly and on the legs. We think the military is purposely doing this to people.

Kyaw Win Hlaing is now finding it difficult to pay for his medical care, the relative said.

They are innocent

Military authorities charged four of the six civilians arrested in Ponnagyun township  Tun Hlaing, Win Maung Than, Kyaw Min and Myat Thuratun  only under Section 505(a), while the other two  Ba Hlaing and Myo Thwin  were also charged with allegedly obstructing justice.

Ba Hlaings wife, Aye Khaing, told RFA that the military arrested the men unlawfully.

They are innocent, she said. Thats why we want our men to be released as soon as possible. We also want to say that the charges against them were not right. They were wrongfully accused.

My husband is a person free from politics and scandals, she added. He has been working honestly and was arrested unlawfully.

Captain Kyi Hlaing of the militarys Light Infantry Battalion 550 based in Ponnagyun filed the charges against the six men, who appeared in court on July 15. Their next hearing date is July 29.

All six and two youths from the townships Pauk Taw Pyin village, were arrested on June 16 after the AA arrested a junta soldier, local sources said. The two young men are now in Sittwe Prison, though their charges are unknown.

Family members told RFA that three locals, including activist Zaw Win, who were arrested and charged in Kyauktaw township under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code, will appear in court on Thursday.

The other two individuals  Sai Wunna Kyaw and Tun Tun Zaw  were arrested on June 24.

Than Hlaing and Khin Ohn Nwe, who were arrested on May 26, are also facing trial under Section 505(a) for allegedly providing funds to the AA.

Subjected to torture

Myat Tun, director of the Rakhine Human Rights Protection Group, said the men had been arbitrarily arrested and unlawfully detained and that their relatives said they had been tortured by the military during interrogations.

According to family members of those who were arrested, we heard that they were subjected to torture during the interrogations, he said.

Article 30 of the Declaration of Human Rights clearly states that people cannot be tortured, Myat Tun added. This should not have happened.

Those arrested are civilians who have no association with the AA, he said.

Writer and former political prisoner Wai Hin Aung said the arrested civilians should not be harmed.

If these people were taken away on suspicion for questioning, then they should be released afterwards, he said.

Its no problem with taking action against AA members, but I dont want civilians to be harmed in any way, he added.

AA spokesman Khine Thukha said the actions of the military council are crimes because the people who have been arrested and charged are innocent civilians.

Making arbitrary arrests of these innocent civilians and torturing them are bullying acts. Therefore, we want to say that this is a case of injustice," he told RFA.

"It is nothing uncommon for armed forces to seize each other's personnel. However, arresting and abusing innocent civilians like this is a crime against humanity," added Khine Thukha.

RFA could not reach junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment. He previously said on June 28 that no civilians had been arrested by military forces in Rakhine state.

UPDATE: Clarifies source of quotes in final paragraphs is Arakan Army spokesman Khine Thukha.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Sources said the village may have been targeted because of its predominantly Muslim population.

Junta troops killed at least 10 people and set fire to around 500 homes during a raid on a predominantly Muslim village in Myanmars embattled Sagaing region, residents and members of the armed opposition said Wednesday.

Sources from Kyi Su village, in Sagaings Kanbalu township, told RFA Burmese that seven of the 10 victims died in the blaze that followed the militarys arson attack on July 18, while the remaining three were beaten and shot to death inside a local Buddhist monastery. Their bodies were discovered by residents who returned to the village on Tuesday after junta troops left the area.

The three victims executed by the military were identified as Moe Thin, 20, Tin Shwe, 20, and Maung Gyi, 45. Residents said that the seven who died in the fire had yet to be identified, as their remains were charred beyond recognition.

A resident of Kyi Su, who declined to be named, but identified himself as the brother of Moe Thein, said the raid began when junta troops were airlifted to the village in central Myanmar, which is home to a community of around 5,000 Muslims and Buddhists.

While we were sitting in the village, two helicopters suddenly appeared in the air and began firing at us. Other helicopters dropped the soldiers, who came up along the main road and shot and arrested people, and then set fire to the houses, he said.

About 500 houses were burned down in the fire. My younger brother was killed. After having lost everything, we are now more determined than ever to fight against them till the end.

The resident said that the number of buildings destroyed in the fire accounted for more than half of Kyi Sus 900 homes and were predominantly located in the southern, Muslim section of the village. Only around 10 homes were torched in the northern section of the village, which is home to its smaller Buddhist community.

The junta which seized power from the elected government in February 2021 has faced the fiercest armed resistance in Sagaing region. Residents of the largely agricultural region have borne the brunt of army retaliation, often featuring burnings of villages that have displaced thousands of people.

Most of Sagaings 34 townships and more than 5,900 villages have been affected by fighting between military forces and members of the anti-junta Peoples Defense Forces (PDF).

Smoke rises from Kyi Su village after the July 18, 2022 attack. Credit: Citizen journalist Possible religious violence

Another resident of Kyi Su, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal, said that while furniture was destroyed in the village monastery, he believes the military raid specifically targeted the Muslim population.

The Muslim school in the Eastern Mosque was burnt down. They fired at the buildings inside the mosque compound and smashed everything too. The Western Mosque also met the same fate, he said.

Most [of the people there] are Muslims. I think they were carrying out a form of religious violence.

Residents told RFA that they were working to extinguish the remaining fires set by the military as recently as Wednesday morning.

They said the force that stormed the village comprised about 120 troops. Military uniforms were discovered in the village when residents returned, but it was unclear which unit the troops were from because the badges had been removed.

An Islamic religious leader from Kyi Su, who also declined to be named, told RFA that dozens of villagers are missing following the raid.

About 100 people were arrested in the lightning raid. They were taken to the monastery and the elderly were later released. About 50 people are missing, he said.

We want the war to end as soon as possible, as the village is facing a lot of trouble. We need help badly now. Many people are homeless. The junta is inhuman and has no sympathy for the population at all. Theres no one worse than them in the world.

Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Minister of Information Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun went unanswered Wednesday.

Truly loathsome

A member of the anti-junta Peoples Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group based in neighboring Khin-U township called Mondays raid an act of cruelty against the people.

This kind of action is totally unacceptable. [The junta troops] cannot be compared even to animals, he said.

I don't think theres a single rifle in that village and yet, they used excessive force to murder people and burn the village. They even killed people at the entrance of the monastery. The actions of the military, which claims to protect the nation and religion, is truly loathsome.

Other sources in the region told RFA that junta troops were raiding additional villages between Khin-U and Kanbalu townships on Wednesday in three columns.

Last month, independent research group Data For Myanmar, which studies the effects of conflict on communities, said that at least 18,886 houses had been destroyed by military arson across the country since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup.

According to Thai NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, junta authorities have killed nearly 2,100 civilians and arrested more than 14,800 in the nearly 18 months since the takeover, mostly during peaceful anti-coup protests.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
The course comes in response to clashes between India and China along their shared border in Ladakh.

Guru Tulku Rinpoche, abbot of the Bomtila monastery in India's Arunachal Pradesh, presents a class certificate to an Indian army officer in a July 17, 2022 photo.

Indian army officers are learning about Tibet in a new program aimed at promoting a better understanding of the formerly independent Himalayan country, now a part of China, in response to deadly clashes along their high-altitude border in 2020, sources say.

The initiative was launched with a 42-day course taught at the Central Institute of Himalayan and Cultural Studies in Arunachal Pradesh, a northeastern Indian state bordering Tibet, and attended by army officers deployed to the geographically sensitive region, Indias Defence Ministry announced this week.

The course ending on Sunday included lessons in the Tibetan language, classes on Tibetan Buddhism and literature, and visits to local monasteries in the culturally Tibetan area, now claimed by China as part of its own territory, the Ministry said, adding that similar courses are planned for the future.

Speaking to RFA on July 17, French-born journalist and Tibet expert Claude Arpi praised the Indian government program, saying it should now be extended to other government departments because of ongoing tensions along contested parts of the border between China and India.

This initiative by the Indian government would also be good for the Indian Administrative Services in Ladakh, Sikkim and the Uttarakhand border area, and for other governing Indian officers, Arpi said following his participation as an instructor in the month-long teaching course.

Also speaking to RFA, Jayadeva Ranade  former member of the Cabinet Secretariat of the Indian government and now president of the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy  noted that plans for the teaching program were begun following deadly border clashes in June 2020 between Chinese and Indian troops in the northeastern Indian territory of Ladakh.

Also, having a comprehensive knowledge of Tibets history and traditions will be beneficial for everyone, Ranade added.

Dalai Lama visits Ladakh

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, now living in exile in India, is currently visiting Ladakh in his first trip away from his residence in Dharamsala since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic more than two years ago.

After a few days rest in the region, the Dalai Lama will teach on July 28, 29 and 30 at the Shewatsel Teaching Ground near Choglamsar at the request of the Ladakh Buddhist Association and the Ladakh Gonpa Association, sources say.

Banned by Chinese authorities in Tibet, celebrations of the Dalai Lamas July 6 birthday have been held by large gatherings in Ladakh in recent years, according to sources in the region.

Concerns have been raised over the advancing age of the now 87-year-old spiritual leader, with Beijing claiming the right to name a successor after he dies, and the Dalai Lama himselfthe 14th in his linesaying he will be reborn outside of areas controlled by China.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago, and the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers later fled into exile in India and other countries around the world following a failed 1959 national uprising against Chinas rule.

Tibetans living in Tibet frequently complain of discrimination and human rights abuses by Chinese authorities and policies they say are aimed at eradicating their national and cultural identity.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.
This is an eradication campaign, one analyst says of Chinas policy in the region.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (C) visits the community of Guyuanxiang in the Tianshan district of Urumqi in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022.

Chinese President Xi Jinpings recent visit to Xinjiang signals a new emphasis on the assimilation of the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority group the U.S. and other governments have said are victims of an ongoing genocide, analysts said.

Xi made an unannounced visit to Chinas far-western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) on July 12-15, where he emphasized social stability and lasting security as the overarching goal of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policies, according to a July 15 report by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Xis visit to Xinjiang was his second in eight years to the region, where Chinese authorities have detained up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in internment camps since 2017.

Locals have reportedly been subjected to severe human rights abuses, torture and forced labor, as well as the eradication of their linguistic, cultural and religious traditions in what the United States and several Western parliaments have called genocide and crimes against humanity.

Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the Washington, D.C.-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and expert on the Xinjiang region, said Xis statements were a very significant affirmation that Beijings policy was correct and that it should continue to be implemented.

Its a statement of defiance and of pride, Zenz told RFA. Basically he is signaling that nobody can interfere into China's ethnic policy in Xinjiang and that Beijings red lines are firmly upheld.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that China has asked United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to bury a report into Xinjiang, which she visited in May.

The letter authored by China expressed grave concern about the Xinjiang report and aims to halt its release, Reuters said from Geneva, where four sources told the news agency that China began circulating it among diplomatic missions from late June and asked countries to sign it to show their support.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (C) inspects a local village in Turpan, northwestern China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. Credit: Xinhua News Agency

Xi 'will eradicate the remaining few'

In a July 16 tweet thread, James Millward, a history professor at Georgetown University who specializes in Central Asia, noted Xis contention that Chinese civilization is the root of the cultures of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang in a speech after his trip to describe the relationship of non-Han Chinese people in the XUAR to zhonghua, or Chinese identity.

In Xi's speech at the Third Xinjiang Forum in September 2020 (and in other speeches around that time) a different phrase was used, Millward wrote. That phrase was: All ethnic groups in Xinjiang are family members linked to Chinese bloodlines.

I pointed out at the time that by evoking blood and family member this phrase indirectly implied a genetic relationship between the Central Asian peoples now ruled by the [Chinese Communist Party] and zhonghua, i.e., Chinese people, he wrote.

Millward also notes that Xis comment about the necessity of educating and guiding officials and the masses to correctly recognize Xinjiang history, especially history of ethnic development indicates that China is now stressing that various ethnic groups are all Chinese, developed from and as part of what Xi calls the zhonghua (now ubiquitous as generic, ahistorical cultural term equivalent to the western-language term China).

Chinese analyst Ma Ju said Xi went to Xinjiang in preparation for the CCPs 20th Congress in autumn, where Xi likely will be reappointed for a third term as party general secretary, and the Peoples Congress convening next March.

Xi Jinpings statements made after his visit to the region indicates that he will eradicate the remaining few and careful cultural figures after getting rid of the Uyghur elites, Ma told RFA. This is an eradication campaign. They will continue this eradication campaign just like getting rid of the civilization of other nations [non-Han peoples] in Chinese history.

Rahima Mahmut, U.K. director of the World Uyghur Congress, said events such as the staged dancing of Uyghurs for Xis visit was orchestrated for propaganda purposes.

This happens quite often, she said. It is the same not only for officials from the central government, but also for local officials. The Uyghur students and performers are forced to welcome such officials. The staged dancing of Uyghurs was meant to show the world that Uyghurs enjoy normal happy lives.

But Mahmut also said it was frightening to see photos and videos of the Chinese president with mostly elderly Uyghurs around him, and young men nowhere to be seen.

Where did the Uyghur young men go? The truth is most young Uyghur males have faced enforced disappearance. They are either in the camps or prisons. This is quite clear, she said.

Following Xis visit to the XUAR, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told RFA that the U.S. would continue to work to promote accountability for the PRC [Peoples Republic of China] governments use of forced labor, as well as its ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.

Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights tells RFA the government has ignored recommendations made three years ago.

Journalists Pham Chi Dung (right), Nguyen Tuong Thuy (left) and Le Huu Minh Tuan, members of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, at a court hearing in Ho Chi Minh City on Jan. 5, 2021.

In a damning report on Vietnams human rights record the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) accused the government of not only failing to meet its commitment to protect its citizens rights but also intensifying its repression.

The Paris-based human rights organizations submitted their report on Monday to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which will meet to review the report in October.

VCHR Vice President Penelope Faulkner told RFA why the groups submitted their findings at this time.

Our job as an organization on human rights is to tell the truth, so were saying to the United Nations that what Vietnam has told you is not true. This is what is happening in Vietnam.

Vietnam has committed to inform the UN of the steps it is taking to improve its tarnished record because it is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

In the most recent exchange in March 2019, the UN Human Rights Committee made three recommendations to Vietnams government, concerning the death penalty, freedom of speech and the state's treatment of human rights activists.

Faulkner said the government had not implemented any of its recommendations.

"Vietnam was examined in 2019 so they should have improved since then but we have seen that the arrest of bloggers, of independent journalists, of people who just use the internet to express their opinions are [leading to] very long sentences, she told RFA. I'm thinking of Nguyen Chi Dung, who was sentenced to 15 years just because he sent a video to our committee on the EU-Vietnam Free Trade agreement and he just expressed his opinions. Vietnam always argues and they tell the United Nations they don't have political prisoners but only arrest people who break the law. What is dangerous now is that they are passing more laws that are anti-human rights, which really restrict human rights. People who complain about these laws, who take action, will get arrested leading to heavy sentences."

The Vietnamese government has also been accused of misleading the UN Human Rights Committee by claiming data on the number of people receiving the death penalty had been made public according to the law. In reality, information about death sentences is still classified as a state secret and there is no way to access it.

Faulkner said the FIDH/VCHR report was timely because Vietnam had applied to join the UN Human Rights Council for its 2023-2025 term.

"Vietnam wants to be a member of the UN Human Rights Council and they have put forward their candidate. If it's obvious that Vietnam has a very bad human rights record it might influence [the UN]. So we are here to tell the truth," she said.

On April 27, the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the UN responded to a request from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association in Vietnam.

Its response followed requests by UN special rapporteurs in December and January.

The Vietnamese delegation cited government decisions and resolutions, claiming they guaranteed those rights.
The United States said on August 15 that it would respond privately to the European Union's "final draft" of a text to salvage the hobbled nuclear deal with Iran, as the international community awaited a response from Iran amid signals that Tehran might eventually sign off on the proposal.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was quoted by state agency IRNA as saying "the American side has verbally accepted

Tehran's "two demands."



He did not specify what "demands" he was referring to, and the statement appeared to fly in the face of tough words from Washington.



But Amir-Abdollahian vowed that Tehran would send its "final proposals in writing by midnight" on August 15. It was unclear late on August 15 whether those proposals had been sent.



The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has served as coordinator for the long-stalemated talks between Iran and world powers to revive the 2015 deal.



"If our opinion is accepted, we are ready to conclude and announce the accord at a meeting of foreign ministers," Amir-Abdollahian said.



U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington's reaction would not be made publicly but would go directly to Borrell.



Price also said the only path to a return to the agreement was if Tehran stopped making "extraneous demands."



Public stagnation in the talks on renewing the deal exchanging sanctions relief for curbs on Iran's nuclear activities have given way to hints in recent weeks that a deal is within reach.

Amir-Abdollahian said recently the coming days were important in finding a solution to the remaining issues holding up a final deal, and called on Washington to show some "flexibility" to allow the talks to move forward.

"We do not want to reach a deal that after 40 days, two months, or three months fails to be materialized on the ground.... We have told them that our red lines should be respected," Amir-Abdollahian said, according to the Fars news agency, which is affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Borrell said on August 8 that a 25-page draft had been delivered to the capitals involved for decisions on acceptance.

The draft, according to Borrell's spokesman, was a "final text" that needed a yes-or-no answer from all of the participants, as there was "no more space for negotiations."

The State Department has previously indicated that the United States was ready to "quickly conclude a deal" to revive the 2015 agreement based on the EU proposals.

The spokesman said Washington will wait to see if Tehran's "actions match their words" following repeated signals that Iranian officials might endorse the deal.

Iran has so far said it is considering the draft amid "more comprehensive discussions in Tehran."

Amir-Abdollahian said that "like Washington, we have our own plan B if the talks fail."

Enrique Mora, the European Unions top negotiator, has said he's absolutely optimistic about the talks progress.

Iran struck the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) in 2015 with the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia, and China. The deal saw Iran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium under the watch of UN inspectors in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Washington unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear pact under then-President Donald Trump in 2018. Iran reacted by gradually backtracking on its obligations under the deal, such as uranium enrichment.

Negotiators from Iran, Russia, and the EU -- as well as the United States, indirectly -- resumed talks over Tehrans nuclear deal on August 4 after a months-long standstill in negotiations.

With reporting by Fars and Reuters
The presidents of the five Central Asian countries are in Kyrgyzstan to discuss political and economic cooperation after violent unrest in three countries in the region and a change in attitudes toward Russian influence in the former Soviet countries.



The July 20-21 summit in the resort town of Cholpon-Ata, is officially called the Fourth Consultative Meeting of the Heads of States of Central Asia. It is taking place just weeks after several dozen people were killed in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan after security forces brutally clamped down on anti-government protests in their respective autonomous regions, Gorno-Badakhshan and Karakalpakstan.

In January, more than 200 people were killed in unrest in Kazakhstan, prompting Nur-Sultan to invite Russian-led security forces to swoop in and help restore order.



But Russia -- the main strategic and trade partner in the region -- has since been weakened by the war in Ukraine and the crippling sanctions imposed by the West because of the conflict.



RFE/RL Kazakh Service freelance correspondent Yelnur Alimova spoke with Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, the founding director of the Center for Governance and Markets at the University of Pittsburgh, about Russia's future role in Central Asia.



RFE/RL: During the summit, the Central Asian presidents are expected to sign a Friendship, Neighborliness, and Cooperation for the Development of Central Asia in the 21st Century agreement. Will this step lead to regional integration in Central Asia?



Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili: Its a very important time for Central Asia right now given what's going on in the environment. I think the leaders of the region understand that they are better able to preserve their sovereignty and their independence when they work together.



We are using the term integration; I think the better term to use is regional cooperation. I think it's still premature to talk about any kind of integration. As we know, many of the countries still have very serious disputes with one another. If we look at Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, for example, in their border disputes, there are many issues that are unresolved in that area.



So, I think integration is premature, but we are seeing greater steps towards regional cooperation and that may include the creation of a body at the regional level that can facilitate that kind of cooperation without the reliance on external third parties.



RFE/RL: What other obstacles do you see on the way to regional integration?



Brick Murtazashvili: These are all countries that are still trying to figure out their own internal sovereignty while trying to work with one another. And of course, there is the external factor and the role that parties like Russia, the United States, and even China have played in balancing these states off against one another.

I think a lot of countries are saying: "Well, if Russia is having this much trouble in Ukraine, how is it going to be able to protect Central Asia...?

I think, what the countries of Central Asia now are beginning to realize is that they have greater power when they work together, especially vis-a-vis Russia or China or the United States. But the United States is no longer an important player in the region after August of last year when [it] withdrew [from Afghanistan]. So that is a very important factor in the region.



But in terms of what this will produce, I think it's very important, even if nothing concrete comes out of this. I think it's very important that this mechanism exists for conflict prevention, mediation, having the leaders of the five states be in a room together where they can talk about issues. I think it's really important that Turkmenistan is there since this country is going to join such an agreement for the first time.



RFE/RL: Some experts believe that Russias influence in Central Asia is waning as its being increasingly weakened -- financially and militarily -- because of the war in Ukraine and the crippling sanctions imposed by the West. Do you agree with this viewpoint?



Brick Murtazashvili: Yes, I do agree that Russia's influence is declining in the region, but not for the reason most analysts think. I think what the war in Ukraine illustrated from a moral perspective was that it is very difficult to cooperate with Russia if you're Kazakhstan and you're looking at what Russia did in Ukraine and you're looking at Russia's justification for it. As we know, Putin's justification for the invasion of Ukraine could just as easily apply to Kazakhstan as it could to Ukraine. So, this leaves countries feeling very vulnerable.



Another issue is that Russia's military performance has been very weak. And a lot of people anticipated that Russia would have a really quick victory in Ukraine. And that hasn't happened.



Many countries in Central Asia were looking to Russia as a security guarantor able to provide security, within the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization). Look at the thousands of Russian troops that were in Tajikistan on the border with Afghanistan. This was seen as a way to protect the region from incursions from militants.

I think a lot of countries are saying: "Well, if Russia is having this much trouble in Ukraine, how is it going to be able to protect Central Asia that is so far away?" So, I think many countries are actually asking [much more pragmatic questions]: "Is Russia necessary? Can Russia deliver on the things that it had promised?" I am not sure that that's the case.



In addition to that, you have the economic issues -- Russia's economic decline. Russia is a very important economic player in so many countries in the region. But I think this gives countries an opportunity to diversify their sources of economic growth.



If we thought the COVID [pandemic] would be the opportunity to do this -- with so many countries dependent on remittances from Russia -- I think this is another opportunity for Central Asian states to revisit that because it really highlights the vulnerability. Both COVID and the sanctions illustrate the vulnerability of relying on Russia.



RFE/RL: Will this situation open the door for other players, such as China and the United States?



Brick Murtazashvili: Sure, it would open the door to other players. It would certainly open the door to China. It does open the door to the United States and Europe. But let's remember, the United States has just left the region.



The most important thing is it opens the door for Central Asia. It opens the door to Central Asians to take control of their own foreign policies, to assert greater control.

It's a really important time for the region right now. We're seeing really creative foreign policy ideas emerge from the region. We're looking at Central Asian states increasingly look south towards South Asia, for example, looking for new trade routes. We're looking at India to some extent, but we're looking at Iran and Turkey having renewed relations with Central Asia and really trying to push.



This is very positive for Central Asia not to be necessarily reliant on one large external power, but to be able to draw on many and to rely on them for their own interests so that they can cultivate their interests in working with these different players and balance them out against one another.



RFE/RL: Do you think Central Asian countries are distancing themselves from Russia because of its war in Ukraine, as some analysts suggest?



Brick Murtazashvili: It's hard in the short term for them to take complete distance from Russia just because of the deep economic ties. But [I'd like to watch] some large-scale Russian investments, for example, that are in Central Asia -- I'm not sure what their status will be in the future.



I'm thinking of Uzbekistan, in particular, which had closed itself off to the entire world for many years. And when [President Shavkat] Mirziyoev came to power, [Uzbekistan] opened itself economically and opened itself to Russian investment. One investment that comes to mind was Rosatom's. They were going to build a huge nuclear power plant outside of Tashkent. I'm wondering, what is the status of this project now when Russia is in such a difficult economic situation; what is the status of things like the Eurasian Economic Union.



I wouldn't be surprised to see the Eurasian Economic Union weaken significantly in the months and years to come. I would also probably say the same thing about the CSTO, at least Central Asian participation in the CSTO.



RFE/RL: Some experts argue that relations between Russia and Kazakhstan have deteriorated in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putins war in Ukraine. Do you see any tension between Moscow and Nur-Sultan?



Brick Murtazashvili: Yes, I think this is really important and it's not just Kazakhstan. [Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart] Toqaev came out very strongly and said they wouldn't recognize [Ukraines separatist-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent]. And Abdulaziz Komilov, Uzbekistan's foreign minister [at the time], said the same thing.



So, we're seeing both countries really distance themselves from Russia. I think Kazakhstan is doing this much more aggressively than Uzbekistan, but I think Kazakhstan has to do this because its shares this huge border [with Russia]. I think, given what President [Vladimir] Putin has said about Kazakhstan being sort of an artificial state, Kazakhstan's leaders have very little choice but to distance themselves from this. They fear that their own territorial integrity may be at risk. I wouldn't be surprised to see more of this in the future and I wouldn't be surprised to see Kazakhstan really taking the lead on some of the questions of regional integration.



RFE/RL: Are there any risks involved for Central Asian countries in taking a distance from Russia?



Brick Murtazashvili: Sure, there are the financial risks, the security risks, the risks that Russia will somehow destabilize the region. Of course you want to have good relations with your neighbors. There's the issue of labor migrants. So, this is going to be very significant.



Butnow Central Asian states realize how vulnerable Russia is. I think for many years they looked at it as this huge partner, sort of the older brother in this relationship going back to the Soviet period.

But now I think we're seeing something very different. We're seeing that Russia is actually quite dependent upon Central Asia for its labor migrants. Of course, Central Asia is dependent on Russia. But Russia, given the sanctions, given the labor shortages that it has, really needs the Central Asian states and needs the labor that it produces to sustain its economy because its own population growth is abysmal.



RFE/RL: Kazakhstan has lost partial or complete access to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium pipeline three times since the beginning of the year. Was it a deliberate act by Russia to warn Kazakhstan, or a coincidence?



Brick Murtazashvili: I don't think this is a coincidence. I'm sure that authorities in Kazakhstan anticipate that this kind of thing will continue in the months and years to come.



So, this will mean that countries in Central Asia will only be more aggressively looking to other transit routes, other pipeline routes, other things that take them away from Russia. I think the future of the region is really diversification.



This was intentional on the part of Russia given the souring of relations between Kazakhstan and Russia.



RFE/RL: Kyrgyzstan was once considered an island of democracy in Central Asia, but its no longer the case. In Uzbekistan, proposed constitutional reforms will allow Mirziyoev to potentially remain in power for many more years. In Turkmenistan, the political power was transferred from father to son. The same is expected in Tajikistan, too. Do you see a decline of democracy in Central Asia?



Brick Murtazashvili: Democracy never took off in Central Asia, so I'm hard pressed to see its decline. I think we have to look at Kyrgyzstan as a country that did experience an episode of democracy.



But I think like many other countries that have experienced backsliding, that the democracy that was in place was never on very firm ground. The previous constitutions in Kyrgyzstan were wrought with problems. They bred instability. And I think as a consequence of this there wasn't enough thought to setting up systems that actually generate public goods, provision and services for people. Rather than focusing on democracy in elections.



We do obviously see some reversals in the region, but I think it's a mistake to say that democracy was ever firmly entrenched in the region. So, that's why it's hard to see that there are reversals in places like Turkmenistan or Tajikistan, even in in Kazakhstan we're seeing some changes.
Welcome back to The Farda Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that tracks the key issues in Iran and explains why they matter.

I'm senior correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari. Here's what I've been following and what I'm watching out for in the days ahead.

The Big Issue

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Iran on July 19 to bolster ties with Tehran. In only his second trip abroad after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, Putin met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

In a sign of deepening relations, Khamenei voiced strong backing for Putin and appeared to endorse Moscows invasion. While Putin also met the presidents of Turkey and Syria in Tehran, his trip put the focus on growing ties between Tehran and Moscow. His visit came after U.S. President Joe Bidens tour of the Middle East last week, during which he visited Israel and Saudi Arabia, Tehrans regional foes, and vowed to counter Iran's threat in the region.

Why It Matters: Iran and Russia have tried to boost trade and military cooperation in recent years. But Russias invasion of Ukraine has brought the sides even closer. Both countries have been hit by Western sanctions and international isolation. Putins trip appeared designed to show that Tehran and Moscow have not been isolated.

Since then-U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions in 2018, Tehran has followed a policy of "looking to the East," turning to allies Russia and China.

In turn, Russia has been the target of unprecedented Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine, forcing Moscow to also look to the East for political allies and trade partners. The policy of siding with Moscow has been viewed skeptically by an Iranian public that distrusts Russia. Iranians have been critical of Russias unprovoked war in Ukraine.

What's Next: Before Putins trip, the National Iranian Oil Company and Russian gas producer Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding worth around $40 billion. In recent months, the countries have also pledged to increase trade cooperation. Despite the announcements, bilateral trade has not significantly increased.

The war in Ukraine has also resulted in Russia and Iran competing in the energy sector. Moscow has been offering discounted oil to Irans customers, resulting in Tehrans exports falling sharply. It remains to be seen if plans by Iran and Russia to boost trade will materialize. Tehran and Moscow are also bolstering military cooperation. Washington has alleged that Iran is preparing to send hundreds of combat drones to Russia to use in its war in Ukraine, a move that could be a turning point in relations.

Stories You Might Have Missed

A court in Tehran has said acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi must serve a six-year sentence he was handed more than a decade ago for supporting anti-government rallies. Days prior to his arrest, Panahi was among more than 300 Iranian filmmakers and cultural activists who issued a statement condemning the recent arrests of cinematographers Mohammad Rasulof and Mostafa al-Ahmad. Panahi originally served two months in prison after his 2010 conviction before being granted a conditional release, which was revocable. As part of his release, he was banned from directing or writing screenplays, and from traveling abroad.

Iranian lawmaker Mostafa Mirsalim has revealed that his son has been jailed for having contacts with the exiled opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), which is considered a terrorist group by Tehran. Mirsalim, a former presidential candidate, said his son was sentenced to five years in prison in February 2020 after being convicted of national security charges. Mirsalim said the MKO had attempted to use his sons weak point to access classified information that he did not have access to.

What Were Watching

In a landmark ruling in Sweden, a former Iranian official was sentenced to life in prison over the mass executions of up to 5,000 political prisoners in Iran in 1988. Hamid Nouri, who is believed to have served as an assistant to the deputy prosecutor at the Gohardasht prison in the city of Karaj, is the first person to be sentenced for his role in one of the Islamic republics darkest chapters. He was convicted of a "serious crime against international law" and "murder."

Why It Matters: The verdict is a victory for the families of the victims, survivors, and rights activists who have been demanding justice for decades. Nouri is likely to appeal the verdict, which was condemned by Tehran as political. Iran is likely to look for ways to put pressure on Sweden to release and return Nouri to Iran. The verdict comes following the recent detention of several Westerners in Iran. Iran also holds Swedish-Iranian researcher Ahmadreza Jalili, who was sentenced to death after being convicted of espionage. Tehran has long been accused of using detained foreign and dual nationals as pawns to gain leverage in its dealings with Western countries.

Thats all from me for now. Don't hesitate to send us any questions, comments, or tips that you have by responding to this e-mail or separately to newsletters@rferl.org.

Until next time,

Golnaz Esfandiari
For four and a half months, Corporal Ilya Kaminsky and his fellow soldiers from the 11th Separate Air Assault Brigade have waged war as part of the grinding Russian military offensive that has slowly pushed Ukrainian troops back in eastern Ukraine.



By early July, Kaminsky said, he'd had enough: He refused to fight, one of 78 soldiers from his brigade who have refused orders.



"I'm morally exhausted. There is absolutely no trust in the authorities and the higher command, from the very first word, Kaminsky, 20, told Current Time in a phone interview on July 17, recorded from an undisclosed location in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine.



Because they ignore everything. They ignore any requests. They began to stir and offer up some alternatives when people started specifically saying no, he said. Im tired. Homesick. My daughter was born three months ago. I still havent seen her.



Nearly five months into the largest war in Europe since World War II, a growing number of Russian soldiers like Kaminsky are refusing to fight, demanding to return home, or outright not going to Ukraine in the first place. Russian rights activists say hundreds, possibly thousands of troops are balking at orders to deploy, to keep fighting, or to remain on the battlefield without rotating out or home.



Of the 78 soldiers from Kaminskys unit who have disobeyed orders, some have been ordered held in a makeshift brig for days, he said.



The refusenik troops add to Russian commanders headaches as they struggle to replenish spent and exhausted units across the roughly 480-kilometer (300-mile) front line stretching from east of Kharkiv in the northeast down to Kherson in south-central Ukraine.

Western intelligence agencies say Russias losses are substantial; a top British military commander told the BBC this week that up to 50,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded since the invasion was launched on February 24.



The Kremlin has declined to call for a general mobilization to replenish lost troops, instead using what analysts have described a covert, hybrid campaign to recruit fresh troops: using private military companies, extended age limitations, lucrative financial incentives, and sometimes coercive persuasion to bolster the ranks.



'I'm Warning You, This Is A Final Offer'



Paratroopers from the 11th Separate Air Assault Brigade, based outside Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Buryatia region in eastern Siberia, arrived in Ukraines Kherson region on February 24, shortly after Russias invasion began.



At some point, Kaminsky's unit was then transferred to Luhansk, in Ukraines Donbas region.



In phone conversations with Current Time, he said troops were not granted any leave for 4 1/2 months, even as the losses and casualties for the brigade mounted: Up to half of the brigades personnel -- around 1,000 -- have been either killed or wounded in action, he said.



Early in the war, Kaminsky said, commanders ordered the brigade to defend a line opposite Ukrainian forces that stretched up to 64 kilometers in length (40 miles) about four times what the brigades troop strength could reasonably protect.



At another moment, he said, unit commanders ordered a squad of five soldiers to try to seize a nearby settlement defended by up to 200 Ukrainian soldiers.

Kaminsky said discontent had been building in the unit for weeks, if not months. He said he himself had written some 20 complaints and demands for reassignment, but his superior officers had rejected them -- or even tore the papers up completely.



In all, 78 soldiers including Kaminsky openly challenged his orders, and demanded to be either sent home or reassigned, he said.



Unit commanders then staged an intervention. According to an audio recording shared with Current Time, commanders met with the insubordinate soldiers on July 17, alternately threatening, begging, and trying to coerce them to remain in service or rescind their resignation requests.



Command post guard duty? Artillery sentry duty? Anybody want it? the commander, a lieutenant colonel identified only by his surname Agafonov, can be heard telling the soldiers. Brigade commanders ask who wants to guard the second gunners unit. Anyone? Three days of duty?



Theyre making everything so easy for you, guys. Im warning you, this is a final offer, he is heard telling the soldiers. If no ones willing to take the offers from the brigade commanders, I wont detain you. But you have until 6 p.m. today. After that, I wont look at any new offers.

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, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

According to Kaminsky, the pressure ended up working in part: As of July 16, 50 of the 78 soldiers who had demanded to return to their home base had relented.



For the remainder, however, unit commanders ordered them arrested, and held in a makeshift brig in the Luhansk region, according to Kaminsky, where they were being given food only once a day.



As of July 20, the fate of the detained soldiers was unknown.



Russian military regulations provide some legal justification and procedures for soldiers who disobey orders, according to Sergei Krivenko, a rights activist -- particularly for those who state they are anti-war, or pacifists.



If a soldier acts according to such procedures, then he cannot be criminally prosecuted for this. Because there are no criminal articles for requesting the termination of a contract based on anti-war beliefs, Krivenko told Current Time. The soldier is in the unit, hes not running away anywhere. And that means he cant be prosecuted for desertion or going AWOL.



Hes not refusing to carry out orders, so the article on insubordination or disobeying orders isnt relevant either, because hes not refusing to do so, he said. He simply declares that he has anti-war convictions.



'I Had To Refuse So I Could Stay Alive'



Russias troops in Ukraine are largely made up of contract soldiers: volunteer personnel who sign fixed-term contracts for service. The range of experience varies. Other units include troops from private military companies like Vagner, or specialized, semiautonomous units overseen by Chechnyas strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.



The discontent in Kaminskys 11th Brigade is not an isolated case, and there are indications that Russian commanders are trying different tactics to keep the problem from spiraling out of control: for example, publicly shaming soldiers who are refusing to fight.



In Buryatia, where the 11th Brigade is based, dozens of personnel have sought legal assistance from local activists, seeking to break their contracts and get out of service in Ukraine, for various reasons.



In the southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk, on the home base for the 205th Cossack Motorized Rifle Brigade, commanders have erected a wall of shame with the names, ranks, and photographs of some 300 soldiers who have disobeyed orders in the Ukraine war.



They forgot their military oaths, the ceremonial promise, their vows of duty to their Fatherland, the board reads.
Ukrainian troops on the front lines along the Siverskiy Donets River in the Donbas region are preparing for a renewed push by the Russian Army. Fortifying their positions and bringing in reinforcements, the defenders are determined to stop any Russian advance toward the key city of Bakhmut. "They gather in groups for an attack, but they fail to break through," says a Ukrainian soldier.
An Oceanside man accused of driving drunk and slamming his speeding SUV into a married couple out for a jog, killing one of them, pleaded guilty Tuesday to gross vehicular manslaughter and other charges.

Abraham Juarez, 24, faces up to 10 years in state prison for his role in the early evening crash on a busy Vista thoroughfare June 2.

Juarez also pleaded guilty to drunken driving; he had a blood alcohol content of .18 percent at the time of the crash. The legal limit to drive in California is .08 percent.

The crash killed 40-year-old Nanglee Vang, who came to the U.S. as a refugee from Southeast Asia as a child. His wife Molly, now 35, was seriously injured in the collision.

The couple had been married for 17 years and have five children two boys, three girls  ranging in age from 2 to 16 years old at the time of the crash.

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Before the collision, Juarez was drinking beer by himself at a microbrewery, Deputy District Attorney Robert Bruce said, and called the facts of the case egregious.

He went there to drink with his keys in his pocket and a car he knew he was going to take him home, Bruce said.

Authorities say Juarez was driving north on Melrose Drive about 6:30 p.m. when he lost control of his Jeep Grand Cherokee, jumped the sidewalk and plowed into the pair just north of Shadowridge Drive.

Bruce said he believes Juarez had been going as fast as 80 mph.

On the night of the crash, one witness said she saw the SUV flip several times before it collided with a light pole and landed upside down, trapping Juarez inside. She said she ran to the scene, and could see that Nanglee Vang was dead. She said other bystanders tended to Molly Vang, and she held the drivers hand until help arrived. Juarez had to be cut from the SUV.

Juarez changed his plea in front of Vista Superior Court Judge Michael Washington on the day that had been set for his preliminary hearing, a key pretrial proceeding for a judge to determine if there is enough evidence to order the defendant on to trial.

Washington indicated that he would sentence Juarez to between seven years, eight months to 10 years in state prison when he sentences the defendant on Dec. 8.

The guilty plea spares the family from sitting through testimony or seeing pictures from the crash and the aftermath. The drivers defense attorney, Joni Eisenstein, noted that her client accepted responsibility at an early stage of the proceedings to eliminate the need for a preliminary hearing or trial, and the emotions that come with them.

Related

Jogger killed by SUV was father of five, ages toddler to teen

Nanglee Vang came to the U.S. three decades ago as a refugee from Southeast Asia, and first enrolled in school when he was in fifth grade. His family describes him as a devoted husband and father, a man who took deep delight in the joy and success of his children.

Molly Vang and family members cried during Tuesdays court proceedings. Afterward, as her now 3-year-old son ran around at her feet, she said she is healing from her physical injuries, but still faces a roller coaster of emotions. Some days are good, some are not. She also spoke of continuing pain of losing a loving father, loving husband.

Four months out now and it still doesnt feel any different, she said. He was my rock.

They met through family, she said, and quickly had chemistry.

I knew he was the one I wanted to grew old with.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT
AFRICA

Libya

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council will hold a briefing, followed by consultations, on the situation in Libya. As the Secretary-General is yet to appoint a Special Envoy, a representative of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs may brief the Council. The chair of the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee, Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti (India), is also scheduled to brief on the committees activities.

Key Recent Developments

Since the Council last discussed Libya on 24 January, the situation in the country has continued to be marked by political turmoil following the postponement of elections that were scheduled to take place on 24 December 2021. On 10 February, the House of Representatives appointed former interior minister Fathi Bashagha as interim prime minister; however, Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, the incumbent prime minister elected on 5 February 2021 by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), remains in office and has challenged the legitimacy of Bashaghas appointment. The House of Representatives announcement came shortly after an apparent assassination attempt on Dbeiba by unknown assailants in Tripoli.

The House of Representatives justified Bashaghas appointment by citing the failure to hold elections under Dbeibahs leadership. It appointed a committee to chart a new roadmap for elections within 14 months. That new political roadmap was put to a vote before the House of Representatives on 16 February and adopted as an amendment to Libyas transitional constitution. It envisages the creation of a new electoral commission and a 24-member committee consisting of representatives from Libyas three regions to draft a new constitution.

Dbeibah has reportedly said that he would only step down after the completion of national elections. On 21 February, he announced a new electoral roadmap with a view to holding elections by June. This roadmap reportedly suggests a plan to organise parliamentary elections by 24 June and hold a constitutional referendum on the same day. The newly elected parliament would then be inaugurated and would endorse a final constitutional text, after which presidential elections would take place. Dbeibahs opponents have argued that his term ended with the failure to hold the poll on 24 December. Notwithstanding Dbeibahs announcement, the House of Representatives and Bashagha continue working towards the formation of a new cabinet and the implementation of the House of Representatives roadmap.

Reacting to Bashaghas appointment in an 11 February statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took note of the vote of the House of Representatives to designate a new prime minister and called on all parties and institutions to continue to ensure that such decisions are taken in a transparent and consensual manner. He also appealed to them to preserve the stability of Libya as a top priority.

Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Libya Stephanie Williams has continued her outreach efforts with Libyan stakeholders. On 13 February, she met separately with Bashagha and Dbeibah, and stressed the need to maintain calm and stability in the country. She also stressed the importance of a sustained and continued focus on holding free, fair and inclusive national elections within the shortest timeframe possible. On the same day, Bashagha announced that he was starting consultations to form his cabinet. At time of writing, his proposed cabinet nominations were scheduled for a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives on 28 February.

On 17 February, Libya marked the 11th anniversary of its revolution amid fears that the rivalry between Bashagha and Dbeibah could plunge the country into another cycle of instability and violence.

In a 22 February tweet, Williams said that she had met with representatives of the High Council of State, who reportedly briefed her on progress in developing the electoral roadmap. A few days earlier, a Government of National Unity spokesperson had accused Williams of biasan accusation later refuted by the Deputy Head of the Presidential Council, Abdullah Al-Lafi, who stressed that the advisor was unbiased and keen on building bridges with all Libyan parties, according to media reports.

The High Council of State met on 24 February to discuss its position on the rival prime ministers and rejected the House of Representatives initiative to appoint Bashagha as prime minister.

Human Rights-Related Developments In resolution 48/25 of 4 October 2021, the Human Rights Council (HRC) extended the mandate of the fact-finding mission on Libya for nine months. The HRC also requested that the mission present a follow-up report to the Council at its 49th session, which will take place between 28 February and 1 April.

Key Issues and Options

A key issue for the Council is how to resolve the current political impasse following the decision of the House of Representatives to designate a new prime minister. The Council has been focused on promoting the unification of Libyan state institutions after years of two de facto parallel governmentsone based in Tripoli and the other in Tobruka situation that developed during the process of forming Libyas democratic state after the toppling of the Qaddafi regime in 2011. Council members may call on all parties to avoid a reversal of the gains made toward re-unifying Libyas state institutions.

The other priority issue is related to the organisation of national elections and how to support Libyan parties in agreeing on an electoral roadmap with the broad support of all segments of Libyan society. In this regard, Council members may appeal to all parties and institutions to sort out their differences and work together towards holding national elections in the shortest timeframe possible.

Recent political developments may also place renewed focus on the question of the leadership of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). Resolution 2519 of 31 January recalled that the mission should be led by a Special Envoy. At the time of writing, the Secretary-Generals appointment of the Special Envoy remained pending.

An option for the Council is to issue a statement calling on Libyan political actors and state institutions to preserve the countrys unity and stability, address their political differences through dialogue, and remain focused on organising elections to meet the aspirations of the Libyan people.

Council Dynamics

How the Council react to the recent political developments remains to be seen. On 14 February, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova expressed the hope that Libyas new government led by Bashagha will be able to unify the Libyan society which will help to successfully cope with difficult tasks of the transitional period, including preparations to hold nationwide elections.

Council members may differ in their calls for the appointment of a Special Envoy. Some may urge the Secretary-General to make this appointment expeditiously, while others, especially the US, may place more emphasis on expressing support for Williams mediation efforts.

UN DOCUMENTS ON LIBYA

This resolution extended UNSMILs mandate until 30 April 2022 as set out in resolution 2542 of 15 September 2020 and paragraph 16 of resolution 2570 of 16 April 2021. This resolution extended the mandate of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) until 31 January 2022. The text, which was unanimously adopted, was a technical renewal of UNSMILs mandate as set out in resolution 2542 of 15 September 2020 and paragraph 16 of resolution 2570 of 16 April 2021. This resolution renewed UNSMILs mandate until 15 September 2021; it was adopted with 13 votes in favour and two abstentions (China and Russia). This presidential statement welcomed the Paris International Conference and the Libya Stabilisation conference; expressed support for the parliamentary and presidential elections set to take place on 24 December; underlined the importance of an inclusive and consultative electoral process; and urged Libyan stakeholders to commit to accepting the election results. This presidential statement welcomed the second Berlin Conference on Libya, which was held on 23 June 2021. This report covered developments in Libya between 25 August 2021 and 17 January 2022. This was the letter from the Secretary-General transmitting the strategic review of UNSMIL.
Des civils tues, Bagdad accuse la Turquie

Neuf civils, dont des enfants, ont ete tues et 23 blesses mercredi au Kurdistan irakien par des tirs d'artillerie que Bagdad a imputes a la Turquie, engagee dans une operation militaire contre les rebelles du PKK dans le nord de l'Irak.





Le Premier ministre irakien Moustafa al-Kazimi a adopte un ton inhabituellement ferme vis-a-vis de son voisin turc, condamnant dans un communique une "violation flagrante de sa souverainete" commise par Ankara.





Les victimes qui se trouvaient dans un parc recreatif etaient pour la plupart des "touristes arabes irakiens, en majorite du centre et du sud de l'Irak", a indique a l'AFP Mouchir Bachir, chef du district de Zakho.





Cette region montagneuse du Kurdistan d'Irak, situee pres de la frontiere turque, est tres populaire aupres des Irakiens du centre et du sud du pays qui fuient les temperatures caniculaires d'ete pour trouver un peu de fraicheur.





"La Turquie a frappe a deux reprises le village aujourd'hui", a assure M. Bachir.





Une source au sein du ministere turc de la Defense a toutefois assure a l'AFP ne disposer "d'aucune information faisant etat ou confirmant des tirs d'artillerie dans cette zone".





Ankara, qui a de facto installe plusieurs dizaines de bases militaires depuis 25 ans au Kurdistan irakien, a lance a la mi-avril une nouvelle operation militaire contre les rebelles du Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) dans le nord de l'Irak.





Un porte-parole des autorites medicales de Zakho, Amir Ali, a annonce a l'AFP que les tirs de mercredi avaient fait neuf morts et 23 blesses.





Parmi les personnes decedees figurent aux moins trois femmes, deux enfants, et trois hommes, avait-il auparavant indique.





- "Nos enfants sont morts" -

Devant un hopital de Zakho, Hassan Tahsin Ali, le crane bande, raconte avoir miraculeusement survecu au deluge de feu qui s'est abattu sur le parc et ses etendues d'eau, ou les visiteurs profitaient d'un moment de detente.





"Nous venons de la province de Babylone (centre)", raconte le jeune homme d'une voix atone a l'AFP. "Il y a eu des frappes a l'aveugle sur nous, il y avait des corps sur l'eau", ajoute-t-il. "Nos jeunes sont morts, nos enfants sont morts, a qui devons-nous nous adresser? Nous n'avons que Dieu".





Evoquant "de violents tirs d'artillerie", sans toutefois en nommer les auteurs, un communique des services de securite a Bagdad avait fait etat dans un premier temps de "huit morts et 23 blesses".





Le Premier ministre irakien Moustafa al-Kazimi a depeche sur le site des frappes son ministre des affaires etrangeres Fouad Hussein et plusieurs hauts responsables securitaires.





De son cote le president irakien Barham Saleh a condamne le "bombardement turc", fustigeant "une violation de la souverainete du pays et une menace a la securite nationale".





"Leur repetition est inacceptable", a-t-il martele alors que son pays a plusieurs fois proteste contre les raids menes par Ankara.





Les operations militaires turques compliquent les relations entre le gouvernement central irakien et Ankara, l'un des premiers partenaires commerciaux de l'Irak.





Elles valent a l'ambassadeur turc en poste a Bagdad d'etre regulierement convoque au ministere irakien des Affaires etrangeres. Mais les remontrances irakiennes sont generalement sans lendemain.





Erbil, capitale du Kurdistan d'Irak, entretient des relations compliquees avec le PKK car sa presence dans la region entrave ses relations commerciales vitales avec la Turquie voisine.





Le 17 juillet, un drone arme --turc selon les responsables locaux irakiens-- a vise une voiture a l'ouest de Mossoul, grande ville du nord de l'Irak, tuant le chauffeur qui a pu etre identifie et ses quatre passagers, dont une femme.





Ces quatre passagers ont ete identifies par les services de securite du Kurdistan comme etant des combattants du PKK.




UPDATE: Mayor Breed allies sue S.F. over competing affordable housing ballot measure

A San Francisco housing advocacy organization allied with Mayor London Breed is challenging the Board of Supervisors affordable housing streamlining measure that is poised to appear on the same November ballot as the organizations measure, potentially creating confusion among voters.

The Breed-backed Housing Action Coalition got its measure on the ballot through signature-gathering after the supervisors failed to advance the mayors previous efforts to voters.

The letter sent to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday, a possible first step on a road to a lawsuit, is the latest battle in the war between Breed and her allies and the progressive majority of the board over dueling measures as city leaders bicker over how to fix San Franciscos massive affordable housing crisis.

The two similar measures, which streamline 100% affordable housing projects, teacher housing and mixed-income projects with certain amounts of affordable units, differ in how affordable the projects need to be and whether supervisors should retain approval over each projects funding. The measures have divided politicians, unions and some affordable housing developers.

Supervisor Connie Chan and her colleagues criticize the Breed-backed proposal for requiring fewer affordable units in mixed-income projects and allowing some units to have a higher income level as not truly affordable. Breeds allies say Chans measure sets the bar for affordability so high that its financially infeasible to build.

The Housing Action Coalition presented a letter Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors arguing that Chans measure is both illegal and unethical because it didn't undergo the necessary environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Ironically, the group regularly slams its opponents for often weaponizing the same law to block housing projects.

The citys Planning Department determined that Chans measure didnt require environmental review.

The letter threatened that if the city places the measure on the ballot, the organization would pursue all legal remedies available. Its not clear whether their legal arguments would hold up in court.

The letter attacked the measure as not being put forward to streamline housing production.

It is a cynical ploy to confuse and distract voters and divide the pro-housing vote, it read.

Chan dismissed the challenge as a bogus claim and said the so-called appeal is just a letter to the Board of Supervisors. The Housing Action Coalition intended its letter as an appeal - a precursor to a lawsuit. The Planning Department said the determination that a proposal doesnt qualify for CEQA cant be appealed to the board.

Sounds like they're very desperate and scared that San Francisco voters will find out that their measure wouldnt produce real affordable housing, she wrote in a text message.

The YIMBY measure is not subject to CEQA because it got on the ballot through signature-gathering.

The twist of pro-housing advocates known as YIMBYs (Yes in my Backyard) filing a CEQA challenge is rich in irony. CEQA appeals are often used to block housing projects, such as a controversial nearly 500-unit project on Stevenson Street last year. Supervisors voted in favor of an appeal to halt the project because of concerns about gentrification and environmental impacts.

Todd David, senior adviser at the Housing Action Coalition, defended the organizations use of an environmental law theyve lambasted.

The irony that I see is a Board of Supervisors who regularly utilizes CEQA to block housing is now ignoring CEQA to block housing, he said.

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Chris Elmendorf, a law professor at UC Davis, said that the legal arguments in the letter were actually very good. He is a San Francisco voter, but is not working for or taking money from either side, but said he believes the YIMBY measure is a reasonable step to curtail multi-step approvals that can slow down or kill housing projects.

Its hilariously good, he said of the coalitions legal arguments using CEQA to fight the supervisors measure. He compared it to hoisting the supervisors by their own petards, quoting a Shakespeare phrase that means someone is blown into the air by one's own bomb.

The citys Planning Department did look at whether the supervisors measure should undergo CEQA review, but determined that the proposal didnt qualify as a project under the law because it wouldnt result in a direct or indirect change in the environment.

The letter cited past case law to challenge this argument, saying that the measure would impact environmental factors such as transportation impacts, noise and air quality.

Elmendorf said the citys reasoning that this policy wont affect the environment at all does not pass the laugh test, the smell test, the anything test. He agreed with the letters comparison of the measure to the San Francisco Housing Element, the citys policy plan for how to build enough housing to meet a state mandate, which is subject to CEQA review.

The Planning Department said it made its determination because CEQA analyzes physical environmental impacts, but the measure doesn't propose construction or change any physical development controls, only modifies the review process using existing controls.

Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect that the letter was not an official appeal.

Mallory Moench (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench
Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center officials arent saying much about three patients who died within days of being transferred from the San Francisco nursing home as part of a federally mandated closure plan. But critics of the mandate blame transfer trauma for their deaths.

Officials from Laguna Honda confirmed Tuesday that three patients died recently after being sent to other skilled nursing facilities, but provided little additional information, citing patient privacy laws and the fact that, once transferred, the patients are no longer under their care.

But word of the deaths has spread.

Were terrified that this is going to happen to my mother-in-law. She is already in serious decline at this point in her life, and we fear this would put her over the edge, said Joe Urban, a health data analyst whose wifes mother is 86 and has dementia. With examples of this already happening, its even more terrifying.

Urban calls the caregivers at Laguna Honda angels and says his relative is profoundly well taken care of. He is circulating a petition to persuade the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to stop requiring Laguna Honda to transfer its 700 medically fragile patients to other locations, which are hard to find because the patients have extreme needs and, typically, little money.

The federal agency decertified Laguna Honda in April, six months after state inspectors declared it to be in a state of substandard care. San Franciscos Department of Public Health, which runs the facility, is working to get the nursing home recertified ahead of a Sept. 13 deadline. Meanwhile, the 156-year-old hospital must proceed with a closure plan.

So far, after nine weeks of searching for placements, which the city says is very difficult, the facility has discharged 56 patients, including 40 sent to other nursing homes and three transferred to homeless shelters, according to the citys dashboard, which is updated on Mondays.

In a statement Tuesday, Laguna Honda said patients are transferred only after a comprehensive assessment is complete, an appropriate facility is found and they agree to the transfer.

Details about where patients have gone and how they are faring are murky.

Officials declined to give the gender or ages of the three who died. But a Laguna Honda physician familiar with two of the deaths said medically frail patients should not be transferred because they are at high risk for trauma or death when moved.

Two were women with dementia, aged 95 and 102, said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to hospital policy. The doctor said, Just a week ago, they made all the doctors come down to the medical office and say they would never besmirch the Department of Public Health. Little is known about the third person, who was 80.

But the doctor said the blame falls on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid for requiring the moves.

The worst thing you can do for patients with dementia is to change their environment, the doctor said. Even painting their bedroom a different color freaks them out because it gets them disoriented.

At Laguna Honda, patients with dementia have the same person to help them out of bed every day, the doctor said. The same person feeds them and provides medication. Elsewhere, they see a different nurse every shift. Thats terrifying to someone with dementia.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Transfers from Laguna Honda have so far been voluntary, meaning that it cant be done without a patients approval. Yet because of their dementia and lack of resources, the two women who died had been under public conservatorships through the citys Office of the Public Guardian, which approved the transfers.

In its statement, Laguna Honda said it provides counseling for patients to minimize what is called transfer trauma, or the stress that a person may experience when changing living environments.

The women had been residents of Laguna Honda between five and 10 years, said the doctor, who described them as being contracted and unable to straighten their legs and arms.

They need to be positioned every two hours to make sure their skin doesnt break down, the doctor said. Theyre super fragile  but they were tossed into unfamiliar surroundings, scooped up and placed on gurneys by an EMT company a few days apart from each other in mid-June.

We heard that within a week of the transfers, both of them had died, the doctor said. The timing seems to be implicated. With this fragility, they shouldnt be transferred.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Public Guardian said two of those who died had been on hospice care. In a statement, the office called the entire transfer requirement extremely challenging but said the agency would continue to cooperate with the government.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
The U.S. House voted Tuesday to protect same-sex marriage from a potential future rollback by the Supreme Court, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein unveiled a Senate version of the legislation, with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, among the coauthors. But it faces long odds in the Senate even though some Republicans did back the House bill.

The legislation responded to the high courts June 24 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1972 decision that declared a constitutional right to abortion. Though Justice Samuel Alito insisted in the majority opinion that the court was not casting doubt on other rights it had recognized, he questioned the existence of a constitutional right to privacy  the basis of past rulings that legalized marriage and sexual relations between same-sex couples, and access to contraception. Justice Clarence Thomas in a separate opinion flat out said that the court should repeal those rulings.

In overturning Roe v. Wade, the conservative Supreme Court majority indicated it is willing to attack other constitutional rights, including same-sex and interracial marriage, Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement announcing a bill that supporters called the Respect for Marriage Act.

The measure would establish a legal right for same-sex couples to marry, which would remain in effect even if the Supreme Court overturned its 2015 decision that found those marriages constitutionally protected.

The legislation would also repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, a law signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 that denied federal benefits, such as joint tax filing and Social Security survivor payments, to same-sex spouses who were legally married in their home states. The Supreme Court declared that law unconstitutional in 2013, but it remains on the books and could be revived if the court reversed its decision.

I have been proud to support legislation prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, said Collins. This bill is another step to promote equality, prevent discrimination and protect the rights of all Americans.

The similar bill in the House passed Tuesday on a 267-157 vote, with 47 Republicans joining all 220 Democrats in support. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY., the lead sponsor, said he had first introduced the measure more than a decade ago, but it now has a new sense of urgency.

Since then, the fight for marriage equality has seen many highs and lows, but perhaps none more frightening than the current threat posed by Clarence Thomas and this conservative Supreme Court, Nadler said.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., endorsed the Senate measure, saying on Twitter that last months abortion ruling showed that this extreme majority on the Supreme Court is not stopping at stripping away abortion rights.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The Senate measure has at least one more potential Republican supporter, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who joined Collins and two Democrats last month to introduce legislation that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to add same-sex couples to its definition of marriage and assure their eligibility for benefits.

But the bill would need at least 10 Republican votes to overcome a filibuster in the evenly divided chamber. The Associated Press reported that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has been unusually silent on the measure so far. But some other prominent Republicans have brushed off suggestions of a need for action on the issue.

I dont see anything behind this right now other than, you know, election year politics, said the House Republican whip, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
San Francisco voters will decide in November whether the city should add formal oversight to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, or HSH, following the Board of Supervisors unanimous vote to approve a ballot measure Tuesday.

Proposed in response to a Chronicle investigation that exposed HSHs failures to monitor the citys housing stock for the homeless, the measure would create a commission to oversee the $676 million agency. It must receive more than 50% of the vote in November to go into effect.

We are asking the voters today to create that commission, create the ability for the first time for the controller to do auditing and to audit these services and department, to create performance standards for contracts that are awarded, said Supervisor Ahsha Safai, the measures sponsor, ahead of the 11-0 vote at Tuesdays board meeting.

Despite its responsibility for San Franciscos most intractable problem, HSH is the largest city agency without a formal oversight board. The departments leaders report directly to Mayor London Breed.

If voters approve the measure, the oversight commission would oversee HSHs budget and have the power to investigate the agencys activities. It also would approve or reject most homelessness and supportive housing contracts before sending them to the Board of Supervisors for a final vote.

The yearlong Chronicle investigation published in April detailed dangerous and unhealthy conditions within the citys single-room occupancy hotels, or SROs, which are the cornerstone of San Franciscos $160 million permanent supportive housing program. A review of tens of thousands of pages of incident reports revealed that buildings are often overwhelmed by vermin infestations, while broken elevators trap elderly people in their rooms and fights break out between tenants. Reporters found that police sometime respond to the same building multiple times a day.

Despite these obvious and persistent problems, HSH failed to meaningfully monitor the buildings or sanction the nonprofit organizations it pays to run day-to-day operations at SROs, the investigation found. Notably, HSH promised years ago to develop a metrics-driven system for holding these nonprofits accountable, but it failed to meet its own deadlines. Breed allowed for the delays.

The mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment following the vote Tuesday afternoon.

Breed was staunchly opposed to a similar proposal in 2019, citing concerns that a commission would add an extra layer of bureaucracy to the citys homelessness response. But shortly after the Chronicle investigation published, Breeds office shifted its position and said the mayor would be open to supporting the effort.

Under the measure approved Tuesday, Breed would appoint four people to the seven-member oversight commission. Some critics have questioned why the mayor should have majority control over a body that oversees HSH, pointing to the agencys results while directly reporting to Breed. Meanwhile, supportive housing residents say there should be a designated seat for a formerly homeless person on the commission.

Supervisor Dean Preston said he would support the appointment of an SRO resident to the oversight body.

I think its something that, as Ive talked to colleagues, that a lot of folks think will be valuable to have that kind of representation, Preston said at the meeting.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Safai said there would be flexibility in the appointment of the seats, and that he would work with the community and the mayor to put a supportive housing resident on the commission.

Chronicle staff writer

Trisha Thadani contributed

to this report.

Sabrina Pascua (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sabrina.pascua@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sabrinapascua
The Oakland City Council on Tuesday voted to allow a 222-unit housing project near West Oaklands BART Station to move forward after a 10-month delay that prompted a state investigation.

The council voted unanimously to reject an appeal filed by a coalition of four local unions that argued for more environmental analysis. Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan and Council Member Carroll Fife, who represents the district where the project is located, did not attend the meeting.

The council had previously supported the appeal and asked for additional environmental review of the project, which had undergone the state-required California Environmental Quality Act review. The project is slated for a vacant parcel at 1396 Fifth St., across the street from the West Oakland station. The councils support of the appeal delayed the project, prompting the California Department of Housing and Community Development to look into whether Oakland was failing to live up to its housing commitments under state rules.

But council members decided to drop their support of the appeal after city staff argued Tuesday that further environmental review was inappropriate and unjustified. Experts in Oaklands planning department said the soil, groundwater and soil vapor contamination at the site dont require additional analysis and will be dealt with through the citys remediation plans.

Now, the project, which consists of an eight-story residential building and includes 16 units for very low-income households, is finally set to move forward. The development is also transit-friendly  a priority for the city, which is looking to boost housing near public transportation to ease access. The project will also contribute to the citys housing goals of adding 26,000 new units by 2031.

The developer will now work with the Alameda County Department of Environmental Health to prepare remediation plans for the site and seek building permits from the city.

Tonya Love, Fifes chief of staff, read a statement from the council member saying she was pleased that many of her concerns had been addressed. But Fife, she noted, plans to work with the county to create a process for addressing environmental issues in development projects in her district, which has had a disproportionate amount of such problems.

My highest priority is to ensure the health and safety of existing residents, of a district where this has not always been a case, Fife said through her spokesperson.

Council Member Dan Kalb added an amendment that will require a certain type of air filtration in the developments units, which the council passed.

The citys Planning Commission unanimously approved the project more than a year ago after reviewing the projects environmental impacts, as required by state law, referencing a city environmental review of West Oakland conducted in 2014.

But an organization called East Bay Residents for Responsible Development, a coalition of labor groups that has challenged other housing in the area, said the environmental review was unsatisfactory. In September, the City Council agreed with the group and directed staff to do more environmental analysis on the project.

Jason Overman, a spokesperson for the developer, called the appeal the kind of political games that have led us into a housing shortage.

Lets be clear, he added. We won because all the work to plan for this project was thorough, proper, and consistent with the highest standards of environmental law.

A spokesperson for the state Department of Housing and Community Development that investigated Oakland said last week the department would be monitoring the councils decision for violation of state laws in the event it had rejected the project.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

In April, the City Council voted again to delay the project so staff could further study the projects environmental impacts.

City staff and the developer, The Michaels Organization, have both said that more environmental analysis was unnecessary. But the developer said it performed additional environmental analysis anyway as part of a good-faith effort to push the project forward and also entered into a mitigation agreement with the county.

On Tuesday, Scott Cooper of The Michaels Organization called the appeal a blatant and shameless attempt to abuse the states environmental review process. He said the passage of time has put the project in jeopardy due to increased construction costs.

This is not how we are going to solve our housing crisis, he said.

Kelilah Federman, who spoke on behalf of East Bay Residents for Responsible Development, said that as a result of the appeal, the city and the developer have done further analysis, but more must still be done. Federman called on the council to direct the developer to take into account the noise, traffic and air emissions of the remediation process of the site, as well as the pollution from nearby freeways.

The developer alleged that the group appealing the project had offered to drop its objections if the unions were hired to do the work. The groups leader called the allegation a lie and repugnant.

Sarah Ravani (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Update: The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the new delivery fee cap legislation in a final vote on July 26.

San Francisco officials have endorsed a deal with food delivery giants GrubHub and DoorDash on a less restrictive cap on delivery fees in exchange for the companies dropping a lawsuit against the city.

A new ordinance, first sponsored by Supervisor Aaron Peskin and passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday, would allow restaurants to opt out of the citys 15% cap if they want to use delivery companies marketing services.

The board will take a final procedural vote next week, when it is widely expected to pass. This would trigger DoorDash and Grubhub, which sued San Francisco over the 15% cap last summer, to dismiss their legal action.

This is a great example of when the power of the legislative body to hold entities and private entities accountable plays itself out, Supervisor Ahsha Safai said. This is a victory for small businesses and it's a victory of working to have an appropriate compromise.

DoorDash and Grubhub agreed in a motion filed in July to dismiss their lawsuit within seven days of the new legislation taking effect.

It's a notable detente in the long-tense relationship between the delivery giants and San Francisco, which was the first city in the country to adopt a permanent restriction on delivery fees. As food delivery exploded during the coronavirus lockdown, local officials moved to regulate what they saw as the companies exploitative and predatory practices, including charging commission rates as high as 30%, Peskin said at the time. The delivery companies fired back in their lawsuit that San Francisco was setting dangerous precedent for government overreach and warned that the limit could force them to cut down or eliminate their operations in San Francisco, where DoorDash is headquartered.

City officials and restaurant representatives who worked out the potential deal with the two companies didnt see it as a concession, they said in previous interviews, but rather a beneficial compromise that supports restaurants while avoiding a costly lawsuit.

This is an example of how we can all work together to ensure a safe and fair business environment for all, Golden Gate Restaurant Association Executive Director Laurie Thomas said.

Some restaurateurs expressed concern, however, that the compromise could lead to a de facto higher fee, if more expensive marketing perks are required to stand out in the crowded delivery field. Samir Mogannam, who started offering delivery from his San Francisco Arabic restaurants Beit Rima during the pandemic, said in a previous interview he was wary of this potentially slippery slope and would hope that the city would protect businesses as much as possible.

In a statement, Grubhub said it appreciate(s) the work of the Board of Supervisors and Golden Gate Restaurant Association toward a solution that benefits restaurants, diners, and drivers.

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DoorDash declined to comment for this article.

If the ordinance passes, it requires delivery companies to notify all restaurants with existing contracts of their options by Dec. 1 and to clearly define the fees, commissions, or charges associated with contracted services. The law would take effect Jan. 31, 2023.

San Franciscos legislation may have implications for other cities. DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats are also fighting New York Citys delivery cap in court.

San Franciscos Office of Economic and Workforce Development, which enforces the current cap through complaints, said its found just one violation to date  a case in which Grubhub continued charging a restaurant a higher fee for a few weeks after the permanent cap took effect. Because Grubhub provided a full refund to the business, it avoided a penalty, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development said. There are currently two open investigations related to UberEats, the office said. Violations can result in fines as high as $1,000.

Elena Kadvany (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com
Few things scream summer camping season more than roasting marshmallows, messily building smores and wondering if you will ever get the stickiness off your hands. For many families, its a requirement  but also one that could use an update.

So The Chronicle Food + Wine staff gathered to test out the smores creations of our dreams. We tried adding roasted strawberries (too logistically challenging), swapping out Hersheys for peanut butter cups (delicious but unwieldy) and slathering graham crackers with peanut butter and jelly (too sweet). We even talked about savory smores (blasphemous?) but decided the toasted marshmallow is not negotiable.

Eventually, we landed on converting some favorite treats into a smores format: sweet potato pie, banoffee pie (the British dessert combining bananas and caramelly toffee) and Mexican hot chocolate. Feel free to experiment with your favorite cookies and extras, though. Graham crackers are always a solid pick.

Heres how to make these smores on your next camping trip (or at home, with a blow torch):

Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos. Kelsey McClellan / Special to The Chronicle

Sweet Potato Pie Smore

What youll need: a sweet potato, Marinela Canelitas, marshmallows.

How to make them: First, youll need to roast your sweet potato. If youre working at home, prick the skin and pop it into a 425-degree oven until soft, about 50 minutes. If youre in the wilderness, wrap the sweet potato in aluminum foil and stick it in the embers of your campfire. Cook until soft, checking at 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, take out two Canelitas, which are cinnamon-flavored cookies.

When the sweet potato is cool enough to handle, slice it open and scoop out a spoonful of roasted sweet potato. Place on one cookie. Assess whether you want more  this is your baby.

Roast your marshmallow until it achieves your ideal state of toasty gooeyness. Quickly, place the marshmallow on top of the sweet potato-topped cookie, and stack with second cookie. Be very pleased with yourself, and repeat.

Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos. Kelsey McClellan / Special to The Chronicle

Banoffee Pie Smore

What youll need: a banana, stroopwafels, jumbo marshmallows.

How to make them: Skewer a banana with a roasting stick and roast over your campfire until charred and softened. (Alternatively, bake in a 400-degree oven for about 15 minutes.)

On a plate or cutting board (if youre in nature, sorry for the extra dishes), thinly slice the banana. Take out two stroopwafels, which are thin, caramel-filled waffle cookies. Place one layer of sliced bananas on one stroopwafel.

Roast your marshmallow until it meets your desired state. Place it over the sliced bananas and stack with second stroopwafel. This smore is hefty enough that you may want to share. Maybe.

Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos. Kelsey McClellan / Special to The Chronicle

Mexican Hot Chocolate Smore

What youll need: chile chocolate bar, ginger thin cookies, marshmallows.

How to make them: Prep your workspace (perhaps your lap) by breaking apart the chile chocolate bar into squares. Many companies make these spicy chocolates  Lindt is easy to find. Take out two ginger thin cookies. (We recommend Annas Swedish Thins.) Place one chocolate square onto one cookie.

Roast your marshmallow until its as you like it. Stack it onto the chocolate, between two cookies. Warning: This could be hot, and is very good.

Janelle Bitker (she/her) is the senior editor of Food + Wine at the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker
It used to be that cans were the near-exclusive domain of cheap beers and sodas. Not anymore: We now drink all sorts of beverages from aluminum cylinders, highbrow and lowbrow alike. The canned landscape spans wines, cocktails and ciders, along with newer additions to the alcoholic-drink canon like hard seltzer and hard kombucha.

Cans confer all sorts of advantages, especially for drinkers planning a summer camping trip. Theyre light, easily portable and acceptable in certain places where glass is prohibited, like some campgrounds, parks and beaches. They stay cold longer than most bottles. They happen to be more environmentally sound than other types of packaging, according to the sustainability-ratings firm Finch.

Americans consumption of ready-to-drink booze  thats how market experts describe the category that includes canned drinks  grew by 14.5% in 2021, after posting volume growth of 61% the previous year, industry analyst IWSR found. Canned cocktails in particular are booming, increasing by volume more than 42% last year. The category is expected to keep growing at a steady clip through at least 2026.

Statistics like that might have sounded far-fetched a few years ago, especially when it comes to wine. Only recently have drinkers embraced the idea that wine in a can could taste passable, let alone really good. As canned wines have gotten better, the stigma around them has softened too. In fact. the problem facing drinkers now is that theres almost too much good canned booze available. How to choose?

To help you allocate your drinking budget this summer, were highlighting our favorite canned alcoholic drinks from Bay Area producers. In the interest of simplicity, we left beer off this list; you already know where to find amazing canned beer. Instead, we focused on canned wines, cocktails and newfangled hybrid types  hard ginger beer, fermented blueberries, guava-and-apple cider. Theres even (cringe) a hard seltzer on this list, and no, were not apologizing for it.

Here are the 12 Bay Area canned drinks that we, The Chronicles wine reporting team, will be cracking open all summer.

Broc Cellars Love Sparkling

Courtesy Starr Gazers

Berkeley-based Broc Cellars, one of the early phenoms of the natural wine movement, produces four of its wines in cans for convenient consumption. A unique blend of Chenin Blanc and Muscat grapes, the Love Sparkling (12% ABV) is not only Brocs most unconventional canned offering, its also downright delicious. Light, pleasing and refreshing on the palate all at once, its full of subtle citrus notes like lemon, lime and green apple. If you paired this with breakfast, I wouldnt judge you.  J.L.

$15 per can at broccellars.com

Far West Cider You Guava Be Kidding Me

Provided by Far West Cider

Far West Cider Co. in Richmond is making some of the best hard ciders in Northern California, and its been turning out plenty of fun experiments that combine its estate farms apples with other fruits. You Guava Be Kidding Me (6.3% ABV), made with Brazilian pink guavas, has quickly become one of Far Wests calling cards. The ciders pungent tropical aromas explode from the can, balancing guavas racy sourness with a light sweetness. Fans of sharp, fruity white wines will find a lot to love here, as will beer drinkers who seek the tropical-tasting hazy IPAs that are currently in vogue.  E.M.

$28 for a four-pack at farwestcider.com

Ficks Hard Seltzer Grapefruit

Courtesy Kendal Lovejoy

Most hard seltzer is bad  offensively bad, if you ask this wine critic, reeking of chemically tasting flavors and artificial sweetness. The exception to the rule is Ficks, a San Francisco company that got started making cocktail mixers and then got into the hard-seltzer game just as White Claw began blowing up. Rather than the malt base used in most hard seltzers, Ficks makes its drinks from fermented orange juice and does not add any sugar at the end. The flavors actually taste like fruit, not like a chemical approximation of fruit, and the grapefruit version (5% ABV) will sate any craving for that deliciously bitter citrus. Drink it on its own in place of that pamplemousse La Croix, or mix it with mezcal for a makeshift Paloma.  E.M.

$11.99 for a six-pack at ficksdrink.com

Gs Hard Ginger Beer Wild One

Courtesy Michelle Ewart

Typically, ginger beer is nonalcoholic  and very sweet, with popular brands packing more than 40 grams of sugar per can. St. Helenas Donna Katz has flipped the ginger-beer script, producing a drink thats totally dry, without a trace of residual sugar, and also lightly alcoholic, at 4.5%. Best of all, her recipe does not shy away from gingers piquant intensity, lifted further by bracing carbonation. Each gulp is a jolt to the palate. The Gs Hard Ginger Beer line comes in several flavors, and one of the best is Wild One, which adds mint and lime to the ginger base. It tastes like a spicy, but lighter-impact, take on a Mojito.  E.M.

$4.79 per can at Good Eggs

Just Enough Rose Bubbles

Provided by Just Enough

This female-founded canned wine company has opted for a more manageable serving size than most canned wines on the market: 250 ml, or a glass and a half. This means they are easier to pack and less likely to get you too toasty too quickly. The best way to describe the Just Enough Rose Bubbles (11% ABV), a blend of rose of Pinot Noir and French Colombard, is pretty  and not just because of the stunning peach hue. Slightly tropical with a floral nose, its light, crisp and will pair well with almost any food.  J.L.

$42 for a six-pack at justenoughwines.com

Lorenza Rose Spritz

Provided by Lorenza

Mother-daughter team Melinda Kearney and Michele Ouellet have been producing elegant rose under their Lorenza label since 2008. They now release a canned version that adds some fizz to their flagship pink wine. (Unlike a spritz cocktail, there are no additional ingredients. However, it could easily be made into a traditional cocktail by combining it with vermouth and soda water.) A blend of Carignan and Grenache, two of the grape varieties used in classic Provencal roses, the Lorenza spritz is a simple pleasure: delicate in color and intensity, and bursting with searing acidity, with straightforward notes of strawberry and orange blossom.  E.M.

$42 for a six-pack at lorenzawine.com

Maker Wines Cabernet Pfeffer

Courtesy Clara Jones

Maker Wines partners with California winemakers to make an array of canned wines, like this Cabernet Pfeffer (13% ABV) from Nicole Walsh, the owner and winemaker at Ser Winery in Santa Cruz. This peppery red wine is light and easy drinking with notes of cranberry and pomegranate  and without the big tannins one might expect from a wine with Cabernet on its label. Thats because Cabernet Pfeffer isnt related to Cabernet Sauvignon at all. Also known as Mourtaou, this obscure French grape is all but extinct in France, and theres only about 15 acres of it planted in California  so this can is a rare breed. Walsh sources her Cabernet Pfeffer grapes from 120-year-old vines on the Wirz Vineyard in Cienega Valley, 25 miles outside of Monterey.  J.L.

$72 for a six-pack at makerwine.com

Salt Point Gin Highball

Courtesy Judy Doherty

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Mill Valleys Salt Point makes a range of canned cocktails, like a margarita and a Moscow mule, that are among the best available. To start, look for the gin highball, a carbonated concoction of gin, lemon and cucumber. Although cucumber flavors in mass-produced drinks can often veer cloying and artificial, Salt Points reproduction is relatively faithful, resulting in a bright, thirst-quenching drink that tastes like it could have come fresh from a bartender. At 10% alcohol by volume, each can contains the equivalent of two cocktails. No shame if you want to pour it over ice and add a lemon slice, but as long as the can is cold, no doctoring is necessary.  E.M.

$17.99 for a four-pack at saltpoint.co

Sans Wine Co. Carbonic Carignan

Sans Wine Co.

Napa wine pros Gina and Jake Schober are trailblazers of the canned wine trend, starting Sans Wine Co. in 2015. Sourced from an organic and dry-farmed vineyard in Mendocino that was planted in 1943, this Carignan (12.5% ABV) is rich in blue and purple fruits, like blackberry and plum. Made with a winemaking technique called carbonic maceration, it has a slight effervescence (kind of like sparkling wines) and is meant to be served chilled. Medium bodied and slightly tannic, this Carignan is not as crushable as some of the others on this list, but would pair well with grilled meats.  J.L.

$72 for a six-pack at sanswineco.com

Serres Ranch Bleuse

Courtesy Brenda Sherwood

The Serres family has farmed on a Sonoma ranch since 1924, and now theyve combined their two crops  grapes and blueberries  into a canned sparkling wine. The grape used in Bleuse (8.5% ABV) is Aleatico, an obscure variety grown primarily on the Italian island of Elba, while the blueberry component is from the varieties Blue Gold and Duke. It all results in a delightfully fizzy, barely sweet concoction with juicy, pure, tangy fruit flavors. (Theres another Sonoma winemaker, Michael Terrien, who makes great canned blueberry wine but sources the grapes from Maine.)  E.M.

$22.99 for a four-pack at serresranchwine.com

Space Age Rose Spritz

Provided by Grounded Wine Co.

The Space Age Rose Spritz is a fizzy offshoot of Grounded Wine Co. winemaker Josh Phelps easy-drinking Space Age rose, a bottled wine made from Central Coast Grenache grapes. At 5.5% alcohol, its everything you crave in a refreshing summer sip. The Meyer lemon flavor takes a backseat to a big, bright burst of strawberry, which conjures up nostalgic memories of saltwater taffy following a beach day in Bodega Bay.  J.L.

$15 for a four-pack at groundedwineco.com

SunDaze Botanical Citrus

Provided by SunDaze

Co-founded by San Francisco native Arthur Gallego, SunDaze cocktails are made via a patented process of naturally fermenting orange juice into alcohol. And beware: At 6% ABV, these cans are sneaky. The booze is barely perceptible in the Botanical Citrus concoction that tastes like a mimosa with ginger and a pinch of rosemary mixed in. (Hello, brunch.) Pro tip: To elevate the booziness, splash in some vodka to make a gingery screwdriver.  J.L.

$14.99 for a four-pack at Bay Area Whole Foods

Jess Lander and Esther Mobley are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Emails: jess.lander@sfchronicle.com emobley@sfchronicle.com
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UPDATE: San Francisco declares state of emergency over monkeypox.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed is imploring federal health officials to ramp up monkeypox vaccine distribution as the city sees a sharp spike in cases.

With the line at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General monkeypox clinic stretching around the block on Wednesday morning, Breed said she sent a letter to federal health officials requesting more doses of Jynneos.

San Francisco is in desperate need of action in response to the monkeypox virus, she wrote to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. In particular, members of our LGBTQ community are increasingly alarmed by the spread of monkeypox and the lack of vaccine available to them.

San Francisco has received about 4,000 vaccine doses this week of the 35,000 requested from the Biden administration. Breed said they will be used within days.

The U.S. has recorded 2,108 confirmed monkeypox cases as of Tuesday, including 267 in California. San Francisco accounts for 141 cases, up from 86 reported on Friday.

San Francisco, with its high rate of cases, significant risk of spread, especially among the LGBTQ population, can do more to stop the spread of this disease with a sufficient amount of vaccine, Breed said.

The mayors letter was matched on Wednesday by another sent from California Department of Health chief Tomas Aragon and Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly to Rochelle Walensky, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and copied to Becerra. The state officials laid out Californias need for up to 800,000 more monkeypox vaccine doses.

On Monday, several San Francisco LGBTQ advocacy organizations protested at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regional office to decry the federal governments slow response to the growing outbreak.

Our community is currently being the most impacted, but, you know, its not exclusive to our community, said Gary McCoy, co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club.

And on Wednesday, the S.F. AIDS Foundation joined with other advocacy groups around California in an open letter to the CDC demanding expanding testing, vaccine access and the renaming of the disease from monkeypox to hMPXV, a change supported by the World Health Organization.

More than 100,000 monkeypox vaccine doses are being sent to states in the next few days, and several million more are on order in the months ahead, U.S. health officials said Friday. They also acknowledged the vaccine supply hasnt kept up with the demand seen in California, New York and other places.

Some public health experts have expressed concern that the outbreak has become so widespread that monkeypox can no longer be contained.

All of our work right now is to prevent that from happening, CDC director Walensky said last Friday.

Monkeypox, a distant cousin of smallpox, has been endemic for years in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals. But this year more than 13,340 cases have been reported across 70 countries that historically dont see the disease.

Nearly all are men and the vast majority had same-sex encounters, according to data from the CDC and new demographic figures from the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

Symptoms can include a rash, fever, headache, aches, chills and exhaustion. While uncommon, the disease can be deadly.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Infections are spread by direct contact with rashes, scabs or body fluids, according to the CDC. Monkeypox can also spread through kissing, sex and body contact. In some cases, prolonged face-to-face exposure, as well as unwashed laundry contaminated by the virus, could lead to infection.

Walensky said she expected cases to rise at least into August, in part because it can take three weeks from the time someone is infected until they develop symptoms and are diagnosed.

Other Bay Area counties are also working to step up monkeypox vaccine distribution as cases spread through the region.

Officials in Santa Clara County, which had 23 confirmed cases as of Tuesday, said they are prioritizing shots for high-risk individuals since they only received about 880 doses this week.

As has been the case across the country, more vaccine is needed from the federal government supply to meet local demand as more individuals test positive and vaccine eligibility expands over time to everyone who needs it, said Dr. George Han, the countys deputy health officer.

Solano County also recorded its first confirmed monkeypox case this week.

Public health is monitoring the situation closely to ensure the health and safety of Solano County residents and limit the spread of the disease, said Bela T. Matyas, the countys health officer. Though the risk of infection is very low, we encourage people who may have been exposed to contact their medical provider immediately and watch for symptoms.

The Jynneos vaccine has never been widely used in response to an outbreak like this, and the government will track how well its working, Walensky said.

Aidin Vaziri (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com
UPDATE: S.F. D.A. Brooke Jenkins fills more key positions. Here's who will investigate police misconduct

Upon taking her oath on July 8, newly appointed San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins assured her staff that she wanted to unite the office. She wasnt concerned with what administration we came from. After witnessing Jenkins lead a rancorous recall campaign against her predecessor and the man who hired me, Chesa Boudin, I appreciated the sentiment.

During my two and a half years as a prosecutor in the District Attorneys Office, I took my responsibilities seriously. While in the general felonies rotation these past seven months, I successfully argued every litigated matter on my caseload. Even though COVID has severely impacted available courtrooms, I earned holding orders on almost 40 preliminary hearings and motions to suppress evidence, including securing a grand jury indictment. I even held repeat fentanyl dealers accountable with county jail time, garnering praise from San Francisco Police Department officers. In other words, I was good at my job. And I was hopeful Jenkins would bring in the resources that would help me get even better.

Understaffing has long plagued the District Attorneys Office, an issue that predates Boudins tenure and continues to overwhelm staff. But COVID made that issue far worse. Illness, family leave and court closures all contributed to increasing the workload and delays in processing court cases.

As the San Francisco Public Defender recently reported, 20% of the citys jail population are past the date for a constitutionally mandated right to a trial. And, according to a report in Mission Local, the District Attorneys Office has more than 5,500 outstanding cases, with most, on average, nearly two years old. In the general felonies unit, we needed at least six additional attorneys to do our jobs effectively.

Now, however, that unit will need seven. On Friday, I was fired, along with at least 14 other staffers  all hired by Boudin.

Public safety has always been important to me. Outside my work as a prosecutor, I have served as an appointed member of the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission for almost six years. Recently, I led two special hearings on how we can stop anti-Asian and Pacific Islander hate, alongside city departments, including the San Francisco Police Department, and the community at large.

But since Boudins recall, Ive also spoken up about the need to maintain important juvenile justice reforms made under his tenure, like not prosecuting children as adults. For her part, the new district attorney told the New York Times that she wanted to retain the ability to do so  a policy practice that is dangerous and ineffective.

One of the most repeated talking points from the pro-recall campaign was that no one wanted to work for Boudin and that he was shedding staff. But multiple media outlets have quoted staffers describing their first meeting with Jenkins on July 9 as uncomfortable and icy with no clear directives. Combined with the staff bloodletting that followed, it seems unlikely that the new district attorney will be able to restore office morale to a much higher place as she recently vowed.

The reality is that Jenkins has just over three months to make good on a slew of promises that will require an office that is staffed and not drowning in caseloads. Firing 15 staffers, who were effective members of the team, just a few months before voters decide in November who will finish out the year remaining in Boudins term, makes it unlikely shell be able do so.

I was on vacation and on my way to a wedding the day Jenkins and two representatives from human resources called me on my personal cell phone to fire me. Jenkins spoke for about a minute to inform me of my termination before turning the conversation over to the representatives. One of them asked me to recount the names of any defendants whose cases I was still working on. I did my best, sitting in the back of my moms car on the highway. The representative then requested I use my personal email to send them anything else I could remember, as I no longer would have access to my work email and servers by the end of the call. I was shocked. Jenkins said nothing.

I was a felony prosecutor with too many cases to count  easily over 150. I had hearings this week with defendants in custody accused of some of the most violent crimes in our city. And I was given no opportunity to check in with my already overworked colleagues to catch them up on the huge caseload they were about to inherit.

Will they be released if the District Attorneys Office cant comply with statutory deadlines? Will their cases be dismissed?

It takes time to hire and train people at any workplace. It also takes time to transfer cases to new attorneys, especially when those attorneys are already overstretched. Perhaps Jenkins may be able to hire some new attorneys in the coming months, but even the most talented attorneys will not be able to be brought up to speed to help lighten the load anytime soon.

To be clear, I am honored to have worked with an incredible group of talented and dedicated attorneys at the District Attorneys Office. I personally know just how hard of a job each of those attorneys must shoulder. But Jenkins just made their jobs immensely more challenging.

The district attorney is tasked with leading a city department with an exceptionally challenging mandate at an exceptionally challenging time. If these first weeks on the job are any indication of how she intends to use these next few months, I fear the challenges the office has faced will only get worse.

Ryan Khojasteh is a former prosecutor with the San Francisco District Attorneys Office.
The Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol may be just the beginning of an increasingly violent chapter in Americas history.

One in five Americans believes that violence can be at least sometimes justified to advance an important political objective, and half believe that a civil war is on the way in the next few years, according to a new nationwide survey by researchers at UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program.

The survey, released Tuesday, dug into some of the potential motivations for political violence  and many revolve around issues important in conservative circles.

When asked questions about specific objectives, nearly 12% of respondents said that violence could be at least sometimes justified to return Donald Trump to the presidency this year and nearly 25% said to stop an election from being stolen.

Meanwhile, around 7% of respondents believed it could be at least sometimes justified to use violence to stop people who do not share my beliefs from voting, about 24% said it could be OK to preserve an American way of life based on Western European traditions, almost 19% to oppose the government when it does not share my beliefs, and 38% to oppose the government when it tries to take private land for public purposes.

The findings are foreboding at a time when American democracy is on edge, with a House committee holding explosive hearings on the Jan. 6 attack and the country reeling from more than 350 mass shootings this year, amid debates over the Supreme Courts power and efforts to restrict voting rights.

Roberto Schmidt /AFP via Getty Images

The survey of 8,620 people aimed to learn more about what was motivating Americans at a time when researchers noted that both gun violence and gun purchases are increasing, more people believe QAnon-type conspiracy theories, and political polarization is widening.

While researchers tempered the results by noting that a large majority of respondents rejected political violence altogether, they said that these initial findings suggest a continuing alienation from and mistrust of American democratic society and its institutions, founded in part on false beliefs.

The findings suggest a high level of support for violence, including lethal violence, to achieve political objectives, researchers wrote. The prospect of large-scale political violence in the near future is entirely plausible.

In one of the surveys more startling findings, more than 40% of the respondents said that having a strong leader for America is more important than having a democracy.

That was among many results that shocked the lead researcher, Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine physician and the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program.

I had pretty dark expectations about what we would find with this survey because of the homework I had done getting ready for it, Wintemute said. But the findings are darker than my worst-case scenario.

Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of A Savage Order: How the Worlds Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security, called the finding that many people value having a strong leader over a democracy the most worrisome statistic in the survey.

Kleinfeld said that while America has most of the risk factors for significant widespread political violence, the nation also has strong resilience factors, like a powerful professional military and other institutions that are hard to take down with violence.

Those are big resilience factors, but they can be weakened, and what we see in a statistic like that is very strong support for a weakening of our institutions, Kleinfeld said. If that resilience is weakened, she said, we will likely see much more broad political violence.

Wintemute said the desire for a strong leader is a reflection that there is a sense of insecurity and fear in the United States.

When people feel insecure, many look for strong leadership as in authoritative, as in authoritarian leadership, Wintemute said. Democracy and civil society experts have been concerned about this for quite some time. And I think what were seeing is that tentativeness of commitment to democracy in the United States is perhaps even greater than we thought.

Another troubling sign could be found in the responses to why people would commit violence.

The survey found that nearly 19% of the respondents strongly or very strongly agree with the statement that if elected leaders will not protect American democracy, the people must do it themselves, even if it requires taking violent actions. Meanwhile, about 16% feel the same way about the statement, Our American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.

What still needs to be mined from the responses is what exactly our American way of life is  and who is saying that. Wintemute said many of those types of questions will be answered as the data in the study is further analyzed in the coming months.

The survey asked specifically about certain types of potential targets people would be willing to attack.

Nearly 9% of respondents were at least somewhat willing to personally commit violence against an elected federal or state government official, 8% against an elected local government official, 6% against an election worker, such as a poll worker or vote counter, 6% against a public health official, 9% against a member of the military or National Guard, 9% against a police officer, 6% against a person who does not share your race or ethnicity, 5% against a person who does not share your religion and 7% against a person who does not share your political beliefs.

The study found that 4% agreed that I will shoot someone with a gun if they find themselves in a situation where they feel justified to use political violence to achieve a particular aim.

More than one-third (36%) said violence was at least sometimes justified to prevent discrimination based on race or ethnicity.

Half the respondents agreed at least somewhat that in the next few years, there will be civil war in the United States.

Kleinfeld softened the response to imminent civil war by noting that countries that have strong democracies and strong institutions dont break out into separatist armed conflict simply because people dislike each other.

But they have insurgencies, and they have people who try to use violence to take over the state. And I think we are very close to that category of people using threats and violence to take over state governments, said Kleinfeld.

In addition to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Kleinfeld said that were seeing much more of this at the state and local level, like the foiled 2020 attempt by right-wing, anti-government extremists to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and various attacks on school board officials, election officials and poll workers.

Were likely to see more violence, some of which will look political, and some of which will look like mass shootings and some of which will look like everyday homicide, Kleinfeld said. But its all going to increase.

The survey found wide chasms on race that could fuel more political violence.

It found significant support for replacement theory, a racist belief that drove the gunman who killed 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store in May. Nearly 1 in 5 respondents (19%) disagreed with the statement that having more Black Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans is good for the country and 41% agreed  including 16% who agreed strongly or very strongly  with the idea that in America, native-born white people are being replaced by immigrants.

While 39% of the respondents agreed strongly that white people benefit from advantages in society that Black people do not have, 27% agreed strongly that discrimination against whites is as big a problem as discrimination against Blacks and other minorities.

There was a strong contingent of respondents who believe in fringe, discredited QAnon-type conspiracy theories.

More than 1 in 5 respondents (23%) backed the statement that U.S. institutions are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who traffic children for sex  a staple of QAnon beliefs. Nearly 1 in 3 agreed that a storm coming soon will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders, another QAnon belief. Nearly a third of respondents (32%) endorsed the false statement that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president.

Kleinfeld pointed out that the history of political violence in America is long, from the nativist 19th century Know-Nothing Party to the Ku Klux Klan to the Weather Underground and other fringe groups of the late 1960s and 1970s.

Whats happening now is that the violence is more frequent on the right, and its mainstream. So these are not fringe groups. Theyre not small cells that are generally disavowed by the mainstream, Kleinfeld said. Theyre being increasingly supported by mainstream political actors and commentators.

The bright spot at this moment is that there is still time to turn these feelings around.

We are not in a lot of political violence right now. Its heightened. But we are nothing like Kenya in 2007 or even America in 1968, Kleinfeld said. We can turn back, but we need to recognize just how bad things are getting, and we have to start acting.

The adult respondents completed the online survey between May 13 and June 2. Wintemute said more will be learned and shared over the next few months as researchers dive deeper into the information.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
UPDATE: S.F. teachers union, more officials call on school board member Ann Hsu to resign in wake of racist comments

A San Francisco school board member apologized Tuesday after she made a racist statement, saying one of the biggest challenges in educating Black and brown students was their unstable family environments and lack of parental encouragement to focus on learning.

Ann Hsu, who was appointed by Mayor London Breed to fill a vacancy after the February recall of three board members, made the comments in a candidate questionnaire for a parent group endorsement process for the November election.

The backlash to the comments was swift, with parents and community members saying her comments were harmful and racist and repeated false ideas that Black and brown parents are not as involved in their kids educations as white and Asian families.

Others on social media called on her to resign and questioned whether Breed adequately vetted her appointees.

It is the latest controversy for the citys beleaguered school board, despite recent efforts to bring calm and focus to the district after three year of lawsuits, divisive policies and a contentious recall. It comes in the wake of data released last week that shows huge racial disparities in academic performance in the district and the boards vow to tackle the performance gaps.

In March 2021, former board member Alison Collins faced a similar reproach  for a social media post about Asian Americans  with dozens of public officials and community groups calling for her resignation at the time. She declined to apologize or remove the comments. A year later, she was recalled in a landslide vote.

Hsu revised her response after the backlash and apologized on Tuesday.

I was trying to understand and address a serious problem and seek solutions, and in so doing I said things that perpetuated biases already in the system, she said on Twitter. She said she understood how problems like generational poverty, food insecurity & housing insecurity  which disproportionaly affect our BIPOC families, due to systemic racism & inequality  make it harder for children to learn, harder for families to function, harder for teachers to teach.

My statements reflected my own limited experiences and inherent biases. I made a mistake, and I am deeply sorry, she added, calling her comments inherently biased.

Recalled school board member Gabriela Lopez said Hsus original comments were ignorant and added that anyone reading this and accepting it as normal behavior by a school board member should be ashamed.

Hsu, Lainie Motamedi and Lisa Weissman-Ward were appointed in March to serve the remainder of the recalled board members terms. They would need to be among the top three vote-getters in November to remain on the board. Five people, including the three appointed, are vying for the seats so far.

Each of the five responded last week to a series of questions posed by the San Francisco Parent Action group, which advocates for policies and elected leaders that prioritize students.

One of the questions asked the candidates how the district can improve outcomes for marginalized students as well as challenge and increase opportunities for higher achieving students.

From my very limited exposure in the past four months to the challenges of educating marginalized students especially in the black and brown community, I see one of the biggest challenges as being the lack of family support for those students. Unstable family environments caused by housing and food insecurity along with lack of parental encouragement to focus on learning cause children to not be able to focus on or value learning, Hsu responded in part to the question. That makes teachers work harder because they have to take care of emotional and behavioral issues of students before they can teach them. That is not fair to the teachers.

Chronicle editors determined that the comment met the publications definition of racist, because the remark employed stereotypes of racial or ethnic groups.

Hsus responses, along with those of the other candidates, were posted on the organizations website. The five were also given an opportunity to amend the responses, which Hsu later did, deleting the comments.

Her revised comments blame historical inequities rather than parents, saying that students in marginalized communities face extra challenges that create obstacles to their learning. We must recognize the inequities and work to mitigate the harms that stem from them.

Both versions remain on the parent groups website, sfparentaction.org.

Yvette Edwards, co-founder and board member of the parent group, said she personally felt the comments were racist, but that Hsu is not racist. Still, she was shocked by the message.

I've met Ann many times, said Edwards, who is Black. Im disappointed in the level of ignorance related to a basic understanding of systemic racism.

While she appreciated the apology and the admission of wrong, the real issue is what happens now and how does the district get back to focusing on the needs of children, she said.

It is refreshing to see a Board of Education member kind of really just say this was wrong, Edwards said. So now what? What are you all going to do about it? How many times do we have to have conversations like this?

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The districts teachers union also said the remarks were deeply disappointing.

An apology is a beginning, but a restorative process to heal the wounds her words have caused would be even better, said Cassondra Curiel, president of the United Educators of San Francisco. We can achieve the schools our students deserve by fixing the systems failures, not blaming our hardworking communities that daily win out against racist odds.

Board President Jenny Lam, Mayor London Breed did not respond to requests for comment.

SF Parent Action received the questionnaires early last week and then later in the week distributed them to members and the public.

Were disappointed and discouraged by her remarks about Black and brown families, said Meredith Dodson, the groups founder. This is a false narrative that Black families are unable to support their children academically.

The parent group has been supportive of Hsu since her appointment, Dodson said.

This coming to light is troublesome and upsetting and harmful, she said. Black parents who are members in the group are not happy about it.

Dodson added that parents in her group, which has become increasingly influential over the last few years, described the comments as racist, hurtful, harmful and disrespectful.

Laurance Lem Lee, who attended district schools and is active in city parent advocacy groups, said he was disappointed in Hsus comments, but stopped short of calling them racist. He said he believed her apology was genuine.

I hope she will indeed use this incident as a true learning moment, he said.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker
San Francisco Supervisor Gordon Mar said he was targeted by a series of disturbing and dangerous flyers pasted over window signs supporting his re-election campaign in the Sunset District.

The flyers, according to a tweet from Mar on Tuesday, were put up over the weekend. It was not immediately clear how many flyers there were, or who was behind them.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Mar said he didnt know who posted the flyers but said owners of the small stores where the hateful flyers were posted were examining surveillance video and supplying it to police.

Some of the flyers read communist pedophile, while others appeared to present a distorted mock agenda for the supervisor intended to denigrate him, saying he supported more drugs, more homelessness, grooming children, and free money to crackheads, along with kick out the Chinese, bring in gangs. Mar is Chinese American.

The flyers were obviously outrageous and hateful and their inflammatory language is anti-LGBTQ, classist and racist, he said.

Mar called the flyers reactionary, ridiculous smears in his tweet, and said they resembled flyers that appeared in his district last year during a bitter fight that ensued following Mars support of bringing affordable housing for low-income families to the Sunset.

Mar said the use of the word grooming was a deliberate, baseless aspersion thats emerged from the fringes of the right-wing, used to attack the LGBTQ community and their allies.

The use of the term grooming, once confined to far-right circles, has gained prominence nationally in the wake of a seething debate over the rights of the LGBTQ community. The derisive use of the word generally attempts to associate LGBTQ people with pedophilia and the sexualization of children

Its a tired trope, but it does real damage, Mar tweeted.

Mar told The Chronicle that roughly a couple dozen of the flyers were posted on the windows of small merchants on Irving, Taraval and Noriega streets, the Sunset Districts main commercial corridors. In most cases, they were pasted over Re-elect Supervisor Gordon Mar campaign signs.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Mar sees the signs as an effort to divide the Sunset and the city, using right-wing tactics and tropes popular across the nation.

I can take these attacks, he said. I shouldnt have to but Im an elected official, I have thick skin and I have faced similar attacks before, he said.

What really concerns me more is the impact this racist and hateful messaging will have on our queer kids and poor kids and Black and brown kids who see this and wonder if theyre really welcome here. I want them to know they are and that we need to come together and fight.

Dominic Fracassa and Michael Cabanatuan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com and mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com, Twitter: @dominicfracassa and @ctuan
San Francisco supervisors have approved a massive budget deal that preserves Mayor London Breeds plans to recruit more police officers and invest in the citys economic core while also steering more money toward affordable housing and various social programs.

The spending plans adopted 10-1 by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday total about $14 billion for each of the next two fiscal years. Supervisors signed off on Breeds top budget priorities, which included funding the hiring of 220 police officers  to fill vacant jobs  and allocating $47.4 million to promote the citys economic recovery from COVID-19.

Supervisor Dean Preston was the lone dissenter, repeating his decision to vote against the budget last year. Just as in 2021, Preston cited the budgets spending on police as his reason for voting against the deal. The latest budget grows the police department budget by more than $50 million, to about $714 million in fiscal year 2023, according to the mayors office.

In a statement, Preston said the budget contained a lot to be proud of, including what he called historic investments in affordable housing that he championed.

But I cannot support a budget that includes a massive increase in police funding  it is unnecessary, counterproductive, and betrays our commitment to change how we approach public safety, he said.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen, the boards budget chair, expressed relief Tuesday that she and other San Francisco officials had been able to minimize conflict as they worked to reach consensus about how to allocate public dollars.

It was a basically drama-free budget, which was kind of unusual, Ronen said. She praised the final budget deal for balancing the need to revitalize our downtown corridor with the imperative to support our neighborhoods and our most vulnerable residents.

Under an agreement that Breed, Ronen and the rest of the supervisors budget committee reached three weeks ago, the two-year city budget also provides about $58 million to finance various programs sought by supervisors, including initiatives to provide food for low-income San Franciscans, housing subsidies and LGBTQ services.

As part of the deal, the mayor made room in the budget for $69 million to fund various other priorities such as helping nonprofits cover rising business costs.

Supervisors made a range of cuts to the department budgets that Breed had originally proposed, but they were largely uncontroversial in the end. Though the boards budget committee had contemplated more aggressive funding reductions, including the possibility of scaling back the mayors police hiring plans, they ultimately avoided the most extreme cuts on the table after reaching a deal with the mayor.

Additionally, the budget deal authorizes $112 million in debt financing for affordable housing projects and to help nonprofits that work with the Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The money includes $40 million to help the city buy land where affordable homes can be built, $20 million for public housing repairs, $12 million for teacher housing and $10 million for elevator improvements at single-room occupancy hotels.

Those were all priorities for Preston, who had pushed for a major increase in affordable housing spending after the success of Proposition I, a ballot measure he sponsored that raised taxes on major real estate transactions.

An additional $30 million from the debt financing will support land purchases that Supervisor Connie Chan sought in her proposed API Equity Fund, which is intended to acquire property for nonprofits that serve low-income Asian and Pacific Islander community members.

The budget also includes money for a dedicated crew to clean the streets of the Tenderloin each weekday, as well as funding for a new 70-cabin village of tiny homes in the Mission.

J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris
San Francisco voters are poised to weigh in on more than a dozen ballot measures in November.

Perhaps the most high-profile is a proposal to move the citys mayoral elections to presidential election years starting in 2024.

The Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 on July 19 to put the measure on the Nov. 8 ballot despite opposition from Mayor London Breed, whose current term would be extended by one year if the proposed City Charter amendment passes.

If approved by a majority of voters in November, the proposal would move the scheduled 2023 races for mayor, sheriff, district attorney, city attorney and treasurer to 2024 and every four years thereafter.

Supervisor Dean Preston introduced the measure as a way to boost turnout in local elections for mayor and other offices that are currently decided in odd-numbered years. Hes said that theres an average 80% turnout in even years and 43% in odd ones.

This is a basic civil rights issue, its a voting rights issue and I believe very strongly that our city should be encouraging voter participation, not limiting it, Preston said at a recent hearing.

Other cities, including Los Angeles and San Jose, have already made similar changes to their election schedules.

Breed said in a letter opposing the measure that she thought San Francisco should collect more public input about how to improve turnout before going to the ballot with such a major change. She has said that Los Angeles and San Jose each gathered feedback from local commissions before changing their election schedules.

The mayor went even further in comments to KCBS Radio, telling the station last week that the election schedule measure was being pushed by Preston and a group of democratic socialists who want to have more control and power of being able to get more of their people elected.

Preston and his allies point to a recent poll that found 74% support for the idea of even-year mayoral elections.

Supervisors Matt Dorsey, Rafael Mandelman, Gordon Mar and Shamann Walton voted against putting the measure on the ballot. They voiced reservations about reducing the number of elections and the specific timing of Prestons proposal.

These are the other measures the supervisors are aiming for the Nov. 8 ballot:

Homeless department oversight: In the wake of a Chronicle investigation that documented squalid conditions in the aging single-room occupancy hotels that San Francisco has long relied on to house homeless people, Supervisor Ahsha Safai proposed a ballot measure that would create an oversight commission for the city homeless department. With an annual budget of about $700 million, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing is the largest city agency that doesnt have an oversight body. That would change if voters approve the measure that Safai and his colleagues unanimously sent to the ballot.

Affordable housing: Supervisor Connie Chan has proposed a ballot measure that aims to speed up the permit approval process for certain affordable housing projects. Her measure would compete with a similar measure backed by Breed that is already expected to appear on the ballot after supporters gathered thousands of signatures. Supervisors on July 26 voted 7-4 in favor of sending Chans measure to the ballot, with Supervisors Stefani, Dorsey, Mandelman and Melgar in the dissent.

The two measures differ in a few ways, including the kinds of projects that would qualify for the faster timeline and whether supervisors retain control over approving city funds for each project. Chan says she wants to make sure that projects produced because of her measure are truly affordable, and she wants to preserve accountability for how public dollars are spent. But some supporters of Breeds measure say Chans measure would still allow needless delays in new housing construction.

Street-cleaning department reversal: Two years ago, San Francisco voters approved Proposition B, which directed the city to split its Public Works department in two and create a new department focused on street-cleaning. But supervisors have grown increasingly concerned about the cost of fully implementing the measure and have questioned whether it would actually result in visibly cleaner streets.

So Supervisor Aaron Peskin proposed a new measure that would roll back much of Prop. B and eliminate the nascent Sanitation and Streets department, which is expected to launch in October. The measure would preserve both of the oversight commissions created by Prop. B.

Peskin supported Prop. B, but now hes decided that the costs and government redundancies associated with putting the measure in place warrant going back to voters.

It is rare that an elected official gets up and admits they made a mistake, but this is one of those instances, Peskin said Tuesday.

The board voted 8-3 in favor of sending Peskins measure to the ballot. President Shamann Walton was opposed, as were Supervisors Mar and Safai.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Student success fund: Spearheaded by Supervisor Hillary Ronen, this measure would set aside up to $60 million annually in excess property tax revenue to support San Francisco public schools. Dubbed the Student Success Fund, the money would be available for schools in grants of up to $1 million per year to support students academic achievement or their social or emotional wellness.

Supervisors unanimously agreed July 26 to place the measure before voters, framing it as a historic effort to invest in schools without well-funded parent-teacher associations that need more resources to help their students.

Many San Francisco public schools have large numbers of students who are below grade level in basic subjects, Ronen said. She called the ballot measure a turning point in the relationship between City Hall and the San Francisco Unified School District.

We are finally in lockstep with the district about how to make sure we will help our students achieve success, Ronen said.

Library preservation fund: This measure would renew a fund that supports city library operations and services for 25 years. Money for the fund comes from an annual property tax set-aside of 2.5 cents per $100. Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to place the measure on the ballot.

Retirement benefit changes: Introduced by Safai, this measure would adjust the supplemental cost-of-living benefits for city employees who retired before Nov. 6, 1996. Specifically, it would eliminate a requirement that the San Francisco Employees Retirement System has to be fully funded based on the prior years market value of the systems assets. SFERS would adjust the retirees base allowance to account for the supplemental payments they didnt receive in five different years because of the full-funding requirement. Monthly supplemental payments would be capped at $200 for eligible retirees whose gross allowance exceeds $4,167 per month. Safai secured unanimous agreement from his colleagues to get the measure on the ballot.

Sales tax for transportation: Supervisor Mandelman successfully introduced a measure to extend the citys 0.5% sales tax that helps fund transportation projects for 30 years. The city Transportation Authority would be allowed to issue up to $1.19 billion in bonds to be repaid with proceeds from the tax. The board unanimously decided to send the measure to voters in November.

Other measures: Voters will also likely get to weigh in on a parcel tax meant to help City College of San Francisco end its financial free fall after supporters delivered enough signatures to the Department of Elections to place the measure on the November ballot. Measures on reopening JFK Drive, a gross receipts tax to fund guaranteed income and a vacancy tax on residential units are also expected to go before voters.

J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris
UPDATE: S.F. teachers union, more officials call on school board member Ann Hsu to resign in wake of racist comments.

The fallout over racist comments made by a San Francisco school board member continued Wednesday, with a top city official calling for her resignation.

Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton called for Ann Hsu to step down immediately, despite an apology, for claiming Black and brown parents do not encourage their children to focus on or value learning.

Yeah sure, thank you for the apology, but at the end of the day this is probably reflective of how a person really feels, Walton said. Its disheartening that someone like that is in a position to make decisions for our children.

Hsu was appointed by Mayor London Breed in March after the successful recall of three school board members.

Breed commented on the controversy Wednesday, saying Hsus words were wrong and hurtful, but did not call for her resignation.

More for you After making racist statement, S.F. school board member apologizes

Theres a difference between recognizing systemic inequality and perpetuating harmful stereotypes. But its important that she apologized and committed to working with members of the community to understand and learn, Breed said. She needs to follow through on that and really listen and reflect, especially as someone who represents all children in our school district.

Hsu hasnt responded to requests for comment.

The controversy comes just as the school board vowed to govern more effectively and focus almost exclusively on student needs and outcomes amid low literacy rates and an unmovable achievement gap. The shift follows three years of scandal, massive budget deficits, lawsuits and divisive policies, followed by the successful recall.

That upheaval included stripping board member Alison Collins of her vice presidency and committee assignments in March 2021 over her social media post about Asian Americans  which prompted dozens of public officials and community groups to call for her resignation at the time. She declined to apologize or remove the comments and unsuccesfully sued the district and colleagues for $87 million, claiming they violated her constitutional rights. A year later, she was recalled in a landslide vote.

I am just so disappointed in everything thats been happening with the district, said Walton, a former school board member. The district cant keep taking so many blows as it tries to go in the right direction... I want our kids to succeed.

Hsus remarks landed amid the school boards review of student progress, which showed just 58% of students were proficient in reading last year and 71% were proficient in math. But the outcomes varied greatly by race, with 34% of Latinos and 9% of Black students reading at grade level, compared with 85% of white students and 70% of Asian Americans.

In math, 81% of white and Asian American students were proficient, compared with 41% of Black students and 55% of Latino students. Information from previous years was not immediately available.

Hsus comments reinforced the racist stereotype that Black and brown parents dont support or value their childrens education as much as other parents.

Board President Jenny Lam said all seven school board members must believe that all students can succeed regardless of race, ZIP code, income level or any other factor.

My colleagues recent comments to the contrary are hurtful and perpetuate harmful stereotypes, Lam said. Her apology and commitment to listen and learn are important first steps for restoring the communitys trust. Under my leadership, the school boards work will always focus on providing every student with what they need to be successful academically and in life.

Board members Lainie Motamedi and Lisa Weissman-Ward, who are also Breed appointees and campaigning jointly with Hsu to retain their seats in the November election, also weighed in on the controversy.

I have shared with Ann how upsetting, harmful and disappointing her answers were, Weissman-Ward said. Her answers perpetuated and reflected biases and caused harm to Black and brown students and their families and also to me personally  as a half-Black woman.

She added that she appreciated Hsus apology as a first step, but accountability comes next, which includes restorative learning and healing.

Motamedi said that all seven board members must continue to listen and learn and focus on the needs of the students least well served by our school system.

Students will not benefit until our adult behaviors change, she said. That change needs to begin with the board.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Hsu made the statement in response to a candidate questionnaire and specifically to a question on how the district can improve outcomes for marginalized students.

From my very limited exposure in the past four months to the challenges of educating marginalized students especially in the black and brown community, I see one of the biggest challenges as being the lack of family support for those students, she responded. Unstable family environments caused by housing and food insecurity along with lack of parental encouragement to focus on learning cause children to not be able to focus on or value learning, Hsu responded in part to the question. That makes teachers work harder because they have to take care of emotional and behavioral issues of students before they can teach them. That is not fair to the teachers.

She later amended the response to the question posed by the SF Parent Action group, which advocates for elected officials and policies that prioritize students.

Hsu apologized on social media Tuesday, admitting the comments were inherently biased and perpetuated biases.

She said she was committed to listening, learning and growing as a person.

Walton said its too late for that kind of education given that Hsu is responsible for 50,000 students right now.

Theres no learning curve for how to treat people and respect people of different cultures when youre in a position like that, he said. I think its evident she shouldnt be on the Board of Education.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen said it should be up to voters to decide Hsus fate in the November election.

The voters should decide because she is so new and did unequivocally apologize, Ronen said. However, because her comments are flat out wrong and reveal a shocking lack of understanding about systemic racism and generational poverty, I will not be voting for her or endorsing her candidacy.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker
A new squabble over public streets and who gets to use them seems to erupt every week in San Francisco, a city that has 1,200 miles of roads and about that many ongoing fights over their fate.

The latest one is really quite small  its about who takes priority on some Sundays on a quiet two-block stretch of the Sunset District  but outsize anger has flared on social media and in warring public letters and statements.

Youre elitist! cries one side. Youre inflexible! cries the other. And city officials attempt to appease everybody while appeasing no one. Just another day in San Francisco, a city with a reputation for a chill vibe that nobody seems to have anymore.

This time, the drama centers around Sunset Mercantile, a beloved farmers market that began in the summer of 2020 on 37th Avenue between Ortega and Quintara streets and takes place every Sunday. It wants its permit, which expires Aug. 13, renewed  but St. Ignatius College Preparatory, a Jesuit high school that charges $29,450 a year, wants the market to shutter completely or scale back to the block farther from it on 10 Sundays a year.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

The high school argues the farmers market was permitted during the height of the pandemic when schools werent even meeting in person. But now that its back in session and major campus events like next months orientation have resumed, it sometimes needs full access to 37th Avenue.

Angie Petitt, founder of Sunset Mercantile and a neighborhood mom, argued that regardless of the pandemic, its a perfect location abutting the under-utilized greenway along Sunset Boulevard where families can picnic. The road closure affects only the high school and A.P. Giannini Middle School, neither of which is usually open on Sundays.

Petitt said scores of vendors rely on making money weekly and cant just sit at home whenever St. Ignatius says they should. She met last week at the school with representatives from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Supervisor Gordon Mar and school officials to try to broker a compromise.

According to Petitt, the conversation turned cringe-worthy when Kenneth Stupi, the schools vice president for finance and administration, said families paying $30,000 a year shouldnt have to walk more than a few blocks to get to the school. She recounted that Stupi also said new families wouldnt get a good first impression of the school if the market was outside.

Its so painful, Petitt said. Weve created something so beautiful, and he dismissed that. The impression I got was that this event is an embarrassment.

Tom Murphy, director of marketing and communications for St. Ignatius, countered, Thats not what he said. Thats how she perceived it.

What I think he meant was, This is orientation. This is the first day many of the new families are coming to campus, Murphy continued. How do we get new families into the orientation and Mass in the most efficient way?

He said the school supports the market, but doesnt appreciate Petitts inflexibility or that she took her complaints public. She countered shes come up with many alternatives including a staffed, marked lane for cars to reach the school, but the school wont budge.

If the back-and-forth sounds familiar, its no wonder. While the pandemic initially seemed like a wonderful opportunity to turn a small portion of San Franciscos roads into a better, higher use than just for cars, it hasnt panned out that way.

Felix Uribe / Special to The Chronicle

The city reopened most of Twin Peaks Boulevard to cars, bringing speeding drivers, car break-in thieves and shattered glass back to the one-time pandemic oasis. The city quickly quashed its effort to allow food trucks on the Great Highway when its closed during the weekends after other small businesses complained about the competition.

The Board of Supervisors approved the permanent closure of JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park, only to have opponents of that and the weekend closure of the Great Highway attempt to take it to the November ballot. Many Slow Streets, including Lake Street, appear over.

But San Franciscans would be wise to remember that cities change. Just because your street or neighborhood was a certain way at one time doesnt mean itll be that way forever. And that no institution owns the public road next to them. (Heres looking at you, de Young Museum, which is backing the November measure to return cars to adjacent JFK Drive.)

In fact, we should seize the pandemics silver linings and expand them  like Paris and other forward-looking cities have done in their effort to create outdoor oases for public gatherings and safe passage for pedestrians and bicyclists. We dont need to fight every last proposal until everybody feels like theyve been hit with a tranquilizer dart.

Mar said he shares Petitts frustration and wants the SFMTA to act quickly on the permitting question so both she and the school can make plans.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

I absolutely support the farmers market being renewed, Mar said. It has been really embraced by the Sunset community and more broadly, too. Its so much more than just a place to buy produce.

Mar said much of his job representing the Sunset has centered over the past two years around roadways and trying to find compromises over their use.

I have been surprised by the level of polarized debate that has played out around new uses for our streets, he said. It doesnt have to be a zero sum game all the time.

Robin Abad Ocubillo, director of the citys Shared Spaces program which would issue the permit, said, We're hopeful that the parties will resolve their differences and any street closure permits can continue.

The program has received 41 letters of support for the farmers market.

Bettina Santos Yap knows both sides of the 37th Avenue fight well. Her daughter, Monica, graduated from St. Ignatius 11 years ago, and she said the school provided a great education. But shes also a vendor at the market, selling Filipino pastries.

Losing 10 Sundays of income would be tough, she said, and shed have to go hunting for space at a different market.

I need this, she said of her market income, adding the school seems to be acting in a self-serving manner. I think its unfair. Theres definitely a compromise.

Maybe another meeting, this time with Yaps delicious pastries, is in order.

Heather Knight is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf
Plans for a new Caltrain station in Bayview  a neighborhood that has long lacked quality transit connections to the rest of The City  are advancing.

On July 14 the Planning Commission recommended the station be constructed near Oakdale Avenue, the potential station location closest to the Third Street retail corridor and the residential part of Bayview. The project is now in the hands of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA), which will hear an informational presentation on the project Tuesday and consider next steps.

The project, which remains in the very early planning stages, is roughly projected to cost about $80 million and open around 2028.

The recommendation follows more than a year of study and community outreach by the Planning Department. Ever since the Paul Avenue Caltrain station in Bayview was closed in 2005, various plans have been floated to replace it. But that effort took on more urgency as Caltrains electrification and modernization projects moved forward in recent years. With Caltrain planning to provide electrified service with BART-like frequencies, and to extend the rail line into the Salesforce Transit Center downtown, city officials and community members wanted to ensure Bayview residents would benefit.

We heard, as staff, very broad support for the work and the need to make good on past promises in the Bayview, and obviously a lot of concern and caution about ensuring station improvements were going to accrue to current residents, Doug Johnson, the planner leading the study, said at the July 14 hearing.

Planning Department staff evaluated three potential station locations in their study  at Evans, Oakdale and Williams avenues. The Oakdale location received the most community support because it is closer to the residential parts of Bayview, Third Street businesses and transit connections. The Oakdale location is also the cheapest station option. However, some community members favored the Evans location, which is closer to the growing India Basin neighborhood and the new Southeast Community Center.

During the outreach process, Johnson reported, residents and community groups were excited about the potential economic development the project could bring. But they were also concerned about the possible environmental impacts of a major construction project in the historically industrial area. Another subject of discussion was the price of Caltrain, which has higher fares and fewer discount programs than Muni.

At the hearing, several people highlighted the importance of protecting existing Bayview residents from the gentrification and housing cost increases that could come along with a new transit station providing easy access to downtown and Silicon Valley.

Planning Commission President Rachael Tanner concurred. I want to really underscore the need to do some advanced planning, she said. Now's the time to start planning for acquiring properties, small site acquisition, and allocating funding for that, not waiting for the station to be there and saying, Oh man, people are getting displaced now.

Commissioner Sue Diamond called for greater accountability in bringing the project to fruition. Maybe theres some lessons learned as to how we could be in a situation where 34 years ago, in 1988, we began the assessment of replacing Paul Avenue Station and in 2005 we shut it down without actually having a commitment to a new station. And here we are in 2022, and we are just inching our way forward.

In response, Johnson said elected officials terms made it difficult for them to champion long-range projects like this one. Additionally, the number of agencies involved in this particular project makes it difficult to coordinate. However, he said right now, we have a good moment of alignment among various stakeholders.

Theres still a long road ahead for the Bayview Caltrain station. Planners predict the preliminary design and environmental review process will take about three years, and construction could add an extra three.

The project will also need to secure additional funding. So far, $28 million has been allocated through the Prop. K sales tax reauthorization on the November ballot, should the measure pass. While its current estimated cost is $80 million, the project is at, like, 0% design, so dont get too attached to these numbers, Johnson said. We all know what happens to these numbers.

As the Bayview Caltrain station moves forward, other even more ambitious projects are in the works for San Franciscos stretch of Caltrain tracks. Following a favorable transportation allocation in this years state budget, Caltrains electrification project is well positioned for its targeted completion date in 2024. The Downtown Extension of the tracks into the underground train station beneath the Salesforce Transit Center is environmentally cleared and expected to break ground in 2025, with a possible opening date of 2031.

Yet another major project, known as the Pennsylvania Avenue Extension, would underground the Caltrain tracks through Mission Bay, eliminating all at-grade road crossings in San Francisco. That project, which is at an earlier planning stage, could necessitate the reconstruction of the 22nd Avenue Caltrain station in Dogpatch, or create the opportunity for a new station closer to Mission Bay.
Cautious hope. Those are the words many who watch the San Francisco Unified School District are using to describe Sundays special board meeting on governance and outcomes. The seven Board of Education commissioners unanimously approved these two areas of focus, distancing themselves from the positions of former board members Alison Collins and Gabriela Lopez, who were recalled in February.

When the idea to focus on governance and outcomes was first put forth in June, the message from the commissioners was trust us. Parents giving public comments were highly skeptical. One big part of the resolution was to suspend smaller focused board committee meetings on, for example, the district budget  leading parents to ask: Why suspend these committees and for how long?

The special Sunday board meeting commenced differently from many others. AJ Crabill of Council of the Great City Schools, hired by the district to facilitate the Sunday workshop, had the seven commissioners and the new superintendent, Matt Wayne, sit around a table with pens and notebooks. His first question was stark: Why do school systems exist?

Crabill began, Student outcomes dont change until adult behavior changes. Later he said, The board has ingested some bad habits. In his long explainer distributed prior to the meeting, Crabill outlined several suboptimal SFUSD current practices, such as less than 1% of time each month is invested in monitoring progress toward our goals for student learning, while instead encouraging alternate effective practices, including, significantly increased time at board meetings discussing student outcomes.

What about social justice? Wayne, understanding the session, said, Improving outcomes helps social justice. Crabill, assenting, added, If children leave schools with seeds planted to be great on their own terms  with choice-filled lives, that is social justice.

During the seven-hour meeting, the commissioners worked collaboratively and made concessions with one another and agreed on a working vision: All SFUSD students will graduate as independent thinkers with a sense of agency who have mastered academic and creative skills to lead productive lives and contribute to our community. They agreed on developing measurable goals related to third-grade literacy, eighth-grade math and college and career readiness. Final versions of the goals and other items from this governance process will follow community feedback.

The new focus on outcomes is long past due. Student data, shared for the first time on July 14, is disturbing. Preliminary spring 2021-22 data showed only 54.3% of SFUSD students at grade level for English language arts and only 45.5% at grade level for mathematics, compared with 56.4% and 50.6% before the pandemic. Only 28.7% of Hispanic students were at grade level in English language arts in 2022, compared with 31.1% in 2018-19. Only 9% of African American students were at grade level in math in 2022, compared with 13.7% in 2018-19.

Parents were already wary that the district was playing games with the data, avoiding the fuller story. Meredith Dodson tweeted on July 14, Not helping to regain trust with community when SFUSDs social media shouts success of 86% high school graduation rate for our Black students, but then you dig one level deeper into the data and find only 24.7% of our Black students are leaving SFUSD ready for college & career.

Another concern lingering in the back of many minds was prior efforts to address outcomes. A May 2022 literacy resolution prepared by parents and teachers was stripped of recommended actions by district staff. Commissioners Matt Alexander and Mark Sanchez shrugged when parent after parent raised such concerns, and carried on.

The commissioners and superintendent were to meet again Tuesday evening with the same facilitator to discuss potential amendments to board policies and other operating procedures. The goal is delivery of a document articulating the districts vision, values, goals and guardrails by Oct. 25, as explained in a recent joint letter from SFUSD Board President Jenny Lam and Wayne.

Lam, speaking to the Chronicle on July 14, said, This is the beginning of a process to establish the districts North Star goals for student outcomes.

Key to the work is public feedback. Indeed, how the public responds should have a significant effect on the commitment to student outcomes by San Francisco public education leaders.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to call on new District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to keep a criminal justice reform program that was begun under her predecessor, Chesa Boudin, who was recalled in June.

The Independent Innocence Commission was begun in 2020 by Boudin and was staffed by liaison attorney Arcelia Hurtado, who was fired by Jenkins once she became DA, as well as several other post-conviction attorneys.

The Commission recently helped exonerate Joaquin Ciria, who had been incarcerated for over 30 years for a murder he did not commit.

"After the District Attorney set up the commission in 2020, they looked at every piece of evidence in my case," said Ciria. "I had prayed so long for this to happen."

According to Supervisor Dean Preston's office, the DA's office previously had an Internal Conviction Integrity Unit before Boudin's tenure, but it "did not exonerate a single person through its existence."

The Innocence Commission currently works with the University of San Francisco School of Law's Racial Justice Clinic. Under the current charter, the DA gives great weight to the Innocence Commission's recommendations but retains final discretion on all cases, Preston's office said.

Noted law Professor Lara Bazelon is the chair of the Innocence Commission.

"We want to express our deepest appreciation to the board of supervisors for recognizing the crucial importance of our work," she said in a statement. "[It is] painstaking, complicated, and offered pro bono in service of the DA's duty to see that justice is done."
A Northern California man was killed in a crash near Big Sur's legendary Bixby Bridge on Monday afternoon.

California Highway Patrol spokesperson Jessica Madueno told SFGATE that the crash took place at around 3 p.m. on Highway 1 just north of the bridge.

The man was traveling southbound on the highway on a 2009 Harley-Davidson north of the bridge when he apparently lost control of the motorcycle. He entered the northbound lane of the highway and crashed into a 2018 Honda Clarity being driven by a 51-year-old Richmond woman, Madueno said.

The motorcyclist, who is from Citrus Valley, sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. He was wearing protective gear at the time of the crash, according to documents provided by CHP. The woman driving the Honda was uninjured and did not require hospitalization.

Neither the CHP nor the Monterey County Coroners Office have identified the deceased; his identity will be made public when his next of kin is notified by the coroner's office. Drugs and alcohol are not believed to be a factor in this case.

The California Highway Patrols Monterey offices are investigating the crash. Anyone with information should contact CHP at 831-770-8000.
A shark that bit and nearly killed a man in Monterey Bay on June 22 was a 14-to-15-foot-long great white, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

Experts at the department's Wildlife Forensics Lab collaborated with Dr. Chris Lowe of California State University Long Beach's Shark Lab to investigate the attack. They evaluated wound photo measurements, did wetsuit examination and read witness statements to determine a size estimate.

The size estimate is "within the normal range for sharks found in the area" and "dispels speculative media reports that alleged that the shark was 20 feet long," the department said in a recent statement on the incident.

City of Pacific Grove

The incident occurred in the late morning about 150 yards from the beach at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove. Steve Bruemmer, 62, was swimming when he was bitten in the leg and yelled for help. A couple on paddleboards responded to Bruemmer's calls. One was a nurse and the other police officer, so they "knew what to do," Bruemmer said. A surfer who was teaching a safety class on the beach brought an extra board into the water.

"Those three got me onto the extra board, and they had me hold the surfer's ankle while he paddled like crazy to get me to the beach," Bruemmer said. "They, along with several bystanders, including a doctor and a nurse who were on the beach for the day, helped put tourniquets on me and get me to the ambulance."

Bruemmer was transported to the trauma center at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas.

"They said I lost a tremendous amount of blood," he said in the statement from the center. "Without all those things going right: If it had been a choppy day, then they wouldn't have heard me on the Monterey Rec Trail. So yeah, I'm lucky. Without all those things going right, I could have bled out.

Natividad Medical Center in Salinas

After three weeks in the hospital, Bruemmer returned home. I was in a tough spot. And everyone was so caring. Im going home now. Im going to recover. Im going to be OK. Thanks to you all.

It's extremely rare for sharks to bite people and the June 22 incident marks the 203rd incident since 1950 and the 109th where there was an injury, Fish and Wildlife said. It is the second incident in 2022, the first occurring at San Miguel Island in February. "There is really no indication that shark incidents are increasing, especially incidents that cause injuries to people," Fish and Wildlife's Pelagic Fisheries Program Manager John Ugoretz said in a statement.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  CSX on Wednesday delivered slightly better profit in the second quarter even though volume was flat and the railroad still struggled to handle all the goods companies wanted to ship because it is having a hard time hiring.

The Jacksonville, Florida-based railroad said its profits grew 5% to $1.18 billion, or 54 cents per share. That's up from $1.17 billion, or 52 cents per share, a year ago. Without a one-time gain on a real estate sale, the railroad earned 50 cents per share.

CEO Jim Foote said CSX hasn't been able to keep up with all the demand for shipments because it needs more employees, but hiring is difficult and attrition has been high. He said prospective employees are being more selective now about jobs based on quality of life factors, and the 24/7 nature of railroad jobs may seem less appealing even though the jobs pay well.

Our ability to to hire and retain new workers, which is vital to improving our service and growing the business, remains challenged, Foote said. We are not alone in facing this problem. The labor market is tight."

But the results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 47 cents per share.

The freight railroads revenue jumped 28% to $3.82 billion in the period as CSX increased shipping rates and charged customers more fuel surcharges in response to soaring diesel prices. That topped the $3.64 billion that six analysts surveyed by Zacks predicted.

Foote said he still expects double-digit growth in revenue and operating income this year because demand remains strong, and the economy does not appear to be faltering even in the face of high inflation and rising interest rates.

CSX and the other major freight railroads have been struggling to handle all the shipments companies hired them to deliver this year, and those shipment delays have forced companies in a variety of industries to slow production or turn to shipping by truck, if possible, while they are waiting for trains.

Railroads are trying to address the problems, but they have had a hard time hiring all the additional workers they need amid nationwide worker shortages. Rail customers and regulators say the railroads cut their workforces too deeply as they overhauled their operations and eliminated nearly one-third of the jobs across the industry. Railroads counter that they had enough workers to handle all the freight before the pandemic, but they are still slowly recovering from the job cuts they made when many businesses shut down in 2020.

CSX said it now has about 6,667 of the 7,000 train crewmembers it needs, and it continues to hire aggressively. The railroad is also trying to reduce the number of new employees who quit after they complete training. Foote said he expects CSX will hit its hiring target by the end of the third quarter.

But customer groups say railroad service continues to be lacking. And the improvements are likely to be slow because it takes so long to train new railroad workers.

We continue to see the same kind of problems, said Jeff Sloan with the American Chemistry Council trade group. I dont think even the railroads are predicting a turnaround in the near future.

Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau said CSX appears focused on hiring, and the company is making some progress. But he said the improvements are likely to come slowly because of all the hiring challenges.

The railroads are also in the midst of difficult contract talks with their 12 major unions. The talks deadlocked after more than two years, and President Joe Biden appointed a special board of arbitrators last week to intervene in the talks and delay a possible strike at least until September while it tries to help resolve the dispute.

CSX is one of the nations largest railroads, and it operates more than 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of track in 26 Eastern states and two Canadian provinces after acquiring Pam-Am Railways in the northeastern United States earlier this year.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on UNP at https://www.zacks.com/ap/UNP
A steel producer has announced plans to build and operate an aluminum mill in the southeastern U.S., after reaching a deal with the company that so far has failed to deliver on its promise to put the plant in Kentucky  even with financial backing from the state.

The announcement this week was the latest chapter in what has been a long, tortuous effort to build a new aluminum plant in an Appalachian region struggling to create jobs.

Steel Dynamics Inc. said this week that its board approved plans to move ahead with construction of the $1.9 billion plant, though it did not specify where other than to say it will be somewhere in the Southeast. Steel Dynamics said it will own more than 94% of the facility through a joint venture arrangement with Unity Aluminum. The Steel Dynamics plan is much larger in size and scope than what Unity had contemplated. And a Unity spokesperson offered assurances that the state of Kentucky will recoup its investment.

Unity, formerly known as Braidy Industries, had intended to build an aluminum mill near Ashland in northeastern Kentucky but struggled for years to line up sufficient financing for the project.

The Ashland-area site  about 240 acres (97 hectares)  is insufficient to meet the size and scope requirements of the new project, a Unity spokesperson told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Steel Dynamics did not respond to emails and calls seeking comment on where its new mill would be located.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's administration signaled it will make a pitch to try to retain the project. The state's economic development cabinet has not been approached by Steel Dynamics, but a cabinet spokesman said Wednesday that we are actively reaching out to discuss possibilities. Unity's plan to build in Kentucky was a pet project of the Democratic governor's predecessor.

Indiana-based Steel Dynamics said Tuesday that investment for its project is estimated to reach $2.2 billion, which includes two supporting aluminum slab centers to be built elsewhere. Commercial production is planned to begin in early 2025, the company said.

We are incredibly excited to announce this meaningful growth opportunity, which is aligned with our existing business and operational expertise, Mark. D. Millett, chairman and CEO of Steel Dynamics, said in a news release.

Unity Aluminum promised in 2017 to build the aluminum plant near Ashland and to hire 550 people. The Appalachian region has lost thousands of jobs amid deep declines in the coal industry and manufacturing. The company planned to have the mill open in 2020. But the company underwent a management shakeup and name change in its long and ultimately unsuccessful quest to raise sufficient capital to proceed.

The Unity spokesperson said the company will have a small ownership stake in the new project.

Kentucky has its own stake in the project  a $15 million investment that then-Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, persuaded state lawmakers to approve. Frustration mounted as the years passed without construction beginning. This year, lawmakers considered a proposal to recover the state's investment but the measure died.

The Unity spokesperson said Wednesday that the state will recoup its investment when the deal with Steel Dynamics closes.

The Steel Dynamics mill is expected to produce 650,000 metric tons of low-carbon flat rolled aluminum each year  nearly double the original proposal for the Kentucky location, the Unity spokesperson said. Steel Dynamics also hopes customers will locate operations at the mill site to save money, also contributing to the need for more space, the Unity spokesperson said.

As for Unity's role, Steel Dynamics said Unity employees will provide expertise to the project.

Steel Dynamics said the plant will supply the beverage, automotive and common alloy industrial sectors. It pointed to a substantial and growing supply deficit in the North American flat rolled aluminum industry, based on growing demand from the automotive and beverage industries. And a significant number of its steel customers also have demand for aluminum, it said.

The project will be funded with available cash and cash flow from operations, the company said.

Steel Dynamics said it will completely own the two supporting recycled aluminum slab centers  one to be built in the southwestern U.S. and the other in Mexico.
Sometimes a title just doesnt help a movie.

Not that directors Anthony and Joe Russo had much choice in titling The Gray Man, their new Netflix spy thriller starring Ryan Gosling  theyre adapting the novel of the same name, about a shadowy CIA assassin on the run. Still, its hard not to think of the title when contemplating the overall effect of a film that spares no expense to entertain, yet ends up feeling a little aimless, perplexingly bland, and  whats the word were looking for? Oh yes. Gray.

This is a bit of a shame when youre spending a reported $200 million. And its not that we cant see where the money went. First of all Gosling, even with his charisma deliberately hampered here  call it the graying process  is still worth watching. But also, rarely has global mayhem seemed quite so luxurious as in this venture, which takes us from Bangkok to Baku, from Vienna to Croatia to Prague to France's stunning Chateau de Chantilly, from winding cobblestone streets to grand castles and up to the skies, too  all in chase of one man.

The action is certainly impressive. Lets take just one scene the Russos have dubbed a movie within a movie  and maybe they werent referring to the budget, but this shootout reportedly cost $40 million. In a picturesque Prague square, Goslings character remains handcuffed to a bench  rather calmly, given the circumstances  as he confronts waves upon waves of assassins (and perhaps all available film extras and vehicles on the European continent.)

Then theres the midair scene where Gosling battles attackers who suddenly get orders to kill him mid-flight, leading to a sequence involving fires and explosions and parachuting and anything else you can imagine. If youre like me, you may start to wonder: Will this costly manhunt reach the moon? I mean, we know Gosling has experience landing on the lunar surface  also calmly. And what's one more location shoot?

But this isnt First Man, this is GRAY man. Youd exist in the gray, CIA handler Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) tells Goslings character, then a young prison inmate looking at decades in a cell for murder, in a flashback. He'll win a get-out-of-jail-free card if hell agree to the whole covert assassin thing.

Now its 18 years later and Sierra Six, or Six for short (because 007 was taken, he quips) is on the job. Hes in Bangkok, along with helper Dani (Ana de Armas, appealing but underused) to kill someone at a New Years bash, directed remotely by his current boss, Denny Carmichael (Rege-Jean Page of Bridgerton, sadly given a cardboard role here, as is Jessica Henwick as his colleague). Hes about to use his enormous weapon when he notices a small child nearby. Cleared for collateral, he's told. But Six wont take the risk, and ends up making the kill the old-fashioned way.

But before the man expires, he informs Six hes actually on the same team, and hands him a drive with compromising information about their colleagues. Youre probably next, he says.

Now Six is on the run. He's good at escaping (witness the park bench, and the airplane.) Enter LLoyd Hansen, the most sadistic of freelance killers, whom we meet while torturing someone. Lloyd is such a meanie even the CIA didnt want him fulltime, but they need him now. Everything's extreme about Lloyd, starting with his mustache. Evans has fun being fiendish, and gets a few good lines along with some real clunkers, one of the catchier being: You wanna make an omelet? You gotta kill some people. But honestly, the torture scenes  did we need that? Really?

Meanwhile, we learn through another flashback that Six has a close relationship with Fitzroys young niece, Claire (the lovely 13-year-old Julia Butters from Once Upon a Time in  Hollywood.) Claire, who's lost her parents, has a heart problem and needs a pacemaker  an important plot point.

Other notable supporting players include Alfre Woodard in a too-brief turn as a key Six ally and Dhanush as another expert killer called in for help. The expressive Butters gives, though, the most empathetic performance  to be fair, nobody else is fully redeemable, no matter what fancy diploma they have (We all went to Harvard together is a line the universitys PR team might want to immediately protest.)

And yes, Goslings Six is attached to Claire, but the man's an assassin for hire, so it's hard to root for him. And unlike the increasingly superhuman Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible, a franchise this movie perhaps seeks to emulate, we dont even get to root for Gosling in a heroic battle against the dark force of aging  hes two decades younger than Cruise.

Speaking of looking good, which Gosling still can't help but do, theres a Ken Doll reference here  perhaps a nod to his upcoming turn in the new Barbie film. If you catch it, you may find yourself imagining what hell look like in blond hair and a goofy grin.

To paraphrase The Muppets, its not easy being gray.

The Gray Man, a Netflix release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for intense sequences of strong violence, and strong language.  Running time: 126 minutes. Two stars out of four.

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MPAA definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
Thousands of dollars in rare dolls were allegedly stolen from an Oakland womans home last week, rocking the online doll community and stumping collectors everywhere.

An ongoing art project that she started during the pandemic, educator Kirsten Seymour says that she spent an estimated $18,000 to $20,000 on her family of unique, customized Blythe dolls. She also spent years on their character development and story lines, building elaborate miniature apartments inside suitcases and photographing them for her small but dedicated Instagram following.

Kirsten Seymour

The Guardian says that these dolls were introduced in the U.S. in 1972 but were discontinued after just one year because their enormous, glassy eyes and disproportionately large heads were considered too disturbing for children. However, their scarcity  and distinct appearance  are precisely what gave them a cult following among adults, especially on community photography sites like Flickr.

Theyre not cheap, either. Some custom Blythe dolls on Etsy sell for a staggering $10,000, and on Ebay, originals are typically listed between $1,000 and $2,000. But for Seymour, its not about their extrinsic value. People are attracted to them because they can convey a lot of emotion for storytelling, she says.

When the pandemic took hold of the Bay Area, she used them to create what she calls photographic novels: tiny, detailed scenes that she photographs and chronicles on Instagram. Through the app, parents, their kids and other doll enthusiasts follow each characters story. To date, she has more than 100 photos of them in colorful, baroque apartments complete with staged art and furniture. It's sort of like how kids would imagine living on their own, she continues. I take it through the mind and eyes of a child.

Seymour says that a dozen of her dolls disappeared last Thursday when she and her husband were in the process of moving. They had briefly left to get a rental truck, and by the time they returned, things inside their home felt off. When she saw a painting placed mysteriously close to the front entrance, dresser drawers opened and bubble wrap torn off one of her suitcases, thats when she suspected they had been robbed. And then I stood back and I counted my suitcases and one was missing, she says. Shortly after, she realized it was the one full of her dolls. And that's when I was super upset. Later, she says she she discovered her purse and $2,400 in cash were missing, too.

Since then, she says she has gone to the Oakland Police Department and reported the incident, but says they havent done anything to help (OPD didnt answer SFGATEs questions about whether theres currently an investigation). As a result, shes offering a $5,000 reward for anyone who can locate her missing dolls and is continuing to reach out to law enforcement in Berkeley and Oakland.

Though shes heartbroken over her loss, she says that shes received an overwhelming response from the community and is even receiving some new tenants at Suitcase City in the meantime. This news of who will be moving into and subletting the apartments is such a thoughtful, kind and generous gift, she wrote in a post punctuated by heart emojis. I will share the girls when they arrive."
Medicare fraud is big business, and like most businesses, it has adapted to the new environment of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The public health emergency created an opportunity for fraudsters to modify and repurpose existing schemes, a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, said in an email. CMS has seen bad actors take advantage of wider demand for telehealth, COVID-19 testing and vaccines as avenues for identity theft and fraudulent billing.

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, or HHS-OIG, investigates fraud, waste and abuse in federal health care programs, including Medicare. Nearly 9,000 calls came into its fraud hotline each month, on average, from April through September 2021, according to HHS-OIGs Spring 2022 report to Congress.

Calling a fraud hotline is one of several actions Medicare beneficiaries can take to protect themselves. Here are five tips to help you avoid, detect and report Medicare fraud.

1. PROTECT YOUR MEDICARE NUMBER

In the wrong hands, your Medicare number could be used to steal your identity or submit fraudulent medical bills.

Our top tip is to guard your Medicare number just like your Social Security (number) and credit cards, the CMS spokesperson said. You should only share your Medicare number with trusted health care providers or verified COVID-19 vaccine administrators.

Unexpected callers or visitors who ask for your Medicare information are suspicious, especially if they claim to work for Medicare. According to CMS, Medicare will never visit you at home, and a Medicare representative would ask for your Medicare number by phone only if youve given permission in advance.

2. BEWARE OF FREE GIFTS

Fraudsters might try to get your information by offering you something for free in exchange. If youre asked to provide your medical or financial information and promised a supposedly free gift or service, thats something to question, or at least run by a medical professional that you trust, says Isaac Bledsoe, an HHS-OIG criminal investigator.

Common examples of free offers might include COVID-19 tests, genetic testing services, or durable medical equipment like walkers or braces.

3. DONT GET TALKED INTO UNNECESSARY CARE

Some schemes involve billing for expensive services that you might not need. For example, unscrupulous COVID-19 testing sites might add on unnecessary respiratory pathogen panels that can cost upwards of $500 . Thats according to a January 2022 white paper by the Healthcare Fraud Prevention Partnership, a public-private anti-fraud group.

If youre not certain, check with a trusted health care provider to confirm whether a service is necessary and what it might cost.

4. REVIEW YOUR HEALTH CARE DOCUMENTS

Medicare sends statements to explain what you were billed for, how much Medicare approved and paid for services, and the maximum amount you may owe to health care providers. Watch for any unexpected items or charges on these statements.

To help you keep track of everything, you can request a free My Health Care Tracker  from your states Senior Medicare Patrol, or SMP. SMPs are grant-funded projects that provide resources and counseling to help counter Medicare fraud, errors and abuse.

My Health Care Tracker documents include sheets to record information about your health care, instructions for how to compare your statements to what was billed, and contact information for agencies that can help with issues like errors or fraud.

5. REACH OUT FOR HELP

If youre concerned about potential Medicare fraud, there are free resources you can call for help. Dont hesitate to call even if youre not certain. Bledsoe encourages beneficiaries to report anything that you may think is potentially harmful or potentially fraudulent.

There are two main government hotlines:

 Call CMS Medicare help line at 800-MEDICARE (800-633-4227) .

 Call HHS-OIGs fraud, waste and abuse hotline at 800-HHS-TIPS (800-447-8477) or submit an online complaint at oig.hhs.gov/fraud/report-fraud .

You can also contact your Senior Medicare Patrol for help, and they can refer your issue to the appropriate authorities . Visit smpresource.org for contact information.

Whoever you call first can help, and you dont need to contact separate hotlines. Bledsoe says that different agencies have made coordination a priority, so theres no need to call nine different places to report it nine different ways.

We can look into (issues) immediately and give sort of a quick answer of yes, this is something that is not good, Bledsoe says. We can put your Medicare number on a potential vulnerable list to look out for any future billing that you may not have asked for, and we can help you going forward.

_______________________________________

This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Alex Rosenberg is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: arosenberg@nerdwallet.com.

RELATED LINKS:

NerdWallet: What is Medicare, and what does it cover?

HHS-OIG Semiannual Report to Congress

Senior Medicare Patrol
BATON ROUGE (AP)  Amid worsening problems at a south Louisiana juvenile detention facility  including a weekend escape that allegedly ended with a violent carjacking  Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Tuesday that some of the youths will be temporarily moved to the state penitentiary at Angola.

Edwards said at a news conference that about half of the 50 or so juveniles at Bridge City Center for Youth will be housed in coming weeks at a secure, independent housing unit at the penitentiary at Angola which once served as a reception center.

The governor said the youths will not, under any circumstances, have contact with adult inmates. Simultaneously, construction crews will begin renovating a section of the Jetson Center for Youth in Baker. Once that work is complete, the juveniles relocated to Angola will be transferred there, he added.

What happened this past weekend at Bridge City was completely unacceptable. The escape, the theft, the shooting, all of it, Edwards said. It puts the youth, the staff and the surrounding community at risk. Thats why we are taking additional action there.

On Sunday, around 2:30 a.m., six juveniles broke out of the facility after allegedly overpowering a guard  locking them in a closet  and jumping over the fence, Jefferson Parish Council member Deano Bonano, whose district includes the Bridge City Center, told The Times-Picayune ' The New Orleans Advocate.

Five of the escapees were captured after a Jefferson Parish Sheriffs deputy spotted them in a stolen vehicle, authorities said.

Authorities said the last escapee remained at large until around 5 p.m. Sunday. The New Orleans Police Department told The Times-Picayune ' The New Orleans Advocate that they are investigating an armed carjacking allegedly involving that escapee and another suspect, which resulted in a 59-year-old man being shot and his vehicle stolen. The man was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

An initial review of the escape showed numerous deficiencies and failures, Edwards said. That included a violation of the approved plan of action for the additional security. Three Office of Juvenile Justice officials have been put on administrative leave.

This was at least the fourth escape this year from the facility. In June five juveniles escaped through a hole they cut in a bathroom ceiling. Additionally in June, there was a riot in which 20 juveniles took over parts of the complex.

With all that we know and all that has happened, it is clear to me that we cannot continue to operate Bridge City as we have, Edwards said on Tuesday. But it is also obvious, given the number of juveniles in our system and the available space, that closing Bridge City is not currently an option.

Officials have long acknowledged the issues of the youth facility, which was not designed to house certain high-risk inmates. Earlier this year, State Police and the Department of Public Safety and Corrections began providing additional personnel to assist with staffing shortages.

Edwards said the short-term solution is to house some of the youths at Angola  in a building which was recently used to house female inmates who had been displaced after the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women flooded in 2016.

Only the most troubled youth will be moved to the state penitentiary, said Bill Sommers, deputy secretary of the Office of Juvenile Justice.

Edwards added that more permanent and longer term solutions are being developed including construction of new juvenile housing at the Swanson Center for Youth in Monroe, which the governor expects to be operational by Spring 2023.
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A search of the Kalamazoo River for the alligator that prompted a 140-acre Michigan nature center to close for two days last week has halted.

The three-day search for the reptile initially found near the Whitehouse Nature Center, owned and operated by Albion College, was called off after members of the university's security force guided by a Michigan alligator rescue facility, called Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary, did not locate the animal, college spokeswoman Cathy Cole said on Tuesday, July 19.

"Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary has been wonderful," Cole said. She explained the rescue facility told her that it is legal to keep an alligator as a pet in Michigan until the animal reaches five feet in length. And there are protocols in place for what to do with bigger alligators.

The alligator in the river is reportedly four or five feet long. It may have been a pet that became too large to handle and was then released, which is how Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary gets many of its alligators, according to Cole.

Photo provided/David Kenyon/MI Dept. of Natural Resources

The Whitehouse Nature Center lies a quarter-mile southeast of the Albion campus in Calhoun County. It shut riverside trails and a visitor center Sunday, July 10, after two independent reports of alligator sightings in the portion of the river that runs through the center, Albion College wrote in a statement on Facebook.

"For your safety, we ask that you stay away from the areas near the nature center and remain vigilant around bodies of water," Albion college wrote on July 9.

The closure was "out of an abundance of caution," the college said. There have been no confirmed sightings of the alligator since the initial sightings last week.

Cole said signage remains posted around the river about the vagrant creature.

"At this time, the Whitehouse Nature Center has reopened," Cole said. "Please remember the Nature Center is home to wildlife and visitors are asked to use caution while enjoying the facility."
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Hundreds of men using heroin, opium and meth were strewn over a hillside above Kabul in tents or lying in the dirt. Some of them overdose, and quietly slip across the line from despair to death.

Theres a dead man next to you, someone told me as I picked my way among them, taking pictures.

We buried someone over there earlier, another said.

One man was face down in the mud, not moving. I shook him by the shoulder and asked if he was alive. He turned his head a bit, just half out of the mud, and whispered that he was.

Youre dying, I told him. Try to survive.

Its fine, he said, his voice sounding exhausted. Its OK to die.

He lifted his body a little. I gave him some water, and someone gave him a glass pipe of heroin. Smoking it gave him some energy. He said his name was Dawood. He had lost a leg to a mine about a decade ago during the war and couldn't work after that. His life fell apart and he turned to drugs to escape.

Drug addiction has long been a problem in Afghanistan, the worlds biggest producer of opium and heroin and now a major source of meth. The drug use has been fueled by persistent poverty and decades of war that left few families unscarred.

It appears to be getting worse since the countrys economy collapsed following the seizure of power by the Taliban in August 2021 and the subsequent halt of international financing. Families once able to get by found their livelihoods cut off, leaving many barely able to afford food. Millions have joined the ranks of the impoverished.

Drug users can be found around Kabul, living in parks and sewage drains, under bridges and on open hillsides.

A 2015 survey by the U.N. estimated that up to 2.3 million people had used drugs that year, which would have amounted to about 5% of the population at the time. Seven years later, the number is not known, but its believed to have only increased, according to Dr. Zalmel, the head of the Drug Demand Reduction Department who like many Afghans uses only one name.

The Taliban have launched an aggressive campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation. At the same time, they inherited the ousted, internationally backed governments policy of forcing drug users into camps.

Earlier this summer, Taliban fighters stormed two areas frequented by drug users  the one on the hillside and another under a bridge. They collected about 1,500 people, officials said. They were taken to the Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment, a former U.S. military base.

Its the largest of several treatment camps around Kabul. There, the residents were shaved and kept in a barracks for 45 days. They receive no treatment or medication as they go through withdrawal. The camp barely has enough money to feed those who live there.

Such camps do little to treat addiction.

A week after the raids, both locations were once again full of hundreds of people using drugs.

On the hillside, I saw a man who was wandering in the darkness with a feeble flashlight. He was searching for his brother, who fell into drug use years ago and left home. I hope one day I can find him, he said.

Under the bridge, where the stench was overwhelming, one man in his 30s who identified himself as Nazer seemed to be a figure of respect, breaking up fights and mediating disputes.

He said he spends most of his days under the bridge but goes to his home every once in a while. Addiction has spread throughout his family, he said.

When I expressed surprise that the area under the bridge had filled up again, Nazir smiled.

Its normal, he said. Every day, they become more and more. ... It never ends.
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In a week of record-breaking heat in Europe, countries in the continent's warmer and drier southern belt have struggled to contain a swath of blazes that have stretched emergency services and blackened skies.

In Greece, where intense fires continue to burn in Penteli, 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of the capital Athens, firefighters were seen evacuating vulnerable citizens as they battled the blaze. On Tuesday night, hundreds of residents were ordered to leave as the fire spilled into its second day despite a 500-strong firefighting crew at the scene.

Fires have torn through much of the continent, with blazes occupying emergency services in Portugal, Spain, France, England and Germany as the nations buckled under the unusually high temperatures.

Some relief did come for many nations in the southwest on Wednesday as wildfires began to ease, making visible the scars of the intense, dry heat and the fires it fueled.

A fire in northeastern Spain gave way to thousands of charred trees. In the west of the country, a skull of a goat lay among the ash and dead leaves. Many residents were coming back to burnt homes and belongings, with even a swimming pool not spared from the flames.

Earlier in the week, clouds of thick black smoke covered the skies in southwestern France as two massive fires in the Gironde region also forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

In Portugal, where wildfires ravaged the country last week, over 3,000 firefighters battled alongside ordinary citizens trying to save their homes. Volunteers used tree branches and water hoses in attempt to stave off the flames. The country is also starting to see some relief from the disastrous conditions as temperatures slightly cool.

Heat waves and droughts, which are exacerbated by a warming climate, are making fires more destructive, frequent and harder to fight. The warming weather also means fires are starting earlier in several nations.

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Follow APs climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
ST. FRANCOIS COUNTY, MISSOURI  A Bethalto man pled guilty to two sex crimes in St. Francois County last week.

David E. Jones, 46, of Bethalto, pleaded guilty to one count each of second-degree statutory sodomy, a Class D felony, and felony incest, a Class E felony, on July 15.

He was sentenced at that hearing to five years in prison by Circuit Judge Wendy Wexler-Horn.

Jones was originally charged in August 2021 and indicted by a St. Francois County grand jury on Nov. 11, 2021.

The incident occurred in the summer of 2019 when a then-16-year-old woman said a male relative identified as Jones performed a sex act on her during a family camping trip at St. Joe State Park near Leadington, Missouri.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that U.S. military officials believe it's not a good idea for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan at the moment.

Biden's comments in an exchange with reporters came a day after the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it would take resolute and strong measures should Pelosi proceed with reported plans to visit Taiwan in the coming weeks.

Well, I think that the military thinks its not a good idea right now," Biden said in response to a question about Pelosi's reported trip. But I dont know what the status of it is.

The president stopped short of suggesting that Pelosi not travel to Taiwan.

Pelosi was originally scheduled to visit in April but had to postpone after she tested positive for COVID-19. She would be the highest-ranking American lawmaker to visit the close U.S. ally since Newt Gingrich, a Republican, traveled there 25 years ago when he was House speaker.

The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Pelosi planned to move forward with her postponed visit to Taipei in the next month. Her office declined to comment, saying the office does not confirm or deny the speakers international travel in advance, due to longstanding security protocols.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijiang said such a visit would severely undermine Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity, gravely impact the foundation of China-U.S. relations and send a seriously wrong signal to Taiwan independence forces."

The U.S. has a longstanding commitment to the One China policy that recognizes Beijing as the government of China but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. China has stepped up its military provocations against democratic, self-ruled Taiwan in recent years as it looks look to intimidate it into accepting Beijings demands to unify with the communist mainland.

Biden also said that he expected to speak with Chinse President Xi Jinping sometime in the 10 next days.

Biden's national security and economic aides are in the process of completing a review of the U.S. tariff policy and making recommendations to the president.

The tariffs imposed under President Donald Trump applied a 25% duty on billions of dollars of Chinese products. The penalties were intended to reduce the U.S. trade deficit and force China to adopt fairer practices.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called for eliminating some of those tariffs as a way to help fight inflation in the United States. Others in the Biden administration, including U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, have raised concerns about easing tariffs when China has not upheld its agreements on purchasing U.S. products.

Biden sidestepped a reporter's question on Wednesday about what he might have to say to Xi about tariffs. Id tell him to have a good day," Biden responded.

Biden and Xi have their differences over Russian President Vladimir Putins prosecution of his nearly 5-month-old war against Ukraine. Biden has sought to press the Chinese to resist directly providing economic or military assistance to Russia.

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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
Nursing students are getting a full ride to college thanks to BJC Healthcare.

Full-ride scholarships are being offered to incoming undergraduate nursing students applying for the Fall 2022 semester at the Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College. Recipients will be offered job opportunities at one of BJC's 14 hospitals.

Those hospitals include Alton Memorial and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, one of the country's top hospitals.

"For any Goldfarb School of Nursing scholarship recipient exploring a future in this dynamic profession, we hope this opportunity makes it easier to pursue their professional dreams," Denise Murphy, chief nurse executive at BJC HealthCare, said.

Housing, books and other living expenses are not covered by the scholarship.

The National Student Nurses Association reports more than 70% of nursing students to use student loans to help pay for their education. The new scholarship is designed to reduce the financial burden on nursing students while helping to address the nursing shortages across health care.
Nursing students are getting a full ride to college thanks to Barnes-Jewish Christian (BJC) Healthcare.

Full-ride scholarships are being offered to incoming undergraduate nursing students applying for the Fall 2022 semester at the Goldfarb School of Nursing at Missouri's Barnes-Jewish College. Recipients will be offered job opportunities at one of BJC's 14 hospitals.

Those hospitals include Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, one of the country's top hospitals.

"For any Goldfarb School of Nursing scholarship recipient exploring a future in this dynamic profession, we hope this opportunity makes it easier to pursue their professional dreams," Denise Murphy, chief nurse executive at BJC HealthCare, said.

Housing, books and other living expenses are not covered by the scholarship.

The National Student Nurses Association reports more than 70% of nursing students to use student loans to help pay for their education. The new scholarship is designed to reduce the financial burden on nursing students while helping to address the nursing shortages across health care.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  The head of a California tax preparation business has admitted his role in fraud schemes totaling $25 million that included exaggerated tax returns for professional athletes and exploiting federal pandemic relief programs, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Seir Robinson Havana, 46, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and money laundering charges, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Southern California police shot and killed a Black man Saturday as he ran away from them while allegedly holding a gun, video showed.

The family of 23-year-old Rob Adams, however, says he was likely holding his cellphone instead of a gun because he had been talking to his mother when police arrived. His family expects to file a legal claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, on Thursday.

All I heard after that was gunshots. He never told me goodbye, his mother, Tamika Deavila King, said Wednesday at a news conference.

San Bernardino police say that officers were called to a parking lot around 8 p.m. Saturday after getting a tip that a Black man was walking around with a gun.

Two officers, who were wearing uniforms but driving an unmarked car, saw Adams pull a gun out of his waistband and begin walking toward the cruiser with the firearm in his hand, according to San Bernardino Police Chief Darren Goodman.

The police department posted a nearly six-minute video to social media Tuesday that includes Goodman's narration, surveillance video footage and body-camera footage.

Though there is no audio of the initial encounter, Goodman said the officers gave Adams verbal commands.

The video shows Adams almost immediately turn around and run toward two cars that were parked up against a high wall.

Seeing that he had no outlet, they believed he intended to use the vehicle as cover to shoot at them, Goodman says in the video.

Within seconds, one of the officers opened fire, striking Adams. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Police recovered a 9 mm gun after the shooting.

The name of the officer who fired their gun has not been made public.

Ben Reynoso, a San Bernardino city councilman, blamed police for the shooting.

"Being that Adams never aimed the gun, was approached by an unmarked vehicle, and was shot while fleeing, therefore plausible criminality does not exist," Reynoso wrote Tuesday on Twitter. In the end, Robert Adams is dead at the hands of the San Bernardino Police Department.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said Wednesday at the news conference that Adams' death was "a classic example of shoot first and ask questions later.

Crump and other attorneys representing Adams' family say police  who say he had "an extensive criminal history"  have made him out to be a villain.

My son, Rob, wasnt a gang member. He was a good kid, his father, Robert Adams, said Wednesday. "What parent would want to see their kid killed on a video?

The killing is the latest of several law enforcement shootings of Black men around the country that have stirred protests or demands for federal investigation.

On June 27, police in Akron, Ohio, shot 25-year-old Jayland Walker more than 40 times at the end of a car and foot pursuit that began with an attempted traffic stop for minor equipment violations.

Meanwhile, a report released by the state auditor in April found that five law enforcement agencies, including the San Bernardino Police Department, had failed to take adequate steps to guard against racially and ethnically biased conduct. The report also found that a few officers had engaged in such conduct either during their on-duty interactions with individuals or online through their social media posts.
ACTION ON GUNS: In the wake of a July 4 mass shooting in Highland Park that left seven people dead and dozens more injured, Gov. JB Pritzker is calling for a ban at both the state and national levels on military-style assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.

The governor made those calls on national cable television and at the White House in recent days.

While I support an assault weapon and high-capacity magazine ban at the state level, we urgently need federal regulation on the weapons of war and high-capacity magazines that are used only for mass murder, Pritzker said in a statement released last week. Illinois is not an island, and even with some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, our state is only as safe as the state with the weakest laws  many of which border Illinois.

The weapon used in the Highland Park shooting has been identified as a Smith and Wesson M&P 15, a semi-automatic rifle that holds 30-round magazines of 5.56mm ammunition. The alleged shooter, Robert Crimo III, reportedly used three such magazines during his attack on a Fourth of July parade, firing off more than 80 shots in a matter of just a few minutes.

Although the letters M&P stand for Military & Police, it and others like it have been widely available to civilians at sporting goods stores throughout the country.

The weapon used in Highland Park is also similar to guns used in other recent mass shootings, including the May 24 shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead, and the May 14 shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store that killed 10 people.

All those weapons are modeled after the Colt AR-15, a semi-automatic version of a rifle originally designed for the military.

On Monday, Pritzker and Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering were at the White House for an event with President Joe Biden marking the recent signing of the Safer Communities Act, the first significant federal law addressing gun violence in nearly 30 years.

Later in the day, Pritzker appeared on CNNs State of the Union, and he repeated his call for additional measures to control gun violence, including strengthening red flag laws and state and federal assault weapons bans.

Gun rights advocates, on the other hand, argue that eliminating one type of gun from society will not address the underlying causes of gun violence.

* * *

NEW IDPH DIRECTOR: IIllinois will soon have a new Department of Public Health director after Gov. JB Pritzker announced announced an appointment this week.

Dr. Sameer Vohra, a Springfield pediatrician, will still need approval from the state Senate to become the permanent replacement for former Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who retired as the states health director to lead Sinai Health System, a nonprofit safety net hospital.

Until then he will serve in an acting capacity.

Vohra is a general pediatrician who holds degrees in law and public policy, with a recent focus on improving health outcomes in central and southern Illinois, according to the governors office. He serves as an associate professor of pediatrics at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, where he received his medical doctorate.

Vohra said in a news release he was humbled by the announcement.

Gov. Pritzker, along with the dedicated staff of IDPH, have served our state admirably during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. I am honored to lead this agency into the future, continuing to keep us safe from emerging illnesses, supporting our public health workers, and promoting wellness in every community across Illinois.

Vohras job, which will officially begin Aug. 1, comes with a salary of $185,673. At that time, he will replace Amaal Tokars, an Ezike deputy who has been filling the post since the former directors departure. Shell remain an assistant director.

Vohra completed a residency in pediatrics and a Master of Arts in public policy at the University of Chicago, and has a juris doctorate from SIU School of Law, where he graduated first in his class. He completed his undergraduate studies at Northwestern University.

Dr. Vohra is accomplished in every sense of the word, Pritzker said in a statement announcing the appointment. His experience and education transcend sectors and fields, bringing a well-rounded perspective to this agency. As a leader in state and national health policy, I have absolute confidence in Dr. Vohras ability to continue shaping a stronger IDPH for the 21st century.

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EXECUTIVE ORDER: Gov. JB Pritzker continued to scale back the scope of his executive orders related to a COVID-19 disaster declaration that has been ongoing in 30-day periods since March 2020.

His latest executive order, issued Tuesday, July 12, decreased the level of testing required for unvaccinated health care workers.

Unvaccinated workers at skilled nursing facilities, homes for the developmentally disabled and other long-term care facilities will be required to test weekly only when COVID-19 transmission levels are at a moderate level, and twice weekly at substantial or high levels as classified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Testing is not required where transmission levels are low, according to the governors order.

For hospitals and other facilities, weekly testing is required where transmission levels are high, while no testing is required in areas of lower transmission.

As of Thursday, the COVID-19 transmission level, a metric based on new cases per 100,000 individuals over the previous seven days, was high in all of the state's 102 counties, according to the CDC. The level was only considered "low" in 1.4 percent of the entire U.S.

The latest executive order does not reissue vaccine mandates for emergency services personnel or higher education employees or students.

Mandates will remain in place at K-12 schools and day cares.

Pritzkers latest disaster declaration runs through July 24, and he noted in a June 30 interview with Capitol News Illinois he plans to continue to issue the orders while ramping down their scope.

We have significantly reduced the number of things that fall under our executive orders with regard to COVID, he said. In fact, if you look back every month, a little bit less, a little bit less, we're ramping down things. Some of them are hugely important to keep people safe even now. And we're not entirely out of the pandemic. So, we want to make sure that we're helping people as we ramp down the executive orders. Most importantly, what we've done has worked, we've kept thousands of people alive, who otherwise would have passed away.

There were 1,342 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Tuesday night, up about 200-300 from the same time last month but still far off the pandemic highs of January, when more than 7,000 Illinoisans were hospitalized. COVID-19 patients occupied 150 intensive care unit beds, also far below pandemic highs when more than 1,200 ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients.

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ABORTION SERVICES: Planned Parenthood affiliates in Illinois and Wisconsin said Thursday they have formed a partnership to expand services at an abortion clinic in Waukegan to help serve residents of Wisconsin, where abortion services are now banned.

That announcement came three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide. Once the court rendered that decision, a Wisconsin law dating back to 1849 that criminalizes abortion automatically went back into effect.

We opened the Waukegan Health Center in 2020 in anticipation of this moment, Jennifer Welch, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, said during a virtual news conference. We expected that Wisconsin would cease access to abortion care as soon as Roe fell, so we were prepared to give Wisconsin patients the care they needed.

Under the arrangement, patients can still go to one of four clinics in Wisconsin to receive care before and after the procedure. But several Wisconsin clinicians, nurses and other staff travel to the Waukegan clinic to expand capacity at that health center and other clinics in Illinois through telehealth.

Tanya Atkinson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said her organization had anticipated the overturning of Roe v. Wade for years and had been working for the past several months to build partnerships with providers in other states.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that supports abortion rights, even after the original Roe v. Wade decision, Wisconsin imposed a number of restrictions on the procedure.

Those included a 24-hour waiting period and state-directed counseling that included information designed to discourage a patient from having an abortion, a prohibition against the use of telemedicine to administer abortion medications; and a requirement for parental consent to perform an abortion on a minor, among others.

Illinois, by contrast, imposes virtually no legal restrictions on access to abortion services. A 2019 law known as the Reproductive Health Act declares access to abortion services a fundamental right under Illinois law. And last year, lawmakers repealed what was known as the Parental Notice of Abortion Act, requiring parents of minors seeking abortions to be notified before the procedure could be performed.

Because of that, many Wisconsin residents seeking abortions went to out-of-state providers, including those in Illinois. But Kristen Schultz, chief strategy and operations officer at the Illinois affiliate, said that since Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24, there has been a 10-fold increase in the number of Wisconsin residents coming to Illinois for abortion services.

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DCFS DEATH: IKera Hill, 3, died of malnutrition and dehydration at a Carbondale hospital on June 22, 2022, according to the child endangerment charges filed in Jackson County against her parents, Isaac Hill and Katrina Simelton Hill.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services confirmed last week that the agency had contact with the 3-year-old and her family, although it has not yet released a timeline of the most recent contact.

Since prosecutors and judges are barred from discussing the details of juvenile cases received from DCFS, the agencys timeline generally provides the only public disclosure of the actions taken to protect children who had contact with the state agency.

The Illinois State Police are investigating IKeras death with the help of their Child Death Investigation Task Force. ISP notified DCFS of the investigation, and an autopsy was conducted in Bloomington the day after IKeras death.

Last week, Jackson County Coroner Thomas Kupferer released IKeras name, but declined to release a preliminary cause of death or any information related to the case, citing the pending criminal case against the parents.

They remain in the Jackson County Jail on $250,000 bail.

IKeras obituary noted she was survived by 17 brothers and sisters. An obituary for another child of Isaac and Katrina Hill who died in 2015 noted the children lived in several places throughout southern Illinois, southeastern Missouri and northern Kentucky.

Capitol News Illinois reviewed documents which showed the Hill family was involved with the Illinois DCFS as early as 2012 when Isaac was charged with aggravated battery of a child for beating a boy with an extension cord on March 26, 2012.

On June 1, 2012, he pleaded guilty to the aggravated battery of a child charge and was sentenced to two years of probation and required to follow the directives of DCFS and to attend domestic violence counseling and parenting classes.

Katrina Hill requested and was granted a court order of protection against Isaac in Massac County on May 11, 2012.

But she requested the order be dismissed in August 2012 after she was charged with two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, mob action and obstructing justice, which were later dismissed.

In July 2014, the Jackson County court sought to revoke Isaac Hills probation for failing to comply with the terms. A month later, he agreed to complete domestic violence classes, extend his probation for six months and was put on a payment plan of $25 per month to settle the court costs and fees. There was no mention of complying with the directives of DCFS in the new order extending Hills probation.

The Hills daughter Kalisha Isanique Hill was born on July 1, 2014.

She was six months old when her parents divorced in Alexander County. Four months later, on May 20, 2015, Kalisha died at the age of 10 months in Marion, according to an obituary. Isaac Hill was still on probation for abusing his son at the time.

Death certificates are closed in Illinois, and Williamson County Coroner Mike Junior Burke did not respond to calls and emails for comment, so the cause of Kalishas death isnt clear.

Isaac Hill was discharged from probation on child abuse charges on July 30, 2015.

Despite the divorce a year earlier, court records showed the couple reconnected and landed back in court.

In 2017, Katrina Hill again asked an Alexander County judge for an order to keep her ex-husband away. While there is no record that order was issued, the couple again reconciled.

Two years later, IKera was born.

* * *

ELECTRIC VEHICLES COORDINATOR: Included in the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act energy reform which passed last year was a requirement that the state hire an electric vehicles coordinator within the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

On July 1, Megha Lakhchaura was appointed to that role at a salary of $180,000 annually. Shell lead the states push to put 1 million EVs on state roads by 2030 through a number of incentives in state law and the rollout of expanded charging infrastructure.

She previously served since 2018 as the director of policy in North America for EVBox, an electric vehicle supply equipment company based in Amsterdam. Prior to that she was policy director for the rooftop solar and battery storage provider Sunrun Inc., and was a public utilities regulatory analyst for the California Public Utilities Commission.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  House Democrats pushed ahead Wednesday with legislation that would ban certain semi-automatic weapons as they considered their most far-reaching response yet to this summers series of mass shootings.

Democrats hope that the 100-page bill moving through the Judiciary Committee will pass the House before the August break. But that is far from assured because some moderates in the party, especially those from swing districts, are wary of a vote on broad gun controls before the November elections  especially when the bill has little chance of becoming law due to opposition in the Senate.

Democrats can afford to lose only four votes if Republicans are united in opposition to the ban. Maine Rep. Jared Golden, who represents a GOP-leaning district, is one of the few Democrats who have indicated a no vote.

I dont support any version of that, Golden said. He is joined by Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who is also facing a tough reelection race, and has said he doesn't believe in bans on weapons.

Despite not yet having full support from his caucus, Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., the bill's lead sponsor, said he is confident he can get the required votes, even if that involves reaching out for Republican support.

There are more guns than people in this country, more mass shootings than days in the year. This is a uniquely American problem, and assault weapons only magnify the epidemic, Cicilline said during the committee hearing.

The renewed push comes nearly two decades after Congress allowed similar restrictions to lapse. The original ban passed in 1994, led by then-Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and outlawed certain semi-automatic weapons and large-capacity magazines. It exempted an estimated 1.5 million of those weapons and 25 million that were already owned by people in the United States.

In the nearly three decades since, mass shootings have become alarmingly frequent, with semi-automatic weapons often used in attacks on schools, workplaces, public spaces, stores, churches and other places where people gather.

"An assault weapons only purpose is to kill people efficiently," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY., the committee chairman. It is time to protect our communities and to ban them once more.

Republicans said the proposal was an attack on Second Amendment rights.

Democrats know this legislation will not reduce violent crime or reduce the likelihood of mass shootings, but they are obsessed with attacking law-abiding Americans Second Amendment liberties, said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the committee. For over 30 years, the Democrats have been running a propaganda campaign to make people believe that assault weapons are a specific class of firearms that no one needs.

During the hearing, the committee listened to haunting audio of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, during which 17 people were killed and 17 more wounded. Dozens of rapid-fire shots could be heard in the course of just 1 minute and 18 seconds along with the distressed screams of those trying to escape.

The hearing also comes in the wake of a July Fourth shooting at a parade in Highland Park, Illinois, and mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas.

Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider whose district represents Highland Park, said that getting these weapons of war off the streets, at the very least, will reduce the lethality, if not necessarily the frequency, of these just horrific fatalities that have devastated my community.

Congress last month passed the most significant gun violence measure in decades, mandating background checks for gun buyers age 18 to 21 as well as allocating money for states to enact red flag laws.

But the bill fell far short of the steps that President Biden and Democrats say are needed.

Were paying for these weapons of war on our streets with the blood of our children sitting in our schools, said Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., whose 17-year-old son was shot and killed at a gas station in 2012.

Cicilline said that the protection of the Second Amendment is not without limits. He said the Democratic proposal is focused on assault-style rifles, which are not what the majority of guns law-abiding people buy and own.

Dangerous military weapons that were created to fight on the battlefield and slaughter enemies do not belong in the neighborhoods and schools and movie theaters where we live, he added.

___

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
TYLER, Texas (AP)  A former East Texas deputy has pleaded guilty to a civil rights violation for punching a restrained detainee in the chest repeatedly with a shock gun, according to court documents.

Former Van Zandt County sheriffs deputy David Yager pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge arising from a February 2021 assault on a detainee. The plea came before a federal magistrate in Tyler, Texas, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  An eastern Indiana man is dead and an Indianapolis man has been arrested following an apparent road rage shooting on Interstate 70, Indiana State Police said Tuesday.

The shooting Monday evening on Indianapolis' far east side killed Eli Hickerson, 30, of Carthage, police said.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  The key to dispelling conspiracy theories and misinformation about how elections are run is to confront the lies head on, top state election officials said Wednesday.

The advice from election administrators in Georgia, Ohio and Utah came during a gathering of the National Association of State Election Directors, which is being held under heightened security because of threats that have targeted election workers since the 2020 election.

When it comes to election results, its really pretty simple, said Blake Evans, state elections director for Georgia. People want accuracy, speed, transparency, and they want their candidate to win. Unfortunately, usually under that kind of formula, theres going to be slightly less than half of the population in a close contest thats not going to be very happy with the way the results come out.

Election officials across the country have been the target of violent threats and anger from those who falsely believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. Trump and his allies continue to push for decertification of President Joe Bidens win in Wisconsin.

With security concerns in mind, the exact location of this weeks gathering was disclosed only to attendees, who were required to show a badge to gain entrance and also urged not to wear the name tag identifying themselves outside the meeting room. There was no live-streaming of the presentations, and attendees were urged to be cautious in what they posted to social media.

In Georgia, a special grand jury is investigating whether Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 general election. The investigations scope includes a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During that call, Trump urged Raffensperger to find enough votes to overturn his loss in the state. Trump has denied wrongdoing and has described his call to Raffensperger as perfect.

Evans said the key to dispelling misinformation during the 2020 election in the state was to address the false claims head on, a process that included frequent news conferences.

I hate to imagine a world where we didnt, Blake said of talking openly about all the conspiracy theories being floated in 2020. I think it was one of the most effective ways. ... What we tried to do was just be very, very frequent with putting out facts and being very, very transparent about what was going on.

Ricky Hatch, the clerk and auditor in Weber County, Utah, said election officials must find creative ways to get their messages out. His office has created memes using Legos and cats, an approach he said has led to engaging with people who otherwise might not be interested in elections.

Hatch also opened his office to tours to show how elections are run. Even if just one person is won over about the fairness of how elections are run, its a success, he said.

They will talk to their neighbors, Hatch said. They will hopefully share their experience when others challenge the process.

Amanda Grandjean, the director of elections in Ohio, said it was important to realize that many of the people election leaders talk to -- including judges and lawmakers -- dont understand how elections work. She relayed her experience testifying before a panel of federal judges in a redistricting case ahead of Ohios May primary.

I had to really check myself and say No Mandi, these people dont have any idea what youre talking about, she told conference attendees. Slow down and try your hardest to explain how our democracy, at a very technical level, how our elections work.
BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Union moved closer to imposing more sanctions on Russia after its 27 ambassadors backed a series of measures to ban gold imports and tighten export controls on some high-technology goods.

The Czech Republic, which holds the EU presidency, said the new measures will align the EU with G7 partners, reinforce implementation and close loopholes where necessary.

If no objections are raised by national capitals by early Thursday, it will be published in the official journal, after which details of the limited package will become available.

EU officials have been seeking all week to tighten the extensive package of sanctions on Russia and looking at ways to add a ban on gold exports in hopes that the measures might finally start to have a decisive impact on the war in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, the ambassadors clinched a breakthrough. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said Monday that at the moment the most important thing is a ban on Russian gold, which is Moscows second largest export industry after energy.

The G-7 group of leading industrial nations last month already committed to a gold ban, arguing the Russia has used its gold to back up its currency to circumvent the impact of several rounds of sanctions that nations around the world had already imposed on Moscow for its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

On top of the restrictive measures, the EU also decided to grant 500 million euros to boost military aid to Ukraine.

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Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  A Richmond woman was sentenced Tuesday to more than five years in prison for directing a yearslong scheme to defraud state and federal officials of at least $230,000 in student financial aid funds, a prosecutor said.

Court documents showed that Kiesha Pope, 48, was the director of financial aid at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College starting in 2006. Pope was involved in a scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Education, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the college of educational funds from 2011 to 2017, U.S. Attorney Jessica Aber said. News outlets report that Pope pleaded guilty earlier this year to wire fraud.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  In his first media interview since having a stroke two months ago, Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman of Pennsylvania said Wednesday he is 100% able to run fully and to win" against Republican Mehmet Oz in November.

Fetterman, speaking over video with a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter, disclosed for the first time that he is having lingering, sporadic difficulties with hearing and speaking. But Fetterman, 52, insisted he has no physical limits, noted he is working with a speech therapist and said he would not run if he thought he could not endure the demands of a campaign.

I would never be in this if we were not absolutely, 100% able to run fully and to win  and we believe that we are, Fetterman, the current lieutenant governor, told the newspaper.

Fetterman's health has been a dominant issue in the Senate race since the days before the May 17 primary, when his campaign revealed that he had a stroke. He required surgery to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator, and later disclosed that he also had a serious heart condition.

He has stayed off the campaign trail while he recovers but told the newspaper that he expected to return very soon to making public appearances. On Thursday night, he was scheduled to appear in person at a fundraiser with Democratic Jewish Outreach Pennsylvania in suburban Philadelphia. The event will not be open to the media.

Democrats and Republicans alike have closely watched Fetterman's recovery. Democratic hopes to maintain  or even expand  their fragile Senate majority hinge on the partys ability to capture the seat held by Republican Pat Toomey, who is retiring.

Oz, the celebrity heart surgeon and former host of The Dr. Oz Show," and Republican groups have tried to raise questions about Fetterman's status, posting a fake Have You Seen This Person? poster online that shows Fettermans face underneath and says, Last Seen: 05/13/2022.

Despite Fetterman's absence, he is ahead of the largely self-funded Oz in fundraising. Fetterman had $5.5 million on hand as of June 30, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Oz, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, had $1.1 million on hand.

Fetterman said he walks several miles every day and did not lose any memory as a result of the stroke. In the 20-minute interview with the newspaper, Fetterman used closed-captioning to ensure he did not miss any words, a campaign spokesperson told the Post-Gazette.

Fetterman has been recovering at home but working daily with campaign aides, meeting via video with donors and trolling Oz with viral social media posts emphasizing the doctor's recent move from New Jersey.

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Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ap_politics
MARIETTA, Ga. (AP)  The rollout of a new logo for an Atlanta area elementary school has been paused after parents noted similarities to a Nazi symbol, though a school district said the design was based on a U.S. Army colonel's eagle wings.

The Cobb County School District said Tuesday that it has halted distribution of the new logo for East Side Elementary School in Marietta after it drew condemnation on social media.

The logo depicts an eagle, the school's mascot, over the school's initials ES.

The Nazi eagle, which was developed in the 1920s and later became a symbol for white supremacists, depicts an eagle holding a swastika in its talons.

Georgia's second-largest school district announced plans to delay the new logo while immediately reviewing needed changes.

We understand and strongly agree that similarities to Nazi symbolism are unacceptable, although this design was based on the U.S. Army colonel's eagle wings, stakeholder input has been and continues to be important to our schools," the statement said.

A message to parents on Monday notified them of the new logo. saying it was chosen to represent the eagle soaring into excellence and to honor the history of our great school. The district has been working with all schools to create logos, the message added.

The design drew a swift backlash on social media.

I dont want to see my kids wearing that on their shirt, Mike Albuquerque, the father of two students who will attend the school next year, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Really its a big oversight of the county and everyone involved in the process who reviewed that, to not call out the fact that this looks like Nazi iconography. Or maybe, who knows, somebody did call it out and it wasnt heard.

East Side Elementary is across the street from a synagogue.

Rabbi Amanda Flaks told WSB-TV she had to look twice at the design.

I thought, That looks off. That makes me uncomfortable, and I came back to it a few times and I felt more and more uncomfortable and sick each time, Flaks said, noting the war eagle was used by the Nazis in World World II and currently by other neo-Fascist and neo-Nazi sympathizer groups.

Flaks said she contacted the school and got an apology from the principal, along with pictures of what the school district said the logo was based on.

She said she was hurt on many levels, adding, my children are great grandchildren of someone who fled the Nazi regime in Germany and survived the Holocaust.

Stacy Efrat said that as a parent and a member of the Jewish community, she was outraged.

I want to see the logo not only taken away I want a direct apology to our community. Not just the Jewish community but the entire community, Efrat said.

The logo controversy is only the latest related to antisemitism in Cobb schools. Last month, a group began posting hot pink billboards around metro Atlanta challenging people to fight antisemitism, partly in response to incidents last school year.

Graffiti depicting swastikas was found in two Cobb County high schools during the Jewish High Holidays. Several Cobb middle school students were disciplined earlier this year for sharing antisemitic imagery on social media.

Antisemitic incidents in Georgia more than doubled between 2020 and 2021, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League. Georgia tallied 49 incidents in 2021.

This is not the first time Cobb County schools have been tone-deaf to antisemitism, said Dov Wilker, director of the American Jewish Committee Atlanta region, in a statement about the logo design. Pretending that antisemitism doesnt exist wont make it go away. The children who attend Cobb County schools  and their families  deserve better.

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This story was originally published July 19, 2022. It is being published again to correct the last name of a woman quoted in the story to Efrat.
BERLIN (AP)  Germany's highest court said Wednesday it has thrown out complaints against a ban on the use of subcontractors in slaughterhouses that was prompted by coronavirus outbreaks early in the pandemic.

The Federal Constitutional Court said it rejected complaints by a sausage manufacturer and several temporary employment agencies against the new rules, which went into force at the beginning of last year.
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HONG KONG (AP)  Hong Kongs annual book fair kicked off Wednesday, with several publishers of political books prevented from taking part in the fair and others saying they had to be cautious about what they exhibited.

The fairs main organizer, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, said it did not screen the books for sale at the fair. But Hong Kong authorities have tightened controls on freedom of expression and arrested dozens of pro-democracy activists after a tough national security law took effect in 2020, and the council stressed that exhibitors must abide by the law.

Independent publisher Hillway Culture, which publishes books on Hong Kong and political events, was among those not allowed to participate. Another publisher, One of a Kind, which has published several books about 2019 protests in the city, was another.

Publishers are having a tough time given the impact of the pandemic on the citys economy and concerns over censorship and rejection of independent publishers, said Kaying Wong, a guest curator at The House of Hong Kong Literature, the city's largest literary organization.

Its surely not an easy job for us to set up a booth in the book fair and be selected (to exhibit), Wong said.

The book fair is one of the largest in Asia. In past years, it was known for exhibiting a variety of books, including politically sensitive ones and those banned on the communist-ruled Chinese mainland.

In 2020, the city postponed the fair several times due to the pandemic. The event finally was held in person last June after a one-year hiatus. This year's book fair runs from Wednesday until Tuesday, July 26.

Novelist Gabriel Tsang, who works with publisher Spicy Fish Cultural Production Limited, said writers have to consider whether they can get published in the current environment.

I guess many writers have their own intentions  and they have to think a lot about whether they can have work published. They may use some allegory or use many rhetoric skills, rather than directly expressing what they wanted to express originally, he said.

Last year, complaints were lodged against Hillway Culture, one of the publishers rejected this year, for exhibiting politically sensitive books that could be seen as violating the national security law.

Last year, we had (exhibited) political books in the book fair and this was also the case for another publisher that was banned, said Raymond Yeung, Hillway Culture's founder. He was one of the few publishers allowed to exhibit political books about Hong Kong at last year's book fair.

Yeung attempted to set up an independent book fair as an alternative to the main fair earlier this month but had to cancel that after the landlord of the venue accused Hillway of violating its tenancy contract by subletting its space to other publishers.

The authorities ought to be clearer and more transparent about what kinds of activities are allowed, said Hui Ching, research director of the policy think tank Hong Kong Zhi Ming Institute.

If theres no transparency, its reasonable for citizen to suspect their rights being deprived, Hui said.

Visitors still value the fair as an opportunity to browse and purchase a wide range of books.

I read as a habit and today Ive come to look for some Chinese novels and short stories that Im interested in, said Grace Ng, a 22-year-old university student who visited the fair with her boyfriend.

Ng usually attends the annual fair and said this year's appeared somewhat subdued. Its not as crowded now as before the pandemic, she said.
Alyssa Newton/AP

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP)  Voters in south Mississippi have filled an empty seat in the state House of Representatives.

Military veteran Jeffrey Hulum III won a special election Tuesday in House District 119 in Harrison County. He defeated Gary Fredericks, president of the Gulfport branch of the NAACP.
NEW DELHI (AP)  Indias top court Wednesday granted bail to a Muslim journalist and ordered his release from jail, more than three weeks after he was detained for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through his tweets.

Mohammed Zubair, a co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News, was arrested last month by Delhi police over a 2018 tweet on charges of insulting Hindu religious beliefs.

Police in Uttar Pradesh state later charged him in a separate case for using the term "hatemongers for three Hindu monks who made inflammatory comments about Muslims, with at least one calling for genocide of the minority community.

The Uttar Pradesh police also charged him with criminal conspiracy, destroying evidence and receiving foreign funds in at least half a dozen other cases.

Zubairs arrest came after he highlighted comments made by the now-suspended spokesperson of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party about Islam's Prophet Muhammad in June that created a diplomatic row for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration. Activists, journalists and opposition politicians decried Zubair's arrest as the latest example of shrinking media freedom under Modis government.

In its decision, the court ordered Zubairs immediate release from New Delhi's Tihar jail and asked authorities to combine all cases against him into one.

"In (the) present case (there is) no justification to keep him in continued detention and subject him to an endless round of proceedings in various courts, the Supreme Court said. It also chided the Uttar Pradesh government for asking the court to stop the journalist from tweeting.

How can you tell a journalist he cannot write, Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud said.

Journalists and government critics suspect Zubair is facing retribution for exposing hate speech against Muslims who have been facing attacks by Hindu nationalists.

Founded in 2017 as a nonprofit organization, Alt News is Indias most prominent fact-checking news website and has gained a reputation for its reporting on hate speech and debunking misinformation, particularly by Hindu nationalists. Its founders, including Zubair, have in the past faced online trolling and threats by right-wing groups, some of them linked to the Hindu nationalist BJP.

Journalists across India have been targeted increasingly for their work in recent years. Some have been arrested on criminal charges over posts on social media, where they routinely face threats and trolling. Some journalists' Twitter accounts and news websites have also been suspended on government orders.

Indias ranking fell eight places to 150 among 180 countries in this years Press Freedom Index published by the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders.
NEW YORK (AP)  A national jewelry retailer that allegedly tricked active-duty servicemembers into buying overpriced, poor quality jewelry at high interest rates has agreed to reimburse thousands of customers and cease operating under terms of a settlement filed Wednesday in a lawsuit by 18 states and the Federal Trade Commission.

Harris Jewelry agreed to stop collecting more than $21 million in outstanding debt from more than 13,000 servicemembers nationwide, and to refund more than $12 million to more than 46,000 servicemembers who paid for lifetime protection plans, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James, the lead plaintiff among the state attorneys general.

The company also agreed to pay a total of $1 million to the 18 states.

Todays action will help thousands of servicemembers get back on their feet after falling victim to Harris Jewelrys schemes, James said in a statement.

The retailer, based in Hauppauge, New York, operated stores on or near military bases around the country. The company allegedly used predatory lending practices and charged as much as 10 times the wholesale cost for jewelry.

At times, the company charged as much as $349 for a protection plan for the jewelry without disclosing it, according to James. Customers reported stones falling out, chains breaking and the finish on the jewelry fading.

Harris also allegedly lured customers by asserting the lending contracts would improve their credit scores, when in actuality the credit offered was based on how much time was left on a servicemember's enlistment and what type of merchandise they purchased.

In a statement Wednesday, the company noted it had neither admitted nor denied these allegations and had resolved the matter in the best interests of its stakeholders. It touted its 60-plus years of serving military personnel and their families and said it had been an honor to enable members of the military community to recognize the important people in their lives, as well as to help them celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, engagements, and other special occasions.

The states joining New York in the lawsuit were: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  A federal magistrate judge has ordered an attorney suing a private prison firm over an inmate's death to delete certain tweets  one of which describes the company as a death factory  and restrict his public commentary going forward.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffery Frensley issued the order last week in response to an argument from Tennessee-based CoreCivic that the public posts put the company's right to a fair trial at risk.

Attorney Daniel Horwitz, who is suing the company over the death of an inmate at Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, had argued that his posts amounted to constitutionally protected free speech. He said his clients and other inmates at CoreCivic facilities could benefit if public scrutiny leads to changes in their prisons.

The judge agreed with the company.

Trials are meant to occur in the courtroom, not in the media, the judge wrote. While litigation is still pending attorneys should not actively seek out media attention that could disrupt judicial proceedings or interfere with an opposing partys right to a fair trial.

The judge wrote that Horwitzs obligation is to be an advocate, not an investigative journalist, and said the attorney could be held in contempt of court if he continues to seek news media attention in the case.

Frensley also determined that Horwitz improperly commented on Twitter about depositions from other CoreCivic cases that he had improperly filed in court. The judge said such actions in the future could result in sanctions, but stopped short of removing them from the court file.

In some of his social media posts, Horwitz wrote that CoreCivic juices its profit margins by deliberately understaffing facilities and skimping on healthcare and makes it easier to get drugs in its facilities than almost anywhere else in America. In one court filing, the company called Horwitz's posts extraordinarily vicious in their verbiage, and wrote, "He is wrong" and in violation of the court rule.

Alongside screenshots of the depositions he posted on Twitter, Horwitz alleged that Trousdale staff at one point banned the Quran, failed to file prison rape reports and had hundreds of critical staffing posts left vacant or not staffed on time during the month of December 2020.

The plaintiff in Horwitzs lawsuit is G. Marie Newby, the mother of Terry Childress, who died in February 2021 after his cellmate assaulted him, court records show. The lawsuit, blaming low staffing levels, claims correctional officers were not making timely rounds. It seeks $10 million for Newby.

The suit also asks the judge to declare that CoreCivic failed to maintain a constitutionally required level of inmate safety at Trousdale. The facility, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Nashville, houses about 2,500 inmates, the most of any Tennessee prison. And it asks for the appointment of an independent monitor to conduct regular unannounced inspections of Trousdale. If the inspector finds that the prison hasn't fixed its unlawful problems, the judge should shut the facility down, the suit argues.

The prison has been flagged for problems. Audits conducted by the Tennessee comptroller's office in 2017 and 2020 found understaffing and that officials were not compiling accurate data on inmate deaths, facility lockdowns and use of force by correctional officers. State officials fined CoreCivic more than $2 million for problems at the facility.

CoreCivic has denied all of the lawsuit's allegations.

Weve always believed that the court of law, not the court of public opinion, is the appropriate forum to address legal matters, particularly regarding unproven allegations, said CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin.

Horwitz said he would not comment until an appeal of the judge's ruling  which he called unconstitutional  is complete.

In response to CoreCivic's motion to quiet his commentary and remove old tweets, Horwitz has argued that he has ethical duties and affirmative obligations" to his clients to speak publicly about the case. Horwitz also argued CoreCivic has a public relations team, while his deceased client has only him for an advocate.

The case is scheduled to go to trial in December 2023. Horwitz wrote that it's more likely to end in a settlement.
After evading the authorities for 43 days, allegedly flying to Costa Rica with someone else's passport and changing her appearance, the suspected killer of professional cyclist Mo Wilson pleaded not guilty to murder charges Wednesday.

"There's a lot more to this story," Kaitlin Armstrong's attorney said alongside the suspect at her first appearance in court in Austin, Texas.

In a statement, Armstrong's legal team alleged her home was vandalized on the night of Wilson's death by an unknown person, and asked why Austin police seemingly ignored a tip about the former boyfriend of Ms. Wilson.

Armstrong's attorneys declined to answer questions, including why Armstrong fled the country. Her defense has entered a motion for a speedy trial.

On June 29, after weeks on the run, the 34-year-old Texas yoga teacher and real estate agent was arrested in Costa Rica and charged with first-degree murder in the killing of professional cyclist and recent Bay Area resident Anna "Mo" Wilson, 25.

According to the Marshals Service, on May 11 Wilson was staying with a friend in Austin to prepare for an upcoming race. That evening she allegedly went swimming with Armstrong's boyfriend Colin Strickland  a fellow racing competitor and alleged former romantic partner of Wilson. Wilson was later found by her friend at the apartment, bleeding and unconscious in the bathroom with multiple gunshot wounds to the torso. She was pronounced dead at the scene by first responders.

Wilson Family via GoFundMe

Authorities have painted the murder as motivated by jealousy. The complex details of the alleged love triangle-turned-murder  involving recently purchased guns, text messages, lies and an anonymous tipster  were revealed in an arrest warrant on May 19. In the warrant, an anonymous caller allegedly told police that on discovering Strickland and Wilson were romantically involved, Armstrong "became furious and was shaking with anger" and said she wanted to kill Wilson.

Armstrong is due back in court on Oct. 19. She is being held on a $3.5 million bail in the Travis County Correctional Complex.
CAIRO (AP)  Libya resumed oil exports Wednesday, ending a hiatus that lasted months.

The resumption came after the country restarted production at oil fields following the firing of the chairman of the state-run oil corporation by one of the countrys rival governments.

A Malta-flagged tanker, Matala, docked at the al-Sidra terminal to ship one million barrels of crude oil, the new leadership of the National Oil Corporation said. The vessel will then head to Italy, it said.

Two other tankers, the Marshall Islands-flagged Nissos Sifnos and the Liberia-flagged Crudemed, were scheduled to ship 1.6 million barrels Wednesday from the terminals of Zueitina Ras Lanuf, according to the NOC.

Last week, the NOC lifted a force majeure which was declared in April at several oil facilities after tribal leaders, aligned with powerful commander Khalifa Hifter, shut them down. The force of majeure is a legal maneuver that enables a company to get out of its contract obligations because of extraordinary circumstances.

Production was resumed Tuesday at several fields including the Sharara, the countys largest, after three months of closure, the NOC announced.

Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, prime minister of the the Tripoli-based government, announced last week the sacking of Mustafa Sanalla, the chairman of the NOC. He appointed Farhat Bengdara, a former governor of Libyas central bank, to head the crucial oil company.

The move was rejected by Sanalla, who said Dbeibahs government lacked legitimacy.

NOCs new chairman, Bengdara, became known for his strong ties with the United Arab Emirates and Hifter, whose forces control the countrys eastern and much of southern areas.

His appointment was seen as a move by Dbeibah to gain control over oil revenues and gain the support of Hifter in his rivalry with Bashagha.

Libya is now ruled by two rival administrations, Dbeibahs government in Tripoli and the government of Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed as prime minister by the east-based parliament in February and is now based in the city of Sirte.

The North African country has been wrecked by conflict since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising turned civil war toppled and later killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

The countrys prized light crude has long been a feature of Libyas conflict, with rival militias and foreign powers jostling for control of Africas largest oil reserves.

Tribal leaders, aligned with Hifter, in April shut down oil facilities, including the countrys largest oil field and major terminals, likely to deprive Dbeibahs from funds.

The closures caused Libya's daily output of oil to drop by two-thirds. The country's production was at 1.2 billion barrels a day earlier this year.

The shutdown had come amid skyrocketing oil prices following the Russian war in Ukraine It also exacerbated the countrys electricity shortages and sparked protests, including one that resulted in the storming of the east-based parliament in Tobruk.
A teacher gave heart-wrenching testimony Wednesday, recalling how a student in her Holocaust studies class correctly answered a question seconds before he became one of 17 people murdered by Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz.



Ivy Schamis was leading students through a discussion about the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany when Nick Dworet correctly answered that Adolf Dassler founded the Adidas shoe company, adding that Dassler's brother founded the rival Puma brand.

It was then they heard the first gunshots in the hallway, and Cruz began firing through the glass on her classroom door.

"It was really seconds later that the barrel of that AR-15 just ambushed our classroom. It came right through that glass panel and was just shooting everywhere. It was very loud. Very frightening. I kept thinking about these kids who should not be experiencing this at all," she testified, wiping her eyes with a tissue.

She said the students scrambled to find safety behind furniture, but didn't panic and acted with bravery and maturity as they waited to be rescued. Three students were wounded in her class and two were killed: Dworet and Helena Ramsay, both 17.

When shown their portraits, she began to weep.

"That's my girl, Helena Ramsay," she said. "Nicholas Dworet, handsome boy."

Dworet's brother Alexander was grazed by a bullet in a classroom across the hall, where three students were killed and several more wounded. English teacher Dara Hass testified Tuesday about how Cruz fired through a window in her door.

Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder for the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre. The jury must decide if the former Marjory Stoneman Douglas student should be sentenced to death or life without parole for the nation's deadliest mass shooting to go before a jury. The trial is expected to last through at least October.

Nine other gunmen who killed at least 17 people died during or immediately after their shootings, either by suicide or police gunfire. The suspect in the 2019 slaying of 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, is awaiting trial.

The testimony came one day after jurors saw surveillance video of the shooting, with many victims being gunned down at point-blank range. Cruz also killed some of the wounded by firing into them a second time as they lay on the floor.

When jurors eventually get the case, they will vote 17 times, once for each of the victims, on whether to recommend capital punishment.

Every vote must be unanimous for Cruz to receive death. A non-unanimous vote for any one of the victims would mean life in prison for the killing of that person.

The jurors are told that to vote for the death penalty, the aggravating circumstances presented by the prosecution for the victim in question must, in their judgment, outweigh mitigating factors presented by the defense.

Regardless of the evidence, any juror can vote for life in prison out of mercy. During jury selection, the panelists said under oath that they are capable of voting for either sentence.

Jury selection

The jurors currently on the main panel are two banking executives and two technology workers, a probation officer, a human resources professional and a Walmart store stock supervisor. Also included are a librarian, a medical claims adjuster, a legal assistant, a customs officer and a retired insurance executive.

The jury selection was filled with setbacks and possible mistrials over the questioning of possible jurors and COVID-19 cases on the defense.

The defense asked to delay the trial because of the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 dead. McNeills team argued that the shooting has again raised emotions in Broward County and makes it impossible for Cruz to get a fair trial currently.

Many of the possible jurors were not able to hold seat because of the time commitment for the lengthy process.

Full Recap: Jury sworn in to sentencing trial for Parkland high school shooter

Pleading guilty to all charges

Cruz pleaded guilty in October 2021 to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the deadly shooting.

Legal analysts said Cruzs plan to plead guilty to all charges in the Parkland shooting  along with the guilty plea in a battery on a jail guard charge  is a calculated move by his attorneys for him to avoid the death penalty.

Video below: Cruz pleads guilty in court

By pleading guilty to killing 17 people and attempting to kill 17 more in 2018, legal experts said Cruz is hoping to convince the jury that he is taking some responsibility for his actions.

"Hes trying to save his life, and the only way to do that is to take responsibility and not put all these poor people through a trial," criminal defense attorney Marc Shiner said.

Death penalty trials in Florida and much of the country often take two years to start because of their complexity, but Cruz's was further delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and extensive legal wrangling.

If Cruz is sentenced to death, that will still not be the end of the process. Death sentences in Florida are given automatic priority review by the Florida Supreme Court.

Trial preparations

Trial preparations were extensive for what was expected to be the biggest murder trial in Broward County history for one of the most infamous crimes in Florida history.

Cruz was arrested about an hour after the attack with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle on Valentine's Day 2018.

Video below: Body camera of arrest of Nikolas Cruz released

His lawyers repeatedly offered to plead guilty in return for a guaranteed sentence of life in prison, but prosecutors refused to drop their pursuit of the death penalty.

Video below: Cruz interrogation video released

Much of the penalty phase is expected to focus on Cruzs mental condition at the time of the slayings, with prosecutors emphasizing their horrific nature and Cruzs intensive planning beforehand.

Victims of the Parkland school shooting

Seventeen students and staff were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. Seventeen others were injured.

Can't see the graphic? Click here.

Settlement with Broward School District

The Broward County School District will pay more than $26 million to the families of the victims.

Board members approved the two legal settlements on in December 2021.

A total of $25 million will be shared by 51 plaintiffs, including families of the 17 dead as well as students and staff who were injured. Another $1.25 million will be paid in one lump sum to Anthony Borges, who suffered some of the most severe injuries.

Video below: Nikolas Cruz outlines shooting plan in video recording

Four years after shooting

For many families, they said there will never be closure for the loss of their loved ones.

Students and families turned into activists.

'I still can't believe this is my reality': Parkland parent creates way to track school violence after son is killed in school shooting

Jim Gard, a math teacher that day, said they were all victims.

"These kids that were in the class, just because they weren't hit doesn't mean they werent hit," he said.

And since that day, so many of those victims have refused to just sit back and do nothing. In the days following the shooting, a movement called March For Our Lives was born.

David Hogg was one of the founders.

"When we started doing the march, we thought there would be about 90 people that we could get up to D.C.," Hogg said. "We got near a million."

Video below: Father of Parkland victim hangs banner in view of White House four years after shooting

Four years later, March For Our Lives is still going strong with chapters across the country.

Theyve helped pass state laws designed to keep guns away from violent offenders. Theyve worked to get more federal funding to control gun violence.

'I have to accomplish her dream': Hunter Pollack changes career path after sister is murdered in Parkland massacre

It's become a full-time job nobody wants.

"We want our job to be done so we can go back to being college students or high school students and young people and young professionals," Hogg said.

When they watched the Parkland shooter plead guilty to the murders he committed, both Hogg and Gard are pleased to see this chapter end.

Video below: School safety changes made following Parkland school shooting

They just ask you not to call it closure.

"It's the parents of the kids, the parents who lost their children, I dont know if there can ever be closure on that," Gard said. "I know for a lot of the people that I talked to, families that I talked to, there is not closure that can come. Theres nothing that will ever bring their kids back, their siblings back, their best friends back."

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, call 211 or the National Suicide Hotline at 988.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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LONDON (AP)  Fans of Liz Truss think she is the new Iron Lady.

Britains foreign secretary is one of the two final contenders to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader and prime minister. Some 180,000 party members will be asked to choose either Truss or former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, with the winner set to be announced Sept. 5.

If Truss wins, she would become Britains third female prime minister. She has forged her image in homage to the first, Margaret Thatcher.

Truss has posed in a British Army tank in Eastern Europe, evoking an image of Thatcher during the Cold War. In a televised leadership debate this week, Britain's top diplomat sported a pussy-bow blouse eerily similar to one the late prime minister used to wear.

Truss, 46, is a favorite among many Conservatives, who revere Thatcher above all other leaders. Critics say its an empty homage and believe Truss lacks the gravitas to lead the country amid economic turbulence and a European war.

As foreign secretary, Truss has been front and center in Britains support for Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia over the invasion of its neighbor. She also has figured prominently in the U.K.s feud with the European Union over post-Brexit trade arrangements.

Her pugnacious approach  along with her promises to slash taxes and boost defense spending  have made her the favorite of the partys strongly euroskeptic right wing.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Truss said she was the only person who can deliver the change we need on the economy  in line with true Conservative principles  and the only person capable of stepping up and leading the response to Ukraine and the increased security threat that the free world faces.

But opponents criticize her as a dogmatist and a wooden public speaker, and note that she has not always been a true-blue Tory.

Born in Oxford in 1975, Truss is the daughter of a math professor and a nurse who took her on anti-nuclear and anti-Thatcher protests as a child, where she recalled shouting: Maggie, Maggie, Maggie  out, out out!

Truss attended a public high school in Leeds, northern England, and then studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University, where she briefly belonged to the centrist Liberal Democrats and called for the abolition of the monarchy.

She worked as an economist for energy giant Shell and telecommunications firm Cable and Wireless, and for a right-of-center think tank while becoming involved in Conservative politics and espousing free-market Thatcherite views. She ran unsuccessfully for Parliament twice before being elected to represent the eastern England seat of Southwest Norfolk in 2010.

Truss is married to Hugh OLeary, with whom she has two teenage daughters.

In Britains 2016 referendum on whether to leave the European Union, Truss backed the losing remain side. But she has served in Johnsons staunchly pro-Brexit government as trade secretary and then foreign secretary, and has won the support of the Conservative Partys most fervent Brexiteers.

Her record as foreign secretary has drawn mixed reviews. Many praise her firm response to the invasion of Ukraine, and she secured the release of two British nationals jailed in Iran where her predecessors had failed. But EU leaders and officials hoping she would bring a softer tone to the U.K.s relations with the bloc have been disappointed.

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, says the fact that euroskeptics adore Truss, while suspecting Sunak of pro-EU views  despite that fact that he backed leave in the referendum  shows the importance of image over substance in politics.

His image doesnt fit that of a Brexiteer whereas hers does, Bale said. "Theres a kind of presumption that if youre a bit of a smoothiechops who moves easily in international circles you must be a remainer, and if youre someone who tells it like it is to Johnny Foreigner then youre obviously a (true) Brexiteer.

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Follow all of APs coverage of British politics at https://apnews.com/hub/boris-johnson
PARIS (AP)  French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday called for the resumption of long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in order to prevent simmering tensions in one of Middle Easts longest conflicts from boiling over again.

Speaking alongside Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the presidential palace in Paris, Macron said the situation in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories remains more than worrying.

We all know that a new spiral of violence can start at any moment, Macron said on Wednesday. He added: To avert this threat () that undermines the lives of both Palestinians and Israelis, we must act.

In the short term, Macron said, that means putting an end to Israels unilateral measures in the occupied West Bank, including the expansion of Jewish settlements and evictions of Palestinian families from their homes. Both actions are contrary to international law, Macron said. He repeated his willingness to mobilize the international community in efforts that will lead to resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinians and eventually result in a just and lasting peace.

Abbas emphasized that Israel must stop unilateral actions (...) most importantly, the building of illegal settlements" that slice the territory the Palestinians want for their state alongside Israel in pieces.

Abbas was meeting with Macron in Paris after the Palestinian leader had met with U.S. President Joe Biden in the Israeli-occupied West Bank last week. Biden offered compassion and financial assistance for hope-starved Palestinians but also delivered a blunt acknowledgment that the ground is not ripe for new attempts to reach an elusive peace.

Political uncertainty in Israel, which is holding another round of elections in November, and the weakness of Palestinian Authority leadership has dimmed any chance of restarting negotiations that broke down more than a decade ago.

Earlier this month, Macron hosted Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid in the Elysee Palace and called on him to revive talks toward peace with the Palestinians.

Lapid, who is expected to stay in the prime minister's role until the election in November, supports a two-state solution with the Palestinians. But as a caretaker leader, he isnt in a position to pursue any major diplomatic initiatives.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A suspect accused of dismembering a man and driving around the Las Vegas area with a severed head and body parts has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Las Vegas TV station KLAS reported Wednesday that 58-year-old Eric Holland entered his plea in the death of Richard Miller last December.

Authorities say the 65-year-old Miller lived on a houseboat on Lake Mead and was reported missing in November.

Las Vegas Metro Police discovered Millers remains on Dec. 23.

A grand jury later indicted Holland on murder and theft charges.

Court documents show Miller had several gunshot wounds, including at least one to his head.

Investigators believe the two men were friends and got into an altercation in mid-November.

A surveillance camera at a home improvement store allegedly captured Holland buying a reciprocating saw and trash bags that same month.

According to court documents, investigators found the saw and Millers body parts in the bags that were in the back of a truck Holland was driving at the time of his arrest.

Police reported finding two large coolers in the truck bed and one contained a severed head.
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NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  A Missouri man was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the shooting death of a police officer during a traffic stop prompted by an expired temporary tag on the vehicle.

Joshua Rocha, 24, of Kansas City, was being held on $2 million bond in the death of North Kansas City police officer Daniel Vasquez, 32, who was killed Tuesday. Rocha will be arraigned Thursday.

According to a probable cause statement, Rocha told police after his arrest that he shot the officer because he didn't want to go to jail or have his vehicle towed.

Rocha told police he was on his way to buy ammunition for a rifle he had in the vehicle when he was stopped.

Vasquez's dashcam video shows Rocha shooting the officer once in the face after partially opening the car door, then stepping out and firing two more shots at Vasquez, who was lying on the ground, according to the statement.

Rocha said his gun jammed at one point. but that he was able to clear it and fire at Vasquez again, according to the statement.

Rocha fled in his vehicle and later changed his clothes, shaved his goatee, and spray painted part of his car. But he later turned himself in to Clay County authorities, saying I committed murder," the statement says.

Clay County Prosecutor Dan White said the investigation is ongoing, but prosecutors feel very comfortable with the evidence they have against Rocha.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Rocha could face the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Mike Wood, deputy chief of the Kansas City police department, which is conducting the investigation, said Rocha owned the vehicle he was driving. He was not aware of any previous contact between Vasquez and Rocha, who does not have an extensive criminal record.

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This story was updated to correct on first reference that the slain officers name is Daniel Vasquez, not Daniel Rocha.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  A mountain lion that was part of a National Park Service study was fatally struck by a vehicle on a highway near Southern Californias Santa Monica Mountains.

The 2-year-old male cougar, dubbed P-89, was found dead early Monday on a shoulder along U.S. 101 in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area said in a statement.
FARGO, N.D. (AP)  A motion seeking to block enforcement of a so-called trigger law that would shut down North Dakota's lone abortion clinic should be denied because the law was administered properly and the lawsuit on the constitutionality of the ban is unlikely to succeed, the state attorney general's office says.

A 20-page response filed Wednesday by the state argues that a judge should not grant a request by the Red River Women's Clinic in Fargo to delay the July 28 closing date that was certified by Attorney General Drew Wrigley a few days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The clinic said Wrigley was premature in starting the 30-day countdown under the trigger ban. Rather than ruling on the opinion, the clinic said, Wrigley should have waited until the official judgment was sent to lower courts, which is likely to happen in a few days.

The North Dakota Legislature passed its trigger law in 2007 that made abortion illegal in the state except in cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother. The measure said the ban will go into effect 30 days after the issuance of the judgment in any decision of the United States Supreme Court which, in whole or in part, restores to the states authority to prohibit abortion.

The response written by state attorneys Matthew Sagsveen and Courtney Titus said the only condition to shutting down the clinic was whether the U.S. Supreme Court case that effectively reversed federal abortion protections was clear. Wrigley properly construed that case, as well as the trigger language, and properly issued the certification, the state's document said.

Meetra Mehdizadeh, a staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights and one of several lawyers working on behalf of the Fargo clinic, said Wrigley is trying to enforce a draconian near-total abortion ban by circumventing state law.

The state has been relentless in its efforts to push out the last remaining abortion clinic with no consideration for the real, dangerous impacts on peoples health and lives, Mehdizadeh said. The clinic has until the end of the day Monday to file its response.

The motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction is part of the clinic's suit arguing that the state constitution protects a woman's right to abortion. The clinic said the ban violates rights to life, safety and happiness and infringes on the right to liberty because it deprives patients of the ability to control decisions about their families and their health.

The state's response filed Wednesday said the clinic ignores the history of abortion regulations in North Dakota probably because a fair considering of that history is fatal to its argument.

Clinic director Tammy Kromenaker has said the lawsuit should at least give more time to provide abortion care in North Dakota while she prepares for a possible relocation a few miles away to Moorhead, Minnesota, where abortion remains legal. Most of the clinic's patients come from North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota.

A GoFundMe page established to help pay for the clinics transition has raised close to $1 million.
FARGO, N.D. (AP)  A state trooper shot and wounded a Fargo man during a shootout after the man drove into a motorcycle, badly injuring its driver, and fled the scene, authorities said.

According to officials, the 28-year-old man in a pickup truck rear-ended the motorcyclist on Interstate 94 at around 5 p.m. Tuesday and fled the scene.

A short time later, Fargo police responded to a report that shots were coming from the balcony of an apartment. A pickup matching the description of the hit-and-run driver's then fled from that scene.

A North Dakota Highway Patrol trooper then spotted the truck in Fargo a short time later and tried to pull it over, but the driver waved a gun around before speeding away on Interstate 29, authorities said. As the suspect tried to exit onto I-94, his pickup struck another vehicle and crashed.

The driver got out of the truck and began shooting as the trooper arrived, authorities said. The trooper returned fire and hit the suspect twice before taking him into custody.

The man was taken to a hospital for treatment and then transferred to the Cass County Jail.

The motorcycle driver suffered life-threatening injuries, the patrol said. Those in the other vehicle the suspect struck weren't injured.

The trooper, who was placed on standard paid administrative leave, was not identified. The state Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the probe.

Its the second police shooting in Fargo in the last two weeks. A Fargo police officer on July 8 shot and killed a man who allegedly tried to run down officers in a stolen van.

The shooting resulted in a protest by the man's family and supporters outside Fargo City Hall and led to ongoing demands that police release body camera footage in the death of 28-year-old Shane Netterville, of Jamestown.

Attorney General Drew Wrigley said the video will be released when the state completes its investigation.
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Equipment failure caused a transformer at the Hoover Dam to explode, causing a fire that lasted about a half-hour and sending plumes of black smoke swirling through the air.

Crews quickly extinguished the fire Tuesday morning. Doug Hendrix, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, emphasized that the fire was isolated to the single area, which limited damage to the facility, and that investigators would soon know what caused it.

Weve got engineers and some of our senior leadership down there taking a look now, also with some inspectors to see exactly what happened, Hendrix told KTNV in Las Vegas. Hendrix did not respond Wednesday to emails from The Associated Press.

WHAT IS HOOVER DAM?

Hoover Dam, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Las Vegas on the Nevada-Arizona border, is one of the tallest concrete dams in the U.S. at 726 feet (221 meters). It supplies hydroelectric power for about 350,000 homes in Arizona, California and Nevada.

To create hydropower, a renewable energy source, water from the Colorado River flows into the dam, then into a pipe, which spins into a generator that ultimately creates electricity, before it goes into the transformer.

WHAT HAPPENED?

An explosion happened just after 10 a.m. Tuesday on one of the dam's 17 transformers that generate electricity. The explosion caused a thick cloud of black smoke and flames that was caught on camera by visitors but was extinguished by fire crews within a half hour. Officials said equipment within the transformer failed, causing the fire, but they have not yet said what caused the equipment to fail. There were no injuries.

WHERE DOES THE INVESTIGATION STAND?

An investigation into the specifics of what caused the fire is ongoing with no specific timeline for its findings, said Michelle Helms, public affairs officer for the Bureau of Reclamation, in an emailed statement to the AP.

These investigations take some time, she said.

IS POWER SUPPLY REDUCED AT THE DAM?

Officials have not said how much power generation was lost.

Hendrix told KTNV the power grid is not affected because the fire was contained to the site of one transformer of 17 total  and remained isolated until fire crews extinguished it.

All of our protection equipment kicked right in, so it was isolated to that (transformer), Hendrix told the TV station. So we were very fortunate.

WHAT IS A TRANSFORMER?

All power plants have transformers, which are mainly used to increase the voltage of electricity generated to send over transmission lines, said Jordan Kern, an assistant professor of natural resources at North Carolina State University.

And then once the electricity gets to roughly where its going to be consumed, we use another set of transformers to reduce the voltage of the electricity," Kern said, and then that electricity gets sent out over distribution lines that are insulated and run to peoples houses, businesses, etc.

Hoover Dam has 17 transformers  nine on its Nevada side and eight on its Arizona side. The fire was extinguished on the fifth Arizona transformer.

HOW RARE IS A POWER PLANT FIRE?

A fire at a power plant is rare, though there's always a risk, Kern said.

I think most commonly, its other electrical equipment," that can cause a fire at a power facility, he said. Its not transformers themselves that are causing the fires.

But you can imagine theres just an enormous amount of electrical cable in power plants. And if there are any malfunctioning equipment that ignites a fire, I think that can then spread."

___

Gabe Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP)  Fewer manatee deaths have been recorded so far this year in Florida compared to the record-setting numbers in 2021, but wildlife officials cautioned Wednesday that chronic starvation remains a dire and ongoing threat to the marine mammals.

Between Jan. 1 and July 15, about 631 manatee deaths have been confirmed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That compares with 864 during the same period last year, when a record number of manatees died mainly from a lack of seagrass food, which was decimated by water pollution. The five-year average of manatee deaths in that time frame is 481.

Despite some glimmers of hope, wildlife officials said during a news conference Wednesday that manatees continue to face dwindling food options and many survivors have been severely weakened by malnutrition, which leaves them more vulnerable once cold weather sets in.

How manatees fare this summer when more food is available will determine how they survive in winter, said Martine de Wit, a veterinarian overseeing necropsies and coordinating rescues of ill manatees for the state wildlife commission.

There is not enough high-quality food for the animals, de Wit said, showing slides of necropsied animals with severe internal damage from starvation. It's going to be long lasting. It's going to be years before you can measure the real effect.

Manatees, the large, round-tailed mammals also known as sea cows, were already listed as a threatened species when the unprecedented die-off became apparent about a year ago. The main cause is pollution from agriculture, septic tanks, urban runoff and other sources that is killing the coastal seagrass on which the marine mammals rely.

That led to an experimental feeding program last year in which more than 202,000 pounds (91,600 kilograms) of lettuce funded mainly by donations was fed to manatees that traditionally gather during winter in the warm waters near a power plant on Florida's east coast. Officials say they are still studying the impact of that feeding program and weighing whether to do it again as temperatures drop this winter.

Did it have an effect? I'd like to think that it did, said Tom Reinert, a regional director for the wildlife commission. We're working day in and day out to make sure we're prepared for next winter.

There are about 7,500 manatees in the wild in Florida, according to wildlife commission figures. They have long struggled to coexist with humans. Seagrass-killing pollution and boat strikes are now the main threats facing the beloved creatures.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently agreed in a court settlement to publish a proposed manatee critical habitat revision by September 2024. The agreement came in a long-running court case involving the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and the Save the Manatee Club.

The rule would bring enhanced federal scrutiny to projects that might affect the manatee in waterways in which the marine mammals are known to concentrate, such as the Indian River Lagoon on Floridas east coast. In addition, the state is spending $8.5 million on a variety of manatee projects, such as restoration of seagrass and improvements in water quality.

Anyone who sees a sick or dead manatee should call the wildlife commission hotline at at 888-404-FWCC (888-404-3922).
Saleem Raza

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP)  Pakistan's police have arrested at least two people after a 21-year-old American woman reported she was gang raped at a hotel when she was visiting a tourist resort in the eastern Punjab province, officials said Wednesday.

The detainees included the woman's host, who took her to a hotel in Dera Ghazi Khan, a district in the Punjab province where she says she was sexually assaulted this week, according to an initial police investigation.
ISLAMABAD (AP)  Pakistan's former prime minister said Wednesday that the government of premier Shahbaz Sharif is mismanaging the countrys fragile economy.

Imran Khan's remarks to journalists at his residence in Islamabad came hours after Pakistans currency plummeted to an all-time low of 225 rupees against the U.S. dollar, amid increasing political instability. The delay in the release of a crucial $1.17 billion installment from the International Monetary Fund to Islamabad has also added to the existing economic crisis.

The fund last week said it reached a preliminary agreement with Pakistan to revive the $6 billion bailout package. But the deal is subject to approval by the IMF's executive board.

On Wednesday, Khan said he worries that Pakistan is teetering near an economic collapse. A spokesman for Sharif did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

He said a looming crisis all started after my government was ousted. He reiterated his call for snap elections, a demand already dismissed by Sharif and his allies.

Khan came into power following the 2018 parliamentary elections, but he lost a majority in the National Assembly in April when his allies and about two dozen lawmakers from his own Tehreek-e-Insaf party abandoned him.

Khan's removal in April came amid his cooling relations with Pakistans powerful military, which many of Khan's political opponents allege helped the former premier, Khan, come to power in general elections in 2018. The military has directly ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 75 years and wields considerable power over civilian governments.

Since his ouster, Khan has criticized the country's powerful army chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa, saying he was also part of the greater plot aimed at removing him from power. The military has denied the charge.

Khan also insists his government was ousted under a U.S. plot, a charge Washington denies.

When Khan was in power, Pakistans foreign reserves rose to over $18 billion, which dipped to $10 billion recently. Khan says he can revive the country's economy with the help of his team if he gets another chance in office.

In recent weeks, Sharif has slashed subsidies on fuel, electricity and natural gas to meet IMFs conditions. It has made Sharifs government highly unpopular and caused a spike in food prices.

Over the weekend, Sharif faced a major political setback when Khans Tehreek-e-Insaf party won elections in the countrys most populous province. Khan's party won 15 seats out of 20 that were up for in the 371-member provincial assembly in Sunday's vote.

That brings the overall number of seats held by Khans party and their allies in the chamber in Punjab to 188. He needs 186 lawmakers' backing to rule the Punjab province. On Friday, the Punjab Assembly will elect its new chief minister to replace Prime Minister Sharifs son Hamza Shahbaz who currently holds the post.

On Wednesday, Khan reiterated his demand for the snap vote.

The only solution to the current political and economic problems is the holding of fresh elections," he said.

But Sharif and his allies have rejected Khan's demand, saying the next elections will be held as per the schedule next year. They also blame Khan for the current economic crisis.
RACINE, Wis. (AP)  A Racine police officer has been cleared in a deadly shooting.

Racine County District Attorney Patricia Hanson announced Tuesday that she will not file charges against Officer Zachary Brenner, who fatally shot DaShontay King on May 20 during a police pursuit.

The state Department of Justice led the investigation into the shooting and turned its findings over to the district attorney.

Hanson released the body camera footage and her 27-page decision before family had a chance to view it Tuesday.

Brenner said he tried pulling King over for a traffic violation when King stopped the car and took off running.

Video footage shows Brenner chasing King, telling him multiple times not to reach for a weapon or he would shoot him. Still images of the video, included in Hansons report show what she says is a gun falling out of Kings pocket, WISN-TV reported.

Hanson said it shows him turning to pick up the gun and then holding the gun. Moments later, Brenner said he feared for his life and shot King several times.

My review of the facts and circumstances of this case led me to the conclusion that Officer Brenner is immune from criminal liability in this case as the death of Mr. King was a direct result of Mr. Kings conduct that posed a reasonable and imminent threat to Officer Brenner, under the circumstances as they existed at the time," Hanson wrote.

The King family attorney, William Sulton, said hes requesting the final cause of death in the medical examiners report which he believes will show the officer used unreasonable force to stop King.
PENTWATER  A sand sculpture contest is scheduled for Aug. 12 at Charles Mears State Park in Pentwater.

Trophies will be awarded to 21 teams whose entries are judged to best reflect Pentwater's 2022 homecoming theme of Celebrating the History of Pentwater, according to a news release on the event.

Entering teams are assigned to either one of four age groups categories: 1-7, 8-9, 10-12, 13-and-over (determined by the age of the oldest youth), or one of three family categories, the release states. The finished works are judged on four criteria: adherence to this years Homecoming theme, creativity, attention to detail and neatness.

Sculptures are only allowed to be decorated with naturally uprooted dune grass, feathers and drift wood on the Charles Mears State Park beach.

Free registration at the state park pavilion starts at 8 a.m. on Aug. 12.

Teams are set to sculpt from 8-11 a.m., when judging begins and the public comes by to view the various entries.

An awards program starts at noon with trophies going to winning teams.

The Pentwater Sand Sculpture Contest was founded in 1974 by the late Al Ringquist who, at age 26, chose to make a life in Pentwater with his new wife, Alice, the release states. Ringquest opened the Leprechaun Shop and sold custom furniture and cabinetry. He also crafted small wooden toys and a few are on display in the Pentwater Historical Museum.

Contestants are expected to sculpt designs in the sand that demonstrate each years Pentwater homecoming theme, such as Picture Yourself in Pentwater, Hats Off to Pentwater, Support Our Troops, Historic Pentwater, Sailing Into the Future, 75 Years of Yachting in Pentwater, Pentwater Sunset and Senses of Summer.

In 2020, the contest was reformatted due to COVID-19 precautions.

That was when beachgoers could still sculpt creative designs during a four-week period.

Last year, the Pentwater Service Club resumed the traditional contest format.

Ann Sayles was one of the 2021 entrants; her family has participated for 43 years, winning three times.

I think its great fun for family and friends, Sayles said in the release.

Sayles noted that she remembers the wooden sandcastles that Ringquist made and gave to children; her kids loved to play with them

Free parking is available at the park for anyone with a state of Michigan Recreation Passport. For more information, see the Pentwater Sand Sculpture Contest community page on Facebook.
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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  Egypt and Serbia on Wednesday agreed to boost political, economic and other cooperation as the two countries look for ways to deal with the global impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was in Serbia on a three-day visit this week  the first in more than three decades by an Egyptian president. His host, Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic, said the visit had a historic character.

"It will bring so much in the future, Vucic said at a joint press conference with Sissi. This is just a beginning.

The two leaders signed a partnership declaration, Vucic awarded el-Sissi a state decoration and announced plans for a free trade agreement by the end of the year. A business forum was held as officials signed a series of deals focusing on fields of cooperation.

Both our countries should cooperate for better economies in relation to the global events, said el-Sissi. Egypt expects stronger cooperation in all fields.

Vucic said Serbia will export grain, primarily wheat, to Egypt, which has been hit hard by the price hikes caused by the war in Ukraine. Egypt is among the worlds largest importers of wheat, with much of that from now-blocked Ukrainian ports.

Serbia, a candidate country for European Union membership, has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia and has maintained friendly relations with Moscow despite the war. Both leaders said the war in Ukraine was among the topics discussed at their meeting Wednesday.

Egypt is a country that wishes to see everything resolved peacefully and through agreements, said el-Sissi, who met with U.S. President Joe Biden in Saudi Arabia last week.

El-Sissi and Vucic also evoked during their press conference the decades-old ties of Belgrade and Cairo as founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement of nations outside the opposed blocs during the time of Cold War divisions.
NEW YORK (AP)  You've got to wake up early on a weekend to catch Soledad O'Brien.

Say 4:30 a.m. Saturday in Chicago. Or 5 a.m. on Sunday in New York and Houston. It's 6:30 a.m. Saturday in Washington, D.C.  almost sleep-in territory.

Those are some of the time slots for Matter of Fact, the news show she anchors that has overcome those hours over seven years to establish itself over in the syndicated market. Produced by Hearst Television, Matter of Fact is available in 181 markets covering 95 percent of the country.

People will find you if you're doing a good job, O'Brien said, and they will skip you if you're not doing a good job.

Matter of Fact averages about 1.08 million viewers each weekend, roughly half the audience for broadcast network panel shows like Meet the Press or This Week, according to Nielsen company, which measures ratings. That's down from a pandemic- and election-aided peak of 1.2 million in 2020, but double what it was at the show's start in 2015.

That's notable given that the program has no consistent time slot all over the country and, in some places, literally airs in the middle of the night.

O'Brien, formerly of CNN, also contributes to HBO's Real Sports, but most of her time now is spent running her own production company. Her HBO docuseries Black and Missing won a Film Independent Spirit Award, and a doc about Rosa Parks recently premiered at the Tribeca film festival.

O'Brien wanted to keep a hand in onscreen television work and, when approached for Matter of Fact, met with executive producer Rita Aleman and found that they had similar ideas.

The mission of the show was always to share voices as diverse as America, slices of life that people should see in order to understand how issues play out across the country, Aleman said.

Hearst was looking to design a show that included voices not normally heard on network panel shows, where occasionally the same government official will appear on two or three on the same weekend, said Emerson Coleman, Hearst's senior vice president of programming, who developed the show.

There was also a desire to turn down the volume. The inherent conflict of political shows makes for good TV, but we have a different approach, Coleman said.

I found that I was very underwhelmed by the interviews we were getting, O'Brien said. People were talking about policy but not really talking about human beings. So we decided to cut out the middle man.

To a large extent, Matter of Fact is a reported show. Reporter Jessica Gomez visited a hospital in Texas' Titus County for a story on rural health care. The show profiled Emmanuel Pratt, a MacArthur Foundation fellow who runs an urban redevelopment agency that uses agriculture and carpentry to spur revivals.

O'Brien refers to the show as a teaching hospital of news.

I don't know that you can go wrong in elevating people who've been doing good work in difficult circumstances and giving them a platform, she said. I think we don't do it enough.

The effort to get closer to communities where Matter of Fact is broadcast is reflected in a just-completed project that became more involved as it was ongoing.

Like many news organizations, Matter of Fact and the 33-owned Hearst television stations underwent some soul-searching following the George Floyd murder two years ago. They wanted to elevate the concerns of communities that often lacked media attention.

Their idea for a listening tour turned into a sprawling, four-part series of programs, each 90-minutes long as shown online and edited down to an hour for television outlets that included the A&E network. The first gave a platform to citizens to talk about bias, the second reflected the opinions of people in the arts and academia. The third, which featured O'Brien's interview with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor about hate speech, illustrated grassroots efforts at improving relations.

The last program, released for the Juneteenth holiday last month, focused on profiling a new generation of activists. Among those featured were Tarana Burke of the #MeToo movement, Parkland school shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez and gymnast Simone Biles.

It's easy to go through the history books and just say, Oh, heres people everybody knows already,' O'Brien said. It was also very important to find people working in a modern-day context, so it wasn't just a historic look back at civil rights in the 1960s.

Besides television and online, including weekly Matter of Fact episodes, material gathered from the listening tour was used in Hearst magazines like Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping and Oprah.

So it's not primarily insomniacs who see the work.

Hearst executives are always on the lookout for upgrades, television stations that might want to present Matter of Fact more in the light of day. O'Brien lets the suits worry about that.

I wouldn't call them pretty lousy time slots because we have viewers there, she said. We would call them challenges that we would love to overcome.
At the Dreamy Draw Recreation Area here, north of downtown, crews are installing a 66-inch water pipeline  spanning about nine miles  by lowering each individual section into a deep trench. Once the project is complete, the city will be able to funnel clean drinking water to more than 400,000 residents on the other side of the sprawling metropolis, as water becomes more limited due to the historic decline of the Colorado River.

"This is one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city," said Dave Hondula, director of the Phoenix Office of Heat Response and Mitigation, as he walked with a journalist in Edison Park recently. "We're seeing so much increased attention to this hazard that really has significant public health effects."

One of those public health effects is heat-related deaths. In Maricopa County, where Phoenix is the largest city, heat-related deaths increased more than 400% over the past eight years  a staggering increase that leaders fear will only grow as the climate changes. Here in the Valley of the Sun, summer doesnt wait for the solstice; the unofficial start of summer begins on May 1. This year, the city broke a heat record in early June, when the temperature hit 114 degrees.

"This is a significant challenge, maybe the clearest challenge that the climate crisis confronts us," Hondula said in an interview. "This is perhaps the clearest climate story."

Climate Lifeline

Phoenixs drought pipeline is one of hundreds of climate-related projects communities across the country told the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit about in response to a survey the journalists sent earlier this year.

When asked whether communities would need additional funding to mitigate a changing climate and increasingly severe weather, nearly two-thirds of respondents said they would need a substantial monetary lifeline to tackle climate issues. Of those, almost half said they'd need at least $50 million to begin climate projects, nearly a third said theyd need more than $100 million, and one in 10 say they will need at least $1 billion. Full survey results here.



Climate Solution

In the panhandle of Texas, some water districts spend close to $250,000 annually on cloud seeding. Airborne meteorologists use flares to release silver iodide smoke into thunderstorms to give water droplets a nudge to fall from the sky and onto the crops.

"We had too much of a dust bowl nearly one hundred years ago, and we don't want to see history repeat itself," explained George Bomar, who leads the Texas Weather Modification Association. "As global warming continues to proceed, we're going to see more extremes."

The cloud-seeding efforts have been drying up in some parts ofTexas  mainly due to money  but expanding across the West, now in at least eight states, according to the North American Weather Modification Council, with a 16th project about to launch in California.

In Santa Maria, Calif., weather experts use flare trees to encourage rainfall. Overall, theyve seen a 10% to 20% increase in precipitation, said Garrett Cammans, president of North American Weather Consultants, which has a contract for the program in that region. "We're not changing the environment. We're just making it a little bit more efficient," Cammans said.

Searching for water, from the skies to the soil, is now becoming more urgent as the climate changes.

"We don't make it rain. We just tend to make it rain more," added Matthew Scrudato, a senior hydrologist for Santa Barbara County. "We're capturing more water for the benefit of the community."

Mark Albert is the chief national investigative correspondent for the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit, based in Washington D.C. April Chunko, Tamika Cody, Greg Compton, Jimmy Celaya, John Osterhaut, Mark Fryklund, Allison Novello and Jeannie Kopstein contributed to this report.

Help us cover a changing climate for our Forecasting Our Future series. If you know of innovative projects or controversial issues in your community, send confidential information and documents to the National Investigative Unit at investigate@hearst.com.

'Forecasting Our Future' Full National Investigative Unit Coverage
A pro-Democratic super PAC is accusing the Federal Election Commission of allowing former President Donald Trump to continue violating the law" by dragging its feet over a complaint concerning Trump's teasing of a future White House bid.

In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday and provided in advance to The Associated Press, American Bridge asks a federal judge to compel the commission to take action on its complaint that argues Trump should have been obligated to file a candidacy intent statement within 15 days of receiving contributions or making any expenditure over $5,000.

In March, the group accused Trump of violating federal campaign laws by raising and spending money for a run without officially filing his candidacy  on activities including payments for events at Trump properties, rallies featuring Mr. Trump ... and digital advertising about Mr. Trumps events and his presumptive 2024 opponent.

American Bridge is a super political action committee, which means it can raise and spend money but cannot contribute directly to or coordinate with any particular candidate. This group wrote in the lawsuit, filed in Washington, that the commissions delay is forcing it to spend more money to level the playing field for a Democratic candidate who has fallen behind against a law-breaking Republican candidate.

A commission spokesperson on Wednesday declined to comment on the complaint, citing federal law that requires confidentiality on enforcement matters until they are resolved.

The FEC has often been criticized as ineffective and slow in handling disputes. The six commissioners  three Democrats and three Republicans  frequently stalemate along party lines, resulting in dismissals of cases.

Last year, the deadlocked commission dropped its inquiry into whether Trump violated campaign finance laws by allegedly instructing his personal lawyer to pay porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money to stay quiet before the 2016 election about a sexual relationship they are alleged to have had. In February, the FEC opted not to hold Trump accountable for soft money violations that his campaign had previously acknowledged.

American Bridge, in alleging that Trump has already decided to mount a 2024 campaign, has argued the former president has played footsie with federal campaign laws, even citing them as reasons for his opaque statements about his intentions. In a recent interview, Trump told New York Magazine that he had already made up his mind about a run, and that the question he was now mulling was whether hed pull the trigger before or after the November midterm elections.

Do I go before or after? That will be my big decision, he said.

Trump aides and allies widely expect him to mount a third presidential run and have been discussing preparations, but they remain divided about when he should make an announcement.

Representatives for Trump didn't immediately respond to an email message seeking comment Wednesday. Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesperson, has previously said that American Bridges complaint was without merit and accused Democrats of resorting to cheap gimmicks.

Because the commission didnt act on its complaint within 120 days, American Bridge argues that federal election law now permits the group to bring its own civil action against Trump. In addition to giving Trump a competitive advantage over potential opponents due to not having to disclose his expenditures, the group argues the commissions inaction will only encourage other candidates to evade the requirements of the campaign finance system.

The process over alleged violations of the testing the waters law can take years to unfold. A judge could rule in American Bridge's favor and order the FEC to take up the complaint. If the commission still didn't act, American Bridge could sue again, asking a judge to decide the merits of its initial complaint. Similar cases from election cycles past are still winding their way through the courts.

Trump has been teasing the prospect of another run since even before he left office. He has alluded to his plans in nearly every appearance and interview of his post-presidency, telling conservative hosts and Trump-friendly audiences that he is waiting because officially announcing his run would trigger campaign finance laws.

We may have to run again, Trump said in South Carolina in March, as he campaigned for two Republican U.S. House candidates. In 2024, we are going to take back that beautiful, beautiful White House. I wonder who will do that. I wonder. I wonder.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.

___

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Brian Slodysko in Washington contributed to this report.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A tax preparer at the center of the federal case against New Orleans district attorney Jason Williams took the stand Wednesday in Williams' trial.

The trial began Monday with jury selection. Freshly seated jurors heard opening statements Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, news outlets reported, jurors began hearing from Henry Timothy, who is cooperating with prosecutors and has pleaded guilty to a single tax charge.

Prosecutors say Williams and Nicole Burdett, who was an attorney in Williams' law practice, pressured Timothy to fraudulently reduce Williams tax liability over a five-year period. Defense lawyers say the two were victims of Timothy.

Williams has long argued that he was singled out for prosecution for political reasons.

I would come here and tell the truth, Timothy said on the stand when asked what he had agreed to with prosecutors, according to WWL-TV. Timothy said he felt increasing pressure from Burdett and Williams to lower the amount of tax Williams owed, according to WDSU-TV.

A defense lawyer before he became the citys top prosecutor, Williams was president of the New Orleans City Council when he was indicted in June 2020. He was elected district attorney that December with support from criminal justice reform advocates.
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  Teachers gave heart-wrenching testimony Wednesday in the penalty trial of Nikolas Cruz, with one recalling how a boy in her Holocaust studies class correctly answered a question seconds before he became one of 17 people murdered during the school shooter's rampage four years ago.

Ivy Schamis, then a teacher at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was leading students through a discussion about the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany when star swimmer Nick Dworet correctly responded that Adolf Dassler founded the Adidas shoe company. He then added that Dassler's brother founded the rival Puma brand.

It was then that they heard the initial gunshots in the first-floor hallway of the three-story building, and Cruz began firing his semi-automatic rifle through the glass on her classroom door near where he entered.

It was really seconds later that the barrel of that AR15 just ambushed our classroom," Schamis testified, wiping her eyes with a tissue. It came right through that glass panel and was just shooting everywhere. It was very loud. Very frightening. I kept thinking about these kids who should not be experiencing this at all.

She said the students scrambled to find safety behind furniture, but didn't panic and acted with bravery and maturity as they waited to be rescued. Three students were wounded in her class and two were killed: Dworet and Helena Ramsay, both 17.

When shown their portraits, she began to weep.

Thats my girl, Helena Ramsay, she said. Nicholas Dworet, handsome boy.

Dworet's brother Alexander was grazed by a bullet in a classroom across the hall, where three students were killed and several more wounded.

Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder for the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre. The jury must decide if the former Stoneman Douglas student should be sentenced to death or life without parole for the nations deadliest mass shooting to go before a jury. The trial is expected to last through at least October.

Nine other gunmen who killed at least 17 people died during or immediately after their shootings, either by suicide or police gunfire. The suspect in the 2019 slaying of 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, is awaiting trial.

Schamis' testimony was followed by that of Ronit Reoven, who was lecturing her advanced psychology class about Sigmund Freud when Cruz started firing into her neighboring classroom, also through the door's window.

There were multiple gunshots," she said. "They were incredibly loud. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! I froze for a moment and the students jumped out of their seats. Of course, they were startled and scared."

Reoven said she and the students crouched on the floor around her desk and wounded students were moaning and crying. She used a blanket that normally covered her coffee machine as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from a boy's arm. Another boy used a jacket to stanch the bleeding from a girl's chest. A girl shot in the knee appeared to be stable. But 16-year-old Carmen Schentrup was lying facedown in a pool of blood.

I knew that she was probably gone, Reoven said.

On the third floor, Stacey Lippel was teaching creative writing and Ernest Rospierski was supervising study hall when Cruz's shots on the first floor triggered the fire alarm. Not realizing a shooting was happening below them, they led their students into the hallway to evacuate.

That's when screaming students began coming back up the stairwell and they could hear gunshots.

Lippel said she and the teacher from the neighboring room, Scott Beigel, quickly reopened their doors and started getting students back inside. It was then that Cruz emerged from the stairwell, splaying the rifle back and forth, shot after shot after shot," she said. "It never stopped.

Lippel said she got inside her room and closed the door, but Beigel was fatally shot.

Beigel's student, Veronica Steel, testified that his body kept the door from closing, leaving the students in the room fearful Cruz would come inside.

It was scary. We didn't know what to do, she said.

Rospierski's head and hip were grazed by bullets, but he helped students who had gathered in the alcove outside his classroom flee down a stairwell when Cruz briefly stopped shooting.

Surveillance video played for the jury shows that two wounded students, 18-year-old Meadow Pollack and 14-year-old Cara Loughran, remained behind, lying on the floor. Cruz killed them with a second blast. He then killed 17-year-old Joaquin Oliver, who was lying wounded in front of a restroom.

Two students in the fleeing group, 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg and 15-year-old Peter Wang, were hit just before they reached the stairwell door and potential safety. Both died, Wang after Cruz shot him with a second volley.

When jurors eventually get the case, they will vote 17 times, once for each of the victims, on whether to recommend capital punishment.

For each death sentence, the jury must be unanimous or the sentence for that victim is life. The jurors are told that to vote for death, the prosecutions aggravating circumstances for that victim must, in their judgment, outweigh the defenses mitigators. A juror can also vote for life out of mercy for Cruz. During jury selection, the panelists said under oath that they are capable of voting for either sentence.

___

Associated Press reporter Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his government's plan for a new military offensive in northern Syria will be on the table as long as Kurdish militants continue to pose a security threat to his country.

Erdogan also called on the United States to pull troops from east of the Euphrates River, accusing the NATO ally, once again, of training and helping Syrian Kurdish militia that Ankara considers to be terrorists.

Erdogan made the comments late Tuesday on his return from a visit to Tehran, where he met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The conflict in Syria was among the topics they discussed, and Erdogan sought support for a new Turkish incursion against the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters.

Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper and other media published Erdogan's remarks on Wednesday.

In May, Erdogan announced plans for a new military operation in Syria to drive away Syrian Kurdish militia that Ankara says are an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The plans include resuming Turkish efforts to create a 30-kilometer (20-mile) safe zone along the border with Syria and enabling the voluntary return of Syrian refugees from Turkey, Erdogan has said.

Turkey has launched three major cross-border operations into Syria since 2016 and already controls some territories in the north.

A new operation will continue to be on our agenda as long as our national security concerns are not resolved, Erdogan said. We want Russia and Iran to be on our side in our fight against terrorist organizations.

He continued: America is feeding terrorist organizations there. As soon as America withdraws or doesn't feed these terrorist organizations, our task will become easier."

Turkey has long been infuriated by U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish fighters, who form the backbone of U.S.-led forces against the fight against the Islamic State group.

During the meeting in Tehran, Erdogan said Turkey was determined to drive out the centers of evil that target Turkeys security, adding that the regions of Tel Rifaat and Manbij - where Turkey has said it plans to send troops - had turned into a terror bed.

The three presidents released a joint statement that appeared to refer to Turkey's concerns. The statement said they rejected all attempts to create new realities on the ground under the pretext of combating terrorism, including illegitimate self-rule initiatives."

But Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, at a meeting with Erdogan earlier, warned Turkey against an incursion.

Any sort of military attack in northern Syria will definitely harm Turkey, Syria and the entire region, and will benefit terrorists, Irans top leader said, stressing the need to bring the issue to an end through talks.

Iran and Russia have backed President Bashar Assads government, while Turkey has supported armed opposition factions.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  North Carolina and the United Kingdom have entered into an agreement designed to build cooperation on goals to reduce carbon emissions and to expand economic ties.

State Commerce Secretary Machelle Sanders met on Wednesday in London with Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt for a signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding, according to Gov. Roy Coopers office.
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ISLAMABAD (AP)  Hundreds of people have been killed in Afghanistan since the Taliban overran the country nearly a year ago, even though security on the whole has improved since then, the United Nations said in a report Wednesday.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan also highlighted the poor situation of women and girls since the Taliban takeover and how they have been stripped of many of their human rights under Afghanistan's current rulers.

It is beyond time for all Afghans to be able to live in peace and rebuild their lives after 20 years of armed conflict. Our monitoring reveals that despite the improved security situation since 15 August, the people of Afghanistan, in particular women and girls, are deprived of the full enjoyment of their human rights, said Markus Potzel, deputy special representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan.

The report said as many as 700 people have been killed and 1,400 wounded since mid-August 2021, when the Taliban overran the Afghan capital of Kabul as the United States and NATO were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from the country.

The majority of those casualties were linked to attacks by the Islamic State group's affiliate in the country, a bitter rival of the Taliban which has targeted ethnic and religious minority communities in places where they go to school, worship and go about their daily lives.

Afghanistan has seen persistent bombings and other attacks on civilians, often targeting the mainly Shiite Muslim ethnic Hazara minority. Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State groups affiliate in the country.

The report added that the Taliban have made clear their position on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of opinion.

They have limited dissent by cracking down on protests and curbing media freedoms, including by arbitrarily arresting journalists, protestors and civil society activists and issuing restrictions on media outlets.

The report catalogued human rights violations affecting 173 journalists and media workers, 163 of which were attributed to the de facto authorities. Among these were 122 instances of arbitrary arrest and detention, 58 instances of ill-treatment, 33 instances of threats and intimidation and 12 instances of incommunicado detention.

Six journalists were also killed since August, 2021, including five by self-identified Islamic State affiliates and one by unknown perpetrators.

The right to the freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression and opinion are necessary for the development and progression of a nation, said Fiona Frazer, the U.N.s human rights representative in Afghanistan.

"They allow meaningful debate to flourish, also benefiting those who govern by allowing them to better understand the issues and problems facing the population, she added.

The U.N. also said an amnesty for former government officials the Taliban announced last year has not been consistently upheld. Frazer said the U.N. recorded 160 extrajudicial killings and 178 arrests of former government and military officials.

The report said human rights violations must be investigated by the authorities, perpetrators held accountable, and incidents should be prevented from reoccurring in the future.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called the U.N. report baseless and propaganda and its findings not true.

Arbitrary arrests and killings are not allowed in the country and if anyone commits such crimes, they will be considered guilty and face legal action, he added.

After their takeover last year, the Taliban quickly started enforcing a sharply tougher line, harking back to similar radical measures when the Taliban last ruled the country, from 1996 to 2001.

They issued edicts requiring women to cover their faces except for their eyes in public, including women presenters on TV, and banned girls from attending school past the sixth grade.

The U.N. report added that the erosion of womens rights has been one of the most notable aspects of the de facto administration to date. Since August, women and girls have progressively had their rights to fully participate in education, the workplace and other aspects of public and daily life restricted and in many cases completely taken away.

The decision not to allow girls to return to secondary school means that a generation of girls will not complete their full 12 years of basic education, the U.N. said.

The education and participation of women and girls in public life is fundamental to any modern society. The relegation of women and girls to the home denies Afghanistan the benefit of the significant contributions they have to offer. Education for all is not only a basic human right, it is the key to progress and development of a nation, said Potzel, the U.N. envoy.

During the previous Taliban rule in Afghanistan, they subjected women to overwhelming restrictions, banning them from education and participation in public life and requiring them to wear the all-encompassing burqa.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The U.S. and allies committed more rocket systems, ammunition and other military aid to Ukraine Wednesday, as American defense leaders said they see the war to block Russian gains in the eastern Donbas region grinding on for some time.

Speaking at the close of a virtual meeting with about 50 defense leaders from around the world, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said it will be hard work to keep allies and partners all committed to the war effort as the months drag on.

Were pushing hard to maintain and intensify the momentum of donations, Austin said. This will be an area of focus for the foreseeable future, as it should be, in terms of how long our allies and partners will remain committed ... Theres no question that this will always be hard work making sure that we maintain unity.

Officials have been reluctant to say how long the war may last, but Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested it could be a long slog.

We have a very serious grinding war of attrition going on in the Donbas. And unless theres a breakthrough on either side  which right now the analysts dont think is particularly likely in the near term  it will probably continue as a grinding war of attrition for a period of time until both sides see an alternative way out of this, perhaps through negotiation or something like that.

Officials said Wednesday that the U.S. will send Ukraine four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and precision-guided rockets for them, as well as additional artillery rounds. A more detailed announcement is expected later this week.

The aid comes as Russian forces try to solidify gains in the two provinces in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, Donetsk and Luhansk, while also expanding attacks into other areas. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state-controlled RT television and the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia has expanded its special military operation from the Donbas to the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and other captured territories.

Austin said Lavrov's comments come as no surprise to allies who have known Russia has greater ambitions in capturing Ukraine.

But Ukrainian troops have been using the HIMARS to strike Russian logistics nodes and command and control centers, including behind the front lines to disrupt supply chains. And on Wednesday they struck and damaged a bridge that is key to supplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine, where Lavrov said Moscow is trying to consolidate its territorial gains.

Milley said the Ukrainian strikes are steadily degrading the Russian ability to supply their troops, command and control their forces, and carry out their illegal war of aggression.

He said that, due to Ukraine's resistance, Russia has been able to gain just six to 10 miles of ground in the Donbas over the past 90 days, with tens of thousands of artillery rounds fired in each 24-hour period. And he said he does not believe that the Donbas region has been lost to Russia.

Its not lost yet. The Ukrainians are making the Russians pay for every inch of territory that they gain and advances are measured in literally hundreds of meters, Milley said.

The issue going forward, he said, will be the amount of HIMARS rockets and other ammunition expended by the Ukraine forces. The U.S. has been sending thousands of rounds, taking them from American military stockpiles, and raising questions about how long that will last and at what point there may be a risk to U.S. military readiness.

We are looking at all of that very, very carefully, Milley said. We think were okay right now as we project forward into the next month or two or three, we think were going to be okay.

The U.S. has already provided more than $7 billion in aid to Ukraine since the war began in late February. Austin said that during the defense meeting, there was also discussion about how to ensure that Ukraine is able to maintain and repair the weapons systems into the future.

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Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP)  Democrats regained hold of Washingtons secretary of state office for the first time in more than five decades when Sen. Steve Hobbs was sworn into the position last November, following an appointment by Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee to fill the seat.

Now, Hobbs faces challengers - including several Republicans and a long-serving elections official from Pierce County who is running as a non-partisan - as he attempts to hang on to the office for the remaining two years of former Republican Secretary of State Kim Wymans four-year term.

Wyman was the fifth consecutive GOP secretary of state in Washington dating back to 1965, but left for a key election security job in the Biden administration.

In addition to being the states chief elections officer, the secretary of state also serves as chief corporations officer and supervisor of the state archives and state library.

Ballots were mailed to the states nearly 4.8 million voters last week for the Aug. 2 primary. Under the states primary system, the top two vote getters advance to the general election in November, regardless of party.

Hobbs has raised the most among the candidates for the race to date, more than $403,000, followed by Pierce County auditor Julie Anderson, who has raised nearly $170,000. Among the Republicans in the race, former Sen. Mark Miloscia  who is now head of the conservative Family Policy Institute  has raised the most, more than $59,000. Tamborine Borrelli  an America First candidate who was fined by the state Supreme Court last month for making legally meritless claims alleging widespread voter fraud  has raised nearly $48,000 and Sen. Keith Wagoner  who has been endorsed by former Secretary of State Sam Reed  has raised about $38,000. Both skipped a recent televised forum hosted by the League of Women Voters.

During that forum, Hobbs pointed to his experience as a Washington National Guard lieutenant and the months he's already spent in the office as why he's best positioned to address issues ranging from cybersecurity concerns to election misinformation and disinformation.

No other candidate except for me has the experience to combat these issues, he said.

Anderson, who has been Pierce County auditor for the past 12 years, noted that shes led Pierce Countys elections team through three presidential elections and has managed hundreds of elections.

The hyperpolarization thats so painful in our country right now and in Washington state is only going to get worse, she said on why shes running as a non-partisan. We dont need political parties in the secretary of states office calling balls and strikes at home plate.

Miloscia said that he wants more audits of the system, saying that "the voters have lost confidence in what were doing.

There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Washington state, and Wyman, the former Republican secretary of state, regularly touted the safety and security of the vote-by-mail system.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP)  A West Virginia man was sentenced to the maximum 40 years in prison Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a police officer who had responded to a parking complaint.

Joshua Phillips learned his fate in Kanawha County Circuit Court in the December 2020 shooting of Charleston Police Officer Cassie Johnson.
A Massachusetts family is in shock and mourning after a 23-year-old woman reported missing on Saturday was found dead in her truck in Vermont early Tuesday.

Mary Anderson's former boyfriend was later shot and killed during a confrontation with police in Brattleboro, Vermont, after being named a person of interest in her death.

When was Mary last seen?

Mary Anderson, 23, was last seen alive in Hudson, New Hampshire, at 10:30 p.m. driving a navy blue 2017 Toyota Tacoma with a Massachusetts license plate.

Sheila Anderson said her daughter was supposed to be driving home Saturday night after hanging out with friends in Hudson, New Hampshire.

She said the family constantly updates each other on their whereabouts, so when her daughter didnt come home Saturday night, she knew something was wrong.

"This is not my daughters behavior. She is missing. She didn't as a 23-year-old say, 'Hey, I'm going to leave my life and my family.' That's not what's happening here. Shes missing and Im hoping Mary will come back," she said.

Anderson was reported missing by her family Sunday evening.

When was she found?

Anderson's body was found around 12:55 a.m. Tuesday inside her pickup truck which was parked on Elliot Street in Brattleboro, Vermont.

What do we know about Mary's ex-boyfriend?

According to Vermont State Police, her ex-boyfriend, Matthew Davis, 34, of Fitchburg, was located Tuesday night while walking in West Brattleboro by members of the Vermont State Police and the Brattleboro Police Department.

He had been named a person of interest in Anderson's death.

"During an attempt to speak with the man at about 7:45 p.m., he was shot by police and has been pronounced deceased," state police said.

Police said Davis was armed with a knife.

Harvard police confirmed Wednesday that Davis' Subaru was found about a quarter mile from Anderson's home on Monday.

Andersons family told Boston sister station WCVB that the pair recently broke up in November after dating for three years.



"The sad part for me, as a mom  whatever she experienced these last four days. Just heart-wrenching. She was alone. She wasnt with her mom or her siblings. I think thats the devastating part. Not knowing what she was going through the last four days," Sheila Anderson said.



Anderson's friends said Davis had been harassing Anderson online before she went missing.

"He was tagging her locations, where she worked, where she went to school, just trying to damage her, I think emotionally, and you know she was doing very good with coping with that and she was going to go to the police on Sunday about it and she never had to the opportunity to," Alicia Giannino, a friend of Anderson, told sister station WMUR.

Police are currently processing Davis' vehicle for clues.

WCVB also learned that Davis was convicted for violently stabbing a man in Pittsfield in 2009. The victim was the boyfriend of the mother of his two children.



She told the TV station that Davis spent several years in prison for that crime.

According to a police report, Davis was hiding in the woman's bedroom closet. He jumped out and stabbed her new boyfriend, who was in the room with her.

Police found Davis hiding next to a snow bank a few hours later and arrested him.

How did Mary die?

Vermonts Chief Medical Examiners Office in Burlington will perform an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of Andersons death.
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LANSING, Mich. (AP)  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the final piece of a $76 billion state budget into law Wednesday, largely backing the plan legislators approved but vetoing money that Republicans funneled toward anti-abortion causes including groups that run pregnancy resource centers focused on persuading pregnant women to give birth.

Negotiators met behind the scenes for weeks to develop the budget proposal and announced a deal in late June. But they couldn't agree on how to lower taxes, which is possible thanks to a flood of federal money and anticipated higher tax revenue.

Whitmer, a Democrat, has called for targeted cuts, while Republicans want broader ones including lower individual and corporate income tax rates.

Officials estimate that $7 billion in extra revenue is available to account for any tax deal that leaders can produce. But it's unclear where Michigan leaders' talks on that stand.

Whitmer on Wednesday repeated her preference for targeted cuts and said she hopes to make progress when lawmakers return to the Capitol this fall.

We still have an opportunity in front of us to do more, and I am hopeful we will be able to do that, she said.

The broader budget that Whitmer signed puts $6 billion toward state and local roads, bridges and other transportation projects. It also puts about $2.6 billion toward public pension systems.

Whitmer highlighted plans to bring the state's rainy day fund" to $1.6 billion as a precaution against an economic downturn. She also pushed legislators to focus on infrastructure that will support innovation, health care and youth needs around the state, including a state psychiatric youth facility and a cancer research facility at Wayne State University.

The governor also touted the education budget she signed this month, which added $450 to the per student funding for K-12 schools, which is roughly a 5.2% increase. The state Department of Education has said the $9,150 commitment per student marks the highest total in Michigans history.

This budget has something remarkable for every community across the state of Michigan," Whitmer said. "This budget is focused on every part of the state of Michigan and every person in the state of Michigan.

The governor's vetoes largely focused on anti-abortion causes and totaled about $20 million in spending cuts. That's just a small slice of the budget but again demonstrated the stark political divide over abortion rights in Michigan following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Abortion remains legal in the state thanks to a judge's injunction in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood, which is challenging Michigan's long-unenforced 1931 law banning abortion unless it is necessary to preserve" life.

Whitmer said none of her decisions should surprise Republicans who control the both legislative chambers.

Her vetoes included $10 million for a marketing program promoting adoption over abortion, $3 million for organizations that promote "childbirth and alternatives to abortion," and $100,000 designated for legal defense of a ban on gender reassignment surgeries or therapies while people are in state prisons.

State Rep. Thomas Albert, a Republican from Lowell who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement this week that Whitmer's vetoes support only one option for women in a crisis pregnancy  the deadly choice of abortion.

It is shocking that the governor, and her far left political base, are now so extreme that helping pregnant women who might consider adoption instead is now a bridge too far, Albert said.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to force nearly 20 companies that he alleges contaminated the environment with chemicals known as PFAS to reimburse the state for investigations and cleanup efforts.

The lawsuit, filed in Dane County circuit court, names 18 companies as defendants, including 3M Company, Tyco Fire Products LP, and BASF Corporation. The filing alleges the defendants knew or should have known that their products would have a dangerous impact on the public's health and environment.

The lawsuit seeks punitive damages as well as reimbursement for the costs of investigations, cleanup and remediation.

To this day, the State continues to take necessary actions to protect its natural resources and its residents from harm caused by PFAS contamination, the lawsuit states. The State and its taxpayers will need to spend billions of dollars remediating the dangerous PFAS contamination caused by Defendants' wrongful, deceptive and tortious conduct.

3M communications manager Sean Lynch said in a statement the company acted responsibly and will vigorously defend its record of environmental stewardship." Roberto Nelson, a spokesman for BASF, said the company doesn't believe the lawsuit has merit. Tyco spokeswoman Karen Marie Tognarelli said in a statement that the company is working to clean up PFAS contamination and the lawsuit won't stop it from doing the right thing and leading on the PFAS clean up.

PFAS is an abbreviation for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The chemicals were developed as coatings to protect consumer goods from stains, water and corrosion. Nonstick cookware, carpets, outdoor gear and food packaging are among items that contain the chemicals. They also are an ingredient in firefighting foams.

They're often described as "forever chemicals" because some dont degrade naturally and are believed to be capable of lingering indefinitely in the environment. Research suggests that they may cause health problems in humans.

PFAS contamination is a widespread problem in Wisconsin. A host of communities, including Marinette, the town of Campbell on French Island, Madison and Wausau have discovered the chemicals in their water.

The state Department of Natural Resources policy board adopted limits on PFAS in drinking and surface water in February. The board refused to impose limits for groundwater, leaving the chemicals unregulated in wells.

Kaul, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit in Marinette County in March against Johnson Controls and Tyco Fire Products alleging their firefighting foam led to PFAS contamination in the area. That lawsuit is still pending.

The new filing comes as Kaul faces what could be a bruising reelection bid this fall. Three Republicans  Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney, former state Rep. Adam Jarchow and attorney Karen Mueller  are looking to take his job. The GOP primary is Aug. 9 and the general election is Nov. 8.

Tyco's Tognarelli said in her statement that the lawsuit appears to be about politics and a fast approaching election more than it is about public health or the environment.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Wisconsin Republicans erased regulations Wednesday allowing local election clerks to fill in missing information on absentee ballot envelopes, the latest move in the GOP's push to tighten voting procedures in the crucial swing state.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission developed an emergency rule earlier this year that permits local clerks to fill in missing witness address information on absentee envelopes without contact the witness or the voter. The rule reflected guidance the commission issued to clerks in October 2016. The guidance was in effect during the 2020 presidential election, which saw Joe Biden narrowly defeat then-President Donald Trump.

The Republican-controlled Legislature's rules committee voted 6-4 to suspend the emergency rule. The guidance remains in place, but it's unclear how many clerks might follow it in light of the committee vote and a court could soon erase it as well.

The committee vote is part of a string of Republican efforts to impose tighter restrictions on voting around the country as Trump continues to spread the false claim that Biden stole the election.

Multiple reviews and court decisions have found no evidence of fraud on a scale that would have affected the outcome but Trump and his supporters keep working to convince people the election wasn't legitimate.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 19 states enacted laws that made it harder to vote last year, including shortening the window for applying for an absentee mail ballot, stiffening voter identification requirements and limiting early voting hours.

Wisconsin's Republican-controlled Legislature passed a sweeping package of bills earlier this year to require the rules committee to sign off on any commission guidance, to make it harder for people to declare themselves indefinitely confined in order to get an absentee ballot and to ban private groups from giving local governments money to administer elections.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the entire package, but Republicans won a major victory earlier this month when the conservative-controlled state Supreme Court outlawed drop boxes. The GOP has argued that the boxes aren't secure and invite fraud.

Now GOP leaders have set their sights on the clerk guidance, arguing that state law doesn't allow clerks to fill in blanks on ballot envelopes and if the witness doesn't fill in the missing information the ballot doesn't count. They demanded that the commission codify the guidance in an emergency rule, which would allow the Legislature's Republican-controlled rules committee to erase it.

The commission complied and drafted the rule. The committee met Wednesday afternoon to block it at the request of Republican legislative leaders, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu.

Democrats on the committee spent an hour criticizing the move, labeling it a disgusting attempt to tamp down voter turnout ahead of the Aug. 9 primary and Nov. 8 general election, which includes critical races for governor and U.S. Senate.

This is a horrible mistake but it continues the road Republicans are going down, Rep. Gary Hebl said. They don't have the votes so they've got to cut down the number of people who can vote any way they can do it. It's a sad time in our democracy that we have to stoop to these levels.

GOP committee members countered that state law simply doesn't allow clerks to fill in missing information. They stressed that clerks can attempt to return ballots with incomplete witness addresses. Hebl countered that overworked clerks will simply chuck incomplete envelopes in the trash.

I care about following state law," the committee co-chairman Sen. Steve Nass said. No one has mentioned a state law that allows (the elections commission) to do what they're doing. (The commission) is attempting to create a new law. That is a core legislative function.

It's not clear how many clerks may have acted to fix witness information during the 2020 election.

The Legislative Audit Bureau last year reviewed nearly 15,000 absentee ballot envelopes from the election across 29 municipalities and found that 1,022, or about 7%, were missing parts of witness addresses. Fifteen didn't have any witness address at all, eight lacked a witness signature and three didn't have a voter signature.

Auditors found evidence that clerks had corrected addresses on 66 envelopes, or 0.4% of the sample. The audit cautioned against extrapolating the findings statewide, however, noting auditors reviewed ballot envelopes from nine of the 10 municipalities with the highest proportion of absentee ballots.

Even though the rule is no more, the elections commission's initial guidance saying clerks can correct missing information still stands but maybe not for long. The Waukesha County Republican Party filed a lawsuit earlier this month alleging the guidance is illegal.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said if clerks are blocked from adding missing information on their own, they will have to track witnesses down that could be cumbersome for some offices with already heavy workloads. He said clerks may decide to mail the ballot back with a request to fill in the missing information if theres enough time to do so before Election Day. Otherwise they may have to call or email the voter.

He said allowing clerks to add missing information on their own is a common-sense system. Often the witness is the voter's spouse and clerks can confirm an address through the state voter database.

Any fair-minded person would think this was reasonable, he said.

Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said the committee vote puts clerks in a difficult spot since the guidance saying they can fill in witness address information remains in place, creating confusion.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of McDonell' in 17th graf.

___

Associated Press writer Scott Bauer contributed to this report.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  A woman who allegedly told detectives she had wanted to become a serial killer faces murder charges in the deaths of two men in Anchorage earlier this month.

Bail was set for $1 million for Brianna Star Wassillie on Tuesday. The state's online court records system did not show an attorney for Wassillie as of Wednesday morning. Wassillie also faces a charge of misconduct involving a corpse.
EDWARDSVILLE  An octogenarian has been charged after allegedly deliberately hitting another person with his vehicle.

Alfred V. Traub, 88, of Wood River, was charged July 19 with aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony, and failure to stop after having an accident involving personal injury or death, a Class 4 felony.

The case was presented by the Wood River Police Department.

According to court documents and police statements, on July 18 Traub and another man allegedly were near the intersection of Second Street and Carringer Place in Wood River when they had a dispute. Traub is accused of deliberately striking the victim with his 1994 Oldsmobile, causing minor injuries.

Traub also allegedly failed to stop or report the incident to police. His bail was set at $50,000.

In an unrelated case, a Venice man was charged with failure to register as a sex offender, his third such charge since 2016.

Vincent E. Brown, 58, of Venice, was charged with unlawful failure to register as a sex offender (second subsequent offense), a Class 2 felony, and obstructing justice, a Class 4 felony.

The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department.

According to court documents, between Jan. 14 and June 23 Brown allegedly failed to register with the Granite City Police Department. On Jan. 14 he allegedly gave false information to a Granite City Police Department detective relating to addresses he would be visiting, frequenting and sleeping over at as required by state law. He allegedly gave addresses that were not valid or were vacant or demolished buildings.

Brown pleaded guilty in 1995 to aggravated criminal sexual abuse/bodily harm of a then-30-year-old woman. He is listed as homeless out of Madison in the Illinois sex offender database, but court documents list his address in Venice. He is also listed as noncompliant in the state database.

He has prior convictions for failure to register out of Madison County in 2016 and 2017; and charges pending from Aug. 2021.

Bail on the latest charges was set at $25,000.

In a separate case, Jason A. Winship, 42, of Alton, was charged with aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony.

The case was presented by the Alton Police Department.

According to court documents, on July 18 Winship allegedly strangled a household or family member.

Bail was set at $30,000.
By Tran Nguyen

San Jose Spotlight

Juan Quintero was on the verge of death.

After learning he had terminal liver cancer in March, Quintero ended up at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (VMC) for treatment.

Instead of getting help, Quintero waited 14 hours in an ER lobby. He waited more than a week later for an biopsy and seven weeks more for test results to qualify him for chemotherapy treatment. His daughter, Ana Mendoza, watched her 75-year-old father's health decline rapidly. Quintero stopped eating and he could barely speak.

"It was killing us to see my dad's health going downhill because the hospital didn't have enough staff and equipment," Mendoza told San Jose Spotlight. "He was ready to give up. I almost gave up too. It was hard."

In wealthy Santa Clara County, patients with the least resources wait months for crucial scanning and diagnoses -- an issue county leaders have ignored for years, hospital workers say.

Physicians and technologists at VMC are sounding the alarm over ongoing worker shortages and decrepit equipment in the radiology department. Workers said the years-long issue is made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a backlog of hundreds of patients and months-long waits for basic, non-invasive scanning such as MRIs and CTs. The problem is dire in many cases. Technologists in the department are doing the job of two or three people, workers said.

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, one of three public hospitals operated by the county, serves some of the most vulnerable and low-income residents, many of whom don't have private insurance or options for health care elsewhere, workers said.

"Being one of the most vulnerable populations, many of our patients don't have the resources to pay for their health care," a technologist with more than 10 years of experience at VMC told San Jose Spotlight. "Many of them wait until they can't wait any longer, and the progress of their disease is so much further along than patients with resources and options."

San Jose Spotlight is not naming VMC workers due to their fear of retaliation. This news organization talked to seven doctors and technologists who shared corroborating stories.

Hospital administration refuted the claims from workers, but didn't provide any additional information.

County executive Jeff Smith did not respond to requests for comment.

"We do take all concerns seriously and are working collaboratively with our staff to address them," VMC CEO Paul Lorenz told San Jose Spotlight, adding services have been hit by the pandemic. "Our staff are doing an excellent job caring for our patients, and our patients should know that their care, including access to both urgent and routine imaging services, is prioritized to meet their medical needs."

VMC is the anchor facility -- and safety net -- for the county health system with 730 beds. As one of the few level 1 trauma centers in Northern California, the hospital provides comprehensive care for every aspect of injuries, from prevention through rehabilitation.

Long wait for life-saving procedures

Radiology services, including MRIs, X-rays and CT scans, are required by nearly every single patient at the hospital, a VMC radiology doctor told San Jose Spotlight. The services are crucial in diagnosing and monitoring diseases such as cancer. Many procedures -- like hip replacements -- also require radiology technologists and equipment.

"The breadth of radiology is quite big, and the involvement of our services throughout the hospital is pretty substantial," said a doctor who's worked at VMC for several years.

That means when machines or workers are not available, life-saving procedures and diagnoses get delayed, potentially complicating a patient's medical plan. It's impossible to quantify how many patients have slipped through the cracks because of the issues in the department, doctors and technologists said. What's evident is the broken system.

Wait time for scans has ballooned. As of June, the wait for an MRI scan is at least three to four months, doctors told San Jose Spotlight. Patients are waiting six weeks for an ultrasound, and four weeks for a breast MRI.

Patient often wait an average of two hours on the phone to schedule an appointment, radiologists said. Out of 3,399 calls in June to the department, only 1,526 -- or 45 percent -- got picked up. Workers said the county has not hired enough people to take those calls and finish clerical tasks.

The issue is exacerbated when equipment breaks down. The hospital has multiple machines that are beyond repair. Doctors and technologists said the machines at VMC are so outdated, the manufacturers stopped making parts for them, further delaying repairs. A technologist said eight people are doing the job of 16 people this week. Because of the shortage, appointments and procedures sometimes get canceled on the scheduled day.

Some doctors said they are still waiting for certain machines budgeted at least six years ago. A technologist said many of the machines at VMC are more than 23 years old. The lifespan of an X-ray machine is between 10-15 years.

VMC relies on three CT scanners -- one of which is permanently inoperable and another one routinely breaks down, sources said. When the scanners are down, patients have no choice but to wait for another appointment.

"If our patients were affluent clientele who know how to work a system like you'd see at Stanford or El Camino, they wouldn't put up with this sort of stuff," the doctor told San Jose Spotlight.

No accountability

Physicians said the culture at work also impedes their ability to provide quality care. Administrators make many decisions on staffing and equipment without consulting them, they said. Many said workers have not spoken out about the issues in the department because of fear of retaliation.

Valley Physician Group, a union representing VMC doctors, sent the hospital administration a letter last November detailing the issues. SEIU Local 521, a union representing technologists and other workers in the radiology department, also sent a petition signed by 95 percent of the workers with similar concerns to the Board of Supervisors in February. The efforts have yielded no response.

Hospital administrators have hired more workers since, but little else has been done, workers said.

"They couldn't care less about us being frustrated," a doctor said.

The concerns from VMC doctors and workers come as Santa Clara County has vowed to invest in health care. The county spent roughly 40 percent of its next year's budget on hospitals and health programs. But VMC workers said administrators are ignoring glaring issues in the hospital. Valley Physician Group is negotiating the doctors' contract, who have been working without one for at least 18 months. Physicians employed by the county claim they're being underpaid and overworked compared to their peers in the region.

The complaints come on the heels of one county doctor who died by suicide in May and another attempting suicide this week.

Radiology is not the only VMC department experiencing significant problems. Earlier this year, a group of contracted emergency physicians protested against the ongoing staff shortages and unsafe working conditions. The doctors, employed by medical group US Acute Care Solutions (USACS), wanted the county to either hire them as county employees or find a local company to manage them. Santa Clara County decided to extend the contract with USACS despite the opposition.

Supervisors Joe Simitian, Cindy Chavez and Susan Ellenberg couldn't be reached for comment, their offices said. Supervisors Otto Lee and Mike Wasserman didn't respond to inquiries.

'As if we don't matter'

Mendoza, the daughter of Quintero and a medical assistant at Kaiser with 17 years of experience, wanted to bring him to Stanford Cancer Center or Kaiser. Quintero couldn't afford it. He had Medicare, but not Part B coverage that covers hospitalizations and doctors.

Quintero stayed in the hospital for several days and was sent home with Tylenol. Mendoza spent the following days calling the hospital to schedule her dad's biopsy, which was crucial to assess his illness. Once the procedure was done a week later, the waiting game began.

"They said the result will come within 10 days to two weeks -- that didn't happen," Mendoza told San Jose Spotlight. "I spent like at least seven hours in the following days trying to get an answer, and nobody could help me."

The family waited seven weeks before Quintero's chemotherapy treatments started.

"From first day at the ER to the first chemo, it was hell," Mendoza said. "I understand there's a system, but why so long? Why?"

Things have improved for Quintero since. He finished his fourth round of chemo this week, with little side effects, Mendoza said. His family is rejoicing, but the experience left a bad taste with Mendoza. She is planning to file a formal complaint about their experience.

"I feel like the county is saying, 'If you're low income, you don't deserve more than this,'" she said. "It's as if we don't matter."

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.
Potentially toxic algal mats have been identified in the Russian River and the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board is warning those who boat, fish, or swim in the river to exercise caution.

Children and dogs are especially susceptible to serious health impacts from the algae and should avoid touching any suspicious-looking algal mats in the water or along the river bank. Dogs that have been exposed to the mats should be washed immediately.

The harmful algae blooms are caused by algal or Cyanobacteria that grow floating in water, though some grow under the water at the bottom of waterways and can form colorful algal mats that range from bright to dull green, orange, brown and maroon, the Water Board said. These mats can become detached and end up stranded on banks.

Sonoma County will be posting "Toxic Algae Alert" signs at recreation areas. The county and water board will be posting updates on the situation at mywaterquality.ca.gov/habs/where/freshwater_events.html.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to call on new District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to keep a criminal justice reform program that was begun under her predecessor, Chesa Boudin, who was recalled in June.

The Independent Innocence Commission was begun in 2020 by Boudin and was staffed by liaison attorney Arcelia Hurtado, who was fired by Jenkins, along with several other post-conviction attorneys, when she took over for Boudin.

The commission recently helped exonerate Joaquin Ciria, who had been incarcerated for over 30 years for a murder he did not commit.

The Innocence Commission currently works with the University of San Francisco School of Law's Racial Justice Clinic.

The Flynn Fire which broke out Tuesday night near Altamont in Alameda County is at 121 acres and 80 percent containment, as of 11:50 p.m. according to Cal Fire officials.

The vegetation fire burned near North Flynn Road and Interstate Highway 580, causing part of I-580 to be closed at one point.

Cal Fire worked in tandem with the Alameda County Fire to battle the blaze and crews will continue to work on the fire through the evening, Cal Fire said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Things have been so good for the geese in Foster City that the council has decided to take steps to reduce the resulting gander -- by authorizing the possible killing of up to 100 birds.

An over abundant waterfowl population in Foster City has led to potential health hazards, deteriorating lagoon water quality and other sanitation concerns, a spokesperson for the city said.

Testing on lagoon water has shown elevated bacteria levels that can be directly linked to the geese.

The city was quick to point out that taking the lethal route is one of many options and would only be exercised selectively and in conjunction with a wide variety of nonlethal methods.

A ballot measure that aims to maximize voter participation will head to the November ballot, after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the measure Tuesday.

If passed by voters, the measure would move elections to even years instead of odd years for the mayor, sheriff, district attorney, city attorney and treasurer.

According to Supervisor Dean Preston, who put forth the measure, presidential elections-- which take place on even years-- have seen nearly twice the voter turnout than in odd years.

Preston claims that more than 55 cities in California have switched their odd year cycles to even year election cycles over the last five years, including Los Angeles and San Jose.

The measure is endorsed by California Common Cause, RepresentUs and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-- Asian Law Caucus.

Amid a nationwide racial reckoning between police and communities of color, Oakland city councilmembers on Tuesday gave police officers a raise following what a council member called a backroom deal by the mayor.

All six council members present at Tuesday's special council meeting approved the raise while Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan and Councilmember Carroll Fife were excused.

The tentative agreement was struck less than two weeks ago in closed session between the city and the Oakland Police Officers' Association, the police union.

It gives officers a three percent increase in 2024 and 2025. Officers were already expected to receive a three and a half percent increase next year under an agreement that extended to June 30, 2024.

A fetus was taken from a funeral home in Lodi and disposed of in a waste container, police announced this weekend.

Police said they received a report Saturday from the Cherokee Memorial Funeral Home about the fetus being gone from their storage area.

During an investigation, video footage from two weeks prior showed an employee from a contracted transport service throwing away an item that had the fetus inside, according to police. The fetus was disposed of into a waste container.

The National Weather Service forecast for the greater San Francisco Bay Area calls for continued warm to hot conditions Wednesday under mostly sunny skies. Daytime highs are expected in the 60s along the coast, in the low 70s to low 80s around the bay and reaching the mid 90s in the East Bay's inland areas. Overnight lows are expected in the 50s.

There is a chance of a minor cooling trend by Friday that could return temperatures to seasonal normals this weekend. There is a potential for sneaker waves and dangerous rip currents through Wednesday evening along the Pacific Coast.

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.
Midland Health is pleased to recognize Dr. Carol Boswell for being named a Texas Nurses Association 25 Outstanding Nurses of 2022 award winner.

Boswell has been with MMH as a nurse researcher for many years and has assisted on multiple projects and publications. Dr. Rebekah Powers nominated Boswell to honor her dedication to nursing practice and contributions to research.

Dr. Boswell has not only co-authored a book on evidenced based practice and research but has taken it to the next level and has applied what she has written here at MMH, said Powers.

Boswell works with nurses at all professional levels, from associate degree nurses and to our doctoral students, to implement evidence-based practice into their practice setting.

She volunteers and gives back to nursing in many ways by reviewing research applications, mentoring nurses, volunteering with professional organizations, and being a strong advocate for rural nurses. Carol volunteered at the mass vaccination clinic administering vaccines during the pandemic, Powers explained.

Kit Bredimus, chief Nursing officer at MMH and board member for the Texas Nurses Association, provided some information on the award.

The 25 Outstanding Nurses is a way for the TNA to recognize nurses across the state who have made a significant impact in their communities and their practice setting in the past year. The inaugural class of honorees are nurses across many different practice areas, from bedside heroes to nurse executives, innovators, academics and community advocates. Dr. Boswell is the perfect example of what it means to be an outstanding nurse for her contributions to MMH, the Permian Basin, and the profession of nursing. Dr. Boswell was the only nurse from west Texas to receive this honor.

The winners of the 25 Outstanding Nurses were announced at the TNA Annual Conference on July 25 in Georgetown. For more information about the award and the announcement can be found at https://www.texasnurses.org/news/611211/
I believe a woman has the inherent right to terminate her pregnancy, but I do not blame the Court for overturning Roe v Wade.

I blame state legislators for writing laws unduly restricting that right, and Congress for not doing what it can, and should do, to protect that right.

Roe v. Wade was the Supreme Courts attempt to do what the state legislators, and Congress in particular, failed to do. It was more law than a Constitutional resolution. And it enabled lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to avoid doing what they failed to do: pass thoughtful legislation to logically provide definition, in other words define when, at what stage of the pregnancy, Americans consider an abortion to be the termination of an innocent life.

Regretfully, in large measure due to the Senate filibuster, very little gets done in the Congress, and that has particularly been the case for nearly the last 30 years. The excess use of the filibuster explains why presidential executive orders and court rulings have become so dominate, and ultimately so destructive to the democratic process.

When I asked a former House colleague, then newly elected, how he liked the Senate, he said, I love it. I can kill anything. His response said everything to me. It explained and summarized the dysfunction in our federal government.

Just one senator can object to a bill coming to the Senate floor, so the bill cannot be considered for passage. It cannot even be debated. And sadly, most senators, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, argue to keep the filibuster in place, or are conveniently silent, because they too want that same power to kill legislation they dont want.

Since it only takes one senator to kill a piece of legislation, it is not a surprise very little gets done in Congress, regardless of which party has the majority. In fact, given the Senate filibuster, it is a stretch to say one party controls the Senate. It doesnt.

The majority party may get to choose who chairs the Senate Committees, decide the agenda of the committees, and pass legislation out of the committees, but thats it! With few exceptions, if only one member of the Senate does not like the committees work, it is dead on arrival. It is dead unless 60 votes can be found to bring it to the floor for debate, and ultimate passage. But when does that happen?

When our Founding Fathers ratified the U.S. Constitution, they put many restraints on the federal government. Congress writes the laws, but any law has to have identical language in the House and Senate. The president may veto any potential law. The Congress then needs two-thirds majority to override a veto. And finally, the Court makes sure laws meet Constitutional requirements. The Court can void the law, declaring it unconstitutional

To further buffer the ability of a new wave of an ardent elected majority to work its will, two-thirds of the Senate is not even up for re-election. So why the need for the Senate filibuster? There are already enough restraints.

In the past, the filibuster was rarely used, but that was when most members of the House and Senate were loyal to the nation first, and their party second. Now the Democratic or Republican Party comes first, the nation second. This translates into members of both parties making sure the other party does not succeed, even when the minority members know passage of a piece of legislation proposed by the majority would be a positive step forward. Today, devotion to the party supersedes love and devotion to our country.

Use of the filibuster has become alarmingly abusive, a practice that is depriving Americans of a functioning government, and allowing senators to avoid debating and voting on controversial but essential legislation. Members of the House and the Senate can take a position earning a particular interest groups support, but never pay the consequences for nothing getting done.

Ardent pro-life advocates argue for the need to prevent even birth control, and argue that a woman, even a young girl, a child, raped by a stranger, neighbor, or family member, must carry the pregnancy to term. Really?

How many Americans agree with that? We will soon find out. For now we have a real-life story that gives the abortion debate the reality it deserves.

How many Americans feel a 10-year-old raped child should be prevented from ending her pregnancy? How many Americans would condemn a child for traveling to Indiana from Ohio, given Ohio does not allow her to end her pregnancy after only six weeks? And how many Americans would criticize the doctor who performed the abortion? I suspect very few.

When the right to end a pregnancy was more theoretical than actual, advocates on both sides could make their arguments without the general public being fully engaged in the conversation, and understand and appreciate the consequences. The Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade assuredly guarantees that will change.

But as long as the filibuster is in place, the so-called best and most important forum for political debate, the U.S. Senate, may never even debate the issue. Senators with opposing views will make statements to the press, be prominent on social media, and speak on the Senate floor, but will never be held responsible and accountable for debating the issue, and finding a legislative solution most Americans can accept. That must change.

I believe the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade has a silver lining. The use of the Senate filibuster, an historical southern strategy to prevent northern interference, may finally be limited  or actually eliminated  given public pressure to address a womans right to end a pregnancy, especially in cases of rape or incest. And maybe as a result, Congress will be able, and actually become motivated, to address other neglected issues confronting our country.

Christopher Shays served 34 years in public office, 13 years as a state representative from Stamford and 21 years as congressman for the Fourth District of Connecticut.
A domestic violence victim is five times more likely to be killed when their abusive partner can get his or her hands on a gun.

Spending more time at home has certainly made life easier for some Illinoisans.

Less gasoline used, as prices soar at the pump. No more need to worry about office-appropriate outfits. Additional hours with loved ones.

But for those who have been stuck inside with an abusive family member, the new normal brought by the pandemic has only exacerbated the attacks. Across Illinois, the problem is getting worse.

Calls to domestic violence hotlines increased in the state last year, according to a report recently released by the advocacy organization The Network. Even more grim: Murders and shootings tied to domestic violence incidents in the city increased nearly two-thirds in 2021 from 2020, the Measuring Safety: Gender-based Violence in Illinois study revealed.

What makes an already-frightening situation even worse is that limited social interaction  a byproduct of precautionary measures against COVID-19  and an unpredictable economy have created more obstacles for domestic violence victims to get help.

Victims deserve to be taken seriously. In many cases, their life may be at stake. Yet in some cases, they simply feel as if police are dismissive of their complaints.

A major step that law enforcement officials can do to gain some of that needed trust is to ensure that firearms are taken out of the homes where domestic violence has taken place  and could occur again.

A domestic violence victim is five times more likely to be killed when their abusive partner can get his or her hands on a gun, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

So not surprisingly, domestic violence is the most common reason for an Illinois gun owner to have his or her FOID (firearm owners identification) card revoked.

Thats just a first step. Unless a weapon is surrendered, potential victims are still at risk  and it happens far too often. While Illinois State Police rescinded more than 11,000 FOID cards in 2021, in only about 4,200 of those cases did gun owners surrender their weapons to authorities, The Network found.

That is unacceptable.

When residents have their FOID card revoked, they are supposed to surrender their card to the local police, get rid of their weapons and complete a Firearm Disposition Record form within a 48-hour time period.

But those prone to violence may not be inclined to transfer their firearms elsewhere  which means its up to law enforcement authorities to make sure others are safe from those who can no longer legally own a weapon.

Law enforcement agencies where the FOID card revocations take place must be diligent about conducting the necessary follow-up checks and coordinate their data with state police officials. State police only started tracking who actually got rid of their guns in 2015, after they were questioned about revoked FOID card protocol by the Sun-Times.

Routinely failing to confiscate guns from people who have had their FOID cards revoked has potentially deadly consequences.

Nearly a decade ago, Sheriff Tom Dart, frustrated by this inaction, put together a unit to seize guns from residents whose FOID cards were revoked in suburbs and unincorporated areas in Cook County.

Last year, this team retrieved 168 weapons and handled nearly 800 FOID revocation cases, making sure that both the card and the weapons were no longer in the possession of the person who had his or her card revoked. So far in 2022, the sheriffs department seized 75 guns and completed 426 revocation cases.

Dart, in 2013, said he had hoped to eliminate tragedies by creating the team that seizes weapons from residents who had their FOID cards revoked.

More of these deadly scenarios can easily be avoided if police in other jurisdictions and state police keep communicating, and make it a priority to take guns away from those who shouldnt have them.
New San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has been in office for less than two weeks since replacing the recalled Chesa Boudin, but her office has already filed more standalone charges for possession of drug paraphernalia than have been filed in San Francisco in the past 11 years, according to records reviewed by SFGATE and city data.

Jenkins  who took office on July 8  said she had nothing to do with the charges, and plans to withdraw them.

The charge for possessing drug paraphernalia  a violation of California Health and Safety Code 11364A  is almost always used in San Francisco alongside other charges such as burglary, possession of narcotics or weapons possession. Data from the city shows that since the start of 2011, there have been 2,950 cases in which this charge, a misdemeanor (classified as 11364A/M/0 or 11364 in the database) has been filed, and in only nine of those 2,950 cases did the suspect face charges for 11364A alone.

Public defender Peter Calloway told SFGATE that after he reviewed the nine cases, he believes only one was a true case of solo charges for possession of drug paraphernalia, and the others were mislabeled. That's why he and other members of his office were surprised to see that in the past week, Jenkins' office has filed standalone drug paraphernalia charges in 17 new cases.

Copies of criminal complaints dated July 13, 14 and 19 reviewed by SFGATE confirm that Jenkins' office is filing these 17 standalone charges for arrests dated June 29 through July 7. This sharp increase is deeply alarming to members of the San Francisco Public Defender's Office: Mano Raju, the city's elected public defender, said in a statement he "denounce[s] these charging decisions by District Attorney Jenkins," and Adam Lipson, another public defender, told SFGATE the volume of standalone drug paraphernalia charges "is unprecedented."

Jenkins says she had no hand in it.

"I have made no policy changes in regards to charging for simple drug possession and paraphernalia," she said in a statement to SFGATE. "My office will immediately withdraw these charges as they were done out of accordance with our offices policy. I am focused on holding serious drug dealers, particularly those dealing fentanyl, accountable and not targeting and incarcerating those suffering from addiction. We will take the appropriate steps internally to ensure that our staff is following our policy."

A complaint listing an additional standalone 11364A charge dated July 5 reviewed by SFGATE confirms that there was at least one such charge issued three days prior to Jenkins taking office. A source in the DA's office said that at the end of Boudin's tenure, the management staff overseeing these cases were on extended leave when charges were first brought.

"Usually this charge is there to justify why the cops were involved with your client," said public defender Alexandra Pray. "To have it as a standalone means the suspect is not even possessing actual drugs. If youre smoking meth that means there's meth in the pipe. If you're charged with 11364 alone that means you can't even be hit with possessing narcotics, it's just you have the means to use drugs if you come across them. It's hard for me to wrap my head around why were arresting and prosecuting these people."

When speaking in the Tenderloin last week, Jenkins stressed the importance of going after drug dealers, but did not directly say whether she would more vigorously prosecute people for drug possession. Jenkins stylizes herself as a progressive who supports criminal justice reform but disagrees with Boudin's approach. Public defenders say there's nothing progressive about standalone drug paraphernalia charges, and that it distracts from dealing with more serious crimes in the city.

"They take a lot of time, energy and focus from everyone to deal with these," Calloway said. "It's a tremendous waste of resources for everyone except the police who will get more overtime hours knowing they can harass people sitting on the sidewalk and earn money for it. This is true not just of possession and paraphernalia charges but drug sales charges as well. The evidence is clear in both categories, arrest, prosecution and caging do not work. We have 50 years of failed drug war policy to prove it."

"I respect that a new administration will have new priorities, but to go for one of the lowest level misdemeanors that's a mechanism for a crime instead of the real crime, I cant believe its one of the first policies theyve implemented," Pray said. "I would understand it more if this were about dealers, but this seems very performative. At the end of the day, what are you really doing? How is this helping abate the drug crisis? With most drugs you can find a way to ingest them without paraphernalia, it's just harder and more dangerous."
WFO LAS VEGAS Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

_____

EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Las Vegas NV

329 AM PDT Wed Jul 20 2022

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM THURSDAY TO 8 PM

PDT/MST FRIDAY...

* WHAT...Major Heat Risk due to high temperatures of 105 to 110

in southern Mohave County and 115 to 120 along the Colorado River

Valley and eastern Clark County.

* WHERE...Portions of northwest Arizona, southeast California

and southern Nevada including Lake Mead National Recreation Area,

Lake Havasu City, Kingman, Needles, Laughlin-Bullhead City, and

Moapa.

* WHEN...From 11 AM Thursday to 8 PM PDT/MST Friday.

* IMPACTS...Extreme heat will significantly increase the potential

for heat-related illnesses, particularly for those working or

participating in outdoor activities.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Overnight lows will struggle to fall below

85 degrees. This, compounded with above-average afternoon

temperatures will pose a significant risk for heat-related

illness.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Young children and pets should never be left unattended in

vehicles under any circumstances. Car interiors can reach lethal

temperatures in a matter of minutes. Limit outdoor activities, drink

plenty of water, avoid alcoholic and caffeinated beverages, wear

light-weight clothing, and, if possible, spend more time in air-

conditioned or well-ventilated places.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. Know

the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. To

reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and

Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks

in shaded or air-conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat

should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an

emergency! Call 9 1 1.

PDT FRIDAY...

* WHAT...Major Heat Risk due to high temperatures of 108 to 114.

* WHERE...In Nevada, Southern and Western Clark County, Southern

Nye County, and Las Vegas Valley including Las Vegas, Boulder

City, Indian Springs, Pahrump, and Searchlight. In California,

Cadiz Basin including Vidal Junction.

* WHEN...From 11 AM Thursday to 8 PM PDT Friday.

85 degrees. This, compounded with above-average

afternoon temperatures will pose a significant risk for heat-

related illness.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO LAS VEGAS Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, July 22, 2022

_____

EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Las Vegas NV

332 PM PDT Wed Jul 20 2022

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM PDT/MST

THURSDAY TO 8 PM PDT/MST FRIDAY...

* WHAT...Major Heat Risk due to high temperatures of 110 to 115 in

the Las Vegas Valley and Pahrump. High temperatures of 115 to

120 are expected at Lake Mead National Recreation Area and the

Colorado River Valley. High temperatures of 105 to 110 expected

in southern Mohave County.

* WHERE...In Nevada, Southern and Western Clark County, Southern

Nye County, and Las Vegas Valley including Las Vegas, Boulder

City, Indian Springs, Pahrump, and Searchlight. In California,

Cadiz Basin including Vidal Junction.

* WHEN...From 11 AM Thursday to 8 PM PDT Friday.

* IMPACTS...Extreme heat will significantly increase the

potential for heat-related illnesses, particularly for those

working or participating in outdoor activities.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Overnight lows will struggle to fall

below 85 degrees. This, compounded with above-average

afternoon temperatures will pose a significant risk for heat-

related illness.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Young children and pets should never be left unattended in

vehicles under any circumstances. Car interiors can reach lethal

temperatures in a matter of minutes. Limit outdoor activities,

drink plenty of water, avoid alcoholic and caffeinated beverages,

wear light-weight clothing, and, if possible, spend more time in

air- conditioned or well-ventilated places.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. Know

the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. To

reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and

Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks

in shaded or air-conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by

heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke

is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO ALBANY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Albany NY

1024 AM EDT Wed Jul 20 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING...

* WHAT...Heat index values of 95 to 100 expected.

* WHERE...Western Schenectady, Northern Saratoga, Montgomery,

Southern Washington, Southeast Warren, Western Ulster,

Northern Washington, Southern Herkimer and Southern Fulton

Counties.

* WHEN...Until 8 PM EDT this evening.

* 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.

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING...

* WHAT...Heat index values around 95 expected.

* WHERE...Eastern Rensselaer County.

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THURSDAY...

* WHERE...Portions of northwestern Connecticut and east central

New York.

* WHEN...Until 8 PM EDT Thursday.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO BURLINGTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Burlington VT

413 AM EDT Wed Jul 20 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 8 PM EDT

THIS EVENING...

* WHAT...Heat index values of 95 to 100 expected.

* WHERE...The Saint Lawrence valley in Northern New York and the

Champlain valley in Northern New York and Vermont.

* WHEN...From noon to 8 PM EDT Wednesday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat

illnesses to occur.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out

of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young

children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles

under any circumstances.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when

possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent

rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone

overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO BURLINGTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Burlington has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

East central Clinton County in northern New York...

Southern Grand Isle County in northwestern Vermont...

Northwestern Chittenden County in northwestern Vermont...

Southwestern Franklin County in northwestern Vermont...

* Until 345 PM EDT.

* At 249 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Gordon

Landing, moving east at 10 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor hail damage to vehicles is possible. Expect wind

damage to trees and powerlines.

* Locations impacted include...

Plattsburgh, Westford, Fairfax, South Hero, Georgia, Grand Isle,

Georgia Center, Milton, Essex, Colchester, St. Albans Town,

Fairfield, North Hero, Young Island, Wilcox Point, Colligan Point,

Mallets Bay State Park, Burton Island State Park, Hazen Point and

Sand Bar State Park.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

Large hail and damaging winds and continuous cloud to ground

lightning is occurring with this storm. Move indoors immediately.

Lightning is one of nature's leading killers. Remember, if you can

hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning.

If on or near Lake Champlain, get away from the water and move

indoors or inside a vehicle. Remember, lightning can strike out to

15 miles from the parent thunderstorm. If you can hear thunder, you

are close enough to be struck by lightning. Move to safe shelter

now! Do not be caught on the water in a thunderstorm.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO BURLINGTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

Severe Weather Statement

National Weather Service Burlington VT

259 PM EDT Wed Jul 20 2022

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 345 PM EDT

FOR EAST CENTRAL CLINTON...SOUTHERN GRAND ISLE...NORTHWESTERN

CHITTENDEN AND SOUTHWESTERN FRANKLIN COUNTIES...

At 259 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Hoyt Point,

moving east at 15 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor hail damage to vehicles is possible. Expect wind

damage to trees and powerlines.

Locations impacted include...

Westford, Fairfax, South Hero, Georgia, Grand Isle, Georgia Center,

Milton, Essex, Colchester, St. Albans Town, Fairfield, North Hero,

Young Island, Wilcox Point, Mallets Bay State Park, Burton Island

State Park, Hazen Point, Sand Bar State Park, West Milton and East

Georgia.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

Continuous cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm.

Move indoors immediately. Lightning is one of nature's leading

killers. Remember, if you can hear thunder, you are close enough to

be struck by lightning.

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING...

* WHAT...Heat index values 95 to 100 expected.

* WHERE...Seneca, Southern Cayuga, Onondaga, Madison and Oneida

counties.

* WHEN...until 8 PM this evening.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat

illnesses to occur.

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 around 95 expected.

* WHERE...Yates, Steuben, Schuyler, Chemung, Tompkins, Tioga and

Broome counties.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO CORPUS CHRISTI Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Corpus Christi TX

1053 AM CDT Wed Jul 20 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM CDT THIS EVENING...

* WHAT...Heat index values up to 114 degrees expected.

* WHERE...Much of South Texas.

* WHEN...From 11 AM to 8 PM CDT Wednesday.

* 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.

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM CDT THIS

EVENING...

* WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with heat index values up to

117 expected.

* WHERE...Jim Wells, Inland Kleberg, Inland Nueces, Coastal

Kleberg and Coastal Nueces Counties.

* WHEN...From 11 AM this morning to 8 PM CDT this evening.

* IMPACTS...Extreme heat and humidity will significantly

increase the potential for heat related illnesses,

particularly for those working or participating in outdoor

activities.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Excessive heat conditions are most likely

to occur during the mid afternoon.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO DALLAS / FT. WORTH Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

_____

EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Fort Worth TX

829 PM CDT Tue Jul 19 2022

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM CDT

WEDNESDAY...

* WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures of 105 to

110 and heat index values near 110.

* WHERE...Most of north central and northeast Texas.

* WHEN...Until 9 PM CDT Wednesday.

* 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.

...RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT CDT

TONIGHT...

* AFFECTED AREA...All of North and Central Texas.

* TIMING...10 AM Tuesday through 12 AM Wednesday.

* WINDS...South 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 30 mph.

* RELATIVE HUMIDITY...As low as 20 percent.

* TEMPERATURES...103 to 112 degrees.

* IMPACTS...Wildfires will have the potential to grow and spread

rapidly. Any activities that could start a wildfire should be

avoided. Burning of any kind is strongly discouraged and may

be unlawful in some counties.

A Red Flag Warning means that extreme fire weather conditions are

either occurring now, or will shortly. A combination of strong

winds, low relative humidity, and dry vegetation can contribute

to extreme fire behavior. Avoid all outside burning and welding

today. Do not toss lit cigarette butts outside. Report wild fires

to the nearest fire department or law enforcement office.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO DALLAS / FT. WORTH Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Fort Worth has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

West central Cooke County in north central Texas...

* Until 530 PM CDT.

* At 449 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Muenster and

is nearly stationary.

HAZARD...65 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...

Muenster, Myra.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection get inside a sturdy structure and stay away from

windows.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
Illustrative photo

Vietnam has great potential for producing delicious fruits, so this is an opportunity for Vietnamese fruits and agricultural products to sell to a large market like China.

According to Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, through official export, enterprises of both countries will have a contract and accompanying commercial documents such as invoices, bills of lading, quarantine, certificates of origin (C/O). At the same time, firms in the two countries enjoy transactions of a large volume of goods, high value, payment via bank, delivery through international border gates, and main border gates.

For years, unofficial export has not had a contract with payment in cash, and goods are exchanged and delivered through a secondary border gate, so it is very risky. During the harvest season, traders often bring goods to the border gate and then look for buyers at the Tan Thanh border gate where customs clearance is carried out for about 250-300 vehicles per day.

Agricultural products that have not been licensed for official export to the Chinese market must pass through this border gate. But without a contract, when China blocks to control the epidemic or other reasons, trucks carrying out farm produce will be congested and have to wait for customs clearance for weeks at the border gate. Many trucks even have to return.

Each year, Vietnam sells about 3.3-3.5 million tons of fresh fruit to China. Currently, many other Vietnamese agricultural products that have abundant output have not been officially exported, such as custard apple, pomelo, plum, and pineapple.

According to Mr. Hoang Trung, Director of the Department of Plant Protection under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in 2022, the ministry will negotiate to officially export coconuts and pomelos to the US and Vietnamese longan to Japan by September.

However, exporters must ensure quality standards and produce original certificates of agricultural products for official export. Since 2018, China has introduced a requirement for imported agricultural products to have a growing area code and a packing facility number.

From the beginning of 2022, official fruit exports to China must have original certificates granted with a code by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and approved by the General Administration of Customs of China.

As of March 2022, the country has granted 3,646 codes for growing areas for an area of more than 197,000 hectares in 50 provinces and cities and 1,798 codes for packing facilities for fresh fruit for export. In particular, for the Chinese market alone, codes for nearly 2,000 planting areas have been granted.

However, some exporters have been using wrong codes or borrowing codes of other organizations and individuals for export, leading to warnings from importing countries, greatly affecting the reputation of Vietnamese agricultural products.

In order to achieve the export target of US$55 billion in 2022, in the last six months of the year, responsible agencies have made efforts to expand the market to Japan, Korea, India, the EU and the Middle East; and at the same time these bodies have selected suitable products for export to potential markets such as Russia, ASEAN, and Africa.

By Van Phuc  Translated by Anh Quan
Standing Deputy Chairman of the Peoples Committee of Can Tho City Duong Tan Hien receives Under-Secretary of State at the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism Thok Sokkhom (L)



The Cambodian working delegation was led by Under-Secretary of State at the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism Thok Sokkhom. As for the Vietnamese part, Standing Deputy Chairman of the Peoples Committee of Can Tho City Duong Tan Hien along with leaders, officials of relevant units and agencies received the delegation.

At the reception, Under-Secretary of State at the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism Thok Sokkhom expressed his gratefulness for the warm hospitality of Can Tho City leaders. Besides, he also congratulated the 55th anniversary of Vietnam and Cambodia's diplomatic relations.In addition, Under-Secretary of State at the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism Thok Sokkhom said that Vietnam is a huge and potential tourism market for Cambodia.Accordingly, Vietnam has had the most numerous visitors to Cambodia during the passing years.Besides, Mr. Thok Sokkhom stated that the border-gate tourism between the two countries was huge and he hoped that Can Tho City will continue to support, and create favorable conditions for enterprises, and travel agencies of Cambodia to introduce and promote tourism products.Standing Deputy Chairman of the Peoples Committee of Can Tho City Duong Tan Hien thanked the delegation for extending precious time to visit the city on the occasion.Can Tho City's leader also made a brief introduction on potentiality, advantages and chances for cooperation in the field of tourism. Besides, Can Tho City has well controlled the Covid-19 pandemic and is entering into new normalcy to develop the socio-economy, especially the sharp recovery of the tourism sector.In addition, the Can Tho City's leader said that the city has always created favorable conditions for local travel agencies and Cambodian enterprises to connect and promote cooperation and he also sent his best wishes for more successes to the working delegation.On the occasion, the working delegation of the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism will also host several activities to promote the tourism sector in Can Tho City with its theme Travel to Cambodia  safe, warm and green. Besides, this would be a great chance for both sides travel agencies to discuss, and find ways to promote and cooperate in the tourism sector.

By Tuan Quang  Translated by Huyen Huong
Page Content

On May 4, the German Conference of the Federal and State Data Protection Authorities (DSK) published a call for an Employee Data Protection Act. As a reminder, in Germany, data protection is organized by state. There are state data protection authorities for each of the 16 German states and two for Bavariaone each for public and for private data controllers. Together with the Federal Data Protection Authority of Germany, which is in charge of federal public data controllers, they comprise the DSK.

In their call for a specific employee data protection act, the DSK are referring to the announcement by the German governing parties in the federal coalition agreement of November 2021 that a distinct employee privacy act would be created by the coalition parties that are planning on being in government until 2025.

This act would be in addition to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which applies in Germany, and in addition to s26 of the German Data Protection Act (BDSG), which was enacted in May 2018 along with the GDPR. Currently a single provision of the BDSG regulates the basics of national employee privacy protection, as provided for in Article 88 of the GDPR.

It can be assumed that the discussion on whether a specific employee data privacy act is needed, and what it should contain, will continue over the coming weeks and months. It is further to be expected that draft legislation will be presented by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) and possibly the Ministry of the Interior (BMI) in the coming months. Employers in Germany can look forward tohopefullygreater legal clarity in the future and, presumably, will have to forego some leeway in return.

The Current Legal Situation

As mentioned, at the moment, specific German regulations on employee data protection can be found in s26 of the BDSG, a provision with many general and abstract clauses that are then being interpreted by German labor courts and data protection authorities. Individual questions such as the permissibility of secret video surveillance at supermarket checkouts or social media background checks on new job applicants are currently pure case law based on s26 BDSG as well as on the general principles in the GDPR and the BDSG.

Earlier Regulatory Proposals

Efforts to introduce a more detailed German Employee Data Protection Act have already been made in the past, for example from 2010 to 2013 under the Conservative-Liberal government coalition at that time.

More recently, in January 2022, an interdisciplinary advisory board commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Labor completed a detailed final report on the status of German employee data protection, concluding that specific legislation will be needed. In February 2022, the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) published a draft of an Employee Data Protection Act. The DGB proposal is a detailed draft of a law for the maximum protection of employee data, including added rules for enforcement, such as an explicit prohibition on using data as evidence if it has been obtained in breach of any data protection rules. It also includes a claim for employees to injunctive relief and a right for unions to start class actions in the event of breaches.

In contrast, the DSK resolution published in May 2022 limits itself for the most part to neutrally listing points in need of regulation and only making few proposals on the content of individual points. Even though the details will not be known until the law is passed, employees and employers can expect regulations on the following points.

Artificial intelligence. The use of AI in the employment relationship should remain possible, according to the DSK statement, but should be regulated more strictly the more severe the possible infringement of fundamental rights. Approval procedures, preliminary checks and requirements for avoiding discrimination are to be standardized. Profiling is to be prohibited in principle even if it is not used for automated decision-making. It remains to be seen whether the federal German legislature will comply with this demand and pass legislation on AI, despite the fact an EU proposal for a law on artificial intelligence was published in April 2021.

Monitoring employee conduct and performance. When monitoring of employee behavior and performance is carried out secretly, it should be allowed only in specific exceptional cases according to the DSK. Concrete regulations are also demanded for the monitoring of employee e-mails, for video surveillance and GPS tracking, and for biometric procedures.

Consent. Employees' consent as a legal basis for data processing must be viewed critically because of the existing inequality of power in the employment relationship. The DSK states there is a need for legal examples of when the conditions for consent, in particular its voluntary nature, are met.

Collective agreements. It should be clarified, according to the DSK, to what extent collective agreements can constitute an additional legal basis for data processing. This touches on the controversial question among German lawyers of whether data processing that would not be permissible under general data protection principles could nevertheless be allowed on the basis of company agreements.

Sensitive data. The processing of sensitive data of employees should be regulated better than before, the DSK states. At present, it is not clear whether it may also be processed on the basis of general rules on the processing of sensitive data, without introducing further requirements for employee sensitive data, such as a balancing of interests.

No use of unlawfully obtained data as evidence. The DSK expressly supports a statutory prohibition on the use of evidence for unlawfully obtained employee data, similar to the DGB suggestion described above. According to the case law of the Federal Labor Court, so far, evidence obtained in violation of data protection law must be disregarded only if the processing is disproportionate and significantly interferes with the employees' fundamental rights, such as in the case of locker checks or secret eavesdropping on telephone calls.

Recruitment. Finally, the processing of job applicants' data needs to be regulated according to the DSK statement. This relates to the employer's right to ask questions about such things as pregnancy or union membership to background checks as well as to medical examinations and assessment center data. The DSK paper also demands a maximum retention period of six months for job applicants' data.

Comment

The question is whether a special German law for employee data protection is needed. The answer depends on how you look at it. From the perspective of an employment lawyer specialized in data protection law, it isn't needed. If, on the other hand, the goal is that those subject to the law, who are not lawyers, should be able to understand the legal situation as well as possible by simply looking at the statute, we do indeed need a more detailed and specific act.

However, the approach of introducing a law that is as detailed as possible instead of a few general clauses has a risk: It could quickly become outdated. There is a reason why the EU GDPR has been drafted to be as technology neutral as possible (EC 15 paragraph 1 GDPR). The hope was and is that the GDPR it will remain applicable and relevant in the future, despite rapid technological progress. The explicit regulations now demanded by the DSK, for example, on the monitoring of e-mails or GPS tracking, could be outdated by new technologies in just a few years.

Jessica Jacobi is an attorney with Kliemt.HR Lawyers in Berlin. Kliemt.HR Lawyers belongs to Ius Laboris, a global alliance of law firms that specialize in employment law.  2022 Ius Laboris. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission of Lexology.
Page Content

On July 8, in Gist v. ZoAn Management, the Oregon Supreme Court affirmed the decisions of the trial court and court of appeals, granting the defendants' motion to compel arbitration.



The court concluded that because nothing in the arbitration agreement prohibited the plaintiff from being awarded any relief he might be entitled to under Oregon's wage and hour statutes, the arbitration provision was not unconscionable and therefore enforceable.

Background

The parties executed a Driver Services Agreement (DSA) in which the plaintiff agreed to provide the defendants with delivery services.

The DSA stated that all drivers were independent contractors and included a section on dispute resolution, which provided that if the parties did not pursue mediation or if mediation failed, then any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to the DSA, including disputes about the existence, scope or validity of the DSA itself, shall be resolved through binding arbitration. The DSA also included a savings clause, allowing for the severance of any invalid or unenforceable term of the DSA.

The plaintiff filed a class-action complaint against the defendants on behalf of himself and all current and former individuals subject to the DSA, asserting that he was an employee, not an independent contractor, and that the defendants had violated state wage and hour statutes.

Trial and Appellate Court Decisions

Based on the DSA, the defendants filed a motion to compel arbitration. The plaintiff opposed, arguing that the arbitration agreement in the DSA was unenforceable on the ground that it was unconscionable because it required him to arbitrate his wage and hour claims, but prohibited the arbitrators from granting him relief on those claims.

The plaintiff based this argument on a provision stating that the arbitrators could not alter, amend or modify the terms and conditions of the DSA, and that because the agreement classified him as an independent contractor, the arbitrators would be prohibited from concluding that he was an employee and enforcing his rights as an employee under Oregon's wage and hour statutes, including his right to attorneys' fees.

Accordingly, the plaintiff argued that the arbitration provision was unconscionable and contrary to public policy under ORS 652.360, which prohibits employers from using a special contract or any other means to exempt themselves from statutes relating to the payment of wages.

The defendants argued, and the court of appeals agreed, that in the context of the DSA as a whole, the provision prohibiting the arbitrators from altering, amending, or modifying the terms and conditions of the DSA was "not plausibly read as a restriction on their authority to determine what terms are enforceable or what law is controlling."

The DSA's savings clause contemplated that the arbitrators could disregard invalid or unenforceable provisions of the DSA, including the statement that drivers were independent contractors, not employees.

In affirming the lower courts' decisions, the Oregon Supreme Court held that because the DSA did not prevent the arbitrators from concluding that the independent contractor provision was invalid or unenforceable, the arbitrators could still resolve the plaintiff's claims under the wage and hour statutes. Therefore, the arbitration provision did not violate ORS 652.360 and was not unconscionable.

Practical Effect

The Oregon Supreme Court's decision is a positive development for employers that utilize arbitration agreements for their employees and independent contractors.

The decision relied on the inclusion of a savings clause in the agreement, which employers are encouraged to include in similar agreements because it permits the enforceability of the agreement as a whole even if certain provisions are deemed to be invalid and cannot be enforced.

The decision was particularly important because a reversal of the trial court's decision could have resulted in a much larger and more costly class-action proceeding, thus driving home the benefits associated with implementing enforceable arbitration agreements.

By Christine Sargent is a lawyer with Littler in Portland, Ore.  2022. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.


The CII Karnataka, on Tuesday announced a slew of initiatives targeting startups, especially those focused on the B2B space.

CII Karnataka chairman Arjun M Ranga and vice chairman Vijaykrishnan Vekatesan said they have set up a Startup Task Force which will work in specific areas to further strengthen the vibrant startup ecosystem that Bengaluru has and take those in tier-II cities to the next level.

The CII has identified a few areas that startups struggle to surmount despite pursuing great ideas.

The task force would offer them a host of assistance including access to large corporates, mentorship by CEOs, helping them with proof of concept (PoC)at large industries and connecting them with angel/venture investors, Ranga told ET. We will help create opportunities for them to work with big industries.

The CII has plans to create a whole new ecosystem for startups and help them in solving some of the challenges they are facing. Several startups crack an idea and come up with a prototype, but struggle to run a test module or pilot it for want of access to bigger industries. The CIIs startup task force would step in here, and act as a bridge, the task force convenor Laeeq Ali told this paper.

It was important that established industry leaders and CEOs handhold the upcoming startups with disruptive ideas, Ranga said, and suggested that the startups take CII membership and avail a host of advantages including sessions and events relevant to them.

Being part of the CII would also bring them many advantages including in policy advocacy, interactions with the government at the highest level and become globally competitive, the CII-Karnataka chairman said. Many startups took CII membership during the Covid pandemic, he added.

Within the ecosystem we will align a lot of stakeholders including startup founders, mentors, incubators, accelerators, angel investors, and VC firms. The Task Force will focus on identifying the tasks specific to building the startup ecosystem, Ali said.

The CII will hold some of its events in open areas including co-working spaces and cafes as part of its outreach programme and bring startups onboard.

The CII Karnataka, Ranga said, has about 700 members, and only about 40% of them are MSMEs and 10% are academic institutions like engineering colleges and b-schools. Rest are all large industries and corporates, he said.

A recent research by database Dealroom.Co for the UK-based London & Partners has shown that Bengaluru is the leading Asian city and fifth ranked hub in the world for tech venture capital investment in 2022.
Card-based fintech startup Slice will offer real-time term loans to customers for each transaction, based on user profile, nature of transaction and merchants.

This is a departure from issuing a revolving credit line to consumers and comes after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently barred fintech firms from loading credit lines onto wallets and prepaid payment instruments.

The credit card challenger unicorn told consumers about the changes in its credit model through a note on Tuesday.

Slice said it will offer a real-time term loan for card customers for every transaction, instead of a revolving credit line.

The fintech player is calling the new model Purchase Power, according to the consumer communication.

Purchase Power is an estimated amount you may qualify to borrow from Slice, the company told users, adding that the real-time risk underwriting will be backed by its data and tech infrastructure to provide the best possible credit to users at the time of the transaction.

According to the communication, every time you transact with your Slice card, a new approval decision will be made instantly to assess the best amount you can borrow for the purchase. The decision will be determined primarily based on merchant credibility, risk, fraud checks, and your past payments as well as repayment patterns.

Slice also reassured customers that the change in its credit model will not negatively impact their credit scores, as it will continue to follow the credit bureau reporting process.

While the change may trigger uncertainty over whether a user will get the loan at the point-of-sale, customers can check their spending power on the app to get an indication of their spending power.

Slice has been giving several credit features to its prepaid card users including its Pay-in -3 offering, no-interest equated monthly instalments (EMI), among others. However, with the change in credit model, all loans given to card customers will now be a term loan moving forward, processed in real time.

As per a earlier report, Slices ongoing fundraising had been halted following RBIs order, due to lack of regulatory clarity in the sector.

Of the ongoing fundraise, Slice had already raised $50 million last month led by Tiger Global. It was looking to add at least another $50 million to its latest round and was in talks with new and existing investors.

The Bengaluru-based firm entered Indias long list of unicorns, or startups with a valuation of $1 billion or more, in November last year, after it picked up $220 million in a round led by Tiger Global and Insight Partners. It was valued at around $1.5 billion after the $50 million funding in June.

After the RBI circular, several fintech firms including LazyPay have also updated their terms and conditions to reflect compliance.

The terms and conditions (T&C) are being altered on two counts, at present. If someone was a non-bank PPI, then they are stating in their T&C that the money will not be disbursed in the consumers wallet, but in their bank account (as cash) instead. Second, is that the whole overdraft should be seen as a term loan arrangement and not a revolving credit line, said the founder of a fintech firm who did not want to be named.
On Friday, the White House press stated that Biden selected the Indo-American entrepreneur, Frank Islam, as one of the members of the Commission on Presidential Scholars

According to a statement released by the White House, US President Joe Biden announced his intention to appoint Frank Islam, an Indian-American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and civic leader to the Commission on Presidential Scholars. The Commission will be led by Magaret Aitken Haggerty, a communications professional who served Biden as his spokesperson and press secretary during his Senate days. It will be a 21-member commission that includes renowned Americans from different spheres of life, along with Islam. It is responsible for selecting 161 Presidential Scholars from academic, arts, and career and technical education.

Islam is known for his prominent work in the field of entrepreneurship. He is currently the head of the FI Investment Group, a private investment holding company. Previously, he founded the QSS Group, a firm specialising in information technology, which he sold in 2007. He has also held positions on several boards and advisory councils, such as the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, the U.N. Foundation, the US Institute of Peace, and the Woodrow Wilson Centre. Additionally, Islam was also a part of the boards and councils at different universities, including John Hopkins, American University, George Mason University, the University of Maryland, and Harvard University. In an interview with the American Bazaar, Islam said the new position was an honour.

As a prolific writer, Islam has written about American politics for The Quint. He has authored books on the American political landscape. Some of his notable works are To Make America Work Again and Renewing the American Dream: A Citizens Guide for Restoring Our Competitive Advantage. He is a regular blogger on Medium and has been contributing to the Huffington Post for almost a decade. Islam founded the Frank Islam Institute for 21st Century Citizenship in 2018. Through its website and weekly magazine, the institute addresses civic engagement deficits and challenges to democracy in the US on a global scale.

Born in India, Islam moved to the US in the early 1970s to pursue a Bachelors Degree. After completing his education, he spent 20 years working for several businesses before founding his own, the QSS Group. After leaving the QSS, he and his wife established a philanthropic organisation intending to promote education, art and culture, and peace and conflict resolution. He is a well-known Democratic donor and has raised millions of dollars for Democratic presidential candidates, including Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, and Joe Biden.
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Two of the nations biggest employers, big four bank Westpac and telecoms giant Telstra, have relaxed office attendance requirements and are advising staff to work from home as concerns mount over rising COVID-19 case numbers.

After the nations chief medical officer Paul Kelly this week urged Australians to get their booster shots if eligible, wear masks and work from home if possible, major employers are weighing up whether to enforce policies designed to get workers back to the office after two years of COVID-19 disruptions.

Westpac moved from green to amber COVID safety settings for staff this week in the face of rising COVID cases. Credit:The Age

State governments have not moved to reintroduce work-from-home mandates, leaving employers to review risks and make their own decisions.

Westpac, which employs about 40,000 people, uses a green, amber, red system to denote different workplace settings according to the COVID risks, and has recently shifted from green to amber. It said it would be relaxing its hybrid working arrangements, so staff would no longer be required to come in to the office.
TPG Telecom has slammed claims by former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian that its proposed network-sharing deal with Telstra would hurt business customers and resiliency in regional Australia, arguing the facts suggest the opposite.

Berejiklian, now head of enterprise, business and institutional at Optus, claims a multimillion-dollar network-sharing deal between her telcos two biggest rivals would provide less choice in the regions, which could be problematic during natural disasters and for local businesses. But her position has been rejected by TPG Telecom, which says it has the support of regional businesses.

TPG Telecom and Telstra want a landmark deal to be approved by the competition regulator. Optus is trying to stop it. Credit:Pat Scala, Rob Homer

This deal will allow TPG and our MVNOs [mobile virtual network operators] to better service business, enterprise and government customers who have regional offices or demand better national coverage, said TPG Telecoms external affairs boss, James Rickards.

Optuss allegations ignore supportive submissions from groups including National Australia Bank, Charles Sturt University, Canberra Business Chamber and several regional councils.
Leaders in the meat and livestock industry have said the potential damage of foot and mouth disease to Australian cattle and livestock would be devastating, but also warned against stoking fears around the topic.

It would be catastrophic, Meat and Livestock Association managing director Jason Strong told The Herald and The Age.

But he said the nature of the disease was one of those things you can make sound really bad and described some of the recent commentary as unnecessarily alarmist.

I think theres a big difference between being aware, concerned and prepared and being alarmed and panicking, said Strong, pointing to the overall strength in national biosecurity laws and praising the federal governments response to date as very coordinated and collaborative.

The arrival of Foot and Mouth disease in Australia could decimate the livestock sector.

We actually have a very detailed and established whole-of-industry exotic disease response plan  thats whole-of-industry approved and supported.

He also said a specialised task force dedicated to managing foot and mouth disease and lumpy skin disease involving members of the industry and a representative from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry met every week and described communication and cooperation as outstanding.

Patrick Hutchinson, the chief of post-farmgate meat industry body Australian Meat Industry Council, also flagged fears about misreporting and reminded Australians that the viral fragments detected yesterday did not mean Australia had foot and mouth disease.

What we are most worried about, is that people who are bringing product in may not be declaring [it], and then are taking foodstuffs illegally into the country, which then find their way into regional areas where animals can consume them and thus get the disease, he said.

So whilst people have lost their minds about thongs in Bali, which is  medium impact, lowest probability [on a risk matrix]  the big issue for us is infected food products entering Australia which in turn have to enter the food, the livestock food supply chain and be consumed by animals in order for that to then start.
Fake Queensland doctor fined $25,000 over bogus COVID-19 exemptions

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At the Federal Court in Sydney, Westpacs lawyers have been raking over assets and income disclosed by business partners of Bill Papas, who allegedly orchestrated a $500 million fraud against Australias oldest bank and two other lenders.

As Westpac traces its lost millions, the disclosures of Vincenzo Vince Tesoriero, who the bank alleges was in on the scheme or ought to have known about the $500 million fraud, have become increasingly important.

The Melbourne-based businessman told the court he owns about $60 million worth of assets, but Westpac is worried hes left a few things off the list, including a $239,000 Ford Mustang.

Vincenzo Tesoriero said he gifted a $239,000 Ford Mustang (not the 1967 Shelby pictured) to his girlfriend. Credit:Bloomberg

When asked about the Mustang on Wednesday, Tesoriero told the court he bought the car for his girlfriend.
A second man has been charged over the shooting of a nine-year-old girl who police allege was deliberately attacked earlier this month when the original target of an orchestrated hit  a 36-year-old male  did not appear.

The girl was wearing pyjamas and helping her mother and siblings unpack groceries from a car outside the familys home in Connells Point just before 6pm on July 8 when she was shot in the hip.

The girl was rushed to hospital under police escort, where she underwent internal surgery and is now recovering.

State Crime Command director Grant Taylor told reporters the following day that a stolen BMW with cloned number plates had been lying in wait when a man got out and let several shots go from a firearm in the direction of the house towards this family.
What a brilliant idea, data-driven policy (To achieve valid reform, we must know what works, July 20). We would better understand the economic benefit of providing subsidies to the fossil fuel industries ($11.6 billion annually, according to The Australia Institute) and the benefit of approving new coal and gas projects. We could also appreciate the benefit of allowing the fossil fuel industries to donate millions to the major political parties. Perhaps a data-driven approach would only work if there were no incentives to approve economically reckless policy (and projects). To remove these incentives, we need political donation reform and a strong federal anti-corruption commission. - George Rosier, Carlingford In the words from an iconic Australian movie, tell him hes dreaming. Steven Hamilton lacks a broad perspective. He wants to increase the role of academics in policymaking. This was arguably the big mistake that resulted in excessive JobKeeper handouts during the COVID pandemic. Of far more vital input in policy determination is practical understanding and fairness. In Australia, understanding the interrelationship of personal income tax, company tax and superannuation tax concessions is a prerequisite for sensible reform. - Graeme Troy, Wagstaffe Using valid data for holding policymakers to account for promises made  often on the run or from the sides while in opposition  is not a no-brainer but a great solution in making evidence-based policy reform. Often when policy reforms are made, the situations are not exactly replicated but are different from when the reform was suggested. For instance, any policy reform that was made just before the pandemic changes the comparative terrain, and politicians hide behind this flimsy robe of not wanting to compare oranges with apples. If this simple yet effective fact-checking can be implemented through a data-based report card, I would like to know about the effectiveness of the great furphies of trickle-down economics, privatisation of public assets and the effects of tax cuts on increasing employment applied in Australia. - Manbir Singh Kohli, Pemulwuy Data may uncover flaws in all manner of government spending, but the real world is speeding along and the rear-view mirror is ignored. Popularity is the political lottery ticket. Whether policy is good or bad fades into insignificance depending on the complicated algorithm, Whats in it for me? So, in reality, those truly worthwhile social, economic and environmental decisions we claim we want, die on the sword of popularity. Until the national mindset comprehends and accepts the issue of need v want, effective government is unreachable. No amount of analytical data, or indeed celestial oil, will fix that. - Robert Caraian, Crows Nest Face it, masks are back and essential

While severely immunocompromised people battle to access COVID-preventative drugs (Patience wears thin over COVID-19 drug confusion, July 20) there are measures we can all take to mitigate their vulnerability, and our own. Masks are currently mandated on public transport. However, as demonstrated by the majority of maskless travellers, mandates dont work. If every person chose to be responsible by wearing a mask, infection would be contained, vulnerable lives may be saved and our health workers physical and emotional exhaustion would be lessened. Sadly, our society is self-interested, uncaring and consequently, very sick. - Gerardine Grace, Leura It is a curious phenomenon to be lying in bed with COVID, reading all about COVID. I am a N95-mask wearer, vaccinated four times, and dont attend large gatherings. But I still caught it. It is everywhere. My experience of this illness is mediated through the cultural lens of the fear of death, which has been inculcated in us for the last two and a half years. Will I be the one to die? This is not just panic speaking, but a realistic awareness of the danger of this horror virus. People do die, and not just the frail elderly. Mandatory masks in indoor settings, free distribution of N95 masks, and consistent strong messaging from political leaders seem the very least we can do. We cant tolerate any more unnecessary deaths, nor the expected avalanche of illness and disability in the years to come. - Josie McSkimming, Coogee Our health professionals and epidemiologists recommend, urge, suggest, advocate, encourage, advise and warn our governments to mandate masks. Surely, theres another word in the dictionary that will help our governments to understand the message. - Mary Ziegler, Bellevue Hill Trade secrets Evidently, the Barilaro appointment to a trade commissioner job was ill-fated from its conception (Conflicting evidence on chaotic process, July 20). Well-qualified and experienced people were available yet were passed over  literally after the appointment had been made  in favour of Mr Barilaro. It is unlikely the full exposure of this unseemly debacle will be permitted. The defamation laws in Australia support obfuscation and prevent truth telling, to the detriment of the Australian taxpayer. At least we have the ballot box coming up in March. Perhaps the taxpayer redress will be played out there. - Chris Rivers, Port Macquarie

The NSW government New York trade representative fiasco points to an unprofessional, chaotic and incompetent administration. Are we truly to believe that a professional and experienced bureaucrat like Jenny West is incapable of understanding whether she had the job or not? It beggars belief. The system of senior appointments must be honest, impartial and fully transparent. The current system appears to fail on all counts. - Denis OBrien, Orange Message to Mr Barilaro: Keep your friends close and all the others even closer. Or were you hit in the eye with a Big Apple? - Ian Macdonald, Goonellabah Private privilege Not to take anything away from the appointment and achievement of a private school principal, but the Herald must stop deifying the private system (Queenwood principal to head 640-year-old UK boys school, July 20). Principals for both private and public schools have an enormous responsibility, but that is where the comparison ends. Private-school principals are very well remunerated and have the budgets to hire and fire as many support staff as required. They also have the power to hand-pick new students to enhance school performance data and expel others. A public school principal has none of the above luxuries, but I cant recall any stories dedicated to public school principals in recent times. - Mark Nugent, Lugarno No faith in the system

Jenna Prices comments on the lack of trust in politicians (Morrison, blind faith and our political mistrust, July 20) could also have noted the change in Australias rating in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. In 2012, our score was 85, seventh-lowest nation for corruption. In 2021, after nine years of Coalition government, our score was 73 (lower score = more perceived corruption), and we had dropped 11 places to be 18th. Not a result to be proud of. - Steve Bright, North Avoca I suggest Scott Morrisons time in power is as close as our lucky country has come to a becoming fundamentalist theocracy. We must do everything possible to ensure that our Constitution, and its central tenets of a secular nation with separation of church and state, are upheld, and that future leaders govern in the interests of the people, and not their God. - Tony Heathwood, Kiama Downs I really hate to write an apologia for Scott Morrison, but should anyone put their whole faith in government to do the right thing? His own government proves the point. Even this shiny new Labor government is already showing signs of compromise between health under COVID, the economy, and action on climate change. - John Christie, Oatley Scott Morrisons statement about trust was made to a Christian congregation in a Christian setting. He recalled the words in Psalm 146: Put not your trust in princes, or in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. His warning against trusting governments and other human institutions was simply a reminder, for anyone whose aspirations happen to lie in that direction, of what Christian teaching says about achieving salvation. - Reginald Barrett, Mosman If Morrison believes that governments should not be trusted, then why was the government he led so reluctant to legislate for even a toothless independent anti-corruption commission? - Ian Falconer, Turramurra

The power of the pen You are so right, Anthony van den Broek (Letters, July 20). The Herald letters page restores ones faith in humanity. It is the first page I go to each day. I like to think that my letters (and all the others) about the Nadesalingam family, and the editors thoughtful (and brilliant) decision to publish them, might have made a tiny contribution to the Biloela family being returned to their home. - Margaret-Anne Hayes, Turramurra Selective belief I bet Scott Morrison still believes in the (non-imaginary) moolah he receives from the untrustworthy government (Letters, July 20). - Alicia Dawson, Balmain Masking around

Thank you, Marisa Black, for reminding me of superheroes. (Wear your mask like a hero (cape optional), July 20). I now like to think that I am having a Masked Man date. - Patricia Farrar, Concord Travel buzz At last, Ive seen a miracle. On returning from a great holiday last night, my suitcase was the first to arrive at the airport carousel. - Norm Neill, Darlinghurst After you After showing my 17-year-old daughter Julie Szegos article on national service, she cheekily suggested that the first in line should be freelance journalists with too much time on their hands (National service for teens? Sign me up, July 20). Any volunteers? - Chris Hughes, Clovelly

Pollies and lolly Maybe it is a case of sweet dreams not being made of this (Tripodi and co: Will case turn sour for sweets shop owner?, July 20). Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook What a delicious irony Kate McClymont has served up. An ex-government minister, who now owns a lolly shop, is being investigated for his alleged involvement in providing political candy to his colleagues while in office. Stranger than fiction? You bet! Gordon Lambert, Kiama Downs The digital view
Queensland woman fined for issuing fake COVID-19 exemptions

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Sydney school employee accused of using fake COVID-19 certificate

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Parents have been asked to explain to their children the importance of wearing masks indoors as the bodies that run Western Australian schools try to keep their communities safe as COVID cases rise.

A letter from the Department of Education, Catholic Education and the Association of Independent Schools was sent to parents today asking for their support to keep schools open and minimise disruption to learning.

We ask that your child wears a mask to school to keep our schools as safe as possible, the letter says.

Staff have also been strongly encouraged to wear a mask while at school.
The devastating foot and mouth disease, which threatens to decimate Australias livestock industry, has been detected in goods coming into Australia from both Indonesia and China.

Just one positive case of foot and mouth on an Australian farm could shut the $27 billion livestock export trade down for months or even years. The federal government has estimated the total cost of a major outbreak at $80 billion.

The disease infects cloven-hoofed animals and does not affect the health of humans. It can be carried on animal products including meat and leather and people can carry it on their shoes, clothes or in their noses, where it can survive for up to 24 hours.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt revealed on Wednesday that viral fragments of foot and mouth disease had been detected in a beef product at an Australian airport, brought by a passenger from Indonesia.
The former chief of staff to former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro has provided explosive written evidence to parliament claiming his ex-boss told him in 2019 he would create a position in New York to ensure he had a job to go to after he left politics.

Barilaro has rejected the claims.

Long-time experienced political adviser Mark Connell wrote to the parliamentary inquiry investigating Barilaros appointment as US trade commissioner, disclosing a conversation in which he claimed Barilaro said he would engineer a position for himself in the US.

Former deputy premier John Barilaro. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

The alleged conversation took place about April 2019, after Barilaro purportedly returned from a meeting with then-treasurer Dominic Perrottet and then-industry minister Stuart Ayres to discuss the restoration of the agent general position in the UK.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is flying overseas on a trade mission as his government is engulfed in turmoil, after a former Liberal cabinet minister was found corrupt and an ex-senior Coalition staffer claimed John Barilaro told him he was creating a plum New York role for his post-politics life.

Perrottet left Sydney bound for Tokyo on Wednesday night after an extraordinary day in which the former chief of staff to former deputy premier Barilaro claimed his boss told him in 2019 that a future US trade role would be the job for when I get the f--- out of this place.

John Barilaro with Dominic Perrottet in 2021. Credit:Rhett Wyman

Barilaro has strongly rejected the claim, contained in a statement from long-time Coalition adviser Mark Connell to the parliamentary committee investigating Barilaros controversial appointment as US trade commissioner.

The statement was published by the committee hours before the corruption watchdog revealed its finding that Drummoyne MP John Sidoti engaged in serious corrupt conduct, forcing Perrottet to call for his resignation or else the government would trigger a vote of no confidence.
Colombo: Sri Lankas acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been voted in as its new head of state backed by a majority of MPs from ousted leader Gotabaya Rajapaksas party, a development that could reignite streets protests in the bankrupt nation and scuttle bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund.

Wickremesinghe, 73, beat Dullas Alahapperuma, a candidate who had the support from a faction within the ruling party, and left-leaning MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake from the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, by securing 134 or more than 50 per cent of votes cast in parliament on Wednesday.

The leader described the victory as an honour and a privilege, as he addressed parliament soon after the results were announced.

Protesters prepare to burn an effigy of acting president and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Credit:AP

While Rajapaksas Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party has not formally split - fissures have appeared as the group struggles to deal with the anti-government anger across the country. The main focus of the demonstrators ire so far was the former president, who fled to Singapore and resigned, after months of protests calling for his ouster culminated in thousands of demonstrators on July 9 storming his official residence.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Ministry of Justice will host St. Maartens 1st Annual Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Protection Conference on September 29th and 30th, 2022. The conference is the result of the Honorable Minister of Justice Anna E. Richardsons effort to activate awareness of the manufacturing and trade of counterfeit products as a high-priority item for the Ministry. Counterfeiting and the infringement on intellectual property rights are both criminal acts and significantly harm the economic viability and stability of an economy. This crime seriously threatens the economy and reputation of St. Maarten and poses significant health and safety risks to consumers.



In a bid to address this, Minister Richardson and her support staff met with Director Enforcement at DISOSA Brand Protection Services (DISOSA BPS), Mr. Louis Comvalius on July 7th, to discuss the status of counterfeit products being sold in St. Maarten and together with DISOSA, create a resilient anti-counterfeiting strategy for St. Maarten to tackle this long-standing issue. The conference is a crucial part of solving the issue, after which a plan of approach will be developed considering the most optimal way to diminish counterfeit products within the market.



Minister Richardson also met with the Indian Merchant Association (IMA) on July 15th, to discuss her counteractive plans in addressing the issue. During the meeting, representatives of the IMA thanked Minister Richardson for her initiative and expressed their support for Minister Richardsons approach to revitalizing the economy.



The Ministry of Justice has the role and responsibility to manage both the flows of people (immigration) and goods (Customs) that enter and pass through St. Maarten. Specifically, controlling the in-and outflow of goods is the core responsibility of the Customs Department which ensures that illegal products such as drugs, weapons, and counterfeit products do not enter the island thereby servicing what is universally known as the black market.



Minister Richardson stated, For far too long there have been many brands that have not been established on St. Maarten also due to the vast number of counterfeit products being sold locally. Brand holders are interested in coming to St. Maarten because of our close connection to the US. As such, together with the Customs Department and DISOSA, I aim to shift the demand away from counterfeit products to authentic products and in doing so, educate stakeholders, consumers, businesses, Parliament, and the Government on the benefits of being able to rely on authenticity and quality of the products purchased in St. Maarten.



The Ministry has assembled a panel of industry experts from around the world to discuss how counterfeiting has negatively affected and stained St. Maarten, to be present at the Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Protection Conference. The objective is to further construct a sophisticated strategy to outline how St. Maarten can be redirected away from being listed as a black-market territory and restore its position as an attractive jurisdiction for brands to establish their businesses. In the coming days, the Ministry will be sending official invites to various stakeholders to confirm their attendance at the conference.



Minister Richardson has also taken note of the Philipsburg Promotional Boards (PPB) initiative to revitalize Philipsburg as the capital with a Ferris wheel attraction on Boardwalk Boulevard, turning unused concrete stumps into planters, brightening alleys with themed decor, a mega LED screen at the center of Boardwalk Boulevard and a huge lighted Great Bay sign on Great Bay beach. PBB outlined its plans in February 2022, in a bid to create an atmosphere where people want to go to experience Philipsburg as a destination for shopping, leisure, services, and business during the day or night. In addition, the Ministry of Justice is working on the finalization, implementation, and enforcement of the parking and towing policy.



This multiple-goal approach is all with the end goal to restore St. Maartens name as the Gem of the Caribbean. The Ministry of Justice will continue to implement measures that contribute to realizing a safe and attractive St. Maarten for residents, business owners, brands, and tourists.
PHILIPSBURG:--- In connection with the mission to Latin America and the Caribbean to raise awareness and seek solidarity and support James Finies president of Nos Ke Boneiru Bek and Davika Bissessar president of Bonaire Human Rights Organization recently made a presentation at the University of Panama.

The Dean of the University Dr Victor Alexis in his speech welcomed James Finies and Davika Bissessar to their country the Republic of Panama with brotherly greetings from the province of Colon and especially from the family of the Regional University Center.

Dr. Alexis made a comparison of the situation they lived thru, with Bonaire.  This place also was under the occupation of a foreign government. I was born here and could not pass through these territories. We have experienced and lived apartheid in our own country. As a product of a trans-generational struggle today we can enjoy of it, the areas around the Panama canal, because they are part of us now. Feel at home and receive our solidarity with anticipation and we are going to help and give our support to this noble cause.

James Finies president of NKBB started his presentation on the trajectory to put Bonaire back on the list of Non Self Governing Territories of United Nations declaring that he is here in Panama to denounce the violations and inequality that the people of Bonaire are living in.

Dutch Kingdom pretends that they respect human rights of their citizens but in the Caribbean especially on Bonaire they have deprived us of our language, our culture our land. Every day they are depriving the dreams of our people.
Crypto miner hosting despite increased energy prices

Smart IT Alliance GmbH

www.crypto-mining-farm.de

The topic of #crypto #miner #hosting is becoming more and more popular and interesting.

How does crypto mining behave at locations in Europe and neighboring countries?

Increasing #energy prices since the #Ukraine- / #Russia #warstarted.

Inexpensive electricity contracts are not being renewed and the fear of investing is increasing. In this article you will find out how you can safely and #profitably enter #cryptomining despite the situation.

Why crypto mining in Germany / Europe is only worthwhile to a limited extent

The #electricity contracts concluded in recent years are currently no longer being extended. Farewell to German electricity prices of less than EUR 0.20. Electricity providers can no longer be tied to an acceptable electricity price. Only high electricity contracts can be concluded, which are upwards from 0.30 a 0.40 EUR/kWh. With these electricity prices, pure #BitcoinMining is no longer worthwhile in #Germany, since the electricity costs are higher than the income per month.

With various #altcoins, returns of approx. 1-2% per month can still be achieved in Germany, but here too the underlying electricity price is very important. The returns for a comparable #MiningFarm, at one of our hosting locations in the #USA, are between approx. 7-12% per month. The bigger the investment, the bigger the return.

We offer multiple hosting locations worldwide. If you have a location with the appropriate electricity capacity, we can set up just the mining farm for you if you wish. Depending on the location, hosting is also possible with us.

There are a few things to consider, in the supposedly cheaper countries such as #Czech Republic, #Hungary, #Norway, #Sweden, #Switzerland, #Portugal etc. a massive upward trend in electricity prices can be seen. It remains to be seen what the price of electricity will look like next year and whether the upward trend will continue on a massive scale. experts assume. In general, for example in Germany, this depends on many factors.

Will Germany still not get gas from Russia?

Will Germany go fully electric, requiring even more energy?

Will the nuclear power plants in Germany be put back into operation?

What about the coal power plants?

So the uncertainty accumulates and there remain question after question and the answer uncertain.

So if you want to set up your planned mining farm investment in Germany, in the EU, or in the nearby countries, you should ask yourself whether it would be self-sufficient with alternative energy sources. If so, the start of crypto mining can be presented profitably. If you still need the right battery storage for a self-sufficient mining farm, we can also help you with this solution. Over the years, our network of partners has become very extensive, making us a strong partner for you in all areas of crypto mining.

So if you have your own PV stand-alone system or your own hydroelectric power plant, you can also profitably operate crypto mining at your location.

Why we attach so much importance to high quality

The Smart IT Alliance GmbH stands for a high quality standard, offers excellent service, the highest possible location security and redundant power connection for the perfect process. Our requirement is not to be the cheapest, but to be the best provider.

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Step 1. Individual advice. Arrange a callback, video call, or a personal meeting with us.

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A

Die Smart IT Alliance GmbH, spezialisiert auf die Lieferung von Crypto Mining Hardware und Crypto Mining Farmen, begeistert ihre Kunden mit durchdachten Systemzusammenstellungen, Strom- und WArmekonzepten, IT Sicherheit, Profis fAr die Umsetzung und auAergewAhnlich schnellen Lieferungen. Durch den Betrieb der eigenen Crypto Mining Farmen wurden bereits unzAhlige Miner Konfigurationen getestet, Probleme gelAst und ideale Umsetzungen fAr alle mAglichen Varianten live erprobt.

HAufig kommen die Kunden auf die Smart IT Alliance GmbH zu, mit der Bitte, ein schlAssiges Gesamtkonzept zu entwerfen und umzusetzen  vom blanken Boden aus oder gar ganz ohne passender Immobilie fAr die Mining Farm. Wer Kunde bei der Smart IT Alliance GmbH werden darf, kann sich einer unbeschreiblich engen Kundenbindung, Full Service, Sonderangeboten und blitzschnellen Umsetzungen erfreuen. So wurde alleine fAr die schnellere Umsetzung der Lieferungen aus Asien eine eigene Tochtergesellschaft in Hong Kong gegrAndet mit Mitarbeitern vor Ort.

Der wichtigste Punkt an der gesamten Herangehensweise der Smart IT Alliance GmbH ist, dass bei jedem Kunden nicht nur die eine Lieferung sondern das Gesamtkonzept gesehen und immer im Blick gehalten wird. Ansonsten kAnnen die Miner in dem BAro, Lagerhalle oder neuen Mining Farm nicht angeschlossen werden, weil der Stromanschluss doch nicht fAr die hohe Dauerlast reicht, die WArme nicht abtransportiert werden kann, die IT Sicherheit nicht gegeben ist, der LArm nicht beachtet wurde oder oder oder.

Und damit der steuerliche KO Schlag spAter nicht kommt, empfiehlt die Smart IT Alliance GmbH eindringlich jedem Kunden den erfahrensten Steuer- und Unternehmensrecht Experten Herrn Thomas Breit direkt von Anfang an mit ins Boot zu holen.
Landsat is an eagled-eyed satellite fleet that's kept a watchful eye on Earth since 1972. According to NASA, it is the "longest continuous space-based record (opens in new tab) of Earth's land in existence." The program takes images of the Earth at a range that allows scientists to see large-scale changes in the landscape, including those changes induced by human-driven climate change .

Landsat 9, the most recent of the series, launched in September 2021 and as late as 2019, researchers have said the program's consistent, multi-decadal record is a boon to science. "International programs and conventions  are empowered by access to systematically collected and calibrated data with expected future continuity further contributing to the existing multi-decadal record," wrote one scientific analysis (opens in new tab) of the Landsat program, in place since 1972.

Over the decades, Landsat satellites have tracked urban sprawl (opens in new tab), monitored the effects of climate change, and characterized deforestation (opens in new tab)'s effects on the surrounding landscape. The program is jointly run by NASA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and as such, much of the dataset is available for free. LandsatLook (opens in new tab) is one online tool available that allows you to seek recent information by address or place name, and to track changes in different light wavelengths.

Related: Celebrate 50 years of Landsat with these stunning images (gallery)

History of the Landsat program

The literal moonshot to map the moon 's surface in the 1960s ahead of human landings inspired the Landsat program's effort to provide high-quality images (opens in new tab) of the Earth, according to NASA. Scientific funding was at a high as it was linked to national goals such as winning the so-called space race with another space superpower, the Soviet Union.

Images of the Earth were by no means new in the 1960s. The first image above the Karman line was obtained in 1946 using a V-2 missile launched from the White Sands Missile Range, according to Air&Space Smithsonian (opens in new tab). The first-ever Earth image from a satellite was obtained in 1959 from Explorer 6 . But what was lacking was consistency. Scientists wanted a large-scale satellite series, each with a similar resolution and a similar set of orbits to best map changes to the Earth's surface.

By 1965, such a program seemed feasible as Mercury and Gemini astronauts had taken many pictures of Earth since human missions began four years before, NASA said (opens in new tab). Then-director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), William Pecora, said a remote sensing program would be useful to learn about the geological resources of Earth, extending applications of satellites beyond weather forecasting, and served as an advocate for his team in conversations with higher levels of government.

Landsat 1 was the first Earth-observing satellite to be launched with the goal of studying Earth's landmasses. (Image credit: NASA)

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It wasn't an easy sell. NASA stated the Bureau of Budget and other government departments argued such satellites were unnecessary because high-altitude aircraft could obtain imagery at a lower cost. The Department of Defense also worried that providing open data about our planet would have immense security implications at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

NASA had constraint issues of its own, as efforts to put people on the moon at the end of 1969 (which succeeded with Apollo 11 ) slowed the development (opens in new tab) of Landsat, according to Sam Goward, a researcher with the Landsat Legacy Project (opens in new tab) in 2010 that sought to collect technical information about the program. However, a long-brewing joint effort about Earth satellites between the Department of the Interior and the USGS, of which USGS was a part, came to fruition in 1966.

USGS penned a memo to Stewart Udall, then DOI secretary, advocating for an Earth Resources Observation Satellite (EROS) series, the predecessor to Landsat. Goward said agencies within NASA and DOD, along with U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, were reportedly unhappy with the decision as the EROS program would be a competitor for collecting Earth science information. Nevertheless, NASA developed the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS) in 1967. ERTS-1 launched on July 23, 1972 and was renamed Landsat 1 in 1975.

Landsat 1 as a successful testbed

The first fully operational Landsat image taken on July 25, 1972, inaugurating a 40-year run when the first satellite was known as the Earth Resources Technology Satellite, or ERTS. The false-color image shows the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas. Grays and white areas represent urban or rocky surfaces and red areas indicate land covered in vegetation. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory)

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Landsat 1  then known as the Earth Resources Technology Satellite  launched successfully on July 23, 1972. It outlasted design expectations by five years before being decommissioned on Jan. 6, 1978, according to USGS (opens in new tab).

The satellite imaged roughly 75% of the Earth's surface using two instruments: a return beam vidicon (somewhat similar to a television camera) and a multi-spectral scanner. "The RBV was supposed to be the prime instrument, but the MSS data was demonstrably superior," USGS wrote.

Landsat 1's contributions included changing country boundaries (due to more precise mapping from space) and rediscovering new islands, including one in Canada (north of Newfoundland and Labrador) named " Landsat Island (opens in new tab)."

Landsat 2 and agriculture applications

Landsat 2 launched on Jan. 22, 1975, with identical instruments to Landsat 1. (Like its sibling, this satellite launched under the Earth Resource Technology Satellite naming convention, as ERTS-B, and was retrospectively renamed Landsat 2.) Landsat 2 worked for seven years in space, outlasting expectations (opens in new tab) sevenfold, before finishing service after Feb. 28, 1972, due to yaw problems, according to USGS.

Landsat 2 not only continued the program of continuously monitoring the Earth's surface but participated in a cooperative agriculture experiment known as The Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE). The program, launched after a major harvest failure in the Soviet Union forced the country to purchase U.S. wheat in 1972, provided unprecedented year-by-year predictions on agriculture yields. A successor program launched in 1979, called Project Agriculture and Resources Inventory Surveys Through Aerospace Remote Sensing (AgRISTARS), included monitoring of corn and soybeans, according to USGS.

The agriculture programs are a predecessor of today's enhanced satellite imagery, which examines crops in multiple wavelengths using digital image processing to estimate yields, USGS added. The agency has also cited these programs as valuable for testing out food security initiatives (opens in new tab).

Landsat 3 and privatization

Landsat 3 launched to orbit on March 5, 1978, with improvements over the past two satellites in the series. Its return beam vidicon (RBV) had a resolution of 131 feet (40 meters), double that of Landsats 1 and 2. Engineers also added a thermal, infrared band to the multispectral scanner system (MSS), although this band, unfortunately, failed not long after launch (opens in new tab), according to USGS. It was removed from service in 1983.

The year 1983 also coincided with a program change within Landsat operations, which were transferred from USGS to NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). USGS, however, maintained the archive of data. "This was the first step in a long process of commercialization," USGS wrote.

Making this data commercial resulted from years of political and economic pressures, alongside Landsat's ongoing success, according to NASA (opens in new tab). The presidential directive NSC-54 was signed during Landsat 3's early operations on Nov. 16, 1979, making NOAA responsible for "civil operational land remote sensing activities" and NASA responsible for research and development.

The commercialization process was long and complex, according to a chapter on Landsat (opens in new tab) in a 1998 NASA history volume (opens in new tab), "From Engineering Science to Big Science," edited by Pamela Mack.

"President Jimmy Carter made a priority of reducing the size of the federal government, and his staff identified Earth resources satellites as one of the best candidates for transfer of a government function to private industry," the chapter noted.

However, when Carter asked his administration to approach the private industry in 1978, demand was not there and there was conflict within the U.S. government about how to manage Landsat operations. These and various other issues pushed back the privatization of the system until 1983, under the Reagan administration.

Landsat 4 and EOSAT

Landsat 4 launched on July 16, 1982, and was functional until 1993. In addition to the multispectral scanner (MSS), it carried a more advanced imaging sensor called the thematic mapper that aimed to better image natural disasters (opens in new tab) from space, according to USGS.

Under the ongoing privatization of Landsat, the Earth Observation Satellite Company (EOSAT) took over operations in 1984 from NASA. The company was a joint venture between Hughes and RCA, according to Mack (opens in new tab); during its early years, EOSAT received a small government subsidy along with no guaranteed purchases by the federal government for data services, contributing to an uncertain future.

Landsat 4 had a lower orbit than its predecessors, but a higher field of view to maintain the same "swath width" (or imaging width) of 115 miles or 185 kilometers. However, the swathing pattern changed due to the lower altitude, USGS stated.

Landsat 5 and a Guinness World Record

Ice loss and movement from Malaspina Glacier, southeastern Alaska captured in a series of false-color images acquired between 1986 and 2003 by Landsat 5 and 7 satellites. Ice is colored blue and moraines  areas of rocks, soil and other debris left behind from the moving glacier  are colored brown. (Image credit: NASA/USGS/Landsat)

(opens in new tab)

Landsat 5 launched on March 1, 1984. Like Landsat 4, the satellite carried a multispectral scanner (MSS) and thematic mapper and was expected to last three years. The satellite exceeded lifetime expectations tenfold and set a Guinness World Record for "longest operating Earth observation satellite" for nearly 30 years of operations (opens in new tab) ending June 5, 2013, according to USGS.

However, Landsat 5 almost didn't make its record due to complexities with EOSAT and the associated Land Remote Sensing Commercialization Act (opens in new tab) of 1984 meant to sell Landsat data commercially, NASA stated (opens in new tab). The law restricted EOSAT's commercial practices; with demand artificially reduced, the company was forced to raise prices by 600%.

At first, Landsat had a monopoly on satellite data of this type, which allowed a limited number of users to participate if they could afford to do so; others needed to use free and lower-resolution data from weather satellites, NASA added. But Landsat's competitive advantage evaporated in 1986 when a French satellite launched with similar capabilities to the U.S. series. (The satellite was called SPOT, a French acronym for "System for Earth Observation.")

With fewer buyers for data, Landsat 4 and 5 both "languished' (in NASA's words (opens in new tab)) by reducing imaging observations, calibrations and other activities that induced expenses. By 1989, shrinking operational budgets, lackluster user interest and associated reductions in government commitment had diminished so much that NOAA requested EOSAT turn off the two now-elderly satellites.

"The program was only saved by a strong protest from Congress and foreign and domestic data users, and an intervention by the vice-president," NASA wrote. This surge of interest prompted Congress to pass the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act (opens in new tab) of 1992. Landsat 7 (covered below) was launched under government ownership and two years after that launch, the U.S. government assumed operational responsibility for Landsat 4 and Landsat 5. More affordable USGS pricing for their imagery was established in 2001.

Landsat 6's failed launch

Landsat 6 is the only satellite of the series that did not achieve operations. Following the launch on Oct. 5, 1993, the Titan II launching rocket had a problem during stage separation. A ruptured hydrazine fuel chamber (opens in new tab) stopped fuel from reaching a kick motor required to place the satellite in its operational orbit, according to NASA.

Landsat 6 was supposed to use an enhanced thematic mapper in orbit for the first time, picking up information in eight spectral bands as opposed to the seven available in Landsats 4 and 5.

Operators were lucky, NASA noted, not to experience a gap in Landsat data given the circumstances of 1993: the existing satellites were old and Landsat 7's planning was in a very early phase. Landsat 5's unexpectedly long lifetime allowed the program to continue functioning through this transition.

Landsat 7 and free imagery

Landsat 7 launched on April 15, 1999, nearly six years after Landsat 6's failure. An enhanced thematic mapper plus (ETM+) sensor was launched with even more spectral bands and spatial mapping of 50 feet (15 meters). A thermal infrared channel on the ETM+ improved fourfold upon resolution from previous Landsat thematic mappers (opens in new tab), according to USGS.

While Landsat 7 has been grappling with a scan line corrector failure since 2003 that creates data gaps, it remains operational as of mid-2022 and may serve as a testbed for orbital refueling before it is decommissioned.

As for its imagery: Changes in U.S. policy, likely sparked by the rise of free satellite imagery available online in the early 2000s, allowed USGS to make all Landsat 7 data free to the public in October 2008. All Landsat data in the USGS archive became free (opens in new tab) in December 2009, according to NASA.

Landsat 8's increased resolution

Landsat 8 launched on Feb. 11, 2013, with two science instruments (opens in new tab): an operational land imager (OLI) and a thermal infrared sensor (TIRS), according to NASA. Spatial resolution varies between 50 feet (15 meters) in panchromatic, 98 feet (30 meters) in visible, near-infrared and short-wave infrared, and 328 feet (100 meters) in thermal.

As of mid-2022, the satellite is still operating well at nearly double its expected five-year design lifetime.

Landsat 9 detects minute surface change

Landsat 9 launched on Sept. 27, 2021, to replace the aging Landsat 7 satellite and work with Landsat 8. The satellite has scientific instruments  the Operational Land Imager 2 (OLI-2) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 (TIRS-2)  together aiming to detect minute surface changes through analysis of multiple light wavelengths.

Around launch time, program officials said the new satellite would not only maintain Landsat's continuity but extend it. "Landsat tells us about the Earth's vegetation, land use, coastlines and surface water, just to name a few," Karen St. Germain, head of NASA's Earth Science Division, said in a prelaunch briefing . "When combined with other Earth science missions, that can tell us what is happening and also why."

Like its predecessors, Landsat 9 has a five-year design lifetime but may exceed it. USGS and NASA have together been working on concepts for a Landsat 10 satellite (opens in new tab), but have no official launch time yet on their respective websites.

Additional resources:

If you want to get your hands on some stunning and educational Landsat posters and games, NASA Landsat Science (opens in new tab) has got you covered. Put your observational skills to the test with Landsat Detective (opens in new tab) and see whether you can identify what you're looking at in a Landsat image. Take a deep dive into Landsat data with EarthExplorer and LandsatLook and learn how to use and process Landsat data with these resources from NASA. (opens in new tab)

Bibliography

Mack, Pamela E. (1998). "Landsat and the Rise of Earth Resources Monitoring." In From Engineering Science to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners. https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4219/Chapter10.html (opens in new tab)

NASA. (2021, Dec. 9.) "Landsat." https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/landsat/main/index.html (opens in new tab)

NASA. (2022.) "Landsat Science." https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/ (opens in new tab)

U.S. Geological Survey. (2022.) "EarthExplorer." https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ (opens in new tab)
SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT. DO NOT CONTINUE READING UNLESS YOU HAVE FINISHED THE FULL EPISODE OR ARE OKAY BEING SPOILED.



We are officially at the halfway point of the final season, with just five episodes remaining. This episode put all the stakes on the line intensely and significantly. All the events that will fuel the series through to the finale were set in motion. Its predecessor was intense and information-dense that covered considerable ground in a short amount of time. This one, while important, made the brilliant choice to focus on just the core groups. We followed Anacostia (Demetria McKinney) on her campaign to save herself and Sterling (Luc Roderique). We witnessed Alder (Lyne Renee) put everything on the line to protect her people. Most importantly, we met the Council of the Great River and saw the birth of a complex union between them and the witches. Focusing on these core storylines, in many ways, moved the story forward even more than the prior episode did.



The only moment outside these storylines occurred during the opening Act where Colonel Jarrett (Aaron Douglas) shut down Mothertongue classes at Fort Salem. The fact that he or any Camarilla thinks they can just snuff out that key part of witch culture is absurd. Their culture is more than just a single class or single language. Their language will survive whatever the Camarilla tries to do. In real-world history, Colonizers of the Americas proved that when they tried to rid the beauty of native cultures from history. Even though they had so much wrongly stolen from them, most native cultures and languages have survived today, making it all the more fitting this show has deep roots in honoring native cultures. The concept of a great culture is so powerful that not even the most powerful army can ever truly destroy every element. Somehow, someway, they always live on to inspire future generations. That is what the Camarilla are up against in this series, and no matter what they do, they will never be able to truly destroy witch culture and heritage. Professor Grafton (Nikolai Witschl) beautifully expressed that in his wonderfully constructed exit line to Jarrett spoken in the beautiful Mothertongue. We also saw that in the young cadet, Lupe (Lina Lecompte), who carried so much pride in her language. She is somewhat reminiscent of a much more naive Tally (Jessica Sutton) from the first season. Whatever Jarrett, Hearst (Bob Frazer), Blanton Silver (Victor Webster), or even Kara Brandt (Emilie Ullerup) throw at witches, they will never ever be able to take that from them.



Anacostia and Sterling's battle for freedom demonstrated the lengths to which witches will go to save their culture and themselves. Yes, they are up against a literal army, as this powerful duo found out at the end of their escape, but witches have far more to lose than the Camarilla. That means they will fight far harder and far longer than the Camarilla will be able to sustain. Against overwhelming odds, Anacostia saved both Sterling and herself. She showed how adaptable witches are using what she had learned from Scylla (Amalia Holm) and deploying Spree tactics in their bid for freedom. Army witches alone could eventually be overpowered, but Army witches, Spree Witches, Cession Witches, and whoever joins the fight united as a single force, well, those are odds favoring the witches that would be worth betting on. With Anacostia and Sterling nearly free and with new intel, they will be a valuable resource once they reunite with Petra (Catherine Lough Haggquist). With any luck, knowing ahead of time the force the Camarilla has amassed will prove instrumental in allowing witches to properly prepare. The only moment outside these storylines occurred during the opening Act where Colonel Jarrett (Aaron Douglas) shut down Mothertongue classes at Fort Salem. The fact that he or any Camarilla thinks they can just snuff out that key part of witch culture is absurd. Their culture is more than just a single class or single language. Their language will survive whatever the Camarilla tries to do. In real-world history, Colonizers of the Americas proved that when they tried to rid the beauty of native cultures from history. Even though they had so much wrongly stolen from them, most native cultures and languages have survived today, making it all the more fitting this show has deep roots in honoring native cultures. The concept of a great culture is so powerful that not even the most powerful army can ever truly destroy every element. Somehow, someway, they always live on to inspire future generations. That is what the Camarilla are up against in this series, and no matter what they do, they will never be able to truly destroy witch culture and heritage. Professor Grafton (Nikolai Witschl) beautifully expressed that in his wonderfully constructed exit line to Jarrett spoken in the beautiful Mothertongue. We also saw that in the young cadet, Lupe (Lina Lecompte), who carried so much pride in her language. She is somewhat reminiscent of a much more naive Tally (Jessica Sutton) from the first season. Whatever Jarrett, Hearst (Bob Frazer), Blanton Silver (Victor Webster), or even Kara Brandt (Emilie Ullerup) throw at witches, they will never ever be able to take that from them.Anacostia and Sterling's battle for freedom demonstrated the lengths to which witches will go to save their culture and themselves. Yes, they are up against a literal army, as this powerful duo found out at the end of their escape, but witches have far more to lose than the Camarilla. That means they will fight far harder and far longer than the Camarilla will be able to sustain. Against overwhelming odds, Anacostia saved both Sterling and herself. She showed how adaptable witches are using what she had learned from Scylla (Amalia Holm) and deploying Spree tactics in their bid for freedom. Army witches alone could eventually be overpowered, but Army witches, Spree Witches, Cession Witches, and whoever joins the fight united as a single force, well, those are odds favoring the witches that would be worth betting on. With Anacostia and Sterling nearly free and with new intel, they will be a valuable resource once they reunite with Petra (Catherine Lough Haggquist). With any luck, knowing ahead of time the force the Camarilla has amassed will prove instrumental in allowing witches to properly prepare.







Things falling into place just left the rogue Bellweather unit to find a way to reason with the Council. Despite the cards being stacked against them, with the Council pre-judging them, they fought a valiant fight. Perhaps, letting Abigail (Ashley Nicole Williams) lead the charge wasn't the best choice. The Council seemed more inclined to listen to Adil (Tony Giroux) because of his Tarim blood as well as his gift of Cession languages and Scylla because of her connection to the Cession than they were to the high-born Bellweather heir. Those two alone seem to have been what earned the group a Cession banishment versus a one-way death sentence trip to DC. Nicte (Kandyse McClure) did them a favor by exiting the backdoor. Her presence would have most certainly complicated things. In her parting from the group, it was nice to see that at least Scylla, affectionately now known to Nicte as "Baby Spree," and Tally will miss her. She likely won't be gone long, and it will be interesting to see when and with whom she is in the company of when they all reunite.



It is, however, a shame Nicte exited a smidge early because her talents would have certainly come in handy during the confrontation with Hearst and the Camarilla at the Marshal's compound. Council member, Thelma Bearkiller (Olivia Lucas), did them no favors by taking away their witching ability with those suppressing collars, but they held their own against impossible odds. At least Thelma eventually came back and realized there was a problem and intervened. Abigail and Adil, as well as Tally and Scylla, proved ferocious teams. If Hearst hadn't used his newly enhanced voice against them, they would have surely been able to take him down too like they did his minions. Based on how Hearst altered his own body to be more witch-like indicates that the Camarilla's hatred for the witches has strong roots in wanting to be more powerful and to be the dominant force in control, along with a fair bit of bigotry. Things falling into place just left the rogue Bellweather unit to find a way to reason with the Council. Despite the cards being stacked against them, with the Council pre-judging them, they fought a valiant fight. Perhaps, letting Abigail (Ashley Nicole Williams) lead the charge wasn't the best choice. The Council seemed more inclined to listen to Adil (Tony Giroux) because of his Tarim blood as well as his gift of Cession languages and Scylla because of her connection to the Cession than they were to the high-born Bellweather heir. Those two alone seem to have been what earned the group a Cession banishment versus a one-way death sentence trip to DC. Nicte (Kandyse McClure) did them a favor by exiting the backdoor. Her presence would have most certainly complicated things. In her parting from the group, it was nice to see that at least Scylla, affectionately now known to Nicte as "Baby Spree," and Tally will miss her. She likely won't be gone long, and it will be interesting to see when and with whom she is in the company of when they all reunite.It is, however, a shame Nicte exited a smidge early because her talents would have certainly come in handy during the confrontation with Hearst and the Camarilla at the Marshal's compound. Council member, Thelma Bearkiller (Olivia Lucas), did them no favors by taking away their witching ability with those suppressing collars, but they held their own against impossible odds. At least Thelma eventually came back and realized there was a problem and intervened. Abigail and Adil, as well as Tally and Scylla, proved ferocious teams. If Hearst hadn't used his newly enhanced voice against them, they would have surely been able to take him down too like they did his minions. Based on how Hearst altered his own body to be more witch-like indicates that the Camarilla's hatred for the witches has strong roots in wanting to be more powerful and to be the dominant force in control, along with a fair bit of bigotry.







Nothing will stand in their way, not even the treaties with the Cession or fellow humans like Edwin Collar (Hrothgar Mathews). Using Edwin as a captured ploy proved that fact. It was a low blow, but it was heartwarming to see how much Scylla was willing to sacrifice, even her own life, to save Edwin. He might not be her father, but she clearly cares about him as though he were. She'd give up as much for him as she would for his daughter. Also, it can't be stated enough just how beautiful it is in the way the show has incorporated Scylla with the group this season. It's deeply regrettable that Taylor Hickson (Raelle) got injured and had to sit out much of this season. Still, the storyline they crafted, allowing her to miss several episodes, has offered some terrific material for her co-stars, especially Holm. In a magnificent season for Holm, she is delivering some of her best work so far with the fantastic storylines they have given her. Bringing Edwin back into the story is a fantastic way to represent Raelle and to give Scylla that much-needed personal connection. Now that we've seen how much fight Edwin has in him, willing to sacrifice his own life to protect Raelle's unit, they need to keep him around so he can help rally the citizens of the Cession to help witches.



Even with Thelma's intervention, Edwin's courage, and the unity of the rogue witches, their salvation from Hearst came via Alder, thanks to the emergency beacon Khalida (Kylee Brown) had left with her brother before parting ways with him. It is admirable how Alder is so protective of the stewards, willing to help the group in Khalida's place to protect the young steward. Speaking of this duo, the moment they had to bond in their Mycelium-created stewards' hideout was much needed. Finally, getting a more detailed history of Alder and Khalida's rises to power after the massacres of their families were enlightening. They have been at odds for so long that it was nice to see them not just bond but form a sisterhood. That bond may prove essential moving forward since Alder left Khalida with the other stewards, Noodin (Sarah Dawn Pledge) and the Basque Shepherd (Tate Chernen), who may need Khalida's leadership until Alder can return.



Impressive duplicative work from Alder saved the witches by destroying Camarilla soldiers. Though, it is a darn shame that she couldn't replicate that work with Hearst, presumably because of the way he altered his body with the witches' vocal cords. It's evident that the Mycelium clearly has fight left in her as well if she can sustain this safe haven and the location where she is keeping Raelle (Taylor Hickson). However, it is undoubtedly limited given how the episode ended with Alder visibly drained and collapsing in front of Tally. None of that bodes well for how Raelle may be doing. Since they are now in alliance with the Council, we can only hope they have discovered a way to help heal Alder just enough to get her back on her feet because they need her in this fight. Nothing will stand in their way, not even the treaties with the Cession or fellow humans like Edwin Collar (Hrothgar Mathews). Using Edwin as a captured ploy proved that fact. It was a low blow, but it was heartwarming to see how much Scylla was willing to sacrifice, even her own life, to save Edwin. He might not be her father, but she clearly cares about him as though he were. She'd give up as much for him as she would for his daughter. Also, it can't be stated enough just how beautiful it is in the way the show has incorporated Scylla with the group this season. It's deeply regrettable that Taylor Hickson (Raelle) got injured and had to sit out much of this season. Still, the storyline they crafted, allowing her to miss several episodes, has offered some terrific material for her co-stars, especially Holm. In a magnificent season for Holm, she is delivering some of her best work so far with the fantastic storylines they have given her. Bringing Edwin back into the story is a fantastic way to represent Raelle and to give Scylla that much-needed personal connection. Now that we've seen how much fight Edwin has in him, willing to sacrifice his own life to protect Raelle's unit, they need to keep him around so he can help rally the citizens of the Cession to help witches.Even with Thelma's intervention, Edwin's courage, and the unity of the rogue witches, their salvation from Hearst came via Alder, thanks to the emergency beacon Khalida (Kylee Brown) had left with her brother before parting ways with him. It is admirable how Alder is so protective of the stewards, willing to help the group in Khalida's place to protect the young steward. Speaking of this duo, the moment they had to bond in their Mycelium-created stewards' hideout was much needed. Finally, getting a more detailed history of Alder and Khalida's rises to power after the massacres of their families were enlightening. They have been at odds for so long that it was nice to see them not just bond but form a sisterhood. That bond may prove essential moving forward since Alder left Khalida with the other stewards, Noodin (Sarah Dawn Pledge) and the Basque Shepherd (Tate Chernen), who may need Khalida's leadership until Alder can return.Impressive duplicative work from Alder saved the witches by destroying Camarilla soldiers. Though, it is a darn shame that she couldn't replicate that work with Hearst, presumably because of the way he altered his body with the witches' vocal cords. It's evident that the Mycelium clearly has fight left in her as well if she can sustain this safe haven and the location where she is keeping Raelle (Taylor Hickson). However, it is undoubtedly limited given how the episode ended with Alder visibly drained and collapsing in front of Tally. None of that bodes well for how Raelle may be doing. Since they are now in alliance with the Council, we can only hope they have discovered a way to help heal Alder just enough to get her back on her feet because they need her in this fight.




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A TV ad released last week by Dita Bhargava, candidate for state treasurer, has raised eyebrows for her bold vow to use the states pension investments to prod corporations to make sure their employees have access to abortions  and for its stark look, showing dozens of bare-shouldered women, Bhargava included.

Now the 30-second ad has sparked a controversy as Hulu, the giant streaming service, declined to run it, citing a policy against political ads over abortion, the Bhargava campaign said late Tuesday.

That doesnt sit well with Bhargava. She views corporate activism on abortion and other issues  including opiate addiction, since she lost a son to an overdose four years ago  as a personal mission, and as an important role of the state treasurer. And she believes media outlets should let those issues air in advertisements.

Disney, the parent company that owns Hulu, has taken a company position that they wont run ads having to do with abortion, Bhargava said in a written release. This is outrageous. Reproductive healthcare is a fundamental issue of concern, and Im calling on Disney to reverse this unacceptable decision immediately.

Bhargava and her campaign manager, Julia Vos, told me they were informed of the policy earlier Tuesday by their media buyers. Its not clear what, precisely, the policy is and whether it applies to the entire Disney media empire  which includes Bristol-based ESPN  or just some units.

Hulus media relations office did not immediately return an email requesting comment.

In the meantime, we will continue running my ad in other outlets and discussing the issue, Bhargava said in the release.

In an interview, Bhargava said she was aware of candidates in other states that have had ads on the abortion issue banned on Hulu or other Disney networks and services.

We love Disney; I have two kids, she said, adding, Im disappointed. Im angry about this policy...I see it as an issue of just complete ignorance. of the fact that this is a major, major deal that 50 years of rights have been stripped away from women. And its not just important to women, its important to companies.

She was talking, of course, about the U.S. Supreme Courts recent Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, leaving it to states to set abortion policies.

Bhargava, an investment manager and executive, is in a three-way Democratic Party primary for the open state treasurer office, against Erick Russell, a lawyer who holds the party endorsement; and Karen DuBois-Walton, head of the New Haven housing authority.

All three hold similar views on reproductive rights and the injustice of the 7-3 Dobbs decision, and all three might be expected to use the investment powers of the office to affect social policy.

In fact, former longtime state Treasurer Denise Nappier, a Democrat, was a national powerhouse in corporate governance investing, and she squared off against this very company  The Walt Disney Co.  in 2004 over separating the roles of chairman and CEO, a critical issue in accountability.

Bhargava, who lost a 2018 primary for the office to Shawn Wooden, has been outspoken about social investing  which many Democrats view not as social engineering but rather, smart business. The Connecticut treasurer has arguably more power than any other states treasurer, as sole fiduciary over funds now totaling $45 billion.

Corporate accountability is personal to me but its also a good investment as well, Bhargava said Tuesday, adding that companies watchful of human rights tend to do better financially. Im looking forward to actually banding together with treasurers from across the country.

Hulu matters a lot for the demographic it brings  typically a younger audience of people who dont have traditional cable TV. The streaming service claims 45.6 million subscribers.

The ad is not subtle. As Democrats we need to fight harder, so Ill lead the crusade for our right to choose as state treasurer, Bhargava says on camera. Well push companies that we invest in to guarantee access to safe abortions.

Social investing, sometimes known as ESG, for environmental, social and governance investing, has a growing and important role in finance, but should always be done with an eye toward smart business. For example, the Fortune 500 companies led to same-sex marriage by sanctioning civil unions for employees insurance coverage in the 90s, as they acted to recruit people in a tight job market.

At the Yale School of Management, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, associate dean and an expert on corporate leadership, has tracked social activism by and around companies  most recently including a list of companies that did and did not pull out of Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, and companies that have promised to help their employees obtain abortions when needed.

Disney was one of those companies. Disney is also in a spat with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over its objections to a backward sex education bill in that state, where the company is the largest employer.

Bhargava agreed when I clarified that the government should not force any company to accept ads. She pushed back at the idea that companies, especially media giants such as Disney, might be wise to avoid wading into Americas culture war.

They should absolutely allow a voice in what is happening here, she said.

As of late Tuesday, the Bhargava campaign was still looking into how to respond to the apparent rule.

We found this out today so were definitely in action mode to try and reverse this, Bhargava said.

dhaar@hearstmediact.com
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WASHINGTON (AP)  Steve Bannon's lawyers tried Wednesday to establish at his criminal contempt trial that the deadline for the onetime strategist for Donald Trump to appear before the House committee investigating the Capitol riot was flexible as long as the two sides were on negotiating terms. But the committee's chief counsel said Bannon was uncooperative from the start, so there was no such leeway.

Bannon, who was an unofficial adviser to the then-president at the time of the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, is charged with defying a congressional subpoena that sought his records and testimony.

Bannon lawyer Evan Corcoran asked Kristin Amerling, the committee's chief counsel, whether it was common for witnesses to appear before a congressional committee several weeks after the deadline date on a subpoena. Amerling answered yes, but added only when witnesses are cooperating with the committee.

In Bannon's case, she said he could not be viewed as cooperating in any meaningful way. He was sent a subpoena on Sept. 23, 2021, that ordered him to produce requested documents by Oct. 7 and appear in person before the committee on Oct. 14.

The committee heard nothing from Bannon until after the first deadline had passed, at which point his lawyer sent a letter to the committee stating that Bannon was protected by Trump's claim of executive privilege and would not be providing documents or appearing. The committee responded in writing that Trump's claim was invalid and that Bannon faced a hard deadline of Oct. 14 to come before the committee.

When that deadline passed, the committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., wrote Bannon's lawyer on Oct. 15 threatening criminal prosecution.

Bannon was indicted in November on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress, one month after the Justice Department received the referral. Each count carries a minimum of 30 days of jail and as long as a year behind bars.

The emphasis on the subpoena timeline is one of the few avenues of defense that U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols left Bannon's legal team after a hearing last week. Nichols ruled that major elements of Bannons planned defense were irrelevant and could not be introduced in court. The judge said Bannon could not claim he believed he was covered by executive privilege, which allows presidents to withhold confidential information from the courts and the legislative branch, or that he was acting on the advice of his lawyers.

Amerling said the committee sought Bannon's testimony and documents because it had information that Bannon was actively involved in planning, logistics and fundraising for Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory. The subpoena demanded any documents or communications relating to Trump and other people in his orbit, including lawyer Rudy Giuliani and extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

During cross-examination, Corcoran raised questions about Amerlings own political affiliations and her ties to a prosecutor in the case. Amerling acknowledged she is a lifelong Democrat and had known one of the prosecutors for years since they both worked in the office of now-retired Rep. Henry Waxman, a longtime California Democrat. The two also belong to the same book club, mostly made up of former Waxman staffers, Amerling said.

In opening statements this week, Corcoran hinted that the charges were politically motivated and told the jury Bannon was engaged in good-faith negotiations with the committee when he was charged. Amerling testified that Bannon ignored multiple notices that he was in danger of facing criminal prosecution.

A second witness, FBI Agent Stephen Hart, testified Wednesday about Bannon's social media posts that seemed to celebrate his defiance of the subpoena after the first deadline had passed.

Bannon, 68, is one of the most prominent of the Trump-allied holdouts who refused to testify before the committee. He had argued that his testimony was protected by Trumps claim of executive privilege.

The prosecution rested its case Wednesday afternoon. The trial resumes on Thursday.

On his way out of the courthouse Wednesday afternoon, Bannon continued his now-daily routine of addressing reporters and harshly criticizing the Jan. 6 committee and particularly Thompson, its chairman. But he has been careful not to criticize his own trial or Judge Nichols.

___

Follow APs coverage of the Jan. 6 committee hearings at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege

___

Follow Khalil on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ashrafkhalil
HARTFORD  A Missouri man pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to a $7 million fraud scheme related to his commercial aircraft supply businesses, according to federal prosecutors.

As part of the scheme, Kyle J. Wine, 41, of Lees Summit, Mo., induced an investment firm based in Darien to put $4.5 million into the supposed acquisition and sale of an Airbus A320-231 airframe and two aircraft engines, U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery said in a news release Tuesday.

Wine owned various commercial aircraft supply businesses, including JetPro International LLC, Nexus Aviation and Turbotech Partners. From at least 2018 to 2021, he defrauded investors in aircraft-related transactions, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

Wine used victims money to purchase aircraft airframes and engines, sold the aircraft airframes and engines, hid the resulting profits from his investors, and diverted invested funds for his personal use, the U.S. Attorneys office said.

While working with the Darien firm, Wine created fake domain names and email accounts to send fictitious correspondence to the victim investor. He used the correspondence to trick the firm into believing his company, Jet Pro, was attempting to sell the aircraft engines and airframe to buyers, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

It turns out Wine had already sold one engine for $2.45 million and the Airbus airframe for $1.3 million; however, he kept the profits for himself, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

He never informed the victim investor of those sales and shared none of the proceeds of the sales with the investor, the U.S. Attorneys office said.

Wine used some of the invested funds to purchase another engine without the investor knowing, the U.S. Attorneys office added.

In total, Wines fraud scheme caused 13 separate victims to lose about $7.15 million, the U.S. Attorneys office said.

Wine pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford on Tuesday to wire fraud and money laundering. He faces up to 30 years in prison for the offenses, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

As of Tuesday, Wine is released on bond pending his sentencing, which has not been scheduled.
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First Lady Jill Biden and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona swung through a New Haven institution for a quick snack on their way to the next stop on a three-state tour of summer learning programs.

The two joined Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker for a sweet treat at Arethusa Farm, considered the best ice cream in Connecticut by Food & Wine Magazine.

Biden went with one of the creamerys fresh waffle cones, filled with a few scoops of toasted almond coconut ice cream. Lamont went for a milkshake.

Beyond their mutual love of ice cream and teaching children, Governor Lamont and the First Lady continued their conversation from the previous stop about how Connecticut is using ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds in an innovative way to supplement students education over summer break," Anthony Anthony, the Governor's spokesperson, said.

Cardona was head of the Connecticut State Department of Education and a superintendent in Meriden before joining the Biden Administration. Biden is herself a longtime educator and the first FLOTUS to keep her job outside of the White House while also serving in the administration.

The two headed to Tweed Airport after their mid-afternoon dessert and took off for Michigan. After that, theyre on to Georgia.

Biden first stopped by Albertus Magnus College to see how the ARPA funds are being used in summer enrichment programs.

Of the nearly $2 trillion dollars included in the American Rescue Plan Act, the Biden administration set aside $122 billion to reopen schools during the pandemic and to help children struggling with learning loss.

The program at Albertus Magnus serves about 39 children in kindergarten through 2nd grade in collaboration with the Westport-based nonprofit Horizons.

Horizons launched the program at Albertus Magnus college last summer with a $140,000 grant from the American Rescue Plan. This year, the program is receiving about half its funding from the federal government, with the other half coming from private donors, according to Jose Oromi, the executive Vice President of Horizons National.

Additional reporting by John Moritz.
HARTFORD  A New York man has been sentenced to 90 months in prison after helping lead a brazen burglary ring that stole millions of dollars in vehicles, phones, ATMs and other merchandise across Connecticut, New York and beyond, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for Connecticut.

Josepher Cartagena, 26, of Bronx, N.Y., had pleaded guilty in February to possession of stolen property, officials said.

Prosecutors said Cartagena, along with his brother, Alexander Santiago, led the group, which primarily burglarized car dealerships and mobile phone stores in Connecticut and New York between June 2020 and June 2021.

From dealerships, the group stole vehicle key fobs and vehicles, and from mobile phone stores they stole cellphones, electronics and other merchandise. They also stole ATMs from check cashing businesses and burglarized video game stores, officials said. Cartagena and Santiago planned and organized the burglary sprees, recruited others to participate in those burglaries, maintained inventories of the stolen property, sold that property, and then divided the proceeds among the participants.

In total, the group committed more than 180 burglaries and stole more than $4 million in property, officials said, often committing multiple thefts in a single evening.

On numerous occasions, officials said they evaded capture by speeding away from police, officials said. Prosecutors said an apparent tally found on Santiagos phone after his arrest indicated that he had engaged police in 89 chases.

Cartagena was arrested in December 2020, officials said. Earlier in the day, he fled from law enforcement by driving onto a sidewalk, then struck an officers vehicle, injuring them, and accelerating toward another, who dodged out of the way, officials said.

He then drove to a gas station, exited his own damaged vehicle, stole a Jeep that was being cleaned at the gas station, and escaped at a high-rate of speed into oncoming traffic, officials said. After additional high-speed chases and collisions with law enforcement vehicles later that day, Cartagena was arrested at approximately 10 p.m. that evening, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.

Police found hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise, more than 30 vehicle keys and key fobs, 9mm ammunition, and approximately $87,000 in cash at Cartagenas home, officials said.

In their sentencing memorandum, U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery and Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Ruff called for Cartagena to be sentenced to about 10 years in prison, citing, among other factors, the reach of the scheme and the danger posed by the regular high-speed chases.

Mr. Cartagenas criminal conduct was egregious and persistent. He plundered businesses while they struggled with the pandemic and routinely engaged police in dangerous high-speed chases. His greed, apathy toward victims, and extreme disrespect for law and order and the police call for a significant term of imprisonment, Avery and Ruff said. It is a miracle that no one was killed or seriously injured during this conspiracys many high-speed car chases, especially during the mayhem on Dec. 23, 2020.

Defense Attorney Jon M. Silveri asked for Judge Michael P. Shea to be reasonable in considering Cartagenas conduct, noting his lack of prior prison time and acceptance of responsibility.

In a letter to the court, Cartagena said he had a great deal of remorse for those affected, and said the experience of being arrested had humbled him.

I do not claim to have seen this bright light or that Ive changed overnight but I work every day knowing I may struggle and that I must confront my bad habits and way of thinking, Cartagena wrote in the letter. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. I know that I can be a better person for society, my family and my children as well.

Santiago was arrested in January 2021, then later sentenced to 90 months in prison, officials said.

At his home, officers found approximately 20 new cellphones in boxes, approximately 40 vehicle key fobs, a police radio, a glass-punch device, two firearms and a substantial amount of ammunition, officials said.

Three other men have been sentenced in connection with the series of thefts, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services added to its holdings in the Crestwood Industrial Park with the recent purchase of the Glen Summit Springs Water Co. property for $1.25 million.

The developer acquired a 10.42-acre parcel in Wright Twp. bounded by Crestwood Drive and Route 437 for $1 million. The property houses Glen Summits Mountain Top bottling plant and distribution warehouse. Mericle also obtained a 68-acre parcel on the east side of Route 437 for $250,000. That property is undeveloped and mostly wooded.

Jim Cummings, Mericles vice president of marketing, said the developer has no definitive plans for the Glen Summit property.

As the lead developer of industrial, flex and office space in Northeastern Pennsylvania, we regularly seek to acquire land that has development potential, Cummings said. As with all of our land acquisitions, we monitor the market and, when the time is right, develop plans that help us get the highest and best use out of the property so we can recruit quality employers that bring value-added jobs to the region.

Cummings referred questions about the future of the 130-year-old water bottling company to Glen Summit officials.

John Tidball, Glen Summit CEO, said the bottling company will continue in operation and with the acquisition by Mericle, there are plans to improve the companys operations.

Tidball said he could not elaborate on those plans.

He noted any plans for future use the property would require approval of various governmental agencies.

Tidball said Glen Summit employs about 20 people.

The acquisition of the Glen Summit property not only enlarges the footprint of the industrial park property Mericle already owns, but also provides his company with access to rail service. The Reading & Northern Railroad line runs just a few feet from the Glen Summit property along Route 437.

The sale will result in $6,250 in real estate transfer tax revenue to Wright Twp.
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President Klaus Iohannis sent a message on Wednesday on the occasion of Aviation Day, in which he underlined that the Romanian Air Force has gone through "an extensive" process of modernization and consolidation, being currently "a category of homogeneous, dynamic and supple forces, able to carry out the whole range of missions."

"The Romanian Aviation and Air Force Day, celebrated together with that of the Holy Prophet Elijah on July 20, is a good occasion to pay tribute to those who have served or are serving with dedication, courage and selflessness the Romanian civilian or military aviation. On this day, we commemorate, with deep gratitude and appreciation, all the aviators who made the supreme sacrifice in the service of the 'Romanian wings'. At the same time, today we pay tribute to the pioneers of Romanian aviation - Aurel Vlaicu, Traian Vuia, Henri Coanda, Elie Carafoli, as well as to all those who, through devotion and involvement, have contributed to the increase in the prestige of the Romanian aeronautics at international level. Those who are currently working with the Romanian Aviation and the Air Force have the noble mission to continue and honour their predecessors' efforts, in a complicated security context," the head of state said.

According to him, the Romanian Air Force has undergone an extensive process of modernization and consolidation, being currently "a homogeneous, dynamic and flexible category of forces, able to carry out the full range of missions: ensuring the sovereignty of the national airspace, participating in exercises and combat missions in an allied context, the execution of air transport, including those of a humanitarian nature, participation in the limitation and elimination of the consequences of natural disasters or other emergency situations."

President Iohannis pointed out that, in the current context, the Air Force, together with similar allied structures, is one of the most important response tools.

"Dear aviators and members of the Air Force, we are going through a particularly difficult period in terms of regional and Euro-Atlantic security. The military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has significantly changed the strategic reality in the Black Sea region. Romania's role in this context is significant. As a border state of NATO and the European Union, our country has a mission to respond quickly to military security challenges in the region. With full professionalism and involvement, the Air Force, together with similar allied structures, is one of the most important response tools, thus ensuring the security of the airspace of Romania and of the allied one," Iohannis highlighted.

The head of state added that the new security environment on NATO's Eastern Flank requires the promotion of military structures with a high operational degree, endowed with modern means and able to react in a short time.

"In this regard, endowment programs are underway to increase efficiency in military operations, and the modernization of the Air Force will continue with the acquisition of an additional number of F-16 aircraft, which will constitute a transitional air operational capability to F-35 aircraft of the latest generation," Iohannis specified.

He thanked the airmen and members of the Air Force for their professionalism and spirit of sacrifice.

"You make the Romanian airspace safer and contribute to the security of the air borders of Romania, the European Union and NATO. I urge you to continuously prepare and show the same dedication and devotion in all the missions you receive," Iohannis added.

AGERPRES
Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu had phone calls on Wednesday with his Finnish and Swedish counterparts Pekka Haavisto and Ann Linde to inform them about the ratification by the Romanian Parliament of the two countries' NATO Accession Protocols, the Foreign Ministry said in a release.

The two top diplomats thanked the Romanian authorities, both the Executive and the Legislature, for their support for Finland and Sweden's acquiring NATO membership and expressed their satisfaction at the completion of the ratification procedure in the Romanian Parliament, the Foreign Ministry states.

They also thanked Minister Aurescu for his personal involvement through diplomatic efforts prior to the NATO Summit in late June, with a view to facilitating a positive decision for Sweden and Finland at the Madrid Summit.

On the occasion of the call with the Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, the Romanian chief diplomat also raised the subject of Romania's joining the Schengen Area, a priority goal for our country, with the Finnish Foreign Minister expressing the full and unconditional support of his country for Romania's Schengen bid. AGERPRES
More than 100 people were put on remand in the first six months of the year, following 83 human trafficking crackdown actions conducted by police and prosecutors, the Romanian Police General Inspectorate (IGPR) informed on Wednesday.

According to the cited release, 34 of the 83 human trafficking operative actions were large-scale and 18 were targeted at crime rings; probing was carried out into the criminal activity of 396 suspects, of whom 149 were detained and 102 were put on remand.

"Court supervision was ordered for 78 persons, four were put on house arrest and 12 were arrested in absentia. 290 home searches and 75 vehicle searches were carried out. As many as 73 precautionary seizure orders were carried out, and 519,965 RON, 367,500 euros, 30,771 US dollars, plus another 43,649 euros (transformed from other currencies), 35 buildings and 33 cars were put on freeze," the release states.

IGPR also shows that in order to document the criminal activity of the suspects, the authorities resorted to international cooperation, indispensable for effective investigations into cross-border human trafficking, sending out 579 requests for international police assistance. Also, 936 requests for information and verification were received from foreign partners.

As many as 16 European investigation orders and requests for rogatory commission were registered, plus another 22 passive letters rogatory. Also, two agreements for setting up joint investigation teams were concluded for fighting human trafficking, and three relevant actions were carried out in coordination with the European judicial authorities. AGERPRES
Aviators, through their level of professional training, give us confidence that the country's airspace is safe and protected when needed and that they will always be with the civilian population in emergencies, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said in a message on Wednesday, July 20, Romanian Aviation and Air Force Day.

"Today, we are celebrating the Romanian Aviation and Air Force, also paying homage to the aviator heroes killed in action for the defence of the country or on international missions in which Romania participated. Always up high because of their trade and training, these people give us confidence that the country's airspace is safe and protected in case when needed and that they will always be with the civilian population in emergencies. The trust and good name Romania's flight professionals enjoy are the outcome of many years of training, seriousness and courage with which they dedicate themselves to a career as beautiful as it is difficult, which requires a maximum degree of responsibility," Ciuca points out.

Ciuca added that over the last 30 years, the Romanian Air Force has undergone an extensive process of reorganisation and modernisation, which made it possible for Romania to achieve capability standards in line with the country's NATO membership and the defence requirements resulting from such membership, emphasising the importance of this goal in the current security context.

"As a former defence minister, I supported this process, and as prime minister I consider this goal just as important, given the context created by Russia's unprovoked and illegitimate aggression against Ukraine. When taking over the governance of the country, we pledged to consolidate Romania's defence and deterrence posture by developing defence capacities matching the current security challenges, including air defence. The acquisition of multi-role aircraft recently approved by the government has reached the finish line, adding to Romania's defensive capacity, " he said.

Given that Holy Prophet Elijah the Tishbite, the spiritual protector of the flight audacious, all the military, reservists and civil aviation personnel, is celebrated on July 20, the prime minister wished them "clear skies on their missions," and to the Romanians who celebrate their name day - " peace, accomplishments and many years ahead."

AGERPRES
The Senate, brought together on Wednesday, in an extraordinary meeting, adopted, as a decision-making forum, a draft law for ratifying the accession Protocols for Finland and Sweden to the North Atlantic Treaty.

96 votes were "in favor" and one senator did not vote.

The draft law ratifies the accession Protocol for the Republic of Finland and the accession Protocol for the Kingdom of Sweden to the North Atlantic Treaty, representing a procedural step in the process of these countries to becoming NATO full members.

The Chamber of Deputies also adopted on Wednesday, as a first notified Chamber, the draft law for ratifying accession Protocols for the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden to the North Atlantic Treaty, thus the procedure being closed.

President Klaus Iohannis signed a decree on Monday for Parliament to ratify the two protocols, after the Government approved the draft law last Wednesday.

AGERPRES
The Executive has approved, through a memorandum, to negotiate and sign an agreement, at the level of the Romanian and Ukrainian governments, regarding the lucrative activities of family members of members of diplomatic missions and consulate positions.

"The Executive has approved the Agreement between the Romanian Government and Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers. Through this agreement a preliminary procedure will be established for people eligible of being employed on the host country's territory. This is about family members of diplomatic, consular, administrative and technical staff of Romania's diplomatic missions and consular offices in Ukraine and Ukraine's in Romania, who are authorized to carry out lucrative activities in the accrediting state, after receiving the appropriate authorization," the Government press release shows.

Furthermore, the agreement convenes the fact that there will be no restrictions regarding the nature or type of activity that can be carried out, provided that it does not go against public order or national security.

The agreement will be concluded for an indefinite period of time and can be terminated by either side through a written notice addressed to the other party.AGERPRES
Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu received on Wednesday Israel's outgoing ambassador to Romania David Saranga on a farewell visit.

The Romanian Foreign Minister voiced special appreciation for the ambassador's efforts during his term, dedicated to developing and deepening the Romanian-Israeli bilateral relationship, expressing hopes that new cooperation projects will be identified in the future in areas of common interest, to the benefit of both states, a Foreign Ministry release shows.

In this regard, both officials emphasized the importance of organizing the third joint Romania-Israel government meeting, and - in preparation thereof - of the third session of the Romania-Israel Working Group on Economic Affairs acting under the coordination of the two Foreign Ministries, with the aim of boosting economic relations and sectoral cooperation. The sides also expressed interest in the further strengthening of cooperation on digital diplomacy.

Landmark moments in the Romanian-Israeli bilateral relationship were evoked, which took place during ambassador David Saranga's term in office, specifically: the June 2021 visit to Bucharest of the President of the State of Israel, the Bucharest visits of Israel's Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister (in September and November 2020, respectively), as well as the March 2022 visit to Bucharest of Israel's then-Foreign Minister and current Prime Minister Yair Lapid.

Minister Aurescu expressed satisfaction at the decision of the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Monday to resume the meetings of the EU-Israel Association Council, a goal that has had his constant supported in the last two years. AGERPRES
As many as 6,779 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Romania, down 879 from the previous day, with over 24,000 RT-PCR and rapid antigenic tests performed, the Health Ministry informed on Wednesday.

Of the new cases, 1,345 were in re-infected patients, who tested positive more than 90 days after the first time they recovered from the disease.

Most of the newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Romania since the previous reporting were recorded in Bucharest City - 1,306, and in the counties of Cluj - 544, Constanta - 453, Timis - 305, Prahova - 297, Iasi - 261, Sibiu - 257, Dolj - 250, and Ilfov - 239.

As of Wednesday, 2,981,659 cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Romania.

- Hospitalisations -

As many as 2,301 people with COVID-19, up 97 from the previous reporting, including 379 children, are hospitalised in Romania at specialist care facilities.

Out of the total number of hospitalised patients, 144 patients, up eight, including three minors, are in intensive care.

Of the 144 patients admitted to ICU, 122 are unvaccinated against COVID-19.

- Deaths -

According to the ministry, 12 Romanians, eight men and four woman, infected with SARS-CoV-2 is reported dead in the last 24 hours.

Of the 12 deaths, one was recorded in the age group 50-59 years, two in the age group 60-69 years, four in the age group 70-79 years and five in the age group over 80 years.

All deaths were in patients with comorbidities.

Out of the total 12 patients who died, seven were unvaccinated and five were vaccinated.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 65,836 people diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania.

AGERPRES
The government approved, in its Wednesday's meeting, the substantiation note for the purchase of 12 hydrogen-powered locomotives, the Transport minister Sorin Grindeanu wrote on his Facebook page.

The estimated value of the contract financed through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) will be 862.23 million RON (with VAT).

"The investment is integrated with the procurement of hydrogen supply services and those of long-term maintenance and repairs, which will be provided from the commissioning of locomotives," the minister of Transport added.

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MTI) launched in public consultation in May the draft piece of legislation on the acquisition of 12 hydrogen electric trains, the total amount required being over 174.2 million euros.

According to the project, the daily journey of a railcar can be up to 850 km, but on average it is about 700 km, and the time of use of a railcar will be by rotation, up to 23 hours/day, but on average 17 hours/day.

The time allocated to hydrogen charging is about 90 minutes and will be done in Bucharest, and the hydrogen filling station will be a dual one, placed so that it can supply both hydrogen traction trains and other road vehicles (especially buses).AGERPRES
ST. LOUIS  City jurors on Wednesday found Stephan Cannon guilty of first-degree murder and several other charges in the 2020 killing of retired St. Louis police Capt. David Dorn.

After three hours of deliberation on the third day of evidence and testimony, Cannon, 26, of Glasgow Village, was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery, burglary and three counts of armed criminal action in Dorns June 2, 2020, killing.

Dorn, 77, was shot outside Lees Jewelry & Pawn shop at 4123 Martin Luther King Drive when he showed up to stop looters who had descended on the business during violence and destruction that followed protests over the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.

Prosecutors argued that as looters ransacked the shelves of the pawn shop that morning, Cannon fled to the street corner, crouched and fired 10 shots at Dorn, killing him as he approached the shop and fired off warning shots to stop the looters.

Im very thankful to the jurors who saw the truth and all the evidence, Dorns wife, Ann Dorn, said outside the courthouse after the verdicts. And I want to thank Marvin Teer for doing a phenomenal job in prosecuting the case.

She said justice was served.

I dont want to say we can move on, she said. Theres never going to be full closure, but it brings us peace.

After Circuit Judge Theresa C. Burke read the verdicts, Teer, the lead prosecutor on the case, told reporters in the courtroom that the whole situation is sad.

Nobody wins, he said with tears in his eyes. Its sad, but at least theres some closure for David and his family.

Ann Dorn, herself a 28-year police veteran, said she sympathizes with Cannons family.

I lost David, and now theyre losing a brother and a son, she said. I feel sorry for them, and my heart goes out to them as well because they lost, too.

Cannons lawyer, Brian Horneyer, declined comment on the trial but said Cannon plans to appeal.

David Dorn was a friend of the shops owner and regularly checked on its burglar alarms typically tripped by critters or storms, Ann Dorn said.

He retired from St. Louis police in 2007 after 38 years and also served for six years as police chief in Moline Acres. His death drew attention nationwide, including from the White House.

Dorns final moments, as he lay dying on the sidewalk, were captured on a Facebook livestream. Liddell Chapple, the man who recorded the video, reacted in immediate disbelief that someone had killed Dorn over TVs. He testified to what he saw as a lack of value for human life over materialistic stuff.

During closing arguments Wednesday, Teer told the jury, You know you really did something wrong when the streets come in on you. And the streets came in on Stephan Cannon right away. We played the (Facebook Live) video so you understood what the streets said. We dont do this! This aint us! The streets gave him up right away.

The case was Teers first as the Circuit Attorneys Offices chief trial assistant, and he said it was his first trial of any kind in 22 years.

Horneyer argued in his closing arguments that police had tunnel vision in pegging Cannon as Dorns killer without physical evidence linking him to the pawn shop. Detectives, Horneyer said, relied on co-defendant Mark Jackson, 24, who initially lied to police and gave different versions of what happened before ultimately making a deal with prosecutors to testify against Cannon.

This is a man who lies as easily as he breathes, Horneyer said of Jackson.

Jacksons testimony this week was perhaps the most important witness for the prosecution, as he was the only person directly placing Cannon inside and outside the pawn shop the morning of the homicide. Others identified Cannon on surveillance video at Lees, but Jackson said he drove Cannon to and from the shop.

Police found Jacksons debit card on the floor of the ravaged pawn shop. When detectives interrogated him later about what happened, he changed his story several times before telling them hed say anything they wanted to avoid a murder charge. He testified Tuesday that he was telling the truth at trial expecting only to clear my name and not testifying for a lenient sentence.

Cannon did not testify.

While nothing can bring Capt. Dorn back to his loved ones, Mr. Cannon has been held accountable for the crimes committed in the City of St. Louis, and justice has been served, Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner said in a statement Wednesday.

Jackson has a hearing set for Thursday in his pending murder case. His lawyer said he expects prosecutors will drop the second-degree murder charge as part of Jacksons agreement to testify against Cannon.

Cannons sentencing is set for Sept. 13. The mandatory sentence is life in prison without parole since prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.
Updated at 3:20 p.m. Wednesday with more information

ST. LOUIS  Two people were injured early Wednesday after an argument that escalated to a shootout in the city's Downtown West neighborhood.

The shooting happened at about 1 a.m. in the 400 block of North 20th Street. Police said they heard a large number of gunshots in the area, and while responding found several people running in the area of 20th and Locust streets.

One passenger in a vehicle near the scene was shot, and another person, who police say is also a suspect in the shootout, was shot in the foot. Both were taken to a hospital, but their conditions were not available Wednesday morning.

Police initially said the shootout involved two occupants of Airbnb rentals, but representatives from Airbnb disputed that they had rental properties in the area, and police updated their incident report to call the buildings "short-term rentals" instead. They said witnesses on the scene had told them the buildings were Airbnb rentals.

A juvenile was the sole occupant of one of properties on Washington Avenue, when police entered. Police say they found a large quantity of narcotics and money, and the juvenile was arrested.

Windows of an apartment building and of K&H Dentistry were also shot out in the exchange.
ST. LOUIS COUNTY  A St. Louis County woman was charged with murder on Tuesday after authorities say she fatally shot a man in the back of the head this week during a domestic dispute.

Jaylon Dennis, 20, is also charged with armed criminal action by the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorneys Office, and is being held at the county jail on a $500,000 bond.

Authorities identified the victim as Darnell Ashford, 29, of the 4000 block of Finney Avenue.

On Monday, Dennis and Ashford were arguing about Ashfords alleged infidelity at her residence on the 8800 block of Dragonwyck Drive, court records show.

Dennis told authorities Ashford made an indirect or veiled" threat toward her, so she left and took a walk around the parking lot. She then went back inside her residence, and got a .40 caliber semiautomatic handgun with an extended magazine. Finally, she walked into the kitchen, and shot Ashford twice in the back of the head.

Police were called to the residence shortly after 7:30 p.m.

Dennis next court date was not immediately available on Tuesday.
ST. LOUIS  City election officials on Wednesday put political newcomer Mark Kummer on the Sept. 13 primary ballot for aldermanic president but one of his opponents, Alderman Jack Coatar, said he filed a lawsuit challenging Kummers qualifications.

Gary Stoff, a city Election Board director, said the board verified that Kummer turned in 1,317 signatures of registered voters, more than the 1,175 needed.

Kummer, 44, would join Coatar, 36, and Alderman Megan Green, 38, whose petitions were verified previously.

While the election board verified that Kummer met the signature requirement, Coatar in his suit alleged that Kummer doesnt meet minimum city residency rules set for aldermanic president in the city charter.

The charter says the aldermanic president shall have the same qualifications as the mayor. People holding either office next before his election must be a resident of the city for five years and an assessed city taxpayer for two years.

Kummer, a political newcomer and entrepreneur, moved to the citys Compton Heights neighborhood last December from the Boston area. But he says the fact that he had lived in that same St. Louis home from 1985 to 1997 means he meets the five-year requirement.

He said he paid taxes to the city on his vehicle during part of that 1985-1997 period, for more than two years.

Coatar in his suit said an 1893 court decision determined that next before means the time period immediately preceding the event in question, in this case an election. He said he filed the suit in St. Louis Circuit Court.

As a lawyer and a former prosecutor, I have sworn an oath to uphold the law, Coatar said. That is why I cannot stand aside while candidates for public office ignore the citys election laws and charter.

In response, Kummer said: Ill see him in court. Hes wrong.

Green said in a text message that she also believes Kummer doesnt meet residency requirements and was discussing the situation with her campaign team. I know that I meet the qualifications, Green said.

Stoff, the election board official, said a 2014 Missouri Court of Appeals ruling bars election authorities from ruling on a candidates residency and that challengers must file suit to get a court to decide.

Kummer said he lived and worked in Dallas, Chicago, Montreal and Seattle before returning to the St. Louis area in 2016. From 2016 to 2020, he said, he was president of Mid America Logistics, a freight broker and trucking company, while residing in Clayton.

He said he moved to Massachusetts in 2020 to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned an MBA.

Kummer says he is a political independent. Green and Coatar are Democrats.

However, no party affiliation will be listed for the candidates because the balloting will be carried out under the citys nonpartisan approval voting system that started last year.

The three are running for the office formerly held by Lewis Reed, who resigned last month after pleading not guilty to federal corruption charges.

Under the approval voting system, residents at the special primary can vote for as many candidates as they approve of. The two top vote-getters will then advance to a runoff at the Nov. 8 general election.

The winner will serve the final five months of Reeds term. The next four-year term in the office will be filled at the regular city election next April, preceded by a primary in March.

The aldermanic presidents duties are temporarily being carried out by Acting President Joe Vollmer, who will serve until November.

Updated at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 20.(tncms-asset)1d57de6e-077f-11ed-935d-00163ec2aa77[0](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)2d59754c-0488-11ed-af0b-00163ec2aa77[1](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)7038c83c-02d4-11ed-bfef-00163ec2aa77[2](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)ab746f78-f974-11ec-957c-00163ec2aa77[3](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)dbadabae-f3f3-11ec-bb5c-00163ec2aa77[4](/tncms-asset)
CLAYTON  The St. Louis County Council voted 5-2 Tuesday to approve 12 weeks paid parental leave for full-time county employees, up from the two weeks currently available, despite concerns about how the county can pay for it beyond the next year.

Voting in favor were Council Chair Rita Days, D-1st District, and Council members Tim Fitch, R-3rd District; Shalonda Webb, D-4th District; Lisa Clancy, D-5th District; and Kelli Dunaway, D-2nd District. Fitch and Days were co-sponsors of the measure.

Councilmen Ernie Trakas, R-6th District, and Mark Harder, R-7th District, voted against the measure, citing concerns that the county wouldnt be able to pay for it.

County Budget Policy Director Paul Kreidler told the council last week that it was unclear how much exactly the new paid leave policy would cost, but that the county would run out of funding by 2024 without other changes to the county budget. The county is running on a $30 million deficit that is expected to grow next year.

But Fitch and other advocates argued the council could figure out how to fund the program, which they said would help the county recruit and retain talent by keeping up with employee benefits offered by many private employers.

This is about making St. Louis County government a more desirable place to work, he said.

The bill expands paid leave for both merit and appointed county employees who are new parents, for birth or adoption of a new child. For parents of a child who are both county employees, one primary caregiver would be eligible for 12 weeks paid leave, and a secondary caregiver would get four additional weeks of paid leave.

The leave includes 80 hours for prenatal appointments and up to 80 hours for first-year health care appointments for infants, as well for children up to 18 years old who were adopted within the last year.

County Executive Sam Page did not say Tuesday night whether he would sign the bill. The executive in 2019 had first implemented a paid leave policy, signing an executive order that gave employees the two weeks currently available to them.

Banning sex acts?

In other action Tuesday, a measure by Fitch to ban sex acts on county property won first-round approval by a council majority after prolonged debate about whether the measure was needed.

The bill was a response to the sudden resignation of Cal Harris, Pages chief of staff, after Harris recorded himself in a sex act in his county office. Harris quit his $156,000-a-year job on June 29 amid a Missouri Highway Patrol investigation into the video and its dissemination.

The video was sent anonymously a week earlier to Rep. Shamed Dogan, a Ballwin Republican who is running for county executive. Harder, who received a copy, turned it over to Clayton Police, who referred it to the highway patrol, which is investigating.

The attorney for the woman in the video claims she had no knowledge of the recording being made or shared. Harris attorney contends the woman knew of the recording, and says Harris does not know how the recording got sent from his personal phone.

Fitch on Tuesday said his measure, introduced July 5, is about making a very strong statement to all our county employees that not only is this not acceptable at the highest levels of our government, but to every level of county government.

The legislation would explicitly penalize county employees for engaging in act of any sexual nature while present in a county-owned building or vehicle, or in or on other personal or real county-owned property.

Violators would be subject to suspension, discharge, or other discipline as well as a fine of up to $1,000 and up to a year in jail, or both.

The council gave the bill first-round approval by a voice vote, but not before several council members questioned whether the proposal was necessary at all. Civil service rules forbid misconduct and allow for suspension and discharge in those cases.

Webb asked for a committee meeting on the bill, asking what is the value added?

Dunaway seconded the idea, saying she wanted to know what exactly constitutes a sex act? And how will this be enforced? She said the Harris resignation was an embarrassing ordeal for everyone involved and criticized Fitchs bill as cruel and unnecessary.

Page, in response to questions from Fitch, said county human resources rules apply to appointees just like merit employees. But he said he would sign the bill if the council agrees on an ordinance.

In this instance, the employee resigned at the same moment he was describing what happened before I could terminate him, Page said. But if you want to pass an ordinance to address this  if you can figure out how to define sex acts and how to enforce it, Ill sign your bill.

Posted at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 19.
JEFFERSON CITY  U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner on Tuesday was the only Republican in Missouris House delegation to vote in favor of protecting same-sex and interracial marriages.

Wagner, who represents the redrawn 2nd Congressional District covering much of St. Louis County, was one of 47 Republicans to break with the majority of the GOP caucus to support the bill.

Arthur Bryant, spokesman for Wagner, said he wouldnt be able to comment on Wagners vote Wednesday.

The measure was approved on a 267-157 vote, with all no votes coming from Republicans.

Wary of political fallout, GOP leaders did not press their members to hold the party line against the bill, aides said.

The vote to protect same-sex and interracial marriages in federal law followed the U.S. Supreme Courts reversal of Roe v. Wade, a 50-year-old precedent establishing the right to an abortion.

The Roe decision had no equivalent in federal law, so when it was reversed, the abortion issue was left to the states.

Republican opponents of H.R. 8404, the Respect for Marriage Act, insisted the court was only focused on abortion access in June when it struck down Roe v. Wade, and they argued that same-sex marriage and other rights were not threatened.

Almost none of the Republicans who rose to speak during the debate Tuesday directly broached the subject of same-sex or interracial marriage.

The Respect for Marriage Act would repeal a law from the Clinton era that defines marriage as a heterogeneous relationship between a man and a woman.

It would also provide additional legal protections by prohibiting any state from denying out-of-state marriage licenses and benefits on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity or national origin.

Missouri voters outlawed same-sex marriages in the state constitution in 2004.

The Supreme Court in 2015 legalized same-sex marriages nationwide on a 5-4 vote in Obergefell v. Hodges.

But last month, writing for the majority in overturning Roe v. Wade, Justice Samuel Alito argued for a more narrow interpretation of the rights guaranteed to Americans, noting that the right to an abortion was not spelled out in the Constitution.

In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas went further, saying other rulings similar to Roe, including those around same-sex marriage and the right for couples to use contraception, should be reconsidered.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said over the weekend the Supreme Courts decision protecting marriage equality was clearly wrong and state legislatures should visit the issue.

The Respect for Marriage Act now heads to the U.S. Senate, where it was unclear whether a vote would take place. The chamber is split equally between Republicans and Democrats.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell didnt express an opinion on the legislation on Tuesday.

So far, the legislation has just two Senate Republican co-sponsors, Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina are among others closely watched for possible support.

In all, 10 Republican senators would need to join with all Democrats to reach the 60 vote threshold to overcome a GOP filibuster.

Public opinion on same-sex marriages has shifted dramatically over the last quarter-century, according to Gallup polling.

In 1996, only 27% of Americans supported same-sex marriage.

In a May poll, Gallup found record support for same-sex marriages, with approval hitting 71%.

A majority of Republicans became mostly supportive of same-sex marriage last year, Gallup said.

Wagner faces three Republican opponents in the Aug. 2 primary: Tony Salvatore of Wildwood, Wesley Smith of Affton and Paul Berry III of Maryland Heights.

Democrats running include state Rep. Trish Gunby, D-St. Louis County, and Ray Reed of Richmond Heights.

Libertarian Bill Slantz is also running.

Wagners 2nd District had been seen as fertile ground for Democrats over the last two election cycles as more suburban voters strayed from the GOP.

But it is unclear whether the trend will persist into the 2022 midterms, as President Joe Bidens approval rating has fallen below 40%.

In any case, legislative Republicans in the Missouri Capitol shored up the 2nd District for the GOP this year by stretching the district west to cover heavily Republican Franklin County and southern Warren County.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Updated at 4 p.m. Wednesday, July 20.
JEFFERSON CITY  President Joe Bidens administration criticized U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley on Wednesday for delaying the confirmations of several Department of Defense officials.

Senator Hawley has held up these pending Department of Defense nominees for too long and for no other reason than politics, Chris Meagher, deputy press secretary for the White House, told the Post-Dispatch in a statement.

These nominees are well-qualified to do these important national security jobs, he said. Its important his obstruction stop so these nominees can get to work protecting our country.

The White House characterized Hawleys action as unprecedented.

Hawley, a Missouri Republican elected in 2018, said last year he would hold up nominees to the Department of Defense and State Department after the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan, unless three top administration officials resigned, the Kansas City Star reported.

Hawley was seeking the resignations of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. All three remained with the administration as of Wednesday.

Responding to the White House criticism, Abigail Marone, a spokeswoman for Hawley, said in a statement, Thirteen servicemembers died in Bidens catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal, including one from the St. Louis area. Almost one year later, no one has been held accountable. To the White House, thats just politics, but to the American people, its a disgrace.

Rather than fast-tracking their nominees, Senator Hawley is demanding votes on them. And he will continue to until the Biden Administration stops its coverup of what happened in Afghanistan and comes clean with public hearings and accountability.

Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, from Wentzville, was among the 13 service members who died on Aug. 26, 2021, during the attack on Abbey Gate in Kabul. He was 20.

The White House disputed Hawleys characterization that officials were trying to fast track any appointments, saying Hawley was obstructing the normal confirmation process for the senior-level Department of Defense nominees.

The White House provided a list of nominees that Hawley was blocking from fast confirmation on the Senate floor. An official said all of the nominees had cleared Senate committees in either March or April.

The list includes:

 Lester Martinez-Lopez, nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Department of Defense.

 M. Tia Johnson, nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

 Ravi Chaudhary, nominee for Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Energy, and the Environment.

 Agnes G. Schaefer, nominee for Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Department of Defense.

 Franklin Parker, nominee for Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Department of Defense.

 Robert P. Storch, nominee for Inspector General of the Department of Defense.

Posted at 1:40 p.m. Wednesday, July 20.
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed the nomination of South Carolina jurist Michelle Childs  recently under consideration for a slot on the U.S. Supreme Court  to sit on the federal court typically seen as a proving ground for the nations highest bench.

Senators, including a number of Republicans, voted 64 to 34 to approve Childs nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 17-5 earlier this year to advance her nomination.

Childs, 56, has been a federal judge on South Carolinas District Court for more than a decade. Earlier this year, she was on a short list of candidates being considered by President Joe Biden for an upcoming vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, given the pending retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer.

Childs had a litany of high-profile advocates, including U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, on whose advice Biden pledged during the 2020 campaign to nominate a Black woman to the high court.

Childs supporters also included Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said then he was certain Childs would have been a reliable vote for the liberal bloc of the Court but applauded her open mind and balance that all Americans are looking for.

On Tuesday, she got support from some Republicans including both Graham and his fellow South Carolinian, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott.

Graham, who went on to oppose eventual Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson in a party-line Judiciary Committee vote, added that he felt Childs would have received a strong bipartisan vote in the Senate. Three GOP senators ultimately came out in favor of Jacksons nomination, assuring her eventual confirmation as the high courts first Black female justice, given unified Democratic support.

During Childs recent appellate confirmation hearing, Graham again noted his likely disagreement with some positions from a nominee put forth by a Democratic president but called the position consequential and said he hoped people can rally around the accomplished woman who has worn the robe well and has potential to serve at the highest level of the judiciary.

At that same hearing, Clyburn pointed to Childs ordinary upbringing that has helped shape her lifes work and made her an example for so many young people in similar circumstances. It was reminiscent of his promotion of Childs for the Supreme Court, when he pointed to her legal training at the University of South Carolina School of Law  rather than an Ivy League institution  as a characteristic that would help Americans identify with the high court, currently populated almost exclusively with Harvard and Yale graduates.

Last year, Biden nominated Childs for the D.C. Circuit slot, but her hearing was postponed while she was also under consideration for the Supreme Court. Previously serving as a state trial court judge, workers compensation commissioner and deputy director of South Carolinas labor department, Childs also practiced employment law at Nexsen Pruet, where she became the firms first Black female partner.

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.
NEW YORK (AP)  The publisher of Simon & Schuster's flagship imprint, Dana Canedy, is stepping down to concentrate on a sequel to a book Denzel Washington adapted last year for a film of the same name, A Journal for Jordan.

Canedy, a former New York Times editor and writer and the first Black woman to be hired as publisher of Simon & Schuster, will step down July 27. Her next book has been acquired by Simon & Schuster and she will continue there as an advisor and to work on some projects she brought to the company, including former Vice President Mike Pence's memoir.

Her sequel to A Journal for Jordan, currently untitled, is scheduled for 2024. A Journal for Jordan is the story of Canedy's late partner, First Sgt. Charles M. King, and the journal he wrote for their son while he was serving in the Iraq War. King was killed in combat in 2006.

The movie was directed by Washington and starred Michael B. Jordan as King and Chante Adams as Canedy.

I am pleased to continue to be a part of the Simon & Schuster family, collaborating with the team to bring readers books by these important authors, Canedy said in a statement Tuesday. I had not quite expected the profound impact that our movie would have on me. And after the overwhelming response to it, prompting daily requests for a follow-up to my first book, I concluded that the time is right to write the sequel to A Journal for Jordan."

Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp, who announced Canedy's departure in a company memo, will serve as publisher of the imprint for the foreseeable future. He previously held the job before succeeding the late Carolyn Reidy in 2020 as CEO.

Over the past two years, Dana Canedy has improved and bolstered the Simon & Schuster imprint in innumerable ways: by attracting incredibly talented authors and editors; by offering us fresh eyes on our practices through her perspective as an award-winning journalist and bestselling author; and by bringing vitality, voice, and humanity to Simon & Schuster, as I knew she would, Karp said in a statement.

Knowing what a great team Dana has built and sustained, Im looking forward to working more directly and deeply on the many outstanding books we publish.
HONOLULU (AP)  The National Science Foundation said Tuesday it plans to conduct a study to evaluate the environmental effects of building one of the world's largest optical telescopes on sites selected in Hawaii and Spain's Canary Islands.

The agency published a notice in the Federal Register of its intentions to prepare an environmental impact statement for the $2.65 billion Thirty Meter Telescope.

The telescope's supporters have pursued plans to build it on their preferred site on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii's tallest mountain and one of the world's best locations for viewing the night sky, for over a decade. But there is strong opposition from Native Hawaiians who consider the mountain's summit sacred.

The National Science Foundation plans to host four meetings on the Big Island of Hawaii in August. It said it wont decide on whether to fund the telescope until after it considers public input, the environmental review, the projects technical readiness and other factors.

Protesters blocked construction crews in 2015 and 2019, saying building a new telescope there would further defile a site that they say has already been harmed by a dozen other observatories.

The TMT International Observatory, the international consortium of scientists behind the project, has selected the Spanish island of La Palma off Africa's western coast as an alternate if it cannot build in Hawaii.

The group completed an environmental study in 2010 that was mandated by Hawaii law for construction on Mauna Kea.

The National Science Foundation must conduct a new study under U.S. law to invest in the project because it is part of the federal government.

A report from the U.S. astronomy community last year said TMT planned to obtain 30% of the projects estimated construction costs, or $800 million, from the U.S. government.

TMT is a partnership between the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and government-backed research institutions in Canada, China, India and Japan.

Robert P. Kirshner, TMT's executive director, said in an emailed statement that federal funding will provide the entire U.S. astronomy community with access to the observatory.

This ensures that the TMT tests the best ideas and does the most important observations to contribute to understanding where we are in the universe and how it works, he said.

Telescope opponents criticized the new study, saying it will force them take time away from their lives again to give their views about the project, said Kealoha Pisciotta.

Why dont people accept our no for the answer? said Pisciotta, who is a spokesperson for the groups Mauna Kea Hui and Mauna Kea Aina Hou that oppose the project.

In October, the U.S. astronomy community said in a report that the National Science Foundation should invest in at least one or two of a new class of observatories called Extremely Large Telescopes being planned by U.S. institutions.

TMT would cover the skies from the Northern Hemisphere. The Giant Magellan Telescope project, to be built in Chile, would observe the universe from the Southern Hemisphere.

U.S. astronomers included this recommendation in their once-in-a-decade analysis of their priorities and goals called the Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s.

The report said the success of at least one of these two projects  TMT or Magellan  was a critical priority due to their transformative scientific potential. It concluded that having at least one was absolutely essential for the U.S. to remain a leader in ground-based astronomy.

When the U.S. government invests in a telescope, U.S.-based astronomers get a share of the viewing time regardless of where in the world it is built.

The European Southern Observatory, which is run by 16 European nations and partners with Chile and Australia, has already started building its own Extremely Large Telescope in Chile. It's expected to start observations in 2027.
ST. LOUIS (AP)  A man accused of killing a retired St. Louis police captain while looting a store during a violent night prompted by racial injustice protests in 2020 is facing trial this week for first-degree murder.

Opening statements were held Monday in the trial of Stephen Cannon, 26, of Glasgow Village, who is accused of killing Capt. David Dorn, who was protecting a friend's pawn shop during looting on June 2, 2020, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The shooting came on a night of violence across St. Louis after demonstrations sparked by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020.

Dorn and four officers were shot, officers were pelted with rocks and fireworks, and 55 businesses were burglarized or damaged across St. Louis during the protests.

Along with the unrest that came  that civil unrest  came chaos, Chief Trial Assistant Marvin Teer told jurors Monday. And St. Louis was touched by it, too. ... Our streets were ravaged with looters, with chaos, a pain set ablaze. With that legitimate pain came acts, many of which are unconscionable.

Dorn, who was 77 when he died, served 38 years on the St. Louis force before working six years as chief in Moline Acres. His wife, Ann Dorn, said her husband often checked on alarms at the pawn shop because he was friends with the owner.

Prosecutors have said Cannon was one of several people looting the store that night. When Dorn arrived, Cannon went to a nearby corner, allegedly with a gun in his hand. Cannon, prosecutors said, was the only person on the corner when shots were fired and Dorn was hit.

Cannon's attorney, Brian Horneyer, told jurors Monday that no physical evidence linked Cannon to the killing. He also said the state's main witness, who is also charged with several felonies, told detectives he would say anything they wanted for a plea deal and to escape a murder conviction.

Prosecutors are expected to show jurors a Facebook livestream of the aftermath of Dorns death outside the store and will call Liddell Chapple, who recorded the video.

Damn man, over some TVs, cuz? For real? Thats somebodys granddaddy, cuz! Chapple shouts on the video. Chapple then turns his phone to Dorn, gasping and bleeding out, and says Rest in peace, bro. Nothin but love, bro. ... You was doing the right thing.

The trial is expected to last through the week.
A newly signed Missouri law looked bad enough for rolling back state pollution standards, but its actually worse than that. A little-discussed passage in the law effectively prevents the public from learning details about pollution violations for which polluters are flagged, and its got even state pollution regulators concerned. Lawmakers should revisit this at the first opportunity.

The bill itself, which Gov. Mike Parson signed into law July 1, prevents the state from having any environmental regulations stricter than those of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Why would the Republican legislative majority claim (ludicrously) that they can ignore federal law regarding firearms, then take the reverse stance on environmental laws, designating the feds as the final word and preventing Missouri from tailoring its own additional safeguard as needed on this issue? Chalk it up to another example of the shifting sands that pass for principle in todays GOP. Ultimately, their only principle is that the end justifies the means.

The end in this case is to hobble environmental safeguards. As the Post-Dispatchs Kurt Erickson reports, experts say the practical impact of the law could include allowing unrestricted dumping of used oil and fertilizer  practices currently prohibited by state laws that have no federal equivalent. The people of Missouri were not clamoring for weaker protection against hazardous waste, noted a spokesman for the Sierra Clubs Missouri chapter. Almost nobody was asking for this. Nobody, it seems, except those who want freer rein to pollute the environment.

In a review of the new law, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources  the state experts who are in the best position to assess its potential impact  decried another aspect of the measure: It specifically prevents public disclosure regarding the details behind action taken by the state against polluters.

Parson and other top Missouri Republicans have demonstrated their contempt before toward the concept of transparency in government, including attempts (prevented, so far, by the state Supreme Court) to charge exorbitant fees to people seeking state records under Missouris Sunshine Act. Now they construct a law that lets polluters pollute more, while preventing Missourians from getting details about that pollution.

While the apparent goal here was the familiar old one of coddling industry, Republicans may actually have gone too far this time even by the standard of industrial interests. An unintended consequence of the law will likely be that, when polluters are sanctioned by the state, they will have no way to know if they are being treated fairly in comparison to other polluters, since secrecy now surrounds the entire issue.

They have no idea if this is a consistent action by the department. Its entirely hidden and it doesnt need to be, former Department of Natural Resources official John Madras told Erickson. And secrecy in government is, as always, the most toxic pollution of all.
Europeans resolve to combat climate change is melting under the summer heat as they endure the kinds of temperatures and fire conditions that the American West has dealt with for years. Long protected from American-style heat catastrophes because of consistently cool weather patterns, Europe is now living the nightmare.

And that poses a conundrum for the world, because the hotter it gets, the more Europeans react in ways theyve long criticized Americans for: cranking up the air conditioners and consuming even more carbon-heavy energy resources. Or, more accurately, Europeans are going out and buying air conditioners that theyve never even needed before because their summer temperatures have been so predictably moderate.

Despite Europes leading role in efforts to cut back on carbon-producing coal, gas and oil in favor of carbon-neutral wind, solar and geothermal, that response has been too late and too inadequate to fend off these global-warming trends. For peoples survival as well as comfort, their only choice is to draw their energy from currently available fossil-fuel sources. And the more those fuels are burned, the more carbon is pumped into the atmosphere, and the harder itll be to keep higher temperatures at bay.

The same forces are likely to result in winters that include massive polar-vortex anomalies that sweep far to the south and result in electrical grid collapses like Texas saw in February 2020. The planet is trying to correct itself, climate scientists say, but the response has been wild swings toward weather extremes. And very little in the current energy makeup, including Europes widespread conversion to wind and solar energy, is enough to deal with extreme weather in the short term.

Fires are spreading across France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. In Britain, record-high temperatures this week are threatening to buckle railroads and, quite literally, melt airport runways. The transportation network is partially shutting down as a result. Office buildings without air conditioning are having to close. One historic London bridge under renovation is being wrapped in foil to fend off heat expansion that could cause existing big cracks to spread.

Perhaps more to the point, however, is that some European countries are now backing away from their commitments to meet carbon-neutral goals. The European Union on July 6 formally allowed investments in gas technologies to be labeled as green in order to qualify for government subsidies. Although gas burns cleaner than oil or coal, its hardly green. Its a carbon- and methane-emitting fossil fuel that contributes to global warming. Europe also rejects the idea of a total ban on Russian oil and gas, sharply limiting the effect of international sanctions for Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The prospect of the European bloc reaching its carbon-neutral goal by 2050 now seems bleak, and sadly, so is the prospect of humans saving the planet from the climate crisis humans unquestionably have caused.
Taiwans IDS (Indigenous Defense Submarine) program is a year ahead of schedule according to a July 12 announcement by the government-controlled CAN (Central News Agency). The first (of eight) IDS subs will be in the water (launched) sometime in September and after nearly three years of fitting out and sea trials will enter service in 2025. The first sub of the class always takes longer, especially for a nation that has never built submarines before. At this point Taiwan believes they can have all eight of the IDS boats in service by the early 2030s.

While Taiwan sought to play down their IDS program, it was not a secret. In 2014 Taiwan announced that the United States had agreed to help Taiwan build its own submarines. In 2016 Taiwans CSBC (China Shipbuilding Corporation) established a submarine development center. In 2018 the U.S. government said it would approve American firms selling or licensing submarine technology to Taiwan. In 2019 Taiwan revealed a scale model of its IDS design, which is very similar to the twelve Japanese Soryu-class boats, the last of which entered service in 2019. Japanese firms are supplying Taiwan with design and construction assistance for the IDS. This may mean some or all of the IDS boats may be built with Japans Lithium-ion battery technology, which has been in safe use since 2020 and three Japanese subs with six more on order. The Japanese are the most proficient and advanced submarine builders in East Asia. South Korea also builds its own subs. These three nations all have to deal with the growing Chinese naval threat. Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia are also part of this coalition and most of them have modern diesel-electric submarines.

Later in 2019 Taiwan announced that the Keelung shipyard in northeast Taiwan would build the IDS. Tech personnel working on IDS were told to stay out of China, including Macau and Hong Kong to avoid Chinese efforts to arrest such travelers on fabricated charges in order to extract details of the IDS program. China frequently does this sort of thing when it has the opportunity.

In 2020 construction of the first IDS boat began in Keelung. Up until then the conventional wisdom in the West was that Taiwan was not supposed to be capable of this. Foreign journalists began wondering what was going on. Questions were asked and the response was either no comment or statements professing no knowledge of such a project. Investigations continued and with many journalists searching for information, details began to emerge. There were rumors that British companies were assisting Taiwan in secretly designing and building its own submarines. This led to a 2021 story from the Reuters news agency that detailed how Taiwan had, since 2014, managed to quietly enlist the help from seven foreign countries, including Britain and the United States, to quietly recruit foreign submarine design and construction experts. This enabled Taiwan to design their own diesel-electric submarine and quietly obtain the components, including major systems, from foreign suppliers. The secrecy was critical because since the 1980s China has threatened economic retaliation against any foreign country that supplied Taiwan with new subs or the components and expertise to build their own.

In 2001 the United States proposed building diesel-electric subs for Taiwan but discovered that it would take years to assemble a team of American specialists to revive a capability the United States had abandoned in the 1960s as it switched to an all-nuclear submarine force. The Americans tried to persuade allies, who did build and export diesel-electric subs to do the job, but was told that the threat of Chinese economic sanctions was too great a threat to local economies to risk it.

Taiwan sought other, less public ways to get this done. China did not see this as a real threat because they knew from their own experience that obtaining and using the knowledge was difficult and took time. Some Taiwanese politicians quietly pursued the idea. One of these politicians, Tsai Ing-Wen, was a professor of law and active in government affairs, especially trade issues. She became leader of a major party in 2000, and was the first woman elected president of Taiwan in 2016. She was reelected in 2020. Tsai came up with the idea of using stealth and good relations with many industrialized nations to organize what she publicly announced as the IDS (Indigenous Defense Submarine) program. In 2015, a year before she was elected president, Tsai spoke with Taiwanese submarine and naval experts about the possibility of Taiwan designing and building its own submarines. This is where the stealth submarine construction effort began. Tsai was elected in part because she had long urged that Taiwan upgrade its military and she pushed through several such projects once she was president. She was also on good terms with many foreign leaders and this enabled her to quietly obtain cooperation from foreign leaders for her submarine project.

By 2016 most Western nations, including local economic superpowers like Japan and South Korea, were more open in their defiance of Chinese economic threats and efforts to absorb foreign territory. This enabled Taiwan to assemble a team of foreign submarine experts to work with Taiwanese warship designers to come up with a detailed design for a Taiwanese sub. Taiwan then broke down the list of components needed so that many could be obtained without raising suspicions from China. Some major components were obtained from the United States, ostensibly for modernizing the two relatively modern diesel electric subs Taiwan had. China protested but the U.S. was largely immune to Chinese threats of economic or diplomatic retaliation.

In 2020, when news of Taiwan beginning construction of a diesel electric submarine became public, China dismissed it as propaganda because they knew nothing of the detailed preparations Taiwan had undertaken and saw the Taiwanese president as a troublesome woman who was in over her head. When the Reuters story appeared, the Chinese were surprised and could only repeat past threats of retaliation. These threats were either ignored or criticized by the potential victims.

At that point China realized that they had missed many public developments that were real and not propaganda. A decade ago, Taiwan already had a good idea of what was needed. A 2011 search effort did compile a lot of useful information on costs and the more reliable (resistant to Chinese threats) suppliers. It turned out that a lot of American manufacturers could produce components for diesel-electric subs even though most of their regular work is for nuclear boats. But aside from the nuclear propulsion, a sub is a sub and the Americans were willing to supply Taiwan with components. The only problem with the Americans was there being a government there that was willing to resist Chinese pressure to ignore submarine related orders from Taiwan. Since a new American (in 2016) government agreed to allow the export of sub components to Taiwan a growing number of modern shipbuilders quietly indicated that they were willing to participate, but discreetly so as not to bring down the wrath of the Chinese. That wrath had lost a lot of its intimidation effect in the previous decade as several industrialized nations were hit with Chinese trade sanctions and survived. As more of those futile Chinese trade sanction efforts occurred, potential victims had a more realistic idea of what these threats involved and each use by China convinced more nations in general that China was a threat to everyone who exported to or imported from China.

Alternative solutions were also investigated. Publicly, Taiwan said it wanted the subs for anti-submarine work. But it's been pointed out that there are cheaper and more effective anti-sub capabilities available via helicopters, aircraft, and UAVs. What was left unsaid was that the subs could also be used to shut down China's ports, crippling their economy and causing lots of domestic political problems for China's leaders. It's also possible to shut the ports without subs using air- dropped naval mines or just threatening to attack any merchant ship entering Chinese waters. But nothing does this sort of thing as effectively as a submarine, especially a very quiet diesel-electric sub.

From the beginning, Taiwan wanted eight new diesel-electric boats, preferably with AIP (air independent propulsion). This would drive the price up to nearly a billion dollars a boat. Japan later proposed a cheaper alternative they had been using since, lithium-ion batteries. More compact and powerful than the usual lead-acid batteries, the new batteries provided the benefits of AIP without the bulk and expense of conventional AIP.

Taiwan could use some cost saving tech because the Indigenous Defense Submarine program will cost about $16 billion, including the high development costs requiring quietly recruiting foreign experts and paying them well as they moved to Taiwan to help with the submarine design. Building the subs in Taiwan also makes it easier to receive help from other nations threatened by Chinese naval power. Japan and South Korea build world-class subs but declined to help because they would be hardest hit by Chinese sanctions and had already suffered several such attacks by China. Western nations had local suppliers willing to provide Taiwan with components and technical assistance once their own government let it be known that this was permitted if it was done quietly. The United States played a key role in persuading other Western nations to quietly help and this became easier once it became apparent that Taiwan could get away with building the subs locally.

While European firms still won't sell Taiwan submarines, they were less reluctant to quietly sell components, tech advice and training. The IDS effort still had to deal with possible resistance from the Taiwan legislature. Tsai took care of that by regularly conducting secret briefings for a small group of parliament members on the progress of the IDS. This included models of the most recent design and cost estimates. This kept parliament from becoming an obstacle to IDS. In 2018 it was revealed that the IDS plan would have the new subs entering service in the late 2020s, which was possible if Taiwan kept moving forward. The reality was that the IDS effort was much more advanced and construction of the first sub began in 2020, with launch in 2022 and entry into service by 2024 or 2025. Until the Reuters story this was all happening, and generating hardly any press activity. Mustnt disturb the dragon (China) unless it becomes unavoidable.

China currently has 58 subs, twelve of them nuclear powered, Taiwan has four submarines. Two are World War II era American Guppy-class diesel-electric subs that entered service months before that war ended in August 1945. These two boats are used only for training and are increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain. Despite that, the crews and trainees work hard to keep these museum pieces looking good and still operational. Recently Taiwan announced a $19 million effort to refurbish one of these World War II era subs so that it will remain in service until 2026. Since this sub entered service in mid-1945 as the USS Cutlass and in 1973 was given to Taiwan where it has served as the Hai Shih it will, with the latest refurb, become the submarine with the longest active career; 81 years if it lasts until 2026. One reason these relics were kept operational was to train the crews for the IDS subs. So now the oldest subs still in service are more useful than ever.

In 2018 Taiwan revealed that the U.S. had approved export licenses for major submarine systems. This includes CMS (combat management system), sonar systems, periscope systems and other offensive and defensive weapons systems. In mid-2017 the United States approved the export of 46 Mk 48 wire-guided torpedoes. These are the same ones used by all American subs. At the same time, it was announced that a Dutch firm had agreed to assist in the upgrade of the two Dutch built submarines Taiwan received in the late 1980s. It is believed that these two boats were to receive the new American CMS and perhaps some of the other U.S. made systems Taiwan was able to purchase from the Americans. Such systems were also used for the IDS boats.

At the time only a few people outside Taiwan knew that these admitted purchases were not about upgrading old subs but building new ones in Taiwan as part of Taiwans IDS program. This effort to build eight diesel-electric submarines locally meant they would have to use the only shipyard in Taiwan that could do it. Even so that yard had to first gain access to and begin receiving and stockpiling all the components needed. Shipyard workers had to be quietly trained and acquire new construction skills needed to build subs and install a lot of components that surface ships do not use. That happened while few people in Taiwan or elsewhere knew what was really going on in the shipyard. Taiwan is normally secretive about all local defense construction projects, including new warship construction, so this special training for building subs went unnoticed.

Meanwhile, there was a personnel problem; plummeting morale among the 200 sailors who operate the four subs Taiwan already has. Years of delays in obtaining new subs, and dim prospects of ever getting them, discouraged qualified young sailors from volunteering for the submarine service and many old hands were retiring as soon as they were eligible. As news spreads of the IDS boats being a reality, it will be easier to retain experienced submarine sailors and make it easier to find capable sailors to train for submarine duty for the expanded, by eight IDS boats, submarine force.

China is, as expected, determined to punish those seven nations that defined the Chinese prohibitions on arming Taiwan, especially with locally built submarines. The Taiwan IDS sub is embarrassing in other ways because Chinese diesel-electric subs are copies, often improved ones, of the Russian Kilo-class. The IDS is an original design that copies no existing sub that Taiwan already has or sought to import. The Chinese had warned the Dutch not to assist Taiwan in using the two 1970s era Dutch subs Taiwan received in the late 1980s as a model for a new sub. Taiwan respected the Dutch situation and borrowed nothing, except Taiwanese sailors who gained their submarine handling skills on the Dutch boats. They assured the seven nations that quietly helped Taiwan design the IDS that Taiwan would understand if some of those seven nations succumbed to Chinese threats and economic pressure. For that reason, the IDS identified multiple sources for most experts and components so that it would be more difficult for China to shut down production of the IDS boats. Taiwan admits it recruited engineers and retired submariners from the U.S., Britain, Australia, South Korea, India, Spain, and Canada but did not identify which of these countries, or any others, supplied components. America and Britain were the largest suppliers of components, especially major systems. The smaller nations that contributed tech see this undertaking as an effort to curb Chinese threats of economic retaliation as a political tool. All these nations have been on the receiving end of this bullying and have already been pushing back. The IDS is seen as another victory over China and the Chinese wont admit that. This means the Chinese will not give this defeat a lot of publicity and will instead concentrate on h0w they will deal with this obstacle to conquering Taiwan.
How CDNs Can Increase Efficiency Through Industry Collaboration and Commoditization

To increase efficiency, capacity, and flexibility within the Content Delivery Network (CDN) space, the industry should let go of its tendencies toward siloing and work more collaboratively. In a recent interview with Streaming Media's Tim Siglin at Streaming Media East 2022, Mark De Jong, Chair of CDN Alliance, explains that the rapidly increasing differences in telecommunications infrastructures require much better worldwide industry cooperation.

Were coming into certain areas where we have common challenges overall concerning sustainability, interoperability, security, privacy, availability, capacity--those are all the topics, De Jong says. If we work on this together as an industry, we can solve them.

De Jong explains that CDN Alliance is an independent nonprofit organization that acts as an association for the global CDN industry. It's a $13 billion industry, De Jong says. 75% of all the traffic worldwide is either done by CDN providers or backed by CDN technology. However, he notes that, as a whole, the industry is completely unorganized. A key mission of CDN Alliance is to change that situation. We want to ensure that CDN industries, organizations, and people are connected," he says.

De Jong and Siglin discuss more of the specific technology that will help increase efficiency and capacity in live streaming. It's more about the use of applications for delivery, rather than the pure casting mechanism that is in place, De Jong says. Siglin agrees and cites the amusing example Peter Chave, Principal Architect at Akamai Technologies, gave of Jeff, who works as a one-man band busker in New York City. Jeff has multiple musical instruments strapped to his body, which makes him someone who is literally full of lots of bells and whistles. However, in technology, adding lots of bells and whistles creates a significant potential for problems with getting software to perform all of these new applications in one container. Siglin says that edge computing can serve as a powerful solution to these issues, and he notes that he also recently discussed the emerging importance of edge computing with Christopher (Kip) Turco, CEO of StackPath, in their fireside chat at Streaming Media East 2022.

Both De Jong and Siglin agree that capacity is also a key aspect the industry should focus on.

It seems like we ebb and flow in the industry, where sometimes we have over capacity, and lots of other times we feel like we're just barely able to keep up with the capacity," Siglin says. He asks De Jong, "Is that transit egress/ingress between CDM providers, or is that also an issue to the end user?

Its primarily about telco infrastructures, De Jong says. It differs per country and even region. If I look at Western Europe, Western countriesits a good sustainable network in general. But if you look at other areas, Asia, Africa, Latin America -- they're not on the same level already. And they also don't have the capital expenditure to keep investing what they're doing.

Siglin concurs that these disparities are stark. He is also the Founding Executive Director of Help Me Stream Research Foundation. One of that organizations chief concerns is looking at how do we get things into places where there's limited or no connectivity," he says. North America and Europe are totally blanketed with connectivity, whereas areas such as sub-Saharan Africa severely lack network infrastructure.

Ultimately, all of these mounting issues can be ameliorated if businesses and organizations within the CDN space begin to work together collaboratively, which entities such as CDN Alliance and Help Me Stream Research are working hard to facilitate.

Learn more about CDNs at Streaming Media West 2022.

Watch full-session videos from Streaming Media East 2022.

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IBCAP-supported Litigation Results in Michigan Retailer, Atlas Electronics, being Ordered to Pay More than $5.7 Million for Selling IStar Pirate Service

IBCAP-supported litigation results in Michigan retailer, Atlas Electronics, being ordered to pay more than $5.7 million for selling IStar pirate service.

DENVER, Co( )

The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) today announced that a federal court in Michigan entered a final judgment and permanent injunction against Atlas Electronics Inc. and its owner, Alaa Al-Emara, both based in Dearborn, Michigan, for $5,740,000 in connection with selling pirate streaming services.

As part of the judgment, the courts order also permanently enjoins Atlas and Al-Emara from distributing, selling, providing, or promoting any product or service that infringes on certain IBCAP member channels and any of the programming on those channels. Moreover, the order prohibits Atlas and Al-Emara from advertising, displaying, or marketing any set-top-box or service that infringes those channels or any programming on those channels.

IBCAPs protection of its members content not only includes aggressive monitoring, detection and takedown tactics, but also the coordination of lawsuits against sellers and distributors of pirate services, said Chris Kuelling, executive director of IBCAP. Once again, a retailer in the U.S. has been ordered to pay for its illegal activities - in this case more than $5.7 million. IBCAP will continue to work with its members to take action against sellers of illegal services to send a clear message that selling pirate services will have serious ramifications.

A copy of the final judgment and permanent injunction can be found here.

About IBCAP

International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy, Inc. is a coalition of leading international broadcasters and distributors representing more than 160 television channels from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. IBCAP is the largest anti-piracy organization focused on multicultural content. The non-profit organization proactively monitors and identifies unauthorized video services, collects evidence, and assists with legal actions and criminal investigations against organizations and individuals engaging in pirate activities. IBCAP coordinates with government agencies and law enforcement both in the U.S. and abroad, reports suspected infringers to the appropriate authorities, initiates investigations, and promotes the prosecution of persons or companies who participate in the illegal distribution of its members video content. More information is available at www.IBCAP.org. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
TORONTO, ON and NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 20 2022 / Sekur Private Data Ltd. (OTCQB: SWISF)(CSE:SKUR)(FRA:GDT0) ("Sekur" or the "Company"), the leader in Swiss hosted secure communications and secure data management, is pleased announce that it has launched its Sekur solutions in several local currencies in North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia.

The Company is pleased to announce that as of July 20th, 2022, customers worldwide will be able to purchase any Sekur solution in the following currencies: USD, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, AUS, NZD and SGD. These currencies cover customers in 4 continents, with the rest of the countries still able to purchase in USD. The currencies are displayed depending on the IP address accessing the Sekur website. As an example, if a customer in Singapore accesses the site, the pricing will be displayed in Singapore Dollars. Eurozone countries using the Euro will have the same benefit with the price being in EUR. Customers in the 20 countries Eurozone, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada and the USA are now able to buy Sekur in their local currency. This saves customers additional currency exchange fees often charged by banks and credit card companies.

The Company is preparing a global launch of its Sekur privacy and security communications solutions. On July 13 2022, it announced in a News Release that it has expanded its "Chat-by-Invites" on SMS in 23 countries, covering 1.18 billion people. As part of this preparation, the Company believes that offering subscriptions in local currencies, will facilitate and increase subscription signups.

Alain Ghiai, CEO of Sekur Private Data said: "We are excited to be able to offer local currency pricing to our customers in over 35 countries. With the expansion of our proprietary "Chats-by-Invites" feature on SekurMessenger, we are now ready to launch our solutions globally through our digital marketing campaigns we have planned by the fall of 2022. As we are not connected to any Big Tech platform, we can offer a truly independent, private and secure means of communications without any data mining, through our proprietary technology and our secure servers based in Switzerland. We look forward to continue to offer true data privacy to all individuals and their businesses and protect their intellectual property, and their privacy, from data miners and malicious hackers."

Sekur, which includes SekurMessenger and SekurMail, is part of a bundle of email, messaging and file transfer into one application, includes the Company's latest SekurMail technology, which includes proprietary anti-phishing and privacy feature called SekurSend. SekurSend lets a user send an email to any other recipient, whether they have Sekur or not, in full privacy and security as the email never leaves Sekur 's encrypted email servers based in Switzerland. The recipient can then click on the notification and reply in the same manner using SekurReply, without the recipient having to register for a Sekur account. The sender can also decide to protect any email sent by adding a password to open it, a read-limit and a self-destruct timer as well. Sending an email with the SekurSend feature allows the senders and recipients to add limitless size attachments to the emails without crowding the recipients' email box. This also eliminates BEC attacks for businesses and email phishing attacks. Additionally, SekurMail includes full control of email delivery, automatic data export for large Enterprises and an automatic Data Loss Prevention technology ("DLP") with real time continuous archiving.

Recent data breaches in messaging applications have created a certain urgency for businesses and data privacy advocates to protect their communications form cyber-attacks and identity theft via mobile and desktop devices.

SekurMessenger now comes with a proprietary feature and technology called "Chat-By-Invites". This feature allows a SekurMessenger user ("SM user") invite a non-SM user, or a group of non-SM users, to chat in a fully private and secure way, without the recipient ever having to register to SekurMessenger or download the app. At the end of the chat, the initiator of the conversation can remotely terminate the conversation and all traces of the conversation are deleted from all users, including the recipient. This unique feature is now fully deployed and functional on all iOS and Android devices and web platforms. The target sectors are numerous, including but not limited to real estate, legal, finance, insurance, medical, government, energy, manufacturing, trade and pharmaceutical sectors.

SekurMessenger also eliminates many of the privacy and security risks by not only not requiring a phone number, which would divulge a user's phone device ID, but also by not social engineering a user's phone or computer contact list and infecting the contacts by default as well, eliminating a huge loophole in security and privacy. SekurMessenger issues each user a username and a Sekur number. The Sekur number is the contact ID a user would disclose in order for other Sekur users to be added. The service comes with a self-destruct timer and other features as well, including Sekur's proprietary VirtualVaults and HeliX technologies with all data stored in Swiss hosted encrypted servers.

Sekur's Data privacy solutions are all hosted in Switzerland, protecting users' data from any outside data intrusion requests. In Switzerland, the right to privacy is guaranteed in article 13 of the Swiss Federal Constitution. The Federal Act on Data Protection ("FADP") of 19 June 1992 (in force since 1993) has set up a strict protection of privacy by prohibiting virtually any processing of personal data which is not expressly authorized by the data subjects. The protection is subject to the authority of the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

Under Swiss federal law, it is a crime to publish information based on leaked "secret official discussions." In 2010 the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland found that IP addresses are personal information and that under Swiss privacy laws they may not be used to track Internet usage without the knowledge of the individuals involved.

About Sekur Private Data Ltd.

Sekur Private Data Ltd. is a Cybersecurity and Internet privacy provider of Swiss hosted solutions for secure communications and secure data management. The Company distributes a suite of encrypted e-mails, secure messengers, secure communication tools, and secure cloud-based storage, disaster recovery and document management. Sekur Private Data Ltd. sells its products through its approved wholesalers and distributors, and telecommunications companies worldwide. Sekur Private Data Ltd. serves consumers, businesses and governments worldwide.

On behalf of Management

SEKUR PRIVATE DATA LTD.

Alain Ghiai

President and Chief Executive Officer

+1.416.644.8690

[email protected]

For more information, please contact Sekur Private Data at [email protected] or visit us at https://www.sekurprivatedata.com

For more information on Sekur visit us at: https://www.sekur.com .

Forward Looking Information

This news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "achieve", "could", "believe", "plan", "intend", "objective", "continuous", "ongoing", "estimate", "outlook", "expect", "project" and similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes or that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guaranteeing future performance. Sekur cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Sekur's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the future of the Company's business; the success of marketing and sales efforts of the Company; the projections prepared in house and projections delivered by channel partners; the Company's ability to complete the necessary software updates; increases in sales as a result of investments software development technology; consumer interest in the Products; future sales plans and strategies; reliance on large channel partners and expectations of renewals to ongoing agreements with these partners; anticipated events and trends; the economy and other future conditions; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in Sekur's prospectus dated May 8, 2019 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available on www.sedar.com. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Sekur undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

SOURCE: Sekur Private Data Ltd.

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RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Harris Williams, a global investment bank specializing in M&A advisory services, announces it advised 360training on its significant investment from GreyLion Partners LP (GreyLion) and Vestar Capital Partners (Vestar). The investment from Vestar and GreyLion will provide 360training with additional significant capital backing to accelerate its organic and inorganic growth initiatives. 360training is a leading online training and compliance platform for highly regulated industries, most notably in environmental health and safety, food and beverage, real estate, healthcare, and financial services. The transaction was led by Andy Leed, Erik Szyndlar, Brian Titterington, Ben de Fiebre and Nick DeGallier of the Harris Williams Technology Group.

As a leader in regulatory-approved eLearning and certification programs, 360training is transforming the way workers access the training they need to enter the job market and organizations ability to upskill their workforces while ensuring compliance within an increasingly complex regulatory environment, said Andy Leed, a managing director at Harris Williams. It was a pleasure working with CEO Tom Anderson and the 360training management team on this transaction, and we are excited to see what the company accomplishes in their continued partnership with GreyLion and with their new partner Vestar.

This significant investment represents another high-profile transaction for Harris Williams within the professional education and compliance technology sectors, said Brian Titterington, a director at Harris Williams. Industry-wide worker shortages, increasing regulatory-driven training requirements, and a greater focus on environmental health and safety are not only driving strong demand for 360trainings solutions, but also fueling investment activity across the broader market. We expect strong investor and strategic buyer interest to continue as these trends create new challenges for organizations.

Since 1997, 360training has provided individuals and businesses with online regulatory-approved training, facilitating a safer environment for the communities they serve. Today, the company primarily serves the environmental health and safety, food and beverage, real estate, healthcare, and financial services markets. 360training has delivered over 11 million training plans across multiple brands, including OSHAcampus, Learn2Serve, AgentCampus, VanEd Real Estate School, TIPS (Training for Intervention Procedures), HIPAA Exams and many more.

GreyLion focuses on investing in high-growth businesses in the lower-middle market. The company seeks to partner with existing owners and management teams across the consumer, industrial, healthcare, software and services sectors to deliver capital in tailored and flexible minority and control structures. GreyLion invests $25 million to $125 million of capital per investment, primarily within the United States. GreyLion currently manages private equity funds with aggregate commitments of $1.7 billion.

Vestar Capital Partners is a leading U.S. middle-market private equity firm specializing in management buyouts and growth capital investments. Vestar invests and collaborates with incumbent management teams and private owners to build long-term enterprise value, with a focus on Consumer, Business & Technology Services and Healthcare. Since its inception in 1988, Vestar funds have invested $11 billion in 89 companies  as well as more than 200 add-on acquisitions  with a total value of approximately $52 billion.

Harris Williams, an investment bank specializing in M&A advisory services, advocates for sellers and buyers of companies worldwide through critical milestones and provides thoughtful advice during the lives of their businesses. By collaborating as one firm across Industry Groups and geographies, the firm helps its clients achieve outcomes that support their objectives and strategically create value. Harris Williams is committed to execution excellence and to building enduring, valued relationships that are based on mutual trust. Harris Williams is a subsidiary of the PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC).

The Harris Williams Technology Group advises leading private and public companies, founders, and private equity, growth equity and venture capital firms on mergers and acquisitions and capital-raising transactions worldwide. The Technology Group has deep domain expertise in software and technology-enabled services and dedicated focus areas across a variety of vertical software applications and end markets. For more information on the Technology Group and its recent transactions, visit the Technology Groups section of the Harris Williams website.

Harris Williams LLC is a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. Harris Williams & Co. Ltd is a private limited company incorporated under English law with its registered office at 8th Floor, 20 Farringdon Street, London EC4A 4AB, UK, registered with the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales (registration number 07078852). Harris Williams & Co. Ltd is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Harris Williams & Co. Corporate Finance Advisors GmbH is registered in the commercial register of the local court of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, under HRB 107540. The registered address is Bockenheimer Landstrasse 33-35, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany (email address: [email protected]). Geschaftsfuhrer/Directors: Jeffery H. Perkins, Paul Poggi. (VAT No. DE321666994). Harris Williams is a trade name under which Harris Williams LLC, Harris Williams & Co. Ltd and Harris Williams & Co. Corporate Finance Advisors GmbH conduct business.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005862/en/

Julia Moore

[email protected]

Source: Harris Williams LLC
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- KBRA assigns preliminary ratings to a term bond issued by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority Residential Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Financing Green Revenue Bonds, Series 2022A (NYSERDA 2022A), a consumer solar loan and home improvement loan ABS transaction.

NYSERDA will issue a $9.405 million term bond and nine serial bonds which total $15.225 million. The serial bonds have maturity dates ranging from 2023 through 2031 and the term bonds mature in 2037. The NYSERDA 2022A Bonds are not guaranteed by NYSERDA and are non-recourse. The credit enhancement levels are sufficient to cover KBRAs corresponding stressed cash flow assumptions for the rating on the bonds.

This transaction represents New York State Energy Research and Development Authoritys (NYSERDA or the Authority) first term ABS securitization of 2022 and fourth KBRA-rated securitization. NYSERDA is a public benefit corporation created in 1975 pursuant to Title 9, Article 8 of the Public Authorities Law of the State of New York. NYSERDA was formed to develop and encourage the use of energy conservation technologies by developing and implementing new energy technologies consistent with economic, social and environmental objectives. In this transaction, NYSERDA is issuing one term bond and nine serial bonds (collectively, the NYSERDA 2022A Bonds). The transaction is structured with all bonds supported by overall enhancement of 41.32% (overcollateralization plus amounts deposited into the reserve account). Although the Issuer is not structured as a special purpose vehicle, under current law, NYSERDA is not authorized to seek protection from its creditors pursuant to the United States Bankruptcy Code.

KBRA applied the General Global Rating Methodology for Asset-Backed Securities as well as its Global Structured Finance Counterparty Methodology and ESG Global Rating Methodology as part of its analysis of the portfolio pool data, underlying collateral pool, and capital structure. KBRA considered its operational reviews of NYSERDA, as well as periodic due diligence calls with the Company. Operative agreements and legal opinions will be reviewed prior to closing.

Click here to view the report. To access ratings and relevant documents, click here.

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Further information on key credit considerations, sensitivity analyses that consider what factors can affect these credit ratings and how they could lead to an upgrade or a downgrade, and ESG factors (where they are a key driver behind the change to the credit rating or rating outlook) can be found in the full rating report referenced above.

A description of all substantially material sources that were used to prepare the credit rating and information on the methodology(ies) (inclusive of any material models and sensitivity analyses of the relevant key rating assumptions, as applicable) used in determining the credit rating is available in the Information Disclosure Form(s) located here.

Information on the meaning of each rating category can be located here.

Further disclosures relating to this rating action are available in the Information Disclosure Form(s) referenced above. Additional information regarding KBRA policies, methodologies, rating scales and disclosures are available at www.kbra.com.

About KBRA

Kroll Bond Rating Agency, LLC (KBRA) is a full-service credit rating agency registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an NRSRO. Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited is registered as a CRA with the European Securities and Markets Authority. Kroll Bond Rating Agency UK Limited is registered as a CRA with the UK Financial Conduct Authority pursuant to the Temporary Registration Regime. In addition, KBRA is designated as a designated rating organization by the Ontario Securities Commission for issuers of asset-backed securities to file a short form prospectus or shelf prospectus. KBRA is also recognized by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners as a Credit Rating Provider.

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Analytical Contacts

Michael Polvere, Associate Director (Lead Analyst)

+1 (646) 731-3339

[email protected]

Michael Espino, Associate Director

+1 (646) 731-1282

[email protected]

Juhi Paranjape, Senior Analyst

+1 (646) 731-1340

[email protected]

Eric Neglia, Senior Managing Director (Rating Committee Chair)

+1 (646) 731-2456

[email protected]

Business Development Contact

Ted Burbage, Managing Director

+1 (646) 731-3325

[email protected]

Source: Kroll Bond Rating Agency, LLC
Announces four new Market by Macys and Macys Backstage locations, opening throughout the country in Fall 2022

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, Macys announced that, as part of its Polaris strategy, the company will open four new off-mall, small-format stores this fall. The locations will include Market by Macys, a smaller store that offers customers more to love with its curated assortment of the latest fashion trends, as well as the first-ever dual Market by Macys and Macys Backstage off-price location.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005342/en/

Macy's accelerates the growth of its off-mall, small-format strategy. (Photo: Business Wire)

At Macys, we thrive on retail being a dynamic business requiring continuous analysis, reinvention and innovation. As customer preferences and buying behaviors change, we continue to evolve to deliver the experience our customers expect, said Marc Mastronardi, Chief Stores Officer at Macys. As exciting brand extensions, Market by Macys and Macys Backstage each offer unique shopping experiences  one celebrates discovery and convenience, while the other appeals to the customer who loves the thrill of the hunt for a great value.

Throughout Fall 2022, the following locations will open in shopping centers.

Market by Macys will open in Johns Creek Town Center on August 20 at 3630 Peachtree Pkwy., Suwanee, GA. The store marks the third location in the metro-Atlanta area, following Market by Macys openings in 2021 at Presidential Markets and Southpoint.

Market by Macys will debut in the St. Louis area on THF Blvd. in Chesterfield Commons with an immersive shopping space focused on discovery and convenience.

The first dual Market by Macys and Macys Backstage store will open this fall in Chicagoland at 9700 South Western Ave., Evergreen Park, IL. Customers can shop at both stores all under one roof, with Market by Macys located on the first floor and Backstage on the second floor.

As a key pillar of Polaris, the company is focused on repositioning its physical store footprint to better serve its customers and effectively support omnichannel market sales growth. Off-mall, small formats play several roles in the companys Polaris strategy by either expanding its presence in a current market, maintaining market presence by replacing underperforming locations or entering new markets where Macys doesnt have a presence.

As part of Macys ongoing assessment of its store portfolio, it has decided to close the Macys Chesterfield location and will replace it with the new Market by Macys near Chesterfield Commons.

Were pleased to continue to serve the St. Louis area and look forward to welcoming our customers to Market by Macys, continued Mastronardi. This announcement marks both our first replacement location and, separately, our first, off-mall dual location.

Macys off-mall expansion

Macys off-mall expansion demonstrates Macys commitment to continue to evolve and innovate the retail industry.

Since 2015, Macys Backstage has expanded to more than 300 Macys stores nationwide, including nine freestanding locations. The newest Backstage freestanding location, Grapevine Mills, opened Spring 2022 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

In 2020, the first Market by Macys debuted in the Dallas-Fort Worth area at Southlake.

During the 2021 calendar year, four new stores were introduced to the public; Presidential Markets and South Point in the Atlanta metro area, and WestBend and Highlands at Flower Mound in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

By the end of 2022, Macys plans to expand Market by Macys to eight total locations.

Macys strives to optimize a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints. Similar to full-line Macys stores, Market by Macys and Macys Backstage customers can pay their bill or pick up orders from the At Your Service desk inside the store, a dedicated location for seamless Macys store pick-ups and returns. Shoppers can earn and redeem Star Rewards and use their Macys credit card at both locations creating a seamless experience. Customers without a Macys card can enroll in the complimentary Bronze rewards program in-store or online at macys.com/starrewards and earn on every purchase.

In preparation for this years expansion, Market by Macys and Macys Backstage will hire a range of positions to enhance the customer shopping experience. As a preferred employer, Macys is committed to all colleagues and their well-being. Macys offers exciting career opportunities, competitive pay, a bilingual work environment, merchandise discount, flexible scheduling, and access to a new debt-free education program for part-time and full-time colleagues. New job opportunities will be posted on macysinc.com/careers as they become available.

For a list of Market by Macys stores and hours, visit macys.com/marketbymacys. Images and b-roll footage can be found here. For a list of Macys Backstage stores and hours, visit macysbackstage.com. Images and b-roll footage can be found here.

About Macys

Macys, the largest retail brand of Macys, Inc. (NYSE: M), serves as the style source for generations of customers. With one of the nations largest e-commerce platforms powered by macys.com and mobile app, paired with a nationwide network of stores, Macys delivers the most convenient and seamless shopping experience, offering great values in apparel, home, beauty, accessories and more. Macys gives customers even more ways to shop and own their style through an off-price assortment at Macys Backstage and at our highly curated and smaller store format, Market by Macys. Each year, Macys provides millions with unforgettable experiences through Macys 4th of July Fireworks and Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade and helps our customers celebrate special moments, big and small. Were guided by our purposeto create a brighter future with bold representation that empowers more voice, choice and ownership for our colleagues, customers and communities.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005342/en/

Jacqueline King / Stephanie Jimenez, Macy's External Communications [email protected]

Mike McGuire, Macys Investor Relations [email protected]

Source: Macys
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Monex Europe, one of Europes leading corporate FX and hedging providers, has bolstered its board-level leadership team with the appointments of David Whitcroft as Group Director of Risk & Treasury, John Gallagher as Group Chief Technology Officer and Executive Director, and Jacques de Villiers as Director of Digital Strategy, subject to regulatory approval. They will report into Nick Edgeley, Chief Executive Officer at Monex Europe.

These appointments follow those of Tom Farrow, Group Director of Trading and William Crossley, Group Sales Director to the firms Board of Directors, in May this year.

Nick Edgeley, Chief Executive Officer at Monex Europe, commented: We extend a warm welcome to David, John, and Jacques, who each have a wealth of experience and industry accomplishments under their belts. Their appointments underline our ability to attract talented individuals to our team, ensuring Monex is in the best possible position to deliver a world-class service to our clients.

David Whitcroft brings over 27 years of first-class experience to Monex Europe. He joins the firm from WorldRemit, one of the worlds fastest growing fintechs, where he successfully developed its treasury and risk functions as Group Treasurer. Prior to this, he served as Group Treasurer for Doha Bank, Qatar and Al Hilal Bank, U.A.E. Previous roles also include risk & treasury positions with National Australia Bank, Barclays Bank and CIBC.

David joins Monex Europe to drive a new agenda for risk & treasury within the firm, including but not limited to supporting and enabling a range of new customer products, streamlining risk processes, evolving all risk & treasury reporting, onboarding new banks and liquidity partners, and ensuring optimal returns on liquidity and capital.

John Gallagher has over 25 years experience managing large global technology teams and is an expert in driving the delivery of transformational global IT strategies for large financial and payment organisations that maximise growth. He joins from Mastercard, where he was responsible for the management and governance of Mastercards global consumer applications products and platforms and for the transformation of their Cloud native platforms and agile development capabilities. Prior to this, John was Chief Technology Officer at VeriFone Systems, responsible for their global payment processing services, and a Chief Information Officer and IT Director at Barclays Bank.

As Monex Europes Chief Technology Officer, John will be responsible for developing new technology capabilities and working with Jacques de Villiers to build new product offerings that enhance Monexs automated FX and payment solutions while further developing the API capabilities and connectivity to meet rapidly evolving client demands.

Jacques de Villiers has over 15 years of international experience within the foreign exchange industry and a proven track record in value creation, having spearheaded the establishment of a new international business, overseen two successful M&A integrations, and established and managed several trading desks. In his role at Global Reach Group, where he was most recently Business Development Director, he devised several revenue growth strategies; identifying and winning strategic partnerships which drove significant revenue growth.

In the newly created role of Director of Digital Strategy, Jacques will be responsible for developing Monexs FX solutions and connectivity; expanding the firms range of products and helping the business scale.

David Whitcroft, Group Director of Risk & Treasury at Monex Europe, said: I am delighted to be joining the team at Monex. I look forward to building on the excellent work of the risk & treasury department, enhancing our controls and executing on solutions that support the growth of the business.

John Gallagher, Group Chief Technology Officer and Executive Director, said: Monex has an outstanding reputation of being a collaborative, innovative and client-focused leader in the corporate FX and hedging world. I am incredibly excited to join Monex in this exciting phase of our development, working with Jacques and others across the business to deliver the products and capabilities for new and existing clients that will help them to succeed. 

Jacques de Villiers, Director of Digital Strategy, said: Its an incredibly exciting time to be joining the firm, and I look forward to working closely with John to strengthen our core digital offering, scaling the business through enhanced automation and unlocking new revenue streams.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005049/en/

[email protected]

07585706829

Source: Monex Europe
Former Business Development Officer for the City of Long Beach Economic Development Department to spearhead relationship building with local municipalities for early-stage business ventures, reaffirm companys commitment to public/private partnership investments

LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Building on its position as a leader in supporting local economic development through innovative public-private partnerships, Sunstone Management today announced that Eric Romero, a long-time community member with a proven track record helping small and underrepresented businesses gain access to capital and technical assistance, has been named Director of Economic Development.

Mr. Romero previously served as the Business Development Officer for the City of Long Beach Economic Development Department, where he oversaw the implementation of economic recovery programs totaling more than $25 million, administered the Citys $3 million Revolving Loan Fund, coordinated a $10 million annual Business Improvement District Program, managed several strategic partnerships, and project managed the development of the Citys 10-year Blueprint for Economic Development.

Eric brings not only a wealth of knowledge to this position, but also an invaluable perspective on the importance of public-private partnerships in the venture capital industry added John Keisler, CEO of Sunstone. This appointment highlights our commitment to be a new kind of investment company, with an important focus of partnering with cities and counties to establish new avenues for economic opportunity."

Sunstone Managements unique approach to collaborative economic development is leading the way for a new approach to venture capital investment, said Romero. Im excited for the opportunity to establish creative partnerships with cities, counties, and universities, continue serving local innovators, and advancing economic equity amongst early-stage startups in this new role.

Mr. Romero earned a masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLAs Luskin School of Public Affairs and a bachelors degree in Sociology from CSULB. He also recently received Accredited California Economic Developer status from the California Association for Local Economic Development, Californias premier economic development association.

Sunstone Management has been consistently recognized as one of Americas Fastest Growing Companies according to The Financial Times, and recently welcomed its fourth cohort of company founders through its Long Beach Accelerator (LBA), which is a partnership between Sunstone, California State University Long Beachs Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the City of Long Beach, CA.

About Sunstone Management

Sunstone Management, with the Sunstone Venture Capital Fund, is a diversified private capital management and investment firm offering comprehensive wealth management solutions to high-net-worth clients worldwide. Sunstone proactively forges both public-private partnerships with government agencies and industry-academic partnerships with nonprofit educational organizations to promote economic development, championing growth in the local innovative ecosystem. Aside from broad engagement in financial services, Sunstone also excels in leading commercial development projects in emerging sectors to support community development and economic recovery under COVID-19.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220718005809/en/

Eli Serota

781 812 3126

[email protected]

Source: Sunstone Management
GREAT FALLS, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Trustar Bank is pleased to announce the successful completion of its recent capital raise. In less than a months time, the offering surpassed its initial $15 million goal, resulting in an over-subscription of 36% and over $20 million in received subscriptions. To accommodate the overwhelming investor support, the offering will be up-sized by approximately 20%, for a total capital raise of $18 million. This is the Banks second oversubscribed stock offering, the first taking place prior to the Banks inception in early 2019.

We are excited to have the continued investor support affording us the opportunity to build an outstanding financial institution serving the needs of our community. This new capital will further position the Bank to effectively implement our growth strategy and build stockholder value, CEO Shaza Andersen said.

About the Bank - Trustar Bank is a full-service bank offering comprehensive banking products and services to small- and medium-sized businesses and consumers. It is the first bank to be chartered and opened in Virginia in over a decade. For more information, please visit Trustar Bank online at trustarbank.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005723/en/

Media Contacts

Shaza Andersen

Chief Executive Officer

[email protected]

Anthony Fabiano

Chief Financial Officer

[email protected]

Source: Trustar Bank
Blue Water Vaccines Inc. (BWV or Blue Water Vaccines or the Company), a biopharmaceutical company developing transformational vaccines to address significant global health challenges, today announced that the Company has entered into a Sponsored Research Agreement (the SRA) with Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center (Cincinnati Childrens) to explore vaccine development of its norovirus shell and protrusion (S&P) platform for multiple diseases.

In July 2021, the Company entered an exclusive, global licensing agreement with Cincinnati Childrens to develop vaccines for multiple diseases using the medical centers virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine platform. Currently, the platform is being utilized to develop BWV-301 for gastroenteritis caused by norovirus or rotavirus. Through the SRA, BWV will further fund research into this platforms versatility across other diseases, including influenza and Alzheimers disease.

In a recent publication in Nano Research, titled Bioengineered psuedovirus nanoparticles displaying the HA1 antigens of influenza viruses for enhanced immunogenicity, Cincinnati Childrens researchers hypothesized that this platform might represent a method to create novel influenza vaccines. The SRA initiates the integration of the epitopes of limited variability identified at The University of Oxford into this S&P platform for vaccine development.

In addition, the SRA funds Cincinnati Childrens research analyzing the applicability of this platform to develop a vaccine for Alzheimers disease. Preliminary research indicates the potential to develop a vaccine to target and inactivate amyloid-beta, which can accumulate and form plaques commonly associated with Alzheimers disease.

This agreement is an important step toward developing vaccines against multiple diseases that affect millions of individuals each year, said Ming Tan, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and principal investigator of the study at Cincinnati Childrens. Through this agreement and in collaboration with BWV, we can continue our research and work toward development of beneficial vaccines.

Tan has a financial interest in the virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine platform technology that Cincinnati Childrens licensed to Blue Water Vaccines.

We are very excited to continue our collaboration with Cincinnati Childrens and fund this research, said Joseph Hernandez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Water Vaccines. Research from Cincinnati Childrens has shown great promise for this platform, and we look forward to continuing this relationship to address significant public health challenges through effective vaccines.

Gastroenteritis, influenza, and Alzheimers disease all represent significant global health challenges in illness and mortality, as well as associated economic loss. Efficacious vaccine intervention may prove an effective public health intervention and address such losses on a global scale.
FILE PHOTO: Abbott Laboratories logo is displayed on a screen at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., October 18, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Leroy Leo and Amruta Khandekar

(Reuters) -Abbott Laboratories said on Wednesday it was set to recapture some of the market share in the baby formula business as the company restarts manufacturing at its troubled Michigan facility in the United States.

Abbott resumed partial production of certain specialty and metabolic formulas earlier this month at the Sturgis facility and has also imported products from its international plants.

The plant shutdown earlier this year and the recall of Abbott infant formula products deepened a supply shortage and sent parents in the United States scrambling.

"We've recovered already a good portion of the share that we lost," Abbott Chief Executive Robert Ford said on a conference call on Wednesday. "We continue to see that moving forward positively."

Before the recall, Abbott controlled 40% of the infant formula market, including Similac, but the market share of other companies such as Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC has grown since then.

Abbott said it plans to soon restart production of Similac, its milk-based infant formula. It has said it expects to begin releasing EleCare formula in the coming weeks.

Atlantic Equities analyst James Mainwaring expects the market share recovery for Abbott to be gradual.

The shortage, however, is yet to be alleviated, with in-stock nationwide availability of powder baby formula dipping to 69.6% for the week of July 3, from 70.7% in the week ended June 26, according to data service IRI.

Abbott's shares were down 2% after the company raised its annual forecast that some analysts called conservative.

The forecast "creates more questions than answers" as the small raise implies Abbott is cautious on its outlook for the second half, said Mainwaring.

Abbott said it now expects at least $4.90 per share in adjusted earnings in 2022, higher than its previous forecast of at least $4.70.

(Reporting by Leroy Leo and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj kalluvila and Maju Samuel)
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal late Wednesday, Boeing (NYSE: BA) is planning to expand the production of its 787 Dreamliner once U.S. air-safety regulators give the go-ahead.

Citing sources close to the matter at the Farnborough International Air Show, The WSJ stated that Boeing expects deliveries to resume as soon as this summer, and it will likely begin producing three jets per month, an increase on the current one per month rate. They are planning to move to five per month six months later.

After various production and regulatory issues, Boeing has fallen behind Airbus in recent years. However, the WSJ said orders announced at the airshow had given a sense of Boeing's momentum.

Despite its popularity among airlines, the Dreamliner plane hasn't been delivered for most of the past two years following numerous production defects.

If regulators give Boeing approval to resume deliveries, it will provide a significant boost to the company.

Boeing shares climbed 1.8% Wednesday.

By Sam Boughedda
FILE PHOTO: Valneva logo is seen displayed in this illustration taken, May 3, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

By Francesco Guarascio and Natalie Grover

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission has dropped nearly all of its order of 60 million doses of a new COVID-19 vaccine from French firm Valneva, the EU executive said on Wednesday, in a move that all but wipes out the shot's value for the company. The EU agreed in November last year to buy the vaccine, with the first 27 million doses to be delivered this year, but the vaccine received approval only last month after protracted delays.

European countries are now well supplied with other vaccines, and vaccination programmes have slowed.

Under the revised deal, European countries will now buy just 1.25 million doses from Valneva, to be delivered in August and September, with an option to buy another 1.25 million by the end of this year.

"The order volume does not reflect the interest we see from European citizens," Valneva CEO Thomas Lingelbach said in a statement.

Rx Securities analyst Samir Devani - who had once forecast 400 million euros ($407.96 million) in COVID vaccine sales for Valneva largely on the basis of the original EU contract - wrote off the value of the shot when the company revealed last month that the contract was in jeopardy.

On Wednesday, he said Valneva would likely use existing stock for the vaccine - VLA2001 - to fulfil the smaller EU order.

The company has suspended manufacturing for now, and said it would only further invest in the vaccine and its second-generation COVID-19 vaccine if deals with other customers are secured alongside necessary funding in coming months.

Britain cancelled its Valneva vaccine contract last year. The company has also secured approvals in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

It will be very difficult for Valneva to maintain a production line for VLA2001 without more orders, added Devani.

Valneva's vaccine uses technology already employed for decades in shots against polio, influenza and hepatitis.

The company had bet it would entice people who had refused COVID vaccines that used newer technology such as mRNA. But another vaccine from Novavax, which also uses a traditional technology, has had limited take-up in Europe.

The continent is now battling a new COVID-19 wave spearheaded by the Omicron offshoot BA.5. Close to 3 million new cases were reported in Europe last week and hospitalisation rates have doubled, Hans Kluge, the WHO Regional Director for Europe, said on Tuesday.

Health officials have said elderly and vulnerable populations should be given second vaccine booster doses.

Meanwhile, regulators in Europe have begun reviewing variant-specific vaccines that could be ready later this year.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascioEditing by Foo Yun Chee and Peter Graff)
By David Shepardson

(Reuters) - The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) said Wednesday it plans to buy at least 25,000 electric delivery vehicles - more than twice its prior estimate - as it works to replace an aging fleet.

USPS told Reuters it is proposing to purchase at least 25,000 EVs out of its initial order of 50,000 next-generation delivery vehicles from Oshkosh Defense. That's up from USPS' prior plan to buy at least 10,019 EVs, or about 20% of the first order. USPS also plans to buy more than 34,500 commercial off-the-shelf delivery vehicles over two years.

The company plans to buy up to 20,000 left-hand drive Commercial Off-the-Shelf vehicles, "including as many BEVs as are commercially available and consistent with our delivery profile" and up to 14,500 gas-powered right-hand drive vehicles.

In total, USPS says at least 40% of the 84,500 vehicles it will buy will be EVs.

USPS announced in March it planned an initial $2.98 billion order. Last month, the company told Reuters it expected to raise the number of EVs as it supplemented its environmental impact statement (EIS).

In April, 16 states, four environmental groups and the United Auto Workers filed lawsuits seeking to block USPS's plan to buy mostly gas-powered next-generation delivery vehicles, arguing that the agency failed to comply with environmental regulations when it issued its EIS.

The White House and Environmental Protection Agency also asked USPS to reconsider, as did many lawmakers.

USPS said it will "also need to make significant investment in the repair of over 50,000 aging" delivery vehicles "each year to continue extending their useful life, despite the significant operational risk, considerable maintenance costs, and the higher emissions of greenhouse gases."

It "anticipates evaluating and procuring smaller quantities of vehicles over shorter time periods. ..in order to be more responsive to our evolving operational strategy, technology improvements, and changing market conditions," the company said.

(Reporting by David Shepardson,; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
TORONTO, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Centerra Gold Inc. (Centerra or the Company) (TSX: CG) (NYSE: CGAU) will host a conference call and webcast to discuss the 2022 second quarter operating and financial results on Wednesday, August 10, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The results are scheduled to be released before the market opens on Wednesday, August 10, 2022.

North American participants should dial the toll-free number +1 (800) 764-8268

International participants may access the call at +1 (416) 981-9010

The conference call is being webcast by Notified and can be accessed live at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/ceh9c5zy. Presentation slides of the second quarter results will also be accessible on Centerras website at www.centerragold.com.

An audio recording of the call will be made available after the call via telephone until midnight Eastern Time on Wednesday, August 24, 2022. The recording can be accessed by calling + 1 (416) 626-4100 or (800) 558-5253 and using the passcode 22019868. In addition, the webcast will be archived on Centerras website under: www.centerragold.com/investor/events-presentations. About Centerra Gold

Centerra Gold Inc. is a Canadian-based gold mining company focused on operating, developing, exploring and acquiring gold and copper properties in North America, Turkey, and other markets worldwide. Centerra operates two mines: the Mount Milligan Mine in British Columbia, Canada, and the Oksut Mine in Turkey. While the Company still owns the Kumtor Mine in the Kyrgyz Republic, it is currently no longer under the Companys control. The Company also owns the Goldfield District Project in Nevada, United States, the Kemess Underground Project in British Columbia, Canada, and owns and operates the Molybdenum Business Unit in the United States and Canada. Centerras shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol CG and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol CGAU. The Company is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

For more information:

Toby Caron Treasurer and Director, Investor Relations (416) 204-1694 [email protected]

Shae FrosstManager, Investor Relations(416) 204-2159[email protected]

Additional information on Centerra is available on the Companys website at www.centerragold.com, on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar.

A PDF accompanying this announcement is available at http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/4fe0f72c-706b-4d1f-9ef2-dc63d3e3aeb2

Source: Centerra Gold Inc
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 19, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clear Sky Lithium Corp. (CSE: POWR) (FRA: K4A / WKN: A3DM2W) (Clear Sky or the Company), a mineral exploration and development company focused on American lithium deposits to support domestic demand, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Dave Wright who brings comprehensive and significant expertise regarding sustainable power storage sector technologies.

Mr. Wright is the President of Wright Technical Services, LLC and is a professional with global experience providing wide-ranging support to organizations in energy storage markets. He is an expert in automotive electronics and electrical systems with a career focused on product and technology development. He is a former Director of Application Engineering at major industrial organizations such as Maxwell, Delphi, and General Motors.

Company CEO and Director, Craig Engelsman, notes, We are delighted to welcome Dave to our growing team here at Clear Sky Lithium. His in-depth experience in the specialized world of electrical power storage solutions directly impacts our goal to achieve efficient lithium processing capabilities that best meet current and future commercial demands. His global connections across the sector can provide us with access to insights and co-development opportunities which might otherwise have been unavailable to us. We look forward to working together to help power the future at Clear Sky Lithium.

His roles in the energy storage field have encompassed product development and application support in ultracapacitors, lead-acid batteries, and E-bicycles. He combines a strong systems engineering background with business and managerial acumen to help companies meet their technology and product development goals.

He has served in a variety of senior roles with a number of sector leading operations including, UCAP Power, Inc. as VP, Engineering, a company which in July 2021 acquired Korean-based Maxwell Technologies (which was previously acquired by TESLA in 2019 for $200M), and formerly served as Director, Electronic Technology & Core Modules at Ingersoll Rands Specialty Vehicle Technologies Segment known as Club Car, which was sold to Platinum Equity in April, 2021 for $1.68 billion.

He further served as Director, Global Application Engineering at Maxwell Technologies, as Director, Global Advanced Engineering at Delphi Packard Electric, as Managing Director of HE Microwave, as a staff engineer at Delco Electronics, and with General Motors Advanced Engineering staff.

Mr. Wright holds a BEE from Kettering University (formerly General Motors Institute), a MSEE from Stanford University, and a MS in the Management of Technology from the Sloan School at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the co-inventor on 5 U.S. patents.

Clear Sky Lithium advises the public that as part of its disclosure obligations as a public issuer, all material and regulatory filings can be found on www.sedar.com. We also invite the public to visit our website at www.clearskylithium.com and to sign up to our news alerts to be advised of future news releases and related company information. Please also ensure you watch our video which is available on the website.

On Behalf of The Board of Directors,Sincerely,

~Craig Engelsman~

Craig EngelsmanChief Executive Officer & DirectorClear Sky Lithium Corp.www.clearskylithium.com

About Clear Sky Lithium Corp. (CSE: POWR) (FRA: K4A / WKN: A3DM2W)Clear Sky Lithium is an exploration and development company dedicated to the advancement of North American lithium deposits to support domestic demand. The Company holds interests on the ELi property in Nevada. The Company is also focusing on the development of claystone extraction and processing technologies aimed at delivering scalable efficiencies across the value chain in a sustainable manner. Find out more visit www.clearskylithium.com and watch our video.

Forward Looking Information Disclaimer

This news release contains statements and information that, to the extent that they are not historical fact, may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information may include financial and other projections, as well as statements regarding future plans, objectives, or economic performance, or the assumption underlying any of the foregoing. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as may, would, could, will, likely, except, anticipate, believe, intend, plan, forecast, project, estimate, outlook, or the negative thereof or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Examples of such statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the potential benefits to the Company of the appointment of Mr. Wright to its advisory board.

Forward-looking information is based on the assumptions, estimates, analysis, and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. The material factors and assumptions used to develop the forward-looking information contained in this news release include, but are not limited to, key personnel and qualified employees continuing their involvement with the Company; the Companys ability to secure additional financing on reasonable terms; the competitive conditions of the sector in which the Company operates; and laws and any amendments thereto applicable to the Company.

Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, risks relating to the future business plans of the Company; risks that the Company will not be able to retain its key personnel; risks that the Company will not be able to secure financing on reasonable terms or at all, as well as all of the other risks as described in the Companys final long form prospectus dated May 31, 2022, under the heading Risks Factors. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking information. Further, any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Companys management to predict all such factors and to assess in advance the impact of each such factor on the Companys business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking information to reflect information or events after the date on which it is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law, including securities laws.

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Clear Sky Lithium Corp. Investor RelationsEmail: [email protected] Telephone: +1 (778) 383-7240

Source: Clear Sky Lithium Corp.
Now agents and photographers can generate professional quality floor plans from their virtual tours automatically

Essential for marketing a listing and attracting more buyers

CAMPBELL, Calif., July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RICOH360 Tours, a service of RICOH Company Ltd, the only truly complete and affordable 360 virtual tour solution under one global brand, announces the launch of the powerful Floor Plan Generator feature.

Need an updated floor plan with that virtual tour  not a problem. While sellers fall in love with the virtual tour experience, buyers have come to expect floor plans to tell the truth about how the rooms fit together and the flow between them; and every listing needs a floor plan. According to the National Association of REALTORS 2021 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends report, floor plans are the second most important listing visual.

The convenience of the floorplan feature on RICOH 360 Tours is both an incredible time saver and a terrific feature to offer clients which helps my team stand out from our competitors, added Karin Provencher at NH Realty Gals, a full time New Hampshire real estate agent, having handled over 1,300 transactions. I have been impressed with the ability to generate floor plans with such accuracy based just on the tours we send in. We will continue to use this valuable feature in all of our listings!

An exact floor plan is generated automatically by the virtual tour url using the Floor Plan Generator feature and returned in 1 to 2 business days. The cost of ordering a black-and-white floor plan is $20 and the first order is free. The images are presented in PNG and PDF format.

Finished floor plan can be found here:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/07e65f78-aa38-46e4-80a0-7a31a4fc2562

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d616ba2d-651c-457d-b94b-b363e6d36112

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/70e1bef3-216d-4843-848c-ecf710f7b040

About RICOH360 Tours

RICOH360 Tours is the official virtual tour platform of the RICOH THETA camera. A game changing technology that supports the sales and marketing operations of real estate agents, brokerages, photographers & other industries as a cloud-based software that allows anyone from anywhere to virtually view spaces online without having to visit the site.

With a RICOH THETA camera and mobile app, anyone can easily create and publish a virtual tour to a real-estate marketplace or MLS in minutes. There is no limit to the number of virtual tours you can publish and the number of images you can insert in a tour.

Furthermore, customers can use AI image enhancement, AI Video Maker, AI Virtual staging beta and Floor Plan Generator, which use Ricoh's original AI technology, and are available for all plans, making it easy to create professional content.

https://www.ricoh360.com/tours/

About RICOH360 Tours

https://www.ricoh360.com/tours/

About Ricoh Data Service Business

Ricoh is the leader in the development of high-quality immersive 360 cameras and platforms for prosumers and professionals to easily capture and share 360 views of physical spaces from a mobile app in minutes. Ricoh creates intuitive solutions that require no professional, technical or photography experience to create immersive digitized photo-realistic views of a physical environment.

Contact:

Ansh Patel

Sales Team

[email protected]

Ph: +1 650.496.5720

RICOH360 Tours Floor Plan Floor Plan RICOH360 Tours Floor Plan Floor Plan RICOH360 Tours Floor Plan Floor Plan

Source: RICOH360 Tours
GEORGETOWN, Ontario, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vision Food Innovations (the Company) is pleased to announce their Plant-Based Muffins and Plant-Based Cupcakes are now available in Nutters Everyday Naturals (Nutters) and Choices Natural Markets (Choices) across B.C. and Alberta. The Company has significant coverage in Ontario with its hero brand Natures Flairs core products, and this expands their availability into Western Canada.

Nutters and Choices are two well established grocery chains that are both committed to local, quality and natural foods. Nutters has 23 locations across Western Canada. B.C. based Choices, has 10 locations.

Vineet Jain, CEO of Vision Food Innovations, said, Were not only pleased to increase our presence in Western Canada, but with established stores that are committed to high quality, natural and organic produce.

Vision Food Innovations Vision Food Innovations Inc. (Vision) is a Canadian industrial plant-based bakery committed to innovation and sustainability while providing the market with plant-based products that are easy, affordable, and nutritioustaking plant-based products mainstream. They have seen exponential growth since launching in March 2021 and are already in commercial production and available for purchase in retailers across Ontario.

Website: https://naturesflairfoods.com/ IG: @visionbakeries @natures.flair FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vision-Bakeries Twitter: @VisionFoodinnoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vision-bakeries-limited/

For more information or questions, please contact Victoria Bennett of Bennett Milner Williams Consulting Ltd

Source: Vision Food Innovations Inc.
Following an international climate agreement in 2015, governments around the world have bound themselves legally to develop, execute, and report on strategies to reduce greenhouse gas pollutants

The Paris climate agreement envisions pollution reduction by 2050 to such a degree that it will prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above temperature levels about 300 years ago before the Industrial Revolution

Investors are increasingly using their roles as corporate shareholders to encourage responsibility and active participation in climate change reduction efforts, and that includes financial institutions that provide loans to the fossil fuel industry

Green energy solutions company Correlate Infrastructure Partners Inc. is helping companies analyze their energy usage, develop ways to improve their buildings impact on the environment, and transparently inform shareholders of their progress

When nearly 200 government entities from the worlds international community established a legally binding agreement to combat climate change nearly a decade ago, they set in motion an effort to work cooperatively on making the planet a place where future generations can avoid growing threats from unprecedented shifts in weather patterns (https://ibn.fm/N0Nl1).

The goal to prevent increasingly severe weather from significantly altering the course of human history was expressed in terms of reducing the use of man-made pollutants by 2050 enough to keep global temperature increases from peaking beyond more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above where they were in

Read More>>

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CIPI are available in the companys newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CIPI

About Green Energy Stocks

Green Energy Stocks (GES) is a specialized communications platform with a focus on companies working to shape the future of the green economy. The company provides (1) access to a network of wire services via InvestorWire to reach all target markets, industries and demographics in the most effective manner possible, (2) article and editorial syndication to 5,000+ news outlets (3), enhanced press release services to ensure maximum impact, (4) social media distribution via the

InvestorBrandNetwork (IBN) to nearly 2 million followers, and (5) a full array of corporate communications solutions. As a multifaceted organization with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, GES is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. By cutting through the overload of information in todays market, GES brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. GES is where news, content and information converge.

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C-COM's year-to-date revenues up 21% so far in 2022. Company maintains quarterly dividend payout - for 44 consecutive quarters.

Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 20, 2022) - C-COM Satellite Systems Inc., (TSXV: CMI) (OTCQB: CYSNF) a leading global provider of commercial grade mobile auto-deploying satellite antenna systems, announced today its financial results for the second quarter ended May 31, 2022.

In Q2 the Company generated revenues of $3,718,674 and net income after taxes of $368,525, or one cent per share. This compares with revenues of $836,734 and a net loss after taxes of $219,203, or 1 cent per share as reported for Q2, 2021. Fiscal 2022's year-to-date net income is $962,099.

C-COM's working capital increased $566,206 (+3.8%) to $25,531,938 at the end of Q2, 2022.

The Company paid out $511,018 in dividends during the second quarter compared to $503,476 in the second quarter of 2021 - representing a 1.5% increase. The Company has maintained its quarterly dividend payout while continuing to innovate and invest in the next generation of advanced antenna products.

The Company also announced the payment of an eligible quarterly dividend in the amount of $0.0125 per common share payable on August 17, 2022 to all shareholders of record as of August 3, 2022. Based on the closing price of $1.48 per share on July 19th, 2022, this dividend represents a yield of 3.4% on an annualized basis. This is the Company's 44th consecutive quarterly dividend.

"Q2 2022 was the third highest Q2 sales level posted over the past ten years. Stronger sales to our dealers in the United States was a highlight of C-COM's Q2 performance. For example, on May 10th we announced a $2.65 (USD) million order for our iNetVu 1200 Vehicle Mount antenna systems from one of our US resellers," said Leslie Klein, President and CEO of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.

Klein added: "Emerging markets are also showing new life. 2022 is the first year since 2019 that we have attended trade shows face-to-face. Senior management recently returned from Singapore, Dubai, and Australia where they attended trade shows and visited customers. Our takeaways were that customer confidence and leads from that part of our dealer network are robust. Moreover, on June 8, 2022, we announced a multi-unit order for our iNetVu 98G Ka-band Vehicle Mount antenna and the iNetVu MP-100-MOT Manpack antenna to be used by one of our reseller's customers located in Africa."

Dr. Klein concluded: "We remain cautiously optimistic about the future. The need for emergency communications and cellular backhaul has been rapidly increasing. C-COM also anticipates improved demand from the energy and commodity exploration sector which has not been very active over the past few years. We were fortunate to enter 2022 with a strong inventory position for products which are presently in high demand."

About C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.





To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/5445/131335_891aa55254f43909_005full.jpg

C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. is a pioneer and world leader in the design, development, and manufacture of transportable and mobile satellite-based antenna systems. The Company has developed proprietary, auto-acquisition controller technology for rapid antenna pointing to a satellite with just the press of a button, enabling Broadband Internet via Satellite across a wide range of market applications worldwide, including regions unserved or underserved by terrestrial access technologies.

C-COM has sold more than 10,000 antenna systems, in over 100 countries, through a dedicated dealer network that provides service to a wide range of vertical markets such as Oil & Gas Exploration, Military Communications, Disaster Management, SNG, Emergency Communications, Cellular Backhaul, Telemedicine, Mobile Education, Government Services, Mobile Banking, and others. The Company's iNetVu brand is synonymous with high quality, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.

C-COM is in late-stage development of a potentially revolutionary Ka-band, electronically steerable, modular, conformal, flat panel phased array antenna. In cooperation with the University of Waterloo, C-COM is engaged in the design of this unique antenna with the intent of providing low-cost, high-throughput mobility applications over satellite for land, airborne and maritime verticals. For additional information please visit www.c-comsat.com

iNetVu is a registered trademark of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.

The Company is publicly traded on the Canadian Venture Exchange (TSXV: CMI) and on the US OTC Exchange (OTCQB: CYSNF).

# # #

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Statements about C-COM's expectations as to its performance after the COVID-pandemic and its intentions with respect to its Ka-band antenna version all contain forward-looking information. Several factors could cause actual events, performance or results to differ materially from the events, performance and results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The COVID pandemic may last longer than expected or C-COM's preparations may not translate into expected performance for any number of reasons, some of which are beyond C-COM Satellite Systems' control. Anticipated benefits of the new technology may not be realized, and new products and services may not be released or, if released may not gain market acceptance. Any of those events and others could influence future performance and C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.'s ability to achieve the results mentioned above. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Readers are directed to the risk factors associated with the business of C-COM Satellite Systems in the company's most recent MD&A available at www.SEDAR.com.

INVESTOR RELATIONS

C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.

Tel: (613) 745-4110 ext. 4950

Fax: (613) 745-7144

[email protected]

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131335
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - July 19, 2022) - NurExone Biologic Inc.(TSXV: NRX)(formerly, EnerSpar Corp.)(the "Company" or "NurExone"), a biopharmaceutical company developing biologically-guided exosome therapy for patients with traumatic spinal injuries and other Central Nervous System ("CNS") indications, announced the signing of a Material Transfer Agreement (the "Agreement") dated July 18th, 2022 with Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ltd. ("Yissum"), the wholly-owned subsidiary and technology transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (the "Hebrew University").

The Agreement relates to the transfer of certain biological, chemical, and other tangible materials (the "Materials") to Yissum for use by Prof. Tal Burstyn-Cohen and her team at the Hebrew University. Prof Burstyn-Cohen is an experienced researcher at the Hebrew University and leader of the Burstyn-Cohen Lab which researches molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie tissue homeostasis in health. The Materials will be used to evaluate compositions and methods to enhance the cellular uptake of particles and organelles by small molecules, in accordance with the mutually agreed research plan attached to the Agreement. Specifically, Prof. Burstyn-Cohen's work will involve the coating of exosomes with a specialized molecule and evaluating the uptake of the coated exosomes in an inflamed brain mouse model. Under the Agreement, NurExone will have an option to receive an exclusive license to the jointly owned results and related intellectual property (if any) that may arise from the research by Prof. Burstyn-Cohen, in the field of neurodegenerative diseases and CNS indications.

Results of the collaboration may be the basis of publications in scientific journals, manuscripts, book chapters or at any scientific conferences or meetings subject to NurExone's right of review in accordance with the terms of the Agreement.

According to Dr. Lior Shaltiel, CEO of NurExone, "As a pioneer of ExoTherapy, NurExone's goal is to establish leadership in the field of human mesenchymal-derived exosome production and loading of therapeutic molecules into exosomes. To advance the science, awareness and commercialization of ExoTherapy, we intend to facilitate cutting-edge exosome-based research at leading universities. We look forward to cooperating with Prof. Burstyn Cohen to assess the feasibility of her innovations."

About NurExone

NurExone Biologic Inc. is a TSXV listed pharmaceutical company that is developing a platform for biologically-guided ExoTherapy to be delivered, non-invasively, to patients who suffered traumatic spinal cord injuries. The Company's ExoTherapy will use proprietary exosomes (membrane-bound extracellular vesicles) as biologically-guided nanocarriers to deliver specialized therapeutic compounds to target anatomies. The therapeutic compounds promote a biochemical environment that induces a healing process at the target location. ExoTherapy was conceptually demonstrated in animal studies at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. NurExone is translating the treatment to humans, and the Company holds an exclusive worldwide license from the Technion for the development and commercialization of the exosome technology.

About YISSUM

Yissum is the technology transfer company of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Founded in 1964, it serves as a bridge between cutting-edge academic research and a global community of entrepreneurs, investors, and industry. Yissum's mission is to benefit society by converting extraordinary innovations and transformational technologies into commercial solutions that address our most urgent global challenges. Yissum has registered over 11,000 patents globally; licensed over 1,140 technologies and has spun out more than 200 companies. Yissum's business partners span the globe and include companies such as Boston Scientific, ICL, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, and many more. For further information please visit www.yissum.co.il.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Lior Shaltiel

Chief Executive Officer and Director

[email protected]

+972-52-4803034

Investor Relations

[email protected]

+1 905-347-5569

READER ADVISORY

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including statements about the Company's future plans, market size and growth, research and product development, the potential to treat SCI using the Company's products, intellectual property protection and potential future collaborations and execution on its current growth initiatives. Wherever possible, words such as "may", "will", "should", "could", "expect", "plan", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict" or "potential" or the negative or other variations of these words, or similar words or phrases, have been used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management as at the date hereof.

Forward-looking statements involve significant risk, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results discussed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to the Company's early stage of development, lack of revenues to date, government regulation, market acceptance for its products, rapid technological change, dependence on key personnel, protection of the Company's intellectual property and dependence on the Company's strategic partners. These factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure readers that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131264
WASHINGTON, July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federation for American Immigration Reform issued the following statement, as well as a deeper dive into the growing border crisis, based on data quietly released late last week by the Biden administration:

"The Biden administration once again set records at the border for malfeasance," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). "Encounters of illegal migrants at our borders last month were the greatest for any June on record. The 207,416 migrants apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in June also mean that encounters for FY 2022 have already exceeded last year's totals, with three months remaining in the fiscal year.

"Yet, in spite of the human toll, the impact on communities all across the country, threats to national security and public health, and the surge of lethal narcotics flowing into the country, the Biden administration steadfastly refuses to secure our borders. Contrary to the First Lady's protestations, the ongoing disaster at our southern border is not a result of unanticipated circumstance, but rather a direct and predictable result of policies that President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas are deliberately inflicting on the American people," Stein charged.

FAIR Border Snapshot for June 2022

Southwest border encounters set the single-month record for the month of June  bringing the current Fiscal Year 2022 total to just over 2 million.

CBP had 207,416 migrant encounters at the Southwest border in June 2022, including 140,196 single adults, 51,780 family units, and 15,271 unaccompanied minors.

9 percent increase from June 2021 (189,034).



527.6 percent increase from June 2020 (33,049).



2 in 3 migrants encountered by Border Patrol were single adults.

Since President Biden took office, there have been over 3.18 million migrant encounters at the southern border alone.

at the southern border alone. In addition, nearly 800,000 gotaways have escaped from Border Patrol.

have escaped from Border Patrol. CBP has encountered more people in just 9 months of FY 2022 than in the entirety of FY 2021.

of FY 2022 than in the entirety of FY 2021. June was the 16th straight month with more than 150,000 encounters.

with The Biden administration continues its crusade to end the Title 42 public health authority , despite extending other COVID-related national emergencies.

, despite extending other COVID-related national emergencies. In June, CBP expelled only 44 percent of illegal aliens using Title 42.

The Drug Epidemic Continues Unabated

CBP seized over 680 pounds of fentanyl at the border, enough to kill 140 million people .

of at the border, enough to . CBP also seized 13,167 pounds of methamphetamine , 9,371 pounds of cocaine , and 104 pounds of heroin .

of , of , and of . In total, CBP seized 63,854 pounds of drugs in June  up from 46,934 pounds in May.

 up from 46,934 pounds in May. Drug overdoses in the United States killed 107,622 people in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Notable Criminal Activity in June 2022

Over 50 men, women and children were left to die in the back of an abandoned tractor trailer in San Antonio by human traffickers connected with Mexican drug cartels.

in San Antonio by human traffickers connected with Mexican drug cartels. Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector arrested two convicted sex offenders and nine gang members in a single week.

and in a single week. Agents in the Laredo sector seized narcotics worth over $2 million at the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge in a single instance.

at the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge in a single instance. Agents arrested a child rapist at the Anzalduas International Bridge on June 28.

Contact: Ron Kovach, 202-328-7004 or [email protected]

ABOUT FAIR

Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group. With over 3 million members and supporters nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fair-analysis-biden-border-crisis-continues-worst-june-on-record-301589732.html

SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)
BOSTON, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Through a series of in-depth CEO interviews, Higher Ambition Leadership Alliance has identified key behaviors of human-centered CEOs that drive strong and sustainable performance for their organizations. The "Higher Ambition Leadership Alliance 2022 CEO Study: How Human-Centered CEOs Fuel Performance" released today reveals how these CEOs cultivate their own intentional, personal leadership practices and build Higher Ambition practices and systems into the fabric of their organizations.

This qualitative CEO research study profiles these top CEOs in action and includes stories and examples of how they lead. To download the full report, visit: this link.

The Higher Ambition Leadership Alliance is a non-profit community for CEOs and senior executives committed to helping leaders build high-performing organizations that deliver superior economic and social value. Since 2011, the Alliance has studied and supported these organizations and their leaders.

The 50 CEOs and presidents interviewed represent large industry giants and nimble market disruptors. Discussions occurred from the height of the Covid-19 shutdowns through early 2022, with leaders from companies including: BD, CVS Health, Eastern Bank, Otis Elevator Company, Sainsbury's, Talbots, and Xylem. The executives shared the everyday leadership practices that help them build thriving, lasting organizations through these tumultuous times.

"The continued escalation of volatility and uncertainty coupled with demands for meaning at work and more sustainable practices make human-centered leadership a competitive imperative," says Jeannie Diefenderfer, CEO, Higher Ambition Leadership Alliance. "At the same time, it is harder than ever to deliver outstanding performance in the short- and long-term while consistently honoring people and purpose. The economic case for what we call Higher Ambition leadership is sound, yet many executives find it hard to push back against corporate inertia. We set out to show how a growing group of determined CEOs are doing the real work of leading this way."

Some of their practices may go against the typical, traditional profile of a successful CEO, but for these leaders, their actions have translated to solid performance over time.

The Higher Ambition Leadership 2022 CEO Study highlights three distinctive ways that human-centered CEOs fuel performance:

Build high-trust relationships with stakeholders to power innovation and agility. Find shared purpose to move beyond bi-lateral partnerships. Build trust with diverse stakeholder groups through genuine human connection.

Recognize that culture is THE high stakes value driver or destroyer and invest accordingly. Embed values into leadership development and talent management systems. Create opportunities and structures that encourage the honest dialogue that drives action on issues and true engagement.

Show up authentic, open, and vulnerable to engage and inspire your team. Show your true self and show you care. Personally draw out different perspectives.

Higher Ambition Leadership AllianceHigher Ambition Leadership Alliance is a CEO-led community building thriving companies ready to solve the world's toughest problems. We understand how collective focus on people, purpose, and performance creates successful organizations. We bring leaders together to learn through honest, meaningful experiences with peers and experts who challenge and advance their thinking. Everything we do is grounded in academic research and real-world experience and designed for impact.https://www.higherambition.org/

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/higher-ambition-leadership-alliance-2022-ceo-study-details-how-human-centered-ceos-fuel-performance-301589974.html

SOURCE Higher Ambition Leadership Alliance
SAN FRANCISCO, ROCKVILLE, Md. and SUZHOU, China, July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovent Biologics, Inc. ("Innovent") (HKEX: 01801), a world-class biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and commercializes high quality medicines for the treatment of oncology, metabolic, autoimmune, ophthalmology and other major diseases, and Ascentage Pharma (6855.HK), a global biopharmaceutical company engaged in developing novel therapies for cancers, chronic hepatitis B (CHB), and age-related diseases, today announce that the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has accepted and granted Priority Review designation[1] (in a CDE's public notice ended on July 18, 2022) to a New Drug Application (NDA) that will support the full approval of olverembatinib in patients with chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML-CP) who are resistant and/or intolerant of first- and second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Following the conditional NDA approval in November 2021, the acceptance for the latest application marks another milestone and will potentially bring olverembatinib to benefit a broader population of patients with CML. Innovent and Ascentage are mutually committed to the commercialization of olverembatinib in the China market.

In November 2021, the NMPA granted a conditional approval to olverembatinib for the treatment of adult patients with TKI-resistant CML-CP or CML-AP harboring the T315I mutation as confirmed by a validated diagnostic test, thus filling an urgent treatment gap that has long hindered the clinical outcome in Chinese patients with TKI-resistant CML harboring the T315I mutation.

The acceptance and Priority Review designation for this application are based on the results from an open-label, randomized, controlled, confirmatory Phase II pivotal study (study code: HQP1351CC203) which previously served as the basis for a Breakthrough Therapy designation to olverembatinib by the CDE in March 2021. The study is designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of olverembatinib in patients with CML-CP who are resistant and/or intolerant to first- and second-generation TKIs, with the event-free survival (EFS) as its primary endpoint. A total of 144 patients were enrolled and randomized to either receive olverembatinib or the control group to receive the current best available treatment (BAT). Results show that olverembatinib significantly improved the EFS compared to the control group and has met the pre-specified superiority criteria. Detailed results from this study will be released at an upcoming academic conference.

CML is a hematologic malignancy of the white blood cells. The introduction of BCR-ABL TKIs has significantly improved the clinical practice and management of CML. However, acquired resistance to TKIs remains a major challenge in the treatment of CML. BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase mutations represent a key mechanism of acquired drug resistance and there is an urgent unmet medical need for a safe and effective treatment. Olverembatinib is a potentially global best-in-class drug that has been developed by Ascentage Pharma and supported by the National Major New Drug Discovery and Manufacturing Program in China. As the first and only third-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor approved for the treatment of drug-resistant CML in China, olverembatinib is able to effectively target a spectrum of BCR-ABL mutants, including T315I.

The leading principal investigator of olverembatinib in China, Prof. Xiaojun Huang, MD, Director of the Institute of Hematology, Peking University, Director of the Hematology Department at Peking University People's Hospital, commented: "The approval for olverembatinib last year has brought a breakthrough therapy for patients with drug-resistant CML harboring the T315I mutation. Meanwhile, many patients who are resistant to first- and second-generation TKIs still lack effective treatment and drug resistance to TKIs and this remains a major clinical challenge in the treatment of CML. In recent years, results from multiple clinical studies have validated olverembatinib's therapeutic efficacy in CML patients. We hope that the second Priority Review designation granted to olverembatinib will allow more patients with CML to soon benefit from this novel drug."

Dr. Hui Zhou, Senior Vice President of Innovent, stated: "We are pleased about the acceptance and Priority Review designation for the application for olverembatinib, as it will potentially allow a broader population of patients with TKI-resistant CML to benefit from this novel therapeutic. Innovent has established a robust pipeline and franchise in hematology and we are fully committed to bringing forth more 'high-quality biopharmaceutical products that are affordable to ordinary people' and serve the unmet medical needs from Chinese patients as early as possible."

Dr. Yifan Zhai, Chief Medical Officer of Ascentage Pharma, commented, "As an innovative biopharmaceutical company dedicated to addressing the unmet medical needs of patients in China and around the world, Ascentage Pharma is forging ahead with its clinical development programs to allow more patients to benefit from our innovative drugs. Having this application for olverembatinib accepted and granted the Priority Review designation by the CDE highlights the authority's commitment to filling the treatment gap in patients with drug-resistant CML and its strong recognition of olverembatinib's therapeutic efficacy. We will work closely with the CDE to bring this innovative therapeutic to more patients as soon as possible."

About Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a malignancy caused by the clonal proliferation of hematopoietic stem cell in the bone marrow. Also referred to as chronic myelocytic leukemia, CML is one of the most common subtypes of chronic leukemia, accounting for 15% of all leukemia cases in adults. According to epidemiology data, the onset of CML in Chinese patients happens at a younger age than that in the West; the median age of onset of CML in China is around 45  50 years old, while it is 67 years old in the west.

BCR-ABL TKIs have significantly improved the clinical management of CML. However, acquired resistance to TKIs remains a major challenge in the treatment of CML, while BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase mutations represent a key mechanism of acquired drug resistance.

About Olverembatinib

Developed by Ascentage Pharma with support from the National Major New Drug Discovery and Manufacturing Program in China, the orally active, third-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor olverembatinib is the first China-approved third-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor targeting drug-resistant CML. Olverembatinib can effectively target a spectrum of BCR-ABL mutants, including the T315I mutation.

In November 2021, olverembatinib was approved by the NMPA of China for the treatment of adult patients with TKI-resistant CML-CP or CML-AP harboring the T315I mutation as confirmed by a validated diagnostic test. In March 2021, it was granted the Breakthrough Therapy designation by the CDE for the treatment of patients with CML-CP who are resistant and/or intolerant of first- and second-generation TKIs.

In overseas, olverembatinib was cleared by the US FDA in July 2019 to directly enter a Phase Ib study. Since 2018, the clinical results of olverembatinib have been selected for oral presentations at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meetings for four consecutive years, and was nominated for "Best of ASH" in 2019. To date, olverembatinib has been granted one Fast Track designation and three Orphan Drug designations from the US FDA for the treatment of CML, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and acute myeloid leukemia (AML); and one Orphan Designation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) of the European Union for the treatment of CML.

In July 2021, Ascentage Pharma (6855.HK) and Innovent Biologics (1801.HK) reached the agreement regarding the joint development and commercialization of olverembatinib in China.

*Olverembatinib has not been approved for any indication in the U.S.

About Innovent

Inspired by the spirit of "Start with Integrity, Succeed through Action," Innovent's mission is to develop, manufacture and commercialize high-quality biopharmaceutical products that are affordable to ordinary people. Established in 2011, Innovent is committed to developing, manufacturing and commercializing high-quality innovative medicines for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune, metabolic, ophthalmology and other major diseases. On October 31, 2018, Innovent was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited with the stock code: 01801.HK.

Since its inception, Innovent has developed a fully integrated multi-functional platform which includes R&D, CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls), clinical development and commercialization capabilities. Leveraging the platform, the company has built a robust pipeline of 32 valuable assets in the fields of cancer, metabolic, autoimmune disease and other major therapeutic areas, with 7 products approved for marketing in China  TYVYT (sintilimab injection), BYVASDA (bevacizumab biosimilar injection), SULINNO (adalimumab biosimilar injection), HALPRYZA (rituximab biosimilar injection) , Pemazyre (pemigatinib oral inhibitor) , olverembatinib (BCR-ABL TKI) and Cyramza (ramucirumab), 3 assets under NMPA NDA review, 3 assets in Phase 3 or pivotal clinical trials, and an additional 19 molecules in clinical studies.

Innovent has built an international team with advanced talent in high-end biological drug development and commercialization, including many global experts. The company has also entered into strategic collaborations with Eli Lilly and Company, Adimab, Incyte, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Hanmi and other international partners. Innovent strives to work with many collaborators to help advance China's biopharmaceutical industry, improve drug availability and enhance the quality of the patients' lives. For more information, please visit: www.innoventbio.com. and www.linkedin.com/company/innovent-biologics/.

Note:

TYVYT (sintilimab injection) is not an approved product in the United States.

BYVASDA (bevacizumab biosimilar injection), SULINNO, and HALPRYZA (rituximab biosimilar injection) are not approved products in the United States.

TYVYT (sintilimab injection, Innovent) BYVASDA (bevacizumab biosimilar injection, Innovent)HALPRYZA (rituximab biosimilar injection, Innovent)SULINNO (adalimumab biosimilar injection, Innovent)Pemazyre (pemigatinib oral inhibitor, Incyte Corporation). Pemazyre was discovered by Incyte Corporation and licensed to Innovent for development and commercialization in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.CYRAMZA (ramucirumab, Eli Lilly). Cyramza was discovered by Eli Lilly and licensed to Innovent for commercialization in Mainland China.

About Ascentage Pharma

Ascentage Pharma (6855.HK) is a globally focused biopharmaceutical company engaged in developing novel therapies for cancers, chronic hepatitis B, and age-related diseases. On October 28, 2019, Ascentage Pharma was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited with the stock code 6855.HK.

Ascentage Pharma focuses on developing therapeutics that inhibit protein-protein interactions to restore apoptosis, or programmed cell death. The company has built a pipeline of eight clinical drug candidates, including novel, highly potent Bcl-2, and dual Bcl-2/Bcl-xL inhibitors, as well as candidates aimed at IAP and MDM2-p53 pathways, and next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Ascentage Pharma is also the only company in the world with active clinical programs targeting all three known classes of key apoptosis regulators. The company is conducting more than 50 Phase I/II clinical trials in the US, Australia, Europe, and China. Olverembatinib, the company's core drug candidate developed for the treatment of drug-resistant chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), was granted Priority Review status and a Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) by the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) and is already approved for the indication. In addition, olverembatinib was also granted an Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) and a Fast Track Designation (FTD) by the US FDA, and an Orphan Designation by the EU. To date, Ascentage Pharma has obtained a total of 15 ODDs, 2 FTDs, and 2 Rare Pediatric Disease (RPD) designations from the FDA and 1 ODD from the EU for four of the company's investigational drug candidates. Ascentage Pharma has been designated for multiple Major National R&D Projects, including 5 National Major New Drug Discovery and Manufacturing projects, 1 New Drug Incubator status, 4 Innovative Drug Programs, and 1 Major Project for the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases.

Leveraging its robust R&D capabilities, Ascentage Pharma has built a portfolio of global intellectual property rights and entered into global partnerships with numerous renowned biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and research institutes such as UNITY Biotechnology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Merck, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer. The company has built a talented team with global experience in discovering, developing, launching, and commercializing innovative drugs and is setting up world-class commercial manufacturing and Sales & Marketing teams. One pivotal aim of Ascentage Pharma is to continuously strengthen its R&D capabilities and accelerate its clinical development programs, in order to fulfil its mission of addressing unmet clinical needs in China and around the world for the benefit of more patients.

Innovent's Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain certain forward-looking statements that are, by their nature, subject to significant risks and uncertainties. The words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend" and similar expressions, as they relate to Innovent, are intended to identify certain of such forward-looking statements. Innovent does not intend to update these forward-looking statements regularly.

These forward-looking statements are based on the existing beliefs, assumptions, expectations, estimates, projections and understandings of the management of Innovent with respect to future events at the time these statements are made. These statements are not a guarantee of future developments and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond Innovent's control and are difficult to predict. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from information contained in the forward-looking statements as a result of future changes or developments in our business, Innovent's competitive environment and political, economic, legal and social conditions.

Innovent, the Directors and the employees of Innovent assume (a) no obligation to correct or update the forward-looking statements contained in this site; and (b) no liability in the event that any of the forward-looking statements does not materialize or turn out to be incorrect.

Ascentage Pharma's Forward-Looking Statements

The forward-looking statements made in this article relate only to the events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this article. Except as required by law, Ascentage Pharma undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. You should read this article completely and with the understanding that our actual future results or performance may be materially different from what we expect. In this article, statements of, or references to, our intentions or those of any of our Directors or our Company are made as of the date of this article. Any of these intentions may alter in light of future development.

[1] Priority Review Designation accelerates the research and development of innovative drugs that have significant clinical advantages and fills urgent medical needs. According to the Provisions for Drug Registration (SAMR Order No. 27) and Working Procedures for Priority Review and Approval of Drug Marketing Authorization (Interim) (No. 82 of 2020) implemented on July 1, and July 7, 2020, respectively, the regulatory authority will prioritize the review process and evaluation resources for NDAs which helps accelerate the market access of these innovative drugs.

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SOURCE Innovent Biologics
New Makeup Collection from Makeup Revolution is Aiming to Inspire Real Life Beauty

NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Makeup Revolution, the ever-popular British beloved makeup brand launches today, IRL Filter Foundation, an all-new foundation line available exclusively at ULTA Beauty stores nationwide, on Ulta.com and RevolutionBeauty.com. With 30 inclusive and skin-loving shades, the breathable foundation supports your skin's true beauty leaving beauty filters behind. IRL Foundation serves as confidence in a bottle and is formulated to diffuse pores and withstands a 16-hour wear  No touch ups needed!

Makeup Revolution launches IRL Filter Foundation to their coveted makeup portfolio with a campaign aiming to inspire consumers to feel confident with the comfortable long wear formula.

The soft matte and breathable foundation is oil-free, provides 20% more pigment for easy buildable coverage and is infused with Niacinamide for diffusing pores and concealing potential blemishes. With 30 shades ranging from fair to deep that are vegan and cruelty-free, Makeup Revolution continues to embrace a diverse breadth of consumers.

"With IRL Filter Foundation being one of our biggest launches to date, we are so eager to introduce this campaign to Gen Z and Young Millennials that have shown to be influential and supportive in finding real beauty within, a message that resonates with everyone here at Makeup Revolution," states Adam Minto, CEO and Founder of Revolution Beauty. "Following our success of Conceal & Define and Fast Base collections, we worked to further develop a new inspiring collection with IRL Filter Foundation that will adhere to a variety of consumers."

As the makeup brand behind viral TikTok's stemming from Gen Z and Young Millennials, Revolution Beauty addressed their combined social and retail audience of 8 million to take part in a survey surrounding filter use within their demographic. Results show that 40% of young people distort their appearance on every image they share, 80% of 1334-year-olds suffer self-esteem issues based on their appearance and 1 in 2 girls dislike the way they look without filter. With Revolution Beauty conducting their own research, IRL Filter Foundation was born to help consumers build confidence and refrain from using filters on social media. In support of #NoFilterRevolution, Makeup Revolution has pledged 25,000 to The Mix, UK's leading support service for those under 25 years of age. Through a 24-hour helpline, The Mix takes on the coming-of-age questions that people under 25 have in order to give them the best support and assure all young people are able to make informed choices about their physical and mental wellbeing. Together, Makeup Revolution and The Mix are providing tools for the next generation to embrace true beauty.

The Makeup Revolution IRL Filter Foundation ($13) is available exclusively at ULTA stores nationwide, on Ulta.com and RevolutionBeauty.com.

ABOUT MAKEUP REVOLUTION// FOLLOW US @MAKEUPREVOLUTIONMakeup Revolution is a British-based, independent company available in over 60 countries worldwide. Makeup Revolution falls under the Revolution Beauty brand umbrella, accompanied with I Heart Revolution, Revolution PRO and Revolution Skincare. Revolution Beauty is the fastest growing company in the UK (December 2018), according to The Sunday Times. #OpenMinds is Revolution's call for everyone to celebrate diversity, embrace imperfection, respect self-expression and support beauty in its many shapes and forms. All Makeup Revolution products are PETA-certified cruelty free, never tested on animals and 76% vegan (and growing!).

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/makeup-revolution-introduces-irl-filter-foundation-301589727.html

SOURCE Revolution Beauty
Savoy honors an elite group of African American men and women for their executive and business leadership contributions each year

CHICAGO, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mesirow, an independent, employee-owned financial services firm, today announced Ben Blakney, President of Mesirow Institutional Real Estate Direct Investments ("IRED"), was named one of Savoy Magazine's 2022 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America. Savoy, one of the leading African American business and lifestyle magazines, published its definitive list of African American executives, influencers and achievers impacting corporate America in its summer issue.

"Savoy is proud to present the 2022 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America. In this issue, we assembled an elite representation of African American men and women who have been recognized for their executive and business leadership in national and global-leading corporations," said L.P. Green, II, Publisher of Savoy Magazine. "These innovative trailblazers have led efforts to foster growth for some of the country's highest-performing companies throughout and beyond the US market."

Ben has more than 30 years of investment industry experience as a senior executive in both the public and private sectors. He joined Mesirow in 2014 and today serves as a member of the Mesirow Board of Directors as well as the IRED Investment Committee. He also plays a key role as co-chair of the Mesirow Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council.

"Our talented people are our greatest strength," said Mesirow CEO Natalie Brown. "Ben exemplifies our firm's commitment to serving clients through differentiated financial products, acting as a force for social good and sustaining our people-centric culture. We congratulate Ben on this well-deserved recognition as we celebrate his leadership and accomplishments."

"I am honored to be recognized by Savoy and humbled for being included in the publication's prestigious list of Black Executives," said Blakney. "This recognition equally reflects Mesirow's deep commitment to diverse thought and perspective as we make strategic decisions, serve our clients and engage in our communities."

Ben is an active member of the Pension Real Estate Association, the National Association of Securities Professionals and the Real Estate Executive Council and serves as a mentor with LINK Unlimited Scholars. Ben earned a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College and a Master in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

About Mesirow Institutional Real Estate Direct InvestmentsMesirow Institutional Real Estate Direct Investments ("IRED") is a proven team that invests in the multi-family housing sector across the top 25-30 markets within the US. Over time, the investment team has acquired, managed, repositioned and sold 34,000 multi-family units; equivalent to the average size of a publicly traded US REIT. The team looks for markets that exhibit: favorable demographic trends (population, migration and immigration growth); low unemployment rates and high job growth markets in comparison to national and regional averages; high barriers to entry for new supply, home ownership affordability (a large differential in the cost to own versus the cost to rent); extensive infrastructure in terms of freeways, ports and air service that leads to superior access for residents; and quality of life and destination areas. For more information, please visit: https://www.mesirow.com/capabilities/global-investment-management/institutional-real-estate-direct.

About MesirowMesirow is an independent, employee-owned financial services firm founded in 1937. Headquartered in Chicago, with locations around the world, we serve clients through a personal, custom approach to reaching financial goals and acting as a force for social good. With capabilities spanning Global Investment Management, Capital Markets & Investment Banking, and Advisory Services, we invest in what matters: our clients, our communities and our culture. To learn more, visit mesirow.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Mesirow was recently named one of the Best Places to Work in Chicago by Crain's Chicago Business and one of the Top 100 RIA firms by Barron's.

Media[email protected] | Michael Herley | 203.308.1409

Mesirow Institutional Real Estate Direct ("IRED") is a division of Mesirow Financial Investment Management, Inc., an SEC-registered investment advisor. Mesirow Financial refers to Mesirow Financial Holdings, Inc. and its divisions, subsidiaries and affiliates. The Mesirow Financial name and logo are registered service marks of Mesirow Financial Holdings, Inc.,  2022. All rights reserved. Nothing contained herein constitutes an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any Mesirow Financial investment vehicle. Any offer can only be made to Qualified or "accredited" investors through the appropriate Offering Memorandum which contains important information concerning risk factors and other material aspects of the investment and should be read carefully before an investment decision is made. Mesirow Financial does not provide legal or tax advice.

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SOURCE Mesirow Financial Holdings, Inc.
Rare and Unique Primary Sources Expand Student and Faculty Access to Humanities and Social Sciences Research Materials

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. and SHANGHAI, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Shanghai University has acquired Gale Scholar from Gale, part of Cengage Group, opening up new possibilities for research and study using the expansive content and powerful search technologies of Gale Primary Sources. The resources are available to nearly 58,000 students across the university's three campuses. The university also purchased Gale Digital Scholar Lab (the Lab) as it looks to advance in the growing field of digital humanities. The Lab makes digital humanities methods available to students and researchers, enabling them to analyze and interpret large amounts of data, fostering 21st-century skills they can use post-graduation. Shanghai University joins the list of distinguished universities in China to implement Gale Scholar.

Gale Scholar encourages cross-disciplinary collaboration and critical thinking while granting access to primary sources.

Founded in 1922, Shanghai University is an esteemed, research-heavy institution that is a member of the national Project 211, an initiative that supports the development of the country's best universities. As exemplified by their more than 3,000 international students, Shanghai University places an emphasis on international ties.

"Shanghai University was the first university established by the Communist Party of China. Our mission is to build a world-class research institution by giving scholars diverse digital resources that bring new perspectives," said Pan Shouyong, Director of Shanghai University Library. "Gale Scholar and the Lab support this goal by providing primary sources from prestigious institutions across the world to build our digital humanities capabilities."

The university selected Gale Scholar to increase its humanities and social sciences resources, allowing for more research in the area of liberal arts. Gale Scholar will also encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration and critical thinking while granting access to high-quality primary sources that were previously unavailable because of their location in Europe and North America.

"We are pleased to partner with Shanghai University through Gale Scholar and the Lab," said Terry Robinson, senior vice president of Gale global academic. "These tools will support the institution in keeping pace with international scholars, growing research output and improving student outcomes."

Gale Scholar provides Shanghai University researchers curated digital collections of books, maps, photographs, newspapers, periodicals and manuscripts from well-known libraries including the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the British Library. Acclaimed Gale Primary Sources series in the university's program include:

For more information on Gale Scholar, visit its webpage.

About Cengage Group and Gale

Cengage Group, an education technology company serving millions of learners in 165 countries, advances the way students learn through quality, digital experiences. The company currently serves the K-12, higher education, professional, library, English language teaching and workforce training markets worldwide. Gale, part of Cengage Group, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For more than 65 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights  where, when and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with its main operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visit: http://www.gale.com.

Follow Gale on:

Media Contact:Kayla Siefker, Gale, part of Cengage Group248-378-3376[email protected]

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SOURCE Gale, part of Cengage Group
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

Stellantis repeats as a top scorer on 2022 Disability Equality Index

Annual assessment administered by Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities and considered "the most robust disability inclusion assessment tool in business"

Top-scoring businesses recognized as Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion

Acknowledgement adds to list of prestigious diversity and inclusion honors Stellantis has earned in 2022

Stellantis has again earned a top score on the annual Disability Equality Index (DEI) for 2022.

The DEI is a comprehensive benchmarking tool that helps companies build focused and measurable strategies that support disability inclusion and equality in the workplace.

Now in its eighth year, the DEI is administered by Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and is considered the most robust disability inclusion assessment tool in business.

Top-scoring companies represent those businesses that have invested in accessibility and inclusion across their enterprises and are recognized as the best places to work for disability inclusion.

Stellantis also earned a top score on the DEI in 2021.

"Stellantis deeply values the recognition and feedback we receive from influential organizations like Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities," said Tobin J. Williams, senior vice president for human resources, Stellantis  North America. "Our company's long-standing, enterprise-wide commitment to diversity and inclusion fuels a work culture that enables each of our employees to realize their full potential, our pursuit of consistently strong business results and our ability to achieve our long-term strategy as outlined in our Dare Forward 2030 plan."

The 2022 DEI measured a range of workplace practices, including culture and leadership; enterprise-wide access, benefits, recruitment, retention, advancement, accommodations and more.

By earning a top score on the DEI, Stellantis adds to the impressive list of diversity and inclusion leadership acknowledgements it has earned in 2022.

These acknowledgements include:

Noteworthy and Top Supplier Diversity Program ratings from Diversity Inc.

Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises Resiliency award from the Women's Business Enterprise National Council

Winds of Change magazine's list of Top 50 companies recruiting and supporting the careers of Indigenous STEM professionals

Excellence in Health and Well-Being and Excellence in Mental Health awards from the Business Group on Health

An important source of energy driving the company's commitment to diversity and inclusion are its 11 business resource groups representing a range of affinity communities, including African ancestry, Hispanic heritage, Asian culture, LGBTQ+, veterans, Middle Eastern heritage, employees and families with disabilities, Native Americans, women and working parents.

Globally, people with disabilities represent more than one billion people. Disability is a natural part of the human experience, and it crosses lines of age, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and religion.

"Disability inclusion is a rapidly expanding aspect of corporate culture, and it's gratifying to partner with 415 companies on the 2022 Disability Equality Index," said Jill Houghton, president and CEO of Disability:IN. "These top-scoring companies not only excel in disability inclusion, many are also adopting emerging trends and pioneering measures that can move the disability agenda from accommodation to inclusion and ultimately, genuine belonging."

American Association of People with DisabilitiesAAPD is a convener, connector, and catalyst for change, increasing the political and economic power for people with disabilities. As a national cross-disability rights organization AAPD advocates for full civil rights for the 60+ million Americans with disabilities. Learn more at www.aapd.com.

Disability:INDisability:IN is a global organization driving disability inclusion and equality in business. More than 400 corporations partner with Disability:IN to create long-term business and social impact through the world's most comprehensive disability inclusion benchmarking and reporting tool, the Disability Equality Index (DEI); best-in-class conferences and programs; expert counsel and engagement; and public policy leadership. Join us at disabilityin.org/AreYouIN #AreYouIN.

Stellantis North AmericaStellantis (NYSE: STLA) is one of the world's leading automakers and a mobility provider. In North America, it's best known for producing and selling vehicles in a portfolio of iconic and award-winning brands such as Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, Alfa Romeo and Fiat. Powered by its diversity, Stellantis leads the way the region and the world move  aspiring to become the greatest sustainable mobility tech company, not the biggest, while creating added value for all stakeholders as well as the communities in which it operates. For more information, visit www.stellantis.com.

Follow company news and video on:Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.comMedia website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.comCompany website: www.stellantis.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/StellantisFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/StellantisNAInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/stellantisnaTwitter: @StellantisNAYouTube: http://youtube.com/StellantisNA

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SOURCE Stellantis
Texas State Railroad's Great Guest Reviews Land It A Place Among Travelers' Favorites

PALESTINE, Texas, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas State Railroad (TSR) today announced it has been recognized by Tripadvisor as a 2022 Travelers' Choice award winner. The award celebrates businesses that have received great traveler reviews from visitors from around the country on Tripadvisor over the last 12 months. As challenging as the past year was, TSR stood out by consistently delivering positive experiences to their guests.

"We are honored to be recognized as a 2022 Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice Winner," said Amy Parady, Director of Business Development for the TSR. "Our guests are our number one priority! Many guests come to experience a vintage train ride as it is a unique outing; however, we strongly believe they will return because of our customer service. Our team is firmly committed to providing the best experience possible."

"Congratulations to the 2022 Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice Winners," said Kanika Soni, Chief Commercial Officer at Tripadvisor. "The Travelers' Choice Awards recognize the best in tourism and hospitality, according to those who matter most: your guests. Ranking among the Travelers' Choice winners is always tough  but never more so than this year as we emerge from the pandemic. Whether it's using new technology, implementing safety measures, or hiring outstanding staff, I'm impressed by the steps you've taken to meet travelers' new demands. You've adapted brilliantly in the face of adversity."

To see visitor reviews, excursions and event trains of TSR, visit https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g56414-d11887226-Reviews-Texas_State_Railroad-Palestine_Texas.html

About Texas State Railroad

TSR is a tourist railroad offering round trip steam and diesel excursions through the scenic Piney Woods of East Texas. In 2003, the Texas state legislature designated the Texas State Railroad as the official railroad of Texas! Our excursion trains operate between Palestine and Rusk TX. The Texas State Railroad is a subsidiary of Jaguar Transport Holdings out of Joplin, MO.

About Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor, the world's largest travel guidance platform*, helps hundreds of millions of people each month** become better travelers, from planning to booking to taking a trip. Travelers across the globe use the Tripadvisor site and app to discover where to stay, what to do and where to eat based on guidance from those who have been there before. With more than 988 million reviews and opinions of nearly 8 million businesses, travelers turn to Tripadvisor to find deals on accommodations, book experiences, reserve tables at delicious restaurants and discover great places nearby. As a travel guidance company available in 43 markets and 22 languages, Tripadvisor makes planning easy no matter the trip type.

The subsidiaries of Tripadvisor, Inc., own and operate a portfolio of travel media brands and businesses, operating under various websites and apps, including the following websites:

www.bokun.io, www.cruisecritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.thefork.com, www.helloreco.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.housetrip.com, www.jetsetter.com, www.niumba.com, www.seatguru.com, www.singleplatform.com, www.vacationhomerentals.com, and www.viator.com.

* Source: SimilarWeb, unique users de-duplicated monthly, September 2021** Source: Tripadvisor internal log files

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SOURCE Texas State Railroad
As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 20, 2022

1933 Act File No. 333-150525

1940 Act File No. 811-22201

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM N-1A

REGISTRATION STATEMENT UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933 [ X ] Pre-Effective Amendment No. [ ] Post-Effective Amendment No. 350 [ X ] and/or REGISTRATION STATEMENT UNDER THE INVESTMENT COMPANY ACT OF 1940 [ X ] Amendment No. 352 [ X ]

(Check appropriate box or boxes.)

DIREXION SHARES ETF TRUST

(Exact name of Registrant as Specified in Charter)

1301 Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue), 28th Floor

New York, New York 10019

(Address of Principal Executive Office) (Zip Code)

Registrants Telephone Number, including Area Code: (646) 572-3390

Daniel D. ONeill

1301 Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue), 28th Floor

New York, New York 10019

(Name and Address of Agent for Service)

Copy to:

Angela Brickl Stacy L. Fuller Rafferty Asset Management, LLC K&L Gates LLP 1301 Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue) 1601 K Street, NW 28th Floor Washington, DC 20006 New York, New York 10019

It is proposed that this filing will become effective (check appropriate box)

[ ] immediately upon filing pursuant to paragraph (b) [ X ] on July 22, 2022 pursuant to paragraph (b) [ ] 60 days after filing pursuant to paragraph (a)(1) [ ] on (date) pursuant to paragraph (a)(1) [ ] 75 days after filing pursuant to paragraph (a)(2) [ ] on (date) pursuant to paragraph (a)(2) of Rule 485. If appropriate, check the following box: [ X ] This post-effective amendment designates a new effective date for a previously filed post-effective amendment.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Designation of New Effective Date for Previously Filed Amendment

Post-Effective Amendment No. 327 (the Amendment) was filed pursuant to Rule 485(a)(1) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, on February 17, 2022, and pursuant to Rule 485(a)(1) would become effective on April 18, 2022.

Post-Effective Amendment No. 333 was filed pursuant to Rule 485(b)(1)(iii) for the sole purpose of designating May 3, 2022 as the new date upon which the Amendment would become effective.

Post-Effective Amendment No. 337 was filed pursuant to Rule 485(b)(1)(iii) for the sole purpose of designating May 23, 2022 as the new date upon which the Amendment would become effective.

Post-Effective Amendment No. 339 was filed pursuant to Rule 485(b)(1)(iii) for the sole purpose of designating June 6, 2022 as the new date upon which the Amendment would become effective.

Post-Effective Amendment No. 341 was filed pursuant to Rule 485(b)(1)(iii) for the sole purpose of designating June 28, 2022 as the new date upon which the Amendment would become effective.

Post-Effective Amendment No. 344 was filed pursuant to Rule 485(b)(1)(iii) for the sole purpose of designating July 19, 2022 as the new date upon which the Amendment would become effective.

Post-Effective Amendment No. 346 was filed pursuant to Rule 485(b)(1)(iii) for the sole purpose of designating July 20, 2022 as the new date upon which the Amendment would become effective.

Post-Effective Amendment No. 348 was filed pursuant to Rule 485(b)(1)(iii) for the sole purpose of designating July 21, 2022 as the new date upon which the Amendment would become effective.

This Post-Effective Amendment No. 350 incorporates by reference the information contained in Parts A, B, and C of the Amendment.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the Securities Act) and the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, the Registrant certifies that this Post-Effective Amendment No. 350 to its Registration Statement meets all the requirements for effectiveness pursuant to Rule 485(b) of the Securities Act, and the Registrant has duly caused this Post-Effective Amendment No. 350 to its Registration Statement on Form N-1A to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of New York and the State of New York on July 20, 2022.

DIREXION SHARES ETF TRUST By: /s/ Patrick J. Rudnick* Patrick J. Rudnick Principal Executive Officer

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act, this Post-Effective Amendment No. 350 to its Registration Statement has been signed below by the following persons in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 20, 2022 Registration No. 333-

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 __________________ FORM S-8 REGISTRATION STATEMENT UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933 ______________ (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter) Delaware (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) 16-1213679 (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

5790 Widewaters Parkway Dewitt, New York 13214 (Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code) __________________ Community Bank System, Inc. 2022 Long-Term Incentive Plan, as Amended (Full title of the plan) __________________ Michael N. Abdo, Esq. Executive Vice President and General Counsel 5790 Widewaters Parkway DeWitt, New York 13214 (Name and address of agent for service)

(315) 445-2282

(Telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of large accelerated filer, accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, and emerging growth company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer x Accelerated filer  Non-accelerated filer  Smaller reporting company  Emerging growth company 

If an emerging growth company, indicated by check mark if the registration has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. 

NTRODUCTION

This Registration Statement on Form S-8 is filed by Community Bank System, Inc. (the Registrant) to register (i) 600,000 shares of the Registrants common stock, par value $1.00 per share (Common Stock), which may be issued under the Community Bank System, Inc. 2022 Long-Term Incentive Plan, as amended (the Plan) plus (ii) 350,497 shares of Common Stock previously registered pursuant to the Registration Statement on Form S-8 (No. 333-221190) filed by the Registrant on October 27, 2017 (the Carried-Over Shares) that are authorized but unissued as of the date of this Registration Statement under the Community Bank System, Inc. 2014 Long-Term Incentive Plan, as amended (the Prior Plan), which are available for issuance under the Plan.

PART I

INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE SECTION 10(a) PROSPECTUS

The documents containing the information required in Part I of Form S-8 will be delivered to participants in the Plan in accordance with Form S8 and Rule 428(b) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act). Such documents are not required to be, and are not, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission) either as part of this Registration Statement or as prospectuses or prospectus supplements pursuant to Rule 424 under the Securities Act. These documents and the documents incorporated herein by reference pursuant to Item 3 of Part II of this Registration Statement, taken together, constitute a prospectus that meets the requirements of Section 10(a) of the Securities Act.

PART II

INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT

Item 3. Incorporation of Documents by Reference.

The following documents, which have been filed by the Registrant (Commission File No. 001-13695) with the Commission pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act), are incorporated in this Registration Statement by reference:

(a) The Registrants Annual Report on Form 10K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.

(b) The Registrants Quarterly Reports on Form 10Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2022.

(c) The Registrants Current Reports on Form 8K filed on January 6, 2022, April 29, 2022, May 6, 2022, May 16, 2022, and May 20, 2022.

(d) The description of the Companys common stock contained in the Registration Statement on Form 8-A (File No. 001-13695) filed on December 9, 1997, including any amendments or reports filed for the purpose of updating such description.

All documents subsequently filed by the Registrant pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 and 15(d) of the Exchange Act (other than current reports on Form 8K furnished pursuant to Item 2.02 or Item 7.01 of Form 8K, including any exhibits included with such information, unless otherwise indicated therein), and prior to the filing of a posteffective amendment which indicates that all securities offered hereby have been sold or which deregisters all securities then remaining unsold, shall be deemed to be incorporated by reference herein and to be a part hereof from the date of filing of such documents.

Any statement contained herein or in a document incorporated or deemed to be incorporated by reference herein shall be deemed to be modified or superseded for purposes of this Registration Statement to the extent that a statement contained herein or in any other subsequently filed document which also is or is deemed to be incorporated by reference herein, or any document forming any part of the Section 10(a) prospectus to be delivered to participants in connection herewith, modifies or supersedes such statement. Any statement so modified or superseded shall not be deemed, except as so modified or superseded, to constitute part of this Registration Statement.

Item 4. Description of Securities.

Not applicable.

Item 5. Interests of Named Experts and Counsel.

Michael N. Abdo, Esq., who has rendered an opinion as to the validity of the Common Stock being registered by this Registration Statement, is an officer of the Registrant and, as of July 20, 2022, beneficially owned 2,943 shares of Common Stock and held options to purchase 14,728 shares of Common Stock.

Item 6. Indemnification of Directors and Officers.

The Registrant is a Delaware corporation. Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the DGCL) provides that a corporation may indemnify any person who was or is a party or is threatened to be made a party to any threatened, pending or completed action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative (other than an action by or in the right of the corporation) by reason of the fact that the person is or was a director, officer, employee, or agent of the corporation, or is or was serving at the request of the corporation as a director, officer, employee or agent of another corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust or other enterprise, against expenses (including attorneys fees), judgments, fines and amounts paid in settlement actually and reasonably incurred by the person in connection with such action, suit or proceeding, provided that such director or officer acted in good faith and in a manner reasonably believed to be in, or not opposed to, the best interests of the corporation, and, with respect to any criminal action or proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe that his or her conduct was illegal.

This power to indemnify applies to actions or suits brought by or in the right of the corporation to procure a judgment in its favor as well, but only to the extent of expenses (including attorneys fees but excluding amounts paid in settlement) actually and reasonably incurred by the person in connection with the defense or settlement of such action or suit if such person acted in good faith and in a manner reasonably believed to be in, or not opposed to, the best interests of the corporation, except that no indemnification shall be made in respect of any claim, issue or matter as to which such person shall have been adjudged to be liable to the corporation, unless and only to the extent that the Delaware Court of Chancery or the court in which such action was brought shall determine upon application that, despite the adjudication of liability but in view of all the circumstances of the case, such person is fairly and reasonably entitled to indemnity for such expenses which the court shall deem proper.

Section 145 of the DGCL further provides that to the extent a director or officer of a corporation has been successful in the defense of any action, suit or proceeding referred to in subsections (a) and (b) of Section 145, or in the defense of any claim, issue or matter therein, he or she shall be indemnified against expenses (including attorneys fees) actually and reasonably incurred by him or her in connection therewith; that indemnification provided for by Section 145 shall not be deemed exclusive of any other rights to which the indemnified party may be entitled; and that the corporation shall have power to purchase and maintain insurance on behalf of a director or officer of the corporation against any liability asserted against him or her or incurred by him or her in any such capacity or arising out of his or her status as such whether or not the corporation would have the power to indemnify him or her against such liabilities under Section 145.

Article 9 of the Registrants Certificate of Incorporation provides that the registrants directors shall not be liable to the Registrant or its shareholders for monetary damages as a result of breach of fiduciary duty, except for liability in connection with a breach of a directors duty of loyalty, for acts or omissions not in good faith or involving intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of the law, for a transaction from which a director derives an improper personal benefit, or for liability arising under Section 174 of the DGCL.

Article 8 of the Registrants Bylaws provides that the registrant shall indemnify any person made, or threatened to be made, a party to an action, suit or proceeding, whether criminal, civil, administrative or investigative, by reason of the fact that he or she is or was a director or officer of the Registrant against expenses (including attorneys fees), judgments, fines and amounts paid in settlement, to the fullest extent and in the manner set forth in and permitted by the DGCL, and any other applicable law, as from time to time in effect.

The Registrant is insured against liabilities it may incur by reason of its indemnification of officers and directors in accordance with its Bylaws. In addition, as permitted under Delaware law, the registrant maintains liability insurance covering directors and officers of the Registrant and its subsidiaries.

The foregoing summaries are necessarily subject to the complete texts of Section 145 of the DGCL, the Registrants Certificate of Incorporation, as amended, and the Registrants Bylaws, as amended, referred to above and are qualified in their entirety by reference thereto.

Item 7. Exemption from Registration Claimed.

Not applicable.

Item 8. Exhibits.

Item 9. Undertakings.

(a) The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes:

(1) To file, during any period in which offers or sales are being made, a post-effective amendment to this Registration Statement:

(i) To include any prospectus required by Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933;

(ii) To reflect in the prospectus any facts or events arising after the effective date of the registration statement (or the most recent post-effective amendment thereof) which, individually or in the aggregate, represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the Registration Statement; and

(iii) To include any material information with respect to the plan of distribution not previously disclosed in the registration statement or any material change to such information in the Registration Statement;

provided, however, that paragraphs (1)(a)(i) and (1)(a)(ii) do not apply if the information required to be included in a post-effective amendment by those paragraphs is contained in periodic reports filed with or furnished to the Commission by the registrant pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are incorporated by reference in the registration statement.

(2) That, for the purpose of determining any liability under the Securities Act of 1933, each such post-effective amendment shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.

(3) To remove from registration by means of a post-effective amendment any of the securities being registered which remain unsold at the termination of the offering.

(b) The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes that, for purposes of determining any liability under the Securities Act of 1933, each filing of the registrants annual report pursuant to Section 13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (and, where applicable, each filing of an employee benefit plans annual report pursuant to section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) that is incorporated by reference in the registration statement shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.

(c) Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act of 1933 may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the Registrant pursuant to the foregoing provisions, or otherwise, the registrant has been advised that in the opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that a claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than the payment by the registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person of the registrant in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person in connection with the securities being registered, the registrant will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question whether such indemnification by it is against public policy as expressed in the Act and will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, the Registrant certifies that it has reasonable grounds to believe that it meets all of the requirements for filing on Form S-8 and has duly caused the Registration Statement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in City of DeWitt, State of New York, on the 20th day of July, 2022.

COMMUNITY BANK SYSTEM, INC. By: /s/ Mark E. Tryniski Mark E. Tryniski President and Chief Executive Officer

POWER OF ATTORNEY

KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Mark E. Tryniski and Joseph E. Sutaris, and each of them, his or her true and lawful attorneysinfact and agents, with full power of substitution and resubstitution, for him or her in his or her name, place and stead, in any and all capacities, to sign any or all amendments to this Registration Statement, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and all other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorneysinfact and agents, and each of them, full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be done in and about the premises, as fully to all intents and purposes as he or she might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and confirming all that said attorneysinfact and agents, or any of them, or their or his or her substitute or substitutes, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue thereof.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, this registration statement has been signed by the following persons in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

SIGNATURE TITLE DATE /s/ Mark. E. Tryniski President, Chief Executive Officer and Director (Principal Executive Officer) July 20, 2022 Mark E. Tryniski /s/ Joseph E. Sutaris Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer (Principal Financial Officer) July 20, 2022 Joseph E. Sutaris /s/ Eric E. Stickels Chair of the Board July 20, 2022 Eric E. Stickels /s/ Mark J. Bolus Director July 20, 2022 Mark J. Bolus /s/ Neil E. Fesette Director July 20, 2022 Neil E. Fesette /s/ Jeffery J. Knauss Director July 20, 2022 Jeffery J. Knauss

/s/ Kerrie D. MacPherson Director July 20, 2022 Kerrie D. MacPherson

/s/ Susan E. Skerritt Director July 20, 2022 Susan E. Skerritt /s/ Sally A. Steele Director July 20, 2022 Sally A. Steele

INDEX TO EXHIBITS

_______________________

+ Filed herewith.

Exhibit 5.1

5790 Widewaters Parkway

DeWitt, New York 13214

Michael N. Abdo

Executive Vice President and General Counsel

July 20, 2022

Community Bank System, Inc.

5790 Widewaters Parkway

DeWitt, New York 13214

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Community Bank System, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the Company) and have acted as its counsel in connection with the registration statement on Form S-8 (the Registration Statement) being filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Act), relating to the registration of 600,000 shares of common stock, $1.00 par value per share (the Shares), which may be issued pursuant to the Community Bank System, Inc. 2022 Long-Term Incentive Plan, as amended (the Plan).

For purposes of this letter, I have examined such documents, records, certificates, and other instruments as I deemed necessary as a basis for this opinion. As to questions of fact material to the opinion expressed below, I have, when relevant facts were not independently established by me, relied upon certificates of officers of the Company or other evidence satisfactory to me. In all such examinations, I have assumed (i) the genuineness of all signatures, (ii) the authenticity of all documents tendered to me as originals, and (iii) the conformity to original documents of all documents submitted to me as copies. For purposes of rendering the opinion expressed below, I have assumed that (i) any conditions to the issuance and sale of the Shares pursuant to the Plan made thereunder have been or will be satisfied in full at the time of each issuance of Shares pursuant to the Plan, (ii) at the time of issuance and sale of each of the Shares pursuant thereto, the Plan will remain in effect and will not have been amended or modified in any manner that affects adversely the validity of the Shares upon issuance under the terms of the Plan, and (iii) at the time of issuance and sale of each of the Shares, there will be authorized but unissued shares of common stock available to the Company in sufficient amounts.

Based upon the foregoing and subject to the assumptions, limitations, and qualifications set forth herein, I am of the opinion that, subject to the Registration Statement becoming effective under the Act and compliance with all other applicable securities laws, the Shares have been duly authorized by the Company and that, when issued in accordance with the terms of the Plan, will be legally issued, fully paid and non-assessable.

I am a member of the bar of the State of New York, and the opinion expressed herein is limited to matters controlled by the federal securities laws of the United States of America and the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, and I do not express any opinion herein concerning any other law. This opinion speaks as of todays date and is limited to present statutes, regulations or judicial interpretations. In rendering this opinion, I assume no obligation to revise or supplement this opinion should present laws, regulations or judicial interpretations be changed by legislative or regulatory action, judicial decision or otherwise.

I am furnishing this opinion in connection with the filing of the Registration Statement with the Commission and this opinion is not to be used, circulated, quoted or otherwise referred to for any other purpose without my express written consent.

I hereby consent to the filing of this letter as an exhibit to the Registration Statement and to the reference made to me under the heading Interests of Named Experts and Counsel set forth in the Registration Statement. In giving this consent, I do not thereby admit that I am included in the category of persons whose consent is required under Section 7 of the Act or the rules and regulations of the Commission.

Very truly yours, /s/ Michael N. Abdo Michael N. Abdo, Esq. Executive Vice President and General Counsel

Exhibit 23.1

CONSENT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

We hereby consent to the incorporation by reference in this Registration Statement on Form S-8 of Community Bank System, Inc. of our report dated March 1, 2022 relating to the financial statements and the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, which appears in Community Bank System, Inc.s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.

/s/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Buffalo, NY

July 20, 2022

EXHIBIT 107

Calculation of Filing Fee Tables

FORM S-8

(Form Type)

Community Bank System, Inc.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

Table 1: Newly Registered Securities

Security Type Security

Class Title Fee

Calculation

Rule Amount

Registered(1) Proposed

Maximum

Offering

Price Per

Unit(2) Proposed

Maximum

Aggregate

Offering Price Fee Rate Amount of

Registration Fee Equity Common Stock, par value $1.00 per share Other 600,000 $61.48 $36,888,000 0.0000927 $3,420 Equity Common Stock, par value $1.00 per share Other 350,497(3) $61.48 $21,548,556 0.0000927 $1,998 Total Offering Amounts $58,436,556 $5,418 Total Fee Offsets(3) $2,339 Net Fee Due $3,079

Table 2: Fee Offset Claims and Sources

Registrant or

Filer Name Form

or Filing

Type File

Number Initial Filing

Date Fee Offset Claimed Security Type Associated with Fee Offset Claimed Security Title Associated with Fee Offset Claimed Unsold Securities Associated with Fee Offset Claimed Unsold Aggregate Offering Amount Associated with Fee Offset Claimed Fee Paid with Fee Offset Source Rule 457(p) Fee Offset Claims Community Bank System, Inc. S-8 333-221190 (3) October 27, 2017 $2,339 Equity Common Stock 350,497 $21,548,556 $6,675 Fee Offset Sources

(1) Pursuant to Rule 416 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), this Registration Statement on Form S-8 (the Registration Statement) to which this exhibit relates shall also cover any additional shares of the common stock of Community Bank System, Inc. which may be issuable under the Community Bank System, Inc. 2022 Long-Term Incentive Plan, as amended (the Plan) to reflect stock splits, stock dividends, mergers and other capital changes.

(2) Estimated solely for purposes of calculating the registration fee pursuant to Rules 457(c) and (h) of the Securities Act and based upon the average of the high and low sales prices of Community Bank System, Inc.s Common Stock on July 14, 2022, as reported on the New York Stock Exchange.
STUTTGART, Germany  The push to get Western arms into the hands of Ukrainian troops begins here, on the fourth floor of an old Patch Barracks conference hall that has turned U.S. European Command into a nerve center.

Dozens of troops from 26 nations occupy the computer-filled room, where the U.S. and its partners are tasked with ensuring that everything from Stinger missiles and howitzers to drones and long range-artillery gets to secret rally locations.

After the handoffs, Ukrainian convoys, which are high-value targets for the Russians, make their way to the front. And so far, the Russians have been unable to stop them, U.S. military officials said Wednesday.

The reason is a lack of air support superiority from the Russians, said Rear Adm. R. Duke Heinz, EUCOMs top logistician and head of a special task force coordinating efforts to get arms into Ukraine.

To date, more than 78,000 tons of weaponry have made their way to Ukraine via secret routes. The task force, known as the EUCOM Control Center Ukraine, has been at the center of it all.

Formed in March, the multinational cell operates 24 hours a day to stay on top of the latest calls for support coming from Ukraine.

For EUCOM and its partners, the effort to divvy up weapons bears an organizational resemblance to signing up for a wedding registry.

It all begins when a call comes in to the EUCOM center at Patch Barracks with a Ukrainian request. Personnel then determine which nations have the relevant resources.

In some cases, nations will mix and match. For example, on occasion, the British have provided howitzer systems while the Americans supplied the ammunition, officials said.

Once a nation has been matched with a weapons system for delivery and higher-level political decisions to send the weapons have been made, the U.S. and partner forces decide on routes for getting the gear into the hands of Ukraine troops.

Since standing up, the mission has moved in unpredictable directions as events have unfolded in Ukraine, Heinz told a group of reporters visiting EUCOM headquarters Wednesday.

In the beginning, the focus was on getting small arms, ammunition and anti-armor weapons into the country, he said.

Now, the U.S. is delivering more sophisticated systems, including howitzers and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, weapons the White House previously hesitated to supply because of concerns that Russia would view them as escalatory.

What we know today is very different from what we thought in March, Heinz said. I would be cautious to say we wont do X, we wont deliver X, to the Ukrainians.  Anything is on the table, frankly.

EUCOM officials declined to detail specific routes for security reasons, but weapons move by land, sea and air to various handoff points outside Ukraine.

There are three lines of communication, or three countries where the handoffs take place, Heinz said. About 70% to 75% of the supplies arrive for transfer at the first line of communication, he said.

While Heinz declined to identify the countries involved in the transfers, Poland has emerged as the main hub for allies lending support to Ukraine.

Poland also has been a focal point for American troops who have deployed in response to Russias attacks in Ukraine.

Soldiers have set up positions near the border with Ukraine to assist with managing the flow of weapons. In Jasionka, Poland, a newly established maintenance cell has been established that has the 405th Army Field Support Brigade assisting Ukrainians on keeping howitzers, HIMARS and Javelins up and running.

The EUCOM cell also coordinates efforts to train Ukrainian forces on the array of systems. On any given day, about 1,000 Ukraine troops are being trained somewhere in Europe, Heinz said.

Still, questions have emerged about what becomes of all the weapons and whether at least some of the hardware has been siphoned off on the black market.

Regarding tracking the exact destination of where the aid ends up, Ukraine hasnt provided all the details. Understandably so, according to Heinz, given operational security concerns.

If it was the U.K. or the U.S. executing this type of conflict, we wouldnt be sharing that information with our allies and partners, Heinz said. We would try and be opaque about that.

But Heinz said he is confident the weapons are going where they are intended, citing Ukraines effectiveness in putting the various systems to use on the battlefield against the Russians.
A trio of American soldiers teamed up with Somali counterparts they were training to become first responders at a fiery plane crash Monday at the airport in the countrys capital.

The 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade soldiers, who are based at Fort Bragg, N.C., sprang into action when a Jubba Airlines jet crash-landed at Mogadishu International Airport at about 10:30 a.m.

No one was killed in the crash, Somali officials told Reuters. The flight had 36 people, and photos showed the burning plane upside down. The plane was a Fokker-50, according to The Washington Post.

The crash occurred just yards from where Sgt. 1st Class Caleb Vanvoorhis, Staff Sgt. JoAnna Baxter and Staff Sgt. Taylor Palmer were training with Danab commandos from the Somali military, said Maj. Cain Claxton, a spokesman for U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa.

The commandos pulled injured passengers from the aircraft, while the Americans established a triage station and helped evacuate 16 people for treatment, Claxton said.

Lt. Col. Sean Nolan, commander of the battalion, praised the soldiers agility, quick thinking and decisive action in response to the crash. There was no immediate information about the cause.

The three soldiers are part of a team that is working to train and support the Danab brigade, which is tasked with offensive operations against the al-Qaida-linked insurgent group al-Shabab.

SETAF-AF employs the 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade to train, advise and assist African partner militaries on ground force tactics, techniques and procedures. The soldiers were conducting medical training at the time of the crash.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Tribune News Service)  The USS Fort Lauderdale might not be here yet, but shes on her way.

The 684-foot vessel has a commissioning date with Fort Lauderdale to mark its entry into active service. An invitation-only commissioning ceremony is set for 10 a.m. on July 30.

On Monday morning, the ship will arrive at Port Everglades for a series of events leading up to the ceremony. An RSVP is required for most.

Built at a cost of $1.8 billion, the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship weighs more than 7,000 tons and sits about 12 stories above the water line. The vessel will eventually head to its home port in Norfolk, Va.

In keeping with tradition, the USS Fort Lauderdale has its own motto: Together We Fight.

Heres how you can help celebrate Fort Lauderdales namesake ship:

Exhibit and Lecture by Artist Marilyn Johansen.

When: Monday, July 25, Tuesday, July 26 and Wednesday, July 27.

Description: Internationally acclaimed artist Marilyn Johansen will discuss her personal salute to heroes in uniform, both past and present, with her latest exhibition honoring the military and celebrating the commissioning of the USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28).

Location: Port Everglades, Terminal 4

Please note: Tours of the ship will not be available at this event, although the ship will be easily visible from the terminal.

Patriotic Concert by South Florida Symphony

When: Tuesday, July 26

Time: 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.

Description: This free concert performed by musicians from the South Florida Symphony Orchestra will be one of the highlights of the weeks activities. The musical program will include rousing marches, toe-tapping Broadway and pop favorites, and inspiring patriotic anthems for the entire family.

Location: Port Everglades, Terminal 4

Lone Sailor Wreath Laying and Remembrance Ceremony

When: Thursday, July 28

Time: 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Description: Join Capt. James Quaresimo, Fort Lauderdale officials and other distinguished guests for a solemn Wreath Laying and Remembrance Ceremony at the Lone Sailor Statue on the Riverwalk in honor of the heroes of yesterday.

Location: Riverwalk at Esplanade Park, 400 SW Second Ave. in downtown Fort Lauderdale near the Broward Center for the Performing Arts

Virtual Ship Tour and Lecture/Q&A with the Crew

When: Thursday, July 28 and Friday, July 29

Time: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Description: Take a virtual ship tour of the USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28). Thanks to the latest high-definition video technology, Capt. James Quaresimo and the crew will welcome you aboard. You then will be guided through the Navys newest amphibious transport dock on two LED jumbotron screens. A live Q&A session with members of the crew will follow the virtual tour.

Location: Port Everglades, Terminal 4

Please note: In-person tours aboard the ship will not be available at this event, although the ship will be easily visible from the terminal.

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Visit sun-sentinel.com .

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Mounting numbers of new COVID-19 cases in Tokyo prompted the Air Forces airlift hub to issue public health advice on Tuesday. Meanwhile, infections are also on the rise for U.S. forces in South Korea.

Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo also raised its health protection condition to Bravo, indicating a moderate risk of contracting the coronavirus respiratory disease and an increased spread of the virus locally.

The base changed none of its COVID-19 guidelines but reminded its people of measures that protect them from the virus, according to an official Facebook post. U.S. Forces Japan in June loosened its mask policy to allow its population to do without them off-base except indoors, in crowded areas and on public transportation.

At this time, there is no change to current on-base mask wear or travel guidelines, Yokotas post said. Nevertheless, the increase in COVID-19 cases necessitates some change in behavior to ensure the health and safety of our people while maintaining our ability to complete the mission.

Tokyo reported 19,059 new cases on Friday, exceeding 10,000 new cases on one day for the first time since March, according to Tokyo Metropolitan statistics online. There were 11,018 new infections recorded Tuesday.

Please continue to stay cautious, maintain your awareness, and be proactive in exercising current [public health emergency] measures, Yokotas post said.

The base reminded people to stay home when sick, wash their hands frequently and maintain social distance when possible. The post also recommended booster shots and vaccinations for those who need them.

Approximately 61% of uniformed personnel at Yokota have received a COVID-19 booster, the base said.

USFJ no longer posts its COVID-19 case numbers online and Yokota did not respond to a request Tuesday for information about new infection numbers.

Japan and South Korea, home to more than 75,000 U.S. service members, as well as Defense Department civilians and their families, are experiencing another wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Japan on Sunday reported 105,538 new cases of COVID-19, exceeding the previous pandemic high of 104,345 on Feb. 3, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The center reported 37,114 new cases on Tuesday.

South Korea reported 76,402 new infections on Tuesday with numbers on the upswing, according to the Korea Disease Control Prevention Agency. KDCA reported 73,582 new cases on Monday and 40,266 cases on July 12.

U.S. Forces Korea, which has about 28,500 troops under its command, reported 380 new cases over seven days ending Tuesday, according to its website. Only seven cases were people who recently arrived in South Korea, according to USFK. During the previous week, the command counted 157 new cases.

South Korea reached a one-day pandemic high of 621,317 on March 16, according to Johns Hopkins.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare described the surge as a new phase and a doubling phenomenon, according to a statement Wednesday.

South Koreas government is taking steps to mitigate the spread by constructing around 3,500 additional one-stop treatment centers by July. The centers provide in-person care as well as testing for COVID-19 and dispensing antiviral drugs.

Health authorities cite the BA.5 omicron subvariant as the cause, according to media reports in both countries. In South Korea the BA.5 subvariant has spread much faster than expected, according to the health ministry.

The omicron variant caused the pandemic wave that started in December and while it created record numbers of new infections it caused fewer deaths and hospitalizations than previous waves.
NAHA, Okinawa  A teacher and a nurse with Defense Department schools on Okinawa were handed suspended sentences Wednesday for possessing and growing cannabis at their Japanese home.

John Gouldman, 59, a teacher at Kadena Middle School on Kadena Air Base, received 2  years for growing 32 cannabis plants at the couples home in Chatan, and for cannabis possession. Holly Gouldman, 57, a nurse at Kubasaki High School at Camp Foster, was sentenced to one year for possession.

Judge Hirononbo Ono of Naha District Court suspended their sentences for three years, meaning they remain free unless they commit another offense in Japan during that time.

Ono said the Gouldmans deep remorse influenced his decision.

No matter what country you are from, as long as you live in Japan, you must follow Japanese laws, he said.

Miranda Ferguson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense Education Activity, Pacific Region, in May said the couple were considered absent without leave but she could not comment further. She could not be reached Wednesday.

Japanese police arrested the couple May 17 at their home. In addition to the plants, police recovered more than 5 ounces of dried cannabis. The couple was indicted June 7 on cannabis possession and rearrested the next day on suspicion of growing cannabis. John Gouldman alone was indicted June 30 for growing the plant.

The two pleaded guilty July 12. John Gouldman in court said he grew cannabis to relieve shoulder pain and suggested his wife use it after she had knee surgery in September.

So far this year, the district court judges on Okinawa have suspended sentences for four Marines convicted of smuggling larger amounts of cannabis and other drugs onto Okinawa through military post offices. A fifth was sentenced Tuesday to six months, suspended, for a small amount of cannabis. Two others received two- and three-year terms with hard labor for drug smuggling.

Outside court Wednesday John Gouldman said his sentence was just but wanted the people of Japan to understand cannabis medicinal properties.

He said prescribed cannabis worked for him in the U.S. when other pharmaceutical drugs did not. The coronavirus pandemic made obtaining conventional medicine from U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa difficult, he said. At times he went without or took less effective medicine, he said.

Gouldman said Japanese prosecutors who in court on July 12 described cannabis users as addicted and hallucinated are wrong.

Japan needs to know the truth, he said.
BELLOWS AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii  While most of the troops participating in the Rim of the Pacific exercise in Hawaii headed out to sea drills last week, some soldiers and Marines have kept one foot on land.

This years RIMPAC is primarily centered on the 38 ships and four submarines taking part, but the massive exercise involving 25,000 personnel also includes troops from land forces from nine nations.

Media were invited on Monday to watch the first day of amphibious assault training by Australian soldiers and U.S. Marines at Bellows Air Force Base, which lies on the southeast tip of Oahu and is bounded on one side by a wide sandy beach.

Marines with the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion and Australian soldiers with 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, practiced helocasting over waters made exceedingly choppy by the remnants of a tropical cyclone grazing the state.

The drill included Australian soldiers launching inflatable F470 Zodiac dinghies from the beach into crashing waves. Once well away from shore, a Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter hovered near the inflatables as Marines disembarked during a series of sorties.

Battalion commander Lt. Col. Mark Tutton was unperturbed by the ocean churn.

The sea state here is actually not too bad, he told reporters while standing on the beach. Today is fine; it's well within limits. It's not risky at all. Its a routine training scenario.

Meanwhile, not far inland on the base, U.S. Marines and troops from Tonga, Malaysia, Australia and Sri Lanka were training for urban close combat in three faux villages.

It's really important because we don't have this kind of training environment back at home, said Lt. Filise Siale, who was leading a platoon from His Majestys Armed Forces Royal Tongan Marines. This is very complex for us to operate, especially for my platoon.

RIMPAC concludes on Aug. 4.

olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson
The United States One China policy has outlived its usefulness, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday in Taipei hours before another U.S. warship passed through the Taiwan Strait.

Leading a delegation from the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Atlantic Council, Esper met with Taiwanese President Ing-Wen Tsai on Tuesday. He called China the greatest challenge facing the democracies of the West and said he personally believed it was time to move away from strategic ambiguity.

The mere existence of a thriving democracy with a robust economy and a freedom-loving people is anathema to everything the Chinese Communist Party believes, Esper said. That is why that, in this era, it is important that the democracies of the West stand up and defend thriving democracies such as Taiwan against the bullying of your neighbor to the west.

President Joe Biden during a visit to Japan in May said the U.S. would help defend Taiwan militarily from an attack by China, a statement many interpreted as an end to strategic ambiguity, the notion of an unpredictable U.S. response.

Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province that must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. Under the One China policy, the U.S. acknowledges Beijings view that it has sovereignty over Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949, but considers Taiwans status unsettled.

If there's one issue that unites politicians in Washington, D.C., it is the view that China is a strategic challenge for our country, and that Taiwan is a good friend that we must support and defend, Esper said.

China responded to Espers comments the same day. Beijing firmly opposes any attempt to play the Taiwan Card or interfere with Chinas internal affairs, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lijian Zhao said at a media briefing.

The One China principle is the political foundation of China-US relations and an established international consensus, Zhao said.

Also Tuesday, the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold made a trip through the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from mainland China. The Benfold steamed south to north through the 110-mile-wide waterway and entered the East China Sea around 11 p.m. Tuesday, U.S. 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Nicholas Lingo told Stars and Stripes by email Wednesday.

The routine transit was not a response to any event, Lingo said.

The ships transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, 7th Fleet said in a Tuesday news release. The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows.

The Navy has sent a warship through the strait six times so far this year and roughly once a month over the past two years. Beijing typically condemns the trips but had said nothing about the Benfold as of Wednesday afternoon.

In May, the guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal made a similar trip, the first by a U.S. cruiser in two years. The Benfold last passed through the strait on July 28, 2021.

The Benfold made two demonstrations in the South China Sea prior to passing through the Taiwan Strait. It steamed past the Paracel Islands, about 200 miles south of Hainan, China, on July 13. Three days later it passed near the Spratly Islands, a cluster of islands 500 miles south of the Paracels.

Both island chains are claimed in full by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, and the freedom-of-navigation operations were meant to challenge unlawful restrictions imposed by the three countries, according to 7th Fleet.
Volcanic ash was a flight hazard for American airlifters who spent 10 days training with their Indonesian counterparts on the island of Java last month.

A pair of C-130J Super Hercules, along with a detachment of 70 U.S. airmen, mostly from the 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron of Yokota Air Base, Tokyo, were at Abdul Rachman Saleh Air Force Base, East Java province, Indonesia, June 15-25, according to Maj. Sean McKee, who commanded the group.

During the Cope West exercise, aircrew, mechanics and medical personnel practiced air drops alongside Indonesian crews flying C-130B and H-model Hercules aircraft, the 40-year-old pilot from Fayetteville, Ark., told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday.

Air routes linking the air base and three drop zones took pilots near Mount Bromo, an active, 7,641-foot volcano, McKee said.

We could see it when we were flying, he said. We had to watch out for volcanic ash and make sure we didnt fly within 50 miles of it. If ash goes into the engines, it would do severe damage.

Some of the airmen drove up to the volcano in an off-road vehicle and saw steam rising from its crater, McKee said.

Training focused on coordinating U.S. and Indonesian airlift operations, he said.

Members of the 320th Special Tactics Squadron from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, surveyed drop zones and provided weather information and clearance to aircraft from the ground during drops, McKee said.

The airlifters practiced taking off at different times and linking up as a four-plane formation before an air drop. They also dropped a small boat and bundles into a water drop zone, McKee said.

U.S. forces have responded to natural disasters in Indonesia in the past, including after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

I could easily see us return to Indonesia to help with a natural disaster or assist in a conflict, McKee said.

The U.S. has a longstanding interest in a relationship with Indonesias military, Ian Chong, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, told Stars and Stripes in an email Tuesday.

Indonesia sits astride the Indian and Pacific Oceans and covers the southern approach to the South China Sea, he said. So there has been longstanding U.S. interest to work more closely with Indonesia, and Washington has been constantly looking for ways to grow that relationship. Moreover, Indonesia is also a developing democracy and the most populous state in Southeast Asia.

Indonesian leaders are looking to increase leverage with major powers, which may give the U.S. an incentive to work harder to gain Indonesian support, Chong said.

The Indonesian air force will acquire its own C-130J Super Hercules aircraft later this year, McKee said.

Yokotas airlifters will be back in Indonesia next month for Garuda Shield, an exercise that will include Japanese and Indonesian paratroops, he said.
The European Union proposed that the bloc cut its natural gas consumption by 15% over the next eight months in a plan that would affect all households, power producers and industry.

The move reflects mounting concern that Russia will halt gas exports to the region in retaliation for sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine. A cutoff would threaten EU efforts to replenish stockpiles ahead of winter, potentially jeopardizing security of supply to key sectors and crippling the regions economy well into next year.

The EUs suggested demand reductions equate roughly to the annual gas consumption of France, though at this stage remain voluntary. Measures put forward by the European Commission on Wednesday include a mandatory trigger should the supply situation deteriorate significantly.

The European Union faces the risk of further gas-supply cuts from Russia due to the Kremlins weaponization of gas exports, the European Commission said in a statement. Taking action now can reduce both the risk and the costs for Europe in case of further or full disruption.

European gas prices rose Wednesday after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the major Nord Stream pipeline could return from maintenance at lower rates of flow unless a spat over a key piece of equipment is resolved. Curbs to Russian shipments have already affected 12 member states, and prompted Germany to raise its gas-risk alert to the second-highest level.

With persistent doubts over supply, the European Commission recommended gas-saving steps that include reducing heating and cooling, switching to other fuels and market-based measures.

Im confident we can master this Russian-engineered energy crisis by staying together, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday at a press briefing.

The commission is working under the assumption that Russia wont resume full deliveries via Nord Stream, which has been closed since earlier this month, Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Tuesday. Putin said later that day that if a pipeline part caught up in sanctions isnt returned to Russia, then the link will only work at 20% of capacity as soon as next week -- as thats when another part thats now in Russia needs to go for maintenance.

A halt of Russian gas supplies to the EU could potentially reduce its gross domestic product by as much as 1.5% if the winter is cold and the region fails to take preventive measures to save energy, the commission estimated. In the event of an average winter, a cutoff may lower GDP by between 0.6% and 1%.

In skittish European markets, the Stoxx 600 index dropped during the briefing, losing as much as 0.6%. European gas futures traded little changed as of 3:06 p.m. in Amsterdam, after earlier jumping 6.4%.

If member states act to meet demand-reduction targets, Putins attempt to manipulate us will fail, EU climate chief Frans Timmermans said at the press conference. Europe as a whole is under his attack. A strong European response is the only response.

A Russian gas cutoff in July would mean that EU stockpiles would be 65% to 71% full at the start of November, below the 80% target, the commission estimated. That indicates a gap of 30 billion cubic meters during the winter under normal weather conditions and continuously high liquefied natural gas supply, it said, warning that storage could empty out in several member states by next April.

Replenishing reserves next summer may also be challenging, with stockpiles in October 2023 potentially only reaching around half full, according to simulations run by the commission.

The plan unveiled on Wednesday goes in the right direction, according to Simone Tagliapietra, a researcher at the Bruegel think-tank in Brussels.

EU member states must now adopt the proposed gas demand-reduction targets and make comprehensive efforts to reduce demand wherever possible, he said. Governments must ask people to consume less and should have the courage to tell their citizens that Europe is in the midst of what possibly represents the greatest energy crisis in its history.

The proposed regulation on demand-reduction targets would grant the commission the right to declare a union-wide alert when theres substantial risk of a severe supply shortage or a demand spike.

The measure will need approval from member states, which the EUs executive arm may seek as soon as next week during an emergency meeting of energy ministers. A large group of countries opposes mandatory cuts, arguing that national governments already have emergency plans and will reduce demand regardless of whether they are obliged to by the EU, according to three diplomats familiar with the matter.
WASHINGTON  The United States will send four additional advanced rocket systems to Ukraine as Russias war on the country enters its sixth month, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday.

Later this week, we'll roll out our next [military aid] package of weapons and ammunition and equipment for Ukraine, he said. It will include four [High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems], which the Ukrainians have been using so effectively and have made such a difference on the battlefield.

The latest military aid will also include additional ammunition for the rocket systems and howitzers, the secretary said. Including this aid package, the U.S. has now pledged 16 advanced rocket systems for Ukraines war against invading Russian forces.

Austin made the announcement during the fourth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which was held virtually from the Pentagon. The group meets monthly bringing together some 50 nations to discuss what Ukraine needs to defend itself against Russia but also efforts to collaborate in their assistance.

The defense secretary called the meeting very productive, noting Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov "described how Russia is using  artillery and rocket fire and its desperate aggressive push to seize sovereign Ukrainian territory in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces are now using long-range rocket systems to great effect, including HIMARS provided by the United States and other systems from our allies and partners, Austin told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon after the meeting. "But Russia is keeping up its relentless shelling  that's a cruel tactic that harkens back to the horrors of WWI."

The U.S. has previously sent Ukraine 12 of the rocket systems, which Austin said has further strengthen[ed] Ukraines long-range fires capability. The systems can strike targets up to 43 miles away with 500-pound, precision-guided ammunition, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said last month.

Long-range fires have been particularly important since Russia shifted its focus three months ago to the Donbas region, where the landscape resembles the flat, rolling plains of Kansas, the Pentagon has said.

The ammunition for the rocket systems brings the additional benefit of precision, allowing Ukraine greater ability to strike key targets accurately, such as Russian arsenals, a senior defense official said last week.

If you think about the fact that the Ukrainians have been talking about the number of the targets [they] are hitting  like ammunition, supplies, other logistical supplies, command and control [centers,] all those things have a direct impact on [Russias] ability to conduct operations on the front line, said the defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

So far, about 200 Ukrainian troops have been trained to use the truck-mounted rocket systems, which their military previously did not use, Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during the briefing with Austin. Additional troops are now undergoing the weekslong training.

Today the Ukrainians are effectively employing these HIMARS with strikes against Russian command and control nodes, their logistical networks, their field artillery and air defense sites and many other targets, he said. These strikes are steadily degrading the Russian ability to supply their troops, command and control their forces and carry out their illegal war of aggression.

The rocket systems and ammunition announced Wednesday will come from U.S. stocks, Austin said. He did not mention the cost of the aid, but a similar package of four HIMARS and artillery rounds approved July 8 cost about $400 million.

The package announcement comes as Russia begins laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls in direct violation of Ukraine's sovereignty, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday at the White House. Russia is beginning to roll out a version of what you could call an annexation playbook very similar to the one we saw in 2014.

Russia has controlled the Crimean Peninsula in southern Ukraine since its last invasion of the country eight years ago. Now, Russian President Vladimir Putin is plotting to annex a number of regions in Ukraine, including Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, all of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, all of which are in eastern Ukraine, Kirby said.

Already, Russia is installing illegitimate proxy officials in areas of Ukraine that are under its control, and we know their next moves, he said. First, these proxy officials will arrange sham referenda on joining Russia. Then, Russia will use those sham referenda as a basis to try to claim annexation of sovereign Ukrainian territory.

As part of their plan, Russia is attempting to establish Russian bank branches in the Donbas region to establish the [Russian] ruble as the default currency in these areas, Kirby said.

While an annexation has not been announced, Kirby said Russian proxies in these territories claim they will take place later this year, possibly in conjunction with Russias September regional elections.

In response, the U.S. will continue to provide Ukraine with historic levels of security assistance, and the global community will levee additional sanctions on Russia, he said.

The latest military aid is the 16th time that the United States has sent weapons and equipment from its own stocks to supply Ukraine since August  the vast majority of which has been sent since Russias Feb. 24 invasion, according to the Pentagon.

Not included in the upcoming aid package are air defense systems, which Ukraines first lady Olena Zelenska pleaded with Congress on Wednesday to send them.

"I'm asking for weapons that would not be used to wage a war on somebody else's land, but to protect one's home and the right to wake up alive in that home, Zelenska said, becoming the first wife of a foreign president to address the full Congress in the Capitol. I'm asking for air defense systems in order for rockets not to kill children in their strollers."

The United States has provided about $7.3 billion in military aid since the start of the war, according to the Pentagon.
WASHINGTON  Ukraines first lady Olena Zelenska appealed to Congress on Wednesday for air defense systems, pleading for more weapons for her country to fend off Russias deadly attacks on civilians.

Zelenska made the request from the same auditorium in the U.S. Capitol where her husband Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared virtually in March. She stood in front of a rotating photo display of the wars many casualties and asked Congress not to think of her as a first lady, but as a daughter and mother.

Will my son be able to return to his school in the fall? I dont know, like millions of mothers in Ukraine. Will my daughter be able to go to university at the beginning of the year and experience more student life? I cannot answer, Zelenska said, speaking in Ukrainian. We would have answers if we had air defense systems.  Help us to stop this terror against Ukrainians.

Russia has launched more than 3,000 cruise missiles into Ukraine since invading in February, Zelenska said. But all it takes to destroy someones family is shrapnel, she said.

Zelenska highlighted several of the lives upended by Russian aggression. She showed images and a video of Liza Dmitrieva, a cheerful, playful, little rascal killed this month in a Russian strike on the city of Vinnytsia. Zelenska said she met the 4-year-old girl, who had Down syndrome, during the filming last year of a Christmas video.

The last photo of Liza showed the girls dead body lying next to her toppled stroller. In the next photo, a 5-year-old girl in southern Ukraine lay buried in rubble. Others were pictured, before the war killed or maimed.

Zelenska spoke of the 20 Ukrainians who died in a shopping mall, the journalist who died in a missile attack and of Andriy, a 3-year-old boy who survived a Russian bombing and is now learning to use a prosthetic in Germany.

How many children like him are there in Ukraine? How many families like this may still be destroyed by the war? she said. These are Russias Hunger Games, hunting for peaceful people in peaceful cities of Ukraine. They will never broadcast this on their news, thats why Im showing it to you here.

The first lady also spoke of a 96-year-old man who survived four Nazi concentration camps and died from Russian shelling and the family of policeman Oleh Fedko, whose father, mother, wife, 6-year-old daughter and 1-month-old son were shot while trying to evacuate in a car. Fedko told Zelenska that the adults died right away but the children cried for an hour and a half before succumbing to their wounds, she said.

The war is not over, the terror continues, and I appeal to all of you, on behalf of those who were killed, on behalf of those people who lost their arms and legs, on behalf of those who are still alive and well and those who want to come back from the front, Zelenska said, noting she was the first wife of a foreign leader to address Congress. Im asking you something now I would never want to ask: I am asking for weapons. Weapons that would not be used to wage a war on somebody elses land, but to protect one's home.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a combat veteran, said Zelenskas 15-minute speech was a grim reminder of the realities of Russia's unjustifiable war of choice.

We must continue supporting our Ukrainian allies and work together to hold [Russian President] Vladimir Putin accountable, she tweeted.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., praised Zelenskas strength and courage and said it should move all of us in Congress to keep our focus on helping the Ukrainian people fend off Russias brutality.

Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., watched Zelenska speak with a Ukrainian flag draped around his shoulders, later tweeting out emojis of the American and Ukrainian flags side by side.

Zelenskas visit to Capitol Hill coincided with the announcement Wednesday that the U.S. will give Ukraine four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems to help beat back Russian forces attempting to swallow up the eastern Donbas region. The U.S. also pledged this month that it will send Ukraine the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, which guards airspace over the White House and the Pentagon.

Zelenska thanked lawmakers for the continued support and said the U.S. stands united with Ukraine in the fight for human life and independence.

While Russia kills, America saves, she said.
WASHINGTON  Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough has approved the formation of a commission to search for candidates to fill the top job for the agencys benefits administration and named someone to serve in the position in the interim.

The Veterans Benefits Administrations undersecretary post has been vacant for almost two years. The job was held last officially by Paul Lawrence, who served in the role from May 2018 until January 2021. Thomas Murphy has served as the interim undersecretary since January 2021.

In the meantime, the VA announced Joshua Jacobs, a senior adviser to McDonough, will take over the duties as interim undersecretary for the Veterans Benefits Administration, effective July 25. Murphy will resume his previous duties as the director of the Veterans Benefits Administrations northeast district.

Terrence Hayes, the VA press secretary, said there is no timeline for finding and naming an undersecretary for benefits and the agency will provide more details on the search when there is more to announce.

In March, the White House nominated Ray Jefferson for undersecretary for Veterans Benefits Administration. Jefferson is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and served as an Army officer from 1988 to 1999, according to his LinkedIn profile. During his military service, Jefferson lost all five fingers on his left hand after he cupped a defective grenade to protect other soldiers.

After his service, Jefferson served various roles with state and federal government agencies, including as a special assistant to the Department of Commerce secretary, and deputy director for Hawaiis Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. In 2009, former President Barack Obama appointed Jefferson as the assistant secretary for Veterans Employment and Training at the Department of Labor.

However, in 2011, two subordinates accused Jefferson of procurement improprieties, such as directing government business to associates, according to a Washington Post report in 2020. The allegations forced Jefferson to resign.

But in September 2019, the Labor Department inspector general reversed the findings, exonerating Jefferson. Still, at a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing in April, Republican members questioned Jeffersons qualifications.

President Joe Biden withdrew Jeffersons nomination on July 11, according to the Congress website.

AMVETS, a national veterans nonprofit organization, said they applaud McDonoughs approval of the commission.

Its our hope that this rapidly and responsibly leads to the induction of much needed leadership in these key roles, AMVETS said in a prepared statement. While it is bad enough that VA has seen a revolving door of secretaries over the past few years, this department has also gone long stretches with no undersecretaries or other key department positions filled. We urge the secretary to encourage swift, prepense selections from this commission.

The Veterans Benefits Administration is not the only VA agency that is without a permanent leader. The top role at the agencys health care system has been vacant for more than five years.

The Veterans Health Administration undersecretary job was previously held by David Shulkin. Shulkin left the position in February 2017 after he was nominated by former President Donald Trump as the VA secretary.

In March, the White House named Shereef Elnahal as the nominee for the Veterans Health Administration undersecretary job. Elnahals nomination is pending, according to the Senate executive calendar.

Were not sure people understand the instability and uncertainty created from not having leadership in these key positions, AMVETS said. Without highly qualified people shaping and steering the vision and direction of the VA, lower-level employees are lost and the programs, initiatives, and resources that are supposed to be executed under these administrations come to a standstill.
In evidence, Det Sgt Kevin O'Hagan stated that after the two men had words before a physical altercation two took place with both ending up on the ground.

A successful target of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), John McCormack has narrowly avoided prison for his role in an altercation described by a judge as two grandads fighting over a baby.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Francis Comerford imposed a suspended 18 month sentence on John McCormack (50) of Purcell Park, Shannon after Mr McCormack pleaded guilty to affray and criminal damage at a Topaz service station in Shannon on March 7th 2019.

Judge Comerford stated that the case for imposing a suspended sentence on Mr McCormack was less clear cut than his co-accused Danny Harty (47) - who received a suspended 12 month prison term for affray - but that it would be an imbalance to also not suspend McCormacks sentence in full.

Judge Comerford said that Mr McCormack and Mr Harty of Inis Eagla, Shannon had met by chance when the two pulled into the forecourt of the Topaz station shortly before midday on March 7th 2019.

Judge Comerford said that this is about two grandads fighting where there was no premeditation and the incident was over very quickly.

John McCormack

In evidence, Det Sgt Kevin O'Hagan stated that after the two men had words before a physical altercation two took place with both ending up on the ground.

Det Sgt OHagan said that Harty managed to break free from McCormack before McCormack returned to his van and produced a metal rod and then proceeded to smash the windows of Mr Hartys Peugeot vehicle.

The Detective Sergeant stated that McCormack then drove away from the service station while Harty gave chase with a hurley in his hand.

Asked about the reason for the row, Det Sgt OHagan stated that Mr Hartys son and McCormacks daughter were in a relationship and had a baby together.

He said that the two had split up and it is alleged on one attempted visit by Mr Harty's son to the child, it led him to being involved in a physical confrontation with McCormack and he received a punch.

Det OHagan stated that this alleged incident was the subject of the initial verbal exchange between John McCormack and Danny Harty Snr on March 7th 2019.

John McCormack

Asked about Mr McCormacks background, Det OHagan said that McCormack has 28 previous convictions.

He said: "The most recent are going back quite a number of years and they are for minor matters. In the 1990s, Mr McCormack had quite a number of serious convictions but they are quite a long time ago.

Det OHagan said that in more recent years, he has had dealings with McCormack in a different court under the Proceeds of Crime Act where he has to forfeit properties under that Act by order in the High Court.

Counsel for Mr McCormack Des Hayes BL objected to this evidence being introduced.

He said: "They are not criminal allegations. They are prejudicial to McCormack and they could taint a judges view of him where there are no criminal convictions in relation to CAB matters before the court. As far as I understand they are matters that are still being dealt with.

However, counsel for the State, Lorcan Connolly BL stated that what was said was background evidence and the court does not operate in a vacuum.

Supreme Court refuses to hear Limerick criminal John McCormack's CAB appeal

Limerick criminal John McCormack packs his bags after CAB battle backfires

Judge Comerford noted that Mr McCormack has no conviction in the 2000s.

In the three judge Court of Appeal last year, McCormack failed in his bid to have a July 2020 High Court ruling that three houses in Co Clare and Limerick were bought with the proceeds of crime struck down.

As part of the Court of Appeal ruling, Mr Justice Brian Murray stated one detective sergeant told the court from confidential sources he knew Mr McCormack "to be one of the biggest suppliers of illegal drugs based in the mid west of Ireland and that, with others he had been responsible for the importation into Ireland of vast quantities of drugs since the late 1990s.

In July 2020 Mr Justice Alexander Owens in the High Court said he was satisfied that McCormack owns residences at Purcell Park, Shannon, and Cloontara West, both in Co Clare, and Claughan Fort in Co Limerick and that the acquisitions of the three properties were funded from the proceeds of crime.

At the circuit court Det Sgt OHagan said that some of McCormacks previous convictions include "quite serious charges of aggravated burglary and demanding money with menaces.

Mr Hayes said that 14 matters relate when McCormack was a juvenile and 14 offences are minor road traffic while 27 out of the 28 offences were dealt with at district court level.

Mr Hayes said that McCormacks parents are in their eighties and he cares for both parents together with his sister.

He said that McCormacks sister is the main carer of his parents but she doesn't drive so Mr McCormack transports his parents to and from hospital visits and when they need to get out and about.

Mr Hayes said that McCormack has been married for the last 15 years and he has five children and quite a number of grandchildren and in October 2020 a grandchild died of a cot death aged five weeks old.

Mr Hayes said that McCormack has a progressive work history and has worked as a carpenter and qualified in carpentry and electronic assembly.

He said that McCormack has no ill feelings towards Mr Harty and wishes to apologise to all the people in the forecourt that day.

He said that the March 2019 incident stems through family events and there have been no incidents since then.
Valentin Radu (34) was given a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence for money laundering

A man who avoided jail over money laundering in relation to the attempted theft of 743,000 has described himself as stupid and denied he is a member of an international organised crime gang.

Valentin Radu (34), who was given a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence for money laundering, told the Sunday World he was screwed over by a childhood friend who asked him to withdraw money from the pals account after 743,000 was transferred into it through an email interception fraud.

He claimed to the Sunday World that he was not a member of an organised crime gang and insisted he just a naive person who was taken advantage of by a friend.

Im stupid I cannot help [it], he told us. I have my fault anyway. I f***ed up, thats it. I made a mistake and need to realise that.

Radu, with an address at Warrenstown Place, Blanchardstown, Dublin, pleaded guilty to money laundering in relation to 1,500 which he withdrew from a friends account at AIB Clondalkin on November 11, 2020.

He claimed in court he withdrew the money from his friends account because he had a face mask and his friend did not.

Valentin Radu at his home in Blanchardstown. Pic Gary Ashe. 13/7/2022

Radu was not the account holder of this account but gardai believe he was in control of the account due to transactions such as tolls and mobile top-ups linked to him.

Radu told the Sunday World those things were coincidences and he did not have control of the account.

I used his phone number when someone rings and speaks English. In case you can ring him and theyre going to talk in English. He was with me in the car when I used the card to pay the tolls, he said.

In handing down a suspended sentence, Judge Martin Nolan said the State should have taken its courage in its hands in relation to charges against Radu and said he must infer gardai believe he was involved in the attempted theft of 743,000.

Radu said gardai believed he was part of an organised crime network operating in email fraud.

They said from the start you are organised crime. I was working for 11 an hour when they arrested me!

He said he got tied up in the crime through a friend from Romania who moved to Ireland and was living in Navan. He helped his friend get a job in a waste disposal firm in north Dublin.

11/7/22 Valentin Radu (34), of Warrenstown Place, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, leaving Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday (MON) after he received a suspended sentence. PIC: Collins Courts

Radu, who worked at the waste disposal firm, said he didnt have his own bank account at the time as he didnt have a passport, and claimed he had an arrangement with his friend to use his bank account to have his wages paid into.

He claimed that on the day of the money laundering offence his pal asked him to go into the bank in Clondalkin and withdraw 1,500 as he didnt have a face mask.

Asked why he didnt just let his friend borrow his face mask, he said: It is my fault using his card. I should have said here take my mask and go in.

The card was also used by Radu to make two further 250 withdrawals and an 89 purchase in a shop before it was frozen.

In court this week Garda Ciaran Ronan agreed with Luigi Rea BL, defending, that the other man has gone and has not been charged with anything.

Judge Nolan put it to Mr Rea that he must infer gardai believed Radu was involved in trying to steal more than 700,000.

Radu discovered after his friend had left the country that he had changed his address with his bank to Radus house in Blanchardstown.

I realised when I received the f***ing letter to the house because it came to this address. He didnt tell me that he put his address as here. He lived in Navan and opened a bank account there and then without letting me know he changed his address to my address. I got a bank statement and it said over 700,000 and [I] said how does he have this much money? He said he tried to contact his friend after seeing the statement but couldnt reach him.

Radu said gardai told him they had identified 16 people linked to the theft. Other than the 2,100 the rest of the money deposited into Radus friends account was recovered.

The same gang is believed to have been successful in withdrawing large sums from other accounts through similar frauds.

The fraudsters send an email to a business posing as another firm owed money by that business. They generally say they have changed their bank details and ask future payments be sent to that account but it is one linked to the fraudsters or a money mule working for them.
Judge Martin Nolan was told that the boy was born addicted to heroin, being the child of two serious drug addicts

A 13-year-old boy with a 1,000 a day drug addiction was one of a group of three who mugged and attempted to rob a group of teenagers.

The now 16-year-old, who is currently on remand in Oberstown awaiting trial, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm, production of a bicycle pump during the course of an assault, two robberies and two attempted robberies on October 20, 2019.

He has 24 previous convictions for offences including burglary and robbery which he carried out to feed a drug addiction that began when he was 12 years old. He was sentenced on Wednesday to 18 months detention.

Mark Lynam BL, defending, told Judge Martin Nolan that his client was born addicted to heroin, being the child of two serious drug addicts.

He was under the care of his grandmother and aunts and was doing well until he met his biological mother on the street when he was 12 years old. She self harmed in front of him and this incident led to him beginning to abuse both cocaine and tablets.

Mr Lynam said that by the time the boy was 13, he was spending 1,000 per day on drugs and committing crime to feed this addiction.

Judge Martin Nolan said the crimes committed involved violence and were very frightening for the teenage victims. He said he had no doubt that the accused was an active participant.

He sentenced him to 18 months detention which he backdated to January last year, when the teenager was first remanded in Oberstown pending this upcoming trial.

Garda Elaine Dodd told Michael Hourigan BL, prosecuting that the teenagers were gathered around Na Fianna GAA grounds in Drumcondra at 4pm that evening when they were approached by a group of three males.

One of the teenagers was struck by this accused with a bicycle pump on his temple and on his legs in an attempt to get the victim off his bicycle. The victim was left with bruising and swelling to his face, a black eye and bruising to his leg.

Photographs of his injuries were handed into court along with a medical report from Temple Street Childrens Hospital.

Another two teenagers had their phones robbed while the group tried to rob the phones of two other teenagers. The victims said that one of the muggers had mentioned that they had a knife with them.

This teenager was nominated as a suspect after one of the victims was able to give his name to gardai. He was arrested the following month and made admissions.

Mr Lynam asked Judge Nolan to accept that his client was not a person without hope and said his grandmother and aunts will support him when he is ultimately released from detention.

He is not necessarily destined for a life of crime, counsel submitted. He has insights and has expressed remorse.
James Flynn (31), originally from south Armagh, is accused of robbery at Lordship credit union near Dundalk, Co Louth

A businessman will be extradited back to Ireland in the coming weeks charged over an armed raid during which a garda was shot dead.

James Flynn (31), originally from south Armagh, is accused of robbery at Lordship credit union near Dundalk, Co Louth, in January 2013.

During the raid, detective garda Adrian Donohoe, who was on an armed cash escort, was shot and fatally wounded.

Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe

In 2020 Aaron Brady (32) was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum 40-year term.

The investigation continued after his conviction and last July, James Flynn was arrested in Watford on foot of an extradition warrant.

He has been in custody ever since while attempting to fight his removal from the UK.

In April, Westminster Magistrates Court ordered his extradition back to Ireland but this was appealed to the High Court.

Today this appeal was dismissed and James Flynn is due to be brought back to Ireland to be formally charged with the credit union robbery.

He is also facing charges of conspiracy to commit burglary in different counties between September 2012 and January 2013.

Aaron Brady

Flynn is expected to be returned to Ireland within the next 14 days and will then be brought before a court to be formally charged.

During the hearing in April, Flynns barrister argued that his client shouldnt be extradited citing the passage of time between the offence and his arrest.

The court was also told that James Flynn is suffering from memory loss and is unable to recall the events around the time of the credit union robbery.

Lawyers representing the Irish authorities argued that there was only a delay because of the complexity of the investigation which generated 6,000 lines of inquiry, 3,300 statements and 3,300 reports.

The major investigation also spanned lines of inquiry in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia and America.

A co-accused, Dundalk man Brendan Benny Treanor (33), is due to go on trial before the Special Criminal Court next year also charged with robbery and conspiracy to commit burglary.
Mr Butterly and his family owned the nightclub when fire broke out leading to 48 deaths

Families of the victims of the Stardust fire pictured before they attended their inquest at the RDS. Photo: Frank McGrath

Paul O'Higgins SC, who was opening Mr Butterly's challenge to the new inquests, said the jury should be told at the beginning that an investigation of unlawful killing "forms no part" of the process. The coroner does not enjoy "unfettered discretion" in relation to this under the Coroners Acts and the Constitution, he said.

Counsel said it was a fundamental requirement of any such investigation by the coroner that the jury be told as much as they can be about the context of the deaths but it must also be told an investigation of unlawful killing forms no part of it and it would be improper not to tell the jury that, he said.

Mr Butterly's lawyers say the "proposed targets of the claim of unlawful killing" put forward by lawyers for families of the deceased consisted of four named individuals and a company. He (Mr Butterly) appeared to be the "only living natural person" among those, it is claimed.

It meant he would be "clearly named for the killing by implication if he and other persons in this group were to be found guilty of unlawful killing in the course of these inquests", it is also argued.

The court heard Dublin District Coroner, Myra Cullinane, conducted pre-inquest hearings during which the question of whether a jury could reach a verdict of unlawful killing became an issue. She refused to rule out the question of a verdict of unlawful killing, it is claimed.

The setting up of new inquests came after then- Attorney General Seamus Woulfe, in 2019, directed they be held because there was an "insufficiency of inquiry as to how the deaths occurred, namely a failure to sufficiently consider those of the surrounding circumstances that concern the cause or causes of the fire".

Mr Butterly and his family owned the Artane, Dublin, nightclub when fire broke out leading to 48 deaths and 128 injured on the night of February 13/14, 1981.

There were a number of inquiries over the years including inquests in 1982 which recorded deaths in accordance with the medical evidence.

The families of the deceased have long campaigned for new inquests.

Mr Butterly brought his High Court proceedings following submissions to the coroner when she circulated a draft of "uncontroversial facts" last November, Mr O'Higgins said.

The case is against the coroner, the Minister for Justice and the Attorney General. The families of the 47 deceased represented before the Stardust Inquest, the Garda Commissioner, Dublin City Council and Patricia Kennedy, mother of Marie Kennedy, are notice parties in the case.

Phoenix Law, the solicitors representing most of the families, made submissions to the coroners November draft saying unlawful killing/unlawful death by gross criminal negligence should be considered in connection with all the circumstances of the fire including the management and conduct of the nightclub. It was also argued that primary evidence should be called at the inquest in relation to these issues, counsel said.

Mr O'Higgins said his side never suggested that the way the Stardust was managed, insofar as it is relevant, should not be considered. However, it did not follow that the question of unlawful killing should be considered and it was outside the Coroners Acts to do so, he said.

The coroner, following her own legal advice in response to the Phoenix Law submissions, "expressed dubiousness" about some of those submissions and that it was inappropriate to rule on it at this stage, he said.

Counsel also rejected a characterisation by Phoenix Law that he (Mr O'Higgins) had conceded in submissions on behalf of Mr Butterly to the coroner that an unlawful killing verdict could be given.

Mr OHiggins also said the families had been granted free legal aid for the inquests which his client did not object to but Mr Butterly should be entitled to the same aid.

The case continues before Mr Justice Charles Meenan.
Moore, of Highfield Estate, Newbridge, Co Kildare, denied obstructing a search and threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour.

Joseph Moore of Highfield Estate, Newbridge, Co Kildare, was charged with obstructing a drug search

Joseph Moore (57) also told the officer he would get him off duty and kill him when he violently struggled as he was arrested.

Moore, of Highfield Estate, Newbridge, Co Kildare, denied obstructing a search and threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour.

Finding him guilty, Judge Paula Murphy said Moores account was not plausible and gave him a one-month suspended sentence.

Dublin District Court heard a garda saw the accused in a suspected drug transaction in which he took an object from his mouth and handed it to a man at Wood Quay on September 21 last year.

The garda told Moore to open his mouth and saw what he believed to be two deals of crack cocaine.

When told to spit them out, Moore swallowed them and pushed the garda away before saying f**k you and refusing to reveal his identity.

He was arrested after a violent struggle in which he heavily resisted.

Moore gritted his teeth and shouted threats right in my face, the garda said.

I will get you off duty, I will kill you when these handcuffs come off, youre a scumbag, the accused had said, in view of members of the public.

Moore maintained he had been leaving an appointment in Dublin City Councils offices when the garda approached him, jumping off a bike and saying: Hey you, come here. He said the garda asked what was in his mouth and he replied: I have nothing but my dentures.

He denied using bad language and said the garda put handcuffs on him straight away. The garda said a common MO for drug dealers was to deal from the mouth.

Dentures dont resemble crack cocaine, the garda said.

Moore had been on methadone for 20 years, his lawyer told the court.
Notorious predator Heaney (59) has already served more than the equivalent sentence waiting for his case to progress

A prolific pimp who preyed on vulnerable women, coercing many of them into prostitution and forcing them to have unprotected sex with him and with a multitude of customers was handed a five-year sentence today.

However, with an order for the sentence to be served half in jail and half on licence, 59-year-old Martin Heaney will be set free within hours as he has already served more than the equivalent waiting for his case to progress.

Heaney is now subject to a Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Order which places numerous restrictions on the depraved pervert including where he lives, what work he does, who he can socialise with and what devices he can have such as mobile phones or laptops.

Martin Heaney

Jailing the Co. Down man at Craigavon Crown Court, sitting in Belfast and with several of the victims watching proceedings by video link, Judge Patrick Lynch QC said it was clear that Heaney was using women, many of whom were extremely vulnerable whether through young age, mental health difficulties, drug misuse or general deprivation.

Theyre often unfortunate members of our society that the defendant in essence preyed upon for the purpose of his own sexual gratification and for the purpose of making money, said the judge.

Martin Heaney

As long ago as last November former taxi and bus driver Heaney, with an address at Maypole Park in Dromore, but currently residing at HMP Maghaberry, entered guilty pleas to ten counts of controlling the prostitution of ten women in expectation of gain for yourself, ten counts of human trafficking females in that he arranged or facilitated the travel of ten women with a view to them being exploited and seven charges of voyeurism by recording another person doing a private act for the purpose of sexual gratification and knowing they did not consent to being recorded.

Heaney also admitted single counts of inciting a female to become a prostitute and acquiring criminal property namely cash and money transfers with all of the offences committed over more than eight years between 1 June 2011 and 30 September 2019.
His time in jail since 2011 for killing his mother in a frenzied knife attack, has been marked by several violent episodes and attacks on staff.

It took just three months before the man known as one of Irelands most violent prison inmates was back behind bars after his release last year.

Celyn Eadon (30), who has a brain injury from excessive drug taking as a teenager, appeared in court this week after launching an unprovoked attack on a support worker at his west Dublin apartment.

The assault last January came after his release the previous September when he went from being detained in the National Violence Reduction Unit in the Midlands Prison to living in an apartment.

He had been taken to an address in Dublins north inner-city by five prison officers on the day of his release such was fear of the danger he posed to the public, said sources.

His time in jail since 2011 for killing his mother in a frenzied knife attack, has been marked by several violent episodes and attacks on staff.

This week Eadon got another 16 months in prison after pleading guilty to an assault during which he punched the support worker a number of times.

They had been discussing the film 'Scream', which triggered a loss of control, it was heard in court.

Celyn Eadon

Eadon, who appeared by video-link, interrupted court proceedings a number of times to assert he only punched his support worker once.

He also interrupted during his manslaughter trial after his murder conviction had been quashed on appeal in 2019, repeatedly asking the judge: Whens my release date?

During another video-link hearing he called a prosecution barrister, a f**ing annoying b**tard and a f***ing a**hole before the link was cut.

Details of Eadons disturbed and violent behaviour while in prison emerged during various court hearings as he notched up more convictions.

He carried out 15 assaults including ten on prison staff.

During his time inside Eadon had been subject to what is known as barrier-handling in prison in which he is escorted by a control and restraint teams wearing body armour and helmets any time he had to leave his cell.

Initially jailed for life for the murder of his mother, in 2019 he won a Supreme Court appeal against the conviction and then pleaded guilty to manslaughter charge for which he got a 14-year-sentence.

During that hearing both the prosecution and defence expressed concern about where Eadon would live on his release.

The Probation Service previously said it was unable to provide the type of high-support accommodation he needed.

Sentencing judge Mr Justice Michael White said Eadon remains at risk of inflicting violence on the public and his violent temperament is an alarming factor.

At this weeks trial it emerged Eadon was assigned support workers to help him live independently and he was placed in accommodation provided by the Peter McVerry Trust.

The court heard this week that Eadon got on very well with his support worker, who was fond of him.

The support worker and a female colleague visited Eadon in his Ongar apartment and were discussing films when out of the blue Eadon attacked the support worker, punching him a number of times to the face.

When the other support worker shouted to Eadon, telling him who it was he was punching, he released the man immediately.

During his murder trial in 2014 it was heard how Eadon had begun taking drugs at an early age beginning with solvent sniffing at the age of 10.

By the time of his mothers death he was taking amphetamines, methamphetamines and cannabis along with prescription medication.

The court was told his mother had taken drugs from her sons bedroom and burnt them the evening before she died.
The 40-year-old Dutchman was sent to jail pending an ongoing investigation into the incident

A gunman suspected of shooting four revellers including an Irishman at a Costa del Sol club has been remanded in custody after appearing before a judge.

The 40-year-old Dutchman was sent to jail pending an ongoing investigation into the incident in the early hours of Monday morning at Opium Beach Club in Marbella.

A second man held with him was also remanded in prison following the behind-closed-doors court hearing.

Video shows panic in Spanish Nightclub as gunman opens fire

The unnamed Irishman, one of two people seriously injured, was left fighting for his life and was still in intensive care at Marbellas Costa del Sol Hospital yesterday.

The alleged gunman appeared before a judge at a duty court in Marbella after being released from hospital on Monday following treatment for stab wounds.

Another reveller at the club, who stabbed the Dutchman before he allegedly reacted by firing off a gun he had smuggled into a concert where a DJ was performing, is still on the run.

A court official confirmed today: A judge at Marbella Court of Instruction Number One, acting as a duty court, has remanded in custody the two people arrested over the incidents at Opium nightclub.

Both are being investigated on suspicion of the crimes of attempted homicide, wounding and illegal possession of firearms, one as the alleged author and the other as an accomplice.
David Sinopoli (68) was taken into custody and is currently being held in connection with the death of Lindy Sue Biechler (19)

David Sinopoli (68) was taken into custody on Sunday morning and is currently being held without bail in connection with the death of Lindy Sue Biechler (19) according to Pennsylvania authorities.

She was found fatally stabbed in her apartment in Lancaster County in December 1975, and a decades-long search for the suspect had stumped investigators.

It was not until researchers from a Virginia-based DNA analysis firm used a new technique to pinpoint Mr Sinpopoli as a possible suspect, in what The Washington Post reported was the United Statess longest unsolved cold case.

Mr Sinopoli was traced to Philadelphia International Airports Terminal A in February when detectives waited for him to discard a coffee cup into a bin, the Lancaster County district attorney told reporters on Monday.

That cup was retrieved by detectives and DNA analysis found a match with Mr Sinopolis fingerprints and DNA found on Biechlers underwear. He was then arrested on Sunday.

Speaking the day after his arrest, Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams said Parabon NanoLabs determined through DNA evidence that Biechlers killer probably had ancestors from the Italian town of Gasperina, in the southern Calabria region.

A researcher, CeCe Moore, flagged Mr Sinopoli as a person of interest after looking through newspaper archives and historical records. Ms Adams said he had lived in the same apartment block as Biechler.

This case was solved with the use of DNA and, specifically, DNA genealogy, Ms Adams said. And quite honestly, without that, I dont know that we would have ever solved it.

In the time between Biechlers murder and Mr Sinopolis arrest, the Lancaster County district attorney said as many as 300 people had been interviewed about her killing.

As did a special FBI task force set-up in 2000 also fail to identify a potential suspect in the case, Ms Adams said. DNA evidence was stored in a national database awaiting any future leads or breakthroughs in the case.

Genetic genealogy, the technique used to identify Mr Sinopoli, became a mainstream tool for law enforcement investigators following the arrest of a man known as the Golden State Killer in 2018.

The technique combines DNA testing with genealogical and historical records to establish any connections between individuals.

There were very few people living in Lancaster that were the right age, gender and had the right family tree, Ms Adams said of the investigation, adding: The arrest of David Sinopoli marks the beginning of the court process. And we hope that it brings some sense of relief to the victims loved ones and to the community, who for the past 46 years have had no answers.

Mr Sinopoli is now expected to go on trial. It was unclear if had a lawyer or had entered any plea.

Additional reporting by The Washington Post
Five Garda vehicles and a number of armed soldiers were spotted near Santry Park and a cordon was established at Schoolhouse Lane

A suspicious device that was discovered at an apartment block in Santry, North Dublin, yesterday evening was later found to be non-viable, it has emerged.

The bomb disposal squad rushed to the scene where the alarm was raised when gardai received reports of a device at Schoolhouse Lane.

Residents watched on as gardai and the squad moved in.

Five Garda vehicles and a number of armed soldiers were spotted near Santry Park and a cordon was established.

The Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit remained at the scene for some time.

A garda spokesman said: "Gardai received reports of a suspicious device in the Whitehall area of Dublin 9 on the evening of Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

"A cordon has been established and the Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Unit are currently at the scene.

The device was found to be nonviable after an examination by experts and the Garda cordon was lifted.

Enquiries are ongoing.
The proceedings related to a number of unproven theories and statements made by Ms Brennan in posts on the social media site in 2019 following the teenagers disappearance and death while on holiday in Malaysia.

A lawsuit taken by the parents of Nora Quoirin against a lawyer over Facebook posts about the disappearance of the tragic girl has been settled.

Retired solicitor Anne Brennan said that as part of the settlement she had given an undertaking to never to comment online again about the Quoirin family or the case.

The proceedings related to a number of unproven theories and statements made by Ms Brennan in posts on the social media site in 2019 following the teenagers disappearance and death while on holiday in Malaysia.

The claims are known to have upset Noras Belfast-born mother Meabh and French father Sebastien.

Facebook was also sued and that aspect of the proceedings has also been settled.

An agreed statement is due to be read out in the High Court by a legal representative for Facebook today at a hearing Noras parents are expected to attend.

Ms Brennan made a number of controversial posts on the social media platform.

Among other things, she was critical of the procedures adopted by police in Malaysia.

Her remarks were rejected by a senior police officer.

Ms Brennan said she had filed a defence in the case but the matter was now settled.

I am relieved it is over, she said.

I will never mention them or their case on social media ever again.

According to Ms Brennan, the settlement did not involve the payment of compensation on her part and each side will bear their own legal costs.

Vivienne Barror, a solicitor for the Quoirins, declined to comment.

Ms Brennan is a former partner in a Dublin law firm, and specialised in employment and equality law. She retired in 2014 due to an illness.

Remarks she made in relation to Noras disappearance were taken down by Facebook, which also suspended her account for 30 days.

A search was launched after Noras disappearance from her familys cottage at the Dusun eco-resort, 65kms south of Kuala Lumpur, on August 4, 2019. Her body was found on August 13 beside a small stream about 2.5km from the resort.

A post-mortem examination showed she succumbed to intestinal bleeding due to starvation and stress.

An inquest concluded Nora (15) died as a result of misadventure.

Police said there was no indication she had been abducted.

However, her parents challenged the ruling, dismissing the notion that their daughter, who was born with holoprosencephaly, a disorder which affects brain development, could walk off into the jungle alone at night.

A Malaysian judge later overturned the inquest verdict and changed it to an open ruling.
Yesterday an unnamed Government source leaked details of the proposal to limit families to one car, if agriculture emission targets are not met.

Yesterday an unnamed Government source leaked details of the proposal to limit families to one car, if agriculture emission targets are not met.

Mr Varadkar said the farming sector will be expected to reduce emissions by between 22pc and 30pc, which he argued is considerably less than other industries.

The least contribution were asking for from any sector is the agri-food sector, why is that? Because it is special, because we do recognise that is has to be treated differently, that it involves food production which is essentialand because farming and agriculture is a way of life, he said.

Mr Varadkar said the Government also accepts that farmers and the industry will need help to achieve the targets.

Speaking on The Last Word with Matt Cooper he said people can get hung up on numbers and percentages and more discussion is needed about how the targets can be achieved. He said there is "a lot of scaremongering around climate targets, and he does not agree with limiting the number of cars in each household.

I think its fairly harebrained and Im a member of the Government and Im not aware of any proposal to tell families that they cant have a second car. I dont know where it comes from, he said.

You dont either because it was somebody making an anonymous comment but unfortunately these things get legs sometimes. I think theres a lot of scaremongering at the moment around climate action. These targets are very ambitious, and we do have to do everything we can to achieve them but were not going to penalise and punish people if they cant be achieved.

If its the case that we cant reach our transport emissions targets, are we really going to say to people that we have to confiscate your car? Lets just say we cant reach our building emissions targets, are we going to say we have to close down your house and move in with somebody next door? Of course were not, and the same thing applies with agriculture.

Mr Varadkar said it is possible to turn climate action into economic opportunities but argued that a huge amount of investment is needed in the national grid, the ESB and in private companies.

He said the data centres of the future will have to be powered by renewable energy. He added that tech companies are keen to keep their data centres in the countries they operate in and admitted that the Government will have to prioritise the tech companies which have a genuine economic benefit for Ireland.

Regarding the rising cost of living, Mr Varadkar said there will be a number of one-off measures in the upcoming budget to help people who are struggling, including a minimum wage increase and a package to reduce income tax.

He defended the Governments policy of not taxing aviation fuel, however, saying as an island nation we depend on aviation.

Meanwhile, Mr Varadkar is due to become Taoiseach at the end of this year and he said the agreement was reached between the three Government parties and not the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party.

Mr Varadkar said he would not comment on the speculation that current Taoiseach Micheal Martin could lose the Fianna Fail leadership before the handover.

Its not an agreement between the leaders. So, if I were to cease to be the leader of Fine Gael for some reason, the agreement would still stand, he said.

The leadership of any party is a matter for that partyIve worked very closely with Micheal Martin the last couple of years. Weve got to know each other very well. I think hes doing an excellent job as Taoiseach. I respect him. I trust him. I look forward to working with him for the next few years.

The leadership of Fianna Fail is a matter for them, so of course I would seek to work with whoever the leader of Fianna Fail is, he added.
Plastic lasts for thousands of years and we already know that the planets seas are being choked from it. On a trip to Thailand three years ago I plucked a supermarket bag out of a lagoon, which seemed to have floated hundreds of miles there

Little did I realise that when I took a break to enjoy one of Dublins major beaches on what may be one of the last days of sunshine in the current heatwave that by proxy I would become a litter cleaner.

And take a look at the heap of junk I collected in the space of less than half an hour, which I could barely manage to carry to what seems to be the only bin at one end of the five-kilometre-long Dollymount strand.

During the height of lockdown, I used regularly walk up Clontarf promenade for exercise and on towards Dollymount strand, as they were within the designated five-kilometre radius of my home.

During good weather it proved to be a godsend, and in fairness the bins on Clontarf promenade were usually full of litter left by civic-minded people.

Yesterday around 4pm I decided to take a break from work and get a bus for a change to the pier which connects Clontarf to Dollymount strand on Bull island, to save time getting there. Id usually bring my dog on a walk near there, but it was too hot a day for that for him.

Given it was a workday and lots of people are holidaying elsewhere, there were just a couple of hundred people on the beach and not as many as Ive experienced before.

Initially I tried to catch a few rays with a bit of sunbathing, but fell foul of pesky flies constantly landing on me  the whole beach strangely seemed to be full of them.

With that I sauntered over to the waters edge and took off my trainers and socks and walked through the lukewarm water.

Dollymount litter

I noticed heaps of seaweed strewn all along the sand and then remembered a conversation I had with an elderly neighbour, who I meet when Im walking my dog in a local park most mornings. She told me she likes to feed some of her plants with seaweed, and that it is quite expensive. I told her on my last visit to Dollymount there was lots of seaweed (for free) and she said she might pop up sometime.

I had a small rucksack with a towel and a flask bottle of water, but I certainly wasnt going to put seaweed in that. I thought to myself it was a pity I didnt have a plastic bag, as I could fill some of it and bring it back to her.

A couple of minutes later what do I come across floating in the water but a large plastic Tesco bag. I dragged it out and then start to fill it with seaweed. Given all this green stuff was wet and mixed with sand, it became quite heavy.

As I walked further down the beach, I came across a plastic bottle. I said to myself Id pop it in the bag and bring it to the nearest bin.

But it didnt stop there. Next up I felt guilty that I was leaving a large piece of plastic, which was embedded into the sand, lying there so I decided to pull that out too and bring it with me.

A white trainer lay nearby, so I picked up that too and put it into the bag. A discarded crisp packet, a chocolate wrapper, even a flip flop. It went on and on. So much so I had to discriminate what to put into the bag, leaving paper behind and concentrating on plastic, as I was running out of room and it was getting heavier and heavier.

The thing I kept on thinking of was the thoughts of whales or dolphins and other sea life swallowing this type of material and thinking its food. Ive seen whales and dolphins in the wild, and they are majestic creatures, and then to hear how many of them die because of pollution is so infuriating, with horror tales of many of them being examined afterwards and found to have several plastic bags in their stomachs.

Plastic lasts for thousands of years and we already know that the planets seas are being choked from it. On a trip to Thailand three years ago I plucked a supermarket bag out of a lagoon, which seemed to have floated hundreds of miles there.

At first sight Dollymount does not seem to be a major litter black spot, and I wonder if its because of volunteers out picking up other peoples rubbish, as during my walk I noticed it was just the odd piece of junk here and there, but still an obvious problem.

But very more than likely thought the majority of the litter had been cleared by diligent city council workers  their colleagues in Fingal County council spent six hours clearing 10 tonnes of rubbish from Burrow beach in Sutton on Monday after the weekend. Other beaches throughout the country were similarly destroyed, leading to some politicians calling for zero tolerance on litter louts.

x

Last week I came across a man on Clontarf promenade with one of those metal litter pick- up devices, putting bits and pieces of garbage into a bag as he strolled along. Fair play to you, I exclaimed as I passed him by.

As I did a U-turn on my hour long walk I noticed no bins at all on the majority of the beach, or from what I could see. Ive heard reports that the local council tell people to bring their own rubbish home with them, but try telling that to many of those visiting this wonderful natural amenity. Yes, much of the litter there washes up from other places. But what riled me most yesterday was a group of people left three empty cans, two of them still standing in the sand, right near the water and were either too lazy to bring them home or else just didnt care.

When I went to primary school during the 1970s we had a class called Civics. During this lecture kids were taught the likes of patriotism, respect for elders and also how not be a litter bug. Those classes were phased out in the 1980s, which is shameful as many people are brought up with no respect for the environment or for others.

Another neighbour of mine once told me that 30 years or so ago there used to be a warden in Fairview Park who would go around and remonstrate with people who were littering. That seems to belong to a bygone age.

There are TV warnings about throwing gum on the ground and that you will get a 150 fine. Really? Ive never once seen a litter warden on any of our public streets, parks or beaches. Whatever about fly-tipping, there seems to be absolutely no punishment for litter louts who discard their junk without a care in the world on our paths and beaches.

The clean-up of Burrow Beach in Sutton today. Photo: Padraig O'Reilly

We have a green Minister for the Environment in the form of Eamon Ryan. Perhaps he should be taking a more proactive role to cease and desist the scourge of litter louts?

Anyway, back to Dollymount strand. When I got to the car park I thought there would be a few bins located in the vicinity, but eventually found just one near the exit, which looked more like a giant bottle bank, but had a sign encouraging people to leave their waste there. I dumped the junk I collected into its cavernous void.

There is no facility there to wash your hands or feet (Im pretty sure there is at Portmarnock, where there are also lots of bins on the promenade).

So, I then had to queue what seems to be the only toilet facility at the beach, which a unisex electronic WC which costs 30c to use (if you only have 1 or 2, or in my case 50c, it gives no change).

The reason I wanted to wash my hands was because I didnt bring sanitiser and given the current pandemic it was obviously wise to be hygienic, given I was picking up other peoples rubbish.

I know several people who regularly go out and do clean-ups of scenic and public places purely out of the goodness of their own hearts.

The likes of these worthy volunteers are the decent flip side of the coin, with the other being shameless and selfish people who care only about themselves. Its surely time to teach them a lesson, and a costly one at that.
Born June 29, Cairbre is clear of the congenital cardiac condition that has nearly killed Daithi  who had his first open-chest surgery at four days old

The five-year-old miracle boy has already been left overjoyed at having an upcoming law named after him, which will send the number of life-saving organ transplants soaring in Northern Ireland.

Keeping a smile on the tough tykes face is his 19-day-old brother Cairbre Frances Mac Gabhann.

Born June 29, Cairbre is clear of the congenital cardiac condition that has nearly killed Daithi  who had his first open-chest surgery at four days old.

Daithi with his little brother Cairbre this week

He also has to swallow a cocktail of drugs to stay alive and ends up having to be wheeled in a pram when he loses energy as he languishes on the heart transplant waiting list.

His west Belfast parents, Mairtin Mac Gabhann (32) and Seph Ni Mheallain (26), told the Sunday World they were petrified when doctors used a 20-week scan to check if unborn Cairbre would suffer the same incurable congenital heart defect that has repeatedly almost killed Daithi.

Ballymurphy-born Irish language teacher Mairtin added: As soon as I saw Daithis condition on the list of anomalies being checked for, I s**t myself. It was so scary.

The trauma kicked in and I was sweating buckets  it really frightened me.

He said about relief washing over the family when the five-month anomaly ultrasound came back clear: Thankfully it was all good. The new babys heart also did really well in a scan after he was born.

Hes been fine, and his arrival is making Daithi really happy.

Were at our caravan now on holiday after school stopped, and Im watching Daithi play, and hes living life to the fullest, like he always does.

Despite Cairbres arrival giving the family joy, there was a poignant side to his birth.

Mairtin and Seph found out they were expecting again weeks after Mairtins mum Frances Smith died aged 55 with kidney cancer.

The babys middle name is a tribute to her.

Mairtin added: As well as losing a mother and nanny, we lost one of the biggest campaigners for our fight to raise awareness about organ donation.

Daithi was born on October 21, 2016 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome  a potentially killer defect that means only half the organ works.

His parents have made global headlines since they started their tireless campaign to raise organ donation awareness amid Daithis health nightmare.

As a result of their battle  and their youngsters death-defying courage and upbeat attitude  Daithis Law will kick in from spring 2023.

It means all adults will be considered potential donors unless they opt out.

Health Minister Robin Swann announced earlier this year the name of the bill was in recognition the unrelenting commitment of Daithi and his parents.

He added: As a parent of a child with a congenital heart defect, I know only too well what drives them and what drove them to bring forward this legislation and the support that is necessary.

Daithi with Cairbre and his mum and dad and dad in Ballycastle, Co Antrim

Surgeons told Mairtin and Seph that Daithi had a 10 per cent chance of survival after his first open-heart surgery.

When they asked if the couple wanted to pull the plug on their struggling sons life support, Mairtin said the request prompted a miracle moment like you would see in films.

As soon as the surgeon offered us the option of withdrawing life support, Daithi opened his eyes, he added.

Its what I call his miracle moment. He looked directly at the surgeon, who turned to me and said, Your boy wants to live.

It didnt increase his chances of survival any, but that was when we knew we had a fighter on our hands.

Daithi soon suffered a stroke, was stricken with a bowel condition and had more open-heart surgery at 10 days old.

After spending the first five months of his life in intensive care, he improved.

Just after he turned one, he was hit by flu and examinations showed a leaky heart valve ruled him out of more life-saving surgeries.

He has been on the heart transplant waiting list since, and to stay alive he has to take daily doses of a painkiller, heart medication and pills to make him go to the toilet.

Daithi also recently beat Covid.

Even though Mairtin grew distressed watching his sports-obsessed lad grow lethargic as his oxygen levels plummeted, he knew he would pull through.

Daithis too much of a fighter to let something like that get him, after all hes been through, he said.

I look at him and all I see is resilience  hes just the strongest wee boy I know.

With all the medication hes on he probably feels like s**t every day, but he just gets up and gets on with it.

Mairtin admitted he has had therapy to deal with the phenomenal toll on his mental health of seeing his boy struggle.

He added he tries not to think about how it will take the death of another child to save Daithis life.

That used to get me down, but I cant control that, he said.

Organ donation is a very sensitive topic, and when we started the campaign I used to think about that.

But people pass away every day, and some of those people are children, and theres absolutely nothing I can do about that.

Although it is very sad  and I dont want anyone to die, and I dont want any children to die  it has got absolutely nothing to do with me and my family.

I had a consultant tell me, Other kids dying has nothing to do with you or your family  you are just raising awareness of organ donation when it happens.

Daithi is also asking difficult questions about his unrelenting health fight.

Mairtin said: He lives a pretty normal life, but when he has to be put in the pram at school when his energy levels run low, he asks why, and his mates are wondering.

Hes always asking when he will be able to take part in sport like them, and has to be told hes in the pram because his energy levels arent the same.

He knows whats going on  he knows he needs a new heart and knows his heart is different and is special, but those things are heartbreaking to hear.

Its possible he may have to use a wheelchair when he gets older, but I hope not.

Hopefully one day when he gets that new heart hell be able to do more.

But Daithi will have to get sicker to get better.

Mairtin said he isnt top of the transplant list as he appears to be improving with his medication regime.

Daithi also asked me the other day if he gets a new heart will he be able to stop taking his medication, and I had to tell him, No, it will be medication for the rest of your life.

If he was to get a new heart tomorrow, I would expect his quality of life to improve significantly.

But there is a shortage of organs in the UK, and they are going to those who need it most  children dying in hospitals, and they will get one before him.

The toll this takes on your mental health is phenomenal.

No one day is the same  it is a rollercoaster: you have your up, down and around days.

But were all in this together, and were keeping each other sane.

Nobody in the family is the rock  were all the rock at different times.
The ad for the smart watch featured a woman running alone at 2am

There were 27 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over the ad for the Samsung smart watch, which showed the woman running through the streets of London in the early hours by herself.

Some viewers, who noted the number of recent high profile cases where women had been attacked in similar circumstances, claimed it was irresponsible for encouraging unsafe behaviour.

The womens safety group Reclaim These Streets had described the campaign as tone deaf in light of the death of Ashling Murphy, who was killed after she went for a run in January.

The 23-year-old teachers death in Tullamore, Co Offaly, led to calls for attempts to tackle gender-based violence and the creation of the hashtag #shewasonarun as women shared stories about being harassed while out running.

Samsung apologised, as it acknowledged that the ads might have been perceived as insensitive by some viewers, particularly given the recent high-profile attacks on women at night.

However, the company said that while the ads were not intended to encourage women to go running at night, the unsafe element complained about related to the risk of predatory individuals attacking the woman shown in the ads and that running alone at night, of itself, did not present that risk.

They added that the victims of attacks who had chosen to run alone at night should never be blamed or judged for deciding to take the risk.

They added that they believed that a ruling that advertisers could not show individuals running alone might be perceived in that way.

Ad clearance agency Clearcast said it was concerned that upholding complaints about Samsungs ad could set a precedent for wider victim blaming, making it difficult to assess future ads.

In their finding, the ASA said: We recognised that some care would need to be taken when going for a run alone in the middle of the night, particularly for women, and we considered that people would be likely to realise that by doing so, they could be placed in a vulnerable position.

We noted that the woman shown in the ads appeared alert and aware of her surroundings, and was seen running in well-lit, main streets where other people were present. We considered, therefore, that the woman was not shown behaving recklessly or obviously placing herself in danger.

The watchdog added: We considered that running alone at night, of itself, was not likely to result in harm or injury. Whilst we acknowledged that an attack could happen, that was outside of a persons control and it could also happen in other, everyday scenarios and at all times of the day or night.

For those reasons, we concluded that the ads did not encourage an unsafe practice and were not irresponsible.

Samsung added: We were fully co-operative with the ASAs investigation into the recent Night Owls campaign.

The campaign was designed with a positive message in mind: to celebrate individuality and freedom to exercise at all hours.

It was never our intention to be insensitive to ongoing conversations around womens safety. As a global company with a diverse workforce, we apologise for how this may have been received.
Daisy said shes delighted to return to Ireland for the first time since filming Normal People alongside Paul Mescal.

Daisy Edgar-Jones arriving at the Irish gala screening of Where The Crawdads Sing in the Stella Cinema, Dublin. Photo: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland   Photocall Ireland

The 24-year-old was speaking at the premiere of her latest flick, Where the Crawdads Sing, which took place at The Stella Theatre on Tuesday night when she admitted that she couldnt wait to have a night out in Xico on Baggot Street.

I actually really like Xicos - the nightclub. For me, its one of the best nights out, she told the Irish Mirror.

Daisy said shes delighted to return to Ireland for the first time since filming Normal People alongside Paul Mescal.

Its crazy, its been two years now since I came here so it feels like that time has flown by so quickly, so to come back and Im staying very near to where I used to live when I worked here.

Even being back here, its kind of wild to be back because my time here is one of the most special experiences of my life, filming Normal People and I lived here for five months and I had just turned 21, it felt like my uni experience.

Its so cool to be promoting a different film in a place that I love so dearly.

She also opened up about adopting an Irish accent for the hit show, crediting the strong Irish sound on her mothers side of the family for helping her perfect the Connacht twang.

I think Im lucky because I grew up, I lived with my grandad for a number of years too, so I had a very strong Irish sound in my house, so my accent started to change in my teenage years, she said.

But I think for me with that accent, I listened a lot to Sally Rooney because shes from Mayo, its a very particular O sound that I wanted to get.
Generous McGregor flew out his pals and family to join him on the holiday party hotspot where he and his crew enjoyed a wild time in the sun

Knock Airport has revealed how Conor McGregor used their facility to fly out family and friends to his big birthday bash in Ibiza last week.

In a new social media post, the airport, officially called Ireland West Airport, shared a photo of some of McGregors crew as they awaited to board a jet on their way to the Balearic islands for McGregors 34th birthday celebrations.

They wrote: The airport facilitated a private flight on behalf of Conor McGregor Officia last week for his 34th birthday in Ibiza - family and friends flew out of the airport to join Conor McGregor Official for the proper celebrations.

Generous McGregor flew out his pals and family to join him on the holiday party hotspot where he and his crew enjoyed a wild time in the sun.

Yesterday, a clearly delighted Conor declared his love for them as he thanked them for helping him celebrate.

What a birthday ! What a party! What a crew! I love every one of you, thank you so much, he wrote alongside pictures of himself with fiancee Dee Devlin and pals.

The Notorious had jetted off to Spains party capital to mark the occasion with Dee, mother Margaret, sister Erin, and niece Taylor at the Destino Pacha Resort before continuing the party at Wayne Linekers famous O Beach club.

A professional photographer was on hand to capture memories as he celebrated turning 34 in style.

Conor McGregor celebrates his birthday

The bar was kitted out with McGregors Irish whiskey brand, Proper No Twelve, which was used to make signature cocktails Triocha A Ceathair and The Notorious for party guests.

And while the birthday boy seemed to enjoy his Ibiza celebrations, things turned sour when a fan threw a cap at him from across the venue.

A video clip of the incident that was shared online shows McGregors reaction to being hit with the hat.

The Dubliner appeared to be irritated at the hat thrower and responded with a sarcastic smile and thumbs up before taking the hat, throwing it on the ground, and stomping on it.

Elsewhere at the party, models strutted their stuff as they carried bottles of the liquor around the venue.

A massive birthday cake, embellished with his name in icing, as well as a UFC belt, depicted the fighter in the octagon cheering.

As sparklers were lit on the centrepiece, the Dubliner stripped off his shirt as the crowd sang Happy Birthday.

McGregor also had his luxury yachts brought out to Ibiza ahead of the birthday celebrations.

His 3.5 million Lamborghini Tecnomar 63  dubbed the Supercar of the Sea  joined him in the Balearic Islands for the party.

McGregor is believed to have packed out his yacht with up to 500,000 worth of customisation  mostly featuring his Proper Twelve branding, named after the whiskey he promotes.

He also owns a triple-deck super yacht with an inflatable water slide, a climbing wall, and a sea pool, which greeted him in Ibiza during the week.
There was a crew of over 30 filming it in Ireland with me for four days and it will be shown in 180 countries

Rob Mac (32) will be the focus of an hour long show on MTV tonight, which traces him from Limerick to tracking down the person in Dublin.

Geordie Shores Nathan Henry is one of the presenters of my episode, and hes accompanied by one of the permanent presenters of Catfish UK, Oobah Butler, Rob tells Sundayworld.com.

There was a crew of over 30 filming it in Ireland with me for four days and it will be shown in 180 countries.

Rob, who is an apprentice tattoo and piercing worker, explains the background to his involvement.

I had been chatting to a woman for the past two and half years, he reveals.

This person has been pretty elusive, pretty hard to track down, we dont whether they are the person behind the photos or whether its actually the real person that just isnt meeting for whatever reason.

Rob admits they did manage to track down the person.

Ive been told by MTV not to comment any further, you will just have to watch the show. he stresses.

Rob, who has over 80 tattoos on his body, previously appeared on dating shows First Dates and Pulling With My Parents.

He admitted failing to score with 75 women on Tinder dates but claimed to have once found love with a ghost.

Rob's bid to find a steady girlfriend came after his revelation that he lost his virginity to a ghost at the age of 16.

"As a kid I was always susceptible to paranormal entities and I used to see a lot of ghosts growing up," he once recalled.

"They are white silhouettes, I've seen them walk through doors. I'd wake up and they'd be sitting at the end of my bed.

"I remember my mum was sick at one point and I walked in and there was a ghost rubbing her feet and looking at her really empathetically."

He added: "I had a romantic connection with a ghost called Molly while living there and she was just very nurturing," he maintains.

MTV's Catfish presenters

Lately he confirms he has been dating regular girls on and off.

To be honest after this whole catfish experience, I have been kind of taking a break, he confesses.

With Covid, this connection I had with someone was going on for two-and-half years, pretty much from the start of Covid.

"For a long duration we couldnt actually meet anyway.

By the time restrictions had lifted, things had kind of got a bit funny.

Former IT worker Rob also admits that rapper Machine Gun Kellys music helped save my life during lockdown as he was in the darkest places of my life, and without his album Tickets to my downfall, I dont know if Id still be here, I owe him so much.

There has been a lot of soul searching going on for the last couple of years and now I am on the path doing what I want in my life, he notes. There are a couple of TV offers I have put a pause on to.
One in five people are waiting more than six hours to be seen at Tauranga and Whakatane Hospital emergency departments.

Ministry of Health data shows 78 per cent of patients that presented to a Bay of Plenty District Health Board emergency department between January and March this year were seen within six hours.

This is down from 84.4 per cent for the same quarter in 2021 and 86.7 per cent in 2020.

From July to September 2021 81.5 per cent of patients were seen within six hours and from October to December the figure was 79.7 per cent.

The ministrys target is 95 per cent of patients will be admitted, discharged or transferred from an emergency department within six hours.

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller told Local Democracy Reporting the data talks to a health system that's under extreme stress.

When we talk health system, what we are meaning of course is doctors and nurses and health workers, he says.

The people in our community who are in the hospitals are trying to do the best they can, but under really, really difficult circumstances.

The target is that you are seen within six hours and for a lot of people sitting in a waiting room [or] emergency department for six hours is a hell of a long time.

That target we're missing by miles, with one in five locals having to wait significantly longer than that, says Muller.

When ED waiting times are unbearable, people simply leave  sometimes with tragic consequences.

He says he has heard from people accessing healthcare as well as healthcare workers that the stress on the system is impacting the quality of care given.

The stories I'm hearing from individuals who are going through the hospital, they have so much respect for the nurses and the health workers, but the nurses appear just broken with the weight of what they have to do.

They've been in this sort of crisis mode for a couple of years now, if not longer.

We saw this coming, this is the frustrating part, says Muller.

Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand Bay of Plenty chief medical officer Dr Kate Grimwade says Omicron, new Covid-19 sub-variants, influenza and other respiratory illnesses are impacting the levels of demand the hospitals are currently facing and the levels of sickness within staff.

Both emergency departments (EDs) have been busy for many months. This has fluctuated with the Covid situation but there has been a steady increase in ED use year on year, says Grimwade.

The current pressure is due to a combination of factors, which include increasing patient numbers presenting in general and challenges such as managing different requirements for patients around Covid risk.

People presenting at ED are seen on the basis of clinical need, with the most seriously ill seen first.

If you do need emergency care however you should know that the ED services are there for you and attend, she assures.

Grimwade says all ages are experiencing more significant respiratory illnesses this season because of the measures taken to mitigate Covid risk in the past two years.

In addition, having prepared themselves for Covid infection, people have a higher level of anxiety around respiratory illness and may be seeking care differently to pre-Covid flu seasons.

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller says the health system wis in "crisis mode". File photo: SunLive.

Muller is critical of the recent health reforms that saw the countrys 20 district health boards disestablished and management of the health system handed to Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand.

We did have a period of time where we got through the first wave of Covid and we were promised that more resources would go into the health system to ready it for the next wave and the flu wave and it just simply hasn't happened.

All that's happened is a huge amount of money and focus on restructuring governance and putting hundreds of more people down in Wellington, he says.

There's not enough people on the front line. We're 4,000 nurses short.

The Minister of Health urgently needs to refocus the $486 million being spent on health reforms towards relieving pressure in EDs.

The Ministry of Health was asked to respond to Mullers call to redirect the money to emergency departments.

A Health New Zealand spokesperson did not respond directly to the question but says the organisation is closely monitoring the pressures across the health care system.

We know services are finding this winter challenging and we are working with regions and districts to implement a range of initiatives.

These include hospitals coordinating planning to ensure resources were deployed and shared to support access to care where it is needed, making it easier for GPs, ambulance services and Healthline to make direct referrals to radiology.

As well as expanding telehealth to alleviate pressures on ED and extending opening hours for urgent care into evenings and weekends, where there was capacity to do so, so more people could access the care they needed.

The spokesperson says during the past two weeks, there had been a significant increase in Covid-19 cases, on top of other respiratory illnesses  resulting in a larger proportion of the population and health workforce unwell.

While this isnt unexpected in winter, we are seeing its impact earlier than usual with more cases presenting to our emergency departments, general practices, and medical centres.

Over the past two months, for instance, some EDs have been experiencing higher presentation volumes, between 21,000 and 23,000 presentations per week  however, this rate of ED presentations nationally is still in line with rates seen in recent years.

Local Democracy Reporting asked Health New Zealand Bay of Plenty for the average wait times at the Tauranga and Whakatane Hospitals for the last quarter and the last two years but this was referred to an Official Information Request that can take up to 20 working days.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.
Bay of Plenty

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High temperatures in Southwest Oklahoma, according to the National Weather Service and Oklahoma Mesonet:

Lawton, 114 degrees.

Hollis, 114 degrees.

Grandfield, 113 degrees.

Altus, 112 degrees.

Hollis, 112 degrees.

Walters, 112 degrees.

Duncan, 110 degrees.

Medicine Park, 110 degrees.

Hobart, 110 degrees.

Southwest Oklahoma remains under an excessive heat and red-flag fire weather warning through Monday with a few thunderstorms possible Wednesday afternoon/evening and again on Thursday.
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Day 3: Driving the EQS



The drive was starting right from the hotel. Two hours later, all cars met up for a lunch break, and then continued driving and returned back to the hotel after another two hours driving. This time, I had the gleaming black EQS to drive (more on the pain of black colour later). This is the car that will soon be manufactured and launched in India, and a significant step for Mercedes India when it comes to their EV roadmap. As I mentioned earlier, this is just a sneak peek. A full review will follow when the car gets launched in India. I must admit that I got so engrossed in driving this beauty that stopping for pictures was not an easy task



Introduction

The EQS probably is the most important electric model for Mercedes to date. It is packed with technology that we may see trickling down to the lower models in the near future. Its claimed operating range of 770 km (WLTP) will be the highest for any EV launched in India so far. From my brief stint, I felt that the EQS has all the opulence and comfort of the S-Class, with the sheer power/acceleration that comes with the electric motors. It will easily take more than a day to run through the features available in the EQS. I finished the day mighty impressed with the car. The EQS is based on the Mercedes EVA2 platform and shares its underpinnings with the likes of the slightly smaller EQE.



Feature summary

Unlike the EQB, its an entirely new world inside the EQS. The large MBUX Hyperscreen, which Mercedes calls the brain and nervous system of the car, takes the center stage. All the information and controls are accessible through this one large dashboard with three screens. Even the front passenger gets his/her own screen. Comfort features are in abundance here. The seats offer all kinds of adjustments and features expected (cooling, ventilation, recline/adjustments for all seats, memory functions for the front seats, etc.). The rear passengers get their own screens as well. Navigation with head-up display and augmented reality/real-time traffic signal view, ambient lighting, wired and wireless charging, continuous LED DRLs, full-length red lightbar at the rear, rear-wheel steering, adaptive suspension that watches the road ahead for bumps, park assist, lane assist, 360-degree camera, DC fast charging of 10-80% in just around 30 mins - the feature list just goes on and on. The head-up display, especially with all the relevant information, is extremely useful as I found the sci-fi hyperscreen a bit distracting at times.



With a length of 5,216 mm, width of 1,926 mm and a wheelbase of 3,210 mm, the car is huge, and interior space is in abundance. The notchback style boot offers massive storage of 610 liters (1,770 liters with rear seats folded down). The front end features the familiar Mercedes EV face, but the embedded 3-point star patterns add to the visual appeal. The massive bonnet is sealed and there is no frunk here. The car is like one curve line running from front to rear. The coupe-like roofline doesnt restrict the rear headspace and gives the car a nice proportionate look. The car I got had black exteriors and the sunlight glare was too much in the German summer. The abundance of shiny black surfaces inside ensured that every bit of dust was well-highlighted. I am a big fan of black interiors, but for the EQS, I feel, lighter-colored interiors will work better.



On the move

What I got here was the fully loaded twin-motor EQS 580 4Matic variant with a battery capacity of 107.8 kWh and a range of 770 km (WLTP). Theres also a single motor RWD variant EQS 450+ on offer. Press the start-stop button on the center console, and the car comes alive dramatically with the massive dashboard lighting up. There is eerie silence inside the cabin, and it remains like that throughout the drive. A slight dab on the accelerator and the car is ready to fly. It's lightning-quick with 500+ bhp on tap and 0-100 km/h comes in 4.1 seconds (claimed). I did not time the run, but can clearly say that it goes from standstill to 3-digit speeds in a jiffy. According to Mercedes, the EQS is the world's most aerodynamic production vehicle with a drag coefficient of just 0.20. For a car that weighs over 2,000 kg, the acceleration is just unreal. It was really hard to stay within the speed limits on the German highways and the head-up display that constantly displays the current speed limit was a real boon. Regen braking was also very useful to shed speed on the highways.



The car was running on big 21-inch tyres but the ride was super plush, just what you would expect from a luxury limousine. The adaptive suspension ensured that any minor aberrations on the German country roads were smoothened out. The steering is direct and easy, which makes the car feel like a small hatchback to drive. It feels pretty agile going around corners. But dont let that small car feel fool you; though the weight of the car is well-disguised, the large dimensions can be a bit daunting on narrow roads. It is big enough to fill up a whole lane, with negligible space to spare. In the city streets, I was driving the car in Comfort mode, and on the highways and winding sections (the route chosen by Mercedes had them in abundance), it was Sport mode by default. The chosen route for the afternoon apparently had sections of Autobahn with no speed limit, but somehow I missed that due to the construction work/road diversions on the way. Nevertheless, being alone in the car really helped as there was no audience to control my ecstatic loud laughs . There was a very non-intrusive fake engine noise played through the speakers, and I actually liked it. The noise insulation is top-notch. Wind and tyre noise are well-contained.



Imposing yet elegant face:









Coupe-like profile:





An array of 3-point stars on the front grille plate:





EQS badging at the base of the A-Pillar:





Door handles pop out when you get closer to the car (with the key in your pocket):





21-inch wheels shod with 265/40 section tyres. The alloy wheel design looks good:





Frameless doors look great:





Charging socket:









Panoramic sunroof:





Press the logo to open the boot:





Wide notchback boot:









A closer look at the boot:





Buttons to close/adjust the boot opening height:





Storage for charging cables and accessories:

The drive was starting right from the hotel. Two hours later, all cars met up for a lunch break, and then continued driving and returned back to the hotel after another two hours driving. This time, I had the gleaming black EQS to drive (more on the pain of black colour later). This is the car that will soon be manufactured and launched in India, and a significant step for Mercedes India when it comes to their EV roadmap. As I mentioned earlier, this is just a sneak peek. A full review will follow when the car gets launched in India. I must admit that I got so engrossed in driving this beauty that stopping for pictures was not an easy taskThe EQS probably is the most important electric model for Mercedes to date. It is packed with technology that we may see trickling down to the lower models in the near future. Its claimed operating range of 770 km (WLTP) will be the highest for any EV launched in India so far. From my brief stint, I felt that the EQS has all the opulence and comfort of the S-Class, with the sheer power/acceleration that comes with the electric motors. It will easily take more than a day to run through the features available in the EQS. I finished the day mighty impressed with the car. The EQS is based on the Mercedes EVA2 platform and shares its underpinnings with the likes of the slightly smaller EQE.Unlike the EQB, its an entirely new world inside the EQS. The large MBUX Hyperscreen, which Mercedes calls the brain and nervous system of the car, takes the center stage. All the information and controls are accessible through this one large dashboard with three screens. Even the front passenger gets his/her own screen. Comfort features are in abundance here. The seats offer all kinds of adjustments and features expected (cooling, ventilation, recline/adjustments for all seats, memory functions for the front seats, etc.). The rear passengers get their own screens as well. Navigation with head-up display and augmented reality/real-time traffic signal view, ambient lighting, wired and wireless charging, continuous LED DRLs, full-length red lightbar at the rear, rear-wheel steering, adaptive suspension that watches the road ahead for bumps, park assist, lane assist, 360-degree camera, DC fast charging of 10-80% in just around 30 mins - the feature list just goes on and on. The head-up display, especially with all the relevant information, is extremely useful as I found the sci-fi hyperscreen a bit distracting at times.With a length of 5,216 mm, width of 1,926 mm and a wheelbase of 3,210 mm, the car is huge, and interior space is in abundance. The notchback style boot offers massive storage of 610 liters (1,770 liters with rear seats folded down). The front end features the familiar Mercedes EV face, but the embedded 3-point star patterns add to the visual appeal. The massive bonnet is sealed and there is no frunk here. The car is like one curve line running from front to rear. The coupe-like roofline doesnt restrict the rear headspace and gives the car a nice proportionate look. The car I got had black exteriors and the sunlight glare was too much in the German summer. The abundance of shiny black surfaces inside ensured that every bit of dust was well-highlighted. I am a big fan of black interiors, but for the EQS, I feel, lighter-colored interiors will work better.What I got here was the fully loaded twin-motor EQS 580 4Matic variant with a battery capacity of 107.8 kWh and a range of 770 km (WLTP). Theres also a single motor RWD variant EQS 450+ on offer. Press the start-stop button on the center console, and the car comes alive dramatically with the massive dashboard lighting up. There is eerie silence inside the cabin, and it remains like that throughout the drive. A slight dab on the accelerator and the car is ready to fly. It's lightning-quick with 500+ bhp on tap and 0-100 km/h comes in 4.1 seconds (claimed). I did not time the run, but can clearly say that it goes from standstill to 3-digit speeds in a jiffy. According to Mercedes, the EQS is the world's most aerodynamic production vehicle with a drag coefficient of just 0.20. For a car that weighs over 2,000 kg, the acceleration is just unreal. It was really hard to stay within the speed limits on the German highways and the head-up display that constantly displays the current speed limit was a real boon. Regen braking was also very useful to shed speed on the highways.The car was running on big 21-inch tyres but the ride was super plush, just what you would expect from a luxury limousine. The adaptive suspension ensured that any minor aberrations on the German country roads were smoothened out. The steering is direct and easy, which makes the car feel like a small hatchback to drive. It feels pretty agile going around corners. But dont let that small car feel fool you; though the weight of the car is well-disguised, the large dimensions can be a bit daunting on narrow roads. It is big enough to fill up a whole lane, with negligible space to spare. In the city streets, I was driving the car in Comfort mode, and on the highways and winding sections (the route chosen by Mercedes had them in abundance), it was Sport mode by default. The chosen route for the afternoon apparently had sections of Autobahn with no speed limit, but somehow I missed that due to the construction work/road diversions on the way. Nevertheless, being alone in the car really helped as there was no audience to control my ecstatic loud laughs. There was a very non-intrusive fake engine noise played through the speakers, and I actually liked it. The noise insulation is top-notch. Wind and tyre noise are well-contained.Imposing yet elegant face:Coupe-like profile:An array of 3-point stars on the front grille plate:EQS badging at the base of the A-Pillar:Door handles pop out when you get closer to the car (with the key in your pocket):21-inch wheels shod with 265/40 section tyres. The alloy wheel design looks good:Frameless doors look great:Charging socket:Panoramic sunroof:Press the logo to open the boot:Wide notchback boot:A closer look at the boot:Buttons to close/adjust the boot opening height:Storage for charging cables and accessories: Last edited by Aditya : 19th July 2022 at 09:51 .
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Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 11,157 Thanked: 11,186 Times

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Washington Photoblog | Snoqualmie Falls, Washington Prologue



Its been around a year that we moved to Seattle, Washington from Detroit, Michigan after spending ~ 4 glorious years in Michigan.



I have too many passion and I end up not doing justice to any of them as it's just too much to handle...lol.



Well, a partial list of passion looks something like this-Cars, Bikes, Food, Drinks, Amateur Photography, Cooking, Outdoors, Traveling, Socializing, Meeting new people.



Some new ones that recently got added is Biking (Cycling), Hiking and Gardening.



The easiest passion from the above list is to take the car out and go to beautiful locations here in Washington as the number of places that is to be seen in Washington is too many and best part is most of them are in 50 miles to 75 miles range so even half a day is more than enough to enjoy the beautiful outdoors.



Taking a step back, Michigan was an extremely beautiful state from an outdoors perspective and primarily due to the Great Lakes (Largest Fresh water lakes in the world. Here is a link for you to read about them and know why they are really called as Great Lakes)



More Info :



I ensured during my stay that I visited and experienced each and every one of 5 Great Lakes and I feel fortunate to do so. Its a surreal feeling being on these lakes.



Professionally, during my initial career days, I use to be part of an organization that use to map the Great Lakes and I never knew that one day in my life, I would be living in that state. I also covered every inch of state of Michigan and also drove along both sides of the lake coast.



Biggest downside in Michigan- You need to drive a minimum of 150 miles-500 miles (Yup, you are still in state of Michigan as its a huge state) to visit the beautiful destinations from Detroit.



Many stories and pictures to share. Perhaps through travelogues in future.



For now, just sharing one picture when we did a road trip covering entire coast of Lake Michigan. It was a glorious road trip covering Lake Michigan (These lakes do not feel like lakes, they feel like OCEAN)







In contrast, Washington state's all beautiful locations can be covered if you travel a range between 50 miles-200 miles which makes it much more lucrative from a distance and convenience perspective.



While Michigans beauty is predominantly due to Great Lakes, Washington is at a whole another level from a scenic outdoors and beauty perspective.



This state has perfect combination of Mountains, Lakes, Tall Trees, Greenery (Due to 200 days of rain that we receive each year). and scenic locations to visit are plentiful.



As an example- A couple of close pals were visiting me in Seattle during the July 4th, 2022 weekend and they were awestruck with beauty of Pacific North-West (Popularly known as PNW) which covers the states of Washington and Oregon.



They were here only for 4-days and I tried to cram as much as I can in this short period but, could not do justice as we hardly scratched the surface.



A sincere advice to anyone traveling to Seattle would need a minimum of couple of weeks to cover the major places. If you are an outdoor lover, then even more time is required as the places to enjoy outdoor is endless as Washington is an outdoor lovers paradise.



I plan to share a series of photoblogs as and when I get time (hopefully at least 1-2 in a month) so you can enjoy Washington virtually.



As its just a year that we moved here, we visited and explored just a few places. I will be keeping the content to the minimum in each blog and let the pictures speak for itself.



With that said, lets start the first photoblog which is synonymous with Washington.



Snoqualmie Falls







https://youtu.be/tsEJ7KOWWes Its been around a year that we moved to Seattle, Washington from Detroit, Michigan after spending ~ 4 glorious years in Michigan.I have too many passion and I end up not doing justice to any of them as it's just too much to handle...lol.Well, a partial list of passion looks something like this-Cars, Bikes, Food, Drinks, Amateur Photography, Cooking, Outdoors, Traveling, Socializing, Meeting new people.Some new ones that recently got added is Biking (Cycling), Hiking and Gardening.The easiest passion from the above list is to take the car out and go to beautiful locations here in Washington as the number of places that is to be seen in Washington is too many and best part is most of them are in 50 miles to 75 miles range so even half a day is more than enough to enjoy the beautiful outdoors.Taking a step back, Michigan was an extremely beautiful state from an outdoors perspective and primarily due to the(Largest Fresh water lakes in the world. Here is a link for you to read about them and know why they are really called as Great Lakes)More Info : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes I ensured during my stay that I visited and experienced each and every one of 5 Great Lakes and I feel fortunate to do so. Its a surreal feeling being on these lakes.Professionally, during my initial career days, I use to be part of an organization that use to map the Great Lakes and I never knew that one day in my life, I would be living in that state. I also covered every inch of state of Michigan and also drove along both sides of the lake coast.You need to drive a minimum of 150 miles-500 miles (Yup, you are still in state of Michigan as its a huge state) to visit the beautiful destinations from Detroit.Many stories and pictures to share. Perhaps through travelogues in future.For now, just sharing one picture when we did a road trip covering entire coast of Lake Michigan. It was a glorious road trip covering Lake Michigan (These lakes do not feel like lakes, they feel like OCEAN)In contrast, Washington state's all beautiful locations can be covered if you travel a range between 50 miles-200 miles which makes it much more lucrative from a distance and convenience perspective.While Michigans beauty is predominantly due to Great Lakes, Washington is at a whole another level from a scenic outdoors and beauty perspective.This state has perfect combination of Mountains, Lakes, Tall Trees, Greeneryand scenic locations to visit are plentiful.A couple of close pals were visiting me in Seattle during the July 4th, 2022 weekend and they were awestruck with beauty of Pacific North-West (Popularly known as PNW) which covers the states of Washington and Oregon.They were here only for 4-days and I tried to cram as much as I can in this short period but, could not do justice as we hardly scratched the surface.A sincere advice to anyone traveling to Seattle would need a minimum of couple of weeks to cover the major places. If you are an outdoor lover, then even more time is required as the places to enjoy outdoor is endless as Washington is an outdoor lovers paradise.I plan to share aas and when I get time (hopefully at least 1-2 in a month) so you can enjoy Washington virtually.As its just a year that we moved here, we visited and explored just a few places. I will be keeping the content to the minimum in each blog and let the pictures speak for itself.With that said, lets start the first photoblog which is synonymous with Washington. Last edited by mobike008 : 19th July 2022 at 22:57 .
In brief: Multiple national governments have recently pushed legislation to curtail Apple and Google's control over their software platforms, and the two giants have slowly begun complying. Now Google is bowing to new European Union requirements over mobile payment processors in the Android operating system.

On Tuesday, Google announced that it's complying with the European Union's new Digital Markets Act (DMA) by letting Google Play Store developers charge their customers in Europe through third-party billing systems.

Processing in-app payments through Google's system gives the platform holder a 15 percent cut of revenue while circumventing Google's processor only reduces the fee to 12 percent. Developers who wish to do so can start now by registering with Google's declaration form.

The new rules only apply to non-gaming apps. Google plans to have another system for in-game payments ready before the DMA goes into effect this fall.

The EU adopted the DMA earlier this month. Among other things, it requires big platform holders operating in European Union countries to let apps charge customers through a billing system of their choice.

South Korea passed a similar law specifically targeting payment processors last year. Although Apple and Google technically complied with it, Google's solution has led to higher prices for South Korean Android users. The Netherlands found Apple's compliance with its in-app payment law for dating apps unsatisfactory, repeatedly fining the company millions of Euros.

Outside Europe, Google has started forcing all Google Play Store apps to charge users through its billing system, resulting in a legal fight with Epic Games and Bandcamp.
What just happened? Twitter has struck the first blow in its legal proceedings against Elon Musk after being granted its request for a fast-tracked trial. The judge said the expedited start date and shorter hearing was necessary as the company continues to suffer while surrounded by uncertainty.

The saga of Elon Musk's attempt to buy Twitter ended earlier this month over the long-running issue of how many fake accounts populate the site. Musk previously claimed Twitter's alleged refusal to reveal bot numbers constituted a material breach of the deal and allowed him to avoid the $1 billion breakup fee.

Unsurprisingly, Twitter's response to Musk dropping out was to launch a lawsuit that it hopes will force the world's richest man to complete the purchase. One of Twitter's first requests was for the trial to be fast-tracked due to the harm inflicted on the company "every hour of every day" due to the disruption.

Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery has granted Twitter's request and set a trial date for October; Musk's lawyers wanted it to begin next year. The judge has also ordered a five-day trial, adding that the court can handle proceedings in that timeframe. That's still not exactly what Twitter was seeking; it wanted a four-day trial but will still consider this a win.

Musk's lawyers say a fast-tracked trial will allow Twitter to hide the truth about what percentage of the platform's accounts are fakes. The company says it is 5%, but Musk claims the figure is more like 20% or more.

Andrew Rossman, Musk's lawyer, said (via Reuters), "When Mr. Musk started asking questions, the answers he got were alarming." He added that it would take months to analyze the massive amounts of data needed to answer Musk's queries regarding bot accounts.

In siding with Twitter, the judge warned that the "cloud of uncertainty" around Twitter would grow larger as it waited for a trial to begin. "The reality is that the delay threatens irreparable harm to the sellers," McCormick said.

Twitter said it is "pleased that the court agreed to expedite this trial." Musk's legal team has not yet responded to the ruling.

Twitter wants Musk, who owns 9.2% of the company, to complete the acquisition at the original offer of $54.20 per share, far above the current value of around $40.
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy is the future rocket that will bring NASA's Roman Telescope to its space destination, and the high-powered spacecraft will see to its mission soon. The new telescope will be another massive venture for the space company as it is an important one with significant capabilities.

The Roman Telescope will soon look for dark energy and matter and take photographs of exoplanets in deep space.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy to Launch NASA's Roman Telescope

(Photo : NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center)

A high-resolution illustration of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope against a starry background.

SpaceX shared a tweet regarding the latest mission that Falcon Heavy has, and it is with the Roman Telescope from NASA, focusing on a massive spacecraft from NASA. The Falcon Heavy will bring the spacecraft to its space destination in not less than four years. It is focusing on its mission and the launch for 2026.

The mission would set off from Launch Complex 39A from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The national space agency's target date would be no earlier than October 26, and the world would have to wait on the spacecraft for it.

Read Also: SpaceX Super Heavy Booster Returned To The Factory After Fireball Explosion

NASA has selected Falcon Heavy to launch the Roman Space Telescope, which is designed to study dark energy and dark matter, search for and image exoplanets, and more. Liftoff is targeted for no earlier than October 2026 from Launch Complex 39A in Florida https://t.co/lZ0q79RmVh pic.twitter.com/pwPqEZLSEc  SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 19, 2022

What is the Roman Telescope from NASA?

NASA said the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope is "the top-priority large space mission recommended by the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey." It will focus on searching space for dark energy and dark matter, as well as looking for exoplanets and capturing their images and other deep space surveillance it will bring for NASA.

SpaceX and the Falcon Heavy

Supposedly, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy will focus on bringing the world with hefty cargo missions since its release from the company. Still, there have been only several missions for the rocket since then. There were postponements for its release in the past, and the company faced delays in bringing the world with the said spacecraft.

Nevertheless, like the Roman Telescope's contract, NASA also selected Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon Heavy as the rocket to launch the GOES-U mission in the coming years. This mission will take place in 2024, and it was initially ULA who would front the launch, but the company withdrew its contract from the bidding and eventually went to SpaceX.

Falcon Heavy is currently the high-capacity spacecraft in SpaceX now, and it aims to bring the world a chance to bring its massive loads to space with the help of the rocket. However, the Falcon Heavy will soon get a replacement by the upcoming spacecraft, the Starship, which will then focus on its Mars mission.

For now, the world gets the Falcon Heavy for the Roman Telescope mission soon.

Related Article: New NASA Studies Start After SpaceX Dragon Resupply Launch; Human Immune System Adaptation and Other Experiments

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by Isaiah Richard

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
An upcoming 2023 Porsche Taycan is here to bring the latest to the German company's top electric vehicle release, focusing on new features, its latest hardware, and other latest inclusions on the car. However, these are not the only new things coming, as the company also focuses on a software update for all versions of the Taycan, including past vehicles.

2023 Porsche Taycan: What are the New Things Coming for the EV?

(Photo : Porsche Newsroom)

There is no 2023 Porsche Taycan release per se, but the new cars that will see manufacturing from late 2022 through 2023 will be the new electric vehicle from the company. According to Porsche Newsroom's latest release, there would be significant changes to its features and hardware that users would see in its latest production, different from its releases from 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Moreover, the main focus is its powertrain efficiency, which will translate for the electric vehicle's hardware and software technology. CNET reports that the 2023 version will debut the panoramic glass roof with Porsche's Variable Light Control electro-chromatic shade. It would also bring Porsche's Roof Transport System for cargo boxes and racks.

New Taycans would also have a wiring harness for Porsche Dashcam's installation. An update to its wheels would bring the Taycan S Aero 19-inch design.

Read Also: Porsche 911 GTS America Edition: Celebrating 70 Years in the Country-What's New?

Porsche Taycan Software Update for All Versions

However, the main highlight of this announcement is the software update that will come for all versions, with Porsche saying that updating it will bring the vehicle like the latest release from the company. It includes the Porsche Communication Management (PCM) and the Porsche Connect and assistance systems.

Moreover, it would update its powertrain systems, a feature that will help in saving mileage on its battery's range with as much as 31 miles more to boost its experience.

Porsche Taycan's Significance and Fame

Porsche's goal for 2030 is to turn its production into 80 percent electric vehicles when the next decade comes, and it will line up with the world's plans for the coming transition to clean energy. One of the earliest fully electric vehicles from the company's lineup is the Porsche Taycan, which brings the start of something new for the famous manufacturer.

In 2021, the Porsche Taycan already beat the company's other internal combustion engine cars in terms of sales, which says a lot for the world's focus on EVs. It also shows how the Porsche Taycan is one of the most famous EVs in the market now, lining up against top rivals, including Tesla's Model S, General Motors, Ford, and more.

Now, there is an update that the German automotive company is bringing to the world, with the brand new 2023 Porsche Taycan that will debut soon for everyone. Nevertheless, it does not leave the past releases behind for the company and focuses on the latest software update available for all users of the Taycan.

Related Article: Porsche Invests in Electric Car Startup Rimac - How Much Did the Investment Cost?

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by Isaiah Richard

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Samsung is allowing the world a chance to save on the new Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4 devices, and it is through its early reservation credit will take a couple of hundreds of dollars off its price. The promotion now is to reserve the new foldable smartphones early and have as much as $200 off their original price.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, Fold 4 Now Available for Reservations

(Photo : JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images)

A Galaxy Z Fold 3 foldable smartphone is displayed at the South Korean tech giant Samsung's stand in the MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona on March 1, 2022.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4 are now available for reservations. According to Samsung's website, it is coming to the Galaxy Unpacked event this August 10. Reports claim that the two foldable device's subsequent releases are the main focus of the showcase.

Here, Samsung would like to have users reserve for the upcoming releases, and it would need several information like the name and contact details.

The company is also asking for preferences on what devices they are most interested in and other items on the list. Samsung also asks for any trade-in preference they would offer the user once the devices release to the world.

There also is a discount coming for users with a reservation, ranging from $30 to as much as $200 from the company for their next purchases.

Read Also: Samsung Galaxy S: No More Exynos, To Focus on Qualcomm's Chips in Future Releases

Samsung Reservation Credit: How to Get $200 Off?

According to The Verge, it is possible to get as much as $200 off the next smartphone purchase they will have by simply registering at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event. A specific reservations website is now available, and depending on the device they will reserve, it would have different price credit tiers for the user.

Choosing to reserve all the devices, including the smartphone, smartwatch, and the Galaxy Buds, will earn as much as $200 off their purchase.

Samsung's Foldable Releases for 2022

Samsung is still bordering on its foldable smartphones for the world, and it aims to give the world a chance to get more screen space and features that only these types of devices can provide. There are new rumors regarding the upcoming foldable devices from the South Korean company, which are the invisible creases for its display.

What does it mean for invisible creases coming to the devices?

This is Samsung's take on a better display that, despite its folding stature, it would have no significant or noticeable folds as seen on the device.

The invisible creases are coming to the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which come after three iterations of the devices on their respective lineups.

It is a significant improvement for the company's foldable smartphones as these are unseen before, with the tech industry not yet perfecting the venture for the world. Now, the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold's latest release is coming for release, and reservations are now open from its online stores that only need a person's name and email to get the discount credit.

Related Article: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Camera Leaks! Up to 200 Megapixels?

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by Isaiah Richard

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Europe has been experiencing extreme heat waves since May, and it doesn't seem like it's slowing down any time soon. WeDoSolar made a move to prevent the world from the impacts of global warming by creating vertical solar power panels.

(Photo : JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP via Getty Images)

This photograph shows details of a solar photovoltaic facility on the site of the former marshalling yard, in Le Mans, northwestern France, on June 29, 2022.

WeDoSolar is a startup company launched in February 2022 and founded by Carolina Attspodina, a Ukrainian-born tech entrepreneur and Qian Qin, a hardware engineer, entrepreneur, and the former managing director of BSH Digital Ventures GmbH.

Focused on EU markets, the solar panels are perfect for non-tech-savvy individuals. They are designed by German engineers and as part of the offer, come insured. The panels only weigh 1 kg each and plug into a standard power socket. It is designed to be mounted onto balconies and comes with weatherproof straps.

Its Microinverter will push the power into the home grid that will let the panels power home appliances ahead of using the normal grid. Moreover, users can track solar energy generation and the amount of carbon dioxide via an app. The app converts the metrics into language that makes it easier for users to understand.

According to TechCrunch, the company claims that solar panels can reduce a household's carbon dioxide footprint by up to 600 kg and electricity bills up to 25 percent per year.

The solar panels is currently the world's lightest balcony solar solution that will not require any expert assistance for installation. Additionally, they can easily be moved around. Therefore, if you buy and you decide to move apartments, you can take the solar panels with you easily.

The company has already gotten a thousand orders for this. Its eight-panel set costs 1,299 EUR or may come as a free rental model for electric vehicle owners in exchange for CO2 certificates. They are bundled and sold to oil companies because oil companies need to buy certificates every year from EV owners, particularly in Germany.

Also Read: New Solar Cell Uses Night Vision Tech To Generate Electricity Even in Complete Darkness

How the Idea Came About

The idea of these vertical solar panels were brought on by Attspodina and Qan's mission to provide faster ways to reduce carbon dioxide for a clean future.

"Solar energy is both free and readily available. Existing solar panel solutions are either intended for industrial use or are too heavy to install without the assistance of a qualified technical team You also have to wait for the monthly bill to determine the effect," Attspodina said.

Now, these solar panels can be used at home every day to power appliances that will deliver sustainable energy. As a result, people will be able to take their energy dependence into their own hands.

Related Article: MIT Researchers Develop Material That Easily Stores Solar Energy That Can Be Released As Heat On Demand

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by April Fowell

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Left to Right, Nancy Cooper, Editor-in-chief. Dev Pragad, Newsweek CEO. Naveed Jamali, Newsweek editor at large)

On July 18th, the once venerable news magazine Newsweek published another story about a Christian university as a top headline, marking the fifth time it has gas-lit government officials, accreditors and the general public in pursuit of a series of "trafficking probe" articles on Olivet University.

The Monday story is the latest public attack against the University after Newsweek's Indian-born CEO, Dev Pragad vowed a "nuclear attack" against the school and those associated with it in an escalating battle of fraud and lies as he futilely vies to take control of the company.

Their story, purporting to go inside the genesis of a visit to the school by authorities, brings no new substance to light and instead corroborates an HNGN report that Pragad, the CEO, personally reached out to Indian nationals as sources to assist his newsroom.

The piece fails to disclose its CEO's personal ties to the sources while feigning newsroom "independence," one in a multitude of ethical infractions that reveal Newsweek's deep bias, ultimately undermining the series and exposing it as fake news, and destroying Newsweek's credibility in the process.

**** READ THE FULL STORY ON HNGN****

More Questions than Answers

The latest Newsweek report focuses on events that happened in 2018, 4 years into the past, and on information no other publications deemed worthy of reporting, then or even now. This, coming on the heels of pieces from 2021 and 2019 also against the same subject, raises the question about why the Newsweek newsroom continuously chooses to headline stories from the past. Newsweek claims, without irony, that this was a matter of "national security."

While the affairs of a Bible school with several hundred annual graduates hardly rises to the level of national security, Newsweek Editors Nancy Cooper and Naveed Jamali have yet to acknowledge that weeks before the series began, their CEO Pragad threatened Johnathan Davis, the Newsweek shareholder, with this very coverage. Pragad said "I'll go to media about Olivet raid by DHS for human trafficking" if Davis didn't comply with Pragad's demands. Cooper did not include this important disclosure about its management's influence on the story. Instead, the Newsweek editors stated in April, they were unable to reach their own CEO for comment and "could not verify" alarming evidence Davis sent them. Since April, they have failed to receive any comment from CEO Pragad.

Pragad's own comments entwine his personal motives with the newsroom clearly, however. Pragad told a source before the series of articles began that "in no uncertain terms" he wanted the "shares of Newsweek... owned by the husband of the former president of the Christian university." If he didn't get his way, Pragad warned he would "detonate a nuclear bomb and kill [Davis and his associates]."

In April, after Davis refused to hand over his ownership to Pragad, the first Newsweek "trafficking" piece was published. Facts again skew deeply against Newsweek's "newsroom independence" because days after the first "nuclear" story was published, Pragad sent personal messages to former Olivet students from India, asking for information about troublesome students. He was interested in one student in particular, Rebecca Singh -- a coed who flunked out of the school after numerous infractions including theft, falsifying documents, and noise violations -- who incidentally would later become the main source for future Newsweek stories.

Meanwhile, as the CEO reached out to sources, Newsweek continued undeterred in its "trafficking" series of hit pieces against the school, tapping Editor-at-large Naveed Jamali, a former FBI double-agent who speaks about Muslim issues in the media, to agitate sources with the aim of publishing negative news on the Christian school. Jamali plowed ahead with the exact article series Pragad had weeks earlier threatened. Out of all news publications, only Newsweek published a story about this one-year-old raid under Jamali's byline, using anonymous sources. Homeland Security itself had not even released information about the raid nor its results -- nor even acknowledged the existence of the raid to the public. This gave rise to further questions about the sources of the "trafficking" allegations and their credibility, which Newsweek needed to answer.

With the burden of proof of the allegations falling squarely on Newsweek's editors, the magazine's headline story yesterday answered the question of the "trafficking" story source, confirming the identity of the 911 caller who "triggered" the investigation as Rebecca Singh -- the problem student Pragad personally sought -- with the extortion network of ex-students connected to her.

Singh is the very same girl Pragad was found to be digging up information about while in the midst of his legal battle against the Newsweek owner, Davis. This pattern of making threats that are carried out by the newsroom, and the active involvement of management in sourcing stories, raises alarming questions about Newsweek's dangerous CEO and his unethical newsroom.

First, what caused Newsweek to fail to investigate Pragad, his threats to mow down opponents like "puppies before a machine gun", and most critically, his direct outreach to troubled ex-students of Olivet University? Why is Pragad not held accountable for these actions? Why is the newsroom not asking him any of these serious questions, and what benefit are they receiving from him in response for being his cover up artists?

The onus is on Nancy Cooper to get to the bottom of this. Cooper recently published a statement declaring Newsweek's special obligation to investigate stories related to Newsweek itself, and yet has absolutely failed to produce a single meaningful response to such critical questions as these about her own boss throughout the duration of this entire series.

The statement goes on to express its commitment to "standard ethical practices," and mentions that Cooper and one "Dayan" committed to stay at Newsweek after they were promised they would have freedom to publish as they liked. It can be concluded that this "Dayan" is Dayan Candappa, a married man who was terminated from Reuters after a reporter complained to management that he demanded sexual favors in exchange for career promotions.

Meanwhile, Cooper and Pragad have given reporters like Jamali and Alex Rouhandeh free reign to omit and downplay key information in their stories, publish defamatory statements against Olivet University and others, and repeatedly threaten and instigate sources against Olivet and Davis.

Second, given its recent reporting bias against Olivet, Newsweek's usage of yet another anonymous source -- under the pseudonym "Kevin" for the July 18th story -- must be deeply scrutinized. If this "Kevin" had a legitimate complaint, he could go to the police to file a report -- but Newsweek does not claim that he did so. This anonymous young man instead became the sole accuser for Newsweek's world-headline story. It appears as though Newsweek is not vetting these sources, but instead exploiting these young men and women to hype Newsweek's narrative about Olivet University having a problem when this is simply not true.

Inflammatory Language

Newsweek has repeatedly employed the technique of using inflammatory language in its series of attacks targeting Olivet University.

For example, Olivet's New York State Education Department (NYSED) permit was simply not extended -- and therefore was allowed to expire. But why did Newsweek exaggerate the truth by saying NYSED "shut down" Olivet University in New York?

Olivet University officials stated that their original purpose for appealing NYSED's decision was to correct the official record to reflect that NYSED based its decision on faulty and inappropriate reasoning. However, when the final decision was made to allow Olivet's permit to expire, Olivet embraced the decision. The university had already released a press statement expressing gratitude to NYSED for the opportunity to operate in New York over the past decade. Furthermore, Olivet's statement communicated that after investing over $70 million into the campus and making it debt-free, Olivet officials believed the property should be more than just a single university's branch campus in New York. Instead, it should serve a greater purpose, the university stated. The school viewed the NYSED decision as an opportunity to expedite the decades-long dream of Olivet to serve worldwide evangelicals in a single campus at the Evangelical Center.

This was not a "shutting down" in any sense of the phrase. Newsweek's usage of the words "shut down" betrays its newsroom bias and non-neutrality in reporting about Olivet. These words distort the actual facts, taking a simple expiration of permission to operate and making it sound like a bigger problem at Olivet, which actually is not the case.

Newsweek similarly attacks Olivet University for the already resolved Manhattan DA issue. Olivet University received two misdemeanors and paid its fine. Yet Newsweek repeatedly trumpeted this fact that Olivet paid a fine, as though it were national headline news. In comparison, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs have paid enormously high fines in the billions of dollars. Yet Newsweek does not report on those fines as vehemently as they do Olivet's. Newsweek has not criticized Bank of America and Goldman Sachs for legal proceedings and paying fines to such an extent, but repeatedly highlights Olivet's roughly $1 million dollar fine as national headline news a "national security" issue. Newsweek's stark contrast in choosing the frequency and tone of its articles for Olivet versus actual newsworthy issues and companies belies the real and dangerous bias in the Newsweek newsroom against the Christian university versus those secular companies.

Additionally, Newsweek has repeatedly claimed that the legal case of a former student named "Frank Lan" back in 2019 was related to Olivet Assembly USA, a denomination led by Olivet University graduates. This is another of Newsweek's false, blatantly biased, and repeatedly weaponized allegations. Olivet Assembly USA's statement on its website makes clear that the Assembly was not related to the matter. Newsweek also broke its own code of journalistic ethics when it did not reach out to Olivet Assembly USA for comment, which it is required to do when making a serious charge. Neither has Newsweek referenced the Assembly's statement for fairness and balance.

Olivet Assembly's Statement on Mischaracterizations in Newsweek's Article on June 27 The following is Olivet Assembly USA's statement in response to an article posted in Newsweek on June 27, 2022. Olivet Assembly USA (OAUSA) has not been charged with any crime nor was it party to any investigation, nor linked to any criminal accusation, ever in its history, despite the false innuendo of Newsweek attempting to paint the picture as such. The piece ropes OAUSA into an article about an incident that happened three years ago about a church that has been long dissolved. While we are not surprised that the piece is written to benefit their CEO, Dev Pragad, we were very surprised that they did so by forgoing the integrity of basic journalism. The piece written on June 27 by Newsweek as the top headline suggests that OAUSA was contacted but did not comment. This is simply not true. OAUSA did not receive any questions from any reporters from Newsweek on this matter. If they had reached out to us, as any journalist would have done, we would have corrected the numerous errors in their article. OAUSA is not the "mother church" of Deer Park Community Church. Newsweek received inaccurate information from their source. OAUSA is not connected to the incident involving Mr. Frank Lan. OAUSA has not authorized nor does it condone the sale of counterfeit items and such activity is a violation of the guidelines set forth in our Book of Order. There are no e-commerce businesses in China working for OAUSA. Mr. Lan does not work for OAUSA. Deer Park Church was not formed by Rev. Chiu's wife. It was incorporated by Mr. Lan's wife. Rev. Chiu's quote on the unrelated mission between OAUSA and Olivet University has been taken out of context. The two organizations indeed have their distinct missions, board of directors, and operations, unrelated to each other. The two organizations may share the same statement of faith coming from the same evangelical root, but they are two independent organizations. It is regretful that Newsweek would mischaracterize OAUSA, a denomination in the Presbyterian tradition whose faith stands on the Westminster Confession of Faith, as a sect, and a senior pastor as a cleric. This sensationalism would appear more like tabloid journalism than serious reporting. The article contains numerous other errors not mentioned in this statement. This kind of reporting raises serious questions about Newsweek's credibility and editorial integrity. For any media inquiries, please contact Olivet Assembly at media@olivetassembly.org.

In its series of articles against Olivet, Newsweek has also recklessly published outrageously false and reprehensible claims such as that students are "imprisoned" at the campus. This claim is completely fabricated as verified by overwhelming evidence indicating happy and peaceful students, including Rebecca Singh, at the campus.

The reporters even chose a city as far away as San Diego, 90 miles away, to portray Olivet's campus as "isolated." Nearly every city in California is far away from San Diego. Newsweek fails to mention that Olivet's campus is inside the town of Anza, and only 17 miles from the fast-growing city of Hemet, not to mention its proximity to Temecula and Palm Springs. Newsweek also failed to note that many happy and satisfied students study at Olivet University today, and many have graduated into successful Christian ministry work. That's because these facts would get in the way of the narrative that Newsweek has been pushing at the behest of its dangerous CEO.

Newsweek Credibility Already Disqualified

The public statements of Newsweek's CEO that vowed to use the newsroom to accomplish his goals should be a red flag to any reader, and anyone in its own newsroom that had integrity. But to make it crystal clear and beyond any doubt, on the 8th of July, weeks before the current article, Newsweek filed a lawsuit against Olivet University, seeking millions of dollars in an attempt to link it to debts that have nothing to do with the school.

The frivolous lawsuit has apparently been in the works for months and further highlights the lengths that Pragad will go to harm Davis, the school and other associates in pursuit of his selfish ambitions. The fact that the company has been preparing a lawsuit, apparently for months, seeking money against the same organizations its newsroom is writing negative articles about on a regular basis, disqualifies it completely as an impartial outlet.

On top of this, Cooper and others who feel they need to cover news about Newsweek's management and ownership, however, have repeatedly failed to uncover and report even the most basic facts about its CEO Pragad. The newsroom has been unable to contact him for any comment, though it is apparent he does send information and sources to the newsroom. It also failed to mention that Pragad was a dean at the very school he is using Newsweek to sue and to write articles against.

Newsweek Pushes Fake News Narrative about Olivet While Also Suing Olivet

The main issue with Newsweek's July 18 report is that it contained nothing "new" at all. The article, stripped of its inflammatory attacks, would read as follows: "One-and-a-half years ago, there was a raid on a Christian school based on false accusations. After finding no issue with the school, officers apologized for the raid, and no further action was taken." Comparing this neutral summary with the actual Newsweek story lays bare the influence that Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad's personal vendetta has had on the newsroom.

Newsweek's own failures reveal the extent to which the newsroom is being exploited by Newsweek's CEO. It has failed to investigate Pragad's personal contact with the sources of its series after his explicit threats to "kill" his enemies in the media. Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper failed to write a single word about this problem. Meanwhile, she issued a statement containing hundreds of words touting the newsroom's neutrality and freedom from management's influence, while publishing a series of articles that attack a Christian university for the benefit of Newsweek's CEO, including the most recent article based on a single anonymous source.

The Newsweek narrative appears designed to accomplish one goal, which is to declare a huge problem with Olivet University when there is none, while also trying to sue it for money in a frivolous lawsuit -- another conflict of interest that Newsweek fails to mention in its articles.

Newsweek Incites Accreditors Against a Christian University, Abandons Basic Journalistic Mandate

Newsweek reporters have also been contacting the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), the accreditor of Olivet University. According to the latest article, Newsweek reporters have asked ABHE what "action" it would take against Olivet regarding the federal raid that happened over one year ago. This kind of questioning is beyond premature -- the Department of Homeland Security needs to go through its process of examining the veracity of allegations and publish a report as a result. Until that time, ABHE cannot help but wait for the government report, maintaining a neutral stance with the presumption of innocence. These two elements, the report and the presumption of innocence, are necessary for ABHE to make a fair decision. But Newsweek's reporters have repeatedly pressured ABHE through inappropriate and aggressive questions and phone calls to take action prematurely before seeing the result of the government's report. Furthermore, Newsweek's racketeering-like conduct, threats, and dangerous bias -- insinuating that Olivet has a problem and putting pressure on its accreditors, without any proof and before any report from the government -- could constitute criminal conduct.

Instead of trying to influence the government and accrediting agencies against Olivet University, Newsweek should criticize the fact that a federal raid was carried out on a Christian school based on false information. But Newsweek has utterly disposed of its basic journalistic mandate by taking the side of government power abuse, instead of criticizing it. In the case of the NYSED story, Newsweek took the side of state bureaucracy instead of chastising a decision made with false reasoning against a Christian school. A normal media publication would have criticized these acts of injustice, but not Newsweek. And churches are already paying careful attention to Newsweek's articles deliberately attacking a Christian university with bias and discrimination.

Newsweek Vilifies a Christian School, Needs Real Integrity to Investigate Newsweek CEO

The law requires that complaints go through a government agency to be evaluated fairly. Newsweek has intentionally hijacked these processes and distorted their results, through its articles about Olivet University following Pragad's threats and in furtherance of his lawsuit. The past Manhattan DA case was concluded with a clear resolution; the NYSED permission's expiration inspired Olivet to more quickly activate its longstanding plan to offer its New York campus for a greater purpose; and the raid that happened at Olivet's campus over one year ago was based on false information. Newsweek's articles about these matters do not take into account both sides in a balanced way, but falsely hype each of these as a big problem to pressure Olivet University's accreditors to take negative action against a healthy school. Readers must ask why Newsweek deliberately vilifies a Christian school this way.

There is no balance or fairness in the Newsweek articles about Olivet. Conclusively, the series has been debunked as agenda-driven fake news. Worse yet, by attacking a Christian university with unbalanced articles, Newsweek has proven itself cowardly. The real story is the lawsuit against Newsweek's CEO Dev Pragad, and the extreme steps Pragad has taken to exploit the newsroom for his personal benefit. But will the Newsweek newsroom ever breed the integrity and courage it needs to stand up to its own dangerous CEO?

Get the latest update on HNGN:

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A new entry-level Hyundai EV may soon enter the rising electric car market. This means that consumers will have another cheaper zero-emission vehicle option.

(Photo : Image from Hyundai Motor Group on Unsplash)

New Entry-Level Hyundai EV To Arrive! Will the $20,000 Electric Vehicle Launch Globally?

Currently, electric cars are quite expensive for new owners. This is because of the actual prices of EVs offered by Tesla, Ford, and other giant automakers.

However, they can save more money since they no longer have to deal with the worsening fuel price hikes across the globe.

Of course, there are still some drivers who prefer to have cheaper EVs right from the start. Now, it seems like Hyundai will give them what they want.

New Entry-Level Hyundai EV To Arrive!

According to Electrek's latest report, Hyundai confirmed that it would launch a new entry-level EV that costs less than $20,000.

(Photo : David Hecker/Getty Images)

BREMERHAVEN, GERMANY - JANUARY 22: A Hyundai car is washed on January 22, 2014 in Bremerhaven, Germany. Import cars to be washed, if they are too dirty after sea transportation. Bremerhaven is Europe's biggest port for car exports, with over 2.1 million cars having passed through in 2013.

Also Read: Hyundai's Ioniq 5 N, Its First High-Performance EV, Releases in 2023! Here's What to Expect

The Korean multinational automotive firm's Marketing Chief Andreas-Christoph Hofmann announced this new EV development at the Automotive News Europe Congress in Prague.

"Everybody in the industry knows the target of this kind of vehicle is 20,000 euros," said the Hyundai official.

Of course, this will excite many drivers who want to own EVs without spending too much money. But, Hofmann said that the new vehicle would be exclusive in the Europe market.

As of writing, Hyundai hasn't confirmed the exact specs of the new entry-level EV. But, the automaker said that it would be designed to replace the Hyundai i10.

This means that it also might be a four-door hatchback. If you want to see further details about the new entry-level Hyundai EV, you can visit this link.

EV Pricing This 2022

If you are an EV owner who is familiar with the rising electric car market, then you already know that there are no zero-emission vehicle that is less than $20,000.

Most of the EVs sold in the auto market have an average price of around $45,000, as reported by NBC news. If you compare this price with new gas-based cars, they are between 10% to 15% more expensive.

Although this is the case, many people tend to buy these expensive electric cars to help reduce carbon emissions and save money from ongoing fuel price hikes.

With Hyundai's new entry-level EV, the situation of electric cars being expensive will soon change.

Meanwhile, Hyundai's first EV-only facility is expected to receive a billion-dollar investment from the Korean automaker.

On the other hand, the new 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6 EV's features were unveiled.

For more news updates about Hyundai and its upcoming cheap EV, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Hyundai Keeps the Car Culture Alive With Its 'Rolling Labs,' First EV to Come Out in 2023

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by: Griffin Davis

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
NASA's Roscosmos-ESA spacewalk coverage is confirmed. This means that the international space union will offer a live stream so that fans can see what will happen during the ISS activity.

(Photo : Photo by NASA via Getty Images)

In this handout image provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, Expedition 28 flight engineer, waits at an International Space Station's pressurized mating adapter (PMA-2) docked to the space shuttle Atlantis.

This is a big deal for Russia and other countries included in NASA. For the past few months, Roscosmos wasn't really on good terms with the space agency because of several issues.

The latest one happened after NASA criticized the Russian space agency after some cosmonauts posted their pictures holding two Russia-backed state flags.

Now, since the tension between Russia and NASA is easing, essential space activities can continue smoothly, including the upcoming ISS spacewalk.

NASA's Roscosmos-ESA Spacewalk Coverage 2022

NASA said that it would cover the upcoming ISS spacewalk via its official NASA app, NASA TV, as well as its website.

Aside from NASA, Republic World reported that ESA's official website would also offer its own live stream.

(Photo : Photo NASA via Getty Images)

In this handout from NASA, the Hubble Space Telescope is grappled to Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 by the shuttle's Canadian-built remote manipulator system May 13, 2009 in Space. The space shuttle Atlantis' mission is to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope in order to extend its working life.

Also Read: New NASA Studies Start After SpaceX Dragon Resupply Launch; Human Immune System Adaptation and Other Experiments

"NASA will provide live coverage of a spacewalk on Thursday, July 21," said the international space agency via its official announcement post on NASA Gov.

NASA added that the live broadcast would start at exactly 9:30 a.m. EDT, 30 minutes before the schedule of the Roscosmos-ESA spacewalk (10:00 a.m. EDT).

The latest International Space Station spacewalk is expected to last around six and a half hours.

ESA's Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti and Roscosmos' Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev will conduct essential activities that will benefit the entire ISS.

They will use the advanced Russian Orlan spacesuits while outside the giant orbital laboratory.

Roscosmos-ESA Spacewalk's Other Details

NASA explained that the new spacewalk's main goal is to install platforms and workstation adapter hardware near a manipulator system mounted to Nauka.

Aside from this, the assigned cosmonaut and astronaut will also relocate the external control panel of ESA's giant robotic arm.

They will also replace a protective window on the machine's camera unit. These are just some of the things that make the new spacewalk quite intriguing.

But, the most interesting one about this ISS activity is that it will also allow the first European woman to have her spacewalk outside the space laboratory.

Recently, the NASA James Webb Space Telescope suffered from permanent damage after a micrometeoroid hit it.

On the other hand, the NASA TESS identified two new massive extrasolar planets.

For more news updates about NASA and its upcoming activities, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: NASA James Webb is a Good Investment Says Americans via Survey-Are they Satisfied?

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by: Griffin Davis

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Today is wine, and tomorrow is a matter.. Who is the king of poets who was expelled by his father and adored the Roman princess and then was killed with a poisoned robe?
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Baton Rouge-based H&E Equipment Services was one of the big winners in the Pelican State Portfolio during 2021. Shares of the company, which sells and leases heavy equipment, were up 53% for the year. H&E is poised to see an increase in business following the passage of a $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
Lara Nicholson writes for The Advocate as a Report for America Corps Member. Email her at lnicholson@theadvocate.com or follow her on Twitter @LaraNicholson_.

To learn more about Report for America and to support our journalism, please click here.
Rio Tinto, the nations top iron ore miner, has brought to an end its long-running disputes with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) by agreeing to one of the largest tax settlements in the countrys history.

The Anglo-Australian mining giant said on Wednesday it had agreed to pay an additional $613 million in tax payments for the period from 2010 to 2021, on top of a further $378 million paid last year.

Rio Tinto, the largest Australian producer of iron ore, operates mines in the Pilbara region of WA.

One of Rio Tintos disputes with the tax office related to the amount of tax payable from the sale of Rio Tintos iron ore and aluminium produced in Australia to the companys marketing business in Singapore. Another was over the denial of interest deductions on a loan it took out in 2015 to pay an internal dividend.

ATO Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Saint said the agreements brought Rio Tintos total payments related to the disputes to almost $1 billion, ranking as one of the largest settlements in Australias tax history.
What do 1980s singer Kate Bush, heavy metal band Metallica and Netflix have in common? They can all thank sci-fi horror drama Stranger Things for some kind of renaissance in popularity.

Stranger things could also characterise the theme of Netflixs quarterly performance, and even stranger things could describe the market pushing up its share price by 7 per cent in response to the streaming service losing 1 million subscribers in the June quarter.

Stranger Things has been a big hit for Netflix.

Compare this with the Netflix March quarterly, where it lost 200,000 subscribers and the share price immediately plunged 37 per cent then continued its descent to be down 70 per cent since January.

Its a performance that co-chief executive Reed Hastings described as less bad results. It is also a triumph of expectations over reality.
Rumours of cost-cutting measures at the News Corp papers have been kicking around for some time now, and at a briefing for staff at The Australian on Wednesday, editor Michelle Gunn cant have filled many with confidence.

When asked about redundancies, Gunn said it was a fact of life in newsrooms around the country that costs would be reviewed.

There are signs of cost-cutting coming at Rupert Murdochs News Corp newspapers. Credit:Rob Homer

Every year for the past couple of years  more than a couple  our cost base has been under pressure and we are under pressure to reduce the cost base, she said.

I dont see that changing given the economic headwinds we are facing. We are working through budget processes right now.
When the world gets shaky, so does the alphabet. Pandemics and wonky politics have that effect. At least in the hands of anagram-guerrillas, the backroom artisans recycling the news cycle into secret messages and wink-wink wisecracks.

Consider the marvels at The Anagrammy Awards, a website (www.anagrammy.com) that converts topical stories into fresher selves. As a taste, the 2020 winner in the Peoples Names category was mix-master Meyran Kraus who morphed The late Diego Maradona into Dominated the goal area. See? Stunning.

Equally wow-worthy is a recent News entry. I kid you not, Flooding in Newcastle NSW (letter for letter) hides the implicit question So can we find Wellingtons?, as jumbler Tom Myers unearthed. From floods to plagues, however, Tyler Severance won the overall vote by cocktailing Essential workers into Were no less at risk!

When the world gets shaky, so does the alphabet - and anagram-guerillas have been having a ball with Boris Johnsons downfall. Credit:AP

Keeping on Australian shores, David Bourke betrayed his allegiances by revamping The ALP leader Anthony Norman Albanese into Hes patently a learned, an honorable man. Compare that bouquet to the bleakness of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a title Rick Rothstein twiddled into A stern individual inspires Trump.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The front reception at the Nunawading studio that has been home to Neighbours for 37 years is the busiest its ever been as reporters, Channel Ten crew and various other visitors arrive on site for the last-ever day of filming. Theres even paparazzi with giant telephoto lenses outside the fences peering in. Its a strange mix of nostalgia and high alert. Dozens of Ramsay Street signs have been made up, and everyone is signing them for everyone else. These will have pride of place in poolrooms all over the city. The day gets increasingly strange as we realise thats the final scene ever in that set. Crew swap roles for the hell of it, for old times sake. Some of this equipment is no longer used anywhere else in the industry, so those operators will also be retiring or finding something else to do. Somehow, amid all the hugs, selfies and mobile phones recording the last day, the work gets done. The final episode is in the can. I owe my start to Neighbours, a 21-year-old fresh out of drama school with no idea what a TV shoot was about. I began my Neighbours journey in a gorilla suit, and ended it the same way (talk about a glamorous industry). Many forget the show started out on another network, Seven, was axed in 1985 and picked up by Channel Ten to replace M.A.S.H. It could have been another footnote in Aussie TV, except for the extraordinary impact it had in Britain. In 1986, the BBC aired this sunny, optimistic vision of Aussie life twice a day due to demand, and it changed the TV landscape. I happened to be there in 1986, and returned for the past few years part-time. I was there at the beginning and the end. The soap started before the internet, before many of the latest cast were even born, and has been pumping out nightly TV drama for nearly 9000 episodes. Each week, a feature film worth of content was set in an Australian suburban cul-de-sac, where neighbours become good friends.

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We knew the end was coming  the entire production team assembled last year for the announcement that if ratings continued to slide, UKs Channel 5 (the main funder of the show) would bring it to a close by mid-2022. But it was the Sunday morning phone call from the producers in February that finally made it real, explaining that an article had appeared in The Sun in the UK overnight, officially announcing June 10 was the end of the production. I was there from the beginning to the end: Geoff Paine. Credit:Simon Schluter What did that mean? It was still months away, and the set-em-up-and-shoot-em schedule meant we couldnt really stop. Like a car manufacturing plant or coal-fired power station, we can see the world has changed since the 80s. This studio is a kind of factory, and factories close. Loading Most of us in show business are used to quickly adapting when it comes to finding work. I dont act full-time any more, and dont know many actors who do. We supplement our wages with various other jobs to make ends meet, and thats the way its always been. So while there are new opportunities out there, what were losing is a training ground for thousands of performers, directors, writers, crew and others in the TV business who have passed through Ramsay Street and gone on to bigger and better things. No one expected this show would literally run for decades  how much can happen in a suburban street?  but then no one thought it would end any time soon. Until it did. Lining the walls of the Nunawading studio are dozens of cast photos, and as we line up to take what will be the last-ever shot, I feel old and bald compared to the young things around me. I hear snippets of conversation from different cast members about the impending end of the show.

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The first assistant director says hell become a motorbike instructor. Got my licence, just need the teaching cert. Theyre short of them apparently. One make-up artist said they could get work doing weddings every day of the week, but will miss the friendships and workplace camaraderie. We all will. The last-ever cast shot of Neighbours. What do you think youll do? YouTube. Ill be writing some comedy with a friend of mine. What about you? Nursing, maybe. Might finish my arts degree. Ive been shortlisted for a role. I got a call back but who knows? My house has just gone on the market. Yeah, were thinking of moving too. We hear the construction workers next door busily building new apartments. The same studio complex that gave us Neighbours and the original Prisoner probably wont exist in a few years.

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As we all force a smile to the camera, the final shot is taken. One or two tears are wiped away as we realise this is the start of a series of last evers: last ever scene for a cast member or crew, last episode for a director, last day in studio. The countdown to the end started in late April with rumours that Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue and Guy Pearce were returning for some special guest appearances. On the day of the secret shoot, no one except those actually involved in the filming knows what was recorded. Its like some kind of witness protection. There are also rumours that the final scene will be a party set in Ramsay Street showing as many of the old characters as they can. Harold (Ian Smith), Madge (Ann Charleston) and some faces from the past are all said to be returning for a final farewell. Then and now: Geoff Paines character was a gifted doctor who wanted to reconnect to his childhood and run a Gorillagram business. Credit:Ten An article appears in the local paper suggesting the council may put a heritage overlay on the houses in Vermont South that serve as the Ramsay Street exteriors. And while 37 years of Neighbours may be preserved forever on YouTube, a Ramsay Street home owner suggests, Let it die peacefully. Guy Pearce, Paul Keane and Peter OBrien are back for the final two weeks of the show, and its truly delightful to catch up after decades of living different lives and pursuing different career paths. For those of us that started back in the day in the 1980s, meeting up again 30-something years later is an extraordinary and emotional time. Big hugs first before we have to get on with the acting bit. Most of us were bright-eyed kids when we started out, unaware of what the world or the industry would hold for us and dealing with the unspoken competitiveness everyone feels when theyre beginning a career. When youre in your 50s or 60s, that drops away and youre genuinely delighted to catch up and see what different lives youve lived. In an industry devoted to youth worship, were the old boys now.

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On set, Guy and I reminisce about the second-hand cars we had back in the day; I had a Mazda RX4 that backfired on a regular basis, and he had a Datsun Sunny station wagon. Seems a lifetime ago. I have caught up with Guy over the years, usually before something spectacular happens: once was just before the release of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and the other was just before the release of L.A. Confidential. Great to see he is unchanged despite his celebrity status. They just dont make TV like this anymore. For nearly 38 years, the writers and storyliners have had to generate stories they think are engrossing enough to keep people watching beyond the ads that appear every six minutes, to make people tune in the next day and to keep tuning in week to week. Thats why the Friday night cliffhanger was always considered the most important  it had to get people back for the Monday night episode. The pressure to get stuff shot has always been immense  if an actor had the nerve to pause and ask: Whats my motivation? the answer would be: Theres 15 crew members waiting for you to get on with it and were already 30 minutes behind schedule. Geoff Paines character, Dr Clive Gibbons, has been a fixture of Ramsay Street since 1986. Credit:Simon Schluter If an actor amps up their performance (because why not?) one of the crew calls out: Trying out for your next job? Harold is back, with cast and crew showing great kudos to this stalwart of the show. Hes still got it. Day by day, people start to finish up. After we hear Cut! its followed by and thats Isaacs last scene everyone as a guest director ends their last lot of scenes. There is a round of applause. This happens for the various directors, actors and crew until the end.

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A massage therapist has been charged with sexually assaulting two women at a wellness clinic in Mosman, on Sydneys lower north shore, this month.

The 50-year-old was arrested in Killara on Tuesday after a 28-year-old woman told police she had been sexually assaulted by the man while receiving a massage last Saturday.

On Sunday, another woman told police she had also been sexually assaulted while receiving a massage at the same business.

The women are not known to each other.

The massage therapist was taken to Chatswood police station where he was charged with sexual intercourse without consent and four counts of sexually touching another person without consent.
A Queensland woman who masqueraded as a medical doctor to hand out COVID-related exemptions, and pocketed about $120,000 for 1200 worthless certificates, has been fined $25,000.

Self-described COVID-denier Maria Carmela Pau, 45, pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrates Court on Wednesday to pretending to be a doctor, aiding people trying to dodge coronavirus restrictions.

COVID-denier Maria Pau masqueraded as a doctor, handing out fake medical certificates. Credit:Internet

The court heard Pau, who has a doctorate in professional research studies and also a masters degree in public health, had gained at least $120,000 from issuing exemptions to people all over Australia.

Pau also markets herself as an actress and model, and has previously been described in court as a spiritual insights coach.
A gunman who killed a Brisbane mother-of-two in a robbery gone wrong could be behind bars for little more than a year before he is eligible for parole.

Stafford Anthony Emmerson, 44, was convicted of manslaughter last month after a six-day Brisbane Supreme Court trial, with a jury deliberating for only four hours before finding him guilty.

Stafford Anthony Emmerson. Credit:Queensland Police Service

The victim, 40-year-old Megan Kirley, died at a semi-rural property on Wembley Road in Karawatha, on Brisbanes southern outskirts, about 3am on February 9, 2019.

Five people were involved.
Ben Roberts-Smith told a deliberate lie to conceal his involvement in the alleged execution of an unarmed prisoner in Afghanistan, the war veterans defamation case has been told.

The Federal Court is hearing closing submissions in the defamation suit brought against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times. The decorated former soldier claims the newspapers wrongly accused him of being complicit in war crimes and the media outlets are seeking to rely chiefly on a defence of truth.

Ben Roberts-Smith outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Monday. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The newspapers allege Roberts-Smith was involved in the murder of five Afghan prisoners, including by directing an Afghan soldier working with Australian forces to order one of his subordinates to shoot an unarmed prisoner in October 2012. The media outlets say Roberts-Smiths direction was relayed by the Afghan soldier, dubbed Person 12, and the man was shot dead by a second Afghan soldier.

Nicholas Owens, SC, acting for the newspapers, alleged on Wednesday there had been a concerted effort by Roberts-Smith and four of his witnesses to give false evidence about the alleged incident, but their efforts were frustrated when the Defence Department produced a large volume of contradictory material last year.
Three children killed in a Pilbara house fire in Western Australias north-west on Tuesday afternoon have been identified as siblings aged five months, and seven and 10 years old.

The children, who are not named or pictured for cultural reasons, were found dead inside their Anderson Street home in Port Hedland around 4.45pm after firefighters were called to the scene to extinguish a blaze.

The Port Hedland house where the blaze broke out, killing three children. Credit:Nine News Perth

The state-owned duplex property is just metres from the regional towns centre and two kilometres from the worlds largest iron ore port.

Acting WA Police deputy commissioner Allan Adams declined to comment on where in the house the childrens bodies were found or whether the mother, Margaret Hawke, was home at the time.
This call for urgent and meaningful reform from the states top integrity agencies presents an opportunity to bolster the Victorian integrity framework more broadly. For example, the fact that the IBACs jurisdiction does not extend to conduct that could be reasonable grounds for dismissal or termination of a public official is a feature shared only by the Tasmanian and South Australian integrity commissions (and is far away from the jurisdiction of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, which is also able to investigate substantial breaches of applicable codes of conduct).

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We also lag behind best practice in the regulation of lobbying. Our ministers arent required to disclose their diaries (unlike all our east-coast neighbours), and the sanctions available for breach are weak.

While we do, to the credit of the previous parliament, have donations caps and disclosure obligations that are undeniably a vast improvement on the previous regime, we are the only Australian jurisdiction that caps donations but allows for registered parties to nominate an entity from whom payments are not political donations (when they would count as political donations if they came from any other entity).

This effectively serves as another pot of money available to parties which do nominate such entities, and in a jurisdiction where electoral expenditure is uncapped (another area where Victoria is an outlier), this matters. The fact that only the ALP, Liberal and National parties have nominated such entities suggest that there is no or negligible benefit to be gained from this provision by smaller parties, and it is not even available to independent candidates. There is a serious equity issue here that needs to be redressed.
Read our investigation into Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek, rampant branch-stacking with the Victorian branch, and the damning findings by the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) and Ombudsman that followed. See all 10 stories.

The abuse by politicians of taxpayer-funded resources to branch stack and engage in other political skulduggery for their own benefit is an old problem. So too is the employment by politicians of unqualified friends, relatives and factional apparatchiks in electorate office jobs.

The public is also tired of hearing how politicians of all persuasions have sought to influence taxpayer-funded grant processes to help a vested interest or advance their own agenda.

Premier Daniel Andrews says the government will adopt all 21 of the inquirys recommendations. Credit:Paul Jeffers

The fact these practices have been occurring on both sides of the political aisle for years speaks not only of a rotten political culture that normalised them but the difficulty in exposing them in a way that might actually lead to change.

On Wednesday, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) and ombudsman released the findings of its exhaustive inquiry into the extent disgraced Victorian Labor MP Adem Somyurek engaged in these grey corruption practices during his time in the Daniel Andrews government.
It has been just over two years since an expose by The Age and 60 Minutes revealed the full extent of then Labor MP Adem Somyureks industrial-scale branch-stacking and influence-peddling operation within the Victorian Labor Party. The media revelations triggered not just Somyureks sacking from the ministry and resignation from the party, but a broader probe by Labor into how its rules and practices had become so warped.

On Wednesday, it was the turn of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) and the Victorian Ombudsman to release the findings of their joint investigation. After tapping phones and holding public and private hearings, including the use of coercive powers, the two powerful regulators could not have produced a stronger indictment not just of Somyureks behaviour, but of the political culture in Victorian Labor.

Premier Daniel Andrews addresses the media to respond to the damning report. Credit:Paul Jeffers

It was a catalogue of unethical and inappropriate behaviour and concerning practices, they said.

Several main abuses were revealed. Grants to community groups were handed out with inadequate scrutiny because those groups were important in some factional battle or other; staff in ALP head office turned a blind eye to evidence of branch stacking and the payment of members fees; staff and MPs knew of signatures being forged; MPs staff had unauthorised access to sensitive information on ALP databases.
Rachael Matuschka thought the battle was over when her community defeated a controversial plan to build one of the southern hemispheres biggest abalone farms on the doorstep of their south-west Victorian town.

Residents of Bolwarra, near Portland, rejoiced in December 2020 when the states planning tribunal rejected the $60 million proposal for a 46-hectare facility beside the ocean.

Rachael and Gary Matuschka at their home that backs onto the proposed site of a new abalone farm. Credit:Nicole Cleary

The residents had argued the noise, visual impact and odour from such a big industrial operation with enormous concrete tanks and a hatchery building had no place in a rural living zone. The Port of Portland joined them in opposing the farm.

When the company behind the proposal, Yumbah Aquaculture, failed to appeal against the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision, Matuschka thought the project was dead.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expects federal MPs to wear masks if they cannot socially distance when parliament sits next week but did not back calls for mask mandates to return.

Donning a mask for the first time as prime minister at a press conference, Albanese said its up to employers to decide on enforcing masks or working from home during the winter Omicron wave.

Anthony Albanese and Mark Butler wore masks when not speaking at their press conference in Melbourne. Credit:Penny Stephens

The truth is that if you have mandates, youve got to enforce them. And the mandates, like when I spoke to the NSW premier last week, he indicated that whilst there are mandates on public transport in NSW, not everyone is wearing a mask, Albanese said in Melbourne.

Albanese said businesses had adjusted to staff working from home during the pandemic and some work practices changed permanently as a result.
The new United States ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, has released a message to Australia celebrating her familys wartime connections to the country while saying she wants to strengthen peace in the Indo-Pacific.

The daughter of former US president John F Kennedy, and the US ambassador to Japan during Barack Obamas presidency, is due to arrive in Australia on Friday.

The new US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy. Credit:Bloomberg

In a video message broadcast online on Wednesday, Australian time, Kennedy spoke of the Australian coast watcher, Arthur Reginald Evans, who helped save the life of her father during WWII.

I know that our countries are the strongest of allies and that our parents and grandparents fought side by side for more than 100 years. Their sacrifices have made it possible or us to live in two of the worlds greatest democracies, Kennedy said in the address.
The Coalition and Greens have accused the Andrews government of deflecting from Labors internal problems by including a proposal that could strip millions of dollars from other parties among a set of integrity reforms.

Premier Daniel Andrews on Wednesday said his government would adopt all 21 of the Ombudsman and Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commissions recommendations in a report about unethical and systemic behaviour in Victorian Labor.

Daniel Andrews addresses the media on Wednesday. Credit:Paul Jeffers

But Andrews said he would go further by passing new laws, which were not recommended by the independent agencies, to block parties from receiving public funding if they did not establish minimum standards to stamp out improper activities such as branch stacking. This funding equates to about $6 for every vote at an election and is the main source of funding for future campaigns because private donations are capped at a low level.

Key crossbencher Fiona Patten questioned the focus turning to smaller parties and said it was up to the major parties to get their house in order.
ADVANCED ALLIED BASE, Monday  With the infiltration of Japanese troops from Gona Mission in northern Papua and the contacting of them by our patrols at Awala about 40 miles from the coast, it seems that the land battle for Port Moresby will be fought in the jungle hills of New Guinea in the region of the Owen Stanley Range.

Diggers on the Kokoda Track during World War II. Credit:Damien Parer/Australian War Memorial

Todays communique tells of the engaging of the enemy in light skirmishes at Awala, a small native village, 22 miles north-east of Kokoda. Kokoda is roughly half way between the Buna coast line and Port Moresby. The distance from Buna to Kokoda is about 60 miles.

If the enemy succeeded in getting through to Kokoda they would still have to negotiate the steep pass over the Owen Stanley Range before they could descend on Port Moresby. It appears that the Japanese, after landing at the Bona Mission, lost no time in spreading fanwise and making south-west, in the direction of the pass to Port Moresby.

Their landing was interrupted, and some of their supply ships were forced a few days ago to take off without unloading but the numbers that reached the cover of the bush were sufficient to enable parties to carry on towards Moresby.

The extent of the Japanese success in this drive will depend on whether reinforcements and supplies can be brought up from the North Papuan coast. The key to the position, therefore, is Gona, where the Allies kept up a continuous air attack on Sunday with the object of destroying food and ammunition dumps and gun batteries.
Islamabad: Taliban intelligence officials threatened an Australian journalist with jail unless she publicly apologised for reporting on alleged abuses by the group, she has said.

Lynne ODonnell was held in Afghanistan and made to tweet apologies for past articles that alleged the Taliban used teenage girls as sex slaves and forced young women into marriage.

Zabiullah Mujahid, left, the spokesman for the Taliban government, speaks during a press conference in Kabulon June 30. Credit:AP

She was also forced to record a video clip declaring that she had not been coerced into making the apologies.

The experienced Afghanistan correspondent disclosed her ordeal on Wednesday after she had safely left the country.
London: If Tuesdays 40-degree day is a sign of whats to come for Britain, several things are painfully clear  it is not equipped nor ready for an Australian-style climate.

Tuesday (UK time) was the first day in the six years Ive been here that I had the feeling of living simultaneously in an oven and a tinderbox.

Temperatures were so high that the main goal was to move as little as possible. Credit:AP

That gnawing worry that this weather was so hot, the tiniest of sparks could trigger something that could be uncontrollable, and lethal.

Fires broke out. One from a compost heap. Then there was that familiar feeling of gratitude and sheer wonder at how the firefighters could be battling infernos in the unrelenting sun while the rest of us were trying to find any sort of relief in darkened flats or, if you were lucky, an air-conditioned venue.
If you ever wondered what it would be like for composer William Finn (Falsettos) to musicalize an episode of Dateline, your dream has come true. A world premiere folk musical, A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill, now running at the Geffen Playhouse, features the germ of a good idea, but the execution is sloppy and confounding.

A Jewish Community Center in modern-day Cherry Hill, New Jersey, puts on its annual program, a remembrance of a tragedy that befell the small, mostly Jewish, town in the mid '90s. Their play focuses on a charismatic new rabbi (Danny Rothman) who wanted everyone to call him Fred, had formed a temple, and quickly entranced the congregants, especially the wayward wives. He had instigated an affair with a widow, and eventually decided his own wife, a kindly caterer, was in his way.

Matt Schatz's fully sung-through play-within-a-play tangles with ideas that were James M. Cain's bread and butter. Cain's novels' amoral characters in Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice ignite passions so engulfing that in-the-way spouses lose their purpose for being. Unlike the murderers of Cain's novels who leaped off the page and into our imaginations, Rabbi Fred is a narcissistic psychopath who violates his vulnerable congregants and sees everyone as a vehicle of adulation for him or merely a waste of his precious air. Those characteristics are cold, and uninviting. Villains bewitch audiences in compelling noir, making us sometimes want them to get away with murder; but here, there's no connection to the alien creature of Fred. The play invests no time in his relationship with his wife, or his mistress. At 90 minutes, the play is a sketch as opposed to a fully engrossing tragedy.

The format of the play-within-a-play distances the audience further. These aren't Fred, his wife, and congregants sharing their story, these are members of the JCC who each year share this tale in-between the chopped liver and the rugelach. Though the actors on the Geffen stage are professional, the actors at the JCC are not, and the amateurish exuberance they convey makes the true and vile story of Rabbi Fred seem frivolous. Also, if the audience is to believe this is a Shabbas skit, performed among families, the many curse words and sexual innuendoes  including those in an erotic song that implies orgasm sung by the naughty wives who lust after Fred  are clearly out of place.

Schatz utilizes folk music throughout the evening, sewing in some melodies that would be familiar to active Jewish temple congregants, and he has a good sense of rhythm. Some of the melodies are clever and constructive. Folk makes sense, since this "play" has been written and produced by the JCC members, but it also trivializes the crimes and the anger. The tone of the piece is cheery, but the subject is lurid. A hybrid of rock and folk, a clashing of tones, may have benefited the show's mood. The lyrics, though, are problematic. No victims were beaten with a lead pipe as hard as the audience was bludgeoned by those poor rhymes schemes, making the lyrics sound like they were written by a Dr. Seuss wannabe.

The cast is talented, but the script gives them little with which to work. Rothman gives off a Jim Jones vibe, sexy and controlling, the audience isn't given the chance to understand his motives. Fred is Fred Neulander, an actual Rabbi from Cherry Hill, who did hire two men to murder his wife in 1994. Since this story is based in truth, the sketchiness of the subject, who is still alive in prison, is disappointing. Jill Sobule, a pop-artist from the '90s, plays Fred's wife as an adorable pixie, so her death seems uncomfortably cruel. Zehra Fazal has a lovely voice as the widow, but the play also limits her by not delving into her love/lust for the rabbi, while never revealing her thoughts on the crimes committed for her.

Dane Laffrey's set, a banquet hall at a JCC, looks like every JCC on the East Coast, particularly with those stone-lined walls. Raquel Barreto's costumes ingeniously look like a hodge-podge of personal collections that each JCC member would have brought in to dress their characters.

Writer Schatz and director Mike Donahue are down a solid road. The concept itself of a community healing by remembering the past, is a major tenet of Judaism. At least two essential holidays, Purim and Passover, exist for that very reason. But the tone is muddled, and the author may have hobbled himself by sticking to the facts of the Fred Neulander case. Had he used the crime as a stepping-off point and brought in new aspects to flesh out the characters, particularly the wife and mistress, the audience would have understood the relationships better and been more intrigued. In its present form, it falls flat.
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July 20, 2022 CHIZ HOPES TO SEE BILL ON WAIVER ON BANK SECRECY PASSED UNDER 19TH CONGRESS Senator Chiz Escudero has expressed optimism that his proposal to mandate all government officials and employees to waive their rights under the Bank Secrecy Law (Republic Act 1405) and the Foreign Currency Deposit Act (RA 6426) will finally see its light under the 19th Congress. Recently Escudero has filed Senate Bill No. 56 as one of his priority legislation to make it mandatory for all government personnel, except those who serve in an honorary capacity, to submit a written permission in favor of the Office of the Ombudsman to access and examine all their deposits, including foreign currency deposits, here and abroad. Escudero first filed his pet bill in 2010 during his first term as senator. It was enrolled as SB No. 16. He again refiled this bill in 2013 and 2016. The veteran legislator had always submitted to the Senate Secretary his Statement of Assets and Liabilities (SALN) together with a signed waiver on secrecy of bank deposits to set an example to his fellow public servants. "Nakailang Kongreso na rin na hindi pumapasa pero hindi pa rin ako titigil. Simple ang paniniwala ko: Kung wala kang kinakatakutan at kung wala kang tinatago, wala kang dapat katakutan sa panukalang ito. Ika nga nila kung ayaw mo naman pumirma ng waiver eh 'di 'wag kang pumasok sa gobyerno," he explained. The coverage, as proposed in SB 56, will however further include deposits in banks and other financial institutions both in and outside the Philippines, as well as investment bonds issued by the Philippine government, its political subdivisions and instrumentalities. To ensure that the waiver will not be used improperly for political persecution or "witch hunt," Escudero stated in the bill that "only the Office of the Ombudsman shall obtain or use the written permission or waiver, or any other information or data obtained by virtue thereof." SB 56 said the written permission or waiver will be used exclusively for investigating a duly verified complaint or for prosecuting a case before the courts. The Escudero bill tasks the Office of the Ombudsman to have the primary responsibility in implementing the proposal if enacted into law, "provided, however, that it shall enlist the advice of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in the drafting of the written permission or waiver." In his Explanatory Note, the senator cited the need to introduce more exceptions from the secrecy of bank deposits as the existing ones are quite limited and exclusive. "Currently, RA 1405 admits of four (4) exceptions while RA 6426 only one (1), which essentially treats foreign currency deposits with absolute confidentiality. The policy intent is quite tenable given that the above laws on bank deposits have passed the test of time and remained unchanged," he pointed out. "However, such intent has its own unintended consequences - this is when banks are used as institutions to hide illegal wealth, fund illegal activities, launder money, evade taxes and commit other financial crimes under the mantle of a statutorily mandated secrecy. It is for this reason that all countries now, except the Philippines, have lifted the secrecy of bank deposits," Escudero added. According to Escudero, given the policy direction toward the lifting of the secrecy of bank deposits to address the commission of financial crimes, the government should spearhead the move by mandating its officials and employees to waive the secrecy of bank deposits as provided by law. "In doing so, the government could effectively mitigate, if not resolve, the problem of graft and corruption in government," he said.
Making a return to our two favourite summer locations, Mount Maunganui and Nelson in early January 2023, we've got whiff of the first release lineup and me oh my, yes boy
The crest of the York Regional Police on the headquarters building in Aurora, Ontario, on Sept. 15, 2020. (Shutterstock)

12 Teens Charged for Swarming-Style Robberies Near Canadas Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario

Ontarios York Regional Police have charged 12 youths for a string of swarming-style robberies in the City of Vaughan in June, near Canadas Wonderland and the surrounding area.

The youths were arrested and charged with multiple offences, including robbery, assault, mischief under $5,000, and causing a disturbance, the police said in a statement on July 20.

In all of these incidents, victims reported being swarmed and robbed by a large group of young people in the evening hours, the police said, adding that many victims were teenagers.

According to a charge list, all of the 12 arrested were teenagers, with the youngest being 13 years old.

In light of this, parents are being encouraged to speak with their children about personal safety when unsupervised, as well as the consequences of participating in criminal activities.

The arrests were part of the polices Operation Beehave, launched over the Canada Day long weekend in response to a series of robberies last month in the area of Jane Street and Norwood Avenue, right next to Canadas Wonderland and the nearby sidewalks and plaza.

The police said their efforts have been effective, and no more swarming robberies have been reported since the start of the operation. But they also noted that more arrests are expected as the investigation continues.

Operation Beehave will continue through the summer, the police said, adding that investigators will continue to work with Canadas Wonderland security, community members, and business owners in the area to gather video surveillance, report incidents, and arrest offenders.

York Regional Police also encouraged any additional victims and witnesses of such swarming robberies to contact local police or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

The police also provided some safety tips to residents, including being vigilant of their surroundings and calling 9-1-1 when they suspect they are being followed. When approached by thieves, residents should remain calm and comply, while trying to note the characteristics of the robbers, weapons involved, and direction in which they fled.
Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the persecution of the spiritual discipline in China, in New York's Chinatown on July 10, 2022. (Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)

23 Years of CCP Persecution: How Falun Gong Became the Most Oppressed Group in Chinese Society

Tortured, beaten, imprisoned, killed, and ostracized. Falun Gong practitioners have routinely suffered these abuses at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for the past 23 years.

Their accounts of persecution include being sentenced to forced labor camps, shocked with electric batons, deprived of sleep, raped, denied employment or expelled from school, among many othersall because of their faith.

Victims range from children starting at the age of onedetained and forced to watch their parents being torturedto elderly people tortured to death. The CCPs brutal treatment of Falun Gong adherents has not spared the most vulnerable.

The CCPs campaign has made Falun Gong practitioners the most oppressed group in Chinese society, reads a 2019 report titled The 20-Year Persecution of Falun Gong in China by Minghui, a U.S.-based website that tracks the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline involving meditative exercises and moral teachings based on three core principles: truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. The practice gained popularity in China during the 1990s, with estimates putting the number of adherents at 70 million to 100 million.

The communist regime, fearing the number of practitioners posed a threat to its authoritarian control, initiated a sweeping campaign aimed at eradicating the practice starting on July 20, 1999, a program that continues today.

Since then, millions have been detained in prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, with hundreds of thousands tortured while incarcerated, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.

Detained adherents also have been victims of forced organ harvesting, which has resulted in an untold number of practitioners being killed for their organs to supply the organ transplant market in China.

Myriad Accounts of Persecution

For the past 20 years, Minghui has been collecting and publishing individual accounts of the persecution, which were systematized, and grouped by patterns observed in the suppression of Falun Gong, for the purpose of the report.

No book can cover the hundreds of thousands of persecution cases we have recorded, David Li, from Minghui publishing, told The Epoch Times. We have practitioners getting arrested, put in prison, tortured, even killed  the purpose of all that is to force them to renounce their belief [in what Falun Gong stands for]: truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

Such patterns include the detention of practitioners in brainwashing centers, forced labor camps, and mental hospitals.

Minghui outlined 100 torture methods used on detained practitioners, such as beating, force-feeding, electric shocks, suffocation, rape, forced abortion, sleep deprivation, burning with hot water or oil, among others.

But besides grisly stories about torture and death in detention facilities, the book brings to light more overlooked aspects of the persecution, such as the suffering inflicted on children and ostracism experienced by practitioners.

Falun Dafa practitioners commemorate lives lost and 20 years of persecution by the Chinese communist regime in Sydney, Australia, on July 19, 2019. (The Epoch Times)

Child Victims

Children of Falun Gong adherents have also been victimized by the CCPs eradication campaign, according to Minghuis report.

Some children were detained and abused themselves. But others suffered collateral damage due to the persecution of their loved ones.

Many children became homeless orphans or were left to fend for themselves because their parents were imprisoned or killed. Others suffered psychological damage after their parents were tortured, or their homes ransacked.

Some were deprived of an education because they practiced Falun Gong, or with the purpose to coerce their parents to renounce their faith.

Most of them suffered the consequences of discrimination caused by heavy brainwashing of their peers against Falun Gong, becoming social pariahs, humiliated and bullied.

Growing up in fear and witnessing their loved ones being arrested and tortured again and again will have long-lasting impact on these children, their extended families, and their own children, reads the report.

1 Year Old Detained in Brainwashing Center

Minghuis book mentions the case of Guo Yuetong, a 1-year-old who spent a year in the Changli Brainwashing Center, in northern Chinas Hebei Province, in 2001 while detained with her mother, a Falun Gong practitioner.

The child was present when her mother was torturednamely, beaten, force-fed, and shocked with electric batons.

Every time the guards tortured her mother, Yuetong was so scared that she hid in the corner and cried, the report stated.

Yuetong turned 3 years old while still in the brainwashing center. She and her mother were detained again three years later.

A mother and daughter join Falun Gong practitioners for a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate in New York on July 16, 2017. Launched on July 20, 1999, the persecution is now entering its 18th year inside China. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times)

13-Year-Old Girl Force-Fed in Brainwashing Center

Chen Si was only 13 and attending middle school in southwest Chinas Chongqing city when she was arrested for distributing information about Falun Gong in 2001.

The police beat her and sent her to Geleshan Brainwashing Center, where she was interrogated.

The young girl started a hunger strike in protest, so the police force-fed her for two weeks.

After her release, she wasnt allowed to go back to school because she kept practicing Falun Gong.

Teenage Girl Traumatized After Witnessing Her Parents Getting Tortured

During April 2003, the police forced Yuanyuan, a 16-year-old girl from northern Chinas Heilongjiang Province, to watch while they tied her parents to a tiger bencha torture device designed to inflict unbearable pain on the legsand subjected them to other similar torture methods.

Police also force-fed her parents large amounts of mustard oil through the mouth and nose, and suffocated them by placing plastic bags around their heads.

Once Yuanyuan and her parents were released, the police told the young girl she had to stand still at the door of her building for hours.

They threatened to beat her parents if she dared to move. Fearing that her parents would suffer more torture, Yuanyuan stood still until her feet became swollen and turned purple, Minghuis report stated.

These experiences deeply harmed Yuanyuans mental health. She was unable to continue her studies and started to wander on the streets, eating food from garbage bins.

Though she is currently 32, Yuanyuan is not self-sufficient nor independent.

Falun Gong practitioner Chi Lihua and her daughter, Xu Xinyang, holding before and after photos of Xu Dawei, husband of Chi Lihua and father of Xu Xinyang, at the roundtable Religious Persecution in China in the Russell Senate Office Building on July 23. (Jennifer Zeng/Epoch Times)

Hatred Instilled Against Falun Gong

A critical component of the CCPs persecution is its disinformation campaign against the practice, aimed at turning Chinese citizens against Falun Gong and its adherents. To this end, the regime has relied heavily on propaganda, spreading hatred against the practice by misrepresenting it and vilifying its adherents.

From an early age, children are brainwashed against Falun Gong through the education system, starting in elementary school, according to Minghuis report.

Children are trained to be loyal to the CCP, said David Li, the representative of Minghui Publishing.

Against the backdrop of the smear campaign, the regime demands neighbors, family members, and coworkers to report on and deliver Falun Gong practitioners to the authorities and discriminate against them.

The regime has successfully used its system of brainwashing and thought control to turn children against parents, husbands against wives, and students against teachers, the report stated.

Through propaganda and thought control, the CCP managed to have people operate as proxies of the Party in the persecution, the report added.

Woman Beaten to Death by Her Own Son

One example of Chinese citizens serving as proxies of the Party is the case of Lu Shurong, a 77-year-old woman from northeastern Tianjin city who was beaten to death by her own son.

Lu had been arrested for her faith in the past, and her son, Du Xuedong, a 50-year-old military veteran, had posted bail twice to have her released.

Because the woman refused to quit practicing Falun Gong, and this could jeopardize her sons efforts to become a government employee, he started becoming hostile toward her.

While under the influence of alcohol, on Sept. 27, 2018, Du beat his mother for more than an hour, breaking her wrist and ten ribs.

Because one of her broken ribs pierced her lung and her organs were gravely injured, she died after being hospitalized for 24 days.

Discrimination

Falun Gong adherents of all ages have suffered discrimination at all levels of society, becoming completely shunned by their peers.

No matter who they are, wherever they go, as long as they dont give up practicing Falun Gong, they are labeled enemies of the Party and subjected to ruthless persecution, the book stated.

Practitioners have been denied education by getting expelled from schools or not being allowed into college because of their faith.

They have been denied employment or fired from their jobs.

Their companies have been shut down or their clients stopped associating with them because of their faith.

Man Treated as an Enemy by Clients and Neighbors

He Lifang was detained and beaten by 17 inmates for practicing Falun Gong.

As the owner of a business, he was very successful before the persecution started. But due to the CCPs propaganda campaign against his faith, his clients started treating him with hostility.

One neighbor who used to be friendly swore at me and my family. Even children sometimes cursed at us because they too had been influenced by the propaganda, he told Minghui, while recounting the persecution he suffered.

Falun Gong practitioners at candlelight vigil remembering victims of the 22 years of persecution in China at the Washington Monument on July 16, 2021. The characters for Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance, the principles taught by the spiritual practice appear at the front. (Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)

Responding With Compassion

Despite the atrocities Falun Gong practitioners have endured in the past 23 years of persecution, theres hope in how they have reacted to the persecution, according to Li of Minghui Publishing.

They have no hatred of their persecutors because they see them as victims  of a CCP system that forces them to act against their conscience and harm their fellow citizens, Li said.

Practitioners have responded to violence with compassion, trying to persuade perpetrators to stop partaking in the persecution, and step out of that cycle of abuse, according to Li.

Everyone is put in a position where they have to make a choice about whether to go along with the persecution, help the persecution or to stand up against it, he added.

After more than two decades of the cruelest violence, these practitioners have not given up their belief, and they are still living by the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, Li said.
Naval police officers patrol the banks of the Suchiate river on the MexicoGuatemala border in Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas State, Mexico, on June 17, 2019. (Quetzalli Blanco/AFP/Getty Images)

3 Migrants Dead, 12 Injured in Mexico Crash

TAPACHULA, MexicoThree migrants and two Mexican citizens are dead and a dozen migrants are recovering from injuries following a highway accident in northern Mexico, the countrys National Immigration Institute said Tuesday.

The three dead migrants included a girl from Honduras; the nationalities of the other two remained unclear. The van the migrants were riding crashed in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon.

It is not clear if the dead Mexicans included the driver of the vehicle.

The injured included people from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. The institute said they would be given humanitarian visas, and the bodies of those deceased would be returned to their home countries.

Victims of crashes involving migrant smuggling are generally considered crime victims in Mexico, and thus are eligible for such visas.

Immigrants smuggling has become increasingly risky in Mexico, with dozens of migrants often found stuffed into freight trucks or buses.

On Tuesday, authorities said angry residents of a town on Mexicos southern border seized three Mexican immigration agents to demand the National Guard and soldiers combat rampant migrants smuggling operations.

Residents say the migrants smugglers frequently attack, rob, or threaten them.

In May, six migrants were killed and 25 were injured after a bus they were riding in plunged through a guardrail and down an embankment in the northern state of San Luis Potosi. All of the victims in that crash were migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, and Cuba.

A much larger truck carrying migrants overturned on a highway near the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez in December, killing at least 56 people.

By Edgar H. Clemente
Aboriginal women gather to meet Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough as he arrives for a meeting with the Mutitjulu community in Mutitjulu, near Alice Springs, Australia, on July 6, 2007. (Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

A Voice for Whom?

Commentary

The new Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, commenced his election victory speech by declaring: On behalf of the Australian Labor Party, I commit to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full. This would involve a First Nations Voice entrenched in the Australian Constitution, consisting of a standing body to advice federal Parliament on laws that affect not just the Aboriginal community but, potentially, the nation as a whole.

In July 2021, the Australian government released its final report on the Indigenous Co-design Process (pdf). This report proposes a consultative body offering advice to the government before a bill is introduced, as well as after a bill goes through its final phase of approval in Parliament.

Called the Voice, this body of consultation would consist of 24 members of the Aboriginal community, including five members from remote regions.

Due to problems about confirming Aboriginality, entitlement to vote, and risk of low voter turnout, no member of this body would be elected.

Sadly, writes Dallas Scott, an Indigenous writer, this is the enduring legacy of Aboriginal affairs in Australia.

According to him, the push for such an unelected body serves a highly educated, mostly urban elitist voice with titles such as professor and doctor, demanding far-reaching changes for the Aboriginal community.

As an Indigenous person, Scott is especially critical of individuals who identify themselves as being Aborigine but, in his view, dont have any idea about what its like to be black.

As he explains,

Those given titles such as elder, spokesperson, tribal leader (or some other colourful variations) are those not elected by the people they claim to represent, but overwhelmingly, are self-appointed to such a role. In a society where citizens have been sent to die for the chance to bring democracy to another country, some turn a blind eye to the undemocratic state of native organisations. Australians have happily swallowed the lie that Aborigines are one big, multi-coloured family who stick together.

An Aboriginal man participates in a smoking ceremony for members of the public before the start of the Super Netball Round 13 match between the NSW Swifts and the West Coast Fever at Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney, Australia, on June 5, 2022. (AAP Image/David Gray)

Race-Based Rules

The great hypocrisy in all of this is that the very paternalistic behaviour of the past that the present establishment so self-righteously decry, they now wish to constitutionalise and impose on the least fortunate, least educated, and most isolated members of our society.

Changing the Australian Constitution in order to add this unelected body to act on behalf of the Aboriginal community would add an irrefutably paternalistic element to the nations legal-institutional framework.

In April, a gathering of the Uluru Dialogue nominated two possible dates for such a referendum: May 27, 2023 or Jan. 27, 2024.

Fred Chaney and Bill Gray, the former Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and the founding chief executive of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, respectively argue this would ensure an Indigenous voice on policy and issues that pertain directly to them.

By embedding an obligation within the Constitution, Australia would be ensuring a lasting and enforceable obligation upon the parliament to have an Indigenous representative mechanism in place by which First Australians can have their voice heard on legislative and policy issues that impact directly on their interests, they write.

This amendment to the Constitution would create different rules for different people. However, one of the great virtues of the Australian Constitution is the equal treatment of all citizens regardless of race, culture or origin. The function of our Constitution is not to report on our history but to distribute powers between federal and state governments.

Political Agenda?

So why is there such a great push for this form of constitutional recognition? In The Break-up of Australia: The Real Agenda Behind Aboriginal Recognition, Keith Windschuttle gives his own personal opinion on the subject. According to this Australian writer, historian, and former board member of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, many people today are motivated to rewrite the Australian Constitution for that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a change and fulfil their political ambitions.

Their ambitions are not centred on gaining more liberal reforms or making Australia more democratic. In fact, in order to fulfil their political agendas, most constitutional critics today regard democracy, not as an objective they must pursue, but as an obstacle, they must overcome. For them, it is democracy that is the problem because it gives the majority of ordinary Australians the last word in deciding who governs. In the eyes of those who now dominate our cultural institutions and much of our political leadership, most ordinary Australians are uneducated, uncouth, racist rednecks and a Constitution that gives people like them such power is unbearably frustrating.

The Australian and Aboriginal flags fly on Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of Australia Day celebrations in Sydney, Australia, on Jan. 26, 2021. (Wendell Teodoro/Getty Images)

On Oct. 6, 1999, the political establishment required us to decide on whether a new preamble should be added to the federal Constitution, which contained a recognition of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders as the nations first people. However, only 39 percent voted yes.

To make sure this wont happen again, the government is now committed to spending millions on an education campaign to convince ordinary Australians that recognition carries with it a moral imperative and that another failed referendum simply cannot be contemplated (pdf).

We Are All Australian

Of course, Aboriginal culture is already comprehensively recognised by Australian law. There are numerous federal and state laws ensuring that Aboriginal culture is not just acknowledged but is effectively celebrated. However, there should be no special treatment of citizens based on origin or ancestry. Otherwise, what would happen to those families where a parent could have more rights over their children than the other parent only because of their ancestry?

Instead of creating reconciliation, the fear is that the grant of constitutional privileges could drive us further apart than we have been for generations.

As noted by Ian Callinan QC, a former Australian High Court justice, any constitutional provision which might seek to justify a different law for peoples of different ethnicity on the grounds of that ethnicity, should be resisted. This must be so for reasons of fairness and social cohesion, as well as clarity of application.

To conclude, the drafters of our Constitution intended that every citizen in this country should be treated equally before the law. However, the creation of the Voice in our parliament would involve the granting of special privileges to self-appointed leaders of the Aboriginal community on the sole grounds of their apparent ancestry. Surely, one might say, we are all created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights is a much better principle of constitutional law than we got here first!

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Advocates for Private Health Care Decry BC Court Decision to Uphold Public Health-Care Monopoly

Advocates for private health care say theyre disappointed in the B.C. Court of Appeals ruling against a constitutional challenge brought forward by a Vancouver surgical clinic, as they say patients are dying on wait-lists.

Cambie Surgeries Corporation issued a constitutional challenge against two sections of B.C.s Medical Protection Act that prevent doctors from billing patients above the rate paid through the Medical Services Plan (MSP) and prohibit the sale of private insurance that covers treatment provided under MSP.

The plaintiffs argued that the prohibition runs contrary to Section 7 of the charter, which says, Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.

In September 2020, Justice John Steeves of the B.C. Supreme Court ruled against Cambie and four co-plaintiffs who were patients. On July 15 of this year, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld that decision and ruled that private options would make wait times worse. Therefore, the curtailment of Section 7 rights is justified under Section 1 provisions of reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

Dr. Brian Day opened the Cambie Surgery Centre in 1996 and launched the lawsuit in 2009. He believes the verdict provides a basis to build on.

Theres a lot in there that would help us at the Supreme Court of Canada, Day told The Epoch Times.

Obviously, were disappointed by that [appeal court] decision, but they identified many errors. They basically came to the conclusion that there was a violation of the right to life, which the trial judge did not, he said.

However, he believes the appeal judges also made errors. In paragraph 41, the majority opinion of Chief Justice Robert Bauman and Justice David Harris said available statistics on wait times did not capture the full distribution and raw SPR [Surgical Patient Registry] data is not in the record.

Day disagrees.

We had data that people were dying on wait-lists, but we also had data on the number of people with cancers that were not being treated. It was filed as evidence at the appeal court. So were a bit concerned that they didnt even look at that data, which was in there, he says.

Dr. Brian Day, Medical Director of the Cambie Surgery Centre, sits for a photograph at his office in Vancouver, Canada, on Aug. 31, 2016. (Darryl Dyck/the Candian Press)

Justice Laurie Ann Fenlon concurred with the majority opinion. However, she went further by saying that fundamental justice was denied by the results of the ban on private options. She found these grossly disproportionate: prolonged suffering, irremediable physical harm, and even increased risk to life. Nevertheless, she said Section 1 would overrule Section 7 freedoms because otherwise wait times for the most vulnerable would potentially be worse.

A system that provides care three years after it is needed could not, except by the most strained definition, be described as a system that provides access to medical care, Fenlon wrote.

I recognize the legal dissonance in finding that a law that does not accord with the principles of fundamental justice is nonetheless constitutional. But I conclude that this is one of those rare cases that compels such a result. Section 1 is intended to ensure that laws that infringe individual rights may, if they meet certain criteria, nonetheless be upheld when the needs of othersthe common goodcompels such a result.

Day says surveys from the Commonwealth Fund (CF) show that the health care of vulnerable Canadians is already worse than that of others. In 2021, CF surveyed people in 10 high-income nations that have universal health care, plus the United States, on the performance of their health-care systems based on criteria including affordability, timeliness, preventive care, safe care, coordinated care, and engagement and patient preferences in their health care. Only the United States had worse income-related disparities in performance than Canada.

However, a 2016 CF survey found that Canada had the highest percentage of patients waiting four months or more for elective surgeries in the last two years. Canadas 18 percent total was twice the 11-nation average and six times that of the United States.

False Dichotomy

Nadeem Esmail, a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute, says Canadians are stuck in this false dichotomy that its only their way or the American way. He believes the B.C. court decision was not in the common interest.

Its not entirely clear who won that decision, but it is abundantly clear that British Columbias patients and those in need of health care lost. There is this unusual Canadian obsession with the idea that having a public monopoly equals universality, and its just not true, Esmail said in an interview.

Sweden has a very similar approach to the Canadian model. Its a provincial system, its a universal tax-funded scheme. And yet in Sweden, an individual has a choice when they go to the hospital whether theyre going to go under the terms of universal scheme, or if they wish to care for themselves with their own resources with their own private insurance. Its the same option somebody has in the United Kingdom or Australia.

Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that Canada has just one hospital bed for every 400 citizens and that 91.6 percent of them were occupied prior to the pandemic. Esmail says its Canadas lacking approach that has caused inferior results.

When we look around the developed world, we find that every other developed nation with a universal access health-care system gives patients the option to choose to look after themselves with their own resources if and when the universal scheme is unwilling or unable to deliver health care they desire, he says.

That leads to better-performing universal access.  [Patients] have shorter waiting times; they have better access to physicians and medical technology.

This approach also provides more timely access as some people will opt for private care, which allows the public system to focus its attention on those who are still in the system and not paying for their own care, Esmail says.

We also have an incentive for doctors to provide extra services because they can operate outside of their publicly available hours and still provide services to those individuals. There are a myriad of benefits that get created.

British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix speaks during a press conference in Victoria on Dec. 21, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Chad Hipolito)

But some, including B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix, welcomed the ruling.

We are extremely pleased with todays decision from the B.C. Court of Appeal, Dix said.

This ruling emphasizes the importance of our strong public health-care system, which is a cornerstone of our Canadian identity. The purpose of the Medicare Protection Act is to have a publicly managed health-care system for British Columbia in which access to necessary medical care is based on need and not an individuals ability to pay.

Dr. Melanie Bechard, chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, an intervenor in the legal case, said that equitable solutions exist to address problems with wait times and quality of care.

Allowing doctors to charge patients as much as they want, and forcing patients to pay out-of-pocket or purchase private insurance is not one of them, Bechard said in a statement.

Catalysts for Change

In her ruling, Justice Fenlon said pressure to change the current system will grow unless it addresses its shortcomings.

If there is to be improvement in the delivery of timely care in the public system, the pressure of voter dissatisfaction with the current system and the sheer number of those who cannot obtain timely care will be catalysts for change, she wrote.

A 2019 Ipsos poll found that 42 percent of Canadians pointed to wait times in emergency rooms and hospitals as being among their top three health concerns among 15 options. Colin Craig, president of SecondStreet.org, says those whose health has deteriorated on the wait-list would find it difficult to accept the appeal court decision.

Thats a very tough pill to swallow for the courts to say that its understandable that patients are going to suffer because of the health-care system, but by doing so it helps fulfill some ideological goal that the government has.  You cant simply put patients on a waiting list and call that health care, Craig said in an interview.

Too often thats what happens in this country. And too often patients die before they even get their chance at health care. Theres all kinds of patients suffering thats happening in this country, and it makes no sense for the status quo to continue.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.


Alex Murdaugh is escorted out of the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., on July 20, 2022. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP)

Alex Murdaugh Pleads Not Guilty to Murdering Wife and Son

WALTERBORO, S.C.The once-powerful and now disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he murdered his wife and son 13 months ago, with one of his defense attorneys calling for a speedy trial to clear his name and prod authorities to go for the real killers.

Wearing a white face mask beneath his shaved head and ankle chains above shiny leather shoes, the 54-year-old Murdaugh made his first court appearance in Colleton County since being indicted in the murder case last week. Despite his not guilty plea, he agreed to remain jailed without bond.

One of his lawyers, Dick Harpootlian, said the defense team wanted to avoid a bond hearing that might reveal new information about the killings and risk prejudicing potential jurors when the case goes to trial. He also said Murdaugh, already saddled with $7 million in bond on unrelated criminal charges, cant afford to put up cash for his release pending trial.

Murdaugh has been behind bars since October, charged with financial crimes and several other misdeeds that were uncovered after the killings of his wife Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, at the familys Colleton County hunting estate in June 2021.

Harpootlian told a judge Wednesday that Murdaugh wants to stand trial within the next three to four months to show that investigators from South Carolinas State Law Enforcement Division targeted the wrong man.

He believes that the killer or killers are still at large and this would allow SLED to put this behind them and go for the real killers, Harpootlian said.

Alex Murdaugh appears for a hearing at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., on July 20, 2022. (Gavin McIntyre/The Post And Courier via AP)

Prosecutor Creighton Waters, a deputy state attorney general, replied that trying the case by January or sooner would be very aggressive.

The evidence in this case is substantial and it all points back to Alex Murdaugh, Waters said. There is forensic evidence as well as other evidence of his guilt of these murders.

Circuit Judge Clifton Newman made no rulings in court other than denying bond for Murdaugh. He said he would issue written orders later on the speedy trial request as well as a request for a gag order to prohibit lawyers and investigators in the case from speaking to news outlets.

Murdaugh is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of possessing a weapon during a violent crime. The indictment alleges that he fatally shot his wife with a rifle and used a shotgun to kill his son.

Authorities have released no evidence of how police linked Murdaugh to the deaths after 13 months of investigation. And the hearing Wednesday provided no clues as to why a man who had no criminal history and was part of a wealthy, well-connected family that dominated the legal community in the tiny town of Hampton might have wanted to kill his own family members.

Authorities have been tight-lipped since the start of the investigation. Last year, they released the late-night 911 call in which Murdaugh reported finding the bodies of his wife and son outside by the dog kennels on his estate. The coroner said both victims had been shot multiple times.

Newman, the judge who presided over Murdaughs hearing Wednesday, had previously denied bond for Murdaugh on the financial crimes charges. A different judge later set bond at $7 million but Murdaugh was unable to pay it and has remained in jail. His lawyers have complained several times that the bond was set too high, and said that because of lawsuits and frozen assets Murdaugh couldnt even afford to buy underwear from the jail store.

If convicted of murder, Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison without parole. Under state law, prosecutors could also choose to seek the death penalty because more than one person was killed.

The four new indictments connected to the slayings added to a pile of 80 other charges lodged against Murdaugh by investigators who have scrutinized every part of his life over the past year. No trial dates have been set for any of the cases.

Prosecutors said the once-prominent attorney stole more than $8 million in settlements and other money from clients, committed fraud and lied to police by trying to arrange his own death so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy. Murdaugh was also charged last month with co-running a $2 million money laundering and drug ring.

The murder charges and other cases are being prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney Generals Office because of links Murdaugh has to the local 14th Circuit Solicitors Office. The offices jurisdiction includes Colleton County and Hampton County, where Murdaughs father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were the elected prosecutors for 87 consecutive years.

By Russ Bynum
A worker prepares packages for delivery at an Amazon warehouse on in Brieselang, Germany, on Sept. 14, 2014. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Amazon Warehouses Under Investigation Over Complaints About Unsafe Working Conditions, Pace of Work

Amazon warehouses in three states are under investigation over alleged unsafe workplace conditions, officials have confirmed.

The investigations also will examine injuries resulting from workplace hazards, worker rate requirements, and the pace of work, as well as whether the retailing giant has appropriately reported on-the-job injuries.

Federal prosecutors in New York and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are inspecting a number of Amazon warehouses across the country, and inspections were launched on Monday morning, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY).

The investigations began in warehouses outside New York City, Chicago, and Orlando, and came in response to referrals received from SDNY, according to SDNY chief spokesperson Nicholas Biase.

Workers across Amazon warehouses have attempted to form unions in recent months amid complaints over working conditions, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and safety issues.

A Staten Island, New York, facility voted in favor of unionizing in April, making it the first Amazon warehouse to be represented by a union in the United States.

This morning, the United States Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration entered Amazon warehouses outside New York City, Chicago, and Orlando to conduct workplace safety inspections in response to referrals received from the United States Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York concerning potential workplace hazards related, among other things, to Amazons required pace of work for its warehouse employees, a spokesman for the office, Nicholas Biase, said in a statement to ABC News on Monday.

Fraudulent Conduct

The Civil Division of the SDNY is investigating potential worker safety hazards at Amazon warehouses across the country, as well as possible fraudulent conduct designed to hide injuries from OSHA and others, Biase added.

A U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson confirmed in a statement to CNBC that it has launched investigations at Amazon warehouses in New York, Illinois, and Florida over alleged safety and health violations.

The spokesperson added that it routinely receives referrals from various federal agencies, law enforcement, advocacy groups, and others, but declined to provide more information on the probes because they are active investigations.

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told the outlet in a statement that the company will cooperate with OSHA during the investigation, adding that they ultimately believe the probe will show that these concerns are unfounded.

As part of the ongoing investigation, SDNY is asking those who have information regarding alleged safety issues at Amazon warehouses to report it via an online form.

Specifically, SDNY notes that it would like to hear from current and former warehouse workers, supervisors, safety team members, AmCare staff, or anyone else with relevant information.

The e-commerce giant has come under fire from activist groups and regulators over its labor practices, including working hours and conditions.

More Probes

In December, Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) called on the Labor Department to conduct a full federal probe into the companys employment practices, adding that they had questions about possible violations of wage and hour laws and occupational safety rules.

The senators noted that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that Amazon wrongfully terminated a worker who complained about unsafe working conditions during the pandemic, and pointed to the collapse of an Amazon warehouse in Illinois during a tornado, which led to the deaths of six people.

In March, the company was fined $60,000 following a probe by the Washington Department of Labor & Industries that found that Amazon was knowingly putting workers at risk of injury, in a warehouse in Kent, Washington.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a letter to shareholders in April that the companys injury rates are sometimes misunderstood, but that the retailer is passionate about further improving safety in our fulfillment network, with a focus on reducing strains, sprains, falls, and repetitive stress injuries.

The Epoch Times reached out to Amazon for comment.
American Flags, Born in the USA

Commentary

CHARLESTON, South CarolinaInside the Allegiance Flag Companys facilities, it is hard not to notice that the employees making the flags reflect the beauty and diversity that has always been the promise and purpose of our country. They use their skills to make American flags in America, perfectly encapsulating the three young owners mission in starting this company.

In short, they set out to make a flag where every stitch, hem, and thread would be made in the United States. And theyve done it.

Owners Katie and Wes Lyon and their childhood friend Max Berry said it was an idea that came from lots of late-night conversations. They wanted to be their own bosses, and they realized that most flags in big-box stores and local hardware stores are made in Chinaand not very well made, at that.

From the small flags you wave at parades to the ones that hang from telephone poles in small towns across the country to the ones you and your neighbors hang from your homes, there are 150 million American flags sold in the United States every year. Of that number, nearly $7 million of those sales go to other countries, in particular China, according to WalletHub.

That includes flags flown at the Capitol. This led a bipartisan group of senators to introduce a bill requiring that the federal government buy only American flags that are produced entirely on U.S. soil.

The federal government can currently purchase flags that contain 50 percent American-made materials, according to a press release from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

Manchin said in his release that in 2017, the United States imported 10 million American flags. All but 50,000 of those came from China. Other sponsors of the bill included Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Rick Scott (R-Fla.).

Wes Lyon said the origins of Allegiance Flag Company began at the University of South Carolina, where he met his wife, Katie. The two settled here after college. Berry came back into the picture while attending business school with Wes Lyon at the College of Charleston. I told Katie one day when I came home from class, I met this really cool guy that I really like a lot whos actually one of my favorite people in the class, Max Berry, he said. And shes like, Whoa, Max Berry? I went to middle school with him!

That serendipitous moment led to lots of long talks between the three of them about what they wanted to do with their lives and their careers. All three were searching for a greater purpose while pursuing that American dream of running their own business.

We all bought houses around the same time, and we live really close to each other, Berry said. And one of the first things that we did when we bought our houses was buy an American flag to hang off of our porch.

It was Wes Lyon who first noticed the shoddy quality of the flags. They just seemed poorly made, Berry said. Then there was just the general confusion about, what size did you need? How do you attach a flag to a flagpole in general? Is it a sleeve? Is it a grommet kind of thing? You dont know. And then, second of all, after we bought our flagsI know I bought mine on Amazon. I think Wes and Katie might have bought theirs at a big-box hardware store like Lowes. And it just seemed really cheap.

After tons of research, Katie Lyon said they soon discovered how many American flags in stores across the country were made in China. It was a bane to us because if there is one product that exists that deserves to be made in America, it is an American flag, she said.

Wes Lyon came up with the idea of trying to start an American flag company, although none of them knew anything about American flags. We didnt know any kind of details, Katie Lyon said. We certainly didnt know how to make American flags.

Eventually, all three left the safety net of their corporate jobs and chased their dream. It is the frontier ethos that has made America great for generationsone cannot find opportunity without risk.

Heck, it is still scary, Berry said. Were certainly more successful now than we were three years ago, but its still a roller coaster every day. The years work is not consistent in its flow: January is a very slow month in the flag business, while June and July are very busy months. There is no backup if they cant keep up in summer.

COVID-19 obviously posed a major challenge. People were stuck indoors, and while there were some stores who were open, they were only selling essential items, Katie Lyon said. American flags were actually taped off at that time. A lot of local mom and pop kind of stores, they were all closed.

As a consequence, e-commerce boomed at the same time that there was a push for American pride. I think in the beginning, a lot of the messaging was we were all in this togetherpeople really were proud of flying the American flag, maybe some that had not purchased a flag in a while, she said. So, I think a lot of the stay-at-home orders, not able to purchase it at stores, huge patriotic push, and then while all that was going on in our country, we had really nailed things internally.

Wes Lyon explained that this happened at the same time they had figured out how to source and make the flags. We got the embroidery of our star fields figured out, we got our stitching figured out, we got sophisticated, and we were able to lower our price to something a little more digestible, he said.

It was then they finally figured out what their company was all about.

When we first launched Allegiance, were like, Were an American flag for everybody, she said. And we really didnt know what that meant. I think thats such a broad statement, and today we still are what we wanted to be in the beginning.

They went from a garage operation to the 25 employees you see working on these incredibly beautiful American flags when you walk in their doors today. They are all made by the seamstressestrue artisans who take pride in making flags that will adorn homes across America.

The American flag stands for something. Even in a divided nation, it means something to people on all sides of the aisle. We are all part of something bigger than ourselves individually and our political tribes. All the more for an American flag actually made in America.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Dr. Harvey Risch, professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, in New York on July 7, 2022. (Bao Qiu/The Epoch Times)

Antibodies From Vaccines Interfering Instead of Neutralizing Because of Spike Protein Changes: Dr. Risch

The antibodies triggered by COVID-19 vaccines are interfering with peoples immune systems as newer virus variants emerge, according to Dr. Harvey Risch.

The two most widely used vaccines in the United States, produced by Pfizer and Moderna, both work by sending messenger RNA into muscle cells, where they produce a piece of the spike protein from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The spike protein triggers the production of antibodies, which are believed to help prevent infection and fight illness if one still gets infected.

But the vaccines are based on the spike protein from the original virus variant, which was displaced early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, a series of newer strains have become dominant around the world, with the latest being BA.5.

The vaccines only make a very narrow range of antibodies to the spike protein, compared to the broader exposure experienced when one gets infected, Risch, an epidemiology professor at the Yale School of Public Health, told EpochTVs American Thought Leaders.

The problem with that is, of course, that when the spike protein changes because of new strains of the virus, the ability of the immune system to make antibodies that correlate to the new strains becomes reduced to the point where it may be almost ineffective over longer periods of time, he said.

That leads to the antibodies being triggered by the vaccines not binding strongly enough to neutralize.

What that means is they become interfering antibodies, instead of neutralizing antibodies, Risch said. And thats the reason I believe that weve seen whats called negative benefitnegative vaccine efficacy over longer timeover four to six to eight months after the last vaccine dose, that one sees the benefit of the vaccines turn negative.

Worse Effectiveness Amid Spike Protein Changes

A number of recent studies have indicated that people who were vaccinated are more likely to get infected with COVID-19 after a period of time, including Pfizers clinical trial in young children (pdf). Some real-world data also show higher rates of infection among the vaccinated. Other research indicates that vaccines still provide some protection as time wears on after getting a shot, but the protection does wane considerably. The research all deals with the Omicron coronavirus variant, which became dominant in late 2021, and its subvariants.

There were relatively few changes to the spike protein as the initial variants emerged, which meant that vaccines still provided a fairly good benefit, Risch said. But Omicron started off with more than 50 changes to the spike protein, and subvariants of Omicron, such as BA.5, have added more.

He pointed to data reported by UK health authorities in March (pdf)officials stopped reporting the data after thatpegging people who had received both a primary vaccination series and a booster as having three times the rate of symptomatic infection as unvaccinated people.

After the second dose of the mRNA vaccines, it looks like they provide a benefit against symptomatic infection for  most people for maybe 10 to 12 weeks, Risch said.

After the first booster, the third dose, that drops to six to eight weeks. After the fourth booster, it may be as short as four weeks before the efficacy wears off and begins to turn negative.

Zachary Stieber Reporter Follow Zachary Stieber covers U.S. and world news. He is based in Maryland.
Soldiers with the 82nd Airborne division walk across the tarmac at Green Ramp to deploy to Poland at Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Feb. 14, 2022. (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)

Army Predicts Cuts of Over 20,000 to Expected Size of Force Over Next 2 Years

'Unprecedented challenges' in attracting and retaining soldiers, says Army's second highest leader

The U.S. Army has indicated it is likely to significantly fall short of its target number of troops over the next two years amid what a top general said were unprecedented challenges in attracting, training, and retaining soldiers.

Army Gen. Joseph Martin, vice chief of staff for the Army, told a House military personnel panel on Tuesday that the projection for the estimated total number of troops in the force by the end of the 2022 fiscal year, Sept. 30, is 466,400.

The original target end strength for the 2022 fiscal year is 473,000, reported the Army Times. Martins estimate would mark a drop of 6,600 from the original target.

Meanwhile, for the end of fiscal year 2023, the Army is projecting a troop size of between 445,000 and 452,000, Martin told lawmakers.

It originally had a target for fiscal year 2023 of 476,000 troops, the Army Times reported. Martins Tuesday estimate would mark a drop of 24,000 to 31,000 from the original target.

Unprecedented Challenges

The Armys number two officer told lawmakers it is striving to reach a troop size of 455,000 for the end of fiscal year 2023, but the question is whether we can achieve it.

Right now what were experiencingthe why of what we think is going on right nowis weve got unprecedented challenges with both a post-COVID-19 environment and labor market, but also private competition with private companies that have changed their incentives over time, he told the House Armed Services subcommittee.

He also noted that only about 23 percent of the population are physically, mentally, and morally qualified to serve, and within that figure, a smaller number want to serve.

When asked about what the Army would need to do if it fell short of its goals in recruiting or retention, such as whether it would need to make cuts to its force structure, Martin said: We dont need to do that immediately.

But if we dont arrest the decline that were seeing right now in end strength, that could be a possibility in the future, but we dont see the need in the near term, he added.

In the near term, the way were going to manage any shortfalls is ways weve done it in the past, where we prioritize formations that have missions or preparation for missions and those missions will be prioritized to be manned.

If the shortfall in Army troop size persists, however, it could have an impact on readiness, Martin said.

Vaccine Mandates Questioned

When asked about the vaccine mandates, Martin disputed that some 75,000 people were facing discharge for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine. He said the figure is less than 20,000, but noted: its still a significant number and thats why Im looking forward to improvements.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), a member of the House Judiciary and Armed Services Committees, took to Twitter to advocate for the end of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the military, noting the drastic projected reductions in strength in the Army.

Army Reserve and Army National Guard reductions will be even worse. We must depoliticize the military and end the vaccine mandate, he said on Twitter.

Johnson in late June accused the Biden administration of having destroyed the Armys readiness by creating an unnecessary recruiting and retention shortfall, and trying to make up the difference by lowering other crucial education and fitness standards.

Recruiting Goal Not Met Despite Incentives

With just two and a half months to go in the 2022 fiscal year, the Army has achieved just 50 percent of its recruiting goal of 60,000 soldiers, according to a spokeswoman for Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, Lt. Col. Randee Farrell, per The Associated Press.

The Army is facing our most challenging recruiting environment since the inception of the all-volunteer force. This is not a one-year challenge. We will not solve this overnight, Wormuth said, reported the news agency. She added that the service is looking at a wide range of steps to recruit more soldiers without lowering standards or sacrificing quality.

We are facing a very fundamental question, she added. Do we lower standards to meet end strength, or do we lower end strength to maintain a quality, professional force? We believe the answer is obviousquality is more important than quantity.

Military leaders have been spending tens of thousands of dollars in increased bonuses as incentives for recruits, hoping to compete with other employers around the country. The unemployment rate is about 3.6 percent.

In January, the Army, for the first time, began offering a maximum enlistment bonus of $50,000 to highly skilled recruits who join for six years.

The recruiting crisis is only accelerating, Johnson said in a release on June 29, citing increasing monetary incentives. In April, the Army offered $10K for potential recruits to go to basic training within 30 days. In June, the Army offered $25K, and last week, the Army began offering recruits in any career field $35K to ship to training.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
In this image taken from video footage, an aerial shot shows a partially collapsed building in the eastern Chinese port city of Tianjin, China, on July 19, 2022. (CCTV via AP)

At Least 1 Dead, 12 Injured in Tianjin Gas Explosion in North China

One person has died in a gas explosion that injured 12 others at a six-story residential building in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, state media said Wednesday.

A trapped person who had been pulled out on Tuesday at 5:40 p.m., more than 10 hours after the morning blast, had weak vital signs and died after being taken to a hospital, according to a Tianjin Daily report posted by the Tianjin government on social media.

The actual number of casualties from such events may be much higher. The actual number of casualties is difficult to verify, as the Chinese regime routinely suppresses or alters information.

The event remains under investigation, but it appears to point to the deterioration of infrastructure.

Three floors of the six-story building collapsed. State media Xinhua News Agency reported the subsequent explosion occurred around 7:15 a.m. on Tuesday.

Photos from the scene showed upper stories of the building caved in, but no obvious damage to neighboring units.

In this image taken from video footage, an aerial shot shows a partially collapsed building in the eastern Chinese port city of Tianjin, China, on July 19, 2022. (CCTV via AP)

Tianjin lies roughly an hour by train from Beijing.

A massive 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in Tianjin killed at least 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers.

A 2013 blast in the northeastern port of Qingdao killed at least 62 people when underground pipelines ripped open following a leak.

Smaller incidents have followed since, including explosions at a hotel in the northeastern city of Shenyang and a residential community in the central city of Shiyan that left a combined at least 28 people dead.

Building codes are also loosely enforced in rural areas and suburbs, with additional levels added to homes and businesses that lack the structural integrity to support them. In April, a block that included apartments and restaurants collapsed in the city of Changsha, killing at least 53 people.
Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon speaks to the media as his lawyer Matthew Evan Corcoran looks on after his trial for contempt of Congress began at the U.S. District Courthouse in Washington on July 19, 2022. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Bannon Defense Tells Jury That Government Cant Prove Defendant Committed a Crime

WASHINGTONThe contempt of Congress charge levied against former White House aide Steve Bannon cannot be proven, lawyers for the defendant told a federal jury on July 19.

He is on trial for allegedly defying subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives committee thats investigating the breach of the U.S. Capitol, which occurred on Jan. 6, 2021.

Bannon ignored warnings that he could face criminal prosecution if he did not comply with the subpoena, prosecutor Amanda Vaughn said.

When you ignore a subpoena, thats a crime, she said. That is why we are here today.

But Evan Corcoran, a lawyer for Bannon, challenged that narrative, saying that the subpoena was not ignored.

The evidence will show there was direct engagement and prolonged negotiations between lawyers for Bannon and the government because of questions about what materials and testimony Bannon could give, Corcoran said.

There will also be no evidence that shows Bannon willfully defaulted when he didnt appear in a congressional office on Oct. 14, Corcoran said. The date was the subject of ongoing discussion and negotiation, so the government cant prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Steve Bannon committed a crime.

After Bannon didnt appear before Congress in October 2021, the House voted to hold him in contempt, and a grand jury indicted him several weeks later on two counts of contempt of Congress.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the panel, said a day after the failure to appear that Bannon had willfully failed to both produce a single document and to appear for his scheduled deposition.

Bannon has said he couldnt hand over materials or testify because the subpoena sought records protected by executive privilege, which had been asserted by former President Donald Trump. His lawyers said that Bannon wouldnt testify until the panel reached an agreement with Trump, or a court ruling settled the matter. Thompson said that Bannon, who was a Trump aide in 2017, could still testify about and produce documents relating to matters outside of the privilege.

Vaughn, the prosecutor, said that the case is about a guy who refused to show up.

Yes, its that simple, she said.

Rare Prosecution

While others have been held in contempt of Congress over the years, the choice to prosecute Bannon on the matter is unusual. The last criminal contempt case took place in 1983, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Bannon, who the committee believes has information about efforts to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election, is being targeted by the Democrat-dominated panel because of politics, Corcoran said.

Politics is the lifeblood of the U.S. House of Representatives, he told the jury. They stand for reelection every two years.

Members are perpetual candidates for Congress and politics pervades everything they do, he added later.

Bannon faces up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $2,000 if convicted.

Corcoran noted that the vote in Congress to hold Bannon in contempt was close, and told jurors to think about the political aspect when weighing evidence.

Ask yourself: Is this piece of evidence affected by politics? he said.

1st Witness

Following the opening arguments, Jan. 6 committee chief lawyer Kristin Amerling took the stand.

Amerling, the first witness, said that the committees authority ends when the next Congress is seated in January 2023, making it important for people who are asked to provide information to comply with deadlines.

In the view of committee members and staff, Bannon played multiple roles related to the events on Jan. 6, including his attempts to persuade the public that the election wasnt legitimate, Amerling said.

Trump won, Bannon told reporters outside the courthouse. [President] Joe Biden is illegitimate.

The subpoena required him to provide documents by Oct. 7, 2021, and to appear before the committee a week later, and he did neither, Amerling testified.

Bannon told reporters that Thompson didnt have the guts to show up here and he sent a staffer.

John Haughey Follow John Haughey has been a working journalist since 1978 with an extensive background in local government, state legislatures, and growth and development. A graduate of the University of Wyoming, he is a Navy veteran who fought fires at sea during three deployments aboard USS Constellation. Hes been a reporter for daily newspapers in California, Washington, Wyoming, New York, and Florida; a staff writer for Manhattan-based business trade publications.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on climate change and clean energy at Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, Mass., on July 20, 2022. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

Biden Says Climate Change Is an Emergency, Stops Short of Formal Declaration

President also announces Gulf of Mexico opened to offshore wind farms that could power 3 million homes

President Joe Biden on July 20 stated that climate change is an emergency, leaving open the possibility of additional executive actions aimed at mitigating climate-related issues after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) ended negotiations on climate and energy programs advocated by other Democrats.

Climate change is an emergency and, in the coming weeks, Im going to use the power I have as president to turn these words into formal official government actions through the appropriate proclamations, executive orders, and regulatory power that the president possesses, Biden said during a brief speech that he delivered at Brayton Point Power Station, a former coal-fired power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts.

The president announced the opening of offshore areas in the Gulf of Mexico to wind power.

These areas cover 700,000 acres and have the potential to power over 3 million homes, an accompanying White House fact sheet read.

In addition, Biden noted that he would allocate $2.3 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agencys Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, for what he described as infrastructure to withstand extreme heat, drought, flooding, hurricanes, [and] tornadoes.

He also drew attention to $385 million in spending for the Department of Health and Human Services, largely for community cooling centers and air conditioners.

Biden spoke after White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ruled out an immediate emergency declaration during a July 19 press conference.

I would not plan an announcement this week on [a] national climate emergency. Everythings on the table. Its just not going to be this week on that decision, she said.

Taking action is something he will do if Congress wont.

Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and others also released a letter concurrent with Bidens speech, asking the president to declare a climate emergency.

Talk of a climate emergency has met with pushback from Republicans and other skeptics of expanded government power through climate-inspired mandates.

Biden is using climate change as another excuse for the government to insert more control into your lives, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote in a July 20 post on Twitter.

The Atlantic [magazine] freaked out in 2019 over what Trump could do if he declared a national emergency: Martial law, control internet traffic, freeze financial assets, commentator Glenn Beck wrote on Twitter, also on July 20.

Weird how the media is now silent about what Biden could do to climate deniers under a climate emergency.

In 2019, then-President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in an effort to secure additional funding for a wall along the southern border. Biden formally ended that emergency in 2021 after issuing a proclamation describing the wall as a waste of money.

By declaring a national climate emergency, Biden can unlock emergency executive powers already granted by Congress to aggressively combat the crisis, the Center for Biological Diversity wrote in a 2022 document, The Climate Presidents Emergency Powers.

Environmentalist Bill McKibben, who advocates a climate emergency declaration, complained on his Substack on July 19 that Bidens ability to postpone decisions has become the stuff of Washington legend.

McKibben claimed that Hillary Clinton would have declared a climate emergency if she had been elected president, meaning President Joe Biden should do it now.

As president, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger. And thats what climate change is about. It is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger, Biden said during his July 20 speech.

He cited more powerful and destructive hurricanes and tornadoes as evidence of a climate crisis gripping the country.

Experts have refuted previous claims from Biden that tornadoes can be linked to man-made climate change.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has likewise pointed out that little evidence supports a significant rise in the number of Atlantic hurricanes or other tropical storms due to greenhouse gas emissions.

Yet, they concluded that it is likely that greenhouse warming will cause hurricanes in the coming century to be more intense globally and have higher rainfall rates than present-day hurricanes.

The former Brayton Point power plant where Biden spoke has been acquired by energy giant Avangrid, which intends to convert it to a facility for manufacturing offshore transmission cables for wind turbines.

Biden noted that the CEO of a company involved in the project, Vineyard Wind, had joined [him] at the White House this month.
President Joe Biden (R) and First Lady Jill Biden (L) welcome Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska (C) at the White House on July 19, 2022. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Bidens Welcome Ukraines First Lady to White House, Zelenskyy Expects Major Results

WASHINGTONU.S. President Joe Biden, with flowers in hand, and First Lady Jill Biden welcomed Ukraines first lady, Olena Zelenska, to the White House on Tuesday for a visit ahead of her address to Congress on Wednesday.

Zelenska, the wife of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, embraced Jill Biden and received the flowers from the president, who met her vehicle outside.

Afterwards, the two women and delegations from both countries sat down for a meeting in the White House Blue Room.

President Joe Biden (C) and First Lady Jill Biden (R) welcome Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska (L) at the White House on July 19, 2022. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Jill Biden had made a surprise visit to Ukraine, which Russia invaded on Feb. 24, in May, visiting her counterpart and a school that was sheltering displaced Ukrainians.

Zelenskyy later said he expected significant results from his wifes meetings in Washington.

Her tasks include increasing U.S. support for Ukraine, obtaining additional support to protect people from Russian terror and boosting humanitarian assistance, he said in a late-night video address.

He said the address to Congress would be important, adding I strongly believe it will be heard by those people responsible for making decisions in the United States.

Russia calls its action in Ukraine a special military operation to ensure its own security. Zelenskyy has led his country in standing up to Moscow.

When I came back, one of the things that I said was, you cannot go into a war zone and come back and not feel the sorrow and the pain of the people, Jill Biden said at the beginning of their meeting.

She said she had spoken to her team about helping address mental health issues for mothers and children who have suffered atrocities.

By Jeff Mason
Police officers stand behind a lit trash can on Boston Common during a protest in response to the death of George Floyd on May 31, 2020. Protests spread across the United States in response to the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Boston Police Unions Sue City Over Restrictions on Nonlethal Weapons

Two Boston police unions filed a civil lawsuit on July 18 to stop the city from enforcing an ordinance that makes it harder for police to use nonlethal weapons for crowd control.

Its the latest law enforcement pushback against a national trend of growing restrictions on police usage of nonlethal weapons following the protests brought about by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.

The lawsuit (pdf) argues that according to the Boston police commissioners statute, the commissionernot city hall or the city councilhas complete control over rules and regulations for its police force.

We will not stand silent while our city council picks and chooses what they want from our officers based on politics and public opinion rather than public safety, plaintiffs the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation and the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society said in a statement.

By eliminating our officers ability to use non-lethal force, city councils themselves are forcing escalation of incidents with their irresponsible and poorly researched policies.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wus office declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.

On April 28, 2021, then-Mayor Kim Janey signed off on a new ordinance (pdf) that allows for police usage of tear gas, chemical spray, and rubber bullets at a gathering of more than 10 people only after approval by an on-scene supervisor at the deputy superintendent level. Before the on-scene supervisor can authorize any nonlethal weapons, he or she must exhaust other means of crowd control, give two separate warnings about the specific weapon to be used, and wait for at least two minutes after the last warning.

The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk County Superior Court, contends that theres often no supervisor at or higher than the rank of deputy superintendent on scene and that the ordinance doesnt account for situations that demand immediate responses.

It also points out the ambiguity in the 10-person threshold, such as whether it counts bystanders or even first responders.

Ten individual police officers also joined the lawsuit against Wu, Boston City Council President Ed Fynn, and Acting Police Commissioner Gregory Long.

The lawsuit was filed days after Wu announced her new pick for the top police job, Michael Cox. Hell head a police department with just less than 2,000 sworn officers.

In the past, a Boston city ordinance (mandating shotguns for police cars) was found to be invalid by a superior court judge because it was thought to violate the police commissioners statute, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also cites a Massachusetts appellate court opinion that states that managerial control over weapons falls squarely under that statute.

In December 2020, months after George Floyd protests erupted across the nation, the Boston City Council passed an ordinance to put more restrictions on nonlethal crowd control weapons.

Ricardo Arroyo and Andrew Campbell, two council members who filed the ordinance, said at the time that nonlethal weapons indiscriminately affected a large number of protesters and caused serious injuries.

But then-Mayor Marty Walsh vetoed it. Four months later, the council passed a refiled ordinance under Janey. Wu, then a city council member, voted yes.

At least seven states and 16 cities have acted to put more restrictions on tear gas and rubber bullets in the wake of the George Floyd protests, according to a tally by the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law.

Some also enacted laws, ordinances, or policies to restrict guns at protests, limit the transfer of military weapons to local law enforcement, and require officers to display names or badge numbers at protests.
California Army National Guard soldiers watch the arrival of the body of soldier Sean Walsh, who died on Nov. 16 during a combat operation in Afghanistan, at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, Calif. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

California National Guard Commander to Step Down End of July

SACRAMENTOMajor General David Baldwin will retire as Californias National Guard commander at the end of the month, according to media reports.

The governors office confirmed July 18 to the Los Angeles Times about the retirement.

Baldwins tenure as commander became clouded with controversies after a Los Angeles Times report in June alleged abuses of authority, antisemitic remarks, and instances of sexual orientation discrimination occurred under his watch, according to internal complaints. Some of the personnel were suspended or fired as a result of media reports.

The highly decorated commander did not immediately respond to the allegations.

Gov. Gavin Newsom released a statement on the evening of July 18 commending him for his steadfast leadership and nearly four decades of committed service to our state and nation and pushing forward much-needed reforms to change the culture of the organization and better serve Californians.

Newsom also praised him for his contribution to supporting Ukraines military force by providing medical supplies and protective equipment.

Since the 1990s, the state National Guard members have been training side by side with the Ukrainian military to strengthen Ukraines defensive capacity against foreign invasion, according to Baldwins interview with a local TV station in March.

He was appointed on April 16, 2011, as the state adjutant general to oversee the Military Department, which encompasses the state National Guardconsisting of army, air, and state guardsand California Military Institutes youth programs, accounting for more than 23,000 military personnel in California.

He will be replaced by Major General Matthew Beevers, who is currently the deputy adjutant general.

Beginning his military career in 1982 as a combat medic, Baldwin was commissioned in 1984 through Reserve Officers Training Corps, a group of college and university officer training programs.

After several military assignments following the training corps, he commandedas a rifle platoon leadera rifle company that was deployed to the Los Angeles Riots in 1992. He also served as the aide-de-camp for the commander of the state Army National Guard, before climbing up the ranks in the 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry, according to his office biography.

He then went on to command that same battalion when it deployed troops to Kuwait in 2001 in support of Operation Desert Spring, established in 1998 to maintain the presence of the United States and offer protection over the military of Kuwait.

Baldwin also served in Afghanistan following his assignment as a student at the Army War College in July 2010.

Newsom and Baldwins offices were not immediately available for comments by press deadline.
Aerial view of people queuing up for COVID-19 PCR testing in Tianjin, China, on Jan. 20, 2022. (VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

CCP Media Removes Experts View to Meet Zero-COVID Policy Needs

Required analysis concentrating on severity of the variant

While the new COVID-19 variants are widely recognized to cause mild symptoms, the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) media has to say otherwise.

An analysis of the BA.5 Omicron subvariant done by a Chinese expert and published by CCTV on July 11 a CCP state media agency was removed and replaced with a different analysis that concentrated on the severity of the variant.

Overseas analysts explained that the article it was replaced with rationalized the strict lockdown measures behind the zero-COVID policy, despite projections that the economy will reach zero growth, as suggested in a recent official data release.

The Cost of Lockdowns

While the regime insists on its zero-COVID policy and the containment measures of lockdown, Chinas economic growth suffered the worst impact ever.

The lockdowns could cost China at least $46 billion a month, according to a Bloomberg report earlier this year.

A July 15 report by Chinas National Bureau of Statistics showed Chinas economic growth increased 0.4 percent from a year earlier in the second quarter.

Judging from the latest data, the outlook of Chinas official GDP could be closer to zero growth across the year as a whole, according to Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics, reported by Barrons.

A worker in a protective suit walks on a closed bridge during lockdown in Shanghai, China, May 18, 2022. (Aly Song/File Photo/Reuters)

Ditch the Scientific Analysis

The BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron were believed to cause fewer hospitalizations and deaths than previous Omicron variants.

On July 11, virologist Zhan-qiu Yang at the School of Medicine, Wuhan University, explained the mild flu-like symptoms of the variants localized infection of the throat and upper respiratory tract, to the state media, CCTV.

Earlier on June 18, China CDC Weekly published an article (pdf) by a 19-member research team of Wenhong Zhang, professor of Huashan Hospital, Fudan University School of Medicine, Shanghai, indicating in the Shanghai Omicron wave, the risk of developing severe illness was very low (0.065%, 22/33,816) in initially non-severe patients without unstable conditions.

However, both CCTV and the China CDC Weekly deleted the reports of the non-threatening nature of the variant shortly after they were published.

Instead, the state mouthpiece publicized a different viral experts analysis.

On July 19, Chinas CDC virologist Xiaoping Dong, said that BA.4 and BA.5 resulted in roughly the same symptoms as other subvariants in China.

He said, Chinas current antivirus measures are effective in fending off those new variants, Chinas Party tabloid newspaper Global Times reported.

Politics Lead the Way

Microbiologist Xiaoxu Sean Lin told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times that Zhangs research paper served as a denial of the extreme measures of the regimes zero-COVID policy.

According to the research, the authors gave evidence for refining Chinas public health strategies to minimize the risk of overwhelming regional medical resources, such as through mass PCR testing.

Lin also mentioned that while there were also other research papers on the variants from Fudan University researchers, the majority of them were very much endorsing the effectiveness of lockdown and mass PCR testing in containing the virus in China.

Economist Zheng Xuguang believed the paper that was removed was, in effect, blaming the extreme lockdown policy, which has caused all the huge and unnecessary economic losses and an untold number of tragic deaths.

Commentator Li Linyi explained why recognizing the mild symptoms of the subvariant would not fit the needs of the leadership.

Xi Jinpings dynamic clearing policy will lose its rationality, which will affect Xis re-election at the upcoming national political meeting, Li added.

Haizhong Ning contributed to this report.
A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a "Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine" sticker and a medical syringe in front of displayed Novavax logo in this illustration taken on Oct. 30, 2020. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

CDC Recommends Novavax COVID-19 Jab for Adults

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday endorsed Novavaxs more conventional COVID-19 vaccine for use as a primary shot for eligible Americans aged 18 and older.

The CDCs independent advisory committee voted unanimously to recommend the vaccine for adults after reviewing safety and effectiveness data at a public meeting on Tuesday.

Signing off on the Novavax jab gives Americans the option of choosing a shot with a more familiar type of vaccine technology that has been used for more than 30 years in the United States, the CDC said in a statement.

Figures from the CDC show that around 78 percent of eligible Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while a significant number remain unvaccinated and distrusting of the jabs.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the Novavax jab will provide options to unvaccinated Americans who dont want mRNA or viral vector vaccines, such as those made by Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson.

Today, we have expanded the options available to adults in the U.S. by recommending another safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, Walensky said in a statement.

If you have been waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine built on a different technology than those previously available, now is the time to join the millions of Americans who have been vaccinated, she continued. With COVID-19 cases on the rise again across parts of the country, vaccination is critical to help protect against the complications of severe COVID-19 disease.

Novavax is a biotechnology company based in Maryland. Federal health authorities have been slow to authorize its vaccine, despite awarding the company $1.6 billion in 2020 to support the testing, commercialization, and manufacture of a possible COVID-19 vaccine.

How It Differs

Novavaxs shot differs from the mRNA and viral-vector COVID-19 vaccines by using a protein-based technology, which has been used for decades to protect individuals from diseases like shingles and hepatitis.

The Novavax vaccine delivers proteins, coupled with immunity-stimulating adjuvants, directly to a persons cells, rather than mRNA or DNA, in order to induce a protective immune response.

Protein subunits were first used in the hepatitis B vaccine around 30 years ago, and have since been used for influenza and whooping cough (acellular pertussis) vaccines.

In its phase 3 trial of nearly 30,000 adults in the United States and Mexico, researchers found that the vaccine was 90.4 percent effective against COVID-19.

The researchers also said that no episodes of anaphylaxis, no evidence of vaccine-associated enhanced COVID-19, and no events that triggered prespecified pause rules were observed.

No episodes of the GuillainBarre syndrome and no imbalance in myocarditis or pericarditis or in vaccine-induced immune thrombosis with thrombocytopenia were observed during the relatively short safety follow-up period reported here.

Australias Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which is equivalent to the FDA in the United States, said it had received 78 reports of suspected adverse reactions to the Novavax vaccine as of March 6, 2022.

That number increased to 424 by April 3, with 97,800 doses administered. The regulatory agency approved the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in the country in January 2022.

Biden Admin Response

President Joe Biden hailed the news as a step forward in our nations fight against the virus.

We now have four safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines available to protect Americans against serious illness, hospitalizations, and death, he said in a statement.

On July 11, the Biden administration announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in conjunction with the Department of Defense had secured 3.2 million doses of Novavaxs COVID-19 vaccine.

In response to the CDC panels decision, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement that the Novavax vaccine is one more important tool in our COVID-19 response, and it marks one more way were working to make safe and effective vaccines available to the public.

Based on CDC and FDA action, the Novavax vaccine will be available for people age 18 and up who require or prefer a protein-based vaccine. We will leave no stone unturned to protect people against COVID-19 and save lives, he said.

Meiling Lee contributed to this report.
Researchers from the Allergy and Lung Health Unit at the University of Melbourne in Australia have discovered that lung diseases in middle adulthood can be linked to childhood bronchitis.

The researchers found that children who have had bronchitis at least once before they reach seven are more likely to develop lung problems in their later life. The lung problems are typically experienced when they reach 53 and were found to be pneumonia or asthma rather than a more severe disease like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic bronchitis. COPD is a condition that inflames and blocks airflow from the lungs.

This is the first very long-term prospective study that has examined the relationship between childhood bronchitis severity with adult lung health outcomes, said lead author Jennifer Perret in a Melbourne university release.

Perret said that an increased risk of developing serious chronic infective lung disease has already been observed in children two to five years after a case of protracted bacterial bronchitisan infection that lasts beyond four weeks. Accordingly, this research teams studies document, up to midlife, the potential for developing lung conditions such as asthma and changes in lung function in those who had symptomatic bronchitis as children.

The researchers hope that the findings of this study will assist medical practitioners in identifying children who may need closer monitoring and faster interventions to ensure their health in later life.

Children that develop a case of protracted bacterial bronchitis are at an increased risk of developing serious chronic infective lung disease. (Ermolaev Alexander/Shutterstock)

Details of the Study

Perret said that this discovery came from one of the oldest medical surveys in the world, the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study (TAHS). The TAHS involved 8583 Tasmanian participants who were born in 1961 and started school in 1968. The study has been monitoring the participants since they were seven and has tracked them for, on average, 46 years.

In addition to monitoring the participants, they surveyed them, first when they joined the study and then again, between 2012 and 2016, when they were issued a follow-up questionnaire. The subsequent questionnaire, which inquired about doctor-diagnosed lung conditions and included a clinical exam, was completed by only 42 percent of the original TAHS participants. Of the TAHS subjects, 3202 were included in the teams analysis.

The participants were separated into groups based on the amount and duration of their bronchitis episodes in early childhood and whether their cough was loose, rattly or chesty. This categorisation revealed that the more often a person had doctor-diagnosed asthma or pneumonia, the more likely it was that they had suffered childhood bronchitis.

Among the 3202 subjects, 47.5 percent had experienced one or more episodes of bronchitis. The severity categories included non-recurrent bronchitis, which affected 28.1 percent of subjects, recurrent non-protracted bronchitis, experienced by 18.1 percent, and recurrent protracted bronchitis, occurring in 1.3 percent. Perret said that the most severe subgroup, recurrent and protracted bronchitis, was small, including only 42 of the participants.

Loss of Participants and Possible Bias

Perret said in an email to The Epoch Times that while the team acknowledge that the loss of participants may cause some bias, they note that the differences between exposure groups and subsequent participation were only modest. Exposure groups refer to the groups of people in a study that have been identified as either exposed or not exposed to a risk factor and are followed for a period of time in order to better understand the risk factor.

She said that the difference was particularly modest for the recurrent-protracted bronchitis subgroup, as the percentages of those participating and those not only varied between 1.2 and 1.3 percent. Only 14 of the people in this group had current midlife asthma, but Perret said there were significant trends across the other severity categories.

UNDATED: In this undate image, a child is helped with an asthma inhaler. A report released on May 3, 2005 to mark World Asthma Day claims that one person dies from asthma every hour in Western Europe. (Photo by Getty Images)

Lung Issues in Adulthood

Perret said that in comparison to the majority who had never had bronchitis, those who had showed an incremental increase in risk for later developing asthma and pneumonia. She said that the increase in risk strengthened the more often a person experienced the condition in their childhood, particularly if they suffered from recurrent bouts of protracted bronchitis.

While we did not clearly see generalized lung function deficits in our study, it is plausible that localised scarring and narrowing of some airways could lead to these lung health outcomes, Perret said.

She said that, similarly, there is the possibility of later bronchiectasisdamaged and enlarged airways. Further research, using high resolution computed tomography (CAT) scans, would facilitate the testing of this hypothesis, said Perret, especially for the study participants that experienced recurrent and protracted episodes.

It is notable that the link with later adult active asthma was seen for participants who did not have co-existent asthma or wheezing in childhood, Perret said.

Our asthma outcomes included doctor-diagnosed asthma-ever (at any time up to mean age 53) and doctor-diagnosed current asthma (at the mean age of 53 with a past diagnosis made by a doctor at any time), she said. So, the asthma could have developed at any time up to mid-adult life, including in childhood.

She said that a recent large-scale meta-analysis of school-aged children who in their early childhood developed a lower respiratory tract infection showed a similar finding. The study linked the development of asthma in such children to their early childhood respiratory infections.
Amphibious tanks of the Chinese People's Liberation Army move to land on a beach during the second phase of the Sino-Russian joint military exercise near Qingdao of Shandong Peninsular, China, on August 22, 2005. (Getty Images)

China Could Use Civilian Vessels to Sustain Invasion of Taiwan: Expert

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could use civilian vessels to sustain an invasion of Taiwan and subsequent war, according to one expert.

The military wing of the CCP, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), is sometimes assumed to lack the outright amphibious capability required to logistically sustain an invasion and occupation of Taiwan. And there is some ambiguity as to what extent Chinas military is developing its amphibious capabilities.

A lot of the examinations of PLA capabilities with regard to a Taiwan invasion center around the lack of ability to move those forces across [the Strait], said Lonnie Henley, a lecturer at George Washington University.

We still cannot answer the question of can the PLA really get its forces across, and if it gets them across, can it sustain them in combat on the island?

Henley delivered the remarks during a discussion on the comparative logistics of the Chinese and Russian armed forces at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

Critiques of the PLAs apparently inadequate amphibious capabilities could be overblown, Henley said, as they dont account for the possibility that the CCP would augment PLA forces with civilian ships and infrastructure.

Invading Taiwan

Henley, who previously worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency on issues concerning East Asia, said that the PLA is unlikely to attempt a U.S.-style landing in Taiwan, and would more likely use heavy lift capabilities to drop an initial invasion force on the island before solidifying and supplying that force using civilian vessels.

By raising civilian assets to augment the PLA, Henley said, the CCP could drastically increase its capacity for sustainment in an invasion scenario. Still, Henley said, its difficult to ascertain exactly what the CCPs plans for a protracted fight over Taiwan might look like.

The PLA does not have a solidified way of fighting, he said, due to the fact that it has not fought a war since 1979. Thus, while PLA officers have written plenty of reports on the hypotheticals of battling with the United States for the future of Taiwan, the force does not have the experience of dealing with adversaries in combat to be sure of how to respond best.

Moreover, while civilian assets could help the PLA sustain its forces in Taiwan during a potential conflict, Henley said theres little evidence the CCP has plans for contending with the global economic fallout that would likely follow such an invasion.

Its highly likely that China will be cut off from trade with the outside world or most of the outside world for at least the duration of the conflict and possibly for sometime thereafter, Henley said.

How resilient is China itself to that kind of cutoff?

Ultimately, Henley said, Western experts dont have the answers to that question or those regarding the CCPs strategy for supplying its military in a protracted conflict.

Were not where we need to be in this yet, Henley said.

We cant answer any of these questions.
The logo of Chipotle is seen on one of their restaurants in Manhattan, New York City, on Feb. 7, 2022. (Andrew Kelly/File Photo/Reuters)

Chipotle Closes Store Where Workers Voted to Unionize, Drawing Union Ire, Claims of Playing Dirty

Mexican restaurant chain Chipotle has been accused of thwarting efforts by employees to unionize after the company abruptly and permanently shuttered a store in Augusta, Maine, on Tuesday.

In June, the store became the first Chipotle in America to file a petition to unionize.

It was set to hold a hearing to determine the union election process on Tuesday and has been closed to the public since Sunday, according to the union and the chain.

However, the Mexican food chain, which owns and operates nearly 3,000 U.S. stores, announced Tuesday that it was permanently closing the store, citing staffing issues; the hearing has now been postponed indefinitely.

We have been unable to adequately staff this remote restaurant with crew and continue to be plagued with excessive call-outs and lack of availability from existing staff, said Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs officer at Chipotle, in a statement to CNN, adding that its been even more difficult to find managers to lead the restaurant.

Because of these ongoing staffing challenges, there is no probability of reopening in the foreseeable future, so weve made the decision to permanently close the restaurant, Schalow said.

Workers at the location, reportedly around 20, will get severance pay and assistance finding new jobs, she added.

However, the sudden closure has outraged employees at the store, which became the first to file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for union recognition in June.

Labor organizers are now set to fight the closure.

Customers order from a Chipotle restaurant as pre-Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday shopping accelerates at the King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pa., on Nov. 22, 2019. (Mark Makela/Reuters)

Union Busting

They waited until the morning of the hearing to close the store, and then claimed we couldnt elect to form a union because were permanently closed, said Brandi McNease, a worker and member of Chipotle United, the independent union attempting to organize the Augusta location, in a statement to local outlet, Bangor Daily News.

This is union busting 101, and there is nothing that motivates us to fight harder than this underhanded attempt to shut down the labor movement within their stores. Theyre scared because they know how powerful we are, and if we catch fire like the unionization effort at Starbucks, they wont be able to stop us.

McNease also noted that Chipotle gave a bonus to its CEO that was 1,700 times more than the median Chipotle workers pay in 2020, adding that she does not believe the company could not afford to hire a manager and enough staff to keep the store running.

Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol took home $38 million in 2020, of which $1.24 million was his base salary, according to Business Insider.

In June 2022, the restaurant raised prices for products across its menu by about 4 percent, citing rising labor costs. A month earlier, in May, it said it plans to hire 20,000 more employees and will raise the average hourly wage to $15 by the end of June.

The union has since filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Chipotle with the National Labor Relations Board, according to what the union told local media.

Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs officer at Chipotle, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement: Due to staffing challenges, the Chipotle in Augusta, Maine has been closed to the public since June 17.

In order to continue paying our employees, we kept the restaurant open for training while we went to extraordinary lengths to try to staff the restaurant including deploying two recruiting experts dedicated to this one restaurant.

Despite these efforts, we have been unable to adequately staff this remote restaurant with crew and continue to be plagued with excessive call-outs and lack of availability from existing staff. We have had an even more difficult time finding managers to lead the restaurant.

Because of these ongoing staffing challenges, there is no probability of reopening in the foreseeable future, so weve made the decision to permanently close the restaurant. The employees at our Augusta restaurant will receive severance pay and outplacement assistance.

Closing the Chipotle restaurant in Augusta, Maine has nothing to do with union activity. Our operational management reviewed this situation as it would any other restaurant with these unique staffing challenges. Chipotle respects our employees rights to organize under the National Labor Relations Act.

Playing Dirty

The union also plans to hold a protest over the stores closure on Tuesday evening to demand it be reopened.

Chipotle is playing dirty, and were fighting back! the union said on Twitter. Bring your signs and your voices and stand up with Chipotle United!

Prior to the store shuttering its doors, employees at the location had staged a two-day walkout over what they described as unsafe working conditions, along with a lack of training and support from senior management.

Meanwhile, workers at a Chipotle in Lansing, Michigan, also filed for a vote to unionize on July 11.

At the time, Schalow said in a statement that the company respects our employees rights under the National Labor Relations Act and is committed to ensuring a fair, just, and humane work environment that provides opportunities for all.

We encourage our employees to contact us immediately, including through an anonymous 800 number, with any concerns, so we can investigate and respond quickly to make things right, she added.

The latest efforts to unionize by Chipotle workers follow a surge in similar activity at stores across the country, most notably among Starbucks employees.

So far, 100 Starbucks stores across the United States have voted to unionize in recent months since the first corporate store voted to do so in Buffalo, New York, in December 2021.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Chan Po-ying, Chairperson of The League of Social Democrats on May 8, 2022.. (Adrian Yu/The Epoch Times)

Citizens: Hong Kong Authorities Force Democrat Group to Delete Facebook Posts and for Private Book Fair to Be Canceled

Chan Po-ying, chair of The League of the Social Democrats (LSD), posted on Facebook on July 17, 2022. Chan wrote, Due to the given amount of pressure, LSD has been forced to remove online post(s). These removed posts allegedly violated the Hong Kong National Security Law (HKNSL). However, we cannot disclose further details.

Chan also stressed that LSD would continue to speak out, It is not a crime to speak freely. Long live democracy.

Chan is the wife of Leung Kwok Hung, commonly known as Long Hair, another democratic activist.

Similar incidents involving the removal of content under HKNSL also occurred in May. Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) and Hongkongers Book Fair also felt the squeeze.

The Hong Kong government (HKgov) had been using HKNSL to censor publishing and freedom of speech.

While the kind of pressure was not specified, Chan responded to The Epoch Times, LSD will continue to speak out depending on the situation. Even though LSD is exceedingly restrictive, we should still vocalize for what we care about.

After Chans announcement, netizens left the civil group supportive messages. They understood LSDs decision. Some wrote, You are still speaking for Hongkongers despite the difficult circumstances. We are forever thankful. No matter how fragile the voices are, at least we are still together safely. That is the biggest blessing.

Local netizens criticized the authorities. One of the comments read, The Helplessness and the evil suppression we suffer from the regime has revealed the true colors of authoritarians.

Another netizen responded, You can silence the voice, but never the mind.

Others also questioned if this was the horrible Hong Kong story Hkgov wanted to tell the world.

Chan Po-ying, Chairperson of The League of Social Democrats, said they were forced to remove Facebook posts, allegedly violating the Hong Kong National Security Law. Similar incidents occurred at PORI and Hongkongers Book Fair. (Photos from Facebook pages of LSD, Hongkongers Book Fair, HKPORI

Met and Greeted by National Security Police

LSD made a public announcement on June 28, and the National Security Bureau (NSB) arranged to meet and greet volunteers and friends of LSD. The National Security Police also interviewed them.

After assessing the situation, LSD canceled its July 1 Protest for the first time. LSD also apologized, The case had decided so. We appreciate your understanding. On July 17, LSD again was contacted by NSB. This time, they were required to remove social media content, citing possible National Security Law violations.

The League of Social Democrats held protests every July 1 until 2021. Their assembly application was denied by the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF). Many democratic figures still went and led the assembly. It resulted in the arrests of eight people. Of the eight, four were members of LSD who were sentenced to imprisonment from 6 to 12 months.

Civil Society Under Pressure From National Security Law

Under the Hong Kong National Security Law, LSD is one of the many civil groups the regime pressured. Thus far, they have survived disbandment.

Another civic organization, Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI), had to bend for the regime.

PORI had to push back its research report from July 1 to July 5 due to the 25th anniversary of Hong Kongs Handover. China leader Xi Jinping was visiting Hong Kong briefly at the time. PORI stated the delay came after discussions with corresponding government departments and PORIs risk assessment.

The delayed findings were a series of One Country Two Systems 25-year Mid-term Review. The report was released digitally on July 5.

The result shows that all five core social indicators are at the lowest in the past 25 years. The interviewees shared opinions on stability, freedom, prosperity, the rule of law, and democracy. Stability scored the highest in all five indicators at 5.15 points (out of 10), but the number still fell short compared to the average in 2021 at 6.44 points.

The report also revealed that Hongkongers feel that democracy has depleted to the lowest in the past 25 years, from 7 on average to the current 5.13 points.

Professor: It May be Worse Than the Mainland

Former Professor of Applied Social Sciences at the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong, Chung Kim-wah, commented on the censorship.

Chung said, If the current government continues to abuse their power at such great length, and without any societal supervision, censorship will be worse here than in mainland China. They can do whatever they please.

Chung described the current HKgov as having zero standards and possessed the tone of whatever the government says goes. He also criticized, The speech censorship HKgov is imposing on citizens without telling them who it is targeting, violating the standards of human rights and the Basic Law.

Chung stated Hong Kong had already been ingrained in white terror for a long time.

Book Publisher: NSL Has Struck the Publishing Industry

Hillway Culture was refused a stall at the HKTDC Book Fair (July 20 to 26. 2022) at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, so they rented space at Mall plus in Wanchai to run their own Book Fair, which was planned to start on July 14. However, a day before the fair was to open, they were served with an evacuation notice through the property agency. The note claimed the Book Fair had breached its rental agreement and demanded immediate evacuation.

The Epoch Times spoke to Raymond Yeung Tsz-chun, publisher of Hillway Culture. Yeung responded, This incident most likely stemmed from various pressure on political grounds; it has nothing to do with Hong Kong law. We asked the landlords for a meeting, but they refused. The property management also asked us to vacate immediately.

Yeung expressed his thoughts on publishings future in Hong Kong.

He said that the Book Fair incident is a reflection of how much the publishing industry has been pressed by the National Security Law. Yeung believed that the fears in the publishing world were evident. He worried the climb for book publishing would only get steeper under the draconian law.
Eli Dicken reacted quickly when a gunman opened fire killing three people at the Greenwood Park mall in Indiana and "neutralised" the killer. (Courtesy of Guy Relford Law)

Civilian Hero, Praised for Accurate Defensive Shooting, to Benefit From Support Fund

The marksmanship of the armed civilian hero who neutralized the gunman at an Indiana mall shooting is being called extraordinary, as donations are being collected to support him and to assist families of the three slain bystanders.

On GoFundMe.com, Indiana State Rep. Jim Lucas (R-Seymour) launched Elis Show Of Support Fund by contributing $500 for Elisjsha Dicken, 22, also of Seymour.

Dicken was shopping at the Greenwood Park Mall with his girlfriend around 6 p.m. on July 17 when a gunman opened fire in the food court area, prompting Dicken to draw his handgun and fire at the gunman, who died at the scene.

When The Epoch Times asked about the fund for Dicken, Lucas wrote in an email, Eli is a constituent of mine that performed an incredibly heroic deed and saved countless lives.

The money raised is Elis to spend as he sees fit, as he may encounter future financial hardships due to extended legal needs, counseling or grief services or missed time away from work.

As of midday July 20, contributions to the fund totaled more than $15,000; the goal is $250,000.

The gunman, who police identified as Johnathan Douglas Sapirman, 20, of Greenwood, died after Dicken shot him.

In an email to The Epoch Times, Greenwood Police Chief James Ison confirmed that Dicken shot Sapirman just 15 seconds after Sapirman emerged from a restroom and began firing his rifle at mallgoers.

The chief said he had erred when he previously stated that two minutes had elapsed.

In a July 18 news conference, Ison called Dickens actions very proficient, very tactically sound.

According to Johnson County Coroner Michael Pruitt, eight of Dickens 10 rounds struck the gunman.

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman an Army Ranger and paratrooper who holds a black belt in Hojutsu, the martial art of the firearm, told The Epoch Times that Dickens accuracy was extraordinary, and was well above the achievement that the average law enforcement officer is required to have.

Grossman said some officers could qualify by hitting 75 percent of targets at varying distances.

Based on some media reports, Dicken may have shot at Sapirman from 40 yards away. To hit eight out of 10 rounds at that distance is just astounding, Grossman said.

I think the message is, for any of us who carry a gun: Just carrying a guitar doesnt make you a musician. And carrying a gun doesnt mean you can perform the way this guy did. That takes training and dedication, Grossman said.

Thank God this guy was there.

Greenwood police said that, as far as they know, Dicken had no previous police or military training, and he identified himself to mall security in the aftermath of the shooting.

Dicken was initially handcuffed, Ison said, and his gun was taken from him as the investigation began. He was released after detectives verified that his account of the incident matched the sequence that mall surveillance cameras captured.

After Dicken drew his firearm, Sapirman attempted to retreat into the mens restroom but fell to the ground after he was shot, Ison told reporters earlier this week.

Police said they hadnt identified a motive for the shooting.

They were seeking clues from Sapirmans cellphone, which investigators fished out of a toilet in the mall restroom, and from his laptop, which was left baking under high heat in the oven of Sapirmans apartment, along with a can of butane.

Police said they didnt want to speculate about Sapirmans intent, and they werent sure whether data could be extracted from the damaged devices. The FBI was attempting to analyze them.

Through his attorney, Guy Relford, Dicken has requested privacy while dealing with the trauma of the fatal shooting.

On July 20, Relford wrote on Facebook that he was correcting previous media reports that incorrectly stated that his client lacked a state license to carry a handgun.

Even though his clients handgun-license status is legally irrelevant because the states permitless carry law took effect July 1, Relford posted a photograph of Dickens License to Carry Handgun card, which Indiana State Police issued in August 2021.

Meanwhile, two other GoFundMe accounts were accepting donations to support the shooting victims families.

A father of three, Victor Gomez, 30, was shot as he left the restroom that the gunman had occupied, police said.

He was described as humble and kind-hearted by his cousin, Rosalva Gomez, on the GoFundMe page that she started to help with his kids and his wife through (these) tough times.

A joint fund has been set up to pay for funeral expenses of Pedro Pineda, 56, and his wife, Rosa Rivera de Pineda, 37, by a family friend. They were fatally shot as they ate dinner together, police said.

All three bystanders were from Indianapolis. Two other people, a 22-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl, were wounded.
New Environment Report Downplays Data That Contradicts Climate Narrative: Scientist

An Australian geophysicist has called a new government reportwhich claims Australias ecosystem is at risk of collapsea political statement that deliberately omits important data to fulfil the climate change narrative.

The State of the Environment report recently released on July 19 by Tanya Plibersek, the federal environment and water minister, was compiled by a group of scientists who claimed Australias environment was under extreme pressure due to factors such as climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, and resource extraction.

Our inability to adequately manage pressures will continue to result in species extinctions and deteriorating ecosystem condition, which are reducing the environmental capital on which current and future economies depend, the report said.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek speaks during a stand-up in the Press Gallery at Parliament House on March 24, 2021 in Canberra, Australia. (Photo by Sam Mooy/Getty Images)

Even the best management will not stop environmental decline if we do not address climate change and cumulative effects.

But Peter Ridd, a former professor at James Cook University and a member of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, told The Epoch Times the study was not a scientific document and excludes a whole lot of information that contradicts the story that theyre telling.

In an earlier Facebook post on July 19, Ridd wrote, This latest report is just a political statement, designed to bully the government. It was apparently written when the coalition was still in government but then-Minister Susan Ley decided not to publish it.

Former JCU Professor Peter Ridd. (IPA)

There is a great deal of scepticism about reports like these because they are so over-the-top, they have lost credibility.

One example he highlighted was the reports claim that Australian coral reefs were in poor and declining condition.

However, Ridd later told The Epoch Times this assessment ignored the latest data that showed the reef was in fact enjoying record high coral cover.

Coral Reef In Great Health

According to the latest annual survey from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), the Great Barrier Reefs hard coral cover has increased across all three regions (27 percent in the Northern region, 26 percent in the Central, and 39 percent Southern) during 2020-21, and most reefs had moderate or high coral cover.

Trends in average hard coral cover (blue line) for the Northern GBR based on manta tow surveys. (AIMS/Screenshot)

Trends in average hard coral cover (blue line) for the Southern GBR based on manta tow surveys. (AIMS/Screenshot)

Trends in average hard coral cover (blue line) for the Central GBR based on manta tow surveys up. (AIMS/Screenshot)

The survey further noted that although bleaching events do occur due to heat stress, the reef displayed low coral mortality and even demonstrated resilience when free from major disturbances.

This data, however, is not highlighted in the governments State of Environment paper, which instead emphasised mass coral bleaching since 2016 that it attributed to warming ocean waters.

Further, the five-year study identified land clearing as a significant threat to Australian biodiversity.

But Ridd said this finding failed to take into account that large parts of western Queensland were originally grassland.

Originally, the Aboriginal people would burn a lot, he said, noting that the reduction of fire regimes since European settlement has changed the area into a woodland. So a lot of these areas that are cleared were originally grassland to start with.

Alexandra Ordonez Alvarez, from the University of Queensland, collects georeferenced data on the Great Barrier Reefs Ashmore Bank in Australia, in December 2019. (Chris Roelfsema/Allen Coral Atlas via AP)

Downplaying the Positives

While the report did include some positive developments in Australias environment, they are mostly downplayed, overall undermining its veracity, Ridd said.

Theyll give you a little bit of a bone here. But then they take away the whole thing somewhere else.

For example, in the chapter about Coasts, the report mentioned a case study that found over 97 percent of aquatic species across the Great Barrier Reef were unlikely to experience harmful effects from pesticides but then argued that this only represented the spatially averaged risk.

Similarly, although the report acknowledged that the Southern parts of the Great Barrier Reef remained in good condition, it concluded that trends are unclear because ocean warming is posing an increasing threat.

However, Ridd said the study has done quite well in terms of mentioning the impacts of the population. But he said it failed to reflect the fact that Australias environment is much, much better than almost anywhere else on earth.

Australias famous mascot is now on the vulnerable list as eucalyptus forests, which koalas depend on for food, are being cut down. (Jan Jekielek/The Epoch Times)

Bias in Science Is Possible

Scientific papers that affirm the detrimental effect of climate change are difficult to challenge because weve been brought up to believe that scientists are very respectable and are not biased in any way, Ridd said.

In many areas of science, thats absolutely true. But in environmental sciences, the ideology has crept in such that if you have a different view on these things, youll be excluded.

And most of the scientists who go into the environmental sciences have got a particular worldview, and it may not represent the rest of the population. So you end up with a situation that your scientific institutions, at least in the environmental sciences, have become completely untrustworthy.

The former professor faced intense pressure in 2018 for questioning the veracity of research being carried out by scientists researching the Great Barrier Reef. James Cook University administrators would terminate Ridds employment claiming breach of professional conduct.

Ridd said: Most people would rather believe that the institutions havent become untrustworthy, because that is just too horrible to contemplate.

The problem is the media doesnt have time to check, he noted. Ultimately, the proverbial man in the street has to be able to trust the scientists. And unfortunately, I think that we no longer can.

And thats why Im calling for quality assurance on these sorts of reports, so that we can have some genuine faith in the moment.

Tanya Plibersek addresses a 2019 Federal Election Volunteer Rally in Burwood in Sydney, Australia on April 14, 2019. (Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

Environment Minister Moves to Enhance Government Power

Environment Minister Plibersek on July 19 took advantage of the release of the report to launch a new federal Environmental Protection Agency to enforce the governments goals on environmental policyformed in response to calls for a more holistic and national approach to climate change action.

Years of warnings that were ignored or kept secret. Promises made, but not delivered. Dodgy behaviour, undermining public confidence. Brutal funding cuts. Wilful neglect, Plibersek told the National Press Club, in a rebuke of the former government.

Yet it is unclear how this new federal body will operate alongside existing state-based Environmental Protection Agencies, or whether there will simply be more overlap of roles.

Ridd meanwhile, said the doom and gloom of the report could spur further restrictions on farming, mining, and tourism activity.

This actually is a real problem for us, because every single one of our major industries up here is affected by regulations, he noted.

Plibersek also warned that if Australia were to continue on the current trajectory the Australian landscape, wildlife, and plant life may not be here for our kids and grandkids.

However, Ridd said this sentiment only had a terrible psychological effect on children [who will think] the world is going to end.
Independent truck drivers gather to delay the entry of trucks at a container terminal at the Port of Oakland, during a protest against California's law known as AB5, in Oakland, Calif., on July 18, 2022. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Clogged California Ports Face New Labor Risk From Trucking

OAKLANDTruck drivers choked traffic at the Oakland, California, seaport on Monday protesting a state law that makes it harder for independent contractors to transport goods and could limit labor at the states already clogged seaports, threatening to worsen the nations pandemic-fueled supply chain jams.

Californias ports handle about 40percent of container goods that enter the United States. Trucking disruptions come at a time when unions and West Coast port employers are also negotiating a high-stakes labor contract.

The law, known as AB5, or the gig worker law, sets tougher standards for classifying workers as independent contractors. Independent truckers who now operate under the authority and insurance of companies that hire them for jobs would be shouldered with the hefty costs and red tape of taking that on when the law is enacted.

They want to eliminate us, said independent driver Douglas Urtado, who joined Mondays protest the Port of Oakland in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Wayne Feng, wearing a No on AB5 T-shirt, told Reuters the law would be so financially draining that drivers arent making anything.

Legal challenges kept AB5 from going into effect in 2020, but the U.S. Supreme Court last month denied a California Trucking Association petition claiming the law is blocked by federal regulations. Experts say an injunction that put the law on hold could soon be lifted.

More than 100 drivers and small trucking company operators opposed to the law swarmed two terminal gates in the Port of Oakland, slowing truck entry to a trickle. The action came after port truckers in Los Angeles picketed gates and snarled roadways at the nations busiest seaport complex last week.

Business owner Josue Mendez, 29, said AB5 would devastate his port trucking firm, which relies on 10 independent drivers to move everything from medical equipment to almonds.

I can no longer hire them and be in compliance with AB5, said Mendez.

Backers of AB5, which include the Teamsters union that once dominated trucking, say it will crack down on labor abuses by pushing owners to hire drivers as employees and provide workers compensation insurance and other benefits.

Industry groups representing roughly 20,000 Los Angeles and Oakland port truckers, including the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, made an unsuccessful bid to convince California Governor Gavin Newsom to delay enforcement of the law.

Now that the federal courts have rejected the trucking industrys appeals, its time to move forward, Dee Dee Myers, director of the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development, said in a statement.

Californias port trucking work practices trace back to the 1980s, when the United States deregulated trucking. That transformed the business from one dominated by large, unionized companies to the current model in which most firms rely on independent drivers, many of whom are recent immigrants.

Port driver pay is now one-half to two-thirds less than what it was before deregulation, according to an estimate from Wayne State University economics professor Michael Belzer. It is difficult to derive accurate data on compensation because government data, particularly on hours worked, is incomplete, he said.

By Carlos Barria and Lisa Baertlein
Teddy bears and flowers are sit as a memorial outside of the Greenwood Park Mall food court, in Greenwood, Ind., on July 18, 2022. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

Community Mourns Indiana Mall Shooting Victims, Hails Hero Civilian

Victor Gomez, who was gunned down while his wife and three children were unharmed nearby at an Indiana shopping mall, is remembered as a dedicated, hard-working family man and entrepreneur.

Gomezs aunt, Maria Zaragoza, told The Epoch Times that while Gomezs wife and children were in a womens restroom, Gomez had been in the mens restroom, where police said the gunman spent an hour, presumably preparing for the shooting.

She didnt know precisely where Gomez was when he was shot, but Zaragoza believes he was in or near the restroom. Zaragoza said that Gomez was a very special person with a zest for life. She showed photos of Gomez dancing, caring for several large dogs he owned, and relishing family outings, which she said happened almost every weekend.

Victor Gomez in an undated photo. (Family photo)

Zaragoza worries about Gomezs wife, Rosy, and the couples children, ages 12, 7, and 4, who witnessed the aftermath of the Greenwood Park Mall shooting that killed Gomez, 30, and two other mall visitors on July 17. Two other people were wounded; information on them hasnt been released. A legally armed citizen killed the gunman and shielded others from harm, police said.

Zaragoza expressed concern for the traumatic experience that Gomezs children endured. She believes they saw their gravely wounded father being taken from the scene. She encouraged Rosy Gomez: Stay strong for the babies.

Gomezs funeral will be held this weekend in Indianapolis, where he ran a business called TRU Marble and Granite LLC. Gomez, whose family roots are in Mexico, was born in Florida; he lived most of his life in Indianapolis, Zaragoza said.

Police identified the armed citizen-hero as Elisjsha Dicken, 22.

In a prepared statement, Dickens attorney said his client is a true American hero who saved countless lives during a horrific event that could have been so much worse if not for Elis courage, preparedness, and willingness to protect others.

Police identified the gunman as Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, 20, who opened fire with a rifle and fired 24 rounds before he was shot down. Sapirmans body had eight gunshot wounds, according to the Johnson County Coroners Office. His victims all suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

On July 19, two days after the shooting, several people, including safety personnel with decades of service, said they couldnt remember another similar incident in Greenwood, a community of about 64,000 people near Indianapolis.

The shooting happened at a mall where police and firefighters had trained to prepare for an active shooter scenario in the past, officials said.

American flags were flying at half-staff in several places around town, including outside the police and fire stations, to honor and mourn the shooting victims. Residents said they were shocked, saddened, and puzzled about the shooting and expressed appreciation for Dicken.

Eli Dicken (Handout/The Law Offices of Guy A. Relford)

Resident Joe Bowling, who paused in his vehicle as he prepared to drive away from the police and court buildings, said that except for his stint in the Marines, he has lived in Greenwood for all of his 56 years. This is the first time he can remember a mass shooting there.

You can outlaw guns, but then the good guy wouldnt have had one to stop him (the gunman), Bowling said. He praised Dicken for having the presence of mind to keep people behind him and protect the public.

Bowling added that his mind was swirling with unanswered questions, especially about the gunmans motivation.

Authorities identified the other deceased victims as Pedro Pineda, 56, and his wife, Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda, 37. Like Gomez, they lived in Indianapolis, where members of the Hispanic community were planning fundraisers to pay for the Pinedas funerals. The money is to be shared with the Gomez family, said Diana Escobar, a friend of the Pinedas family.

Escobar runs a used car dealership in Indianapolis and belongs to a group called Latinos Unidos, or Latinos United. She said the Pinedas, who came to the United States from a small town in El Salvador, were immensely respected in that group of about 25 people and showed up for all the cultural events, celebrations, and fundraisers.

A big Hispanic community event has long been planned for September, and they should be there, Escobar said as she wept during an interview. She learned of the Pinedas deaths on July 18, a day after the shooting. She was in disbelief. Escobar said the couple will be remembered for the intense love they shared, evident to anyone who observed the pair.

It was the way they looked at each other, the way they were always together, she said. Although she and others felt almost paralyzed with grief, Escobar said she told another supporter: This is a time when we have to show up, because that is what the Pinedas would have done.

Jeff Louderback and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
In this courtroom sketch, Aydin Coban is pictured at B.C. Supreme Court, in New Westminster, B.C., on June 6, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Jane Wolsak)

Crown Calls Final Witness in Trial for Dutch Man Accused of Extorting BC Teen

Crown prosecutors have called their last witness in the British Columbia Supreme Court trial for the Dutch man accused of extorting Port Coquitlam teenager Amanda Todd before she died nearly a decade ago.

Aydin Coban has pleaded not guilty to charges of extortion, harassment, communication with a young person to commit a sexual offence and possessing child pornography.

The jury is expected to be called back next Tuesday, after hearing testimony over the last several weeks from Todds parents, RCMP officers, digital experts and Dutch police who were involved in searching Cobans home before his 2014 arrest.

Crown prosecutor Louise Kenworthy told the jury at the start of the trial last month that Todd had been the victim of a persistent campaign of online sextortion over a three-year period, before her death at 15 years old in October 2012.

Kenworthy said one person had more than 20 usernames to contact the teen, and had threatened to send her friends and family photos that showed her exposing her breasts unless she performed sexual acts in front of a web camera.

The girls mother, Carol Todd, told the jury trial that Amanda was scared when she brought messages from the online harasser to her attention, and her daughters distress increased with each incident.
U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger testifies during the Senate Rules and Administration Committee oversight hearing in Washington on Jan. 5, 2022 (Tom Williams/Pool/Getty Images)

Democratic Staffer Called Police on Colbert Crew After Hearing Loud Noises, Chief Says

A staffer working for Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) on June 16 called the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) on the nine production crew members for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert who were subsequently arrested in a House office building, according to USCP Chief Thomas Manger.

The staffer, whose name was redacted, heard a man shouting outside his office, according to a letter from Manger to Reps. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Do you remember me? Do you remember me? Its me. Were going to leave something under your door, the man shouted, the staffer told the police. The man also banged on the door to Rep. Lauren Boeberts (R-Colo.) office, which is adjacent to Bowmans office.

The staffer said he was very concerned. He locked his office door and called the USCP emergency number.

Officers rushed to the scene, inside the Rayburn House Office Building, and found seven individuals, including Jake Plunkett, senior producer and director for Colberts CBS show.

Two additional individuals returned to the area about 20 minutes later. They told officers they had been wandering around the building. None of the people had congressional press identifications, and there were no congressional staffers with them, which meant they were illegally inside the building.

Spokespersons for Bowman and Boebert didnt respond to requests for comment.

Previously Warned

One of the officers who responded to the scene recognized the group. He had stopped them earlier in the day, Manger said.

The officer said he was patrolling in the Cannon House Office Building and noticed the group trying to stop members to conduct interviews. The officer found the group lacked press credentials and had no staff members with them. He told them that the group couldnt be inside without a staff escort and removed them from the building.

The group was escorted into yet another House office building, the Longworth House Office Building, by a staffer with Rep. Jake Auchinclosss (D-Mass.) office, earlier in the day, an investigation found. The group was improperly allowed to remain in the building after the staffer had left them, according to Manger, and had apparently gone into a different building.

All of the buildings are connected to the U.S. Capitol.

There were no signs that a staffer for Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) let the group into a building, as was initially asserted.

Plunkett identified the group as working for Colbert, and Robert Smigel, another member of the group, said the group was pretending to leave notes under the Members doors as part of the skits, but did not actually leave anything.

The note was an invitation to a cocaine orgy, according to the interviews.

Because the group violated building regulations, they were taken into custody.

An investigation later found that the group was inside the buildings on June 15 but had a staff escort at all times. It also uncovered that Plunkett had also been told by the longtime head of the House Radio/TV Gallery that his attempts to secure press credentials were denied because the group didnt meet the standards and that his group must not enter or remain in the buildings without an escort.

Plunkett and CBS didnt respond to requests for comment.

A CBS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in June that the groups interviews were authorized and pre-arranged through Congressional aides of the members interviewed and acknowledged the group remained in the building after the interviews were over. Colbert joked about the situation.

Not Prosecuted

The group was arrested and charged with unlawful entry. Details of what happened were presented to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia.

Prosecutors announced this week that all charges were dropped.

The Office would be required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these invited guests were guilty of the crime of unlawful entry because their escort chose to leave them unattended. We do not believe it is probable that the Office would be able to obtain and sustain convictions on these charges, a spokesperson for the office told The Epoch Times in an email.

The USCP said that it respects the decision, but Manger commented separately on the move in his letter to Davis and Jordan.

It is unfortunate that despite all of the evidence the Department presented, including that the group or its leader had been told several times that they could not be in the buildings without an escort, that the U.S. Attorneys office declined to prosecute any members of the group for Unlawful Entry, he said.

On Fox News on July 19, Jordan said that this is the double standard that we see so often from the left and from this town.
Democrats Call for Shutdown of Deceptive Crisis Pregnancy Centers Amid Wave of Pro-Abortion Violence

Democrats in both the House and Senate are calling for the shutdown of deceptive crisis pregnancy centers amid a wave of violence across the United States by pro-abortion activists, prompting GOP backlash.

Crisis pregnancy centers are nonprofits founded for the purpose of providing counseling, support, and resources to persuade women against having an abortion. Often, services provided by these organizations include financial assistance, child-rearing resources, and adoption referrals, among others.

Specifically, crisis pregnancy centers often furnish new and expecting mothers with essentials like baby formula, diapers, and clothing in an effort to give women facing financial hardship an alternative to abortion.

Following an unprecedented leak showing that the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wadewhich it later did in the majority opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organizationpro-abortion activists took to the streets. In many cases, demonstrations turned violent and crisis pregnancy centers found themselves facing violent attacks.

On June 10 Luke Cirillo, the CEO of First Image, which runs a series of crisis pregnancy centers in Portland, Oregon, received a call from police that pro-abortion activists threw an incendiary through one of the windows [of one of the centers] which lit a significant fire in the back room.

This was not the only attack against First Image in the Portland area: on May 5, over a month before, another First Image facility had been vandalized and had the graffiti [expletive] CPCs [crisis pregnancy centers] written on it.

On the other side of the nation, a crisis pregnancy center run by CompassCare in Buffalo, New York was firebombed by pro-abortion agitators. Photographs posted on Facebook showed the effects of this attack, with windows blown out and glass lining the sidewalk outside of the facility.

Jane was here, a reference to Jane Roe, was also written on the wall at the side of the facility.

The FBI has said that they are investigating the attacks, but crisis pregnancy centers have continued to face the fear of further violent attacks by pro-abortion radicals.

On July 7, two crisis pregnancy centers in Massachusettsthe Clearway Center and the nearby Problem Pregnancy clinicwere also vandalized. Janes Revenge, was painted on the doorways to both clinics.

Even in the nations capital, crisis pregnancy centers are not safe from the spurt of violence.

Photos posted to Twitter show the door of the Capitol Hill Crisis Pregnancy Center covered in red paint and the words Janes Revenge written in graffiti on a nearby wall.

Despite the violence being faced by these nonprofits, an increasing number of Democrats have advanced calls to shut crisis pregnancy centers across the nation down, calling them deceptive.

According to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), crisis pregnancy centers are there to fool people looking for pregnancy termination help.

Warren is here referencing past controversies in which crisis pregnancy centers allegedly marketed themselves as abortion providers only to later reveal that they did not offer abortion and try to persuade women against getting one, which has formed the backbone of Democrats attacks on the nonprofits.

During a House hearing on the aftermath of overturning Roe v. Wade, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) expanded on these allegations, saying: Crisis pregnancy centers advance the anti-abortion agenda by using deceptive and coercive tactics and medical disinformation to target low income people facing unintended pregnancies to prevent them from accessing abortion.

Noting that these facilities outnumber abortion clinics by 31 in her home state of Massachusetts, Warren argued that We need to shut them down all around the country.

You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that, Warren added.

In a tweet, Warren expanded on the comments, saying: With Roe gone, its more important than ever to crack down on so-called crisis pregnancy centers that mislead and deceive patients seeking abortion care. My bill with @SenatorMenendez would stop these harmful practices.

The bill in question, dubbed the SAD Act, is sponsored by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and cosponsored by Warren and 15 other Democrats.

In lieu of pregnant women, the bills language refers to pregnant people.

Relying on the claim that crisis pregnancy centers are anti-abortion organizations that present themselves as comprehensive reproductive health care providers with the intent of discouraging pregnant people from having abortions, the SAD Act would direct the Federal Trade Commission to prescribe rules prohibiting disinformation in the advertising of abortion services, and for other purposes.

The legislation calls The freedom to decide whether and when to have a child  key to the ability of an individual to participate fully in our democracy, suggesting that by offering an alternative choice to abortion crisis pregnancy centers are opposed to freedom.

The bill is a bold move for Menendez, who has often tried to present himself as a more moderate type of Democrat. In 2021, the New Jersey Republican candidate was defeated by the Democrat after a shockingly close battle. Though he is not up for reelection until 2024, the legislation could be distasteful to many Catholic voters in his state.

Other surprising cosponsors of the bill include Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), who have also historically presented themselves as more moderate wings of the party.

In a tweet, Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) echoed Warrens comments, saying simply, crisis pregnancy centers are a sham.

In another tweet responding to Smiths comment, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) defended the work done by crisis pregnancy centers and called on Smith to join her in visiting one.

Crisis pregnancy centers support families by saving the lives of mothers and babies, Blackburn said. Abortion clinics profit off ending the lives of unborn babies.

I invite you to come visit a crisis pregnancy center with me. @SenTinaSmith, she added.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in another tweet responding to Warrens calls to crack down on crisis pregnancy centers echoed Blackburns sentiments, and blasted Democrats for their attacks on the groups.

Oh, the humanity! Cruz wrote. In the Lefts world view, its deceptive for a Crisis Pregnancy Center to actually help a mother give birth to her child.

In their own words, they want to crack down on birth and on adoption, he added.

Not Acting Like True Democrats

Kristen Day, a representative of the group Democrats for Life, said that attacks on crisis pregnancy centers on the basis of past controversies involving misleading advertising are deceptive, noting that its a very small portion of pregnancy centers that have done this, despite Democrats efforts to paint the practice as more widespread.

Planned Parenthood has misled people into believing they [mostly] provide mammograms, Day added.

No industry is perfect, Day continued. But when youre talking about  pregnancy resource centers, their whole mission is to support pregnant women, [and give] them that real choice to have their baby. They provide diapers, and clothing, and job trainingeverything that, as a Democrat, youd want to be provided.

As Democrats, we want to help those in need, Day said, citing calls by Warren and others to shut down pregnancy centers.

Elizabeth Warren  and others calling to shut these facilities down  are not acting like true Democrats, they are turning their backs on the vulnerable, and the most vulnerable.

Beyond this, Day said, these attacks are very anti-women.

They dont want women to have opportunity, they want women to feel like they have to have an abortionthey cant stay in school and have a baby, they cant have a job and have a baby. Its not empowering, its very belittling.

Given that these pregnancy centers mostly provide assistance to poor women, the message of the attacks, Day said, is that if youre wealthy, you can have your baby, but if youre poor you should have an abortion. And again, those are not consistent with Democratic values at all.

Warren and other Democrat lawmakers did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.
A new study led by researchers from the University of Western Australia (UWA) has found that children exposed to domestic and family violence (DFV) are at a much greater risk of mental health issues such as anxiety and depression than children with no experience of violence, and are also five times more likely to require help from a mental health service by the age of 18.

It was also found that, on average, there was a six-year delay between health or police intervention and the child receiving mental health assistance, leading researchers to stress the critical need for early intervention in order to reduce the risk of poor mental health in adulthood.

The study, titled Investigating the Mental Health of Children Exposed to Domestic and Family Violence Through the Use of Linked Police and Health Records, observed the impact of domestic and family violence on kids in Western Australia (WA) born between 1987 and 2010, following their interactions with health services until the end of 2016.

Lead author and research fellow from the UWA School of Population and Global Health, Dr. Carol Orr, said in a UWA release on Tuesday that exposure to violence in the home is a common and highly traumatic childhood experience.

Children experiencing domestic and family violence has a 36 percent greater risk of depression, a 49 percent greater risk of anxiety and an almost 60 percent greater risk of intentional self-harm, Orr said.

Children need to be recognised as victims in their own right.

According to the head of the School of Population and Global Health at UWA, Prof. Colleen Fisher, the study provides sound evidence of how physical and emotional abuse in the home impacts childrens mental health.

Children are sometimes described as the hidden victims of family and domestic violence, and these findings show theres an urgent need for early and appropriate intervention to help children and mitigate any harm, Fisher said.

Children exposed to domestic and family violence are five times more likely to need mental health help by age 18. (Shutter2U/Adobe Stock)

How to Go About Early Intervention

With many children exposed to DFV not engaged in mental health services until years after their exposure, the study report stresses the need for a dedicated standalone national response and strategy for the mental health of children exposed to DFV.

As a part of this, mental health clinicians would need to have knowledge of DFV and its implications for mental health, along with the ability to appropriately respond to children exposed to DFV.

In addition, each of the multiple agencies children and their families may be in contact with, such as education, health, police, and child protection, provides a point of intervention, and therefore the report states it is critical that these agencies are a part of a broader collaborative, multiagency and multidisciplinary response to DFV.

The report also notes the importance of future research investigating factors associated with delays in mental health service provision for children exposed to DFV.

Child Abuse Linked to Violence Later in Life

The UWA-led study comes after experts from the University of South Australia (UniSA) recently warned that child abuse is inextricably linked with violence later in life, and it is paramount that authorities recognise this.

Childhood adversity expert Prof. Leonie Segal said in a UniSA release in late June that the evidence of abuse as a child leading to family violence later in life is unmistakable.

For example, children whose mothers have been the subject of substantiated child abuse or neglect have 10 times the risk of being the subject of substantiated child abuse themselves and nearly 20 times the risk of being removed into out-of-home care due to imminent and serious safety concerns, she said.

She added that the cycle of abuse almost always begins in childhood, and any strategy to prevent family violence must make the support of infants and children exposed to abuse and neglect a key component.

If more were done to help victims of child abuse while theyre still young, we could better disrupt pathways of abuse and stop victims becoming caught up in continuing cycles of violence, she said.
A ship works offshore in the Baltic Sea on the natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 from Russia to Germany on Nov. 11, 2018. (Bernd Wuestneck/dpa via AP, file photo)

EU Asks Countries to Significantly Cut Natural Gas Consumption Until Next Year

The European Union asked its member states to cut consumption of natural gas by 15 percent at a minimum until spring 2023.

According to the proposed regulation (pdf), released Wednesday, it would set an initial 15 percent reduction in natural gas usage between Aug. 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023.

At the same time, top EU officials alleged that the reduction is needed due to Russias war in Ukraine. The EU, which includes a number of NATO states, has backed Ukraine while imposing numerous sanctions on Moscow, including top Kremlin leaders in response to the conflict.

On July 11, Russia shut off its Nord Stream I pipeline that carries Russian gas to the rest of Europe via the Baltic Sea for maintenance. However, the shutoff drew speculation that Moscow could close down the project for a much longer period of time.

Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon. And therefore in any event, whether a partial major cut-off of Russian gas or a total cut-off of Russian gas, Europe needs to be ready, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote Wednesday.

Russia has refuted the accusations, saying it has been a reliable energy supplier.

What It Means

Europe is racing to fill its gas storage ahead of winter and build a buffer if supplies are restricted in the near future, and a dozen or so EU countries are already facing reduced Russian deliveries. EU officials claim a full Russian halt on gas supplies to the bloc is likely.

The recent escalation of disruptions of gas supply from Russia points to significant risk that a complete and protracted halt of Russian gas supplies may materialize in an abrupt and unilateral way, the European Commission said in a memo about the gas cut proposal. Taking action now can reduce both the risk and the costs for Europe in case of further or full disruption.

Steam leaves a cooling tower of the Lichterfelde gas-fired power plant in Berlin, Germany on March 30, 2022. (Michael Sohn/AP Photo)

If the measure is passed, EU nations would have to update their national plans by September 2022 and include details about reducing gas consumption. For years now, EU nations have become dependent on importing Russian gas, while some stateslike Germanyhave mostly barred the use of nuclear power and have attempted to utilize solar, wind, and hydropower instead.

Germanys economy minister, Robert Habeck, recently admitted to the Guardian that his country made a grave political mistake by relying on Russian gas. The country had imported a significant amount of gas via Nord Stream I and wanted to double the amount with the proposed Nord Stream II.

The EU plan comes as Russias state-run energy firm Gazprom said that it cant fulfill gas contracts with the EU due to unforeseeable circumstances. The company reportedly sent a letter this week informing some of its EU clients of a force majeure on gas supplies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also said Wednesday that the capacity of Nord Stream 1 could be reduced due to problems with other pumping units, one of which would need to be sent for maintenance on July 26.

Reuters contributed to this report.
The flyer of a free seminar posted on Mount of Hope facebook on July 14, 2022. (Screenshot by The Epoch Times)

Organizers of Event in NY State Receive Death Threat From CCP Representative

The organizers of a free seminar in a small town in upstate New York have received a death threat phone call from someone who claims to be a representative of the Chinese Communist Party. The voicemail was found on the event hotline on July 18, two days prior to the seminar.

The seminar on how to protect local schools, companies, and communities from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) infiltration will be held at 7 p.m. on July 20 at the youth center in the Town of Mount Hope, a quiet mountain town in upstate New York with a population of 7,000.

The Voicemail

The seminar is sponsored by the Mount Hope Chinese Association and the New York-based Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP. The panelists include a TV program producer, a filmmaker, and an associate professor.

One of the seminar organizers surnamed Cheng told The Epoch Times that the voicemail was very strange because not only does the caller ID (+44 7958264144) seem to be from the UK, but the voice also seems to have been manipulated to hide the identity of the caller.

In the voicemail, a male with a heavy accent says, Hello. This is a representative of the Chinese Communist Party. We hear you have been talking [expletive]. We at the Chinese Communist Party have a particular set of skills. We will cook you a great chicken curry, then we will find you and we will kill you. Meet at 7 p.m. at your own danger. Goodbye.

Wake Up to the CCP Threat

The seminar titled Wake Up to the CCP Threat will cover how the CCP has infiltrated U.S. schools, businesses, and communities.

Kay Rubacek, an author and filmmaker, is one of the three panelists at the seminar. She said on July 19 that the CCP controls people through fear and bribery. This is its proven method of operation. The CCP wants us to be afraid but now is the time that we need to have moral courage to stand up for the truth and do what is right. We should not lower our standards or change our values for the CCP and we absolutely should not succumb to fear.

Rubacek was previously a reporter with NTD, the sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

Ms. Xu, an organizer of the seminar, told The Epoch Times on July 19 that they have reported the threat to the local police and the FBI field office. The police told us that theyve dialed the callers number multiple times and no one answered, Xu said. The local police is taking this threat seriously and will deploy personnel to the seminar to ensure the safety of the event.

The seminar organizers have also notified the local elected officials, including the mayor and council members, about the voicemail.

They were shocked, Xu said. The fact that the CCPs tentacles have reached this quiet mountain town shows how prevalent its infiltration is inside the United States. Its endangering our national security and trampling on the right to free speech of the U.S. citizens.
A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., on April 23, 2020. (Tami Chappell/AFP via Getty Images)

EXCLUSIVE: Vast Majority of CDC Workers Working Remotely

Over three-quarters of workers at the nations largest public health agency are working remotely, even after COVID-19 metrics have plunged following fresh peaks in January, according to data obtained by The Epoch Times.

Of the approximately 12,679 full-time workers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 78 percent are either not working in-person at all, or are only doing so part of the time, the CDCs records office told The Epoch Times in response to a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA).

The numbers, which have not previously been made public, show agency workers arent heeding President Joe Biden, who called in his State of the Union speech for Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again.

The CDCs headquarters are in Atlanta.

People working from home can feel safe to begin to return to the office. Were doing that here in the federal government. The vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person, Biden said at the time.

A CDC spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

It took a FOIA request from The Epoch Times to find out that more than half of the CDC employees are working remotely in some capacity. We dont know if these are lab techs or people who are in the front office. Thats part of the problem, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, told The Epoch Times via email.

What we do know is if this is the public health equivalent of war, then we need the federal agency on the frontline to show up in the office, be the example, maximize efficiency, and do everything possible to make sure that COVID does not impact our lives any more than it did. Lets go CDC, lets get back to work, he added.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) questions U.S. health officials in Washington on June 16, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Remote and Telework

The FOIA response does not delineate which types of workers remain fully or partially offsite, and which are working full-time in person.

But it shows that 5,440 workers remain fully remote, 4,467 spend at least some time working remotely, and just 2,772 workers report to work in-person each day.

A worker with a remote agreement is able to work without any expectation of reporting to the agency worksite, according to the CDCs operational policy, which was also obtained by The Epoch Times. Telework agreements have workers report to the workplace several times every two weeks.

Questioned by Cassidy during a hearing in Washington in June, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said that the people who need to be on site in the lab are on site in the lab; people who are deployed to the field are deployed internationally and working outside the workplace.

But she declined to say whether laboratory workers were in their labs for 40 hours a week.

Many CDC workers shifted to working remotely after the pandemic started, Scott Kemp, head of the CDCs Community Transportation Service, told a blog in 2021.

The only workers who reported in-person were contract security officers and scientific experts, he said.

Participation in telework and remote work is highly encouraged for those positions deemed eligible, with eligibility depending on job functions rather than job titles or work schedules, according to the operational policy.

During the June hearing, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) questioned why Walensky and other agency heads did not seem to know how many of their workers were working remotely in some fashion.

That makes me wonder how you measure whether people are actually working when at home, he said.

The policy says that workers who work remotely must be able to work without direct supervisory oversight and that they must complete specific training before obtaining a remote or telework agreement.

Walensky herself works mostly from home, which is in Massachusetts, according to a Time magazine profile published this year. It said she flies to Atlanta for several days each month. During the past five days, Walensky told Cassidy at the time, she was in the office for two days. She declined to say how many days shed worked in-person over the previous month.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks in Washington on June 16, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

HHS Guidance

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the CDCs parent agency, issued guidance in March stipulating that employees who have been working remotely will be given at least 30 days advance notice before having to resume working in-person.

The agency says that employees with an approved written Workplace Flexibilities Agreement enabling telework must physically report to the worksite at least two days every two weeks.

Similar to the CDC policy, a remote work agreement lets workers work offsite with no expectation they will appear in person.

The CDCs policy says that the agency supports and encourages telework, and remote work. Among the benefits it lists are reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving access to skilled workers who are not located in the Atlanta area or near other CDC offices.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which manages the government workforce, says that it expects many more federal workers to telework on a regular basis in the future.

Kemp told the blog, called Georgia Commute Options, that some CDC workers worked remotely at times before the pandemic. But he foresaw the number of CDC workers doing so would be much higher because of how well the arrangement was working.

If you look at how many people teleworked before the pandemic, I think that number is going to double because weve learned how to do it, and there are real benefits to it, he said. Weve seen a reduction in stress and an increase in productivity. Managers have been convinced that work gets done when employees are remote.
Beijing lashes out over a potential U.S. trip to Taiwan. We look at how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is involved.

Chinese-made drones are at work for U.S. government agencies. New details say departments like the FBI and Homeland Security are still buying them.

The Senate gears up to vote on a bill aiming to boost semiconductor production on home soil. But theres more to it. We dig into the controversy behind the package.

Washington is earmarking over a billion dollars to help counter hypersonic missile threats from Russia and China. Nearly 30 satellites will be launched in 2025with even more to come.

Topics in this episode:

China Reacts to Possible Pelosi Trip to Taiwan FBI, DHS Still Buying Chinese Drones U.S.: Satellite System to Track Hypersonic Weapons Senators Advance Bill to Boost U.S. Microchip Making U.S. Lawmakers Press for Semiconductor Bill A Closer Look: China Competition Bills Controversy Yellen: Chinas Unfair Practices Give It Advantage Mortgage Boycott Threatens Chinas Economic Stability

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The logo of EDF on the headquarters' building in Paris, on Feb. 15, 2019. (Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images)

France to Pay $10 Billion to Take Full Control of EDF

PARISFrances government is offering to pay 9.7 billion euros ($9.85 billion) to take full control of EDF, in a buyout deal that gives it a free hand to run Europes biggest nuclear power operator as it grapples with a continent-wide energy crisis.

The finance ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the government would offer EDFs minority shareholders 12 euros per share, a 53 percent premium to the closing price on July 5, the day before the government announced its intention to fully nationalize the debt-laden group.

EDF shares, which resumed trading on Tuesday after a one-week suspension pending details of the government buyout plan, had jumped 15 percent to 11.80 euros by 8:36 a.m. GMT.

The state already owns 84 percent of EDF, which has been dogged by unplanned outages at its nuclear fleet, delays and cost overruns in building new reactors, and power tariff caps imposed by the government to shield households from soaring electricity prices.

The war in Ukraine has deepened the crisis at the group, forcing it to buy electricity on the market at historically high prices and sell it at cheaper levels to its competitors.

France has said EDFs nationalization will increase the security of its energy reserves as Europe scrambles to find alternatives to Russian gas supplies.

Rising prices have squeezed energy suppliers across Europe, and earlier this month Germany moved to bail out Uniper, its biggest importer of Russian gas.

France, which would normally be exporting electricity at this time of the year, is currently importing from Spain, Switzerland, Germany, and Britain, and the supply crunch is likely to worsen this winter.

Nationalization is ultimately the only way to save the company and ensure electricity production, said Ingo Speich, head of sustainability and corporate governance at Deka Investment, which has a small stake in EDF. This is a bitter but necessary step.

Analysts noted the government would only need to get 90 percent ownership of EDF to be able to delist it from the stock market.

We think the offer looks attractive and has high probability of success, Citi analyst Piotr Dzieciolowski said in a note.

The buyout offer will be filed with the stock exchange regulator by early September.

By Mathieu Rosemain and Leigh Thomas
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (L) as he arrives for a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris on July 18, 2022. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

France, UAE Sign Energy Cooperation Deal

PARISThe governments of France and the United Arab Emirates signed on Monday a strategic agreement to cooperate in the energy sector, the French government said.

The partnership aimed to identify joint investment projects in France, the UAE or elsewhere in the sectors of hydrogen, renewable, and nuclear energy, the French government said in a statement.

In the currently uncertain energy context, this agreement will pave the way for a stable long-term framework for cooperation, opening the way for new industrial contracts, it added.

The deal coincides with the visit to Paris of UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan between July 1719, his first overseas state visit since taking over from his half-brother in May.
George Soros answers to questions after delivering a speech on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on May 24, 2022. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

George Soros Gave $1 Million to Help Beto ORourke Unseat Texas Gov. Greg Abbott

Left-wing Democrat mega donor George Soros has donated $1 million to help Beto ORourkes efforts to unseat Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, filings show.

Records filed with Texas Ethics Commission published Tuesday show the billionaire donated the sum to the Beto for Texas political action committee in June, according to The Hill. ORourkes campaign confirmed the donation to the outlet.

ORourke has benefited from laws in Texas that allow uncapped campaign donations. According to filings, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee has received a number of donations over six or seven figures.

Soros, 91, frequently supports progressive causes. He has spent at least $40 million in support of liberal prosecutor candidates between 2014 and 2021, according to a report published by Virginia-based Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.

Additionally, the progressive investor gave more than $125 million to a Democrat-aligned super PAC to boost Democrat groups and candidates ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) displays the Beto Truth Response Unit in Houston, June 16, 2022. The ambulance will follow his Democratic opponent on the campaign trail. (Darlene McCormick Sanchez/The Epoch Times)

Soros handed over his donation to Democracy PAC, which he set up in 2019. Democracy PAC is his main political action committee to support Democrats in what was a long-term investment beyond the 2022 elections.

He has also spent tens of millions of dollars funding media properties, including journalism schools and industry organizations, according to a report by the Media Research Center.

Matt Palumbo, author of The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros, said the billionaire funds many left-wing groups, media companies, and political candidates through his Open Society Foundation.

Palumbo, during an interview for EpochTVs Facts Matter program, also said Soros uses his influence to control what is written about him.

Soross foundation claims to promote democracy and individualism, but in reality it supports a more radical agenda, said Palumbo.

Abbott Leads ORourke

According to a poll from the University of Houstons Hobby School of Public Affairs, Abbott leads ORourke by 5 percent among likely voters (pdf).

The report states that Abbott leads at 49 percent to ORourkes 44 percent, with 5 percent undecided and 2 percent intending to vote for Libertarian Mark Tippetts.

More than nine out of 10 Abbott (95 percent) and ORourke (92 percent) voters are certain about their vote choice, while 5 percent and 8 percent indicate they might change their mind between now and November, the report states.

Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a press conference about the mass shooting at Uvalde High School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 27, 2022. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Abbott holds a 27 percent (60 percent to 33 percent) lead over ORourke among white voters while ORourke holds a 72 percent (80 percent to 8 percent) lead over Abbott among Black voters, and a 9 percent (51 percent to 42 percent) lead among Latino voters.

Women prefer ORourke (6 percent) while Abbott outpaces ORourke with support of men (18 percent), according to the report.
'I strive to keep a close relationship with God because He gave me what I needed to live.'

Over four decades ago, a God-loving family and nurse refused to give up on a baby boy born without a brain. They chose to pray, believing that a miracle would happen. And it did. Today, he is an evangelist minister with a powerful testimony and is leading others to faith in God.

Jacob Phillips, 44, lives in West Monroe, Louisiana. His story began at Louisianas Bossier General Hospital on Dec. 12, 1977, where he was delivered by Caesarean section. Phillips says he was born with triple trouble, and his doctors werent too hopeful that he would survive.

I was born with hydrocephalus, which is more commonly known as water on the brain. I also had partial skull formation, which means I barely had any skull, [and] to top it all off, I had no brain, Phillips told The Epoch Times. My brain stem was what was keeping me alive. Finding all of this out, the doctor told my parents and family I wouldnt live through the hour. I was given an immediate death sentence.

I credit my faith in God for where I am today. I strive to keep a close relationship with God because He gave me what I needed to live.

(Courtesy of Jacob Phillips)

(Courtesy of Jacob Phillips)

Phillipss mother had a miscarriage with her first child some time before he was born, and his father was extremely distraught the day Phillip was born. I cant imagine what was going through [my moms] mind when the doctor gave the bad news. My dad was a quiet man who didnt say much, he said.

The hospital room was filled with support that day, including congregation from Phillipss grandparents church in West Monroe. Phillipss mother threatened to wheel herself to the nursery to feed her ailing son, despite her doctors disapproval, and she received the support she needed.

I remember my grandmother telling me once that she told the doctor I wasnt going to die. She looked him in the eye and said, You dont know what my God can do!' Phillips said.

Phillipss family clung to their faith and prayed. Others in Phillipss corner were also led by faith. Nurse Susie asked his mother if she could call her pastor, Don Logan, of nearby Shreveport, while Phillipss grandparents called their own pastor in West Monroe, Loel Ashbrook, whose friend, Duane Amis, was in the office when they rang.

I call these three men the Power Trio, said Phillips. They came to the hospital to pray for me. God created a brain in my head because of the preachers prayer.

Baby Phillips with his mother. (Courtesy of Jacob Phillips)

Phillips with his mother. (Courtesy of Jacob Phillips)

(Left) Phillips with Duane Amis; (Right) Phillips with Don Logan. (Courtesy of Jacob Phillips)

Phillips has Nurse Susies recollections in writing, via Facebook messenger, from a conversation she shared with Pastor Duane Amis in 2014. He shared it with The Epoch Times.

Nurse Susie wrote: I remember the baby without a brain. His head was shaped like a peanut. He had hydrocephalus. We transferred him to Ochsners Hospital in New Orleans. The Lord healed that child. The neurosurgeon called him a vegetable that day; I was infuriated! The babys head was so filled with fluid, doctors didnt know if surgery would help. I think Jacob [Phillips] was 3 when his mom brought him back to see me. I wept that day! I am so thankful the Lord let me see His power.

Phillips, who is legally blind, has undergone 25 surgeries in his life, beginning with a major surgery at 1 week old to have a shunt fitted in his head to correct hydrocephalus. Doctors then built him a skull using bone grafts. But Phillipss fight was far from over. Aged 10, he almost died when his shunt supposedly malfunctioned. He couldnt hold down food and spent 26 days in hospital, where the shunt was replaced, and a stomach cyst caused by the malfunction was removed.

Owing to his differences, Phillips was bullied from preschool to high school and battled with a negative view on life. Although somewhat happy at home, he would often return from school in tears. That part of my life has been difficult to overcome, but I have left it behind for the most part, he reflected. I dont really have a philosophy I live by, I just take one day at a time.

Phillipss rock, and what helped him overcome, was growing up surrounded by people of faith. He says he was born again at 10 years old in his uncles childrens church. At 17, he was called into ministry. Twenty-five years later, he became a licensed and ordained evangelist minister.

Phillips speaking at a church in Missouri. (Courtesy of Jacob Phillips)

(Courtesy of Jacob Phillips)

Phillipss life has become his testimony. Today, he is happily married to his wife of 12 years, Charlene, 42, with whom he runs the ministry Sons of Righteousness. The pair travel the United States together to share the goodness of God.

We met when I was 18, and she was 16, through a mutual friend over the phone, Phillips said. I went to see her a few days later, and when I stepped out of the car, I took one look at her and said, Im going to marry that girl one day. I couldnt ask for anyone better.

Phillips has also written a book, Born Without a Brain, to share his life story and inspire others toward faith. Having wanted to publish it nine years ago, it took hearing the voice of God to set Phillipss wheels in motion.

Phillips at a church introducing his book, Born Without a Brain. (Courtesy of Jacob Phillips)

A letter of appreciation from Don Logan. (Courtesy of Jacob Phillips)

I have a friend in Oregon who helped me get started, and a friend in Mississippi hooked me up with a publisher in West Virginia who would ultimately help me get published on Amazon, he said. I wanted to get my story out to show God still does miracles, and He wants to do something in the lives of others.

Phillipss advice to anyone struggling in life is simple: pray.

Im huge on having a solid prayer life, he said. There is nothing in this life that cant be overcome.

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, appears at the keynote with the Google Glass to introduce the Google Glass Explorer Edition during Google's annual developer conference in San Francisco on June 27, 2012. (Kimihiro Hoshino//AFP/GettyImages)

Google to Start Testing Camera-Equipped Glasses in August

Taking it slow to avoid privacy fiasco with failed Google Glass

Google is set to test its augmented reality (AR) prototypes in public starting in August, the company announced on July 19.

Some of the prototypes will look like normal glasses, but with an in-lens display and visual and audio sensors like a microphone and camera, the company said.

Testing the AR prototypes solely in a lab environment has its limitations and real-world tests will allow the company to better understand how these devices will help people in their daily lives, said Googles Group Product Manager Juston Payne in a blog post. Its early, and we want to get this right, so were taking it slow, with a strong focus on ensuring the privacy of the testers and those around them.

As features like AR navigation are planned, the real-world tests will help in taking into account factors like weather and busy intersections, things that can be difficult to recreate indoors, the company claims.

The test comes almost a decade after Google Glass kicked off privacy concerns that subsequently sank the device. Equipped with a front-facing camera, many people worried that wearers of the Glass could record others without their consent.

Negative reactions poured in and some establishments banned Google Glass wearers. In 2014, a woman claimed to have been attacked at a San Francisco bar while wearing the device. Google eventually repurposed the product for its business customers.

Google Glass also faced other challenges in adoption, including a design that many did not find aesthetically pleasing. A strong ecosystem of apps and related products never developed. In addition, the product itself was offered at a steep price point, which was a turn-off for many people.

New AR Glasses and Competition

Google is planning to start tests of the AR prototypes on a small scale in public settings, with the glasses worn only by a few dozen Googlers and select trusted testers. Though these prototype devices will feature cameras, microphones, and lens displays, there will be restrictions on what they can do.

This time around, Google is planning to resolve many of its previous problems. For instance, the new glasses will not take photos or record images to store and view later. Images and videos can only be taken for showing directions or identifying objects. An LED light on the device will switch on when an image is being recorded.

The magic will really come alive when you can use them in the real world without the technology getting in the way, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during the announcement of the AR glasses in May, according to CNBC.

Google is facing competition from other big tech giants in the AR glasses market. Meta plans to release an advanced mixed-reality headset later in 2022, while Apple has plans to announce a mixed-reality headset in 2023.
Growing Number of K-12 Teachers Charged With Child Sex Crimes in Recent Months: Analysis

At least 181 K-12 teachers, principals, and staff have been arrested for child sex crimes in the United States so far this year, according to an analysis of reports.

At least 181 educators been arrested between Jan. 1 and June 30, according to a Fox News analysis. Arrests that did not make it in media reports were not counted.

Four principals, 153 teachers, 12 substitute teachers, and 12 teachers aides were arrested on a litany of charges, including sexually assaulting students and possessing child pornography. About 140 of those who were arrested carried out alleged crimes against students.

For example, an educator in Delaware, identified as High Road School teacher James Garfield, was arrested last week for allegedly assaulting a 15-year-old student. He was charged with two counts of felony rape and related charges, according to local media.

Days before that, a teacher in Warren, Pennsylvania, was arrested and charged after he allegedly sexually assaulted a 15-year-old student. He was charged with aggravated indecent assault, institutional sexual assault, and other charges, it was reported.

Weeks before that, a Hoboken, New Jersey man admitted to raping two 17-year-old girls while he worked as a gym teacher in two different public school districts in Hudson County, New Jersey. In late June, 45-year-old Francisco Realpe pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault, prosecutors said.

Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute an activist who has battled the spread of critical race theory in classrooms, called for a new study on child sex abuse in schools.

This is a scandal that the political Left is doing everything in its power to suppress, he said in a statement to Fox News. The basic fact is incontrovertible: every day, a public school teacher is arrested, indicted, or convicted for child sex abuse. And yet, the teachers unions, the public school bureaucracies, and the left-wing media pretend that the abuse isnt happening and viciously attack families who raise concerns.

In an article published in April, Rufo noted that the Department of Education last released a report in 2004 (pdf), which said nearly 9.6 percent of students have been targeted by teachers for sexual misconduct in K-12 classrooms.

The most comprehensive report about sexual abuse in public schools, published by the Department of Education in 2004, estimateson the basis of a 2000 survey, conducted by the American Association of University Women, of 2,065 students in grades eight through 11that nearly 10 percent of K-12 students have been victims of sexual misconduct by a public school employee, he wrote.

If that figure is correct, he noted that it would translate into an approximately 4.5 million children nationwide suffering sexual misconduct by public school employees, with an estimated 3 million suffering physical sexual abuse. That figure, Rufo said, could be more than 100 times greater than the physical abuse committed by Catholic priests, who, at the time the report was published, were undergoing a reckoning for the crimes within their ranks.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Department of Education for comment.
The sun sets behind the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Nov. 18, 2021. Following the final Congressional Budget Office cost estimate, House Democrats are hoping to vote on President Joe Biden's $1.75 trillion social benefits and climate legislation on Nov. 18. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

House Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill, Backed by 47 Republicans

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to codify same-sex marriage into law.

The Democrat-controlled lower house passed the Respect for Marriage Act (H.R. 8404), a bill that codifies same-sex marriage into U.S. law, with a bipartisan 267157 vote; 47 House Republicans backed the bill. The bill now heads to the Senate, where 10 Republican votes are needed to overcome the filibuster threshold.

Specifically, the bill repeals and replaces provisions that define, for purposes of federal law, marriage as between a man and a woman and spouse as a person of the opposite sex with provisions that recognize any marriage that is valid under state law, reads the bills summary on Congresss website.

The bill also repeals and replaces provisions that do not require states to recognize same-sex marriages from other states with provisions that prohibit the denial of full faith and credit or any right or claim relating to out-of-state marriages on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin, the bills summary continued.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) introduced the bill on July 18.

The passage of the bill came a month after the Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization (pdf), a decision that overturned the 1981 landmark abortion decision, Roe v. Wade. The highest court opined in Dobbs that decisions affected by the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment should be reconsidered.

In his concurring opinion to Dobbss majority ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas said that substantive due process is an oxymoron that lack[s] any basis in the Constitution and that the Due Process Clause does not secure any substantive rights.

For this reason, Thomas said that in future cases, [the justices] should reconsider all of this Courts substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell, and that because any substantive due process decision is demonstrably erroneous, we have a duty to correct the error established in those precedents.

Nadler takes the position that same-sex marriage is a fundamental right that was targeted by the Supreme Court.

Three weeks ago, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court not only repealed Roe v. Wade and walked back 50 years of precedent, it signaled that other rights, like the right to same-sex marriage, are next on the chopping block, said Nadler in a July 18 press release.

As this Court may take aim at other fundamental rights, we cannot sit idly by as the hard-earned gains of the Equality movement are systematically eroded. If Justice Thomass concurrence teaches anything its that we cannot let your guard down or the rights and freedoms that we have come to cherish will vanish into a cloud of radical ideology and dubious legal reasoning, Nadler continued.

Over the last weekend, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) publicly reaffirmed his stance that policies on issues such as gay marriage and abortion should be left to state legislatures to shape.

Cruz previously voiced opposition to Obergefell v. Hodges (pdf), the 2015 Supreme Court decision in which the 54 majority ruled that the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment guarantee the fundamental right to marry to same-sex couples.

Obergefell, like Roe v. Wade, ignored two centuries of our nations history, Cruz told podcast Verdict+. In Obergefell, the court said, no, we know better than you guys do, and now every state must sanction and permit gay marriage. I think that decision was clearly wrong when it was decided. It was the court overreaching.

And had the court not rolled Obergefell, the democratic process would continue to operate: that if you believe that gay marriage was a good idea, the way the Constitution is set up for you to advance that position is to convince your fellow citizens. And if you succeeded in convincing your fellow citizens, then your state would change the laws to reflect those views, the senator added.
Howard Schultz Should Sue George Soros for Destroying Starbucks

Commentary

Im one of those who doesnt love Starbucks. I patronized them only when something I liked better, usually local, wasnt available. Still, they were and maybe still are, an Americanand an internationalphenomenon.

Founder and CEO Howard Schultz figured out how to take the Greenwich Village coffeehouse of yore, clean it up, and leave just enough bohemian edge to make customers feel as if they were doing something cool by patronizing it. It worked spectacularly.

I was so impressed by the CEOs acumen, and his seemingly sane middle-of-the-road political approach, rare to disappearing in Democrats, I even wrote somewhat favorably in January 2019 of his presidential trial balloon in Howard Schultz Could Actually Win the Presidency.

This article created a small brouhaha when Schultz cited it on television and then had to walk it back under left-wing pressure because I had committed the faux pas of referring to 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as Fauxcahontas in the text. The controversy even made the Daily Mail.

He obviously pulled out of his presidential adventure, but now hes pulling out of something that I suspect is ultimately dearer to him.

Hes closing some of his coffee shops across the country because of the amount of violence and destruction taking place inside them, including the risk to his employees who could no longer tolerate that and told him so. Theyre frightened.

You could almost say these Starbucks closings, like their coffee or not, are weirdly symbolic of the decline of our civilization. So many things are closing or arent what they were.

Schultz said many things about this in a video, but the short form is America is unsafe.

This is just the beginning. There are going to be many more [closings], he said.

Where is this happening? It couldnt be easier to guess. The 16 store closings are all in cities run by Democrats, including six in my decades-long former home, Los Angeles.

Ive long believed that the most powerful person in those cities isnt the mayor, whos something of a factotum, but the district attorney (DA). Its the district attorney who determines the level of public safety, who decides whos punished or notusually not.

We all know that public safety is in a near-disastrous state. Crime and murder are upway up. The public doesnt feel safe, and its worse for the minorities whom these DAs claim theyre trying to help. Its at the level of cognitive dissonance as these supposed law enforcement officials look the other way on violent Antifa or hypocritically lecture us on Black Lives Matter in places such as Chicago, where black neighborhoods have turned into shooting galleries under their administrative noses, with tiny children dying in the streets.

And whos the man most responsible for this catastrophe? Well, we know and have known for a long time: George Soros. And we have documentation. No one has remotely his influence on the justice system of our country on the city level, where justice lives on a daily basis.

From Alex Schemmel at The National Desk, on June 6:

WASHINGTON (TND)The U.S. currently has 75 George Soros-backed prosecutors overseeing half of Americas 50 most populous cities, according to a new report from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF).

While some states set contribution limits for city- and county-level candidates, many do not, or have much more lenient rules than for federal or statewide candidates. This allows for free-for-all spending from individuals, parties, unions, corporations, and political action committees in many city and county district attorney races across the country.

Between 2018 and 2021, Soros spent $13 million on a total of 10 district attorney races using a combination of shell organizations, affiliates, and pass-through committees, the report estimates.

Of course, no opponent had anywhere near that kind of money.

One could also ask, where were the Republicans in all this? How could they have let this happen? Soros essentially did what he wanted.

Ive long wondered what motivates Soros, whether the billionaire wishes to destroy the system that so enriched him. He came out of the hell of communism. Maybe its his bizarre lack of remorse for his involvement with the Nazis during the Holocaust, documented in a famous, but hard-to-find 6o Minutes interview. It all seemed sociopathic.

Lately, Ive come to the conclusion its simply evil.

To make things worse, Soros is now buying 18 Hispanic radio stations just as that religious- and family-oriented group is turning to the right. That has alarmed the staff at South Floridas conservative Radio Mambi, many of whom are refugees from communism, just like Soros. What a strange man. Something must be done. (Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is already hitting back, putting his reelection ads on Soross stations.)

It would be a contribution far beyond his quixotic attempt to be president for Howard Schultz to sue Sorosand as publicly as possible.

Does Schultz have what they call standing? More than any other person, Soros enabled with his own money, or through cut-outs, the elections of the DAs in the cities where Schultz is closing up shop and undoubtedly will be closing up more as promised. It might be a stretch, but in a world where judges seem to judge more than the law, anything is possible. All it would take is a little judge-shopping, on the side of good for once.

More importantly, this would expose Soros and what he has done to the eyes of the urban public thats suffering most from the horrendous results. The vast majority of them dont know. They should. Thats the first step toward doing something.

Schultz, a multi-billionaire himself and the owner of a superyacht with a helipad and glass-bottomed pool, certainly has the money to afford the legal fees to undertake the suit.

He would be making his suit for all of us, but most specifically for his employees who have survived what must now be years of abuse.

Some of this abuse is unfortunately because of Schultzs own policies. Those same people who criticized him for daring to mention an article that referenced Fauxcahontas, even though Warren really was dishonest about her background, applauded his policy of keeping his restrooms open to all, not just clients as most restaurants do. As far as I know, he has maintained those policies.

This resulted in needles, used syringes, and feces in Starbuckss restrooms, a most unhealthy, not to say depressing, environment for the employees he claims to cherish. This is his opportunity to make restitution to them.

Will he take it? Of course, Im skeptical. But Schultz is a smart man and by now, one can assume that he must understand, deep down, that this woke stuff is yet another Marxist gambit designed to undermine our country and therefore the world. Whether hell join the fight against it is the question.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
This still from video shows an oil tanker truck that smashed into cars and motorbikes in Cibubur, East Jakarta, Indonesia, on July 18, 2022. (AP/ Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Indonesia Truck Crash Kills at Least 11; Police Say Brakes Failed

JAKARTA, IndonesiaAn oil tanker truck smashed into cars and motorbikes near Indonesias capital on Monday after its brakes apparently malfunctioned, killing at least 11 people and leaving others injured, police said.

The tanker truck, operated by Pertamina, Indonesias state-owned enterprise and energy company, was speeding out of control when it hit two cars and 10 motorbikes that were stopped at red light in Cibubur neighborhood in eastern Jakarta, said Latif Usman, the Jakarta police director of traffic.

He said authorities were still investigating the cause of the accident, but a preliminary investigation showed the brakes malfunctioned while the truck was going downhill and approached the intersection traffic light, hitting and running over several motorists.

At least 11 people died instantly and six others were hospitalized with injuries, some in critical condition, Usman said. There was no explosion reported from the crash.

Police were questioning the truck driver, who suffered light injuries.

Pertamina said it was taking efforts to extend treatment to the victims and working closely with the authorities in investigating the cause of the accident.

We express our apologies and deep condolences to the victims and their families, said Eko Kristiawan, Pertaminas manager in West Java.
Is There an Emerging New World Order?

Commentary

A previous opinion piece discussed how the world had treated the Republic of Kosovo differently to the Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. This different treatment reveals the existence of a double standard with regard to secession and self-determination of ethnic groups under international law.

While the West welcomed the secession of Kosovo from Serbia, it opposed the declaration of independence of the Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, which were only recognised by Russia and Syria. In contrast, as of March 2020, Kosovo has been recognised by 115 member countries of the United Nations, but 15 of these have since been withdrawn.

This unprincipled approach to secession and self-determination issues is, at least in part, a consequence of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244. Adopted on June 10, 1999, in response to NATOs sustained bombing of Serbia on March 24 of that year, it confirms that Kosovo is still an integral part of Serbia.

Specifically, in its Annex 2, although it promotes substantial self-government for Kosovo, it admits that full account must be taken of the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Thus, it intimates that the territory of Kosovo is a part of Serbiathe successor state to the Federal Republic of Yugoslaviaand that it will not countenance secession.

The resolution also states that, an agreed number of Yugoslav and Serbian personnel will be permitted to return to maintain a presence at Serb patrimonial sites and a presence at key border crossings.

It was subsequently agreed that Serbia could have up to one thousand police or military officers at its borders, and it acknowledged Serbs as constituting the majority population of Kosovo.

Kosovo ethnic Serbs pass through barricades near the border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia in Jarinje, Kosovo, on Sept. 28, 2021. (Laura Hasani/Reuters)

Resolution Failed

In any event, the resolution failed to live up to its lofty promises because, on Feb. 17, 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia. There are no Serbian officers at the border, and Serbs have become a minority in Kosovo. Nevertheless, Resolution 1244 remains legally binding on all parties, but Kosovars and Serbs interpret it in different and mutually exclusive ways.

This dubious application of a double standard can also be discerned in the Wests current response to Russias invasion of Ukraine. The West has imposed stringent economic sanctions on Russia to punish it for its invasion, which Russian President Vladimir Putin characterises euphemistically as a special military operation. But it also continues to buy cheap energy from Russia.

Aleksandar Vulin, Serbias minister of internal affairs, has said that the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 was a crime against a sovereign nation and its people and seriously violated international law.

From a business perspective, Russia prepared for this unfathomable situation for the last 10 years. Until recently, it was importing fruit and vegetables from Serbia and other Eastern European countries. But, starting in 2019, it significantly reduced the importation of these goods because Russia, by increasing its own production, became self-sufficient. In 2015, Putin even asked its people to repatriate financial resources from abroad to Russia to prevent them from being seized or blocked by a revengeful West.

Heeding this call, Sberbank, Russias largest bank, announced that it was exiting Western markets and that, instead, it would concentrate on Central Asia. In the meantime, the bank acquired enormous amounts of gold.

What Does the Future Hold?

These developments indicate that Russia anticipated the Wests reaction to its planned invasion of Ukraine and was preparing its population for the economic pain that would be inflicted. Disturbingly, this long preparation might also indicate that Russia is in it for the long haul and that its invasion of Ukraine is just the first salvo in a protracted power struggle with the West. Subject to the validity of this analysis, Ukraine may only be the beginning of unrest and uncertainty in Europe and in the Middle East.

The drama that is now unfolding in Ukraine causes analysts to ask the question: who is right? Western countries, where people enjoy a refined education, progressive, liberal attitudes, and favour a comfortable lifestyle, naturally lean towards imposing their values and Western standards on Russia.

But the West has changed dramatically during the last couple of years, with licentiousness now taking hold in its societies, combined with declining respect for moral standards, religion, faith, and even personal freedom.

If the ambitions of the emerging market economies of the BRICS nationsBrazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africaand their determination to compete economically with the developed world are added to the equation, then one realises that there is definitely something happening that will lead to the development of a new world ordernot unlike the world order established after each catastrophic historic event.

To ascertain how this new developing world order is faring, it is useful to closely watch and follow what is occurring in the fiscal world with the movements of money internationally.

Putins exhortation to his compatriots in 2015 indicates that this may be the key to understanding world developments because fiscal policies and activities are predictors of how countries might behave in the future.

One thing is certain: the world has become an unstable place, and the embrace of double, and non-principled standards, are not likely to bring stability, prosperity, and lasting peace among the nations of the world.

Instead, it may augur the establishment of a new world order.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Gabriel Moens Follow Gabriel A. Moens AM is an emeritus professor of law at the University of Queensland, and served as pro vice-chancellor and dean at Murdoch University. In 2003, Moens was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal by the prime minister for services to education. He has taught extensively across Australia, Asia, Europe, and the United States. Moens has recently published two novels A Twisted Choice (2020) and The Coincidence (2021). Website
statements

"Because we're in a revolutionary cycle, or the left has now said, under the pretext that Donald Trump is so extraordinarily threatening to the Republic, that it requires any means necessary to end him." Victor Davis Hanson Classicist and Military Historian

"Half the country believes that when it comes to President Trump there are no rules. They have lost faith in the system." Lindsey Graham Chairman, US. Senate Judiciary Committee

"DOJ must immediately explain the reason for its raid ... or it will be viewed as a political tactic and undermine any future credible investigation." Andrew Cuomo Former New York Governor

"These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents." Donald Trump Former President

"[Russia hoaxers] have now been promoted into the Biden administration. ... Theyre definitely targeting [former] president Trump because they dont want him to run for president." Devin Nunes Former U.S. Representative

"Theyre using the full powerillegally, I think, unconstitutionallyof the law to harass, intimidate, and try to push Trump out of the picture." Louie Gohmert U.S. Representative

"[The raid] was the latest link a long series of operations starting six years ago with absurd claims that Donald Trump was the asset of a foreign country. That operation was called Russia gate." Lee Smith Author, The Plot Against the President

"Beginning in 2016, Americans began to have doubts when we began to unravel the Russia collusion reporting. ... Those doubts kept growing and you started to hear people say we have a dual justice system in America." John Solomon Editor-in-Chief, Just the News

"This is the modern day version of Watergate. Except the only difference is it wasn't political operatives breaking in to their opponents headquarters. It was the FBI and DOJ." Kash Patel Former Chief of Staff to the Acting Secretary of Defense

"It seems like this was ... without buy-in or notification of higher levels of government. But literally no one will believe that." Andrew Yang Former Democratic presidential candidate

"When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of [the DOJ]." Kevin McCarthy U.S. House Minority Leader

"Lets be clear: This is a brazen weaponization of the FBI by Bidens DOJ against his political opponentwhile giving their political allies free passes." Steve Scalise U.S. House Minority Whip

"Its all a coordinated attack with the FBI. Do you think that the FBI director is going to raid the former presidents house  without getting the approval of President [Biden]?" Eric Trump Son of former President Donald Trump

"AG must explain why 250 yrs of practice was upended with this raid." Mike Pompeo Former Secretary of State

"[The raid represents] another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regimes political opponent." Ron DeSantis Florida Governor

"No person is above the law. Not even the president of the United States. Not even a former president of the United States." Nancy Pelosi U.S. House Speaker

"[The] raid on the home of a former U.S. president without explanation will only further erode confidence in the FBI and the Justice Department." Chuck Grassley Ranking Member, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee

"The country deserves a thorough and immediate explanation of what led to the events." Mitch McConnell U.S. Senate Minority Leader

"Three FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone. Im outraged ... [that the FBI] would seize the phone of a sitting Member of Congress." Scott Perry U.S. Representative

"I didnt actually get to oversee the search, they wouldnt let anybody see what they were doing." Christina Bobb Attorney to Trump

"If theres anything negative about Trump or his allies, that gets accelerated, leaked, and used for political purposes." Matt Gaetz Member, U.S. House Judiciary Committee

"They see the support that he has all over the country. His rallies terrify them." Marjorie Taylor Greene U.S. Representative

"[Democrat Party attorney] Marc Elias is saying that the criminal statute could result in President Trump being barred from future office. And I think its clearly part of his plan." Jeff Clark Former lawyer, Justice Department

"I think for anyone who doubted that there was a swamp when Donald Trump was saying drain the swamp now I think theres true believers." Warren Davidson U.S. Representative

"The security state complex and the complexity of the security state ... is now overtaking our system of government and our rule of law." Michael Flynn Retired lieutenant general
Ivana Trump attends the Zang Toi fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015 at The Salon at Lincoln Center in New York on Sept. 9, 2014. (Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week)

Ivana Trump Laid to Rest During NYC Funeral as President Trump and Children Attend

Former President Donald Trumps first wife, Ivana Trump, was laid to rest at a funeral in New York on July 20, coming days after she died at age 73.

Trump, his current wife Melania Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, Tiffany Trump, and Barron Trump were in attendance. The service was closed to the public, but Getty photographers captured the Trumps entering the St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church on Manhattans Upper East Side.

Former President Donald Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump arrive for the funeral of Ivana Trump at St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church in New York on July 20, 2022. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

The former president was seen waving to photographers and onlookers as they gathered near the church.

Instead of flowers, the Trump family requested that attendees make a donation to the Big Dog Ranch Rescue charity, according to Fox News.

(L-R) Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner arrive for the funeral services of Ivana Trump in New York on July 20, 2022. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images)

The New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) stated that Ivana Trump died of blunt trauma from an accidental fall.

Having released this determination, OCME will not comment further on the investigation, the agency said in a statement last week to media outlets.

Friends told the New York Post and other media outlets that a staircase in Ivanas Upper East Side home was dangerous and may have, in part, caused her death.

That has always been my fear, Ivana Trumps friend, Nikki Haskell, told Extra TV about the stairs. She had one of those really beautiful staircases that was impossible to walk down. Narrow in the inside and wider as it got out. I was always afraid that she would fall.

Another friend of hers, Zach Erdem, told the NY Post that Ivana suffered from a hip problem and had difficulty getting around.

(L-R) Eric Trump, Lara Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner arrive for the funeral services of Ivana Trump in New York on July 20, 2022. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images)

There was something going on with her hip, she couldnt walk, Erdem, who owns the restaurant 75 Main on Long Island. She was going to come two weeks ago, but she was feeling bad.  She said she wasnt feeling well. She said she was having pain in her leg.  She couldnt get out of her house.

The Trump family confirmed her death in a statement last week, saying that she was a survivor and had fled from communism and embraced this country. She was born in the former Czechoslovakia, a Warsaw Pact country that was controlled by the Soviet Union until its dissolution into Slovakia and the Czech Republic in the early 1990s.

Ivana taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination, the Trump family said in a statement. She will be dearly missed by her mother, her three children, and 10 grandchildren.
Karen Bass Endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and LA Labor Union

Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) received two new endorsements this week in her bid to become Los Angeless new mayor. She will go head-to-head with real estate businessman Rick Caruso in the November General Election.

Late Monday evening, the Los Angeles County Federation of Laborthe largest labor union in LAendorsed Bass. The union has more than 800,000 members.

Bass already has heavy support from labor unions nationwide, including the American Federation of Teachers, National Union of Healthcare Workers, United Teachers Los Angeles, California Nurses Association, among others.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) endorsed Bass on Tuesday.

Karen Bass has fought her entire life for social and economic justice for the people of Los Angeles, Warren said in a statement. Karen Bass has always fought for reproductive freedom, always fought for good-paying jobs for working families, and always fought to protect our planet. We have to move Los Angeles forward, and weve already seen what kind of damage an out-of-touch billionaire can do.

Bass, in response, said shes honored to have the support of the Democratic senator.

All of us who work with her are in awe of her compassion, commitment and knowledge, Bass said in a statement.

Bass and Caruso advanced to the top in LAs mayoral race last month, with early primary results showing Caruso in the lead. However, official clerk results showed Bass leading with 43 percent over Carusos 36 percent July 1.

Caruso has garnered support from several large names with endorsements from Snoop Dogg, Katy Perry, and Elon Musk.

Roughly 30 percent of voters participated in the primaries. Angelenos will vote again Nov. 8 to replace termed-out Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Picture of US dollars banknotes taken in Istanbul, Turkey on Dec. 7, 2021. (OZAN KOSE/ Getty Images)

LA Man in $27 Million COVID Relief Fraud Sentenced to 11 Years

LOS ANGELESAn Encino man was sentenced July 19 to 11 years and three months behind bars for attempting to bilk the federal coronavirus Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) out of $27 million by submitting more than two dozen bogus applications for loans.

Robert Benlevi, 53, was also ordered to pay $3 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Benlevi delivered the applications to four banks between April and June 2020 on behalf of eight purported companies he owned, although none of them actually had any employees or payroll.

A federal criminal jury in downtown Los Angeles found Benlevi guilty on the third day of trial in March of multiple counts of bank fraud, making false statements in a loan application, and money laundering.

In the applications, Benlevi sought a total of $27 million in forgivable PPP loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

Benlevi claimed in the applications that each of his companies had 100 employees and an average monthly payroll of $400,000, despite knowing that none of them had any workers. Benlevi also submitted fabricated IRS documents falsely stating that each of the companies had an annual payroll of $4.8 million.

The indictment says that based on Benlevis fraudulent loan applications, three of his companies1Stellar Health LLC, Bestways2 Health LLC, and Joyous-Health4U LLCobtained $3 million in PPP funds.

Benlevi falsely represented that the funds sought through the PPP loan applications would be used to pay payroll and certain other business expenses, but instead used the money for personal expenses, including cash withdrawals, payments on his personal credit cards, and transfers to other personal and business accounts he controlled, the DOJ said.

In a single day, Benlevi withdrew from the Bestways2 Health account $248,000 of PPP funds in cashiers checks, which were deposited into other accounts he controlled.

U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson ordered Benlevi to surrender to begin serving his sentence by Aug. 2, prosecutors said.
Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the persecution of the spiritual discipline in China, in New York's Chinatown on July 10, 2022. (Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)

Lawmakers Around the World Mark 23-Year Solemn Anniversary of CCPs Persecution of Falun Gong

Lawyers who defended Falun Gong have also been persecuted

Lawmakers around the world issued a statement on July 20 to commemorate those who have suffered at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on the 23rd anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong.

Today marks the solemn anniversary of the beginning of the Chinese governments brutal campaign of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. 23 years later, we remember all those in China who have been denied freedom of religious belief, the cross-party Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) said in a statement.

Over the past two decades, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been imprisoned, with many subjected to the most severe forms of torture and credible reports of widespread, state-sponsored forced organ harvesting.

IPAC is an international cross-party group of legislators pushing for democratic countries to take a tougher stance on the CCP and its activities on trade, security, and human rights.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice first introduced to the public in China in 1992 and has since spread to millions around the globe. The teachings are based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the persecution of the spiritual discipline in China, in New Yorks Chinatown on July 10, 2022. (Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)

The CCPs persecution of Falun Gong was personally launched by former CCP head Jiang Zemin. In June 1999, Jiang ordered the creation of the Leading Group for Handling the Falun Gong Issue, an extralegal CCP group, and its office of operations called the 610 office, for the sole purpose of eradicating Falun Gong. The entities could override police and courts in China and direct lower-level CCP and state officials to commit egregious abuses against Falun Gong practitioners.

The CCPs persecution against Falun Dafa practitioners has been systematic and multi-pronged, from weaponizing state media outlets to slander the practice and deter public support, to various methods to force practitioners to renounce their belief such as illegal detention, brainwashing, severe torture methods, forced labor, and even forced organ harvesting. Outside mainland China, the CCP uses propaganda, censorship, and other violent tactics to perpetuate a climate of intimidation and fear.

According to the Falun Dafa Information Center, the CCP increased its persecution amid the COVID-19 pandemic to stop Falun Gong practitioners from spreading news about the true situation of the CCP virus in China. The CCP virus is also referred to as the novel coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2.

The IPAC in its statement said it also commends the courage of all those who have stood against the CCPs persecution of other religious and ethnic groups in China, including Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Uyghurs, and other predominantly Muslim Turkic groups.

Lawyers Targeted for Defending Falun Gong

Falun Gong practitioners have not been the only victims of Jiangs dedicated persecution. The CCP has also intimidated, attacked, imprisoned, and tortured many lawyers over the decades for having sought to represent innocent Falun Gong practitioners.

We remember in particular lawyers Gao Zhisheng and Chang Weiping, who have both been imprisoned for defending the rights of Christians and Falun Gong practitioners in court, and house church leader Pastor Wang Yi, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in December 2019, IPAC said in its statement on July 20.

Gao Zhisheng, a renowned human rights lawyer who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times, has been missing since Aug. 13, 2017. Gao, a self-taught lawyer and a devoted Christian, has a wife and two children who fled to the United States in 2009. They continue to raise awareness about his disappearance. His wife, Geng He, told Radio Free Asia in 2021: From this day onwards, I will treat the CCPs Consulate, the closest one to my home, as his cemetery.

Chang Weiping, a lawyer who has represented vulnerable individuals in China, including practitioners of Falun Gong, was taken away in October 2020 by police officers in Shaanxi Province and was tortured and denied access to his family. A pre-trial hearing for Chang took place on July 12 at Feng County Detention center in Baoji City.

IPAC said in its statement: We once again call on our governments to stand up and speak out for an end to such repression. The Chinese government must be held accountable for upholding the human rights and religious freedom of all peoples in China.

Frank Fang contributed to this report.
Omar Alexander Cardenas, wanted for his alleged involvement in the murder of a man in Sylmar in 2019, has been added to the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on July 20, 2022. (Screenshot via FBI)

Man Wanted in Sylmar Killing Added to FBIs Most Wanted List

LOS ANGELESOmar Alexander Cardenas, wanted for his alleged involvement in the murder of a man in Sylmar in 2019, has been added to the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List, authorities announced July 20.

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading directly to the arrest of Cardenas, who allegedly shot and killed Jabali Dumas on Aug. 15, 2019, according to the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

Dumas was standing outside the Hair Icon Barber Shop, in a shopping center in Sylmar, when he was wounded in the head, authorities said.

At a news conference Wednesday morning outside LAPD headquarters, Police Chief Michel Moore joined FBI personnel in seeking public help to find Cardenas.

The trail has gone cold, Moore said. Our efforts with the family and associates have not produced positive results, and we are worried that he has relatives in Mexico that he could have fled to, which makes this an international case.

Moving this individual to the FBIs Top Ten affords the family of Mr. Dumas some sense of relevancy that the department and this city and this country cares.

The FBI said Cardenas is a member of the Pierce Street Gang and may associate with the Pacoima Van Nuys Boys/Anybody Killas. Cardenas often goes by the nickname Dollar.

At the scene of the crime, Mr. Cardenas is believed to have fired approximately six shots into a public space, said FBI Special Agent Michael Alker, who is investigating the case for the FBIs Los Angeles Field Office. He is not only a risk to the public, but he may also have information related to other violent crimes.

On April 3, 2020, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County issued a local arrest warrant after Cardenas was charged with murder. The U.S. District Court, Central District of California, issued a federal arrest warrant on Sept. 2, 2021, after he was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Cardenas is between 5-feet-6 inches and 5-feet-7 inches tall and weighs approximately 240 to 300 pounds. He has dark brown or black hair, a beard, and brown eyes.

Alker said Cardenas is known to vary the style of his hair and facial hair, but his large physical size and glasses may draw attention.

He normally wears thick prescription glasses and has at least one tattoo, Alker said.

Authorities said Cardenas should be considered armed and dangerous.

The FBI urged anyone with information about Cardenas to call the agencys tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit online tips to tips.fbi.gov.
Manitoba Doctor Censured for Prescribing Ivermectin, Providing COVID-19 Information Contrary to Public Health Recommendations

A family doctor from Manitoba has been censured for prescribing Ivermectin to a patient, not wearing a mask during a clinical encounter, and conveying information about COVID-19 pandemics and vaccines that run counter to public health recommendations, says the provinces regulatory body for medical physicians.

In a statement released on June 29, the registrar of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba (CPSM) said Dr. Wilhelmus Petrus Grobler, a family physician from South Sherbrook Health Centre (SSHC) in Winnipeg, has been censured by its investigation committee for his care and conduct of two patients.

A censure is a formal disciplinary record that may be used to determine future action to be taken if physicians find themselves the subject of a complaint investigation or inquiry panel, according to the CPSM.

In the first case, which occurred between June and September 2021, Dr. Grobler failed to meet the standard of care in his assessment and management of a patients medical condition in that he provided treatment for myocarditis in the absence of sufficient evidence to support that diagnosis, the statement said.

He prescribed Ivermectin to the patient when he knew or ought to have known it was neither evidence-informed nor in the patients best interest.

In the second case, the CPSM said Grobler failed to meet ethical and professional standards by not wearing a mask during a clinical encounter with a patient under 18 years old last September.

He allowed one of the patients parents to remove their mask during the encounter without a valid reason at a time when mask-wearing was mandated, the organization added.

The statement went on to say Grobler provided information to the patient and their parents about the pandemics and vaccines that was contrary to public health recommendations, professional standards and expectations, and could pose a potential risk to personal and public safety.

By doing so, in his capacity as a physician, Dr. Grobler lent credibility to misinformation from unreliable sources, including respecting the risks and benefits of vaccines, the registrar said.

Criticized Health Measures

The Epoch Times reached out to Grobler for comment but was told by his office that he is on vacation and will be unavailable until August.

In background to the September 2021 clinical encounter, the registrar said the CPSM learned that Grobler was expressing views that went against public health directives regarding the diagnosis, treatment, and transmission of COVID-19.

Dr. Grobler was asked to sign a voluntary undertaking in October 2020, stating he would not disseminate information to his patients or the public regarding COVID-19 that does not align with current public health directives, the statement said.

This undertaking remains in force and the conditions are posted on Dr. Groblers public profile on CPSMs website.

According to a report by CHVN Radio on Oct. 29, 2020, Grobler had issued a statement, sharing his opinions on COVID-19.

The virus causing COVID-19 is a Cold Virus and causes cold symptoms for the vast majority of people infected between the ages of 0-80. It is not more lethal or carry excess morbidity over any other cold or flu virus, for this age group, Grobler wrote.

Eventually ALL people will have to get the virus and form natural immunity, even if immunized with the mRNA (COVID-19) vaccine which protects only for 3 months, because we are dealing with a NOVEL virus.

Grobler criticized the medias focus on COVID-19 case numbers in the news, without distinguishing those who were genuinely sick versus those who were not.

CASES in the news are not all CASES, they are people with positive RT-PCR tests (COVID-19 nasal swab tests). Many are not sick, most are just positive contact tracings with specific RNA in their noses, he said.

We Were Not Consulted

The Manitoba doctor was also critical of sweeping lockdown measures that shut down the province, saying a more targeted approach should have been used.

The age group 80+ with co-existing medical conditions, are the group with the highest mortality rate when infected with the SARS Cov2 virus and only they should be protected by locking down their abodes (places where they stay) until the whole herd has natural immunity, he said.

In reference to Public Healths response to the pandemic, Grobler said family doctors were given no opportunities for input on pandemic measures.

Measures to Flatten the COVID-19 curve was 100% decided on by Public Health which is a Government Branch. We, your primary care family physicians, had NO say in which actions should be taken. We were not consulted.

In a statement to CHVN Radio in October 2020, the SSHC said while they understood Grobler meant well, his views did not represent the clinic and his colleagues.

We know that he has the best interest of his patients at heart, but not all colleagues at our clinic share his opinions on the progress, risk, or remedies of COVID-19, the statement said.

Here at Sherbrook Health Centre we respect the rules of protecting our patients and community from COVID-19 and we support the decisions and advice from our public health authorities.
Maryland Congressional Primaries: Parrott to Take on Trone in Fall

As expected, all seven incumbent Maryland congressional representatives and a U.S. senator on the states July 19 primary ballots easily won their parties nods and will defend their seats in November.

Not expected were anticipated close races in both party primaries for governor, the Republican preliminary in Congressional District 6 (CD 6), and the Democratic primary in CD 4 to never materialize.

Clear frontrunners mounted huge leads in key races projected to be competitive with winners in several declared within hours after polls closed despite hundreds of thousands of mail-in votes uncounted.

A unique-to-Maryland law prohibits elections officials from beginning to count mail-in ballots until no sooner than 10 a.m. the Thursday after an election.

With more than 505,000 of the states 4.1 million registered voters requesting 2022 primary mail-in ballots for the primary, those uncounted votes were expected to leave some races too close to call by election night.

Tea Party Activist

Not expected in CD 6 was Del. Neil Parrott (R-Hagerstown) cruising to an easy victory, being declared the winner about two hours after the polls closed.

Parrott had 65.1 percent of the tally in blowing past 25-year-old investigative journalist Matthew Foldi in what was projected to be a close race.

Parrott, 51, a Maryland State Highway Administration traffic engineer and former Frederick Deputy Director of Engineering, is a Tea Party activist elected to the General Assembly in 2010.

He will face two-term Rep. David Trone (D-Md.), who brushed off nominal primary opposition but will face a stiff challenge in the general election against Parrott in a post-2020 Census reconfigured district.

CD 6 had previously been solid Democratic before deep blue areas in Montgomery County were shifted out of the district in post-Census remapping.

The district spans much of the states western panhandle framed by Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, where there is a higher density of Republican voters.

The Cook Political Report and Larry J. Sabatos Crystal Ball rate it as lean Democratic, while Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales classifies it as likely Democratic.

In the nine-candidate CD 4, Democratic primary, twice-elected States Attorney for Prince Georges County Glenn Ivey was nearly 16 percentage points ahead of former Rep. Donna Edwards four hours after polls closed on July 19.

Ivey, former Maryland Public Service Commission chair, and Edwards, who served four House terms after being the first black woman elected by Marylanders to Congress in 2008, were among nine hopefuls seeking to succeed three-term Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md), who is running for state Attorney General.

The winner will likely face Jeff Warner, who was cruising past George McDermott, making his sixth congressional bid, in their CD 6 Republican primary.

Otherwise, even without mail-in ballots counted in tallies, many of the primary races appear set if not formally called.

US Senate Primary

In the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) garnered three-quarters of the vote in defeating Michelle Smith.

He will likely face Chris Chaffee, who was leading the 10-candidate Republican primary with 22.1 percent of the tally, more than 12,000 votes ahead of second-place Lorie Friend three hours after polls closed July 19.

Van Hollen will be a heavy favorite in the general election against Chaffee, who is running for the U.S. Senate for the fourth time. A building contractor, Chaffee also ran for the U.S. House in CD 5 in 2010 and 2014.

In CD 1, six-term Rep. Andrew Harris (R-Md.), Marylands lone congressional Republican, was the only sitting rep not being tested in a primary. He will be the favorite in November to defeat Heather Mizeur, who garnered nearly 70 percent of the vote in her Democratic primary against Dave Harden.

The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales, and Larry J. Sabatos Crystal Ball all rate CD 1 as solid Republican.

All of the states other congressional districtsexcept CD 6are rated as solid and safe Democratic.

In CD 2, 10-term Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) easily breezed by two party rivals and will be the heavy favorite to defeat Nicolee Ambrose, who was comfortably leading in the districts three-candidate GOP primary.

CD 3s eight-term Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md) was having little problem brushing off two challengers in his Democratic primary and will likely face Republican Yuripzy Morgan in the general election if her large lead is sustained when mail-in ballots are tallied.

House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who has served 42 years in Congress, had little problem dispatching two party rivals in the CD 5 Democratic primary. He also isnt expected to be challenged in November by the winner of the GOP primary, former U.S. Capitol Police officer Chris Palombi.

CD 7s first-term Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) had a comfortable lead over three party rivals and is near certain to advance to November against Scott Collier, the winner of the four-candidate Republican primary.

In CD 8, three-term Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) scored more than 90 percent of the vote in advancing to the November ballot.

The lead impeachment manager for former President Donald Trumps second impeachment, who sits on the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 breach of the Capital, will face Gregory Coll, who cruised to the GOP nod in his primary.
Theres a reason Mao Zedong tried to flush his teachings down the memory hole after coming to power in 1949

A very long time ago, a Chinese scholar wrote, The people are the most important element in a nation; the land and grain come next; the sovereign counts for the least.

That sovereign, moreover, should rule by the consent of those he governs, and if hes a tyrant, the governed have every right to get rid of him, one way or another.

These are the sentiments of a wise man named Mencius (372 to 289 B.C.), arguably the first or second most influential philosopher in all Chinese history. Most sinologists rank Confucius (551 to 479 B.C.) at the top, but since most of what we know about his teachings we know through the interpretations of Mencius, who was his follower, a case can be made that the latter was ultimately more consequential. These two men, incidentally, are the only ancient Chinese philosophers so well known that their names have been Latinized for use in the West.

Consider this essay a follow-on to my earlier one, Chinas Great Philosophers Would Be Horrified by What Mao and the CCP Created. Therein, I wrote that Mencius interpreted Confucius and took the elders teachings to their logical conclusionsto what lovers of liberty today identify as an ancient version of 19th Century classical liberalism.

Michael Hart, in The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, notes that among the principles advanced by this ancient scholar were free trade, light taxes, and the right of the people to revolution:

Mencius believed that a kings authority derives from Heaven; but a king who ignores the welfare of the people will, rightly, be overthrown. Since the last part of that sentence effectively overrules the first part, Mencius was in fact asserting (long before John Locke) that the people have a right to revolt against unjust rulers. It was an idea that became generally accepted in China.  For roughly twenty-two centuries, his ideas were studied throughout a region that included over 20 percent of the worlds population. Only a few philosophers anywhere have had so great an influence.

James Legge, the 19th-century Scottish linguist and authority on early Chinese texts, noted that Mencius wasnt a favorite with the rulers of China because, like any good Confucian, he didnt believe in the divine right of any politician. Hundreds of years after Mencius, Europeans would finally come to the same conclusion.

Mencius held that leaders must be of the highest ethical character and treat their subjects accordingly. Their rule should be a gentle touch that spurs people to live lives of honest enterprise. For obvious reasons, this ancient Chinese thinker was always far more popular with the ruled than he was with the rulers.

Mencius, wrote Paul Meany at Libertarianism.org, did not agree with heavy-handed, top-down approaches. He made that point clear in a story about a farmer:

One day a farmer was inspecting his crops. Seeing that his crops were not ready for harvesting, the nervous farmer begins to pull on the sprouts to help them grow faster. When he returned home and told his family what he had done, his son checked on the rice plants and saw that they had all shriveled up. The moral of the story is that you cannot force something to grow. Instead, you must provide the correct environment. Likewise, people flourish morally not due to commands or threats of punishment.

Some people seek to rule others, and almost by definition, such people are the least qualified to do so. Indeed, government may be the only occupation for which the best hires are those who dont want the job.

Thomas Jefferson wrote that he had never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others. British author J. R. R. Tolkien said that the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

Centuries earlier, Mencius wrote:

The superior man has three things in which he delights, and to be ruler over the kingdom is not one of them. That his father and mother are both alive, and that the condition of his brothers affords no cause for anxiety;this is one delight. That, when looking up, he has no occasion for shame before Heaven, and, below, he has no occasion to blush before men;this is a second delight. That he can get from the whole kingdom the most talented individuals, and teach and nourish them;this is the third delight.

When Mao Zedong foisted communism on China in 1949, he attempted to flush Mencius down the Orwellian memory hole for being a relic of the countrys decadent and feudal past. Of course, the real reason for Maos hostility should be more obvious: He couldnt tolerate a teacher who questioned authority, defended free trade and private property, ranked the individual and his family ahead of the State, or challenged the State in any meaningful way.

To Mencius, the purpose of the State wasnt to serve itself or treat people as serfs or puppets, but to create an environment in which individuals could flourish. The State should practice virtue so as to be a good example. Its taxation shouldnt exceed one-ninth of what the people produced. And it shouldnt fix prices in the marketplace.

If a fine shoe and a shoddy shoe are the same price, will anyone make the former? he asked with a flair for rhetorical skepticism.

Paul Meany noted that Mencius condemned rulers who heavily taxed their people and then flaunted their rich lifestyles:

In one of his [Menciuss] dialogues, a king asks if it is acceptable to reduce the heavy tax burden he has slowly raised over time. Mencius replies, Suppose there is a person who every day appropriates one of his neighbors chickens. Someone tells him, This is not the Way of a gentleman. He then asks May I reduce it to appropriating one chicken every month and wait until next year to stop? Mencius concludes with a striking maxim: If one knows that it is not righteous, then one should quickly stop.

Confucians such as Mencius recognized that the state wasnt all-powerful. And even if somehow the government were competent to micromanage every aspect of life, it would be immoral to do so. Confucians valued freedom and lived by the maxim, Do not impose upon others what you yourself do not desire.'

In the West, we often assume that freedom and limited government are ideals exclusive to the West. But Eastern scholars such as Confucius and Mencius are examples that show us this isnt the case. More than two millennia ago, they identified freedom and limited government as elements of virtue. They knew that huge, overbearing government was an enemy of virtue itself.

Wisdom has been around for a very long time.

For Additional Information, See:

Mencius: The Predecessor to Classical Liberalism by Paul Meany

Mencius, Translated and with an Introduction and Notes by D. C. Lau

The Economic Principles of Confucius and His School by Chen Huan-Chang

This article was originally published on FEE.org.
Coffins of 21 teenagers who died in a mysterious tragedy at a nightclub in the early hours of June 26, 2022 are lined up during their funeral held in Scenery Park, East London, South Africa, on July 6, 2022. (AP Photo)

Methanol in Blood of Teens Who Died in South African Tavern

JOHANNESBURGThe toxic chemical methanol has been identified as a possible cause of the deaths of 21 teenagers at a bar in the South African city of East London last month.

Methanol was found in all of their bodies and investigations are continuing to determine whether the levels of the toxic chemical were enough to have killed them.

Methanol has been detected in all the 21 individuals that were there, however there is still progressive analysis of the quantitative levels of methanol and whether it could have been the final cause of death, Dr. Litha Matiwane, Eastern Cape provincial deputy director for clinical service, said at press conference in East London Tuesday.

Authorities are still awaiting the conclusive results which are being conducted at a laboratory in the city of Cape Town, he said.

Methanol is a toxic form of alcohol that is used industrially as a solvent, pesticide, or an alternative source of fuel. It is not used in the production of alcohol sold for human consumption.

It is yet not known how the youngsters ingested the methanol.

Alcohol poisoning and inhalation of carbon monoxide have both been ruled out as possible causes of death although traces of both were detected in the bodies of all 21 victims, said Matiwane.

The teenagers died at the Enyobeni tavern in East Londons Scenery Park township in the early hours of June 26, shocking the country and resulting in several investigations by the police and liquor license authorities.

Many of the teens, ranging in age between 13 and 17, were found dead in the tavern, with their bodies strewn across tables and couches. Others died after they were rushed to nearby health facilities.

A body is removed from a nightclub where 21 teenagers died in the early hours of the morning, in East London, South Africa, on June 26, 2022. (AP Photo)

South Africas police will be guided by the final results of the toxicology analysis to determine whether anyone will face criminal charges for the 21 deaths, national police minister Bheki Cele has said.

The owner of Enyobeni tavern and some employees were arrested and are currently out on bail as they face charges related to the violation of liquor trading laws, including the sale of liquor to children.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke at a mass funeral for the teens and vowed his government would take action to prevent alcohol from being served to children under the legal drinking age of 18.

The deaths of the young people at the bar in East London are separate from the shootings at three bars in South Africa earlier this month in which a total of 22 people were killed. In all three incidents, the suspects opened fire on patrons before speeding off in their vehicles and notably the attackers did not rob the victims. In the worst incident, gunmen burst into a bar in Johannesburgs Soweto township and opened fire, killing 16 people.

By Mogomotsi Magome
Law enforcement officers look over the protective vest that North Kansas City Police Officer Daniel Vasquez was wearing when he was fatally shot during a traffic stop, in North Kansas City, Mo., on July 19, 2022. (Tammy Ljungblad/The Kansas City Star via AP)

Missouri Officer Dies After Being Shot During Traffic Stop

NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo.A Missouri police officer died Tuesday after he was shot during a traffic stop by a suspect who then fled, officials said.

Officer Daniel Vasquez, 32, was attempting to stop a vehicle for expired temporary tags in North Kansas City Tuesday morning when the cars driver shot the officer and drove away, Clay County Sheriff Will Akin said.

Vasquez was taken to the University of Kansas Health System. His death was announced about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday by the North Kansas City police department, where he had been an officer since 2021.

The suspect turned himself in to police in Kansas City after a Blue Alert had been issued for his car. No details about the suspect were released.

North Kansas City Police Chief Kevin Freeman said Vasquez was the first officer in the department to die in the line of duty.

He was a shining star in our department, Freeman said.

North Kansas City Chief of Police Kevin Freeman announces the death of Officer Daniel Vasquez, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop in North Kansas City, Mo., on July 19, 2022. (Tammy Ljungblad/The Kansas City Star via AP)
Handguns displayed at the 2016 National Shooting Sports Foundation's Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on Jan.19, 2016. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Missouri Sheriff Refuses to Hand Over Gun Owners Info to FBI: I Will Go Down With the Ship

A Missouri sheriff said he told the FBI that he wont comply with audits regarding Missouri counties concealed carry permit information.

Scotland County Sheriff Bryan Whitney said in public statements that his department wont comply with the bureaus audit.

As the sheriff of Scotland County, I want all my citizens to know that I will not allow, cooperate or release any CCW information to the FBI, even at the threat of a federal arrest, Whitney, a Republican, wrote in a July 18 letter, referring to concealed carry weapons permits.

Point Blank, I will go down with the ship if need be.

The FBI told Fox News that its audits wont require access to lists such as state-approved concealed carry holders. It described the audit as routine and something that has been done before in the state of Missouri.

At no point would auditors require access to lists such as state-approved concealed carry holders, nor would the CJIS Division retain information beyond what is necessary to address a specific compliance concern, the FBI stated, noting that the bureau has been through this routine audit multiple times, most recently in 2018.

FBI officials didnt return a request for comment by press time.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican running for governor, issued a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, telling the bureau chief to stop attempts to allegedly illegally obtain information from local sheriffs on Missourians who have concealed carry permits.

The FBI has absolutely no business poking around in the private information of those who have obtained a concealed carry permit in Missouri, Schmitt wrote. The Second Amendment rights of Missourians will absolutely not be infringed on my watch. I will use the full power of my Office to stop the FBI, which has become relentlessly politicized and has virtually no credibility, from illegally prying around in the personal information of Missouri gun owners.

Data Breach

Several weeks ago, the California Department of Justice leaked the private information of thousands of concealed carry permit holders in the state after it unveiled a new dashboard portal website, according to gun rights groups.

The California Rifle & Pistol Association stated that hundreds of thousands of gun owners in California might be impacted by the data breach, which was reported in late June.

The state Justice Department later issued a statement that confirmed the data breach.

This unauthorized release of personal information is unacceptable and falls far short of my expectations for this department, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said in a statement. I immediately launched an investigation into how this occurred at the California Department of Justice and will take strong corrective measures where necessary. The California Department of Justice is entrusted to protect Californians and their data. We acknowledge the stress this may cause those individuals whose information was exposed. I am deeply disturbed and angered.

In a major victory for gun rights groups, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that invalidated New Yorks 100-year-old gun control law restricting the concealed carrying of firearms, affirming that Americans have a broader right to carry outside the home.
A Netflix logo on a TV screen, ahead of a Swiss vote on a referendum called "Lex Netflix," in a photo illustration taken on May 9, 2022. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

Netflix Continues Subscriber Losses but Beats Expectations

Company rolling out cheaper ad-supported tier in early 2023

Netflixs second-quarter financial results on July 19 revealed a continued loss in subscribers, albeit less than anticipated by both the streaming giant and investors.

Netflix lost 970,000 subscribers (pdf) in the second quarter amid increased competition from other streaming services, account sharing, sluggish economic growth and other factors such as the impacts of Russias war in Ukraine, the company said.

However, that figure was still better than the 2 million subscriber loss that had originally been forecast in an April shareholder letter, prompting Netflixs stock to spike more than 10 percent in after-hours trading Tuesday.

Netflix was also hopeful about subscriptions in the future, saying it expects to add another million paid subscribers in the third quarter, just slightly less than Wall Street expectations.

The Los Gatos, California-based company currently has 220.67 million subscribers worldwide.

The latest results come after Netflix in April revealed a decline in subscribers for the first time in more than 10 years, telling investors that it expected more losses to come, prompting concerns among some.

Weve now had more time to understand these issues, as well as how best to address them, Netflix said of the factors contributing to a loss in subscribers on Tuesday.

Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer attend Netflixs Stranger Things ATAS Official Screening at Raleigh Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles, California, on May 27, 2022. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix)

Stranger Things

First and foremost, we need to continue to improve all aspects of Netflix  Also as a pure play streaming business, were unencumbered by legacy revenue streams, Netflix said. This freedom means we can offer big movies direct-to-Netflix, without the need for extended or exclusive theatrical windows, and let members binge watch TV if they want, without having to wait for a new episode to drop each week. This focus on choice and control for members influences all aspects of our strategy, creating what we believe to be a significant long-term business advantage.

Netflix also noted that the release of season four of the popular show Stranger Things had helped keep the subscriber count from falling, adding that it returned to tremendous fan reception and was a smash hit by all measures.

The release of the fourth season of the show at the end of May generated 1.3 billion hours viewed within the first four weeks, making it Netflixs biggest season of English TV ever.

Season four of Stranger Things also showcased the effectiveness of our marketing strategy in driving conversation around our titles, Netflix said. When we deliver shows and movies that members are talking about in large numbers, we can influence pop culture, build passion for Netflix, and create an experience that is differentiated and difficult to replicate.

Despite continued latest subscriber losses, the streaming giant plans to forge ahead with improvements to monetization, noting that it is still in the early stages of working to monetize the more than 100 million households that are currently enjoying Netflix.

Ad-Supported Tier

It also plans to add an ad-supported tier early next year as well as features designed to clamp down on account sharing across households.

In the early days of streaming, we kept our pricing very simple with just one plan level, the company said. In 2014, we introduced three price tiers to better segment demand. Going forward, we will focus on better monetizing usage through both continued optimization of our pricing and tiering structures as well as the addition of a new, lower-priced ad-supported tier.

The lower-priced tier will allow consumers to watch Netflix with advertisements, and will complement our existing plans, which will remain ad-free the streamer said.

Netflix announced on July 13 that it would be partnering with Microsoft as it adds the ad-supported plan for users.

The streaming giant also aims to roll out plans to ensure users pay to share accounts with those living outside of their households next year, noting that its goal is to find an easy-to-use paid sharing offering that we believe works for our members and our business.

Netflix began testing some of those paid-sharing features in Latin America earlier this year.

Were encouraged by our early learnings and ability to convert consumers to paid sharing in Latin America, the company said.

Elsewhere, Netflixs earnings report on Tuesday stated that the company generated nearly $8 billion in revenue, driven by a 6 percent and 2 percent increase in average paid memberships and average revenue per membership, respectively, and marking an 8.6 percent increase over the same period 12 months ago.

Our challenge and opportunity is to accelerate our revenue and membership growth by continuing to improve our product, content, and marketing as weve done for the last 25 years, and to better monetize our big audience, Netflix said in the report.
Australia wants to keep FMD out with electronic ID tagging of sheep and goats. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

New South Wales Calls Urgently for Electronic Tagging of Sheep and Goats

The New South Wales (NSW) state government is proposing a more evolved electronic identification tagging system for sheep and goats with Australian agriculture ministers on July 20 amid concerns a foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak could wipe out parts of its agriculture sector.

Currently, Australian cattle are able to be traced through electronic tagging under the National Livestock Identification System. However, the industry still relies on a mob-based system for tracing the movement of sheep and goats.

A mob-based tracing system uses visual identification instead of electronic identification, allowing livestock to be traced with greater efficiency and accuracy.

NSW Agriculture Minister Dugald Saunders said that the state government is pushing for the Federal Government to increase biosecurity measures further to keep the FMD crisis out of Australia.

The FMD crisis in Indonesia is a significant threat to our livestock industry with the potential to cost the Australian economy $80 billion and send shockwaves through regional communities for years to come, Saunders said in a statement.

Individual traceability for sheep and goats will be crucial during an emergency disease outbreak and deliver benefits across the supply chain.

An effective national traceability system is critical to ensure NSW can continue exporting more than $1 billion in sheep meat each year.

Travellers Advised to Throw Out Thongs

Farmers have also urged travellers from Indonesia to bin their thongs before arriving in order to protect Australian farms.

President of the National Farmers Federation, Fiona Simson, said treating yourself to a new pair of shoes while on holiday had never been a greater act of national service.

She said those people throwing away their old footwear will be given a voucher for a new pair of shoes.

Travellers returning from Indonesia can now access a 30 percent Ringers Western discount code, by posting evidence online that theyve thrown out their shoes overseas.

Throw out those tired, old thongs. Bin them at the airport or your hotel and post proof on social media, and well help you buy a shiny new pair, Simson said.

Saunders said the sheep and goats tracking system needs to be implemented nationwide to ensure consistency and functionality across all states.

It also needs to be developed hand in hand with industry to ensure it is practical and cost-effective.

Sheep Producers Australia CEO Bonnie Skinner supported the move to implement a stronger sheep traceability program.

The rapid and reliable tracing of livestock plays a significant part in emergency disease response, she said.

The faster the animals are traced, the greater the chance of controlling the disease outbreak and minimising its economic and social effects.
A crane moves building materials into the circular reinforced concrete and steel home of a reactor at Nuclear Island 1, at Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant near Bridgwater in Somerset, England on Sept. 23, 2021. (Ben Birchall/PA)

New UK Nuclear Power Station Sizewell C Given Go-Ahead

The UK government has given the go-ahead to a multi-billion-pound new nuclear power station.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said on July 20 that development consent was granted for the Sizewell C project in Suffolk, which is expected to generate enough electricity to supply 6 million homes.

Negotiations with the government on raising funds for the project are continuing and a Financial Investment Decision is expected in 2023.

The project, which is expected to cost 20 billion ($24 billion), will be mainly funded by the French energy company EDF, but the Chinese state-owned China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) also has a 20 percent stake.

Chinese Investment

Chinas involvement in nuclear power in the UK dates back to an agreement endorsed by then-Prime Minister David Cameron and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2015. The UK governments appetite for Chinese investment in infrastructure has since soured.

In 2020, the UK government reversed its position on Huawei, banning the Chinese telecom giant from its 5G mobile phone network.

Under mounting pressure from the United States and prominent Conservative backbenchers, the government indicated a growing appetite to cut CGN out from the Sizewell C project.

The government announced a new financing model in October 2021 that provides a mechanism to squeeze CGN out of Sizewell without invoking national security laws that would likely crank up tensions with Beijing.

With the new model, EDF will be able to forge new partnerships with alternative private investors.

Controversy

Almost half of the UKs current nuclear capacity is due to be decommissioned by 2025 and only one new plant, Hinkley Point C, is currently under construction and owned by EDF Energy and CGN.

But the issue of nuclear power continues to generate controversy.

Julia Pyke, Sizewell Cs financing director, said the government decision on the project is good news for bill-payers.

Sizewell C will give a big boost to jobs and skills in nuclear supply chain companies across the country. It will strengthen the UKs energy security and play a key role in our fight against climate change, she added.

But campaign group Stop Sizewell C called it the wrong decision.

A spokesman said: Whether it is the impact on consumers, the massive costs and delays, the outstanding technical questions, or the environmental impacts, it remains a bad project and a very bad risk.

The group said it will consider appealing the decision and will continue to challenge every aspect of Sizewell C.

Simon Veazey and PA Media contributed to this report.
Independent MP Adem Somyurek speaks during a parliamentary sitting at the Victoria State Parliament in Melbourne, Australia, on Feb. 9, 2022. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett)

No Victorian Labor MPs Face Criminal Charges Despite Misconduct

Victorias anti-corruption watchdogs have decided not to pursue prosecution against Victorian Labor MPs engaging in deliberate, extensive and egregious use of taxpayer funds.

On July 20, The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and Victorian Ombudsman released a joint report detailing an investigation into branch stacking allegations within the Victorian branch of the Labor Party.

While the report found evidence of a range of unethical behaviour from hiring unqualified people into publicly funded roles, nepotism, forging signatures, bullying and attempts to interfere with the government grants process, the watchdogs did not refer the implicated MPs to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The anti-corruption organisations explained that the above conducts were not sufficiently or clearly described by any existing law about misconduct in public office.

Although we consider the conduct to be egregious, the difficulties in proof are such that we cannot recommend prosecution, the report said.

Rather, it will now be a matter for the Privileges Committees of each house to decide whether the named MPs have wilfully brought discredit upon parliament.

Branch Stacking Not Limited to One Labor Faction

In addition, the report found that the branch stacking practice was not limited to one Victorian Labor faction. However, evidence of misconduct only pointed to former Labor MP Adem Somyureks moderate faction.

We had no specific evidence that allowed us to determine the extent of misuse by any other faction, the report said.

Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews speaks to the media following the branch stacking allegations in Melbourne, Australia, on June 17, 2020. (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Victorian authorities launched an investigation after The Age and Nine Network released a secret tape in June 2020 indicating that Somyurek handed over cash and used parliamentary staff to create fake branch members to amass political influence.

The practice, which is known as branch stacking, does not violate the laws but is against Labor partys rules.

After media reports emerged, Somyurek quit the Labor party before he was expelled, while his factional allies Robin Scott and Marlene Kairouz also resigned from the Victorian cabinet.

All three MPs have denied committing any wrongdoing.

No Evidenced Found Against Premier Daniel Andrews

While the report made adverse findings against Somyurek and Kairouz, no evidence was found against Premier Daniel Andrews and other witnesses.

Overall, authorities questioned Somyurek and six other witnesses in public hearings, while another 26 were interviewed in private, including the premier.

The report stated that while the premier agreed that branch stacking was not limited to one faction and occurred across the board, he denied any personal knowledge of or involvement in such practices.

After presenting findings on the implicated Labor MPs unethical behaviour, the report made 21 recommendations, including introducing a parliamentary ethics committee, narrowing the scope of permissible work for electorate officers and prohibiting MPs from employing close family members in their electorate office.

Although the Victorian government has implemented new rules banning electorate officers from carrying out campaign duties during work hours after the red shirts scandal, the rules do not include factional work that is outside elections.

During his public hearing session, Somyurek said he had knowledge of branch stacking when he joined the Labor party in the 1990s and that the practice was deeply embedded within the party. He also admitted that there were factional operatives among his staff.
Members of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol are seen during the fifth public hearing of the committee in Washington on June 23, 2022. (Reuters/Jim Bourg)

Oath Keepers Seek Trial Delay Due to Slurs and Outrageous Claims from House January 6 Committee

A group of Oath Keepers defendants has renewed a call for a change of venue or a trial delay due to undeniable prejudice from the negative publicity generated by the House January 6 Select Committee.

A motion (pdf) filed in U.S. District Court ripped the work of the Jan. 6 Select Committee as highly inflammatory and prejudicial for peddling outrageous claims about the Oath Keepers and defendants in the Jan. 6 prosecution.

The Rhodes defendants renew their request for a change of venue in this matter or, in the alternative, to continue the current trial date until 2023 based upon the undeniable prejudice that exists in this Districts jury pool following recent congressional hearings, the motion reads, referring to Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III.

District Judge Amit Mehta previously denied an Oath Keepers motion to change the trial venue from Washington D.C. to Virginia.

These hearingsparticularly the most recent onehave caused irreparable harm to the ability of the Rhodes defendants to obtain a fair trial in the District, the motion said.

A televised Select Committee hearing on July 12 focused heavily on the Oath Keepers and made a range of accusations against the group. This included assertions not made in any charging documents from the criminal case.

Deny Outrageous Claims

The motion was particularly critical of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), who said the Oath Keepers are extremists who promote a wide range of conspiracy theories and sought to act as a private paramilitary force for Donald Trump.

Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III previously said the Jan. 6 Select Committee is not looking for truth. (Epoch TV)

In his opening statement at the hearing, Raskin contended that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, were perpetrated by the dangerous extremists in the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and other far-right racist and white nationalist groups spoiling for a fight.

To be clear, the Rhodes defendants dispute Raskins outrageous claims, the motion said. They dispute that they are racists, white supremacists, or domestic extremists. They dispute that they had an alliance with the Proud Boys to attack the Capitol. They dispute that there was a plan to attack the Capitol. They dispute that there was an insurrection on J6.

A superseding indictment filed on June 22 in Washington D.C. federal court accuses Rhodes and eight others of a variety of January 6-related crimes, including seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, civil disorder, and destruction of government property. The first group of Oath Keepers is scheduled for trial on Sept. 26.

Defendants include Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel, Thomas Caldwell, and Edward Vallejo. They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges.

False and Incendiary Testimony

The motion disputed false and incendiary testimony given at the July 12 hearing by Jason Van Tatenhove, a one-time spokesman for the Oath Keepers.

Van Tatenhove claimed the Oath Keepers are a violent militia and a very dangerous organization, the motion said. Van Tatenhove claimed former President Donald Trump was communicating, whether directly or indirectly with Rhodes. The motion said Van Tatenhove has had no contact with Rhodes for five years.

Van Tatenhoves claim that the Oath Keepers intended to start a bloody revolution on J6 is now seared into the minds of the Districts jury pool as fact, said the motion, written by attorney David Fischer. Additionally, a two-minute search of his Twitter account reveals that Van Tatenhove is a staunch left-wing activist tied to causes such as gun control, feminism, and climate change, and who regularly does a counter-culture podcast.

Former Oath Keepers member Jason Van Tatenhoven testifies before the Jan. 6 Select Committee on July 12, 2022. (Select Committee/YouTube)

Van Tatenhove has admitted he joined the Oath Keepers so he could write a book about the organization, the motion said. He is selling an audiobook on the Oath Keepers, the document said.

Yet the D.C. jury pool knows none of this discrediting information, or even that Van Tatenhove has publicly claimed to have had multiple encounters with UFOs, the motion read.

The House committees meetings are not truly hearings, the motion said, because witnesses are not subjected to cross-examination and evidence includes carefully edited excerpts from videos and depositions.

The Committees witnesses are asked leading questions or questions to which the answer is clearly already known, the motion said, however, the Committee does not subject the witnesses to cross-examination nor does it even attempt to provide mitigation, context, or other information that might produce a neutralized or mitigated version.

Likely Inadmissable

Oath Keepers defense attorneys also took aim at federal prosecutors for publicly filing a motion containing incendiary, dubious spin on likely inadmissible evidence.

In a motion filed July 8, prosecutors said they will offer evidence that Oath Keepers member Jeremy Brown brought explosives to the area on January 6. Brown is not part of the Rhodes criminal case. Brown has said he was charged with January 6 crimes because he refused an FBI attempt to recruit him as an informant.

Prosecutors also alleged that defendant Caldwell kept a death list of Georgia election officials. The motion said that the document is not a list but, rather, a doodle pad where the words death list are written separate and apart from, and in different ink than, the names of Georgia election workers.

The January 6 Select Committee said it plans to release more than 1,000 transcripts of interviews and depositions from its investigation. While a portion of the transcripts to be released by the committee will have no relevance to the Rhodes defendants, defense counsel predict that many transcripts will be highly relevant and potentially exculpatory in nature, the motion said.

The motion cited a delay granted to a group of Proud Boys defendants in June because of potential adverse effects from the Select Committees hearings. That trial was moved to December.

Tuesdays hearing generated a mountain of prejudicial press coverage that has served to prejudice further an already heavily biased jury pool, the filing said. Moreover, the committee will be holding an additional hearing and intends to issue a detailed report in September which, again, will thrust J6 and the prejudicial assertions about the Oath Keepers back into the spotlight, just before a jury is to be picked.
On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched a persecution against one out of every 13 Chinese people, in a campaign that included arrests, torture, and killing. This was the persecution against Falun Gong, a Chinese meditation practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Now, 23 years later, the persecution continues, but its crimes are being exposed.

Among the key findings in the persecution of Falun Gong is that of live organ harvesting, where religious believers are being used as living sources for organ transplants in a murder-for-profit program by the Chinese regime.

We will have Dr. G. Weldon Gilcrease, deputy director of Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) joining us to talk about DAFOHs findings on whats happening.

In this live Q&A with Crossroads host Joshua Philipp, well discuss these stories and others, and answer questions from the audience.

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Actor Bryan Cranston is lifted by former Los Angeles Dodgers player Andre Ethier during the MLB All Star Celebrity Softball game in Los Angeles on July 16, 2022. (Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo)

Ouch! Actor Cranston Hit by Liner at All-Star Celeb Softball

LOS ANGELESBryan Cranston was hoping to get a hit in the All-Star Celebrity Softball game at Dodger Stadium.

Instead, the Breaking Bad actor got hit.

Cranston was struck in the right shoulder by a line drive off the bat of Grammy Award winner Anthony Ramos as they took batting practice in side-by-side makeshift cages outside the ballpark Saturday night.

The 66-year-old Cranston doubled over for a couple minutes, then headed to his nearby trailer.

Its definitely going to bruise, Cranston said after recovering. I might be more of a cheerleader in this game.

The Tony, Emmy, and Olivier award winner later felt well enough to play on the field at Dodger Stadium. He took a called third strike and feigned an argument with the umpire.

Cranston played for the Los Angeles team, which lost to Brooklyn 1513. Former San Francisco Giants star Hunter Pence hit two home runs for Brooklyn and was repeatedly booed by the LA crowd.

Cranston has appeared at several games for the Triple-A Isotopes, and he and Breaking Bad costar Aaron Paul are scheduled to throw a ceremonial first pitch there July 30.
Pennsylvania state Rep. Seth Grove, a Republican, talks about his report on problems with Pennsylvania election systems in the capitol building in Harrisburg on July 19, 2022. (Courtesy of Rep. Seth Grove)

Pennsylvania Lawmaker Issues Report Detailing Myriad of Election Issues

More than two months after Pennsylvanias May 17 primary election, the Department of State still hasnt certified the election results. Its an administrative failure that undermines confidence in the states election system, according to Republican state Rep. Seth Grove, chairman of the State Government Committee.

Thats one of the numerous examples described by Grove at the state Capitol building in Harrisburg during a July 19 press conference at which he released a 186-page report (pdf) with the long title, Election Reform in Pennsylvania: Missed Opportunities and Continued ChaosAn Interim Report on the Status of Elections in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania After the Veto of House Bill 1300.

Grove is still advocating for something such as HB 1300, which Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed in June 2021. It was a package of election measures that called for voter identification and provided for early, in-person voting; moved the voter registration deadline to 30 days from 15 days before an election; established a state bureau of election audits; allowed for pre-canvassing of mailed ballots; and would have made it easier for older and disabled voters by moving them to the front of the line or providing curbside voting so they could remain in their car.

The proposal also introduced stiffer fines and longer possible prison terms for election tampering.

But Wolf didnt go for it.

This bill is ultimately not about improving access to voting or election security, but about restricting the freedom to vote, Wolf said in a statement about the veto. If adopted, it would threaten to disrupt election administration, undermine faith in government, and invite costly, time-consuming, and destabilizing litigation.

It didnt seem like the governor read the bill, Grove said in his report.

Unfortunately, Governor Wolf vetoed the bill despite seeming largely unfamiliar with the contents, Grove stated. By vetoing the legislation, he made himself the sole obstacle to historic reform that would have improved nearly every aspect of election administration in Pennsylvania.

Most importantly, it would have allowed the General Assembly to live up to our constitutional requirement for uniformity and fairness in elections and prevent any reoccurrence of the national attention our current, broken process received during and after the November 2020 election.

Incidents From the Report

The report details troubles in the states elections that have happened since 2020. The following incidents are a sampling of those described in more detail in the report:

In 2021, a Luzerne County man admitted to using his deceased mothers information to apply for an absentee ballot.

During the May 2021 primary, some counties faced a shortage of paper ballots at polling places on the day of the election, in part due to higher-than-expected in-person voting. Shortages occurred in Clearfield, Delaware, Lebanon, and York counties, and possibly others.

In Fayette County during the same election, an issue with barcodes meant that ballots werent scanning or being recorded. Affected ballots were set aside and counted by hand when polls closed.

Also in the May 2021 primary, nine Snyder County voters received the wrong ballots, and Erie County voters left two polling sites with their marked ballots.

During the November 2021 general election, during the preelection process, Berks Countys Spanish-language ballot instructions included the incorrect date for the election, affecting 17,000 mail-in ballots.

In the same election, the Lehigh County Board of Elections decided to count undated ballots. In response, members of the House Republican Caucus issued a letter threatening impeachment unless the law was followed. The matter resulted in litigation in federal courts, with the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ordering the undated ballots to be counted.

That wasnt the last of ballot issues.

Another case in federal district court challenged the practice of disqualifying ballots lacking a secrecy envelope. The case isnt yet resolved.

And recently, the Department of State filed suit against the Berks, Lancaster, and Fayette county boards of elections over certification disputes arising from the 2022 primary election. At issue is the treatment of ballots lacking a date. These counties certified results excluding such ballots, as required by Pennsylvania law.

Court Case Holding Up Certification

When the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision about undated ballots in the May 2021 primary, the Pennsylvania Department of State ordered Berks, Lancaster, and Fayette counties to certify an updated election result including the count of any ballots previously rejected for lacking a date.

The three counties didnt do so, claiming that the previous court decision applied only to that case, and that the election code doesnt provide for election results to be certified a second time.

The case remains in Commonwealth Court, which is holding up certification of the 2022 primary election.

Grove called on the governor and his fellow lawmakers to try again on election reform legislation.

It is my hope all sides and stakeholders can come to the table to compromise and bring true and meaningful election reform to Pennsylvania voters, he said in a statement. House Republicans have stood, and still stand, ready to address the myriad of election issues urgently in need of correction.
Loves truth creates the hope to endure suffering

PG | 1h 56min | Drama, Comedy | 1997

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Roberto Benignis classic Life Is Beautiful (1997), which won three Oscars (Best Actor, Foreign Language Film, and Score).

This tragi-comedy is about an early 20th century Italian-Jewish waiter, a Chaplinesque Guido (Roberto Benigni who writes, acts in, and directs the film). He marries a schoolteacher, Dora (Benignis wife Nicoletta Braschi), and they live a blissful life with their 5-year-old boy, Giosue (Giorgio Cantarini).

Guidos slapstick actions, often silly, turn every mundane moment into something magical. So, their ordinary lives feel extraordinary. His gift for concocting coincidences mid-conversation sweeps his listeners off their feet, sometimes quite literally. In wooing Dora for instance, he gate-crashes her school, goofing around as a school inspector, and he shows up at the opera and steals her from her fiance, in pouring rain.

Then, Nazis destroy their little heaven, condemning father and son to a concentration camp. Dora, not being Jewish, is first spared. More on that later.

Facing hard labor and hunger in the camp, a smilingly defiant Guido conjures a game that requires a still-playful Giosue to stay quiet and stay hidden, not even crying for food or water or to see his mother. For if he plays by his fathers rules, hell win enough points for a prize: Not the toy army tank of his dreams, but a real-life tank beyond his dreams.

In reality, thats just Guidos ruse to distract his son, and possibly himself. Guido figures that, thus cocooned, theyll stand some chance of surviving camp atrocities.

The film is still, unfairly, accused of spoofing or softening the Holocaust. It does nothing of the sort. On the contrary, it condemns inhumanity. It starts out as a cheery romantic farce, but suddenly it turns into a mournful reflection on hope and its flip side, despair.

Benigni doesnt care for scenes of sadism, torture, or gore; audiences already have that from other filmmakers. The Holocaust here is a backdrop, not the main event. Benignis camera doesnt show us much of it, but we see enough in the troubled eyes of his beloved trio.

(LR) Roberto Benigni as Guido, Nicoletta Braschi as Dora, and Giorgio Cantarini as Giosue in Life Is Beautiful. (Melampo Cinematografica)

Benignis eyes are elsewhere: on love and truth. His film argues that love is easy to spot. Find sacrifice, and youll find love. Falsehood? It accompanies every display of selfishness, every hatred, every pride. Love? Even when playing hide-and-seek from falsehood, love itself can never be false.

A refugee, even one hiding in plain sight, isnt deceitful if hes merely fleeing tyranny or shielding his family or protecting their freedom. And it is loves truth that, seemingly magically, creates the hope to endure suffering.

Love Is Not Blind or Weak, But Clear-Sighted and Strong

At one point, Dora rushes to the train thats taking Guido and Giosue to a camp. She pleads with the commandant. There must be some error. He checks. There is none. Father and son are on the list. She isnt. Smoke billowing from the trains chimney feels like a threat, a harbinger of furnaces awaiting them at camp.

Nicoletta Braschi as Dora (L) in Life Is Beautiful. (Melampo Cinematografica)

In spite of sensing, however faintly, that horrific fate ahead, Dora chooses to board with them. A stunned commandant complies. But Dora is clear. Their life is hers. If theres anything to be endured, theyll endure it together.

Is she blind? Or clear-sighted? Does her utter dependence on giving and receiving love make her weak? Or strong?

To Benigni, its the supremacists who are blind to humanity around them, denying truth and worshiping falsehood.

As a waiter, Guido entertains restaurant customer Dr. Lessing (Horst Buchholz), whose genial fondness for Guido is a reward for indulging his weakness for riddles.

Roberto Benigni as Guido in Life Is Beautiful. (Melampo Cinematografica)

As a prisoner at camp, however, Guido discovers to his horror that Lessing, as a Nazi captain, fails to see his favorite waiter. He sees nothing more than a riddle-solver and, eventually, not even that. A rare moment when the usually smiling Guido is serious, speechless, stunned.

In touching irony, the captain, imprisoned in his own mind, pleads with his Jewish prisoner: Help me, please, for heavens sake, help me!

Benignis cinematic tool is irony. And he wields it to unveil his sense of truth, of love. Showing his nephew around the house, Guidos Uncle Eliseo says in mock indifference, Thats the bed. Legend has it Garibaldi slept there.  Nothing is more necessary than the unnecessary.

Thats Benigni playing on what can be likened to the typical high-society dinner table discussion of the time. For, only minutes later, his camera captures Dora at the table, hearing her elite hosts hotly discussing the savings the state would make if unnecessary cripples, lunatics, and epileptics were eliminated.

Benigni plays on truth and falsehood, too. The truthful but brutal state acts in broad daylight: ransacking homes, arresting innocents, and openly brainwashing schoolchildren in a classroom. The lying Guido, however, keeps disguising himself: as a prince, a chauffeur, a trickster with endless surprises for his son, and in a futile attempt to reach Dora, even as a woman prisoner.

Who is lying? Who is truthful?

Love Is Nothing If It Isnt Shared

One night at camp, Guido, as temp-waiter at the Nazi officers quarters, is serving officers and their families. If only for a few hours away from the squalor of the camp, hes amid fine clothes, exotic food, wine.

And music on a gramophone. He uses that chance to turn on the soul-stirring Barcarolle by Jacques Offenbach, which first brought him and Dora together. Guido isnt playing music. Hes trying to reach Dora in a distant prison-dorm. As Benignis camera soars up and across the yard, you feel each melancholic chord uniting them in an invisible bond, unscarred by the brick walls and barbed wires.

Roberto Benigni as Guido in Life Is Beautiful. (Melampo Cinematografica)

Here, it isnt shared joy that unites them but shared sorrow. Their love doesnt mind what life throws their way. As long as they can share it, it wont matter, even if its sorrow.

When Moral Darkness Overwhelms

The stoic anguish of those who survived real Nazi camps (Rubino Romeo Salmoni who wrote the book In the End, I Beat Hitler, and Benignis father, Luigi) influenced Benignis screenplay. It appears that renowned therapist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl did, too. Frankls landmark book, Mans Search for Meaning (1946), draws on his years in a camp. His psychotherapeutic path affirms that a purposeful life becomes its own incentive to endure lifes tragedies.

For Guido, its simpler. His lifes highest purpose is to love and be loved. Anything less and he wilts.

(LR) Giorgio Cantarini as Giosue, Roberto Benigni as Guido, and Nicoletta Braschi as Dora in Life Is Beautiful. (Melampo Cinematografica)

Frankl died the year this film was released. As if in tribute, Guido adamantly celebrates every sliver of sunny light, even in the face of overwhelming moral darkness. In the indescribable desolation of that concentration camp, Guido treasured but two slivers of light: Dora and Giosue. For him, they were enough.

Promotional ad for Life Is Beautiful. (Melampo Cinematografica)

Life Is Beautiful

Director: Roberto Benigni

Starring: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 1 hour, 56 minutes

Release Date: Dec. 20, 1997

Rated: 5 stars out of 5
Pure Evil: Lawmakers Demand End to Chinese Regimes 23-Year-Long Persecution of Falun Gong

The Chinese regimes unrelenting campaign to eradicate Falun Gong is pure evil and must end, according to Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.).

The Chinese Communist Partys decades-long persecution of the Falun Gong, which includes targeted organ harvesting of its people, is pure evil and we must do everything we can to stop it, Perry told The Epoch Times.

July 20 marks the 23rd year since the regime launched a brutal persecution in 1999 to extinguish the spiritual discipline, which teaches a set of meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Over the past more than two decades, the faith groups 70 million to 100 million adherents have been subjected to a long list of abuses, including beating, slave labor, sexual abuse, and being subjected to psychological drugs. An unknown number of them have died as a result of state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting.



The Chinese Communist Partys horrific campaign to eradicate the Falun Gongand forcibly harvest organs from practitionersis an egregious and systematic violation of human rights, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) told The Epoch Times.

The European Parliament in May passed a resolution condemning the regimes persistent, systematic, inhumane and state-sanctioned organ harvesting.

Related Coverage Chinese Regime Killed Falun Gong Adherent for His Liver, Witness Says

In June, Falun Gong practitioner Han Yu shared at the International Religious Freedom Summit about the death of her father, who she suspected to be a possible victim of the organ harvesting scheme. Her father had black and purple bruises all around his body and stitches on his throat, extending to the abdomen, she told the forum, adding that the family had pressed his abdomen and found it filled with hard ice.

Twenty-three years ago, thousands of peaceful Falun Gong practitioners were abruptly and brutally detained in the Chinese Communist Partys effort to eradicate the Falun Gong practice, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a statement shared with The Epoch Times.

Today, we solemnly remember the countless souls who were lost in that hateful campaign, as well as the many more who have tragically been subjected to horrific abuse, forced labor, torture, and worse in the years since, Rubio added.

Falun Gong practitioners take part in a candlelight vigil commemorating the 20th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong in China, on the West Lawn of Capitol Hill on July 18, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Grim Reminder

Smith, who has chaired 76 congressional hearings on Chinas human rights abuses, including a hearing in May on the forced harvesting of organs from Falun Gong adherents, described the anniversary as a grim reminder of the work laying ahead to halt the ongoing atrocities in China.

Tragically, July 20th marks 23 years of brutal persecution against Falun Gong practitionersa grim reminder that our work to put an end to one of the great crimes of this century is not finished, he said. Now more than ever, we must bolster our efforts to stop this unconscionable abuse against the Falun Gong and other persecuted groups.

Several other lawmakers have echoed the sentiment.

Scott in mid-December introduced the Falun Gong Protection Act (H.R.6319) to sanction Chinese communist officials who perpetrated the abuse.

In July, he was joined by a first Democratic co-sponsor, Rep. Andre Carson from Indiana, making the legislation, as it should be, a bipartisan effort, he said, adding that he will continue to relentlessly lead this worthy fight to end these depraved acts.

On this 23rd anniversary the Chinese Communist Partys persecution of the Falun Gong, which includes targeted organ harvesting of its people, let us dedicate ourselves to ending this purely evil campaign. #FreeFalunGong #FalunGong #CCP  RepScottPerry (@RepScottPerry) July 20, 2022

Rubio, a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the Stop Organ Harvesting Act (S.602) introduced last March, said that he will do all he can in Congress to ensure the abusers are held to account.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China, an independent congressional body monitoring human rights in China, also highlighted the persecution on Twitter, urging the United Nations to fully investigate ongoing atrocities in China.

For the past 23 years, the Chinese govt has committed appalling human rights abuses against practitioners of #FalunGong in an effort to eradicate the practice. These abuses must end and all prisoners released, the commission wrote.
South Africa: Excursion to showcase Robben Islands contribution to ocean economy

Higher Education, Science, and Innovation Deputy Minister, Buti Manamela, will be conducting an excursion at Robben Island to showcase the value chain of the islands contribution to heritage and the countrys ocean economy with a special focus on the key careers related to the sea.

The department said during a tour, which takes place on Wednesday, the attending learners will also get a brief on the complete value chain of marine careers and how these contribute to the ocean economy.

This tour aims to demonstrate how young people can access these careers and related opportunities with an emphasis on various career pathways available in public institutions, private institutions, and programs offered by Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), the department said.

Food Day Expo

Manamela will also on Thursday host a focused Food Day Expo for the 3rd Annual Heritage Career Expo to be held at Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Bellville Campus.

The third expo to be held under the theme Unlocking the Wealth in Our Heritage, aims to expose young people in the post-schooling education and training sector to the heritage industry.

The department said the exposure will mainly be directed at high school learners and students in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and universities.

This initiative is driven by the Deputy Minister, in partnership with nine SETAs, [including] Food and Beverages SETA, Services SETA, Transport Education Training Authority, Culture, Arts, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport SETA, Fibre Processing and Manufacturing SETA and Media, Information, and Communication Technologies SETA.

The Food & Beverages Manufacturing Sector Education and Training Authority (FoodBev SETA) which is responsible for training and skills development in the food and beverage manufacturing sector will be spearheading this event with the aim of highlighting the many ways the food processing and manufacturing industries support the arts and heritage, and how art meets food science, the department highlighted.

According to the department, the attendees will be exposed to five subsectors within the industry, and these include manufacturing of dairy products; producing processed and preserved meat, fish, and vegetables; producing and processing baked goods, cereals, confections, and snacks; manufacturing of beverages; and production of food prepared products.

The expo also seeks to empower stakeholders such as artists, chefs, crafters and poets by creating opportunities for skills development and career awareness among young people, the department added.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-07-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Legarda refiles measure amending the PESO Act to create more job opportunities for Filipinos

In her fourth term as Senator, Senator Loren Legarda refiles Senate Bill 7 that seeks to amend Republic Act 8759 or the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Act of 1999 to include entrepreneurship and provide better employment and entrepreneurial opportunities suited for each Filipino.

Legarda reiterated that this amendment to the existing law would address the drawn-out issue of unemployment and underemployment in the Philippines. She echoed her previous statement that the promotion of entrepreneurship will be able to hone the skills of Filipinos and will encourage self-employment opportunities, and generate more jobs.

"The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that about 2.87 million Filipinos were unemployed in March 2022. Meanwhile, the underemployment rate increased from 14% in February to 15.8% in March 2022," Legarda said.

With this, Legarda has recognized the role of entrepreneurs in stimulating the country's economic growth.

"The Department of Trade and Industry reported that entrepreneurs have managed to generate 62.4% of the country's employment or over five (5) million jobs. Inarguably, entrepreneurs play a key role in creating job opportunities and consequently in stimulating the country's economic growth," she explained.

The measure also intends to rename the PESO offices to Public Employment and Entrepreneurship Service Office (PEESO) and establish a Barangay Employment and Entrepreneurship Service Office (BEESO) in barangays.

Senator Legarda co-authored the PESO Act during her first term as Senator and has also co-authored Republic Act 10691, which initially amended the PESO Act. She has refiled further amendments to the law as House Bill 631 during her term as Deputy Speaker in the House of Representatives.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) speaks at a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 31, 2017. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)

Rep. Maxine Waters Paid Daughter $16,500 in Campaign Funds for Reelection Services in June

The reelection campaign of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) paid out over $16,000 to Waterss daughter in the second quarter of 2022, adding to the more than $1.2 million the congresswomans daughter has received from her mothers campaigns since 2003.

According to campaign finance filings at the Federal Election Commission, Waters paid $16,500 to Karen Waters in June for work on the lawmakers reelection campaign. Filings indicate the payments were for slate mailer management fees.

Karen Waters runs Progressive Connections, Fox News reported, and has been organizing slate-mailing operations to bolster her mothers reelection campaigns over the past two decades.

Little is known about the company, which does not appear to have an official website, and no mention of it is made on Karen Waterss LinkedIn profile.

The Epoch Times has contacted Rep. Waterss office for comment.

Slate-mailing is an age-old election practice in California but is generally uncommon across most other states.

A slate card, also known as a slate mailer or voter guide, usually lists candidates who are running for office within a voters area along with the policy measures they support or oppose.

They also inform voters how to cast their ballots. A consulting firm is usually hired to create such a pamphlet or guide.

Family Affair

Rep. Waters, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, was the only federal politician to use a slate-mailer operation during the 2020 general election, according to Fox News.

But the congresswoman is not the only lawmaker who has paid relatives with campaign contributions over the years.

In 2020, OpenSecrets found that at least 14 then-members of Congress had disbursed more than $15,000 each in wages to family members from their reelection committees, including Reps. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Steve King (R-Iowa), Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho), and Conor Lamb (D-Pa.).

However, Waters, a Democrat, led in campaign disbursements to family members after paying her daughter over $187,000 during the 2020 cycle to run a slate-mailer operation, OpenSecrets reported.

In 2004, the Los Angeles Times reported that Rep. Waterss family members had made more than $1 million over the previous eight years by doing business with companies, candidates and causes that the influential congresswoman has helped.

At the time, Rep. Waters defended the practice, noting that her familys business interests were separate from her congressional activities.

They do their business, and I do mine, she told the paper.

While it is legal for federal lawmakers to employ family members on the campaign payroll, a group of Republican lawmakers in June 2022 introduced the Family Integrity to Reform Elections (FIRE) Act, aimed at preventing members of Congress from employing family members on campaigns amid an ethics debate over the practice.

Rep. Waters won reelection in November 2020 to Californias 43rd Congressional District, a seat she has held since 2013. She is running again in the midterm elections in 2022.
Republican Mayra Flores Accuses Democrat Opponent of Paying Blogger for Racist Posts

South Texas blogger labels Flores "Miss Frijoles" and uses sexually crude language

Republican Congresswoman Mayra Flores responded to racial stereotypes and crude language used to describe her by a South Texas blogger paid with campaign money from Congressman Vicente Gonzales, her Democratic opponent in the Texas District 34 midterm election.

In a Twitter post on Monday, Flores accused the Gonzales campaign of paying for a blogger to run hateful and racist ads against her. The posts that appeared in the McHale Report blog referred to her as Miss Frijoles, Miss Menudo, Miss Enchiladas, and a cotton-pickin liar.

I am disgusted that Vicente Gonzalez has hired a creepy blogger to attack my Mexican heritage and sexually degrade me, but I wont let this distract me from my work, she told The Epoch Times via text. Vicente Gonzalez is an example of everything thats wrong with Washington. Its truly sick, she said.

Jerry McHale, a longtime South Texas blogger, also used sexually crude language in a May 13 headline about the Congresswoman: Does Flores Want Trump to Come & Take Her [expletive]???

Federal Elections Commission data shows Gonzalez made campaign advertising expenditures to Jerry McHale of $1,200 on June 24 and $1,000 on October 27, 2021.

McHale told The Epoch Times that Gonzalez never told him what to write, and he has never spoken to the Congressman. He was unapologetic for the language used in the blog. The self-described ultra-left Democratic blogger said he had no regrets using satire to describe Flores or punching hard at Republicans. He said Gonzalez and other politicians pay him to run photos with wording akin to a headline.

Colin Steel, campaign manager for Gonzalez, did not return a call seeking comment. However, he told NBC News, which first reported the story, that Gonzalez disapproves of calling Flores names and denied any wrongdoing.

Flores became the first Republican elected in the heavily Hispanic Rio Grande District in more than 100 years. The devout Christian won a special election for the district on a conservative platform of God, family, and country.

Rep.-elect Mayra Flores (R-TX) stands with her family and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for a portrait after being sworn-in on June 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

The controversial blog is just the latest incident in the rough-and-tumble political race for Texas District 34, which Flores aims to keep red. During her swearing-in ceremony, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appeared to nudge Flores daughter to the side, which prompted Flores to condemn Pelosi on social media.

Pelosis camp responded that the speaker was trying to help the child so she wouldnt be hidden during photos at the event.

Flores, a legal immigrant from Mexico married to a border patrol agent, is convinced that more Democratic voters will realize that their traditional Latino values are more aligned with the Republican Party. Democrats largely ignored the special election, but Republicans saw it as an opportunity to further their efforts to convert South Texas red after a strong showing in 2020.

Flores replaced former Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas), who resigned this spring to work for a Washington D.C. lobbying firm. She will only hold the seat until January 2023unless she can beat Gonzales to serve for a full term by winning in November.
Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss in Final Runoff to Become UK Prime Minister

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss became the last two candidates standing on Wednesday after Penny Mordaunt was eliminated from the race to replace Boris Johnson as the UKs prime minister.

In a nail-biting final parliamentary vote, Sunak managed to stay on top with 137 votes, gaining 19 more supporters after Kemi Badenoch was eliminated on Tuesday.

Mordaunt, previously the second most supported candidate, was knocked out with 105 votes, 13 more than the previous day, after failing to court enough Badenoch votes.

Truss, who has been trailing behind, successfully secured 27 new votes, pushing Mordaunt out with 113 votes.

Despite having voted to remain in the European Union in the 2016 referendum, Truss gained the support of many hardline Brexiteer MPs after she secured a number of trade deals and demonstrated her willingness to override part of the Brexit deal regarding Northern Ireland.

Sunaks campaign said the former chancellor of the Exchequer had secured a clear mandate from Tory MPs and will now work night and day to win the backing of the Conservative membership.

The choice for members is very simple: who is the best person to beat Labour at the next election? The evidence shows thats Rishi, a statement from the campaign reads.

Truss thanked her supporters and paid tribute to all the candidates, and said shes excited to make the case about her bold new economic plan that will cut taxes, grow our economy, and unleash the potential of everyone in our United Kingdom.

The foreign secretary vowed to unite the party and govern in line with Conservative values, and said she will prove shes the right person to lead the party and the country.

Whats Next

Sunak and Truss are expected to hold a number of online and in-person hustings around the UK where they engage with Conservative Party members, who will choose one winner to be the next prime minister.

Some 160,000 party members will receive their ballot packs in the post in the first week of August.

Members can cast their votes either by post or online. The ballot will close at 5 p.m. on Sept. 2 and the result will be announced on Sept. 5.

On Sept. 6, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to formally tender his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II.

According to the latest YouGov poll of 725 Conservative Party members conducted on Monday and Tuesday, Sunak was the least favoured candidate, while Truss was one of the most favoured.

Probe Launched Over Alleged Mordaunt Campaign Sabotage

Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case has launched a investigation into allegations that information had been leaked from within the civil service to damage Penny Mordaunts campaign.

David Davis, one of Mordaunts most prominent backers within the Conservative Party, wrote to the cabinet secretary on Sunday to raise his concerns.

Conservative Party leadership contender Penny Mordaunt at Here East studios in Stratford, east London, on July 15, 2022. (Victoria Jones/PA Media)

In a letter to Davis, Case confirmed he had launched an investigation.

Thank you for your letter of [July 17], raising your concerns about the apparent leaking of information designed to influence the Conservative leadership election, the letter reads.

I have been very clear in writing with the civil service that it is paramount that public resources are not used to support leadership campaigns during the Conservative Party leadership election, Case said.

Further to that, unauthorised disclosure of government information to the media is clearly inappropriate. In light of these facts and the concerns you raise, I can confirm that I have launched a leak investigation into this matter.

Case added that the investigation will be completed as quickly as possible given the importance of the subject.

Case gave no specific details of what the inquiry would focus on but The Telegraph newspaper has reported that it is thought to be linked to a leak to The Sunday Times newspaper related to accusations that Mordaunt was involved in watering down the legal process for transitioning by transgender people.

PA Media contributed to this report.
I recently visited Fall River, Massachusetts, a sleepy fishing town on the Rhode Island border whose long-established Portuguese community has made it the capital of Portuguese seafood in North America. There, amidst the wine-sauced littleneck clams, grilled cod, scallops mocambique, and Portuguese paella, I found a bowl of kale potato soup that almost stole the show.

It looked simple on that white tablecloth, and it is. All I could see were shards of green floating in a thick, milky broth, but I soon discovered linguica, a type of cured Portuguese sausage similar to chorizo, lurking beneath the surface. This humble bowl of soup was the opposite of fireworks, but in a good way. It was like a symphony at a very low volume.

I knew there would be caldo verde at Sagres Restaurant. In fact, my quest for this Western Iberian comfort food was the motivation for making the trip. Because unlike seafood-based dishes like the mariscada or camarao alhinho, I can bring caldo verde with me, in recipe form, and reproduce it back home with local ingredients.

Sagres, according to the internet, is one of two restaurants in Fall River that serve caldo verde (the other being the incomparable Mr. Chicken). I learned a lot at Sagres, not just about caldo verde. I will forever be grateful for the waiters firm assurance that its OK to drink red wine with seafood.

Caldo verde translates into soup of greens. While kale is the green most often used, any durable leaf will do, including collards, broccoli leaves, or chard, to name a few. Since then I have made batch after batch of caldo verde, trying to recreate that glorious and mellow experience.

I followed the recipes I found online, but the soup always came out too busy or too bland. Although I saw no evidence in that Fall Riverian bowl of caldo verde, I began to suspect bell pepper.

I began to wonder if it was the linguica I was using, purchased from the local Star Market. After all, I knew of a certain fisherman of Portuguese descent named Mario, a friend of a friend. Mario makes the two-hour drive to Fall River from Gloucester, on the Massachusetts north shore, in order to get his linguica. So maybe I needed better linguica?

Perhaps, but before making a linguica run, I tried adding a whole bell pepper to my caldo verde, for some stealth flavor.

I had noticed pieces of bell pepper in most of the other dishes I enjoyed in Fall River. Could it also be a secret ingredient in the caldo verde? It is green, after all. And it has a flavor that cant be replaced or replicated.

I began making my caldo verde with a whole bell pepper simmering in the pot, similar to how I often will add whole onions, carrots, or celery crowns to a pot of soup. They never make it to the final bowl; so too with my bell peppers, which you could smell all through the house. Their fragrance clearly made it into the caldo.

Ultimately, its more of a linguica broth, which if you arent careful, can be a bit heavy because of it. I cooked the linguica to drain some of the grease. With lemon zest to add levity, my caldo verde ended up with some fireworks to it, but in a good way. So next time I drive to Fall River, Ill be able to focus on the littlenecks.

Caldo Verde

This is a mellow bowl of kale and potato soup that will leave you feeling nourished and satisfied.

Serves 6

4 large potatoes, peeled and diced

1/2 cup olive oil

1 large onion, minced

1 whole green bell pepper

2 bay leaves

2 cubes veggie bouillon, or equivalent

1/2 pound linguica (or chorizo)

Zest of 1 lemon

1 bunch kale

Salt to taste

Boil the potatoes in a gallon of water for a half-hour. Then allow to cool.

In a soup pot, meanwhile, heat the oil over medium heat and saute the onions. Add the whole bell pepper to the pan.

When the potatoes are cool enough to work with, mash the potatoes in the water until almost smooth.

When the onions are translucentabout 15 minutesadd the potato water to the soup pot. Add the bay leaves and veggie bouillon. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Slice the linguica into half-inch rounds. Brown them on the grill or in a pan. Add the linguica rounds to the soup pot along with the zest. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove the ribs from the kale and mince the leaves crosswise. Add the kale to the pot. Cook another 5 minutes. Season with salt, and serve.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chair of the House Jan. 6 panel, delivers closing remarks alongside Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) during the sixth hearing on the Jan. 6 investigation in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington on June 28, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Secret Service Denies Charges it Failed to Deliver Erased Texts from January 6 to House Panel

The House Jan. 6 panel said on July 19 that the Secret Service failed to deliver subpoenaed text messages from Jan. 56, 2021, which the panel said had been erased. However, the Secret Service has denied the charge, saying that the missing texts are accounted for by standard agency policy not to discuss security situations over text.

A cache of Secret Service agent text messages from the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally, which had been subpoenaed by the House committee for delivery by the morning of July 20, did not contain texts from Jan. 5 and 6, which the committee considered crucial, according to panel member Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.).

We received a letter today that did provide us with a lot of documents and some data. However, we did not receive the additional text messages that we were looking for, Murphy said during a TV appearance.

The texts were allegedly erased after a device replacement program upgraded the mobile devices of Secret Service agents, Murphy said.

Murphy explained: They moved ahead with their efforts to migrate the devices and the data, and their process, as explained to us, was simply to leave it to the agent to determine whether or not there was anything on their phones worth saving that was necessary to save for federal records. And as a result, today they did not receive any texts from their agents when they made that transition that was flagged for preservation.

However, the Secret Service has denied the charge that they erased any text messages, a charge which was first reported to the Jan. 6 panel by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General Joseph Cuffari.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi insisted in a statement to another media outlet that there were no hidden messages or other information that the Secret Service was holding out from the panel.

The missing texts, Guglielmi said, can largely be explained by an agency policy that generally frowns on the use of texts when discussing security situations.

Its hard for people to understand, but we do not communicate via text message, he said. It is in policy that you do not conduct business via text message.

Some members of the panel appeared unconcerned with the development, expressing optimism that they could receive the information through other avenues.

One thing Ive learned in this process is that when one evidentiary door closes, another one will open and well find a way, panel member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told reporters following the delivery of the texts by the Secret Service on July 19.

Raskin added, however, that he would be shocked and horrified if leaders in the Secret Service had permitted the erasure of these texts.

Without commenting on the specifics of that situation, I will say that I would be shocked and horrified if anyone in a position of leadership oversaw the destruction of evidence related to the Jan. 6 insurrection, Raskin said.

Secret Service spokesman Guglielmi insisted that there was no malicious intent on the part of the Secret Service.

Theres no reason for us to say the texts were lost, he said. I mean, how do you know that those people texted? They were told to upload their official records, and they did. So this is partly what were going to communicate to the committee, all of the data that we have. People say texts were lost. How do you know texts were sent?

On the other hand, Murphy said that if a device upgrade program was responsible for the loss of any text messages, Secret Service leadership had received congressional orders to retain texts and should have done more to ensure their preservation.

They received four requests from congressional committees on Jan. 16 to preserve records, and they had this planned migration for the 25th, I believe, of January, and nobody along the way stopped and thought, Well, maybe we shouldnt do the migration of data and of the devices until we are able to fulfill these four requests from Congress, Murphy said.

The National Archives, which preserves all federal government documents, has also demanded an explanation for the missing texts, if such exist.

If it is determined that any text messages have been improperly deleted (regardless of their relevance to the OIG/Congressional inquiry of the events on January 6, 2021), then the Secret Service must send NARA a report within 30 calendar days of the date of this letter with a report documenting the deletion, Chief Records Officer Laurence Brewer of the National Archives said in a letter to the custodian of records at DHS.

This report must include a complete description of the records affected, a statement of the exact circumstances surrounding the deletion of messages, a statement of the safeguards established to prevent further loss of documentation, and details of all agency actions taken to salvage, retrieve, or reconstruct the records, Brewer added.

Contested Testimony About Trump

The development comes in the wake of testimony to the committee by former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who made wide-reaching claims about former President Donald Trumps behavior on Jan. 6.

During a June 28 hearing by the Jan. 6 committee, Hutchinson related several alleged disputes between Trump and the Secret Service on Jan. 6.

According to Hutchinson, the first of these came during Trumps rally at the Ellipse prior to the Capitol breach. The rally, Hutchinson said, looked too small to Trump.

She said he blamed this on the use of magnetometers by the Secret Service. Magnetometers, used by security forces to detect weapons, had been placed at the entrance to the Trump rally that day.

Upset by the smaller crowd size, Trump allegedly asked the Secret Service to remove them.

I dont [expletive] care that they have weapons, theyre not here to hurt me, take the [expletive] mags away, Hutchinson claimed Trump said. Let my people in, they can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the [expletive] mags away.

Later, Hutchinson said, Trump grew frustrated after the Secret Service refused to allow him to join supporters at the Capitol protest because the area had not been secured.

Hutchinson then claimed that Trump lunged at a Secret Service agent in anger after they refused to take him to the Capitol before trying to seize the steering wheel from the driver of his vehicle.

However, both Trump and the Secret Service have denied the charge, with some Secret Service agents reportedly saying that they would testify under oath that the events Hutchinson described in the White House limousine had not occurred.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said, [Hutchinsons] Fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol Building is sick and fraudulent, very much like the Unselect Committee itself. Wouldnt even have been possible to do such a ridiculous thing.

Reportedly, a source close to the Secret Service told NBCs Peter Alexander that both Bobby Engel, the lead agent, [and the agent allegedly lunged at by Trump] and the presidential limousine/SUV driver are prepared to testify under oath that neither man was assaulted and that Mr. Trump never lunged for the steering wheel.

Given her distance from the president, and given the denials streaming in in the aftermath of the last-minute hearings, Hutchinsons testimony remains largely contested and uncorroborated.
Sen. Graham Has Not Agreed to Testify in Trump Election Case, Will Fight Subpoena

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he has not agreed to testify before a special grand jury in Georgia thats investigating possible unlawful interference in the 2020 election, despite reports stating that he has.

The lawmaker was said to have reached an agreement with Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis regarding the service of a subpoena on Tuesday afternoon, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal reported. However, that agreement maintains Grahams right to fight the subpoena, according to the report.

Graham was among a number of former President Donald Trump allies who were issued a subpoena by a Fulton County election inquiry in July.

The inquiry is seeking evidence related to an alleged coordinated effort by Trump and others to influence and overturn the results of the November 2020 election in the state of Georgia and elsewhere.

Senator Graham has agreed to accept service of a subpoena for testimony from the Fulton County Special Purpose Grand Jury in Atlanta, Ga., without waiving any challenges or any applicable privilege and/or immunity, the agreement reached this week states, according to reports.

Chris Adams, attorney for Willis and the special grand jury, confirmed that an agreement had been reached to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, adding that he was pleased.

There was no issue for a South Carolina court to decide, Adams said. The appropriate place to resolve these issues is Atlanta, Georgia, where the court hearing the issue is. We got an agreement today with the senator that basically agrees with our position.

Not Agreed to Testify

However, Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop told the outlet that the GOP senator had only agreed to move the case to a federal district court in Georgia, and will continue to fight the subpoena.

Graham has not agreed to testify, Bishop said. Graham will fight the subpoena in federal district court in Georgia.

The Epoch Times has contacted Grahams office for comment.

Lawyers for the Republican lawmaker previously asked a federal judge on July 12 to quash the subpoena, doubling down on their assertions that his appearance before the special grand jury would erode the constitutional balance of power and the ability of a Member of Congress to do their job.

In court papers (pdf) his attorneys also stated that Graham had not attempted to interfere with the election results in Georgia, as suggested by Willis, a Democrat.

Senator Graham has never inserted himself into the electoral process in Georgia, and has never attempted to alter the outcome of any election, the court papers state.

The subpoena issued to Graham said he made at least two telephone calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff following President Joe Bidens win in the 2020 election, asking them about reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump.

A Necessary and Material Witness

The witness also made reference to allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia, consistent with public statements made by known affiliates of the Trump Campaign, the subpoena reads.

The subpoena also states that Graham is a necessary and material witness to the Special Purpose Grand Jury investigation and that he possesses unique knowledge concerning what was said in the phone calls as well as known and unknown individuals involved in the multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.

Because of the latest agreement, a hearing that had been set for Wednesday morning in the U.S. District Court in Charleston was canceled, according to reports.

Adams said he anticipates Graham will come to Georgia sometime in August to accept the subpoena and provide testimony to the grand jury.

It is anticipated only one day will be needed, Adams said. They did reserve the right to attempt to litigate in Fulton County, Georgia, or at the federal courthouse in Atlanta.
Sen. Rand Paul: Senate Just Rejected My Attempt to Reaffirm Constitution

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asserted this week that the Senate rejected his bid to reaffirm the Constitution regarding declarations of war.

Paul proposed an amendment in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), that would emphasize that only Congress can declare war under the Constitution.

That amendment was submitted in the context of a bill that affirmed a resolution to allow Sweden and Finland to join NATO. Paul was the only member to not vote yes on the measure, voting present instead.

Shockingly, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee just rejected my attempt to reaffirm the Constitution. All my amendment said was NATO obligations dont supersede the constitutional requirement that Congress declare war. How is this controversial? Paul wrote on Twitter.

Paul, who has long been critical of the United States war efforts abroad, has long attempted to, in his words, return war powers to Congress. In 2017, the Senate voted down Pauls amendment that would force Congress to pass a new law authorizing the United States to wage war against ISIS and other overseas entities.

After the NATO resolution vote Tuesday, Menendez said in a statement as U.S. foreign policy priorities evolve to account for a changing world, what is self-evident is the future of the transatlantic partnership will be even more intertwined and integrated amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Several months ago, the leaders of Sweden and Finland signaled their nations are seeking to join the 27-nation military alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine. Finland shares a lengthy border with Russia, while Sweden has a maritime border with the country.

Moscow, meanwhile, has warned both Finland and Sweden against joining NATO, saying it will lead to future conflicts. For more than a decade, Russias leadership has accused NATO of continuing to expand eastward and said that Ukraines close relations with the bloc, in part, triggered the invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 30 warned that Russia will respond if NATO sets up infrastructure in Sweden and Finland if they join the alliance. The two countries relations with Moscow would sour over their relationship, he added.

With Sweden and Finland, we dont have the problems that we have with Ukraine. They want to join NATO, go ahead, Putin said. But they must understand there was no threat before, while now, if military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, we will have to respond in kind and create the same threats for the territories from which threats towards us are created.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for comment.
Protestors shout slogans during a protest demanding the resignation of Sri Lanka's acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 19, 2022. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

Sri Lankas Parliament Votes for New President as Protesters Wait

COLOMBOSri Lankan lawmakers voted in parliament on Wednesday to choose the next president from three contenders amid tight security, hoping the new leader would pull the island out of a crippling economic and political crisis.

A win for acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, one of the main two contenders but opposed by many ordinary Sri Lankans, could lead to more demonstrations by people furious with the ruling elite after months of severe shortages of fuel, food, and medicines, several protesters have said.

The other main candidate, ruling party lawmaker Dullas Alahapperuma, is more acceptable to the protesters and the opposition but does not have any top-level governance experience in a country with barely any dollars for imports and desperately in need of an IMF bailout.

We are here to send our good vibes to the lawmakers so that they can do the right thing, elect the right president so that we can come out of this problem, said Namal Jayaweera, one of several dozen people sitting on the steps of the presidential secretariat, awaiting the result.

Protestors shout slogans during a protest demanding the resignation of Sri Lankas acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 19, 2022. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

Hundreds of police, paramilitary and military troops were deployed around the parliament building, about 13 kilometers (8 miles) away, and an approach road had at least three barricades. Security personnel in speed boats patrolled a lake around the building, and military jeeps and armored vehicles stood parked within the perimeter.

Protesters occupied the presidential secretariat earlier this month along with the official presidents residence, forcing the then-incumbent Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.

Many protesters see Wickremesinghe as an ally of the Rajapaksa family, and his private house and office were also stormed by people demanding his ouster.

Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister, became acting president last week after Rajapaksa fled on a military plane to the Maldives and then took a commercial flight to Singapore.

Sri Lankan interim president Ranil Wickremesinghe (R) greets Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya during the oath-taking ceremony in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 15, 2022. (Sri Lankan Presidents Office via AP)

Two of Rajapaksas brothers, including former prime minister and president Mahinda Rajapaksa, as well as a nephew were in attendance as the 225-member parliament gathered for the vote. The process is expected to take hours before a winner is declared.

There is a third candidate in the contestAnura Kumara Dissanayaka, the leader of the leftist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna party. But his party commands only three seats in the 225-member parliament and he has no realistic chance of winning.

Close Contest

It was not immediately clear how much support 73-year-old Wickremesinghe and 63-year-old Alahapperuma have in parliament.

Wickremesinghe is backed by a section of the ruling party that had a total of 145 seats as of the last parliamentary election in 2020. Alahapperuma has the support of the other section as well as the main opposition party that won 54 seats last time round. Several small parties have promised to support him as well.

Latest numbers are not clear because some lawmakers have become independents.

Earlier Ranil Wickremesinghe was the front-runner but now the outcome is much more uncertain, said political scientist Jayadeva Uyangoda.

The balance of parliament power has shifted away from him. The outcome is dependent on how much control the Rajapaksas have  over their party members.

Sri Lankas parliament in 1993 unanimously chose D.B. Wijetunga to finish the tenure of assassinated President Ranasinghe Premadasa. This time three candidates are in the fray to complete Rajapaksas term, scheduled to end in 2024.

It will be marked as a new experience in the parliamentary history of this country, a statement from the communication chief of parliament said, laying out the procedure.

A candidate receiving more than one-third of the valid votes cast will be declared elected. If no candidate reaches the mark, the one with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated from the competition and preferences of lawmakers taken into account to eventually arrive at a winner.

By Uditha Jayasinghe, Devjyot Ghoshal, and Alasdair Pal
If you could jump into a painting and walk around in it, what painting would you choose? Where would you go in the painting? The sun-splashed Riviera or foggy London? A forest filled with animals? A field of sunflowers or a haunting desert landscape?

Good museum conversation starters for adults as well as kids. Also a good way to engage kids when visiting an art museum, suggests Lindsay Genshaft, the senior manager of family and community programs at the Denver Art Museum, one of the most kid-friendly Ive visited.

Maybe its a rainy day on vacation, maybe youre home and the kids are whining that they are bored, maybe everyone has had too much sun. Maybe you have a child who is the best artist in his class, or the worst.

Whether you are art lovers or not, there is no better time to take the kids to an art museum as many are more kid-friendly than ever. That might turn a young art-hater into an aficionado.

You just have to plan your visit. Look online for special family tours and activities. Encourage the kids to peruse the museum website to see what exhibits might interest them  paintings, sculpture, Medieval armor, jewelry.

Age of Armor exhibit at Denver Museum of Art. (Denver Art Museum)

The august Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has #metkids with online and social media content developed by kids for kids. The Smithsonian, which includes the Getty Museum in LA, has a special free multimedia Getty Guide family tour and Art Detective Cards for kids to solve a mystery while exploring the museum. The Art Institute Chicago invites visitors to create their own museum journey with works from the museums extensive collections. Ready to fly through galleries like a superhero?

Of course you will find special family activities and programs at smaller art museums as well. Check out the Eric Carle Museum in Massachusetts with the original artwork your kids will recognize from his many books. Kids are invited to create their own art in the Everyday Art Project. The Heard Museum in Phoenix, which celebrates Native American culture and art, has a variety of hands-on activities and festivals, encouraging kids to build understanding.

(A tip: If you cant find a section on the museum website for families, search for what is offered for educators and students. Many of the activities and suggestions for school groups can be easily adapted for families.

At the Denver Art Museum, now reopened after a $175 million renovation, families are front and center in everything the museum does. Not only are kids and teens (up to 18) free but just about every gallery has a hands-on childrens activity and special exhibits have a kids audio guide, crafted with the help of the museums Youth Advisory Group. I really enjoyed seeing the special Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature at the Denver Art Museum, for example, told from the viewpoint of a little water lily.

With the help of her team and the Youth Advisory Group, Genshaft is working on the audio story for the fall special exhibit. Saints, Sinners, Lovers and Fools, which showcases 300 years of Flemish masterpieces.

Genshaft noted that the kids will help create the audio story.

I get so much from the kids, she said, as she showed us around the new Martin Building, recently opened as part of the museums large expansion.

Family Central offers drop-in activities. Kids can act out stories in costumes based on the museum exhibits, build sculptures, and create their own artworks to fit in a miniature museum. They can learn about the design process in the design studio and create their own button. Sometimes there is a long line, the activity is so popular, Genshaft said.

They can meet the native artist-in-residence and contribute to a project about Denver; design a box after seeing the beautiful Korean lacquer boxes. Customize details of a jacket in the Thread Studio or create jewelry designs in the Western Studio.

What is so unique here is that the family programs arent an afterthought, Genshaft said. We get to claim a spot in the gallery from the time an exhibit is designed.

Genshaft noted that art helps kids with early literacy and developing critical-thinking skills. It helps them develop empathy. When you ignore kids, she said, You are ignoring a massive population.

It would be interesting which image kids might want to jump in here  or if they have a favorite, another good question to ask. If they could choose an artwork theyve seen to take home, what would it be?

Perhaps the larger-than-life Mud Woman Rolls On by Roxanne Swentzell which shows a Native American female figure holding her four children, in the style of Pueblo Storytellers who pass knowledge down through the generations.

Mud Woman Rolls On by Roxanne Swentzell at Denver Art Museum. ( Denver Art Museum)

Genshaft noted that there are treasures inside the sculpture, including rocks and feathers that had meaning to the artist. New Art Venture tablets eventually will allow kids to see inside Mud Woman, and other interactive activities enabling them to gain more insight. Technology enhances their experience and makes them see things they wouldnt otherwise see, she explained.

Meanwhile, if you havent been to an art museum in a while, you may be surprised at what you will find to engage the kidsand yourselfas art museums work hard to welcome all visitors no matter how young. After all, they are the future of art museums, says Genshaft.

Have a discussion with the kids about art, she urged. There is nothing better.

(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The Kids Guide to Philadelphia and The Kids Guide to Camping are the latest in a series of 14 books for kid travelers published by Eileen.)

2022 Eileen Ogintz. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Commentary

Heres my recent testimony against the bill at the CA State Senate:

Attorney Laura Powell also testified against the bill with some excellent remarks

We dont need #AB2098 because there is no misinformation crisis. Theres a crisis of institutional credibility. The public has lost faith in the medical establishment, and censorship will not rebuild that trust. In fact, its the surest way to further erode that trust. pic.twitter.com/zHCoSlzfsN

The bill unfortunately passed the committed on a strict party-line vote, and will go to the state Assembly floor for a vote soon. Here is a link to information from The Unity Project.

And heres a transcript of a slightly longer version of my remarks. The Senate gave our side a total of 3 minutes to testify, which Laura and I had to share between us. Democracy!

I am Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, a physician licensed in the state of California. I direct the Health and Human Flourishing Program at the Zephyr Institute in Palo Alto and serve as Chief of Ethics at The Unity Project.

AB 2098 will harm patients, hamstring our pandemic response, destroy the trust necessary for the doctor-patient relationship, and worsen the physician shortage in California.

A physician with a gag ordera physician who cannot say what he or she thinksis not a physician you can trust. Patients want to know that if they ask their physician a question, including a question about COVID, they will get their doctors honest opinionregardless of whether the patient follows that opinion, seeks a second opinion, or whatever. Patients will not trust physicians if they believe their doctor is simply parroting a consensus judgment that he or she may or may not endorse.

Science evolves constantly: the text of AB 2098 makes statements about COVID and COVID vaccines that are already outdated:

(1) The death count figures cited are overestimated by failing to distinguish dying from COVID and dying with COVID

(2) the efficacy of vaccines has declined with time and new variants, so the vaccine efficacy statistic cited in the law is no longer true of the vaccines against Omicron

(3) new COVID vaccine safety issues have come to light with emerging research.

Safety and efficacy findings are subject to change over time. My colleagues and I filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the Pfizer clinical trials data from the FDA. These documents revealed concerning safety issues in the first three months of vaccine rollout. Last week, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed negative vaccine efficacy against omicron infection. A peer-reviewed study published two weeks ago found reduced sperm counts in men after vaccination. These findings were unavailable when this law was drafted.

Advances in science and medicine typically occur when doctors and scientists challenge conventional thinking or settled opinion. Fixating any current medical consensus as unassailable by physicians will stifle medical and scientific progress. As I testified in January at a U.S. Senate panel on COVID policy: The scientific method suffered [during the pandemic] from a repressive academic and social climate of censorship and silencing of competing perspectives. This projected the false appearance of a scientific consensusa consensus often strongly influenced by economic and political interests.

One need only look at the last two years to see how frequently public health recommendations and consensus thinking about COVID changed from one month to the next with the advent of new information. Frontline physicians played a key role here in advancing knowledge of COVID treatmentsincluding ventilating patients in the prone position, the use of high dose steroids in hospitalized patients, and safety issues with some novel antiviral therapies. Yesterdays minority opinion often becomes todays standard of care.

Good science is characterized by conjecture and refutation, lively deliberation, often fierce debate, and always openness to new data. The censorship of free inquiry and free speech in AB 2098 spells not only the demise of civil liberties and constitutional rights for physicians in CA, but the end of the scientific enterprise when it comes to dealing with COVID in our state. Physicians whose professional opinions are stifled will simply leave California.

This bill will not help us to address the pandemic. Doctors will be punished for practicing medicine according to their best judgment. Informed consentthe foundational principle of ethical medicinewill be seriously compromised. The trust necessary for the doctor-patient relationship will be shattered.

Our lawmakers need to oppose AB 2098. It will harm physicians and medical institutions in California; it will harm scientific progress; and most concerningly, it will harm our patients.
Protesters are seen at rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)

The Deafening Silence of Pseudo-Civil Rights Stalwarts on the Jan. 6 Political Prisoners

Commentary

If Americans need any more evidence that justice is no longer blind in the United States, they need look no further than the horrific treatment of the Jan. 6, 2021, protesterswith dozens having been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment and alleged torture for doing what most of the House Democrats did in June 2016: obstructing an official session of Congress. In fact, some of the Jan. 6 defendants are the very definition of political prisoners.

We would expect civil rights leaders to join together to condemn these disgraceful injustices, especially the Democrats who went unpunished for their obstructing an official session of Congress for a far longer length of time than did the Jan. 6 participants.

Instead, theres a deafening silence from a civil rights movement that has now morphed into nothing more than a race-baiting organ of the Democratic Party that summons others to not only further oppress the political prisoners, but also to go after their families and anyone who supported President Donald Trump.

Democrat members of Congress, including Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), center, and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), left, participating in a sit-down protest seeking a vote on gun control measures on the floor of the House on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 22, 2016. (Rep. John Yarmuth via AP)

My office has been informed by numerous attorneys defending these prisoners that the United States self-proclaimed guardian of liberty, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), has completely ignored requests for the organization to intervene on behalf of the alleged human rights abuses suffered by the Jan. 6 prisoners. These individuals, many of whom have been charged with nonviolent crimes, have been held in pretrial confinement for more than a year; have been beaten, starved, and forced to live in unsanitary conditions; havent been allowed visits from their families; and have had medical care withheldjust to name some of the constitutional violations that have allegedly taken place.

Other Jan. 6 protesters who found themselves spared from unjust pretrial confinement have also seen their lives completely destroyed. Many who were charged have found their savings depleted thanks to costly legal fees and drawn-out proceedings. They have lost their jobs and have had their families lives upended.

One defendant, Matthew Perna, took his own life on Feb. 25 as a direct result of the mental and legal torture he endured. Perna was advised by his attorney that pleading guilty was the best way for him to move forward with his life and that he was looking at no longer than six to 12 months behind bars. Instead, the week before his sentencing hearing, he was informed that his hearing would be postponed and that prosecutors were seeking to add a terrorism enhancement to his case that would have increased his sentence to almost six years in prison. This twisted and politically motivated abuse by our government became too much for Perna to endure.

Matthew L. Perna spent 20 minutes in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He took his own life on Feb. 25 after learning prosecutors were seeking a longer jail term. (Left: @TaylerUSA/Twitter; U.S. Department of Justice/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

This begs the question, where is the tax-advantaged ACLU and why are they ignoring calls to investigate these abuses? For that matter, where are all of the former civil rights stalwarts who breathlessly present themselves as the ones who are dedicated to the Constitution and ensuring equal application of the law?

The Biden administration, the corrupt Department of Justice, and their sycophants in the media have done a masterful job of making it completely taboo to even address the basic and very evident civil rights issues at the heart of many of the Jan. 6 cases.

The same types who were outraged over the treatment of foreign terrorists at Guantanamo Bay are now silent when it comes to the even worse travesties we see playing out in countless Jan. 6 cases against American citizens who are supposed to have their God-given constitutional rights defended.

Last August, more than 70 House Democrats wrote to President Joe Biden to urge him to close Guantanamo Bay. They expressed grave concerns for the health and safety of the terrorist prisoners, some of whom may have the blood of thousands of Americans on their hands.

We have a responsibility to treat detainees at the Guantanamo prison humanely and make appropriate accommodations to provide for their medical care, the Democrats letter states.

Yet where is this same level of concern for our own American citizens? Will one congressional Democrat and more than just a handful of Republicans have the courage to stand up and demand due process and humane conditions for those involved in the Jan. 6 events?

As a judge, I visited many prisons and confinement facilities, and as a congressman Ive visited the Guantanamo Bay facility multiple times. The conditions at Gitmo make the D.C. jail cells look like an HGTV dream home.

What were witnessing right now with the treatment of the Jan. 6 prisoners and other defendants is the weaponization of our once-great justice system to target and destroy political opponents. That can be expected in a banana republic, but it should never be allowed or tolerated in the United States of America.

Yet, to organizations like the ACLU, thats OK because these individuals committed the most heinous crime imaginable: Most of them supported Trump.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Language Vandals

Commentary

Language is a critical tool for communication among humans; we cry watch out when a speeding car hurtles toward a pedestrian. We also think of language as a cognitive tool for society at large, since all human learning is closely tied to how we learn and process language.

Yet sometimes we forget language is also an important social and cultural institution. And like all institutions, it is subject to corruption, in the form of capture by elites with agendas quite contrary to those of average people. Since language shapes our understanding of all human interactions, academics from all disciplinesbut particularly social scientistsought to pay more attention to linguistic corruption. When language becomes politicized, managed, and policed, we ought to notice, and we ought to fight back.

I make this very point in an upcoming article titled Evolution or Corruption: The Imposition of Political Language in the West Today, which will be published this fall in the Italian journal Etica e politica (put out by the University of Trieste Department of Philosophy). The article argues that top-down impositions, rather than natural evolution, often drive changes in language. It analogizes the linguistic marketplace with the market for goods and services. Impositions are akin to central planning, while evolution is akin to spontaneous order in the marketplace. The former occurs when elites in politics, media, journalism, and academia attempt to influence both the words we use and the meaning of those words. This is invariably in service of a statist agenda, just as economic interventions serve preferred interests at the expense of overall wealth and efficiency. The constant use and repetition of the word gender (a term relating to grammar) when we should use sex is one obvious example of imposed, corrupted language in service of a political agenda (trans). By contrast, the Middle English whilst sounds odd to our ear todayhaving naturally evolved into while without obvious or heavy-handed direction.

The great Spanish Austro-libertarian economist Jesus Huerta de Soto applies Carl Mengers theory on the evolution of money to language:

Thus there is an unconscious social process of learning by imitation which explains how the pioneering behavior of these most successful and creative individuals catches on and eventually extends to the rest of society. Also, due to this evolutionary process, those societies which first adopt successful principles and institutions tend to spread and prevail over other social groups. Although Menger developed his theory in relation to the origin and evolution of money, he also mentions that the same essential theoretical framework can be easily applied to the study of the origins and development of language, as well as to our present topic, juridical institutions. Hence the paradoxical fact that the moral, juridical, economic, and linguistic institutions which are most important and essential to mans life in society are not of his own creation, because he lacks the necessary intellectual might to assimilate the vast body of random information that these institutions generate. On the contrary, these institutions inevitably and spontaneously emanate from the social process of human interaction which Menger believes should be the main research in economics.[1]

Today, it appears linguistic interventionism is alive and well in the West. Language is a subset of culture, albeit a very important subset, and we can hardly expect progressives to leave it alone. Like culture, language is not property, and it cannot be owned. But it can be influenced and steered by linguistic vandals seeking to topple old understandings and leave us all overwhelmed and demoralized by the ever-shifting new terminology.

In the quaint, innocent days of 2015, we still called this progressive impulse political correctness. I attempted to define it then:

Political correctness is the conscious, designed manipulation of language intended to change the way people speak, write, think, feel, and act, in furtherance of an agenda.

PC is best understood as propaganda, which is how I suggest we approach it. But unlike propaganda, which historically has been used by governments to win favor for a particular campaign or effort, PC is all-encompassing. It seeks nothing less than to mold us into modern versions of Marxs un-alienated society man, freed of all his bourgeois pretensions and humdrum social conventions.

Like all propaganda, PC fundamentally is a lie. It is about refusing to deal with the underlying nature of reality, in fact attempting to alter that reality by legislative and social fiat. A is no longer A.

Today, of course, PC is obsoletereplaced entirely by the far broader concept of woke, which goes well beyond language. And to be sure, woke is so vague and so overused as to be a poignant example of George Orwells meaningless words, which I discuss at length in the article. Meaningless words, Orwell explained, are used in consciously dishonest ways in furtherance of an agenda. They become disembodied from any real meaning or definition, serving as empty slogans for things we like (democracy) or things we dont like (fascism).

Here is an example of a progressive using woke as code for the correct left progressive attitudes:

Woke is defined as being aware of injustice in society, especially, but not limited to, racism. Which doesnt seem anything that most people would be opposed to, especially superhero comics, which would seem to be all about fighting injustice but, I guess, welcome to the internet.

Well, no, that is distinctly not what woke means. It is self-serving claptrap: All good people (Us) are woke, which is really just left-wing code for caring and empathetic! Who could deny injustice and racism! Id hate to think what unwoke people (Them) really believe, ho ho ho! But these language imposers are not good people at all, or even well-intentioned people. Quite the opposite; they are lying, dissembling, projecting ideologues who want to commandeer the English language. Woke is the animating force behind todays relentless progressive attempts to impose and corrupt language to advance a host of wholly politicized movements.

From my paper:

Even five years ago, the top-down or centralized force operating to corrupt the language of politics and economics could have been broadly termed political correctness (PC). Today the term is obsolete, another example of the rapid (unnatural) evolution of usage in Western society. PC referred more narrowly to acceptable speech, whereas todays linguistic enforcers seek to impose a whole new mindset, attitude, and way of thinking. Thus, PC has been replaced by an even broader and more amorphous term, woke. Woke, whether a slur or not, may be used very broadly to represent strident left progressive beliefs regarding race, sex, sexuality, equality, climate change, and the like. Woke demands ever-changing language, and constantly creates new words while eliminating old ones. As a result, cancellation, de-platforming, and loss of employment or standing all loom large, giving pause to speakers and writers who must consider a new woke orthodoxy.

Ultimately, imposed language attempts to control our actions. When we broadly consider politically correct or woke worldviewsi.e., an activist mindset concerned with promoting amorphous social justicethe linguistic element is straightforward.

Im afraid the paper is embargoed until September, so I cant provide the actual text yet. Both Orwell and F.A. Hayek figure prominently in it, and it is full of examples of imposed, contorted language issued by politicians, CEOs, central bankers, media figures, advertisers, academics, and elites of every stripe. It argues that language is worth defending from the linguistic vandals at every turn. In fact, language is the one institution we can defend every day through our own thoughts, words, and writing. It is guerrilla warfare, fought every day in the trenches.

Note

1. Jesus Huerta de Soto, The Emergence of Traditional Legal Principles According to Menger, Hayek, and Leoni, in Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles, translated by Melinda A. Stroup (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2006), pp. 2122.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Jeff Deist Follow Jeff Deist is president of the Mises Institute. He previously worked as chief of staff to Congressman Ron Paul, and as an attorney for private equity clients.
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross testifies during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 5, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Top Trump Administration Official Lied Under Oath on Adding Citizenship Question to Census: Documents

A top official in the administration of former President Donald Trump was untruthful while testifying about adding a citizenship question to the census, according to documents released on July 20 by a top Democrat.

Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary during the Trump administration, told a congressional panel in 2018 that the move to place the question back on the census in 2020 was solely in response to a request from the Department of Justice, and that the department initiated the move.

Ross also said that his interest in the matter had nothing to do with counting the number of illegal immigrants for apportionment purposes.

But documents obtained and released (pdf) by the House Oversight Committee show that Ross and Department of Commerce workers spent months exploring the legality of returning the question to the census, that Ross repeatedly asked the department to provide the request, and that there were discussions about how the move would affect apportionment, or the way that U.S. House of Representatives seats are allocated by state based on population.

They also appeared to show that the stated rationale for the moveto improve enforcement of the Voting Rights Actoriginated with Rosss agency.

The document release shows clearly how the Trump administration secretly tried to manipulate the census for political gain while lying to the public and Congress about their goals, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the oversight panel, said in a statement.

The Department of Commerce Inspectors General previously found (pdf) that Ross mispresented the full rationale for reinstating the citizenship question while speaking before Congress, but prosecutors declined to prosecute him.

Ross couldnt be reached for comment.

Citizenship Question

The question of ones citizenship was included in every census from 1790 to 1950.

In December 2017, the Department of Justice in a letter to the Census Bureau asked the bureau to reinstate the question. Arthur Gary, a department official, said that data from the question is critical to the Departments enforcement of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act [VRA] and its important protections against racial discrimination in voting.

John Gore, another department official, later told the House committee that he drafted the letter.

Months earlier, a lawyer in the Department of Commerce, James Uthmeier, and Ross, among others, started examining whether returning the question to the census was legal and whether the answers could be used for apportionment purposes, according to the documents released on July 20.

The first draft of a memorandum from the agency, which was unsigned, said that the question could only legally be placed on the census if the collected information is not used for apportionment. The second draft, written by Uthmeier, altered that language.

No federal court has held that the census population count used for apportionment should not include citizens. However, there are bases for legal arguments that the Founding Fathers intended for the apportionment count to be based on legal inhabitants, Uthmeier wrote, adding the second sentence.

Earl Comstock, another lawyer, softened the point even more by removing for apportionment.

Uthmeier, now the chief of staff for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Comstock didnt respond to requests for comment.

Also prior to the Department of Justice (DOJ) letter, a handwritten note from Uthmeier told Gore that Ross thinks DOJ would have legitimate use of data for VRA purposes.

Ultimately, we do not make decisions on how the data should be used for apportionment, that is for Congress (or possibly the President) to decide, Uthmeier wrote to Comstock.

The Committees investigation has exposed how a group of political appointees sought to use the census to advance an ideological agenda and potentially exclude non-citizens from the apportionment count, the panel said in a statement.

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)

Administration Blocked

After Ross announced in March 2018 that the citizenship question would be part of the 2020 census, a bevy of lawsuits sought to block the administration from adding it.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, an Obama appointee, entered a preliminary injunction, ruling that Rosss decision wasnt legal because the secretary failed to consider several important aspects of the problem, falsely claimed that the question was needed to help enforce the VRA, and didnt comply with a law that requires notifying Congress of his plans.

The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which quickly heard the case in order to hand down a decision ahead of the printing of the census documents.

The nations top court in a 54 decision ruled that the question wasnt necessary to help enforce the VRA.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee, said in the majority opinion that the rationale seems to have been contrived.

In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas, a George H.W. Bush appointee, said that Ross complied with the law and gave a reasoned explanation for his decision.

Trump later issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to hand over information about noncitizens to the Department of Commerce.

Then-Attorney General Willam Barr and Ross, meanwhile, were held in contempt of Congress for not cooperating with requests for materials concerning the citizenship question.

The House committee agreed to drop a lawsuit against the government earlier this year after the government provided previously withheld or redacted documents, including drafts of the Uthmeier memo.

J.D. Grom, a government adviser, told Maloney that the production of the documents was informed by the Supreme Courts finding that Ross included the citizenship question on the census based upon a contrived rationale.

Matthew Vadum contributed to this report.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had some strong words for countries that threaten international economic order. Find out what Yellen has to say about China.

Panic breaks out in a Las Vegas hotel over the weekend, with people scrambling to quickly get out.

The good Samaritan in the Indiana shooting was identified, and more details are revealed about the gunmans actions.

Topics in this episode include:

1. Loud Noise Causes Crowds to Panic in Las Vegas

2. Greenwoods Good Samaritan Who Stopped Indiana Gunman Identified

3. Indiana Gunman Identified

4. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Slams China

5. Maryland Gubernatorial Primary

6. Democrats Revamp Call to Add Four Justices to Supreme Court

7. Feds Arrest Two Long Islanders for Fraud Scheme

8. Gas to Drop Below $4 a Gallon: WH Economic Adviser

9. Truckers at Oakland Port Protest Gig Worker Law

10. Treasury Approves $940-Million for Plans From Nine States

11. Sweden and Finlands NATO Membership

12. Greek Fur Industry Struggles Amid Russian Sanctions

13. Luton Airport Shuts Runway as Tarmac Melts in Heat

14. A Cicada Poem Turns Political; Chinese Internet Censorship

15. 20 Foot Waves Crash Hawaii Wedding

16. Dolphins Make a Splash Off Chiles Coast

17. Plane With Parachute Crash Lands on Sidewalk

18. Los Angeles 2028 Olympics Sets Official Date

* Click the Save button below the video to access it later on My List.

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Handout screen grab taken from a video issued by Just Stop Oil of a group of their activists who have climbed motorway signs on the M25 in response to the extreme temperatures in the UK and what they describe as the government's "inadequate preparations" for climate change, on July 20, 2022. (Just Stop Oil/Screenshot by PA Media)

UK Climate Activists Blockade M25 Forcing Closure

The activist group Just Stop Oil blocked one of the busiest and most congested parts of the British motorway network by climbing on motorway signs, criticising what they call the governments inadequate preparations for climate change.

The group declared the motorway a site of civil resistance and urged no one to travel on the motorway until the weekend.

Disruption

On Wednesday, five activists scaled gantries that support overhead motorway signs in three places on the M25, causing police to close sections of the road.

In a statement released shortly before the demonstrations, Just Stop Oil said it was declaring the M25 a site of civil resistance this week.

The group also asked that no one travels on this motorway from Wednesday to Friday this week as we will be blocking the highway.

The statement added: We fully acknowledge the cost and disruption this will cause to the public and ask that they take their demands for compensation to the government which has caused this unprecedented threat to our lives and liberties.

Protesters climbed signs at junction 10 eastbound near Cobham, Surrey, the Poyle interchange at Heathrow between junctions 14 and 15, and in Dartford between the Queen Elizabeth Bridge northbound and junction 30.

The road was shut for hours in both directions causing long tailbacks. The protest was stopped after specialist police officers trained to work at height went into the gantry to bring them down.

The Daily Mail reported that they caused up to seven hours of traffic chaos.

Two men and a woman were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and taken into custody, said authorities on Twitter.

Bus driver Ashley Reid, who takes special needs children aged seven to 10 to a school in Leatherhead, was travelling between junction 12 and 10 and said his pupils, who start at 9:15 a.m., were around 90 minutes late for their last day of term as a result of the disruption.

We joined (the motorway) just after 9 a.m. and we didnt arrive at school until 10:45 a.m. with their autism (they) found it difficult to understand and stay calm, the 40-year-old, from Reigate, told the PA news agency.

It was really disruptive and I felt so sorry for them. Today was their last day before the summer break and they would all be changing classes so they just wanted to get to school and spend time with their teachers and friends, said Reid.

Just Stop Oil is linked to the larger Extinction Rebellion group. In May, UK police arrested and charged 31 climate activists from the group after they blockaded an oil terminal in Scotland for around 60 hours.

Activists have also glued themselves to paintings at art institutions around Britain in protest of government support for the fossil fuel industry, including a 500-year-old depiction Leonardo da Vincis The Last Supper in Londons Royal Academy. They also glued themselves to John Constables The Hay Wain at Londons National Gallery.

The British governments strategy called Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener has set out policies and proposals for decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy to meet the UKs net zero target by 2050.

Alexander Zhang and PA Media contributed to this report.
An undated file photo of signage for the Ministry of Defence in Westminster, London. (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

UK Ministry of Defence Cracks Down on Personnel Paying for Prostitution While Overseas

The UKs Ministry of Defence (MoD) will throw out of the military personnel found paying for prostitutes, the ministry said, as it launched new policies to tackle poor behaviour in the armed forces.

In a statement on Tuesday, the MoD wrote that it is cracking down on unacceptable sexual behaviour in our armed forces.

Minister for Defence People Leo Docherty said that abusive, discriminatory, or predatory behaviour has no place in our armed forces and these measures send a clear message that these types of behaviours will not be tolerated.

As a forward-thinking and modern employer, the armed forces are a place where our serving personnel can thrive, and we will continue to expect the highest values and standards of each and every one of them, he added.

The new policy will replace rules that currently operate within the military.

Buying Sex Whilst Abroad

This prohibits all sexual activity which involves the abuse of power, including buying sex whilst abroad. Where proven, personnel convicted of a sexual offence will be discharged from the armed forces.

It added that sexual offences can be prosecuted in the country where they take place, and offenders are liable to the same punishments as if they were prosecuted in the civilian courts in the UK.

A new defence strategy called Zero Tolerance to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse was drawn up earlier this year (pdf). The policy aligns the Royal Navy, RAF, and army under one approach to dealing with such incidences, which will be implemented across the UK armed forces to enable services to better support victims and secure justice for them.

The MoD said it will ensure that every allegation will be responded to, no matter where the allegation takes place, and introduce a presumption of discharge for anyone found to be engaging in the targeted behaviours, including buying sex whilst deployed outside the UK.

Another policy called Tackling Sexual Offending in Defence Strategy will prioritise victims and aims to reduce the prevalence and impact of sexual offending in the armed forces.

Kenya

Last year, the Mail on Sunday reported that around 650 British soldiers were confined to their barracks in Kenya after dozens of troops whod visited prostitutes sought medical advice.

The soldiers, of the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment battle group, were in east Africa taking part in Exercise Askari Storm. Lt. Col. Mark Swann ordered every soldier to remain on the base, after at least 30 soldiers later reported to the medical centre saying they feared they may have contracted HIV or a sexually transmitted disease after having unprotected sex.

At the time, an army spokesman told the publication, We expect very high standards of behaviour of our personnel, whether they are on or off duty.
Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the persecution of the spiritual discipline in China, in New York's Chinatown on July 10, 2022. (Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times)

US Lawmakers Denounce CCPs Unrelenting 23-Year Persecution of Falun Gong

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has denounced the Chinese communist regimes campaign to eradicate the spiritual practice Falun Gong, a persecution thats now in its 23rd year.

For far too long, the Chinese Communist Party has abused their power and committed egregious human rights violations against those who practice Falun Gong, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in a statement. Over the past two decades, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been imprisoned, and tortured, and murdered by the CCP.

But perhaps more unsettling than this unrelenting persecution is that China has been able to commit its atrocities with impunity. I unequivocally denounce Chinas inhumane treatment of Falun Gongs adherents and demand that the CCP protect their lives and their freedom.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaks during a hearing to examine U.S.Russia policy at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 7, 2021. (Alex Brandon/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline with slow meditative exercises and moral teachings centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Following its introduction in 1992, the practice spread quickly in China, with about 70 million to 100 million people practicing by the end of the decade, according to official estimates.

Seeing the practices popularity as a threat, the CCP launched an expansive campaign of persecution on July 20, 1999. Since then, millions of practitioners have been detained in prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.

I take this moment, not only to speak out against the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, but to remember those who have died for their beliefs, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said in a statement. I support the many individuals calling for freedom in China, including Falun Gong practitioners. I hear you, and I stand with you today and every day.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) speaks on Capitol Hill on May 21, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Organ Harvesting

Both Cruz and Norton pointed to Chinas continued state-sanctioned practice of harvesting organs from Falun Gong practitioners, with the Texas congressman saying the communist regime has horrifically carried out the practice without remorse.

In 2019, the China Tribunal, an independent peoples panel, found beyond a reasonable doubt that the CCP had killed imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners for the purpose of selling their organs. To this day, the regime is still murdering practitioners for their organs.

The supply of organs has turned China into a top destination for transplant tourism, because Chinese hospitals often offer short waiting times for matching organs for patientsmuch faster than in developed countries with established organ donation systems.

In June, Han Yu, a Falun Gong practitioner living in the United States, spoke at the International Religious Freedom Summit about how she suspected that her father was killed for his organs when he died in 2004 while being held in a detention center in Beijing. According to Yu, his body was found to have stitches from his throat area to his abdomen, and his abdomen was filled with hard ice.

Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the persecution of the spiritual discipline in China in New Yorks Chinatown on July 10, 2022. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Forced organ harvesting is one of the most terrible crimes that I think Ive ever encountered, Lord Philip Hunt, a member of the UK Parliament and a former British health minister, told NTD.

At a rally in Taiwan on July 16 commemorating the 23rd anniversary of the persecution, Chen Jiau-hua, a local legislator and the head of Taiwans New Power Party, called on China to immediately stop the inhumane atrocities of forced organ harvesting.

Yoshifumi Shinzawa, head of the municipal assembly in Takatori, a town in Japans Nara Prefecture, questioned in a statement how people can do nothing when they hear that Falun Gong practitioners organs, such as their kidneys and livers, are being sold to CCP officials and foreigners.

I hope the world, with the support of the United Nations, will pay more attention to this issue, Shinzawa said.

US and UN

Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) said Chinas records of human rights violations, including the 23-year campaign to violently purge all aspects of Falun Gong and its practitioners in China, is one of the reasons why he filed House Resolution 219 in March 2021.

Too often, the United States foreign policy has turned a blind eye to Chinas bad behavior, he said. For that reason, I file the resolution urging the United Nations to take necessary and appropriate procedural actions to remove the Peoples Republic of China from the U.N. Security Council.

This significant action is long overdue, given the PRCs horrible record on human rights and continued bad acts on the world stage.

Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) asks questions to Dr. Richard Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, during a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing to discuss protecting scientific integrity in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in Washington on May 14, 2020. (Greg Nash/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Bilirakis also is one of the cosponsors of the Falun Gong Protection Act (H.R. 6319), House legislation that was introduced by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) in December.

If enacted, the legislation would require the president to identify foreign individuals who are knowingly responsible for or complicit in, or have directly or indirectly engaged in forced organ harvesting in China and impose sanctions on them, according to the text of the proposal.

We must continue to hold China accountable for its bad behavior and take a firm stance that further misconduct will no longer be tolerated, Bilirakis said. America must remain a beacon of principle, courage, recognizing and promoting the basic human rights of all people.

If we remain silent in the face of these transgressions, we neglect that moral imperative and do so at the peril of civil society.
The U.S. Department of Justice headquarters in Washington on Aug. 29, 2020. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

US Recovers $500,000 From North Korea-Backed Hackers Targeting Hospitals

The U.S. Department of Justice said on July 19 that it seized about $500,000 in cryptocurrency that two American medical centers had paid to North Korean state-backed hackers after a ransomware attack.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the seized funds include ransoms paid by health care providers in Kansas and Colorado in 2021 and 2022, according to a statement issued by the Justice Department.

According to court documents unsealed on July 19, the Kansas hospital paid the hackers about $100,000 in bitcoin after being unable to access encrypted servers for more than a week.

The hospital notified the FBI, which traced the payment and identified China-based money launderers who assisted North Korean state-sponsored hackers in converting the money.

The FBI also found that a medical provider in Colorado paid a ransom to the hackers, who used the Maui ransomware to encrypt the medical centers servers. Authorities seized the contents of two cryptocurrency accounts following the investigation.

Not only did this allow us to recover their ransom payment as well as a ransom paid by previously unknown victims, but we were also able to identify a previously unidentified ransomware strain, Monaco said.

Maui Ransomware

The investigation led the FBI, Treasury Department, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to issue a joint advisory on July 6 about Maui ransomware.

The agencies warned that hackers deployed Maui ransomware to encrypt servers responsible for health care servicesincluding health records, medical imaging, and intranet systemsand demand ransom from the victims.

According to the advisory, Maui ransomware is operated manually by a remote actor using a command-line interface to interact with the malware and to identify files to encrypt.

U.S. authorities warned that paying a ransom does not ensure the recovery of files. Rather, it emboldens adversaries to target more organizations, encourages other criminal actors to distribute ransomware, and funds illicit activities.

These sophisticated criminals are constantly pushing boundaries to search for ways to extort money from victims by forcing them to pay ransoms in order to regain control of their computer and record systems, U.S. Attorney Duston J. Slinkard said in the Justice Departments news release.

North Korea State-Backed Hackers

The U.S. government has blamed North Korea for a number of high-profile cyberattacks in recent years, including the multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency heist of Axie Infinity, a game in which players can earn cryptocurrency tokens.

The U.S. Intelligence Community said in its latest report (pdf) that cyber actors linked to North Korea have conducted espionage efforts against a range of organizations, including media, academia, defense companies, and governments, in multiple countries.

We assess that North Korea continues to engage in illicit activities, including cyber theft and the export of UN-proscribed commodities to fund regime priorities, including [its weapons of mass destruction program], the report stated.

The intelligence community warned that Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, could have the expertise to cause temporary, limited disruptions of some critical infrastructure networks and disrupt business networks in the United States.

Pyongyang is well positioned to conduct surprise cyber attacks given its stealth and history of bold action, the report reads.
Vaccines Dont Cause Autism. Trust Us

The public health establishment fears what it might find if it studied whether vaccines cause autism

Commentary

Autism, once so rare that it afflicted just one person in 10,000, now afflicts one child in 30, according to a new study in JAMA Pediatrics. In boys, who are especially susceptible to autism, the rate is one in 22, or almost 5 percent.

No one can be sure of the causes, were often told, although the health care establishment speculates they could include everything from complications at birth to being born to older parents to climate change to genetics. The only cause that can absolutely, positively be ruled out as responsible for the meteoric rise in autism, state CDC and other health authorities, is vaccines, adding that only quacks and ignoramuses believe that there could be any relationship between the increasing number of jabs that children have been receiving over the decades and the increasing number of children afflicted with autism.

To make sure that the public didnt get the wrong idea, and put stock in the mounting anecdotal evidence of children developing autism after receiving a vaccine, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) decided in 2004 to refuse to conduct research into a direct connection between vaccines and autism.

In part, the IOM viewed the topic as too hot to handle: Autism is among the most contentious of issues reviewed by vaccine safety committees of the IOM, it explained. One needs to read just one of the many websites and internet-based discussion groups on the issue of autism to get a picture of the complicated lives of families with children with autism and the anger of some families toward the federal government (particularly the CDC and FDA), vaccine manufacturers, the field of epidemiology, and traditional biomedical research.

In addition, the IOM thought the research would be too complex, and fail to arrive at a meaningful conclusion since autism is likely to be caused by a constellation of symptoms that have multiple etiologies  . Thus, if there is a subset of individuals with autism syndrome triggered by exposure to vaccines, our ability to find it is very limited in the absence of a biological marker.

Most of all, the IOM reasoned that the very act of researching what it called the presently speculative theory that some people are genetically susceptible to being harmed by vaccinations would backfire, since it might lead the public to think a vaccine-autism connection was plausible, undermining vaccine acceptance.

Using an unsubstantiated hypothesis to question the safety of vaccination and the ethical behavior of those governmental agencies and scientists who advocate for vaccination could lead to widespread rejection of vaccines and inevitable increases in incidences of serious infectious diseases like measles, whooping cough, and Hib bacterial meningitis.

The IOMs conclusionthat it does not consider a significant investment in studies of the theoretical vaccine-autism connection to be useful at this timedidnt sit well with many, including Dr. Bernadine Healy, a member of the IOM as well as a former president of the National Institutes for Health, the worlds largest funder of vaccine research.

In a 2008 interview with CBS News, Healy explained that the government basically said do not pursue susceptibility groups, dont look for those patients, those children who may be vulnerable. I really take issue with that conclusion. The reason why they didnt want to look for those susceptibility groups was because they were afraid that if they found them, however big or small they were, that that would scare the public away.

Healy, a believer in vaccines and as solid a member of the establishment as they comeher past credentials included professor and assistant dean of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, dean of the College of Medicine at Ohio State University, president of the American Red Cross, and chair of a White House Cabinet Working Group on Biotechnologynevertheless felt her colleagues were too quick to dismiss the [vaccine] hypothesis as irrational without sufficient studies of causation. I think that theyve often been too quick to dismiss studies in the animal laboratory either in mice, either in primates  . The more you delve into it, if you look at the basic science, if you look at the research thats been done in animals, if you also look at some of these individual cases, and if you look at the evidence that there is no link, what you come away with is that the question has not been answered.

Other prominent scientists a decade and more ago also argued for studies to determine vaccines possible role in causing autism. Dr. Peter Fletcher, a former chief scientific officer at the UKs Department of Health and former medical assessor to the Committee on Safety of Medicinesin this role he determined whether new vaccines were safein 2016 told the Daily Mail that clinical and scientific data is steadily accumulating that the live measles virus in MMR can cause brain, gut and immune system damage in a subset of vulnerable children.

Fletcher described the governments official complacency [as] utterly inexplicable, saying there has been a tenfold increase in autism and related forms of brain damage over the past 15 years, roughly coinciding with MMRs introduction, and an extremely worrying increase in childhood inflammatory bowel diseases and immune disorders such as diabetes, and no one in authority will even admit its happening, let alone try to investigate the causes.

Since 2004, following the lead of the IOM (since renamed the National Academy of Medicine), the public health establishment stepped up its efforts to root out any dissenters, denying funding to targeted research that might determine which subsets of the population were susceptible to autism and canceling those who persisted in challenging the orthodoxy. The mainstream press has followed in lockstepin recent years no coverage of the few independent studies showing a vaccine-autism connection passed by its censors.

The IOMs see-no-evil, speak-no-evil strategy has proven effective. Public health officials who have their doubts about the role of vaccines in autism remain tight-lipped. The mainstream press remains vigilant in barring the public from skeptical views. Nary a soul in authority dares to say boo as the number of children with autism continues its inexorable rise.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Patricia Adams Follow Patricia Adams is an economist and the President of the Energy Probe Research Foundation and Probe International, an independent think tank in Canada and around the world. She is the publisher of internet news services Three Gorges Probe and Odious Debts Online and the author or editor of numerous books. Her books and articles have been translated into Chinese, Spanish, Bengali, Japanese, and Bahasa Indonesia. She can be reached at patriciaadams@probeinternational.org.
Falun Gong adherents hold a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate to mark the 23 years of persecution by the Chinese Communist Party in Los Angeles on July 18, 2022. (Debora Cheng/The Epoch Times)

Vigil at Chinese Consulate Mourns Deaths in Falun Gong Persecution

LOS ANGELESNearly 200 Falun Gong adherents held a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate July 18 to mourn their loved ones who were persecuted to death in China.

As the night fell, they sat in rows silently, holding candles and photos of those who have died as a result of religious persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Today we [are here] to protest and condemn the Chinese Communist regimes persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China for the past 23 years, said Yingnian Wu, a UCLA professor and the spokesman for practitioners in Los Angeles.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a traditional Chinese spiritual practice consisting of five meditative exercises and teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Its popularity during the 1990swith almost 100 million practicing in China, according to official estimates at the timedrew the CCPs attention.

The party then launched a systematic elimination campaign against the practice on July 20, 1999. Since then, millions have been detained inside prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, with hundreds of thousands tortured while incarcerated, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.

At the vigil, Wu commended practitioners more than two decades of peaceful resistance and tireless efforts in raising awareness.

Yingnian Wu, professor at UCLA, attends a vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles on July 18, 2022. (Debora Cheng/The Epoch Times)

This persecution is very evil and very brutal, Wu said. I hope that you can join us to stop the persecution by telling other people.

He also encouraged community members to contact their congress representatives and other government officials for more action.

Helen Lee, who has been practicing Falun Gong for more than 20 years, said many practitioners have experienced significant improvements in their mental and physical health.

Helen Lee, spokesperson for The Global Service Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party in Los Angeles, attends a vigil in front of the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles on July 18, 2022. (Debora Cheng/The Epoch Times)

By becoming more truthful, compassionate, and tolerant, [they] elevated their morality, took fame and wealth lightly, and improved their health, she said.

Although the persecution has caused the separation of countless families and at least thousands of reported deaths, she said, they never flinched or thought of giving up their faith.

Xinhua Dong, a 65-year-old practitioner, said her mother and older brother both lost their lives because of the persecution. Her younger brother Yiran Dong, she said, was nearly killed in 2004 because he refused to give up the practice.

Xinhua Dong, a Falun Gong practitioner, attends a vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles on July 18, 2022. (Debora Cheng/The Epoch Times)

The police tortured him all night. They poured cold water on him with the window open at -18 degrees Fahrenheit,  [beat him] with a belt until it broke into two, and [shocked him] with multiple electric batons at the same time. He was not allowed to sleep and was slapped when he dozed off, she said.

According to Dong, her brother has been detained multiple times and monitored by local police in the past 23 years in China, and he has not been released yet. Dong said she was very concerned about her brothers health and called for his immediate release.

Falun Gong adherents call for immediate release of their friends and family members in China in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles on July 18, 2022. (Debora Cheng/The Epoch Times)

Falun Gong practitioners in China have been subjected to detention and tortureincluding sleep deprivation, tube feeding, brainwashing, and harsh slave-labor conditions, according to Minghui, a U.S.-based website that chronicles the CCPs campaign against the practice.

Many have also met death through forced organ harvesting, which has become a billion-dollar transplant industry operated by the Chinese regime since 2000, according to the 2019 conclusion of the London-based, nongovernmental China Tribunal.
The logo of German car maker Volkswagen at the company's "Die Glaserne Manufaktur" (The transparent factory) in Dresden, eastern Germany, on Sept. 11, 2020. (Jens Schlueter/AFP via Getty Images)

Volkswagens Battery Business Faces Supply-Chain Jolt With IPO Plans on Horizon: Report

German automaker Volkswagen AGs PowerCo global battery manufacturing business, which it plans to plan to spin-off in an initial public offering in 2023, is facing the impact of supply chain challenges, Bloomberg reported.

PowerCo is scouting sources for securing raw materials for the plant amid rising input prices and logistical challenges, the report said, citing Kai Alexander Mueller, CFO of the unit.

The report noted that the company plans to tie up with Belgium-based miner Umicore SA for sourcing cathode materials, Robert Bosch for machinery, and Vulcan Energy Resources Limited for battery-grade lithium hydroxide.

PowerCo began work on its first European plant last week and also disclosed plans to invest over 20 billion euros ($20.06 billion) in five proposed battery manufacturing plants.

The German automaker suggested in June that it is open to an IPO of the unit, with contributions from both internal and external strategic partners. A potential listing could occur in 2023 or 2024, Volkswagens CFO Arno Antlitzhad said, according to Bloomberg.

Benzingas Take

Volkswagens quest to vertically integrate into batteries reflects its efforts to reduce reliance on Asian suppliers, which nearly monopolize the industry.

The time might not be apt, given the surrounding macroeconomic uncertainty and supply chain issues. The move, however, is likely to be a long-term positive and a strategic one, given the importance of batteries in electric vehicle manufacturing.

By Shanthi Rexaline

 2022 The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Herb Wesson attends the official unveiling of City Of Los Angeles' Obama Boulevard in honor of the 44th President of the United States of America in Los Angeles, Calif. on May 04, 2019 (Leon Bennett/Getty Images)

Wesson Again Blocked from Acting as LA City Council Replacement

LOS ANGELESA Superior Court judge July 19 again blocked Herb Wesson from acting as a temporary replacement for suspended Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, adding more confusion to the representation of the 10th District.

The ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mary Strobel prevents Wesson from performing any council functions. The decision effectively blocks him from representing the district, although it did not formally remove him from the post.

The ruling marked the second time Strobel has issued a restraining order against Wessons service on the council. On Feb. 24, Strobel sided with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern Californias challenge to Wessons appointment, issuing a temporary restraining order that blocked him from serving.

But she later vacated the order and declined to issue a preliminary injunction, saying that procedurally, the SCLC needed to obtain permission from the state Attorney Generals Office to proceed with its legal challenge.

As a result, Wesson began serving on the council in mid-March. Last month, however, the Attorney Generals (AG) Office cleared the way for the SCLC to proceed with its challenge, opining that there were legitimate questions about whether Wessons appointment was legal.

The SCLC contends that Wesson is termed out since he already represented the 10th District from 2005 through 2020, serving as council president from 2012 to 2020. The group also argued that there was no public input in the process of choosing Wesson to temporarily fill the council seat.

With the AGs opinion in hand, SCLC attorneys filed papers Monday and went to court Tuesday seeking a new restraining order, which Strobel granted, blocking Wesson from performing any council duties.

She set a hearing on a possible preliminary injunction for Aug. 16, so Wesson will be unable to perform any council functions until at least that date.

Today is a great day for rule of law, transparency, and democracy, Pastor Willian D. Smart of SCLC said in a statement. Decisions made behind closed doors and actions that run counter to the voting public must be met with strong action. Todays decision lays the foundation for a trial where the merits of our case will be heard and hopefully the will of the voters will be upheld.

Attorneys for the city argued against the restraining order, saying in part that there was no urgency for such a rulingas noted by the SCLCs decision to wait roughly a month after the attorney generals ruling to even seek an injunction. City attorneys also claimed that the restraining order would do nothing to address the SCLCs primary allegation that the city council had no authority to suspend Ridley-Thomas.

Ridley-Thomas was suspended from the council last October, following his federal indictment on corruption charges.

Ridley-Thomas and Marilyn Flynn, former dean of the University of Southern Californias School of Social Work, are charged in a 20-count indictment alleging a secret deal in which Ridley-Thomaswhen he was a member of the LA County Board of Supervisorsagreed to steer county money to the university in return for admitting his son Sebastian Ridley-Thomas into graduate school with a full-tuition scholarship and a paid professorship.

Flynn allegedly arranged to funnel a $100,000 donation from Ridley-Thomass campaign funds through the university to a nonprofit to be operated by his son, a former member of the state Assembly. The donation prompted an investigation by the U.S. Attorneys Office in Los Angeles that remains open, prosecutors said.

In exchange, the indictment contends, Ridley-Thomas supported county contracts involving the School of Social Work, including lucrative deals to provide services to the county Department of Children and Family Services and Probation Department, as well as an amendment to a contract with the Department of Mental Health that would bring the school millions of dollars in new revenue.

Both defendants have strongly denied any wrongdoing and promised that evidence will clear their names.

The motion to appoint Wesson as a temporary replacement was unanimously approved by the council on Feb. 22. According to the appointment, Wesson is supposed to hold the position through Dec. 31 unless Ridley-Thomas is acquitted or the charges against him are dropped.

The city council is in the midst of its summer recess.
A look back at the original Hippocratic Oath provides a startling glimpse at just how much valuesand the physicians covenanthave changed over the past century

If you sought out a physician in 4th century B.C. Greece seeking an abortion, chances are, you would be out of luck.

Ditto for 2nd century Rome. Or 10th century France. Or just about anywhere thereafter, prior to the advent of the 20th century.

It just wasnt done. Or at least, it wasnt in good conscience and certainly not openly. (The same goes for seeking euthanasia, as it turns out.)

For the classically trained physicianbe it in polytheistic, pagan times of yore or the Christian centuries that followed the fall of Rometo provide an abortion was tantamount to a betrayal of the divine.

For such was the nature of the physicians oath, dating back to its earliest inception in roughly 400 B.C.what has become known as the Hippocratic Oath.

The influential treatise begins, I swear by Apollo the Healer, by Asclepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture.

And just what exactly were those dutiesor, we might ask, what were their limits?

While the oath begins with an injunction against sharing medical knowledge too widely or freelyas would be common for many centuries to follow, given the guild-like nature of professional trainingand the well-known injunction to never do harm, what follows, precisely midway through, is known to few these days.

I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion, the oath reveals in no uncertain terms.

Its proximity to whats become known as the do no harm command, gives one hint as to why this may be. But just as important is what followed the command.

I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art.

Remember the opening lines: These were vows taken before supreme deities, with the utmost solemnity and stakes wrapped up in them. To break any of the vows would be to defile oneself, as it were, before the gods. And not the least of such acts would be taking the life of the unborn, it seems. It wouldnt only be using ones powers for harm, but also debase ones own person as well as the medical art more broadly.

Such were the stakes of abortion for the classical physician of antiquity. (The original oath can be read in its entirety online at aapsonline.org/ethics/oaths.htm, alongside several later versions, which well turn to in a moment.)

It wasnt something up for debate. There was no room for interpretation. No wiggle room, no finessing things. One was beholden to higher powers and entrusted with a sacred duty, it would seem, with the doctors initiation into the medical profession.

The fact that we refer to the pledge crafted by Hippocrates and his understudies as the original one hints, as you might have guessed, that things have since veered course.

But it wasnt overnight or even over centuries. It would take nearly two millennia for the original oathwhich was part of the hallowed collection of ancient medical texts known, in time, as the Hippocratic Corpusto break from the original in spirit, if not verbiage.

According to Nathan Gamble et al., writing in the journal Medical Science Educator, the prohibition against abortion seen in the original oath stayed firmly in place through political and religious upheavals near and far.

In the 10th century, the oath was Christianized, and in at least one version (the Latin), the Trinity was introduced into it. The declaration against abortion was made even more explicit, according to medical scholarship.

While we dont know much about how the early oaths were used (were they part of a secretive initiation ceremony or more like the public, communal ones taken by a graduating class of med students today?), we do know that by the Renaissance, at least, the formal vowing of the oath had become part of medical school.

In the United States, the oath had a short stint of popularity in the mid-18th century before falling out of fashion because of a post-Enlightenment sensibility that apparently considered it antiquated.

Whatever the case, those misgivings wouldnt last long, as in the 19th century, the oath gained renewed popularity in the United States and would continue to be increasingly embraced into the 20th century that followed. By 1993, about 98 percent of all medical schools were administering some version of the oath.

But theres a catch: Hippocrates would barely recognize it. The late 20th-century oath became an altogether different creature.

Along the way, the oath was transformed to reflect changing social values and emerging ideologies.

Perhaps the biggest break with the original oath came in 1964, with a new, more humanistic version of the oath authored by Dr. Louis Lasagnaa former dean at Tufts University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Gone were several key components of the original oath, including any invocation of a deityof any sort, even monotheistic. And noticeably, the prohibition against abortion was missing as well. In their place were exhortations to exercise warmth, sympathy, and understanding and to be willing to say I know not when stumped.

All personality traits we would hope for in a physician today, for sure.

But the very fabric of the oath had been radicallyand, as it turns out, irrevocablyaltered. It was now a secular thing, beholden only to the physicians own conscience and powers of moral self-restraint. No god was to be overlooking the doctors clinical doings thereafter, from aboveweighing in his or her mind the physicians worthiness of the divine covenant joining them. You were, as a doctor, now on your own as it weresubject, yes, to human laws and lawsuits and other such mundane things, but not to any greater powers or entrustments.

Tellingly, within three decades of Lasagnas 1964 rewrite, only one medical school in the United States was still using the original Hippocratic oath. Almost all had jumped ship.

With the advent of the 20th century, permutations of the oath have only continued, departing still further from that of ancient Athens.

At Harvard Medical School, each graduating class of doctors-to-be now authors its own oathinvoking terms the oaths original progenitor would little recognize, such as calling upon graduates to bear witness to historical injustices.

Where this shall all go, we can only guess. Perhaps with the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, there will be some form of reckoning or revisiting of this rather misshapen heritage. Perhaps there will emerge a greater space for those physicians who, compelled by conscience, dont subscribe to the ending of life in the womb to vocalize their values.

If so, one things for sure: Hippocrates would be pleased.
Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers line up during military training at the Pamir Mountains in Kashgar, China, on Jan. 4, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Where in the World Is Chinas Military? Part 2

Indicators of China's paramilitary locations

News Analysis

Part one of this two-part series discussed the known and possible locations where the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) is building bases. This article will examine indicators of future PLA basing locations and look at CCP/PLA quasi-military groups that operate outside the mainland.

Agreements

A fully operational base is the clearest example of CCP/PLA expansionism. Other types of agreements can also enable the PLA basing that is not full-time, such as a logistics support agreement, status of forces or visiting forces agreement, port visits, military exercise use or contingency basing, host nation support agreement, assistance-in-kind agreement, emergency use agreement, acquisition cross-servicing agreement, memorandum of understanding, memorandum of agreement, and prepositioned supplies.

Based on the PLAs current or anticipated needs, the PLA will strive to align each agreement with its requirements and adjust it to the CCPs needs.

Chokepoint Strategy

One premise of the PLA basing strategy is to ensure unfettered access to key chokepoints or strategic strongpoints.

Chinas first official military base in Djibouti demonstrated this requirement by providing access to all shipping that was: 1) departing the oil and the gas-rich Middle East, 2) coming from and to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal, 3) coming from East Africa, and 4) passing the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

Other chokepoints, such as the Coco islands off the coast of Burma (Myanmar), provide the PLA with the best placement and access to the eastern Indian Ocean. Together with its access to the Sri Lanka port, Djibouti, Burma, and their potential bases in southern Africa, the PLA will be able to control shipping into and out of the Indian Ocean, potentially controlling Indias and the rest of Asias trade to and from Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

Military Exercises

Military exercises between the PLA and other countries militaries comprise another possible indicator of future military relationships that could lead to basing rights in a country.

A 2021 report (pdf) from the office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense stated, For example, in 2020, the PLA participated in Russias national-level exercise KAVKAZ-20 along with forces from Armenia, Belarus, Pakistan, and Burma.

Senior PLA Visits

Visits by the most senior PLA representatives may indicate future basing or the intention to build trust and leverage the CCPs relationship with any given country, thereby exploiting personal relationships that PLA leaders develop with foreign military officers.

For example, although the PLA canceled most official visits during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the PRC Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe attended the Russian Victory Day celebration in Moscow, and led delegations to Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Pakistan, according to the U.S. defense report.

Note that the first four countries are claimants to the South China Sea, while Vietnam, also a claimant country, is not on the list.

PLA soldiers march on Red Square during a military parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II in Moscow on June 24, 2020. (Pavel Golovikin/AFP via Getty Images)

Weapon Sales

Weapon sales is another method that allows PLA personnel to be deployed to a country. Although these deployments ostensibly are for training and monitoring the weapons transfer process, insight into the host nations military and political elite can be gleaned and often provide invaluable information and context on internal developments and future opportunities for an increased PLA presence.

Transit Facilities

Besides the focus on port facilities, the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) must have established agreements with countries that its military aircraft enter for refueling and other support.

For example, on April 9 and 10 this year, six long-range Y-20A heavy airlift jets made two round trip trips from the PLAAFs 13th Transport Division, 37th Air Regiment based out of Kaifeng, Henan Province, to Serbias Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade with stopovers in either Baku, Azerbaijan, or Istanbul, Turkey, to deliver a battery of FK-3 medium-range, anti-aircraft missiles. In this case, Azerbaijan and Turkey are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization dialogue (see more details on SCO in the previous article here).

Chinese Private Security and Military Companies

Chinese private security companies (PSC) and private military companies (PMC) are a lesser tracked group of Chinese citizens connected to the CCP and the PLA.

As most China experts know, all companies in China have CCP representatives as part of their governing board of directors, and any information they have of interest must be shared with the CCP. Given these conditions, the PSCs act as forward deployed PLA without uniforms, effectively making PSCs not private security companies but PLA front organizations.

Chinese PSCs are hired in three ways: 1) receive funding or contracts from the CCP, 2) work under direct CCP control, and 3) provide security contracting personnel who work directly for Chinese state-owned enterprises.

Supply and Demand

According to a recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the CCP uses PMCs to train military forces or to augment combat operations, while PSCs are used primarily for noncombat missions such as personnel protection and site security.

Inside China, there are approximately 4,000 registered security firms with an estimated 4.3 million employees.

According to a Chinese news report, as many as 20 to 40 Chinese PSCs are operating abroad in some 40 countries  employing an estimated 3,200 staff of security professionals as of 2016, protecting 16,000 Chinese companies operating abroad.

A RAND report observes that the CCP prefers to use PSCs since PMCs tend to cover areas such as military training that the PLA prefers to conduct with the host nation; coupled with Russian PMCs (such as the Wagner Group) and CCP laws about armed Chinese citizens, the CCP has avoided PMCs.

Another important dimension to hiring PLA and other security personnel is the fact that there are more than 57 million veterans in China. Many are unemployed, which is one reason they demand more benefits from the CCP.

According to a 2020 Carnegie report, In recent years, veterans have mounted over fifty major protests demanding better benefits. Such demonstrations have undermined the CCPs standing and threatened the PLAs latest phase of demobilization and modernization. Security firms help relieve some of that pressure.

According to a Chinese news source, the most likely place for a dramatic increase in CCP PSC business and employment is in Afghanistan to support the extraction of an estimated $3 trillion in mineral resources by Chinese companies.

An additional CCP security challenge for PSCs is providing protection for more than 30,000 PRC [Peoples Republic of China] firms and 5.5 million PRC citizens working abroad, with another 60 million traveling each year, according to a report by the National Defense University Press.

Belt and Road Initiative

Although part one of this series discussed PLA bases, the analysis did not discuss countries with which the CCP has strong ties but has not yet initiated actions to build or secure bases.

Experts assume the CCP has been installing a base as a long-term strategic goal in countries 1) where the CCP is pursuing its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) activities (as of March 2022, the CCP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with 147 countries), 2) that have a high percentage of their export trade with China, and 3) where there are indications of high levels of elite capture.

A 2019 U.S. Congressional report observed, Chinas BRI has emerged as the clearest organizing concept behind the PLAs expanding overseas presence.

The United States and its allies will find it more difficult to stop the PLA from building bases once the country is captured by the CCP. For example, the 2021 Iran-China 25-Year Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement commits China to invest $400 billion in Iran for oil. Although the agreement has not been made public, Iranian press reports leaked that China can deploy up to 5,000 PLA security forces to Iran to protect its investment.

Chinese PSC Potential Market in BRI Projects

A Chinese laborer works at a construction site of Colombo Port City, a part of Chinas trillion-dollar Belt and Road plan in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Feb. 24, 2020. (Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images)

BRI projects are known for hiring almost exclusively Chinese workers with only a few symbolic locals. In 2018, more than 1 million Chinese laborers, employed by over 10,000 Chinese companies, worked in Africa.

Many BRI locations are in lawless conflict zones. Chinese companies sometimes hire local militias for their protection through the PSCs, according to a media source. Chinese PSCs have become more relevant given these considerations.

Due to CCP laws on gun ownership, Chinese PSCs face one challenge: the prohibition on the use of lethal force. The PSCs are almost entirely unarmed.

PSCs Used for Intelligence Operations

Some reports indicate that Chinese PSCs act like PMCs carrying out covert activities such as spying, gathering of intelligence using Humint [human intelligence] sources and advise local forces on the information gathered by way of intelligence collection.

For example, Geopolitica.Info reported that Beijing supplied technologies to Angola, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and others, [that] has the potential to be used against political opponents, activists and protesting labor to suppress their dissent and human rights. Another Chinese PSC, Haiwei, which is present in 51 countries, is actively involved in gathering of intelligence in Ethiopia through its channels and shared with the locals for their action against threats.

Chinese PSCs feature low pay, bad morale, and poor training; they also have been involved in illegal activities. PSCs that employed former members of the PLA and the Peoples Armed Police (PAP) have been a tool of repression of [the] Chinese government, they continue to act accordingly in Africa while dealing with any opposition, the report said.

Moreover, these PSCs are prone to carry out illegal activities, such as involvement in/facilitating illegal wildlife trade, drug and human trafficking.

The Future of Chinese PSCs

According to the CSIS report, China has many areas of opportunity to utilize PSCs, including along the BRI corridor, in the South China Sea, throughout its shipping industry globally, and in training police and security forces abroad.

The report highlighted that Chinese PSCs widen the aperture of Chinese security focused cooperation to a broader range of governments than the United States is able or willing to work with through the U.S. military, in part due to U.S. domestic political and legal constraints, including Leahy vetting.

Maritime Militia: Little Blue Men

Chinese vessels, believed to be manned by Chinese maritime militia personnel, are seen at Whitsun Reef, South China Sea, on March 27, 2021. (Philippine Coast Guard Handout via Reuters)

CSIS says the CCP has deputized the maritime militia to protect fishing fleets and patrol territory China claims as its own, particularly in the South China Sea.

According to the 1991 Militia Work Regulations, these little blue men fall under the PLAs Provincial Military District or below as a ready reserve. The CCP uses them to augment forces operating in the oceans close to China: East China Sea (ECS), South China Sea (SCS), and the Yellow Sea (including the Bohai Sea and Korea Bay).

The maritime militia would also have applicability to any Taiwan invasion or other SCS operation (part of the nine-dash line area), as well as sovereignty antics conducted in the ECS and the Yellow Sea.

Importance of These Indicators

Many readers might find the indicators mentioned above necessary but not sufficient evidence of the PLAs intentions to build bases or at least find ways to employ excess security personnel. Because the CCP and the PLA are secretive and non-transparent, experts examine indicators to assess their intentions.

Much like during the Cold War with the USSR, U.S. intelligence agencies look for non-trivial clues. Something as simple as arms sales could indicate military-to-military cooperation leading to basing rights. Analysts and PLA watchers should use these indicators as leads to investigate the PLA in those countries and locations.

Even if the PLA does not build bases in these countries, the PLA is building relationships that have strategic value. Such relationships should concern analysts and policymakers assessing the CCPs expansionism and the PLAs role in implementing the CCPs global strategy.

Final Note

As the PLA pushes out from Asia, these actions force the United States and other allies to counter it.

As Aaron Friedberg says in his new book, Getting China Wrong (Polity Press, 2022), Should the PLA gain access to ports and airbases on the west coast of Africa or in Latin America, it could compel the United States to keep more of its forces closer to home, further tipping the balance in the Western Pacific.

This implies that the CCP will force the United States to make difficult tradeoffs regarding where to deploy forces and where to leave areas of the world to CCP machinations.

Read part I here.
Falun Gong practitioners at candlelight vigil remembering victims of the 22 years of persecution in China at the Washington Monument on July 16, 2021. The characters for "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance," the principles taught by the spiritual practice, appear at the front. (Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)

Why Americans Should Pay Attention to the Plight of Falun Gong

Why does the CCP continue to persecute innocent people?

Commentary

On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party banned Falun Gong and started subjecting its adherents to widespread surveillance, arbitrary detention, horrific torture, and extrajudicial killingabuses which continue today, according to Freedom House, a nonprofit organization.

Twenty-three years later  and the persecution continues.

Why?

According to Levi Browde, executive director of Falun Dafa Information Center, Falun Gong is the single largest whistleblower of the CCPs crimes on the worlds stage, with tens of millions engaged in grassroots civil disobedience inside China combined with media companies, human rights groups, and cultural organizations founded by Falun Gong practitioners around the worldall of which expose the tyrannical nature and nefarious history of the CCP.

This is key to understanding why, after 23 years, the CCP still considers the suppression of Falun Gong a top priority, he concluded.

On July 21, Falun Gong practitioners will parade in Washington to end what, according to Chinas state media, is an eradication campaign against the spiritual practice. As such, the persecution is a genocide as defined by the United Nations.

According to Falun Dafa Information Center, under the law of most Western countries, Falun Gong is considered a religion or a protected creed. However, Falun Gong is not institutionalized; it does not have any formal means of initiation, a formal creed, nor devotional practices of worship, etc.

Falun Gong also goes by the name Falun Dafa. Its practitioners parade annually in late July to commemorate their losses, celebrate their continued faith under fire, and demonstrate devotion to their three most sacred principles: truth, compassion, and forbearance.

Marches to bring public attention to the persecution against Falun Gong are occurring far beyond Washington, including London, New York, San Francisco, Melbourne, and Toronto. Many more local parades occur as well.

Falun Gong practitioners march to highlight the 23rd year of persecution in China against the spiritual discipline, in London, UK, on July 16, 2022. (Yanning Qi/The Epoch Times)

To counter the CCPs propaganda, Falun Gong practitioners often hold banners saying, Falun Dafa is Good or Stop the Persecution. They carry out peaceful protests and meditate in front of Chinas embassies and consulates around the world.

A band consisting of Falun Gong adherents takes part in a 1,200-strong parade through downtown Toronto, Canada, on July 17, 2022. The event marks the 23rd year of the Chinese Communist Partys persecution of the spiritual practice. (Evan Ning/The Epoch Times)

Falun Gongs principles are the polar opposite of what the CCP does on a daily basis. This explains Beijings antipathy toward the group and Falun Gongs broader significance at this critical juncture in history between the international rules-based system developed after 1945, which preferences democracy and human rights, and the attempt by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea to overturn that system in favor of a new type of international relations based on might makes right.

While the United States and its closest allies are finally waking up to the China threat, it has been slow going. We are also slow to acknowledge the human rights abuse against Uyghurs and Falun Gong within China.

Only in 2021 did the U.S. government, and some other governmental bodies globally, start recognizing the persecution of Uyghurs as genocide. They still have not done so for Falun Gongyet the evidence for genocide exists in droves.

Former U.S. State Department official Miles Yu argued in 2021 that there is more evidence of genocide against the Falun Gong than against the Uyghurs.

The reality of Chinas forced organ harvestingand its use as a weapon of genocideis becoming increasingly recognized, including by international tribunals, peer-reviewed journals, mainstream media, and in U.S. Congressional hearings.

Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas testifies at a U.S. Congressional hearing on organ harvesting in this undated file photo. (Lisa Fan/The Epoch Times)

According to an article in USA Today last month, New evidence suggests that execution by organ donation is a continuing part of the systematic campaign against Uyghurs, Falun Gong, Tibetans, Christians and other people Beijing classifies as politically problematic.

Communist China Threat

Americans should be concerned about communist China not just because of its human rights abuse, but because Beijings ambitions do not end at its borders. The CCP has a goal of global hegemony, as is now well-recognized in the academic literature. Chinas economy and military power are growing so quickly that in 2017 it exceeded the U.S. GDP by purchasing power parity (PPP). Beijing is now building its already larger navy more rapidly than the U.S. Navy.

CCP diplomats are now so assured of their superior military and economic power that they presented lists of demands to both the United States and Australia. If they have done it to us, they have likely done it to other allies.

A Beacon of Hope

It is in American national interests to support and ally with Falun Gong for reasons beyond our historical support for human rights. The CCP is Americas most dangerous adversary, and Falun Gong has tens of millions of adherents within the country and potentially within the regime itself.

Prior to the persecution, according to Chinese state sources at the time, Falun Gong numbered as many as 70 to 100 million or more.

After 18 years of persecution, Freedom House estimated 7 to 20 million practitioners left in China.

But according to Browde, Falun Gong sources from a few years ago estimated 20 to 40 million people in China who actively participated in distributing Falun Gong material.

If true, Browde said, this would imply a larger number who only practice but do not engage in what amounts to a highly risky form of nonviolent civil disobedience.

Therefore, it is possible that Falun Gong numbers have not decreased, but increased since the start of the persecution. And those who remain practitioners despite the persecution are likely stronger in their convictions and more courageous in their actions.

Before the persecution, many Falun Gong reached high up in the CCP hierarchy. That may still be true, in which case these individuals could be trying to reform Chinas regime from the inside.

The need for such reform is greatand Falun Gong may be our best hope.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Large solar panels are seen in a solar power plant in Hami, northwest China's Xinjiang region on May 8, 2013. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Why Is China Shunning Solar Energy?

Commentary

Solar is the future, were told. Its risk-free, were assured. But its not.

Solar energy is inefficient. Its also costly, not just financially but also environmentally.

The world is in the midst of a food security crisis. Now, in an effort to combat this escalating crisis, China, the most populated country in the world, is considering banning solar developers from building solar panels on farmland.

The Irish Independent recently reported that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is seriously considering making forests and cultivated farmland off-limits for solar development.

Why?

After all, China invested heavily in various solar power projects. According to Bloomberg, investment in solar development was 29 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) from January through April, about 204% higher than in the same period a year earlier.

The CCP recently vowed to double the countrys wind and solar capacity by 2025. Now, though, Beijing is prepared to do a complete 180 and turn away from renewable energy.

Thats because, as the Irish Independent piece noted, many wind and solar plots are considered unstable.

Worse still, according to analysts at GreenMatch, a company very much dedicated to promoting renewable energy, the construction of solar facilities comes with significant costs, including soil compaction, alteration of drainage channels and increased erosion. In other words, if farmers wish to grow crops, solar energy could drastically affect their plans.

The analysts noted that central tower systems require copious amounts of water for cooling purposes, a major concern in arid environments. Moreover, an increase in water demand may strain available water resources as well as chemical spills from the facilities. Such a strain may result in the contamination of groundwater or the ground surface.

Remember, these words come from people who support the use of solar. They work for an environmentally conscious company.

Although the U.S. Department of Energy assures us that solar technologies can help reduce air emissions and improve air quality, the analysts at GreenMatch warn that the actual construction of solar energy power plants poses significant hazards to our air quality. Additionally, these facilities create soil-carried pathogens that contaminate neighboring water reservoirs. Not very environmentally friendly.

In a recent piece for Human Events, titled Coal is Dead, Long Live Coal, I highlighted the fact that solar panels, supposedly benign in nature, actually produce toxic waste that is many times more hazardous than nuclear waste.

A wind farm operates in Clay County, Texas, on Dec. 9, 2015. There are efforts to build more, but not everyone is in favor of them. (Rodger Mallison/Star-Telegram via AP)

What about wind power, the much-discussed sibling of solar?

First off, they are noisy. Because of the noise pollution, this restricts where wind farms can be constructed. Analysts at Solar Reviews have noted that although wind promotes clean energy, the downsides far outweigh the limited upsides. Wind is inherently unpredictable. As obvious as it sounds, energy can only be produced when the wind blows. No wind, no energy. No energy, no crops.

Then, theres the threat to wildlife. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, anywhere between 140,000 and half a million birds are killed by wind farms each year.

A 2019 report from the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) concluded that wind turbines were (and one assumes still are) doing great harm to wildlife. The GWPF says it does not have a position on wind or renewable energy. The GWPF further criticized wind turbines in a follow-up report, ominously titled Green Killing Machines. The GWPF warned that the risk to birds and other winged creatures is so great that there is a possibility of whole populations being wiped out by wind turbines.

Finally, besides being hazardous to the soil and various species of animals, solar and wind are prohibitively expensive. For the average American, according to a 2021 article published by Solar Reviews, the installation process for solar panels costs about $2 or $3 per watt. An average U.S. household consumes about 11,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year or about 990 watts per month. In other words, the average American must be prepared to invest tens of thousands of dollars to power their home.

All that investment for what, exactly?

According to Richard Michelfelder, a clinical associate professor of finance at the Rutgers School of BusinessCamden, renewable resources, solar included, are considerably less reliable than conventional power sources. Thats because they do not produce output when the weather is cloudy or at night or when there is no wind. Although renewables have a place in solving our energy needs, they should not play a primary role, he cautioned. Utilities should rely on tried and tested traditional methods, he added.

That brings us back to China and the possibility of shunning solar. In times of crisis, one cant take a gamble. Renewable energy may very well be the future. However, in the here and now, at this very moment, the world requires reliable ways of powering homes and vehicles. This explains why the CCP might lift a two-year ban on Australian coal.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
An interview with photographer Erin Babnik

Writer Henry David Thoreau said, We can never have enough of nature, and landscape photographer Erin Babnik delivers on that sentiment through her painstakingly captured images.

Babnik hails from California, but she and her camera equipment travel all over the United States and the world with the goal of recording every jot and tittle of natural scenes through photography.

In fact, Babniks landscape photography is distinguished by the sensory qualities it exudes. In one of her online portfolios, Feelings, we can certainly feel the dry heat in the close-up image of parched, cracked land.

Enigma, 2017, by Erin Babnik. Photo taken in Death Valley National Park, California. (Courtesy of Erin Babnik)

In one of her shots from a different online portfolio, Moving, water pours over a forests wide falls and rushes toward the viewer in an ethereal stream.

Sweet Emotion, 2016, by Erin Babnik. Photo taken in the French Alps. (Courtesy of Erin Babnik)

Though Babnik cannot pinpoint an absolute favorite photograph, she does acknowledge that she never feels more creative than when shes photographing atmospheric mountain scenes. There is something about mist and low clouds mingling with craggy peaks that makes me exceedingly happy to be behind a camera, she shared by phone.

Blockbuster, 2018, by Erin Babnik. Photo taken in the Italian Dolomites. (Courtesy of Erin Babnik)

Trained as a Fine Artist

Babnik approaches photography from an artists perspective. She has a doctoral education in art history from the University of California at Berkeley, but her dedication to photography grew from her need to photograph ruins at archaeological sites and artwork in museums for the purposes of teaching and research.

While she had experimented with photography creatively as an undergraduate art student, full immersion into the art came when she began moonlightingwhile working on her doctorateas an assignment photographer. She then transitioned into wilderness and landscape photography.

At first, she didnt see the connection between photography and creating art.

I had a real aha moment the first time that I experimented with a long exposure and realized that photography could be more about creating an image than capturing some objective reality.  Suddenly, I saw the potential for photographs to be more than redundant renderings, imperfect records, or cheap souvenirs. Once I understood that cameras are tools of an artistic medium, I wanted nothing more than to dedicate myself to that outlet for creative expression.

Thus, she eventually was able to combine her artistic bent with her passion for art photography into a full-time profession. She is now a photographer with Canons Explorer of Light program for talented creative artists.

Inspired by Traditional Art

Babnik is regularly inspired by her art history foundation. She notes,

Art history instilled in me a tendency toward interpretation that makes me see stories and metaphors in the landscapes that I photograph, and that tendency constantly helps me to make decisions in everything from composition to post-processing.

Indeed, some of the Personal Favorites on her website beg for a narrative: A seemingly layered wintry wonderland with a stream in the foreground is edged by towering snow-laden fir trees and a backdrop of white-capped, jagged peaks. Or, lilac-hued flowering vines sprout from a windswept desert.

Grand Opening, 2018, by Erin Babnik. Photo taken in the Dolomites, Italy. (Courtesy of Erin Babnik)

Arrow Dynamic, 2018, by Erin Babnik. Photo taken in Death Valley National Park. (Courtesy of Erin Babnik)

In addition to the metaphoric and narrative elements influencing her, the subject of her dissertation was Hellenistic sculpture, and therefore she tends to see every tree, mountain, or plant as some kind of abstract sculpture in dialogue with its surroundings.

Also contributing to Babniks ability for achieving striking images are her inquisitiveness, confidence, and acute awareness. And shes willing to experiment and take the time to get the photo just right:

Im  quite compulsive about craftsmanship, which sometimes works against me in limiting my output, but erring on the side of quality over quantity has probably done me more good than harm over the years.

The Challenges and Exhilaration of Nature

Babnik believes that being in nature benefits her in every way. There is the physical exercise as well as nourishment to her psyche that the outdoors provides. These bring her to a level of emotional and spiritual clarity that is hard to engender any other way.

Into that mix, photography brings about the highest levels of concentration and joy for me. The vaster and more majestic, the more freeing, she said.

Because she loves to photograph remote spots, she often must put in a great amount of effort to even reach a desired destination. Sometimes she has to hike for many miles or use skis or snowshoes to reach an intended destination.

Very often, I have to hike steep ascents for days with a heavy pack, snowshoe in the dark, or endure seemingly endless ruts on rough dirt roads. On one occasion in the American Southwest, I ended up sloshing 10 miles through frigid water in a river canyon all for one photograph of dried mud that spanned only a few feet along the canyon wall.

These places far off the beaten path can present unique challenges. In fact, an impromptu rescue effort during a photography session in the Dolomites, which are in the Italian Alps, prompted her to pursue certification as a Wilderness First Responder.

Cries for help made her scramble to where she could see two shadowy figures in the distance hobbling across a mountain saddle, she said.

Upon reaching them, it became clear that one was very badly injured with numerous deep lacerations and two broken limbs. Since it was a stormy evening, there were no other people around at first, so I led the rescue effort. I had no medical training at the time, which made me feel quite anxious during the entire experience.

She then decided she needed to be prepared both practically and mentally in case anything happened to her or anyone accompanying her, or anyone she might come in contact with, while out of range of cell service and emergency services.

Photographer Erin Babnik. (Head Shot Studio)

A Positive Effect on the World

Babnik shares her academic teaching skills by offering intense photography workshops worldwide. With an office in Slovenia as well as in California, she spends as much time teaching photography as she does taking photographs.

Teaching is highly rewarding as she hopes to encourage students to find their own joy in the work.

It may sound a bit grandiose, but I gain a lot from the feeling that Im having some kind of positive knock-on effect in the world. Helping other people to bring out their best creative self is endlessly rewarding, not only as they produce compelling photographs, but also as they quite noticeably exude enthusiasm and inspiration with each small discovery or breakthrough.

In an interview as CaptureLandscapes 2019 Photographer of the Year, Babnik explained that the time she spends in the field is undeniably valuable for teaching. Besides classic lecture-style, PowerPoint instruction, she regularly leads workshop students into remote wilderness area and teaches adventure style. This approach may involve strenuous hiking, tent or hut accommodations, early pre-sunrise equipment setups, and even stormy weather observations.

She further acknowledges that taking workshop students into the wilds of an area, maybe for the first time in their lives, can deepen their regard and respect for the outdoors. Spending so much time in nature certainly has had that effect on her.
Wokeness: A New Religion?

Commentary

Civilizations tend to repeat the ideological pattern that made them strong in the first place. At first, these patterns have theological form and substance. But if belief in God becomes obsolete, they tend to continue the same pattern in secular form, minus religious substance. To visit my neighbors home at Christmas is to enter a palisade of tinsel, baubles, winking lights, and lots of little reindeer and elvesbut no hint of Christianity to be seen.

A Little Spiritual History

For two millennia, the Christian nations of the West have been nourished and deeply inspired by the expectational vision and promise expressed most notably in the Book of Revelation of a perfect, 1,000-year Kingdom of Heaven to come with the return of Christ. That promise has supplied a deep Western psychological wiring, so to speak, that operates to this day and is plainly heard in the words of the Lords Prayer: Thy Kingdom come.

That vision of a perfect future world got really fired up politically by the prophetic end-time scheme of Joachim of Fiore, a 12th-century Calabrian monk who taught that all history is divided into three ages. The first is the Age of Law and the Father (all pre-Christian history, a time of fear and servitude), the second, the Age of the Son and the Gospel (a time of faith), and the third, yet to come, the Age of the Spirit (the second coming, and the perfect, 1,000-year Kingdom of Heaven).

Mille in Latin means one thousand. Hence the label millenarian as a descriptive term for believers in the Kingdom to come. A complete history of the fanatical religious movementsenormous mobs of distraught, wild-eyed Taborites, Hussites, Adepts of the Free Spirit, Anabaptists, and so many otherswho wandered all over Europe in thrall to one or another prophetic vision of personal salvation through faith in the Kingdom is fascinatingly laid out by Norman Cohn in his landmark study The Pursuit of the Millennium (1957). He describes Joachims third age as an egalitarian time of love, joy, and freedom, in which God would be revealed directly in the hearts of all men. Directly! It was, he adds, the most influential prophetic system known to Europe until the appearance of Marxism.

Eventually, this specifically European prophetism found fertile soil in America where it was ecstatically expressed in at least four continent-wide Great Awakenings (the original form of wokeness) from the mid-18th century to well into the mid-20th. The first was sparked in 1741 by preacher Jonathan Edwards, who, in a famous fiery sermon, pointed his accusing finger at sinners in the hands of an angry God. He inspired belief in a deeper piety and a higher standard of personal morality in hundreds of thousands.

This specifically American kind of spiritual awakening eventually took original, sometimes fanatical root in the form of a half-dozen newly invented American religions such as Seventh-day Adventist, Jehovahs Witnesses, Pentecostalism, Southern Baptist, and a few others fascinatingly explored by culture critic Harold Bloom in his eye-opening book The American Religion (1992).

Some Disastrous Recent History

By the early 20th century, however, following the catastrophe of World War I, God was increasingly deemed an abject moral failure and got kicked out of the building, especially by millions of disillusioned, grimly atheistic university graduates emerging from the fever swamps of higher learning.

By this time, the soft liberal democracies of the West had been on a path to extensive secularization for more than a century. But the old wiring remained. So if God is really dead and gone, went the thinking, then we have to create the Kingdom on earth by ourselves.

The possibility of a perfect secular world soon became the ideological objective of a lot of Western leaders, but especially of the most vicious modern dictators prepared to liquidate millions of their fellow citizens to achieve it. Soviet International Socialism (Communism) and German National Socialism (Naziism) became the two most prominent European promissory visions of a perfect, socially just worldan end justified by any means.

When, in 1996, after the fall of the USSR and its long history of unspeakable cruelty and the slaughter of so many of its own people, and the Russian Communist Party was attempting a comeback by electoral means, Time magazine asked Gen. Albert Makashov if they had anything more specific in mind than restoring Soviet power, he replied: What is our maximum program? The Kingdom of God on earthor communism, as we call itbefore the third millennium.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the long communist debacle, Adolph Hitler directly plagiarized Joachims entire historical scheme (minus God) for his national-socialist Third Reich (German for third kingdom) which, he boasted to the world, would last for a thousand years.

Thats what I mean by saying the wiring is still very much in place. Both tyrants were following the same centuries-old Western wiring to create a social system so perfect, as the poet T.S. Eliot remarked (of all such promissory systems), that no one would have to be good.

Our Woke World: A Caricature of Christianity?

Could our present fevered Great Awokening be a new, secular form of Puritan revival rooted in the divinity of various group identities (gender, race, sex, class, color, and so on), instead of in individual identity? Does group identity now signal a secular salvation separating the saved from the unsaved?

It would seem so. For we are daily subjected to a myriad of public confessions of group guilt, to the public cleansing of historical group sins, and to a social-justice gospel empowering believers to sniff out previously hidden sin in themselves and others.

The unwoke are no longer sinners in the hands of an angry God. They are sinners in the hands of angry puritanical reformers preaching the urgent need for a Global Reset (code for the overthrow and remake of Western civilization in its entirety).

Theres more. Wokeness comes with its own rigid orthodoxy, and transgressors are considered heretics to be punished immediately, beginning with public demands for penance (check your privilege); the casting out of demons (cancellation and deplatforming); and, of course, insistence on the public right to disturb and instill guilt in large crowds of the faithless, with shows of personal piety by taking a knee.

Finally, as in former periods of religious public madness and delusion, the remedy for sin is forced confession, recantation, and self-purification of all inherited microaggressions with the goal of liberating unwoke souls from slavery to their own spiritual blindness.

Then come the ceremonial defacing and violent mob destruction of statues and paintings of unwoke Western heroesa direct replication of the Puritan smashing of Catholic idols and altars in the 17th centurywhile civic employees quietly rename streets and public institutions to purge them of association with past sin, and clear out unwoke books from libraries and schools.

Global Wokeness

The new woke catechism has global ambition, and there are suspicions its but the cutting edge of a transition from traditional soft Western socialism to a hard totalitarianism thats being accelerated with the help of sweet-sounding, if confused, ideological tools.

The most radical of these is called EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion), a soft-Marxist initiative dividing the whole world into oppressor versus oppressed classes that has already spread like wildfire into every government office, media outlet, digital platform, and corporation in the land as an established faith, and may be seen in documents such as Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Benchmarks: Standards for Organizations Around the World.

Superficially, EDI is a powerfully attractive set of egalitarian notions aiming for the proportional reconstitution of every institution according to, well, the proportions of human beings in the surrounding society at large according to exact ratios of sex, gender, race, class, and so on.

Evidence for failing to achieve an exact proportionalityfor example, 5050 men and women on all corporate and public boardsis searched out in every act of public, private, or unconscious opinion, and all institutions are judged guilty until proven innocent by woke purveyors of EDI who have purified their thought sufficiently to judge and condemn the fallen with an irritating confidence.

Western wokeness began in American universities, quickly spread to Canada, and is now invading Europe, to the chagrin of such as President Emmanuel Macron of France, who has warned of the moral plague of American universities.

And prior to the Ukraine war, President Vladimir Putin of Russia warned the West that communist Russia had already embraced and destroyed itself with exactly this kind of blindly doctrinaire wokeness.

A New Caste System?

In an extensive analysis, author James Patterson points out in Wokeness and the New Religious Establishment (National Affairs, 2021), that wokeness is the opiate of the elites, and asks, has it already become a new state religion?

For, until conversion to wokeness, citizens are assumed to belong to what has been described by some critics as a lower, maximally unclean caste (because born into privileges like whiteness, masculinity, heteronormativity, cisgenderism, capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and so on), and so they must engage in endless acts of atonement not expected of the caste of the blameless clean, who bear a myriad of oppressed identities. Refusal to acknowledge and atone for your caste privilege makes you an untouchable.

Patterson adds, pointedly, that the hiring of diversity, equity, and inclusion administrators at public universities to oversee the representation of clean identities is akin to those universities hiring priests or rabbis to oversee their adherence to Catholicism or Judaism.

But the United States and many other Western nations have strict constitutional laws prohibiting the promotion of religious belief in public institutions, schools, and universities.

So if the new woke liturgy currently disemboweling educational and institutional life throughout Western civilization is ever judged a religion by the courts (as was atheistic secular humanism by the Supreme Court in the 1961 case Torcaso v. Watkins), then all public institutions preaching belief in the divinity of identity, the concept of the woke faith community,  and the moral code grounded in the struggle against oppression, in Pattersons words, may sooner rather than later be in for some big legal and funding surprises.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Connecticut State Police / Contributed Photo

NORWALK  Extra troopers will be monitoring Route 7 this weekend for street racing and reckless driving, Connecticut State Police said.

The extra patrol will take place Friday night into Saturday morning, state police said Wednesday in a Facebook post.
During the Edwardsville City Council meeting Tuesday, Kaitlyn Schmidt received the Citizen Commendation Award for stepping in to help an elderly man who had just been released from a hospital on a torrid day last month.

According to Edwardsville Police Chief Michael Fillback, police received a call about an elderly male walking in the vicinity of Hillsboro and St. Andrews avenues on June 20. He was reportedly walking wearing a hospital gown, seemed confused and the temperature that day was 90 degrees.

Officers responded to the area for a welfare check but at first could not find anyone matching the description. While checking the area, Schmidt waved down officer Silas Ellis. She had found the older man earlier and invited him to sit in her air-conditioned vehicle while trying to figure out how she could further help him.

The man, who was otherwise physically fine, was trying to return to his home in Staunton on foot, at least some 18 miles to the north and east. Police located one of the man's relatives at home but they had no transportation to come and pick him up. Schmidt insisted on obtaining and paying for transportation for the man to get home. She waited with Ellis until the man was picked up and safely taken home.

"On that hot June day, Kaitlyn displayed a willingness to get involved and assist a citizen in need of help to enure the safe return of this individual to his home and loved ones," Fillback said. "Her actions speak highly of her character and helped the Edwardsville Police Department further our mission of working with our community to enhance and protect the quality of life for all of our citizens."

Schmidt received a certificate and had photos taken with Ellis, Fillback and Mayor Art Risavy.

City business continued as normal Tuesday during the city council meeting despite the absence of multiple aldermen - Chris Farrar, Will Krause and SJ Morrison were all excused.

Aldermen voted 3-0-1 on a resolution authorizing a 10-year lease agreement with the Friends of Colonel Benjamin Stephenson House with an option for another 10 years. Alderwoman Janet Stack abstained as she is a member of the Stephenson House Board

Council members unanimously approved these items:

A professional services agreement with Oates Associates for the Route 66 Trail, phases four through six in the amount of $72,286

A supplemental resolution for improvements under the Illinois Highway Code

A professional services agreement with Oates Associates for the Route 66 Trail, phase four, in the amount of $78,249

A supplemental resolution for improvements under the Illinois Highway code

A resolution authorizing a sign variance for Cleveland Heath at 106 N. Main Street

A resolution approving an Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) temporary closure of North Main and West Vandalia street for the 12th Annual Rotary Criterium Road Road on Aug. 20

In addition, the alderpeople agreed to return one item to the committee level, approval of a sole source resolution to buy bulk Louisiana Rock Salt from Gunther Salt Co. in the estimated amount of $133,950

The next city council meeting is Aug. 2 at 7 p.m. in city hall, 118 Hillsboro Ave.
With the busiest roadside mowing season underway, the Illinois Department of Transportation is ramping up efforts to save pollinators  especially the now endangered monarch butterfly.

IDOT issued a press release July 20, warning motorists that drivers need to slow down and avoid all distractions, especially as personnel and equipment mow roadsides.

As one of the states largest landowners, we take great responsibility in keeping our roadsides maintained during the summer as well as doing our part to protect the environment, said Illinois Transportation Secretary Omer Osman in the press release. But we need the publics cooperation. Anticipate seeing large equipment and workers during the day. Reduce your speed, drop the devices and drive extra carefully.

IDOT performs two types of mowing during the summer. One type is safety mowing, which is adjacent to the road as needed for improved visibility. The other type is maintenance mowing, which lasts for approximately six weeks, beginning in July, and includes areas along culverts, ditches, traffic control devices and other structures.

IDOT partnered in the launch of the Illinois Monarch Project in 2020, and with it follows the Illinois Monarch Action Plan during its maintenance mowing to protect as much pollinator habitat and nectar resources as possible.

"Over the past 20 years, the eastern monarch population has faced a significant decline in migratory habitat," the project website reads. "The Illinois Monarch Project collaborates with public and private partners, in addition to individuals across the state, to protect and enhance existing habitat and establish new habitat that supports monarch butterflies and other pollinators."

Robert D. Barnes/Getty Images

IDOT said its approach to maintenance mowing helps with that mission.

"The mowing schedule helps to encourage pollinator activity, which assists in the reproduction of flowers, fruits and vegetables, essential to the health of the states ecosystem and economy," the IDOT release reads. "Reducing the amount of land maintained and growing pollinator habitat also protects the endangered rusty patched bumble bee and the monarch butterfly, the official state insect of Illinois."

IDOT has a short video on its YouTube channel about the mowing schedules and its work with pollinators.
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The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) is aware of the declaration of an outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD) in Ghana confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the 17th of July 2022. This is the second time this zoonotic disease has been detected in West Africa following the previous incidence in Guinea in August 2021.

The cases were reported in two unrelated males - 26 and a 51 years old - who both died from the disease. The disease was first discovered in 1967 following outbreaks in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia. Since then, outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in some African countries.

Ghanaian public health officials are responding with support from WHO to halt the spread of the disease. Given the proximity of Ghana to Nigeria as well as the WHO alert, the NCDC- led multisectoral National Emerging Viral Haemorrhagic Diseases Working Group (EVHDWG) that coordinates preparedness efforts for MVD, and other emerging viral haemorrhagic diseases has conducted a rapid risk assessment to guide in-country preparedness activities.

Based on available data, the overall risk of both importation of the disease and its potential impact on the Nigerian population is said to be Moderate as assessed by NCDC experts and partners given the following: the proximity (same region), high traffic from Ghana and countries that share borders with Ghana, the incubation period of 21 days of the virus, heightened surveillance at point of entry, Nigerias capacity to respond to the outbreak in country and the fact that persons with MVD transmit the virus when they become symptomatic unlike for SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 that can also be transmitted by infected persons without symptoms.

Nigeria has the capacity to test for the virus presently at the National Reference Laboratory in Abuja and the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital laboratory Centre for Human and

Zoonotic Virology. Diagnostic capacity can be scaled up to other laboratories if required. Nigeria has the resources (human, technical and laboratory) for prompt identification and management in the event of a single imported case.

However, the risk of importation may be further reduced as the current situation in Ghana is under control as reported by Ghana Health Service. Active case finding is ongoing in Ghana while there is heightened surveillance in Togo and Benin. Therefore, the response situation may change in the coming days with the control efforts in Ghana and advisories as may be

issued by the World Health Organisation. In addition, many of the contacts under follow-up in Ghana will soon exit the 21-day quarantine period and so far, there have been no secondary cases reported.

Currently, no case of Marburg virus disease has been reported in Nigeria. However, several measures are being put in place to prevent an outbreak of the disease in-country. The National Reference Laboratory has the capacity to test for MVD, point of entry surveillance has been heightened, trained rapid response teams are on standby to be deployed in theevent of an outbreak and the NCDCs Incident Coordination Centre (ICC) is in alert mode. The NCDC is also amplifying risk communication efforts and continues to work with States and partners to strengthen preparedness activities which include review of risk communication protocols, plans and messages in the event of an outbreak.

About Marburg Virus Disease (MVD)

The Marburg virus causes a rare, highly infectious disease and severe haemorrhagic fever (MVD) in humans and non-human primates just like the Ebola virus, its closest relation and only other member of the Filoviridae family of viruses. It is another example of a zoonosis such as Lassa fever, etc. The natural animal reservoir/host are fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus). Following the transmission from infected animals to humans, it spreads in humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, and contaminated materials and surfaces. The virus can enter the body through broken skin or mucous membranes in the eyes, nose, or mouth.

The initial symptoms of the disease include sudden onset of fever (Temp 37.5OC), chills, headache, body aches which may be accompanied by a rash, most prominent on the chest, back and stomach, nausea/vomiting, chest pain, sore throat, abdominal pain by the fifth day of illness. Increase in severity of illness can be heralded by the appearance of severe watery diarrhoea, jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, bleeding from multiple areas, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive haemorrhaging, and multi-organ dysfunction and/or failure. In fatal cases, death occurs often between 8 and 9 days after symptom onset. The case fatality rate for MVD is estimated to be 24% to 88%.

The Marburg virus is known to persist in the body  placenta, amniotic fluid, foetus of infected pregnant women, breast milk of women who were infected while breastfeeding and

semen  of persons who have recovered from MVD.

Nigerians are urged to adhere strictly to the following preventive measures

Avoid non-essential travel to locations where the outbreak is reported for the moment

Avoid direct contact with blood, saliva, vomit, urine, and other bodily fluids of people with suspected or confirmed Marburg virus disease

Avoid the animal reservoir (fruit bats), other sick animals.



Ensure all persons with the symptoms described above are promptly taken to healthcare facilities for diagnosis and initiation of supportive treatment.

Ensure all persons with the symptoms described above are promptly taken to healthcare facilities for diagnosis and initiation of supportive treatment. In suspected and/or confirmed MVD cases, direct physical contact should be avoided by ensuring strict isolation, the use of protective gowns, masks, gloves and safe disposal of needles, bedding, and other contaminated materials.

Strict practice of infection prevention control in the healthcare setting for all suspected patients.

 Male survivors of Marburg virus disease should practice safer sexual practices and hygiene for 12 months from onset of symptoms or until their semen test negative twice for the virus.

Infections have been recorded in health facilities and in healthcare workers while looking

after patients with suspected or confirmed MVD. This is mostly due to poor adherence to infection prevention and control (IPC) measures. Therefore, healthcare workers are urged to maintain a high index of suspicion for the disease and always observe standard precautions.

There is currently no treatment or vaccine for MVD, however, infected persons can benefit from supportive care and treatment of specific symptoms which improve the chances of survival. Early detection and treatment improve prognosis. Anyone who travels to a location where an outbreak has been reported or had contact with a confirmed case or sick individual of unknown source of illness should observe self-isolation for 21 days and call the NCDC hotline (6232) immediately if symptomatic.

For further information on Marburg virus disease, visit the NCDC website via  https://ncdc.gov.ng/diseases/info/M.

About NCDC

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) is the countrys national public health institute, with the mandate to lead the preparedness, detection, and response to public health emergencies. The Bill for an Act to establish NCDC was signed into law in November 2018, by President Muhammadu Buhari. The mission for the NCDC is To protect the health of Nigerians through evidence-based prevention, integrated disease surveillance and response, using a One Health approach, guided by research and led by skilled workforce.

Contact

NCDC Toll-free Number: 6232 | SMS: 08099555577 | WhatsApp: 07087110839 Twitter: @NCDCGov | Facebook: @NCDCgov | Instagram: @NCDCgov | NCDC Media Releases

Signed:

Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa

Director General

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention


The Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has revealed why inmates in Nigerian Correctional Centres may not be allowed to participate in voting during election.

He noted that for such development to take place, some critical issues must be considered.

INEC boss said one of the issues is the provision of the Electoral Act 2022 which spell out the criteria for registration as a voter including being free and not legally incapacitated.

Prof. Yakubu disclosed this on Tuesday during a meeting with the Controller General of Nigerian Correctional Services NCoS, Haliru Nababa.

Nababa who led management of the service on a visit to the INEC headquarters in Abuja had during the visit urged the Commission to extend voting rights to inmates to allow them exercise their civic responsibilities as Nigerians.

Nababa, who was represented by Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) Daniel Odharo, said that the meeting with INEC was to work out the modalities for the inmates to vote in the 2023 elections in line with recent court ruling.

The court recently gave a judgment in favour of inmates voting in elections.

The modalities to meet the process needs to be worked out and so we need to be here to discuss with INEC to find out how this process can be achieved, Nababa said.

INEC Chairman, however, said the commission had no issue against inmates voting in Nigeria, there were critical issues that must be considered.

Let me start with the legal framework. Section 12(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 lists five qualifications for registration as a voter in Nigeria because you have to register as a voter before the right to exercise that right as a voter is conferred.

Number one, the prospective registrant must be a Nigerian citizen. Number two, he or she must be 18 at least. Number three, he or she must originate, reside or work in the local government or ward covered by the registration center or the point of registration.

Number four that citizen of Nigeria must present himself or herself to the registration officer for registration as a voter.

Number five, which is really critical to our discussion today is that he or she must not be subject to any legal incapacity to vote under any law, rule, or regulation imposed in Nigeria.

So this is one area that we need to discuss so that we know the categories of inmates that will exercise the right to vote .

We need to work things out carefully. We want transparency of the process. Because everything that we do in the commission, particularly when it comes to the rights of citizens to vote, must be done transparently.

Yakubu said that there certain questions that must be answered in considering the request such as will the inmates vote outside the prison or inside the prison?

So are we going to set up polling units inside the prisons or there will be polling units outside the prisons?

Yakubu said since the majority of inmates are awaiting trial, the Commission believes that some of them are already registered voters, while some are not registered.

If they are registered voters, they cant be registered. What they will do is transfer their registration. Will they transfer their registration to the correctional centers for that reason?

Will political parties be allowed to campaign inside the correctional centers? This is a matter that we need to advise the commission.

Will observers and the media be allowed access to the correctional centers on election day so that the process is really transparent?

Will INEC officials be granted access to the correctional centers for voter education? This is a matter that we need to discuss?

Will election holds in all 218 Federal Correctional centers currently holding inmates nationwide? Or there are some correctional centers where this process can start instead of over 218.

We understand that some of the correctional centers are not holding inmates at present. So the process be allowed to cover all the 218 centers?

So these are some of the issues that we need to carefully discuss and resolved before a decision is taken.

But in principle, the commission is committed to ensuring that all Nigerians are given the right to vote and be voted for but in this particular case, the right to vote, which is exercisable under the law.

 The sooner we are able to address these issues, the better for the process, Yakubu said.
Some members of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) were sighted at the Yaradua Center, Abuja, the venue where All Progressive Congress presidential standard-bearer, Bola Tinubu, officially unveiled Kashim Shettima as his running mate.

This is coming contrary as many Christians have expressed outrage following APC Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2023 presidency.

CAN, itself, had vowed to mobilise its members not to vote for the APCs presidential candidate for snubbing the Christian community in his choice of a running mate.

But on the Wednesday programme, members of CAN were seen queuing to enter the venue to witness the unveiling of Shettima, a northern Muslim as another Muslim, Tinubus running mate.
No fewer than 262 Oyo State pilgrims that took part in the 2022 holy pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia have landed in Nigeria safely.

The pilgrims arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, on Wednesday, July 20, 2022.

Some of the pilgrims thanked Almighty Allah for His mercy throughout the spiritual exercise.

The first batch of Oyo pilgrims left their hotels for the airport at 6 p.m Saudi time ( 4 p.m Nigerian time) on Tuesday.

The aircraft conveying the pilgrims back to Nigeria took off at 2 a.m Nigerian time.

Recall that the first batch of the pilgrims from the state left Ibadan on Saturday 18th of June 2022 and were airlifted to holy lands about twenty hours later.

On the flight were some government functionaries including, the Head of service, Alhaja Ololade Agboola, the Executive Secretary Primary Healthcare Board, Dr Muhideen Olatunji, among others.

The remaining batches of Oyo State Pilgrims are expected to return to the country later.

E-signed:

Alh. Wasiu Olatubosun, Ph.D.,

Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism.


The Lead Bishop of Worldwide Anglican Church (WAC) in Nigeria, Bishop Seun Adeoye has described as disgraceful and pathetic the presence of some Bishops and Pastors at the unveiling of Senator Kashim Shettima as Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubus running mate in the forthcoming presidential election.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had warned political parties against presentation of Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2023 presidential election, a call ignored by the APCs presidential candidate, Tinubu, a Muslim, who picked Shettima, another Muslim as his deputy.

Bishop Adeoye, presently the Spokesman of World Bishops' Council (WBC) in Africa further described the scene where the so called ministers of God garbed in the holy garments were seen scrambling for recognition in the midst of crowd at the event which took place at YarAdua Event Centre, Abuja.

The clergyman in a statement made available to journalists in Osogbo, Osun State wondered what type of Christianity those bishops and pastors who attended the programme practiced.

We need to know who the men of God who attended this event are, their churches and where they are coming from and if indeed they are genuine ministers of the gospel

We need to know too maybe those garments were rented to be put on by those we saw in the pictures as an indication that Christians are in support of Muslim-Muslim ticket.

And if indeed they were real men of God as they claimed, then it is disgusting, disgraceful and pathetic for them to have disobeyed CAN. We know quite well that some are in the Church ministries because of the gods of their bellies.

Nobody should take those men serious. We need to be reminded of Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus Christ for a mere 30 pieces of silver. So, for them to have shunned the Christian body is an indication of who they are.

Nigerians should not take them serious. And we must just conclude that they are at the event at a cost. To me, they are fake men of God. We should understand that a Muslim-Muslim ticket is dangerous for a country like Nigeria, he added.
A historic drought in Kenya is coinciding with a hotly contested election. Nerves in central and northern Kenya are fraying, as climate stresses intensify intercommunal conflict and amplify electoral tensions.

Climate change, politics and resource competition are colliding again in a deadly combination on Kenyas fertile Laikipia plateau. When previous rainy seasons failed, in 2011 and 2017, herders from Kenyas arid and semi-arid regions took their cattle to lush Laikipia, sometimes leading to violent clashes among rival herder communities or between herders, on one hand, and farmers and ranchers on the other. But the violence in 2022 has been particularly pitched, thanks in part to conditions that include a two-year dry spell (or four consecutive failed rainy seasons, the longest string in at least 40 years) and hotly contested national and local elections , scheduled for 9 August.

Some of the worst violence in recent years has centred around western Laikipia county, where the immediate trigger for fighting often involves cattle rustling by rival communities (mainly Pokot, Samburu and Turkana) or the movement by herders of their cattle onto private ranches, conservancies and cultivated land. The clashes have killed at least 35 people since September 2021 and the army has been deployed in the area.

The roots of this violence are multifaceted. Land in Laikipia has long been contested. Large conservancies and ranches, along with commercial farms, occupy thousands of acres of well-watered grassland. Local communities, whose forebears were displaced from those lands by British colonial authorities and post-independence elites, resent the capture of both land and water. Grievances over inequitable land ownership tend to escalate in election years, particularly when candidates encourage herders to send their cattle to graze on private ranches, conservancies and farmers land in a bid to curry favour with the herders, even though this practice whips up local tensions. Kenyan police temporarily detained two local politicians for incitement in September 2021. While the charges were dropped for one of them, the other was charged again, for hate speech, in January 2022.

There is no relief in sight from the immense pressure on livelihoods created by the long drought. Forecasts predict a fifth season of poor rains later in the year. At the same time, food insecurity is rising, compounded by rising global food and fertiliser costs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

The Conference of the Parties, the main decision-making body of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, will hold its 27th annual meeting in Egypt in November to discuss global efforts to combat climate change. The topic of climate security will not figure on the official agenda, but the situation in central Kenya highlights why it requires more political attention by illustrating how increasingly severe climate stresses and conflict risks feed off one another, magnifying the dangers of instability, climatic distress and violence.

We visited the Laikipia region in June. As shown in the following photographs, we talked with herders and farmers about the devastating drought, the loss of cattle, the violence in the area, intercommunal tensions and the forthcoming elections

CRISIS GROUP/ Nicolas Delaunay

A pastoralist walks with a herd of goats near Ol Moran, where many recent attacks have occurred. The area hosts the headquarters of the Kirima sub-county, a new administrative area created in November 2021 by Kenyas interior ministry to better tackle insecurity in the region.

CRISIS GROUP/ Nicolas Delaunay

Two young Pokot men in Laikipia county. The Pokots are one of the many herder communities in Laikipia, along with the Samburu, Turkana and Maasai. With 1.5 million cattle having died in Kenya as a result of the latest drought, some communities resort to stealing cattle to replenish their herds.

CRISIS GROUP/ Nicolas Delaunay

A dead cow lies near the Sosian conservation area, in Laikipia. A drought compounded by the fourth consecutive failed rainy season has killed at least 7 million animals in the Horn of Africa (including the 1.5 million cattle in Kenya), according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

CRISIS GROUP/ Nicolas Delaunay

Nazanine Moshiri, Crisis Groups Senior Analyst for Climate and Security in Africa, talks to farmers from the Kisii community in Ol Moran.

CRISIS GROUP/ Nicolas Delaunay

A Pokot herder takes his sheep to graze in the area of Posta, Laikipia county. The encroachment of large herds onto farms, private ranches and conservancies, sometimes encouraged by local politicians ahead of elections, has led to violence in some parts of the county.

CRISIS GROUP/ Nicolas Delaunay

An assistant chief from the Deputy County Commissioners Office, David Ndungu Wachira, explains to Pokot herders how they can register for a government program which offers temporary low-paid employment  in this case, rebuilding a local primary school in a violence-affected area.

CRISIS GROUP/ Nicolas Delaunay

A young Pokot herder watches as his cow, starved and weakened, unsuccessfully tries to stand on her feet, in Rumuruti.

CRISIS GROUP/ Nicolas Delaunay

Crisis Groups Nazanine Moshiri talks to Wilson Remoi, a Peace Elder from the Turkana community, in Ol Moran. As a Peace Elder, Wilson engages with the different communities in the region, focusing on the youth, to promote dialogue and peace rather than violence. He also helps negotiate the return of stolen cattle after raids as part of these discussions.

CRISIS GROUP/ Nicolas Delaunay

Two young Samburu herders sit on a fence at the cattle market in Ol Moran.

CRISIS GROUP/ Nicolas Delaunay

Cattle cluster together at a market in Ol Moran. With herders struggling to find pasture for their cattle, many goats, sheep and cows have lost weight and value. Herders at the market told Crisis Group that cows which previously sold for $200-300 are now fetching $40-60.

CRISIS GROUP/ Nicolas Delaunay

Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) personnel drive on a dirt road outside of Ol Moran. The KDF were deployed to the region after a flare-up of violence in September 2021.

CONTRIBUTORS


Final notice for Phuket tsunami evacuation drills

PHUKET: Udomporn Kan, Chief of the Phuket Provincial office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket), yesterday declared that Phuket was ready to hold its tsunami-evacuation drill later today (July 20).

disastersSafetytourism

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 20 July 2022, 10:19AM

Sakhu OrBorTor announced this morning that its tsunami-evacuation drill will be held at 1pm today (July 20). Image: Sakhu OrBorTor

The announcement came through a report posted online by Radio Thailand Phuket at 9:44pm last night.

Of note, the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket) has yet to issue any notices explaining the exercise.

According to the report, Mr Udomporn explained that the exercise today will be held in two parts.

The first part will be officers at District Incident Command Centres and the Phuket Incident Command Centre utilising the training plan as devised by and practiced by what Mr Udomporn called national crisis management C-MEX 22.

The second part of the exercise will be the National Disaster Warning Centre activating the alarm.

The report did not clarify what times the tsunami-warning towers will sound the alarm, despite Mr Udomporn explaining on Monday that all 19 warning towers on the island were to sound the alarm as part of the exercise.

The report posted last night re-confirmed that an evacuation drill will be held in Karon this afternoon.

The report also announced, but for the first time, that an evacuation drill will also be held in Sakhu, just south of Phuket International Airport.

The evacuation drill will simulate the alarm and evacuation response to an underwater earthquake of 7.8 Magnitude triggering a tsunami, Mr Udomporn repeated.

The tsunami warning towers will sound two alerts: the first to warn of an inbound tsunami; the second to instruct people to evacuate to safe zones.

The warnings will be announced in five languages: Thai, English, Japanese, Chinese and Russian.

The report posted last night repeated that all 19 warning towers, covering all three districts will sound the two alerts.

After the exercise, officials will revise how effective the evacuation plan is and make any necessary changes, Mr Udomporn said, according to the report.

Karon Municipality yesterday afternoon broke the silence on when and where the evacuation drills were to take place.

Starting at 2pm, the evacuation drill will begin at Karon Circle, from where participants will make their way to the tsunami safety zone at Wat Suwankhirikhet (Wat Karon), just over 400 metres inland.

That news came through a post shared on the official Facebook page of Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew, not through any other official Phuket channels.

Phuket City Municipality later yesterday afternoon also made its announcement that it will be conducting its tsunami-evacuation drill at 2pm today (July 20)

The municipality invited people in seven areas in Phuket Town that have been identified as risk zones to join the evacuation exercise.

The seven identified risk areas were given as: Saphan Hin Public Park; Saen Suy Community; Soi Ko Phai Community; Ton Pho Community; 40 Hong (40 rooms) Community; Phuket Vocational College; and Baan Bang Neow Municipal School.

However, if you hear the alarm during this time, please dont panic!!! Because its just a planned training session, Phuket City Municipality advised.

The announcement was made so that people would be aware of the roads used as an evacuation route away from Saphan Hin, the notice explained

There may be a loud siren in the area. We apologise for any inconvenience during this time, the municipality said.

Meanwhile, Sakhu Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor) at 9:35am this morning finally issued its notice of the tsunami-evacuation drill to be held at Nai Yang Beach.

Oddly, Sakhu OrBorTor announced that its exercise will begin at 1pm.

Those who are interested in participating in the training can gather together at Sirinath National Park In front of Sakhu Police Station, Sakhu OrBorTor announced.

People with queries were advised to call the DDPM office at Sakhu OrBorTor at 076-328146 ext. 12.
Phuket needs more public rubbish bins, says Swiss consul

PHUKET: Swiss Honorary Consul for Phuket Andrea Kotas Tammathin has called on local government agencies and municipalities across Phuket to provide more rubbish bins for the public to use in the hope of reducing the volume of litter found strewn across the island.

pollutionenvironmentnatural-resources

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 20 July 2022, 05:17PM

Phuket needs more public rubbish bins, says Swiss Honorary Consul for Phuket Andrea Kotas Tammathin. Screenshot: PR Phuket

Ms Tammathin spoke out about Phukets trash problem in a video shared online earlier this month by the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket).

In the video, Ms Tammathin first speaks in English, then repeats her message in very clear spoken Thai.

I live in Phuket and I go for walks all the time. One thing that really upsets me very much is the garbage I see everywhere, Ms Tammathin said in English.

One of the problems is that there are no garbage cans. So if Phuket could invest in more garbage cans, maybe the people would use them, she added.

Speaking in Thai, Ms Tammathin was strong in her message, with moments of exasperation with the problem clearly understood in her expression.

I like very much to take nature walks in the hills of Karon-Kata. It is very beautiful but one thing I do not like very much is the garbage. There are Thais and foreigners alike who just throw it on the ground. They dont care, even if it is plastic, she said.

If I have something to throw away and there are no garbage cans around, I take it back home with me. But some people just dont care. They throw it away amid nature. Its such a waste, she added.

In Thai, Ms Tammathin urged the government to invest in having more garbage cans installed in public areas for people to use.

She also encouraged Thai people to challenge fellow Thais they see throwing trash on the ground, and to ask them whether they loved their country.

Ms Tammathin also noted that the practice of not throwing garbage on the ground was very important for children to witness. They learn from what they see others doing, she said.
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 28C. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 17C. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
FILE - A Chipotle sign hangs outside the chain restaurant in Pittsburgh on Feb. 8, 2016. In June 2022, employees of the Augusta, Maine, Chipotle filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking to hold a union election at the store. The NLRB had scheduled a hearing Tuesday, July 19, 2022, on Chipotles objections to the union election. But early Tuesday, Chipotle announced it was permanently closing the store.
Have an interesting bit of news youd like to see mentioned in the Along the Way column? Email it to Natasha Connolly at news@thesunchronicle.com .
Two police unions in Boston want to roll back limits on when they can use tear gas, pepper spray and other less-than-lethal crowd control methods
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PANAMA CITY (AP)  Three weeks of continuous demonstrations and road blockades to protest high fuel and food costs in Panama have begun to cause shortages of some food products, fuel and medicine.

The closures, including of the Pan-American Highway, have forced the national electric company to ration electricity in Darien province, which borders Colombia. Tankers carrying gas to run the power generation plant cannot arrive. Some 7,000 families have been affected by the reduction of electricity to 11 hours daily.

In Panamas main wholesale market that supplies both supermarkets and individual consumers, there was little foot traffic Wednesday. Display tables usually stacked high with produce had far less on offer. Some vegetables like lettuce and tomatos, in particular, were in short supply.

This stand was always full. Now I dont have many products, said Victor Palacios. Yesterday (Tuesday) there wasnt much merchandise.

He said his produce comes from the highlands in the western province of Chirique. What little has arrived from there is expensive and damaged, Palacios said.

Chiriqui province is Panamas primary supplier of produce. The Indigenous Ngobe-Bugle who live there have blocked important stretches of the Pan-American Highway, holding up trucks trying to get produce to the capital. The blockades are also affecting shipments coming from elsewhere in Central America.

Groups representing agricultural producers have said the protests have caused losses of more than $130 million so far.

Kevin Vigil, director of the wholesale market known as Merca Panama, said the situation had improved somewhat. Protesters had cleared some roadblocks on the Pan-American Highway and he was awaiting a convoy of 30 trucks loaded with food from Chiriqui.

He said what food came in was selling rapidly, leaving some stands with sparse offerings.

As the cargo enters, the stands restock, that is what were trying to do today, to get 80% stocked, he said.

Oxygen had also grown scarce in hospitals in Chiriqui, but the Health Ministry said the company responsible for supplying it had inventory in its warehouse in the provincial capital and was able to resupply the hospitals.
GODFREY  Timber is a young male husky.

He would do well in a home with one owner and no children or other animals.

Alton's Five As would love to for a caring individual adopt Timber for a forever home.

To adopt an animal from Alton's Five As, which stands for Alton Area Animal Aid Association, come out to the shelter and visit the animals. The no-kill shelter is open daily from 11a.m.-3 p.m. Come visit with the animals, fill out some needed paperwork and pay the adoption fee. 5A's is located at 5430 N. Alby St., in Godfrey.

If an animal requires surgery, you will get the animal day of surgery; if they have had their surgery, they are available for adoption that day.

The nonprofit no-kill shelter was organized and opened in 1956 and is an affiliate member of Illinois Federation of Humane Societies and the American Humane Association based in Denver, Colorado. A premier humane shelter in the Riverbend, 5A's has served the area for more than 60 years, providing compassion and care to abused, unwanted and abandoned animals.

The shelter serves Alton, Godfrey, Bethalto, East Alton and Wood River, as well as other adjoining communities. 5A's places approximately 500 "forever friends" into "forever homes" every year. Check out its website regularly for new incoming pet pics and fun upcoming events. Also, to support the shelter, don't forget to check out the area's largest thrift shop, "The 5As Thrift" in North Alton by Joe K's Restaurant.
RABAT, Morocco (AP)  Malis government has given the United Nations mission in Mali spokesman 72 hours to leave the country following a standoff between the West African country and Ivory Coast over the detention of 49 soldiers who came to Mali to support a security group contracted by the U.N. mission.

Malis Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Deputy Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General in Mali, Daniela Kroslak, was told of the decision by Mali to invite U.N. mission spokesman Olivier Salgado to leave the national territory within 72 hours, according to a foreign ministry statement.
EAST ALTON  A two-vehicle crash in East Alton Tuesday has left a motorcyclist in serious condition.

According to East Alton Fire Chief Tim Quigley, at around 5:15 p.m. Tuesday a collision between a car and a motorcycle took place on 9th Street and Haller Drive in East Alton.

Quigley said the motorcyclist was taken to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis by ARCH Airmedical Servics, Inc for a non-life threatening hip injury.

A splint was used to stop the bleeding while the person was being transferred, according to Quigley. He also was told by the East Alton Police Department that the motorcyclist received surgery that night; his current condition is unknown.
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ROME (AP)  Italian Premier Mario Draghi won a confidence vote Wednesday in the Senate, but it was a hollow victory after three of his key coalition allies boycotted the voting, virtually dooming any prospects for his unity government's survival.

The vote Wednesday went 95-38 in the favor of Draghis government in the 315-member Senate, after lawmakers deserted the roll call in droves.

In these days of folly, Parliament decides to go against Italy, tweeted Enrico Letta, a former premier who leads the Democratic Party, the only large party in the ruling coalition to back Draghi in the confidence vote. Italians will show themselves at the ballot box to be wiser than their representatives.

The rapid unraveling of Draghi's 17-month-old coalition could prompt President Sergio Mattarella to dissolve Parliament, opening the path to holding an early election as soon as late September. .

Coalition turmoil prompted Draghi last week to offer his resignation, but Mattarella rejected the bid and asked the premier to take his case to Parliament. After hours of debate Wednesday on his fate, Draghi asked the Senate to vote on a confidence measure calling on him to keep on governing. But his national unity government's staying power dramatically fell apart.

Just before the vote, representatives of the populist 5-Star Movement, the conservative forces of former Premier Silvio Berlusconis center-right Forza Italia party and right-wing senators from Matteo Salvinis League party announced they would skip the roll call.

The coalition's implosion came despite an unprecedented outpouring of sentiment by ordinary Italians in the last few days appealing for Draghi to keep on governing, amid soaring inflation, high energy costs and a surge in pandemic infections.

The former European Central Bank chief  considered by financial markets to be a guarantor of fiscal stability in Italy  had challenged his coalition partners to recommit to a unity pact.

Are you ready? Are you ready to rebuild this pact? Are you ready? Draghi thundered. You dont have to give the answer to me. You have to give it to all Italians.

Assuming Draghi tenders his resignation again, Mattarella could hold a round of consultations with party leaders before deciding his next move.

The president could see if parties might agree to a short-lived, limited government by a non-political figure, like the current finance minister, to help ensure that lawmakers could pass the annual budget, whose first draft is due in mid-October. But with a raft of Italian parties already proclaiming themselves ready for an early election, that appeared unlikely.

Opinion polls of voters have indicated neck-to-neck percentages for Letta and Giorgia Meloni, who leads the far-right Brothers of Italy party, the main opposition party now. If Meloni stays teamed up with her traditional allies, Salvini and Berlusconi, in an election alliance, she stands a good chance of clinching her goal of becoming Italy's first female premier.

Lettas Democrats had been counting on an election alliance with the 5-Stars, but the split over the confidence vote makes that difficult.

"Nothing will be the same tomorrow, as political parties go,'' said Matteo Renzi, another former premier who leads a centrist party that voted for Draghi.

In recent weeks, Draghi was bombarded with ultimatums from 5-Star leader Giuseppe Conte, his predecessor in the premiership. The populists have criticized Italian military help for Ukraine, as did Salvini. That prompted one lawmaker last week to describe Draghi's impending departure as a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Draghi has also pressed efforts to slash Italy's dependence on Russian gas, including forging agreements with Algeria, which he visited this week.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The United States is putting pressure on Mexico over energy policies that Washington says unfairly favor Mexico's state-owned electricity and oil companies over American competitors and clean-energy suppliers.

The U.S. is demanding talks to resolve the dispute, starting a process Wednesday that could end in trade sanctions against Mexico.

We have repeatedly expressed serious concerns about a series of changes in Mexico's energy policies and their consistency with Mexico's commitments,'' U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement. She said U.S. companies continue to face unfair treatment in Mexico.''

Mexico acknowledged Wednesday it had received a similar request for consultations from Canada. Mexico's Economy Department said because the Canadian request has certain elements in common with the U.S. request, Mexico will seek to maintain a coordinated process with both trading partners.

Among the specific issues in dispute is an amendment to Mexican law last year that the United States says gives an unfair edge to electricity produced by Mexico's state-owned utility Federal Electricity Commission over energy from private companies and over cleaner sources such as wind and solar.

The United States also protests a 2019 regulation that gives only state oil and gas company Petroleos Mexicanos extra time to comply with tougher environmental standards limiting the sulfur allowed in automotive diesel fuel.

The U.S. also accused Mexico of delaying, rejecting or failing to act on private companies' applications for permits to operate in the energy business and of revoking or suspending existing permits.

Mexico's policies have largely cut off U.S. and other investment in the country's clean energy infrastructure, including significant steps to roll back reforms Mexico previously made to meet its climate goals under the Paris Agreement,'' Tai's office said in a statement.

The Mexican government tried to downplay the controversy, presenting it as an ordinary process between countries.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday relations with the U.S. government were good and that the dispute was driven by Mexican companies opposed to his administration and who lobby on the issue.

If the two countries cannot reach an agreement after 75 days of talks, the U.S. can request intervention by a dispute resolution panel under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA, that could result in sanctions against Mexico if the United States prevails. The pact, negotiated by President Donald Trump, replaced the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

The government of Mexico expresses its willingness to reach a mutually satisfactory solution during the consultation phase, the Economy Ministry said in a statement.

That ministry, which will lead the negotiations, pointed out that this is the fourth time this mechanism has been used since the free-trade agreement went into effect two years ago. It was first employed by the U.S. against Canada over milk quotas, then by Canada against the U.S. over tariffs on Canadian solar panels. Mexico and Canada used it to challenge the U.S. interpretation of a provision about where auto parts have to originate to qualify for duty-free status under the deal.

Lopez Obrador said there was no complaint on the subject during his meeting with U.S. and Mexican businessmen in Washington earlier this month and that he told Biden that Mexico is investing in the update of hydroelectric plants and will create new solar plants in the northern border.

____

Verza reported from Mexico City.
The elderly could be suffering a silent epidemic of fraud after it emerged the over-70s have lost almost 1 billion over the past three years.

And experts fear the true figure could be higher, as many pensioners are too scared to report crimes or dont realise theyve been a victim.

Money Mail analysis of Action Fraud figures reveals scam victims aged over 70 lost about 977 million in total between April 2019 and 2022.

'Silent epidemic': Our analysis of Action Fraud figures reveals that scam victims aged over 70 lost almost 977 million in total between April 2019 and 2022

The very elderly, aged between 90 and 99, reported 116 million stolen, an average of 6,097 each.

And this is despite the age group accounting for 19,059 of the total 178,772 cases logged among the over-70s.

People in their 20s and 30s typically reported the most incidents of fraud, but their losses averaged less than half those of the over-90s, at 2,391  825 million over the same period.

Of all age groups, it was victims in their 50s who suffered the biggest total loss in each one of the three years, Action Frauds figures show.

Professor Keith Brown, formerly of Bournemouth University and an expert in safeguarding adults, says: The fraud that occurs among elderly people who live alone is under-reported. Many older victims are too ashamed to come forward.

And vulnerable elderly people, such as those with dementia, are at higher risk as they are unlikely to realise they have been scammed.

Its a silent epidemic. If you have elderly relatives, or people you care for, you can almost assume they are going to be a victim.

The Daily Mail revealed last month that Britain has become the fraud capital of the world and is campaigning for a major overhaul to the system.

When confronted with this investigation on LBC radio, technology and digital economy minister Chris Philp admitted fraud is a huge problem and  shockingly  still growing.

'Identity theft left me vulnerable' An identity thief used Annette Culshaw's details to sign up to a 39.70 a month O2 contract A retired photographer is worried her credit rating will be ruined after she fell victim to identity fraud. Annette Culshaw, 72, received a letter last month claiming she had bought an Apple iPhone and signed up to a 36-month contract with O2, costing 39.70 a month. She went straight to her local O2 shop, but says they merely told her she had been a victim of identity fraud, and gave her a number for their fraud team. Annette, who lives with her husband in Kent, posted about her experience on local website Nextdoor, and discovered that within a five-mile radius of her home ten other people had fallen victim to the same scam. Annette is now worried she will be hit with further debt demands, which could impact her credit rating. She says: I feel vulnerable and scared about other things being bought in my name that I wont know about until I get letters requesting payment. After Money Mail intervened, an O2 spokesperson confirmed they had closed the fraudulent account.

He also warned that Google and Facebook need to do a lot more to stop peoples money disappearing in a puff of smoke after responding to a fraudulent advert online.

One major bank says its figures also show the amount of money lost to fraud increases with the victims age.

Liz Ziegler, director of fraud and financial crime at Lloyds Bank, explains: Older people tend to be at higher risk of more complex scams, like investment, impersonation or romance scams, with fraudsters going to great lengths to convince their victim to hand over their cash.

This is in contrast to the more common purchase scam, where we typically see younger people tricked into buying things such as fake trainers, with the amounts involved smaller overall but occurring more frequently.

Experts suggest older generations are more at risk from impersonation scams, where they are pressured into sending money to crooks posing as banks and tax officials, as they are more obedient when confronted by figures of authority.

Fraudsters also know younger people typically have less money to lose, whereas those approaching retirement have often accrued large sums of savings.

Professor Brown adds: Its about loneliness, too. Older people who live alone and do not have someone in the house to sense check things are more susceptible to coercive control.

The concerns follow reports last week that sensitive and private data of wealthy elderly people is being sold to scammers on Facebook for as little as 16p.

Posts advertising data for sale such as UK old age high income leads are prevalent on the social networking site, according to an investigation by the BBC.

'I felt desolate after 6,000 loss' Tricked: David Bale handed over 6,000 to scammers posing as TSB employees David Bale, 77, from Peterborough was tricked into handing over 6,000 to scammers who posed as TSB Bank employees. The crooks called to say his account had been compromised and that he needed to transfer his money to a safe account. David was suspicious at first, but reassured by the fact they knew his password and special phrase as well as his mothers maiden name. So he allowed them to transfer 6,000 from his current and savings account as requested. But he had a sinking feeling the moment he put the phone down and called TSBs fraud department immediately. The former actor and English teacher says: I felt completely desolate really. It wasnt the loss of the money  it was the feeling that Id been completely made a fool of. He later discovered the fraudsters had access to his personal details because he had fallen victim to another scam three months earlier. David had received an email to say his television licence fee had not been paid, and provided his bank details, The criminals had then used this information to convince him that they were calling from his bank. He says: There are a lot of these scams, and theyre getting more and more convincing. And its increasingly dangerous for elderly people and people who are less familiar with the internet. TSB reimbursed him the 6,000 under its fraud refund guarantee scheme.

Around 85 per cent of over-65s have been targeted by a scam this year, according to Citizens Advice. And nearly a third of over-65s are bombarded by scam calls, texts and emails daily, a YouGov survey revealed. But experts fear many of those who fall victim are not telling the police or their bank.

More than 900,000 people in the UK are living with dementia, according to the Alzheimers Society. This is projected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040.

People over 70 are far more likely to be preyed on by nuisance callers, according to National Trading Standards (NTS).

Those who respond to scam calls and mail can be added onto suckers lists, leading to people being repeatedly targeted. The average age of someone on this type of list is 73, according to NTS.

These victims can also be regularly asked for charity donations or pressured into buying goods.

Age UK has previously warned that older people are at increased risk of doorstep crime.

The Mail heard from one 95-year-old victim who was harassed at home by fraudsters posing as their bank. The crook called to say the account had been drained by scammers and that a courier would be sent to destroy his bank card.

Duped: Experts suggest older generations are more at risk from impersonation scams, where they are pressured into sending money to crooks posing as banks, tax officials and the police

A woman turned up ten minutes later, with a pair of scissors, and pretended to cut up his debit card. But it was a ruse and the criminals used his card to steal 2,300.

A relative told the Mail the elderly man has become anxious and its affecting his breathing. There are also concerns the push towards online banking is leaving older people, many of whom are nervous about the internet, exposed.

Simon Hewett-Avison, director of services at Independent Age, says: Closing bank branches is piling anxiety onto older people. Many depend on local branches to access support. Were concerned branch closures may mean older people turn to someone untrustworthy.

Have you fallen victim to a scam? Write to us at moneymail@dailymail.co.uk
As the nation swelters and temperatures reach record highs, heating our homes might be the last thing on our minds.

But fears are growing that Britain is heading for another winter of discontent, with energy bills set to exceed 3,200 a year  around a third of the typical state pension.

At the same time firms have been accused of overcharging customers after miscalculating their monthly direct debit payments. It means thousands of households may be entitled to refunds.

Fears are growing Britain is headed for another winter of discontent, with energy bills set to exceed 3,200 a year - around a third of the typical state pension

Analysts predict that the energy price cap could rise by a further 65 per cent this October  a figure consumer champion Martin Lewis branded sickening.

Mr Lewis went even further yesterday to warn lives could be lost if more isnt done to soften the blow of soaring bills this winter.

Meanwhile, major providers have raised eyebrows after reporting huge profits.

For the first quarter of the year Shell made 7.3 billion, while E.ON said it expects to rake in 6.5 bilion for 2022.

It is a national disgrace, says Scott Byrom from The Energy Shop.

Households are really going to struggle this winter while suppliers are profiteering. As for Christmas, Im telling elderly relatives that they can forget buying me a present. Their money needs to be saved for bills.

HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP How do energy deals cost now? This is Money and Compare the Market can compare prices

Sky-high bills

But how do you know if bill increases are fair or if you should challenge them?

Analysis by watchdog Ofgem found that more than seven million households on a standard variable tariff (SVT) saw their direct debit payments jump by an average of 62 per cent between February and April 2022.

Its review found that five firms had moderate or severe weaknesses in the way they calculated direct debit payments.

These were Ecotricity, Good Energy, Green Energy UK, TruEnergy and Utilita Energy. A further seven  including Bulb, E.ON, Octopus, Shell and Ovo  were found to have minor weaknesses.

Ofgem said it found no evidence of unjustifiably high direct debits. However, it did note that the five worst suppliers processes were not as robust as they could be leading to inconsistent, incorrect or poor treatment for customers.

These firms have been told to submit an action plan by July 27 to set out how they will rectify any inaccurate bills.

My bills jumped 238% Refund: Lucy Hilton complained to EON after they hiked her monthly bill by 238% Lucy Hilton was hit with a 550 demand from her provider E.ON after her bill for her one- bedroom flat in Manchester was hiked 238 per cent to 200 per month. But when she raised a complaint, she discovered she was actually owed 150. Lucy, 33, then managed to get her monthly bill down to 120, but still feels she is overpaying. After a lengthy chat with a customer service representative they found E.ON had been overestimating my direct debits and actually owed me money, she says. I ended up 150 in credit rather than 550 in debt, which had caused a lot of panic and anxiety.

And all providers must now review any cases where direct debits increased by more than 100 per cent between February and April this year.

According to Ofgem, around 500,000 SVT customers are potentially entitled to a rebate or a goodwill payment.

Good Energy says it has already completed an internal review and adjusted credit balances that needed to be changed. Meanwhile, Octopus and British Gas say they constantly review direct debit payments and will update customers accordingly.

A spokesman for Utilita also confirms it is reviewing any cases where bills rose by more than 100 per cent  and will feed back findings to Ofgem.

If you think you have been wrongly billed, experts recommend first speaking to your supplier. Anyone who is unhappy with the outcome can then take their complaint to the Energy Ombudsman.

Between January and March this year, the Ombudsman received 19,352 complaints, up 26 per cent on the last three months of last year.

Billing disputes accounted for more than a fifth of all cases. Emily Seymour, sustainability editor at consumer body Which?, says: To ensure you are not being overcharged, send your energy supplier regular meter readings.

You should have a buffer of credit on your account that builds up over summer and depletes over winter, but it shouldnt be an excessively large amount  which could indicate your direct debits are set too high.

Citizens Advice recommends keeping enough money in your account to cover one months supply.

Some suppliers refund credit balances at the end of each year. But you can request a refund yourself. Ofgem says firms must pay these promptly unless they have reasonable grounds not to.

Hikes: Analysis by Ofgem found over seven million households on a standard variable tariff saw their direct debit payments jump by an average of 62% between February and April 2022

Credit chaos

An industry row is brewing over how to best protect credit balances. It recently emerged that many now-defunct firms were misusing customer cash to fund their own business operations. Around 400 million of credit evaporated with the collapse of 28 firms.

The supplier of last resort appointed to take over customers accounts should refund what is owed. But many households are still waiting.

The chaos has prompted a crackdown by Ofgem, with its chief executive saying firms must not spend customer cash as though it were an interest-free company credit card.

Ofgem is now consulting on a plan to ringfence credit balances  a plan backed by most of the nations biggest providers including E.ON and British Gas. However, Octopus Energy is conspicuously failing to back the proposals as it claims the initiative would drive up customer bills.

The firm is bidding to take over Bulb, which went into administration in November.

Beware fees

It might be tempting to lock into a fixed tariff now to get ahead of looming price rises. But these deals are few and far between.

Joe Malinowski, of The Energy Shop, says: If you can find a deal that would cost the average household under 3,000 a year it might be wise to lock into it but nobody is offering those. Any deal more expensive than that is pointless as you will end up paying a winter premium in August.

Ms Seymour adds that households should be wary of hefty exit fees attached to fixed deals.

Time is also running out to claim the Governments council tax rebate  worth 150. The deadline for applications is July 31.

Local authorities are concerned not enough taxpayers are claiming the cash.

Guildford Borough Council says one in three eligible households in its area had failed to submit a claim by the end of June.

h.kelly@dailymail.co.uk
As Money Mail Editor, I have no problem calling out financial firms if they try to pull a fast one.

At times, l admit, I almost enjoy holding their feet to the fire. But thats because Im confident in my knowledge of this field; I have a good idea of what is fair and when companies are breaking the rules.

Yet when it comes to dealing with skilled tradesmen such as builders, plumbers, electricians and the like, I am entirely at their mercy  and they know it.

There are thousands of honest tradesmen out there who do a fantastic job for a fair price. But often it's not easy to find one

Take my experience last weekend, for example. My husband and I are looking to have our modest, two-bedroom flat repainted. So we asked a decorator recommended by a friend to give us a quote.

Full of charm, he wandered around for a few minutes before presenting me with his best price.

This turned out to be a jaw-dropping 7,500. When I balked, he swiftly knocked off 2,000  so much for his best price.

Now, Im all for haggling, but thats a liberty and 5,500 still sounds far too high to me. Yet I dont really know how long the job should take or what a fair price is for that amount of work. And he spun a good yarn about the intricacies of painting a wall white.

So we got a second quote, which came in at around 1,300. This should have been brilliant news. But now the if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is warning bell was chiming in my ears.

We arent expecting Picasso, but wed like to avoid a disaster.

I know there are thousands of honest tradesmen out there who do a fantastic job for a fair price. But how do you find them?

And if you know of any in South London, please give me their number! In the meantime, another firm with good reviews online is coming out next week, so Ill keep you posted.

Tempting disaster

Why, amid a cost-of-living crisis, is Tesco Bank actively encouraging customers to increase their credit card limit?

Ive had the same cap for years and never come close to maxing it out. So I was surprised to receive an email out of the blue this week informing me that Im eligible for a 2,000 uplift.

Requesting an increase is easy, it said. And, as if the bank knew it was treading a dangerous line, added: But theres an increased risk you might take on too much debt, which may be costly or take longer to pay off. So you should think carefully about whether you need a higher credit limit.

Thats a bit of a cheek, given the idea hadnt crossed my mind until Tesco waved it under my nose.

Eyes peeled...

Another reminder to check your bank statements carefully, as BT recently helped itself to an extra tenner from my account without warning.

The telecoms giant hadnt bothered to alert me that my contract was about to end or that my bill would increase as a result.

No doubt it hoped I wouldnt notice  never mind that it had only just dished out a 10 pc price hike in April.

After making a complaint, the money was refunded. But surely an email reminding loyal customers to renew their deal is not too much to expect?

Best the M&S pest

My least favourite thing about shopping in M&S is its ear-splitting self-service checkout machines.

Over and over again a womans voice screeches the same message: Someone gets their shopping for free every week in this store. Scan your Sparks card and it could be you.

Following an in-depth research project (in which I spoke to five colleagues), Im confident Im not the only one who finds this irritating. So you, too, may be thrilled to learn there is a volume (or mute) button at the bottom of the main screen.

I couldnt believe it when my husband casually tapped it last weekend, as if everyone is aware of its existence.

While on the topic of M&S, Id also be curious to know if any Money Mail readers have ever won their shopping for free after scanning their Sparks card?

Let me know by writing to the email address below.

v.bischoff@dailymail.co.uk
Shares in Haleon fell for a second day after the consumer health giant became Europes biggest stock market listing for a decade.

The demerged company, which owns brands including Sensodyne and Panadol, joined the London exchange on Monday following its split from drugs group GSK.

The shares started trading at 330p  valuing it at 30.5billion  but ended their first day at 308p.

Haleon, which owns brands including Sensodyne and Panadol, joined the London exchange on Monday following its split from drugs group GSK

The slide continued yesterday, with the stock down another 2.4 per cent, or 7.35p, to 301p, giving Haleon a value of less than 28billion.

That is enough to make it one of the biggest 20 companies on the FTSE 100 index, and including its debts of 10billion gives Haleon an enterprise value of close to 38billion.

But that is well below the 50billion offered in an audacious takeover swoop by consumer goods giant Unilever earlier this year  a proposal roundly rejected by GSK management.

With City analysts poring over the company, Barclays issued an equal weight rating and target price of 348p compared with a buy rating from UBS alongside a 380p target price.

There was better news for GSK after its shares bounced back after taking a hit from the Haleon demerger. Shares rose 2.7 per cent, or 46.15p, to 1783.4p.

The FTSE 100 was up 1.01 per cent, or 73.04 points, to 7296.28 and the FTSE 250 rose 1.41 per cent, or 267.44 points, to 19282.59.

The gains came on a day of mixed official figures. While the number in work jumped by 296,000, UK pay tumbled at its fastest rate on record amid the cost of living crisis.

Stock Watch - Photo-Me International Shares in Photo-Me International surged after it cashed in on soaring demand for passports following the easing of Covid restrictions. In an upbeat update, the passport photo booth and launderette operator said it expects revenue growth of at least 20 per cent for the full year compared with 2021. Photo-Me has forecast annual profits of between 79million and 84million as long as no further restrictions are imposed. Shares shot up 18.5 per cent, or 14.8p, to 95p.

Informa provided some welcome news for investors after reiterating its guidance on revenue and profit.

The blue-chip exhibitions organiser last month hiked its full-year expectations to the higher end of the guidance range provided in March. With the new outlook still intact, shares rose 5.9 per cent, or 31.6p, to 568.6p.

Shares in Biffa climbed in early trading after it sealed a ten-year contract to manage the UKs first Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers  collecting bottles and cans  in Scotland.

The mid-cap waste management firm will take charge of the scheme, which begins next August, with a 20p refundable deposit given for drinks containers between 50ml and three litres that customers return to one of the collection sites. But the shares ended the day down 1 per cent, or 3.8p, at 361p.

Shares in Wise rose 14.9 per cent, or 52.1p, to 400.8p as the money transfer giant said it expects to report revenue growth of between 30 per cent and 35 per cent for the full year.

Joules rose 2.3 per cent, or 0.5p, to 22p after the Yummy mummy fashion brand said its full-year profits were likely to beat market expectations following a series of cost-cutting measures.

4imprint stormed towards the top of the FTSE 250 leaderboard. The marketing firm, which makes promotional products such as bags and pens, said it expects to meet or exceed its target of 830million in revenue during this financial year.

The firm now expects operating profit for the full year 2022 to be at least 62million, beating analysts forecasts.

Peel Hunt maintained its buy rating and set a target price of 3900p as shares climbed 18.85 per cent, or 460p, to 2900p.

In The Style was out of fashion, however, saying it is planning for revenue to be broadly flat for 2023 and expects a 2million loss.

The warning came as the digital womenswear brand reported a 28 per cent increase in revenues to 57.3million for its first full year as a public company. Profits fell to 0.6million from 3.8million a year earlier.

Analysts at Liberum said they see a clear path for the group to return to profitability at the end of 2024.

The broker reiterated its buy rating but cut the target price to 120p from 150p as shares tumbled 32.9 per cent, or 24.5p, to 50p.
Britain's biggest building society slashed its branch opening hours due to the 'extreme weather' conditions.

Around 12 of Nationwide's 630 sites amended their opening hours on Monday and Tuesday to allow for travel disruption.

One in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, closed completely because it did not have air conditioning.

Around 12 of Nationwide's 630 sites amended their opening hours on Monday and Tuesday to allow for travel disruption

A message on the building society's website says the closures were 'for the wellbeing of our members and staff'.

Last month, Nationwide pledged to keep 625 branches in operation until 2024 to assist with the cost of living crisis. It has already closed four branches this year and is set to close another three before 2023.

This is part of a wider exodus of banks from the High Street, as they urge customers to use online services instead.

Barclays, for example, will close 103 branches this year, while the NatWest group is closing the doors on 67 sites.

A spokesman for Nationwide says: 'We updated our branch finder online to let members know of these changes. We apologise for any inconvenience.'

All branches should be open as normal from today.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Moscow did not see any desire from Ukraine to fulfil the terms of what he described as a preliminary peace deal agreed to in March.

Putin, speaking to reporters in televised comments after a visit to Iran, said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were offering to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, which Moscows forces invaded in late February.

There was no immediate response from the Ukrainian government to Putins remarks in the early hours of Wednesday.

Putin, asked about a possible meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Kyiv had not stuck to the terms of a preliminary peace deal he said had been practically achieved in March, without elaborating.

The final result of course depends on the willingness of the contracting parties to implement the agreements that were reached. Today we see the powers in Kyiv have no such desire.

Negotiations took place in March, with both sides making proposals but without a breakthrough. At the time, Zelenskiy said only a concrete result from the talks could be trusted.

Putin met Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Tuesday, deepening ties between the two countries who are both under Western sanctions.

During the visit to Iran, Putin also met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to discuss a deal that would resume Ukraines Black Sea grain exports, now blockaded by Russia.

Russia was ready to facilitate Ukrainian grain exports by the Black Sea, but also wanted the remaining curbs on Russian grain exports to be removed, said Putin, who was shown by Rossiya state TV answering questions from media at the end of his visit to Iran.

On Tuesday the Russian leader had said not all the issues had been resolved yet on grain shipments, but the fact that there is movement is already good.

It was Putins first in-person meeting with a NATO leader since Russian troops invaded and was a pointed message to the West about Russian plans to forge closer strategic ties with Iran, China and India to help offset Western sanctions imposed over the invasion.

ISOLATED

The trip shows how isolated Russia has become, said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.

Kirby also said the United States was preparing to unveil another weapons package for Ukraine. Citing U.S. intelligence, he accused Russia of laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory, which the Russian embassy denied.

The Kremlin has said there is no time limit to a conflict it calls a special military operation to ensure its own security. Ukraine and the West condemn it as an unprovoked war of aggression against its neighbour.

Russia was trying to drag Ukraine into a protracted conflict into the winter, Zelenskiys chief of staff Andriy Yermak said in a magazine interview published on Tuesday.

It is very important for us not to enter the winter. After winter, when the Russians will have more time to dig in, it will certainly be more difficult for any Ukrainian counter-offensive, Yermak said.

Russias offensive in the eastern Donbas region continues to make minimal gains as Ukrainian forces hold the line, British military intelligence said on Wednesday.

More than two weeks have passed since Russias last major territorial gain  capturing the city of Lysychansk in the Donbas.

Ukraines general staff reported widespread shelling and attacks in various areas of the country.

In the Bakhmut direction, the occupiers are conducting combat operations with the aim of creating conditions for an offensive on the city of Bakhmut and taking over the territory of the Vuglegirsk power plant, the general staff said.

There is a shortage of ammunition, food and water in the enemy units, it added, without elaborating.

Five civilians had been killed and 16 had been wounded by Russian forces in the Donetsk region, while two civilians had been killed by shelling in the city of Nikopol in the south, the respective regional governors said on Telegram.

Reuters could not immediately verify the Ukrainian accounts.

At least one person was killed in a Russian missile strike on the centre of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, authorities said.

I felt a really powerful explosion and I understood it was somewhere here, said Valentina, 70-year-old local resident whose son-in-law, Maksym, was critically injured in the attack.

I called my daughter and she says that Maksym is not picking up the phone. He must have been knocked off then, she cried.

GAS EXPORTS

As the war drags on, concerns that Russia may halt supplies of natural gas to Europe have risen.

In response, the European Union is considering a voluntary 15% cut in natural gas use by its member states beginning next month, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing EU diplomats.

Brussels is expected to publish plans on Wednesday for how the 27 EU members can reduce gas use. The exact number for the reduction target was not specified in a draft document of the plan seen by Reuters.

Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) was ready to fulfil its obligations on gas exports, Putin said, and was not to blame for a reduction in gas transit capacity, including shutting down one of the routes via Ukraine to Europe by Kyiv.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Civilians in a part of northern Togo attacked by suspected Islamist militants last week have been fleeing their homes en masse to seek refuge in nearby cities, a local mayor said.

More than 25 people were killed in the attacks on four villages in the Kpendjal district, near the border with Burkina Faso, two local activists told Reuters. The government said a number of people were killed but did not say how many.

People are leaving their villages en masse, Arzoume Sambiani, the mayor of a part of Kpendjal, said in a statement on Monday.

He urged civilians to return to their villages and resume their everyday activities while avoiding travel after dark. Togos government declared a state of emergency last month across the wider Savanes region in the north.

Togo has experienced a spate of attacks this year linked to a spillover of jihadist violence that has ravaged its northern neighbours in the Sahel region over the past decade.

Militant violence previously confined to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has been spreading into coastal West African countries, including Benin and Ivory Coast, despite the presence of foreign troops across the region.

SOURCE: REUTERS
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BETHLEHEM - The state Department of Environmental Conservation granted the Port of Albany a special waiver in March to move ahead with a now-controversial plan to clear-cut 80 acres along the Hudson River in Glenmont in preparation for a massive, $350 million wind turbine tower manufacturing operation.

The waiver, also called a "limited exception" in a DEC letter to the port, was issued March 31. It allowed the port to move ahead with tree-cutting at the site, known as Beacon Island, before obtaining "all necessary permits" that were required under state law.

The tree-clearing at Beacon Island has been a lightning rod for criticism since Glenmont residents living near the site complained to state and local officials that they were not adequately notified of the wind turbine tower manufacturing project, which the state has been pushing now for years to supply wind turbines to massive offshore wind farms being built off Long Island.

The group of Glenmont residents has since sued the port and the town of Bethlehem to try to reverse local approvals for the wind turbine tower project, considered one of the biggest economic development projects in recent Capital Region history.

The project has the support of the state's top political leaders, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer.

That special waiver, described in a letter from the DEC to the port that was obtained by the Times Union, shows that DEC gave the port until May 15 to complete the limited tree clearing project, which cost the port nearly $1 million.

DECLETTER (1) by rkarlin on Scribd

In an interview with the Times Union, Rich Hendrick, CEO of the Port of Albany, said that the waiver was needed to keep the port on its required construction schedule.

One of the issues that could have derailed that, Hendrick said, was the migration pattern of the northern long-eared bat, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to classify as endangered.

The state's voluntary guidelines to protect the bats include a request that all commercial tree-cutting take place between November and the end of March to protect bats that are nesting in trees in New York from spring to fall.

"That would have (held up) the project," Hendrick said.

The DEC waiver letter doesn't specifically mention bat migration as a reason why the port requested the waiver. Instead, it says the reason is due to meeting a contract condition with Equinor, the Norway energy company developing the wind farms.

The Port of Albany "has indicated that to meet its contractual obligations with Equinor to be operational by Dec. 1, 2023, tree clearing must take place by mid-April 2022 to facilitate site preparation," the March 31 waiver letter states.

The letter does state that if any bats were found on Beacon Island, DEC had to be notified.

"If any bats are observed flying from a tree that will be cut, work activities shall be stopped immediately," the letter states.

It's unclear how much DEC's waiver caused the federal government to get upset with the port, which has yet to get all of its required federal permits as well. The port was awarded a $29.5 million grant that was obtained by Schumer from the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the money is technically in jeopardy now that the port moved ahead with the tree-cutting without the required federal approvals, let alone the state permits.

Hendrick said state environmental regulations are stricter than federal rules so he is not worried about losing the grant. He said the project is under intense pressure since it is the first of its kind in the nation to build the green economy and fight climate change. He said he hasn't heard from anybody at the federal level complaining about the tree-cutting.

"I haven't been told, so I really can't comment on that," Hendrick said. "Right now, as far as I am concerned, they are all rumors."
RHINEBECK  Jamie Cheney is talking about her abortion.

A candidate for the 19th Congressional District, which stretches from Hudson to Ithaca, Cheney released a campaign video Monday in which she discusses her reasons for having the medical procedure.

In an interview with the Times Union, Cheney talked about the abortion, why she is disclosing it, and why her experience makes her a natural advocate in a post-Roe world.

Cheney has a specific antibody deficiency, a rare immune disease that can turn a common cold into a major infection, she said. She now treats the malady by getting monthly blood plasma transfusions, but in her 30s, she was beset by a severe infection while she was pregnant.

People with compromised immune systems can eventually become immune to the large number of antibiotics they must take, and Cheney went through three or four different antibiotics fighting the infection with no effect, she said.

A doctor finally recommended a new medication, but one that would have "substantial health impacts on the fetus," Cheney said. Before she took the medication, she decided to terminate the nine-week pregnancy.

"The decision to have a termination is an incredibly hard choice that no woman takes lightly," Cheney said. "It's also a traumatic physical procedure, even in the first trimester, so when I hear language around the idea that women are making this decision casually, or treating this as a form of birth control  no woman who has actually been through this decision-making process or this physical procedure could ever validate that."

Cheney said she had previously shared the information on a "need-to-know basis," and has chosen to go public about it in part to help break the social stigma of abortion, something she says should be considered equivalent to any other medical procedure.

In addition to the video, Cheney brings up her abortion on the campaign trail, she said, using it as an illustrative example for district residents who are opposed to abortion.

Abortion opponents usually ask about "the stability of my life," Cheney said, and are surprised to learn the candidate  who is married, financially stable, and had chosen to get pregnant  needed an abortion.

"Being able to speak to that personal story makes someone a much stronger advocate, and while I think many people ... can advocate for this from a policy perspective, being able to advocate for a policy with an intuitive understanding of the impact on the lives of women is a key piece ... in protecting this right going forward," she said.

Cheney also took issue with the position of Republican Marc Molinaro, who has said he is pro-choice while pointing out abortion is codified in New York state law. Cheney is vying against fellow Democrat Josh Riley in the Aug. 23 primary to take Molinaro on in the midterm elections.

Congress is a federal office, Cheney said, and Molinaro "needs to be very, very clear how he would vote on any federal ban."

Cheney, a businesswoman and farm owner living in Dutchess County, recently raised more than $400,000 in individual contributions, matching funding taken in by the Riley and Molinaro campaigns.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Suzanne McLeod, Binghamton University, State University of New York

(THE CONVERSATION) Worried your kids will forget what they learned in school over the summer? Scholars have been studying the problem for over a century.

When William White, a New York state mathematics professor, set out in the early 1900s to study how much math students remembered over summer vacation, he checked to see how well they would do at the start of school on a test like the one they had taken at the end of the previous school year.

Whereas second graders on average got nine out of 70 questions wrong in June, after the summer break on average they got 25 out of 70 wrong on the same test. But after two weeks of drills, the number of answers the students got wrong dropped to 15.

Whites study  titled Reviews Before and After Vacation and published in 1906  concluded that that which is least vital is first to be lost.

Whites study is also one of the first to identify what educators today refer to as summer learning loss  which is the negative effect that a long summer break has on students ability to remember facts and skills they had learned the previous school year.

Effects on student achievement

Studies of summer loss increased in the 1990s as Congress began to place a bigger emphasis on holding schools accountable for the achievement of all students.

Over the summer, students typically lose the equivalent of about a months worth of learning, mostly in the areas of math facts and spelling. Research has also found that summer learning loss is more severe among students with disabilities, English language learners and students living in poverty.

But researchers understanding of summer loss is continually evolving. For instance, one study found that the students who experienced the biggest losses were the ones who had shown the biggest gains just before the test at the end of the school year. This raises questions about whether their gains were true gains or just the result of special preparation for the test.

A longer school year?

Some people have argued that summer loss wouldnt occur if the U.S. had a longer school year or year-round school. For instance, they point to countries like China, where the school year is 245 days, as opposed to the traditional 180-day school year in the U.S. China is ranked first in the top 20 nations in terms of student scores in math, science and reading. The U.S. is ranked No. 25 out of 77 countries and is several points behind Australia, Switzerland, Norway and the Czech Republic, which are ranked 21 to 24, respectively.

But shorter school years dont always result in lower test scores. For instance, students in Ireland outscore American students on math, science and reading by an average of 10 points, according to the Program for International Student Assessment, better known as PISA, yet attend school for only 167 days, or 13 days fewer than in the U.S.

How parents and caregivers can limit summer loss

Some parents take advantage of school-based programs that can help students keep up their academic skills during the summer. But there are still ways that parents and other caregivers can stave off summer loss that do not involve school. Here are six:

1. Model what you want to see: First and foremost, never forget that you are a role model. Children will do what they see the adults around them do. Summer is the perfect time for you to reduce screen time and increase time reading, writing, taking walks, playing games or having conversations.

2. Visit the library: Children love independence. One of the best ways to allow children to demonstrate independence is to have them browse the shelves of the local library and select books that they can read independently or for you to read aloud to them. Participate in story hours if your local library offers the activity. Establish a habit of visiting the library on a weekly basis or at least several times a month. These library visits will strengthen a childs reading skills.

3. Play games during trips: When traveling by car, bus or train, there are games  both word and number  that you can engage in with your children. For instance, you can play I Spy with My Little Eye, estimate the number of fast-food restaurants youll pass or even look for all the words that begin with a certain letter. These activities not only keep children engaged but also incrementally sharpen their skills in a wide range of academic areas such as literacy, numeracy and communication.

4. Encourage your children to keep a summer journal: To get them started, suggest one journal entry of 10 Things I Want to Do Before Summer is Over. The list can include activities like watching the sunrise, going an entire day without wearing shoes or seeing how far they can spit a watermelon seed. To make the journal more interesting, encourage children to fill it with both writing and drawing.

5. Visit landmarks: Plan visits to acquaint you and your children with local landmarks. Document the visit with a journal entry, drawings or photographs and some research on the history of the site. The excursions can become even more meaningful if you have children do a little research into the landmarks you visit.

6. Plan weekly family picnics: Vary the meals to include breakfast, lunch, dinner or even dessert. Let your children plan the menu and cook with you, as well as select the site for the picnics. Research has found that involving children in the preparation of meals by doing things such as making grocery lists can help improve their reading, writing and math skills.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/6-ways-to-keep-kids-school-skills-sharp-over-the-summer-186437.
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GLENVILLE  Neighbors have expressed concern over an abandoned school building that changed ownership in recent years, with plans for development that never came to fruition.

One neighbor expressed how the former Glenhaven Elementary School in the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake district has become a safety hazard for children who approach the building, whose condition has continued to decline over the years.

Kids are walking around it, its really deteriorated, and no one is doing anything, said the Glenville resident who asked not to be named. Its becoming dangerous.

After it ceased to be a school, it was turned into the Hostetter Leadership Building/District Offices for the BH-BL district, until 2008, when a water main break badly damaged it. The district eventually decided to sell the property located at 50 Cyprus Drive.

In 2016, Mekeel Christian Academy purchased it with plans to turn part of the building into dorms to house incoming international students, with the rest to be used as a K-12 school. But once the pandemic hit, the international students were unable to come to the area due to travel restrictions and the plans for the school fell through.

Prior to COVID, Mekeel Christian Academy purchased it as a second campus to their school with dormitories, etc. said Christopher Koetzle, town supervisor of Glenville. After COVID, they didnt have the same market and the project fell through and the building has been abandoned since.

Neighbors are unsure about whats to come.

Chad Bowman, headmaster of Mekeel Christian Academy, has some answers.

We are currently under contract to sell the property to a developer and are continuing to work closely with the town and the police to ensure a positive solution for the property; one that benefits the neighborhood and the residents of Glenville, Bowman said in a statement to the Times Union.

Details about development have not been disclosed at this time.
ALBANY  Skateboards in the city may soon go the way of the velocipede.

That is to say, they will be explicitly banned from city sidewalks, much like the large front-wheel propelled bicycles of the 19th century, under new legislation the Common Council is considering.

The legislation to include skateboards with other wheeled vehicles that are already prohibited from city sidewalks is part of the councils move to overhaul the rules around skateboarding in the city.

Sixth Ward Councilwoman Gabriella Romero introduced legislation earlier this year to repeal a city ordinance that banned skateboarding anywhere east of Lark Street between Clinton and Myrtle avenues, all the way down to Broadway.

Romero said the ban unfairly banned skateboarding in areas of the city that were home to some of its minority populations.

"I've said before and I'll say it again ... there should be no law in the books that criminalizes a behavior in one area of the city and not in another," she said Monday.

The ordinance repealing the ban passed unanimously at the councils July 7 meeting. Supporters of the repeal argued that skateboarding is a legitimate mode of transportation and that the ban is inequitable. Other residents, especially those in the Center Square area, pushed the council to keep the ban, arguing skateboarders are a quality-of-life problem in the neighborhood for pedestrians and have damaged monuments and other public works.

Mayor Kathy Sheehan echoed those concerns for pedestrians and others when she vetoed the legislation on July 13. In her message to the council, Sheehan wrote that while she supported repealing the ban on skateboarding in some areas of the city, the larger issue was that by repealing the ban the council had effectively legalized skateboard use on city sidewalks because state vehicle and traffic law does not expressly prohibit it.

I appreciate the intention of remedying what is perceived as an equity issue with the previous rules surrounding skateboarding; however this remedy now puts every person who utilizes a sidewalk in danger, she wrote.

Sheehans chief of staff, David Galin, urged the council to not override the veto Monday evening without fixing the problem first. He noted the ban on skateboarding in certain areas of the city was rarely enforced, with just seven tickets since 2018.

The council however moved forward with the override, which passed unanimously, 12-0, with three members absent.

The councils next step was to introduce and pass a second ordinance that would explicitly ban skateboards from city sidewalks.

Because the legislation was introduced Monday evening, the councils rules required a unanimous vote to consider the legislation before voting on it the same night it was introduced.

Thirteenth Ward Councilwoman Deborah Zamer voted against that motion, forcing the legislation to go through the committee process.

Zamer said she wasnt swayed by Sheehans argument that by overriding her veto the council had made the city sidewalks an anarchist haven for skateboards or by the argument that the council needed to move quickly to correct the issue.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  Democrats, Republicans and a media lawyer called Tuesday for an independent investigation into possible violations of North Dakota's open records laws by the state attorney generals office.

At issue is whether there was criminal wrongdoing by Liz Brocker, who handled the deletion of Republican Attorney General Wayne Stenhejems state email account a day after he died from cardiac arrest.

Brocker, Stenehjems longtime administrative assistant and spokeswoman, resigned Friday and a phone number for her could not be obtained. Current Attorney General Drew Wrigley, a Republican, said in a statement Tuesday that his office investigated and found no evidence of wrongdoing.

We have had a lot of eyes on this, a lot of attorneys with significant expertise have assessed the facts, the statement said. No one sees any tenable claim of illegality.

The attorney general is tasked with investigating complaints about possible violations of state open records and meetings laws in state and local governments. It hasn't and shouldn't oversee investigations of itself, GOP Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner said.

We need to get the facts on the table, Wardner said in calling for an outside investigation. Its really difficult to conduct an investigation, investigating themselves."

Some see the deletion of the emails as a conspiracy or coverup, and it has been fodder for talk radio and political bloggers in North Dakota in recent days.

"There will always be doubters, but we need to make this clean and something people will accept, Wardner said of an outside investigation.

An open records request showed that Brocker asked for Stenehjems account to be deleted in an email to an information technology employee on Jan. 29. She wrote that the deletion was approved by then-Deputy Attorney General Troy Seibel.

We want to make sure no one has an opportunity to make an Open Record request for his emails, especially as he kept EVERYTHING, Brockers email said.

The revelation of the deleted emails was made public last week when Wrigley responded to open records requests about a $1.8 million cost overrun on the lease for the attorney generals office when Stenehjem was in charge. Wrigley had to explain in his response why certain information was not available.

Seibels email account was also deleted in May, two months after Seibel resigned following Wrigleys stated plans to appoint his own deputy.

Seibel has said he didnt recall a conversation about Stenehjems email account. He also said it could have been deleted as standard procedure.

Democratic Party Chairman Patrick Hart said the email deletions were illegal and called for a criminal investigation Tuesday, either by a county prosecutors office or an attorney general from another state.

There has to be transparency and there has to be accountability, Hart said. The emails were not theirs to delete. They belong to the people of North Dakota.

North Dakota law makes tampering with public records a felony if a public official knowingly, without lawful authority, destroys, conceals, removes, or otherwise impairs the verity or availability of a government record. The open records law doesn't set requirements for retaining records. A separate records management law requires each agency to establish a retention policy.

Wrigley did not immediately respond to a question about his agency's retention policy.

Jack McDonald, a Bismarck attorney who represents media outlets on issues regarding the states open records and meetings laws, said the deletions were likely improper. He called for an independent investigation to determine whether those involved in the deletions had the authority to do so.

Drew needs to turn this over to a (county) states attorney, McDonald said.

Wrigley, a former U.S. attorney and lieutenant governor, is running to keep the attorney generals job in November. Democrats have endorsed Grand Forks lawyer Timothy Lamb for attorney general, the states top law enforcement officer.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  A jury deliberating the case of a Chicago man accused of fatally shooting a Minnesota man in an apparent road-rage incident told a judge Wednesday they cannot reach consensus on a first-degree murder charge.

Jurors say they have reached unanimous agreement on two other counts against Jamal Smith, accused in the July 2021 death of 56-year-old Jay Boughton, of Crystal. Boughton was shot in the head as he drove his son home from a baseball game on Highway 169 in the Minneapolis suburb of Plymouth.
FULTONVILLE  A Massachusetts man has been hospitalized after he allegedly ran a stop sign and struck a tractor-trailer Monday evening.

Alvin Simpson, 79, of Dudley was driving a Dodge pickup on state Route 5S at about 8 p.m. Monday when he allegedly failed to stop at the stop sign at the intersection with Route 30A, State Police said. Simpson struck the trailer portion of the truck as it was traveling through the intersection.

Lifenet of New York took Simpson to the hospital with severe injuries after his removal from the vehicle. Simpson was listed in guarded condition Wednesday. No other injuries were reported, police said. The crash remains under investigation.

National Grid was on scene to replace a utility pole damaged during the crash.

State Police were assisted by the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office, Lifenet of New York, Fultonville Fire Department, Glen Volunteer Fire Department, Town of Mohawk Fire Department and Greater Amsterdam Volunteer Ambulance Corps Inc (GAVAC).
SARATOGA SPRINGS  A Maryland health care executive has been named the new president and CEO of Saratoga Hospital and will start Sept. 19.

The appointment of Jill Johnson VanKuren of MedStar Health System was announced Tuesday by Saratoga Hospital board of trustees Chairperson Michael J. Toohey, who cited her 17 years of experience with the largest integrated health care system in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.

Most recently, VanKuren served as senior vice president of operations and chief operating officer at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, one of 10 MedStar hospitals, according to Tuesday's announcement. VanKuren succeeds Angelo Calbone, who will retire in August after 16 years "of significant investment in programs, facilities and talent."



From her first interview, Jill impressed us with her understanding of the vital role of a community hospital in a larger health system, Toohey said. She shares our commitment to maintaining Saratoga Hospitals reputation for exceptional quality and personal attention while bringing the benefits of the Albany Med Health System to our patients and community.

Saratoga Hospital is a member of the Albany Med Health System.



At MedStar, VanKuren held leadership positions at the corporate and hospital levels for a system with more than 300 care locations and 31,000 employees. As an assistant vice president with MedStar corporate strategic planning, she developed system service lines and business models. As senior vice president and chief operating officer at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, she oversaw and aligned operations at one of the largest teaching hospitals in the Baltimore area.

I have a deep respect for the community and the culture that the people of Saratoga Hospital have built over the years, VanKuren said in the statement. I look forward to building on that strong foundation as we evolve to support the future needs of the community. I am honored to have been selected to lead this team.



A graduate of East Carolina University in North Carolina, VanKuren earned a master of business administration degree, with a specialization in health care administration, from Loyola University Maryland. She is board certified in health care management by the American College of Healthcare Executives. VanKuren is a member of the advisory board of Women in Healthcare. She also has served on the behavioral health advisory group of the Maryland Hospital Association and on the board of the National Alliance for Mental Illness Metropolitan Baltimore.
MOSCOW (AP)  Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday it is the West's own fault that the flow of Russian natural gas to European customers has dwindled and warned that it could continue ebbing.

Putin's statement further cranked up pressure on the European Union, which fears Russia could cut off gas to wreak economic and political havoc in Europe in the winter.

Speaking to Russian reporters in Tehran, where he attended the talks with the leaders of Iran and Turkey, Putin said the amount of gas pumped through the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany will fall further from 60 million to 30 million cubic meters a day, or about one fifth of its capacity, if a turbine isn't quickly replaced.

He added that Russia could launch the recently completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline that has never entered service, but noted that it would only have half of its designated capacity because the rest has been used for domestic needs.

The Russian leader also warned the West that its plan to cap the prices of Russian oil as part of its sanctions over Ukraine will destabilize the global oil market and make prices soar.

We are hearing some crazy ideas about restricting the volumes of Russian oil and capping the Russian oil price, he said. The result will be the same  a rise in prices. Prices will skyrocket.

Since Russian troops rolled into Ukraine in February, the EU has approved bans on Russian coal and most oil to take effect later this year but did not include natural gas because the 27-nation bloc depends on it to power factories, generate electricity and heat homes.

However, Russia's Gazprom state-controlled natural gas giant reduced gas deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany by 60% last month, citing technical problems after a turbine that Siemens sent to Canada for overhaul couldnt be returned because of sanctions. Canada and Germany made a deal to return the turbine, but Putin said Tuesday that Gazprom still hasn't received the relevant documents.

The Russian leader said that Gazprom was to shut another turbine for repairs in late July, and if the one that was sent to Canada isn't returned by that time the flow of gas will ebb even more.

As another reason for the supply reduction, he pointed out that Ukraine closed a branch of a transit pipeline carrying Russian gas to the West through territory controlled by Moscow-based separatists.
In the decade since Sandy Hook, there have been 948 school shootings with nearly 300,000 traumatized students on school grounds during these events. Families affected by these and other high-profile tragedies need support, stability and compassion, and their surviving children need parents who can provide attention and care to facilitate recovery.

Unfortunately, not only have we not protected Americas children, we have not protected survivors after these tragedies.

I and other counselors assisting Sandy Hook families were sickened to learn that members of the Westboro Baptist Church announced that its congregants would picket and protest at the funerals of the murdered children. They maintained that the killings were Gods revenge for Connecticut allowing gay marriage.

The research makes clear that this kind of revictimization is damaging and obstructs recovery, yet our current laws do little to protect survivors from this second level of victimization.

The night of the Sandy Hook School shooting, teams of three professionals  clergy, mental health and law enforcement  made official death notifications. A state trooper was assigned to each family  an effective mental health intervention to promote safety, as inevitably after school shootings there are rumors, bomb scares, harassment and threats. This partnership of mental health and law enforcement needs to continue long after death notifications.

There have been some victories, with successful lawsuits against authors of books like "Nobody Died at Sandy Hook" and Infowars host Alex Jones. But the onslaught of conspiracy theories, harassment, and threats persists. Shootings are alleged to be hoaxes or false-flag operations staged by the U.S. government, or tactics to promote gun-control legislation. Some examples from Sandy Hook parent survivors:

One parent noted that the conspiracy theories and talk of crisis actors started the same day. Online trollers said his sons death certificate was fake.

Signs dedicated to deceased children were stolen from parks. The thief telephoned the parents to say the shooting was a hoax.

One parent warned families of the Pulse nightclub killings in Orlando that people would call their homes, their places of work, to make threats and accuse them of being part of a conspiracy and they will be revictimized.

Death threats and online harassment forced one family to relocate seven times. They were forced to live hundreds of miles from where their child is buried. The mom has lamented that she cant see her sons grave.

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This kind of callousness has been shown to ravage grieving families and block their recovery. While millions of Americans want to offer support, some individuals and hate groups want to add to their misery. Counselors need to prepare survivors of mass shootings to have a long-term plan to deal with threats and harassment  and our legal system needs to better protect them by changing laws to reduce the significant barriers to effectively prosecuting abusers. A typical civil defamation case is costly and can take years, and prosecutors can see internet crime as comparatively inconsequential.

To address this lack of legal protection, the father of one 6-year-old murdered at Sandy Hook founded a group called the HONR Network, that aims to "bring awareness to hoaxer activity" and "prosecute those who wittingly and publicly defame, harass and emotionally abuse the victims of high-profile tragedies." They alert outlets like YouTube or Facebook, who then remove links to cruel and malicious content.

Our leaders and politicians should not leave these tasks to volunteers. Malevolent hoaxers should not only have their special place in hell; they should have a special place in the criminal justice system here on Earth. Families beset with tragedy should not have to also endure repeated retraumatization and revictimization.

James Halpern is professor emeritus and founding director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health and SUNY New Paltz.
ALBANY  A former state legislative aide who was fired in 2018 after she went public with searing sexual harassment allegations against a supervisor filed a second lawsuit Tuesday against the Senate, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the man she accused of subjecting her to years of abuse, including drugging and raping her multiple times.

Julia Grace Lilkendey, a communications specialist for the Capital Region Board of Cooperative Educational Services, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages in the lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court. The complaint accuses state officials of violating human rights law and failing to investigate the allegations Lilkendey had reported to a top Senate official in 2010, and again in 2018 to the former Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

Lilkendey's lawsuit also includes a claim against her former Senate supervisor, Carlos Gonzalez, for battery and aggravated sexual abuse. Gonzalez is the son of former state Sen. Efrain Gonzalez, Jr., who was indicted in 2006 on federal mail fraud charges for allegedly taking more than $37,000 from the West Bronx Neighborhood Association and using the money for personal expenses, including tickets to sporting events and membership fees at private clubs.

Later that year, Efrain Gonzalez was indicted on additional federal mail fraud charges in which he was accused of conspiring to steal $432,000 in a scheme involving nonprofit groups. He was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in 2010.

Lilkendey's lawsuit alleges that in 2009, about four years after she went to work in the Legislature, Carlos Gonzalez joined the Senate and almost immediately launched a campaign of intimidation and sexual harassment, including sending an image of a nude woman to Lilkendey's Senate email address and telling her it "looks like you."

The lawsuit additionally accuses Gonzalez of pressuring her to switch her political enrollment to Democrat, claiming he could protect her, and threatening her with the loss of her job if she did not return his text messages.

In early 2010, Lilkendey said Gonzalez allegedly gave her beverages, including wine and other drinks, that he forced her to consume and that she believes contained drugs intended to leave her incapacitated.

She alleges that during a trip to Buffalo that May, Gonzalez ordered her a drink in a bar when she was in the restroom. As they walked back to their hotel rooms, she said, he stopped at a vending machine and purchased condoms and told her they were going to have sex.

"Lilkendey told Gonzalez that she would not have sex with him, and Gonzalez simply replied, 'Thats what you think,'" according to the lawsuit. "Soon thereafter, Lilkendey, who had apparently been drugged by Gonzalezs drink, began to feel nauseous and weak. When she regained control of her body, Lilkendey was shirtless, her pants were unzipped, and she was in Gonzalezs room and Gonzalez was grinding on top of her."

She "regained her strength ... grabbed her shirt and ran to her room," the lawsuit states. "Lilkendey woke up the next morning on the bathroom floor with a headache and realized that she had been drugged by Gonzalez."

Lilkendey's lawsuit says she had remained silent about what was happening because Gonzalez threatened to have her fired if she told anyone. In July 2010, as they were driving to Westchester County for a work event, Gonzalez allegedly told Lilkendey that he dreamt they had sex.

"Later that day, Gonzalez blew smoke in Lilkendeys mouth and then stuck his tongue inside her mouth," the lawsuit states. "Lilkendey pushed herself away and ran back to the car, and then asked Gonzalez to take her to her hotel. Once at a restaurant which Gonzalez insisted that they visit, Lilkendey drank no more than a couple of sips of wine. That evening, Gonzalez raped Lilkendey. Lilkendey woke up the next morning ... and saw her ripped shirt and a gash in her left thigh. Gonzalez had drugged her again and then proceeded to rape her."

A month later, Lilkendey's lawsuit alleges, Gonzalez raped her again in a Staten Island hotel room in which she bit and tried to fight him off.

On Aug. 21, 2010, Lilkendey reported the allegations to the Senate, including Gonzalezs supervisor. The information was subsequently relayed to the Office of Counsel to the New York State Senate Majority and then-Chief Counsel Shelley Mayer.

According to her lawsuit, no investigation was conducted and no action was taken.

Last year, Lilkendey filed a similar lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Albany but that case was dropped last month. Before it was dismissed, attorneys for the state had argued the complaint was "devoid of direct evidence" that Lilkendey had been fired as a result of her April 2018 public statements detailing her sexual harassment allegations.

"She asserts, without substantive basis, that she 'was told she had an X on her back' and that she was on a list to be fired once the new administration was in charge because the plaintiff implicated a member of the incoming Senate majority conference, defendant Shelley Mayer, for not protecting the plaintiff and other Senate employees from mentally and physically abusive bosses in 2010 when Shelley Mayer was the chief Senate counsel," an attorney for the state attorney general's office had argued.

The state attorney general's office had asserted the termination of Lilkendey and other GOP Senate staffers were part of a normal transition of power when Democrats seized control of the chamber.

In April 2018, when Mayer was running for Senate in a special election, Lilkendey and another Senate staffer who said she had been sexually harassed went public with their allegations in a story published by the Daily News. Four days after that article was published, Lilkendey filed a formal complaint against Gonzalez with the Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

The commission copied Lilkendey on a letter it sent to the Senate counsel's office that it concluded due to the passage of time the complaints were no longer able to be investigated.

"JCOPE subsequently referred the matter to the same Office of the Counsel to the New York State Senate Majority and seemingly concluded its investigation," according to Lilkendey's lawsuit.

Hochul is apparently a named defendant in the case because of JCOPE's involvement. The ethics panel shut down earlier this month.

In December 2018, Lilkendey was terminated from her Senate job without being told the reason, according to her lawsuit. (A spokesman for the chamber's Democratic majority noted that her termination was one of several associated with the change from the previous Republican majority that had been ousted in the previous month's election.)

Lilkendey and Shana Wittenwyler, the other former Senate staffer who outlined her experience of being stalked and subjected to sexual harassment, said several years ago that Mayer had told Wittenwyler that there would be interviews as part of an internal investigation. But the women said nothing ever happened.

At the time of her inaugural Senate campaign in 2018, Mayer had claimed, through a spokesman, that she followed proper procedure and forwarded the information "to the proper authority, who wrongly refused to take meaningful action."

Gonzalez left his Senate job a decade ago. In 2012, he acknowledged to the Daily News that he and his wife, who also worked in the Senate, had formed a company  Capital District Couples Network  for couples seeking an alternative to strip and sex clubs.

"Why is it different? Because of the fact that there may or may not be people who are into some kind of swinging lifestyle who are coming to it," Gonzalez told the newspaper. "Most people who come to our dance events like to see the girls get close to each other. It's a little risque. It's a little hot. It's erotic."

John G. Balestriere, an attorney for Lilkendey, said: "Our client is confident in her claims and is completely prepared to push her case all the way to trial. We are prepared to show a jury that she has been wronged and must be compensated."

Gonzalez, 55, who has an address in New Hampshire, did not respond to a request for comment sent Thursday. A spokesman for state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins declined comment.
In the southernmost tip of Florida, visitors will find incredible wildlife, delicious Cuban food, energetic nightlife, beachfront properties with plenty of amenities, and some great underwater adventures.

Kimpton Surfcomber

1717 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; https://www.surfcomber.com/

This oceanside boutique hotel focuses on providing a great experience for guests with daily activities like salsa lessons and social happy hours. Pools overlook the ocean as well as private beach access with chairs and umbrellas. Some of the rooms have waterfront views from private terraces, complete with a lounge chairs.

Trump International Beach Resort

18001 Collins Ave, Sunny Isles Beach; https://www.trumpmiami.com/

The resort in Sunny Isle Beach has private beach access, full access to swimming pools, and the option to rent water sport equipment including motorized surfboards, jet skis, and stand-up paddleboards.

Activities

Everglades Outpost Wildlife Rescue

Additional Adventures Tarpoon Lagoon Dive Center Snorkeling 300 Alton Road, Suite 110, Miami Beach; https://www.tarpoonlagoon.com/ The team at Tarpoon Diving Center run dive-certification courses, a gear shop, dive and snorkel charters and more. The group visited Neptune Memorial Reef and Rainbow Reef to snorkel and dive. Even on a clear day, it was difficult to see anything from higher up, while the divers were able to explore the colorful fish and lobsters up close. Thriller Miami Speedboat Adventures 401 Biscayne Blvd., Miami (Inside Bayside Marketplace); https://www.thrillermiami.com/ The group will slowly head out to be respectful of potential wildlife like manatees in the bay area before the speedboat hits full throttle, bolting off on a 45 minute speed boat tour. The guide mixes adrenaline pumping, fast moments with a guide to the area, keeping things informative and exciting. See More Collapse

35601 SW 192nd Ave., Homestead; https://www.crocodilechris.com/tours

Swim with gators at the Everglades Outpost. Chris Gillette is an expert when it comes to working with these animals and building their trust. He developed the program to educate guests on alligators calm demeanor and why they shouldnt ever be fed by humans in the wild. That trust was evident between Gillette and Casper, one of the alligators at the outpost. Gillette gently spoke to the animals. There were no obnoxious tricks, just observing Casper swim. After, head over to Smokehouse 191 (35601 SW 192nd Ave., Homestead), a food truck next door for some smoked, garlicky ribs.

Everglades Alligator Farm - Airboat Ride

40351 SW 192nd Ave., Homestead; https://everglades.com/

The Everglades Alligator Farm offers airboat rides every 20 to 25 minutes. The airboat skips along the wetlands at high speeds, then wades slowly through lagoon waters to spot alligators. If riders are looking to get some relief on a hot day, sit in the front and get absolutely soaked. After, head into Everglades National Park for a hike or kayak to spot more gators.

Snorkeling at Biscayne National Park Eco Adventures

https://www.biscaynenationalparkinstitute.org/biscayne-eco-adventures/

Biscayne National Park Eco Adventures brings guests to local shorelines, mangroves, coral reefs and islands by boat depending on the weather and what snorkel sites look the best to the captain that day. Our group was lucky enough to go to two sections of Ball Buoy Reef. The vibrant color coral was stunning to view up close. The array of different fish and sharks our group observed was so special to see.

Miamis immersive art

Miami has an abundance of art and culture, including some experiences like ARTECHOUSE Miami (736 Collins Ave., Miami Beach). This digital art puts visitors in the center of the artist's message, creating a powerful experience. Superblue Miami (1101 NW 23rd St., Miami) is full of light displays and installations. Be sure to add the cloud experience to the tickets.

Dining

Havana 1957 Cuban Cuisine

405 Espanola Way, Miami Beach; https://www.havana1957.com/

Havana 1957 is one of many places in this area offering authentic Cuban food. If the menu is making it tough to decide, try the Platter of Havana 1957 with portions of roast chicken, ropa vieja and lechon served with rice, saucy black beans, house salad and sweet plantains. Another spot for amazing Cuban food is Marabu (701 S Miami Ave. Brickell City Center 4th Floor, Miami) for crispy steak with a citrus sauce, rice and beans.

Robert is Here

40351 SW 192nd Ave., Homestead; https://www.robertishere.com/

Robert Is Here, down the street from the Everglades Outpost, is a farmstand with fresh exotic local fruits and produce, along with some delicious Cuban sandwiches. Definitely grab some of the fresh guanabana, or try the fruit in a milkshake. Robert Is Here has delicious options for a quick late lunch or breakfast.

Harry's Pizzeria Miami Beach

1680 Meridian Ave. Suite 102, Miami Beach; https://harryspizzeria.com/

Head to Harrys Pizzeria Miami Beach, opened by James Beard award winner Michael Schwartz, who first learned about pizza making in Japan. This is the perfect spot to satisfy a craving for some super cheesy, classic pizza.

Azzurro

https://www.trumpmiami.com/sunny-isles-restaurants/azzurro-italian-restaurant-bar

Inside the Trump international Hotel, guests can visit Azzurro for some amazing Italian cuisine. Be sure to ask about the specials; we had rich lobster ravioli topped with briny caviar or crispy calamari. Dont forget to save room for the cannolis with coffee for dessert.

Motek Aventura - Mediterranean Cafe & Restaurant

19565 Biscayne Blvd. #938, Aventura; https://motekcafe.com

Motek Aventura has a delicious menu full of halloumi salads, fresh chewy pita with dips and spreads like eggplant salad, Israeli salad, hummus and babaganoush. Try not to fill up on appetizers, because the shawarma, made with lamb or chicken, is unbelievable.

Thank you to Visit Miami and their partners for hosting me.
WFO NORMAN Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Tuesday, July 19, 2022

_____

EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Norman OK

411 PM CDT Tue Jul 19 2022

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM CDT THIS

EVENING...

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM TO 8 PM CDT

WEDNESDAY...

* WHAT...For the first Excessive Heat Warning, dangerously hot

conditions with heat index values up to 111. For the second

Excessive Heat Warning, dangerously hot conditions with heat

index values up to 109 expected.

* WHERE...In Oklahoma, Grady, McClain, Cleveland, Pottawatomie,

Comanche and Cotton Counties. In Texas, Wichita and Archer

Counties.

* WHEN...For the first Excessive Heat Warning, until 9 PM CDT

this evening. For the second Excessive Heat Warning, from 1 PM

to 8 PM CDT Wednesday.

* 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.

conditions with heat index values up to 112. For the second

* WHERE...In Oklahoma, Logan, Payne, Oklahoma, Lincoln and

Tillman Counties. In Texas, Wilbarger and Baylor Counties.

* IMPACTS...Extreme heat and humidity will significantly

increase the potential for heat related illnesses,

particularly for those working or participating in outdoor

activities.

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM TO 8 PM CDT

index values up to 112 expected.

* WHERE...Portions of east central, southeast and southern

Oklahoma and northern Texas.

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM TO 8 PM CDT WEDNESDAY...

* WHAT...For the Excessive Heat Warning, dangerously hot

conditions with heat index values up to 111. For the Heat

Advisory, heat index values up to 106 expected.

* WHERE...Portions of central, northern, northwest and southwest

* WHEN...For the Excessive Heat Warning, until 9 PM CDT this

evening. For the Heat Advisory, from 1 PM to 8 PM CDT

Wednesday.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
As part of Irelands National Heritage Week, The Museum of Childhood Ireland has teamed up with Tipperary Towns Revitalisation Project to deliver an exciting range of sustainable heritage projects for children and young people in Tipperary Town.

This National Heritage Week project grew out of the Tipp Town Collaborative Town Centre Health Check Programme, which is led by Alison Harvey of the Heritage Council, and it has committed to placing young people and children at its very core.

On Saturday, August 13, they begin the first of the Museum of Childhood Irelands Youth Voice events in Tipperary Town for Heritage Week 2022.

From March to June they ran a series of consultations with young people in Tipperary Town and from these they developed a programme on the theme of sustainability.

Talks on Tipperary-Our Town, Our Future from Alison Harvey, Eoin OConnor, Peter Pearson, and Jamie McNamara for children and young people will explore building re-use in the town and regeneration and sustainability.

This will lead onto an interactive Workshop, which will be facilitated by Cliodhna Martin, and Majella McAllister, of The Museum of Childhood Ireland.

Later there will be the screening of a short artists film on re-use and model making, followed by hands-on family workshops facilitated by Emily Drew, of The Museum of Childhood Ireland.

Running at the same time, Sculptor and Artist Kate Oram will lead a recycled materials giant gloved hand sculpture workshop on the theme of the Glove Factory, to tie-in with the release of the heritage film on Tipperary Glove Factory Remembered.

Throughout the week (August 13 - 20) there will be displays in shop fronts on the Main Street and in the Excel Heritage Centre of the work that the Tipperary students did through consultation with the Museum of Childhood Ireland.

On Saturday, August 20 a number of speakers will participate in a session titled Sustainability Talks. They will address issues such as sustainable craft, fashion, food, toys and planting.

This will be followed by an intergenerational storytelling workshop on the theme of sustainability with Dr Catherine Gilliland and the screening of Tipperary students mini-films on sustainability.

Finally there will be a ceremonial apple tree planting event with Orla Farrell from Easy Treesie Project, Crann - Trees for Ireland, who will also provide some background to the museum of childhoods project From fruit seeds to fruit trees, one of the Heritage Week Wild Child Projects.

Before Heritage Week begins there are a lot of projects for under 18s to get involved in, and though the event focus is on Tipperary Town you dont have to live there to explore this beautiful and welcoming part of Ireland.

You can submit an entry under the category of Sustainability (video or poem/piece of writing), Building (photograph), Reuse (drawing/sketch).

If you have a great idea on Sustainability you can make a short video on your phone or through poetry or a short piece of writing to tell about your idea.

Is there a building that you love in Tipp Town?

You can take a photo of your favourite building in Tipperary Town for Heritage Week 2022. Do you have an idea of how to re-use empty buildings in Tipperary Town?

If you have, you can draw/ paint /collage/ sketch your ideas.

One entry per child/youth under 18 in all categories and parents/ guardians can email entry to: info@museumofchildhood.ie - it is the same email address for all categories. Entries will be displayed in Tipperary Town during Heritage Week and online at museumofchildhood.ie
Irelands Justice Minister Helen McEntee has led tributes to legal academic Vicky Conway, who has died.

An associate professor of Law at DCU, Ms Conway was appointed to the first board of the Policing Authority in January 2016, before leaving the Authority to sit on the Commission on the Future of Policing in 2017, and later being reappointed to the Authority in 2018.

Campaigners, academics, and policing bodies paid tribute to the academic for the influence she had on the reform of policing in Ireland.

The Rape Crisis Centre said Ms Conway was our friend, ally and indefatigable champion of the vulnerable and the unheard. We are the poorer for her absence.

Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission said in a statement that Ms Conway was hugely loved, hugely respected and deeply committed to pursuing some of the most challenging issues facing our society around policing, ensuring peoples dignity and peoples access to justice.

We are terribly sad to have to share the passing of our colleague Vicky Conway. She was a wonderful person, wise and kind, and we will miss her. pic.twitter.com/bnxczPcJ5C  Law and Gov DCU (@LawGovDCU) July 20, 2022

In a statement, Ms McEntee said Ms Conway had made a substantial contribution to developing the oversight of policing in Ireland.

I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of Dr Vicky Conway.

Vicky made an important contribution to Irish society through her academic and professional work.

Her voice has been a prominent one in relation to policing and criminal justice, and was at all times one of conviction and challenge. Her deep commitment to the human rights of the most vulnerable was evident in all of her work.

I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to Vickys family and loved ones, her friends, colleagues and all the students she inspired through her teaching. Vickys untimely passing has shocked and saddened us all.

May she rest in peace.

On behalf of our Commission and our Chief Commissioner, our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Dr. Vicky Conway. pic.twitter.com/qHXYbCoQK8  Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission (@_IHREC) July 20, 2022

Bob Collins, chair of the Policing Authority, said: Vickys contribution to policing was rooted not only in academic curiosity but in a genuine desire to ensure that everyones engagement with the Garda Siochana, in particular those most vulnerable in our society, was rooted in a respect for their humanity and a vindication of their human rights.

Her contribution to and impact on the work of the Authority and the oversight of policing is an important legacy for which we should all be very grateful.

Those of us who worked very closely with Vicky witnessed not only her passion for oversight but her strong appreciation of the challenging work that police officers perform on our behalf and a desire to improve things on the ground for them.

In a statement on Twitter, the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission said Dr Conway was a leading voice for the modernisation and reform of policing and policing oversight in Ireland, and for the placement of transparency, accountability, and human rights at the heart of this process.

Dr Conway was also a thoughtful, authoritative and considered critic of the work and statutory underpinnings of GSOC, and an important driver of the transformation of the organisation that is currently underway.

An Garda Siochana said in a statement: An Garda Siochana is saddened to learn of the death of Dr Vicky Conway.

Dr Conway made a significant contribution to policing here and in the UK through her academic research, publications and lectures, as well as her membership of both the Policing Authority and the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland.

Vickys passion for human rights-focused policing was evident in all her engagements with myself and my Garda colleagues. She was a strong and dedicated advocate for vulnerable members of society and minority communities.

An Garda Siochana sends its condolences to Vickys family and friends.
Italy-based retreading company Marangoni has recognized the retreadability of the Westlake-branded off-the-road (OTR) tires. Following the recognition, the companys OTR casings have now been placed into Marangonis retreading process.

The Marangoni approval was granted because the Westlake OTR tires have a strong casing design, which enables the casing to remain in an excellent condition even after thousands of hours of use, making it suitable for reuse through the retreading process.

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Thanks to ZC Rubbers improved technology, Westlake OTR tires benefit from being more environmentally friendly in terms of maximizing cost per hour and reducing end-of-life disposal costs.

ZC Rubber claims the Westlake OTR retread tires can deliver the same mileage and performance as a new tire, while only costing 70% of the price following a retread.

With our mission to offer more sustainable products and improve the environmental footprint of mining operations, we are pleased that Westlake OTR casings have demonstrated that they can meet the grades required by leading retread companies to manufacture top-class OTR retread tires, commented a ZC Rubber spokesperson.
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This seems like an appropriate place to end posting for today . . . Already we've seen an outpouring of sympathy from across the nation after today's tragedy in North Kansas City.



Our small blog community has also shared some worthwhile notes.

Here's a TKC roundup of some of the worthwhile sentiments for the overnight . . .



'He was the best of everything': Friends remember slain North Kansas City officer NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A former colleague of 32-year-old Officer Daniel Vasquez remembers him for having the best qualities one would want in a community protector. "He was the best of everything," said Bobbi Baker-Hughes. Baker-Hughes is the president and CEO of the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the manager of the Independence Avenue Community Improvement District.

Community mourns North Kansas City police officer killed in the line of duty The Kansas City community is struggling with the tragedy of losing North Kansas City police Officer Daniel Vasquez in the line of duty.Tuesday afternoon, people placed flowers near where the officer was gunned down and on a police SUV at the police department.Sarah Muntean said she witnessed what happened after the shooting.

North Kansas City neighborhood reacts to death of Ofc. Daniel Vasquez NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Residents of a quiet North Kansas City neighborhood are still processing what happened on Tuesday after the death of NKC Ofc. Daniel Vasquez. They say their grief is profound. "My son was crying, he was scared. My husband was terrified, we just didn't know," Jessica Jennings said.

Blunt Statement on the Passing of North Kansas City Police Officer Daniel Vasquez July 19,2022 WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) released the following statement on the death of North Kansas City Police Officer Daniel Vasquez: "Today, North Kansas City Police Officer Daniel Vasquez was tragically killed in the line of duty. Chief of Police Kevin Freeman described Officer Vasquez as a phenomenal person and a friend to everybody.

Social Media Statement From Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas . . . Post with 0 views. Social Media Statement From Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas . . .

Fund organized for fallen North KC officer Daniel Vasquez NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A tough day in North Kansas City turned tragic by midafternoon when the police chief announced the death of Officer Daniel Vasquez. He died from injuries he suffered when a gunman stepped out of a car Vasquez stopped and shot the 32-year-old officer.

Fallen NKC police officer Daniel Vasquez dreamt of career in law enforcement NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Those who knew Ofc. Daniel Vasquez will tell you becoming a police officer was his dream come true. He looked for every opportunity to get some real-life experience so he could be ready once he earned his badge.

Who was Daniel Vasquez? What we know about the North Kansas City officer killed Tuesday Daniel Vasquez was identified Tuesday as the North Kansas City Police Department officer who was killed during a traffic stop. He had been a member of the department for two years, and was fatally shot while trying to pull over a car with expired tags about 10:40 a.m.

R.I.P.


Here's a more accurate accounting of the drama that was all sound and fury signifying nothing:

METH TOWN PO-PO CONSTRUCTION WORK STAYS WINNING!!!

Before readers get all hot & bothered about any perceived criticism against police . . . The reality is that po-po likely were the whistleblowers helping the public understand the probs with this sketchy arrangement.



Still . . . The upshot here is that NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE without any consequences or even a wrist slap.

Here's a summary of the aftermath from a few different sources . . .



Independence special counsel Dan Nelson used words like "unacceptable inappropriate failures" but in the end from his findings that he revealed today he chalked it up as a miscommunication



Nelson said he found no evidence of dishonesty by police laborers and, while the investigation could not definitively verify all the hours worked, no evidence of fraudulent timekeeping surfaced.



We found no evidence that police worked during their shift hours on the project, Nelson said. Annual reviews and interviews supported that the police laborers continued to successfully do their police work during the project.



But the city still carries significant risk in having renovated the jail the way it did. If an injury or a death occurs at the jail  not infrequent occurrences at facilities that detain people  the use of unlicensed and uninsured labor by police employees could expose the city to legal liability.



And while the city saved money by using police labor on the jail project  a necessary undertaking, the investigation found  the Independence Police Department went over budget last year by $253,006, in part because of the renovation.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Liability risk: Report finds decades-long use of uninsured police overtime work for Independence Police Department Independence police, for more than two decades, used uninsured police employees - on no-bid, unwritten contracts - to design, administer and complete "in-house" renovation projects at police headquarters, according to a new report from a special investigator hired by Independence city leaders.Special counsel Dan Nelson of Spencer Fane also found

Independence police overtime probe finds lax oversight and 'miscommunications' A special counsel has determined that Independence's decision to renovate its police headquarters, approved without documentation and carried out by police officers who lacked insurance or construction licenses, involved no dishonesty on the part of the police officers who did the work.

Probe into Independence police OT clears officer; policy changes coming INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - The probe into "excessive" overtime within the Independence Police Department cleared the primary officer in question and highlight issues with existing city policies. Dan Nelson, who was hired as special counsel to investigate what the city referred to as "excessive" overtime, announced his findings Tuesday at a press briefing.

Results of Independence Police overtime investigation released INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - Five months after a special counsel began investigating how overtime was spent at the Independence, Missouri Police Department, the results are public.

Developing . . .
Today's news mostly focuses around police challenges and tragedy . . . Right now we gather a few more things to consider as the law enforcement conversation continues . . .



Check TKC news gathering . . .

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

2 men injured in shooting near east 31st Street, Poplar Avenue in KCMO KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Gunfire critically wounded one man and sent another man to a hospital with less serious injuries on Tuesday afternoon in Kansas City, Missouri. Officers responded to the area near east 31st Street and Poplar Avenue at around 2:15 p.m. Both men were found in the street.

Plea hearing set for former Aquinas choir director in child sex crimes case KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A former choir director at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park made a court appearance Tuesday , during which the judge set a date for a possible plea hearing. Joseph Heidesch, 46, is charged with 26 counts of breach of privacy, and four counts of sexual exploitation.

Lee's Summit Police Department reports digital scam spike LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. - As families gear up for back-to-school time, police warn scammers are upping their game too. Officers in Lee's Summit said they've experienced a jump in the number of scam reports this month.

Not KC but a Missouri incident that resonated across the globe amid a U.S. debate over gun rights . . .

Gas station customer shoots and kills robbery suspect on 'violent crime spree' A Missouri customer at a convenience store in St Charles shot and killed a man suspected of being responsible for a string of armed robberies across the city.

Trial set for 14-year-old girl in murder at Olathe park in May KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The jury trial for one of the six teenagers defendants charged with murder in the May 14 shooting death of Marco Cardino at a park in Olathe has been set. A 14-year-old girl, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, appeared Monday in Johnson County District Court for a motion hearing.

Investigators rule death at Excelsior Springs jail accidental LIBERTY, Mo. - A drug overdose is blamed for the death of a man who died while in police custody, according to the Clay County Investigative Squad. Benjamin E. Chase, 21, of Excelsior Springs, died May 8 at the Excelsior Springs Police Department. An autopsy and toxicology report showed Chase died from taking methamphetamine.

Program helps Kansas City police officers deal with trauma For more than two years, KMBC's Project Community has been focused on the divide between the people and the police.

Developing . . .
No, not the crappy 90s band . . . Blogger Bill considers the consequence of the planet without spiritual activism at a time when so many political activist denounce the influence of churches.



Here's part of this hopeful conclusion . . .



"The question, of course, is how faith communities adapt to new, more secular times. And what the whole of society might lose if religious congregations and organizations die off."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Here at TKC we respect the superstitions of everyone.



Sadly . . . The hacks at the newspaper must not read the news much or else they'd find a bit more context for their editorials.

Here's a provocative passage that the newspaper put on blast this morning . . .



"For 50 years, the Presbyterian Church has studied and prayed about abortion. As a result, my denomination affirms a womans right to make decisions about her body and her life. We believe women are made in the image of God and thus have the moral capacity to make faithful choices. Presbyterians, like other people of faith, affirm this because Scripture teaches that God respects, values and trusts women. The role Mary, the mother of Jesus, played in spreading the gospel is evidence of such truth."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Government can't value one Christian faith over another. Note no on Kansas amendment OPINION AND COMMENTARY I am a retired Presbyterian pastor who has lived in Kansas for 37 years. I have officiated hundreds of weddings and baptized more than 1,000 children. During my years of service, I have shared with families celebrating the most joyous occasions of their lives.

Again, everybody is entitled to their own opinion but here's more context about our Presbyterian friends and the sketchy things that SOME of them believe . . .

Presbyterian Church vote declaring Israel an apartheid state upsets Jewish groups U.S. Jewish organizations have responded angrily to the vote by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declaring Israel an apartheid state, with some saying it amounted to antisemitism. On July 8, the 1.1 million member denomination's general assembly voted 266-to-116 on a resolution that stated: "Israel's laws, policies, and practices constitute apartheid against the Palestinian people."

About their membership overall . . .

Politicized Presbyterian Church (USA) Falls Further The Presbyterian Church (USA) Office of the General Assembly has released annual statistics showing a decline in membership in 2021 of 51,584 persons. The report, released the afternoon of Friday, April 22, shows a 4.1 percent rate of decline and total membership of just over 1.19 million members last year, compared to 1.48 million in 2016.

Our bias overall . . .

The religious angle of this issue FAILS overall because the "Value Them Both" vote is a political crossroads that will be decided by a myriad of questionable tactics which really have nothing to do with the Almighty.



You decide . . .


A word of warning and a reminder that The Pitch also reads ur social media rantings . . .

Credit to this local media player for raising awareness on a crime/ransom tactic that's often unreported.

Here's part of the story . . .



Late last month, her parents Craig and Linda Wright hired movers to pack up all their belongings from a North Topeka storage unit into a 26-foot U-Haul trailer. The movers set outostensiblyto the elder Wrights new home in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.



Then the movers went MIAalong with nearly 50 years of memories, personal effects, furniture, electronics, and other sundry items. Its nearly a month to the day, and the movers still havent shown up. Now Dana Wright is on a quest to find a man who identified himself as Jean St. Felix, the apparent owner of JM Moving Company.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
We're not sure how much sway this will have over JoCo housewives . . . But it will leave their husbands seething worse than having to watch one of those awful Prez Obama Netflix specials.



Here's the word from the National Republican Congressional Committee . . .



Hillary Clintons Onward Together PAC gave $5,000 to Sharice Davids, according to a new FEC filing.



NRCC Comment: Kansans rejected Hillary Clinton in 2016, just like they will reject Sharice Davids in November.  NRCC Spokeswoman Maggie Abboud

Developing . . .


Thankfully, the demographic suspicions of many locals proved wrong again in the aftermath of NKC deadly police shooting tragedy.

Moreover . . . Our suspect seems a bit too doughy to be an "illegal" but we'll have to wait and see. At first glance and for those who are keeping score . . . Because TKC is a weak caramel latte Latino, we have a bit of leeway to speculate that he seems like the dreaded "white Hispanic" who confounds our WASP-Y mainstream pals that skipped History Of The Americas 101.

For now, here are the basics deets released just a few moments ago . . .



Joshua Rocha, 24, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. He is held on $2 million bond.



Prosecutors said Officer Vasquez died after Rocha shot him during a traffic stop Tuesday morning. Investigators said Vasquez stopped Rochas car near 21st and Clay in North Kansas City because of an expired temporary tag.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Joshua Rocha charged with murder in shooting death of Ofc. Daniel Vasquez KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Law enforcement announced a suspect has been charged in connection with the shooting death of a North Kansas City police officer. North Kansas City Police Department Officer Daniel Vasquez died from his injuries Tuesday afternoon after he was shot by Joshua Rocha on Tuesday morning.

Prosecutors charge suspect in deadly shooting of NKC officer NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Clay County Prosecutor announced charges against a man for the deadly shooting of North Kansas City police officer Daniel Vasquez. Joshua Rocha, 24, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. He is held on $2 million bond.

Man charged in NKC officer's death was driving with revoked license KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City, Missouri man charged with the murder of North Kansas City Police Officer Daniel Vasquez was driving on a revoked license the day he was pulled over for an expired temporary tag. Police also said on Tuesday the expired temporary tag came back to another car.

Suspect charged with murder in shooting death of North Kansas City Police officer Authorities on Wednesday identified Joshua Rocha, 24, as the suspect in the killing of North Kansas City police officer Daniel Vasquez. Rocha, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri, is charged with two felonies: murder in the first degree and armed criminal action. He is being held on a $2 million bond.

Developing . . .
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Police want to identify a man wanted in a break and enter and mischief investigation. - Toronto Police Service image
Woman, 21, seriously hurt after allegedly assaulted by cyclist in Toronto

Man used his left shoulder to strike her in the face on Martin Goodman Trail, say police
The books illustrator, Vic Guiza, is an award-winning illustrator with experience working with top brands such as Disney and Marvel Comics.
We are speaking with the Police Social and Welfare Association about rouge officers within t
Russia has already lost about 38,750 troops in Ukraine (+200 over the past day).

The relevant statement was made by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Between February 24, 2022 and July 20, 2022, the enemys total combat losses included also 1,700 tanks (+9 over the past day), 3,905 armored fighting vehicles (+13), 856 artillery systems (+5), 250 multiple launch rocket systems (+2), 113 anti-aircraft warfare systems, 221 aircrafts (+1), 188 helicopters, 2,775 motor vehicles and fuel tanks (+8), 15 warships/boats, 703 unmanned aerial vehicles (+10), 70 special equipment units. A total of 167 enemy cruise missiles were shot down.

Over the past day, Russian troops have suffered the highest losses in the Bakhmut direction. The data are yet to be updated.

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In Kherson Region, the Ukrainian military have struck Russian occupiers near the Antonivka Bridge.

The relevant statement was made by Kherson Regional Council Member Serhii Khlan on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Last night the Armed Forces of Ukraine again brought down fire on [Russian] orcs. The occupiers are on fire near the Antonivka Bridge. Local residents are also reporting smoke in Nova Kakhovka, Khlan wrote.

In a video commentary, Khlan noted that Russian troops and their command post were deployed near the Antonivka Bridge.

In addition, according to Khlan, lots of Russian multiple launch rocket systems, namely Smerch MLRS, were destroyed in Nova Kakhovka-based ammunition depots.

A reminder that Kherson Regional Council First Deputy Head Yurii Sobolevskyi stated earlier that the Antovivka Bridge had been damaged but remained operational.

Photo: social media

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Ukraine urgently requires ATACMS missiles, able to engage targets at a distance of up to 300 kilometers, which would be a real game changer on the front lines.

Thats according to Lithuanias former foreign minister Linas Linkevicius.

We can see efficiency of #HIMARS. #Ukraine also urgently needs #ATACMS which are capable of hitting targets at a distance of 250-300 kilometres, Linkevicius tweeted.

We can see efficiency of #HIMARS. #Ukraine also urgently needs #ATACMS which are capable of hitting targets at a distance of 250-300 kilometres. Real game changer! Time is urgent! pic.twitter.com/piS0gsx9Ee  Linas Linkevicius (@LinkeviciusL) July 20, 2022

He stressed that the weapon is a real game changer, adding that time is urgent.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, said that Ukraine is discussing with the U.S. all possibilities for supplies of new types of weapons.

Read also: White House announces new HIMARS systems for Ukraine

On July 19, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, discussed with the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley the operational situation on the eve of the meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine Defense. Zaluzhnyi told his counterpart that the timely arrival of M142 HIMARS, which deliver targeted strikes on enemy control and command posts, ammunition and fuel depots, helped stabilize the situation at the front line, which is now tense but fully under control.
More than 30 countries have provided lethal military equipment to Ukraine after three meetings of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, and new initiatives are constantly being put forward.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said this in his opening remarks at the fourth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group held virtually on Wednesday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Now, one month ago, in Brussels, this group met in person to reaffirm our dedication to Ukraine's self-defense. And we heard from many countries undertaking important new initiatives. More than 30 countries have now sent lethal military assistance to Ukraine in its hour of crisis," he said.

Austin said that these joint efforts have already changed the situation on the ground and they will continue in the future. In this regard, Austin recalled that the United States had committed more than $2.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, which includes, among other things, includes a total of 12 HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems to further strengthen Ukraine's long-range fires capability.

"We'll continue to provide historic levels of security assistance to help Ukraine defend itself," Austin said.

He confirmed that the U.S. administration would roll out its next presidential drawdown package of weapons, ammunition, and equipment for Ukraine this week.

Photo: CARLOS BONGIOANNI/STARS AND STRIPES
Ukraine has joined the International Energy Agency (IEA) as an association country.

The corresponding joint declaration was signed in Warsaw on Tuesday by the Minister of Energy of Ukraine, German Galushchenko, and the IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We have to win the energy war with Russia, and thanks to the signing of this agreement, we are becoming stronger.

"We thank our international partners for their solidarity," Galushchenko said.

He noted that thanks to innovative technologies, Ukraine seeks to build a better energy system in the country.

Read also: German foundation withdraws from Nord Stream 2 project

According to the official, membership in the IEA will provide Ukraine with practical expertise on post-war reconstruction of Ukraine's energy infrastructure, as well as the development of joint action mechanisms.

Galushchenko emphasized that this will be the last winter when Russia will try to put pressure on European nations, using energy levers.

"It will be a very difficult winter and we must unite in order to counter Russian aggression and its pressure together," emphasized the minister of energy.

In turn, Birol emphasized that Ukraines accession is a very important event, adding that all IEA member states unanimously supported the countrys membership in the organization.

He noted that the world is experiencing an unprecedented energy crisis caused by Russian aggression toward Ukraine.

The head of the International Energy Agency expressed the opinion that February 24 was a "historic moment" for the world energy industry, as it gave an additional impetus to the development of new technological solutions.

He emphasized that now it is necessary to focus on alternative energy supply routes to Europe, as well as to make gas consumption more efficient.

The signing of the documents took place in the premises of the Council of Ministers of Poland with the participation of the Minister of Climate and Environment of Poland Anna Moskwa.

The Polish minister noted that Ukraine is joining the IEA not only as a gesture of solidarity amid Russian aggression, but also because it has earned a place in the organization due to the country's successful energy transformation.

The signing of the agreement took place following consultations with the IAE on issues of expert analytical support and assistance in the post-war reconstruction of the Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
The group of creditors of Ukraine from G7 countries and Paris club members announced their intention to suspend principal and interest payments on bilateral debts until the end of the year 2023, with the possibility to extend the suspension by an additional year.

On July 20, a group of creditors of Ukraine from G7 countries and Paris club members (the Group of Creditors) announced their intention to suspend principal and interest payments on bilateral debts from 1 August 2022 until the end of the year 2023, with the possibility to extend the suspension by an additional year, the press service of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine informs.

The Group of Creditors acknowledged Ukraines exemplary track record of honoring its debt service obligations to date. The Group of Creditors also expressed their support for the consent solicitations relating to Ukraines outstanding Eurobonds and GDP-linked warrant announced today, and strongly encouraged bondholders and warrantholders to consent to Ukraines requests. The Group of Creditors pointed out that by agreeing to the requested amendments of Ukraines outstanding securities, private sector investors would be providing a substantive demonstration of support for the government and people of Ukraine.

Serhiy Marchenko, Minister of Finance of Ukraine, thanked Ukraines international partners within G7 countries and the Paris Club for the debt suspension. This provides great support for Ukraines state finances during the most challenging time of our history. Together with the debt deferral and other accommodations being requested from our international bondholders and warrant holders, the announced debt suspension from the official sector will allow Ukraine to channel scarce FX resources toward the most urgent war-related priorities, including military, social and humanitarian needs. We believe that such solidarity with Ukraine in its fight for freedom and democracy from the official and commercial sectors will help us mitigate the negative consequences of the war and to hasten our victory, he said.

As noted, the Group of Creditors expressed their solidarity with and support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russias unjustified, unprovoked and illegal war of aggression.

The Group of Creditors of Ukraine includes Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Observers to the Group include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

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Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Austria Alexander Schallenberg and Czech Republic Jan Lipavsky arrived in Kyiv.

The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported on the visit via Telegram, according to Ukrinform.

"The heads of the foreign ministries of Austria and the Czech Republic have arrived in Kyiv," the statement reads.

Glad to finally be back in #Ukraine with my dear colleague @JanLipavsky. Devastating to see what #Russias brutal war of aggression has been doing to this beautiful country and its people. We will continue to #StandWithUkraine," Schallenberg tweeted.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on July 19, Slovenian Ambassador Tomaz Mencin visited the war-torn Irpin in Kyiv region.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine says he does not support Brazil's position of neutrality on Russia's war against Ukraine.

Zelensky said this in an interview with the Brazilian TV channel Globo, Ukrinform reports.

"I spoke with President Bolsonaro, and I thank him for this call. This is not my first conversation with the President of Brazil. I do not support his position of neutrality. I do not believe that on a war happening in the world one can be neutral. ...You cannot be somewhere in the middle. You can't say I'm ready to be a mediator. A mediator in what? A mediator in a war between whom and whom? This is Russia's war against the people of Ukraine. They are on our territory," Zelensky said.

The president is convinced that people in Brazil support the same values as in Ukraine. Therefore, according to him, Brazil, like any Latin American nation, should support his country. "With neutrality, we give Putin the opportunity to think that he is not alone in this world," Zelensky said.

As reported, on July 18, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, had a phone call with President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro.
Austrian Federal Minister for European and International Affairs Alexander Schallenberg has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin should not win the war he started against Ukraine.

He said this in a comment to journalists, commenting on a joint visit to Ukraine with his Czech counterpart, Ukrinform reports, referring to APA.

"The goal is that Putin does not win. Putin failed to destroy Ukraine, he failed to divide the West," Schallenberg said.

According to him, his joint visit to Kyiv with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky is a "clear sign of solidarity from Central Europe," and the Slavkov format "works as a whole."

Schallenberg said that now it is important to ensure the existence of a world where international law and the rule of law apply, and not "the law of the strongest."

He recalled that Austria, as a neutral state, provides Ukraine with mostly humanitarian aid. In general, financial support from Austria amounts to about EUR 80 million. About 980 tonnes of humanitarian aid were delivered to Ukraine, and 38 fire and rescue vehicles were handed over to the country. Austria also took in about 80,000 refugees from Ukraine.

"We will continue to support Ukraine in solidarity. We will rebuild this country - as soon as it becomes possible again," the Austrian minister said.

According to the report, the visit to Ukraine was initially planned in the so-called Slavkov format (Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia), but the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia, Ivan Korcok, was forced to cancel the trip at the last moment due to contracting coronavirus.
Belgium will continue to support the people of Ukraine who defend democracy and European values, opposing large-scale Russian aggression.

Ukrainians are fighting and dying to rescue their country and the democratic values we share. We will not allow blackmail by a nuclear power that wants to wreck our solidarity with Ukraine to divide us. We will continue to support the people of Ukraine, Philippe, King of Belgium, stated on the eve of the Belgian National Day to be celebrated on July 21.

As noted, many countries around the world are suffering because of the war unleashed by Russia. At the same time, the King of Belgium underscored the importance to preserve unity in this difficult time.

During the monarch's speech, photos showing him and his wife meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Belgium were shown.

Read also: Zelensky thanks Belgium for support for granting Ukraine EU candidate status

On February 24, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russian troops shell and destroy key infrastructure facilities, massively fire on residential areas of Ukrainian cities and villages using artillery, MLRS, and ballistic missiles.

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The war unleashed by Russia must end on the terms that the Ukrainian people will consent to. Russias ultimatums will not be accepted.

"We all want peace, especially people suffering in Ukraine. But I must clearly say that peace and solution [terms for ending the war between Russia and Ukraine] cannot be imposed from somewhere. This must be a decision that will be made by the people of Ukraine. We will not accept peace in the form of ultimatums put forward by Russia," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria Alexander Schallenberg said at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian and Czech colleagues in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

He noted that the joint visit with his Czech colleague is a signal of solidarity with Ukraine sent by the countries of Central Europe.

"Our message to Russia is very simple: we do not accept that truth is gained by force, and that is why both a neutral country and a NATO member state support Ukraine in these difficult times in this battle," the foreign minister of Austria emphasized.

Schallenberg pledged Austria's unwavering solidarity and support for Ukraine in the future.

As reported, the ministers of foreign affairs of Austria and the Czech Republic arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday. The program of the visit includes talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Prime Minister Shmyhal, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Kuleba.

Photo credit: @a_schallenberg

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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky met with Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria Alexander Schallenberg and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavsky.

Thank you for your sincere attitude and solidarity with our people, powerful defense support and humanitarian aid. We appreciate that you stand by Ukraine in our struggle for freedom, Zelensky posted on Telegram.

The press service of the Head of State informs that Zelensky thanked Austria and the Czech Republic for supporting the decision to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate for accession to the European Union.

"This is a powerful support. We have a lot of work ahead regarding the important things that European society, the European Council and the European Commission advise us," Zelensky said.

The President expressed confidence that Ukraine will meet all the necessary requirements for EU membership. "I would really like to open a new page in the life of Ukraine as a full member of the European Union. And this new page is the beginning of a dialogue regarding the accession to the European Union," the Head of State emphasized.

Zelensky noted that in this matter Ukraine counts on the support of the Czech Republic given the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The President thanked Austria and the Czech Republic for helping Ukraine during a full-scale Russian invasion.

"I would like to thank you for the attitude of your societies and governments to supporting our people, Ukrainians, especially forcibly displaced persons, women and children. I am grateful to you for the warm welcome and help you provide to them," the Head of State said.

In addition, Zelensky expressed gratitude to the Czech Republic for the powerful defense support, which is tangible for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The President also thanked Austria for the humanitarian aid, in particular the provision of ambulance vehicles and fire trucks.

As reported, Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria Alexander Schallenberg and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavsky make a working visit to Ukraine.

Photo credit: @a_schallenberg

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Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal held a meeting with the foreign ministers of Austria and the Czech Republic, during which the issues of sanctions against Russia, demining, and energy cooperation were discussed.

"The visit of the foreign ministers of Austria and the Czech Republic to Kyiv is a confirmation of political support and continued cooperation between our countries. I discussed sanctions against Russia, demining, and energy cooperation with Alexander Schallenberg and Jan Lipavsky," the Head of Government posted on Facebook.

He emphasized that the financial and military support of partners bolstered Ukraine's chances of success in the war with the Russian aggressor, thanked for the comprehensive assistance that Austria and the Czech Republic provided to Ukraine.

As the Government portal informs, Shmyhal emphasized that the supply of weapons was crucial for our country not only to survive but also to win the war. In this context, he expressed hope that the 4th Ramstein format meeting will contribute to a significant improvement of Ukraine's combat potential.

The parties, among other things, discussed prolonging and intensifying sanctions pressure on Russia.

The Prime Minister appealed to Austria and the Czech Republic with a request to support the expansion of electricity exports from Ukraine.

In addition, Shmyhal told the ministers of foreign affairs of Austria and the Czech Republic about the first stage of rehabilitation of Ukraine  fast recovery. According to him, demining is among its critical elements, so he called on countries to join the process.

Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria Alexander Schallenberg noted that his country stood ready to cooperate in the issue of demining. He also added that Austria would continue to provide comprehensive assistance to Ukraine.

For his part, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavsky noted that support for Ukraine was among the main priorities for the Czech Republic during its presidency of the Council of the European Union.

As reported, Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria Alexander Schallenberg and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavsky make a working visit to Ukraine.

Photo credit: Denys Shmyhal, Facebook

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The number of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian war, who have been accepted in Estonia, has reached 47,002.

This was reported by the ERR national TV and radio broadcaster, citing data from the Estonian Police and Border Guard Agency, according to Ukrinform.

On Tuesday alone, 379 war refugees from Ukraine arrived in Estonia, including 64 children. For 232, the country is a transit point as they wish to continue their journey to a third country.

Another 147 people remained in Estonia.

Earlier, the Estonian government said that a plan had been developed to accommodate up to 50,000 Ukrainian refugees.

On February 24, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Martial law has been introduced and general mobilization has been announced as the nation is repelling the enemy onslaught.
For as long as he can remember, Shah Alums dream was to become a teacher. But his education ended abruptly when he was forced to flee his native Myanmar before he could graduate from high school.

Across the border in Bangladesh, he and his family found safety in one of the camps that was springing up in Coxs Bazar, but there was no opportunity for Shah to complete high school, let alone attend university.

And yet, nearly five years later, Shah, now 22, is leading a class of about 40 Rohingya children seated on the floor of a bamboo-framed classroom in Kutupalong camp, home to some 750,000 Rohingya refugees.

While Shah teaches the children the Myanmar language at the front of the class, Minhar Begum, a 24-year-old from the Bangladeshi community in Coxs Bazar District, moves around the room making sure everyone is following her colleagues instructions.

"When we teach together, it's easy to coordinate the class."

Shah and Minhar have been working together as teaching assistants at this learning centre for the past two years. While neither of them is a fully qualified teacher, they have received training from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and between them, they cover an informal curriculum that consists mainly of basic literacy and numeracy, as well as some Myanmar language and life skills.

When we teach together, its easy to coordinate the class, says Shah. She can be at the front, maybe explaining something, and I can be at the back. We can focus on every student equally.

The decision to pair Rohingya refugees with local Bangladeshis to teach at 5,600 learning centres throughout the camps in Coxs Bazar arose out of necessity, explains Haruno Nakashiba, Senior Protection Coordinator with UNHCR.

We have a shortage of teachers among the refugees because very few Rohingya were able to complete higher education in Myanmar, due to restrictions on their movements and other rights, she says. So, for some of the subjects, like English or Mathematics, we decided to hire Bangladeshi teachers. This also means were creating jobs for them.

With the Rohingya largely confined to the camps, these teaching partnerships have the added benefit of providing one of the few opportunities for refugees and local Bangladeshis to come together.

We are like siblings, we understand each other very well, says Shah about his relationship with Minhar. At first, we didnt communicate much, but now we talk about strengths and weaknesses and how we can improve.

Shah Alam teaches the Myanmar language to a class of 40 Rohingya children.  UNHCR/Amos Halder

Even with one anothers support, teaching at the learning centres is not without its challenges. The informal curriculum was developed following the 2017 influx of Rohingya into Bangladesh as an emergency measure to ensure children learned some literacy and numeracy. It is no substitute for a formal, standardized education and its four levels cater only to younger children aged 4 to 14, leaving a critical gap in education for older children.

See also: Youth groups give young Rohingya refugees skills and a sense of purpose

When Im talking about the challenges for the children, its the same for me as well, says Shah. Theres no proper pathway for education here  After passing Level 2, many students dont want to come back because of the lack of certification.

He says that many primary-aged children in the camps are not going to learning centres, with attendance even lower during the monsoon season when paths in the camps can become muddy and treacherous. Some work to help their parents; others spend their days doing nothing.

Haruno Nakashiba of UNHCR said the agency has long raised concerns about the lack of any formal education in the camps and, together with UNICEF and other partners, advocated for replacing the current system with Myanmars national curriculum. The Bangladeshi government approved a shift to the Myanmar curriculum in January 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic closed learning centres and delayed its roll out for nearly two years.

A pilot of the new curriculum finally began late last year with an initial 10,000 children in grades six to nine enrolled. A second phase of the roll out for grades one and two will start in July, at the start of the new school year, with the remaining grades due to be replaced next year so that all school-age children in the camps will be following the Myanmar curriculum by July 2023.

"We want the Myanmar curriculum."

Without certification issued by Myanmars Ministry of Education, the new syllabus still cannot be considered a formal education, but Haruno describes it as vital for the vast majority of Rohingya refugees who wish to return home to Myanmar when it is safe to do so.

Refugees say they want to prove they belong to Myanmar. They say, When my children learn to read and write in Burmese, my children will be recognized as belonging there.

Shah gives similar reasons for his impatience to start teaching the new curriculum as soon as possible. We want the Myanmar curriculum so children can continue their learning when they go back to their country, he says.

Minhar agrees, even if it means that her partnership with Shah could soon come to an end. Although some Rohingya and Bangladeshi teachers will continue to work in pairs, Rohingya teachers will receive training to teach most subjects in the Myanmar language, while host community teachers like Minhar will focus on teaching English and helping with training.

Shahs dream of one day becoming a qualified teacher is not as impossible as it once seemed. UNHCR began offering teacher training to 2,500 teachers this year, the majority of them Rohingya.

If I get the opportunity to learn anywhere, I will go for it, says Shah. I want higher education.


The Bobcat statue on Texas State campus wears a mask, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, near the Quad bus loop. The Swine Flu occurred in the spring of 2009, and according to Dr. Emilio Carranco, H1N1 consisted of mild symptoms while COVID-19 can cause more long-term effects.
For over 30 years the City of Austin has welcomed the tradition of Blues on the Green. Produ Read more
July 20 2022

Angus Council is to launch a pre-application consultation over plans to build a new education campus in Monifieth.

Replacing Monifieth High School the project will provide teaching spaces for 1,200 pupils with the inclusion of an early years facility and a relocated Monifieth Library.

The Monifieth Learning Campus is being delivered by Robertson with Norr Architects, as part of the Scottish Government's Learning Estate Investment programme.

The online portion of the consultation launches on 28 July through to 26 August.

Construction is expected to begin next year for completion by June 2026.
(@Abdulla99267510)

Both sides have expressed satisfaction over bilateral understanding on regional and global emerging situation and areas of common interest, including security, counter terrorism and tackling developing situation in the region.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-July 20th, 2022) Ambassador of Turkiye Mehmet Pacaci called on Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif in Islamabad on Wednesday.

The meeting expressed satisfaction over bilateral understanding on regional and global emerging situation and areas of common interest, including security, counter terrorism and tackling developing situation in the region.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said Pakistan and Turkiye enjoy exemplary fraternal relations based on common faith, culture, values, civilization and historical linkages, mutual trust and support.

He emphasized that Pakistan-Turkiye bilateral relations have been institutionalized under the forum of High Level Strategic Cooperation Council.

The Minister appreciated the defence engagement between Pakistan and Turkiye with focus on building Pakistan's capabilities through defence industrial collaboration and regular exchange of training, delegations, courses and joint exercises.

Highlighting Indian brutalities in Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Khawaja Asif stressed that a just solution of Kashmir issue is inevitable for lasting peace in the region under UN Resolutions.
(@FahadShabbir)

Prime Minister's Special Representative for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi on Wednesday said Pakistan neither could afford religious disharmony, nor political instability

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Jul, 2022 ) :Prime Minister's Special Representative for Interfaith Harmony and middle East Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi on Wednesday said Pakistan neither could afford religious disharmony, nor political instability.

Addressing a press conference, he said Pakistan was passing through a critical phase and it was in dire need of love, peace and unity.

Ashrafi, who is also the chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC), urged the religious and political leaderships to avoid extremist attitudes and adopt moderate approaches in order to bring the country out of prevailing crisis.

"We should move ahead with unity as it is in the favor of Pakistan's economic and political conditions," he added.

He said undue criticism on national institutions including judiciary, security agencies and foreign affairs ministry make them controversial and damage their credibility globally.

Ashrafi categorically stated that Pakistan Army had no role in country's politics and by-election results in Punjab were its evidence.

On the issue of cipher, Ashrafi said it should be the end of blame game as how one could hide such an important document from the chief executive of the country while the then Foreign Affairs Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had already admitted that they themselves distributed the cipher to various state institutions.

He said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was the face of the country which had to portray its soft image in the comity of nations. He proposed to put aside our personal grudges which were tarnishing the integrity of the country world over.

Keeping in view the present circumstances, there was a dire need of political stability and dialogue, he said and added that the political instability was one of its main factors causing crisis in the country.

PM representative said the PUC had issued code of conduct to keep law and order in Muharram-ul-Haram after a thorough consultation with the leadership of various schools of thought.

The PUC was establishing contact centers in Lahore and Islamabad and nobody would be given permission to degrade anyone's sacred personalities, he said. If someone found involved in sectarian activities particularly in the holy month of Muharram, the law would take its course, he maintained.

He urged the religious leaders to ensure implementation on the Paigham-e-Pakistan protocols to avert any untoward situation.

Lauding the outstanding services of Saudi government during Hajj 2022, he informed that the PUC was holding two conferences with the titles of 'Paigham-e-Hajj' and 'Paigham-e-Islam' on July 25, and August 8, respectively in Islamabad.
Researchers at the University of South Florida, in collaboration with Florida International University, have released the second set of findings from a statewide survey. This portion, sponsored by the Florida Center for Cybersecurity at USF, addresses how Floridians are being affected by rising gasoline prices and issues related to Elon Musks potential purchase of the social media platform Twitter.

Among the key findings:

Over the past year, Floridians have been significantly impacted by the rising price of gasoline.

A majority of Floridians (83%) say that they are spending a lot more on gas than they were a year ago.

Slightly more than half (51%) have changed travel or vacation plans in the past year due to the price of gas.

A third of Floridians (38%) report that rising gas prices have affected their ability to pay other monthly bills.

More than three-quarters (78%) have less money available for discretionary spending due to the rising price of gasoline.

Over a third of Floridians (43%) have begun using digital apps to save money on gasoline.

About a quarter (28%) say that the price of gas is negatively affecting their ability to get to work on a regular basis.

Most Floridians are dissatisfied with the governments response to rising gas prices. A majority of Floridians are dissatisfied with President Biden (65%) and Congress (75%) handling of rising gas prices.In addition, 49% and 54% respectively indicated being very dissatisfied.

There is strong, bipartisan support for policy interventions to lower the price of gasoline. A majority of Floridians (72%) are in favor of increasing domestic oil production as a means of lowering the price of gasoline. A similar number (70%) would support a temporary suspension of the U.S. federal gas tax. In each case, majorities of Democrats, Republicans and Independents support these measures.

While Elon Musks purchase of Twitter remains in question, Floridians are divided on what it will mean for American democracy if the deal is finalized. 42% of respondents neither support nor oppose Musks purchase of the social media platform. However, Floridians are divided on whether its implications for American democracy would be good (24%), bad (20%), or neutral (33%). However, a majority are supportive of some specific measures he has proposed for the platform, such as:

Making Twitters algorithm for targeting content and ads publicly available (64%).

Only limiting offensive content if it is illegal (50%).

Doing more to eliminate bots (non-human accounts) from the platform (88%).

Social media platforms are viewed by most as private spaces that should not be regulated by government. The potential sale of Twitter has raised significant questions about the role of social media platforms in American public life. More than half of Floridians (52%) say that platforms such as Twitter are private spaces that should be regulated only by private companies. Far less (28%) view such platforms as public squares where government should regulate content, while 20% remain unsure.

Most believe that these platforms have a responsibility to remove content deemed harmful or dangerous, but opinions are split when it comes to other limitations on speech. Floridians believe that social media platforms should remove content deemed false/misleading (77%) or harmful/dangerous to individuals or groups (77%). However, there is less agreement on whether users should be allowed to post content that may be considered offensive by others. Well more than half (61%) say that people should be allowed to say whatever they want, regardless of whether others find it offensive, while 39% disagree.

A majority of Floridians do not trust social media companies to monitor the appropriateness of content in a fair and neutral way. While a majority of Floridians say that social media platforms should be self-regulated as private companies, most say that they dont trust social media platforms to do so in a fair and neutral way. Two-thirds (66%) indicated little to no belief in the possibility for fair moderation of content, with a plurality (32%) having no faith in their neutrality.

The survey included a representative sample of 600 Floridians, fielded July 2-10, 2022. Results are reported with a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error +/-4 %.

The complete survey results can be found here.
A cross section of the faithful at the funeral of a priest killed by bandits in Nigeria

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) highlights the challenge of insecurity in the worlds most populous black nation, amid persistent attacks and killings of Christians in Benue state.

By Vatican News staff writer

At least 68 Christians have been killed, with many more abducted or displaced in the last couple of months in Central Nigerias Benue State.

Aid to the Church in Need, a Pontifical Charity that supports the faithful wherever they are oppressed, persecuted, or in need, received a report from Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of Makurdi, Benue, highlighting the concerning scale of the situation and pointing at the inaction on the part of Nigerian authorities.

Conflicts and insecurity

At the center of this problem are persistent attacks by terrorists from the Fulani tribe who are mostly Muslim, against largely Christian farming communities in the central region of Nigeria.

The reasons for the attacks are complex. Conflicts between nomadic herders and settled farmers date back centuries but the influx of high-grade firearms over recent years has made attacks more destructive and deadly.

In recent years, Nigeria has been faced with the challenge of battling insecurity, especially in its northern and central regions. The problems began with the activities of the Boko Haram extremist jihadist group but has more recently evolved to include clashes between the herdsmen and stable farmers, and attacks from unknown armed bandits.

Religious dimension

Bishop Anagbe highlighted a religious dimension to the attacks, noting that it aggravates the situation in a country evenly divided between a majority Christian south and a mostly Muslim north, with most of the clashes taking place in the central region, which also possesses the most fertile land.

He said that the scale of killings, displacement, and wanton destruction of property by these Fulani jihadist militias only buttresses the now revealed agenda to depopulate Christian communities in Nigeria and take over lands. He added that some of the terrorists even disguise themselves as nomadic herdsmen to cover the true intent of their attacks, which is to drive Christians from their lands.

The Bishop goes on to slam the governments reluctance to take action on the matter, saying that in the face of the persistent attacks, the government in power gives laughable reasons like climate change or that some Muslims too are sometimes killed in attacks by so-called bandits.

Naturally, having to live with such a situation has been very terrible for me and my people, to say the least, he added.

Consequences of insecurity

In the face of the insecurity caused by these attacks, Bishop Anagbe lamented that Benue State is known to be the food basket of the nation but the terrorism has affected the food supply situation.

In fact, he added, farmers who could usually support themselves and their families are now having to survive on charity.

The bishop further notes that the situation of want has reduced many to a condition unworthy of human dignity, often relying on food rations contributed by others whose economic condition is not better off in any way.

The Church, ACN at the service of the needy

Makurdi, the Benue capital, houses 80 percent of the displaced people in the state. Despite financial challenges, the Church is doing its best to respond in order to relieve the sufferings of those in need, including providing food and clothing for those in camps and granting scholarships to dozens of displaced children.

There is also a parish in some of the settlement areas that caters to the spiritual needs of the displaced people, and the bishop hopes to purchase a mobile clinic to help respond to their health needs.

However, the instability of the region sometimes gets in the way of the ministry and the bishop himself says that he has not been able to carry out pastoral activities in some parts of the diocese.

In all these, ACN continues to support the local Church. In 2021, it financed 105 projects in Nigeria in different fields. The pontifical charity also provides a platform of information about the sufferings of Christians and helps local Church authorities to speak out on religious freedom and Christian persecution during international events.
Fr. John Mark Cheitnum was killed on 15 July by his abductors who seized him and another priest. The diocese of Kafanchan asks for prayers for the repose of his soul and for consolation for his immediate family.

By Fr. Benedict Mayaki, SJ

In a statement on Tuesday, the Catholic diocese Kafanchan announced with a deep sense of sorrow, the gruesome murder of Fr. John Mark Cheitnum, who was brutally killed by his kidnappers on 15 July.

Last week, Vatican News reported the abduction of Fr. Cheitnum, together with another priest, Fr. Donatus Cleophas

The two priests were kidnapped last Friday evening, shortly after they arrived at the parish rectory of Christ the King parish, Yadin Garu, Kaduna State.

Read also 16/07/2022 Nigeria: 2 more priests kidnapped in Kaduna State Two Catholic priests, travelling between parishes, were abducted by bandits on Friday afternoon and are being held captive The Chancellor of Kafanchan Diocese, in the ...

The statement said that Fr. Cheitnum was murdered on the same day of his abduction and his already decomposing corpse was discovered on Tuesday. Fr. Cleophas was able to escape from his abductors and has returned home.

The Diocese has declared a two-day mourning period for the peaceful repose of soul of the priest and the souls of the faithful departed.

Service to the Church

Until his death, Fr. Cheitnum was the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Jamaa Local Government area, as well as the coordinating Chairman of CAN, Southern Kaduna.

He was also the Dean of Kwoi Deanery, the Director of Communications for the Diocese of Kafanchan and the pastor of St. James Parish, Fori, Jamaa LGA.

Fr. Cheitnum's burial is slated for 10 am on Thursday, 21 July at the Cathedral of St. Peter Kafanchan, Kaduna State.

The statement signed by the chancellor of the diocese, Fr. Emmanuel Uchechukwu Okolo, encourages the faithful to pray for the repose of the soul of Fr. Cheitnum and for consolation for his immediate family.
Pope Francis looks ahead to his upcoming apostolic journey to Canada describing it as a penitential pilgrimage that will hopefully contribute to a process of healing and reconciliation with the countrys indigenous peoples.

By Linda Bordoni

Next Sunday, God willing, I will leave for Canada; therefore, I wish now to address all the people of that country, said Pope Francis after the recitation of the Sunday Angelus Prayer in St. Peters Square.

The Popes journey to Canada is scheduled to take place from 24  30 July, and will visit the cities of Edmonton, Quebec and Iqaluit.

Dear brothers and sisters of Canada, as you know, I will come among you especially in the name of Jesus to meet and embrace the indigenous peoples.

He went on to explain that Unfortunately, in Canada, many Christians, including some members of religious institutes, have contributed to the policies of cultural assimilation that, in the past, have severely harmed indigenous communities in various ways."

The Pope recalled a series of meetings he held in the Vatican in April with delegations from Canadas First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples, during which he listened to their stories about life in the residential school system  a scheme for the forcible integration of indigenous children into Canadian culture by separating them from their families and communities and placing them in boarding schools.

On those occasions, he said, he expressed his sorrow and solidarity for the harm they have suffered.

Penitential Pilgrimage

Now I am about to make a penitential pilgrimage, which I hope, with God's grace, will contribute to the journey of healing and reconciliation already undertaken.

The Pope also voiced his thanks for the preparatory work that is underway and for the welcome you will give me.
Pope Francis is set to fly to Canada on Sunday for his 37th Apostolic Visit abroad. He'll be travelling to the Canadian cities of Edmonton, Quebec, and Iqaluit, where the Holy Father will bring his closeness to indigenous peoples who suffered from attempts to erase their culture, especially in the residential schools system.

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

Pope Francis imminent Apostolic Visit to Canada will be first of all a penitential pilgrimage geared at healing and reconciliation with the nations indigenous peoples, suggests the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, noting this follows the Pontiffs five encounters with the aboriginal peoples in Rome in April.

During a briefing at the Press Office on Wednesday, the Director presented the Popes 37th Apostolic Visit abroad. The North American nation will be the 56th country he's visited. Pope Francis is following in the footsteps of his predecessor, St. John Paul II who visited Canada three times during his pontificate, most recently in 2002.

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha and Saint Anne

Bruni recalled how Pope Francis will also visit the National Shrine of Ste. Anne de Beaupre in Quebec, where, like his predecessor, he will celebrate Mass.

At the Shrine, Pope Francis, again like John Paul II, will remember the first canonized Native American saint, Kateri Tekakwitha, and bless a statue of her.

The Director of the Holy See Press Office noted that St. Anne is important for the indigenous especially out of respect for the elderly and the idea of the nonna (grandmother). St Anne and her husband St Joachim, the grandparents of Jesus, are patron saints of grandparents and the elderly.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha

The Popes Journey comes in response to invitations he received from the Church and the civil authorities in Canada, and from Canadas indigenous peoples themselves.

Arctic stop

During the 24-30 July Visit, the Pope will make stops in Edmonton, Quebec, and the northern city of Iqaluit.

In Iqaluit, Bruni warned, it will be cold, very cold, noting that there are only countries like Iceland and Norway that have population centres further north. He joked that for those suffering the intense heat during the scorching European heatwave, it could be refreshing.

The protocol of the Trip will be slightly different from others because the Holy Father will meet with authorities only once in Quebec, the second step of his travel, on Wednesday. Moreover, this time there will be representatives of the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit indigenous peoples at the encounter, which generally is reserved solely for civil authorities and diplomats.

Pope with delegation of indigenous peoples of Canada in the Vatican

The first leg of the Pilgrimage will be dedicated primarily to meeting with indigenous peoples in Edmonton. The Pope will meet with several more groups of indigenous people in Quebec.

Residential Schools

A particularly significant moment of the trip will take place in the Arctic city of Iqaluit, when Pope Francis will meet some former students of the infamous "residential schools" where indigenous children were often subjected to harsh discipline and sometimes mistreated and abused. It is now recognized that the residential school system sought to erase their culture.

Under that system, indigenous children were separated from their families, sometimes against their will, and forced to attend boarding schools away from their homes. Mortality rates were high in the institutions, which were established and funded by the Canadian government, but whose management was entrusted to Christian communities, including Catholic dioceses and religious orders.

The Vatican spokesman recalled Pope Francis' meeting in Rome with representatives of Canada's First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities this spring, when the Holy Father expressed "indignation and shame" for what their peoples experienced.

On the Journey, the Pope will be joined by his usual papal entourage, which will include the Roman Curias two Canadian cardinals, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet; and the Prefect of the Vaticans Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Cardinal Michael Czerny.

At his events and Masses in Canada, the Pope is expected to deliver his nine discourses in Spanish. There will be jumbotrons in Edmonton and Quebec, which are expected to offer English and French simultaneous translations, respectively.

The choice of Spanish, he suggested, is because Spanish is more widely understood than Italian, and to take into account the experience of local translators. He also did not exclude that the choice of Spanish was made in view of reaching a wider audience, as there are many Spanish speakers in some parts of Canada.

Mobility considerations on papal flight

The Holy Father is expected to greet journalists on the outgoing flight to Canada and to hold his usual press conference on the return flight to Rome. More than sixty journalists are expected to accompany the Pope aboard the papal flight.

Pope Francis

Bruni noted that the best way to manage these events is still being studied, cautioning the journalists present not to expect the Holy Father to be standing the entire time or for the conference to be particularly long.

Responding to questions about the Popes mobility challenges due to his knee pain, the Vatican spokesman noted that he may occasionally use the wheelchair during the trip, as he does in Rome.

Although the Holy Father normally departs from Romes Fiumicino Airport and returns to the capitals Ciampino Airport, this time Pope Francis will return instead to Fiumicino international airport.
A new United Nations report said Wednesday that the erosion of womens rights in Afghanistan had been one of the most notable aspects of the Taliban takeover of the country last August.



The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, released the report at a news conference in Kabul, saying it was deeply concerned about the apparent impunity with which human rights violations have been carried out to date since the countrys abrupt transition to the insurgent-turned-Taliban rule.



Since 15 August, women and girls have progressively had their rights to fully participate in education, the workplace and other aspects of public and daily life restricted and in many cases completely taken away, the report lamented.

The decision not to allow girls to return to secondary school means that a generation of girls will not complete their full 12 years of basic education.



The Taliban have significantly rolled back womens rights to work and education, and barred most teenage girls from resuming secondary school, defending their policies as in line with Afghan culture and Shariah or Islamic law. Women working in the public sector have been told to stay at home barring education, health and a couple of other ministries.

The education and participation of women and girls in public life is fundamental to any modern society. The relegation of women and girls to the home denies Afghanistan the benefit of the significant contributions they have to offer, said UNAMA Chief Markus Potzel.

Just days after seizing power, the Taliban announced a general amnesty for former Afghan government and security officials in a bid to bring a permanent end to years of hostilities in the country.

This amnesty does not, however, appear to have been consistently upheld, with UNAMA recording at least 160 extrajudicial killings of former government and security officials by members of the de facto authorities between 15 August 2021 and 15 June 2022, said Fiona Frazer, the UNAMA chief of human rights.

She added that the Taliban had limited dissent by cracking down on protests and curbing media freedoms, including by arbitrarily arresting journalists, protestors and civil society activists and issuing restrictions on media outlets.



Human rights violations must be investigated by the de facto authorities, perpetrators held accountable, and ultimately, incidents should be prevented from reoccurring in the future, Frazer said.



The report largely blamed rights abuses on Taliban intelligence operatives. It said directives issued by the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which interprets and enforces Islamic law, have limited human rights, particularly those of women.



Although such directives are said to be recommendatory in nature, at times members of the de facto authorities have taken a harsh stance on their implementation, including carrying out physical punishments for alleged infringements of their directives.



The Taliban have consistently denied allegations of rights abuses against their forces, including extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. They also dismiss as propaganda charges the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has forced Afghans, including women, to do anything.

The UNAMA report on human rights in Afghanistan is not true, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted in response to Wednesdays U.N. findings.

There is no arbitrarily kill or arrest in the country. If someone kills or arrests arbitrarily, the one is considered criminal and will face the Sharia law. The UNAMA report on this matter is not true, but propaganda.



The UNAMA report also noted that the armed conflict significantly declined in Afghanistan and so are civilian casualties since the Taliban takeover. However, it noted with concern that continued attacks by Islamic State-linked armed groups have killed 700 civilians and wounded more than 1,400 others since August.
A supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump was selected by Republican voters in the eastern state of Maryland as their choice for governor.

State legislator Dan Cox overwhelmingly won Tuesdays preliminary elections, far outpacing his nearest opponent, Kelly Schulz, who once served in the cabinet of outgoing Republican Governor Larry Hogan. He is one of many Republican candidates endorsed by the former president ahead of the upcoming midterm elections who have supported Trumps false claims that he lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden due to a fraudulent process.

Cox attended Trumps Stop the Steal rally on January 6, 2021 that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol aimed at stopping the official certification of Bidens Electoral College victory, and called then-Vice President Mike Pence a traitor on Twitter before eventually deleting the post and apologizing.

The Republican contest was seen as a proxy battle between Trump and Governor Hogan, who was elected twice in the reliably Democratic-leaning state and has urged the party to move on from the combative ex-president. Hogan is widely considered by political observers as a potential candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Coxs eventual Democratic opponent in the November general election was still undecided Tuesday night. First-time candidate and best-selling author Wes Moore was leading Tom Perez, who served as Labor Secretary under former President Barack Obama, but the final result will not be decided for several days until mail-in ballots are counted.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press
With tensions growing over the war in Ukraine and Russias energy cuts, the European Unions executive arm is calling on member nations to cut natural gas consumption by 15% between August and next March to avoid what it calls energy blackmail  and its potentially catastrophic economic fallout.

The EUs executive branch wants the 15% cuts to be across the board and, for now, voluntary, but seeks the power to make the reductions mandatory if Moscow deeply or completely cuts its gas exports to the bloc.

We have to be proactive. We have to prepare for a potential full disruption of Russian gas," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. "And this is a likely scenario. What weve seen in the past, as we know, Russia is calculatingly trying to put pressure on us by reducing the supply of gas.

Russias Gazprom has already partly or fully cut supplies to nearly a dozen of the EUs 27 members, as Brussels tightens sanctions against Moscow over the war in Ukraine. Already, the International Monetary Fund says, even this partial cutoff is hurting European economies.

More recently, Gazprom shut its key Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany and beyond, ostensibly for short-term maintenance. Its unclear if the pipeline will resume operation. Brussels wants member states to prepare for the worst.

"Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon, von der Leyen said.

Last year, Russia provided 40% of the EUs total gas. Since Moscow invaded Ukraine in late February, the bloc has been seeking to diversify supply sources. But experts say that wont be enough to meet its energy needs. Countries like Finland and the Netherlands are already cutting consumption.

While proposed cuts cover European industries, Brussels wants ordinary citizens and others to save energy  especially as climate change fears hit home this week, with record-breaking heatwaves in some parts of Europe.

Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said a new creative approach is needed.

Do we need to have the lights on in empty office buildings or shop fronts all nights? he asked. "Do we have to have air conditioning set at 20 degrees (68 degrees Fahrenheit)? It could be higher, couldnt it?

Still, some of Brussels proposals, like diversifying gas sources and extending coal plants, will inject more emissions into the air in the short term. EU member states still need to approve the commissions proposals. Energy ministers will discuss them next week.
For the first time, Cameroons defense minister has acknowledged grave rights abuses by the military against civilians in the fight against Anglophone rebels and ordered such violations to stop. Cameroons military has characterized past abuses, including torture and killings, as isolated incidents. Rights groups and victims welcome the call while voicing doubt the abuses will end.

Cameroonian Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo Assomo said he is instructing top commanders to immediately arrest and bring charges against troops engaged in rights abuses in English-speaking western regions. He says troops who fail to respect Cameroonian laws and the code of military conduct, which forbids human rights violations in times of armed conflict, will be severely punished.

Assomo spoke in Bamenda Tuesday while officially installing Brigadier Generals Bouba Dobekreo and Ousseini Djibo as commanders of government troops fighting separatists.

Assomo did not elaborate on what he called grave human rights violations. He called on Dobekreo and Djibo to make sure that all human rights are respected while fighting separatists who seek to carve out an independent state from Cameroon and its French-speaking majority.

It was the first time the defense minister has spoken publicly about the issue. In June, military spokesperson Colonel Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo said troops were responsible for killings in Missong, a northwestern village, that month.

In a June 7 press release, Atonfack said four soldiers deployed to investigate the deaths of their colleagues killed nine civilians, including four women and a baby.

Etienne Akenfor is a rights activist with the Cameroon Civil Society group. He has been pressing for the four soldiers linked to the Missong incident to be tried.

Akenfor said he is skeptical the military will allow troops who receive orders to kill suspected fighters and their collaborators to face justice.

If the government was serious about its claims to punish troops, Akenfor added, it should have arrested top military officials suspected of giving the orders.

"The situation keeps getting worse when new military generals are brought in. So, I think the way out of this situation is to send the army [military] back to the barracks. If there were a cease-fire, you would not have troops in the field committing atrocities, he said.

Akenfor said he was surprised to learn that General Nka Valere, commander of troops who committed atrocities in the English-speaking Northwest within the past three years, was not called on to answer charges. Instead, Akenfor said, Nka was appointed by President Paul Biya as the head of the Yaounde International War College last week.

Cameroonian officials say at least 13 soldiers are currently in pre-trial detention for offenses including rape, extrajudicial killings and the burning down of civilian homes.

Advocacy group Human Rights Watch recently said Cameroons announcement of an investigation into the Missong village killings is an important first step in ensuring accountability around the murder of civilians, allegedly by government forces.

HRW says Cameroon now needs to ensure a thorough, impartial and independent investigation capable of establishing a clear timeline of events and the identification of all those responsible, including in the chain of command, with an aim toward prosecution.

Rights groups have also accused separatists of abuses, a charge the separatists deny. The separatists blame the military and armed groups in the western regions.

In April 2020, the military bowed to international pressure and acknowledged that its troops were responsible for killing three women and 10 children in February of that year in Ngarr-buh, a northwestern village.

Rights groups and the United Nations said at least 21 people were killed, 14 of them children. The military said troops tried to cover up the killing by burning houses and putting the blame on separatist fighters.




The Media Alliance of Zimbabwe has condemned the Chinese embassy in Harare for threatening a weekly newspaper after it published articles on violations by Chinese mining companies.

The group says the embassy threatened to take unspecified "strong countermeasures" against The Standard newspaper, which the alliance called an attack on press freedom.

"Firstly, the Chinese embassy did not specify what counteractions they would take against the newspaper in question, and it is something of a concern  particularly coming from a global powerhouse in the mold of China," said Nigel Nyamutumbu, head of the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe. "And this, in our view, such unspecified threats would amount to an attack on press freedom," he said.

Officials at the Chinese embassy on Wednesday said they would not comment on the statement by the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe.

Nyamutumbu said, "The Chinese embassy did not also seek any redress with the professional mechanisms that exist, whether through the ombudsman of the Alpha Media Holdings, which houses the newspaper that they had issues with, or approaching the self-regulatory mechanism that is available to seek redress and to seek accountability, and to get areas they wanted threshed out to be handled.

"They could also have used the Zimbabwe Media Commission or the diplomatic channels so that their issues could have been handled amicably outside of issuing statements that have a chilling effect on press freedom," he added.

Zimbabwean officials could not be reached Wednesday for comments. In an interview, former Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Ashton Masunda, a member of the Alpha Media Holdings editorial advisory board, said journalists would not relent, despite the threats by the Chinese embassy.

"The allegation that really stung me into action was the allegation by the Chinese embassy that the Alpha Media Holdings journalists were paid by foreign-linked nongovernment organizations as well as an embassy," Masunda said. "Alpha Media Holdings is an independent media house, which is free from any political ties. It is an anathema for any Alpha Media Holdings journalists to receive any payment outside remuneration which he or she receives from [the] company."

Masunda added that his organization would continue to report accurately and fairly in Zimbabwe.
Ukraines First Lady delivers impassioned remarks to the US Congress. Plus, what challenges face Kyiv as the officials say they will not cede territory to Russia, even though US intelligence suggests Moscow may annex occupied territory, as it did in 2014.
On a sunny May morning in 2020, Sok Oudom joined fellow journalists to cover a protest over military plans to claim land in Cambodia's Kampong Chhnang province.

Armed with a microphone and a smartphone, and with a traditional red krama scarf wrapped around his head, Oudom started a livestream for his digital and radio media outlet, Rithysen News.

Several protesters were forthcoming with Oudom about their opposition to the plans. One took the mic and questioned whether the spike in land disputes could bring war back to Cambodia.

Oudom himself called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene, then called out the governor at the time, Chhour Chandoeun.

The broadcast caught the attention of authorities.

The following day, police raided Oudom's home in the city of Kampong Chhnang and charged him with incitement.

The Information Ministry in Phnom Penh revoked the license for Rithysen News.

That December, a court sentenced Oudom to 20 months in prison.

The journalist's case was cited in a report by the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, a U.S.-based organization that advocates for vulnerable communities and seeks to hold governments to account.

The association said Oudom's case is indicative of the challenges for journalists and activists accused of incitement.

Local and international rights organizations have previously cited Cambodia's use of the charge against critics.

The independent Cambodian Journalists Alliance, or CamboJA, has documented at least 168 cases of legal and physical harassment against journalists in the past two years, with nearly all those detained facing accusations of "incitement."

"The case of Mr. Sok Oudom is a personal tragedy, but it is also indicative of a wider issue of Cambodian authorities using draconian laws to target journalists and human rights defenders," Oliver Windridge, an international human rights lawyer who advised the ABA, told VOA Khmer.

"The right to freedom of expression protects not only the right to say things that are complementary or in favor of governments and authorities, but importantly, also the right to be critical and challenge governments and authorities."

Chin Malin, a spokesperson for Cambodia's Ministry of Justice, dismissed claims that authorities use incitement and other laws to target critics.

When asked about Oudom's case, he told VOA that journalists are not afforded "special privilege or parliamentary immunity to make them an exception from criminal responsibilities if they commit a criminal felony."

Media trial

In convicting Oudom, judges in Kampong Chhnang provincial court cited Article 495 of Cambodia's Criminal Code, which covers acts deemed to be "incitement to commit a felony or to disturb social security," through provisions laid out in Article 494 including speech, pictures or audio-visual communication.

At the final hearing, the provincial court judge told Oudom his words had "the potential to inspire the listener or citizens currently occupying the disputed land to commit acts which are crimes by going to occupy land."

The ABA report concluded the prosecution against Oudom ran contrary to both international and domestic legal and human rights practices.

Him Khortieth, the research and advocacy manager at CamboJA, followed Oudom's case closely, even attending hearings.

"Based on what I heard during directly being present in the trial, there seemed no serious and specific felony committed in their accusation against Mr. Sok Oudom," Khortieth told VOA Khmer.

He said many journalists are seeking clarification on where the line is between journalistic work and criminal activity; between protected expression and incitement.

Ministry spokesperson Malin said it is up to judges to decide what constitutes "incitement."

"Not the so-called Facebook judges, not the journalists, not the analysts, and not the civil society organizations  who are the outsiders  to consider these three aspects instead of a state judge," he said. "If anyone could do that, there would be no need to have a court system or judges in existence at all."

Back in Kampong Chhnang, issues of land grabbing, illegal fishing and deforestation are still present.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has made public remarks calling for action. In an audio address in November, he said officials involved in land grabs should be held accountable.

The following month, Kampong Chhnang's former governor Chandoeun was reported to be under investigation for his alleged involvement in taking 2,000 hectares of flooded forest area in the province.

The former governor has not spoken publicly about the investigation.

The forces stifling freedom of speech extend beyond the provincial level, the ABA said.

Its report found that the ruling party's "omnipresent influence over political and legal processes fosters an environment that punishes expression and gives little legal recourse to the accused."

"This is the environment surrounding Sok Oudom's criminal case," it added.

In September 2021, Oudom was released after an appellate court reduced his sentence.

VOA reached out to Oudom but the journalist declined the request for an interview.

He has returned to journalism, but he now maintains a lower profile while gradually restarting his news site and radio station.



This story originated in VOA's Khmer service.
For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT.

11:40 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the foreign ministers of Austria and the Czech Republic for their support as the Russian invasion of his country continues, The Associated Press reported.

"We are grateful for your support, for the support of your countries," he said during a meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg and Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky during their visit to Kyiv.

10:30 p.m.:

8:17 p.m.: Russia will not export oil to the world market if the price is capped below the cost of production, Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak as telling Russian television, Reuters reported.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is pushing for a cap to make it harder for Moscow to fund its war in Ukraine. Officials say the goal is to set the price at a level that covers the marginal cost of production so Moscow is incentivized to continue exporting oil.

7:27 p.m.: The United States estimates that Russian casualties in Ukraine so far have reached around 15,000 killed and perhaps 45,000 wounded, CIA Director William Burns said, cautioning that Kyiv has endured significant casualties as well, Reuters reported.

"The latest estimates from the U.S. intelligence community would be something in the vicinity of 15,000 (Russian forces) killed and maybe three times that wounded. So a quite significant set of losses," Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. "And, the Ukrainians have suffered as well -- probably a little less than that. But, you know, significant casualties."

6:18 p.m.: In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, When we turn to our partners with this or that request, with this or that advice or demand, it is based on the experience of Ukraine -- on what we have already experienced. Russia is testing in Ukraine everything that can be used against other European countries.

It started with gas wars and ended with a full-scale invasion, missile terror and burned cities of Ukraine. And so that this does not happen to anyone else, we must ensure a tangible joint victory over Russia in Ukraine. The sooner this is done, the less damage and suffering will be experienced by all European families, all European countries, Zelenskyy said.

5:27 p.m.:

4:15 p.m.:

3:07 p.m.: Germany's State-owned rail company, Deutsche Bahn, said it was planning to transport grain by freight train from Ukraine to Germany's ports, Reuters reported.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has stalled Kyiv's exports, leaving dozens of ships stranded and some 20 million tons of grain stuck in silos at Odesa.

Deutsche Bahn said it will transform its network that was set up to transport humanitarian aid to bring grain from Ukraine to the German ports of Rostock, Hamburg and Brake near Bremerhaven.

The railway operator plans to run several trains per week and a large part of the grain would be transported via Romania and Poland, the company said, adding that the company couldn't yet quantify how much grain it could transport.

2 p.m.: Russia on Wednesday accused Ukraine of firing two drones at a nuclear power station in the partially occupied Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia on Monday but said the reactor was undamaged, according to Reuters.

Reuters could not independently verify the report, and Ukrainian officials had no immediate comment. The facility is the largest nuclear plant in Europe.

"Ukrainian nationalist formations used two kamikaze drones to attack facilities at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant - one drone was destroyed on approach to the plant," Russia's defense ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine has previously accused Moscow of basing troops and storing military equipment on the grounds of the power station.

Earlier in the day Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian-installed regional administration, wrote on Telegram that three Ukrainian "kamikaze drones" had struck the plant.

1:15 p.m.: A United Nations spokesman has reiterated the world bodys call for Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, spoke hours after Russias foreign minister said Moscows aims in Ukraine now extend beyond the eastern Donbas region.

VOAs U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer reports that Haq said: "We have from the start been clear that this military offensive needs to stop. The secretary-general has been very clear about that. The General Assembly has also spoken out as a group about the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. That is the U.N. standpoint.

11:45 a.m.: Ukraine first lady Olena Zelenska addressed U.S. Congress members Wednesday and appealed for more weapons to help her country defend itself against the ongoing Russian invasion.

Zelenska is on a visit to Washington where she already met with U.S. first lady Jill Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

10:10 a.m.: Russias foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that countrys military objectives in Ukraine now extend beyond the eastern Donbas region, reports Reuters.

In an interview with state news agency RIA Novosti, Lavrov added that Russias objectives will expand further if Western countries continue to supply Ukraine with long-range weapons.

At the time of failed peace talks in March, Lavrov said, the focus was on the Luhansk and Donetsk Peoples Republics, two breakaway, mainly Russian-speaking areas in eastern Ukraine from which Moscow has said it aims to drive out Ukrainian military forces.

"Now the geography is different, it's far from being just the DPR and LPR, it's also Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and a number of other territories," Lavrov said, referring to territories well beyond the Donbas that Russian forces have wholly or partly seized.

9:08 a.m.: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the U.S. will send four more high mobility artillery rocket systems  HIMARS  to Ukraine.

Austin made the announcement Wednesday at the start of a virtual meeting with allies on Ukraine, reports Reuters. The additional systems will raise the number of HIMARS the U.S. has supplied to Ukraine to 16.

The long-range, high-accuracy rocket launchers have helped Ukraine beat back Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine. Earlier this week, Russias defense minister Sergei Shoigu told generals that knocking out such weapons systems should be a top priority.

8:25 a.m.: A Ukrainian missile attack has seriously damaged a bridge that is key for supplying Russian forces in southern Ukraine, says the Associated Press.

The report quotes an official in the Russia-controlled Kherson region as saying the Antonivskyi bridge sustained 11 hits in Wednesdays attack. Kirill Stremousov, in remarks carried by the Interfax news agency, says the Ukrainians used U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers in the attack.

The head of the Moscow-appointed Kherson administration, Vladimir Saldo, said passenger vehicles were allowed to continue using the bridge but truck traffic was halted to allow for quick repairs.

The 1.4-kilometer structure is the main crossing across the Dnieper River in the Kherson region.

8:05 a.m.: Ukraines government will seek a two-year freeze on its international debt payments so the country can focus its resources on fighting Russia, reports Reuters.

The report says lawmakers have told the finance ministry to negotiate a deferral on Ukraine's approximately $20 billion debt by mid-August.

Ukraines GDP is set to drop around 40 percent this year because of the Russian invasion.

7:45 a.m.: The European Union has proposed a plan for members to cut consumption of natural gas, ahead of an expected reduction of supplies from Russia.

The plan from the European Commission, the EUs executive arm, calls for the blocs 27 countries to cut gas usage by 15 percent for eight months beginning in August, reports the Washington Post.

Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon. And therefore, in any event, whether a partial major cut-off of Russian gas or a total cut-off of Russian gas, Europe needs to be ready, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters at a news conference in Brussels Wednesday.

She added: We have to prepare for a potential full disruption of Russian gas.

The flow of Russian gas to Europe has already slowed in recent weeks, with EU officials accusing Moscow of retaliating for Western sanctions sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

6:30 a.m.: European Union countries have only reduced their combined gas demand by 5% despite dwindling supplies from Russia and months of soaring prices, Reuters reported citing the European Commission. The commission put forward its plans to trigger deeper gas savings on Wednesday.

"EU level savings so far have been equal for 5% and this is clearly not enough. So, we have to start, coordinate, savings programs right now, if we don't want to face the worst case scenario in the middle of the winter," EU energy policy chief Kadri Simson told a news conference.

5:30 a.m.: The Russian central bank has proposed limiting access to foreign stocks for retail investors who have not passed a qualification test, Central Bank Deputy Chairman Philip Gabunia said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Gabunia also said more than 5 million people in Russia have assets on their accounts frozen as a result of sweeping Western sanctions designed to punish Russia for what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine.

5 a.m.: U.S. lawmakers are set to hear Wednesday from Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska as she delivers remarks on Capitol Hill.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of the address that Zelenska would be speaking on behalf of all Ukrainian mothers and women.

And I really believe that it will be heard by those on whom decision-making in the U.S. depends, the president said.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi encouraged all members of the House and Senate to attend, saying it would be an important and timely opportunity to hear directly from First Lady Zelenska, to learn more about the terrible toll of the Russian invasion and to express our gratitude to the people of Ukraine for their fight for Democracy.

4 a.m.: The U.N.'s aviation agency on Tuesday for the first time blamed senior Belarus officials for a hoax last year that grounded a Ryanair flight that led to the arrest of a dissident reporter, Reuters reported.

The plane was on its way from Athens to Vilnius in May 2021 when Belarus controllers ordered it to land in Minsk, citing a bomb threat. Once it was on the ground, Belarus journalist Roman Protasevich was detained along with his then-girlfriend.

The International Civil Aviation Organization, which had previously said it did not know who was behind the hoax, condemned Minsk for "committing an act of unlawful interference" which contravened aviation rules.

3:15 a.m.: Ukraine intends to postpone repayment of its Eurobonds and payments of interest on them for 24 months from August 1, Reuters reported citing a government resolution published on Wednesday.

The government, which is trying to deal with the impact of Russia's February 24 invasion, instructed the finance ministry to hold negotiations with creditors on deferring payments by August15 and promised additional interest on postponed payments.

The government also plans to postpone payment on the GDP-linked warrants to August 2024 from May 2023, it said.

2:45 a.m.: In coming days, the United States will announce a new weapons package for Ukraine as it engages Russia in fierce battles in eastern Ukraine, John Kirby, the chief National Security Council spokesman, told a White House news briefing.

It will be the 16th such drawdown of money approved by Congress and allocated under presidential authority, he said, according to Reuters.

The package is expected to include U.S. mobile rocket launchers, known as HIMARS, and rounds for Multiple Launch Rocket Systems as well as artillery munitions.

The United States has provided $8 billion in security assistance since the war began, including $2.2 billion in the last month.

2 a.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Moscow did not see any desire from Ukraine to fulfill the terms of what he described as a preliminary peace deal agreed to in March, Reuters reported.

Putin, speaking to reporters in televised comments after a visit to Iran, said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were offering to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, which Moscow's forces invaded in late February.

There was no immediate response from the Ukrainian government to Putin's remarks in the early hours of Wednesday.

Putin, asked about a possible meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy, said Kyiv had not stuck to the terms of a preliminary peace deal he said had been "practically achieved" in March, without elaborating.

"The final result of course... depends on the willingness of the contracting parties to implement the agreements that were reached. Today we see the powers in Kyiv have no such desire."

Negotiations took place in March, with both sides making proposals but without a breakthrough. At the time, Zelenskiyy said only a concrete result from the talks could be trusted.

Putin met Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Tuesday, deepening ties between the two countries who are both under Western sanctions.

1:20 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking broader authority from Congress to seize Russian oligarchs' assets to put pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, said a top prosecutor, according to Reuters.

In testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Andrew Adams, who leads the department's KleptoCapture task force, said Congress should let prosecutors seek forfeitures of assets used to evade U.S. sanctions, not just proceeds of sanctions evasions.

The task force was launched in March to enhance the United States' ability to punish wealthy Russians whom Washington accuses of enabling Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.

Prosecutors have since won warrants to seize two yachts belonging to sanctioned Russians and planes owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich, among other assets.

1:05 a.m.: Russia's offensive in Ukraine's Donbas region continues to make minimal gains as Ukrainian forces hold the line, British military intelligence said on Wednesday.

The Antonovskiy bridge over the Dnieper River that was struck by Ukrainian forces is probably still usable, Britain's defense ministry said on Twitter.

"It is highly likely that the bridge remains usable  but it is a key vulnerability for Russian Forces," the ministry added in the regular bulletin.

12:10 a.m.: Russia is preparing to annex more Ukrainian territory and is installing illegitimate proxy officials in areas it now controls in the east, the White House said on Tuesday.

Unveiling what he said was U.S. intelligence, John Kirby, the chief National Security Council spokesman, told a White House news briefing that the Russians are preparing to install proxy officials, establish the ruble as the default currency and force residents to apply for citizenship.

"We have information today, including from downgraded intelligence that we're able to share with you, about how Russia is laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls in direct violation of Ukraine's sovereignty," Kirby said, Reuters reported.

It is the same tactic used in 2014 when Russia announced its annexation of Crimea after taking control of it from Ukraine, Kirby said. The international community considers Crimea's annexation illegitimate.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
Mali's military government has given Olivier Salgado, the spokesperson for the U.N. mission to Mali, 72 hours to leave the country. The order comes after he tweeted that the Malian government was informed of the arrival of 49 Ivorian soldiers as support for a U.N. contingent. The soldiers were arrested at Bamako's airport on July 10.



Malis foreign affairs ministry posted the statement on its social media accounts Wednesday. The statement said that Salgado is being expelled due to inacceptable publications on Twitter, where he claimed Malian authorities were previously informed of the arrival of 49 Ivorian soldiers to Mali on July 10.



The Malian government has maintained that it was not informed of the arrival of the soldiers and claimed in a July 11 statement that the soldiers were present in Mali to "break the dynamics of the refoundation and security of Mali."



The soldiers arrived for what Salgado said in a tweet was logistical support on behalf of one of our contingents, though they were not present as official contingent forces for Malis U.N. mission, MINUSMA.



The soldiers were arrested on their arrival at Bamakos airport with the government claiming they are mercenaries. Following the arrest, Mali suspended all rotations of U.N. forces in Mali until further notice. Ivory Coast has called for the soldiers' release.



MINUSMA has supported the Malian army in maintaining security in much of the country since its creation in 2013.



Tensions between the U.N. and Malis military government have been rising in recent months, with the U.N. being denied access to the town of Moura in April, where they wished to carry out a human rights investigation of an alleged massacre.

When MINUSMAs mandate in Mali was renewed during a Security Council meeting on June 29, Malis representative to the U.N. stated that the government would not be permitting the U.N. to carry out any human rights investigations.
In an interview with VOA White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh warned against a growing militarization of the region as several Sunni nations and Israel discuss cooperation against Iran. But he said he was confident that Saudi Arabia would not recognize Israel before there was an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. He also said President Mahmoud Abbas was sincere about hoping for a new peace opening with Israel.

The following is a partial transcript taken from that interview. It has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: Mr. Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, thank you so much for joining VOA today.

PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER MOHAMMAD SHTAYYEH: Thank you for having me.

VOA: So, President Biden came to the West Bank. He came with sympathetic words and offered to renew ties with the Palestinians, and renewed support for the two-state solution. Do you believe that he is genuine?

SHTAYYEH: I mean, by all means. He said he believed in two states, and he conveyed this to Golda Meir in his first visit to the region in 1973. And he is a true believer. That's what he said. And I think he does, he does believe in two states. The issue for us is not what do you believe in. The question is that there is a systematic destruction of two states, and the most serious enemy of two states is settlements.

VOA: These are complaints that we have heard very often from the Palestinians. On the other hand, the Israelis and also the Americans believe that there is not a united partner from the Palestinians to achieve a settlement. You have had a split government since 2006, you have not had elections since 2006. So what can you say, what can you convince people around the world, and also the Palestinians, to say that you do have the mandate to reach a two-state solution?

SHTAYYEH: Well, look, what about the situation that was before 2006? Palestinians were united and nothing has happened. On the contrary, it's because nothing has happened, we lost the elections in 2006. So the situation has to be reversed, in a way.

VOA: I just want to go back again to President Joe Biden's visit. So, President Joe Biden, since last year, has resumed assistance to the Palestinian people that President Donald Trump cut. However, he has also continued some of President Trump's policies, including not reopening the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem. He did not criticize Israeli settlements while he was in the region. In your view, how does Joe Biden compare to Donald Trump?

SHTAYYEH: Oh, incomparable. I mean, by all means, we were not talking to the Trump administration, and now we are relinking, and we are reconnecting, and we are talking to the Biden administration at every level.

When it comes to the assistance, also, it is important that Washington has announced assistance to the Palestinian people. I mean, helping in otherwise important East Jerusalem hospitals and so on, but again what we need is official assistance to come to the state of Palestine, to come to the Palestinian government.

Now Europe has resumed its aid to us, we are hoping that Washington will resume direct aid to us, which has not  this aid that has been announced is not direct with us but of course, our people will benefit from it at the end of the day, and it will create some sort of economic improvement on the ground.

VOA: We just met some of your people. The one you're speaking about assisting, when you're speaking about financial aid. We just met some young Palestinians today and one of them told us that he's very frustrated with the Palestinian Authority, the level of corruption, and the level of the lack of good governance. And he doesn't believe that you, the Palestinian Authority can facilitate his aspirations towards a life of freedom and a life of prosperity. What would you say to those people?

SHTAYYEH: Well, look, I mean, we are fighting corruption at every level. This is something that no one can tolerate, one second. I understand the frustration  the frustration has to do with quite a number of issues. One, that is no political progress. This man that you are talking about, he needs to see tomorrow  he needs a better tomorrow.

Look, I mean, if you want to go to Jerusalem, you need a permit. If you want to go to Gaza, you need a permit. If you want a job, you need to get a permit. If you need to establish any economic facility, you need a permit from the Israelis.

VOA: The U.S. right now is very much focused on the war in Ukraine. And as part of that focus, President Joe Biden is trying to shore up alliances around the world, including the growing alliance, the growing friendship between Arab nations and Israel to counter Iran. What are your thoughts on this warming of relations in terms of how it might impact the Palestinian cause toward a two-state solution?

SHTAYYEH: Well, look, Jordan normalized relations with Israel immediately after Israel withdrew from the occupied Jordanian territory. Egypt normalized relations with Israel after Israel withdrew from the Egyptian occupied territory, which is Sinai. So for us, the common factor between all Arab countries was that a peace initiative was designed on the basis of the following: Arabs will normalize relations with Israel on the assumption that Israel will end its occupation of the Arab and Palestinian occupied territory. This is something that has not happened. And therefore for us, we are committed to the Arab Peace Initiative because that did enjoy an Arab consensus.  Now for us, what we need is Arab coordination, whatever it is and whatever the direction is, we are supposed to go to war together or we are supposed to go to peace together.

VOA: Are you concerned the Saudis might normalize relations with Israel?

SHTAYYEH: No, I don't think, I mean the Saudi position is very clear. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was very clear, and the minister of Foreign Affairs was extremely clear on more than one occasion. Saudis will not normalize with Israel unless Israel ends its occupation to the borders.

VOA: Do you believe that?

SHTAYYEH: I do, of course. I think the Saudis are very genuine about that. And I think what we hear from them is important. And I think what was said at the Jeddah summit in the presence of President Biden was very important. I mean all Arab speakers, they stressed the centrality of the Palestine question and that peace is a crucial issue in the region only if the question of Palestine is settled.

VOA: We have seen that narrative or that principle be challenged with the Abraham Accords, with UAE and Bahrain, recognizing Israel even without any kind of diplomatic progress.

SHTAYYEH: But also, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, they also said in their speeches  that Palestine is a crucial issue and Al-Aqsa Mosque is the central issue of the conflict and that a two-state solution is the only solution. I mean all Arabs, they believe in that for us.

As I said, the most important issue is a commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative. We are committed to that. And unfortunately, it is Israel that is rejecting the Arab Peace Initiative. It is the Israelis who didn't buy it even when it was issued in 2002. This was years ago. I mean, 20 years ago now after the Arab Peace Initiative and the Arabs who were genuine when they presented it, they wanted peace in the region on the basis of a land for peace formula.

VOA: There's also a growing security partnership between Arab nations and Israel to counter the threat of Iran. Would the Palestinian Authority join that coalition, would you be able to explain it to the Palestinian people?

SHTAYYEH: There is no coalition. We all know we hear the statements yesterday and a few days ago in Jeddah that the Iranian issue needs a political solution. And I think that Washington is negotiating, Europe is negotiating with the Iranians. There was an agreement with Iran, and I think the Saudis are also talking to the Iranians, everybody is.

United Arab Emirates has announced explicitly and clearly that they are not going to be part of any coalition against Iran and so on. So, the issue for us is not about coalitions or polarization of the region. The issue is that we need a peaceful region and in order for us to have peace for the region, everybody has the right to be sovereign within their own borders, including the Palestinians.

VOA: Just to get into that issue, there may not be a formal security Middle East NATO type of coalition, but there is a growing partnership and there is growing cooperation for example in this area in a missile defense system that the U.S. is trying to encourage Arab nations and Israelis to build together. How does the Palestinian Authority feel about that?

SHTAYYEH: I mean, we don't like to see a militarization of the region. We would like to see a demilitarization of the region, this build-up of arms, it doesn't take us anywhere. The region is already bleeding. You know Yemen, Syria, Iraq, most of the region is bleeding. You don't need to build military capacity in the region.

The region needs a peaceful solution, the region needs economic development and in order for us to go into that direction, I think investments should go into that direction. It's a pity that billions of dollars are spent on arms, if these billions of dollars are spent in poor countries, we could have avoided a failing state in Yemen or a situation in Syria or in Iraq and so on and so forth. That is what the region needs. It needs economic development, hope for the future, the young generation, and also prosperity because without that, based on peace, the most important part of the story is that we have not seen the fruits of peace. We have not seen the peace process ending in a successful product and outcome.

VOA: And that begins with political dialogue, and I understand that President Mahmoud Abbas has just recently spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid as well as Hamas leadership. Do you think that this opening can lead to something more constructive and more permanent? \

SHTAYYEH: Well, I mean the president in his press conference in the presence of President Biden, he was explicit. He said, I extend my hand to the Israelis. Let's sit down together and solve it. We are ready for that.

VOA: Is that realistic?

SHTAYYEH: It's very realistic because our president was a real champion for the whole of the peace process, and he believes in it genuinely. And I think we all do. We all do, simply because we know that for successful peace negotiations, it is in the benefit of the Palestinians. We are the ones who are under occupation. It's not our tanks that are surrounding Tel Aviv. It's the Israeli tanks that are occupying Ramallah and all other parts of Palestine, including Jerusalem.

So, for us, I mean we are also realistic, we are very realistic people. We know that there is no government in Israel, but even when there was a government in Israel. Remember what [former Prime Minister Naftali] Bennett was saying? Three nos: no to talks to President Abbas, no negotiations with the Palestinians, and no to two-state solution. When you have, when you don't have a partner in Israel, with whom shall we talk?

VOA: We heard Prime Minister Lapid confirm his support for the two-state solution. I want to just go back again to what you mentioned because I think this is important.

On the case of Shireen Abu Akleh, do you believe the conclusion of U.S. investigators that the bullet was likely an Israeli bullet, but they had no reason to believe that it was intentional?

SHTAYYEH: Well, look, first of all, there is no way that you can say it is intentional or not intentional before you ask the soldier who shot  who, who, who took the shots. The soldier has never been asked. So, if the conclusion that it was from the side of the Israeli army, then somebody should have asked the soldier. How is it possible for you to draw a conclusion that it is intentional or unintentional without asking the person or without asking the commander who was in the region? So, I don't buy this argument at all or this conclusion at all. Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by the Israelis. Full stop.

VOA: Do you think that the U.S. is shielding the Israelis from taking full responsibility?

SHTAYYEH: Well, I know that there was a technical report, a security report, but what was issued was a political report. And I know that there is a gap between a technical report and a political report, and I think the political report did stand short on reality. You cannot say that it is unintentional without asking the soldier who actually, you know, took the shot.

VOA: So my last question is for our viewers, our VOA viewers around the world who are Muslims or they live in Muslim-majority countries. As I mentioned, I grew up in Indonesia, so I'm very familiar with the Palestinian cause. However, I think there's a tendency for people to look at this conflict in a very black-and-white way, in a religious context between Muslims and Jews. Do you believe that kind of view is constructive to the Palestinian cause, and what would be your message to them?

SHTAYYEH: No. The conflict in Palestine is not religious. The conflict in Palestine is political because we stood against all occupations that occupied Palestine all along history. It has nothing to do with religion. We stood solid against the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. That's an Arab Muslim Sunni country occupying another Arab Muslim Sunni country. So the issue is not about religion. The issue is about occupation.

My message, through you, is that we are people who want to see peace prevailing in our region. We are people who care about the dignity of our kids and, and men and women and so on. We are people who are looking for a better tomorrow, and we are people who are only asking for an independent, sovereign, contiguous state on the borders of 1967, which is only 22 percent of what used to be called Palestine.

I'm hopeful that tomorrow will be much better.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow wants to capture territory in southern Ukraine beyond the eastern Donbas region as the U.S. and its allies committed more military aid to Ukraine.

Russia failed in the early stages of its five-month offensive to topple the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or capture the capital, Kyiv, in northern Ukraine. And it is currently battling Ukrainian forces for control of the Donbas region.

But Lavrov said in an interview Wednesday with state media that Russia no longer feels constrained to fighting in the Donbas where Russian separatists have been battling Kyivs forces since 2014 when Russia seized Ukraines Crimean Peninsula.

Now, the geography has changed. It's not just Donetsk and Luhansk. It's Kherson, Zaporizhia and several other territories. This process is continuing, consistently and persistently, Lavrov told the state news RT television and RIA Novosti news agency.

Lavrov, Russias top diplomat, said Moscows territorial objectives would expand still further if Western countries delivered more long-range missiles to Kyiv.

The U.S. announced Wednesday plans to send four more such rocket systems to Ukraine, along with more artillery rounds.

Ukrainian forces are now using long-range rocket systems to great effect, including HIMARS provided by the United States, and other systems from our allies and partners, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday at the Pentagon. Ukraine's defenders are pushing hard to hold Russias advances in the Donbas.

General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Ukrainians have been using U.S.-supplied multiple rocket launchers to hit Russian command centers and supply lines, including a strategically important bridge across the Dnieper River in the Kherson region.

Russian officials said the bridge has sustained damage but is still open to some traffic. The Russian military would be hard-pressed to keep supplying its forces in the region if the bridge were destroyed.

The Ukrainians are making the Russians pay for every inch of territory that they gain, Milley said, and the Donbas is not lost yet. The Ukrainians intend to continue the fight.

The future, Milley said, will depend on the number of long-range rockets and ammunition the Ukrainians have.

"We have a very serious grinding war of attrition going on in the Donbas. And unless there's a breakthrough on either side  which right now the analysts don't think is particularly likely in the near term  it will probably continue as a grinding war of attrition for a period of time until both sides see an alternative way out of this, perhaps through negotiation or something like that."

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that U.S. intelligence indicated Russia is laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls in direct violation of Ukraines sovereignty.

Kirby said the areas involved in plans that Russia is reviewing include Kherson, Zaporizhia, and all of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.

He also urged the U.S. Congress to ratify the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, saying the Biden administration wants to see the two countries brought into the alliance as soon as possible.

Both Sweden and Finland broke with longstanding non-alliance positions to seek NATO membership as a direct result of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee gave its approval Tuesday, setting the stage for a vote in the full Senate.

All of NATOs 30 member states must approve Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance.

Grain shipments

On the diplomatic front, Putin said Tuesday that Russia was ready to facilitate Ukrainian grain shipments from ports along the Black Sea, but that he wants Western countries to lift their sanctions against Russian grain exports.

Putin spoke in Iran after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about a proposed plan to resume the Ukrainian exports.

Russias invasion of Ukraine has disrupted Ukrainian trade, and with pressures on the global food supply, the United Nations has been involved in the talks to unblock the shipments.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters Tuesday that Guterres remained optimistic that a deal can be completed. He added that Guterres had discussed the ongoing negotiations in a phone call Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Putin also met Tuesday with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, signaling closer links between the two countries.

The contact with Khamenei is very important, Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser, told reporters in Moscow. A trusting dialogue has developed between them on the most important issues on the bilateral and international agenda.

On most issues, our positions are close or identical, Ushakov said.

As Moscow faces ongoing Western economic sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is trying to strengthen strategic ties with Iran, China and India.

Iran, also facing Western economic sanctions and ongoing disputes with the United States over Tehrans nuclear program, expressed hope for closer ties with Russia.

Both our countries have good experience in countering terrorism, and this has provided much security to our region, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said after meeting with Putin. I hope your visit to Iran will increase cooperation between our two independent countries.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that intelligence indicated Russia is laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls in direct violation of Ukraines sovereignty.

Kirby said the areas involved in plans that Russia is reviewing include Kherson, Zaporizhia, and all of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.

He also urged the U.S. Congress to ratify the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, saying the Biden administration wants to see the two countries brought into the alliance as soon as possible.

Both Sweden and Finland broke with longstanding non-alliance positions to seek NATO membership as a direct result of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations gave its approval Tuesday, setting the stage for a vote in the full Senate.

All of NATOs 30 member states must approve Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Economic and trade experts are calling on African countries to increase trade with each other and revive their agriculture sectors to overcome food insecurity and slow economic growth exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.



The global food crisis has led to some 300 million Africans being food insecure. The crisis in Africa has multiple causes: persistent drought in eastern Africa, high food and energy prices, and the cutoff of wheat exports from Ukraine.



Speaking online to journalists Wednesday, Stephen Karingi, the head of trade at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, said African countries also share some blame for the situation.



"Our food markets are experiencing a shock that is coming from outside the continent but why we are experiencing this shock is because we have very low intra-African trade in agriculture and agro-foods, Karingi said. If we had done better and unlocked the full potential of the agricultural sector, we wouldnt be experiencing what we are experiencing today.



Many African countries depend on two countries, Russia and Ukraine, for food and farm products. As the war continues and Russia continues to block Ukraines Black Sea ports, experts are urging African countries to work together to overcome the crisis.



Karingi said the continent needs to start implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area, which economists say has the potential to bring some 30 million people out of poverty.



The AFCFTA is offering an opportunity to trade in value-added goods, agro-commodities, he said. It becomes easier for you to trade in wheat flour or maize flour or sorghum flour which is made from one country to another because again you have the same standard and rules of origin are agreed.



Oliver Chinganya, the head of the African Center for Statistics at the U.N. Economic Commission, said Africa is financially vulnerable to the global crisis.



The commission said as of May of this year, 23 African countries had failed to address the food crisis because they were at high risk of debt distress or were in debt distress.



The commission is calling for financial institutions to give those countries greater debt-service relief.
In Sri Lanka, acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as the countrys new leader following the ouster of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a popular uprising. But his rise to the top job could ignite more anger in a country where he has also been the target of mass protests and is not seen as representing the political change people had demanded.Wickremesinghe received 134 votes in the 225-member parliament Wednesday, way ahead of his nearest rival, Dullas Alahapperuma, who won 82 votes.

Now that the election is over, we have to end this division, Wickremesinghe said in an acceptance speech in parliament. He urged lawmakers to join me and work together to bring the country out of the crisis that we are facing.



Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister who never completed any of his terms, comes from a prominent political family and has long coveted the presidency although his two previous bids failed.



Wickremesinghe is seen as a shrewd politician who secured the top job on Wednesday even though his own United National Party was routed in the 2020 parliamentary election. His party has only one seat in parliament.



Wickremesinghe was nominated for the prime ministers position in May but took over as interim president after Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned. He is seen as close to the Rajapaksas and his victory is attributed to the support of many lawmakers within the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramnua party, which is the biggest party in parliament and dominated by the Rajapaksa family.



After the election, the main opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa, said, This is now an outdated parliament, with a mandate given for an ousted president.

Some lawmakers said they had backed Wickremesinghe because his experience could help solve the economic crisis that has bankrupted the country.



The challenges the new president faces are huge; fuel shortages and runaway inflation have made daily life hard for ordinary Sri Lankans in recent months and millions are running short of food.



To get international financial help, he will also need to restore political stability after months of protests that culminated in the storming of his and the former presidents homes and offices earlier this month. Wickremesinghes private residence was burned down by a mob.



Political analysts say the election has disappointed a country where tens of thousands led a mass campaign to change the political culture, which led the country into dire economic straits. They see Wickremesinghe as part of the same political establishment.



It shows that the massive political upheaval during the last four months has had no significant impact on the conscience, decision and behavior of the majority of Sri Lankan lawmakers, says Jayadeva Uyangoda, a political analyst in Colombo.



We will again have a government that does not reflect public opinion. The citizens' point of view has not been taken into account.



Scores gathered outside the presidential secretariat, from where they have been leading the Aragalaya movement, named after the Sinhalese word for "struggle." Some expressed fear that the countrys new president could crack down on protests.



On Wednesday, ahead of the vote, security was tightened around parliament with soldiers manning barricades. A nationwide emergency was imposed earlier this week, raising fears that it was meant to target dissenters. Last week, Wickremesinghe referred to elements within the protesters who had clashed with soldiers as fascists.



Protesters said stricter security measures would not deter them from pursuing their struggle. Clearly Wickremesinghes election is a violation of the peoples will. We gave a clear picture that we did not just want a regime change, but a system change, and that has not happened, says Damith Kethaka, who tookn part in the protests. I think the movement will gain momentum now.



Political analysts warned that the days ahead could be difficult.



Unless Wickremesinghe takes radical action to show that he is different from the previous Rajapaksa regime, it will be tough to restore the calm that is needed to secure international financial help for the country, says Uyangoda.

The election puts Wickremesinghe on course to be president until November 2024, when his predecessors term was due to end.
Turkey on Wednesday rejected Iraqi state media claims that it had carried out a strike on a mountain resort in Iraq's northern Dohuk province that killed eight tourists and wounded 23 people.

The "fierce artillery bombing" hit a resort in Zakho, a city on the border between Iraq's Kurdistan region and Turkey, Iraq state TV said.

Children were among the victims, including a 1-year-old, the Kurdish health minister said in a statement, adding that all the victims died before reaching a hospital.

"We go towards the mountainside, there are strikes. We go towards the waterfall, there are strikes. We go towards this side, there are strikes," said Mustafa Aala, 24, who was at the resort with a friend when the attack occurred.

"We pulled up the fence that was around the waterfall. We looked from inside, I saw children lying on the ground.  It's a scene that I've never seen in my life," Aala added.

Turkey's foreign ministry said Ankara was saddened to hear of the casualties in the attack and added that Turkey took maximum care to avoid civilian casualties or damaging historic cultural sites in its counterterrorism operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militia and others.

"Turkey is ready to take every step for the truth to come out," the ministry said in a statement, adding that Turkish military operations were in line with international laws.

"We call on the Iraqi government to not make remarks influenced by the heinous terrorist organization's rhetoric and propaganda, and to engage in cooperation to uncover the perpetrators of this cruel act," it said, referring to the PKK.

Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes in northern Iraq and has sent commandos to support its offensives as part of a long-running campaign in Iraq and Syria against militants of the Kurdish PKK and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. Ankara regards both as terrorist groups.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which in the past was mainly focused on southeast Turkey where the PKK sought to create an ethnic homeland.

The top U.N. envoy to Iraq condemned Wednesday's attack in a statement published on Twitter and called for an investigation.
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska on Wednesday showed pictures of casualties of Russias war on her country to U.S. lawmakers, delivering an emotional appeal for a supply of more air defense systems to fight off Moscows missile attacks.



Zelenska showed the faces of Liza, a toddler killed in a missile attack earlier this month in Vinnytsia, 5-year-old Eva, left in the rubble of a destroyed building, and a Holocaust survivor killed in Kyiv.



I want to address you not as first lady, but as a daughter and as a mother, Zelenska said in Ukrainian, as a woman translated her speech to English. No matter what positions and titles we reach in our lives, first of all, we always remain part of our family.

Watch the address:

She said first ladies are usually exclusively engaged in peaceful affairs.



But how can I talk about [peaceful affairs] when an unprovoked invasive terrorist war is being waged against my country? Russia is destroying our people, she said.



I am asking for weaponsweapons that will not be used to wage a war on somebody elses land, but to protect ones home and the right to make up a life in that home, Zelenska said. I am asking for air-defense systems in order for rockets not to kill children in their strollers  and kill entire families.



I want every mother and father to go to sleep peacefully, she said.

Zelenska was in her third day of a visit to Washington, after meeting Tuesday with U.S. first lady Jill Biden at the White House and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.



The two first ladies last saw each other during Bidens unannounced visit to western Ukraine in May, when they visited a school and joined children who were making Mothers Day gifts.



The White House said Zelenska is visiting Washington to highlight the human cost of Russias aggression against Ukraine, with the first ladies discussing the United States continued support for the government of Ukraine and its people as they defend their democracy and cope with the significant human impacts of Russias war, which will be felt for years to come.
For weeks Natalya Zadoyanova had lost contact with her younger brother Dmitriy, who was trapped in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

Russian forces had bombed the orphanage where he worked, and he was huddling with dozens of others in the freezing basement of a building without doors and windows. When she next heard from him, he was in tears.

"I'm alive," he told her. "I'm in Russia."

Zadoyanov was facing the next chapter of devastation for the people of Mariupol and other occupied cities: forcible transfers to Russia, the nation that killed their neighbors and shelled their hometowns almost into oblivion.

Nearly 2 million Ukrainian refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these transfers as forced journeys to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations.

An Associated Press investigation has found that while the picture is more nuanced than the Ukrainian government suggests, many refugees are indeed forced into Russia, subjected to abuse, stripped of documents and unclear about their futures  or even locations.

It starts with a choice: Die in Ukraine or live in Russia. They are taken through a series of what are known as filtration points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip searches to being pulled aside and never seen again. Refugees described an old woman who died of the cold, her body swollen, and an evacuee beaten so severely that her back was covered in bruises.

Those who "pass" the filtrations are invited to stay and often promised a payment of about 10,000 rubles ($170) that they may or may not get. Sometimes their Ukrainian passports are taken away, and the chance of Russian citizenship is offered instead. Sometimes, they are pressured to sign documents incriminating the Ukrainian government and military.

Those with no money or contacts in Russia  the majority, by most accounts  can only go where they are sent. The AP verified that Ukrainians have received temporary accommodation in more than two dozen Russian cities and localities.

However, the AP investigation also found signs of dissent within Russia to the government narrative that Ukrainians are being rescued from Nazis. Almost all the refugees the AP interviewed spoke gratefully about Russians who quietly helped them through a clandestine network, retrieving documents, finding shelter, buying train and bus fare, exchanging Ukrainian hryvnia for Russian rubles and even lugging the makeshift baggage that holds the remains of their pre-war lives.

The investigation is the most extensive to date on the transfers, based on interviews with 36 Ukrainians mostly from Mariupol who left for Russia, including 11 still there and others in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia, Ireland, Germany and Norway. The AP also drew on interviews with Russian underground volunteers, video footage, Russian legal documents and Russian state media.

Exhausted and hungry in the basement in Mariupol, Zadoyanov finally accepted the idea of evacuation. The buses went only to Russia.

Along the way, Russian authorities searched his phone and interrogated him. Zadoyanov was asked what it meant to be baptized, and whether he had sexual feelings toward a boy in the camp.

He and the others were taken to the train station and told their destination would be Nizhny Novgorod, 1,300 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. From the train, Zadoyanov called Natalya in Poland. Her panic rose.

Get off the train, she said. Now.

The transfer of hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine is part of a deliberate, systemic strategy, as laid out in government documents.

Some Ukrainians stay in Russia because while they may be technically free to leave, they have nowhere to go, no money, no documents or no way to cross the distances in a sprawling country twice the size of the United States. Others may have family and strong ties in Russia or prefer to start anew in a country where they at least speak the language. And some wrongly fear that if they return, Ukraine will prosecute them for going to the enemy.

Lyudmila Bolbad's family walked out of Mariupol and ended up taking the nine-day train trip to the city of Khabarovsk, near the Chinese border and nearly 10,000 kilometers from Ukraine.

Bolbad and her husband found work in a factory. Little else has gone as they'd hoped.

They handed over their Ukrainian passports in exchange for promises of Russian citizenship, only to discover that landlords will not rent to Ukrainians without a valid identity document. The promised payments are slow to come, and they have been stranded with hundreds of others from Mariupol in a rundown hotel with barely edible food. But if she returns, Bolbad thinks Ukraine would see her as a traitor, and she plans to stay in Russia.

"We're trying to return to a normal life somehow, to encourage ourselves to start our life from scratch," she said.

For Ukrainians trying to escape, help often comes from an unexpected source: Russians.

On a recent day in Estonia, a Russian tattoo artist accompanied a family from Mariupol across the border to a shelter.

The tattoo artist, who asked that his name be withheld because he still lives in Russia, was the last in a chain of volunteers that stretched 1,900 kilometers from Taganrog and Rostov to Narva, the Estonian border town. He boards in St. Petersburg a couple of times a week, going to Finland and sometimes Estonia.

He said Russians who help know each other only through Telegram, nearly all keeping anonymous "because everyone is afraid of some kind of persecution."

"I can't stop it," he said of the war and the deportation of Ukrainians to Russia. "This is what I can do."

In May, volunteers in Penza in Russia shut down their efforts to help Ukrainian refugees because of anonymous threats. The threats included slashed tires, the Russian symbol Z painted in white on a windshield and graffiti on doors and gates calling them the likes of "Ukro-Nazi" helpers.

For Zadoyanov and many others, the lifeline out of Russia was Russians.

Zadoyanov got off the train to Nizhny Novgorod with the other Ukrainians, and church contacts there gave them shelter and the first steps in finding a way out of Russia into Georgia.

"He was so emotionally damaged," said his sister, Natalya. "Everyone was."
A new study shines a light on the health risks, challenges, and barriers faced daily by millions of refugees and migrants who suffer from poor health because they lack access to the health care available to others in their host countries.

The World Health Organization has just published its first world report on the health of refugees and migrants. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called it a landmark report and an alarm bell.

He said the report reveals the wide disparities between the health of refugees and migrants and the wider populations in their host countries.

For example, many migrant workers are engaged in the so-called 3-D jobsdirty, dangerous, and demandingwithout adequate social and health protection or sufficient occupational health measures, he said. Refugees and migrants are virtually absent from global surveys and health data, making these vulnerable groups almost invisible in the design of health systems and services.

Tedros noted that one billion people or one in every eight people on Earth is a refugee or migrant. He said the numbers were growing. Tedros added that more and more people will be on the move in response to burgeoning conflicts, climate change, rising inequality, and global emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the health needs of refugees and migrants often are neglected or unaddressed in the countries they pass through or settle in.

They face multiple barriers, including out of pocket costs, discrimination and fear of detention and deportation, Tedros said. Many countries do have health policies that include health services for refugees and migrants. But too many are either ineffective or are yet to be implemented effectively.

Waheed Arian, an Afghan refugee and a medical doctor in Britain, recalls the conditions under which he and his family lived in a refugee camp in Pakistan during the late 1980s. He said they were exposed to many diseases, including malaria and tuberculosis.

The conditions that we see in refugee camps now in various parts of the world - they are not too dissimilar to the conditions that I experienced firsthand, he said. Although we were safe from bombs, we were not physically safe. We were not socially safe, and we were not mentally safe.

WHO chief Tedros is calling on governments and organizations that work with refugees and migrants to come together to protect and promote the health of people on the move. He said the report sets forth strategies for achieving more equitable, inclusive health systems that prioritize the well-being of all people.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, three friends were forced to leave their native towns in the east for the western city of Lviv. But that didnt stop them from instantly restarting their lives. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story. Camera: Yuriy Dankevych
Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks Tuesday with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, signaling closer links between the two countries, while also meeting later with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an effort to resume grain exports from war-torn Ukraine.

It was the Kremlin leader's first trip outside the former Soviet Union since Moscow's February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

The contact with Khamenei is very important," Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser, told reporters in Moscow. "A trusting dialogue has developed between them on the most important issues on the bilateral and international agenda."

"On most issues, our positions are close or identical, Ushakov said.

As Moscow faces ongoing Western economic sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is trying to strengthen strategic ties with Iran, China and India.

Iran, also facing Western economic sanctions and ongoing disputes with the United States over Tehran's nuclear program, expressed hope for closer ties with Russia.

"Both our countries have good experience in countering terrorism, and this has provided much security to our region," Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said after meeting with Putin. "I hope your visit to Iran will increase cooperation between our two independent countries."

Putins bilateral talks with Erdogan focused on a plan to get Ukrainian grain exports moving again.

Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations are expected to sign a deal later this week aimed at resuming grain shipments from Ukraine across the Black Sea.

U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Monday there has been incremental progress in the negotiations among Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations, but nothing to announce at this stage. He said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is ready to travel to Istanbul if need be to close a deal.

Guterres spoke on the phone Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the negotiations, according to the United Nations.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called Tuesday for a price cap on Russian oil exports while urging countries to unite in opposition to Russias war in Ukraine.

Yellen said, Economic integration has been weaponized by Russia, adding that Moscow threatens to spark a global food crisis by blocking Ukrainian ports.

All responsible countries must unite in opposition to this war and work together to end it swiftly, Yellen said. And thats why the United States and other responsible allies and partners are seeking to reduce Russias revenue to wage its war while easing the impact on global energy markets.

Ukraines military said Tuesday that Russian attacks continued in multiple parts of the country, including shelling in Sumy, blasts in Mykolaiv and a missile strike in Odesa.

Britains Defense Ministry said Russia may still make further territorial gains as it pursues its stated goal of taking control of all of Donetsk province in Ukraines eastern Donbas region. But the ministry said in its daily assessment that Russias rate of advance is likely to be very slow without a significant operational pause for reorganization and refit of its forces.

Ukraines parliament voted Tuesday to dismiss the countrys top security chief, Ivan Bakanov, and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, two days after Zelenskyy suspended the officials, citing what he said were hundreds of cases of alleged treason and collaboration with Russia, involving workers within the security service and prosecutor generals office.

In Washington, Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska was meeting with U.S. first lady Jill Biden at the White House, a day after meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

A statement released by the State Department Monday night said, Secretary Blinken commended First Lady Zelenskas work to help Ukrainians impacted by the war.

Blinken reiterated that the United States will continue to provide assistance to help Ukraine respond to the significant economic and humanitarian challenges it faces, including supporting the first ladys mental health initiative for citizens affected by the war, the statement said.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken assured Zelenska of U.S. support of Ukraine and commended the first lady for her work helping civilians traumatized by the war.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska met with U.S. first lady Jill Biden at the White House on Tuesday.

The two last saw each other during Biden's unannounced visit to western Ukraine in May when they visited a school and joined children who were making Mother's Day gifts.

President Joe Biden presented the Ukrainian first lady with a bouquet of flowers  yellow sunflowers, blue hydrangeas and white orchids  the colors of Ukraine's flag.

The White House said Zelenska is visiting Washington "to highlight the human cost of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. They will discuss the United States' continued support for the government of Ukraine and its people as they defend their democracy and cope with the significant human impacts of Russia's war, which will be felt for years to come."

Zelenska met Monday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Zelenska and Blinken talked about "the immense and growing human costs of Russia's full-scale invasion," and he noted that Blinken emphasized the U.S. commitment to supporting Ukraine.

"Secretary Blinken commended first lady Zelenska's work to help Ukrainians impacted by the war," Price said. "He reiterated that the United States will continue to provide assistance to help Ukraine respond to the significant economic and humanitarian challenges it faces, including supporting the first lady's mental health initiative for citizens affected by the war."

Zelenska's schedule also includes going to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to address lawmakers.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow wants to capture territory in southern Ukraine beyond the eastern Donbas region where it is currently battling Ukrainian forces for control.

Russia failed in the early stages of its five-month offensive to topple the government of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or capture the capital, Kyiv, in northern Ukraine. But Lavrov said in a new interview with state media that Russia no longer feels constrained to fighting in the Donbas where Russian separatists have been battling Kyivs forces since 2014 when Russias seized Ukraines Crimean Peninsula.

Russia recently took control of the Luhansk province in the Donbas and is fighting to take over neighboring Donetsk province.

But Lavrov told the state news RT television and RIA Novosti news agency, "Now the geography has changed. It's not just Donetsk and Luhansk, it's Kherson, Zaporizhia, and several other territories. This process is continuing, consistently and persistently.

Lavrov, Russias top diplomat, said Moscows territorial objectives would expand still further if Western countries deliver more long-range missiles to Kyiv.

When it first invaded Ukraine on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his goal was to demilitarize and denazify the country, although Zelenskyy is Jewish. The West and Kyiv said the Russian attack was simply an imperial-style war of expansion.

A month later, when it failed to take Kyiv, Russia claimed its main goal was the liberation of Donbas." Even as fighting rages daily in Donetsk, Russia has fired dozens of missiles at other Ukrainian cities, killing hundreds of civilians even as it claims it is not targeting non-military sites.

Ukraine has been attacking a strategically important bridge across the Dnieper River in the Kherson region, using U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers. Russian officials said the bridge has sustained damage but is still open to some traffic. The Russian military would be hard-pressed to keep supplying its forces in the region if the bridge were destroyed.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that U.S. intelligence indicated Russia is laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls in direct violation of Ukraines sovereignty.

Kirby said the areas involved in plans that Russia is reviewing include Kherson, Zaporizhia, and all of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.

He also urged the U.S. Congress to ratify the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, saying the Biden administration wants to see the two countries brought into the alliance as soon as possible.

Both Sweden and Finland broke with longstanding non-alliance positions to seek NATO membership as a direct result of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee gave its approval Tuesday, setting the stage for a vote in the full Senate.

All of NATOs 30 member states must approve Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance.

Grain shipments

On the diplomatic front, Putin said Tuesday that Russia was ready to facilitate Ukrainian grain shipments from ports along the Black Sea, but that he wants Western countries to lift their sanctions against Russian grain exports.

Putin spoke in Iran after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about a proposed plan to resume the Ukrainian exports.

Russias invasion of Ukraine has disrupted Ukrainian trade, and with pressures on the global food supply, the United Nations has been involved in the talks to unblock the shipments.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters Tuesday that Guterres remained optimistic that a deal can be completed. He added that Guterres had discussed the ongoing negotiations in a phone call Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Putin also met Tuesday with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, signaling closer links between the two countries.

The contact with Khamenei is very important, Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser, told reporters in Moscow. A trusting dialogue has developed between them on the most important issues on the bilateral and international agenda.

On most issues, our positions are close or identical, Ushakov said.

As Moscow faces ongoing Western economic sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is trying to strengthen strategic ties with Iran, China and India.

Iran, also facing Western economic sanctions and ongoing disputes with the United States over Tehrans nuclear program, expressed hope for closer ties with Russia.

Both our countries have good experience in countering terrorism, and this has provided much security to our region, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said after meeting with Putin. I hope your visit to Iran will increase cooperation between our two independent countries.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that intelligence indicated Russia is laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls in direct violation of Ukraines sovereignty.

Kirby said the areas involved in plans that Russia is reviewing include Kherson, Zaporizhia, and all of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.

He also urged the U.S. Congress to ratify the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, saying the Biden administration wants to see the two countries brought into the alliance as soon as possible.

Both Sweden and Finland broke with longstanding non-alliance positions to seek NATO membership as a direct result of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations gave its approval Tuesday, setting the stage for a vote in the full Senate.

All of NATOs 30 member states must approve Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition's Peter Mutasa says Zimbabweans will map the way forward on Thursday after giving the Emmerson Mnangagwa government a notice to stage peaceful protests in the country. Mutasa says they will go to court if the police deny them permission to protest over economic decay and human rights violations. (Video: Godwin Mangudya)
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Playa del coco (60.8 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : Was laying in bed and felt shaking and creaking noises came from the windows and objects in the room | 6 users found this interesting.

Portrero surfside (58.9 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 2-5 s : In the house on computer and felt a shake and water in the pool had a small wave | 2 users found this interesting.

Potrero (58.5 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : Laying on bed, felt like someone jumping on bed | 2 users found this interesting.

Playa del coco (60.4 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : Sitting outside at the table and felt the shake moved the hanging plants and inside fans. | 2 users found this interesting.

Playa Potrero (59.3 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / vibration and rolling / 15-20 s : Was sitting in my outside living room watching a movie when my chair started shaking. It went on for a bit. We feel them a lot here and this one was mildly memorable rather than many yeh another quick quake that happen a lot at my home.

La Josefina, Tamarindo, Santa Cruz, Costa Rica (68.5 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 20-30 s : indoors, ground floor, rattled windows, vibration in the floor, rumbling sound, shook things on the surface

Playa Ocotal (58.2 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 2-5 s : Sitting in bed on my iPad and I felt it shake just for a couple of seconds. | One user found this interesting.

near Sardinal, Guanacaste (56.1 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) : A rumble and very small shake | One user found this interesting.

Matapalo / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Wall shook | One user found this interesting.

Playa del coco (60.4 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : Sitting outside at the table and felt the shake moved the hanging plants and inside fans.

Playa Flamingo, Guanacaste (57.9 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / simple rolling (tilting sideways along one direction) / 5-10 s

Playa Potrero, Guanacaste, Costa Rica (57.1 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : My bed shook for more than one second, and then it felt like more of a ripple afterwards

Playas del Coco (59.6 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / complex motion difficult to describe / 10-15 s

Hotel Riu Palace (56.2 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

playa hermosa costa rica (61.5 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) : Very slight tremor felt while sitting on couch. Wife did not feel it sitting a few feet away.

near Sardinal, Guanacaste (56 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) : In bed. Bed shook gently for about 10 seconds. Woke up adult

near Samara, Nicoya, Guanacaste (107.5 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Santa Cruz Costa Rica (59.6 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s

near Sardinal, Guanacaste (55.8 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Tamarindo, costa Rica (67.6 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

San Juan del sur (67.9 km NNE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : Bungalow was shaking slightly

near Sardinal, Guanacaste (58.7 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s : In bed, felt bed shaking and wall items were shaking.

Sardinal, Guanacaste (60.6 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s Watching TV from my couch (reported through (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s

Guanacaste / Weak shaking (MMI III) / simple rolling (tilting sideways along one direction) / 20-30 s : The king size bed was rocking like it was on a boat.

Nuevo Arenal / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s

Tamarino / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s

Tamarindo / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / very short : Weak shaking

Playa conchal costa rica / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : Need shaking

Dreams resort / Light shaking (MMI IV) / both vertical and horizontal swinging / 20-30 s

Coco / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Guanacaste / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s
Europe in midst of record-breaking heatwave.

The Italian health ministry has issued a maximum 'red alert' warning for nine cities on Wednesday, rising to 14 on Thursday due to an intense heatwave, with temperatures set to tip 40C.

The cities included in the 'bollino rosso' warning on Wednesday 20 July are Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Florence, Genoa, Latina, Perugia, Rieti and Rome.

On Thursday 21 July another five cities will be added to the Level 3 red alert list: Campobasso, Frosinone, Milan, Turin and Viterbo.

The 'bollino rosso' indicates emergency conditions with possible negative effects on not just the elderly, sick or very young, but also on healthy and active people.

The extreme heat comes as northern Italy battles a water crisis caused by the worst drought in 70 years amid a record-breaking heatwave in Europe.

Romes nasoni fountains are a lifesaver in the summer, and not just for people. pic.twitter.com/PHIUsrFeq7  Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) June 29, 2022

The health ministry recommends avoiding exposure to the sun and outdoor activity in the middle of the day, as well as advising people to drink plenty of water, eat lightly and preserve their medication properly.

Small children and pets should never be left in cars, even for a a short time, and people should check on elderly neighbours living alone. Dogs should be walked early in the morning or at night and given lots of water to drink.

For full details see health ministry website. Photo credit: Vereshchagin Dmitry / Shutterstock.com.
Gladiator star returns to Eternal City with family.

In the summer of 2000, Ridley Scott's smash-hit movie Gladiator with its epic portrayal of ancient Rome captured the imagination and hearts of cinema-goers all over the world.

22 years later the star of the film - Russell Crowe - has returned to the Eternal City with his family, in what is turning out to be a boon for Rome tourism.

Over the last 10 days the Gladiator star has been busy on social media charting his travels around the Italian capital - a city he clearly loves - delighting locals and introducing Rome's wonders to new audiences around the globe.

Crowe, who has almost three million followers on Twitter, teased his fans on 9 July by posting a picture of pine trees at dusk with the question: "Where am I now?"

Many people rightly guessed Rome. It was to be the start of a series of such posts, including images of Vatican City, a sunset over Villa Medici, a trip to the Pantheon.

On Monday the actor and filmmaker, 58, posted a selfie with family members in front of the Colosseum with the ironic caption: "Taking the kids to see my old office."

Taking the kids to see my old office pic.twitter.com/uySmnOWHvo  Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) July 18, 2022

The image went viral and was widely reported by the international media, in the kind of exposure dreamed of by tourism agencies.

The actor, who was immortalised in the ancient amphitheatre in the role of Maximus Decimus Meridius, was invited back the next day by the Colosseum authorities for a cup of coffee.

Crowe continued his tour of Rome by visiting the Trevi Fountain:

One of my favourite places in the universe pic.twitter.com/L0ChKpWu7Y  Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) July 18, 2022

He then posted images from the Vatican Museums, along with the caption: "Im not sure theres a more special privilege in the world than to hold the key for the Sistine Chapel and to experience its glory in silence. So grateful. Sono al servicio di Roma."

On Tuesday the star posted a touching personal story describing a "very special experience as a family" at the Vatican Museums, which his parents had visited together more than 20 years ago.

This time around Crowe pushed his mother in a wheelchair down those same corridors, with every corner bringing back memories of her husband, who died last year.

As they ascended to a balcony in an elevator during their exclusive visit, Crowe's mother squeezed his hand and said: I wish your father was here."

When they stepped out onto the balcony with its "majestic sweeping view of Rome", Crowe said that music floated up from the Swiss Guard band rehearsing somewhere below.

After a while Crowe realised that the band was playing 'Danny Boy', one of the songs the family played at his father's funeral.

Theres noise and birds , but you can hear the unmistakable refrain as it floats up to us pic.twitter.com/hp1oINTBZl  Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) July 19, 2022

As Crowe continues his visit to Rome, he has been applauded by Romans on social media as an important "tourism ambassador" for the Eternal City. Which of Rome's many wonders will he visit next?
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Britain, and particularly its ruling Conservative party, is growing more diverse. Of that there is no question. But regardless of gender or ethnicity, an aspiring prime minister still must clear certain educational hurdles. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The crowded field of eleven who threw their hats into the ring when Boris Johnson announced his resignation earlier this month included more women than men, and a range of ethnicities  among them they could claim Indian, Iraqi, Nigerian and Pakistani ancestry. And indeed, now that Conservative MPs have whittled the choice down to two, no white man is left standing. The recently resigned Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who is of Indian ancestry, will take on Liz Truss, the current foreign secretary, in a ballot of all the partys members in the country. This looks like a breakthrough for a more diverse and multicultural Britain  except that both Sunak and Truss did the same course at the same university.

The course is Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and its been offered for about 100 years by the University of Oxford. It was designed unapologetically to help train the countrys future leaders, and it appears to have succeeded all too well.

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To be clear, I was lucky enough to take the course myself, in the same year as another PPEist, the former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron. (Sunak and Truss are both a few years younger.) The degree course is a great training for the mind, but this column, which I wrote back in 2018, makes clear that PPE has come to exert an unhealthy dominance over Britains political culture:

Harold Wilson, elected prime minister in 1964, was the first PPEist to top the greasy pole. In this decade, my generation of PPEists took over virtually the entire British establishment  and we have made a total hash of it.

David Cameron, who called the Brexit referendum, is my direct contemporary as a PPEist. Another eight PPEists were among ministers at his Cabinet meetings. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader whose defeat to Cameron ensured that the Brexit vote would happen, and whose rewriting of his partys leadership election rules opened the way for Jeremy Corbyn, is another contemporary PPEist. So were two of his opponents for the job, including Milibands brother, David. Corbyn is not an Oxonian (which might explain why the media are scared of him), but his chief adviser, Seumas Milne, has a degree in PPE.

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In media, many top jobs at the BBC are held by PPEists. The editor of The Economist is another direct contemporary as a PPEist. At the Financial Times, where I spent much of my career, I worked alongside five others who had overlapped with me taking PPE at the same college. (Only about 10 of us took the course at that college each year.)

Since then, two prime ministers have resigned, the country has been through a general election, and the UK has finally got Brexit done and left the European Union  albeit on terms that many in the current government now want to change. But the dominance of Oxford graduates, and particularly PPE, remains unabated.

Boris Johnson, a classicist, did manage to see off his Oxford contemporary Jeremy Hunt, a PPEist, in the Conservative leadership election of 2019. But now, a new generation has produced a choice between two PPEists. Oxford has steadily become a more open place, which helps explain why it has produced both Britains female prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.

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In theory, greater diversity in backgrounds should lead to broader diversity of ideas and flexibility of thought in government. However, this will inevitably be narrowed, and the risk of groupthink will rise greatly, if everyone in government has been through the same training program. In that 2018 column, I inveighed against:

 the way we learned to behave at Oxford. Ambitious young PPEists spent their lives playing at politics or journalism, making the connections that would see them through life, and engaging in the kind of nasty interpersonal rivalries and highjinks that the world is now watching at Westminster.

The way PPE is taught encouraged this behavior. Your degree is entirely dependent on a week-long series of three-hour exams taken at the end of your final term. Up until that point, your only academic commitments are one or two weekly one-hour tutorials with professors. Survive your first-year exams and pass muster in your tutorials, and you could build your CV almost full-time before some desperate studying at the very end.

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Ed Luce of the Financial Times, a fellow PPEist, calls us the essay crisis generation: people who mastered the art of delivering their assignments in limpid prose that they had only started working on overnight. He adds, If you learn young how to slip past Oxfords best scholars, the rest of life ought to be a doddle.

Added to this, the sheer range of subject matter that we covered in only three years tended to inculcate a habit of skating over the surface of profound subjects, and coming up with a superficial view that is just about good enough to pass muster when reading an essay to your tutor or taking an exam. That is, regrettably, great training for politics as it is currently practiced, but its not great training for the clear-eyed and dispassionate handling of details that we would like to see in politicians.

Oxford politics, famously nasty, led to to feuds that reverberated decades later in Westminster. In this great piece for the New Statesman, Simon Kuper went through the relationship between Johnson and Michael Gove, who met in the bar of the Oxford Union in 1985. Two weeks ago, Johnsons late-night decision to fire Gove proved to be his last significant act before resigning.

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None of this means that its not encouraging that the contest comes down to a competition between a man of color and a woman. But its discouraging that somehow or other the nation still cannot stop itself from outsourcing the task of vetting and training its leaders to the PPE faculty at Oxford University. There is opportunity in Britain, but it still seems to depend on getting in to Oxford.

Ironically, Penny Mordaunt, squeezed into third place by Truss having been second in all the earlier rounds of voting, would in a way have represented a more direct split from the past. She would have been the first-ever prime minister to get an undergraduate degree from an English university other than Oxford or Cambridge; she has a degree in philosophy (but not politics and economics) from the University of Reading. But the habit of trusting Oxford continues. Thus, my conclusion from four years ago now looks as though it has proved decisively wrong:

I would not blame the country if it decided it was time for PPExit. Like most alumni I love my alma mater, but the dominance of Oxford, and of the PPE course, is plainly doing the country no good. We should be compelled to cast a wider net when looking for our leaders.

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PPExit must now wait at least until the next general election, due by the end of 2024.

More from other writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

 The Cruelest Cut in the Tory Leadership Race: Therese Raphael

 Britains Aspiring Leaders Are Too Quiet on Brexit: Clive Crook

 Why the Tories are the Party of Diversity: Adrian Wooldridge

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

John Authers is a senior editor for markets and Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A former chief markets commentator and editor of the Lex column at the Financial Times, he is author of The Fearful Rise of Markets.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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General Electric Co.s three-way breakup is meant to be a moment of rebirth for the 130-year-old industrial giant. This is the company that commercialized modern lighting, developed the X-ray machine, invented non-reflective glass and made the silicon rubber for the boots used by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their walk on the moon in 1969. A plane powered by jet engines that GE had a hand in developing takes off every two seconds, and its power equipment helps generate one-third of the worlds electricity.

But this is also the company that allowed its finance arm to grow so opaque and unwieldly that wrong-way bets almost sank the industrial parent during the financial crisis and more recently created a surprise $15 billion reserve shortfall tied to a long-term care insurance business. Since the start of this century, GE has developed a reputation for making bad acquisitions  from the 2015 purchase of Alstom SAs energy business, which resulted in a $22 billion writedown, to its ill-fated foray into oil and gas and expensive bets on a digital reinvention that failed to pan out  and for taking a loose approach to financial reporting. Former Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch once described GE as the greatest people factory in the world, but his management style and business culture is now being blamed for breaking the company, those that its executives parachuted in to run, such as Boeing Co., and perhaps the American capitalist model altogether.

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While current CEO Larry Culp has made meaningful progress in cleaning up GEs act and streamlining its operations, the stock has floundered since November, when he announced plans to split the company in three. Many investors seem to prefer to wait for the opportunity to own shares of the new companies rather than ride out the messy and long process of unraveling the GE behemoth  particularly amid concerns about a recession. So its surprising that given the opportunity to cast its businesses in a new, independent light, GE is choosing instead to anchor them in name to the parents legacy.

GE announced on Monday the branding for the three companies it plans to create. The health-care division is scheduled to be spun off first, in early 2023, and will be called GE HealthCare. The amalgamation of GEs gas power, renewable energy and digital assets, which is set to be carved out in early 2024, will be called GE Vernova. The remaining aerospace operations will be called GE Aerospace. The last business will retain the rights to the GE trademark, which it will license long term to the other companies. GE says its brand is valued at almost $20 billion and provides a competitive advantage with customers. But it also comes with a lot of baggage, particularly in the eyes of investors. If the lesson of GEs past is that it was too bold when it should have been cautious, the lesson of its present may be that the company is too cautious about letting go of its legacy when it should be bolder.

When Culps former company, Danaher Corp., announced it was breaking into two in 2015, Steven Winoker  then an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. but now GEs head of investor relations  had this to say: Two Danahers? Whats not to like about that? Its difficult to imagine anyone saying the same about three versions of GE. Its also worth noting that despite its sterling reputation, Danaher didnt pass down its name; the spinoff of its industrial business was called Fortive Corp.

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The new GE names are boring, and that has its benefits. Keeping all three entities inside the GE master brand will likely have relieved the companys lawyers, who were saved the tricky commission of securing a trio of novel global trademarks. Notwithstanding the companys ups and downs, the GE monogram has been evolving elegantly since the 1890s and is not to be discarded lightly, nor without a better alternative.

The most imaginative of the new names is GE Vernova. The explanation for how the company came up with that branding suggests its probably for the best that the creative impulses ended there. Ver is derived from verde and verdant, to signal the greens and blues of the Earth, while nova comes from the Latin word novus, which means new. This is meant to capture a new and innovative era of lower carbon energy that GE Vernova will help deliver. Sure.

There is a plausible path for that energy-focused business to eventually become known as just Vernova. This would be akin to how Baker Hughes Co. eventually dropped the name Baker Hughes, a GE Co.  a mouthful of a moniker that was adopted upon the merger of the two companies oil field services businesses in 2017 and became significantly less desirable after the GE parent ran into financial difficulties. GE still owns about 4% of Baker Hughes. It makes sense that the Vernova energy businesses would have the most direct route to a non-GE future as they are the ones with the most checkered past and the most challenged financial outlook. By contrast, it seems unlikely that GE HealthCare will one day simply call itself HealthCare, while the aerospace business goes by Aerospace. This branding leaves limited room for the resulting companies to carve out their own identity.

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Design-wise, GEs spinoffs follow in the footsteps of Facebooks recent restrained rebranding as Meta Platforms Inc.  an attempt to reframe the company within the metaverse without provoking undue controversy.

There is also an echo of Volvos earnest sensibility, as parodied in the 1990 movie Crazy People: Buy Volvos. Theyre boxy but theyre good. We know theyre not sexy. This is not a smart time to be sexy anyway, with so many new diseases around. Be safe instead of sexy. Volvo. Boxy, but good.

If GEs color choices are predictable  compassion purple for GE HealthCare, evergreen for GE Vernova and atmosphere blue for GE Aerospace  they at least have pretensions to the poetic. But the variety of sans-serif typefaces is a tad more chaotic. GE HealthCare uses approachable curves and a cute rotation of its as and es; GE Vernova is set in bland all-caps, with a clunky tag line to explain the name; and GE Aerospace deploys an industrial, almost federal face which feels more New Deal than next century.

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There is nothing screamingly wrong with GE HealthCare and GE Aerospace as brand names. For all the negativity surrounding GE in financial circles, investors have short memories. The companys challenges are also fairly complex, and there is a broader world beyond Wall Street in which the average person doesnt spend much time dwelling on long-term care insurance foul-ups and acquisition writedowns. GEs reputation has never been tarnished in the same way as, say, Monsanto Co., which is associated with the Agent Orange herbicide used in the Vietnam War and genetically modified crops. Bayer AG dropped the Monsanto name when it acquired the company in 2018. But there is nothing particularly inspiring or exciting about the names GE HealthCare or GE Aerospace, either, and typically companies embarking on a reinvention want at least some inspiration and excitement.

More From Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

 GEs Culp Slays the Beast That Jack Built: Brooke Sutherland

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 Metas Mediocrity Turns Out to Be the Message: Ben Schott

 Boeing Faces Chorus of Critics in High Places: Brooke Sutherland

 What Banks and Airlines Can Learn from Funeral Homes: Ben Schott

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Brooke Sutherland is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies. A former M&A reporter for Bloomberg News, she writes the Industrial Strength newsletter.

Ben Schott is Bloomberg Opinions advertising and brands columnist.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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Regional powers have been watching Chinas growing influence in the Pacific with rising alarm, and casting around for ways to counter it. After Beijing signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands earlier this year and offered a similar deal to other Pacific Island nations, efforts stepped up a gear. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight At the annual Pacific Islands Forum last week, Vice President Kamala Harris last week promised to build new embassies in Tonga and Kiribati and offered a near-tripling of aid for marine resilience and security. In recent years, the Pacific Islands may not have received the diplomatic attention and support that you deserve, she said. So today I am here to tell you directly: We are going to change that.

In all this effort, one policy thats been central to neighbors relations with the Pacific for decades has been ignored: migration.

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The challenges for small island countries like those of the Pacific are unique. Their numbers include relatively affluent territories like Palau, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia, which occupy a status in between full independence and support by their former colonists. On the other hand, the region also includes nations like Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Kiribati, which receive far less aid and whose development levels are often comparable to those in sub-Saharan Africa.

Alongside the longstanding challenges of physical isolation and slow economic development, the region is also most at risk from climate change. Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands are among the worlds lowest-lying nations. Long before the islands themselves are claimed by the sea, the fragile layers of rainwater that keep thin soils irrigated risk being disrupted by saltwater. The high dependence on imported food throughout the Pacific is one reason that the region has some of the highest incidence of diabetes worldwide.

Migration has long been central to the Pacifics relations with the wider world. The Marshallese and Palauan diasporas in the US number about half as many people as live in those respective countries, thanks to the fact that they, along with citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia, have full work and residency rights there. Theres about four times as many Samoan Americans as there are residents of American Samoa. People born in New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are full citizens of France and the US. New Zealand has a green card-style program for citizens of Samoa and four other Pacific nations that grants permanent residency to 1,750 people a year.

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The gap in this picture is Australia. In contrast to New Zealand, whose Pacific Islander population accounts for about 8% of the total (Maori comprise an additional 16.5%), it has long turned its back on the region.

In the 19th century, tens of thousands from the islands of Melanesia were kidnapped or tricked into working in the Queensland sugar industry in conditions little different to slavery. One of the first laws passed after independence in 1901 was an act to deport the roughly 10,000 who remained, a plank of the racist White Australia policy that was only finally dismantled in the 1970s.

The countrys Pacific-born population numbers just 190,170 now, compared to 381,642 in New Zealand and 1.4 million in the US  proportionately not much higher than it was in 1901. In the popular mind, migration and Pacific islands are associated mainly with the grim detention centers on the islands of Manus, in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, where Australia has sent refugees for many years instead of processing their claims onshore.

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To its credit, the new Labor government has promised to provide a permanent migration program similar to New Zealands, that would provide 3,000 visas a year to islanders. Its also boosting existing temporary labor migration streams to allow family members to travel as well, and strengthening protections against worker exploitation.

Thats welcome, but it could afford to be far more generous. If 10,000 visas a year were available to the most isolated Pacific populations  those from Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu  then within a decade Australia could boast diasporas equivalent to 10% of the populations of their home countries. Those migrants would be able to support island economies through sending remittance money home, while building a web of links that Beijing would struggle to disrupt.

More visas should be provided for Papua New Guinea, Australias closest neighbor and a nation that its neglected since the end of colonial rule in 1975  though its population of nearly 9 million is unlikely to become as intertwined with an overseas diaspora as smaller island nations.

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Nations seeking to counter Chinas influence in the Pacific shouldnt be surprised if island governments are enthusiastic about the arrival of a new power in the region. If they want to counteract this shift, friendship and migration will do far more than hectoring and promises of aid.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 China Has Yet to Learn the Rules of the Pacific Chess Game: David Fickling

 The West Forgot About the Pacific Islands. China Didnt: Ruth Pollard

 China Scores a Victory In the New Battle of the South Pacific: James Stavridis

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy and commodities. Previously, he worked for Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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As divisive as US immigration policy is, members of both parties ought to be able to agree on a simple principle: Immigrants who come to the country legally should be given a fair chance to succeed and build lives in the US  as generations have before them. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Its perplexing, then, that the government is denying this opportunity to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants whose parents came to the US legally for work, but who havent yet been granted green cards giving them legal permanent residency  and are now at risk of being forced to leave the only country many have ever known. A bipartisan measure passed in the House of Representatives last week would help fix the problem. In the interests of fairness and common sense, the Senate should act quickly to pass its own version and ensure these immigrants can stay.

Roughly 1.6 million people reside in the US on non-immigrant, employment-based visas. They include entrepreneurs, academics, artists, physicians and workers in the technology and health-care industries. Children of these visa holders can live in the US legally until they turn 21, but then must obtain new visas giving them permission to continue to study or work. Those unable to do so face an excruciating choice: stay in the US illegally, or self-deport to their countries of birth. As of April 2020, more than 250,000 of these children were at risk of aging out of their legal status.

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The countrys dysfunctional legal immigration system is worsening the problem. Each year the US awards 140,000 green cards to employment-based visa holders and members of their immediate families. Due to a backlog in applications and (mostly arbitrary) caps on the number of green cards allocated to each country, some workers now need to wait decades to obtain them. Even if theyre eventually successful, their children wont benefit if theyve since become adults; they cant receive green cards until their own applications reach the front of the queue. This effectively means that legal immigrants who arrived as infants and have been raised and educated in the US are less likely to become citizens than foreigners who came as adults.

In fact, the status of these legal immigrants  often called documented Dreamers  is even more precarious than that of children without documentation. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, created by President Barack Obama in 2012, allows immigrants brought to the country before the age of 16 to work in the US and defer deportation, with renewal required every two years. More than 700,000 undocumented immigrants have benefited from DACAs protections and remained in the US, wielding $24 billion in after-tax spending power. But DACA stipulated that only immigrants with no lawful status were eligible  which excluded the children of immigrants on work visas from the same protections.

The good news is that Congress is waking up to the problem. The House of Representatives approved an amendment to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that would ensure that U.S-raised children who reach adulthood before their parents receive their green cards dont age out of the benefit of gaining legal permanent status. It would also authorize them to work after the age of 16 and allow them to maintain their place in the green-card queue even if their parents leave the country.

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Leaders in the Senate should now work to pass the measure into law. Failing to do so would harm not just legal immigrants and their families but the country as a whole. Americas long-term growth prospects require that the country bring in more knowledge workers from abroad, particularly in the sciences and technology. Ensuring the children of those workers can stay and build lives in the US is critical to winning the war for talent  and is a necessary a step toward creating the immigration system the country needs.

The Editors are members of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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Some prominent companies and industry groups are unhappy about the Securities and Exchange Commissions plan to require disclosures related to climate change. Theyre right that it will present an added burden, but thats a small price to pay for better information about costs and risks that matter to investors. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight When the SEC unveiled a proposal in March detailing the new disclosure rules, the agency had to expect that it would generate some big feelings at a time when polarization is running high.

After all, climate change remains a hot-button issue even within the walls of the SEC, with Commissioner Hester M. Peirce cheekily noting that the agency was not the Securities and Environment Commission.

And that was before a 6-3 decision by the Supreme Court on June 30 raised significant questions over just how far the SEC could go in requiring companies to disclose things like how much pollution their business generates. While the SEC hasnt commented on the case, plenty of others have filled that void, claiming that the SEC will no longer be able to move forward with the rules without Congress permission

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Count me in the camp that believes the proposal, and really most of the work that the SEC does when it comes to putting out new rules, is essentially about improving disclosures for investors, which is critical to the agencys mandate that dates to the 1930s. In theory, at least, the Supreme Courts decision shouldnt have much impact, though it probably will get messy and lead to numerous lawsuits and long delays in terms of implementation.

Even as those battles play out, the SEC will have to contend with the controversy surrounding its push for more information on businesses environmental impact.

The new climate-related disclosures proposed by the SEC center around two areas: companies own contributions to pollution as well as those of their customers and suppliers; and companies exposure to climate threats  such as more frequent and severe storms  that could have a financial impact on their business.

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One complaint made by companies and lobbying groups in letters submitted to the SEC was that the additional information sought by regulators was excessive and would be costly to assemble. Some, including Exxon Mobil, argued that portions of the disclosures should be protected from liability.

Businesses have valid concerns about the new rules, starting with having to parse a proposal that runs to almost 500 pages. In a comment letter sent by the American Bar Association, attorney Jay Knight, who serves as chair of the ABAs committee on securities regulation, noted that the SEC estimated the new rules would involve an additional 70 hours of work per filing.

Still, its already very clear that all sorts of companies are being affected by climate change, from confronting higher costs for raw materials to growing vulnerability to flooding to potential increased spending in the transition to cleaner energy. Requiring companies to provide more detailed disclosure by spelling out climate-related risks that could have a material impact seems like common sense.

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The new rules will address the current patchwork of disclosure, where some companies reveal a lot and others practically nothing. This is possible because companies are operating under existing SEC guidance, issued in 2010, that left a lot of room for interpretation and few specifics about what information companies are required to disclose.

In the absence of standardized reporting, investors have no way of knowing why a company has disclosed relatively little about its climate impact. Was it because the company didnt think the issue was material to their business? Or was there some other reason?

Its especially perplexing to investors when there are differences in disclosure practices among companies in the same industry, or when companies use different metrics or language to measure the same thing.

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Take two large retailers, Home Depot Inc. and Lowes Cos. Home Depot first began talking about climate-related risks in a 10-K it filed for 2017 and has significantly increased its disclosures over the past five years to include steps it had planned to reduce its carbon footprint. But Lowes only began in 2019, and its disclosure was essentially a mere mention of the words climate change. Its reasonable to expect that two companies in similar industries would be similarly affected, and this is where better rules come into play.

Ive long come down on the side that more information, even if its disclosed in 6-point italics in a footnote of a 10-K filing, is better than less. Even if most investors never bother to read that information, it helps those who do want to make more-informed decisions about their investments.

The evidence is clear that most companies are affected in all sorts of ways when it comes to climate-related issues. Investors in those companies deserve to have standardized information so that they can better assess the impact. Heres hoping that the SEC is up to the task  and the pushback.

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More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:



When the Weather Gets Hot Enough to Kill: Fickling & Pollard



Companies Need to Get Real About Climate Risk: Editorial



Supreme Court Wages War on Public Sector Expertise: Timothy L. OBrien

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Michelle Leder is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. Creator of Footnoted.com, a site devoted to SEC filings, she is author of Financial Fingerprint: Uncovering a Companys True Value.

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The Senate on Tuesday evening confirmed US District Court Judge Michelle Childs for seat on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, generally considered the most important court in the nation other than the Supreme Court. Childs, and the circumstances of her nomination and confirmation, provide a good tour of how out of whack the judicial nomination process has become.

Childs was one of the final candidates to be considered by President Joe Biden for the Supreme Court vacancy that eventually went to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Childs had strong support from House Majority Whip (and famous Biden endorser) James Clyburn, as well as from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Both are from South Carolina, where Childs went to high school and law school, and where her district court seat was located.

But Childs probably never had a real chance at the Supreme Court. Not because she is probably more moderate than Jackson, but because of one crucial fact: Childs was born in 1966, while Jackson was born in 1970.

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A four-and-a-half-year age gap may not seem like a big deal, but as long as the current system of lifetime tenure and the era of strong partisan polarization last, age is going to be the first qualification for every Supreme Court nomination. Four-and-a-half years is more than a full presidential term, giving Jackson (if all else is equal) a slightly better chance to retire with a future Democrat in the White House than Childs would have had.

This does not seem like a great way to choose Supreme Court justices. But thats where the incentives lie.

Childs and Jackson each represent one of Bidens signature accomplishments of his presidency: He has significantly added diversity to the federal bench and to the executive branch. He has been particularly aggressive about nominating women, including Black women like Childs and Jackson. While this no doubt reflects Bidens personal preferences, it is mainly an acknowledgment that the energy of the Democratic Party in recent years has come from women, from Black party actors and from Black women.

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Childs wound up with a fair amount of bipartisan support for her DC Circuit confirmation, with 15 Republicans supporting her. One might suppose, then, that she has a potential future as a compromise candidate for the Supreme Court if a Democratic president is faced with a Republican-majority Senate  especially, say, after she completes 10 years or more as an appellate judge (and therefore would be an older nominee).

But weve seen this movie before, and we know that Republicans have no interest in compromise. Its unlikely that even a slim Republican-majority Senate would bring any Supreme Court nominee from a Democratic president up for a vote. Indeed, Merrick Garland, now Bidens attorney general, was 64 when President Barack Obama nominated him after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, and he probably had a more moderate reputation then than Childs does now. But the Republican Senate majority refused to even hold a hearing on his nomination. Several Republican Senators said later during that years campaign that they would be unlikely to consider any nominee from Hillary Clinton if she was elected.

Which brings us to why Democrats are rushing to confirm as many judges as possible right now. Republicans need only gain a single Senate seat in this years midterm elections to win a majority for the final two years of Bidens term, and the general expectation is that if they do, they will repeat what they did in 2015-2016: Shut down most judicial nominations, and pretty much all circuit court nominations.

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Thats not what happened when Democrats had Senate majorities during the presidencies of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, and its not even what Republican majorities did during Bill Clintons presidency. But thats how Republican leader Mitch McConnell and todays Republicans operate. They could push for compromise candidates, and defeat those  especially appellate nominations  whom they particularly opposed.

Thats why Biden nominated another 11 judges last week, and the Senate is making confirmations a top priority. If Republicans do win a majority in November, expect Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democrats to use the lame duck session late this year to confirm as many of Bidens nominations as possible.

That in itself isnt dysfunctional. These are important vacancies and filling them promptly is generally a good thing, although rushing too much to get these lifetime positions filled doesnt seem all that great. But theres a plausible future in which Democrats hold the White House and Republicans have a Senate majority for an extended time and the result is a massive judicial shortage, with vacancies never getting filled.

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Bottom line: The judicial nomination and confirmation process is a mess, and it doesnt appear that its going to change for the better anytime soon.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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For years, Tunisias democracy, born of an Arab Spring revolt in 2011, endured as others in the region faded. But in July 2021, President Kais Saied unilaterally fired the countrys prime minister and suspended parliament. Since then, hes ruled by decree, appointed his own government and sidelined the judiciary. Now hes asking Tunisians to approve an amended constitution that would permanently dilute the powers of the parliament and judiciary and return the country to the days when authority was concentrated in the hands of the president.

1. Whats the context for the presidents actions?

The coronavirus pandemic has had devastating effects both on Tunisias tourism-dependent economy and on its people, causing relatively high human losses on a per capita basis. Last year, the health crisis inflamed public anger at the government, which was already stoked by poor economic returns and a popular belief that the political changes over the past decade had served a nepotistic elite. On July 25, 2021, groups of youths staged demonstrations in several cities and in Siliana they sacked the offices of Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party that held the most seats in parliament. Later that day, Saied made his move after months of charging the government of Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, a technocrat, with failing to address corruption and economic woes and accusing often unspecified foes of conspiracies to sow discord. Saied cited the constitution, which allows the president to take exceptional measures to ward off imminent danger threatening the nations institutions, security or independence.

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2. Who is Saied?

A former constitutional law professor whod never held office before, Saied, 64, emerged as the surprise winner of the 2019 presidential election after running as an independent candidate on an anti-party and anti-corruption agenda, vowing to fight poverty and trumpeting as his chief slogan The People Want... His stern anti-establishment tone, delivered in classical Arabic, attracted young Tunisians keen to punish a political elite they perceived as opportunistic. Saied suggested eliminating the directly elected legislature in favor of elected local councils that would, in turn, select national leaders. He has been likened to former US President Donald Trump in that, although hes in power, he behaves as if hes in the opposition, and he calls on his supporters to rally around him.

3. What happened during Tunisias revolution?

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It was the first of the so-called Arab Spring revolts. Starting in late 2010, Tunisians engaged in weeks of civil resistance and disobedience, resulting in the toppling of longtime autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. A staunch ally of the West with a government record of human rights abuses, hed led one of the most vibrant economies in the region, albeit one with persistent structural inequalities. News of Ben Ali and his inner circle hurriedly leaving the country in 2011 galvanized many citizens in North Africa and the Middle East to set in motion a series of popular uprisings. None of the others produced lasting democratic changes.

4. What changes did the revolution bring?

The so-called Jasmine Revolution widened political participation to a variety of political currents, including the once-banned Ennahda Islamists and radical left-wing activists. Parliament was granted a degree of oversight and an ability to hold the executive branch to account that was rare in the region. The judiciarys independence was strengthened and civil society was empowered to stand up to police brutality, which was previously prevalent.

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5. How does Saied want to change the constitution?

A panel picked by the president drafted proposed revisions to the 2014 constitution, which was the result of painstaking negotiations among the nations myriad factions after the revolution. The changes introduce a national council of regions and provinces to share legislative duties with the parliament, which along with the judiciary is relegated to a status akin to that of the civil service. The president would assume executive functions and be helped by a government and a prime minister he would name. Tunisians are scheduled to vote on the proposals in a July 25 referendum.

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Fiction 1 HORSE (Viking, $28). By Geraldine Brooks. A scientist and a historian bond over their shared interest in a Civil War-era racehorse and his enslaved groom. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight 2 TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW (Knopf, $28). By Gabrielle Zevin. Two friends run a successful video design company while testing the boundaries of their relationship. 3 THE IT GIRL (Gallery/Scout Press, $28.99). By Ruth Ware. When new evidence challenges the decade-old conviction of a former classmates killer, a woman revisits her old friendships.

4 A PRAYER FOR THE CROWN-SHY (Tordotcom, $21.99). By Becky Chambers. A monk and a robot explore their home planet in the sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built.

5 LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY (Doubleday, $29). By Bonnie Garmus. A mid-century scientist becomes a sensation while hosting a feminist cooking show.

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6 THE HOTEL NANTUCKET (Little, Brown, $29). By Elin Hilderbrand. A newly hired general manager and her staff revive a once-illustrious hotel purchased by a British billionaire.

7 LAPVONA (Penguin Press, $27). By Ottessa Moshfegh. A shepherd boy kills the son of a lord, setting off a power struggle among the religious and secular elites of their medieval town.

8 THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY (Viking, $26). By Matt Haig. A regretful woman lands in a library where she gets to play out her life had she made different choices.

9 UPGRADE (Ballantine, $28). By Blake Crouch. A man develops extraordinary abilities after undergoing genetic improvement.

10 SEA OF TRANQUILITY (Knopf, $25). By Emily St. John Mandel. The author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel explores the psychological implications of time travel for characters from different centuries.

Nonfiction

1 HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (Little, Brown, $29). By David Sedaris. Essays from the best-selling author detail his experiences during the pandemic.

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2 CRYING IN H MART (Knopf, $26.95). By Michelle Zauner. A Korean American indie-rock star chronicles her relationship with her late mother and their shared culture.

3 AN IMMENSE WORLD (Random House, $30). By Ed Yong. A science writer describes different ways sensory perception can be experienced in animals, including humans.

4 ATLAS OF THE HEART (Random House, $30). By Brene Brown. An exploration of 87 emotions to help people make more meaningful connections.

5 ATOMIC HABITS (Avery, $27). By James Clear. How to make small changes that have a big impact.

6 THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVITUDE (Penguin Press, $29). By Mark Leibovich. A journalist chronicles the political enablers who allowed Trump to thrive in a culture of submission.

7 ROGUES (Doubleday, $30). By Patrick Radden Keefe. A collection of the award-winning journalists articles about criminals and con artists.

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8 THE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE (HarperOne, $22.99). By Charlie Mackesy. The British illustrator brings to life fables about unlikely friendships.

9 RIVER OF THE GODS (Doubleday, $32.50). By Candice Millard. A chronicle of the search for the head of the Nile by two 19th-century British explorers and their African guide.

10 THE 1619 PROJECT (One World, $38). By Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times Magazine. Essays contextualize the history of slavery as part of the founding of the United States.

Rankings reflect sales for the week ended July 17. The charts may not be reproduced without permission from the American Booksellers Association, the trade association for independent bookstores in the United States, and indiebound.org. Copyright 2022 American Booksellers Association. (The bestseller lists alternate between hardcover and paperback each week.)

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Think of the most put-together traveler you can imagine. James Bond with a tux and a passport, perhaps. Then picture the exact opposite. Thats my dad.

George Kim is the anti-James Bond, the ill-prepared tourist with the giant camera slung around his neck who always seems one turn away from navigational disaster. Once, when I was young, we were on our way home to New Jersey from Connecticut and somehow ended up in the Catskills.

Dont get me wrong. Dad is a sharp guy even at 72, a retired electrical engineer who now teaches entrepreneurship classes. But his long-standing absent-mindedness, above all other reasons, is why I had put off traveling to my parents homeland of Korea despite Dads nagging. If you dont speak Korean, or dont speak it well (like me), you need a tour guide to experience the country properly, especially beyond Seoul. I finally mustered the courage, and booked the trip. I say courage, because Dad was going to be my guide.

It was a first-time pilgrimage for me  an overdue exploration of my parents past and my own heritage as a Korean American. It was also a milestone for my parents. They immigrated to the United States in the late 1960s, but theyve spent a good chunk of the past seven years of their retirement in South Korea, and I was the first of their four adult children to visit.

Details: South Korea

The plan was for my father and me to spend about a week seeing Seoul, Busan and Pohang, a port city in the east where my parents make their home. Thats where my father teaches at Handong Global University, a Christian school. My mother, Duckja, would join us there.

A sound plan on paper, but could I survive the guided tour?

Old Seoul revealed

Not surprisingly, things didnt start out well. Dad was two hours late picking me up at the airport when I arrived. We spent another hour trying to find his car in the airport parking lot, even though he had parked it just minutes earlier.

Then we got lost on the way to our Seoul hotel. By the time we checked in, I was hungry and deliriously jet-lagged. Thankfully, it took only 90 minutes or so for Dad to settle on a place to eat.

Discovering the Korea of my parents younger days also seemed hard at first. On our first morning in Seoul, Dad and I sat at an outdoor table sipping Starbucks coffee. I scanned the signs around us: Outback Steakhouse, Dunkin Donuts, California Pizza Kitchen. Was this Korea or Rockville Pike?

But Dad helped reveal the past. At Seoul Plaza, a green space in the city center, he pointed out a number of round chips in the bricks of the older buildings  bullet holes left over from the Korean War.

Dad was 8 when North Korean tanks under the command of Kim Il Sung rolled down Sejong-daero, a main Seoul thoroughfare, and surrounded the plaza. He recalled the tidy lines of soldiers, the helpless civilians and the popping gunfire as militia from both sides ravaged the city. He and his family fled south, eventually to Busan, until the war ended.

Nearby Gyeongbokgung Palace, one of Koreas national treasures, has also suffered an unfortunate history. It was all but leveled during the 20th-century Japanese occupation and remains under restoration. To say that Dad still holds grudges against both North Korea and Japan would be an understatement.

A few blocks southeast, off a street called Ujeongguk-ro, behind the spot where street vendors were selling plastic Buddhas and mounds of japchae noodles, was another precious site  the former location of the small house where Dad had lived as a child.

The property has since been leveled, and the site now houses the Central Buddhist Museum. Next door is the Jogye Temple, one of the most famous Buddhist sites in Korea. Dad told me how he and his friends would peer over his backyard fence and mischievously throw rocks at the temples roof lights, trying to shatter them. They occasionally succeeded, he said.

I was amazed at his homes central location. Moms childhood home was a few miles away but in the same part of Seoul. The experience was the equivalent of realizing that your parents had once lived in a house that was bulldozed to make room for the Lincoln Memorial.

We wandered around the nearby sites, including the sprawling Changdeokgung Palace and grounds, where my parents went on dates after the war. Dad then took me down some narrow streets where he had walked when he was young. The roads were all dirt back then, he remembered. He would often play with his toys in the mud, or sometimes just with the mud.

The hills are alive

Im the travel opposite of Dad. And, in fairness, its not because Im a seasoned traveler, but because Im a neurotic one. I came armed with two guidebooks (one in paperback, one on Kindle); all-weather clothing; a cursory knowledge of the language, thanks to months of lessons on Rosetta Stone; power adapters for most of Asia; and a smartphone with what seemed like every travel app in the app store.

As we set off on the five-hour drive to Pohang (Dad rebuffing my offers to take the wheel), the countryside opened up before us. Beyond Seoul, much of Korea is mountainous. The endless hills brought West Virginia to mind. I followed our progress on Google Maps  both out of curiosity and to make sure that we wouldnt take a wrong turn and end up in China. I peppered Dad with questions about everything I saw.

Space is at a premium in much of the country, and the rolling horizon struck me as a bit claustrophobic. Every piece of developable land is spoken for, often by high-rise apartment buildings, while unsightly high-tension wires crisscross the hilltops like skeins of yarn. The smog is thick in spots, some of it coming from Seoul but much of it from China.

About 50 miles southeast of Seoul, near Chungju, we came upon a rest stop to end all rest stops. It looked like a small mall, with batting cages, a jewelry store and even a decommissioned F-4 Phantom II fighter jet, a Cold War mainstay, displayed in the parking lot.

It was after dark when we finally arrived in coastal Pohang, and we almost made several wrong turns. We joined up with Mom and ate at a tasty, if unique, restaurant called Shabu Hyang, where you boil your own beef soup and roll your own spring rolls.

Pohangs main drag stretched along a boardwalk that smelled faintly of sulfur. On the not-too-distant horizon, I could make out what appeared to be a large neon city. But Dad explained that this mini-Las Vegas was something else entirely: the Posco steel plant, one of the worlds largest, gussied up to make it more palatable to look at.

The next day, we explored some of the smaller communities around Pohang. We traveled to an oceanside village called Odo-ri, the site of a new church where my Mom, an ordained pastor, preaches.

We were far from Seoul and other cities that Western tourists might think of visiting. In Chilpo-ri, the next village over, we drove on mud-covered cement roads barely wide enough for Dads compact car. One street led right up to a fleet of small boats bobbing on the waves. A fisherman nodded hello. The frothy Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, washing over the shorelines dark boulders reminded me of Maine or New Hampshire. But the ubiquitous tsunami warning signs were a reminder that this wasnt New England.

Two sides of Busan

Later, we headed an hour south to Gyeong-ju. The area is chock-full of temples and sites linked to the ancient Silla Kingdom, one of three that controlled the peninsula around the time of the Roman Empire. At Anapji, a Silla palace site with a tranquil artificial pond, Mom overheard a cluster of people speaking Korean. She told me that they had a thick country accent, but the difference didnt penetrate my wooden ears.

By the time we reached Busan, my exasperation with Dad was growing again. The booming resort city on Koreas southern coast, with its spaghetti bowl of streets, didnt help.

To compensate for Busans bustle, Dad drove at half the speed limit. At one point, we somehow found our way into a dead end next to a pier with no railings. The situation compelled Dad to perform a risky K-turn maneuver that brought us just several feet from plunging into the East Sea. And though a torrential rainstorm had descended, Dad had his heart set on more sightseeing. Halfway down the slippery steps to the seaside Haedongyonggung Temple, Mom and I made an executive decision to head back to the car.

Yet for all the logistical headaches, I was fascinated by Busans dichotomy.

In the eastern part of the city was Haeundae Beach, Koreas answer to South Beach  night clubs, designer shops and sleek hotels surrounded a manicured strand. In the middle of it all was the huge Shinsegae Centum City department store, which claims to be the largest in the world. The store has 14 floors that feature a supermarket, a short-track ice rink and a driving range, so the boast appears to be legit.

To the west, across the bay, an older Busan beckoned. The sidewalks were livelier and the streets more disorderly. There was no manicured beach; rusty trawlers crowded the water. In place of designer clothing stores, elderly vendors sold seaweed and other food from the backs of pickup trucks.

Jagalchi Fish Market, a pungent, chaotic shock to the senses, anchored this side of Busan. We walked past crowded, smelly stands selling mackerel, tuna, octopus, eel, sea urchins, oysters and some of the largest crabs Ive ever seen. Vendors sliced up that mornings catch and served it up on plates along with fresh wasabi. I could have easily spent hours there with Dad and Mom, snapping photos of the fishy maelstrom.

But Jagalchi would be the last stop. I had a bullet train to catch. Before long, Id be speeding on the KTX back to Seoul and eventually home.

At the train station, I hugged Mom goodbye. Then Dad and I went inside. He carried my bag to the ticket counter, made sure I was on the right train and helped me find my track.

We headed to the main hall for our final goodbyes. As he walked off, I followed him with my eyes until he was out of sight.

All at once, Dads annoyances didnt matter much anymore. They were as permanent as fog.

And thats when I realized that he had been, in fact, the perfect guide.

Kim is mobile/tablet editor at

The Washington Post.
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NASA sets dates for return to the moon Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight NASA is planning to take the first step in its return to the moon in late August or early September with the launch of its Orion spacecraft to orbit around the moon, agency officials said Wednesday. The much-anticipated flight, which wont have astronauts onboard, will take off on Aug. 29, Sept. 2 or Sept. 5, NASA said, giving the first concrete dates for a mission that has been in the works for years.

The flight also will mark the first launch of the agencys massive Space Launch System rocket, a significant milestone in its Artemis campaign to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972.

Given the complexity of the vehicles and the fact that NASA has not launched the SLS rocket before, NASA stressed that the dates for a launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida were tentative and could change.

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 Christian Davenport

Giuliani ordered to go before grand jury

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who became President Donald Trumps personal attorney, was ordered to appear next month before a special grand jury investigating potential interference in Georgias 2020 election, according to a court filing.

Giuliani, who has been one of the most outspoken proponents of false claims that Trump won the election, did not appear before a New York Supreme Court judge on July 11 for a hearing to argue that he shouldnt have to comply with the grand jurys subpoena. On Wednesday, the judge ordered Giuliani to testify on Aug. 9.

Lawyers for Giuliani did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Fulton County district attorneys office did not respond to a request for comment.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) launched her investigation into potential criminal election interference in the presidential election in early 2021, shortly after The Washington Post reported a phone call between Trump and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) in which the president pressured the secretary to find enough votes to overturn his election loss.

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In May, a special grand jury was seated to obtain testimony from figures who had thus far resisted complying with investigators.

 Matthew Brown

Court allows abortion law to take effect

A federal appeals court overturned a lower-court ruling and allowed Georgias restrictive 2019 abortion law to take effect immediately Wednesday. The decision was expected after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to an abortion.

The law, which had been barred from taking effect, bans most abortions once a detectable human heartbeat is present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many pregnancies are detected.

The Georgia law includes exceptions for rape and incest, as long as a police report is filed. It also allows for later abortions when the mothers life is at risk or a serious medical condition renders a fetus unviable.

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A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit said that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Mississippi case that overturned Roe v. Wade allows the law to take effect. U.S. Appeals Court Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. wrote that the ruling in that case makes clear no right to abortion exists under the Constitution, so Georgia may prohibit them.

The appeals court also rejected arguments that a provision of the law that changes the definition of natural person is unconstitutionally vague. The personhood provision gives a fetus the same legal rights as people have after birth.

Normally, the ruling wouldnt take effect for weeks. But the court issued a second order Wednesday allowing the law to take effect immediately.

The National Abortion Federation listed 10 clinics that were providing surgical abortions in Georgia before the ruling. At least one clinic, in Savannah, had already closed following the Supreme Court ruling.

 Associated Press

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Bodega clerk won't face charge in stabbing Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight A New York bodega clerk who fatally stabbed a man who confronted him at work will not face murder charges, the Manhattan district attorney said Tuesday. Jose Alba, 61, was charged with second-degree murder after he fatally stabbed Austin Simon, 35, in the Blue Moon bodega on the evening of July 1.

Surveillance footage of the incident at Blue Moon Convenient Store in Hamilton Heights showed Alba arguing with a woman later identified as Simons girlfriend, before Simon walked in, stepped behind the counter toward Alba and shoved him. As the two men tussled, Alba grabbed a knife and repeatedly stabbed Simon.

On Tuesday, the Manhattan District Attorneys Office filed a motion to dismiss the charges, saying it would not be able to prove homicide charges because Alba could reasonably argue that his life was in danger.

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The Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, the legal group defending Alba, said Tuesday that he looks forward to moving about freely and spending time with his family.

Alba received support online from New Yorkers who said the charges against him should be dropped because he was defending himself.

 Annabelle Timsit

and Nick Parker

Man working at 'Law & Order' location shot

A New York man working at a filming location for the TV series Law & Order: Organized Crime was shot and killed early Tuesday before filming was scheduled to start for the day.

According to police, Johnny Pizarro was found about 5:15 a.m. on a residential street in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and neck.

The 31-year-old Queens resident was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police were investigating and hadnt released information on suspects or a motive.

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News photos from the scene showed police tape blocking off a street where traffic cones stood in spots where cars normally would be parked. No filming was going on at the time of the shooting, according to an NBC spokesperson.

The network confirmed that Pizarro was a crew member for the series, a spinoff of the long-running Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The third season is scheduled to air this fall.

 Associated Press

Transformer explodes at Hoover Dam

A transformer exploded Tuesday at Hoover Dam, producing a cloud of thick, black smoke and flames that were quickly extinguished. No one was hurt and electricity continued to flow from one of the nations largest hydroelectric facilities, authorities said.

There is no risk to the power grid, according to Jacklynn L. Gould, the federal Bureau of Reclamations director for the Lower Colorado Region. The fire ignited around 10 a.m. and was out within a half-hour, she said.

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Hoover Dam, located on the Nevada-Arizona border about 25 miles southeast of Las Vegas, is a popular tourist destination, and some of the visitors captured the scene on video and quickly shared it on social media.

The postings showed the explosion occurred at a building slightly downstream from the base of the dam. The complex is in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, and its not clear how extensive the damage was to the transformer.

Each of the dams 17 generators can supply electricity to 100,000 households. As many as 20,000 vehicles a day drive across the wide top of the dam, which is a National Historic Landmark.

 Associated Press

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Sept. 27 state funeral planned for Shinzo Abe Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Japan is looking to hold a state funeral on Sept. 27 to honor former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated this month, Japanese news outlets reported Wednesday. The event is expected to be a major gathering of current and former world leaders. Abe worked to increase Japans image and influence globally, and was the countrys longest-serving and most recognizable leader of the modern era.

Arrangements for a state funeral have sparked mixed reactions and criticisms of whether taxpayer money should be spent on the event, particularly for a leader who was domestically divisive.

It would be the second state funeral in postwar Japan since the 1967 death of Shigeru Yoshida and a break from past practice, in which ceremonies for former leaders have been jointly funded by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Japanese cabinet. A state funeral would be fully taxpayer-funded.

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Abe was killed July 8 after a man armed with a homemade weapon fired twice at him at a rally in Nara, near Osaka, ahead of this months upper house election.

The suspect, 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, told law enforcement that he had a grudge against Abe and believed the former leader was connected to a religious organization to which Yamagamis mother had donated much of her money. Later, the Unification Church confirmed his mother was a member.

Yamagami sent a letter to a critic of the Unification Church, which had long courted conservative leaders in Japan and elsewhere, declaring his intention to kill Abe, the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun reported. He had multiple homemade guns in his home, police said.

 Michelle Ye Hee Lee

Oil exports resume after a lengthy hiatus

Libya resumed oil exports Wednesday, ending a hiatus that lasted months.

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The resumption came after the country restarted production at oil fields following the firing of the chairman of the state-run oil corporation by one of Libyas two rival governments.

A Malta-flagged tanker docked at the al-Sidra terminal to ship 1 million barrels of crude oil, the new leadership of the National Oil Corp. said. The vessel will then head to Italy, it said.

Last week, the NOC lifted a force majeure that was declared in April at several oil facilities after tribal leaders, aligned with powerful eastern-based commander Khalifa Hifter, shut them down. A force majeure is a legal maneuver that enables a company to get out of its contract obligations because of extraordinary circumstances.

Production was resumed Tuesday at several fields, including the countrys largest, after three months of closure, the NOC said.

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Abdulhamid Dbeibah, prime minister of the Tripoli-based government, announced last week the sacking of the NOC chairman. He appointed Farhat Bengdara, a former governor of Libyas central bank, to head the oil company.

Bengdara is known for his strong ties with Hifter, whose forces control Libyas eastern and much of southern areas.

The appointment was seen as a move by Dbeibah to gain control over oil revenue and Hifters support in his rivalry with Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed prime minister by the east-based parliament in February.

 Associated Press

Indian journalist released from jail: Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of the Indian fact-checking website Alt News, was granted bail and released from jail more than three weeks after being detained for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through his tweets. Zubair was arrested last month by Delhi police over a 2018 tweet on charges of insulting Hindu religious beliefs. Police in Uttar Pradesh state later charged him in a separate case for using the term "hatemongers" for three Hindu monks who made inflammatory comments about Muslims. Zubair's arrest came after he highlighted comments by a now-suspended spokeswoman for the ruling national party about Islam's prophet Muhammad.

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Mali expels U.N. spokesman: Mali's military government has given the spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping MINUSMA mission 72 hours to leave the country amid a standoff between the West African nation and Ivory Coast over the detention of 49 troops who came to Mali to support a security group contracted by the U.N. mission. Mali said the soldiers had arrived without permission. Ivory Coast said Mali had been informed. Mali has since suspended rotations for U.N. missions.

2 arrested in U.S. woman's gang rape in Pakistan: Pakistan's police arrested at least two people after a 21-year-old American woman reported she was gang-raped at a hotel in the eastern Punjab province, officials said. The detainees included the woman's host. Police said that the woman had arrived in Pakistan three weeks ago and that they are trying to determine how she was lured and taken to the hotel. The woman earlier stayed at the home of one of the alleged attackers for five days.

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On Tuesday the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation declared for the first time that the Lower Colorado River Basin has reached a point where states will be required to make further reductions in water use.
If Twitters share price matched the number of headlines it generated, it would be one of the most valuable companies on earth. In reality its shares, which sit at a little under $US39, have not even been able to match the $US54.20 price that billionaire Elon Musk agreed to pay for them back in April.

Earlier this month, Musk declared he was terminating the deal, accusing the company of hiding the true number of spam accounts on its platform, which claims 229 million monetisable daily active users. In fiery legal filings, Twitter rejected that and characterised the dispute as a simple case of buyers remorse.

Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal (left) is managing a company through the turbulence of a purchase by Elon Musk (right) that was welcomed by co-founder Jack Dorsey (centre). Credit:Jamie Brown

The pained acquisition deal has been a microcosm of much of Twitters history: full of drama but doing nothing to aid the companys bottom line.

How it started: Twitter grew out of a now-defunct podcasting company called Odeo in 2006.
Andrews first steps in response to the report will be to seek the approval of both houses of parliament to establish parliamentary ethics committee to enforce beefed up codes of conduct. The government will also begin the consultation process for appointing an integrity commissioner to keep MPs in line and mitigate the serious ongoing corruption risks in Victoria, with a deadline of June 2024. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich said the saddest feature of the Operation Watts investigation was listening to young people who had sought a career in politics but discovered that the only pathway to that objective was by engaging in this unethical factional behaviour. These young people start their career with a distorted moral compass, he said. Glass, speaking alongside Redlich, said the governments response to her 2018 investigation into the so-called red shirts rort, in which Labor MPs misused taxpayer funds during the 2014 election campaign, was tepid. She said it was crucial the parliament acted now to crack down on taxpayer funds being used for political purposes.

The current legislative framework provides few, if any, consequences for abusing public resources and allowed the conduct we revealed in this investigation to continue unchecked, she said. Trust in our politicians is declining and will decline further if real action is not taken. The case for meaningful reform is now both compelling and urgent. The report said Victoria has become a laggard rather than a leader in parliamentary integrity and listed a litany of failures. The evidence established that there was inadequate scrutiny of grants; that staff in the ALP head office turned a blind eye to evidence of branch stacking, payment of members fees and the harvesting of their votes; that staff and MPs were aware of practices such as the forgery of signatures and yet took little or no action to address the practice; that staff, with the knowledge of MPs, let other staff use their identity and password to log into ALP databases containing sensitive electorate office data on electors and misused that data; and that there appears to have been little if any effective auditing of such activities.

Loading It found an environment in which MPs bullied staff and hired unqualified people to undertake factional work, rampant nepotism, forging signatures, and attempts to interfere with government grants to favour factionally-aligned community organisations, which, in some cases, failed to use the funds as intended. Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said the findings show a Labor government mired in corruption, cover-ups and political games at the expense of Victorians. [It] has exposed a political party unsuitable to hold office, he said. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was questioned about the report, but said he had not seen it at that time. He asserted Labor had cleaned itself up after reforms triggered by allegations of branch stacking against Somyurek.

I intervened two years ago, he said, referring to a federal intervention in response to branch stacking revelations. Im pleased [with] the work that (former federal Labor MP Jenny Macklin) and (former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks) have done to clean up the branch here in Victoria. IBAC and the ombudsman called on the Victorian parliament to ban publicly funded staff from undertaking party-political activity, including administering, organising or managing a political party, including recruiting and maintaining the membership of party members. Under another recommendation, MPs would be guilty of an offence if they directed or allowed staff to engage in party-specific jobs during taxpayer-funded working hours.

Loading Other reforms include: Banning MPs from employing close family members in their electorate office, and examining whether the prohibition should be extended to parliamentarians hiring family members or colleagues.

Appointing the secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services as the employer of electorate officers, and reviewing the process for recruiting and selecting staffers.

Establishing an alternative pathway for people to make complaints about MPs. Currently, whistleblowers or victims must make complaints about parliamentarians via the president or speaker of parliament.

Amending the ministerial code of conduct to clarify ministers must ensure public resources are not used for party-specific activities.

Undertaking a comprehensive review of existing conflict of interest controls for ministers and ministerial staff.

Strengthening the scrutiny of grants to ensure they are not misused. As part of his pledge to go further than the reports recommendations, Andrews has also promised to prohibit any political party from receiving public funds if they did not have thorough internal rules, in what members of the opposition and the crossbench claimed was an attempt to deflect criticism of the Labor party. Crossbencher Fiona Patten questioned the focus turning to smaller parties and said it was up to the major parties to get their house in order.

Andrews conceded to investigators in his private examination that branch stacking in the Labor Party was a serious problem that heightened the risk of corruption and must be eliminated but denied the party did not take the misuse of public resources seriously. He said he had been aware of branch stacking inside the Labor Party  and across the factional divide  over the past few decades but denied any personal knowledge or involvement in such practices. Adem Somyurek attempted to play down his role in Labors branch-stacking scandal, despite the damning findings. Credit:Paul Jeffers When asked on Wednesday what steps he took to investigate the rumours he had heard, Andrews refused to answer the question. Media have been reporting on branch stacking inside the Labor Party during the tenure of Andrews leadership, including a 2018 ABC investigation that detailed Somyureks branch stacking operation. The premiers office refused to comment at the time as it was a matter for the party. On Wednesday, the premier said he could not change what had happened in the past, and that he was wrong to call Somyurek a good friend who was a better man than hes ever been when he promoted him back into cabinet after the 2018 election. Somyurek was sacked from the ministry in 2015 over allegations he bullied his staff.

As soon as we became aware of this unprecedented, shameful, disgraceful behaviour [in 2020] we took action, Andrews said. The report casts a shadow over the Andrews governments response to the red shirts rort and calls out Victorian politicians for refusing to act on the ombudsmans 2018 recommendation to ban MPs from directing staff to perform party-political activity. Catalogue of Unethical Behaviour by Andrew Dyson. Credit:Andrew Dyson In a statement to Labor members, Victorian ALP president Susie Byers said the party took the investigations findings seriously. As a branch, we have made great progress towards a better party, Byers said.
But Burns said that at least for now the Russian militarys concentration of forces in the Donbas suggested they had learnt hard lessons from failures at the start of the campaign, where Moscow stalled in its assault on Kyiv. In a way, what the Russian military has done is retreat to a more comfortable way of war, in a sense, by using their advantages and long-range firepower to stand-off and effectively destroy Ukrainian targets and to compensate for the weaknesses in manpower that they still experience, Burns said. Lavrov told state news agency RIA Novosti that Russias objectives would expand still further if the West kept supplying Kyiv with long-range weapons such as the US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov walks to attends the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting earlier this month. Credit:AP His comments, the clearest acknowledgement yet that Russias war goals have expanded over the five months of war, came after Washington said it saw signs Moscow was preparing to formally annex territory it has seized in its neighbour.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba retorted that Russia rejected diplomacy and wanted blood, not talks. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meanwhile accused Russia of blackmailing the European Union over energy, as she unveiled a plan to slash gas demand in the bloc ahead of a feared cut-off of deliveries by Russia as winter approaches. Putin had earlier warned that gas supplies sent to Europe via the huge Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which has been closed for 10 days for maintenance, were at risk of being reduced further. In this photo supplied by the Russian military, a Russian Mi-28 anti-armour attack helicopter fires rockets on a mission at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. Credit:AP Lavrov is the most senior figure to speak openly of Russias war goals in territorial terms, nearly five months after Putin launched his February 24 invasion with a denial that Russia intended to occupy its neighbour.

Then, Putin said his aim was to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine  a statement dismissed by Kyiv and the West as a pretext for an imperial-style war of expansion. Lavrov told RIA Novosti geographical realities had changed since Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held peace talks in Turkey in late March that failed to produce any breakthrough. At that time, he said, the focus was on the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics (DPR and LPR), self-styled Russian-backed breakaway entities in eastern Ukraine from which Moscow has said it aims to drive out Ukrainian government forces. Now the geography is different, its far from being just the DPR and LPR, its also Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and a number of other territories, he said, referring to territories well beyond the Donbas that Russian forces have wholly or partly seized.

This process is continuing logically and persistently, Lavrov said, adding that Russia might need to push even deeper. After being beaten in an initial assault on the capital Kyiv, Russias Defence Ministry said on March 25 the first phase of its special military operation was complete and it would now focus on the main goal, the liberation of Donbas. Nearly four months later, it has taken Luhansk, one of two regions that make up the Donbas, but remains far from capturing all of the other, Donetsk. In the past few weeks it has ramped up missile strikes on cities across Ukraine. In Washington, the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said the Donbas region had not yet been lost to the Russians. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told a meeting of allies that the United States would send four more HIMARS artillery systems to Ukraine, in its latest military help for Kyiv. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduces Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, before she addresses members of Congress in Washington on Wednesday. Credit:AP

The Ukrainian military reported heavy and sometimes fatal Russian shelling amid what they said were largely failed attempts by Russian ground forces to advance. Citing US intelligence, White House national security spokesman John Kirby earlier accused Russia of laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian land it has seized since the start of the war. The Russian embassy in Washington said the remark mischaracterised what Moscow was trying to do. Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska appealed to US politicians on Tuesday to provide more help to her country, saying weapons could help assure a joint great victory. We remain completely broken when our world is destroyed by war. Tens of thousands of such worlds have been destroyed in Ukraine, she said through a translator, in an emotional 15-minute speech to members of the US House of Representatives and Senate. Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, showed videos of children she said had been wounded or killed, including a three-year-old boy now in Germany learning how to use prosthetic limbs.

Russias invasion has killed thousands, displaced millions and flattened cities, particularly in Russian-speaking areas in the east and southeast of Ukraine. It has also raised global energy and food prices and raised fears of famine in poorer countries as Ukraine and Russia are both major grain producers. Europe gets ready In Brussels, a meeting of EU diplomats agreed more sanctions against Russia targeting gold as well as more individuals and entities, a person involved in the talks said. With uncertainty swirling over the planned restart on Thursday of Nord Stream 1, the EU proposed its 27 member countries cut gas demand by 15 per cent from now until spring. Warning that without deep cuts members could struggle for fuel during winter if Russia cuts off supply in retaliation for the blocs support of Ukraine, the executive Commission said that target could be made binding in an emergency.

Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, describing a full cut-off of Russian gas flows as a likely scenario for which Europe needs to be ready. Sources have told Reuters that Nord Stream 1, the largest link for Russian gas supplies to Europe, is expected to restart as scheduled on Thursday but at reduced capacity. Loading But Putin said Nord Stream 1s capacity could be reduced due to problems with other pumping units. He said Russian energy giant Gazprom was ready to fulfil its obligations on gas exports. Gazprom cut exports through the route to 40 per cent capacity last month, citing delays in the return of a turbine Siemens Energy was servicing in Canada, which had initially banned the equipments return, citing sanctions.
Wellington: Micronesia has become the final nation in the world with a population of more than 100,000 to experience an outbreak of COVID-19.

For more than two-and-a-half years, the Pacific archipelago managed to avoid any outbreaks thanks to its geographic isolation and border controls. Those people who flew into the country with the disease didnt spread it because all new arrivals were required to quarantine.

Pohnpei International Airport in Kolonia, Micronesia. Micronesia has likely become the final nation in the world with a population of more than 100,000 to experience an outbreak of COVID-19. Credit:AP

But as has been the case in several other Pacific nations this year, those defences couldnt keep out the more transmissible Omicron variant forever.

On Tuesday, the government announced it had become aware of multiple cases across two of the nations four states.
GLENDON, Pa. - A tractor-trailer fire caused a traffic headache during the Wednesday morning commute in Northampton County.

The big rig caught fire around 3:45 a.m. on Interstate 78 eastbound, near Easton, according to emergency dispatchers.

Fire tore through the truck, which was carrying Halloween candy, state police said.

I-78 east was closed and traffic was being detoured off the highway at Route 33 until nearly 10 a.m.

State police said the cleanup was extensive.

No injuries were reported, and it's not yet clear what caused the fire.
FOGELSVILLE, Pa. - A man was taken to the hospital Wednesday afternoon after an incident involving a snake estimated to be at least 15 feet long, according to a news release from the Upper Macungie Police Department.

Officers responded to the 1400 block of Church Street in Fogelsville shortly after 2 p.m. for the report of a man in cardiac arrest with a snake wrapped around his neck, township police said.

When patrol officers arrived on scene, they observed a 28-year-old man who was unresponsive and lying on the floor of the home with the mid portion of a large snake wrapped around his neck, according to the news release.

Due to the size of the reptile (estimated to be 15+ feet), one of the officers was able to shoot the snake without risking further injury to the man, township police said. Once the snake was injured from the gunshot, the officers were able to pull the man to safety, at which time emergency medical care was provided, according to the news release.

The man was transported to a local hospital for further treatment. At this time, township police say the man's medical condition is unknown.

The snake involved in the incident is dead, police said.

We're told by neighbors this was the man's pet snake, but no one is certain of the type of snake it was.
Northampton County Council will review Thursday a tax break proposed for a warehouse at the former Dixie Cup property in Wilson Borough.

County Executive Lamont McClure has already said he would veto the tax-abatement ordinance if it passes, citing concern about traffic, pollution and giving a break to an industry that many residents oppose. At the same time, the warehouse and trucking industry employ about 10% of local workers, according to one study.

Developer Nick Tsapatsaris told county council in May that converting the dormant building off 25th Street is not feasible without the tax incentive provided by a LERTA, which stands for Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance. He proposed a "last mile" warehouse, the final stop before goods are sent to buyers.

Pennsylvania allows local taxing bodies - towns, counties and school districts - to give developers a break that gradually disappears over 10 years. The idea behind LERTAs is that they will jump-start development, expanding the tax base over time.

McClure sees more pain than gain from Tsapatsaris's plan. Wilson Borough and the Wilson Area School District have already approved giving Tsapatsaris a break. County Council, which would have to vote twice to approve a LERTA for the Dixie Cup plan, is taking its first official look at a tax-break ordinance Thursday at its 6:30 p.m. meeting.

The proposed use is permitted by zoning, but Tsapatsaris said county approval of the tax break is essential.

"This is America and you can do what you want in a free market, but I don't necessarily think we ought to be doing tax breaks to create more truck traffic," McClure said earlier this month.

County commissioners - members of council are known as commissioners - have also questioned the plan. The Lehigh Valley warehouse industry has skyrocketed, thanks to the region's location along the East Coast "megalopolis" that stretches from Boston to Washington, D.C.

Commissioner Kevin Lott noted at a meeting that if the region is "the No. 1 booming market" for distribution, warehouses should not need subsidies.

Commissioner John Cusick has questioned LERTAs in general, pointing out that developers agree to pay millions of dollars for properties and then ask for help in developing them. That help comes from other county residents and businesses, who do not get breaks on their tax bills.

County Council will hold just a first reading on the Dixie Cup LERTA on Thursday. Passing an ordinance would require a second vote, to be held later. The nine-member council can pass an ordinance with five votes, and it would need six to override a McClure veto.

Council will meet Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in its third-floor chambers at the government center in Easton.
DOUGLASS TWP., Pa. - Officials say an ambulance service in Montgomery County is back online after being suspended temporarily. Police say the decision to suspend service was made after firearms and ammunition were discovered at the facility.

Douglass Township officials say Gilbertsville Ambulance went offline over the weekend. It went back online on Tuesday around 11 a.m., said Manager Peter Hiryak of Douglass Township.

A release from Douglass Twp. Police says on Saturday that employees at Gilbertsville Ambulance reported being concerned for their safety after discovering multiple firearms and ammunition. The employees also told police about internal financial matters.

Police performed a search of the building and say no firearms or ammunition were found, but later discovered the items had been removed prior to the arrival of authorities.

The Ambulance Service has not filed a complaint with police about concerns over the internal financial matters, officials report.

Service to the area was temporarily covered by other ambulance services, including Boyertown and Bally.
PHILLIPSBURG, N.J.  Phillipsburg Town Council unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday night in opposition to the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control's special conditions on breweries.

The special conditions, imposed as of July 1, restrict craft breweries to hold no more than 25 on-site activities for the general public and attend only 12 off-premises events.

Councilman Randy Piazza Jr. introduced the resolution to councilmembers at Tuesday's meeting, in part noting the new conditions will reduce microbreweries' profits and their opportunities to engage in their communities.

"It's a very foolish decision that could hurt a lot of small businesses, downtowns," Piazza said.

The resolution proposes that the New Jersey governor and state legislature work together with breweries to develop fair laws to guide state regulators at the division of beverage control on "how to oversee the state's craft beer industry."

Council requested the resolution be forwarded to Gov. Phil Murphy, leaders of the New Jersey Legislature, and neighboring municipalities, requesting the conditions be removed immediately.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  Micronesia has likely become the final nation in the world with a population of more than 100,000 to experience an outbreak of COVID-19.

For more than two-and-a-half years, the Pacific archipelago managed to avoid any outbreaks thanks to its geographic isolation and border controls. Those people who flew into the country with the disease didnt spread it because all new arrivals were required to quarantine.

But as has been the case in several other Pacific nations this year, those defenses couldnt keep out the more transmissible omicron variant forever. The aerial photo shows Pohnpei International Airport in Kolonia, Federated States of Micronesia, on Aug. 5, 2019. Micronesia has likely become the final nation in the world with a population of more than 100,000 to experience an outbreak of COVID-19. On Tuesday, July 19, 2022, the government announced it had become aware of multiple cases across two of the nation's four states.(Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo via AP, File)

On Tuesday, the government announced it had become aware of multiple cases across two of the nations four states.

Authorities said that in Kosrae State, 25 people tested positive after showing up at a local hospital. An additional 10 people from a family of 11 tested positive after a medical team visited them.

Authorities said they had also found seven community cases in the state of Pohnpei. State leaders there have asked all residents to avoid public gatherings and to wear masks at all times.

The outbreak comes less than two weeks before Micronesia planned to end its quarantine restrictions and reopen its borders to the world on Aug. 1.

Last year, Micronesia became one of the few countries to impose a broad mandate requiring all eligible citizens get vaccinated against the coronavirus. It threatened to withhold federal funds from any individuals or business owners who didnt follow the rules, and as a result has had high vaccination rates.

Almost all nations in the world have now experienced COVID-19 outbreaks.

Turkmenistan is the only other country with more than 100,000 people that hasnt reported any cases, although experts believe there has been a significant outbreak there that the autocratic leadership has chosen to ignore.

There have also been headaches for health officials trying to compile figures from North Korea.

In May, North Korea acknowledged it had a COVID-19 outbreak. Since then, it has reported nearly 4.8 million cases with fever symptoms, but in state media has identified only a fraction of them as confirmed COVID-19 patients, due in part to a lack of test kits.

Elsewhere in the Pacific, the omicron variant has spread the coronavirus to several small nations for the first time this year, including Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa and Nauru.

Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands have so far managed to avoid any community outbreaks. The Marshall Islands plans to end its border quarantine requirements from Oct. 1.
POWERVIEW, Man.  A First Nations woman says she is disappointed a 92-year-old priest accused of assaulting her when she was a student at a former residential school did not attend his first court appearance.

What a coward, said Victoria McIntosh, 63, outside a legion hall where court was held in Powerview-Pine Falls, north of Winnipeg, on Wednesday.

I dont care how old you are. You could have made it here if you wanted to. Victoria McIntosh, standing, holds a sweater she wore on her first day of school as supporters perform a ceremony and drum outside court in Powerview, Man., on Wednesday, July 20, 2022. McIntosh alleges 92-year-old priest Arthur Masse assaulted her when she was a student at a former residential school. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Arthur Masse faces one count of indecent assault from when the woman was 10 and attended the Fort Alexander Residential School in Manitoba.

His lawyer appeared in court on his behalf, which is not uncommon for a first appearance, and the Crown said the priests age was a factor. A next court date was set for Aug. 17.

McIntosh said she had hoped Masse would be there so she could face him for the first time in more than 50 years.

The Canadian Press doesnt typically name complainants in such cases, but McIntosh said she wants to speak publicly and no publication ban was ordered.

In court, she held onto a sweater she wore as a child and sat beside her young grandson. She said when she started school for the first time, a nun took her clothing and called her a savage.

McIntosh said speaking out about her experience at the school was one of the most difficult things shes done, but she feels like shes finally been heard. She wanted to honour her mother and grandfather, who were also residential school survivors. They were unable to get justice before they died, she added.

Before the court appearance, McIntosh stood outside with several other people, while there was drumming, singing and smudging.

There is no time limit for grieving the loss of a childhood, she said.

I carried this for a long time, she said. I was a 10-year-old child.

McIntosh said she has awful memories of the school. She didnt celebrate birthdays or Christmas at the institution. She was denigrated and made to feel ashamed of being Anishinaabe.

Later, she became a teacher and saw herself in the innocent children she taught.

RCMP have said the alleged offence took place between 1968 and 1970 when Masse was employed at the Fort Alexander Residential School.

The school opened in 1905 in the community of Fort Alexander, which later became Sagkeeng First Nation. It closed in 1970.

RCMP said they were notified of allegations of sexual abuse at the school in 2010.

Throughout the investigation, officers interacted with more than 700 people across North America and obtained 75 victim and witness statements. More than 80 investigators were involved.

McIntosh said she would be interested in participating in a sentencing circle as an option for the court.

Thats something that could benefit other members of the community who were impacted by the school, said Marilyn Courchene, who also attended Fort Alexander while Masse worked there.

McIntosh and Courchene said they plan to travel over the weekend to Alberta, where Pope Francis is to start is first visit to Canada. He is also expected to apologize for the Roman Catholic Churchs role in residential schools during the trip.

An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools over a century, and the Roman Catholic Church ran about 60 per cent of the institutions.

Courchene said she hopes they have an opportunity to speak to Francis about the court case.

He needs to hear from us, she said.

Sagkeeng First Nation Chief Derrick Henderson said Wednesdays court appearance was an important step for the community, which has been grieving following the recent discovery of 190 anomalies during its search for unmarked graves near the school using ground-penetrating radar.

Many people feel like they are finally being believed, he added.

This is going to open other peoples eyes.

The Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program has a hotline to help residential school survivors and their relatives suffering trauma invoked by the recall of past abuse. The number is 1-866-925-4419.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2022.
OTTAWA  The federal government has found itself defending what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called an absolutely unacceptable decision in recent weeks  to grant a Canadian company an exemption on Russian sanctions.

Siemens will be allowed to import and export six turbines that are part of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in Europe.

Here are five things to know about the turbines: Pipes of the gas storage plant Reckrod are pictured near Eiterfeld, central Germany, Thursday, July 14, 2022, after the Nord Stream 1 pipeline was shut down due to maintenance.THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Michael Probst

What is Nord Stream 1?

The Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline runs under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. It provides about 35 per cent of the natural gas used to generate electricity and power industry in Germany. Some of that fuel is sent on to other European countries.

Russia supplied about 40 per cent of all natural gas used in the European Union before it invaded Ukraine, and since then it has been reducing the flow of energy into the EU.

Why is Nord Stream 1 subject to Canadian sanctions?

Its majority owner is Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom. Wide-ranging economic sanctions imposed by Canada and other Western countries are intended to isolate the Russian regime and pressure it to end the invasion of Ukraine. Top officials from Gazprom and other energy companies were sanctioned in March.

How did Canada get involved?

Six turbines for the pipeline need maintenance at a Siemens Energy facility in Montreal. One of the turbines, which powers a compressor station, was imported and repaired already.

Gazprom said because of technical problems with the turbine and delays in getting it back due to the sanctions, it had to reduce the flow of natural gas into Germany by 60 per cent last month.

German politicians have dismissed the decision as a political gambit by the Kremlin to sow uncertainty and further push up energy prices, insisting that the turbine in question wasnt earmarked for use until September anyway.

The federal government recently revealed it has provided a revocable, two-year exemption to allow Siemens to send the turbine back to Germany, and to repair the other five turbines over that time-frame.

That angered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who called the exception absolutely unacceptable, and warned it could undermine global sanctions against Russia. The Ukrainian World Congress has petitioned the Federal Court for a judicial review in hopes of stopping the turbines from making it to Germany.

Whats the situation in Germany?

The flow of gas stopped entirely on July 11 for scheduled maintenance thats expected to be done as early as July 21. This kind of work is sometimes done in summer, when gas usage drops.

Germany typically stockpiles natural gas during the summer months, and its laws require 90 per cent of that capacity to be filled by Nov. 1. As of Tuesday the total storage level is just over 65 per cent, which the German government says is not unusual for July.

But there are worries that Russia will blame more technical issues for keeping the taps turned off. World leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, say Vladimir Putin is weaponizing energy in Europe.

What happens if the pipeline doesnt restart?

The German government has issued an alert warning about gas supply, the second in a three-level system. If things escalate to an emergency level the countrys regulator will take over allocating and distributing gas resources.

But it stresses that the supply of gas right now is less of a concern than the cost, which is already spiking across the EU. Some worry that will cause a recession just as economies start to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many countries seek alternatives, looking to import more liquefied natural gas from the United States. But that is a longer-term solution that requires terminals to convert the liquefied product back into gas  a capacity Germany doesnt currently have.

In the meantime, Germany is asking people to reduce their power usage. Its also given permission for 10 coal-fired power plants to restart and has paused plans to take another 11 coal plants off-line this fall.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2022.

 With files from The Associated Press
MIAMI (AP)  A jury in Florida has found Tesla just 1% negligent in a fiery crash that killed two teens, for disabling a speed limiter on the electric car.

Tuesdays verdict placed 90% of the blame on the driver, Barrett Riley, and 9% on his father, James Riley, who brought the lawsuit against Tesla.

Its the first known case involving a Tesla crash that has gone to trial, said Michael Brooks, acting exective director at the Center for Auto Safety, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. FILE - This image provided by the National Transportation Safety Board shows damage to a 2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor electric car following a crash in September, 2021, in Coral Gables, Fla. A Florida jury on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, found electric car maker Tesla negligent for disabling a speed limiter on a vehicle but placed much of the blame for a fiery fatal crash on the 18-year-old driver. Barrett Riley and his friend Edgar Monserrat Martinez, both seniors at a private school in South florida, died in the May 2018 crash in Fort Lauderdale. A backseat passenger was ejected from the car and survived, officials said. (NTSB via AP, File)

Barrett Riley and his friend Edgar Monserrat Martinez were about to graduate from their private school in South Florida when they died in the May 2018 crash near Fort Lauderdale Beach. A backseat passenger was ejected and survived.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined he was driving at 116 mph (186 kph) in a 30 mph (48 kph) zone, and the most likely cause of the crash was the drivers loss of control as a result of excessive speed.

James Riley claimed the crash was entirely survivable and that it was the ensuing fire that killed the teenagers, but the judge dismissed his lawsuits claim that Tesla designed defective lithium ion batteries that burst into an uncontrollable and fatal fire upon impact.

James Riley also said Tesla removed a speed limiter without his permission. He had ordered the instrument installed to prevent his son from driving at more than 85 mph (136 kph).

An investigation found that about a month before the crash, the teen asked workers at Teslas Dania Beach dealership to return the car to normal operating mode while it was being serviced.

Tesla denied negligence in disabling the speed limiter. The company argued that the teens parents were negligent in allowing him to drive the vehicle when they were aware of his history of speeding and reckless driving, according to the judges instructions to the jury.

Brooks, at the Center for Auto Safety, said other lawsuits are pending against Tesla involving the vehicles autopilot and full self-driving systems.

Jurors recommended awarding the teens mother Jenny Riley $6 million for pain and suffering, and $4.5 million to the father, the newspaper reported.

But the apportionment of responsibility means Tesla will only be liable for $105,000, which is equivalent to 1% of the negligence as determined by the verdict, according to Curt Miner, an attorney representing the Riley family.
OTTAWA  Federal Conservative leadership candidate Jean Charest is pressing the party to decide whether it will hold a third debate for contenders seeking the top job.

As he does, the ex-premier of Quebec is turning his attention to winning over members of the countrys racialized and newcomer communities. Many came to the party through support for Patrick Brown, whose disqualification leaves their votes up for grabs.

Charest posed the debate question in a tweet Wednesday afternoon directed at party brass and members of the committee who set the rules of the race. Conservative leadership candidate Jean Charest takes part in the Conservative Party of Canada French-language leadership debate in Laval, Quebec on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. Charest is pressing the party to decide whether it will hold a third debate.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

The leadership election organizing committee was expected to meet later, where it was anticipated a decision would be made.

Without naming names, Charest says all but one of the remaining campaigns are in favour of the party hosting a third debate.

Many of its newest members also want one, he added.

Lets show Canadians our plan for the future.

The partys decision to remove Brown from the race over an allegation he may have violated federal election laws has spurred Charest to begin making direct appeals to members of immigrant communities Brown courted.

A former organizer of Browns from the Filipino community posted a short video to Facebook Wednesday following a meeting with Charest, including a clip from the candidate himself.

In the video, Charest says that Canada is a lucky nation because it welcomes immigrants from around the world.

Im thinking in particular of those of you who are from the Filipino community and who have been on the front lines on the COVID-19 crisis, he says.

He goes on to say the country needs more immigrants from the Philippines and that more needs to be done to recognize their foreign credentials to get them into the workforce.

Michelle Coates Mather, a spokeswoman for Charest, said while the former premier appreciates Browns endorsement in the race, he is taking nothing for granted.

Mr. Charest has always believed Canadas multicultural identity is one of its greatest strengths. He is honoured to meet with community members to hear their concerns and to share his solutions, she said.

Charests outreach and call for another debate comes as party members have begun voting for their next leader, and the party has started validating the ballots that have been returned.

The party is looking at a voter list with more than 670,000 names, which is more than double the size when members picked Erin OToole to lead the Conservatives in 2020.

The official results from this race will be announced in Ottawa on Sept. 10.

Party brass have been dealing with the fallout from disqualifying Brown, but last week emailed party members asking whether they wanted another debate.

Along with Charest, candidates Scott Aitchison and Roman Baber have expressed support for a third debate.

Leslyn Lewiss campaign recently said she was travelling the country meeting members, but would attend a third debate if the party decided to hold one.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the campaign of Pierre Poilievre  the contests presumed front-runner  has yet to respond to a request about its thoughts on another debate.

Poilievre recently skipped out on an unofficial debate scheduled while candidates were in the conservative heartland of Alberta to attend the Calgary Stampede.

Party rules say it is mandatory for candidates to attend official debates. They could be fined for not showing up.

Members saw candidates perform in two party-sanctioned debates in May. The English-language debate took place in Edmonton, followed by a French-language debate in Laval, Que.

The party told campaigns they could expect candidates to be called back for a possible third debate in early August.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2022.
A Winnipeg woman is calling for a 911 operator training review, after an encounter with an intruder in her home.

Angela Chalmers, 44, woke up to her dog, Loki, growling around 6:30 a.m. June 18, and went down the stairs to the main floor of her Earl Grey home to see what was going on.

I saw a stranger lying on the couch in my living room, Chalmers said Wednesday. I grabbed my dog and we went back upstairs and went into my roommates room and I woke him up We decided to barricade ourselves in the bedroom and call 911.

Chalmers said the operator told her Winnipeg police were busy but on their way, then asked if she would be OK going downstairs to wake the man up herself.

No, no  absolutely not, she said she told the operator. It was presented as an option: either wait or go wake them up.

Police arrived after a bit more than 20 minutes, and four officers took the person, who was intoxicated, from Chalmers home. The officers handled it well, she said, and told her the man was so out of it that he didnt appear to know where he was. Chalmers is not interested in the man being charged with a crime.

Regardless of what their intention was, it was absolutely terrifying to have somebody in your house unexpectedly like that, she said.

The incident was reviewed, and the call taker who spoke with the complainant was provided with feedback regarding the handling of the call, some of which deviated from standard practice, a city police spokesman said.

The unit manager for the communications centre will be reaching out to the victim of this incident to discuss the matter, the spokesman added, noting response times vary on time of day and urgency, but in this particular instance, it was considered appropriately and timely dispatch.

Chalmers noted she doesnt plan to file a formal complaint, nor does she want the operator disciplined. She said a Winnipeg Police Service representative left her a message Tuesday, and she planned to phone back to speak about the incident.

Whatever is happening right now is not sufficient  my biggest hope is sharing my story and seeing how many people have similar stories, the 911 operators will receive more adequate training, she said.

Chalmers said she had a prior break-in while living in Vancouver 12 years ago, after a case of mistaken identity. She was assaulted and nearly killed, she said, and now lives with a physical disability.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera
IN a ceremony marked by Indigenous traditions, representatives from Manitobas seven Treaty 1 nations have signed a deal to create Canadas largest urban reserve in southwest Winnipeg.

(This) will serve as the best practice for First Nations and municipal relations across the country From today forward, these types of relationships should be looked at as investments, said Brokenhead Chief Gordon BlueSky at the event, which took place at The Forks National Historic Site Wednesday.

He described the agreement, which involves the 109-acre site of the former Kapyong military barracks on Kenaston Boulevard, as the best services agreement of its kind. MIKE SUDOMA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Mayor Brian Bowman and the Keys of the City recipients along with City officials during a press event Wednesday morning at The Forks.

Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman heralded the official creation of Naawi-Oodena, an Indigenous mixed-use village, as true reconciliation.

Its time for optimism, a time for hope, and certainly a time to celebrate, Bowman said.

Naawi-Oodena, once developed, will be one of the most complete communities in Winnipeg and will serve as a model to shape future urban reserve partnerships across Canada. MIKE SUDOMA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Chief Glenn Hudson holding a key to the city he was awarded after signing the Gaawijijigemanit Agreement during an event held at the Forks Wednesday.

Other signatories included the chiefs of Peguis, Sagkeeng, Roseau River, Long Plain, Sandy Bay and Swan Lake First Nations.

The $1-billion development features as many as 3,000 residential units and an array of commercial, recreational, educational and cultural spaces.

Bluesky, who is chairman of Treaty One Development Corp., said Naawi-Oodena is the third urban reserve in Winnipeg but is by far the largest Indigenous-led economic development deal in the city. The agreement to establish an urban reserve at the former Kapyong barracks site in southwest Winnipeg is signed at The Forks Wednesday. Seven Treaty 1 nations are party to the deal. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press)

Treaty One will develop 68 per cent of the land, while the Canada Lands Company, a federal Crown corporation, will develop the rest.

Per the services agreement, Treaty One will establish bylaws and zoning rules to govern the site and will collect the same business and property taxes as all other city properties.

In exchange for providing municipal services like fire, police, sewage collection and water distribution, the city will receive 65 per cent of the tax revenues. The seven First Nations will retain the remaining 35 per cent to cover operational costs. Earl Mousseau helps Isaiah Brightness prepare for the grand entrance ceremony prior to the signing of the agreement. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press)

Land taxes will be remitted until the development is complete. The city recently approved the deal.

The City of Winnipeg came to the table with political support and will again, and we needed that to be successful. They have set the strong example of how relationships can be mended and strengthened, BlueSky said. For our federal and provincial governments, this is how it looks. This is how we should be sitting down.

Development at the Naawi-Oodena site is set to begin next month, but will likely take up to 15 years to complete.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca
Indigenous people in Manitoba cities are more than twice as likely as non-Indigenous residents to be victims of violence or theft.

The divide between the two groups is the largest in Canada, a newly released Statistics Canada study shows.

University of Winnipeg criminal justice professor Michael Weinrath said the figures are backed up by research. BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES A newly released Statistics Canada study suggests Indigenous people in Manitoba are more than twice as likely as non-Indigenous residents to be victims of violence or theft.

Indigenous people are more likely to be victims of crime (and) more likely to be victims of violent crime. Part of that is what we know as criminologists: one of the most consistent correlations that you see with victimization, particularly violent victimization is the relationship with poverty, said Weinrath.

The federal agency also reported a stark difference in the homicide rate between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations in Manitoba.

In 2020, the homicide rate for Indigenous Manitobans was 15.32 per 100,000 people, compared with 1.26 per 100,000 for non-Indigenous residents. Forty Indigenous people were slain in 2020, compared with 14 non-Indigenous people.

(The national homicide rate was 10.05 per 100,000 people for Indigenous victims, and 1.41 for non-Indigenous.)

The federal agency said First Nations, Metis and Inuit are over-represented among victims of violence across Canada.

Research has suggested a link between victimization and past and present government policies, including the residential school system, marginalization and institutionalized racism, the agency wrote.

Those policies have resulted in the disruption of community and family structures, and caused intergenerational trauma, which are both linked to violent victimization of Indigenous people, the agency said.

Weinrath said it boils down to poverty.

If youre in really poor class of individual, youre more likely to be victimized. Indigenous people, as we know, are more over-represented in the poorer parts of Canadian society Theres a strong correlation of violent victimization and poverty, but thats exacerbated for Indigenous people, particularly in our inner cities.

However, he noted Manitoba has a high rate of crime overall, which is reflected in more specific research.

The other thing to think about is Manitoba has a high rate of victimization, high rate of crime, high rate of serious, violent crime its not a great thing, but its consistent with what we know about the breakdown of crime in our province thats going to show up in our studies and surveys, he said.

The study used self-reported data from the agencys 2019 general social survey on Canadians safety, as well as self-reported data from a 2018 safety survey and 2020 police-reported data on homicides.

Nearly one-quarter  23 per cent  of Indigenous people in Manitoba reported they had been victims of at least one violent crime or theft of personal property in the 12 months preceding the 2019 survey, compared with 10 per cent of non-Indigenous people.

That difference was mainly because of high victimization rates in urban areas, StatCan said. In rural areas, 5.4 per cent of Indigenous people and five per cent of non-Indigenous people reported being victims of a crime against the person.

The study also showed in 2019 more Indigenous people 15 or older (16.4 per cent) had little or no confidence in their local police service or RCMP detachment compared with non-Indigenous people (12.2 per cent).

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera
A provincial job posting for a consultant to evaluate K-12 curricula and assess how teachers are using it in classrooms is raising eyebrows among educators.

The Manitoba government recently issued a request for proposal to create a system that will monitor how curriculum is implemented across four official school programs: English, French, French immersion, and senior years technology. A quarter-of-a-million dollars has been set aside for the contract.

There is currently no formal set-up in place to measure and report on the effectiveness of course content or understand how a syllabus is taught in every corner of the province, according to the RFP.

The development of such a system is essential to understanding when and what in our curriculums needs to be reviewed and what supports are required for high-quality implementation, states an excerpt, which was made public via Merx, a contract and tender site, July 11.

The development of such a system is essential to understanding when and what in our curriculums needs to be reviewed and what supports are required for high-quality implementation.

Officials are looking for an applicant who can determine what indicators are necessary to track progress and what data every teacher, principal, and division office, as well as the education department, should start collecting to introduce province-wide monitoring.

Teacher autonomy is essential. The curriculum is a guide, but the teacher knows the students the best, said James Bedford, president of the Manitoba Teachers Society.

Bedford, who represents upwards of 16,600 teachers, said educators have become less involved in curriculum review and development work in recent years  a concerning trend, given they are experts and are also more likely to follow a framework if they know their colleagues built it.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

James Bedford, president of the Manitoba Teachers Society, said he is curious about why the province is reaching outside of the education department for expertise and how genuine consultation will be.

The union leader said he is curious about why the province is reaching outside of the education department for expertise and how genuine consultation will be  especially given a group of education leaders, community members and students were tapped for a so-called curriculum advisory panel in autumn.

The province said the above panel informed the development of curriculum, whereas the program evaluation contractor will create a process to determine how effective syllabi is at achieving Manitobas education goals.

Per the RFP, the successful candidate will be required to scan curriculum monitoring options from other jurisdictions, undertake consultations with stakeholders, and train education department staff on the final model before the end of the 2024-25 school year. Proposals are due before July 29, at noon.

Citing the value the K-12 education commission placed on strengthening curriculum implementation, Education Minister Wayne Ewasko said the province needs to introduce systematic evaluation.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko

In the commissions 2020 report, 10 of 75 recommendations to improve the public school system and student outcomes explicitly discuss curriculum.

Commissioners called on the province to address issues related to rigour and standards and introduce new standardized math and literacy tests, with school-level scores made available to the public.

The authors recommended the province focus on the holistic nature of curricula, bolster relevant content, and incorporate student leadership, environmental stewardship, character, citizenship, and career exploration outcomes across subjects. They also noted the importance of incorporating Indigenous perspectives and creating unique French-language education rather than simply translating English resources.

In a prepared statement, Ewasko said the purpose of the education departments latest project is to understand how schools are accessing and implementing curriculum, in addition to finding out what factors are supporting implementation and whether there are any barriers to it.

The teachers union is in favour of more consistent curricula reviews, on a roughly seven-year basis. Bedford does not, however, support standardized testing as a way to assess individual students or teachers, nor the possibility of publishing school-level scores.

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Manitoba Teachers Society. Officials are looking for an applicant who can determine what indicators are necessary to track progress and what data every teacher, principal, and division office, as well as the education department, should start collecting to introduce province-wide monitoring.

For all the wrong reasons, it gives the public the impression that there are good schools and there are bad schools, he said, adding such tests fail to take into account factors such as class size and student demographics, while parents can keep tabs on their childs learning via report cards and communicate with teachers.

Dynamic Solutions, Matrix Management, UpFront Consulting, FWCO Management Consultants, and KPMG LLP  which penned the provinces health-care reforms  are among the firms that have requested the provincial RFP documents to date.

For all the wrong reasons, it gives the public the impression that there are good schools and there are bad schools.  James Bedford

This money needs to go into the classroom, instead of consultants telling them what they want to hear, said Nello Altomare, the NDPs education critic

The retired principal said curricula development requires extensive consultation with educators, teacher pilots, and adjustments before it is introduced. You really cant shortcut it.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie
Manitobas top doctor is set to reveal the provinces plan to vaccinate children under age five against COVID-19.

Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin will address Manitobans this week for the first time since May, said Health Minister Audrey Gordon.

This is an exciting announcement for so many families that have been waiting for Health Canada to approve the vaccine, Gordon said during an unrelated announcement. DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin will address Manitobans this week for the first time since May.

Roussin will speak about the approval process and the rollout of the shots to children aged six months to five years old, Gordon said. Health Canada approved Modernas Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine for the younger age group on July 14.

The drug regulator has determined the benefits of the vaccine for young children outweigh potential risks and has approved a two-dose primary series of 25 microgram shots. The second dose is to be given four weeks after the first. Doses are half the size of shots approved for children aged six to 11.

Gordon could not say Tuesday when the shots would be available to Manitobas youngest residents. The province had warned vaccine supplies were expected to be limited in the first weeks of the rollout and doses would be doled out on a priority basis, following federal advice. MATT ROURKE / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Doses for children under five are half the size of shots approved for children aged six to 11.

Public health is also preparing for a comprehensive vaccine campaign in the fall to get Manitobans up to date on their COVID-19 immunizations, Gordon said.

A lot of work is taking place and well continue to prepare so that Manitobans are protected going forward, Gordon said.

Advocates are pushing Manitoba to expand its fourth-dose vaccine rollout as other provinces open up eligibility to all adults.

Quebec, Ontario, and now Alberta have all expanded fourth doses to all adults over age 18.

The Manitoba Health Coalition, a group that advocates for the preservation of public health care, is calling on the provincial government to do the same.

If we see another wave of COVID-19 that looks anything like we saw just a few months ago in January were in a lot of trouble, said Thomas Linner, the coalitions director.

Manitobas emergency rooms and critical care systems have been described to the coalition as on the brink, Linner said. He also called on the government to release modelling and an action plan for how it will deal with an impending surge in transmission.

As a seventh wave of COVID-19 is about to hit us, we need access to a fourth dose, but we also need a lot more, he said.

Currently, Manitobans who live in personal care homes or elderly congregate living settings; people age 50 and up; First Nations, Inuit and Metis people aged 30 or older; and people age 18 to 49 who are moderately to severely immunocompromised, can get a fourth dose.

The province should be leading the conversation to inform Manitobans about when they and their loved ones can expect to be eligible for the second booster. Its been more than six months since many Manitobans under 50 had their third shot.

Right now, we have institutions like the University of Manitoba going out on their own on things like mask mandates, simply because the province of Manitoba has given up the fight against COVID-19. Thats whats unacceptable, and thats what has to change, Linner said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Danielle Da Silva

Reporter Danielle Da Silva is a general assignment reporter. Read full biography
Scott Gillingham may be running for mayor but he wants to see city councillors take on a greater role in Winnipeg.

On Wednesday, Gillingham released a platform outlining how he would make changes to the powerful executive policy committee, if he is voted into the mayors chair in October.

Ive always been a collaborator, said the St. James councillor (2014-22). I believe in collaboration and the collective vision of others. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Mayoral candidate Scott Gillingham released a platform outlining how he would make changes to the powerful executive policy committee, if he is voted into the mayors chair in October.

Everyone around the table brings wisdom. Everyone has been elected. We need all the voices around the table.

Currently, EPC is made up of the mayor, six civic committee chairpersons, deputy mayor and acting deputy mayor.

That makeup is referred to by critics as EPC+2, and is viewed by some as a way for a mayor (because there are only 15 city councillors) to get a majority of votes on his side on issues by appointing them to plum roles with extra pay, while others sit on the outside.

Gillingham wants to immediately shrink the EPC by one chairperson (amalgamating the finance committee with innovation) and also drop the deputy mayor and acting deputy mayor from the roster.

At the same time, Gillingham wants non-EPC councillors to take on a greater role by requiring council to have at least two new informal meetings each year, where they would all develop and update a strategic plan and set budget goals as a group.

He noted both Mayor Brian Bowman (who is not seeking a third term) and former mayor Glen Murray (1998-2004, currently running again) promised in past election campaigns to change EPC but, once voted in, neither did.

I welcome the collaboration, Gillingham said. The theme of my campaign is uniting to make a stronger Winnipeg. The future is not a one-person show.

Gillingham also outlined plans to cut two positions in the mayors office and create two new ones which would do research and policy work for council.

To me, being specific is the best tool I have to show voters Im committed to real change, he said. I will release a draft bylaw on reform before election day to remove any doubt that these reforms are legal, practical and imminent.

A spokesman for Bowman said he was unavailable until Thursday; Murray could not be reached for comment.

Gillingham and Murray are two of 12 registered candidates in the 2022 mayoral race.

Idris Adelakun, Rana Bokhari, Chris Clacio, Shaun Loney, Jenny Motkaluk, Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Jessica Peebles, Rick Shone, Desmond Thomas and Don Woodstock are also on the pre-nomination list. Winnipeggers vote for mayor and council Oct. 26.

On Wednesday, Shone promised to build one new spray pad per year, if elected.

If this summer is any indication, we can expect hotter and hotter temperatures with Winnipeggers looking to beat the heat in safe and fun ways, Shone said in a statement.

He said developers would be required to put spray pads into new residential developments so it wouldnt affect on city coffers.

Spray pads are easier and cheaper to construct and operate than pools, Shone said.

By collaborating with private-sector developers, we can provide these outdoor spaces and give investor a sense of pride in their developments while ensuring all Winnipeggers have equitable access to summer leisure activities.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
A psychiatric nurse-run private youth mental health clinic has opened in Winnipeg, aiming to help tackle months-long wait times in the public health-care system.

Psychiatric nurse Shea Silva began seeing clients last week at Cocoon Mental Health Clinic. The site in southwest Winnipeg offers mental health assessments for ages 12 to 25, at a rate of $150 per hour.

Silva said she decided to take the leap into private practice, after working with adults in hospital and with youth in schools. JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Shea Silva is a psychiatric nurse and executive director of Cocoon Clinic which provides youth with mental health services.

In an interview, Silva said she hopes the clinic (of which shes executive director) will help take some of the burden off the provincial health-care system by reducing wait times  which she said currently are likely to be as long as six to nine months.

The clinic promises to see clients and complete assessments within two weeks, and estimates it will take up to three sessions for one assessment to be completed.

Psychiatric nurses already work in private practice, but Silva said her vision for the clinic is one that works alongside family physicians and other health-care professionals. JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Psychiatric nurses already work in private practice, but Shea Silva said her vision for the clinic is one that works alongside family physicians and other health-care professionals.

Theres already high demand for mental health services, Silva said. Its often easier to access urgent treatment when someone is already in crisis, she added; if theyre managing day-to-day, theyll most often have to wait.

Her aim is to help people whose symptoms are too severe to be managed only by a visit to a family doctor but not so urgent they need to go to a crisis centre.

It comes from the purest of intentions; I just really want to help and make a bit of a difference (to fill) these gaps, she said. We want to work alongside all of the amazing work that is already being done. We dont want to replace, we want to supplement.

After referral and assessments are complete, a care plan will be created for the client, Silva said. Age is the only criteria for who can attend the clinic.

Winnipeg-based Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Centre is one of the places that takes referrals for youth mental health assessments within the public system. Some centre clients are waiting more than a year for an assessment.

On Tuesday, a Shared Health spokesperson said the wait time varies from one month to over a year. That doesnt include the time it takes to receive treatment.

The health ministers office didnt respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Improving access to mental health services and assessments for children and teens was one of the key recommendations in the 2018 Virgo report commissioned by the provincial government.

As part of its implementation of those recommendations, the province has previously pointed to hiring additional staff (including psychiatric nurses) to work in the childrens emergency department at Health Sciences Centre. The province spent more than $1.2 million doing so between 2020 and 2022, according to an implementation report posted on its website.

However, overall funding for youth mental health services hasnt doubled, like the Virgo report recommended it must, said Thomas Linner, director of Manitoba Health Coalition. There has been no significant increase in funding since that report was put forward.

Most of the public concerns reported to the coalition involve difficulty navigating seniors care and personal care homes, but the organization has been hearing about long mental health wait times as well, Linner said.

Its a crisis that wont be solved simply by for-profit clinics, he added.

The government needs to step in and ensure that it is not just wealth that assures someone they will be able to receive the help they need if theyre having a mental health crisis. We need a plan from across Canada, as well.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca
A weekend fire in the downtown Winnipeg underground knocked two radio stations off the air and has left businesses and offices inside and below the Richardson Building uncertain of when they will be able to reopen.

CBC 89.3 FM and University of Manitoba campus station UMFM 101.5 have been out of service in the aftermath of the fire which broke out in a restaurant in the underground concourse at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The transmitter tower for both stations is on the roof of 1 Lombard Pl., for years the citys tallest.

As well, everything from the Winnipeg Foundation to CIBC offices and downtown branch to Hys Steak House to the head office of Richardson International Ltd. remained closed Tuesday or had staff working from home. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES The Richardson Building, centre, is connected to an underground concourse, the scene of a weekend fire which affected businesses in the building and concourse.

Jared McKetiak, UMFM station manager, said he doesnt know when it will be back on the air. (The station can currently be streamed through its online site.)

Were just waiting, McKetiak said. The issues were not caused by the fire. Its because of the electrical system. It has to be looked at.

Its tough because our hands are tied. Its out of our control.

McKetiak added UMFM will be reviewing our current technical set up and will look at putting in a backup transmitter at a different location. This is the first time this has happened in 22 years, but we dont want to be off air for multiple days ever again.

Firefighters rushed to the Fairmont hotel for a smoke alarm call, but quickly realized the blaze wasnt in the hotel at 2 Lombard Pl. but below it.

It was so hot Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service reported, despite alternating crew members, one firefighter had to be treated onsite for heat-related injuries. There were no other injuries reported.

Smoke seeping into the hotel also forced former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty, 77, to go down 14 flights of stairs  without time to get his shoes  shortly before his concert at Canada Life Centre. (He mentioned the incident during the show.)

Craig Dunsire, general manager of the Richardson Building, said the blaze damaged its main electrical systems. He said no date has been set for when the business hub will reopen.

Though there was minimal damage to the concourse area (the) electrical systems did experience significant damage, Dunsire said.

The building remains without power while crews work diligently to repair and restore the electrical service. Limited backup power is in place to ensure the operation of basic security and life safety requirements.

Gemma Peralta, a senior communications officer with CBC, said the local stations problems began when the power suddenly went out in the Richardson Building at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

At that time, our TV signal went down, but CBC TV was still made available through CBC Gem and through cable providers, Peralta said.

Our FM service remained operational for approximately 10 hours, relying on backup battery power, before going offline. Our (990) AM service remains operational and this is where we have been directing audiences We have technicians on standby to ensure a rapid restoration of service once the powers back on.

While its FM tower is on top of the Richardson Building, its AM tower is located in Springstein, about 20 kilometres west of Winnipeg.

Jeff Li, owner of Marcellos Market and Deli, on the concourse below the Richardson Building, said he doesnt yet know what caused the fire in the ceiling above his restaurant.

We are closed on weekends  we dont know what happened, Li said Tuesday. It was in the ceiling, so probably it was electrical we dont know what damage (occurred).

Were waiting to find out when we can go in. Well clean up and then, after inspections, well see when we can reopen.

Sky Bridges, chief executive officer of the Winnipeg Foundation, said staff are thankful everyone is safe and the buildings property manager is working hard on repairs.

One of the many things the (COVID-19) pandemic has taught us is how to successfully work remotely, so it really hasnt been that much of an inconvenience for our staff, Bridges said, noting the organizations offices are on the 13th floor.

Weve communicated with our constituents on all our platforms to let them know the situation as it unfolds. The only inconvenience for us is our Foundation telephone lines are currently down.

City of Winnipeg spokeswoman Michelle Lancaster said fire crews worked with building managers Sunday to ventilate the buildings above the concourse, as needed.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Members of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs will decide next month if embattled Grand Chief Arlen Dumas should be removed from office, after a workplace investigation found he sexually harassed a senior staff member.

On Wednesday, the AMC said it will hold a special general assembly and a non-confidence vote on Aug. 5. The political advocacy organization represents 62 First Nations in Manitoba.

Chiefs suspended Dumas, Manitobas most powerful First Nations leader, without pay in March, after a series of allegations of harassment escalated to a police investigation into alleged sexual assault. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Arlen Dumas said he would seek help for the trauma that he says dates back to his early childhood.

In mid-March, Shauna Fontaine, who was placed on leave as acting executive director for AMC, accused Dumas of sexual assault and harassment.

The assembly hired a third-party legal firm to conduct a workplace investigation in the wake of allegations of gender-based violence, harassment and sexual misconduct.

On June 30, the results of the investigation were released by the organization, which said investigators determined Dumas behaviour amounted to workplace sexual harassment.

The report was reviewed by the assemblys executive council of chiefs, which passed a resolution accepting the confidential report.

The non-confidence vote will be held according to the AMC constitution, the group said. The assembly did not specify whether the meeting would be held in-person or virtually.

Should the non-confidence vote pass, a byelection for the grand chief will be conducted at a later date. According to the constitution, a grand chief may only be removed by a majority vote of registered chiefs or delegates at a special assembly.

Prior to a vote, the grand chief will be allowed to address the assembly on the matter. Dumas was elected to a three-year term in July 2021.

On Wednesday, Winnipeg police said it had no updates with respect to Fontaines criminal complaint. No charges have been laid and the allegations have not been tested in court.

Dumas had taken a leave in 2019, after young women alleged he had sent them inappropriate Facebook and text messages.

 Staff
After extreme precipitation and heat, Manitobas next 2022 weather challenge may be fire season.

As of Tuesday morning, there were 59 wildfires burning in the province, with six starting in the previous 24 hours.

According to annual reports from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre Inc., Manitoba logged a total of 460 wildfires in 2021, after experiencing a rare drop to 149 in 2020. (Manitoba has a 20-year average of 437, the group says.) DHANA RAJ / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A wildfire is visible from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation in northwestern Manitoba over the weekend.

Rain has helped in the southern part of the province thus far this season, but the northwest quadrant is the main area of concern, with new fires starting and heavy smoke obstructing suppression efforts, provincial officials said.

Unfortunately, were not seeing rain in the right places at this point, a spokesperson for the Manitoba Wildfire Service said Tuesday.

We are hoping for some increased precipitation within that northwest quadrant but, at this point, were seeing that there will be light precipitation within those areas. We will continue to monitor the weather day to day. DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Volunteers help set up 600 cots at Axworthy Health and RecPlex at the University of Winnipeg in preparation for the potential arrival of wildfire evacuees from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation.

The largest wildland fire currently burning is in the vicinity of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, with residents being forced to leave their homes in the community more than 800 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

The fire, less than one km west of the community, is estimated to be 56,000 acres in size and has affected the ability of water bombers to take action, according to the most recent provincial bulletin.

The Canadian Red Cross estimates some 2,000 people have been evacuated from the northwest Manitoba First Nation, as there are air quality concerns and reduced visibility due to smoke.

As of yesterday, we had about 1,800 people in hotel rooms in Winnipeg, Thompson, Brandon and The Pas, but we also know there are people who are staying with friends and family, Jason Small of the Canadian Red Cross said Tuesday.

Those staying in hotels will continue to receive support until the chief and council determine its safe to return, due to an agreement between the Red Cross and Indigenous Services Canada.

Another fire is burning some eight km northeast of Pukatawagan (Mathias Colomb), where a 7,500-acre blaze is within four km of hydro line and railway access. It is not considered to be an immediate threat to the community or infrastructure at this time and continues to be monitored, the province said.

Other wildfires in the province include: Burntwood Lake, where three fires have joined into one 37,000-acre blaze; The Pas, which has a 420-acre fire being contained 40 km south of the town; and South Indian Lake, where a 940-acre fire is 15 km southeast of the community.

RCMP officers remain at Mathias Colomb and continue to do regular patrols to ensure the community remains secure.

The Manitoba Wildfire Service said it will continue to post updates and fire bulletins every few days, as information changes.

bryce.hunt@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

About six weeks ago Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), warned that the attempt to revive the 2015 deal that restricted Irans ability to enrich uranium was on the brink of collapse. Three or four weeks more without an agreement, he said, would deal the talks a fatal blow.

The problem was that since ex-president Donald Trump unilaterally trashed the deal in 2018, imposing maximum pressure U.S. sanctions against Iran in the hope of extracting further concessions, the Iranians have been gradually discarding the controls they agreed to in the original deal.

The three European countries that guaranteed the deal, Britain, France and Germany, backed the IAEA chief up, warning that the more Iran is advancing and acccumulating knowledge with irreversible consequences, the more difficult it is to come back to that deal. Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP, File Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, right, speaks with Atomic Energy Organization of Iran official Behrouz Kamalvandi on Nov. 22, 2021. Grossi warned recently that the attempt to revive the 2015 deal that restricted Irans ability to enrich uranium is on the brink of collapse.

In other words, once the Iranians have learned all they need to know to enrich uranium to weapons-grade, they cannot promise to forget it again. They will have that knowledge forever, which sort of defeats the whole purpose of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the ridiculous official name of the 2015 deal.

In fact, its worse than that. On July 9, Tehran announced it has installed new centrifuges that will let Iran enrich uranium up to 90 per cent purity  enough for nuclear warheads.

They are adjustable centrifuges that can easily be switched between different levels of enrichment, and Iran says they are currently set for only 20 per cent purity. But the JCPOA set the maximum permitted enrichment at 3.67 per cent, so Iran is already way beyond the limit.

To make matters worse, enrichment gets easier as the purity levels increase. To go from uranium ore to 3.67 per cent takes a lot of time and energy. To go from there to 20 per cent takes much less  and to go from 20 to 90 per cent even less. The Iranians can cross the last hurdle whenever they want.

Moreover, the rest of the world will just have to take their word that they havent gone to 90 per cent, because 27 of the special cameras the IAEA installed to verify Iran is not exceeding the agreed enrichment level were turned off in June. The remaining 40 can be turned off whenever Tehran wants.

And whats the rest of the world going to do about this? Not much. In fact, it seems in retrospect that neither Washington nor Tehran really expected to resurrect the 2015 deal: too much time had passed, and they were just going through the motions.

When Joe Biden entered the White House in January 2021, his previous statements about the JCPOA obliged him to try to repair the damage done by Trump. However, he put more effort into placating anti-Iran hawks in Congress than into talks with the regime of reformist Iranian president Hassan Rouhani (the man who originally signed the deal).

Biden would have known Rouhanis presidency had only six months left, and that he was likely to be followed in office by the hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi. (Rouhani could not run again, and the Supreme Leaders people were disqualifying rival candidates.) Yet Biden barely lifted a finger to restart serious negotiations.

Then, after Raisi replaced Hourani at the beginning of last August, the U.S. and Iran agreed on a five-month time-out, allegedly to give Raisis new administration time to get up to speed on the issue. Why did Biden consent to that? Because he knew it was already a lost cause.

The year 2021 was when Irans enrichment levels rose to levels far above the JCPOAs limits. When negotiations finally restarted last December, everybody knew the deals original purpose had been overrun by events. Iran has become a nuclear threshold power, able to build actual bombs within six months of the word go at any time in the future.

That is the reality, which is why subsequent talks have been rather lackadaisical. Iran is clearly in no rush to build actual nuclear weapons, and nobody gains by abandoning the talks completely, but they arent going anywhere, and everybody knows it.

This is a disappointment, but not a disaster. Possible Iranian nuclear weapons at some point in the future are less threatening than real North Korean nukes in the present, and the Far East has learned to live with that. The Middle East is a tougher neighbourhood, and there were few signs of panic during Bidens recent tour of the region.

He didnt even have to promise American nuclear weapons would be available to deter a potential nuclear-armed Iran. Israels several hundred unadmitted nuclear weapons are quite sufficient for that.

Gwynne Dyers new book is The Shortest History of War.
Opinion

Manitobas Progressive Conservative government has set out new rules that ban encampments, blockades and vandalism on the grounds of the Legislative Building.

Amendments to the Legislative Security Act, passed earlier this year, come in the wake of a three-week protest in front of the legislature in February that saw dozens of large vehicles clog Memorial Boulevard and block the front entrance to the grounds of the building. While the noisy and disruptive occupation was likely the chief impetus behind tightening security around Manitobas seat of government, the changes were long overdue.

The number and size of encampments springing up around the building, including across the street in Memorial Park (part of the legislatures precinct), have grown in recent years. Groups are staying longer and their resolve is growing stronger.

DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The trucker convoy protest camped at the Manitoba legislature in February.

One group has been camped out on the east side of the building, in tents and wooden structures, for well over a year.

Normally, in a free and democratic society, such determination to effect political change should be embraced. People have the right to hold their governments accountable and should be encouraged to do so.

However, these encampments pose a health and public safety hazard. Many of those involved build fires to cook and stay warm. Some bring flammable substances, such as propane. The grounds of the legislature are not designed to provide people with running water or washroom facilities for overnight stays.

Moreover, security is compromised when potentially hazardous or dangerous items could be concealed in large tents or structures close to the legislative building, in some cases only a few dozen metres from ministers office windows. It is reasonable to expect a high level of security around the seat of government.

Until recent changes to the Legislative Security Act, there were no specific rules preventing encampments or blockades around the legislature. The amendments allow cabinet to establish those regulations, which it did earlier this month. Among the changes, people are prohibited from setting up tents or other portable shelters; bringing in trailers, firewood, or portable toilets; and lighting fires.

It is now an offence to impede access to the grounds of the legislature with a vehicle. Failure to comply with the regulations may result in eviction from the grounds and a fine up to $5,000.

The new rules do not prevent people from holding peaceful demonstrations on the grounds of the legislature.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The number and size of encampments springing up around the building, including across the street in Memorial Park, have grown in recent years.

As with all laws, police and security officials will have the discretion to enforce the new rules as they see fit. It is curious, then, that the Stefanson government chose to include a clause in the regulations that allows the chief legislative security officer (a newly-created position under the act) to issue written exemptions for some groups or individuals.

Such a loophole could raise the spectre of political favouritism if one group is allowed to occupy the grounds and another is not. Even the perception of political favouritism could undermine the legitimacy of the regulations, especially since there are no stated criteria to determine when an exception can be made and when it should be denied.

It would have been preferred to not include any exemptions in the regulations and allow law enforcement officials to use the discretion they normally employ.

As for the rest, the new regulations are a reasonable response to a growing problem that needed to be addressed. Police and security officials now have the tools they need to strike a balance between public safety and the right to peaceful assembly.
HORICON  The Horicon Marsh Education and Visitor Center, N7725 Highway 28, Horicon, offers outdoor programs, weather permitting.

Monday: 10-11 a.m., Guided Storybook Hike: Guided and narrated hike on the storybook trail. Julys theme is all about where different animals belong in nature. Hike a distance of just over one mile on a gentle trail.

Tuesday: 6:30-8:30 p.m., Sunset Paddle: Sunsets on Horicon Marsh are spectacular, and on the water can be the best place to catch one. Enjoy the best of Horicon Marshs natural scenery and wildlife on a 2-3 mile paddle led by Wisconsin DNR guides. Please bring your own kayaks and PFDs. Pre-registration at www.horiconmarsh.org is required, free for Friends Group members, $15 for non-members, limit of 20 participants, no restroom facilities.

Wednesday: 9-10:30 a.m., Turtle Terrific: A Program by Marshall: Turtles are unique and special animals, none more so than our very own Marshall. See a special presentation outlining Marshalls view of the world, and head outside to see some terrific turtles in their natural habitat.

July 29: 8 a.m. to noon, Guided Out and Back Paddle-Nebraska Street Landing: This 3-4 mile paddle will start and end at the Nebraska Street boat landing in the town of Horicon. Wisconsin DNR guides will highlight local landmarks, history, and wildlife. Bring a kayaks and personal flotation device. Pre-registration at horiconmarsh.org is required, free for Friends Group members, $15 for non-members, limit of 15 participants, no restroom facilities.

July 30: 10:30 a.m. to noon, Turtle Terrific: A Program by Marshall: Turtles are unique and special animals, none more so than our very own Marshall. See a special presentation outlining Marshalls view of the world, and head outside to see some terrific turtles in their natural habitat.

July 30: 8:30-10 a.m., Weekly Nature Walks: An informal guided walk exploring the best of what Horicon Marsh has to offer at a relaxed pace with good company. Every week brings a different experience as the busy summer season moves on. Head out on the trails early and beat the summer heat. Exact routes and distances vary week to week.

For more information, visit horiconmarsh.org or contact Liz Herzmann, DNR educator, at 920-387-7893.
An Illinois man was sent to prison after admitting to sexually assaulting children in a Wisconsin Dells-area wave pool.

Rogelio Hernandez-Palencia, 34, of Glendale Heights, pleaded no contest to the felony charge. As part of a recommendation agreed on by both prosecutors and his defense attorney, two more felony charges and two misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree sexual assault were dismissed but read in, meaning they were considered in the sentencing.

Sauk County Circuit Court Judge Michael Screnock sentenced Hernandez-Palencia to two years in prison and six years of extended supervision during a July 12 hearing. He was granted 358 days of jail credit for time already served.

According to the criminal complaint in the case:

Hernandez-Palencia was seen by lifeguards and other staff at the Mt. Olympus water park intentionally grabbing teenagers in the Poseidons Rage wave pool. Lake Delton police officers responded to the area around 4 p.m. on a July day in 2021.

The 13-, 14-, and 15-year-olds, who were not visiting the park together, told officers that they were each standing while waiting for waves to hit, then would dive into the water. While underwater, they felt someone grab their bodies.

One teen said the man was groping and tried to touch the teens genitals while the teen swam. When the wave stopped, so did the contact, they told police. Two other children reported similar experiences, one crying while describing Hernandez-Palencia attempting to assault the child underneath a bathing suit.

A woman also told police that when a wave came, she felt Hernandez-Palencia grope her genital area outside of her suit. He had been standing directly behind her.

Lifeguards apprehended Hernandez-Palencia after watching him and witnessing others reactions when the waves hit. They told police Hernandez-Palencia would move to a new area of the pool and repeat the assaults, which could be seen because of the clear water.

As conditions of the extended supervision, Hernandez-Palencia must register as a lifetime sex offender and provide a DNA sample. He cannot have contact with the five victims, nor their family members, workplaces, residences or schools. He is also prohibited from visiting Mt. Olympus or any hotel or resort in Lake Delton.

Hernandez-Palencia must comply with all terms of the sex offender registry, seek full-time employment and undergo a sex offender assessment and recommended follow-up treatment. He was ordered to pay $750 in restitution.
John Roemer, the former Juneau County judge who was murdered in his home this past June, will forever have his name associated with the justice system in the county.

On July 19 at a county board meeting, the board unanimously approved a resolution to rename the Juneau County Justice Center after Roemer. The facility will be renamed the John Pier Roemer Juneau County Justice Center following a 17-0 vote of the board.

Paul S. Curran, the Branch 2 Juneau County Circuit Court judge, proposed the idea to the board.

We have had a history of outstanding judges in Juneau County, said Curran at the meeting. They were all men of high character and all legal scholars. Judge Roemer stands out among that crowd for one reason.

Roemer was murdered at his Town of Lisbon home on June 3 by Douglas Uhde, a man Roemer had sentenced to six years in prison for armed burglary and other weapons charges. Uhde entered the residence and shot Roemer before turning the gun on himself, later dying from his injuries.

He was assassinated, said Curran. He was assassinated for doing his job.

The Wisconsin and United States flags were flown at half-staff under an executive order from Gov. Tony Evers on July 13. A memorial service was held for Roemer at the Mauston High School gymnasium that day as well.

Curran said that Roemers passing is cause for an additional level of honor beyond what was given to previous judges. He then suggested renaming the Justice Center to one in which Roemers name was included. He also asked that the letters be inscribed into the marble on the building to the left of the entrance, instead of being affixed to it.

Roy Granger, 15th District Alderman, who was absent from the board meeting, suggested the building ideas to Curran along with installing a plaque describing Roemer inside the justice center.

While we all know who Judge Roemer is, that building is going to be there a lot longer than any of us, said Curran. Maybe some plaque inside explaining why its named after him would be appropriate.

Ald. Ray Zipperer (13th District), Ald. Steven Thomas (17th District), Ald. Howard Fischer (19th District), were absent from the meeting.

The initial resolution proposed that the center be renamed the John P. Roemer Juneau County Justice Center. Ald. Mike Pech (2nd District) then proposed a unanimously approved amendment to change the former judges name to appear as John Pier Roemer.

Timothy Cottingham, 18th District Alderman and board chair, said that a resolution providing a cost to rename the center will be proposed to the board at a future meeting.

School/municipal tax settlement

The board also unanimously approved a resolution from the countys Finance and Computer Committee for a tax settlement of just under $10 million to be paid to schools and municipalities throughout the county before August 20. Public school districts will receive the majority of those funds, with just over $6 million being allocated to county schools. Vocational schools will get over $900,000, while the rest of the money, which totals nearly $3 million, will go to county municipalities.

Establishment of committees

Two new committees were established at the board meeting, but no new members were named.

The resolution to approve the Safety and Security Committees establishment was approved in a 16-1 vote, with the lone nay from 21st District Ald. Aimee Stieve.

According to the resolution, the new committee will consist of five county board members appointed by Cottingham. Meetings will be approximately once per month and will review and administer programs and requirements relating to the health and safety of county employees and citizens on county grounds.

The committee will also review and guide policy regarding property under the county boards jurisdiction and monitor and ensure currency and yearly updates of security policies in the county. It will also develop steps for reporting safety concerns to county government.

Anything to help improve the safety of employees or our grounds for the public, thats one of the things were looking at for this committee, said Cottingham.

Cottingham added that he is looking into advisory staff for the committee to come from county sheriffs and police departments.

Because of the county website being woefully in need of upgrades, a resolution was also unanimously approved to create an Ad Hoc Committee on the website.

Stieve asked Cottingham about the duration of the committees existence, in which Cottingham said that once the committee is up and running the board may check in at different times to see the progress of the countys web presence.

He also said that staffing issues within the countys information technology (IT) department is a reason for the creation of the Ad Hoc Committee.

Michael Hunkins, the countys IT director, said that the department has been looking into possible web design contractors. He received quotes for the design around $25,000 to $30,000.

Katie Steinke, the assistant finance director in the county, said that she has been in discussions regarding grants and other funding sources to minimize the potential cost for our levy.
Business owners, government agency officials, and military leaders gathered at Volk Field on July 13-14 to discuss sales, grants, and other business opportunities.

The 16th Annual Wisconsin Government Opportunities Business Conference featured two days of discussions regarding state government and its relationships with businesses, economic organizations, and defense contractors. Topics included grants and other forms of funding, as well as selling products and services to the government and private enterprises.

We started out the morning specific to grant funding, said Juneau County Economic Development Corporation executive director Tamaya Jo Loewe regarding July 13. We broke down how to look for them, how to find something youre qualified for, how would you write and apply, when should you do it yourself, when should you find a contractor; someone who is a professional writer to do it for you, and then the follow-up process.

Loewe, who delivered the introduction and welcome to the conference and was the emcee on July 13, went on to explain how, after filing for grant funding, recipients must report to the government or other funding agency regarding fund allocations and budget updates. She was one of 14 speakers that day.

Panelists on the 13th discussed public and private funding information, including government funding on all levels (federal, state, regional, local). Grant writers were also at the conference, as well as grant reviewers.

Some of the takeaways were basically to do your spell check, said Loewe. Read directions of a grant very carefully so that everything you are answering is a direct answer to the question and that youre giving them ... just the information they ask for.

Loewe added that nearly half of grant applications have had early rejections because of applicants omission of needed information as well as not adhering to instructions.

The grants and funding piece of Day 1 this year was unique because of all the grants coming out during the COVID and post-COVID era, said Loewe in an email. So many smaller municipalities and businesses qualify for grant funding now when they never have before and they need some help navigating the waters of finding, applying, and reporting on grants.

First-day speakers included Jeff Hudson, a business loan and grant analyst for the United States Department of Agricultures (USDA) Rural Development area, Michael Steger, assistant director of the Wisconsin Procurement Institute, and Rick Zawacki, a business loan officer for First American Capital Corporation.

Aina Vilumsons, the CEO of the Wisconsin Procurement Institute, emceed the event on the 14th. She was one of 19 speakers. Thursdays agenda also featured an hour-long panel discussion featuring eight representatives from various outlets including Northern Wings, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT), among others.

Tim Weber, a senior economic development director for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), explained the corporations grant programs and addressed the conference on both days.

One of the grants, the Mainstream Bounceback Grant, conducted through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, allows for new businesses renting a vacant commercial space a $10,000 stipend. He said Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers extended the program through the end of 2022.

The WEDCs Office of Rural Prosperity is seeking out smaller communities looking to apply for project grant funding but do not have government employees assigned to do so, according to Weber.

For any of these federal grants, what weve seen the past couple years is essentially, you will have a lot better luck if you have your project teed up and ready to go, said Weber.

Weber also said that the WEDC has invested $130 million in programs to help combat employee shortages throughout the state.

Another WisDOT representative, Southwest Region Project Development Manager Anne Wallace, spoke about road project durations and their contracting processes. She said that highway projects have a usual timeframe of six to eight years between design and contracting, citing the scope and a lengthy environmental process.

After the long, comprehensive design and environmental period, the projects are entered into a letting, which is a short period where construction contractors can bid on the projects.

We submit the plans and contract provisions/contract requirements out about five weeks in advance and, on the second Tuesday of every month, theres a letting (period) and contractors bid on the projects that are part of that letting, said Wallace.

Wallace proceeded to say that lettings occur 11 to 12 months per year.

Shari Stout, a senior commercial officer for the U.S. Department of Commerce and the International Trade Administration, said that there are trillions of dollars in foreign government procurement and explained a four-step process to foreign contracting at the Wisconsin GOBC.

If a company wants to pursue a foreign contract, Stout said a company representative should fill out the advocacy questionnaire on the International Trade Administrations website. The company then must agree to what Stout described as an anti-bribery agreement, an assurance of compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977.

The International Trade Administration then does a due diligence check, which Stout said ensures that the prospective contract is a good, viable opportunity and that entities involved are trustworthy business partners. Finally, the administration conducts an interest determination as well as an advocacy strategy.

The panel discussion highlighted key points regarding contracting. Loewe said some main topics of conversation were mentorship, realistic expectations, honesty, forecasting price shifts, and being well-prepared when bidding on a contract.
Dawn Manor, a historic Lake Delton house being relocated from its original property, has all of its historic components stored while its owner seeks a Dells area location.

Original stonework, woodwork, and other hardware original to the house has been wrapped and stored away on 94 total pallets, according to owner Steve Uphoff. Uphoff worked with Amish contractor Jacob Mast to preserve the original parts of the house, which he will use to reconstruct it in another area and exhibit as a private event venue honoring the mid-1800s, the time period in which the house was built (in 1855).

Dawn Manor Preservation gallery A gallery of photos contributed by Steve Uphoff, the owner of the Dawn Manor house, picturing the preservation process of the house, is below.

We made the decision that we would basically cannibalize the building, removing from it every single piece of hardware, said Uphoff. Wood, staircase, beams, flooring, and stone from the house, that was original. It was 94 pallets of Potsdam Sandstone we removed.

Uphoff said the Mast family spent 2 months removing the stonework from the building by hand. He added that stained glass was also part of the components that were saved. A new location is still not specified, but Uphoff said he has narrowed it down to four spots in the Dells area.

The whole purpose was to preserve Dawn Manor, said Uphoff.

He has gone to an unbelievable expense of taking every single piece of stone down, piece by piece, labeling it where it was, said Lake Delton village trustee Tom Diehl. Those people were there one heck of a long time dismantling that. Its all stored off site.

After Uphoff and the contractors completed the process of storing the original components, the frame was knocked down by Kalahari Resorts and Conventions, which now owns the land. There are no current updates from the resort on what it plans to do with the vacant property.

The only thing that was taken down was the physical wood structure that was still left after we took all of our materials, said Uphoff.

Following the demolition of the frame of the house, social media comments indicated that the entire house was demolished, which Uphoff said were inaccurate and were upsetting to him.

It hurts me terribly when I hear that Dawn Manor was destroyed and not preserved and no one cared about the history, said Uphoff. That is exactly the opposite. We cared so much that we spent 2 months taking every stone off of it, wrapping it in cellophane and having it stored.

Architectural Design Consultants was also involved in the process, as Uphoff hired the company to painstakingly measure every square inch of that house in order to duplicate the structure in another location.

Every hinge, every doorknob has been saved, said Uphoff.

In 2017, Uphoff purchased Dawn Manor (the house and its surrounding land) from previous owner George Raab, whose family has a deep history with the house. Uphoff sold the land to Kalaharis owner Todd Nelson in August of last year and maintained ownership of the structure as part of the purchase.

Dawn Manor to become private event venue honoring 19th century heritage Dawn Manor, a historic house in Lake Delton slated for relocation, will remain in the area as a private event venue where the clothes, meals and music will match the mid-1800s aesthetics of the home.

Steve concluded everything he needed, said Lake Delton village trustee Tom Diehl. All the stonework was tagged and labeled. When he finds the location that hes going to redo it, he has all the components to reproduce it the way it was.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to force 18 companies that he alleges contaminated the environment with chemicals known as PFAS to reimburse the state for investigations and cleanup efforts.

The lawsuit, filed in Dane County Circuit Court, names as defendants companies including 3M Company, Tyco Fire Products LP, and BASF Corporation. The filing alleges the defendants knew or should have known that their products would have a dangerous impact on the publics health and environment.

The lawsuit seeks punitive damages, as well as reimbursement for the costs of investigations, cleanup and remediation.

To this day, the State continues to take necessary actions to protect its natural resources and its residents from harm caused by PFAS contamination, the lawsuit states. The State and its taxpayers will need to spend billions of dollars remediating the dangerous PFAS contamination caused by Defendants wrongful, deceptive and tortious conduct.

The state lawsuit echoes claims made by Dane County and other municipalities who have sought to hold manufacturers accountable for cleanup costs associated with the use of firefighting foam. Chemguard and its parent company in June had the Dane County case moved to federal court, where it has been consolidated with hundreds of similar cases.

3M communications manager Sean Lynch said in a statement the company acted responsibly and will vigorously defend its record of environmental stewardship.

Roberto Nelson, a spokesperson for BASF, said the company doesnt believe the lawsuit has merit.

Tyco spokesperson Karen Marie Tognarelli said in a statement that the company is working to clean up PFAS contamination and the lawsuit wont stop it from doing the right thing and leading on the PFAS clean up.

PFAS is an abbreviation for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The chemicals were developed as coatings to protect consumer goods from stains, water and corrosion. Nonstick cookware, carpets, outdoor gear and food packaging are among items that contain the chemicals. They also are an ingredient in firefighting foams.

Theyre often described as forever chemicals because some dont degrade naturally and are believed to be capable of lingering indefinitely in the environment. Research suggests that they may cause health problems in humans.

PFAS contamination is a widespread problem in Wisconsin. A host of communities, including Marinette, the town of Campbell on French Island, Madison and Wausau have discovered the chemicals in their water.

The state Department of Natural Resources policy board adopted limits on PFAS in drinking and surface water in February. The board refused to impose limits for groundwater, leaving the chemicals unregulated in wells.
Hunters and gatherers in Africa were the original scientists

The wilful lack of knowledge about deep time African history must end, says Prof. Molefi Kete Asante, a giant in African studies.

Professor Molefi Kete Asante delivered the keynote address on the occasion of the conferment of his Honorary Doctorate in Literature by Wits University.

The Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Professor Garth Stevens, delivered Professor Asante's illustrious citation, noting Asante's main role in establishing Afrocentric theory and teaching worldwide. This has enabled generations of African scholars to articulate the continent's history and fundamental contributions to humanity from an Africanist perspective.

"Given his contributions to African-centred scholarship and philosophy, as well as his influence on the development of intellectual thought on Africa and the African Diaspora, it is befitting that the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, bestow an honorary degree: Doctor of Literature, on Molefi Kete Asante," said Stevens.

US-born Asante began his address to the hall of graduates in a powerful way, reiterating that 300 000 years ago, the first humans were Africans and that racist and colonial oppression of black people eradicates their profound contribution to civilisation's founding achievements.

"Africans were the first to name God. What we know of as science is a result of the thinking of our original ancestors. Indeed who are the original scientists if not hunters and gatherers?" asked Asante.

The beauty and ingenuity of the ancient pyramids, indicates "not only the age of the continent, but that human beings have an enormous capacity for art." The Egyptian pyramids, he said, long preceded Jesus Christ's life on earth. Little, however, is known about Imhotep, one of the Pharoah's architects. "School children know of Homer ( a Greek author) and the Iliad, but they rarely know who Imhotep (an Egyptian polymath) was.

Asante thus implored the graduates to address the pestilence of ignorance and the wilful lack of knowledge about deep time African history. We have rarely interrogated our history and our ancestry. Because for 500 years, Africans have been dislocatedour culture disrupted. (Thus) we need to re-examine everything on our terms.

Asante outlined three ways graduates can make the world a better place:

Know that there is one race  the human race. There must not be any artificial rankings. The earliest human virtues, including truth, righteousness, justice, harmony, order and reciprocity were African values. The maintenance of self and culture is as essential as the creation of those things.

Asante has been recognised as one of the 10 most widely cited African Americans. He is honoured as a HistoryMaker, with an interview archive in the US Library of Congress. The Utne Reader called him one of the "100 Leading Thinkers" in America. In 2001, Transition Magazine reported "Asante may be the most important professor in Black America".

The African Union cited him as one of the 12 top scholars of African descent when he delivered the keynote address at the Conference of Intellectuals of Africa and the Diaspora in Dakar in 2004. That same year, Asande  also a poet, dramatist, and painter  was inducted into the Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent at the Gwendolyn Brooks Centre at Chicago State University. In 2014, Asante was invited to give a speech at the United Nation's General Assembly on Peace in Africa and to deliver the keynote address at the Japan Black Studies Association's 60th conference in Kyoto, Japan. He holds more than 100 awards for scholarship and teaching.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Vilakazi was particularly impressed with Asantes assertion that we are all stardust (a core African cosmic belief), which links to a key astrophysics concept. Thank you for showing the interdisciplinarity and universality of African history and civilisation, said Vilakazi in closing.
Zakes Mda on Tarzanification, Wakandasation and African storification

Africans need to do more to counter the Africa imagined by America, says acclaimed novelist Zakes Mda.

The multi-award winning author, scriptwriter, painter and academic delivered the keynote address at the Faculty of Humanities graduation ceremony at Wits University, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate in literature in recognition of his contribution to South Africa and the worlds cultural and literary sphere.

The Africa story told through the imaginations of others has produced potent narratives that even Africans have imbibed as truth.

Citing some of the popular fiction and comics which have spawned movies including Tarzan, Wakanda and the Lion King, Mda said the Tarzanisation of Africa was so hegemonic that to this day Africans themselves refer to the lion as the king of the jungle. Much against their own experience of lions and their habitat.

Lions inhabit the savanna and grasslands not the jungle as commonly understood and propagated.

Mda recounted how they, as children, cheered the Africa of Americas imagination with great relish. In similar stories over the ages, we cheer when white hero beats to oblivion hordes of black brainless savages. We did not realise that those savages were us.

Storification is so powerful, it can make us enemies of our own selves without realising it.

He appealed to graduates to do more in telling African stories that reflect authentic African realities, regardless of whether they aspire to be writers.

He expressed concern about the danger facing the current generation as they look to Hollywood for their identity and validation. The Tarzanification of Africa has morphed into a Wakandasation, he said, and stressed the importance of local stories in shaping identity, world perception and connections.

Although popularly known for contemporary literature, Mda has also written childrens books and his latest novel AROLA, a journey into ten ancient African civilizations is an effort correct the American script.

It is important to the African child, both on the continent and the diaspora, to internalise a new mindset that we have not always been slaves. Our history does not begin with slavery and colonisation.

In conclusion, he said he hopes Witsies will remember to restore the lion to savannas. To return the noble beast back to the plains and grasslands".

Citation: Prof. Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni (Zakes) Mda

Born in 1948 in the Herschel District of the Eastern Cape, Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni (Zakes) Mda grew up in Orlando and then Dobsonville, Soweto. His father was a vocal opponent of apartheid, first as a member of the African National Congress Youth League, and later as a founding member of the Pan- African Congress. In 1963, following his arrest for political activities, he and his family left South Africa to live in political exile in Lesotho.

It was when he was at Peka High School in Lesotho that the young Zakes Mda first tried his hand at playwriting. His first plays were indebted to the pathfinding works of Gibson Kente, both in their use of music and dance and their melodramatic tropes. From the 1966 production of Dead End (published only in 1978), Mda began to refine his approach to the conjunction of political and existential theatre. In 1976, he received his first degree, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the International Academy of Arts and Letters in Zurich, Switzerland. He went on to complete an MA in Fine Arts (drama, radio and television) at Ohio University and a PhD at the University of Cape Town.

Mdas mature plays are remarkable for their stark settings and their presentation of characters engaged in the unyielding struggle to secure the means of life and to have their humanity recognized. His best-known plays, performed in the late-1980s, are We Shall Sing of the Fatherland, The Hill, Joys of War and The Girls in Their Sunday Dresses. Each explores, in a distinct register, the limbo situation of the colonised caught between structural social violence and the individuals endeavour to refuse its internalisation. They combine to form one of the most creative engagements with the familial, social and psychic consequences of colonial oppression and migrancy. Mdas plays can be understood as highly significant anti-Apartheid works and an invaluable contribution to the decolonization of theatre more generally.

As a playwright-director, Mda understands community theatre as political activism. He has always advocated that drama should be understood as a social activity that is available to everyone. Most of his works foreground the actor and are not dependent on lights, costumes or sets, which has made it possible to travel to the most remote of locations without compromising the plays.

In 1991, Mda was writer-in-residence at the University of Durham, during 1992, he was a visiting research fellow in the Southern African Research Program at Yale and in the following year, he taught African literature and theatre at the University of Vermont. He returned to South Africa in 1994 to take up a visiting professorship in Dramatic Art at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Zakes Mda established his reputation as one South Africas preeminent novelists with the publication of both She Plays with the Darkness and Ways of Dying in 1995. As one of the first writers to face and address the complexities of the post-1990 transition, his fiction not only became the subject of widespread scholarly comment, it was also quickly taken up in secondary and tertiary institutions. Ways of Dying was awarded the M-Net Book Prize in 1997 and has been translated into twenty-one languages, the most recent being Turkish.

Since 1995, Mda has published a succession of novels that have received favourable comment and have won an array of prizes. Perhaps the most highly regarded is The Heart of Redness. Among other accolades, The Heart of Redness was awarded the Commonwealth Writers Prize: Africa, the Hurston- Wright Legacy Award and the Sunday Times Fiction Prize. There is undoubtedly an understanding that Mdas plays and his novels constitute a body of work that scholars will always place at the centre of apartheid and post-apartheid literature. If we think of our literature as constituted at the intersection of social awareness and aesthetic exploration, Mdas sustained endeavour is a lens through which we can discern its possibilities. His work has expanded our sense of what it means to be South African, how one can enter a literary dialogue with global concerns, and how ideas and insights can be translated across genres and modes of cultural practice. As the increasing number of serious studies of his work attests, we are still coming to terms with all that he has written, and we are all privileged to be making this journey.

It is therefore befitting that the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, bestow an Honorary Doctorate Degree on Zakes Mda in acknowledgment of his contribution to South Africa and the worlds cultural and literary sphere.
En nombre del Gobierno del pueblo, agradezco los servicios prestados a la Nacion del senor Mariano Gonzalez Fernandez como ministro del Interior. Hoy a las 9:30 p. m. tomare juramento al nuevo titular de este sector.#SiempreConElPueblo
Mammals were not the first to be warm-blooded

Karoo fossils provide smoking gun on clues to when warm-bloodedness evolved in pre-mammalian ancestors.

Endothermy, or warm-bloodedness, is the ability of mammals and birds to produce their own body heat and control heir body temperature.

This major difference with the cold-blooded reptiles underpins the ecological dominance of mammals in almost every ecosystem globally. Until now, it was not known exactly when endothermy originated in mammalian ancestry. A team of international scientists, including researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) in Johannesburg, South Africa, has found the smoking gun of this key evolutionary event in the inner ears of fossils from South Africa and around the globe.

A new study suggests that endothermy appeared in mammalian ancestors about 233 million years ago, well before the origin of mammals, which occurred about 200 million years ago. This study, titled Inner ear biomechanics reveals Late Triassic origin of mammalian endothermy is published in Nature.

For the first time, we are able to trace through evolution the direct consequence of the origin of endothermy on the skeletal anatomy of our pre-mammalian ancestors, says Dr Julien Benoit, Senior Researcher in Palaeontology at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University. This is an exciting time for our field of study.

The intuition

The inner ear is not only the organ of hearing, but also houses the organ of balance: the semicircular canals. The three semicircular canals of the inner ear are oriented in the three dimensions of space and are filled with a fluid that flows in the canals as the head moves and activates receptors to tell the brain the exact three-dimensional position of the head and body. The viscosity, or runniness, of this fluid (called the endolymph) is of paramount importance for the balance organ to efficiently detect head rotation and aid balance.

As for any other fluid, the viscosity of the endolymph changes with body temperature, just like a piece of butter turns from solid to liquid in a warm pan. Because of this physical property, the viscosity of the endolymph would be altered by the evolution of a higher body temperature. However, this change of viscosity cannot be left unchecked because the balance organ would stop working properly. The semicircular canals of the inner ear must adapt to the new viscosity imposed by higher body temperature: they have to change their geometry.

The key intuition of the two lead authors of the discovery, Dr Ricardo Araujo (University of Lisbon) and Dr Romain David (Natural History Museum of Paris), was to realise that this change in the semicircular canals shape would be easy to trace through geologic time using fossils. Pinpointing the species in which this change of geometry occurred would work as an accurate guide to when endothermy evolved: the smoking gun identifying when mammalian ancestors transitioned from cold-blooded to warm-blooded.

Until now, semicircular canals were generally used to predict locomotion of fossil organisms. However, by carefully looking at their biomechanics, we figured that we could also use them to infer body temperatures. This is because, like honey, the fluid contained inside semicircular canals gets less viscous when temperature increases, impacting function. Hence, during the transition to endothermy, morphological adaptations were required to keep optimal performances, and we could track them in mammal ancestors, says Dr Romain David, Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Natural History Museum and Lead Author on the paper.

The contribution of Karoo fossils

The team found that the inner ear canals geometry adapted to a relatively abrupt change in endolymph viscosity some 233 million years ago, indicating that the overall body temperature of mammal ancestors became warmer at this time.

Fossils from the South African Karoo played a key role in this discovery, in part because of the wealth of fossils of mammal ancestors that the Karoo-aged rocks have produced in more than a hundred years of study.

South African fossils offer an unbroken record of the evolution of life during an interval of almost 100 million years, documenting the transformation from reptilian-like animals (the therapsids) to mammals in exquisite detail. In addition, because the Karoo was situated closer to the South Pole at that time as a result of continental drift, the warmer body temperature suggested by the geometry of the inner ear cannot be due to an overall warmer climate.

As the South African climate was colder on average, the change in inner ear fluid viscosity can only have been caused by a generally warmer body temperature in mammalian ancestors, says Benoit.

Using cutting edge CT-scanning techniques and 3D modelling, the researchers were able to reconstruct the inner ear of dozens of mammalian ancestors from the South African Karoo and elsewhere in the world, and managed to point out exactly which species had an inner ear anatomy consistent with a warmer body temperature, and which ones did not.

A change of paradigmn

Until now the general expectation was that endothermy arose very close to the Permo-Triassic boundary, about 252 million years ago, or perhaps closer to the origin of mammals 200 million years ago. The new results suggest that endothermy appeared in mammalian ancestors some 233 million years ago. This new date is consistent with the recent findings that many of the traits usually associated with mammalness, such as whiskers and fur, also evolved earlier than previously expected. More importantly, the results support that the evolutionary transition to warmbloodedness was unexpectedly fast.

Contrary to current scientific thinking, our paper surprisingly demonstrates that the acquisition of endothermy seems to have occurred very quickly in geological terms, in less than a million years, says Dr Ricardo Araujo, Junior Researcher at Instituto de Plasmas e Fusao Nuclear, Instituto Superior Tecnico, University of Lisbon and Lead Author on the paper. It was not a gradual, slow process over tens of millions of years as previously thought, but maybe was attained quickly when triggered by novel mammal-like metabolic pathways and origin of fur.

The origin of mammalian endothermy is one of the great unsolved mysteries of paleontology, says Dr Kenneth D. Angielczyk, MacArthur Curator of Paleomammalogy at Field Museum of Natural History, USA and Senior Author on the paper.

Many different approaches have been used to try to predict when it first evolved, but they have often given vague or conflicting results. We think our method shows real promise because it has been validated using a very large number of modern species, and it suggests that endothermy evolved at a time when many other features of the mammalian body plan were also falling into place.
"When I was 12, I started to learn embroidery from my mother and my grandmother, and I've been engaged in the trade for 30 years. In the past, women of the Salar ethnic group would embroider pillows, waist belts, and shoe pads when they were preparing a dowry for a daughter of the family when she got married," said Han Yimina, an inheritor of the embroidery craft from the Salar ethnic group, the craft being a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage project in northwest China's Qinghai Province.

Photo shows an embroidery work completed by Han Yimina. [People's Daily Online/Kuang Yu]

Enjoying a long history, the Salar embroidery is known for the application of exquisite stitching skills and its workmanship, with the finished embroidery works taking on a three-dimensional form. Besides, the original features of the Salar embroidery works have been well-preserved and improved, which has enabled these artworks to fully embody local people's traditional culture, folk customs, and other characteristics that define the locality.

Han Yimina and her husband founded a company in 2007 in Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Haidong city, Qinghai. Nowadays, women from 120 households in the locality work for the company, with these women also having time leftover to do their own farm work at home, meaning that they make money as both workers and farmers.

A woman embroiderer works on a piece of embroidery work. [People's Daily Online/Kuang Yu]

In 2012, Han Yimina found that the Salar embroidery had entered a bottleneck period and was on the verge of extinction. To save the craft from being forever lost, she sought support from various departments in Xunhua Salar Autonomous County and then, with assistance and support from relevant departments, she organized 29 training sessions in Salar embroidery techniques on behalf of women of the Salar ethnic group. Through the training sessions, more women in the locality came to know about the embroidery culture of the Salar ethnic group, while many young women were able to proficiently master the embroidery skills, contributing their efforts to inheriting and eventually passing on the culture of Salar embroidery.

Between 2010 and 2020, a total of 2,600 women of the Salar ethnic group were taught embroidery skills with the guidance of the training program.

"In the past, women of the Salar ethnic group worked as migrant workers or ran restaurants. Nowadays, they can make money without leaving their homes. Most of the flexibly employed women can earn 20,000 yuan ($2,960) in a year," said Han Yimina.

Photo shows some of the various innovative embroidery products produced in the Salar embroidery tradition. [People's Daily Online/Kuang Yu]

In addition to inheriting the culture of Salar embroidery, Han Yimina also actively takes part in communication activities and has constantly embraced new innovations in a bid to inject a renewed impetus into the artform. Her company now produces over 380 embroidery products compared with 18 when it was just established.

(Source: People's Daily Online)
Aerial photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province. [Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi]

HANGZHOU, July 19 (Xinhua)  On a sunny summer day, the green rice paddies in Longxian Village of Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, saw guests from all over the world who attended the World Conference on Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems.

The conference was held in the mountainous county from Sunday to Tuesday, with participants from home and aboard sharing experience in the protection and utilization of agricultural heritage and gaining a deeper understanding of how Qingtian has tapped the value of traditional agriculture.

The initiative "Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)" was launched in 2002 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), aiming to establish a global program for the conservation of agricultural heritage and their associated biodiversity, knowledge systems and cultures.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of GIAHS designated by the FAO in 2005. Longxian was recognized as the core protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

Over the past few years, the system has reduced the dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, increased biodiversity and ensured the ecological balance of farmland. With this system, people can harvest rice and fish at the same time and achieve sustainable development.

"I grew up watching my parents farm and raise fish in paddy fields," said 50-year-old villager Wu Yongqiang. "In our village, everyone knows how to practice it."

After working outside his hometown for 20 years, he returned to Longxian and opened a bed-and-breakfast. Now he also has 4 hectares of rice fields with fish, and he sold about 5,000 kg of fish last year.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars).

China boasts a long history of agricultural civilization and Chinese farmers are full of agricultural wisdom. Up to now, China has 18 GIAHS and has become a major contributor to globally important agricultural heritage.

The Chinese government has attached great importance to protecting agricultural cultural heritage and promoting agricultural civilization. Such efforts will help achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations and promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.

(Source: Xinhua)
?? El Ministerio de Salud informa que aumento a 112 los casos confirmados de #ViruelaDelMono, que corresponden a 8 regiones del Peru, todos los pacientes vienen recibiendo asistencia medica, se registraron 12 altas medicas y se esta realizando la identificacion de contactos. pic.twitter.com/xJ8SQzdddp
Greensboro is a small town situated in southern Orleans County, in the US state of Vermont. The town is characterized by farms, forests, open land, and lakes, and it hosts many communities such as Campbells Corners, Gebbie Corner, Greensboro Four Corners, Greensboro Bend, and Burlington Point. Impressively, the central village of Greensboro and Greensboro Bend have been recognized as census-designated places.

Geography And Climate of Greensboro

Aerial view of Greensboro, Vermont with Caspian Lake in the background. Image Credit: Jared Benedict via Wikimedia Commons

Greensboro is the southernmost town situated in Vermont's Orleans County, covering a total area of 39.4 square miles, of which 37.8 square miles are occupied by land, and 1.6 square miles are covered by water. Greensboro is surrounded by many local small towns like Gebbie Corner, Campbells Corner, East Craftsbury, and Tolman. Moreover, the town is only 87 miles away from major cities in Canada like Montreal and Laval. The town is home to Caspian Lake and the majority of Eligo Pond, which is also referred to as Lake Eligo.

The climate in Greensboro is humid continental, with warm and muggy summers and very cold, snowy winters, with cloudy skies throughout the year. Moreover, the temperature usually varies between -1 C and 31 C and is rarely below -8 C or above 34 C. For tourists, the best time to visit Greensboro for warm-weather activities is between May and June and between August and October.

Brief History Of Greensboro

Greensboro Town Hall, Greensboro, Vermont. Image Credit: Magicpiano via Wikimedia Commons

Greensboro's history started with the establishment of the Bayley-Hazen military road, which was requested by George Washington in 1776 for an expected invasion of Canada. By 1779, the road had stretched to Greensboro and continued through to Montgomery before abandoning the project. Blockhouses, like the one at Greensboro, were created with the aim of protection. Due to the Indian raids on Peacham in 1781, four scouts were sent to bloke the blockhouse around the southwest corner of Caspian Lake. The scouts were stopped by Indians, who murdered two of the scouts and took the other two to Quebec to be later traded against some Indian prisoners in Vermont. Later on, in 1781, Greensboro was incorporated as a town that was named after Timothy Green, who was one of the initial charter recipients and an original landowner within the charter. Moreover, the town contributed to the Civil War by sending many local soldiers to battles, where eight prisoners of war originated from Greensboro.

The Population And Economy Of Greensboro

As per the latest US Census, the population of the town of Greensboro is estimated to be around 811 residents only. Where 92.80% of Greensboro residents were born in the United States, and 24.80% had been born in Vermont. However, 7.20% of residents are not US citizens, with the largest percentage of them originating from Oceania.

The economy in Greensboro relies on many services that are the main contributors to its structure. With wholesale and retail rade being the most dominant businesses in the town, educational services and manufacturing come next to support the market. From another business perspective, the average annual income of a Greensboro resident is $28,530, which is almost the average income of a US resident in general. This income undergoes a 6% sales tax and a 6.8% income tax.

Top Attractions In Greensboro

Caspian Lake Beach.

Caspian lake is a beautiful glacial freshwater lake hidden between Route 14 and 16, in Greensboro, and stretching over 789-acres. It is considered to be one of the cleanest of the Vermont lakes, making it a popular spot for snorkeling and swimming, with a maximum depth of 142 feet. The lake featured a public beach , as well as cottages that are privately owned.

Long Pond Natural Area.

The Long Pond Natural Area covers 767 acres, with 99-acre of them consist of undeveloped pond, offering stunning views of the northern white cedar swamp that is located at the south edge of the pond. The area features activities like paddling in the pond, as well as hiking in the forest that surrounds it. Moreover, the visitors will have the chance to spot some animals like the common loon, osprey, mink or river otter.

In addition to the above attractions, Greensboro offers a lost of natural attractions like the Paddock Hill, and Lake Eligo, and Greensboro Willey Beach Park. Moreover, the town ensures to host many intesresting and active events in theirHighland Center of Arts.
Spy Pond is a small water body situated close to Arlington's core. Surface drainage from the neighborhood and groundwater are used to feed the pond. Despite having limited access because most of the shoreline is private property, the historic Spy Pond is a stunning and priceless community treasure. It is believed that a massive chunk of glacial ice that broke off from the glacier and left a "kettle hole" filled with glacial waters had created the pond. No river or brook supports Spy Pond currently; only precipitation and runoff, particularly stormwater drainage from the nearby heavily populated residential areas, provide the water to the Spy Pond.

Geography Of Spy Pond

Spy Pond, Arlington, Massachusetts.

Spy Pond is a 103-acre water body situated 12.9 kilometers northwest of Boston in the southern part of the town of Arlington, in Middlesex County in the US State of Massachusetts. The districts of Arlington and Belmont, which together make up 73% and 27% of the watershed's 864 acres, are divided by State Route 2, which separates Arlington from Belmont and runs along the southwestern shore of Spy Pond. The Great Swamp, which encompassed a large portion of North Cambridge, rises from Spy Pond.

The Spy Pond reaches a maximum depth of 11m and an average depth of 3.7m. It also features a small 2-acre island named Elizabeth Island, which along with a shallow sil, divides the 103-acre basin into a north and a south basin. There are 43 drains in all that are known to empty into Spy Pond. Every time it rains, all but two or possibly three of these transport urban stormwater to the lake. Spy Pond's shoreline is home to modest to substantial residential development, and the pond is frequently utilized for passive wildlife observation, boating, swimming, and fishing.

Brief History Of Spy Pond

The pond's "spy" name has numerous sources attributed to it. One that hunters were looking for Fresh Pond ''spied" the stretch of water of this inquest and it became recognized as Spy Pond. The cutting and exporting of ice, primarily for use in the Caribbean trade, was Arlington's most significant activity in the middle of the 19th century. Spy Pond, which was in the foreground center, was the location of this activity. The Woods Ice Tool Manufacture was close by, and three Gage's Ice Houses were scattered around the pond. From the mid-19th century until the final ice building burned down in 1930, Spy Pond was the site of a significant ice industry. The Wisconsin Glacier left a mile-deep layer of ice in the area of Arlington, where Spy Pond currently stands, about fifty thousand years ago. The ice started to melt fifteen thousand years ago, leaving depressions or "kettle holes" in its wake. Spy Pond also developed into an industrial hub in the 19th century as businesspeople attempted to capitalize on this natural resource's advantages for export. Spy Pond developed into a source of clean water for nearby Boston in the summer and ice for shipping in the winter.

Geology Of Spy Pond

The "Fresh Pond Buried Valley" is where the Spy Pond is situated. A deep bedrock valley filled with silt runs from Wilmington, North Carolina, southeast to Boston Harbor. The highlands encircling the buried valley are covered in a thin, discontinuous layer of mud, whereas stratified deposits predominate within the valley itself. West of the buried valley's center axis is where Spy Pond can be found. The valley was covered in varying amounts of sand, gravel, and clay as the glacier ice retreated, advanced, and again retreated. The region was covered in clay while this lake was in existence. Then, as the glacial ice continued to recede northward, an alluvial fan of outwash debris was dumped over the region. Ice blocks, including Spy Pond, filled the modern lake basins during this time. The valleys in which the current streams are located were then scoured by late glacial torrents. Because the post-glacial streams would have filled in these basins otherwise, the ice blocks were likely still in place at this time. As a result, Spy Pond and the other ponds in the valley are considered kettle holes.

Wildlife In Spy Pond

Chairs for relaxation by the edges of the Spy Pond in Arlington, Massachusetts during winter.

The pond's main attractions are its fish and birds. Through the 1990s, Spy Pond was stocked with fish, but since then, there has been no stocking due to budget restrictions. The most often captured fish in this area are largemouth bass, yellow perch, and white perch. Additionally, throughout the year, the shores of the pond are home to almost 120 different species of birds. The most notable and divisive species of the bird population are Canadian geese.

It is highly unlikely that one will get bored at the Spy Pond while one is trolling, spinning, fly fishing, or baitcasting. At sunset, one must stop at the pond or go for a stroll on the bike path and relax by the water's edge. There is also a lot of grass, lilies, and deep shorelines with attractive overhangs where one can cast. Therefore, don't miss an opportunity to see this magnificent, historic Spy Pond.
Tesco shoppers in Cefn Mawr help give 3k boost to youth cancer support project

A cancer support project for young people in North Wales has been awarded 3,000 in grants thanks to support from local shoppers.

Young Lives vs Cancer was awarded two grants of 1,500 following votes by shoppers in the Tesco stores in Abergele and Cefn Mawr.

The grants will be used to support the ongoing running of the charitys Thrive Not Just Survive programme, which focuses on helping young people with cancer to deal with the emotional and mental impacts cancer brings, so that they can continue to thrive during treatment and afterwards.

The programme is run by local social workers across North Wales, and in the last year alone the team has supported 234 young people and their families.

Thrive Not Just Survive is designed to support young people with their mental health as they face cancer, by helping them build resilience and positivity to tackle the challenges they face during their treatment and beyond  as they return to school or work.

Support is provided on a one-to-one basis, both in hospital and remotely over the phone or on messaging apps. The team liaise with schools to ensure they are accommodating upon a young cancer patients return and ask teachers to organise work for them so they can keep up with their studies and liaise with employers to ensure a young person receives sick pay and can continue to work where possible, allowing them to earn some money and maintain their independence.

Sadly 70% of the young people supported through the programme admitted to having experienced depression during their treatment, but 84% said that the support of the expert team had helped them to get their life back on track.

Rachel Driver, the Young Lives vs Cancer team leader in North Wales, said: Ive worked as a Young Lives vs Cancer Social Worker in North Wales for over 11 years. Its an honour to support young people with cancer and their families, to help them to thrive not just survive during their cancer treatment and after.

A huge thanks to everyone out there who voted for us in the Tesco blue tokens scheme, and to Tesco for providing us with 3,000 towards our vital work in North Wales. Your support makes a big difference  diolch yn fawr!

Tesco Community Grants, the in-store scheme where customers vote with blue tokens for community projects and groups, has been helping community groups and charities across Wales and the wider UK since 2016.

Claire de Silva, Head of Community at Tesco, said: We want to reward fantastic groups who make such a difference to young people and families in their local communities, and are pleased to be able to support the tireless work of charities like Young Lives vs Cancer.

To find out more about Tesco Community Grants go to www.tescocommunitygrants.org.uk.
The National Health Service (NHS) is closer to collapse than at any time in half a century. This is the warning sounded by Kamran Abbasi, editor in chief of the BMJ, and Alastair McLellan of the Health Service Journal (HSJ) in a joint editorial.

The editorial was published prior to the July 19 anniversary of Prime Minister Boris Johnson proclaiming Freedom Day, when all remaining protections against the spread of COVID-19 were removed. It details the disaster this murderous decision has led to.

The authors warn against the Conservative governments failure to recognise that the pandemic is far from over and that a return to some of the measures taken in the last two years is needed.

Noting the difficulties posed to the NHS by the heatwave, the BMJ and HSJ note that this brutal situation is the culmination of many factors, including decades of underfunding of the NHS and social care. But now is the time to face the fact that the nations attempt to live with covid is the straw that is breaking the NHSs back.

Clinical staff care for a patient with coronavirus in the intensive care unit at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England, May 5, 2020 [AP Photo/Neil Hall Pool via AP]

The NHS faces the long-term effects of the first two years of the pandemic, during which it coped with peaks of infection by stopping or slowing much of its routine work. 2022 was meant to be a year of recovery. But this goal was based on a lie, that covid-19 would be nothing more than an irritant for most of the year, with perhaps a winter wave in December.

Instead, the UK has suffered the initial Omicron surge that peaked in January and two further covid waves, with gaps of just under three months between peaks related to new variants BA.4 and BA.5. Other variants will be ready for global distribution soon.

Far from receding, hospital admissions with COVID-19 are rising to new highs, averaging just over 9,000 in the first six and a half months of 2022, compared with under 6,000 for 2021, mostly concentrated in January and February, and under 7,000 in 2020.

The Omicron variant is only seemingly less severe, with just under 40 percent of hospital patients infected being treated primarily for the disease. But a covid-19 diagnosis is a complicating factor for many conditions, worsening outcomes and lengthening recovery times and resulting in staff sicknesses and absences. In addition, What the hospital admissions figures hide is a rising tide of people with long covid, now at two million and likely to be a major burden on the health service and the nations productivity for a generation.

The governments response is to claim everything is under control because the link between infections and hospitalisations and hospitalisations and death has supposedly been broken. The authors counter, But the link between infections and hospital admissions has clearly not been broken, even if you just consider those being treated primarily for the disease.

As for deaths, the latest ONS figures indicate just under 24 000 fatalities involving covid in the first six months of 2022, more than the 21,000 people who died in the last six months of 2021. Excess deaths from all causes are also still running above five year averages before the pandemic.

The editorial notes that the only references to the crisis in the NHS and the governments COVID policy during the Tory leadership contest is talk about bringing in the army to shake up the NHS from Tom Tugendhat or criticism of unsustainable healthcare spending by former Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

It concludes with a call for the return of limited mitigation measures including wearing masks in healthcare settings, on public transport and in crowded places, ensuring good ventilation, working from home, ending large gatherings and a return to free testing, together with renewed and extended vaccination.

Despite the vital warning sounded by Abbasi and McLellan, the vaccination plus some mitigations approach they advocate will not stem the accelerating spread of the pandemic.

According to the latest data from the ZOE Health Study, one in 15 in the UK are now suffering with COVID.

At the heart of this acceleration is the heightened infectivity of Omicron and its sub-variants. Last December Omicron led to a 15-fold increase in reinfections due to extensive mutations largely negating immunity acquired through previous infection or vaccination. Danny Altmann, a professor of immunology at Imperial College London, told The Guardian that Omicron and BA.4 and BA.5 are poorly immunogenic, which means that catching it offers little extra protection against catching it again.

Vaccinations continue to ameliorate the effects of infections, while re-infections have tended to be milder due to residual immunity, but this protection has weakened as new variants have evolved. Moreover, research by the University of Tokyo has found that new sub-variants may have evolved to favour infection of lung cells, rather than upper respiratory tract tissue, with a dangerous impact.

Professor Tim Spector, who leads the ZOE study, also told the Guardian, There are definitely a lot of people who got Covid at the start of the year who are getting it again, including some with BA.4/5 who had BA.1/2 just four months ago, who thought they would be protected. He warned that the viruss symptom profile has undergone a new change, meaning that anyone experiencing cold-like symptoms is now twice as likely to have COVID than any other type of virus. We havent seen this ever before.

Dr David Nabarro, the World Health Organizations special envoy on COVID, told Sky News, This virus is capable of constantly evolving and changing and its become too clever for us. It can break past our immune defences, and thats why the numbers are going up.'

This week the WHO reported that coronavirus cases have tripled across Europe in the past six weeks, accounting for nearly half of all infections globally. Hospitalisation rates have doubled.

Yet still scientific advisors on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) have only called for an extra jab ahead of winter for all over 50s, care home residents and staff and front-line health and social care workers. In the Daily Mail, Heath Secretary Steve Barclay again claimed that the collective protection of a Covid jab means we can now protect ourselves through science not restrictions.

There is no difference between the Tories and Labour on letting the virus rip through the population. The last time Labour made any statement on the pandemic was in January when it coined the obscene variation on the governments own policy slogan, Learning to live well with Covid. Its declared aim was to prevent the need for harsh restrictions to tackle the spread of the virus, by which was meant, Do nothing.

The International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties are leading the fight to build an international movement of the working class to stop the pandemic. In the UK, the SEP has placed the fight for a zero-COVID strategy at the centre of its call for a general election, as a means of enabling the working class to break out of the stranglehold of the Labour Party and the trade unions and intervene on its own interests in the crisis of rule surrounding the Tory government.

We explained, Millions of workers celebrated the downfall of Johnson, whose criminal response to the pandemic has claimed more than 200,000 lives. Yet despite the removal of the man who declared, No more lockdowns, Let the bodies pile high in their thousands!, his policies continue.

We call on workers to demand the reinstatement of all necessary public health measures to suppress the virus, including the closure of non-essential workplaces with full compensation to workers and small businesses, and the restoration of test, trace and quarantine protocols, including masking and lockdowns when required. This must be paid for through the expropriation of the major corporations, banks and pandemic profiteers.
A worker reportedly died while on the job at Amazons Carteret, New Jersey, EWR9 fulfillment center last Wednesday during the companys busy Prime Week sales holiday.

The death occurred on the final day of the two-day Prime Week. Huffington Post reporter Dave Jamieson took to Twitter to report that the local Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had informed him that a worker, whose name has not been released, died during the Prime Day bonanza.

The New York Gothamist reported that the incident occurred sometime around 8 a.m. on July 13 and that the worker was quickly sent to the hospital to be later pronounced dead.

A worker labors at Amazon (Amazon Media)

An Amazon worker from the facility spoke anonymously to the International Amazon Workers Voice about the situation. The state is coming to my site because someone died while working. Amcaretook too long to get there and call [emergency medical services]. Management literally worked someone to death in that hot a warehouse, they said.

According to Accuweather, the temperature in Carteret reached a high of 92 degrees Fahrenheit the day the worker was pronounced dead. Dangerous heat will continue to impact a large portion of the US this week, with now more than 100 million people under excessive heat warnings or heat advisories, said the Weather Prediction Center on Tuesday.

Amazon, one of the United States largest and most profitable employers, is routinely cited for its dangerous and unforgiving work conditions that produce obscenely high injury rates. Amazon needs to f chill. They are working their employees to death like corporations from 120+ years ago. Its archaic and absurd. Might as well just start hiring children again, said a commenter on social media.

Last year, the International Amazon Workers Voice interviewed an Amazon employee who referred to Prime Week as a week of hell, in which safety is all but forgotten in pursuit of high sales.

Last years numbers were exceeded by last weeks event. According to Business Wire, the summer 2022 event was the biggest Prime Day event in Amazons history. The company shipped more than 300 million items, up from 250 million last year, representing a 20 percent increase in sales.

Customers spent over $3 billion on more than 100 million small business items included in the Support Small Businesses to Win Big sweepstakes, the publication wrote. Doug Herrington, Amazon CEO of Worldwide Stores, grotesquely cheered the event as a celebration of our Prime members.

OSHA has announced active investigations against Amazon warehouses in several states following the corporations busy week. According to CNBC, OSHA on Monday inspected Amazon warehouses outside New York City, Chicago and Orlando for possible hazards in response to referrals received from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York.

The Southern District of New York office was investigating potential worker safety hazards at Amazon warehouses across the country, as well as possible fraudulent conduct designed to hide injuries from OSHA and others, said spokesperson Nicholas Biase.

The OSHA official did not say if these investigations would include Amazons widespread concealing of COVID-19 infections at its warehouses throughout the pandemic. A report last spring in the Markup detailed numerous instances of Amazon hiding COVID-19 outbreaks in its California warehouses, even as the number of sicknesses threatened the companys bottom line.

The deaths at Amazon highlight an ongoing trend of crass exploitation in the warehouse logistics industry. On June 25, 24-year-old United Parcel Service driver Esteban Chavez, Jr. collapsed inside his delivery van while working. The young worker lay unconscious for over 20 minutes before he was discovered by a passerby.

The widespread instance of on-the-job heatstroke and injury further exposes Amazons claims to be focused on worker safety. Amazon seized on the pandemic to claim its services were essential. Under this guise, the company was able to double its profits and expand its operations, sacrificing worker health and safety in the process.

In April, the company falsely cited the sustained easing of the pandemic as an excuse to get rid of COVID-19 paid sick leave for workers. As with Amazons previous decision to remove masks in 2021, immediately prior to the surge of the Delta variant, the dropping of public health measures has paved the way for the current spread of the BA.5 sub-variant of Omicron, believed to be the worst version of the virus by cardiologist Eric Topol of Scripps Research Translational Institute.
The mounting death toll and devastation from wildfires and drought are exposing the indifference and inaction of state authorities across Europe to the catastrophic impact of global warming.

A burnt out car is seen at Les Flots Bleus camping site in Pyla sur Mer, near Arcachon, southwest France, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

The heat wave is setting records across Europe. Pinhao saw the highest temperature ever recorded in Portugal, 47C (116.6F); France saw 64 cities set records, including Biscarrosse, 42.6C; while Londons Heathrow Airport recorded 40.2C. Yesterday marked the first time a temperature over 40C was ever recorded in Britain.

The confirmed death toll from the heat wave on the Iberian Peninsula alone is now already above 1,700. Portuguese General Health Authority Director Graca Freitas reported yesterday that there were 1,063 heat-related deaths between July 7 and July 18 in the country, adding: We have to be more and more prepared for periods of high temperatures. The Carlos III Institute confirmed that Spain had seen 678 heat-related deaths between July 10 and July 17.

This toll could rise explosively in the coming days. Former UK Government Chief Scientist David King warned that the British excess death toll from the heat wave could reach 10,000. Were a country with relatively high humidity, King said, adding, High humidity, high temperatures, quite simply thats higher than the body temperature should be. If you are even in the shade outdoors at 40C and 80 percent humidity, you wont live for very long.

Portugal and Western Europe broadly are particularly vulnerable to heat waves due to climate change. Lisbon University Professor Carlos Antunes noted: With climate change, it is expected that this increase in mortality will intensify, and therefore we have to take measures at the public health level to minimize the impact.

As they pursue a policy of mass infection and death with COVID-19, Europes governments are writing off any collective action to address global warming and the heat wave. After UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab cynically told Britons to enjoy the heat and be resilient, the tragic death of Madrid street cleaner Jose Antonio Gonzalez highlighted European governments inaction and indifference to the plight of workers laboring in the heat.

At least 14 Madrid street cleaners have fallen victim to heatstroke, working in the sun in heavy polyester uniforms. Gonzalez, aged 60, was transported to hospital after being found unconscious on the ground with a body temperature of over 41C (106F). He later died of a heart attack.

His son Miguel, 21, told the press: I think working in 42C heat, without shade and in those clothes  its immoral. It should not happen. We all know it can be avoided, but until something like this happens, they do not realize.

His father still worked extremely hard at age 60, Miguel said, because he was an Urbaser temp worker trying to get a permanent job with the city of Madrid. He would come back exhausted. I know he realized this could happen to him, but he did it because he wanted to get a permanent contract. Im convinced he kept cleaning that street until he passed out. He thought they would not renew his temp contract, and he wanted to give it his all to show that he was worthy. That, for me, is inhuman. That should make all of us think. These are not conditions in which one can live.

Miguel said that when he turned on his fathers computer and looked at his Google search history, he found that his father had searched for What do to in case of heatstroke.

After Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida broke his silence on his fathers death two days later, saying, We were not aware that there were complaints about the uniforms, Miguel replied, Well, thats not true. Everyone should admit to what they are responsible for. The city should do more, beyond providing excuses, and trying to blame the temp work agency. No one else should have to live through what we are living through.

Capitalist governments across Europe and internationally have ignored warnings of the catastrophic implications of climate change. Only a truly massive infusion of resources, coordinated on an international scale, can create the necessary infrastructure to cut greenhouse gas emissions; protect populations and food supplies from drought, wildfires and rising sea levels; halt the surge in temperatures; and save lives. However, what little capitalist governments have been able to agree upon is manifestly insufficient.

While the Paris Accords have set unacceptably low goalsa rise in average global temperatures of no more than 1.5C to 2Cthe 1.2C increase that has occurred is already boosting the frequency, intensity and duration of extreme heat waves.

A recent study in Nature Communications warned that due to air flow patterns and configurations of the jet stream over Eurasia, Europe will face particularly extreme heat waves. Europe is, the study found, a heatwave hot-spot, exhibiting upward trends that are three-to-four times faster compared to the rest of the northern mid-latitudes. One of the authors of the study, Kai Kornhuber of Columbia University, said, Breaking records is the new normal, adding that temperatures will keep rising as long as greenhouse gas emissions continue.

With major rivers like the Po and Serchio virtually running dry, municipalities across northern Italy are issuing or preparing to issue a ban on water use except for health care and food. With very limited rainfall this winter and glaciers in the Alps evaporating, University of Turin Professor Stefano Fenoglio explained, The result is that the rivers did not receive any water input and, by the end of February, their state was very similar to that of a river in August.  Drought is treated like an acute episode, but its becoming a chronic one now.

Firefighters and water-tanker planes are fighting wildfires that are raging out of control across Southern Europe. They are hitting Crete, Corfu and the periphery of Athens in Greece; areas around Milan, Trieste and Rome in Italy; the regions of Castilla y Leon and Galicia in Spain; the regions of Murca and Chaves in Portugal; and in Brittany and the Gironde region around Bordeaux in France.

Over 34,000 people have been evacuated from villages and towns across the Gironde, where fires have burned over 20,000 hectares of forest. This fire is a monster. It spreads extremely fast due to the very hot, dry air. Its perimeter is over 42 kilometers, it is impossible to post forces on all sides of it. And because of erratic winds, it advances first on one side, then on another, so that firemen have to reposition themselves constantly, said Gironde Council President Jean-Luc Gleyze.

The impact of the fire yesterday afternoon was felt 500 km away in Paris, where smoke blackened the sky and gave off a burnt smell. The Paris police prefecture issued a public appeal to Parisians via social media: You may detect a burnt smell. This almost certainly comes from the current wildfires in France.  Do not burden emergency response call lines. Only call firemen if there is a confirmed fire.

The heat wave is expected to move north and east into parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, and southern and western Germany in the coming days.
On July 7, Republican Governor Doug Ducey signed into law an amended expansion to The Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, to provide public funding via vouchers for private education, for which eligibility would extend to all 1.1 million K-12 students in the state.

The legislation significantly expands the scope of the original ESA legislation, which was first made into state law in 2011. Currently, around 11,800 students are enrolled in the voucher program. The original ESA program included only students with parents in the military, or who are wards under the states foster care program, children with disabilities, and students who reside on Native American reservations.

Teachers throughout Arizona took part in strikes and protests in 2018. [Photo by Save our Schools Arizona Facebook page]

The new law makes Arizonas ESA program the largest school voucher program in the country. Ducey signed the bill within days of the US Supreme Court ruling that allows state funding to be used for parochial schools.

The new law will provide $7,000 per student per year for parents who opt out of public school, for expenses incurred for private schools, also including home schooling and religious schools. The legislation contains limited provisions for oversight concerning the distribution of voucher funding, and almost no accountability over private schools who receive the funds.

On the same day, Ducey also signed legislation that lowers academic requirements for educators. Under this provision, teachers are not required to hold a degree. The prospective teacher need only be enrolled in an academic program to begin teaching in the public school system.

Notably, in 2017, a similar universal voucher bill passed in the legislature, but was defeated after a ballot referendum in 2018. The nearly 2-1 rejection of the voucher bill demonstrated the massive popular opposition to the attack on public education.

The Arizona public school system is one of the most woefully underfunded in the country, ranking near the bottom in per-pupil spending, with more than $1.1 billion having been cut over the last decade. Arizona educators are among the lowest paid in the nation. To add insult to injury, the state government forced schools open during the ongoing pandemic in 2021, which has exacerbated the crisis afflicting teachers and students alike.

Governor Ducey celebrated the legislation in a statement to the media: This is a monumental moment for all of Arizonas students. Our kids will no longer be locked in under-performing schools. With this legislation, Arizona cements itself as the top state for school choice and as the first state in the nation to offer all families the option to choose the school setting that works best for them.

Various far-right and anti-public-education groups around the country have lauded the bills passage, making clear that Arizonas universal school voucher program is a bellwether for the rest of the country.

Christopher Rufo of the right-wing Manhattan Institute think tank tweeted, Gov. @DougDucey is poised to sign the first universal school choice legislation in the nation, which will give every family in Arizona $7,000 per child to attend any school of their choice. Every red state in the country should follow his lead.

Betsy DeVos, former Trump Administration Education Secretary and anti-public school advocate, tweeted, A major victory for kids and families in Arizona.

In Arizona, the Goldwater Institute, named after the right wing Arizona senator and 1964 Republican presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater, which played a role in the development of the voucher program, declared the bills passage a major victory for families wary of a one-size-fits-all approach to education.

The coded language of all these groupsschool choice, giving options to kids and families, opposing one size fits allis an effort to give a progressive-sounding cover to a frontal assault on one of the most important social and democratic rights of the working class, won over more than a century of struggle: the right to a free public education for their children.

Both vouchers and budget austerity have the same purpose, to shift the burden of paying for school costs from the government to the individual family.

The Arizona Democratic Party and its satellite organizations have offered nothing more than a tepid response to the passage of the expanded voucher bill.

Public education advocate group Save Our Schools Arizona (SOSAZ) told the media they plan to stop the voucher program by gaining the required 118,823 signatures necessary before the deadline of September 24. If successful, the effort would postpone the legislation going into effect until 2024, when it can be put up as a ballot referendum.

Beth Lewis, the director of SOSAZ, called the bill a potential nail in the coffin of public education in Arizona.

Former Democratic Arizona House Representative Diego Rodriguez tweeted after the bills passage: The Republican universal voucher system is designed to kill public education.

The Arizona Educators United (AEU), the pressure group created in the wake of the teachers strike in 2018, has largely thrown its efforts to the campaign for the ballot referendum organized by SOSAZ and the Arizona Education Association (AEA).

Democratic lawmakers in Arizona and their allies on the national stage have attempted to portray the assault on public education in the state as the sole product of the Republican Party.

In fact, the Democratic Party, along with the teachers unions, together with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and other pseudo-left organizations, have aided and abetted the Republicans in carrying out a multi-decade assault on public education and the social position of educators and students.

The WSWS exposed these treacherous elements when Arizona teachers organized a strike outside of any union apparatus in April 2018 as part of a nationwide teachers strike wave, following in the steps of statewide teachers strikes in West Virginia and Oklahoma. The Arizona Educators United (AEU) and the National Educators United (NEU), both led by Arizona educator and DSA leading member Rebecca Garelli, conspired with American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten and state Democrats to strangle the strike before educators could win their demands for higher pay and larger funding for schools.
The Michigan Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee is holding a meeting Wednesday, July 20, at 7:00 p.m. EST entitled 2021-2022: A crisis year in review for Michigan educators. We invite all Michigan educators, staff, parents and students to attend this critical meeting and get involved in our work.

During the summer break, teachers and other school staff throughout the country have had a brief opportunity to reflect on the experiences of the 2021-22 school year. The Michigan Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee (MERFSC) asked teachers, para-professionals, other school staff and parents to tell us about their school year, the state of the public schools and the broader social problems they confront in their classrooms. Their answers paint a picture of harrowing conditions throughout Michigan schools.

In Michigan, deaths from COVID-19 are even more common than they are nationwide. Across the state, at least 36,982 people have died from the virus, equal to about 370 deaths for every 100,000 people. Michigan has the 10th highest death rate per capita. In fact, right now the BA.5 Omicron subvariant is again driving up cases, hospitalizations and deaths throughout the state and across the country.

Safe Schools Save Lives (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Schools throughout Michigan, like the rest of the country, were largely forced to stay open, even in the face of skyrocketing cases and infections. As for the mitigation efforts at the schools, teachers and staff report these measures were largely ineffective.

One Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) teacher described the situation at her school. COVID-19 mitigation measures consisted mostly of contact tracing, but it stopped after a while. During contact tracing, teachers who were vaccinated did not have to quarantine for the recommended time if they had no symptoms. We all know some people were asymptomatic and could have it, so I was very upset about that.

Social distancing was not enforced. Testing was not enforced. The kids were supposed to get tested during their lunch hour. Students were telling me they had to leave the testing location where they were in line because there were too many students. Our lunches were by grade level so it can be a couple hundred per lunch period getting tested.

Similar situations were described in other districts throughout the state. I was ill once with COVID. It is impossible for me to quantify how often or how many of my students were ill with COVID, other than to say that it was MANY of them. There were a lot of COVID-related absences among my 180+ students this year. As for colleagues in the building, I would say that the majority of us were sick with it at some point.

A western Michigan public school teacher explained there was a sincere effort from staff to follow the proper protocols to keep people safe. Contact tracing took SO much time from our administrators and office staff, but they did what they could with regard to contact tracing and quarantining, and they did adjust the protocol as requirements from the state evolved. However, the teacher explained the problem was not primarily with adherence to the protocol but rather that the protocol was either not realistic or ineffective.

There is ZERO way for social distancing to be enforced in a school. I had over 30 students in the majority of my classes, and it was wall-to-wall insanity in my room. This is true of most teachers. Social distancing in a cafeteria is also impossible and same for buses. So, due to the realities of being a lot of people in a small space, we were unable to separate people from one another. But a sincere effort toward complying with required protocols was maintained. ... It just was not fully effective.

Another DPSCD teacher explained that she witnessed administrators attempting to discipline students for missing school when they were struggling with Long COVID. One student had COVID in October, and his mother had it the entire month of December and was on oxygen at home. He was threatened with expulsion due to excessive absences. His mother worked for the district and had to take a leave due to poor health. Her Multiple Sclerosis (MS) has been exacerbated by the effects of Long COVID. She was treated like a negligent parent.

There was widespread opposition from teachers and other education workers to the handling of the pandemic. However, the Detroit Federation of Teachers along with other unions worked systematically to demobilize and dissipate opposition. While 91 percent of teachers voted in DPSCD in favor of a safety strike at the start of the 2020 school year, there was no such vote allowed in 2021. The lack of any organized opposition led to the victimization of teachers, who requested to work virtually from home, as well as the impact of sickness and death among countless teachers, students and family members.

Despite the major disruptions to the school year caused by the pandemic, standardized testing was largely continued throughout the year. The tests continued as if there was no pandemic, and no one was affected, one DPSCD teacher explained.

Teachers expressed many concerns with the continuation of standardized testing, including that their own evaluations are dependent on how well their students perform.

Another Detroit teacher explained, Our evaluations required us to do group work. How do you social distance in our small classrooms and do group work with 3 or 4 students working together, or even partners? Its impossible! However, we were penalized on our evaluations if we didnt do group work. This is of a piece with the Common Core state standards and the standardized testing during the pandemic. Neither the standardized testing of the students nor the evaluations of teachers, 40 percent of which is based on those standardized tests, was fair. It was a cruel exercise to make deeper attacks on education under the guise of failing schools.

Another teacher said, Im not on a radar to be bothered so Im just marked effective each year and expected to be ok with that. Its a hoax, really. I was observed for 12 minutes this school year and four minutes last school year via Zoom.

Another pointed out, The whole teacher evaluation system is designed to get you and put the blame on someone. Theres a lot more going on than the elements measured in the teacher evaluation tool. Folks dont want to admit that theres multiple factors in reality. So if someone has to take the blame its often the principal and then the teachers.

Even before the pandemic, teacher burnout had become a widespread issue throughout the country as thousands of teachers continued to leave the profession every year. A report issued in February 2022 from the National Education Association (NEA), however, showed that this trend was greatly exacerbated throughout the pandemic years. The report said staff shortages led to increased levels of burnout, and that of those surveyed, 55 percent of educators were planning on leaving the field earlier than they originally planned.

A special education teacher explained how this crisis found expression at her school. Fortunately, our special education program was just fine, but our general education program definitely felt the effects of it. We had three teachers leave mid-year, and we struggled to fill those positions. We only had one substitute teacher for the entire building, so while we were waiting for new hires, the students were split up into other classrooms. In the end, we were only able to fill two of the three open positions.

Explaining what lies behind the mass burnout, one teacher said, We are leaving the position in droves because we are overstressed, underpaid and undervalued.

She went on, We have administration and leaders in Lansing who put pressure on our students and us to perform on standardized tests that do nothing to show a students worth or how much theyve learned. If those students dont click enough correct buttons on those tests, our evaluations go down.

Our schools are underfunded, so we use money from our own underfunded paychecks to make up for that. Everything that goes wrong in the schools is the teachers faults. So what advantages are there to sticking around when we can go work elsewhere for more money and a heck of a lot less stress?

Another teacher said, This school year has been a lot. Teachers never signed up to protect and serve, and thats what they are making us do. If its not safe for Ford and Blue Cross and some state employees to be in office, why is it safe for teachers and students to be in a building?

A Bloomfield Hills science teacher said that teachers are leaving for other jobs that pay more and have less stress. Teachers are micromanaged by administrators. Class sizes are bigger. Canned curricula are being bought and forced to be used. High school is encouraging new grading practices and unenforced attendance policy, but teachers are still accountable for student learning.

The Portage teacher explained, We were dreadfully affected by a lack of substitute teachers this year; it was definitely a crisis, especially because people had to be out due to illness more than is customary. Our special education program (in my building) lost one person (she resigned) at the end of this year. I have been surprised that there havent been more retirements and resignations lately, but most of us simply dont have that choice. We have to make a living.

She continued, People are simply TIRED. They were tired before the pandemic, and they are even more worn down and burned out now during the pandemic. More and more responsibility is being laid at the feet of teachers: food, clothing, behavioral issues that they have neither the time nor training to address, lack of special education support for kids who need it most, enormous class sizes, expectations that a strong relationship will be built with all students while creating customized/differentiated lessons and activities forliterallyhundreds of students per day, negotiating SEL [Social Emotional Learning] lessons/learning for students, making sure that students show growth in ways that are quantifiable ... The list goes on.

In my district at least, teachers have 48 minutes of planning time daily. The pressures of each day squeezes me tight, and I am a seasoned, level-headed professional. I get to school over an hour before students report, I work through my plan and my lunch, and spend more time at the end of the day and multiple hours on weekends just trying to keep my head above water

Everything is rushed and interrupted, and we continue to be told to practice gratitude and to engage in self-care. This is not possible when you feel like you are sitting in a burning building all day long. We are in fight-or-flight mode all day, every day. When its done, we just have to slog through the wreckage and start over ... patiently, creatively, in a hurry ... all over again.
In April this year, the World Socialist Web Site conducted a video interview with Dr David Berger, a highly experienced remote area emergency doctor.



Berger, is a well-known and dedicated fighter for a scientific approach to COVID-19, writing thousands of tweets refuting pandemic misinformation and issuing timely warnings about what must be done to combat the deadly disease.



As well as social media work, Berger has written valuable articles exposing grossly inadequate responses to COVID-19 that have been published in the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Guardian, BMJ (formerly, the British Medical Journal) and the Medical Journal of Australia.



Last month, the Australia Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA) falsely accused Berger of impolite and unprofessional behaviour on social media and threatened to deregister him if he did not undertake a so-called education course.



This anti-democratic attack has been denounced by doctors, health workers, teachers and workers across a range of industries on the World Socialist Web Site and in a recent Open Letter and petition published by senior Australian doctors and medical scientists. Almost 1,700 people have signed the petition.



We are republishing the April video interview with Dr Berger, along with an edited text transcript, to assist those fighting AHPRAs blatant attempt to gag this principled fighter for Zero-COVID and consistent opponent of the Australian governments homicidal let it rip policies.

Richard Phillips: Before we begin Dr. Berger, could you tell us something about your medical background?



David Berger: I qualified in medicine in London in 1991. I think thats kind of relevant because I came from a medical tradition. That sort of post-war British medical tradition, which as I look back on it now, was extremely idealistic.



I had very idealistic teachers in medical school with a feeling of a very direct connection to the sort of crusading doctors of the late 19th, early 20th century. I then trained in general internal medicine and just decided that I wanted the breadth, more than the depth, so I went into GP training.

During that time, I worked in various places in the UK, in the Solomon Islands and in Switzerland, and I was a rural GP in England with my wife. We left the UK in 2012, went to Northern India for a year, where we lived in the Himalayas. We both volunteeredour children were at schoolin a small community hospital and then came to Australia.

Since then Ive been working pretty much entirely in remote emergency medicine, mostly in Western Australia, but also across Northern Australia, in Queensland and New South Wales.



RP: And youre a member of the OzSAGE working group?

DB: Yeah, I guess peripherally. I contributed to their paper on remote health with reference to COVID. Otherwise, Im not an active member of the group, but I did contribute to that.



RP: What were the general recommendations that you made, why were they necessary and what was the government response?

DB: Well, theres not really any response. I mean, theres never a response. I also wrote, I was the first author on a letter that we wrote in February 2021, a letter, which was signed by about 500 prominent academics and clinicians in Australia and overseas, calling for recognition of the airborne nature of transmission and the consequences of that in terms of suppressing transmission.



That letter received a response from the government, but it was barely worth the name. You dont tend to get a response, but these things always get looked at. That paper was just arguing for a recognition of needs of rural populations, in particular, Aboriginal populations with respect to things like the ability to isolate, which as were finding now in Northern Australia is extremely difficult for a lot of Aboriginal people, just simply logistically.

It also dealt with the need to combat a lot of the anti-vaccine propaganda thats been going around. Thats been extremely prominent, extremely pernicious, some of it propagated by fundamentalist churches. The needs of rural communities are somewhat special in terms of transport, particularly here in Australia, transport accessibility to health care. But in the end, were all in the same boat wherever we live.



Cheryl Crisp: We have just posted an interview with a respiratory scientist who works in a major hospital in New South Wales. He raised that he and others got virtually no information when COVID first developed. They received virtually no information from the hospital and none from the government.

Are doctors surprised that they have had to undertake their own collaborations for information rather than getting it from hospitals, governments?

DB: Yeah, definitely. I mean, this whole thing has been a surprise. Weve all learned a lot in the last two years, all of us in different ways. Im a non-specialist public health physician and not a specialist infectious disease physician, but it was very obvious what was happening when you looked at the Diamond Princess and the Ruby Princess cruise ships, and then the case report that came out very early in March, 2020 of the infection of the choir in Skagit, Washington state.



Ruby Princess

They had a choir of about 110 people, I think. Two infected individuals during a two-hour choir practice managed to infect over 50 members of the choir. It was very obvious from all of those things and from the experience with SARS one, which had already been established to be an aerosol-borne infection, that this was an airborne infection.



To see the downgrading of PPE in the UK and Australia in February, March and April, 2020, and the downgrading to droplet protection surgical masks, which are not really PPE anyway, was a huge surprise. I jointly wrote with Andrew Miller a 5,000-word paper on the need to protect healthcare workers. It was submitted to various state health authorities, ministries in Australia, and the federal government, but it received next to no response.



Subsequently, youre now seeing in Australia that we have largely accepted the need for airborne protection for health care workers, but this was a huge struggle, a huge, bad-tempered struggle. In January 2021, I wrote an extremely bad-tempered editorial piece in the British Medical Journal [BMJ] called Up the Line to Death, about how governments were betraying healthcare workers.



I have to say though that doctors, as a profession, are not coming out of this as the good guys. There has been extreme resistance to the notion that this is an airborne disease and the need for protection of healthcare workers, patients, and the general population.



This has come from entrenched interests within the medical profession. If you were going to say to me that there was this conspiracy theory that doctors are going to care if the disease is transmitted by droplets or aerosols, I would have said three years ago, You are completely insane. Whos got a vested interest in that? It turns out, were kind of fighting big hand-washing and its the weirdest thing Ive ever seen.

Its been a huge struggle, but the second wave of infections in MelbourneAugust through October 2020saw 4,000 healthcare workers infected. That was a big wake-up call for Australia.



I got in big trouble at the time for being so outspoken. The surprise is that it had to take so many of us arguing so strongly for the most basic protections. And thats in the healthcare realm, but then you need to look more broadly in society as a whole.

It isnt rocket science to suppress transmission. Battle lines have been drawn between the let it rippers and we must accept a toll of death, short- and long-term disease and disruption to go back to normal, as if we can go back to a 2019 normal, and on the other side, people who believe in the fundamental principles of public health, that we must suppress transmission of disease.

John Snow (Image: Wikimedia)

This goes back to John Snow and the Broad Street pump in the 1850s. Snow was the man who first demonstrated the cholera was a transmissible disease. It was a huge struggle then, and it took decades for this to be accepted.

Over the next 50 years, 70 years, a hundred years, this became accepted. We started to clean the water that we drink. We had indoor sanitation, in Western countries at least, and a recognition that drinking dirty water was a root cause of transmissible disease. And now it feels like deja vu.



It feels like were going through the same thing. That overcrowded, underventilated spaces are the causes of transmission of the disease. Weve accepted for years that in winter, when youre crammed into stuffy rooms, everybody gets a cold. Well now it isnt just a cold, but COVID, and thats no longer acceptable. It shouldnt be, but I think weve all been sleepwalking.



RP: You have described the struggle as an information war. Weve been told vaccines were going to be the silver bullet, that Omicron is mild, children dont get infected, and now, in the last three months, weve seen the reopening of the schools and infection levels and deaths on a scale way beyond what had happened in the previous two years.



DB: Thats right.



RP: What are the conversations youre having with other doctors about this? There must be incredible concern and anger about the political forces youre fighting here.



DB: Yeah, there is. I speak to a lot of different doctors. Doctors are just citizens and yes, they have some special insights, but they also have their own political views and tend to be conservative.



They also have their own interests, financial interests, where essentially many of us are sort of small business franchise owners, and theyre in there being as parochial as any other group of citizens. So, I think many doctors will accept the line that theyre fed.

Others look at the discrepancy between what theyre supposed to be being led to believe and the reality that they see on the ground. I do think there are many fine doctors but, as Ive said before, as a profession weve not covered ourselves in glory on this. And we need to really wake up to some of the ideals of the 19th and early and mid-20th century in terms of combatting disease.



Whats happening now is unprecedented. We have never, in modern history, rolled over and said, yes, we submit to this infectious disease. Its all too hard, wearing masks, cleaning the air, suppressing transmission. Its a big hassle. Were not going to do it.

Polio only had serious consequences in less than one in 200 children. The vast majority, 75 percent of people who got polio were asymptomatic. If there was a polio epidemic going around, it was much less visible than a COVID epidemic. And yet weve essentially eliminated polio from most of the world and its not far off eradication, which means its not present at all. The same goes with measles.



Same goes with so many things. Cholera has essentially been eliminated from most of the world, not because of cholera vaccines, but because of better hygiene measures, handwashing, better water, high quality water.

Whats happening now is unprecedented when you look at the known risks in terms of death, acute disease and longer-term disease and the unknown longer-term risks of an illness that replicates in pretty much all of the body tissues. If you keep grounding yourself in that reality, you just have to pinch yourself, because whats happening is crazy.

I often use the example of chicken pox and shingles.

The relationship between those two conditions was not established until the 1950s, when they had electron microscopes and could see the virus. If you said heres a childhood rash, a virus that causes a bit of a febrile illness, kids get a bit niggly for a week or two but are mostly fine, or very few get really sick.

But then you explained that this virus then retreats to live in the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord and can re-emerge six, seven, eight, nine decades later to cause a completely different illness called shingles with extremely severe and debilitating neurological and ophthalmological effects, you would say thats crazy. And yet thats something that we accept as reality.

But now, with COVID, we are infecting ourselves and more critically our children, repeatedly, with this virus, that is rapidly mutating and changing its form, with no firm knowledge of the long-term consequences.



And if you look simply at it from a risk management framework, its insane. The risks that were exposing ourselves to are insane and we were doing it to the children. So, wed better watch out because its the children of today who write the history books of tomorrow and they might be pretty pissed off with us. Theyll be choosing our nursing homes, so wed better stay on their sweet side.

I personally feel really at sea. Ive always been fairly circumspect and a bit cynical, maybe, but realistic, but now it seems that anythings possible, and that we can convince ourselves of the craziest things, that humans should be farmed, like factory chickens.

Rather than that we should, as doctors, take account of the humanity of all of us. Anybody with a clinical vulnerability, anybody with diabetes, whos immunosuppressed, on monoclonal antibodies, has treatments for rheumatoid arthritis or whos on steroids, or who has any other intercurrent morbidity, any other underlying illness is endangered.



What were effectively saying is, Well, weve done our bit. We protected you for two years, but its just too much hassle now. Well get on with it. The young and the fit, the vaccinated young and fit will probably be okay. Losses in that group, injury in that group will be acceptable. Rest of you, do what you like, survive if you can.



Thats a pretty harsh position that weve adopted, really without a thought and that everybodys taken on. Its old style, early 20th century eugenics, its ableism and it says to the more frail people, the more vulnerable, the people who do not fit to a certain ideal of physical perfection, tough luck.

CC: The World Socialist Web Site right from the beginning analysed that the underlying reason for these measuressharply seen with Johnson in Britain, Sweden, and now, really every government--is that no government places the priority of health over production.

DB: Correct.

CC: Dominic Perrottet, the New South Wales premier, said it outright. We have to open the schools on day one and not close them again because thats what the economy needs.

DB: Yes.

CC: Driving of children back into schools means that they are no longer educational institutions but just infection hubs.

DB: Correct.

CC: Many of those getting COVID are being inected from their children who are at school, and nobody knows what the effect of Long COVID will be. All this is bound up with the prioritisation of profit, production over health.



To a large degree that has been accepted, but, certainly in Australia and New Zealand, people did follow the lockdowns and the restrictions. Likewise in China, where the population agrees with Zero-COVID. But even with China, there are now demands, particularly through the Financial Times and the major international corporations, for them to discard this policy.



DB: Yes. Its a weird situation on the face of it and its not something I would ever have predicted. When you look at it in historical context, it becomes much more obvious why this has happened. We have this increasingly individualistic society and were now conflating the economy as society.



What is the economy? Its made up of individual people carrying out activities. But the economy is now the aim, the be-all and end-all, serving individuals to promote the short-term activity of the economy at the expense of their own health.



But it doesnt serve them, it serves the people with the levers of power and the financial leaders. Its very bizarre because I dont have a history as a kind of socialist activist, but if you look at whats happening now its like the 1880s, the 1860s and the kind of struggle out of which Marx and Engels wrote Das Capital.

Karl Marx and Frederich Engels

It almost feels like were back at the tail-end of the English industrial revolution in the way that ordinary people are being exploited to deliver profits for Qantas or whomsoever.



CC: The billionaires have doubled their wealth.



DB: Yes, theyre very happy for everybody to get back to work. They shelter in their villas, and dont have to go into the office or stand on a crowded train or bus. Its a really scary situation and I have to say Ive been incredibly disillusioned to see scientists and medical professionals helping conflate these political decisions, helping to promote them as scientific ones.



This whole thing about childrens mental health, and Oh theyve got to get back in school, et cetera. The evidence is very clear, and Im not arguing against school per se, education per se is a good thing, but I wish it would teach people to discern fact from fiction a bit better.

Actually, childrens mental health has not suffered during protections, lockdowns and the evidence says that self-harm rates have gone down and suicide rates, et cetera. Theres evidence from all over about that.

The crocodile tears about the poor kiddywinks, get the children back into school, I dont buy that for one second. And how you can worry about childrens mental health from being out of school, but not worry about childrens mental health from contracting an infection, which infects their vulnerable parent or grandparents, with serious consequences. I dont know how you can do that and sleep at night, but people do.



The schools and the children have been weaponised to get people back into work. You dont need a huge imagination in my opinion to see this agenda at work. As a rather idealistic doctor who thought that we were there to promote health in individuals and health in society, its been a pretty dispiriting two years.

RP: What sort of pressures have you come under to shut up? Theres a campaign to marginalise scientists and doctors who have spoken out. Guy Marks, Brendan Crabb and Raina MacIntyre wrote an article in January, How to eliminate COVID. Nobody reported on it, basically. We published it in the WSWS, but nothing in the mainstream media.



DB: I know. Theres no interest. We dont have to go into the ins and outs of concentrating media ownership in a few right-wing moguls with very clear agendas, but were seeing the consequences of that very, very clearly. We see supposedly independent media outlets, quasi-independent such as the ABC [Australian Broadcasting Corporation], which face so much funding pressure that they cannot escape being essentially a client media, not completely, but largely a client media that is promoting a government line.



The window of discourse in the media is extremely narrow and has become extremely polarised. Ive been called a Zero-COVID zealot, a Zero-COVID extremist. Its just bizarre, absolutely bizarre and yet that stuff sticks. All Im arguing for is disease suppression, and ultimately elimination, as weve done with every other infectious disease, or at least every other infectious disease thats affected white people, malaria and other things less so.

But promoting individual health, resisting the notion that people should embrace illness in this kind of cultish way, is now presented as an extremist position.

Dr. Michael Ryan (left) at a conference in 2020 when the WHO declared the pandemic a Public Health emergency of International Concern [Credit: Fabrice Coffrini]

After a false start by the WHO and criticism of its failure to call COVID airborne, Dr Tedros, Dr Ryan and Dr Van Kerkhove are saying that you cannot pretend COVID is over, that theres no herd immunity and we have to take rational disease-control measures and suppression measures. Yet this is presented as an extremist position.

If we circle back, yes, this is an information war and the battle lines have been very clearly drawn. An awful lot of it essentially comes down to money behind promoting the idea that the herd needs to get back to work and it must accept a certain degree of attrition.



Thats the message. So that, as I said before, its all pretty dispiriting but it must be fought against.



CC: Have you dealt with many people with long COVID?



DB: No, I havent. I had a very good pandemic and been lucky enough to be in Australia, and then for the last year or so have been in Western Australia. My experience of seeing patients with COVID is relatively recent and I havent seen many.

We were incredibly fortunate here in Australia until COVID was more or less deliberately let in. Im extremely suspicious of Gladys Berejiklian and Brad Hazzard and the way in which they failed to eliminate mid- to late-June last year.

CC: I noticed that Vicki ODonnell, from the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service, has spoken about the situation in Western Australia, particularly amongst Aboriginal communities.

[Western Australian Premier] Mark McGowan has declared that the pandemic has peaked but she has said it hasnt peaked and therere absolutely no options for people in the Kimberley, particularly Aboriginal communities, to deal with COVID. Have you had to deal with those sorts of communities with COVID?



DB: Yes. Logistically and culturally Aboriginal people tend to live together and in a much more communal lifestyle than Western people. The nuclear family is a concept unknown, with child-rearing shared, and all kinds of relationships, close relationships of cousins/sisters, and such like, that arent recognised in Western cultures.

Vaccination program at Ramingining in Central Arnhem Land, 400 kilometres east of Darwin. [Image: National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation]

So being able to isolate brings huge logistical challenges. I think its fair to say that none of whats happening now is a surprise. There has been a gross failure to provide suitable accommodation to help at least even slow transmission amongst Aboriginal groups.



Lets take a 30,000-foot-high view of this. The thing that has most worried me since the beginning of all this is if Jacinda [Ardern] hadnt closed the New Zealand borders, I dont think we would have.

But we eliminated. We eliminated in April 2020, pretty much by accident. I dont think anybody expected that we would, but we did because, as you said, people were extremely compliant. There was a great community spirit, et cetera. Ever since, here and in New Zealand and in other countries as well, like Korea, there has been a failure to put in place any other measures.



Weve had this razor-thin defence at the border, and the failure to understand that this virus spreads through the airborne route has meant that we have failed to harden our infrastructure and change our behaviours to accommodate that.

If we had recognised that early in 2020, as we could have, because it was known and we should have worked to educate people about how COVID is transmitted.

If we had made available N95 masks, free for the entire community; educated people knew about how to keep well. If we had instituted ventilation improvements in indoor buildings; HEPA filtering, where that was not possible; and done everything to secure our society against this pandemic, and potentially future pandemics, which will either come out of this pandemic or may arise de novo.



If we had done this then, we wouldnt have a precipice where we opened the border and then all of a sudden theres a huge deluge of cases. We would have fortified our defenses. But we did nothing, nothing at all. Even to get HEPA filters into hospitals and universal masking with COVID patients has been a huge struggle.



This kind of intransigence, this resistance to innovation, this unwillingness to accept that the world has changed has really been catastrophic. And I think in the case of Australia and New Zealand it has meant that we squandered a significant amount of our first, early advantage. Its not to say there was no advantage. We saved a lot of lives, but we squandered a lot of that advantage.

If you look at it in military terms, we had good tactics, but there was no strategy. A lot of hope was put in the vaccines, which I had too, a sterilising vaccine that would significantly reduce transmission, but it has not transpired.



If wed had a sterilising vaccine, like a measles vaccine or something like that, wed be in a much better situation. We wouldnt be having this interview now probably. But we dont have that. And yet when that became apparent, that the vaccines would help drastically reduce serious illness, potentially reduce Long COVID, but not eliminate either, would not significantly suppress transmission; when that was realised in early 2021, there was no consequence shift in strategy.



It was like, well, well just press on any way, get everybody vaccinated and then people will just go on and well just accept the toll. If ones looking for the roots of where we are now, it is a lack of strategic vision, even in countries that did well.



RP: Well, you also see that reflected in the budget. There is nothing. In the lead up to the budget, theres no plan B. There is no forward planning about what to do. No expansion in personnel, in facilities, its an outrage.

DB: No, theres nothing. And you know, it gets up some peoples noses when you talk about this pandemic in military terms but its quite a useful framing. Generals have to think in terms of tactics and strategy, shorter term tactics to gain control of the situation, and then longer-term strategy to maximise the advantage.

Were not doing that. Theres no vision and every time theres a new wave its like, oh my golly, gosh, theres new wave, what a surprise. We simply are unable to encompass the fact that there will probably be another one, which is inevitable. Were breeding ever more resistant variants and theres no selection pressure in that breeding for reduced virulence.



Were rolling the dice every day in allowing unsuppressed transmission and we may rue that one day because we may get something thats really transmissible and really lethal. Theres no reason why that cant happen. Theres no magic law that says this is a film with a happy ending.

CC: And quite impervious to the vaccines.



DB: Yes. Inevitable. We have out of control replication of the virus in an environment of partial immunity which selects for variants that will escape immunity. Thats what we see with Omicon already. At the same time, theres a kind of semi-religious belief that somehow its going to become less virulent, less severe.



There is no biological rule that says that must be the case. There is no selection pressure on the virus to become less virulent. It infects people before symptoms and during symptoms. It infects before symptoms and as long as that occurs, it doesnt matter if it kills the host. Were rolling the dice.

Now with the antivirals, the antivirals are great, but they have problems. They mutate DNA, potentially human DNA, certainly mutate RNA, which is how they kill the virus. So thats a great thing.

We have, for instance, Molnupiravir, which is an oral antiviral which is effective by about 30 percent at reducing hospitalisations. But its a mutagen and causes lethal mutation in the virus to kill it. The person whos taking it is still shedding mutated virus for about three days and of course in India, this stuffs available over the counter for 20 rupees a tablet, I think. Theres going to be an awful lot of people walking around whove had subpar courses of this stuff, shedding huge amounts of virus thats mutated.



Its not just that were not doing anything to secure our long-term future but were actively shooting ourselves in the foot.



RP: Have you had a look at the material weve published on the Global Inquest and now plan to take forward a program of education and mobilisation?



DB: I havent actually. It sounds great. Im sold.

RP: Weve been interviewing many scientists, also health workers. As you say, its a war. We have to begin a mobilisation from below, in alliance with scientists, doctors, et cetera. Its a political struggle.



DB: Yeah. It is a political struggle. Its nothing to do with science. Its a political struggle. Its an information war. Its about combating misinformation and slants, which minimise the problem. You cant mobilise and fight a war if most of the population doesnt believe that there is a problem.

RP: Thats true. But as we were discussing before, the population when given a lead will respond. And you saw this over the Christmas period, the politicians were declaring Omicrons mild and people should go out and shop but they didnt.

DB: Oh yeah. I have to say, Australians are really civic minded, they do think about the community, much more, I think, than in Britain. Aussies love to do stuff for each other, and they love the Bunnings sausage sizzle, and cake bakes for the RFDS [Royal Flying Doctor Service] and all that stuff. People love it.

This notion that weve suddenly been indoctrinated to be selfish people not caring for those around us, not caring for people who are vulnerable. It shows the power of propaganda.

CC: Just before Christmas, when Omicron emerged the chief medical officer, Paul Kelly declared that Omicron was his best Christmas present.

Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly

DB: I know and on the basis of zero good information. The GP, I think is president of South African Medical Association, Angelique Coetzee. She said, within three or four days, that all the patients shed seen with Omicron showed it was really mild. And that was it, it became a meme, Omicron is mild and went totally crazy.

People were desperate for it and the politicians milked it for their own ends, but there wasnt any meaningful truth to it. Its milder because we are all vaccinated but its much more transmissible.

If you look at the global death curve, there are basically two curves that are the most important. The only ones you really need to look at, because this is one world. Global new cases, global daily new cases, and global daily deaths.



If you look at the Omicron global daily new cases, its huge. Its massive. Way higher than Delta and way more transmissible. But if you look at global daily new deaths, thats also higher than Delta. Its only a bit higher than Delta, but its higher than Delta. And so, a small percentage of a massive number is still a very large number. This is basic math. But you can fool people into not believing this with propaganda, unfortunately. And thats where we are.



RP: One of the purposes of the Global Inquest is to hold particular individuals accountable. The British Journal of Medicine [BMJ] described the responses of governments around the world as social murder.



DB: Yes, written by Kamran Abbasi. It is social murder.



RP: And individuals, people have to be held accountable for what they said and did.



DB: Yes. You can say to people, well, its all personal responsibility and youve got to protect yourself. But if youre a minimum wage shelf packer, or youre a bus driver and youve got a family to feed, and hardly any sick pay, you dont have the option to isolate in your second home and work via the internet Once you get into that kind of inequity in terms of disease, then yes, of course, its social murder.

I have to say, I think you guys have done a great job with your coverage. I think youre really one of the best media outlets and which has done a good journalistic job and actually delved into the ins and outs, not simply regurgitated press releases. So well done.




The June 24 massacre of at least 37 refugees attempting to cross the Moroccan border into the Spanish enclave of Melilla has thoroughly exposed the Left Populist Podemos party as a reactionary petty-bourgeois tool of Spanish imperialism and the European Union. It is directly implicated in a horrific crime against migrants in Southern Europe.

Migrants run for safety after crossing the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco in Melilla, Spain, Friday, June 24, 2022. [AP Photo/Javier Bernardo]

Between 1,500 and 2,000 refugees and migrants, who had been camping in the Moroccan mountains surrounding Melilla, went to the citys border, hoping to scale the border fences. Through coordinated efforts of the Spanish Civil Guard and Moroccan gendarmerie, at least 37 refugees died and over 150 were injured. Eyewitnesses said they believed that the official death toll of 37 substantially underestimated the number of lives lost.

It may never be known how many died falling from the fence, trapped in the stampede, hit by police truncheons, rubber bullets, and tear gas, or left injured and unattended for up to 10 hours. With the full backing of the European Union (EU) and the Spains Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government, Morocco is digging mass graves to bury the corpses without autopsies, identification or investigation. Other refugees who survived, many with severe injuries, were handcuffed behind their backs, thrown into busses and sent to Chichaoua, 400 kilometres south of Casablanca.

The question of the extent to which Podemos participated in planning this massacre is directly posed. On the eve of the NATO Summit held in Madrid, Moroccan police stepped up repression of makeshift refugee camps near Melilla, destroying their tents and stealing food and belongings.

Two weeks before, on June 8, Spains foreign affairs minister Jose Manuel Albares told Reuters that Spain, as host of the upcoming NATO summit, would push for migration to be considered a hybrid threat in NATOs new policy roadmap, like the NATO-Russia war in Ukraine. As the WSWS noted, this amounted to an attempt of the Spanish and European bourgeoisie to justify stepped-up repression of refugees and interventions in North and sub-Saharan Africa.

Ten days later, on June 18, Moroccan authorities launched raids against the camps where migrants usually take refuge. There were several clashes in the mountains near Nador, about 15 kilometers from Melilla, several witnesses told El Pais. The daily added that raids continued between Wednesday June 22 and Friday June 24, complicating life [for refugees] in the forest. During those days, they faced [the police].

Adam, a young 21-year-old Sudanese man who managed to enter Melilla, told El Pais that the authorities gave them an ultimatum: A police officer came alone and told us we had 24 hours to leave. If you leave the mountain, we will not use violence, but if you refuse to leave, we will use live fire. Our leader said we could not leave like this; about 1,000 of us gathered and that night we decided to go to Melilla the next morning.

Another witness, Aiman, told eldiario.es that a week before the attempted crossing, Moroccan raids in search of irregular migrants increased. It was increasingly difficult to stay in the north of Morocco: There were raids all the time, we escaped ... until we saw that we couldnt wait any longer because of that unsustainable situation, he says. When the gendarmes came, they even took the lentils from us. They burned everything.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) confirmed that security forces destroyed tents in which the refugees were staying the day before the massacre, and that they were left without food and their belongings were stolen. This was after a year of constant harassment of the refugees, who had no access to drinking water, medicine, opportunities to return home or request asylum.

After the massacre, the PSOE-Podemos government swung into action to describe the crossing as a threat to Spanish sovereignty in line with their aim for the NATO Summit. Spains prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, described it as a violent assault and an attack on the territorial integrity of Spain. He cynically blamed mafias that traffic in human beings.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska described it as a violent attack by 2,500 immigrants. Foreign Minister Albares said, You have to put yourself in the shoes of the Moroccan gendarmerie, adding, NATO will defend every centimeter of Spanish soil. While the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Jose Luis Escriva, implored for empathy: The work that Morocco does is not easy.

The fascistic tirades of the PSOE ministers received the complicit silence of Podemos. Two days after the massacre, at a government press conference, Equality Minister and Podemos leader Irene Montero remained silent. Asked five times by journalists on Podemos stance on the massacre, she remained completely mute, as the spokeswoman of the Government, Isabel Rodriguez, answered in her name. Government sources told El Confidencial that Monteros silence was agreed between Podemos and Sanchez.

Montero only replied to a question about the new Trans Law her ministry has designed. Approved on the same day she agreed to remain silent in the press conference, she described the law as a historic milestone in the rights of the LGBTI community, it is an indisputable advance that we are going to take care of and work to improve until the end.

Monteros claim that her government will expand LGBTI rightswhile it also arms the neo-Nazi Azov battalion in Ukraine, deploys troops to Eastern Europe, imposes strike bans and austerity at home, and attacks migrantstypifies her partys reactionary identity politics.

As shown by the US right to abortion, now overturned by far-right Republican-nominated judges in the Supreme Court, no democratic right is secure unless it is won in struggle by the working class. Rights, included those of migrants, must be conducted as a fight for the political independence and mass mobilization of the working class on the basis of a socialist programme against Podemos.

The day after Monteros silence, Podemos spokesperson in parliament, Pablo Echenique cynically said: We are horrified, not just as democrats, but as people, by the images that we have been able to see on the Melilla fence. Spain has to be at the forefront of the defense of human rights. That is why we have presented an initiative so that there is an independent investigation.

An independent investigation backed by Podemos will whitewash the police and PSOE-Podemos ministers. In the 2014 Tarajal Massacre, the civil guards who shot rubber bullets and tear gas at migrants swimming to Spains other enclave in Morocco, Ceuta, leaving15 dead, were exonerated. Judges have repeatedly closed the cases, initially claiming, The migrants died because they placed themselves in danger. In the second case, closed in 2020, the judge considered the police have acted rightly to dissuade.

The Melilla massacre represents an escalation of the PSOE-Podemos commitment to the EUs fascistic Fortress Europe policy. This policy has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of refugees who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, trying to flee the social catastrophe produced by imperialist wars and the legacy of the colonial subjugation of Africa and the Middle East.

With the Spanish ruling elite effectively shutting off any legal migration route into Spain, the Canary Islands sea crossing has become the currently deadliest route into Europe, surpassing Mediterranean crossings to Italy and Greece. Since Podemos joined the government, at least 2,000 migrants have drowned trying to reach the Canary Islands.

Those who reach the islands are interned in concentration camps built by the PSOE-Podemos government, in which migrants are deliberately imprisoned in unsanitary, inhumane conditions pending deportation. Like former US President Donald Trump, the government also implemented a policy of separating children and their parents before protests forced it to change policy. Last year, it implemented the calls of the fascist Vox to militarize border control by deploying the army, special forces and riot police to round up and expel thousands of desperate men, women and children.

A class gulf separates the sympathy towards the migrants felt by millions of workers from the anti-refugee policy of the PSOE-Podemos government and the EU ruling class. After the Melilla massacre, protests were held in over 60 cities and towns across Spain. Common chants included these are not deaths, they are murders and no human being is illegal. Posters were seen at the demonstration stating border kills, all lives are worth the same or we are all immigrants.
On July 10, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in Australia held a well-attended online meeting demanding freedom for WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. The meeting was called after British Home Secretary Priti Patel announced that she had approved Assanges extradition to the US, where he faces life imprisonment for exposing American war crimes, pending a final possible legal appeal.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange greets supporters from a balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on May 19, 2017 [AP Photo/Frank Augstein]

The speakers, SEP (Australia) National Secretary Cheryl Crisp, WSWS writer Oscar Grenfell and Eric London, a leading member of the SEP in the US, indicted all the governments involved in Assanges decade-long persecution. They placed the attacks against him in the context of the new wars against Russia and China being hatched by the US and its allies and the deepening crisis of global capitalism.

Each explained that Assanges liberty requires the development of a movement of the working class as the only constituency that defends democratic rights and can end imperialist war. In that context, the meeting, attended by more than 200 people, passed the following resolution:

This meeting condemns the persecution of Julian Assange by the American, British, Australian and Swedish governments for exposing the war crimes of the US and its allies. We demand that the Australian government end its collaboration with the legal travesty to railroad Assange into the US courts and instead use all its diplomatic and other powers to secure his immediate and unconditional release.

The meeting can be watched in full here.

Several attendees spoke to the WSWS.

Josh

Josh, a Masters student in Melbourne, raised the broader situation within which Assange is under attack: Facing the immense global problems of our current age necessitates a coordinated global response, he said. These global problems are the result of strong capitalist and imperialist institutional structures that have pillaged global resources at the expense of working people, indigenous sovereignty, and future generations.

Socialist Equality pursues the mechanisms to fight these problems and it cannot be achieved without the radical journalism of organisations such as WikiLeaks. The persecution of Julian Assange is a threat against all journalists and the future of proper investigative journalism.

Assange has received minimal support relative to other journalists who have been imprisoned abroad. His treatment over the last 12 years speaks volumes to the ongoing capitulation of these Western powers to the imperialist USA agenda. Assange's work with Wikileaks exposed a plethora of systemic war crimes committed by the USA and its allies.

The conversation of whether Assange and his team at Wikileaks followed 'proper' journalistic protocols purposefully deflects from the content that was contained within. The entire process is planned inertia and supportive of the western war industrial complex and USA-focused geopolitical aims.

Wikileaks' reports on these global atrocities were a watershed moment. These reports have changed the world, emboldened people to come together and oppose injustice and question power and our place in it. Our support of Julian Assange is also a means of supporting those journalists of the future, to give them the knowledge and security that their work critiquing powerful institutions holds real material value in creating a better world for all. 

Neil, the former owner of a transport and car repair business in Melbourne, attended his first SEP meeting.

He explained: 'If people found out the truth then the war in Ukraine could have been avoided altogether, but America wants to fight Russia. If Ukraine joins NATO you can kiss Russia goodbye. Now they have the Swiss on the other side, plus Ukraine would make Russia pretty much surrounded.

'What if Russia goes to Cuba and puts nuclear weapons there? The US wouldn't be happy, but that's what the US is doing to Russia. Not saying Putin is a nice guy but the US doesn't want this war to stop. They see him and China as a threat. The US government love the Ukrainians? I don't believe that, they don't love anyone except themselves.

'America is spending trillions on war, yet their people are homeless in their own country. The war in Ukraine was all America's fault, but who is suffering? The Ukrainians and Russians. America aren't putting troops there but they are giving them weapons and making money from it.

'Labor and Liberal are the same, I used to believe in Labor more but now I don't believe in them whatsoever because they both just follow America's footsteps.

'Assange exposed a lot of governments, and it's not just America who is worried about him, so is England, and Australia. That's why they are keeping him in, because if he's out he will keep exposing. The mainstream media, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, is hiding a lot; they only tell us what they want to.

'Democracy has gone out the door. If there was democracy Assange would never have gone to jail. England is killing him slowly.'

Rosie, a health worker from rural Western Australia, stated: Ive always felt that Edward Snowden and Julian Assange were scapegoats. To prevent the populace from having a certain idea of what things are really like, they have to shut these people up.

I think the way forward is about trying to find justice for Julian, who told the truth even when nobody could hear what the real truth is.

The things that he has printed and laid out in Wikileaks, I think we have a right to know, by the way.

The picture Im getting is that whichever side get into power, they have been trying to condemn Julian Assange. Why even now, look at Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Oh sure, Labor got in. But Albanese is doing the same thing as the former Liberal government. Hes going, Oh well, you know were just going to wash our hands of it. Im thinking, Assange is an Australian citizen, what are you doing?

Christopher

Christopher, who works in Road Traffic Management in Melbourne, said: It was a privilege to attend the meeting you held. Way back when Julian Assange first started up WikiLeaks, the fact that he was trying to raise awareness of what is going on in the world: wars, corruption, drew me to support him. If people dont stand up against tyranny they could be seen to be supporting it. The US has been embarrassed by the war crimes that he exposed. They dont want their dirty laundry aired.

This is an attack on Julian Assange but its also an attack on free speech. The US has refused to sign the Geneva Convention which would make it liable to be prosecuted for war crimes. The attack on Assange is being used as a warning against any journalist, including future journalists, to be careful as to what they bring to the attention of the general public. I am disappointed at the almost deafening silence of fellow journalists and governments, including the Australian government, over Assanges persecution.

Speakers had outlined the recent attack on Dr David Berger by the Australia Health Practitioners Regulatory Authority. Berger has been censured, instructed that he must undertake a special education program and threatened with deregistration.

These attacks have been levelled because the widely-respected doctor has condemned the let it rip COVID policies of Australian governments and championed the scientifically-based policies required to eliminate transmission and end the pandemic.

Christopher said: In the meeting, when the topic turned to Dr Berger, I did for a minute think, where is this headed, are we going off track? Are we here to discuss Assange or COVID? But I stuck with it and then it became very apparent, very clear the connection between silencing Assange and the silencing of Dr Berger. Information is power. There does need to be a campaign of information.
Denver, Colorado, police injured five bystanders early Sunday morning after firing into a crowd in Denvers Lowe Downtown nightlife district. Officers were confronting 21-year-old Jordan Waddy, who allegedly got into an altercation with two other men outside of Larimer Beer Hall. According to a police statement, multiple officers approached Waddy, who began walking away and then allegedly reached into his waistband with a motion consistent with pulling out a firearm.

Denver Police Department officers in their patrol car on July 18, 2016. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

The police statement does not describe the officers firing at Waddy, but notes that several shots were fired and that Waddy was injured. It does not claim that Waddy fired a gun, though he was found with a 10mm pistol after being shot.

However, witness testimony confirms that the police did fire into the crowd at Waddy. Guillermo Cortes was a witness interviewed by the Denver Post. According to Cortes he saw two men get into a fight who were then followed by at least two police officers. He recounted that he did not see Waddy pull out a firearm nor did he hear them issue a warning to Waddy as he walked away.

He also noted that he heard five gunshots from the officers but did not see or hear any fire from Waddy or anyone else.

Another anonymous witness interviewed by ABC 7 Denver said that he saw police randomly shoot into a crowd of people.

It was definitely a little traumatic to see that go down. I heard maybe 6 or 7 shots. I look to my left and I saw a girl who was hit on the thigh and it hit an artery and she was gushing out blood.

The police took a considerable amount of time before reporting to the public on the incident, which occurred at around 1:30 a.m. Police issued an initial statement at 4 a.m. and then did not provide any additional information on the incident until 4:39 p.m. later that day.

Investigators claimed it was difficult to obtain an accurate number of people injured during the incident because several transported themselves to the hospital for treatment and mixed in with victims of other shooting incidents.

Denver police have attempted to deflect blame by questioning how the five bystanders were injured; whether by direct fire, indirect fire, shrapnel or debris, as if the specific cause of injury from police firing into a crowd would make any significant improvement to the situation.

This is the third police shooting in the past week in Denver. A man was shot and killed during a domestic violence incident on Friday and another man was shot and killed on Wednesday after allegedly firing at pursuing officers.

Denver, and Colorado more broadly, have a long history of police violence and killings. Colorado is fifth in the country for police shootings per one million people, in average annual shootings, and in total shootings since 2015. Every year the police in Colorado fatally shoot an average of 35 people, or one every 11 days.

Few of these incidents are ever found to be unlawful by the courts, but studies of Colorados history of police violence expose the criminality of these fatal shootings. Robert Duran, a professor of sociology at the University of Tennessee, conducted a study of police killings in Denver between 1983 and 2012, and found that only 35 percent could be considered legitimate, that is that the life of an officer or someone else was in real immediate danger. Additionally, Duran found that the majority of individuals in 12 controversial shooting incidents were innocent.

The rate of killings in Colorado is a reflection of the social crisis in the state, which is one of the most expensive to live in. A recent study by Colorado Public Radio found that Most of those shot were white, male, high on drugsoften methamphetamineor alcohol and carrying a weapon.

As with police killings nationally, nearly half of police shooting victims in Colorado are white, but black and Hispanic victims make up a disproportionate number in relation to their population.

The instances of police killings in Colorado are emblematic of the national crisis of police violence, including frequent killings of people suffering from drug addiction and mental illness and during raids into the wrong home.

Police departments in Colorado have shelled out significant amounts of cash to settle lawsuits for unlawful incidents of violence. Most notably, two families in Northglenn won a $9 million settlement after police killed one man and paralyzed a second. Another lawsuit alleges Denver police destroyed a womans home after a SWAT team used a flammable grenade during a standoff.

Other studies and reports have noted a startling number of people killed after being shot in the back. A report by the Colorado Springs Independent looked through records of police shootings in the local area dating back to 2001. It found that of the 70 incidents, including 35 fatal ones, 11 were shot in the back, all of which were fatal. It also found that The number of officer-involved shootings has gone up by 90 percent in the last nine years compared to the previous decade, and the number killed has more than doubled.
On July 14, a New Mexico District Court judge cleared former Las Cruces Police Department (LCPD) officer Christopher Smelser of second-degree murder charges through the use of a chokehold that killed 40-year-old Antonio Valenzuela on February 29, 2020. Judge Douglas Driggers ruled that there was insufficient evidence to continue with the trial and dismissed the charges.

Christopher Smelser (Photo: Las Cruces Police Department)

Smelser and fellow officer Andrew Tuton stopped a vehicle in which Valenzuela was a passenger. They learned that he had a warrant for a parole violation. Valenzuela fled on foot, and they chased him, using Tasers on him twice. Bodycam footage shows that Smelser tackled Valenzuela and the two struggled.

According to a news release by the Dona County District Attorneys Office, Valenzuela was continually struggling to get away. Once on the ground, during this struggle, Officer Smelser applied a vascular neck restraint technique to gain control.

Smelser is heard in video footage saying, If you dont fucking stop, bro, Im going to fuck you up, and, Im going to fucking choke you out, bro.

In the video, Valenzuela groans for about a minute as Smelser repeatedly says, Give up, bro. When Valenzuela stops struggling and lies motionless, Smelser says, Yeah, hes out.

Attempts by paramedics to revive Valenzuela were not successful.

The autopsy found that Valenzuela had died from asphyxial injuries due to physical restraint. Methamphetamine was listed as a significant contributor to his death.

The autopsy mentioned small pinpoint hemorrhagesconsistent with Valenzuela having his neck or chest compressedin his eyes and eyelids, as well as evidence of focal, deep muscle hemorrhage and a fracture to his Adams apple, a report from the Office of the Medical Investigator determined.

The presence of methamphetamine in Mr. Valenzuelas system during the struggle and restraint likely increased his baseline oxygen demands and placed increased stress on his cardiovascular system, contributing to death, it said.

The killing triggered protests denouncing the use of the chokehold and demanding that Smelser be put on trial for murder.

After placing Smelser on administrative leave for months, the LCPD fired him on June 4, 2020, and announced that it had banned the use of the chokehold. The city agreed to pay Valenzuelas family $6.5 million.

After more than two years, Smelsers trial began on July 11, and prosecutors called thirteen witnesses to testify before resting its case. Among the witnesses, Tuton testified that he believed that Valenzuela was reaching for a gun during the struggle, but no gun was found.

Smelsers defense attorneys argued that prosecutors failed to prove he knew his actions were dangerous and created a risk of death or great bodily harm to Valenzuela. The judge agreed with their arguments and dismissed the case.

Though New Mexico Attorney General Henry Balderas (Democrat) said that the judge got it wrong and prevented the jury from deciding on the evidence, he said that there would be no appeal.

The next day, the Valenzuela family and members of some community organizations held a protest at a local park. Antonios sister Valerie Chavez told the protesters, The dismissing of my brothers case was totally disgusting, and Daniel Sanchez, an organizer with New Mexico Comunidades en Accion y de Fe or NM CAFe, said, If [the city and police department] are telling us theyre doing the best they can, theyre lying to us.

Sanchez also alluded to two other recent police killings in the southern New Mexico city: the shooting of 75-year-old Amelia Baca on April 16, and of 56-year-old Carlos Gamboa on May 21. Both were suffering from mental health crises at the time of their violent deaths.

A number of activists and organizations, including NM CAFe and the Dona Ana Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, have held meetings to discuss measures to stop the spate of police killings that have plagued the city and the state. However, they are hamstrung by their reformist perspective.

At a meeting in June, participantsincluding Dona Ana County Sheriff Kim Stewart (Democrat)broke into focus groups and came up with some predictable proposals, among them: creating a police oversight board; finding ways to increase transparency and accountability; building institutions that foster community and police collaboration.

At the end of the meeting, Sanchez told reporters, Police reform is important to a lot of demographics and a diverse group of citizens. There's not a magic solution that's going to fix everything. If we make small incremental adjustments and changes, we can see progress.

These attempts at reform have failed over and over in cities across the US. One of the most egregious examples of that failure lies 222 miles to the north. Albuquerque has carried out police reforms including citizen review boards, the use of bodycams and, most infamously, the Department of Justice settlement agreement of 2014. The result: Police-involved shootings and other forms of violence continue unabated, as exemplified most recently by the death of 15-year-old Brett Rosenau during a SWAT team siege on July 7.

Police under capitalism, especially capitalism in an ever-deepening crisis, cannot be reformed to defend the working class. Their job is to protect and serve capitalist class rule, and as the social crisis gets more acuteCOVID, austerity, warthey will respond with more, not less violence. And as recent events in Akron, Ohio, and other cities have shown, it is bipartisan.

The working class must rely on its own resources to erase the scourge of police violence by sweeping away the capitalist system in the fight for socialism.
Workers at the New York City office of HarperCollins, one of the biggest English-language publishing companies, are taking part in a one-day strike on Wednesday, July 20. They have been without a contract since December 2021, when the one-year extension of their previous contract expired. The demands of these workers, who are members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2110, include higher pay and better family leave benefits. Will Lehman, a Mack Trucks worker who is running for UAW president, sends the following message to the HarperCollins workers.

William Lehman, Mack Trucks worker running for UAW president in 2022 (WSWS Photo)

Brothers and sisters at HarperCollins,

I am writing to express my deep support for your strike. You are in an important fight that every member of the United Auto Workers (UAW) should know about. We should all know about your contract expiration and your near-unanimous strike vote. The UAW should be calling for the broadest possible support for your struggle, but in fact, they have made no mention of it. They should have organized a fight a year and a half ago when your last contract expired. But instead, the union bureaucrats have been stringing you along because they dont care about you.

Theres a reason that 99.5 percent of you voted in favor of a strike. Everyone recognizes that conditions are simply intolerable. Your situation is like that of the workers at the auto parts companies Ventra and Tenneco. I am sure that your wages and theirs have similar buying power: in other words, its not enough to make ends meet. These are the conditions under capitalism. The system is organized to benefit billionaires like Rupert Murdoch, who owns HarperCollins, and Shahid Khan, who owns Ventra. The companies have plenty of moneyHarperCollins made record revenues last yearbut theyre not willing to pay workers. That cant be allowed to stand.

The UAW bears responsibility for this inequality because it is helping the companies to exploit workers. Right now, it is allowing our fellow members at Ventra and Tenneco to be isolated. And the UAWs bargaining terms are entirely separated from what workers need.

Thats why bargaining must be put into the hands of the workers. The result of closed-door negotiations is always a betrayal. The reason the UAW wants the doors closed is because nothing good is going on behind them. If it were, theyd be proud of it. Negotiations must be fully opened to HarperCollins workers.

When your contract expires, thats the signal to fight. No contract, no work. Your contract expired in December 2020 and was extended for a year. Extensions of outdated and undesirable contracts only benefit the company; they do not benefit the workers. The UAW is perfectly okay with that. Even when the extension expired last December, the UAW did not call a strike.

That is because when you strike, you dont have to pay dues. The bureaucrats are willing to do whatever is necessary to keep workers on the job and paying dues. Their number one priority is protecting that strike fund as if it were their own private property. But its not! Its workers dues money. As far as the UAW is concerned, the one-day strike that Local 2110 has called is just an effort to allow you to vent. It is not an effort to mount a real fight against HarperCollins. But you have bigger things in mind than that.

If the UAW were serious about representing you, it would conduct a strike for as long as necessary and back the strike financially. It would be providing you with every asset available, including opening up its $800 million strike fund, to help you win this fight. It would call out other UAW members and other workers to support you and broaden the strike as much as necessary to win.

But the unions not doing any of these things. On top of that, if you were on an indefinite strike, you would get $400 per week in strike pay. That certainly is not enough to live on in New York. When youre out on strike, the company gets full pay, and the UAW executives get full pay. The workers are the only ones who dont! This needs to change.

The UAW is not operating in your best interests, but you dont need to listen to their instructions about the right way to conduct a fight. Instead you need to take matters into your own hands. You should form a rank-and-file committee to conduct a real fight, independent of the bureaucracy and composed of rank-and-file workers.

This type of organization would provide you with the means to democratically control your own struggle, in opposition to the betrayals of the bureaucracy. It would also give you the means to appeal for broad, international support from workers all over the world. HarperCollins management is in touch with Murdoch in Australia, and theres no reason that you cant communicate with workers elsewhere as well. Knowledge of your fight needs to spread, because a lot of workers would support you if they knew about your situation. But this is not going to happen under the UAWs direction. Get in touch with other workers and get the word out.

The fight of workers anywhere is the concern of workers everywhere. An injury to one is an injury to all. The outcome of your struggle affects conditions for other workers, whether they realize it or not. You and I are in different industries, but we are all UAW members. But you cant keep relying on a union apparatus that has proven itself, time and time again, to be working against your interests. A fight needs to grow if its going to win. The only way your fight will be won is if you conduct it independently and to broaden it by reaching out to other workers.
"Como Gobierno, tienen todo el respaldo para seguir impulsando la seguridad de todos los peruanos", manifesto el presidente @PedroCastilloTe durante la ceremonia por el tercer aniversario del @COENPeru-Chorrillos y del Centro de Sensibilizacion, Simulacion y Capacitacion (CSSC). pic.twitter.com/w24a5kOxHU
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan sent a congratulatory letter to President of Colombia Ivan Duque Marquez on the occasion of the Independence Day, the Presidential Office said.

The letter reads:

I warmly congratulate you and the people of Colombia on the national day  the Independence Day.

Armenia attaches great importance to the further development and deepening of the relations with Colombia and is ready to make necessary efforts to expand the bilateral cooperation.

I believe that the cooperation between our countries will continue developing and expanding for the benefit of our peoples.

I wish you good health and success, and to the people of Colombia  peace and welfare.
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan visited the 2nd Army Corps on July 20. He was accompanied by the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Defense said in a press release.

Papikyan toured the military bases of the Army Corps and inspected the logistical works and the course of military training of the troops.

Minister Papikyan discussed with the command staff issues pertaining to strengthening of the personnels combat readiness, infrastructure modernization and improvement.

Then, the Minister of Defense visited the eastern borderline and inspected the works of equipping the frontline at military positions.

The commander of the military base reported on the implemented construction and reinforcement works at the frontline and the actions aimed at the security of the personnel.

Papikyan assured that all issues regarding ensuring frontline security will be properly studied and resolved.

During discussions with the command staff and on-duty servicemen, the Minister of Defense also addressed the ongoing reforms in the military, the programs related to social protection of servicemembers, and assured that these issues are always under the spotlight of the military-political leadership of the country.
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan received today the delegation of the German Bundestag led by Vice-President Katrin Goring-Eckardt, the Parliaments press service said.

The sides highly valued the sustainable development of the Armenian-German friendly relations and the deepening of inter-parliamentary cooperation.

The conversation focused on the necessity of multi-layered parliamentary cooperation and joint projects between the Armenian National Assembly and the German Bundestag.

Among EU states, Germany is Armenias largest trade partner. We also highly appreciate Germanys support to Armenias democratic agenda, Speaker Alen Simonyan said.

Issues relating to the post-war situation, the establishment of lasting peace in the region were discussed. The Speaker of Parliament said that Armenia is acting with an agenda to open a peaceful era in the region and is making efforts both in the direction of unblocking of regional infrastructures and transportation routes, and of delimitation and border security. He said Armenia has no territorial claims towards its neighbors.

The German Bundestag Vice-President said they closely follow the developments happening in the region and expressed confidence that peaceful negotiations are an effective mean to solve conflicts.

The sides also discussed practical issues relating to the organization of Christian Prayer Breakfast, a part of Germanys rich parliamentary tradition, as well as renewable energy-related matters.
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Newly appointed Ambassador of Albania to Armenia Luela Hajdaraga (residence in Athens, Greece) presented her credentials today to President Vahagn Khachaturyan, the Presidential Office said.

The Armenian President congratulated the Ambassador on appointment and wished a productive work.

In her turn the Ambassador of Albania thanked the Armenian President for the reception and stated that a big potential of educational, tourism and cultural cooperation exists between the two countries.

The sides exchanged ideas about the opportunities of developing the mutual partnership in commercial and educational-cultural spheres.
Crop One Holdings and Emirates Flight Catering announced this week they opened Emirates Crop One, what they say is the worlds largest vertical farm.

The over 330,000-square-foot facility is located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates near Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central. It has the capacity to produce over 2 million pounds of leafy greens annually.

The facility got its start in 2018 when Crop One, an indoor vertical farming company, and Emirates Flight, the airline Emirates catering arm, signed a $40 million joint venture to build Emirates Crop One. AgFunder reported the $40 million was a majority debt funded.

Dubbed ECO 1, the farm uses 95% less water than field-grown produce and is guaranteed an output of three tons per day, according to the companies. Passengers on Emirates and other airlines will be able to eat the leafy greens, which include lettuces, arugula, mixed salad greens and spinach on their flights starting this month.

Those local to the United Arab Emirates will be able to buy the produce at stores under the Bustanica brand. The greens require no pre-washing and are grown without pesticides, herbicides or chemicals.

We are proud to bring Crop Ones best-in-class technology to this innovative food production facility alongside our joint venture partner, said Craig Ratajczyk, CEO at Crop One., in a written statement. ECO 1 will address growing supply chain challenges and food security issues, while introducing millions of new consumers to the benefits of vertically farmed produce. Its our mission to cultivate a sustainable future to meet global demand for fresh, local food, and this new farm is the manifestation of that commitment. This new facility serves as a model for whats possible around the globe.

This is Crop Ones second vertical farm after its flagship facility in Millis, Massachusetts.

Emirates Crop One joins vertical farms being built all over the world. In May, Bowery Farms opened its vertical farm in Pennsylvania. Though it did not give a size for the facility, my colleague Brian Heater wrote that it was suspected to be 156,000 square feet. Earlier this year, Upward Farms was planning a 250,000-square-foot vertical farm, also in Pennsylvania, that was poised to open in mid-2023.
RENO, Nev.  The latest expense reports for state candidates in Nevada hold a familiar pattern: Incumbent Democrats raised more than their Republican opponents in every statewide race.

The reports give a glimpse into who has stakes in some of the tightest statewide elections in the country.

Nevada election blog: Lifelong GOP mayor crosses party lines to back Cortez Masto over Laxalt

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg and actress Kate Capshaw, who are married, each donated $10,000 to Democratic state Attorney General Aaron Fords campaign.

Nearly two-thirds of Republican Secretary of State candidate Jim Marchants funds this quarter came from himself.

Jonathan Soros, a billionaire investor whose family of influential donors have become the subject of far-right conspiracy theories, contributed to Democratic candidates for governor, secretary of state, attorney general and treasurer.

Perhaps most notably, a PAC supporting Nevada Democrats and founded by some in Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolaks 2018 campaign donated $685,000 to the Patriot Freedom Fund PAC  which ran ads in favor of far-right candidates and attacked Sisolaks challenger, Joe Lombardo, from the right.

Joe Lombardo, Clark County sheriff and a candidate for the Republican nomination for Nevada governor, stands on stage during a primary-night party, June 14, 2022, in Las Vegas. The latest expense reports for state candidates in Nevada hold a familiar pattern, incumbent Democrats raised more than their Republican opponents in every statewide race.

The donation, first reported by the Nevada Independent, follows a national trend of Democratic groups trying to influence GOP primary elections, funding far-right candidates who they may see as easier to beat in November than those with more mainstream views.

The expense reports, filed Friday, document fundraising and spending from April 1 to June 30.

Governor's race

Some of Sisolaks top donors include rideshare company Lyft, statewide utility NV Energy Inc., pharmaceutical firm Pfizer PAC, Womens Care Center for Nevada and Nevadans for Reliable Renewable Affordable Energy. Sisolak raised nearly $1.7 million through the quarter  more than double Lombardos $822,000.

In cumulative fundraising, Sisolak is leading Lombardo, with almost $3.3 million to $1.65 million.

Story continues

Yet Lombardo outspent Sisolak this quarter by just over $2 million.

Lombardos largest donor by far was aerospace company Bigelow Aerospace office, a Nevada-based outer space tech company that donated $5,000 a dozen times, often under similar names but all listing the corporate address in Las Vegas.

More: Joey Gilbert files suit over his own primary loss

Founder and CEO Robert Bigelow has contributed to several conservative campaigns and is Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' biggest donor. Bigelow also was a longtime donor and friend of Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, who used part of the Pentagon budget to look into UFOs after Bigelow approached him.

Lombardo also received large donations from the Nevada Auto Dealers Election Committee PAC and the Nevada Trucking Association.

With the GOP primary behind him, Lombardo has $1.2 million in his fund balance. Sisolak has almost $11 million.

Home Means Nevada PAC donated to influence the GOP primary in four increments in May and June. Elizabeth Ray, communications director for Lombardo, said in a tweet on Friday that the donations were shameful and embarrassing.

In May, the state GOP urged voters not to pay attention to American Freedom Fund advertisements and sent a cease-and-desist letter to the PAC after it sent mailers attacking Lombardo.

Down-ballot races

In the hotly-contested campaign for Nevada Secretary of State, Democrat Cisco Aguilar vastly outraised Republican Jim Marchant, particularly in larger donations.

Aguilar had 15 contributions of $10,000  all but one from out-of-state, including five from New York City. He also had another 15 contributors raise $5,000, though 13 of those were from out-of-state. Both David Rockefeller Jr. and Susan Rockefeller, who are married, donated $1,250 each to his campaign.

Meanwhile, Marchants nearly $164,000 self-contribution accounted for about 63% of his overall fundraising for the quarter.

Aguilar outraised Marchant this filing period $451,000 to $258,000. His balance sits at just over $859,000 compared with Marchants $15,000.

One of the starkest differences in fundraising comes from the Attorney Generals race, where incumbent Democrat Aaron Ford has outraised Republican challenger Sigal Chattah more than tenfold during the reporting period, $859,000 to $83,000.

Just over 15% of Chattahs fundraising this period is from $12,650 that she loaned to her campaign. Ford has about $2.3 million in his fund balance and Chattah has about $62,000.

In the state Treasurers race, Democratic incumbent Zach Conine received almost $209,000 this period  with hotels and casinos among his largest donors  and spent about $57,000.

Republican challenger Michele Fiore received about $159,000 and spent $168,000. Fiore currently sits on the Las Vegas City Council.

Conine has nearly $350,000 yet to spend, while Fiore has just over $17,400.

This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Incumbent Democrats lead GOP hopefuls in Nevada funds raised
Sarah Hyland says she hasnt decided if shell be taking her fiance Wells Adams last name when they tie the knot.

The 31-year-old actor talked about how her life may change after marriage during a recent interview with E! News Daily Pop. Hyland has been engaged to the 38-year-old reality star since 2019.

Hyland says that a marriage decision that she hasnt made yet is whether she wants to take her fiances last name since that was never a thing that her own parents did. Though, she confessed that there are some perks to being called Mrs Adams.

My mom didnt take my fathers last name, so thats never been a thing for me, the new Love Island USA host explained. I do like being called Mrs. Adams when were on vacation and stuff and if the reservations under his name, Im like, Oh my god, Im so cute. But I dont know. Havent decided on it.

She later joked that her married name does sound like a force to reckoned with and that it represents someone who went out in style.

Sarah Jane Adams sounds like a woman burned at the stake in Salem, with my bonnet and everything, she joked. She went out in style. She went out in flames.

Name change aside, the Modern Family star said her relationship wont undergo any big changes after walking down the aisle, given how long she and Adams have been together, which she believes is a good thing.

Weve been together for almost five years now, engaged for three, she said. And I think that is a good thing that after you get married, if nothing really big changes, it means that your relationship isyoure still keeping it fresh.

I truly think it will just be about paperwork and taxes, boring adult things, she added.

The singer recently took a trip to Punta Mita, Mexico for her bachelorette party alongside her bridal party, which includes Vanessa Hudgens.

I just have the greatest friends in the entire world. It was just truly, truly magical, Hyland recalled about her trip.

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Hyland and the Bachelor in Paradise bartender announced their engagement back in July 2019. Although the couple had their wedding ceremony set for August 2020, the occasion got postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

While its unclear when exactly Hyland and Adams are getting hitched, Hyland told E! News in November 2021 that she wanted to get married by the next year.

I would like next year. I know I said last year if were not getting married next year its never going to happen, but now Im saying that about next year, she explained at the time.

In January, she teased on Instagram that shed be walking down the aisle soon and shared photos with Adams on New Years Day, along with a caption that reads: 2022: The one where they finally get married.
GYUMRI, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Gyumri Vice Mayor Davit Arushanyan and the Mayor of the Russian city of Tver Alexey Ogonkov signed a cooperation agreement on July 20.

Under the agreement, Gyumri and Tver became sister cities.

Arushanyan presented to Ogonkov Gyumris potential and resources in culture, sport, IT, tourism and light industry.

He said that the agreement is the first step in strengthening the friendly relations between Gyumri and Tver.

Meetings and mutual-visits of delegations will be organized to coordinate partnership and exchange opinions on issues of mutual interest, consultations and negotiations will be held and if necessary working groups will be launched to cooperate in various areas, Arushanyan said, adding that they agreed to contribute to creating business ties between the two cities.

Mayor Ogonkov noted that the Armenian community has its contribution in the development of a number of areas in Tver, in person of the locals of Gyumri living in Tver.
Just 16 days after a man wielding an AR-15-style rifle allegedly killed seven people and injured more than 40 at a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, the town's mayor pleaded with Congress to pass a federal assault weapons ban, saying, "today is the day to start saving lives."

But Mayor Nancy Rotering quickly learned during her testimony Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee that enacting such a law will be a major challenge. Republican committee members -- including two from Texas, where on May 24 a gunman firing an AR-15-style rifle killed 19 students and two teachers -- argued that such a ban will not stop massacres and only infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens.

MORE: 5 manufacturers responsible for over half of guns seized in a dozen cities: Study

Rotering testified about being in the middle of the Independence Day shooting rampage. She graphically detailed the chaos, panic and bloodied bodies lying on the street of "an All-American Midwestern town," telling the committee, "I will be haunted forever."

Less than a minute is all it took for a person with an assault weapon to shoot 83 rounds into a crowd, forever changing so many lives," Rotering told the panel. "And the most disturbing part, this is the norm in our country."

PHOTO: Nancy Rotering, Mayor of Highland Park, Ill., speaks during a Judiciary Committee hearing on civilian access to military-style assault weapons in Washington, D.C, July 20, 2022. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA via Shutterstock)

She began her statement by describing a "perfect summer day" with 3,000 people lining the parade route, waving American flags and cheering the marching bands and colorful floats of her city's first post-pandemic Fourth of July Parade in two years.

"Music and cheering were all we could hear as we headed down the street," Rotering testified. "I looked left and waved to my husband in the crowd. What I didn't know at that moment was that just to my right on a one-story rooftop, a 21-year-old was preparing to traumatize my hometown forever with an assault weapon."

MORE: Jewish community in Highland Park grieves, takes action after mass shooting

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She said that as she and her city council colleagues headed down the parade route, she noticed that a marching band had gone silent and she heard a "tat, tat, tat" sound she initially mistook for a drum cadence.

"I then saw a sea of marching band members sprinting down the sidewalk, some with tubas entwined around their bodies," Rotering told the committee. "I realized later that the sound I heard wasn't drum cadence. It was the sound of an assault weapon."

She said she and her colleagues immediately started an emergency evacuation, screaming at paradegoers to run, repeatedly shouting, "shooter."

"Adults stared back, not comprehending," she said. "But the kids knew immediately this wasn't a drill and they yelled to everybody, 'run, hide.' They knew what was happening."

She said among those killed were Kevin and Irina McCarthy, who were at the parade with their 2-year-old son, Aiden. She said good Samaritans found the boy under his father's body.

Rotering also told the horrific story of 22-year-old Cassie Goldstein, who she says was forced to leave her mortally wounded mother, Katherine, behind as bullets rained down on the crowd.

"When the shooting stopped, Cassie returned to find her mother lifeless," said Rotering, as a group of Highland Park residents attending the hearing sat behind her.

She told the committee of hot shrapnel melting into the arms and legs of the victims.

"Highland Park had the uniquely American experience of a Fourth of July parade turned into what had now become a uniquely American experience of a mass shooting," Rotering said. "How do we call this freedom?"

MORE: What we know about the victims of the July 4 Highland Park parade shooting

She noted that in 2013 following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Middle School in Newtown, Connecticut, Highland Park passed a ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines, but lamented that local laws have little effect as long as such weapons are still being legally sold in neighboring Illinois towns.

"Local government cannot do this alone," Rotering said. "Congress must take action. You must federally ban assault weapons and large capacity magazines. Today is the day to save lives."

PHOTO: Law enforcement conduct a search after a mass shooting at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade in downtown Highland Park, Ill., a Chicago suburb on July 4, 2022. (Nam Y. Huh/AP, FILE)

But Rotering's plea was met with stiff resistance from Republican members of the committee, who uniformly agreed that renewing the federal assault weapons ban that was enacted in 1994 and expired in 2004, is not the answer to curbing mass shootings.

"These bans would be ineffective and not consistent with the right to self-defense," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "We also know restrictive gun control will hurt vulnerable communities that need to defend themselves against the horrible spike in violence."

Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both of Texas, agreed with Grassley, saying they support tougher laws that go after the perpetrators of the violence instead of the guns, which Cornyn described as "inanimate objects."

Cruz cited a shooting that occurred Sunday at a shopping mall in Greenwood, Indiana, in which three people were killed before an armed good Samaritan shot and killed the suspect who was firing an AR-15-style weapon.

"If the objective is to stop mass murderers, gun control doesn't work," Cruz said. "The state of Illinois has the strictest gun control laws of any state in the country, Highland Park has even stricter gun control laws than the state of Illinois. Consistently, if you look across the country with the jurisdictions with the strictest gun control laws, almost without exception, they have the highest crime rates and the highest murder rates."

In June, Congress a passed a bipartisan gun safety law, the first major piece of federal gun reform in almost 30 years, that was signed into law by President Joe Biden. The legislation -- which followed back-to-back mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York -- expands federal background checks for buyers under the age of 21, provides financial incentives for states to pass "red flag" laws and other intervention programs and closes the so-called "boyfriend loophole" denying people convicted of domestic violence access to firearms.

MORE: Highland Park alleged shooter's father says he is not culpable for son's attack

But Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, a retired military veteran, testified before the committee that banning AR-15-style rifles needs to be made a priority for Congress. She called the rifles "weapons of war" designed to kill and critically maim people far more efficiently than conventional semi-automatic firearms.

"The leading cause of death of Americans under the age of 16 in this country isn't cancer, isn't car accidents, it's gun violence. Only in America," Duckworth said. "I'm urging this committee to demonstrate courage in supporting a ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines."

Duckworth said that since the assault weapons ban expired, mass shootings in the United States have tripled. Mayor Rotering noted that Highland Park was the 309th mass shooting in the United States this year.

Sen. Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, ended the hearing by acknowledging the divisiveness of the debate over gun control.

"You saw a good illustration today of the political aspects of this issue involving guns, why we do so little," Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said. "Once every 30 years, were going to do a gun safety bill? God forbid if that is what happens."

Highland Park mayor calls on Congress to pass assault weapons ban originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A 2021 North Carolina bill would authorize deadly force to stop an abortion  but is not likely to see a vote

Activists march along Constitution Avenue to the US Supreme Court on May 14, 2022. Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post via Getty Images

A bill introduced in North Carolina would authorize the use of force against abortion providers and patients.

Proposed last year, the bill from Rep. Larry Pittman, a Republican, is unlikely to become law.

But abortion providers fear it legitimizes violence and could encourage threats against them.

A bill introduced last year in North Carolina is receiving fresh attention after critics noted that it would both define abortion as first-degree murder as well as authorize the use of deadly force to stop someone from terminating a pregnancy.

The legislation, filed by Republican state Rep. Larry Pittman in February 2021, is extremely unlikely to become law.

"A lot of my bills have not even been given a hearing," Pittman, a conservative gadfly who is retiring from politics, conceded at a sparsely attended rally for the legislation last fall.

That is true of HB 158. Republicans, who control the state legislature, have promised to take up further abortion restrictions in 2023, hoping by then to have a supermajority capable of overriding a veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

A constitutional amendment would require the same three-fifths supermajority in the legislature before being put to voters in a referendum.

Pittman's proposal is more extreme than even the total bans imposed in other states. HB 158 would amend North Carolina's constitution to assert that life begins at the "moment of fertilization"  and that a fetus can be protected with violence.

"Any person has the right to defend his or her own life or the life of another person, even by the use of deadly force if necessary, from willful destruction by another person," the bill states.

Pro-life demonstrators carry signs as they march January 23, 2006 in downtown Los Altos, California. Dozens of pro-life supporters from St. Nicholas Church marched to mark the 33rd anniversary of the supreme court decision to legalize abortion. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Abortion is still legal in North Carolina

Abortion is legal in North Carolina until the fetus reaches viability and in some cases even after.

On July 6, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order protecting out-of-state abortion patients from being extradited, as well as banning state agencies from assisting other states' in prosecuting those who travel for the procedure.

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"No bill related to abortion care as extreme as HB 158 has passed the state legislature in recent history, and we do not expect a bill like that to advance in the near future," Alison Kiser, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes South Atlantic, told Insider.

But, Kiser added, "this violent rhetoric by state political leaders perpetuates a chilling climate and encourages vigilantes to target and harass abortion providers."

History of violence

According to the National Abortion Federation, in 2021 there was a "significant increase" in assaults on abortion providers, as well as instances of stalking.

Since 1977, at least 11 people have been killed in attacks on abortion clinics.

In 2009, for example, George Tiller, an abortion doctor in Kansas, was assassinated while attending church in Wichita. In 2015, a gunman opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing three people.

In South Carolina, meanwhile, lawmakers on Tuesday debated extending criminal penalties  at least 10 years in prison  to those who terminate a pregnancy, equating it with homicide.

"If we would prosecute someone for shooting an infant in the face, we should prosecute them for torturing their child to death in the womb," state Rep. Josiah Magnuson, a Republican, argued, according to local television station WIS.

Read the original article on Insider
The conventional wisdom about the Jan. 6 committee hearings was that no single revelation was going to change Republican minds about Donald Trump.

What happened instead, a slow drip of negative coverage, may be just as damaging to the former president. Six weeks into the committees public hearing schedule, an emerging consensus is forming in Republican Party circles  including in Trumps orbit  that a significant portion of the rank-and-file may be tiring of the non-stop series of revelations about Trump.

The fatigue is evident in public polling and in focus groups that suggest growing Republican openness to an alternative presidential nominee in 2024. The cumulative effect of the hearings, according to interviews with more than 20 Republican strategists, party officials and pollsters in recent days, has been to at least marginally weaken his support.

It is definitely kind of this wet drip of, do you really want to debate the 2020 election again? Do you really want to debate what happened on Jan. 6? said Bob Vander Plaats, the evangelical leader in Iowa who is influential in primary politics in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. Frankly, I think what I sense a little bit, even among some deep, deep Trump supporters  theres a certain exhaustion to it.

Trumps public approval rating among Republicans remains high as he prepares for a widely expected run for president again in 2024. He still tops most primary polls, and Republicans largely havent been persuaded by much of what the Jan. 6 committee is doing. They were more likely last month than last year  before the hearings began  to describe the events of Jan. 6 as a legitimate protest.

But for many Republicans, the ongoing, backward-looking call-and-response between the committee and Trump may nevertheless be getting old.



I think what everybody thought was that the first prime-time hearing was such a non-event that that would continue, said Randy Evans, a Georgia lawyer who served as Trumps ambassador to Luxembourg. But over the course of the hearings, the steadiness, the repetitiveness, has had a corrosive effect. Youd have to be oblivious to the way media works, the way reputations work, the way politics works, to not understand that its never the one thing. Its the accumulation.

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Evans said, This is all undoubtedly starting to take a toll  how much, I dont know. But the bigger question is whether it starts to eat through the Teflon. There are some signs that maybe it has. But its too early to say right now.

For more than a year after Trump lost the presidential election, his political durability was not even in question. But the committee hearings appear to have had an effect on Trumps enormous fundraising operation, which has slowed in recent months. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who may run in 2024, has been gaining on Trump in some polls, including in New Hampshire, the first primary state, where one recent survey had DeSantis statistically tied with Trump among Republican primary voters. Republicans are still poring over a New York Times/Siena College poll last week that showed nearly half of Republican primary voters would rather vote for a Republican other than Trump in 2024.

In a series of focus groups with 2020 Trump supporters from across the country since the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2001, Sarah Longwell, a moderate Republican strategist who became a vocal supporter of Joe Biden in 2020, for more than a year found about half of participants consistently said they wanted Trump to run again. But that number has fallen off since the hearings began, she said.

Weve had now three focus groups where zero people have wanted him to run again, and a couple other groups where its been like two people, Longwell said. Totally different.

The Trump supporters in her focus groups are still dismissive of the hearings, Longwell said, and I dont think people are sitting down and being persuaded by them.

However, she said, the hearings have turned the volume up on the Trump baggage.

The other thing, she said, is I cannot tell you how much these Republican voters want to move on from the conversation of January 6th.

Political Theater

Thats a far cry from the Republican view of the hearings when they started: Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) derided what he called a prime-time dud. Jim Justice, the Republican governor of West Virginia, dismissed them as political theater. And Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri called them a complete waste of time.

One reason that the hearings are resonating now is that even if Republicans dont agree with the committees findings, they read polls. The percentage of Republicans who say Trump misled people about the 2020 election has ticked up since last month, while a majority of Americans say Trump committed a crime. Perhaps most problematic for Trump, 16 percent of Republicans in the Siena College survey said they would vote for someone else in the general election or arent sure what they will do in 2024 if Trump is the nominee.

Thats a relatively small segment of the Republican electorate, but a critical one in competitive states that will decide which party controls the White House.

I think youre starting to see the impact of the hearings, and just overall his behavior since he lost the election, said Dick Wadhams, a former Colorado Republican Party chair and longtime party strategist.

Hes got a hard-core base, and theres no doubt about that, said Wadhams. I voted for him twice, I loved his accomplishments. But I do think hes compromised himself into a situation where it would be very difficult for him to win another election for president.

Electability concerns may loom especially large this year for Republicans, who view Biden as a beatable incumbent. His cratering public approval ratings, now hovering below 39 percent, are worse than Trumps at this point in his presidency. One senior House Republican aide described the resonance of the Jan. 6 committee hearings as in part a product of the contrast they are drawing between a golden opportunity to win back the White House in 2024 and the only person who might not be able to do it.

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Trump has regularly criticized the committees work as a partisan exercise. And because most other Republicans view it that way, too, its unlikely that many of Trumps opponents will leverage the committees revelations explicitly in the run-up to 2024.

Proxy wars

Still, the Republicans who may run against Trump in 2024 are increasingly breaking with him as the midterm year drags on.

On Friday, former Vice President Mike Pence will campaign in Arizona for gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson, while Trump that same day appears in the presidential swing state for Robsons rival for the GOP nomination, former TV news anchor Kari Lake. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, among others, have split with Trump in midterm endorsements in other states. So has outgoing Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who engaged in proxy war with Trump in the gubernatorial primary held Tuesday in Hogans home state.

As much has anything, those midterm primaries  coinciding with the Jan. 6 committee hearings  have laid bare the willingness of Republicans in at least some cases to disassociate their adoration for Trump with support for him politically. Trumps endorsement has pulled Republicans across the line in competitive primaries in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania, but his chosen candidates have flopped in other races, including in Georgia and Nebraska.

The effect of the hearings will be negligible on Trumps favorable ratings among Republicans, said Whit Ayres, the longtime Republican pollster. The Always Trumpers and the Maybe Trumpers are resolute in their insistence that they are paying no attention whatsoever to the hearings. Its almost an article of faith among Republicans to say, I am not paying attention to these hearings.

However, Ayres said, The way it translates is that they believe that other candidates will carry less baggage  and that gets reinforced by what seeps into the political water from these hearings.

And as the Jan. 6 committee prepares for another hearing on Thursday, the ongoing focus on Trumps behavior on Jan. 6 is now in the political waters.

John Thomas, a Republican strategist who works on House campaigns across the country, said that in recent conversations with state party chairs and Republican activists in numerous states, almost to the T, and I dont really care what state its in, they all say, Love Trump, love his policies, wish he would just be a kingmaker. And thats really a shift, because six months ago, a year ago, it was, Trumps got to run again, hes the only one who can fight the swamp, drive the policy agenda.

Its not Trump hatred, Thomas added. Its Trump fatigue. I think [the Jan. 6 committee hearings] reminds people to the degree that theyre tuning in that, eh, is this that important of an issue? No. But damn  And then Trump goes on his rants and its like, Were tired of it.
Reuters

Ukrainian refugees forcibly taken to Russia after the full-scale invasion of their home country on Feb. 24 have described a campaign of psychological terror reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps.

In an extensive investigation by the Associated Press published Wednesday, refugees recalled harrowing scenes from the filtration points Ukrainians are forced to go through by Russian authorities: strip searches, beatings, and in one case, an elderly woman literally freezing to death in a tent that reeked of corpses due to its proximity to a Mariupol mass grave.

With nearly 2 million Ukrainians forcibly deported to Russia, many of them were stripped of their identity documents and sent to remote areas of Russia where they have no family, no means of support, and little hope of ever returning home.

Some of the refugees said they were literally tricked into making the journey, while others were made to believe it was their only chance of survival.

This is some kind of incomprehensible lotterywho decides where and what, Ivan Zavrazhnov, a Ukrainian who was taken to Russia before escaping to Estonia, told the AP.

You understand that you are going, as it were, into the mouth of a bear... an aggressor state, and you end up on this territory.... I did not have the feeling that I was safe in Russia, he said.

While Russia has framed the forced deportation as a humanitarian effort to rescue Ukrainian citizens from supposed Nazis, many refugees have said it was clear they were being used merely as pawns for such Kremlin propaganda, with some being forced to sign written testimonials accusing Ukrainian forces of war crimes.

Dmitriy Zadoyanov, a refugee from Mariupol, told the AP that after he was interrogated and his phone searched, an undisclosed Russian state television channel tried to scoop him up to get him to say negative things about Ukrainians. While he refused, he said he saw child refugees who were just arriving in Russia being greeted by people with cameras who asked them to talk about how Ukraine was killing its own citizens.

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It was 100 percent a tactical pressure. Why children? Because it is much easier to manipulate them, he said.

Russian authorities also used such psychological games to keep Ukrainians from trying to return home, telling them they would be viewed as traitors for having been on enemy territory and sentenced to prison time.

Ukrainian authorities have warned that many of those forcibly taken to Russian territory are children who were either separated from their parents or orphaned by Russias war.

Disturbingly, Russia has boasted of its own efforts to adopt these children out to Russian families, with President Vladimir Putin promising in early June to find new loving families for Ukrainian orphans.

In addition to the Ukrainians whove been swept away to Russia, Ukrainian authorities say tens of thousands also remain in captivity at Russian filtration camps in occupied territories.

Vadym Boichenko, the mayor of Mariupol, said at a briefing Tuesday that more than 10,000 Ukrainian captives are being held at filtration camps in and around the port city.

He said nearly 2,000 Ukrainian men were being held at one center, a move he said was likely tied to Russian efforts to shore up more troops as part of a forced mobilization: We understand why they are doing this. They have declared that some time in September they will give out these papers that they call Russian passports. And that is immediately a ticket to the front.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Ukraine wants more firepower for its fight against Russia, and it's inviting arms makers to test their weapons there

A rocket is launched from a truck-mounted multiple rocket launcher near Svyatohirsk, eastern Ukraine, on May 14, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo by YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images

Ukraine's defense minister is inviting arms manufactures to test new weapons on the battlefield.

Oleksii Reznikov said the country still needs more firepower to fight Russian troops.

He said US-provided long-range weapons systems have "significantly slowed" Putin's forces.

Ukraine's defense minister said the country still needs more firepower to push back Russian troops and offered the battlefield to be a testing ground for arms manufacturers.

"Ukraine is now essentially a testing ground," Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a Tuesday conversation with the DC-based think tank Atlantic Council when asked what the country has learned from weapons delivered from the West.

"Many weapons are now getting tested in the field, in the real conditions of the battle against the Russian army, which has plenty of modern systems of its own," he added, citing electronic warfare, air defense systems, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles.

Reznikov said Ukraine is sharing information with all its Western partners and added that the military is "interested in testing modern systems" in the ongoing five-month-long war against Russia. He said Ukraine is now "inviting arms manufactures to test their new products" on the battlefield.

"I think for our partners in Poland, in the United States, in France, or Germany, it's a good chance to test the equipment," he said. "Or, our Turkey partners."

"Give us the tools  we will finish the job," he said.

Since Russian troops invaded on February 24, Western countries have slowly but steadily delivered various weapons requested by Ukraine. The extensive list includes drones, Howitzer artillery systems, helicopters, small arms, personnel carriers, ammunition, and anti-tank missiles.

Military experts and world leaders have said that Ukrainian success hinges on Western support  including economic sanctions and the continuation of weapons deliveries.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have praised the recent arrival of long-range weapons systems, like the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as an effective counter to Russian troop movement in the eastern Donbas region, the campaign's main theater.

"This has significantly slowed down the Russian advance and dramatically decreased" the frequency of artillery shelling, Reznikov said. "So it's working."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Iowans receiving unemployment payments will need to resume required reports of their search for work next week after the restoration of a cyberattacked website.

Iowa Workforce Development announced in a news release Monday that users can once again access Iowaworks.gov. A vendor took down the website June 26 after noticing the attack.

Most Iowa unemployment claimants must log four "reemployment activities" a week on Iowaworks.gov to receive weekly payments. The activities range from submitting job applications to writing a resume with a career counselor.

When the vendor took down the website, Iowa Workforce Development suspended the job search requirement. The agency will resume checking claimants' activity next week, with beneficiaries filing reports of this week's job searches.

More: Iowa unemployment benefits cut by 10 weeks after Kim Reynolds signs bill

Iowa Workforce Development and the website's vendor, Florida-based Geographic Solutions, say the hackers did not obtain consumers' or users' information.

The attack came during an usually quiet period for the state's unemployment division. Since May 1, fewer than 8,000 Iowans have filed continuing unemployment claims every week. The state had never seen fewer than 8,000 continuing claims in a single week, according to U.S. Department of Labor records that date to 1987.

The low period peaked during the week that ended May 28, when 5,974 workers filed claims, according to Iowa Workforce Development.

More: Iowa unemployment improves to 2.7% in May, despite indication of job losses

The low numbers have come amid a strong market for workers. Iowa employers reported 131,000 job openings in April.

Before the pandemic, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state's record for job openings occurred in December 2018, when Iowa employers reported trying to fill 84,000 positions.

Tyler Jett covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at tjett@registermedia.com, 515-284-8215, or on Twitter at @LetsJett.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa unemployment, job search operating again after cyberattack
Republican Rep. Chris Jacobs of New York. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Chris Jacobs nixed his reelection bid after announcing support for a ban on military-style rifles.

No longer facing GOP primary voters, Jacobs says his party needs a leader other than Trump.

He said Trump "lost his mind" after the 2020 election, despite voting against certifying the results.

Republican Rep. Chris Jacobs of New York said President Donald Trump "lost his mind" after losing the 2020 presidential election and that the party needed a "new generation of leadership" in 2024.

Jacobs was one of 147 congressional Republicans who voted to object to the certification of some states' 2020 election results, though he voted in favor of establishing a bipartisan commission to investigate January 6, 2021.

Now the retiring House Republican  who no longer has to face GOP primary voters  is speaking out more forcefully against Trump.

"I just think his judgment from Election Day to January 6 was  I just think he lost his mind," Jacobs told The Buffalo News, referring to Trump. "I really do. I just do."

He pointed to the 1960 presidential election  when John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, narrowly prevailed over Richard Nixon, a Republican  as a model for how Trump should have behaved.

Video: A mother and daughter stopped speaking after Trump's election

"Most people agree that there was fraud in that race," Jacobs told the outlet, referring to doubts about the validity of that election. "Did they know back then? Oh, absolutely."

He added that "even Richard Nixon" didn't attempt to do what Trump did and that he "came back and fought another day."

He also told The Buffalo News that it would be "best for the party if we embrace the new generation of leadership" and that "a lot" of Trump's accomplishments were "undone" by his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, which culminated in the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

Jacobs, first elected in a 2020 special election, abandoned his reelection bid this year. He faced backlash for his embrace of a ban on military-style rifles after a mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store in May.

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"It would be an incredibly divisive election for both the Republican Party and the people of the 23rd District," he said at a press conference announcing his decision, adding: "The last thing we need is an incredibly negative half-truth-filled media attack funded by millions of dollars of special-interest money coming into our community around this issue of guns and gun violence and gun control."

Congressman Chris Jacobs @RepJacobs just announced he will not run for election in NY-23 after losing support from Republicans and Conservatives for making remarks a week ago in support of a federal assault weapons ban. pic.twitter.com/R0PbCT2jfL  Ryan Whalen (@RyanWhalenCT) June 3, 2022

Jacobs was among the 14 House Republicans who voted in favor of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a package of gun restrictions passed in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. He voted for other Democratic-proposed gun restrictions that have not been taken up by the Senate.

The New York Republican told The Buffalo News that he'd been following the January 6 committee's public hearings and would be speaking out again after the committee issued a final report.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Jul. 19After the desecration of more than 100 headstones at two Lebanon cemeteries, city officials are picking up the pieces.

Local authorities arrested two Lebanon men in connection to the vandalism. Justin Emler, 31, and Jeremy Heaton, 23, were charged with vandalism over $60,000 for their role in the destruction that took place at Cedar Grove Cemetery and Wilson County Memorial Gardens Cemetery on South Maple Street.

On Monday, Lebanon Commissioner of Public Works Jeff Baines and Cedar Grove Cemetery Manager Sam Crutcher laid out a game plan for identifying the headstones and notifying loved ones of the damage.
Then President Donald Trump poses for a picture with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019. AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File

Trump and his allies have been blasting the Biden administration for selling oil to China.

However, reports show that Trump did the same thing in 2017 while he was president.

Records show the Trump administration sold 550,000 barrels of crude oil to PetroChina that year.

While former President Donald Trump and his allies have been blasting the Biden administration for selling oil to China, reports show that Trump did the same thing in 2017 while in the White House.

In Trump's first year as president, the Department of Energy sold 550,000 barrels from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve  or SPR  to PetroChina, a state-owned energy giant and China's largest oil producer, Axios' Sophia Cai first reported.

Reuters and S&P Global reports show that the 2017 deal was made for $28.8 million, priced at $52.30 per barrel.

A press release from the Department of Energy also confirms that PetroChina was one of the buyers of American oil in 2017.

On July 11, the Biden administration announced that it had sold 950,000 barrels to Unipec, a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned oil and gas enterprise Sinopec. It was part of a broader strategy that uses US reserves to counter a global crude oil shortage stemming from the Ukraine war's economic fallout, the Department of Energy said.

The outrage leveled at Biden partially stems from his son, Hunter Biden, previously having ties with China's Sinopec through investment fund company BHR Partners.

It's not clear whether Hunter Biden is still involved with Sinopec. His spokesperson told The New York Times in November that he no longer had any financial interest in BHR Partners, though The Washington Examiner later claimed to have seen records that show the younger Biden still owns a minority stake in the firm.

The White House and a representative for Hunter Biden did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

However, much of the GOP's criticism of Biden's deal has centered on the oil going to China.

Story continues

Trump told Breitbart earlier this month that it was "inconceivable" that China was "getting millions of barrels of oil from us and we're the ones in shortage."

When asked if he felt Biden's deal was "a scandal worthy of investigation," the former president said he thought it was "certainly strange" for the oil to be going to China.

Former Vice President Mike Pence also tweeted that the sale was "an outrage."

On July 13, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley called for an investigation into the Biden administration's oil sale. "Critically, the American people deserve answers as to how exactly the Department justified sending oil from the SPR to China," his statement read.

Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and John Kennedy of Louisiana also introduced legislation this month that would prevent American oil from being sold to China or other US enemies and rivals.

"It is reckless and inexplicable that President Biden would allow oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to be exported to China," Cruz wrote, calling it a threat to US national security.

Robert McNally, a top adviser on international energy policy to former President George Bush, told Axios that Trump's and Biden's sales of oil to China are "a nothingburger."

"Whether a refiner turns it into gasoline in Louisiana or the Mediterranean or the East China Sea doesn't matter because oil sloshes around the world and it all kind of is one big market and one big price," McNally said, per the outlet.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A school district in Georgia had to pause the rollout of a new logo after it triggered outrage among parents for apparent similarities to a Nazi symbol.

The Cobb County School District issued a clarification on Tuesday and said that it has halted the distribution of the logo for East Side Elementary School in Marietta.

The new logo depicted an eagle, which is the schools mascot, over the schools initials ES.

Parents pointed out that the logo bore resemblance to the Nazi eagle. Developed originally by the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1920, the logo showed an eagle holding a swastika in its talons and eventually became a symbol for white supremacists.

The school district, which is the second-largest in Georgia, said they were immediately reviewing needed changes in the school logo.

We understand and strongly agree that similarities to Nazi symbolism are unacceptable, although this design was based on the US Army colonels eagle wings, stakeholder input has been and continues to be important to our schools, the statement said.

Parents were issued notification of the new logo on Monday, saying it was chosen to represent the eagle soaring into excellence and to honour the history of our great school.

Several people took objection to the logo by the East Side Elementary School, which is located across the street from the Etz Chaim Synagogue.

Presenting, from the district that last week approved armed personnel in schools who are designated by the superintendent, a new logo for a nearby elementary school.



Fix this, @CobbSchools, and apologize. pic.twitter.com/kD9H0ouLpt  Sara Tindall Ghazal (@TindallSara) July 19, 2022

I dont want to see my kids wearing that on their shirt, Mike Albuquerque, the father of two students who will attend the school next year, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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Really its a big oversight of the county and everyone involved in the process who reviewed that, to not call out the fact that this looks like Nazi iconography. Or maybe, who knows, somebody did call it out and it wasnt heard.

Rbbi Amanda Flaks told WSB-TV she had to look twice at the design and it made her uncomfortable.

I thought, That looks off. That makes me uncomfortable, and I came back to it a few times and I felt more and more uncomfortable and sick each time, Ms Flaks said, adding that she contacted the school to raise her objections.

She said she was hurt to see it because my children are great grandchildren of someone who fled the Nazi regime in Germany and survived the Holocaust.

This is not the first time the school district has got embroiled in an antisemitism controversy.

Last year, anti-Semitic graffiti was found daubed on a boys bathroom wall during the most important holiday period of the Jewish faith at the Alan C Pope High School in Marietta. Two swastikas and hail [sic] Hitler graffiti were found on the wall, with the administration ordering an investigation.

Several Cobb middle school students were disciplined earlier this year for sharing antisemitic imagery on social media.

Noting the rise in such incidents, Dov Wilker, director of the American Jewish Committee Atlanta region, said: Pretending that antisemitism doesnt exist wont make it go away. The children who attend Cobb County schools  and their families  deserve better.
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. On September 5-10 Armenia will turn into a platform uniting world-renowned scientists, astronauts and artists, by hosting the STARMUS international festival.

In order to assist the development of science, technologies and art directions, Team Telecom Armenia, a leading company in the field of telecommunications, has announced about the partnership with STARMUS.

By assisting STARMUS we assist popularization of science in our country and inspire the youth to take more active and courageous steps. I hope this festival will become one of the symbolic events of the revival of science in independent Armenia, by restoring our reputation in the field of astronomy in the future, Team Telecom Armenia General Director Hayk Yesayan said.

The festival, entitled STARMUS VI: 50 Years on Mars will be dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first landing of MARS 3 on Mars. Its worth noting that Mars 3 brought the first rover, Prop-M, of renowned Armenian engineer Aleksandr Kemurdzhian, to the surface of Mars.

I welcome Team Telecom Armenia within the frames of our festival and as an Armenian I am happy to have the first Armenian company among the international partners that has joined the festival as one of the main partners by attaching importance to the science popularization for Armenia. STARMUS is an unprecedented international event and here, in Armenia, we are going to provide a science holiday to the public and guests, STARMUS festival co-founder Garik Israelian said, commenting on the launch of the partnership.

Around 50 world-renowned scientists, Nobel Prize winners, engineers and astronauts, musicians and artists will attend the festival in Armenia. The festival agenda includes conferences, seminars, multiple cultural events, scientific camps, including outside Yerevan.

STARMUS festival was founded by astrophysicist Garik Israelian and musician, astrophysicist, the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen, Brian May. The festival has been held in Spain, Norway and Switzerland since 2011. The festival is the only one in the world having so many events and speakers.
Even as the United States reeled from the Japanese advance throughout the Pacific in 1942 and the military sought desperately to ramp up the American war machine, it was remarkable that James Cook Sr. was even allowed to enlist.

It took the existential threat of world war for the military to open new roles to African American men, and Cook was in the first wave of Black Marines. Cook started his military journey at Camp Montford Point, a segregated Marine training camp in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and went on to serve in the Pacific Theater.

Growing up, James Jimmy Cook Jr., who is now 75 and a Knoxville resident, knew nothing about his father's storied place in history as one of the Montford Point Marines, who served in all-Black units and distinguished themselves in war.

Now, Jimmy Cook will receive on his father's behalf the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can award for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions.

The Montford Point Marines were awarded the honor in 2012 after President Barack Obama announced the group distinction in 2011, noting the members' personal sacrifice during World War II. But Cook Sr. had passed away at 81 in 2005, and it was only recently that Jimmy Cook learned what his father was due.

You know when I found this out, I knew he had done some amazing things, but that just topped it for me. I'm like, 'Oh, my God,' he told Knox News.

Jimmy Cook, himself a retired Army veteran who served in Vietnam, will travel to a ceremony set for Aug. 25 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, during the 57th annual Montford Point Marines Day. Other Montford Marines or their families will be presented the award as well.

Hidden history

It wasnt until Jimmy Cook was in high school in the early '60s that he stumbled upon a trunk in the attic filled with military uniforms and awards. He asked his dad if he was in the Army.

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And he said, No son, I was in the Marines. And that was the end of it, Jimmy recalled.

Jimmy says his dad kept his thoughts and memories of his military service to himself. The only thing he would say is that he was stationed in the Pacific.

Jimmy Cook, holding his Army uniform in his North Knoxville home, plans to accept a Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of his late father, James Cook Sr., who was among the first African Americans to serve in the Marine Corps.

Then, in 2021, Jimmy was casually talking to a retired Marine who revealed to Jimmy about his father's forgotten Congressional Gold Medal.

Jimmy began doing online research on Camp Montford Point and requested his fathers military records to verify he was one of the Montford Marines. Reduced staffing due to COVID-19 caused delays in securing the records, but Jimmys sister made her own discovery while cleaning out their moms garage.

She gave me this big envelope with all of his records in it and I just about went to tears, Jimmy recalled.

'A very patient man'

James Cook Sr. was kind and soft-spoken. But in hindsight, there were glimmers of his military background, Jimmy said, describing his father as a disciplinarian who was sometimes severe in his delivery.

I tell people, by the time I got to basic training in '65, I thought it was Girl Scouts compared to dealing with my daddy. But like I said, he was a very patient man, Jimmy joked.

A photo of Jimmy Cook lies next to a photo of his father, the late James Cook Sr.

Living in Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife, Earline, and five kids, Cook Sr. worked as an electrician and owned a television and radio repair shop. He was using skills he had learned from the Marines, where he served as a radar operator.

But Jimmy has come to learn more of what his father carried with him after the Marine Corps.

Twenty thousand Black Marines are estimated to have trained at Camp Montford Point between 1942 and 1949, according to miliary.com. The site was decommissioned after President Harry Truman ordered the military be integrated, which was met with resistance and discrimination.

(The Montford Marines) caught hell because they were the first to integrate. And they stuck them in the back of Parris Island and made them build their own barracks. It was just God awful, Jimmy said.

As Jimmy has learned more about his father's experience, his respect for the man has grown even more.

Jimmy Cook points out karate achievements he has been awarded over his lifetime.

My chest sticks out a block away. I'm just so proud of him and to know what he endured and went through, he said.

Jimmy wishes his dad was able to receive the medal himself, but he is honored to accept it on his behalf.

James Cook Sr. will hold the same honor as the Tuskegee Airmen; the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King; and George Washington, who was the first to receive the Congressional Gold Medal in 1776. One hundred and eighty individuals, institutions and events have been awarded the medal.

Because thousands of Black Marines trained at the segregated camp, Montford Point survivors and their descendants are still being tracked down and notified their loved ones are recipients of a Congressional Gold Medal.

Devarrick Turner: Covering trending news, from pop culture to politics in East TN

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: James Cook Sr. won Congressional Gold Medal as a Montford Point Marine
Jul. 20GOSHEN  Goshen City Council members Monday threw their support behind state legislation calling for the establishment of a driver card program for undocumented Indiana residents.

At their meeting, council members voted 6-0 in favor of a new resolution endorsing and urging passage of the state legislation, which is currently being put forward as Senate Bill 200.

The proposed legislation is authored by Indiana senators David Niezgodski, D-District 10; Mark Messmer, R-District 48; and Blake Doriot, R-District 12.

Given that his district represents portions of Elkhart County, Doriot was present at Monday's meeting to speak on behalf of the legislation and urge the council's support.

"The first point I want to get across is that this ID cannot  will not  and won't be accepted as voting ID," Doriot said. "I hear that. I do not want that. You must be a citizen of the United States to vote, and I am firmly committed to that, and I will pull the bill if that somehow gets on there. What this does is, if you are an immigrant, and you are undocumented, you may apply for a driver's card. This is not a license. It is a card. It is not good outside of the boundary of the state of Indiana."

As written, SB 200 states that "an individual who is an Indiana resident and cannot provide proof of identity and lawful status in the United States may apply for a driving card learner's permit and driving card to obtain driving privileges."

The legislation also notes that such driving card learner's permits or driving cards:

May not be used for federal identification or any other federal purpose;

Will require an individual who holds a driving card learner's permit or driving card and operates a motor vehicle to verify and continuously maintain insurance on any motor vehicle the holder operates in the amount required by law; and

Cannot be used by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to disclose certain information connected to the cardholders unless presented with a lawful court order or judicial warrant.

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STATEWIDE SUPPORT

"I was amazed at the extent of the support I've been getting," Doriot said when speaking to the legislation's reception around the state. "I've got a lot of support from the Hispanic/Latino community. I get a lot of support from the industrialists. I get a lot of support from commercial people. I got support from the insurance industry. I've got support from the prosecutors. I have support from several police departments."

In order to get the card, applicants will need to present various documentation such as proof of Indiana residency, proof of employment, and proof of previous driving experience, Doriot explained.

Should an applicant be unable to prove previous driving experience, they will then be required to go through the same process as is used to obtain an Indiana driver's license.

"You're a student driver, and you're treated as a student driver," Doriot said of the process. "And after you get the 50 hours, 10 of which must be at nighttime, whatever, then you may apply for a standard driver's card that will be treated as regular driving privileges."

For his part, Goshen Mayor Jeremy Stutsman noted that he, too, has long been advocating for such a driver's card program for undocumented Indiana residents, and strongly supports SB 200.

"This is something that I've been working on off and on, just talking to state leaders down at the state, and then also other groups, including Clerk-Treasurer (Richard) Aguirre, since about 2016 or 2017," Stutsman said. "And I just want to state, too, that  as well as this resolution, which Sen. Doriot has asked for some support, so we came up with the idea of a resolution  the second idea was that I would write a letter of support from mayors, and ask mayors in Indiana to sign on to it.

"We're still gathering signatures  just started last week  but I just wanted to give you an idea that there are roughly 122 mayors in the state of Indiana, and as of this morning, I have 40 mayors that are going to be signing this letter," he added. "I'm expecting more to come over this next week. And out of that 40  just to show you that this is not a liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat thing  out of that 40 mayors who have agreed to sign with me, only 16 of those are Democrats."

NUMEROUS BENEFITS

While acknowledging that not everyone in the state who is undocumented will want to sign up for the new driver's card, Doriot noted that the primary goals of the new card include increased traffic safety through driver education, increased insurability of drivers, as well as the economic benefits resulting from the removal of barriers for workers getting to and from work in the state.

"Not everybody is going to use this  that's fine," Doriot said. "But when I talk to the prosecutors, when I talk to police officers, they say, 'It gives us something.' A police officer can do a stop, and the individual will have a driver's card. Odds are, he's not going to run. He's got a driver's card. The police officer can see that he is attempting to drive legally. He'll have insurance. If he doesn't have insurance, (the card is) revoked."

Speaking to his district specifically, Doriot noted that District 12 currently boasts a Latino/Hispanic population of about 24%.

"That's a big number," Doriot said. "Now, the vast majority of them  and it's getting smaller all the time  are legal citizens. But there are quite a few that are here without documentation, and they are participating in society."

Following his presentation, Mayor Stutsman thanked Doriot for his work on SB 200.

"I think this is a big step for all the residents, our community members here in Goshen  I really appreciate this effort here," Stutsman said. "The senator nailed it. It's about traffic safety, insurance, economic benefits, and law enforcement having more information. So, yeah, thank you for your work on this, and we appreciate it. And I agree with you that these should not be turned into anything for use of voting."

Council member Julia King, D-At Large, shared her input as well.

"I think this makes a lot of sense," King said. "I can't imagine why we don't want people on our roads being skilled drivers, and insured."

Clerk-Treasurer Aguirre offered a similar sentiment in voicing his support for the legislation.

"It's really wonderful to see an issue that's not being put on partisan terms, but that's being put on human terms to help people who live in Goshen, and who are just trying to make a living," Aguirre said. "I think this is a very encouraging thing."

The council's members agreed, and a motion to approve the resolution supporting the driver's card legislation was passed in a vote of 6-0 in favor.

A MATTER OF TRUST

Following Monday's vote, Mayor Stutsman acknowledged that should it eventually be implemented by the state, participation in the new driver's card program will require a lot of trust on the part of those undocumented residents who ultimately sign up for the service.

"The advocates that I've talked to from the grassroots side of things over the last few years, and then also some of the state officials that have been involved in this, they've been very upfront that some people are really going to want this, and appreciate it, and that others will have nervous tendencies of whether it's something they want to sign up for or not," Stutsman said. "And so, until you get the program going, and see how it operates, it's kind of hard to know how many are actually going to jump to utilize this."

Stutsman also noted that the federal government has been very specific about the fact that local governments have nothing to do with immigration.

"So, what we're trying to do locally and at the state level is, we don't have a say in immigration, but we do deal with any of the issues in our communities that the immigration laws that exist  or don't exist  create," Stutsman said. "So, this is our way of attempting to make things a little bit easier and better for everyone, since we don't have a voice with the actual immigration laws.

"My hope would be that the state would design something that is safe, and that can be trusted, and I'm sure that that's a big piece of what they're going to want to do," he added. "Because if it's not safe, then there's no reason for anybody to sign up for it, and then there's a lot of work that didn't result in any benefits."

John Kline can be reached at john.kline@goshennews.com or 574-533-2151, ext. 240315. Follow John on Twitter @jkline_TGN.
Qatar Airways CEO blames a WFH 'epidemic' for the travel chaos and says people have figured out how to make 'easy money' from their homes

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said a work-from-home "epidemic" is contributing to the chaos at airports. ERIC CABANIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Qatar Airways' CEO said a work-from-home "epidemic" is contributing to the travel chaos.

People are making "easy money" working from home and don't want to return to their jobs, he said.

Summer travel has been a mess so far, with flight delays and chaos across the aviation industry.

The CEO of Qatar Airways has blamed the chaos at airports on a work-from-home "epidemic," Reuters reported on Monday.

"We face the same problem in France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany," Akbar Al Baker, the CEO of Qatar Airways, said at the Farnborough Airshow in the UK, per Reuters.

"So it is actually an epidemic in our industry. This all happened because people learned to get easy money from working out of their homes, and fewer people now want to come and do the jobs that they were doing," he said, according to the news agency.

Al Baker's comments came amid a messy summer travel season with flight delays and chaos across the industry  and particularly in Europe  as demand has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Issues faced by airlines include staff shortages and bad weather.

To contain the chaos, London Heathrow Airport started limiting passengers flying out from the facility to 100,000 a day. A global aviation hub, Heathrow was the busiest airport in Europe before the pandemic.

Al Baker, who is a Heathrow board member, declined to comment on the situation at the airport directly, per Reuters.

But he told Bloomberg Television in an earlier interview at the airshow that Heathrow should have anticipated the situation.

"Heathrow has the right to restrict your flight because they cannot overload their facilities," he said. "But my question to the management would be, they should have seen this coming and they should have taken mitigating actions."

Read the original article on Business Insider
David Lynx is executive director of the Larson Gallery at Yakima Valley College. He writes this weekly column for Explore. Learn more at www.larsongallery.org.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has nominated Gino Betts as the new civilian director of the Seattle Police Departments Office of Police Accountability, which investigates police misconduct and recommends discipline to the police chief
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador of Armenia to Greece Tigran Mkrtchyan visited the National Library of Greece where he met with director Stavros Zoumboulakis, the Embassy of Armenia in Greece reported.

The Ambassador toured the Library, got acquainted with its literature, publications, exclusive books, as well as the process of serving readers online.

The sides highlighted the importance of inter-library cooperation, contacts, mutual visits and exchange of experience in the development and strengthening of inter-cultural and educational ties. The prospects of holding joint events were also discussed.

Ambassador Tigran Mkrtchyan donated a number of books about the Armenian Genocide, the history and culture of the Armenian people to the National Library of Greece, expressing hope that this literature will find its worthy place in the Library.
Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 105F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight

Mostly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 86F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.

Tomorrow

Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 105F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.
YEREVAN, 20 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 20 July, USD exchange rate up by 0.25 drams to 415.60 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 2.28 drams to 423.66 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.02 drams to 7.55 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 1.40 drams to 497.85 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 66.35 drams to 22889.52 drams. Silver price up by 0.42 drams to 252.54 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business.
YORK  2022-23 will be the 28th year of the Leadership York program and applications are now being accepted.

Leadership York is an enrichment program coordinated by volunteers and designed to enhance individual leadership abilities and to expand each participants knowledge and understanding of the community.

The Leadership York Committee has created a program that is intended to inspire and challenge individual leadership abilities and general awareness of the community, county and state. Each year, the program has 15-20 adults who represent various businesses in the community meet monthly to discuss leadership qualities and group dynamics. In addition, the monthly meetings are also designed to address the following issues: cultural diversity, education, quality of life, agriculture and economic development, legislative issues, health and human services, law and legal issues.

The overall goal of Leadership York is to enhance each participants knowledge of the community and to strengthen their leadership capabilities. The cost for an individual to participate in Leadership York is $150, which is generally split between the participant and his or her employer.

Application forms are available at the York Chamber office or they can be found online at the Chambers website. Completed application forms are due back to the Chamber office no later than Friday, Aug. 5, at 5 p.m.

If anyone has questions, they can contact Scott Koch at 402-362-6067.
YORK  There has been plenty of discussion about the proposed 2,500-acre solar field project in the McCool area of rural York County  mostly in front of the county commissioners and mostly by people who object to its creation.

However, this past week, a number of local farmers  who already signed contracts with the company creating the solar project  addressed the York County board to talk about their choices and feelings about the project going into the future.

During the public forum portion of the commissioners regular meeting, Marlin Rempel said, I dont know why the opposition is so worried about we are doing. They arent worried about other parts of our lives, why this I dont know.

Rempel said he has signed on to allow the solar project to be on land that he owns.

When you own the ground, you should have the right to plant what you want and do what you want, Rempel said. To the commissioners directly, he said, You guys have other things to deal with. I encourage you tell the opposition to lay it to rest.

Larry Blum, also addressing the board during the public forum, said, Im a little like Marlin as Im confused in how the people in opposition to this project should have more of a say about my ground than I do. I keep hearing about our farmground in York County but according (to deeds and valuations, tax statements, etc.), its my farmground. Everybody is worried about this thing. Now, in the transition of my own ground, if I then sell my pivots off and the company for some reason decides to not go forward, well, thats my risk. As its been said, everyone has the opportunity to go broke if they want to.

Paul Wiese addressed the commissioners as well, stressing that he was not representing his employer or the Upper Big Blue Natural Resource District (NRD, of which he is a board member). Im ground zero on this. My farm is where the substation is at. I didnt want to come here, but Ive read some things that have been said in past meetings about this that bother me. Have you been to a school board meeting or a village board meeting? There are entities that are all for this project. The school district will get over $700,000 a year, which is a lot for a school the size of McCool.

He also showed the commissioners his own personal lease agreement with the company seeking to establish the solar field, so they could see how landowners could financially benefit substantially. And according to our contracts, if they leave, we get a substantial payment for non-compliance on the contract.

I just dont like all the negativity about this, Wiese said. Is it a good company? I dont know, but you either got to trust the people you work with or not.

Hank McGowan, a farmer and livestock producer in that area of the county, told the commissioners, Im in support of it. Not everyone in opposition of this project is feeding into the propaganda. Their hearts are in the right place and they are good people and I respect them. If I thought this would hurt anyone, I wouldnt be a part of it. One of the reasons I signed up was that water availability and quality issues exist  and with our ground in this project, we wont be irrigating or putting nitrates into the soil. The company will give the landowners the first opportunity to mow the land or have animals grazing there, such as sheep. The co-ops are concerned they wont be selling chemicals and fertilizer, but they will be selling more animal products for sheep (as an example). This wasnt a decision we took lightly. Farming has been my life, its what Im good at. I didnt want to come here to talk today either  its not my thing. But I wanted to let you guys know where we stand. Like I said, if I thought this would hurt someone, I wouldnt do it. I dont think this company will hurt anyone, they have been ethnical to work with. You know, its hard for people to speak, people who are for the project  its like rooting for the visiting team at a home game.

The commissioners made no comments or took any action on anything in the matter  as this was not part of the agenda.
The new Citroen C3 has been launched in India and is entering a market full of competition. The new model from the French automaker is ready to cross swords with the market-dominating Tata Punch compact SUV in the Indian market. Both the cars stand toe to toe with each other but being new in the market has its own advantages and disadvantages for the Citroen C3. But which of the two cars is worth investing in? Here we answer the question for all the buyers looking for a car in the segment with a detailed spec comparison of Citroen C3 and Tata Punch, read more to find out.

Citroen C3 and Tata Punch are similar in terms of size. When compared on the scale, the cars show a slight difference in numbers. The Citroen C3 is 3,981 mm in length, 1,733 mm in width, and 1,586 mm in height. However, the Tata Punch stands at 3,827 mm in length, 1,742 in width, and 1,615 mm in height. Moving forward, the Citroen C3 has a bigger wheelbase of 2,540 mm when compared to Tata Punch's 2,445 mm long wheelbase.

Citroen C3 vs Tata Punch: Features

Coming to the features, the Citroen C3 is loaded with a myriad of features like keyless entry, a 10-inch touchscreen infotainment unit, Android Auto & Apple CarPlay, climate control, steering-mounted audio controls, power windows, and more. However, to differentiate the two, Tata Punch comes with a feature list consisting of a six-speaker Harman sound system, connected car tech, a TFT instrument cluster, automatic climate control, and a cooled glove box.

Also read: Citroen C3 small SUV launched in India with customization options, prices start at Rs 5.70 lakh

The Citroen C3 will come with a 1.2 turbo-petrol motor that will put out a rated power output of 110 PS and 190 Nm of max torque. The transmission options are likely to include a 5-speed MT and an automatic gearbox. The latter could potentially be a 7-speed DCT. On the entry-level trims, the Citroen C3 will source power from a naturally-aspirated mill displacing 1200 cc of the air-fuel mixture. It will generate an output of 82 PS and 110 Nm.

Similarly, under the hood, Tata Punch has a 1.2-litre NA petrol engine. The engine gives out 86 PS of power and 113 Nm of peak torque. It works in combination with a five-speed manual gearbox and has an option of a five-speed automatic transmission.

However, when it comes to mileage, Citroen C3 takes the win giving out 19.8 kmpl for the NA engine and19.4 kmpl for the turbocharged version, whereas the Tata punch gives out a mileage of 18.9 kmpl.

Citroen C3 vs Tata Punch: Price

The Citroen C3 is likely to be priced at Rs 5.70 lakh (ex-showroom) for the base variant, while the range-topping variant goes up to Rs 8.05 lakh (ex-showroom). Whereas Tata Punch bears a price tag of Rs 5.82 lakh (ex-showroom), which goes up to Rs 9.48 lakh (ex-showroom) making C3 comparatively more affordable of the two.
A dog entered the runway at Leh Airport, preventing a Go First aircraft from taking off that was bound for Delhi. It was described as a "routine" incident by DGCA officials. In addition, two Go First flights from Srinagar to Delhi and Mumbai to Leh on Tuesday were grounded by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation due to engine issues (DGCA). Both of the planes involved in the engine snag accidents will only take to the skies if the regulator has given the all-clear, according to officials. The aviation authority is looking into the occurrences.

Go First did not respond to PTI's requests for a statement on the aforementioned incidents. There have been multiple technical malfunction incidents in planes flown by Indian carriers in the last month.

Over the last three days, Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has held multiple meetings with airlines and officials from his ministry and the DGCA officials to ensure safety oversight.

Also read: Go First Mumbai-Leh and Srinagar-Delhi flights suffer engine snag, both planes grounded

With inputs from PTI
Vietjet is offering 16,688 promotional tickets with super low-fare tickets starting at Rs 9 applicable to all routes linking New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Bangalore to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, and Phu Quoc in honour of the recent 17 direct connections from India to Vietnam. The appropriate travel window, which applies to all routes between the two countries, is from August 15, 2022, to March 26, 2023. Recently, Vietjet has announced 11 additional new India-Vietnam routes, making it the largest carrier operating between the two countries in terms of capacity, with a total of 17 services.

The nine new routes linking Ahmedabad/ Hyderabad/ Bangalore with Hanoi/ Ho Chi Minh City/ Da Nang will operate from September onwards with four weekly flights each. Just in time for the year-end holidays, the two other new routes, including Mumbai/New Delhi to Da Nang, will also get operational.

Vietjet currently operates four services linking New Delhi/Mumbai with Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh City on 3-4 flights per week each. The New Delhi/Mumbai - Phu Quoc services will commence operation on September 8 and 9, respectively, with 3-4 flights per week.

Also read: Digi Yatra: Check-in facility with facial tech to begin at Bengaluru, Varanasi airports from Aug 15

Vietjet's direct flight network of up to 17 routes offers passengers with more convenient and cost-saving travel opportunities than ever before. Travelers can now take the five-hour flights to their favourite destinations in Vietnam without taking any transit flights as before. The new direct flights will make it easier and more affordable for Indian travelers to visit not only Vietnam but also connect to other Southeast Asian destinations such as Bali, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Busan, Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Nagoya, and Taipei, etc. through Vietjet's South - Southeast - Northeast Asia connectivity.
New Delhi: Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair was released from Tihar on Wednesday night, hours after being granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in all FIRs lodged in Uttar Pradesh against him for alleged hate speech, prison officials said. Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police on June 27 for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through his tweets. Multiple FIRs were lodged against him in UP - two in Hathras and one each in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, and at Chandauli police station - on similar charges.

"Mohd Zubair has been released from Tihar," a senior jail official confirmed. The Supreme Court, earlier in the day, ordered the release of Zubair on interim bail, saying "exercise of the power of arrest must be pursued sparingly" and transferred all the cases in UP to Delhi.

The court said, "it finds no reason or justification for the deprivation of his liberty to persist any further" and ordered disbanding of the SIT, constituted by the UP police.

The Supreme Court had ordered his release by 6 pm, but he walked out of jail only at 9 pm after paperwork and other formalities were completed. He has been granted bail in all seven cases filed against him.

The Supreme Court also noted that he was granted bail in the Delhi case, but it had not been "sufficient to secure his personal liberty" as he had been slapped with "successive FIRs". In the last hearing, the Supreme Court had called out the "vicious cycle" of interim bail in one case and arrest in another case.

The top court also disbanded a special probe in UP against Mohammed Zubair and transferred all UP cases to Delhi. The judges also rejected the Uttar Pradesh government's request that Mohammed Zubair be "stopped from putting out tweets".
New Delhi: Anticipated protests over the questioning of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi by the ED and an increase in the number of kanwariyas passing through Delhi are likely to affect traffic movement in parts of the city on Thursday, police said. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has asked Gandhi to depose before it on July 21 for questioning in the National Herald newspaper-linked money-laundering case.

According to a senior Delhi Police official, in view of the ongoing Parliament session, adequate security and traffic arrangements have been made to deal with any "contagious situation" which may arise due to the protests over the Congress chief's questioning. Meanwhile, some roads near the Congress office have already been barricaded by police in anticipation of the protests on Thursday, sources in the Delhi Police said.

Police have advised commuters to avoid Motilal Nehru Marg, Akbar Road, Janpath and Man Singh Road between 9 am and 2 pm on Thursday. Due to special arrangements, traffic movement will not be allowed on these roads, they said.

Police also said that due to the arrangements, the movement of buses will be restricted in some parts of central Delhi on Thursday. As part of the Kanwar Yatra, kanwariyas (devotees of Lord Shiva) from different parts of the country collect water from the Ganga river at Haridwar in Uttarakhand to offer at Shiva temples back home. The yatra kicked off on July 14 and will conclude on July 26.

While kanwariyas have been arriving in the city over the last few days, their numbers are likely to increase from Thursday onwards, police said. Traffic is likely to be affected on some roads in east and outer Delhi, police said, adding that adequate arrangements have been made to avoid jams.

A total of 1,925 police personnel have been deployed for traffic regulation and more than 56 cranes and motorcycles are also present on the route that the kanwariyas will be taking, according to officials.

Commuters or kanwar yatris needing any assistance can check the Delhi Traffic Police Facebook page or Twitter handle for updates or call on 8750871493 and helpline number 1095/011-25844444 for queries, it said.

The devotees are expected to pass through Apsara Border, Shahdara flyover, Seelampur, ISBT flyover, Boulevard Road, Rani Jhansi Road, Faiz Road, Upper Ridge Road, Dhaula Kuan, National Highway 8 and exit from Rajokri Border for Haryana, the statement said.

Wazirabad Road, Wazirabad Bridge, Outer Ring Road, Mukarba Chowk, National Highway 1 and exit from Singhu Border or Madhuban Chowk, Peeragarhi and exit from Tikri Border for Haryana, Maharajpur Border, Road number 56, Ghazipur Border, Ring Road, Mathura Road and Badarpur Border exit are some of the other points, it said.

Kanwariyas' movement in smaller numbers is also observed at several locations across Delhi, police said. A senior officer advised that motorists and road users should follow traffic rules and drive in dedicated road lanes.

Police said that in addition to the arrangements by the traffic police, security has been beefed up at Kanwar camps and on important routes of the yatra while regular patrolling is being carried out. Police officials said they are working closely with the kanwar samitis to ensure that the yatra concludes smoothly without any untoward incident.
New Delhi: As Sri Lanka reels under a severe economic crisis, many in India have expressed concerns about whether the country is heading the same way. Rising prices, and with the rupee breaching 80 per dollar for the first time, these fears have only gained momentum. An all-party meeting was held on Tuesday (July 19) where External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke about the "unprecedented" situation in Sri Lanka, but added that apprehensions that India is following its neighbour's footsteps are unfounded. AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi however hit back at the government.

"Today, the government called an all-party meeting on the Sri Lanka crisis. However, it used the opportunity to raise unrelated issues about the finances of Indian states. In his initial remarks, Dr S Jaishankar said that theres a misinformed campaign and comparison between India and Sri Lanka. If so, why did DEA (Department of Economic Affairs) have to make a presentation? Many opposition parties opposed this politicisation," Owaisi said.

Referring to USD 3.8 billion support that India has given to Sri Lanka, Jaishankar had said "no other country has given this level of support". Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades. The minister said that big lessons of Sri Lanka are to be drawn on fiscal prudence and good governance and under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, "we have both in very ample measure".

"There's a very serious crisis in Sri Lanka, the situation there is unprecedented in terms of what we are seeing and the financial, social and political consequences of that. It's our very close neighbour," he said. In his remarks at the all-party meeting, Jaishankar said that the situation in Sri Lanka is unprecedented "and India is worried about it". "But drawing comparisons is uninformed," he said. The minister said 46 parties were invited for the meeting. There were eight ministers, including Pralhad Joshi and Purshottam Rupala," he said.
SHARON  Just a couple of miles from the tourism hotspot of Sharon Springs, thousands of organically farmed marijuana plants are beginning to bush out with the aid of an irrigation system and sunshine splashing down from the sky.

State cannabis market regulators visited the growing operation Friday, having given the green light to the farm operator to grow a plant that until March 2021 had been illegal to possess in New York.

After the crop is harvested in about two months, it will be sent to a processing facility. There, it will be turned into products that will end up on the shelves of the first recreational marijuana stores in New York.

"We're looking to open stores and sales by the end of the year," Chris Alexander, director of the state Office of Cannabis Management, told CNHI during a stop in this Schoharie County town of some 1,840 people.

The launch of the state's marijuana program will get a boost in the form of $200 million in public money via the state Dormitory Authority. That agency has begun collecting proposals linked to the state's Social Equity Cannabis Investment Program.

That program, according to the Dormitory Authority, is designed to "facilitate business opportunities for individuals impacted by the disproportionate enforcement of the cannabis prohibition. The program will help them overcome barriers experienced by equity entrepreneurs in other states that includes accessing the capital required to source, lease, construct and equip suitable real estate for the dispensary locations for their retail cannabis business."

Asked when New York might catch up to what is now a well established marijuana marketplace in neighboring Massachusetts, Alexander said, "It's going to take some time for the market to fully mature, when we have full access across the state for everybody. But we're definitely very sensitive to making sure that as we start this exercise, we start this process of getting dispensaries up and running."

Citing security concerns, state officials requested that the exact site of the marijuana farm officials visited Friday not be disclosed.

Alexander said he doesn't foresee New York hitting a point where the market is so saturated with retail pot shops that operators won't be able to sustain their operations, noting regulators will be keeping a close eye on how many shops will be needed to suit the demand from consumers.

"We will grow and see what the demand is, and so in that way we don't run out of products on our shelves but also so that we don't have excess products that can't be put into dispensaries," Alexander said.

The state Cannabis Control Board has decided to award the initial round of licenses for adult-use retail shops to applicants impacted by enforcement of the now repealed marijuana prohibition as well as those with "strong business backgrounds," state officials said.

The application period for those dispensary licenses is expected to be posted by the Office of Cannabis Management later this summer.

"Everything that we see growing here will have a place on the shelves coming this fall when we open the doors of our first dispensaries and really kick off the sales of adult-use cannabis in our state," Tremaine Wright, chair of the Cannabis Control Board, said.

New York is among 18 states that allow recreational use of marijuana, and 14 of those states allow commercial sales of cannabis.

A U.S. Senate bill aimed at ending marijuana prohibition by the federal government is expected to be introduced before the August recess. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, is among those who have signaled his support for legalizing marijuana.

The federal ban has impeded the ability of marijuana companies to have relationships with banks and accept credit card transactions.

A memo sent to staffers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warned that marijuana remains banned under federal law even when obtained through prescription and advised them to refrain from investing in cannabis companies, Marijuana Moment, an online news site, reported last month.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has launched a money laundering probe into a recent "terror module" unearthed by Bihar Police with the arrest of three people for their alleged links with extremist organisation PFI and their plans to indulge in "anti-India" activities, officials said on Tuesday. Mohammad Jallauddin, a retired Jharkhand Police officer, and Athar Parvez were arrested on July 13 from the Phulwari Sharif area of state capital Patna while Nuruddin Jangi was arrested three days later from Lucknow by Uttar Pradesh ATS, on the request of Bihar Police.

"They (Jallauddin and Parvez) were teaching locals how to use swords and knives and also instigating them for communal violence. They have links with PFI," the Patna police had said. Several objectionable documents pertaining to Islamic extremism have been seized from their possession, they said.

Police said they recovered two pamphlets written in English -- 'India 2047: Towards rule of Islamic India' and 'Popular Front of India, 20 February 2021' after searches were conducted against Jallauddin and Parvez.

The UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) had said that Nuruddin "confessed" during interrogation that he came in contact with the Popular Front of India (PFI) Darbhanga district president in 2015 and has been associated with the organisation ever since.

The ED, officials said, has taken cognisance of this Patna police FIR and has clubbed in its wider probe being conducted by it against PFI, its members and linked persons.

The agency will question the accused arrested by police and probe to find the funds transacted by them and if "proceeds of crime" were generated by them through money laundering, the officials said.

Also read: Tej Pratap threatens to release videos of abuse suffered by him in marriage

The ED has been investigating PFI's alleged "financial links" on charges of fuelling the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests in the country, the Delhi riots that took place in February, 2020, alleged conspiracy in the Hathras (a UP district) case of alleged gangrape and death of a Dalit woman and a few other instances.

The Islamist organisation was formed in 2006 in Kerala and is headquartered in Delhi. The agency has filed two charge sheets against PFI and its office bearers before a special PMLA court in Lucknow. The agency, last month, attached bank deposits of more than Rs 68.62 lakh of PFI and its "front" organisation Rehab India Foundation as part of these probes.
New Delhi: Ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Wednesday (July 20) exhorted party leaders and workers to make full preparations. She also hit out at the Uttar Pradesh government over the "disease of indiscriminate arrest and bail which is becoming almost impossible". "As far as the upcoming assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir are concerned, in both the states, BSP has to make full preparations and then go into the polls and make every effort to live up to the expectations of the party's cadres and supporters, the BSP chief said as per PTI.

Addressing a meeting of party office bearers of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab in Lucknow, Mayawati said BSP workers and leaders have to "persevere in the missionary work" without getting distracted by the victory or defeat in the elections.

Calling for elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Mayawati said the claims of normalcy in the Union Territory by the Central government will be established. "Therefore, as a proof of this, it is necessary that democracy should be restored at the earliest by holding assembly elections there. This will give new confidence to the people and strengthen the claims of the government," a party release quoted the BSP supremo as saying.

On the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati said arresting people under National Security Act (NSA) and "oppressing families has become the new official fashion of repression to cover up the failures" of the government. "At the same time, there is an atmosphere of fear and panic in the entire state due to the wrong government policy of arresting people even on trivial matters while criminals linking themselves with the ruling party are roaming freely. How is it possible to control crime and implement rule of law? The fear of law must be there in all criminals," the former UP Chief Minister said.

Flagging the "disease of indiscriminate arrest", Mayawati said the situation has reached such a "worrying" level that even Chief Justice of India NV Ramana has to warn the country, PTI reported. The BSP chief urged the state government including the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government to bring necessary reforms in their working system as it will be in the country and public interest.

(With agency inputs)
Although the country's corona graph has been slightly downward for two days, the deadly virus has again taken hold in the last 24 hours. Again, the number of daily infected crossed the 20,000 mark. Active cases are also increasing by leaps and bounds. However, doctors and health workers are making relentless efforts to bring the situation under control. So Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote a letter to every vaccinator thanking him.

According to the information provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday, 20,557 people have been infected with Corona in the last 24 hours. The total number of corona infected people in the country is 4 crore 38 lakh 3 thousand 619 people. The daily positivity rate is 4.13 percent. In addition to the infection, active cases also jumped like last few days. The country's active patients increased by 2000 to 1 lakh 45 thousand 654. The rate of active cases in the entire country has increased by 0.33 percent. According to the bulletin of the Ministry of Health, 40 people lost their lives due to Covid in India in one day. The total number of deaths due to Covid in the country so far is 5 lakh 25 thousand 825.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauds all vaccinators for achieving the 200 crore vaccine doses landmark on July 17. The PM has congratulated all vaccinators by sending appreciation letters to them personally; the same can be downloaded from their CoWIN login ID pic.twitter.com/cJ5bbF7ZWZ  ANI (@ANI) July 20, 2022

Currently, the Corona situation is alarming in states like Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Bengal. In the last 24 hours, 2,279 people have been infected in Maharashtra. 6 people lost their lives. In Bengal too, more than 2,200 people are infected with Covid in one day. 2142 people infected in last 24 hours in Tamil Nadu. However, there was no loss of life.

In the midst of all this, the Corona winners are giving strength in the fight against the deadly virus. According to statistics, so far 4 crore 31 lakh 32 thousand 140 people have been freed from Corona in the country. Out of which 18,517 people have recovered from Corona in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate is 98.47 percent. According to the information provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the number of doses of corona vaccine in the country has already crossed the threshold of 200 crores. Prime Minister thanked every vaccinator by sending a letter for successfully reaching this milestone. Meanwhile, free booster dose is being given to those above 18 to prevent infection. Along with vaccination, testing is also being emphasized to identify corona patients. Yesterday, 4 lakh 98 thousand 34 samples were tested in the country.
New Delhi: After the NDA alliance nominated West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as their Vice Presidential candidate, many are wondering if this was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's manner of fulfilling West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's demand. It is a known fact that Banerjee and her state governor Dhankhar shared a turbulent relationship and often got into public tiffs over their differences.

In addition, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had been requesting the PM for more than a year to remove Dhankhar from the governor's post. So, now that he has resigned, many are considering this to be a sign of PM Moidi fulfilling her demand.

However, now that Dhankhar is taking part in the VP race, he would resign as governor, bringing relief to Banerjee. Along with relief, it may also incite a slight fear or worry about who the next governor could be.

Mamata and Dhankhar have clashed on many issues and the latter has often criticised the West Bengal state government which has left Mamata furious. Once, she even blocked him on Twitter accusing him for targeting and abusing her government. She said, I have been forced to block Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Twitter as quoted by ANI. "Everyday he (Governor) was issuing tweets targeting and threatening govt officials as if we're his bonded labourers," the Chief Minister further added.

TMC MPs have also, in the past, said that Dhankhar has been rewarded by BJP for opposing Mamata.

Dhankar is the first governor to have expressed his displeasure with the state government via regular Twitter posts. What really irked the Trinamool Congress leadership was that Dhankhar had started firing similar salvos at official functions held in the West Bengal Assembly premises.

The Assembly Speaker, Biman Banerjee, once even said that if this continued, he would have to contemplate restricting the governor`s presence on the premises of the House, something that has never been heard of in a parliamentary democracy.

Meanwhile, nearly 4,800 elected MPs and MLAs voted on Monday (July 18, 2022) to elect India's 15th President. The polling, which began at 10 am at the Parliament House and state legislative assemblies, continued till 5 pm. Out of a total of 4,796 electors in the list of the electoral college for the Presidential Poll, over 99% cast their votes.

(With agency inputs)

Live TV
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (July 20) granted bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in all the six cases registered against him in Uttar Pradesh for his alleged derogatory tweets, PTI reported. A bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and AS Bopanna said fact-checker Zubair will be released on bail subject to furnishing of a bail bond of Rs 20,000 with Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Patiala House Court, New Delhi. The apex court also clubbed all the six FIRs registered against Zubair in UP and transferred them to Delhi Police Special Cell. The transfer of the FIRs will apply to all existing FIRs and to all future cases that may be registered on the issue, the SC added.

Further, the top court also disbanded the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Uttar Pradesh government to probe the FIRs against Zubair. The fact-checker can move the Delhi High Court to cancel all or any of the FIRs registered against him, the bench said.

Alt News co-founder had sought to quash of the all the FIRs registered against him for allegedly outraging religious sentiments.

On Monday, in a major relief to Zubair, the Supreme Court had directed that no "precipitative steps" should be taken against the fact-checker in the five cases registered in Uttar Pradesh.

"In the meantime, we direct that no precipitative steps shall be taken against the petitioner (Zubair) in connection with any of the five FIRs, which have been extracted above (in the order), without the leave of this court," a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna was cited as saying by PTI.

"What seems to be happening is the moment he got bail in Delhi, he got bail in Sitapur, the moment that happens, there is another FIR or he is produced in another FIR," the bench had said terming it a "vicious cycle".

Earlier on July 15, a Delhi court had granted bail to Zubair in a separate case lodged against him by the Delhi Police relating to an "objectionable tweet" he had posted in 2018 against a Hindu deity.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday (July 20) hailed the Supreme Court for granting bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, saying it is the victory of freedom over tyranny. "Grateful to the SC for releasing Mohammed Zubair. It is the triumph of liberty over tyranny. The SC should release all other Zubairs too and put an end to the abuse of the power of arrest," Chidambaram tweeted.

In another tweet he asked said every lover of liberty to tweet using the hashtag 'I am Mohammed Zubair'."Tweet your thoughts on the precious rights of liberty and freedom. After the SC judgement dated July 11, 2022, today's judgement re-affirms that the abuse of the power of arrest must be ended," the Congress leader said.

Zubair, a fact-checker, walked free out of jail twenty-four days after his arrest on Wednesday night. Earlier today, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Mohammed Zubair in all the six cases registered against him in Uttar Pradesh for alleged derogatory tweets. A bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and AS Bopanna released Zubair on bail subject to furnishing of a bail bond of Rs 20,000 with Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Patiala House Court, New Delhi.

The Supreme court said it finds "no reason or justification for the deprivation of his liberty to persist any further". The bench also ordered the disbanding of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Uttar Pradesh police and clubbed all cases lodged against him in the state and transferred them to Delhi.

The apex court also refused to prevent Zubair from tweeting in the future as sought by the UP government. "Can a lawyer be restrained from arguing?" the bench asked adding "how can a journalist be restrained from tweeting and writing?" "If he violates any law by tweeting or for that matter any citizen speaking in public or private, then he can be proceeded as per the law", the bench said in its order.
New Delhi: The BJP has asked its members to sing the devotional song 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram' and the national song 'Vande Mataram' during the morning processions to be held as part of its 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign to mark the 75th anniversary of independence.

The BJP has issued directions to all its state units, MPs and MLAs across the country asking them to participate in the week-long 'Har Ghar Trianga' campaign starting August 9, party general secretary Arun Singh said in a note issued to all state units.

Earlier this week, BJP president J P Nadda, and senior leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a virtual meeting with the party's office-bearers, state unit presidents and organisational general secretaries, and instructed them to participate in the campaign.

Following the meeting, Nadda issued a directive to party members across the country, listing the programmes to be held as part of this campaign, the note read.

On the first two days of the campaign, the party workers have been asked to publicise the campaign, carry out 'Tiranga Yatra' and hoist flags at markets and other public places to create a patriotic atmosphere in the country, according to the note.

The BJP has asked its workers to carry out morning processions for two days starting August 11, sing 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram', which is considered Mahatma Gandhi's favourite bhajan, and the national song 'Vande Mataram', in every ward and village of the country.

On the last two days of the campaign, the party workers have been asked to ensure that the national flag is hoisted at 20 crore houses in the country, according to the note.

During the BJP's national executive earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked party workers to celebrate the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' festival as part of 'Amrit Mahotsav' to mark the 75th anniversary of the country's independence.
Incidents like outbreak of Corona virus, the Russia-Ukraine war have affected the entire world. The financial crisis has become an important issue. In addition to food grains, there is also a crisis in the field of energy. It has also affected Bangladesh. In such a situation, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina advised to be frugal in all cases. And as part of this, she ordered the government officials of that country not to wear suit-coats in order to save electricity. If you sit in the office wearing a suit or coat, it will be hot. As a result AC or fan will run more. It is believed that Sheikh Hasina has ordered officials not to wear suit-coats for that reason. For now, government officials can only wear suit-coats in winter or in meetings with foreign representatives. The Prime Minister gave this instruction at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in Dhaka on Tuesday.

The ECNEC meeting was held at the Planning Commission's NEC conference center in Sher-e Bangla Nagar of the capital. Next to this, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina joined the meeting through video conference from Ganabhaban. She presided over the meeting as Chairperson. Planning Minister MA Mannan gave instructions to the Prime Minister during the briefing at the end of the meeting.

On this day, 15 thousand 856 crore rupees have been estimated in 8 projects. Planning Minister said that various temporary problems were discussed in the meeting. At this time, the Prime Minister ordered to be more vocal against various types of wastage and corruption and emphasized that within the government and outside the government should be vigilant. The Prime Minister has directed the government officials not to lower the AC temperature below 24 degrees during office hours and must switch off the AC while leaving the office.

Also Read: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sends 'SPECIAL' invitation to Mamata Banerjee for THIS

Earlier, government directives have been ordered to turn off AC in every mosque except for Namaz and to close shops and markets after 8 pm to save electricity and it has already been implemented. Working hours have been reduced to 9 am to 3 pm. Besides, fuel pumps are asked to be closed one day in a week. These instructions were given in a press conference on the electricity situation at the Prime Minister's office last Monday.
HP CET Result 2022: Himachal Pradesh Technical University (HPTU) declared the Himachal Pradesh Common Entrance Test (HP CET) 2022 result today, July 20. The HP CET results are now available on the university's official website, himtu.ac.in. Candidates who took the entrance exam can check and download their HP CET score card by entering their roll number or name. The Himachal Pradesh CET examination was held on July 10 in an offline mode.

The HP CET exam took three hours to complete (180 minutes). The HP CET paper for undergraduate courses had 150 multiple-choice questions (MCQs). The exam paper for the postgraduate program consisted of 100 MCQs. ALSO READ: JEE Main 2022 Admit Card releasing tomorrow at jeemain.nta.nic.in, JEE Main 2022 exam date revised: Session 2 begins from July 25

HP CET Result 2022: Heres how to check result

Go to the HPTU official website at himtu.ac.in

Click on the 'Result of HPCET-2022' link scrolling on the top of the homepage

It will redirect you to the result portal

Search your HP CET result 2022 using roll number or name

Check the CET scorecard and download it

Take a print out of the HP CET 2022 result pdf for future use.

Candidates who pass the entrance exam will be required to participate in the counselling process. Out of the total number of seats, 15% are reserved under the All India Quota (AIQ). While 65% of seats are reserved for the HP State Quota (HPSQ), 5% are reserved for non-resident Indians (NRI), and 15% are reserved for management students only in private institutions. HPTU administered the HP CET entrance exam to candidates seeking admission to undergraduate and postgraduate courses offered by universities and institutions throughout Himachal Pradesh.
SHIMLA: A 35-year-old man from Jharkhand has died in Himachal Pradesh's Kullu district while on pilgrimage to Shrikhand Mahadev, revered by Hindus as one of the abodes of Lord Shiva. Anni Deputy Superintendent of Police Ravindra Negi said the body of Hari Om, a resident of Jamshedpur, was being brought back to the base camp. The exact cause of his death is not yet known, he said.

Considered more challenging than the Amarnath pilgrimage, the Shrikhand Mahadev Yatra began this year from the Singhad base camp at 6,000 feet above sea level in the Nirmand block of Kullu district on July 11, officials said.

The pilgrimage ends at 17,150 feet above sea level, while the 'Shiva Lingam' is situated at the height of 18,750 feet. Given the increasing popularity of the Shrikhand Yatra, the Himachal Government has formed Shrikhand Yatra Trust and the pilgrimage is conducted under the supervision of the Kullu administration.

Also Read: Amarnath Yatra: Over 2 lakh pilgrims pay obeisance at the holy cave in 20 days

As several pilgrims lost their lives mainly due to hypothermia in past years, online registration along with a medical fitness certificate has been made mandatory for pilgrims this year, the officials added.

The Shrikhand Mahadev Yatra has resumed after a gap of two years due to the Covid pandemic.

The pilgrimage used to start after July 15 every year. However, this year, the Kullu administration decided to start the pilgrimage on July 11 and it will end on July 24.

The base camps for the pilgrimage have been set up at Singhad, Thachru, Kunsha, Bhimdwari, and Parvatibagh. At each camp, the administration has stationed medical, rescue, and police teams under a sector magistrate.
JAMESVILLE  Farmer Danielle Volles said she is often asked where French fries come from and other basic food questions.

Volles, president of the Onondaga County Farm Bureau, joined other agricultural figures and politicians on Wednesday for a joint press conference on a bill sponsored by Assemblyman John Lemondes and state Sen. George Borrello where agricultural instruction would be required in all public-funded state elementary, middle and high schools. The event was held at the Jamesville-based Ellys Acres, which is Lemondes' farm.

Volles has answered children's questions about farming at educational events, adding she told students who asked about French fries that they are made out of potatoes which grow out of the ground.

"These (facts) shouldn't be fascinating to our children, these should be things that are base knowledge that they should be growing up with. In school districts, we have health class, there's a reason for that. That's a mandatory requirement, to complete some type of health course, because it's part of being able to take take of yourself. Well, food has to be part of that as well," she said.

Lemondes said the bill currently doesn't include funding for schools to implement agriculture education and while he didn't have an "exact figure," he said it wouldn't cost much money. The bill would give districts flexibility on how agricultural education would be implemented. He motioned to students at the event who are Future Farmers of America members, saying the schools these students come from "need the least of this"

"They're already wired in it, most of them come from family farms. We're after all of New York, especially the suburban and urban kids who get none of it," Lemondes said. "If you're implementing legislation that's going to impact the whole state ... it should be flexible enough at the district level that they can tailor that to their needs."

Different speakers emphasized the importance of people, especially children, knowing where their food comes from and the importance of supporting local farmers who grow the food that state residents eat.

To further illustrate those points, Lemondes asked the people standing with him if they ate before coming to the press conference. A flurry of hands were raised in response. He said he wanted to give one of the Future Farmers of America members a chance to speak. Elsa Hull, president of the FFA for the Fabius-Pompey Central School District, walked up to the podium.

Elsa, 15, said she has "been growing up in agriculture," since her mother raises red Angus beef in Tully, and added she has been with 4-H for nearly nine years. She expressed amazement at the questions she has received on cattle, such as why a dairy cow is so much skinnier than a beef cow or why a mother cow is separated from its baby.

"There are so many answers to those questions, but it's so important for people to know why the baby is separated, because it's for their health, or why the dairy cow is skinnier than the beef cow, because they're two different breeds, they're not skinnier, they're meant to look like that," she said. "It's important for people to know where their food came from."

After the event, Lemondes said he hoped the bill would be voted in "this session," but his Democratic colleagues unanimously blocked it.

Auburn Enlarged City School District Superintendent Jeff Pirozzolo, who attended the press conference, said he supports the bill, adding he believes it is important for students to know about agriculture and it would lead to different pathways for children.

"When you think of a farm and what they do, what happens to the food, what happens with the fiber, how many different employment opportunities are involved in that process? That's a great way for us to create more pathways through their school career, so that was another huge reason why I support the (agriculture) education bill," Pirozzolo said. "I think when students have a better understanding of what agriculture does and how it relates to their life every day, the more opportunities it can open up to our children, as far as employment opportunities".

Although Auburn is designated as a small city school district, Pirozzolo pointed out the city is surrounded by farmland and agriculture is a major part of Cayuga County's economy, so he feels "having our kids exposed to that is very important."

Pirozzolo said agriculture education could be embedded into Auburn's preexisting curriculum, such as with English language arts and history, at all of the grade levels, particularly at the elementary level. He talked about his passion for supporting the bill.

"I think a lot of times with our curriculum, we're pushing so much on ELA and math and STEM and all of these different pieces that we forget about the life skills part of learning. Ag education has a lot of hands-on learning, a lot of life-skill learning, and I think that needs to be more of what our curriculum needs to go in public education as well," he said.
Amid the controversy surrounding Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra's comments on Maa Kali, the BJP has decided to hold Kali Puja on July 28. The puja will be held outside the party's state headquarters, Muralidhar Sen Lane, on the initiative of Mahila Morcha. And in this puja, the Bengal BJP is walking on a slightly exceptional path. Recently, Mahua Maitra's comment on Maa Kali started a strong debate! BJP accused the Trinamool MP of insulting Maa Kali. Even his own party did not stand by Mahua Maitra on this issue. It was at this time that the Prime Minister inquired about Kali Puja in Bengal from BJP MP Locket Chatterjee. According to sources, Modi expressed his interest in Bengal's Kali Puja and said, "Maa Kali Puja is being done properly in Bengal?" The BJP MP replied 'YES' to his question.

After this BJP announced Kali Puja at Muralidhar Sen Lane, state headquarters of BJP on 28th of this month, on the occasion of Amavasya. BJP Mohila Morcha will organize this puja. women 'Pujaris' (priests) will perform the Kali puja. Kali Puja will have female priest and female dhaki. Mahila Morcha members will beg rice-dal from all over the state. Maa Kali's Bhog will be made with the collected rice and pulses. Basically in Bengal, after Durga Puja, Kali Puja is celebrated in the month of November. But scholars say that Maa Kali can be worshiped at any time even during Amavasya.

Recently Prime minister Narendra Modi praises Maa Kali. He said, "Sri Ramakrishnadev was a worshiper of Maa Kali. He surrendered his life at the feet of the goddess. Ramakrishna used to say that the consciousness of Mother Kali pervades this world. This spirit is rooted in the belief of the people of Bengal and all over the country. Even a great man like Swami Vivekananda became like a child in front of Maa Kali. Whenever I go to Belur Math, sit on the banks of the Ganga, see the temple of Maa Kali at Dakshineshwar, on the banks of the Ganga, I feel united."
NEW DELHI: Former Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister KS Eshwarappa, who was named by a contractor in his suicide note, was reportedly cleared after a thorough probe into the matter by the states police. The Karnataka BJP leader, who had resigned as Rural Development and Panchayat Raj minister after the controversy over contractor Santosh Patils suicide note in which he had accused the minister of charging 40 per cent commission on public work, said the police have come up with a B-Report (closure report) absolving him of any wrongdoing.

The ruling party legislator said he knew from the day when the incident happened that he will be absolved of the charges. "Today, the police have come up with a B-Report in the (contractor) Santosh Patil suicide. I have come out clean in the report. Police have said that I have no role in it, which is a matter of joy for me," Eshwarappa told reporters.

"I had said the same day when the incident happened that there is not even one per cent connection between me and the suicide of the contractor and, I will overcome this.

"I had faith in my family goddess Chowdeshwari Devi that if I am wrong the Mother Goddess will punish me or else I will come out clean. Today by the grace of Chowdeshwari Devi, I am absolved," the Shivamogga MLA said.

Eshwarappa said the BJP central and state-level leaders felt embarrassed because of this case and after the police gave him a clean chit, he felt content that those leaders have come out of the embarrassment.

To a query whether he would be made a minister in the state cabinet again, Eshwarappa said it is left to the BJP high command and seniors in the party, and that he would stick to their decision. He said former chief minister B S Yediyurappa spoke to him over the phone and greeted him for the police coming up with a B-Report in the contractor suicide case.

Eshwarappa said he was hurt by unwanted accusations made against him but now he felt content following the closure report. "Being in politics, we have to face such charges otherwise we should not join public life. I was sure that I will come out clean. I don't know who was behind this incident," Eshwarappa said.

Santosh Patil from Belagavi district had died by suicide in a hotel room in Udupi on April 12 accusing the minister and his close aide of allegedly charging 40 per cent commission on a Rs 4 crore-worth public work carried out in Hindalga village of Belagavi in 2020 ahead of a village fair.

Reacting to the closure report, Congress state president D K Shivakumar said at the time of the investigation itself, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Home Minister Araga Jnanendra had given a certificate that Eshwarappa will come out clean.

"When the Chief Minister and Home Minister said at the time of investigation that Eshwarappa will come out clean, the investigating police officer had the fear of not going against them. Hence, the B-Report was filed," Shivakumar said.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (July 20) commenced a hearing on the plea of the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena challenging disqualification proceedings initiated against them under the constitutional scheme. The top court said that the issues in petitions may require reference to a 5-judge bench and posted the case for hearing on August 1. It also granted time to Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde-led camp to file an affidavit on the pleas filed by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray-led faction, said an ANI report.

The CJI-led bench reportedly directed Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to maintain the status quo and not decide on any disqualification applications, adding that the Legislative Assembly secretary to keep all records in safe custody. CJI NV Ramana said that "some of the issues, I strongly feel, may require a larger bench. A larger bench can hear the case."

Appearing for the Uddhav faction, senior advocate Kapil Sibal told a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana that Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari should not have sworn in the new government when the apex court was seized of the matter.

On July 11, the CJI-led bench granted interim relief to the Uddhav Thackeray faction MLAs. It had directed the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker, Rahul Narwekar, not to proceed with the plea seeking their disqualification as sought by the Shinde group on the grounds of defying the party whip during the trust vote and the election of the speaker.

Also Read: Sharad Pawar 'breaking' Shiv Sena, alleges ex-Maharashtra minister Ram Kadam; NCP reacts

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal for Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray camp told the SC bench also comprising Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli, "Speaker recognising a whip other than the official whip nominated by the party is malafide."

Also Read: Rahul Shewale recognised as Shiv Sena floor leader; Uddhav loses support of 12 MPs

Sibal further told the top court that every elected govt in this country can be toppled if this case can be accepted, adding "Democracy is in danger if the state govts can be toppled despite the bar under the 10th schedule."

Senior lawyer Harish Salve, appearing for CM Eknath Shinde, told the SC, "If leader gathers strength within party and stays in it to question the leader without leaving, it is not defection," adding "If a large number of people in the party feel that another man should lead, what is wrong in that."

(With ANI/PTI Inputs)
Nothing is going right in the Uttar Pradesh government these days. The cabinet minister in Yogi Adityanath government Dinesh Khatik has resigned from his post. Minister of State for Water Resources Dinesh Khatik has sent his resignation to senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. He has left the post saying that "Main Dalit hun, isiliye mujhe nazarandaj kiya gaya hai."

In his letter he wrote, "I belong to the Dalit community. That's why I was ignored. Rules were Ignored in Namami Ganga and Har Ghar Jal Yojana. It is happening. Corruption is happening in transfer posting. I am from Dalit community. That's why no one listening to me. Dalit society is hurt by my neglect. I do not exist as a minister. I am neither called in the meeting nor am I told about the work being done in my ministry. I am giving my resignation after being hurt."

Also Read: UP News Update: Yogi Adityanath's 'SURGICAL STRIKE' against corruption, 5 officers including PWD head suspended

There was already speculation about the resignation of Minister of State for Water Resources Dinesh Khatik. It is being told that Dinesh Khatik is angry with the senior minister of his department, Swatantra Dev Singh. On Tuesday, Khatik had attended the cabinet meeting. After this he left the government car and went to his house in Meerut. The news is also that his recommendation for transfer in Jal Shakti Department was not heard and due to lack of clear division of work, he has nothing to do.

Dinesh Khatik had also switched off his phone. And now he has resigned from his post.
Bengaluru/Mangaluru: As Monkeypox cases are confirmed through RT-PCR testing in Kerala, the Dakshina Kannada district health department in Karnataka has sounded an alert after a man who travelled to Kerala via Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) was found to be infected with the disease. The 31-year-old man had arrived at Mangaluru from Dubai on July 13, and he is now undergoing treatment at the government medical college at Pariyaram in Kannur district, said a PTI report.

Health department sources told PTI that as many as 35 people, who had contact with him, have been advised to remain isolated, while doctors have asked the airport officials and the passengers who had travelled with him to remain isolated and be under observation.

There were 191 passengers on the flight on which the youth had arrived. Of them, 15 passengers were from Dakshina Kannada, six from Udupi district and 13 from Kasaragod, besides the passenger from Kannur. The passengers from Mangaluru have been traced and are being isolated as they were asked to contact the department if they develop symptoms, PTI reported citing district surveillance officer Dr Jagadish said.

A separate isolation ward for the treatment of suspected monkeypox-infected patients has been opened at the government Wenlock hospital here. Passengers arriving from foreign countries are being screened at the airport for temperature and rashes, he reportedly said.

Also read: Two monkeypox cases confirmed - Is India staring at a Monkeypox outbreak?

A senior official in Bengaluru said the officials at district level have been apprised about the measures taken to check monkeypox cases. The districts such as Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Kodagu, Mangaluru and Udupi have been asked to be on high alert.

"Already, the central government's guidelines have arrived. Shortly, the state government will also release its own set of guidelines," an officer told PTI requesting anonymity. The latter was confident that monkeypox will not be another COVID-19-like pandemic and will affect only those in close contact with the infected person.

Kerala starts testing for monkeypox infection at Alappuzha NIV

The Kerala government on Tuesday started testing for monkeypox infection at the Alappuzha NIV, state Health Minister Veena George said, adding that the testing kits were brought from Pune NIV and samples from various districts are now being sent to Alappuzha.

"We were able to set up this testing centre in the state within three to four days after the first monkeypox infection was detected. With this, the delay of sending samples to Pune and awaiting results can now be avoided," George said in a release, adding that monkeypox is confirmed through RT-PCR testing using samples from the patient's nose and throat.

The Kerala minister also said that there are 28 government labs in the state that can conduct COVID RT-PCR tests and these labs can be put to use if the number of cases increase.

On Monday, India reported a second confirmed case of monkeypox from Kerala's Kannur district. The person, who arrived in Kerala on July 13, was a native of Kannur in north Kerala and was undergoing treatment at the Pariyaram Medical College there.

The first case of monkeypox, a rare but potentially serious viral illness, was reported in the Kollam district of south Kerala on July 14. The patient is currently undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram. Their samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, and they tested positive for the virus.

The minister, however, said that all those who were in close contact with the patient are being closely monitored.

According to the World Health Organisation, monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals), with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe.

With the eradication of smallpox in 1980 and the subsequent cessation of smallpox vaccination, monkeypox has emerged as the most important orthopoxvirus for public health. Monkeypox, which typically presents with fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes and may lead to a range of medical complications, is usually a self-limited disease with symptoms lasting from 2 to 4 weeks.

(With PTI Inputs)
Thiruvananthapuram: In the wake of two confirmed cases of monkeypox in the country being reported from Kerala, the state government on Wednesday issued standard operating procedures (SOP) for isolation, sample collection and treatment of those infected or showing signs of the disease and at the same time said there was nothing to be concerned about. Kerala Health Minister Veena George, in a release, gave details of the SOP which are to be followed by all private and government hospitals.

Later in the day, in the state assembly, the minister said that there was no need to be concerned about monkeypox, but the people should take precautionary measures like wearing masks and using sanitisers to prevent spread of the disease.

"There is no need to be worried about monkeypox. However, precautionary measures, like masks and sanitisers, taken in connection with COVID-19 should be adopted to prevent the spread of this virus," she said in the assembly.

The minister also said there needs to be cooperation between the MLAs to create awareness among the people and address their concerns.

She also told the assembly that a suspected case of monkeypox in Alappuzha tested negative for the same and family members of the person who was the first reported case of the virus also tested negative.

ALSO READ: Monkeypox in India: Health department in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada sounds alert, Kerala starts testing at Alappuzha NIV lab

None of the contacts of the two people who got infected are developing symptoms of the disease, she added.

In the release issued in the morning regarding the SOPs, the minister said any person who has travelled in the last 21 days to a country where monkeypox has been reported and is having red spots on the body along with one or more of the other symptoms, like fever, headache, body ache or fever, should suspect infection by the virus.

The minister, in the release, further said risk of infection is high through close physical or direct skin-to-skin contact or sexual intercourse with an infected person or by touching their bedding or clothing.

Anyone falling in these categories would come in the primary contact list, she said and added that infection is confirmed through a PCR test.

According to the Health department's SOP, as mentioned in the release, suspected and probable cases of monkeypox are to be treated separately and in isolation and the District Surveillance Officer (DSO) should be informed immediately.

Samples should be collected as per the protocols laid down for the same by the National Institute of Virology (NIV) and the DSO would be responsible for sending the same to the lab, it said.

Referrals from private hospitals to government facilities should be on patient request and only critically ill patients from state-run hospitals with isolation facilities should be referred to medical colleges, the SOPs further said.

While transporting infected persons from to a hospital or from one medical institution to another, PPE kit, N95 masks, gloves and goggles should be worn by the health professionals and the patients too should wear an N95 or triple layered mask and any wounds on their bodies should be covered, it said.

After patient delivery, the ambulance and equipment therein should be disinfected and the patient's items like clothing, should be disposed of, the Health department release said.

Confirmed cases of monkeypox should be managed as per the Centre's guidelines and in case of any doubt regarding treatment, the state medical board should be consulted, it added.

As all international airports in the state have thermal scanners, the release said anyone showing signs of fever would be examined for red spots by a medical team and if such signs are found, they will be transferred to the nearest hospital with isolation facilities and the DSO would be informed about the same.

Health workers have been directed to monitor those in the primary contact list for 21 days for any symptoms by calling them over the phone and recording their temperature twice a day, it said and added that the health worker or nurse in charge of monitoring should visit the house of the contacts periodically to ensure they follow the guidelines.

In case the primary contact person has fever, they should be immediately isolated and if red spots appear, their samples should be sent for monkeypox testing, the release said.

Those in the contact list who are not showing symptoms should not donate blood, cells, tissue, organs, or semen, it added.

The Kerala government on Tuesday had started testing for monkeypox infection at the Alappuzha NIV with testing kits brought from NIV, Pune.

India had on Monday reported a second confirmed case of monkeypox from Kerala's Kannur district.

The patient, who arrived in Kerala on July 13, is a native of Kannur in north Kerala and undergoing treatment at the Pariyaram Medical College there.

The first case of monkeypox, a rare but potentially serious viral illness, was reported from Kollam district of south Kerala on July 14. He is currently undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram.

Both their samples were sent to the NIV, Pune, and they tested positive for the virus.

According to the World Health Organisation, monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals), with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe. With the eradication of smallpox in 1980 and subsequent cessation of smallpox vaccination, monkeypox has emerged as the most important orthopoxvirus for public health.
New Delhi: Five women, who allegedly forced female students in Kerala to remove their innerwear to appear for NEET-UG 2022, have been arrested, police said on Tuesday (July 19, 2022). While three of the arrested women worked for an agency hired by the National Testing Agency (NTA), two worked for the private educational institution at Ayur in Kollam where the incident happened, news agency PTI reported. The Kerala police registered a case based on the complaint of the girl, who alleged that she was asked to remove her bra before she could be permitted to appear for the July 17 eligibility test. The NTA, which conducts the test, has also set up the panel after the Kerala government took up the issue with the Centre seeking strong action. The personnel reportedly objected to the metallic hook in the innerwear.

IPC Sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) have been invoked, police said.

The arrest followed protests that began on July 18 and intensified on Tuesday in Kerala's southern region of Kollam.

Taking note of the allegation, the Union Ministry of Education (MoE) said that it has been brought to its notice through various media reports that an incident allegedly happened in one of the centres of NEET (UG)-2022 in Kerala. Accordingly, the Ministry said, a fact-finding committee was constituted by the NTA to ascertain the facts in detail.

Earlier, the NTA rubbished the claims of a 17-year-old student that she was asked to remove her innerwear on Sunday saying the exam centre superintendent has informed that the complaint is "fictitious" and filed with wrong intentions.

NEET UG 2022: NTA constitutes a Fact Finding Committee to visit Kerala

The Ministry of Education said that it has been brought to their notice through various media reports that an incident allegedly happened in one of the Centres of NEET (UG)- 2022 near Kollam district in Kerala and that they have asked the NTA to ascertain all the facts about the incident on the spot from stakeholders present at the Centre at that time.

"Accordingly, a Fact Finding Committee has been constituted by the NTA to ascertain the facts in detail. Further action will be taken based on the report of the Fact Finding Committee," the Ministry said in a statement.

A three-member fact-finding committee has been constituted by National Testing Agency (NTA) after reports of a NEET (UG)-2022 candidate being subjected to harassment/inhuman treatment at a center in Kollam, Kerala on July 17 pic.twitter.com/IokUGsR1Ne  ANI (@ANI) July 20, 2022

Regarding the issue, V Muraleedharan, MOS, Ministry of External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs and other public representatives from Kerala also met Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Thank Hon Minister @EduMinOfIndia Shri @dpradhanbjp Ji for taking cognisance of an incident at the #NEETExam centre in Kollam, Kerala & instructing NTA to ascertain facts.https://t.co/UspI5N6Kel pic.twitter.com/KE9JuJiRqM  V Muraleedharan /   (@VMBJP) July 19, 2022

Called on the Hon'ble Minister earlier today & requested an enquiry into the incident.



The decision to form a task force to enquire into the matter is reassuring to the students & parents.



Grateful to Hon Minister & @EduMinOfIndia for the timely intervention  V Muraleedharan /   (@VMBJP) July 19, 2022

NEET UG 2022: 'Naked assault on dignity of girl students', Kerala Minister writes to Dharmendra Pradhan

Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu, in a letter to Dharmendra Pradhan, expressed "dismay and shock" at the news of the "naked assault on the dignity and honour of the girl students." Bindu sought action to prevent future occurrences of a similar nature and sought the Union minister's intervention in the matter.

Kerala Edu. Minister Dr R Bindu has written a letter to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, taking strong exception to how girls students were forced to remove their bra before entering a NEET-UG exam centre near Kollam in Kerala. @rbinducpm #NEETUG2022 #NEET #NEETUG22 pic.twitter.com/cAqdYmUlNd  Voice of NEET UG Aspirants (@Voice_NEETUG) July 19, 2022

A senior NTA official, however, said, "No complaint or representation has been received by us. On basis of claims in media reports, an immediate report was sought from the centre superintendent and observer. They have informed that no such incident took place and the complaint is fictitious and has been filed with wrong intentions."

The NEET dress code does not permit any such activity as alleged by the parent of the candidate. The code provides for ensuring sanctity and fairness of exam while observing sensitivity towards gender, culture and religion during frisking of candidates, the NTA official added.

NEET UG 2022 sees 95% attendance with record 18.72 lakh applicants

About 95 per cent attendance was on Sunday recorded in the medical entrance exam NEET, which had received the highest number of applications ever, according to National Testing Agency (NTA) officials. Breaching the 18-lakh mark, a total of 18,72,329 candidates had registered for the largest entrance exam in the county of which 10.64 lakh were female.

"About 95 per cent attendance was recorded today," a senior NTA official said.

This was the first time that the number of registrations for the NEET medical entrance exam surpassed 18 lakh, a considerable increase of over 2.5 lakh from 2021.

Last year, the NEET-undergraduate exam was held on September 12, with over 95 per cent of the registered candidates appearing for it. Over 15.44 lakh candidates appeared for the exam, which was conducted at 3,858 centres. Of these, at least 8.70 lakh students had qualified.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted searches at three locations in Bihar in the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) case, the agency said on Wednesday. The central agency conducted these raids on Tuesday at three locations in East Champaran district in Bihar in the case relating to the arrest of six active cadres of JMB, a proscribed organization, including three illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from Aishbagh, Bhopal.

These accused were found involved in propagating the JMB ideology and motivating youth to carry out jihad against India, said the NIA. "The searches conducted led to the recovery and seizure of digital devices, jihadi literature and books and various other incriminating documents."

The case was initially registered on March 14 this year by Bhopal Police's Special Task Force (STF) and was re-registered by the NIA on April 5.

Live TV
New Delhi: Over 3.92 lakh Indians gave up their citizenship in the last three years and 1.70 lakh of them, the highest, took up American citizenship, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday. Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said that according to details provided by the Ministry of External Affairs, individuals renounced Indian citizenship for reasons personal to them and took citizenship in over 120 countries.

A total of 3,92,643 Indians gave up their citizenship in 2019, 2020 and 2021, he said in a written reply to a question.

1.7 lakh Indians took up American citizenship

Of these, 1,70,795 people took up American citizenship, 64,071 took up citizenship in Canada, 58,391 in Australia, 35,435 in the United Kingdom, 12,131 in Italy, 8,882 in New Zealand, 7,046 in Singapore, 6,690 in Germany, 3,754 in Sweden and 48 in Pakistan, among others.
Mumbai: Former Maharashtra minister Ramdas Kadam on Tuesday (July 19) alleged that NCP chief Sharad Pawar was breaking the Shiv Sena and he had given proof of this to Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. The Sena was "systematically weakened" by Pawar. Some MLAs had expressed concern over it but Thackeray was not ready to part ways with Pawar, Kadam claimed while talking to a TV channel.

"We should be thankful that this (rebellion led by CM Eknath Shinde) happened in the first two-and-a-half years of the Thackeray government. Otherwise, the Sena would have been finished at the end of the five-year tenure. Not even 5-10 MLAs would have won the next Assembly election," he said.

However, NCP's chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase dismissed Kadam's remarks, claiming the BJP was behind the split in the Shiv Sena and that the rebel leaders were trying to divert the attention from it by targeting Pawar.

On Monday, Kadam in a letter to Thackeray tendered his resignation as "Shiv Sena leader".

Shiv Sena president and former state chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday evening announced that Kadam was sacked for indulging in anti-party activities.

Kadam was later "reinstated" as a leader by the rebel Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

The Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, comprising the Sena, NCP and Congress, collapsed last month after Shinde and 39 other Sena MLAs revolted against the party.

Given proof to Uddhav Thackeray about how Sharad Pawar is breaking Shiv Sena

Ram Kadam on Tuesday said, "I have given ample proof to Uddhavji about how NCP chief Sharad Pawar is breaking the Shiv Sena."

He (Pawar) had given good posts to members of the Kunabi community (in Konkan) and also strengthened them with funds, Kadam claimed.

"The chief minister was ours, funds came from government coffers, but the party (Sena) was systematically weakened by Pawar. Many MLAs expressed similar concerns before you (Uddhav Thackeray), but you were not ready to leave Pawar," he further claimed.

"Had (Sena founder) Balasaheb Thackeray been alive today, would he have allowed Uddhav Thackeray to become chief minister with the support of the NCP and Congress?" Kadam asked.

The former minister further said he had opposed Uddhav Thackeray's move (in 2019) to join hands with the NCP and Congress to form a government in Maharashtra.

"I told him (Uddhav) that it is like committing a sin. His (Balasaheb Thackeray's) soul will not be at peace with this arrangement," he said.

Kadam said Balasaheb Thackeray had stood firm over his stand on Hindutva while confronting the Congress and NCP.

Would he have even allowed Uddhav Thackeray to become a chief minister by joining hands with the Congress and NCP? he wondered, alleging that Pawar finally succeeded in "breaking" the Sena.

Uddhav Thackeray should consider options about how to bring Eknath Shinde back to Shiv Sena

Kadam also appealed to Uddhav Thackeray to reconsider his thoughts about the rebels.

"Uddhavji, you should consider the options about how to come together in the future, how to bring Shinde back to the party. Try to keep our fortress intact, (it) should be our priority," he said.

Last month, when Shinde revolted against the party, Ramdas Kadam's son Yogesh Kadam, the MLA from Dapoli in Ratnagiri district, had also joined the rebel camp.

Meanwhile, NCP spokesperson Tapase said the MVA was formed due to Pawar's initiative and even after the rebellion, the NCP is still supporting Uddhav Thackeray and his group of Sena leaders.
July 20, 2007

Legislation providing an additional $401 million for the Social Security Administration to maintain existing offices and staff could be a step toward keeping the Social Security office in Auburn open.

U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri's office said Thursday that the House passed legislation including $9.3 billion for SSA administrative expenses  a $401 million increase over the fiscal year 2007 level.

The funding is part of the fiscal year 2008 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

Arcuri had expressed his support for the legislation Wednesday, urging the Senate to likewise pass the bill and for President Bush to sign it into law.

Since May, I have been working in Washington to get answers from the SSA about their plan to close the Auburn office, and have repeatedly called on the administration not to close a field office that helps thousands of disabled and elderly residents, Arcuri said in a news release. Many local residents do not have the means or the mobility to travel the long distances to Geneva or Syracuse for necessary face-to-face service.

Arcuri said he hoped no decision would be made to close or consolidate Social Security field offices until the agency reports back to Congress regarding the number of recipients who would be negatively impacted.

The Auburn Social Security Office is a critical community resource that serves some of our most vulnerable citizens and should remain open, Arcuri said.
According to new satellite images that emerged on Tuesday (July 20), it seems that there has been a construction of a Chinese village East of the Doklam plateau on the Bhutanese side, a region that is considered important for India's strategic interest. The Indian and Chinese armies were locked in a 73-day stand-off at the Doklam tri-junction after China tried to extend a road in the area that Bhutan claimed belonged to it.

Images captured by MAXAR, a company that focuses on space technology and intelligence, were issued by NDTV. The reports said the village is fully inhabited with cars parked at the doorstep of virtually every home. It said alongside the village is a neatly marked all-weather carriageway, which is part of China's "extensive land grab" in Bhutan.

The road could give China access to a strategic ridge in the Doklam plateau. There was no immediate comment from the Army on the new images. "The new satellite images, sourced from Maxar, indicate that a second village in the Amo Chu river valley is now virtually complete while China has stepped up construction of a third village or habitation further South," the NDTV said in its report. This development also means China would have a direct line-of-sight to India's sensitive Siliguri corridor, the narrow sliver of land that connects the northeast states with the rest of the country, reported NDTV.

The government had said previously that it keeps an eye on all the activities along its border. China has been ramping up border infrastructure in several sensitive locations, including along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh where the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been locked in an over two-year standoff with the Indian Army.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: In a big win for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, the Supreme Court granted political reservation to the community. On Wednesday, the apex court approved the Banthia commission report and gave a nod to 27 percent reservation for OBC candidates in local bodies. The Maharashtra local body election was delayed earlier in order to know the judgement of the court on the Banthia commission's report.

Now, the apex court has directed the Election Commission and Maharashtra State Election Commission to prepare and begin the polling process as soon as possible. As per reports, it has told the State Election Commission to notify the election in the next two weeks.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis both took to their Twitter to announce and celebrate the SC's order.

Fadnavis wrote, "Our grand coalition government kept its promise of OBC political reservation! Hon. The recognition of OBC political reservation by the Supreme Court is a victory for the entire OBC community."

On the other hand, Shinde tweeted, "OBC community has been granted political reservation by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. We are the true Shiv soldiers of Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray. Once a promise is made, it will be kept."

The Banthia Commission had submitted its report to the SC on July 12. However, the SEC had planned to go ahead with local elections on August 18 without OBC reservation. This stance was questioned by the Maharashtra CM and his government and Opposition.

(With agency inputs)

Live TV
New Delhi: Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal claimed on Tuesday that RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav wanted the Central government to shield his family from corruption cases and was willing to support his party in forming government in the state in return. Jaiswal told PTI that Yadav had made this offer to Union minister Nityanand Rai on a flight and added the RJD leader's claim that Rai had wanted to join his party was made in frustration because the BJP had refused to "compromise" with corruption.

This was the only time Rai had met Yadav, he said.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal had claimed in Patna on Monday that Rai, a senior BJP leader from the state, had expressed a desire to jump ship before his induction into the Union Council of Ministers in 2019.

Jaiswal, a Lok Sabha MP, hit back at Yadav, saying he was getting back at Rai with such a "false claim" because the BJP refused to compromise with corruption. His family members are accused of massive corruption, and he is bound to go to jail, the BJP leader said.

"He wanted the BJP to protect his family members from going to jail. He was ready to support the BJP and help it form a government in the state. But our party refused to compromise with corruption," he said.

Reacting to Rai's criticism of him for his swipe at the NDA's presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu, Yadav had said, "Don't talk to me about him. He had met me before getting a ministerial berth and expressed the desire to join my party." Yadav, the son of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad

Yadav and some other members of his family have been booked in a corruption case. He has in the past rejected the charge and blamed the BJP-led NDA's political vendetta for this.

Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted in a fodder scam case.

ALSO READ | Lalu Prasad Yadav's son Tej Pratap threatens to release videos of abuse suffered by him, his family in marriage
TS ECET 2022: Telangana State Engineering Common Entrance Test, TS ECET 2022 exam date has been announced again today, on July 20, 2022. The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, JNTU Hyderabad, will hold the TS ECET 2022 on August 1, 2022. More information can also be found on the official website, ecet.tsche.ac.in. The TS ECET 2022 Exam Date has been rescheduled after the ECET exam was postponed due to heavy rains in Telangana.

Candidates should take note of this new exam date, as the previous date of July 13, 2022 for ECET 202 has been cancelled. According to the official notification, because the TS ECET 2022 exam date has been changed, new hall tickets will be issued to all registered candidates. The TS ECET Hall Ticket 2022 download link will be available on the official website on July 28, 2022. ALSO READ: CBSE Results 2022 for Class 10th, 12th: CBSE tweets THIS latest update

TS ECET 2022: Exam Dates

Title Details TS ECET 2022 (Old Date) July 13, 2022 TS ECET 2022 (New date) August 1, 2022. TS ECET hall ticket 2022 (New) July 28, 2022

TS ECET 2022 will be held in two shifts on August 1, 2022, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. JNTU Hyderabad has announced a new date for the Telangana State Council of Higher Education, TSCHE, TS ECET 2022. The ECET answer key 2022 will be released shortly after the exam. Candidates are advised to check the official website for the most up-to-date schedule.
TS PGECET 2022: Osmania University, Hyderabad, will release Telangana State Post Graduate Engineering Common Entrance Test, TS PGECET 2022 Hall Tickets today, July 20, 2022. Candidates will be able to download their TS PGECET hall tickets from the official website - pgecet.tsche.ac.in - once they are available.

The TS PGECET 2022 Hall Tickets will be made available for the exams, which will begin on July 29, 2022. The PGECET exams will be held over four days, from July 29 to August 1, 2022. While the exact exam schedule and timings are unknown, these details are likely to be available on PGECET admit cards. The Computer Based Test (CBT) will be held in two shifts from July 29 to August 1  10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. ALSO READ: HP CET Result 2022 declared at himtu.ac.in- check direct link here

Title Details TS PGECET 2022 Hall Ticket date July 20, 2022 (today) TS PGECET Hall Ticket release time Likely by 5 pm TS PGECET 2022 exam date July 29 to August 1, 2022

TS PGECET 2022: Heres how to download admit card

Visit the official website pgecet.tsche.ac.in

Click on the admit card link

Key in your login details and submit

Check and download the admit card

Take a printout for future reference

Telangana State Post-graduate Engineering Common Entrance Test (TS PGECET) is held for admission into full-time ME/ MTech/ MPharm/ MArch/ Graduate level Pharm D (PB) courses in Telangana State University and Affiliated Engineering, Pharmacy, and Architecture Colleges for the academic year 2022-2023.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the petitions filed by the Shiv Sena and its rebel MLAs raise many constitutional questions relating to defection, merger and disqualification, which may require consideration by a larger bench. A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana directed the parties to formulate the issues that require examination by a larger bench by July 27.

"After hearing the counsels, it has been agreed that some issues may, if necessary, be referred to a larger bench also. Keeping in mind the same, to enable the parties to frame the issues, let them file the same preferably by next Wednesday," the bench, also comprising justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli, said.

The apex court asked the parties to the case to frame issues by July 27 for consideration by a larger bench and the matter would be heard on August 1. The bench was hearing five pending cases related to the recent political crisis in Maharashtra that led to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state.

At the outset, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena, told the bench that the speaker of the Assembly recognising a whip other than the official whip nominated by the party is malafide.

"What happens to the verdict of people? The 10th schedule is turned topsy-turvy and has been used to instigate defection," Sibal told the bench. He submitted that the governor could not have sworn in an individual (Eknath Shinde) who had sought to separate himself from the party elected to power by people and thus, was disqualified under the 10th schedule of the Constitution.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the former chief whip of the Shiv Sena, Sunil Prabhu, said a day before departing for Guwahati, the members of the party's rebel faction sent an e-mail to the deputy speaker, seeking his removal.

"This email was sent from an unauthorised email ID. The deputy speaker takes it, seizes it and says it is not on record," Singhvi said while terming the majority attained by the Shinde faction in the Maharashtra Assembly a "contrived majority".

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Chief Minister Shinde, stated that in a democracy, people may gang up and tell the prime minister that "sorry, you cannot continue". "If a leader gathers strength within the party and stays in it to question its leader without leaving the party, it is not defection," Salve submitted.

He asked the court that if a large number of people in a political party feel that another man should lead them, what is wrong in it? "Heavens do not fall if a chief minister is changed. Let us get into if the speaker was appointed as per law and not on the crisis of democracy and all that," Salve said.

At this juncture, the CJI said, "Initially, I had some doubts. This is a politically sensitive case and I do not want to give an impression that we are tilted."

The CJI-led bench had, on July 11, granted interim relief to the Thackeray faction MLAs by asking Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar not to proceed with a plea seeking their disqualification as sought by the Shinde group on the ground of defying the party whip during the trust vote and the election of the speaker.

The top court is seized of five petitions and the first one was filed by the Shinde faction during the summer vacation, wherein some rebel Sena MLAs challenged the disqualification proceedings initiated by the deputy speaker. The four remaining pleas and now the fifth one has been filed by the Thackeray faction.

On June 27, the vacation bench of the court extended the time for the rebel MLAs to file written responses to the deputy speaker's disqualification notice till July 12. On July 3, Narvekar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was elected as the speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly.

He had polled 164 votes and defeated Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi, who had secured 107 votes. A day before the floor test, Narvekar had recognised Gogawale as the Shiv Sena's chief whip, removing Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction.

After winning the trust vote in the Assembly on July 4, the Shinde faction issued a notice to 14 legislators from the Thackeray camp for violating a whip issued by Gogawale, the Sena whip and a Shinde loyalist.

Both sides have accused each other of defying the party whip during the speaker's election and the trust vote on July 3 and July 4 respectively, seeking disqualification of the legislators from both sides.

The Maharashtra legislature secretary also came into the picture and issued show-cause notices to 53 of the total 55 Shiv Sena MLAs in the state -- 39 from the Shinde faction and 14 from the Thackeray group.

The notices were issued under the Members of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Grounds of Defection) Rules. In the trust vote, 164 MLAs had voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 had voted against it.

The Thackeray faction has also challenged the validity of the Assembly proceedings held on July 3 and July 4, in which a new speaker of the House was elected and the subsequent proceedings of floor test, in which the Shinde-led coalition had proved its majority.

It has also filed a plea challenging the decision of the newly-elected speaker to recognise the new party whip of the Sena rebels led by Shinde. Prior to this, Prabhu had moved the top court seeking suspension from the Assembly of the chief minister and 15 rebel Sena MLAs against whom the disqualification pleas are pending.

The vacation bench of the court had, on June 27, granted interim relief to the Shinde faction by extending the time for replying to the disqualification notices sent to the 16 rebel Sena MLAs till July 12. On June 29, the Maharashtra Governor had ordered a floor test, prompting the MVA government to rush to the top court, seeking its deferment.

The bench refused to stay the governor's direction to the 31-month-old MVA government to take a floor test in the Assembly to prove its majority, after which the then beleaguered chief minister Thackeray quit office.

After Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister on June 30, Prabhu moved to the top court seeking his suspension and that of 15 Sena rebels on various grounds, alleging that they were acting as pawns of the BJP, thereby committing the constitutional sin of defection.
No one from Trinamool was present when nominations were submitted. No one even joined the discussion on strategy. Therefore, the position of Trinamool (TMC) in the upcoming Vice President Election has started to be questioned. Despite claiming to be part of the anti-BJP camp, speculations are rife that they will vote for Jagdeep Dhankhar, the candidate of the BJP-led NDA camp, instead of Margaret Alva, the candidate of the 17 opposition parties. Trinamool state secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh fueled that speculation. He was asked why the party is not clearly stating its position on supporting the opposition candidate. In response, Kunal said, "There are materials to think about, so the party is thinking."

Will Margaret Alva, the vice-presidential candidate of the 17 opposition parties, get the support of the TMC? This question is currently circulating in national politics. When asked about that, Kunal said, "Margaret Alva is Sharad Pawar's candidate. And Jagdeep Dhankar, he is not an original BJP. He has worked in various parties." Taking it a step further, Kunal said, "Dhankhar is an avid Mamata Banerjee fan. He told us once that CPIM had forbidden him during VP Singh government. But never listened. He came to see Mamata Banerjee when she was injured." Kunal further added, "Dhankhar said that Mamata Banerjee is personally a very warm person. But when it comes to administrative matters she does not listen to me." Kunal's comments reflect Trinamool's position. Did the Trinamool suddenly soften its tone towards Jagdeep Dhankar, thinking of the political scenario?

Also Read: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sends 'SPECIAL' invitation to Mamata Banerjee for THIS

From the opposition's choice of Margaret for the post of Vice President to her nomination submission and above all strategy meetings, TMC's absence from the beginning has been conspicuous. That's why Mamata's sudden meeting with Dhankhar in Darjeeling, the change of tone about Draupadi Murmu, many in the opposition camp are taking it two by two. When asked about this, Kunal said, "Mamata Banerjee is an experienced leader. She is watching. She will talk to everyone and take a decision. Margaret Alva is the Congress candidate. But in her autobiography, she has criticized PV Narasimha Rao-era corruption, misuse of the CBI, even Sonia Gandhi. There is an undercurrent about her within the Congress."

Naturally, the opposition leadership is raising questions about this. State Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, "Rahul Gandhi himself came to submit Alva's nomination. Trinamool's position is very clear. They do not want to anger Modi in any way. Because they know that if Modi is displeased, many of them will have to go to jail. Yashwant Sinha was Trinamool's candidate. Congress accepted her in one sentence. Didn't object to any other name. In fact Mamata's only job is to crack the opposition unity."

Dilip Ghosh, the former president of the state BJP and also the all-India vice president of the BJP also attacks Mamata on this issue. He said, "Mamata is confused. Now she understands, there is no way." Although Trinamool MP Sukhendu Shekhar Ray said that Mamata will hold a meeting with party MPs at Kalighat house on July 21. It is there that the final decision will be taken as to who will be supported and who will be not. He also commented that TMC did not go to the nomination of the opposition candidate because they did not want to increase the crowd. So what position will the Trinamool take in the vice presidential election? Can they take the strategy of not participating in the vote? The question arises.
New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday (July 19, 2022) issued a rainfall warning for several states including Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. In a weather bulletin, the IMD said that fairly widespread to moderate rainfall with thunderstorms is very likely over various states till July 23.

IMD's weather forecast:

The IMD has predicted fairly widespread to widespread light/moderate rainfall with isolated heavy falls and thunderstorms/lightning over Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh till July 23.

It has also said that fairly widespread to widespread light/moderate rainfall with heavy falls is very likely over West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura for the next five days.

"Fairly widespread/widespread light/moderate rainfall and thunderstorm/lightning very likely over Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Karnataka and Lakshadweep during next five days, the Met department said in a statement.

Scattered to fairly widespread rainfall is very likely over Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana during the next five days, the IMD said.
New Delhi: With great risks come great rewards  that has been the story of the stock markets in the past few decades. One such example is Jyoti Resins And Adhesive Ltd, a share that was once traded at 36 paise is now worth more than Rs 2390. However, given the high volatility, many investors shy away from making stock investments.

Rs 1 lakh turns to Rs 65 crores

In 2004, the share price of Jyoti Resins And Adhesive Ltd was just 36 paise. However, the companys share was trading at about Rs 2,397.70 on Wednesday (July 20), providing a return of more than 6,60,000 times to investors who had invested in the stock in 2004. (ALSO READ: Governments BIG decision on Work from home! Check commerce ministrys latest notification on WFH)

So, if an investor had invested Rs 1 lakh in Jyoti Resins And Adhesive Ltd at 46 paise per share in 2004, his investment would have been worth Rs 65 crore now. The share is a perfect example of how patience can help investors make big gains via stock market investments. (ALSO READ: Rupee depreciates 4 paise to 79.96 against US dollar in early trade)

Rise of Jyoti Resins And Adhesives Ltd

Founded in 1993, Jyoti Resins And Adhesives Ltd is a maker of synthetic resin adhesives. In the quarter ending December 2021, the company posted a 51% year-on-year rise in revenue to 48.86 crores.

Jyoti Resins And Adhesives Ltd company manufactures a slew of wood adhesives (white glue). The company currently retails its products under the brand name of EURO 7000.

EURO 7000 was launched in 2006. According to media reports, it is the second largest selling wood adhesive brand in the country, in the retail segment. Also, in the past few years, the company has improved its financial condition, lowering the debt to almost nil while posting good profit growth. That is a major reason why the stock has been delivering fantastic returns to investors.
Washington: Mom-to-be Ashley Greene dropped a steamy photo on Instagram recently."Baby Khoury coming soon," the "Twilight" star, 35, captioned the steamy Instagram photo of herself covering her chest with her hands from behind the glass door. Greene appeared to post a shot from the same shower last week, cradling her budding belly in a towel, Page Six reported.

Greene's social media posts come four months after she informed her followers that she and her husband, Paul Khoury, are expecting their first child."I love you more than I've ever loved anything and somehow my heart just keeps expanding to love you EVEN more," the actress wrote in March alongside a black-and-white picture with the Aussie, 33, and ultrasound shots."I cannot wait to watch you share your light, love, and passion with our baby," Greene concluded.

Khoury and Greene tied the knot in July 2018, nearly two years after their engagement.
Honda has rolled out the new CBR150R Repsol in the market of Malaysia. The bike has also gone on sale in the South East Asian country first and will be introduced in other markets later this year.

Honda has rolled out the new CBR150R Repsol in the market of Malaysia. The bike has also gone on sale in the South East Asian country first and will be introduced in other markets later this year.

The new CBR150R Repsol Edition uses a very distinctive-looking exterior paint scheme which sets itself apart with the use of livery derived from Honda's MotoGP machine. This paint option comprises dashes of red and the Repsol branding over the side body panels. Also, the wheels use an orange body colour and the bike also gets Limited Edition badging.

(Also Read: Royal Enfield appoints ex-HMSI boss YS Guleria as Chief Commercial Officer)

While the bike manages to set itself apart with the use of new colours, the rest of the details on the bike remain unchanged. There is a 149cc, single-cylinder engine which has been rated to produce 16.3bhp of power and 13.7Nm of torque. The engine comes mated to a 6-speed gearbox. The bike is a direct rival to the likes of the Yamaha R15 V4 which is also sold in India. This bike offers 18.4bhp and 14.2Nm from its 155cc single-cylinder engine.

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(Also Read: HMSI and Kyndryl join forces to improve Honda's technology backing)

The new CBR150R Repsol Edition will be restricted to just 800 units in the Malaysian market. While it is likely to also be introduced to markets outside Malaysia, there is no certainty of its India debut as of yet. However, HMSI has plans on introducing a new two-wheeler in the country in August. It will be a premium mid-capacity product that will retail through Honda's premium Red Wing dealerships. The launch of the same is likely to take place in the second week of next month.

First Published Date:
New Delhi: Tamil star Dhanush may be playing a cold-blooded assassin out to get Ryan Gosling's character in "The Gray Man", which starts streaming on Netflix from July 22, but the Hollywood star is impressed. "He just has an incredible screen presence and he's such a lovely person to be around," Gosling says about Dhanush. And adds that Dhanush is charming and he would love to work with him again.

In a roundtable with global media, the Golden Globe winner said: "It was hard to pretend that I didn't like him because he is so charming. I have so much respect for his work ethics and he is so precise."

Gosling continued: "He never made a mistake. He's just a very special actor and I hope one day I get to work with him where we are not trying to kill each other, and hopefully in India, so if anyone can hook that up I am in."

Talking about India's film industry, Gosling said: "Yes, India has such a rich film history ... an incredible industry. I would love to experience it, you know.



If there are any filmmakers who want to make a film with me, please reach out. I would love to work with Dhanush again. Maybe the Russo brothers could make a film out there. But it is definitely something on my to-do list and I hope I can make that happen."

Gosling has upped his own game in the upcoming high-octane actioner, which comes loaded with nine death-defying fight sequences.

The actor agreed everything about the movie was tough, but said that it was something he wanted to do even when it was challenging.

IANS asked Gosling about how much is too much for an actor to invest in an intense film and character like "The Gray Man".

The actor replied: "I am not sure how much is too much. That depends. This was kind of a dream of mine to make an action film even though it is very extreme. I guess most action films have four or five action set pieces. This has nine." No wonder, the 41-year-old Hollywood star calls 'The Gray Man' "not a regular action film".

He said: "So, it's not a regular action film, you know. It felt worth it. It was like I just wanted to do it even when it was tough. I felt lucky doing it."

What was the hardest thing to do in the film, which is an adaptation of a Mark Greaney CIA-themed thriller novel of the same name? Pat came the reply from Gosling: "It's hard to say because everything was hard."

He explained: "Every sequence was different and required something else. Sometimes we were shooting multiple sequences at once, and we went and shot another sequence, so it was like keeping all the stunt choreography in your head and it would be easy to forget and do one fight. I had never done anything like shooting multiple fight scenes at once, so it was all very challenging."

Gosling plays Sierra Six, also known as "The Gray Man", a trained assassin who is inducted into the CIA's top-secret Sierra black ops programme from a US federal prison.

He's highly skilled and one of the best in his shadowy business, but there's a hitch: Sierra Six uncovers incriminating secrets about the agency, making him the target of the CIA and a global manhunt.

Talking about what he likes about Sierra, he said: "I liked his sense of humour. I thought it made him different and a lot of the different characters I have played in action films. ... I like the fact that the character doesn't want to be a spy. He does not want to be James Bond and wants to watch Netflix like the rest of us, but he has to do this because it is either this or death. I just thought it would make him an interesting character to play."

The film also stars Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jessica Henwick, Rege-Jean Page, Wagner Moura, Julia Butters, Alfre Woodard, and Billy Bob Thornton.

Gosling found it great to work with Evans, who plays the psychopathic CIA operative leading the hunt against Sierra Six. "Chris was having a lot of fun so that made it fun to play opposite him."

With diversity being spotlighted in Hollywood films, does Gosling agree that it is a good time to be an actor?

In reply to this question from IANS, he said: "Good time to be an actor in Hollywood? Yeah, I don't know ... I can't speak on that because I don't know what everyone's experience is. My dad worked in a paper mill and my family worked in a paper mill."

He added: "I feel lucky to be an actor. It's a great, good job and I feel lucky right now at this point of my career. This is the kind of a great film I saw when I was a kid and made me love movies. It's exciting to be in one."
New Delhi: Former Miss India and actress Tanushree Dutta has made some explosive allegations in her latest social media post. The 'Aashiq Banaya Apne' actress wrote a long note on Instagram alleging that she is being harassed by someone and 'disgusting stuff ie being kept outside her flat'.

TANUSHREE DUTTA'S ALLEGATION POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The flagbearer of the MeToo movement in Bollywood, Tanushree Dutta wrote on social media: I'm being harassed & targeted very badly. Please someone do something!!

First it was my bollywood work being sabotaged last one year, then a maid was planted to douse my drinking water with medications & steroids which caused all kinds of severe health problems, then when I escaped to Ujjain in May my vehicle brakes tampered twice & accident. I barely escaped death & returned mumbai after 40 days to resume normal life & work. Now strange disgusting stuff in my building outside my flat.

I'm not going to commit suicide for sure yeh kaan kholkar sun lo sab log!! Nor am I leaving & going anywhere. I'm here to stay & resurrect my public career to greater heights than ever before!

The Bollywood Mafia, the old political circuit of Maharashtra ( which still has influence here) and nefarious anti - national criminal elements together usually operate like this to trouble people.

I'm very sure the #metoo culprits & the NGO who I exposed are behind all this because why else would I be targeted & harassed like this??

Shame on you all! Shame on you!

I know a lot of people will try to dismiss me but I've been posting updates on insta for a long time.

It's severe mental, physical & psychological harassment. What kind of place is this where young boys & girls can just be harassed and killed for standing against injustice??

I wish presidents rule & military rule to be established in Maharashtra & central govt exerting total controle over ground level matters too. Things are really going out of hand here. Regular folks like me are suffering. Something drastic has to happen here. Today it's me tomorrow it can be you also.

I think me discussing some topics on my instagram lately has really rubbed off some people the wrong way. All the rumors must be true if someone like me who is not even connected to stuff is being targeted like this.

I will deepen my spiritual sadhana more despite all this & strengthen my spirit furthur. I also really want to focus on the new business/ work opportunities im getting and start fresh in life.

No law and order in this city anymore! Used to be a safe haven always for artists & single

women.

Hey Krishna! Brother help me

In her long note, she mentioned how she is being targeted for speaking out against the Bollywood mafia, the MeToo movement, and her 'freak car accident' on way to Mahakaal Temple in Ujjain among other things.

TANUSHREE DUTTA'S METOO ALLEGATIONS

She made her debut in Bollywood with Aashiq Banaya Aapne and went to star in films like Chocolate: Deep Dark Secrets, Bhagam Bhag, 36 China Town, Apartment etc.

She shot to headlines in 2018 when she made harassment allegations against senior actor Nana Patekar. The incident dated back to their 2008 film shoot. This kickstarted the #MeToo movement in Bollywood.
New Delhi: Aadhaar Card is one of the most important documents that can be used for several useful purpose. The 12-digit unique identification number issued by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has now become one of the significant identification documents as it contains your demographic as well as biometric data.

UIDAI also allows you to update your Aadhaar details. The details that can be updated are:

- Demographic information: Under this you can update your Name, Address, Date of Birth/Age, Gender, Mobile Number, Email Address, Relationship Status and Information Sharing Consent

- Biometric information: Under this you can update your Iris, Finger Prints and Facial Photograph

If you are looking to change your Facial Photograph, it will come under Biometric information change. This is not possible via online process. For this you will have to visit a physical Aadhaar Seva Kendra.

Step by step guide to change photo on Aadhaar Card online

Step 1: Visit the official UIDAI website at https://uidai.gov.in/.

Step 2: Now download the Aadhaar Enrollment Form from the official UIDAI website.

Step 3: Enter the details on the form with all the required information.

Step 4: You will now need to take an appointment at Aadhaar Enrollment Center.

Step 5: Visit the Aadhaar Enrollment Center on the day of your appointment, where your new photo will be taken.

Step 6: You will need to pay Rs 100 in addition to GST to the executive at the Centre.

Step 7: You will be given an acknowledgement slip as well as an Update Request Number (URN) once your request is accepted.

Step 8: Use the URN to track the status of your Aadhaar card.
New Delhi: 8th Pay Commission Latest Updates: Even as the employees union are pressing for the hike in fitment factor of the high bracket under the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, a new memorandum is purportedly being prepared by them in this regard, which will soon be submitted to the government, said media reports. The recommendations in this memorandum reportedly mentions that either the salary is hiked as per the highest bracket of the fitment factor or an 8th Pay Commission be implemented.

Expected pay hike under 8th Pay Commission

As per a Zeebiz Hindi report, the minimum salary of central employees with pay-level matrix 1 to 5 can be upto Rs 21,000. Usually, past trends have shown that Pay Commission is implemented after every 8-10 years. But, this time it can be changed and a new formula can be implemented in the year 2024. The report further states that the salary could jupm upto three times.

Minimum salary as per highest fitment factor under 7th Pay Commission

According to online media, central employees' organizations say that at present the minimum wage limit has been kept at Rs 18,000 which is based on the fitment factor which is 2.57 times. However, the 7th Pay Commission had recommended keeping it up to 3.68 times. Now, if the demand of the employee union is accepted, the minimum wage of the employees will increase from Rs 18 thousand to Rs 26,000 when the fitment factor is hiked up to 3.68 times.

A Zee Hindi report also mentions that after the 7th pay commission, there might not be another new pay commission. Instead, the government may implement a system that will automatically set the pattern for increase in the salary of government employees.

The central government may come up with a new formula in deciding the pay factor of the employees. Media reports citing sources in the Finance Ministry said that the new salary hike will be based on performance linked increment. However the modalities regarding the assessment in salary calculation is not yet clear. Government is reportedly working in this direction.

Media reports have hinted that the government is working on a formula which will automatically calculate the salary component once the Dearness Allowance goes beyond 50 percent. The new calculation --probably could be termed as Automatic Pay Revision.
New Delhi: Garena Free Fire releases redeem codes on everyday basis. The 12-digit redeem code consists of alphabets and numbers. Players can get rewards such as skins for in-game weapons and characters to improve their gaming experience.

Garena Free fire is banned in India. However, if you are located outside India, you can access the reward codes and redeem them. For that you will be required to visit official Garena Free Fire reward site and log in to your Facebook, Google, Twitter IDs to access the Free Fire redemption page. (Also read: Google Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro features listed on ecommerce website: Details here)

Check out the Garena Free Fire Redeem Codes for July 20, 2022

8F3QZKNTLWBZ

U8S47JGJH5MG

FF11WFNPP956

ZZATXB24QES8

FFIC33NTEUKA

B6IYCTNH4PV3

FF119MB3PFA5

FF11NJN5YS3E

FF10617KGUF9

VNY3MQWNKEGU

MCPTFNXZF4TA

YXY3EGTLHGJX

FF11DAKX4WHV

FF1164XNJZ2V

W0JJAFV3TU5E

Y6ACLK7KUD1N

FF10GCGXRNHY

WLSGJXS5KFYR

ZRJAPH294KV5

FF11HHGCGK3B

(Also read: Shocking! Ex-Amazon Web Services engineer hacked data of 10 crore customers)

How to Redeem Garena Free Fire codes for today, July 20 2022

Step 1: Go to the official Garena Free Fire redemption portal



Step 2: Log in on the portal with either your Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, VK, or Huawei ID.



Step 3: Enter a redeem code in the designated text box.



Step 4: Click on the Ok button to get free rewards in your game account.

(Disclaimer: Garena Free fire is banned in India. Hence we advise people to adhere to government rules)
New Delhi: Instagram has launched a new payments in chat feature which will allow users to buy products via direct messages on the photo-sharing platform. Users will be able to track their orders via direct messages as well. The feature has now been launched for users in the US. However, the company might roll out it in other key markets in the coming times. The Meta-owned photo-sharing platform will let users directly text small businesses to enquire about the products. Once customers shortlist the item, they can directly buy it via DMs.

Previously, users were only allowed to see the products and for purchasing them, they had to visit the small business official website. The new feature will let buyers buy the product without the need for visiting any third-party website. (ALSO READ: Govt slashes windfall tax on fuel export, domestic crude oil)

Meanwhile, Instagram has also come with a new update that will make it easier for users to find local businesses or attractions by adding a searchable map to help "discover popular local businesses near you", according to a Story from CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (ALSO READ: Not happy with your existing Aadhaar Card photo? Here is how to change your Aadhaar card picture)

According to a report by The Verge, the map would display a list of local locations and allow Instagram users to view postings about specific locations or only see particular types of businesses.

Moreover, there are several ways to access the map. For example, users can see a location's page by tapping on the tag in a post or story and selecting "view location." They can explore the area to see what's nearby by moving about on the map.

The Explore page also allows users to search for locations, including entire cities. You can access a location search result on the map by tapping it.

Following a location search, users can apply filters to their search results to display only parks, restaurants, and other types of locations. Users have the option to save places they want to visit later.

According to Zuckerberg's Story on Tuesday, the revised map is now widely accessible. The firm began testing it in several countries last year, according to a report by IANS.
London: The head of the UN weather agency says he hopes a heat wave sweeping Europe and setting record-high temperatures in Britain serves as a "wake-up call" for governments and voters to do more on climate change. World Meteorological Organisation Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said Tuesday a "negative trend" of increasing heat waves is expected to continue for decades - at least until the 2060s - independent of our success in climate mitigation efforts.

He said the world has been "doping the atmosphere" by injecting more and more greenhouse gases into the air. UN officials said the same people most vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic were likely to be particularly affected: the elderly, the sick, and people with compromised respiratory systems.

Britain shatters its record for highest temperature ever

Britain shattered its record for the highest temperature ever registered Tuesday amid a heat wave that has seized swaths of Europe, and the national weather forecaster predicted it would get hotter still in a country ill-prepared for such extremes.

The typically temperate nation was just the latest to be walloped by unusually hot, dry weather that has gripped the continent since last week, triggering wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans and leading to hundreds of heat-related deaths. Images of flames racing toward a French beach and Britons sweltering - even at the seaside - have driven home concerns about climate change.

The UK Met Office registered a provisional reading of 40.3C in Coningsby, central England. Before Tuesday, the highest temperature recorded in Britain was 38.7 C (101.7 F), a record set in 2019.

The nation watched the mercury rise with a combination of horror and fascination. With several hours of intense sunlight ahead, the record could go even higher.

The sweltering weather has disrupted travel, health care and schools in a country not prepared for such extremes.

Many public buildings, including hospitals, don't even have air conditioning, a reflection of how unusual such extreme heat is in the country better known for rain and mild temperatures.
Beijing: Four people have died in a gas explosion that injured 13 others at a six-story residential building in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, state media said Wednesday. A trapped person who had been pulled out on Tuesday at 5:40 P.M., more than 10 hours after the morning blast, had weak vital signs and died after being taken to a hospital, according to a Tianjin Daily report posted by the Tianjin government on social media.

State broadcaster CCTV later said the rescue work had been completed. It didn't provide any details on the four deaths. The injuries to the other 13 are not life-threatening, CCTV said in an online article.

The explosion occurred around 7:15 A.M. in the city's Beichen District. Photos of the scene showed upper stories of the building caved in with the roof still intact, but no obvious damage to neighboring units.

Tianjin, a major port and manufacturing hub, is less than an hour by high-speed train from Beijing and has long been one of China's most developed and international cities.

The cause of the explosion remains under investigation, but it appears to point to the deterioration of infrastructure following more than three decades of breakneck economic growth. The building was constructed in the 1980s, the Tianjin Daily reported.

China's Ministry of Emergency Management called for determining the cause as quickly as possible and a comprehensive screening to identify gas leak risks and prevent such accidents in the future, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

China is replacing decades-old infrastructure, with natural gas lines used for cooking, heat and power generation a particular concern.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Kathmandu: A civic group in Nepal has submitted a memorandum to Minister of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Shashi Shrestha, demanding to claim the country`s territory occupied by China. A delegation of the Rastriya Ekata Abhiyan, led by its President Binay Yadav, handed over the memo to the Minister on Tuesday in Kathmandu. The civic body also drew Minister`s attention to the latest incursion of China whereby the Beijing side has erected a fence at the Ruila border of Chumanubri Rural Municipality-1 in Gorkha without coordinating with the opposite side.

"The encroachment in various areas of the Nepal-China border, including Ruila, in violation of international law and values, is not only an insult to the friendship between the two countries but also a direct challenge to the sovereignty of Nepal," President Yadav said in the memorandum. Similarly, President Yadav added that repeated attacks on Nepal`s territorial integrity by China in face of Nepal`s condemnation have not deterred the Beijing side to undertake its illegal motives.

He also lauded the steps taken against the encroachments on the Nepal-China border as the current government came to power. "However, despite the diplomatic efforts made by the government, border encroachment continues," he added.

The memorandum stated: "We expect decisive and strict action by this government against border encroachment, the Ekata Abhiyan continues to fully support and cooperate with the government in its every step."Earlier in June, a vernacular Nepali media had reported about the encroachment of Nepali land by China building a fence next to the no-man`s-land in Northern Gorkha.

The fence, as reported by the locals, has been built without abiding by any of the criteria to be followed while constructing the structure at the border. Neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor Gorkha`s District Administration Office is aware of the Chinese side`s illegal occupation at the Ruila border. Gorkha Chief District Officer Shankar Hari Acharya expressed ignorance about the fencing at the border.

According to international norms, no structure or fences can be built in no man`s land. Such action requires bilateral consensus. However, locals have claimed that China put up a fence at the Ruila border within the no-man`s land area without following international norms.

With the Chinese illegal occupation of erecting fences, locals` movement across the border has come to a halt. Locals have complained that they faced problems in bringing essential daily necessities. Locals added that China also set up closed circuit television cameras in the area and has been monitoring the situation. Earlier, China had also erected such a fence at Nguila border in Chhokangparo of Chumanubri Rural Municipality-7 and removed it later.
New Delhi: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave his last address at the Parliament on Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Questions. According to a Reuters report, his last statements were of him reminding the people of the work his government did during the pandemic. He said, "We've helped, I've helped, get this country through a pandemic and help save another country from barbarism. And frankly, that's enough to be going on. Mission largely accomplished."

Johnson further said, "I want to thank everybody here and hasta la vista, baby."

Also Read: Rishi Sunak leads race to become UK Prime Minister, only 4 remain in race

Prior to his address, Boris Johnson had chaired his final Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Even though, he was virtually cornered into resigning owing to the multiple scandals during his post as PM, he held his head high and defended his government.

He highlighted his administration's commitment to tacking climate change and the heatwave that UK is experienceing.

While the race to replace the caretaker PM still has some time to go before the September 5 announcement of a new elected leader, the UK Parliament is set for its annual summer recess from Thursday and will return for session with a new prime minister in place.

Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak has maintained a steady lead as the frontrunner and is now also leading the bookie's odds as best placed to succeed Johnson at 10 Downing Street.

Further rounds of voting among Tory MPs this week will determine who he will be up against in the final round, with Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss fighting for that second place.

(With agency inputs)

Live TV
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- The municipal government of Guangzhou, the capital of Chinas Guangdong province, recently issued a document including a slew of measures to boost the development of automobile and key auto component industrial chains, which will remain effective until December 31, 2025.



According to the document, Guangzhou's authorities plan to build three industrial parks for core automotive components. Under the mid-term goal of achieving a ratio of auto parts to complete vehicle production values no less than 0.5:1, local authorities will support Zengcheng, Baiyun, and Conghua districts in developing automotive electronics and other core component industries.



XPeng G3; photo credit: XPeng

As part of measures to strengthen the in-house innovation capability of the automotive industrial chain, local firms will be encouraged to boost the design, testing, and production of automotive-grade chips, and develop key technologies related to platforms of intelligent driving, smart cockpit, vehicle control, as well as NEV core parts including batteries, electric motors, and electric control units.

The Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau will budget up to 500 million yuan ($74.121 million) to support companies along the automobile and component industrial chains in jointly researching and developing core auto parts and technologies.

To promote the revolution of synergetic definition of vehicles by both software and hardware, local authorities will encourage automakers to build full-stack R&D systems for electrical/electronic architecture, complete vehicle basic software, smart cockpit software, and autonomous driving software, and make breakthroughs in high-definition map, software & hardware integration, and software algorithm key technologies. Thus, 10 million yuan ($1.482 million) per model will be awarded to complete vehicle firms which develop and manufacture Level 3 and higher level autonomous driving vehicles models. Each company will be given incentives worth no more than 30 million yuan ($4.447 million).
Colombo: Voting is underway in Sri Lanka to elect a new president following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa amid an unprecedented economic crisis that has led to a shortage of fuel and other essential commodities in the country. Acting Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe is among the top three candidates for the Presidential election in which 225 members of the House are eligible to vote and participate in the secret ballot.

The other two candidates are SLPP parliamentarian Dullas Alahaperuma and National People`s Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Sri Lanka`s main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa yesterday withdrew his candidature from the presidential race and said he is supporting rival candidate Dullas Alahapperuma for the top post.

Premadasa took to Twitter to say that his party the Samagi Jana Balawegaya and its alliance and opposition partners will support Alahapperuma, an MP of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), who is in the fray for the upcoming presidential elections.

Also read: Sri Lankan crisis: Three-way fight for Presidency, acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe also in the race

Premadasa said that he is heading with this decision as he seeks the "greater good" for Lankans. "For the greater good of my country that I love and the people I cherish I hereby withdraw my candidacy for the position of President. Samagi Jana Balawegaya and our alliance and our opposition partners will work hard towards making Dullas Alahaperuma victorious," he tweeted.

According to local media, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Dullas Alahaperuma are among the top two contenders. Alahapperuma was campaigning hard for the presidential race along with his prime ministerial candidate Sajith Premadasa in a bid to persuade the Tamil MPs to vote for Dullas, the Daily Mirror reported.

Earlier, former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had offered his resignation after fleeing the country to Singapore. The president first flew to the Maldives after tens of thousands of protesters stormed his official residence in the capital Colombo.

The economy in Sri Lanka is bracing for a sharp contraction due to the unavailability of basic inputs for production, an 80 per cent depreciation of the currency since March 2022, coupled with a lack of foreign reserves and the country`s failure to meet its international debt obligations. Hundreds of Sri Lankans continue to queue up at petrol pumps across the debt-ridden country every day amid fuel shortage, and a large number of people are ditching their cars and motorcycles for bicycles for their daily commute. The economic crisis which is the worst in Sri Lanka`s history has prompted an acute shortage of essential items like fuel.
London: It's over 40 degrees! Not just in Delhi, but even in London, United Kingdom, as a heatwave swept the island nation, just like many European countries. The Met Office said a new provisional record temperature of 40.3C was recorded in Coningsby, in central England, with 34 sites across the country experiencing temperatures in excess of the previous high of 38.7C recorded in 2019. Europe has been experiencing a massive heatwave, with experts issuing warnings on climate change and its dangerous impact.

Britain's highest ever temperature

Stephen Belcher at the Met Office said he had not expected to see such temperatures in Britain in his career. "Research conducted here at the Met Office has demonstrated that it's virtually impossible for the UK to experience 40C in an undisrupted climate but climate change driven by greenhouse gases has made these extreme temperatures possible," he said.

London Fire Brigade declared a major incident and urged people to stop having barbecues, as hundreds of firefighters battled blazes across the capital.

Portugal reports more than 1,000 heat-related deaths

Temperatures across drought-stricken Portugal surpassed 40 degrees Celsius last week. The country has reported more than 1,000 deaths due to the current heat wave, with the health chief warning on Tuesday that the country must gear up to cope with the effects of climate change as temperatures continue to rise. "Portugal ... is among one of the areas of the globe that could be (more) affected by extreme heat," Graca Freitas, head of health authority DGS, told Reuters. "We have to be more and more prepared for periods of high temperatures."

Also read: IMD issues rainfall warning for Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, other states - Check forecast

Wildfire in Spain, France

Wildfires raged in southwestern France and Spain last week, forcing thousands of people to be evacuated from their homes as blistering summer temperatures put authorities on alert in parts of Europe. Heatwaves have engulfed France and Spain with temperatures soaring above 40 C.

(With Reuters inputs)
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Shanghais motor vehicle parc reached 5.09 million units by the end of June this year, 4.51 million of which were automobiles.

In the first six months of 2022, Shanghai saw roughly 190,000 vehicles newly registered in the city, representing a 39.3% decline over a year ago with a 180,000-units difference. Notably, the new vehicle registration volume in the first three months of this year remained flat from the previous year, but took a downturn in April and May under the COVID-19 influence. However, with the market recovering, the monthly registration volume amounted to 30,000 vehicles in June.

By the end of June 2022, 710,000 units of Shanghais existing car parc were new energy vehicles, accounting for 15.74% of the total volume. With a parc of 380,000 vehicles, battery-electric vehicles accounted for 53.52% of the number of new energy vehicles currently running on roads in Shanghai.

In the first half of 2022, there were 85,692 new energy vehicles registered in Shanghai, 47,436 vehicles less than the earlier year, dropping 32.01% year over year. New energy vehicles took up 45.1% of Shanghais new vehicle registrations in the Jan.-Jun. period.
With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information.

Chinas first paid driverless mobility pilot service kicked off in Beijing

On July 20th, Beijing High-level Automated Driving Demonstration Area announced the initiation of Chinas first driverless mobility service pilot operation with Pony.ai and Baidu as the first two permitted service providers.

Photo credit: Baidu

Chinas passenger vehicle retails reach 335,000 vehicles last week

In the week starting July 11th to July 17th, there were around 335,000 passenger vehicles retailed in China, up 16% year over year and 21% week over week. However, compared to the same week last month, the retail volume saw a 15% decline.

JMC lays out in L4 autonomous intra-city freight field

Jiangling Motors Corporation disclosed that it had made layouts in the intra-city freight field with its L4 autonomous driving light buses.

Wuhan to explore autonomous driving bus operation on night routes

Wuhan issued an implementation scheme on strengthening the citys transportation system. The city mentioned that it plans to conduct pilot operation with autonomous driving buses on night routes in designated areas.

NIO said to unveil interior of mass-produced ET5 at Chengdu Motor Show 2022

NIO is about to showcase the ET5 at the forthcoming Chengdu Motor Show 2022, with the interior design of the mass-produced model to be unveiled on spot, according to a local media outlet.

Pony.ai permitted to charge fees for driverless Robotaxi service in Beijing

On July 20th, Pony.ai received permission for Chinas first driverless Robotaxi commercial operation from Beijing High-level Automated Driving Demonstration Area (BJHAD).

Shanghais car parc surpasses 5 million vehicles by end of June 2022

Shanghais motor vehicle parc reached 5.09 million units by the end of June this year, 4.51 million of which were automobiles.

Guangzhou releases policies to boost vehicle, auto parts industrial chain development

The municipal government of Guangzhou, the capital of Chinas Guangdong province, recently issued a document including a slew of measures to boost the development of automobile and key auto component industrial chains, which will remain effective until December 31, 2025.

NIO invests in self-driving startup Yunchuang Zhixing

NIO Capital led the Pre-A investment round of Chinas crewless city-sanitation startup, Yunchuang Zhixing, the company announced on July 19th.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- NIO Capital led the Pre-A investment round of Chinas crewless city-sanitation startup, Yunchuang Zhixing, the company announced on July 19th.

Photo credit: Yunchuang Zhixing

Yunchuang Zhixing raised tens of millions of yuan in the round. The company said that it would put the proceeds into the R&D of core technologies, the promotion of large-scale production, and a larger commercial deployment.

Founded in March 2021, Yunchuang Zhixing is an autonomous driving company focusing on the city sanitation segment. The company is dedicated to building integrated solutions for crewless sanitation operations and improving the current harsh conditions for city sanitation works.

The founding team of the company consists of veterans in the sanitation industry as well as experts in autonomous driving.

Yunchuang Zhixings autonomous sanitation operation model features a fully functional platform that covers driverless street cleaning vehicles, cloud-based remote management, and intelligent operation platform.

In November 2021, the company landed a crewless cleaning operation project with China Telecom in Jinji Lake Scenic Area, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. Yunchuang Zhixing successfully deployed five proprietary YC-200 fully-autonomous street cleaners on site, working in substitute for dozens of service staffs.

Started in Suzhou, Yunchuang Zhixing plans to facilitate similar commercial application projects in Nanjing, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu.
In June 2022, Chinese NEV startup Li Auto recorded monthly registrations of 13,162 units, including 13,049 Li ONEs and 113 Li L9s, according to the data compiled by Gasgoo Auto Research Institute ("GARI").

In terms of June registrations of locally-made new energy passenger vehicles ("NEPVs"), Li Auto ranked 9th among all auto brands on the Chinese mainland and 2nd among Chinese NEV startups.

Li ONE; photo credit: Li Auto

Last month, the Li ONE saw its monthly registrations surge 66.3% year on year and grow 12.7% month on month. Among all homemade NEPV models, the Li ONE ranked 8th by June registrations.

In June, Shanghai was honored the No.1 city by monthly registrations of the Li ONE. There were six provincial capital cities among the top 10 cities by June Li ONE registrations, namely, Chengdu (2nd), Hangzhou (3rd), Xi'an (4th), Zhengzhou (6th), Shijiazhuang (9th), and Wuhan (10th). However, either Beijing or Guangzhou didn't enter the top 10 rankings.

For the first half of 2022, Li Auto's cumulative registrations amounted to 60,854 units (+99.3% YoY), 60,741 units of which were Li ONEs.



Among the top 10 cities by the Jan.-Jun. registrations of the Li ONE, six spots were occupied by provincial capital cities, namely, Hangzhou (1st), Chengdu (2nd), Zhengzhou (3rd), Xian (7th), Guangzhou (9th), and Shijiazhuang (10th). Except Beijing, the three metropolisesShenzhen, Shanghai, and Guangzhouall appeared on the top 10 cities list.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.  Hustler Hollywood on Wednesday announced that its doors are officially open for business at 6034 E. Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Virginia. This location marks the company's 42nd brick-and-mortar store in the U.S. and the largest store on the East Coast to date for the retail chain.

The company has been pursuing an aggressive expansion plan since 2016 and is on track to open 50-plus stores by the end of 2022. The Virginia Beach location will carry the retailer's best-selling merchandise, including lingerie, fashion-forward apparel, accessories, bath and body items, and unique gifts, including games and party supplies for bachelor/bachelorette parties, bridal showers, festivals, and more. Each store is designed to be intimate and sophisticated and offers an upscale consumer experience and unparalleled customer service.

As we considered east coast locations for our expansion, we couldnt help but consider Virginia Beach," said Philip Del Rio, VP of Hustler Hollywood. "The area is a popular vacation spot and attracts people from all over. They say, Virginia is for Lovers, and we look forward to serving the community and its many guests for years to come."

The boutique will be holding a celebratory grand-opening event on Saturday, August 20, from 6 to 9 p.m., where attendees, while listening to a live DJ, will have the opportunity to mingle, shop, and enjoy desserts and drinks, plus have the chance to win prizes throughout the evening. In addition, one lucky winner will receive a $500 in-store shopping spree. The event is free and open to the public.
Grand Canyon National Park and its surrounding areas encompass some of the worlds natural treasures. As one of the seven wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon National Park is more than 1,000,000 acres and is home to the Colorado River, eight national historic landmarks and 11 federally recognized Native American tribes.

The Grand Canyon is threatened by harmful uranium mining that poses health and safety risks to the indigenous people who call the Canyon home. Uranium mining also poses a risk to the quality and quantity of the groundwater and the fragile streams and springs.

In 2012, then-President Obama, in recognition of the serious threat mining created, imposed a temporary ban on uranium mining on or near the Grand Canyon. This temporary ban is set to expire. Therefore, Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly introduced the Grand Canyon Protection Act (GCPA), which continues the current ban on uranium mines on or near the Grand Canyon National Park, which permanently prohibits uranium mining.

The passage of the GCPA protects this critical watershed for those that live, work, and play in and near the Grand Canyon and reduces the risk of contamination of water resources and water supplies.

As a County Supervisor and longtime resident of Coconino County, I have also seen firsthand the consequences of uranium contamination and the health and safety risks it poses. On the Navajo Nation alone, there are more than 500 abandoned uranium mines that have not been cleaned or mitigated. This environmental and public health threat to one of the worlds greatest treasures must not be allowed to continue and protection of the Grand Canyon is best served through the swift passage of the GCPA.

I want to thank Senators Sinema and Kelly for their sponsorship of the Grand Canyon Protection Act (GCPA) and am pleased that the GCPA was recently heard in a Senate hearing. I would urge others to call, email or write your Senators today and demand the passage of the GCPA. It is imperative that this important piece of legislation passes this congressional session.
PHOENIX  Heat-associated deaths in Arizonas largest county have hit a half-year record as more homeless people live unprotected outdoors in the arid desert city while summer temperatures soar well into triple digits.

The most recent data from the Maricopa County Department of Health shows 17 heat associated fatalities were registered this year through the first week of July, with another 126 under investigation. About two-thirds of the deaths involved people who were outdoors.

Other cities around the U.S. and the world are also sweating through earlier, more intense and longer lasting heat waves that scientists blame on global warning. Record high temperatures currently grip Europe, with London officials asking people to stay home and wildfires raging in Spain, France and elsewhere.

In Arizona's Maricopa County, the number of heat associated deaths reported during the first half are far greater those recorded during the same period in past years. There were 11 such fatalities in the first six months of 2021 with 107 more under investigation; four during that period in 2020 with another 48 under investigation; and three in 2019 with 27 more under investigation.

The health department reported 339 heat-associated deaths in Maricopa County for all of 2021.

The county's latest data come amid a surge in the number of homeless people living on the streets in greater Phoenix as temperatures average about 112 degrees.

More than 1,000 unhoused people currently sleep in tents in downtown Phoenix, in addition to the hundreds who fill emergency shelters nearby.

In an effort to prevent more heat associated deaths, Phoenix and Maricopa County joined local nonprofits this year to outfit a summertime shelter with 200 beds in an unused government building east of downtown.

Landscapers, construction workers and others who labor outside are also vulnerable to the intense summer heat.

A homeowner in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale late last week widely shared a video from his door camera of a delivery driver who appeared to be overcome Thursday by the heat as he briefly collapsed on the porch. The high hit 110 degrees that day.
Panama City, Fla.  The advisory for the Carl Gray Park (SP 9) location on Collegiate Drive in Panama City is rescinded. The advisory for the Beach Drive (SP 10) location in the 1600 block of West Beach Drive, Panama City remains in effect.

The Bay County Health Department, Bay CHD, conducts saltwater beach water quality monitoring in accordance with the Healthy Beaches Monitoring Program. Water samples are collected twice a month between March and October. The samples are checked for enteric bacteria that normally inhabit the intestinal tract of humans and animals. The presence of enteric bacteria can be an indication of fecal pollution, which may come from storm water runoff, pets and wildlife, and human sewage. Poor results are posted as an Advisory at the affected beaches.

Healthy Beaches advisories are issued to protect swimmers from increased risk of gastrointestinal illnesses. At a lower occurring level, there may also be increased risks of upper respiratory infections, skin rashes, and ear infections. Healthy Beach advisories are not related to Necrotizing fasciitis, a rare complication.

Sampling is usually done on Mondays with results on Tuesday, with exception of holidays. Results are shared at Bay.FloridaHealth.gov, through media releases, and real-time on the Florida Healthy Beaches page at FloridaHealth.gov and search for Healthy Beaches.

Florida Healthy Beaches Program Categories are; Good = 0-35 Enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water, Moderate = 36-70 Enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water, and Poor = 71 or greater Enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water. If levels are above 70, Bay CHD notifies the local Florida Department of Environmental Protection for further investigation.

If you have any questions, please contact the Bay County Health Department at 850-481-4806 or visit the Department of Healths Internet Beach Water Quality website at http://www.floridahealth.gov/healthy-environments/beach-water-quality/index.html.

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About the Florida Department of Health

The department, nationally accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board, works to protect, promote and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county and community efforts.

Follow us on Twitter at @HealthyFla and on Facebook. For more information about the Florida Department of Health please visit www.FloridaHealth.gov.
A senior living facility in one on Montanas poorest counties will close during the next three months.

Officials at Big Horn Senior Living (BHSL) announced recently that operations will cease at the nursing home, assisted living and independent living facility.

Years of anemic Medicaid reimbursement rates for nursing homes and assisted living services combined with a workforce shortage and wage pressures have pushed BHSL over the edge, ending the 2021 fiscal year at a $1.2 million loss.

In order to just break even, BHSL would need reimbursement rates to double, said Paula Small-Plenty, BHSL administrator.

The parent company, Big Horn Hospital, has supported BHSL over the last two years, but continuing to operate both will eventually impact the care and services available at the critical access hospital.

There are 27 residents in the nursing home, seven in assisted living and nine in independent living for a total of 43 residents in a 57 bed facility. All will need to transition to other facilities or housing.

High-needs residents may receive their long-term care at the hospital while others will need to coordinate with Big Horn County for independent living options.

Others will need to move out of county. The Billings area, 46 miles from Hardin, offers the most in skilled nursing availability.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services will also help with placement and reimburse transportation costs for any residents who find a new home outside of Big Horn County, Small-Plenty said in a press release.

In Bozeman, administrators at the Bridger Rehab and Care Center also announced a voluntary closure last Wednesday, according to Wendy Soulek, COO of the consulting company Lantis Enterprises.

Soulek recently traveled to Iowa to assist in another nursing home closure, but residents there were easier to place with more than 50 facilities nearby. Due to Montanas geographical expanse, its much more difficult to transition residents to other facilities in the state.

In Bozeman, there are three options in a 30-mile radius, Soulek said. And (residents) might have to go even further away.

On Tuesday, the first resident to leave was placed in a facility 109 miles away by the resident family choice.

There are 25 residents who will need to relocate to other skilled nursing facilities that have adequate staff and the ability to meet the resident's needs.

Nursing homes provide something that in-home services cant provide. If that service goes away, there will be a crisis. There are a lot of people who are dependent on theses skilled services, Soulek said. I fear Montana is going to regret having these facilities close.
For the first time in the digital era, a Montana Democratic nominee for Congress trails an Independent in fundraising in a race that decidedly favors at-large Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale.

Campaign finance records show Democrat Penny Ronning, a former Billings City Council member and organizer against human trafficking, with $63,000 in individual contributions since November 2021 when she declared her candidacy for Montanas newly created Eastern U.S. House District. She trails Gary Buchanan, an Independent who just last month petitioned his way onto the general election ballot. Buchanan has $102,124 in individual contributions, plus a $25,000 personal loan.

Theirs is an anthills-versus-molehills comparison though, given that Rosendales total receipts are $1.7 million. There's roughly $1 million in contributions from individuals in Rosendale's report, plus an additional $600,000 on deposit from authorized PACs. A fourth candidate in the race, Libertarian Sam Rankin, hasnt raised enough money to meet the federal reporting requirement.

The latest numbers come as Democrats pour money into the Western Montana House race, where Monica Tranel has raised $1.3 million, including $578,407 in the second quarter.

It has been 32 years since Montana last had two U.S. House districts. Western Montana is decidedly more competitive for Democrats, though still challenging. Democratic members of the state Districting and Apportionment Commission estimated their candidates would be at a 7% disadvantage in the west.

Conversely, election data shows in at-large U.S. House races since 2010, counties now comprising the Eastern District of Montana favored Republicans by more than a 20% margin in four of seven races. Only once was that victory margin closer to 15% for Republicans in the east.

Ronning told Lee Montana Newspapers that she realized early on that the Eastern Montana race wasnt likely to garner similar financial support as the race in Western Montana. She said she had recently been informed the partys national political action committees were staying out of her race.

It is incredibly frustrating that the national party has said they wont put any resources into rural Montana, Ronning said. Theyre not going to support South Dakota, North Dakota, right down the middle of the country. Im still angry, but that doesnt change the fact that this is my state and Im going to fight for these folks. I have a passion for the ag industry, for the people who grow our food. In many communities they dont have money to feed their kids, 40% of our kids qualify for free and reduced (cost) meals at school.

In the primary election, Ronning received more than 21,000 votes, which she received with much fewer resources than the Democrats with similar votes placing second or third in the Western District primary. Rosendale received more than 73,000.

Steve Bullock would be in the Senate and Kathleen Williams would be in the House right now if it was only about money, she said with pluck. Both Democratic candidates spent big in 2020 but lost in a Republican sweep.

The chairwoman of the Montana Democratic Party is Robyn Driscoll, a former state legislator from Billings who acknowledges the challenges faced by Ronning, and who describes herself as committed to raising money within Montana.

We know this district is hard. The eastern part of the state is very hard. But we also know that there's thousands of voters in the district who don't want Matt Rosendale to represent them in Congress anymore and that is across party lines, Driscoll said. He is just as extreme as they get. And so, Republicans, Democrats want an alternative to Matt Rosendale. Penny still has four months to make her case.

Eastern District donors, Democrat and Republican, have given considerably more money to candidates in Western Montana. Western Democratic nominee Tranel has reports $103,770 in contribution receipts from donors in the Eastern District. Western Republican Ryan Zinke has $250,144 in contribution receipts from people living in the Eastern District, more than the Eastern Montana contribution receipts to Rosendale, $221,740.

Donors for Ronning and Buchanan both are concentrated in a few communities. All but six of Ronnings in-district Montana donors are from Billings, according to latest reports. Billings anchors Yellowstone County which in most election cycles has the third most Democratic voters among Montana counties. Other important Eastern District counties for Democratic campaigns barely register. There are two donors on Ronnings report from Cascade County seat Great Falls, only one from Helena, which anchors Lewis and Clark County.

Buchanans donations are anchored in Billings and Helena, with smaller communities like Livingston and Red Lodge also registering. But like Ronning, he hasnt cracked Great Falls beyond a couple donations. A long-time public servant and financial advisor, Buchanan has managed to raise money wherever hes held fundraising events.

Raising money is hard for an independent candidate. Resources like donation lists that might benefit a major party candidate are less accessible. Fundraising wasnt the focus of the spring for the Buchanan campaign, he said. Gathering signatures was the priority. He relied on 450 volunteer signature gatherers. The goal now Buchanan said is to get those volunteers to canvass and raise funds.

We are never going to raise the amount of money that Rosendale did. But what I have are volunteers. I've got 450 signature gathers, and a hell of a lot of people associated with those gatherers, Buchanan said. These volunteers are incredible. Were going to be at the Lewis and Clark County Fair, the Cascade County Fair, Marias Fair, Yellowstones and Parks. Its not easy but were getting a pretty equal amount of money from Republicans and Democrats. A lot of disenchanted Republicans are coming my way.
The Billings School District 2 Board of Trustees has voted unanimously to suspend the districts face mask policy. They also agreed to schedule a special meeting next week to discuss ending their emergency declaration.

For nearly two hours, parents and SD2 faculty argued with the board that students were negatively impacted by mask requirements, that the masking policy was ineffective in preventing the spread of COVID-19 and the choice to wear masks should remain optional.

The upcoming special meeting will address the districts emergency declaration for the COVID-19 pandemic which implemented the face protection action known as Policy 1905. The policy requires all staff, volunteers, visitors, and school-aged students to wear a face covering in any school building, regardless of their vaccination status. The superintendent is able to amend policy procedures like moving from mandatory masks to optional, which was implemented in February.

Parents and certain school faculty have opposed the mandates since they were first announced last August. Protests were held along with complaints and lawsuits filed against the district regarding the legality of mask mandates. During the meeting, School District Clerk Craig Van Nice provided an update and reported 1700 complaints with five pending appeals and two dismissed along with 14 active lawsuits.

The masking topic was not specifically included on the meetings agenda and the board planned to discuss the districts Safe Return to School and Continuity of Services Plan to continue appropriating the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds for the 2022-23 school year.

Board Chairman Scott McCulloch said he heard from multiple people ahead of the meeting that Policy 1905 would be discussed. Shortly after the meeting began, McCulloch made it clear to those in attendance that the policy and its potential removal was not on the agenda and added that it was due to be reviewed by two committees to present to the board next month. He added that the board couldn't remove the policy during the meeting since there was no 48 hour notification to the public ahead of the meeting.

Despite making it clear to those in attendance that discussing the policy was not on the agenda, all public comments focused solely on the possibility of a mask mandate for the upcoming school year.

Commenters argued students education and mental health last year was negatively impacted by mask requirements, that the policy was ineffective in preventing the spread of COVID-19 and that the choice to wear masks should remain optional. Although the mandate moved from mandatory to optional earlier this year due to declining COVID-19 cases, there are renewed concerns it will get re-implemented since cases have increased in recent weeks.

What youre doing is unfair to the teachers, to the students and to the parents to string us along, said SD2 teacher Kristen Richert.

Some also felt like the board has been intentionally avoiding the issue for months. Billings resident Luke Hudson argued emergency declarations by school boards under the Montana Code Annotated allowed districts to end them without a 48-hour public notification, since it typically applies to unforeseen emergencies like winter storms. He added that he believes misuse of the declaration has delayed the issue getting resolved

MCA 20-9-8 is about finance. Its not about masks, its not about emergency powers, it is how you get funded in case of lost time in school, he said. Were acting like you cant move it and you cant deal with it and its because youre playing a game with them and so I hope the rest of the trustees will do the right thing and do what were asking tonight.

While the board discussed potential procedures following the public comment period, Van Nice clarified that removing the disaster declaration would involve updating the districts Safe Return to School and Continuity of Services Plan submitted to the Office of Public Instruction to reflect this change.

District 7 Chair John VonLangen pointed out that since the emergency declaration is mentioned in the plan which was included in the agenda and given a 48-hour notice to the public, it could be considered and actionable item for the meeting.

The declaration of emergency is a subset of this plan, so its part of the plan that I feel was noticed to the community and should still allowed to be actionable, he said. The lining does say actionable if you look at the agenda.

It was then agreed that a unanimous vote under the district Policy 1310 would allow immediate suspension of a policy to be taken during that meeting. The vote to suspend Policy 1905 was unanimously approved by the board.

The decision was met with applause by those in attendance.

The board also agreed to meet next week for a special meeting with one agenda item to address the emergency declaration for the district. A date for the meeting has yet to be determined.
A Montana-grown construction business could begin repairing the flood-damaged road through Yellowstone National Park that connects the North and Northeast entrances next week.

Oftedal Construction has bid to make temporary repairs to the damaged roadway. The employee-owned company has offices in Miles City and Casper, Wyoming.

The goal is to have the route entirely reopened to public traffic by October.

The highway is vital to the residents of Cooke City and Silver Gate, at the Northeast Entrance, since it provides the only road to the mountain towns in the winter. It is also the only road open to automobiles in Yellowstone in the winter, so its popular with wildlife watchers.

Heavy runoff from a rain-on-snowpack event in mid-June damaged the roadway, gouging out large sections that prompted officials to temporarily close the entire park while an assessment was undertaken. More than 90% of the park has reopened to visitors, although the North and Northeast entrances remain closed along with a large section of backcountry between the two park gates.

Long-term

Permanent repairs of the roadway may take three to five years, with options being drawn up by the Park Service for public review.

The other temporary road repair is to the Old Gardiner Road at the North Entrance, being undertaken by HK Contractors of Idaho Falls. The route is currently being used by park employees and commercial contractors at defined times to avoid construction work delays. The old gravel road is being widened to two lanes and paved to connect Gardiner and Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, which is where Yellowstone National Parks headquarters are located.

Cam Sholly, Yellowstone National Park superintendent, is hoping the work on both sections of roadway can be completed by the fall, allowing public traffic to resume. Single lane traffic, controlled by a stoplight, may be necessary on parts of the route through the Lamar Valley, he recently told area residents and business owners.

If the road repairs cant be completed by this fall, the Park Service in concert with the Montana and Wyoming departments of transportation, will make plans to plow the plug. The plug is a section of Highway 212 that is closed to auto traffic in the winter, creating a popular snowmobiling trail. Some snowmobile-dependent businesses in Cooke City are worried that if the plug is plowed, snowmobilers may not visit, since it will hamper snowmobile access to the surrounding mountains.

Even if the temporary roadway through Yellowstone is finished in time for winter travel, vehicle length restrictions may be necessary on the narrow, winding Old Gardiner Road. Also questionable is whether the Mammoth Hotel would be reopened for the winter season, since it is reliant on the parks septic service, which was severed in the flooding.

For now, the Park Service is using old settling ponds as a temporary solution while it works to reconnect its service lines, which travel to the Gardiner wastewater treatment plant. The ponds cannot be used once the weather turns cold since the water will freeze.

Northeast

Unlike the upgrading taking place at the Old Gardiner Road, the repairs near the Northeast Entrance involve several sections of roadway. In some places, a new route will be built away from the old highway, damaged by high waters in Soda Butte Creek, Pebble Creek and the Lamar River. One repair involves the installation of a temporary bridge to span a 750-foot gouge.

Oftedal will be working from both ends of the damaged roadway to speed the construction. As work is completed, Sholly said the Park Service may be able to incrementally reopen the roadway to the public, expanding access to Yellowstone as construction crews make progress.

Right now, public access to the park at the North and Northeast entrances is allowed only for cyclists or walkers to travel a short distance. Some tour operators and outfitters are being allowed access over the Old Gardiner Road, but at controlled times to limit disruption of the ongoing construction work.

The Park Service on Wednesday announced the opening of the road from Tower Junction to Slough Creek, a six-mile stretch, to bikers, hikers and anglers. Visitors will be able to park at Tower Junction.

The park is finalizing a day-use reservation system for visitor vehicle access which will be online by Aug. 1, allowing reservation holders day-use access with their vehicles. Permits would be available at recreation.gov.
Since 2004, approximately 1,200 clinical trials have been conducted in Montana. Thats just one of the facts in the report Research in Your Backyard: Developing Cures, Creating Jobs  Pharmaceutical Clinical Trials in Montana. The report was the subject of a recent seminar in Billings sponsored by the Montana BioScience Alliance and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

Participants also reported on additional benefits from clinical trials. For example, we are well aware of the value to patients who participate in the trials or are recipients of the medicines that are developed as a result of them. However, a lesser-known benefit of this research is the economic impact.

For patients, clinical trials offer the opportunity to try new therapeutic options while also receiving some of the very best medical care. Access to clinical trials can be life changing for patients, especially those with complex conditions. Right now, more than 100 open clinical trials are going on in Montana and researchers are looking for additional patient volunteers. These trials cover a variety of diseases, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and infectious diseases.

Patients are not the only ones who benefit from Montanas clinical trials  so does our economy and our workforce. According to a study by TEConomy Partners, in 2020 the biopharmaceutical research industry supported more than 4,600 jobs across Montana including everything from life science researchers to engineers and administrative support staff. Beyond their direct impact, research activities also employ construction workers, IT firms, and suppliers. Additionally, Montanas biopharmaceutical research companies generated $1.1 billion in economic activity in the state, including the direct economic output of the sector itself, the output of the sectors vendors and suppliers, and the output generated by the buying power of its workforce.

Montanas local health care institutions benefit, too. Many have partnered with biopharmaceutical research companies to host clinical trials, making available professional opportunities as well as top notch care for patients. Those institutions include, among others, the Billings Clinic, the Frontier Cancer Center, Kalispell Regional Medical Center, and the Community Hospital of Anaconda.

At the Montana BioScience Alliance, we work to ensure our states bioscience organizations and companies can flourish. Hosting clinical trials is just one example of how this is happening. Successful collaborations between Montanas institutions and research companies not only shape the future of disease treatment, but also employ Montanans and stimulate our economy.
A report that the Biden administration is weighing greater imports of Canadian oil is putting a renewed focus on the canceled Keystone XL pipeline and whether it would have made any difference with todays tight oil supply.  Energywire

Ever since boycotts started blocking Russian petroleum products, social media has been rife with memes that blame rising gasoline prices on the cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline.

Example: Sooo, if shutting down Russias pipeline(s) will hurt their economy, wouldnt shutting down ours hurt our economy? Asking for a buddy.

Most of the criticism comes from people who recycle truthiness. Former Vice President Mike Pence: Gas prices have risen across the country because of this administration's war on energy  shutting down the Keystone Pipeline. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan: Biden shut off the Keystone Pipeline.

Heres what really happened: No one shut down, canceled, or shut off the Keystone Pipeline. It is fully operational, daily delivering 590,000 barrels of tar-sands oil in Canada to U.S. refineries.

What some pipeline advocates think is the Keystone Pipeline is a 1,700-mile shortcut called Keystone XL, or KXL. It would have sliced through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma to the Texas Gulf Coast, delivering 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day. Many residents of those states fought fiercely against the pipeline cutting through their land.

Now, Build the Keystone Pipeline has become a social-media mantra, as if the United States could so decree. It is the Canadian firm, TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, that officially terminated the project once President Biden withdrew its permits.

Even if construction on the pipeline began tomorrow, KXL could not be up and running in less than five years. The KXL pipeline was a project developed by a foreign company that would have delivered foreign oil products to mostly foreign markets.

When President Trump re-permitted KXL in 2017, his own State Department reported that it would not lower gasoline prices. The price of oil is set by the global market and certainly not by U.S. presidents. Whats more, the project was just about dead for a number of reasons, including litigation from aggrieved property owners whose land TC Energy seized by eminent domain.

We should also remember that rendering gasoline from tar-sands oil, the planets dirtiest petroleum, is far more polluting and energy-intensive than conventional refining. Some carbon content is burned off in a process that belches greenhouse gases and generates toxic waste called petcoke, which is dumped around the United States in piles six stories high. Petcoke billows through neighborhoods and infiltrates schools and houses even when windows are shut.

Bitumen, basically asphalt, continues to be strip-mined from what used to be Canadas boreal forests in Alberta. Too thick to be piped, its spiked with volatile liquid condensate from natural gas and thus converted to a toxic tar-sands cocktail called dilbit, short for diluted bitumen.

Dilbit, sent through the existing Keystone pipeline, contains chloride salts, sulfur, abrasive minerals and acids, and must be pumped under high pressure. Its murder on pipes.

In addition to greenhouse gases and petcoke, tar-sands waste products harm lakes, rivers, fish, wildlife and people. Between 1995 and 2006, when tar-sands extraction was accelerating, Albertas First Nations suffered a sudden 30 percent increase in cancer rates.

KXL, if built, also threatened the worlds largest aquifer  the Ogallala. Anyone who thinks Nebraska lacks water should visit Green Valley Township, where I encountered Ogallala water so close to the surface it flowed along dirt roads and ditches. Pintails, mallards, and widgeon billowed out of them. But parts of the aquifer are now depleted, and a major dilbit spill could finish those parts off.

In 2011 a pipeline representative named Shawn Howard assured me that ramming a dilbit pipe through the Ogallala aquifer would be risk free.

Why, he demanded, would we invest $13 billion in a pipeline and put a product in it that was going to destroy it like these activists are trotting out? It makes absolutely no business sense.

The existing Keystone pipeline has ruptured 22 times, including spills in 2017 and 2019 that fouled land and water with 404,000 gallons of dilbit. Business sense, as the oil industry consistently reminds us, is an attribute more often desired than possessed.
The Guggenheim fellow has published four books of poetry with Minneapolis' Milkweed Editions.

MINNEAPOLIS  During hard times likes these, says prizewinning poet Ada Limon, "poetry can help us reclaim our humanity."

Limon, who has published six collections of poetry  four with Minneapolis' Milkweed Editions  has been named the new Poet Laureate of the United States. She will succeed Joy Harjo, who has held the position since 2019.

Limon has won a National Book Critics Circle Award, served as a judge for the National Book Awards and is a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship. She has been a finalist for a National Book Award, the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the Kingsley Tufts Award.

Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times and elsewhere, and she hosts a weekday poetry podcast on American Public Media. Her newest collection, "The Hurting Kind," was published in May by Milkweed.

Limon will give her inaugural reading as Poet Laureate at the Library of Congress on Sept. 29.

We talked with Limon, who lives in Kentucky, about the importance of poetry in a difficult world, the connection between poetry and the natural world, and why it's good to have a poet laureate who "looks like America."

Q: What does being named U.S. Poet Laureate mean to you?

A: It's such an incredible honor! And I also feel like I want to fill this role with the sort of seriousness that is intended. I think this is a crucial time of our lives in the United States and around the globe, and I think it has never been more important to make a case for the importance of language and the importance of poetry.

I truly believe that poetry can help us reclaim our humanity  by reminding us that we have a whole spectrum of human emotions, despite the fact that many of us have had to learn to go numb, to activate our skills of denial in terms of how do you proceed when you're living through a pandemic or a climate crisis. Poetry helps us remember that we are feeling human beings. That we grieve and process trauma, and that through processing that, we can also remember joy.

I can't think of a better time to be reminded of our humanity.

Q: What do you hope to do as poet laureate?

A: I truly believe that poetry can help us repair our relationship with the Earth and the natural world. There are so many poems out there that are looking at our connection with nature  and that doesn't mean standing in Yellowstone or Yosemite and having some great epiphany of the enormity of the world. It could just mean recognizing in our daily commute the birds that you pass, the trees that you pass, and recognizing that we too are imperfect animals on the planet and we too are nature.

Q: You have a long connection with Milkweed Editions in Minneapolis. Why have you continued to publish with them when you almost certainly could go somewhere bigger?

A: I'm a big believer in dancing with the one who brung ya. And I think it's important to recognize how much of making poems Is making community. Milkweed has been on my side and a big part of my community since I first started working with them in 2010 with "Sharks in the Rivers." They have always supported me in a really holistic way.

They've recognized when I needed something, pushed me when I needed to be pushed in a good direction, allowed me to say no when I needed to say no. There's a deep mutual respect. I have deep respect for the work that they do.

And also, their books are beautiful. They make beautiful books. And the artifact of the book itself should be celebrated.

Q: You will follow a number of amazing poets laureate, many of the recent ones poets of color  Joy Harjo, Tracy K. Smith, Juan Felipe Herrera, Natasha Trethewey. Why is it important to have such diversity in this position? Or is it?

A: I think it's incredibly important. I think it's important that positions like this that are meant to hold space for recognizing the literary arts have to be diverse. It's essential that we represent the United States. I love what it looks like to actually bring America into the room. I think that's what it feels like to me now, which is wonderful.

I also feel like being of Mexican heritage there is a real honoring of my ancestors. And in some ways, to be honest, I think it's also important to recognize that our literary legacy in the United States does not end with poetry of the United States but instead it's expansive, it's global. Even in grad school ... we were always told our literary ancestors were Whitman and Dickinson, whom I love, but also doesn't it expand? These sort of ideas of exploring what literary connections mean that goes beyond the border.

Q: We live in incredibly fraught times. What can poetry do, if anything, to help us get through?

A: I really do believe in the power of poetry to connect us to ourselves and to feelings. I think it's also really important to remember that poetry can be a place to explore the entire range of human emotions. It can be a place for rage, a place for grief, a place where you can begin to heal.

I think we can't do the good work we need to do to make the planet a better place to live in without doing the groundwork and emotional work that poetry allows us to do. It's a place to breathe. You can't go to the bottom of the well without taking a deep breath, and poetry is the place to breathe.
Cass County sheriffs officials say a Mapleton man was fatally shot by law enforcement after a hours-long standoff. According to authorities, two 911 calls were made from Mapleton about 10:30 a.m. Monday. One was a report of gunshots and the other was a report of an individual possibly suffering from a mental health crisis. Deputies arrived at a Mapleton home, heard gunshots and a standoff began. Officials say the man barricaded in the home told negotiators he was going to come out with a gun, did so about 2 p.m. and was shot. The man was pronounced dead at the scene despite life-saving efforts.
Attorneys for police being sued over the 2020 death of a Mandan man say the officers used reasonable force, their actions were necessary in the situation and the lawsuit should be dismissed.

They argue further that the family of John Ernie Prudente waited too long to file the federal lawsuit on Feb. 8, 2022, the second anniversary of his death. He died after a traffic stop ended with a struggle between him and officers that sent him to the hospital, where he died.

Prudentes family named Mandan Police Officers Mary Hamilton, Joshua Scherr and Dominic Hanson; Lt. Peter Czapiewski; Sgt. David Raugust; and the city of Mandan in the wrongful death suit. Hanson is no longer with the department.

The family in the complaint alleges that officers stopped Prudente based on an arrest warrant for an unpaid parking ticket that was in his fathers name, used unreasonable force, werent adequately trained, and were told Prudente had mental health issues but acted with deliberate indifference to his medical needs.

The city failed to adequately "train, supervise and control employees in the dangers of repeated Taser shocks" and restraint methods on people with preexisting medical conditions, and the officers conduct "constitutes a pattern of constitutional violations" by the police department, the complaint states.

The family seeks unspecified money damages for emotional distress, burial and related expenses, along with monetary damages as a way of punishing the defendants.

Attorney Alyssa Lovas in an answer filed Tuesday said the familys claims are barred by state law including the statute of limitations, and that officers are not liable for injuries inflicted in the use of reasonable force. She further states the suit cant be heard in federal court under the 11th Amendment, which limits the ability of people to bring certain lawsuits in federal court.

Lovas also argues that officers are immune from civil liability unless they violate someone's statutory or constitutional rights.

Police said Prudente, 36, drove off after they initiated a traffic stop on Feb. 8, 2020, pulled into the driveway of a home owned by his father, fought with officers and continued to struggle after being handcuffed. He then became limp and unresponsive, police said. Officers administered CPR, used an external defibrillator and gave Prudente a dose of Narcan. He was transported to a Bismarck hospital, and police learned later that he had died.

The lawsuit alleges Prudente drove from the traffic stop to the home and that Hamilton and Raugust followed him inside. Prudente lived with his parents, who told the officers he had mental health issues. Hamilton used her Taser on Prudente for one, five, and three seconds, and Raugust used his once for five seconds, the document states.

Prudente according to autopsy reports died of excited delirium as a result of methamphetamine use and underlying diagnoses.

Raugust and Hamilton were placed on administrative leave after the incident. They returned to duty after an investigation by the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation concluded the officers had not committed a crime, Deputy Chief Lori Flaten said at the time. The autopsy showed no evidence of the use of excessive force, she said.

Excited or agitated delirium is characterized by agitation, aggression, acute distress and sudden death, often in the pre-hospital care setting, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, part of a branch of the National Institutes of Health. The syndrome is associated with the use of drugs that alter dopamine processing, hypothermia, and most notably, sometimes with death of the affected person in the custody of law enforcement, according to the center. A treatment plan has not been established in part because most patients die before arriving at a hospital.

Groups including the American Civil Liberties Union have questioned the use of "excited delirium" as a medical term.
Former President Donald Trump has made the defeat of Rep. Liz Cheney a top priority, even visiting Wyoming for the first time to campaign for Harriet Hageman, his pick to unseat her. But a new Casper Star-Tribune poll found his endorsement may have little influence over voters here.

Only 30% of people who plan to vote in the Wyoming Republican Primary next month say the Trump endorsement makes them more likely to vote for Hageman, the poll found. In comparison, 26% say it makes them less likely to vote for Trumps pick, while 44% indicated it has no effect on their decision.

"They're voting against Cheney to vote against Cheney, not because Trump told them to vote against Cheney," said Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon, the polling company that performed the survey for the Star-Tribune.

The results are in line with the Star-Tribunes reporting on the issue. In numerous conversations, residents who say they plan to vote for Hageman express deep distaste for Cheney, but separately say that the endorsement itself doesn't have much to do with their vote for Hageman.

Mark Hladik, who's lived in Wyoming for 42 years, said that the "top, top" reason he's not voting for Cheney is because she "betrayed" Trump. But at the same time, Hladik says Trump's endorsement of Hageman "didn't influence it at all."

When asked to explain, Hladik said that "There's more reasons, but that's top, top. She acts like a RINO [Republican in name only].

The same poll showed Hageman leading Cheney 52% to 30% with a month until the primary. It is the first independent, in-state poll to be conducted on one of the nations most watched races.

"When you talk about Cheney and you talk about Trump, you think they're joined at the hip, but they really aren't," Coker said. Instead, he attributes Cheneys falling favorability to her defiance of the Republican Party writ large.

At the time of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Cheney was the third-ranking Republican in the House. Her steadfast criticism of the former president as a threat to democracy led her colleagues in Congress to vote her out of leadership. She also angered the state GOP, which censured her and later symbolically voted to no longer recognize her as a Republican.

"She sort of started to fall out of favor very early by going against the caucus. She had to fight to keep her conference chair position pretty early on, and in most cases when that happens, a member starts to get in line," Coker said.

Cheney did not get in line. She continued to speak out against Trump and kept the Jan. 6 attack in the news. The poll found that Cheneys participation on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack appears to be playing a bigger role in the House race than Trumps endorsement. Six in 10 Republicans, for example, say they are less likely to vote for Cheney due to her role on the committee.

"The big story is Liz Cheney is going to get beat," Coker said. "That's a foregone conclusion.

"The mistake would be to say is that its all because of Trump. It's because of Cheney. It has a lot more to do with breaking faith with the Republican voters in Wyoming," Coker added.

Poll numbers back up his assertion. Only 27% of likely voters in the Wyoming GOP primary say they approved of Cheney's job performance.

The poll results on Trump himself, who told New York Magazine in an interview that hes already made a decision on whether to run for president in 2024, didn't surprise experts. Of registered GOP voters in Wyoming, 54% said they had a favorable opinion of the former president, while 32% said they have an unfavorable view, the poll found. Fourteen percent feel neutral.

A few months back in other states, Trump's favorability was far higher, Coker said.

"[Trump's ratings] are not what they were six months ago," he said.

Trumps favorability rating here is notably lower than the percentage of Wyomingites who voted for him in the 2016 and 2020 elections. In both instances, he received nearly 70% support  the highest percentage in the nation.

"I think the ending of the administration and what has transpired in the 18 months since ... I would expect it to chip away at his image," said Dr. Jim King, political science professor at the University of Wyoming.

When voters were asked for their views on Hageman, she did slightly better than Trump. Nearly six in 10 registered Republicans have a favorable opinion of her. About 2 in 10 view her unfavorably.

While the majority of voters say Trumps endorsement wont make them more likely to back Hageman, her team continues to use her connection to the former president in campaign materials. Most recently, a super PAC supporting the campaign sent out a mailer adorned with Trump's face and a quote from him.

"Harriet Hageman adores the great state of Wyoming, is strong on crime and borders, powerfully supports the second amendment, loves our military and our vets, and will fight for election integrity and energy independence," the mailer reads.

On the other side of the mailer, it once again reiterates that Hageman is "Endorsed by President Donald J. Trump."

And as for President Joe Biden, 83% of those likely to vote in Wyomings Republican primary said they disapprove of his job performance as president. A party breakdown shows, unsurprisingly, that only 7% of Republicans approve of his job performance, compared to 50% of Democrats and 19% of independents.

The poll surveyed 1,100 registered Wyoming voters likely to participate in the primary, resulting in a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.
Liz Brocker was right to resign from the state Attorney Generals Office. She was wrong to have the late Attorney General Wayne Stenehjems email account deleted one day after his death.

The matter needs to be further investigated, and the state needs to craft a policy for retaining emails.

Brocker served in the office for 21 years and was Stenehjem's executive assistant. Over the years she earned the reputation of being Stenehjems gatekeeper, deciding to whom and when access was available.

Attorney General Drew Wrigley, who was appointed to replace Stenehjem, and his deputy Claire Ness became aware of the deleted emails when working on an open records request from the Tribune.

Stenehjem over the years had earned accolades for his support of open meetings and open records. He was considered a friend of the media, though Brocker often slowed contact between reporters and the attorney general.

Brockers explanation in an email for requesting the deletion of his emails comes across as disturbing.

We want to make sure no one has an opportunity to make an Open Record request for his emails, especially as he kept EVERYTHING, she wrote.

This runs counter to what Stenehjem advocated during his tenure as attorney general. He defended open records and open meetings laws. Thats not to say that news organizations always agreed with Stenehjem, but he was a reliable supporter.

Brocker said she made the request for the deletion of the emails after talking with Chief Deputy Attorney General Troy Seibel. However, Seibel says he doesnt recall that conversation. After Seibel resigned in March, Brocker had his emails deleted.

Wrigley said he doesnt see any nefarious intent on the part of Brocker having the emails deleted. North Dakota Newspaper Association attorney Jack McDonald thinks her actions are related to an overzealousnous and maybe protectiveness.

Wrigley sees nothing criminal about what happened, and the matter is likely to end with Brockers resignation. There were no open records requests related to Stenehjem at the time of his death, and some files can be recovered.

An outside agency, perhaps the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, ought to investigate and forward reports to a prosecutor to review whether state laws were broken. North Dakota law makes tampering with public records a felony if a public official knowingly, without lawful authority, destroys, conceals, removes, or otherwise impairs the verity or availability of a government record.

The situation also points to the need for a state policy on the retention of emails. All state officials' emails dont have to be saved forever, but there needs to be a period of time for cataloging the material. And the law should designate whos responsible for deciding whats saved.

Brockers comments indicated a motive to protect Stenehjem and his family from anyone seeking a story. A loyal employee can be praiseworthy, but when it comes to state officials, the first responsibility is to the public.

Its unfortunate that the deleted emails have resulted in questions about the quick action. It points to the importance of open records and open meetings. Its something Wayne Stenehjem understood well.
A writing style guide is essential for any business  especially if there are multiple content writers on the team.

As you create more and more content on your website and blog, inconsistencies are bound to creep in. One reason? Lack of clarity about the style in which you'd like to write in. Disjointed communication across the multitude of content creators in your organization can be a culprit, too.

Either way, failure to decide upon accepted editorial guidelines is a recipe for inconsistent messaging. That's why at some point, most companies will need to develop a writing style guide.

What is a writing style guide? A writing style guide is a document that sets standard writing, grammar, and punctuation conventions for a particular organization in the effort of maintaining a consistent tone and style regardless of how many content contributors are on the team.

A writing style guide indicates the basic rules of writing everyone agrees to follow to ensure consistency across all content, like whether you should capitalize the "a" after the colon.

Note: If you write content for HubSpot, you should not capitalize the "a."

But wait... if that's the case, why would I capitalize the "If" in that last parenthetical? Because "If you write content for HubSpot, you should..." is a complete sentence, thus warranting the capital "If."

These conventions are specified in our writing style guide.

If you found that train of thought terribly banal, you might think writing style guides are the most boring things in the world and have a burning desire to click away right about now. Au contraire, mon frere.

Why Writing Guides Are Important

A writing style guide saves you from finding yourself embroiled in a debate about whether there should be spaces before and after an ellipses, whether you capitalize "for" in a title, or when a number must be written out in full.

If the writing style guide bores you, just imagine how insipid that debate will be. The existence of a style guide means you can simply have the style guide handy as your little writing rulebook without having to sit through debates about blockquotes.

Style Guide vs. Brand Guide A writing style guide is a set of standards brands use to define how to maintain a consistent tone and voice through written content. A brand guide defines design elements  logos, typography, color palettes  to create consistency in brand image and visuals.

Both guides are different in content but the same in function. They play an important role in how potential consumers view, interact, and remember your company.

In an effort to help you get started with your own style guide, this blog post will walk you through how to create a writing style guide and which essential elements youll need to include.

How to Create a Writing Style Guide Review your brands mission and values. Create buyer personas for your target audience. Define your companys voice and tone. Outline branded words and phrases. Establish guidelines for formatting. Use a style guide template.

Before we dive into the important elements youll need to include in your writing style guide, lets talk through the steps of creating one. Your guide should reflect your business, its goals, and your target audience. To start, youll need to:

1. Review your brands mission and values.

Why did you start your business? What is its purpose? These are two important questions that you ask yourself when you start planning and building your company. If you didnt, ask them now. Define your mission statement. Outline your brands core values. This information will guide how you form your connections with your audience. It will allow you to develop an idea for how you plan to communicate with them.

Your brands mission and values should guide your decisions and ensure that youre actively working towards your goal. They define and influence company culture by guiding your business to make decisions that are beneficial to the company and your customers.

It is important to note that this information can change. In fact, it should. As time goes on and your company evolves, it is necessary to review and update your brand mission and values to accurately reflect your current business model and operations.

2. Create buyer personas for your target audience.

To create your writing style guide, you need to know who youre talking to. Imagine having one conversation with a baby boomer and another with a millennial. The way you communicate with them will likely be different. Those nuances speak to the importance of creating buyer personas.

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional, research-based representation of your target customer. This information should come from market research as well as actual data from your existing customers. When creating your buyer personas, envision your ideal customer. What are their days like? How do they make decisions? What challenges do they face? Ultimately, your buyer persona should look at customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals.

Once you identify your target audience and their buyer personas, you will have a better idea of how to approach communication.

3. Define your companys voice and tone.

Establishing your companys voice and tone can be challenging because the two concepts are easily confused.

Your company voice is how you want to be perceived by your audience. It encompasses how your brand messaging will be delivered. Do you want to come across as witty or friendly? For example, while Starbucks' brand voice is expressive, Coca-Colas is positive. When defining your voice, remember that this will not change throughout your writing. If you establish your company as friendly, it should be incorporated into all of your messaging.

Although your brand voice should stay the same, your tone might change. The brand tone refers to how you plan to express your voice. The subtleties in tone lie completely with who your audience is. Imagine a friend asks if you want to join them for dinner, and you reply Okay. Cultural cues would likely have them thinking that youre not too keen on attending. However, if you responded with Definitely! they might think youre excited to go. Even though both responses show that you are willing to eat dinner with them, the connotation changes between words.

As you build your voice and tone, decide what emotion you want your writing to take on. Will it be positive, neutral, negative, or something in between? Again, your choice should mirror your target audience.

4. Outline branded words and phrases.

What are the keywords and phrases associated with your business? To keep consistency throughout your business, identify these words for your style guide. This should include specific spellings and capitalizations.

Take MSNBC for example. The cable channel has two logos, one with lowercase letters and another with capitalized letters. However, when the channel is written in copy form, it is always fully capitalized. This would be something to note in a writing style guide.

This should also carry into any slogans or phrases associated with your company. For their slogan Betcha cant eat just one, Lays would need to make sure that their guide specifies the spelling of Betcha and that there is no ending punctuation. To look cohesive and professional, it is crucial to keep this consistency throughout all messaging.

5. Establish guidelines for formatting.

In addition to focusing on what is written in your style guide, you will also have to focus on how it is written. Your writing style guide should include guidelines for:

Headers

Hyperlinks

Bold, italicized, and regular text

Bullet points versus numbered lists

Formatting will allow your readers to skim and digest your content quickly. In addition, as they become acquainted with your style, they will come to expect your companys organizational breakdown. Every business has the autonomy to choose how it formats its content. Make sure you develop a format that flows effectively for your readers.

6. Use a style guide template.

Download Your Free Starter Template

As you work through the above steps to build your writing style guide, you might draw a blank on how to format it. Use a template. Many companies have their style guides available to the public. Find a company that youd like to emulate, use them as a starting point, and customize the guide until it becomes a representation of your business. See the Writing Style Guide Examples section below for style guides from companies like Mailchimp, Google, and NASA.

What to Include in Your Writing Style Guide

There are a few key sections to include in your style guide.

1. Style Manual

Style manuals are reference books that tell writers how to handle grammar, punctuation, and any special use cases. Most businesses adopt either the AP Stylebook or the Chicago Manual of Style. It's up to you to decide which manual you'd like your company to follow.

You can purchase online subscriptions to these manuals for your employees to reference, the login for which you should also include in this section of the editorial style guide to make access simple. You might find employees are more likely to reference these tools when provided with an online subscription that contains a search function instead of a paper book through which they have to flip to find their answers.

While these style guides provide a good reference point for basic grammar rules, you'll probably want to make some exceptions to the rules for the sake of branding, tone, and style.

Use this section of your editorial style guide to outline those exceptions and also to highlight some of the rules that commonly arise when writing for your company. Ideally, your writers would commit these rules to memory, regardless of whether it is aligned with or against house style. For example:

What do you capitalize? Do you capitalize the name of your product? Are there certain prepositions you want capitalized in your title despite your stylebook's recommendations?

What do you abbreviate? How do you punctuate those abbreviations? Would you type "a.k.a." or "aka"? "Okay" or "O.K."? Or "OK"?

Do you use an Oxford comma?

Listing answers to common questions like these in the first part of your editorial style guide will give people an easy resource to reference that will save you time and encourage consistency. Feel free to continue adding to this list as more confusions arise and get resolved during the content creation process. You're creating your own style guide, so feel free to borrow different rules from different style guides. The important thing is that you use the same rules consistently throughout all the content you create.

2. Commonly Troublesome Words

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Most companies have terminology that's specific to their industry, and not all of those terminologies have a universally agreed-upon spelling. For instance, if you write a lot about digital marketing like we do here at HubSpot, you'll find a lot of inconsistency around the spelling and capitalization of words like these:

ebook vs. Ebook vs. e-book

ecommerve vs. e-commerce

internet vs. Internet

website vs. web site

Facebook Like vs. Facebook like

Retweet vs. re-tweet vs. reTweet vs. ReTweet

Instead of debating how to spell, capitalize, or hyphenate these words, include a section in your style guide called "Commonly Troublesome Words" so writers can easily look up the proper spelling of these words according to your house style guide.

Advice for Global Companies

If you have global readership and create content for specific, same-language markets, you should include notes on whether you change spelling for those markets or retain your house style.

For example, if marketers from HubSpot's Dublin office write a blog post, should American editors change their spelling of "favour" to "favor"? "Internationalise" to "Internationalize"? These questions should be answered in your style guide, and the "Commonly Troublesome Words" section is a logical location to do that.

Similarly, if you are creating content in various languages, style guides should be created for each language.

3. Voice and Tone

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This section of the editorial style guide should address something less concrete than grammar rules but arguably more important, and that is how your content should sound to the reader.

Can writers use the first person? How do you feel about the use of industry jargon? Think about the words you would use to describe your content in an ideal world. Which adjectives do you want your content to evoke? Conversational, educational, academic, funny, controversial, or objective?

You might think you want your content to be all of the above, but force yourself to prioritize just a few. Explain why it's important to achieve this style and tone in your content, and provide examples of content (excerpts are fine) that are successful in doing so, particularly if those excerpts exist on your own site already.

If there are stylistic characteristics your content absolutely should not have, include that information, too. Again, examples of what not to do are helpful here for the sake of comparative illustration.

When deciding on style and tone, be sure to consider your target audience and buyer personas in the process. Which style and tone would resonate best with them? This brings us to our next section.

4. Personas

Buyer personas are inextricably tied to style and tone, so it's important to include this section either before or after the "Style and Tone" section of your style guide. Why is it so important to include personas? Because the style and tone you adopt should be informed by your target audience, i.e. the people that will be reading all this stuff you're writing.

That being said, the personas in your editorial style guide don't need to go as in-depth as the personas created by your sales and marketing teams. (Those might include detailed information like objections that arise in the sales process and how to overcome them, or tips on identifying these personas "in the wild" or when you get them on the phone.)

The personas in your editorial style guide should be more brief, simply pulling out the highlights that concisely explain who your target audience is, their pain points, how they like to be communicated with, the value your company provides, and a picture to give writers a visual to keep in mind when creating content.

Including personas in your style guide really comes in handy when you're working with freelance writers. If you're doing a good job with freelance writer management, you'll provide ample context to inform the content they're writing. A persona, and how that informs tone and writing style, should always be included when kicking off a new freelance writer project.

5. Graphics and Formatting

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I know, I told you earlier not to get into the nitty-gritty with visual guidelines. This is still true. Your design team or agency should create a separate brand design style guide that addresses more nuanced visual things. (Can you tell I'm not a designer?)

You should, however, add a little information to your written style guide if your writers are ever responsible for creating visual assets and/or copyediting visual assets created by designers. Here are some common questions that may come up that will impact writers or editors:

Where can writers source images, and how do they properly attribute them?

When should images align to the right, to the left, or in the center?

Should text wrap around images?

What are the RGB and hex codes for your text and headers?

What typefaces can be used?

Can writers use italics, bold, or underlining? If so, is usage limited to certain occasions, like bolding headers and hyperlinks?

Which kind of bullets should be used (square, round, or other), and how should they align with the rest of the text?

How should numbered lists appear: "1", "1." or "1.)"?

Many of these graphical elements can be present in your content management system, but they can be easily overridden when writers copy and paste content from elsewhere with formatting attached, or by an overzealous writer with a flair for design. Outline these expectations in your editorial style guide, and refer those with more advanced needs to your brand style guide.

6. Approved and Unapproved Content

Great content often cites research and data from third party sources. Make your writer's job easier by providing approved industry resources from which they can draw, and even more importantly, resources from which they cannot draw. Break up this section of your editorial style guide into two sections: recommended and approved industry resources, and "do not mention" resources.

The information in the "do not mention" section should include competitors and unreliable resources, and it should also mention controversial topics and opinions that should be avoided at all costs. For example, many companies strictly prohibit any mention of politics or religion in their content, or have provisions that explain when it is acceptable to include and how to frame the discussion. Similarly, many companies work within certain legal restrictions, in which case this section of the style guide might provide instructions for receiving legal approval before publishing a piece of content.

This is the section of your editorial style guide to explain the intricacies of such controversies as they relate to your brand so you can prevent reputation management catastrophes.

7. Sourcing

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With great research comes great responsibility... and a lot of choices, unfortunately. Clear up the confusion around how to properly cite research by deciding on one methodology and documenting it in your editorial style guide. Explain how to create footnotes, references, links to external sites, or even bibliographies if they are relevant to your company.

This section of your editorial style guide doesn't need to be long. Just write down the rules and provide some examples of proper citations so writers can easily attribute their sources properly.

8. Examples to Show What's Right and Wrong

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Every section of your editorial style guide can benefit from real life examples of the concepts you're explaining, whether you include those examples on the same page or as an appendix at the end of the guide.

For example, when talking about proper formatting, include a visual example of a well-formatted blog post with callouts that detail why the elements are successful. If you're discussing grammar usage, provide an incorrect example, and then mark it up to show how a writer could fix it to align with your editorial style guide.

Bridging your requirements with proper executions from your actual website will help illustrate these concepts more clearly and cut down on follow-up questions and instances of exceptions to the rules you've laid out.

What Not to Include In Your Style Guide

It can be tempting to create the most comprehensive style guide of all time. But when documents get incredibly long, it can become a little hard to use on a day-to-day basis. Aim for "comprehensive, yet usable" by intentionally cutting some sections. Common sections you should omit from your style guide include:

Content Operation Notes

While content operations are the backbone of your content creation process, detailed information on the processes should not be included in a writing style guide. The action of submitting content to your editorial team is an irreplaceable step in getting content published; however, this does not add value to the style your writers will use in creating. Additional content operation notes that can be left out of your style guide include requesting slots on the editorial calendar or revision cycles.

Minor Visual Style Recommendations

Many teams fail to realize that a brands logo can affect SEO. For those who know this information, you may be tempted to include rules around logo usage or other visual style guide elements in your writing style guide. Dont. With some basic exceptions, these would be saved for a separate brand or visual style guide.

Design Elements

As previously mentioned, writing style guides have little to do with the visual design elements of the brand. They affect how the writing looks, but they dont serve your writers as they create. The following design elements should be left out of your writing style guide.

Typography

This section lists the fonts your brand will use and where they can be accessed. Typography sections also provide detailed information on when and where to use different fonts, as well as acceptable sizes and variations.

Logo & Variations

As important as your logo is to your brand identity, it holds little to no importance in the eyes of your writers. Providing an image of your logo to your writers may help them connect with the look and feel of the brand; however, extra details about variations and when to use them on print or digital content is inconsequential.

Color Palette

When choosing brand colors, they typically align with the feel of the brand. Bright colors are used to symbolize happy or fresh brands, while darker colors can make a brand seem bolder and more daring. While the color palette can help solidify the tone of the brand to the writer, it is still unnecessary. Everything they need to know should be expressed when you define your companys voice and tone.

Your editorial style guide will simply guide writers by providing a set of standards to which they must adhere when creating content for your website. It eliminates confusion, guesswork, and debates over what boils down to a matter of editorial opinion among grammar and content geeks.

If you're ever unsure whether something should or should not exist in your written style guide, fall back on usage to inform your decision. If it's too long to be usable, cut it down; if it's too short to answer the most common questions, beef it up.

How to Get Others to Use Your Style Guide

If you put in all this work to create a comprehensive style guide, it'd be a real bummer if no one used it.

Here's the truth: Some people just aren't going to use it, no matter how easy you make it for them to do so. So, just accept that. But after you're done grieving, there are a few things you can do to increase the likelihood of adoption:

1. Involve other people in its creation from the get-go.

Instead of mandating the rules your entire company must use when writing, get a few people together to help create the style guide as a group. Ideally, this little committee will span more than one department to increase the likelihood of widespread adoption.

2. Make it easy to find and use.

Our style guide is available on our internal repository, so it's easy for people to find, bookmark, and Ctrl+F to get answers to questions quickly. Make yours similarly easy to access and use.

3. Keep updating it.

Your style guide is intended to be a living document. As new questions arise, make it easy for writers to ask questions about proper usage and get a resolution, and make sure that resolution is reflected in an updated version of the style guide.

Writing Style Guide Examples

If you want to see a writing style guide in action, check out the examples below from well-known companies like Apple, Shopify, and Intuit.

In Googles style guide, they are very explicit with its principle to create clear, accurate, concise text. The company offers clear directives to write simply and directly, address users clearly, and more.

They also skillfully demonstrate examples of what employees should and should not do. For example, instead of saying, Consult the documentation that came with your phone for further instructions, their writers should write something similar to Read the instructions that came with your phone. With this guide, Google ensures that its text is inclusive to anyone, regardless of their cultural or language differences.

You likely recognize Intuit for programs like TurboTax and Quickbooks. While some companies have their writing style guide formatted as a formal document, Intuit takes a different approach. Their guide appears as a message board.

On one of their most recent updates, they shared new guidelines on when and how to celebrate customer wins. As you scroll through their guide, you will find voice and tone examples, word list updates, and principles on how to identify and replace harmful language.

The eCommerce platform, Shopify, has an extensive content style guide that walks its writers through voice and tone, accessible and inclusive language, grammar and mechanics, and naming. As it elaborates on its voice guidelines, it reminds writers that when speaking as Shopifys voice, they should be real, but not too tough or overly familiar.

It directs writers to be proactive without being pushy by offering their customers sincere encouragement and practical advice. In addition to these guidelines, Shopify has created a list of acceptable vocabulary and abbreviations to ensure its messaging is consistent and clear for its merchants.

Warm and relaxed, crisp and clear, and ready to lend a hand: That is Microsofts approach to writing for its customers. Microsoft is another company with a different take on how it presents its writing style guide. With one webpage at the center, it links out to valuable information, including its Top 10 tips for mastering Microsoft style and voice.

The page lists other recommended content, such as information on bias-free communication and directives on how to write step-by-step instructions. Whether the content is for an app, website, or white paper, this guide keeps all Microsoft communication clear, concise, and consistent.

In Apples writing style guide, they immediately express their mission. Reflecting on the diversity of its customers, they stress the purpose of the guide  to write consciously and inclusively.

The setup that Apple uses is also very on-brand. Its style guide has previous and next buttons, which mimics a step-by-step tutorial that one is familiar with if theyre acquainted with Apple products. Apple also encourages its writers to return for updates. Writing changes over time, so its writers need to adapt to the changes Apple makes to its writing style guide as they happen.

Writing copy for a brand can be confusing. As you switch between media, there are certain nuances that you might have to take into account. Mailchimp does a great job breaking down these components in its style guide. It includes principles for writing technical content, legal content, email newsletters, and social media.

To facilitate the process for its writers, the Mailchimp content style guide has a hyperlinked section that allows users to quickly navigate through the webpage.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is known for the complexities of outer space. In its style guide, it mentions that its purpose is to be consistent in its writing style and usage, so its readers avoid distraction from confusing terms and concepts.

The guide directs its writers to use The Chicago Manual of Style but also provides specific topics, including an overview of their editorial style as well as sections on gender-specific language, abbreviations, and figures and tables.

This example comes from HubSpot Partner Yokel Local. Their writing style guide keeps both their in-house contributors and their freelancers on the same page when writing and editing marketing content for clients.

You'll notice that they didn't go too far in the weeds, either. The whole guide is 15 pages in large, attractive lettering, and anything not explicitly stated in the guide is left up to the AP Stylebook and the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The simplicity is effective, and they clearly had fun designing the document to be cohesive with their brand guidelines.

Polish Your Editorial and Content Style

When it comes to running your business, you might assume that your words hold little weight when compared to your products or services. Youd be mistaken. While your products are central to your business, how you share information  the words you use  is critical to gaining new customers and maintaining existing ones.

Consistency is an important factor in managing a successful business. With a writing style guide, you will decrease inconsistent content and communication. You will equip your team with the tools and resources to deliver a strong, cohesive message that draws in your target audience. As you work to create or polish your writing style guide, this article will serve as your guide to get there.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in May 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DNY) was arrested today (see video she tweeted below), along with 16 other House Democrats, at an abortion rights rally outside the Supreme Court. The group of lawmakers, which also included Ilhan Omar (MN) and Rashida Tlaib (MI), were among 35 arrested people in total that marched from the Capitol to the high court chanting, "We won't go back" and "Our body our choice" (see second video below), according to ABC News.

And from The Hill:

At 1:20 p.m., the U.S. Capitol Police wrote on Twitter that it began arresting activists blocking First Street NE. Authorities said they gave their traditional three warnings before taking protesters into custody.  The demonstration came more than three weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the 1973 decision that protected access to abortion. The ruling angered Democrats nationwide and prompted House Democrats to pass a pair of bills protecting access to abortion; those measures face little chance of clearing the 50-50 Senate. [Carolyn] Maloney (NY] in a statement on Tuesday said "There is no democracy if women do not have control over their own bodies and decisions about their own health, including reproductive care." "The Republican Party and the right-wing extremists behind this decision are not pro-life, but pro-controlling the bodies of women, girls, and any person who can become pregnant. Their ultimate goal is to institute a national ban on abortion. We will not let them win. We will be back," she added.
PRESS RELEASE:

Statement of the Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan on the recent Supreme Court judgment in the case of the Gompad Massacre of 2009

On 14th July 2022, Supreme Court dismissed a writ petition filed by Himanshu Kumar and twelve other people in a 2009 case that sought an independent investigation in the extra-judicial killings of Adivasis in the villages of (then Dantewada) now Sukma district of Chhattisgarh. This came to be known as the Gompad massacre, and it includes two major incidents of violence in September and October 2009 that happened in the villages of Gompad and Gachchanpalli along with 2-3 smaller incidents nearby, in which at least 17 adivasis were killed.

While dismissing this writ petition, the Supreme Court has imposed exemplary costs of Rs. 5 lakhs on Himanshu Kumar and has suggested that further action can be taken against the petitioners by the State of Chhattisgarh / CBI, for falsely charging the Police and Security forces, for hatching a criminal conspiracy, among other sections of the IPC. We, the civil society organizations and people associated with the Human Rights movement in Chhattisgarh are alarmed to note that this judgment has virtually made the pursuit of justice in a judicial court a criminal act itself. This judgment is a threat to the very existence of human rights advocacy and systems of accountability from the Police and Security Forces in Chhattisgarh, especially Bastar.

Himanshu Kumar, who is Petitioner no. 1 in this case, is a Gandhian who has been working in Bastar for over three decades and has consistently helped in bringing out the human rights violations against the Adivasi people of Bastar to light. The other twelve petitioners, in this case, are family members of the people killed in the Gompad massacre. The judgment brazenly targets Himanshu Kumar, by saying that Petitioner no. 1, who runs a NGO has put up this entire petition when there is no need for further investigation into the killings in Gompad, let alone the appointment of an independent agency.

As noted above, two incidents of September 17 and October 1, 2009 resulted in the killing of at least seventeen Adivasi people from the villages of Gachchanpalli, Gompad, Nulkatong, and the forest of Singanmadgu among other nearby villages, along with several other people who were harassed and brutalized during these attacks. Several media reports, as well as fact-finding reports of civil society groups, corroborate these incidents of violence by the Special Police Officers (SPOs) and the CoBRA (CRPF) Security forces of the region at the time. Media reports of intimidation and harassment of eye-witnesses to the attacks on the villages, surfaced as the case against the Police and Security Forces moved ahead in the Supreme Court.

By rejecting the plea for an independent investigation, this judgment turns the principle of natural justice on its head. It should be recalled that it was the result of peoples demand for an independent investigation that resulted in the CBI inquiry into the violent incidents at Tadmetla, Morpalli, and Timmapuram during Salwa Judum in 2011, and the inquiry by the National Human Rights Commission into the incidents of mass sexual violence in Bijapur and Sukma districts in 2015-2016. Both of these investigations corroborated the villagers allegations of mass violence conducted by security forces. Therefore, by rejecting the plea for an independent investigation into the Gompad massacre, and harshly penalizing the lead petitioner, this judgment sets back the right to demand a fair and unbiased investigation and refuses to acknowledge the reality of state violence.

For more than three decades, Bastar has been the ground zero for an ongoing conflict between Naxalites and the Security Forces, resulting in an insurmountable human rights crisis for the Adivasi people of the region. Access to justice has been rendered impossible due to structural constraints like lack of access to courts, resources, language barrier as well as a lack of institutional will of the government. Since 2005 there has been an escalating crisis in Bastar, where reporting, investigating, and verifying any incidence of violence has been a herculean task. Even visiting incident sites is challenging as most villages in South Bastar do not have motorable roads. The environment of fear created by the Police and security forces hinders independent journalists, researchers, and activists from visiting affected villages. Often the Polices version is the only version available as no other independent voices are allowed to establish the truth of an incident. In this context, very few cases of violence in Bastar are able to reach the Supreme Court.

Thus the role of human rights workers is all the more important in the Adivasi peoples struggle for justice and peace in Bastar. Himanshu Kumar is one such voice who has helped the Adivasi community to seek accountability and justice. Instead of acknowledging the myriad difficulties faced by people in accessing justice, and the multiple means by which the State can harass and intimidate survivors of state violence in a rare case that reaches Delhi, the Supreme court has virtually criminalized all assistance to people in their pursuit of justice.

The judgment in the case of Himanshu Kumar & Others holds that since the petitioners were unable to prove their accusations against the Police and the Security Forces, hence the entire petition has malicious intent, and may even be a criminal conspiracy. This logic is fallacious in itself. It is well known that in the district of Dantewada alone, the acquittal rate of Adivasi persons booked in Naxalite cases is over 95%, year after year. A study of 101 cases of UAPA registered in Bastar Sessions Court in 2015 showed that 92 of such cases resulted in acquittals, the remaining 9 were transferred to other courts, and not a single case resulted in a conviction. Does that mean that the entire police force in Bastar should be imprisoned for criminal conspiracy?

We are distressed to note that the vicious circle of incarcerating Adivasi persons for being Naxals and persecuting human rights activists as Naxal sympathizers by the State Police continues unabated till date in Bastar. As people committed to the ideals of peace, justice, and truth, we demand the following:

1. Having made peace and justice in Bastar a central plank in their election campaign, the Congress government should reopen the investigation into the Gompad Massacre, and conduct it with fairness and objectivity.

2. No coercive action should be taken against Himanshu Kumar or any of the other petitioners, who are well within their rights to seek redress from a Constitutional Court in such serious matters.

3. We urge the Honble Supreme Court to expand the principle of Accountability jurisprudence and equal treatment under the law with respect to officers of the state not acting in good faith.

Sincerely,

Conveners Group, Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan

Sudesh Tekam, Manish Kunjam, Bela Bhatia, Nandkumar Kashyap, Vijay Bhai, Shalini Gera, Ramakant Banjare, Alok Shukla

Zila Kisan Sangh Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (Mazdoor Karyakarta Samiti), All India Adivasi Mahasabha, Jan Swasthya Karmchari Union, Bharat Jan Andolan, Hasdeo Aranya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (Korba, Surguja), All India Kisan Sabha (Chhattisgarh State Committee), Chhattisgarh Kisan Sabha, Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (Kurud), Dalit Adivasi Manch (Sonakhan), Gaon Ganrajya Abhiyan (Surguja), Adivasi Jan Van Adhikar Manch (Kanker), Safai Kamgar Union, Mehnatkash Avas Adhikar Sangh (Raipur), Jashpur Zila Sangharsh Samiti, Rashtriya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (Chhattisgarh Chapter, Raipur), Jashpur Vikas Samiti, Richharia Campaign, Bhumi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (Dharmajaigarh).
Above on the left, the new logo for East Side Elementary, a public school in Marietta, Georgia. On the right, the Nazi Eagle insignia, which following World War II "was appropriated by neo-Nazis and other white supremacists worldwide, with many variations," according to the ADL. After some parents pointed out the similarities, the Cobb County School District paused the roll-out of the new branding. (Below is a screenshot from a school communication introducing the new logo.) From the Atlanta-Journal Constitution:

"We understand and strongly agree that similarities to Nazi symbolism are unacceptable," the district said in a statement. "Although this design was based on the U.S. Army colonel's eagle wings, stakeholder input has been and continues to be important to our schools."[] The logo controversy is only the latest related to antisemitism in Cobb schools. Last month, a group began posting hot pink billboards around metro Atlanta that are challenging viewers to fight antisemitism, in part in response to incidents last school year in Cobb. Graffiti depicting swastikas was found in two Cobb County high schools during the Jewish High Holidays. Several Cobb middle school students were disciplined earlier this year for sharing antisemitic imagery on social media.

By the way, East Side Elementary is located across the street from a synagogue.
Actors fall into two camps. One stratum of actors gets to occupy high-profile roles for a brief season of their careers. At the same time, other actors can retain their star power and relevance for decades. How they manage to keep their careers afloat depends on the actor in question. Sometimes an actor's career stays buoyant due to nepotism or having powerful alliances behind the scenes. However, some actors earn their spots with consistently brilliant work that makes their talent undeniable. If Jeff Bridges doesn't fit the description in the preceding sentence, I'm not sure who does.

Across his lengthy career, Bridges showcased his acting chops several times over. From The Big Lebowski to Hell or High Water, Bridges' ability to craft memorable characters with unique mannerisms combined with deft attention to accents makes him one of the finest actors in the business. In the video linked above, Bridges sits with Vanity Fair's YouTube channel to discuss his most iconic roles.
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are through to a final round of voting in the UK, where the Conservative Party is picking a new leaderand in effect a new Prime Ministerfollowing the resignation of Boris Johnson.

In the penultimate round of votes, cast by sitting Conservative MPs, there wasn't much between the top three candidates, with former finance minister Sunak receiving 137 votes, foreign secretary Truss receiving 115 votes, and Penny Mordaunt eliminated with 105 votes.

Though Sunak is most popular among Conservative MPs, party rank-and-file vote in the last round, and Truss is overwhelmingly preferred by them. Support for Mordaunt, the bookies' early favorite, subsided after a weekend of attacks from conservative media infuriated by her past support for transgender rights.

In the United Kingdom, by convention, the leader of the majority party (or the largest party in a majority coalition) forms a government and serves as Prime Minister. When a sitting Prime Minister steps down as party leader, but does not call a general election, this results in the somewhat undemocratic spectacle of a political party getting to pick a new Prime Minister.

Although Mr Sunak has come first in all the voting rounds among Tory MPs, surveys have suggested he may struggle to maintain his advantage among members. A YouGov survey of 725 party members on Monday and Tuesday suggested Mr Sunak would lose to either Ms Mordaunt or Ms Truss in a head-to-head. The poll had Ms Mordaunt beating Mr Sunak by 51% to 37% and Ms Truss

This is an interesting race in the sense that the worse the winner, the better it might be for the opposition Labour party, which did not want to face the relatively moderate and appealing Mordaunt. But that impulse is familiar ground for the American center-left, and it didn't work out for them.
From AsiaOne:

A 23-year-old man who wore only underpants while breaking into Banana IT stores in Bangkok, some nine of them, to steal handphones was recently caught on Monday (July 4). According to Bangkok Post, CCTV footage caught the male burglar, Jeh-isma-ae Hama, entering a Banana IT shop in Muang district of Nakhon Nayok at 3am the day before his arrest.

The so-called "Robin Hood in Underpants" is actually a man named Jeh-isma-ae Hama. Thai authorities found nearly 100 phones in his rented room. According to The THAIger, Hama pleaded guilty, telling the police that he typically gave the phones away to homeless people in need. He also offered some other insights into his modus operandi:

Mr. Underpants has already pleaded guilty to his crimes, which are caught on CCTV in all cases. He told police "I only steal from BANANA stores because I like bananas and I like the colour yellow. I like to take my clothes off and I like to only wear underpants. It gives me a feeling of confidence and I feel like myself. In 2021, media in Yala province called me a psychotic thief. I didn't like that, so I stole a camera too."

You know what they say: not all heroes wear capes pants.

Cops nab phone thief who committed crimes wearing only his underpants [New Straits Times]

Thai police arrest 'Robin Hood' who wears only underpants when breaking into handphone shops [Aisha Hassan / AsiaOne]

CRIME: Thai police arrest 'Mr. Underpants:' The serial thief in the white briefs [The Thaiger]

White-brief Robin Hood dubbed 'Mr. Underpants' robs 9 mobile phone shops for the poor [Monica Charsley / The Daily Star]

Image via YouTube
A Texas gentleman fired into a pickup truck he mistakenly assumed his assailant would enter. Rather than realizing he had successfully defended himself and his assailant was fleeing, 41-year-old Tony Earls killed 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez. A Texas grand jury somehow has excused this use of deadly force.

ABC13:

An investigation determined Earls and his wife were targeted by a robber near a Chase Bank ATM in the Gulfgate area. Earls then got out and shot at the fleeing suspect and a pickup truck that he thought the person was getting into, police said.

But the pickup was not the suspect's getaway car. Instead, Arlene and her family were inside.

Earls was arrested and charged with aggravated assault but with the grand jury's decision, his case cannot be presented again, according to Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.

"The grand jury, a random group of ordinary people in Harris County who answered their jury summons, heard the evidence in this case as presented by our prosecutors, heard all of the possible charges  from murder to manslaughter to aggravated assault to criminally-negligent homicide. That grand jury also heard possible defenses," Ogg said, explaining that deadly force can be excused including under defense of property cases.
What a difference eight miles and a county line can make.

Two years after pulling the plug on a massive warehouse and distribution center on Grand Island because of fervent community opposition, Amazon.com found a much different reception in Niagara County, where leaders in the Town of Niagara not only welcomed the e-commerce giant but invited it in.

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To be sure, Amazon still faced neighborhood pushback over traffic, noise, pollution and other concerns  just as it did in Erie County. And it still had to make concessions and invest extra money as a result. Amazon representatives did not speak during the meeting, and would not comment afterward.

But the town and the county weren't about to let this fish get away. And on Tuesday night, they all but sealed the deal, as the Town Board unanimously gave final approval to the e-commerce retailing giant's plan to build a $550 million facility on land adjacent to the Niagara Falls International Airport and the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station.

"I get the reasons why people living in the vicinity of this project would be against it, but this body and this county need to look out for the greater good," said Niagara County Legislator Christopher Voccio. "This project will have an impact on all of Niagara County and probably the entire region."

And Niagara County Economic Development Commissioner Michael Casale, speaking for County Legislator Christopher Robbins, urged the board to approve the project. This is just the sort of investment that our community needs, he said. This is real economic development, the likes of which many of us have not seen locally in our lifetime.

Amazon and its developer, Atlanta-based JB2 Partners, are proposing to construct a 3.1-million-square-foot "first-mile" hub for Amazon at 8995 Lockport Road, using about half of a 216-acre site near the airport that is already zoned for heavy industry, is certified as "shovel-ready" by the state and was promoted to Amazon by the town. The project would create more than 1,000 full-time jobs, mostly warehouse employees.

The vote clears the way for the project to proceed, pending a green light from the Seattle-based company's board of directors to go ahead with the investment. The proposal already received zoning variances, site plan approval and environmental approval.

The company is still awaiting a decision by the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency to grant $124 million in tax breaks for the project, with a vote expected next month, but that's expected to be approved based on comments by agency board members earlier this month.

Residents still gave the board an earful before the vote, criticizing Amazon as bad for the community, and questioning the companys job and investment promises. Those living on Packard Road in particular  along the edge of the site  remained particularly angry at the board and Amazon.

"Its obvious that all of you sitting up here have no regard for the people on Packard Road at all whatsoever. You're forcing me to put my house up for sale, pick up my life and start all over again," said Robert Taylor, who said he built his own home on Packard nearly 30 years ago. "You really dont care, because its all about the tax money. Its just a shame that you can stamp your name to something thats going to be so detrimental to the town down the road."

One worry about Niagara County's planned Amazon warehouse: 'Traffic is going to be impossible' Locals say the two-lane Lockport and Packard roads already are two of the most heavily traveled roads in western Niagara County, and their intersection, especially for eastbound traffic, can be a dangerous challenge.

Board members sought unsuccessfully to placate residents. "We understand theres obviously some concerns with this project," said Councilman Richard A. Sirianni. "Every one of us has lost sleep about how do we help the people on Packard Road."

But Supervisor Lee Wallace readily acknowledged the importance of finances in the town's considerations. The town does not raise enough money with its current property taxes to cover its spending, so it has to take money out of its fund balance each year. "That's not fiscally responsible. We can't continue to operate that way," he said.

And the pending closing of a landfill  and the end of a host agreement that generates $200,000 annually  only adds to the problem, he added. "We have some things that we are facing down the road, and we have to look out for everyone," he said.

But the Amazon project would generate $800,000 to $1 million in additional tax revenue  a 35% increase over the town's current collection. The town is also negotiating a community benefits agreement with Amazon, which would cover infrastructure improvements and the impact of the project on police, fire and other public resources, as well as potential philanthropic support in the community.

"We have to make decisions based on what we think is right for our entire community," Wallace said. "We do have heartburn and concern for folks who live there, and we will stay on top of this and make sure things are done right moving forward. But we have to look at the overall impact of what this will do."

The fulfillment center  where products would be stored and sent out for the initial stage of delivery to customers  would be one of the company's newest and most advanced, with more than $100 million in robotic material handling equipment, in addition to the $450 million construction cost. And it would primarily serve customers on the East Coast, although it could also handle certain products for the entire country - like Buffalo Bills-related gear.

Construction on what was dubbed Project Fifi would take about two years, although that timeline could be hindered by supply chain issues with building materials. A similar Amazon facility opened in May in Clay, outside Syracuse, and another is under construction in suburban Rochester.

Amazon plans to spend $5.5 million on road and sewer infrastructure around the site, with improvements to seven intersections out of 16 that the companies studied. The focus will be on the Lockport and Packard roads intersection, which will be widened, with a new traffic signal. And new turning lanes and lights will be included in several places, while truck traffic will be managed with two primary routes.

Amazon also looked at the Air Reserve Station entrances and the impact of weekend drills, worked with base officials, and obtained clearance about height, lighting and other factors from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense. The base will also get a new turn lane from one of the adjacent roads.
One of the region's smaller banks, Lake Shore Bancorp, has been slapped with a regulatory order from a federal agency, criticizing its technology compliance and governance  and questioning if its management is up to the task  after it suffered a data breach in its internal systems last November.

That's despite the bank continuing to be profitable, even posting a 70% increase in second-quarter profits less than 24 hours after disclosing that it had signed an agreement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, its lead bank regulator.

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The surprise order  revealed by the Dunkirk-based savings bank in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Tuesday  came four months after the bank acknowledged it had "experienced a data security incident" last November that "prevented employees from accessing internal systems and data for a limited period of time."

It started an internal investigation, notified law enforcement and the OCC and hired a digital forensics firm, which found "unauthorized access to certain data," but no impact on the bank's core systems and "no evidence that customer personal information was misused."

Even so, according to the agreement with the OCC  a division of the U.S. Treasury Department  regulators found "unsafe or unsound practice(s)" at the bank, including those related to "information technology security and controls and information technology risk governance."

"Our teams been working diligently over the past several months to institute the appropriate actions," CEO Daniel P. Reininga said. "Our board and management are committed to working with the OCC to fully address the matters."

The July 13 agreement doesn't spell out specific problems that the agency found. But the requirements imposed upon the bank hint at the areas of concern  including a directive to "ensure that the Bank has competent management in place on a permanent and full-time basis" within 60 days and continually afterward.

The order specifically identifies the CEO, the chief operating officer, the chief technology officer and the information security officer, but notes that it's not limited to them. The latter three positions do not currently exist at Lake Shore, so they would have to be created.

Under the order, Lake Shore's board of directors must evaluate the bank's officers' "capabilities to perform present and anticipated duties" within 60 days and then annually, and must determine if changes need to be made to the management team.

It also must ensure the officers have "sufficient authority" to fulfill their jobs, carry out board policies, ensure compliance with corporate governance and decision-making procedures, and manage daily operations.

If, after assessing each officer's "experience, qualifications and performance," the board allows an individual to continue in their role but with additional training or skills development, it must develop and implement a written plan to do so, with benchmarks to evaluate effectiveness. But if changes are needed, or if a position becomes vacant, the bank must first notify the OCC, and must then obtain consent for any new appointments to those positions.

The board also must create a three-member compliance committee to monitor and oversee the bank's adherence to the agreement.

It also must develop and implement a program to assess and manage the bank's information technology activities. .

And it must adopt a security program to protect the confidentiality of customer information and prevent threats or unauthorized access to that information.
Four years after the first indictments were handed down, Rochester real estate developer Robert C. Morgan and three other defendants will learn their fate later this week over criminal convictions related to their business dealings.

Morgan; his son, Todd; his former finance chief, Michael Tremiti; and former Buffalo mortgage broker Frank Giacobbe will be sentenced Thursday and Friday by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford, who has presided over the case and its roller-coaster ride through the courts from the beginning. All four are expected to walk out with a fine and a record, but no jail time.

At one time, the four individuals faced 114 counts of bank and insurance fraud charges, accused by prosecutors of participating in a wide-ranging scheme that defrauded lenders of more than $500 million. They were charged with conspiring to induce lenders to provide larger commercial mortgages than justified on apartment properties by submitting false and inflated rent rolls, financial statements, appraisals and other documents.

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Throughout the case, a series of prosecution miscues visibly angered the judge, prompting her to throw out the first indictment because it was taking too long. She then heaped further criticism on the government's effort during the second attempt. Prosecutors eventually instead reached an agreement with the defense, resulting in guilty pleas from the defendants in April to a significantly reduced single charge. Todd Morgan, Tremiti and Giacobbe admitted to a misdemeanor charge of bank larceny of less than $1,000, while Robert Morgan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a felony.

Giacobbe's plea involved Evans Bank and the Morgan Ellicott Apartments on William Street in Buffalo, while the other three pleaded to defrauding ESL Federal Credit Union in Rochester over the Ellison Heights Apartments in Penfield.

Instead of facing possible sentences of up to 30 years in prison, the younger Morgan, Tremiti and Giacobbe face no more than a fine of $9,500 under the terms of their plea deals.

Meanwhile, both the prosecution and defense agreed to a sentence of no prison time for the elder Morgan and a maximum fine of $250,000 because the loan had been repaid and there was no loss to the credit union. Morgan agreed to forfeit $16.3 million in proceeds that prosecutors claimed was a result of his alleged fraud on eight properties, but the government previously sought much more on 13 deals.

Defense attorneys submitted 189 pages of documents pressing for leniency, citing Morgans fragile health, lack of criminal record, the reduced plea to a single nonviolent crime; his contributions to the community; and 29 letters of support from doctors, nurses, family, friends and even former Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy.

Mr. Morgan has accepted responsibility for his crime, said attorney Joel Cohen, who represents the elder Morgan, in a memo to the court. His offense should not come to define a man who has done so much for so many, and who, with the help of his loved ones and a team of health care providers, has overcome impossible odds and emerged as an inspiration to all who know him."

Morgan has been paralyzed from the waist down since he was shot in the back during a 1991 robbery at his familys fish store, and he has suffered from continual pain and other health problems that have necessitated virtually around-the-clock care, frequent surgeries and intricate treatment by medical providers and his family, according to court papers.

Mr. Morgan faces health issues which are unique in their character, degree and number, Cohen wrote.
Buffalo police are investigating a Wednesday morning shooting in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood that has left a 27-year-old Buffalo woman in critical condition.

Detectives said a woman "apparently inside of a vehicle" was struck by gunfire and taken to Erie County Medical Center, police spokesperson Michael J. DeGeorge said in a news release. Police responded to a call just after 9:10 a.m. at the first block of Kent Street.
A retired school psychologist has been sentenced to five years in prison and 15 years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo following his conviction on a child pornography charge, U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross reported.

David M. Calaiacovo, 65, of Hamburg, pleaded guilty of possession of child pornography involving a prepubescent minor, Ross said. He had worked in elementary schools in the West Seneca School District for 35 years.

Prosecutors said that Homeland Security Investigations found pornographic images when they searched Calaiacovo's home on June 27, 2019, after receiving reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children via the State Police.

The search turned up a laptop computer and a desktop computer which contained more than 800 images and videos of children being sexually assaulted or sexually exploited.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office reported last year that there had been no evidence Calaiacovo had any personal contact with minors.
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) has maximized entry flows by securing an additional 2.5 billion in capacity for this year, TAPs Managing Director Luca Schieppati said in an interview with Italian media, Azernews reports.

We will maintain that commitment, but we are also looking at whether additional effort can be made with the Southern Gas Corridor, he said.

He noted that the current situation creates particularly favorable conditions for the expansion of TAP.

Now the situation is completely different compared to the period when the TAP project started. Without any modifications, it is possible to increase the capacity of the pipeline, possibly in two stages. For the first expansion technically even three years may be enough, with the possibility of doubling it in 2027. For this, we have to modernize two existing compressor stations: one at the Greek-Turkish border and one in Albania," he said.

The Southern Gas Corridor is an initiative of the European Commission to build a natural gas supply route from the Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe. The route from Azerbaijan to Europe consists of the South Caucasus Pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), and TAP. The pipeline is powered by natural gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea's second stage. With the completion of the TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) construction on December 31, 2020, Azerbaijan began commercial gas supplies to Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor.

Last year, TAP transported 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe. By late 2022, Azerbaijan plans to increase gas supplies to Europe to 9.1 billion cubic meters, and in 2023 the volume of gas supplies is expected to reach 11 billion cubic meters.
In a June 30 campaign advertisement, Gov. Kathy Hochul said: Rep. Lee Zeldin voted for abortion bans even when the mothers health is at risk.

PolitiFact's ruling: Mostly True

Here's why: Gov. Kathy Hochul has stepped up her attacks on Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican primary winner and her opponent in the November election.

A Hochul campaign advertisement on Facebook accuses Zeldin of having views that are out of step with New York voters.

Hes voted for abortion bans even when the mothers health is at risk, the ad states.

Her ad cites two votes, both on Oct. 3, 2017, on H.R. 36, vote No. 549, and H.R. 36, vote No 548.

The bill passed in the House, with Zeldins support, and has not passed the Senate.

Voted on during the 115th Congress, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act would have banned abortions after 20 weeks and outlined circumstances where exceptions to protect the life of the pregnant woman and for rape and incest would be allowed.

The exception to protect the life of the mother stated: In reasonable medical judgment, the abortion is necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, but not including psychological or emotional conditions.

When abortion bans allow exceptions to protect a mother, the legal distinction between life and health is important.

We asked Hochuls campaign about the claim that Zeldin favors bans that dont take into account the health of the mother. Jerrel Harvey, a Hochul spokesperson, provided a section of the Congressional Record where Democrats put forth an amendment during a floor debate that would have considered a mothers health  not only her life  which Zeldin and other Republicans voted against.

As currently written, H.R. 36 shows no concern for the long-term health of the mother, her future ability to bear children, or her ability to care for her family, Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., said during debate before the bill was voted on in 2017. This bill would force women to carry pregnancies to term, even when their health is at risk.

Zeldins campaign spokesperson, Katie Vincentz, said that Brownleys amendment wasnt a substantive one, and that Zeldins vote was on a motion to recommit, which is a procedural vote that is typically voted on along party lines. Vincentz said the bill already had an exception to protect the life of the mother.

Precedence for health exception

An exception in abortion laws allowing consideration for the health of the mother, in addition to her life, had been an established precedent. In a case in 2000, Stenberg v. Carhart, the U.S. Supreme Court found that a Nebraska statute that lacked a health exception was unconstitutional, and Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority, rejected arguments that there was no need for a health exception. In 2007, however, the court upheld a federal partial birth abortion ban that did not include a health exception.

Experts said that without a health exception, health care providers can be fearful about what treatment they provide.

Doctors work hard to care for patients and stay within the bounds of the law, and bans offer language that is often incorrect, not clinically meaningful, and is therefore confusing to health care providers, said Dr. Jen Villavicencio, of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which supports abortion rights.

The progression of pregnancy is gradual, as are the complications associated with it, whether they are newly emergent complications or the worsening of chronic conditions, Villavicencio said. In some cases, the life of a pregnant person may indeed be imminently in danger, but in other cases, that line may be harder to identify.

Cary Franklin, a law professor at UCLA and faculty director of the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy, said that the life exception to H.R. 36, as written, does not protect the health of the pregnant person.

Theres a chilling effect when you have a life exception that doesnt include health, she said. A lot of doctors are worried and fearful that if they provide the best care in a given circumstance, that they will be hauled into court.

Anti-abortion advocates have said that an exception to protect the health of the mother isnt necessary or that they create loopholes and make abortion bans meaningless.

In congressional testimony in 2013, Dr. Anthony Levatino, a former abortion provider who speaks out against abortion, said that abortion isnt necessarily required later in pregnancy, and that he was able to save patients whose lives were threatened by their pregnancies by delivering their babies.

In most such cases, any attempt to perform an abortion to save the mothers life would entail undue and dangerous delay in providing appropriate, truly life-saving care, he said.

Critics of the bill said that it did not take into account mental health conditions, such as suicidal thoughts, and puts the threat of penalties in place for doctors, which can limit care in urgent situations.

Our ruling

In her ad, Hochul said Zeldin voted in favor of abortion bans even when the health of the expectant mother is at risk.

For the bill cited in the ad, thats true if the health concern for the expectant mother wasnt life-threatening.

The bill he voted for included an exception to the ban when the life of the expectant mother was in peril.

Zeldin voted in favor of a ban after 20 weeks gestation, which included an exception to protect the life of the pregnant woman.

The ban did not allow exceptions for considerations of the long-term health or the mental health of the pregnant person.

PolitiFacts ruling on the governors claim requires understanding the distinction between the expectant mothers life and her health.

Simply put, in this legislation, Zeldin was OK with an exception to the abortion ban if the expectant mothers health problem put her life at risk. He wasnt OK with an exception if the health problem wasnt life-threatening.

Given that distinction, and the need for clarification and additional information. We rate this Mostly True.
Beyond the grim human toll of mass shootings that are becoming increasingly common in the United States, there's an economic cost as well.

Counties where a mass shooting took place saw a 1.8% decline in employment per capita, according to one study cited Tuesday at a congressional hearing in Washington attended by Mayor Byron Brown. Another report found housing values fell by about 3%.

Outside Jefferson Avenue Tops, a gathering to remember shooting victims, dedicate newly renovated store Neighbors who gathered outside the fenced-in parking lot expressed disappointment that the memorial service wasnt open to the general public.

"This event has the potential to harm Buffalo's already economically disadvantaged Black community and further grow inequality," Brown said during his appearance before a congressional panel, referring to the May 14 massacre at Tops Markets. "We must do whatever we can to combat this and provide East Buffalo, the East Buffalo community, with the funding for services such as counseling, educational enrichment and lost wages."

Brown made a plea for federal aid for Buffalo and other affected communities before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, a panel of the House Financial Services Committee.

The subcommittee heard how high-profile acts of gun violence in schools, stores and other public spaces lead to reduced educational achievement, property values and business activity in the cities and towns where the shootings occur.

Brown was one of five people invited to speak to the subcommittee.

The hearing revealed new data on the long-lasting economic effects of mass shootings and gun violence, an issue in places such as Buffalo, where a white gunman is charged with killing 10 Black people in a racist attack at the Jefferson Avenue grocery store.

A report released Tuesday by the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety put the annual cost of gun violence in this country at $557 billion, much of that the estimated loss of quality of life for victims and their families. The annual cost in tax dollars is $12.6 billion, or $273,904 in short- and long-term effects for each gun death and $25,150 for each non-fatal gun injury.

"No dollar amount could ever fully convey the cost for families and survivors of gun violence," said Sarah Burd-Sharps, Everytown's senior director of research. "But examining the serious economic consequences is essential, as well, for understanding just how extensive and expensive this crisis is."

Experts who testified Tuesday said children exposed to gun violence at school were less likely to graduate high school or college and more likely to experience mental health issues and earn less in their future careers.

Further, places where mass shootings occur see slower economic growth and a drop in property values, in part because notoriety surrounding the event made people hesitate to move into, shop in or work in that community.

"Mass shootings can have a devastating impact on communities," said Rep. Al Green, a Texas Democrat and chair of the subcommittee. "They hurt businesses, causing resignations, layoffs, litigation costs and increased cost of insurance. Property values decrease and the tax base erodes, leading to cuts in fire, police and sanitation departments."

Brown noted that Buffalo city government, in just the first two weeks after the Tops shooting, spent $500,000 on police and fire overtime and other services  unbudgeted expenses that only have grown since.

Beyond direct municipal expenses, the mass shooting also generated costs to rebuild, to heal and to provide counseling, Brown said.

"Gun violence has a lasting and negative impact on survivors," he said. "And experiencing these events in childhood has a lifelong impact on the psychological well being and labor market participation of those involved. The May 14 shooting in Buffalo will impact an entire generation of children."

'The time to act is now': Gun violence tops agendas in New York following Buffalo massacre The move from a coalition of business groups that is typically more likely to weigh in on areas such as taxes and regulations came the same day Gov. Kathy Hochul surrounded herself with state and local government leaders to sign 10 bills that enact sweeping new controls in New York State ranging from age limits on purchase of military-style weapons to banning the purchase of body armor for civilians.

This hate-fueled massacre also brought to the surface problems, such as an underinvestment in Black and brown communities, that affect cities across the country, Brown said.

That's why he called for federal investment in communities where mass shootings took place, as well as passage of federal legislation targeting anti-Black hate crimes and banning assault weapons.

Green praised the Buffalo Niagara Partnership for advocating for an assault weapons ban and urged more business groups to take a similar stand.

In addition to Brown and Burd-Sharps, the other panelists were Abel Brodeur, an economist at the University of Ottawa; Ruchi Singh, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business; and Brian Ingram, owner of a chain of restaurants in Minnesota.

Ingram was invited by Republicans on the subcommittee, who focused their remarks on the rise in violent crime seen across much of the country since the beginning of the pandemic, an increase they blamed on "soft-on-crime" liberal prosecutors and Democrats who supported "defunding the police."

Brown, however, said he has increased the city's police budget and pointed to the proliferation of powerful weapons, often obtained illegally, that makes the job of Buffalo police officers more difficult.
Rod Watson Urban Affairs Editor/Columnist I write a weekly column, most often about socioeconomic and political issues affecting people of color and the disadvantaged in Western New York. Follow Rod Watson 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

If only politics had a MAD option.

The double-edged acronym from the Cold War era was supposed to serve as a nuclear deterrent by reminding nations of their mutually assured destruction if they went that route. It was an outcome to be avoided at all costs.

But now that outcome wouldnt be so bad  if it could be confined to the 23rd Congressional District where Carl Paladino and Nick Langworthy redefine race to the bottom.

The GOP primary pits Paladino, the Buffalo developer known for the racist proclivities he insists he doesnt have, against Langworthy, the state Republican Party chairman whose only known attribute is knee-jerk partisanship. Its a match made in hell for anyone who thinks governing should be about pulling people together for the common good.

Instead, voters get another taste of Paladino, the gubernatorial loser whose only electoral success  being elected to the Buffalo School Board  ended with him being removed by the state education commissioner, ostensibly for violating executive sessions rules.

'I should have used Churchill': Paladino again on defense after report unearths Hitler remarks For the second time in a week, Republican congressional hopeful Carl P. Paladino is explaining controversial remarks unearthed by a media watchdog group, this time noting Adolf Hitler's ability as an "inspirational" leader.

But who can forget that his ouster came after his overtly racist published comments about Michelle Obama? Or after he had denigrated Black female board members as the sisterhood?

And lest anyone thinks hes changed, his current campaign has been overshadowed by his observation that we need an inspirational leader like Adolf Hitler, who really knew how to stir up a crowd.

In other words, theres a good chance the 23rd District could end up with Archie Bunker without the laugh track.

So whats the alternative?

Its the GOP chairman who embodies the very definition of partisan hack as he puts the Peter Principle to its ultimate test, trying to rise from Erie County Republican leader to state party leader to congressional representative. There, he would finally reach his level of ultimate incompetence  if you think government service is about more than shrill cheap shots, over-the-top rhetoric and screwing the other party. Langworthy would just add to the stench of the partisan cesspool that is Congress.

In fact, its no surprise he would feature Donald Trump in his TV ads. Like the former president best known for his estranged relationship with the truth, Langworthy has no trouble talking out of both sides of his mouth if he thinks he can score a political point.

In the same breath, he could call then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul part of disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomos "cadre of enablers" who is "directly complicit in (his) corrupt administration," yet also say she say she was out of the loop and had no influence. He brushed right past the fact that both could not be true at the same time because the truth might have diluted his rabid attack.

Strip him of the words radical, socialist and pro-criminal, and he would be rendered mute  which would not be a bad thing.

If he wins the Aug. 23 primary and becomes the November candidate, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Hochul and other leading Democrats should come out strongly in favor of motherhood and apple pie  just to hear Langworthy reflexively take the other side.

And we havent even gotten to the ethical question of the guy who controls the state party apparatus running in a party primary thats supposed to be contested on a level playing field. Its little wonder hes already pulled in $304,000 from politicians, lobbyists and others with a finger in the political pie. Anyone with any sense of integrity would step down from the chairmanship before competing in the primary.

On the other hand, were talking about Trump Republicans, so why even mention ethics and integrity?

As for Paladino, the wealthy developer has lent his campaign $1.5 million, meaning they should each have enough to destroy one another over the airwaves, in lawn signs and on billboards.

But if MAD isnt possible, this race should prompt New York to consider Nevadas none of these candidates ballot option  but with more teeth.

Nevada is the only state to give residents that choice. But even if most voters pick that option, its merely an expression of disgust; the actual candidate with more votes still wins.

It would be great if voters in the 23rd District had the option, but with the added safeguard that if none won, there would be a new election  with the rejected candidates barred from running again.

On the other hand, this is the redrawn Southern Tier district where incumbent Republican Chris Jacobs faced such a backlash after coming out in favor of gun control that he didnt even bother running again. Given the ultra-conservative nature of the 23rd, voters there just might like their choices next month.

Its just too bad the rest of us probably will have to live with the winner, too.
A North Texas wildfire continued to grow Tuesday amid sweltering temperatures and dry conditions after burning at least a dozen structures, officials said.

The Chalk Mountain Fire about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth was the largest active Texas wildfire as of Tuesday afternoon after blackening 6,000 acres (2,400 hectares), an increase from 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares) Tuesday morning, the Texas A&M Forest Service said. The fire, which began Monday afternoon, was just 10% contained, and crews using bulldozers were digging containment lines while fire trucks and aircraft worked to extinguish the flames, the Forest Service said.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Hood County Judge Ron Massingill ordered the mandatory evacuation of a rural area south of Tolar, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth.

It was not yet clear how many, if any, of the 12 structures lost as of Tuesday afternoon were residences or businesses, Forest Service spokeswoman Mary Leathers said.

Meanwhile, crews continued to battle a wildfire that has burned at least 10 structures, five of them homes, around a lake in North Texas, authorities said.

The fire at Possum Kingdom Lake about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Fort Worth, which began Monday afternoon, had burned about 500 acres (202 hectares) and was 10% contained Tuesday, Forest Service spokesman Adam Turner said. Firefighting crews were working around the clock, focusing on protecting threatened homes in resort subdivisions along the lakes western shore.

The area remained under a voluntary evacuation notice, the Forest Service said.

No injuries have been reported from the fires, and their causes were under investigation. A combination of near-record- and record-high temperatures approaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) combined with breezes gusting as high as 30 mph (40-50 kph) and drought conditions leave the region ripe for fire, the forest service said.

The National Weather Service has issued a red flag fire warning for northern and central Texas and western and eastern Oklahoma for Tuesday.

We are experiencing dry fuels to a level that we havent seen in the past 10 years, Turner said. Any spark that lands in tall grass or even lands in some short grass right now is liable to spark.
Customers pulling up to the remodeled Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue might feel skittish at first, to be at the place where, only two months earlier, a racist gunman killed 10 Black people and injured three others. The feeling passes quickly.

First they will notice the parking lot, which has been newly repaved. Inside, they will find a greatly expanded full-service grocery store with wide arrays of fresh fruits and vegetables, gleaming aisles and a friendly staff, bolstered by security. To the left of the main entrance is a water wall memorial to those lost on May 14. It is, in its way, reassuring.

Its a start  a fine start  but its only that. As community stakeholders have indicated, the supermarket stands out amid signs of neglect. It needs to be the precursor of great things to come. Residents, who have experienced devastation brought upon them because of the color of their skin, deserve no less.

The accused gunman from the Binghamton area was openly and virulently racist. He targeted the 14208 ZIP code two months earlier specifically because 78% of its more than 10,300 residents are Black.

The Rev. Tim Newkirk, pastor of GYC Ministries of Buffalo, whose sister and her daughter worked at the store and survived the attack, wants the store renovation to be just the beginning of a new sense of hope for the 14208.

Sadly, there are so many issues to tackle. Food access is prominent among them. The gunmans atrocities ripped a hole in the fabric that Tops created when it opened in 2003, more than a decade after residents rallied for a full-service grocery store. Tops entry into the neighborhood did much to support those living in what is often referred to as a food desert, but one full-service grocery store was not  is not  enough.

Henry-Louis Taylor Jr., director of the Center for Urban Studies at the University at Buffalo, is among those calling for incentives to subsidize a community-led cooperative market in the neighborhood. He also emphasized the importance of supporting the development of the African Heritage Food Co-op in the Fruit Belt. Gov. Kathy Hochuls announcement last month that Empire State Development will invest $3 million in the African Heritage Food Co-op offers the exact encouragement the co-op deserves.

The money that the governor earmarked for the co-op, amid a $50 million plan for East Buffalo, should make a difference. It includes $34.5 million toward housing, although Taylor is skeptical of how much a plan directed at homeowners will help in an area where a majority of residents are tenants.

The problems residents grapple with daily go beyond food and housing. Conditions there also lead to poor health outcomes. University at Buffalo Family Medicine once served the neighborhood, until about five years ago when informing 7,000 patients that it was closing its primary care clinic on Jefferson Avenue. The practice had trouble recruiting physicians who would then supervise the training of residents at the facility.

Urban Family Practice, led by Dr. Raul Vazquez, filled the gap. But that task has been made much more difficult with the sudden loss of Dr. Jonathan Daniels, who died in a July 4 fire at his home. Daniels, whose roots were in the community, started the pediatric clinic at Urban Family Practice. Finding others to carry on Daniels legacy will not be easy.

The focus on food access, housing and health must occur to elevate what the Area Deprivation Index indicates is in the 99th percentile nationally for most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Tops commitment to the area, exemplified by its renovation of the Jefferson Avenue store should only mark the beginning of greater things to come.

  

Whats your opinion? Send it to us at lettertoeditor@buffnews.com. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words and must convey an opinion. The column does not print poetry, announcements of community events or thank you letters. A writer or household may appear only once every 30 days. All letters are subject to fact-checking and editing.
Adds Significant Regional Fundraising and Client Support Capabilities to DigitalBridges Platform

BOCA RATON, Fla., July 20, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DigitalBridge Group, Inc. (NYSE: DBRG) ("DigitalBridge") today announced it has appointed Tae E. Ahn as Managing Director and Head of Asia Capital Formation at DigitalBridge Investment Management, effective immediately. Based in Singapore, he will work alongside DigitalBridges existing team with a focus on capital formation, coinvestment and client relationship management across Asia-Pacific.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220718005670/en/

Tae Ahn - DigitalBridge (Photo: Business Wire)

Mr. Ahn brings more than 15 years of capital formation and business development leadership experience in the financial sector, along with deep expertise in Asian markets. Prior to joining DigitalBridge, he served as Senior Client Relationship Manager and Head of Korea at global private markets firm Partners Group. In that role, which he held for seven years, Mr. Ahn led fundraising, client relationship management and deal sourcing.

"We are pleased to welcome Tae to DigitalBridge, expanding our Asia-Pacific presence and further supporting our investment team with capital formation capabilities," said Kevin Smithen, Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer of DigitalBridge. "Taes extensive fundraising and coinvestment background focused heavily in the Asian markets will benefit our Asian LPs as we continue to extend our regional presence and network of partners across Asia-Pacific and grow our presence in digital infrastructure at a global level."

"I have long admired DigitalBridges investment thesis within the digital infrastructure landscape, and I am excited to contribute to its continued growth and success across the Asia-Pacific market," said Mr. Ahn. "I look forward to working closely with the entire investment team to enhance business development efforts while leveraging my experience and insights to cultivate relationships and promote global investments."

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About Tae Ahn

Tae Ahn has over 15 years of capital formation and business development leadership experience in the financial sector, along with deep expertise in Asian markets. Prior to joining DigitalBridge, Mr. Ahn served as Senior Client Relationship Manager and Head of Korea at Partners Group, global private markets firm, since 2015. In that role, he was responsible for Partners Groups overall business activities in Korea and led fundraising, client relationship management and deal sourcing. Before joining Partners Group, Mr. Ahn focused on fundraising at ING Investment Management Korea and H&Q Korea Partners Holdings. Earlier in his career, he worked in Debt Capital Markets at Credit Suisse HK and in the investment banking division at JP Morgan in New York.

Mr. Ahn holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a Masters in International Economic Policy from Columbia University.

About DigitalBridge

DigitalBridge (NYSE: DBRG) is a leading global digital infrastructure investment firm. With a heritage of over 25 years investing in and operating businesses across the digital ecosystem including cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells, and edge infrastructure, the DigitalBridge team manages a $47 billion portfolio of digital infrastructure assets on behalf of its limited partners and shareholders. Headquartered in Boca Raton, DigitalBridge has key offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Singapore. For more information visit www.digitalbridge.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," or "potential" or the negative of these words and phrases or similar words or phrases which are predictions of or indicate future events or trends and which do not relate solely to historical matters. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, and may cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. Factors that might cause such a difference include, without limitation, whether the Company will be able to achieve the initiatives described in the ESG Report, and other risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, and its other reports filed from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). All forward-looking statements reflect the Companys good faith beliefs, assumptions and expectations, but they are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions investors not to unduly rely on any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this current report. The Company is under no duty to update any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this release, nor to conform prior statements to actual results or revised expectations, and the Company does not intend to do so.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220718005670/en/

Contacts

Investors:

Severin White

Managing Director, Head of Public Investor Relations

(212) 547-2777

severin.white@digitalbridge.com

Media:

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher

Jon Keehner / Aura Reinhard / Jack Kelleher

(212) 355-4449

dbrg-jf@joelefrank.com
TORONTO, July 20, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Trigon Metals Inc. (TSX-V: TM) ("Trigon" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a non-binding term sheet with Sprott Resource Streaming and Royalty Corp. ("Sprott Streaming") and Sprott Mining Inc. ("Sprott Mining", collectively the "Investors") for a US$27.5 million silver and copper stream (the "Transaction") for its Kombat Mine located in Grootfontein, Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia.

The Streaming Transaction

Pursuant to the Transaction, Trigon shall sell and deliver to Sprott 100% of silver produced from the Kombat Mine. The expansion of the Kombat Mine is projected to increase annual copper production and reduce forecasted operating costs. Proceeds will be used to complete ongoing works to dewater the mine, re-establish services, and continue exploration drill work, as well as to deliver a National Instrument 43-101 Compliant Feasibility Study for underground mining and for general corporate and working capital purposes.

The funds advanced as determined by Sprott Streaming include value for the open pit mine currently being operated from; the phase one underground development of the historic Kombat mine, and the phase two underground development of the Asis Far West mineralization. The phase two underground development takes advantage of a 750m, 2,000 tpd production shaft that is built and ready for operation. However, the Asis Far West area of mineralization has not been quantified into an NI43-101 Resource Estimate nor has an economic study been completed for this phase of the development. As part of the Transaction, Sprott Streaming will receive a 3.15% copper stream commencing when phase one underground mining begins that will terminate when mining phase two begins at Asis Far West.

The silver stream is for the life of mine, restricted to the Kombat Project and does not include the Silver Hill Project or any new project Trigon may acquire. At its election, the Company may buy back up to 50% of the Stream in a single payment by paying in cash to Sprott Streaming, the indicated multiple of the drawn advanced payment below on or before June 30 of the indicated year; after June 30, the buyback amount would refer to the following year. After June 30, 2027, the buyback right expires.

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2024 1.37x $18,837,500 2025 1.40x $19,250,000 2026 1.43x $19,662,500 2027 1.47x $19,477,500

The US$27.5 million consists of US$25 million from Sprott Streaming, and US$2.5 million from Sprott Mining. The US$2.5 million (9.1% of the stream) from Sprott Mining shall set-off against the US$2.5 million loan from Sprott Mining announced on May 24, 2022 (please refer to the Companys news release).

Subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV"), 2,500,000 warrants (the "Stream Warrants") will be issued to Sprott Mining replacing the 2,500,000 warrants that were issued on May 24, 2022 to Sprott Mining (Please see the Companys press release dated May 24, 2022). It is contemplated that each Stream Warrant will, if issued, have a strike price at a 35% premium to the 5-day VWAP share price for the 5 days prior to the execution of the definitive stream agreement (or such other exercise price as agreed to by the parties and as may be required by the TSXV) and will be exercisable for one common share of the Company for a term of three years (or such other term as required by the TSXV) and will otherwise have customary adjustment provisions. The Stream Warrants (and the underlying common shares, if the Stream Warrants are exercised within four months of their issuance), shall be subject to a four-month statutory hold period.

The Transaction is subject to certain customary closing conditions including the parties entering into definitive documentation, satisfactory completion of due diligence by Sprott Streaming and TSXV approval.

Jed Richardson, President and CEO of Trigon, said, "We are very pleased to be partnering again with Sprott Streaming and Sprott Mining. This deal is of singular importance because it accelerates and funds our feasibility study and development works at the Kombat Mine. It is a timely deal, as well, since our present operations have progressed to the point where we can now initiate expansion plans that will improve our strong position even more. The ability to repurchase 50% of the silver stream is an important feature of this agreement, and ultimately was the deciding factor in choosing to work with Sprott Streaming. We remain bullish on silver and further exploration success, and the repurchase rights give us an option to restore that exposure for our shareholders."

Trigon Metals Inc.

Trigon is a publicly-traded Canadian exploration and development company with its core business focused on copper and silver holdings in mine-friendly African jurisdictions. Currently, the company has operations in Namibia and Morocco. In Namibia, the Company holds an 80% interest in five mining licences in the Otavi Mountainlands, an area of Namibia widely recognized for its high-grade copper deposits, where the Company is focused on exploration and re-development of the previously producing Kombat mine. In Morocco, the Company is the holder of the Silver Hill project, a highly prospective copper and silver exploration project.

Cautionary Notes

This news release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements include statements regarding the Transaction, the production of the Kombat Mine and Asis Far West, the economic viability of the Kombat Mine,, the Companys strategies and the Companys abilities to execute such strategies, the Companys expectations for the Kombat project, and the Companys future plans and objectives. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statements or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220720005489/en/

Contacts

For further information, contact:

Jed Richardson

+1 647 276 6002

jed.richardson@trigonmetals.com

Website: www.trigonmetals.com
Low-quality asphalt binder  the glue that holds roads together  can leave roads prone to cracking in cold temperatures. (Shutterstock)

The future seems bleak for Canadas oilsands. But given the worlds ongoing need for smooth, safe roads, there is hope for the industry. Asphalt binder made from oilsands bitumen is the ideal glue to hold the worlds 40 million kilometres of roads together  and it can be done sustainably, economically and environmentally.

With the global transition to electric vehicles underway, and Canadas 2021 commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 to meet its Paris Agreement obligations, Canada will use less fossil fuels, especially from imports and upgraded products, including those from the Alberta oilsands.

About 10 per cent of Canadas current emissions come from the extraction and upgrading of crude bitumen from the oilsands, roughly 70 million tonnes per year. Globally, about 70 to 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions are from burning fuels for electricity, heat and transportation, and from industry.

Our research group has investigated the life-cycle performance of asphalt roads for the past 30 years, providing some remarkable insights on the relative benefits of straight Alberta binder, produced with minimal refining and without upgrading. Producing asphalt binder from Alberta crude bitumen can realistically reduce combustion and life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from the oilsands by anywhere from 40 to 60 per cent.

Low-quality asphalt leads to more repairs

Alberta bitumen is low in wax, making it highly desirable for the production of asphalt binders. The low wax content means the pavement can be recycled  and recycled again  supporting a true circular economy.

Pavement lifespans are in decline due to heavy traffic, extreme temperatures and the incorrect use of reclaimed materials to rehabilitate and reconstruct old roads. The use of so-called green technologies  inexpensive, recycled engine oil, for example  offers short-term satisfaction at the expense of long-term performance.

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Read more: Green income trusts could accelerate Canadas energy transition

Government transportation agencies arent incentivized to use stronger binders. Yet pavement cracking can be reduced by as much as 30 to 50 per cent by building roads that maximize the use of straight, unadulterated Alberta binder.

Doing so allows municipal, provincial and state infrastructure owners around the world to reduce construction and rehabilitation budgets, decrease travel delays and associated costs and improve safety.

Binders are complex materials

Two binder components influence the lifespan of roads: asphaltenes and waxes. Asphaltenes are large molecules that give the binder cohesive strength (the adhesives ability to hold itself together) and adhesive strength (the strength between the adhesive and another material), but prevent it from flowing at cold temperatures. Paraffin waxes are often a natural component of asphalt, occurring in varying amounts depending on the source of the crude used to manufacture the binder.

The binder is a mixture of solid asphaltenes and waxes in an oily material. When the wax content is high, asphaltenes tend to separate from the oils and pack together more tightly. A high-wax binder is stiffer at cold temperatures, which reduces adhesion and promotes cracking. An optimal binder has minimal wax and has a more-or-less uniform composition.

Environmental scanning electron microscopy image, with lighter oils partially evaporated showing the packed asphaltenes. The rigid sponge-like structure prevents the binder from flowing at cold temperatures eventually leading to cracking, ravelling (slow disintegration) and spalling (cracking, breaking or chipping of edges). (Simon Hesp)

Poor-quality binder is costly

Construction specifications for asphalt often fail to identify poor performing binders. More than a few substandard binders are currently being used in road construction in Canada. Oilsands crudes have the lowest wax contents of all sources and can produce top-quality binders.

Top performance from top-quality Alberta binder. (Simon Hesp)

Alberta binders of various grades perform well on their own, without additives, as long as they are used with good pavement designs. However, adding PET (polyethylene terephthalate) fibres from recycled plastic bottles can dramatically reinforce the asphalt.

For example, a 12-year-old test section of asphalt in northern Ontario, constructed with top-quality binder from Alberta, and modified with 0.3 per cent of recycled PET fibre shows virtually no distress today. It is expected to have an ultimate service life of about 38 years; a significant improvement compared to historical 15- to 25-year performance cycles.

Producing asphalt binder from Alberta oilsands will not only reduce the industrys greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 60 per cent, but can also extend pavement lifespan by 30 to 50 per cent.

Fuel and asphalt demands are headed in opposite directions

Today, about two per cent to five per cent of crude oil is made into asphalt, and the rest is upgraded to combustible fuels. As government regulations shift to lower greenhouse gas emissions, companies that extract and/or produce crude oil will see lowered demand, and be pushed to create products that dont need to be refined or wont be burned. Light and medium crudes cannot meet asphalt binder demand in a net-zero 2050 scenario, making bitumen a strong contender for use as an asphalt binder.

The world has nearly 40 million kilometres of roads, of which 65 per cent are paved. Asphalt-paved roads are safer than unpaved roads, and are more economical for a greater volume of traffic.

The volume of unpaved roads globally presents a tremendous economic opportunity. Carbon pricing and credits will hasten the bitumen transition. Producing high-performing asphalt binders from Alberta crude bitumens  especially those extracted through in-situ processes that require a smaller surface area  can position the oilsands industry to remain viable.

Alberta has enough bitumen to supply the global road-building industry for more than 100 years if oilsands companies divert about 50 per cent of each barrel to produce asphalt binder.

Jen Kovinich, Aiden Kuhn and Alison Wong, undergraduate research assistants at Queens University, co-authored this article.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Simon Adrianus Maria Hesp, Queen's University, Ontario and Haibo Ding, Southwest Jiaotong University.

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Professor Hesp receives research funding and professional income from provincial and federal government funding agencies, producers and users of asphalt cement. Alberta Innovates is gratefully acknowledged for providing financial support to Jen Kovinich, Aiden Kuhn, Alison Wong and Haibo Ding to co-author this opinion article in the form of a Bitumen Beyond Combustion grant (AI 2515) to Simon Hesp.

Haibo Ding receives funding from Alberta Innovates and National Natural Science Foundation of China (52008352) and Applied Basic Research Project of Sichuan Province (2021YJ0533).
South Africa: Communities, business urged to stop polluting water resources

Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) Deputy Minister, Dikeledi Magadzi, has called on communities and business to stop polluting water resources.

It is everyones responsibility to ensure that our natural resources remain clean and healthy because water is live and a source of livelihood, Magadzi said.

Magadzi made the call during an Apies River clean up at Makapanstad in Moretele Local Municipality.

The department collaborated with its entity, Magalies Water, Moretele Local Municipality, Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa and the community members who also joined in the clean up of Apies River.

The clean-up was in line with one of the departments flagship campaigns, Clear Rivers campaign, under the theme South Africa is a water scarce country, clean up and protect our water resources.

The annual Clear Rivers campaign takes place in July as part of promoting volunteerism in the celebration of the iconic Statesman, former President Nelson Mandelas birthday on 18 July and Mandela Month.

The campaign aims to actively engage communities, as well as promote and create an on-going awareness and education on protecting water resources among communities, municipalities, government departments and industries, including mining and agriculture, which are major sources of water pollution.

Magadzi said the partnership with Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa and Magalies Water seeks to, amongst other things; promote clean and healthy rivers especially where Apies River meets with Pienaar River, as there is a lot of effluent coming from upstream.

Magadzi indicated that Hammanskraal is an industrial area, calling on industrial companies operating in the area to stop bringing effluent into rivers and the environment.

During the river clean up, the Deputy Minister expressed concern at the number of baby diapers that were found dumped.

I counted baby diapers while cleaning near the river and even on trees. These countless diapers have now turned into tree leaves! It is when I reached 32, that I lost track.

Magadzi warned the communities that the waste being dumped near or in the river affects the environment and natural resources.

She added that through the cleaning of rivers, our economy can also be cleaned because companies such as Coca-Cola and others can recycle bottles and cans, creating more jobs in the process.

With the current climate change, our rivers continue to be infested with invasive alien plants that consume a lot of water, which has a negative impact to our countrys natural resource. In our communities, businesses that pollute our rivers such as toilet hiring companies should stop cleaning their toilets in our rivers and it must come to an end, the Deputy Minister said.

Moretele Local Municipality Mayor, George Manyike, made a commitment to have an ongoing clean-up campaign or Letsema.

Ever since water was connected by Magalies Water, more areas in the municipality are now receiving water seven days per week, Manyike said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-07-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan and Europe have discussed plans to expand the Southern Gas Corridor, Azernews reports.

The discussion proceeded during a meeting between Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov with the delegation led by European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs Chair David McAllister, who is on a visit to Azerbaijan.

During the meeting, the parties emphasized the importance of the signed memorandum of understanding on strategic partnership in the energy field for the further development of cooperation in areas such as natural gas supply, renewable energy, green hydrogen, energy efficiency, environmental protection, etc.

They discussed Azerbaijan's hydrocarbon resources, the country's renewable energy potential, the efficient use of these natural resources in the process of the energy transition with the attraction of private investments, green energy export, energy efficiency, targets to fight against climate change, as well as projects implemented in the direction of creating a green energy zone in Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur.

On July 19, Azerbaijan and the European Commission signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic cooperation in the energy sector. The document was signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The EU and Azerbaijan are in active dialogue on increasing gas supplies amid the energy crisis. The EU-Azerbaijan energy cooperation has reached a new level and is still ongoing within the framework of the Southern Gas Corridor. The EU places a high value on energy supply diversification, and the Southern Gas Corridor is particularly important in this regard.

To recall, with the completion of the TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) construction on December 31, 2020, Azerbaijan began commercial gas supplies to Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor. The Southern Gas Corridor is an initiative of the European Commission for a natural gas supply route from the Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe. The route from Azerbaijan to Europe consists of the South Caucasus Pipeline, TANAP, and TAP.

Last year, TAP transported 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe. By late 2022, Azerbaijan plans to increase gas supplies to Europe to 9.1 billion cubic meters, and in 2023, the volume of gas supplies is expected to reach 11 billion cubic meters.
Vicious wildfires continue to scorch Europe.

Hundreds of firefighters are struggling to contain a large wildfire raging outside an Athens suburb for a second day, while blazes continue in France, Spain and Portugal. Here are some of the most alarming images.

The climate crisis has increased the wildfire season by roughly two weeks on average across the globe, mostly by creating tinderbox conditions through extreme heat and dry weather.

Human activities, such as forest management and deliberate or accidental ignition, also play a role.

Greece

Nearly 500 firefighters were tackling the blaze near Athens on Wednesday, whose skyline turned black on Tuesday from the smoke.

At least two people have been hospitalised with breathing problems and minor burns.

Several houses have been burned in the fire around Mount Penteli, 25km (16 miles) northeast of the Greek capital, local officials said.

Spain

Jose Luiz Gutierrez, Fire Director for the Castillo de Leon district in northwestern Spain, told Sky News's Hannah Thomas-Peter that the fire season is absolutely getting worse because of climate change.

He described how it has been starting earlier and earlier in the year, and how this year in particular has been fuelled by a "perfect storm" of high heat, winds and drought.

He said the severity of the conditions were "completely new" for his firefighters, even those who have been doing the job for 40 years.

France

Investigators probing the suspected deliberate lighting of what has become a raging wildfire in southwest France detained a man for questioning.

One of the blazes, tearing through woodlands south of Bordeaux, is suspected to have been started deliberately. A motorist told investigators that before pulling over and trying unsuccessfully to extinguish the flames, he saw a vehicle speeding away from the spot where the fire started, the Bordeaux prosecutor's office said.

In the Gironde region of southwest France, two massive fires feeding on tinder-dry pine forests also have forced tens of thousands of people to flee homes and summer vacation spots since they broke out on 12 July.

Story continues

Watch the Daily Climate Show at 3.30pm Monday to Friday, and The Climate Show with Tom Heap on Saturday and Sunday at 3.30pm and 7.30pm.

All on Sky News, on the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter.

The show investigates how global warming is changing our landscape and highlights solutions to the crisis
Centamin's Martin Horgan spoke to Proactive about its 11% increase in gold production for the second quarter at the Sukari mine in Egypt.

Horgan puts this down to higher gold grades and said it remains on track to meet its full-year guidance.

Revenue for the second quarter jumped 17% year-on-year to US$207.2mln, generated from gold sales of 111,027 ounces at an average realised gold price of US$1,863 an ounce.
Indira Gandhi National Open University Admission to Management Programmes (MP) 2022 - OPENMAT-XLVII https://career.webindia123.com/career/dates_and_events/entrance/manage/ignou-openmat-entrance-test-for-admissions-to-managmenent-courses.htm Details of Indira Gandhi National Open University Admission to Management Programmes (MP) 2022 - OPENMAT-XLVII 2022-7-20 2022-7-31 https://career.webindia123.com/career/images/exams.png India India Indira Gandhi National Open University Admission to Management Programmes (MP) 2022 - OPENMAT-XLVII Management

Open Management Admission Test (OPENMAT-XLVII) 2022

Indira Gandhi National Open University Admission to Management Programmes (MP) 2022 - OPENMAT-XLVII Category : Management Admissions 2022 Published : On July 20, 2022 By Webindia123 Editor

Important Dates

Filled in form must reach the Regional Centre concerned on or before 31st July, 2022 Open Management Admission Test (OPENMAT-XLVII) -

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) invited applications for OPENMAT-XLVII, an Entrance Test for admission to Management Programmes for the year 2022.

MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME (MP)

IGNOU invites applications for the following Degree/ Diploma Programmes in Management :

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management (PGDHRM)

Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Management (PGDFM)

Post Graduate Diploma in Operations Management (PGDOM)

Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management (PGDMM)

Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Markets Practice (PGDFMP)

All the above programmes have multi-media design, and technology aided delivery systems. These are offered through countrywide network of study centers.

Eligibility :

Any Graduate (including Chartered Accountancy/Cost Accountancy/Company Secretaryship) with 50% marks for General Category/45% for reserved category as per Government of India rules. Clearance of OPENMAT conducted by IGNOU

There is no age bar for admission to the above Programmes. The University reserves the right to grant/deny admission to any candidate.

Provision for online registration for admission to the successful candidates for Management Programme will be made available on the university website (www.ignou.ac.in) after the declaration of the Entrance Test result

How to Apply

1. Candidates can apply for IGNOU OPENMAT-XLVII Online only on the website https://ignouexams.nta.nic.in.

2. Online Application Form may be submitted by accessing NTA website https://ignouexams.nta.nic.in.

The Application Form other than online mode will not be accepted, in any case.

3. Before filling the online entrance form, please read carefully regarding the eligibility and programme details given in e-prospectus available at https://ignouexams.nta.nic.in.

4. Candidates must follow the instructions strictly as given in the Information Bulletin and on NTA website https://ignouexams.nta.nic.in. Candidates not complying with the instructions shall be summarily disqualified.

5. Candidates must ensure that e-mail address and Mobile Number provided in the Online Application Form are of their own, as all information/ communication will be sent by NTA through e-mail on the given e-mail address or SMS on the given mobile number only.

Fee:

Rs 800/- for OBC candidates

Rs. 600/- for SC/ST Candidates

More details can be available from the institute website.

Contact Details Address : School of Management Studies

IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068 Phone : 91-011- 29532073, 29534905 Fax : 91-011- 29532078 Mobile : - E-mail : Contact I Website : www.ignou.ac.in

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Every year as the new school year lurks on the horizon, many families will have a hard time getting ready with providing kiddos with things like backpacks and other school supplies. This year is no different.

For the past two years, Centro Hispano and Platte Valley Time for Change (T4C) have partnered to hold a back-to-school bash with local organizations and service departments to help families prepare for the new school year.

The event will take place at Centro Hispano, 3214 25th St. on July 24, starting at 3 p.m. and will last until supplies run out. There is no registration process and all supplies are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

According to Karina Perez, executive director for Centro Hispano, last year saw incredible attendance.

"Last year, we served over 206 bookbags, 320 families with hot dogs and burgers, Fresh Bucks from United Way and 190 hygiene packets," Perez said.

This year, they're planning for even more. With quantities limited to whatever they have, the lines every year get long. This time around, they will hand out 250 bags, 500 servings of food and 250 hygiene packets. Centro Hispano Communications Director Katherine Lopez said people were in line for almost an hour and a half beforehand the first year of the partnership.

"We got a good glimpse of the need for school supplies last year. A line formed way before we even started, just a lot of people from the surrounding area, even Schuyler," Lopez said.

This wouldn't be possible if it weren't for T4C and Centro's partnership as well as the sponsors, Perez said.

"We're serving anybody in the community, any background. This is also an opportunity to see a lot of organizations that are willing to contribute," Perez said.

Among the sponsors are four major sponsors Perez said specifically made the event possible: Cargill Columbus, Hy-Vee, Nebraska Public Power District and the Columbus Professional Firefighters Association Local 1575.

There are no requirements for the items being given out, other than that the child receiving them be physically present. No identification or signup is required.

"I think it allows a space to come regardless of situation, a family friendly event free from scrutiny or fear of someone knowing there's need in that household," Perez said.

Casey Schwarting, general manager of the Columbus Hy-Vee, said Hy-Vee likes to contribute to these events because it's a way to give to the communities its stores are based in. In this particular case, Hy-Vee is donating all the food for the event.

"We obviously want to be a part of all these types of things and just give back," Schwarting said. "Centro Hispano, as everyone knows, are doing a great job of giving back, they're doing amazing things and we wanted to help them and be involved."

Schwarting added that this need isn't exclusive to Platte County or the Columbus area, either, and that Hy-Vee's interests reach wherever it can help.

"I know that in every community, there's going to be people who need a little help and we want to be there wherever and whenever we can," Schwarting said.

Area organizations and service providers will also be at the event, providing free information and answering questions. Face painting, treats, inflatables and games will also be available.
Often when viewing art there is an instantaneous aha moment; yet at other times, the cumulative time spent reflecting on an artists work is rewarded with a deeper, richer appreciation. Spending time with Eleanor Conovers Weather Reader is such an experience.

Eleanor Conovers Weather Reader is now on view at Dickinson Colleges Trout Gallery. The exhibit is a collection of recent paintings from her time here in Carlisle, where she recently joined the Dickinson College faculty as an assistant professor of art in fall 2021, as well as time spent summering in Maine.

Conover works with the material conditions of painting as both tangible and metaphorical spaces to investigate surface and environment. Elements of the natural and the constructed world work their way into her art. In her work, rugged, craggy rock formations stand side by side with architectural elements.

Surface is an important component of Conovers works. Often her canvases are dyed, adding dimension to her paintings before her work in oil and acrylic paint. One of the most striking features of Conovers work is the irregular shapes of her canvases. The tyranny of the rectangle and the square are overthrown by an eclectic mix of shapes, some resembling medieval shields, windows or even boats.

Additionally, the wooden backs of the frames of the paintings emerge from the shadows to take a more central prominent place in many of her works. These stretcher bars are the skeleton of these non-traditional frame shapes, and in many of Conovers pieces, the bones play a role in the paintings composition as they emerge to delineate space.

In Windows Winnow the stretcher bars create panes resembling a window. A seashell visibly rests upon one in one quadrant, and other items appear as shadowy shapes seen through the window. This window correlation is not utilized exclusively to draw the viewer to look through at a vista, but rather the painting acts as both window and scenery. Conover fuses still life (inside) and landscape (outside) in both the structure of the canvas and the painted subject matter.

The stretchers also bear resemblance to the floor plan of a building. Pell-mell has many features of a blueprint, while also incorporating visible details such as an empty planter, but also including a patchwork of color reminiscent of Cubist landscapes by Cezanne. No one element overshadows the others; they beautifully work together creating a combination of abstract and realism.

Coupled with the outline of the paintings perimeter, some of the pieces take the form of the aerial view of a boat in pieces such as Although the Sun. Eleanors relationship to water is evident in these paintings, as she has spent extensive time on the ocean and sailing.

Birds of a Feather takes all these elements and adds slices of marble to the paintings surface. The marble ties Conovers interest in the natural world as well as man-made construction, since marble is used in both interior design and large building construction. In this painting, these worlds come together in a unified whole.

In Ephemera (Acadia), an embedded photograph of a mountain climber is framed by blocks of oil paint in shades of blue and grey, giving the illusion of solidity and depth. This piece allows Conover shares her deep appreciation of nature. The work conveys both the monumentality and grandeur of the outdoors without cliche.

The stretcher bars of As\All\We\Them\Us add distinct quadrants to the work. Within the upper quadrants, shades of pale pink evoke a mysterious, foggy atmosphere where an enigmatic tower stands. Within the lower quadrants, two hat-shaped objects appear. The incongruous elements add a Giorgio de Chirico-like feel to the work. The Italian painter was known as a precursor to Surrealism and for his grand iconic landscapes in what was termed metaphysical painting.

Weather Reader serves as a fitting introduction to Conover, as well as a warm welcome to the artist to the Central Pennsylvania arts community. Her unique approach to a traditional medium such as painting is refreshing and exciting. She has already created anticipation to see what she will bring next for exhibition. Her multi-layered approach to her craft reminds us that there is always a new creative approach to be discovered, understood and appreciated.

Weather Reader is on display until Aug. 13 at the Trout Gallery located in the Emil R. Weiss Center for the Arts on the Dickinson College campus, 240 W. High St., Carlisle. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday. The gallery is free and open to the public. For more information on the exhibition, visit www.troutgallery.org.
A Fredericktown daycare worker has been charged with child abuse after allegedly breaking the leg of a child who was upset.

Jacqueline S. Duffel, 43, of Fredericktown, was charged in Madison County on Monday with second-degree assault and abuse or neglect of a child.

According to a probable cause statement from the Fredericktown Police Department, on Monday at approximately 2:50 p.m., an officer was dispatched to Kid's Corner Preschool on Chamber Drive to assist the Missouri Children's Division in an investigation.

Upon arrival, the officer was met by a Children's Division worker who said she was there for a report of an employee causing physical injury to a juvenile.

The report states the division worker was viewing surveillance camera footage that showed the child being dropped off at the facility on July 14 at about 7:10 a.m. The child was visibly upset and repeatedly attempted to make his way to the front door. Staff members stopped the child and tried to keep him at the back of the room. The report states staff members repeatedly drug him by one arm to the back of the room and placed him in the care of another staff member, identified as Duffel.

According to the report, the camera footage showed Duffel standing in the back left corner of the room when the child was placed in her care. Duffel allegedly held the child by the wrist with his arm extended above his head. The child was still visibly upset on the video, and Duffel was standing upright and not attempting to calm him verbally, according to police.

The report states Duffel repeatedly held the child by the wrist with his arm extended. The woman allegedly lifted the boy off of the ground and dropped him twice. At one point, the child was reportedly attempting to get away from Duffel. He was on the floor at Duffel's right side when the woman looked back at the child. She allegedly picked her right foot off the ground and stepped on the boy's right shin, visibly bowing his leg. At that time, the report states the child was visibly screaming in pain. He was then picked up by Duffel and placed on a bench located on the back wall.

The report states the child was still visibly squirming in pain and screaming; however, Duffel did not attempt to provide medical aid to the boy. He was reportedly not provided medical attention until another staff member came into work at about 7:30 a.m. and heard the child repeatedly saying, "ouch" and holding his leg. The other employee then said they should call someone to get him because his leg was swelling. The report states the other staff member sat on the ground with the boy until an adult came to get him.

It is noted in the police report that the child is in the custody of the State of Missouri and has a legal guardian. The boy's guardian came to pick him up.

At approximately 6:10 p.m. on Monday, Duffel met with an officer and the Children's Division worker at the Madison County Sheriff's Office. The division worker questioned Duffel about the reported incident on July 14. Duffel said she had been a childcare worker for approximately 12 years and has received all appropriate training required by the state for her position.

The report states Duffel told the interviewers that when the child was dropped off at the daycare, he was attempting to leave the room and "throwing a fit." Duffel reportedly explained that when other staff members have an issue with the boy, they bring him to her. The division worker asked Duffel if she put the child on the ground, and she reportedly said that she did. The worker asked the woman how she did that, and she allegedly replied, "I'm sure, forcefully."

After the Children's Division was finished with their investigation, an officer asked Duffel to wait until the division workers left the room. The woman was then read her Miranda rights and was asked if she was willing to answer any questions from the police. She reportedly declined to answer any more questions and was placed under arrest.

The following morning, an officer went to the guardian's residence to speak with the guardian about the incident.

The report states the guardian was unaware of the full situation. The officer informed her of the findings and the surveillance video. The child's guardian told the officer the boy was taken to Madison Medical Center for an evaluation, where it was discovered that the child had a right leg fracture. The guardian then took the boy to Children's Hospital in St. Louis, and doctors found that he had a spiral fracture on his right leg (tibia) and was placed in a cast to be worn for four weeks.

Duffel was booked at the Madison County Jail, and a $50,000 cash-only bond was set in the case. The woman was arraigned in court on Wednesday and entered a plea of not guilty to the charges. She is scheduled to appear in court again on Thursday for a counsel status hearing.
The order closing offices in the St. Francois County Courthouse Annex in downtown Farmington has been renewed and the building will again be closing at 2 p.m. on days forecasted 92 degrees or above.

Presiding Commissioner Harold Gallaher said that Maintenance Supervisor Brian Briley told him that the air conditioning for the building will simply not hold up in the 100-degree conditions the Parkland area is going to be experiencing.

The new order will be the same as the previous one. When the forecast as shown on weather.com (Farmington, Missouri) at 10 a.m. that day shows a high for the day of 92 degrees or more, the entire annex building will close at 2 p.m. for that day. According to Gallaher, this website information will be the only one used to keep it standardized and prevent confusion from different forecasts from other sources.

The rule applies to county employees only and those working in the annex building only. The schedule change will be posted on the county website and on the entry doors of the building.
JEFFERSON CITY  Gov. Mike Parson began laying the groundwork Tuesday for an attempt to cut Missouris income tax rate.

In back-to-back meetings in his office with House and Senate leaders, the Republican discussed his decision earlier this month to call on lawmakers to return to the Capitol to lower the current tax rate to 4.8%, down from its current 5.4%.

Although the GOP-controlled chambers have supported previous tax cuts, Tuesdays hourlong meetings did not result in a surefire endorsement of his plan.

Nothing is easy around here, said Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, who helmed the Senate through a contentious spring session.

In calling for a special session, Parson said the state budget currently is brimming with surplus revenue as part of a post-pandemic economic surge that has pumped up tax receipts by more than 14% in the past year.

In addition to lowering the tax rate, Parson wants to raise the standard deduction to $16,000 for single filers and $32,000 for joint filers.

That would mean a taxpayer who earns $16,000 or less would owe no state income tax. A married couple with a spouse who does not work earning $32,000 or less also would owe no state income tax.

The current standard deduction for single filers is $12,950 and $25,900 for joint filers.

The proposed 4.8% rate would put Missouri a few notches below Illinois, which has a 4.95% income tax rate.

The governor announced his decision as part of an explanation for why he vetoed a tax rebate plan approved by lawmakers in May. That $500 million proposal would have sent checks worth up to $500 to people making a maximum of $150,000.

Parson said low-income workers and seniors would have been left out of the rebate plan. Plus, because it was prorated, he said the $500 checks likely would have been closer to $100.

Sen. Lincoln Hough, vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the General Assembly should approach tax reductions with caution.

The books are pretty rosy right now but where are we in two or three fiscal years, Hough said following the meeting Im happy to talk about tax cuts, happy to support tax cuts in a responsible way that doesnt hamper the services that the state provides to six and a half million people.

Rowden said he expects Parson to lobby lawmakers to push the cut across the finish line.

Hes got some work to do but it sounds like hes willing to do the work, Rowden said.

Left hanging is a schedule for the special session. Rowden said there was no real clarity on timing, but suggested nothing would happen until September, primarily because the House chamber is undergoing extensive renovations.

Given the nature of the House chamber, I dont think you can begin before September, Rowden said. They are not set on anything yet so its still up in the air.

Hough, who is being challenged in the GOP primary in his Springfield area district, said the Legislature needs to get past the Aug. 2 election before the special session can begin.

Nobody was a fan of doing this immediately, Hough said.

In addition to the tax cut, Parson also wants lawmakers to return to rework a package of tax credits designed to help farmers.

Parson vetoed the plan arguing that the proposal sent to him by lawmakers expires after two years, which is not long enough. He wants a six-year window to accommodate lengthy planning times needed by farmers.

The move, which was expected, affects tax incentives for young farmers, meat packing companies, charcoal producers, ethanol retailers and biodiesel makers.

The various tax credits were worth an estimated $40 million, according to a nonpartisan fiscal analysis.
Dont let your fun in the summertime turn into summertime blues. While being outside and enjoying nature is usually a fun and relaxing experience, practicing safety measures when visiting one of Missouris state parks or historic sites helps keep the day from turning into a disaster with a visit to the emergency room.

Safety of our visitors and team members is our number one priority, said Missouri State Parks Director David Kelly. While it may not always be the first thing on your mind, practicing safety measures keeps your experience an enjoyable one.

Kelly encourages guests to get outside and enjoy the summer, but also follow some basic but important safety guidelines. While in Missouri state parks, guests must realize that certain conditions cannot be controlled or managed. Temperature, insects and wildlife are all uncontrollable by park team members, although they strive to make the experience as positive as possible.

Here are some key measures follow to stay safe while having fun outdoors:

Good times and sunshine

When visiting a Missouri state park or historic site, guests are reminded to wear appropriate clothing. Use a sunscreen of at least SPF 30 and wear it all the time. Even if you are only outside for a short time, ultraviolet exposure increases between 4 and 10% for every 1,000 feet above sea level. Wear natural fabrics, such as loose-fitting, white cotton or linen shirts. Dark fabrics absorb light more than light ones.

Hydrate while you recreate Visitors also need to stay hydrated by drinking lots of water. Aim to drink more than the standard eight glasses a day. Opt for snacks that have high-water content, such as watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes and cucumbers. Dont wait until you feel thirsty to drink water.

Splish, splash

Whether enjoying the pool, beach, lake or river, any body of water can be dangerous if the appropriate precautions arent taken. To make your experience in Missouri state parks great when enjoying water-related activities, follow these safety tips:

Only swim in designated areas and follow signage. Familiarize yourself with the area first before entering the water. Watch for underwater obstacles (stumps, logs, etc.). Dont overestimate your swimming abilities. Never swim, wade or access any water feature alone, especially where strong currents are reported. Always wear a personal flotation device. Never leave children unsupervised near the water. Learn to swim and know your swimming limits. Remember, drinking alcoholic beverages and swimming do not mix. Designating an undistracted water watcher to keep an eye on your group can be helpful in detecting a swimmer in trouble.

Im feeling hot, hot, hot

Knowing and recognizing the signs and symptoms of heat-related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion or heat stroke, can sometimes mean the difference between life and death. Warning signs of heat exhaustion include heavy sweating, paleness, muscle cramps, tiredness and weakness, dizziness or fainting, headache, nausea or vomiting. To help prevent heat-related illness, follow these safety tips:

Visit the park or historic site during the coolest time of day, which is before 10 a.m. and after 2 p.m. Avoid drinks containing caffeine, alcohol or large amounts of sugar, because they can cause you to lose more fluid. Avoid very cold beverages; they can cause stomach cramps. Dont drink a lot of water at once; it could make you vomit. Ask your doctor whether medications you take affect your bodys response to heat.

Shoo fly, dont bother me

Not only should you protect yourself from flies, but also ticks, and mosquitoes. These insects spread diseases like dengue fever, malaria, West Nile Virus and Lyme disease. Other biting insects, such as chiggers and no-see-ums, can make your outing itchy and miserable. Protect yourself by wearing insect repellent.

Here comes the rain again When thunder roars, go indoors! While the odds of being struck by lightning are very low, its still not the best idea to hang outside during a thunderstorm. Remember the 30-30 rule. Once you see lightning, count to 30. If you hear thunder before you hit 30, go inside.

For more information and tips on how to be safe in the outdoors, or information on state parks and historic sites visit mostateparks.com. Missouri State Parks is a division of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan and Intergovernmental Organization for International Rail Transport (OTIF) have discussed bilateral cooperation and the country's transport and transit opportunities, Azernews reports.

The discussion took place during a meeting between Azerbaijan's Digital Development and Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev with OTIF's Secretary-General Wolfgang Kupper, who is on a visit to Azerbaijan.

During the meeting, the parties discussed reforms being implemented in the railway sector of Azerbaijan.

The minister briefed on the Horadiz-Aghband railway line, which is part of the Zangazur Corridor, emphasizing the regional importance of the project.

They also exchanged views on participation in international projects aimed at developing international corridors and future perspectives for regional cooperation.

On July 20, Secretary-General Wolfgang Kupper is expected to visit the territories liberated from occupation, as well as familiarize himself with the construction of the Horadiz-Aghband railway line.

The construction of the Horadiz-Aghband railway line is being carried out in three stages. The first stage covers a section of the railway with a length of 30 km and Horadiz, Marjanli, and Mahmudlu stations, the second stage - the section of the railway line with a length of 55 km and Soltanli, Gumlag, Hakari and Minjivan stations, and the third - the section with a length of 25.4 km and Minjivan, Bartaz and Aghband stations. Within the third stage, preparations are underway for demining work.

Nine stations (Horadiz, Marjanly, Mahmudlu, Soltanli, Gumlag, Hakari, Minjivan, Bartaz, and Aghband), three tunnels, 41 bridges, three galleries, seven overpasses, and nearly 300 artificial engineering structures are planned to be built within the project.

The construction and installation work under the railway project is scheduled to be completed in 2023.
A solution to the parking problem on Main Street in Madison may soon be in place.

Last Thursday at the regular meeting of the Madison Town Council, town attorney Maynard Sipe reported to council that he had received confirmation from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) that it would be willing to mark the no parking zones with clearly painted lines and delineators if the town was willing to pay the cost of labor and materials.

Council unanimously passed a motion to enter into the agreement with VDOT to place 10 delineators in the no parking space near BulletProof where repeated parking violations pose a visibility problem to pedestrians in the nearby crosswalk. The cost of the project will be $1,032.50 for labor and materials for each no parking zone installation. Council made the decision to start with the one space that has been problematic for nearly two years and then proceed with other spaces in town if the project is successful.

Mayor Willie Lamar agreed with the decision to start with that particular space first and noted that it is probably a good idea to proceed with a trial especially as the expense was not included in the 2022-2023 budget.

At this point Im not aware that there are ongoing problems with any of the other no parking areas, said Lamar. I think we need to try this before committing to do all of the no parking areas in town.

We need to do whats best for the towns safety, said Sipe. This seems like a reasonable solution. We have to do something.

The town has been struggling with issues with Main Street parking for years, but most recently the issue has come to a head over the lack of visibility created by large vehicles parking along the street blocking the view of oncoming traffic to both motorists and pedestrians.

Main Street parking has always been problematic because of a lack of public parking lots and a narrow road. The controversy between BulletProof and the Madison Free Clinic has acerbated the situation and created an ongoing problem for nearly two years which has posed a challenge for town government as theyve worked to balance business needs with public safety.

In July 2020, then executive director of the Madison Free Clinic Brenda Clements inquired about who bears responsibility for parking enforcement and appealed to both VDOT and law enforcement. After a site visit, VDOT put a No Parking sign for the western side of the street between the clinic and the crosswalk. Despite the sign, BulletProof owner Josh Phillips and his customers continued to park there which according to Clements created a hazard for drivers and pedestrians leaving the clinic. When she appealed to law enforcement, the Virginia State Police told her it wasnt their jurisdiction and the Madison County Sheriffs Office refused to enforce parking regulations without an ordinance. Clements brought the issue to the town council and several months of contentious debate arose between patrons of the gun store and town residents concerned about pedestrian safety.

The town council passed a parking ordinance in September 2021 in the hope of ending the controversy. The ordinance prohibits double parking, blocking driveways, parking within 15 feet of a crosswalk, intersection or fire hydrant and parking in marked no parking zones. The ordinance also provides guidance for towing vehicles violating the parking regulations. VDOT posted additional signage along Main Street. Despite having state law that covers those provisions, sheriff Erik Weaver had suggested the town enact a parking ordinance to make the signs enforceable.

The ordinance passed unanimously, but enforcement of the law has been non-existent because the sheriff cannot enforce it without a similar county ordinance on the books. Sipe appealed to the Madison County Board of Supervisors, but the county opted not to adopt a similar ordinance instead suggesting the town have a parking enforcement employee and there are numerous near misses every month where drivers and pedestrians cannot see oncoming traffic.
Oregon voters will decide Nov. 8 whether to require firearms training and ban high-capacity ammunition magazines.

The Oregon Elections Division said a ballot initiative to do so has qualified for the General Election. The state validated 131,671 of the 160,498 petition signatures (82%) submitted by sponsors. The number was more than the 112,020 required, based on 6% of the votes cast for governor in the 2018 election, a standard fixed by the Oregon Constitution.

Voters will see a total of four measures on the Nov. 8 ballot, two initiatives that qualified by petition and two constitutional amendments referred by the Legislature.

This measure would limit ammunition magazines to 10 rounds each. In addition to the limit, the measure would require people to undergo classroom and live-fire training before they obtain a firearms permit, and complete background checks.

Current law allows a purchaser to obtain a gun even if the check is incomplete after three days; the measure would compel the check to be completed.

Lift Every Voice Oregon, the movement that sponsored it and a second potential measure, was way behind at the end of May when an initial round of 2,500 signatures was submitted.

But two mass shootings outside Oregon resulted in a surge of petition volunteers and signatures before the July 8 deadline.

Ten Black people were shot dead May 14 in a supermarket in Buffalo, and 19 children and two teachers died 10 days later at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

The Rev. Dr. W.J. Mark Knutson, pastor of Augustana Lutheran Church in Portland, said those events helped produced more than 1,000 new volunteers and 150,000 more signatures.

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"People were saying they could not sit anymore, so we had 1,000 new volunteers come forward to join the 500," Knutson said in an interview earlier in July. "A lot were parents with children  it was pretty amazing. They are learning about democracy.

"The process is as important as the result  democratic action by the people. In this nation right now, we need to see democracy at work."

Movement leaders shelved a second ballot measure that would have banned some assault weapons. Knutson said leaders hope to present it as a bill to the 2023 Legislature, which opens Jan. 9.

The measure joins three others on the General Election ballot.

The other initiative, which has already qualified, would bar lawmakers from seeking re-election if they have 10 or more absences not excused by the House speaker or Senate president. That initiative was put forth by public employee unions and others in response to walkouts by Republican legislative minorities in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

The measure would change the Oregon Constitution, which requires two-thirds of lawmakers  40 of 60 in the House, 20 of 30 in the Senate  to be present for the chambers to conduct business. Most legislative chambers, and the U.S. Congress, require a simple majority of members.

Oregon's 2020 walkouts forced the majority Democrats to scuttle proposed climate-change legislation and shut down the short session. (Republican senators walked out for one day in 2021; Republicans in the House were deterred from doing so by a 2021 rule that set a maximum daily fine of $500 for an unexcused absence.)

The other measures, both constitutional amendments, were referred by the 2021 Legislature. One would define health care as a right; the other would remove slavery as a punishment for crime.

The Elections Division will assign numbers to all four measures. They will be accomplished by explanatory statements and fiscal analyses  those are done by panels  plus advocacy statements submitted and paid for by supporters and opponents. The Legislature writes statements for its own referrals.

Related stories:
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan and Korea have discussed issues of expanding bilateral cooperation in the investment sector, Azernews reports.

The discussion occurred during a meeting between representatives of Azerbaijan's Export and Investment Promotion Agency, Korea's Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), and the Korean Lemon Metal company.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the favorable investment climate in Azerbaijan.

Lemon Metal company representatives have expressed their interest in investing in the production of aluminum products in Azerbaijan.

Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Korea were established on March 23, 1992. The embassy of Korea in Azerbaijan was opened on March 4, 2006, whereas the embassy of Azerbaijan in Korea was established on March 14, 2007.

Azerbaijan and Korea are cooperating in various spheres. In total, around sixty-seven documents were signed between the two countries.

Korean companies successfully operate in various economic spheres in Azerbaijan and they played a role in the modern architectural image of Baku as well as in the implementation of major industrial infrastructure projects.

The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $227.6 million in 2021.
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Google and Twitter have yet to comply with a new licensing law in Indonesia, which could result in services being taken offline in the country.

Reuters reported, that the technology giants had until midday today (July 20) to comply with the set of rules which were unveiled in 2020, that empower authorities to push platforms to surrender data of users, and demand the removal of content deemed illegal or disturbing public order within four to 24 hours.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists of Indonesia criticised the laws stating they were very elastic and are open to being abused.

The organisation said on Twitter: The consequence could be that news or content that reveals rights violations...or investigative reports could be considered unsettling...by certain parties, or even by the government or law enforcement,

Google and Twitter face the risk of being fined and blocked, but punishments can be reversed once registered. The companies did not respond to requests for comments from the news agency.

Meta-owned platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp registered on July 19, while other services such as Spotify, Netflix and TikTok have also signed up.

The Indonesian government defended its new laws stating they are designed to ensure internet service providers protect consumer data and project content in positive and productive ways.
At Huaweis Win-Win Innovation Week, Ryan Ding, President of Carrier BG, Huawei, gave a presentation entitled Green ICT for New Value.

Ding began by asserting that throughout history, every major advancement has been accompanied by a significant improvement in the energy efficiency of information transmission technologies. If energy efficiency refers to the amount of information transmitted over a single unit of energy, Ding noted that we have come a long way since bamboo clips and paper in the agricultural age to the internet of the industrial age. Moving forward, digital technologies like 5G, F5G, and AI will help more and more industries push the boundaries of the physical world, bringing us closer to a digital age. Ding claimed that we are now at a critical juncture where we need to increase energy efficiency so that we can transmit more information without driving a huge increase in energy consumption.

The digitalization of industry presents an unprecedented challenge, with energy consumption skyrocketing as the demand for data increases. With the whole world working to fight climate change, the ICT industry must achieve a carbon peak and eventually carbon neutrality. Ding cited research conducted by a third party that forecast data traffic from digital services to reach 612 ZB - a 13-fold increase - by 2030. According to the ITU, the ICT industry must reduce its carbon emissions by at least 45% by 2030 to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. In the next five to ten years, the increase in carbon emissions generated by exploding data traffic will become a global problem that must be tackled.

Increasing energy efficiency will be the way forward. Fossil fuels still account for a large share of our existing energy mix, and the Alternative Energy Revolution is not expected to progress quickly enough over the next decade to keep up with demand. So, in the meantime, we need to figure out how to make our existing infrastructure more energy efficient. The International Energy Agency holds that energy efficiency is the "first fuel": It is currently our best tool for addressing this conflict between increasing energy consumption and green development, and represents more than 40% of the emissions abatement needed in the next decade.

This also applies to telecom networks. To reduce the carbon footprint of ICT infrastructure, our top priority needs to be increasing energy efficiency. For operators, this requires three steps. First, they improve the energy efficiency of their sites, networks, and operations based on their analysis of traffic generation patterns. Second, they need to reduce their total carbon emissions, absolute power consumption, and increase their use of "green" electricity. Third, they must support the establishment of a unified indicator system, as this would help establish baselines against which energy efficiency can be measured.

Improving energy efficiency will deliver three main benefits to operators. They will be able to achieve direct OPEX savings by reducing network power consumption, upgrading their sites, and migrating 2G/3G customers onto 4G/5G services  the latter of which will also be facilitated by improved energy efficiency. Additionally, operators will be able to better fulfil their social responsibilities as reducing their carbon footprint will positively impact the environment.

Ding outlined the three-layer solution proposed by Huawei to help operators improve network energy efficiency, which focuses on green sites, green networks, and green operations.

The vendor has developed solutions to improve site energy efficiency by adopting a highly integrated design, using new materials, and moving main equipment and power supply units outdoors. In addition, its network architecture makes forwarding faster and supports the construction of all-optical, simplified, and intelligent networks. At the operations level, Huawei offers a solution that generates and distributes optimization policies while making energy efficiency more visualized and manageable.

So far, these green solutions have been deployed by operators in more than 100 countries. In Germany, for example, Huawei's PowerStar solution has helped realize minute-level energy efficiency self-optimization, improving energy efficiency by 7%. In Spain, Huawei's optical cross-connect (OXC) solution has been deployed on a customer's backbone network, increasing energy efficiency by 81% and reducing costs by 29%. In Turkey, Huawei has deployed its green site solution for a customer, replacing their equipment rooms with cabinets and eliminating the need for equipment rooms and air conditioners. The solution is expected to save 19,000 kWh of electricity per site per year.

Operators will benefit a lot from energy efficiency improvements within their own infrastructure. More importantly, ICT solutions can enable emissions reductions in other industries that are 10 times the size of the ICT industry's own emissions  a concept that Huawei refers to as a "carbon handprint". Huawei and its operator partners are already working together to empower other industries to reduce carbon footprints using industry-specific solutions. Many success stories have already been seen in key industries like ports, coal mining, and steel.

For example, the Port of Tianjin built an automated fleet consisting of 76 unmanned container trucks by using 5G provided by China Mobile and autonomous driving technologies, which can drive smoothly within a limited area. The benefits of this solution are tangible: Power consumption per container in the automated driving area is down by 20%, overall operation costs are down 10%, and operation efficiency is up by 15%.

At Jinnan Iron and Steel, workers used to have to transport hot metal ladles by hand. That process was long and inefficient as the heat from these ladles dissipates quickly. This was not good for energy saving and emissions reduction. With the support of China Unicom's 5G-based intelligent scheduling system, workers can now remotely control ladle transfer cars and monitor them in real time. The time required for transportation has been cut from half an hour to seven minutes.

At Zhunneng Group, China Telecom's 5G-based autonomous mining trucks and remote control solution are being used to reduce fuel consumption by 10%, which is expected to save 900 million yuan in costs over the next five years.

These stories are all part of Huawei's efforts to help operators and industries increase energy efficiency. The vendor is also working to make its own production and operations more energy efficient, with an increasing use of renewable energy in its Chinese factories.

At Huawei's Southern Factory in Dongguan, almost all of the rooftops are covered with distributed solar panels, which together offset over 30,000 tons of carbon emissions every year. The vendor is also working to increase the energy efficiency of our operations, for example by building centralized labs to replace its older decentralized research infrastructure. Huaweis new energy-saving technologies are helping bring the power usage effectiveness (PUE) of our labs from 2 to 1.24, saving more than 290 million kWh of electricity every year, and its Chengdu research center is now fully powered by renewable energy. Every year, over 200 million kWh of hydro power is supplied to the center, equivalent to offsetting 177,000 tons of carbon emissions.

Ding concluded by calling on the whole industry to pay more attention to energy efficiency. He noted that establishing an industry-wide indicator system would help set baselines against which energy efficiency can be measured and serve as a guide for the green development of the ICT industry as a whole.
State-owned fixed and mobile operator Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) has announced plans to deploy fixed broadband infrastructure and services to new housing projects in the country.

Camtel signed an agreement with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development earlier this week. It is tasked, according to the Journal du Cameroun, with deploying broadband infrastructure and services within the framework of housing projects and urban infrastructure development.

The agreement was signed by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Celestine Ketcha Courtes, and the Director General of Camtel, Judith Yah Sunday Achidi. Both parties said the agreement is in line with the objectives of the governments 2030 agenda for sustainable development in Cameroon.

The minister was also quoted as saying that, with the signing of the agreement, she hoped Camtel would immediately get to work to ensure that new cities are fully equipped with broadband services, which the Director General assured her it would. However, no timetable or business partners have yet been revealed.

This isnt the only big communications upgrade Camtel has agreed to put in place lately. In June, according to IT Web Africa, it said it will provide the government with digital services as the country deploys new software valued at 955-million CFA (about US$1.487 million) to manage HR functions and the payroll of civil servants.

Under the deal Camtel will provide secure and redundant connections to the internet, and high-speed interconnection through dedicated fibre optic or radio links.

It will also make available a data security solution and provide the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reforms with access to various services offered through its data centre.
International service provider Sparkle has added another submarine cable to its assets in the Atlantic with the activation of spectrum capacity on the Monet submarine cable system connecting Brazil to the United States.

This means, Sparkle says, that it has increased the overall redundancy of its backbone, which now provides five diversified routes between North and South America thanks to extensive submarine infrastructure that includes three undersea digital highways: Monet and Seabras-1 in the Atlantic and Curie in the Pacific.

With the addition of Monet, Sparkle says it has also further enhanced its Tier-1 Seabone global IP transit service and its capacity solutions, catering for the huge data demand driven by new technologies, media platforms and cloud-based services.

This addition also means, Sparkle says, that it is continuing the expansion of its American fibre optic network, which now counts 56 points of presence across the US, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Peru and Venezuela, a capillary presence in Brazil and a new open landing and connectivity hub in Panama.

Sparkle describes itself as TIM Groups global operator, first international service provider in Italy and among the top worldwide, with a proprietary backbone of more than 600,000 kilometres of fibre spanning from Europe to Africa, the Americas and Asia.

Monet is a new-generation cable spanning 10,556 kilometres. The Submarine Telecom Forum website describes it as a submarine cable system hooking up Boca Raton in Florida with Brazils Fortaleza and Santos, with six fibre pairs and a total design capacity of 64 Tbps.

It adds that the Monet consortium comprises of Google, Brazils Algar Telecom, Uruguays Antel, and Angolas Angola Cables.
This week, Huawei held the Carrier Cloud Transformation Summit as a highlight of its Win-Win Innovation Week.

During the summit keynote entitled Huawei Cloud: Enabling New Growth for Carriers, Director of Huawei Carrier IT Marketing & Solution Sales Chen Xuejun announced Huawei's first suite of global scenario-based cloud solutions for carriers. These solutions focus on monetizing networks, innovating services, and optimizing operations to help carriers embrace cloud transformation and growth acceleration.

With advances in 5G, cloud computing, big data, and edge computing, cloud transformation has become the future of telecom carriers. According to Gartner, carriers around the world will increase their IT infrastructure investment in cloud transformation at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27% in the next five years.

Huawei has over three decades of telecom experience and cloud expertise, and has distilled this knowledge into three key factors for carrier cloud transformation. The first is to select a transformation strategy that takes account of a carriers own advantages; the second is to plan a transformation path considering data security, system stability, and service agility; and the third is achieve win-win collaboration by selecting a trusted, experienced, and competent partner. Huawei builds these three factors into its carrier cloud solutions.

First, Network + Cloud expands the scope of network monetization. Huawei's network insights and cloud-network collaboration solutions enable carriers to expand their service and market boundaries for maximum network value. For enterprise customers in China, Huawei Cloud provides a Cloud + Network + Security deployment solution to expand the coverage of traditional solutions with integrated ICT for a multiplier boost in value.

Second, Service + Cloud accelerates service innovation. Huawei Cloud leverages Huawei's experience in the telecom industry and its advanced cloud platform capabilities to make carrier development agile and bring innovation to market more quickly. For example, one of Huaweis African customers was able to reduce the deployment time for its mobile wallet service from months to just one week by using the Huawei Cloud ecosystem.

Third, Operation + Cloud drives operations efficiency. Huawei Cloud pre-optimized cloud solution powers basic telecom services, expands the user scale, and catalyzes the continuous growth of main services. An Asian carrier counted that only 10% of its 5G subscribers are using 5G service packages and 5G network coverage. Huawei uses the distributed data lake solution for collaborative analysis of business support system (BSS) data, improving operations efficiency and boosting the marketing conversion for 5G provisioning by 180%.

Chen Xuejun concluded his keynote with Huawei Cloud's commitment. "The key to carrier cloud transformation lies in smarter use of the cloud for networks, services, and operations. Huawei Cloud will work with global carriers to transform and open up new growth space."
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan's State Oil Company (SOCAR) and the EU have discussed prospects for expansion of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Azernews reports.

The discussion took place during the meeting between SOCAR's First Vice President Rovshan Najaf with the EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson.

"In a meeting with #EU Commissioner for #Energy @KadriSimson, we had discussions on increasing #gas production in #Azerbaijan, the prospects for expansion of #TANAP and #TAP pipelines, and the importance of EU support in this regard," Najaf wrote on his official Twitter page.

On July 19, Azerbaijan and the European Commission signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic cooperation in the energy sector. The document was signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The EU and Azerbaijan are in active dialogue on increasing gas supplies amid the energy crisis. The EU-Azerbaijan energy cooperation has reached a new level and is still ongoing within the framework of the Southern Gas Corridor. The EU places a high value on energy supply diversification, and the Southern Gas Corridor is particularly important in this regard.

To recall, with the completion of the TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) construction on December 31, 2020, Azerbaijan began commercial gas supplies to Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor. The Southern Gas Corridor is an initiative of the European Commission for a natural gas supply route from the Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe. The route from Azerbaijan to Europe consists of the South Caucasus Pipeline, TANAP, and TAP.

Last year, TAP transported 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe. By late 2022, Azerbaijan plans to increase gas supplies to Europe to 9.1 billion cubic meters, and in 2023, the volume of gas supplies is expected to reach 11 billion cubic meters.
When I was a little girl, we couldnt afford to use hard-earned cash on new books. But, that was okay, because there was a lending library nearby.

My earliest childhood memories of West Point, Georgia, bring back visions of our weekly trip to Hawkes Library. Wed pile in the family Ford and drive across the Chattahoochee River Bridge to the tiny red-brick building, and while Mama browsed the big peoples shelves, my chubby fingers flipped the pages of picture books.

The library lady sat in a wheelchair behind the desk shuffling Library of Congress cards, ready to punch the due date in books. Stamp. A book slammed. Stamp. Another book. It didnt matter that I couldnt read or that I wasnt supposed to laugh or talk out loud. The library excursion was always my favorite outing. Back home my sisters sprawled in cushy chairs turning the pages of their borrowed books lickety-split while I sat in my little red rocker reading my books upside-down.

When my family moved to Auburn in the 50s, we all got library cards at the Hollifield Public Library on North Gay Street. I could read then, and my first chapter-book, a biography of Lou Gehrig, came from those shelves. And when I was sick, Mama brought home Little Men, The Hardy Boys, and Eleanor Estes Moffat series, and read aloud to me.

After I left Auburn, I found new libraries wherever I went. As a graduate student in Atlanta, I borrowed books from the scholarly stacks of the four-floor Asa Griggs Candler Library at Emory University. I was captivated by that dignified structure with its spiral staircases and floor to ceiling publications.

And, later when I lived in tidewater Virginia, I frequented the quaint library that perched on a knoll overlooking Urbanna Harbor. Steep stairs led to the brick cottage that was originally a tobacco warehouse built in 1766. It consisted of one large room, neatly bisected by the checkout desk. To the right and left, reading material was arranged alphabetically by an all-volunteer staff on hand-hewn hardwood shelves.

Back in Auburn, the Hollifield Library had moved to a bigger building on Ross Street. The card catalogue, its wooden drawers stuffed with subject-author-title cards, had been replaced by computers. And, as we might have predicted, the building soon became too cramped, and a new library was erected.

Not long ago, on a trip to Columbia, South Carolina, I visited the Richland County Library. While I explored this shiny, three-story structure, I became enchanted by the basement  a childrens paradise. The walls were painted with giant pictures from Sendaks colorful Where the Wild Things Are, and long-limbed potted plants added to the jungle aura. Snuggly chairs and stuffed animals stirred up images from past days.

Nowadays, I love spending time in Lanetts Chambers County Library. Its the place to go for their special programs and, of course, an abundant collection of books.

Wherever I go, I like to explore the library. Once inside, Im home.
Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd reminds voters that the deadline for registering to vote in Floridas primary election is Monday, July 25.

I encourage all Floridians who are eligible to register to vote at RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov, Byrd said in a press release. Additionally, all registered Florida voters should check their voter registration status and ensure they are registered and that their information and signature are both up-to-date.

Individuals not registered to vote in Florida must submit a completed voter registration application by Monday, July 25 in order to participate in Floridas primary election. Also, voters who are already registered but want to update their political party affiliation must update their voter registration information by that date in order to have the change in effect for the primary election.

Floridians can check their current voter registration status, register to vote or update their existing registration through the Departments online voter registration website, RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov.

An update to a voters signature for provisional and vote-by-mail ballot verification purposes for the primary election must be submitted no later than the start of the canvassing of vote-by-mail ballots.

As a reminder, Florida is a closed-primary state, which means that only voters who are registered members of political parties may vote for their respective party candidates for an office in a primary election; however, if the winner of the primary race would face no opposition in the general election, then all voters, regardless of party affiliation, may vote in that race in the primary election.

For more information, visit the Division of Elections website at dos.myflorida.com/elections or the Jackson County Supervisor of Elections website, www.jacksoncountysoe.org.
Greenwood, Indiana, with about 65,000 residents, is representative of most small- to medium-sized cities across the United States, so when a gunman emerged from the restroom of a shopping mall there with an AR-15-style rifle and murderous intent, his subsequent action reverberated across America.

He carried a Sig Sauer model M400 5.56 caliber rifle, a semi-automatic weapon that enabled him to fire 24 rounds within two minutes, killing three people and injuring several others. He was prepared to slaughter many more, having stashed another rifle, a handgun, multiple ammo magazines, and 100 rounds of ammunition in the bathroom. However, he was gunned down himself by a 22-year-old bystander who fired 10 shots from a 9mm Glock pistol.

The bystander, who carried his weapon legally under the states constitutional-carry law that took effect July 1, has been hailed as a great American hero.

Theres no doubt his actions saved lives. However, statistics suggest the positive outcome is a fluke. In similar cases, the good guy with a gun has wound up dead himself, usually shot by officers who understandably mistake the good guy for the bad guy.

On Thanksgiving night in 2018, a bad guy with a gun opened fire in Birminghams Riverchase Galleria, injuring two bystanders, including a 12-year-old girl. Responding officers encountered 21-year-old Emantic Bradford Jr. with a firearm and shot him. Bradford had drawn his weapon when he heard gunfire in the mall  a good guy with a gun. He died from his gunshot wounds.

The Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State Universitys review of 433 active shooter attacks in the United States between 2000 and 2021 showed that of the 22 that ended with a bystander shooting an attacker, 12 were themselves shot to death by police. The other 10 good Samaritans were security guards or off-duty law enforcement officers.

The Greenwood good guy almost certainly saved lives. But if his actions are characterized as heroic, they should also be recognized as reckless, and perhaps even foolish.
Plantation Rum has announced the launch of a limited-edition bottling with all proceeds going to BudmoUA, a charity that delivers meals to those in need in Ukraine run by members of the countrys hospitality industry.

Barbados 2015 Ukraine Charity Bottling, featuring a label in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, is a limited release of 246 individually numbered bottles.

We all know people directly affected by this war, and we wanted to support BudmoUAs mission to help the Ukrainian people, said Alexandre Gabriel, master blender of Plantation Rum.

The spirit of hospitality is central to our values at Plantation Rum and, with this donation, the association will now be able to invest in vans to deliver thousands of meals, providing nourishment and comfort to thousands of Ukrainians in war-affected areas every day.

Bottles at 51.7%, the liquid was first aged for two years in Bourbon barrels in tropical climate, then spent a year in Ferrand casks in France, before being re-casked for four years in an ex-Teeling single malt whiskey cask.

Maison Ferrand, the Plantation Rum brand owner, has pledged the full sale price of 65 per bottle or a total of 16,000, will be donated to Budmo UA.

All the BudmoUA team would like to thank Maison Ferrand for the support and 16,000 donation, said Kateryna Mykhailenko, PR manager for BudmoUA.

This is the biggest donation we have received yet. We will use this money to buy two vans for the food and humanitarian aid delivery to the war-affected areas as well as the evacuation of civilians.

Budmo is our cheersing tradition: every time we raise a glass in Ukraine we say Budmo! So thank you once again and Budmo!

Barbados 2015 Ukraine Charity Bottling will be available in Europe from La Maison du Whisky online retail platform www.whisky.fr, from Wednesday 20 July 2022.
Airlines have stopped charging customers for the controversial "quick check-in" services starting Wednesday on orders from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV).

Dinh Viet Son, deputy head of the CAAV, said that while the law doesnt ban businesses from providing services to prioritize certain customers, the practice of charging extra fees for quick check-in procedures may negatively affect customer service quality, customers' interests and generate negative social sentiments.

The practice had indeed provoked public outrage that was expressed on social media, but Son cited other problems as well.

He explained that the "quick check-in" services were also problematic because the carriers already had priority policies for VIP customers. If a customer with an economy class ticket pays for the quick check-in services, he/she would enjoy the same quality service as business class customers, depriving the latter of the extra benefits they are entitled to for the money they've paid.

More importantly, the extra-fast service for some people cannot resolve congestion issues at the airports, as all customers still have to go through available security checkpoints.

Son said check-in procedures are part of an airport's commercial services provided in accordance with regulations issued by the Ministry of Transport. Any adjustment to these services needs to be reported to the CAAV before they are put into practice, he added.

Right now, the CAAV has deployed several measures to deal with flight delays and congestion issues at the airport, including the upgrade of airport infrastructure and service quality.

Certain carriers like Vietjet and Bamboo Airways have been charging passengers up to VND140,000 ($5.97) for quick check-in at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat International Airport, sparking concerns of discrimination. These services are only available at check-in booths operated by the carriers themselves, not at ordinary security checkpoints.

Some passengers have protested this practice at the airports, saying it was discriminatory and promoting inequality.
Garbage left on a sidewalk near the Sword Lake in downtown Hanoi after young people attend a countdown party on January 1, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh

People found littering on streets, sidewalks and sewage systems will be fined VND1-2 million ($43-86) under a government decision that takes effect next month.

The same fine will be imposed for those found dumping wastewater on sidewalks and streets, and disposing of plastic waste from daily activities into ponds, lakes, canals, rivers, stream, and the sea, according to a decree that will come into force on Aug. 25.

Improper disposal of trash and wastewater at public places, including shopping malls and apartment buildings, will also be subject to fines of VND500,000 to VND1 million.

The fines for urinating and defecating in unauthorized places will range between VND150,000 and VND250,000; and between VND100,000 to VND150,000 for discarding cigarette butts in public places.

The decree will also impose fines of VND2-4 million for transporting materials like sand and dirt without proper covering, causing them to spill on to the streets.

Households who fail to sort their domestic waste will be fined VND1 million each instance.

The 2020 Law on Environment Protection requires all households to sort domestic waste into three groups: recyclable, food and others starting Jan. 1 this year.

Sanitation workers have the right to refuse to collect trash has not been sorted, the law says.

However, the law has remained on paper until now. Residents, especially in major cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, continue to discard trash without sorting.
The United States is deeply concerned over the sentencing of prominent Vietnamese environmental activist Nguy Thi Khanh to two years in prison. The winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, Khanh worked for decades to promote a transition to sustainable energy sources and decrease her countrys reliance on coal.



Earlier this year, her office and her home were searched, and she was arrested on charges of tax evasion.



U.S. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price noted in a statement that Khanh is one of several environmental activists working for the benefit of Vietnam and its people who have been detained by the government. He pointed out that authorities arrested her on the same day the Hanoi Peoples Court sentenced other environmental activists, and later the same month activist Dang Dinh Bach, to prison terms on similar charges. The State Departments most recent report on human rights in Vietnam said that civil society activists alleged these arrests were linked to their criticism of the governments role in a number of environmental matters, particularly related to thermal power plant projects in the central part of the country and to...advocacy for press freedom.



Spokesperson Price called on the Government of Vietnam to release Nguy Thi Khanh, as well as other detained environmental activists. Civil society partners, he said, are a crucial part of helping countries like Vietnam meet their climate change and environmental protection goals. And as Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, A fully functioning civil society, rule of law, and individual liberties form the bedrock on which vibrant societies grow.
Barrick president and chief executive Mark Bristow said following a meeting in Pakistan on July 19 that the Reko Diq copper-gold project, a partnership between the company, the Balochistan Provincial Government and Pakistani state-owned enterprises, will create substantial value for the province through multiple generations.

A press release from Barrick said Reko Diq is one of the worlds largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits. An agreement in principle reached between the government of Pakistan, the provincial government of Balochistan and Barrick earlier this year provides for the reconstitution and restart of the project, which has been on hold since 2011. It will be operated by Barrick and owned 50% by Barrick, 25% by the Balochistan Provincial Government and 25% by Pakistani state-owned enterprises.

The first production of copper and gold is expected in 2027 or 2028.

Balochistans shareholding in Reko Diq will be fully funded by its partners and the federal government, which means that the province will reap the dividends, royalties and other benefits of its 25% ownership without having to contribute financially to the construction and operation of the mine, Bristow said.

Its equally important that Balochistan and its people should see these benefits quickly. Even before construction starts, once the legalization process has been completed, we will implement a range of social development programs, supported by an upfront commitment to the improvement of healthcare, education, vocational training, food security and the provision of potable water. Social contributions are currently estimated to amount to around $70 million over the construction period, including upfront commitments of up to $3 million in the first year following closing and up to $7 million in year two.

In addition, Reko Diq will advance royalties to the government of Balochistan of up to $5 million in the first year following closing, up to $7.5 million in the second and up to $10 million per year thereafter until commercial production starts, subject to a cumulative $50 million maximum of advance payments.

Subject to the updated feasibility study, Reko Diq is envisaged as a conventional open pit and milling operation, producing a high-quality copper-gold concentrate. It will be constructed in two phases, starting with a plant that will be able to process approximately 40 million metrics tons of ore annually, which could be doubled in five years following first production from phase one.

With its combination of large scale, low strip and good grade, Reko Diq is expected to be a multi-generational mine with a life of at least 40 years. During peak construction the project is expected to employ 7,500 people and once in production it will create 4,000 long-term jobs.

Barrick said its policy of prioritizing local employment and suppliers will have a positive impact on the local economy.
By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan Culture Minister Anar Karimov has received Serbian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Dragan Vladislavlevich, Azernews reportsc citing the Culture Ministry.

Warmly welcoming the guest, Karimov expressed his belief that the joint cultural cooperation will continue successfully in the future. He stressed the importance of exchanging experience in the library, cinematography, museum, and other humanitarian fields and organizing exhibitions.

During the meeting, the culture minister also touched upon Peace4Culture global campaign aimed at preserving cultural heritage and creating peaceful and sustainable societies and invited Serbia to join the project.

The Serbian ambassador noted that the ongoing joint projects are an indicator not only of culture but also of the identity of the two nations.

During the meeting, the importance of preserving the historical heritage and transferring culture to future generations was also discussed.

The sides discussed the possibility of implementing joint projects in the field of archaeology and ethnography.
ELKO  A Carlin woman has been sentenced to serve 30 days in jail after pleading no contest to child neglect or endangerment, a gross misdemeanor.

Sara K. Michelle Jones, 24, was given a suspended sentence of one year in jail by District Judge Mason Simons on July 1 and was placed on probation for one year.

Jones was originally charged with felony child abuse following a July 18, 2021, incident in which her son suffered injuries and was taken to Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital by Jones and her husband. He was transported to Primary Childrens Hospital in Salt Lake City where a physician later confirmed an impact injury on his head and face, an injury on his scalp from his hair being pulled, and a buckle fracture on his right forearm.

Carlin police and the Nevada Department of Child and Family Services investigated, and the parents provided possible explanations for the injuries. But when police visited the mother a week later she admitted causing them, according to a Carlin police report.
ELKO  Calmer winds helped firefighters battle the Wildcat Fire south of Jarbidge on Tuesday.

The fire size remains at 21,429 acres and it is now 85% contained. Personnel have been cut in half, with 148 currently on the scene.

There was little to no visible smoke on the fire today, U.S. Forest Service officials said. The fire showed no additional growth.

No structures have been damaged and no injuries have been reported. Crews are working hard to fix fences and repair dozer berms. Nevada Team 3 is on track to transition the fire back to the local district on Thursday morning.

There are currently 4 crews, 4 engines, 5 dozers, 2 water tenders and 3 helicopters on the scene.

No new fires were reported in the Elko District on Tuesday. No weather advisories are in effect in northeastern Nevada for Wednesday, although the National Weather Service is predicting a 20% chance of thunderstorms in the Elko area.

Highs Wednesday and through the end of the week will be in the mid-90s.
Authorities in Northern California released a frame from surveillance video showing a missing 16-year-old at a store before she disappeared over the weekend and asked Wednesday for anyone with information to contact officials, saying they are not getting any new leads. Kiely Rodni, of Truckee, was last seen Saturday near the Prosser Family Campground in Truckee at a party attended by hundreds of juveniles and young adults. But despite all those in attendance and hundreds of tips, officials have no new information. Rodnis phone has been out of service since the party, and her car, a 2013 silver Honda CRV, has not been found. Placer County Sheriff Sgt. Josh Barnhart said Wednesday that not having any new leads has been very frustrating.
Two thoughts: First, the Republican dog has finally caught the car its been chasing for years. A band of right-wing zealots in judges robes has given them the power to fulfill their reactionary daydreams. Hence, their political self-destruction looks assured. Its just a question of time. They wont be able to help themselves.

Second, things are going to get worse, possibly much worse, before they get better. How shocking would it be, for example, to learn that a deranged young man murdered 20 citizens standing in line to vote with his trusty AR-15?

It would hardly even be surprising.

Nor to hear police explain, as journalist Kevin Drum puts it, that they knew there was a guy with an AR-15 hanging around outside the mall/school/courthouse, but they were constrained from so much as approaching him. Hanging around a mall with an assault rifle is perfectly legal, after all.

Because the Supreme Court says so. Never mind that the phrase well-regulated appears in the actual text of the Second Amendment. As Ive pointed out in other contexts, nothing so excites the fundamentalist mind as contradicting Scripture. The Founding Fathers clearly intended frequent mass shooting events. Wasnt it Jefferson who wrote, The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants?

Also, schoolchildren and parade-goers, apparently.

Anyway, heres where triumphalist Republicans are coming from, as reported by Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post. Witness a tweet from Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi: Today we wake up in a state where the church doors are open and the abortion clinics doors are closed. All the Glory to God the Father! Amen!

Politicians like Reeves are the reason we have a long-standing proverb over here in Arkansas: Thank God for Mississippi. Because whatever embarrassing statistics make us look like the 49th worst state in the union  poverty, illiteracy, child mortality, etc.  Mississippi will normally be marginally worse.

During the 50 years Ive lived here, far-right Bible-beaters have always made most of the noise during Arkansas political campaigns  and lost most of the elections. (Remember, Arkansas elected Bill Clinton governor five times; Democrat Mike Beebe was elected as recently as 2010.) People act as if red states are a fixed and permanent thing. Not so.

But I digress. My point is that most Americans have no ambition to live in a country where the religious right holds the high cards. In my view, the GOP has already overplayed its hand.

I thought President Biden got it right last week when, after some crawfishing around, he denounced the Supreme Courts Dobbs decision as an exercise in raw political power. He criticized Justice Alitos written opinion for playing fast and loose with the facts, adding that even 150 years ago, the common law ... did not criminalize abortion early in pregnancy.

Quite right. Biden added that the Dobbs decision practically dares the women of America to go to the ballot box and restore the very rights theyve just taken away.

Ah, but will they? Rubin cites a poll from the Public Religion Research Institute that makes it seem likely. Altogether, 65% of Americans think abortion should be legal almost all the time. Granted, the Republican base of white, evangelical Protestants disagrees.

By contrast, the poll reports, 64% of white Catholics, 69% of white mainline (nonevangelical) Protestants, 75% of Black Protestants, 75% of Hispanic Catholics, 82% of non-Christian religious Americans, and 84% of religiously unaffiliated Americans support abortion legality in most or all cases.

Several historians have cited the nations experience of Prohibition during the 1920s as an example of what can happen when moralistic zealots try to regulate peoples private behavior. Eventually, the public will rebel. To enforce the kind of national abortion ban the keener Republican moralists are proposing, writes Michael Kazin, a Georgetown University historian, would require a very different citizenry from the one that inhabits 21st-century America.

It wouldnt take a whole lot of stories about teenagers forced to bear children that resulted from rape and ... health workers jailed for helping desperate poor women end their pregnancies, Kazin thinks, to make the anti-abortion movement seem more sadistic than virtuous.

True enough. But corruption-riddled and widely ignored as it was, legal prohibition lasted more than a decade, from 1920 to 1933. Some of us wonder if we have that long before the authoritarians have taken control.

Republicans wielding the Senate filibuster pretty much make it impossible, short term, to pass meaningful legislation restoring womens reproductive autonomy. So Democrats plan to make Republican lawmakers vote on smaller bills  such as one preventing states from enforcing brazenly un-American laws that forbid women from traveling out of state to end unwanted pregnancies. Put GOP legislators on the record and make them defend their votes come November.

Will it work? Short term, doubtful.

Longer term? Well, it had better.
This is the largest MICE delegation to the southern hub, welcomed under preferential policies including a welcome at the airport and a reception ceremony at the hotel where the delegation stayed.



The delegation attended a Gala Dinner. (Photo: sggp.org.vn)

The HCM City Department of Tourism said, after the delegation stayed and attended the conference, there will be more experience activities such as shopping in the city center, watching Saigon on Indochina Queen yacht, and enjoying food.

Sharing with the press, the representative of the MICE delegation said that HCM City in particular, and Vietnam in general, is an attractive destination with hospitable people and Vietnam is also a country with a fast-growing economy in the region. Therefore, the delegation chose the country to stay and visit.

Currently, the HCM City tourism industry is offering many active support policies to welcome MICE delegations such as organizing receptions at the airport, giving souvenirs, and reducing ticket prices at some attractions.

The delegation, introduced by the Vietnamese Embassy in India in collaboration with the Asian Destination Management Joint Stock Company, chose Ho Chi Minh City as the ideal destination for the itinerary./.
NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (R) welcomes Lao Vice President Bounthong Chitmany. (Photo: VNA)

Bounthong Chitmany is on an official visit to Vietnam to attend the meeting marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties and 45 years of the signing of the Vietnam-Laos Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.

He congratulated Hue on receiving the National Gold Order  the highest distinction of Laos  in recognition of his great contributions to consolidating and nurturing the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries' Parties, States and people.

He affirmed that Lao Party and State leaders pay special attention to the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties and 45 years of the signing of the Treaty as well as activities within the framework of the Vietnam - Laos, Laos - Vietnam Friendship and Solidarity Year 2022, considering this an important occasion to disseminate and educate Lao officials, Party members and people, especially the young generation, about the two countries special relations so that they can realise their responsibility for preserving, consolidating and developing the bilateral ties.

Expressing his honour to receive such a noble award of the Lao Party and State, NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue affirmed that he will do his utmost to, together with the two countries leaders, maintain and continuously foster the special Vietnam-Laos relations

The two leaders affirmed that the Vietnam-Laos relationship, founded by President Ho Chi Minh and Lao Presidents Kaysone Phomvihane and Souphanouvong, and nurtured by generations of leaders and people of the two countries, is a valuable asset, an objective rule and a factor of vital significance to ensure the success of the revolution in each country.

Both sides have maintained delegation exchanges and high-level contacts, regularly organised bilateral cooperation mechanisms, and intensified cooperation in security, defence, trade, investment, transport connectivity, education and training, and people-to-people exchange.

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue expressed his delight at basic results achieved by Laos in pandemic control, socio-economic recovery, macro foundation strengthening, and control of drug-related problems. He expressed his belief that with the sound leadership of the LPRP, the self-reliance and resilience of the Lao Party, State and people, and the support of international friends, Laos will soon overcome challenges to successfully implement the Resolution of the 11th National Party Congress and the 9th five-year Socio-Economic Development Plan.

Host and guest exchanged views on several cooperation fields, and agreed to maintain close coordination and ask authorized agencies to address difficulties and barriers facing businesses so as to facilitate the implementation of the two countries key cooperation projects.

On the same day, the Lao Vice President attended the opening ceremony of an exhibition featuring the Laos-Vietnam friendship.

With 100 photos and documents brought to Vietnam by the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, the exhibition introduces to the Vietnamese public the culture, country, people and tourism potential of Laos, as well as the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two nations.

The exhibition will remain open to visitors until the end of July 21 at Vietnam Art and Cultural Exhibition Centre, No. 2 Hoa Lu, Hanoi./.
At the second political consultation between Vietnam and Azerbaijan (Photo: baoquocte.vn)

FM Bui Thanh Son affirmed that Vietnam wants to continue developing the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Azerbaijan.

He suggested the two Foreign Ministries coordinate to increase the exchange of delegations and keep working closely together at international and regional organisations.

Deputy FM Elnur Mammadov congratulated Vietnam on its achievements in socio-economic development and international integration as well as in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He stressed that Azerbaijan wishes to promote cooperation with Vietnam in economy-trade, investment, education-training, culture-tourism, transport, oil and gas, and between their localities.

The same day, Deputy FM Ha Kim Ngoc and his Azerbaijan counterpart co-chaired the second political consultation between the two Foreign Ministries, during which they discussed in depth bilateral ties and some international and regional issues of common concern.

The Vietnamese official noted that the economic partnership between the two countries remains modest, which does not match their potential and traditional friendship.

He suggested that the two sides take measures to promote ties and connectivity between their businesses and enhance the role of the Vietnam-Azerbaijan inter-governmental committee on economy, trade, science and technology cooperation.

The Azerbaijan official proposed that the two sides maintain the political consultation mechanism, and expand cooperation in such potential fields as oil and gas, and logistics.

The two sides agreed to continue coordinating in multi-lateral forums, contributing to peace, stability and the rule of law in the world.

Later, the two Deputy FMs attended and spoke at a workshop on the 30-year diplomatic relationship between Vietnam and Azerbaijan. They witnessed the signing of a cooperative agreement between the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam and the ADA University of Azerbaijan./.
This is the largest MICE delegation to the southern hub, welcomed under preferential policies including a welcome at the airport and a reception ceremony at the hotel where the delegation stayed.

The HCM City Department of Tourism said, after the delegation stayed and attended the conference, there will be more experience activities such as shopping in the city center, watching Saigon on Indochina Queen yacht, and enjoying food.



The representative of the HCM Department of Tourism presented gifts to the leader of the MICE delegation. (Photo: sggp.org.vn)

Sharing with the press, the representative of the MICE delegation said that HCM City in particular, and Vietnam in general, is an attractive destination with hospitable people and Vietnam is also a country with a fast-growing economy in the region. Therefore, the delegation chose the country to stay and visit.

Currently, the HCM City tourism industry is offering many active support policies to welcome MICE delegations such as organizing receptions at the airport, giving souvenirs, and reducing ticket prices at some attractions.

The delegation, introduced by the Vietnamese Embassy in India in collaboration with the Asian Destination Management Joint Stock Company, chose Ho Chi Minh City as the ideal destination for the itinerary./.


Electronics and parts are among Vietnams major exports to India. (Photo: cafeF)

The programme is intended to create an opportunity for Vietnamese and Indian businesses to meet and cooperate in areas such as food processing, consumer goods, cosmetics, handicrafts, home furniture, and agricultural products.

On this occasion, a memorandum of understanding between the Indian Importers of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (IICCI) and the Association of Foreign Investment Enterprises (VAFIE) was signed.

Through the event, the Vietnamese Embassy in India and the ministry hope to provide more business and investment opportunities to enterprises from both sides.

According to data from the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, trade turnover between the two nations reached 14.13 billion USD in the fiscal year 2021-2022 (April 2021-March 2022), creating a solid premise for achieving the 15 billion USD target set by leaders of the two countries./.
By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

President of the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation Gunay Afandiyeva has met with the founder of Italy's Sandro Teti Publishing House Sandro Teti to discuss further expansion of bilateral ties, Azernews reports citing the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation.

The books "Anthology of poetry by women in Azerbaijan" and "Nasimi Poetry" published by the organization in cooperation with the publishing house were noted as an important step in the promotion of Turkic values in Italy and throughout Europe.

At the meeting, the activities of the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation were highly appreciated.

The sides emphasized that the work carried out by the organization to promote the culture and history of the Turkic peoples is of great interest both in the countries of the Turkic world and in Europe.

They exchanged views on the continuation of the publication of a series of books aimed at popularizing the rich heritage of great personalities of the Turkic world.

Initiated in 2012, the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation focuses on the preservation of the Turkic heritage in member countries as well as conducting projects in collaboration with partners in third countries.

The foundation provides assistance in the protection, study, and promotion of Turkic culture and heritage through supporting and funding various activities, projects, and programs. It carries out its activities in cooperation with TURKSOY and the Turkic Academy.
The United States has established the $100 million Agriculture Resilience Initiative (AGRI) to help the Ukrainian agricultural sector amid the worsening of the global food crisis exacerbated by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The initiative takes place with the participation of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It will be aimed at ensuring the continuous production of agricultural products in Ukraine until 2023 and solving urgent issues with its export, according to the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food.

"Over the past four and a half months, the maximum efforts of the president of Ukraine, the government and the team of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy were aimed at increasing Ukraine's export opportunities, blocked as a result of the war and the inaccessibility of seaports, as well as financially supporting our farmers so that they can continue to work," Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solsky said.

"The initiative will increase Ukrainian farmers access to critical agricultural inputs including seeds, fertilizer, equipment, and pesticides, enhance Ukrainian infrastructure capacity and capability to efficiently export agricultural goods, increase farmers access to financing, and expand the capacity of Ukrainian businesses to dry and temporarily store, and process agricultural commodities," USAID said.

According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, USAID will work with farmers' associations to adapt granaries to their individual needs, which will allow them to apply effective technologies where necessary.

"USAID seeks to raise an additional $150 million for the initiative from fellow donors and the private sector with an overall target of $250 million. AGRI-Ukraine builds on a range of support USAID is providing to Ukraines agriculture sector in the wake of Russias full scale invasion, including providing over 8,000 Ukrainian farmers with seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and more, reaching approximately 14% of the countrys registered agriculture enterprises, to help them deliver this years harvest despite the devastation caused by Russias invasion," USAID added.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stressed the importance of creating a parliamentary commission for the control of foreign weapons.

"It is very important that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine today implemented the initiative of the head of the Presidents Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak to create a special commission to control the use of weapons provided by our partners," he said in a video message on Tuesday evening.

"The commission included representatives of all factions and groups of the parliament, I want to emphasize that there was not a single ground for any claims to our state in this regard. Our partners are absolutely informed about how we use the weapons provided. But in order to remove any manipulations of Russian propagandists and those who help them in Ukraine or somewhere else there, such an additional parliamentary control tool will work," Zelensky said.
As a result of the morning shelling of Saltovsky district of Kharkiv by the Russian occupation forces, at least three civilians were killed, one wounded, said head of the Regional Military Administration Oleh Synehubov.

"Unfortunately, as a result of the morning shelling by the occupiers of Saltovsky district of Kharkiv, three people were killed, including a 13-year-old boy, a man and a woman. A 72-year-old woman was injured. The data of the regional Center for Emergency Medical Care is being updated," Synehubov wrote on his Telegram channel.
Hungarians are ready to pass through their territory all the assistance provided by other countries to Ukraine, including military, Deputy Minister of Foreign Economy and Foreign Affairs of Hungary Levente Magyar said during a meeting with mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovy, Lviv City Council reports.

"We are amazed by the events that are happening here, we really sympathize with you. Over the past 200 years, we have fought with Russia three times. These wars were of a life and death struggle. Unlike many Western partners, we felt for ourselves that this is such a confrontation with this huge eastern state. At the same time, Hungary itself will not supply its weapons  this is our strategic position. However, third countries can use our territory, the press service of Lviv City Council quoted Magyar as saying on Tuesday.

In addition, Hungary is ready to accept Ukrainian children in its resort facilities and camps. The Hungarian delegation also offered to help in the treatment of civilians and military in their medical institutions, and also assured of their readiness to provide 1,000 scholarships for Ukrainians at their universities.

Earlier it was reported that Hungary objects to the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine in order not to endanger the Russian shelling of Hungarians living in Zakarpattia.
Washington plans to announce a new package of military assistance to Kyiv in the near future, which, in particular, will include an additional batch of multiple rocket launchers (MLRS) HIMARS, representative of the U.S. National Security Council John Kirby said.

He said during a briefing at the White House that later this week, the U.S. administration would announce a new package of military assistance to Ukraine, which would be the sixteenth since the president took office.

Kirby clarified that the package would include an additional batch of HIMARS, an additional batch of shells for multiple rocket launchers and artillery ammunition.
Former Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova may be appointed to a diplomatic post, said head of the Servant of the People faction David Arakhamia.

"We expect in a few days, perhaps in a week, her [ex-Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktovas] new appointment on the diplomatic front," Arakhamia said on the National Telethon on Tuesday.

At the same time, MP from the European Solidarity faction Oleksiy Honcharenko said that Venediktova could become the ambassador of Ukraine to Switzerland.

"I confirm that Venediktova is being considered as a candidate for the role of Ambassador of Ukraine to Switzerland," Honcharenko wrote on Telegram on Tuesday.
Foreign Ministers of Austria and the Czech Republic, Alexander Schallenberg and Jan Lipavsky, arrived in Kyiv on a working visit.

"Glad to finally be back in Ukraine with my dear colleague Jan Lipavsky. Devastating to see what Russias brutal war of aggression has been doing to this beautiful country and its people. We will continue to stand with Ukraine," Schallenberg said on Twitter Wednesday.
Estonia allows revoking citizenship obtained by naturalization, incl for participation in war against Ukraine on Russian side

Estonia has adopted a law allowing the revocation of citizenship from persons who have received it through naturalization.

"The government is granted the right by its decision to revoke citizenship of a person who has obtained Estonian citizenship by naturalization, in case of his admission to the state or military service of a foreign state or military organization, if such service is associated with a threat to public order or national security," reads the explanation to the amendments to the citizenship law adopted by parliament on Tuesday.

Thus, it is allowed to deprive of citizenship of persons taking part in military aggression against Ukraine on the side of Russia.

At the same time, persons whose military service does not threaten the security of Estonia cannot be deprived of their citizenship. For example, those who went to fight on the side of Ukraine to protect its territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.

The Estonian citizenship obtained by naturalization can also be revoked in the case of a crime against humanity.

At the same time, the State does not recommend Estonian citizens to fight for any foreign state, as it cannot guarantee the protection of Estonian citizens in the zone of military conflicts.

Fifty-two members of Parliament voted for the adoption of amendments to the law, 17 members were against. There are 101 deputies in the parliament in total.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Brazilian television channel Globo that he does not support the neutral position of his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro in the war of Russia against Ukraine, adding that Ukraine needs support.

"Yesterday I had a conversation with the president of Brazil. [] He told me that he supports Ukraine, its sovereignty and territorial integrity. I really want to believe that it will be so. He told me that Brazil is pained at everything that is going on in Ukraine, however, his position is neutral," the head of state said in the interview, which has been made public on Wednesday.

Zelensky stressed that he does not support such position of the Brazilian leader and recalled as an example the neutrality of a range of European countries during World War II, which ended up with the takeover of the entire Europe by Hitler's army.

"I do not think that one should be neutral during a war in the world. World War II: the neutrality gave the Nazi an opportunity to swallow a half of Europe and later to take over the whole Europe. One must not stay somewhere in the middle and say  I am ready to be a mediator. Where? In the war? Between whom? Russia is fighting against the Ukrainian people. They are in our territory. Eight years ago they occupied a part of our territory. There were many people who wanted to be mediators or to be neutral. This allowed Russia in 2014 to start the second wave of seizure of the Ukrainian territory. That's what neutrality is," he said.

During the conversation Zelensky told Bolsonaro that he counts on his support.

"We want support from Brazil. If tomorrow, heaven forbid, someone attacks you, we will not be neutral for sure. No matter what kind of relations history we have with Brazil  if someone violates your sovereignty or, heaven forbid, kills your people, how can I say that I am neutral? I have no right to do so. The neutrality gives [Russian President Vladimir] Putin a chance to think that he is not alone in this world. That's all we want," Zelensky said.
The ministers of foreign affairs of Austria and the Czech Republic, Alexander Schallenberg and Jan Lipavsky, have visited Irpin, city mayor Oleksandr Markushyn has said.

"We are especially honored to welcome such guests, since Irpin receives a noticeable assistance from Austria and the Czech Republic. Thousands of Irpin residents have found safe shelter in these countries. In addition, Austria has started providing us with its support for the recovery of the city," he said on the Telegram channel.

On behalf of the entire community, the mayor thanked both ministers for their clear position and comprehensive support for Ukraine and its people.
By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

The Azerbaijani Culture Ministry has launched a new project ArtCamp Shusha with the support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Azernews reports, citing the Culture Ministry.

The art camp brought together talented artists from Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Italy, Germany, Romania, and Denmark, who became familiar with Shusha's historical monuments and the restoration works carried out in the city.

Founded by Panakhali Khan in 1752, the city is replete with historical marvels exuding an epitome of the country's history. Shusha, known as the pearl of Karabakh, is one of the symbols of Azerbaijan's history and culture. The ancient monuments in Shusha offer an insight into the city's history and culture.

Azerbaijan's cultural capital is home to some fascinating sights like Shusha Castle, Bulbul's House-Museum, Yukhari Govhar Agha Mosque, Ashaghi Govhar Agha Mosque, etc.

Considering its historical and cultural significance, the city of Shusha has been declared the Cultural Capital of the Turkic World 2023.

The artists who returned to Baku have already started creating art works inspired by a trip to Shusha.

Furthermore, the Culture Ministry will hold an exhibition of artists' art works as part of the project.
New US military aid package to Ukraine to include four more HIMARS MLRS  Austin

A new package of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, which will be announced later this week, will include four more HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has said.

"It will include four more HIMARS, advanced rocket systems, which the Ukrainians have been using so effectively and which have made such a difference on the battlefield," Austin said during opening remarks ahead of the fourth meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group held virtually Wednesday.

The minister said that since the meeting in Brussels, the United States has pledged more than $2.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine.

Austin said the assistance includes a total of 12 reactive volley fire systems HIMARS to further enhance Ukrainian long-range firepower. The United States also pledged to transfer two NASAMS air defense systems to help Ukraine protect its forces and civilians from Russian missile attacks. The United States is also committing to send more HIMARS munitions, precision-guided artillery munitions and tactical vehicles, and other urgently needed support, according to the official.

He said the United States will continue to provide historic levels of security assistance to help Ukraine defend itself.
Russian occupiers are rapidly preparing a grain terminal in the port of Mariupol to receive/transship grain stolen from Ukraine, Petro Andriuschenko, adviser to the mayor of the occupied city, wrote on the Telegram channel on Wednesday.

In addition, the Russian-occupied city is experiencing problems with water supply.

"Problems with the delivery of drinking water to the residents of Livoberezhny district began again. Daily queues of four to five hours, the number of water tanks was reduced by three times. The tanks were taken to Gurova Park to celebrate Metallurgist's Day 'on the bones,' and as a result, they left them there. Residents of remote places of Kalmiusky district (Volentrivka) are left without water supply in any form," he wrote on his channel.

According to Andriuschenko, the occupiers are exhuming the bodies of dead Mariupol residents for a fee.

"The exhumation has been completely stopped. Now, without embarrassment, the occupiers say directly that the exhumation is only for money. All the solution to the problems of Mariupol residents is turned into a business, and improvised cemeteries are growing," he summed up in the message.

As reported, before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, the terminal of UkrTransAgro LLC, which is part of Mariupol Investment Group (MIG, UTA Group), worked in the Mariupol seaport. It stopped work immediately after the outbreak of war in Ukraine on February 24.

In the 2020/2021 marketing year (MY, July-June), the UkrTransAgro terminal handled 430,000 tonnes of grain and oilseeds, while in 2019/2020 MY it was 39% more - 711,000 tonnes.
Zelensky, European Council head discuss situation at frontline, introduction of seventh package of sanctions against Russia, financial needs of Ukraine

During a telephone conversation with President of the European Council Charles Michel, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the situation at the frontline, the introduction of the seventh package of sanctions against Russia and Ukraine's financial needs to maintain macroeconomic stability.

According to the presidential press service, Zelensky, in a conversation with the head of the European Council, noted the need for further significant strengthening of sanctions pressure on the aggressor country.

The interlocutors also discussed the financial needs of Ukraine to maintain macroeconomic stability. The president thanked the EU's decision to allocate EUR 1 billion as part of a new macro-financial assistance program. At the same time, he expressed his expectations for the early implementation of this program in full, which, according to the decision of the European Council, is EUR 9 billion.

The leaders discussed the situation at the frontline and the efforts made by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to counter the aggressor and to liberate the territories. The head of the European Council condemned regular Russian missile attacks on peaceful Ukrainian cities.

At the same time, Zelensky said that in order to win, Ukraine needs more modern heavy weapons. In this context, he thanked for the approval by the Member States of the decision to allocate the fifth financial assistance package in the amount of EUR 500 million under the European Peace Facility to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In turn, Michel positively assessed the approval by the competition commission of the winner for the position of head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the intensification of the selection process for the head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. He believes that the other recommendations will be implemented at the same rapid pace.

The parties also agreed on the need to maintain a proper political dialogue and discussed holding the next 24th Ukraine-EU Summit in 2022.
On Wednesday, at about 13:00, Russian occupying troops shelled wheat fields in Zolochiv community of Kharkiv region, a fire started.

"As a result of the shelling, two fields caught fire at once. The total area of the two fires was 60 hectares," the press service of the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service in Kharkiv region reports.

Despite the threat of repeated enemy shelling, the rescuers of the State Emergency Service's 52nd unit left to put out the fire. Together with them, the fire was extinguished by farmers with 4 units of agricultural equipment. By joint efforts, the last wheat burning center was eliminated at 14:55.

Thanks to the work of rescuers and farmers, about 66 hectares of wheat were saved.

According to the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service in Kharkiv region, at the moment, more than 130 hectares of grain have been destroyed in the region as a result of enemy shelling.
Contact Group in Ramstein format to continue to find innovative ways to support AFU long-term  US Secretary of Defense

The Ukrainian Defense Contact Group will continue to find innovative ways to provide long-term support to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has said.

"And so as this fight rages on, the Contact Group will keep finding innovative ways to sustain our long-term support for the brave men and women of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And we will tailor our assistance to ensure that Ukraine has the technology, the ammunition, and the sheer firepower to defend itself," Austin said as he opened the fourth meeting of Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Wednesday.

According to him, this is a critical phase of the conflict.

"And so our collective support for Ukraine is vital  and urgent. Russia thinks that it can outlast Ukraine  and outlast us. But thats just the latest in Russias string of miscalculations. We stand united in our support. We stand firm in our commitment. And we will rise to this occasion," Austin said.

The minister said more than 30 countries have sent lethal military aid to Ukraine.

He drew attention to the fact that the German MLRS will soon be on the battlefield in Ukraine.

"The U.K.'s M270 MLRS systems are now in the fight, and Germany's systems will soon be on the battlefield as well," Austin said.

The head of the Defense Ministry said that Poland also recently transferred to Ukraine three divisions of 155-mm self-propelled howitzers, which are already making their contribution to the line of the fort.

He also thanked Norway for close cooperation with the United States in the transfer of NASAMS air defense systems to Ukraine.
The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine has called on China to not politicize Russia's aggression against Ukraine and instead use its influence on Moscow in order to make it stop the war, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleh Nikolenko has said.

"We hope that China, as a responsible member of the international community that consistently upholds the principles of peace and respect for international law, will not politicize the issues of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. We expect that Beijing instead will use its influence on Moscow in order to make it stop the war and return to respect for the UN Charter and international law, the fundamental principles of which are non-use of force and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of foreign states," Nikolenko told an Interfax-Ukraine reporter on Wednesday.

He said that it is only Russia who is responsible for the armed aggression against Ukraine, since in 2014 it occupied Crimea and a part of Donbas and in February 2022 it started the unprovoked full-scale war against Ukraine.

"It is important to face the truth  the international community had to impose sanctions on Russia in order to deprive it of opportunities for further waging of the war and bring it to liability for the crimes it has committed," the official said.

Earlier, Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of China Zhao Lijian said that "as the one who started the Ukraine crisis and the biggest factor fueling it, the U.S, needs to deeply reflect on its erroneous actions of exerting extreme pressure and fanning the flame on the Ukraine issue and stop playing up bloc confrontation and creating a new Cold War by taking advantage of the situation."
Lithuania will provide Ukraine with additional defense assistance soon  M113 and M577 armored vehicles and ammunition necessary for training of military reserve, the Defense Ministry of Lithuania has said on Wednesday.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said that M113 vehicles are becoming an important part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and noted Lithuania's significant contribution to this.

During a meeting of the NATO group for coordination of aid to Ukraine, Anusauskas said that Kyiv has sent a request for training of the military police and demining specialists, adding that the Lithuanian army will contribute to training of the Ukrainian military personnel in the United Kingdom by sending its instructors there.

Lithuania has provided Ukraine with Stinger air defense systems, anti-tank weapons, body armor and helmets, 120mm mortars, guns, ammunition, thermal imagers, drones, antidrones, surveillance radars, M113 armored vehicles, trucks, and off-road vehicles.

In general, Lithuania's defense assistance to Ukraine is estimated at EUR 123 million.

The Lithuanian army also considers a possibility of sending up to ten instructors to the UK where 10,000 Ukrainian servicemen will be passing a three-week basic military training during the next three months.

The meeting of the NATO group for coordination of aid to Ukraine was held at the initiative of the United States. NATO member states from all over the world were invited to it.
Ambassador Korniychuk is concerned about the impact of the Russian invasion on Ukrainian science and education

The impact of the full-scale Russian invasion on education and science in Ukraine was the subject of a meeting between the Ambassador of Ukraine to Israel Yevhen Korniychuk and the president of the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot) Prof.Alon Chen. This is reported on the Facebook page of the Embassy of Ukraine to the State of Israel.

There was a fruitful meeting. The parties expressed deep concerns about the current impact of the Russian invasion in Ukraine on education and science in our country, - the message reads.

The ambassador also thanked the interlocutor for the support of Ukrainian students who were able to continue their scientific research at the Weizmann Institute.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. Wildfire broke out in the Azerbaijan's liberated territories, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan Republic told Trend.

Wildfires were extinguished in Hadrut village of Khojavand region due to prompt measures taken by the the fire departments of Ministry of Emergency Situations.

According to ministry, dry grass, bushes and fruit trees on an area of five hectares, also 10 garages caught fire.

Wildfires in open areas were extinguished in a short time, in Muradkhanli village of Gubadli region, in Binederesi village of Khojavand region, and in Aybasanli village of Fuzuli region.

The adjacent territories and lines of communications were protected from fire.

Measures are also being taken to fight the fire in the area with difficult terrain near Gunashli village of Khojavand region.

Helicopter of the Aviation Detachment of the Ministry of Emergency Situations has been involved in firefighting.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. The Armenian armed forces have begun work on creating combat positions in the direction of Azerbaijans Shushakand village, Khojaly district, Trend reports.

On July 19, the Armenian armed forces began to carry out engineering and construction work. In response to this illegal activity, units of the Azerbaijani army opened warning fire. The command of the contingent of Russian peacekeepers was also informed about this.

A group of peacekeepers who arrived on the scene sometime later, instead of stopping this illegal activity of the Armenian armed forces, ensured their safety and, moreover, created conditions for the continuation of work.

The question arises: where is the command of the Russian peacekeepers looking?
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received Minister of Family and Social Services of the Republic of Turkiye Derya Yanik, Azernews reports.

The president recalled with pleasure the telephone conversation with the president of Turkiye on 15 July, the Day of Democracy and National Unity. Noting that 15 July was a historic day, President Ilham Aliyev reiterated that the Turkish people had come out of this difficult test with dignity thanks to the efforts and leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. President Ilham Aliyev also emphasized that Turkiye was currently on the path to development and there was stability in the country, which makes the people of Azerbaijan very happy.

Expressing her gratitude for the kind words, Minister Yanik said she was pleased to be visiting Azerbaijan and once again emphasized that she was very happy about the Karabakh Victory won thanks to the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev.

The president said that the unity and friendship between Azerbaijan and Turkiye had stood the test of time with dignity. Referring to the visit of a delegation headed by Derya Yanik to Shusha, President Ilham Aliyev noted that bilateral relations had reached the highest peak after the signing of the Shusha Declaration. The president of Azerbaijan added that the signing of this Declaration in the sacred city of Shusha was of particular importance.

Ilham Aliyev also noted with pleasure that he and the President of Turkiye would participate in the opening of the Zangilan Airport.

To recap, the Azerbaijani president hailed the successful development of friendly and fraternal relations in all spheres and expressed confidence that Derya Yanik's visit would contribute to the expansion of cooperation between the two countries relevant institutions.




BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. A convoy of Russian peacekeepers [which are temporarily stationed in Azerbaijans Karabakh region following the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020 signed between Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders to end the second Karabakh war], passing through Azerbaijans Aghdam along the Asgaran-Aghdara route, which tried to smuggle at least five Kalashnikov guns, was detained by Azerbaijani soldiers, Trend reports.

The convoy consisting of one armored personnel carrier 82A and three Ural trucks was stopped and sent back.

Ammunition was found in the cargo compartment of one of the vehicles at 17:15 (GMT+4) on July 19 at the checkpoint of the Azerbaijani army.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. A delegation led by Minister of Family and Social Services of the Republic of Turkiye Derya Yanik, paying a visit to Azerbaijan, got acquainted with the activities of the DOST Center (Agency for Sustainable and Operational Social Security), the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Azerbaijan told Trend.

The guests familiarized themselves with the No.1 DOST Center and its service process.

Moreover, DOST centers provide citizens with 154 types of services in labor, employment, social security, disability, and other fields.

DOST centers' services have been used by 313,000 people within six months, and by 500,000 people over the entire period of their activity.

The delegation has been informed of DOST centers' soonest coverage of entire Azerbaijan.

Afterwards, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Azerbaijani Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population and Turkish Ministry of Family and Social Services.

The MoU is aimed at developing social welfare projects for persons with disabilities, the elderly, children, women, war veterans, and families of martyrs, as well as exchanging knowledge, experience, and improving services.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. Phone talks between Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov and his Latvian colleague Edgars Rinkevicstook took place on July 20, the Azerbaijani ministry told Trend.

The ministers addressed issues of mutual interest regarding cooperation between the two countries.

The sides also exchanged views on relevant partnership issues between Azerbaijan and the EU.

The ministers discussed the current regional situation as well.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has reasonably criticized the anti-Azerbaijani approach of some members of the European Parliament, while receiving a delegation led by the chair of the European Parliaments Committee on Foreign Affairs, political analyst Jeyhun Ahmadli told Trend.

The rhetoric of the European Parliament does not correspond to the EU's strategic direction.

He outlined the high-level relations between Azerbaijan and the EU.

"The EU stands as a strategic partner of Azerbaijan both in economic and political issues. Both sides are making considerable efforts to further deepen bilateral ties. However, the European Parliament, which is one of the EU institutions, does not support the mentioned progressive process, but is trying to sabotage it. Some MEPs influenced by the Armenian lobby are trying to achieve the EU-wide recognition of slanderous and biased anti-Azerbaijani resolutions.The relevant process has been going on for years," Ahmadli said.

Among these resolutions was a biased document referring to the alleged destruction of Armenian cultural heritage by Azerbaijan after the second Karabakh war.

"President Ilham Aliyev stressed that since the war ended, there have been numerous visits by representatives of different embassies, politicians, parliament speakers of some European countries, and journalists to Azerbaijan's liberated territories. All of them witnessed the complete destruction of Azerbaijan's cultural heritage. Not the sole foreigner did see the destruction of any Armenian cultural heritage," he noted.

According to him, the critical statements made by President Ilham Aliyev on the European Parliament's pro-Armenian activities reflect the opinion of the entire Azerbaijani people.

"Because this institution actually tries to hide the occupation policy of Armenia. In many cases, the European Parliament is more aggressive towards Azerbaijan than the Armenian parliament," Ahmadli stated.

As he noted, the relevant rhetoric is extremely harmful and incompatible with the strategic line defined by the EU. Azerbaijan wants to deepen its relations with Europe, and MEPs acting under the influence of the Armenian lobby should know that it is impossible to isolate Europe from Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan from Europe.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. Phone talks between Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov and his Russian colleague Sergey Lavrov took place on July 20, the Azerbaijani ministry told Trend.

The ministers discussed relevant issues on the bilateral agenda and the current regional situation. They emphasized the importance of implementing the trilateral statements adopted by the Azerbaijani, Russian, and Armenian leaders.

Furthermore, the sides exchanged views on transport and transit issues in the South Caucasus, particularly noted the essence of expanding the North-South transport corridor's potential passing through Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran.

The sides also discussed other issues of mutual interest.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. The Azerbaijani veteran of the 2020 Second Karabakh War Faig Yusifov noted constant state care provided to him after the war, Trend reports citing the veteran.

Yusifov reminded that on September 27, 2020, he took part in the battles to suppress the provocations of the Armenian troops.

"I started serving as an ensign in the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan in 2014. On September 27, 2020, I took part in the battles. I participated in the liberation of the Fuzuli, Jabrayil and Gubadli districts, he said. During the fighting in the Gubadli district, I was seriously wounded and hospitalized. Thanks to the prompt actions of doctors, my life was saved. After the hospital, I was also under constant medical supervision.

"I was awarded the medals "For the liberation of Gubadli", "For the liberation of Jabrayil", "For Motherland" and "Participant of 2020 Second Karabakh War". Currently, I receive benefits as a war invalid. After the war, I received insurance without any delay, and the operation and treatment expenses were covered by the state. Moreover, in order to improve my living conditions, I was given a two-room apartment in a newly built house, the veteran also noted.

Currently, doctors from state medical institutions monitor my health, and periodically I receive free treatment. I always feel the support of the state. I express my deep gratitude to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Ilham Aliyev for the great care shown to me, added Yusifov.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev will be provided with proposals for further social reforms in accordance with the instructions given at a meeting on the results of the first half of 2022, the country's Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Sahil Babayev told reporters, Trend reports.

The minister noted a significant increase in social payment volume over recent years.

Meanwhile, three packages of social reforms, covering four million citizens, have been implemented in Azerbaijan over the past three and a half years. As many as six billion manat ($3.5 billion), or more than 20 percent of the state budget, has been allocated for that purpose, Babayev stated.

According to him, the minimum salary in Azerbaijan increased by 2.3 times, while the salary fund  by 2.2 times. An additional eight billion manat ($4.7 billion) was allocated to the salary fund during this period.

The minister also outlined the growth of social benefits and pensions by 3.5 times, whereas the minimum pension rose by 2.2 times, and the average monthly pension  by 75 percent.

"Funds allocated annually for benefits and pensions have grown from 400 million ($235.5 million) to 1 billion manat ($588.8 million) compared to 2018, reaching 1.4 billion manat ($824.3 million)," Babayev said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. The Audiovisual Council of Azerbaijan held a regular meeting on July 20, the council told Trend.

The first issue on the meeting's agenda was the expansion of radio broadcasting areas of Azerbaijan Radio, Public Radio, and Azad (Free) Azerbaijan Radio stations in Eastern Zangazur and Karabakh.

Thus, based on the appeals received from Azerbaijan Television and Radio Broadcasting CJSC, Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, Azad Azerbaijan TV and Radio company, the Council held discussions on allocating frequencies for FM broadcasting from various radio and TV stations located in the region.

Following discussions, the Audiovisual Council decided to transfer the 100.5 MHz radio frequency of Zangilan's Minjivan automatic radio and TV station, the 103.5 MHz frequency of Gubadli's Khanlig automatic radio and TV station, and the 105.0 MHz frequency of Kalbajar automatic radio and TV station to Azerbaijan Television and Radio Broadcasting CJSC.

Meanwhile, the 99.5 MHz radio frequency in liberated Zangilan and 101.5 MHz in the Gubadli district have been transferred to the Public TV and Radio Broadcasting Company, whereas the 92.1 MHz frequency of Khojavand's Shaheri automatic radio and TV station  to the Azad Azerbaijan TV and Radio company.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. The potential expansion of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) might significantly add to Europes energy security, the researcher in EU energy and climate policy at the European Policy Center (EPC) Marco Giuli told Trend.

"Azerbaijan became an important alternative supplier since the launch of TAP. While current volumes are limited, they had a relevant role in mitigating South Eastern Europes vulnerability to the cut off of Russian supplies. With the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector, Bulgaria will have further access to the Caspian gas. The potential expansion of TAP might provide further relief to Italy and the Western Balkans," he said.

"Challenges concern both supply and demand. It requires the development of new fields in the Caspian, which in turn needs to rely on stable demand prospects," he said.

"Today there is an abundant spare capacity in pipelines to Europe from North Africa. Italy is working to get more gas from Algeria. For example, three billion cubic meters were added this year, while six more should be available from 2024 on. Prospects from Libya appear more challenging in light of the turbulent political context," he noted.

As Giuli noted, a "Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Partnership in the field of energy between the European Union represented by the European Commission and the Republic of Azerbaijan" signed in July 18, 2022, is a notable step in the EU-Azerbaijan energy cooperation.

"Doubling gas exports to Europe by 2027, for Italy, for example, might mean not just the possibility to completely replace Russian supplies (from which the country might be independent by 2024) but to re-export Caspian gas towards central Europe," he explained.

In addition, the expansion might help western Balkan countries to reduce their vulnerability. Considering the timing, however, reflections should concentrate on demand. Persistent high prices and climate targets are expected to cause a reduction in Europes need for gas, the expert noted.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. The Henley Passport Index, the original ranking of all the world's passports, has released the ranking data, Trend reports citing the company.

According to the ranking, Azerbaijani citizens can travel to 70 countries without a visa.

The latest results from the Henley Passport Index spanning 17 years show the largest gap in visa-free travel opportunities.

Japanese citizens have visa-free access to 193 destinations worldwide, which means they are able to travel visa-free to 166 more destinations than Afghan nationals, who sit at the bottom of the global passport index.

Singapore and South Korea are tied for second place, and their passport holders can travel without a prior visa to 192 destinations.
A delegation led by Turkish Minister of Family and Social Services Derya Yanik paid tribute to the Alley of Honor and the Alley of Martyrs in Baku on July 19, Azernews reports.

Members of the delegation honored the memory of the national leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev and laid flowers on his grave in the Alley of Honor.

Prominent ophthalmologist-scientist, academician Zarifa Aliyeva has also been commemorated, flowers has been placed on her grave.

The delegation visited the Alley of Martyrs, honored the memory of heroes who died for Azerbaijan's independence, and left flowers on the Eternal Flame monument.

Afterward, the guests saw the Baku Turkish Martyrs' Memorial dedicated to the Ottoman Empire soldiers killed during the World War I, on which flowers were also laid.

"Just as Turkish and Azerbaijani troops fought side by side in the Battle of Canakkale 1915, soldiers of the two fraternal countries fought together during the liberation of Azerbaijan's Baku under the command of Nuru Pasha in 1918," Yanik said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. The French Alstom company has opened a training center in partnership with the Azerbaijan Technical University, which will train specialists in the railway industry, Alstom's Azerbaijani representative office told Trend.

According to the representative office, this program is part of the obligation to support the development of the railway industry in Azerbaijan and guarantees that graduates of the training center will receive the appropriate knowledge and skills for successful employment in this area.

"The study process in a group of 20 students will begin in October 2022. The center will provide engineering students with access to more than 140 hours of unique courses developed by Alstom University. The program consists of three segments, including an online course which provides a deep understanding of railway construction and operation, including the technical lexicon," Alstom said.

The company noted that the private sector should cooperate with academic institutions to support future human resources and provide them with the skills and experience they need to succeed in the labor market.

"This cooperation accelerates the development of science and technology, encourages young engineers to apply their knowledge to solve real mobility problems and improve the transportation system of the future," added Alstom.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. The EU4Energy team is in constant cooperation and dialogue with Azerbaijan in order to support the transformation of the energy sector, the EU4Energy official told Trend.

"The EU4Energy program is implemented by the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER), the Energy Community Secretariat (EnCS) and the International Energy Agency (IEA). We are in constant cooperation with the Azerbaijani governmental institutions, namely with the Ministry of Energy, Azerbaijan Energy Regulatory Agency and Azerbaijan Renewable Energy Agency in the framework of EU4energy Program Phase II," the source said.

EU4Energy held a workshop on May 25, which brought together European and Azerbaijani experts to discuss the role renewable energy sources (RES) play in the overall concept of a smart city/village, as well as the kind of additional services that should be used in connection with RES for the design of a "smart city" or a "smart village". The workshop allowed participants to follow developments and recent discussions in Europe related to the development of energy communities with an emphasis on EU requirements, feasibility, major obstacles encountered, and available solutions, the official said.

Smart cities/villages innovate, create and promote practices to address urban challenges and create joined-up, technologically advanced and sustainable infrastructure. It enables citizens and local government authorities to work together to develop initiatives to serve the city/villages needs, and use smart technologies to manage assets and resources in the growing urban environment efficiently and effectively.

Moreover, the EU experts focused on the implementation of EU requirements by Member States as well as the implementation of the sustainable development goals that is being pursued by Austria and Greece. An expert from the Urban Innovation Vienna, Viennas Smart City Agency showcased how cities and villages in Azerbaijan can adopt smart methods based on his agencys example.

According to the official, the current stage of the EU4Energy program "Promoting the Clean Energy Transition in the Eastern Partnership Countries: EU4Energy Phase II" will run until December 2024.

"The program will contribute to the development of sound legislative and regulatory frameworks for energy, to support the regions transition to clean energy and the liberalization of the energy market. It will also address new challenges and opportunities, such as the gradual embedding of digitalization in all energy-relevant market segments while promoting cost efficiency. The citizens of Eastern partner countries will benefit from a more stable and resilient energy market, empowering consumers and increasing energy security and promoting the development of clean energy," the official added.

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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that the record of successful cooperation between Iran and Russia in anti-terrorism campaign is now at the service of strengthening regional security and stability, Trend reports citing IRNA.

Russian President Vladimir Putin who visited Iran to attend the Astana Peace Process Guarantor Countries went to the Presidents Office for a meeting with the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

The two sides in the meeting discussed the latest status of bilateral ties, which has grown drastically during the recent months, especially in economic, security, infrastructure, energy, trade, and industrial fields, expressed satisfaction over the reached progress, and expressed will for further strengthening the bilateral ties.

They also agreed about the reached progress in campaign against terrorism, and stressed need for expansion of cooperation in regional and international fields, especially in strengthening regional cooperation and securing the stability of independent countries.

President Raisi said that the expansion of bilateral relations is noticeable, arguing that after his meeting with President Putin in Moscow, and in Ashgabat, the process of expanding and deepening bilateral cooperation has been continuous, and it is still in need of further strengthening.

The president said that the record of successful bilateral cooperation in anti-terrorism cooperation in Syria paved the way for cooperation in the region to boost security and stability.

He said that in the West Asia region those countries that claimed to be involved in campaign against terrorism had not taken any effective step in that regard, but the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Russia in their serious cooperation in campaign against terrorism, have proved their honesty and serious will.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin, too, said in the meeting that he is pleased to be in Iran, whose nations hospitality is famous, and welcomed comprehensive cooperation, especially in security and international fields.

Iran and Russia have great shares in resolving the Syrian crisis, he added.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili and President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedow discussed prospects for expanding transport cooperation, Trend reports via Georgian Government.

During the meeting, both parties considered transport projects and their further development, which will help increase the efficiency and safety of cargo transportation between Asia and Europe through the Caspian and Black seas.

"Georgia is making significant investments in building new roads and railroads as well as expanding the capacity of seaports, and Turkmenistan will benefit from using a corridor through the territory of Georgia to access the Black Sea," the message says.

Moreover, the both sides also touched on the strategic partnership in the energy sector, and readiness to further deepen the existing cooperation between Georgia and Turkmenistan.
Indias Ambassador to Madagascar and Comoros, Abhay Kumar, has called on the Prime Minister of Madagascar Christian Ntsay and took note of the progress made in the bilateral relations between both countries during the past three years, Trend reports citing The Print.

Both of them agreed to further strengthen the ties between India and Madagascar.

Ambassador Abhay Kumar called on H.E. Christian Ntsay, Honble Prime Minister of Madagascar today. They took note of the progress made in India-Madagascar bilateral relations during the past three years and agreed to further strengthen it, India in Madagascar & Comoros tweeted on Monday.

Indias policy towards Madagascar is guided by the collaborative maritime vision of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region).

Last month, India announced the donation of 5,000 tonnes of rice to the island nation as humanitarian aid to Madagascar.

Prior to that, India had donated 1,000 metric tonnes of rice to Madagascar in March 2021 for the people affected by drought in the south of Madagascar and 600 tonnes of rice in March 2020 for the flood victims in the north of Madagascar.

India had also announced the donation of 15,000 bicycles to Madagascar on June 3, 2022, on the occasion of World Bicycle Day.

Madagascar joined the India-led Coalition of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) in April 2022 and had earlier supported India joining the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) as an observer in March 2020 and the Djibouti Code of Conduct in August 2020.

Minister of National Defence of Madagascar, Lt. General Rakotonirina Leon Jean Richard led a 4-member delegation to participate in Aero India 2021 and Indian Ocean Region (IOR) Defence Ministers Conclave in Bengaluru from February 3-5, 2021.

During the visit, the Malagasy Defence Minister held a bilateral meeting with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and discussed steps for furthering defence cooperation between the two countries.

Ten diplomats from Madagascar participated in the 1st Special Course for Diplomats in the Indian Ocean Region from September 19 to October 2, 2021, organised by the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service.
Union Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday called for strengthening and expanding the India-Africa ties and said that India can offer emerging technologies to expand trade, commerce investment and opportunities for youth of Africa.

Goyal was speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry-Exim Bank Conclave on India-Africa Growth Partnership here on Tuesday.

India-Africa are natural partners. When we work together we can move mountainsIndia can offer emerging technologies that we are working on in India which can easily help expand trade, commerce, investment and opportunities for youth of Africa, the minister said.

Goyal further said that there are immense possibilities between India and Africa thus the two countries need to further expand the relationship and partnership.

He said that the Conclave highlighted how India can play a pivotal role in economic development of several Africal countries in industry based skill developments, employement, financial inclusion, basic needs of people across the African continent, infrastructure creation and providing connectivity through greater and deeper penetration of telecom networks.

We had a strong partnership during COVID-19 pandemic, particulary, supporting many countries through our vaccine Maitry program and other health related engagements. This underslines the solidarity between India and Africa. We need to further expand this partnership, Goyal said.

After the pandemic both countries have shown signs of resilience, recovery and renewal, he added.

He said that several other countries have expressed desire to work with India and look forward to enhance trade partnership and bilateral engagements.

We concluded a CEPA with UAE, an ECTA with Australia. We are at advanced stage of discussion with UK and are looking for an enhanced partnership with Canada, EU, Israel and other nations. I want to invite African brothers/sisters to join us in this partnership, Goyal said.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

The European Union signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Azerbaijan on July 18, intending to boost gas imports from the energy-rich South Caucasus country as the EU strives to lessen reliance on Russia.

The deal is anticipated to spur investment in pipelines and gas production, positioning Azerbaijan as an important European energy supplier.

The agreement signed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, aims to bring "at least 20 billion cubic meters of gas annually by 2027" from Azerbaijan to the EU via the Southern Gas Corridor.

Following the signing ceremony, both presidents made remarkable statements that drew widespread attention from the international media.

French media

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Partnership in the field of energy between Azerbaijan and the European Union (EU) was the focus of the French press. French print media and TV channels described Azerbaijan as the EUs reliable strategic partner in ensuring energy security.

Articles on the history of energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU emphasized that 27 EU members have requested assistance from Azerbaijan, which is Europe's biggest gas producer and exporter.

There is debate in Brussels about expanding one of the three gas pipelines that connect Baku to the old European continent. It should be mentioned that the gas corridor now contains three gas pipelines (South Caucasus, Trans-Anatolian, and Trans-Adriatic).

The project, which was completed in 2020, transported 8 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe in 2021, with the quantity predicted to reach 10 billion in 2022.

The press articles also underscore that the cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union in the energy sector is almost 15 years old, and the Azerbaijani oil and gas delivered to Europe via Georgia and Turkey is of great importance for the energy supply of the countries in that area. It was added that Azerbaijan is a reliable strategic partner of the European Union.

Italian media

Italian media described Azerbaijan as the EUs strategic partner, citing European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

You are indeed a crucial energy partner for us and you have always been reliable. You were a crucial partner not only for our security of supply but also in our efforts to become climate neutral. The Memorandum of Understanding that we have just signed makes our energy partnership even stronger, von der Leyen said in the joint press conference with President Aliyev.

According to Italian RAINews, Ursula von der Leyen described the shift in perspective that the Ukraine conflict has placed on the global energy landscape, saying that "even before the brutal invasion of Ukraine, Russian gas supplies to Europe were no longer reliable".

Spanish-language press

Spain's EFE news agency, 20minutos news portal, SWI swissinfo.ch, the Spanish-language version of the international online platform of the Swiss Public Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR), profesionaleshoy.es, the first multi-disciplinary current affairs portal in Spain, Latin America's entornointeligente .com news portal published articles on Azerbaijans plans to increase its gas supply to the EU, which is searching for an alternative to Russian gas by 2027.

According to the Spanish-language press, Azerbaijan plans to double the volume of gas transported to the EU via the Southern Gas Corridor to 20 billion cubic meters by 2027, in response to the efforts of member nations to diversify their suppliers. As a result, Russian gas imports will be reduced, and Europe will benefit from a large contribution to the safe supply of gas.

German media

According to the German media (Tagesshcau, ZDF, BILD etc.), since the brutal war of aggression by the Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin on Ukraine, the EU has been trying to reduce its dependence on Russian energy imports.

No additional gas has flowed via the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 to Germany since last Monday. The official justification was maintenance work, which the operating company estimates will last until July 21, but the federal government is already assuming that Russia will not restart gas deliveries via the pipeline after the maintenance and will have new "excuses" for this.

The agreement with Azerbaijan will help compensate for the cuts in Russian gas supplies and will make a significant contribution to Europe's security of supply, the reports say, citing the European Commission President.

US media

Leading American publications have also reported on Azerbaijan and the EU signing a Memorandum of Understanding on strategic energy partnership.

According to media reports, the EU is beginning a new chapter in its energy cooperation with its primary partner, Azerbaijan. The new arrangement assures secure and consistent gas supplies to Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor.

The new deal calls for Azerbaijan to boost its gas supply to Europe every year, with the goal of reaching 20 billion cubic meters by 2027.

Azerbaijan boosted its natural gas exports to European nations to 8.1 billion cubic meters in 2021, and the comparable indicator is predicted to be 12 billion cubic meters in 2022.

According to Brenda Shaffer, a professor at the United States Naval Postgraduate School and an expert on Caspian energy, while Azerbaijan gas alone cannot solve the EU's gas dependence on Russia, an additional 10 billion cubic meters of gas would be significant for Southern Europe and Western Balkan states such as Greece, Bulgaria, and Italy.

"Italy is weathering the current crisis better than many others in Europe, due to dedicated supplies arriving from the Southern Gas Corridor," she said.

Azerbaijan is truly taking a position at a time when Europe is in need, she added, but the country is aware of its geography, which borders both Russia and Iran.

"Azerbaijan aspires for strong integration with the West through energy, investments, and trade, yet does not see it as a zero-sum game," Shaffer said. She noted that Azerbaijan has begun to speed the development of numerous undeveloped gas reserves.

According to Shaffer, the fact that the agreement favors finance for the Southern Gas Corridor extension is critical, since public funding institutions have ceased funding for natural gas projects.

She believes that increased money from organizations such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank would create a significant precedent.

Shaffer estimates that Azerbaijan's renewable-energy expenditures will free up 2 to 3 billion cubic meters of gas for exports in two to three years.

On July 18, von der Leyen stressed that this agreement does more than tap Azerbaijan's fossil fuels. "Azerbaijan has a tremendous potential in renewable energy," she said, particularly in offshore wind and green hydrogen. "Today, with our [memorandum], we are laying the ground for solid cooperation in that area. Gradually, Azerbaijan will evolve from being a fossil fuel supplier to becoming a very reliable and prominent renewable energy partner to the European Union."

The European Commission president stated that the EU has its sights set on far more.

"The European Union wants to work with Azerbaijan to build connections with Central Asia and beyond," she said. "We follow with great interest the discussions and the ideas about trans-Caspian connections."

These possibilities might include leveraging Central Asian energy resources, such as Turkmenistan's gas, and shipping commodities from the region via Azerbaijan, according to Shaffer.
India will play its due role in advancing global food security, upholding equity, displaying compassion and promoting social justice, said First Secretary Sneha Dubey at the UN Security Council high-level special event on global food security crisis on Monday (local time), Trend reports citing The Print.

Dubey said that New Delhi is running the worlds largest food-based safety net programme, which has seen a paradigm shift from welfare to a rights-based approach.

To achieve targeted delivery during COVID-19, food assistance to 800 million people and cash transfers to 400 million people were provided by the Government, she added.

Indias mid-day meal programme continues to tackle undernourishment in school children by ensuring the provision of healthy meals.

A nutrition drive has also been launched, especially for vulnerable groups including women and children. Our Farm-to-Table digital initiatives include Farmers Portals, farm-advisory services, online network of agricultural commodities, price prediction and use of blockchain technology for quality certification, First Secretary said in a statement.

In view of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, India is donating 50,000 Metric tonnes of wheat to the people of Afghanistan.

India has continued its humanitarian support for Myanmar, including a grant of 10,000 tons of rice and wheat. We are also assisting Sri Lanka including with food assistance, during these difficult times, Dubey noted.

India has exported more than 250,000 tons of wheat to Yemen, in the last three months.

She also said that India remained strongly committed to the cause of global food security and also has contributed to UNs Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and the UNOCHA in response to various humanitarian crises over the years.

Our spearheading of the UN General Assembly Resolution for declaring Year- 2023 as the International Year of Millets was aimed at addressing similar such food security challenges, she said.
The presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkiye, Vladimir Putin, Ebrahim Raisi and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have rejected all unilateral sanctions targeting Syria, urging the global community to step up assistance to the Syrian people in their joint statement on Tuesday, Trend reports citing TASS.

In the statement released on Tuesday, the parties "expressed grave concern at the humanitarian situation in Syria and rejected all unilateral sanctions which are in contravention of international law". They "called upon the international community, particularly the UN and its humanitarian agencies and other governmental/non-governmental international institutions to increase their assistance to all Syrians without discrimination, politicization and preconditions," the statement said.
Turkiye is prepared to take all steps to determine who perpetrated the attack that killed eight civilians and injured 23 others in Iraqs Duhok province, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday, calling on Iraqi Kurdish authorities to not be influenced by the propaganda of the PKK terrorist group, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

In a statement, the ministry underlined that Turkiye is against all types of attacks that target civilians and extended its condolences to the relatives of the deceased.

"Turkiye is against all kinds of attacks targeting civilians. Turkiye carries out its fight against terrorism in accordance with international law, with utmost sensitivity to the protection of civilians, civilian infrastructure, historical and cultural property and the environment. It is considered that such attacks which aim at innocent civilians and are assessed to be organized by the terrorist organization, target our country's just and determined stance in the fight against terrorism."

The statement went on to say that initial evaluations suggest the attack was carried out by PKK terrorists, who do not refrain from targeting civilians, with the aim to target Turkiyes counterterrorism fight.

Turkiye is ready to take all steps to reveal the truth, the ministry said, calling on the Iraqi government to refrain from making statements under the influence and propaganda of the PKK and to cooperate with Turkiye to find the real perpetrators of the attack.

Eight civilians were killed in a park in Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)-controlled region by artillery fire that Baghdad blamed on neighboring Turkiye .

In an unusually strong rebuke, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi warned Turkiye that Iraq reserves the "right to retaliate," calling the artillery fire a "flagrant violation" of sovereignty.

His condemnation was echoed by the federal president and by the KRG.

The victims included Iraqi tourists who had come to the hill village of Parakh in the Zakho district to escape sweltering temperatures further south in the country, according to Mushir Bashir, the head of the Zakho region.

Irbil, the capital of the KRG, has complicated relations with the PKK as its presence in the region hampers vital trade relations with neighboring Turkiye.

Turkiye's latest cross-border operation was launched after Turkish intelligence obtained information suggesting that the PKK, which has sustained heavy blows in the past few years, was preparing retaliatory attacks against Turkiye.

Operation Claw-Lock focuses on northern Iraqi regions, particularly the areas of Metina, Zap and Avashin-Basyan. The commando and special force units are supported by UAVs, attack helicopters and artillery elements.

In 2020, Turkiye launched operations Claw-Tiger and Claw-Eagle in the border regions of northern Iraq to ensure the safety of the Turkish people and frontiers.

Iraq accused Turkiye of violating its sovereignty and on Tuesday summoned the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad and delivered a "strongly worded" protest note to him, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Iraq also called on its neighbor to withdraw all of its forces from Iraqi territory.

In response, the Turkish Foreign Ministry also handed a diplomatic note to the Iraqi envoy on Thursday and accused the Iraqi government of making "unfounded allegations" over the military operation.

Turkiye's operation was launched two days after a rare visit by the prime minister of Iraq's autonomous KRG, Masrour Barzani, suggesting that he had been briefed on Ankara's plans.

The PKK terrorist group often hides out in northern Iraq, just across Turkiye's southern border, where it plots terrorist attacks against Turkiye. The Turkish military regularly conducts cross-border operations in northern Iraq. Turkiye has long stressed that it will not tolerate terrorist threats posed against its national security and has called on Iraqi officials to take the necessary steps to eliminate the terrorist group. Ankara previously noted that if the expected steps were not taken, it would not shy away from targeting terrorist threats.
A Cairo criminal court referred on Tuesday the case of the judge accused of murdering his wife, TV presenter Shaimaa Gamal, and his alleged partner in crime to the grand mufti to inquire about the religious ruling.
Kenya was calm on Tuesday, a day after Deputy President William Ruto was declared the winner of the narrow presidential election over longtime opposition figure Raila Odinga, a vote closely watched in the East African country that has been crucial to regional stability.
Massive explosions and fires hit a military depot in Russia-annexed Crimea on Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 people, the second time in recent days that the Ukraine war's focus has turned to the contested peninsula.
After crossing the front line in Ukraine, Iryna Tyshenko, a 35-year-old woman from the southern region of Kherson, is recovering as she holds a small dragon toy that she made herself.
Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic spoke to Al-Ahram about the goals behind his visit to Egypt as well as Serbia's wish to increase cooperation with Egypt on the economic, political and regional fronts

Serbias Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic sat down for an interview with Al-Ahram during his recent visit to Egypt, the goal of which was to intensify efforts between Serbia and Egypt to improve their level of cooperation and deepen the bonds between the two countries, which stretch back to Egypts khedival era.

Selakovic spoke to Al-Ahram about his visit and the invitation he extended to President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit, which will be held on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the movement on 11 and 12 October this year in Belgrade.

Al-Ahram: At first, we would like to welcome you to Cairo, and we want to hear from you some details about the purpose of your visit and its most important topics.

Nikola Selakovic: It is my great honour and pleasure to visit Egypt, a large and important country with which we are bound by friendship and a tradition of diplomatic relations since 1908, when the Kingdom of Serbia began cooperation with the Egyptian khedivate, through the time of Presidents Tito and Nasser and their joint support for the peoples of Africa and Asia, who fought for freedom from colonial oppression, and until this day, when in the time of serious statesmen like President Vucic and President El-Sisi, we are laying the foundations of our future cooperation, which I am sure will have a serious perspective.

During my visit to your great country, special attention was paid to my capacity as a special envoy of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, on whose behalf I have the honour to extend an invitation to President El-Sisi to enhance the conference of the Non-Aligned Movement with his presence, which will be held on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the movement on 11 and 12 October this year in Belgrade.

Egypts participation is particularly important given the key and historical role of your country in founding the movement, as well as Egypts activities at the international level, where it acts as a strong promoter of the basic principles on which the movement is founded in order to create a more just world in which the principles of multilateralism, peaceful cooperation, equality, integrity, and sovereignty of countries are respected.

AA: Are there plans after this visit to prepare reciprocal visits between the leaders of the two countries in the coming period?

NS: Our leaders meeting is vital to improving our relations. They give new energy to the unity of Serbia and Egypt and encourage all levels of our societies to cooperate internally and fight for common interests in the international arena.

In that sense, there is an open invitation from the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and it would be a special honour for us to host the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, His Excellency Mr. Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who enjoys an exceptional reputation among the citizens of the Republic of Serbia.

AA: What are your expectations for the meetings of the Egyptian-Serbian committee which are scheduled for next October, and the most prominent memoranda of understanding that will be signed between the two countries on the economy?

NS: In addition to making preparations for the presidential visit to Serbia, an important goal of my visit to Egypt is the preparation of the session of the Joint Committee on Economic, Scientific, and Technical Cooperation (JC), co-chaired by the ministers of foreign affairs of Serbia and Egypt, which is scheduled to take place by the end of this year in Cairo.

Serbia and Egypt are seriously preparing for the upcoming session of the JC, and they have an ambitious agenda. I am pleased to point out that the preparations for this session have been very successful so far.

AA: Your government is preparing to provide incentives for homeowners to use solar panels. Do you have plans to cooperate with Egypt in the field of clean energy given that Egypt has a wonderful model in this context?

NS: Serbia has started work on the reform of legislation relating to the field of renewable energy sources by adopting the Law on the Use of Renewable Energy Sources.

We are interested in exchanging experiences in the fields of solar and wind energy, and with the new law, we are creating a stimulating business environment for investing in the field of renewable energy sources through direct investments or public-private partnerships.

Egypts experience in the development of renewable energy sources is important to us and we are ready to accept any kind of cooperation that is in the common interest.

AA: With regard to trade exchange, what are the Egyptian exports that Serbia needs the most, and what are the goods or products that Egypt can benefit from?

NS: Serbia wants to further develop and expand its economic relations with Egypt, which includes increasing trade, which is now below realistic possibilities.

Economic relations are generally developing well, but there are potentials for further development and improvement in numerous areas such as agriculture, tourism, health, telecommunications, construction, machine industry, mining, and scientific research projects.

It is difficult to define all the goods that Serbia could export to Egypt, because the list is long, and includes products from almost all industries. Given Egypts good relations with Russia, China, and the UAE, the possibility of various trilateral ties in economic projects is not ruled out.

Additionally, the Egyptian and Serbian economies are networked in broader free trade systems, which include markets much larger than the national ones, which certainly represents an opportunity for businessmen to use the markets of Egypt or Serbia as a springboard to conquer new markets.

We are also aware of the importance of holding a Joint Business Council (JBC). We follow the news about the reforms and economic progress of Egypt with attention and admiration, the cause of which are the numerous visionary megaprojects that President El-Sisi started that will essentially and forever transform Egypt into a prosperous, modern, and developed country.

Serbia is considering the possibility of its involvement to a certain extent in the implementation of investment megaprojects, and in this regard, we are seriously considering the Egyptian proposal to store a certain amount of grain in new silos in Suez as a new and expanded logistics centre in Egypt from which our products could be transported to their final destinations.

A significant contribution to the development of our relations is given by the enthusiasm and energy of your ambassador in Belgrade, Amr El-Jowaily, who is an exceptional professional and our sincere friend.

AA: Through the outcome of the meetings held by the Ambassador of Egypt in Belgrade, Amr El-Jowaily, with Serbian officials and ministers, we saw an interest in giving priority to cooperation in the field of small and medium enterprises, what is your opinion on that?

NS: Small and medium enterprises are carriers of economic development. We agree with the assessment that the establishment and expansion of cooperation between small and medium enterprises in Serbia and Egypt could significantly improve economic cooperation between the two countries, increase trade, and positively affect economic development and employment.

We expect that the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the Development Agency of Serbia and the Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises of Egypt will make a key contribution to the development of this cooperation.

Additionally, it is necessary to work on better mutual acquaintances and establishing contacts between such companies in both countries. The preparation and holding of the session of the already mentioned JBC, whose holding is planned in parallel with the holding of the JC, will certainly contribute a lot to that.

AA: How can cooperation and coordination between Egypt and Serbia be strengthened on regional issues, especially the situation in Libya, and the related phenomenon of illegal immigration from North Africa to Europe through the Balkan crossing?

NS: We are following the developments in the Middle East and North Africa region very closely and I look forward to the opportunity to exchange views with Egyptian partners, whose role in resolving these regional issues is very active, significant, and irreplaceable.

Serbia highly respects Egypts position and actions in solving regional problems in a way that contributes to peace and stability in the region and beyond.

At the same time, the attitudes of friendly Egypt help us greatly to better understand the situation and, in complex circumstances, serve as a kind of guideline for our positioning.

We support the Egyptian principled approach that is based on international law and the fundamental principles of the UN that crises in the region should be resolved on the principle of respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of states, with the establishment and effective operation of unified national institutions.

Conflicts and instability in the region of the Middle East and North Africa have caused a refugee and migrant crisis, the consequences of which were directly felt by Serbia as a transit destination. Unlike some other countries, Serbia tried to treat refugees and migrants humanely, with the awareness that most of them were people who were forced to leave their homes.

Relevant international organisations, as well as the EU, assessed the position of Serbia during the migrant crisis as extremely responsible, humane, and solidary. For example, we have provided adequate reception centres with many benefits, and with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination of migrants has been made possible.

AA: What about cooperation in the fight against terrorism between the two countries?

NS: The Republic of Serbia and the Arab Republic of Egypt act in solidarity, unity, and coherence when it comes to the fight against terrorism and, in that sense, our competent services achieve appropriate cooperation.

For us, Egyptian experiences in the fight against terrorism are valuable. We are impressed by the results and efficiency of the Egyptian security services in the fight against this plague, which is never limited to one country, which knows no borders, and represents one of the biggest transnational threats.

Egypts defence against terrorism is at the same time a defence against that evil of the region to which Serbia belongs.

AA: Serbia has been waiting since 2012 for the European Union to respond to its application to become a full member of the EU. However, the EU recently said that the stalemate in negotiations brings Serbia ever closer to Russia and China, how do you comment on this?

NS: Regardless of its priority interest for EU accession, Serbia pursues a multi-vector foreign policy, which is never directed against third party countries and is never to the detriment of the interests of cooperation with traditional friends and partners, but serves to promote peace, stability, and cooperation.

Such is our policy in the region to which we belong, as well as towards the countries of the region to which Egypt belongs. We have close cooperation with other partners outside the region, especially with China and the Russian Federation.

The close ties between Serbia and Russia can be attributed to centuries of historical and cultural cooperation and the connection between the two peoples. Cooperation with China is very intensive, both politically and economically. Just as Germany is one of the largest investors in the Serbian economy, so is China one of the largest investors in the infrastructure and mining sector in Serbia.

The countries of the Arab world and Africa remain a particularly important place for us, and I am convinced that our commitment to them will only rise in importance in the future.

In the last week, I had the opportunity to visit several countries in southern Africa with the goal of donating vaccines against COVID-19. In meetings with my colleagues, I was convinced of how great the potentials for our cooperation are because they are based on sincere friendship, openness, and commitment to the same values.

Dont forget, Serbia has 14 embassies in the territory of Africa, and all former Yugoslav republics together have four embassies.

AA: Can we say that Serbian society was able to overcome past conflicts after the painful memories of the war, or that the multi-ethnic file still represents a combustible crisis at any time?

NS: It is of key interest for the Republic of Serbia to preserve stability in the region and the orientation of all countries in the region towards more intensive cooperation in all areas, because only such a region enables the sustainable development of Serbia itself.

In that sense, the improvement of good neighbourly cooperation, which is in the interest of everyone in the region, represents a fundamental and unchangeable starting point of the overall foreign policy of Serbia.

Serbia is aware that inherited problems, especially with some of its neighbours, are very serious and difficult. With our steady and constructive attitude, we have contributed and continue to contribute to the relaxation of relations. We are determined to promote a positive agenda oriented towards the future in our relations with our neighbours and countries in the region.

Thus, in order to help its neighbours who did not start the vaccination process, Serbia has donated a part of its vaccine supply to neighbouring countries: North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro.

In relations with our neighbours, we have focused on the development of economic cooperation, which can contribute to a more favourable climate for resolving open issues from the past.

In this regard, President Vucic, together with the prime ministers of North Macedonia and Albania, launched the Open Balkan Initiative, which aims to deepen the regional economic market and facilitate the movement of people, goods, services, and capital, following the four freedoms of the EU, reducing costs and increasing competitiveness.

AA: Serbia is the second country in terms of the number of tourists coming to Egypt. Are there opportunities to increase the number of Serbian tourists to Egyptian beach resorts in the coming period?

NS: Egypt has become one of the most popular tourist destinations for Serbian tourists, who also visited Egypt during the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to being able to enjoy the beauties of your country, they feel welcome, safe, and very comfortable in Egypt.

I am convinced that the trend of increasing the number of Serbian tourists in Egypt will continue, and this is the result of the improvement of the economic situation in Serbia and the rapid rise in living standards.

During the previous seven years, Serbia has embarked on a path of stable progress, the key contribution to which has been the visionary policy of President Aleksandar Vucic. I am convinced that our relations will have an even greater impact on the increase of tourist exchange in the future.

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Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic on Monday paid a visit to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) in Old Cairo's Fustat neighborhood, accompanied by Serbian Ambassador in Cairo Suzana Boskovic.



Deputy for the Chief Executive Officer of the Museum's Authority Fayrouz Fikry received the Serbian delegation upon arrival at the museum and said the visit is one in a series of visits of public figures and international officials since the inauguration of the museum last April, according to a statement by the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry.



Fikry went on to say Selakovic and his accompanying delegation toured the central display hall and the hall of royal mummies.



In turn, the Serbian foreign minister highly admired the museum and its ancient Egyptian artifacts, which express the old civilization of Egypt over different ages.



Selakovic - in televised remarks - urged the Serbian people to visit Egypt and enjoy places of attraction and products in the country.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday issued a decree to fast-track citizenship for all Ukrainians, more than four months into Moscow's military offensive in Ukraine.

The decree ordered that "all citizens of Ukraine" be given "the right to apply for admission to the citizenship of the Russian Federation in a simplified manner".

In May, Putin already fast-tracked citizenship for residents of two regions of Ukraine, the southern region of Kherson, which is almost entirely under the full control of Russian troops, and the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, which is partially controlled by Moscow.

In 2019, a similar decree allowed the same simplified procedure for residents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, eastern Ukraine's breakaway regions.

Moscow and pro-Moscow officials in areas controlled by Kremlin troops have said they could become part of Russia.

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Hong Kong: Isolation for variant cases updated

(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Starting today, local COVID-19 patients suspected to be carrying the sub-lineages BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5 under the Omicron mutant strain as well as their close contacts may undergo isolation and quarantine at home if they fulfil relevant requirements.

Centre for Health Protection Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan made the announcement at the daily press briefing this afternoon.

She noted that as at July 18, Hong Kong has recorded 1,093 local cases carrying the Omicron sub-lineage BA.2.12.1 and 372 involving the sub-lineages BA.4 and BA.5.

After analysing these cases, the centre found that the severity of the three subvariants was similar to other variants which are widely circulating in the community.

Dr Chuang said: The World Health Organization also noted that there is no severity signal among the BA.5 subvariant.

The BA.5 subvariant has a growth advantage over other subvariants but we have not observed any increase in severity among those patients suffering from it.

According to the latest risk assessment, the Government decided to adjust the isolation and quarantine arrangements for local cases suspected of carrying the sub-lineages BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5.

Starting today, these patients and their close contacts could opt for home isolation and quarantine if they fulfil relevant requirements and their household environment is suitable. Such arrangements will be the same as those for other Omicron cases.

Meanwhile, the centre reported that it is investigating 3,625 additional locally acquired COVID-19 cases, of which 1,515 were directly identified through nucleic acid tests and 2,110 via rapid antigen tests that were verified.

There were also 180 new imported cases.

Dr Chuang pointed out that there has been a gradual increase in the number of positive cases in the past few weeks and a further rise is expected.

She urged the public to stay vigilant, wear masks, maintain social distancing and adhere to the Government's epidemic prevention and control policies.

Separately, the Government made a restriction-testing declaration to cover Yee Fu Court of Tai Po Plaza in Tai Po, requiring people in the restricted area to undergo compulsory testing before the specified deadline.

As there were positive sewage test results with relatively high viral loads in several areas of Tai Po, Wong Tai Sin and Sha Tin, the Housing Department and respective district offices will distribute COVID-19 rapid test kits to relevant residents as well as cleaning workers and property management staff working there.

For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Government's dedicated webpage.

This story has been published on: 2022-07-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
By Trend

The General Prosecutor's Office of Tajikistan sent a request to the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan for the extradition of Mahbuba Mirzagaeva, who committed a crime on Tajik territory, in accordance with the requirements of national legislation and international treaties to which Azerbaijan is a party, the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan told Trend.

Mirzagaeva has been put on the wanted fugitives list due to reasonable suspicions of committing fraud and causing damage on a major scale.

She was delivered to Tajikistan accompanied by a special escort of the Penitentiary Service of the Justice Ministry of Azerbaijan on July 19, the Office said.
Military delegations from Russia and Ukraine held their governments' first face-to-face talks in months Wednesday as they tried to reach an agreement on a United Nations plan to export blocked Ukrainian grain to world markets through the Black Sea.

Turkish military officials and U.N. envoys also took part in the meeting in Istanbul focused on finding a way to get millions of tons of grain sitting in silos amid the war in Ukraine shipped out of the country's ports toward the Mediterranean.

The Russian and Ukrainian officials, dressed in civilian clothes, faced each other as the delegations were seated around a large square table. Turkey's Defense Ministry announced later the talks had ended about an hour and a half after it confirmed that they had begun, but did not provide details.

Ukraine is one of the world's largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but Russia's invasion and war has disrupted production and halted shipments, endangering food supplies in many developing countries, especially in Africa, and contributing to higher global food prices.

Turkey has offered to provide safe Black Sea corridors and worked with the U.N., Russia and Ukraine to reach an agreement. The U.N. would establish a center in Istanbul to control the shipments, Turkish officials have said.

Speaking before the talks, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told The Associated Press that grain exports from his country's ports won't resume without security guarantees to ship owners, cargo owners and Ukraine as an independent nation.

Any agreement needs to ensure that Russia ``will respect these corridors, they will not sneak into the harbor and attack ports or that they will not attack ports from the air with their missiles,'' he said.

Russian and Ukrainian officials have traded accusations over the stuck grain shipments. Moscow claims Ukraine's heavily mined ports are causing the delay. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged that Moscow wouldn't use the corridors to launch an attack, if the sea mines were removed.

Ukrainian officials have blamed a Russian naval blockade for holding up exports and causing the global food crisis. They remained skeptical of Putin's pledge not to take advantage of cleared Black Sea corridors to mount an attack, noting that he insisted earlier this year he had no plans to invade Ukraine.

Ahead of the talks, a senior Russian diplomat said Moscow was willing to ensure safe navigation for ships to carry grain from Ukrainian ports but would press for its right to check the vessels for weapons.

Pyotr Ilyichev, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's department for ties with international organizations, said Russia's military had repeatedly declared its willingness to allow safe shipping corridors in the Black Sea.

Seventy vessels from 16 countries have remained stuck in Ukrainian ports, Ilyichev said, alleging that Ukrainian authorities had barred them from departing.

``Our conditions are clear: We need to have a possibility to control and check the ships to prevent any attempts to smuggle weapons in, and Kyiv must refrain from any provocations,'' Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Ilyichev as saying.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has worked for months to secure a deal that would allow Ukraine to export wheat and other commodities from Odesa, the country's largest port, and also enable Russia to export grain and fertilizer to global markets.

Asked about Wednesday's talks, Guterres said Tuesday: ``We are working hard, indeed, but there is still a way to go.''

The war has trapped about 22 million tons of grain inside Ukraine, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. U.N., Turkish and other officials are scrambling for a solution that would empty the silos in time for upcoming harvest in Ukraine. Some grain is being transported through Europe by rail, road and river, but the amount is small compared with sea routes.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says the war is endangering food supplies for many developing nations and could worsen hunger for up to 181 million people.

Russia isn't able to transport its grain either. Moscow argues that Western sanctions on its banking and shipping industries make it impossible for Russia to export food and fertilizer and are scaring off foreign shipping companies.

Complicating the negotiations are accusations that Russia is shipping grain that was stolen from lands in Ukraine.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador last week after Turkish authorities briefly detained a Russian ship suspected of transporting stolen grain but allowed it to leave and return to a Russian port. A Turkish official said authorities were not able to determine that the ship carried stolen grain.

NATO-member Turkey has retained its close ties to both Moscow and Ukraine. Since the war started, it has hosted a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers, as well as talks between the two countries' negotiators.

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Experts were poised to investigate the site of a plane crash in northern Greece Sunday to determine whether any dangerous chemicals or explosive cargo remains.

The An-12 cargo plane smashed into fields between two villages late Saturday. Local residents reported seeing a fireball and hearing explosions for two hours after the crash. A plume of white smoke was still rising from the front end of the plane on Sunday morning.

Serbian Defense Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic told a news conference Sunday that all eight crewmembers were killed. He said the plane was carrying 11.5 tons of Serbian-made mortar ammunition to Bangladesh, which was the buyer. It had taken off from the Serbian city of Nis and had been due to make a stopover in Amman, Jordan.

The plane was operated by Ukrainian cargo carrier Meridian, and the Ukrainian consul in Thessaloniki, who has arrived at the crash site, told local officials that the crew were all Ukrainian.

``These were illuminating mortar mines and training (mines). ... This flight had all necessary permissions in accordance with international regulations,'' Stefanovic said.

The plane crashed shortly before 11 p.m., about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Kavala International Airport. Minutes before, the pilot of the plane had told air traffic controllers that there was a problem with one of his engines and that he had to make an emergency landing. He was directed to Kavala airport but never made it there.

The plane is a Soviet-era four-engine turboprop cargo carrier.

Drone footage shows that small fragments are all that is left from the plane. Firefighters who rushed to the scene in the night were prevented from reaching the crash site by smoke and an intense smell which they feared might be toxic.

Nearby residents were told to keep their windows shut all night, not to leave their homes and to wear masks. Authorities said they did not know if there were dangerous chemicals on the plane, including those contained in batteries.

A special army unit that looks for nuclear, biological and chemical substances will comb the site, but is not expected to arrive before 1 p.m. (1000 GMT).

The fire service has cordoned off the area at a radius of about 400 meters.

The mayor of the municipality of Paggaio, to which the two villages close to the crash belong, has banned vehicle movement on nearby roads.

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Sri Lanka's acting president on Monday declared a state of emergency giving him broad authority amid growing protests demanding his resignation two days before the country's lawmakers are set to elect a new president.

Ranil Wickremesinghe became acting president on Friday after his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled abroad on Wednesday and resigned after months-long mass protests over the country's economic collapse.

Wickremesinghe's move to impose a state of emergency comes as protests demanding his resignation too have continued in most parts of the country, with some protesters burning his effigy.

Lawmakers who met on Saturday began the process of electing a new leader to serve the rest of the term abandoned by Rajapaksa. Nominations for the election of the new president will be heard on Tuesday, and if there is more than one candidate the lawmakers will vote on Wednesday.

The emergency decree issued by Wickremesinghe invokes sections of the Public Security Ordinance that allow him to make regulations in the interests of public security, the preservation of public order, the suppression of mutiny, riot or civil commotion, or for the maintenance of essential supplies.

Under the emergency regulations, Wickremesinghe can authorize detentions, take possession of any property and search any premises. He can also change or suspend any law.

The South Indian island nation is engulfed in an unprecedented economic crisis that has triggered political uncertainty.

Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for imports of basic necessities such as food, fertilizer, medicine and fuel for its 22 million people. Its rapid economic decline has been all the more shocking because before the crisis the economy had been expanding, with a growing, comfortable middle class.

Sri Lanka is seeking help from the International Monetary Fund and other creditors, but top officials say its finances are so poor that even obtaining a bailout has proven difficult.

The economic hardships led to political upheaval and widespread protests demanding the government led by Rajapaksa step down. Although many ministers resigned in April, Rajapaksa had remained in power until last week.

The main protests have occurred in the capital, Colombo, where protesters occupied the front of the president's office for more than 100 days.

The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful political family of siphoning money from government coffers and of hastening the country's collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but Rajapaksa acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lanka's meltdown.

Rajapaksa flew first to the Maldives on Wednesday and then to Singapore.

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Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday as she began a series of high-profile appearances in Washington that will include a session with US counterpart Jill Biden.

Blue and yellow Ukrainian flags flew alongside American ones on Pennsylvania Avenue as Zelenska headed for her first announced event in the United States, the meeting with Blinken.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the secretary of state assured Zelenska of the United States' commitment to Ukraine. Blinken also commended her for her work with civilians dealing with trauma and other damage from the war.

The State Department announced and then canceled a planned brief appearance by Blinken and Zelenska before photographers there.

The low-key arrival reflects that Zelenska is not traveling as an official representative of the government of her husband, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenska studied architecture in college but worked as a comedy scriptwriter, including for Zelenskyy, who was a comedian with a popular television show before winning the presidency in 2019.

During the war, Zelenskyy has won admiration from Ukrainians and Ukraine's supporters abroad by staying put in the capital, Kyiv, after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his attack on Ukraine i n February.

Zelenska largely disappeared with the couple's two children during the first months after the invasion. In an interview with Time magazine this month, she described the war forcing her to shelter away from Zelenskyy for security reasons from the first hours of Russia's bombing.

Their children, like other Ukrainians, largely have seen Zelenskyy since then in nightly video addresses he makes to the country.

Zelenska emerged from seclusion May 8 to greet Jill Biden, who was making an unannounced visit to western Ukraine.

The two first ladies met then at a school, where they hugged, talked, and joined schoolchildren making tissue-paper bears as gifts for Mother's Day.

Zelenska has taken a higher public profile since that meeting. That includes giving more newspaper interviews about Ukraine's struggles and about her projects during the conflict. She has promoted counseling for the millions of Ukrainians now dealing with grief and trauma.

She meets with Jill Biden on Tuesday and will speak in the congressional auditorium at the Capitol to lawmakers on Wednesday. Her husband received standing ovations from congressional members in a video address to lawmakers in the same auditorium earlier in the war.

Ukrainian officials did not immediately respond to questions Monday about the schedule of her visit.

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The 44th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) that will be held from 13 to 22 November announced its first batch of film titles in its line-up, including 10 films that will be having their MENA premiere.

Related Egyptian director Amir Ramses appointed director of 44th Cairo International Film Festival

Five films from the 10 revealed so far will be screened within the CIFFs Out of Competition Programme, three films at the Special Screenings, International Competition, and Midnight Screenings, in addition to two films at the International Panorama.

The 10 titles revealed are as follows:

Alcarras (Spain, Italy)

Out of Competition Programme.

Directed by Carla Simon, Alcarras received the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival this year.

The film tells the story of the daily struggles of a group of peach growers in Catalonia, Spain, and how their lives change when the owner of their large estate dies and his heir decides to sell the land, which abruptly threatens their livelihood.



EAMI (Paraguay, USA, Germany, Netherlands, Argentina, France, Mexico)

Special Screenings section.

Directed by Paz Encina, the film won the prestigious Tiger Award from the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2022.

The film follows Eami, a child who embodies a bird-god and, in a trance, imagines herself wandering through the forest in constant contact with the cruel reality that surrounds her in the form of deforestation that is a very real, very tangible danger for the Ayoreo Totobiegosode.

Tori & Lokita (France, Belgium)

Out of Competition Programme.

The film is directed by two-time Palme dOr winners Jean- Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The film was recognized at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, receiving its Special 75th Anniversary Prize.

In Belgium today, a young boy and an adolescent girl, who have travelled alone from Africa, pit their invincible friendship against the cruel conditions of their exile.

Utama (Bolivia, Uruguay, France)

Out of Competition Programme.

Director Alejandro Loayza Grisis award winning debut feature, Utama won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic competition at Sundance this year and took home top honours at the closing ceremony of the Transylvania Film Festival.

The film follows an indigenous couple trying to survive in the arid climate of the Bolivian highlands.

R.M.N (Romania, France, Belgium, Sweden)

Out of Competition Programme.

The film is directed by Palme dOr winning filmmaker Cristian Mungiu, whose previous film, Graduation, was an official selection at the 38th CIFF.

A young man makes his return from Germany to his hometown in a Transylvanian village, where his ex-lover lives with their eight-year-old mute son.



Butterfly Vision (Croatia, Czech, Sweden, Ukraine)

International Competition.

The film is directed by Maksym Nakonechynl and already competed in the Un Certain Regard Programme of the 75th Cannes Film Festival this year.

Returning home from the front line after being held captive for two months, 29-year-old soldier Lilia discovers that she is pregnant after being raped by her warden.

Robe of Gems (Argentina, Mexico)

Out of Competition Programme.

Produced by Joaquin del Paso, who received the prestigious Golden Pyramid for Best Film at the previous edition of the CIFF, the film scooped the Berlinales Silver Bear Award Jury Prize.

In rural Mexico, three women from different social classes become tragically involved with a missing person case tied to organised crime.

Final Cut (France, UK, Japan)

Midnight Screenings.

A film by Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius, Final Cut was the opening film of the Cannes International Film Festival this year.

During the preparations for a z-graded zombie themed thriller, the shooting crew suddenly experiences unexpected incidents.

Nostalgia (Italy, France)

International Panorama.

Directed by Mario Martone, Nostalgia was an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Felice Lasco returns to his hometown in Naples to look after his sick and dying mother after 45 years of absence from the city that brings back memories from the past.

A Far Shore (Japan)

International Panorama.

Directed by Masaaki Kudo, A Far Shore previously screened at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival this year.

The film follows the story of Aoi, who drops out of high school to give birth to a baby son in Okinawa, Japan. As her daily struggles worsen, leading to a social downfall, she develops a bond with her son that sets her on a path to find solutions.

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Al-Qaedas media arm As-Sahab Media Foundation released a bulletin on Monday that included a death threat against prominent Egyptian journalist and TV host Ibrahim Eissa.

The bulletin featured a cartoon picture of Eissa with a bullet aiming for his heart and a phrase reading "Who will kill this malignant [man] for us?

This bulletin is the first in a series titled Shut up the evils of media.

It attacked Eissa's statements on historical military Muslim commander Khalid ibn al-Walid on his show Mokhtalafon Alayh (Disagreed On) on the Arabic-language American satellite channel Al-Hurra.

The bulletin titled "Loyalty and Defamation on the Sword of God, Khalid ibn al-Walid said that Eissa sought to cast doubt on the credibility of ibn al-Walids Islam and challenged his sincerity to prophet Muhammed.

It claimed that Eissa is a tool used by the United States to implement its agenda in the region. It also accused him of abandoning his Islamic faith and deliberately provoking controversy over religious symbols.

Following the threats, Eissa posted on his Twitter account the Quranic verse, Nothing shall ever happen to us except what Allah has ordained for us.

Al-Qaeda's death threat has stirred controversy on social media platforms. The majority of Twitter users announced total support to Eissa and demanded his protection. They even launched the hashtag #I_support_Ibrahim_Eissa. However, others attacked him and what they described as his constant controversial statements against Islam.

Eissa has recently voiced a series of remarks that was broadly described as controversial in the Muslim-majority country.

In February, Egypt's top prosecutor ordered an investigation in complaints filed against Eissa over statements in which he questioned the Al-Miraj journey of the Prophet Muhammad.

This came a few days after Eissa claimed during his program 'Cairo Talk' on the privately owned Al-Qahera Wal Nas TV channel that "there is no Journey of Al-Miraj  it is a totally fictitious story."

In Islam, Al-Miraj journey, also known as the Night Journey, is the ascent of Prophet Muhammad to heaven where he met earlier prophets and was informed of the duty of Muslims to recite prayer five times a day.

Previously, the Sunni Muslims top religious institution Al-Azhar, has condemned the Ramdan drama series written by Ibrahim Eissa Faten Amal Harbi. Egypts Al-Azhar also warned against mocking verses of the Quran and distorting the image of clerics.

The prominent TV presenter has held a number of editorial positions, including editor-in-chief of Al-Dostour newspaper during Hosni Mubarak's last few years and El-Tahrir newspaper after the 2011 revolution.

Known for opposing Mubarak's regime, Eissa was sentenced to two months in prison in 2008 for publishing an article a year earlier in Al-Dostour that raised questions about Mubaraks health condition.

The court found Eissa's article negatively impacting the country's economy. Eissa was spared jail time by a presidential pardon from Mubarak himself.

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Talks are progressing on the opening of sea corridors to allow 20 million tonnes of grain still blocked in Ukraine and the upcoming harvests to be shipped around the world.

But even if an agreement is reached, it will not provide any immediate relief for importing countries.

Crucial negotiations

Negotiations have intensified since the beginning of June, with Turkey acting as mediator between Russia and Ukraine, which together account for around 30 percent of global trade in crops.

The talks are crucial insofar as no other country has come forward so far able to make up for the shortfall on the market of initially 25 million tonnes of Ukraine grain. And prices for agricultural commodities were already high before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, notably as a result of the post-Covid economic recovery.

The war has sparked a surge in the price of grains such as wheat and corn to levels unsustainable for countries dependent on their import, such as Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia.

In recent weeks, prices have progressively receded again on the prospect of the upcoming harvest, fears of recession and the progress made in the negotiations regarding the sea corridors.

A first round of talks in Istanbul at the start of June failed to reach agreement. But new negotiations are underway, and Ankara said on Monday that an "agreement in principle" had been found for the creation of a safe sea corridor.

Moscow hailed some "advances" overnight Tuesday to Wednesday but insisted that not all issues had been resolved.

What is Turkey's role?

"There's only a handful of countries -- Turkey is one, Qatar is another -- that's able to kind of speak to almost everybody and avoid major blowback," said Colin Clarke, director of research at the US-based Soufan Group.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has "proven that he can do it and that's why he's been a trusted broker not only by the Russians, but I think begrudgingly NATO countries -- that's the best that they have," the expert said.

Turkey had "a strong hand to play here", Clarke continued.

"Erdogan gets to play the hero, he gets to tell everybody that he's working to solve the global food crisis, but we know that Turkey is doing a lot to obstruct negotiations in other areas.

"They've got their concerns, and their priorities don't always align with the priorities of the international community, the priorities of NATO, or even the priorities of their allies."

What sort of deal?

As much as 90 percent of Ukrainian exports of wheat, corn and sunflower were transported by sea, mostly from the port of Odessa, which accounts for 60 percent of all port activity in the country.

Any agreement will necessarily entail a number of indispensable stages: the de-mining of the ports, either by the Ukrainians or by the UN; the loading of the ships under the watchful eye of the UN; the inspection of the shipments; and the escorting of the boats, as demanded by Russia to ensure that the cargoes do not include weapons, said Edward de Saint-Denis, trader at Plantureux & Associates.

A number of other points remain very controversial: if Moscow manages to control -- and even seize -- boats, will the checks be carried out in Ukrainian or international waters? Which vessels will be authorised to transport the shipments and what will the nationality of their crews be?

"Russians don't want Ukrainians and vice versa," de Saint-Denis said.

At one point, Turkey suggested using its fleet, but a compromise could be reached to use "flags of convenience", according to one market observer.

What are the consequences?

"In the very short term, agreement would bring down prices, but in terms of the flow of grain shipments, nothing would change immediately," said Edward de Saint-Denis.

"One or two months would be needed to de-mine the ports," the expert said.

And the loading areas would have to be renovated, notably in Odessa where part of the port administration was damaged in the fighting, he said.

Despite the various possible obstacles, agricultural market analyst, Gautier Le Molgat said that it was now "in everyone's interests that maritime traffic resumes on the Black Sea: first and foremost for the Ukrainians, but also for the Russians, who have an exceptional harvest to export".

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Egypt began the construction of the first reactor at El-Dabaa plant, the country's first nuclear power plant to generate electricity, stated the Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA) on Wednesday.

The plant is located in the northwestern governorate of Marsa Matrouh.

Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker and General Director of Russias State Atomic Energy Corporation (ROSATOM) Alexei Likhachev attended the ceremony at the plant, giving the green light to start the construction works.

Shaker said that El-Dabaas reactors comply with the International Atomic Energy Agencys (IAEA) safety measurements. They can endure earthquakes and airplane crashes, he noted, adding that the reactor's operating span may extend to 60 years.

Building El-Dabaa NPP allows Egypt the chance to achieve a new level of industry and technology. This will be the biggest project between Russia and Egypt since establishing the High Dam project in Aswan. It has been a dream of Egyptians to acquire nuclear energy for more than half a century. ROSATOM is honoured to fulfil it, the Twitter account of the Russian Embassy in Egypt quoted Likhachev as saying at the ceremony.

The event was attended by Osama Asran, the deputy minister of electricity and renewable energy, CEO of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) Gaber Desouky, Advisor to the Minister of Electricity Amgad Said, a delegation of senior officials from Russian companies implementing the project, as well as Amgad El-Wakil, the chairman of the NPPA, which organised the event.

El-Wakil told Al-Ahram Arabic news website on Wednesday that El-Dabaa is located on the Mediterranean, 140 kilometres west of Alexandria.

He noted that funding for the project is based on a governmental financial agreement. Loans will be acquired after operating the plant and collecting revenues from electricity generation.

El-Wakil said the project is expected to generate net revenues of $264 billion for the state treasury over 60 years.

In December 2017, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement in Cairo to initiate work on the plant at a construction cost of $28.75 billion.

Russia will finance 85 percent of the cost with a loan of $25 billion, while Egypt will provide the remaining 15 percent in the form of installments. The Russian loan is repaid over 22 years, with an annual interest of three percent.

On 30 June 2022, the Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (ENRRA) permitted ROSATOM to start the construction work on El-Dabaa project, which Egypt and Russia signed an agreement to build in November 2015 to generate a total of 4,800 megawatts via four reactors.

Earlier in June, ROSATOM announced that it started the manufacture in Saint Petersburg of electrical components for the plants reactor vessel, according to Sputnik news agency.

ROSATOM had submitted a request to establish the first two reactors out of four reactors in January 2019, and received the permission in June 2021, after safety measures were checked and qualified workers and means of conducting safety tests were available.

El-Dabaa NPP is designed according to the latest 3+ Generation which is fully compliant with all post-Fukushima requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

ROSATOM had previously announced that 40% of the cost of Dabaa nuclear power plant is allocated for safety measures.

The four units of the plant are expected to operate at full capacity of 4,800 megawatts by 2030, with the first reactor operating at a capacity of 1,200 Megawatts at the first phase, said El-Wakil.

According to the projects design, the nuclear plant will have four VVER-1,200 reactor units, with the first unit scheduled for operation in 2026.

In November 2021, Egypt signed a long-term $1 million agreement with the Czech UJV Rez Research and Development company to consult on El-Dabaa Nuclear Plant, according to ENRRA Chairperson Sami Shaaban.

According to the contract, UJV Rez will provide technical assistance to the ENRRA in licensing the nuclear plant.

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A total of 38 million Egyptians have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus, Health Spokesman of the Egyptian Ministry of Health Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar told Ahram Online on Wednesday.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly today to review the pandemic situation in Egypt and abroad, acting Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said 1,393 vaccination centres have been allocated in Egypt.

Abdel-Ghaffar stated that the occupancy rates at isolation hospitals of the Health Ministry do not exceed 12 percent for ICU beds and 4 percent for ventilators, noting that these are "satisfying rates".

He added that the number of infections worldwide continues to increase for the fifth week in a row, pointing out that the latest drop was recorded in March.

The number of Covid cases globally increased 15 percent during the week from July 4 until July 10, while deaths went up by 7 percent compared with the previous week.

In Egypt, numbers also increased during the 28th week of the year 2022 in the period from July 10 to July 16, the minister said citing data from 542 hospitals.

During the meeting, Madbouly noted that the new local and global surge of infection requires committing to all precautionary measures, atop of which is wearing face masks in crowded places.

Positive Covid cases are required to quarantine for a minimum of five days from the test day and should remain wearing face masks for another five days after healing, the minister advised.

The minister had stated earlier this week that 97 percent of the COVID-19 cases in Egypt are of the Omicron variant.

Most infections in Egypt do not require isolation at hospitals but at home for five to seven days, he explained.

Sore throat is the most common symptom of COVID-19 followed by headache and blocked nose, the Egyptian Health and Population Ministry has stated.

The ministry published a list of new symptoms including coughing, sneezing, fatigue, and muscle aches based on the data collected by Zoe application, which is a COVID-19 epidemiological research mobile app developed in the United Kingdom.

Earlier pandemic symptoms such as fever as well as loss of taste and smell were mentioned at the bottom of the list as the least reported symptoms of COVID-19 currently.

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President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi urged Serbian businessmen on Wednesday to participate in Egypts national projects, especially those related to the countrys ports, stressing their promising investment opportunities.

El-Sisi made his remarks during his participation in the Egyptian-Serbian Businessmen Forum along with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic in the capital, Belgrade.

The president also stressed Egypts keenness to foster closer economic and trade cooperation with Serbian businessmen and companies to boost joint investments and contribute to supporting the development process in Egypt, Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Rady said in a statement.

El-Sisi affirmed that this can be achieved within the framework of joint action to maximise mutual benefits and leverage existing opportunities in light of the numerous fields and promising investment opportunities in Egypt.

These include in particular the sectors of tourism, pharmaceutical industries, communications, IT, infrastructure, real estate, administrative housing, and also agricultural products, he added.

Furthermore, El-Sisi said Egypt achieved a significant leap in its developmental sectors, adding that over the past seven years, the countrys infrastructure witnessed great development, citing the implementation of about 6,000 projects at a value of EGP 8 trillion.

He also referred to modern roads and railway projects across the country, noting that Egypt is establishing within the next two to three years a 2,000-kilometre high-speed rail system.

El-Sisi is paying his first visit to the Republic of Serbia and the first by an Egyptian president since 1987.

The visit witnessed the launch of an integrated strategic partnership that outlines a common vision for the various aspects of cooperation between Egypt and Serbia, as well as ways to advance them.

He also witnessed  along with his Serbian counterpart  the signing of a series of agreements covering several fields, including higher education, agriculture, arts and culture, environment protection, and others.

Trade exchange between Egypt and Serbia amounted to about $79.7 million in 2021, $42.4 million of which were from Egyptian exports and $37.4 million were imports, according to Minister of Trade and Industry Nevine Gamea, who accompanied El-Sisi on his visit.

According to Gamea, the most important items of trade exchange between the two countries include phosphates, vegetables, fruits, plastics, fertilisers, tobacco, machinery, and electrical appliances.

Additionally, she said that Serbia is participating in projects in the Egyptian market with a capital of $47 million in the industry, services, construction, tourism, communications, IT, and agriculture sectors.

Gamea made her remarks during a separate meeting with Serbian Minister of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications Tatjana Matic in which they tackled means of boosting cooperation between both countries to face the current global economic repercussions resulting from the Russian-Ukrainian War and the coronavirus pandemic.

The Egyptian minister affirmed that both countries have great opportunities to enhance cooperation in the areas of developing small and medium enterprises, industrial training, establishing logistical areas, and tourism, according to a statement released by the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry.

These cooperative fields can also extend to the private sectors of the two countries, particularly the automobile, agriculture, medical supplies, communications, and IT industries, she added.

The minister also called for increasing the rates of intra-regional trade and facilitating the movement of trade exchange between the two countries in order to capitalise on all the investment and trade potentials and opportunities in the two nations and turning them into concrete cooperation projects.

Furthermore, negotiations on free trade between both nations are expected to be completed by the end of October, the Serbian president pointed out during a press conference with El-Sisi earlier on Wednesday.

Gamea then explained that the Serbian market can be a hub for the entry of Egyptian exports to the markets of eastern and southern European countries.

There is a great opportunity to increase Egyptian exports to Serbia, especially petrochemical products, pharmaceuticals, salt, polyethylene, building materials, and engineering goods, the statement quoted Gamea as saying.

The Serbian minister, for her part, said Belgrade is keen to strengthen economic cooperation with Egypt, given that it is one of the most important countries in the Middle East and an important trade hub for the markets of Africa, the statement noted.

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By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend the opening ceremony of the new Zangilan International Airport, Azernews reports with reference to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

He made the remarks at the meeting with Turkish Family and Social Services Minister Derya Yanik in Baku on July 19.

Aliyev also emphasized that Turkiye was currently on the path to development and there was stability in the country, which makes the people of Azerbaijan very happy.

Referring to the visit of a delegation headed by Derya Yanik to Shusha, Aliyev noted that bilateral relations had reached the highest peak after the signing of the Shusha Declaration. The president of Azerbaijan added that the signing of this Declaration in the sacred city of Shusha was of particular importance.

To recap, Fuzuli Airport, which was constructed in Azerbaijans liberated Fuzuli region less than a year, was also inaugurated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on October 26, 2021. The airport is considered one of the grand construction projects that were carried out in Azerbaijans liberated lands following the 30 years of Armenian occupation. The construction of airports in the liberated Zangilan and Lachin regions is currently underway. The airports are believed to boost the regions' tourism and business potential.
Turkish artillery strikes killed at least eight tourists, among them a toddler, in northern Iraq and wounded over 20, Iraqi Kurdish government and hospital officials, and the army said on Wednesday.

At least four artillery shells struck the resort area of Barakh in the Zakho district in the semi-autonomous Kurdish-run region, District Mayor Mushir Mohammed told The Associated Press. All the casualties were Iraqi citizens.

Iraq's military said eight were killed in the attack. Health workers at the Bidar Hospital in Dohuk province, which received patients, said nine were killed.

Dozens of wounded people sat outside the hospital. Critically injured patients, including young children with stunned faces, were transferred in gurneys. Inside, a toddler was pronounced dead along with her mother.

Among the wounded was Yousef, a tourist from Baghdad. He said many tour groups were vacationing in the area at the time of the attack.

Iraq's government condemned the attack, calling it a ``flagrant violation of Iraq's sovereignty,'' according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Separately, six federal police personnel were killed and five were wounded in the northern province of Salahadin after Islamic State militants attacked their units at dawn on Wednesday, according to two officials in the Iraqi army who spoke on conditon of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Hundreds of Iraqi tourists come to the Kurdish region from the south during the peak summer months because the weather is relatively cooler.

The touristic sites in Zakho is nearby military bases set up by Turkey.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi dispatched a delegation to the area lead by Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and ordered an investigation into the incident.

Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes into northern Iraq and has sent commandos to support its offensives targeting elements of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party or PKK.

Wednesday's attack marked the first time that tourists had been killed in the frequent attacks by Turkey in the area, the officials said. Turkish strikes in the area are common and have killed civilians, mostly local villagers, there before.

In April, Turkey launched its latest offensive, named Operation Claw Lock, in parts of northern Iraq - part of a series of cross-border operations started in 2019 to combat the outlawed PKK who are based in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq.

The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, and has led an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984 which has killed tens of thousands of people.

Ankara has pressed Baghdad to root out PKK elements from the northern region. Iraq, in turn, has said Turkey's ongoing attacks are in breach of its sovereignty.

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Egypt has strongly condemned a terrorist bombing that occurred in the Iraqi Salahuddin province and resulted in the killing of several members of the Iraqi police forces, a press release by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.

Egypt extends its deepest condolences and sincere sympathy for the government and people of Iraq as well as the families of the victims, and wishes the injured a speedy recovery, said the ministry.

It added that Egypt supports the measures taken by Iraq to safeguard its security and stability.

Two Iraqi federal police officers were killed and four others injured in clashes with Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in the Salahuddin province, an Iraqi security source said on Wednesday.



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Egypt and Serbia launched on Wednesday an integrated strategic partnership and signed a series of agreements covering several fields, as the Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is paying his first visit to the Republic of Serbia and the first by an Egyptian president since 1987.

The deals  signed during a ceremony attended by El-Sisi and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic  included a host of memoranda of understanding (MoUs)in the fields of higher education, agriculture, arts and culture, environment protection, and others.

The deals also included an MoU between Radio Television of Serbia and the Egyptian National Media Authority, and an MoU between the Museum of African Arts in Serbia and the Museum of Civilisation in Egypt.

Additionally, an MoU was signed between the Serbian Development Agency and the Egyptian General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), and another one between the Serbian Development Agency and the Enterprise Development Agency in the field of small and medium enterprises.

El-Sisi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday in the first visit by an Egyptian president to Serbia since July 1987, during the tenure of late Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

On Wednesday, El-Sisi held high-level consultations with his Serbian counterpart in which the two leaders touched upon means of enhancing bilateral relations between both nations at various levels.

In a joint press conference with Vucic following their talks, El-Sisi said the visit comes at a vital time to reflect how Egypt is keen to further its bilateral relations with Serbia.

El-Sisi added that todays meeting is a culmination of the joint efforts exerted by both countries to advance bilateral cooperation.

He added that the integrated strategic framework launched on Wednesday outlines a common vision for the various aspects of cooperation between Egypt and Serbia, as well as ways to advance them.

The partnership confirms our common political will in this regard and paves the way for a new phase of the partnership linking the two countries, the Egyptian president added.

Furthermore, El-Sisi asserted that he agreed with Vucic on pressing ahead with mechanisms of political consultations between the two countries, in addition to discussions through the Joint Committee for Economic, Technical, and Scientific Cooperation.

They also agreed to look into the possibility of enhancing cooperation between the two countries in the fields of trade, investment, tourism, communications, and IT.

Additionally, the Egyptian president welcomed boosting cooperation with the Serbian side in various fields, especially the military, economy, trade, and tourism.

Moreover, he highlighted the consensus of visions between Egypt and Serbia on regional and international situations, adding that the state of instability in the international arena requires joint action by countries that share similar orientations, especially in the areas of energy and regional security.

El-Sisi also shed light on the deeply rooted Egyptian-Serbian ties, especially at the level of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), expressing Cairos interest in developing these relations in all fields, pursuing coordination and political consultation, and exploring aspects of cooperation between them.

He added that Egyptian-Serbian diplomatic ties date back to 1908, praising the role of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel-Nasser and former Serbian president Josip Tito in laying the foundation of the movement.

In October, Serbia celebrated the 60th anniversary of the first conference it hosted for the NAM.

For his part, Vucic said both countries are working on establishing a direct airline from Belgrade to Cairo by March to make it easier for businesspeople to invest in Serbia and Egypt.

He also pointed out that the negotiations on free trade between both nations will be completed by the end of October.

There is a lot of room for cooperation in the field of military industry, but there are also huge opportunities in health care, both in the form of exchange and scholarships for students, he added.

Furthermore, the Serbian president said that his country is keen on bolstering its relations with Egypt at all levels, adding that the North African state plays a pivotal role as a pillar of stability, security, and peace in the Middle East and Africa.

He added that Egypt has achieved a remarkable development boom in recent years, indicating that Belgrade looks forward to enhancing mutual investments with Cairo in many sectors and augment trade exchange volume.

Vucic also indicated that Serbia seeks a qualitative leap in its economic relations with Egypt, especially through the participation of Serbian companies in the implementation of giant national projects in the country.

Both presidents also discussed the developments of a number of regional and international issues of mutual interest, notably the war in Ukraine and its repercussions on the global economy.

El-Sisi reiterated that the Egyptian stance seeks a peaceful solution to the conflict and expressed willingness to exert all possible efforts  whether at the bilateral, regional, or international levels  to achieve that end and spare the peoples of the world the negative repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian War.

The talks also tackled the situation in the east Mediterranean, Palestine, Yemen, Syria, and Libya.

In this respect, the Serbian president said Egypt plays a positive role in the pursuit of political settlements for all existing crises in its regional milieu, as well as reinforcing bridges of dialogue between African, Arab, and European countries.

He also praised Egypts efforts to combat extremist ideologies and irregular migration, as well as establish principles and values of acceptance of others, freedom of choice, and tolerance.

Following the presser, the Serbian president bestowed the Order of the Republic of Serbia upon his Egyptian counterpart.

El-Sisi then thanked Vucic for the honourable gesture, expressing his aspiration that the next period will witness more cooperation and coordination between both countries.

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Hot air balloon flights have been resumed in the Egyptian tourist hotspot of Luxor in the early hours of Wednesday after an almost two-day suspension that was imposed in the wake of a balloon drifting off its course on Monday and slightly injuring two tourists.

A hot air balloon that was carrying 28 passengers drifted into the airspace of another at an altitude of 60 metres and a speed of seven knots, leading to tears in the first balloon.

The balloon managed to land safely, however, two of the passengers were slightly injured and promptly transferred to a nearby hospital to receive treatment, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement earlier this week.

Following the accident, the ministry suspended the hot air balloon activity until further notice, forming a committee of safety experts to investigate the accident, before it announced on Wednesday the end of the suspension period.

The decision to lift the suspension was taken after the committee tasked with the investigation inspected all the safety procedures and steps taken to operate the balloons in Luxor, the ministry said.

It also added that the committee checked on all passengers who were on board the two balloons in Mondays accident, confirming that no complaints have been made by the passengers with regard to the operational procedures of the two trips.

Moreover, the tourists praised the procedures that were taken during the emergency landing, the statement added.

However, the ministry stated that the suspension will remain in place for the two companies that were operating the two balloons in Mondays incident until the conclusion of further investigations.

Hot air ballooning over Luxor  a home to a myriad of ancient sites  is a popular attraction in which tourists enjoy the panoramic view of ancient Egyptian temples and green agricultural fields.

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The Egyptian Cabinet agreed on Wednesday a draft resolution allowing locals and foreigners to take photos and record videos in public places for non-commercial purposes without a permit.

The regulatory draft resolution affirms that photography for personal use using any type of camera is allowed in public places free of charge and without the need to obtain a permit, a statement by the Cabinet read.

However, cinematography, TV photography, and taking photos or filming for documentaries or commercial, professional, and conversational purposes still require permits.

Shooting for journalistic, media, advertising, and professional purposes also require permits, according to the Cabinet.

In an interview with Al-Hekaya TV programme on MBC Masr on Tuesday, Minister of Tourism Khaled El-Enani said foreign journalists and TV channels will still require permits from the State Information Service (SIS) before shooting.

However, the SIS is the only authority they have to visit as it will finalize all required papers for them, he said.

Concerning cinematic photography, El-Enani said that the Egyptian Media Production City (EMPC) is the current authority in charge of issuing permits.

Circumstances requiring permit

The resolution also determined that shooting equipment is not to be used and places where it is prohibited without a permit.

This includes state institutions such as ministries, legislative councils, government facilities, police stations, buildings and sites belonging to the Armed Forces, and other sovereign and security authorities.

This includes professional photography umbrellas, artificial outdoor lighting gear, and equipment that occupies or blocks public roads, according to another Cabinet statement on Wednesday.

The resolution also forbids taking photos of children and affirms that Egyptian citizens can only be photographed after obtaining their written permission.

It is completely forbidden to take or share photographs of scenes that can, in one way or another, damage the countrys image, the statement said.

Photography in archaeological sites

Photography at archeological sites under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities for personal use is permitted for Egyptians and tourists in accordance with the Supreme Council of Antiquities Board of Directors 2019 decision, the statement said.

Taking photos with mobile phones, cameras, and video cameras is allowed inside museums and archaeological sites without using flash indoors, the ministry added.

The Supreme Council of Antiquities also set new regulations for commercial, promotional, and cinematic photography in Egyptian museums and at archaeological sites.

Photography permits (daily, weekly, and monthly) have been implemented as an incentive for producers and companies to film in these areas, the statement said.

These decisions are derived from the efforts of the Ministry to promote cultural tourism and Egypts unique civilization and aim to encourage tourist activities in Egypt.

Commercial, cinematic photography

The permit service for commercial and cinematic filming is undergoing its final phase before its release on the Ministrys official website to be launched soon, the ministry said. The website will include regulations in different languages for taking photographs in public areas.

Although photography in public places is not illegal in Egyptian law except in certain places such as inside and around security and military sites, it still requires a permit.

Over the past years, foreign professional photographers claimed that police prevented them from taking photos or asked them to delete some of their footage.

American vlogger William Sonnebuchner advised against visiting Egypt in a series of videos he posted on YouTube in April, asserting that the police held him back from shooting and seized his equipment.

YouTuber Sonnebuchner, whose Best Ever Food Review Show channel has almost 9 million subscribers, has dubbed Egypt the worst place to shoot in Africa.

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Member of Parliament Mohamed Saad El-Samoudi submitted a briefing request on Wednesday for Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities Assem El-Gazzar, calling to cancel the newly imposed entrance fees on Ahl Masr Walkway (Mamsha Ahl Masr).

The initial goal of the project was to improve the quality of life of Egyptian citizens as a fully equipped park for Egyptians thats free of charge, El-Samoudi said, citing Madboulys remarks during the opening ceremony of the walkway.

Visitors of Ahl Masr Walkway, which was opened in March on the banks of the Nile, were faced with EGP 20 entrance fees following the Eid El-Adha holidays.

El-Samoudi went on to explain that a five-person family would have to pay EGP 100 just to access the walkway, calling on Madbouly to reassess this decision and cancel the entrance fees.

Moreover, Khaled Ali, prominent human rights lawyer and activist, also announced on Wednesday that his office has filed a lawsuit against the PM, housing minister, and the Urban Communities Authority, demanding the cancellation of the fees that were imposed on the promenade.

Ali and El-Samoudis responses came as a result of a recent controversy stirred on social media platforms as a result of circulated photos for the new released tickets of the walkway.

Earlier on Monday and Tuesday, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Housing Amr Khattab, however, justified the decision in various TV phone-ins by saying that these fees would go towards maintenance, which is a necessity to fight vandalism, and that it is limited to a certain area within the walkway.

He also clarified that they have been receiving numerous complaints about vandalism in the bottom section, as well as photographs that showcase a lack of discipline on the promenade.

Furthermore, Khattab revealed that the returns from the entrance fees will be invested in contracts with security and maintenance firms for the project.

He reassured Egyptians that, due to the change in plans of having to implement entrance fees, utilities and kiosks have been added to the upper section, such as fast-food restaurants.

The first phase of the walkway  which was opened in March  is located along the eastern bank of the Nile River, stretching from the 15 May Bridge to Imbaba Bridge with a total length of 1,800 metres.

Also, the upper walkway is 4.5 metres wide and exhibits natural green scenery, including 260 palm trees, 235 miscellaneous trees, and other small plants.

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Major challenges lie ahead for African leaders seeking to breathe new life into the G5 Sahel anti-jihadist force.

The five-nation mission began operations in 2017, showcased as an unprecedented example of cooperation in one of the world's troubled regions.

But the force -- originally gathering Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger -- has achieved meagre results and the Sahel's security crisis continues to deepen.

Added to this have been two hammer blows, delivered in quick succession this year.

In April, 1,200 Chadian soldiers based in Niger left in secret for N'Djamena, according to G5 and French military officials.

The following month, Mali announced it would leave the group over a dispute with France, forcing all the force's commanders to abandon their base in Bamako and relocate to the Chadian capital N'Djamena.

"They left overnight, leaving everything behind, even the cars," a G5 official told AFP.

"The G5 is dead," Niger's president, Mohamed Bazoum, told the French newspaper La Croix in May.

But last week, he and President Mahamat Idriss Deby of Chad sounded a different tone, announcing an upcoming meeting between the force's four remaining members to "ensure that the G5 is viable."

"We have not yet considered that it is over for the G5 Sahel -- we will fight," Bazoum said. "Let's remain optimistic."

An immense task

The regional grouping began with an ambitious idea to create a joint military force that would go hand in hand with development projects.

The force was largely financed by the European Union (EU) and its operations were supported by France.

It represented, in the eyes of international partners, a solution in a region plagued by jihadist violence.

Its eight battalions comprised about 5,000 troops, based in their own countries, with the exception of a Chadian battalion deployed in Niger. They were tasked with coordinating operations in the hotspot border areas.

There are numerous reasons for its decline, two G5 officials told AFP.

These include chronic underfunding, disparate political will among member countries and regional politics.

Mali has undergone two coups in two years, and there have been military takeovers in Burkina Faso and Chad.

In 2021, Chad was meant to hand the G5 presidency over to Mali but did not -- a move that Bamako interpreted as French interference.

Paris is reputedly close with N'Djamena, and Mali's ruling junta, led by Colonel Assimi Goita, lashed the G5's "instrumentalisation" before slamming the door.

"It would be hard not to see the French hand behind this refusal to transfer the presidency," said Malian researcher Boubacar Haidara.

The G5 Sahel "has been perceived since the beginning as being controlled by Paris," said Ornella Moderan, from the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

But, she said, it has above all "suffered from variable political support from one member state to another."

Since the creation of the G5, "there have been no joint operations between Burkina and Mali, let alone between Niger and Mali," Niger's foreign minister, Hassoumi Massoudou, said last week.

A 'necessary tool'

In Burkina Faso, people are questioning "the survival of the G5," according to a source close to the authorities, although no departure is in sight.

Despite the force's travails, Burkinabe troops in the G5 have continued to operate with the Nigeriens in recent months.

"There is no other option than to work together," said a member of the joint force.

"Can the G5-Sahel pull through?" asked Mahamat Saleh Annadif, a senior UN official.

"I can't say, but in any case, by design, it remains a necessary tool."

But how can the remaining four states be convinced to stay without the participation of Mali, whose territory is the epicentre of the conflict?

"Being a member of the G5 brings money and logistical support from partners -- the states know that," said an African diplomat in Bamako.

The diplomat said the UN provides G5 contingents with fuel and food -- things that are always needed for troops, whether or not they are wearing the G5 badge.

For Massoudou, the G5 Sahel's future lies with Bamako.

"When Mali has democratically elected authorities who normalise relations with its neighbours, we could revive this organisation," he said.

Mali's military junta has bust up with France and its relationship with the UN peacekeeping mission is also suffering friction.

And it has only just turned the page on a political tussle with the regional bloc ECOWAS over its return to civil rule. Delayed elections are now scheduled for February 2024.

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The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) announced on Wednesday the measures of the acquisition deal of Belton Financial Holding anticipated to be conducted by UAE-based Chimera Investments.

Egypts Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) approved on Tuesday the request the company submitted for a non-binding offer to acquire a controlling stake in Egypt-based Beltone Financial Holding.

EGX set the price at EGP 1.4 per share for a total stake of 417,130,874 shares, representing 90 percent of Beltons shares listed in the EGX.

The bid will commence on 21 July over 10 days and is expected to be concluded on 3 August, according to EGX.

In June, Chimera submitted its request, the second acquisition offer Beltone received last month. The first was by an investor alliance led by Egypt-based WM Consultancy, which submitted a non-binding offer to the FRA to purchase a majority stake in Beltone at a minimum of 51 percent and a maximum of 90 percent at a preliminary price of EGP 1.35 per share.

According to Chimeras submission, the company plans to acquire between 51 percent and 90 percent of Beltones shares according to Law 95/1992 that regulates Egypt's capital market.

The company said it will submit the required documents, including the purchase offer and legal documents, and will fulfil the required procedures once it claims all the approvals from the concerned bodies in Egypt and the UAE.

Established in 2006, Beltone is an investment company that focuses on investment banking and brokerage. It has been listed on the EGX since April 2008.

In September 2021, the FRA approved raising Beltones issued and paid-up capital to EGP 926.9 million, up from EGP 891.3 million.

The deal is part of Chimeras expansion plan in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

In 2021, the company stated that it is investing $100 million in Egyptian developer Gemini Global Development, a subsidiary of Ora Developers owned by businessman Naguib Sawiris, with the aim of acquiring a minority equity in the company.

The UAE has been showing a significant appetite for acquisition deals in the Egyptian market in 2022.

In July, Abu Dhabi-based food and beverage company Agthia acquired a 60 percent stake in Egypts Auf Group, a healthy snacks and coffee manufacturer.

In April, Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADQ)  also known as the Abu Dhabi Wealth Fund  completed acquisition deals for five companies in Egypt, including private sector institutions and state-owned firms with a total value of $1.8 billion.

In September 2021, the company acquired a 75 percent stake in Egypt-based meat processor Ismailia Investments, aka Atyab.

In May, the UAE government announced an investment fund to the tune of $10 billion under the Partnership Industrial Initiative that encompasses Egypt, Jordan, and the UAE to implement sustainable economic development projects between the three countries.

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The United States will provide four more precision rocket systems to Ukraine to help it battle Russia's invasion, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday.

His Ukrainian counterpart had asked the day before for Washington to send more M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars) saying Kyiv's forces have used them to destroy some 30 Russian command stations and ammunition depots so far.

Washington will send "four more Himars advanced rocket systems for a total of 16. The Ukrainians have made excellent use of Himars, and you can see the impact on the battlefield," Austin told journalists at the Pentagon.

"Russia is keeping up its relentless shelling, and that's a cruel tactic that harkens back to the horrors of World War I. So Ukraine needs the firepower and the ammunition to withstand this barrage and to strike back," he said.

The United States will also send additional GMLRS ammunition, which can precisely strike targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov on Tuesday requested a major increase in the number of Himars, saying at least 100 were needed for an effective counter-offensive against Moscow's troops.

Reznikov also renewed a call for longer-range ammunition, 100 to 150 kilometers, to cut off Russian units from their support.

Asked about longer-range ammunition on Wednesday, Austin said: "We think what they have and what they're working with is really giving them a lot of capability."

Milley noted that Himars launchers can hold six GMLRS rockets but only one ATACMS missile, which can strike targets up to 300 kilometers away, meaning there is a trade-off between volume and range.

"Right now, the GMLRS is really fulfilling their need," Milley said.

President Joe Biden's administration has so far refused to send longer-range ammunition, fearing that Ukraine would strike targets inside Russian territory and potentially expand the war into a direct clash with the West.

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For weeks Natalya Zadoyanova had lost contact with her younger brother Dmitriy, who was trapped in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

Russian forces had bombed the orphanage where he worked, and he was huddling with dozens of others in the freezing basement of a building without doors and windows. When she next heard from him, he was in tears.

``I'm alive,'' he told her. ``I'm in Russia.''

Zadoyanov was facing the next chapter of devastation for the people of Mariupol and other occupied cities: Forcible transfers to Russia, the nation that killed their neighbors and shelled their hometowns almost into oblivion.

Nearly 2 million Ukrainians refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these transfers as forced journeys to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations.

An Associated Press investigation has found that while the picture is more nuanced than the Ukrainian government suggests, many refugees are indeed forced into Russia, subjected to abuse, stripped of documents and unclear about their futures, or even locations.

It starts with a poisoned choice: Die in Ukraine or live in Russia. They are taken through a series of what are known as filtration points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip searches to being yanked aside and never seen again.

Refugees described an old woman who died of the cold, her body swollen, and an evacuee beaten so severely that her back was covered in bruises.

Those who ``pass'' the filtrations are invited to stay and often promised a payment of about 10,000 rubles ($170) that they may or may not get. Sometimes their Ukrainian passports are taken away, and the chance of Russian citizenship is offered instead. And sometimes, they are pressured to sign documents incriminating the Ukrainian government and military.

Those with no money or contacts in Russia, the majority, by most accounts, can only go where they are sent. The AP verified that Ukrainians have received temporary accommodation in more than two dozen Russian cities and localities.

However, the AP investigation also found signs of dissent within Russia to the government narrative that Ukrainians are being rescued from Nazis.

Almost all the refugees the AP interviewed spoke gratefully about Russians who quietly helped them through a clandestine network, retrieving documents, finding shelter, buying train and bus fare, exchanging Ukrainian hryvnia for Russian rubles and even lugging the makeshift baggage that holds the remains of their pre-war lives.

The investigation is the most extensive to date on the transfers, based on interviews with 36 Ukrainians mostly from Mariupol who left for Russia, including 11 still there and others in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia, Ireland, Germany and Norway.

The AP also drew on interviews with Russian underground volunteers, video footage, Russian legal documents and Russian state media.

Exhausted and hungry in the basement in Mariupol, Zadoyanov finally accepted the idea of evacuation. The buses went only to Russia.

Along the way, Russian authorities searched his phone and interrogated him. Zadoyanov was asked what it meant to be baptized, and whether he had sexual feelings toward a boy in the camp.

He and the others were taken to the train station and told their destination would be Nizhny Novgorod, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the Ukrainian border. From the train, Zadoyanov called Natalya in Poland. Her panic rose.

Get off the train, she said. Now.

The transfer of hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine is part of a deliberate, systemic strategy, as laid out in government documents.

Some Ukrainians stay in Russia because while they may be technically free to leave, they have nowhere to go, no money, no documents or no way to cross the distances in a sprawling country twice the size of the United States.

Others may have family and strong ties in Russia, or prefer to start anew in a country where they at least speak the language. And some wrongly fear that if they return, Ukraine will prosecute them for going to the enemy.

Lyudmila Bolbad's family walked out of Mariupol and ended up taking the 9-day train trip to the city of Khabarovsk, near the Chinese border and nearly 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) from Ukraine.

Bolbad and her husband found work in a factory. Little else has gone as they'd hoped.

They handed over their Ukrainian passports in exchange for promises of Russian citizenship, only to discover that landlords will not rent to Ukrainians without a valid identity document.

The promised payments are slow to come, and they have been stranded with hundreds of others from Mariupol in a rundown hotel with barely edible food. But if she returns, Bolbad thinks Ukraine would see her as a traitor, and she plans to stay in Russia.

``We're trying to return to a normal life somehow, to encourage ourselves to start our life from scratch,'' she said.

For Ukrainians trying to escape, help often comes from an unexpected source: Russians.

On a recent day in Estonia, a Russian tattoo artist accompanied a family from Mariupol across the border to a shelter.

The tattoo artist, who asked that his name be withheld because he still lives in Russia, was the last in a chain of volunteers that stretched 1,900 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Taganrog and Rostov to Narva, the Estonian border town.

He boards in St. Petersburg a couple of times a week, going to Finland and sometimes Estonia.

He said Russians who help know each other only through Telegram, nearly all keeping anonymous ``because everyone is afraid of some kind of persecution.''

``I can't stop it,'' he said of the war and the deportation of Ukrainians to Russia. ``This is what I can do.``

In May, volunteers in Penza in Russia shut down their efforts to help Ukrainian refugees because of anonymous threats. The threats included slashed tires, the Russian symbol Z painted in white on a windshield and graffiti on doors and gates calling them the likes of ``Ukro-Nazi'' helpers.

For Zadoyanov and many others, the lifeline out of Russia was Russians.

Zadoyanov got off the train to Nizhny Novgorod with the other Ukrainians, and church contacts there gave them shelter and the first steps in finding a way out of Russia into Georgia.

``He was so emotionally damaged,'' said his sister, Natalya. ``Everyone was.''

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By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg discussed cooperation prospects, regional issues, as well as current situation at the NATO headquarters, Azernews reports, per the ministry.

A meeting was held as part of Bayramovs business trip to Brussels on July 19, the report adds.

Current state of NATO-Azerbaijan partnership and ways of its further development were discussed at a meeting with Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. The sides also exchanged views on key international and regional developments, Bayramov wrote on his Twitter account.

During the meeting, Bayramov expressed pleasure with the outcome reached through the Azerbaijan-NATO partnership. He underlined Azerbaijans participation in NATO operations as part of its contributions to international peace and security.

The minister briefed the NATO chief about the Azerbaijani government's rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in the lands liberated from the Armenian occupation. In this context, Bayramov emphasized the harmful impact of Armenian-planted landmines, which make it difficult for internally displaced Azerbaijanis to return home and delay the rehabilitation efforts.

Furthermore, Azerbaijan's initiatives in many areas regarding the normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations in the post-conflict period were observed, and opinions were exchanged on this subject.

Stoltenberg described Azerbaijan as a reliable partner and praised the country's defense reforms and contributions to NATO operations. The secretary-general also underscored Azerbaijan's important role in securing Europe's energy security.

As part of his Brussels visit, Bayramov also attended the 18th Azerbaijan-European Union Cooperation Council meeting on July 19.
Researcher Dhruv Sareens own stem cells are now orbiting the Earth. The mission? To test whether theyll grow better in zero gravity.

Scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles are trying to find new ways to produce huge batches of a type of stem cell that can generate nearly any other type of cell in the body  and potentially be used to make treatments for many diseases. The cells arrived over the weekend at the International Space Station on a supply ship.

I dont think I would be able to pay whatever it costs now to take a private ride to space, Sareen said. At least a part of me in cells can go up!

The experiment is the latest research project that involves shooting stem cells into space. Some, like this one, aim to overcome the terrestrial difficulty of mass producing the cells. Others explore how space travel impacts the cells in the body. And some help better understand diseases such as cancer.

By pushing the boundaries like this, its knowledge and its science and its learning, said Clive Svendsen, executive director of Cedars-Sinais Regenerative Medicine Institute.

Six earlier projects from the U.S., China and Italy sent up various types of stem cells  including his teams study of the effects of microgravity on cell-level heart function, said Dr. Joseph Wu of Stanford University, who directs the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. Wu helped coordinate a series of programs on space-based stem cell research last year.

Earthly applications of much of this research may be a little ways off.

At this point, the only stem cell-based products approved by the Food and Drug Administration contain blood-forming stem cells from umbilical cord blood for patients with blood disorders such as certain cases of lymphoma. There are no approved therapies using the kind of stem cells being sent to space or others derived from them, said Jeffrey Millman, a biomedical engineering expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

But clinical trials underway involving stem cells target conditions such as macular degeneration, Parkinsons disease and heart attack damage. And Millman is involved in research that could lead to a new approach for treating Type 1 diabetes.

Scientists see great promise in stem cells.

The gravity dilemma

That promise is tempered by a frustrating earthly problem: The planets gravity makes it tough to grow the vast quantities of cells necessary for future therapies that may require more than a billion per patient.

With current technology right now, even if the FDA instantly approved any of these therapies, we dont have the capacity to manufacture whats needed, Millman said.

The issue? In large bioreactors, the cells need to be stirred vigorously or they clump or fall to the bottom of the tank, Millman said. The stress can cause most cells to die.

In zero G, theres no force on the cells, so they can just grow in a different way, Svendsen said.

The Cedars-Sinai team has sent up what are called induced pluripotent stem cells. Many scientists consider them the perfect starting materials for all sorts of personalized, cell-based treatments. They carry a patients own DNA, and their versatility makes them similar to embryonic stem cells, only they are reprogrammed from adults skin or blood cells.

For their experiment, which is being funded by NASA, a shoebox-sized container holds bags filled with spheres of cells and all of the pumps and solutions needed to keep them alive for four weeks. The cargo will also include neural stem cells originating from Svendsen. The scientists used stem cells derived from their own white blood cells because it was easy for them to give consent.

They will run the experiment remotely with a box of cells on Earth for comparison. Theyll get the space experiment back in five weeks or so, when it returns in the same SpaceX capsule.

The work is designed to pave the way for more NASA-funded research. If they are able to figure out how to make billions of cells in orbit, Svendsen said, the impact could be huge.

A high-flying future

During the same cargo launch, researchers from the University of California, San Diego, sent blood stem cells to the space station, a repeat of an experiment they did last year. They want to find out if low Earth orbit induces faster aging in the cells, leading to problems that set the stage for precancerous changes. One goal is to protect astronauts health.

Afshin Beheshti, a researcher at NASA Ames Research Center, said scientists are just beginning to understand some of the risks of space travel.

Theres more unknowns in space than there are knowns, he said. Any new type of experiment is going to shed light on how the body responds to the space environment.

Ultimately, Beheshti said, the research should yield more than practical, earthly solutions like new medicines. It will also help with far-off human aspirations, like living on other planets.

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Four ex-bosses from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) were ordered to pay the damages in a suit brought by shareholders over the nuclear disaster triggered by a massive tsunami in 2011.

Plaintiffs emerged from the Tokyo court holding banners reading "shareholders win" and "responsibility recognised".

Lawyers for the plaintiffs hailed the ruling, and said they believed it to be the largest amount of compensation ever awarded in a civil lawsuit in Japan.

"Nuclear power plants can cause irreparable damage to human lives and the environment," the plaintiffs said in a separate statement after the ruling.

"Executives for firms that operate such nuclear plants bear enormous responsibility, which cannot compare with that of other companies."

The shareholders argued that the disaster could have been prevented if TEPCO bosses had listened to research and carried out preventative measures like placing an emergency power source on higher ground.

Defendants said the studies they were not credible and the risks unpredictable.

But the court ruled nuclear plant operators have "an obligation to prevent severe accidents based on the latest scientific and expert engineering knowledge," and the executives failed to heed credible warnings.

In a statement read to AFP by a TEPCO spokesman, the firm declined to comment on the ruling, saying only: "We again express our heartfelt apology to people in Fukushima and members of society broadly for causing trouble and worry" with the disaster.

The damages are intended to cover the costs to TEPCO for dismantling the reactors, compensating affected residents, and cleaning up contamination.

The lawsuit is designed so the money will go to TEPCO itself, which the plaintiffs own partially as shareholders.

Hiroyuki Kawai, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, called the decision "historic".

"We realise that 13 trillion yen is well beyond their capacity to pay," he told reporters, adding that the plaintiffs expect the men to pay as much as their assets allow.

There was no immediate word on whether the executives would appeal, though the plantiffs' legal team insisted "if they have heart to feel regret... they should deeply apologise to residents and follow the judgement without appealing."

'Retirement years in misery'

Three of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's six reactors were operating when a massive undersea quake triggered a devastating tsunami on March 11, 2011.

They went into meltdown after their cooling systems failed when waves flooded backup generators, leading to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Around 12 percent of the Fukushima region was once declared unsafe but no-go zones now cover around two percent, although populations in many towns remain far lower than before.

TEPCO has been pursued in the courts by survivors of the disaster as well as shareholders, and six plaintiffs this year took the firm to court over claims they developed thyroid cancer because of radiation exposure.

In 2019, a court acquitted three former TEPCO officials in the only criminal trial to stem from the disaster.

They were among the four men ordered to pay damages in Wednesday's ruling: former chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, former vice presidents Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro and former president Masataka Shimizu.

The men had faced up to five years in prison if convicted of professional negligence resulting in death and injury, but that court ruled that they could not have predicted the scale of the tsunami that triggered the disaster.

Kawai said when the shareholder suit was filed in 2012 that senior managers at TEPCO must be made to pay.

"You may have to sell your house. You may have to spend your retirement years in misery," he said then.

"In Japan, nothing can be resolved and no progress can be made without assigning personal responsibility."

TEPCO is currently engaged in a decades-long effort to decommission the plant, a costly and difficult process.

No one was killed in the nuclear meltdown, but the tsunami left 18,500 dead or missing.
DAPA has earmarked W800 billion for the four technologies, but such costs tend to spiral and no one knows how much the taxpayer will eventually have to shoulder (US$1=W1,195).

The government now says it will develop the four technologies either on its own or with a European partner but the F-35 purchase should go ahead. On Thursday the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said it is already in talks with a European partner and has received "a positive response" but later admitted no proper negotiations are underway.

Korea had been counting on the technology transfer to build its own fighter jet. If the project is delayed again, the Air Force could suffer a serious vacuum in its combat capabilities, since the old F-4s and F-5s are being gradually mothballed.

Hopes are fading that Korea will finally manage to complete the epic KF-X fighter project by 2025 as planned. The project suffered a severe setback early this week when it was revealed that the U.S. government never approved the transfer of four key technologies as part of a purchase of 40 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin.

Korea is developing a cutting-edge AESA radar for which Lockheed Martin was expected to supply and transfer a range of integrative technologies. Defense firm LIG Nex1 started development under the supervision of the Agency for Defense Development late last year, but it is anyone's guess whether it will complete it by 2025 when all the fighter jets are to be deployed warfare-ready.

If the project is incomplete, the fighter jets may provisionally be equipped with conventional radars, which by then will have aged another 10 years.

"Our goal is to install the AESA radar on the new fighter jets, but it might be possible to make do with old-style radars on the first batches since it's not clear when the project will be finished," a Defense Ministry official admitted.

DAPA also initially claimed that Washington approved the transfer of the remaining 21 technologies but it now says that the final decision will be made in November.

"The U.S. Defense Department has given positive thought to the transfer of the 21 technologies, so the U.S. State Department is now giving it a final review," a DAPA official said. "As far as I know, nothing will change."

But the official added, "If it comes to the crunch, or if we aren't able to take over any of the remaining 21 technologies, I think it'll be difficult to implement the entire KF-X project." Until the decision comes DAPA will have to sit on its hands.

 Hush-up

In September last year, right after it signed the contract with Lockheed Martin, DAPA boasted it would not pay Lockheed Martin unless the transfer of all the technologies is part of the deal.

But in April, when DAPA became aware that Washington would not approve the transfer of the four technologies, it pushed ahead with the contract anyway. The agency says that it believed the project would be a success even if it could obtain only part of the technologies.

Asked why the debacle had been hushed up, DAPA claimed it had only "delayed" coming clean because it was trying to work out how to deal with the matter.

 Combat Shortfall

The Air Force has about 400 fighter jets, including 60 F-15Ks, but that will dwindle to 300, because more than 100 old F-4s and F-5s will be decommissioned by the early 2020s. The Air Force had hoped to fill the vacuum by producing 120 KF-X fighter jets starting 2026 with the technologies transferred.

That now sounds like a pipe dream. Even advanced countries like the U.S. and European nations would be hard-pressed to develop a brand-new fighter jet in just 10 years, experts say.
A swath of Europe is battling soaring temperatures, wildfires and a severe drought, with a new report predicting the parched conditions will shrink crop yields -- including in agricultural heavyweight France -- at a time when Russia's blockade of grain from Ukraine is already hurting consumers.

On Tuesday, youngsters took a water break in Paris, where the temperature sizzled at around 37 degrees Celsius. But elsewhere in France, there is no reprieve from the heat.

Firefighters in the southwestern Gironde area are battling massive blazes that have decimated thousands of hectares of land and covered the wine city of Bordeaux in a blanket of haze.
Boy band Bangtan Boys, also known as BTS, will promote Busan's bid to host the 2030 World Expo.

The seven members of BTS attended an event in Seoul on Tuesday to launch their promotional activities and vowed to do their part to help Korea's bid.
Hyundai will join hands with airplane engine maker Rolls Royce to develop small aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing.

Hyundai said chairman Chung Eui-sun signed a memorandum of understanding with Rolls Royce CEO Warren East at the Farnborough International Airshow in the U.K. on Monday.

The automaker is trying to commercialize an urban air mobility platform by 2028 and is taking part in the international air show for the first time. Rolls Royce has cutting-edge aerospace and defense technology and is considered as one of the world's top aircraft engine makers along with GE and Pratt & Whitney.
Air routes between Korea and Japan are returning to normal after being suspended for more than two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Flights between Seoul's Gimpo and Tokyo's Haneda airports will operate every day from next week, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on Tuesday.

The Gimpo-Haneda route resumed on June 29 with eight flights a week, two years and three months after it was suspended, and the number will increase to 28 from July 25, enabling Korean and Japanese airlines to offer daily flights.

The route between Incheon and Sapporo also resumed on Sunday after two years and four months of suspension, and Korean Air is operating two flights a week.
"Any attempts at deportation in today's world must receive the toughest response from the international community," the president continued. "Any state that blocks ports and makes the sea deadly must pay such a price for its behavior through sanctions, which will demonstrate to all potential aggressors of the world that repeating such Russian tactics is extremely unprofitable."

Zelenskyy also revealed new details of Russia's "terror" tactics. He said Russia has forcibly relocated 2 million Ukrainians to the Russian Federation and is keeping tens of thousands more in "filtration camps" or checkpoints in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine.

"When Ukraine turns to partners for weapons for its defense and for strengthening sanctions against a terrorist state, it is not only about our defense," Zelenskyy said at the opening ceremony of the conference in Seoul last week. "It's like vaccines: if you don't help other nations, you have to be prepared for new strains that make your own defense ineffective."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian leaders mesmerized audiences via Zoom at this year's Asian Leadership Conference with first-hand tales of life under the Russian siege.

The Ukrainian ambassador to Korea and members of the Ukrainian parliament also spoke at the conference about Ukraine's fight and prospects for its future.

Their sentiments ranged from careful optimism to uncertainty on Zelenskyy's prediction that the war will be over by the end of the year.

"I hope the president's expectation comes true, but the government of Ukraine is preparing for a hard winter," said Andrii Nikolaienko, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament. "Ukrainians will not accept any result of the war except re-control of our territory at the level of 1991, when we got independence from the Soviet Union. It is extremely difficult, without international support, to have this result by the end of the year."

The ambassador, Dmytro Ponomarenko, also said that Ukraine must be prepared for "long term resistance."

Despite the uncertainty about when the war will end, however, speakers laid out plans for Ukraine's reconstruction and said they hope to work with international governments and companies.

"In the past, Korea rose from the ashes of war, in particular thanks to international assistance," said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. "We're asking you to share this experience and become a participant in the reconstruction of Ukraine, as well as an important part of our future."

Ukraine does not want to restore its economy to the status quo, he said. "We plan to become a much better, stronger, and more attractive partner to other countries," he said. He invited Korean companies to join reconstruction projects and suggested a Ukrainian-Korean business forum within the next year.

On the Korean side Na Kyung-won, a former member of the National Assembly for the People Power Party, said she discussed plans for the future with Ukrainian leaders last week.

"Ukrainian leaders are talking about electric vehicles instead of [gasoline-powered] cars since gas and oil are difficult to access," she said. "The new cities will be completely different. They will be cities of the future. Not only will Ukraine be rebuilt, but Ukraine will be future-proof."

Zelenskyy recalled the last time he addressed the Korean people, about 100 days earlier in a Zoom call to the National Assembly. "I spoke then about our independence -- the main thing that Russia wants to take away from us," he said.

"I believe that the effectiveness of joint measures can be such that in another 100 days I can address the people of Korea again and thank them for the fact that the aggressor has really been punished and all other potential aggressors in the world have no alternative to a peaceful life."
KYODO NEWS - Jul 20, 2022 - 23:25 | Arts, All, Japan

The winners of Japan's prestigious Akutagawa and Naoki literary prizes were revealed Wednesday, with female writers scooping the honors for works exploring themes of food and working relationships, and expectation for new encounters after emotional trauma.

Junko Takase's short novel "Oishii Gohan ga Taberaremasuyoni," (To become able to eat delicious food) won the Akutagawa Prize for up-and-coming authors, which this year fielded its first entirely female shortlist of five writers in its history dating back to 1935.

Misumi Kubo's short stories collection "Yoru ni Hoshi wo Hanatsu" (Releasing stars into the night sky) won the Naoki Prize for popular fiction, for which four women and one man were nominated.

Takase's novel explores the difficulties in the personal relationships among three colleagues of varying approaches and temperaments. The novel's protagonist is a man, and the 34-year-old writer said she was spurred to write the story after being told she "was not good at writing male characters."

In her praise of the work, Akutagawa Prize selection committee member and author Hiromi Kawakami, said, "It is a vivid realization of human relationships in a small group. It brilliantly portrays the complexity of people who are not simply good or bad."

Kubo's collection looks at loss, including through the story of a woman who during the coronavirus pandemic meets online and begins seeing the ex-boyfriend of her twin sister who died before turning 30.

Mariko Hayashi, an author who served on the Naoki selection committee, said the collection is "pure and beautiful," adding that it "does not shy away from the coronavirus pandemic, and is smoothly written."

Kubo, 56, had said she was "half happy and half terrified" to be nominated for a third time. Her debut novel "So We Look to the Sky" is available in an English translation published in 2021.

The selection committee announced their choices at a traditional Japanese restaurant in Tokyo's Tsukiji neighborhood.

Both authors will receive the awards themselves at a ceremony in Tokyo in late August, with each author receiving 1 million yen ($7,250) in prize money.

The Akutagawa Prize was established in 1935 in memory of Japanese novelist Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The Naoki Prize, created the same year, was named after author Sanjugo Naoki.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijan as a reliable partner plays an important role in ensuring Europes energy security, Azernews reports, citing Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.

The minister made remarks at an event held at the European Policy Center (EPC) on July 19, as part of his Brussels visit, the report adds.

Addressing the event moderated by EPC's chief political analyst Amanda Paul, Bayramov touched upon important aspects of the Azerbaijan-EU partnership, including the recent Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Partnership in the energy sector signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Baku on July 18.

Noting that Azerbaijan is an electricity exporter, the minister expressed hope that electricity obtained from green sources will be exported to Europe in the coming years.

Furthermore, Bayramov briefed the event on large-scale activities being carried out in the liberated lands, noting that a group of IDP families already returned to the liberated Zangilan regions Agali village.

Then, Bayramov responded to numerous questions from participants, including the new situation in the South Caucasus following the 44-day war, transport links, peace efforts, as well as the situation in Ukraine, the results of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the EU and Azerbaijan in the energy sector and other topics.

Officials of various EU political institutions, representatives of the European Parliament, employees of the Belgian Foreign Ministry, employees of various think tanks, media representatives, and employees of the diplomatic corps operating in Belgium attended the event, titled "EPC talks geopolitics with Jeyhun Bayramov", which was organized with the support of the Azerbaijani embassy in Belgium.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 20, 2022 - 17:13 | All, World, Japan

The leaders of Japan and Ireland agreed Wednesday to make sure Russia faces "severe consequences" for its invasion of Ukraine through economic sanctions, while keeping a watchful eye on China's growing military clout in the Indo-Pacific.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Irish counterpart Micheal Martin "remain appalled by and condemn the devastating attacks" by Russia against Ukraine and urge Moscow to withdraw its forces from "the entire territory of Ukraine," they said in a joint statement after a meeting in Tokyo.

Calling Ireland an "important partner sharing fundamental values" with Japan, Kishida told reporters alongside Martin after the talks that the two governments will promote "even closer cooperation" in dealing with the war, which has shown no signs of ceasing since it began in late February.

Japan and Ireland have joined in imposing a spate of sanctions led by the United States against Russia, such as freezing the assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and its central bank and excluding some major Russian lenders from a key international payment network.

The statement also said Kishida and Martin are "seriously concerned" about the situation in the East and South China seas, in an apparent reference to Beijing's intensifying maritime assertiveness there. The two also called for a "peaceful resolution" to tensions in the Taiwan Strait as Beijing piles pressure on Taiwan, deeming it part of its territory that should be reunited, by force if necessary.

Kishida said the two leaders shared the recognition that the security of the Indo-Pacific and Europe is "indivisible" and that changing the status quo unilaterally by force must not be condoned anywhere in the world.

Japan and the European Union member also pledged to boost their partnerships by expanding their political, economic and cultural ties, referring to a Japan-EU economic partnership agreement that took effect in 2019.

Martin said the joint statement will be the "foundation" for future development of the two nations' relationship.

The Irish prime minister expressed his condolences to Kishida over the death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was fatally shot during a stump speech earlier this month in western Japan.
CAIRO, July 19 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian political researcher has said that U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to the Middle East has multiple objectives with oil and "Arab NATO" topping the agenda.

However, Biden failed to achieve both objectives, according to the expert, who believes the U.S. short-term relations based on its own interests have led to the decline of its influence in the region.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Workers unload the COVID-19 vaccine donated by China at an airport in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Feb. 25, 2021. (Photo by Abu/Xinhua)

BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Sierra Leone's counterpart, David John Francis, talked about bilateral ties in a phone conversation on Tuesday.

In their talks, Francis, on behalf of his country, thanked the Chinese government and people for their valuable assistance to Sierra Leone's economic and social development over the years, and since the COVID-19 outbreak in particular, for China's timely help to Sierra Leone and other small and medium-sized countries in their anti-COVID-19 fight.

Sierra Leone highly recognizes China's commitment to prioritizing development and putting people first, and speaks highly of China's leading role in preserving world peace and security, he said.

Describing China as a reliable and strong partner of Sierra Leone, Francis said his country will continue to stand in solidarity with China on issues concerning China's core interests and major concerns, expecting to deepen cooperation with China in various fields and welcoming Chinese enterprises to invest in Sierra Leone.

China and Sierra Leone are good and old friends, Wang said, adding that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, bilateral ties have maintained a strong momentum for development.

The close cooperation and mutual support between the two sides in jointly fighting the pandemic, promoting economic recovery and safeguarding international equity and justice demonstrates the high level of bilateral relations, Wang said.

China appreciates Sierra Leone's consistent support for China in safeguarding its core interests, Wang noted. China also firmly supports Sierra Leone in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence and national dignity.

China, Wang said, also supports Sierra Leone in making various efforts to promote national development and to play a more important role in Africa and on the international stage.

China will continue to offer support and assistance according to the developmental needs of Sierra Leone, promoting cooperation in mining, agriculture and infrastructure, carring out more livelihood projects, encouraging Chinese enterprises to invest there, and helping Sierra Leone improve its independent development capabilities and accelerate the industrialization process, Wang added.

On the Ukraine crisis, Francis expounded on Sierra Leone's position that as a small and war-torn country, Sierra Leone advocates peaceful settlement through political negotiations, and believes it is necessary to address all parties' legitimate concerns on safety and security and to seek long-term solutions.

Meanwhile, practical measures should be taken to alleviate the impact of food and energy shortage on small and middle-sized countries in Africa and other regions, he added.

Sierra Leone's stance also reflects the consensus of most developing countries, Wang said, adding that China remains firmly committed to promoting peace talks and will work with other parties to do its utmost to mitigate the negative spillover effects of the Ukraine crisis. 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis attend a news conference at Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, capital of Romania, July 19, 2022. Visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday called on Israel to cease "unilateral action that undermines the two-state solution." (Photo by Cristian Cristel/Xinhua)

BUCHAREST, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday called on Israel to cease "unilateral action that undermines the two-state solution."

"The current situation cannot continue," Abbas told journalists after meeting his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Iohannis. "We continue to initiate contacts to gather international support in order to create initiatives to prevent the situation from worsening before it is too late," he said.

According to him, the collapse of the two-state solution based on international legitimacy will lead to difficult and complicated situations.

"We are ready to engage in any peace effort or initiative based on international legitimacy leading to the establishment of peace, security and stability for all in the region," he said.

The Romanian president said that achieving peace in the Middle East remains a priority on his country's foreign policy agenda.

More than ever, the current regional and global security challenges highlight the need for balance, moderation and visionary leadership in resolving regional conflicts and differences, he said.

Romania is ready to fully support the just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through direct negotiations leading to the implementation of the two-state solution, he said, adding that "this formula is the only viable option and able to guarantee the fulfillment of the aspirations of the peoples of the two parties and the observance of international law."

"Romania, as a state that has traditional and close friendly relations with both states, is ready to provide the necessary support," he said. 
Tourists transplant corals near Wuzhizhou Island of Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Jan. 30, 2022. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)



HAIKOU, July 20 (Xinhua) -- When Wang Aimin, then a professor of oceanic science at Hainan University, started helping with marine ranching by dropping artificial reefs into seawater in 2011, he was ridiculed by local divers.

Recalling their jibes, Wang said the divers near Sanya Wuzhizhou Island, a tourist destination in Sanya City, south China's Hainan Province, would ask him: "are you trying to blow up some seawater for a show, Mr. professor?"

Now, more than a decade later, Wang's efforts have paid off. By placing artificial reefs and transplanting corals underwater, he and his team helped restore the marine ecology in the waters of Wuzhizhou Island.

Currently, hundreds of marine species thrive in the marine ranch near the island, according to the latest government data. It is China's first tropical marine ranch.

Marine ranching involves placing artificial reefs, including cement frames and old iron boats, at fixed sites under seawater, which can attract fish, shrimps, crabs, shellfish and other marine life to forage, rest and reproduce.

The butterfly-shaped Wuzhizhou Island is located in Sanya's Haitang Bay and is surrounded by clean waters and stunning scenery. A national-level tourist attraction, the island has always been known as a "golden bowl" for the local tourism industry.

"There were many different varieties of fish here in the early days," said Ding Feng, who works with the tourist site. "Since the spot opened to the public in 2000, we have had countless visitors."

However, long-term overfishing degraded the eco-environment there, and the fish population decreased considerably in the subsequent years.

"We were looking for ways to help restore the marine environment, and around 2010, the agricultural authorities suggested the idea of marine ranching," Ding said, adding that the tourist attraction started to invite experts and gather investment to launch the marine ranching project thereafter.

But building a ranch beneath the water surface appeared to be a difficult nut to crack for many experts, including Wang. "I had limited knowledge about marine ranching at the very beginning," he said.

After preparations, Wang led his team and started the project in 2011. The team designed 200 round and triangular-shaped concrete reefs. The reefs were then loaded onto ships at dock and unloaded at several fixed sites in the sea.

"The divers nearby who saw us throwing the concrete objects into the water would laugh at us," Wang said. "Even I was not sure if the project could work according to the plan."

To support the initiative, provincial and city authorities allocated up to 10 million yuan (1.5 million U.S. dollars) to help place artificial reefs and old boats beneath the sea, upon which seaweed and corals began to grow.

In addition to regular reefs, under the guidance of Wang, students from Hainan University also designed "sightseeing reefs" and other sculptures to be placed under seawater. Such efforts not only helped improve the environment but also beautified the seafloor, creating images of "underwater villages" and "underwater museums" and attracting many diving enthusiasts.

In 2019, the marine ranch near Wuzhizhou received approval for inclusion on the fifth batch of national-level demonstration marine ranches.

Thanks to years of relentless efforts, the fish population in the waters near Wuzhizhou Island has increased by up to 10 times compared with 2011, and more than 120 corals are thriving in the area.

In recent years, the number of divers totaled 380,000 and diving activities are regulated under strict rules. Visitors are not allowed to step on the corals or the reefs, but they are encouraged to plant corals while diving.

"Marine ranching certainly helped restore the biodiversity," said Chen Jingyuan, a local official.

Earlier this month, Wang Aimin retired, but he plans to continue his marine ranching efforts.

"I hope that the experience we have gained here in Wuzhizhou Island will set a good example for similar projects in the rest of the country," Wang said. 

Wang Aimin checks the corals' growth at a marine ranch of the Wuzhizhou Island scenic area in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Jan. 20, 2021. (Xinhua)

Photo taken on April 29, 2020 shows corals at a marine ranch in the sea area of Wuzhizhou Island in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

A diver takes photos of the fish at a marine ranch of the Wuzhizhou Island scenic area in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, May 21, 2021. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

Tourists advance in "undersea walking" in the sea area of Wuzhizhou Island in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Jan. 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)
MACAO, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government on Wednesday expressed strong opposition to the reference relating to Macao in the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report, issued recently by the U.S. Department of State.

The Office of the Secretary for Security under the Macao SAR government said such references on Macao in the report had attempted, with "pure conjecture and bias", to deny the continuous efforts made by the Macao SAR government on preventing and combating human trafficking and the good results achieved therefrom.

The Macao SAR government has always actively coordinated government departments and various sectors of society to prevent and combat human trafficking as well as protect victims. Despite the severe impacts of COVID-19 since 2020, work related to the combating of human trafficking had carried on as usual, maintaining Macao's sound situation of long-term low crime rate or even zero crimes in this regard, said the office.

For years, the U.S. report had failed to present the truth in Macao, noted the office, adding that the Macao SAR government felt deeply regretted and indignant about the improper comments made by the U.S. side on Macao's law enforcement and judiciary work despite years of representations lodged by Macao.

The Macao SAR government will, as always, firmly join hands with all sectors in Macao to prevent and control human trafficking and guarantee the safety and legitimate rights and interests of local residents and non-natives alike, the office said.

It also pledged to continue actively coordinating with judiciary departments on law enforcement and stepping up international and inter-regional exchanges and cooperation to jointly discuss preventive and combating strategies, so as to eliminate human trafficking and all other forms of human exploitation. 
by Mahmoud Fouly

CAIRO, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Claims circulated by the Western media about human rights violations in Xinjiang, such as "forced labor" and "genocide," are unjust and slanderous, an Egyptian columnist and writer has said.

The real situation in Xinjiang "demonstrates a very high degree of economic and social development, eradication of poverty, uprooting of terrorism and full right to practice religious beliefs and cultural inheritances," Kamal Gaballa, also a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, said in an interview with Xinhua.

The anti-China accusations launched by Western countries seek to contain China's development and "undermine China's unity," Gaballa said.

The writer visited Xinjiang in 2010 and 2019 respectively. After his second visit, Gaballa admired China's tremendous social and economic development so much that he wrote a book titled "70 Years of Miracles."

The book has an entire chapter on his field observation and direct dialogues with the people of Xinjiang.

"I concluded that the economic and social development in Xinjiang, as well as the ways followed by China to alleviate poverty and eradicate terrorism there, are considered an inspiring model for many developing countries to follow," said Gaballa.

The Egyptian writer recommended enhancing official and people-to-people exchanges between China and Arab countries to help Arabs witness with their own eyes the impressive development of Xinjiang.

Noting Xinjiang's development data are remarkable, Gaballa said: "I wish those data and statistics would reach all parts of the world, particularly people who love China and admire its renaissance, so that they wouldn't be misled by hostile propaganda." 
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, addresses in a video message to a high-level thematic debate of the General Assembly entitled "Moment for Nature" at the UN headquarters in New York, July 19, 2022.(Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, July 19 (Xinhua) -- It is time for humanity to chart a new path of living in harmony with nature, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday, urging the international community to match commitments with actions.

The UN chief made the remarks in a video message to a high-level thematic debate of the General Assembly entitled "Moment for Nature".

With nature and its benefits deteriorating worldwide, "we face a triple crisis of climate disruption, biodiversity loss and pollution," said Guterres.

One million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction, threatening the livelihood of millions. Three-quarters of the land and two-thirds of the ocean are adversely impacted by human activity. Some 3.2 billion people are affected by land degradation, he said.

"Since human activities are at the root of this planetary emergency, that means we also hold the key to the solutions," he said. "Now is the time to transform our relationship with nature and chart a new path."

Key milestones lie ahead this year "where we can and must deliver," Guterres said, referring to the COP 27 climate conference and second phase of the COP 15 biodiversity conference, scheduled to be held later this year in Egypt and Canada respectively.

He urged the international community to make commitments and reach bold, global consensus at the conferences, with aims of cutting emissions, tackling key drivers of biodiversity loss and closing the finance gap.

He also cautioned against empty promises, noting that "we need to match commitments with credible and verifiable actions and the finance for implementation."

"Together, we can and must steer humanity to the path of living in harmony with the planet," he said. 

Abdulla Shahid, president of the United Nations General Assembly, addresses a high-level thematic debate of the General Assembly entitled "Moment for Nature" at the UN headquarters in New York, July 19, 2022.

(Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

Collen Vixen Kelapile, president of United Nations Economic and Social Council, addresses a high-level thematic debate of the General Assembly entitled "Moment for Nature" at the UN headquarters in New York, July 19, 2022.

(Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed addresses a high-level thematic debate of the General Assembly entitled "Moment for Nature" at the UN headquarters in New York, July 19, 2022.

(Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and EU High Representative for Foreign Relations and Security Policy Josep Borrell have stated that both sides are in favor of concluding a comprehensive agreement soon, Azernews reports, per the ministry.

The sides made the remarks at the 18th meeting of the Azerbaijan-European Union Cooperation Council that was held under the co-chairmanship of Bayramov and Borrell in Brussels on July 19.

Pleased to chair 18th meeting of Azerbaijan-EU Cooperation Council. Comprehensive discussions were held on topics of strategic importance. Together with High Representative Josep Borrell, we explored opportunities to develop Azerbaijan-EU relations into strong comprehensive partnership, Bayramov tweeted.

During the meeting, the officials discussed the Azerbaijan-European Union ties, particularly the present state of the comprehensive deal being negotiated between the two sides.

Then, various aspects of the Azerbaijani-European Union relations, sectoral cooperation, including energy, transport, environment, economic, trade, people-to-people contacts, social issues, as well as communication issues were discussed. In particular, Azerbaijans important role in ensuring Europe's energy security was highlighted.

It was underlined that Azerbaijan is a trusted partner, and the relevance of the Memorandum of Understanding, signed by the Azerbaijani president and the president of the European Commission on July 18 was emphasized in this respect.

Borrell emphasized the importance of Azerbaijani natural gas in terms of supply security and price stability. Simultaneously, the potential for boosting Azerbaijan-EU engagement on multilateral platforms, as well as cooperation within the framework of the Eastern Partnership and measures to improve it were addressed.

Furthermore, a broad debate was conducted concerning the progress of normalization between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Bayramov called attention to the present condition of the normalization process, as well as Azerbaijan's approach and vision in this regard.

It was noted that Azerbaijan is a supporter of a systematic and structured approach to the signing of a peace agreement. The position of Azerbaijan in the field of border delimitation, the opening of communications, as well as implementation of confidence-building measures with Armenia, was brought to attention.

In particular, the minister gave information on reconstruction work that was carried out by Azerbaijan. He emphasized that the meeting coincided with the return of the first group of IDPs, who were expelled from their homes, to Zangilans Aghali village.

Bayramov also brought up the problem of mine contamination of Azerbaijani territories, which is a major impediment to the rapid return of internally displaced people. He stated that Azerbaijani citizens are killed and maimed on a regular basis as a result of mine explosions, emphasizing the need for aid and collaboration with Azerbaijan in the demining field.

During the discussion, information was shared on other issues of the Azerbaijan-European Union agenda, such as cooperation in the fields of democracy, human rights, and rule of law, as well as initiatives and reforms carried out in Azerbaijan in the relevant areas.

Following the meeting, Bayramov and Borrell made press statements.

During a joint news conference, Bayramov emphasized the importance of the EU in the post-conflict period.

"We express our gratitude to the European Union, in particular to President Charles Michel, for mediating the normalization of relations between the two countries, which contributes to the development of a dialogue for peace, security, and prosperity in the South Caucasus," Bayramov said.

He added that Azerbaijan highly appreciates EU support for demining activities in the liberated lands.

"The recently provided EU humanitarian package of 4 million euros also includes support for demining," Bayramov said.

He underlined that Azerbaijan-Armenia ties should be normalized on the basis of mutual recognition and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders.

Furthermore, the minister noted that Azerbaijan and the EU are expanding the dialogue on renewable energy.

"The renewable energy development is among the priorities of Azerbaijan's cooperation with the EU," Bayramov said.

According to him, Azerbaijan plans to increase the share of renewable energy sources in overall power output from 17 to 30 percent by 2030.

Bayramov described the Southern Gas Corridor's potential for delivering hydrogen to the European market as well. The Southern Gas Corridor will promote hydrogen supply to the European market, Bayramov said.

"It's potentially possible to deliver hydrogen through the Southern Gas Corridor to contribute to energy efficiency efforts," he added.

According to him, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) provides prospects for delivering fuels with exceptionally little climatic effect, such as hydrogen.

The Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) project's execution suggests the diversification of the Southern Gas Corridor, the minister underlined.

According to him, energy remains the foundation of Azerbaijan-EU cooperation and the Southern Gas Corridor aims to enter the alternative supply market.

Bayramov also met with EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi on the sidelines of the event.

Good discussions took place with Oliver Varhelyi in the margins of 18th EU-Azerbaijan Cooperation Council meeting. We had a comprehensive exchange on Azerbaijan-EU partnership perspectives, strategic dialogue on energy, transport/connectivity and ways to further deepen economic cooperation, Bayramov wrote on his Twitter account.
WASHINGTON, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton's recent admission that he had helped plan coups in other countries is a typical example of America's hegemonic thinking and power politics that have undermined world peace and stability.

STARTLING CONFESSION

"The United States has indeed sponsored and participated in lots of coups and foreign government overthrows, dating back to the turn of the 20th century," American journalist and author Jonathan M. Katz wrote in a newsletter.

"Bolton was personally involved in many of the recent efforts -- in Nicaragua, Iraq, Haiti, and others," Katz wrote. "Generally, officials do not admit that sort of thing on camera."

Bolton's confession was made in a CNN interview with Jake Tapper last week on the investigation by a U.S. House of Representative select committee of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, saying that he disagrees with the premise that then outgoing President Donald Trump attempted a coup.

"As somebody who has helped plan coup d'etat, not here but other places, it takes a lot of work, and that's not what he did," said the neoconservative former diplomat who refused to go into specifics but mentioned the U.S. government's efforts to back the opposition in Venezuela in 2019.

In a different interview with Newsmax later, Bolton doubled down on his comments, saying: "This is something that some of the snowflakes on the left were kind of shocked at. But when you're looking out for America's best interests, you do what's necessary to protect those interests."

U.S. OBSESSION WITH "REGIME CHANGE"

"Regime change" has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than 100 years, former New York Times correspondent Stephen Kinzer wrote in his book Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq.

Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold War and into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals, according to a summary of Kinzer's book.

It was widely reported that Trump repeatedly raised the possibility of invading Venezuela in talks with top White House aides in 2017. Speaking to Newsmax, Bolton called the attempted overthrow of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro "a good example" of a coup d'etat.

Last week, Venezuela's National Assembly voted unanimously to condemn Bolton's comments. "This confession is more proof in a long list of actions and direct attacks by U.S. imperialism against the free peoples of the world," Venezuelan lawmaker Pedro Infante said.

Lindsey A. O'Rourke, an assistant professor at Boston College, wrote in her book Covert Regime Change: America's Secret Cold War that the United States engaged in 64 covert attempts and six open attempts at regime change between 1947 and 1989.

OBSESSION UNCHECKED DESPITE END OF COLD WAR

America's acts of regime change remain unchecked even after the end of the Cold War. Over the past few decades, the U.S. government has fostered political unrest in Latin America, played a part in the "Arab Spring," and instigated "Color Revolutions" in Europe and Asia.

In Latin America, the United States continues to meddle in the domestic affairs of countries in the region under the "Monroe Doctrine."

It is hypocritical for the United States to "insist that we do not accept the principle of 'spheres of influence,'" U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders wrote in an article published earlier this year.

"For the last 200 years our country has operated under the Monroe Doctrine, embracing the premise that as the dominant power in the western hemisphere, the United States has the right to intervene against any country that might threaten our alleged interests," Sanders decried. "Under this doctrine, we have undermined and overthrown at least a dozen governments."

DESPICABLE DEEDS IN MIDDLE EAST, SURROUNDING RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT

Washington has also wantonly interfered with the affairs of the Middle East, waged wars, and imposed unilateral sanctions in the region, leading to massive civilian deaths and displacement of refugees.

As to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it was the United States that has made waves by driving five rounds of NATO's eastward expansion and plotting "Color Revolutions" in Russia's periphery.

The United States has financed non-governmental organizations "that essentially are there to destabilize countries," according to Alfred de Zayas, professor of international law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and former United Nations independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order.

"But as an American, I must say I feel vicariously responsible for what my government is doing. And I have enormous sympathy, enormous compassion for the people of Ukraine who have been used in this geopolitical game," de Zayas said.

Bolton, 73, was undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs before becoming U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 2005 under then President George W. Bush. He was a major supporter of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Evo Morales, former president of Bolivia, tweeted that the remarks from Bolton showed that the United States was "the worst enemy of democracy and life."

Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, has called for an international investigation into the comments. 
NANJING, July 20 (Xinhua) -- East China's Jiangsu Province, one of the country's major foreign trade hubs, saw robust foreign trade growth in the first half of 2022, local customs authorities said Wednesday.

Jiangsu's import and export volume rose by 10 percent year on year to 2.64 trillion yuan (about 391.3 billion U.S. dollars) from January to June, accounting for 13.3 percent of the country's total in the period, according to Nanjing Customs.

Exports rose 12.3 percent year on year to 1.66 trillion yuan, while imports jumped 6.2 percent to 973.7 billion yuan.

Mechanical and electrical products contributed nearly two-thirds of the total exports in the period, with the export volume growing 10.9 percent year on year to 1.09 trillion yuan.

Over the past six months, the province's trade volume with the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United States, and the Republic of Korea increased by 9.8 percent, 11.5 percent, 8 percent, and 19.9 percent, respectively. 
JERUSALEM, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Joe Biden's first visit to Israel and Palestine as U.S. president left only hollow commitments and could not resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli experts said.

Tovah Lazaroff, deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post, wrote in an article that, though Biden spoke of a future of peace, he didn't take any steps during his visit to advance an end to the conflict and the Jewish settlement expansion in East Jerusalem and West Bank still continues.

Meanwhile, according to Biden's announcement, the U.S. funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) would drop 15 percent from last year, he said.

"The statement by U.S. President Joe Biden in Bethlehem on Friday didn't provide a groundbreaking U.S. position on anything related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," said Jack Khoury, political corespondent with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

He said that Biden positioned himself somewhere between his predecessor Donald Trump, who strived to shatter the Palestinians' dream for a homeland, and former Democratic President Barack Obama, who pushed for a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians but abandoned the bid after failing to achieve a breakthrough in 2014.

"The Palestinian side realizes that the Biden administration isn't about to present guidelines for a permanent solution or convene an Israeli-Palestinian peace conference," a senior Palestinian official who attended the meeting with Biden was quoted as saying by Khoury.

Besides the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the outlook of Israel's relations with Arab countries and integration into the region is also believed to be grim, experts said.

Ben Samuels, also from Haaretz and the only Israeli journalist that flew with the White House press delegation from Israel to Saudi Arabia, wrote in his analytic article that "the United States has all but uncoupled Israel from the Palestinians, following in President Donald Trump's footsteps and centering Israeli policy around Arab normalization and regional integration."

Samuels argued that the "dreams of a new Mideast reality in the immediate future were met with the stark realization that the Palestinians are not going anywhere."

Eytan Gilboa, an expert on the U.S.-Israel relations at the Bar-Ilan University and a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, believed "Biden wants to demonstrate that he has learned the lessons of the past."

The Obama administration had a different approach as Obama's first two visits to the Middle East bypassed Israel, Gilboa noted, saying that Obama's aim was to "distance Israel in favor of reconciliation with the Muslim world."

"Biden's visit to Israel aims to please, but may alienate all parties instead," read the title of an opinion piece published in the Israeli newspaper Hayom.

Zvi Bar'el, a research fellow at the Truman Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, believed "the Middle East wasn't waiting for Biden, who returns home with not much but hope."

"Biden presented Israel's integration into the Middle East as one of the main objectives of his visit. Yet here, too, he received a cold shoulder. Peace and normalization with Israel --- these are not identical terms," Bar'el said, citing Saudi officials' remarks that the two countries will not establish diplomatic relations as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not resolved.

The Arab leaders attending the Jeddah summit with Biden "did not mention Israel at all there," he noted.

"They only agreed on the need to cooperate. No details were provided regarding operational plans, nor on any establishment of coordination or schedules for continued talks, and perhaps there are none to provide," he added. 
BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhua) -- "Agriculture is a fundamental undertaking." President Xi Jinping has cited this ancient saying to emphasize the importance of agriculture to a country like China.

The line first appeared in the Discourses on Salt and Iron, a book compiled in the Western Han Dynasty about two thousand years ago.

Citing the words in 2016, Xi said for China to emerge as a strong country, its agricultural sector must be strong. China must have beautiful rural areas to be a beautiful country and must have affluent farmers to be a rich country, Xi added.

Over the years, Xi has repeatedly emphasized the importance of work related to agriculture, rural areas and rural residents.

In his article published in the Qiushi Journal on April 1 this year, Xi said resolving problems related to agriculture, rural areas and rural residents must be the top priority of the work of the Communist Party of China.

The article stressed mobilizing efforts from the whole Party and the whole society to promote rural vitalization, boost high-quality and highly efficient agriculture, build rural areas into pleasant places for life and work, and create an affluent and prosperous life for rural residents. 
In this aerial photo, villagers celebrate in traditional costumes as they start ploughing and release fish fry into rice fields in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

In this aerial photo, villagers celebrate in traditional costumes as they start ploughing and release fish fry into rice fields in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

In this aerial photo, farmers carry buckets of fish fry before releasing them into rice fields in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Aerial photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Photo taken on July 19, 2022 shows a fish caught by a farmer in a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

People visit a museum themed on Qingtian rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, July 18, 2022.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows fish swimming in a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

A farmer releases a fish into a rice field in a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, July 19, 2022.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

A farmer feeds fish in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, July 25, 2019.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

People visit a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, July 18, 2022.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

A farmer catches fish in a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, July 19, 2022.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Photo taken on June 11, 2020 shows fish swimming in a rice field in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Aerial photo taken on July 25, 2019 shows terraced rice fields in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Aerial photo taken on July 25, 2019 shows terraced rice fields in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

A farmer releases fish fry into a rice field in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Aerial photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Farmers release fish fry into a rice field in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Aerial photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Photo taken on July 25, 2019 shows fish swimming in a terraced rice field in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

A farmer plows the rice field in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020.

The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian has a history of more than 1,300 years and was listed in the world's first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2005.

Qingtian, in the southwestern part of Zhejiang, has sufficient water resources and a terraced landscape. The rice-fish co-culture system can bring handsome incomes to local farmers.

In 2021, the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian covered around 3,700 hectares of paddy fields, with an average rice yield of 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The total output value of rice and fish reached 265 million yuan (about 39.3 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Xu Yu)
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran, Iran, on July 19, 2022. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held talks here on Tuesday, agreeing to further strengthen bilateral relations and expand cooperation to ensure security in the region. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua)

TEHRAN, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held talks here on Tuesday, agreeing to further strengthen bilateral relations and expand cooperation to ensure security in the region.

The meeting was held following Putin's arrival in Tehran on Tuesday afternoon for participation in a trilateral meeting with Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the issue of Syria later in the day, according to a report by the Iranian presidency's website.

The two sides reviewed the latest developments in bilateral relations, which have improved significantly following the start of the Raisi administration, expressing satisfaction with the leap in ties, particularly, in the economic, security, infrastructure, energy, trade and industry sectors, the report noted.

The two presidents also expressed determination to continue the path of further strengthening bilateral relations.

Lauding the joint achievements in the fight against terrorism, Raisi and Putin highlighted the necessity of enhancing cooperation in regional and transregional areas, noting that they are determined to help ensure security in the region's "independent states."

Describing the two countries' will to expand bilateral relations as "remarkable," Raisi said that, after his meetings with Putin in Moscow in late January and Ashgabat in late June, the Iran-Russia cooperation has kept reflecting a growing trend which needs to be further reinforced.

On the "successful" bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism in Syria, the Iranian president said such collaborations "prepare the ground for improving regional security and stability."

He added that Iran and Russia have proved their honesty and strong will in combating terrorism through cooperation to this end.

For his part, Putin said the cooperation between Russia and Iran has increased in different sectors, particularly in the area of international security, adding that both sides have a very big share of the efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria. 

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, on July 19, 2022. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held talks here on Tuesday, agreeing to further strengthen bilateral relations and expand cooperation to ensure security in the region. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attend a joint press conference in Tehran, Iran, on July 19, 2022. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Tuesday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Iran is "a turning point" in bilateral relations. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R, Front) welcomes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Tehran, Iran, on July 19, 2022. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Tuesday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Iran is "a turning point" in bilateral relations. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Tehran, Iran, on July 19, 2022. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Tuesday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Iran is "a turning point" in bilateral relations. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (2nd R) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2nd L) attend a signing ceremony in Tehran, Iran, on July 19, 2022. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Tuesday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Iran is "a turning point" in bilateral relations. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua)
Photo taken on July 19, 2022 shows a view of the Hainan International Convention and Exhibition Center, the venue for the 2nd China International Consumer Products Expo, in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The second China International Consumer Products Expo, to be held from July 25 to 30 in Haikou, capital of southern tropical province of Hainan, will provide a platform for the display and trading of high-level consumer goods from China and abroad.

With a larger exhibition area, more participating exhibitors and brands, and a special focus on new and quality products, the expo is expected to remain the largest consumer boutique exhibition in the Asia-Pacific region.

The following is an overview of what to expect from this year's exhibition.

LARGER SCALE

-- The total exhibition area of this year's expo will reach 100,000 square meters, an increase of 25 percent from last year's event, also in Haikou.

-- The international exhibition section accounts for 80 percent of the expo's total exhibition area.

-- More than 1,600 international brands from 61 countries and regions will attend the expo, with top brands in many subsectors attending for the first time.

-- Over 1,200 domestic brands have signed up for the event so far, and a new area of 5,000 square meters will be designated for domestic boutiques and time-honored brands.

NEW QUALITY PRODUCTS

-- More than 200 brands are expected to launch over 600 new products during this year's expo.

-- Dozens of leading global brands will hold more than 100 new product debut activities, covering sectors including fashion and cosmetics, food and drink, and jewelry.

-- Some 28 shows will be held from July 27 to 28, launching over 100 new products, while a dozen of events will be organized to launch new products from multiple regions in China.

-- A fashion-week activity will be held during the expo, in which nearly 20 outstanding domestic and foreign designer brands will release more than 100 new fashion products at runway shows.

FOCUSING ON EFFECTIVENESS

-- To match exhibition with purchasing, the expo will invite well-known domestic and foreign commercial enterprises, duty-free firms, cross-border e-commerce companies and other businesses. It is expected that more than 40,000 buyers and professional visitors will be present at the event.

-- The expo will better reach consumers with the support of popular forms of business, such as live-streaming, and by working with e-commerce platforms.

-- Efforts will also be made to encourage more exhibitors to set up regional headquarters or open stores at the Hainan free trade port to expand their export business in China. 




YAOUNDE, July 20 (Xinhua) -- A prominent Cameroonian lawmaker has said the stunning progress and development in China point to the fact that the country is implementing a sound model of democracy.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Theodore Datouo, deputy speaker of Cameroon's National Assembly said Chinese democracy has created room for ordinary Chinese people to be much more engaged in running their communities and society.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service












CAIRO, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Egypt launched Tuesday a public bicycle sharing project to promote eco-friendly means of transport in downtown Cairo, the capital of Egypt, the Cairo Governorate announced in a statement.

The Cairo Bike project comes a few months ahead of Egypt's hosting of the 27th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, scheduled for November this year.

The current trial phase of the project starts with five docking stations in downtown Cairo. Following the trial operation, the project will be expanded to a fleet of 500 GPS-tracked bicycles in 45 stations across the city, said Cairo Governor Khaled Abdel-Aal.

A citizen can hire a bicycle for 1 Egyptian pound (0.053 U.S. dollars) per hour through a mobile application or a prepaid card.

The project is "the first of its kind in Egypt" as previous ones were limited to closed urban communities or narrow areas, said the governor, adding that the project will help reduce traffic congestion in downtown Cairo.

The project is launched by Cairo Governorate, in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), funded by Switzerland's Drosos Foundation and technically supported and supervised by the New York-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. 
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijans Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov and Vietnam's Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son have discussed mutual partnership in international organizations, as well as regional and international security issues, Azernews reports, citing the ministry.

The meeting took place within the framework of Mammadovs official visit to Vietnam, on July 19. The sides discussed the historical roots of Azerbaijan-Vietnam ties, the existing situation, and the strengthening of future relations. The visit of the founder of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh to Azerbaijan and the National Leader Heydar Aliyevs visit to Vietnam were recalled.

The necessity of sustaining high-level political engagement between Azerbaijan and Vietnam, as well as mutual visits and increasing inter-parliamentary contacts and relations between the two countries' ruling parties, was stressed.

Mammadov provided information on the post-conflict regional situation, including restoration, reconstruction, and reintegration work carried out in the liberated lands, and expressed gratitude to the opposite side for its constant support of Azerbaijans territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Furthermore, political consultations were held between Mammadov and his Vietnamese counterpart Ha Kim Ngoc.

During the meeting, the deputy ministers emphasized friendly relations between Azerbaijan and Vietnam, emphasizing the current potential for developing mutual partnership in politics, commerce and economics, energy, agricultural, transportation, and humanitarian spheres. The importance of high-level bilateral visits and the building of inter-parliamentary connections were also stressed.

During the discussions, views were exchanged on the development of cooperation perspectives in regional and international organizations, and mutual support between the two countries within the framework of the UN and the Non-Aligned Movement was noted with satisfaction.

Moreover, Mammadov attended the conference, "30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Vietnam: history and future prospects" jointly organized by the Azerbaijani embassy in Vietnam and the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.

Mammadov reviewed the history and development of diplomatic relations between the two countries and expressed gratitude to Vietnam for supporting Azerbaijan's fair position in the UN Security Council in line with international law during the 44-day war in 2020.

The deputy minister informed conference participants about the opportunities that have arisen in the region as a result of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity restoration, the rehabilitation work being carried out in the liberated territories, large-scale projects being implemented in the energy and transport fields, as well as activities in international organizations such as the Non-Aligned Movement.

Furthermore, a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between ADA University and the Vietnamese Diplomatic Academy was signed with the participation of the deputy foreign ministers of both countries.

During the visit, the heads of the Foreign Relations Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the leaders of the Vietnam-Azerbaijan inter-parliamentary friendship group functioning in the Vietnamese National Assembly met.

Additionally, a meeting was held with the Vietnam Communist Party Central Committee's Foreign Relations Commissions heads and the leaders of the Vietnam-Azerbaijan inter-parliamentary friendship group operating in the Vietnamese National Assembly.

Mammadov shared his views on the prospects for the development of relations between Azerbaijan and Vietnam during a press conference organized with representatives of the nations leading mass media agencies and answered numerous questions from media representatives about Azerbaijan.
HONG KONG, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Wednesday vehemently objected to the biased and unfair assessment of Hong Kong in the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report released by the U.S. Department of State.

Trafficking in Persons (TIP) is never a prevalent problem in Hong Kong and there has never been any sign that Hong Kong is being actively used by syndicates as a destination or transit point for TIP, a spokesperson for the HKSAR government said.

The HKSAR government has all along been making proactive and multi-pronged efforts in the fight against TIP, and injected an enormous amount of resources to combat TIP and enhance the protection and well-being of foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson noted that the HKSAR government had remained committed to combating TIP despite the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years.

In particular, coverage of the initial screening of TIP victims has been fully extended since the end of 2019 to cover all cases involving persons vulnerable to TIP risks, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson stressed that the HKSAR government will continue its firm commitment to combatting TIP and contributing to the global efforts for this important cause. 
A prominent Cameroonian lawmaker has said the stunning progress and development in China point to the fact that the country is implementing a sound model of democracy.





In a recent interview with Xinhua, Theodore Datouo, deputy speaker of Cameroon's National Assembly said Chinese democracy has created room for ordinary Chinese people to be much more engaged in running their communities and society.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
HOHHOT, July 20 (Xinhua) -- A total of 27,700 tonnes of fruits and vegetables were exported from China to Mongolia via the border port of Erenhot in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the first half of this year, according to the Erenhot customs bureau.

The total trade value of fruit and vegetable exports to Mongolia through the port from January to June exceeded 48.96 million yuan (about 7.26 million U.S. dollars).

A green channel for agricultural products was launched in 2018, and it has since been bringing various fruits and vegetables to Mongolian tables. With the introduction of the green channel, fresh fruits and vegetables are allowed to pass through customs at the fastest possible speed.

Some 80 percent of fresh fruits and vegetables in the Mongolian market are Chinese exports supplied via Erenhot.

However, a COVID-19 outbreak in the city of Erenhot disrupted the normal operations of the port in June this year, bringing fruit and vegetable exports to Mongolia to a standstill, said Liu Jian, an official with the Erenhot customs bureau.

To solve the problem, Erenhot customs negotiated with Mongolian customs officials and took measures such as submitting plant quarantine certificates online, Liu said.

Fruit and vegetable exports resumed after stagnating for several days, Liu said. 
Beyond its fame as the "most beautiful university in China", Xiamen University tells a tale of opening-up and hard work, an international media team discovered.

Sitting with members of the "A Date with China" international media tour within a western-style classroom architecture, three international faculty members and seven international students shared their stories with the university and China.

William Brown, 66, professor of organizational behavior of the university's School of Management, said he is a "Xiamener" in the local dialect. He moved from the US to China with his family in 1988 and has been teaching in the university ever since.

Prof. William Brown. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

Having witnessed China's remarkable changes and development during the past 30 plus years, the professor also has been a part of the process. He said the thing he really appreciates is that his students are engaged in China's poverty alleviating work in areas like Ningxia and Xinjiang.

Brown is one of the first international MBA teachers introduced to China in the late 1980s, when Xiamen University was the only university to provide accommodation and other facilities for international faculty and their families.

Xiamen University became China's first high education institute to found an overseas branch campus in Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia in 2014.

Hong Jinyeong from South Korea, a Chinese international education major undergraduate, was happy to return to his dream campus after serving the military term for his country and living through the COVID-19 pandemic. He thought he did not miss the universality's centennial celebration despite attending remotely in April of 2021 because his teachers and classmates kept him updated with the happenings of campus online.

"Now, nearly five years after I first came here, I am working hard to realize my dream of putting on the bachelor gown, smelling with the scent of campus herbs and blooms, the same as when I first came here," he said.

Bekkeldiyeva Eldana's dream is becoming an excellent Chinese language teacher teaching non-speakers the language. The Chinese international education master student from Kazakhstan said her dream is to bridge the two countries using language and culture.

Bekkeldiyeva Eldana. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

During her second year of her master's study, she went back to her home country and worked as intern to teach the Chinese language and traditional Chinese painting at a Confucius Institute. "So I want to return to my home country in the near future and practise my skills in the multiple cooperation between China and Kazakhstan and contribute to the friendly relations between the two countries", she said.

Xiamen University was founded by Tan Kah Kee, a patriotic overseas Chinese business pioneer and philanthropist in his home city in 1921 and is China's first university funded by an overseas Chinese citizen.

Source: chinadaily.com.cn
BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhua) -- On July 13, epic performer Jangnur Turganbay and his young apprentice performed the Kirgiz ethnic epic "Manas" at the Museum of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, welcoming a special guest -- Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, watched their performance during an inspection tour in Xinjiang.

The main plot of "Manas" revolves around the heroic deeds of the eponymous protagonist and his descendants. Consisting of myths, folktales, customs and idioms of the Kirgiz ethnic group, the extensive epic is considered an "encyclopedia" of Kirgiz ethnic culture. It has been passed down orally since as early as the 16th century.

Due to its rich contents, the performance of the epic can take a tremendous amount of time. Impressed by Jangnur Turganbay's performance, Xi asked, "How long can you perform the epic?"

"Over a whole day and night," said Jangnur Turganbay proudly. Now in his 50s, he has 30 years of experience in performing "Manas."

"I can only perform for 60 minutes," said Jangnur Turganbay's apprentice Yvmvtale Etekul modestly. Now a middle school student, he has been learning the epic since he was three.

"That's impressive already!" Xi said, encouraging the 14-year-old.

"Manas" is not the first traditional ethnic epic the Chinese president has turned his attention to. In 2019, during his visit to north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xi appreciated a performance of the "Epic of King Gesar."

Hailed as "the Homeric epics of the East," the historical epic tells the deeds of legendary 11th-century hero King Gesar who fought evil and helped the weak.

When chatting with the performers, Xi emphasized that much attention ought to be paid to the preservation and inheritance of cultures of ethnic minority groups.

Also in 2019, when addressing a gathering to honor national role models for ethnic unity and progress, Xi specifically mentioned "Manas," "Epic of King Gesar" and "Jangar," a heroic epic of the Mongolian ethnic group. The three epics, all designated as national intangible cultural heritages, are viewed as equally important cultural works of ethnic minority groups.

Xi elaborated that inclusiveness is the reason behind the brilliance, expansiveness and profoundness of Chinese culture. Cultures of all ethnic groups have illuminated and inspired each other, and the Chinese culture has been kept fresh and alive through the years. These are the source of our strong cultural confidence today, Xi said.

Over the years, the Chinese president's attention to ethnic culture has been repeatedly manifested in his inspections. Apart from the epics, Xi has also learned about the traditional embroidery of the Miao ethnic group and the long-lasting weaving techniques of the Tibetan carpet. Many such ethnic cultural achievements have been designated as national intangible cultural heritage, which facilitates their inheritance and preservation.

During his trip to Xinjiang, Xi again emphasized that Chinese civilization is extensive and profound, has a long history stretching back to antiquity, and is composed of outstanding cultures of all its ethnic groups.

When Xi asked Jangnur Turganbay about his expectations, the performer said, "I wish to introduce the epic to the whole world."

"It should be," Xi acknowledged, noting the epics are not only possessions of ethnic minority groups, but also valuable treasures in the vault of Chinese culture.

Efforts should be made to better preserve and pass on the intangible cultural heritage, and to carry on the excellent traditional cultures of all ethnic groups, Xi said. 
BUENOS AIRES, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero on Wednesday called for unity and a global outlook for the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), during the 60th ordinary meeting of the bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

"The future of Mercosur is linked to the deepening of its internal agenda and an appropriate international projection," Cafiero said during the event held in the Paraguayan city of Luque.

The preparatory meeting took up the issues to be analyzed and discussed by the bloc's member nations on Thursday at the Mercosur summit.

"The transformation of global value chains and logistical difficulties, first during a pandemic and now a war in Europe that impacts the whole world, demand a deeper and more frank and decisive process of integration," Cafiero said in a statement issued by the Argentine Foreign Ministry.

He also called for the promotion of "a firmer and more decisive regional industrial and social policy," and warned that the region would be weaker without Mercosur.

Cafiero advised against a break in consensus within the bloc, since this could have a negative impact "on the daily fate of our four peoples, connected by cultural, social, commercial, tourist, financial and production ties."

In addition, he stressed the importance of "modernizing" Mercosur, adding that it would mean "transforming and deepening the integration process." 
ANKARA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Wednesday denied responsibility for a deadly bombardment on a resort in Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, urging Iraqi authorities to keep off the "influence and propaganda" of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"Turkiye carries out its fight against terrorism in accordance with international law, with the utmost sensitivity to the protection of civilians, civilian infrastructure, historical and cultural assets and nature," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement, calling the resort bombardment "a terror act."

"Turkiye is ready to take all steps to shed light on the truth," the ministry noted, calling on Iraqi authorities to cooperate with Ankara to find the "real perpetrators of the attack."

An artillery bombardment hit a resort in Parakh village in the Zakho area in Iraq's Duhok Province on Wednesday, killing nine and wounding 23 others, all of them tourists, official Iraqi News Agency reported.

Iraqi state media said the bombardment was carried out by Turkish forces.

In April, the Turkish army launched a ground and air offensive against the PKK targets across its borders in the Metina, Zap, and Avasin-Basyan regions of Iraq's Duhok Province.

The Turkish forces frequently carry out ground operations, airstrikes, and artillery bombardments in Iraq's Kurdistan, especially the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the PKK rebels.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than three decades. 
UNITED NATIONS, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Africa's bold development vision is still within reach, and its realization needs the change of mindsets as well as turning crisis into opportunity, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said on Wednesday.

The United Nations shares the vision of the "Africa We Want" as outlined in the African Union's Agenda 2063 and its realization through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, she told a General Assembly special high-level dialogue on sustainable development of Africa, with the theme "The Africa We Want: Reconfirming the Development of Africa as a Priority of the United Nations System."

Speaking on behalf of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Mohammed said the dialogue provides a global platform for African member states and the United Nations and partners to share progress and reaffirm that "giving light to this vision remains our shared priority."

She pointed out that Africa's development gains are at risk, as a consequence of the current three ongoing crises -- the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and the war in Ukraine.

But, "the Africa we want is still within reach," she said. "To get there, we need to change our mindsets and turn the triple crisis into an opportunity."

To do so, Mohammed stressed focusing on five key issues: building effective and reliable policy frameworks and institutions; future-proof Africa's infrastructure by investing in connectivity and digital technologies; education and skills-development as enablers of Africa's industrialization; achieving sustainable energy for all across the continent; an overall approach to financing.

The "Africa We Want" is not only good for the continent, it is good for the world. Now is the time to urgently rescue the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) in Africa and lay the foundation for the ambition of the 2063 Agenda, and in the world at large, said Mohammed.

"Today, let us recommit to our ambitious vision and to continue to work alongside African countries to realize a greener, more sustainable, and more inclusive future for all," she said. 
UNITED NATIONS, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The UN mission in the Central African Republic (CAR), in a bid to expel armed groups, conducted 1,191 patrols in the last week, a UN spokesman said on Wednesday.

"The mission also reports that it reinforced its presence in Birao, which is in the Vakaga prefecture, as an early warning measure in response to rumors of violence," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Stephane Dujarric, Guterres' chief spokesman, citing the mission known as MINUSCA, reported on June 29 that UN peacekeepers routed members of armed groups occupying Ouanda Djalle, allowing displaced residents to return home. Many civilians, deeply impacted by the militants' recent arrival, were forcibly evicted and living in very precarious conditions.

Peacekeepers secured the city, and military operations continued, allowing displaced people to return to their homes, Dujarric said.

Ouanda Djalle is a town in CAR's Vakaga prefecture about 175 km south of Birao.

Haq said the UN secretary-general's special representative for the CAR, Valentine Rugwabiza, on Wednesday donated 50,000 liters of fuel for use in eight health centers to help with fuel shortages in the country. Prime minister and health minister of the CAR attended the handover. 
BOGOTA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The traditional military parade for Colombia's Independence Day returned Wednesday to the streets of Bogota, after a two-year absence due to COVID-19 pandemic measures.

More than 12,000 uniformed officers from the different wings of the armed forces and the Colombian National Police displayed their capabilities and weapons down the capital's Boyaca Avenue.

The event was presided over by President Ivan Duque and marked the 212th anniversary of the independence of the South American country from Spain.

During the ceremony, outstanding generals and admirals were awarded for the period 2018-2022, in addition to a tribute to soldiers and police officers who died in the line of duty.

The celebration was complemented by an exhibition by the Colombian Air Force, whose aircraft took to the skies over Bogota. 
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu have discussed bilateral cooperation, as well as regional situation, Azernews reports, citing the ministry.

In a telephone conversation on July 20, the ministers exchanged views on the current issues of the bilateral cooperation agenda between Azerbaijan and Turkiye, as well as the current regional situation, the ministry said.

The parties discussed issues of cooperation within the framework of international organizations, as well as trilateral formats with the participation of Azerbaijan and Turkiye.

The ministers also touched upon other issues of mutual interest.
KHARTOUM, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the tribal clashes in Sudan's southeastern Blue Nile State has climbed to 105, the state's health authorities announced on Tuesday.

"Since the beginning of the bloody events in the region, 105 people have been killed and 225 others injured," Omer Adam Omer, head of the health emergency and epidemic control directorate at the Blue Nile state's health ministry, said in a statement.

He said that 20 of the injured people, who were in critical condition, have been transferred to the capital Khartoum for treatment, adding that the clashes have also displaced 8,470 people.

Clashes broke out recently between the Hausa and Berta tribes in many areas in the Blue Nile State following the killing of a farmer in the state's Gisan area.

The violence then extended to other regions of the state, leaving dozens of deaths and injuries and forcing thousands of residents to flee their homes. 
PHNOM PENH, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Cambodians can now shop for their favorite brands of international products at all stores in the Southeast Asian country run by the China Duty Free Group Co., Ltd. (CDFG), according to a news release on Wednesday.

CDFG, a Chinese state-owned enterprise, has been operating three duty-free stores located in capital Phnom Penh, the northwestern Siem Reap province and the southwestern Preah Sihanouk province, serving both Chinese and international tourists.

The new release said that the CDFG has obtained the Cambodian government's approval for its stores providing service to Cambodian nationals, starting from July.

Domestic shoppers can buy all kinds of luxury goods, except prohibited items like alcohol and tobacco products, at the stores.

Speaking while attending an event to launch the new service in Phnom Penh on Saturday, Se Sakhorn, deputy general director of Cambodia's General Department of Customs and Excise under the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said the duty-free stores have attracted investment in luxury products.

"The move will encourage local consumers to buy luxury products in domestic markets rather than spending money to buy such products overseas," Sakhorn said. 
DHAKA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- After skyrocketing growth in the immediate past 2021-22 fiscal year (July 2021-June 2022), the Bangladesh government has raised its export target by over 11 percent to 67 billion U.S. dollars for the current fiscal 2022-23 year.

Bangladeshi Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi made the announcement at a press conference here on Wednesday.

According to the minister, 58 billion dollars will come from goods exports and 9 billion dollars from the service sector.

In the last 2021-22 fiscal year, Bangladesh earned around 8 billion dollars from services exports.

Munshi said ready-made garments, including knitwear and woven, would be given a special priority as always to achieve goods export target in the 2022-23 fiscal year, which is from July 2022 to June 2023.

He said the export growth in the last 2021-22 attributed to demand for its ready-made garments in key global markets, which remained unaltered in the last fiscal year, despite the economic consequences of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that has been hampering supply chains.

Bangladesh's earnings from garment export, which make up more than three fourths of the country's annual income since the beginning of this decade, surged to 42.61 billion dollars in the 2021-22 fiscal year, showed data released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) under the Ministry of Commerce.

According to the EPB, Bangladesh saw exports soar more than 34 percent to 52.08 billion dollars in the immediate past 2021-22 fiscal year. 
Military and police officers stand guard outside the Sri Lankan parliament in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 20, 2022.

Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as the new president of Sri Lanka in an election held in parliament on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

COLOMBO, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as the new president of Sri Lanka in an election held in parliament on Wednesday.

Soon after winning the election, Wickremesinghe addressed the parliament, calling on all legislators including the opposition parliamentarians to unite and work together with him to lead Sri Lanka out of the current economic crisis.

"We are at a critical juncture. There is an economic crisis and the youth want a system change. People want all parliamentarians to come together," said Wickremesinghe.

"I also want to swear in as president at the parliamentary complex," he added.

Wickremesinghe got 134 votes from parliamentarians in a secret ballot that took place in parliament.

Out of 225 parliamentarians, 223 voted in the ballot and there were four invalid votes.

Another two candidates parliamentarian of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Dullas Alahapperuma, and National People's Power leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake got 82 votes and three votes, respectively.

"Regardless of who won, we must ensure that the necessary economic and political changes that people want are met. Overcoming the crisis should be the first and foremost task of parliamentarians," said Alahapperuma.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned from the post of president last week following massive protests amid a severe economic crisis in the South Asian country.

Following his resignation, Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced that Wickremesinghe, who was the prime minister then, was appointed acting president. 

Military and police officers stand guard outside the Sri Lankan parliament in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 20, 2022.

Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as the new president of Sri Lanka in an election held in parliament on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

Ranil Wickremesinghe (C) visits a Buddhist temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 20, 2022. Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as the new president of Sri Lanka in an election held in parliament on Wednesday. (Photo by Gayan Sameera/Xinhua)

Ranil Wickremesinghe (Front) visits a Buddhist temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 20, 2022. Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as the new president of Sri Lanka in an election held in parliament on Wednesday. (Photo by Gayan Sameera/Xinhua)
Photo taken on July 19, 2022 shows a massive wildfire atop a mountain in the northern suburbs of Athens, Greece. A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities. (Photo by Panagiotis Moschandreou/Xinhua)

ATHENS, July 19 (Xinhua) -- A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities.

"So far, the operational center of the National Center for Emergency Care has not received calls for injuries or respiratory problems due to the fire," Fire Service spokesperson Ioannis Artopoios told a televised emergency press briefing.

He said it had been a difficult day, as smoke blanketed part of the Greek capital. After sunset, sparkling flames were visible from Piraeus port and Evia island.

According to Greek meteorologists, strong winds up to 8 on the Beaufort scale hampered firefighting efforts.

In addition, the fire was blazing on two fronts, Greek national broadcaster ERT reported.

Altogether 420 firefighters, 15 waterbombing aircrafts and nine helicopters have joined the rescue operation, Artopoios announced.

Thousands of residents from four communities at the foothills of Pentelikon mountain have been evacuated after their houses were engulfed in flames, said sources with the Fire Service. The exact number of damaged homes is yet unknown.

Greece reports wildfires almost every summer due to heat waves or arsons. Last year, a series of blazes scorched over 100,000 hectares of forests and farmland and damaged some 2,000 homes and businesses in several parts of the country.

In 2018, the country's worst-ever fire disaster killed 102 people in the coastal resort Mati, near Athens.

This year, under a European pilot program to protect forests from fire, 200 firefighters from six countries across Europe including Bulgaria, France, Germany, Romania, Norway and Finland are positioned in Greece until September to assist in its fire prevention and rescue operations.

Romanian firefighters were battling the blaze alongside the Greeks on Tuesday. 

Photo taken on July 19, 2022 shows a massive wildfire atop a mountain in the northern suburbs of Athens, Greece. A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities. (Photo by Panagiotis Moschandreou/Xinhua)

Photo taken on July 19, 2022 shows smoke caused by a massive wildfire rising from a mountain in the northern suburbs of Athens, Greece. A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities. (Photo by Panagiotis Moschandreou/Xinhua)

A wildfire rages at night in the northeastern suburbs of Athens, Greece, July 20, 2022.

A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)

A wildfire rages at night in the northeastern suburbs of Athens, Greece, July 20, 2022.

A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)

A wildfire rages at night in the northeastern suburbs of Athens, Greece, July 20, 2022.

A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)

A man tries to save his neighbour's house from a wildfire in the northeastern suburbs of Athens, Greece, July 19, 2022.

A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)

A wildfire rages at night in the northeastern suburbs of Athens, Greece, July 20, 2022.

A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)

A firefighter battles a wildfire in the northeastern suburbs of Athens, Greece, July 19, 2022.

A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)

A destroyed electricity pole is seen as a wildfire rages in the northeastern suburbs of Athens, Greece, July 19, 2022.

A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)

A wildfire rages at night in the northeastern suburbs of Athens, Greece, July 20, 2022.

A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)

A firefighter battles a wildfire raging in the northeastern suburbs of Athens, Greece, July 19, 2022.

A massive wildfire broke out Tuesday in the northern suburbs of Athens, damaging homes and forcing evacuations of local communities. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)
LONDON, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Life in Britain has been dominated recently by Prime Minister Boris Johnson's resignation, the search for a successor to inherit the keys to 10 Downing Street, and, more recently, the impact of the highest recorded temperature in British history.

On the other hand, COVID-19 receives little attention from government officials, politicians, health officials, and the general public. It appears that the pandemic that has killed over 200,000 people in Britain is nearly over.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic in Britain is far from over, and on Monday, in a rare move, the editors of two of Britain's most respected health journals issued a joint message to urge the British government to stop gaslighting the public and be honest about the threat the COVID-19 pandemic still poses to people and the National Health Service (NHS).

Unfortunately, that rare reprimand had received little attention from the British media.

In an article titled "The NHS is not living with COVID, it's dying from it," editors of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and the Health Service Journal (HSJ) wrote that the British government is responding to the ongoing health crisis "largely by pretending it is not happening or implying it is all under control."

"Today may be the most difficult day the NHS has ever experienced," said the article. "Most people (including many in the NHS) are so tired of it that they are wilfully pushing it to the back of their minds, but now is the time to face the fact that the nation's attempt to 'live with COVID' is the straw that is breaking the NHS's back."

Noting that in 2020 and 2021, the NHS coped with pandemic peaks by stopping or slowing much of its routine work, the article said that 2022 was meant to be the year of full speed recovery, when record waiting lists in elective care, cancer diagnosis and treatment, and mental health would begin to reduce, and the workload on primary care would begin to ease.

"It is now July, and not counting the first Omicron surge that peaked in January, the UK and the NHS have experienced two further COVID waves, with gaps of just under three months between peaks," said the article, warning that the current wave of hospital admissions driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 variants "is likely to peak in the next few days, but other variants will be ready for global distribution soon."

According to the authors, weekly hospital admissions to English hospitals, for those who test positive for COVID-19, averaged over 9000 in the first six and half months of the year.

"In 2021 the number was just under 6000, with most admissions concentrated in the first two months of the year. The average in 2020 was just under 7000," the articled said.

"What the hospital admissions figures hide is a rising tide of people with long COVID, now at two million and likely to be a major burden on the health service and the nation's productivity, for a generation. And there are many other much less recognised but still deeply disturbing effects of the continuing pandemic, including endangering the NHS's supply of blood," it warned.

Noting that at no other time in the past 50 years have so many parts of the NHS been so close to ceasing to function effectively, the article said the heart of the problem is "the failure to recognise that the pandemic is far from over and that a return to some of the measures taken in the past two years is needed."

The constant pressure created by repeated COVID waves is already the main reason that the NHS is nowhere near reaching the activity levels needed to begin to recover performance, it said. 
ROME, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Wednesday urged the country's political forces to form a new pact to help keep the government afloat ahead of a crucial confidence vote scheduled for late Wednesday.

The outcome of the vote - first in the Senate and then in the lower house on Thursday -- will show whether the cabinet still has enough support to continue and whether the current prime minister will still be ready to stay in the post.

Last week, Draghi formally offered to resign after the Five Star Movement, a major party in his national unity coalition, boycotted a confidence vote on the government's relief bill aimed at alleviating soaring prices.

Although Draghi survived that vote with a large majority, he said it showed that a "pact of trust" was the only way forward.

However, President Sergio Mattarella rejected Draghi's resignation, asking him to address Parliament and see whether a government of national unity could be forged.

CALLS FROM SOCIETY "IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE"

Draghi's decision to tender his resignation was "painful but due," he told lawmakers on Wednesday. "The only way, if we still want to stay together, is to rebuild this pact from scratch with courage, unselfishness and credibility."

He stressed that, despite tensions within the coalition, the many calls from the country's civil society for the government to keep working were "impossible to ignore."

"These days, citizens, associations and local authorities have mobilized in order for the government to continue, which is unprecedented," he said.

Over 1,860 mayors have signed an appeal for Draghi to stay, the ANSA news agency reported. Similar initiatives involved hundreds of representatives from Italy's industrial association Confindustria and trade unions.

REFORM PLAN IN FOCUS

Since he was appointed by Mattarella in February 2021, Draghi has enjoyed broad support from a wide range of forces in Parliament, and this unity helped the cabinet approve key provisions swiftly and put others in motion.

These included necessary reforms and a National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) required by the European Union (EU) in order for the member states to receive its post-pandemic recovery funding.

Italy is entitled to receive over 200 billion euros (204.2 billion U.S. dollars) in recovery funds from the EU up to 2026. The government said it has already received 45.9 billion euros, while a further 21 billion euros would be delivered in the coming weeks.

"For a long time, the coalition parties have been able to put divisions aside and converge ... towards rapid and effective actions for the good of all citizens," Draghi said in his address.

Noting that Italy's economy grew 6.6 percent last year, he said the drafting of the PNRR, "approved by a very broad majority in this Parliament, has launched a round of reforms and investments unprecedented in our recent history."

"To date, all the objectives of the first two semesters of the PNRR have been achieved," Draghi noted. (1 euro =1.02 U.S. dollars) 
ISTANBUL, July 20 (Xinhua) -- At least 775 illegal migrants and five organizers were detained in the Turkish western city of Izmir over the last weeks, the state-run broadcaster TRT reported on Wednesday.

Twenty different human smuggling schemes in different districts of Izmir were foiled from July 7 to 18, it said.

Five suspects, who reportedly attempted to smuggle the migrants to the Greek Islands, were detained on human trafficking charges, it added.

The apprehended migrants were transferred to a refugee processing center, for either deportation or legal processing.

According to the data from the Turkish Interior Ministry, more than 125,000 undocumented migrants were arrested since the beginning of this year, and 45,000 of them were deported back to their respective countries.

Over 24,000 migrants from 89 different countries are still being hosted in processing centers, waiting for deportation, it revealed.

Turkiye, a country with a population of over 83 million, is hosting more than 4 million refugees, according to Turkish officials. Refugees came to the country either with hopes of establishing a new life or crossing illegally into Europe. 
PARIS, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Two massive wildfires raging in southwestern France over the past week have evacuated at least 36,000 people from home and burned 20,600 hectares of land, French news channel BFMTV reported on Wednesday.

During a visit to the fire zones in Gironde, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a major national project to replant trees and regrow the damaged forests.

Macron called the firefighters heroes and thanked the French people for their solidarity with the police and firefighters in the department of Gironde to overcome the blaze.

He described the wildfires that broke out on July 12 as "one of the severest" in the history of France, and the country's aerial units of the fire brigade, the "most modern in Europe".

The firefighters said the fire vigilance warning will be extended in Gironde until October.

Local authorities told BFMTV that the two fires were put under control Tuesday night and increased humidity in the coming days will help extinguish the flames. 
By Trend

Gas supplies from Algeria to Italy will increase in the coming years, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Monday, following his meeting with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in Algiers, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

The gas deal was one in a series of agreements the two politicians agreed to sign during Draghi's official visit, with new areas of cooperation encompassing infrastructure development, closer cooperation on criminal justice, the promotion of investment, the pharmaceutical industry, scientific research, and the protection of cultural heritage.

Algeria's APS news agency already reported on Friday that the country was willing to boost gas supplies to Italy by 4 billion cubic meters this year.

Algeria is becoming an increasingly important supplier of gas to Italy as Rome seeks to gradually replace Russian gas supplies with more stable sources. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has sent fuel prices skyrocketing and threatened to cut Russian gas supplies to Europe.

Before the start of the conflict, Russia had been the largest supplier of gas to Italy.

Drahi earlier visited Algeria in April, shortly after the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, while Tebboune visited Rome in May.
CHANGSHA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The first rubber-tired subway train independently developed by a Chinese enterprise has rolled off the assembly line in central China's Hunan Province early this week.

The train will be exported to Mexico City for an upgrading program of its Metro Line 1, according to CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd, the manufacturer.

The train has a maximum passenger capacity of 2,252 people, and can run at a maximum speed of 80 km per hour.

Compared to the conventional steel-wheel metro, the rubber-tired metro train is more capable of climbing steep slopes and can well adapt to terrain conditions in Mexico City, which is the world's largest market of rubber-tired metros.

In December 2020, CRRC won a contract for the overall upgrading project of Mexico City's 50-year-old Metro Line 1. The contract involves investment and financing, new vehicle manufacturing, comprehensive modernization and upgrading of existing vehicle communication signal systems, lines, electromechanical systems, and maintenance, among others.

CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. said it adopts new materials, new technologies, and a lightweight design structure to help the train consume less energy and reduce the noise during the operation. The train's signal control system can realize two-way communication between the train and the ground, which ensures driving safety and efficient operation.

As a key infrastructure project in Mexico City, the upgrading of the 18.83-km Metro Line 1 will benefit millions of local residents, according to the city government. 
United States: Twitter won the battle to force Elon Musk to complete its $44 billion buyout early after a Delaware judge agreed to expedite the case and set a trial date for October.

On Tuesday, Chancery Court Chief Justice Kathleen St. J. McCormick changed the trial date from two weeks in February to five days at the request of the billionaire. Twitter claimed that as a result of Tesla's founder's decision to back out of the agreement, and social media criticism of the company, it was suffering.

The decision represents Twitter's first victory in a trial where several legal experts predict that Musk will lose.

Musk's lawyers "underestimated this court's ability to quickly process complex disputes" in mergers and acquisitions cases, the judge said during a hearing in Wilmington, clarifying that he had taken their decisions regarding scheduling. saw little merit in the arguments.

According to McCormick, the conflict surrounding the uncertain transaction was "creating a cloud of uncertainty" on Twitter. The continued delay, she said, "threats imminent loss" to the business.

After the argument, the judge asked Twitter's lawyer no questions, but he blocked Musk's lawyer when he called the September 19 hearing "absurd." She denied Musk's attorney's claim that it took her a year to bring another case to trial, citing an earlier precedent in which the case was settled within three months, despite the limitations of the pandemic at the time. was also pointed out.

In less than an hour and a half, McCormick ended the hearing, which had been conducted remotely to accommodate his case of COVID, by requesting that the parties submit specific October dates for the non-jury trial. Do it.

According to Twitter's San Francisco-based legal team, it will only take four days to demonstrate that the world's richest man must stick to his commitment. Last week, Twitter sued Musk to force him to complete the deal.

At the hearing on Tuesday, a Twitter lawyer argued that Musk was "contractually obligated to use his best efforts to close the deal," but that he is actually "doing the exact opposite." "He's breaking himself.

According to the purchase agreement, Musk is required to complete the transaction within two days after all closing requirements have been met, Savitt said. Those conditions would be met in early September, he predicted.

The attorney declared, "Mr. Musk has no intention of fulfilling any of his promises.

According to Musk's legal team, Twitter pushed for a "warp speed" test without justification. Musk claimed that by withholding specific information about the so-called spam bot accounts present in its system, Twitter had breached the terms of the buyout agreement. According to Musk's lawyers, the case requires "large-scale forensic review and analysis of data" about the bots, among other legal considerations.

Musk's lawyer, Andrew Rossman, argued during the hearing that there was no need to expedite the outcome of the case to meet the October deadline of the settlement. He informed the judge that the crucial date is when the financing commitment for the purchase expires, which will be closer to the end of April in 2019. According to Rossman, a trial in February would give the court enough time to make a decision when granting permission. Appeal time.

He called Twitter's suggested timeline "extraordinary," calling it "the idea of running this case in 60 days." "This deadline is absurd."

Rossman dismissed Twitter's claim that Musk was attempting to extend the time so that funding commitments could end. He claimed that until the day the company filed the lawsuit, his client "continued to use his best efforts to make the deal" by securing funding and getting his lawyers in touch with Twitter about the specifics. For.

Noting that Mr Musk is Twitter's second largest shareholder, he has "no incentive to harm Twitter," Rossman insisted.

He ultimately failed to persuade McCormick to decline Twitter's request for an accelerated schedule.

The judge interrupted the speaker's statement and brought up the 2001 merger dispute between Tyson Foods and IBP, which resulted in an expedited trial. When Tyson attempted to back down from his rival's $4.7 billion takeover, the chancery judge in that case ordered Tyson to proceed with the takeover.

Rossman cited a case he presided over himself that took a year to reach trial and involved an attempt to back away from the US$550 million acquisition of cake supplier Decopack Holdings of private equity firm Snow Phipps Group. . McCormick dismissed Rossman's quote for that matter. She noticed that as the pandemic gained momentum, concerns emerged about procurement.

McCormick instructed Snow Phipps to complete the transaction, which could be a warning sign for Musk.

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USA: Lt. Gen. Michael E. Langley has been chosen to command American forces in Africa; his confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

One of the few young Black Marines stationed in the prestigious downtown D.C. barracks at the time, Langley was a first lieutenant. General Bailey, who attained the rank of three stars, took notice. that counselled Langley based on his own knowledge and that of the Black Marines who had served as his mentors.

After more than three decades, Langley will come under scrutiny once more after being nominated to serve as the head of U.S. Africa Command and command all American forces in Africa. If confirmed by the Senate, Langley will have his confirmation hearing on Thursday and will become the first Black person to be awarded four stars since the U.S. Marine Corps was established 246 years ago. More than 70 White men have attained the highest ranks in the Marines during that time.

Other than Bailey, only a few Black men have risen to the rank of three-star general in the Marine Corps. In the Army, Air Force, and Navy, other Black officers have attained the rank of four star. However, Black Marines rarely saw anyone who resembled them in positions of authority and occasionally wondered if it was even possible.

The fourth Black man to be promoted to the rank of three-star general, retired Lt. Gen. Walter Gaskin, said, "As you looked at the horizon, you saw the end." "There was nobody over there, so you couldn't see what was over the horizon."

Langley has served in Japan, Afghanistan, and Somalia. He oversaw U.S. Marine Corps Forces in Europe and Africa and held important positions at the Pentagon. He is currently in charge of the Marines' East Coast operations. He was straightforward, extremely competent, and not the type of Marine to "beat on the table," according to Gaskin.

Gaskin has told Langley, "You have all the credentials in the world." "There's no question that you deserve this,"

However, Gaskin noted that there were some others who also merited a fourth star. He cited Lt. Gen. Frank Petersen, the first Marine to hold the rank of three-star general, as an illustration of someone who "no doubt" ought to have received the promotion to four-star general.

Gaskin noted that this occasion is not just one of great pride. It also serves as a reminder of the challenges that delayed its arrival. "You carry the legacy... the weight of all those who came before you who didn't have the same opportunities," he claimed to have told Langley directly.

The third Black Marine to receive three stars, retired Lt. Gen. Willie Williams, claimed that Langley and so many other Black Marines' "commitment to purpose and perseverance" were responsible for his promotion.

The second Black Marine to receive three stars and retired Lt. Gen. Ronald Coleman said of Langley's promotion, "Even thinking about it gives me chills."

A spokesman for Langley stated that the general is preoccupied with the Senate confirmation hearing and has declined to give an interview for this story.

According to a spokeswoman, Langley would assume command of roughly 6,000 American troops in Africa, including about 1,300 in West Africa and about 3,500 at a base in Djibouti, and would be based in Stuttgart, Germany. Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, who is retiring, would be succeeded by him.

U.S. forces are primarily involved in assisting African militaries with training and capacity-building. Although fatal attacks on American soldiers in Niger and Kenya in recent years have increased scrutiny of the mission from US lawmakers, direct combat is a rare occurrence. Under President Biden, hundreds of Special Operations soldiers will once again be sent to Somalia this year. Before leaving office, President Donald Trump ordered all American troops out of Somalia.

The Brookings Institution senior fellow Michael O'Hanlon claimed that the U.S. military in Africa faces "unique challenges." The U.S. is concentrating on assisting governments in addressing a number of issues related to climate change, population growth, and political instability rather than focusing on a single threat. The United States' main concerns are the insurgencies in the Sahel region and the expanding use of Russian mercenaries.

Where can you meaningfully make a difference without deploying massive forces or taking on liabilities, O'Hanlon advised Langley and other leaders to inquire.

After his predecessor was fired over allegations of using a racial slur for Black Americans in front of troops, Langley, who was for a time based in Stuttgart, took over as commander of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa in November 2020. When asked about the allegations against his predecessor at the time, Langley declined to comment, telling Stars and Stripes in an interview that racial issues in the military and society as a whole were still "evolving."

Langley is frequently reserved, but he can also be engaging and warm, attracting people to him, according to retired Gen. Robert Neller, who served as the Marine Corps commandant from September 2015 to July 2019. According to Neller, "He gets things done, and people generally enjoy working for him."

According to retired Lt. Gen. H. Stacy Clardy III, who has worked with Langley on a number of occasions, including at the Pentagon, Langley is regarded among the generals as a "quiet professional" who "listens more than he talks." According to Clardy, Langley was one of the people he could depend on because of his "flawless judgement."

Langley has shared with friends and mentors that his father's decision to leave his position as an Air Force noncommissioned officer was one of his most influential childhood experiences. Willie C. Langley did this after learning from his superiors that he would have to make another overseas deployment. He was the main caregiver for Langley and his siblings after their mother passed away, and that move would have separated them. According to Bailey, Langley frequently recounts that incident, emphasising how his father's choice to prioritise his family over his career prevented him from becoming the person he is today.

Years later, when Langley learned that he had attained the rank of general and received his first star, his first words were, "I can't wait to tell my dad," Bailey recalled.

Several three-star generals, including Langley, attended the commissioning of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in May in Petersen's honour. Petersen was the first Black Marine aviator and three-star general. Williams, the third Black Marine to receive three stars, stated that there were rumours of Langley's nomination, but it was too soon to discuss the possibility in detail.

Instead, Gilbert "Hashmark" Johnson, one of the first Black men to join the Marines after the force started to integrate in 1942, was what Williams claimed he thought of when he considered the past that had made the moment possible. Williams pondered how many upcoming Marines would be able to recognise themselves in Langley and pursue greater aspirations. And he considered the obligation Langley and other Black Marines still had to uphold.

He declared, "We live on the shoulders of those who have come before us. "And after that, we give people shoulders to stand on."

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Tehran: In response to Western pressure on the conflict in Ukraine, the Russian President met with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran. According to a White House official, US intelligence indicates that Russia is preparing to capture Moscow-controlled territory in Ukraine.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared that the West opposes a "free and strong" Russia, which helped Russian President Vladimir Putin win Iran's unwavering support for his country's military operation in Ukraine. As both Moscow and Tehran deal with Western sanctions, Khamenei said that if Russia had not sent troops to Ukraine, it would later be subject to NATO attack. The statement also echoed Putin's own rhetoric.

On 24 February, in what it called a "special military operation", Russia sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine to defend its security. To help protect Ukraine from Russian attack, NATO allies have increased their military presence and weapons in Eastern Europe.

Khamenei told Putin on Tuesday, "If the road was open to NATO, it would not recognize any border or borders." To gain control of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia took from Ukraine in 2014.

Putin met with Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on only his second foreign visit since Russia launched a military operation in February to discuss the conflict in Syria. He also used the visit to discuss a UN-backed plan to restart Ukrainian grain exports to help with the world food crisis.

Putin's meeting with Erdogan was his first one-on-one encounter with a NATO chief since a Russian military offensive, and it gave the West a clear view of Moscow's intentions to forge closer strategic ties with Iran, China and India. served as a warning. Resist Western sanctions.

After his visit to Iran, Putin made televised remarks to reporters in which he said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had offered to mediate disputes between Russia and Ukraine.

Asked about a possible meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, Putin said Kyiv had broken the terms of the initial peace deal, which he claimed "practically achieved" in March. He did not elaborate.

Of course, the will of the contracting parties to fulfill the agreements that were reached will determine the final result. Today, it is clear that this desire is lacking in the authorities of Kyiv.

Both sides made proposals during the March talks, but no progress was made. Zelensky insisted that at that time only a concrete result could be relied upon from the talks.

The Ukrainian government did not immediately respond to Putin's comments.

The White House in Washington claimed that as part of its efforts to exert full control over its gains in the East, Russia was laying the groundwork for annexation of Ukrainian territory and installing illegitimate proxy officials in those territories.

The head of the National Security Council's press office, John Kirby, revealed he claimed to be US intelligence when he claimed that Russia was trying to remove legitimate leaders, make the ruble the standard currency, and force citizens to apply for citizenship. was getting ready.

In direct violation of Ukraine's sovereignty, Kirby said, "We have information today, including downgraded intelligence that we have been able to share with you, about how Russia is controlling Ukrainian territory." laying the groundwork for.

According to Kirby, the same strategy was employed in 2014 when Russia announced annexation of Crimea after seizing control from Ukraine. The annexation of Crimea is considered illegal by the international community.

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Munmun Dutta, Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah fame is a popular name in the television industry. She is known for playing the role of Babita in the show, who is the love interest of the protagonist Jethalal played by Dilip Joshi. The actress enjoys a enormous fan following on social media and she is also a fashion influencer. Munmun Dutta is very fond of travelling and presently she is enjoying her trip to Thailand.

In the pictures shared by the actress, she is seen posing with indigenous tribe women of villages in Thailand. Munmun looks gorgeous in a blue floral print dress and a cute bucket hat. She shared several pictures of the tribal women and kids in her post. She captioned the post, Years ago when I read about them, or saw them in various documentaries, I was mesmerized. Finally had the opportunity to visit the Karen tribe women here, an indigenous community found in Thailand-Burma border region. Their stories are fascinating and raw.

Munmun has been offering a virtual tour of the place with the posts on social media. She recently shared pictures of herself at Doi Inthanon, which is considered the tallest mountain in Thailand. She captioned, Sitting at a height of approximately 2565 meters above sea level, Doi Inthanon is considered the tallest mountain in Thailand and is a part of the Himalaya. Has to be one of the most beautiful national parks that I visited in a long time. Lush green vegetation, waterfalls, pagodas (chedis in Thai) trails and wildlife, it is definitely something one should not miss.

Munmun Dutta has been part of Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah from the beginning of the show. Actress Munmun Dutta who essays the character of Babita will soon bid goodbye to the show. Reportedly, Munmun has been approached by the makers of Bigg Boss OTT to be a contestant in the second season of the show. She has a massive fan base be it on social media platforms or in real life because of her very famous character called Babita in Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah for which she is loved and appreciated all over the country.

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Naypyidaw: Myanmar's central bank recently ordered businesses and private borrowers to suspend repayments of foreign loans in a fresh effort to protect the country's dwindling foreign exchange reserves.

The junta-ruled country of Myanmar is sinking like an island nation with escalating violence and a persistent economic slowdown, while Sri Lanka faces a political crisis triggered by an economic crisis. The currency was selling at $2,400 a dollar during pro-democracy demonstrations scattered across Myanmar to mark the 75th anniversary of the death of the country's independence hero and father of the country's ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Despite the country's central bank setting a July 18 deadline for all businesses to convert their foreign holdings into funds with 35 per cent foreign investment. According to a report by the Global New Light of Myanmar, companies breaking the rules will face unspecified consequences. To ease the pressure on Kayat to include more businesses, the rule was created.

On February 1, 2021, the day before the coup, the exchange rate of the kyat to the US dollar was 1,340. With the kayat falling in value, food and fuel prices in Myanmar have skyrocketed, and analysts worry it could worsen the country's crisis.

According to the Liberal Democratic National League for Democracy of Myanmar, 48 NLD leaders have been killed and more than 900 party MPs have been detained. At a press conference, a representative of the NLD's Human Rights Record Group, Kyaw Hatwe, said that eight party leaders had died in prison and 11 died while in custody.

Despite spending 95% of its budget, Myanmar's opposition National Unity Government, which views itself as the country's legitimate government, claimed it was unable to meet the firearms requirement for its armed wing and It requires at least $10 million per month. Fund the resistance movement. According to people with knowledge of the situation, the armed wing of the NUG has 259 township-based battalions, each with 80,000 to 100,000 members. According to NUG, most of the guerrilla forces are in contact with them.

PLA conducts military exercises on Pangong Lake

Beijing refuse reports on invitation EU leaders to visit in November.

The Chinese military tests a trying to cut rocket launch system at a great height.
New Delhi: The matter of expelled BJP leader Nupur Sharma making remarks on Prophet Mohammad is increasing rapidly. Recently, in Udaipur in Rajasthan, tailor Kanhaiyalal was murdered over the same incident. In Rajasthan, many common people, including MPs, have started receiving threats. During this time, the Border Security Force has made a big achievement. BSF has detained a Pakistani youth from the Sriganganagar area of Rajasthan. Who came to India to kill Nupur Sharma. The BSF has also seized several other items, including a knife, from the accused.

The accused said that the plan to kill Nupur Sharma was made in Pakistan: According to the information, at around 11:00 pm on the night of July 16, the patrolling team of the Border Security Force, patrolling team of the Border Security Force, who was patrolling the Hindumalkot border in the Sriganganagar area, noticed a suspicious youth. When BSF jawans questioned the youth, he could not give any answer correctly. After which, when the BSF personnel searched the accused, an 11-inch knife, maps and some food items were recovered from him. The BSF has handed over the accused Rizwan to the local police. After this, the police have taken him on an 8-day remand through court. The interrogation so far has revealed that he is a resident of Bahauddin in Pakistan. Who had come to kill Nupur Sharma via Rajasthan.

Kanhaiyalal was also killed with a sharp knife: It is worth mentioning that on June 28, when Kanhaiyalal, who works as a tailor, was murdered in Maldas Street in the Dhan Mandi area of Udaipur, the accused Mohammed Riaz and Mohammad Gos had also gone to his shop with a big sharp knife. Some sources say that the accused Rizwan may also be a man from the same gang. Who has come to India via Rajasthan to kill Nupur Sharma on the orders of his mentor. At present, the local police of Sriganganagar are engaged in strict interrogation of the accused. The accused Rizwan's connection with the Udaipur murder case can also be linked.

Woman carrying gas cylinder in 'Bahubali' mode protest outside Parliament

India committed to enhancing capacity building among African youth: EAM

Piece of meat found in Kanwar camp, Kanwariyas jammed road
TEHRAN: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi & his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have held talks here, agreeing to further strengthen bilateral ties and expand cooperation to ensure security in the region.

The three sides expressed satisfaction with the improvement in ties, particularly in the economic, security, infrastructure, energy, trade, and industry sectors, as they reviewed recent developments in their bilateral relations, which have significantly improved since the start of the Raisi administration. They also expressed a desire to keep advancing the development of their bilateral ties.

Raisi and Putin praised their collaboration's successes in the fight against terrorism while highlighting the need for improved regional and transregional cooperation. They also expressed their determination to contribute to the maintenance of security in the "independent states" in the region. Raisi called the desire of the two nations to deepen bilateral ties "extraordinary" and noted that since his meetings with Putin in late January in Moscow and late June in Ashgabat, Iran-Russia cooperation has continued to show a growing trend that has to be strengthened.

The Iranian president commented on the "effective" bilateral cooperation in the battle against terrorism in Syria, saying that such alliances "set the stage for enhancing regional security and stability."

He said that by working together to fight terrorism, Iran and Russia have demonstrated their sincerity and resolve on the matter.

Putin said, there is more cooperation between Russia and Iran in the area of international security. He also noted that both nations are contributing significantly to the efforts being made to find a solution to the Syrian issue.

Putin visits to Tehran for meeting as war in Ukraine continued

Russian President Putin set to visit Iran next week

Russia shuts off the gas pipeline as part of 'routine maintenance'.
Moscow: Putin's propogandist claim Russia should drop Nuclear bomb on England and leave Northern Ireland to reunite with Ireland "at Biden's demand" while sparing Scotland and Wales. Vladimir Solovyov's most recent doom predictions came after the chat show host showed how much the Kremlin's criticism of Boris Johnson and other prominent British figures was hurting him.

Television anchormen have threatened to destroy Great Britain with a hypersonic Sarmat, also known in the West as the giant Satan-2 rocket, an intercontinental ballistic missile with a top speed of 15,880 mph.

Putin hailed Solovyov, who attacked the UK government, and Admiral Sir Tony Redkin, the head of the British armed forces, as "arrogant, ignorant, illiterate upstarts who can do nothing but steal".

"Listen Brits, wake up," he commanded. The Egyptian pyramids are absent from the British Museum simply because it would be physically impossible to steal them.

"You stole everything," I said.

He ridiculed Sir Tony, who, despite the death or injury of 50,000 soldiers in Ukraine, warned that Russia posed a threat for ten years to come.

Admiral Tony Radakin

What order do you have? What results did you get? When did your British equipment conquer anyone?

"Admiral, who and where did you defeat? They're completely out of their mind. And they're lecturing us saying, "With just a sarmat, we can destroy the country."

Other pundits were corrected by Professor Andrei Sidorov, Dean of the Faculty of World Politics at Moscow State University, who said that more than one government would be needed to destroy the United Kingdom.

We are not going to Scotland. Scotland will become independent, Soloviev replied.

Wells has remained silent until now. Wales would also become independent. Additionally, Northern Ireland will join Ireland at Biden's request.

The Union Jack will soon disappear.

Look at this Liz Truss, look at Boris Johnson, said Margarita Simonyan, the head of the pro-Putin RT television network. They both represent decades of British policy in human form.

My favorite aspect is the wonderful mix of huge ego and the same huge animalism.

"A proud pig is strong." Although it does not exist in nature, we encounter it every day.

Both made fun of Johnson's RAF Typhoon flight.

Putin looked at ease on the plane. Boris Johnson is absurd,' said Solovyov.

"He thinks he's a bull," she said. But according to the laws of nature a pig cannot become a bull.

The British are building their uncultured, unheated future with Ukraine.

And since Ukraine cannot exist in its previous form, we must build our future without Ukraine and with culture. Campaigners also mocked former Defense Secretary and Tory leadership candidate Penny Mordaunt, laughed at and ridiculed her as a potential prime minister. Political scientist Vladimir Kornilov, a separate Solovyov guest, said: This is what amazes me most of Mordaunt. He claims that Ukrainian lawmakers supported him during his campaign for British Prime Minister. Okay, we can cancel the election." Ukraine has chosen a candidate to serve as Prime Minister.

Then Soloviev talked about his sore bellyflops on Tom Daly's Celebrity Diving Show. That's all she knows, nothing more," Kornilov remarked. According to Kornolov, before starting her political career, this girl worked only as an assistant to a magician. Is she going to show Putin such a trick? Solovyov counterattacked. According to Kornolov, he served as Secretary of Defense for 80 days. It proves that anyone can be the defense minister of Great Britain," Solovyov said. She handled her responsibilities the same way she would now take the leap. The jump is beautiful, entered flawlessly, and stood well." Plop! Ha ha ha ha ha!

Iran supports Putin as the US claims that Russia plans to invade more of Ukraine

Ukraine plans to attack Crimea

Shoigu ordered to shoot down the drones near Russian borders

Russia requests to UN chief for removal of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi website Mirotvorets
Beijing: The G695 highway will pass through areas that are actively fighting and runs north of the Line of Actual Control. According to one observer, who claims that India is also developing infrastructure, "China intends to control remote areas for faster movement of troops."

China intends to build a new highway close to its controversial border areas with India as part of Beijing's efforts to bolster its strategic position and project its power, but the South Asian neighbor is likely to be alarmed by the move. The new national programme, which aims to build 461,000 km (286,400 mi) of highways and motorways by 2035, as China seeks to revive its booming economy and boost consumer spending through infrastructure investment, including highways Includes 345 construction plans for the . Kashgar in Tibet, to Majha in the Xinjiang region.

According to plans unveiled last week, the G695 highway is projected to pass through the southern Tibetan county of Kona, which lies directly north of the disputed Indo-Tibetan border marked by the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Kamba, which is a notable military hub. Home of the camp, and Gyorong, which is close to the Nepalese border.

Along with Zanda County in Nagari Prefecture, which is partly controlled by India, it will also pass through Burang County, which is shared by Tibet, Nepal and India.

Although the specifics of the new construction are still unknown, the highway may eventually pass through controversial areas on the LAC such as Depsang Plain, Galwan Valley and Hot Springs.

A conflict in the Galwan Valley two years ago that resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers and brought bilateral ties to an all-time low, continues to this day, a military conflict between China and India. gave rise to a deadlock.

After more than 12 hours of talks, the latest round of military talks on Sunday again failed.

The two armies late on Monday announced their agreement along the LAC to maintain "security and stability" on the ground in the western sector.

After the 16th round of talks, a statement was issued stating that the two sides have agreed to maintain close communication and dialogue through military and diplomatic channels so that any outstanding issues can be resolved at a mutually appropriate point of view at the earliest. find an agreed solution.

Beijing hopes to "further increase [its] logistical build-up" in the border region by building a new road, according to Srikant Kondapalli, a professor of China studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

"China intends to control remote areas for rapid movement of troops in case of any Soviet-style breakup, domestic rebellion, or external support," he declared.

Kondapalli said that in the early 1980s, China began building vast infrastructure in Tibet, Xinjiang and other border regions, although many of these projects had "low economic value compared to their strategic objectives".

China has intensified such efforts over the past ten years, with continued efforts to upgrade some highways near its border areas.

This includes the highway G219, which once connected Yicheng in Xinjiang with Lhatse in Tibet. It is currently being expanded to connect its entire western and southern border passing through Tibet and Yunnan, including the disputed Aksai Chin, from the Qom-Kanas Mongolian ethnic settlement in Xinjiang to Dongxing in Guangxi next to Vietnam. .

This includes the highway G219, which once connected Yicheng in Xinjiang with Lhatse in Tibet. It is currently being expanded to connect its entire western and southern border passing through Tibet and Yunnan, including the disputed Aksai Chin, from the Qom-Kanas Mongolian ethnic settlement in Xinjiang to Dongxing in Guangxi next to Vietnam. .

China also began upgrading the G216 highway and in Tibet in 2016 to connect Gyarong County to Hongzanzhui, a transit port in Xinjiang's Altay, on the border with Mongolia.

Kondapalli said, "It is also to prepare for the 'sincerization' of Tibet and Xinjiang and to prepare for the 15th Dalai Lama contingencies. Through these infrastructure projects, China will be able to reach South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia." Hoping to expand as well.

Beijing has long held the view that adequate transportation infrastructure is essential for both national security and economic development, as well as reducing poverty.

Beijing refuse reports on invitation EU leaders to visit in November.

PLA conducts military exercises on Pangong Lake

Several labourers missing from Indo-China border, body of one found

The Chinese military tests a trying to cut rocket launch system at a great height.
By Trend

Uzbekistans Uzbekneftegaz JSC plans to triple the capacity of the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex (GCC) by the end of 2024 using new sources of raw materials, the head of the downstream department of JSC Alisher Bakhadirov told Trend.

"We are systematically working in this direction and have signed EPC contracts and license agreements. Pre-project work has already been completed. Contracts are now being fulfilled and equipment is being purchased," Bakhadirov said.

According to him, 430,000 tons of naphtha per year will be processed within the framework of the expansion project of the Shurtan GCC.

Bahadirov noted that the current capacity of the Shurtan GCC is 125,000 tons of polyethylene, and after expansion, 280,000 tons of polyethylene and 100,000 tons of polypropylene will be added to this indicator.

"We hope that within a few years we will be able to complete the construction of this complex and increase the production of more valuable products, such as polyethylene and polypropylene," Bakhadirov said.

The head of the department also said that investments in the project amounted to $1.8 billion.
Kathmandu, July 8

Liu Jianchao, the head of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party, is visiting Nepal soon, a source at the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu confirms.

However, the visit and its date are yet to be officially announced.

This will be Lius first foreign visit since he took over the role in the first week of June. It means Nepal is a priority for China, the source claims.

There is a tradition that the countries with strong brotherly and party relationships are selected for first visits, meetings and direct conversations as soon as someone assumes a key official position. Nepal has been the first country in that process this time.

This is also important because China has been vocal about Nepals relationships with other countries of late.

A source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also confirms the visit, saying the duration will be around four days.

The Chinese Communist Party leader is certain to meet President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN-UML leader KP Sharma Oli and CPN-Maoist Centre leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal during the Kathmandu sojourn. He is likely to meet Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota also.
Schools are there to let students teach solutions, but they are filled with problems of their own. They do not have well-qualified teachers, proper infrastructure, facilities for extracurricular activities and others. But, there is also another problem at Nepali schools that many have not thought of. The problem is concerned with students with autism.

Most schools still do not have well-skilled teachers and a friendly environment for students with autism. The schools blame students behaviour while the health experts contradict the schools opinions. While there is some silver lining, they call for more efforts to make the education system inclusive.

The problem

Surendra Bajracharya argues that the country lacks inclusion in education because it does not have need-based education. Photo: Aryan Dhimal.

Surendra Bajracharya, a public health officer and public administrator at Autismcare Nepal Society, says it is not the students problem. Rather, its the teachers and schools that are unskilled to handle those students.

He further adds, Our schools dont have well-trained human resources to monitor the students with autism. The schools also do not have an autism-friendly environment and infrastructure.

The biggest mistake schools make is they teach the disabled and non-disabled with the same methodology, according to him. Students with autism are visual learners, so there must be different pedagogy for them, while the curriculum does not need changes, he adds.

Meena Dhungana, the chairperson of the Association for the Welfare of Intellectual Handicapped, says the condition is even worse in rural areas of the country.

Since autism is still a new issue in Nepal, there are very few people who are well literate about it although the younger generation has gradually developed knowledge about it, she says, Although the schools have gradually started accepting students with autism and developed awareness regarding it, there is still a large space of improvement for them.

Need for an inclusive education system

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder of variable severity that is characterised by difficulty in social interaction and communication and by restricted or repetitive patterns of thought and behaviour.

According to the World Health Organization, one in a hundred children has autism while it is estimated that Nepal has around 300,000 people with autism. The WHO states, Care for people with autism needs to be accompanied by actions at community and societal levels for greater accessibility, inclusivity and support.

But, Bajracharya argues that the country lacks inclusion in education because it does not have need-based education. Most of the schools are operated by just focusing on the students who are not disabled. They have neglected the environment that is necessary for the disabled ones.

He says, Autism can be improved if it is diagnosed timely and treated properly. He has seen many people with autism improve their condition drastically after getting proper treatment. But, for that to happen, it needs to be diagnosed early. Bajracharya demands the countrys educational policies pay attention to this also.

Gradually, people have become literate and aware of it, and this is important, according to him.

But, in many families, the superstitious belief regarding autism still is prevalent. Instead of giving scientific treatment to them, they do something superstitious, which creates disasters in the persons health.

In such cases, educational institutions need to intervene and seek solutions, according to him.

But, sadly, that has not been the reality till today.

Schools concerns

The main challenge is to study the behaviour of the students with autism. Sometimes, they get very aggressive and even hurt themselves. Photo: Aryan Dhimal.

But, schools have their own complaints. They need trained and dedicated teachers and a friendly environment, which they cannot manage immediately.

Balmaitri Pratisthan in Harisiddhi, for example, has also been enrolling students with autism for the last couple of years. Currently, the school has five students with autism. But, its founder Pabin Thapa says it has been quite challenging.

The main challenge is to study the behaviour of those students. Sometimes, they get very aggressive and even hurt themselves, says Thapa. They also shout unnecessarily which disturbs others as well.

For most of the time when students with autism get aggressive and show unusual activities, Thapa and his team at the school control the situation by holding them. And, they immediately call the guardians.

Sometimes, those aggressive students even try to bite and hit us.

A silver lining

Surendra Bajracharya urges all the schools wishing to admit students with autism to clearly understand the disease and start training trained human resources.

But, here is the good news. Some schools have been accepting students with autism easily as they have developed an autism-friendly environment.

Lalitpur-based Kidzee Pre-School is one of those. Currently, the school has five students with autism below nine.

There are a lot of challenges to handle those students, but we have managed to overcome all those hurdles, says Muna Shrestha, founder principal at Kidzee Pre-School. All of our teachers are well trained to treat the students with autism.

If any students become uncontrollable then we discontinue their classes and send them to the therapy classes, Shrestha shares the tip to the schools that want to follow her.

Bajracharya urges all the schools wishing to admit students with autism to clearly understand the disease and start training trained human resources and create a friendly environment for those students.
Fortune Business Insights

Companies Covered in agricultural microbials market are Certis USA LLC (U.S.), ChemChina (China), Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (U.S.), Koppert Biological Systems (Netherlands), Varsha Bioscience and Technology Pvt. Ltd. (India), Andermatt Biocontrol AG (Switzerland), BASF SE (Germany), Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., (Japan), Novozymes (Denmark), Bioceres S.A. (Argentina) & other.

Pune, India, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global agricultural microbials market size was USD 5.27 billion in 2021 and reached USD 6.00 billion in 2022. The market touched USD 15.71 billion by 2029, exhibiting a CAGR of 14.74% during the forecast period. The functional superiority of microbials and the rising emphasis on organic agriculture will enhance the market growth. Fortune Business Insights presents this information in its report titled Agricultural Microbials Market,2022-2029.





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List of Key Players Profiled in the Report

Certis USA LLC (U.S.)

ChemChina (China)

Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (U.S.)

Koppert Biological Systems (Netherlands)

Varsha Bioscience and Technology Pvt. Ltd. (India)

Andermatt Biocontrol AG (Switzerland)

BASF SE (Germany)

Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., (Japan)

Novozymes (Denmark)

Bioceres S.A. (Argentina)

Report Scope & Segmentation:

Report Attribute Details Market size value in 2022 USD 6.00 Billion Revenue forecast in 2029 USD 15.71Billion Growth Rate CAGR of almost 14.74% during 2022-2029 Base Year 2021 Historic Years 2018-2020 Forecast Years 2022- 2029 Segments Covered By Type, By Formulation , By Application Forecast Units Value (USD Billion), and Volume (Units) Quantitative Units Revenue in USD million/billion and CAGR from 2021 to 2028 Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa, and Rest of World Countries Covered Unites States, Canada, Mexico, Unites Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, GCC Countries, and South Africa, among others Number of Companies Covered Certis USA LLC (U.S.), ChemChina (China), Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (U.S.), Koppert Biological Systems (Netherlands), Varsha Bioscience and Technology Pvt. Ltd. (India), Andermatt Biocontrol AG (Switzerland), BASF SE (Germany), Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., (Japan), Novozymes (Denmark), Bioceres S.A. (Argentina) Report Coverage Market growth drivers, restraints, opportunities, Porter's five forces analysis, PEST analysis, value chain analysis, regulatory landscape, market attractiveness analysis by segments and region, company market share analysis, and COVID-19 impact analysis. Customization Scope Avail customized purchase options to meet your exact research needs.

COVID-19 Impact:

Disruptions in Supply Chain Impeded Market Growth

This market was negatively affected during the COVID-19 pandemic due to disruptions in the supply chain. Border closures and restricted movements are the main reasons responsible for this disruption. Furthermore, these disruptions also led to transportation delays and a decline in agricultural commodities. However, the strong biostimulants sales performance elevated the industry's growth. For example, Syngenta and BASF SE experienced growth despite the pandemic. Syngenta reported a 2% rise in sales in 2020. These factors may allow for industry growth during the pandemic.

Story continues





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Segments

Bacteria Segment to Dominate Owing to Extensive Adoption of Bio-stimulants

By type, the market is segmented into bacteria, fungi, virus, and others.

The bacteria segment is expected to dominate the market due to extensive adoption of biostimulants, biofertilizers, and biopesticides. It performs several growth-promoting functions, and some are termed as protective bacteria responsible for subduing root-fungus disorders.

Liquid Formulation to Hold Dominant Market Share Owing to its Compatibility and Usage with Modern Irrigation Systems

Based on formulation, the market is bifurcated into dry and liquid.

The liquid segment is expected to dominate the market share owing to its ease of application. It can be directly used as root dips, sprays, and drenches due to the requirement of the mixing procedure to avoid spoilage.

Soil Amendments Segment to Hold Dominant Share Owing to High Nitrogen Content and Enhanced Production

By function, the market is classified into soil amendment and crop protection

The soil amendment segment is expected to dominate due to its high nitrogen content and enhanced production. Further, the extensive adoption of agricultural microbials to protect crops may control several diseases and plant disorders. Its cost-effective and sustainable nature is expected to enhance segmental growth.

Foliar Spray to Dominate Attributable to its High-Effectiveness in Improving Overall Plant Health

Based on application method, the market is divided into foliar spray, soil treatment, seed treatment, and others.

The foliar spray segment may dominate the market share due to its benefits over other applications. The adoption of the spray enhances the soils nutrient uptake and rapidly absorbs all the nutrients.





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Fruits & Vegetables Section to Dominate Owing to Strong Demand for Organic Fruits & Vegetables

By crop, the market is categorized into cereals, oilseeds & pulses, fruits & vegetables, and others.

The fruits & vegetable segment is expected to dominate the market share due to the high remuneration factor associated with the crop. Furthermore, the strong demand for vegetables and fruits is expected to enhance the industry's growth.

Regionally, it is clubbed into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and the Middle East & Africa.

Report Coverage

The report provides a detailed analysis of the top segments and the latest trends in the market. It comprehensively discusses the driving and restraining factors and the impact of COVID-19 on the market. Additionally, it examines the regional developments and the strategies undertaken by the market's key players.

Driving Factors

Increasing Awareness Regarding the Bad Effects of Synthetic Chemicals on Crops to Bolster Market Growth

Agricultural microbials consist of fungi, viruses, and bacteria beneficial for agricultural activities such as soil improvement and crop protection. The rising demand for eco-friendly crops is expected to enhance the product adoption. The increasing awareness regarding the detriments of synthetic fertilizers is expected to enhance the adoption of natural fertilizers. For example, as per the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization, synthetic fertilizers are responsible for approximately 13% of greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the rising demand for organic foods and farming may boost the adoption of organic fertilizers. These factors may drive the agricultural microbials market growth.

However, the lower demand for organic fertilizers than their counterparts is likely to restrain the market growth.

Regional Insights

Rising Awareness Regarding the Environmental Benefits of the Fertilizer to Fuel Growth in North America

North America is expected to dominate the agricultural microbials market share due to the rising awareness regarding the environmental benefits of the fertilizer. The market in North America stood at USD 2.09 billion in 2021 and is expected to gain a huge portion of the global market share. Further, policies and regulations regarding the adoption of organic farming practices of the microbials are expected to enhance product adoption. The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) promote research and development of fertilizers to achieve diversity.

In Europe, strict government norms regarding the adoption of non-synthetic fertilizers are expected to promote industry growth. Furthermore, the steady adoption of organic farming in Germany, Spain, Italy, and Denmark is likely to enhance industry progress.

Competitive Landscape

Companies Announce Novel Operating Units to Expand its Activities

Prominent companies operating in the market announce novel operating units to expand their activities globally. For example, Valent BioSciences LLC announced the opening of a novel operating unit in February 2022 to expand its biostimulant product line-up. This strategy may allow the company to expand its operating units. Furthermore, companies devise research and development, partnerships, mergers, acquisitions, and automated production techniques to satisfy goals and enhance their market position globally.





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Key Industry Development

May 2021- Lesaffre declared the acquisition of the U.S.-based Advanced Biological Marketing (ADM). ADM specializes in bio-nutrition products, and this acquisition may allow for market penetration in the U.S.

Detailed Table of Content:

Introduction Research Scope Market SegHouseholdtation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities Emerging Trends

Key Insights Overview of Agricultural Biologicals Market Key Market Trends of Agricultural Microbials Research, Developments, Supply Chain & Regulatory Analysis Recent Industry Developments: Policies, Partnerships, New Product Launches, and Mergers & Acquisitions Qualitative Analysis (in-relation to COVID-19) Impact of COVID-19 on the market Supply chain challenges Potential opportunities due to COVID-19

Global Agricultural Microbials Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2018-2029 Key Findings / Summary Market Size Estimates and Forecast By Type (Value) Bacteria Fungi Virus Others By Formulation (Value) Dry Liquid By Application Method (Value) Foliar Spray Soil Treatment Seed Treatment Others By Function (Value) Soil Amendment Crop Protection By Crop Cereals Oilseeds & Pulses Fruits & Vegetables Others By Region (Value) North America Europe Asia Pacific South America Middle East & Africa

North America Agricultural Microbials Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2018-2029 Key Findings / Summary Market Size Estimates and Forecast By Type (Value) Bacteria Fungi Virus Others By Formulation (Value) Dry Liquid By Application Method (Value) Foliar Spray Soil Treatment Seed Treatment Others



TOC Continued!





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Read Related Insights:

Agricultural Micronutrients Market Size, Growth & Report [2028]

Agricultural Biologicals Market Size, Share & Forecast 2026

Biofertilizers Market Size, Share, Growth | Global Analysis [2029]

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Three teens and two adults are now facing charges in connection with the July 14 deaths of a father and son at a Clermont County mobile home park, the Clermont County Sheriffs Office announced Tuesday.

Ryan Larison, 34, and his father, 59-year-old Rusty Larison, were found shot inside a mobile home in the Richmond Estates Mobile Home Park on Ohio 132 in Ohio Township just after 2 a.m.

They were pronounced dead around 4:15 a.m. by the Clermont County Coroners Office.

A 17-year-old male was taken into custody Tuesday. The sheriffs office says he has been charged with aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery, robbery, aggravated burglary, burglary and tampering with evidence.

A 16-year-old is facing the same charges as the 17-year-old, according to the sheriffs office.

In addition, sheriff's detectives say another 16-year-old is charged with aggravated robbery, robbery, aggravated burglary and burglary.

On Monday, the sheriffs office announced that 18-year-old Anthony Montgomery is charged with tampering with evidence in connection with the deaths of the Larisons.

Two days after his arrest on July 16, Anthony Montgomery appeared in court as a judge set his bond at $1 million.

The sheriffs office says Dakota Pfeiffer, 20, who was originally charged with tampering with evidence, has now also been charged with one count of aggravated murder.

Pfeiffer was arraigned in Clermont County Municipal Court on Tuesday morning, when his bond was set at $1.5 million in cash.

He remains in the Clermont County Jail.

The investigation is ongoing and will be reviewed by the Clermont County Prosecutors Office for presentation to a grand jury.

Enquirer media partner Fox19 provided this report.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 3 teens, 2 adults charged in deaths of father, son in Clermont County
AIM ImmunoTech Inc.

Professor C.H.J. van Eijck, MD, PhD

Professor C.H.J. van Eijck, MD, PhD

Ampligen (rintatolimod) has demonstrated promising activity as a potential maintenance therapy after systemic chemotherapy in patients with metastatic and locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC)



New patient data provide further validation for advancing the development of Ampligen for the treatment of late-stage pancreatic cancer

New data were recently presented by Professor C.H.J. van Eijck, MD, PhD of Erasmus Medical Center at the 5th Dutch Multidisciplinary Gastrointestinal Oncology Congress held in Ermelo, Netherlands

OCALA, Fla., July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AIM ImmunoTech Inc. (NYSE: American AIM) (AIM or the Company), an immuno-pharma company focused on the research and development of therapeutics to treat multiple types of cancers, immune disorders, and viral diseases, including COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, today reported follow-on data from its previously published single-center named patient program. For the study, patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer or metastatic disease were treated following FOLFIRINOX (See: Cancers 2022).

The enrollment of additional patients in the Early Access Program (EAP) was approved by the Inspectorate of Healthcare in the Netherlands and new patients have been treated at Erasmus M.C.

The Overall and Progression-Free Survival was recently presented by Professor C.H.J. van Eijck, MD, PhD, of Erasmus Medical Center (Lead Investigator) at the 5th Dutch Multidisciplinary Gastrointestinal Oncology Congress held in Ermelo, Netherlands.

Professor C.H.J. van Eijck commented, We have learned quite a lot from the original study data we published in March and the new data provide further hope for treating late-stage patients. Multi-year survival rates for LAPC and metastatic pancreatic cancer patients are historically low, with 5-year survival typically less than 3%. These additional data, indicating major improvements to survival at 24 months and beyond, point to the potential value of Ampligen as a therapy for pancreatic cancer patients. The data bolster our confidence in the potential of Ampligen for the treatment of late-stage pancreatic cancer and represents a big step forward in Ampligens therapeutic development program.



In addition, AIM has evaluated the initial data reported from Erasmus for both metastatic and LAPC patient populations, analyzing the subset of patients with LAPC. While the predominance of the data collected by Erasmus is in metastatic cancer and that data show high statistical significance, a small cohort of five (5) LAPC patients also exhibited marked improvement with the Ampligen maintenance therapy. The overall survival from the start of FOLFIRINOX therapy of two (2) of the patients was 34 and 43 months and one patient was still surviving at the last reported checkup in April 2022 at 54 months.

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AIM Chief Executive Officer Thomas K. Equels added, As we progress in the immuno-oncology development of Ampligen, there has been a lot of intention and thoughtfulness related to our selection of LAPC as our primary indication target. We believe that the LAPC standard of care, FOLFIRINOX or gemcitabine + nab-paclitaxel, followed by simple observation with no additional therapy until progression, allows for a much clearer comparison to the randomized control, in contrast to a multi-faceted primary standard of care for metastatic pancreatic cancer patients. This provides an opportunity to investigate Ampligens effect more accurately on pancreatic cancer in the LAPC patients in the United States. Now more than ever, we are dedicated to progressing this program forward with the hope of bringing significant benefit to LAPC patients on a global scale.

Based on the data demonstrated to date, the Company is advancing the development of Ampligen in a Phase 2 study to evaluate its potential as a therapy for locally advanced pancreatic cancer (AMP-270). AMP-270 is planned to be a randomized, open-label, controlled, parallel-arm study with the primary objective of comparing the efficacy of Ampligen versus a no treatment control group following FOLFIRINOX for subjects with locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Secondary objectives include comparing safety and tolerability. The AMP-270 is expected to enroll approximately 90 subjects in up to 30 centers across the U.S. and Europe (60 subjects in the Ampligen group and 30 subjects in the control group). The Buffett Cancer Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and Erasmus MC in the Netherlands are expected to be the primary study sites.

To manage the AIM-sponsored Phase 2 study, on April 7, 2022, the Company engaged Amarex Clinical Research LLC, a CRO with a strong track record on advising sponsors through the product development process and providing customized solutions for clinical studies. The AMP-270 clinical trial is on track to commence in Q3 2022.



About AIM ImmunoTech Inc.

AIM ImmunoTech Inc. is an immune-pharma company focused on the research and development of therapeutics to treat multiple types of cancers, immune disorders, and viral diseases, including COVID-19. The Companys lead product, Ampligen (rintatolimod) is an immuno-modulator with broad spectrum activity being developed for globally important cancers, viral diseases and disorders of the immune system.

Ampligen is currently being used as a monotherapy to treat pancreatic cancer patients in an Early Access Program (EAP) approved by the Inspectorate of Healthcare in the Netherlands at Erasmus Medical Center and AIM plans to initiate a Phase 2 clinical study in 2022. The Company also has multiple ongoing clinical trials to evaluate Ampligen as a combinational therapy for the treatment of a variety of solid tumor types both underway and planned at major cancer research centers. Additionally, Ampligen is approved in Argentina for the treatment of severe chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and is currently being evaluated in many aspects of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 treatments and COVID-19 Long Hauler treatment.

For more information, please visit aimimmuno.com and connect with the Company on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Cautionary Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the PSLRA). Words such as may, will, expect, plan, anticipate and similar expressions (as well as other words or expressions referencing future events or circumstances) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Many of these forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. For instance, given the small number of subjects, the current findings are not statistically significant and, while the Company projects more significant results when the subject group increases and, in this regard, is planning the AMP-270 study, no assurance can be given that these projections will prove true or that the AMP-270 study will yield favorable results. Among other things, for those statements, the Company claims the protection of safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the PSLRA. The Company does not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof.

Investor Relations Contact

JTC Team, LLC

Jenene Thomas

833-475-8247

AIM@jtcir.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/318c1743-8b57-4617-80fe-33ee247ff591




Future Market Insights Global and Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Air Separation Plant Market to Register 5% CAGR Driven by Surging Demand for Nitrogen Gas within Food & Beverage Sector. The non-cryogenic segment is anticipated to exhibit high growth over the forecast period. The air separation plant industry expanded at a CAGR of 4.4% from 2013 to 2021

NEWARK, Del, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global air separation plant market enjoys a valuation of US$ 5.9 Bn, and projected to expand at a CAGR of 5% to attain a net worth of US$ 7.9 Bn by the end of 2028. Strong demand for air separation plants in the healthcare industry is expected to be a prominent trend favoring overall market growth across regions.



The global market for air separation plants will reach a valuation of US$ 7,891.1 Mn by 2028, growing at a steady CAGR of 4.9 percent, with China holding the majority of the global market share in the coming decade.

Furthermore, many industrial activities are shifting toward high purity gases, which is boosting innovation in the air separation plant market. Chemical properties such as reactivity and physical properties such as density, boiling point, and vapour pressure make these gases suitable for use in a variety of industriesthey are known as fuel gases, medical gases, refrigerant gases, or specialty gases depending on the industry.

Request a sample @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2886

In addition, increasing demand for high purity gases such as oxygen, argon, hydrogen, and helium in the healthcare, iron & steel, and chemical sectors is projected to spur the sales at 5% CAGR over the forecast period (2022-2028).

Citing this trend, several market players are focusing on expanding their production capacity to capitalize on the surging demand. For instance, in February 2021, INOX Air Products announced building a new cryogenic air separation unit in India, which will assist the company to generate 300 and 700 tons of nitrogen and oxygen every day, respectively.

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A slew of such developments are estimated to augment the growth in the market over the forthcoming years.

As per FMI, North America is anticipated to account for a significant share in the global market through 2028. Increasing shell gas exploration activities and rapidly expanding manufacturing sector across countries such as U.S. and Canada are favoring the growth in the region.

"Rising government emphasis on adoption of air separation plants in Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants and industrial sector to lower carbon emissions is expected to accelerate the growth in the market," says a FMI analyst.

An Overview of the Global Air Separation Plant Market

A large share of the market revenue is likely to be generated by the chemical, iron and steel, healthcare, and food and beverages industries. Air separation plants are used for separating atmospheric air into industrial gasesincluding nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and other inert gases. Increasing demand for such industrial gases will create opportunities for the air separation plant market to grow in the coming years.

Growing emphasis on gas packaging, rapid refrigeration, and freezing technologies in the food and beverages industry is fuelling the demand for liquid nitrogen freezing. Several air separation plant manufacturers are specifically launching units for gas-related products in the food industry. Additionally, demand for medical gases and equipment like infusion pumps and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices in hospitals and private homes, will ramp up the investments in air separation plants market in the coming years.

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Growing Demand for Pure Gases Augmenting Adoption of On-site Air Separation Plants

In lieu of growing demand for on-site gas generation for environmental-friendly operations, key players in the air separation plant market are catering to diverse needs of several industries looking for volume and purity, with customizable on-site production solutions. On-site air separation plant enhances energy efficiency, boosts product quality, and increases throughput. Modular configuration, designed with backup systems, and easy installation and integration are some factors pushing the adoption of on-site air separation plant technologiesoffering highly reliable source of energy.

Customized Solutions, M&A, and Divestments: Key Strategies Driving the Global Air Separation Plant Market

Top players operating in the global air separation plant market are focussing on strategic mergers and acquisitions to expand their businesses in regions with high industrial growth. Manufacturers are also empowering end-users with innovations and digitization in air separation plants for increased operator comfort and protection. In order to meet specific customer demands in terms of gas volume and purity, market players are customizing air separation plants. For instance, Linde AG serves a major share of customers looking for customized solution owing to their worldwide presence and vast experience in engineering and operation of customized air separation plants.

However, factors such as high capital costs associated with setting up of air separation units and cyclical fluctuations in end-user markets could negatively impact the growth of air separation plants market, in terms of market volume. Mature markets of Japan are likely to reduce air separation plants deployments in the coming years.

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Key Takeaways from Air Separation Plant Market Study

The U.S. is anticipated to account for the lion's share in North America market, owing to the increasing shell gas exploration activities across the country.

China is expected to register robust growth in the air separation plant market, on the back of growing adoption in production of chemicals and iron & steel.

India is forecast to emerge as a highly attractive market in South Asia & Pacific, driven by the upsurge in trend of industrialization in the country.

The U.K. and Germany are estimated to collectively account for the largest share in Europe market, favored by increasing applications across the food & beverage industry.

In terms of end use industry, the chemical industry segment is projected to exhibit steady growth, accounting for around 20% of the overall sales through 2028.





Key Segments of Air Separation Plant Industry Survey

Air Separation Plant Market by Type:

Cryogenic Air Separation Plants

Non-cryogenic Air Separation Plants Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption (VPSA) Membrane Separation







Air Separation Plant Market by Gas:

Oxygen

Nitrogen

Argon

Diesel

Air Separation Plant Market by End-use Industry:

Air Separation Plants for Chemical Industry

Air Separation Plants for Iron & Steel Industry

Air Separation Plants for Healthcare Industry

Air Separation Plants for Food & Beverage Industry

Air Separation Plants for Paper & Pulp Industry

Air Separation Plants for Oil & Gas Industry

Others





Air Separation Plant Market by Region:

North America Air Separation Plant Market

Latin America Air Separation Plant Market

Europe Air Separation Plant Market

East Asia Air Separation Plant Market

South Asia & Pacific Air Separation Plant Market

Middle East & Africa (MEA) Air Separation Plant Market

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Key Drivers

Surging demand for medical oxygen and equipment such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices and infusion pumps in hospitals for patient treatments is expected to increase the sales of air separation plants across the healthcare segment.

Increasing use of argon gas in casting and welding industries, especially, in manufacturing of specialty alloys and titanium is a primary factor propelling the demand across the argon segment.

Key Restraints

Extravagant cost of installation, component assemble, operation, and maintenance of air separation plants is hindering the sales in the market.

High energy consumption for cryogenic separation plants as compared to non-cryogenic plants is a factor restraining the growth in the cryogenic separation plant segment.





Competitive Landscape

Key manufacturers of air separation plants are focusing on mergers and acquisitions to strengthen their global footprint and establish their business different countries. Apart from this, some of the players are aiming at expanding their production capacity to cater to demand for industrial gasses.

For instance,

In November 2021, Nippon Gases, a leading Japanese industrial and medical gases provider, announced signing an agreement with a renowned Italian stainless steel manufacturer, Cogne Acciai Speciali. As per the agreement, Nippon Gases will assist the latter company to modernize its air separation unit to increase its efficiency and reduce energy consumption in production.

In April 2020, CryopAL, a subsidiary of Air Liquide, announced increasing its production of liquid oxygen for medical use to three times of its current production to meet the increasing demand and supply oxygen to patients suffering from respiratory insufficiency.

Old Source:https://www.prnewswire.com/ae/news-releases/air-separation-plant-market-to-register-5-cagr-driven-by-surging-demand-for-nitrogen-gas-within-food-amp-beverage-sector-future-market-insights-812791556.html

Have a Look at Related Research Reports of Industrial Automation

Industrial Air Filtration Market Size: The industrial air filtration market size is projected to grow at a rate of 6.2% CAGR during the forecast period to surpass a valuation of US$ 45.2 Bn by 2027, from US$ 33.5 Bn in 2022

Air Conditioning Systems Market Share: The global air conditioning systems market is expected to garner momentum at a moderate rate of CAGR 6.2% from 2022 to 2032

Air Pressure Sensor Market Sales: The global air pressure sensor market is expected to register a CAGR 4% between 2020 and 2030. Increase in demand for reliable sensors, low cost maintenance, and high performance are anticipated to fuel the growth of the market

Air Scrubbers Market Demand: Global Air Scrubbers Market demand is anticipated to be valued at US$ 2,222.07 Million in 2022, forecast to grow at a CAGR of 9% to be valued at US$ 5,260.3 Million from 2022 to 2032

Membrane Air Dryers Market Trends: The global membrane air dryers market is estimated to surpass a valuation of US$ 1,200 Mn by the end of 2032. The sales on membrane air dryers are expected to top US$ 730 Mn by 2022, exhibiting growth at a CAGR of 6.5% over the forecast period 2022-2032

Residual Current Circuit Breaker Market Forecast: The global Residual Current Circuit Breaker Market is anticipated to reach US$ 3,411.6 Mn as of 2028, registering a CAGR of 6.7%. As of 2022, the industry is projected to be valued at US$ 2,305.9 Mn

Telehandlers Market Analysis: The Global Telehandlers Market to grow with a year-on-year growth of 4.7% in 2022 reaching a value of about US$ 4,210.6 Mn by 2022 end

Sea Water Pumps Market Type: The global sea water pumps market size reached around US$ 1.3 Bn in 2022. Owing to the rising adoption of sea water pumps for a multitude of applications, the overall market is anticipated to grow at a moderate CAGR of 4.3% between 2022 and 2028, totaling a valuation of over US$ 1.6 Bn by 2028

Synchronous Condenser Market Growth: The global synchronous condenser market reached around US$ 1.01 Bn in 2022. However, with rising adoption of synchronous condenser from diverse end-use industries, the overall market is anticipated to rise at robust CAGR of 8.2% between 2022 and 2029

Industrial Valves Market Outlook: The global industrial valves market is estimated to be worth around US$ 71.8 Bn in 2022. With rising adoption of industrial valves for regulating the flow of materials, the overall demand is anticipated to rise at a moderate CAGR of 4.3% between 2022 and 2029, totaling a valuation of US$ 96.2 Bn by 2029

About Us

Future Market Insights (ESOMAR certified market research organization and a member of Greater New York Chamber of Commerce) provides in-depth insights into governing factors elevating the demand in the market. It discloses opportunities that will favor the market growth in various segments on the basis of Source, Application, Sales Channel and End Use over the next 6-years.

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 20, 2022) - ALX Resources Corp. (TSXV: AL) (FSE: 6LLN) (OTC: ALXEF) ("ALX" or the "Company") announced today the analytical results from the inaugural drilling program at its Electra Nickel Project located 35 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.

2022 Exploration Program

The 2022 exploration program began in mid-March 2022 and six of the eight planned holes were completed for a total of 1,155 metres drilled. Two targets remain undrilled because of warming weather conditions that exposed creeks and other wetlands, which impeded surface access. Downhole electromagnetic surveys were completed on two of the first four drill holes to better define the targeted conductors detected by ALX's 2021 airborne VTEMTM survey flown by Geotech Ltd. of Aurora, Ontario. A ground electromagnetic geophysical survey was carried out in on an undrilled target, which has provided an improved collar location for follow-up drilling.

Highlights of the 2022 Drilling Program

Nickel - The most notable nickel values occur within holes Elec22-01, Elec22-02 and Elec22-06. These results are interpreted as the peripheral geochemical expression of a much larger mineralizing system.

Electra Nickel Project - Nickel Values Greater than 1,000 parts per million ("ppm") Hole No. From

(metres) To

(metres) Interval

(metres) Nickel

(ppm) Host Rock/ Notes Elec22-01 66.90 70.40 3.50 1,260.00 Ultra-mafic volcanic Elec22-01 105.02 107.04 2.02 1,530.35 Komatiite Elec22-01 129.85 130.85 1.00 2,040.00 Komatiite Elec22-02 82.90 85.60 2.70 1,087.41 Meta-volcanic breccia Elec22-02 99.72 103.90 4.18 1,152.34 Meta-volcanic breccia Elec22-02 106.47 109.00 2.53 1,106.43 Gabbroic dike trending into meta-volcanic breccia - classic magmatic net-textured sulphide concentrations, clasts and blebs Elec22-02 127.13 130.00 2.87 1,289.69 Meta-volcanic breccia Elec22-02 225.50 228.27 2.77 1,338.38 Meta-volcanic breccia Elec22-03 112.30 113.67 1.37 1,580.00 Siltstone Elec22-05 92.49 94.40 1.91 1,018.87 Meta-volcanic breccia Elec22-05 113.50 114.74 1.24 1,070.00 Meta-volcanic breccia Elec22-06 13.00 23.50 10.50 1,053.87 Gabbro trending into meta-volcanic breccia Elec22-06 38.50 45.40 6.90 1,085.14 Meta-volcanic breccia Elec22-06 162.75 165.0 2.25 1,277.67 Gabbro with disseminated magmatic sulphides coincident with systematic increase in nickel and PGE concentrations from 160 m to 165 m - high nickel value of 2,080 ppm.

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The highest overall concentrations in nickel over significant widths occur in the upper half of hole Elec22-02 and in hole Elec22-06 with anomalous concentrations ranging from approximately 200 ppm to a high of 2,080 ppm.

An increasing nickel content associated with increasing magnesium is common in basaltic komatiitic terranes, not only at Electra but worldwide. The corresponding increase in nickel values versus magnesium oxide ("MgO") trend is due to the presence of higher amounts of the silicate mineral olivine, which is rich in nickel and MgO.

However, classic magmatic net-textured sulphide concentrations, clasts and blebs are observed at approximately 108 metres in hole Elec22-02, and demonstrate that a magmatic sulphide-forming process was operative in this mineralizing system. This magmatic sulphide horizon also marks a notable break in the underlying upward-increasing nickel trend into a significant nickel depletion interval. The fact that the associated magmatic sulphides are so depleted in nickel suggests that nickel-enriched equivalents may occur elsewhere along strike or down dip from hole Elec22-02.





Electra 2022 Drill Hole Plan Map with Downhole EM Loops



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3046/131344_efb2f7f4f4f5b991_001full.jpg

Zinc - Wide intervals of anomalous zinc concentrations occur in most of the drill holes. This and the fragmental nature of the volcano-clastic sequences suggest that this is potentially a zinc-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") environment. The following notable concentrations are:

Elec22-01: 0.41% zinc over 1.61 metres, from 100.17 to 101.78 metres;

Elec22-02: 0.35% zinc over 8.89 metres, from 175.0 to 183.89 metres;

Elec22-03: 0.31% zinc over 5.02 metres, from 162.66 to 167.68 metres;

Elec22-04: 0.25% zinc over 24.12 metres, from 39.38 to 63.50 metres;

Elec22-05: 0.27% zinc over 15.3 metres, from 44.70 to 60.00 metres;

Elec22-06: 0.16% zinc over 7.06 metres, from 152.54 to 159.60 metres.

Platinum and Palladium - The concentration of platinum and palladium is generally less than 15 parts per billion ("ppb"), which is representative for basaltic-komatiites from elsewhere in Canada and Australia. However, of note are the platinum and palladium values near the end of hole in Elec22-06 where a high of 121 ppb platinum and 33 ppb palladium was found in over 0.75 metres from 162 to 162.75 metres. The observation in the drill log for Elec22-06 of disseminated sulphides in the gabbroic host rock suggest that this drill hole should be followed up to a greater depth.

Gold - In hole Elec22-06, 0.444 grams/tonne ("g/t") gold with an accompanying value of 8.33 g/t silver over 0.68 metres was noted from 61.96 to 62.64 metres in a mudstone unit.

Copper - Two strongly anomalous copper values were found in the drill core: Elec22-05 - 2,050 ppm copper over 0.46 metres from 60.00 to 60.46 metres, and Elec22-06 - 1,375 ppm copper over 0.47 metres from 61.49 to 61.96 metres.

To view maps and photos of Electra click here

About Electra

Electra is located near Thunder Bay, Ontario, in a fertile exploration district well-linked to highways, roads and trails, and lies near a powerline and the Canadian National Railroad. The Project consists of 190 cell units totaling approximately 4,066 hectares (10,047 acres) and is prospective for nickel-copper-cobalt, platinum group elements ("PGE"), and gold. ALX has the option to earn a 100% interest in Electra after fulfilling payment obligations of cash and common shares, and exploration expenditures according to the terms of an option agreement signed in December 2020 (see ALX news release dated December 31, 2020).

The Electra magmatic-sedimentary geological and geophysical environment is similar to that of other komatiite-hosted nickel sulphide terranes in Canada and Western Australia. The challenges encountered at Electra are similar to those in other komatiitic terranes; i.e., the presence of barren sedimentary and volcanogenic conductive sulphides with high background zinc concentrations.

In the late 1990's a "nickel-sulphide" geochemical vector was developed in the Kambalda nickel camp of Western Australia. The vector was formulated not to find obvious nickel sulphide mineralization that could be observed directly in drill core, but to point out stratigraphic horizons with chemical signatures suggestive of potential enhanced nickel-copper-PGE sulphide concentrations along strike. Other than obvious nickel sulphides observed and subsequently assayed from core, potential nickel sulphide horizons can remain hidden (cryptic) and only detected by the application of proven geochemical vectors. ALX continues to evaluate the outcome of the 2022 exploration program by integrating the geological, geochemical and geophysical results in order to determine the best target areas for follow-up drilling. ALX's drilling permit at Electra is good until March 2025.

QA/QC and Analytical Methods

QA/QC following industry best practices was incorporated into the drill core sampling and included systematic insertion of quartz blanks and certified reference materials into sample batches, as well as collection of quarter-core duplicates, at a rate of approximately 10%. All drill core samples were collected as half-split core, apart from quarter-split duplicates.

All samples were shipped to ALS Global Geochemistry Analytical Lab ("ALS") for multi-element analysis. ALS is an ISO-IEC 17025:2017 and ISO 9001:2015 accredited analytical laboratory that is independent of ALX and its Qualified Person. Diamond drill core samples were analyzed using ALS's super trace multi-element 4-acid digest with ICP-MS determination for 51 elements. Gold, platinum and palladium assays were determined on a 30-gram lead bead fire assay ICP-MS finish.

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Larry Hulbert, D.Sc., P.Geo. who is a Qualified Person in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101.

About ALX

ALX is based in Vancouver, BC, Canada and its common shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "AL", on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "6LLN" and in the United States OTC market under the symbol "ALXEF".

ALX's mandate is to provide shareholders with multiple opportunities for discovery by exploring a portfolio of prospective mineral properties, which include uranium, nickel-copper-cobalt and gold projects. The Company uses the latest exploration technologies and holds interests in over 200,000 hectares of prospective lands in Saskatchewan, a stable Canadian jurisdiction that hosts the highest-grade uranium mines in the world, a producing gold mine, and production from base metals mines, both current and historical.

ALX is an active explorer with interests in a number of uranium exploration properties in northern Saskatchewan, including 100% interests in the Gibbons Creek Uranium Project, the Sabre Uranium Project and the Javelin and McKenzie Lake Uranium Projects, a 40% interest in the Black Lake Uranium Project (a joint venture with UEX Corporation and Orano Canada Inc.), and a 20% interest in the Hook-Carter Uranium Project, located within the uranium-rich Patterson Lake Corridor with Denison Mines Corp. (80% interest) as operator of exploration since 2016.

ALX also owns 100% interests in the Firebird Nickel Project (now under option to Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc., who can earn up to an 80% interest), the Flying Vee Nickel/Gold and Sceptre Gold projects, and can earn up to an 80% interest in the Alligator Lake Gold Project, all located in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. ALX owns, or can earn, up to 100% interests in the Electra Nickel Project and the Cannon Copper Project located in historic mining districts of Ontario, Canada, the Vixen Gold Project (now under option to First Mining Gold Corp., who can earn up to a 100% interest in two stages), and in the Draco VMS Project in Norway.

For more information about the Company, please visit the ALX corporate website at www.alxresources.com or contact Roger Leschuk, Manager, Corporate Communications at: PH: 604.629.0293 or Toll-Free: 866.629.8368, or by email: rleschuk@alxresources.com

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of ALX Resources Corp.

"Warren Stanyer"

Warren Stanyer, CEO and Chairman

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements in this document which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Forward-looking statements in this news release include: ALX's preliminary exploration results from the Company's exploration activities at the Electra Nickel Project, and any plans to undertake additional exploration activities at the Electra Nickel Project. It is important to note that the Company's actual business outcomes and exploration results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties include that ALX may not be able to fully finance exploration on its exploration projects, including drilling; our initial findings at our exploration projects may prove to be unworthy of further expenditures; commodity prices may not support further exploration expenditures; exploration programs may be delayed or changed due to any delays experienced in consultation and engagement activities with First Nations and Metis communities and the results of such consultations; and economic, competitive, governmental, societal, public health, environmental and technological factors may affect the Company's operations, markets, products and share price. Even if we explore and develop our projects, and even if nickel, uranium, gold or other metals or minerals are discovered in quantity, ALX's projects may not be commercially viable. Additional risk factors are discussed in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for the Year Ended March 31, 2022, which is available under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Except as required by law, we will not update these forward-looking statement risk factors.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131344
BOISE, Idaho, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Clearwater Analytics Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CWAN), ("Clearwater Analytics" or the "Company"), a leading provider of SaaS-based investment accounting, reporting, and analytics solutions, will release financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022 after the U.S. financial markets close on Wednesday, August 3, 2022.

Clearwater Analytics (PRNewsfoto/Clearwater Analytics, LLC)

In conjunction with this announcement, Clearwater Analytics will host a conference call on August 3, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. ET through a live webcast available on the Company's investor relations website. Participants must visit investors.clearwateranalytics.com in advance to register, download, and install any necessary audio software. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Company's investor relations website, in addition to a press release related to the financial results, related financial tables, and the call transcript.

About Clearwater Analytics

Clearwater Analytics is a global industry-leading SaaS solution for automated investment data aggregation, reconciliation, accounting, compliance, risk, performance, and reporting. Each day, the Clearwater solution reports on more than $5.9 trillion in assets for clients that include leading insurers, asset managers, corporations, pension plans, governments, and nonprofit organizations  helping them make the most of their investment portfolio data with a world-class product and client-centric servicing. Investment professionals around the globe trust Clearwater to deliver timely, validated investment data and analytics. Additional information about Clearwater can be found at clearwateranalytics.com, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Cision

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SOURCE Clearwater Analytics, LLC
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The global diabetes devices market size was valued at USD 27,662.11 million in 2021 and is expected to reach the valuation of USD 49,253.08 million by 2030. North America and Europe are the two most important markets for Diabetes Devices. With an expected market value of USD 18,943.58 million by 2030, North America is expected to be the largest market for diabetes devices.

New York, United States, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global diabetes devices market had a market share of USD 27,662.11 million in 2021, according to the new report of Straits Research. It is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 6.62% from 2022 to 2030. The global diabetes devices market is expected to grow due to the increasing focus on diabetes care and technological advancements in product innovation. The use of diabetic devices is anticipated to grow due to the growing number of initiatives being conducted by governments and charity groups to raise diabetes awareness.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the WHO Country Office for India, and other partners, for example, have established mDiabetes, a mobile health program. This public health effort aims to raise awareness about diabetes early detection and treatment. Similarly, WHO and IDF collaborate to prevent and control diabetes while also ensuring a high quality of life for individuals worldwide.





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For example, the WHO Diabetes Program aims to prevent type 2 diabetes, reduce complications, and improve diabetes patients' quality of life. To increase diabetes prevention and control, NGOs and governments are developing norms and standards, raising knowledge about diabetes prevention, and supporting surveillance. As a result, the growing number of diabetes awareness initiatives is likely to contribute to diabetes diagnosis, hence increasing the usage of diabetic devices.

Story continues

Technological Innovations and Product Advancements to Drive the Diabetes Devices Market

Demand for these devices is being driven by introducing high-end insulin pumps and pens and technological developments in diabetic devices. Leading manufacturers focus on technological advancements and introduce innovative products to gain a significant market share. Novo Nordisk, for example, launched the NovoPen Echo, a new instrument on the market, in January 2014. This is the first gadget in the United States with memory and half-unit dosing features.

In August 2016, Medtronic introduced the MiniMed 630G system in the United States, an integrated insulin pump with continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology that delivers better glucose management than multiple injections while avoiding hypoglycemia. As a result, market growth is fueled by technological advances and product improvements.





Report Scope

Report Metric Details Market Size USD 49.25 Billion by 2030 CAGR 6.62% (2020-2030) Historical Data 2019-2020 Base Year 2021 Forecast Period 2022-2030 Forecast Units Value (USD Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered Type, Distribution Channel, Application, and Region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, LAME and Rest of the World Key Companies Profiled/Vendors Medtronic,Abbott,Ascensia Diabetes Care Holdings AG,Dexcom Inc.,Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.,Sanofi,Novo Nordisk A/S,Insulet Corporation,Ypsomed,Valeritas Inc Key Market Opportunities Untapped Opportunities in Developing Economies Key Market Drivers Growing Focus on Diabetes Care

Technological Innovations and Product Advancements

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Impact of COVID-19

The COVID-19 outbreak provided a severe barrier to healthcare delivery, with severe consequences for diabetes treatment. The closure of routine outpatient clinics has hampered diabetes treatment, reduced inpatient capacity, personnel shortages, medicine shortages, costly medicine, delayed care-seeking, limited self-care practice, transportation issues, and undiagnosed cases/events.

Diabetes device sales, on the other hand, have risen as a result of consumers' constant monitoring of their diabetes status to avoid infection with the COVID-19 virus, which is particularly sensitive to people with diabetes. The overall diabetic devices market growth was limited during the first phase of the pandemic due to severe supply chain limitations.

For the global diabetic devices market, the post-pandemic period will be critical. Manufacturing operations may impede the recovery process, affecting market dynamics and product prices. Also, other end-user sectors, suppliers, and vendors may be unable to meet customer demand due to limited manufacturing, support operations, labor shortages, and other constraints. Overall, the global diabetes devices market recovery will be difficult.

Key Insights

The Global Diabetes Devices Market was valued at USD 27,662.11 million in 2021 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 6.62% by 2030.

By product , the insulin delivery devices segment will likely dominate the market with expected revenue of USD 30,412.19 million by 2030.

By distribution channel , the retail pharmacies segment will likely dominate the market with expected revenue of USD 11,491.59 million by 2030.

By end-use, the food packaging segment will likely dominate the market with expected revenue of USD 19,845.68 million by 2030.

Geographically, the global diabetes devices market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America and Europe were the two significant regional markets in 2021.





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List of Key Players

Medtronic

Abbott

Ascensia Diabetes Care Holdings AG

Dexcom Inc.

Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

Sanofi

Novo Nordisk A/S

Insulet Corporation

Ypsomed

Valeritas Inc.





Global Diabetes Devices Market: Segmentation

By Type

Blood Glucose Monitoring Devices

Insulin Delivery Devices

By Distribution Channel

Hospital Pharmacies

Retail Pharmacies

Diabetes Clinics/Centers

Online Pharmacies

Others

By End-Use

Hospitals

Homecare

Diagnostics Centers

By Region

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Latin America

The Middle East and Africa





TABLE OF CONTENT

1 Introduction

1.1 Market Definition

1.2 Market Scope

2 Research Methodology

2.1 Primary Research

2.2 Research Methodology

2.3 Assumptions & Exclusions

2.4 Secondary Data Sources

3 Executive Summary

4 Market Overview

4.1 Report Segmentation & Scope

4.2 Value Chain Analysis: Diabetes Devices Market

4.2.1 Vendor Matrix

4.3 Key Market Trends

4.3.1 Drivers

4.3.2 Restraints

4.3.3 Opportunities

4.4 Porters Five Forces Analysis

4.4.1 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.4.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers

4.4.3 Threat of Substitution

4.4.4 Threat of New Entrants

4.4.5 Competitive Rivalry

4.5 Environment & Regulatory Landscape

4.6 Forecast Factors & Relevance of Impact

4.7 Macro-Economic & Geopolitical Scenario

4.8 Parent Market Overview

4.9 Technology Landscape

4.10 Market Share Analysis

4.11 Potential Venture Analysis

4.12 Regional Price Trends

4.13 Raw Material Trends

4.14 Cost Structure Analysis

4.14.1 Labor Cost

4.14.2 Consumables

4.14.3 Maintenance Cost

4.15 Covid-19 Impact Analysis:

4.15.1 Pre and Post Covid-19 Market Scenario Analysis

4.15.2 Market Recovery Timeline and Challenge

4.15.3 Measures Taken by Top Players

4.15.4 Quarterly Market Revenue and Growth Forecast till 2021

4.15.4.1 North America

4.15.4.2 Europe

4.15.4.3 Asia-Pacific

4.15.4.4 Central and South America and the Caribbean

4.15.4.5 The Middle East and Africa

5 Type Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.1.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

5.2 Blood Glucose Monitoring Devices

5.2.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

5.3 Insulin Delivery Devices

5.3.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6 Distribution Channel Overview

6.1 Introduction

6.1.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6.2 Hospital Pharmacies

6.2.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6.3 Retail Pharmacies

6.3.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6.4 Diabetes Clinics/Centers

6.4.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6.5 Online Pharmacies

6.5.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6.6 Others

6.6.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

7 Applications Overview

7.1 Introduction

7.1.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

7.2 Hospitals

7.2.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

7.3 Homecare

7.3.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

7.4 Diagnostics Centers

7.4.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

8 Regional Overview

8.1 Introduction

8.1.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

8.2 North America

8.2.1 Economic Overview

8.2.2 Market Scenario

8.2.3 U.S.

8.2.4 Canada

8.2.5 Mexico

8.3 Central and South America and the Caribbean

8.3.1 Economic Overview

8.3.2 Market Scenario

8.3.3 Brazil

8.3.4 Argentina

8.3.5 Colombia

8.3.6 Rest of Central and South America and the Caribbean

8.4 Europe

8.4.1 Economic Overview

8.4.2 Market Scenario

8.4.3 Germany

8.4.4 France

8.4.5 The U.K.

8.4.6 Italy

8.4.7 The Rest Of Europe

8.5 Asia-Pacific (APAC)

8.5.1 Economic Overview

8.5.2 Market Scenario

8.5.3 China

8.5.4 Japan

8.5.5 India

8.5.6 Australia

8.5.7 South Korea

8.5.8 Rest Of APAC

8.6 Middle East

8.6.1 Economic Overview

8.6.2 Market Scenario

8.6.3 South Arabia

8.6.4 The UAE

8.6.5 Qatar

8.6.6 Oman

8.6.7 Turkey

8.6.8 The Rest Of Middle East

8.7 Africa

8.7.1 Economic Overview

8.7.2 Market Scenario

8.7.3 Nigeria

8.7.4 South Africa

8.7.5 The Rest Of Africa

9 Competitive Landscape  Manufacturers & Suppliers

9.1 Competition Dashboard

9.2 Industry Structure

9.3 Medtronic

9.3.1 Business Overview

9.3.2 Financial Performance

9.3.3 Recent Developments

9.3.4 Portfolio

9.4 Abbott

9.5 Ascensia Diabetes Care Holdings AG

9.6 Dexcom Inc.

9.7 Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

9.8 Sanofi

9.9 Novo Nordisk A/S

9.10 Insulet Corporation

9.11 Ypsomed

9.12 Valeritas Inc

10 Conclusion & Recommendation

11 Acronyms & Abbreviation





Table of Content and Figure @ https://straitsresearch.com/report/diabetes-devices-market/toc





Market News

In November 2020 , Novo Nordisk purchased Emisphere Technologies, a drug delivery technology company. Novo Nordisk will acquire a competitive edge in the oral antidiabetic market due to the acquisition.

In November 2020, in Europe and the United States, Eli Lilly committed to commercializing Ypsomed Insulin Pumps with CGM devices.

News Media

United We Stand: How Nations Are Coping with The Pandemic

How Wearable Devices are Changing Healthcare, 21% of People in the US Regularly Wear a smartwatch

Coronavirus Crisis - Impact Of COVID-19 On Healthcare Industry





Have a Look at the Related Research Report?

Diabetes Supplement Market : Information by Supplements Types (Vitamins, Artificial Sweeteners), Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacies, Retail Pharmacies), Dosage FormsForecast Till 2030

Diabetes Management Market : Information by Device Type (Diagnostic Devices, Monitoring Devices) and Therapeutics Type (Injectables and Oral), and Region  Forecast till 2029

Needle Free Injection Systems Market : Information by Product (Prefilled, Fillable), Technology, Usability, Type of Medication, Delivery Site, and Regional Outlook - Forecast Till 2026

Smart Insulin Pens and Pumps Market : Information By Product Type(Insulin Pens, Insulin Pumps), Distribution Channel(Hospital Pharmacy, Retail Pharmacy),and Region -Forecast Till 2026

Smart Insulin Pens Market : Information by Product (Smart Insulin Pens), Usability (Disposable), Application (Type 1 Diabetes), Mode of Distribution, and Region  Forecast till 2029





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Precedence Research

According to Precedence Research, the global diabetic foot ulcer treatment market size is expected to hit around USD 14.8 billion by 2030 from valued at USD 8.6 billion in 2021 and anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 6.22% from 2022 to 2030.

Ottawa, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global diabetic foot ulcer treatment market size was accounted at USD 9.13 billion in 2022. The aim of the diabetic foot ulcer treatment market is to provide the best possible services with the help of advanced medical technology to facilitate faster and better diabetic wound healing process. Diabetes has become one of the most common diseases that people are suffering with globally. As a result of the rapid modernization the food habits of the people have been altered negatively which is further clubbed with a faulty lifestyle. This in turn results in the creation of diabetes and further develops into a diabetic foot ulcer.



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A diabetic foot ulcer is very difficult to treat and more difficult to manage as it poses a number of complications in front of the medical fraternity. A proper judgement regarding the condition of the wound is essential as it decides the further course of treatment and prognosis of the case. An improper management of a diabetic foot ulcer leads to a bad prognosis which proves to be fatal for the patient.

Key Takeaways:

The North America diabetic foot ulcer treatment market was reached at USD 3.8 bn in 2021

The wound care dressing segment has garnered revenue share of 43% in 2021

In 2021, Neuro-ischemic Ulcers segment has dominated the markets with revenue share of 45%

North America contributed highest market share of over 53% in 2021

Report highlights

By ulcer type , the neuropathic ulcers have dominated the market on account of its huge prevalence among the people. This condition cannot be managed at home as it leads to tremendous pain and discomfort.

By type , advanced wound care has dominated the segment as a result of the use of modern technologies and advanced equipments in order to facilitate the process of wound healing and provide the best possible results to the patient.

By End User, the hospitals have dominated the segment as it becomes the first place where the patient visits during the occurrence of a diabetic foot ulcer. The hospitals provide various other facilities which make it a first choice of the patient in order to avoid further discomfort.

By geography, the North American market has dominated the segment due to the high prevalence of diabetes among the citizens. As a result of this, the prevalence of diabetic foot ulcer also increases in the region.

Story continues

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Regional Snapshots

The North American market has dominated the diabetic foot ulcer treatment market as a result of the huge number of people suffering with this disease. The faulting food habits of the people in the sedentary lifestyle increase the number of patients suffering with diabetes. The Asia Pacific region also has shown a significant contribution towards the diabetic foot ulcer market as a result of the high number of people suffering with diabetes in this region.

The Asia Pacific region is rapidly developing and hence the number of industries and IT companies have increased which results into a sedentary lifestyle of the people. As a result of this, obesity and diabetes have become the most common diseases in this region. The European market has also shown a considerable growth on account of the advanced facilities provided to the people by the hospitals in order to manage diabetic foot ulcers.

Scope of the Report

Report Attributes Details Market Size in 2021 USD 8.6 Billion Revenue Forecast by 2030 USD 14.8 Billion CAGR 6.22% from 2022 to 2030 Base Year 2021 Forecast Year 2022 to 2030 Key Players Demant A/S, Starkey Laboratories, Inc., Cochlear Ltd., RION Co., Ltd, Microson, GN Store Nord A/S, Sonova Group

Market Dynamics

Drivers

The rapid urbanization global has resulted into sedentary lifestyles and faulty food habits amongst the people. This has resulted into obesity and diabetes among the people belonging to various age groups. Not only the geriatric population but also the younger age groups are at a great risk of developing diabetes. Diabetic foot ulcer is a complicated diseases which is a bad prognosis of a case of uncontrolled diabetes. Lack of physical activity and awareness among the people regarding the causative factors of diabetes have led to the increased prevalence of the disease among the people. These multiple reasons prove to be the driving factors for the growth of the market during the forecast period.

Restraints

The high cost which is associated with the use of highly advanced medical equipments and medicines in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcer makes it unaffordable for the common man to opt for such procedures. The people belonging to the developing and under developed countries do not have a huge to disposable income in order to spend it on advanced treatment facilities which hamper is the growth of the diabetic foot ulcer treatment market. Rules and regulations regarding the management of the patients and such procedures have also impacted the growth of the market. Lack of awareness among the people regarding the available facilities of diabetic foot ulcer treatment restraints the growth of the market. These multiple reasons prove to be a restraining factor for the market during the forecast period.

Opportunities

The high preference of diabetes among the people belonging to the developed nations has proved to be a great opportunity for the diabetic foot ulcer treatment market. The increasing sedentary habits of the people which is combined with their faulty eating habits hampers the glucose regulations resulting into uncontrolled diabetes. This benefits the growth of the diabetic foot ulcer market which is looked forward to for providing advanced treatment options. The multiple facilities provided by the hospital sector has boosted the number of people opting for diabetic foot ulcer treatment. These factors have provided multiple opportunities for the market to record a considerable growth during the forecast period.

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Challenges

Lack of skilled labour force in the health care sector has hampered the growth of the market. People are worried regarding their already sensitive condition as a result of uncontrolled diabetes and it's complications which can be worsened by the absence of a skilled medical staff. Lack of disposable income among the people has hampered the growth of the market due to the presence of a very few people opting for advanced treatments. Due to the occurrence of the pandemic the growth of the market was challenged as a result of the constant lockdowns and restrictions. These multiple reasons prove to be the challenging factors for the market during the forecast period.

Market Segmentation

By Type

Advanced Wound Care

Biologics

Dressings





By Ulcer Type

Neuropathic Ulcers

Neuro-ischemic Ulcers

Ischemic Ulcers





By Grade

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 5





By Treatment Type

Wound Care Dressings

Wound Care Devices

Active Therapies

Others

By End User

Hospitals

Home Care

Ambulatory Surgical Center





By Geography

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Latin America

Middle East & Africa (MEA)





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Precedence Research is a worldwide market research and consulting organization. We give unmatched nature of offering to our customers present all around the globe across industry verticals. Precedence Research has expertise in giving deep-dive market insight along with market intelligence to our customers spread crosswise over various undertakings. We are obliged to serve our different client base present over the enterprises of medicinal services, healthcare, innovation, next-gen technologies, semi-conductors, chemicals, automotive, and aerospace & defense, among different ventures present globally.

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By Trend

Even though the Defence Ministry of India has again extended the deadline for submitting the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the advanced submarine project to November 30, South Korean Daewoo and Spanish Navantia has shown interest in building the long endurance diesel submarine under the strategic partnership model with India. The RFP was first issued in July 2021 and extended to November 30, 2022, from June 30, 2022, deadline.

The decision to extend the deadline was taken as certain clauses relating to joint and several penalties needs to be amended in the RFP document. The amended clauses will be taken up by the Defence Acquisition Committee (DAC) for approval shortly. Under the strategic partnership model, India has identified Mazagoan Docks Limited (MDL) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to tie up with foreign defence majors in South Korea, Spain, Germany, France, and Russia to build six air independent propulsion (AIP) diesel attack submarines for the Indian Navy at the cost of over ?40,000 crore.

As of now, South Korean Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and Spanish company Navantia, who have proven AIP technology has shown interest in building the submarines under Project 75 India of the Indian Navy.

While the national security planners had considered to extend the on-going Project 75 diesel attack submarine project by extending the production line at MDL to three more submarines, the move was over-ruled in favour of the fuel-based AIP project as the latter have higher endurance and more potent.

In layman terms, a diesel attack submarine must come to surface once a day to charge its diesel batteries, while the AIP submarine must surface once a week to do the same. Hence, the AIP equipped submarine with land attack ballistic missile onboard is a more potent weapon in equatorial waters due to lateral inversion in the tropics.

While French Naval Group, Russian Rosoboronexport and TKMS Germany have not shown interest with French now focusing on nuclear powered sub-surface platforms and Germany using latest lithium cell technology, the South Korean and Spanish defence majors are keen to participate in the project.

The South Korean defence major Daewoo has already commissioned the first AIP equipped submarine Dosan Ahn Changho in 2019, while Spanish Isaac Peral was launched in April 22, 2021 at Cartagena Shipyards. Both the submarines have land attack missiles including ballistic and cruise missiles on board.

The Indian Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has also developed the AIP technology and will be retrofitted on Project 75 submarines when they come for mid-life upgrade. The first of the six indigenous Scorpene class submarine, INS Kalveri, was commissioned in the Indian Navy in 2017. Three more have been commissioned in the Indian Navy since then.
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The global flow meters market size was worth USD 6875 million in 2021 and is estimated to reach an expected value of USD 11,700 million by 2030 at a CAGR of 6% during the forecast period (20222030). Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing flow meters market. The Asia-Pacific flow meters market is predicted to be worth USD 27,793 million by 2030, increasing at a 4% CAGR

New York, United States, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Due to their innumerable features, flow meters are expeditiously being used in coal-fired, fuel oil and natural gas, geothermal, hydroelectric, and nuclear power plants. The use of flow meters has increased as laws regulating the control of toxic gas emissions from power plants have become more stringent.

Flow meters are in high demand for monitoring and measuring the flow of steam, gas, water, chemicals, and mineral oil, among other things. These meters deliver much accuracy in terms of optimal and cost-effective quantity during flow measurement. In terms of processing control, they are advantageous.





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Rise in Applications in Oil & Gas Industry to Drive the Global Flow Meters Market

The oil and gas category includes offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration, production, and refining facilities, refineries, pipelines, petrochemical units, gas pipelines, and storage terminals. In both the upstream and downstream sections of the oil and gas industry, preventive coatings are utilized to transport oil and gas to refineries. This industry uses anti-corrosion, heat-resistant, abrasion-resistant, fire-resistant, and other types of protective coatings.

The industry has been looking for ways to cut costs. This, combined with the need to adhere to strict environmental regulations, has led to a willingness for a long-lasting barrier layer that effectively preserves assets.

Moreover, major contributors to the oil and gas industry's growth include the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, and Canada, among others.

Story continues





Technological Advancements to Generate New Opportunities for the Global Flow Meters Market

In terms of digital transformation, the sensors in the equipment have also seen rapid advancements. Several major market players are investing heavily in research and development. These operations are also anticipated to assist them in developing products that meet the needs of various industrial facilities and end-use applications.

Significant developments in flow meter technology include digital signals for flow meters, multiple measurement formats, online diagnosis and troubleshooting, remote calibration and configuration, and smart sensors with online warnings.

Because of scientific advances made possible by solid r and d, the industry has also been capable of creating adequate solutions to complex operating problems. One of the issues that the flow meter operations have to interact with on a regular basis is cleanliness. The emergence of automated cleaning is one of the market's breakthrough trends. This trend is especially advantageous to market segments such as water and wastewater management.

Furthermore, the advent of computer processing has had a positive impact on the way these flow meters function. The access to low-cost memory chips that can sequence data at high speeds and handle large amounts of data could be beneficial in a market like this. With the increased use of software programs, precise measurements and the factors controlling a wider range of gases and liquids are expected.





Report Scope

Report Metric Details Market Size USD 11.7 Billion by 2030 CAGR 6% (2022-2030) Historical Data 2019-2020 Base Year 2021 Forecast Period 2022-2030 Forecast Units Value (USD Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered Technology, End-User and Regions Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, LAME and Rest of the World Key Companies Profiled/Vendors Yokogawa Electric Corporation, ABB Ltd, Siemens AG, Bronkhorst High-Tech BV, Honeywell International Inc., SICK AG, Omega Engineering Inc. (Spectris PLC),

Christian Burkert GmbH & Co. KG, TSI Incorporated, Keyence Corporation, Emerson Electric Co., Sensirion AG, Azbil Corporation, Endress+Hauser AG, KROHNE Messtechnik Gm Key Market Opportunities Growing Potential for Electromagnetic Flow Meters Key Market Drivers Penetration of IoT and Automation in Flow Rate Measurement Applications

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Impact of COVID-19

The recent COVID-19 pandemic accelerated industrial automation implementation, leading to more product announcements and advancements in 2020.

On the company's COVID-19 vaccine line, flow meters have seen a spike in sales for measuring purified water. They were utilized to calibrate flow measurement instruments on other production skids, such as tanks, pumps, and other machinery. In addition to measuring dynamic flow, many flow meters were utilized to double-check the precision of weighing scale measurements.

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted flow meter manufacturers' supply chains from a manufacturing standpoint. While the sector remained vital, various vendors experienced difficulties obtaining flow meter components.

Sierra Instruments, a US-based manufacturer of flow meters and controllers, recently confirmed in January 2021 that the company would remain open during the pandemic. However, the Covid-19 virus infected many of its suppliers and employees. The company is operating at a lower capacity than usual, and standard lead times are becoming difficult to maintain. These factors also have an influence on the earnings of vendors in the market.





Regional Insights

The flow meters market is segmented into four regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa.

Over the forecast period, the North American flow meters market is projected to expand significantly. The United States is the region's major contributor to growth. As for the advanced oil and gas, chemicals, and power generation industries, the North American region is expected to maintain a huge market share. The renewable energy generation sector in North America is anticipated to continue investing heavily in new projects. The hydropower sector is expected to grow from 101 GW to around 150 GW by 2050, pertaining to the US Department of Energy (DOE).

Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing flow meters market. The Asia-Pacific flow meters market is predicted to be worth USD 27,793 million by 2030, increasing at a 4% CAGR. Most Asian vendors use cost-cutting as a competitive advantage, which means they frequently sacrifice high quality. The region's prominence in global sensor production benefits them in the market under investigation.

Panasonic introduced its new Ultrasonic Gas Flow Sensor in January 2020, adding emerging innovations to its vast specialty sensor product portfolio. This new sensor is a tiny, dual-function ultrasonic gas flow sensor that can quantify gas flow and density at flow rates varying from 1 to 25 liters per minute. It was previously only available as a Panasonic direct technology product.





Key Highlights

The flow meters market was valued at USD 6876 million in 2021 and is anticipated to generate USD 11,702 million by 2030. The market is expected to register growth at a CAGR of 6% during the assessment period.

By technology , the market is classified into coriolis, electromagnetic, differential pressure, ultrasonic, and others. The coriolis segment is anticipated to generate USD 4,088 million by 2030 at a CAGR of 7% .

On the basis of end use, the flow meters market is classified into oil and gas, water and wastewater, chemical and petrochemical, food & beverage, power generation, pulp and paper, and other end-user industries. The chemicals and petrochemicals end-user segment was the highest contributor to the market, and is estimated to reach USD 3,123 million by 2030, at a CAGR of 7% during the forecast period.





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Key Players of the Flow Meters Market are

Yokogawa Electric Corporation

ABB Ltd, Siemens AG

Bronkhorst High-Tech BV

Honeywell International Inc.

SICK AG

Omega Engineering Inc. (Spectris PLC)

Christian Burkert GmbH & Co. KG

TSI Incorporated

Keyence Corporation

Emerson Electric Co.

Sensirion AG

Azbil Corporation

Endress+Hauser AG

KROHNE Messtechnik Gm





Global Flow Meters Market: Segmentation

By Technology

Coriolis

Electromagnetic

Differential Pressure

Ultrasonic

Others

By End-User

Oil and Gas

Water and Wastewater

Chemical and Petrochemical

Food & Beverage

Power Generation

Pulp and Paper General Industry

Others

By Region

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Middle East & Africa





TABLE OF CONTENT

1 Introduction

1.1 Market Definition

1.2 Market Scope

2 Research Methodology

2.1 Primary Research

2.2 Research Methodology

2.3 Assumptions & Exclusions

2.4 Secondary Data Sources

3 Executive Summary

4 Market Overview

4.1 Report Segmentation & Scope

4.2 Value Chain Analysis: Flow Meters Market

4.2.1 Vendor Matrix

4.3 Key Market Trends

4.3.1 Drivers

4.3.2 Restraints

4.3.3 Opportunities

4.4 Porters Five Forces Analysis

4.4.1 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.4.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers

4.4.3 Threat of Substitution

4.4.4 Threat of New Entrants

4.4.5 Competitive Rivalry

4.5 Environment & Regulatory Landscape

4.6 Forecast Factors & Relevance of Impact

4.7 Macro-Economic & Geopolitical Scenario

4.8 Parent Market Overview

4.9 Technology Landscape

4.10 Market Share Analysis

4.11 Potential Venture Analysis

4.12 Regional Price Trends

4.13 Raw Material Trends

4.14 Cost Structure Analysis

4.14.1 Labor Cost

4.14.2 Consumables

4.14.3 Maintenance Cost

4.15 Covid-19 Impact Analysis:

4.15.1 Pre and Post Covid-19 Market Scenario Analysis

4.15.2 Market Recovery Timeline and Challenge

4.15.3 Measures Taken by Top Players

4.15.4 Quarterly Market Revenue and Growth Forecast till 2021

4.15.4.1 North America

4.15.4.2 Europe

4.15.4.3 Asia-Pacific

4.15.4.4 Central and South America and the Caribbean

4.15.4.5 The Middle East and Africa

5 Technology Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.1.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

5.2 Coriolis

5.2.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

5.3 Electromagnetic

5.3.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

5.4 Differential Pressure

5.4.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

5.5 Ultrasonic

5.5.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

5.6 Others

5.6.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6 End User Overview

6.1 Introduction

6.1.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6.2 Oil and Gas

6.2.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6.3 Water and Wastewater

6.3.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6.4 Chemical and Petrochemical

6.4.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6.5 Food & Beverage

6.5.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6.6 Power Generation

6.6.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6.7 Pulp and Paper General Industry

6.7.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

6.8 Others

6.8.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

7 Regional Overview

7.1 Introduction

7.1.1 Market Size & Forecast (Value & Volume)

7.2 North America

7.2.1 Economic Overview

7.2.2 Market Scenario

7.2.3 U.S.

7.2.4 Canada

7.2.5 Mexico

7.3 Central and South America and the Caribbean

7.3.1 Economic Overview

7.3.2 Market Scenario

7.3.3 Brazil

7.3.4 Argentina

7.3.5 Colombia

7.3.6 Rest of Central and South America and the Caribbean

7.4 Europe

7.4.1 Economic Overview

7.4.2 Market Scenario

7.4.3 Germany

7.4.4 France

7.4.5 The U.K.

7.4.6 Italy

7.4.7 The Rest Of Europe

7.5 Asia-Pacific (APAC)

7.5.1 Economic Overview

7.5.2 Market Scenario

7.5.3 China

7.5.4 Japan

7.5.5 India

7.5.6 Australia

7.5.7 South Korea

7.5.8 Rest Of APAC

7.6 Middle East

7.6.1 Economic Overview

7.6.2 Market Scenario

7.6.3 South Arabia

7.6.4 The UAE

7.6.5 Qatar

7.6.6 Oman

7.6.7 Turkey

7.6.8 The Rest Of the Middle East

7.7 Africa

7.7.1 Economic Overview

7.7.2 Market Scenario

7.7.3 Nigeria

7.7.4 South Africa

7.7.5 The Rest Of Africa

8 Competitive Landscape  Manufacturers & Suppliers

8.1 Competition Dashboard

8.2 Industry Structure

8.3 Yokogawa Electric Corporation

8.3.1 Business Overview

8.3.2 Financial Performance

8.3.3 Recent Developments

8.3.4 Portfolio

8.4 ABB Ltd

8.5 Siemens AG

8.6 Bronkhorst High-Tech BV

8.7 Honeywell International Inc.

8.8 SICK AG

8.9 Omega Engineering Inc. (Spectris PLC)

8.10 Christian Burkert GmbH & Co. KG

8.11 TSI Incorporated

8.12 Keyence Corporation

8.13 Emerson Electric Co.

8.14 Sensirion AG

8.15 Azbil Corporation

8.16 Endress+Hauser AG

8.17 KROHNE Messtechnik Gm

9 Conclusion & Recommendation

10 Acronyms & Abbreviations





Table of Content and Figure @ https://straitsresearch.com/report/flow-meters-market/toc





Market News

In February 2021 , Coltraco upgraded its non-invasive handheld ultrasonic flow meter. For accurate reporting, the Portsonic 2.FLO saves flow, acoustic, and pressure results. To confirm measured flow speeds and rates against a stationary pressure gauge in the system, the calculated pressure can be merged with readings from the Portasonic 2.FL0. Fire sprinkler systems, waste water, fuel monitoring, and foam proportioner testing are all applications for clamp-on flow metres.

In August 2020, AW-Lake introduced a new series of Clamp-On Ultrasonic Flow Meters that can be fastened on the outside of vertical or horizontal pipes ranging in size from  through 48. These Clamp-On Ultrasonic Flow Meters are suitable for a wide spectrum of metal and plastic pipe materials, as well as challenging liquids like chemicals, viscous liquids, and abrasives that would impact standard flow metres. They are housed in a water- and dust-tight NEMA 4X polycarbonate enclosure.

News Media

Top 7 Sensor Technology Companies In The Global Market

The Tangential Flow Filtration Market to Benefit from the Widescale Adoption of Single-Use Technologies





Have a Look at the Related Research Report

Flow Meters Market : Information by Technology (Coriolis, Electromagnetic, Differential Pressure), End-User (Oil and Gas, Food & Beverage, Power Generation), and Region  Forecast till 2030

Robotic Refueling System Market : Information by Fuel Pumped (Gasoline, Natural Gas, Petrochemicals) Payload Carrying Capacity, Vertical (Mining, Automobile,) and Region Forecast till 2029

Geothermal Heat Pumps Market : Information by Type (Closed-Loop, Open-Loop), Application (Residential, Commercial, Industrial), and Region  Forecast till 2030

Geothermal Energy Market : Information by Power Station (Dry Steam, Flash Steam, Binary Cycle Power Station), End-User (Residential, Non-Residential), and Region  Forecast till 2029

Industrial Rectifiers Market : Information by Type (SCR, SMPS), Power (Low to Medium Current, High Current), and Region  Forecast till 2030





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Allied Market Research

Increase in urbanization & industrialization, growth of the construction industry, and innovations in technologies for production of aggregates drive the growth of the global construction aggregates market. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to have a negative impact on the growth of the global construction aggregates market, as construction projects were either delayed or cancelled due to implementation of global lockdown.

Portland, OR, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the global construction aggregates market generated $375.3 billion in 2021, and is projected to reach $621.1 billion by 2031, witnessing a CAGR of 5.0% from 2022 to 2031. The report provides a detailed analysis of changing market dynamics, top segments, value chain, key investment pockets, regional scenario, and competitive landscape.

Increase in urbanization & industrialization, growth of the construction industry, and innovations in technologies for production of aggregates drive the growth of the global construction aggregates market. Moreover, growth in the tourism industry coupled with increased investments in development of recreational projects is expected to generate potential opportunities for the market during the forecast period.



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COVID-19 scenario:

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to have a negative impact on the growth of the global construction aggregates market, as construction projects were either delayed or cancelled due to implementation of the global lockdown.

The demand for construction aggregates decreased significantly during the pandemic, due to unavailability of raw materials, shortage of labor, and supply chain disruptions.

The report offers detailed segmentation of the global construction aggregates market based type, transportation mode, application, and region.

Story continues

Based on type, the sand & gravel segment held the highest market share in 2021, holding more than half of the total market share, and is expected to continue its leadership status during the forecast period. However, the crushed stone segment is estimated to register the highest CAGR of 5.3% from 2022 to 2031.



Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Construction Aggregates Market Request Here

Based on transportation mode, the truck segment held the largest market share in 2021, holding around 93% of the total market share, and is expected to continue its leadership status during the forecast period. However, the train segment is projected to register the highest CAGR of 8.2% from 2022 to 2031.

Based on region, Asia-Pacific is contributed to the highest share in terms of revenue in 2021, holding nearly three-fifths of the total market share, and is estimated to continue its dominant share by 2031. However, the LAMEA region is projected to manifest the fastest CAGR of 6.1% during the forecast period.



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Top Players:

Leading players of the global construction aggregates market analyzed in the research include Adelaide Brighton Ltd., Cemex SAB de CV, CRH plc, Heidelberg Cement AG, Holcim, Martin Marietta Materials Inc., Rogers Group Inc., SIKA Group, Vicat SA, and Vulcan Materials Company.

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We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.



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Helity and Lilium join forces to bring high speed electric air mobility to Southern Spain

Helity and Lilium join forces to bring high speed electric air mobility to Southern Spain

FARNBOROUGH, United Kingdom, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lilium N.V. (NASDAQ: LILM) (Lilium), developer of the first all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) jet, has signed an agreement with Helity Copter Airlines (Helity) to develop an eVTOL network in Andalusia. Under the agreement, Helity intends to initially purchase five (5) Lilium Jets to provide premium and business charter flights to its customers.



Helity offers helicopter shuttle flights between Ceuta, Algeciras, and Malaga as well as private charter flights in southern Spain. With approximately 300,000 passengers transported to date between Ceuta and the Spanish peninsula, Helity provides a critical transportation service to its customers and the region. The Lilium Jet, with its premium cabin, expected physical range of 250 km, and anticipated performance capabilities in various weather conditions, is well suited to meet the transportation needs of the region.

Antonio Barranco, CEO and owner of Helity said: With its zero operating emission and low noise profile, the Lilium Jet is a great addition to our existing helicopter fleet. Thanks to the large and spacious cabin, the aircraft is very well-suited to address the premium and business traffic in the region. I have no doubt that in the medium-term it will revolutionize the concept of short-range commercial and business aviation.

Daniel Wiegand, CEO of Lilium said: Southern Spain attracts a high demand of premium tourism. Combined with Helitys great local expertise and experience in the operation of helicopters, as well as the hiring of highly-skilled pilots, we have ideal conditions for the development of a sustainable air mobility network in the region.

Lilium is currently conducting Flight Tests with its 5th generation technology demonstrator at the ATLAS Flight Test Center in Villacarrillo (Jaen), Spain.

Story continues

The proposed arrangement between Helity and Lilium is subject to the parties finalizing commercial terms and entering into definitive agreements with respect thereto, and the satisfaction of certain conditions.

About Lilium

Lilium (NASDAQ: LILM) is creating a sustainable and accessible mode of high-speed, regional transportation for people and goods. Using the Lilium Jet, an all-electric vertical take-off and landing jet, offering leading capacity, low noise and high performance with zero operating emissions, Lilium is accelerating the decarbonization of air travel. Working with aerospace, technology and infrastructure leaders, and with planned launch networks announced in Germany, the United States and Brazil, Liliums 800+ strong team includes approximately 450 aerospace engineers and a leadership team responsible for delivering some of the most successful aircraft in aviation history. Founded in 2015, Liliums headquarters and manufacturing facilities are in Munich, Germany, with teams based across Europe and the U.S. To learn more, visit www.lilium.com.

About Helity

The air connection between North Africa and Southern Europe revolutionizes the traditional way of uniting the two continents, effectively managing their time, and opens a new professional and business horizon as well as tourist and cultural exchange.

HELITY Copter Airlines is the commercial name of GLOBAL AERONAUTICS SOLUTIONS, CORP, S.L., an aviation company with capital entirely out of Spain, and that, endowed with great professionals of the sector and material means, was born with the vocation of service to the population where it has its operations, bases and surroundings. It currently has three operating bases, Malaga, Algeciras and Ceuta, with the opening of Tangier being planned at the moment.

The company has sufficient capacity and facilities to accommodate and provide service to its own fleet and to third parties, equipped with the technical personnel and tools necessary to carry out maintenance tasks with maximum impact.

For all the above, HELITY was born with the vocation of permanence in the service, having made a determined commitment regarding investment and recruitment of the best pilots and aeronautical technicians to offer a modern and safe transport such as air transport, guaranteeing a regular helicopter line service, among other activities.

In addition, it offers its customers an express parcel and merchandise service, including all customs clearance, from "today for today".



To learn more, visit: www.helity.es



Contact information for Media:

Meredith Bell, Lilium

+41 79 432 57 79

press@lilium.com

Forward-Looking Statements:

Lilium Forward-Looking Statements:

This communication contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including, but not limited to, statements regarding Lilium N.V.s proposed business and business model, the markets and industry in which Lilium N.V. and its subsidiaries (collectively, the Lilium Group) operate or intend to operate, Liliums proposed strategic partnership with Helity Copter Airlines, the anticipated timing of the commercialization and launch of the Lilium Groups business in phases and the expected results of the Lilium Groups business and business model, including when launched in phases. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words believe, project, expect, anticipate, estimate, intend, strategy, future, opportunity, plan, may, should, will, would, will be, will continue, will likely result, and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on managements current expectations with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risk and uncertainties and subject to change at any time. Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this communication include those discussed in Liliums filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including its Annual Report on Form 20-F, all of which are available at www.sec.gov. For more information, see the section entitled Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements in Liliums Annual Report on Form 20-F and in other filings. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. You are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and the Lilium Group assumes no obligation to, and does not intend to, update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/636ab438-cee5-4a43-83ce-dcc3c1202438




Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

A strong work ethic and passion may be the winning formula for many companies and businesses, but flexibility and empathy offer diverse advantages for workers and employers. While this works for most entrepreneurs and companies, flexibility and empathy play a significant role in moving forward in difficult times.

Elon Musk's recent "return to the office, or leave" directive to Tesla employees raises concerns over his leadership, compassion and empathy for workers. Holding solid leadership fundamentals is vital when nations worldwide emerge after the pandemic's impact.

Thanks to technological advancement, workers can still engage and fulfill their obligations safely in the face of pandemics or other unexpected disasters. Musk's letter to his employees leaves a lot for top managers to analyze. Some may view it as a lack of trust and respect for workers, prompting a provocation of the community's collective analysis and thinking.

Today, many mainstream tech companies do not require employees to return to the office full-time, especially after some regions' resurgence of Covid-19 cases. Tesla's return to office directive to all workers seems to undermine the tremendous technological progress made through remote working.

Related: 3 Easy Ways to Improve Workplace Flexibility

The importance of flexibility and empathy in the workplace

Empathy and flexibility in the workplace help an organization quickly adapt to unexpected circumstances when they arise. These core leadership fundamentals can bring changes that establish critical plans to overcome the unanticipated obstacles.

On the contrary, Tesla's CEO's ultimatum to workers and company executives creates a stir among workers. Several people felt this violated ethical leadership approaches and efficient management practices. It also appears to undermine workers' values, choices, flexibility and control, all fundamentals for quality of life.

The pandemic may have several downsides to our lives and the economy. Still, its impact goes a long way in establishing the essential place of technology, flexibility and empathy. While it is excellent for the quality of life, it is also "giving people more choices and greater control over where they work," according to a recently published Forbes article.

Story continues

Related: What Is Empathy, and Why Is It So Important for Great Leaders?

Establishing clear expectations and technological solutions

Over the months and all through the pandemic, nations worldwide have struggled to regain their original place of productivity. Most companies navigated to remote technological solutions despite the lack of clarity, ambiguity and unpredictability. Some capitalized on nearshore outsourcing, and others have focused on setting demanding clear expectations regardless of the outcome, like Musk's ultimatum to his workers.

Most employers like working with people who have and understand clear-cut expectations and a strong point of view. However, many still agree that times have changed, and technological solutions in the workplace, like remote working, should begin taking a more permanent state. For many CEOs, it is significant and ideal for continued productivity.

Many companies may find it challenging to establish clear expectations in pandemic times. But they can capitalize and gain significant grounds in recovery through remote working. Companies executives like Facebook, Instagram and Airbnb, site this move as an economical way of advancing flexibility and safety. It also keeps current workers happy while attracting and retaining more talent.

Moreover, businesses adapting to technological changes take calculated steps in their approach, especially in remote work. These flexible solutions, such as hiring a nearshore software development company, portray company owners and executives as compassionate, particularly during the renewed surge in Covid-19 cases.

Related: Workplace Flexibility Can Impact How You Attract, Hire, And Retain Talent

Recommendations

U.S. companies are turning to and will continue to witness a permanent shift to work-from-home setups. While Musk doesn't seem to be a fan of remote working, his directives may cause more attrition than recovery.

In unexpected circumstances like the pandemic outbreak, remote working plays a core role in empowering flexibility and empathy in established businesses. Musk may have successfully established four companies, but, his recent order and achievements appear to cloud his better judgment of a leader's empathy, compassion and flexibility in difficult times amidst failure to embrace changing times.

It's evident that some operations require physical presence, and his workers are lauded for unlimited creativity and inventiveness. However, more CEOs have realized that remote working has little impact on employees' ability to deliver, and in most cases, it even increases productivity. In addition, other top executives like JP Morgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, indicated that remote work is becoming more permanent and acceptable in American business.

At the moment, CEOs should move to establish hybrid work schedules where workers can come to the office two to three days a week and work the remainder remotely. The transition to this technological solution is rapidly increasing currently, with about 30% of U.S. office employees working from home.

While a strong work ethic and passion are core determinants of success, empathy and compassion still portray leadership's core fundamentals in unexpected situations that endanger workers in changing times. In the face of the pandemic, Musk should prioritize workers' safety and retain talent, especially during the Great Resignation.

Musk's return to office plan is a recipe for a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. While it is a technology company that may require physical presence still, a consideration of implementing proven solutions like remote will sustain the company's goals and productivity. It will also set him as a compassionate leader. Additionally, instead of threatening workers with a back-to-office order, initiating a hybrid return-to-office plan in safe phases while creating and leaving flexibility for employees to work remotely is the ultimate solution.
Milwaukee likely host of 2024 RNC

The Milwaukee downtown skyline along Lake Michigan is seen with the Milwaukee Art Museum, the US Bank building, and the Northwest Mutual tower in Milwaukee on Sunday, May 29, 2022. - RNC Convention - Photo by Mike De Sisti / The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

We all know the story of the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, the event forced into a virtual show because of the pandemic.

Well, it looks like Milwaukee is going to get a second chance on the big political stage.

On Friday, a GOP site selection picked the city to host the 2024 Republican National Convention.

It's not a done deal for Milwaukee until the full Republican National Committee signs off on the selection in early August.

But it's a very big step forward as Milwaukee gained the nod over the other finalist, Nashville.

Nashville's bid stalled when political leaders couldn't get a draft agreement to host the event through the city's Metro Council. But a leading proponent of the Nashville getting the convention said a bill on the deal could be refiled to the Metro Council by Aug. 2, according to the Nashville Tennessean.

Milwaukee leaders, though, insist they're ready to host the Republicans.

VISIT Milwaukee president and chief executive Peggy Williams-Smith said: "Our job is to create an economic impact for the city. This will bring attendees from around the country and give us the economic boost we need."

[Sign up to get the On Wisconsin Politics newsletter every week]

Democratic Senate debate

Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry enters the stage during the Democratic U.S. Senate debate at Marquette University's Varsity Theatre in Milwaukee on Sunday, July 17, 2022. It was the first televised debate of Wisconsin's campaign season before the Aug. 9 primary.

One hour, five candidates, and some problems with the microphones.

No wonder Sunday night's Democratic U.S. Senate candidate debate probably didn't move the needle in the race.

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry entered the event running 1-2 in the polls and made no major gaffes.

State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski and Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson had a brief tussle and nonprofit executive Steven Olikara tried to make the most of his appearance with the main runners.

Here are seven takeaways from the event.

There was some other news in the Senate race.

Barnes picked up the endorsement of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont.

Story continues

Lasry has now loaned his campaign a little more than $12 million while Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson received around $7 million in donations during the second quarter.

Daniel Bice has a piece on Nelson who has come under criticism for not doing more to overturn the state's 1849 abortion ban.

Chantia Lewis pleads guilty

Alison Dirr reports on Milwaukee Ald. Chantia Lewis, who was removed from office Monday after her conviction in Milwaukee County court on two felonies related to her conduct in office.

Dirr writes that Lewis pleaded guilty to a count of misconduct in public office and no contest to a count of intentionally accepting an illegal campaign finance disbursement.

You can find details of the case here.

The special election to fill the seat will be held in the spring of 2023.

Isaac Yu rounds up other former Common Council members who faced criminal charges.

Republican governor race

The next big political event on the calendar is Sunday night's Republican governor race debate. WTMJ-TV will televise the hour-long clash that begins at 6 p.m. at Marquette University's Varsity Theatre.

There has been quite a bit of news in the race, and a lot of it surrounds businessman Tim Michels.

The Michels campaign said a mailer promoting a nonexistent NRA endorsement was an "'error."

Michels criticized the Foxconn deal even though his family's construction firm made millions on the project.

Meanwhile, financial filings showed Michels has poured nearly $8 million into the race. Meanwhile Republican Rebecca Kleefisch has raised $3.6 million in the first six months of the year, while Democratic Gov. Tony Evers pulled in $10.1 million.

Around the horn

Ron Johnson opposes U.S. attorney nominee Sopen Shah in Madison over deleted tweets.

Secretary of State Doug La Follette's fundraising falls well below leading Republican challenger Amy Loudenbeck.

Wisconsin voters care about clean water. Why aren't lawmakers paying closer attention?

Lawrence Andrea catches up with Bryan Steil in Beloit.

And Steil voted with House Democrats Tuesday to codify same-sex marriage.

Tweet of the week

David Darmofal, associate professor of political science at the University of South Carolina, weighing in on Democratic Senate debate: "Overall, I think there's a lot of impressive candidates in this Wisconsin Senate debate. More so than you usually see in a primary Senate debate."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee likely host of 2024 RNC; Chantia Lewis pleads guilty
Nexen Tire

NEXEN TIRE wins General Motors Supplier Quality Excellence Award for eight consecutive years

NEXEN TIRE wins General Motors Supplier Quality Excellence Award for eight consecutive years

- Award recognizes NEXEN TIREs innovation among active GM suppliers

SEOUL, South Korea, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NEXEN TIRE, a leading global tire manufacturer, announced that it has received the General Motors Corporation (GM) Supplier Quality Excellence Award for the 2021 calendar year. The tire manufacturer was chosen for their exceptional performance when working with GM. NEXEN TIRE has received the award for eight consecutive years.

This award was established by GM to recognize top-performing suppliers who meet or surpass a stringent set of requirements focusing on quality performance from tens of thousands of suppliers worldwide.

By consistently increasing the supply of tires for new cars to international automakers like Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen, and GM, NEXEN TIRE is acknowledged for its quality and technology.

In addition to the Central Research Institute located in Seoul, global R&D centers such as the United States, Europe, and China are making efforts to strengthen technology and quality through continuous research and development.

NEXEN TIRE is also operating four factories in the Yangsan Plant, Changnyeong Plant, Cheongdo Plant in China, and European Plant in the Czech Republic to boost brand value by ensuring competitiveness in quality and performance.

About Nexen Tire

Nexen Tire, established in 1942, is a global tire manufacturer headquartered in South Korea. Nexen Tire, one of the worlds fastest growing tire manufacturers, currently interacts with approximately 150 countries around the world and owns four manufacturing plants  two in Korea (Yangsan and Changnyeong) and one in Qingdao, China. Another plant in Zatec, the Czech Republic has also begun operation in 2019. Nexen Tire produces tires for passenger cars, SUVs, and light trucks with advanced technology and excellence in design. Nexen Tire supplies OE tires to global car makers in various countries around the world. In 2014, the company achieved a grand slam of the worlds top 4 design awards for the first time amongst the various tire makers in the world.

Story continues

For more information, please visit http://www.nexentire.com/international/

CONTACT: CONTACT: Sylvia Chang, sylvia.chang@pivotp.co.kr




Washington  The prosecution and defense made their statements in the criminal contempt case against top Trump adviser Steve Bannon Tuesday  blocks away from the Capitol, where the House Jan. 6 select committee is preparing for a primetime hearing Thursday focusing on former President Donald Trump's alleged inaction during the assault on the Capitol.

Bannon is charged with two counts of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a September 2021 subpoena from the select committee, which had demanded he sit for a October deposition and hand over documents relevant to its probe by Oct. 7.

"Congress was entitled to the information it sought. It wasn't optional. It wasn't a request. And It wasn't an invitation. It was mandatory," Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Vaughn told the Washington, D.C., jury. "The defendant decided he was above the law ... and that is why we are here today."

Prosecutors characterized Bannon's alleged crimes as a simple refusal to comply with a lawful request from Congress, free of the chaos and drama of the Jan. 6 attack itself.

"This case is not about what happened on Jan. 6," Vaughn said. "This case is about the defendant thumbing his nose at the orderly processes of our government."

"By that 10 o'clock in the morning deadline on Oct 7, 2021," prosecutors alleged, "the committee had not heard a word from the defendant. That deadline came and went, and he ignored it."

Vaughn said Bannon was warned again, later in October, that if he did not comply with the committee's requests, he could face criminal prosecution.

"He's innocent of the charges," Bannon attorney Evan Corcoran responded in his opening statement, arguing the case wasn't as clear as the government described it.

Corcoran contended negotiations between the committee and Bannon's other attorney, Robert Costello, were still underway at the time of the alleged default.

"No one believed that Steve Bannon was going to appear on Oct. 14, 2021," Corcoran said, adding Bannon thought the subpoena deadline was flexible and subject to further discussion.

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"Politics is the lifeblood of the House of Representatives," Corcoran said, later suggesting politics, not law, was at play in the courtroom.

Bannon, who was a private citizen at the time of the Jan. 6 committee's inception last year, was charged after the the House of Representatives referred his noncompliance to the Justice Department, which later brought an indictment against him.

Bannon's attorney said at the time his client was merely following the direction of former President Trump's legal team to not provide documents or testify due to executive privilege, although several courts have said Trump is not entitled to claim executive privilege. Bannon was also not employed by the White House on Jan. 6, 2021. Bannon pleaded not guilty to both counts.

Tuesday's opening statements were presented to a jury of 14 Washington, D.C., residents who were selected following a relatively intense and drawn-out process that began on Monday.

The jurors include an appliance worker who watched part of the first Jan. 6 committee hearing, a parks and recreation employee and a D.C. city employee with apparently vast experience serving on juries. "They call me once every two years," she told the judge Monday.

A NASA contractor, an architect, a COVID-19 testing contractor and an online art dealer rounded out the group in a nearly two-day waiting game after the judge and attorneys from both sides probed 40 individuals about their jobs, opinion on the House Jan. 6 Committee, and Bannon's work with Trump over the years.

The group of 14  two of whom will act as alternate jurors  was empaneled after prosecutors and Bannon struck a total of six individuals at their own choosing.

Tuesday's proceedings were delayed and the prospective group of jurors left waiting after Bannon's team asked the court to exclude three letters exchanged between the House Jan. 6 committee and Bannon's attorney, Robert Costello. The letters, Bannon's team argued, were "classic inadmissible hearsay" and not admissible in court. They also said the correspondence could open the door to information on Bannon's views of executive privilege and advice of counsel, arguments he has tried to use as a defense that the judge previously ruled were inadmissible during trial.

Prosecutors disagreed, arguing that the letters demonstrated that Bannon had willfully ignored Congress' demands after unsuccessfully trying to get the committee to stand down. The government tentatively agreed to submit the letters with redactions.

An hourslong back-and-forth between prosecutors, Bannon's attorneys and Judge Carl Nichols over exactly what was admissible ensued. Bannon's team unsuccessfully asked to delay the trial for 30 days to reshape its arguments.

Just last week, Bannon told the Jan. 6 committee in an about-face that he is willing to testify  publicly. "While Mr. Bannon has been steadfast in his convictions, circumstances have now changed," Costello wrote in the letter obtained by CBS News. Bannon's lawyer also said that while Trump has invoked executive privilege over his testimony and documents, the former president "has decided that it would be in the best interests of the American people to waive executive privilege for" Bannon, allowing him to comply with the subpoena.

Steve Bannon, former adviser to Donald Trump, center, speaks to members of the media outside federal court in Washington, D.C., US, on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. / Credit: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Prosecutors convinced Judge Nichols to exclude this new stance from testimony at the criminal trial, but in court on Tuesday, Bannon's defense team once again argued his change of heart was relevant to the jury, since prosecutors had argued that Bannon continually thought he was "above the law" in refusing to comply.

The government called its first witness, Kristin Amerling, the House Jan. 6 committee's deputy staff director and chief counsel, who discussed the formation of the panel and its mission, mandate and powers.

Amerling told the jury that congressional subpoenas are not optional.

"We have a limited about of time in which to gather information," she said. "The threat to our democratic institutions continues."

Amerling said she advised the committee on Bannon's subpoena for testimony and documents after public reports indicated he "played multiple roles" in the lead-up to Jan. 6, like persuading the public that the election was illegitimate and appearing on a podcast before the Capitol breach predicting that "all hell will break loose."

She spoke about the subpoena, including its "commands" and deadlines.

Bannon is the first of two former Trump aides charged with criminal contempt of Congress to stand trial. Former trade adviser Peter Navarro was also indicted after refusing to comply with a Jan. 6 committee subpoena and is set to stand trial in November, after pleading not guilty.

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FILE PHOTO: Oil and gas tanks are seen at an oil warehouse at a port in Zhuhai

By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Russia held its spot as China's top oil supplier for a second month in June as Chinese buyers cashed in on lower-priced supplies, slashing more costly shipments from Saudi Arabia, data showed on Wednesday.

Imports of Russian oil, including supplies pumped via the East Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline and seaborne shipments from Russia's European and Far Eastern ports, totalled 7.29 million tonnes, up nearly 10% from a year ago, according to data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs.

Still, Russian supplies in June, equivalent to about 1.77 million barrels per day (bpd), were below May's record of close to 2 million bpd, a level analysts had expected to be maintained.

China imported 5.06 million tonnes from Saudi Arabia, or 1.23 million bpd, down from 1.84 million bpd in May and 30% below the level in June last year.

Year-to-date imports from Russia totalled 41.3 million tonnes (1.67 million bpd), up 4% on the year but still trailing behind Saudi Arabia, which supplied 43.3 million tonnes (1.75 million bpd), a volume 1% below year-ago level.

China's total crude oil imports sank in June to near a four-year low as rigid lockdowns to contain the spread of coronavirus reduced fuel demand. The rise in imports from Russia also displaced supplies from Angola and Brazil.

The Customs data showed China imported 260,000 tonnes of Iranian crude oil last month, its fourth shipment of Iran oil since last December, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

Despite U.S. sanctions on Iran, China has kept taking Iranian oil, usually passed off as supplies from other countries. These supplies, roughly 7% of China's total crude oil imports, are facing competition from the growing Russian flows.

Customs reported zero imports from Venezuela. State oil firms have shunned purchases since late 2019 for fear of falling foul of secondary U.S. sanctions.

Imports from Malaysia, often used as a transfer point in the past two years for oil originating from Iran and Venezuela, soared 126% year-on-year to 2.65 million tonnes.

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Separately, data also showed China's imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) totalled 520,530 tonnes, the second highest monthly volume since at least the start of 2021.

Russian LNG imports for the first half of 2022 - mostly from the Sakhalin-2 project in the Far East and Yamal LNG in Russian Arctic - were up almost 30% on the year to 2.36 million tonnes, the data showed.

This is against a 21% year-on-year fall in the nation's total LNG imports during the same period.

Below is the detailed breakdown of oil imports, with volumes in metric tonnes:

June y/y pct Jan-June y/r pct change

change

Saudi 5,057,902 -29.7 43,269,290 -1.1

Russia 7,285,880 9.5 41,309,700 3.9

Iraq 3,203,002 -9.9 26,739,634 2.2

Angola 2,352,633 -36 17,191,422 -13.8

Brazil 2,004,225 -14.6 12,998,303 -22.5

United 672,655 -52.7 4,456,987 -45.7

States

Malaysia 2,654,310 126 11,079,251 50.5

Iran 260,349 - 780,392 -

Venezuela - - - -

Oman 2,073,190 -46 21,032,464 -8.3

UAE 3,124,780 80 19,430,481 36

(tonne = 7.3 barrels for crude oil conversion)

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu; editing by Richard Pullin and Louise Heavens)
LOS ANGELES, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SoundMind, a wellness audio and visual music therapy application, with ties in the LGBTQIA+, military, AAPI and underrepresented communities, joined New York Pride as the official wellness sponsor of this year's Pride celebrations in New York City. With this partnership, the team was involved with the YouthPride festivities in Central Park, joined by more than 10,000 attendees including official sponsor Target and fellow education organization GLSEN.

SoundMind brand ambassadors

"Being able to partner with New York Pride to give back to the LGBTQIA+ community was a way for our team to provide just a little bit of [help] to a community often overlooked. Growing up, I wish I had the opportunity to similarly be inspired by an event like this, and being a part of the weekend of events was personally rewarding for me," said Brian Femminella, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at SoundMind, who started the company while in college with Chief Operating Officer Travis Chen.

The mental health care startup is backed by investors including #1 Los Angeles Times best-selling author Dr. Venus Nicolino (Dr.V), who holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology; Rough Draft Ventures powered by General Catalyst, and Gaingels, the leading LGBTQIA+ investment syndicate in the venture capital space.

With participants showing up in waving rainbow flags, handmade sides, a palette of bright colors  the annual New York City Pride March in Manhattan was particularly significant, occurring just two days after the United States Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion. As a minority-led company, SoundMind was proud to have participated in the weekend of events that represents nearly unapologetic jubilation, with attendees advocating for human rights globally.

SoundMind held an app activation booth, with attendees learning about the app and how sounds can help with the overall mental wellbeing to alleviate anxiety and the overall health rate. Users were welcomed to the App with a personalized NYC Pride section in the App, which allowed users to go through a series of mental health check-ins. In a recent clinical study held by the company with the Boys & Girls Club of America, the app decreased the heart rates of tested participants by 50%, and 64% of participants expressed an increase in feeling interested, active and excited after using the SoundMind app everyday for one week.

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"Historically, music has been used to promote social and emotional learning. The ability of music to promote well-being fosters neurological and physical healing following traumatic life experiences," said Sydney Bracht, Chief Research officer at SoundMind.

At NYC Pride, attendees responded with positive reviews of the app and the startup's efforts garnered over 150,000+ interactions throughout the weekend, and was joined by Getty Images. Mental health and chronic illness advocate Gigi Robinson, who narrates the anxiety segment in the App, noted that she loves the App because of its research-backed music therapy technologies, "the app uses binaural beats, a technology which uses different frequencies to elevate mood, reduce stress and decrease anxiety levels."

SoundMind's team is gearing up for its launch of their newest version, slated to launch late summer. The new version will include a complete revamped design, and will include an artist platform featuring up-and-coming songwriters including American Idol semifinalist contestant Allegra Miles and Top 4 artist Mackenzie Bourg; new memory games; an additional 10,000+ new sounds to its soundscape feature; and a tracking algorithm for the overall mental health of users.

About SoundMind

SoundMind is a mental wellness app that allows users to customize their audio-visual music therapy experience. Our mission is to improve the world's accessibility to mental health resources through interactive mobile technologies. We use sound technology to elevate mood, reduce anxiety, and alleviate stress for our users. Find out more at www.soundmind.app, or download our app on the App Store!

SoundMind logo (PRNewsfoto/SoundMind)

Cision

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SOURCE SoundMind
Teck Resources Ltd

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TECK.A and TECK.B, NYSE: TECK) (Teck) today announced an agreement with PolyMet Mining Corp. (PolyMet) to form a 50:50 joint venture to advance PolyMet Mining Incs NorthMet Project (NorthMet) and Tecks Mesaba mineral deposit (Mesaba). The joint venture will be named NewRange Copper Nickel LLC (NewRange Copper Nickel). Glencore plc (Glencore) will retain its majority equity interest in PolyMet and provide financial support for its share of the funding commitment to the joint venture.



"The NewRange Copper Nickel joint venture brings together two large, well defined mineral resources in the established Iron Range mining region of Minnesota, said Don Lindsay, President and CEO. This agreement will help unlock a new domestic supply of critical metals for the low-carbon transition through responsible mining.

Closing of the transaction will be subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of all required regulatory approvals.

About NorthMet

The NorthMet Project is located near both existing and closed iron ore mines and utilizes existing brownfield tailings storage and plant locations to minimize environmental impact. NorthMet is expected to produce 29,000 tonnes of ore per day over a 20-year permitted mine life, with first production targeted for 2026. Over its first full five years of operations, NorthMet is expected to deliver annual payable production of 30,000 tonnes of copper, 3,600 tonnes of nickel, 58,000 ounces of palladium, and 12,000 ounces of platinum.

About Mesaba

The Mesaba mineral deposit, located in the Duluth Complex near the NorthMet Project, contains one of the worlds largest undeveloped copper-nickel resources. While further studies and community consultations are required to fully define the long-term development potential, Mesaba represents a strategic metal resource for North America.

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Morgan Stanley is acting as financial advisor to Teck.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Unites States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information as defined in the Securities Act (Ontario). Forward-looking statements and information are statements other than historical fact and can be identified by statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, should, would, might or will be taken, occur or achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements concerning: the expectations regarding the NorthMet Project, including production per day, mine life, timing of first production and expected annual production over the first full five years of operations; and expectation of closing of the transaction.

Forward-looking statements are made based upon certain assumptions, including but not limited to, assumptions that NorthMet Project can be developed in accordance with current plans, that financing for development of NorthMet will be available, and that conditions to closing will be satisfied or waived in a timely manner.

Factors that could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the transaction not closing when planned, the outcome of development of the NorthMet project; risks related to mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical recoveries, development risks, regulatory restrictions (including environmental regulatory restrictions and liability) and activities by governmental authorities.

The foregoing list of important factors and assumptions is not exhaustive. Other events or circumstances could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated or implied by our forward-looking statements. Certain of these risks are described in more detail in the 2021 Annual Information Form and Form 40-F of Teck and in its subsequent public filings with Canadian securities administrators and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Teck does not assume the obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements after the date of this document or to revise them to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events, except as maybe required under applicable securities laws.

About Teck

As one of Canadas leading mining companies, Teck is committed to responsible mining and mineral development with major business units focused on copper, zinc, and steelmaking coal, as well as investments in energy assets. Copper, zinc and high-quality steelmaking coal are required for the transition to a low-carbon world. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Tecks shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols TECK.A and TECK.B and the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TECK. Learn more about Teck at www.teck.com or follow @TeckResources .

Teck Media Contact

Chris Stannell

Public Relations Manager

604.699.4368

chris.stannell@teck.com

Teck Investor Contact:

Fraser Phillips

Senior Vice President, Investor Relations & Strategic Analysis

604.699.4621

fraser.phillips@teck.com




South Africa: PRASA reports progress in recovering vandalised rail corridors

Government is on track to return to service 10 priority corridors that were identified for rehabilitation following the vandalism and the theft of rail infrastructure that took place when the country went into lockdown.

Through the War Room that we have established and the commitment from our employees, we envision completing the work on the key priority corridors by the end of this calendar year, Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) acting Group CEO David Mphelo said on Wednesday.

Of the 40 corridors in the country, 17 corridors are operational. In an effort to rehabilitate the corridors that were destroyed, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) commenced with upgrading the rail infrastructure and stations in April 2021.

Ten corridors were identified as a priority based on the volume of passengers per corridor, the demand for the service, the extent of damage, and the time required to recover and rehabilitate the corridor.

Its been two years since the catastrophic decimation of our rail infrastructure and stations due to the theft and vandalism of our essential infrastructure, and, to some extent, neglect on our part, resulting in the closure of passenger rail services across the country.

The recovery programme, though painfully slow, is making steady progress. Work has started in earnest to recover the services. Since implementing the Service Recovery Plan, PRASA has reached some critical milestones in the service recovery programme, Mphelo said.

In Gauteng, the Mabopane and Saulsville lines to Pretoria and the Vereeniging  Union line are now operational. In the Western Cape, the Northern Corridor between Cape Town - Bellville Stations, the Southern Line to Simonstown as well as the Cape Flats line are operational.

Mphelo said plans to reopen sections of the Central Line that is illegally occupied are at an advanced stage.

The KwaZulu-Natal region has reintroduced the Merebank to Durban and KwaMashu to Durban services. Work is ongoing to repair the railway infrastructure affected by the recent, devastating floods in that province.

In the Eastern Cape we have reintroduced services in Gqebherha and East London using the diesel locomotives. On corridors where there was a huge demand for services, we reintroduced limited Diesel-Locomotive services as a stop-gap measure while we put in place plans to recover the electrical infrastructure.

However, even in those areas, we have now reached a point where we need to start major infrastructure repair work, and as a result, we have had to close lines on some corridors that are ready for electrical repair work to introduce electrical multiple units which form part of our modernisation programme, he said.

Three lines have been temporarily closed for major repairs on the Naledi - Johannesburg, Johannesburg - Leralla and Pretoria - Pienaarspoort lines.

I am pleased to announce that the team has made significant strides in ensuring that we meet our deadlines, he said.

New technologies to reduce copper content cables

Mphelo said the state of stations provide an opportunity to innovate and think outside the box to explore alternative construction technologies for the future that support the agencys sustainability goals.

Some stations will no longer be what they used to be as we introduce the new alternative technology. Brick-and-mortar will be a thing of the past.

New technology is replacing old, in some cases, centuries old. For example, we have new transformer technology, which means our substations can power more trains, and we are modernising our signaling systems to do away with manual signaling, something that should please the Railway Safety Regulator. Our overhead track equipment (OHTE) is carrying less copper content now, he said.

Mphelo said the agencys integrated security plan, premised on intelligence gathering, is starting to bear fruit.

Since the reopening of the Mabopane line, we have had zero incidents of theft and vandalism. Our recovery work is under siege with constant attacks and attempts to steal essential infrastructure.

We are constantly recovering stolen infrastructure, only for it to be stolen again. The criminals are brazen, and their modus operandi evolves with each waking moment, aided and abetted by some of our employees. However, we are closing the net on PRASA employees colluding with the criminals, Mphelo said.

To date, the recovery projects in Gauteng alone have created more than 600 job opportunities.

The acting Group CEO made these remarks during a media briefing in Pretoria.

Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula, together with the PRASA Board, joined Mphelo as they gave a comprehensive account of interventions made to recover and stabilise the agency for optimal performance following years of mismanagement and allegations of corruption.

Monitoring progress on reconstruction and recovery work

The Minister and PRASA Board conducted an oversight visit of the closed corridors in Gauteng- Leralla to Johannesburg, Naledi to Johannesburg and Pienaarspoort to Pretoria - to monitor progress made to recover the lines.

Today we are conducting oversight on the reconstruction and recovery work intended to rehabilitate our infrastructure from perway, overhead traction electricity, sub-stations, signalling and train stations in these corridors.

We will then build on this to implementation our modernization programme and deploy the new trains across all our corridors. More than 100 of these trains have since been delivered by the Gibela factory and are being deployed on a corridor-by-corridor basis as these become ready to accommodate the new trains, the Minister said.

He said the rehabilitation of the infrastructure is also supported by the awarding of the general overhaul contract that will enable PRASA to continue maintaining the old train fleet until it is retired and replaced with the new trains.

The upgrade and repurposing of stations will improve commuter experience and safety, the Minister said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-07-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

The Great Return process started with the return of natives of Zangilans Aghali village to their homes, Azerbaijans territories that were liberated from the Armenian occupation back in 2020.

A total of 10 families, made up of 58 people, have already been resettled to Aghali village. In the upcoming five days, 41 families (201 people) will also be resettled in Aghali village.

A native of Aghali village, Isa Mahmudov, shared his impressions of returning to his village with Trends Karabakh bureau.

We are back to our native lands after so many years. The victory in the second Karabakh war gave us a sense of pride, and we couldnt be happier with the return to our native Aghali, he said.

Presidents Special Representative to Zangilan region Vahid Hajiyev stated that the return of Aghalis inhabitants to their native village is a crucial event in Azerbaijans history.

Moreover, Turkish Ambassador Cahit Bagci wrote on his official Twitter page that the separation is over and the Great Return has started.

The separation is over. The Great Return has started. The return of our brothers to their native Aghali village in liberated Karabakh's Zangilan district, where Turkish companies have carried out reconstruction activities, started today. Karabakh is Azerbaijan! he wrote.

In total, there are more than 43,000 natives of Zangilan region, who were forced to leave their homes and flee to save their lives during the first Karabakh war. Over 90 percent of them have already expressed a desire to return to their native lands.

The first pilot project of the smart city and smart village in Azerbaijan is implemented mainly on five components - the housing sector, production sector, social services, smart agriculture, and alternative energy. Initially, 200 individual houses are constructed with the use of innovative building materials. The engineering communications and heating systems in the houses are also created on the basis of smart technologies.

Moreover, modern schools, kindergartens, clinics, and electronic control centers will be built in these villages, and tourism infrastructure will be formed. All residential houses, social facilities, administrative and catering buildings, and processing and production of agricultural products will be provided with alternative energy sources.
ReportLinker

The Terminal Blocks Market is projected to reach US$ 6,138. 30 million by 2028 from US$ 4,559. 97 million in 2022; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5. 1% from 2022 to 2028. As per the World Bank data, East Asia and the Pacific is the worlds most rapidly urbanizing region, with an average annual urbanization rate of 3%.

New York, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Terminal Blocks Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type, Function Type, Connection Technologies, Industry, and Device Type" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295710/?utm_source=GNW

Further, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) works to support the transformation of developing cities in Asia Pacific into safe, sustainable urban centers.



Further, in April 2022, the Government of India and the ADB signed a Project Readiness Financing (PRF) loan worth US$ 2 million to support an urban development project in Nagaland. As per the Industrial Development Report 2022, published by United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Asian manufacturing industries raising investments for their future growth.



The terminal blocks market has been primarily analyzed based on type, function type, connection technology, and industry.Based on type, the market is segmented into barriers, sectional terminal blocks, PCB mount terminal blocks, power blocks, and others.



The terminal blocks market, by function type, is segmented into single-level feed-through terminal blocks, dual-level terminal blocks, three-level blocks, ground circuit terminals, fuse terminal blocks, and others.The terminal blocks market, by connection technology, is further segmented into spring clamp terminal blocks, screw-type terminal blocks, insulation displacement connections, push-in type terminal blocks, and special connections.



The market, by industry, is segmented into business equipment, HVAC, power supplies, industry controls, instruments, telecom equipment, transportation, and others. By geography, the terminal blocks market is primarily segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (Asia Pacific), the Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America.



In 2022, the industrial sector exhibited a significant jump toward automated operations, which led to a major transition in the way companies manage their operations.Such progress in industrial automation, along with the growing adoption of electronics components in industrial applications, is fueling the terminal blocks market growth.



A rise in the adoption of digitalization across all industries in South and Central America boosts the adoption of automated machinery for improved accuracy and productivity.The region also has a robust electronics industry, which is growing faster with the rising demand for consumer electronics from the growing middle-class population.



Thus, the rapid adoption of automation across several industries, growing focus on ensuring the safety of workplaces, and surging deployment of robotics fuel the terminal blocks market growth in South and Central America.



Advancements in connection technologies such as screw clamps, spring clamps, push-in terminals, insulation displacement connections, and special connection technologies (slip-on connection and TERMI-POINT connection) ease out different types of connections in industrial controls, HVAC, telecom equipment, instruments, power supplies, automotive and transportation, and other applications.Further, Phoenix contact provides a comprehensive portfolio of connection technologies for PCB terminal blocks and PCB connectors for Single Pair Ethernet.



These products facilitate the integration of intelligent field devices into switch-based Ethernet environments. The PCB connection technology fulfills the requirements of the APL Port Profile Specification (Draft 0.3) and is therefore ideal for applications in process automation. Toshiba developed a technology of Bare Wire Connection Mechanism (BWCM) that uses two connector technologies. Thus, progressive digitalization and industrial transformation trends are shortening the time required for new device production, while prototyping is playing a more important role in evolving the electronics industry. Thus, such advancements in connection technologies are bolstering the terminal blocks market growth are expected to contribute to the growth of the terminal blocks market growth during the forecast period.



Asia Pacific experienced a rise in the adoption of the terminal block over the last decade.Indias production linked incentive (PLI) schemes for IT hardware will provide eligible companies with a four-year incentive of 4% to 2%/1% on incremental net sales (over the base year) of goods manufactured in India and covered by the target segment.



Laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs, and servers will be included in the PLI Target Segment.The tax benefits and initiatives provided by the Indian government support the growth of the terminal blocks market.



On April 14, 2022, South Korea and Israel launched a new program for robotics tech cooperation in which both countries are investing US$ 5.3 million for two to four years. The initiatives by the governments in enhancing robotics tech operations will become a solid opportunity for the terminal blocks market players in the coming years. As a result, deploying next-generation digital technology to upgrade electrical grids would boost demand for terminal blocks in Asia Pacific in the coming years. Klemsan, Phoenix Contact, Rockwell, and TE Connectivity are the major companies operating in the Asia Pacific terminal blocks market. The rising strategic initiatives and investments in new product developments propel the markets growth in the coming years.



Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Asia Pacific Terminal Blocks Market Share



The COVID-19 crisis drastically affected two huge markets in the Asia Pacific region, including India and China.As a result, the lockdown and slowdown of industrial activities across India and China contributed to the disruption of the supply chain of various raw materials and goods.



Therefore, the COVID-19 outbreak positively impacted the terminal blocks market analysis in North America.In pre covid scenario, the adoption of industrial automation for various applications was rising abruptly, owing to growth in artificial intelligence, connected and hybrid clouds, edge computing, cellular IoT innovation through 5G, and sensor innovations.



Thus, it is expected that significant growth in the demand for PCBs, has led to terminal blocks market growth.



However, in 2021, with the relaxation of the lockdown measures, manufacturing businesses started again, leading to a resumption of production facilities.Some IoT companies have seen a drop of around ~50% in achieving new order intake as Covid-19 forced their clients to stick to their budgets or delay IT/IoT spending.



As Covid-19 has led to an increasing customer need for more transparency and visibility of operations, smart connected products will play a crucial role in the coming years.



The global terminal blocks market is primarily driven by advancements in connection technologies for terminal blocks.Toshiba developed a technology of Bare Wire Connection Mechanism (BWCM) that uses two connector technologies.



Thus, progressive digitalization and industrial transformation trends are shortening the time required for new device production, while prototyping plays a more important role in evolving the electronics industry.Modularity and flexibility are gaining increasingly higher significance in device development.



Industrial automation is perceived to improve the productivity and quality of plants by mitigating errors and wastage, increasing safety, and adding flexibility to the manufacturing process.In addition, integrating a real-time operating system (RTOS) with automated processes enhances process scheduling and improves operational efficiency.



Thus, the growing demand for PCBs in industrial applications, coupled with the increasing scale of automation, is fueling the demand for terminal blocks.



TE Connectivity, Phoenix Contact, Weidmuller, ABB Ltd, Wago, and Weco holds a significant percentage of the terminal blocks market share.



The overall terminal blocks market size has been derived using both primary and secondary sources.To begin the research process, exhaustive secondary research has been conducted using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the terminal blocks market size.



The process also serves the purpose of obtaining an overview and market forecast of the terminal blocks market size with respect to all the market segments.Also, multiple primary interviews have been conducted with industry participants and commentators to validate the data and gain more analytical insights into the topic.



The participants of this process include industry experts such as VPs, business development managers, market intelligence managers, and national sales managersalong with external consultants such as valuation experts, research analysts, and key opinion leadersspecializing in the terminal blocks market.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295710/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________

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CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




MEXICO CITY, July 19 (Reuters) - The United States will request dispute settlement consultations with Mexico under a regional trade deal over what it considers discriminatory Mexican energy policies, according to two Mexican sources and a draft announcement seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

The consultations relate to measures taken by Mexico which the U.S. Trade Representative argues undermine American companies in Mexico and U.S.-produced energy in favor of Mexican state-owned power utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) and oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

USTR did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the announcement, which was shared by the sources in Mexico and was set to be made public on Wednesday. (Reporting by Dave Graham and Anthony Esposito Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Washington D.C.)
Many countries are far ahead of the United States in developing central bank digital currencies (CBDC), and that may be for good reason, according to one financial institutions expert.

Josh Lipsky, senior director at think tank Atlantic Councils GeoEconomics Center, told CoinDesk TVs First Mover that of the 105 countries exploring implementing a CBDC, 50 are serious about it, meaning theyre in the development, pilot or launch [phase], beyond the research stage.

That means they're very likely to actually go through with this, Lipsky said.

Lipsky, who previously served as an adviser at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said those investigating the use of a CBDC includes South Korea, Japan and India, in addition to China, which currently leads the way in pilot testing efforts. China is said to have about 250 million registered digital wallets using its digital yuan.

However, the U.S., the U.K. and Mexico are still in the research stage while other countries like Argentina are outliers, meaning they are nowhere in the CBDC progress, he added.

CBDCs are considered to be the digital form of a countrys fiat currency, which is administered by a central bank. Rather than printing physical cash, a central bank issues a digital currency that is backed by the government.

Lipsky noted the U.S. may have some justification for dragging its feet.

The U.S. has moved more slowly because of privacy concerns, he said. And thats a very legitimate concern.

In the long run, however, delaying could put the U.S. at a disadvantage. Now we see competitors from an economic space moving and finding solutions on those privacy answers, and the U.S. is still missing from the table a little bit, he said.

Lipsky said he frequently talks to central bankers from around the world, and they are asking, Wheres the U.S. model? Wheres the U.S. in standard setting?

I think thats missing right now, Lipsky said. The U.S. could be doing more.

Story continues

Lipsky said that since Russias invasion of Ukraine there has been increased interest in wholesale bank-to-bank CBDCs as a result of the issues raised from banking sanctions.

Wholesale CBDCs give central banks more room to implement regulatory oversight, including know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.

If you think countries are going to look to alternatives to the current financial system, alternatives around SWIFT, alternatives to bank-to-bank dollar transactions, wholesale CBDCs actually open up some avenues for them, Lipsky said.

Over the next five years, countries could be looking to China for their own CBDC infrastructure, Lipsky said. But that does not mean that countries are looking to use the countrys CBDC infrastructure entirely. He did not agree with former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chief J. Christopher Giancarlos comments that one-third of the worlds CBDC infrastructure could eventually be built and controlled by China.

According to Lipsky, Chinas CBDC motivation is more closely aligned with its domestic affairs than its international ones, including the ability to monitor via surveillance what citizens are doing in real time.

And even if China provided the technology, it would not be providing the CBDC itself, Lipsky predicted.

Im not sure anyone has thought through how these are going to interact cross-border, Lipsky said. China could say, Yes, use our technology. But by the way, if you're looking for a streamlined CBDC model, we can help you there, too.

The different iterations of CBDC infrastructure could also create challenges. Of those 105 countries considering CBDCs, Lipsky said, no two are alike, and that could carry over into digital currency cross-border transactions. This is a real interoperability problem.

Read more: Australian Central Bank Chief Believes Regulated Private Tokens Could Be Better Than CBDCs: Report
ReportLinker

The global vaginal specula market is expected to grow from US$ 955. 66 million in 2022 to US$ 1,180. 41 million by 2028; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 3. 6% from 2022 to 2028. A vaginal speculum is a medical device typically used to examine vaginal orifices by doctors and medical practitioners.

New York, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Vaginal Specula Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Product, Type, Procedure, and End User" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295714/?utm_source=GNW

It is either a metal-based or non-metal medical device that gynecologists use to open the vaginal wall to examine the vagina and cervix and extract cervical cells for PAP or smear examination.

Gynecologists typically collect cervical cell samples with a mascara-like brush or swab.Some women suffer slight discomfort while having vaginal specula inserted, while others may not feel anything.



In the market, vaginal specula come in various forms and sizes.A gynecologist must select the proper type of vaginal specula based on the type of vaginal examination required.



Vaginal specula are most commonly used on women with tight vaginas, especially virgins.Gynecologists rarely prefer stainless steel vaginal specular, the classic form of vaginal specular.



They prefer to utilize disposable vaginal specula for vaginal and cervix diagnosis to reduce the danger of infection.

Companies and research institutes are taking many initiatives to enhance the accuracy of the screening examination to allow the early detection of cervical cancer.These advancements have also enabled researchers to introduce minimal invasive gynecological surgeries.



Thus, the availability of various modern gynecological devices is driving the vaginal specula market growth.Ovarian cancer that is restricted to the ovaries (stage I) can be treated in up to 90% of cases, while illness that is confined to the pelvis (stage II) has a 5-year survival rate of 70%.



However, the illness that has migrated beyond the pelvis (stages III-IV) has a 20% or lower long-term survival rate.Currently, only 20% of ovarian malignancies are identified in stages I-II.



According to computer simulations, detecting preclinical disease at an earlier stage could increase survival by 1030% while also being cost-effective.

Based on type, the vaginal specula market is bifurcated into disposable and reusable.The disposable segment hold the largest share of the market in 2022.



A disposable plastic vaginal speculum is designed for heavy-duty use and/or long-term gynecological operations, such as vaginal surgery and electrosurgery.The speculums hinge region is strengthened, allowing it to withstand forces normally only metal vaginal specula can withstand.



The strengthening piece also serves as a smoke extinguisher.Disposable vaginal specula are generally made from plastic or acrylic materials.



These are nontoxic, flexible, and meant for single use.

Disposable vaginal specula are softer and have a rounded edge that prevents injuries and offers comfort to patients.These specula are much cheaper than reusable specula and also reduce the cost of sterilization.



The major advantage of using disposable vaginal specula is reducing contamination risk. Further, the transparent body of the device allows better visualization of the examination area.

A few techniques used for designing specula are Moore Graves, Weisman Graves, and Pederson.For manufacturing disposable vaginal specula, Graves techniques are used and are available in various sizes.



A few companies operating in the vaginal specula market, such as Welch Allyn (Hill-Rom), Henleys Medical Supplies, Dynarex, McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc., and Stericycle, offer disposable vaginal specula.

Based on procedure, the vaginal specula market is segmented into electrosurgical colposcopy, endometrial biopsy, general examination, and others.The general examination segment hold the largest share of the market in 2022.



Moreover, the vagina, uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, and cervix are examined by a healthcare provider.A Pap smear test can be performed during a pelvic exam to check for malignancy.



This test is one of the most common medical procedures performed by doctors, and women experience this test during a pelvic examination with a vaginal speculum.Over 55 million smear tests are performed yearly in the US.



The highest incidence rate of cervical cancer is reported in Hispanic women. As per a study conducted by the CDC, white women had the highest incidence rate of uterine cancer (27.16 per 100,000), vulvar cancer (2.80 per 100,000), and ovarian cancer (11.50 per 100,000). Further, the highest incidence rate of vaginal cancer was observed among black women in the US. Thus, the high incidence of these types of cancer is contributing to the growth of the vaginal specula market in North America.

A few key primary and secondary sources referred to while preparing the report on the vaginal specula market are the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Department of Health and Human Services, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Canadian Medical Association.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06295714/?utm_source=GNW



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CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




NONFICTION: Hartman follows three immigrants to see how they changed the dying city of Utica, N.Y.

"City of Refugees" by Susan Hartman; Beacon Press (241 pages, $27.95)



A number of writers have recently taken on a complex topic crucial to the current, sometimes violent national "conversation" about immigration: exploring communities of recent immigrants who are revitalizing the Rust Belt cities of the American heartland.

Cynthia Anderson's moving 2019 narrative, "Home Now: How 6,000 Refugees Transformed an American Town," took readers into the sweet heart of the industrious Somali community of Lewiston, Maine. A.K. Sandoval-Strausz's 2019 "Barrio America: How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City" adds academic perspective to understanding the immigrant-driven revival of Chicago's Little Village and Dallas' Oak Cliff.

And Jason deParle's masterful "A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves" offers a global view of the homeward flow of refugees' earnings, sustaining the millions who stay behind. DeParle manages this by following an expanding Filipino family he first met while in the Peace Corps three decades ago.

In "City of Refugees: The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life Into a Dying American Town," Susan Hartman, who's taught writing at Columbia and Yale, takes on this tempting and relevant topic.

Hartman spent years reporting on the unfolding lives of three main characters who've settled in Utica, New York: Sadia, a rebellious and vivacious Somali Bantu teen, whose mother leans on her for Americanizing far too fast; Mersiha, a Bosnian who opens a tasty bakery and catering hall  and then runs into the COVID-19 lockdown; and Ali, an Iraqi with traumatic war experiences, who nevertheless returns as a translator for American troops so his salary can provide a nest egg for his family in Utica.

Hartman offers us 48 episodic chapters portraying incidents in their daily lives. This inventory of events documents, realistically, the many minuscule obstacles  mostly stemming from bigotry, poverty and cultural unfamiliarity  frustrating success, even as advancement does happen.

The chapters also include similar information about the characters' friends, relatives and neighbors. We tune in on a class on how to go to the doctor ("Turn your head! Cough! Cover your right eye.") And we see "The Sudanese mother picking out eye makeup with her daughter at the Rite-Aid on Genesee."

We're in on menus, addresses of apartments, which desserts (baklava, hurmasica, jabukovaca) are served at an Eid banquet. The vignette-filled short chapters may have seemed a solution to the narrative puzzle of humanizing a city of immigrants through their actions. But, though we soon affirm what we might assume all along  that they are regular people living their lives stalwartly, day by day  a reader may wish for more guidance than is on offer.

The book moves from small event to small event. At a supper, a character "helped himself to some salad and orzo with olives and almonds, and began eating." Makes readers hungry, but might leave some unsatisfied. There's an impressive vastness to the reporting, but it is not tamed in the service of systematic insight.

The daily facts flow past us like rubble from the flood of cultures. The net realization is that energetic young people from several religions and backgrounds devote themselves to a process that amounts to homogenization, as our commercial vigor and consumerism convert these diverse and admirable souls into more of us  in the same deep trouble.

"I feel like I'm brand new" says Sadia, late in the book, as she takes citizenship lessons.

"City of Refugees" takes an honorable place among the literature of urban revitalization, offering us few answers  perhaps there are few, in the current atmosphere of unresolvable peril  but much to consider.



Mark Kramer has been writer-in-residence at Smith College, Boston University and the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism at Harvard. He has helped found ongoing narrative journalism conferences in Boston, London, Amsterdam and Bergen, Norway.
The backlash was sure to come.

James Madisons Montpelier in Orange County made news in June 2021 when the foundation that runs the fourth U.S. presidents estate announced the board of trustees would share power equally with the descendants of enslaved people.

Board Chair Eugene Hickok quickly reversed course, however, and reneged on his promise. Over the next year, Hickok and CEO Roy Young lost control of the situation. In May, a formal agreement for parity was reached, new board members were elected, and Hickok and Young were replaced.

Now that the foundation is controlled equally by both the descendants of enslaved people and nonenslaved people, the anti-woke crowd is striking back.

A story released by the New York Post on July 16 dug deep into the culture war playbook, charging that No American flags fly at Montpelier (in fact, they do, right by the front entrance), and not a single display focuses on the life and accomplishments of Americas foremost political philosopher, who created our three-branch federal system of government, wrote the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers, and served two terms as president. Again, a patently false assertion that anyone who has taken a tour of Montpelier knows.

This assault on whats happening at Montpelier is just an extension of a larger national discomfort with telling the totality of the American story.

At school board meetings locally and across the nation, parents are launching attacks against Critical Race Theory. These critics take an academic theory that argues racism is baked into our law and legal institutions in ways that create fundamental inequalities between whites and nonwhites, and twist it into a false claim that CRT is a tool for making white people feel guilty about their history. Given the over-the-top response to CRT many critics display, we wonder if these people have bothered to read CRT.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin shamelessly rode a wave of anti-CRT sentiment to the governors mansion last November, and continues to push the false narrative that teaching systemic racism is a tool to make whites feel guilty.

Congressman Bob Good, R-5th, is quoted in the New York Post story saying: The left is trying to revise our history and is perpetuating a dishonest narrative.

The only dishonesty here is Goods narrative.

Montpelier is doing significant, and consequential, work by reconstructing the stories of the nearly 300 enslaved people at Montpelier. Through painstaking research, historian Hilarie Hicks is bringing to life the stories of the enslaved who until relatively recently were barely acknowledged by Virginias K12 textbooks.

As Hicks explained in her commentary for The Free LanceStar on Feb. 12, For decades, Montpelier researchers have pored over letters, tax records, newspaper notices and court documents, looking for mentions of enslaved people by name and building up a body of information. Even random documents such as a shoe size listwritten when Madisons father distributed shoes to 50 enslaved workers on November 2, 1787can provide clues to a persons life story.

Good and those who wave the woke flag defending our history would have us believe that Madisons life, and the lives of all the Founders, exists apart from the lives of people whose labor made it possible for Madison to reside in Montpelier and dedicate himself to the work of the Constitution.

Without those 300 enslaved people, there is neither Madison, nor Thomas Jefferson, nor George Washington.

In fact, early America would have looked very different without slavery. A Washington Post report released in May identified for the first time more than 1,800 people who served in the U.S. Congress in the 18th, 19th and even 20th centuries [who] owned human beings at some point in their lives.

That it is only in 2022 we finally have a complete record of how vast the number of slaveholding lawmakers was speaks to the need for more work like that being done at Montpelier.

The truth is that defenders of our history, as Good calls it, are comfortable denying the pervasiveness, ugliness, and ongoing impact of the Peculiar Institution in America.

Our history, for Good and others, is white history. Not Americas history. And white history still wont accept that Madisons Constitution specifically accommodated or actually strengthened slavery, writes Akhil Reed Amar in Americas Constitution.

This backlash will ultimately fail. Thanks to Montpelier, the Washington Post, and countless other historians and researchers, we are learning more every day about all Americans history, not just our history.

Facts are stubborn things. The anti-woke crowd needs to wake up.
Blood drive set for July 26

An American Red Cross blood drive will take place from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 26, at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Cedar Bluffs.

All blood types are needed. To schedule an appointment, visit RedCrossBlood.org and enter CEDARBLUFFSNE.

Donors should bring their donor card or photo ID, and eat breakfast/lunch and drink plenty of water prior to donating blood.

You can streamline your donation experience and save up to 15 minutes by visiting RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass to complete your pre-donation reading and health history questions on the day of your appointment.

Anyone with questions can contact Sandy at 402-936-6905.
Children gathered Tuesday in the turf room of the Fremont Family YMCA to hear Justine Ridder, childrens librarian at Keene Memorial Library, read to them. The event was part of the librarys Out and About Storytime. Next weeks Storytime is set at Fremont Mall.
The United Nations says that almost one year since the Taliban takeover, the situation of human rights in Afghanistan has worsened considerably despite an overall significant reduction in armed violence.

The Human Rights In Afghanistan report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), published on July 20, highlighted the plight of Afghan women, whose rights have been drastically curtailed since Taliban militants returned to power in August following a blitz offensive across the country amid the withdrawal of the U.S.-led international forces.

Girls have been banned from school beyond the sixth grade in most of Afghanistan. In March, the Taliban ordered girls' high schools closed on the morning they were scheduled to open.

"Since 15 August [2021], women and girls have progressively had their rights to fully participate in education, the workplace, and other aspects of public and daily life restricted and in many cases completely taken away," the report said.

"The decision not to allow girls to return to secondary school means that a generation of girls will not complete their full 12 years of basic education. At the same time, access to justice for victims of gender-based violence has been limited by the dissolution of dedicated reporting pathways, justice mechanisms and shelters," it said.

The education and participation of women and girls in public life is fundamental to any modern society. The relegation of women and girls to the home denies Afghanistan the benefit of the significant contributions they have to offer. Education for all is not only a basic human right, it is the key to progress and development of a nation, said Markus Potzel, the acting secretary-generals special representative for Afghanistan.

The report also voiced concern over the Taliban authorities' carrying out human rights violations with impunity, especially extrajudicial killings of individuals accused of affiliation with armed groups, but also cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishments, and excessive use of force by Taliban officials.

The report documented a total of 237 extrajudicial killings -- most of them, 160, targeting former members of the Afghan military and government. Suspected Islamic State militants and members of the armed opposition group identified as the National Resistance Front have also fallen victim to extrajudicial killings, the report said.

UNAMA said the human rights violations have also been amplified by a nationwide economic, financial, and humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale, with almost 60 percent of the population in need of humanitarian assistance.

The report urged the Taliban authorities to do more identify, probe, and lawfully punish human rights abuses.

"Human rights violations must be investigated by the de facto authorities, perpetrators held accountable, and ultimately, incidents should be prevented from reoccurring in the future," the report said.
Network International (Network), a leading enabler of digital commerce, has teamed up with Foodics, a leading cloud-based restaurant management technology and payments platform for frictionless transactions.

Through this partnership, SMEs in the UAEs F&B sector will get access to Foodics ECR (electronic cash register) and its software platform offering a range of value-added services (VAS) with fully integrated Network International payment terminals, ensuring fast, secure and seamless customer experiences.

The integrated payments solution through Networks POS platform will eliminate manual entry errors at the merchant outlet while improving operational efficiencies. This partnership will particularly benefit thousands of F&B SME owners in the UAE who manage cafes, fast food outlets, food trucks, bakeries, restaurants, etc.

Cashless economy

Almost seven out of 10 payment transactions in the Middle East are expected to be non-cash in 2023, as the region catches up with the global trend towards a cashless economy . As the largest merchant acquirer in the UAE, Network International strengthens its role in supporting the F&B sector by implementing a fully integrated, 360 payments ecosystem that enables SMEs to seamlessly manage and facilitate all their payments operations with pioneering end-to-end digitisation, leading to instant, frictionless transactions for customers.

Following its agreement with Foodics, Network will soon offer the Foodics Restaurant Management Solution and Foodics Pay to small and medium F&B outlets in the UAE along with fully integrated Network International payment terminals.

The integrated solution will benefit merchants with its unified operations including single receipt and automated reconciliation, daily settlements, claim and chargeback support, merchant portal monitoring and 24/7 technical support. Foodics will enable restaurant customers to order, pay and receive their receipts all at the same time on a single device.

Value-added services

Andrew Key, Group Managing Director, Acquiring at Network International, said: At Network, we are committed to bringing value-added services and fully integrated payment acceptance solutions to our merchant partners. This offering will reduce operational costs for merchants, improve the checkout experience, and provide access to Foodics VAS services through its software and hardware platform.

Well be working closely with Foodics to bring these solutions to our fast-growing F&B merchant base. The UAEs booming tourism industry is fuelling the growth of the countrys F&B sector, and we are happy to facilitate this journey through these innovative solutions.

Ahmad Al-Zaini, Founder and CEO at Foodics, said: We have gone beyond payments by providing F&B merchants with a full suite of restaurant management products and financial technology to help them elevate their operations and provide their customers with the best experience possible. Having successfully processed over 6 billion orders, our one-stop restaurant management solution not only eases operational efficiency, but also offers customers a hassle-free payments experience at any of their favourite F&B outlets.-- TradeArabia News Service
Q & A

Question: Six words to describe your food?

Answer: Authentic, unique, nostalgic, fulfilling, flavorful, and satisfying

Q: Ten words to describe you?

A: Wild flower, motivated, people driven, loyal, proactive, supportive, versatile, reliable, tenacious, visionary

Q: Proudest moments as chef?

A: When my sous chef, Jamia, decided to go to culinary school and that my daughter wanted to be in pastry since the age of 10. This showed me how effective influence can be.

Q: Favorite ingredient?

A: Onion

Q: Most overrated ingredient?

A: Parsley

Q: Most undervalued ingredient?

A: Salt

Q: Favorite local ingredient?

A: Sunshine Farms micro greens

Q: One food you cant live without?

A: Crab legs

Q: Most embarrassing moment in the kitchen?

A: After telling my chef not to touch a hot pan handle. And then I touched the hot pan handle and burned myself.

Q: Favorite celebrity chef?

A: Pinky Cole

Q: Hardest lesson youve learned?

A: That unfortunately people will fall off: friends, associates, family. But you have to take it on the chin and realize that not everyone will understand your vision and thats ok.

Q: Best food city in America?

A: Los Angeles

Q: Weirdest thing youve ever eaten?

A: Live squid in Korea

Q: After-work hangout?

A: Streetcar 520

Q: Favorite restaurant other than your own?

A: Piglatin Cocina
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo welcomed throngs of visitors Wednesday to wish one very special hippo, Omo, a happy first birthday.

The 500-pound hippo seemed to enjoy what zoo officials described as a capacity crowd at the Water's Edge: Africa exhibit. And, of course, the "cake" that zookeepers had brought out. Right up until the point several peacocks attempted to steal it.

But Omo is a brave hippo and chased off the peafowl, mouth wide in a threatening manner. This is a good thing for the young hippo, says Philip Waugh, the zoo's lead keeper of Water's Edge: Africa.

"Omo was getting a really big confidence boost today," Waugh said. "Peafowl are an easy animal for him to chase and scare away and feel like a big strong hippo."

Omo weighs in at just over 500 pounds and still has another 2,000 to grow. Fully grown hippos can weigh anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds. In human care, they can live to be 35 to 36 years old with values a little lower for wild hippos.

Waugh has worked at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for four years. In 2020, he became the lead keeper at Water's Edge: Africa. The exhibit is not limited to just the three other hippos. It features lemurs, African penguins and a warthog to name a few.

But Omo was the star of the show Wednesday, and that's a good thing because Omo is special in many ways.

"Omo's parents, Zambezi and Biko, were recommended to breed based off their genetics," Waugh said. "Omo's providing a really good addition to the gene pool in hippos and with hippos in human care."

Omo is also the first hippo born at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in 32 years, which Waugh said may serve as a "restart to our hippo breeding program."

Hippos in the wild are listed as a "vulnerable species" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). According to Waugh, there are fewer than 150,000 hippos left, and unless something changes for them they are at risk of going extinct.

"They are endangered by things like illegal hunting, poaching and habitat loss as well," Waugh said. "They just hide a little too well for their own good."

Hippos can be dangerous in the wild, but according to Waugh, are not any "more aggressive than any other animal their size." Many of the 500 to 3,000 human deaths caused by wild hippos are due to anti-predatory behavior rather than outright aggression since hippos can confuse small boats for crocodiles, according to Britannica.

For Omo, the only threat Wednesday were the four or five peafowl attempting to poach his watermelon "cake." But he had no trouble chasing them off, giving guests a great show as he curled up the front of his face.

"It looks like he smells something really bad," Waugh said. "Although the peafowl did crash the birthday party, he didn't let it happen long."

Waugh said that despite the peafowl interference, Omo still got plenty of his watermelon cake.

When the time came to "cut the cake," the crowd began singing happy birthday to the now 1-year-old.
A couple accused of having accidentally killed their child via a fentanyl overdose are now facing an additional case of child abuse.

Joenny Manuel Astacio, 36, and Kira Lee Villalba, 29, face six allegations in the new case filed against them in 4th Judicial District Court, including reckless child abuse causing serious bodily injury, contributing to delinquency, and controlled substance distribution to a minor, according to court records.

Prosecutors confirmed to The Gazette that the additional charges relate to an incident mentioned in the arrest affidavit for the death of their son, Cairo Astacio, where the couple allegedly gave a 13-year-old girl drugs, did drugs with her, and were with her when she overdosed and was taken to the hospital.

The girl, whose name was redacted from the affidavit, survived the overdose.

Currently, the accusations are arrest-only charges, and prosecutors may file additional charges ahead of the couple's first appearance scheduled for July 27.

Astacio and Villalba appeared in court on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing in the other case they face, where they are accused of letting 15-month-old Cairo die of a fentanyl overdose on Nov. 12, 2021.

When officers searched the couple's residence following the death of Cairo, they reported finding significant amounts of drugs, which they later determined included heroin, cocaine, marijuana and a fourth substance that was redacted from the arrest affidavit.

Detectives said there was such a high volume of items received that they were unable to test everything, records show.

The couple's substance-abuse issues were not new or unknown to authorities at the time of the incident. The affidavit states that the local Department of Human Services had been notified about the couple on three separate instances before their son's death.

In the death of Cairo, Astacio and Villalba each face one count of reckless child abuse causing death and three counts of controlled substance possession.

The attorneys for the couple requested to have their preliminary hearings pushed to a later date but did not waive their right to have a preliminary hearing.

Astacio and Villalba will be in court for preliminary hearings on Aug. 10.

They currently are being held in El Paso County jail, Astacio on a $200,000 bond and Villalba on a $100,000 bond.

Court records show that an additional bond of $250,000 has been set for them in the new case, which was filed against them on July 8.
Tenth Judicial District Attorney Jeff Chostner said Tuesday that he will not pursue charges of election bribery against El Paso County sheriff's candidate Joe Roybal after the Republican nominee admitted to unknowingly violating Colorado election law.

In a letter of warning he issued to Roybal on Monday, Chostner said he declined to pursue charges because he did not believe a jury would convict Roybal "of an activity that had no actual impact on (his) ability to get on the ballot, and for which an untimely complaint was made."

In the letter, though, Chostner admonished the candidate's actions as "reprehensible and contrary to the functioning of a representative democracy."

"Your actions have the potential of undermining confidence in the electoral system. As one seeking a position in law enforcement, your first priority is to uphold the law," Chostner continued. "I believe you have significantly strayed from that responsibility. If further, timely allegations of a similar nature were to come before me, after the issuance of this letter, I would certainly look to institute criminal action."

Roybal said in a statement issued from his campaign Tuesday he was not, as a first-time candidate, familiar with all Colorado election law.

"Now that I am aware, I assure the people of El Paso County my campaign will comply with this requirement in the future," he said. "I am passionate about my home, El Paso County, and have dedicated my life to law enforcement. I will continue to serve the people of our community to the best of my ability with the honor and integrity they deserve."

Chostner's decision comes nearly three weeks after his office launched an investigation into a possible election violation involving Roybal and shooting range owner Mel "Dragon Man" Bernstein. Roybal was named the winner of the June 28 Republican sheriff's primary.

In a complaint filed with the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office on June 30, former sheriff's contender and unsuccessful Republican House District 21 candidate Karl Dent alleged Bernstein in February offered a $5 discount at his shooting range to entice voters to sign Roybal's petition to get onto the GOP primary ballot.

"Mr. Roybal was present and allowed Mr. Bernstein to make this offer," Dent wrote in his complaint. "It is violation of law for Mr. Roybal to have allowed this offer to be made by Mr. Bernstein. Additionally, it is against the law for anyone to accept a bribe as an inducement to sign an elections petition."

Since 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen had publicly endorsed Roybal, Dent requested his complaint be referred to the Colorado Attorney General's Office for further investigation. Instead, Allen asked that Chostner take on the case as a special prosecutor, a move permitted under Colorado law.

Bernstein will also not face charges in the matter.

Dent had this reaction Tuesday via text message: "While the Pueblo DA's Office did a James Comey on Joe Roybal, it appears to be two different forms of justice in El Paso County. The question was never if the petition signatures were valid, the question was simply if Joe gathered any signatures through any means of bribery, which according to Colorado Revised Statute, he did."

Greg Maxwell, one of two opponents Roybal faced for the GOP sheriff's nomination in last month's primaries, said he was concerned the accusations against Roybal could diminish public trust in law enforcement, which has faced increasing scrutiny over the past several years.

"One reason I did run (for sheriff) ... was to have transparency in the department and rebuild some trust. Law enforcement is being scrutinized all the time," he said. "We should be held to a higher standard. I was not part of this investigation so in all fairness to (Chostner) and in all fairness to Roybal, I just hope he was held to a higher standard because that would set the standard for others."

A video posted to Facebook on Feb. 20 shows Bernstein at his Dragonman shooting range urging people to come to the range and sign a petition to get Roybal onto the Republican primary ballot. In return, they would receive $5 off admission to the range, Bernstein said.

Roybal can be seen standing next to Bernstein in the video.

Colorado election law states no person can offer or permit a person to offer, for his benefit, "any bribe or promise of gain in the nature of a bribe" to a voter to induce them to sign a petition.

Earlier this month, Roybal said in a written statement from his campaign he wasn't aware at the time a discount would be offered, nor that it could violate the law.

"After this issue was brought to my attention, my campaign and I researched the rules and understand why the question was raised," he previously told The Gazette. "If Id had a full understanding of the rules at the time, I would have intervened."

Colorado candidates can earn their spot on a ballot in two ways: They must either earn at least 30% of the votes at the primary assembly or collect enough signatures. Roybal petitioned on.

Forty-three of the 1,500 signatures Roybal submitted to obtain candidacy were collected at the shooting range on Feb. 20, Chostner's investigation found. Roybal needed 1,000 valid signatures to get onto the primary ballot. His petition was certified March 8, Chostner said. Challenges to a candidate's petition must come within five days after it is deemed sufficient, according to Colorado election law.

Chostner said in his letter he did not believe Roybal's actions affected his ability to obtain certification because Roybal submitted "an overwhelming number of untested signatures" that would have allowed him to petition on. Chostner said state election law does not allow those 43 signatures to be stricken from the petition because Dent's complaint came "well after the five-day challenge period." For those reasons, Chostner said he did not believe a jury would convict Roybal.

Todd Watkins, Roybal's other opponent in the Republican sheriff's primary, said Chostner's reasoning for his decision was a "red herring."

"He issued that warning because there's probable cause to charge," Watkins said. The complaint "wasn't challenging the petition signatures. This is a criminal act. A cop is bribing people."

In his letter, Chostner wrote that his research on violations involving bribery of petition signers found "no prior case of this nature, making it an issue of first impression."

"That's just categorically false," Watkins said.

In July 2008, then Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey cited Thomas Coombes for one count of bribery of petition signers for allegedly offering a free pair of sunglasses to passersby if they signed election petitions.

Chostner declined to answer The Gazette's question directly about possible precedent set in similar cases, saying his letters to Roybal and Bernstein "speak for themselves."

Roybal will face Democratic candidate John Foley in the sheriff's race this November.
A lightning strike ignited a 30-foot by 10-foot fire on Captain Jacks Trail, the Colorado Springs Fire Department said Tuesday night.

According to a tweet sent just after 10 p.m., firefighters put a control line around the fire. Colorado Springs fire crews are working with the U.S. Forest Service and El Paso County to monitor hot spots.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.  A female lion born at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs was fatally injured while being introduced to a newly acquired male companion at the Birmingham Zoo, officials said Tuesday.

Akili, who was born in 2005 and had been at the Birmingham Zoo since 2007, couldn't be saved after being injured by a lion named Josh, who had been at the zoo since April.

The slow process of introducing the two lions to each other had begun previously, the zoo said in a statement, and Akili was badly injured within minutes of a meeting on Monday.

Animal introductions are always risky because wild animals can be unpredictable and we cannot control their interactions, said Hollie Colahan, the zoo's deputy director, in a statement.

The introduction was done on a day the zoo was closed so no visitors were present, said Jennifer Ogilvie, a spokeswoman.

Josh is fine and will continue to receive the excellent care he always receives, she said.

Josh was brought to the zoo as replacement for another male lion that died in 2021, the statement said. Dozens of people expressed sorrow over Akili's death in response to an announcement by the zoo on social media.

How devastating. She was a beauty! one person wrote.

Akili was one of three lion cubs born at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to mating couple, Elson and Angie, which had produced three litters of cubs.
Saudi-based Tourism Development Fund (TDF) today (July 19) signed a tripartite agreement with Ennismore, one of the worlds largest and fastest-growing lifestyle hospitality companies, and Al Rajhi Capital, a leading asset manager in the kingdom, to establish a hospitality investment fund with a capital of SR1.5 billion ($400 million) that will advance lifestyle hotels.

Ennismore is a joint venture between Sharan Pasricha, founder and Co-CEO, and Accor, bringing together a lifestyle powerhouse of 14 brands with 101 operating properties globally, and 137 in the pipeline.

The Ennismore brands include: 21c Museum Hotel, 25hours, Delano, Gleneagles, Hyde, JO&JOE, Mama Shelter, Mondrian, Morgans Originals, SLS, SO/, The Hoxton, Tribe and Working From.

The move is aimed at helping enhance promising sector-leading opportunities in various tourist destinations within the kingdom.

This partnership deal complements the initial endeavour in October last year when TDF and Ennismore signed the MoU to launch an investment fund focused on developing lifestyle hotels in the kingdom at the 5th edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII).

Under this latest agreement, the companies will identify locations and provide financing options for projects throughout the kingdom.

TDF said it will invest in the newly established investment fund, while Ennismore will lead on developing and operating these projects under the umbrella of its lifestyle brands. Al Rajhi Capital will manage the investment fund and attract investments, it added.

The agreement was signed by TDF Chief Executive Officer Qusai Al Fakhri, Ennismore Co-CEO Gaurav Bhushan and Al Rajhi Capital CEO Waleed AlRashed AlHumaid at a key ceremony held in Riyadh.

"This partnership shows our commitment and dedication to our initial MoUs and marks an important milestone towards fulfilling the targets of the National Tourism Strategy to consolidate the Kingdoms position as a global tourist destination by leveraging the promising opportunities the Saudi tourism sector presents," noted Al Fakhri.

"Joining forces with both Ennismore and Al Rajhi Capital is yet another positive step towards realizing our ambitions to advance the tourism sector. We seek to continuously deliver new and diversified options, enabling the private sector to invest in the growing hospitality sector, with a view to enrich visitors' experiences while achieving sustainable tourism and economic development," he added.

Bhushan said: "Our partnership with TDF and Al Rajhi is a significant part of our growth strategy for the region. Ennismore is pleased to further cement its commitment to the growing Saudi hospitality sector through employing, training, and advancing national competencies, as well as providing tourism services that would build closer connections with international and local tourists."

"We are pleased to collaborate with TDF and to contribute to the promotion of the tourism sector in the kingdom," he stated.

AlHumaid said: "For Al Rajhi, this agreement reflects the importance of partnership between the private and public sector and also opens up lucrative investment opportunities where capitals can be invested in national programmes geared towards the tourism industry."

"The industry has shifted to the development of modern and sustainable tourist destinations, capitalizing on the extraordinary potential and wealth of our national heritage, tourism and landmarks that help draw in more local and global investments and push us closer to reaching our national economic objectives," he stated.

"This also reflects Al Rajhi Capital's unwavering commitment to delivering the most effective and cutting-edge financing and investment solutions," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
The high cost of child care acts as a barrier for parents, particularly women, seeking to return to the workforce, exacerbating Colorado's labor shortage. In this panel, industry experts and policymakers explored ways to create better access to quality and affordable child care for working f
The psychiatrist who treated James Holmes has stopped questioning whether she could have stopped the Aurora theater shooting from happening.

Dr. Lynne Fenton saw her weirdly awkward patient six times between March 23 and June 11, 2012.

Ten years later, she insists that mental health care cannot prevent mass shootings.

"Its so frustrating. Theres no one single answer. It's impossible to spot these mass shooters in advance," Fenton said in an interview from her remote Colorado home.

"In the end, the truth is there is nothing that is as potentially effective as tightening up gun safety and weapons used in these mass killings."

She also believes that would-be shooters often write the truth in online postings, and it's up to people who read them to say something.

"If you see somebodys post on Facebook saying, 'I think Im gonna shoot up the school, ha-ha just kidding,' we have to take those statements seriously," Fenton said.

The Aurora theater shooter was referred to Fenton on March 19, 2012, by a social worker who begged her to clear her schedule to treat "the most anxious guy I've seen," and Fenton agreed.

In their first session, the failing neurology student told Fenton that he wanted to overcome his shortcomings by killing people.

You have thoughts of killing people? she asked him. She later wrote in her notes that he seems unfazed by homicidal thoughts.

But the patient was never specific about his plans. Fenton said getting information out of the then-24-year-old during their sessions was like pulling teeth. When the doctoral student confessed that he wanted to kill people, she asked him about specific girlfriends and teachers.

Throughout those six times, I was attempting to get more information, asking this way and that way. How would you do it? We asked if he had any guns. He said no, Fenton said.

Thirty-nine days after he walked out of their final therapy session, the shooter mailed Fenton a journal of his plans, booby-trapped his apartment with explosives and drove a mile or so to the movie complex carrying four guns, including an AR-15, and 6,000 rounds of ammunition.

It was just after midnight July 20, 2012, when he entered an exit door he had propped open earlier, stepped into theater No. 9, threw tear gas canisters and started shooting. In the darkened room, he killed 12 unsuspecting moviegoers and injured 70. Some of the survivors are paraplegic. Others, including victims families, are so mentally scarred their lives will never be whole again.

On July 19, the afternoon before one of the nations most horrific mass killings, Fentons infamous patient mailed a notebook containing detailed and often rambling plans of his mission to her office at the University of Colorado Medical Center. It was a confession  a deep dive into his homicidal ruminations.

Inside the journal, titled Of Life, were the murderers Insights into The Mind of Madness, which included page after page of stick figures, hand-drawn diagrams of the Century 16 Theater, estimated response times from the Aurora police and his theory that the more people he killed, the more points he scored to strengthen his existence.

The notebook arrived in Fentons box the Monday after the shooting, 2 days too late.

If I had seen that notebook, I would have instantly gone to the police. Thats plenty of evidence for them to rush over to his place and detain him, Fenton said. She didn't see it until she was being prepared for trial.

To the defense, the journal proved the killer was insane and deserved to spend his life in prison. To the prosecution, the detailed outline presented undisputed proof that he was sane.

During closing arguments, prosecutor George Brauchler pointed to the gunman and said: Sane, sane, sane, guilty.

Public Defender Dan King concluded his closing argument with a plea to the jury: "Do good, be strong. Do the right thing. He's not guilty by reason of insanity."

On July 16, 2015, after more than 12 hours of deliberation, a jury found the Aurora theater shooter guilty of 24 counts of first-degree murder, two counts for each of the 12 victims. He was also found guilty of 140 counts of attempted murder for the 70 people who were wounded. He was sentenced to life plus 3,318 years in prison.

It took 10 years for Fenton to publicly tell the story of what it was like to spend time with the socially awkward neuroscience student who displayed robotic behavior. As he spiraled, he was secretly building an arsenal of firearms and bombs with a plan to kill as many people as he could in a confined space in a short time.

Fenton has spent many hours second-guessing her responsibility for the massacre.

I could not have prevented the shooting. At first when people were saying that I had blood on my hands, I thought, My God, what did I miss? Was there something I could have done? Fenton said.

But she said a team of psychiatrists who evaluated her performance after the shooting found she did all that she could with the information she had.

A spokesman for the CU Medical School could not confirm the assessment because of the possibility of violating private employee information. Fenton still works for the university, seeing patients virtually from her remote Colorado home.

In a book Fenton co-wrote with true-crime author Kerrie Droban, she describes what it was like to be in the same room with the Aurora shooter and defends her decision to not place him on a 72-hour psychiatric hold.

As people often say about relationships, its complicated.

Leading up to the carnage, the Aurora theater shooter only hinted about the seriousness of his homicidal thoughts to two people: Fenton and a girlfriend, who broke up with him in February 2012.

Just talking about thoughts of killing, Fenton said, was not enough: There have to be specific targets. If he had said something like Id like to shoot up a movie theater heading towards specificity I might have put him on a three-day hold.

Back in 2012, the bar was high. Fentons options were limited under the provisions of a state statute that relied heavily on whether a person was an imminent danger to himself/herself or others. Senate Bill 242, a 188-page piece of legislation, defined that if this could be proven, the court could place a person in a 72-hour hold.

At the time, there was no extreme risk protection order, also known as the red flag law. If there had been, Fenton could have called police, and a judge could have found that the young doctoral student posed a credible threat of violence to others or himself and forced him to relinquish any weapons that law enforcement found in his apartment.

Although Fenton called campus police and the shooters mother, she could not have stopped him, said Brauchler, who prosecuted the gunmans four-month death penalty trial.

I dont blame her. Anything that takes away responsibility from that monster is misguided and ill-informed, Brauchler said.

But the widow of one of the victims felt so strongly that Jonathan Blunks death was Fentons fault, she sued the psychiatrist and the University of Colorado. On behalf of her two children, Chantel Blunk claimed that Fenton saw Holmes as a threat but didnt do her job to follow through by placing him on a psychiatric hold.

In August 2016, after being placed on administrative hold as two other lawsuits stemming from the shooting were resolved, the case was dismissed.

In a June 1 statement, the American Psychiatric Association advocated for sensible gun legislation as a solution to recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, noting that inflammatory public discussion contributes to the problem.

It is important to note that the overwhelming majority of people with mental illness are not violent and are far more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators thereof, according to the association's statement.

In the 10 years since the Aurora massacre, Fenton has watched mass shootings continue to escalate, one more horrible than the next. She cringes when people claim that mental health treatment will curtail mass shootings. Hating people is a moral issue, she said, not a mental health issue.

Very few of these mass shooters wouldnt recognize if they had a mental illness and even if they did, they would not seek care, Fenton said. Those who do seek care are hell-bent on carrying out the shooting and so they just lie.

Fenton admits that she hates the anxious patient who walked into her office in March 2012 and confessed his thoughts of killing people. She believes he deserved the death penalty.

He knew right from wrong, she said. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Dubai Waste Management Centre (DWMC), the world's largest waste-to-energy project, will commence its initial operations by the beginning of 2023.

Upon completion in 2024, DWMC will be able to process 5,666 tonnes of solid waste per day via five lines, converting and producing 200 Mwh of clean energy into the local power grid.

Two of the centres five treatment lines will operate initially, generating 80 Mwh of renewable energy by processing 2,000 tonnes of solid waste in a day, Dubai Municipality said.

The first stage of the centre's operation will involve receiving waste, utilising the resulting steam pressure to operate the steam turbine, and producing enough rotational energy to move the electric generator attached to the steam turbine, generating around 80 Mwh of electrical energy.

Reducing solid waste

DWMC will operate in accordance with the Municipalitys strategies to reduce the volume of solid waste sent to landfills and create alternative sustainable energy sources. In line with the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the vision of the Municipality, the centre will also contribute to the establishment of a sustainable and eco-friendly system for waste management in the emirate.

Dawoud Al Hajri, Director General of Dubai Municipality, said: We are in the process of commencing the partial operations of DWMC next year, as we are making promising progress in building the facility, which is 75% complete.

Al Hajri added: DWMC offers an alternative sustainable solution to waste backfilling as well as a clean energy source, making it a significant part of Dubai's vision to become one of the world's most sustainable cities. The centre will help to solidify Dubai's status as a global leader in driving sustainability.-- TradeArabia News Service
Leading energy services provider Expro has secured a contract for its first integrated services package to support a high-profile geothermal project in the Upper Rhine Graben area of SW-Germany.

A consortium formed by Ed. Zublin AG and Huisman Geo BV, drilling and geothermal energy specialists, have commissioned Expro to deliver an integrated well services programme for a new geothermal power plant in the Upper Rhine valley.

This eight well contract for Germanys largest private developer of geothermal energy plants, includes well construction services and a bespoke high-rate surface well test system.

Potential for a long-term extension

The contract which began in June 2022 has the potential for a long-term extension to follow the eight-well drilling and testing campaign of Deutsche ErdWarme (DEW) across four power plants that is that covered by the initially contracted work scope.

As part of its long-term strategy, Expro plans to continue to invest in transforming its business portfolio and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. The Company, which recently published its environmental, social and governance (ESG) review, has also a stated aim of achieving Net Zero by 2050 with a 50% reduction in carbon intensity by 2030.

A member of the International Geothermal Association and the European Geothermal Energy Council, Expro has been supporting geothermal well services projects since 1986 and is recognised for its cost-effective, innovative solutions. This latest contract builds on the Companys strategic desire to help customers unlock new sources of cleaner, low-carbon energy and enhance its support of the global geothermal market.

Geothermal sector

Steve Russell, Expros Chief Technology Officer commented: This is a significant award for Expro and strengthens our position as an integrated services provider to the growing and increasingly important geothermal sector. Expro has been delivering discrete services to the geothermal market for many years. This project provides Expro with an opportunity to demonstrate its ability to deliver a bespoke, project-specific well services package for our customers particular requirements. This contract also demonstrates our enhanced offering and capabilities in the geothermal sector and our commitment to a more sustainable and lower carbon future.

Sebastian Homuth, Well Operation Manager, Deutsche ErdWarme, said: We are delighted to see well established oil and gas service companies like Expro showing real interest in the geothermal sector. The customer-oriented approach and dedicated back-office engineering expertise in conjunction with the broad experience in the execution of all kinds of well testing operations is exactly what our industry and DEW is looking for.

Solution-oriented approach

Martin Geissler, Project Manager, JV Drilling Campaign Rheingraben, Ed. Zublin AG  Huisman Geo B.V, commented: Expro's many years of experience, solution-oriented approach and great commitment were evident from the first meeting and are a great asset for the project. We are very much looking forward to a successful co-operation.

Ingrid Huldal, Expros Director, Portfolio Advancement, commented: "We look forward to collaborating with both Deutsche ErdWarme and the JV Drilling Campaign Rheingraben, Ed. Zublin AG  Huisman Geo B.V to provide high calibre well services and drilling support for their geothermal project. This is a key strategic opportunity for Expro as we look to expand our current portfolio and develop a more sustainable business. The geothermal industry will play an important role in the provision of clean energy security for our future. We are committed to helping our clients achieve their sustainability goals and reducing our own environmental impact.-- TradeArabia News Service
Joe Barrera, Ph.D., is the former director of the Ethnic Studies Program at UCCS. He teaches Mexico/U.S. Border Studies and U.S. Military History.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold's office has denied requests by Republicans Tina Peters and Ron Hanks for hand recounts of results in the primary races they lost for secretary of state and U.S. Senate, respectively, a spokeswoman for Griswold said Wednesday.
Al Masaood Group, one of Abu Dhabis leading business conglomerates, has joined TAZIZ project, a critical enabler of the UAEs industrial and logistic development ambitions.

TAZIZ aims to drive and enable the expansion of the Ruwais Industrial Complex and Abu Dhabis chemicals, manufacturing and industrial sectors.

The announcement came after Al Masaoods participation in the recently concluded Make it in the Emirates forum organised by the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (Added), Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), and other top national companies in the emirate. It saw the establishment of key partnerships to promote the manufacturing and production processes in the UAE.

Strategic project

Board Members Tariq Ahmed Al Masaood and Masaood Rahma Al Masaood attended the groups signing of an Expression of Interest during the forum. This makes Al Masaood Group one of the first Emirati-owned private companies to take part in the strategic project.

TAZIZ comprises three zones: the TAZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone, the Light Industrial Zone, and the Industrial Services Zone. Al Masaoods participation will primarily focus on the Light Industrial Zone, which supports the service industry.

Moreover, the project will help boost Al Masaoods Emiratisation efforts and initiatives to train Emirati talents, thereby increasing its contributions to the National In-Country Value Programme (ICV). to support the national economy, the ICV focuses on creating job opportunities in the private sector and redirecting larger portions of public spending into the national economy. It supports investments in research, development, and advanced technology, seeks to boost the gross domestic product (GDP), and enables the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology to strengthen the industrial sectors performance and sustainability.

Emiratisation

Ahmed Salmeen, Chief Executive Government Affairs, Al Masaood Group, said: We are honoured to be a part of an initiative that bids to position the UAE as a leading destination for industrial investments. TAZIZ is fundamental to changing the industrial sector and further strengthening the Emiratisation programme. It is essential to raising the global competitiveness of the local products and adding value to the local manufacturing processes.

Our participation in the Make it in the Emirates forum and TAZIZ shows our commitment to advance our national economy and industries and enhance the capabilities of Emiratis. We will also support in laying the foundation for a more diverse, flexible, and sustainable economy to bring our national development to the next level, he further stated.

Salmeen added: In line with the directives of our wise leadership, Al Masaood Group will partner with leading public and private institutions and entities to achieve our countrys goals and ambitions, which include increasing the performance of the local industries and the national economy. We are also prepared to provide the necessary training to develop the talents of our citisens as leaders of the UAEs sustainable development.

Knowledge-based economy

Further, the group will help fast-track the countrys transition to a knowledge-based economy, in line with Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030. We are confident that TAZIZ and Make it in the Emirates will lead to a fundamental change within Al Masaood Group and the countrys industries as well.

As part of TAZIZ, Al Masaood Group is studying the offer of light industrial services, including maintenance support, industrial processes, and facilities management solutions for the services and healthcare sectors. The Group is also studying the offer of products for the Ruwais Industrial Complex, with the possibility of establishing a facility within its Light Industrial Zone.

Launched in November 2020, TAZIZ is one of the joint projects of Adnoc and ADQ that targets the growth of the national industries and promotes the UAEs economic diversification. The Industrial Chemicals Zone, meanwhile, is expected to become operational in 2025.-- TradeArabia News Service
The Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to set up a special fund account to receive the first of its $43,600 payment related to the settlement of a class-action litigation against pharmaceuticals, manufacturers, and distributors of opioids.

Heather Mathre, Cerro Gordo County Finance Director, said they will be receiving the money over the course of 16 years. These payments reflect the $174 million the state of Iowa expects to receive, which will be split evenly between the state and local government.

Iowas Attorney General, Tom Miller, has been challenging and suing manufacturers and distributors who have contributed to the national opioid crisis. In February a $26 billion settlement was reached in a national case against four drug distribution companies, Cardinal, McKesson, Amerisource and Johnson & Johnson.

This settlement agreement showcases three years of negotiations, resolving more than 4,000 claims from state and local governments across the country. This is the second largest multi-state agreement in US history, with all 52 states and U.S. territories signing on. The largest was the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998.

Each settlement includes funds that will be used to abate the opioid crisis through prevention and treatment. In a press conference after the announcement of the Class Action settlement Miller said, The funds from this agreement will go a long way toward addressing Iowas opioid crisis and provide help to those who need it.

Cerro Gordo County Chief Administrative Officer Tom Meyer said the Iowa Attorney Generals office has established a Memorandum of Understanding with the Iowa counties and cities which govern the allocation of settlement funds.

Meyer said the board of supervisors will read through the Memorandum of Understanding with its accompanying guidelines and will hold a public meeting and discussion to determine how they would like to proceed.
The developer of a proposed recreational vehicle campground is seeking to rezone 7.45 acres of residential property on South Shore Drive to commercial.

The petitioner worked to gain adjacent property owners' signatures in support of the plan, but fell short of the 50% necessary for rezoning. The proposal was brought to the Clear Lake City Council meeting July 18 by City Administrator Scott Flory.

The council sent the request to the Planning and Zoning Commission for study. The commission, which meets July 26, will hear public comment before making a decision. The council will receive its recommendation and hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. Aug. 1.

Along with the possibility of new projects comes the management of current projects. The Clear Lake Consolidated Urban Renewal Area and TIF District Amendments were brought to the council for improvements to the 700 block Buddy Holly alley, Starboard Square, Pritchard's Innovation Center, Lake Lifestyle and the former SERTA building.

All of these projects are being deleted from the current property tax increment financing plan to be brought back to an expanded Consolidated Urban Renewal Area and TIF District to run out the contracted agreements with these groups for up to 10 years.

Weve got a lot of positive activity going with these different projects, and I think were all happy to support that, said councilman Bennett Smith.

In other news, Public Works Jeremy Korenberg updated the council on current projects. The 2021 storm sewer and water main project is almost complete, with a crew finishing the checklist for the project. The Main Avenue project has begun, with stage one removals finished.

The joint comprehensive plan committee held its first meeting last Thursday. Three representatives for Clear Lake will be appointed at the Aug. 1 meeting: one Planning and Zoning Member, one City Council member and one citizen.

The Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce made a preliminary report of record-breaking revenue for the July 4 carnival. "The Day that Music Died" has also premiered on Paramount Plus, a documentary featuring much of Clear Lake.

Chad Schreck of the North Iowa Corridor was not yet able to announce the buyers of the old SERTA building.

Flory announced a pre-construction project meeting to be held July 25 at the Mason City Airport terminal. This meeting will be for the decommissioning of the wastewater lagoon the airport currently uses, and Clear Lake's extension of the sanitary sewer system to the airport.
Huawei has announced the launch of a new suite of green development solution aimed at helping operators systematically improve network energy efficiency.

"As ICT infrastructure continues to evolve from 5G and F5G to 5.5G and F5.5G, green networks, evaluated against the network carbon intensity (NCIe) index, will become a critical part of future target networks. The main objective of our solution launch today is to help operators systematically build green networks that simultaneously address traffic growth and carbon emission reduction," said Dr Philip Song, Huawei's Carrier BG Chief Marketing Officer at Huawei Win-Win Innovation Week.

Delivering a speech titled "Developing Green ICT Infrastructure with Optimal Energy Efficiency", Song said technological innovation is required at three levels to help customers achieve green development goals:

At the site and equipment level, more integrated designs and new materials should be used to move sites fully outdoors, and increase equipment energy efficiency and the efficiency of using renewable energy.

In cross-site coordination and networking, a simplified network architecture and improved forwarding efficiency are required to maximise energy efficiency and make networks all-optical, simplified, and intelligent.

To achieve green O&M, new O&M and energy-saving policies should be more easily developed and delivered, and energy efficiency indicators and baselines should be made more visible, manageable, and optimisable.

Green development solution

At the event, Song launched Huawei's green development solution with innovations at these three levels, as well as the new NCIe indicator system which supports this three-layer solution of green sites, green networks, and green operations.

The NCIe energy efficiency indicator system proposed by Huawei has been approved by ITU-T SG5 and is now in the process of public consultation.

Closing out his speech, Song also announced the opening of the Evergreen Land engagement room, where Huawei will meet with global operators to discuss in-depth about green development and ways to build the most energy-efficient ICT infrastructure.

He reiterated: "Huawei is committed to working with operators to improve the energy efficiency of ICT infrastructure and create value using green ICT technologies."

Sustainable ICT infrastructure

Ryan Ding, President of Huawei's Carrier Business Group, discussed the role of sustainable ICT infrastructure in helping operators systematically build green network to simultaneously address traffic growth and support carbon emission reduction. This took place during the Green Development Solutions Launch, held on the second day of the event, followed by the launch of a new solution suite.

Green ICT for new value

During his keynote speech titled "Green ICT for New Value", Ding stressed the need for operators to prioritise energy efficiency and called for the establishment of a standard, industry-wide indicator system for energy efficiency.

He explained: Every major advancement in history has been accompanied by a significant improvement in the energy efficiency of information transmission. The increase in carbon emissions generated by exploding data traffic will become a global problem that must be tackled in the next five to ten years. Increasing energy efficiency will be the way forward."

According to third-party research, data traffic generated by digital services is expected to grow by 13-fold over 2020 by 2030. This means that, if energy efficiency improvements are not made, the ICT industry's energy consumption and carbon emissions will see a 2.3-fold increase.

Reducing carbon emission

According to ITU, the ICT industry will need to reduce its carbon emissions by at least 45% by 2030 to meet the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement's goal.

Ding said: "We are now facing an unprecedented challenge: As more and more industries are going digital, the demand for data will rise sharply, which will result in a surge in energy consumption. In the meantime, the whole world is working to combat climate change, and the ICT industry must urgently achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality."

Improvements to energy efficiency will benefit operators in three ways. First, user migration, site upgrades, and network power reduction will bring them Opex savings.

Second, improved energy efficiency will support the migration of 2G and 3G users to 4G and 5G services.

Third, operators' efforts to reduce carbon footprint will positively impact the environment, helping them better fulfill their social responsibilities.

Three-layer solution

To help operators achieve these goals, Huawei has proposed a three-layer solution: green sites, green networks, and green operations.

First, Huawei developed solutions to improve site energy efficiency by adopting a highly integrated design, using new materials, and moving main equipment and power supply units outdoors.

Second, the company's simplified network architecture makes forwarding faster and supports the construction of simplified, all-optical, and intelligent networks. Finally, at the operations level, Huawei offers a solution that generates and distributes optimisation policies while making energy efficiency more visualised and manageable.

So far, these green development solutions have been deployed for operators in more than 100 countries. In Germany, for example, Huawei's PowerStar solution has helped realise minute-level energy efficiency self-optimisation, improving energy efficiency greatly.

Cross-connect

In Spain, Huawei's optical cross-connect (OXC) solution has been deployed on a customer's backbone network, increasing energy efficiency by 81% and reducing costs by 29%.

In Turkey, Huawei has deployed its green site solution for a customer, where equipment rooms are replaced with cabinets, eliminating the need for equipment rooms and air conditioners. The solution is expected to save 19,000 kWh of electricity per site per year.

Huawei and its operator partners are already working together to increase their "carbon handprint" by empowering carbon-intensive industries to boost energy efficiency using ICT solutions. The emissions reduction they enable can be 10 times their own emissions. Many success stories have already been seen in key carbon-intensive industries like ports, coal mining, and steel.

Indicator system

At the end of his speech, Ding called on the establishment of a unified, industry-wide indicator system as this would help establish baselines against which energy efficiency can be measured and serve as a guide for the green development of the ICT industry as a whole.

Ding closed out his speech saying: "Huawei is ready to work with operators and create new value with green ICT."-- TradeArabia News Service
The case, which had been watched nationally, tested the constitutionality of a "geofence" warrant that allowed police to obtain Google location records of 19 cellphones near the bank at the time of the heist.
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REIDSVILLE  Beloved teacher and mentor Tonya Murrell had improved enough on Tuesday to undergo a vital surgery after a July 9 car crash in Browns Summit left her with life-threatening injuries and claimed the lives of her firefighter husband and two others.

Murrell's three children, Lilly, 21, Kathryn, 19, and Levi, 17, have been at Murrells bedside at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro this week, stoic and praying she'd be deemed strong enough for doctors to perform surgeries to mend multiple injuries, a family member said.

And through it all, the kids have mourned the fresh loss of their father, Rick Murrell, 58, a Reidsville native and 32-year veteran of the Greensboro Fire Department where he was an engineer.

Murrell, 50, sustained breaks to both femurs, broken ribs, brain bleeds, dislocation of both hips and a serious injury to one arm during the rainy day accident, said Lisa Moore of Reidsville, a family member.

Doctors are hopeful

Over the past 10 days, doctors used sedation to keep Murrell in a medically-induced paralyzed state to help her tolerate the ventilator that now provides her with about 40% of her oxygen, Moore said, explaining doctors are slowly weaning her off of the breathing support. In the first days after the accident, Murrell relied on 90% supplemental oxygen, by contrast.

Murrells medical team this week is also lifting her sedation and feels hopeful that Murrell will improve, Moore said.

More surgeries to come

Before Tuesday's hip replacement, Murrell had already undergone two surgeries to repair damage to her femurs, Moore said.

Plans for surgery were stalled over the weekend, when Murrell's blood pressure plummeted and the lower portion of her left lung failed to function properly.

So Tuesday's greenlight for the operating room heartened family and friends, they said.

Murrell, a front seat passenger in the Jeep Cherokee driven by her late husband, will require more procedures in the coming weeks, including possible treatment of brain bleeds, according to friends and family.

How the accident happened

Alexio Lattero, 16, a junior volunteer with Fire District 28 in Gibsonville, was traveling north on N.C. 61 during an afternoon rainstorm that Saturday when he lost control of his 2012 Dodge Charger and struck the Murrells who were traveling in the opposite direction.

The tragic incident occurred around 4:50 p.m. on N.C. 61 near Turner Smith Road in Guilford County, according to the Highway Patrol.

The Charger caught fire, trapping a 15-year-old passenger from Kernersville and Latteros sister, Anna Shyann Lattero, 26, of Reidsville. Both died at the scene. Authorities have not released the identity of the teenage passenger.

The State Highway Patrol Crash Reconstruction Unit determined that the primary contributing factor in the crash was exceeding a safe speed for the conditions of the roadway (rainy and wet), a Highway Patrol spokesperson said by email Monday.

Alexio Lattero, whose injuries also were considered life-threatening, was released from Moses Cone Hospital last week, officials said.

He was charged with three counts of misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, exceeding a safe speed and driving left of center. He has a valid N.C. Graduated Drivers License that has a restriction 17 (limited provisional/level 2 license), authorities said.

A spokesperson for the Highway Patrol said Lattero is scheduled to appear in court at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 12 in Greensboro.

A mentor like a mother

News of Tonya Murrells plight inspired campers and co-workers from Mountain Top Christian Camp in Pinnacle, N.C., to talk about the mentor they credit with buoying their lives with her generous leadership as their counselor.

I met Mrs. Tonya last year at Mountain Top Youth Camp, said Marianna Vandergriff, a camper from Pinnacle. I didnt know anybody, and she took me under her wings and made me feel comfortable. Mrs. Tonya, for me, is like a cabin mother rather than just a camp counselor. She was a huge blessing for me at camp last year and showed me the love of God while I was there. She was my safe place while at camp.

Camper Marcy Cox met Murrell six years ago and said she has been like a second mother figure in my life, always taking care of me at any medical needs I requested at camp.

Murrells caring was guided by faith, said Cox of Thomasville, N.C. Tonya truly takes every child in as her own and shows the love as Christ would. From age 12, to now being 19 years old, we have kept in contact. And any time I am struggling I can find her there always by my side.

Camper Anna Money said Murrell gave her crucial guidance.

She was there for me when I needed someone the most, Money, of Liberty, N.C., said. She helped me navigate a really difficult time and was happy to be of help. Shes just a genuine and kind person.

Murrell was warm and welcoming to campers and staff members alike, said camper Corinna Cullens of Lexington, N.C. She is passionate about Jesus and strong in her faith and was available for any camper who wanted to talk!

Meredith Long counts Murrell as a major mentor in her life and was assigned Murrell as a counselor during her first summer at Camp Mountain Air.

She helped me through a difficult situation. She prayed with me, sat with me while I cried and comforted me, Long, of Cape Carteret, N.C., said.

She reminded me God is in control, and he knows the plans he has for all of us. Mrs. Tonya was one of the reasons a family member of mine got saved at camp. Although we only spent that short time together, she made a lifelong impact on me. I hope to learn from her so I may encourage others the way she encouraged me.

Kailey Bullins said she had the good fortune to grow up close to the Murrells in Reidsville.

When I was younger, I always went over to their house and would do essential oils with (Murrell) and then eat and go to church, Bullins said of the woman who served as her Sunday school and Bible study teacher during middle school.

As I got older she became my counselor at MTYC in the older girls teen cabin, Bullins said. This past year at camp I always got up before everyone else, and I ended up sitting on the back deck and talked (with Murrell) about the Bible and what we learned and even just life, Bullins said.

I still remember dancing with her on her birthday to pirate music. She has always been such an amazing, upbeat, fun person. I have so many more memories of her and all the kindness and love she has shared to others.

To keep up with Murrells progress, visit: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tonyamurrell.

Greensboro firefighters have also launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for the Murrell family: www.gofundme.com/f/rick-murrell-gfd.

Funeral arrangements for Rick Murrell have not been finalized, and Wilkerson Funeral Home in Reidsville issued a recent statement:

In consideration of the family circumstances, funeral arrangements are incomplete at this time. The children and their extended families request your continued love, support and prayers as they navigate the recovery for their mom, Tonya, and the future plans to honor and recognize their dad.

Condolences may be sent to the family at www.wilkersonfuneral.com.
North Carolina is offering additional millions to entice Toyota to expand its presence in the Piedmont region.

In December, the carmaker announced it would build an electric car battery plant on a 1,800-acre megasite in Randolph County. A regulatory bill passed into law last week reserves another $225 million for the plants potential further growth.

Between state and local incentives, North Carolina had already dedicated around $439 million to the project, with Toyota in turn pledging to invest $1.27 billion and create 1,750 jobs by 2029. But state officials hope these figures are just the start.

The latest funding is conditional on Toyota creating at least 4,500 jobs and investing 4.7 billion in North Carolina before 2035. Most of the money, $175 million, will help Toyota pay for the near-term costs of constructing the plant, including for site work, roadwork, and wetlands mitigation. The law says the state can proportionately recapture this money if the car company doesnt meet its targets.

The other $50 million in funding will be doled out for additional jobs Toyota creates. The state previously allocated tax breaks if Toyota increases its workforce at the battery plant to 3,875, and the new $50 million will be distributed for every job created above this mark, up to 5,000 jobs.

The extra funding was part of a broader regulatory relief bill that Gov. Roy Cooper allowed to pass into law without his veto.

For now, Toyota is only publicly committing to hire 1,750 workers, according to company spokesperson Ed Lewis, though he added the company is constantly studying and evaluating future growth opportunities at all of our plants.

Beth Friedrich, an economic development adviser for House Speaker Tim Moore, didnt leave much doubt around whether the company would expand in the state.

Theres going to be an additional investment from Toyota, she said.

Located south of Greensboro, Randolph County is considered a Tier 1 County by the North Carolina Department of Commerce, meaning it is among the states most economically distressed. The average salary in Randolph was less than $38,000 in 2020, and Toyota has committed to average salaries of more than $62,000 at the megasite.

VinFast project gets extra funds

Last week, the state also solidified its billion-dollar commitment to VinFast, a Vietnamese startup with plans to build a new line of electric cars in Chatham County. It will be the first company to make complete cars in North Carolina and ends the states decades-long pursuit of a full car manufacturer.

The state budget Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law July 11 includes $450 million in payroll tax breaks to VinFast, bringing the states total incentive package to $1.2 billion. The car company is committed to creating 7,000 jobs and investing $4 billion in the area by 2027.

For now, VinFast is the largest private investment commitment in state history, though Toyota could top it if it completes its potential expansion.

The bulk of VinFast incentives comes from a job development investment grant, or JDIG, awarded by the states Economic Investment Committee. But the added $450 million from the General Assembly represents a shift in how North Carolina is luring in big companies.

You havent recently seen these types of appropriations from the General Assembly, Friedrich explained. Normally you only see a JDIG. But to help companies like VinFast and Toyota cover upfront costs of building their plants, Friedrich said the extra immediate funding is key.

The sooner we can help get that stuff set up, the sooner they can get their factory together and start employing our people, she said, adding that if either company doesnt come through on its commitments to Randolph and Chatham counties respectively, the state can repurpose these developments to attract other businesses.
GREENSBORO  Two composers plan to be in the Eastern Music Festival audience Saturday night when the faculty orchestra performs their works, one with a renowned guitarist playing its world premiere.

Composers Avner Dorman and Paul Frucht will be there for the concert titled New Perspectives when the EMF facultys Eastern Festival Orchestra premieres Dormans How to Love.

It will feature Grammy Award-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux as soloist. Vieaux teaches students in EMFs classical guitar summit.

The orchestra also will perform Fruchts Dawn, dedicated to the memory of school principal Dawn Hochsprung and 25 others who lost their lives in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and their families.

EMF Music Director Gerard Schwarz will conduct the concert, which will conclude with Dmitri Shostakovichs Symphony No. 10.

This summer, EMF altogether will present the world premieres of four works  and the North Carolina premiere of another  at this classical summer festival and school based at Guilford College.

Dorman is an award-winning, Israeli-born composer, educator and conductor who now lives in the United States.

The Washington Post has described him as wide-ranging, appealing and breathtakingly virtuosic.

Dormans intricate and soulful, 20-minute piece, How to Love, was originally written for guitar and strings and is named after a book by Thich Nhat Hanh.

The musical work has four movements, titled after the mantras that the author outlines at the end of the book: I am here for you, I know you are there, and I am happy, This is a happy moment and You are partly right.

How to Love speaks to the essentials of mindfulness and how to love  how to love oneself, how to listen and understand, be happy, and even disagree, Dorman said.

The journey of embracing imperfection in order to love each other fully is explored throughout all the movements, he said.

Vieaux has been described by NPR as perhaps the most precise and soulful guitarists of his generation.

In 2015, his solo album Play won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

Performing new works has been a passion of Vieauxs that has fostered premieres of works by many notable composers, including How to Love.

Vieauxs multiple appearances for San Francisco Performances, Caramoor Festival, Ravinia Festival, PCMS, 92nd Street Y, Domaine-Forget and others have helped to cement his reputation as one of the worlds leading guitarists.

Frucht has been hailed by Hearst Media as a composer with a career to follow.

His work has been acclaimed for its sense of lyricism, driving pulse and great urgency by WQXR-105.9 FM, jagged beauty by the Buffalo News and excellent orchestration by the Ridgefield Press in Connecticut.

His 10-minute work, Dawn, was premiered in April 2013 by members of the Juilliard Orchestra.

Dawn Hochsprung was an incredible person I had the fortune of meeting when I was a student at Rogers Park Middle School from2000-2003, where she was an assistant principal, Frucht said in the EMF news release. I worked with both her and her husband, George, as a member of the National Junior Honor Society.

When the tragic events occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, I, like everyone else in the Danbury area, was shocked and deeply saddened, Frucht said.

Dawn and George had always stuck out in my mind as not just outstanding teachers, but some of the most caring, genuine and positive people that I had come across during my time growing up in Danbury, Frucht said. I felt immediately compelled to write something in memory of her and the other 25 people who lost their lives that day.

He goes on to say, I titled the piece Dawn not simply because it is dedicated to her, but because the nature of Dawns actions on the day of shooting are the inspiration for the character of this piece, he said.

When she became aware that her school was in danger, her immediate response was to protect the children of the school, Frucht said. She put herself in harms way in an entirely selfless act in an effort to save the lives of her students. Her legacy is one of selflessness, positivity and extraordinary courage. This piece celebrates that legacy.
GREENSBORO  If all goes as she plans, someday Kate MacKenzie will play a lead role as a violist within a major professional orchestra.

The 19-year-old college student and violist is learning how to do much of that right here in her hometown at the Eastern Music Festival.

MacKenzie has joined more than 250 music students ages 15 to 25 studying and performing at the summer classical festival for five weeks on the Guilford College campus.

Among them, 23 are from North Carolina; five hail from the Triad.

MacKenzie studies viola at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio during the academic year. This summer, she is the only North Carolinian among 17 students in a new EMF initiative called the String Leadership program.

Here, they learn more about playing orchestra leadership roles. That can aid them if they ultimately become concertmasters  leaders of the first violin section  or principal players on violin, viola, cello or double bass.

If they were leaders of string orchestra sections, such as the violists, what do they need to know and do?

Theres no formal training for being a concertmaster or principal viola, MacKenzie said. Some people have mentors to guide them, but its never formalized.

This is a really kind of rare opportunity to have formal specific training on what its like to be a leader in an orchestra, MacKenzie said.

In recent years, EMF has added special programs for tuba and euphonium players, guitar players and conducting students.

What about an orchestral leadership program for string players, EMF Music Director Gerard Schwarz and violin faculty member Scott Flavin wondered last summer.

In the winds, brass, percussion, it is part of their basic conservatory or university education, Schwarz said. For the strings, its not.

What few schools teach is, I want to be a concertmaster, or I want to be a principal viola in an orchestra, or I want to be a principal cello, he said.

Sometimes, if youre lucky, they teach a little bit about how to play in an orchestra, Schwarz said. They have orchestras and they do string quartets and they do solo repertoire.

But they dont do anything about leadership and whats the responsibility of the concertmaster, whats the responsibility of the first cello? What do they need to know? What do they need to do? How do you lead? What do you do to lead? How much do you talk? How much do you show? What about preparation of the music and the bowings?

EMF opted to focus the program on college and conservatory students, rather than younger ages. Flavin, a longtime concertmaster with ensembles and orchestras, and Adelya Nartadjieva, new concertmaster of the Jacksonville Symphony in Florida, lead the effort.

MacKenzie grew up attending EMF concerts with her parents, Cory and Brian MacKenzie. Although neither parent played an instrument, Cory MacKenzie often played classical music for Kate and her two siblings growing up.

Last summer, Kate MacKenzie had planned to study viola at Brevard Music Centers summer festival. But Brevard canceled its high school program because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So she successfully applied and auditioned for EMF. This summer, she saw the new String Leadership program on the EMF website and decided to apply again.

I had a really positive experience last year, MacKenzie said. The repertoire here is really incredible. Were playing major, major works, including some that are rarely programmed even for professional symphonies, because they are such massive undertakings.

Among them: Gustav Mahlers Symphony No. 9, which the student orchestra performed July 7.

Last summer, MacKenzie made friends with other EMF students from states including Connecticut, Virginia, South Carolina and Arkansas.

Most of us came back this year, she said. We took this opportunity to spend another five weeks with each other.

Like most students, she received a scholarship to help cover the $5,786 tuition, room, board and fees.

Since she arrived on June 25, MacKenzie has participated in programs for all students  practice, rehearsals and performances for their orchestras and chamber ensembles, master classes and discussions.

Those in the String Leadership program also have led orchestra sections, reviewed their resumes and sight-read musical scores, where they perform music they havent seen or learned before.

One session focused on creating effective bowings. In a professional orchestra, leaders of string sections add markings to the score called bowings, which get bows moving in the same direction at the same time.

But most student musicians probably know already about bowings, MacKenzie said.

We have talked about movement, different ways to cue, effective communication, eye contact between sections, matching bowings, matching the strokes  all these things that you do to create a unified sound and energy as an ensemble, MacKenzie said.

Her most interesting experience came when David Kim, concertmaster for the Philadelphia Orchestra, spoke to students and had lunch with several.

It was really lovely hearing his perspective on the role of a principal, especially in shaping the sound of an orchestra and shaping the community of an orchestra  their kind of social role in navigating section relationships and outreach into the community as well, she said.

That has also been a large focus of this program  the importance of cultivating healthy, positive relationships with everyone in the orchestra, MacKenzie said.

EMF and the String Leadership program help prepare MacKenzie for the future.

Id like to be primarily an orchestral performer, she said.

But most musicians have a very flexible work life. Some do gigs. Almost everyone teaches at some point, has private studio students. Im pretty much expecting to take whatever comes my way, in terms of opportunities.

I am doing this because I love playing music, and I dont really care where I get to do that, she added. Ill be happy as long as Im doing it.
Detective Paul Weis of the Violent Criminal Apprehension Team with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department fired his weapon in the parking lot, police said in a news release. Greensboro police have not said why they are not identifying the officers involved, although the department as recently as last year identified officers involved in a fatal shooting.
GREENSBORO  A Charlotte man has been charged in the death of his passenger in an accident Monday in Greensboro, police said in a news release this morning.

Officers responded to the crash Monday at approximately 11:15 a.m. in the area of Interstate 40/85 and Mt. Hope Church Road. According to police, a 2018 GMC Sierra driven by Roosevelt Gardner, 69, was traveling east on the interstate when it left the roadway to the right.

The GMC struck a large drainage culvert on the passenger side. Gardner was wearing his seatbelt and received minor injuries. The right front passenger, Misty Ann Phillips, 47, of Charlotte, was unrestrained and died as a result of her injuries, Greensboro police said in the news release.

Gardner was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle and failure to maintain lane control, police said. This crash is being investigated by the Crash Reconstruction Unit.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000; or, download the mobile P3tips app for Apple or Android phones to submit a mobile tip.
GREENSBORO  The Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, a former state NAACP president and longtime social justice advocate, has died and a friend and attorney is calling for an investigation into the circumstances.

The family confirmed Wednesday that Spearman, 71, died Tuesday. Spearman, a former substance abuse counselor and president of the N.C. Council of Churches, served on the Guilford County Board of Elections up until his death.

Spearman was found in his home after he did not show up for an elections board meeting Tuesday, but a cause of death has not been confirmed. Spearmans wife has been away caring for an ill relative.

The Spearman Family is utterly devastated by the transition of our patriarch, Reverend Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, the family said in a statement. He was a man of strong conviction who loved his family with every ounce of his being. We solicit your prayers as we grieve this insurmountable loss and request your consideration and privacy as we go through this season of bereavement.

Investigators responded to Spearmans home after a 911 call at 5:08 p.m. Tuesday with 14 officers responding, including Sheriff Danny Rogers. A handgun, knife and/or cutting instrument were listed on the incident report as a possible weapon.

Were going to call for a full and fair investigation, attorney Mark Cummings, who considered Spearman a mentor, said early Wednesday. We call on state and local authorities for a full investigation to determine just what happened to this very spry, energetic man who was leading for change in an organization that affects so many peoples lives. ... Part of his inspiration was that his work wasnt done.

Late Wednesday, Rogers said in a statement the death was an ongoing investigation and asked anyone with information to contact Detective S.M. Garlick at 336-641-5966 or Guilford County Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000.

Those who over the years joined in protests alongside the man who once said he wanted to leave the world better than he found it, were remembering Spearmans social justice work as word of his death spread.

A member of the NAACP since childhood, Spearman was elected in 2017 as the North Carolina president and served for one term. He lost last year to Deborah Dicks Maxwell but was contesting the election. He had recently filed a lawsuit against national NAACP leadership as well as Maxwell, alleging defamation and a conspiracy to have him removed from office, according to an exclusive report last month in the Carolina Peacemaker.

Before being elected to succeed the Rev. William Barber, the soft-spoken but direct Spearman had been a faithful lieutenant in the state NAACP.

I have lost a true brother in the struggle, Barber said Wednesday in a statement. North Carolina and the nation have lost a champion of justice and a beloved public servant. We have all lost a freedom fighter, a man deeply committed to justice, and a man of true faith. We have lost a scholar, a preacher, a voting rights defender, an advocate for prison reform and for the wrongfully accused and a stalwart soldier in the cause of love and justice for all humankind. .... He fought the good fight and his course has been finished. But his legacy of service and works will follow him. We are certain of that. Let all people of conscience say, Amen.

Over the years, Spearman had honed his own reputation as a social-justice warrior.

He helped to make the footprint, Barber told the News & Record in a 2019 interview. If you look back, Dr. Spearman was right there.

More introvert to Barbers extreme extrovert, Spearman was one of the original 17 protesters at the Moral Monday demonstrations starting in 2013 against Republican-led legislative policies they felt were attacks on the poor, with both Barber and Spearman being arrested.

In 2012, Spearman was among the few Black pastors in the state to speak out against Amendment One, a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

Thats how the Rev. Julie Peeples got to know Spearman, who the pastor of Congregational United Church of Christ called a deep thinker. They stood arm in arm in protest many times, including during a disruptive 2016 Guilford County Board of Election meeting to eliminate early voting sites and dates.

He had a depth of integrity, a depth of great love for his family, a depth of love for justice, for God, Peeples said. My heart aches for his family.

Cummings said that Spearman had been working to establish in Greensboro a program that he began in Hickory called the Bridge Program, which was designed to take troubled youth and show them alternative routes to be successful.

Dr. Spearman was  in the spirit of Dr. King, a true drum major for justice, Cummings said. His North Star was how do we protect the least of us? How do we ensure that were ever marching towards that more perfect union and he did that by taking an interest in and mentoring young men from every walk of life.

Spearman, the former pastor of Phillips A.M.E. Zion Church in Greensboro, had also served as a third vice president of the NAACP over a heavily-minority district that had some of the worst poverty in North Carolina, which inspired him.

During his tenure, Spearman traveled the state rallying people against policies aimed at the poor, people of color and members of the gay community.

Educating people, Spearman said in 2019, is empowering them.
GREENSBORO  Local health officials provided more details Tuesday about a case involving someone testing positive in Guilford County for the monkeypox virus.

The person is a resident of another state and information about when the testing was completed is not being released to protect patient privacy, according to a spokeswoman for the Guilford County Health Department. Positive cases are reported in a persons county of residence, so this case will not be added to North Carolinas count  which was 20 as of Tuesday.

We can confirm that all isolation and infection prevention guidance is currently being observed and implemented, Kenya Smith Godette, communications manager for Guilfords health department, said in an email.

The case was first mentioned by Dr. Iulia Vann, director of the county health department, when asked for an update about monkeypox during a recent meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.

The health department is working to educate providers and the community about monkeypox symptoms, prevention and treatment.

Monkeypox symptoms are similar to that of smallpox but milder, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms can include: fever, headache, muscle aches and backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills, exhaustion and a rash that can look like pimples or blisters.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services states on its website that the virus does not spread easily between people, but transmission can occur through contact with body fluids, monkeypox sores, items that have been contaminated with fluids or sores (clothing, bedding, etc.) or through respiratory droplets following prolonged face-to-face contact.

If someone suspects they have monkeypox or have been exposed, they should call their doctor immediately, describe their symptoms and request to be tested, according to local health department officials.

They should always call and set an appointment when possible and refrain from simply walking into a clinic, Godette said. The health care providers need notice to make sure their clinics remain safe for other patients.

Vann told commissioners last week that she felt like her team was prepared to address any monkeypox cases. She said Guilford is working with Forsyth County, which is the closest of seven counties across North Carolina with an initial vaccine supply allocated by the federal government.

Cone Health also is working with area county health departments to prepare for any monkeypox cases. As of Tuesday morning, Cone Health providers have yet to see a case, spokesman Doug Allred said in an email.

On its website, the DHHS is tracking and displaying the number of monkeypox cases across the state. Other details can be found on the CDC website at cdc.gov.
Porter Airlines, a regional airline located in Toronto, Canada, has exercised purchase rights for another 20 Pratt & Whitney GTF engines to power its Embraer E195-E2 aircraft.



This brings Porters order to date to 50 firm E195-E2 aircraft, while maintaining 50 purchase rights, which makes the airline one of the largest E-Jets E2 customers in the world. The airline is expected to take its first E195-E2 aircraft in the coming months.



The GTF-powered E195-E2 is the right choice for Porter, our passengers and the cities we intend to serve with it throughout North America, said Michael Deluce, president and CEO at Porter Airlines. GTF engines help make this aircraft the quietest, most efficient, most sustainable single-aisle jet available today. This combination will help us grow our network with a great passenger experience, while being responsible to the communities we serve.



Porter Airlines currently operates a fleet of De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 aircraft, powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150A turboprop engines. PW150A is one of the most advanced turboprop engines currently in service, with nearly twice the take-off power of older turboprop engines and with significantly higher fuel efficiency.



Porter is known for operating the quietest, most efficient, most environmentally friendly aircraft available today, said Rick Deurloo, president of Commercial Engines at Pratt & Whitney. With the GTF-powered E195-E2, Porter better serves a greater number of families, friends and colleagues who are now able to get to their destinations in a cleaner, greener, quieter and more affordable way.



The Pratt & Whitney GTF engine is the only geared propulsion system delivering industry-leading sustainability benefits and dependable, world-class operating costs. It is the exclusive powerplant of the Embraer E-Jets E2 family, which reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions up to 25% per seat, NOx emissions by 50% and noise footprint by 75%.



Certified for operation on 50% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and successfully tested on 100% SAF, they are capable of further reductions in carbon emissions, which will help the aviation industry meet its goal of net zero emissions by 2050. The engines revolutionary geared fan architecture is the foundation for more sustainable aviation technologies in the decades ahead.  TradeArabia News Service
GREENSBORO  A few more details emerged from two private meetings involving local officials and neighbors of a planned facility to house and educate unaccompanied immigrant minors on Tuesday.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services met with two groups separately to answer questions about the plan for the Greensboro Piedmont Academy Influx Care Facility for UC (unaccompanied minors).

The media was not allowed in the meetings, but interviews with those who attended said DHHS told them the following:

The opening date for the facility has not been confirmed, but may not occur until Jan. 1. When first announced in June, DHHS anticipated opening this summer.

Up to 800 children ages 13 to 17 could be housed and educated at the facility, formerly operated as the American Hebrew Academy.

The average stay at the facility likely would be between 15 and 40 days, Mayor Nancy Vaughan said. They dont go right from the border to us, she said. They actually go to an intermediate facility, and then they come to Greensboro. At that point theyre already working with the U.S. sponsor, whether its a family member or a family friend.

The ratio of direct care will be one staff member for eight children.

The facility will hold female and male children, but they will be kept separated.

A background check is conducted on potential residents. Guilford County Commissioner Justin Conrad, who attended the meeting, said there was confusion regarding how those background checks impacted admittance to the facility.

Homeland Security does the pre-vetting for us and lets us know if theres anything we needed to know prior to a child coming to the facility, Conrad said.

However, Guilford County commissioners Chairman Melvin Skip Alston said he heard that if they had any criminal background they would not be located in this academy.  They will go to another location which would be a little bit stricter.

Access into and out of the facility will be secured. People will not be allowed in, and the children under their care will not be allowed out, Greensboro Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann said. If a child needed to go off-site, such as for a medical emergency, Hoffman said she was told a staff member would accompany the child.

Potential residents will be screened for health issues before going to the facility. They go through an intensive medical examination and will be fully vaccinated, Hoffmann said.

Up to 1,500 people would be employed by the facility, which would operate in three daily shifts, Alston said.

The residents will not be children who were separated from their parents at the border. These are kids that came on their own, without parents, Alston said.

Employees would not be parking on neighborhood streets.

According to Alston, DHHS officials said they have taken in 122,000 unaccompanied minors nationwide. Sixteen of those were placed with sponsors in Greensboro.

This is something they have kind of mastered as far as putting into place, he said.

However, Conrad was unimpressed with many of the answers.

I left with a lot of questions, he said.
Boom Supersonic unveiled Tuesday the latest design update for its Overture aircraft, along with reaching an alliance with aerospace and defense technology company Northrop Grumman.

Boom, based in Denver, also disclosed plans to expand its operational partnership with Collins Aerospace, a division of Raytheon Technologies Corp. that has a major operational hub in Winston-Salem and more than 1,000 employees.

The aircraft manufacturer announced all three developments at the Farnborough International Airshow U.K.  the worlds largest airshow.

Overture is expected to be the first large commercial aircraft to be net-zero carbon, running on 100% sustainable aviation fuel. It is scheduled to begin test flights in 2026 and carry passengers by 2029.

However, Boom is several years away from having a commercial aircraft debut at its planned $500 million superfactory at Piedmont Triad International Airport.

Kevin Baker, the airports executive director, said Monday that grading is underway right now for the planned 400,000-square-foot facility.

Boom said Tuesdays update represents the culmination of 26 million core-hours of simulated software designs, five wind tunnel tests, and the careful evaluation of 51 full design iterations.

Overture will be powered by four wing-mounted engines that enable the airliner to cruise at Mach 1.7 over water and just under Mach 1 over land. Boom said the four-engine design reduces noise, while decreasing costs for airline operators.

Overtures contoured fuselage has a larger diameter toward the front of the aircraft and a smaller diameter toward the rear. Boom has applied this design technique to minimize drag and maximize fuel efficiency at supersonic speeds.

The aircrafts gull wings are sculpted to enhance supersonic performance, as well as improve subsonic and transonic handling, according to the company. Importantly, the wing shaping also helps ensure safety and stability at any speed.

Boom said it is expanding its supply-chain partnership with Collins to include evaluation and development of major aircraft systems and components for Overture.

Also Tuesday, Boom provided an update on the status of its first full-scale testing facility in Centennial, Colo. The company said it will begin outfitting its Iron Bird operations, a 70,000-square foot facility that will house the systems integration labs that include the Iron Bird test model and fully functional flight deck simulators.

That facility is designed to test and validate all critical systems before aircraft production launches at the PTI superfactory.
In 1988, five years after calling the Soviet Union an evil empire, President Ronald Reagan visited Moscow, where he addressed an audience of students from Moscow State University. At the heart of his speech, Reagan promoted the virtues and success of liberty and his vision that tyranny would ultimately be defeated (recall his other forecast made to the British Parliament in 1982 that the Soviet Union would end up on the ash heap of history).

Contrast those remarks with the current president and his trip to the Middle East. A headline in the Connecticut Post asks the right question: Biden once wanted to make Saudi Arabia a pariah  so why is he playing nice with the kingdoms repressive rulers now?

Biden met with Saudi Arabias Prince Mohammed bin Salman (affectionately known as MBS), who has been accused by U.S. intelligence of sending a hit squad to murder journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Apparently feeling the heat of criticism from people opposed to the trip, Biden felt the need to explain himself in an op-ed for The Washington Post.

In it, Biden makes this ludicrous claim: The Middle East Ill be visiting is more stable and secure than the one my administration inherited 18 months ago. He must have forgotten the Abraham Accords, which Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner cobbled together. It normalized relations between Israel and five Arab countries, including Bahrain, the UAE and Morocco, something never before achieved. As usual, Biden gives no credit to Trump.

Speaking of not forgetting, Biden was part of an administration that spent nearly $350,000 supporting a group trying to unseat then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a U.S. Senate investigation. The administration has also been pushing for a nuclear deal with Iran, which has clearly failed and never had a chance of succeeding. Thats because Irans leaders have repeatedly said they are obeying Allahs command to acquire nuclear weapons.

Biden said he raised the issue of human rights with MBS. That is unlikely to produce positive results in a nation that has only recently allowed women to drive cars.

Despite the cover-up with noble intentions, this trip was about trying to persuade Saudi Arabia to produce more oil so U.S. gas prices will come down to tolerable levels ahead of the November and 2024 elections. What will the U.S. get in return? Probably no more than Biden and Obama got from opening diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Last February, Biden telephoned MBS to effectively ask him to pump more oil after he had curbed additional domestic oil production, reversing the much lower gas prices during the Trump administration. Biden seemed to be offering him a deal  Biden would provide more so-called defensive weapons for the Saudis to fight the Houthis in Yemen in exchange for more Saudi oil. Reading between the lines of reports about the call, it appeared MBS turned him down.

When Reagan visited Moscow, his approval ratings were 53%, according to Gallup. He dealt from a position of strength and moral clarity. Bidens approval numbers (if they can be called that) have declined to a record 33%, according to a New York Times/Siena College survey with a majority of Democrats wanting him to be replaced in 2024. Ninety percent of young Democrats want another candidate.

The Middle East has been relatively quiet in recent years. Bidens trip is unlikely to enhance stability and more likely to stir things up again. It has the potential of being a lose-lose for America and for Israel, which would be quite an accomplishment.
A new mural is welcoming folks to Helena's Sixth Ward neighborhood.

The mural is located on the side of the Pentecost Builders building on Helena Avenue. It reads Welcome to Helenas 6th Ward and features images of the Sleeping Giant, a silhouetted cityscape and a rat, a cultural symbol that has long been embraced by the neighborhoods residents.

The artist, Madison Ruff, hails from Havre and splits her time between the familys Hi-Line ranch and Los Angeles, where she works for a mural company.

A big part of doing these is making something that fits with their environment, not clash with it, Ruff said.

Ruff says she has heard from many residents walking by, and they all beam with pride for their neighborhood when seeing the work.

On Monday, a group of women having coffee at the Vanilla Bean across the street came over to praise Ruff and photograph the nearly complete mural.

We grew up in the Sixth Ward and were so excited when we saw this we had to come over and take a picture, one of the women said.

The Helena Rotary Club held an open call for submissions, and after some nudging, Ruff submitted a piece and was selected to create the mural.

Rotary provided $10,000 in funding for the mural and the Public Art Committee put up $5,000.

Ruff recently finished a mural for the city of Havre inspired by the cover art for Neil Youngs Harvest album.
BILLINGS  The Montana Republican Party on Saturday reshaped its platform, tapping into national issues that have dominated headlines and illustrating lingering divisions within the GOP over more contentious topics.

Montana Republicans voted to make clear in the partys guiding document they want to ban all abortions, even if a pregnant person is raped or in the case of incest. They also moved to aggressively push for hand-counting all ballots in the states elections.

The debate signals what kind of legislation can be expected from the majority party thats just a few seats shy of a supermajority in both chambers of the statehouse.

Changes to the partys platform also include methods to track if GOP members dont vote along with the rest of their party on priority legislation.

The discourse also exposed disagreements within the party, which swept statewide seats in the 2020 election and added to legislative majorities. Some convention delegates urged a more moderate approach out of fear of alienating voters. Those voices, while forceful, were voted down with equal decisiveness from farther-right party members.

Backing an abortion ban

Following the U.S. Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade, eliminating what had been held for nearly 50 years as the constitutional right to an abortion, the state GOP took steps to strengthen the language in the platform by calling to ban abortions in Montana.

While Roe fell at the national level, Montanas Supreme Court in 1999 upheld the right to access a pre-viability abortion here, citing the state Constitution's privacy provisions. That precedent is being challenged by the states Republican attorney general in court, though three bills limiting access to abortions passed in the 2021 legislative session remain on hold during the legal challenge.

On Saturday, Montana Republicans voted to add language saying the party supports a complete ban on elective abortion.

The previous platform said the party supported parental notification for minors seeking abortions and the preservation of innocent human life at every stage of life  beginning at conception through natural death.

State Rep. Amy Regier, of Kalispell, said the plank committee focused on the issue chose to use the word elective because abortion is a medical term that could encompass the care required to manage a miscarriage.

While the changes to the platform passed with strong support and applause from a convention room filled with GOP members, it didnt happen without some dissent.

Heidi Steiger, a stand-in delegate from Butte, opposed the language around abortion over concern of driving people from the party. She tried to remove the provision saying life begins at conception.

I would urge the group to  leave room for more moderate beliefs so we don't alienate people who have different views on this topic, said Steiger, who pointed to the partys slogan of Were better, together.

State Rep. Derek Skees, from the Flathead, said he helped craft the plank language and that life began at conception, period. The room broke out in applause at that comment and Steiger's motion failed.

Steiger also tried to soften language supporting an abortion ban, suggesting instead the party say it opposed abortion.

I don't like abortions, but I would rather have regulated, safe and legal abortions than unregulated, unsafe, secret, unknown illegal abortions that we can't control, Steiger said.

Raenell Johnson, from Glacier County, spoke in support of Steiger's proposal.

Maybe I'm missing something, but is the baby's life more important than a grown woman, a mother of little children? I'm a Republican. I don't believe in abortion ... just willy nilly, said Johnson, who then shared the story of a friend who was a mother of three and decided to have an abortion so she could receive treatment for cancer.

It was terrible and she cried and cried. But I think it would be terrible to say no, she couldn't have an abortion. I just think we need to say we have a heart and we believe in the sanctity of motherhood too, not just an unborn baby, Johnson said.

State Rep. David Bedey, a Ravalli County lawmaker who won his June primary against a challenger from the right, brought a motion following Johnsons statement to allow for abortion in the case of rape, incest or if there was an imminent threat to the life of the mother.

There are bona fide cases where there (is) more than one life in play, and we ought to probably defer to the family and to God in that particular case, Bedey said.

State Rep. Dennis Lenz, of Billings, said the plank group intended for their language to include access to abortion care if a mothers life was at risk, thought it was not clear what specific scenarios, such as ectopic pregnancy, would be included in that provision.

The overturning of Roe has already led to dangerous outcomes for pregnant people whose lives are in danger, according to reporting from the Associated Press that documented a woman who started to miscarry and had an infection in her womb. Because her fetus had a heartbeat, she was not given care until she deteriorated enough to need surgery and was placed on a breathing machine.

State Sen. Jedediah Hinkle, of Belgrade, said he struggled with the idea of including an exception for rape or incest.

What makes this language even harder for me is in the case of rape and incest, because I do not believe that the baby should be responsible for the sins of another person, Hinkle said.

The proposal to carve out exceptions in the case of rape or incest was defeated, and the full plank was adopted with cheers from the room.

Hand-count ballots

Following the 2020 election and the loss of former Republican President Trump, some Montana Republicans have repeatedly called into question the results of the vote, even as the party dominated statewide races.

Concerns over whats been dubbed election integrity were a major part of debate Saturday and resulted in adding language to the partys platform calling for hand-counting ballots.

The change was made on the floor in a move to bring the platform farther to the right.

Alan Lackey, the chairperson from Ravalli County who lost his June primary for a legislative seat, led the effort to call for hand-counting ballots. He proposed language directing the Legislature to do everything in their power to complete any ongoing investigations of the 2020 elections and to mandate and fund a conversion to mechanical or manual vote count.

We have a third party in the machines, the voting machines, that are actually voting for us, Lackey said. He brought his proposal a day prior in the resolutions committee, but it was struck down with little debate.

Darin Gaub, from Lewis and Clark County, also called for eliminating vote-counting machines. Lewis and Clark Countys GOP Central Committee also recently voted to say it didnt believe Biden won the 2020 election.

Biden won both the electoral college tally, with 306 votes to Trump's 232, and the popular vote with 51.3% to Trump's 46.9%. Legal challenges to the outcome have been rejected, though Republicans still call the results into question.

Without getting rid of the machines, you have no trust, no confidence and no validity to the elections, specifically on the national scale, in many states, Gaub said. I'm not questioning the stuff inside of the state. There's work to do to clean up, but that doesn't mean that we're questioning Montana's stuff.

State Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway, a Great Falls lawmaker who is vice chair of the state party, said she supported the language because she wanted something for Republican clerk and recorder candidates to run on.

If we're going to do hand ballots counting, we need the people of this party counting those ballots, Sheldon-Galloway said.

But like the abortion language, the change to the election platform wasn't without some opposition. Sen. Doug Kary, of Billings, made a forceful stand against the pitch.

Allowing for multiple counts of an election, he said, would open things up to requests not just from Republicans but Democrats and Independents as well.

How many times you want that counted? Kary asked, adding that he was OK with hand-counts if needed in smaller counties or segments of larger ones. We don't need to go this far. That's tyranny.

Bedey was met with loud booing from the room when he said he understood the debate but that there wasnt reason to be concerned in Montana.

These attacks  unfounded attacks  on Montana's election system does nothing but degrade the confidence our citizens have in this fundamental process, Bedey said.

I know you'll hear a counter argument to that. But be that as it may, if we're the party of the Constitution, if we're a conservative party that wants to maintain our institutions, we should quit throwing gasoline on the fire.

After Bedey, state Sen. Theresa Manzella, also of Ravalli County, said citizens had lost their trust in the process. Manzella has played a leading role in events around the state questioning election validity.

We must do everything that we possibly can to restore their faith. And if that means going back to hand counting, we are the poster child for that. With (1.2 million in population) we can do it very, very easily in this state.

But Rep. Neil Durham, from Eureka, said hand-counting was a step too far and post-election audits were sufficient.

Hand-counting would slow results and make them not available on election night, Durham said. His home county delayed knowing the outcome of the western U.S. House GOP primary for a few days in June when ballots had to be counted by hand because they wouldnt fit through tabulation machines.

Just last election you saw my county had some issues, delayed the results ... and caused some concern, Durham said, adding hed support a hand-count audit after election night to validate a machines tally.

Lackeys proposal went to a roll-call vote, where it passed.

Party purity test

Skees kicked off the platform debate by bringing changes to establish a way of tracking how legislators vote on bills focused on the platform's mission. Under the change Skees passed, GOP lawmakers would designate some legislation as platform bills and then keep tally of whether lawmakers vote for or against them.

The Republican Party of Montana ... recognizes the primary goal of this platform and planks is the expectation that our elected officials will use it as a directing guide when making decisions, one of Skees proposals read. We also recognize that any outside group can twist the session results of any voting guide they develop to deceive the members of the GOP as to who is actually voting the way the members expect.

Cheryl Curry, state committeewoman from Pondera County, said she was puzzled by the proposals and wanted to delay debating them.

Oftentimes this body is very closely divided on these things. I just think it's asking an awful lot to ask our representatives to walk lockstep with this committee when they've got their local group talking to them about what they want them to support, Curry said.
Law enforcement officials on Tuesday urged state lawmakers to remain even-handed as they begin developing new regulations for facial recognition technology.

The draft legislation still under construction by the committee would restrict state government agencies' use of the software, but does allow law enforcement to use the facial recognition technology while investigating a "serious crime." Such crimes included in the draft bill range from assault with a weapon to deliberate homicide.

While cyber-security experts warned a breach of Montanans' biometric data could put someone at a lifelong vulnerability for fraud, law enforcement associations and officials said future use of facial recognition technology could make the difference in serious crimes.

"The Department of Justice recognizes the inherent conflict presented while attempting to balance the constitutional rights of privacy enjoyed by all Montanans with the wise and prudent use of technology to detect and apprehend perpetrators of crime as a means of protecting both victims and the public," Deputy Attorney General David Ortley said during the Economic Affairs Interim Committee meeting Tuesday.

And as lawmakers look to tighten state governments' use of the software, Tuesday's meeting shed light on how the state is already putting facial recognition technology to work.

Officials from Department of Labor and Industry, Department of Corrections and Department of Justice on Tuesday responded to a questionnaire inquiring into the extent of their use of facial recognition technology, and what a more restrictive regulatory environment might mean for their operations.

Law enforcement associations also contributed to the panel discussion on Tuesday. While city police officials and county sheriffs said facial recognition technology is not currently being used by local law enforcement in Montana, they were virtually unanimous in their plea to lawmakers to not "handcuff" the police's ability to investigate serious crimes while balancing Montana's right to privacy.

Andy Hanks, the state's chief information security officer, meanwhile put the committee on notice of the potential hazards of falling short on securing biometric data.

"I do want to make it clear that biometric data, including facial recognition data, is our citizens most sensitive information that the state can hold," Hanks said. "Our biometric data is the one thing about us that we cannot change. So if our biometric data is ever stolen, we may spend the rest of our lives fighting identity theft, including financial tax and medical fraud. So it's very important that we apply stringent mandatory minimum controls to protect this data whenever we use it."

Both the labor and corrections department use third-party vendors for their facial recognition software. The state labor department uses ID.me to confirm peoples' identification when they collect unemployment benefits. The Department of Corrections uses Compliance Monitoring Systems devices to test people on probation and parole for alcohol and drugs; to ensure the person submitting the sample is the same person under DOC supervision, the device takes a picture of the person and submits it to the department.

Both agencies noted the vendor, not the state, stores the biometric data.

The Department of Justice uses facial recognition software for both the Motor Vehicle Department and Montana Analysis and Technical Information Center, also known as MATIC.

The MVD uses what's called "one-to-one" matching, which means the software checks a single photo against another single photo for a match. MATIC, meanwhile, uses one-to-one matching and widespread searches across databases. Ortley told the committee on Tuesday MATIC has only used facial recognition software 14 times since 2015.

The draft legislation would also set a retention limit on biometric data for three years, or when "the initial purpose for collecting or obtaining such data has been satisfied," whichever happens first.

A representative with Compliance Monitoring Systems on Tuesday said he was unaware of how long the monitoring device's manufacturer keeps the biometric data, but assured the committee he would return with the information. Another representative from the state labor department said ID.me deletes a user's biometric data in 18 months.

Anne Dormady, crime information bureau chief at the justice department, said MATIC staff does not have direct access to the facial recognition technology but passes their requests on to a law enforcement agency that does use the software; the Montana justice department, therefore, does not store biometric data, she said.
The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously in favor of the state public defenders office in voiding a contempt order and sanctions handed down by a District Court judge earlier this year.

Twice in the past year District Court Judge Donald Harris held the Office of the State Public Defender in contempt for failing to assign attorneys to defendants quickly enough. In the 7-0 opinion signed Tuesday by Chief Justice Mike McGrath, the high court wrote Harris erred in his second contempt order when he ordered the Office of the State Public Defender to assign counsel to indigent defendants within three days, a rate not specified in state law.

The high court also shot down Harris' finding that state law requires the agency to assign a public defender to a defendant throughout the case.

Brett Schandelson, acting director at OPD, said Wednesday the ruling recognizes the realities of the hurdles OPD faces in carrying out its duties, and allows the agency to address those issues by its own means.

Really we need to be able to be adaptable to the circumstances when they change, whether it's markets or new filings or our own internal resources, Schandelson said. The Supreme Court's order returns to us those options to be adaptable and flexible.

The ruling vacates Harris' second contempt order and vacates the $8,500 fine leveled against OPD.

The case did, however, pull the curtain back on the challenges OPD has been facing, namely in Yellowstone County. Last year, Harris called on the agency after learning some 663 defendants had not been assigned a public defender in the District Court there. Although the agency noted each defendant did have an attorney with them at their initial appearance, the cases continued without an assigned attorney after that first hearing, so Harris held then-OPD director Rhonda Lindquist in contempt for the logjam and fined the agency more than $15,000. In his ruling, Harris ordered OPD to assign counsel to defendants within three days to meet the "immediate" requirement to do so included in state law.

In February, Harris held Lindquist and the agency in contempt again for failing to assign attorneys to 17 clients. The state public defenders office took this contempt order to the state Supreme Court, challenging Harris' ability to sanction OPD into compliance.

Harris, defending his contempt order and sanctions, had argued that OPD does not assign attorneys before the judge orders them to do so. Of the 17 defendants who had gone without an attorney leading into Harris' second contempt order, only three of them had had the same attorney as they did during the initial hearing.

Harris on Wednesday declined to comment on the high court's ruling.

The public defenders office argued that while a defendant may have a different attorney at their initial appearance or arraignment than they did later in the case, a public defender was nonetheless present at those early, crucial steps in the case.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of OPD's argument, noting that neither state law nor case law precludes this arraignment. The high court cited a 1977 ruling by the Ninth Circuit, which stated while a "vertical" staffing model  in which a single attorney handles the initial appearance, arraignment and all subsequent proceedings  may be preferable, "this type of horizontal representation may at times be an inevitable result of workload and budget constraints imposed on a public defender's office."

As for the requirement for OPD to "immediately" assign an attorney to a defendant, the Supreme Court noted that the Legislature could have included a specific time frame, but so far has not.

Schandelson said Wednesday the agency itself would prefer a "vertical" model to ensure continuous representation from a case's opening to closing disposition.

"But it's not always feasible and it's good to be able to adjust as necessary," he said.

Indeed, the public defender's office in some ways has already established a horizontal staffing model into its operations. A defendant gets a new public defender, for example, when they appeal their case to a higher court; the agency has divided its staff attorneys into this category specifically to handle appeals.

The public defenders office has seen an injection of additional funding in recent months, including $1.5 million to meet the three-day timeline in Yellowstone County. Not long after, the Governor's Office approved funding to boost pay for both OPD staff attorneys and contract attorneys who take on the overflow of the agency's cases.

While retention was perhaps the largest contributor to the Yellowstone County OPD office's issues, Schandelson said the agency has identified several potential new hires to fill the ranks there in the coming months.


The 72-page book on RSS by a Dalit writer Devanur Mahadeva from Karnataka criticizes the right-wing Hindu nationalist party and is hitting record sales in the state.

Basil Islam | TwoCircles.net

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NEW DELHI  A book on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has gained popularity with its rooted criticism of the right-wing organisation and narration in a simple language.

Written in Kannada, the book RSS: Aala Mattu Agala (RSS  The Depth and Breadth) by Dalit writer and activist Devanur Mahadeva is an explorative criticism of RSS by looking through its history and present activities. Nineteen days after the books launch, over 70,000 copies have been sold and the demand is growing. The popular reception has also stirred controversy with attacks from right-wing organizations.

Mahadevas book comes at a crucial time. Karnataka has a long history of communal tensions, which the RSS has allegedly exploited to gain mileage in South India. South Karnataka saw one of the first coming together of Saraswat Brahmins as a Hindu group in order to resist the missionary activities of the Basel Mission back in the 1800s. The ever-growing saffronization of the coastal belt in past years has also caused anti-Muslim sentiments to seep into local consciousness. Recent controversies about the Hijab ban and textbook revision are seen in this light.

Born in 1948 in Devanur village of Mysore district to Dalit parents, Mahadeva has now become a household name in Karnataka with his unique style of writing. Unlike the wordy and Sanskritised writings by a majority of upper-caste literary figures, Mahadevas prose celebrated colloquial language without a Brahminical gaze. Actively involved in Karnatakas socialist movements for the last four decades, he is an important figure in the Bandaya literary movement. Starting in the 1970s, the movement mobilized Kannada writers who used their literary interventions to fight injustices in society. He has earlier rejected or returned many awards and positions by the government and Sahitya Academy in his protest of discriminatory policies toward the Kannada language and other social issues. Many of his literary contributions are highly valued for his unparalleled grasp of the complexities of Dalit life as a total insider and his path-finding search for indigenous narrative modes and styles.

The 72-page book on RSS is hitting records in sales in the state, thanks to Mahadevas cool strategy of open publishing. He granted rights to six publishers in different parts of the state to print as many as 5000 copies each, thus ensuring the supply all over Karnataka.

Gauri Media Trust, named after the slain journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh is also one of the publishers. The copies were soon sold out, and the demand is rising even though controversies surrounding the book are still making headlines. Initially, there were six publishers, and now some more may have come forward; I have to check. Three publishers printed 5,000 copies each that were sold in just two days. Some youth from Mysuru came up with a publishing house and printed 2,000 books, Mahadeva told The Indian Express. Only the Kannada version is now available on the market, and the Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, and English translations are underway.

Mysores BJP MP Pratap Simha lashed out at the book and told reporters, After he wrote Kusumabale, I thought there would be some creativity left in him. But now, penning a book on RSS, he has even lost the respect he had. He has written this book as a Congress aalu (servant) and has nothing much about RSS-aala and agala (depth and width) as claimed by the title.

Several right-leaning media houses are also running prejudicial panels branding it as a defamatory work on Hinduism. Following this, Karnataka Dalit Sangarsha Samiti (KDSS) and Dalit Welfare Trust have condemned the remarks made against the award-winning writer. Opposition leader Siddaramaiah came out in support of the author, saying attacks on the book are obstructing the fundamental right of freedom of expression.

Responding to the controversies in an interview with The Indian Express, Mahadeva said that instead of questioning the government in power, most media houses are today busy praising the government and supporting the system. If someone opposes the system, they are termed anti-national, said Mahadeva.

Basil Islam is an independent journalist and researcher based in South India. He tweets at @baasiie
FWP's elk advisory group has proposed many productive ideas regarding shoulder seasons, the hunt roster, new approaches to block management and improving hunter behavior.

But their proposal to pick your season/weapon misses the mark.

While the intent of reducing hunting pressure on public lands is solid - and this hunting change is likely inevitable if Montana continues to grow in population, access to inaccessible elk isn't improved, and hunters fail to show up when it matters - now is not the time for this.

There are other ways to address crowding before considering this last resort.

FWP just made sweeping changes to elk hunting regulations that haven't even gone into effect yet. The new 'pick your district' for elk hunters serves the same purpose as a 'pick your season/weapon.' Lets try this first.

Currently, FWP is being sued for having too many elk (many disagree). So, if there's too many elk, and no shortage of hunters, lets focus on connecting these dots rather than reducing hunting opportunities.

Its debatable whether this proposal will even reduce hunting pressure. I have two weeks to hunt elk, so instead of hunting for a week in archery and a week in rifle, Id just hunt two weeks in one of them; that's not a reduction in pressure, and plenty of Western states with shorter pick-your-weapon seasons illustrate this. Some diehard bowhunters might like this idea, but casual archers may just end up chasing bugling bulls in September too, opting to pick up a rifle for antelope, deer and cow B hunts later. Hunters will be on the landscape regardless.

We need to look more broadly at pressure than just bull elk hunters. Elk don't know if were hunting antelope, upland birds, bears, deer, or if we have a cow B rifle tag. If an elk feels pressured, they run for cover, often meaning private lands.

Many of Montanas hunting opportunities are unlimited for non-residents. Even deer and elk, which are capped (in theory), are still seeing far more than 10% of licenses: 66,624 deer and elk licenses went to non-residents in 2021, and FWP just made cow tags unlimited for nonresidents in many areas (some even valid on public lands), so that number is likely to climb. Maybe its time FWP limit all non-residents hunting opportunities to a reasonable cap or the 90/10 split.

Instead of more tags, why not give an additional cow B tag to permit holders in limited-entry areas where cow harvests are needed? This could lead to greater harvests without adding pressure. FWP does this with antelope hunters; why not elk?

Pressure is a result of both the number of hunters and huntable acres. Better hunter behavior could lead to more private lands open to public access, while Habitat Montana-funded easements and acquisitions could lead to even more places to hunt. Elk security habitat and responsible OHV use will help keep more elk on public lands too. Hunters need to recognize this, police our own ranks and get engaged.

Most importantly, FWP's elk management plan states to avoid over-harvest of accessible elk on public lands or private lands open to hunting, the inaccessible elk may not be included in objective numbers." Yet FWP continues to include these which leads to inflated tag numbers and six months of hunting, even on public. If FWP managed for the actual number of accessible elk, that would improve the crowding issue. As FWP begins to rewrite their 2005 elk management plan, this is the kind of feedback they need to hear at elk plan public scoping meetings happening now.

While I appreciate the work of FWPs elk advisory group, there are other more effective and palatable ways to address crowding, and we should demand that those ideas are exhausted before we force Montanas hunters into giving up half of our hunting heritage and fall traditions.

If forced to pick or choose, we all lose.
The news that Republican functionaries in Ravalli and Lewis and Clark counties adopted, on split votes, motions to reject (in all their majesty) the results of the 2020 presidential election tells me only that Trumpublicans outnumber real Republicans in these two counties. Not surprising. This merely reflects the gradual degradation of their party nationally (gradual until Trump gave it a deadly boost), to the point where it looks adoringly at the one-party, one-religion rule of Orban in Hungary. (They went through a phase of Putin worship also until the invasion made that politically untenable in the United States, where we profess support of Ukraine).

It would do no good, we have learned, to remind them of the unanimity of conclusions of no evidence of fraud reached by Republican as well as Democratic election officials, post-election audits, over 40 court decisions, and Trumps own attorney general, Bill Barr. Of course, in Trumpublican mythology all experts have a liberal bias, which means, of course, that the facts have a liberal bias. Sorry, you cant change that. But there also is the inconvenient truth that every ballot that Biden won also included the races won by Republicans for every office in every precinct in the country. Cant change that either.

It would be fun to proclaim all Trumpublicans stupid or ignorant, but that is true of only a significant portion of them. Many are highly intelligent and experienced in politics. Too many of them, though, are cynical, and imply the contorted notion that only Republicans have a legitimate claim on governance, and ergo only elections won by Republicans have legitimacy. But this applies only to Trump Republicans, not to RINOs. If you dont believe me, note the rhetoric at the recent Montana Republican platform convention, and the resulting document. The Lewis and Clark and Ravalli Republican organizations are clearly in line.

Im old enough to remember when we had two political parties that accepted each others legitimacy, because they both accepted the fundamental precepts of our democratic republic; respected election results; believed in compromise and accommodation in the public interest; marginalized extremism, hatred and intolerance; sustained civil discourse and shared responsibility for making our system work. The fine Republicans of those halcyon days no longer represent the party, and we all suffer as a result.
DECATUR  Decatur residents continue to express frustrations over talks to use Lincoln Park as grounds for a new school.

During Wednesdays Decatur Park Board of Commissioners meeting, multiple residents said they opposed apparent plans between the Decatur Park District and Decatur Public Schools to make Lincoln Park the home of a new Dennis School building.

The board took no votes regarding the Lincoln Park matter and did not mention it in open session. But nearly all public comments were directed to the potential deal, with many expressing frustration toward the park board itself.

This body will ignore what were saying and continue on with your planned remarks. It's disingenuous, said Decatur resident Anthony Chapple.

Chapple said he was upset with the lack of answers about the future of Lincoln Park.

What is the point of an open door if you all have closed mouths? he asked.

Lee Ann Clary, whose husband, Phil, also spoke at the meeting, accused board members of being aware of potential issues with the grounds at Lincoln Park but pursuing its sale anyway.

You know about the storm sewers that dump water into Lincoln Park. You know about the trees, some of which are older than the park itself. You know about the wildlife that will be displaced with a new school. You know that much of the land is unbuildable. You know Lincoln Park is a bad location for a new school, she said.

A common concern from residents was that the land at Lincoln Park should be protected for historical and ecological purposes. Many also shared concerns that flooding in the area could be dangerous for potential students.

I know you want to sell it. You don't want to take care of it, it's obvious to me, said Ardith Hubbard. I just want you to know I think it's such a bad decision for children.

Speaking to members of the media after the meeting, park district officials declined to elaborate.

Decatur Park District Executive Director Clay Gerhard said the park district and board had no additional comments regarding Lincoln Park or the school districts ongoing communications with the Illinois State Board of Education.

"We're waiting for additional information," Gerhard said.

The ISBE informed the district on Monday that it had put on hold its approval of the building project, which is contingent on using COVID-related funds. The school district filed an amended request to use federal grant money for the construction of a new school on Tuesday with the understanding the required updates would result in ISBE approval.

According to the ISBE, the construction project must be completed by Sept. 30, 2024 in order for the district to receive reimbursement.

Public comments at recent school board and city council meetings have also been dominated by residents upset with the potential Lincoln Park project.
DECATUR  For the second meeting in a row, residents opposed to a new Dennis School in Lincoln Park sought a reprieve from the Decatur City Council.

Dozens of residents packed the council chambers and several once again urged city leaders to get involved in what has so far been an initiative of Decatur Public Schools and the Decatur Park District.

"You cannot bury your heads in the sand any longer," said resident Lee Ann Clary. "You are now involved and need to be part of the process."

If plans move forward, the new building would replace Dennis School, now occupying two campuses, one on West Main Street and one on West Wood Street, and serve students from preschool through eighth grade.

Some residents dismissed city officials' claims that the city has little to no part to play in the decision, noting previous comments about the city providing infrastructure to the site.

Though city manager Scot Wrighton later clarified that "likely the only thing that the city council will have control over directly is whether or not any streets are closed or open."

Any infrastructure would simply entail providing water and sewer service. There have been no other requests made to this point, Wrighton said.

Other speakers suggested alternative sites, such as that of the long-abandoned Woodrow Wilson Junior High School at 1100 Sunset Drive.

A few said that even if the city lacked formal authority to prevent the building of a school, the council should take a vote on a non-binding resolution registering its view on the project, a tack that was endorsed by Councilman Bill Faber.

"My motto with regard to Lincoln Park is 'hands off Lincoln Park,'" Faber said.

As was the case last week, several council members registered their sympathy with the residents fighting the proposal.

"Selling Lincoln Park for development is poor public policy," said Councilman David Horn. " ... The city of Decatur is right now attempting to protect the Lake Decatur watershed that the Sangamon River feeds. Now we're talking about a development that might pollute the river downstream of the lake. That is poor stewardship of our natural resources."

Councilwoman Lisa Gregory urged caution, noting that difficult decisions often have to be made and that the most important consideration was what was best for the students.

Gregory discussed her vote as a Mount Auburn School District board member in the early 1990s to annex the district into the Taylorville School District. She said her toughest critic was her daughter, who had to switch schools, but that it was ultimately the right decision.

"What I'm saying to you tonight is these proposals that you're brought before us are simply that," Gregory said. "It is a school board looking for the right decision for students. And no one's going to be happy. But the decision has to be made based on the best interest of students."

The decision process is on an expedited timeline because the district proposes building the school using American Rescue Plan funds. The district received more than $76 million in federal pandemic relief funds last year.

The funds must be obligated by Sept. 30 of this year or returned to the federal government.

Decatur Public Schools is allowed to use pandemic funds for the project due to a last-minute measure that passed the General Assembly in April.

Water works

In other news, the council approved a $396,802 professional services agreement with Austin, Texas-based INTERA, Inc. for improvements to the well fields the city owns in DeWitt County.

The city purchased about 120 acres of farmland in DeWitt County in 1988 in order to draw water from Mahomet Valley Aquifer. It serves as one of the city's major emergency sources of water.

The city has only drawn water from the well six times, the last being a 75-day period in 2012. But if recommendations are implemented, it could reduce the city's supplemental water shortage by about 20%.

The work is related to the multi-year effort to increase the city's water supply.

In May, the council approved a separate engineering services agreement with INTERA to explore viable sources located downstream from the Lake Decatur dam, including the sand and gravel pit previously owned by Vulcan Materials Company and Lake Tokorozawa.

The council also approved a $809,870 professional services agreement with Springfield-based Crawford, Murphy and Tilly for final design services for improvements to the chemical and electrical systems at the South Water Treatment Plant.

Also approved was a $192,704 professional services agreement with Kansas City-based Burns & McDonnell Engineering Company, Inc. for engineering services for the Broadway and Jasper street sewer rehabilitation project.

It is one of five critical sanitary sewers in the city. The other four have already been rehabilitated by the city.
DECATUR  A coroners jury decided Wednesday that Norma J. Crutchfields death was a homicide even though the Decatur womans body has never been found.

The jurors accepted Decatur police evidence that the 41-year-old victim had been killed, dismembered and her final resting place is in garbage bags dumped in the Macon County landfill.

Detective James Knierim told the jurors that it would be a hopelessly expensive mission impossible to locate her remains now, after police believe she was stabbed to death and dismembered sometime around Nov. 7, 2020, shortly before she was reported missing by her family

We calculated it was millions of dollars to do a search, Knierim said. And no one has that money.

Crutchfields sometime boyfriend, Troy D. Slaw, 45, has since been charged with her murder as well as cutting up the body and concealment of a homicidal death. He is being held in the Macon County Jail along with Chase N. Freeman, 23, who is charged with helping to dismember the body and also concealment of a homicidal death.

Knierim said it was police questioning of Freeman that broke open the case after he described being recruited by Slaw to help cut up and dispose of Crutchfields remains. He claims that he did not help with the bloody dismembering, but had earlier seen the womans body stuffed in a bedroom closet with a stab wound to the chest.

Freeman is quoted as telling police he helped move her to a plastic sheet-lined bathroom of the Slaw home on East Olive Street where Slaw would carry out the dismemberment using an electric saw. Freeman also helped out with the cleaning up of extensive blood stains inside the house.

Freeman had later dropped two large contractor style garbage bags he believed contained Crutchfields body in his trash bins, where they were later hauled away along with his regular garbage.

Police said the clean-up of the murder scene failed to hide the blood stains from forensic testing. Her (Crutchfields) DNA is in the bathroom, the back bedroom closet the dining room, the living room Knierim said. He said a large area of blood in the living room had the outline of a body when it was revealed with chemical testing.

And on a seized phone belonging to Slaw, Knierim said police recovered a deleted picture of Crutchfield: We cant say if she was deceased, but she was certainly unconscious on the bathroom floor and there appears to be some substance around her head and her feet are bound, he added.

The detective said Freeman had told police that Slaw had discussed with him various methods of getting rid of Crutchfields body parts before they went with the garbage can idea.

They discussed throwing them in the lake, but decided that was a bad idea, said Knierim.

And, according to Freeman, eventually the body was placed in the garbage cans of the residence that he lived at.

Other evidence police gathered included an interview with an 11-year-old child of Slaws from another relationship. The boy told police he was present in the house and had seen Crutchfield attacked on the day police believe she was killed.

He stated he witnessed dad beating on Norma, Norma running out of the house and Troy grabbing her and bringing her back in and taking her back to the back bedroom, Knierim told the jurors.

Responding to a jurors questions about the fact that Crutchfields body had not been recovered, the detective said: No, we do not have a body. We have a crime scene that goes between a bedroom, hallway, bathroom, dining room and living room. And we have statements from a co-defendant who said the body was dismembered and put in a trash can.

DNA was recovered from a trash can at Freemans address, but Knierim said it was too degraded to be useful.

Questioned by Macon County Coroner Michael E. Day, the detective said the amount of blood traces was consistent with the description of Crutchfields death and disposal.

Knierim said the victim got by on government benefits and police have carefully monitored her benefits since she vanished. Knierim said there had been no sign of her having used them, but Slaw had been caught on video accessing them, along with another of his girlfriends.

Knierim said the girlfriend had been arrested for that offense and she had then told police that Slaw had admitted to her that Crutchfield was dead.

Speaking before the inquest, Day told the Herald & Review it is unusual to have a jury return a verdict without a body, but not unknown. He cited the most recent high-profile example of the June, 2017 disappearance of Yingying Zhang, a visiting Chinese student at the University of Illinois.

She vanished in Urbana and her body has never been found. Brendt Allen Christensen was later convicted by a jury of kidnapping, raping, murdering and decapitating the 26-year-old victim. And as in the case of Crutchfield, he later told police he had dismembered her body and disposed of it in garbage bags in the dumpster outside of his apartment.

Christensen, 33, was sentenced in July 2019 to life in prison without possibility of parole.
After the Dobbs decision ended federal protections for abortion, some high-profile responses suggested the ruling marked the first time the Supreme Court rescinded an established fundamental right.

But that is not true for Black Americans. They did gain, then lose, basic rights at the hands of the Supreme Court. It would take decades to get even some of those rights back. Understanding that history may well be key to helping America face another daunting chapter of rights granted then denied.

After the Civil War ended in 1865, during Reconstruction, the United States enacted a series of laws to uplift the close to 4 million formerly enslaved people. Black and some white elected officials worked together to secure equality through state and local laws across the South.

Just as these coalitions began to foster change, white Americans in the South began a violent campaign in the late 1860s that overthrew biracial governments, seized power for white Democrats and flouted federal laws related to protecting the rights of Black people.

In 1876, the court ruled that the 15th Amendment did not grant any individual the right to vote. In a consolidation of five decisions known as the Civil Rights Cases, the court in 1883 struck down the 1875 Civil Rights Act and held that the 13th and 14th Amendments did not give Congress the power to outlaw private acts of racial discrimination. Rather, the court reasoned, Black people needed to look to the states for protection. In 1896, the court would endorse outright segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson.

The effect of this era on Black political representation is undeniable. In 1870, Alonzo J. Ransier  one of the first Black congressmen from South Carolina  became the states first elected Black lieutenant governor. As a high-level elected official, he helped secure educational, voting and civil rights for formerly enslaved people. By the time Ransier died in 1882, he was a forgotten street cleaner and most of those hard-earned rights were gone.

The parallels with abortion rights today are clear: A decades-long assault on previously established rights eroded them to nothing, supported by a conservative Supreme Court.

Black citizens rights would only be regained more than 50 years after the Plessy decision, when amid the civil rights movement the Supreme Court ruled segregation to be unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

However, the Black Reconstruction experience suffered from two hurdles that the abortion rights movement may be able to overcome.

First, the Supreme Courts action on civil rights was met by exhaustion and indifference by white moderates in the 1880s, who effectively gave up after 20 years of attempting to secure Black rights against reactionary white Southerners. That does not have to be the case today. A majority of Americans support at least some abortion access, even in most red states. This level of public support should buttress attempts in Congress to codify Roe v. Wade. Even if such legislation fails, the effort may avert a loss of interest in the cause and keep it top of mind for a sympathetic public.

Civil rights during and after Reconstruction also faced the hurdle of voter suppression. Paramilitary groups and extremists including the Ku Klux Klan kept Black voters away from the polls. In contrast, while some antiabortion activists have used violence, abortion rights supporters are not systematically disenfranchised as a group. They should use their political power in anti-abortion states to elect representatives who are committed to protecting reproductive choice.

The Supreme Court held that the Dobbs decision focused on abortion and no other rights. Black history with Reconstruction suggests otherwise  and looks to be predictive.

All Americans who view an expansion of rights as critical to our republic would be wise to ignore voices feigning moderation from the other side. Reconstruction teaches us that when extremist movements tell you where they are headed, you should believe them. America should not go backwards on rights yet again.
Tune in to leftists much? You might try E. J. Dionne of The Washington Post, a columnist who recently repeated the mantra that the abrupt fall of Roe v. Wade would endanger the lives of women and place a particular burden on the least privileged among us. Not really. Were going to have a contraceptive revolution that will give us all smiles.

The Supreme Courts erasing of the 50-year embarrassment of Roe v. Wade could actually lead us to the most reliable and available contraceptives we have ever had. The use could be widespread like never before, as indicated by Wisp pharmacy that saw online sales of emergency contraceptives go up by 3,000 percent shortly after the ruling. We may say goodbye to unintended pregnancies and something else: Except in extreme circumstances, there may be no more killings of tens of millions of unborn babies with no control over their own bodies.

The ruling did not say thats it, no more abortions anyplace. It democratically left the rules up to state legislatures, just as Roe v. Wade itself did in the case of fetuses that can live outside the womb. Not a few states have already been outlawing abortions they previously couldnt touch. Question: If a woman says she will absolutely not give birth if impregnated, how does she get past these new laws?

Does she plot with doctors to break the law? Does she spend bunches of money to travel long distances to a legal exterminating clinic, a gloomy, expensive outing that is not going to work for everyone? How about preventing pregnancy? Will she quit having sex? Uh, doubtful. I therefore get back to my point: The best way to preserve sex without pregnancy are contraceptives not exactly new on the scene.

They have been used for literally hundreds of years to keep the sperm away from the eggs. Men sometimes take on the responsibility with the only choice being condoms, which oftentimes work but not always. With endless side effects, women have far more options. The two favorites are pills of varied reliability and IUDs that can stay implanted for long periods and work beautifully.

Among the problems are that, when sex takes place, the contraceptives are forgotten, sometimes they fail and there are those males and females who just take their chances. Acquiring contraceptives can also be difficult. But all of this and more is on its way to solutions, such as allowing over-the-counter sales, technical innovations and providing additional guidance. One shining example has been pregnancies declining as a result of educating teenage girls more on sex.

Yes, there are people who object to contraception and other factors making sex into something it should not be. This is a cultural issue of the ages and the far distant future. A way to have the babies without being responsible for them later is adoption, and that can be joyous. At the moment, pills are beginning to serve as an easy way to have an abortion and we do not know where that is going. There is talk about the Supreme Court forbidding contraception, but the court majority has no such urge.

The most disgusting elements in the post-Roe debate have been leftist protests with Jan. 6 imitators trying to intimidate justices. Democratic politicians are contriving to seriously damage our democratic republic, such as by refashioning the Supreme Court to suit their politics. What both left and right should fight are any laws that would prevent abortions in such extreme situations as the mothers life being in danger or failures to afford the mothers the care and attention they deserve.
Canyon Lake boat ramp No. 5 was open for business when it was photographed in April, but a hot and dry summer has driven the lake levels down and forced the closure of two of the countys boat ramps. Theres no short-term relief in the forecast. ALMA E. HERNANDEZ | Herald-Zeitung
BRISTOL, Va.  Site work is underway on a new 251,000-square-foot FedEx distribution center just outside the city limits in Washington County, Virginia.

The site is at the end of Coronet Drive in the city industrial park, adjacent to the 72,000-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center that opened last year.

We are thrilled and excited about their decision, Saul Hernandez chairman of the Washington County Board of Supervisors said. It makes a lot of sense. When you consider our population is growing and they are a global brand  a company that everybody recognizes.

The facility is expected to open in 2023 and bring 250 additional jobs to the area, Hernandez said.

Hernandez said the county and city are so connected on this type of project that all sides benefit from this type of development success.

Its great to work together. This is true collaboration between the city and county to bring new jobs and new growth to the area, Bristol Virginia Mayor Anthony Farnum said.

While the facility will be in the county, its access will be via city streets and its electricity and utility service will come from BVU Authority.
BRISTOL, Tenn.  The Tennessee Hills brand has a big vision for its presence in Bristol.

Tennessee Hills Distillery announced Monday a $21.3 million project to bring its headquarters and a brand new manufacturing facility to Bristol, Tennessee.

In a work session Tuesday, the Bristol Tennessee City Council was presented a development agreement that would lay the framework for a much larger Tennessee Hills footprint in Bristol  the development by Tennessee Hills Distillerys parent company, Rugged American Spirits, including a 45-acre mountainside parcel located just west of the entrance to The Pinnacle.

According to City Attorney Danielle Smith, the land would be deeded from the Industrial Development Board to Rugged American Spirits, which would then use the land to develop a multitude of possibilities, including an action park, recreation area, Smokestillery restaurant, Tennessee Hills Creamstillery or resort. Smith said Tuesday the agreement will need approval from the Industrial Development Board, which she said owns the land, and city council.

Scott Andrew, owner of Rugged American Spirits, described the 45-acre parcel as a tough piece of land that is straight up and down, for the most part. He said the quickest build would be an outdoor adventure park; however, he added that he and his team still have some work to do in deciding what the site is best suited for. Still, he is high on the potential of the project.

There are some really good ideas to be put on there, and I think it will ultimately be a hodgepodge of those with an outdoor adventure (element), Andrew said during the work session.

When all is said and done, the Tennessee Hills and Rugged American Spirits footprint just off I-81in West Bristol could be a massive one. Plans are already moving forward for the construction of a 35,000-square-foot distillery, with groundbreaking as soon as mid-August, and the utilization of the existing 19,000-square-foot building on the 8.5-acre site of the former American National University, located across U.S. 11 from The Pinnacle. Intended uses for the former college site include a museum and office.

Stephen and Jessica Callahan, husband and wife founders of Tennessee Hills Distillery, also attended Tuesdays work session. In his brief remarks, Stephen Callahan reflected on just how far they have brought their business since it was established in 2014.

Honestly, its kind of hard to talk about without getting emotional, Callahan said. We started at 26 years old in Jonesborough, and we slept on the floor and we just kept going through hard work, perseverance and believing in ourselves and our brand.

Committed to operations in Bristol, the Callahans are set to relocate from Washington County, Tennessee and make Bristol home.

I honestly think Tennessee Hills is getting by far bigger than just Stephen and Jessica Callahan, he added. Its the people; its the whole region  that's what this brand represents, and it's such a great honor to be able to say that, being from here and knowing the opportunity that we have.
A car crashed into the side of a mobile home near St. Stephens High School on Wednesday morning.

The mobile home was condemned due to damage to a support beam under the home. The power was disconnected after the crash, Hickory Fire Department Education Coordinator Terri Byers said.

Byers said the crash occurred shortly before 10:30 a.m. The mobile home is in the Thunderbird Mobile Home Park on 34th Street Drive NE in Hickory.

The driver of the car was transported to the hospital. A resident of the home was also receiving medical care. The resident sustained minor injuries, Byers said. She did not know how severe the drivers injuries were or the drivers identity.

Cristian Garcia, 23, a resident of the home, said the woman driving the car was found unconscious.

Garcia said his 18-year-old brother, Jonathan Garcia, was sleeping when the car crashed into the mobile home. He said his brother was taken to the hospital for back pain.

Cristian Garcia said his brother woke up when his bed was lifted during the crash.

Byers said the Hickory Fire Department has contacted the American Red Cross to assist the family.
A solar energy provider asked county leaders to clarify their reasons for rejecting a rezoning that would have cleared the way for a 140-acre solar farm.

In April, Blackburn Solar, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, asked for 635 acres in southern Catawba County to be rezoned to a rural conditional zoning to allow for a solar farm along Hickory-Lincolnton Highway.

The request was recommended for approval by the Catawba County Planning Board, but the Catawba County Board of Commissioners unanimously denied the request.

The solar farm was planned to encompass about 310 acres of the property. The solar panels would sit on about 140 of those acres, according to the rezoning application. NextEra has been searching for a location and planning the project since 2018, a NextEra representative said in April.

The plans for the solar farm included a 125-acre donation to the Catawba Lands Conservancy. The land planned for the donation sat along the South Fork River and would have been part of the Carolina Thread Trail, a regional network of trails connecting area counties.

The solar farm was planned as a partnership between NextEra, Duke Energy and Wells Fargo, according to a release from Duke Energy in 2021. Wells Fargo planned to buy energy from the solar farm to offset half of the banks power usage in North Carolina, the release said.

County commissioners cited concerns brought by residents as reasons for rejecting the rezoning. Those concerns included runoff contamination from the project and proper land use.

At Mondays Catawba County Board of Commissioners meeting, board attorney David Hood said Blackburn Solar sought to clarify why the rezoning was rejected.

The applicant has since complained we did not adopt a planned consistency and reasonableness statement, Hood said. They have suggested they need that information in order to make a decision about a new application.

A consistency statement is required by state law when making zoning decisions. The statement explains the grounds on which a request is approved or denied and whether the request was consistent with local development and land use plans.

The board adopted a statement on Monday, three months after the initial denial.

The statement said the rezoning to allow for the solar farm was inconsistent with the future land use plans for the area, which called for low-density residential use for the properties.

The rezoning was consistent with the Startown Small Area Plans recommendation for the conservation of land along the South Fork River, the statement said.

The commissioners said, as a board, they found the rezoning unreasonable because of the concerns for water quality next to the project, the concerns of noise pollution and concerns for health issues. The specific health issues were not specified in the statement.
Three men were arrested on drug trafficking charges Tuesday. The Caldwell County Sheriffs Office seized about 3,441 grams of methamphetamine, cash and guns.

Eric Dale Jones, 36, of Lenoir, was charged with two counts of trafficking methamphetamine and conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine. Dylan Wayne McBryar, 29, of Hickory, was charged with conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine. Roy Sheldon Morris, 43, of Hudson, was charged with possession of methamphetamine, the sheriffs office said in a news release.

On Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., deputies stopped Jones and Morris vehicle in the Sawmills area. The two men were stopped and arrested after being seen by agents at a known methamphetamine dealers residence in Burke County, the sheriffs office said. Morris and Jones were arrested for the methamphetamine trafficking charges.

Shortly after, deputies obtained a search warrant for McBryars home on Dogwood Drive in the Hickory area of Burke County. The Burke County Sheriffs Office SWAT Team and investigators executed the search warrant and found McBryar at the residence, the Caldwell County Sheriffs Office said.

More than 600 grams of methamphetamine, five guns and more than $12,000 were seized from McBryars home, the sheriffs office said.

In total, the investigation seized about 3,441 grams of methamphetamine, five guns, ammunition and over $26,000 in cash. The drugs seized during the investigation have a total street value of $516,150, according to North Carolina State Drug Guidelines, the sheriffs office said.

All three men were taken to the Caldwell Detention Center. Jones received a $500,000 bond, McBryar received a $750,000 bond, and Morris received a $10,000 bond.
HICKORY  HMA Honors is a new annual recognition event that highlights members of the Hickory Museum of Art family who have continually gone the extra mile for North Carolinas second oldest art museum.

Each year, new recipients of this distinction will be selected, and the program will pay tribute to their efforts across different areas of the institution. Honorees will be celebrated during a fun, themed event, and will receive permanent recognition in the museums Entrance gallery.

The 2022 inaugural HMA Honorees are Joann Wilfong and Pat Viles. Executive Director Jon Carfagno expressed, It is impossible to calculate the impact of the kindness, enthusiasm, and support that Joann and Pat so generously give to North Carolinas second oldest art museum. It is safe to say that we would not be where we are today without their enormous efforts on behalf of the institution and our team.

Wilfongs generosity and love for HMA has been a cornerstone of the museum for decades. A long-time friend of Paul Whitener and Mickey Whitener Coe, Wilfong is HMAs longest-serving volunteer. She has served as HMA Board President and a board member, on HMAs Collection Committee for over 30 years, is a charter member of guildHMA and cites the museum as her greatest passion outside of her family. When asked about her desire to work with Hickory Museum of Art, Wilfong said, Its just a part of my life, and it means so much to me to be a part of the experience. My life would not be complete without this museum.

Viles is an international artist who has served as an HMA board member. She has held exhibitions of her artwork in HMAs galleries over the years and is an active participant in HMAs bi-monthly Coffee in the Coe events. Her kindness and generosity are reflective in her volunteerism and the ample baked goodies she supplies to the museum. She is passionate about HMA and would describe it to others as a gem. "What the museum does here affects the entire community," she said. "Art is very important. Museums are very important in the situations we face today. They are a place to learn about the past and the future. This museum is about love and sharing and participating. It changes your life.

The inaugural HMA Honors event takes place Sunday, Aug. 14, from 2-4 p.m. Tickets are $35, or $25 for HMA members. Contact HMA Development Manager, Lindsay Herrin, at lherrin@hickoryart.org or 828-327-8576, ext. 205 for ticket details.

Hickory Museum of Art was founded in 1944 to collect, care for, and exhibit American art. Today, the museum has evolved into an arts center featuring an extensive permanent collection of art objects across all mediums as well as education classes for all ages. Hickory Museum of Art is located on the SALT Block, 243 Third Ave., NE, Hickory. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.HickoryArt.org or call the museum at 828-327-8576, ext 201. Business sponsorship information is also available at the same telephone number.
" " This lithograph of the Salem witch trials shows how mass hysteria took over Salem Village. Wikimedia/(CC BY-SA 2.0)

From the realistically frightful scenes of "The Blair Witch Project" to the decidedly wholesome Glinda the Good Witch in the "The Wizard of Oz," magical mavens are at the center of some of our most enduring  and endearing  stories. There are also modern-day practitioners of witchcraft, a term used to describe several different groups  including Wiccans  most of whom focus on positivity and using magic for good.

There was a time, however, when being considered a witch was a veritable death sentence. Take Salem Village, Massachusetts, in 1692. Two young girls, 9-year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams, began having "fits," which included body spasms and uncontrolled screaming. The town doctor diagnosed them as being afflicted by "black magic" and accused them of practicing witchcraft  a notion that didn't sit too well in the Puritan settlement.

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Contrary to legend, however, these so-called witches were not burned at the stake. In fact, none of the men, women or children accused of practicing witchcraft in Salem were killed that way. Most likely, the recounting of the Salem witch trials became intertwined with stories of actual executions by fire in Europe.

During European witch trials between the 15th and 18th centuries, people accused of witchcraft were commonly burned at the stake. Occasionally, they were hanged before being burned. The punishment was in accordance with the Holy Roman Empire's "Constitutio Criminalis Carolina" law, which contended that the punishment for witchcraft was death by fire. Church and civic leaders led the charge, executing as many as 50,000 people across Europe in what is now France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia and Scotland [sources: Andrews].

So what actually happened to the colonists accused during the Salem witch trials? Nineteen died by hanging, their bodies swaying on the infamous Gallows Hill. (Five were hanged on Aug. 19, 1692, alone.) One elderly man died when he was stoned with heavy rocks, and others died in jail while waiting for their day in court.

Bridget Bishop was the first to be hanged June 10, 1692, although her exact misdeeds seemed to amount to no more than rumor and speculation. Her case became a template for those that followed. Bishop was accused by the girls "afflicted" with black magic, but she denied their claims. Then a witness came forward to support the accusers, followed by more townspeople who described previous acts of witchcraft supposedly performed by Bishop. Bishop's trial, and those of many others accused of witchcraft, ended with a guilty verdict  no matter how improbable the evidence.

During the Salem witch trials, more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft, which amounted to nothing more than a lot of finger pointing in a short timespan. The hysteria lasted little more than a year before the local government deemed the trials a mistake and attempted to compensate the families of those that were convicted and hanged.

In 2001, more than 300 years after 19 men and women put to deaths during the Salem witch trials, five women were officially exonerated by the state of Massachusetts, including Bridget Bishop, and four others: Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Wilmot Redd and Margaret Scott. The act was approved by the state legislature and signed on Halloween.

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Originally Published: Apr 22, 2015
On the evening of July 18, the launching ceremony of "Pursuing A Dream of China  Happy Hunan" 2022 overseas Chinese media reporting tour in Hunan was held in Changsha.

On the evening of July 18, the launching ceremony of "Pursuing A Dream of China  Happy Hunan" 2022 Overseas Chinese media reporting tour in Hunan was held in Changsha. The overseas Chinese media from Malaysia, Germany, Canada, Egypt, Venezuela and other 9 countries and regions, some official media, news media from related provinces and cities, which are going to Changde, Yiyang, Zhangjiajie, Xiangxi and have an on-site interview to understand the condition of Hunan economic and social development, to experience the unique culture of Hunan and the charm of Hunan elegant demeanor, and to introduce Hunan to the world. Zuo Zhiqiang, director of the Information communication Department of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, and Sun Minsheng, Party Secretary and Vice Chairman of Hunan Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. Li Zuyuan, the vice chairman and a party members from Hunan Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, hosted the event.

Zuo Zhiqiang introduced that Hunan is the first station of this year's Pursuing a Dream  China overseas Chinese media reporting tour". In recent years, under the leadership of the party group of the Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, "Overseas Chinese Media Reporting Tour", as an important part of the brand of "Pursuing a Dream of China", has been held for more than ten sessions, and has become an activity widely concerned by overseas Chinese media and official media concerned with overseas Chinese. He hoped that friends from the media would use their unique perspectives to discover and perceive the happy, beautiful and rich Hunan. They would use their skills of feet, eyes, brains and pens to see, write and publicize more, focus and promote Hunan, and let Xiaoxiang become a beautiful name card to be able tell the story of beautiful China to the world.

"Hunan has long been known around the world as a red land and hometown of great men." Sun Minsheng introduced Hunan to a group of overseas Chinese media and reported the highlights of the work of Hunan Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese this year. Since this year, under the strong support of the leadership of the Provincial Party Committee and the Returned Overseas Chinese Federation, the provincial federation has held a series of activities around the theme of Returned Overseas Chinese heart always look forward to the Party, welcome to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, forge ahead on the new Journey", and carried out major activities such as "2022 Overseas Women's Trip to Hunan", "Returned Overseas Chinese with Hengyang city investment recruitment conference", "Hunan Returned Overseas Chinese Youth Red Classics reading and sharing session". At the same time, and Hengyang city government signed " Returned Overseas Chinese with Hengyang City" strategic cooperation framework agreement and play well "overseas card of the new era; Hengyang government held Returned Overseas Chinese" investment activities, and 8 projects settled in Hengyang with the total investment of 4.94 billion yuan and the introduction of funds 3.97 billion yuan.

Xu Bingyi, the president of Malaysian Home and Abroad magazine, and Xu Jingyu, a reporter form the people's political consultative conference news, speak on behalf of the overseas Chinese media, the official media. They state they will cherish this rare historical opportunity, photograph the scene of a moment with a camera to keep the memory eternal, and write out and send out the dazzling historical culture and modern civilization of Hunan by pens in hands. At the same time, they will also take advantage of their "overseas" advantages to promote Hunan from time and space, so that the world can better understand Hunan, remember Hunan, look forward to Hunan, invest in Hunan.
Ann Street United Methodist Church

335 Ann St., Concord. Pastor: Rev. Randy L. Wall. In person and Facebook Live worship at 11 a.m. at Ann Street Church. Sermon: Why Dont We Seek God in the Good Times? Scripture: Judges 6:1-9.

Bethpage United Methodist Church

109 Fellowship Ave. at West C Street, Kannapolis. Pastor: Rev. Cheryl Skinner. Christian education at 9 a.m. Worship at 10 a.m. As an act of caring for yourselves and others, you can choose to wear a mask during indoor worship; however, mask wearing is not required. Sermon: To Be Still and Know. Scripture: Psalm 46.

Bogers Chapel United Methodist Church

1775 Flowes Store Road E., Concord. Pastor: Eric Shaver. Adult Bible study at 9 a.m. Worship in person or on Facebook at 10 a.m. Childrens Reading: Open Your Eyes and You Will See by Cameron Sullivan. Opening Reading: Psalms 85. Sermon: Never Give Up Hope. Scripture: Hosea 1:2-10. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm3HU5f3vzQ

Calvary Lutheran Church

950 Bradley St., Concord. Pastor: Rev. Debbie Frye. In-person worship at 8:30 a.m. (casual worship) and 11 a.m. (traditional worship). Masking optional. Childrens area and nursery available. All services livestreamed and available anytime on the Calvary Lutheran YouTube channel  access easily through our website at http://www.clconcord.org. Also on Sundays at 10 a.m. is Sunday school. All are welcome.

Center United Methodist Church

1119 Union St. S., Concord. Pastor: Rev. Tony Allen. Sunday school for In Betweens and young adults at 9 a.m. Worship at 10 a.m. Nursery is provided during the worship service. Masks are optional. Website is www.centerumcconcord.org. Look forward to you joining us for our service! Sermon: A Disciplined Life. Scripture: Luke 11:1-13.

Crossroads Church

220 George W. Liles Parkway, Concord. Pastor: Lowell McNaney. Live worship streamed on Facebook, Crossroads Concord Church app or mycrossroads.co website at 9:30 a.m. and 11:11 a.m.

Crown Pointe Baptist Church

703 Tennessee St., Kannapolis. Pastor: Rev. Doug Crawley. Sunday school at 9 a.m. Worship at 10 a.m. in the sanctuary, or view online at our Facebook page. Sermon: Born Again. Scripture: John 3:7.

Eastside Missionary Baptist Church

199 Elgin Drive, Concord. Pastor: Rev. Stephen Burrow. In-person services: Sunday school at 9:30 a.m. Worship services at 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Recorded worship services and other information at EastsideMissionaryBaptist.org. You will be welcomed. Practice social distancing.

Epworth United Methodist Church

1030 Burrage Road NE, Concord. Pastor: Rev. Bill Roberts. Church has reopened its 10 a.m. worship service for attendance. Epworth UMC continues to follow the appropriate COVID-19 social distancing guidelines as outlined by the N.C. governor and the CDC. We welcome you to join us in worship! Sermon: Knock, Knock! Whos There? Scripture: Luke 11:1-13.

Forest Hill United Methodist Church

265 Union St. N., Concord. Senior pastor: Rev. Mandy Jones. Associate pastor: Rev. Wes Judy. We are open for in-person worship. Contemporary worship at 9 a.m. Sunday school/small groups at 10 a.m. Traditional worship at 11 a.m. Both the contemporary and the traditional worship services will also be livestreamed at foresthillumc.org or facebook.com/foresthillumc.

Harmony United Methodist Church

101 White St. NW, Concord. Pastor: Rev. Thad Brown. Join us for Sunday school at 10 a.m. followed by our worship service in the sanctuary at 11 a.m. Sermon: Our Kinsman Redeemer. Scripture: Matthew 5:5; Revelation 5:1; Revelation 5:1-4; Revelation 5:5; Hebrews 2:16-17; Hebrews 12:2; Revelation 5:6-10. We welcome all to join us in worship! Service is live on Facebook.com/HarmonyUnitedMethodistChurch. We welcome all who are unable to join us in person to worship with us online. For more information, call the pastor at 704-791-2883 or the church at 704-782-8237.

Jackson Park United Methodist Church

715 Mable Ave., Kannapolis. Pastor: Laurie Knoespel. Adult Sunday school at 9:30 a.m. Worship at 10:30 a.m. Nursery will be provided during worship service. Sermon Series: Christian Words and Christian Wisdom. 1st in the Series: Righteousness? The Way of the Heart.

Kirkwood Presbyterian Church

900 Klondale Ave., Kannapolis. Pastor: Rev. Dennis B. Craft. Worship at 11 a.m. in church sanctuary on Sundays. No mask restrictions. Sermon: A Friend on the Roof.

McGill Baptist Church

5300 Poplar Tent Road, Concord, in-person services. Pastor: Rev. Steve Ayers. If you have not taken the COVID-19 vaccine, wear a mask. McGill will stream a worship service Sunday at 10 a.m. on www.facebook.com/mcgillbaptistchurch/ and on YouTube. The services will be live and also available on recording afterward. Sermon: Teach Us to Pray. Scripture: Psalm 138; Colossians 2:6-19; Luke 11:1-13.

Midway United Methodist Church

108 Bethpage Road, Kannapolis. Pastor: Rev. Craig Allen. Come join us on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. for Sunday school and 10:30 a.m. for worship. Our service is also livestreamed on the web at midwayunitedmethodistchurch.org or facebook.com/midwayUMC. Sermon: Ask, Seek, Knock. Scripture: Colossians 2:6-15; Luke 11:1-13. Suggested Hymns: UMH 213, Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates; TFWS 2196, We Walk by Faith.

Mt. Mitchell United Methodist Church

6001 Old Salisbury-Concord Road, Kannapolis. Pastor: Joel Locklear. Sunday school at 10 a.m. (adult and children classes) Worship at 11 a.m. in person or on Facebook. Masks are optional and social distancing recommended. If you have not taken the COVID vaccine, wear a mask.

Multiply Church Concord

150 Warren C. Coleman Blvd. N., Concord. Pastor: Rev. Douglas Witherup. 8:30 a.m. service held at 280 Concord Parkway S., Suite 15, Concord. Services at 150 Warren C. Coleman Blvd. N., are worship and sermon at 9:30 a.m. and worship and sermon at 11:15 a.m.

New Gilead Reformed Church

2400 Old Salisbury-Concord Road. 9:40 a.m.: Bible study. 10 a.m.: Childrens Bible school. 11 a.m.: Inside worship, Facebook worship, drive-in worship at 1600 AM radio.

Oak Grove Baptist Church

200 Sims Parkway, Harrisburg. Pastor: Rev. Franklin D. Watkins. 10 a.m.: In-person worship service and Facebook Live and YouTube Live. Sermon: Suffering That Delivered Our Salvation. Scripture: Isaiah 53:4-9 (KJV).

Second Presbyterian Church

1578 Dale Earnhardt Blvd., Kannapolis. Pastor Sue Black, minister. Rev. Aaron Price, assistant minister. Worship at 11 a.m. in sanctuary and on Facebook Live. Sermon: Wisdom of God. Scripture: I Samuel 3:1-18. This Sundays service will only be available on Facebook Live at 11 a.m.

St. Johns Reformed Church901 N. Main St., Kannapolis. Pastor: Rev. Chris King. 9:30 a.m.: Sunday school for all ages. 10:30 a.m.: Worship service (in person or online at www.ourstjohns.org). 4 p.m.: Adult Bible study. Sermon: Precepts in Response. Scripture: Matthew 12:22-37.
RTHK: Russia says military aims expanding in Ukraine

Russia said on Wednesday that its military aims in Ukraine have expanded beyond the industrial Donbas region as its forces launched deadly barrages over the east and the south of the country.

The warning came as the European Commission called on EU countries to slash demand for natural gas to relieve dependence on Russian energy and the bloc agreed an embargo on Russian gold imports.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview that Moscow's military was no longer "only" focused on wresting control of the east Ukraine regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which have been partially controlled by pro-Moscow rebels for years.

"The geography is different now. It is not only about the DNR and LNR, but also the Kherson region, the Zaporizhzhia region and a number of other territories," he explained to state media.

Russian forces, since attacking Ukraine on February 24, have steadily advanced into each of those regions, wreaking destruction as they captured key cities and met fierce resistance.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba responded to Lavrov's remarks by calling on allies of his country to ramp up sanctions on Moscow and speed arms deliveries to Kyiv.

"By confessing dreams to grab more Ukrainian land, Russian Foreign Minister (Sergei Lavrov) proves that Russia rejects diplomacy and focuses on war and terror," he said.

Lavrov also dismissed the idea of further peace talks with Ukraine, claiming that earlier rounds showed Kyiv was unwilling to negotiate in "earnest".

"It doesn't make any sense in the current situation," he told state media.

Russian and Ukrainian delegations are nevertheless expected in Istanbul in the coming days for more talks on unblocking Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports.

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he hoped an agreement could be formulated "this week". (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2022-07-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
SPRINGFIELD  The U.S. Department of Agricultures National Agricultural Statistics Service will survey producers in 32 states, including Illinois, for its 2022 County Agricultural Production Survey for small grains.

The survey will collect information on total acres planted and harvested, and yield and production of small grains crops down to the county level. CAPS will provide the data needed to estimate acreage and production of selected crops such as barley, oats, and wheat in the United States.

The data provided will help federal and state programs support the farmer, said Mark Schleusener, Illinois state statistician. I hope every producer understands the importance of these data and will take the time to respond if they receive this survey.
WARREN, Mich. (AP)  In their first rollouts of electric vehicles, America's automakers targeted people who value short-range economy cars. Then came EVs for luxury buyers and drivers of pickups and delivery vans.

Now, the companies are zeroing in at the heart of the U.S. auto market: The compact SUV. In their drive to have EVs dominate vehicle sales in coming years, the automakers are promoting their new models as having the range, price and features to rival their gas-powered competitors.

Some are so far proving quite popular. Ford's $45,000-plus Mustang Mach E is sold out for the model year. On Monday night, General Motors' Chevrolet brand introduced an electric version of its Blazer, also starting around $45,000, when it goes on sale next summer.

Also coming next year: An electric Chevy Equinox, with a base price of about $30,000, whose price could give it particular appeal with modest-income households. There's also the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Volkswagen's ID.4 in the $40,000s and Nissan's upcoming Ariya around $47,000 with a lower-priced version coming.

All start off considerably less expensive than Tesla's Model Y small SUV, the current top EV seller, with a starting price well into the $60,000s.

The new models, which can get about 300 miles per electric charge, are aimed at the largest segment of the U.S. market: Modest-size SUVs, representing about 20% of new-vehicle sales. Industry experts say entering the smaller SUV segment, with its reach into a broader demographic of buyers, is sure to boost electric vehicle sales nationally.

"Going to the smaller utility segment gives you the opportunity to access the most customers in one (market) segment," said Stephanie Brinley, principal analyst for S&P Global Mobility. "To make a transition from (internal combustion engines) to electric, you have to be in more space. You have to be in more price points. You have to be in more sizes."

Brinley noted that the small and midsize SUV segments meet many people's needs, something that previous electric vehicles did not.

"If it's a price you can reach but it's a product that you can't put your kids and your dog in, you're not going to buy it," she said.

Chevrolet says the Blazer will get a minimum of 247 miles (398 kilometers) per charge. Pricier high-end versions could go up to 320 miles (515 kilometers). The Blazer will be available with Chevrolet's SS performance package with a zero-to-60 mph (97 kilometers per hour) time of under four seconds. There will be a police version, too.

"Early on, the demographic composition of an EV buyer was certainly someone that perhaps had higher education, higher household income," said Steve Majoros, Chevrolet's marketing director. "That's very indicative of early adopters. But as we move up that curve, the intention and where we're pricing this product is to certainly make it more available for more mainstream buyers."

To attract buyers of modest means, EVs need to be priced even lower, in the $30,000-to-$35,000 range, GM CEO Mary Barra said in an interview this week with The Associated Press. Electric vehicles, she said, also have to have the range and charging network so they can be the sole vehicle that some people own.

"Most electric vehicle owners today own multiple vehicles, so they have an internal combustion vehicle to jump into depending on their needs," Barra said.

Automakers have been pushing to fully restore a $7,500 tax credit for people who buy EVs to jump-start sales. But the measure is stalled in Congress. It's especially important for GM, Tesla and Toyota, which have maxxed out the number of credits they are allowed and can no longer offer them to buyers. Other automakers are approaching the limit, too.

Money for the credits, as well as funding for additional EV charging stations, was in President Joe Biden's $1.8 trillion "Build Back Better" social and environment bill, which is all but dead because of the objections of Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat.

Last week, Manchin also rejected a slimmed-down version that included provisions to combat climate change. He indicated his support for just two items from Biden's broader agenda: Reducing prescription drug costs and bolstering subsidies for families to buy health insurance. His vote in an evenly split Senate would be needed for anything to pass.

Even without the tax credit, the industry's march toward electric vehicles is moving apace. Edmunds.com says electric vehicles now account for about 5% of U.S. new vehicle sales with 46 models on sale. S&P's Brinley foresees the market share rising to 8% next year, 15% by 2025 and 37% by 2030.
You may have seen some old-time movie footage of two railroad trains barreling toward each other with the viewers expectations of a calamitous wreck. Farmers know what will result, because they see themselves standing on the track between the locomotives. And they are the point of impact.

As they awake from such a nightmare, nearly every farmer knows it not only could happen to their operational plans, but likely already have experienced the financially painful pinch.

First, the issue was COVID, and while 2020 preparations were underway for spring fieldwork, crop input suppliers called and asked for second and third choices for crop chemicals and fertilizers, because supply chains had broken, chemical ingredients had not been delivered from China, and deliveries of needed products could not be guaranteed.

And since many of those farmers had booked grain for sale to elevators or processors, they were between the two locomotives blowing their whistles at each other, with only the farmer hearing the warning.

Now, new roadblocks to full farm production are coming down the track.

Farmers have learned to live with regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency. (It's not going away, and they have to deal with it, regardless of the pain.) But recently, farmers are learning that when the EPA issues its approval for a crop protection chemical, there is no guarantee that it will stay in place long enough for the product to be ordered and applied to their field.

Along come the federal courts which have demonstrated they supersede the EPA authority and can turn a farmers weed control program completely upside down. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, has been the primary target of the courts for years, where glyphosate opponents have taken their complaints for whatever reason. But everyone has that right.

But lately, when the EPA has reviewed glyphosate at the direction of the court, and approved its continued use by farmers, the courts have quickly told the EPA to go back and do it all over and return with a different conclusion. At some point, whether it is a decision by the EPA or the makers of glyphosate, that decision will be, Were done, were not fighting the battle any further, it is too expensive and time-consuming. You win. Glyphosate may soon be a big footnote in history.

Farmers will not be surprised if that happens, but will feel like they have been standing at the point of a monumental train wreck. The recurring nightmare.

And its happening again.

One of the most frequently reviewed herbicides has been atrazine, which the EPA has analyzed and approved many times over several decades. But after a recent approval, the EPA has been ordered by the White House to look at it again because of concerns expressed by political constituents. No federal lawsuits, just a letter with an important signature.

University of Illinois weed specialist Aaron Hager said hes concerned about the political nature of the issue, because That usually does not end well for the product.

(Imagine the sound of a monumental train wreck.)
There was no such thing as a summer break for the 65 students in the Summer Enrichment Musical Theatre Program.

Over the course of 12 days, students in the program hustled to learn what it takes to stage a 2-hour musical  the dialogue, the lighting, the choreography, the music, the movements, the set design.

We go from Nice to meet you. Welcome to Summer Enrichment to OK, its time to get on stage, said Amanda Nelson, a dance teacher who is in her 11th year with the program.

The result of all that cramming is Elf The Musical, which wraps up its three-day run Wednesday at Reynolds Auditorium on the campus of Reynolds High School. Showtime is 7 p.m.

The musical is based on the 2003 movie starring Will Ferrell.

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools musical theatre program has been staging productions for 61 years, with many former campers going on to careers in theater.

Its huge, Nelson said of the impact the program has on students. I see all these kids who are grown up and are working in the industry and living their dreams out. They started here, and it was a little spark.

This years performance is a return to normal, with a bigger cast performing without masks and a live orchestra, most of whom are students.

The musical was canceled in 2020 and scaled back last year because of COVID-19.

This years production is a delight, with big chorus line routines and swinging numbers that highlight the incredible range of the students, including Alex Knott (Buddy), Quinn Kinser (Emily) and Arizona Hall (Jovie).

For students, the camp is a chance to collaborate with students and teachers from across the district as well as tap into the expertise of professionals from the UNC School the Arts, who advise on set design.

This camp has resources that individual schools might not have, said Robert Johnston, an administrator with the Summer Enrichment Program. Were in one of the best auditoriums around, and from a technical side, theres more you can do. Its a really unique opportunity.

This years musical theatre program was open to students in grades 6-12. They worked in all sorts of areas from acting to lighting to set design and sound.

With guidance from about 10 teachers from various schools and a handful of interns, the students were in camp from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday-Thursday. They had three weeks to learn the musical, a tech week on the stage of the historic auditorium and three days of performances, adding up to quite an exhaustive period during what is supposed to be a time of relaxation for many students.

Chadwick Holmes, a student at West Forsyth High School, said after Mondays performance that the camp has taught him several lessons.

Its taught me to persevere and has given me something to commit to and a lot of confidence, Holmes said.

C. Douglas Carter, after whom Carter Vocational High School is named, started the musical theatre program in 1960. Former campers include such folks as Michael Wilson, a playwright and director who has worked on Broadway.

In a story on the 50th anniversary of the musical theatre program, Wilson told the Winston-Salem Journal that the camp felt like a home.

Without that program, I wouldnt have developed the discipline and the awareness of the hard work that it takes to be a professional in the theater, Wilson said. It was like boot camp.

More recent alumni include Shayne Maggard, who graduated from High Point University with degrees in theater and Spanish. A 2018 graduate of East Forsyth High School, Maggard had roles in three musicals and worked as an intern for another.

It taught me how to learn a role quickly because you have such a short period of time, said Maggard, who recently performed in Bright Star at the Kernersville Little Theatre.

Maggard was at Mondays show to support her brother, Dane, who played Santa Claus; and Layne who played Sara.

Its crazy to see the younger kids I was with still doing the program, Maggard said. We all remember each other. It truly is a family.

Alex Fus, who studied drama at UNC Asheville, said students become good friends, despite the age differences.

There are people still in the program that I like to keep up with, said Fus, a 2018 graduate of Reynolds High School. I consider them my friends despite them being four or five years younger than me.

Nelson said that around this time each year, former campers tap into her social media feeds, reminiscing about their experiences.

Its evolved into this great community family, Nelson said.

Theresa Philips attended Mondays show to watch her daughter, Tiana Jenkins, a rising sixth grader at Meadowlark Middle School.

She loves it. This is in her wheelhouse, Philips said of her budding theater kid. Im not sure what were going to do when its over.
GREENSBORO  Local health officials have provided details about a case involving someone testing positive in Guilford County for the monkeypox virus.

The person is a resident of another state and information about when the testing was completed is not being released to protect patient privacy, according to a spokeswoman for the Guilford County Health Department. Positive cases are reported in a persons county of residence, so this case will not be added to North Carolinas count  which was 20 as of Tuesday.

We can confirm that all isolation and infection prevention guidance is currently being observed and implemented, Kenya Smith Godette, communications manager for Guilfords health department, said in an email.

The case was first mentioned by Dr. Iulia Vann, director of the county health department, when asked for an update about monkeypox during a recent meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.

The health department is working to educate providers and the community about monkeypox symptoms, prevention and treatment.

Monkeypox symptoms are similar to that of smallpox but milder, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms can include: fever, headache, muscle aches and backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills, exhaustion and a rash that can look like pimples or blisters.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services states on its website that the virus does not spread easily between people, but transmission can occur through contact with body fluids, monkeypox sores, items that have been contaminated with fluids or sores (clothing, bedding, etc.) or through respiratory droplets following prolonged face-to-face contact.

If someone suspects they have monkeypox or have been exposed, they should call their doctor immediately, describe their symptoms and request to be tested, according to local health department officials.

They should always call and set an appointment when possible and refrain from simply walking into a clinic, Godette said. The health care providers need notice to make sure their clinics remain safe for other patients.

Vann told commissioners last week that she felt like her team was prepared to address any monkeypox cases. She said Guilford is working with Forsyth County, which is the closest of seven counties across North Carolina with an initial vaccine supply allocated by the federal government.

Cone Health also is working with area county health departments to prepare for any monkeypox cases.

On its website, the DHHS is tracking and displaying the number of monkeypox cases across the state. Other details can be found on the CDC website at cdc.gov.
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LOS ANGELES  San Diego Comic-Con International is upping its coronavirus screenings in the wake of the latest viral surge across California.

Comic-Con is set to return to the San Diego Convention Center July 21-24. It's the first full-scale event since 2019, when more than 130,000 attendees from over 30 countries flocked to downtown San Diego for the typically annual celebration.

Attendees must wear an approved face covering regardless of vaccination status. Mesh coverings, neck gaiters, damaged or torn coverings and face coverings with breathing valves won't be accepted.

Masks should "completely cover the nose and mouth, fit snugly against the sides of the face, and not have any gaps," organizers wrote on the Comic-Con website.

Attendees also will have to provide proof that they are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, or submit a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours. Guests who don't comply will be removed from the venue, although ticketholders who test positive for the virus within 72 hours can request a full refund by emailing refunds@comic-con.org.

"We are excited to gather again after such a long hiatus," the con website said. "But we want to be sure everyone who attends is as safe as possible. We will continue to update our website as new information becomes available, so be sure to check this page often for the most up-to-date protocols."

The news comes as state officials warned the current coronavirus surge may even top last winter's Omicron wave. L.A. County currently averages about 6,900 coronavirus cases a day  nearly double the peak from last summer's surge  but because at-home coronavirus test results often are not reported, many fear the true number of cases is significantly higher.

"When you look at the [coronavirus] case counts, they're no longer reliable. There are tremendous undercounts," Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the UC San Francisco Department of Medicine, said at a campus town hall Friday. "And the number of cases now probably is not all that dissimilar to what we saw during the massive surge in December and January."
Local COVID-19 case counts stabilized last week, but the number of hospitalizations has started to rise significantly.

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department reported 656 cases last week, a roughly 2% decline from the 671 cases the previous week.

The test positivity rate was down slightly, while the number of virus particles found in wastewater sampling declined by 20%, which are both potential signs that case numbers could be leveling off.

However, the number of people hospitalized because of COVID-19 rose to the highest level in nearly five months.

As of Monday, there were 57 COVID-19 patients in Lincoln hospitals, the highest number since Feb. 20, although that number dropped to 44 as of Tuesday. Hospital numbers have doubled over the past three weeks, and the average number of patients grew to 47 as of Tuesday, up from 39 last week.

The Health Department kept its risk dial in the low orange range for the second week in a row, which indicates a high risk of virus spread.

However, the Centers for Disease Control recently moved Lancaster County into the medium category for transmission under its community levels, which are based on hospital capacity and case counts. The county had been in the low category for several months.

More than half the counties in Nebraska are now in the medium or high category, according to the CDC, as the virus continues to spread in the state.

The CDC recorded 4,030 new cases in Nebraska in the week that ended Friday, up from 3,535 the previous week and 3,474 the week before that. The rise in cases is likely due to more contagious variants. According to data from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, the BA. 5 omicron variant made up 52% of all cases last week.

Hospitalizations continued to rise as well, with the CDC reporting an average of 176 patients statewide on Friday, up from an average of 168 the previous week.

Hospital numbers are higher than they were at this time last year, but patients tend to be less sick, Dr. Renuga Vivekanandan, chief of infectious diseases at CHI Health-Creighton University, said through a spokeswoman.

As of Tuesday, CHI Health reported 67 total COVID-19 patients, including 14 at CHI Health St. Elizabeth. Only six of those 67 patients are in intensive care, and none are on ventilators.

Vivekanandan said she continues to see more unvaccinated patients in the hospital than those who have gotten either full or partial vaccinations, and she stressed the importance of getting vaccinated and/or boosted.

Bryan Health reported 25 COVID-19 patients as of Tuesday, with two on ventilators.

Since the beginning of June, the number of COVID-19 patients at the hospital system has averaged somewhere between the lower teens and upper 20s.

The majority of the current patients are older, with 20, or 80%, 65 or older, and at least partially vaccinated, according to data on Bryan's website.

Dr. John Trapp, Bryan's chief medical officer, said the vast majority of hospitalized patients are either older or immunocompromised.

"We're typically not seeing robustly healthy individuals in the hospital," Trapp said.

He also said hospitalized patients typically are not as sick as they have been in past waves and require fewer critical care interventions such as the ICU or ventilation.

Trapp said he suspects that most of the cases are likely caused by either the BA.4 or BA.5 variants, which in addition to being more infectious, also have shown a better ability to evade immunity provided by vaccination or previous infection.
A pickup stolen from a Lincoln car lot in June was recovered last week in Minneapolis, Minnesota, damaged by gunfire.

Lincoln Police Sgt. Chris Vollmer said police are asking for the public's help in identifying the man seen in security video stealing the 2015 Chevy Silverado 2500 parked on LAX Auto's lot at 400 W. Cornhusker Highway.

He said on the morning of June 7, the business reported the theft of the truck, valued at $52,900.

In video, they learned a man had driven up around 4:45 a.m. in a 2007 Ford Silverado F250 and backed the truck into an overhead door, raising it enough for him to get inside and get keys for a truck on the lot.

He left the pickup he'd come in on the lot. Vollmer said it had been stolen a day earlier from Anderson Ford at 2500 Wildcat Drive.
The U.S. Department of Education has relaxed the rules for certain student loan borrowers to apply for forgiveness, but those changes will only remain in effect until Oct. 31.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program allows qualifying borrowers to apply to have their Direct Loan debt canceled if they have routinely made payments while doing public interest work.

Launched in 2007 and administered by the education departments Federal Student Aid office, the program was designed to steer graduates into careers as educators, librarians, nurses, the military and other public service jobs.

If those individuals, who took out Direct Loans from the education department remain employed at least 30 hours a week in those careers for 10 years, or make 120 payments, they can apply to have their debt erased.

Beginning Oct. 6, 2021, the education department enacted temporary rules that allow for any period of repayment before the program began in 2007 to receive credit toward forgiveness, regardless of the loan program, repayment plan or whether payment was made in full or on time.

The change only applies to borrowers with Direct Loans, however. Those with Federal Family Education Loans, Federal Perkins Loans or other types of federal student loans are encouraged to consolidate them into a Direct Loan before Oct. 31, 2022, so they might qualify for forgiveness.

Consolidation can be completed relatively quickly  in a few weeks, said Mike Baumgartner, executive director of Nebraska's Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education.

To apply for the program, borrowers are encouraged to submit an application at studentaid.gov.

Baumgartner said federal education department's relaxing of the rules will open the door for more borrowers to potentially qualify for loan forgiveness.

There were a lot of students who might not have applied, who might have found it too difficult or onerous because they werent into the Direct Loan program, Baumgartner said. This is an opportunity for them to take advantage of this one-time waiver of the normal rules.

Across the U.S., more than 145,000 borrowers have had the remainder of their debt forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, while more than 715,000 borrowers have had their paperwork processed.

The average debt forgiven in the program is just shy of $65,000.

Nebraska borrowers who have had their loans forgiven fall slightly below the national average at $61,000.

As of May, a total of 1,080 borrowers in Nebraska have had a total of $65.9 million in student loans discharged through the program, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the program is among the Biden administration's efforts to make college more affordable and accessible in the U.S.

At a speech before state higher education officers last week, Cardona said the education department wants to help individuals "who choose public service not because of the money but because they want to make their community better."

Those individuals should see if they qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, he added.

"We need your help to get the word out so more people take advantage of it," he said.
LEXINGTON  A Lexington man has been sentenced to 18-20 years in the 2021 shooting death of a 15-year-old Lexington resident.

Ramon Gonzalez Romero, now 20, had been charged with first-degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony but accepted a plea deal that lowered the charge to manslaughter. The second charge was dropped.

During sentencing Friday, Dawson County District Court Judge James Doyle sentenced Romero to 18-20 years in prison; he was given credit for 559 days served.

According to the Lexington Police Department, on Jan. 2, 2021, police received a call that there was a 15-year-old Lexington resident with a possible gunshot wound at Lexington Regional Health Center.

Officers spoke with two individuals who reported a physical altercation had taken place near Airport Road and 20th Street.

Romero had exited a white SUV and fired three rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun at the 15-year-old, according to the affidavit for arrest.

The 15-year-old was transported to the hospital by friends but was pronounced dead.

Officers interviewed one of the three occupants of the SUV who had been riding with Romero before the altercation took place.

The occupant reported they had been driving around when they started being followed by a black Chevy pickup, whose occupants were the 15-year-old and the two individuals officers had spoken to earlier.

The vehicles stopped around 20th Street and Airport Road, and one of the SUV occupants reported that at the beginning of the altercation the 15-year-old had a black handgun, according to the affidavit.

After Romero had fired the shots, occupants of the SUV asked him, did you really just shoot him, to which Romero replied, Yeah, I did, according to the affidavit.
OMAHA -- An Omaha woman who abandoned her baby after giving birth on a sidewalk pleaded no contest Monday to felony child abuse.

Trinity Shakespeare, 28, will be sentenced in September. She had pleaded not guilty to the charge in March before accepting a plea deal.

Shakespeare was arrested in February after officers found her newborn baby boy alone on a sidewalk near 24th and P Streets. According to an affidavit, she delivered the child there in 15-degree weather before running away from the scene and hiding in a nearby backyard.

Bystanders called 911 and covered the baby with blankets, but the affidavit says he was exposed to the cold for about five minutes. The baby survived and was treated at the Nebraska Medical Center.

Shakespeares sister told the World-Herald that she had been homeless for about four years at the time she gave birth. Prosecutors say Shakespeare told a friend that she had used methamphetamine during her pregnancy. She also told police that she drank alcohol to cope with painful cramps, according to the affidavit.

The State of Nebraska initially was granted custody of the child, but the case has since been transferred to the Wind River Tribal Court in Fort Washakie, Wyoming.
Kat Woerner has learned not to use the words climate change when talking about climate change with some Nebraska politicians.

The 22-year-old environmental advocate said the words have a stigma that causes many conservative lawmakers to shut down as soon as they hear them.

These roadblocks have been on display in the Nebraska Legislature, which has made little to no progress in approving climate change legislation in recent years, despite pleas from scientists and advocates. A rare exception came earlier this year when lawmakers appropriated up to $150,000 in federal funding for an update to a statewide climate change report.

Though experts and some lawmakers say much more work is needed, there are several notable details about the planned update. Unlike the initial statewide climate change study completed in 2014, the update will involve students  an effort to harness the passion of younger Nebraskans  and it will provide lawmakers with recommendations for combating climate change. It also will be better funded.

That original study was slated to receive about $40,000 of state funding under legislation passed in 2013, but the states sponsorship of the study stalled due to a key stipulation. Retired University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor Don Wilhite said the legislation limited the study to consider only the natural causes of climate change  effectively barring researchers from looking into the human causes.

Because of this, when the Nebraska Department of Agriculture asked him to lead the study, Wilhite refused.

That was just incomprehensible to me, Wilhite said.

Other prominent Nebraska scientists shared Wilhites misgivings. He worried that the state would end up with an unqualified person leading the study, so he went to UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green to request an independent university study, and received $20,000 for the project. The study was published in September 2014.

With significantly more funding this time around, researchers will have more resources at their disposal. The funding from the state doesnt limit what causes of climate change can be included in the updated report.

Martha Shulski, a professor at UNL and director of the Nebraska State Climate Office, is heading the project, which is slated to wrap up by the end of 2024. She said some of the funding will be used to conduct surveys related to the study, while other expenses will be devoted to building an online interface that will serve as an interactive tool people can use to understand the studys main points.

Shulski also hopes to involve students in the update  people like Woerner, a recent UNL graduate. She is even considering creating a graduate-level course to allow students to do literary research for the study, she said.

Were at a university, so lets involve these passionate, young students, Shulski said.

Although there are many older Nebraskans who participate in climate change research and mitigation, younger generations are becoming increasingly invested in the issue. Shulski said students in her freshman-level courses have expressed anxiety about climate change. Students even younger than that have advocated for action by the Nebraska Legislature.

At a March 16 hearing, grade-school students from Lincolns Prairie Hill Learning Center pleaded with lawmakers on Nebraskas Natural Resources Committee to pass a resolution that would acknowledge that the world is in a climate and ecological crisis that was caused by humans and that lawmakers have a moral obligation to take steps to mitigate the crisis.

It is the smallest step you can take in the right direction, student Alex Hamric told lawmakers.

Committee members didnt have much to say in response.

Of the eight-member committee, only state Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha asked any questions. He asked if the students had any suggestions for what the Legislature could do to combat the crisis. Willa Hamric, Alexs twin, suggested the state expand on its wind energy potential.

The hearing was the last time Nebraska lawmakers considered the resolution. A vote was never taken.

Woerner, who has advocated for environmental policies to a range of public officials in Nebraska since she was 16, and others said the outcome reflected the frustrating reality when it comes to climate change and Nebraska politics.

While funding the updated study is a step in the right direction, Wilhite said the Legislature may actually be regressing in its willingness to pass climate change legislation, with more lawmakers outspoken in their denial on the issue, and fewer lawmakers making it a top priority.

Woerner said the Legislature is full of climate change deniers, several of whom serve on the Natural Resources Committee.

Sen. Bruce Bostelman, chair of the committee, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the subject.

Nebraskas political system is not built for change, Wilhite said.

Since the beginning of his legislative career in 2021, Cavanaugh said, climate change bills have never made it out of the Natural Resources Committee. Though some environmentally friendly bills have passed in recent years, he said none of them have included the words climate change. Multiple attempts to create a statewide climate action plan, including one bill introduced by Cavanaugh, have failed to advance.

A 2020 bill made it out of committee but was later killed by a filibuster. Opponents, led by a couple of conservative lawmakers from rural Nebraska, questioned the need for the plan and its $250,000 cost. They argued the planet is in an active weather cycle caused by nature and called the link between human activity and more extreme weather a hoax.

Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln, who introduced the bill that funded the updated study, said although some lawmakers may be reluctant to share their thoughts on climate change, he believes a majority of them acknowledge its existence. Newly elected U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, a former conservative lawmaker in the Legislature, was a co-sponsor of Bostars bill, he said.

Bostar said recent extreme weather has created a concerning motivation for even more lawmakers to take a more active role.

Nebraska is already feeling the impacts of climate change. The current drought and the devastating floods in 2019 are both symptoms of the larger issue, Woerner said.

Without significant changes, climate change will likely have a major impact on Nebraskas driving economic force: agriculture.

Shulski and Wilhite expect the state to experience steadily rising temperatures over the coming years  with more frequent heavy rainfall and droughts that could contribute to extreme weather events like floods and tornadoes  if no progress is made.

The extremes that we experience now, those are going to be amplified, Shulski said.

In another difference from the original study, the update will include recommendations on what the state can do to combat climate change. Both Shulski and Wilhite said the state should prioritize development of a climate change action plan, which lays out gradual steps for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Lincoln already has its own plan in place, and Omaha officials are working on one, though progress has been slow. Omaha City Council President Pete Festersen said a statewide plan could make a big difference, giving communities a framework to align with the states top priorities.

However, Bostar said the new study could essentially serve as Nebraskas climate action plan, because it will include recommendations for the Legislature to consider.

Cavanaugh said the Legislatures top priority should be implementing the recommendations of the new study. Though it wouldnt hurt, a climate action plan would only be an in-between step, he said.

Regardless of what form changes come in, Wilhite said change must happen soon to prevent an oncoming crisis that younger generations will have to deal with. He said experts estimate significant mitigation measures must be implemented by 2030 to avoid or limit catastrophic damage due to climate change.

The idea of ignoring something like its going to go away is just not appropriate, Wilhite said.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey have joined the expanding research effort at AltEn to better understand how pesticides used widely in seed treatments move across the landscape.

And, by scouring creek beds, studying food webs and sampling tap water from homes near the former ethanol plant, the U.S. Department of the Interiors lead science agency hopes to gain more clarity into the final fate of those chemicals in the environment.

The results of the study could inform new laws or help guide future cleanup efforts of the AltEn site, said Brenda Densmore, an associate director of hydrological studies at the Nebraska Water Science Center, a USGS office located in Lincoln.

We provide the science to say what is there, Densmore said, adding policymakers and managers will then interpret the science to make decisions on how to act.

AltEn, which opened in 2015, was forced to close by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy in 2021 following mounting violations of state environmental regulations.

The former biofuel plant used seeds coated in neonicotinoids  a class of pesticides similar to nicotine that overstimulate insects nervous systems, leading to their death  to produce ethanol, which in turn left behind toxic solid and liquid waste.

Since the shutdown, focus has turned to cleaning up the stockpiles of waste at the site just south of Mead  a task taken on by six seed industry companies that formerly used AltEn to dispose of unplanted seeds  as well as determining how far chemicals from the plant have traveled off-site.

To that end, a team of researchers from across the University of Nebraska and Creighton University began collecting samples from the air, surface and groundwater, as well as animals and pollinators shortly after the plant closed, and shared their preliminary findings at a town hall meeting in June.

That work will continue for at least one more year with a $1 million appropriation from the Legislature.

While USGS had been involved in research at AltEn before the plant closed  results gathered from UNL entomologist Judy Wu-Smarts team, which discovered high concentrations of pesticides following massive die-offs of honey bee hives, have been analyzed in a USGS lab  the agency has taken a more proactive role beginning earlier this year.

The research has included collecting samples of surface water both upstream of AltEn, where those channels are likely to be unaffected, as well as from affected channels like Johnson Creek, said Dana Kolpin, a hydrologist based at the Central Midwest Water Science Center in Iowa City.

USGS partnered with UNL to collect preliminary samples both of the water and sediment from the bottom of the creek in March before spring planting occurred in order to better understand what level of neonics exist on the landscape.

We already know neonics are getting into the stream based on typical farming practices, but we have this higher source being laid over the typical signature and thats what were trying to understand, Kolpin said, adding a second round of sampling was conducted in May after the planting season.

This summer, with the help of university research teams, Kolpin will begin collecting and examining organisms that illustrate the food web that exists in areas potentially affected by AltEn, as well as those that were not affected.

Theyll start by collecting macroinvertebrate organisms  worms, larvae and snails, to name a few  that spend part of their lives in the water as well as the terrestrial spiders that feed on them. The team will also gather fish and other aquatic animals to sample.

Building the food web and charting the complex interactions will help develop an understanding of how neonicotinoids in particular are transported from organism to organism and what that might mean for the future of the ecosystem.

Kolpin said USGS will also compare the diversity between areas that were potentially exposed to high concentrations of neonics running off the AltEn site and those that were not, as well as in areas surrounding other biofuel plants that produce ethanol through more traditional methods.

Were already looking at an ethanol plant where they arent taking (neonicotinoid-coated seeds), he said. Now that (AltEns) process has stopped, theres still a lot of wet cake around, so I think that signature is still there. The plant is shut down, but that doesnt mean the problem has stopped.

Meanwhile, similar to the study being conducted by NU, the USGS is also seeking to gain understanding about the role AltEn may play in human health.

Paul Bradley, a research ecologist and hydrologist based in Columbia, South Carolina, said part of USGSs mission is to support decision makers and public health researchers in understanding how exposure to potential contaminants leads to adverse health outcomes in humans.

Earlier this summer, capitalizing on contacts made by UNL and UNMC, Bradley and his team have collected samples at the point of contamination  roughly 25 bottles at each home participating in the study to look for 500 different organic compounds, as well as 35 inorganic compounds.

Speaking to residents, Bradley said every individual is concerned about their potential exposure.

Were collecting samples at the point of contamination so youre getting what the actual final exposure looks like, Bradley said. Thats done at peoples kitchen sink, where theyre actually getting water for drinking and cooking.

The water studies will continue along with USGSs ongoing support analyzing animal samples, which includes examining red wing blackbird eggs, tadpoles, honey bees and vegetation collected from areas near AltEn.

Michelle Hladik, a research chemist at the California Water Science Center in Sacramento who studies the fate and transport of pesticides and other contaminants, said the samples from AltEn and the surrounding area will be compared to samples gathered from other sites.

This is the Midwest  theres lots of corn and soy  so just because you detect pesticides that are indicative of a seed coating, it could be from some other use than the plants, Hladik said.

So its important that the scientists take their time to get the right data to place it in the right context, she added, and follow the science where it leads.

That can make for a time-consuming process, Densmore said, which can be stressful when there is potentially an adverse human health effect.

While the data will ultimately be compiled and shared publicly, USGS will be in communication with residents about the results, she said.

If we do see results come across our desks that are above some sort of human health standard, or some sort of standard set by federal agencies or local agencies, then well reach out and contact those people, Densmore said.
RACINE  City of Racine voters on Nov. 8 will get to weigh in, again, on whether they believe marijuana should be legalized. The vote will have no direct effect on actual laws.

It gives us a good litmus test of where our voters are at right now, District 11 Alderman CJ Rouse said.

On Tuesday evening, the Common Council passed a resolution that will allow an advisory referendum to be placed on the Nov. 8 election ballot.

The referendum, passing with a vote of 10-2, will give the electorate an opportunity to vote yes or no on the legalization and regulation of the adult use of marijuana in the State of Wisconsin.

This referendum will essentially be a repeat of a 2018 county-wide referendum where nearly 59% of Racine County residents said marijuana should be legalized for recreational use for adults.

The upcoming referendum only serves an advisory purpose. It could be used to gauge public opinion, but the city cannot legalize marijuana on its own; that decision remains with the state legislature and/or federal government.

This is one way to look at what our people want, said Alderman Sam Peete, District 10.

Alderman Henry Perez, District 12, vehemently disagreed with the referendum and opposes the legalization of marijuana. He and Alderman Terry McCarthy voted against the referendum.

Perez, a retired Miami police officer, said I have arrested many people for the use of marijuana. Ive found them stopped at traffic lights, blocking traffic because they were in a daze.

He recounted the story of, while serving as a police officer, breaking into a room where a young man, very smart, who had several patents who had been smoking and was threatening to kill himself and his family. Perez blamed that situation on the drug use.

Few long-term studies of marijuana use have been conducted due to how strict the federal governments classification of marijuana has been for decades.

Perez noted that it could be a positive thing to legalize marijuana in terms of state revenue, noting that many people still do it even though its illegal. But we cant just (legalize marijuana) because a lot of people do it  we have to do whats right. If theyre thinking about the economy, fine, lets find another way to raise 10 million dollars a month.

The referendum  sponsored by Mayor Cory Mason, Rouse, Peete, District 8 Alderman Marcus West and District 4 Alderman Amanda Paffrath  states that a study in late 2021 by municipal bond strategists at Barclays and reported in Fortune Magazine suggests that by 2030 states that have legalized marijuana and regulate its sale may realize $12 billion per year in tax revenue.

The referendum also noted that the time law enforcement spends enforcing existing marijuana laws and ordinances negatively impacts the time available to solve more serious crimes and apprehend more dangerous criminals.

During Tuesdays meeting, Perez alleged that there is a connection between marijuana users and more dangerous criminals. I bet that if you do a study of those dangerous criminals, they start and continue to use marijuana.

In the state budget passed last year, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers proposed legalizing marijuana, knowing that the Republican-led legislature would take the proposal out of the final version.

Nineteen states, including Illinois and Michigan, now have legalized recreational marijuana and 37 have legalized medicinal marijuana.
Voter fraud! Voter fraud!

Yeah, weve been treated to those accusations repeatedly in the two years since ex-president Donald Trump lost narrowly to President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Its almost become white noise  endless white noise. The fact is that voter fraud is extremely rare here in Wisconsin and multiple reviews and audits have found no widespread fraud in the state or anywhere else.

Local elections clerks in Wisconsin referred only 12 cases to prosecutors related to the 2020 general election, out of 3.3 million cast.

Still, a recent news story out of Fond du Lac County caught our eye. It detailed how a Fond du Lac woman, Jamie Wells, and her husband, were in hot water and facing prosecution by District Attorney Eric Toney because they used the address of a UPS Store in Fond du Lac  and not a residential address as required by state law  when they registered to vote in the 2020 election.

The couple faces up to three and a half years in prison and maximum fines of $10,000 each if convicted. They said they have received help from relatives and expect legal bills close to $17,000.

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  the couple lives in a 42-foot pull-behind camper because his work on farms takes them all over the state.

In a bit of irony, given that its mostly Trump supporters who have consistently raised complaints of voter fraud, Wells said she and her husband probably lean Republican but had never been politically active, but they were motivated to vote in 2020 because they thought Trump was a better candidate.

Now, she says, she may never vote again.

Tomey has drawn heat for his decision to prosecute the couple, along with three others in the county who used UPS addresses to register to vote. Ion Meyn, an assistant law professor at the University of Wisconsin, called the cases in Fond du Lac a real abuse of (prosecutorial) discretion.

Here you have a prosecutor who is taking a really tortured view, in my mind, of what this provision (in the statute) means. I just find that so irresponsible, Meyn said.

The Wisconsin Watch news report also noted Toney was a Republican candidate for state attorney general and this spring at the Republican state convention, pushed his reputation as one of the most aggressive prosecutors of election fraud in the state.

We were all ready to get out the bucket of tar and a few bags of feathers over the idea of a candidate for office using the prosecution of a state couple to advance his political career over an innocent mistake on an address. Thats especially so since they are U.S. citizens and have a right to vote.

But the thing is, DA Tomey has a point. As he said in February when he first filed the charges, Even if a person doesnt have a stable residence, theyre still able to vote; theyre still able to register, its just a question of making sure you do it lawfully and not listing a P.O. Box because when youre registering to vote you clearly dont live at a P.O. box.

That can be particularly important in races for local offices where the registered address determines who can vote in which races  aldermanic, school board, county supervisor, judges, village boards and even referendums. If youve given a UPS address as your residence, you may not be entitled to cast that ballot.

The issue is probably more widespread than most realize. In La Crosse County, the district attorney found 15 cases where people used UPS store addresses and then voted. The DA declined to prosecute saying they were a mistake and not voter fraud. Theres no way a jury would say they intentionally did something to fool anybody.

We agree with that. But, we also acknowledge that its important to discourage the use of false addresses for voter registration  whether it be UPS stores or anywhere else.

Tomey has made his point; now we would hope he would show a little prosecutorial discretion and walk away from harsh prosecution for an unintended mistake.
1. Yes. The new high school has made it a must. Thousands of people are impacted..

2. Yes. Even if it means revising some budgets, these entities must move on the project.

3. No. Its been known for years that the road was a problem.. Why the urgency now?

4. No. If prioritizing the road means more taxes, forget it. The project will just have to wait.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say until school has been in session for a few months.

Vote

View Results
KEARNEY  Cruise Nite activities again saw thousands of participants, attendees, volunteers and residents come together for a safe and enjoyable weekend.

Even with the thunderstorm that moved in and cooled off Kearney Saturday night, there were no major concerns or incidents related to the event this year, according to an activity report from the Kearney Police Department.

We received excellent cooperation with the community, the businesses and citizens, both from Kearney and those that came to Kearney to enjoy the activities, said KPD Chief Bryan Waugh. Members of KPD and our partner agencies deployed resources, extra officers, and technology in preparation for the annual Cruise Nite event.

Waugh said effective planning, preparation and community cooperation contributed to safety and enjoyment.

I appreciate the hard work from our staff and the continued support of all our partners. While mother nature impacted the event on Saturday evening, were thankful for the opportunity to interact and engage with our community during this event and always, Waugh said.

There were 252 calls for service between 6 p.m. Friday through 6 a.m. Sunday.

KPD investigated eight traffic accidents and performed 118 traffic stops during that time.

These numbers reflect only statistics from KPD. Law officers from KPD, Buffalo County Sheriffs Office, Nebraska State Patrol and University of Nebraska at Kearney worked together for Cruise Nite.

A summary of the weekend activity related to the event includes:

- Traffic Activity: 93 written warnings and 17 uniform traffic citations; six traffic signal/stop sign violations; 33 speeding violations; 11 invalid registrations

- Criminal Activity: Six narcotics violations; two assaults; nine disturbances; six vandalisms; and one liquor law violation.
KEARNEY  Imagine a preschooler receiving a free book in the mail every month.

That can begin early this fall for homes in the 68845 and 68847 zip codes.

The Kearney Noon Rotary Club is partnering with international Dolly Parton Imagination Library to provide this service for children aged 0 to 5. There are no income guidelines.

Parents may register starting July 29 on the Kearney Noon Rotary Facebook page.

All a parent has to do is sign up, said Carol Renner, chairman of the project for Noon Rotary. A child will receive an age-appropriate book every month until he or she turns 5 years old, as long as funding goes on.

Dolly Partons Imagination Library is a program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth to age five regardless of their parents income. The books are financed through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Foundation. Its Board of Reading Specialists selects titles for children at each age level. The list of books is available on its site.

Renner, a retired associate superintendent with Kearney Public Schools, learned about the program several years ago and suggested that Rotary help bring it to fruition. All books are free, but Rotary will cover the postage, which is approximately $2.10 per book.

The Kearney Noon Rotary Club signed an agreement to partner with the DPIL and participate in the Book Software System, which keeps databases for mailing and registration.

Being an educator, I have my heart in preschool area. The club determined that this is a way for us to make a difference, Renner said.

Launched in 1995, the DPIL first distributed free books to children in Sevier County, Tennessee, where Parton grew up. By 2003, it had mailed one million books. In 2004, the effort went national. It has since expanded to Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Republic of Ireland. In the past 27 years, it has distributed 172 million books.

In a quote on the DPIL website, Parton said, I created the Imagination Library as a tribute to my daddy. He was the smartest man I have ever known, but I know in my heart that his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams. Before he passed away, my daddy told me the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing I had ever done.

Right now, Noon Rotary has the ability to serve 300 children. Donations from members, businesses, parents and others will allow it to serve even more. Donations can be made to the Kearney Noon Rotary Imagination Library project via the Kearney Area Community Foundation.

Dolly Parton is such a genuine giving person. She thinks to do this out of her heart, not to bring attention to herself. She is motivated by her father not being able to read, Renner said.

Renner added, Its interesting to me that as word has gotten out, people have approached me and said, This is wonderful. We want to help. Were concerned about literacy and getting books into the hands of kids. If we need to, we will continue to raise funds for this project.

The Kearney Public Library is publicly supporting the program. Imagine every child receiving his or her very own book every month. The possibilities for children growing up in a home filled with books are endless, said Matthew Williams, library executive director.

Jason Mundorf, KPS superintendent, said the project is a wonderful tool for building a family library for young readers.

To learn more, visit the Noon Rotary Clubs Facebook page.
OVERTON  A 19-year-old Iowan was killed as the result of being ejected from a vehicle during a rollover accident on I-80 near between Lexington and Overton Tuesday.

At 5:21 p.m., the Dawson County Sheriffs Office and Lexington Volunteer Fire Department were called to dispatched to four miles west of Overton for a one-vehicle crash.

A 2004 Ford Explorer was traveling in the westbound lane when witnesses said they saw one of the rear tires fail and the driver lost control of the vehicle, said Ken Moody, Dawson County Sheriff.

It rolled into the median and came to rest partially in the eastbound lane and blocked traffic for an hour.

Moody said the Iowa driver was wearing their seatbelt but a 19-year-old passenger was riding in the back seat unrestrained and was ejected from the vehicle.

The driver was transported by LVFD to Lexington Regional Health Center for non-life threatening injuries and has been released.

The passenger was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney via Air Care helicopter, but died of their injuries, Moody said. The next of kin has been notified.

The Dawson County Sheriffs Office was assisted on scene by the Nebraska State Patrol.
KEARNEY  It was a long-awaited, joyful homecoming Tuesday night as 56 members of the 734th Unit of the Nebraska Army National Guard returned after nearly 10 months in the Middle East.

For Acting First Sergeant Phillip Runyan, the homecoming brought him his first hugs from his new son Bridger, who was born nine months ago.

For Specialist Ciara Hernandez of Mitchell, it was an opportunity to turn on her cell phone and wave to her grandmother, who wasnt at the reception because shes recovering from COVID.

For all the citizen soldiers deployed in September 2021, the final few hundred miles home were the longest because one of the two chartered buses carrying them was having mechanical problems. Members of the unit  which specializes in transportation and logistics  transferred all of its luggage to the ailing bus and crammed as many bodies as possible into the second bus.

The mechanical issues resulted in an hourlong delay, but that made the homecoming sweeter, especially for the Runyan children and their mom, Rachel. All were decked out in T-shirts with their family name on the back. Other families carried large signs that said We love you dad and Welcome Home.

With sirens blaring, motorcyclists, local law enforcement and the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department escorted the National Guard buses from Interstate 80 to the armory near Kearney Regional Airport.

The Guards public affairs officer, Major Scott Ingalsbe, said the unit spent the past couple of weeks at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, wading through paperwork to officially complete their deployment.

The unit served in Qatar and Kuwait, and assisted in Qatar with Operation Allies Refuge. The operation assisted Afghans and U.S. Citizens who escaped after the fall of Afghanistan.
Nebraskans contacted Sen. Mike Groene to complain about what they characterized as his lack of knowledge and compassion about the coronavirus. He told them they needed to crawl out from under their beds and stop living in fear.
The See Viroqua Arts Project continues to be on display at the museum through the end of July. The project is based on the WPAs See America posters of the late 1930s and early 1940s. WPA stands for Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program formed in 1935. (It was renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939.) The New Deal was President Franklin D. Roosevelts plan to help the country out of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Among many other activities, the WPA employed artists during the Depression to make thousands of posters. These posters publicized community activities, educational programs, health programs, exhibits, theatrical productions, and more. The See America posters promoted travel to various places in the U.S. Today, the Library of Congress owns the largest collection of WPA posters, and they can be viewed online at https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/wpapos/

The See Viroqua posters, created in 2021, promote travel to Viroqua. The five posters were made by six local artists. Viroqua Chamber Main Street created this project, commissioned the artists, and organized the touring exhibit. The exhibit includes the original posters and the artists biographies. While the exhibit is at the museum in July, we are displaying each poster with related objects from the museum collection.

Rena Medows artwork for the See Viroqua project features the Cunningham-Cina round barn in the background, and deer in the foreground. The Cina round barn is located on Upper Maple Dale Road in Viroqua, and has a reddish tile exterior. It was built for Bert and Mary Cunningham in 1915, and has stayed in the family over the years. After Bert and Mary, ownership was transferred to one of their daughters, and years later to another daughter, and now today the barn is owned by a granddaughter.

We have paired this poster with a fawn (taxidermied) from the estate of Selmer Hanson, displayed in a small glass case, and with a round barn model made by Bert De Witt of Bloomingdale. Bert researched Vernon Countys round barns before carefully building his replica, which is made of a red tin exterior and includes wooden stanchions and a hayloft on the inside. Free maps featuring directions to Vernon Countys round barns are available with this display. (They can also be viewed at our website at http://vernoncountyhistory.org/roundbarns/roundbarns.php)

You may visit all of the museums exhibits during regular summer hours of Monday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., or by appointment.
Jennifer Grey wasn't sure she wanted to keep our appointment. A few hours before, the news alerts had begun flooding in: In a 6-to-3 ruling, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating a constitutional right to abortion that had existed for nearly 50 years. And there's no handbook that explains how to promote a memoir the day such a seismic ruling comes down.

"I feel so emotional," Grey says. "Even though I've seen it coming, even though we've been hearing what's coming, it doesn't feel real."

Movie viewers already know Grey as the star of "Dirty Dancing," the 1987 film best remembered for that famous lift and Grey's steamy chemistry with co-star Patrick Swayze. But the film  set in 1963, a decade before Roe v. Wade  features a powerful pro-choice message within its foes-to-lovers coming-of-age story. Penny (Cynthia Rhodes), a dancer at the resort where Frances "Baby" Houseman (Grey) and her family are staying, is faced with an unplanned pregnancy. To help fund Penny's (illegal) abortion, Baby borrows money from her unsuspecting father; Baby's father, a doctor, later helps Penny recover from the botched procedure.

"We saw someone who was hemorrhaging," Grey says. "We saw what happens to people without means  the haves and the have nots. I love that part of the storyline because it was really a feminist movie in a rom-com. It was a perfect use of history."

Before she was known in the popular imagination for "Dirty Dancing," Grey had her own experience with abortion, as she alludes to in her memoir, "Out of the Corner," which details her hard-partying, rebellious years as a teenager and young adult. "When I try to imagine my own daughter at 16, playing house, essentially living with a grown-ass man, doing tons of blow, popping Quaaludes, and going to Studio [54]  not to mention being lied to, cheated on, then gifted with various and sundry STDs and unwanted pregnancies, it makes me feel physically ill," she writes. "No teenager should be swimming in waters that dark ... ."

Grey says she felt empowered by her sexual freedom at a young age and was careful about using birth control. But even as someone with the access and means to abortion, the choice to end a pregnancy can take its toll: "It's such a grave decision. And it stays with you.

"I wouldn't have my life. I wouldn't have had the career I had, I wouldn't have had anything," Grey says. "And it wasn't for lack of taking it seriously. I'd always wanted a child. I just didn't want a child as a teenager. I didn't want a child where I was [at] in my life."

At 41, Grey gave birth to her daughter, Stella Gregg, now 20, with then-husband Clark Gregg.

"This is just so fundamentally wrong," Grey adds of the Supreme Court's ruling, "and it is sounding a bell for all women to rise up and use their voice now because we have assumed, since 1973, that our choice was safe and that it was never going to be overturned."

Though Grey says she is "heartbroken," the conversation eventually turns to other personal topics she explores in her memoir. She writes about her childhood experiences as the daughter of Broadway and film legend Joel Grey and actor Jo Wilder; the wild, sometimes reckless tales of her youth; and how trying to conform to Hollywood's standards of beauty affected her career. She'll join the L.A. Times Book Club at the Montalban Theatre on July 27 to discuss "Out of the Corner."

Most recently, Grey starred in Amazon's "Red Oaks" from 2014 to 2017 and has made guest appearances on "Grey's Anatomy," "The Conners" and "Dollface."

Talking over breakfast at Little Beach House Malibu  not far from where she lives now and spent part of her childhood years  Grey spoke further about looking back on her life, reconciling her youth as an adult, and that "Dirty Dancing" sequel. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Q: With some hindsight now, what did you get out of the process of reflection in unpacking your life in this way? I can't imagine going through old journals of mine ...

A: I have a chest of them. And I never looked at them until I wrote the book. I never opened them from the moment I wrote them  no one sits around reading their old journals. But it's like getting a bird's-eye view into your brain from another moment. And what I found, because I've never written anything before, but the same way, Baby is not a perfect dancer, sometimes it's better to not be perfect. That's not to say the struggle isn't real for all of the virtuosos out there, but there's something about the challenge that brings different energy. The difficulty is kind of like the secret sauce.

I was writing a letter to my daughter  sometimes we write to each other. And I was saying that it was just weird that the book coming out and the book getting so much praise and love and just incredible response is nice, it's really gratifying, it means a lot to me, but it's not as satisfying as the struggle of writing it. When I was writing, I was like, "This is never gonna get done. I can't do this. This is impossible." And it's weird, but then it's gone and you miss it. Like, when I wrote in the book about how celebrity is like clouds  when you get up into it, there's like nothing there. People are like, "How does it feel? You must be so happy on the bestsellers for three weeks." I was like, "It didn't feel that different when I fell off the list." The actual making of it and the fight that it takes within yourself is so much more satisfying because we don't see the whole story in ourselves.

Q: You dedicated the book to your daughter and this line struck me: "Your story is more up to you than you realize and is always evolving." I imagine that notion took some time to become clear for you in your life?

A: Do you know how long that dedication took me [to write]? Five minutes. I didn't have to rewrite it. I didn't have to change a word. It just flew out of me. Because my aim is true: I know what it is I want to impart and I know what's most important to me.

I don't know if she'll ever read it again, but I know that if you don't say it, it doesn't happen. And if you write it, it has a better chance of existing. And I don't even know if she will consciously make mental notes, but I hope that what people see is what it is to be a human and try your best and have enormous adversity, enormous great fortune, enormous poor choices, enormous missteps and to feel like you're gonna die  feel like you're gonna die many times  especially when you're young and really dramatic, and to see that there is redemption, there's resilience, see that you can right your ship. That is all we're doing, is constantly course-correcting. And so it takes away the perfectionism. What is it to be that honest about all of your missteps and to be able to tell it. And you just feel the resistance. It feels literally like you're pushing a boulder up.

Q: The thing about memoirs is that often, in telling your story, you're telling the story of other people in your orbit  in your case, sometimes well-known people. Was it a challenge for you to be honest in telling your story?

A: Extremely. I grapple with my ability to tell the truth in a way that might hurt anybody. Because it is so, so deeply part of my DNA, to not want to hurt people because I want to wish no harm. And to not care what other people think of me, or that I'm disliked or people are angry at me is very painful for me, but it's almost like the exposure I need to expose myself. Before I die, I want to be able to not look to other people for my worth or for my opinion of myself, to not have it be so up for grabs. And so writing the book was real, right in the middle of that struggle of how can I tell my truth and my story, my story, because everyone has a right to telling their story. And my intention was always, if I could avoid telling this part, or naming this person or telling this part of the story, I would avoid it at all cost. I would ask my editor, "Can I take this out? Can I do this?" Because it was so challenging for me. And then I realized, "OK, if I know that I'm a good person, which I do, then why is it always up for grabs? Based on other people's opinions?" Do you know what I mean by that? And to be able to withstand people's rage, anger, accuracy, whatever the thing is, like, when I hold firm, can I hate and can I hold my shape? And that's what I want to teach my daughter. But to actually do it is very different from talking about it and also knowing that all I'm doing is trying to inhabit the body that experienced it, and what it felt like in my body to experience it, because I could theorize and explain to you how everyone is doing their best and I was doing my best, but the truth is that's telling and not showing. The one note I kept getting from editors was show, don't tell; scenes, not theory. When I started showing myself on page, I got to watch as I morphed.

Q: How about as it relates to your parents?

A: I have so much empathy as an adult looking at them because when you're a kid, you think your parents know everything, they're so together, and when you're an adult, you realize that everyone is struggling and everyone's scared, everyone's lost and everybody's hopeless and everyone's trying to right the ship. My main intention was granting everybody the most generous version, and just talk about how I felt in it. I can't speak to their story, that's for them to tell. And if I could have avoided any of it, I would have  if you know me at all, if you knew me from my life, you would know that that would be anathema to me. It was: How do I tell my story and own it without ever blaming anyone? Because I don't blame anyone.

Q: Something that felt familiar was the way your mother maybe unintentionally conditioned you to think about your looks, your nose especially. Maybe it's projection or protection, but the good intentions don't make it any more easier for one's self-confidence.

A: They know the world. They want you to have a better life. And they think: If I could just tell you the truth, you could do better because I know the ways of the world, I know the ways of showbiz, I know what a woman needs to do in order to do this, so let me clue you in. It's all under the guise of helping and also projecting.

Q: But as a child, that's not how it's received.

A: You're a sponge, you're just absorbing every energy, even the unspoken stuff, especially the unspoken stuff. They could tell you a million things about how beautiful you are, how great you are, and all you need to do is feel their truth. My mom worked with [feminist and political activist] Gloria Steinem, yet she had given up herself and was so torn up about it and tortured and sad and depressed and confused how this happened to her, because this was not going to happen to her because she saw it happen to her mother. She works like hell to be different from her mother and there she is. And then I'm like, "I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to ever do that. I'm going to pursue my career, I am not going to let this happen," and then I find a guy who doesn't want me to be successful, not so dissimilar from my dad. And not consciously; he's not a bad guy. Why am I attracted to that person of all the people in the world? And why am I letting it affect me? Why am I staying? Why does that feel OK? To me, that's what the book is about. It's about the unconscious wiring that puts us in situations where we're actually re-creating parts of our history, parts of our lives, almost in spite of everything we know  and how much of that is nature versus nurture. What we saw, and what was modeled for us, is so much more powerful than what we're told.

Q: For those who haven't read the book yet, the relationship you're referencing is with Matthew Broderick, whom you dated for several years in the mid-'80s. What you describe in the book is being in a relationship with someone who was a rising star and maybe too immature to handle you becoming one.

A: To me, it's love, it felt like love. It was like a like an imprinting. Some part of me was addicted to that dynamic of being with somebody who didn't feel comfortable with me blowing up and getting to where I was going. And some part of me felt that I deserved it. And that's what I'm trying to get out in the book. Not that he was bad because he wasn't. It was me. I could have been with anybody, and that's what I picked. I could have left but I stayed because I agreed with it. I colluded with that because it actually felt like home.

Q: Has there ever been an opportunity to discuss that with Matthew?

A: [shakes head no.] I really get so nervous doing this because I'm so curious if readers, or your editor, or someone's gonna want to talk about that, but the truth is it's not about dragging somebody in the mud. I don't want it to be the meat. Because the truth is I wish I could have changed everyone's names, but the fact is there'll be too much Googling, it'd be too much confusion pulling you out of the story. And then it's just weird. It's not exploitive, it's literally like: How can I just say: "This is my experience"? I don't think anybody has the same reflection of moments in their lives. We're talking about 30 years ago. We're talking about ancient history.

Q: I want to circle back to the comments from your mother about your appearance because you didn't dislike your nose  you write: "I'd taken a certain pride in being an original, not looking like every other actress."

A: I was fine, but I was not perfectly fine. I always wondered about it and I had insecurity about it. Everyone has something about themselves that they think, "This makes me less lovable, if only I could change this thing about myself." And the truth is my mom was right about Hollywood. I'm not going to talk about other people's plastic surgery. Let's just say it is more normal to have a nose job than to not in Hollywood and there was no one who looked like me that had a major career.

And so she was right. She was like the voice of my darkness, of my own self-attack, so she became the person that held that for me until I did it. And I was so resentful that my own mother was actually telling me the truth which is: It's hard to cast you; if you want to be in movies and television and get a lot of parts, make it easier for them. And I was so stuck. I was like, "That would mean that I'm capitulating, that means they win." I was like, "Meryl Streep, dammit!"

Q: How do you think that shaped how you talk to your daughter about things she may be insecure about? Or how you make sure you're maybe not?

A: There's nothing about her that I would ever want her to change. The culture is very heavily focused on perfectionism and whatever the culture decides is the body to go for now is the face to go for now  there's so much input coming at these young people about this ideal. When I was growing up, it was Twiggy. And now it's the Kardashians. In between, it was Farrah Fawcett and before that it was Marilyn Monroe. But what I see is these young people and influencers who are doing a lot to themselves  lot of surgical intervention, very young. It's become almost commonplace to change, or surgically change, anything about yourself. I hope someday, there will be a kind of backlash to all of the artificial manipulation of a face or filters  how long have people been struggling to love themselves? How many people really talk nicely about their bodies, about their aging, about their faces? About what they look like when they wake up?

Q: You had cosmetic surgery that didn't go as planned. What did "Schnozzageddon," as you call it, tell you about Hollywood?

A: I couldn't get over it, I just had to get with it. I had to have a deep surrender and I had to just say, "Oh, I guess I made a choice. I did something. I didn't want this. I'm not a victim. But it happened to me. And it was not my plan." I felt very alone because I didn't know anyone else who'd ever had that experience. Nobody  which seemed unfair considering it's showbusiness and there's plenty of plastic surgery, you'd think that you'd find someone who went through something similar. There's nobody. It was like a do-over. I just had to start from scratch and figure it out. That's why it was the best thing that happened to me. Because it freed me. For so long, I couldn't please other people, I couldn't make a shift, so I was felt very stuck and I couldn't make a living. It was kind of like a come-to-Jesus moment. It didn't happen overnight. It was like, "OK, who am I and what am I here for?" It was very, very painful, but it's like a rebirth.

Q: I know the "Dirty Dancing" sequel is in the works. You're an executive producer, and you're coming back as Baby. How are you feeling about coming back to it at this time in your life?

A: I'm excited by the challenge of looking at it from the point of view of what happens when it's 30 years later and it's the '90s. What happens with the person that had that experience  what happened to her and what is now relevant about the original story at a different moment; looking at it through a different lens. I think it's, hopefully, really going to satisfy without ever feeling like it's  look, I have no desire to remake the first one or to compete with the first one or to make it better than the first one or as good. It's more about: What's a fresh story to be told?

Q: Questions of a sequel have plagued, or followed, rather, your whole career. You've always said you weren't interested unless it was as good as or better than the first one. So what made you feel like: "OK, I like the script enough now, this is the time to do it"?

A: You say "plagued" as if it's a bad thing, but the truth is it's because of the love of the movie that people wanting more and wanting to know maybe there's more there.

It's about not waiting for anything to be perfect. You just leap and it just seemed like really good people. Jonathan Levine ("Warm Bodies," "Long Shot") is a good director and good writer. I just thought "These are good people and they seem to get it."

Q: Where are you at in the process? Has it been a process trying to capture, or even evoke, the magic without Patrick?

A: There is no going back, there is no having that again. That was its own creature. There's a new creature, and what is that new creature? And what is the way in which  we still need to have the next iteration of ourselves be born, and who is going to help bear that out? What is the need? Where's the place where you need to be catapulted into a different dimension?

We don't start until next spring and it comes out the following Valentine's [Day]. We're in the getting-the-script phase.
FICTION: An engrossing spy thriller in which a Stasi officer and a CIA agent join forces to defeat a common adversary.

"Winter Work" by Dan Fesperman; Alfred A. Knopf (352 pages, $28)



Many a Berlin-set spy novel comprises a tale of two cities which plays out during the heated tensions of the Cold War. Dan Fesperman's latest spy thriller, "Winter Work," offers a refreshing variant on this by immersing its reader in the murky corners and wooded surroundings of the German capital at a brief yet pivotal stage in the city's history seldom depicted in fiction.

It is February 1990 and the Cold War is thawing. The Wall has recently fallen, East Germany is coming undone, and Stasi agents are either lying low or selling state secrets to the highest bidder. One disaffected Stasi agent, Emil Grimm, finds himself with other matters to think about when he comes across the body of his neighbor and colleague, Lothar Fischer, near his dacha in a patch of forest north of Berlin.

Two officers on the scene reveal their differences: One young detective is determined to catch a killer; the other is more concerned about fighting the new political order. Emil's priorities are twofold: He needs to complete a high-stakes mission that he and Lothar started, and he has to find a CIA agent he can trust  one with whom he can barter a file of sensitive information in exchange for safe harbor and a new start for himself, his sickly wife, and her caretaker.

That agent turns out to be Claire Saylor, who is in Berlin as part of a "mop-up action" against her agency's defeated enemies. When she first makes contact with Emil there is inevitable discomfort  they are "two people trained to mistrust, searching for any sign that it might be safe to do otherwise." In time, though, they suspend their doubts, pool their resources and set out to ensnare several particularly vengeful "comrades in arms."

"Winter Work" is a gripping, tightly plotted old-school spy novel. As the Baltimore-based writer informs us in his acknowledgments, it is also fiction born of historical fact: One plot strand takes its origins from a genuine CIA operation, and some of the characters, such as spy supremo Markus Wolf, are incarnations of real-life figures. Claire makes a welcome return from Fesperman's last book, "The Cover Wife," as does another character whose true identity is cannily kept under wraps until a decisive moment.

Occasionally Fesperman's prose comes across as either lofty (men are "fellows") or perfunctory ("his eyes as cold as January"). And despite all the dark deeds and cloak-and-dagger intrigue, the book lacks both the subtlety and the complexity of a more nuanced John le Carre work.

However, there is still a great deal to relish, not least a number of precision-tooled set pieces, from a taut safe-breaking scene to an exciting assault on a safe house. Berlin  "spying's most storied theme park"  is vividly rendered, as is a time of convulsive change and the hopes, anxieties and machinations of those caught up in the chaos.



Malcolm Forbes has written for the Times Literary Supplement, the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The state of Wisconsin has filed a lawsuit against 18 chemical manufacturers for the role they played in PFAS contaminations around the state, officials announced on Wednesday.

Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul announced the lawsuit on French Island near La Crosse  a community directly impacted by PFAS  which claims the companies that manufactured and sold products containing PFAS participated in wrongful, deceptive and tortious conduct for decades.

These manufacturers knew, or should have known, that their products could harm public health, pollute our waters and our natural resources, Evers said. But rather than warning consumers and users of associated risk and harm from their products and PFAS, these polluters concealed these dangers and even downplayed them to our families, communities and Wisconsinites.

The companies included in the lawsuit are 3M, DuPont, Chemguard, Tyco Fire Products, Buckeye Fire Equipment, Kidde-Fenwal, NationalFoam, Amerex, the Chemours Company, ChemDesign, BASF, Dynax, Archroma, Carrier Global, UTC Fire & Security, Clariant, and several other subsidiaries of these companies.

The lawsuit was filed in Dane County, and the state is asking the companies to pay a comprehensive bill to address the contamination their products are believed to have caused.

PFAS are a group of manmade, toxic forever chemicals, meaning they dont breakdown over time. The chemicals are found in a number of everyday products, but in many communities around the state such as French Island, its believed the chemicals have entered and contaminated the groundwater through firefighting foam that has been used at airports.

Evers and Kaul were joined by local and state leaders at the library on French Island to announce the lawsuit, a location that itself has water contaminated by PFAS.

More than 500 private wells and a handful of city wells on the island have been found to be contaminated, and residents have been relying on bottled water to do most daily tasks for more than a year now.

Officials said the lawsuit is about accountability, hopeful that it will prevent communities from having to pay to clean up and find solutions to PFAS contaminations. Evers said currently, Wisconsin taxpayers would need to pay more than $1 billion to address the issue.

The lawsuit specifically says it seeks to recover all costs, expenses and damages from restoration and loss-of-use damages, natural-resource damages, and the costs of investigating, abating, containing, preventing, treating, removing and remediating PFAS contamination in Wisconsin, as well as punitive damages.

This would cover things such as tesing wells, removing the contaminants and reconnecting communities to safe drinking water.

Wisconsinites should not have to foot the bill for polluters who should have known what theyre doing is wrong all along. Thats why we are demanding that the polluters responsible should have to pay for the reckless and reprehensible conduct, Evers said.

We will not look the other way when the health of Wisconsinites is in danger, Kaul said.

At least 15 of the companies included in the states lawsuit are also part of a lawsuit filed by the city of La Crosse last spring. The state also filed a lawsuit in March against Johnson Controls, Inc. and Tyco Fire Products for PFAS violations.

Some of the companies in the states lawsuit made the firefighting foam that was specifically used at the La Crosse Regional Airport on French Island, where the islands pollution is believed to have begun.

Local leaders who are on the ground each day addressing the crisis said this is a big first step.

We must turn off the flow of PFAS in our community and in our state. Unless we turn off the flow, we are going to be caught in a never ending cycle of trying to remediate what never should have leaked into our soil and groundwater to begin with, said town of Campbell supervisor Lee Donahue.

For the island, the impact of PFAS has been devastating.

While fighting back tears, Donahue described that the small community now lives with the reality of wondering if each health battle their neighbors fight was caused by unknowingly consuming these chemicals for decades. They worry about the future of the young kids who are now taught that their tap water isnt safe to drink.

Its huge in our community, Donahue said. Peoples lives have just changed. Weve changed. Weve had to change.

Donahue said the town has requested to be under medical monitoring by the Centers for Disease Control, but nothing has been implemented.

Exposure to PFAS has been linked to cancer, liver damage, infertility, thyroid disease and more, and more studies are beginning to reveal the full health impact the chemicals are having.

While the lawsuit is a big step for French Island and other communities like it, local leaders are continuing their efforts on the ground.

French Island, which is largely under the jurisdiction of the town of Campbell, is specifically waiting to hear back from the city of La Crosse about a joint water agreement.

The agreement would give the town the freedom to explore its options for clean water, including the possibility of connecting the island to city water  which, aside from the wells near the airport, is not known to be contaminated with PFAS  without the threat of annexation. Campbell sent the agreement to the city in March, but Donahue said the town has heard next to nothing from the city on it. She said her next steps are to contact city council members.

La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds told the Tribune there is no update from the city at this point regarding the agreement.

The island has also recently teamed up with the county to collect and store filters residents are using to treat PFAS-contaminated water in their homes. Donahue said they hope the pilot program will become a blueprint for other communities while they wait for disposal solutions.

But local efforts can only go so far. Both Donahue and Evers pushed the state Legislature to do more, specifically when it comes to implementing higher standards for drinking and groundwater, an issue that has been entangled with politics in recent months.

Our Legislature has the ability to make decisions that will increase the health and safety of our residents in Campbell, in Peshtigo, in Rhinelander, Wausau, the list goes on and on and on. And the longer that they fail to do so  I dont know how you sleep at night, Donahue said.

The litigation against these chemical manufacturers is expected to take quite a while to bring about any real help.

In the meantime, communities around the state are being encouraged to continue to test their wells.

This story was updated at 1:25 p.m. to include comments from the mayor.
Over 100 of Winona Countys youngest have received a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine after last months approval to administer shots to children 6 months old to 4 years old.

As of Monday, according to the Minnesota Department of Health, 112 children between 6 months and 4 years old have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in Winona County  which totals about 5% of the countys population between those ages.

In Minnesota as a whole, 19,548 children between 6 months and 4 years old  6% of the states population in this age range  have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Beyond the first dose, six children in this age range have received a full COVID-19 vaccine series in Minnesota, while three children in this age range are fully up to date with their recommended vaccine doses, as of Monday.

COVID-19 vaccines are now currently available for people 6 months old and older at Winona Health from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

People do not need appointments to get their vaccinations at Winona Health, as the doses are available on a walk-in basis on the second floor of the Winona Clinic.

Children between 6 months and 4 years old will receive their doses in Winona Healths pediatric department, according to a press release from the health organization.

For more information about COVID-19 vaccines and testing at Winona Health, visit winonahealth.org.
Sex education in American schools has long been a highly debated subject. With abortion no longer constitutionally protected, how sex and birth control methods are taught could seriously impact young people's futures in the United States.

Additionally, without national guidelines, sex education varies widely across states and local school systems. Some states even ban the discussion of abortion, for example. Abortion is a medical operation that ends a pregnancy. More than half of abortions in the United States are done with medication.

Comprehensive vs. abstinence

Some U.S. school systems teach what is called comprehensive sex education. The Guttmacher Institute is an organization that supports abortion rights. It defines comprehensive sex education as giving students the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values they need to determine and enjoy their sexualityphysically and emotionally, individually and in relationships.

These programs teach students about contraceptive methods, as well as sexual and gender orientation. Some programs also teach students about abortion.

However, schools in other U.S. states teach abstinence-only sex education. Abstinence is the practice of avoiding sex until marriage. Abstinence-only sex education stresses that waiting to have sex until marriage is the only sure way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy.

Many abstinence-only programs do not teach students about contraceptives, or birth control methods, like condoms or pills. Other sex education programs teach about contraceptives but still stress abstinence as the safest method.

Debate over sex education

The nonprofit reproductive healthcare organization Planned Parenthood says there are seven states that ban abortion. In 12 states, abortion is legal but severely restricted. Eight other states have legalized abortion but restricted access.

Eva Goldfarb is a sex education researcher and professor of public health at Montclair State University. She said the states that ban or restrict abortion are usually the same ones that stress abstinence-only sex education.

So the same people who want to limit access to abortion are also creating a situation in which there will be more unintended pregnancies and need for abortion, she said.

Christine Soyong Harley is the director of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), which supports comprehensive sex education.

She argued that abstinence programs pressure young people to avoid sex through misinformation. Abstinence-only programs lead students to believe that if they engage in premarital sexual activity or if they identify as non-heterosexual, they will be found worthless by society.

Supporters of abstinence-based sex education however, point to some studies that support its effectiveness. But research from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2016 found that programs promoting abstinence-only until heterosexual marriage occurs are ineffective.

Ascend is a nonprofit group that supports abstinence-based sex education. It says that comprehensive models make teens feel pressured to have sex. The group also says that teens who have sex are more likely to do poorly in school, have decreased physical and mental health, and live in poverty. Ascend declined to comment for this story.

Penny Nance is the head of Concerned Women for America. The organization aims to protect and promote Christian values and conservative beliefs. She told NPR that some sex education programs are surrendering to the idea that teenagers will be sexually active. We, as a culture, can do better."

Educators experience

Wendy Sellers is a sex educator in Michigan who advises the states sex education advisory boards. The boards, made up of parents and community members, set sex education study programs for school systems.

In Michigan, like in seven other states, it is against the law to talk about abortion in schools. Sellers said that if a student asks about abortion, teachers can only give a general answer. Teachers can explain that there are limits on what they are permitted to discuss in the classroom.

Im a big proponent of answering every question a student asks, Sellers added. The law has always been problematic. Clearly, its politically and religiously motivated to not answer questions about that topic.

Jamie Sebring teaches health and sex education in a middle school in Iowa, where abortion is permitted to be discussed in the classroom. But she said the subject is not part of the study program and is only discussed when a student asks a question about it.

I don't bring it up and actively teach it  because Ive had parents bring that up quite a bit with me, she said. Sebring added that school officials avoid teaching the topic partly out of fear of upsetting students parents.

Now that abortion is banned in some states, women and girls that seek abortions could face legal troubles. I think that it is even more important for people who are living in states that have abortion bans to understand the laws related to accessing abortion care, Harley said.

Goldfarb, the Montclair State professor, said access to reliable and accurate information on sex and sexuality is more important than ever. She pointed out that states have moved to ban discussion of LGBTQ topics in schools, like Floridas Dont Say Gay law. Other states have introduced similar bills as well.

There is an all-out assault on sex education that is much, much, much broader than just the abortion issue, Goldfarb said.

Im Faith Pirlo.

And Im Dan Novak.

Dan Novak wrote this story for VOA Learning English.

Quiz- Post-Roe, Sex Educators Rethink Their Role Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

____________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

comprehensive  adj. including many, most, or all things

attitude  n. the way you think and feel about someone or something

orientation  n. a person's feelings, interests, and beliefs

transmit  v. to cause to be given to others

access  n. a way of being able to use or get something

heterosexual  n. sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex

proponent  n. a person who argues for or supports something

motivate  v. to give (someone) a reason for doing something

topic  n. someone or something that people talk or write about

curriculum  n. the courses that are taught by a school, college, etc.

LGBTQ  adj. lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning one's sexual or gender identity

assault  n. a violent physical attack

_____________________________________________________________________

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Military experts say drones have influenced the war between Russia and Ukraine more than in any other military conflict.

The pilotless aircraft first started to be used in war about 20 years ago. That was when American soldiers first fired on Taliban leaders in Afghanistan.

In the war between Russia and Ukraine, experts say the nation with the strongest drones will likely be in a good position.

Fighting started in late February. After about five months, the drone fleets on both sides are depleted. As a result, the nations are looking for replacements.

Drones are in demand

Ukraine is looking for supplies from NATO.

A recent report from the administration of American President Joe Biden said Russia is hoping to buy up to several hundred drones from Iran. The Iranian drones have gotten past air defense systems supplied by the U.S. Those defenses are currently used by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Samuel Bendett is with the security research group CNA.

He said Ukrainians are looking for drones that can strike distant Russian forces. He said the Russians want Iranian drones because of their proven track record.

Both sides are still trying to buy the kinds of drones available to the public then update them for fighting.

Yuri Shchygol is a Ukrainian government spokesperson. He recently called the need for the new drones immense. He said his country is trying to purchase 200 drones from NATO. But it needs 10 times more than that, he said.

Ukrainian fighters say they do not have enough military drones with technology to prevent Russian interference.

Bendett said the Russians are getting better at defending their drones. Fewer are being shot down compared to the early days of the war. He said the Ukrainians are on the ropes.

It is unlikely the world will hear more stories of civilian drone operators aiding the war effort. In the early days of fighting, a teenage Ukrainian boy and his father used a drone to find a long line of Russian military vehicles heading toward Kyiv. They sent the information to the Ukrainian military which launched a successful attack.

Now, the Russian military has created a stronger air defense system in eastern Ukraine. That is preventing the Ukrainian military from using Turkish-made drones for bomb attacks. The Turkish drones had been successful early in the war.

Replacing losses

Ukraine said it needs drones to fly into Russian-occupied areas to find targets for its Western-made long-range weapons. In June, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country has a long list of needs, including 1,000 drones to end the war.

On the other side of the conflict, Russian leaders are also asking for more drones. Yuri Borisov is a Russian deputy prime minister who oversees weapons production. He said more are being made, but it cant be done instantaneously.

Bendett said although Russia has lost about 50 of its most common drones, it still has many more remaining.

But in the war, nothing lasts long. An earlier story by the Associated Press noted that Spain sent 200 tons of military aid to Ukraine in June. Soldiers said the shipment only included enough ammunition for about two hours of fighting.

A report from the British military research organization RUSI said a Ukrainian drone lasts for about one week before being shot down or made unusable.

The drones are valuable because they can help Ukrainian weapons hit Russian targets. But in order to find the targets, the drone operators have to cross into Russian territory. That is risky.

Millions of drones that cant be defeated

Ukrainian fighters are also using kamikaze drones sent from Western nations. They carry warheads that can go through the outer skin of a tank. But those drones can only fly for 40 minutes.

Other drones being sent to Ukraine include Phoenix Ghosts made by Aevex Aerospace in California. The U.S. purchased over 100 for Ukraine in May. Those drones can fly for six hours, can identify targets at night and may be able to hit Russian command posts and armored vehicles.

Another drone, called Furia, is made in Ukraine. They are used to look for targets. They cost about $25,000 each. Only about 30 percent of Ukraines 200 Furia drones remain from purchases starting in 2014. The chief of Athlon Avia, which makes the Furias, said production is starting again but that more help is needed from outside of the country.

Neither Ukraine, nor the U.S. would comment about the drone needs. Shchygol, however, said Ukraine prefers the kamikazes and others capable of getting through Russian defenses.

When drone warfare started over 20 years ago, the technology was so new, most countries did not have good defense systems in place. But over time, that changed. Now, anti-drone systems can identify drones from radio signals and decide the best way to take them down.

At least one expert is concerned about how the technology is progressing.

Thorsten Chmielus leads Aronia, a technology company in Germany that helps make drones. He worries that if the drones have too much success in Ukraine, everybody will have millions of drones that cant be defeated.

Im Dan Friedell. And Im Caty Weaver.

Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning English based on a report from the Associated Press.

_______________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

fleet n. a group of ships or vehicles, such as the ships in a navy or trucks earned by a delivery company

deplete v. to run out of something, such as a supply of ammunition

immense adj. very great size or amount

on the ropes  phrase. used to describe a person or a thing that is getting tired or close to being defeated

convoy n. a long line of vehicles traveling close together

kamikaze adj. used to describe a style of attack popularized by a group of pilots who would crash their airplanes into targets during World War II

________________________________________________________________

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Her image virtually glows from a wall in the National Portrait Gallery, with a gaze at once innocent and knowing, resilient and radiant. In the photo, Wisconsins Elizah Leonard wears her Ho-Chunk regalia  earrings and a necklace beaded by her grandfather, a dress and shawl from the hands of her mother.

Surrounding Leonards likeness are shimmering beads, rhinestones and shells hand-stitched by the Madison-area photographer who created this prize-winning artwork, artist Tom Jones.

The picture of Leonard, part of a series by Jones titled Strong Unrelenting Spirits, captured second place in the triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, a prestigious national show for the Smithsonian, and is now on display in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., through Feb. 26. In 2023-24, it will tour the U.S.

Jones, a photography professor at UW-Madison, is having an especially big year. This summer alone his artwork  steeped in his perspective as a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation  is part of exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. On Saturday, the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend will celebrate the opening of his first major retrospective, Tom Jones: Here We Stand, featuring some 130 works from 16 series that span his career.

Toms career has just been building and building and building, said Graeme Reid, director of collections and exhibitions at MOWA. There are other artists who can get in a rut, producing similar things time after time. One of the great things with Tom is that every body of work has a little bit of a different twist  or a completely different take on things.

Jones second-place win in the Outwin competition is just huge, Reid said. This is probably one of the premier portrait exhibitions in the entire country.

More visibility

Jones was born in North Carolina, but spent the summers of his youth with relatives in the Wisconsin village of Merrillan, just north of Black River Falls. He developed a strong sense of his Ho-Chunk culture from his maternal grandfather and his mother, JoAnn Jones  a UW Law School graduate who served as the first female president of the Ho-Chunk Nation and at 82 is an associate judge for the Ho-Chunk Nation Trial Court.

Eventually, Jones family moved to Madison and during his high school years at West, Jones would create and sell beaded work for the shop Katys Native American Arts and Gallery on Monroe Street. He went on to earn a bachelors degree in fine arts at UW-Madison, then masters degrees in photography and museum studies from Columbia College in Chicago.

Initially a painter, Jones moved to photography for its immediacy. He is also a curator and co-author of several books, including People of the Big Voice: Photographs of Ho-Chunk Families by Charles Van Schaick, 1879-1942.

My mission is just to get more visibility for our people, said Jones, who took his grandfathers place in the Medicine Lodge in 2004.

While the Ho-Chunk were the original inhabitants of the Madison area, Jones said, We were removed over seven times by the government, further west to various places.

But they just kept coming back, he said. With his new show at MOWA, I really want to show that were still here. Thats why I decided on the title Here We Stand, because its a gesture (showing) that were still on this land.

Conveying strength

Jones, 57, recently bought a former church in Prairie du Sac and has converted it into his home, with the original building serving as a studio and gallery and a newly constructed addition on the back for living space. Tables and shelves in the work space are filled with jars upon jars of glittering white beads.

In his series Strong Unrelenting Spirits, Jones portrays tribal members like Leonard at life-size or bigger scale. The subjects often look directly at the camera, making eye contact with the viewer to convey their strength, beauty and resilience. The intricate beading done on each large photo can take up to 120 hours.

Many of the designs that are featured (in the beading) are family designs that are passed down from one generation to the next, said Dakota Mace (Dine), now a well-known Madison-based artist and curator who came to UW-Madison in part because of Jones.

Jones combination of photography and beadwork is truly unique, said Mace, who is including a work by her mentor when she guest-curates the upcoming exhibition Reclaiming Identity, opening in August at the Trout Museum in Appleton.

There arent a lot of Indigenous professors, at least in the U.S., especially working in the art field, she said about Jones. Hes such an amazing individual in terms of that, but also (his work) being kind of the first of its kind in the photography world, photography from an Indigenous perspective.

Growing program

After he joined the faculty at UW-Madison in 2005, Jones introduced digital photography to the art program and grew course offerings from two to 13.

He maintains a deep sense of visual curiosity and has a clear commitment to making excellent and innovative works, said art department chair Derrick Buisch. Jones is an artist who can cultivate and manage several serious projects simultaneously.

Im constantly moving, said Jones. But thats something I think is a Ho-Chunk trait. My mothers that way. My grandfather was that way.

Jones exhibition at MOWA will fill three gallery spaces, making it only the third show at the museum to command that amount of real estate, Reid said.

This is probably one of the most interesting and educational exhibitions Ive ever done, Reid said. Its just opened my mind to an aspect of American culture and Native American culture that I was just unaware of.

Jones considers Here We Stand a mid-career retrospective, and plans to launch into even more new artistic challenges this summer. But in Here We Stand, he said, Itll be nice to see all of my work in one place.
LONDON (AP)  Fans of Liz Truss think she is the new Iron Lady.

Britains foreign secretary is one of the two final contenders to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader and prime minister. Some 180,000 party members will be asked to choose either Truss or former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, with the winner set to be announced Sept. 5.

If Truss wins, she would become Britains third female prime minister. She has forged her image in homage to the first, Margaret Thatcher.

Truss has posed in a British Army tank in Eastern Europe, evoking an image of Thatcher during the Cold War. In a televised leadership debate this week, Britain's top diplomat sported a pussy-bow blouse eerily similar to one the late prime minister used to wear.

Truss, 46, is a favorite among many Conservatives, who revere Thatcher above all other leaders. Critics say its an empty homage and believe Truss lacks the gravitas to lead the country amid economic turbulence and a European war.

As foreign secretary, Truss has been front and center in Britains support for Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia over the invasion of its neighbor. She also has figured prominently in the U.K.s feud with the European Union over post-Brexit trade arrangements.

Her pugnacious approach  along with her promises to slash taxes and boost defense spending  have made her the favorite of the partys strongly euroskeptic right wing.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Truss said she was the only person who can deliver the change we need on the economy  in line with true Conservative principles  and the only person capable of stepping up and leading the response to Ukraine and the increased security threat that the free world faces.

But opponents criticize her as a dogmatist and a wooden public speaker, and note that she has not always been a true-blue Tory.

Born in Oxford in 1975, Truss is the daughter of a math professor and a nurse who took her on anti-nuclear and anti-Thatcher protests as a child, where she recalled shouting: Maggie, Maggie, Maggie  out, out out!

Truss attended a public high school in Leeds, northern England, and then studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University, where she briefly belonged to the centrist Liberal Democrats and called for the abolition of the monarchy.

She worked as an economist for energy giant Shell and telecommunications firm Cable and Wireless, and for a right-of-center think tank while becoming involved in Conservative politics and espousing free-market Thatcherite views. She ran unsuccessfully for Parliament twice before being elected to represent the eastern England seat of Southwest Norfolk in 2010.

Truss is married to Hugh OLeary, with whom she has two teenage daughters.

In Britains 2016 referendum on whether to leave the European Union, Truss backed the losing remain side. But she has served in Johnsons staunchly pro-Brexit government as trade secretary and then foreign secretary, and has won the support of the Conservative Partys most fervent Brexiteers.

Her record as foreign secretary has drawn mixed reviews. Many praise her firm response to the invasion of Ukraine, and she secured the release of two British nationals jailed in Iran where her predecessors had failed. But EU leaders and officials hoping she would bring a softer tone to the U.K.s relations with the bloc have been disappointed.

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, says the fact that euroskeptics adore Truss, while suspecting Sunak of pro-EU views  despite that fact that he backed leave in the referendum  shows the importance of image over substance in politics.

His image doesnt fit that of a Brexiteer whereas hers does, Bale said. "Theres a kind of presumption that if youre a bit of a smoothiechops who moves easily in international circles you must be a remainer, and if youre someone who tells it like it is to Johnny Foreigner then youre obviously a (true) Brexiteer.

Follow all of APs coverage of British politics at https://apnews.com/hub/boris-johnson
A man who in 2020 struck and injured a 12-year-old girl with his vehicle, then drove off, will spend 30 days in jail as part of a two-year probationary sentence for drunken driving causing injury, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Sarbjit S. Bhullar, 37, of Madison, apologized to Lamara Howard for his actions on Dec. 13, 2020, when he struck Lamara with his SUV, then panicked and drove away and was not found by police until the next day outside his apartment building.

Bhullar was originally charged in December 2020 with hit-and-run causing injury, a felony, but under a plea agreement he pleaded guilty in May to first-offense drunken driving causing injury, a misdemeanor. The conviction carries a mandatory minimum of 30 days in jail, which Bhullar and his attorney, along with Assistant District Attorney Tim Verhoff, agreed to recommend to Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds.

Bhullar, who had no prior criminal record, will also remain on probation for two years and was fined $300, plus costs and surcharges. He was ordered to pay $7,863 in restitution and will lose his drivers license for two years.

While Bhullar admitted with his plea that he had been drinking, the delay in finding him after the crash meant police did not have a measurement of his blood alcohol concentration.

Lamara told Reynolds she did not want Bhullar to spend time in jail, and that all she wanted was an apology for the pain he caused her. While accidents happen, she said, the difference was that Bhullar didnt stop.

A criminal complaint states Lamara sustained a concussion, hematomas, headaches and fractures. Lamaras mother, Monica Howard, also said in court Wednesday that Lamara had to undergo eye surgery.

This has been a difficult year and a half, Howard said, showing Reynolds photos of her daughter before the crash and after, when her appearance was altered by her injuries. This little girl was left for dead.

But since her recovery, Howard said, her daughter has been able to do amazing things, including flying a plane during Camp Willa, an aviation camp for underserved youth. Her photo was featured in a story on Camp Willa in Mondays Wisconsin State Journal.

The complaint states a witness told police a girl was crossing McKenna Boulevard at Raymond Road in the crosswalk against a green light when an SUV coming down the hill struck her, slowed slightly, then left the scene.

Police were able to see on traffic camera footage that the SUV had left a parking lot at a nearby apartment complex, and police were later able to find it there and confronted Bhullar when he approached the SUV, the complaint states.

Bhullar told police he was driving when there was suddenly someone in the road, and he struck her. But he said kept going and picked up his sister from work but did not tell his sister what had happened, the complaint states.
A Dane County judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit that sought to force the city of Madison to return a pair of Confederacy-related monuments to a city-owned cemetery after they were removed amid the uproar over Confederate monuments nationwide.

Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn ruled that longtime Madison attorney and veterans rights activist Todd Hunter lacks standing to sue and didnt follow proper procedures before doing so, and that elected city officials are immune from litigation because their decisions to remove the monuments from Forest Hill Cemetery were made in their role as legislators.

Hunter said he was reviewing the decision and is considering an appeal. Madison city attorney Mike Haas called the decision carefully considered and well-reasoned.

In a suit filed Dec. 30 but not served with the city until mid-March, Hunter accused city officials  in particular former Mayor Paul Soglin  of violating several state laws, city ordinances and the state and federal constitutions in deciding to remove a 1906 monument containing the names of 140 Confederate soldiers who died as prisoners of war at Camp Randall and are buried at Forest Hill, as well as a 1981 plaque that referred to the dead as valiant Confederate soldiers and unsung heroes.

Both had been in a section of the city-owned Forest Hill Cemetery known as the Confederate Rest. Forest Hill is a designated national landmark.

Hunter argued that the first, also referred to as a cenotaph, was a way to honor the soldiers and the woman who tended their graves, Alice Waterman, in the years before each of the 140 graves was given its own stone marker. The second, he said, was installed by a descendant of Confederate soldiers and aimed exclusively at honoring military service.

More broadly, he argued that the 1906 monument was emblematic of Madisons role in reconciling North and South in the years after the Civil War.

The Dane County Courts decision today robs Madison both of its benevolent history and its unique role of being the first city in the United States to initiate reconciliation after the Civil War, Hunter said in a statement. The court did not hold government officials accountable, despite that duty, and it further ruled that government conduct (in this case a violation of a ministerial duty), even if unlawful, is protected by governmental immunity.

Soglin ordered the 1981 monument removed in mid-August 2017. The 1906 monument, erected at least in part by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, was put into storage in January 2019 after the City Council cleared the way for its removal the October before.

Both actions followed an August 2017 white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, that turned violent and was in response to that states ultimately successful attempt to remove a statue of former Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The Lee statue was one of hundreds of monuments to the Confederacy and its figures that have come down since 2015 at the urging of racial-justice protesters who see the monuments as an attempt to downplay the Souths legacy of slavery and insurrection and reframe it as an honorable lost cause.

The cenotaph is currently being held by the Wisconsin Veterans Museum at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison. The 1981 plaque is in storage with the city, but officials have refused to say exactly where, citing factors including the possibility that someone might try to steal it or it might otherwise become a distraction.

Hunter also wanted the city to establish a $25,000 fund to maintain the monuments once returned.
Madison police said Wednesday that an incident of pro-abortion rights graffiti at a religious school is believed to be linked to an incident at a church that also happened in early July.

St. Bernard Catholic Church on the East Side was vandalized with graffiti criticizing police and anti-abortion politics on July 2, Madison police reported earlier this month.

Graffiti was written in blue spray paint on the door and sign of the church at 2450 Atwood Ave.

Lets talk about all the native kids youve killed! was also written on the church door, seemingly referring to the Catholic Churchs role in the colonization of Indigenous people.

In the other incident, graffiti was spray-painted overnight July 1-2 on an exterior wall and the front sign of Abundant Life Christian School, 4901 E. Buckeye Road, police spokesperson Stephanie Fryer said in a statement.

We support abortion was spray-painted on the wall, and anti-police graffiti was spray-painted on a sign.

Employees, who said the school was fine when they left Friday night, noticed the damage Saturday morning, Fryer said.

No arrests have been made, and the incidents remain under investigation, Fryer said.

Police ask that anyone with information on the incidents contact them at 608-255-2345. Tipsters may remain anonymous by contacting Madison Area Crime Stoppers at 608-266-6014 or P3Tips.com. Individuals contacting Crime Stoppers can receive a reward of up to $1,000 for tips that lead to an arrest.
The state of Wisconsin is looking for a contractor to dispose of some 25,000 gallons of firefighting foam containing toxic forever chemicals.

The Department of Natural Resources and Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection announced a request for bids Monday for collection and disposal of foam containing the synthetic compounds known as PFAS.

The current two-year budget includes $1 million for a foam disposal program, one of the recommendations in a 2020 PFAS action plan. Similar disposal efforts are underway in Michigan and Indiana.

Based on a 2020 survey of fire departments, the DNR estimated there were 63,200 to 96,300 gallons of PFAS-containing foam on hand, including more than 30,000 gallons of expired or unwanted foam.

Mimi Johnson, policy director for the DNRs environmental management division, said some municipalities have since disposed of their unwanted foam.

Some of the larger ones ... tend to have more space in their budget, Johnson said. Smaller, more rural volunteer-based departments might not have the capacity.

Wisconsin AG sues 18 companies over PFAS contamination The lawsuit seeks punitive damages, as well as reimbursement for the costs of PFAS investigations, cleanup and remediation.

Johnson said the initial funding should be enough to cover the unwanted foam already identified, but the state may need to allocate additional funds to cover future disposal as the Department of Defense and Federal Aviation Administration change their policies to allow the use of foams that contain newer fluorinated compounds.

DNR regulations require foam to be disposed of in a federally licensed hazardous waste landfill. The closest one to Wisconsin is in Peoria, Illinois.

In 2019, the Madison Fire Department became the first in Wisconsin to stop using foam with made with legacy PFAS. The department paid North Shore Environmental Construction $8,850 to collect and dispose of 610 gallons of concentrated foam in an Oregon landfill.

A state law passed in 2020 prohibits the use of PFAS-containing foam except in emergencies or in testing facilities with appropriate containment and disposal measures, though Republican lawmakers later stripped key pieces of the DNRs rule implementing the law, including numeric limits on the amount of PFAS that can be discharged in wastewater.

Biogas: Wisconsin utilities partner with farmers to replace fossil gas California's low-carbon fuel standard created a market for Wisconsin biogas. A new utility program may offer a new way to deliver it.

Used for decades in firefighting foam and consumer products, PFAS dont break down naturally and have been linked to cancer, liver disease and other health problems.

The DNR is monitoring more than 40 PFAS contamination sites around the state, including Marinette, La Crosse and Madison, where firefighters sprayed foam for decades as part of training exercises.
Two Democratic candidates will meet in the Aug. 9 primary for lieutenant governor. The winner of the primary will go on to face the victor in the GOP primary, which has eight Republicans running for the seat. The term is four years.

Peng Her

Age: 50

Address: 5310 Arapahoe Lane, Madison

Family: Married with three children

Job: CEO, The Hmong Institute

Prior elected office: None

Other public service: Governors Early Childhood Advisory Council since 2019; Governors Whats Best For Kids Committee, 2018; Access Community Health Centers board member since 2017 and president, 2020-22; State of Wisconsin Interagency Council on Homelessness Racial Equity Working Group on Homelessness, 2021-22, City of Madison Economic Development Committee, 2007-14; Dane County Human Services Board, 2005-09

Education: Bachelors degree, Central College, Iowa; masters degree, DePaul University

Sara Rodriguez

Age: 46

Address: 19585 Timberline Drive, Brookfield

Family: Married with two children

Job: State representative

Prior elected office: Wisconsin Assembly since 2020

Other public service: Troop leader, Girl Scouts of America; Peace Corps

Education: Bachelors degree, Illinois Wesleyan University; bachelors degree in nursing and masters degrees in nursing and public health, Johns Hopkins University

Q&As

Why are you the best candidate for the job?

Her: Many people urged me to run for lieutenant governor. The combination of my diverse executive experience, lived experience as a first-generation American, and ability to organize and energize voters make me the strongest candidate. I bring a lifetime as a public servant, a proven track record of tenacity in fighting for our shared values, and my eternal optimism in our democracy.

Rodriguez: I have the executive experience, legislative experience and Im a full-time working mom. If you want to get something done  give it to a working mom. I will add it to my list and get the job done.

What unique experience/expertise do you bring to the office?

Her: My family came to America in 1976, fleeing genocide. I understand firsthand the importance of democracy. In the decades since, I have owned a successful small business, effectively led statewide and local nonprofits, and served on numerous boards. Gov. Evers appointed me to his Early Childhood Advisory Council. My work has changed policy on the state, local and federal levels.

Rodriguez: I have a lifetime of experience working in public health and health care. A registered nurse, I saved lives and have protected our most vulnerable citizens. Im a small-business owner, served as a vice president at a Fortune 100 company, and worked as an executive with a large local health care system. I was one of only 70 individuals chosen annually to be an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the CDC, where I led national and international outbreak investigations.

What goals would you bring to the office of Lieutenant Governor and how would you work to accomplish those?

Her: It is imperative we reelect Gov. Evers. My ability to reach and energize new voters makes me the strongest addition to the ticket. In office, my priorities will be to defend reproductive rights; pass commonsense gun laws; and increase access to health care. We must also bring new voices to Wisconsin politics and ensure sure everyone has a seat at the table.

Rodriguez: Im committed to bringing Wisconsinites together to solve problems and move our state forward. Im focused on making our communities safe and healthy, increasing entrepreneurship and small-business ownership, and addressing the climate crisis and keeping Wisconsin beautiful for future generations to enjoy.
Donald Trump has again applied pressure on Assembly Speaker Robin Vos for not following the former presidents demand that Wisconsin Republicans move to decertify the results of the 2020 presidential election, something Vos and others have said would be unconstitutional.

While Trump has previously pressured Vos and other state Republicans to do more to take up his baseless claims about widespread fraud in the states presidential election, the former presidents comments Tuesday also warned Vos of potential consequences in his upcoming Aug. 9 primary against Adam Steen, a Trump supporter who has been critical of Vos stance on the election.

This is not a time for him to hide, but a time to act! Trump wrote on his Truth Social social media site. I dont know his opponent in the upcoming Primary, but feel certain he will do well if Speaker Vos doesnt move with gusto. Robin, dont let the voters of Wisconsin down!

Trump has asserted that the Wisconsin Supreme Courts ruling earlier this month barring the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in the state means any ballot dropped into a drop box in the 2020 election should be deemed illegal. State Rep. Timothy Ramthun, who is running for governor this fall, has echoed Trumps comments, but has focused his efforts only on the presidential election, and not the dozens of other races, including his own, on the 2020 ballot.

The decision by the states high court applies to future elections, not past ones, including the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to President Joe Biden by close to 21,000 votes. A recount, reviews and court decisions have found no evidence of widespread fraud.

Speaking with WISN on Tuesday, Vos said Trump called him last week in another effort to have the Rochester Republican pursue decertification of the now 20-month-old elections results.

Its very consistent, Vos said of the call. He makes his case, which I respect. He would like us to do something different in Wisconsin. I explained to him that its not allowed under the Constitution. He has a different opinion and then he put the tweet out. Thats it.

Vos was referring to previous comments Trump made last week in which he referred to Vos as a long time professional RINO  a reference to Republican in name only, a derogatory term Republicans attach to members of the party they feel arent loyal enough.

Vos office did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Steen, a resident of Burlington who is challenging Vos in the Aug. 9 primary, reported raising a little over $44,000, including about $7,500 of his own money, in the first six months of the year, according to campaign finance reports filed last week.

Vos reported raising more than $85,000 in the first half of the year, including about $53,000 from committees like the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Vos had more than $217,000 on hand at the start of the year.

Fundraising figures are just one component of a successful campaign, but they can offer a glimpse into the campaign or partys organization, donor base and overall support.

Donors to Steens campaign include Peter Bernegger, of New London, who earlier this year was fined by the Wisconsin Elections Commission for filing what the agency called frivolous claims of voter fraud, and Harry Wait, the president of the conservative group Honest Open Transparent Government, who has regularly communicated with former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman as part of his taxpayer-funded review of the 2020 election.

Facing pressure from Trump, Vos hired Gableman last summer to review the election at a cost to taxpayers of $676,000. Attorney fees and ongoing lawsuits have pushed the total cost to more than $900,000.
In a big boost for needed housing, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a Madison nonprofits plan for a $70 million low-cost housing project to replace a sprawling, vacant former bakery property on the East Side.

Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp. is buying the 6.4-acre former Bimbo Bakeries USA property at 3401 E. Washington Ave. and will create 245 subsidized apartments in four buildings, commercial space, a small park and parking.

The project could become the first to get city financial assistance to support lower-income housing and use special construction measures to insulate units in anticipation of the stationing of U.S. Air Force F-35 fighter jets at nearby Truax Field starting in 2023.

The site, which now includes a 2,100-square-foot retail building and 111,000-square-foot former bakery at the corner of East Washington Avenue and North Fair Oaks Avenue, is assessed at $2.85 million and has been vacant since 2019. Its adjacent to Hawthorne Elementary School, 3344 Concord Ave.

Created in 2002, WHPC has acquired, developed and renovated more than 158 low-cost rental housing developments with more than 8,550 family and senior units in the state.

WHPC understands the large unmet need for more quality affordable housing, chief operating officer Michael Slavish said Tuesday. In Madison and throughout Wisconsin only one-third of those who qualify for affordable housing can actually find it. The remaining population ends up spending significantly more than 30% of their income for housing alone, not leaving enough for other life necessities such as food, utilities, child care, transportation and medical care.

The project includes:

A five-story building with 77 apartments, community and exercise rooms, and 4,350 square feet of commercial space.

A five-story building with 110 apartments, a community room and rooftop plaza.

A three-story building with 46 apartments and community room.

A two-story building with 12 three-bedroom townhomes.

An underground parking garage with 216 spaces and 72 surface spaces.

A 1.5-acre green space that transitions to Hawthorne Elementary School.

The project will offer one-, two- and three-bedroom units to support income levels from 30% of Dane County Area Median Income, or $30,140 for a family of three, to 80% of AMI, or $83,040 for that family, Slavish said. WHPC is working with Lutheran Social Services to provide on-site resident services, he said.

The 1.5-acre park at the southeast corner of the parcel will be owned and maintained by WHPC and be open for public use year-round.

Repurposing the blighted site will help serve as a catalyst for further reinvestment in the area, Slavish said. The site is strategic given its immediate access to the citys Bus Rapid Transit system and other amenities, he said.

In January, when WHPC first proposed the project, Ald. Syed Abbas, 12th District, who represents the site, applauded the low-cost housing but voiced concern about placing it in an area within the 65-decibel boundary of the F-35 fighter jet noise map, which is considered compatible with residential development only if soundproofing measures are taken during building construction.

In the following months, WHPC worked with Abbas, other city officials and neighbors to finalize a plan to provide soundproofing. The city, which is considering creation of a tax incremental financing (TIF) district in the area, could provide TIF and other financial support for affordable housing, and could require the sound mitigation.

WHPC has committed to providing sound mitigation at a cost of about $5,000 per unit, Slavish said. It includes upgraded windows and exterior doors, spray foam insulation, additional drywall and resilient channels in walls and ceilings, and added brick to exterior facades for vibration mitigation from traffic noise and proximity to the airport, he said.

While some developments have incorporated sound mitigation due to loud noise levels in the area, this would be the first known to deliver mitigation in anticipation of the F-35s, city Planning Division director Heather Stouder said.

I really like the project, Abbas said, noting that he opposes the F-35s and believes the city must protect public health and well-being. I think it will set a good template on how projects should be done.

I think this is a great use for the land, said resident Jacob Dougherty, who lives nearby.

WHPC estimates a construction start of spring 2023, with construction proceeding in phases to be completed within two years.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct when the F-35s are expected to arrive at Truax Field. The first jets are due to arrive in 2023.
The criminal complaint against John Steinbrink Jr., the former Village of Pleasant Prairie Village Public Works Department director accused of theft and multiple counts of misconduct in public office, was filed Tuesday afternoon, detailing an investigation by the Racine County Sheriffs Office into misconduct spanning two years.

The complaint was provided to the Kenosha News by the Racine County District Attorney's Office.

Steinbrink Jr. faces one count of theft-false representation and six counts of misconduct in public office-excess authority. The theft charge can come with up to $25,000 in fines and/or up to 10 years in prison. Each misconduct charge can come with up to $10,000 in fines and/or up to three years and six months in prison.

Steinbrink Jr., 53, has been summoned to the Kenosha Intake court for initial appearance before Commissioner Loren Keating Wednesday, August 10 at 1 p.m.

Six incidents are detailed in the criminal complaint, drawing from interviews with village employees.

Steinbrink allegedly purchased a 2000 Ford dump truck that was scheduled to be sold at auction in the late summer of 2021, reportedly ordering village employees to perform repairs after his purchase.

An employee said he was contacted by Steinbrink Jr., who stated we shouldnt be selling stuff out like this, and ordered that work be done on the truck, according to the complaint obtained by the Kenosha News.

The same employee said that a similar incident occurred for a wood chipper that Steinbrink Jr.s girlfriend reportedly purchased. After purchasing a brand new wood chipper, Steinbrink Jr. reportedly told employees to repair the newer of the two older wood chippers before the auction, which he would handle.

His girlfriend then purchased the wood chipper on Feb. 4, 2022, for approximately $2,000, which the employee estimated was below what it should have cost, according to the complaint.

In 2020 during road improvements at the intersection of Bain Station Road and 85th Avenue, the same employee alleges Steinbrink Jr. had instructed him to alter an invoice for the project, making it seem as if the full $206,000 budget had been used, so the village would not have to repay the developer. Approximately $90,300 should have been returned.

Another employee said the improved intersection of Bain Station Road is directly across from a farm field owned by someone in the Steinbrink family, and a senior employee said that gates and culverts installed on Steinbrink property were done at the direction of Steinbrink Jr. These projects reportedly occurred early February 2020.

Two employees said that in mid-August, 2020, Steinbrink Jr. had them come to his residence and help pour concrete, directing one of them to park his village vehicle behind a pole barn on the property, according to the complaint.

In mid-January, 2021, the DPW received a call that the Department of Natural Resources would be arriving the following day. When it was discovered by someone at the DPW that compost temperature checks hadnt been completed for nearly one to two years, Steinbrink Jr. allegedly directed employees to begin forging temperature documents, using dirty hands and different pens and pencils.

In early March, 2020, an employee said he was assigned to work on the abandonment of the Laddish Well. One hundred and fifty feet of well casing had been removed before it became stuck and the work was temporarily stopped. Steinbrink Jr. allegedly contacted a village employee and instructed him to cover up the well, saying no matter what, get it done.

The employee admitted to not properly abandoning the well and merely covering the top with concrete.

The complaint stated that interviews with employees painted Steinbrink Jr. as a angry narcissistic and manipulating person, who was feared by employees. Those who disagreed or did not do as he instructed would be out of a job. One employee described the work environment as being happier since Steinbrink Jr. had left the department.

In April, the Village of Pleasant Prairie turned over the misconduct investigation of Steinbrink Jr. to the Racine County Sheriffs Office to avoid conflict of interest. Steinbrink Jr. had been the public works director since 2010 and employed with the village the last 28 years. He was placed on administrative leave following an alleged undisclosed complaint filed earlier this spring.
When Congressman Mike Simpson first proposed breaching the four lower Snake River dams to preserve imperiled salmon about 18 months ago, all he had were incentives.

When he called for a Northwest solution that ends the salmon wars and puts the Northwest and our energy systems on a certain, secure and viable path for decades and restores Idahos salmon, Simpson could only offer ways to insulate Lewiston-Clarkston and the Inland Northwest from the economic fallout that would follow a diminution of navigation, hydropower and irrigation.

The southern Idaho Republican was handing out dollar bills by the fistful  $16 billion for lost hydropower here, $1.5 billion for high-speed loader grants there, another $200 million to compensate the ports, $150 million for riverfront restoration and $275 million to help Clearwater Paper make the transition.

In all, Simpsons Columbia Basin Initiative involved a $33.5 billion payout.

But if the region told Simpson to pound sand  which it promptly did  there wasnt much he could do. Simpson had a lot of carrots but no sticks.

Until now. The sticks are piling up.

Most prominent among them was the Biden administration weighing in Tuesday with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration planting a bulls-eye on the dams as the single largest detriment to fish survival. Thats a jarring change to a community grown accustomed to previous administrations  George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump  remaining on the sidelines.

However this shakes out, Bidens team intends to intervene on behalf of the fish and tribal treaty rights. Business as usual will not restore the health and abundance of Pacific Northwest salmon, said Brenda Mallory, chairwoman of Bidens White House Council on Environmental Quality. We need a durable, inclusive, and regionally-crafted long-term strategy for the management of the Columbia River Basin. Thats on top of the ongoing efforts of Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to explore salmon restoration. Perhaps that means a congressional signal toward a breaching deal. But it certainly leans into an alliance with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown as well as the regions Indian tribes, most prominently the Nez Perce.

We each remain firmly committed to saving our salmon, Murray and Inslee said last month in releasing a preliminary study. We also know that the dams provide significant benefits to our regions economy and communities. In the coming weeks, we will carefully review and consider public input, tribal consultation, and other engagement from stakeholders before making any recommendations.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration and the parties suing it on behalf of salmon recovery in the federal courts have placed a pause on their litigation.

None of this adds up to what would be the largest dam removal project in the United States. Only Congress can authorize that and the political leadership representing the dam community  Idaho Gov. Brad Little, Sen. Jim Risch and Congressman Russ Fulcher as well as Washington Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dan Newhouse  promised to gum up the legislative gears as much as possible. What the Biden administration can achieve on its own absent congressional support remains to be seen.

But momentum is converging from several sources and it seems to be accelerating.

All of which must feel like familiar terrain to Simpson, who spent more than a decade drafting and passing a Boulder-White Clouds wilderness bill. During that time, Simpson considered himself an honest broker of information. To skeptics in Blaine and Custer counties, the congressman would argue that determining their own destiny through an Idaho bill that designated wilderness boundaries, motorized trail access and economic development was far more preferable to having a Democratic president impose a national monument declaration from afar.

The Inland Northwest should not ignore that lesson. As tasty as Simpsons carrots may be, they have a shelf life. The offer will not remain on the table indefinitely.
TWIN FALLS  Spring rain storms will have made a big difference when Magic Valley farmers harvest their crops this fall.

That moisture has kept many southern Idaho reservoir levels from dwindling badly this growing season but will not be enough to take all water worries from farmers.

Jeremy Dalling with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamations Upper Snake Field Office says Mays above-normal precipitation made a huge difference in reservoir levels and reduced irrigation demand.

The upper Snake River system was about 50% full  which is 71% of average.

Projections before the spring rains were dire. In early April, the reservoir system was at 59% capacity, and Jackson Lake and Palisades Reservoir, two of the headwater reservoirs of the Snake River, were not expected to fill.

Prospects have improved, but farmers arent out of the woods yet, Dalling said.

The big take for me is that we are still well below normal, but we are much better off than we were projecting, he said. We are still running short, so could use some added precipitation.

Many reservoirs are expected to be almost empty at the end of the growing season, with American Falls Reservoir expected to be at about 10% and Palisades Reservoir expected to be about 5-10% full.

Its still kind of up in the air for us, Twin Falls Canal Co. general manager Jay Barlogi.

Because of the dire water outlook at the start of the planting season, the canal company reduced deliveries to a five-eighths inch per share. Water managers delayed deliveries in hopes of extending water supplies to the end of the irrigation season.

Right now, it could go either way for us, Barlogi said, adding that some farmers are worried water rights might be cut further.

One-hundred-degree days dont make it any easier, Barlogi said.

Magic Reservoir near Shoshone had about 18,000 acre-feet of water in storage Tuesday, about 9.5% of its 191,500 acre-feet capacity, Big Wood Canal Co. manager Kevin Lakey said.

The canal company plans to shut off on the evening of July 24, giving farmers about 70 days worth of irrigation water. That compares to an exceptionally short 2021 season when irrigation water was shut off in early June, after 27 days of water. An average irrigation season lasts 140 to 150 days.

This year, farmers relying on water from Magic Reservoir were likely able to get two cuttings of alfalfa or a crop of small grains.

If they were growing wheat, barley or oats, they should be able to make it, Lakey said.

Lakey said in the advent of fall moisture, the canal company might turn on the gates for a short time in early September.

That would help with stock water or irrigating trees, he said.

Besides the wet spring, crop selection has played a big part in irrigation water lasting as long as it has, Barlogi and Dalling agreed, meaning more wheat was planted and less corn and sugar beets.

There is a lot more grain on the project, Barlogi said.

He encouraged farmers to do all they can to conserve water.

Crops so far look good but are a little behind schedule from the springs cooler weather, Barlogi said. He expected grain harvest to begin in earnest in about 10 to 14 days.
TWIN FALLS  A flexible, reservation-based, ride-hailing service piloted by Idaho Falls is being looked at as a public transportation option in the city.

At Mondays council meeting, Mandy Thompson, assistant to the city manager, gave the council an update on the citys exploration of public transit options.

Twin Falls population is set to hit 50,000 by the 2020 Census. And barring a rule change, the city will be required to put a plan in place for public transportation once it hits that threshold.

The public transportation division of the Idaho Transportation Department has been working with Idaho Falls and a similar solution might be appropriate for Twin Falls.

The service would consist of a number of smaller transit vans that can be requested using a mobile app or by phone to schedule a ride.

In very simple terms, its kind of the Lyft or Uber of public transportation, Thompson said.

Idaho Falls had a public fixed-route bus system that suffered from low ridership and went bankrupt in 2019. To replace it, ITD worked with that city to develop a replacement service and selected microtransit as the best option for meeting a range of riders needs with a smaller budget.

The College of Southern Idaho, with support from the city of Twin Falls and ITD, has run an on-demand transportation system called Trans IV since 1979. The program was funded partly with federal rural transportation dollars. But with the certification of the 2020 census expected to put the population over the 50,000-person threshold, Twin Falls will be classified as small urban and will no longer be eligible for the rural transportation grant.

In anticipation of this loss of funding, as well as lower ridership and increasing costs, Trans IV has announced it will be ending service on Sept. 30 of this year.

A 2021 study performed by Western Transportation Institute showed that a traditional fixed-route system would not be effective, but other options that have been tried in similar-sized cities show promise.

ITD has presented the city with the opportunity to fully fund a pilot program using federal CARES and ARPA funds made available during the COVID-19 pandemic

Its a great opportunity with little or no cost to the city, Thompson said, Its a great solution thats being utilized around the county for communities like Twin Falls that are just not large enough and dont have the funding available to support fixed-route systems.

Shawn Barigar, a member of the city council, said he recently heard about a community in North Carolina of a similar size that has been using micro transit.

It has been very successful there and its serving a lot of the underserved people, Barigar said.

Spencer Cutler, another city council member, said he liked the idea of seeing results from another community.

The idea is, we test the waters, see whats practical, see what actually provides a service to people, and (make sure) its not actually going to be a money pit, Cutler said.

Those who depend on Trans IV  primarily elderly and disabled individuals  will likely be without transportation for at least a few months, while the decision is made by the city council.

Vice Mayor Chris Reid and council member Jason Brown both urged the city to look for ways to minimize gaps in service to people who were using the Trans IV for transportation.

Reid questioned whether some of the nonprofit organizations that had recently received grants from the city for transportation services to certain populations might be able to contribute.

Brown asked if Trans IV might be able to extend beyond the Sept. 30 end-of-service date.

The discussion on public transit options will continue at future City Council meetings.
This column started with a cartoon from the New Yorker. A young man in graduation attire to his parents, Now Ill never have to learn anything again. Then there was a conversation after Id tossed off the meme, So many books, so little time. A friend replied that she had just never gotten into books and never read that much.

Today, I was researching the coursework at CSI, thinking I might take advantage of the golden opportunity to study at the senior tuition rate. For fun, I looked over the syllabus for courses Id taken in the past. Guess what? They plan to teach new material absent from my classes.

I am working through a group of books to understand the far right better. One is Battle for the American Mind, Uprooting a Century of Miseducation. The author is Pete Hegseth with David Goodwin, who helped found the Ambrose school in Boise. They conclude that a classical Christian education will produce adults capable of clearheaded reasoning and virtuous lives.

After detailing faults with the current public school system and blaming them all on a perceived overwhelming liberal-Marxist, anti-Christian mindset purposely organized during the past century, they propose a workable solution. However, the solution does not cover the complexity of our current educational woes.

The above headlines question sets up my answer, which is comprehensive but not in-depth. A good pre-K  12 education prepares young people to learn and use new information throughout their life. To participate competently throughout our ever-longer lifetimes, no one should convince us that what we know today will be enough for tomorrows challenges.

Hegseth and Goodwin are correct in their assertion that, by leaving the critical study of art, music, logic, rhetoric, critical thinking, and other humanities from curriculums, we are focusing too much on practical skills. On the other hand, education is often seen as an economic exchange. There should be an economic benefit for the money spent to acquire it.

The two major roadblocks to my definition of a good education are significant. Affording the cost of lifetime education and the fondness for learning are the subjects of heated debate.

The cost of education competes with innumerable human needs and desires. However, deferred educational opportunities are costly. An educated population is a necessity for a democratic government. It is of strategic importance to the security of every nation, but especially to a country where citizens have a say in decision-making.

One of the most overlooked outcomes of our school system is the number of people who learned to despise the process. They do not consider themselves successful in formal learning situations.

No one solved their learning problems, or their social relationships were problematic or hurtful. Sometimes the two concerns overlapped. No wonder they cannot see the benefit in continuing to learn new things into adulthood.

One particular paragraph in the book Ive been referencing disturbed me. The authors quote a book called Cynical Theories. the Lefts very precise technical usage of [words] inevitably bewilders people, and, in their confusion, they may go along with things [I would add oppose] they wouldnt if they had a common frame of reference to help them understand what is actually meant by the word. In fact, misunderstanding is common. The ability to question statements for clarity is a crucial skill.

I agree with the use of the word mis-education. I may adopt it for continued use. The substance of functional literacy and numeracy skills have evolved in my lifetime and will continue to grow. If the developed world is to survive, increased exposure to education throughout our lifetime is essential. We cannot try to simplify communication or fail to teach complex subject matter as a substitute for rigorous education for the masses.

The percentage of our population whose brains are not able to learn is small. Some brains require more time and unique presentation of subject matter, but a living brain is always a learning brain.

All levels of our education system must undertake the process of redesigning their product and their delivery methods.

They need to market to significantly different levels of need and increase demand from all of them. The educational strategy must focus on supply from the cradle to the grave
A Chinese man accused of racism and exploitation of minors in Malawi was arraigned on Monday in a court in the capital Lilongwe on charges of human trafficking, local media reported.

The Chinese man, Lu Ke, 26, was arrested in June in neighbouring Zambia for illegally entering the country after fleeing Malawi following accusations of abuse against him.

He is accused of filming children in Malawian villages making racist comments about themselves in Chinese that they did not understand. In one video, a child says: I am a monster with a low IQ. Lu Ke then sold these videos on Chinese social networks.

The man was extradited and brought before a court on Monday where he is being prosecuted on five counts of human trafficking. The prosecution has indicated that further charges will be added when the investigation is concluded in a fortnight time.

Because of the risk of absconding from the country and interference with minor witnesses, his application for bail has been rejected, said prosecutor James Mankhwazi. It is also to protect him from public opinion, which is angry over the release of the videos, he added.

In June, the Chinese embassy in Lilongwe condemned the action, stressing that the Chinese government has zero tolerance for racism.
Its a rare event. A Maasai giraffe in Nairobi National Park, Kenya, has given birth to twins. The Minister of Tourism and Wildlife says the country welcomes them with love.

Two Maasai giraffes, twins with their small spotted bodies, were born south of the Kenyan capital after a 15-month gestation period, Twitter reported on Tuesday 19 July.

It was the minister in charge of wildlife who announced the event. He spoke of an extremely rare phenomenon. We welcome the newborns with love, added Najib Balala.

Giraffes are among the mammals with the longest gestation period. Fifteen months, in their case. Only a few cases of twins have been documented, most of them dead.

These giants give birth standing up: their young, larger on average than an adult human being, fall a little less than two meters, and then find themselves on all four legs, in principle, within the hour.

According to the accepted classification, Kenya is home to three types of giraffe, namely the Maasai, a species in its own right, the reticulated and the Rothschild. They live up to 25 years (35 years in captivity).

But these magnificent ruminant herbivores have been listed as threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List since 2016.
The only current concern raised among the residents of the Tindouf camps is about the leaked news about the leaders of the Polisario Front. Some secrets were revealed about a criminal network led by the polisario leadership, which is responsible of criminal acts and running mafias.

After the scandal of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and his smuggling of funds from the camps to open medical clinics in Panama and Ecuador for his son, it seems that he is not the only polisario member accused of smuggling.

After the information about him and his son surfaced, other news about his brother, AKA Bolsan, the so-called ambassador in Cuba, were revealed about his personal support to this project.

Actually, the so-called polisario ambassador in Cuba is considered as one of the most dangerous smugglers and money launderers in the camps. He has ran and has controlled mafia networks during his responsibility in Las Palmas, where he knew the sources of the Polisarios money and how this money was smuggled out.

The Red Crescent Foundation of the Polisario has already been mentioned as being nothing else but a money laundering company inside the camps. It is responsible of the sale and the smuggling of humanitarian aid and medical equipment. It is also this very foundation that establishes fictitious companies in Panama, through other fictitious companies, led by the sons of leaders and notables of the leadership of the Polisario.

It is a large network that makes it easier for polisario leaders to buy houses, to travel abroad easily, to own real estate, to earn dividents in a number of major companies, and it is also responsible for speculation in international stock exchanges.

The red Crescent Foundation operates under the leadership of Algerian officials, who keep track of everything. They receive reports on the regulations involved in the support, its nature, and the number of funds granted.

It is worth noting that the leaked financial scandals of the Polisario leadership include data on the expenses of the pseudo-Ministry of Foreign Affairs, starting with the so-called Foreign Minister , Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, who receives from the Algerian regime a monthly salary of 12 thousand dollars.

Algeria also pays the expenses of diplomatic representations and their employees. Those expenses exceed tens of thousands of dollars per month.

The leaks also concerned the property of leaders abroad, led by the same minister, who owns properties in Spain, Panama and Ecuador worth more than 50 billion Algerian currency, while a number of prominent leaders own expensive real estate in neighboring countries, among them, Taleb Ami Dih, the commander of the Seventh Military Region. He is also responsible of the Polisarios properties in Mauritania, especially Nouadhibou.

Taleb Ami Dih and the Minister of the so-called Communities and the Occupied Territories, Mustafa Sayed Al-Bashir, are accused of smuggling money collected through the Red Crescent Foundation and running the Polisario Fronts drug trade.

The coming days will be full of surprises. Anxiety inside the camps is increasing, especially after the population of the camps have discovered the thefts of the leaders trusted by Algeria to manage Tinduf camps. While Algeria hand them the money, Polisario Front wreaks havoc, runs criminal networks and international gangs, smuggles, launders and shares money among them, in form of property and family projects, while the Sahrawis lives are in woe and deprivation.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently classified occupational exposure as a firefighter as "carcinogenic," changing the previous classification of "possibly carcinogenic." The reclassification came after many new studies, including several led by the University of Arizona Health Sciences in collaboration with the Tucson Fire Department, supplied evidence that occupational exposure as a firefighter causes cancer.

"The IARC, the foremost international body for cancer research, is saying that firefighting is definitely associated with cancer," said Jeff Burgess, MD, Ph.D., professor in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and BIO5 Institute member. "This is a really important outcome that our research has helped to support, but it's also just the beginning. Now it's our job to work with the fire service to help way find ways of preventing these increased numbers of cancers."

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer agency of the World Health Organization, convened a working group of 25 international experts and three invited specialists from eight countries to review the scientific literature. They found sufficient evidence that occupational exposure as a firefighter causes mesothelioma and bladder cancer, and limited evidence that it causes colon cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, melanoma of the skin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Dr. Burgess was one of the invited specialists who assisted the working group by gathering information on firefighter exposures.

Additionally, new mechanistic studies found consistent evidence that occupational exposure as a firefighter met five key characteristics of carcinogens, providing strong mechanistic support for the new classification. Several of the findings, specifically about epigenetic and receptor-mediated mechanisms of cancer, were from studies Dr. Burgess led in collaboration with the Tucson Fire Department, an organization he has worked with for three decades.

Through this partnership with the University of Arizona Health Sciences and the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study, the Tucson Fire Department became a national leader in firefighter cancer research. One particularly impactful achievement was identifying interventions to reduce firefighter exposures and thereby reduce their cancer risk. The Tucson firefighters are now sharing their successful interventions with other fire departments around the country.

"I am so proud of the partnership with the University of Arizona Health Sciences and the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study," said Darin Wallentine, retired deputy chief of safety and wellness for the Tucson Fire Department. "During my time with the Tucson Fire Department and the Safety and Wellness Division, the Tucson Fire Department became a national leader in firefighter cancer research. Being named as a co-author in groundbreaking firefighter occupational exposure studies is a tremendous honor and a rewarding career achievement."

More than 15 million firefighters worldwide are exposed to a complex mixture of combustion products from firespolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, metals and particulatesdiesel exhaust, building materials such as asbestos, and other hazards including heat stress, shift work, and ultraviolet and other radiation. In addition, the use of flame retardants in textiles and of persistent organic pollutants including per- and polyfluorinated substances in firefighting foams has increased over time.

"The research that supports this new IARC classification gives us new insights into the risks firefighters face on the job. It's another example of how public health research provides data to create a safer, healthier world," said Iman Hakim, MD, Ph.D., MPH, dean of the Zuckerman College of Public Health. "I'm so proud of Dr. Burgess and his team for the collaborative research they have doneand continue to dowith the Tucson Fire Department. This is an area where the college brings unique expertise that benefits first responders in Arizona and around the world."

"The new classification gives even more emphasis to the need for exposure reduction and to look at other ways that we might be able to modify the effects of exposures," Dr. Burgess said. "We need to figure out how to prevent or reverse those effects, beyond just reducing exposures."

A summary of the final evaluations that led to the new classification was published online in The Lancet Oncology. The detailed assessment will be published in 2023 as Volume 132 of the International Agency for Research on Cancer Monographs.

Explore further Study shows potential epigenetic basis for increased health risks in firefighters

More information: Paul A Demers et al, Carcinogenicity of occupational exposure as a firefighter, The Lancet Oncology (2022). Journal information: Lancet Oncology Paul A Demers et al, Carcinogenicity of occupational exposure as a firefighter,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/s1470-2045(22)00390-4
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons provides robust evidence to support diversifying the health care workforce as a remedy for addressing racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes, and a call to action to improve maternal health. The researchers focused on registered nurses in particular because they are critical for comprehensive maternal health care, and are the frontline health care providers involved in the early recognition of warning signs for maternal complications. Delayed recognition of these warning signs has been repeatedly identified as a major contributor to preventable maternal deaths. The study is published online in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology MFM.

"Until now, evidence linking health care workforce diversity to improved maternal health outcomes was scant," said Jean Guglielminotti, MD, Ph.D., in the Department of Anesthesiology at Columbia P&S, and first author. Compared with non-Hispanic white birthing people, racial and ethnic minorities were up to three times more likely to experience life-threatening complications during pregnancy, childbirth, and the post-partum period, according to Guglielminotti.

Black and Native American people were at particularly high risk of severe adverse maternal outcomes. "Structural racism in public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms works to perpetuate racial group inequities and what we believe contributes to these disparities in severe adverse maternal outcomes, independent of poverty and other social determinants of health," said Guglielminotti.

The researchers analyzed data from 2017 U.S. Birth Certificates from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Proportions of registered nurses who were racial and ethnic minorities in each state were abstracted from the American Community Survey and categorized into three groups: 1) low state racial and ethnic diversity (3.3-14 percent); 2) intermediate state diversity (14-32 percent); and 3) high state diversity (32-68 percent). Severe adverse maternal outcomes (SAMO) are defined as eclampsia, blood transfusion, hysterectomy, or intensive care unit admission, which are recorded in specific check boxes.

Of the 3,668,813 birth certificates studied, 29,174 (0.8 percent) recorded SAMO. The most frequent complication recorded was blood transfusion (0.39 percent) followed by eclampsia (0.28 percent), ICU admission (0.16 percent), and hysterectomy (0.05 percent). Native American mothers had the highest SAMO incidence (1.75 percent), followed by Black mothers (1 percent), mothers of more than one race (1 percent), white mothers (0.74 percent), Asian/Pacific Islander mothers (0.73 percent), and Hispanic mothers (0.7 percent).

The average state proportion of registered nurses who were racial and ethnic minorities was 22 percent, and ranged from 3 percent in Maine to 68 percent in Hawaii. Compared with giving birth in states with the lowest diversity of nurse workforce, giving birth in states with the highest nurse diversity was associated with a 32 percent reduced risk of SAMO for white mothers, 20 percent for Black mothers, 31 percent for Hispanic mothers, and 50 percent for Asian and Pacific Islander mothers. SAMO risk was not significantly reduced for Native American mothers or mothers of more than one race, mainly because of the small sample sizes in these groups.

"A racially diverse nurse workforce may help to reduce provider implicit bias and enhance communications and trust between patients and clinicians," said Guohua Li, MD, DrPH, professor of epidemiology and anesthesiology at Columbia Mailman School and P&S, and senior author. "Perinatal care is a team work. Frontline nurses play a key role in ensuring the safety and well-being of mothers and their newborns."

"Our study provides robust evidence to support the recommendation to diversify the health care workforce as a strategy for addressing racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes," noted Li. "We hope this research will help facilitate the development of intervention programs to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes," said Guglielminotti.

Co-authors are Goleen Samari, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health; and Alexander Friedman, Allison Lee, and Ruth Landau, Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The study was presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Society of Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology in Chicago.

Explore further Use of epidural in childbirth is linked to decreased severe maternal morbidity

More information: Jean Guglielminotti et al, Nurse workforce diversity and reduced risk of severe adverse maternal outcomes, American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology MFM (2022). Jean Guglielminotti et al, Nurse workforce diversity and reduced risk of severe adverse maternal outcomes,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajogmf.2022.100689
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

In an attempt to curb the use of increasingly popular electronic nicotine delivery systems, such as e-cigarettes, 30 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. have implemented taxes on these products. But a growing body of evidence suggests that, among adults, these taxes can increase cigarette smoking, a habit whose health effects are likely to be more harmful than vaping nicotine according to the National Academy of Science and Medicine.

What is less clear is how taxes affect the habits of 18- to 25-year-olds, a population often grouped with adults in studies. This group is of particular concern because it's typically during these ages that people transition from experimental nicotine use to daily use, says Abigail Friedman, an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health.

In a new study published July 19 in the journal Addiction, Friedman and her coauthor Michael Pesko of Georgia State University assessed the effects of cigarette and e-cigarette taxes on smoking and vaping nicotine among this age group.

For the study, the authors compared survey data on young adult smoking and vaping across states that did increase taxes on cigarette and nicotine vaping products versus those that did not. They found that increasing taxes on nicotine vaping products by $1 per milliliter was associated with a 2.5 percentage point decline in this group's rate of daily vaping, but also a 3.7 percentage point increase in rates of recent smoking. Similarly, a $1 increase in cigarette taxes yielded a 2.5 percentage point decrease in recent smoking and an equivalent increase in daily vaping of nicotine products.

Friedman says these findings show that tax policies need nuance.

"Anyone who is going to levy a tax on one tobacco or nicotine product needs to think about the tax rates on all the others," she said. "Because if people are substituting between products and you raise the price of one, some subset is going to switch to a less expensive option, even if they don't like that product as much. From a public health perspective, it is important that that less expensive option is also less harmful."

Evidence that cigarettes are more lethal than nicotine vaping products suggests that a tax that increases smoking would be worse for public health than one that increases nicotine vaping, say the researchers.

The team also found that this younger population was about three times more responsive to vapor product taxes than what has been found in previous studies of 18- to 40-year-olds.

"If you paint this entire 18 to 40 age range with a broad brush, you're going to get very different indications of what the response would be," she said. "And it makes sense that 18- to 25-year-olds would be much more responsive. This is the peak age range where people are transitioning from experimentation with tobacco products towards habitual use. We see far more uptake there than among older adults."

Friedman says research in this area tends to divide the population between children and adults, but future research should consider these "emerging adults," as she refers to them, on their own.

"One thing that this study makes evident is that the split between children and adults is not clean," she said. "As ages 18 to 25 mark a key transitional period for movement from experimentation with tobacco products into regular use, these are important target ages if you're trying to interrupt initiation of habitual smoking and vaping."

Explore further New study finds global adolescent vaping is low

More information: Abigail S. Friedman et al, Young Adult Responses to Taxes on Cigarettes and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, Addiction (2022). Journal information: Addiction Abigail S. Friedman et al, Young Adult Responses to Taxes on Cigarettes and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems,(2022). DOI: 10.1111/add.16002
The book includes haunting photos from inside the ghetto, along with its record of the medical effects of starvation. Credit: "Maladie de Famine," American Joint Distribution Committee

Exactly 80 years ago, a group of starving Jewish scientists and doctors in the Warsaw Ghetto were collecting data on their starving patients. They hoped their research would benefit future generations through better ways to treat malnutrition, and they wanted the world to know of Nazi atrocities to prevent something similar from ever happening again. They recorded the grim effects of an almost complete lack of food on the human body in a rare book titled "Maladie de Famine" (in English, "The Disease of Starvation: Clinical Research on Starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942") that we recently rediscovered in the Tufts University library.

As scientists who study starvation, its biological effects and its use as a weapon of mass destruction, we believe the story of how and why Jewish scientists conducted this research in such extreme conditions is as important and compelling as its results.

The clandestine project's lead doctor, Israel Milejkowski, wrote the book's foreword. In it, he explains: "The work was originated and pursued under unbelievable conditions. I hold my pen in my hand and death stares into my room. It looks through the black windows of sad empty houses on deserted streets littered with vandalized and burglarized possessions.  In this prevailing silence lies the power and the depth of our pain and the moans that one day will shake the world's conscience."

Reading these words, we were both transfixed, transported by his voice to a time and place where starvation was being used as a weapon of oppression and annihilation as the Nazis were systematically exterminating all Jews in their occupied territories. As scholars of starvation, we were also well aware that this book catalogs many of the justifications for the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which made starvation of civilians a war crime.

A defiant medical record

Within months of their 1939 invasion of Poland, Nazi forces created the infamous Warsaw Ghetto. At its peak, more than 450,000 Jews were required to live in this small, walled-off area of about 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers) within the city, unable to leave even to look for food.

Although Germans in Warsaw were allotted a daily ration of about 2,600 calories, physicians in the ghetto estimated that Jews were able to consume only about 800 calories a day on average through a combination of rations and smuggling. That's about half the calories volunteers consumed in a study on starvation conducted near the end of World War II by researchers at the University of Minnesota, and less than a third of the average energy needs of an adult male.

When the Nazis designated the district of the Warsaw Ghetto, it enclosed two hospitals, one serving Jewish adults and another for Jewish children. The hospitals were allowed to continue to treat patients with whatever resources they could obtain, but Jews in general were forbidden from conducting research. Nevertheless, starting in February 1942, a group of Jewish doctors in the ghetto defied their captors by meticulously and secretly gathering data and observations on multiple biological aspects of starvation.

Then on July 22, 1942, Nazi forces entered the ghetto and destroyed the hospitals and other critical services. Patients and some of the doctors were killed outright or deported to be gassed, their laboratories, samples and some of their research destroyed.

With their own demise approaching, the remaining doctors spent the last nights of their lives meeting secretly in the cemetery buildings, transforming their data into a series of research articles. By October, as they put the finishing touches on the book, about 300,000 Jews from the ghetto had already been gassed. The physicians' own data showed that another 100,000 had been killed through forced starvation and disease.

With final deportations of the few surviving Jews underway and his own death imminent, Milejkowski wrote of the dark, yawning emptiness of the ghetto at that moment, and the horrifying conditions the doctors had labored under to conduct and record the research.

Milejkowski had words for not only the reader, but also his dear colleagues, many of whom had already been executed. "What can I tell you, my beloved colleagues and companions in misery. You are a part of all of us. Slavery, hunger, deportation, those death figures in our ghetto were also your legacy. And you, by your work, could give the henchman the answer 'Non omnis moriar,' [I shall not wholly die]."

This French translation was donated to the Tufts University library in 1948. Credit: "Maladie de Famine," American Joint Distribution Committee

The team's act of resistance through science was its way to wring something good out of an evil situation, to show the world the quality of the Jewish doctor, but mostly to defy the Nazis' intent to erase their existence.

With death knocking on the door, the doctors smuggled their precious research out of the ghetto to a sympathizer who buried it in the cemetery of the Warsaw hospital. Less than a year later, all but a few of the 23 authors were dead.

Immediately after the war, the manuscript was dug up and taken to one of the few surviving authors, Dr. Emil Apfelbaum, and the American Joint Distribution Committee in Warsaw, a charity whose main purpose at the time was to help Jewish survivors. Together, they made the final edits and printed the six surviving articles, binding them into a book along with photos taken in the ghetto. Apfelbaum died just a couple of months before the final printing, broken by his years in the ghetto.

In 1948 and 1949, the American Joint Distribution Committee disseminated 1,000 copies of the French translation to hospitals, medical schools, libraries and universities across the U.S. It was one humble, crumbling copy of this book that waited to be "rediscovered" about 75 years later in the basement of a Tufts University library.

The book's grim descriptions

Based on observations of thousands of deaths from starvation, this research from the Warsaw Ghetto provides insight into the biological progression of starvation that scientists now are just beginning to understand.

For example, many Warsaw Ghetto residents who died of starvation were otherwise free of disease. The ghetto researchers found that while an otherwise healthy body diminished through starvation apparently had a decreased need for vitamins, the need for certain minerals remained. They saw few cases of scurvy (vitamin C deficiency), night blindness (vitamin A deficiency) or rickets (vitamin D deficiency). But they did see significant osteomalacia, a softening of the bones, as the body mined them for their stores of minerals.

When the doctors provided sugar to the severely malnourished, their energy-starved cells quickly absorbed it. This demonstrated that the ability to quickly absorb and use energy remained to the end, suggesting that energy was the single most important factor in starvation, not other micro- or macronutrients.

Each of these observations invites us as scientists to explore further. And with these lessons we can hope to prevent deaths or long-term harm from starvation through better treatment for the severely malnourished.

As scientists studying starvation today, it would be unthinkable and unethical to starve people to learn how the human body adjusts and changes during the end stages of extreme starvation. Even if researchers go into a famine-stricken population to learn about starvation, they immediately treat the victims, erasing the very object of their research.

Partly as a result of the experience of the Warsaw Ghetto, the Geneva Conventions made intentional mass starvation a crime, further strengthened by a U.N. Security Council Resolution as recently as 2018. Nevertheless, this inhumane aspect of war remains to this day, as evidenced by current events in Ukraine and Tigray, Ethiopia.

Though "Maladie de Famine" has never been totally lost or forgotten, the lessons from the doctors' research have faded to semi-obscurity. Eight decades after the destruction that ended their studies, we hope to shine a renewed light on this work and its enduring impact on physicians' understanding of starvation and how to treat it. The unique data and observations regarding severe starvation that the Warsaw Ghetto doctors, despite their own suffering, presented in this precious book can even now help safeguard others from that same fate.

Explore further New study explains how the Warsaw Ghetto beat typhus

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers with members from the University of California, San Francisco, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, also in San Francisco, has found that a certain part of the brain releases dopamine in response to hydration. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes experiments they conducted with thirsty mice.

Prior research has shown that certain parts of the brain release dopamine, a chemical compound, as a means of providing pleasurable feedback to other parts of the brain. It is released during sex, for example, or when a person eats something they like, particularly foods that are sweet or fatty. In this new effort, the researchers have found that another part of the brain releases dopaminethis time when the brain is hydrated.

Noting that many animals have learned to determine which foods contain more water, the researchers wondered if there was a feedback mechanism in the brain prompting them to eat those foods that would provide more water, leading to more hydration in their brains. To find out, they turned to mice.

The experiments involved restricting water in test mice and using technology that allowed them to focus on the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in the brain. In one experiment, thirsty mice were given unlimited access to water for five minutes while the researchers monitored brain waves emanating from the VTAa means of measuring how much, if any, dopamine was being produced. As expected, dopamine production levels rose as soon as the mice began drinking. But the researchers were then surprised to find that 10 minutes later, the dopamine levels rose againcoinciding with the amount of time it took for the water they had been drinking to reach their brain. The researchers then repeated the experiment but added salt to the waterthe second bump in dopamine was much smaller due to the dehydrating impact of the salt.

The researchers then looked to see if the second bump in dopamine production had a lasting impact on the mice. They gave the mice a choice of water bottles colored differentlyboth were pure water, but when the mice drank from the second bottle, the researchers injected a small amount of salt into their gut. After several training sessions, the researchers found the mice began to prefer the water that was not associated with a salt injection. They suggest this indicates that dopamine production in the mouse VTA helps the mice to learn which liquid to drink, or which food to eat, to ensure that they get enough water.

Explore further Dopamine found to be an initiator of REM sleep

More information: James C. R. Grove et al, Dopamine subsystems that track internal states, Nature (2022). Journal information: Nature James C. R. Grove et al, Dopamine subsystems that track internal states,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04954-0

 2022 Science X Network
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A new study by researchers at Yale, Stanford, and Dartmouth provides the first nationwide, small-area analysis of the variation in spending by the three main funders of health care in the United States: Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers. The researchers' goal: to see whether there are regions that have low health spending by each of the three payers simultaneously or whether distinct factors drive health spending variation among the payers.

The study, published July 20 in JAMA Network Open, analyzes spending data for more than 100 million individuals and shows that while health spending per payer varies significantly across regions, there are almost no regions that have simultaneously low spending by Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers or that have universally high spending across all three payers. In fact, the researchers found that distinct factors appear to be driving regional variation in health spending across each payer segment of the U.S. health system.

The finding has significant public policy implications because it suggests that policymakers should focus on payer-specific interventions that target individual sources of waste rather than searching for silver-bullet interventions, according to the researchers.

"In the past, policymakers have identified particular regions as having efficient health systems based solely on care delivered through Medicare," said study co-author Zack Cooper, an associate professor of health policy at the Yale School of Public Health and of economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "By analyzing data from all three dominant payers, we show that analysts cannot understand the overall performance of regions by studying only one payer or learn about a model for the country by studying one region."

"Our findings suggest that payer-specific factors drive health spending across and within regions, suggesting that policymakers should focus on payer-specific strategies to increase efficiency in the U.S. health care sector."

Olivia Stiegman, a pre-doctoral fellow for Yale's Department of Economics and Tobin Center for Economic Policy, and Chima D. Ndumele, an associate professor of public health at the Yale School of Public Health, are co-authors of the study. The other co-authors are Becky Staiger of the School of Medicine of Stanford University and Jonathan Skinner of Dartmouth College.

The United States spends about $3.8 trillion annually on health care. By most accounts, its health care sector is inefficient compared to those of other developed countries. Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers covered 14.2%, 19.8%, and 49.6% of the country's population in 2019, respectively.

The study found that only three regions nationwide were simultaneously in the lowest fifth of spending across the three payers: Boulder, Colorado; Bloomington, Illinois; and Olympia, Washington. Only four regions were in the highest fifth of spending simultaneously for the payers: the Bronx, New York; Manhattan, New York; White Plains, New York; and Dallas, Texas. What a region spent on the privately insured had a low correlation (21%) with what was spent in the region on Medicaid recipients and a 2% correlation with what was spent on Medicare recipients, the study found. There was also only a 16% correlation between what a region spent on the Medicaid program and what was spent on the Medicare program.

"What this tells me is that, in essence, we have multiple different health systems in the U.S.the Medicare program, the Medicaid program, and private insurers," said Cooper. "This means that we are going to need payer-specific policies if we really want to move the needle on increasing the productivity of health care. We have a complex health system; this means we're going to need nuanced policy to be effective."

The study showed that the Medicaid and privately insured populations exhibited more variation in spending across regions than did the Medicare population. This reflects the fact that prices for care paid for by private insurers and Medicaid are generally market-driven and vary substantially across regions, while the federally administered Medicare program relies on regulated payments to health care providers, the researchers suggested.

Notably, there was substantial correlation in the regional utilization of health care services across payers, according to the study.

"While spending may not be strongly correlated across the payers, the utilization of care is," said Jonathan Skinner, a research professor at Dartmouth College. "This finding demonstrates that health care services such as hospital days are determined at the regional level both by the underlying health needs of the population and by supply factors such as hospital beds and the supply of physicians."

The researchers also concluded that the factors causing the variation in spending are specific to each main payer. For private insurance, regions with high prices tend to have high spending. For Medicare, regions with higher spending have more specialist physicians per capita. For Medicaid, regions with higher spending have more hospital beds and births per capita, the researchers explained.

In February 2021, Cooper launched the 1% Steps for Health Care Reform Project jointly with Fiona Scott Morton, the Theodore Nierenberg Professor of Economics at the Yale School of Management. The project convened dozens of leading scholars and identified 16 targeted interventionspolicies like increasing organ donation, raising antitrust enforcement budgets, and decreasing home health fraudeach supported by a robust evidence base, which, if implemented collectively, would lower U.S. health spending by nearly 10%.

"These are the types of policies that will reduce health spending," said Cooper. "Nobody writes country music songs about incrementalism, but I think it's really going to be a long path of small steps that's going to make our health system more efficient."

Explore further Deceleration in health care spending growth in 2016

More information: Zack Cooper et al, Geographical Variation in Health Spending Across the US Among Privately Insured Individuals and Enrollees in Medicaid and Medicare, JAMA Network Open (2022). Journal information: JAMA Network Open Zack Cooper et al, Geographical Variation in Health Spending Across the US Among Privately Insured Individuals and Enrollees in Medicaid and Medicare,(2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.22138
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Prenatal diagnostic examinations provide information about possible anomalies, hereditary diseases and malformations of the fetus long before birth. However, the procedures are not without risks. The Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment (AIHTA) has now analyzed the regulation and financing of these examinations in six European countries. One of the key findings of the study is that professional counseling is needed so that expectant parents can make an informed decision about whether and which examinations they want to take advantage of.

Looking at the unborn life is more than just "baby watching." With the help of prenatal diagnostics, anomalies, diseases and malformations can be discovered before the birth of the child. "The term is misleading, however, because prenatal diagnostics also includes screening procedures that do not allow for clear diagnoses," says Inanna Reinsperger from AIHTA, who has now analyzed the handling and financing of the different examinations in six European countries in a report initiated by the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection (BMSGPK).

For example, first-trimester screening (FTS) or the Combined Test (CT), which involves a nuchal translucency scan of the fetus via ultrasound and a blood test of the expectant mother, only provide a certain probability of chromosomal abnormalities such as trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome) and trisomy 13 (Paetau syndrome). "This means that there may also be false positive test results. This uncertainty can only be eliminated by a subsequent invasive examinationbut this also increases the risk of miscarriage," Reinsperger explains. According to the AIHTA report, FTS/CT is offered to all pregnant women and publicly financed in three of the six countries examined, specifically in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Italy. In Germany, screening must be paid for entirely privately.

The Netherlands and Norway are taking a different approach and have replaced the FTS/CT with the so-called "non-invasive prenatal test" (NIPT). Here, the free fetal DNA components of chromosomes 13, 18 and 21 that can be detected in the maternal blood are counted from a blood sample of the pregnant woman. "Although this test is significantly more accurate than first-trimester screening due to its higher specificity and sensitivity, it cannot completely exclude the risk of false-positive and false-negative results," says study leader Reinsperger.

Of the nations studied, only in the Netherlands is the NIPT currently offered to all women as the first screening test. "Women can take advantage of the test with a co-payment of 175 euros as part of a scientific study. For pregnant women at increased risk (age over 35, hereditary risk or abnormal ultrasound findings), the NIPT is entirely publicly funded," the AIHTA report states. In Switzerland, Great Britain and Norway, NIPT is offered to women with an increased risk (e.g. due to an abnormal result in the FTS/CT) and is covered by the health insurance.

In Germany, the recent decision to introduce NIPT as a health insurance benefit in certain cases has triggered a major debate. The main point of criticism is that NIPT has no medical benefit in the sense that it does not maintain, restore or improve the health of either the pregnant woman or the unborn child, and therefore does not actually meet the criteria for inclusion in the catalog of services provided by statutory health insurance funds.

Diagnostic procedures regulated more uniformly

While the financing and regulation of screening procedures are handled very differently in the six countries, there were broad similarities between countries regarding the ultrasound screening for fetal anomalies in the second trimester, in Austria also known as "organ screening," and the invasive diagnostic procedures. Ultrasound screening for fetal anomalies is offered to all pregnant women in the countries studied for the analysis and is usually publicly funded. Only in Germany do pregnant women need a referral due to increased risk in order for the costs to be covered by health insurance.

Invasive tests based on the analysis of amniotic fluid (amniocentesis) or tissue from the placenta (chorionic villus sampling) are offered in all six countries exclusively to pregnant women with risk factors (abnormal ultrasound findings or FTS or NIPT indicating a high risk for a chromosomal abnormality). In these cases, the costs are covered by the public sector.

Make an informed decision based on professional advice

Reinsperger sees professional counseling as being of central importance: "It is not about presenting an examination procedure as being better or more important, but about pregnant women being able to make an informed, evidence-based decision about whether or not they want to have examinations carried out and, if so, which ones."

On the basis of this counseling, the parents-to-be should also be able to correctly assess test results. For example, the probability that a 40-year-old pregnant woman who receives a high-risk NIPT result for trisomy 21 will actually give birth to a child with Down syndrome is 93%. In comparison, the probability for a 25-year-old woman is only 51% due to the different baseline risk. "This must be taken into account when deciding which pregnant women to offer the test to," the AIHTA report states. Reinsperger adds: "It is important to consider beforehand what consequences a test result will have for you personally. Therefore, it is also important to explain to the women or expectant parents during counseling what these probabilities mean."

The analysis showed that counseling in connection with prenatal screening and diagnostic tests is offered in all six selected countries. However, information about the benefits and risks of the tests is handled differently. In the U.K. and the Netherlands, it is an explicit part of the screening program and is usually provided by certified midwives at the beginning of pregnancy. For quality assurance purposes, they have to carry out a minimum number of consultations per year and undergo continuous training. In Germany and Switzerland, on the other hand, it is primarily gynecologists who carry out the counseling on prenatal diagnostics. In Germany, pregnant women are offered information on NIPT by the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG).

The situation in Austria

"In Austria, there has been no public and societal discussion about which prenatal diagnostic examinations should be paid for and offered by the public sector," says Inanna Reinsperger. Currently, in the case of certain risk factors (e.g. maternal age of 35 or older, presence of genetic diseases in the first-degree relatives), single examinations are publicly financed, provided they are carried out in hospitals. "Many women are also given the impression that all these examinations are 'necessary' or part of prenatal care. Some women have them done in the private sector, where they have to pay a lot of money for them. But many cannot afford that at all," Reinsperger explains.

The expert also emphasizes that there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of "counseling" in Austria: "Counseling must be of high quality and open-ended, so that pregnant women and parents-to-be can make an informed decision without pressure as to whether they want to have these examinations carried out in their current situation or not," Reinsperger says.

Explore further Research supports expanding insurance coverage of non-invasive prenatal testing

More information: Regulation and financing of prenatal screening and diagnostic examinations for fetal anomalies in selected European countries. AIHTA Policy Brief No.: 12; 2022. Vienna: HTA AustriaAustrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment GmbH. Regulation and financing of prenatal screening and diagnostic examinations for fetal anomalies in selected European countries. AIHTA Policy Brief No.: 12; 2022. Vienna: HTA AustriaAustrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment GmbH. eprints.aihta.at/1369/

Provided by Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment GmbH
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Researchers have developed and validated a new tool known as the Extremist Archetypes Scale to help distinguish different psychological traits found among people engaged in violent extremism. Milan Obaidi and Sara Skaar of the University of Oslo, Norway, and colleagues present the tool and validation results in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on July 20.

People who join violent extremist groups may differ widely in their motivations, knowledge, personalities, and other factors. However, research into violent extremism has often neglected this variation, limiting the scope and usefulness of such research. To help address this issue, Obaidi and colleagues built on earlier research to develop a new scale that captures heterogeneity among extremists.

Their new Extremist Archetypes Scale includes five dimensions of extremist archetypes: "adventurer," "fellow traveler," "leader," "drifter" and "misfit." An "adventurer," for instance, may be drawn to extremism out of excitement and the prospect of being a hero, while a "drifter" may seek group belonging. The researchers chose to treat archetypes as dimensions in order to allow for instances in which an extremist does not fall perfectly within a single archetype and to be able to capture a person's transition into an extremist archetype.

Next, the researchers conducted several analyses to help validate the Extremist Archetypes Scale. They tested associations between people's scores on the scale and their scores on several well-established scales that evaluate personality traits, sociopolitical attitudes, ideologies, prejudice, and ethnic identification. In addition, they validated the scale's applicability across diverse instances related to gender, political orientation, age, and ethnicity.

The validation analyses supported the predictive validity of the scaleincluding across political orientation and ethnicityas well as the idea that the archetypes consistently reflect different personality and behavioral profiles. For instance, the "adventurer" archetype was associated with personality traits of extraversion and violent behavioral intentions, and the "misfit" was associated with narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.

The researchers suggest that application of their scale in future research could help inform counter-extremism efforts. They also note that they focused on group-based extremism, but future research could examine archetypes of extremists who act alone.

The authors add: "The current research developed the Extremist Archetypes Scale, which measures different archetype dimensions that reflect different motivations for joining extremist groups and obtaining different roles within them."

Explore further Research shows the need to address the root cause of far-right extremism

More information: Measuring extremist archetypes: Scale development and validation, PLoS ONE (2022). Journal information: PLoS ONE Measuring extremist archetypes: Scale development and validation,(2022). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270225
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The term "sex as self-injury" is used to describe when a person harms themself through various sexual practices. A new study in Sweden has examined how the concept has been portrayed in the media over a ten-year perioddescriptions that largely reflect established norms around sexuality.

Today, sex as self-injury behavior is a well-used concept in health care, in the media and in women's and girls' shelters. But the phenomenon is still relatively unexplored as a field of research and there is no scientifically based definition of "sex as self-injury."

In a recently published article in the journal Sexualities, Ingrid Wall and Sara Johnsdotter have taken a closer look at how the phenomenon has been described in Swedish newspapers and radio programs from 2008 to 2019. The study shows that the media played a crucial role in establishing the concept.

The starting point for the use of the term sex as self-injury coincided with a book published 14 years ago about a teenage girl who alleviates the trauma caused by rape by selling sex.

"What was very clear in the media was that in many cases they referred directly to that book and considered its author Caroline Engvall as an expert," says Wall.

In the media's descriptions, it is often about young girls who have sex with older men, it is described as violent sex and a large part is also connected with selling sex. It is also mentioned that it is precisely about alleviating anxiety, and the anxiety is said to come from trying to process a sexual trauma.

The analysis of the material uses the anthropologist Gayle Rubin's sex hierarchy, which shows which sexual practices and relationships are considered normative. Sex as self-injury behavior can be seen as that which ends up in the outer circle, the non-normative and deviant. In the media's descriptions of the phenomenon, two dominant discourses emerge.

Partly it is the pathological discourse, where sex as self-injury is described as an illness that is equated with different types of addictions and other types of self-injury behaviors, and partly it is the moralistic discourse, where it is certain sexual practices that are problematized and moralized.

According to the study, the two discourses interact in the media coverage. When sex as self-injury behavior is described as something sick, it also legitimizes a moralistic view of what is good and bad sexuality.

"There is an idea that certain sexual practices are perceived as so disgusting that no human could imagine doing them voluntarily. The risk with this type of description is that you reinforce normative notions about what is bad or good sexuality," says Wall.

"My hope is that I will have the opportunity to conduct more research on the subject that that further involves young people, so that we know what we are talking about and whether there is reason to use the term or not."

Explore further Examining brain differences in pain modulation in people with self-injury behavior

More information: Ingrid Wall et al, Sex as self-injury: The appearance of a new diagnostic category in Sweden, Sexualities (2022). Ingrid Wall et al, Sex as self-injury: The appearance of a new diagnostic category in Sweden,(2022). DOI: 10.1177/13634607221077554

Provided by Malmo University
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Scientists at the University of Warwick, jointly with those at Universite Paris-Saclay, Inserm and Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris (France), have challenged the widespread belief that shift workers adjust to the night shift, using data drawn from wearable tech.

By monitoring groups of French hospital workers working day or night shifts during their working and free time, the researchers have not only shown that night work significantly disrupts both their sleep quality and their circadian rhythms, but also that workers can experience such disruption even after years of night shift work.

Their findings, reported in a study in eBioMedicine, are the most detailed analysis of the sleep and circadian rhythm profiles of shift workers yet attempted, and the first to also monitor body temperature. This key circadian rhythm is driven by the brain pacemaker clock, and coordinates the peripheral clocks in all organs.

The research demonstrates the value of telemonitoring technology for identifying early warning signs of disease risks associated with night-shift work opening up intervention opportunities to improve the health of workers.

The study compared 63 night-shift workers, working three or more nights of 10 hours each per week, and 77 day-shifters alternating morning and afternoon shifts at a single university hospital (Paul Brousse Hospital in Villejuif, near Paris). Both groups wore accelerometers with chest surface temperature sensors throughout the day and night for a full week, with the data collected by the research team at Universite Paris-Saclay and Inserm.

The accelerometer measured movement intensity and allowed the researchers to estimate how much sleep the participants had, how regular were their circadian rhythms, and whether that sleep was disrupted by movement. Patterns in the chest surface temperature gave a further indication of the participants' circadian rhythm, the internal body clock that coordinates rest-activity phases, varying core body temperature, and an array of other bodily rhythms.

Analysis by the University of Warwick statisticians of interruptions to sleep and rhythmic variations in core body temperature showed that night-shift workers had less than half the median regularity and quality of sleep of their day-shift colleagues. 48% of the night-shift workers had a disrupted circadian temperature rhythm.

Using information from questionnaires on the participants' chronotypes, they also found that the center of sleep for those working the night shift didn't correlate with their respective chronotype, i.e. their morningness or eveningness orientation. This meant they were not sleeping in synch with their internal clocks.

Importantly, even workers who had been on night shifts for many years still showed these negative effects on circadian and sleep health. The more years they had been on night work, the more severe the circadian disruption, contradicting widespread assumptions about adaptation to night work.

This helps explain why previous research has linked disrupted circadian rhythms with long term health risks, including the development of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, as well as metabolic and infectious diseases.

Professor Barbel Finkenstadt from the University of Warwick Department of Statistics says that "there's still an assumption that if you do night work, you adjust at some stage. But you don't. We saw that most workers compensate in terms of quantity of sleep, but not in terms of quality during the work time."

Dr. Julia Brettschneider of the University of Warwick Department of Statistics says that she thinks "there's a misunderstanding that night shift work is just an inconvenience, whereas it can be linked to serious health risks. We can't avoid shift work for many professions, like healthcare workers, so we should be thinking about what can be done in terms of real-world adjustments to improve working conditions and schedules of shift workers. A better understanding of the biological mechanisms helps to find answers to this question."

"Together with our Ph.D. student Yiyuan Zhang, we have developed a statistical analysis framework that enables the discovery of patterns and predictive factors in the complex data sets created by wearable tech."

Professor Francis Levi from Universite Paris-Saclay further added that "nearly 20% of the night workers could not even adjust their circadian rhythms during their free time, with the severity of impairment tending to increase with the number of years of night work. The telemonitoring technology, and analysis methods we have set up make it now possible to objectively evaluate circadian and sleep health in night workers in near real time, and design prevention measures for individual workers whenever necessary."

Explore further Shift work increases the severity of strokes later in life

More information: Yiyuan Zhang et al, Digital circadian and sleep health in individual hospital shift workers: A cross sectional telemonitoring study, eBioMedicine (2022). Journal information: EBioMedicine Yiyuan Zhang et al, Digital circadian and sleep health in individual hospital shift workers: A cross sectional telemonitoring study,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104121
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A new study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health shows teachers and other school staff are worried about the impact of rising e-cigarette use on student mental health and performance, with more than half saying it had caused a shift in school culture.

More than a third of those working with primary-school-aged children said at least some of their students use e-cigarettes, and a quarter said this had increased in the last two years.

The George Institute's Professor Simone Pettigrew said very little was known about the vaping activities of primary school children, despite evidence from other countries suggesting it is growing in this age group.

"Most of what we know about student vaping comes from research conducted in secondary schools in the United States," she said.

"Our study shows some concerning trends in e-cigarette use in Australian schoolsparticularly primary schoolsthat need to be nipped in the bud to prevent future harm."

196 staff working in schools across Australia completed an online survey about vaping behaviors observed among their students. Just over half (57%) were from New South Wales or Victoria and around a quarter (28%) represented schools outside metropolitan areas.

Just under half (42%) were from primary schools, 37% from secondary schools, and one fifth from combined primary and secondary schools.

Half (51%) reported an increase in e-cigarette use among students in their schools over the past two years, ranging from 27% of respondents working with primary school students to 72% of those working with secondary school students.

The study also suggested that younger students tended to have different ways of accessing e-cigarettes than those in secondary school.

"We found that according to their teachers, primary school students were more likely to get e-cigarettes from their siblings or to take them from home without permission," added Professor Pettigrew.

"Secondary school aged children were reported to be more likely to get someone else to buy for them, receive them from a friend aged over 18 or via the Internet."

Despite the observed increase in e-cigarette use, only one-third of those surveyed reported that their schools had a vaping policy or provided vaping-prevention education for students.

"Our study suggests many Australian students can readily access e-cigarettes and that vaping in schools is becoming more prevalent, including in primary schools," said Professor Pettigrew.

"School staff need greater support to address student e-cigarette use and prevent the negative consequences associated with vaping by children at school and beyond," she added.

Explore further E-cigarette policies at schools may be insufficient without staff training

More information: Simone Pettigrew et al, School staff perceptions of the nature and consequences of students' use of ecigarettes, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (2022). Journal information: Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health Simone Pettigrew et al, School staff perceptions of the nature and consequences of students' use of ecigarettes,(2022). DOI: 10.1111/1753-6405.13281
COVID vaccine producer Valneva suspended production on Wednesday after the European Commission massively ramped down a planned order of millions of doses.

The French biotech firm announced the decision after the commission decided to scratch an initial order unveiled last year for 60 million doses and cut that to just 1.25 million.

The vaccine was the first in France and the sixth endorsed for protecting against COVID-19 in the bloc. EU states were to have bought some 27 million doses for this year with 33 million to follow in 2023.

However, the commission said in May it intended to pull out of the advance purchase agreement given high levels of global vaccine production.

Wednesday saw the commission finally agree to have EU states buy 1.25 million doses of a vaccine authorised across the bloc in June for adults aged 18 to 50, leaving the company to suspend further production.

Five countries are now to receive those dosesAustria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland and Germany, but not Francein August and September, the commission said.

"We do not understand this decision. All the more so given there are four million people who are not vaccinated in France," Valneva director general Franck Grimaud told AFP.

The company indicated it will now look to obtain new orders over the coming weeks before determining the future of its programme.

Valneva's VLA2001 serum is the first to use the traditional inactive whole virus technology, which the biotech firm believes could bring those reticent to get jabbed to change their minds.

Last September saw Britain also pull out of a deal for 100 million doses, terminating what had been its first supply agreement.

The serum remains authorised in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

European health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said Valneva remained an option for repeat vaccines in the months ahead.

The five other EU-approved vaccines are the US-German Pfizer-BioNTech (2.4 billion doses either bought or reserved), US group Moderna (460 million), Swedish-British lab AstraZeneca (400 million), US firm Johnson & Johnson (400 million) and Novavax (200 million).

Unlike the others, the Novavax jab contains the spike protein of the coronavirus itself and tricks the body's cells into creating virus elements able to trigger the immune system.

 2022 AFP
In our meeting today, I conveyed to Prime Minister Kishida my sincere condolences, and those of the Irish people, on the death of former Prime Minister Abe. He was a truly significant and respected figure on the global stage.

Ireland and Japan enjoy an excellent bilateral relationship  I am pleased to be in Tokyo as we mark 65 years of diplomatic relations  and I want to thank Prime Minister Kishida for the productive and warm discussion we had today.

We are agreed on the need to advance and deepen further our relationship, and we were pleased to adopt a new Ireland-Japan Joint Leaders Statement to reflect our commitment to expanding our political, economic, and people-to-people ties in the period ahead.

It is an excellent foundation for work and I look forward to its implementation.

We also discussed our mutually beneficial economic relations - I welcome that two-way trade between Ireland and Japan is now valued at almost 20 billion. I will be using my visit to Japan to seek to further strengthen this relationship. There are a great many areas in which Ireland and Japan can work closely together to mutual benefit, as two countries committed to free and open markets.

We also discussed Russias war on Ukraine. I shared my experience of visiting Ukraine earlier this month and of seeing at first hand the devastation in towns near Kyiv. Russias actions are a gross violation of international law, which we are agreed cannot be allowed stand.

The Prime Minister and I also discussed the global impacts of Russias immoral war, including the despicable use of food as a propaganda weapon, threatening the most vulnerable people on earth.

We discussed the importance of a rules-based international order and the contribution that countries like Ireland and Japan can make. Ireland will step down from its position on the UN Security Council at the end of this year as Japan takes up its seat.

The Prime Minister has spoken particularly eloquently of his and Japans commitment to a nuclear weapons-free world. Irelands engagement with Japan on disarmament and non-proliferation is extensive and of long-standing. We are at one in our wish to see a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons.

Finally, can I once again thank Prime Minister Kishida for his hospitality and welcome, and for meeting me today. I hope he will be able to come back to visit Ireland at an early date.

See here for joint statement
Heres a quick guide to some upcoming arts and cultural events happening around Missoula in the coming week.

Welch Festival comedy night

(Friday, July 22)

Revival Comedys show at the ZACC will give the stage to Indigenous stand-up to raise money for the first James Welch Native Lit Festival. The event, coming up July 28-30, is the first of its kind in the U.S., featuring all Native writers and panels, including award-winning writers such as Louise Erdrich, Tommy Orange, David Treuer and more. (See below for more information.)

The comedy night lineup includes our favorite native *comedy* writers, including: Adrian Jawort, Thomas McClure, Charlie Mulluk, Andy Nemec, Lenny Peppers, Ferd Po, Mars Sandoval, Sarah Ann Sandoval and Austin Valley.

Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 7:30. The cover is $10.

Two kinds of modern Americana at Free Cycles

(Saturday, July 23)

Head to the bike shop for some rustic sounds to match the DIY backdrop. The Barncat Country Band is a honky-tonk duo, made up of Jamie Drysdale (guitar) and David McMeekin (mandolin), plus Peter Curche (fiddle) and Adin Kloetzel (piano). The Recession Special is a Missoula group that looks back to the protest origins of folk and old-time music. Songwriter Tyson Gerhardt is a punk spirit with an acoustic guitar, aided by local violin/fiddle staple Geoffrey Taylor.

Barncat plays at 7 p.m., and Recessions Special at 8:30.

Admission is $10, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. The show runs from 7-10 p.m.

Solo puppet comedy

(Sunday, July 24)

Playdoh presents The Cave of Despocito, promising a new generation of anti-capitalist puppetry. (Look up the Bread and Puppet Theater if you think thats a joke.) A project from multi-faceted artist Zach Kolo, this touring version under the name Playdoh will offer up an an alternative version of Platos Allegory of the Cave, according to their site.

Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 7:30. Tickets are $15.

James Welch Native Lit Festival

(Thursday-Saturday, July 28-30)

The inaugural James Welch Native Lit Festival will bring acclaimed and up-and-coming Indigenous writers from around the U.S. and Canada to Missoula, Montana, for three days of events.

The festival, the first of its kind in the country with all-Native writers, pays tribute to Welch (Blackfeet/Gros Ventre), who called Montana and Missoula home and wrote works like Winter in the Blood that broke ground for subsequent generations of writers in form and content.

The line-up includes award-winning authors such as Louise Erdrich, Tommy Orange, David Treuer and many more. The panelists will talk about Welch, his legacy and their own work, with the public invited to listen in.

The festival runs Thursday-Saturday, July 28-30, with talks, panels and workshops at the Wilma and the Missoula Public Library. (Check the schedule at jameswelchfestival.org.)
WEDNESDAY, July 20, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- In a mix of bad and good news, a new large study confirms that COVID can raise the risks of new-onset heart trouble and diabetes -- though those threats typically wane again after a few months.

The study, of nearly 430,000 British COVID patients, found that the risks of suffering a blood clot or heartbeat irregularity shot up substantially for a month post-infection. After that, the heart risks dropped sharply, but remained somewhat elevated for another two months.

A slightly different pattern was seen with diabetes: New diagnoses rose in the month after a COVID diagnosis, then declined gradually over the next two months before returning to normal.

Experts said the findings confirm what's been known about the potential consequences of COVID -- and give a sense of the time frame for those risks.

"People tend to focus on the risk of death from COVID, and to a lesser extent hospitalization," said Dr. Bruce Y. Lee, of CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy in New York City.

"But we have to remember that there are other serious outcomes, too," said Lee, who was not involved in the research.

People should consider those risks, he said, when making decisions about masking, vaccinations and boosters.

The study, published July 19 in the journal PLOS Medicine, examined electronic medical records from U.K. primary care patients. More than 428,000 had been diagnosed with COVID in 2020 or 2021 and had no history of diabetes or heart disease. Each of those patients was compared with another patient from the same primary care practice who was the same sex and age, but who had not been diagnosed with COVID.

Overall, the researchers found, COVID patients were five to 11 times more likely than the comparison group to develop a blood clot in the veins or lungs for one month after being diagnosed with the infection.

Their risk of developing an atrial arrhythmia, meanwhile, was over sixfold higher. That refers to an irregular heartbeat affecting the heart's upper chambers, which can cause symptoms such as palpitations, fatigue and dizziness.

After the first month, all of those heart risks dropped sharply, but remained somewhat elevated over the next two months.

COVID patients were also more likely to be newly diagnosed with diabetes, with an 81% higher incidence in the first post-infection month. That excess risk declined over the next two months before returning to normal.

In the first month, about 24 out of every 100,000 were diagnosed with diabetes each week, for example. But that compared with only nine out of every 100,000 primary care patients without COVID.

As for the question of why, other research gives some clues, said lead researcher Emma Rezel-Potts, of King's College London.

"The virus is believed to trigger events which can affect multiple systems in the body, including a dysregulated immune response and cell dysfunction," Rezel-Potts explained.

In the case of diabetes, she said, the virus might infect pancreatic cells, which produce the hormone insulin. (Type 2 diabetes, the most common form, arises when the body is unable use insulin properly.)

There are other potential explanations, too, Rezel-Potts said. In some cases, COVID might keep people off their feet for so long, the inactivity worsens existing insulin resistance -- a precursor to type 2 diabetes. It's also possible that previously undiagnosed diabetes is being caught.

What's not clear is whether people who developed cardiovascular trouble or diabetes were more seriously ill with COVID. Rezel-Potts said the medical records had no information on severity, including whether patients ended up in the hospital.

The good news, according Rezel-Potts, is that the heightened risks do go down. But people should be aware, she said, that the incidence of diabetes, in particular, stays elevated for about three months.

That could be a "critical period," Rezel-Potts said, for eating healthy and trying to get some exercise.

One limitation of the study is that people with COVID were infected earlier in the pandemic, before Omicron emerged. Today's variants are different, Lee said, and so are some other factors: Many people are further out from their vaccination, and many have abandoned precautions like mask-wearing, which can at least lower the viral "dose" to which they are exposed.

It's not clear, Lee said, how all of those variables might affect the risks of COVID-related diabetes and cardiovascular problems.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on post-COVID conditions.

SOURCES: Emma Rezel-Potts, PhD, research associate, School of Life Course and Population Sciences, King's College London; Bruce Y. Lee, MD, MBA, professor, health policy and management, and executive director, Public Health Informatics, Computational and Operations Research, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York City; PLOS Medicine, July 19, 2022, online
WEDNESDAY, July 20, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Having friends in childhood may help keep you clean and sober as a young adult, new research suggests.

Researchers from Arizona State University (ASU) interviewed more than 300 college students who participated in assessments that focused on childhood loneliness, stress levels and drinking behaviors. The results determined there was a link between feelings of loneliness in their pre-adolescent years and current drinking and stress levels.

"In young adults, childhood loneliness before age 12 was associated with perceived stress right now and affected dysregulated drinking," said study author Julie Patock-Peckham, an assistant research professor in ASU's Department of Psychology.

The research predicts a grim future as alcohol usage continues to increase across the country. More women are turning to drink, according to data from the U.S. National Institutes of Health that found that alcohol use in women is more likely to result in higher rates of alcohol abuse than it does in men.

Another study found that the pandemic was responsible for a surge in drinking rates by as much as 14% in adults over 30, as people turned to alcohol to quell anxiety and isolation.

"The data used in this study were collected before the pandemic, and the findings suggest that we could have another public health crisis on our hands in a few years as today's children grow up," Patock-Peckham said in a university news release.

"We need more research into whether mitigating childhood loneliness could be a way to disrupt the pathways that lead to alcohol use disorders in adults," she said. "Combating childhood loneliness should help to reduce impaired control over drinking, especially among women."

The researchers only found an association between child loneliness and later alcohol trends, not a cause-and-effect link.

The study, funded by the U.S. National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, was published online recently in the journal Addictive Behaviors Reports.

More information

Visit SAMHSA's national hotline for more on help for treating alcohol use.

SOURCE: Arizona State University, news release, July 19, 2022

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WEDNESDAY, July 20, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Pancreatic cancer often has a dismal prognosis, but a new study finds that screening high-risk people can catch the disease early and extend lives.

Researchers at eight U.S. medical centers found that annual screening tests paid off for patients at high risk of pancreatic cancer due to genetics. Of those diagnosed with the cancer through screening, most had it caught at an early stage, and more than 70% were still alive five years later.

That's a significant achievement, researchers said, in a disease as deadly as pancreatic cancer. Even with some treatment advances in recent years, only about 10% of patients survive for five years.

That's largely because pancreatic cancer is hard to catch early, and most people are diagnosed only after it has spread. Unlike the case with some other cancers, there is no test that can be used to routinely screen symptom-free people for pancreatic tumors.

But for more than 20 years, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have been studying ways to screen people who are at high risk. That includes individuals who carry inherited gene mutations that raise susceptibility to pancreatic cancer, and those with a strong family history of the disease.

Screening involves yearly imaging tests -- either MRI scans or endoscopic ultrasound -- to look for early signs of the cancer.

"We've been incrementally developing these data for many years," said senior researcher Dr. Michael Goggins, a professor of pancreatic cancer research at Johns Hopkins.

The latest findings were published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. They confirm that regular screenings can often catch pancreatic cancer in its earliest stage. And when that happens, patients can live many years longer.

"If you're diagnosed with stage 1 pancreatic cancer through screening, the outcome is dramatically different," Goggins said.

Right now, screening for high-risk people is done in research programs at certain big medical centers. But in the future, Goggins said, "we absolutely want this to be rolled out widely."

The new findings are based, in part, on nearly 1,500 patients who enrolled in screening programs at Hopkins or one of seven other medical centers starting in 2014. Nearly half harbored gene mutations tied to pancreatic cancer. The rest carried no known mutations but had a strong family history of the disease -- most often affecting two or more first-degree relatives (parent, sibling or child), or one first-degree and at least one second-degree relative. (Second-degree relatives include aunts, uncles, grandparents, grandchildren, nieces, nephews or half-siblings).

Of that group, nine were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer through screening. Seven of those nine were stage 1, when the tumor is confined to the pancreas and can potentially be cured with surgery.

To get a picture of long-term survival, Goggins' team added findings from additional patients who'd been in prior screening studies at Hopkins dating back to 1998.

Overall, there were 19 patients with screening-detected pancreatic cancer. Most of those patients, 73%, were still alive after five years, and their median survival time was just under 10 years -- meaning half lived longer than that and half died sooner.

That stood in sharp contrast to a handful of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer after dropping out of regular screening: Most had advanced cancer, and their median survival was just 1.5 years.

"These outcomes with screening are a lot better than the usual," said Dr. Dana Cardin, an oncologist who treats pancreatic cancer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.

Cardin, who was not involved in the research, called it important work, but also said there are challenges to making screening widely available, even to high-risk people.

There are the logistics: Endoscopic ultrasound, for example, is not done everywhere, Cardin noted, and it takes expertise to interpret the images taken during screening. For patients, she said, years of annual tests can be onerous, with both "cost issues and anxiety issues."

There's also a broader question of cost-effectiveness, Cardin pointed out. Pancreatic cancer is relatively rare, accounting for about 3% of all cancers in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. And even in this high-risk study group, the number of cancers detected was small -- at a rate of 5 per 1,000 patients each year.

In addition, screening itself is not without risks. In this study, there were five patients who underwent surgery after imaging showed suspicious lesions, only to be told the growths were not cancerous.

That surgery, Goggins said, "is not trivial."

The issues of who to screen for pancreatic cancer, how to do it and when are "really challenging," Cardin said.

"That's why we need rigorous research like this," she added.

As for people at average risk of pancreatic cancer, there is no test available for routine screening. Any such test, Cardin noted, would have to be highly accurate, and simple and cheap enough to be done outside of expert medical centers.

More information

The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network has resources for patients.

SOURCES: Michael Goggins, MD, professor, pancreatic cancer research, and director, Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Laboratory, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore; Dana B. Cardin, MD, associate professor, medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn.; Journal of Clinical Oncology, June 15, 2022, online
High winds, hot temperatures and lightning across southwest Montana and central Idaho this weekend signaled an escalation of this year's fire season.

The day-old Moose Fire has burned more than 1,000 acres near North Fork, Idaho, and threatens to close U.S. Highway 93 about 22 miles south of Lost Trail Pass and the Montana-Idaho state line. It is producing a large smoke plume that may be visible in Montana. The fire was 0% contained on Monday, burning through grass, brush and timber, and is exhibiting extreme fire behavior with uphill runs, spotting, and group torching.

According to an InciWeb page for the fire, "there is potential for the fire to reach the Highway 93 corridor with a potential Highway 93 closure later today. Private landowners and forest users need to be aware of this potential fire activity. Please avoid this area." And interactive road conditions map maintained by the Idaho Transportation Department stated that Route 93 "may potentially be closed" and that drivers should exercise extreme caution and expect delays.

At least 83 personnel were on the fire by midday Monday, working under a Type-3 incident management team and supported by five air tankers and two helicopters.

A Type-1 incident management team  the largest and most robust configuration of the interagency teams assigned to oversee wildfire response  will take over the fire on Tuesday, according to the Central Idaho Interagency Fire Center.

The fire was reported Sunday afternoon near where Moose Creek enters the Salmon River, about 5 miles southwest of North Fork. An interactive wildfire map maintained by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation initially listed the fire as human-caused. InciWeb listed the cause as undetermined on Monday afternoon.

North Fork is a major rafting hub along Highway 93, and the fire is burning along both sides of the Salmon River and could impact the highway corridor. Incident managers on Sunday closed Salmon River Road from North Fork to Indianola and asked that the public avoid a slew of other roads in the area, including Granite Mountain Road, Hughes Creek Road, Hull Creek Road, Indian Creek Road and Sage Creek Road. An evacuation shelter has been established at Salmon Valley Baptist Church in Salmon, Idaho.

Matt Amick, owner of the The Village at North Fork, a store and campground, said that some guided rafting groups had been shuttled through the fire with pilot cars, but that most river traffic was diverting through mining roads to Salmon and Challis. The area was under a stage-two evacuation warning, he said, indicating a high probability of an evacuation order in the near future.

A red-flag warning, indicating extreme fire conditions, was in place for 19 p.m. Monday. Hot, dry conditions with wind gusts up to 55 mph were expected to drive further extreme fire behavior. Around 4 p.m. Monday, a Salmon weather station about 26 miles southeast of the fire recorded a temperature of 91 degrees and 23-mph winds from the west.

Outdoor burning is now closed in Missoula and Ravalli counties as the the area entered high fire danger.

Across western Montana, crews were dispatched to at least 10 reports of smoke or wildfire from Saturday through mid-afternoon Monday, according to interagency dispatch databases. On Sunday evening, firefighters in Missoula extinguished a four-acre grass fire in the Grant Creek area. The fire may have been caused by fireworks.

Farther afield, crews were dispatched around 6:25 p.m. Sunday to the Hog Trough Fire in the upper reaches of the Hog Trough Creek drainage south of Skalkaho Highway and about 5.4 miles east of the Black Bear Campground. The lightning-strike fire is about 3.5 acres, according to the Bitterroot Dispatch Center. Smoke may be visible from Hamilton.

The Bitterroot National Forest stated on Monday that the fire is within a burn scar from 2000 and that no structures were threatened. The fire was not staffed as of Monday afternoon because of the risk of sending firefighters into "remote and rugged terrain." Fire managers from the Bitterroot National Forest and nearby Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest are "working to develop a long-term strategy to contain the fire."

Wildland firefighters were dispatched around 1:24 p.m. Monday to a report of smoke in the upper Rock Creek drainage in Lolo National Forest, about 1.7 miles south of Bighorn Campground and southwest of Upper Rock Creek Road. A half-hour later, at 1:54 p.m., firefighters were dispatched to a report of smoke 6.3 miles south of Skalkaho Highway, near Skalkaho Rye Road and Divide Creek about 4 miles northwest of Kent Peak.

So far in 2022, firefighters have responded to 16 human-caused fires and two lightning-caused fires in Lolo National Forest, the forest stated in a Facebook post on Monday. The post also announced that the forest had entered high fire danger, up from moderate in the days before, "due to hot temperatures and lack of significant rainfall for several days." The Bitterroot National Forest also entered high fire danger on Monday, as did Missoula County. Missoula and Ravalli counties closed outdoor burning on Monday.

Ahead of the weekend, on Friday morning, as many as 552 lighting strikes were recorded in the mountains south off Missoula and into central Idaho. Strikes around the Bitterroot Valley caused at least three fires, which were extinguished.
WASHINGTON (AP)  House Democrats pushed ahead Wednesday with legislation that would ban certain semi-automatic weapons as they considered their most far-reaching response yet to this summers series of mass shootings.

Democrats hope that the 100-page bill moving through the Judiciary Committee will pass the House before the August break. But that is far from assured because some moderates in the party, especially those from swing districts, are wary of a vote on broad gun controls before the November elections  especially when the bill has little chance of becoming law due to opposition in the Senate.

Democrats can afford to lose only four votes if Republicans are united in opposition to the ban. Maine Rep. Jared Golden, who represents a GOP-leaning district, is one of the few Democrats who have indicated a no vote.

I dont support any version of that, Golden said. He is joined by Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who is also facing a tough reelection race, and has said he doesn't believe in bans on weapons.

Despite not yet having full support from his caucus, Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., the bill's lead sponsor, said he is confident he can get the required votes, even if that involves reaching out for Republican support.

There are more guns than people in this country, more mass shootings than days in the year. This is a uniquely American problem, and assault weapons only magnify the epidemic, Cicilline said during the committee hearing.

The renewed push comes nearly two decades after Congress allowed similar restrictions to lapse. The original ban passed in 1994, led by then-Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and outlawed certain semi-automatic weapons and large-capacity magazines. It exempted an estimated 1.5 million of those weapons and 25 million that were already owned by people in the United States.

In the nearly three decades since, mass shootings have become alarmingly frequent, with semi-automatic weapons often used in attacks on schools, workplaces, public spaces, stores, churches and other places where people gather.

"An assault weapons only purpose is to kill people efficiently," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY., the committee chairman. It is time to protect our communities and to ban them once more.

Republicans said the proposal was an attack on Second Amendment rights.

Democrats know this legislation will not reduce violent crime or reduce the likelihood of mass shootings, but they are obsessed with attacking law-abiding Americans Second Amendment liberties, said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the committee. For over 30 years, the Democrats have been running a propaganda campaign to make people believe that assault weapons are a specific class of firearms that no one needs.

During the hearing, the committee listened to haunting audio of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, during which 17 people were killed and 17 more wounded. Dozens of rapid-fire shots could be heard in the course of just 1 minute and 18 seconds along with the distressed screams of those trying to escape.

Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider whose district represents Highland Park, said that getting these weapons of war off the streets, at the very least, will reduce the lethality, if not necessarily the frequency, of these just horrific fatalities that have devastated my community.

Congress last month passed the most significant gun violence measure in decades, mandating background checks for gun buyers age 18 to 21 as well as allocating money for states to enact red flag laws.

But the bill fell far short of the steps that President Biden and Democrats say are needed.

Were paying for these weapons of war on our streets with the blood of our children sitting in our schools, said Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., whose 17-year-old son was shot and killed at a gas station in 2012.

Cicilline said that the protection of the Second Amendment is not without limits. He said the Democratic proposal is focused on assault-style rifles, which are not what the majority of guns law-abiding people buy and own.

Dangerous military weapons that were created to fight on the battlefield and slaughter enemies do not belong in the neighborhoods and schools and movie theaters where we live, he added.

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
Montanas cool, wet spring is reflected in the number of fires and acres burned so far this year compared to last year.

Last years June  typically the wettest month  was the driest in the states record-keeping history. By this time 1,683 fires had burned about 400,000 acres, Matthew Hall, of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation told the Environmental Quality Council at its Tuesday meeting in Helena.

This year there have been 682 fires that have burned about 4,600 acres.

However, persistent heat coupled with strong winds is quickly changing conditions across the state, with 83 fires ignited in the last week, Hall noted. Above average fire danger is anticipated through September as forecasts are predicting hotter temperatures and less precipitation, he added.

July is Montanas hottest month and August is its driest.

After concerns this spring that the DNRC may not be able to fully staff its firefighting force, Hall was happy to report the agency had been able to find employees, although they are less qualified and will therefore be in training for longer.

Michael Downey, Drought Program coordinator for the DNRC, updated the council on how this springs weather helped improve conditions that, in April, were as dire as the state has seen in 22 years of drought monitoring.

We dont often get a year like this, but Ill sure take it, he said.

April was the third coldest on record and May was cooler than normal, Downey noted, allowing snowpack to continue to build in some mountain ranges. Unfortunately, that also resulted in historic flooding of the upper Yellowstone River, along with the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone, Rock Creek, the Stillwater River and East Rosebud Creek.

The flooding was caused when heavy rains fell on the snow, quickly melting it. More than 100 homes were severely damaged, bridges and roads washed out, campgrounds and trailheads inundated and causing the temporary closure of Yellowstone National Park. Two of Yellowstones entrances, at Gardiner and Cooke City/Silver Gate, remain closed to the public as the road between the two is washed out in several places.

Downey showed the council slides documenting the states vegetative health this year compared to the same time last year. Last years map was heavily red, meaning dry conditions. This years map for the same time period shows much of the state in better shape, especially the southeast and east which had been in poor condition, as well as the southwest.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics, 40% of Montanas range health is rated good to excellent compared to last year at this time when only 2% was in the same shape.

Council member Bradley Hamlett, who ranches near Cascade, had a personal account of how dry it has been in his region. He said moisture was so poor in the fall that winter wheat didnt even sprout. Last year he cut about 1,000 acres of dryland hay, whereas this year he will only cut 25 acres.

Lets pray for rain, said Sen. Mike Lang, council chair.